Despite the accessibility and functionality of web-based presentation solutions (as we discussed in Start from one & Here come the Jin), most people are hesitant to abandon their antiquated desktop software.

Well, what if someone sweetened the pot?

Now you can measure the effectiveness of your presentation with SlideRocket. SlideRocket is an online (and offline) presentation software that provides detailed analytics on your presentation’s performance. See what slides received the most attention, who viewed it, and how long they lingered there. Monitor interactions with embedded media, links, and form submissions, then organize all your data with SlideRocket’s custom reporting tools.

You can choose from a virtual library of themes and layouts or create a dynamic presentation with YouTube and Flickr content integration. You can even add data from outside sources like Google Spreadsheets. Once you are finished, you can publish your presentation to a url or embed it in a website. SlideRocket gives you the option of password-protecting your presentation or limiting user capabilities like printing and forwarding.

With more functionality (and let’s be honest, more fun) than its competitors, this tools lets you make presentations that command attention . . . and maybe a few sales.

Just as in the analog world, it seems that there’s no limit to where you can place digital advertising. But, of course, if you’re looking to grow a business, that can be a good thing.

Enter AdCamo, the first “background advertising platform” of its kind. AdCamo lets publishers offer up and monetize the empty background space on a website or blog. Before you imagine the worst – AdCamo ads do not interfere with your site content or design, and publishers retain complete control over the size and relative obtrusiveness of the advertising they display. Choose between 3 formats – tiled (repetitive imagery), pillar (horizontal or vertical columns), and projection. Check out these examples to see how AdCamo ads appear.

AdCamo is compatible with all ad networks and can be added to your website with only a few lines of html code. In other words, if you are already in bed with an ad network, you can continue to do business through the AdCamo API, offering the same advertisers an innovative option for their campaigns. Choose between CPC, CPM or flat-rate revenue models.

Most publishers are open to selling ad space on their website or blog, so why not offer all your empty space to a single advertiser, with a single message? You may be surprised how uncluttered and highly engaging the experience can be.

Getting into the C-suite usually requires an invitation. Or maybe buying an expensive ad in a business magazine.

Now you can target decision makers by company size, job function, industry, and more by using LinkedIn DirectAds. If you don’t know, LinkedIn is the premier professional social network, with over 25 million users, who use the network daily to build business contacts and industry presence. LinkedIn has opened its doors to advertisers, provided they are a member of the LinkedIn community. While anyone can join (and it’s free), potential advertisers must have a legitimate profile and a minimum number of connections (the equivalent of friends). LinkedIn does this to protect the integrity of the network and keep spammers at bay.

At this time, LinkedIn only offers text display advertising, but the price is right and the location is unbeatable. Typically, ads go for $25 for a 30-day run, with minimal upcharges for increased impressions or audience targeting. Ads are placed on a CPM basis (no cost per click at this time). So if you want to specifically reach senior marketing executives or salespeople in a specific geography, you can for a few extra bucks. Ads appear above the fold on the member’s profile page or the LinkedIn homepage, displaying your text content, url, and a link to the advertiser’s LinkedIn profile.

Is your company hesitant to embrace social networking? Maybe you need a light version.

Such is the case with Livebar, the latest offering from white label, social networking solution, Liveworld. Livebar lets you run a “mini social network” on top of your existing website. Imagine the functionality of Facebook or Twitter – chat, forums, blog posts, short format messaging – but running in tandem with your website content – no redirects necessary.

Livebar hibernates on your site until a user activates it – appearing as a translucent box at the bottom of the screen. Check out the screenshots of Tulane University’s Livebar which will go live at the end of this month. Users can engage each other in conversation, “soapbox” (the equivalent of blog posts), or send out a “shout” (similar to Twitter tweets, maximum of 140 characters). Conversations are contextually-relevant to the page visitors are on – i.e. Livebar knows where you are and only serves up conversations about that page.

There is no pricey web design or development costs associated – Livebar runs on a single line of JavaScript and can be deployed within minutes. So if you aren’t ready to jump into the deep end, investing in a small-scale social networking app like Livebar is an easy way to create a community experience for your company or brand.

