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28 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Online Marketing Tips from experienced marketers can be gold and it's great when someone collates them into one handy resource.Lee Odden, down at Top Rank Blog, just published a great post where he has sought insights from the people he knew that were interviewed in the new "Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Online Marketing Gurus" book.Now, rather than just replicating the insights that he's collated at this blog (for the complete run-down, visit his post), but here are some of the key points that resonated with me and I felt were worth highlighting for our small business readers.Ron Belanger - VP Agency Development Yahoo
28 Feb This post is from from my other blog here
28 Feb This post is from from my other blog here The folks at Google, as reported in their Lat Long Blog, have added a new feature to Google Maps.
25 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Yahoo! has just expanded their advertising keyword exclusion limit from 50 to 250 in effort to provide advertisers with better quality traffic.According to the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog: "the Excluded Words feature is definitely a positive when you need help blocking unwanted searches you believe may not be relevant."Put simply, Yahoo! announcement post for more information.
21 Feb This post is from from my other blog here The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is considering buying a balloon company that will provide wireless services to those living in rural areas of the U.S.
Arizona based Space Data Corp creates disposable hydrogen filled balloons packed with miniature versions of cell phone towers inside of them to provide internet access to those people who have a hard time getting it.
They launch 10 balloons a day across the Southern U.S, which fly about 20 miles up in the sky and a single balloon can service an area equivalent to 40 cell phone towers.
The balloons cost $50, however the transceivers attached to them cost $1500. Fortunately they parachute back to the earth once the balloon is no longer in service.
Below is a video from The Wall Street Journal which explains this service in greater detail.
So just why would Google want to invest in balloons? Besides the fact that it is a cheap and efficient method of providing cell phone and wireless mobile access, I think that by associating themselves with this wireless service then the Google brand will be more recognized amongst these users. I'm sure Google would also hope that these users would use their search engine for internet search, therefore increasing even further their market share in search in the U.S which currently stands at 58.4% in January
21 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Many businesses are harnessing the power of advertising platforms like Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing to drive targeted visitors to their website. Unfortunately, many often forget that this is only the first step in generating new sales.Getting targeted traffic is one thing, but businesses need to rely on their landing page to convert visitors to sales. A landing page is the page visitors reach after clicking on your advertisement, and is one of the most crucial factors in your overall advertising success.In general, a landing page should be highly targeted towards the advertisement generating the click-through, and provide a clear action for the visitor to complete. This action may be completing an enquiry form, submitting a quote or finding out more information.As many businesses don't know where to start, I've put together a simple 7 point checklist to ensure your landing pages are up to scratch.
While this list doesn't include every way to optimize your landing pages, it's a good foundation to get on the right track. Try implementing my suggestions and post a comment with your results!
21 Feb
21 Feb This post is from from my other blog here The burgeoning online video market is prime exposure for would be advertisers, but accessing the myriad of platforms has been the ultimate challenge. Google's new AdSense for Video "Beta" (of course), will expand the reach of its InVideo network and help bridge the video advertising divide.AdSense for Video proclaims to be a "non-intrusive" advertising platform that is "the best solution that balances the needs of video fans with the need for video sites to generate the revenue that enables them to continue to be creative as they grow".Essentially the InVideo ad format that has been running on the YouTube network, will be rolled out across video partner sites on the Google Content Network offer greater reach to would be video advertisers.Google has launched a Video Advertising Solutions section within their Google Advertising Programs Area - which provides access to relevant information for both advertisers and publishers.For a wrap up on the Google Video Ads, watch this video produced by Google to explain the opportunities the platform offers:Google have been working with some of the most popular video destinations (e.g. Revver, blip.tv) and key video solutions providers (Brightcove, Yume, Tremor Media) to ensure the network has substantial coverage.While there are some restrictions on who can use the AdSense for Video service, I'm sure these will get relaxed as the program gets closer to full launch.
19 Feb This post is from from my other blog here  We will continue to keep you informed of any more important developments with Microhoo!
