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16th
APR

Top 5 Search Terms at Online Marketing Blog – Including Pirates

Posted by under Internet Marketing, Pay-Per-Click

Here on Online Marketing Blog , we post a tremendous amount of insight on organic  search optimization and content marketing related topics each month. But how about the site search tool on our own blog? Who’s searching for what, and why? And what are they finding? Mining the site search report from Google Analytics can be very useful since it’s an indication of what our visitors want to read more of. Here are the six most popular site search terms for Online Marketing Blog including our favorite, “pirates”. 1. Facebook With Facebook taking off as a top channel for social media marketing, it’s no wonder that them comes up as our leading search query. Just consider the recent numbers : Facebook boasts more than 400 million active users 50% of Facebook users log on during any given day More than 20 million Facebook users become fans of pages every day A quick Online Marketing Blog site search for “Facebook” yields recent posts on tools for sharing microcontent , insight on social media advertising and how to leverage channels like Facebook to take advantage of real-time search . 2. Twitter Speaking of popular social media marketing channels, Twitter takes to No. 2 spot for most common site searched on Online Marketing blog. Twitter may only have less than 106 million users compared with Facebook’s 400 million. But consider how quickly Twitter is growing and how active its users are: New users sign up at the rate of 300,000 per day 180 million unique visitors visit the site every month Users post an average of 55 million tweets a day So what can you get with a search for Twitter on Online Marketing Blog? Learn more about the role of news in blended search or find ways to electrify your social network . 3. Books Who says print is dead? “Books” turns up as our fourth most popular search term. Here on the Online Marketing Blog, we’ve posted reviews of some of latest most intriguing marketing online marketing books like “The Art of SEO.” Plus, we’ve conducted exclusive interview with some of the hottest marketing authors out there, such as David Meerman Scott , author of “The New Rules of Marketing.” We’ve even polled our readers on the best available books on SEO . 4. Social Media These days, social media isn’t just a hot topic for B2C marketers looking to connect with consumers on sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Social media is equally as relevant in the B2B world. In fact, 91% of business buyers read blogs, watch user generated video and participate in other social media, according to Forrester Research. A “social media” search on Online Marketing blog pulls up posts on setting and measuring goals for business blogging , which social media sites are the biggest time wasters and the risks of sponsored blog posts . 5. Email Marketing Contrary to predictions, RSS never did replace Email. Social media and network use and status updates or microblogging haven’t “killed” the popularity of email either. In fact, there have been reports that Email use is actually up. So it certainly makes sense that our readers are looking for more information on email marketing. A search for “email marketing” reveals some insight posts including, “ 5 Top Email Marketing Tactics for 2010 “, 5 Tips for Effective Email Copywriting ” and “ How Social Media & Email Marketing Boost Customer Reach “. And Finally: Pirates! Few things seem less relevant to Online Marketing Blog than pirates. Yet somehow it’s one of the most searched terms on the blog. So what do pirates have to do with Internet marketing and Web 2.0? There is an answer in this social media marketing post, we promise. Hint: It has to do with Dave McClure. Are you analyzing the top search phrases on your web site? Are you using that insight to guide your site content? © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Top 5 Search Terms at Online Marketing Blog – Including Pirates | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

