search engine marketing

Seeking advice on search engine marketing

2006-04-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

(www.dailypress.com)

A panel of experts will discuss search engine marketing at a breakfast event this week in Williamsburg.

The event is organized by the eBusiness Association of Virginia (eBizVA), costs $15 to attend and will take place from 7:30-9:30 a.m. Thursday at the Holiday Inn Patriot on Richmond Road.

The experts will come from organizations such as Mannix Marketing, the Virginia Electronic Commerce Technology Center (VECTEC) and Smithfield Specialty Foods Group.

For more information, see www.ebizva.com/events.

Affiliates Are Spinning Out Over Free Search Engine Marketing

2006-04-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

(www.prweb.com)

Traffic services like Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture) can expose your URL to millions of people. Unfortunately the high costs and CPC pricing structure often makes SEM unfeasible for affiliate marketers.

Traffic services like Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture) can expose a website URL to millions of people. Unfortunately the high costs and CPC pricing structure often makes SEM unfeasible for affiliate marketers.

Once one applies the conversion rate (say 1 sale per 1000 visitors) multiplied by the sales commission (say $50), the budget per visitor just to break even ($0.05 in this case) does not leave much room for profit if one has to pay for that visitor. Fortunately, affiliate marketers can still leverage SEM to make commissionable sales. SpinningTornado is literally spinning out of control.

SpinningTornado is currently charging ahead with it's promotional campaign to grow it's community of affiliates, MLM members, online shoppers and merchants.

The SEM based campaign is planned to increase exponentially over the coming months. SpinningTornado is investing considerable capital on SEM campaigns targeted at keywords directly related to the products promoted by the SpinningTornado community members.

Members benefit from this free advertising because the campaigns entice shoppers to purchase through member referral URLs using SpinningTornado's Customer Acquisition Exchange." The campaigns have been extremely successful to date.

In an ongoing quest to drive even more customers to (and find more reciprocal customers for) it's community, SpinningTornado plans to further increase it's budget and scope to encompass an even broader market. Community members can take full advantage of this free advertising by ensuring all referral URLs are entered into their SpinningTornado portfolio.

The more that get entered, the greater the chance of receiving customers.

After all, the Customer Acquisition Exchange can only find customers for the merchants that community members tell it about. Secondly, and just as important, is to ensure that all online purchases made by community members are facilitated using the matched reciprocal customer link provided through the SpinningTornado service.

There are no limitations. Community members are free to shop ANYWHERE online at ANY of their favourite merchant sites.As an unbiased community, SpinningTornado differs from conventional shopping sites in that they never attempt to manipulate the purchasing preferences of members or try to sell any third party products to them.

Participating in the SpinningTornado community enables members to take advantage of ongoing free SEM advertising on behalf of community members.

Visit the website at http://www.spinningtornado.com

Search Engine Optimization Firm Offers Tips for National Small Business Week

2006-04-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

(www.cheaphostingdirectory.com)

Richmond, Virginia - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - April 7, 2006 - In honor of National Small Business Week during April 9-15 this year, search engine optimization and marketing firm, NetBaldwin, LLC, is providing a list of tips to help startup and small business owners improve their use of the Internet.

Laurie Baldwin, CEO of NetBaldwin explained, ''These days it's essential to have an Internet presence.

However, just building a website and putting it 'out there' isn't enough if you want to be successful.''

Ms. Baldwin says whether your company is small or large, in order for the Internet to work for your organization, you have to make an effort. That means making sure customers or information-seekers can actually find your site, and that the site is up-to-date and usable when they get there.

If those requirements aren't met, the website may as well not exist. Having amassed a great deal of information about the best and worst sites on the net, NetBaldwin has compiled the following list of ''Five Steps to Having a Successful Internet Presence.''

1) Update, update, and then update again. Making sure your website is updated regularly is important for a number of reasons. The first is that it will create repeat visitors by giving them a reason to come back.

Additionally, search engines will check your site regularly, and if your pages are exactly the same, that can affect your search engine ranking negatively.

2) Join the blogosphere. Creating a web log, or blog, on your website, is a great idea.

Not only does it help solve the problem of how to update your site, it can also help draw more people to your little corner of the web.

Helpful content can help you gain return visitors. Plus, since nothing can match a blog for keyword count, it can also help your search engine standing!

3) Keep it simple. One of the biggest mistakes made by web novices is making the site too complicated. Adding animations and dynamic content like news and stock tickers can increase your page's load time. Also, buy your own domain name and make it easy to remember.

If a user has to wait too long or has a hard time finding you, he might take his business elsewhere.

4) Be responsive to your visitors. Just like a business owner who wants to be successful wouldn't ignore a customer who visits his brick and mortar store, you shouldn't ignore your online visitors.

If you offer a ''contact us'' page on your site, make sure someone is responding to the emails and phone calls that result. 5) Seek professional help.

Doctors exist because not everyone has a medical degree. Similarly, not everyone has experience with websites.

If you're not an expert at building or optimizing your website, admit it to yourself and seek professional help. NetBaldwin, founded in 2003, is based in Richmond, Virginia and offers Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with clients such as Children's Wear Digest, Lumber Liquidators, and Christian Children's Fund.

NetBaldwin was a finalist for Richmond's 2005 and 2006 Emerging Technology Company of the Year award.

To learn more about NetBaldwin, please visit www.netbaldwin.com.

Search Marketing Expert Lee Odden Reveals How Search Engine Optimization, Blogs and PR Provide a Competitive Edge

2006-04-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

(www.prweb.com)

Search engine optimization and online PR expert, Lee Odden presents at the upcoming Pubcon search engine marketing conference on the competitive advantages provided by integrating search marketing and online public relations.

Boston-- http://www.toprankresults.com – Search marketing expert, Lee Odden, President of TopRank Online Marketing, will be speaking at the upcoming WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference in Boston, April 18 – 20, 2006.Odden will outline how the integration of online public relations tactics with blog marketing and search engine optimization can deliver a distinct advantage to marketers who desire to build high brand awareness and increased sales online.

Traditional public relations initiatives can improve results significantly by leveraging online exposure opportunities.

For example, many pitching efforts are lacking impact because they don’t take into account the fact that press releases are documents that can get indexed and ranked by search engines.

Press releases that are optimized effectively can improve media coverage and also assist search engine rankings.Business blogs can be very effective tools for communicating with prospects, clients and journalists.

Blogs are also inherently search engine friendly and when properly optimized, can provide a significant boost to a web site’s search engine rankings.“Companies can gain a competitive marketing advantage by integrating search engine optimization with tactics such as press releases and blog marketing,” said Lee Odden.

“The marketing synergy created by integrating SEO, blogs and press release optimization provides a tremendous advantage over traditional PR by itself.”

Lee is joined on the panel by David McInnis, founder and CEO of PRWeb, an industry leading news wire service, Robin Liss, Founder and President of Camcorderinfo.com and Lawrence Coburn, President of RateItAll, Inc.Join Lee Odden and his distinguished colleagues at WebmasterWorld Pubcon 2006 to find out more information on how integrating SEO, blogs and online PR can have a positive impact on increasing prospect inquiries, sales and online brand visibilitySession:

“Public Relations”Date:

Wednesday April 19Time:

10:15 – 11.30 am ESTLocation:

Hynes Convention Center, Salon D, Boston, MARegister for WebmasterWorld Pubcon 2006 at http://www.pubcon.com/register.htmGet more information on integrating blogs, SEO and online PR plus a copy of “The Lowdown on Press Release Optimization” by Lee Odden at http://www.misukanisodden.com/Integration.php

About TopRank Online Marketing

TopRank Online Marketing (www.toprankresults.com) is an industry leading search marketing agency offering integrated search engine optimization, online public relations and blog marketing services.

TopRank has been listed as a top ten world-wide SEO firm by topseos.com and Promotion World and is the only Minnesota search marketing firm included in Marketing Sherpa's Guide to Search Engine Optimization Firms.

Founded in 2001 by veteran online marketer Lee Odden, TopRank is a member of the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO.org), the Search Engine Marketing Council of the Direct Marketing Association (the-DMA.org), and serves on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA.org).

Odden publishes the award winning Online Marketing Blog and his articles frequently appear on WebProNews, Search Engine Guide, Search Engine Journal, ISEDB, AllBusiness.com, Lockergnome and numerous business publications on the topics of SEO, blogs and online PR. Odden has also been quoted in U.S. News, The Economist and DM News and speaks at Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld Pubcon, ACCM, eComXpo and DMA conferences.

Internet Marketing for the 21st Century -- 10 New Rules

2006-03-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

(www.prweb.com)

Internet marketing expert Larry Chase issues “Measurable Marketing Manifesto.”

New York-- Internet marketing expert Larry Chase has issued his top 10 rules for effective Internet marketing, which he labels the “Measurable Marketing Manifesto”.

These 10 rules were just published in his email newsletter Web Digest For Marketers (http://www.wdfm.com), the insider enewsletter for the Internet marketing industry.

“Online marketers could be getting a much bigger bang for their buck if they paid closer attention to relevant response rates and particular patterns,” said Chase.

“Those who use Internet marketing without employing Web Metrics and Analytics are essentially talking the talk but not really walking the walk,” Chase concludes. In his Manifesto, Chase issues ten new rules for the 21st century marketer. They include:

Rule 1 - Get a DashboardEvery Internet marketer needs a good control panel. The more variables that a marketer measures, the more that a marketer can learn about her audience. Any Internet marketer worth his salt should always keep at least one eye on the field of Web Metrics and Analytics.

Rule 3 - Step UpIf you're a direct marketer, get your head out of the sand and stop dwelling on increased postal rates and decreasing response rates. Internet Marketing is primarily based on direct marketing and more direct marketers could own leadership roles if they embraced it more thoroughly.

Rule 7 - Stats Are People, TooEach person is wired to seek out what's best for him or her. Web Metrics and Analytics is an online mirror of people operating in their own best interests. If your site stats puzzle you, try to “be” a member of your target audience. Coming at it from their perspective may help you understand what the raw numbers aren't saying.

For the remaining 7 rules of Chase’s “Measurable Marketing Manifesto”, go to:

http://www.wdfm.com.Since 1995, Larry Chase’s Web Digest For Marketers has served as a weekly guide for Internet Marketing professionals.

It features short reviews of the top websites in over 40 marketing categories, including:

Web Metrics and Analytics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Advanced Email Marketing, Online Sales Lead Generation, Internet Direct Response Marketing, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), et al.

Since Chase’s enewsletter is advertiser-supported, it is free to subscribers. All new subscribers are entitled to download “Larry Chase’s Search Engine Marketing Resource Guide”.

Those interested in subscribing can go to:

http://www.wdfm.comInternet Marketing Expert Larry Chase Issues “Measurable Marketing Manifesto”

Google Dominates U.K. Search Engine Market Share

2006-03-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

(www.allheadlinenews.com)

London, England - Internet powerhouse Google refers almost three of every four searches in the U.K. and for the most part dominates the search engine market in that part of Europe.

A study conducted by WebSideStory, found that in the month of February 2006, Google referred an average of 74.67 percent of all U.K. visitors to other sites on the web, compared to just 9.3 percent for its nearest competitor.

Google's search referral percentage in the U.K. tops both the U.S. average for the month (55.39 percent), as well as the global average (62.4 percent).

Rand Schulman, Chief Marketing Officer for WebSideStory says, "Even more so in the U.K. than in the U.S., when people think of search, they think of Google."

He continues, "This has large implications for U.K. marketers, whose search engine marketing and optimization strategies should be Google-centric."

The region's other top market shareholders, in terms of search referrals, are Yahoo (9.30 percent), MSN (5.46 percent), AOL (4.21 percent) and Ask Jeeves (2.28 percent).

Search Engine Marketing Kit

2006-03-24T15:52:00.000-08:00

(www.itwales.com)

Having an online presence is much more than creating a fantastic website. In fact that's the first of a long list of things you should do if you want to make your website profitable. This book is about the journey you need to go through to maximise the number of visitors to your website.

Starting a new bricks and mortar retail business is full of decisions - what should you call your business?; what should you put on signs outside the shop?; which directories should you be listed in YellowPages / Thompson, and should you pay for enhanced listing?; how should you advertise, be it trade magazines, local papers, flyers? Each of these decisions has an online equivalent, and this kit aims to show you why you should do it, and how to achieve it.

There are many search engine marketing (SEM) companies who provide a range of services to do all this for you, and if you have the budget, then it may well be worth employing the services of an expert in SEM. However, if your budget is limited, or if you want to start your own SEM consultancy, this book could be what you need.

It should be said that this book is aimed at those who are already fairly familiar with web technologies, however, if you are quick and willing to learn, it's written well and easy to pick up.

Lets say you wanted to start up a restaurant selling traditional Welsh food.

You might decide to call it "Bwyd", and use the name on all your signs, business cards and other marketing materials. Despite being the Welsh word for food, Bwyd does not convey what your company sells, even if you do speak Welsh, so it would be better to have "Bwyd Traditional Welsh Restaurant" on your signs and cards etc.

Anyone driving past, or seeing a list of all shops in the area, would have a better understanding of what you do, otherwise potential customers would have to look through the restaurant window to have a better understanding.

A similar situation arises in the online world and this falls under the heading of search engine optimisation (SEO). Making a professional looking website is good for consumer confidence, but not necessarily good for search engines to be able to look at your website and decide what main point of it is.

It might be easy for a human to spot pictures of patrons eating, and waiting staff in traditional Welsh costume, but search engines need good keyword-rich text in order to decide. This book shows you how and where to put your keywords on your website and also explains why you should not over-do it.

Personal recommendations are a great way to build business.

If your restaurant was in an independent guide to great Welsh restaurants, anyone reading the guide would have a good impression of your business. Search engines realise this and because they want to give users who search for "Welsh restaurants" the highest quality links first, websites that have links from good quality respected resources will rate higher than those that don't.

Your job, as search engine marketeer, is to track down these resources and convince them that you are worth linking to.

This book explains the importance of links and how they affect your position.
Since the changes in telephone directory enquiries, it's become quite expensive to find a telephone number.

It can now cost 25p upwards to find a local business' telephone number - wouldn't it be better if it was free, and the business you're calling paid for the service, after all you're about to spend money with them! PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising does just that, for the online world, and is the latest tool in the search engine marketeer's tool kit.

Companies who bid the highest amount will be able to get their adverts listed first.

You might decide that "Welsh Restaurant" was a good keyword was worth paying Google Adwords or Overture, in order to get your restaurant mentioned first. However, this may not be such a good idea, as you will be competing with all the Welsh restaurants who are trying to do the same as you A bidding war could ensue and you may find yourself competing with Michelin starred restaurants who can afford much more than you can. You might find that "Welsh Restaurant" is just not value for money.

However, "Welsh Restaurant Aberystwyth" may not be searched for as frequently, but be cheaper to bid on and may bring in more customers for less outlay. This book will take you though setting up a Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign and how to improve your chances of someone clicking on your advert.

Mastering all of these skills takes some time and as I mentioned earlier there are companies that can do all this for you, at a price. But if all of this whets your appetite you may be interested in becoming a search engine consultant. A full chapter of this book takes you through creating and running a professional SEM business, from developing an SEM strategy, to pricing, to customer service and beyond.

The kit includes a CD ROM, which contains spreadsheets to help organise the tasks involved for businesses doing SEM in-house, and some additional spreadsheets and presentations which would help the budding SEM consultancy.

There are a number of tools available on the market which would help you semi-automate the considerable amount of work involved, and these online tools and software downloads are covered in the last chapter.

The fact there is an entire book covering the subject of SEM shows there is a considerable amount of knowledge required to make the most of your website.

This book covers ground that other books have covered before, but brings it up to date and takes it one step further with help and advice offered to SEM professionals.

In the SEM world, 6 months is a long time and books like this are in danger of become obsolete quickly, but Sitepoint's "Search Engine Marketing Kit" makes sensible suggestions which will stand the test of time, and avoids "Black Hat" SEM, unethical methods which are viewed as cheating the system by search engines, and could have those using such methods banned from the search engines indexes.

The kit is comprehensively written, and would be extremely valuable to both budget conscious SMEs, and those considering a career in the field of Search Engine Optimisation.

The "Search Engine Marketing Kit" is written by Dan Thies and published by Sitepoint. The kit costs $197.00 (£113.25) and can be ordered from Sitepoint at

http://www.sitepoint.com/books/sem1.

eMarketer: Click Fraud, Privacy Top Search Engine Marketing Concerns

2006-03-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

(www.mediabuyerplanner.com)

According to forecasts made in eMarketer's new report, "Search Engine Marketing:

Players and Problems," Google's success continues as it represents 57 percent of all U.S.

spending on paid search engine advertising, earning the an estimated gross revenue of $9.3 billion this year and $11.8 billion next year, B2B reports.

However, the threat of click fraud, privacy concerns and the difficulty of creating and maintaining campaigns challenge Google's strong growth.

"Concerns about click fraud and privacy are two sticking points that will potentially chip away at, if not halt, the growth of search engine marketing," said author of the report David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst.

"All is not rosy in the search business."

Search-engine marketing becomes a lucrative business

2006-03-22T15:34:00.000-08:00

(www.hotelmarketing.com)

Type the term “search-engine marketing” into a Google box and you’ll find a list of businesses that specialize in improving their customers’ positioning in search results.

Now type the same term into a Yahoo search box, and you’ll get some different companies, in a different order.
Try the same exercise tomorrow and you’ll find yet another variation.

Part science, part art, search-engine marketing is perhaps the fastest-evolving segment of the Internet. A cottage industry of search-marketing techies labors to adjust keywords to a search engine’s algorithm, the set of rules used to rank search results.

The algorithm used by Google, the market leader, has hundreds to thousands of components that determine the results.
For search-engine marketers, the biggest challenge is keeping up with a moving target—trends.

Keywords that work well for a company now could become ineffective within weeks, or even days.

“Even if you think you understand search marketing today, it can totally change tomorrow,” said Peter Hershberg, managing partner of Reprise Media, a New York-based search-marketing agency.

The search-engine marketing industry grew from just over $4 billion in 2004 to $5.75 billion last year, and is expected to reach $7 billion in 2006.

Major Automobile Manufacturers Stink at Search Engine Optimization

2006-03-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

(www.submitexpress.com)

Novato, California - (Website Hosting Directory) .- According to recently released data, the major automotive manufacturers are suffering poor search engine rankings, lagging behind car publishers and buying services in virtually every online category - with the exception of Hybrid and Fuel Efficiency terms.

The CampaignTracker Automotive Industry Scorecard which revealed the serious disadvantages in the search engine marketing campaigns of major car manufacturers, was conducted by search engine marketing (SEM) analytics technology specialist, SEMphonic.

The research also noted that major automakers fared worse, on the whole, with natural search placement (search engine optimization or SEO) than they did with paid placement (pay-per-click or PPC).In related news, Honda received the Search Engine Marketing Analytics (SEMA) award for "Best Overall SEM Performance Among Carmakers in the Automotive Industry." Hybrid Search was the only category where the automakers won out-right with natural search.

It was also a category where the automakers competed quite well with both the Publishers and the Buying Services. Among the strong companies in this category were Honda, GM and Toyota. In two bellwether categories for online car shopping (Car Pricing Terms and Car Buying Terms), the major automakers fared especially poorly.

According to the published report, the major automakers were virtually invisible in the natural search listings for both these categories. Publishers (like NADA and KBB) dominated the natural search listing - especially for pricing words. On the other hand, Buying Services (like Autobytel, CarPrices.com and CarsDirect) owned the vast majority of paid placements.

