It looks like the Japanese are using barcodes for more than scanning, take a look at how they used barcodes as another place for advertising.  Great idea, I don’t see why U.S. companies are not doing this.

This kind of creative barcode design is completely new to me, but apparently it’s quite common in Asia - or at least Japan. Here’s a full gallery of some unusual product barcodes. Please comment if you have seen similar designs in your country (or if you are missing out on them as well).

via fosfor, source

Well, it’s not that often I tell my readers/newcomers about my money making secrets but here’s a heat map that I’ve created to maximize income from my blogs.

Now, this is a proven heat map for making the “most” money online with blogs.

It’s a rather “in-your-face” type of advertising where you force your visitors to really read your Adsense or Chitika ads.

Why do I do this type of “before-content” advertising?

Because it gives you the most bang for your buck.  Of course, if you have a million dollars of funding and you are simply trying to promote your brand, you could go without advertising.  But for people like me who depend on Adsense and Chitika to pay rent, it’s crucial that money keeps rolling in the bank, otherwise this site wouldn’t be paid for and there would be no more websites.

If you think it’s too much advertising, think of it this way.  (Provided you live in the U.S.,) Can you tell me how many full 20-second advertisements you see on every TV show?

Yes, probably 3 or 4 and you don’t mind it because you need to keep watching the TV show.

It’s the same thing in blogging and you need to really force ads down the readers throat per say.  It’s not the most nice way to make money, but heck, sometimes you gotta do what needs to be done.

Anyway, I hope this heat map helps you make more money online as I have worked on this for last 5-6 months or so optimizing it.  (Yes, I did the analysis and optimization for you so all you have to do is follow it.)

Now, please don’t complain there’s too many ads on this site unless you would like to pay for my rent and credit card bills.

via Insider Adsense Secrets Blog

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I keep banging this site about how badly iPhone or iPhone 3G is advertised.  Of course, most phones do the same thing and could be called “deceptive advertising” but in this case, it’s Apple for christ-sakes.

If they have to lie to consumers on their ads, there’s enough people to get mad enough to sue Apple.

I completely agree that Apple needs to reimburse customers for the slow AT&T 3G speeds and also for false advertising.

Even if 99% of people in the world don’t care, it’s plain and pretty easy to prove that iPhone 3G maybe one of the slowest PDAs out there.

Only if Steve Jobs decided to go with Sprint or Verizon, these lawsuits could have been avoided.

I foresee only more trouble for the iPhone 3G for the next couple months.  Steve Jobs hyped the “3G” speeds and features, yet consumers report back 3G as slow and not worth the extra features.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Apple’s products, just not their deceptive advertising which happend of lately.

Here’s easyhome.com, who’s using Americans as BS to market their Sony 52″ HD LCD TVs.

As an American, I don’t mind this at all, I think it’s rather funny and hilarious that a company would use prejudice to sell them.

But I think I know the reasons why this happened.

If you go back to one of the episodes on South Park where everyone’s yelling, “I hate Canada”, I think that kinda explains it.  Although South Park may be funny and supposed to be only comedy, those hate-Canada episodes really bothered me as I feel it was complete, utter prejudice/racism against Canadian people.

In the end, I did ask couple of my Canadian friends what they though of it, and they didn’t care, they said it was funny so…

You know what though, they should have really put Bush and called him a “miserable failure” or put one of those signs, “Someone give Bush a blowjob so we can impeach him!”.  (Now that would get ALL the anti-Bush supporters in America to buy an HDTV from the Canadian website)

The above pic is a splash screen you can see when visiting Canadian electronics and appliance retailer Easyhome, notifying visitors of a four-day sale. Depicted on the Sony TV in front of the American flag is a politician flashing pearly whites and a double-thumbed “This guy!” Beneath him is the none-too-veiled message “Even BS looks good on a 52-inch HD LCD TV.” Maybe so, Canada, but some think it’s even better with the volume all the way down.

via gizmodo

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As much as I can appreciate the Safari mobile browser on the iPhone, I still hate the fact that Apple refuses to make “real” ads without trying to cover up the slowness of the iPhone.

