When customers search for products or services, location is often a deciding factor. Google has long recognized this fact and has been steadily adding features to their Google Maps API. With a simple mouse click, a user can see restaurants, hotels, and gas stations as a map overlay, helping them identify and narrow down choices by vicinity.

Now, Google is literally letting companies put their brand on the map. Google Mapplets is a free developer application that lets you add your company or product information as a place point on Google Maps. Technically, it’s a mini-webpage, so pretty much anything you can think of within the constraints of html is allowed, including images, JavaScript, and Flash. Let’s say Peppy’s Pizza adds a Google Mapplet. Customers can access their menu, read restaurant reviews, or feast their eyes on their amazing Chicago-style deep dish pies, directly from Google Maps.

Mapplets are fairly simple to create but require basic web development knowledge to write the code. Considering Google is offering a free platform for exposing your brand to millions and complete content control, it may be well worth the investment.

Ready to make the leap beyond those old text and display ads? Maybe it’s time to dip your toe into video ads.

If you’re wondering where to go to place those video ads, YuMe, a broadband video advertising network, should be on your list. With over 400 premium video sites on tap and 120 million unique visitors a month, it’s the largest of its kind, and includes NBC, BitTorrent, and Microsoft among its providers. YuMe was designed exclusively to monetize and track video content. Advertisers can choose by programming verticals (like entertainment, lifestyle, news, music, and sports,) or target audiences based on geography or content popularity. And regardless of the delivery platform (streaming, download, mobile), YuMe provides real-time monitoring and analytics, so there’s no guesswork involved when measuring the success of your campaign.

Video ad production and placement doesn’t take a ton of money. Are your old notions standing in the way?

Bloggers are looking for high caliber advertisers. Advertisers are looking to reach a targeted audience of blog readers.

Enter the broker – Federated Media Publishing. It connects marketers with a network of respected sites that cater to targeted segments of readers. Marketers can place advertising on any of Federated’s member sites or select a site(s) based on its recognition or audience makeup (business people, moms, etc). Sign up, choose your blog, choose the time period, then fork over the moolah. You’re still not out of the woods until you’re confirmed. Blog authors retain veto power over which ads appear on their site.

Federated’s prices depend on ad size and of course, ad location. If you’re looking to reach a targeted audience and you know they read blogs, give it a try. If you’re speaking directly to your target, a high CPM could very well be worth it.

As we discussed in Marks the spot, the easiest way to monetize a website (or blog) is to utilize an ad network. However, managing the selling process can be a bit much for a novice publisher.

That’s where RevSense steps in. You tell the system what kind of ad space you want to allot on your site (text, banner, display, custom size) and how much your space sells for. You can either set a fixed price or allow advertisers to bid on your real estate by charging by the click (CPC), by the impression (CPM), or a daily run (CPD). RevSense takes over from there, managing the advertiser sign-up, ad placement, and billing process (using Paypal or Authorize.net). Check out the demo.

To install Revsense on your site, you need to fork over $99 and then download the source code. You may need some IT help to get it in place. With the right resource, the whole process takes less than 5 minutes. RevSense will install the software on your server for an additional fee.

If you’re looking to generate ad revenue from a wide variety of ads, here’s an option to consider.

While everyone can understand the appeal of 31 flavors of ice cream, what can you do if you’re selling something that’s not so easy to change with some food coloring and mix-ins?

You could learn something from a search engine, namely iGoogle’s Artist Themes. They’ve collaborated with 70 artists to create themes that can be used to personalize your search engine home page. Artists range from visual artists to musicians, architects, athletes and fashion designers – including: Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Graves, Lance Armstrong, and Jeff Koons.

Do you sell a product that could use a little bit of personality? Even if you don’t bring Google level firepower to attract talent from around the globe, don’t worry. There’s always the local art school.

Because you’ve no doubt been following the online ad revolution, you realize that you can launch a search advertising campaign in a matter of minutes (a really good one, of course, may take a bit more time).

But did you know that you can use Google Adwords (TV Ads) to also launch an ad campaign on TV? This system makes buying and placing TV ads very similar to the system to buying and placing search ads. In addition, because the system is tied to a specific network, it’s actually more accountable than regular TV ads (in other words, you have a better chance of figuring out if it’s working or not). If you already have an ad “in the can” so to speak, you can launch it in a matter of minutes.

So, what do I mean by more accountable? Well, these ads are more accountable because you can actually figure out where your ads ran, how many impressions your ad received and real life tuning behavior (did viewers change the channel?) – all on the day after you ad runs. Don’t faint – but think about how you might be able to use this tool to rethink how or if TV ads fit into your marketing plan. Oh yeah – with all of this fine tuning, it’s a lot easier for smaller businesses to advertise that have never even consider it.

When it comes to online advertising, its easy to get lost in the crowd. You’re either sandwiched between your competitors’ paid links or overshadowed by big banners and flashy graphics.

