Yearly Archives: 2008
Portent Staff31 Dec, 2008
Ten Internet Un-Resolutions to Make this Year
As you prepare to take up yoga, learn Spanish, and start volunteering at a soup kitchen every weekend, here are ten internet habits this internet marketing company says it’s perfectly ok to keep! It’s Ok to…. Spend more time fussing with your blog wallpaper than you do with your home wallpaper. To have 200 unread… Read More
SEO Ian Lurie30 Dec, 2008
Google 2009: The Painful Details
OK, a few of you are gluttons for punishment. You asked me to give you some details as to how I researched and wrote my SEO 2009: Adapt or Die piece. Here are the basics. Read the Patents I subscribe to a Google blog search for “Google Patent”, and scour the news that I read.… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie29 Dec, 2008
SEO 2009: Adapt or Die
There’s a meteor headed our way. Plug your ears, sing LALALALALALA all you want. It won’t change a thing. Google’s about to make search engine optimization (SEO) into marketing, for good. How? They’ve been slowly adding user behavior to their ranking algorithm. Bet on far bigger changes after January 1st. I won’t go into the… Read More
Tom Schmitz29 Dec, 2008
Google Oops – Tukwila Hotel Meets Seattle Coffee
Here’s something you don’t see everyday, Google displaying the wrong website address. I ran a search on Tukwila Hotels and Google gave me the results pictured below. Take a look at the listing for the Red Lion. See the URL? It’s www.tullys.com. Tully’s is a Seattle area coffee company. They make the best espresso milkshakes… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten29 Dec, 2008
AdBrite: Trash or Treasure?
AdBrite has been around awhile, they’ve been conventioning and promoting and press releasing, trying to grow their brand and their business and I have always been a sucker for testing a new platform. You just never know when you’re going to find that 2nd or 3rd tier platform that turns into a gold mine. Previously… Read More
Ian Lurie24 Dec, 2008
Get More Customers (and Links) With Smart Domain Setup
You’ve got your site all set up at a nice, shiny new domain name. Chances are, though, you’re losing visitors. And link authority. Why? Because typos abound, and you’re not catching them. Here’s how you can grab a lot of traffic that you may be missing right now, and build better link authority, too: Step… Read More
Ian Lurie23 Dec, 2008
Whopper Virgins: Not Appalling. Not Brilliant, Either.
Chris Abraham over at Marketing Conversations wrote an thoughtful critique of Burger King’s new Whopper Virgins campaign. I appreciate Chris’s opinion: The video is at times jingoistic and, frankly, a little embarrassing if you’re an American. Burger King went out of their way to find people in local clothing minutes from major urban centers in… Read More
Copywriting Ian Lurie22 Dec, 2008
SEO Copywriting: How Much? And How Often?
“How much do I need to write if I want to be #1?” I hear that question a lot. The short answer is: “As much as gets you there. Not one word more.” But I do have some basic rules of thumb. They’re basic. Very basic. So I decided to write ’em down, and have… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie22 Dec, 2008
Marketing Sherpa’s Having a Sale
Just an FYI: MarketingSherpa is having a 30% off sale on all their books, including the Landing Page Handbook and the E-mail Benchmarks Guide. Have a Look Here Their books are pretty pricey but worth every penny. At 30% off it’s definitely worth a look.
Random Ian Lurie21 Dec, 2008
Seattle Blizzard 2.0
Yes, I finally wrote ‘2.0’ on my blog without referring to violence. We had a real, honest-to-goodness blizzard last night, with snow drifts and stuff:
Ian Lurie19 Dec, 2008
11 Internet Marketing Trends To Ignore in 2009
After having a bit of success with my 11 Internet Marketing Trends to Ignore in 2008, I thought I’d give it another shot. My only totally incorrect predictions from 2008: E-books are catching on, and podcasts now capture a .002% audience, not .00001%. My bad. Analytics. Yeah, you heard me. I love analytics. But they’re… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie17 Dec, 2008
5 Things You’re Forgetting on Your E-commerce Site
So, you’re working hard on SEO. You want that higher ranking. Rankings rankings! Nothing else matters! Then, suddenly, your organic traffic is going up, but your sales aren’t. You could fire your SEO firm. Clearly your search engine optimization efforts are a flop. I mean, all they did was generate more traffic, right? Or, you… Read More
Ian Lurie16 Dec, 2008
SEO Copywriting 101: Search Engines Ain’t That Smart
Search engines are cool, but they aren’t that bright. They don’t know that you meant ‘car’ when you typed ‘vehicle’. If you’ve just spent 3 hours digging through a thesaurus, finding every alternative for ‘shoes’, start over. Burn the thesaurus. Think about the words that people use to find you. Then, as a revolutionary new… Read More
Ian Lurie15 Dec, 2008
That’s it. You’re on a time out.
This post might just get me fired. Some client somewhere will read it and be horribly offended that their behavior drives me crazy. To them, I can only say: My kids drive me crazy, too. But I’ve stayed up all night with them when they’re sick, driven them to the emergency room, helped them learn… Read More
Ian Lurie12 Dec, 2008
10 Years Later, It’s Still About The Content
Search engines have dominated the internet scene for at least 10 years now. And there’s still only one totally reliable way to gain quality rankings that will truly last: Content. You can build links, send out press releases, spam blog comments and attempt to game the search algorithms to your heart’s content. None of it… Read More