Have you seen this yet?

Ogilvy Brasil made this spot for Burger King in Brazil, starring MMA champ and all-around bad-ass Anderson “The Spider” Silva. It’s been viewed on YouTube over 1.3 million times in the last week, and advertising blogs are loving it, too, for the most part. The Denver Egotist says the King has lost its edge in the US, but not abroad: “We’re not suggesting this should be replicated here in the US, but it’s interesting that the previous vibe is still alive abroad.”

The BK Brazil spot is especially hilarious for MMA fans, as Adverblog‘s Martina Zavagno points out: “If you have ever seen this guy fight you will be laughing when you watch this.”

SylviaG, on the Great Ads blog, thinks BK is FUBAR: “Sorry BK not even this can save you.”

But there’s something missing in all of the reviews and comments I’ve read. Don’t Americans already find lovin’ BK easy? Remember this 1998 commercial?

Seeing this spot as a teenager was the first time I’d heard Minne Riperton’s smash hit, “Lovin’ You,” and to this day, I still associate the song with Burger King.

You may not realize it, but WordPress automatically creates pages for every tag and category you create for your blog. These pages could be working to drive more traffic to your blog. Unfortunately, most themes don’t allow you to add a meta description, and these archive pages never see their full potential as SEO-optimized landing pages.

Well, there is hope for those lowly tag and description pages! Methodshop has put together a step-by-step tutorial on how to hack wordpress tag descriptions to boost SEO. According to the popular geek site, this hack generated “a 285% increase in unique pageviews in just one month.”

Give it a shot and let us know how it works for your blog.

Blogger Wendy Atterberry is the friend that everyone has needed at one point or another. On her blog DearWendy, she provides thoughtful and honest relationship advice. Wendy has the broader perspective and insight that a close friend just may be too close to properly give. Wendy responds to readers’ questions in addition to posting advice inspired by issues and trends in the news. In conjunction with reading her blog, fans can follow her on Twitter and Facebook!

A: I started a personal blog called “City Wendy in the Windy City” back in 2004 at the urging of my then-boyfriend, who was a blogger himself and thought the writing outlet would be good for me. I changed the name of that blog to just “City Wendy” a few years later when I moved to New York. Shortly after that move, I began blogging professionally, first at Nerve.com, and then at TheFrisky.com, where I started my advice column, “Dear Wendy” in 2009. In January of 2011, the column got a new home when I launched my own blog of the same name. I now publish my advice columns, as well as other relationship-themed content on DearWendy.com several times a day.

Q: How do you think your blog stands out amongst other advice blogs?

A: I have a “tough love” approach in my advice-giving that’s maybe a little less touchy-feely than some other advice blogs out there. That’s not to say I’m not compassionate, but I try to tell people what I think they need to hear and not necessarily what they may want to hear. I don’t mince words. And the one thing that perhaps sets me apart the most is the active community on my site — it’s not unusual for a column to get 100-200 comments from readers with a range of perspectives and additional insight and advice. I also frequently post updates from previous advice-seekers letting us know whether they followed the advice given and how they’re doing today. I think that further fosters a sense of community and reminds us that our words — both mine and the readers’ — are making a real difference in people’s lives. (more…)

photo by Doug Shick

One sure way to stand out from the 3200 proposals in SXSWi 2012’s Panel Picker is with a catchy title. With so many bold, provocative and timely titles vying for the votes of their peers, there are bound to be recurring memes. For March’s Interactive conference, 14 panels are proclaiming something to be dead. Either that is a very popular turn of phrase, or a lot of technology trends died this year (long live these technology trends).

1. Big media is dead. Why niche websites will rule.
2. TV is Dead. Video Advertising is Alive & Well
3. Television is Dead. Long Live Television.
4. Crowdsourcing is dead —> Enter Friendsourcing
5. The Creative team is dead. Casting the right team
6. The Landline is Dead. Long Live the Landline!
7. Blogging is Dead – 2012 Edition
8. Friending is Dead: Now what?
9. Banner is Dead: How Brands Can Innovate Online
10. Data Vis is Dead, Long Live Data Vis!
11. Your Social Media Job is Dead. Now What?
12. Journalism is dead. Long live journalism!
13. Social Gaming Is Dead, Long Live Social Gaming
14. The web is dead, long live the web

photo by Dave Delaney

The bloggers in our network are an active and impassioned bunch. It was no surprise to us that several of them have proposed panels for South by Southwest 2012.

It goes without saying that we highly recommend voting for these panels:

1. Monetizing Mommy

Featured blogger: Catherine Connors, Her Bad Mother

From the description: “Turns out, mommy’s become something of a cash cow these days. From bestselling books to six figure brand partnership deals, she’s raking it in – and she’s worked hard to deserve it.”

Best question to be answered: “Are Mom Blogs really viable career opportunities for passionate women?”

photo by katie allison granju

(more…)

It’s that time of year again! The SXSW 2012 Panel Picker is open for voting. We’ll be heading back to Austin this year for SXSW Interactive, and here are the panels we’d like see when we get there.

