I ran across The Search Engine Rap Battle today and all I got to say is WOW. Hilarious concept, great execution. I'm loving the fact that some of these jokes are so nerd-o-riific. Here they are:
Google vs. MSN
MSN vs. Yahoo!
Yahoo! vs. Google
And as a special bonus, a friend in Spain turned me on to Flight of the Conchords this past week when I was in BCN, and here is a little taste of the greatness of Bret and Jermaine...
I mentioned a little while back that I might be speaking at a conference this September in Dallas about online branding and reputation management...well, that was confirmed, so I will be a speaker. Needless to say I'm excited as online reputation management and branding is of great interest to me...but it seems like I'm not the only one who's thinking this topic.
Here's a video from the social media Super-Hero Gary Vaynerchuk talking about how the tech world of 2008 = the hip hop world of 1985.
God, Gary is a stud.
Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land posted an article today called Branding is Coming to Search in a Big Way. In the post, Greg talks about a comment he made at the SMX West Branding and Search panel that “search is more a branding medium than anything.”
While the comment was mainly designed to be provocative, and most search marketers might not think it is true, I can tell you that in the future, major industry keywords will be dominated by companies that are aiming to brand, not just drive traffic to their website.
As Greg points out, Yahoo! has been creating opportunities for advertisers (his example is Honda) to give a branded, multimedia experience in the search results for specific search terms. This makes a lot of sense when you look at the financial gains that can be made by selling impression based advertisements on your most popular search pages.
Let’s face it, Google and Yahoo! are in the position where they need to show some impressive and sustainable gains in revenue to keep shareholders happy. Grabbing a hold of the lucrative branding dollars that are out there (versus the direct response dollars) is a great way to do that. I mean, why do you think Google bought DoubleClick?
The great catalyst to all of this, in my opinion, will be the continued movement of advertising dollars and consumer’s time and attention from traditional media to the Internet. Eventually advertisers and the agencies they use will finally come to the realization that conducting an online campaigns can give their brand a lift and provide them with very detailed metrics about the effectiveness of their ads - all at a relatively low cost.
So props to Greg for stepping up and breaching the subject of search and its role in branding. I have a feeling if he made the same statement about search being a branding medium more than anything in ten years, everyone would look at him like he just stated that Everest is a big mountain.
Yeah - the duh face.
Don't want to watch the video? You can read the post by clicking through...
Continue reading "Online Reputation Management for Insurance Agents" »
Tonight Kristi was looking at some housing listings on Craigslist (for those who have heard about our plans to move, let me just say things went sideways today...so we're trying to figure out what to do), and she ran across an interesting listing.
The listing read as such:
Spectacular Modern Home
Rent To Own Option/ Or Just Lease
Immaculate 4 bdrm 3.25 bath home
Approx. 2,800 sq ft living space
* SECURITY SYSTEM, INTERCOM
* AUTO SPRINKLERS FRONT AND BACK
* AUTO GARAGE DOORS
* VIEWS, LUSH LANDSCAPING
* LARGE BATHROOMS W/BIDETS AND JACUZZI TUB
* SAUNA ROOM, SEPARATE LAUNDRY ROOM W/WASHER & DRYER
* SKYLIGHT, VAULTED CEILING, HARDWOOD, MARBLE, SLATE
* S/S SUB ZERO, MICROWAVE, DISHWASHER, COMPACTOR,
* 2 MARBLE WOOD BURNING FIREPLACES
More Photo's And Details:
http://www.seller4realestate.com/
$1345 a month for a new, nice house in Denver! Holy crap! That's awesome! So Kristi clicked through and came to this page.
As you can see, it is pretty much just the photo, two links to a "mortgage calculator" and a "realestate glossary" and, oh yeah, a Google AdSense bar at the top. But where are the other photos and details that are promised in the Craigslist ads?
Oh! There aren't any...but it a fit of desperation there is a good chance you might click on an AdSense ad - making the site owner (and Google) money for every link a confused shopper clicks.
So let's break down the business model - get a domain, build a three page website with a too good to be true house on it, slap some AdSense on the three pages, run ads all over Craiglist to drive traffic to it (cost = $0), and BOOM, big profit from AdSense.
