Marco Gomes receives the Prêmio Jovem Brasileiro – Young Brazilian Award

Marco Gomes, co-founder of boo-box, received the Prêmio Jovem Brasileiro – Young Brazilian Award, this Monday, September 22nd 2008, for his work in the corporate arena.

The Prêmio Jovem Brasileiro, presented by Serginho Groisman, is conceded based on merit and active participation of the youth in society. The nomination is awarded after an in-depth selection, performed by a committee formed by journalists, columnists, critics and research conducted with the young users on the event’s official website.

Marco Gomes, the Director of Technology at boo-box, receives this award for his performance as an entrepreneur, helping transform what was a late-night project into an innovative and successful company, well placed in the Internet Marketing sector.

Musicians CéU, Ivete Sangalo, Teatro Mágico and Negra Li, the films Cidade Dos Homens and Cidade de Deus, comedians Rafinha Bastos and Rodrigo Scarpa (o Repórter Vesgo) and athletes Sandro Dias and Karen Jones are some of the people who have been previously honored with this Award.

» Continue reading “Marco Gomes at the Prêmio Jovem Brasileiro – Young Brazilian Award – InterCon and Peixe Grande”

Six months have gone by and now we are back with great news for you!

Our tagging tool has had a makeover! Besides a clean new look, it is now even easier to test tags, chose stores and apply the boo-box links. And now our users will each have a boo-box account with password, which will allow us, in the near future, to offer even more new functionalities (such as boo-shop). Come see what we’re talking about on the installation page of our new tagging tool.

Now it’s become even easier to apply boo-box links in images and videos. The links are applied in semi-automatic fashion using WordPress plugins. Go to this page to install.

» Continue reading “boo-box News”

So, how did you do on the test?

What this video really demonstrates is how we tend to not pay attention to secondary matters when our attention is focused on one main subject.

Online advertising has been increasingly treated as a ‘secondary matter’ that has to vie with specific content to grab users’ attention. Flashy banners, pop-ups that block content, sponsored links, such as AdSense; all try to guess what the user is searching for, all vying for space and attention with the content of your web site.

It is inevitable that, just like in the video, these ‘secondary objects’ will be overlooked by the majority of people, or that, in those cases where they do manage to grab attention, they tear the focus away from what’s truly drawing the user: content. (If you had been paying attention to the “moonwalking bear” you probably would have missed the number of passes!)

» Continue reading “Banners, pop-ups, AdSense, SEO and your content”

The nearest mankind has got to an oracle these days are the search engines. They know everything, they answer everything, and if they don’t, it is because the question was not properly formed. Thanks to this unheard of capability, a lot of people use search engines as their start point (pt-pt); therefore, the bulk of internet traffic comes from them. The greatest generator of traffic to blogs, are for instance, search engines.

There is a whole economy that was created around content search engines, and a lot of second-generation Brazilian web startups are dependent on them to create revenue streams. A classic example occurs when content index services from other websites create optimized pages for searches; place ads around the content; and wait for traffic to come from search engines, when the so called “keyword droppers” are going to click unwittingly at ads, generating revenues.

The problem with this business model is that if the search engines change any parameter in its relevance algorithm, the traffic to the service can be severely affected, and the startup can agonize to death. As any beginner knows, it is dangerous to build a business that relies on a company that is not yours.

» Continue reading “Good content need not fear search engines”

• boo-box in video, changing the way to market in on-line videos
• Platform portability, expanding content monetization boundaries
• Now offers can be sent to e-mail
• New partner programs

boo-box in video launched on November 10th

boo-box in video enables anyone to monetize embedded YouTube videos using partner affiliate programs. It is an easy and fast 4 step process:

1. Select the embedding code or the URL of the video.
2. Click on the boo-box icon on Firefox (or bookmarklet for IE, Safari and Opera and everything else)
   
3. Type a tag and test it
   
4. Apply or copy into your platform (blog, site, social network profile, e-mail…)

Our solution was developed with 3 things in mind:

1. Minimize interruption of the video: the recommendations are displayed only if the audience chooses. The video continues playing while the audience is browsing the recommendations.
2. Monetize the distribution: the publisher keeps all the money from the affiliate commission/fee.
3. Make marketing really relevant: the publisher chooses what is going to be displayed.

» Continue reading “News from boo-box team”

boo-box, which already works with Amazon.com for new and used products and eBay for auction offers, is glad to announce its integration with Shopping.com. This will allow you to place product offers with price comparison inside your content.

The difference between Shooping.com Partner Program and the Amazon/eBay affiliate market programs is that Shopping.com pays when you generate traffic for an e-commerce website, while Amazon and eBay pay you when the product you recommended is sold.

It is simple to do it. First you should apply for Shopping.com Partner Program and wait until they accept your subscription; then choose Shopping.com on our add-on; put your user ID and you are ready to start recommending products with price comparison from Shooping.com.

For Brazilian users we have two major e-commerce stores: Americanas.com and Submarino. Check-out our Portuguese blog for more info.

Have fun with your boo-box ;)