18 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Seems the major search engines are finally jumping on the social news bandwagon? Yahoo! is the latest to delve into the social news space with the rumored launch of Yahoo! Buzz.Yahoo! Buzz will be a news aggregator that will rank news based on popular search results and user voting in the same way that DIGG has been doing for years.We recently reported on the launch of Ask BigNews, a social overhaul of its existing news site. Ask.com uses its "Bigfactor" to determine the importance of news items, which is determined based on recency, associated buzz and linkage to the story.The rumored Yahoo! Buzz will work in a similar way, but with one significant difference. Only sites that display ads from its publisher network will be shown in the Yahoo! Buzz results. 
18 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Hitwise have released some data comparing various socio-economic factors from users of Google and Yahoo!. The research shows a younger, less affluent group of searchers use Yahoo!, while the richer, older audience prefers Google.The graph demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of the two search engines with the Y axis representing Yahoo! and the X axis representing Google. The top left hand box represents unique strengths for Yahoo! search, and vice-versa. The bigger the bubble, the more likely this group has spent $500 online. 
18 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Google has announced that advertising on the Google results page may now contain video. Google claims the addition of video advertisements reflect the evolution of the once sparse Google results page.Google already integrate video into regular search results as part of 'universal search', but have not done so in advertising on the site. Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience, said that text only ads weren’t as effective on pages with video and images as our eyes automatically navigate towards the image.Google claims the ads should not be intrusive at first and will simply use a 'plus box' to signify a video is available. Google already use the 'plus sign' in regular search results to indicate a map or image is attached to a specific listing.Advertisers will not pay any extra to put video in the ads for now, with the bidding to work like a regular text ad. However advertisers must pay each time the video is watched, regardless of whether the user clicks through to their site.The use of Video in ads gives business owners some branding power they never had before. Traditionally it's been hard to run a pure branding campaign using AdWords, as it's very focused on click-through and sales. Now, with the release of video ads, advertisers can pay to have their brand exposed to millions of users through video, without any necessary focus on the conversion rate to sales.
17 Feb This post is from from my other blog here A former Chinese university professor plans to sue Yahoo! and Google in the United States for blocking his name from search results in China.
Guo Quan, became the chairman of the underground New People's Party in opposition to the ruling Communist Party and last week issued a letter vowing to bring a lawsuit against Google after he discovered that his name had been removed from searches on Google.cn.
He also found that the Chinese Yahoo! had also blocked his name. "Since January 1, a lot of friends told me that websites with my name had been closed. They told me it's impossible to search for my information on Google and Yahoo!" Mr Guo said. So he now plans to bring actions against both companies.
This is not the first time there has been censorship of foreign internet portals operating in China. Google came under criticism when it became known that its Chinese search had been configured to filter out words that are banned in China, such as Tibet, Independence, Dalai Lama and Democracy.
However, Google defends their actions, saying that they are acting in accordance with Chinese law. The country's carefully patrolled internet firewall slows, blocks or disrupts users trying to access uncensored foreign websites.
Guo said that he couldn't sue Google or Yahoo! in China because they have no formal legal identity, but he would try his lawsuits in the United States against the parent companies. Mr Guo believes that "they have violated my political rights. I am opposed to violence and dictatorship but these sites have blocked me."
It will be interesting if this lawsuit is successful and if so it may well become a precedent for future action by others who feels as though they have been 'blocked out' of search engine results. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
14 Feb This post is from from my other blog here  .As local search is such a splintered market (there's Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, SuperPages, YellowPages, MerchantCircle etc etc) - listing diversity is becoming vital to capture the full potential of the local market.
13 Feb This post is from from my other blog here It would appear that online advertising is getting more popular by the day. Online advertising grew 27% last year to $25.5 billion in 2007 according to analyst group IDC. However it wasn't all great news with Google having a decrease in its share of the US market for the first time in two years, dropping 0.5% to 23.7%.