I gotta admit, it's pretty genius...and really hard for Craigslist to police. I mean, it's a total crap arbitrage play, and it's one of the reasons why AdSense is polluting the net, but it's smart...very smart.
If you look on the right sidebar of the blog you will notice I have added a couple of new things. One is a MyBlogLog widget, which may be the subject of another post, and a widget marked Twitter Feed. But what is Twitter?
That's a great question - and I always have a really tough time answering it. Tonight at dinner, I tried to explain Twitter to Kristi...and failed miserably. So let's look to Twitter for the official explanation from the website:
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
Interesting, but it doesn't really mean that much to me. And actually, after I first signed up for Twitter, I played around with it for a bit and then stopped using it for a number of months. But after hearing a lot of the bloggers I follow buzzing about Twitter (Hugh being the most vocal) I tried Twitter out again...and you know what? I get it.
So here's my best explanation of Twitter, at least the way I see it:
Twitter gives people in different physical locations the ability to quickly communicate their location, status and points of interest to their friends and contacts in what can best be described as a virtual workplace/cafe. This virtual workplace may be the reason why so many web/independent workers find Twitter so useful - it lets them broadcast simple ideas and concepts with the people they care about without going through the formality of a blog post, email or even instant message.
Now I'm not going to sit here and tell most people to use Twitter - it really seems to only make sense for tech industry and web-savvy folks at this point. But if you are an active member in the online community, it might be time to get involved with Twitter...it's a great way to get in touch with and keep up to date with the people you know and the people that matter in the online world.
I think Hugh put it best, half joking - "Note to World: If you're not on Twitter, I don't want to make friends with you." (Here are his thoughts on Twitter).
If you'd like to check out my Twitter page, you can head over to http://twitter.com/marketingpunk.
Google's 20th employee, Marissa Mayer, is one of the most powerful women people in the search world, and is someone I've always been interested in learning more about. This SanFranMag.com profile of Marissa Mayer gives a clear look into the power, lifestyle, passions and incredible competitive drive of one of Google's most powerful employees.
One of the things I always wonder about when attending an affiliate industry conference is who is attending and what do they do. In the case of Affiliate Summit, I wonder how many of the attendees are "real" attendees (online marketers, affiliates, merchants, consultants, etc.) and how many are there to profit off of the "real" attendees (affiliate networks and vendors).
Thankfully the Affiliate Summit Blog has posted their attendee stats for next week's Affiliate Summit West, and the breakdown is...
Looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty good mix of attendees. Although I have to say I am surprised that 28% of the people going are from networks.
Tags: affiliatesummit
As I mentioned last night, Affiliate Summit West is coming up, and I'm going. Tonight I thought I would list the sessions I'm planning on attending and why...just in case you are wondering. So without any further ado...
MONDAY - FEB 25What: Opening Remarks and Keynote w/ Jason Calacanis (hosted by Jim Kukral
When: 9:45 am - 10:45 am
Why: Simple - it's Jason Calacanis! Last time I saw him speak was at the Blog Business Summit in Seattle, and let me tell you, he's always memorable. I'm trying to figure out if he will tell the audience they all suck or if he'll be nice and encourage them to use Mahalo...or both.What: Video Innovation in Affiliate Marketing
When: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Why: If you can look me in the eyes and tell me that video will not be a more important part of online marketing five years from now, you need your head checked. The more experience we can get with video now, the easier things will be in the future.What: How to Futureproof Your SEO Efforts
When: 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
Why: SEO is tricky and fickle, so keeping up on the latest and greatest thought is a must-do for people who do optimization (like me).TUESDAY - FEB 26
What: Ask the Experts
When: 10:00am - 11:15am
Why: Not sure how long I'll stay, but I know or know of some of the people who are working the tables. Plus, might be a good time to networkWhat: Super Affiliate Strategies that Work
When: 11:30am - 12:30pm
Why: An all-star lineup of affiliate legends talking about how they do what they do? Sign me up.What: Social Media Strategies in Affiliate Marketing
When: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Why: Let's face it - you can make a ton of money as an affiliate doing PPC and SEO...but you can really kill it if you can build a community or tap into social media channels.
So that's my schedule...looks like a top-notch lineup!