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15th
APR

SEO with Feeds & XML

Posted by under Internet Marketing, Pay-Per-Click

Much of the search engine optimization advice found online at at conferences centers around keywords and links. A lot of the spotlight on internet marketing has focused on content and social media. There’s no question that Online Marketing has been a strong proponent of these tactics, sharing many, many posts on SEO topics Content and link based SEO relies on the search engine crawlers to find web pages and digital assets on their own. Search engines are far from perfect at this, so the opportunity to provide search engines with structured lists of content via feed, can provide some companies with a competitive advantage. At SES New York I moderated a session on Pushing Feeds and XML with  Brian Ussery , Amanda Watlington and Daron Babin . Much of what we share on SEO is focused on content and links so I thought I’d share some of the rich insights shared in this very useful session with you by asking the panel a few follow up questions. How much of an advantage can supplying a XML feed offer a site for indexing and search visibility? Brian: It’s really difficult to quantify in terms of a percentage but, I’d say the larger your site and more images you have the better it is to provide an XML Sitemap. How important is it for a new site to supply (or make available) a XML sitemap for search engines? Brian: Sitemaps are one of the best ways I can think of to let engines know about your new pages and images. Amanda: A new site has no inbound links hence there is no way for a search engine to find the site. A Sitemap not only provide a point of departure for the crawling of a new site, by putting one together a site owner can include the most important pages. This is particularly useful if the site is quite large. The Sitemap can cue to spider to pages that in fact link much deeper into the site. This jump starts the indexing process. Would you ever advise a company NOT to use sitemaps? Amanda: There are very rare occasions where I would not use a Sitemap. Those instances are when the contents of the site are very problematic. When there are lots of duplicate content issues that are in the process of being resolved, it makes little sense to urge the search engines to grab a Sitemap that will only bring them to the site’s woes even faster. Once the issues are settled then the Sitemap becomes an important weapon in the SEO’s arsenal. Brian: If you have pages that you don’t want indexed, it’s probably best not to include those URLs in your XML Sitemap. Other than those kinds of situations though, I’d say Sitemaps are the way to go. I would suggest however, not including XML meta data in Sitemaps unless it’s accurate, correct and up to date. It was interesting to learn during our session, the variety of feed types that could be used from those associated with web pages to news to video and I recall one for NASA? Do you have any examples that have called for unusual solutions or use of feeds? Amanda: Structured data such as the Sitemap is fascinating in that it provides so many opportunities to communicate data information in a machine-readable format. There are two feed types that we did not discuss during the session. First, there are product feeds, such as those used by Google Base and other comparative shopping search engines. These allow merchants to draw product information quickly and efficiently from their databases and submit it to a shopping engine. Once formatted, a site owner can submit thousands of products with little or no intervention. The second type of feed was just announced this past week. It is now possible to submit image information (to Google). This has been long awaited. I’ve not yet had a chance to use this, but I have been eagerly awaiting image Sitemaps. Brian: While this kind of XML isn’t my forte, it’s my understanding that the code below is used by NASA to “move” telescopes. This is just one example of the cool stuff you can you can do with XML… Either way, it’s kind of interesting to see! You can find out more at NASA . How important is the protocol Pubsubhubbub being promoted by Google? Does it replace the need for autodiscovery? Brian: Great question Lee, Pubsubhubbub, PuSH or hubbub for short, in case you haven’t heard is an open protocol for turning atom or RSS feeds into streams. Because it requires real feed URLs, autodiscovery isn’t really necessary. So, I don’t see Pubsubhubbub as a replacement for autodiscovery per se, but rather as a more efficient method. Some folks I’m sure will continue to use autodiscovery for their feeds but I think PuSH provides additional advantages that will be favored by most. Is there a threshold for how many pages/items should be included in a sitemap feed or how often data is updated to determine whether providing a sitemap is worth it? Amanda: It is difficult to give an across the board threshold for when and how much to include. With retailers, we clearly must look at their seasonality and time the Sitemap submissions to be sure that any new products or category level pages have been spidered and indexed prior to the season’s start. How much to submit is really tied to how complete is the site’s current indexing. I personally believe that it is possible to strategically manage the process making sure that key pages which direct to deeper pages are included. As I mentioned in the session, Sitemaps are not a blunt object, a club, to be used to batter one’s way into the index, rather they provide a method for strategically informing the search engines of what you want found. I love to fish, salt or fresh water, and I think of Sitemaps with a fishing metaphor. They are bait. Whether you submit a Sitemap or not, it is important to have a Webmaster Tools account. The Google team that is responsible for developing this resource continues to make it a much richer and more informative. Today, I consider it a powerful resource for knowing just what the most powerful engine is seeing in a site. © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | SEO with Feeds & XML | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

