My first response was, “huh? what ads?”

That’s because I’m an older person and those sponsored listings were literally completely invisible to me – I had never noticed them. And the subject had never come up in any discussion before, not even with other IM professionals.

So, we logged on to my Gmail account, clicked on the latest message, and lo and behold, there they were – over on the right hand side, displayed just as they would be if I had done a search in Google. That’s when the word “creepy” entered into the conversation.

Intrigued, I looked around in Google’s help files and sure enough – ads displayed in Gmail are presented based on the contents of your messages. It’s as if the text in your message had been a search string or a web page.

Google’s full explanation can be found here:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6603

Now don’t start panicking. It’s not as if anybody is actually reading your messages. It’s done automatically in exactly the same way that Google correlates a search string to determine what ads to display.

But the situation brought up another really good Internet Marketing lesson.

People of different generations view the web in different ways.

The Gmail sponsored links made absolutely no impression on me whatsoever – and I am quite confident that’s age-related. I’m in my 40′s and have been spending the better part of the past 20 years online. I’m jaded. You’ve got to work hard to get my attention.

The student on the other hand was college-age or so, and saw her Gmail screen with completely different eyes and attention.

I am thankful to the student for asking me a question for which I didn’t have the immediate answer!

Those of us in the IM business need to be aware of how different people see and interact with the web in different ways. It takes both the experience of the old, and the fresh eyes of the young – as well as people of all stripes.

Sponge

We all struggle with ways to save time and with finding ways to stay on top of our to-do lists without actually spending more time to do it.

So here’s the idea: Instead of using your computer, smartphone, or a long & depressing list written down with pencil & paper that you can’t find when you need it, use greeting cards!

Write down those “forget ye nots” on the inside of greeting cards. (Or cut off the back half of the card, and just use the front half.) Try to get a batch of cards that are the same size, and have attractive & interesting designs on the front. If the inside of the card is blank, even better. Then put them in a small box like a recipe card box… standing up… so you can quickly flip through them, prioritize them, and yank them out when the task is done. Of course, if you’re on a tight budget you can re-use them until you’ve run out of space.

The reason this will work better than a digital or written to-do list is because of the visual impact of the card’s design. The colors, pictures, and artwork will help to create a mnemonic in your brain by connecting the visual cues with the idea of the thing that needs to be done.

For fun & giggles, you can even mail those cards to friends and family when the task is done. Not only does it tell them what you’ve been up to… believe me.. they’ll appreciate getting any card from you.

I got this inspiration from two thinks percolating in my head. I recently attended a presentation about being more efficient, especially at work and especially when dealing with the flood of digital information we receive. The presentation was given by Corey Creed of Hippo Internet Marketing Consulting & Training … the most efficient person I have ever known. But he finds useful and fun ways to do it.

Then, I met with a greeting card designer/supplier – Masala Greeting Cards – to go over their site for SEO and tackle online marketing. Folks who design and produce unique, creative, beautiful, funny & quirky greeting cards are in a very competitive market. It’s hard to find buyers when you’re up against e-cards and mass-market distributors.

My brain put the two problems together and came up with this new way to use cards. It benefits the smaller independent card makers, it benefits you, it puts a piece of paper to use at least twice (before you recycle it, right?)

The icing on the cake? A new, fun way to connect with the people you know and love.

So go out there and buy a half dozen cards from a boutique card company, put them to good use AND have fun!