IDC has said that online advertising is going to get even stronger as it is a sector unlikely to be affected even if the U.S. economy capsizes this year. IDC analyst Karsten Weide,
11 Feb This post is from from my other blog here With all the news surrounding Microsoft's bid to take over Yahoo!, its surprising Yahoo! chose this week to launch their new initiative in live video streaming, Yahoo! Live. Yahoo! Live is a video streaming network that lets users broadcast live video from their webcam with the ability to chat and interact with other users.For a video on the service, including screenshots, please see below:According to Yahoo!, the service is an experimental release which was created by a small team of people over the last 6 months.Initial reports about the service suggested it had quite a few usability issues and the service kept on going down. This was confirmed in a blog post by Yahoo!'s Michael Quoc who said:"Keep in mind that Y! Live is an experimental release. The Advanced Products team is a small incubation team at Yahoo! - our mission is to build stuff and launch it quickly, and respond to market feedback. Y! Live is a limited capacity release, so bear with us as and we may reach our limits in periods of high traffic."I'm thinking way outside the box, but a service like this could be an interesting way for business owners to interact with customers by setting up their own channel and using the live chat feed.If you've had a chance to test the service, let us know your thoughts!
11 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Ask.com has launched a news service called 'Big News' that delivers newsworthy content ranked by what they call a 'BigFactor'. Ranking news content is nothing new, but it does give the service a distinctive difference from the more traditional Yahoo and Google News, by displaying the ranking score for each article.Like other news aggregators, BigNews pulls stories from websites, blogs, video and more across the web and links to each story with images, text and video. The key difference is the BigFactor, which decides which stories are shown above others on the site. The BigFactor is scored using various factors including how new the story is, how much buzz it's generating online and how many sites link to the story.  At the bottom of the page, BigNews also shows top ranked stories from Digg.com and links to upcoming digg stories as well.Overall I really like the interface Ask have provided here, it's a clean looking website and the ability to see top stories from various categories is great. You can also see a breakdown of how the article ranks by placing your mouse over the BigFactor button.I haven't found a way to submit new stories, so business owners wanting their news to be included in the service need to ensure it already has solid exposure on the web. Ask plan to be releasing new features for the service soon so BigNews is definitely something to watch.
11 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Why does Google want a struggling search engine and technology company with an over-sized price tag, when it can snap up a few social media bargains for just $1.7 billion?Industry speculation has Google circling social media companies Bebo and Plaxo. While everyone else is wondering whether Microsoft will produce the $57 billion for Yahoo!, Google has been quietly focusing on a more social direction.NOTE: both companies are a part of the OpenSocial project. So perhaps it's a pure play at Facebook and an attempt to control the revenue opportunities that OpenSocial style apps will provide in the future.
10 Feb This post is from from my other blog here The latest news on the Microhoo! Saga, as reported by the New York Times, is that Yahoo!'s board of directors plan on declining the $44.6 billion dollar offer from Microsoft.
In a board meeting at Yahoo! on Friday 8th February, attendees apparently covered possible responses to Microsoft's proposal and in the end it was thought that the offer for Yahoo! was below what the board believed the business to be worth.
According to the So, the question everybody is asking, even though there was no official word from Yahoo! yet, is what is going to be Microsoft's next move? We will keep you posted on any further developments.
10 Feb
10 Feb This post is from from my other blog here What's the key to measuring your online marketing success? It's ROI (Return on Investment). Now ROI isn't anything new, but most small businesses still make the mistake of looking short term when measuring the ROI of their marketing campaigns.Search engine marketing (and online marketing in general) for most small businesses is an acquisition tool. Put simply, it's about delivering new customers to the business via online sales or leads.Most small businesses use the first order value as the determinant of ROI. They fall into the trap of using the initial revenue generated from search engine and online marketing as the basis of if you don't know how much you make from your customers - that's a whole different challenge. Call your accountant now and read this post later.For those of you who can calculate the average profit you make from a customer in 12 months - now you have a benchmark for your ROI.Let's do some basic sums based on a hairdresser's online marketing campaign:Assuming the online marketing campaign costs you $150 per month and generates 4 customers with an initial order value of $30 with 66% margin (total profit $80).Most businesses would work out their ROI by $80/$150 = 53% - and cancel the campaign and potentially forgo those 4 new customers per month.Now let's re-look at this campaign using the 12 month value of those ...