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14th
APR

Max Kalehoff on Social Media Advertising, Blogging & the Future of Paid Search

Posted by BlogPostman under Online Advertising, Pay-Per-Click

One of the most insightful voices in the online marketing industry when it comes to advertising is Max Kalehoff of Clickable . I was introduced to Max at a Search Insider Summit conference several years ago with very high regard by David Berkowitz , another intelligent voice in the industry, so I knew immediately he was someone to pay attention to. Max’s company recently announced the addition of Facebook Advertising to their PPC management platform and he was very kind to take the time to answer several detailed questions about social media advertising on the Clickable platform, the future of the online advertising industry, slimy SEO middlemen, how he stays current and blogging about his Weber grill. 1. You have impressive credentials in the interactive marketing industry with your experience working at Jupiter, comScore and Nielsen. How did you come to work with Clickable? It’s mostly luck. I’ve been fortunate to work with a series of successful startup teams and entrepreneurs that played a key role in shaping the Internet. I came to Clickable from Nielsen , which bought our last startup, BuzzMetrics, the pioneer in social media measurement and research. I admire Nielsen and have many close friends there, but I wanted to build things and innovate again in a startup environment. Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures, a Clickable investor, introduced me to David Kidder and Munish Gandhi, Clickable’s co-founders. I shared their vision for helping businesses succeed by simplifying online advertising. We quickly became friends and colleagues and the rest is history. What’s behind your passion for building early stage companies? Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been passionate about building things, solving creative problems and exploring new territory. I’ve always tried to live out those passions through education, work, hobbies and family life. With work, entrepreneurial ventures are the best outlets for those passions. When I was in college, I started two summer businesses. The first was sailboat charter business, and the second was a Web development consultancy. Post college, I spent a few years in the marketing agency business but soon threw myself into technology and Web startup life. There’s nothing more invigorating than working closely with a group of like-minded, passionate people trying to change the world. Big companies have their purpose, but nimble upstarts attract smart people who crave abstract problems, peer-to-peer learning, mastery, self-imposed discipline and persistence. Upstarts also require a lot of risk-taking, serendipity and authentic discovery. To me, that’s the only way to live. And given the mess our world is in, we need more of these minds and ventures to invent our way to a better future. For the uninitiated, what is Clickable and what types of companies should be using it? Clickable is a software-as-a-service platform that makes online advertising simple, instant and profitable. Our tools empower beginners to professionals, and companies of all sizes, to maximize their advertising investment. We have three core products: Our flagship Pro tool is a simple dashboard that empowers marketers to manage online advertising with transformational return on investment. Clickable Pro activates instantly with an intuitive experience that makes it easy to manage performance across all major advertising networks, like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and, now, Facebook. Clickable Pro is complemented by Clickable Assist, a managed service that delivers agile assistance to maximize online advertising success. Finally, Clickable Platform is a white-label solution for big services companies to rapidly deploy large-scale online advertising programs to their local business customers under their own brands. We have a simple purpose that ties everything together: to help businesses survive and thrive by simplifying online advertising success. We pursue that purpose by living up to three core values that comprise our DNA: 7:1 – The 7:1 ratio of good to bad acknowledges we’re not perfect. This is a powerful admission that enables us to listen better and constantly improve. This underlies transparency, trust and collaboration with each other and our customers. Simplicity – Our complex world is desperate for simplicity. Simplicity is difficult, yet it creates value, differentiation and opportunity. That’s why we make everything simple and beautiful. And – We are multidimensional. We innovate constantly to perfect our product-to-market fit … And we are a competitive sales culture that closes business. We celebrate both. Recently the Clickable ad management platform announced the incorporation of Facebook ads.  