I tell anyone who will listen to me that the current crop of advertisement methods is too short-lived. The moment you spend the money and your ad runs, that is the moment it is either gone to the grave or becomes a patient existing on life support. Either you’re smart and willing to keep it alive, in conversation, online on YouTube for the spots, or on a blog somewhere for the print work — or you feel compelled to keep on throwing money at it ad infinitum, because contextual ads, banner ads, etc, only last as long as you write checks.

What my specialty is is online conversation marketing, online public relations, and online earned media. When you earn peoples’ attention and when they choose to speak about you, your clients, and your services, then you have a gift that keeps on giving — this is content that lasts well past the campaign and into the future. This is both the sort of thing that Google loves — it is SEO catnip — and it is just the sort of content that flows, both upstream to A-list bloggers and to mainstream media and down to your readers, aggregators, and to other bloggers and other blogs.

If you want to see some examples of powerfully successful blogger outreaches, check out International Medical Corps (IMC) 2008, Survivor Corps Operation Survivor 2008, and Fresh Air Fund Summer 2008, Jerry White’s I Will Not Be Broken book promotion. In many cases, these campaigns are close to a year old, yet they still still live in hundreds and hundreds of blogs and feed Google’s index until all of these blogs are taken down. It is really amazing how effective this sort of “advertising” promotion works. What’s better, when the campaign is over and the client “turns off” our tap, the content continues living and isn’t just shut off like it is with banners, buttons, and contextual advertising. Very interesting, very cool, and powerfully effective.

Remember how much fun Communication Arts is to page through? — CA is intoxicating! Well, every ad you make can be as interesting, as long as you’re willing to come out of your art department and share your process, share your experience, share your steps. Keeping those ephemera alive through narrative, sharing, conversation, and story, is what social media is, it is what customer service is, it is surely what branding should be.

Anyway, There is a lot of opportunity in this time of chaos, of this time of transition. The same sort of transition (and opportunity) happened when PCs came online, replacing the IBM Selectric II; when the Internet changed E-Commerce, threatening to eviscerate bricks and mortar stores, and it is happening now, more than ever, with advertising, marketing, and PR.

I call it white knuckle syndrome: holding on to the handholds you have, frozen on the face of the cliff, because you don’t know where the handholds of the future are. This chaos is pretty amazing to watch as the economy pitches and GM bails on Super Bowl.

Advertising knows it needs to jump off the locomotive before it pitches into the gorge (the bridge is out!) but reaching out to the proffered hand of the guy in the helicopter seems pretty risky too. But, as the current handholds become chalky and you start to feel them crumble under your weight, you’ll need to find somewhere else to go, and quick!

To me, Chris Brogan said it best the other day on Twitter, “customer service is the new PR.*” Looking at what @comcastcares has been able to do, customer service is the new PR, the new marketing, and the new advertising.

So, as those handholds start to get chalk and begin to crumble, it is important to at least set your eyes on a new handhold — or maybe a helping hand — before your original handhold turns to powder.

And for you who have yet to do the reading, please check out Cluetrain Manifesto and Naked Conversation.

RockStartup, the reality show about the founding, funding, and growing of PayPerPost, is celebrating its 20th episode. Check it out by subscribing to RockStartup via iTunes:

I have been a fan of RockStartup since the very first episode, especially since I have run into Ted and Britt over and over at conferences and was amazing how real the series is. This isn’t art, this if life. RockStartup is a reality show.

RockStartup can be bizarre and eccentric, it can even verge on the painfully funny, but it also reveals how cool Ted and the gang are. Smart, savvy, ambitious, impassioned, and creative, RockStartup illustrates PayPerPost like a captain’s log, if that captain’s log were written by Douglas Adams.

To be honest, Ted and I have become fast friends and I just think it is super cool how out there he puts himself. Guess what? Ted and the gang are 100% all they seem to be. Mark and I both consider Ted to be the straightest shooter we know and we love how empowering PPP is, especially to bloggers who have amazing reputation and readership, but not lots of traffic and page views.

Anyway, unlike The Office, which is a TV show, RockStartup is Ted, and it is Britt. They’re funny, they’re cute, they’re goofy, they’re honest, they’re smart, and they’re doing successful business, indeed.

There have been a couple chances I have had to join the cast and staff of PayPerPost and I have let them slip through my fingers. Alas, I might have regrets because it looks like these kids are having lots of fun down there in Orlando.

Maybe Orlando doesn’t suck. I sure know that whether or not Florida sucks or not, Ted Murphy and his merry pranksters are Rockstar!

If you can’t quite get in the right position or maintain the angle your body needs, you should get yourself a Liberator Wedge.

People ask me what I think about “full disclosure” and “blogger ethics.” My answer always is, there is no obligation for any blogger to follow the ethical standards of journalists or public officials. Bloggers are bloggers because of the true freedom of speech. Freedom of speech doesn’t demand truth. But, if bloggers want to keep the trust they’ve been given by their readers, then they had better be open, honest, authentic, and transparent.

That said, the trust relationship bloggers have built and enjoy with their readers is quite a powerful feedback. That relationship is the market force that keeps bloggers honest, not ethical standards or requirements. Ultimately, I demand rigorous reader discernment — caveat lector, let the reader beware — and do not suffer morons gladly.

Here are some previous articles that I have written about the topic:

Blogger Ethics Coverage:

The New York Times Code of Ethics is Mandatory for Journalists Not Bloggers

Caveat Emptor et Lector Repost

Bloggers Can Ignore Basic Journalism Ethics

Bloggers do not Aspire to be Journalists

Pay Per Post Coverage:

Vanity Advertising on PayPerPost is Addicting

Edelman Ethics Coverage:

In Defense of Edelman over Bribery Charges

Not a Bribe with Disclosure and Transparency

BL Ochman Gets the Vista Edelman AMD Bribery Scandal

I Think I May Have Jinxed Edelman PR

Andy Sernovitz of WOMMA Blames the Victims in Edelman Controversy

What I Would Have Done if I Were Edelman Me2Revolution

Paul Mooney on and the New York Times’ Silence about the Edelman Bribe

Microsoft Did Not Bribe Bloggers Reports Microsoft

Journalism Gods Agree with Me on The Bribe

BizReport reports, “a British study is citing that Google is close to overtaking the UK’s top commercial TV channels for total advertising revenue. The Internet search engine’s 2006 U.K. revenues is predicted to top Channel Four’s own financial forecast of $1.5 billion.”

It was just a matter of time. I didn’t think I was the only one to realize that Google is making money hand-over-fist with their textual contextual advertising model. Why?

Well, there are a lot of rich people throwing money away on expensive keywords. The same rich people who are throwing money away on expensive real estate. Apparently, a rich sucker is born every nanosecond.

It is a branding land grab. Instead of taking the time to pursue organic search engine optimization best practices, it is easier to throw wads of cash at the problem. Google deserves to be King Solomon rich. I make over $500/month just on this simple personal blog. And I am sure Google makes well over $500 and the revenue on made through Chris Abraham is well over $1,000-per-month. And I am only one blog with a modest 6,000-page-impressions-per-day. I think it is time to rebrand Google as G–gle. Respect His name.