Today's Woman Review & Giveaway Blog ? Sears Newborn Nesting ...

You are going to have a baby, how exciting! Whether or not this is your first pregnancy, it can be a bit nerve-racking preparing for the arrival. The first year of your baby?s life will be expensive. Sears understands? this as well as the need to be prepared before baby comes, and that?s why they have launched the Newborn Nesting Event.

From March 22 ? April 4, 2013 if you buy $250 (before tax) worth of nursery finds (including cribs, furniture, gliders, and nursery decor/bedding) you?ll receive 15% back on a cash card! Simply go back to Sears Baby?s Room before May 31st to use the card!

All this nesting and nursery talk has me brainstorming what some nursery must haves are. After-all, there are many factors to consider in the creation of the perfect nursery. Traditionally a nursery is a room where your baby will spend a lot of his/her time.

As with all bedrooms, your baby needs a bed to sleep in. Personally, I love the cribs that transition to beds. Not only will you save money, it will also give the young one a sense of familiarity.

One piece of baby specific furniture which is useful is a changing table.You will also need drawers in which to store your baby?s clothes and supplies.

A popular option in the market today is a baby changing table dresser where in the table used for babies to change is attached or installed on a dresser. The nice thing about? the combined change table/ dresser is that it gives parents easy access to items baby needs and? it can later be used in a child?s bedroom.

There are as many nursery themes as there are children?s fairy tales. From? a Peek-A-Boo Jungle? Collection, to Hello Kitty, Lambs and Ivory, Sears makes it simple for your decor theme to flow together.

Lamps and Lighting are a essential element in the nursery decor and a touch of cuteness.

Crib bedding is an essential part of the nursery decor. After-all, the crib is where baby spends a good part of her time.

Mobiles, humidifiers and wall art are other items that you can add to the nursery. When a baby is sick there?s not much we can do to help them, but a cool-mist humidifier is something we can use to provide comfort.

What item can?t you live without in your nursery?

About Sears Canada

Sears Canada is a multichannel retailer with a network that includes 197 corporate stores, 276 hometown dealer stores, 20 home services showrooms, over 1,500 catalogue and online merchandise pick-up locations, 104 Sears Travel offices and a nationwide home maintenance, repair, and installation network. The Company also publishes Canada?s most extensive general merchandise catalogue and offers shopping online at www.sears.ca.

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On a personal note

This will be my last post I make as a Brand Ambassador for Sears The Baby?s Room. I have enjoyed the last 6 months participating as a brand ambassador. It? has been a lot of fun and a rewarding experience going to Sears shopping for the arrival of my granddaughter. ?I?ve loved sharing with my readers about how amazing the new Baby?s Room at Sears is. I hope that you have enjoyed my posts and you will shop at Sears for all your baby needs. Though my time as a?Brand Ambassador for Sears The Baby?s Room has sadly come to an end it won?t stop me from returning to Sears to shop for my granddaughter or tell? everyone about all the wonderful deals I see in my local Sears flyer.

I would like to extend a very special thank you to Mom Central Canada for choosing me. If you have yet to join Mom Central Canada I highly recommend you sign up.? You?ll get the opportunity to find out about new products and promotions, try the latest products for free, voice your opinion on these products and chat to some wonderful moms or grandmother?s like yourself.

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Disclosure: I am part of the Sears Canada The Baby?s Room Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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Ariel Winter reprises role as 'Dora the Explorer'

By Ashley Majeski, TODAY contributor

"Modern Family" star Ariel Winter is once again ready to battle evil as the live-action version of "Dora the Explorer" in the latest installment of a three-part online series from CollegeHumor.

In part two of "Dora the Explorer and the Destiny Medallion," Winter, once again sporting Dora's trademark backpack and bob haircut, attempts to find a magical medallion before her arch enemy, Swiper (now a masked man, rather than a cartoon fox) can.

The idea for the web series, which was written by Patrick Cassels and Benjamin Joseph, came after CollegeHumor released a mock movie trailer of what a live-action "Dora" adventure movie might look like. The fake trailer became such a viral sensation, garnering over 13 million hits on the website's YouTube channel, that CollegeHumor decided to expand the sketch and turn it into a web series.

Part one of the series, which was released earlier this month, features Dora, along with her friend Diego and monkey pal Boots, kicking some bad-guy butt in a bar. In the second part, Dora and company head to an ancient temple to solve a centuries-old riddle and battle Swiper and his gang.

