What are Negative Keywords? Are you looking at this blog post title thinking, what in the world are negative keywords? Well listen up because they are very important to your PPC campaign and they are commonly overlooked. Negative keywords are keywords that you do not want to show up for. For example, if you sell shoes but not Nike shoes, you would want to add ‘Nike’ as a negative keyword so your ads do not show up when someone searches for Nike shoes. Let’s say you don’t add ‘Nike’ as a negative keyword and you show up for that search term and your ad happens to be clicked on.
Paid Search
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Most Topular Stories
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Negative Keywords & How to Find them
PurePPC13 Jan 2012 | 3:07 pm -
Another Reason to Advertise on Your Brand Name in Paid Search
RKGBlog24 Jan 2012 | 8:52 amRKG has always stressed the importance of distinguishing brand and non-brand keyword performance. That has not changed and likely will not ever change. However, that doesn’t suggest buying brand keywords in paid search is a waste of money. In fact, just recently, I noticed yet another reason to continue buying these keywords as a way to ward off the competition and ensure that every user searching for your site by name, winds up getting there. The gold standard manual process for auditing “squatters” on your brand name is to go to Google.com, query your brand name, and see… -
Mobile PPC Strategies – Interview with Laura Garrido
Acquisio23 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amLaura Garrido With such high expectations for mobile advertising this year, marketers have a lot to consider — from high-level mobile ad strategy and deployment to working out a mobile budget. Well, with Google as the #1 mobile site destination, one thing is clear enough: mobile PPC will likely be part of any mobile advertising strategy. Recently, I got to ask Laura Garrido about her experience with mobile PPC. Laura leads the PPC team at NVI, a search marketing and social media agency in Montreal. So she’s overseen strategy and deployment for all their clients’ mobile… -
Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time
Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing27 Jan 2012 | 11:11 pmTwo weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World. Since then, Google has faced strong criticisms that SPYW is making its search relevancy worse and favoring its Google+ social network too much. Not so, says Google search chief Amit Singhal. Most Google users are happy, Singhal said. Of course,... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
The ClickEquations Blog is Moving
Acquisio26 Jan 2012 | 1:56 pmYou may or may not have heard, but Acquisio recently acquired ClickEquations. Acquisio is a leading performance media platform for agencies, and helps agency marketers manage, track, optimize, retarget, and report on ad buys across all channels — from search and display to social media. As a result, the ClickEquations blog will be merged with the Acquisio blog. This means that if you’re subscribed to the ClickEquations blog, you’ll soon start getting updates from the Acquisio blog feed. The Acquisio blog updates several times a week with tips, insights and strategies to help…
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Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
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Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time
27 Jan 2012 | 11:11 pmTwo weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World. Since then, Google has faced strong criticisms that SPYW is making its search relevancy worse and favoring its Google+ social network too much. Not so, says Google search chief Amit Singhal. Most Google users are happy, Singhal said. Of course,... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users
27 Jan 2012 | 4:27 pmBing is reportedly now out of betaphase in Deutschland. According to Microsoft, Bing has 10 million users or 20 percent of active internet users in Germany: Mittlerweile benutzen fast 10 Millionen Nutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig Bing, das sind 20 Prozent der aktiven Internetnutzer hierzulande.... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 27, 2012
27 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pmBelow is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity – SMN Tuesday, Jan. 31
27 Jan 2012 | 3:57 pmSearch Marketing Now will present “Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity,” on Tuesday, January 31 at 1 PM EST. The free webcast features Steven Schuler and Patrick Peters, both from Yahoo!’s mobile division. They’ll give an overview of the current mobile landscape, then... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar
27 Jan 2012 | 10:14 amIn this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. David Beckham At Google: Google’s Moscow Brick Desk: Bing Bar at... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Acquisio
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The ClickEquations Blog is Moving
26 Jan 2012 | 1:56 pmYou may or may not have heard, but Acquisio recently acquired ClickEquations. Acquisio is a leading performance media platform for agencies, and helps agency marketers manage, track, optimize, retarget, and report on ad buys across all channels — from search and display to social media. As a result, the ClickEquations blog will be merged with the Acquisio blog. This means that if you’re subscribed to the ClickEquations blog, you’ll soon start getting updates from the Acquisio blog feed. The Acquisio blog updates several times a week with tips, insights and strategies to help… -
Adding Value Through Facebook Advertising
26 Jan 2012 | 11:53 amFacebook Ads Convincing brands to allow your agency to spend their money on Facebook ads is a tough sell. It’s a ‘tough sell’ because they know, as well as you do, that Facebook is an emerging channel where few of the rules are known, and in which the conditions are constantly changing. With this knowledge many brands say that they should manage their own Facebook ad campaigns or avoid serving any ads at all. Some report that they have tested Facebook ads with other agencies and that it didn’t work or that they have heard many stories of ad campaigns going wrong and that they don’t… -
Acquisio and Amaze at Figaro’s Digital Marketing Conference
25 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amFollowing on from our Figaro Digital seminar on leveraging data in display, we were invited back along with Amaze, one of our clients, to the Figaro Digital Marketing Conference on 23rd November in London. Together, we explained more about how agencies use our performance media platform and delved deeper into how sophisticated reporting capabilities can support client’s efforts in areas such as retargeting. Click to Visit the Video on Figaro Ditial's Site We’ve been working with Amaze for over a year now and know just how important effective reporting is for maintaining their… -
Performance Predictions for 2012 in iMedia Connection
24 Jan 2012 | 3:04 amWhen iMedia Connection asked us recently to provide a few ideas about what performance marketing would look like in 2012, we naturally jumped at the chance. It is one of the most, vibrant, productive and effective sectors of the marketing mix and therefore one where we expect to see some key developments this coming year. The article is called What to look forward to in 2012, and here’s an excerpt about the state of play in search, one of the most important facets of performance media: Today’s search marketing capabilities and results have effectively commoditised this marketing… -
Mobile PPC Strategies – Interview with Laura Garrido
23 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amLaura Garrido With such high expectations for mobile advertising this year, marketers have a lot to consider — from high-level mobile ad strategy and deployment to working out a mobile budget. Well, with Google as the #1 mobile site destination, one thing is clear enough: mobile PPC will likely be part of any mobile advertising strategy. Recently, I got to ask Laura Garrido about her experience with mobile PPC. Laura leads the PPC team at NVI, a search marketing and social media agency in Montreal. So she’s overseen strategy and deployment for all their clients’ mobile…
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PPC Strategies & Pay Per Click News | PPC Hero
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Everything You Need to Know About Ad Position in AdWords
27 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pmAd position, the forest containing all your account metric trees! (Sorry, it’s Friday, and the clichés abound.) A high quality score combined with the right keyword bid means your ad gets a higher and higher position on Google SERPs. But, how do you analyze your ad position in AdWords? And, how do you know what your optimal position really is? Some accounts do perform better when ads are shown on the side versus the top of a page, as we’ll explore a little later in the post. My goal today is to help give you a solid understanding of ad position in AdWords so that you can think about this… -
PPC & Time Management: A Make-It-Better Checklist
26 Jan 2012 | 7:41 pmWith the first month of the New Year nearly behind us, it’s time to reflect. Take a look at your to-do list for the month. Have you gotten everything done? I’ll bet not! Guess what? That’s ok! We’re all human and we’re certainly not perfect. You may even intend to knock a few more things off your list before the month comes to a complete close and I encourage you to keep working at it, but I’m also here to help with some tips for how you can improve your time management skills! Last week we had our monthly full-day training session at Hanapin and the following lists and helpful… -
Analytics Regular Expression Characters
26 Jan 2012 | 1:04 pmRegular expressions can seem like a foreign language, but once you know how they work you won’t know how you ever used Google Analytics without them . This post will help you understand how each of the regular expressions function and includes examples of how they can be used for your account. What is does: Turns the character following the backslash into plain text. How it works: Say you want to create a goal for the url /thankyou?id=123. In Regex, “?” has another meaning, which we’ll get to in a little bit, but we need it to be plain text since it is part of the url string. To… -
Interview with Matthew Umbro, Founder of PPC Chat
26 Jan 2012 | 8:30 amWe had the pleasure of an interview with Matthew Umbro, the founder of PPC Chat and Senior PPC Specialist at Exclusive Concepts. Matthew will be speaking at Hero Conf, April 16-17, 2012, in Indianapolis, IN. We are looking forward to hearing Matthew present “Proving the Value of PPC through Conversion Tracking,” as well as share his knowledge on the Account Structure panel. If you would like to hear Matthew and other PPC experts speak at Hero Conf, you can register here. If you register before January 30, you will also receive your company’s logo in the conference… -
How To Use Automated Rules in Google AdWords
25 Jan 2012 | 6:18 pmThis week, Kayla Kurtz shows you how to use Automated Rules in Google AdWords and how they can be your best friend. Check out The Adventures of PPC Hero: Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management at http://www.ppchero.com/. Copyright © 2007-2010 Hanapin Marketing, LLC.
