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Welcome!
This is my occasional coverage of interesting developments in online marketing. Please feel free to comment and contribute by emailing me at riggs@riggs.com.
Black Hat SEO : SEO Book.com
Black Hat SEO : SEO Book.com: "Black Hat SEO
So I made a directory of bad SEO services (Black Hat SEO.com) and tools. It sat dormant for a great length of time. I told a few people about it and it did relatively nothing.
Out of nowhere I looked today and saw that I have been serving thousands and thousands of page views on that site...almost exceeding bandwidth limits in a few days. "
So I made a directory of bad SEO services (Black Hat SEO.com) and tools. It sat dormant for a great length of time. I told a few people about it and it did relatively nothing.
Out of nowhere I looked today and saw that I have been serving thousands and thousands of page views on that site...almost exceeding bandwidth limits in a few days. "
Making Collaboration Appropriate
We incorporate collaboration into our business activities at TechTransform in various ways: email, QuickBase for asynchronous information sharing and archiving, WebArrow for synchronous desktop sharing. Rafe Needleman makes some excellent points that are reinforced by our experience:
effective collaboration requires a high degree of spontaneity -- make it easy to access and to work into the participant's workflow.
make the collaboration technology appear transparent - it needs be a concierge, not an inhibitor to smooth information exchange
presence is an important element; the list of your commonly accessed colleagues needs to be readily available (as in instant messaging interfaces) along with some indication of the participant's status
personal relevance - the participants need to see something "in it" for themselves. We are too driven to focus on our personal goals established to contribute to business success to be diverted by irrelevant discussion.
All Take, No Give: Why Collaboration Fails.pdf
All Take, No Give: Why Collaboration Fails.pdf
If You Wire It They Will Come
The New York Times reported yesterday the new after-school destination of choice for the 18-and-under set is the public library. In 1996, 28 percent of libraries offered public Web access. Now, 95 percent of libraries are wired. And they're teeming with the consumers of tomorrow.
Consumers Becoming Marketing-Resistant
Consumers Becoming Marketing-Resistant: "Are consumers reaching the marketing saturation point? Could be, according to findings from Yankelovich Partners, Inc. that reveal a growing resistance and negativity toward advertising. The firm's study indicates 65 percent feel constantly bombarded with too many marketing messages, and 61 percent feel the volume is out of control. "
Google launches truly local ads
You can now target AdWords at the town level or within a radius of a location.
http://www.seobook.com/archives/000286.shtml
From ABOVE the FOLD Vol. 2 issue 15
http://www.search-marketing.info
Pay Per Call
FindWhat to release "Pay Per Call" model. although this pricing model sure is asking for a lot from a tiny little ad in a sea of free information.
From ABOVE the FOLD Vol. 2 issue 14
One nation under Internet Protocol
The title says it all: One nation under Internet Protocol A framework for viewing future communications directions. Thanks to Alec again for bringing this to my attention. More reasons for declining music CD sales.... with the implications for personalized entertainment alternatives available with the highspeed access contemplated in this commentary there will be even less time to listen to CD's.
One Nation under IP.pdf
One Nation under IP.pdf
How in the Hell do I get repeat Visitors?
Create fresh content which keeps them wanting to come back, or send them places they will really enjoy.
Fresh Content
Using a blog, news feeds, and writing regular articles will provide your site with unique content that others may never have. Most businesses would do better off if they knew their business field a little better. That is a big reason for my SEO blog (http://www.search-marketing.info/newsletter/index.htm - Recommended), I look around to see what others are doing and read the news constantly.
It keeps me up to date while taking an extremely small amount of maintenance time to keep that site updated. I need to keep up with what is going on anyway, so why not put the interesting stuff down in digital ink?
Divergent Paths
There are really a couple main ways to attack the search engine marketing idea and reverse broadcast networks.
1. Pay Per Click
If you are extremely intent on making sales and that is your primary goal then you need to create a smooth site with great usability that drives people toward the targeted action.
If you do it good enough and can write and target good ads then you should be able to beat most of your competition using pay per click.
The targeting takes a good deal of time. Writing effective ads take a good deal of time. Neither will be anywhere near as effective as they could be if the site still has major problems or lacks focus.
2. Organic SEO
Link Renting: There are ways to manipulate search results. Currently buying links is another popular alternative to the pay per click market. It is a really hard tactic for search engines to compete with. Some essential resources are selling links to completely unrelated sites. I have seen almost instant results from some of my link buys.More Long Term Approach - send your traffic away.
Sending Your Traffic Away
The best internet resources are not well known for just their content, but also for the content they refer others to. You have a limited knowledge base. You have a limited number of things you can think, do, say, or write in any given time period. Others can help solve your problems of limitation though.
The best internet resources are not well known for just their content, but also for the content they refer others to. You have a limited knowledge base. You have a limited number of things you can think, do, say, or write in any given time period. Others can help solve your problems of limitation though.
Hyperlinks smoothly allow readers to "chose their own destiny." When I first created this site I was somewhat greedy and wanted to "keep my traffic." As long as you have this approach you are selling yourself short. You are ignoring the vast pools of work others have already done for you free.
People will end up finding good information if they look long enough. I know I am not an expert on everything. I would prefer to have people associate good information from other sites with my site, vice findinging it through search or from another website.
