Kick butt social media maven and Copy Diva Robin Seidner pointed me to some interesting stats today posted by Matt McGee that show that the average length of search queries is increasing year over year.

Check out the stats here.

While this obviously shows that there is growth in long tail search terms, I think the more interesting angle on this story is that it seems that people may be learning to speak "searchese" - learning how to write effective search queries that get them where they want to go on the web.

This could have big implications for the companies trying to figure out natural language search since it could be easier to teach humans how to speak search engine rather than teach search engines how to speak human.

Time will tell.

Posted by James at 06:50 PM | Permalink

Cooliris is a cinematic style browser application that lets you search images and videos on major search engines and websites in a smooth and speedy way. It just won a much deserved Crunchie Award in the category of Best Design, and while it may not revolutionize the way we search, it sure makes looking for pictures and videos a hell of a lot prettier.

Head over to the Cooliris site, download it, and let me know what you think.

Posted by James at 07:46 PM | Permalink

Here is a very interesting blog post from Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land about a recent Nielsen and WebVisible study that found an major gap between the use of search engines to find local businesses and the time and money local businesses are spending on marketing on search engines.

My favorite stat was that people consider the following as their primary tool for finding local business information:

Search engines - 50%
Print yellow pages - 24%
Online yellow pages - 10%

So if you're a small business owner, where are you going to put your marketing dollars in 2009?

Check out the post for all the details and to see how small business owners feel about their marketing efforts.

Posted by James at 07:29 PM | Permalink

Number one, sorry about the lack of posts. If anyone actually still reads this blog, thanks for sticking around. (Apologies for apologizing for this more than once for the last few months).

Number two, Aaron Wall on SEOBook.com has been writing some of the best SEO blog posts I've read in a long time. Here's some goodness that you ought to be reading:

• Search Traffic Growth Profile for New Websites
• Keyword Research Strategy Flowchart
• Small Business Link Building Ideas

Subscribe to the SEOBook blog for more knowledge dropping.

Posted by James at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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...

Posted by James at 08:55 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 08:33 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 07:20 PM | Permalink

Don't want to watch the video? You can read the post by clicking through...

Continue reading "Online Reputation Management for Insurance Agents" »

Posted by James at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

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:

$1345 / 4br - Elegant 4 bedroom 3.25 bath home

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.

Posted by James at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

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.

Posted by James at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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.

Posted by James at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

Posted by James at 07:11 PM | Permalink

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 25

What: 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 network

What: 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

Posted by James at 07:04 PM | Permalink

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

Posted by James at 07:24 PM | Permalink

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.]

Posted by James at 02:45 PM | Permalink

Want a good laugh? Do the following:

1. Go to www.Google.com
2. Type “Find Chuck Norris” into the search box
3. Hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button
4. Enjoy

Well done Arran Schlosberg, whoever the hell you are…

Posted by James at 08:56 PM | Permalink

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)

Posted by James at 09:06 PM | Permalink

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?

1. Event Planning
2. Public Relations
3. Advertising
4. Web Designer
5. Search Engine Optimization

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.]

Posted by James at 08:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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.

Posted by James at 07:14 PM | Permalink

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…

Posted by James at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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…

Posted by James at 07:36 PM | Permalink

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?" »

Posted by James at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Living in the world of search marketing, we often assume that every business in the world:

1. Has a web site, and
2. Understands why they should have a web site

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.

Posted by James at 07:15 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 07:04 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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.

Posted by James at 08:11 PM | Permalink

(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.

Continue reading "Websites as Graphs – Good Link Bait" »

Posted by James at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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:

Continue reading "The Irony is Killing Me..." »

Posted by James at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Just kidding!

Posted by James at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

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.

Posted by James at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

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.

Posted by James at 09:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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?

Posted by James at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

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.

Posted by James at 08:10 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 08:17 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

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?

Posted by James at 08:17 PM | Permalink

[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.

Posted by James at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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.

Posted by James at 07:48 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 08:22 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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.

Posted by James at 08:05 PM | Permalink

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.

Posted by James at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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. :)

Posted by James at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

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:

Continue reading "Google Doing The Print Thing" »

Posted by James at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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!