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Search Engine Watch - Latest
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Tablet, E-Reader Ownership Doubled Over Holidays
28 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amAfter a slowdown in the fall of 2011, the share of adults who owned tablet computers or e-readers nearly doubled over the holidays, according to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. 19 percent of U.S. adults now own tablets. -
Google Maps Adds Emergency Alerts
27 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amIf a major storm is headed you way, Google wants to be your information guide. The Google Crisis Response team is looking to be your go to information source on when a storm will strike, how bad will it be, and what resources are available to help. -
Con Artist Shares Inside Story of Google Pharmacy Ad Sting
27 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amIn a letter to the Wall Street Journal, career con man David Whitaker spilled the beans on his experience as undercover operative Jason Corriente, an agent for wealthy clients seeking online ads. The sting led to a $500 million forfeiture for Google. -
Measuring ROI: How to Collect Meaningful PPC Conversion Data
27 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amLearn how you can track and collect significant conversion data and then bring it all together in one dashboard. Use these three levels of conversion data tracking that vary in terms of pros/cons, costs, effectiveness, and sophistication. -
SEO Chicks Competition - Win a ticket to SES London!
27 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amSEO Chicks have launched a competition for the next generation of search marketers. Have you been in SEO less than a year or have a desire to join the industry? If so, this is the competition for you. Here is your chance to win a ticket to SES London
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Inside AdWords
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Love at first Search
26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amMore and more people are falling in love with Valentine’s Day. According to a recent survey by ORC International, Valentine’s Day is now the number two gift giving holiday, right behind Christmas, with 88% of Americans saying they plan on giving a present to their loved ones. This should be great news for businesses, but marketers still have trouble making a love connection with consumers based on charts that look more like dated EKG readings than real-time insights into the heart of the consumer. Since getting the affections of one person is hard enough, below are some timely insights… -
Create more Automated Rules and undo changes
17 Jan 2012 | 5:00 pmWe heard your feedback that you want Automated Rules to be even more flexible and useful, so we rolled out two improvements - increased rule limit to 100 and the ability to undo changes made by a rule. 1. Increased rule limit to 100 We increased the number of rules you can create from 10 rules per user to 100. This should allow you to easily try out new rules -- have a look at common examples to see how advertisers are using Automated Rules. 2. Ability to undo changes made by a rule In the event that a rule doesn’t make the changes that you expect, you can easily undo them by clicking… -
Coming Soon: Ad Group Impression Share Metrics
17 Jan 2012 | 11:32 amBased on advertiser requests, we will soon offer ad group level impression share metrics for the Search and Display Networks. Once released, you can use ad group impression share data to, for example, better identify high performing ad groups that aren't capturing the majority of available impressions.In the next few weeks, you will see three new columns that can be added to your ad groups tab:Impr. Share: the percentage of impressions you received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.Lost IS (Rank): the share of impressions lost due to your Ad Rank. -
Visit the re-designed AdWords Help Center today
10 Jan 2012 | 12:34 pmBrits, Aussies, and Kiwis: see what Americans have been buzzing about for weeks!We launched a new look for the AdWords Help Center and it's now available in your countries! Since we introduced it in the U.S. just a few weeks ago, thousands of AdWords users in America have already opted-in. And the feedback is overwhelmingly positive! You asked for a better Help Center -- you got it!Here are the changes we're rolling out today:1. Simpler navigation: More easily navigate to the right content using the new menu at the top of each page.(click for full-size image)2. Visible contact options: Find… -
On your marks, get set, GOMC!
27 Dec 2011 | 12:00 pmWe’re pleased to announce that professor registration for the 2012 Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC 2012), our global student competition, is now open! Student registration, however, will open January 31, 2012. In order for student teams to participate in the competition, their professors must first register. But what is this challenge, you ask? The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a global online marketing competition for students from any higher education institution in the world. Students must develop and run a successful online advertising campaigns through Google…
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RKGBlog
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Leveraging Google+ Pages for Search Marketing
26 Jan 2012 | 8:30 amAs suggested in a recent post on brand ad cannibalization, each search engine results page hosts a dance between organic search results and paid ads. The dance between these SERP elements can range from ugly to lovely (potentially from a negative to positive sum game for retailers). Enter a new Dancer With Search Plus Your World, Google acknowledges that social is a disruptive dimension that can make search results even more relevant and increase profits for online businesses. Social content can be used by businesses as a lever to increase the click-through rate on organic search results… -
SEO and Social in 2012: 4 Takeaways (plus my upcoming speaking gigs)
24 Jan 2012 | 6:08 pmThis post started as a short announcement of the recent conferences where I’ll be speaking in the next few months. But once pen hit paper, I guess I had more to say! The merger and acquisition of AudetteMedia by RKG has certainly taken some time and attention. It’s good to be back at my desk. Let the work begin! SEO and Social in 2012: 4 Takeaways Welcome to another chapter in the ever-unfolding saga of search marketing! This year feels a bit different somehow. First Panda disrupted SEO, then Google Plus disrupted social media (but the bigger change was how Search Plus is… -
Another Reason to Advertise on Your Brand Name in Paid Search
24 Jan 2012 | 8:52 amRKG has always stressed the importance of distinguishing brand and non-brand keyword performance. That has not changed and likely will not ever change. However, that doesn’t suggest buying brand keywords in paid search is a waste of money. In fact, just recently, I noticed yet another reason to continue buying these keywords as a way to ward off the competition and ensure that every user searching for your site by name, winds up getting there. The gold standard manual process for auditing “squatters” on your brand name is to go to Google.com, query your brand name, and see… -
RKG Digital Marketing Report: Q4 2011 Released
17 Jan 2012 | 8:05 amToday we released the RKG Digital Marketing Report for the fourth quarter of 2011, offering data and analysis for paid search, SEO, CSEs, Facebook advertising and more. We’ve taken steps to make sure our report is representative of the larger marketing fields covered so that it can serve as a credible benchmark for individual advertisers and offer insights into the numbers the major players like Google and Yahoo end up reporting in their financials. Historically, our approach to quarterly analysis has been a strong predictor of the engines’ high-level performance and, if that… -
The Cardinal Sin of Paid Search
16 Jan 2012 | 8:51 amMy SEL column from this morning, in case you missed it there. There are plenty of good reasons to advertise on your brand name. Advertising on your brand allows you to: Control the message. The text of the message can be kept fresh, highlighting promotions, shipping cut-off dates, whatever makes sense for the brand. Direct traffic. Site-links provide an opportunity for users to navigate to the next page deeper rather than just the home page, thereby aiding conversions. Occupy real estate. Taking up more space on the SERP means less leakage to affiliates and competitors. Capture incremental…
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Traffick: The Business of Search
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When Things Change, They’re Actually Different
27 Jan 2012 | 11:37 amTurmoil is all around us, old assumptions no longer valid. Richard Florida deftly lays out the scenario for the current economic and spatial Great Reset. Bob Garfield outlines the Chaos Scenario in traditional media and advertising (upon which I comment favorably here). Friendly, iron-fist in a velvet glove American liberalism-cum-imperialism is laid to waste in Chris Hedges’ Death of the Liberal Class. Seth Godin refers to a “forever recession,” somehow managing to remain optimistic (“and the coming revolution”) on behalf of the self-starters who can connect… -
AdWords, Declining Click Prices (CPC’s), and Interface Optics: Two Theories
24 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pmGoogle’s recent financial results weren’t nearly as bad as the markets seemed to think. By any rational standard, once again they turned in a strong Q4 and strong YOY growth. Earnings were very solid. All they did was miss Wall Street expectations slightly. If revenues and profits were up sharply — but below expectations — were there any red flags at all? It appears so. While total paid clicks were up 34% year over year, click prices in the form of average CPC’s were actually down a whopping 8% from the same period in 2010. Google didn’t provide a… -
So are Google Search results crap, or aren’t they?