People have called me up and stated that they were amazed by that interesting Vaneveer Bush paper I linked to on my site. When I link to papers that were at the fundament root of a hyperlink society it builds credibility. I specifically am talking about a call that I got just this week. Only in passing he mentioned that article, but I wonder how many others have taken the leap of faith to talk to some guy because something I pointed to on someone else's website.
The web is just a sea of information and the traffic I get is never my traffic to keep.
Eventually I will go through this site and link out to hundreds, if not thousands, of additional resources. For me to try to "keep my knowledge" or keep my secrets only goes against everything that makes the web great. AND IT PROBABLY HURTS SALES TOO!
- Aaron Wall http://www.search-marketing.info
Google changed pricing structure of AdSense / AdWords
Now the pricing on contextual ads is based on the likelihood that the pages and terms which triggered the ad will lead to a conversion. This is not exactly what they were looking for, but many marketers were complaining about AdSense ads producing poorly vs the results from search ads. http://www.seobook.com/archives/000265.shtml
From ABOVE the FOLD Vol. 2 issue 13
Recommended SEM newsletter: http://www.search-marketing.info
Some Interesting Statistics
- Only 14 percent of people believe information passed to them by government and advertising.
- Ninety percent of people believe information passed to them by friends and family.
- Eighty percent of all consumer decisions are influenced by word-of mouth marketing. (Dichter)
- Eighty-nine percent of consumers now recommend products or services they like to others. (Henley Centre)
- Word-of-mouth is nine times as effective as advertising in converting unfavorable or neutral predispositions into positive attitudes. (Day)
- Word-of-mouth is four times as effective as personal selling in influencing consumers to switch brands. (Lazarfeld)
Source: Grad Conn, iMedia Brand Summit, February 2004.
SoftwareCEO: Recommended Newsletter
"SoftwareCEO is the software industry's "Page One," with weekly tips and tactics from best-practices software firms, plus discussion forums, news, links, and online seminars. Site Members also have access to file downloads, proprietary research,and thousands of dollars in exclusive Buyers' Club discounts."
Highly recommended. Add this RSS feed to your reader: http://www.softwareceo.com/rss.xml
Google -- increasing search engine market share but whither goes Google?
First you dominate .... Google’s Search Referral Market Share Reaches an All-Time High, According to WebSideStory.
Then you grow the Empire .... A perspective on Google's overall direction: Welcome To The Google Desktop?.
And this perspective on Google's future referenced in my acquaintance Alec Saunders' blog. Alec knows something about managing market dominating products; he spent nine years in Product Management at Microsoft, including some time as Product Manager for MS Internet Explorer at the time of the Windows 95 launch.
Warning! Is all this hype building on an already saturated market for any future prospective IPO?
Google's 2004 Market Share.WebSideStory.0404.pdf
Google Desktop.2004-04-06.pdf
Then you grow the Empire .... A perspective on Google's overall direction: Welcome To The Google Desktop?.
And this perspective on Google's future referenced in my acquaintance Alec Saunders' blog. Alec knows something about managing market dominating products; he spent nine years in Product Management at Microsoft, including some time as Product Manager for MS Internet Explorer at the time of the Windows 95 launch.
Warning! Is all this hype building on an already saturated market for any future prospective IPO?
Google's 2004 Market Share.WebSideStory.0404.pdf
Google Desktop.2004-04-06.pdf
For Online Marketers, Keyword Search Is Key
Are you marketing online? Is your product catalog online?
Keyword search is the Website feature rated most valuable among online marketers, according to Chicago-based E-tailing Group's Third Annual Merchant Survey. Of the more than 300 executives surveyed, 91 percent said that keyword search was a somewhat to very valuable site feature.
Other features highly valued by the participants included seasonal promotions (94%), upsells/cross-sells on product pages (78%), and gift centers/suggestions (69%). Less popular were deferred billing (15%), gift registries (17%), and reminder services (27%).
Among other findings, 84% of the executives said they were very or somewhat satisfied with the ROI generated by their e-commerce businesses. This satisfaction is despite the fact that average rate of online cart abandonment exceeds 40%. Forty-seven percent did not know their shopping-cart abandonment rate, while 19% did not know what percentage of their site visitors converted to buyers.
From Showstopper PR Tips Newsletter - To subscribe, click here
Keyword search is the Website feature rated most valuable among online marketers, according to Chicago-based E-tailing Group's Third Annual Merchant Survey. Of the more than 300 executives surveyed, 91 percent said that keyword search was a somewhat to very valuable site feature.
Other features highly valued by the participants included seasonal promotions (94%), upsells/cross-sells on product pages (78%), and gift centers/suggestions (69%). Less popular were deferred billing (15%), gift registries (17%), and reminder services (27%).
Among other findings, 84% of the executives said they were very or somewhat satisfied with the ROI generated by their e-commerce businesses. This satisfaction is despite the fact that average rate of online cart abandonment exceeds 40%. Forty-seven percent did not know their shopping-cart abandonment rate, while 19% did not know what percentage of their site visitors converted to buyers.
From Showstopper PR Tips Newsletter - To subscribe, click here
Technology migration into a venerable platform
Cutting edge technology incorporated into a cutting edge platform... Victorinox has announced it will offer a Swiss Army knife with a USB memory key included. Classic example of using a familiar user interface to transparently (almost) incorporate new features and benefits.
Swiss Army Knife & USB.NYT.010404.pdf
Swiss Army Knife & USB.NYT.010404.pdf
