Although I've been a big fan of the capabilities of RSS in driving traffic and keeping users engaged, it will never completely replace e-mail as a marketing or informational tool.

E-mail is a constant companion that people are extremely comfortable with checking constantly and accepting e-mails from marketers. Reading an RSS feed is still an "other" activity for mos people, requiring opening a browser or application. To date the tools for RSS marketing trail e-mail, which is expected considering its relative immaturity.

E-mail marketing continues to flourish, according to a study by Whatcounts that shows increased use of e-mails triggered by activities. Which scheduled e-mails such as daily or weekly news have their place, but are being replaced by RSS. E-mail alerts about events or in response to customer activity stand out and can generate greater click through rates.

A new survey from Silverpop shows that marketers are doing a better job of promoting e-mail subscriptions on their websites and are creating more alert services. Also, e-mail marketer ExactTarget has written a white paper that outlines the benefits and pitfalls of transactional e-mail marketing.

The latest data from Nielsen Company reflects the continuing shift of ad dollars online.

Advertising slipped by a half a percent in the first half of this year. This is probably caused by two-factors -- a sluggish economy, and hesitation for advertisers to embrace the online opportunity. Before spending the dollars that used to go to print and TV, advertisers are considering the online opportunity, so perhaps the 23 percent growth in online advertising will accelerate during the second half of the year as companies burn through their budgets.

Local newspapers are losing out the most (8 percent). This is a combination of classifieds and more dollars going to online directory services, and rightly so.

More dollars will go to search marketers and display and video ad networks as long as they provide sufficient tools and education to convince advertisers of the benefits of interactivity.

Dead pools (betting on which celebs will meet their maker during the year) are popular but macabre. So instead, we here at Mshift offer you the TV equivalent -- pick the new fall TV shows that will be canceled before the first Christmas specials air.

Here are the new TV shows. Pick the 10 most likely to be cancelled, and enter by adding a comment with your list of those that will get canned, along with one "hit" that breaks the top 10 in Nielsen ratings. The winner is the first to have all 10 of their shows euthanized, and if we need a tiebreaker, we refer to the hit.

The winner will be immortalized on MarketingShift.com, and the loser who gets all 10 shows wrong gets an internship working at the CW.

Your New Fall Shows:

CW
Life is Wild
Aliens in America
Reaper
Gossip Girl


CBS
Viva Laughlin
The Big Bang Theory
Cane
Kid Nation
Mooonlight


NBC
Chuck
Journeyman
Bionic Woman
Life


Fox
K-Ville
Back to You
Kitchen Nightmares
The Next Great American Band
Nashville


ABC
Samantha Who
Caveman
Carpoolers
Pushing Daises
Private Practice
Dirty Sexy Money
Big Shots
Women's Murder Club

NBC has taken its tussle with Apple to the next level by giving away downloads of TV shows that used to be sold on iTunes. Translation: take yer $1.99 fee and shove it, Steve.

NBC has made the smart long-term decision. TV networks are better and monetizing through advertising and will draw more viewers to its shows by letting people download for free. TV content is so readily available that its not worth paying for in most cases. NBC has the advertiser relationships in place, so getting sponsorships of downloads will be a snap.

The free downloads aren't really competing with iTunes -- they are competing with DVRs that allow people to skip past ads. NBC gets to register users who download the player software and control if and how ads could be skipped. This service will also reduce the bandwidth requirements of streaming, saving the company money. The next logical step will be broader video on demand offerings through cable companies and tighter relationships with TiVo.

For now Apple users are shut out from the free downloads as the software only runs on Windows -- a nice reminder to Apple that despite the iPod and iPhone, it's still a Microsoft world for PCs.

Google has turned its gadgets into flexible ad units (let's call them gADgets) that break the mold of what is an ad, and advertisers should run wild in exploiting the possibilities.

Through Google's Gadget API advertisers can enclose rich media, videos and RSS feeds into standard size ad units. The definition of an ad has been expanded -- as long as it fits the pixel dimensions and can be tracked, then its an ad.

Using RSS to showcase your product offerings within ad units is something I've thought shows great promise for some time. (I built an example for selling books on the right side here).

Advertisers have been hamstrung for too long in two-dimensional ads; now "creatives" can truly be creative. Instead of one or a handful of ads, your campaign can dynamically create ads from any content. As long as an interaction can be simply coded, it can become an ad.