Being able to track Facebook and search marketing PPC programs side by side seems a significant opportunity for all.  What should advertisers, especially small and medium sized businesses that you serve, expect from social media advertising? What kind of advice do you give to temper expectations? Or do you even need to? We first removed the complexity that prevented marketers from expanding into search networks besides Google AdWords, by introducing a simple interface that marketers could use to manage all of their search marketing campaigns. It’s become clear that the next place where marketers want a simple, effective solution is on the world’s largest social network: Facebook. With over 400 million members, Facebook introduces a new way to advertise that complements search marketing. Using extensive demographic targeting criteria, advertisers on Facebook can get out ahead of their customers and create demand that they can later capture with their search campaigns. Marketers can also use Facebook to promote their brands and drive direct sales. Indeed, this is new territory for everyone. We look forward to experimenting with our advertisers to surface best practices and customer profiles that achieve success. In the course of doing business with many SMBs in conjunction with TopRankSMB , a surprising number of marketers mention having “tried PPC and it didn’t work”.  In most cases it’s due to a lack of knowledge, tools and time to gain the knowledge to run a successful search marketing ad campaign. What advice do you find yourself or your company giving SMBs most often in regard to online advertising? What tips can you give to those just starting out? Indeed, we found that up to 50% of SMBs that try online advertising don’t succeed, primarily because of complexity. Similarly, a recent study we conducted on SMBs indicated that roughly half don’t properly track conversions. Knowing conversions is the first step in how an advertiser defines success, whether it’s generating a lead, having someone fill in a form or making a sale. Tracking conversions is important in directing your ad investment to the keywords that will drive the greatest return on investment. There’s a lot of talk about efficiency of click-throughs and cost-per-click, but in the end what really matters is the return on your ad spend, and the profitability of your business. Our most common advice? First, make sure you are tracking your results, and don’t do anything until your analytics are effectively in place. Second, embrace “goal-based advertising” — that is, make investments only toward very specific and realistic business goals. That requires determining the monetary value of your goals, and figuring out which of your services and products have enough potential to justify spend. Finally, invest the time to get educated in PPC and do it right, or hire sometime to do it for you. Otherwise, you will quickly become another statistic in the “tried PPC and it didn’t work” category. That’s a disadvantageous outcome for most businesses. You really hit a nerve with, Brands: Beware Of Slimy SEO Middlemen Meddling Through Social Media .  The behavior of the SEO account exec you interacted with is strikingly similar to how many media relations people and start-up business owners behave when they pitch us to write about them on Online Marketing Blog. It’s often a bucket of fake suck-uppiness wrapped around a pitch for a single, short term outcome. It’s sad because something far more significant could be achieved if they looked past the one “placement”. Client demands drive a lot of this behavior and agencies of all types (SEO and PR) often comply. What’s your advice on creating a more meaningful connection with bloggers? My advice for creating a more meaningful connection with bloggers is the same as my advice for success in life: Give more value than you take. If you provide unselfish value, then people will  become attracted to you and they will advocate you. Advocacy may result in links, testimonials, business referrals, constructive feedback, partnership, loyalty and friendship. But calculating relationships purely based on SEO objectives can quickly become a risk to your brand. It’s that simple. I like that you can switch from “ My New Weber Grill ” to “ Social and Search Advertising “.  