Posted by James at 07:11 PM | Permalink

I ran across Dave Naylor’s new blog today and I love it. This blog is a bit more personal than the other one – which is great because he is a really nice fella.

One of the coolest things about the blog is the use of hilarious cartoon characters, which he calls mini-me’s, that are pretty damn good parodies of some of the top people in search. There are cartoons of Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer, Greg Boser, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, along with others.

Definitely check out the story about Dave riding the mechanical bull in his underpants in New Orleans – classic!

Posted by James at 06:52 PM | Permalink

GODDAMN!

If this turns out to be true we all know that Yahoo! has decided to drive the ship straight into the iceberg.

There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge. ---Hunter S. Thompson

Yahoo!, for the love of God, put the cork back into the ether bottle.

Posted by James at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I want to start this post by saying that I like everyone I have ever met from Yahoo!. They are professional, interesting and fun individuals. I appreciate the things they do for me at work and I enjoy interacting with them socially as well.

With that said, a recent dinner with a Yahoo! Search Marketing rep has caused me to be very disappointed with the vision of Yahoo!'s executives, or the lack there of.

Not long after Yahoo! stated that they are happy with being #2 in the search business (a statement they quickly retracted), Yahoo! seems to have thrown in the towel in the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) world as well. It seems that Yahoo! Search Marketing (Y!SM) has decided to copy every aspect of Google AdWords.

We all know that Y!SM has started to truncate ad length, from 190 characters to 70 characters. Basically, this increases click-through-rate (money in Yahoo’s pocket) and reduces conversion after those clicks (less money in advertiser’s pockets). This change was a blatant attempt to increase clicks and dollars for Yahoo!. No cool, but I was willing to eat it and not get pissy about the change.

But this was not the end of the changes at Y!SM. It seems that Google envy has gotten the best of them – and some more changes are in the way.

Continue reading "Yahoo! Get’s Greed (er) and More Misguided" »

Posted by James at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yeah, call me the Search Engine Optimization expert. I just checked my Google Analytics account and found out that I am the only site on the Web that comes up in Google for "hot naked sitepals that when you type something they will say it."

I crap you not - someone typed that in.

Damn...I am good.

Posted by James at 09:17 PM | Permalink

Seth finally comments on the Million Dollar Homepage after Tom Peters posts his own comment.

Main point - Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage business model is a great business model - for Alex Tew. The page has little value for advertisers, no chance of making a long-term difference in anyone’s world (except Alex Tew), and no chance of being repeatable (sorry SmashMyViper, looks like the experts are against you too).

Check out the posts – have a great day.

Posted by James at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I was in a meeting today discussing some design changes to my company’s Web site and one of our Web designers said something that made me feel a little divided.

Our company is trying to move in a more “Web 2.0” direction with our business model. Basically, this means we are trying to give our customers what they want, not what is going to make us the most money in the short term.

So, as we were discussing the first phase of testing for our home page, our designer said that once someone had arrived on a keyword specific landing page from a pay-per-click advertisement we should not give them any unnecessary options and focus on shoving them through our monitization process.

“Whoa!” I thought, that is not very consumer friendly at all! I mean, if we are doing the “Web 2.0” thing we can’t be pushing anyone through the process. We have to let them go wherever they want on our site and give them such a great experience that they just beg us to monitze them…right?

Actually, maybe not.

Continue reading "Shoving Our Customers Through The Funnel" »

Posted by James at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Looks like our million dollar hero is being targeted by some lowlife hijackers (no I am not talking about SmashMyViper).

See the whole story from Yahoo News.

UPDATE - SmashMyViper is up to $5,200 – just enough to do some damage to the Viper and not quite enough to pay to fix the damage :( Bad times fellas, bad times.

Posted by James at 07:16 PM | Permalink

So I am guilty of overestimating Web surfers…or maybe it is underestimating.

I always thought that the three-second rule was the standard for Web surfers. No, not that three-second rule - eating food off of the ground is nasty no matter how long it has touched it for. I am talking about the rule that a Web surfer will decide if they are going to hit the back button or stick around after about three seconds on your Web site.

It turns out that you have a lot less time than three seconds – try 50 milliseconds. Yeah, 50 milliseconds.

A recent study done in Canada found that Web surfer’s brains make flash judgements of whether or not they are going to stick around a site or take off. For more on the study, click here.