17 Jan 2012 | 1:02 pmThe latest debates over Google Search results, search quality, antitrust, and other drama are only the latest in a long period of rapid change for Google in the search arena. That period, pretty much the past seven years, has been marked by (a) growth in new technology and soft innovations intended to handle the scale of search as well as more complex user intent puzzles; (b) the ongoing challenges Google faces in satisfying public expectations of relevant results in an environment characterized by gaming and spam. Other trends have included (c) mobile, (d) the rapid growth in video and the… -
A Website is Like a Company, and Vice-Versa. Post-Revolution,There Really is No ‘Revert’
9 Jan 2012 | 4:55 pmYou’ve been through it. Everyone you know has probably been through it, at some point. Your website and the platform is built on are now five (or, aaaghh! seven or eight!) years old, and your website redesign and relaunch are long overdue. But what pain are you going to endure, and how much money will you spend (lose?) before you come out the “other side”? That was the premise of our session at SES Chicago last November, “Navigating the Dip: Planning a Successful Site Relaunch” (with thanks to Seth Godin for inspiration). It may be comforting to say to yourself… -
Dear Touchy-Feelies: Once Again, A Reminder… Most of the Internet is Free
6 Dec 2011 | 3:37 pmFacebook is free, essentially for three reasons: People pay for apps and games, and Facebook’s cut of that subsidizes the platform You view and/or click on ads, and that also subsidizes the platform 9-figure investments have allowed Facebook to “undermonetize” its huge investment in creating and supporting the user experience A fourth reason: you, the consumer, refuse to pay. This dynamic applies to most of the rest of the Internet, too. The things you enjoy are monetized primarily with ads. Services like: Google Search GMail Content sites Some services are virtually…
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WebProNews
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Yes, Virginia, Google’s New Privacy Policy Lets You Opt Out Of Sharing Your Data
27 Jan 2012 | 4:30 pmWe asked, now we answer: Google’s new Privacy Policy will not force you into accepting any vampiric habits of Google to vulture information from you for the purpose of advertisements. If you don’t want them to. Since Google announced the … -
Think Positive, Choose Better!
27 Jan 2012 | 4:28 pmA study from the Journal Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that thinking positive actually helps us make better decisions. In the study 55% of coronary heart patients who practiced positive thoughts actually persisted to adhere to their exercise regiments to … -
Is Google Getting Worse At Delivering Relevant Results?
27 Jan 2012 | 4:28 pmIt was around this time last year when Google’s search results really started attracting a whole lot of criticism (more than usual). The content farm discussion was going full-throttle, and finally in February, Google launched the Panda update, its attempt … -
A Handy Infographic About the Entertainment Industry Fearing Technology
27 Jan 2012 | 4:25 pmHow many times has the entertainment industry trembled at the onset of new technology? Well, if you’re talking about the the film industry in particular, and you answered “every time,” then you are pretty damn accurate. While some of us … -
Red Hot Chili Peppers Dance, President Obama’s Ship, & Auroras
27 Jan 2012 | 4:22 pmA viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, via social media, sharing sites, or good ‘ole email. Everyday we highlight some of the best that are currently viral and some that are trending that …
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John Battelle's Search Blog
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For Posterity
28 Jan 2012 | 12:02 amI had to post this image from Twitter. There. If this continues, I figure I’ll be at least in a good negotiating position come the Rapture. -
Once Again, RSS Is Dead. But ONLY YOU Can Save It!
25 Jan 2012 | 11:49 pmAbout 14 months ago, I responded to myriad “RSS is Dead” stories by asking you, my RSS readers, if you were really reading. At that point, Google’s Feedburner service was telling me I had more than 200,000 subscribers, but it didn’t feel like the lights were on – I mean, that’s a lot of people, but my pageviews were low, and with RSS, it’s really hard to know if folks are reading you, because the engagement happens on the reader, not here on the site. (That’s always been the problem publishers have had with RSS – it’s impossible to… -
Google+ Spreads to AdSense, Will It Spread to the Whole Web?
25 Jan 2012 | 10:47 pmSeen in the wild (well, OK, on this very site): The “Recommend this on Google” hover box at the bottom is new, I’ve never seen it before (then again, my ads are usually from FM). It’s what we in the biz call a “social overlay” or a “social ad” – and as far as I can tell, it’s only available to those advertisers who use Google AdSense. Why am I on about this? Because some weeks ago, Facebook told a bunch of advertisers and third parties (FM was one of them) that it was no longer OK to integrate Facebook actions into third party… -
The Future of War (From Jan., 1993 to the Present)
25 Jan 2012 | 12:24 am(image is a shot of my copy of the first Wired magazine, signed by our founding team) I just read this NYT piece on the United States’ approach to unmanned warfare: Do Drones Undermine Democracy?. From it: There is not a single new manned combat aircraft under research and development at any major Western aerospace company, and the Air Force is training more operators of unmanned aerial systems than fighter and bomber pilots combined. In 2011, unmanned systems carried out strikes from Afghanistan to Yemen. The most notable of these continuing operations is the not-so-covert war in… -
Put Your Taproot Into the Independent Web
24 Jan 2012 | 11:51 am(image) This article - Early Facebook App Causes Is Being Reborn As A Polished Web Site For Good – caught my eye as I was nodding off last night (thanks so much for moving the web into my bedroom, Flipboard. No really.) Now, it didn’t catch my eye because of its subject – Causes – but because of what its subject was doing: refocusing its business back out on the Independent Web, from its original home in the zoological garden that is the Facebook platform. This is indicative of what I believe will become a trend over the next year or so, barring moves by Facebook to…
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Microsoft Advertising Community
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The Best of Mobile in 2011: Intel’s ‘The Chase’
27 Jan 2012 | 1:54 pmThis year we’ll be talking a lot about mobile, and personally I’m excited about all of the innovative advertising solutions we’ll deliver for our clients via the mobile channel over the course of the next 12 months. In anticipation, I took a look back on some previous campaigns we’ve driven that effectively integrated mobile platforms and Intel – ‘The Chase’ – stands out to me as a fantastic example. Intel wanted to launch a digital campaign that would increase its brand awareness and promote the incredible power of its new Core i5 processors. -
Money-Saving Tips on Creating Your Own Marketing Brochure In-House #SMB #smallbiz
27 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amCustomers love when businesses have printed materials to share. Whether you are a real estate agent or flower shop owner, the power of a good brochure that delivers your message with vivid visual impact cannot be overestimated. A marketing brochure can boost your sales efforts instantly, and by creating those materials in-house, you can save both time and money. Why create a brochure in-house? There are some great benefits for small businesses that print materials in-house. Not only does using high-quality printers like OfficeJets make it easy to save big with in-house marketing materials,… -
pubCenter Expands Internationally to Seven New Markets!
