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SMART #MARKETING

How marketers are positioning products and services as being good for the brain

Improving the performance of our brains has become a global endeavor, as scientists, doctors and nutritionists continue to find new ways to develop our mental capabilities. While the moral dilemma of whether it's appropriate to take "smart drugs" in competitive environments has been a hot topic in the media in recent years, the desire to improve our cognitive functions has not disappeared. As such, we're seeing more products and services being marketed as brain enhancers, with Omega-3s and other neurostimulants becoming as hot as antioxidants. Here are a few smart examples:

Brain Yogurt: Yogurt brands have been touting its stomach-soothing probiotics, but now they may be shifting their focus from the tummy to the head. While natural yogurt is high in the amino acid tyrosine, a neurostimulant, some yogurt companies are giving dairy cultures an Omega-3 boost that allows them to position their products as smart food. Thanks to Danone 's Cardivia, Canadians have been noshing on yogurt rich in Omega-3s for a few years now, and now we're starting to catch up in the States. Seen at food trade shows this year, Cloud Top frozen yogurt is being pushed as one of the first in its category to have Omega-3s. In order to keep up, think Pinkberry will start offering lectures alongside their soft-serve?

Brain Bread: Given their children's cutthroat academic competition, long school hours and overwhelming homework loads, parents are on the lookout for brain food like never before. Norwegian baked goods company Bakersrecently launched an Omega-3 fortified bread targeted to parents whose school-aged children brown bag it. While plenty of kids turn up their noses at the sight of a salmon filet, who would say no to a PB&J sandwich? Putting aside any worries that the kids' toast may reek of sashimi, Bakers claims that there is no fishy aftertaste.

Brain Yoga: Practitioners of Bikram have long boasted that careful execution of the hot yoga style's 26 postures sends freshly oxygenated blood to the brain, thus improving its function. The good news is that you no longer have to contort yourself in sauna-like temperatures to exercise your brain in tandem with your body. Yoga studios have long marketed themselves as spiritually good for the mind, but thanks to medical research proving that the practice of all yoga increases GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid, the brain's primary inhibitory neurotransmitter) levels in the brain, places like Brooklyn's Body and Brain Wellness Center have begun promoting themselves as intelligence, as well as body, boosters. So, next time you think the price of a yoga class is too high, remember that it's no longer just an investment in a slammin' physique, but also maybe in your IQ score.

From #Twitter to advertising treasure

The Twitter phenomenon, in which anybody can tell his or her followers anything -- in 140 characters or less -- now has a payoff that can go beyond the thrill of self-publishing.

A handful of companies are offering to pay Twitterers to gain access to their followers -- so they can send them Tweets containing ads. The more followers you have, the more money you make.

Dr. Drew Pinsky cut a deal with one such company, Ad.ly, of Beverly Hills, California, which describes itself as "an instream advertising platform that connects top-tier Twitter publishers with top-tier brands."

Pinsky is a television and radio personality, an internist and an addiction specialist, but Ad.ly considers him a publisher.

The lone advertisement that Ad.ly sent to Pinsky's 1.5 million Twitter followers was for the NBC program "Community," a comedy about a lawyer who has lost his license and is trying to get his life together at a community college. Chevy Chase and Joel McHale star.

"I'm delighted to support the show; Joel McHale is a friend of mine," Pinsky said.

"If someone wants to offer me some money to talk about something that I feel strongly about on Twitter -- and I don't feel it's diminishing in any way my messages -- I don't see why not," he said.

But Pinsky said he was not sure he would do it again. "It's treacherous," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "I don't want people to think I'm exploiting my followers."

Concern about a possible backlash from those followers has led him to reject suggestions for other ads, Pinsky said. "It's something I would only do very, very occasionally and really has to be something that I already feel I would support."

He cited advertisements about vaccinations or certain screening programs as possibly acceptable, but said even then he would be concerned about turning off his followers. "On the one hand, I have got to send my kids to college; on the other hand, I don't want to damage my relationship with my audience," said the father of teenage triplets.