While the live-action shorts pull heavily from the original cartoon -- with Dora talking directly to the camera and asking her audience for help with solving puzzles, right down to the over-exaggerated blinking -- the new clips are certainly not designed for a young audience, as they feature some foul language and, in part two, some comical (but graphic) violence.

The third and final part in the web series will be released by CollegeHumor on April 2.

More in The Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/27/17487909-ariel-winter-reprises-role-as-dora-the-explorer-in-live-action-parody-short?lite

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Deal of the Day ? 23? Dell U2312HM UltraSharp 1080p IPS-panel LCD monitor

LogicBUY’s Deal for Thursday is the?23″ Dell U2312HM UltraSharp 1080p IPS-panel LCD monitor for?$219.99. ?Features: Anti-glare screen with hard-coat 3H surface LED backlit 8ms response time, 2,000,000:1 typical dynamic contrast ratio, 300nit brightness 4-port USB 2.0 hub, DVI and VGA connections EPEAT Gold rated Height-Adjustable stand with tilt and swivel adjustments and built-in cable management [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/03/28/deal-of-the-day-23-dell-u2312hm-ultrasharp-1080p-ips-panel-lcd-monitor/

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Eggs-treme: Christie's auctions super-sized egg

LONDON (AP) ? It's a foot long, nearly nine inches in diameter, and would once have made a really, really, big omelet.

A London auction house is hoping buyers will be scrambling to take a crack at this natural wonder, a massive fossilized egg laid long ago on the island of Madagascar by a now-extinct elephant bird.

Christie's said Wednesday that the oversized ovum ? laid sometime before elephant birds were wiped out several hundred years ago ? is expected to sell for up to 30,000 pounds (roughly $45,000).

Flightless, fruit-gobbling elephant birds resembled giant ostriches and could grow to be 11 feet high (3.4 meters). Christie's says their eggs are 100 times the size of an average chicken's.

The egg is being sold during a travel and science sale on April 24.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eggs-treme-christies-auctions-super-sized-egg-133424322.html

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Swarming robots could be the servants of the future

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Swarms of robots acting together to carry out jobs could provide new opportunities for humans to harness the power of machines.

Researchers in the Sheffield Centre for Robotics, jointly established by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, have been working to program a group of 40 robots, and say the ability to control robot swarms could prove hugely beneficial in a range of contexts, from military to medical.

The researchers have demonstrated that the swarm can carry out simple fetching and carrying tasks, by grouping around an object and working together to push it across a surface.

The robots can also group themselves together into a single cluster after being scattered across a room, and organize themselves by order of priority.

Dr Roderich Gross, head of the Natural Robotics Lab, in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield, says swarming robots could have important roles to play in the future of micromedicine, as 'nanobots' are developed for non-invasive treatment of humans. On a larger scale, they could play a part in military, or search and rescue operations, acting together in areas where it would be too dangerous or impractical for humans to go. In industry too, robot swarms could be put to use, improving manufacturing processes and workplace safety.

The programming that the University of Sheffield team has developed to control the robots is deceptively simple. For example, if the robots are being asked to group together, each robot only needs to be able to work out if there is another robot in front of it. If there is, it turns on the spot; if there isn't, it moves in a wider circle until it finds one.

Dr Gross said: "We are developing Artificial Intelligence to control robots in a variety of ways. The key is to work out what is the minimum amount of information needed by the robot to accomplish its task. That's important because it means the robot may not need any memory, and possibly not even a processing unit, so this technology could work for nanoscale robots, for example in medical applications."

This research is funded by a Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant within the 7th European Community Framework Programme. Additional support has been provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e12RicAy1Q

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/t0u6bm1TWas/130328125325.htm

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Texas reviews school curriculum targeted by conservatives over alleged communist propaganda

CSCOPE.us

A social studies lesson synopsis from 2010 drew harsh criticism from parents and activists who said it labeled the Boston Tea Party a terrorist act. Program administrators said the lesson was outdated and had been withdrawn. Click the image for the full .pdf, which administrators posted as part of their response to the criticism.

By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

Texas authorities are beginning a sweeping review this week of the state's dominant public school curriculum under pressure from critics who charge that it indoctrinates the children of Texas with communist, pro-terrorist propaganda from behind a shield of secrecy.

The State Board of Education will hold the first of a series of public meetings to organize the review in Dallas on Friday, three days after the state attorney general's office told NBC News that it has been looking into "potential improprieties" that raise "significant legal concerns about the program's operations."