26 Jan 2012 | 11:02 amIt is our priority to provide developers around the globe an opportunity to make money using the Microsoft Advertising Solution and today we are happy to announce we are expanding our solution into seven new countries on February 1, 2012: Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Mexico, Sweden, and Switzerland. Now, developers from nineteen countries (full list below) can make money by taking advantage of Microsoft’s Advertising solution for mobile developers. Our solution includes ad controls that are built right into the Windows Phone SDK; combined with pubCenter’s self-serve sign-up,… -
The Evolution of Bing, adCenter Feedback and What M&Ms Have in Common with Both
26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amWhile scrolling through my Facebook feed last night, I ran across a shared link from a friend highlighting a Technorati article by Andrew Froehlich, Bing: The New King of Search .* Needless to say, I felt compelled to click through… having watched the evolution of Bing since arriving here at Microsoft, I have to say without any bias whatsoever that the decision engine has come a long way. It’s old news now, but I clearly remember this article from ZDNet.com stood out to me when I ran...(read more) -
UK Bing Launches ‘Help Your Britain’ Campaign to Celebrate the Work of Britain’s Unsung Charities #helpyourbritain, #charity
26 Jan 2012 | 6:12 amEvery once in a while I do wonder if I shouldn’t be doing something a little bit more, well useful with my life. Don’t you? Perhaps I should get my driving license, buy a race car and get on with it but seriously: this isn’t midlife crisis just yet. The good intentions are all there but the time isn’t, not now anyway. That’s why it’s so nice to see that Bing (the search engine you should all be advertising on to achieve an amazing ROI with our help) has been lending its homepage to small charities this week enabling them to tell their story to Bing’s…
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Compete Blog
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Should GoDaddy say uncle?
27 Jan 2012 | 3:12 pmImage from: Edw / Shutterstock Known for their overtly sexual advertisements, an elephant-hunting CEO, and supporting questionable Internet legislation, domain registrar GoDaddy.com has been in the news lately more than ever. Even after completely reversing their stance on the controversial SOPA legislation that got put to rest late last week, GoDaddy has been suffering from an influx of lost customers and bad publicity. I decided to check out the data available from Compete PRO to take a better look at whether or not GoDaddy should “say uncle” and back off from branding… -
Giants vs. Patriots – Who’s In the Lead Online?
27 Jan 2012 | 10:05 amImage from: David Lee / Shutterstock It’s 9 days and counting until the one and only Super Bowl 46 and whether or not your team has made it to the top probably has little to do with the fact that Sunday, February 5th, you will be glued to the biggest and brightest TV amongst your circle of friends or braving it at a bar with 500 of your closest football buddies. Or maybe you’ll be knee deep in Buffalo wings with your marketing friends having vowed to each other that there will be NO talking during the commercials. As for me, I’ll be wearing my Brady jersey with pride and waving a… -
As Amazon Presses Pause on Amazon Mom, Parents Mourn while Rivals Rejoice!
26 Jan 2012 | 2:23 pmSavvy parents looking for bargains on diapers have undoubtedly heard of Amazon Mom. Unlike its subscription-based Amazon Prime cousin which offers free 2-day shipping for a $79 annual fee, Amazon Mom is a free program designed with parents of young children in mind. Until this past Tuesday, Amazon “Moms” received 15% discounts on most diapers and wipes on top of the 15% discount and free shipping available via Amazon’s Subscribe and Save auto-replenishment program. Amazon also threw in a year of Amazon Prime for new Amazon Moms. With Amazon Mom, the world’s leading online… -
Megavideo is Down… is Online Piracy Adrift?
26 Jan 2012 | 10:32 amImage from: Kletr / Shutterstock This post was co-authored by Trevor Morgan. The FBI shutdown of Megavideo.com on January 19th combined with national interest in SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) has pushed online piracy directly into the media spotlight. This prompts the question, what is the current state of the online piracy landscape and what repercussions can we expect in light of these events? The online piracy ecosystem consists of thousands of domains at any given point in time. As many domains increase in popularity, others are taken down or fade away. This… -
UP is Down
25 Jan 2012 | 12:45 pmGone are the days when caloric intake, sleep time and workout activity have to be logged into a notebook only to be later entered into a spreadsheet for any meaningful analysis to be done. We now live in a world where wearable and low-profile, low-powered electronic devices track all of your physical activity and later sync your data with a whole host of available software your iOS device. Two of these devices, the Jawbone UP and the FitBit Ultra debuted last Fall and our data at Compete tells the story of these two products: one which sustained steady growth and another that could not live…
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Search Engine Journal
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Tips on How to Help Uninteresting Pages Rank Better
27 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pmThe following video was done by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz. He has some fantastic tips on how you can help the boring pages of your site rank better. Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournalFollow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal -
Industry Discussion: The True Nature of Social Media ROI
27 Jan 2012 | 12:04 pmThere is a common misconception about the return on investment (ROI) via social media. For reasons most of us do not understand, Social Media has been classified primarily as a marketing tool by many. Because of this misconception at the foundation of a social media strategy, calculating actual ROI can be a circuitous and inexact [...]Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal -
Want More Clicks on Twitter?
27 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amThe following infographic is by Dan Zarrella of HubSpot. This IG a lot of great recommendations if you are looking to increase your clicks on Twitter. I especially liked the suggestions on using words correctly and the use of action words. I guess I will be tweeting more on the weekends too. To find out [...]Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal -
Top 10 Reasons Your Facebook Campaign Isn’t Working
27 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amTo most PPC marketers, the Facebook paid ads program represents an ideal marketing opportunity. Finally, you aren’t limited to targeting your ads based on geographic location and time of day alone (I’m looking at you, Google Adwords!). In fact, if you wanted to run a campaign targeting 16 year old boys in San Francisco who [...]Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal -
Google Plus Promotes Network and New Security Features to Young Teens and Parents
27 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amOn Thursday afternoon, Google+ announced that the rapidly growing social network is now available to teens ages 13 and up. Although minors can sign up for and use Google+, the social network also introduced new privacy and security changes designed to protect underage users. Bradley Horowitz, Google’s VP of products, said the following of the [...]Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal
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AdWords Agency Blog
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Real-Time Insights Finder: A How-to Video
20 Jan 2012 | 10:04 amWe recently launched our Real-Time Insight Finder on the new Think Insights site -- centralizing access to all our insights tools across Google. We hope you’ve tried it out and are finding it useful. Check out our new video to show how you can use Google's Real-Time Insight Finder to support your marketing planning process and take your trend spotting to the next level. Discover how this real-time data can be a window into the attitudes and perceptions of your consumers. Even better, see how it can help inform your next brand positioning, media strategy or just look smart in… -
Coming Soon: Ad Group Impression Share Metrics
17 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amBased on advertiser requests, we will soon offer ad group level impression share metrics for the Search and Display Networks. Once released, you can use ad group impression share data to, for example, better identify high performing ad groups that aren't capturing the majority of available impressions. In the next few weeks, you will see three new columns that can be added to your ad groups tab: Impr. Share: the percentage of impressions you received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. Lost IS (Rank): the share of impressions lost due to your Ad Rank. -
Google TV Ads: New year, new partner and new technology
9 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amSince launching in 2007, Google TV Ads has provided advertisers a smart, measurable way to run national TV campaigns, while at the same time helping our partners (including networks, cable and satellite operators) work towards maximizing revenue from their inventory. Over the past year, we’ve seen a 6-fold increase in the number of ads aired per day as our household reach across cable and satellite operators has tripled. Today we’re pleased to continue this momentum, to help both advertisers and partners get the most from TV advertising. New Partner - Welcome Cox Media Cox… -
A new agency council for a new kind of shopper: introducing The Google Shopper Marketing Agency Council
19 Dec 2011 | 10:29 amAs festive shoppers deck the halls earlier each year, putting their bargain detective hats on in search of products that provide the best value for each dollar spent, marketers have had to change the way they think about reaching these savvy shoppers. Because while a shopper's first interaction with a product, the First Moment of Truth (FMOT), used to occur when that person saw a product on the store shelf for the first time, the advent of the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) -- the online moment at which a person first develops an opinion about a brand, prior to encountering it in the… -
5 New Year’s Resolutions for Display Advertisers
