2013 Small Business Online Marketing Tips | Social Media First?

Happy 2013, everyone, and here's to your most profitable year ever using the digital marketing and advertising tactics that really move the needle in your local market.

What are they? Hint: It's NOT social media, folks!

The more time I spend running social media campaigns for multiple business types and dozens of local businesses, the more I see the true, daily impact of social activities on these firms.

What I see: We've ALL bought into the notion that social media, the OOH SHINY PENNY! of marketing is critical to every business in America.

The reality: Social is in 4th place in terms of focus/importance. And most businesses shouldn't be touching it at all before they understand the full digital marketing landscape.

First Place: Search Engine Marketing

Find a trusted partner to run search engine marketing (text ads, called SEM or PPC) on Google,  bing and Yahoo! to turn searches for you, your brand, your products into qualified clicks, targeted to our local market(s).

Think about it: Nearly all shoppers head to Google to conduct research before they head to a local store to make a purchase. If you're not running a solid SEM campaign run by the very latest technology, you're sending business to your competitors and losing sales.


One of the few companies that's doing this well is Netsertive. Why?

• They focus on only 5 kinds of businesses, they've hired EXPERTS in each field to create high-performance campaigns
• Every client gets a direct line to an account rep to ensure communication and success
• Their patent-pending technology actively makes every account perform better and better over the long term (set and forget online advertising campaigns are the hallmark of Netsertive's competition)

In fact, here's a 1 minute video by a Netsertive client who's TRIED THE REST and now relies on the company to bring him ALL of his new customers each month: http://www.netsertive.com/whynetsertive

In second place, you must run display ad banners with retargeting turned on. 

How it works: Your search engine marketing (text ad) campaign will send qualified customers to your website. If they're not in the market for what you sell TODAY, they LEAVE your site. Without ad retargeting turned on, you've lost them to the digital winds, likely never to return.


With display retargeting turned on, however, your display ads will follow them to other websites after they leave. They'll see your banner ads in the Yahoo! inbox, on the Wall Street Journal, and on other contextually relevant sites for a full 30 days, reminding them of your store/your products and enticing (reminding!) them to return to your site.



So your second biggest spend: Display Ads w/Retargeting.

Third place: Online mobile advertising. 

Specific text ad and display campaigns with the right keywords/call to action/features that an on-the-go, qualified customer needs to see when they're conducting searches on their smartphones while they're in the car and in the market to buy NOW to come to your store/dealer.

Here's an article I wrote to auto dealers about mobile in 2013; it will spread to ALL other verticals as well: http://www.netsertive.com/car-shoppers-using-mobile-phones-more-likely-to-buy-within-hours

Fourth place/LAST: Social media

Last place, because your goal is to generate more sales with digital marketing, right? Social media should only be attacked after you're spending $1,500-$8,000 per month as a small business owner on search, display, and mobile.

Social media is the place you go to engage with customers who've already bought from you. When they have a great experience, or you offer them something free/a contest, or a regular coupon, they'll Like your Facebook page so they can get the deal and write a great review. And once they Like you, it's your chance to turn them into a repeat buyer.

Repeat after me: Social media will not bring you new customers. 

It will give you a platform to nurture existing customers. And the number of Likes you receive doesn't matter; the quality of the Likes are critical.

To do social media right as a small business, you'll need to set aside 5-15 hours a month to write content (manual posts about your products, what's going on in your store, even personal photos), then spend time everyday engaging with your CURRENT customers WHO HAVE ALREADY BOUGHT from you. Interact, turn them into repeat buyers, sure. But more Likes does nothing. You need to be a content strategist, be able to engage for an hour or more a DAY. 99.9% of small business owners cannot and will not do this.

And they shouldn't.



Today is the day I say it loudly: Business owners, you're right to question WHY you should be doing Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and LinkedIn and XXXXX Flavor of the Month campaigns.

Should you devote your precious time and limited marketing dollars on social if you're not doing search, display, and mobile and doing it WELL/properly funded to deeply penetrate your local market? No way.

Unless you're willing to do some serious manual posting and daily monitoring/content planning every week and month, and actively market your presence in ALL of your marketing materials and bring your own personality to your posts/social activities, it absolutely WILL NOT impact your bottom line.

Without a solid, comprehensive online strategy with the proper amount of fuel (budget) built from TOP to bottom like THIS:

1. SEARCH ENGINE TEXT ADS (SEM/PPC) (MOST CRITICAL)
2. DISPLAY/RETARGETING
3. MOBILE
4. SOCIAL (LEAST IMPORTANT)

You have zero business touching social media until 1, 2, 3 are set up and running at top speed/spend to get the best results.

If you're working with Yodle, Reach Local, Orange Soda, WebVisible, DEX or ANY other SEM PPC search advertising provider, it's time to move to a company who delivers the best results using all of the most profitable tactics.

If you're still not convinced, and your business has been burned by past online marketing campaigns that didn't deliver results using Reach Local, Yodle or other companies, WATCH THIS and work with the best:

Find out more about Netsertive. You will not be sorry. Profit, click here:



Happy 2013 everyone!