It didn't specify those concerns, but legislative hearings have questioned the program's nonprofit status and the locking of some materials behind passwords accessible only to teachers and other "authorized users."

The designers of the curriculum ? which is used in 875 of the state's 1,028 districts ? say the program is closely aligned with standards mandated by the State Board of Education and is based on educational principles proven over decades. Critics, they say, are taking isolated parts of lessons out of context, equating simply teaching a controversial issue with endorsing it.

Even so, the parent organization of the program, called CSCOPE, has agreed to several demands by opponents, including opening its board meetings to the public, allowing teachers to post curriculum materials online, dropping its nonprofit status and creating a new website so parents can learn about the lessons from home.

CSCOPE?? it's not an abbreviation for anything ? is a Web-only repository of 1,600 lesson plans, study materials and other curriculum components. It's supposed to help teachers make sure pupils are taught what they need to know for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills test.

"We live in a very mobile society," said Anne Poplin, chairwoman of the board of the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative, or TESCCC, which administers CSCOPE.

Watch the top videos on NBCNews.com

CSCOPE means children who move from one school or district to another can be confident they'll pick up where they left off in their old classrooms, she told NBC News.

But since it began in the 2006-07 school year, CSCOPE has been a target for activists and conservative websites. Pressure has grown in recent months as critics have published details of its lesson plans.

"CSCOPE Teaches ALLAH is God" and "CSCOPE Promotes Communism," proclaim two of several dozen articles on Texas CSCOPE Review.

Glenn Beck's TheBlaze has run at least five "expos?s" this year with headlines like "CSCOPE: Exposing the Nation's Most Controversial Public School Curriculum System," while Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller last month ran a story listing "egregious examples of the curriculum's inadequacies and absurdities."

'Design a flag for a new socialist nation'
Critics fall into two camps.

The first is teachers who say the curriculum is flawed in general and that their districts require them to rigidly follow the program, even though CSCOPE says it's meant to be revised and "refocused" to serve local needs.?

As part of a transparency agreement it worked out last month with Dan Patrick, the Republican chairman of the state Senate Education Committee, TESCCC said it would remind districts that lessons are simply resources for teachers, not meant to be taught verbatim.

The second group is larger and more vocal: parents, activists and lawmakers who say CSCOPE is a Trojan horse sneaking liberal ideals of socialism and cultural relativism into the classroom.

Several examples have circulated around Texas in the past few months. One asks pupils to design a flag for a new socialist nation, using "symbolism to represent aspects of socialism/communism." Texas Conservative News called that an "attempt at secretly indoctrinating Texas children."

Another unit depicts a hiker walking up a staircase of money. "Free enterprise (capitalism)" is the bottom step; "Communism" is at the top. Ginger Russell of the widely read blog Red Hot Conservative wrote that?the graphic was "all about portraying communism in a positive light."

Perhaps the most controversial lesson asks pupils to discuss this news report (PDF):

A local militia, believed to be a terrorist organization, attacked the property of private citizens today at our nation's busiest port. Although no one was injured in the attack, a large quantity of merchandise, considered to be valuable to its owners and loathsome to the perpetrators, was destroyed. The terrorists, dressed in disguise and apparently intoxicated, were able to escape into the night with the help of local citizens who harbor these fugitives and conceal their identities from the authorities.

Not until later, during a discussion period, do teachers reveal that the report describes the Boston Tea Party.

"Like our Founding Fathers at Concord, that was pretty much the opening shot that started this," Patrick said.

Critical thinking and perspective
Poplin said lessons like those under scrutiny are meant to challenge students to critically examine the world from others' perspectives?? not to adopt the beliefs the lessons?describe. With the Boston Tea Party unit ? which has since been removed as "outdated" ? the point was to teach sophisticated thinking and the existence of multiple viewpoints, she said.

"It might have been an act of terrorism in King George's mind, but it wasn't an act of terrorism in the minds of Americans," she said. "The lesson wasn't teaching the Boston Tea Party. The lesson was teaching perspective."

Mason Moses, a spokesman for 20 regional public school agencies that created TESCCC, said: "Down here in Texas, we're pretty patriotic. There is absolutely no way we would ever teach"?that the Boston Tea Party was an act of terrorism.

That may be true, Patrick said, but "what all of this underscores is how our education system is changing rapidly because of technology."

"In the old days, which weren't all that long ago, textbooks were reviewed by boards of education," he said, but?"today, as we move to this online learning, there are no checks and balances."