16 Dec 2011 | 9:02 amGoogle’s Dan Taylor presents at Digiday Agency event Dec. 12, 2011 It’s that time of year again, the time to reflect on 2011 and think about resolutions for the new year. We may not be able to help you lose those extra 5 lbs., but we can inform some New Year’s resolutions for your business. This week, Google’s Dan Taylor presented at the Digiday Agency event on the 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Display Advertisers. See video and summary below. <p>&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;Resolution # 1: I will…
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SMS
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Five For Friday – January 23-27, 2012
27 Jan 2012 | 11:21 amHere are five of the most newsworthy items for this week: 1. So Are Google Results Crap, Or Aren’t They? — There has been a lot of discussion lately re: Google’s increasingly complicated search results, and the addition of Google Plus is only making the view murkier. Andrew Goodman of Traffick has a nice opinion piece on the debate. 2. 10 Form Optimization Tips — Over at Search Engine Land, Mona Elesseily nicely lays out 10 optimization tactics for online forms. As a heads-up, Kim Krause-Berg will be contributing an article on form optimization for the Spring issue… -
Good SEO Requires Good Content
24 Jan 2012 | 11:44 amIf I had to pick one of the most important indicators of a successful SEO campaign, if not THE most important factor, it would be content. Without quality content that will engage potential clients and customers, there is nothing worth optimizing because website visitors will never have any reason to take any kind of action or convert. There are two kinds of content that are important for SEO purposes. First is the content on the actual website. The search engines want to provide users with the best possible search experience by providing them with search results that will satisfy their need. -
The Skinny On Google’s Advertising Revenues For 2011
23 Jan 2012 | 12:37 pmGoogle had revenues of $37.9 billion in 2011. Of that total, almost all (96%) came from advertising revenues. The following infographic from WordStream (thanks to Wordstream for preparing this!) breaks that number down into the top 10 industries that provided Google with 60% of that ad revenue. It further identifies the top five brand names in each of the 10 categories and gives examples of popular keyword searches and the cost per click for those words/phrases. Take a look for some very intriguing hard data on actual spending on online advertising and scope out where the industry your… -
Five For Friday – January 16-20, 2012
20 Jan 2012 | 3:12 pmThis week’s top five news/opinion items are: 1. Yahoo’s Jerry Yang Resigns — although he left as CEO in 2008, Jerry’s Yang’s announces that he is leaving the company that he co-founded and resigning from the Board of Directors. The end of an era – which many see as an opportunity for Yahoo to reinvent itself and move forward with plans for Asian properties. 2. The End of Link Building As We’ve Known And Loved It — with authority signals used by Google to rank websites shifting from the time-honored standard link to focus on social signals,… -
What’s SOPA All About?
20 Jan 2012 | 12:46 pmNow that the blackouts are over for the time being on the Internet, it’s a good time to reflect a bit on what the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is all about. This infographic from BusinessInsurance.org lays it out in an easily understood format, making it clear what the implications might be for your online business. Via: Business Insurance Blog Subscribe Now and Save 31% | Search Marketing Standard Magazine
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Gordon Choi's Blog
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Bing Webmaster Tools Review 2011
23 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amEver since the launch of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Bing has been integrating Yahoo’s search (i.e. Yahoo SEO and Yahoo Search Marketing) into Bing SEO and Bing Adcenter through Bing-Yahoo Search Alliance. Bing has been offering SEO data to webmasters through Bing Webmaster Tools long before Yahoo Site Explorer got shut down. With Bing’s SEO data, webmasters can understand more about: Bing’s search algorithm for ranking sites (and/or web pages) – Compare Google and Bing search algorithms Bing’s organic search query – One alternative in keyword… -
HTTP Status Codes, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, 5xx
16 Jan 2012 | 6:58 amA HTTP status code is returned by your server in response when a request is made to your server for a web page on your website. Examples are: When a user accesses the web page in a browser. When a search engine spider (e.g. Googlebot) crawls the web page. HTTP status codes are of 5 different categories: 1xx Provisional/Informational Response 2xx Successful 3xx Redirected 4xx Client/Request Error 5xx Server Error The first digit of the status code represents one of five classes of response. HTTP Status Codes Google provides a list of HTTP status codes to webmasters, in which the most common… -
SEO, PPC, Web Analytics Trends in 2012
3 Jan 2012 | 4:27 amFor a B2C website, search engine marketing (PPC/SEO) is about acquiring targeted search engine traffic (potential website users) to the site and making sure a portion of this search engine traffic converts into sales. Search engine marketing involves: SEM keyword research – Create keyword lists through for your website Google’s keyword tools. Optimize SEO META tags, page title, description, keywords, robots – For organic search engine optimization, ensure your site to have the right SEO basics, understand Google’s and Bing’s search algorithms, and monitor through… -
Google Web Search Let It Snow
19 Dec 2011 | 8:44 amOn Google’s web search homepage, type in “let it snow”. You will see snowing effects with some snow flakes coming down the search results page: Google Web Search’s side navigation is covered by a layer of thin snow: A mouse click on the snow (i.e. anywhere on Google’s search results pages), a round spot without snow will appear. You can wipe off more snow by holding down and dragging the mouse across Google’s search results pages. -
Hao123.com New Logo
19 Dec 2011 | 8:15 amBaidu’s Hao123.com, China’s largest navigational site, now has a new logo: Hao123 officially explained the meaning of the new logo: The green leaf represents dedication and growth. The orange “hao” means passion and quality. The green “123″ represents the Internet journal Hao123 has gone through in the past years. Hao123′s old logo used to look like: Hao123 as Baidu’s Business Hao123.com’s business model is based on ad sales, i.e. Many text links (but not all text links) on Hao123 are for sale, especially most text links on Hao123′s…
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aimClear® Search Marketing Blog
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Shhh! Duluth Social Media Marketing Conference Planned By Business Leaders
26 Jan 2012 | 9:55 pmYou heard it here first! The Duluth Chamber of Commerce is about to announce an ambitious three track social media marketing conference. “Zenith Social Media Marketing Conference 2012, Tips, Tools, Tactics, & Beyond,” will be held May 23, in multiple locations in our beautiful city. Here’s the cool secret: The agenda was sequenced by aimClear and we’re importing a number of our accomplished colleagues to set the speaking roster’s tone. Yep, these are some of the same illuminating panelists you’ve see us presenting aside at international conferences over the… -
Dear #Facebook Ads Global Marketing Solutions Team: #WTF?
25 Jan 2012 | 10:39 amAt a valuation of about $50 Billion Dollars, with oodles of advertising revenue marching through its doors every day, we’re concerned that Facebook is not effectively servicing advertisers. We think the newly launched “Facebook Global Marketing Solutions Team” is a downgrade-wolf in the suit of a buzzwordy-sheep. From our own experience, we can vouch for that fact that speaking for millions of dollars of media spend does not rate a dedicated account rep’ any more. WTF? Read on for the gory details. Where did the account reps go? What happened to familiar support… -
32 Totally Free Google “Search Plus Your World” #SEO Resources
21 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pmBusinesses: Raise your hand if you barely cared about Google+ until your SEO consultant called to say now you just have to. While the disproportionate weight Google is placing on + driven results may be unhealthy for SERPs in the short term, opening a relatively easy + door to bomb Google SERPs serves the function of enlisting SEOs to goad businesses into participating in Google’s fledgling social community. Google’s strategy is brilliant, sort of like a sardonic dominatrix forcing her ambivalent quarry to capitulate with promises of immediate pleasure, ultimately resulting in… -
Harnessing Headline Theories! Flashpoints To Final Polish
19 Jan 2012 | 7:49 amMy content marketing mentors were marvelous gray-haired men and woman, who cut their teeth during the Mad Men era. They trained me to develop story headlines first by brainstorming quickly through numerous theory statements, choosing the appropriate concept to develop, and then taking time to build out a polished headline. The timeless premise is that it’s important to fully understand what needs to be communicated before attempting to package it in a headline. Otherwise, time may be wasted on spin and tone without a clear vision of what needs to be imparted. When one attempts to shred… -
aimClear’s Facebook Marketing Workshop Gets Rad Makeover @ #SMX West
12 Jan 2012 | 12:22 pmA new year calls for a new look… at least, that’s what any hot-blooded fashionista will tell you. Here at aimClear, we’re embracing that concept and mapping it to, among other things, our Facebook Marketing Intensive– just in time for it’s one year anniversary, to boot. Yes, it was one year ago we unveiled our full-day workshop on the stage of #SMX West. The aimClear team is stoked to return to sunny San Jose, armed with an exciting new curriculum brimming with even more hot, juicy, actionable takeaways in a radically revamped agenda. This is one Facebook…
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Evision Worldwide
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Two Can Play At This Game: Hotel Brands Bite Back At Google with RoomKey.com
12 Jan 2012 | 12:12 pmIt turns out the major hotel brands aren’t taking Google encroaching on their territory lying down. If Google is going to create Google Hotel Finder, they’re going to create their own hotel booking search engine. Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group — normally intense [...] -
Evision December 2011 Newsletter | Happy New Year!