CEO Sean Rad, 23, founded the company that sold Pinsky on the idea in May. "We were basically looking at Twitter early on and we've watched it grow from this place where people were kind of playing with content creation to this very powerful platform where people are using Twitter as their main platform for content creation and content discovery," he told CNN in a telephone interview.

"We view every Tweet as valuable content," he said. "It takes time and thought to produce. Everywhere else, where you generate content you get compensated. Same for a lot of these celebrities on Twitter. Their time is money, yet they're not getting compensated. We're answering a demand we saw with all these publishers."

All he needs to monetize Twitter posts is to match the publisher with an advertiser and everybody wins, Rad said. "The advertiser gets as close as possible to an audience and that publisher gets compensated."

The company launched its service in late September, and Rad said it has already signed up eight of the approximately 50 individual twitterers who have more than 1 million followers.

In addition to Dr. Drew, Ad.ly's clients include Kim Kardashian, Nicole Richie and Joel McHale, he said.

But it's not just for celebrities. "We have thousands of mid-tier and top-tier publishers; we're growing rapidly," he said. Anyone can sign on and, depending on how many followers they have, start approving ads and earning income, he said.

Advertisers include Universal Pictures, Dell, Maserati, Hilton Hotels and "a bunch" of other national brands, he said.

Though Pinsky said he did not know how much his one deal netted him, and Rad would not divulge it, the tech entrepreneur did say a single Tweet could net the publisher a sum in the five figures.

Rad downplayed Pinsky's concern that his followers could feel exploited. "If I'm Dr. Drew and getting paid for activity on Twitter, I'm going to take it more seriously," he said. "So the audience gains because, when you pay somebody to do something, they typically do a better job -- higher quality content. The artist now can justify the time on Twitter."

Each publisher is limited to one Tweeted advertisement per day, he said.

Rad said Ad.ly's model -- or Ad.ly itself -- could help Twitter cash in on its own success. He said his company's model would be one way for Twitter to monetize. "Obviously, an acquisition from Twitter would be awesome," he said.

But that wouldn't be the only way. "I would pay for a premium stream that had no ads in it," said Francine Hardaway, a marketing specialist and partner in Stealthmode Partners.

"Maybe that's Twitter's own monetization model," she said in a posting on scobleizer.com, a blog. "And I also like content providers to be paid. But the more indirectly the better."

Twitter Director of Media Partnerships Chloe Sladden told CNN in an e-mail, "We generally aren't commenting on our monetization plans at the moment."

#Make Money Online: 100 Tools and Resources

Making money online is a dream for many, but the simple fact is that it’s often just as tough as making money offline. Due to requests, we’ve put together a list of the most popular money making methods today, many of them focused on blogging and peer production.

A word of caution: for the sake of completeness, we’ve included a small number of sites that have been criticized for their ethics. If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Commenters are welcome to share their experiences of the various sites.

Get Paid To Write

Weblogs, Inc. – Apply to blog for one of their ninety plus blogs or submit your own topic idea. They will pay you per post that you write and you must meet their minimum post requirements.

PayPerPost – Get paid as much as $500 or more a month writing articles and reviews of their sponsors on your blog.

Blogsvertise – Their advertisers pay you to mention and talk about their websites, products and services in your own blog.

Review Me – After your blog has been accepted in their network, they will pay you $20 to $200 per post that you write.

Smorty – Earn $6 to $100 dollars per post you write on your blog. Amount paid for each post depends on the overall popularity and page rank of your blog.

SponsoredReviews – Write reviews for their advertisers’ products and services on your own blog. They charge a 35% transaction fee for their services.

LoudLaunch – Blog about the advertisers campaign releases that meet your interests. They pay once a month.

Blogitive – Get paid weekly via PayPal for posting stories that interest you.

BloggerWave – Select the advertiser opportunities that best suit your blog and write reviews on their products and services.

InBlogAds – Write about websites, products, services and companies on your blog and get paid for it.

BlogToProfit – Make $250 dollars or more by writing new posts on your blog.

Creative Weblogging – Write 7 to 10 posts per week for their network and they will pay you $225 per month.

WordFirm – Make money publishing books as a freelance writer from home.