Consider another option – advertising as a link on the over two-million blogs and websites utilizing Snap Shots. When a user mouses over a snap shot link, it triggers a site preview box with the relevant content and your targeted ad. There’s no clutter or competition; users choose to engage a snap shot link and your ad, and only your ad, appears in the popup box. Snap shots offers a range of ad units, from plain text to media-rich (including YouTube videos). Advertisers can even target customers by vertical (e.g. Women, Lifestyle, Arts & Entertainment, etc) and, as you might think, based on the specific link.

If you’re looking to integrate your ad directly into a site’s content, here’s one of the only ways to do so.

Despite the appeal of the web, not everyone spends every waking moment in front of a screen. Sometimes your customers are just whipping up something in the kitchen. So, the important question is … how do you reach them when they seem to be beyond reach?

Enter the wireless refrigerator magnet-widget offered by Coolshrank. It’s just what it sounds like – the web enabled version of everyone’s favorite – the refrigerator magnet. However, now that the old refrigerator magnet is wireless and able to pull in feeds (and your advertising), what’s old is new again. Consumers are able to configure their Coolshrank widgets with a web-based administrators tools. Advertisers, on the other hand, can target Coolshrank users with text, display, and MP3 ads. Don’t you think it would be helpful to target refrigerators in certain zip codes or IP address zones.

The next time your target consumer opens the refrigerator door, you can actually ask the question out loud … got milk? Brands like Heineken, Land o’Lakes, and Absolut have climbed on board to exhort consumers right at the point of consumption. Don’t you think that your consumer brands deserve the same level of attention?

Many people have just given up trying to guess correct domain names for companies or brands. They’ve gotten to the point where they just type everything into the search bar first, then go from there. This behavior might be something you can capitalize on if you have a domain name that’s not just perfect for your brand or company.

Try advertising your search terms, in addition to your domain. For example, local Atlanta running store Phidippides has a very difficult domain name – it’s nearly impossible to spell. In case you were wondering, the company was named after the original marathon runner. While the brand name has authenticity in spades, what makes it tough is the fact that even spelling champions hesitate before all of those p’s and d’s. In addition to using its domain name, Phidippides should tell customers and prospects that they can find their website by simply Googling “running shoes atlanta.”

Because the company comes up as the first result in a Google search, it’s a great way to reinforce that they are indeed the definitive leader in running shoes and apparel. And, even better, by driving more people to their site with search, they’ll only reinforce their number 1 position. Oh, and of course, they will be able to stop worrying about the fact that no one can spell their name.

We’ve gone from 7 digit wire line phone numbers to 10 digit numbers that we can take with us. But now that everyone has an email address, what good is voicemail?

Thanks to Jangl, voicemail will live on. With this system, you can send a voicemail to anyone’s email address. It’s as simple as it sounds. You indicate the email you want to reach. Then, the system creates a phone number for that email. Then, you call that number and record your message that’s sent to the original email. So, where’s the angle? The system sells advertising – so when the recipient of the voice mail calls to receive it, he or she might receive a sponsored message during the “ring time” while the system bridges the phone conversation (very similar to a “ring-back” tone).

If you’re looking to reach a young audience, here’s an interesting option.

Up until now, publishers could use Google’s Adsense network to place ads on their site. If they wanted to use multiple ad networks, they would have to rely on someone else to manage the optimization across networks.

Now Google has added another piece to their puzzle, thanks to the addition of Google Ad Manager. It’s an ad management system that can help you sell, schedule, deliver, and measure both directly-sold and ad network-based inventory. As we discussed in Marks the spot, there are several other popular tools that publishers use to manage the different ways that you can sell ads for your site. Maybe your sales team will sell something special. Maybe you’ll work with one of the many specialty ad networks that perhaps focused on your industry. Then, of course, maybe you will want to carry ads from one of the big dogs, like Google. Now publishers can use this tool to manage all of the pieces.

Want to target ads to your site visitors’ geography, bandwidth, browser, browser language, operating system, and domain … here’s the way to do it.

Sometimes the science of ad placement can be intimidating. Whether you’re a publisher or not, it’s worth the effort to understand how publishers are using web tools to optimize ad placement.

One of the most popular tools for doing this is OpenX. It’s a popular, free, open-source ad server that lets publishers pick and choose among ad networks, direct ads, and house ads to optimize revenue per page. Remember that the web is just a big optimization program waiting to happen. Publishers are using tools just like this one to determine if your ad stays or goes. And, importantly, when it stays, which user should see it and why. This system makes it possible to target advertising to higher value visitors based on location, user data, and keywords, among other things.

Because this is free, and in most cases, thanks to the web revolution, almost everyone is really both a publisher and an advertiser, why don’t you download it and learn more about how it works. No matter which side of the table you’re on, getting smarter always helps.