The Automotive Portals (Automotive Portals run by MSN, Yahoo and also the Wikipedia) had a modest presence in organic listings and very little paid presence.

The study results illustrate the difficulties that major carmakers have had in competing for natural search listings.

The problems were highlighted by last month's de-listing of BMW Germany on Google for keyword stuffing. The site has since been re-listed after making some website changes. According to the report, the two strongest categories for automakers were Car Type Terms (like Convertible, Sedan, Hatchback, Luxury Car) and Hybrid and Fuel-Efficiency Terms.

Gary Angel, President and Chief Technical Officer, of SEMphonic commented on the news, ''The spottiness of presence we see from the major carmakers is typical of many industries where the traditional brands aren't competing well with the online specialists.

We were surprised to find that Wikipedia showed up as a serious organic presence in this SEMA study - which illustrates the importance, in certain industries, of knowing what's being said there.''CampaignTracker, SEMphonic's Internet advertising analysis tool, studied the automotive space online by generating an industry keyword list with more than 1,000 automotive terms.

These terms were then categorized by type and the performance of all the competitors within each category was analyzed. A full copy of the study may be purchased from SEMphonic.

To learn more, please visit: www.semphonic.com.

Search for cheap dedicated hosting here.

Search Engine Marketing Firm, SEO Inc., Moves To Carlsbad, California

2006-03-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

(www.cheaphostingdirectory.com)

Carlsbad, California - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - Search engine marketing firm, Search Engine Optimization Inc. (SEO Inc.), will be relocating to a 15,000 square foot facility in Carlsbad, California in April, 2006.Garry Grant, CEO of SEO Inc. commented, ''We've been experiencing dramatic growth for the 5th year in a row due to a record number of sales and enterprise clients. The new facility will allow us to better serve our enterprise clients.

We’re preparing for the explosive growth we are anticipating in 2006.''According to the company, the new facility will also house a new training room with capability of handling 25 students, equipped with full multi media equipment 120'' DLP projection system and digital surround system.

SEO Inc. offers search engine optimization training programs that cover the most basic to the most advanced SEO techniques.

The training courses will be held at the new facility.Tim Banister, COO of SEO Inc. added, ''This move represents an investment in the firm’s future. It allows us to allocate more resources to our clients. We’re looking to this move as a display of our devotion to producing effective search marketing solutions for all our customers.'
'Other features of the new space include:

- Server room with raised floor, enterprise disaster recovery unmatched in the industry.

- Server Halon GAS fire suppressant system.

- Server Battery Backup system with diesel generators. Server Humidity and water sensors.

- 2 Leiber 10 ton Air units for maximum server cooling. DS3 Fiber optics with dual T1 for redundancy.

- State of the Art NORTEL VOIP phone system. Gigabit CAT 6 internal intranet.

- Internal and external security with 24/7 video, motion and glass detection for intrusion.

- 4 conference rooms equipped with full video, sound, and internet.

- Company gym with top of the line exercise equipment:

including showers and lockers.- 3 Mountain Bikes for afternoon break rides.

- 1 Tornado tournament foosball table.

- Electronic Darts.

LinkWorth Plans to Move into CPC Advertising

2006-03-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

(www.press.xtvworld.com)

One of the new services will be a cost per click model which places contextual ads within the content of a publisher website.

The technology will be able to match advertiser ads to publisher content providing extremely targeted traffic and increased sales. "Our clients need a product to compliment the traditional text link advertising we provide," says Ron Wicker, Founder & CEO of LinkWorth.

"This product will provide an increased click-thru rate, a more targeted demographic for increased sales, as well as a means to track each visit that occurs. The ability to embed contextual ads inside the main content of a page can increase click-thru rates by over 70% compared to text ads on sidebars or the foot of a page.

Our research shows that combining a traditional text link advertising campaign with our CPC content ad campaign can increase traffic by over 200%."In addition to the CPC product, LinkWorth will offer pay per click management services.

A popular way to jump start traffic to a website is through known pay per click media outlets like Yahoo/Overture Search Marketing and Google AdWords.

"The majority of our new and existing advertisers currently use one or both of these products," added Matt Stoddart, EVP of Sales with LinkWorth.

"Most want the luxury of having someone else to manage their marketing efforts, providing more time and energy to take care of their business and customers. It just makes sense to offer a complete service to our clients.

"LinkWorth currently offers traditional text link ads, billboard ads (also known as hosted content pages) and rotating ads.

New customers can easily signup for any of the LinkWorth solutions, or call toll free (866.LNK.WRTH) for more information.

AuthorityDomains.com Offers Everyday Webmasters Access to Advanced Search Engine Marketing Strategies and Solutions

2006-03-16T15:50:00.000-08:00

(www.powerhomebiz.com)

Recently launched, AuthorityDomains.com offers a one-stop solution to those looking to improve their websites search engine rankings.

AuthorityDomains.com offers everyday webmasters access to advanced search engine marketing strategies and solutions.

AuthorityDomains.com allows webmasters to enroll in programs that make use of advanced statistical analysis based on patent applications and research papers published by major search engines.

These programs allow a website to achieve high search engine rankings for targeted keyword phrases.

One of the main services AuthorityDomains.com provides is customized link packages. Their expert staff works with customers to acquire quality links from relevant website owners.

When done correctly, having multiple websites linked to a customer s site will dramatically increase its overall popularity in major search engines.

Marcela De Vivo, President of Authoritydomains.com explains, Having worked in search engine marketing for over 7 years, we saw what was most needed by webmasters, so we set out to offer these services.

AuthorityDomains.com provides free consultation with customers to produce an easily understandable roadmap to high search engine rankings.

Every website requires a unique marketing approach. We want to empower our customers with the information they need to succeed online, says De Vivo.

AuthorityDomains.com recommends several unique programs depending on the dynamics of a customer s site.

Custom Link Packages: Instead of selling standard, pre-packaged links, AuthorityDomains.com creates a custom package of links for each and every customer s request. The links are placed on sites that are relevant to the customer s site.

These links are not identified as paid or sponsored, and are in high traffic areas of the site that will produce the best results. Customers can request a link package proposal free of charge, customized to their specific needs.

Article Writing and Submissions: AuthorityDomains.com employs professional content writers who produce optimized content that are relevant to a customer s website.

These articles are optimized with targeted keywords and are distributed to hundreds of websites who will republish them, with a link to the customer s domain. Customers use this program to drive traffic and brand awareness to their sites.

Links from .EDU sites: Authoritydomains.com offers links from education sites which are considered to be highly valuable. Many search engines consider these sites to be trusted , so links from .edu sites can confer authority points to sites that they link to.

AuthorityDomains.com also offers patent evaluations, blogs, and articles about search engine marketing. Analysts are available to review a website for free, and make suggestions to improve a site s rankings.

AuthorityDomains.com offers much needed services that make a search engine marketer s job a lot easier and more effective, says De Vivo.

For additional information about AuthorityDomains.com, please visit:

http://www.authoritydomains.com or contact Marcela De Vivo by calling (818) 482 7562 or emailing marcela@authoritydomains.com

Search Engine Marketing and Website Content

2006-03-16T15:45:00.000-08:00

(www.dailyindia.com)

What is one of the main keys to successfully positioning your website in the search engines? The simple answer is, Content!

Why is content so important to your website?

Many businesses feel that having a small amount of content is enough, and the rest of the website will sell itself! This may be the case with a small percentage of business websites, but in the majority of cases you will lose out by not having strong content throughout your site. Read on, and you will find out why...

The aim of most businesses with a website is to successfully market their website and increase sales. This is a much cheaper form of advertising than other main stream advertising media.
There are quite a few components that make up a successful internet marketing campaign. They include,

1) Competitor Analysis
2) Keyword research
3) Linking - Internal and External
4) Coding your meta tags i.e. Header Tag, Description Tag, Keyword Tag.
5) Well optimised Content

The focus of this article is website content. That website content is a very important element in most successful internet marketing campaigns, cannot be stressed enough.

Now don't get me wrong; I am not saying website content is the only component you need to have for a successful internet marketing campaign, other elements are also very important. Content is a very strong element if the search engine is to correctly identify where a website belongs in its search engine listings.

Other elements used in search engine marketing -see the elements listed above- can be manipulated to try and deceive the search engines, but good solid website content will give you an advantage over your competitors that have little or no content.

Why will it give you an advantage? If your website content is dedicated to a particular subject or theme, then search engine logic will be able to determine where your website will best fit within its search pages.

Even though this article is mainly focused around the benefits that strong content brings to your search engine rankings, don't focus purely on the search engines when writing content for your website. After all, the main purpose of having a website in the first place is to attract customers who will buy your product or service, not search engines!

Website content should have the following components:

1) Relevance to the product or service you are offering; 2) Incorporate targeted key phrases throughout; 3) Focus on the relevant sales message per product/service, as well as making it informative. 4) Free information, articles or hints and tips.

1) Relevance to the product or service you are offering;

Many websites make the mistake of covering multiple products or services on a single page. Not only can this be confusing for visitors to your website, but it also means that your overall keyword density on each page is weak.

The aim is to ensure your relevant keywords appear often enough throught your content to give you the opportunity to attain high rankings in the major search engines for your targetted keywords.

Note: Wherever possible, make the focus of each web page relate to one particular product or service.

For businesses that offer a range of different products or services, this can sometimes be quite difficult to effectively manage and organise. This is where it is of more benefit to hire a professional web designer to manage the structure of your website more effectively.

Your website needs to be clear and concise for your customers as well as being effectively optimised for the search engines.

2) Incorporate targeted key phrases throughout;

Key phrases are an important part of any search engine marketing campaign. Most search engine marketing specialists will tell you that your keywords should make up approximately two to five percent of your content for optimal results.

Note: This percentage range is an estimate as there is no documentation provided by any search engine company to support this.

I will not go into too much detail here regarding key phrases, but if you would like to find out more, look out for my article on researching search engine key phrases which is coming soon.

3) Focus on the relevant sales message per product/service, as well as making it informative.

a) Relevant Sales message:

"Click here to find out about our special offer for the month of December!!!"

This statement is referred to as a "call-to-action". A Call-to-action triggers a user to perform a certain action; in this case the action performed is clicking on this special offer. Various sales and marketing research shows that when a call-to-action is used, the conversion rate to sale or enquiry is significantly higher.

b) Detailed information relating to the product or service being sold:

There are two main types of users that visit websites: those that like detail and those that want the information they are looking for delivered in brief summary.

For the purpose of this example, let's refer to:

Detailed person - Person A

Summary person - Person B

An article like this is written to target "Person A", as "Person B" generally isn't interested in reading an article of this length.

With this in mind, when writing website content that has a sales focus, ensure that you provide your summary or sales message in the initial one to three -short- paragraphs, and then continue with the detail in the following paragraphs.

Alternatively, where it fits the structure of your web page better, provide your product or service summaries on a main page, with links from each category to a page dedicated to the full content information.

The last thing you want to do is overwhelm someone with so much information that they don't end up reading anything, and opts out for a website that provides information that is delivered in a much simpler format.

4) Free information, articles or hints and tips.

Create reasons for your customers to keep returning to your website!

How do you create reasons for visitors to return to your website? Free information that relates to or compliments your product or service is a great way to keep visitors coming back to your website, i.e. if your website focuses on bathroom tiles, provide free tips on how to care for your tiles, or on the best method for laying the tiles for those that want to "do-it-yourself". You could create a dedicated section within your website titled "Do-it-Yourself".

By providing free helpful information, not only are you adding extra fresh website content; you are also providing extra reasons for your customers to keep returning to your website.

Note: A visitor to your website may not want to buy from you today, but if you can give them a reason to remember your website when they are ready to buy, there is a very good chance you will get a sale from them at a future date.

How often should you add Content?

Ideally if you could add or make changes to your website content everyday it would greatly benefit your site in terms of search results. However, unless you have someone managing your website full-time, this is often difficult to manage.

I recommend that you make at least small adjustments/changes to your website on a weekly basis, and add fresh content on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. This will keep the search engines interested in your site, and when you do make changes they will be quickly picked up and listed in the search engine results.

For any content on your website that is no longer relevant, or is out of date, either remove it, or where applicable archive it on your site. Blog software is ideal for effectively managing articles or updates on your website.

Just ensure that if you do setup a Blog on your website, that it has the ability to archive and sort your articles and updates effectively. An example of a Blog used in this way, is the current Search Engine Marketing Blog I use on my website.

Writing Articles

Ideally I recommend you write articles or hints and tips yourself wherever possible. The benefits to you and your business will include;

- Credibility in your customers' eyes as they will feel comfortable about your confidence and knowledge of your product.

- Fresh original content for your website which search engines (especially Google) love.
If you are unable to write content for your website due to time restrictions, or feel you don't have sufficient skills to write a professional content, there are other resources available to you:

- Free articles sites where you can download and use articles on almost any subject you can think of.

- Hire a professional copywriter to write your content for you. This is a more expensive option, but gives you the added advantage of fresh original content.

Having a website that is rich in well optimised content will have your website well on the way towards being successful in your search engine marketing campaign. Don't be discouraged if you don't have much content on your website now. It is never too late to get started, and no time is better than the present to get started!

Note: To-date, no matter what search engine algorithm changes occur, content has always remained an important component for search engines to determine where a website will rank for specific keywords within their results.

Search Engine Strategies Conference in China

2006-03-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

(www.submitexpress.com)

Nanjing, China - (Website Hosting Directory) - The popular Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference and Expo will hold its Chinese version later this week in Nanjing.

SES is in China as the country is expected to have the largest online population within the next five years, according to several analysts.According to SES organizers, SES in China will feature leading search experts describing how search marketers can potentially reach vast Asian markets and an untapped worldwide audience.

The conference will take place on March 17 and 18 at the Nanjing International Exhibition Center in Nanjing, China. Google's Greater China President of Sales and Business Development, Johnny Chou, is scheduled to deliver a keynote address. Jack Ma, Alibaba/Yahoo Chief Executive Officer is delivering a keynote as well.

Johnny Chou, Greater China President of Sales and Business Development with Google commented on the upcoming event, ''Google China is making efforts by helping search engines marketers in China leverage the power of targeted search engine marketing.

We are thrilled by the fact that people use Google's portfolio products to grow their businesses with a healthy return on their investments. We believe Google is extremely well positioned to lead the industry in targeted marketing.''SES China will also feature presentations by top search industry experts.

For attendees, it's a rare opportunity to learn how search engines list websites for free and through paid placement, how to gain free "organic" traffic by building a site that pleases search engines, how to guarantee top ranking in search engine results.

Chris Sherman, Event Chairperson and Executive Editor of SearchEngineWatch.com added, ''We're at the forefront of examining how search will develop China's economy as well as benefit the people of China. SES China is an important event for anyone doing business in China or involved in multi-national search engine marketing and optimization.''

China's online revenues were valued at $69 billion last year, according to a survey by the China Internet Development Research Center. In addition, Wall Street analysts predict that China could lead the world in online commerce by 2010.

Prime Visibility - Leading Search Engine Marketing Firm Gets Dual Top-10 Honors

2006-03-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

(www.pr.com)

Bethpage, NY, Prime Visibility, Search Engine Marketing Experts, have maintained their leading position in the field of Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing.

The Top 10 SEO Company award initiative from Promotion World is meant to list the best companies in the industry and provides users the opportunity to learn more about the company leaders and their services.

The merits that must be shown are based on services offered, package diversity, value, customer service, feedback and website popularity of the selected companies. Back in January of 2006, TopSEOs.com rated Prime Visibility as one of the Top 20 Internet Marketing Firms and as of March 2006 they have advanced into the Top 10 position.

This trusted and well-respected resource for evaluating Internet marketing vendors makes the process of researching and selecting Internet marketing and search engine optimization companies a more reliable task. Bill Peden of TopSEOs.com has said, “Our current winners are the strongest companies we have identified to date.”

The Top 30 Directory candidates are determined through a rigorous selection process with each SEO firm evaluated in terms of its: - Competitive advantage - Superior services and pricing - Customer and technical support - Response to client problems Andrew Hazen, Prime Visibility’s founder and CEO had this to say about the company, “Our effective business strategy involves understanding our clients’ strengths and weaknesses in order to determine strategic areas of opportunity.

Applying our proven best internal practices to this road map for improvement, we drive superior online performance for our clients and produce exceptional results across the board.”

Prime Visibility was determined to have excellent overall efficiency and performance that set them apart from the competition.

Web Targeted Moves Search Engine Marketing Company to Lehi, Utah

2006-03-13T15:17:00.000-08:00

(www.prweb.com)

Web Targeted, a Utah-based Internet marketing firm, has relocated its headquarters to Lehi, Utah to allow room to grow.

Lehi, UT.- Web Targeted, a Utah-based Internet marketing firm, has relocated its headquarters to Lehi.“Our company has grown over 300% in the past year and we ran out of room at the other place,” said David Bascom, CEO of Web Targeted, “We’re on track for another year of stellar growth this year.”

Billions of dollars are spent over the Internet each year. As more businesses recognize the cost effectiveness of Internet marketing, they turn to Internet marketing experts like Web Targeted to help guide them towards increased sales from their websites.

“We work with our clients’ websites to improve their placement for their keywords in the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN so more customers will visit their sites,” Bascom said.Web Targeted’s new office is located in Lehi at 3305 W. Mayflower Ave., Suite #4 in Lehi.

They moved in March 1. For more information about the services offered by Web Targted, or to request a free search engine ranking report visit http://www.webtargeted.com

Viewpoint Launches KeySearch Search Engine Marketing and Optimization Service

2006-03-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

(www.home.businesswire.com)

NEW YORK-- (Viewpoint Corporation (NASDAQ: VWPT), a leading internet marketing technology company, today announced the introduction of KeySearch, Viewpoint's search engine marketing and optimization service offering. KeySearch is designed to help clients optimize their position in search engines to drive brand awareness and attract site visitors.

KeySearch will offer a new and unique way of integrating search engine marketing with other elements of Viewpoint's multi-channel internet marketing and advertising offerings. KeySearch will also offer business intelligence reports and an analysis of search marketing campaign effectiveness, leveraging Viewpoint's technology. These reports will enable customers to make data-driven business decisions, ultimately increasing ROI.

The company also announced the appointment of Jason McKay, who joins Viewpoint from Sony Electronics and Hewlett Packard, as vice president and general manager.

Drawing on his expertise in managing interactive advertising campaigns, including search engine marketing, display advertising, affiliate marketing, and media planning for multi-billion dollar companies, Mr. McKay will lead Viewpoint's KeySearch initiative.

In this role, he will work with clients to develop effective, measurable internet marketing campaigns. Mr. McKay will also be responsible for the management of the Unicast ad solutions business. Under Mr. McKay's leadership, Viewpoint will expand its Unicast business to offer full creative, design, media planning and ad serving solutions.

"The introduction of KeySearch, combined with the expansion of our Unicast offering, enables us to offer our clients a full complement of multi-channel internet marketing services that combine our core technology with our creative expertise in order to develop measurable internet marketing campaigns," said Patrick Vogt, chief executive officer of Viewpoint.

"We are thrilled to have Jason McKay join our executive team, rounding out the group of talented individuals who have recognized Viewpoint's enormous potential in this fast-growing, dynamic marketplace."
Prior to joining Viewpoint, Jason McKay managed the interactive advertising group at Sony Electronics, a division of Sony Corporation, recognized by the Harris Poll as the number one brand in the United States.