Keeping 'strategic decisions' private
And that is a big part of the problem, critics say ? CSCOPE has been secret, making it hard to get a clear picture of what it's really teaching. Before the transparency agreement, parents could see materials, but only by visiting their children's school; anyone else was barred unless they were cleared as an "authorized user."

Poplin said CSCOPE was tailored for teachers, which means it includes performance assessments, tests and answers, which shouldn't get into students' hands. As part of the agreement with Patrick, TESCCC is removing that information and hopes to have the instructional material online by the middle of April, she said.

More clarity could emerge from administrators' decision to relinquish nonprofit status.

As recently as December, TESCCC asserted that some of its records should be exempt from disclosure under state open records laws, both because it's an independent nonprofit entity and because it competes with for-profit curriculum companies.

In addition to proprietary business information like bidding data from vendors, the materials TESCCC wanted to keep private included "how strategic decisions are made with respect to the development of the CSCOPE product" itself.

Poplin said TESCCC has begun discussions to dissolve the nonprofit corporation, and she said she was eager to hear from the State Board of Education. Because the state school board has no formal connection to CSCOPE, however, the coming review is non-binding.

Patrick has an answer for that: His committee is holding a hearing next week on legislation that would give the school board oversight of CSCOPE.

More stories from Open Channel:

Search warrants in Newtown school massacre might reveal more on motive

Syria's chaos complicates task for chemical weapons investigators

Do child safety caps keep kids out of dangerous medications?

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a15d13d/l/0Lopenchannel0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C280C174764920Etexas0Ereviews0Eschool0Ecurriculum0Etargeted0Eby0Econservatives0Eover0Ealleged0Ecommunist0Epropaganda0Dlite/story01.htm

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It&#39;s a dog&#39;s life:travelling abroad with man&#39;s best friend - My Telegraph

A British expat was recently recounting an adventurous and tiring three day escapade driving from the UK via France to Barcelona from?where he took the ferry to Palma, Majorca. And all for the sake of his two pooches ?Great Danes as it happened- that he simply?couldn?t?face traumatising with a stint in the hold of a plane.

It?s still possible to teach an old dog new tricks with pet jet travel

He?s not alone. An increasing number of expats are regularly travelling to and from the UK with their canines while scores of British holidaymakers are taking their dogs on holiday, a fact born out in a survey by MedicAnimal.com, an online retailer of animal products. It showed that nearly one in two of the 1000 pet owners polled, intended to take their pets away with them this summer whether in the UK or abroad.

Meanwhile, Clive Jackson, founder of Fly Victor, has attracted countless customers with his ?Furs Class? private jet service which allows dogs to travel with their owners on the plane. The jets used are all DEFRA approved and as long as pets are micro-chipped and have a current pet passport, their air passage promises to be smooth and problem free. Some commercial flights charge as much as ?750.00 to take an animal in the hold from London to Majorca while for the same cost -admittedly it?s the starting price- a pampered pet can travel in luxury on a Fly Victor jet without stress or discomfort and with a speedy 15 minute check-in time. Other operators such as Pet Air UK offer an advisory service for those wishing to take their pets overseas and are registered DEFRA pet transporters.

Since the pet passport scheme was introduced it has become relatively easy to take dogs and cats to European destinations although they must be micro-chipped and have passports that are up to date with vaccinations against rabies.

As part of its drive to make travelling with dogs hassle free, MedicAnimal has created a free online ?Guide to Good Petiquette for the travelling Dog? which apparently offers dos and don?ts for holidaying hounds when staying in hotels, B&Bs, and rental properties. It has created five instructive categories which include Sit, Fetch, Heel, Eat and Down.

I?d like to suggest to sightseeing dogs?my own criteria for those five golden rules starting with Sit: never sit on a stranger?s lap regardless of whether he?s wafting a wurst or chorizo sausage under the nose, Fetch: don?t fetch your owner?s towel. If he or she has forgotten it, pretend to doze by the pool. It?s not your problem. Heel: Try to refrain from nipping the heels of foreign women on the street. Eat: Avoid garlicky sausage but otherwise gorge yourself silly on the scraps left from the hotel breakfast buffet without making a dogs dinner of it. Down: Lie down as much as possible especially in the heat, following the Spanish siesta concept at all times.

And finally for hot dogs who aspire to being ultra cool, there?s an SPF 15 ?Doggy Sunmist? sunscreen and advice on how and what to pack in the doggy bag for the voyage. Come the holiday season with a doting and indulgent owner to hand it?s likely that every lucky dog will have its day.