Tim McLain
timothymclain@yahoo.com
919.800.9893 (Cell)

From Atoms to Bits | Wordless Wednesday

I love the old photo on the final print issue of Newsweek, viewed on my iPad and sporting a Twitter hashtag headline: #LASTPRINTISSUE. 

As a child of print, now a fully-digital adult, the digital r(evolution) taken place in lock step with my 20 year career.

From atoms (newspaper/magazines/Yellow Pages) to bits (TV news, Internet startups/Google), from the '70s to the '10s > #LASTPRINTISSUE pic.twitter.com/hpCwxISY

The rapid pace of the digital business evolution is all part of my experience. The photo is a perfect summary of the first 20 years in the professional business world. (Full LinkedIn profile.) 

Netsertive doubled our F150 sales | Automotive Dealer Online Advertising

"Frankly, Netsertive doubled our F150 sales." - Village Ford, Dearborn, MI

11.5 HOURS. That’s how long new car and truck buyers research a purchase using search engines like Google, bing and Yahoo! Then they go to a local dealership to buy. Will YOU be found online first? Or will it be your competition?

 Netsertive accelerates sales for single + multiple rooftop digital auto dealers and top brands. Our custom-written, localized search, display and mobile ad campaigns, as well as retargeting, deliver max car and truck sales opportunities. With transparent reporting, you’ll always know exactly how your auto dealer Internet advertising budget is being spent, and how Netsertive is growing your automotive sales.

Contact our Netsertive automotive experts today; they'll turn online discovery of your dealership into new sales opportunities: 1.800.940.4351

Netsertive Internet marketing campaigns grow the Michigan state economy one business at a time

While the rest of the country is reading headlines that highlight negative news coming out of Detroit and Michigan as a whole, Netsertive's online marketing campaigns have been quietly and successfully fueling the state's economic resurgence since 2009.

With a majority of Michiganders using the Internet to researching purchases of new products (think new cars and trucks, appliances, and audio video installations) in their local area, it's more important than ever for Michigan businesses to be highly visible online.

Netsertive recently spent time with just three of our Michigan area clients to record, first-hand, how Michigan businesses are surviving and thriving through the power of Netsertive's online advertising programs.



Contact Tim McLain, Netsertive Marketing Manager at tmclain@netsertive.com, 919.890.3908 (desk) or 919.800.9893 (cell) to arrange interviews with clients and our management to tell this positive story about Michigan's turnaround to your viewers and readers.

Bill & Rod's Appliances
Netsertive Michigan Success Story #1

Netsertive helped Livonia, MI-based Bill & Rod's Appliances grow sales more than 20% with a custom appliances online advertising campaign.

We recently spent a day with Tag the official customer greeter and learned more about this Michigan-based family business led by Kim, Linda, and Joe Legato.



Joe, as the third generation owner and operator, found Netsertive through a Brandsource buying group webinar. (Netsertive also works directly with MEGA Group USA and Nationwide members.)

After signing up, Joe quickly boosted sales more than 20% by harvesting online searches for Maytag, Kitchenaid, Amana and related repair services in his local Michigan target market.

His custom, localized Netsertive search and display ad campaign has driven his business to the top spot and helped him sell more products and services, month in and month out, over the long term.

Village Ford Auto Dealer
Netsertive Michigan Success Story #2

Bob Wheat is the General Manager at Village Ford in Dearborn, MI. His dealership dates back to first days of Henry Ford's company.



Netsertive built a custom Internet advertising campaign for Wheat's dealership to harvest online searches for F150, F250, and F350 truck models in his Michigan target market.

The results? Village Ford has doubled its truck sales and greatly boosted overall call volumes (BDC) for F150 through the power of Netsertive's auto dealer online marketing.

Paulson's Audio Video
Netsertive Michigan Success Story #3

Netsertive helped Paulson's Audio Video in Farmington Hills, MI, grow their business over the long term through the power of localized, custom audio video integrator Internet advertising.

In our short video, co-owner Dan Paulson talks about how Netsertive built a custom Web search and display (Local Extend™ banner ad) campaign for his custom home theater, lighting control, and local electronics business.



Paulson's is effectively harvesting online searches for his top products and brands - Integra, McIntosh, Bowers and Wilkins (B&W), Lutron, AudioQuest, Crestron, Control4, and others - in the Detroit metro target market, and has seen sales increases over the past 18 months and more.

As his Michigan primary marketing effort, Paulson's turnkey online campaign has grown the company's bottom line consistently over the long term. Netsertive sends thousands of purchase-ready customers to Paulson's website and storefront month in and month out.

As you can see, Netsertive (www.netsertive.com) leverages its powerful technology to help our clients in Detroit and across the state of Michigan to harness the power of online discovery in a way they couldn’t do previously. With fully 95% of retail sales spending occurring locally, offline, there is a massive amount of demand to be harvested through online discovery leading to local product sales.

Netsertive has served more than a billion targeted ads in hundreds of local markets since 2009. The company has raised more than $14.5 million in venture capital to date and has since hired over 75 employees, and expects to double that number in 2013 in order to keep up with its rapid growth. The company has performed at a high fiscal level, with 2011 revenues reaching nearly 7X its first year revenues in 2009.