Tags: affiliatesummit
Exciting news - I've been accepted as a member of the "press" (meaning I got a press pass) for the 2008 Affiliate Summit West conference in Las Vegas in a couple weeks! Affiliate Summit is the premier affiliate marketing conference series, and once a year affiliate marketers and merchants descend on Las Vegas to learn, network, and let's face it, party for three jam packed days.
One thing that I like about Affiliate Summit is that I've been in the affiliate marketing business long enough to have seen the conference organizers, Shawn Collins and Missy Ward, take the Summit from an unknown series to a world class event. The conference has had its growing pains, but now it has events across the US and even in Europe...a wonderful success story.
Some of you might remember that I went to Affiliate Summit last year through work, but I'm pretty stoked to be going as an independent blogger this go round, with nothing to do but enjoy and document my experience.
I'm hoping to cover most of the conference through video blog posts, technology permitting.
Anyway, more about Affiliate Summit over the coming days. Tomorrow (or soon) - the conference agenda!
Tags: affiliatesummit
This may only be funny/ironic if you do search marketing...but take my word, this is hilarious.
[Big up to UberAffiliate for pointing this one out.]
Want a good laugh? Do the following:
Well done Arran Schlosberg, whoever the hell you are…
If you are working on something totally mindless:
a) Welcome to the club, and
b) Here is a download of a great conversation between Seth Godin, Tim Ferris, Chris Anderson and John Jantsch you can listen to so your brain doesn't continue to rot in your head.
You are welcome.
(Source)
A ran across a list today from Yahoo! Hot Jobs that listed 5 hot business careers you don't need an MBA for. The list?
You gotta dig it when your career makes a list like that.
Is anyone else noticing that all of these jobs have a lot to do with marketing? I guess salesperson/accountant/finance guy just don't count as "hot" these days. Or do you need an MBA to do those jobs? I'm confused.
[Update: Looks like SEMPO has put out a study on what search marketing folk get paid on average. If you're curious.]
A lot of businesses have websites and most of them have no clue how to use them to make sales or generate leads. Even if a site has proper optimization techniques used on the site itself, it is very important to have links pointed to the site to get it ranked well in the search engines.
Of course getting great links to a website can be challenging, but usually small businesses don't need great links to rank well for less competitive terms, just good ones. So how can you get good links to your small business site? Norvax, a competitor of my employer, has a really good list of 27 Free and Cheap Ways to Get Valuable Links to Your Site that is worth checking out.
You got to figure if the list is good enough to link to my employer's competitor's website, it has got to be good.
Today I ran across a story on MarketingVOX that looked promising. The headline – ad:tech: Group to Strike for Creativity. The premise – a group called No More Landing Pages is going to “strike” at ad:tech in San Francisco for the end of the use of landing pages. Sounded kind of interesting…a bit convoluted, but interesting. I clicked through to the No More Landing Pages site and guess what I found? The No More Landing Pages LANDING PAGE!
Ok, so it’s not a landing page, it’s a blog. But if the key to being successful without landing pages is “be passionate, not complacent,” I think the no more landing page revolution is doomed. Reading the seven blog posts on the page really left me confused. We can all wax poetically about a problem…but can you give a solution? And before you give us a solution, what do you consider a landing page? Give examples my friends. Then solve all of our landing page problems.
I’m curious to know more…kinda…
Matt McGee, over at Search Engine Land, wrote a fantastic post about why small businesses need to get on the social media bandwagon. The way I look at it, Matt’s got a point. There are a lot of industries out there where a small business doesn’t have much of a chance of succeeding at search engine optimization (or pay-per-click for that matter) because massive companies dominate the premium space on search engines (think real estate or insurance).
Social media rewards people who are willing to take the time to make a contribution to their community and elevates people who are experts in their fields. The thing that small businesses can do more effectively than big ones is communicate on a personal level.
If you’re running a small business, and you want to promote your business online, make sure you read and understand this article. It could drastically change your approach to marketing, and maybe even save you some time and money…
I Am Sick of It.
I’m sick of the phone calls from SEO companies. I think my company gets at least two calls a day from shady search engine optimization companies, and 99% of the time they are from the snake oil salesmen that give the SEO industry its terrible reputation.
The people who call are slick sales types, or the lackeys of slick sales types who work to prey on small and large businesses that have no real knowledge about search engines and how they work.
