Yearly Archives: 2009
Random Ian Lurie17 Mar, 2009
Parenting Styles Quiz – blatant plug
Dreambox Learning, one of our clients, has put together a nifty parenting styles quiz. I am, as it turns out, a Mentor: Since a stranger once referred to me as “The unfun parent”, I find “mentor” to be a step up. You can take the quiz, which is full of nift and a great example… Read More
Random Ian Lurie17 Mar, 2009
Weirdest Keyword Searches of 2009
Look at the referring keyword list in your analytics report can teach you a lot. I’ll be doing a video tutorial on that in a few minutes, hopefully. In the mean time, here are some of the strangest, most bizarre key phrases generating traffic to my blog: “Buy a wife”. Actually explained by this post,… Read More
PPC Elizabeth Marsten17 Mar, 2009
Yahoo Finally Gets a Clue and Adds Ad Scheduling & Demographic Bidding for You
Jeepers Shaggy, it’s about time! You know when MSN AdCenter has a tool that you don’t you’re getting lapped. Even if it’s not the most robust or granular tool, it’s still rather helpful to be able to choose at what time during the day your ads show or being able to incrementally adjust your bids… Read More
Ian Lurie16 Mar, 2009
I Am Not A Carpetbagger
I had a brief Tweeted conversation with Lisa Barone this morning about the state of the SEO industry. If you’re in marketing and aren’t following her, you need to. Lisa feels a lot of folks get ripped off by carpetbagger-like ‘professionals’ who offer Top Rankings In Days For Just $99.95. I agree. I’m on your… Read More
Tom Schmitz16 Mar, 2009
Seattle SEO Dysfunction at the PI
I hate when good people suffer from bad SEO: Us Seattleites love the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Tomorrow will be the last print edition. Here, in the Emerald City, we already knew the venerable newspaper was to become an online only publication. And as much as we hate to say goodbye to the broadsheets, we want the… Read More
Random Ian Lurie13 Mar, 2009
Portent Team Co-Publishes a New Dummies Book
A proud day at Portent: Elizabeth Marsten (our lead PPC guru) and myself worked with three other authors to publish Web Marketing for Dummies All-in-One. I won’t belabor it, but I’m allowing myself a brief bit of pride. I wrote about 400 pages of this 800+ page book. I’m particularly proud, though, that one of… Read More
Ian Lurie13 Mar, 2009
Web Marketing For Dummies Unboxing Shoot
I admit, I am way too excited about the new book. But it arrived today! Like any obsessed nerd, I decided to take a bunch of photos while I took the new book for a test drive: First Look Here it is, fresh outta the box: Proof positive that Elizabeth and I did write part… Read More
Analytics Ian Lurie12 Mar, 2009
Google Analytics Tutorial: Referrer Analytics
I just completed what I hope will be the first of many 5-minute video tutorials. This one is about Referrer Analytics using Google Analytics. It replaces an older tutorial that used the old Google Analytics interface. In it, I describe how to figure out: Who’s sending traffic to your site. Specific pages on other sites… Read More
Ian Lurie12 Mar, 2009
Final Web Marketing for Dummies Book Cover
The finalized Web Marketing All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies book cover is now complete: I am very excited. Amazon claims they now have ’em in stock. I just ordered 4. How many have you ordered?
Tom Schmitz11 Mar, 2009
Notes from Danny Sullivan Keynote at SEMpdx SearchFest 2009
These are my notes from Danny Sullivan’s keynote address to SEMpdx’s 2009 SearchFest on March 10, 2009. Danny Sullivan’s All Request Keynote at SEMpdx SearchFest 2009 Definitions SEO = Organic PPC = Paid SEM = Everything, both paid and organic What type of SEM are you? Link builder? Social Media? There are a lot of… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten6 Mar, 2009
Keyword Resource Tools that Aren’t Keyword Tools
We’re all very well familiar with Google’s myriad of keyword generation tools, be it within the AdWords interface, the external keyword tool, by URL, by similar keywords, by topic or the new “search based keyword tool.” Then of course each search engine has it’s own keyword tool generator, add in the Wordtracker, Wordstream and Trellian’s… Read More
Ian Lurie5 Mar, 2009
12 Ways SEO is Like Bacon
Everyone loves it. Some people try to say they hate it. That just means they love it even more. Overindulging may cause a heart attack. It’s more expensive than you might think. Some bacon comes from horrifically dirty muck-dwelling animals. SEO sometimes comes from the same place. Bacon fills your house with the delicious aroma… Read More
Ian Lurie4 Mar, 2009
The Three Kinds of Optimization
To me, internet marketing is comprised of 3 kinds of optimization. I’ve built Portent around these three areas – if you’re considering working with us, this is another way to look at our approach. The three types are: Site Optimization This is the least-known, at least by this name. We practice site optimization when we… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie3 Mar, 2009
Notice: SEO Copywriting eBook Price Change in 24 Hours
When I wrote my SEO Copywriting guide I released it under the Creative Commons and sold it for five bucks. Well, I’ve gone a bit mercenary and am going to try to actually make some decent money on the thing, so fair warning: Tomorrow night the price will go up to $7 (gasp!). More important,… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie2 Mar, 2009
Offline to Online Marketing Webinar Now Available
Slideshare saves the day. After spending 3 days trying to convert this presentation to a slides-with-audio recording, dealing with endless Keynote bugs, I had given up. I uploaded the slides sans audio. But then I noticed Slideshare lets me sync up audio with the slides. Woo hoo! You can listen to the audio-only version here:… Read More