29 Dec 2011 | 7:05 amIn This Issue What’s New At Evision: • Happy New Year from Evision Worldwide! • Evision celebrated its fifth birthday on December 1 • We moved into our new headquarters in Chicago • A milestone year in review Upcoming Events: • Speaking: InnSpire 2012 – January 23, 2012 From the Learning Center: • Why your [...] -
Happy Holidays from Evision Worldwide!
23 Dec 2011 | 1:05 pmThank you for a wonderful 2011, and we look forward to helping make 2012 your best year ever. -
Industry News – December 2011
22 Dec 2011 | 11:34 amThe holiday season is upon us, and the travel and hospitality industry just keeps speeding up. We present you with some of the most interesting developments in the industry this month: Meet Google’s Biggest U.S. Search Advertisers Last-Minute Hotel Reservations (On Mobile Devices) On The Rise MapQuest Launches MapQuest Vibe Google Pushing Consumers To Use [...] -
Evision Turns 5 + Moves to a New Corporate Headquarters
14 Dec 2011 | 3:34 pmLast week was a very exciting time at Evision Worldwide!! Dec 1st marked our 5 year anniversary! And, on Dec 2nd, we received the keys to our new corporate headquarters in Deerfield, IL. Below are a few photos of our new space: The Conference Room – the walls are whiteboards from top to bottom!! Upstairs [...]
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www.PerryMarshall.com
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How much do people respect your time?
17 Jan 2012 | 8:18 amMy most famous ever blog post is called “Perry’s Greed.” It’s about how, at an evening seminar in Chicago, a bunch of people asked me out to lunch. I told them, “If you pay my fee I’ll be happy to sit down with you.” This made a lot of people angry. They retorted that I had no right to decline such requests. I responded: “I’m a charitable guy, but I don’t consider regular American business people to be charity. There’s all kinds of poor kids in developing countries who need it a lot more than they do.” Shockingly few… -
Martin Luther King – Equality – USP
16 Jan 2012 | 8:17 amToday is Martin Luther King day in the US. 236 years ago the founding fathers of the United States declared: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” MLK had a larger vision. Within those words he heard an even deeper meaning. To him they transcended race, not just social class. One day in 1955 a certain Rosa Parks decided she’d had enough. She refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus, and… -
“Google AdWords for Dummies” book review
13 Jan 2012 | 5:25 pmGoogle AdWords for Dummies by Howie Jacobson, Joel McDonald & Kristie McDonald Wiley Books ©2011 403 pages A few years ago at an airport, I got a call from Howie Jacobson. “Hey Perry, the people who publish the ‘Dummies’ books asked me to write an AdWords book and I said yes. Um, I hope that’s okay.” I’d taught him AdWords early on, and he didn’t wanna tick me off by competing with my own books. “No problem, Howie. I just want to make sure all the people in the AdWords cartel are my friends.” Howie is a very good friend of mine and… -
6 Years Slugging it Out & Supremely Frustrated
7 Jan 2012 | 11:21 pmGot this courageous if depressing blog comment from a guy named Olivier: Perry: The more i listen to you, the more i feel im screwed and have no chance of ever making it and maintaining my place in a market. And I always felt i didnt have super value(expertise) to share in any market. So as a result, should i just give up on the idea of making it online? If im no expert in any market, i dont have a competitive advantage no? These may seem like basic questions, but believe it or not theyre coming from someone who has tried to make it online for 6 years, and has been through tons of the big… -
10 Predictions for 2012
6 Jan 2012 | 9:36 am1. One of the world’s 3 major economic systems (Europe, USA, Asia) will experience a MAJOR correction. Huge snapping sound propagates ’round the globe. Where will the tsunami strike first? I don’t know, but some clues: Surely nobody needs to remind you about the Unstoppable Force (US government spending), vs. the Immovable Object (reality). The Unstoppable Force is not unstoppable and will hit a wall. The next wave of billionaires will be options traders who bet their money that sooner or later, reality will prevail. China is in a massive real estate bubble. A condo in…
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Pandia Search and Social
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How Google Has Revolutionized the Way Consumers Save Money
19 Jan 2012 | 4:55 amGoogle has revolutionized the Internet in many ways and shopping is just one of them. The easiest thing to do when you want to buy something is to search that product on Google. That will allow you to view reviews of the product, compare prices from different stores and make the best choice. By Pandia Guest Writer James Lander Google uses two strategies to help users save money: 1. Google AdWords – Google’s online advertising program. 2. Google search – The Google search engine. Google AdWords Google AdWords was conceived as a program that would allow companies to insert their own ads… -
The new Search Plus Your World feature will cause Google a lot of pain
15 Jan 2012 | 1:12 pmThis week Google started rolling outGoogle Search Plus Your World, which — besides being the worst case of bad branding in a long time — will cause Google a lot of problems. Searchers will go elsewhere and governments will complain. Here is why. The idea behind Google Search Plus Your World (let’s call it +World, shall we?) is good. Personalized and social search Google has presented personalized search results for a long time, using data from your Google GMail account (if you have one) and your web history. Google has been using these data to build you a kind of personality… -
Search Engine News Wrap-up Jan 15
15 Jan 2012 | 7:50 amHere are the latest news from the world of search engines and Internet searching. Google Fails To Trounce Bing (Again): The Fallacy Of The Superior Search Engine Revisited SE Land: Time to revisit the question – is there really a big quality difference between Google and Bing? Over the past 12 months, many things in search have changed… The results are the same as last year – a statistical dead heat; meaning overwhelming parity between the engines. IBM Assigns Over 200 Patents to Google SE Watch: According to a blog post by Bill Slawski at SEO By the Sea that references US Patent… -
Search Engine Marketing Wrap-up Jan 15
15 Jan 2012 | 7:47 amHere are some of the posts and articles from the search engine marketing field we have found interesting lately. Why Great Content Doesn’t Guarantee You Links SEJ: When it comes to content creation the most important concept to grasp is the fact that it is an asset. Just like a rental property or some stocks and shares, your content has the potential to generate cold hard currency. Consumers Still Don’t Know What to Do with QR Codes Marketing Pilgrim: A new study from Chadwick Martin Bailey shows that people are scanning, but they don’t know what do with the results. Should computers… -
Social Media Wrap-up Jan 15
15 Jan 2012 | 7:44 amThe latest news and reflections from the world of social networking. The Pandia site gets a new name Some of you might have noticed that we have changed the full name of Pandia from Pandia Search Central to Pandia Search & Social. There is one simple reason for this: It is no longer possible to keep the worlds of search engines and social media apart, a fact that has been reflected in our posts for a long time. The name change only reflects this. 7 Social Media Myths That You Should Bury Deep In The Ground 1stwebdesigner: SSocial Media is huge today and each week we see lots of new…
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Certified Knowledge
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Join Us at the AdWords Seminar Workshop at SMX San Jose
26 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amWe’re teaming up with SMX to conduct a one day intensive AdWords training course before the SMX San Jose conference starts. If you live in the region and want a solid day of training – this is perfect. If you’re going to be at SMX San Jose; come a single day earlier and leave with a lot more knowledge about the intricacies of Google AdWords. The event will take place on February 27th, 2012. Here’s all the details: Even with all of the new marketing channels that have opened up over the years, AdWords is still the core of many companies interactive campaigns. If your PPC campaigns are… -
How to Design the Perfect Form
24 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amAlmost all conversion activities end in some type of form: Ecommerce checkout Contact form Whitepaper download Newsletter subscription and many more Yes, most forms are not well designed. The best traffic you can buy will not help you out if your form doesn’t work properly. However, designing forms isn’t that difficult if you know the major problems to avoid. In this video you can learn some of the major pitfalls to avoid with your forms. If you avoid the bad stuff, and increase the good stuff – then conversions will go up. And that’s what we all want – more conversions. The video… -
How Savvy Is Your AdWords Account?