At Sony, Mr. McKay was responsible for managing the company's entire online advertising strategy for both brand awareness and direct sales.

In this capacity, he managed the company's significant online advertising budget and was responsible for the revenue that was directly generated from his interactive advertising campaigns. He also managed Sony's alliance relationships with Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, CNET, and Google.

Before joining Sony, Mr. McKay managed online demand generation at Hewlett-Packard Corporation where he played an active role in building and managing the company's B2B interactive marketing campaigns. He has also held business development and online marketing positions at Compaq Computer Corporation and Department of the Interior.

"Online advertising revenue is predicted to reach $18.9 billion by 2010, according to Jupiter Research, with strong growth in rich and streaming media," said Jason McKay.

"It is increasingly clear that as consumers spend more time on the web, marketers are shifting their focus from traditional forms of advertising to online advertising programs and a strategic approach to web marketing is no longer a 'nice to have,' it is an imperative."

"Viewpoint has all the tools to capitalize on this changing advertising paradigm and I look forward to combining my experience with Viewpoint's leading technology to better serve clients as the market experiences unprecedented growth," said Mr. McKay.

Viewpoint granted 100,000 options to purchase its common stock to Mr. McKay at an exercise price equal to the fair market value of Viewpoint's common stock on the date of grant.

These grants were approved by Viewpoint's Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors and met the "employee inducement" exception to NASDAQ's rules adopted in 2003 requiring shareholder approval of equity-based incentive plans. The options have been classified as non-qualified stock options, have an exercise price equal to the fair market value on the grant date, have a seven-year term, and vest over 36 months, subject to continued employment and other conditions.

About Viewpoint

Viewpoint is a leading Internet marketing technology company. Viewpoint offers Internet marketing and online advertising solutions through the powerful combination of its proprietary visualization technology and a full range of campaign management services, including creative development, production, rich media, ad serving, search marketing, and performance measurement.

Viewpoint's technology and services are behind the online presence of some of the world's most esteemed brands, including Sony, America Online, GE, and Toyota. More information on Viewpoint can be found at www.viewpoint.com.

The company has approximately 130 employees principally at its headquarters in New York City and in Los Angeles.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar expressions that reflect Viewpoint's current expectations about its future performance.

These statements and expressions are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause Viewpoint's actual performance to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these statements and expressions. Such risks, uncertainties and factors include those described in Viewpoint's filings and reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Infospace adopts viral marketing strategy for meta-search

2006-03-10T14:33:00.000-08:00

(www.netimperative.com)

Search firm InfoSpace is to incorporate a viral marketing element in its re-designed WebFetch.com Search Comparison Tool.

The tool can be added to websites and blogs from WebFetch.com for free by site owners at http://comparesearchengines.webfetch.com/blog.aspx, by adding a HTML code into their webpages.

The new viral lets users send an invite friends to try the meta-search service themselves, which searches across major search engines simultaneously, including Google, Ask, Yahoo! and MSN.

The tool takes search engine results from a microsite that allows searches to be undertaken and then compared.

The move represents the first use of viral marketing in the EU and UK by InfoSpace in an attempt to create a word-of-mouth buzz around the products and services it delivers.

Dominic Trigg, vice president at InfoSpace Search & Directory said: "It was a natural choice to use a viral hook to have Website owners and the users themselves tell their colleagues, friends and relatives about their metasearch experiences having used the tools.

“The bonus for Website owners is that the instantly tap in the power InfoSpace metasearch engine WebFetch presenting an alternative method to source more relevant search results to the Web audiences using their site for free," adds Trigg.

The new site takes the user through a Flash demonstration and allows them to make real-time searches displaying the results that have been returned by each search engine.

The tool shows how many results appear on the first page of that search engine, how many results are completely unique to that search engine and then moves onto the next search engine to do the same.

Once the tool has returned results back from all of the search engines, it then shows the Web's top results (using green buttons) and WebFetch.com's top results (using orange buttons).

By hovering over the green and orange buttons the user is able to see the origin of each search result and if desired enables them clickthrough to see those results in that search engine.

Meanwhile, a blue button with a down arrow that may be clicked on to allow the user to switch the results of the engines so that they can see alternative views of the results and overlaps.

New Tool Integrates Search Engine Marketing Reports

2006-03-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

(www.submitexpress.com)

Novato, California - - A new tool has been developed to integrate search engine and online marketing reports and competitor monitoring for agencies and enterprises.

The product is named, CampaignTracker, and was created by SEMphonic, a search engine marketing (SEM) analytics tool company.According to SEMphonic, the new analytics tool that solves the tasks of developing multiple integrated search marketing campaigns.

CampaignTracker offers individual and teams of SEM Practitioners the ability to see, evaluate, aggregate, and present SEM campaign performance across multiple search engines (ie. Yahoo!, Google, MSN), and other media such as banner ads and affiliate networks, and monitor competitor search engine marketing campaigns.

Previously, the process of compiling search engine and online marketing data into reports for a company has been time consuming, labor intensive and frequently inaccurate.

In regard to search engine data acquisition, SEM Practitioners have been forced to manually integrate data from multiple, dissimilar search engine interfaces to get actionable reports for either external client or internal use.

Because search engines frequently, without notice, change their reporting interfaces, maintaining one's own reporting solution is expensive and fraught with difficulties.

The CampaignTracker product is designed to address these very issues.Effective campaign management requires a comprehensive understanding of campaign performance as well as the ability to respond quickly and decisively. Too many reports can be just as bad as too few.

CampaignTracker will distill the essential elements of campaign management to a useful set of essential reports. Reports will cover performance by search engine, ad group, category, advertising creative, and keywords.

Additionally, reports can be created for competitors which will include the competitors' position, comparisons between one's position and performance with that of one's competition, as well identify gaps (terms that your competition is buying that you aren't) and opportunities (possibly relevant terms that neither you nor your competitors are buying).

This comprehensive set of reports will get its data directly and automatically from search engines, competitors' websites, as well as other online media.

Gary Angel, President and CTO of SEMphonic stated, ''CampaignTracker will provide a true 360 degree view of your SEM Marketspace - from how your campaigns are performing across engines to where and how well your competitors are playing the market.

Everybody needs clear and reliable reporting and for most SEM Practitioners, time is their single most precious commodity.

CampaignTracker will shave the time to reports down to almost nothing - and deliver presentation quality reporting with rich and actionable information.''

Argus Interactive's Director of Search Engine Marketing Speaks at Major NYC Conference

2006-03-09T15:55:00.000-08:00

(www.prweb.com)

Santa Ana, Calif. Director of Search Engine Marketing, Bob Carilli of Argus Interactive Agency (http://www.argusinteractive.com), based in Santa Ana, spoke at the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo in New York City last week.

Sessions at the conference exemplified developing search engine optimization (SEO) strategies behind increasing the rankings of results from online searches and opportunities in paid-per-click (PPC) search marketing.

The topic of Carilli’s discussion was “vertical creep” into online search results through engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

“Vertical creep” refers to how listings from other channels are starting to show in users’ search results.

For example, Google searchers may now see Froogle results above the regular listings. Bob Carilli and Argus Interactive are at the forefront of capitalizing on strategies and opportunities related to this trend.

Carilli was one of many high-profile speakers at the Search Engine Marketing & Optimization event, which this year included keynote speaker, Barry Diller, CEO of IAC/InterActive who announced the re-launch of search engine Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves).

Speakers are personally invited by organizer Danny Sullivan to take part in various sessions, based on the knowledge and experience they can bring to conference attendees.

Carilli joined the executive team at Argus Interactive in January as the Director of Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

He was most recently at Kelley Blue Book, and has worked on behalf of clients like AT&T, John Hancock, IBM, Lipton, Travelocity and Pfizer, to name a few.

As a pioneer in the industry, he was one of the producers on AT&T's 1996 Olympic Games Interactive Initiative, which was the top commercial Olympic Internet site and advertising campaign for the 1996 Atlanta Games.

This initiative received numerous industry awards as well as press recognition, including two 1996 CASIE awards, a 1996 Mar.com award, and a 1997 ADDY Award.

About Argus Interactive:Argus Interactive Agency (http://www.argusinteractive.com) was spun out of Orange County, California's largest media company in early 2002. It was then that founder and President Chris Diede began to carve out a unique blend of services for a rapidly changing marketplace.

Argus is a web services firm with a full-service approach to search engine marketing, web design and web development.

Their SEM Services include paid search strategy and management, as well as SEO. Some of their clients are Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Murad, Lowfares.com and Walter Foster Publishing.

Argus Interactive Agency creates competitive advantages online, allowing its clients to aggressively take on their competition.

The Argus approach has evolved into a surprisingly simple concept: WATCH the trends, LISTEN to clients, RESPOND proactively, and LEARN from each experience.

Search Engine Marketing Firm Medium Blue Named Number One SEO Firm in the World

2006-03-09T15:53:00.000-08:00

(www.24-7pressrelease.com)

ATLANTA, GA - Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing (www.mediumblue.com), an Atlanta search engine optimization company, has been listed as the number one SEO firm in the world by PromotionWorld in March.

Medium Blue is also the only firm in the southeastern United States to be included on PromotionWorld's list. Unlike other organizations that produce similar lists, PromotionWorld does not accept promotional fees or advertising in exchange for consideration.

"It's a wonderful honor to be recognized as the top SEO firm in the world by an unbiased resource such as PromotionWorld," said Scott Buresh, president and CEO of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing. "Our listing confirms the industry's awareness of our dedication to superior customer service and guaranteed results."

The premier news and information source for the search engine optimization industry, PromotionWorld features articles and tools submitted by industry leaders. Through its website, PromotionWorld serves as a respected and popular resource for webmasters who wish to improve their placement in search engines.

"Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing has consistently received high marks from its customers for its search engine optimization and marketing services, as well as its quantifiable results," said Darren Tabor, CEO of DevStart, PromotionWorld's parent company.

"It is a notable achievement to be the top firm on our list, because it means that Medium Blue has met all of our strict criteria and surpassed our expectations."PromotionWorld selects search engine optimization companies for inclusion on its top ten list based on criteria such as customer service, value, offered services, and website popularity.

Medium Blue strives to be a pioneer in the search engine marketing industry by providing unique services, such as in-house copywriting and implementation, and providing its clients with unmatched, customized guarantees.

Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing is an Atlanta search engine optimization company servicing a national client base, including Boston Scientific, Callaway Gardens, Cirronet, and Vector Networks. Medium Blue's services include search engine optimization, visitor conversion, and online public relations.

The company's experts in these areas are recognized industry leaders and have been featured in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, SEO Today, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide, and contributed to Building Your Business with Google for Dummies (Wiley, 2004).

Search Engine Marketing Firm Medium Blue Announces New Client: America Hears

2006-03-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

(www.prweb.com)

Atlanta –- Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing (http://www.mediumblue.com), an Atlanta-based search engine optimization company, today announced the addition of a new client, Pennsylvania-based America Hears, a leading manufacturer of digital hearing aids for 26 years.

“We needed a state-of-the-art search engine marketing firm to support our unique, ‘factory-direct’ hearing aid manufacturing business,” said Henry Smith, president of digital hearing aids manufacturer America Hears.

“Medium Blue’s history of proven results gives us confidence that they will provide us with superior service and will help us reach new prospects. In addition, Medium Blue was the only SEO firm that was willing to offer us a meaningful guarantee.”To support America Hears’s online digital hearing aids business, Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing will be performing search engine optimization, online public relations, and site conversion.

These three components support each other to create a synergistic effect that generates far greater results than the components would when performed individually. Medium Blue will do more than just generate Web traffic for America Hears—it will increase the sales of digital hearing aids that come directly from the company’s site.

“We are excited to begin this relationship with America Hears, a company with an excellent reputation in the digital hearing aid industry,” said Scott Buresh, president and CEO of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing. “With a highly-respected product line, plus innovative services such as the America Hears Virtual Office software, America Hears is already a leader in its field.

Medium Blue will help expand upon this leadership position by aggressively promoting the company’s products and reputation in the online arena.”

About America Hears

America Hears is a 26-year-old, American-owned-and-operated hearing aid manufacturer located in Bristol, Pennsylvania. The company offers clinical quality, 100% digital hearing aids to customers all over the world from its Bristol-based factory and through its internet site. America Hears is a member of the Better Business Bureau and is an approved hearing aid manufacturer by the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

About Medium Blue

Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing is an Atlanta search engine optimization company servicing a national client base, including Boston Scientific, Callaway Gardens, Cirronet, and Vector Networks. Medium Blue’s services include search engine optimization, visitor conversion, and online public relations.

The company’s experts in these areas are recognized industry leaders and have been featured in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, SEO Today, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide, and contributed to Building Your Business with Google for Dummies (Wiley, 2004).

DoubleClick Debuts Search Management Tool

2006-02-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

(www.dmnews.com)

NEW YORK -- DoubleClick is adding search marketing technology with its launch of DART Search at yesterday's Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo.

The self-serve tool lets advertisers and agencies manage their paid search campaigns and track their display, rich media and search ads in one place. DART Search is built on DoubleClick's DART ad management platform.

"Its integration with DART for Advertisers, including consolidated reporting capabilities, gives clients a comprehensive view of their total digital advertising investment," said David Rosenblatt, CEO of DoubleClick, New York.

Though the search tool is being marketed beyond existing clients, it will help existing customers manage their campaigns in one place and make it easy for them to "get up and running with paid search," said Dave Fall, senior product director for Dart Search.

The technology is scalable to handle advertisers' numerous keywords and campaigns, Fall added.

DoubleClick is also promising advertisers using Dart Search early insight on new products and beta testing of projects with Yahoo Search, Google and MSN Search.

Meanwhile, DoubleClick's Performics division continues to offer search engine marketing services.

Other announcements from the show:

· Forty percent of search marketers are missing out by using only Google and/or Yahoo for their campaigns, according to a new report from JupiterResearch.

· "Even though search engine usage by marketers has broadened in the past couple of years, marketers are still slow to test the newer search providers," said Sapna Satagopan, research associate at JupiterResearch and author of the report. "Lack of management tools and relatively low traffic volume are the biggest deterrents."

· One-third of sophisticated marketers find that adding new search engines drives up their clicks, the study said, though only 19 percent of search marketers make the cut as being sophisticated.

· Click Forensics launched a service that lets advertisers monitor their online campaigns for click fraud while accessing aggregate data about potential fraud seen by other advertisers in the network.

· ClickTracks Analytics released a new version of its software with new click-fraud reporting technology. The software also includes a "Robot View" report that lets marketers see their sites as search engine spiders see them.

· Yahoo Europe chose Microchannel Technologies' MakeMeTop bid management and ROI analytics tools for use on Kelkoo and other Yahoo Europe properties.

· Backbone Media debuted Scout, a suite of blog marketing services to help companies improve their search engine rankings through corporate blogging.

· Pricefish released FishClips, the first of several multimedia offerings. FishClips lets merchants include a short MP3 audio clip along with each of their product or service listings on Pricefish.com.

· Hot Banana Software unveiled Hot Banana for Agencies, a tool to help agencies manage multiple marketing campaigns for their clients. The company also partnered with PRWeb to add press release distribution to its Active Marketing Web Content Management Suite.

· Jambo introduced Pay-Per-Call Collect, a solution that lets businesses pay for their pay-per-call phone leads using their standard telephone bills.

iProspect Search Engine Marketing Study Reveals Nearly Half of Holiday Shoppers Who Researched Products Online Bought Those Products Offline

2006-02-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

(www.prweb.com)

Search Engine Marketers may be under-reporting campaign results by as much as half and missing out on budget dollars as a result.

Watertown, MA (PRWEB) February 28, 2006 -- According to the new Post-Holiday Online Shopping Study sponsored by iProspect and conducted by Jupiter Research, 47% of Internet users who reported researching products online during the 2005 holiday season bought those products offline at a physical store, by phone, or via some other offline channel.

This search engine marketing study serves as a wake-up call to search engine marketers who do not have systems in place to link offline conversions to their search engine marketing initiatives.

Marketers must develop such systems in order to more accurately report on the ROI their efforts produce, or otherwise cede as much as half their online ROI (according to this finding), and possible future budget dollars, to other marketing channels.

In addition to this finding, the iProspect Post-Holiday Online Shopping Study also reveals that 62% of Internet shoppers used general search engines (such as Google and Yahoo!) when researching products online, and that the use of shopping-specific search engines (such as Froogle and Yahoo! Shopping) is still not yet as popular with Internet users as the general search engines.

High-Level Findings Include:

• 47% of Internet users research products online and then buy them offline.

• 62% of Internet users utilize general search engines when researching products.

• 26% of Internet users utilize shopping-specific search engines when researching products.

“This study contains some important messages for online merchants,” said Robert Murray, President, iProspect. “If the vast majority of Internet users are performing their shopping research through the use of general search engines, it is obviously critical that online merchants’ websites and products be easily found on branded and non-branded searches in the major search engines.”

“The study also indicates,” added Murray, “that though many search marketers have produced great results by inclusion of their website pages in the shopping-specific search engines, these engines are still playing catch-up with general search engines in terms of their popularity with holiday shoppers. It will be interesting to see how the use of these shopping engines grows over the coming year.”

“This search engine marketing study also sends a significant message to merchants on the importance of measurement,” continued Murray.

“If nearly half of Internet users who research products online end-up buying those products offline, online marketers need to understand how important it is to measure offline conversions that are generated by online efforts, so they can more effectively manage their campaigns, take credit for the full online ROI that their efforts produce, and receive their organizations’ budget dollars consistent with their performance.”

Murray explained, “Unfortunately, far too few online merchants have mechanisms in place to link offline sales to their online marketing. When was the last time someone at the cash register asked you if you researched the product you were buying online? As a result, most online marketers inadvertently under-report the total ROI (online and offline) generated by their efforts, ceding credit for revenues which they actually produced to the channels through which the sale took place (in store, via catalog, phone, etc.) All too often, this results in a misallocation of future marketing budget to those channels through which the sale is transacted, when in fact that budget should be dedicated to the channel that produces the sale.”

iProspect works with many of its clients to develop systems by which offline conversions can be linked to search marketing efforts.About iProspect iProspect® is the Original® Search Engine Marketing Firm.

The company helps many of the world's most successful brands maximize their online marketing ROI through natural search engine optimization, paid inclusion management as a Yahoo! Search Submit Certified Ambassador, pay per click advertising management via their own patent-pending bid management agent called iSEBA™, and Web analytics through their own SEM-configured version of WebTrends™.

Located in Watertown, Massachusetts, the company can be contacted at 1-800-522-1152, or by visiting www.iprospect.com.

Proper attribution requires that the study is clearly identified as the “iProspect Post-Holiday Online Shopping Study." Copies of the study can be obtained at:

http://www.iprospect.com/about/searchenginemarketingwhitepapers.htm

News Search Engine Optimization

2006-02-23T15:51:00.000-08:00

(www.searchenginewatch.com)

News search engines offer companies a great way to receive targeted traffic related to breaking topics through press releases and other public relations information. A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, December 5-8, 2005, Chicago, IL.

Optimizing press releases

According to Greg Jarboe, President and Co-Founder of SEO-PR, CNN was the top news site a year ago, followed by MSNBC, then Yahoo. "Today, Yahoo is #1, getting more traffic than the other two," he said. "AOL is #4, while Google News is #14. News is one of the categories where Google is actually a trailer, not a leader. Still, Google is an A-list to target."

Why are search engine marketers spending money in search engine advertising and optimization, including news search optimization? According to SEMPO, the main reason is to increase brand awareness.

