Yearly Archives: 2006

SEO

Link trading doesn’t work. Trust me.

Internet Marketing

I try to make sense of the connection between paid and unpaid search, and whether you should buy into the hype.

Internet Marketing

For those who don’t know, PageRank is the value that Google assigns to your site, based on incoming links, the quality of those links, and a number of other things they’ll never tell us. It’s complicated. And it doesn’t matter. Much.

Internet Marketing

Sony just pulled their site, allIwantforchristmasisapsp.com after they got caught trying to do a little stealth buzz marketing. They launched the site and had writers pretend they were just gamers who loved the new PS3, as opposed to marketers hired by Sony. They were found out when someone discovered that the web marketing firm Zipatoni… Read More

Internet Marketing

At some point, all of us sell to customers who know nothing about that which they’re buying. These kinds of customers are intimidated, afraid of making the wrong choice, and very hesitant. On the internet, it’s even more of an issue: Many potential customers are nervous simply because they’re browsing the web, and don’t know… Read More

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing requires both creativity and number crunching. Joseph Jaffe knows whereof I speak.

Internet Marketing

What’s a ‘lead’? If you sell stuff online, it’s easy to measure conversion by sales. If you don’t, though, it can get murky. How do you know if each visit is worth what you spent to get it?

Design & Development

Why is it that so many people believe my company is a development firm? I suspect it’s because we work with numbers, and code, as well as all that ‘typical’ creative marketing stuff. Well dang it, we are creative. Here’s a little holiday fun to prove that we are, indeed, creative folk: http://www.portentinteractive.com/peng Beware, it’s… Read More

Internet Marketing

Seth Godin just did a brief post about my What is a Click Worth tool. I’ve had more traffic in the last 2 hours than I normally get in a day. The lesson: You can’t make people link to you. You can make them want to, though… Thanks Seth!

Internet Marketing

The FTC has just ruled that stealth marketing – the practice of hiring bloggers or actors to rave about products online or in person – is unethical. They’re going to begin investigating individual complaints, for starters. The implications for online marketing are huge. If you are engaged in word-of-mouth marketing or any form of online… Read More

Internet Marketing

I worry a lot about losing my edge. After 11 years in internet marketing, I’m afraid of becoming, well, stodgy. Brian writes about this in his latest post. He’s right. Our web site is the least up-to-date of all of the sites we maintain. Why is that? I think it’s because keeping your edge (in… Read More

Internet Marketing

How much specialization is too much? I’ve started noticing whole new fields of internet marketing opening up: Blog marketing, social marketing, video marketing, and of course viral marketing (an oldie but still drives me nuts). Supposedly each of these focuses on a distinct space, and someone specializing in, say, Blog marketing, can do stuff that… Read More

Internet Marketing

How do you build your house e-mail list?

PPC

Every few months a client comes to me and says “Now that I’m top 3 for Super Widgets in the unpaid rankings on Google, can we cancel my paid search listings?” Usually, no. Here’s two reasons: If you have a top-3 spot in the paid rankings, your competitors don’t. You’re denying them access to the… Read More

SEO

Google appears to be doing an update right now (what they call a ‘data refresh’).
It’s not a full on Google Dance. I call it more of a Google Wiggle. So if you’re one of those folks who watches your rankings obsessively, whimpering every time you slip a spot, the next day or two may be a bit exciting…