As an accomplished and long time blogger, what advice do you have for other interactive and marketing types for blogging over the long haul? How has your own blog affected your career and work?  How satisfied are you with your corporate blogging efforts? It’s important to acknowledge that despite all the experts and gurus, the Social Media and Interactive bible is far from completion. We’re only in the beginning of the first chapter, and we’re all students. With that in mind, I think more successful blogging and social media efforts have a defined purpose, goals and room for lots of experimentation. My personal blog is very much me, reflecting the perpetual blur between my professional and home life. They are impossible to separate, and the tension between the two is what makes life interesting. My blog has created an online presence that’s delivered myriad opportunities. It’s led to new business, new friendships, introspection and (in some cases) breaktrhough ideas. I also believe a personal blog is the best laboratory to become fluent and personally vested in interactive technologies. The learning I gained from my personal blogging endeavors directly contributed to some of our more successful interactive marketing strategies at Clickable. I know we’re already into Q2 but what predictions can you offer on the future of paid search for the rest of 2010?  What are your thoughts on: Microsoft and Yahoo, Mobile PPC, sponsored social content or what’s next for Google and it’s array of advertising opportunities? Our Q1 2010 analysis of search spending among advertisers on the Clickable Platform reveals that budgets are significantly higher in Q1 versus year-ago, suggesting an economic and advertising rebound. We have seen 75% of our advertisers increase their budgets versus year-ago, while 25% maintained flat or slightly decreased budgets. Based on Q1, we forecast that 2010 full-year search budgets will increase anywhere between 10% and 30% versus 2009. Meanwhile, search budgets are diversifying in terms of network distribution. Microsoft/Bing seems to be gaining ground on Yahoo and Google. Last year, only 5% of customers were using Microsoft/Bing, while currently this percentage is at 9%. We believe one of the big stories in 2010 will be gains in social-network advertising, particularly Facebook. Inefficiencies and behavioral friction have prevented serious experimental dollars to shift, especially among PPC marketers.  Social advertising will grow dramatically in 2010 as the major social networks surface in third-party management tools, as well as improve their own self-serve dashboards. A lot of advertisers are highly interested in seizing new opportunities to connect with customers. Mobile advertising is picking up speed, but won’t be terribly relevant for most advertisers in 2010. You blog and write for MediaPost which I recommend people read. How do you stay current yourself? Do you have a short list of industry conferences, blogs, newsletters, Twitter handles or books that you’d recommend? I read a mix of news aggregators and thinkers in strategy, venture capital, tech and media, including: TechMeme , John Hagel ,  Fred Wilson , Umaire Haque , Jeff Jarvis ,  All Things Digital , TechCrunch ,  BusinessInsider , NYTimes Bits and (of course) TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog . While I write a weekly opinion column for MediaPost , I believe it’s one of the most thorough and ubiquitous sources of hard news in the interactive advertising industry. I’m also blessed with a quirky list of friends whom I pay close attention to on Twitter , and they reward me with serendipity, personal tips and reading recommendations. I’ve not read any good business books in years, so I’ve abandoned them for fiction, history and poetry. The market is saturated with conferences and good ones are becoming rare; the best ones tend to be grass roots, niche and local, like many Meetups. We co-founded the New York SEMPO Search Meetup , which now has a passionate following of more than 1,000 members. We also founded and run Interesting Cafe, a discussion series that features some of the greatest living innovators in tech, media, culture and science. Small, passionate gatherings like these have the most profound and positive impact. Thanks Max! Max Kalehoff is vice president of marketing for Clickable , a platform that makes online advertising simple, instant and profitable. He also authors AttentionMax . © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Max Kalehoff on Social Media Advertising, Blogging & the Future of Paid Search | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

