Yearly Archives: 2008
Featured Ian Lurie13 May, 2008
13 Ways To Generate Customer Hate
Let’s face it. Customers are a pain in the ass. Always asking for annoying things like service, honesty, quality. Always whining if they don’t get what they want. Well, you’re in luck. Here’s my 13-step process for making sure your customers hate you. Just build these features into your web site. They’re like an internet… Read More
Portent Staff12 May, 2008
A Marketing Secret: I Know Something you Don’t
I know something you don’t. A marketing secret. It’s really, really interesting. Not amazing, but learning it can expedite your marketing career quite nicely. Luckily, It doesn’t require a fancy degree or months of monk-like dedication in a cave to master. It’s less of a learned technique and more of a psychological sleight-of-hand, but… Read More
Random Ian Lurie12 May, 2008
One Man’s Linkbait is Another’s Debate
How do you differentiate between linkbait and debate? How’s about “Don’t”?! Last week I published a rebuttal to Shoemoney’s riff on the death of SEO. Most of the world ignored it, which I’m used to. But I got a few responses that basically said “Ignore him, he’s just linkbaiting”. The way I see it, a… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten12 May, 2008
Ask PPC Advertising Pushing Me Away
These days Ask.com seems to be flailing, desperately trying to control the bleeding of is its’ visitor base and PPC advertisers. In the world of PPC search engine marketing, I have found increasingly less value from Ask’s paid search advertising program and stopped using their service altogether for several clients. If you cannot get a… Read More
Ian Lurie9 May, 2008
Bidding on Trademarked Keywords is Fine: It’s Called Competition
The whole fuss around buying competitor’s keywords in pay per click marketing campaigns is stupid. Moronic. Foolish. Wasteful. Did I mention bad? And stupid? There is nothing wrong with bidding on a competitor’s brand name. Let me say it a different way: If you’re Infiniti, it’s perfectly OK to make sure your ad shows up… Read More
Ian Lurie8 May, 2008
SEO Has A Future: Rebutting ShoeMoney and Marketing Pilgrim
Today, ShoeMoney and Marketing Pilgrim provided great insights into why they think search engine optimization has no future. I don’t agree. Times infinity. Nyah nyah phbltbltbltblt. So there. Marketing Pilgrim says: “Take my industry of health supplements. Do you think Google wants to reward the SEO contortions of unknown companies and affiliates with lots of… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie7 May, 2008
5 Internet Marketing Advances I Like, and What They Mean To You
Internet Marketing isn’t all misery and torture. So, in honor of National Grump Out Day, I dug deep and celebration-worthy advances in our industry: Analytics: No Longer Death By Details Two years ago, “analytics” meant “hope for the best”. Lousy interfaces, slow reports, moronic support staff and high costs drove us all crazy. There haven’t… Read More
Analytics Ian Lurie6 May, 2008
5 Kinds of Bad Statistics, and How They Can Kill Your Internet Marketing Campaign
Beware bad statistics. They can kill your internet marketing campaign with bad assumptions, incorrect assessments, and by sending you far off track. By ‘bad’, I mean: Statistics that are collected from a small population. Alexa, for example, collects a lot of their data based on Alexa Toolbar users. It’s very possible those users behave differently… Read More
Random Ian Lurie5 May, 2008
Solve Internet Marketing Overload with Google Reader and a Process
In any one day, I keep track of: 400+ web sites and blogs and news regarding 10-20 clients. In about 1 hour. I do not have a photocopier for a brain. Nor do I read particularly fast. Instead, I have a system. Here’s how you can use it: Step 1: Set Up Google Reader Time… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten5 May, 2008
Google Leaks AdWords Quality Score
Much like the mystery of the Big Mac’s secret sauce and Colonel Sanders 11 herbs and spices, we’ve all speculated what exactly makes up the closely guarded formula that determines Google’s PPC Quality Score. What are all the factors? How much weight does each factors carry? How can I exploit this to my advantage?! Last… Read More
Analytics Ian Lurie2 May, 2008
Google Analytics Is Losing E-commerce Data: Don’t Panic?!!
If you’re using Google Analytics to record sales data, you may have noticed really horrible sales over the last couple days. Don’t panic. I don’t think it’s you. It appears that, starting April 30th, Google Analytics isn’t correctly reporting e-commerce revenue. We figured this out after noticing that, of our 10+ clients using Google e-commerce… Read More
Ian Lurie1 May, 2008
6 Link Building Practices That Scare The Crap Out of Me
‘Link building’, for those who don’t know, is the practice of gaining links from other sites. Links are important. They deliver authority in the eyes of search engines, traffic if you’re lucky, and a chance that someone else will link to you, too. You can’t live without ’em. But there are no established best practices… Read More
Portent Staff30 Apr, 2008
Creativity Versus Mediocrity: A Country Western Parable
The day didn’t grow darker, exactly. But the light shifted in a way that was almost imperceptible, the day that Mediocrity rode into town. It rode a limping horse with a second-hand saddle on which it balanced precariously. Behind it rode its army: Whining, Ambivalence, and Lame Excuses. Taking a deep swig from its… Read More
Design & Development Ian Lurie30 Apr, 2008
Stock Photos Don’t Have To Suck
Stock photos don’t kill campaigns. Campaigns using stock photos kill campaigns. I just found a very smart (and funny) article about stock photos on Information Rain. Chris’s point: Most stock photography is just awful. But fear not! You can use stock photos without looking ridiculous. Here are a few tips: Choose Photos With a Purpose… Read More
Random Ian Lurie29 Apr, 2008
I’m Stumped
I admit it. I have nothing clever to say today. My bad. I’ll be back tomorrow with something intelligent, I swear.