Netsertive introduced an Ad Industry first with its Local Extend™ Digital Co-op marketing service, which automates delivery and performance of co-branded online ads across hundreds of local markets and dealers throughout North America. The Company has implemented these Local Extend™ campaigns for many major brands including Harman International, Serta, McIntosh Labs, Integra, Bowers & Wilkins, and many others.

Local Extend™ is the foundation of Netsertive’s innovative Digital Co-op service, which helps channel marketers achieve major efficiencies at both the brand and local levels by automating the cooperation and shared funding of the brands and their local channel partners.

The Company also created a one-of-a-kind online advertising technology which automates efficiencies in search, display and mobile advertising campaigns. Its patent-pending "Learning Engine" system achieves the best possible return on investment for online advertising spending in a given local market, at a defined budget level, for a defined set of advertised categories. This high-performance search (PPC Google AdWords) ad technology drives stronger, more measurable results, yielding a better return on advertising investment for its clients.

Contact Tim McLain, Netsertive Marketing Manager at tmclain@netsertive.com, 919.890.3908 (desk) or 919.800.9893 (cell) to arrange interviews with clients and our management to tell this positive story about Michigan's turnaround to your viewers and readers.

Inspiration: 2013 New Year's Resolution to Get Fit, Tony Horton has Your Back!

VIDEO Inspiration to Get Fit
 How Bad Do You Want It? (Success with P90X)

Netsertive Trade Shows | Our technology connects local customers to your business

Wrapping up a week of trade shows in Orlando. Always a joy to connect with Netsertive's active partners, hear how we're growing their revenue with online advertising. Looking forward to onboarding our new clients in the coming days as well! Showing off our new trade show booth designs above. What do you think?

8/88 | INXS #1 “Calling All Nations” Tour, The Spectrum, Philadelphia

Last night saw me sitting about two sections away from an electronics-littered stage in the heart of Philly awaiting the coming of a star rock band – INXS – an English (what else?) rock band boasting a sting of recent hits. Sitting beside me for a 20 minute span was Paula Dengler, a girl I’d recently asked out and come to really like. We could barely talk to one another over the din before the rest of the group showed up (brother Todd and Jen Simon) and within minutes the crowd started to cheer in anticipation.

5/2/88: Exeter HS, notebook #1, p. 1: "Sportive self-expression can be prized because human nature contains a certain elasticity and margin for experiment, in which waste activity is inevitable and may be precious: for this license may lead, amid a thousand failures, to some real discovery and advance. Art, like life, should be free, since both are experimental." -- "The Life of Reason," George Santayana, Page 172

Beginning today, posting 420-character entries from my notebooks to Facebook and archiving here, dating approx. 1988-1994, during my high school (Reading, PA @ Exeter Senior High School) and college (Kutztown University) years. Most entries written in/around Reading, Lancaster, Kutztown, PA.

WalMart on TV: "We match prices."
In NC: "We DON'T match prices, even less so when you order from us online at a given price for in-store pickup locally. Walmart.com isn't WalMart, technically." HUH?

Today I tried in vain to place a simple order with WalMart for in-store pickup, using walmart.com to set up the transaction.

What I got instead was several hours of my Sunday wasted by a company who's website seems to be blind to in-store stock levels, and the manager of the Cary, NC store offering a litany of excuses which stand 100% at odds with WalMart's current TV ads.

Here's the steps that lead to my disappointment:

1. Visited walmart.com, found the item I wanted to buy, then completed an in-store pickup order for my local Holly Springs location. The website said all three items were in-stock, and I'd be sent a text message when they were ready to pickup. Here's the checkout screens:




2. A few minutes later, I got an email saying all was well, verifying the price of the items and their in-stock status.

About 30 minutes later, I got another email:



WalMart's own internal stock system doesn't know which items are really in stock?! Cancelled the order.

Note that the in-stock immediate pickup price for the items was $119.98, and the order was tallied using this price.

3. Deciding to try my luck at my nearby Cary, NC Walmart store in-person (the website saying there were some in stock), I walked through the door and hurried to the bike section.

Sure enough, there were three waiting for me! The price was posted at $149.99, but no matter. "At WalMart, we'll price match!"

I borrowed a cart, loaded up the three scooters, and headed to the checkout. I had copies of my email orders and the website price on my phone, ready for the cashier to complete an identical in-store pickup transaction, this time in Cary.

4. After asking the cashier to price match, he said he had to call over his manager. This seemed odd to me, since in the TV advertisements the cashiers in each line having the power to match, without an ad in hand, by voice alone. Even showing him my emails and the online price wasn't enough.

Manager "Frank" appears, and I walk him through the story. He immediately denies the request. Why? Walmart stores "never honor prices at walmart.com. We're totally different companies." Huh?

I tell him that I placed an order for in-store pickup from Holly Springs, and that the lower online price was honored. Only Walmart's incorrect stock system caused my order to be cancelled. I said I'd be happy to place the same order via any Internet terminal in the store and use my credit card online, which would make the Cary pickup request identical to the Holly Springs request earlier in the day.

Frank walked me back to the rear of the store and allowed me to do just this, all with his help...


