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@aimClear: I thought that was a great line as well, but decided to keep the description clean of such a metaphor. :)
Screw traffic volume. Give me sales. If that means appearing on page 4 or 5, then so be it.
An equally seedy company that I recommend all to stay away from is Globat. It wouldn't surprise me if they pull similar tactics.
This was interestesting because I haven't noticed any substantial changes in my accounts from February to March. Am I the only one?
Story: Can Clicks Hurt?
Every search marketer should know and understand that it's not the quantity, but the quality of clicks that matter. Traffic means nothing unless you engage the audience in a way that leads to some desired outcome. Whether it's a subsciption, a lead, or a sale, simply coming to the site is no longer enough.
@Chris1: In yahoo paid inclusion you have the option of writing the description lines that appear in the organic SERPs, which can be completely different from the meta description normally pulled.
I have found that if I implement best practices strategies on the 2nd tier sites I have decent conversion rates, but much lower click-through rates.
I would also add the ability to re-learn. With SEO and SEM changing so quickly, we often need to come up with new ideas and learn better ways of doing the every-day stuff.
Normally I wouldn't sphinn something from an account that was opened the same day it was submitted, but you make some good points that if people don't already know, they should. I think people too often underestimate the knowledge of what their competitors have, and consider a lot more to be trade secrets than what really is.
No single channel is the magic bullet! I wish more marketers would seek to build a more holistic MarCom campaign that ties in the strengths of all the major channels to transmit a unified message to the ideal audience. Stop keeping each channel in its own silo! Excellent example chriswinfield!
@ DanThies You have to be careful with that approach because you might lose out on smore traffic than expected. If Google can't pinpoint a user's location (like AOL users), they don't get served ANY geo-targeting ads unless the query includes a geo term like a city or state name.
Making money is so much easier when you decide [allegedly] not to pay the people making you the money. When they complain, just try to shut them up, and business will boom!
These guys must have gone to a different school of business than I did. Hopefully the old saying "cheaters never prosper" will come to fruition.
I've been hearing more about people getting creamed in PPC lately, but it's usually due to the "set it forget it" mentality the post is talking about.
It seems that when things start going downhill, you need to go back to the basics and stick what seems to have tested the changes in SEM:
- Tighter and more relevant ad groups
- Better relevant ad copy for those groups (minus dynamic insertion), with a strong call-to-action
- Opimal landing pages for the keywords that minimize the number of clicks needed to make the quality conversion occur.
I've actually had some decent results on a few parked sites. In some cases I created a site-targeted campaign for them. Follow the typical best-practices for content network and you can get decent returns.
It's not that hard to opt out of parked domains now. It even removes them from the search network too.
My page load time is most affected by Google Analytics. I wonder if they'll penalize me for using their tools. If so I guess GA isn't necessariliy free anymore, is it?
Wow...You have to really go out of your way to not think about all of these factors. Kudos on catching them and calling them out on it.
This is hysterical. Being a Seattle-ite, it's funny to see Clay Bennet et al now trying to sell tickets when before the season began they all but said the season is going to suck so people don't miss this team when they move.
I agree with torka. Keep up the ranting. You're good at it :)
I agree. I also think an issue is that some agencies see a budget, and spend the whole thing on their beautiful ad that will work perfectly the first time, instead of putting portions aside to test other formats and try new things.
Story: Scam or not: 1on40.com
I get so many cold calls from companies that say they can get us top on our main keywords for cheap. I wish we could explain to everyone to not do business with these people. I think one of the worst offenders is redzee.com, which supplants actual listings for their client listings on computers that come across their malware through various channels. But hey, they have a cute mascot, so they can't possibly be that evil, right?
I really like #20, the idea of using WP as a log of expenses when you're out. Some of these are really good ideas!
This has happened to me a couple times at work too. What's also fun is the stumble button bringing up something not entrely NSFW. You think safe settings would be more...safe.
I was waiting for this to happen ever since Google started their quality-based minimum bids. Somehow I have a feeling it's all going to revolve around CTR, and how you need to keep using the keyword insert at all times.
I agree that Social Media is a great way to produce information and receive traffic that is "accepted" by people who may not like advertising, but I disagree with your conclusion that the public will "shun" advertising. Internet advertising is more focused because the consumer sees ads directed more to them, compared to push advertising like newspaper, magazines, or TV. Even then, offline push advertising has been around for decades and people still haven't "shun" it. I see the same for internet marketing. It won't be as cutting edge as it is today, and there will be lots of new ways to advertise to people in the future, but as long as there are eyeballs online, an advertiser will be willing to pay to follow them.
Story: Social Media's Dirty Little Secret