Find out more about Anna Nicholas?here?or follow her on Twitter?@MajorcanPearls

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Source: http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annanicholas/10150095/its-a-dogs-lifetravelling-abroad-with-mans-best-friend/

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Obama: Immigration bill could pass by summer

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama pressed for swift action on a sweeping immigration bill Wednesday, saying last-minute obstacles are "resolvable" and predicting Congress could pass historic legislation by the end of the summer.

In back-to-back interviews with Spanish-language television networks, Obama repeatedly voiced confidence in a bipartisan Senate group that appears to be on the cusp of unveiling a draft bill. And he said that while he is still prepared to step in with his own bill if talks break down, he doesn't expect that step to be necessary.

"If we have a bill introduced at the beginning of next month as these senators indicate it will be, then I'm confident that we can get it done certainly before the end of the summer," Obama told Telemundo.

While overhauling the nation's patchwork immigration laws is a top second term priority for the president, he has ceded the negotiations almost entirely to Congress. He and his advisers have calculated that a bill crafted by Capitol Hill stands a better chance of winning Republican support than one overtly influenced by the president.

In his interviews Wednesday, Obama tried to stay out of the prickly policy issues that remain unfinished in the Senate talks, though he said a split between business and labor on wages for new low-skilled workers was unlikely to "doom" the legislation.

"This is a resolvable issue," he said.

The president also spoke Wednesday with Univision. His interviews followed a citizenship ceremony conducted Monday at the White House where he pressed Congress to "finish the job" on immigration, an issue that has vexed Washington for years.

The president made little progress in overhauling the nation's fractured immigration laws in his first term, but he redoubled his efforts after winning re-election. The November contest also spurred some Republicans to drop their opposition to immigration reform, given that Hispanics overwhelmingly backed Obama.

In an effort to keep Republicans at the negotiation table, Obama has stayed relatively quiet on immigration over the last month. He rolled out his immigration principles during a January rally in Las Vegas and made an impassioned call for overhauling the nation's laws during his early February State of the Union address, then purposely handed off the effort to lawmakers.

The president has, however, privately called members of the Senate working group, and the administration is providing technical support to the lawmakers. The Gang of Eight is expected to unveil its draft bill when Congress returns from a two-week recess the week of April 8.

Obama and the Senate group are in agreement on some core principles, including a pathway to citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country, revamping the legal immigration system and holding businesses to tougher standards on verifying their workers are in the country legally.

But they're at odds over key issues. The Senate group wants the citizenship pathway to be contingent on securing the border, something Obama opposes. The president has also sidestepped the contentious guest-worker issue, which contributed to derailing immigration talks in 2007.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO have reached significant agreements on a new visa program that would bring up to 200,000 lower-skilled workers to the country each year. But they reached a stalemate Friday over wages for the workers, with the labor union pushing for higher wages than the chamber has agreed to so far.

Since then, talks have resumed and negotiators are "back on the right track," Ana Avendano, a lead AFL-CIO negotiator, said Wednesday.

Avendano declined to offer specifics but said the chamber had moved off what she termed its insistence on "poverty-level wages" for the new workers.

"We're very hopeful that we're moving," Avendano told reporters after a briefing for congressional staff on temporary-worker programs.

While Obama tries to keep the pressure on lawmakers this week, four members of the Senate immigration group toured Arizona's border with Mexico to inspect the conditions there. Arizona's Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake were joined by Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Michael Bennet of Colorado for the border tour.

The president also announced in his interviews that he planned to visit Mexico, as well as Costa Rica, in early May. The immigration debate in the U.S. is being closely watched by Latin American countries.

___

Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-03-27-Obama-Immigration/id-dbe73471a2364cf6ae1a9ebd33633f38

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When does ad retargeting make sense for your ... - Social Media

Ad retargeting is used to follow users as they move from site to site.

Here?s how targeting advertising works ? but use it sparingly & strategically or it could turn off users

Target audience: Businesses, brands, digital marketers, advertising agencies, SEO specialists, entrepreneurs, educators, journalists, Web publishers.

Let me confess up front: I?ve long been attracted to the idea of useful advertising ? the promise that interruption marketing will fade into its well-deserved irrelevance and that marketers will be able to serve us ads and offers based on products and services we actually want or need.

Trouble is, the practice rarely lives up to the ideal, chiefly because retargeting, as it?s called, is hard to do well.