Note the three items, in stock, ready for me to buy.

5. Together, we found the items via their online kiosk, went to add the three items to my cart that were ALREADY in my REAL LIFE cart NEXT to me, and the site said this:



Looks closely. Walmart.com says the items are out of stock online, and OUT OF STOCK at the CARY, NC store. Clearly, they weren't and aren't, they're right here next to us!

Still, he wouldn't budge. Despite the facts being right in front of him.

The facts: Walmart does not price match with anyone, even themselves, when stock and facts are right in front of management's face. Their ads are deceptive, and management's zero tolerance for living up to WalMart's TV promises ads up to a bait and switch. Frank saying: "Pay me the higher price and ignore my company's promises to match printed prices and our own in-store pickup system."

Color me a disappointed North Carolina WalMart shopper, and you'd be hard pressed to get me to recommend or visit any local WalMart location until management and their webteam/local managers get on the same page of their pricing and customer policies. Wall mart, Kmart, sears, price match, guarantee, bait, switch...

5 Business Promotion Tips for 2012



Like many people, I’m a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. There’s something about one year ending and another beginning that forces us to sit up and take notice of the good, the bad, and the ugly of our situation.

This year, look beyond personal resolutions and instead shine a spotlight on your business. What does your marketing mix look like? Which promotions are getting tangible results, and which tactics are you blindly about to pay an invoice to fund in the new year without knowing its effectiveness? (Yellow pages, we’re looking at you!)

As 2012 arrives, make a resolution to evaluate your business promotional activity, make a plan to fix what’s broken, and be open to new tactics and technology that are proving to be profitable for local businesses. Then follow through and be consistent in the new year.

With this in mind, here are five marketing tips to consider in 2012 and beyond.

#5: Move more of your advertising and marketing budget into online tactics.

Today, your best customers research products and services online before buying from local brick and mortar businesses. People are spending more and more time online, and you need to adapt to this reality in order to survive and thrive.

In fact, the time your customers are spending reading the newspaper, listening to the radio, and watching TV is declining, while time spent online is increasing. A recent Nielson survey found that the average American consumer spends upwards of 40% of their day online.

What's the difference between P90X and P90X2? Find out!

Local Businesses: Get More Customers with Netsertive Technology

With more than 90 percent of local, Internet-connected prospects starting their research for local businesses online, the decision about who handles your online advertising campaign is crucial.

At Netsertive, three core competencies separate us from the competition to give you the highest return on your online investment:

1. Our patent-pending technology proactively targets your best prospects on Google, bing, and Yahoo, while capturing volumes of daily data across millions of searches to power informed campaign changes and maximize conversions.




2. We know your business inside and out, specializing in a select number of vertical industries.




3. We deliver personal service and transparent, industry-leading monthly reporting. Your report contains detailed, easy-to-understand data to measure the full impact of your online search and display advertising campaign on your business.

Our new blog post explains how Netsertive’s patent-pending technology gives you the edge to win more online advertising auctions, resulting in more visibility for your business and, ultimately, turn more leads into sales.

Contact Netsertive today to learn more and put Netsertive to work for your business.

The Basics: Online Search Advertising Auctions

Whenever someone goes online and conducts a search for your products and services in Google, bing, or Yahoo, a split-second advertising auction occurs.

In this precious moment, the engine decides which ads will be displayed (impressions), where they’ll appear on the page (position), and how much each advertiser will pay per click. At Netsertive, we know what goes into making the most of these auctions.

Three key factors play a major role in online advertising auctions:



To increase the chances of your ad appearing, and achieve the best unit cost, the ad should contain keywords relevant to the user’s search query, have been clicked previously by others, connect to an optimized webpage, and you’ve placed an optimal bid. As an advertiser, you only pay when a prospect clicks on your ad.

The larger your daily media budget for your overall campaign, and the higher your keyword and Ad quality, the more times your ads will appear in relevant results. Revising your budget to match search trends to consistently turn online discovery into offline sales is critical.

Technology Makes the Difference

With so many variables going into who wins and loses an ad auction, it’s clear that no human can successfully manage your campaign alone. Why? A successful online campaign for a business in your industry is powered by dozens of keyword categories composed of hundreds or thousands of unique search terms.

It would take months or years of data derived from a single campaign to most accurately see what’s working and what’s not. Even if you monitor your online campaign daily, you’ll have little time to “read the tea leaves” in your data and make the changes necessary to capitalize on trends.

Netsertive’s intelligent software records and analyzes volumes of conversion data flowing out of every online campaign we manage, spotting trends, suggesting bid changes, and more.

The Netsertive "Learning Engine" Edge

Our "Learning Engine" technology sits at the heart of our proven online marketing campaigns. Once your keyword categories are loaded into our patent-pending system, your budget set, and your custom ads designed, your custom campaign launches in your target market and benefits from the collective intelligence generated by our software.



Our platform continually analyzes conversion data, automating improvements to your hyper-local campaign to maximize your ad spend and keyword mix.



Massive amounts of data flow into our platform daily, giving our Account Representative's the information they need to “tune up” and proactively modify each campaign hundreds of times each month. This level of optimization is only possible as a direct result our technology and its deep, proprietary intelligence.