And now I’m sick of it. And I want to do something about it. And I need your help.
I think it’s time to start outing these SEO sheisters, right here on the good ol’ Intarweb. And I think anyone who wants to make the SEO community a better place should chip in and help me. Here’s what I’m thinking…
Continue reading "My Plan to Out the SEO Sheisters…Are You With Me?" »
Living in the world of search marketing, we often assume that every business in the world:
But reality is a lot different from our perception. The truth is that many businesses don’t have web sites and even the businesses that do still have no clue what to do with it.
Recently, Bill Slawski of SEO By the SEA, who normally blogs about the technical world of search engine patent applications, wrote an amazingly simple post that reminds us why your business should have a web site. Read it here.
Got back from the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas at midnight last night and I am ready to go to bed early and try to get my missing voice back.
But before I do that I wanted to point over to a fun post at SEOmoz called Link Ninjas vs. Bait Pirates. Great title and fun post Scott. Respekt.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go pass the heck out.
So I figure there are one billion blog posts today that talk about the iPhone, but this might be the only one that will be optimized for searches containing iPhone, sex, guns, and/or porn. Way to go me.
The iPhone is pretty amazing though. I think everyone who carries a cell phone and an iPod around in their pocket all day (like me) will really appreciate having their phone and iPod all in one. Of course, that brings me to my two concerns about the iPhone.
Number one, the damn thing might not fit in my pocket. I am not totally sure how big the thing is (actually I do - 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches), but based on the photos next to a hand, the damn thing looks big. And I am not a fan of carrying a phone holster (it looks bad with my…well, everything) – and no matter how cool something is, I don’t want to wear a holster for it…unless it is a firearm.
Number two, the iPhone looks like one giant screen…and since the first thing I did with my iPod Nano was protect the screen with an aftermarket screen protector, I don’t have a whole lot of faith in Apple’s ability to build a durable screen. And even if I do manage to shoehorn the damn thing into my pocket, I will have to make sure I have lined my pockets with super-soft microfiber from Switzerland (they have the best microfiber) so I don’t tear up the damn screen. Or I will have to put it in a big old protective case…and that means a holster. Which brings me back to number one.
Maybe Apple should add a derringer to the iPhone…then I would be happy to strap it to my belt.
Oh yeah, one more thing – why the hell do I have to switch to Cingular to use an iPhone? That sucks.
So will I buy an iPhone when they come out in June? No. Am I excited to see what the iPhone turns into in the next three or four years? Yes. Do I feel sorry for the R&D teams of all of the major cell phone producers? You bet your ass.
And if those Scandinavians at Nokia come out with a phone/music player/revolver, I’m going to sue.
I don’t know how I could say this any better than the SEO Loser himself – so I suggest you check out his post and the huge list of comments that followed. The Loser talks about his experience at the PubCon conference in Vegas last month and the drastic divide between the SEO Rockstars and the SEO rank and file. It’s a very well written post, and worth the read.
Also, you can check out Rand’s post about the nervousness we all feel when we talk to the SEO elite. It turns out there is a big old food chain of nervousness with Danny Sullivan at the top and people like me sitting at the bottom. YAY for the bottom!
Alright, enough reading this…read the two posts I linked to. They are worth it.
(I write this as Sting sings some bizarre Christmas song like a eunuch on the NBC Rockefeller Christmas show. Sting is being accompanied tonight by Tiny Tim’s bastard brother, who normally travels with the Renaissance Festival, playing some kind of Mongoloid ukulele. This has nothing to do with this post, but it is freaking me out.)
If you do any work in the SEO world, you know that link baiting is one of the most talked about, beloved, difficult and prayed-about topics in our industry right now. After years of begging other desperate Webmasters to trade a link with you, blog spamming and renting expensive links, SEOers have decided that making cool shit is the best way to get lots and lots of free(ish) links.
This is good.
Ah, the irony.
You would think a blogger who makes it a point to show the world bad SEO practices on his blog would be the last person you would want to spam. But wouldn’t you guess it, I got an obnoxious blog spam comment after yesterday's post from another Denver SEO company.
