April 2007

Jennifer Laycock

Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part Four

In this ten part series, I'll be covering many of the things that you need to take into consideration when planning a link baiting or viral marketing campaign. Today we'll find out how to use existing networks to make sure the word spreads to the right audience quickly....

Stoney deGeyter

Small Businesses Should Know Their Place Online

The Internet allowed many mom and pops to move out of mom and pop status and develop a new kind of corporate identity. But as the e-marketplace began to grow, driving traffic to a new online business became increasingly difficult. While starting a business on the internet today is still relatively easy compared to doing so off-line, it has become more expensive and time consuming than ever....

Jennifer Laycock

Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part Three

In this ten part series, I'll be covering many of the things that you need to take into consideration when planning a link baiting or viral marketing campaign. Today, I'll be helping you understand how to find and exploit motivating factors in order to get more people interested in your product or service....

Jennifer Laycock

Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part Two

Today, I'll be talking about the need to make your campaign easy to spread. While the benefit of both viral and link baiting campaigns is that they tend to take off and spread on their own, it's still essential to make sure that you've put plans in place to help things spread....

Stoney deGeyter

Everything is Marketing

As a small business, everything you do has an impact on your marketing message and ability to get that message out clearly. This includes how (or whether) you answer your phones, how you reply to email messages, what you say in online forums, the comments you make in blogs the speed of your computers, the presentation of your website, and potentially even the car that you drive....

Ross Dunn

Raising Flags Over Google's Newly Inherited SEO Firm

Google is treading in dangerous waters right now. The prolific company will inherit its own search engine optimization (SEO) company called Performics after purchasing the online advertising giant DoubleClick on April 13th (takeover due to complete at the end of the year) and so far there is no sure indication of the company's future....

Diane Aull

It Ain't Just About Traffic

Many site owners seem to focus on increasing traffic to their site as a goal. More traffic is generally a good thing, but it isn't a cure-all. Are you doing everything you can to make the most of the traffic you get now?...

Jennifer Laycock

A Glance at Trellian's Keyword Discovery Tool

If you're new to the search engine optimization game, you've probably heard a bit about the paid subscription keyword research tools, but you might not have had a chance to play with all of them. While Wordtracker is probably still the most popular tool, Trellian's Keyword Discovery tool offers up quite a few options that make it a must-try service for any business that is serious about their search engine marketing....

Stoney deGeyter

The Best Keywords Ever

No, I'm not going to give you a list of most searched or most clicked keywords or whatever. Instead I'm going to talk about how to determine which keywords will be the best for you....

Jennifer Laycock

Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part One

Two of the most popular buzz words in the online marketing realm right now are link baiting and viral marketing. These two tactics are a great way to build links and to build branding when constrained by small marketing budgets, but there are several things you need to remember when planning these types of campaigns....

Ross Dunn

Mobile Search Site Creation and Optimization: Part 2 of 2

The following is Part 2 of the coverage of the Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York presentation called "Mobile Search Optimization" by Cindy Krum of Blue Moon Works, Gregory Markel, President of Infuse Creative LLC and Rachel Pasqua, Director of Mobile Marketing at iCrossing....

Ross Dunn

Mobile Search Site Creation and Optimization: Part 1 of 2

The following is coverage of the Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York presentation called "Mobile Search Optimization" by Cindy Krum of Blue Moon Works, Gregory Markel, President of Infuse Creative LLC and Rachel Pasqua, Director of Mobile Marketing at iCrossing....

Karon Thackston

Copywriting Makeover: Value vs. Vision - Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 of this series, we discovered that explaining the value your products offer is only one part of the copywriting process. Creating a visual image is another. While Wholesalers USA knew their target customers better than most companies do, they needed help with two areas: optimizing their copy for the search engines and incorporating visual imagery....

Lisa Barone

Custom 404 Pages Aid Search Engine Optimization

Despite your best efforts, users will click on broken links, they'll mistype a URL, guess wrong at what they think a URL should be or try to access a bookmarked page that has since moved. Users do all sorts of things to get themselves confused; sometimes it's not even their fault. And when they do, they'll meet your 404 page....