In a recent head-to-head comparison to a national, our Netsertive "Learning Engine"-powered campaign delivered twice the qualified website traffic and nearly three times the ad impressions, while serving the ads in higher positions.

Our clients give us similar Netsertive reviews every month. Our clients see a doubling or tripling of website visitors within the first few months of their custom, localized campaigns, increased call volume, new customers, and dozens of new sales opportunities linked to their online search and display advertising efforts from Netsertive.

Grow Your Local Business With Proven Online Technology

With results like these, it’s no wonder that we have an industry-leading renewal rate.
With technology like this, it was imperative that we file a patent for our wholly unique platform.
Contact us today to get started!

Netsertive: Inside Track Newsletter Profile

Netsertive has developed a patent-pending online marketing technology that helps dealers get discovered online, and steer potential local customers to them ...

Netsertive specializes in helping local businesses harvest online demand for their products and services; we work directly with top brands to support digital Co-Op display ad campaigns that increase product awareness and local dealer sales.

Small to medium sized businesses rely on our technology and online marketing experts to create and monitor customized search and display campaigns, which actively funnel qualified consumers to their local businesses. Your best customers are online. Can they find you?

"We know we are in a recession, but we are seeing sales increases."

An in-depth profile of Netsertive was published in recent issue of the Inside Track newsletter, a trusted source of independent, up-front, and daring news and reviews for local businesses and their product manufacturers in the audio video integration vertical.

Send a request to tmclain@netsertive.com to get your copy of the four-page article via email.

Read what participating local dealers and national brands (Lutron, Integra, Harman HPAV, KEF, and more across our verticals served) have to say about Netsertive's online advertising programs, and how online discovery is making a big impact on dealer channels, local market awareness, and sales.

P90X 2 | Here it comes! Pre-order today...



Only from me, a Beachbody coach! All pre-orders guarantee delivery before Christmas. So, click here -- bit.ly/timcoach -- then click the SHOP button -- and you'll see a link to the P90X2 promotion.

"It's hard to compete with big retailers. But you can be smarter..." with Netsertive online advertising @ http://bit.ly/TVNets (Video) #sem





Watch how http://netsertive.com and its technology-driven, high-performance online marketing is helping Triangle Visions Optometry of North Carolina turns online discovery into offline sales.

Netsertive drives increased local sales opportunities and targeted online exposure to businesses in select vertical markets, including eye doctors to dentists and beyond.

Based in the Research Triangle Park near Raleigh, North Carolina, Netsertive helps small- to medium-sized businesses and their product manufacturers across the United States attract consumers and increase sales with innovative online marketing technology and a unique Digital Co-Op platform.

The company helps clients transform online discovery into offline sales using a proprietary, data-driven approach to online search and display advertising. Its patent-pending "Learning Engine" ensures that clients acquire the largest number of qualified website visitors for a given advertising budget, through select vertical industry focus and campaign automation. Netsertive serves a wide range of local businesses in North America, as well as manufacturers and brands that leverage local channels for distribution.

With a history of rapid-growth, the strength of venture capital funding from top firms RRE Ventures and Greycroft Partners, a world-class core team and a focus on delivering services to specific vertical industries with its patent-pending technology, Netsertive has moved quickly to the forefront of the digital ad tech industry. The company works tirelessly to leverage its systems to drive exponentially higher value for its clients than any generalist competitor can provide.

For more about Netsertive, connect to http://www.netsertive.com today, then connect to Triangle Visions at http://www.trianglevisions.com to see a visionary small business using the latest online search (Google bing Yahoo!) PPC SEM Internet marketing and advertising techniques to grow their business.

Anomaly Warzone Earth HD invades our iPad Games of the Week

Management textbooks teach us that sometimes problems can be solved by approaching them from the opposite direction. That’s the approach the developers of Anomaly Warzone Earth HD took to create this week’s top new iPad game, taking traditional turret defense game design and putting us in the role of navigating enemy emplacements on the ground. Do you have what it takes to chart the perfect course through a heavily fortified maze of alien turrets to take out the enemy without perishing? Time will tell!

Add in some more fresh “death from above” action that brings its own new “shock and awe” approach to taking out the zombie hordes, to a brand new 3D action game with stunning graphics to boot, rounded out by a music-focused, neon-inspired space shooter, and you’ve got yourself our iPad Games of the Week.

IPAD APPS REVIEWED

Anomaly Warzone Earth HD
Yes, it’s another turret defense game. This time, you’re in charge of our military forces, charting the best course through the maze of alien turrets, all to survive to fight another day.

Zombie Gunship
When the zombie apocalypse arrives, I want to be in the gunner seat of an AC-130 airplane, raining death from above. This app gets me so much closer to my dream, I may have to conjure another.

Get Outta My Galaxy! HD
Take control of Waka to restore peace and quiet in the galaxy, through lots and lots of high-res graphical… slapping.

Supersonic HD
Fans of Rez HD and Children of Eden will feel right at home in this music-infused, vector-graphics “tunnel racing” game. Turn down the lights, strap on your headpones, and trip out, man.