It turns out that the spammer didn’t see the irony when he left the comment below on yesterday’s post (by the way, I removed the little carats you use for HTML and replaced it with “[“ and “]”…what can I say, I don’t feel like looking it up the code for those symbols). Ok, here is the comment:
If I ran a search engine optimization and web design company I would try to avoid some of the most obvious (and bad) SEO tricks. And I would especially try to avoid using dated SEO tricks (that look really bad) on my homepage. But it seems that the Denver SEO market isn’t full of much talent.
So ladies and gents, I present to you Acperion’s homepage. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see some really, really lame (and desperate) keyword stuffing.
Seriously people – get with it. This is 2006, not 2003.
[UPDATE! Check out this meta keyword tag from the site...
meta NAME="keywords" CONTENT="company web site designers,website developers,search engine optimization services,search engine placement,web site development, search engine marketing services, search engine optimization, search engine placement services, search engine ranking services, denver web design, database programming, flash programming, denver web designers, nyc web site design, colorado,denver,new york city,douglas county,denver county,arapahoe county,adams county,internet marketing,graphic design,web design firms,web design company,site positioning experts,site positioning analysis,keyword marketing,strategic website submission,keyword position secrets,increase web site traffic,meta keywords advice,url optimization,internet search engine registrations,submit site to search engines,foreign submissions,foriegn engines,international submissions,search engine secrets"
Seriously?!?!?!]
[UPDATE 2: (11/28/2006) I checked the Acperion site today and noticed that the spam-o-licious links were no longer on the bottom of the page. I also noticed I did not say exactly what they were doing in my post. So to be clear, they were listing all of the state names and abbreviations at the bottom of the home page (this used to be a good way to rank for state specific terms). Anyway, I am glad they fixed this particular issue...I will mail you my bill for the consultation :) ]
I am an avid reader of Fast Company magazine and I think that, as far as business magazines go, Fast Company is one of the best. So I was a little more than disappointed by Fast Company Online’s article The Key(words) to E-Commerce Success by Evan Goldberg. I am not sure who Evan Goldberg is, but the guy obviously likes to write without doing much research.
Check out this passage:
Google and Yahoo's keyword marketing networks provide basic reporting on a keyword's performance, such as click-through visitors to a site. What they don't provide is data on the conversion of those visitors to lead, prospect or closed sales, primarily because they do not match up with real time accounting and sales data.
Um, Evan, they actually do provide that. They have been providing that for a couple of years. Thousands for PPC advertisers use Google Conversion Tracking, Yahoo’s Conversion Counter and Yahoo Search Optimizer.
I am not sure if Evan Goldberg is a regular Fast Company contributor or if he is a freelancer (he doesn’t seem to have a bio on the site), but I think FC should reconsider using his material since he seems to skip doing his research.
If you need a friend when you are searching you might want to use the Ms. Dewey search engine. The good news is you get a cheeky companion when you search. The bad news is you get crappy MSN search results.
Funny enough, when I typed in “health insurance,” Ms. Dewey pulled out a bunch of condoms. Crazy.
I swear they can coexist – so does this person.
And Danny Sullivan explains the issue here:
Worthless Shady Criminals: A Defense Of SEO from me last year looked at precisely this breakdown between designers and SEO, examining why I think it happened and how terribly bad it is. It wasn't always this way and seems to have largely come from people understandings that SEO involves less savory tactics such as blog spamming.
In reality, designers really need to understand that search engines are like a third browser -- and in fact a far more popular browser used by more people than using Firefox. They will spend tons of time making sure a site works for IE or Firefox, even Opera. But no time to make sure that the browsers of search engines are going to be OK with it?
I've found this has worked when I've had to talk with designers in the past, especially when you're saying you aren't trying to wipe out good design but ensure it is ALSO search friendly -- which is often more human friendly and solves the "I built it but no one came problem."
Can’t we all just get along?
Ok, I have to start out with a disclaimer, because a number of my co-workers and bosses read, or at least check in, with this blog. So to you folks, I not am posting this because I want a title like VP of Search or anything like that – at this point I have really stopped caring what my title is – so don’t take this as a hint. :) End disclaimer.
The reason I am posting this article from the Search Engine Watch is because it talks about how search marketing professionals are getting their feet in the door and gaining some clout in more traditional organizations – although for many, it is an uphill battle.
