Google has been extremely busy launching lots of new ad features. Recently I posted about the Adsense team testing another ad type with little scroll buttons(Link: Adsense Scroll Ads). I personally didnt think that was such an effective ad type. Mainly due to the fact that there are tiny buttons that normally people wouldnt click on.

This ad however is a much better step for the Adsense team. Its basically like the auctionads or minimall look. Easy to navigate small checkout ads. These ads seem much more inviting and simple. I’d be curious to see how well they convert in the long haul for these shop owners. I might have to test them out myself.

During a few research quests I’ve been on. I stumbled upon a site by Rob Abott who deals with user experience at Ribbit. He made a real interesting post about the YouTube video player and how it could be improved. Now I’m not looking to make the next YouTube or anything, but I do find his ideas very interesting. It also makes you want to take a step back on your own work and really look at it from more of a user perspective and see where you can improve it.  In any case take a moment to read his post.

Link: YouTube Video Player Redesign

At least these ones look new to me. I see them all day, so most of the time I’m completely blind to the entire thing.

Now google is playing with inline movable ads. Basically Adsense is able to serve up more ads in one shot. I have to admit I always have this stigma about clicking on ads. There is a certain sense of danger with Google so ban happy all the time. The little arrows on this ad are safe to click on(I’m not telling you to go out and click on every ad). Everything moves very smooth. I’m not sure if this will entice more clicks, but lets hope so!

Well I was greeted today with what I was surprised to see was an apology email from Andy Jenkins. It goes into how his newsletters had gone a little off topic as off late. He linked to a new video entitled Going Natural 2.0. Now let me say that I was merely looking for more written content from Andy and his crew. Rather I found a video that starts out with a very serious note on how StomperNet had gotten a little away from its roots of free content and how he wants to improve on that. He took the time in his video to talk about my post on newsletter marketing(link: Andy Jenkins and Brad Fallon Newsletter Marketing).

Now of course I had to continue on with this video and see what it was all about. I have to say it starts out with one crucial piece of advise on increasing your natural traffic. Andy didn’t go into any SENSATIONAL CLAIMS(j/k Andy), he just talked straight about improving your websites traffic. Andy really takes John Reese’s advise on not just delivering whats expected, Andy goes above and beyond my expectations for a newsletter and for StomperNet overall. Now I’m not some huge eCommerce man, but I do find tons of value in what Andy has to say. Its great to see StomperNet going back to what it does best.

Take 30 minutes of your day and check out the video you won’t regret it.

link: Going Natural 2.0