IPAD REVIEWS

Anomaly Warzone Earth HD ($3.99)

Forget about tower defense for a moment. Think tower offense.

That’s the fresh approach 11 Bit Studios took in bringing Anomaly Warzone Earth HD to life. And brother, is this app a ton of fun. The Earth has been invaded, and our military is overwhelmed. It’s your job to survey the play field from overhead, plan your route through the alien’s turret emplacements, choose your vehicles, and let each level play out. Once your vehicles are in motion, you’ll need to watch for random drops of repair fields, which you can trigger in the path of your convoys to heal them as they progress.

You’ll need to stay on your toes, plan the perfect path, and keep up the repairs, or it’s game over for you and the human race. You can change routes along the way, upgrade your units, move your forces over large sums of cash (with higher risk of death!), and be quick to divert enemy fire to save your troops at the right times. It all adds up to frantic, anti-turret defense action that’s wholly original, and super-fun.

Zombie Gunship ($.99)

Continuing this week’s “death from above” theme, Zombie Gunship lets you rain death upon the undead from the comfort of an AC-130 assault aircraft. If you’ve played the latest military shooters on any console in the past few years, then you know what you’re in for here: The hum of your aircraft and a grainy, black and white night vision view of the ground, with large white reticules to position on or near the enemy below, pulling your trigger to devastate your foes with all kinds of ordnance.

Wait for the reload, keep circling, and keep firing. Be sure to take out the zombies, and not your friends and neighbors who are running to the bunkers. You’ll need to zoom in and out, get used to the flipped up and down controls, and keep even a single bad guy from reaching your home base. If you’re all about AC-130 action, and you’re a sucker for zombie games, this is your dream app, just in time for the end of your summer.

Get Outta My Galaxy! HD ($2.99)

Fans of Super Mario Galaxy will feel right at home in this newcomer, swapping in Waka for Mario, and an invading horde of Wikus who must be slapped back into space for Mario’s foes. Each level takes place on a different kind of rotating, 3D planet, and you’ll need every one of your crazy arms to reach out and slap them into the vacuum from whence they came.

The graphics are top-notch, the action pitch-perfect, and the level movies and animations console-quality. Moving Waka around is a snap, slapping even easier, and picking up power-ups a breeze. Hang in there until more difficult levels open up, it’s worth the wait! Initially easy, the difficulty ramps up super-slowly, making the app a perfect purchase for younger gamers out there. A must-buy for anyone looking for a top-quality game that’s perfect for any age! Burning up the rest of your summer vacation with Waka will be time well spent.

Supersonic HD ($.99)

Fans of Rez HD and Children of Eden will feel right at home in this music-infused, vector-graphics “tunnel racing” game. Turn down the lights, strap on your headphones, and trip out, man. You’ll need to tilt your way through each level, picking up power ups and point-filled shapes, while avoiding pillars and other traps. The longer you go without making a mistake, the higher your point multiplier.

While the overall speed of each tunnel run is set for you, it’s your job to tilt your iPad this way and that to maximize your points. Half the fun is enjoying the soundtrack, which makes this dollar menu game a must-purchase. The only drawback? You have limited credits and can only progress so far before the game starts asking you for in-app purchases. Don’t let the opportunity to dive into a sizeable chunk of musical goodness-powered gaming for just $1. Trance out!

Roboto defies gravity to lead our iPad Games of the Week

Take the hoverboard from Back to the Future, place a cartoony robot on top, add in 2D platformer action with 3D backgrounds, and you’ve just made Roboto. It’s one of the most content-rich, fun iOS games to come along this year, and it’s this weeks must-install.

Add in a gross-out-good puzzler, take to the skies with a spot-on remote control plane sim, and bring your best tile-removal skills to a new Mahjong title, and you’ve got yourself our iPad Games of the Week.

IPAD APPS REVIEWED

Roboto ($2.99)
Side-scrolling 2D platformer with 3D backgrounds and some of the best visuals in any iOS game to date adds up to this week’s must-install game.

Gesundheit! HD ($1.99)
Forget Rudolph and his shiny nose. Take control of a little piggy with some seriously snotty allergies in this gross-out classic puzzler.

RC Plane 2 ($.99)
Put away the balsa wood and airplane glue. Take control of a remote controlled plane and soar through the air from the comfort of your easy chair.

Mahjong Towers Touch HD (FREE)
Tile removal fans, you’ve just found your newest obsession. Mahjong at its in-app-purchase finest.

IPAD APP REVIEWS



Roboto ($2.99)

It’s rare to find an iOS game with a high level of graphical polish and top-notch level design. But Roboto proves that a little extra effort goes a long way. Fusing side-scrolling 2D platformer action with rich, 3D backgrounds adds up to a deeply satisfying gaming experience. The on-screen controls are crisp, with the usual movement stick and jump/fire buttons within easy reach. You’ll need to guide your little robot across 30 game fields, powering up walls, over massive jumps, while barreling along at top speed. Your blaster will take out any enemies in your way, while intense boss battles will truly test your skills. The controls do tend to be difficult to trigger in rapid succession, especially during the boss fights, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Grab Roboto this week before the price goes up. You won’t be sorry!