One of my very favorite quotes:
The VP title, however, came much later in a firm that still distrusts the web. Smith commented that "90% of the job is still convincing the company that my job is worth having. To do this, you need to educate."
So read this article – Your New Title: The VP of Search - and learn something.
To live up to the link love given by the Link Building Wiki, I guess I should make a post about link building. So here it goes, a link to the 10 Link Commandments, posted by the O.G. link builder Eric Ward.
And just for fun, here is the preview for the movie I am dying to see this fall…ladies and gents, enjoy Borat.
Thanks to Mz. Pocket for pointing me to the site with the video.
If you are in my line of work (search marketing), getting links to your website is a very cool thing. It is one of the hardest things to do and that is why there is an entire industry centered around buying and selling links. Companies like Text Link Brokers.
So how surprised was I to see that I got a link from the Link Building Wiki, which Text Link Brokers runs.
I am not sure how I got it, how they found me, or why they considered me worthy of a link – but I say thank you whoever put me there. Links are awesome…I should have asked for some for my birthday.
So, I made a post today on my undisclosed work blog that talked about companies who are imitating Google and why they aren’t going to win by copying.
When I got home tonight I had my brand new copy of The Economist waiting for me, which makes me a bit too excited, but whatever. I started looking through the pages and I saw a special report on Google called “Fuzzy Math.”
This is how the article started:
Mathematically confidant drivers stuck in the usual jam on highway 101 through Silicon Valley were recently able to pass time contemplating a billboard that read: “{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com.” The number in question, 7427266391, is a sequence that starts at the 101st digit of e, a constant that is the base of the natural logarithm. The select few who worked this out and made it to the right website then encountered a “harder” riddle. Solving it led to another web page where they were finally invited to submit their curriculum vitae.If a billboard can capture the soul of a company, this one did, because the anonymous company, this one did, because the anonymous advertiser was Google…
So my question to you, if you are trying to get the best talent out there – is your culture up to snuff?
[That was my longest post title ever]
It seems that Mark Ingall, director of global strategic media and global marketing for Citibank said Thursday that Internet marketing will peak soon. You think with a title like “Director of Global Strategic Media and Global Marketing” he would have a better grasp of where Internet marketing is and where it is going.
So why would he say something like that? Oh, he said it during a keynote at the Advertising Club of New York's annual Magazine Day. I guess he wanted to blow some sunshine up those poor Magazine folk’s backsides.
I would have taken a different approach and just said “things aren’t too good, but at least you are not in the newspaper business.”
Here is the article from Media Daily News.
My girlfriend Kristi and I had Kristi’s parents over for Easter dinner on Sunday. We had a great time and, as usual, I had an enjoyable conversation with her father, Neil.
Neil is a very successful marketing guy who has decided to leave the marketing world and pursue his passion - human sexuality and counseling. A very big change and one that he is enjoying immensely.
The funny thing about Neil is that he is still a marketer at heart, and he can’t help but see the marketing opportunities that abound in his new industry.
Anyway, long story kinda short (and meandering), Neil and I talked about blogs, sites like Flickr, and Seth Godin’s Squidoo. I am very excited about the concept of making the users of your Web site the creators of the content and I think all of these site we discussed leverage the power of users and readers to create content.
So today as luck would have it (and strangely, my luck usually does), I ran across a very appropriate reading material that delves into this topic a bit. The book, Seth Godin’s short e-book “Flipping the Funnel,” is a good starting point for many people who are trying to understand some of the new trends in the online space.
This is the second time I ran across “Flipping the Funnel” but the first time I actually read it – and I am glad I did.
Pay special attention to the idea of Squidoo. I have said it before, I think Seth is on to something.
Ok, for all of you Intarweb searchers out there, look at these search results and tell me if something looks wrong:
MSN search for Auto Insurance Page 1, Page 2
If you take a look at all of the URLs, you will notice a pattern. Many of the domains being displayed, like auto-insurance.amazing-credit.com, auto-insurance.24x7-insurance.com, and auto-insurance.great-finance.com are all owned by the same person. And whoever it is has managed to spam the hell out of MSN using the same tactic over and over again.
And surprisingly, the results have been this way for a few weeks.