So do you think it is important to have a well-designed site that draws people in?

You bet your ass you do.

Posted by James at 07:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thanks to Google Analytics I present to you the Marketing Punk World Domination Map(c) from 2005.

Each orange circle represents at least one visit.

Not to shabbby for a zero dollar marketing budget and only three months of posting.

Posted by James at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is always good to know about an industry's past to gauge what will happen in the future.

If you are in the online marketing business, check out this report on the decade of online advertising.

Posted by James at 01:36 PM | Permalink

Hi, I am Yahoo!. I control one of the most cost effective forms of marketing available. It will give you a better ROI than TV, radio, newspapers, or any of those other boring offline marketing channels. Don’t believe me? What if I can prove it to you? For a nominal fee…

I give props to Yahoo! for launching a new service in partnership with Marketing Management Analytics that will help advertisers measure the effectiveness of both their online and offline marketing efforts. Great move guys. That is why I like my Yahoo! peeps more than those folks over at the Plex – you do things that make good business sense (and you take me snowboarding.)

It always amuses me when I hear stories of executives who suddenly see what a cost effective form of marketing online can be. Like a buddy of mine who works for a big company in the insurance market. His cost per lead from a TV advertisement is $37. From online marketing it is around $10. When he showed this to the old farts who run his company they all had that “ah-ha” moment that online marketers live for.

With Yahoo! having the ability to prove the cost effective nature of online marketing (vs. offline) to companies who are just getting into the online space, they will have control over that “ah-ha” moment.

When that happens, guess who will be there to offer suggestions of how to better spend those marketing dollars?

Yahoo!, I love you guys.

Posted by James at 08:31 PM | Permalink

SEO is getting some mainstream press with this Newsweek article about Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz.

Rand is looking like a true SEO Rockstar in the article photos, posing with his business partner and mother, Gillian.

I think my favorite quote in the whole story has to be:

If search-engine rankings are supposed to represent a kind of democracy—a reflection of what Internet users collectively think is most useful—then search-engine optimizers like Fishkin are the Web's lobbyists.

Hell, I bet Rand is going to get paid like a lobbyist after that article. Congrats Rand!

Posted by James at 08:16 PM | Permalink

John Battelle has an interesting post which points out how Google is starting to get a Microsoft-like reputation for being so big and ambitious. I would have to agree that Google is indeed on its way to getting a bad reputation if they continue to be reckless in their business decisions and treatment of the general public.

Let me begin by saying that I am all for capitalism and ambition. I think that any company that has had the success of Google should be commended. I think Google is doing wonderful things and has developed great products and an amazing corporate culture. They more than deserve all of the success they have had.

Now after saying that, as a person who works in the search field, I think the corporate personality of Google has gone from friendly to cocky over the last year and a half. No longer do I feel that Google is my buddy who is helping me succeed online. And I am sure there are many more people feeling like I do. Which for Google, is going to be a problem.

What annoys me about Google is the collective arrogance that is starting to appear from within the Google Plex. Let me give you an example…

Continue reading "Google Is Feeling Fat and Sassy" »

Posted by James at 04:00 PM | Permalink

We all like to know that we have valuable skills. Like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, and computer hacking skills...girls only want boyfriends who have great skills (thank you Mr. Dynamite).

Anyway, I found this article on the Internet Retailer site that talks about the difficulty employers are having finding people who have search engine marketing skills.

I can understand why this would be. If you are really good at SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or PPC Pay-Per-Click), and you are confident that you can make a go of it on your own, you are not going to be working for a company, unless that company has great stock options or very big salaries. So finding good, experienced talent for an in-house position is always going to be tough.

Then there are your in-house SEM (Search Engine Marketing) people like me. I had the chance to meet both Doug Sundahl (from Overstock.com) and Chris Seahorn (from eBags) at different Yahoo outings. Both of them are quoted in the Internet Retailer article. The are both great guys who know their stuff but like me, they are still working in-house. Why? I think we all work for companies that we like, we all are in our first few years in the business, we all like the security of a salary, and we all may have some upside when it comes to company stock – and there is nothing wrong with that.