Gesundheit! HD ($1.99)

Snot happens. Young boys (and men who act like young boys) will find Gesundheit’s singular focus on snot and sneezing a gross-out-loud barrel of fun. In a Rudolph-like twist of fate, you play not reindeer with a glowing nose, but a little green big with some serious allergies. After your friends refuse to let you play in their little piggy games due to your “different” nose, some serious monsters show up with a taste for pork. Thankfully, they’re easily distracted by your green balls of mucous. It’s up to you to save this jaw-droppingly rendered city and its piggy inhabitants from a terrible fate, using your nose gremlins as bait to lure monsters into traps. You’ll need to hide, send balls of phlegm into various traps, and watch as the monsters pounce and munch away. There are lots of ways to approach each level, and you’ll need to master the “sneeze/hide/sneeze/hide” approach to grab power ups, magical StarFruits, and other important items in order to unlock maximum achievements. It’s 40 levels of… “ACHOO!” “Gesundheit.” goodness.



RC Plane 2 ($.99)

As a boy, I spend many a summer afternoon on the flight line of a nearby RC plane club, watching my father put his remote controlled planes through their paces. He’d spend all winter building, coating, testing, and tweaking his creations, which sometimes ended up as broken wrecks after just a few hours of flight. (Ever try to land one of these suckers?) Now we can all experience the virtual thrill of RC plane flight in RC Plane 2. You’ll get similar on-screen controls to the real thing, moving the levers up and down, left and right to control the flight surfaces of your model plane. The feeling of flight is spot-on, with a reasonable learning curve before you master the controls. Your dollar gets you a starter plane and places to fly, while a few more bucks get you even better planes and locations to soar. Anyone with even a passing interest in flight sims, model plane flying, and planes of all kinds will find lots to love about this app.

Mahjong Towers Touch HD (FREE)

Search the App Store for Mahjong apps, and you’ll find dozens to choose from. As a fan of this genre, I’ve yet to find the perfect tile-removal game for my iOS devices. Mahjong Towers Touch HD comes very close to being the best of the best, once you plunk down an extra $2.99 to unlock the full set of tile sets beyond the six basics included with the free initial download. The touch controls in this new offering are super-solid, which immediately gives the app a massive boost over its competitors. Keep removing tiles by touching the pairs in sequence, working your way down to an empty board. You’ll need to being your A game, strategically uncovering the right sets at the right times to keep the action going. The best addition? A counter shows you how many matches are available every step of the way, so you’ll never wonder if there’s anything left to remove. The usual reshuffle and hint buttons are just a tap away, along with undo and more. With 192 layouts in the for-pay version, a quality musical score, and HD graphics, this could be the best Mahjong title available on the App Store today.

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Cataline HD purrs into our iPad Games of the Week



Dream Track Nation ($.99)

Many moons ago (Ok, 1985) I spent the best days of my youth creating my own race tracks inside Electronic Art’s Racing Destruction Set for the Commodore 64. Along comes Dream Track Nation for our thoroughly-modern iPads, and I’m glad to say that I can now scratch the old itch that is “make it and race it.” The creation module aside, the app delivers a fun, 2D physics racing experience across 60 levels of high-speed insanity. It’s the off-kilter physics that really shines in this dollar-menu offering. Roar around the turns, hit the jumps at high speed, and grab as many stars as you can along the way. Want a real challenge? Try the multiplayer mode, or go online to grab player-made tracks, then make your own. The initial release is not without its problems. Dropping right through a section of track several times takes the fun out of any racing experience, while a scarcity of power ups on some tracks that help you float or otherwise make it across a level in one piece can make for a 100% un-fun game session. And finding an opponent via Game Center was more tumbleweed and crickets than the head to head goodness that was promised. With some tweaks and an update or two, Dream Track Nation will cross the finish line in first place, no doubt.

Cataline HD Mini (Free)

This app has it all: A full port of Angry Birds’ controls and physics, set in a magical land full of embroidered felt castles, rainbows, and landscapes (so soft!), with cute cats standing in for birdie ordinance. Your goal? Launch your kitties into the air (propelled by rainbows!) and get them to land in the pool of water with a waiting fish, or friendly kitties with presents, and more. The artwork alone makes this freebie a must-install, conquering up fond memories of Yoshi’s Story from my N64 days (or even LittleBigPlanet today), with embroidered, soft fabrics making up every element of each level. (So realistic you can almost feel them through the screen.) Add in adorable cats of all shapes and sizes, gray unhappy clouds who cry rain drops (aww!), and tons of other cute touches, and you’ve got the perfect Angry Birds-like experience for young (and young at heart) iPad gamers. You won’t find this gem on the App Store’s top free games listings – yet. Go grab it and help developer Afzainizam Zahari get his 15 minutes of app fame. It’s well-deserved!