You know what I?m referring to, right? In your forays around the Web, you?ve no doubt noticed that you?re being served up advertising based on the pages you were visiting earlier. Take The Atlantic?s Alexis Madrigal, who discovered that 105 advertising-related companies tracked his online behavior over a 36-hour period. Lots of people are squeamish about the very idea of targeted ads, and for these folks, filling out this opt-out form should put the kabosh on most of these ads.

I fall into the second camp: I think retargeting has its place, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs trying to break through the clutter of 2,000 marketing messages that bombard us every day. If you run a small business or startup and have a new product, service, book or online class that readers or followers might find valuable, retargeting has its place in your marketing arsenal, as long as it?s done with discretion and is accompanied by other tactics in getting the word out.

Below I?ll offer tips and best practices for your business if you?re considering targeted advertising.

How ad retargeting works ? is it right for you?

Here?s a look at how retargeting works and how it could be useful for your small business.

At its simplest, retargeting allows businesses to target ads to people who visited their site but didn?t purchase anything. Because the targeting is meant to be precise and the ad message can be customized, advertisers frequently see significant higher click-through-rates and purchases from retargeted ads.

Your business could:

• Bring people back who abandoned the shopping cart process
• Deliver a discount coupon or inform previous visitors of a sale
• Simply remind viewers of your product at a later date when they might be ready to purchase

A number of vendors provide retargeting products: Google, AdRoll, Retargeter, Fetchback, Clicksor and Rocketfuel, to name just a few. Some have slightly different offerings, but they all basically work the same way.

?Targeted ads have driven about 15 percent of our enrollments with a lower CPA than other channels?

Retargeting starts with a bit of tracking code that your vendor provides and that you install on pages of your site. This tracking code drops a cookie into a visitor?s web browser and that cookie tracks what pages are viewed on your site. (If this sounds old school, it is: Browser cookies have been around for 19 years.)

Once your visitors travel to other sites on the Web, they?ll almost certainly encounter advertising slots on some of these pages. This is where you can retarget an ad to them and try to bring them back to your site. Those ad slots will do a quick check to see if there is a retargeting cookie present in the browser, and if there is, it will trigger a split-second real-time auction to determine what ad is served.

You?ll want to establish a budget at the outset and set a limit for your campaign. Generally these campaigns start at a few hundred dollars for a small business and can scale up from there. If your bid is the highest, you win the auction and your ad is served. The targeting companies keep track of ad inventory so you don?t have to figure out where your ad will appear. You generally pay on a cost-per-click basis, the same as you would for Google AdWords ads.

How one small business uses targeting to increase enrollments

Porter Gale, a friend who?s the author of the upcoming book?Your Network Is Your Net Worth?and the former vice president of marketing for Virgin America, wanted to get the word out about her new three-day online class?Building Your Brand (day two is today).

So she agreed to a modest retargeting campaign steered by Rick Silvestrini, general manager of?creativeLIVE, which hosts live online workshops, including Porter?s.?Silvestrini?runs targeted advertising campaigns to drive sign-ups for several of his instructors? classes. ?Targeted ads have driven about 15 percent of our enrollments from paid with a lower CPA (cost per acquisition) than other channels,? he said.

As with Google AdWords ads, the cost per click can vary greatly depending on your bid parameters ? after all, it?s auction pricing. With Google, there?s no minimum spend, and you can wind up spending little or a lot depending on how the ad performs. ?Our clicks cost anywhere from 32 cents to $ 1.50 per click, depending on how well the creative performs,? Silvestrini said. ?I?ll spend $300 to $2,000 per week on retargeting alone. That comes out to $50 to $800 per week per course.? The higher the spend, the more people who sign up for the courses.

A targeted ad that appears as an overlay on a YouTube video.

Facebook wading into relevant advertising in a big way

What about Facebook? With a billion users and about a quarter of the all display ads on the Internet, Facebook offers businesses a huge opportunity for retargeting, and the mechanics are basically the same. However, the advertising units inside Facebook are different sizes (those little text & picture ads on the right of your news feed) and there are not as many vendors to choose from; Perfect Audience and AdRoll seem to be the biggest.

Facebook also has another twist on retargeting called Custom Audiences, where you upload your email list and Facebook targets ads to Facebook members who are on your list.

Other social networks, like LinkedIn and Twitter, have their own techniques for ad targeting.

Tips for small businesses that want to try out targeted ads

Can small businesses do this on their own? That depends on how technically savvy you are and how much time you want to devote to mastering retargeting. The easiest retargeting to do on your own is Facebook Custom Audiences targeted to your email list. (I might have recommended Twitter for its ease of use, but the conversion rate was very low for a campaign I recently did for one of my sites.) For the rest, you?ll at least need to know how to install a bit of tracking code into your pages.