Jill Whalen

Lost Rankings Due to Site Redesign or Spam?

We recently released our new website in Feb. and prior to release we held the number 1 position on Google for [our main keyword phrase] and the number 3 slot and number 2 spots for [additional keyword phrases]. Within days of our release our rankings fell through the roof as did the number of quality Google leads that were coming through our doors. Is it normal to fall like this after the launch of a new site?...

Stoney deGeyter

Finding Success Outside Your Target Audience

It's not often that a company finds success outside of its intended target market. But that seems to be what is happening with the makers of Slingbox....

Erin Walker

Persuasive Copywriting: Writing for the Web Instead of Your CEO

The purpose of writing for the web is to convince your prospects that your company has something to offer them that will solve a problem or fill a need. There are a lot of ways to get them to your home page, but once they are there, you want them to take the next step – fill out your form, download your free trial, or even just sign up for your newsletter....

Stoney deGeyter

Cookie Crumblers Corrupt Conclusive Counts

Have you ever been suspicious that your traffic stats are overinflated? Well, you should be, especially if you use cookies to track user analytical data. According to a new press release by comScore cookie-based counting overstates the size of a web site's audience....

Stoney deGeyter

How to Make Fridays Productive Again

Fridays are typically the most unproductive day of the week, with the exception of the occasional Monday doldrums. By Friday everybody is ready for the weekend and its often just difficult to get into the work rhythm of the first four days of the week....

Erin Walker

Making Your Online Marketing Tactics Count

Do you know how many potential customers, ready and willing to buy or inquire, left your website because they were unable to find the information they were looking for – information you probably have available and could have given them - today?...

Stoney deGeyter

Small Businesses Should Know Their Place Online

The Internet allowed many mom and pops to move out of mom and pop status and develop a new kind of corporate identity. But as the e-marketplace began to grow, driving traffic to a new online business became increasingly difficult. While starting a business on the internet today is still relatively easy compared to doing so off-line, it has become more expensive and time consuming than ever....

Diane Aull

It's What You Say AND How You Say It

Are you and your customers speaking the same language? Here's how your choice of words in your web copy can affect your website's perceived relevance, and (ultimately) your sales....

Stoney deGeyter

Google, Yahoo, MSN add SiteMap Auto-Discovery

Simply by adding the following line of code into your robots.txt file, the engines will know where your sitemap is located on the server and pick it up on their routine crawls....

Scott Buresh

Systematic Theft - One Search Engine Optimization Company's "Nasty Surprise"

Let's face it - any search engine optimization company knows that the industry has carried a collective black eye for many years. This is unfortunate, because there are many firms out there that do outstanding work and who must struggle for simple legitimacy simply because there are so many fly-by-night companies and snake oil salesmen out there....

Karon Thackston

Copywriting Makeover: Value vs. Vision - Part 1 of 2

There's no doubt. Wholesalers USA knows their customers. They've spent the time digging through log files to analyze site stats. They've spoken with customers on the phone and emailed with them. They've used client feedback to develop new products that have taken off like a rocket. Wholesalers USA understands the importance of giving the customer what s/he wants. What they needed some help with was translating that message into natural-sounding SEO copy that would deliver qualified traffic....

Jennifer Laycock

Ask Goes on the Attack

It's tough being the little guy...especially when you know you have a strong product that could likely compete with other companies, if only consumers would give you a chance. Ask.com has been playing catch-up to Google and Yahoo for most of the eleven years that it's been answering search queries and apparently, it's had enough. No more taking pot shots at Google via the Ask.com blog, this time it's all out war....

Jody Nimetz

Social Media Marketing as Part of B2B Online Marketing Campaigns

Online communities have taken on lives of their own, often playing integral roles in vendor-to-consumer relations. But what impact does social media have on B2B transactions? How can B2B advertisers tap into social media concepts and this shift in media consumption?...