04 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Valentines Day, the ultimate Hallmark holiday, is just around the corner and the search rush is already underway. If you're business is one of the many that gets a revenue boost from loved up shoppers - then you better ensure your online marketing is in full swing.According to Google Trends, the search spike has already begun, and given the early signs, this year could be another bumper year for retailers and service providers.Below are the trends for the following search terms in 2007 and 2008 so far: Valentines Day Gifts (blue), Valentines Gifts (red)  kick start your search advertising now!
04 Feb
03 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Google's Matt Cutts has acknowledged the existence of a 'Position 6' Google penalty and claimed that the problem should now be fixed. As reported on various websites, the penalty was causing websites with a number one or two ranking to drop down to position number six.Many people first noticed the drop in rankings in mid to late December through discussion on Webmaster World. A forum administrator compiled research on Google ranking changes in December and noted sites that dropped to position 6 shared the same features:
From an industry point of view, it's great to know that Google and specifically Matt Cutts are active in forum discussion and take note when users notice something strange. If your site was affected by the penalty, let us know!
03 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Google's much awaited 2007 fourth quarter financial results have been released and according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "We are pleased with our performance this quarter, it reflects strong momentum in our core business, growing receptivity to our new business initiatives, and improved discipline in managing our operating expenses." However, Google shareholders didn't have the same point of view, Google shares fell 6.7 percent at the open of trading last Friday (1st February), as investors decided 52 percent sales growth wasn't up to their expectations. Google earned $1.21 billion, during the final three months of 2007. That's a 17 percent improvement over net income of $1.03 billion in the same period a year earlier. However, it's the first time Google's quarterly profit has climbed by less than 25 percent since they went public nearly 3 1/2 years ago. Precisely what caused the letdown is likely to be a matter of intense debate. However, Company co-founder Sergey Brin shed some light saying that Google didn't reap as much revenue as management predicted from its advertising partnerships with online social networks like MySpace.
With talk of a pending recession in the US, and Google failing to show growth with non-search ad channels, the company could face further declines in its stock value over the coming months. It makes you wonder if Google will be able to sustain the strong growth they have had previously?
03 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Google, be afraid, be very afraid….Microhoo is coming!
Last Friday (1st February), Microsoft announced a $44.6 billion bid for rival Yahoo!. The bid would see Microsoft purchase Yahoo!'s outstanding common stock for $31 per share, 62 percent higher than the closing price of the stock on Friday.
Obviously concerned with Google's continued dominance and quest to control the online advertising industry, Microsoft believes the best way to catch up with Google is to join forces with Yahoo!. The two competitors have considered the idea of forming an alliance in the past. Search Advertising: Yahoo! Search ...
03 Feb This post is from from my other blog here Google have just released their Social Graph API that lets you tag links on pages to indicate social connections. The API allows developers and social networks to understand the relationship between links on different profiles by labeling them as a "me" or a "friend" link. The video below explains:The API lets developers understand social links using the XFN and LOAF labeling systems. For example, if I wanted to link to my Gooruze profile, the link would look like a regular link with the following code:<a href="http://www.gooruze.com/members/matt-elshaw" rel="me">The rel="me" tag lets the Social Graph API know that this profile is also mine. Many social networks like twitter and livejournal already add this tag without the user knowing so there will already be some data available without editing all your old links.For small business owners, this makes it easier to connect with others in your industry and maintain your important profiles for reputation management. If you want to start using the API head over to the developers webpage. There you can view one of the demo applications that can help find your existing connections.
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