I remember when I was speaking to Doug Sundahl in Palm Springs and he told me that after being in the SEM business for 6 months, all of that time at Overstock, he was already getting solicitations from other companies to take over their SEM departments. Now if that isn’t a sellers market, I do not know what is.

So what is a company to do when they are looking for talent in the SEM department? Well, the first thing I would recommend is beware of “experienced” SEMs overselling themselves. I know for a fact that there are a lot of people out there that consider themselves SEM experts because they put up some banner ads and ranked for terms like “auto warranties for my child Sam’s car on a winter eve.” The last thing you want to do is waste time and money on a person who could potentially make moves to tarnish your online image or, even worse, get your million-dollar domain banned.

If you can’t find an experienced person to hire, there is always outsourcing your SEM, but chances are that if you are looking to have an in-house team, you have ruled out outsourcing. Which can be understandable, since there are a lot of shady SEM companies out there. Also, you could be making a large financial investment in a SEM company and there is a chance that you would never make any money off of it.

So what to do, what to do…

Well, there is no easy answer. But if anything, I would recommend trying to hire from within or looking for young, talented people who have the desire to learn and the potential so succeed in SEM. It will take time for your person to develop, which can be frustrating, but I think SEM can be taught to the right kind of person. And the best part is, if you find the right kind of person they will love it.

One thing I can tell you from experience is that I am grateful that my company took a chance on me and gave me the time and support to learn about SEM…and I love it.

Posted by James at 10:28 AM | Permalink

My name is James and I am a Google Analytiholic.

Google has become my informational crack dealer. I check to see if my Marketing Punk stats have updated about 10 times a day. And usually, they haven’t.

Word is, due to the overwhelming demand for Google Analytics; Google has had to throw a lot more hardware at the product. So until they get everything up and running, Analytics users are forced to wait a day or two for their numbers to update, which is fine with me, because so far Google Crack ™ (as I like to call it) is free.

I know that some people are concerned that Google is collecting all of this data for their eventual world takeover and indexing, but whatever, I like the pretty graphs. And if Google really wants to mine data from MarketingPunk.com, have at it.

So what feature do I like the most about Google Analytics? It would have to be the MarketingPunk.com World Domination Map.

You can see from the orange circles that I have had visitors from across the world over the last couple of weeks, so my minions are growing….muhahahahahahahaha. Ok, seriously though, it is pretty cool to know that I am getting visits from places like Oslo, London, Santa Domingo, and Richmond, Australia.

Sadly, if you haven’t already signed up for Google Analytics you will have to wait until Google upgrades its capacity (hopefully soon). But when you can sign up, you should (unless you are afraid of Google somehow plotting to use your information against you in the future, then I would suggest one of the fine medicines listed here.)

Posted by James at 07:28 PM | Permalink

Hitwise, a competitive intelligence company, has an interesting blog that uses their search data to plot different trends found in online queries. In general, the trends that they are looking at may not be earth shattering, but it is kind of fun to see how people search based on the time of year, current events, or societal trends.

The thing that I find most interesting about this kind of analysis is that search data has become a barometer of the thoughts and feelings of people today. It really represents what we are thinking about, worried about, and what we are discussing as a society.

Some of the recent reports Hitwise has generated are:

• Travel vendors set to benefit from World Cup Germany searches


• Xbox 360 Gets Short Shrift From UK Consumers


• Heating with Wood Stoves

One amusing trend they found was the inverse relationship between searches for Thanksgiving recipes and visits to dieting sites.

Anyway, add the XML feed to your feed reader, check in from time to time, and enjoy!

Posted by James at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wow! I just found the Xoogler blog by Doug Edwards, the ex-Director of Consumer Marketing and Brand Management for Google, and now presumably rich, full time dad. The blog is filled with stories from his time at Google from 1999 to 2005.

There are great pictures of the early Google office, with the saw horse and door desks, and fascinating accounts of the interviewing process with Sergey Brin back in the day.

Throw this blog on your RSS reader, I have a feeling there are many great posts to come.

Posted by James at 09:36 AM | Permalink

Greg Boser over at WebGuerilla has a great post regarding some research he did into the drop of an ex-client's Web site. Turns out the ex-client had joined a little link farm called GotLinks.

I will let you read the post, but all I will say is after joining GotLinks the site is history...