"A lot of people think that search engine marketing (SEM) is only about generating leads, which is important right after driving traffic to your site and right before selling things online," Jarboe continued. "But branding is really a process. If you really want to be successful in this new category of news search, understand that ranking is just a first step. Ranking well for a two-month old press release will not matter as much because news search depends on timeliness."

After timeliness, Jarboe recommends the fundamentals, including search-friendly copywriting and keyword research. "Most companies do not even know to do simple things to the content such as including a keyword in their main headline," he said. "Without it, chances of getting a highly-ranked press release are pretty slim. Also, the press release must be written has to be in compelling, persuasive English. Always write for human beings."

Other news search engine strategies that companies can incorporate are Web analytics specifically for news search engines. "We track all the way down to how many leads were generated, how much of that converted to sales, what kind of revenue, cost of optimization, ROI, and so forth," said Jarboe.

SEO for blogs

Blog posts often appear in news search engine results, though some search engines (such as Yahoo! News and Moreover) separate news and blog content. "A lot of the blog content we were pushing was not just showing up in news search, but RSS search and regular search as well," said Nan Dawkins, Partner at Redboots Consulting. "Blogs are a great way to reach journalists because firms need combined impact in various places."

Dawkins offered the following tips for optimizing blogs and press releases for news search:

* Establish a blog outreach program. "This does not mean blanketing your press release to bloggers," Dawkins explained. "It means going out and doing some research on which bloggers might be interested in your company, product or service; establish a relationship with those bloggers, which means reading their stuff, providing them with material; and commenting on their own material from time to time so that they know who you are."

* Make contact with the journalist. "You don't have to make that much of a distinction between the conventional journalist and the citizen journalist, especially from a marketing perspective," she said.

* Send your press release to trusted bloggers. "Never blanket bloggers with press releases," said Dawkins. "Establish relationship with them, talk to them on a regular basis, let them know when you have news coming up. When they ask for the press release, try and send it to them the day before or two days before it goes to the wire service, but make sure its clear they know not to post it in advance of the wire service. A lot of times, they will take your exact release and put it online, sometimes posting their own commentary - so you want to make sure you time it correctly."

* Use images whenever possible. Sometimes press releases get picked up because of their professional images. "Many blogs may carry an image you send out with a press release, if it fits the style of the blog," said Dawkins.

News search and public relations

One of the basic tenets of public relations is that third-party endorsements carry more weight than information that comes directly from a company. With search engine advertising, companies are going to promote their products and services in a positive light, and site visitors expect this. "

"When people see something from an unbiased media outlet, it definitely carries more weight," said Sally Falkow, President of Expansion Plus. "The whole premise of public relations is building trust and credibility."

PR has a very specific application in terms of search. "A lot of search engines are placing tremendous importance on trust," Falkow explained. "So if company Web sites can get links from a trusted news sources, it could be very important for brand value and for search."

"Companies can do both traditional and online PR," she continued, "but they would be best off having articles appear in a trusted media source that is already appearing in the news search engines, such as Yahoo! News. When people click on a news search link that leads to your company's press release, visitors will be going to a trusted news source, and the company will receive that third-party endorsement."

With RSS feeds, content can get picked up in a lot of news aggregators. "Then content can be picked up in a variety of news sources," she said. "Eventually, content will get back into the news engines and right back to reporters."

SA Search Engine Marketing Gets A Guru

2006-02-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

(www.bizcommunity.com)

Looking to turn your website into a source of business leads and revenue? Wanting to expand your business through leveraging Search Engine Marketing? Then it's time to put hooves to the hay and join forces with Purple Cow Communications!

Purple Cow Communications is South Africa's leading Internet Business Consultancy. Proudly partnered with international Search Engine Marketing pioneers Bruce Clay Inc, Purple Cow Communications offers unrivalled technical capacity and cutting-edge Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click advertising. With a portfolio of heavyweight clients such as IOL, Business Report, The Star, Cape Times, Daily News, Tempest Car Hire, Selfmed Medical Aid and a host of other websites, Purple Cow Communications has the performance track record and high-level experience to get your brand to the top in an online marketing environment.

Making sense of Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing is riddled with technicalities and jargon: SEO, SEM, conversions, organic searches, Pay-Per-Click, search engine traffic, third-party ad-serving and a whole host of other technical terms and procedures...Yet with nearly three decades worth of collective industry-leading online marketing expertise, Purple Cow Communications will help you make sense of Search Engine Marketing.

Step by step, we will guide you in turning your website into an online beacon with superb rankings and visibility on all the major search engines (local and international).

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Through systematic and ongoing Search Engine Optimisation, Purple Cow Communications will help your website achieve premier exposure on the world's top search engines.

We will optimise your website's technical structure and content towards improving its relevance, "findability", and overall performance.

Our objective is to rank your website on the first search engine results page; thereby maximising the volumes of quality traffic to your website.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click advertising, as a paid-for online advertising medium, delivers fast, highly targeted results - with solid returns on investment! By using state-of-the-art keyword research tools, Purple Cow Communications determines what your target market is searching for.

We then serve them extremely relevant advertising to address their needs while tracking the entire process from visit to conversion and sale.Whether your business is targeting a local, regional or international market, Purple Cow Communications will improve your website's search engine rankings and simultaneously raise the quality of your website traffic.

Contact us to find out how Search Engine Marketing will benefit your business online today!

Search Engine Journal Editor Positions Available

2006-02-20T16:09:00.000-08:00

www.searchenginejournal.com

Search Engine Journal is looking for SEJ Editors who can contribute search engine related news from day to day.

If you are a search engine blogger, or work in the search engine marketing field and would like to contribute to the Search Engine Journal, please contact me at lorenbake@yahoo.com with links to current works and relevant experience.

We are looking for SEJ Editors who are experienced in the fields of :

* SEO

* Local Search

* Video Search

* World of 2.0/Blog/Mashups

Contributing to the Search Engine Journal will add to the online recognition and marketing of yourself, business, or services. Search Engine Journal’s syndication and readership speaks for itself.

* Search Engine Journal has been featured on NPR Radio, About.com, Google Friends and Froogle Newsletters, Google AdWords, Inc. Magazine, CNET, Business Week, Online Journalism Review, ZDNet, SpreadFirefox.com, Computing Magazine, and Slashdotted multiple times.

* We currently are hovering around an Alexa Ranking of 10,000, meaning that, according to Alexa, we are in the top 10,000 popular sites on the Internet.

* Search Engine Journal also made the Feedster Top 500’s premier 100 blogs for November, ranking at #93 among all of the Feedster indexed blogs on the blogosphere.

* Our search engine news is syndicated on premier Internet News channels including Yahoo News, Google News, and MSN News.

We will be reviewing the credentials of bloggers and writers who would like to contribute to Search Engine Journal and contacting Editors for the position after Search Engine Strategies New York.

Search Engine Business World Conference - Vancouver BC

2006-02-20T16:06:00.000-08:00

www.news.stepforth.com

In a few hours I will be boarding a small, single prop sea plane (likely a DeHavilland DHC3 Otter) for a short hop across the Georgia Strait into downtown Vancouver.

There, I will be met by Frank Klassen and Bruno Hoffman, co-founders of Vancouver based Search Engine Business World, a conference and planning organization formed to educate Canadian businesses about search engine marketing.

Tomorrow, I will be speaking at the downtown campus of Simon Fraser University addressing topics ranging from a brief history of search to the latest tools and trends in search marketing.

I am not certain if registration is still available but if you find yourself in Vancouver tomorrow morning and are in the mood for some informative fun, SFU Downtown is the place to be.

While in Vancouver, I have some spare time tonight and tomorrow afternoon. If any StepForth client or reader is interested in having a coffee, please feel free to call our office (1-877-385-5526) or email jimhedger@stepforth.com to arrange a time.

Search Engine Marketing Meeting to Feature MSN Adcenter

2006-02-20T16:03:00.000-08:00

www.websitehostdirectory.com

Dallas, Texas - (Website Hosting Directory) - The Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Organization (DFWSEM) will host special guest speakers Celena Kingson and Robyn Raybould of Microsoft to discuss the new MSN Adcenter on February 20.Webmasters and interactive marketers in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas are invited to attend.

Celena Kingson is a Search Media Strategist with Microsoft Search Media Operations.

Prior to joining Microsoft's team, Ms. Kingson held positions at both Walt Disney Internet Group and Time Inc. At Walt Disney Internet Group, Celena was a Marketing Specialist where was responsible for creating the largest online integrated marketing program in the history of Disney online. After leaving Walt Disney, Celena gained print media experience as a Custom Publishing Project Manager for Time Inc's The Parenting Group.

Celena holds an MBA from Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville, Tennessee. Robyn Raybould is a Search Media Analyst with Microsoft Search Media Operations. Before joining Microsoft, Robyn was the Manager of Marketing and Lead Generation for YellowBrix, a web content aggregator headquartered outside of Washington, D.C. where she managed paid search marketing.

During her tenure there she also spearheaded the launch of two new company websites and a customer service portal. Prior to working at YellowBrix Robyn spent several years in Business and Revenue Analysis at MCI.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from New York University.The Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Organization (DFWSEM) mmeting will take place on Monday, Fenruary 20, 2006 at 7:00 pm.

The meeting will be held at the Grand Hotel, LBJ Freeway at Coit 7815 LBJ Fwy, Dallas, TX, 75251.To learn more, please visit: www.dfwsem.org.

Help for Managing Search Marketing

2006-02-17T14:21:00.001-08:00

www.imediaconnection.com

Here are the top 10 challenges a search technology solution can (and should) solve.

These days, your company probably runs search marketing campaigns, because quite simply, you need to. And, you’re probably experiencing the usual challenges-- not wanting to bid too much for your keywords, trying to figure out where your diminishing returns kick in, competing with others for the perfect keyword placement and having a tough time managing thousands of keywords across multiple engines. You know you need to manage all of this somehow, so have you considered working with a search marketing technology partner yet? Are you even sure what to look for?

Whether you’re dabbling in search marketing or you're a seasoned veteran of the practice, you may not know all that a search technology solution should offer to help you succeed. There are many critical components, but because of the seemingly endless appetite for Top 10 lists, here are the top 10 challenges a search technology solution can (and should) solve:

1) Does your system provide a single platform to manage keywords on multiple engines? Every search engine has unique structures for managing keywords. Google has Campaigns and Ad Groups; Yahoo! has Categories. Each engine has different business rules that govern bidding. Google incorporates keyword relevancy; Yahoo does not. Your search technology solution should strive to strike a balance between respecting the unique business rules of each engine and providing a common platform from which you can manage your search program across all the engines. The solution should be robust enough so that it communicates programmatically with each engine, yet levels the playing field when you run reports, so that you can judge relative performance accurately.

2) Does your system allow you to manage keywords using Campaigns and Ad Groups, a la Google? Google's Campaign & Ad Group structure enables a marketer to organize large volumes of keywords so that you can leverage shared ad copy. A good search technology solution should include a similar structure, enabling you to see your program the way it looks on Google. In addition, a good search technology solution should allow you to manage your keywords on Yahoo and other engines using a similar structure. You should be able to run parallel campaigns -- say "Back to School" on Google and "Back to School" on Yahoo -- so that you can compare apples to apples in reporting.

3) Can your search technology solution break the Google "Downward Cycle?" Google incorporates a keyword's clickthrough rate in the formula that governs the keyword's rank. This means that a lower clickthrough rate causes your keyword to cost more, potentially, than a competitor's keyword; so be very careful when you launch new keywords. If your initial bid is too low, the keyword won't get many clicks in the beginning, and, due to the keyword's relevancy, Google will lower the keyword's rank. This is known as the Google Downward Cycle. Your bid management solution should have a method for breaking the downward cycle. One way to handle this is to have a trial period in which the bidding tool aggressively bids a keyword up until it locates the appropriate position to meet your ROI goal. It’s critical, of course, to monitor the process carefully, or you could deplete your budget rapidly.

4) Can you combine bid strategies to meet multiple objectives? Let’s say your goal is to spend about 20 percent of your sales dollars in media fees. You input this goal into your bid management system, and voila, some of your keywords end up in 11th place-- on the second page of search results. Not what you intended? To get the level of exposure you wanted, you realize that you really want all of your search ads to appear on the first page of results. So, the goal you set of 20 percent revenue share really wasn't your primary goal, was it? Actually, you have multiple objectives. First, you want your search ads to appear on the first page of search results. Second, you want to achieve a 20 percent revenue share. Your search solution should be sophisticated enough to balance these multiple objectives. Does your tool allow you to set a rule such as "keep these keywords on the first page, and manage the program to a 20 percent revenue share?"

5) How are you handling the different editorial policies of the major search engines? Each search engine has its own editorial policy. When you are running a program across multiple engines, this can be quite a headache. Yahoo's Match Driver policy, for example, will actually change your search terms by dropping plurals and switching word order. Google will reject ad copy based on over-zealous punctuation usage or use of trademarked terms. Does your search technology solution notify you when Yahoo has re-arranged your search terms? Does it send you an email if your ad copy is rejected on Google?

Next: Challenges six through 10

AOL Engine Tops Search Conversion Rates on Ecommerce Sites

2006-02-17T14:21:00.000-08:00

www.adotas.com

AOL’s search engine generated the best conversion rate at business-to consumer e-commerce sites (6.17%) beating Google, MSN, and Yahoo!, according to a new study released by WebSideStory, Inc. According to the WebSideStory Index, a new statistical barometer that features techno-graphic and e-commerce trends pulled from millions of users who visit websites using the company’s award-winning web analytics technology HBX Analytics, MSN’s search engine followed with 6.03 percent, Yahoo’s search engine with 4.07 percent, and Google’s search engine with 3.83 percent.

The study includes traffic from both organic and paid keywords.

Ali Behnam, Senior Digital Marketing Consultant for WebSideStory said in a press statement, “One way to explain the difference in conversion rates is demographics. With portals rich in content and services, AOL, MSN and Yahoo may tend to appeal toward a more buyer friendly demographic. Google, meanwhile, may appeal to more browsers – those with less of an intent to buy.”

Furthermore, “All of this suggests search engine marketers may want to consider demographics in allocating their budgets,” Behnam adds.

According to the index, each of the major search engines posted conversion rates well above the median average for all search engines, which was 1.97 percent for the month of January.

This compares with a median average of 2.30 percent for the last three months of 2005, which WebSideStory reported on last month. Another important consideration in the study is that the conversion rates are likely higher than industry averages because the sample sites are using best-of-class web analytics to improve their search engine marketing and optimization.

Jeff Lunsford, chairman and CEO of WebSideStory, said in the press release, “Our clients are steeped in web analytics best practices and are not buying search engine traffic that does not deliver. In addition, they understand how to convert visitors into buyers once they arrive at the site.”

(BW) Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketers Host MSN Search Pros; Local Marketers to Host Microsoft Search Media Operations in Discussion

2006-02-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

of the New MSN Adcenter

www.chron.com

DALLAS & FORT WORTH, Texas- The Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Organization (DFWSEM) invites all Webmasters and interactive marketers for a discussion on the new MSN Adcenter with special guest speakers Celena Kingson and Robyn Raybould of Microsoft.

About Celena Kingson

Celena Kingson, Search Media Strategist, Microsoft Search Media Operations
Prior to joining Microsoft's team, Celena Kingson held positions at both Walt Disney Internet Group and Time Inc. At Walt Disney Internet Group, Celena was a Marketing Specialist where was responsible for creating the largest online integrated marketing program in the history of Disney online. After leaving Walt Disney, Celena gained print media experience as a Custom Publishing Project Manager for Time Inc's The Parenting Group. Celena holds an MBA from Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Robyn Raybould

Robyn Raybould, Search Media Analyst, Microsoft Search Media Operations
Before joining Microsoft, Robyn was the Manager of Marketing and Lead Generation for YellowBrix, a web content aggregator headquartered outside of Washington, D.C. where she managed paid search marketing. During her tenure there she also spearheaded the launch of two new company websites and a customer service portal. Prior to working at YellowBrix Robyn spent several years in Business and Revenue Analysis at MCI. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from New York University. Meeting Details:

Seating limited - to reserve your place, please RSVP to 972-831-2124

Date:

Monday, February 20, 2006, 7:00 p.m.

Cost:

DFWSEM Members: Free
Non-members: $10 at the door
A dinner buffet will be available for an additional cost.

Meeting Place:

Grand Hotel, LBJ Freeway at Coit
7815 LBJ Fwy, Dallas, TX, 75251
Phone: 972-934-8668

About DFWSEM:

The Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Organization is dedicated to educating businesses in the Dallas/Fort Worth area about the benefits of search engine marketing.

The group meets once a month at various locations throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. To become a registered member of DFWSEM email e-mail protected from spam bots. Individual DFWSEM memberships are $75 for the first year.

Corporate memberships are $175 for the first year and include 3 seats to monthly DFWSEM meetings. Additional seats for a Corporate membership are $50/year. All annual memberships receive a link from DFWSEM to your company web site, and a complimentary subscription to Revenue Magazine. MasterCard, Visa, Amex, and checks are accepted.

DFWSEM meets the third Monday of every month at various locations around the Metroplex.

For more information, visit http://www.dfwsem.org.

Growing PPC Market Means New Challenges for Search Engine Marketing Firms

2006-02-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

www.prnewswire.com

CHICAGO -- Fierce competition for top position amongsearch engines' sponsored links is pushing businesses like Whoast Inc., aburgeoning search engine marketing firm based in St. Charles, Ill., to offerclients unique ideas and creative technology.

Whoast President Aaron Wittersheim says his company embraces thecompetition and the challenges because it keeps them focused every day onresearching new technology, understanding the growing complexity of theInternet, and offering clients better solutions to optimized pay-per-clickadvertising.

"More and more advertisers realize search engine optimized pay-per-clickis the only way to stay on top of their competition," Wittersheim said.

One of the most-innovative solutions Whoast offers to meet this evolvingmarketplace is what they call dynamic ad management, Wittersheim said. Theidea is to use hard data to find out where the customer is headed and getthere first.

"It's technology and technique: monitoring bid trends and integrating datato predict an ad's effectiveness, and then modifying the advertising campaignto meet the need," he explained. "Our technology allows for constantmonitoring, running software that researches one-quarter of a million keywordsup to 48 times a day.

"All of this effort keeps our search engine marketing campaigns fluid andflexible, which is the best way to approach today's Internet environment," hesaid.

Recent reports suggest the PPC market, where advertisers pay webpublishers and search engines for the number of clicks they receive, isexpected to grow 41 percent in 2006. This growth is fueled not only by thenatural advantages of PPC, but also by new innovations and competition. MSN'sAdCenter, which debuts this year and promises a highly targeted method ofbuying PPC advertising, will challenge the dominant search-engine leaders ofGoogle and Yahoo.

Wittersheim noted PPC also has many inherent advantages over traditionalsearch-engine-optimization, or SEO, marketing, which involves incorporatingkey terms and phrases for search-engine capture. PPC often is seen as simplerand easier to manage, producing more-immediate results that can be trackedmore effectively. This may be why PPC advertising accounts for 83 percent ofthe search engine marketing industry, according to the Search Engine MarketingProfessional Organization, or SEMPO.

The disadvantages of PPC usually result from poor development andmaintenance tactics, which Wittersheim described as "more annoying andineffective than anything."

Whoast is a Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, firm specializing in searchengine optimization, PPC campaign setup/management and competitive analysisreporting. Founded in 2003, Whoast provides a host of services for Chicagofirms including search engine optimization, paid search solutions, webanalytics and consulting. For more information, visit http://www.whoast.com/ .