451 Press – Write for a blog within their network and receive forty percent of all generated revenue.

Digital Journal – Network of bloggers that get paid to report on newsworthy articles through their blogs.

BlogBurner – Sign up for a free blog and get paid for writing new posts. Your commissions are generated through Adsense clicks.

Squidoo – Earn money by writing your new blog, or choose to donate your earnings to charity.

About.com – Become a paid guide writing articles for About.com. Compensation depends on the growth of your page views.

DayTipper – Earn $3 for every short tip you write and get published.

Helium – Earn a share of their advertising revenue by writing articles in their channels.

Dewitts Media – Get paid to write your own blog. This site requires you have a minimum page rank of 3 to sign up.

BOTW Media – Make money writing a blog for their blogging network.

CreamAid – Get paid to submit blog posts in their directory.

BlogFeast – Generate revenue from pre-installed Google Adsense ads when you blog in their network.

Mashable – Mashable hires freelancers and new staff, offering one of the largest platforms for tech bloggers.

Advertising Programs

Google Adsense – Most popular pay-per-click advertising provider. Make anywhere from $0.01 to $5.00 plus per click on site relevant ads.

Text-Link-Ads – Approve or deny the advertiser links that appear on your site. They pay you 50% of the sale price for each text link sold on your website.

BlogAds – The average blogger makes anywhere from $50 to $5000 dollars a month selling blog ads. To participate in this program you will need to get sponsored by someone in their network.

LinkWorth – Here you will find eleven different options to fit your advertising needs. Choose from text based advertisements, sponsored ads and paid blog reviews to name a few.

CrispAds – Access to over six thousand advertisers in their pay-per-click program. You choose the advertisers that suit you best.

Chitika – Offers six types of advertising to fit your needs.

AzoogleAds – Delivers targeted advertisers to their network of publishers to bring you the most profitable solutions.

Vibrant Media – Offers in-text contextual based advertisements.

MediaFed – Place advertisements in your blog’s RSS feed to generate additional revenue.

Qumana – Embeds ads directly into your posts. Ads are generated from keywords that you select. Not particularly popular with readers.

PeakClick – Austria based pay-per-click provider. Provides automatic insertion of site targeted ads.

DoubleClick – Offers a full suite of products for publishers that enable you to forecast, sell inventory, serve ads and analyze campaigns online and through other digital channels.

Tribal Fusion – They offer reliable payments, free ad-serving technology, a dedicated account manager and up-to-date, real-time reporting, with a 55% payout. Must go through an approval process.

AdBrite – Approve or reject any ads purchased for your sites. Also gives you the ability to sell ads direct with “Your Ad Here” links.

ThankYouPages – Shows ads based on demographics and relevancy. Majority of traffic must originate from U.S.

Clicksor – Inline text link advertising, underlines words directly in your posts making them clickable advertisements. Once more, we’d say that inline ads are not popular with regular blog readers.

TargetPoint – Contextually and search targeted pay-per-click ads.

IndustryBrains – Place relevant contextual text listings and graphical ads on your site.

BloggingAds – Post one-time ads on your site. Pays via PayPal.

BulletAds – Performance based online advertising network.

AdsMarket – Match your traffic to handpicked advertisers with top-converting products and services.

ROIRocket – Targeted campaigns specific to your marketing needs.

AdKnowledge – Offers complete outsourcing of your advertising management. Runs ads in websites, email and search engine inventory.

Yes Advertising – Payouts for running ads from their sponsors. Also offers a referral program that pays 20% of the referred webmasters earnings.

RevenuePilot – Offers pay-for-performance and pay-per-click advertising for your sites.

SearchFeed – Integrates paid advertisements into your site’s search feature.

Bidvertiser – Display text ads on your site and advertisers bid for placement.

Pheedo – Monetize your RSS feeds with this program.

ValueClick media – Generate revenue by displaying ads through banners, pop-unders and rich media. Be warned that pop-unders are unpopular these days.

OneMonkey – Another text based advertising program.

Yahoo Publisher Network – Use the internet giant, Yahoo, to display targeted ads on your site.

