Articles by Ian Lurie
Ian Lurie // 23 Aug, 2006
No more WWW woes? Google adds Preferred Domain Tool
Google has added a ‘preferred domain’ tool to Google Webmaster Central. It lets you tell Google whether you’d like all links to your site to include ‘www’ or not. This may seem subtle, but it’s a long-standing problem in search engine optimization. Search engines historically see www.mysite.com and mysite.com as two distinct pages, even though… Read More
Ian Lurie // 23 Aug, 2006
Plagiarism Online
Here’s a checklist to keep in your back pocket: What to do if someone rips off your web site.
Ian Lurie // 19 Aug, 2006
CM Basics: PPC Marketing Checklist
I just completed a basic pay-per-click marketing checklist. It’s now available as a free download. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
Ian Lurie // 17 Aug, 2006
Usability Smackdown: Alaska Airlines
I go to an airline’s web site for two reasons: To make a reservation, or check on my flight status. It’s easy to make a reservation from Alaska Airlines’ home page. But try to find the flight status link. It’s there, I promise. It’s just really well hidden. Why not at least make it a… Read More
Ian Lurie // 14 Aug, 2006
Attention Deficit vs. Long Copy
It’s hard, but not impossible, to reconcile the modern, multi-tasking internet audience with the proven need for detailed ad copy.
Ian Lurie // 9 Aug, 2006
Books: Ogilvy on Advertising
Ogilvy on Advertising is an amazing, timeless resource. I’m reading it right now and will be posting the particularly choice quotes as I find them. Read on…
Ian Lurie // 8 Aug, 2006
Google Adwords Will Be on MySpace
Google inked a major deal with MySpace: Google pay per click ads run on the Adwords network will show in MySpace search results. The full article is here. Sorry, I’m on vacation. No analysis today :)
Ian Lurie // 3 Aug, 2006
Dreamhost: The Right Way to Deal with Web Problems
Dreamhost is a web site hosting provider. We’ve used them, and I like them. They’ve some major, WaMu-type problems lately, partly because they’re trying to secure their power infrastructure, and partly because Los Angeles has been having brown- and blackouts. They show the right way to deal with it: Publicly. On the web. Honestly. And… Read More
Ian Lurie // 3 Aug, 2006
Washington Mutual: How NOT to Launch a Web Site
Kudos to WaMu for demonstrating, graphically, how not to launch new features on a web site. A story on CNET points out that their online bill payment and banking system has been down since last Saturday. In the mean time, they apparently didn’t really admit to anyone that there was a problem. And Gary Kishner’s… Read More
Ian Lurie // 1 Aug, 2006
Book Review: Tested Advertising Methods
Book Review: Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples was the first book I ever read about advertising. I re-read it about every six months.
Ian Lurie // 1 Aug, 2006
Matt Cutts SEO Videos
Matt Cutts, Google engineer and champion of white-hat SEO practitioners everywhere, has a collection of short search engine instructional videos he’s recorded.
In them, he answers lots of SEO questions, like ‘who should I optimize for, the search engines, or my customers?’, and ‘What makes a web site “good†for SEO’.
This is your chance to see it straight from a guy who works at Google. Remember, his opinions aren’t officially those of Google. But his opinions also agree with mine, so hey, he’s got to be in good shape.
Ian Lurie // 31 Jul, 2006
Internet Marketing and GTD: A bit more
A further explanation of my link between Getting Things Done and successful internet marketing.
Ian Lurie // 28 Jul, 2006
Guide to Blogging: Coming soon
I’ve been working on a small e-book, The Guide to Blogging, for about 3 weeks now. It should be ready in about 2 more weeks, I hope. I want to provide a brief, step-by-step guide to launching and then promoting a blog. This guide will be for regular folk like you and me, not veteran blogging geeks who actually know what an RSS file looks like (well, OK, I do know what an RSS file looks like, but that’s memory space I’d just as soon get back).
In the mean time, I thought I’d ask: If you have any questions about blogging, getting attention on a blog, or otherwise getting your thoughts on the web, please send them to me, IAN AT Portentinteractive.com.
The AT is instead of an @ to stop evil spam bots blah blah blah. Please replace it with a real @ symbol.
Ian Lurie // 27 Jul, 2006
Seth Godin on Analysis vs. Intuition
Seth Godin has a great post today about intuition and analysis. Rely on your gut and you’ll go far. Depend too much on analysis, though, and you’ll stagnate.
Ian Lurie // 26 Jul, 2006
Click Fraud: Enough, Already
Click fraud is real. I am not minimizing it – we watch for it carefully. But it’s a tiny, tiny problem compared to, say, companies who charge you a hefty fee to check for click fraud.