Million Pixel Home Page Advertising Search Engine Marketing

2006-02-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

www.dailyindia.com

How It Works

The New HOT Search Engine Marketing craze that is generating Huge amounts of traffic to websites that participate.

How do they produce high traffic?

One of the most important reasons this new Search Engine Marketing system produces traffic is the Buzz going around the internet from forums, articles like this, word of mouth, press releases and the fact that it is a brand new way of Internet Marketing that has never been seen before.
Here is what you need to do if you would like to receive the benefits from this amazing Search Engine Marketing traffic generator.

#1- Look for a Pixel Page that is fairly New, very little current ads ( I have listed a link to a great one below ). Reason being is that you really benefit greatly by having the opportunity to place your Pixel AD were ever you want.

Note: Look for middle available sections as well as top left hand corners ( the way people read the paper ). Also another important reason is that when other interested people that want to place there ads clearly spot your Pixel Ad first. This generates curiosity on what’s behinds door number one = Tons of traffic for you.

#2- Choose the amount of pixel space you need and want to purchase. Prices for pixels normally cost about $1.00. This is one of the most inexpensive ways of Internet Marketing I personally have ever seen.

#3- After you decide how many Pixel Advertising spaces you wish to purchase and were to place them on the Million Pixel Page Grid now it is time to create your Search Engine Marketing Pixel Ad.

#4- When putting together your Pixel Ad be creative, you don’t have to purchase a large amount of Pixel Page Realistate if your thumbnail Pixel Ad is creative. It has been reported that a ton of the small mini Pixel Ads, because the are unique and eye grabbing are receiving close to the same amount of traffic to the larger sized Pixel Ads.

That is all you need to do. These Pixel Page sites will bring a continuous amount of traffic for years to come. This type of Search Engine Marketing will pay for itself over and over again by generating more sales, and tons of new unique visitors to your site. These sites marketing creates the buzz your sites get the benefit of the continuos high volume of traffic.

Wayne Hagerty

This article was written by Wayne Hagerty certified Search Engine Internet Marketing professional with years of experience. To get continuos traffic to your own business and website is as simple as visiting the Million Pixel Page a new hot online traffic generating system. Learn more about how his unique Internet marketing platform can bring your site continuos high volume traffic for years to come. Get traffic now at: http://1-millionpixelpage.com

Search Engine Advertising to Grow 26% in 2006

2006-02-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

www.blog.searchenginewatch.com

The study "Annual Ad Spending Study: Where & Why Advertisers Are Moving Online" released this week by Outsell, Inc. contains advertiser data about the effectiveness of search keyword, contextual and behavioral advertising online, as well as online versus offline advertising methods.

Included in the findings of 1,200 advertisers controlling an estimated $2.8 billion ad budgets are:

- Spending in online marketing will increase 19% in 2006, while growth in search engine advertising will increase 26%.

- Growth in online advertising is eight times the rate of television ads and at six times the growth rate of print advertising.

- Advertisers find Google search keyword advertising more effective than both Yahoo! and MSN, and Google contextual advertising more effective than Yahoo contextual ads.

ClickZ has more detailed information on the overall findings while JenSense has a more detailed look at the contextual and behavioral advertising findings.

Aplus.Net Named Top Search Engine Marketing Hosting Provider

2006-02-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

www.thehostingnews.com

San Diego, California - (The Hosting News) - Website hosting company, Aplus.Net has been named to the Top 5 list of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Hosting providers in February 2006 by TopSEOs.com. The TopSEOs.com lists are designed to assist companies in the process of selecting vendors to help these companies build and implement a robust Internet marketing strategy.

After a careful review, Aplus.Net was named to the Top 5 SEM Hosting list. TopSEOs.com evaluated candidates on a number of factors, including competitive advantage, services and pricing, customer and technical support, response to client problems, innovations, and overall efficiency and performance. In the end, the five 'best of breed' vendors were selected to the Top 5 list. Ivan Vachovsky, Chief Executive Officer and President of Aplus.

Net commented on the honor, ''We are delighted that our online marketing efforts are being recognized by trusted sources such as TopSEOs.com.

Aplus.Net is currently focusing on expanding our Web marketing services arm.

In the past few months, we have spent much time and effort researching new developments in the search engine marketing industry, and have hired more certified specialists to work with our customers. Honors like this one mean a great deal to us, as they are a reflection of our progress.''Aplus.

Net has previously been acknowledged by a number of organizations for excellence in a number of Internet services, particularly web hosting and web design. Aplus.

Net is a recipient of the CNET Editors' Choice Award, as well as multiple awards from the San Diego Business Journal, and various popular industry review websites.

To learn more about Aplus.Net, please visit: www.aplus.net.

Web Hosting Provider Aplus.Net Honored for Search Engine Marketing Services

2006-02-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

www.hostreview.com

Aplus.Net ranks in Top 5 by for Search Engine Marketing Hosting by TopSEOs.com

Top web presence solutions provider, Aplus.Net has been named to the Top 5 list of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Hosting providers in February 2006 by well-respected resource for assessing Internet marketing and services, TopSEOs.com. TopSEOs.com lists are meant for companies in the process of selecting vendors to help these companies build and implement a robust Internet marketing strategy.

After a careful review, Aplus.Net defeated some strong competitors and was named to the Top 5 SEM Hosting list. TopSEOs.com evaluated candidates on a number of factors, including competitive advantage, services and pricing, customer and technical support, response to client problems, innovations, and overall efficiency and performance. In the end, the five “best of breed” vendors were selected to the Top 5 list.

“We are delighted that our online marketing efforts are being recognized by trusted sources such as TopSEOs.com,” says Ivan Vachovsky, Chief Executive Officer and President of Aplus.Net. “Aplus.Net is currently focusing on expanding our Web marketing services arm.

In the past few months, we have spent much time and effort researching new developments in the search engine marketing industry, and have hired more certified specialists to work with our customers.

Honors like this one mean a great deal to us, as they are a reflection of our progress. ”Aplus.Net has previously been acknowledged by a number of organizations for excellence in a number of Internet services, particularly web hosting and web design.

Aplus.Net is a recipient of the CNET Editors’ Choice Award, as well as multiple awards from the San Diego Business Journal, and various popular industry review websites, such as TopHosts.com and Web Host Directory. More information regarding Aplus.Net’s awards and honors is available at http://www.aplus.net/comp_info_awards.html.

About Aplus.Net

Aplus.Net is an online presence provider that specializes in catering to small and medium-sized businesses. A recognized industry leader, Aplus.Net offers high-quality products and services including web hosting, web design, domain names, online marketing, dedicated servers, and e-commerce. Last year, the company announced the launch of a managed Pay-Per-Click service called eTraffic, which helps time-crunched Web site owners receive guaranteed site traffic for a reasonable price. Aplus.Net is among the ten largest privately held web hosting and domain name registration companies in the USA and is a facilities-based provider. Aplus.Net has been awarded many honors for excellence, including the prestigious CNET Editors' Choice Award. Top US publications, such as Forbes, Fuel, and Black Enterprise, often seek advice from our experts. For more information about Aplus.Net, please visit www.aplus.net.

A realistic search engine marketing results time frame

2006-02-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

www.btobonline.com

Ask the Expert: Aaronh Kahlow

Question: How long should it take a vendor to implement an SEM strategy and start seeing results?

Answer: A sound search engine marketing strategy will incorporate one or both of the following approaches: organic search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC). Each activity has a different time line for implementation and results.

Usually, b-to-b companies' most visible results from SEM will be an increase in qualified traffic. Leads and sales are a secondary result of the increase in the right type of traffic. Here's a breakdown of what to expect:

Organic SEO-To provide the maximum value from your SEO efforts, your vendor should have a short-term and long-term SEO strategy.

Short-term: Immediately, your SEO vendor should analyze your site to identify and implement a short-term strategy that addresses sitewide issues affecting search rankings, such as server settings, URL structures and the information architecture. These few adjustments will open your site to indexing and better results on the search engines. This process should take no longer than one month to strategize, execute and begin seeing increased traffic as a result.

Long-term: A long-term SEO strategy is a minimum standard for b-to-b companies, and you'll benefit for years to come with minimal maintenance. When creating a strategy, your vendor should identify on-page factors (such as title tags and Web content) and off-page factors (such as link strategy) that make your site search friendly for specific keyword phrases. Developing and implementing this long-term strategy can take between three and six months.

Err on the high side if your site needs to be completely redesigned. If your site provides a solid foundation for visitors but needs to be optimized for the search engines, then plan on three months as a realistic implementation time frame. You can expect to start seeing results from a long-term SEO strategy as quickly as two weeks after implementation and definitely within two months.

Pay-per-click-Your PPC strategy is an activity that will send traffic to your site the moment you start spending money. In two weeks to one month, you can expect your vendor to have an initial PPC strategy developed and ready for implementation. You will see increased traffic almost immediately. Remember though, overall results and ROI will vary depending on the cost you pay every time a visitor clicks on your advertisement.

Cars.com Launches Local Search Management Service for Dealers

2006-02-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

www.biz.yahoo.com

NADA Convention Booth #2654 -- CPC Logic, a division of cars.com, today announced the launch of local search management for dealers. The new service will leverage CPC Logic's depth of automotive search expertise and proprietary search management technology to help dealerships drive quality search engine traffic directly to their website.

"Since only three percent of online shoppers begin their process at a dealership website, Search Engine Marketing is among the most efficient and effective ways for dealerships to build traffic for their website," said Mitch Golub, president of cars.com. "However, it is also among the most complex forms of advertising to manage, with vastly different results in terms of cost and traffic volume. We are excited to offer dealers this new service which will give them the power of our bid management software and search expertise, in order to drive the best results at the lowest cost."

CPC Logic will work with dealerships to meet their traffic goals and campaign objectives, creating customized keyword lists for the products and services they want to promote, including new and used cars, parts and accessories, service, finance and much more. Campaigns are tailored to maximize brand exposure, website traffic and leads, and phone calls within the dealers selected budget.

Designed to help navigate the complexities of Search Engine Marketing and to optimize their search investment, CPC Logic will offer dealerships complete account management services including account set-up, keyword selection, ad copy creation, listing submissions, traffic tracking, bid management, performance monitoring and billing with the search engines. In addition to campaign management, CPC Logic provides dealers with a full reporting suite, including keyword ROI, traffic and campaign analysis. Using these tools, dealerships can track and measure performance from clicks to sales.

"Our new search service further extends cars.com's position as a single source for dealerships online advertising needs," said Golub. "Be it through online listings, our extensive partnership network, targeted display ads, lead generation or Search Engine Marketing, we now have the ability to help dealerships capture consumers from the highest quality online sources and at various points of the purchase funnel. A full-service marketing partner, we provide the services and counsel to meet a dealerships specific online needs, resulting in meaningful online traffic and more vehicle sales."

About CPC Logic:

Based in Santa Monica, California, CPC Logic is the leading authority in automotive search management and local search, with years of experience managing search marketing for auto manufacturers. In addition to its proprietary bid management technology, CPC Logic is a Google certified SEM provider and a Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador. Formerly a division of NewCars.com, CPC Logic was acquired by cars.com in July 2005.

About cars.com

Partnered with more than 200 leading metro newspapers, television stations and their Web sites, cars.com is the most comprehensive destination for those looking to buy or sell a new or used car. The site lists more than 1.4 million vehicles from 10,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private- parties to offer consumers the best selection of new and used cars online, as well as the content, tools and advice to support their shopping experience.

Recently selected by Forbes.com as a Best of the Web site for car shopping, cars.com combines powerful inventory search tools and new-car configuration with pricing information, photo galleries, buying guides, side-by-side comparison tools, original editorial content and reviews to help millions of car shoppers connect with sellers each month.

Practical Search Engine Marketing for Ordinary Mortals

2006-02-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

www.openpr.com

After four years of research on Search Engine Marketing, Raul Vergara, a technology writer, researcher and home-based entrepreneur, has finally launched his blog "Practical Search Engine Marketing for Ordinary Mortals".

Raul Vergara is not a newbie in IT and Internet having previously worked as an IT management professional for various multinational companies for the past 17 years. As a home-based entrepreneur, he now concentrates all his efforts providing IT consultancy for big companies and blogging, on the side.

Raul Vergara was asked why publish a blog on Search Engine Marketing (SEM)? "A lot of websites managed by small and medium-sized business owners cannot afford to hire the services of a Search Engine Marketer/Consultant.

This blog intends to educate the ordinary website owner so that they will have the basic knowledge to do their own search engine marketing campaigns for their business websites.

Of course, I won't mind if they hire me as their consultant but I really would like them to be able to do SEM on their own." he said.Currently, Raul Vergara has written 38 articles on Search Engine Marketing and he is sharing this knowledge to everyone who wants to get a good grasp of its concepts and applications.

"The knowledge you will gain from it will help you propel your business website rank well in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The best thing about this blog is it is all free. But free does not mean less in quality.

The valuable advice I provide to big companies on SEM is the same tips, tricks and techniques I presented in this blog." he added.

Internet Promotional Products Business Planning to Stay in Gahanna

2006-02-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

www.emediawire.com

The growth of Gahanna-based Leaderpromos.com is forcing the company out of its current home. But company officials said they are working hard to keep the Internet business in the city. Gahanna's location, amenities and opportunities, company president Stephanie Leader said, are worth it.

"Staying in Gahanna meant a lot of sacrifices," company president Stephanie Leader said. "We didn't have a lot of office sites available to us.

If we went into Columbus, we could go anywhere.”"I like the location and love the community and I think it will be a great environment for all our employees to be here," Leader continued.

The company has been in Gahanna since 1996 and is in a 6,000-square-foot space off Claycraft Road. Leader plans to build a 15,000-square-foot facility near the intersection of Johnstown and Hamilton roads.

The move, Leader said, will allow the company to expand from 26 full-time employees to 50 in the next five years.

In addition to adding more staff, the move to a larger facility will allow Leaderpromos.

com to house some of its custom embroidery work there. The business produces custom promotional items, uniforms and promotional apparel and creates online corporate stores. In 2005, the company added six sales representatives and four administrative staff members, increasing sales by 60 percent.

Leader declined to say how much the company's annual sales are, but said they typically grow by 40 to 50 percent a year. While larger orders still will be contracted out, Leader said the ability to handle last-minute orders of up to about 150 pieces is a plus in a service-oriented business.

The company's growth, Leader said, is a result of a number of factors, including keeping up with the latest Internet technology and search engine marketing strategies, strong customer service, a great team of employees and a conservative business philosophy."It's just a level of service we want to provide for our customers," Leader said.

The new building will include a room for employees' children when they are out of school.

Children will have space to do homework, play video games and watch movies. "Being a working mom, that is something I wish I had from time to time," Leader said.

Search Engine Marketing Magazine

2006-01-31T16:51:00.000-08:00

How do you know an industry is maturing?
It gets its own trade magazine.

Such is the case with the Search Engine Marketing Industry, which this year is getting its very own “Search Engine Marketing Standard” magazine which will be published on a quarterly basis.

Right now, residents of the USA can get a free 1-year subscription through SearchMarketingStandard.com. International subscriptions are only $20 USD/year.

The first issue is being published in May. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Did-it Search Marketing Recognizes Benefits of PostgreSQL Through Assistance From Pervasive Software

2006-01-31T16:43:00.000-08:00

(www.chron.com).- Search Marketing Management Firm Leverages Pervasive's Database Expertise,

Saving Costs, Stabilizing Database Performance

Pervasive Software(R) Inc. (Nasdaq: PVSW), a global value leader in data infrastructure software, today announced that Did-it Search Marketing has partnered with Pervasive to provide assistance for their back-end PostgreSQL database infrastructure. As a result of the partnership Did-it has already recognized cost savings through the elimination of expensive database licensing fees, and the elimination of the need to hire a dedicated database administrator. These savings will transfer to Did-it's customers and help the growing search company remain competitive in the industry.

Did-it is a search marketing management firm that maximizes marketing campaigns for its customers, including E*TRADE FINANCIAL, Cingular Wireless and Match.com. By integrating strategy, analytics and technology, the company is able to provide its impressive customer base with innovative better ways to reach their target markets. Did-it chose PostgreSQL to fuel its search engines because PostgreSQL provides enterprise-level functionality and performance, plus tried and tested technology with a simple BSD license. Did-it runs over 22 million insert and update transactions per day through their primary database, Did-it depends on Pervasive to provide the technical support to exploit the power and speed of the database while keeping operating costs at a minimum.

"Within days of signing our agreement, a highly-skilled Pervasive technician came onsite and learned our system and how we were using PostgreSQL," says John Merryman, vice president of Technology Solutions at Did-it. "He then made the appropriate adjustments and configuration changes so we could reap the full benefits of the reliability, robustness and functionality of the database. Pervasive's comprehensive support is what a high-cost database administrator would be expected to provide, but now we consider Pervasive a valuable extension of our own IT staff." Did-it estimates that they will save $250,000 per year with the PostgreSQL solution and Pervasive services versus an Oracle license and an internal database administrator.

Pervasive will provide ongoing Gold-level technical support for Did-it's database, enabling the company's development resources to remain focused on the real performance drivers and confident its database is stable and functioning at its optimum potential. Pervasive Postgres support is sold by an annual subscription and Gold-level support offers maximum response times within two business hours for critical issues and 12 business hours for noncritical issues.

"Many external administrators and internal IT departments aren't equipped to optimize the full benefits of PostgreSQL. Pervasive's Postgres support should be considered a practical, even preferred, alternative to expensive administrators or overwhelmed IT departments," says Gilbert Van Cutsem, general manager of Pervasive's Database Division. "Leveraging Pervasive's 20 years of database experience gives clients all the robust features of PostgreSQL, and the technical expertise they need, at a fraction of the cost of high-priced databases."

PostgreSQL is the open source database technology leader, offering enterprise-ready core technology like views, triggers, stored procedures, and security, and it is released under the business-friendly BSD license, allowing royalty-free use within commercial settings. Pervasive provides services and professional support for PostgreSQL that assist customers in deriving value from the benefits of open source database technology -- faster adoption, greater ROI, and lower risk. Pervasive support is provided at various levels, providing a flexible business model that can be tailored to the needs of any organization. Service components include solutions to resolve problems with database servers in mission-critical and non - mission critical environments.

Pervasive remains focused on the infrastructure layer of the software solution stack and on delivering low total cost of ownership, so it is uniquely positioned to provide real value to channel partners and their customers. Pervasive was the first public company offering software, support and services around PostgreSQL. The company has applied deep knowledge and more than 20 years of database, migration and integration experience and expertise to the rich functionality, services and support around PostgreSQL. Pervasive has been an active PostgreSQL community member since January 2005.

Pervasive Software is hosting a series of informative Webinars on Open Source databases covering topics including benefits, markets, evaluation and migration. For more information on Webinar times and for information on registration, visit http://www.pervasive-postgres.com .

About Did-it Search Marketing

Did-it Search Marketing, a recognized leader in the Search since 1996, drives sales and profit growth, market share and return on marketing investment for over 200 clients, including E*TRADE FINANCIAL and Cingular Wireless. In 2004, Jupiter Research ranked Did-it the Number One Search Engine Marketing firm for technology and market suitability. More information can be found at http://www.Did-it.com or (800) 932-7761.

About Pervasive Software

Pervasive Software provides data infrastructure software that helps companies unleash the value of their data investments. For more than two decades, Pervasive has delivered an enduring value proposition and the best combination of performance, reliability, functionality, and connectivity.