Thinking beyond the banner or box will be one of the biggest advertising shifts of the coming years.

Determining appropriate ads is a two-stage process. First you consider the demographics of the website's readership on a collective and individual basis, and then you track what they read and which ads they click on.

This inevitable blending of targeted and behavioral tactics is becoming a standard practice as it increases revenue and consumer satisfaction. Data services company Acxiom acquired behavioral company EchoTarget to enhance its ability to deliver relevant ads.

EchoTarget works with marketers and publishers to identify and target high-value marketing segments based on users’ online behaviors. Those users are then targeted through relevant banners on the company’s network of websites.

Omniture similarly is combining data analysis with its acquisition of Offermatica, and AOL picked up Tacoda as an integral part of its targeting strategy.

The risk in getting "too targeted" is excluding some advertisers who are willing to pay a premium but may not be the most suitable match for your audience. For example, if a desirable demographic shows no interest in tropical vacations or SUVs, how do you dispose of that inventory? Perfect targeting may be best for advertisers and consumers, but not for the bottom line.

It won't be long before universities starting offering degrees in web analytics and search optimization. I mean if I had to suffer through courses in econometrics and business administration, surely classes in one of the most important categories of business is worth it's own major.

You can take a crash course by reading Brian Gilley's post on the top 15 SEO tools. He lists the what, how and why of tools that include page rank analysis, link checking, content optimization, and analytics.

It's a great primer on many of the disciplines of understanding how to expand your reach and compete effectively for keywords.

Much to my surprise free music download site SpiralFrog launched after months of delays. The website offers copy-protected music that won't play on an iPod or can't be burned on CD, and requires users to check in online at least once a month.

While I have been extremely skeptical of this business model given what companies must pay copyright holders to distribute their music, the company is rightly targeting its ads based on demographic profiles. This will ostensibly enable SpiralFrog to charge higher ad rates, but I'm not so sure that people who are too cheap to pay a buck to download music are high on advertisers' lists.

As much as streaming services such as Real's Rhapsody have a challenge in making money, the hurdles that SpiralFrog must overcome with a download service are immense. Someone is likely to break their copy protection, and with only one major label on board, SpiralFrog is seriously limited as a service.

The likelihood of SpiralFrog being a profitable and popular service are equal to that of the Kansas City Royals playing in a World Series. Don't hold your breath.

Source: The Associated Press

Within the last year the TV networks have gone from loathing to loving online distribution, but they are missing a big opportunity.

Fans are used to watching behind the scenes footage, interviews, deleted scenes and bloopers on DVDs, and the same type of content is now available online. For example USA Networks' website features writer interviews for the Dead Zone and Psych-Out bloopers, and nearly every major show offers this type of content that fans love.

So why not make it downloadable to TiVos or other DVRs by clicking on the remote while the show is playing? People would be caught up in the fun of watching an episode to download it then rather than having to wait to go online later. The networks could work with their existing advertisers and access higher rates than their online advertising, which is still inconsistent.

The networks could get people to watch the commercials by embedding the signal to start the download within a commercial, forcing consumers to shy away from the fast forward button. The downloads could also be sponsored by and advertisers.

The networks have gotten it half right by building fan loyalty, and allowing people to watch enhanced content through their TVs will expand the visibility of their content and advertisers.

Audio books have been touted as a breakthrough e-commerce service for more than a dozen years, yet the industry is tiny compared to online music. EMusic is looking to convert its user base of younger fans of alternative music into book listeners through a new service. For $9.99 per month you can listen to one book, while $19.99 gives you two books per month.

The company is offering the tracks in MP3 format, which unlike iTunes or Audible books, can be delivered directly to the widest variety of digital audio players. According to eMusic the recordings are encoded at twice the audio quality, although I'm not so sure that matters for the spoken word. This will open up audio books to a new audience, but it's a fair argument to argue that only iTunes matters today. However, media companies have been pushing back on Apple's dominance (see NBC), so there seems to be some opportunity for other companies.

I've tried listening to audio books online or in the car, but I can't concentrate on driving or work when I'm listening to a book like I can with music. Maybe I should try listening while working out. I still prefer to cradle a book during the scarce time that I get to read.

The worldwide market for digital audiobooks and other spoken word is expected to grow from $138.6 million in 2006 to $201.1 million in 2007, an increase of 45 percent, according to Piper Jaffray & Co. projections cited by eMusic.