Regardless of who?ll be executing your targeted ad campaign, keep these best practices in mind:

• Have a planned-out strategy, don?t just send out a targeted ad blast. Who are you targeting precisely and what do you want them to do?
• Don?t do a mass carpet bombing. Start out with a short campaign and grow it from there.
• Make sure the service you use has an ad report tool. Try several variations of your ad and optimize your campaign to use the version that received the biggest response.
• Make sure your product or service offers value and is something that people will want.
• Make it personal and relevant ? not like a late-night infomercial.
• Where possible, target friends of connections, which you can do in Facebook.
• Make sure your ad contains a clear call to action.

If this still sounds bit daunting, please reach out to us and we?ll help get you on your way.

Ad targeting, while years old, still has a long way to go. Clearly, some of these companies go too far in collecting users? personal data without their consent (but that?s a column for another day). For another, there was no option to turn off the ads even though I registered for Porter?s workshop. I?m with The Register writer who bemoaned, ?Come on, people: if you?re going to track my online behavior, at least use it to get me to buy something I want!?

What do you think of retargeting? Have you used it? Do you think it has its place?

Related articles

? How to run an effective Facebook campaign for $5 (Socialmedia.biz)

? How To Use The 15 Facebook Ad Targeting Options (Socialfresh)

? Online advertising isn?t creepy enough: Go ahead and terrify me? with a properly targeted ad (The Register)

? How To Block Targeted Ads From Following You Around (Business Insider)

? Doc Searls? book The Intention Economy (Amazon)

? The Uncanny Valley of Internet Advertising (Slate)

? How to Opt Out of Facebook?s Creepy New Targeted Ads (Gizmodo)

? Targeted Ads: Finding a Balance Between Cool and Creepy (IT Business Edge)

? Online Display Advertising: Targeting and Obtrusiveness (Marketing Science, PDF)JD Lasica is founder of Socialmedia.biz. We work with large and mid-size businesses and organizations on social media strategies and optimizing your online presence. Contact JD by email, follow him on Twitter and Google Plus or leave a comment below.

Source: http://socialmedia.biz/2013/03/28/when-does-ad-retargeting-make-sense-for-your-business/

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Audioair Wants To Unlock Audio From Muted TVs Everywhere And Give Your Local Bar A New Way To Advertise

If you've ever been in a sports bar with your friends to watch a big game, you've likely run into the "muting" problem. While the bar may have two dozen TVs, each might be playing a different game, and there's either too much sound or none at all. At most local restaurants, bars, airports and health clubs, you'll find TVs muted for this very reason.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/sIzZccJFbM4/

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Syria's leader appeals to African summit for help

Mar 26 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $3,787,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $2,859,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,154,500 4. Steve Stricker $1,820,000 5. Phil Mickelson $1,650,260 6. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 7. John Merrick $1,343,514 8. Dustin Johnson $1,330,507 9. Russell Henley $1,313,280 10. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 11. Keegan Bradley $1,274,593 12. Charles Howell III $1,256,373 13. Michael Thompson $1,254,669 14. Brian Gay $1,171,721 15. Justin Rose $1,155,550 16. Jason Day $1,115,565 17. Chris Kirk $1,097,053 18. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-leader-appeals-african-summit-help-094113373.html

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Year Walk and Ridiculous Fishing | Indie Gamer Chick

You know what I don?t understand?? Portable gaming consoles.? I get the concept, I think.? It?s a console, but you can take it anywhere.? Cool, right?? Except, when I think of situations where I use a portable gaming device, I typically only have a few minutes to play.? I?m not into gaming in car rides (even the nice Vita screen is unplayable with the sun glaring), I don?t do a lot of plane rides, and when I?m at home, I would rather play a game on a proper console.? The only times where it makes sense for me to play a portable game are when I?ve got ten minutes or less to kill.? Waiting in a line, or out having a cigarette, or with whatever time I have to spare during a lunch break.? That?s why I?m baffled at the types of portable games that are popular on Vita or 3DS these days.? Hey, I loved Persona 4 Golden as much as the next person, but I would have loved it just as much if I had played in on the PlayStation 3.? Probably more, in fact.? Why does Uncharted even need a stripped down portable version?? Why did Nintendo make a port of Ocarina of Time one of the flagship launch-window titles for 3DS?? These aren?t games designed to be portable.? These are console games that require significant time investments.? What if I just want to play something for five minutes while taking a dump?