So many blog fans never visit the site where the blog appears – thanks to RSS syndication. Question is, how do you advertise on a site that everyone is reading, but no one is on?

You can advertise on the feed itself with Feedburner, a trusted name in the RSS world (see Do you smell smoke? ). Feedburner now offers a highly-targetable ad network with RSS advertising capabilities. They boast an impressive inventory of publishers, including the Wall Street Journal Online, Wired News, USA Today, and many popular blogs. Ads appear as simple banner displays under the RSS content (as seen in this example); considering most RSS feeds are a few lines of text and a link, your advertisement gets maximum visibility in a traditionally unadulterated ad space.

The Feedburner Ad Server lets you target specific demographics by content channel – Arts & Entertainment, Computing & Technology, Business, and Current Affairs & Politics, to name a few. Advertisers maintain quality control with the AdClimate feature, which lets you suppress ad placement when sites feature inappropriate or irrelevant material to your campaign (i.e. it’s like reverse keywords).

Here’s an opportunity to be really smart with your online advertising dollars – why pay for expensive real restate if your audience isn’t even looking there?

Do you Twitter? Even if you don’t use it, you’ve probably heard of it – part micro-blogging platform, part social network, part self promotion tool. Some Twitterers boast followers (people plugged into their Twitter network) in the thousands. It was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to capitalize on the service’s popularity.

Now you can purchase advertising space on Twitter profile pages with a service called TwittAd . TwittAd gives Twitterers the opportunity to monetize their empty backgrounds and advertisers an “in” with the popular social service. They system is simple to navigate for both parties. Twitter users list their real estate on TwittAd, specify the number of “followers” they have (the real bartering chip here), and set their price. Advertisers purchase space at will and upload their ad within 24 hours of purchase. Users can accept the ad or deny the transaction; if accepted, TwittAd takes a 5% commission on the sale.

For the most part, TwittAds are unobtrusive, occupying only a portion of the left side of a user’s profile page. Considering most spaces sell for a couple of bucks (with lifecycles ranging from 1 day to 3 months) you can afford to experiment.

Do you rely on more than one computer to conduct business? You might have a desktop computer in the office (… and one at home), a laptop for the road, and a mobile device holstered at your side. Question is – in all this madness, how do you, well, collaborate with yourself?

The folks at Docstoc have you covered. The Docstoc Sync application lets you upload and sync all your documents, across multiple computers, to a single location. Sync builds on Docstoc MyDocs, an online folder system for storing and previewing documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt., .pdf). With MyDoc, you have the ability to make documents private (only accessible by you) or publish them to the public. Sync takes it a step further – it automatically uploads and syncs your documents for you.

To get started, sign up for a free Docstoc account, then download the Sync application to your computer(s). Docstoc will ask you to choose how your documents are uploaded and stored to your account. You can publish or privatize everything Sync grabs. Once set-up, simply drag and drop documents to your DocStoc MyDocs folder on your desktop. Or, you can specify certain directories and folders on your computer, and DocStoc will regularly sync those files for you.

So, how does this help you sell? Once you’re synched up, you can then share your documents. Instead of condemning sales documents to your hard drive, you can now use DocStoc to promote your capabilities, because shared documents are indexed, searchable, and of course findable by potential customers.

Chances are, your company has a video library, but it’s on a shelf somewhere instead of online. The cost of managing and hosting videos in house has held many companies back. And while sites like YouTube and Vimeo are free, do you really want to post your company earnings call video next to the latest animal sensation on the internet (spaghetti cat, anyone?).

Now you can host and share videos on your own domain with Google Video for business. The latest edition to the Google Apps family gives companies, both big and small, the power to stream high-quality video on their own site – no redirects or links to outside sources needed. And regardless of technical expertise, anyone in your organization can upload and share videos through the application.

Google Video is available through the Premier edition, which costs $50 per user per year. Each user account comes with 3GB of video storage. Just as with YouTube, viewers can add tags, comments, or ratings to video content. Administrators have the ability to make videos public or private access. So whether it’s corporate training videos or your next advertising piece, you choose what videos employees can access.

Unlike YouTube, Google Video gives you improved streaming quality and complete control over your own content. Google is currently offering a free 30-day trial of their Premier Apps edition, so the question is – is your company ready for its closeup?

