For years now The Pirate Bay has been one of the world's largest and most popular file sharing sites where users download pirated media such as movies and music, much to the chagrin of brands in the content business.

But times are getting tougher for Pirate Bay, despite having tens of millions of users worldwide. Last week marked the 4th anniversary of the MPAA's war on the site. Even though the MPAA's efforts have been largely toothless, the site went down temporarily last month after a German court got the site's ISP to kill its service.

So what's an embattled brand to do to assure its long-term survival and (ahem!) Arr-O-I? How about navigating more treacherous waters: relationships?Continue reading...

We all strive to put our "best face forward" on social networking sites. On Facebook, to add another cliché, the right profile picture is worth a thousand words. (Or, for the lucky, a thousand dates.)

This reality has inspired the latest branding initiative from Esteé Lauder:  “Your Beauty. Your Style. Your Profile.” The beauty company will be holding events across the country where ladies (and, I’m sure, men who want to look pretty) can meet with a professional makeup artist to design a makeover tailored to the website you’re aiming to join or have recently joined.

For instance, you could stick to a conservative color palette for LinkedIn, and then add a bit of pizzazz for OKCupid or Nerve.Continue reading...

What goes around comes around: In the '90s, Conde Nast's Internet branch CondeNet shut down the thriving dating and personals service it ran through its Swoon website, ceding the lucrative space to Match, Nerve and eHarmony.

Now the company (facing a brutal round of closures, layoffs and cutbacks) has decided to try again, with trulymadlydating.com, aimed at matching women who read Glamour with GQ's male audience. Gawker's sleuths note the site appears aimed at the British market and is operated by The Dating Lab.

Conde Nast (my former employer, I need to note) moved quickly onto the Internet in the mid-90s, though it was slow to evolve online for a while thereafter. Swoon was their early attempt to take content from print magazines like Glamour, Self, and Mademoiselle and package it under new stand-alone web brands. Swoon, focused on relationship content, and Phys, which was about health and fitness, are long gone, but Conde Nast's approach of separate web brands continues with Style.com (fashion content from Vogue and W), Epicurious for food and Concierge for travel.Continue reading...