max kalehoff Max Kalehoff on Social Media Advertising, Blogging & the Future of Paid Search

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8th
APR

Are Seo Packages A Good Investment?

Posted by BlogPostman under Pay-Per-Click

When you own a website, your primary focus is to attract a constant flow of new (organic) traffic.  You will likely have a set of established, returning visitors whom you can count on to make purchases, but the success of any company is marked by its growth.  When you are seeking to make your website bigger, better, or more popular, the simple fact is that you need more visitors.  While Pay Per Click advertising is a common method of attempting this, the development of bots and companies that would click just to generate income or make your numbers look higher than they really are caused this market to largely decline.  Ultimately, without visitors to your page you have no sales.  Furthermore, if your page hits are being generated by ad clicks, then the people visiting your page likely don’t understand or have interest in what it is that you are actually offering.  SEO packages are different that they offer a chance for you to get organic, unpaid traffic flowing to your website.  With these packages, you are able to commission a steady stream of articles that provide important and relevant content, ensuring that readers know exactly what you have to offer and that they visit your site because they are genuinely interested. Not to mention how happy it makes the search engines to feed them on a regular basis. When it comes down to it, quality SEO packages are an investment in your company.  Article marketing takes a bit longer than standard click based advertising to really show its full potential, but ultimately it is the best option for your site.  When paid clicks lead people to your site, they are apt to simply click away when they realize they are not where they thought they would be.  Article marketing, however, ensures that every click and every follow through is from someone who is looking specifically for your page.  This greatly increases the chances that the visitor will purchase your products or services. SEO packages also offer the distinct benefit of remaining available to readers for as long as the directory is active.  This means that an article can continue to generate new readers and new business for many years to come.  For only a single investment, you can easily provide yourself with long term organic traffic and other benefits, while pay per click advertising brings in traffic only as long as you are still paying for your ads to remain active. Another thing that makes an SEO package a true investment is that it enables you to commission a large number of expert written articles that will be submitted over time.  This spacing ensures that readers are always being offered new content and new answers.  It also offers the chance to present your company as an expert in the field, using your expertise on your product matter to help answer common questions or solve common problems. At the end of the day, SEO packages are simply the smarter way to go.  They work far more efficiently than standard pay per click advertising, and offer readers much more benefit than the keyword stuffed articles that flooded the market only a few years in the past.  Search Engine Optimization today is about providing necessary content that solves a problem and that provides information relevant to the keywords and topics chosen.  If your website is in need of a long term boost in traffic and you are seeking a way to bring in organic traffic and interested parties, an SEO package makes a great choice.  More visitors certainly equates more sales, especially when they are going to your site because they are already interested in your content. - About the Author: Words You Want is your one stop resource for all of your writing needs.  Words You Want offers a variety of services including SEO packages , article directory submission, SEO article writing , ghostwriting, eBook writing, travel writing, equine writing and more.    Article Source

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6th
APR

Advertise On Bing?

Posted by under Pay-Per-Click

I decided to write this article after thinking “advertise on bing?” After doing some intense research I have found that Bing is formerly Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search and is from Microsoft.  This new search engine was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 and since when full on inline June 3, 2009.  Since its release it has become the third largest search engine with roughly 3.6% being dwarfed by Google at 85.35% but awfully close to Yahoo at 6.15%.   Some of the reasons you would want to advertise on Bing are: Daily changing of background images Enhanced view where third party site info can be seen inside Bing Some sites you can search within the website Video thumbnail that allows you to preview the video automatically Change size of length, screen size, and resolution of videos Instant stats on Sports scores, teams, leagues, and players Inquiring on stocks or finances of a company shows stock chart, price, volume, in a website that you can subscribe to Have a math calculation you need help with? It’s amazing, that’s all I can say. Flight tracking-tells you flight delays Local restaurant reviews Integrates easily with Hotmail   While all these are just a few of the great features of Bing, I challenge you to find more that will be beneficial for your life!   So why advertise on Bing? Bing is a very promising new player in the search engine industry that isn’t saturated with everyone “being an expert” or trying to sell you a piece of toast looking like a famous person.  If you are into PPC marking on Google you know how expensive it can get with the amount of people competing with you.  If you advertise on Bing, they have the same concepts based on two factors. Your monthly search campaign budget Your maximum bid per click For example, if you advertise on Bing and your budge is $10.00, and you win the bid at $.10 per click, it’s going to take 100 people clicking your advertisement.  They also have small and medium budget solutions for people with a budget of $500 to $25,000 a month.  A few established companies that advertise on Bing are: although this is only a few of the many: Smile Box Buyer Zone EBay Toyota Snapple Sprint Also to help drive Bing’s presence on the web they are spending $80-100 Million to promote online, TV, print, and radio advertising.  I really do believe that as I have been listening to the radio for the last hour and half, I’ve heard 10 to 12 advertisements for Bing.  One of largest privately owned digital communications company in the world called Waggener Edstrom has been the driving force behind their marketing and it has seen phenomenal results.  They have partnered with many of the world’s leading brands like GE Healthcare, MasterCard International and T-Mobile USA to name a few.   So to answer the question, “Advertise on Bing?” I would say you would be silly not to be part of the creation; in the engine, not back in the caboose trying to catch up. - About the Author: Robert David Strong www.robertstrongmarketing.org   Article Source

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Advertise On Bing?

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