Allied Star Police (FREE)

Cheers to PopCap for teaming up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to turn 9-year-old Owain Weinert’s dream app into reality. While fighting leukemia, Owain worked with the PopCap team to create a super-fun tower defense/RTS game for all iOS devices, and it’s available for free right now in the App Store. The Flamions have invaded Earth, and it’s your job to stop them. Just like Plants vs. Zombies, you’ve got lanes of attack to defend. But instead of standing still and placing turrets and other snares, this time you drop tanks, sniper and machine gun trucks, and other offensive vehicles into each lane. They’ll roar down the game field and attack incoming baddies. You’ll need to focus your attention on the top of the screen to see which lanes contain Flamions, then spend your cash wisely to send over comparable vehicles to take on each threat. The action is wild and wooly, and honestly, refreshingly original. Boredom won’t be an issue with Allied Star Police. A must-have for any iPad gamer looking for a quick hit of free iOS gaming goodness. Thanks Owain, PopCap, and Apple for bringing this gem to the App Store to support a great cause!

Sid Meier’s Pirates! for iPad ($3.99)

They said it couldn’t be done. But Firaxis proves once again that they’re up to the task. Take a fan-favorite from the 80’s, upgrade the graphics and game play, add on a plethora of updates and fresh mechanics to take full advantage of the iOS platform, and you’ve got yourself a rousing success. Sid Meiers’s Pirates! harkens back to the original Commodore 64 edition, complete with the same story line, crazy hats, baron-killing mini games, and full-on bombardment of 18th century harbor towns from the deck of your ship. You can choose to dig into the back story and vie for political power to rule the land, or simply be the baddest, meanest, and destruction-oriented pirate you wish to be. The ship-on-ship battles can overwhelm your original iPad’s processing power from time to time, while it’s the mini-games that really grab and keep your attention. You’ll feel the familiar, Civilization-like “just one more turn!” feeling throughout the game, which is a very good thing. Rining up at a mere $4, Pirates! for iPad is a monster of a game that will keep you swashbuckling, plotting, and doing all you can to ensure Dutch dominance of the high seas.

Shadow Vanguard HD leads our iPad Games of the Week



Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard HD ($6.99)

Like its console predecessors, the first-ever iPad edition of the Rainbow Six game series brings all the best in tactical, team-oriented combat to our tablet’s intuitive first person shooter controls. N.O.V.A. 2 owners will recognize many of the elements, which blend well into the usual routine. A near-dozen single player campaign, where you sneak into a location, take out the bad guys (triple taps, please), and save the innocents. The levels themselves vary nicely, both in terms of the their play style and size (some big some small), and your pair of AI-driven squad mates handle themselves with great aplomb. Be careful to aim for the head (duh) and take out as many as you can on your own. You’ll earn precious XP, which gives you many unlocks, new weapons, fresh armor, and other goodies between levels. These items follow you into both multiplayer modes. So master the campaign and prepare to dominate online. (Which reminds me, where did I put my snake cam? Don’t head into the field without one!)

Pocket RPG ($2.99)

Let’s get one thing straight: Pocket RPG isn’t big on storyline. If you want a plot, read King Lear. No, this little gem of a dual-stick shooter comes off as a Gauntlet hack and slash clone, dropping you right into the Swing! Slash! Kill! action, with one interesting twist: Your character’s development is linked just to the dungeon you’re crawling at the moment. All of the rank increases, power ups, loot, and other items you earn during each session are available for just that level. Once you move on, it’s back to Level 0. Loot whores, be warned. Still, it’s a fresh approach, and it works well. Forget filling your bags with useless junk, or swapping out those level 0 spells for level 1, 2, and 3 as they drop. With six areas to explore, and several unique classes to play (each with their own save slot), there’s plenty to do in Pocket RPG, and everytime you pick up your iPad, you start fresh. Adventure awaits!

Reckless Getaway ($2.99)

Third person view racing fans, you’ve found your new addiction. Reckless Getaway drops you into the getaway driver’s seat for a wholly original experience: You and your mates just robbed a bank, and it’s time to get out of Dodge! (Strangely enough, in a vehicle closely resembling a vintage Dodge. Who knew.) The cops are always just a wrong turn away, so you’ll need to keep your wits about you through all 16 levels of getaway mayhem. Try the freeway, then take an exit, drift through oncoming traffic, and hit the dirt side roads. The physics are spot-on, with flipping police cars and other bystanders soaring past your screen in geometrically correct angles and speeds. Sadly, all of the cars in the game were gassed up within minutes of getting on the road, so there’s explosions aplenty. And with gas prices this high, that’s a real shame. The best part? You’ll need to try various crazy driving maneuvers to earn points. It only adds to the craziness of just trying to get away from the Fuzz. “Hit it!”

Onslaught! ($1.99)

I was an 80’s era dungeon-crawler fan. Yes, first of the paper variety (D&D, anyone?), but soon 8-bit incarnations of my favorite pastime hit the Commodore 64, Atari, and other platforms. Onslaught! is a love letter from this awkward era, when entering a virtual dungeon of wizards, orcs and goblins was de regeuer for middle school-aged boys everywhere. You’re dropped into a dungeon arena where you’ll need quick dual-stick shooter skills to take out the pixel-rich baddies, bosses, and lil’ bats of badness. The music is 16-bits of solid throwback goodness, with a massive play field to get medieval on the bad guys. The newest update brought a thoroughly modern HTML5 Shield to the in-game store, Gold (bling) Armor, and more. While away your middle-age, children of the 80’s. I’ll join you!