Posted by James at 08:12 PM | Permalink

No, SpiderBan is not the newest superhero; it is what those crazy guys over at Webmaster World are doing to all the search engine’s spiders – BANNING them.

Here is the scoop from Danny Sullivan.

Good luck Webmaster World. I will be interested to see how long you keep up the ban.

Posted by James at 09:45 AM | Permalink

John Battelle, the man who wrote the popular book "The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Reinvented Business and Transformed Our Culture," has a great OP-ED piece in the New York Times about how the new boom in the internet business is not a bubble.

Some of his main points are:

• The successful Internet companies of today are operating in a Web 2.0 mindset


• Technology can be scaled much easier and much more inexpensively


• Companies are able to leverage almost a decades worth of technology


• Financiers are not driving the new Internet boom, entrepreneurs and geeks are


• Vast improvements in search technology and the use of PPC ads versus banner ads


• Innovative companies are being purchased by larger companies, not going public

Posted by James at 11:44 AM | Permalink

Releton Web is a cool new AJAX based search engine that lets you compare Yahoo and Google results by moving around a slider. It is fun to mess around with and compare results. Enjoy!

Posted by James at 11:31 AM | Permalink

So if you are not already in love with your TiVo for recording your favorite shows and deciding that you are a sixty something year old housewife when you are twenty something fella, here is one more reason to feel the love...

A recent article in AdWeek (citing an American Advertising Federation survey) found that the so called "TiVo Effect" on television viewing is causing companies to move funding out of television adverts and over to other marketing channels.

The biggest benefactor in this shift is the online marketing vertical, with survey respondents saying they would be increasing their online ad spend by 33% in 2006. That would account for 19% of their total ad budget.

So it looks like ad agencies are going to be pushed into the Internet marketing space whether they like it or not. It is exciting to see that the drivers for this change will be technology and consumer demand, rather than agencies finding a profit center and exploiting it.

Hopefully, in the end, this will mean good things for the online community.

Posted by James at 12:32 PM | Permalink

I am heading off to the Webmaster World PubCon in Las Vegas for some fear and loathing. I am hoping to be able to have some time to blog on the trip, but if not, I will be back on Friday.

Posted by James at 11:10 AM | Permalink

I am sure it is not a surprise to a lot of folks that the real growth in media spending is on the Internet. I ran across a post on Chris Anderson's blog that does a good job of summing up the trends in media spending. Here are his findings:

Media Trending Downward:

* Box Office - down by 7% this year (tickets sales per capita have fallen every year since 2001).
* Newspapers - circulation is declining faster than ever and is down another 2.6% so far this year.
* Music - sales are down another 5.7% this year; although digital downloads (still just 6% of the business) are building nicely.
* Radio - down 4% this year alone and is predictably continuing a multi-decade decline.
* Books - decreased by 7% in 2004

Mixed Trends:

* DVDs - sales growth slowing dramatically going from 29% last year to single digits this year.
* TV - total viewership is still rising, but as the numbers of channels increase, the audience fragments and the ratings of the average program continue to decline.
* Magazines - Ad revenues are up a bit but the number of ad pages is flat and the price per page is up. Circulation is flat and newsstand sales are at an all-time low.
* Videogames - keep in mind it is the final few months of the current generation of consoles, so better times are ahead with the launch of Xbox 360 (X-Mas). With that in mind, sales were down 20% in Sept.

Media Trending Upward:

* Internet advertising - Banners were up 10% this year and PPC continues to grow. Google's revenue was up 96%. Advertisers are still waiting for a thank you note.

I am interested to what it will take for many big advertisers and ad agencies to bite the bullet and really get involved with the online community. I definitely see some big advertisers buying their front page banner ads on Yahoo, but I am not sure if they are looking for ways to promote beyond that. I know for sure that ad agencies are still having issues monetizing online marketing, so until they figure that out they are going to pretend that online isn’t all that important to a company.

As the Internet becomes more and more accessible through mobile technology, wireless access other innovations, we will incorporate the information that is accessible on the Web with more and more of our purchasing decisions. When this happens, your product needs more than a Web site, it is going to need a web presence in the places where consumers will be going online to research products. Given simplified Internet access and product comparison tools, consumers will become smarter than ever before.