1. 2 Girls, 1 Cup and Your Brand

Rob Blatt

Maybe it’s because of the catchy title, or maybe it’s because we like to curse, damn it, but this panel is the office favorite at Blogads HQ. Rob Blatt and Gavin St. Ours want you and your brand to feel free to curse on the Internet, but they want you to do it right.

From the description: “If you bleep out a word, you might evade the lords at Apple, but do you think your show is still family friendly? Stop holding yourself back, this is the internet!”

Best question to be answered: “How can accepting the darker side of the internet help your brand?”

(more…)

Jon Accarrino’s MethodShop is not your standard gadget site. In addition to bringing reviews and tutorials on gadgets and games, the blog stays fresh by offering up humorous and offbeat posts like the favorite celebrity mustache poll and a how-to article for using social media at a Renaissance faire.  With such unique and fun content, it’s easy to get hooked on this blog. Stay connected with MethodShop on Facebook and Twitter!

MethodShop Blogger Jon Accarrino

Q: When did you start MethodShop, and what was the inspiration that got you started?

A: MethodShop.com turned 15 years old on March 22, 2011, but the origins of MethodShop actually go back 5 years more to 1991 and an alternative print publication I started in high school called Rubber Ducky Magazine.

When I was a freshman in high school, my English teacher brought in an underground magazine of short stories, called a Zine, and made it part of our assigned reading in class. That’s all it took. I was instantly seduced by Zines. We weren’t reading an old boring text book that millions of students had read before. It was new, raw, edgy and unfiltered. Plus, let’s be honest, anything “underground” is cool when you are in high school.

After learning a little more about Zines from my English teacher, I decided to make my own. It was a cross between a twisted children’s activity book and MAD Magazine. I called it Rubber Ducky Magazine. The content included things like satirical David Hasselhoff Valentine’s Day poems about his chest hair, a South Central Los Angeles version of Where’s Waldo and a comic strip about a gassy baby called Fart Boy. It was ridiculous, but everyone loved it.

The first issue consisted of 15 black and white photocopied pages stapled together. I sold it for $1 an issue to my high school friends (and a few teachers) and probably made $30 on the first issue. But I submitted issue #2 to Factsheet 5, a Zine that listed other Zines that you could subscribe to via mail. Factsheet 5 gave me a great review and before I knew it, I had my own PO Box and Rubber Ducky Magazine was a quarterly publication with around 500 subscribers (including a couple C-list celebrities and a few Fortune 100 executives). Original content, a unique voice and the ability to make a profit…. Zines were in many ways the grandfather to the blog. And thanks to my financially successful experiment with independent publishing, I had a nice little nest egg to head off to college with. (more…)

photo by Lucas Hale

Today is Primary Day in Virginia, with voters casting ballots for local and legislative races. State Senate hopeful Adam Ebbin, and Delegate candidates Stephanie Clifford and Alfonso Lopez, spent the last couple weeks vying for the attention of local Democrats by running ads on state blog Blue Virginia.

Blue Virginia gets over ~100k page views each month from Virginia’s most fired-up and active liberals. The blog seems like a natural fit for local Democratic candidates hoping to reach the right kinds of voters. I asked Blue Virginia founder Lowell Feld about local politicians buying blog advertising:

What I find interesting is how many Democratic candidates do NOT put up ads on the leading pro-Democratic blogs in their states. I mean, candidates spend enormous amounts of money on direct mail, radio, TV, consultants, whatever, but they don’t think it’s smart to advertise on blogs – and other social media, for that matter – where they can reach the activists – the people who lick the envelopes, knock the doors, make the phone calls, donate the money to their campaigns? I’ve never fully understood that, especially when advertising on blogs is usually very inexpensive, certainly compared to other alternatives.

Lisa Taylor, a Boston-area copywriter, wants to send you a cover letter. But she wants to make sure you like it, so she’s made it a truly interactive experience with the Cover Letter Customizer. In five easy steps, including some fun options like a casualness slider and a favorite word field, you’ll have a letter that was Taylor’ed just for you. (Sorry, that pun was just sitting there.)

Also, as Lisa says in her LinkedIn profile, no paper cuts. Unless you print it.

(via Ads of the World)

Comprised of about 20 contributors,  The Volokh Conspiracy focuses on providing thoughtful discussion of newsworthy legal issues.  Blogger Eugene Volokh took some time to chat about the site and its distinctiveness from more political and news-oriented blogs. Make sure to check out @VolokhC on Twitter in addition to visiting the blog!

The Volokh Conspiracy's Blogger Eugene Volokh

Q: When and why did you start blogging?

A: April 2002.  I had seen what a great resource some blogs had become – my favorite was Prof. Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit.com – and I thought that my cobloggers and I could also offer something to readers.

Q: How do you think your blog stands out amongst other similarly-themed blogs?

A: We try to use our knowledge about law to explain interesting legal issues, especially ones that are currently in the news.  So ours isn’t a political blog, like some, or a news headline blog.  It focuses instead on news analysis, specifically with regard to contentious legal debates.

Q: What does your family think of your blogging?

A: My brother is a coblogger of mine, so I hope he thinks well of it! (more…)