The only valid argument I?ve heard is ?what if you have to share the television with others??? Granted, that was never a problem with me.? Only child here that had her own television from an early age.? I guess my parents weren?t keen on watching endless reruns of Barney and Sesame Street.? Still, as someone who is very fond of consoles, I?ve oddly never had the desire to carry one around with me.? Brian says I?m almost certainly in the minority on that.? I say that just proves how much smarter I am than everyone else.

And don?t say I don?t know humility.? I do.? It?s what measures moisture in the air.

The kind of portable gaming sessions I want are readily available.? They?re typically found on phones.? Most of the time.? Year Walk is a bizarre horror-adventure game based on Swedish mythology.? It seems like it could be a decent title, but this is one of those cases where the game failed to grab my interest right out of the gate and I just couldn?t get into it.? I?m not a big fan of point and click games.? This is more exploration-oriented than average, but I fucking hate games where you wander around with no clue of where to go, what your objectives are, or what the ultimate goal is.? Plus, it had features I?m not too keen on, like sound-based puzzles.? I typically play my iPhone games with the sound turned off, because I have a strong desire to not annoy those around me.? I mean, more so than usual.

I don?t deny Year Walk is spooky. It really is. But I don?t feel it?s put to good use on iOS. I would have rather played this on a television.

I didn?t finish Year Walk.? Not even close.? I spent most of the game just aimlessly shambling about.? Yea, the settings were spooky, but I would have rather played this on a console, or the Vita.? I probably should have fired this up on the iPad, where at least I could have seen things better.? But, the truth was, I didn?t want to play it anymore.? I was bored.? I think horror-adventure fans might get a lot more mileage out of this than I did.? Really, I was just disappointed that this wasn?t a game about Wicket?s first birthday.

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Get it?? Wicket was an Ewok.? Ewok sounds like Year Walk?

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You know, Brian told me that one was no good.? I didn?t listen to him.? And now he?s gloating.? He said ?it?s too obscure a Star Wars pun and you have to make too large a logical leap to draw the connection.?? Fine.? Trying again: I thought Year Walk was boring.? Would have been better if it had starred Luke Yearwalker.

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Ridiculous Fishing has absolutely no connection to Year Walk, other than being on iPhone.? When I told someone I was reviewing this, they said ?I?ve never liked a fishing game.? Never ever ever.?? Although I can?t say the same (I was quite fond of Sega Bass Fishing when I was ten),? saying this is about fishing is like saying Punch-Out is an authentic boxing simulator.? Here, you use the tilt-controls of your phone to lower a fishing lure to the bottom of the sea.? While it?s descending,? you want to avoid touching fish.? Once you touch a fish, the descent stops and the lure starts to surface.? Any fish you touch at this point are on the hook and being reeled in.? When you reach the surface, the fish fly up in the air.? At this point, you whip out a gun and shoot them.

No, seriously.? You shoot them.? With a gun.? Okay, so it?s not the most ridiculous form of fishing I?ve ever seen.? These Lithuanians I believe have that covered.

God bless YouTube.

Fishy fishy in the brook.. I wonder if Brooks Bishop hated that rhyme as a kid?

I?ve never, ever liked tilt-controls.? Ridiculous Fishing is the first game that I truly enjoyed because?of tilt-controls.? It just works.? It?s accurate, it feels natural, and it makes the game more fun.? And Ridiculous Fishing is perfectly suited for micro-gaming sessions.? Got five minutes to kill?? Cast a line, scoop up some fish, shoot those fuckers up, and get back to what you were doing.? It also has actual depth to it, with time-sinky upgrades and a decent (not spectacular) variety of fish to catch. ? In a sense, it?s the perfect mobile game.? My biggest complaints are how there?s no jelly-fish repellent among the items.? Well, that and the Game Center leaderboards are sort of limited.? Oh, and maybe the game is a teeny-tiny bit overpriced at $2.99.? A little steep for a game with no variety at all, especially on the iPhone market.? Of course, Year Walk cost $3.99 and it?s on the wrong platform.? It would probably make an excellent PC game, but at its price, it?s like paying LeBron James to play on your cricket team.

Wait, you mean we?re not going to eat them?

Year Walk was developed by Simogo and I really want to try it on a console at some point. Ouya, perhaps?

Ridiculous Fishing was developed by Vlambeer and is Chick Approved.

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Source: http://indiegamerchick.com/2013/03/27/year-walk-and-ridiculous-fishing/

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