Q Ads – Monetize your site by placing ads anywhere you can add a picture.

Affiliate Networks and Programs

Amazon Associates – Link to Amazon’s products and services and earn up to 10% of the sale price. Converts well for product-focused sites.

ClickBank – Over 10,000 products to promote with commissions as high as 75%.

Commission Junction – Promote the advertiser’s products and services in exchange for a commission on leads or sales.

LinkShare – Pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network. Gives you the ability to use individual product links on your site and generate revenue from sales.

Affiliate Fuel – Serves as a middle man to bring publishers and advertisers together to promote products and services.

LinkConnector – Affiliate marketing network that offers a zero tolerance fraud policy to keep you safe while conducting business.

LeadPile – Affiliate network that allows you to generate and sell trade leads to the highest bidder.

Forex-Affiliate – Affiliate program that allows you to earn commissions from trading Forex (currency exchange) online.

incentAclick – CPA (cost-per-action) affiliate program that guarantees the fastest ROI in the industry.

AdPlosion – Earn revenue by selling leads, clicks and products from their advertisers. Also runs an incentive points program in addition to your commissions.

AffiliateFuture – Another affiliate program that pays you for generating leads, sales and clicks.

ClixGalore – Affiliate network consisting of 7500+ advertisers for you to choose from.

ThinkAction – Affiliate network that claims to have the top payouts and the possibility of earning over $100,000 dollars per month.

RocketProfit – Affiliate network, pays via check after your commissions reach $25 dollars.

CafePress – Earn affiliate commissions by selling your personally branded merchandise.

Avangate – Make money selling popular computer software titles through your site.

Paid Social Media Programs

Dada.net – Social site with a revenue sharing program that pays you for referring friends and driving traffic.

Jyve – Pays you to provide answers, advice and peer support to people in need of some help.

Cruxy – Specializes in social video, but serves as a venue to sell your digital media.

BitWine – Get paid to give advice and answer questions for people, on subjects of your interests and choice.

Ether – Make money answering questions for your peers over the phone. You set your rates and call availability.

UpBlogger – Social network site that pays you based on the amount of visits you receive to your uploaded content.

JustAnswer – Help others solve their problems and earn money for your knowledge.

MetaCafe – Upload your videos and earn money based on the number of views you receive.

ChaCha – Get paid to offer support to members of their community.

AssociatedContent – Earn money by uploading your videos, text, audio and images to their site. Earnings are determined by the exposure you receive from your content.

myLot – Pays you for posting, commenting and using their social network.

KnowBrainers – Another site that pays you to get involved with the community and answer questions. Optionally you can answer questions through the RSS feeds on your own blog.

Everything Else That Pays

Google User Research – Google Pays you money to participate in their user research studies online.

Microsoft Research Panel – Get paid from Microsoft for providing feedback on their products.

Amazon Mechanical Turk – Amazon pays you to complete simple tasks that their computers can’t understand. Payments are a matter of cents.

eJury – Earn $5 to $10 dollars per verdict rendered as a mock juror for practice trials.

WorkingSOL – This company pays you to handle technical support for many large companies. You can work from home on the computer or by phone and decide what times you are available.

Appingo – Always looking for experienced copy editors and proof readers. Must submit a resume.

IntelliShop – Pays you to shop at stores in your area and write a review of your experience.

Mahalo Greenhouse – They pay $10 to $15 dollars per site you submit to their directory.

Focus Pointe Global – Get paid to join their focus groups and voice your opinion. Available to teens and adults.

Agloco – Sign up, download their toolbar and get paid to surf the internet. This site has been criticized as a “pyramid scheme”, although the founders deny the allegation.

Arise – Make money providing phone, web and email support and sales for 40 plus companies in their network.

CraZoo – Earn money for starting new threads and posting in online forums.

Tutor.com – Get paid to tutor people online.

ForumBoosting.com – Make money posting in forums across the internet.

Share-A-Pic – Earn money by uploading and sharing your pictures on their website.

Opuzz Voice – Earn money by doing voice overs for their clients online.

SlashMySearch – Get paid to search the internet with their search engine.

More ways to make money online here