So, here is my open telegram to MSN regarding their search quality:
Dear MSN Search People STOP Your search results suck STOP They suck real, real bad STOP Fix your results before everyone notices your results suck as bad as they do STOP If you need an example, search for “auto insurance” STOP Seriously STOP Love, James, Chief of All Things, MarketingPunk.com STOP P.S. - Please tell those people over at AdCenter to get their sh!t together. STOP
Alright! I hope they get the telegram. If you are as bothered as I am, write your senator.
Over and out.
It must be true, it is in the New York Times.
Oh, and something to note that is hilarious (to me anyway) - Ogilvy's new seach marketing branch NeoSearch@Ogilvy has a way to go. Check out the search results for these phrases - NeoSearch@Ogilvy, NeoSearch Ogilvy, and Ogilvy NeoSearch .
Um yeah, that could be a problem for your street cred.
Necessary viewing – Seth Godin speaking at Google.
Nothing like a Seth explaining to a bunch of technologists that the reason that Google is so successful has little to do with their technology. He says it has to do with marketing (however inadvertent).
Take the 48 minutes to watch this. There is a reason why the entire blogoshpere is linking to this video.
Every time I log into Yahoo! (my homepage), I get this new Yahoo! homepage test page:
So what do you think? I like the old one more personally, but I think it is just becuase I am used to it.
I thought it would be a good night to check out the latest progress on my two favorite Million Dollar Homepage knock-offs – Web20MillionDollarHomepage.com and SmashMyViper.com.
First off, SmashMyViper.
I just checked out the most recent damage video from SmashMyViper – they drilled holes in the hood (again) and the dashboard and made various key marks on the car. During the video the mentioned that the replacement cost of the hood was $17,000 – and the hood has a few holes in it already.
So, with all of this damage, what is the total amount of money raised? $5,900. Ouch. And strangely the SmashMyViper girls were not in the latest damage video – I hope that doesn’t mean the boys are running out of money :)
Pixel orders at SMV seem to be slowing, and a loss of momentum is not a good thing in a buzz driven market.
Which brings me to my homeboy Srinivasan and the Web20MillionDollarHomepage.
Now remember, I like Srinivasan, not for his idea but because he seems like a generally nice guy with a dream and I respect him for that. He also was nice enough to post follow-up comments after the blog comment campaign he ran to get the site off the ground.
But with all of that work, how much has the Web20MillionDollarHomepage made so far? Sadly, $300 – the same amount he had made when he originally posted on this blog. That means that the page never even got the enough buzz to get off of the ground. Not good.
So what’s up Srinivasan? What is your theory on your lack of success so far? And how are you going to make this work?
Oh, but to Srinivasan credit, he did get a reply from Guy Kawasaki regarding their thoughts on the new “focused curiosity advertising” landscape…I just wish he would have posted the entire reply, not just the part that makes him look good.
So, what can we get out of all of this? I would say that it shows us that a) the million dollar concept was a one off, and b) the market for pixel ads is not showing the growth that pixel ad sites would like to see, oh yeah, and c) pixel ad sites should try the real Web 2.0 version of their idea – the $0 homepage.
You might laugh at the idea, but if you gave away space on your site for free, but allowed people to pay you if they want, I bet you would make more than you are making now. Seriously – a Google PageRank 4 or 5 inbound link can be worth some cash to a text link ad buyer these days. You have the PageRank, now why don’t you make some money from that?
Also, if done right, you can get a buzz going from the companies that you are targeting in the first place. Who wouldn't want a link if they were free? And if you could pay a little more for a bigger pixel ad, on a site that has a good amount of buzz traffic, why wouldn't you spend a few bucks? Think about it, it might save your business.
Srinivasan, are you listening? That one was for free bud. :)
I think all of the PPC companies are seeing big dollar signs when they think about the old media world and all of the inefficient spending in the TV, print, and radio world. Google has already purchased a company that will give them the ability to let AdWords advertisers secure radio ads. Now it looks like they are trying to get AdWords users to toss money into print ads.
Check out this is the email I got today:
I ran across this post at the Online Marketing Blog that really made me laugh.
I don’t think it is a shock to anyone who has been around Search Engine Watch’s Danny Sullivan that Danny can be a bit of a goof. Danny is quite a singer – in a William Hung kind of way.
This new WebMasterRadio.fm promo is a great example of Danny’s American Idol prowess.
Enjoy!