One way to get people talking about your products is to start the conversation yourself. Then, just sit back and listen.

That’s what consumer goods giant, Procter & Gamble, did with their mother-driven community space, Vocalpoint. Vocalpoint provides product discussions and lifestyle advice for thousands of women and homemakers- the target user of most of P&G’s products. The site frequently offers free samples and coupons for P&G products (e.g. Tide to Go Instant Stain Remover ) as well as other partnering companies.  In return, users weigh in on the products and share experiences with their friends, family, and other Vocalpoint members.

P&G’s role is limited, and somewhat veiled, but they gain more as a fly on the wall than as an active participant. Instead of spending a fortune to track perspectives on each brand, now they have a vehicle that can be used to track attitudes and perspectives across categories and brands.

The real take-away here is how easy it is to utilize web-based, community tools to create a virtual panel (PDF) to gain insight and drive word of mouth. Much of Vocalpoint’s success lies outside the site, as “connectors” (social butterflies, who are likely to share product information and make recommendations) spread the word. Of course, the free samples don’t hurt either.

Do you rely on a Blackberry or iPhone throughout the day and communicate primarily by email? Even so, you can still blog like a rock star.

You can use a service like Posterous. No sign-up or account required- all you need is email access and “post@posterous.com” in your address book.

When you want to post something online, email Posterous and attach your file(s). Posterous accepts documents, images, movies, and MP3’s. You can attach multiple files, as many as your email service lets you, and Posterous will create an image gallery on your Posterous page . Images are automatically resized to web-friendly standards and music and videos are put in browser-compatible players. The service even recognizes urls, turning them into links; so if you want to post a YouTube video, they’ve got you covered.

Before anything is published, Posterous sends a confirmation back to your email address- keeping Posterous impostors at bay and making sure you didn’t email the service on a whim. Your Posterous page automatically appears at yourname.posterous.com, in a simple, easy to read blog format.

Posterous is a free service and provides a simple solution for sharing information online. Ready to start blogging? Here’s a little video overview to show you even more:

Considering how complicated some websites can become and the short attention spans of visitors, it’s only natural to think about providing a guided tour of your “property.”

With Rovion’s InPerson, you can add a “virtual host” to your website, providing an engaging, rich media experience for your visitors. We’ve covered similar products (see We the people… ), but InPerson builds upon the concept and refines it. With InPerson, you can be the virtual host or choose an actor or spokesperson connected with your brand, like this example featuring Emeril Lagasse on the Barnes & Noble website. Your virtual host plays on top of your content and can easily be paused, muted, or deleted by clicking on the actor. Virtual hosts can greet visitors, show them how to navigate your site, or inform them of special offers and promotions.

There is no need to alter your website code or content with InPerson or even download a special media player. The platform works on all browsers and automatically detects user bandwidth, ensuring that videos play smoothly and consistently throughout the virtual host’s presentation and never slows down your site’s load time.

InPerson counts AOL, Fox Interactive, and a host of big names as their clients. Are your site visitors in need of a little guidance?

Affiliate marketing can be a great opportunity to monetize your site’s traffic. The tough question – how to figure out which affiliate network and which specific offer is most likely to convert . . . and make you money?

One way, that also lets you maintain the integrity of your site, is to utilize a tool like AffSpy. AffSpy is an affiliate intelligence tool that not only catalogs partnering networks, but offers a way to rate their performance and see which ones provide the highest (and most likely) payout.

Curious to know what affiliate marketers might offer in return for putting something on your site? Browse available categories or search the AffSpy database by keyword (e.g. an online gourmet food seller might search for “coffee“). The search results display:

• a list of affiliate networks who want to advertise on that keyword
• their offers and accompanying creative (e.g. banner ad)
• the payout for leads you drive to their site
• a preview of their landing page
• current rating

To participate, you need to sign up for an AffSpy account (don’t worry, it’s free). Account holders can create a list of favorites and receive automatic notifications when their favorite affiliate networks change their bids. AffSpy updates several times throughout the day, so you know you are getting the most relevant offers as they become available. All in all, the system is easy to use and is a smart option for earning the most from your site.