Today Pervasive is leading its chosen markets by defining and accelerating the inevitable transition from high cost to high value. Pervasive's value is proven by the size, diversity and loyalty of its customer base, partners, and channels. Tens of thousands of customers in virtually every industry, in more than 150 countries around the world, rely on Pervasive to manage, integrate, analyze and secure their critical data.

For more information, go to http://www.pervasive.com . For more information about Pervasive PostgreSQL, go to http://www.pervasivepostgres.com .

Cautionary Statement

This release may contain forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements included in this document are based upon information available to Pervasive as of the date hereof, and Pervasive assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement.

All Pervasive brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pervasive Software Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

Online Travel Industry - The Competitive in Search Engine Marketing

2005-06-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

Online Travel is one of the largest segments for consumer spending on the Web. Online travel is one of the largest segments for consumer spending on the Web, and choices for where to research and purchase travel online continue to multiply. Expedia,...
Distribution Source : PRWeb
Date : Saturday, June 25, 2005
(PRWEB) June 25, 2005 -- Online Travel is one of the largest segments for consumer spending on the Web. Online travel is one of the largest segments for consumer spending on the Web, and choices for where to research and purchase travel online continue to multiply. Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz have led the industry with competitive prices and convenient travel packages. Those companies spent a lot of money for marketing their brand and increase sales per month especially through the search engine. One Example, Travelzoo.com spent up to 4,867,000 USD for Online Advertising including Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Rich Media, etc. This website is listed in top 50 Internet Advertisers by Expenditure in April 2005. The competition for Search Engine Marketing in this industry is very heavy competitive. I would show an example case as competition of Search Engine Marketing by using Keyword Auction or Pay Per Click. The keyword "Bangkok hotel" to bid in Yahoo Search Marketing Solution, the highest bidder pay at 2.55 USD per click. The most important for those companies is getting the most return of investment for those spending.
From my research, there are a few major players in this market. The major players are almost foreigners who operate the office in Thailand such as Asiarooms.com, Planetholiday.com. They are not just selling the hotels in Thailand, they also sell the hotels worldwide to compete with top major travel website as I mention above. If you have ever searched by using generic keywords such as Bangkok hotels, Phuket hotels, Have you ever noticed that who owns those travel website? I can say that search engines are key success factor to be success in online marketing. Some travel company doesn"t pay attention to other medias except search engine because of the growth of usage on search engine and effective of search engine marketing. A few companies which can compete with them because many travel companies in Thailand lack of knowledge about how to marketing their website. I have noticed they are focusing on website design and program not look at search engine compatibility. Some hotel in Thailand has jumped to play in this competitive field by investing to Search Engine Marketing, it would be effective than travel agency website due to they are official website which can be ranked well in their hotel name. For hotels in top destinations such as Chicago, New York, The big hotel has paid attention to be ranked well in search engine. You can search just the city name + hotels, the search engine result will be shown their hotel name. This would be generate both traffic and brand awareness because some searchers don"t know any hotel name in that city but they found from search engine result, they immediately visit those website. Recently, the large corporate hospitality company in US has promoted their websites in TTM 2005 (Thailand Travel Mart) such as OctopusTravel, HotelClub to focus in this market. Visit our website : http://www.asiawebplus.com/E-Business Consulting and Search Engine Marketing Professional###ASIAWEBPLUSNuttakorn Rattanachaisit66 6 302 5190E-mail Information

Search Engine Marketing Simplified

2005-06-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

Posted by By Sandeep Juneja on: 2005-06-24 23:21:11
All the great efforts made for making your own site, goes in vain when your site doesn’t bring you business. The reasons can be anything right from less traffic, to less page-per-views, or lesser PageRank. Upon serendipity of elaborating all of the above said problems, I would land up in search engine marketing basics.
Less Traffic means fewer hits to your site.
- Fewer pages per views mean users checking your site but not getting interested in clicking on other pages. They don’t find it interesting to surf through.
- Lesser PageRank. PageRank is Google’s way of measuring the quality of a site. They will give your site a rank marking out of 10 as maximum. So your site may stand 0/10 initially. Then it may acquire higher PR (PageRank) according to the above said factor enhancements. It is to be noted that a PageRank of 4 is thousands time better than a PageRank of 3.
- If your site doesn’t appear on any search engine result pages (SERPs), upon searching for any keyword, then it may take a backseat.
So here is some advice to what can be done to improve it.
For outrageous results on your business-through site, make your site lucrative in terms of design. Such imponderable designing factors as aesthetic sensibility and human-user friendly site-making can be an obstacle. But you have to go through each and every aspect of your site to make a mark through your site. So design terminology would go as follows:
The architecture-savvy site should or I would say must have Home, About us, Contact us, sitemap, products, articles. All these links and others should be present on each and every page of the site, so that these are accessible from every corner of the site.
Interlinking of the site pages would make an impact, so I will add-up here that sitemap plays a vital role in connecting your site in a star-shaped connectivity. Whereas, product information to users can be conveyed via articles. So articles need to be well placed and comprehensive in language.
I would like to share my experiences on how your keywords can be found out by a human user, who doesn’t know about your site. A normal person goes to internet and opens up any search engine to look for the information on the product he/she wants to purchase. Now he is landing up on the pages where a site of your competition tops and the user clicks and buys the necessary things; you stand to be the loser. Here comes the role play of keywords on your site.
Your site should be full of keywords, which are, or related to the products on your site. The articles would be enriched with these keywords. Title, description and images of the pages should be named with the keywords.
If your site is selling an ebook on meditation, then the keywords will be the same as the product and they will read as “ebook on meditation”, “find peace online”, or “online meditation book” on your site. More these kind of keywords are accommodated on your site, the more your site could be searched out by a user via using any search engine.
Is there any special way by which search engines work and pick up the site for the keywords? Yes, they do. They have automated crawler or human auditor system. The crawler acts as a scanner, a human user uses the search engine to find out ebook on meditation, he types in the same keywords, and the search engine crawlers at the backend does the scanning on the server database to find out the same keywords. If they find the keyword on a genuine site and appearing explicitly and not spammed, then they will show that site on top. The keyword search via automated crawler will be broken down into a few steps as follows:
- Crawlers will check out for the content of the site, expert pages (expert pages are the product related pages, or articles), title and descriptions of the site. - They will also read the headings on the page which is mainly H1 sized headings, and yes if they read as “ebook on meditation” then an added advantage for those keywords to your site. - Crawlers will also look for the Meta tags, Meta descriptions and Alt tags used. - Crawlers are more prominent and effectuously look for the anchor text pointing towards your site. Anchor text has been explained below:
Anchor text (link text) is the text that points towards the page or resource for which the link has been placed. It is the normal text attached to the URL of any site. Clicking on that text it will take you to that URL/site. A link can lead to either a page on the same site (internal link) or to a page on a different site (external link). Thus, a user who clicks on one of your site’s internal links would be directed to another page on your site.
Linking further is bifurcated into two parts, namely Incoming and outgoing. An incoming link is an external link that appears on a different site and points toward your site, while an outgoing link is an external link that appears on your site but points toward a different site.
The link text is also known as Title and it’s followed by a nice description. Description again can contain keywords of your site; it’s a little advantage to your site but surely is a benefit. Links are usually placed on the Links page or Resources page of the site; some sites name these pages as “Other sites” or “Other cool links.”
A title should not exceed 65 characters but we recommend a title of not more than 55 characters and a description of not more than 250 characters in length as per latest strategies of search engines.
The more the number of links pointing towards your site, with the right anchor text, the more meritorious results of your online presence for that keyword.
If you want to know more on types of linking, and what kind of links benefit and what are the hazards of linking for your site, please feel free to contact author. He shall serve you for no charges.
About the author: Sandeep Juneja is Manager-Internet Marketing, in a leading Company and is an avid researcher in the SEM segment.
© Copyright 2005 Sandeep Juneja
This Article is Copyright protected. If you have any comments or would like to have this article republished free on your site, please contact the author here: sandboy@rediffmail.com We just require all due credits carried; and text, hyperlinks and headers unaltered. This article must not be used in unsolicited mail.
Sandeep Juneja is a search engine marketing specialist and an avid researcher. He specializes in Links exchange strategies and internet techniques. He loves to learn from others and wants to explore search engine marketing.

Search Engine Marketing Pioneer Tapped to Write Column for CMOmagazine.com

2005-06-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

Watertown, MA (PRWEB) June 23, 2005 -- iProspect, the Original Search Engine Marketing Firm, today announced that CEO and Founder, Fredrick Marckini, has been invited to write a monthly column for CMOmagazine.com. CMOmagazine.com is published by CXO Media Inc. to meet the needs of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and other marketing executives. CMOmagazine.com is also the online companion to the print publication, CMO magazine. Marckini's column, which launched today and is entitled Change Agent, will feature the search engine marketing pioneer's thought-provoking, and sometimes controversial, insights into digital and search engine marketing. The column will also include Marckini's predictions for the future of marketing, and what he believes is an emerging marketing revolution, including: the impact of DVR, blogs, and the "search centric mass market" has on marketers. Through his column on CMOmagazine.com, Marckini will share his insights with an audience that is becoming increasingly aware of the game-changing trends that will transform their markets and their ability to reach and persuade their target audiences. The column will also be available via CMO's e-newsletters: CMO Adviser and CMO Opinion. Chief Marketing Officers Advised to Take Notice of Search Engine MarketingSearch is recognized as a powerful and cost-effective way for brands to connect with constituencies, because customers will no longer tolerate interruption marketing; they are choosing to take control of their brand relationships, one search at a time, to the tune of 400 million user-initiated queries per day. Once thought to be a purely online, direct marketing tactic, search is now recognized as the single most effective and efficient way for marketers to capture the interest and engagement of an audience who is actively researching solutions and building a consideration set of vendors. Having proven its value, search has not only earned a place at the marketing table, but has moved up the decision-making food chain, landing squarely in the office of the Chief Marketing Officer of some of today's most successful brands. Despite its humble beginnings, the behavior of Search is being adopted by consumers and is replacing direct navigation.Search is the ultimate engagement with a company's brand, and the world is beginning to recognize that all off-line marketing activity, TV advertising, radio advertising, direct mail and public relations all drive audiences to search engines. A well-known authority in the search marketing arena, Marckini has a decade of insight on how this medium has become mainstream, and the consequences for brands that fail to understand the search-centric future. He not only knows how search works, but also has the vision and the ability to communicate the broader implications of the changes taking place in marketing today. Quite simply, Marckini's new column will connect the dots on what this stuff is, what it could mean for your business, and why you should care. Fredrick Marckini has authored three of the search engine marketing industry's most respected books. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has written for a number of publications including: SearchEngineWatch, BtoB Magazine, and ClickZ. Marckini is widely sought after from press for his marketing perspective; he is regularly quoted in publications including: The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and the New York Times."Always thought-provoking, often provocative, and cutting-edge, Fredrick delivers real value to marketers with insights that are on-target and actionable. Given this ultra-competitive marketplace, Chief Marketing Officers will benefit from his significant expertise and strategic guidance," said Susanne Perrone, Vice President of Marketing, Xerox. "I have enjoyed reading his insights in numerous publications, and look forward to reading his new column for CMOs and senior-level marketers."About iProspectiProspect is The Original Search Engine Marketing Firm. The company helps many of the world's most successful brands maximize their online marketing ROI through natural search engine optimization, paid inclusion management as an Yahoo! Site Submit partner, pay per click advertising management via their own patent-pending bid management agent called iSEBA, Web analytics through their own SEM-configured version of WebTrends, and their own website conversion enhancement service. Distinguished as the winner of the 2004 ClickZ Award for Best Search Engine Marketing Vendor, iProspect is located in Watertown, Massachusetts and can be contacted at 1-800-522-1152, or by visiting www.iprospect.com. Questions regarding this release should be directed to iProspect Media Relations Manager, Colleen Reed, at 1-800-522-1152 x1121 or e-mail protected from spam bots.

Search Engine Marketing Kit By Dan Thies - Everything But Yoko Ono

2005-06-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Marketing Kit By Dan Thies - Everything But Yoko Ono
Trying to document the search engine marketing industry is like trying to chase your reflection in a room of mirrors, every time you think you have it in your hands - you turn around and a new opportunity is standing behind you. To date, the channels used to keep track of the news and happenings around search engines have been as dynamic as the industry itself, with interactive blogs and forums being the media of choice.
As I flip through the eBooks and studies on search engine optimization and paid search marketing over the years, it’s like flipping through a coffee stained scrapbook of the 20th century.. filled with ghosts of the past such as Direct Hit, keyword density, doorway pages, Altavista, reciprocal linking farms and GoTo.com. How does one publish a how to guide on search engine marketing without that guide being outdated before it hits the shelves?
Dan Thies from SEO Research Labs and SitePoint may have pulled off the impossible with his new guide for the search engine industry - The Search Engine Marketing Kit. If Aaron Wall’s SEOBook is the dynamic blog based Sgt. Pepper of the search engine marketing world, Thies’s Search Engine Marketing Kit is its White Album. Search Engine Marketing Kit proves to be an in depth overview of SEO, Keyword Research, Paid Search, Business Guide, Tools and Interviews for anyone ranging from the advanced SEO techie to the beginning college intern.
I found the interview with Andy Beal of KeywordRanking.com quite entertaining. Andy tells Dan how he started out as a sales rep for WorldMall.com and then seeing SEO as the future of the Internet Marketing, studied day in and day out on search related forums and sites to build the knowledge and feed his drive to transform WorldMall.com into WebSourced - the world’s largest group of SEO companies : Talk about inspiration. Chapter 5 on Running a Search Engine Marketing Business covers everything from consulting to setting up your SEM process - the only thing lacking is a section on how to dress for business meetings.
We rarely review a product on Search Engine Journal, but at the request of SitePoint - a true resource on web site building and marketing, I read through the copy they sent me (279 pages of information - need to clean out a space on my bookshelf for this puppy) and highly recommend Search Engine Marketing Kit to anyone involved in the Paid Search or Search Engine Optimization fields. It’s so cool it even comes with its own CD Rom!

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=1844

Paid search market set to grow strongly in 2005

2005-06-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

27/06/2005 13:05:04Sydney 27th June 2005 – According to a new report by Frost & Sullivan, the Pay Per Click (PPC) paid search market is set to reach $130 million in 2005, growing by 85% over 2004 ($70 million). Frost & Sullivan forecast industry revenues will reach $350 million by 2009, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28% between 2005 and 2009.
The report finds that paid search was 18% of the total Australian online advertising market in 2004. This is set to grow to 27% by 2009 making it the fastest growing online advertising segment.
Industry revenue growth has been driven by a number of factors including the increased number of broadband users leading to greater usage of the internet and consequently search.
At the end of the calendar year 2004, there were approximately 9,000 active paid search advertisers in Australia with this figure expected to have reached around 13,500 by the end of 2005. The industry is still quite young despite many firms using paid search advertising for a number of years. Two thirds of advertisers started using paid search in the last two years.
The report found that Google was the market leader in 2004 followed by Overture and Sensis. Google distributes its advertising via its own sites, however Google is increasingly growing its distribution via the AdSense network. Overture’s main distribution network consists of Yahoo and Ninemsn, whilst Sensis distributes mainly through senis.com.au and telstra.com.
The industries that spent the most on paid search advertising in 2004 were; travel & accommodation, technology and banking & finance, together making up almost half of the market. The fastest growing users of paid search are the healthcare, retail, cultural, recreation and personal services segments.
Very few agencies or companies in Australia have dedicated in-house search marketing professionals. There is currently a huge demand for people with these skills in Australia and this will only increase as the market grows. Many companies rely on third party Search Engine Marketing Firms (SEMs), especially larger companies that have complex and ongoing requirements.
The SEM services market is highly fragmented with over 30 active search engine marketing specialist firms and a number of participating interactive and traditional advertising agencies. In 2004, the market leader for SEM services revenue was 24/7 Search (formerly Decide Interactive). Revenues in SEM services are expected to grow strongly in line with the rest of the market and are forecast to exceed $40 million by 2009.
Most advertisers’ source of awareness of search marketing came through competitors ads (34%). This was in contrast with research in 2004 where “word of mouth” and “general knowledge” were quoted as main source of awareness. The effect of media was also considerable with news articles and advertising by vendors making a considerable impact.
One of the key benefits of search marketing is seen to be the measurable nature of the technology. Overall, advertisers using paid search are very pleased with the return they achieved from their search engine marketing. Of those measuring Return On Investment (ROI), 90% indicated that they had achieved ROI. A high percentage of respondents also indicated search marketing typically had a lower cost of customer acquisition when measured against other forms of advertising.
The main benefits from search marketing according to respondents were “new customer acquisition” (87%), “increased online revenue” (57%) and “positive effect on company's brand” (50%).
Advertisers indicated a number of challenges facing them in their search marketing activities. These included tracking the effectiveness of their company’s paid search marketing (when selling offline), increased competition for top ranking keywords, and challenges in using search marketing software tools. The issue of click fraud although flagged, was not significant for most advertisers.
The report suggests that the next battlefield will be targeted search where advertisers will be able to pinpoint their audience through contextual, demographic, behavioural and other ways. MSN is currently working on their product “adCenter” which will be a significant new entrant into the market in 2006, widely expected to provide targeted search advertising with detailed analytics.
The report concludes with unique commentary and insight on the future of media and technology convergence and what role search plays for the major market participants. With Google having the largest market capitalisation for any media company in the world, the report explores the ramifications this will have for the future of traditional publishers and media players deriving revenue from offline advertising in Australia.
The study involved over 150 interviews including a survey of paid search advertisers and discussions with vendors, SEM firms, traditional and interactive agencies as well as other industry participants.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community, by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit www.frost.com
For more information on the report please contact:
Foad Fadaghi Research Director ICT Practice Frost & Sullivan Australia +61 2 8247 8910 ffadaghi@frost.com
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;15974850

Broadband Growth Expected to Drive Search Engine Usage

2005-06-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer Laycock - June 27, 2005
A new report issued by Merrill Lynch this morning predicts that thanks, in part, to the rise on broadband adoption, sponsored search will increase by 47% this year. The report predicts a year-end tally of around $5.1 billion, up from $3.5 billion last year. Combine those numbers with paid inclusion and the total ($5.5 billion) makes up 45% of the total estimate for the online ad market in 2005.
So how is it that broadband is impacting these numbers? Lauren Rich Fine, first vice president at Merrill Lynch explained in the report that "...search volume growth really has been the bigger driver of growth in paid search advertising in late 2004 and into early 2005. We believe this trend will continue as broadband subscription prices continue to drop, more users move to broadband connections, and ultimately conduct more queries."
It makes sense...as users move to broadband connections the Internet becomes easier to use. Sitting around waiting for the results to a query on a dial-up connection is a big deterrent to heavy search engine use. Additionally, broadband frees up the phone line, which allows for more frequent Internet usage in multi-occupant homes. The increase in broadband usage will also help drive an increase in multimedia searches, which provide more inventory space for pay-per-click ads.
How does all of this impact the small business market? It's a fairly simple equation - more searches equals more chances to reach your target audience. There are still several industries out there that have been slow to adopt search engine marketing strategies. Manufacturers and niche businesses often have the opportunity to dominate the search results for high ROI terms simply because none of their competitors have managed to get online yet.
If you are one of those companies and you've been dragging your feet about search marketing, you need to get in gear. It is far easier to enter the market early and keep your spot at the top than it is to play catch up. As the market expands and more and more people head online to research products and services, the areas that are not yet searched for will be. Putting some time and effort into making sure that your web site is the one that they find could turn out to be one of the best marketing investments that you ever make.
Discuss this article in the Small Business Ideas forum.