19 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amWhen you do AdWords account audits, you need to go beyond the data to see how savvy the AdWords account is. If the account is well put together, then the account manager generally knows what they are doing and you will end up talking quite a bit about the data and the account’s strategy. If the account is lacking in the advanced use of features, often your conversation will be geared around education and some strategy. While I often start with the One Minute Account Diagnosis, there are a few signals you can use to see if the account is savvy or not before you start talking to the account… -
Learn How to Leverage Existing Content for Your Content Marketing Needs
17 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amDid you know: 44% of all US internet users have created some content online (Pew Internet – PDF) We create as much information in two days as we did from the dawn of man through 2003 (from Eric Schmidt) The world’s roughly 27 million computer servers processed 9.57 zettabytes of information in 2008 (source) More video content is uploaded to YouTube in a 60 day period than the three major U.S. television networks created in 60 years (YouTube press) 1.8 zettabytes of data was created in 2011. It would require 57.5 billion 32 GB iPads to store all that info; which would cost $34.4… -
Productivity Tip for Following Up On Emails
12 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amI’m a huge fan of making my time as productive as possible. I don’t want to waste time in hunting down if someone has replied or try to add yet more things to my calendar just to try to remember something. I like quick and automated solutions. When you send an email that you need a reply to, in Outlook you can do this: CC yourself In the message you sent yourself, add a reminder for that specific email at the time and date you desire Archive the email The reminder will pop up the email at your set time. If you have a response and are done with the email – just dismiss the message. If…
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BuzzMaven SEO / SEM Consultants
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Multiple Admin Support on Google Plus Pages Now Available
3 Jan 2012 | 9:15 amPreviously, I had posted about the lack of multiple managers for Google Plus pages, a fact that made creation and delegation of such pages awkward in the real world. Well, I can say now that the feature is available. (h/t/ Impulse Webdesign for emailing me about it while I was on holiday.) I am looking forward [...] -
[updated] Multiple Admins in Google Plus Pages for Businesses – Seriously?
8 Nov 2011 | 8:13 am(New! Google has fast-tracked this fix….and it is now available!!) I wanted to put up a quick post to express my disappointment that Google has not made even the most basic administrative feature for the real world available in its launch of Google+ Pages. This is a continuation of its previous omission from allowing multiple [...] -
Internet Explorer Users’ Health Tip
14 Oct 2011 | 8:41 amA bit of fun this Friday: -
New BuzzMaven Site Coming
5 Oct 2011 | 3:20 pmSome of you may have noticed that the site (now 5 years old) has been “iffy” lately when you first visit. The issue is a plugin incompatibility that is non-trivial to fix. Well, a brand new BuzzMaven.com is in the works and should be on-line by November 1st, according to my developer. Adam Kuhn [...] -
Google Place Pages Dropping Some 3rd Party Reviews
25 Jul 2011 | 10:45 amFor businesses who have been “riding the wave” of 3rd party reviews on their highly-visible Google Place page, you’ll want to pay attention to this, and act to shore up your listings. I personally observed this morning a business go from 63 reviews (with 4/5 stars) to 5 reviews (with 2/5 stars) If your business [...]
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The ROI Revolution Blog
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Google Privacy Policy Overhaul: Reflections for Online Marketers
25 Jan 2012 | 5:10 pmGoogle's upcoming privacy policy overhaul addresses two themes: 1. Providing users with more intuitive functionality across Google properties (Search, Gmail, YouTube, etc.), and 2. Providing advertisers with more relevant targeting options across Google properties. The key distinction here is "across Google properties." While the most privacy-conscious users may be concerned with the changes, for advertisers there is nothing but upside. Google's updated privacy policy opens the door to more cost-effective targeting to your most responsive traffic across Google properties and devices. Google… -
MSN Rolls Out -[Negative Exact] Match Type
24 Jan 2012 | 2:56 pmIn November 2011, MSN began supporting exact match negatives. It was a long time coming since Google has supported the match type for years. Although MSN differs a bit from Google in other match types such as their use of broad match, exact match negatives work the same in both MSN and Google. Using exact match negatives gives you the ability to exclude very general search terms while maintaining the high volume search traffic that comes with broad and phrase match. Let's say an online travel supplier wants to target users searching for discounted travel arrangements, but finds that searchers… -
Are Your Paid Search Ads Hurting Your Bottom Line?
9 Jan 2012 | 8:40 amI've managed paid search accounts here at ROI Revolution since 2005, and 99% of the time when I look at a new account there is room to improve results through ad testing. Over the years much has changed in paid search, but the need to continually test and optimize ad text has stayed constant. Ask yourself if any of the following top 4 pitfalls are currently hurting your paid search performance. Do you assume you've got the best ad variation running already? Many advertisers test 5-10 ad variations and then feel like they've got the best performing ad that they can achieve. It's easy to get… -
YouTube TrueView Video Ads: Only Pay For Interested Viewers
29 Nov 2011 | 3:33 pmYouTube has launched a new ad format out of beta: TrueView Video Ads. The basic concept is that the user has a choice whether or not to continue watching the ad. The advertisers only pays when the user watches at least 30 seconds of the ad (or to completion, whichever comes first). This new format is referred to as a TrueView in-stream ad. Long-form YouTube videos are eligible for the TrueView in-slate ad format. With in-slate, the user is given a choice to either watch a longer commercial video ad before the primary video begins, or see regular commercial breaks during the video. According… -
Fend Off AdWords Trademark Infringement with Google's Help
26 Sep 2011 | 1:25 pmName-brand keywords are some of the best performing you can find. In competitive markets, searching for trademarked terms usually reveals a dogfight, with the rightful owner at the top of the pile. Although bidding on competitors' trademarked terms will often lead to poor quality scores (and thus a large bid surcharge), those low quality scores can be offset by the high conversion rate of these ready-to-buy visitors. This situation is common because Google's US trademark policy only applies to trademarks in ad copy; it doesn't prohibit bidding on trademarked terms. While Burger King wouldn't…
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pay-per-click « WordPress.com Tag Feed
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Aliwaji.Com | Web Management and Information Technology Solutions
5 Jan 2012 | 8:08 amwww.aliwaji.com AliWaji.Com , worldwide Business Process Outsourcer, committed to serving Information Technology services worldwide. The firm offers a range of BPO services to provide their clients operational superiority and improved business performance. AliWaji.Com , Our strength lies in our ability to intelligently use limited resources to achieve improved services efficiency and cost efficiency. Utilizing our services is like having a virtual staff to work on your customized business needs. Saving your cost and providing quality output is our motive. We are providing best web hosting… -
Are Affiliates in Demand?