Well, as I told you about how iPhone is the biggest marketing scam ever, it seems like people are slowly starting to realize what I’ve predicted all along.

If above video isn’t proof of deceptive advertising than you must be either stupid or you’ve been whitewashed by Apple’s ads.  No matter what the case, you need to face the facts and that is no company in the U.S. is allowed to “lie” to the consumers, especially in a public commercial.

Look, all I want is the truth, I know iPhone 3G is still lagging behind Sprint and Verizon’s CDMA network so you don’t have to lie.

Next time, would you add “Time Elapsed” in the commercials so people know that it’s not really “blazingly” fast.

Heck, the iPhone 3G in the commercial is probably faster than my desktop landline LAN connection for god-sakes!

You are doing everything great Steve Jobs, just cut the bullshit out and we will keep lovin’ you.

Here’s and excerpt of False Advertising laws in the U.S. from Wikipedia:

Advertising is regulated by the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, a United States administrative agency, to prohibit “unfair and deceptive acts or practices in commerce.”^[3] While it makes laymen’s sense to assume that being deceptive is being unfair, deceptiveness in practice has been treated separately by the FTC, leaving unfairness to refer only to other types.^[4] All commercial acts may be deceptive, not just advertising, but noncommercial activity such as advertising for political candidates is not subject to prosecution under the FTC Act. The 50 states have similar statutes, which generally are very similar to that of the FTC and in many cases copied so closely that they are known as “Little FTC Acts.” While the terms “false” and “deceptive” are essentially the same for most, being deceptive is not the same as producing deception. What is illegal is the potential to deceive, which is interpreted to occur when consumers see the advertising to be stating to them, explicitly or implicitly, a claim that they may not realize is false and material. The latter means that the claim, if relied on for making a purchasing decision, is likely to be harmful by adversely affecting that decision. If an ad is implicitly false, evidence must be obtained for what consumers saw the ad saying, and for the materiality of that, and for the true facts about the advertised item, but no evidence is required that actual deception occurred, or that reliance occurred, or that the advertiser intended to deceive or knew that the claim was false.

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Here’s Apple’s ad where Jerry Seinfeld finishes it off.  No wonder Microsoft decided to hire Jerry Seinfeld.

Now even better, they should just try to buy out Apple all together and end this decade-long Microsoft-Apple war for good.

via cnet

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Remember Microsoft hired Seinfeld to do advertising for their new $300 Million campaign?

Here’s the new Bill Gates and Seinfeld TV commercial which I did get to see yesterday for the first time and looks like bunch of people uploaded it to Youtube.

First look tells me that this ad really sucks in comparison to Apple.  There’s not enough “juice” going on to even understand what they are advertising.  (Good advertising should be funny even with the sound off, try watching this ad without sound, it’s BORING!)

Bill Gates will have to do a lot better than this.  It would be cool if he was skydiving or somethin’ with Jerry Seinfeld and then Bill Gates gets squashed by Seinfeld on landing.

Beijing Apple’s Outdoor Display was confirmed running off a Windows XP computer.  Now, this is ironic that Apple wouldn’t power their own displays with their computers.

Perhaps, the Windows XP probably saved some operating costs than using a Mac for the purposes of the outdoor display.

Consumers will be confused to whether Apple is promoting Windows XP.  I know I would.  (Maybe Steve Jobs hired some really bad technicians)

via gizmodo

Here’s an innovative way to market your keyboard.  Save money by not printing the characters and market them by telling people this empty keyboard will help you become a Touch Typist.

Lol…regardless, it’s a great product.

Their marketing statement:

Whether learning to touch-type or already a touch typist, within a few weeks, you will memorize the character locations and you will be touch-typing like a pro without looking at the keys. It works each and every time. If you want to take your typing skills to the next level, Das Keyboard Ultimate is the keyboard for you.

via technabob