Search Engine Marketing to be Covered by WebSideStory

2005-06-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

SAN DIEGO, June 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - WebSideStory (Nasdaq: WSSI), a leading provider of on-demand digital marketing applications, today announced the summer curriculum for its Digital Marketing University, scheduled for July 20-22 in San Diego, Ca. The curriculum (available at http://www.websidestory.com/dmu) focuses on an array of customer-requested topics, including best practices in conversion optimization and search engine and e-mail marketing. T here will also be extensive product training for WebSideStory's on-demand services, including HBX Web Analytics, WebSideStory Search (formerly Atomz Search) and WebSideStory Publish (formerly Atomz Publish). All are part of WebSideStory's Active Marketing Suite(TM), a line of on-demand digital marketing applications.The courses will be taught by WebSideStory's professional services experts, as well as industry experts such as Bryan Eisenberg, a best-selling author and the Chief Persuasion Officer of Future Now, Inc., a New York firm specializing in conversion optimization.Several classes will be taught by executives from WebSideStory Stream partners, including Reprise Media, a search engine marketing firm; EmailLabs, an e-mail service provider; and Kefta, a provider of customer interaction tools. Announced in January, the Digital Marketing University is the industry's first education center to help online marketers learn the scienceof digital marketing optimization. The university is open to both WebSideStory customers and non-customers alike."I look forward to immersing myself in three days of best practices from the leader in on-demand web analytics and digital marketing," said Brian Sholly, the Vice President of Marketing for Kaplan IT, a division of Kaplan, Inc., which markets Transcender, the leader in IT test certification and test preparation. "It's obvious from the curriculum that WebSideStory has puttogether a world-class event that focuses on topics and skills that are critical for success in digital marketing today."The university costs $750 per day, with discounts given for multiple days. Courses include four-hour and all-day sessions depending on the topic. Select session titles include: "Search Marketing Demystified," "A Practitioner's Guide to Online Optimization," "Low Hanging Fruit in Online Acquisition," "Search Engine Marketing Powered by Web Analytics" and "E-mail Marketing Best Practices: How to Take Your Programs Up a Notch." Eisenberg will teach a course called "Wizards of Web: Conversion Optimization.""I'm honored and excited to be presenting at WebSideStory's Digital Marketing University," said Bryan Eisenberg, whose new book, "Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results," shot up The New York Times and TheWall Street Journal best-seller lists last month. "WebSideStory is demonstrating its market leadership. It knows that educating its clients about best practices greatly increases client satisfaction. When I present my course, participants will learn how to drive the type of online and offline behavior they want from their customers.""Our 'Search Marketing Demystified' course will share the tips and tricks that our staff has learned over the past 10 years in the industry," said Peter Hershberg, Managing Director for Reprise Media, which counts Capital One, Reader's Digest and Bell South among its many clients. "Our intention is to give marketers a series of valuable tactics that they can put into actionimmediately to start improving their search engine marketing ROI.""WebSideStory has developed a well-rounded curriculum that focuses on some of the most important topics in digital marketing today: increasing conversions, search engine optimization and improving e-mail marketing," said Loren McDonald, Vice President of Marketing for EmailLabs, which has more than 375 clients including Nokia, Agilent and Palm Source. "Our session will provide strategies, tips and specific examples gleaned from our own best practices playbook."WebSideStory's Digital Marketing University made its debut in April at ActiveInsights, WebSideStory's bi-annual user forum, which attracted more than 350 attendees."Given the tremendous success of our inaugural session, we will now beoffering Digital Marketing University courses on a quarterly basis," said PelinWood, Vice President of Product Marketing for WebSideStory. "Based on initial feedback, customers really seem to enjoy the personalized curriculum and small-class sizes. We'll continue to grow the curriculum to reflect our customers expanding digital marketing requirements."To find out more about the summer Digital Marketing University, please visit http://www.websidestory.com/dmu. Space is limited.Posted on Tuesday, June 14 @ 10:08:58 EDT by Editor

http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/article1150.html

Search Engine Marketing Hype Killing Small Businesses

2005-06-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Copyright 2005 Jack Humphrey
Think about the first thing you ever heard about “marketing a website” on the web. 99% of the time the first words anyone ever hears are “search engine marketing.” Or some semblance of the phrase. And from that point on, the hammering of misinformation never lets up. You are led to believe that your business will die a terrible death without the search engines. You are led to believe that only people who can guide you through the mine field of search engine optimization are the SEO “experts.” Also you are told time and again that the only way to market online PERIOD is through the search engines. You are conditioned over time to focus most, if not all, of your efforts on tricking the search engines into liking your site above all your competitors for search terms where “there can be only one.” Well, here’s a wake up call: The vast majority of small business startups will never have the resources, time, or know-how to turn an idea into a profitable online business focusing only on search engines. Just look at the deluge of information there is out there on Google and how to rank well with them. People are picking apart their ranking patent application right now to try an glean a website promotion strategy based upon what Google reveals in their application about their ranking system. Is this information valuable to a small business wanting to sell its wares to a whole market rather than just the part of that market which uses one of the big search engines? It is in extreme moderation, yes. In a well balanced marketing campaign that focuses on many ways to bring in targeted traffic, search engine marketing has its place. You do what you can, and you move on to all the other ways there are to promote your business. Yet, so many people are falling victim to the gleam and glitter of search engine riches being pushed on them by SEO firms and people selling search engine how-to manuals. It is not long before a new business finds itself wrapped up in a game where the only winners are the geeks and deep pockets. If you do not fall into either of those categories, your business is doomed from the start if you hop right off the porch to play with those big dogs. “But I hired a ‘big dog’ SEO firm to make my business stand out and compete with the geeks in my market niche.” More power to you. In actuality, unfortunately, you probably just hired a teenager from India with an internet connection in his parents’ house. Most small business start ups cannot come close to affording a major SEO firm. They charge corporate-level premiums to be able to access their services. Everyone else in the SEO world is practically working out of their garage in comparison. Scared yet? You don’t have to be as long as you are spreading your marketing around to the non-search engine traffic you should be getting. Writing articles and syndicating them in your market is a direct traffic strategy that has nothing to do with search engines. Except that search engines find your site through those links as well. But you should be doing it solely for DIRECT TRAFFIC from readers on other sites and taking the search engine traffic boost as mere icing on the cake. You see, as people spam the search engines, they must adjust how they rank sites in order to compensate. This means a lot of good sites take a hit when Google changes the way it ranks sites. You could have done everything completely on the up and up and gotten dropped in the engines because they made a new rule that everyone who registers their domains only for one year is a possible spammer. There goes your legit site. Hope you weren’t planning on search engine traffic for your SOLE source of traffic. Can you see how dangerous it is to get bitten by the search engine bug? YES you can propel your business overnight from a profitless dead zone to a glamorous profit machine with one top ranking. Of course that is possible. It is not likely. People who are turning their small online businesses into success stories are doing one thing across the board: Conducting a multi-faceted marketing campaign that includes search engines along with a good mix of other non-search engine marketing such as reciprocal and non-reciprocal linking tactics too numerous to mention here. If you want long-term success online, you must be willing to look past all the sleeze merchants selling you dreams of riches through search engine marketing. Search engines care about one thing: Their own hides. You should care more about your hide than anything else and use a well-planned, disciplined marketing strategy that puts search engines in their place. Not in the epicenter of your marketing campaign, but just another tool in your toolbox for bringing in targeted traffic. Do this, and you will escape the fate of thousands of startups this year who will realize too late that they hung their hopes on the wrong marketing strategy as their engine for profits.
About the Author
Jack Humphrey explains his proven marketing strategies in the all new Power Linking 2005 at http://power-linking-profits.com. Jack is proudly NOT a “search engine expert.”

icrossing Exceeds Crabtree & Evelyn's Search Engine Marketing Goals by 34%

2005-06-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

Wednesday June 8, 2:23 pm ET
NEW YORK, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Realizing the growing importance of search engine marketing for customer acquisition, Crabtree & Evelyn enlisted the services of icrossing, the premier search engine marketing agency, to take over its in-house search marketing campaign in November 2004. In just a few months, icrossing delivered the retailer an ambitious return on investment (ROI).
Before the company officially came on board, Crabtree & Evelyn had been managing its paid search campaign in-house, but it was not delivering as strong a value as the retailer thought it could. Understanding the value that search engine marketing plays in their day-to-day business, the retailer tasked icrossing with achieving specific ambitious ROI goals in search. "We had specific ROI goals we needed to achieve, and we set them reasonably high," said Catie Briscoe, VP of Marketing at Crabtree & Evelyn.
Through February 2005, icrossing topped Crabtree & Evelyn's goals by 33.7%. icrossing kicked off a Paid Search Management campaign for Crabtree & Evelyn during the heart of the 2004 holiday season. The campaign included popular search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Lycos, and Ask Jeeves. Keywords were purchased for thousands of search terms, including branded terms, relevant product categories, and specialty items carried by the retailer.
"We are very pleased with how icrossing has been working with us so far," said Briscoe. "We look forward to achieving even greater results by running paid with a natural search program together."
Crabtree & Evelyn is now paying more attention to conversion rates in addition to the ROI. Further looking to exceed their goals in search engine marketing, the retailer is implementing a Natural Search Engine Optimization program with icrossing. "Crabtree & Evelyn developed a taste of what search engine marketing could do for customer acquisition," said icrossing's Director of Client Services, Kendall Allen. "We are thrilled to take on the challenge of proving the value that search can deliver them."
About Crabtree & Evelyn:
Crabtree & Evelyn is renowned around the world for beautiful gifts and everyday luxuries that capture the essence of English style. Distinctive and unique, the company has earned an outstanding reputation for its creative excellence and personal customer service. Crabtree products are sold in over 40 countries and Crabtree & Evelyn has over 350 stores worldwide.
About icrossing:
Search engine marketing agency icrossing has been connecting businesses with qualified customers through the medium of search since 1998. Today, icrossing applies its experience, technology, and unparalleled client service to many of the leading brands around the world. icrossing serves its clients with Natural Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Management, Search Engine Analytics, Search Intelligence and Applied Search(TM). With its dedicated focus on search engine marketing, icrossing continuously pioneers new and better ways to help clients meet and surpass their goals through customized solutions.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050608/nyw142.html?.v=40

Autobytel's Search Engine Marketing Strategy Revs into High Gear

2005-06-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Autobytel page views and purchase requests through search engines soar, generating steady stream of high-quality customers for dealers and advertisers.
Irvine, CA (PRWEB) June 6, 2005 -- Autobytel Inc. (Nasdaq: ABTLE) reports that the number of customers who came onto Autobytel sites through search engines and then submitted a new vehicle Purchase Request soared 79% from 2003 to 2004, during which time the percentage of Autobytel website page views generated through search engines rose 67%. These critical site traffic metrics underscore the effectiveness of the company's pioneering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) initiatives, powered by cutting-edge proprietary software.Autobytel's increasing search engine traffic is good news for the company – which saw overall site traffic rise almost 20% in April, one of the biggest gains on the Internet*– as well as for the company's nationwide network of member dealers. According to Autobytel data, customers who come into the company's sites through a keyword search, and then submit an online request to buy a new vehicle from a local Autobytel member dealer, are exceptionally motivated, high-quality buyers."These are self-selecting, serious shoppers," said Autobytel Senior Vice President of Marketing and Media Services Michael Rosenberg. "They're also confident that they're getting to the best possible auto information sources through a fair, unbiased search process. It all adds up to a stream of high-quality car buyers for our member dealers. That's why Autobytel has made SEO a top priority."According to Rosenberg, the stakes of Autobytel's SEO mission are high. While fifty-six percent of all Americans use search engines daily, 90% use only the top-10 search engines and 80% don’t click past the first page search results so a targeted SEO strategy is key. "A lot of companies are beginning to recognize the make-or-break importance of effective SEO, but it's not necessarily something you can just throw money at. Autobytel has worked for years, really since our inception in 1995, on marketing search strategies." Part of Autobytel's search engine success is the result of its industry leadership and 10 years of mainstream brand recognition. As the first online car-buying web site, and still one of the premier automotive Internet brands, Autobytel is consistently one of the most visited automotive destinations on the Web, and attracts a significant percentage of its traffic through web links from hundreds of the top automotive-related sites. That success leads to even more success in the democratic process of search engine rankings, which are determined largely by a site's popularity and incoming link count. Other aspects of Autobytel's SEO strategy require continuous monitoring of the business impact of specific keywords. To this end, Autobytel has developed proprietary software that monitors up to 200,000 popular automotive search terms (like "used cars," "Honda," etc.) every day to measure not only how much search engine traffic they generate, but also how much revenue they create. The software then automatically makes "intelligent" bids on keywords based on their value to the business. "It's like a stock market for words," adds Rosenberg. "If we can determine that a certain word can generate a visit for our targeted cost, then that's our bidding cap. Our software is a major competitive advantage in what has become a heated competition to maximize keyword effectiveness and ROI."Using that same "keyword intelligence," Autobytel's site content is also continuously updated to optimize exposure on the major search engines. Search engines regularly index relevant web pages based on popular search criteria, and those pages then become part of the engine's "search universe" – the more indexed pages that correlate to a particular keyword, the higher the ranking, making indexed page count a major determinant of SEO success. On that front, Autobytel easily tops its competitors with more than 10 million page listings currently indexed at the major search engines.Of course, driving search engine traffic to the Autobytel sites is only the first step in the company's larger mission to channel online automotive shoppers into member dealerships. To that end, the company automatically presents dealership branding and marketing messages to local shoppers based on their zip code and brand selections. This "local dealer search" function, in effect, mirrors, or refines, the search engine process, presenting relevant dealership listings based on buyers' online search parameters. "Search engines and the automotive Internet are now seamlessly intertwined," concluded Rosenberg. "Millions of people are researching their next vehicle purchase on the Internet every day. Our job is to usher these shoppers from a general research stage into an information-rich environment where they can be confident about what they're going to buy, and where they're going to buy it."*According to comScore Media Metrix, Autobytel was the 8th biggest gainer in unique visitors on the Internet in April. (comScore Media Metrix press release May 18th, 2005About Autobytel Inc. Autobytel Inc. (Nasdaq: ABTLE) a leading Internet automotive marketing services company, helps retailers sell cars and manufacturers build brands through marketing, advertising, data and CRM (customer relationship management) products and programs. The Company owns and operates the automotive Web sites www.Autobytel.com, www.Autoweb.com, www.Carsmart.com, www.Car.com, www.AutoSite.com, www.Autoahorros.com, and www.CarTV.com, as well as AIC (Automotive Information Center), a trusted industry source of automotive marketing data and technology for over 20 years. Autobytel is also a leader in dealership lead management and CRM solutions and owns and operates AVV, Inc., a top provider of dealership CRM and sales management products, and Retention Performance Marketing, Inc., (RPM®), which powers dealerships with cutting-edge customer loyalty and retention marketing programs. Autobytel was the most visited new car buying and research destination in 2004, reaching millions of car shoppers as they made their vehicle buying decisions. Autobytel's car-selling sites and lead management products are used by more of the nation's top-100 e-dealers than any other program. Contact: Media RelationsMelanie Webber, Autobytel Inc., 949.862.3023 (email protected from spam bots) Betsy Isroelit, RBI Communications, 323.960.1360, ext. 17 (email protected from spam bots)Joe Foster, RBI Communications, 323.960.1360, ext. 13 (email protected from spam bots

Search Engine Marketing Firm @Web Site Publicity Announces Verndale is Certified Web Development Partner

2005-06-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

Search engine marketing firm @Web Site Publicity announced today that Verndale, a full-service Boston-based web development firm, has completed its Search Engine Marketing training program with @Web Site Publicity and has been named as a Certified Web Development Partner. The program was created by @Web Site Publicity to meet the needs of web design and development companies that want to incorporate the latest search engine optimization strategies with the design or re-design of client web sites.
(PRWEB) June 7, 2005 -- Search engine marketing firm @Web Site Publicity announced today that Verndale, a full-service Boston-based web development firm, has completed its Search Engine Marketing training program with @Web Site Publicity and has been named as a Certified Web Development Partner. The program was created by @Web Site Publicity to meet the needs of web design and development companies that want to incorporate the latest search engine optimization strategies with the design or re-design of client web sites. By combining search optimization expertise in driving traffic to websites with Verndale's expertise in developing and redesigning websites that provide the optimum human visitor experience, Verndale delivers development projects with the most effective, integrated Internet strategy available today. In addition to the training of Verndale staff in search optimization techniques and search-engine copywriting, Verndale has continuing access to data from @Web Site Publicity's E-commerce Lab that continuously tests best search engine marketing strategies. Verndale will also have continuing support in keyword research and technical troubleshooting. Boston-based Verndale provides comprehensive Internet strategy, development, and support services to emerging and midsize businesses throughout the United States. Their client list includes Polaris Venture Partners, Boston Athletic Association, PI Worldwide, Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning and Triumvirate Environmental.http://www.websitepublicity.com/index.html?c1=pr&source=prweb&kw=2 works directly with advertisers or their agencies to build and deploy comprehensive search engine marketing programs that integrate "organic optimization" with pay-for-placement campaign management, Direct Product Feed management and online public relations services.For more information about Verndale's service, contact them at 617-357-7600 or via email at e-mail protected from spam botsFor more information about @Web Site Publicity's services, including their Certified Web Development Partner program, contact them at 800-450-2818.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb246910.htm

Quick Review - PPC Search Engine Marketing Handbook

2005-06-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Key Words: The Search Engine Marketing Blog
A few weeks ago, Boris Mordkovich was kind enough to send me a copy of his book, the "Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook." It took me a few weeks to read it - not because it's hard to read, but because I am very very busy these days.
As a book junkie, I read a lot, and pretty much everything I can find on SEM will get at least a quick skim. Overall, I was quite pleased with this little paperback gem - at $19.97, it's a nice introduction to PPC, with clear and concise discussions of the standard strategy & tactics.
Where I have a concern about the book is with the large number of pay-per-click services which are listed and recommended, as if they had actually been reviewed and tested. The links to PPC providers are all through the author's web site, and it's not clear if they are in fact affiliate links.
Several of the PPC providers listed did not pass my own simple click fraud tests over the past couple years, so I can't honestly recommend that readers use this section of the book as a reviewed guide to the best PPC providers, because it's not. The authors' intent is to list all the available services and allow readers to make up their own minds.
I would add one piece of my own advice: don't gamble money that you can't afford to lose. With those caveats, I am certain that newcomers to PPC, especially do-it-yourselfers, will find this book helpful. More information at http://www.ppcbook.info.
If a primary focus of your PPC activity is Google Adwords, don't overlook Andrew Goodman's "Google Adwords Handbook" as you fill up your library.