5 Jan 2012 | 4:42 amIs there a demand for affiliate marketers today? Yes, there is a huge demand. One of the challenges -
Home Page Pays .... Released to All FREE Users
4 Jan 2012 | 3:06 pmwww.BrowserPays.com Free Member Registrations for HPP This could very well be one of our most important announcements! Free Member registrations will start by the end of January. That’s right; we will be able to start giving away the HPP system and registering Free Members this month! The Free Member registrations will be rolled out in 3 stages. Stage 1 Each stage is extremely important and none more so than Stage 1, which includes numerous benefits for all our global community. This announcement is long and includes a lot of detail. It is designed to explain how Stage 1 will work and it is… -
Clicksor.com Reviews - Contextual Pay Per Click Ad Agency
2 Jan 2012 | 3:20 amClicksor.com Reviews – Contextual Pay Per Click Ad Agency. -
Banner Advertising
1 Jan 2012 | 11:40 amhttp://wp.me/p1NT4h-1f In order to help you use banner advertising more effectively, determine which
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Black Hat PPC
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Google AdWords Ads Glitch
27 Jan 2012 | 1:59 amThe BlackHatters stumbled across something strange the other day when we were posting a new campaign in Google AdWords. The ad we put up went under review, which means that the ad is not eligible to show on Google until it has been approved. Below is a screenshot from AdWords showing the ad being ‘under review’ but [...] -
How did Google make its money in 2011? And how is it going to make more money in 2012?
25 Jan 2012 | 2:05 amThe BlackHatters were kindly send this info-graphic from Wordstream this week entitled ‘how did Google make its money in 2011?’ Which you can see below… It makes for interesting reading from the US based PPC software developers. We cant clarify the numbers themselves in regards to how the spenders were but interesting to see which verticals are spending what in [...] -
Google’s latest innovation…is it good or are Google taking advantage?
23 Jan 2012 | 2:08 amThe BlackHatters noticed the latest innovation from Google last week in the natural results, which we’d not seen before. The search came on the term ‘eric clapton wife’ where Google is now delivering the top result in the natural listings as its own predicted answer. See screenshot below… The BlackHatters have been arguing between ourselves [...] -
Charity PPC Services: Google Grant Accounts
20 Jan 2012 | 2:17 amThe BlackHatters have been approached by a few friends of ours to make a request through our blog, Black Hat PPC. They are in a charitable mood in 2012 and have offered their PPC services to help any charities out there to run their Google Grant accounts for them. Google gives charities either $10k or [...] -
Another Cruise PPC Blooper (we’re on a roll…no pun intended)
19 Jan 2012 | 1:32 amFollowing on from yesterdays post with a Cruise PPC blooper, one of our readers emailed us this screenshot below of a PPC Blooper in You Tube which we liked… A big thanks for sending in this blooper, but as good a blooper as both this and yesterdays bloopers were, they’re are still no where near [...]
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PurePPC
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Negative Keywords & How to Find them
13 Jan 2012 | 3:07 pmWhat are Negative Keywords? Are you looking at this blog post title thinking, what in the world are negative keywords? Well listen up because they are very important to your PPC campaign and they are commonly overlooked. Negative keywords are keywords that you do not want to show up for. For example, if you sell shoes but not Nike shoes, you would want to add ‘Nike’ as a negative keyword so your ads do not show up when someone searches for Nike shoes. Let’s say you don’t add ‘Nike’ as a negative keyword and you show up for that search term and your ad happens to be clicked on. -
A Long-Tail Warning
19 Oct 2011 | 3:43 pmMany advertisers look to the long-tail to help capture cost effective conversions at a reduced cost per click. There are pitfalls that should be considered before diving head first into this endeavor. Pay per click advertising is getting more competitive. In many industries garnishing low cost clicks is proving more challenging. When faced with this predicament, many advertisers turn to the long-tail. The long-tail can be a good strategy since you can often find less expensive keywords. The long-tail list usually consists of keyword iterations that are somewhat related to your products or… -
7 Do’s & Don’ts for your PPC Campaign
8 Sep 2011 | 4:01 pmWe’ve managed clients from just about every industry and whether you sell bikes or you’re trying to get leads for your insurance company, avoiding these commonly made mistakes, in no particular order, will help no matter what industry you’re trying to conquer. Don’t let campaigns run on autopilot. Do optimize regularly. d oIt’s important to optimize PPC campaigns regularly. If a campaign is running well, that doesn’t mean hours and hours need to be spent on optimizations every day. What that means is once a campaign is cost effective and converting well, tweaking regularly is what… -
3 Commonly Overlooked Tips for PPC
25 Aug 2011 | 3:12 pm1. Review the impact of Google Search Partners on your campaign What is it? By default, Google ads are displayed on partner sites such as Ebay, Amazon and AOL in addition to the Google Search Result pages. The performance on Google Search and Search Partners can be very different for accounts . How to Use it: You can check the performance of Google search partners by going to the Networks tab. If it’s not converting well, you have the option to exclude your ads from showing on their partner sites which could help lower your CPA. It will also give you more control where your ads appear. -
The Future of Search
19 Aug 2011 | 5:44 pmTechnology is always changing and so are our interactions with technology. We’ve come a long way from searching on Lycos, the original search engine, but where are we headed? What does the future hold for PPC and search in general? I’ve read many varying opinions on the topic. As with most discussions regarding the future, there is much speculation and nobody really knows what will happen. All we can do is look at the current trends and speculate from experience. A little History: When search started, you had a few specific engines that would search a certain subject or group of…
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WordStream
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Google Goes Evil … Again: The New Google Privacy Policy, Now Less Private
27 Jan 2012 | 8:46 amThe official Google blog this week made an announcement that has many in the tech industry fuming (Google users, specifically, and aren't we all?). Effective March 1, Google will consolidate privacy policies across its various products into a single, unified privacy policy. In theory, this simplification sounds positive. The downside is, anyone with a Google account will be treated as “a single user across all our products” – that means you won’t be able to have a Gmail account and leave it at that. As long as you are logged in, Google will attempt to integrate your experience across… -
In Defense of Piracy: Why Are So Many Industries Unwilling to Adapt?
26 Jan 2012 | 10:14 amAll right, this post isn’t so much a defense of piracy; it’s about why pirates aren’t the real problem.I know we’ve talked a lot recently about piracy and maybe you’re sick of it all, but the way I see it, all this discussion about SOPA and PIPA really boils down to many industries’ unwillingness to adapt.Piracy is the result of the entertainment industry’s inability to change. Rather than think innovatively and try new solutions to better mesh with an increasingly online-oriented world, they dig their heels in the mud and try to pass laws that won’t force them to change their… -
Frequently Asked Questions about the Top Google Advertisers Infographic
26 Jan 2012 | 8:36 amThanks to everyone who helped us get the news out about our infographic: What Industries Contribute to Google's Revenues. A special thank you to John Abell at Wired, Jennifer Booton at Fox Business, and John Letzing at the Wall Street Journal, Noam Cohen at the New York Times, Eric Mack at CNET, Jeff Haden at Inc, as well as the guys at Black Hat PPC! In this post, I’d like to address a few of the questions that came up in the comment sections of our blog and other sites that covered the news. Here it is again (click to enlarge), in case you missed it!And now for some Q&A’s about our… -
What Kinds of Businesses Should Use PPC Advertising?
25 Jan 2012 | 8:38 amOn Monday we published a new infographic based on original research into the industries that spent the most money on Google advertising last year, contributing to Google’s 2011 revenues of $37.9 billion, 96% of which came from advertising. (Larry answered some follow-up questions about the research here.)Following up on those results, we wanted to share some advice for new or hopeful AdWords advertisers – namely, what kinds of businesses are finding great success with AdWords and other pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms? What types of characteristics could make your business a good… -
Analyzing Your Google AdWords Ads
24 Jan 2012 | 10:42 amThis is the fifth and final post in our series on creating and analyzing Google AdWords ads. In the previous four installments we’ve covered:Creating a Google AdWords Text AdCreating a Google AdWords Image AdUsing the Google AdWords Display Ad BuilderCreating Google AdWords Video Ads & Mobile AdsThis post will focus on analyzing the AdWords ads you’ve created.How to Analyze Your Ads within the Google AdWords InterfaceIf you’re looking to evaluate the performance of your ads, an obvious first step is to take a look within the AdWords interface to see how ads are performing. Here…