Jill Whalen

6 Newbie SEO Questions

Someone emailed me with a list of quick questions about some SEO terminology they didn't understand. I figured if one person was looking for these answers, many of you would be, too....

Jennifer Laycock

Inside Google's New Pay Per Action for Advertisers

While many bloggers are focusing on the publisher side of Google's new pay-per-action program, I thought it might be a good idea to dive into the act of setting up a campaign. It's pretty straight forward if you've ever used the Google AdWords system, but here's a step-by-step walk-through of the process....

Erin Walker

Visitor Tracking: Your Ticket to Better Website ROI

This month, companies all over the world will throw away a collective hundreds of thousands of dollars on pay-per-click advertising campaigns that bring in zero leads, zero purchases, and zero return buyers. Could your company be one of them?...

Diane Aull

Are You Building a Business, or Just Chasing the Competition?

Sometimes people take the concept of keeping an eye on the competition to excess. When sound business decisions take a back seat to the thrill of feeling you're beating the competition, it may be time to step back and think about why you're in business in the first place....

Stoney deGeyter

How To Sell That Thing You Sell

The other day I went to a local seminar on "internet marketing". I honestly didn't expect a whole lot; it was one of those "how to make money on the internet" things, which promised to tell you tips on how to use the search engines to your advantage, yada, yada, yada. But I have to say I was surprised, at least from the first 30 minutes of the 90 minute seminar....

Stoney deGeyter

bBy bCentral

Years after having any sort of relevance in the search engine landscape, Microsoft has finally chosen to close down their bCentral Submit It service. Yesterday I received an email from Microsoft explaining, in that Microsoft sort of way, what's happening....

Scottie Claiborne

Audience Targeting Equals Online Success

The goal of any marketing campaign is to reach potential customers and minimize exposure to people who are not interested, not qualified, or out of your area. The Web is the ideal marketing medium because you can really target the people who will be interested in what you have to offer....

Jennifer Laycock

YouTube Looks to Further Engage Users

One of the darlings of social media, Google owned YouTube is allowing users to play around with some beta features that have been added to their experimental "TestTube" area. The features are designed to further engage users, which is sort of funny when you think about it. (YouTube already has an average visit length of 28 minutes.) The question becomes, how will creative marketers manage to use these new tools to further promote their brands?...

Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part Four

Small Businesses Should Know Their Place Online

Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part Three

Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part Two

Everything is Marketing

Raising Flags Over Google's Newly Inherited SEO Firm

It Ain't Just About Traffic

A Glance at Trellian's Keyword Discovery Tool

The Best Keywords Ever

Making Link Bait and Viral Marketing Work - Part One

Mobile Search Site Creation and Optimization: Part 2 of 2

Mobile Search Site Creation and Optimization: Part 1 of 2

Copywriting Makeover: Value vs. Vision - Part 2 of 2

Custom 404 Pages Aid Search Engine Optimization

Lost Rankings Due to Site Redesign or Spam?

Finding Success Outside Your Target Audience

Persuasive Copywriting: Writing for the Web Instead of Your CEO

Cookie Crumblers Corrupt Conclusive Counts

How to Make Fridays Productive Again

Making Your Online Marketing Tactics Count

Small Businesses Should Know Their Place Online

It's What You Say AND How You Say It

Google, Yahoo, MSN add SiteMap Auto-Discovery

Systematic Theft - One Search Engine Optimization Company's "Nasty Surprise"

Copywriting Makeover: Value vs. Vision - Part 1 of 2

Ask Goes on the Attack

Social Media Marketing as Part of B2B Online Marketing Campaigns

6 Newbie SEO Questions

Inside Google's New Pay Per Action for Advertisers

Visitor Tracking: Your Ticket to Better Website ROI

Are You Building a Business, or Just Chasing the Competition?

How To Sell That Thing You Sell

bBy bCentral

Audience Targeting Equals Online Success

YouTube Looks to Further Engage Users