So how should big companies build their presence in the right places on the Web?

Continue reading "Will Ad Agencies and Traditional Companies Ever Understand The Future of Product Marketing?" »

Posted by James at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Looks like two of the very colorful characters of the "Black Hat" SEO world are part of the Blogosphere. That's right, Dave Naylor and Greg Boser (WebGuerilla) are bloggers.

If you are in the search marketing biz, these are two blogs to keep an eye on. I have a feeling they are both going to give insights into the SEO world that you won't find anywhere else.

Posted by James at 04:15 PM | Permalink

Matt Cutts posted yesterday that the never-ending Jagger update is finally winding down. He says that Jagger 1 and 2 should be fully visible on all data centers and Jagger 3 can be seen at 66.102.9.104.

Hopefully everyone made it through OK. Thankfully I have not seen any "My site lost ranking and now I want to kill myself" posts on the Search Engine Watch forums.

Have a great day!

Posted by James at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I can’t vouch for the validity of this site or their findings but I do think they have an interesting take on the changes from Google’s Jagger update. Basically, they say that reciprocal linking, for SEO purposes, is dead.

Why do I have a strange feeling that I will still be a getting reciprocal link requests?

Posted by James at 10:14 PM | Permalink

Is your site Web 2.0ed? Find out with the Web 2.0 Validator! :)

Posted by James at 10:02 PM | Permalink

In a report sure to make the Bregar a happy man, the BBC reports that in the US 14.1% of all internet users are using Firefox as their browser of choice. The global average is 11.5% and, interestingly, the UK only has 4.9% Firefox usage. I guess the Brits still like to get their fox fix with funny outfits and hounds...

Posted by James at 06:16 PM | Permalink

The "Scobleizer" has a very interesting post on why Yahoo's new mapping service and the Microsoft Virtual Earth are both doomed. Scobleizer, a Microsoft employee, explains why Google Maps is going to kick MSFT and YHOO's butts for a long time to come - as long as the two companies do not make some fundamental changes to the way they do business.

The post is a good commentary on the difference between companies that accept Web 2.0 concepts and those who do not.

See the blog post here.

Posted by James at 06:56 PM | Permalink

Google updates are always interesting. The most recent update dubbed "Jagger" has not been a letdown.

I am sure the update is still going on so I am not going to get too excited about some recent success on a competitive term (15,000,000+ results) on one of my work sites.

For some reason Webmaster World is down, which is good, since it seems like people post like madmen during updates. I guess there is a alternate site up right now so all the WMW junkies can get their fix. I am just glad they didn't run off with my PubCon registration money.

The Search Engine Watch thread on "Jagger" is up, so if you need your daily dose of speculation, head on over.

Posted by James at 09:20 PM | Permalink

Here is a great article about what Web 2.0 is from Tim O'Reilly - see it here.

The article really speaks for itself and I am watching a great Frontline, so I will leave it to you to read.

Posted by James at 09:22 PM | Permalink

Danny Sullivan's Daily Searchcast from Friday reminded me of the hilariously smart group known as the Dark SEO Team. I checked out their PR10 project a while back. They managed to hijack (or something like a hijack) Google's own PageRank. A great example of issues with the whole PageRank system.

Now they have taken on another Google problem—duplicate content.

Continue reading "Gotta Love the Dark SEO Team" »

Posted by James at 07:14 PM | Permalink

Had a great meeting at work today and Web 2.0 came up. Pretty exciting stuff.

Rather than being like every other geek and writing a dissertation on what Web 2.0 means to me, I thought I would shoot for the first Web 2.0 haiku.

Oh, Web 2.0.
Please let me understand you.
Before others do.

Damn...that was pretty.

Please feel free to come up with your own.

Posted by James at 07:49 PM | Permalink

After hearing a lot about Webmaster Radio, and attending a great party (with a VERY annoying MC) at SES San Jose 2005, I finally check it out. Now I am glad I was punished with their adverts because the couple of shows that I have listened to are very good.

The two shows that I have listened to are Danny Sullivan's "Daily Searchcast" and "SEO Rockstars."

Continue reading "Webmaster Radio...Pretty Good Stuff" »

Posted by James at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)