If you like my blog, why not check out my latest work... The Search Engine Marketing Kit is available exclusively through sitepoint.com for only $197 USD. Plus for a short time you get FREE Shipping and $150 USD in bonus traffic coupons from Google, Overture and FindWhat.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blog-post-view.php?id=272409

MarketingSherpa Reveals New Research on Search Engine Marketing Firms and Paid Search Advertising Agencies

2005-06-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

MarketingSherpa's latest Buyer's Guides (Buyer’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization Firms and Buyer's Guide to Paid Search Advertising (PPC) Agencies) reveal new research on pricing, staff size, client names and growth of the industry. More information is available at http://searchmarketing.marketingsherpa.com/.
Warren, RI (PRWEB) June 21, 2005 -- MarketingSherpa’s research team conducted an exhaustive study of 188 SEO firms and Paid Search agencies while preparing their latest Buyer’s Guides, Buyer’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization Firms and Buyer's Guide to Paid Search Advertising Agencies. These 188 agencies are competing for over 10,000 client accounts, from American Airlines to Zagat, all ready to spend anywhere between $500 to $10,000 per month. Among the revelations are:- Client-to-Staffer Ratio: a surprising figure at 7.5 clients per expert SEO staffer and 4.2 clients per expert PPC staffer- Professional search marketing is still costly: there really are no *economy* level agencies available- Over 75% of firms researched use a consulting fees pricing model: by the hour or the projectFor more information on these key points or to see all 188 agency profiles, check out MarketingSherpa’s new Buyer’s Guides: http://searchmarketing.marketingsherpa.com/About MarketingSherpa, Inc.More than 173,000 advertising, marketing and PR professionals read MarketingSherpa's publications every week. Praised by The Economist, Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge Site, and Entrepreneur.com, MarketingSherpa publishes a wide range of Metrics Guides, Buyer's Guides, and How-to Reports plus a 400+ Case Study Library. Visit the award-winning site http://www.marketingsherpa.com.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb253496.htm

Pay Per Click Profits: Advanced Search Engine Marketing Strategies Launches

2005-06-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) June 20, 2005 -- CE Buys, LLC has launched a new publication, Pay Per Click Profits, Advanced Search Engine Marketing Strategies, available at the PPC Profits web site. Using strategies outlined in the e-book, one will be able to start generating sales in excess of $500K per month selling other people’s products or your own physical products.Nick Pang, Principal at CE Buys, one of the first 100 Qualified Google Advertising Professional, generated almost $800K in sales for March 2005 using only paid search advertising and PPC Profits strategies. Prior to that, he was only able to generate sales of about $300K a month.This e-book answers the fundamental question, “How to get customers to a new web site profitably”? One cannot afford to wait 3 months for organic or natural search efforts. The 2005 version of PPC Profits will show the reader how to generate instant traffic using paid advertising but minimizing costs and maximizing sales conversions. The e-book goes into advanced Google AdWords strategies, low cost blog advertising, Google Blogger & Froogle, and concludes with the future of search and ideas on how to take advantage of the biggest opportunity ahead in 2005 & 2006. Also included is a bonus e-book, “Google AdSense Revenues: Generating Income From Search Traffic”.In a May 2005 Shop.org & Forrester Research survey, U.S. online sales are expected to climb to $172 billion in 2005. The survey also found that online retailers stepped up their use of search related advertising, which retailers now consider their best source of new customers: 43 percent of overall customers to their sites. In 2004, 87% of the retailers surveyed used search advertising. America Online will engage in a large search marketing effort that will include natural optimization and keyword buys on Google and Yahoo! this summer. How can one compete with the big players? Apply the powerful strategies outlined in the e-book to compete successfully and stomp your competitors! About CE Buys, LLCCE Buys, LLC a Delaware company, have operations located in the Bay Area of Northern California. CE Buys assist clients with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) for natural search.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/6/emw251465.htm

Oneupweb Nominated by ClickZ Readers for Best Search Engine Marketing Vendor Finalist

2005-06-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization and marketing firm, Oneupweb, leads the industry with three nominations in three years.
Lake Leelanau, MI (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) June 15, 2005 -- Setting an industry record, Oneupweb, a leading national search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing (SEM) firm, today announced it has been nominated for the third time in three years as Best Search Engine Marketing Vendor for ClickZ’s Marketing Excellence Awards 2005. The ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards recognize ClickZ readers' choices for achievement and innovation in online marketing technology, solutions, and execution.“Once again, we are honored to receive this very important nomination,” says Rachel North, Oneupweb Director of Marketing and PR. “Oneupweb’s CEO, Lisa Wehr created a vision for our firm and its future, focusing on client service, innovative technology and insightful industry leadership. This nomination recognizes our ongoing dedication to clients and the industry.”To vote for the winner, go to http://cp.jupiterweb.com/index.php/1341_default.The prestigious ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards celebrate the search marketing industry leaders and innovators in various categories, from best vendor, analytics technology and email networks to the best advertising campaigns, newsletters, and more. The Best Search Engine Marketing Vendor nomination process narrowed potentially thousands of candidates to just three firms. Voting continues now through Wednesday, June 22, 2005, and winners will be announced on Monday, June 27, 2005. Oneupweb offers a variety of marketing services, from natural optimization and paid search to A/B testing, search behavior research, PR services and international promotion. The firm is often cited in newspapers, magazines, and websites, and it regularly publishes ground-breaking white papers, articles, and studies about the search marketing industry. It also publishes the industry-leading newsletter, OneUpNews. Oneupweb calls upon these powerful tools to substantially increase clients’ website traffic and conversions to boost ROI. For example:* A nationally recognized health care complex made $185 for every dollar spent with Oneupweb in the first year of partnership.* A communications company increased its search engine visibility more than 8000 percent.* A health care service tripled its paid search conversion rate. This same company also increased lead generation while reducing costs for keyword bids by 25 percent to 50 percent per term.* A long-time Oneupweb client increased its traffic by 165 percent and improved its conversion rate by 146 percent in just the last year.* An education company increased its traffic 88 percent, doubled its online sales, and increased its average sale by 33 percent.“Oneupweb’s number one goal is to meet clients’ needs for better online performance,” says North. “Staying focused on our clients will always be our primary objective. Great things happen when you put clients first.” About ClickZ/ JupitermediaJupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM) (www.jupitermedia.com), headquartered in Darien, CT, is a leading global provider of original information, images, research and events for information technology, business and creative professionals. Jupitermedia also includes: JupiterWeb, the online media division of Jupitermedia, operates five distinct online networks: internet.com and EarthWeb.com for IT and business professionals; DevX.com for developers; ClickZ.com for interactive marketers; and Graphics.com, for creative professionals. JupiterWeb properties include more than 150 Web sites and over 150 e-mail newsletters that are viewed by approximately 20 million users and generate over 300 million page views monthly;About OneupwebOneupweb is an award-winning, industry leader of world-class search engine optimization and marketing services. Since 1996, Oneupweb has specialized in tailoring custom strategies that include natural search engine optimization, paid inclusion, pay-per-click and marketing tracking designed to deliver superior return on investment. Clients include Unisys, Equifax, Motorola, Avery-Dennison, Maritz, Kimberly-Clark, JC Whitney and many others. Named to BtoB Magazine’s “Who’s Who 2004” list for search and voted the “Top Search Engine Marketing Firm” by ClickZ in 2003, Oneupweb is a privately held company located in Michigan. For more information on Oneupweb, please contact 231.256.9811 or visit oneupweb.com.Contact: Rachel Northe-mail protected from spam bots231.256.9811 x 116

Search Engine Marketing Technology Provider SEMphonic Finds Most Search Engine

2005-06-18T16:17:00.001-07:00

Marketers Misuse Google Ad Rotation

As a search engine marketer, it's critical to understand that Google's Ad Rotation technology is based on click-thrus not on conversions, and is therefore designed first and foremost to optimize their inventory, not search engine marketers.
Novato, CA (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) June 15, 2005 -- Optimizing keywords for conversion is only half the battle, according to Gary Angel, president and chief technology officer of SEMphonic, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) technology provider. "SEM marketing is about conversion – not clicks," he says. "And what most companies haven't realized is that this applies to Ads even more than keywords." It's essential, he suggests, to optimize both keywords and ad rotation by conversion. "Google's Ad Rotation can be a valuable tool in the right hands," he explains, "but can also be deceptive, misleading, and potentially expensive in the wrong hands. As a search engine marketer, it's critical for me to understand that Google's Ad Rotation technology is based on click-thrus not on conversions, and is therefore designed first and foremost to optimize their inventory, not mine."Just how common this problem can be was recently illustrated when Angel and the SEMphonic team analyzed a major client SEM campaign running twelve different ad groups. Google's Ad Rotation optimized the wrong ads in six of the groups – a full fifty percent of the time. "It was like stepping back to the 1960s," remarked SEMphonic chief marketing officer John Williams, "to the advertising days of yesteryear when we knew it worked fifty percent of the time, but didn't know which fifty percent.""A fifty percent margin of error on a typical campaign hardly supports the digital marketing industry's claim of enhanced accountability over other media," Angel adds. "It testifies at least in part to our willingness to sublimate our own judgment to the speed and convenience of our technologies, an okay philosophy only as long as the technology delivers the goods."But what to do when it doesn't? How do I as a SEM marketer compensate for the inability of Google's Ad Rotation technology to optimize my ad rotation? "Stay tuned," says Angel.About SEMphonicFor over 8 years, SEMphonic has been delivering large enterprise web analytics and competitive analysis to Fortune 500 companies. The company now firmly focuses on developing and marketing powerful and efficient search engine marketing (SEM) technologies which dramatically increase campaign effectiveness as well as reduce the cost and complexity of traditional tools. SEM practitioners worldwide are gravitating to the fact that SEMphonic's MarketScan Keyword and MarketScan Analyzer are essential tools and this powerful new subscription-based solution rapidly bridges the gap between web marketing and web measurement. SEMphonic's MarketScan tools are already maximizing the competitive edge for companies such as American Express, AOL, CyberTrader, Charles Schwab, Bishop Marketing Resources, Endless Pools, Hotwire, Intuit, Marshall Strategies, Morgan Stanley and Mediasmith, just to name a few. SEMphonic is headquartered in Novato, California. Visit us at www.semphonic.com for more information.Media Contact:David LibbyTel. 510.663.8155

Mathematics of Search Engine Marketing & Need for Creativity

2005-06-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

Mathematics of Search Engine Marketing & Need for Creativity
Danny Sullivan writes Search Marketing Isn’t Just Math & Machines, which is in reaction to some chatter that the only way to work in search is to work it mathematically. When I was younger I was good at math, but have not practiced it much in years and still do fine. From what I have see creativity is a much larger part of the battle.
Some people say you need to work at Google if you are in search. Like Danny, I totally disagree with that statement. All you really need to know, is what Google wants.
An example: Google wanted to push their Google Sitemaps program. Recently a few people posted code about how to create one in various languages, or with various content management systems. Google quickly created a page linking to those resources.
If one acted quick enough they could have got a link from Google. For those who did not act quick enough, they can try to buy ads on the pages Google linked at, or create Google SiteMap pages that interface with other CMS’s or languages. Even if you did not know the language I am guessing that a programmer could be hired for a few hundred dollars. A low one time fee for a link from Google.
An even better example: Google recently updated their page about SEO and linked out to this news article about fraudulent SEO companies.
Currently there are Toyota ads on that content. I am betting that I could call them and see if it was possible to run an ad on that page, paying a premium much greater than what Toyota pays because there is much greater value for me than Toyota for an ad on that page.
What better place for me to run an ad like:
Don’t get ripped off by a shady SEO firm. Buy the best selling SEO Book and learn how to market your site in Google ethically. Increase your site rankings and traffic today.
I perhaps would feel a bit guilty / sleezy for running the ethics line (as most people using the term ethics in the SEO field do not use it in an honest manner), but Google sets up that ad and that marketing copy for me.
As a matter of fact, I just called that newspaper to see if I could buy an ad. First I got a disconnected number that offered me no assistance, then I tried another number and got another person who transfered me through to another person, who was not at their desk, so I got to leave a message.
Sloppy ad sales compared to AdWords.
The exact reason Google does well is that they make it easy and automated to buy targeted ads. Many of the newspaper companies would make significantly greater profits if they automated a portion of their ad sales, and allowed more people to compete for their ad inventory (the same way partnerships with AdSense do).
CNN has over 200,000 links from DMOZ. Imagine what links on some of those pages are worth to webmasters and think of how little they make from sloppy untargeted ad sales. That is why link brokers can partner with so many newspaper sites, because the newspapers are too sloppy at ad sales and behind on technology to get good value out of their ad space without a middleman doing their marketing for them.
Andrew Goodman recently stated:
I find it hard to fret much about Google dependency at this stage when General Motors is spending $3.3 billion a year on offline ads. That’s about the same as Google’s total revenues from all advertisers for 2004!
So if Google is making that big of a wave with that little income it makes sense that they are on to something with their ad targeting, and that there is much room for growth with Google.
At the end of the day good SEO and PPC marketing are just ad buys. When you think of how large the web is there are many more opportunities away from Google than in it. Most ad buyers and sellers are lazy, working with outdated technologies, or are not creative.

Search Engine Marketing to be Covered

2005-06-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

by WebSideStory SAN DIEGO, June 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - WebSideStory (Nasdaq: WSSI), a leading provider of on-demand digital marketing applications, today announced the summer curriculum for its Digital Marketing University, scheduled for July 20-22 in San Diego, Ca. The curriculum (available at http://www.websidestory.com/dmu) focuses on an array of customer-requested topics, including best practices in conversion optimization and search engine and e-mail marketing. T here will also be extensive product training for WebSideStory's on-demand services, including HBX Web Analytics, WebSideStory Search (formerly Atomz Search) and WebSideStory Publish (formerly Atomz Publish). All are part of WebSideStory's Active Marketing Suite(TM), a line of on-demand digital marketing applications.The courses will be taught by WebSideStory's professional services experts, as well as industry experts such as Bryan Eisenberg, a best-selling author and the Chief Persuasion Officer of Future Now, Inc., a New York firm specializing in conversion optimization.Several classes will be taught by executives from WebSideStory Stream partners, including Reprise Media, a search engine marketing firm; EmailLabs, an e-mail service provider; and Kefta, a provider of customer interaction tools. Announced in January, the Digital Marketing University is the industry's first education center to help online marketers learn the scienceof digital marketing optimization. The university is open to both WebSideStory customers and non-customers alike."I look forward to immersing myself in three days of best practices from the leader in on-demand web analytics and digital marketing," said Brian Sholly, the Vice President of Marketing for Kaplan IT, a division of Kaplan, Inc., which markets Transcender, the leader in IT test certification and test preparation. "It's obvious from the curriculum that WebSideStory has puttogether a world-class event that focuses on topics and skills that are critical for success in digital marketing today."The university costs $750 per day, with discounts given for multiple days. Courses include four-hour and all-day sessions depending on the topic. Select session titles include: "Search Marketing Demystified," "A Practitioner's Guide to Online Optimization," "Low Hanging Fruit in Online Acquisition," "Search Engine Marketing Powered by Web Analytics" and "E-mail Marketing Best Practices: How to Take Your Programs Up a Notch." Eisenberg will teach a course called "Wizards of Web: Conversion Optimization.""I'm honored and excited to be presenting at WebSideStory's Digital Marketing University," said Bryan Eisenberg, whose new book, "Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results," shot up The New York Times and TheWall Street Journal best-seller lists last month. "WebSideStory is demonstrating its market leadership. It knows that educating its clients about best practices greatly increases client satisfaction. When I present my course, participants will learn how to drive the type of online and offline behavior they want from their customers.""Our 'Search Marketing Demystified' course will share the tips and tricks that our staff has learned over the past 10 years in the industry," said Peter Hershberg, Managing Director for Reprise Media, which counts Capital One, Reader's Digest and Bell South among its many clients. "Our intention is to give marketers a series of valuable tactics that they can put into actionimmediately to start improving their search engine marketing ROI.""WebSideStory has developed a well-rounded curriculum that focuses on some of the most important topics in digital marketing today: increasing conversions, search engine optimization and improving e-mail marketing," said Loren McDonald, Vice President of Marketing for EmailLabs, which has more than 375 clients including Nokia, Agilent and Palm Source. "Our session will provide strategies, tips and specific examples gleaned from our own best practices playbook."WebSideStory's Digital Marketing University made its debut in April at ActiveInsights, WebSideStory's bi-annual user forum, which attracted more than 350 attendees."Given the tremendous success of our inaugural session, we will now beoffering Digital Marketing University courses on a quarterly basis," said PelinWood, Vice President of Product Marketing for WebSideStory. "Based on initial feedback, customers really seem to enjoy the personalized curriculum and small-class sizes. We'll continue to grow the curriculum to reflect our customers expanding digital marketing requirements."To find out more about the summer Digital Marketing University, please visit http://www.websidestory.com/dmu. Space is limited.

icrossing Exceeds Crabtree & Evelyn's Search Engine Marketing Goals

2005-06-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Realizing the growing importance of search engine marketing for customer acquisition, Crabtree & Evelyn enlisted the services of icrossing, the premier search engine marketing agency, to take over its in-house search marketing campaign in November 2004. In just a few months, icrossing delivered the retailer an ambitious return on investment (ROI).

Before the company officially came on board, Crabtree & Evelyn had been managing its paid search campaign in-house, but it was not delivering as strong a value as the retailer thought it could. Understanding the value that search engine marketing plays in their day-to-day business, the retailer tasked icrossing with achieving specific ambitious ROI goals in search. "We had specific ROI goals we needed to achieve, and we set them reasonably high," said Catie Briscoe, VP of Marketing at Crabtree & Evelyn.
Through February 2005, icrossing topped Crabtree & Evelyn's goals by 33.7%. icrossing kicked off a Paid Search Management campaign for Crabtree & Evelyn during the heart of the 2004 holiday season. The campaign included popular search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Lycos, and Ask Jeeves. Keywords were purchased for thousands of search terms, including branded terms, relevant product categories, and specialty items carried by the retailer.
"We are very pleased with how icrossing has been working with us so far," said Briscoe. "We look forward to achieving even greater results by running paid with a natural search program together."
Crabtree & Evelyn is now paying more attention to conversion rates in addition to the ROI. Further looking to exceed their goals in search engine marketing, the retailer is implementing a Natural Search Engine Optimization program with icrossing. "Crabtree & Evelyn developed a taste of what search engine marketing could do for customer acquisition," said icrossing's Director of Client Services, Kendall Allen. "We are thrilled to take on the challenge of proving the value that search can deliver them."
About Crabtree & Evelyn:
Crabtree & Evelyn is renowned around the world for beautiful gifts and everyday luxuries that capture the essence of English style. Distinctive and unique, the company has earned an outstanding reputation for its creative excellence and personal customer service. Crabtree products are sold in over 40 countries and Crabtree & Evelyn has over 350 stores worldwide.
About icrossing:
Search engine marketing agency icrossing has been connecting businesses with qualified customers through the medium of search since 1998. Today, icrossing applies its experience, technology, and unparalleled client service to many of the leading brands around the world. icrossing serves its clients with Natural Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Management, Search Engine Analytics, Search Intelligence and Applied Search(TM). With its dedicated focus on search engine marketing, icrossing continuously pioneers new and better ways to help clients meet and surpass their goals through customized solutions.
Source: icrossing, Inc.

Learning Search Engine Marketing

2005-06-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Anyone just starting to get a handle on search marketing faces a bewildering array of books, web sites, discussion forums and other resources that all promise wonderful things. Some of these sources are valuable and useful; others, sadly, are created by people who either don't know what they're talking about or worse, are intent on peddling the online equivalent of snake oil and making a buck off the gullible and clueless.
Fortunately, there are good sources of information available (apart from SEW, of course :-). Today's SearchDay article, Search Marketing in a Box, reviews The Search Engine Marketing Kit by Dan Thies. Dan is a regular speaker at Search Engine Strategies, and his book is a clear, comprehensive guide to both search engine optimization and paid search programs. Best of all, the book is completely lacking in any of the foofaraw that you find in so many other so-called search marketing "resources."