Yearly Archives: 2014
PPC Elizabeth Marsten31 Jul, 2014
Creating Personas for PPC
“Persona” is not a PPC word, but it’s certainly been seeing a lot more attention as we shift more and more away from keywords to audiences, intent, behaviors and (not provided). Some marketers keep their personas in their heads, some write them on Post-Its and some have fully written profiles with pictures and graphs. I… Read More
Random Ian Lurie28 Jul, 2014
Net Neutrality: It’s more than streaming video
This is a broader, hand-waving bit about Net Neutrality. If you want to see how it might affect small businesses, and what you can do to mitigate the problem, read Josh Patrice’s post. The debate about Net Neutrality isn’t as clear-cut as some would have you think. Here’s how Tim Wu defined it back in… Read More
Project Management Jason Olson24 Jul, 2014
Lead by Example: 10 Ways to Be a Successful Team Leader
Over the years that I have worked in the project management field, I’ve taken a number of courses, read a number of books, and have seen and utilized a number of tools that have all promised success in leading teams and managing successful projects. And as helpful as they were, I found that the greatest… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie18 Jul, 2014
Yep. I’m back.
Shortest. Career change. Ever. I’m back as CEO of Portent after six months as Chairman and Principal Consultant. I’m damned happy about it, too. Here’s why: We hit our goals. Steve came on board to get our business house in order. Frankly, I suck at that. Steve is great at it. He got it done.… Read More
SEO Josh Patrice18 Jul, 2014
The Death of Net Neutrality, or: How to Survive the Internet Slow Lane
So it’s come to this. Our last stand against a tyrannical regime. Our last chance for our voices to be heard before the FCC screws it all up. Yes, the FCC is at it again, and this time, it could cost all us site owners a lot of money. First, a primer Up to now,… Read More
Social Media Madelaine Kellman17 Jul, 2014
SOS: Save Our (Organic) Social
It is not exactly breaking news that brand page organic social efforts are being thwarted by Facebook’s algorithm changes, which are making it harder than ever to get your organic social updates seen by your desired audience. But all hope is not lost! There is a strategy that, if implemented correctly, can potentially improve your… Read More
Internet Marketing The Portent Team8 Jul, 2014
How to Create an Online Experience for Humans
The rules of Internet marketing change all the time, and it’s increasingly difficult to keep up. What animal is Google focusing on now? Your site should load in under a millisecond, right? Or should it load before your customers even search for it? As frantic as the world of Internet marketing may seem, the end… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie7 Jul, 2014
Presentation Horrors: Don’t Do These Things
I’ve done some pretty awful presentations in my career. Here, I’ve pulled them all into a single, truly horrifying ‘ultimate’ slide deck. First, I pull them all together. Then I do the same presentation again, with annotations explaining where I goofed and how to avoid it.
Video George Freitag1 Jul, 2014
Get on that Map: Local SEO Best Practices [VIDEO WEBINAR]
This webinar was given on June 19, 2014 Learn all about Local SEO best practices, including basic on-site SEO for businesses, business profiles, directory and citation providers, duplicate listings, reviews, and more in this free PortentU webinar. Watch the full video: Get the link bundle here. See just the slidedeck here.
Analytics Timothy Gillman26 Jun, 2014
Measuring Mobile – Using Google Analytics to Prove Mobile Matters
Marketers: You can no longer ignore mobile. If your team has not regularly addressed mobile, that needs to change. But it’s hard to focus on mobile, right? Starting now, that’s going to change: By using simple reports with basic metrics you can easily grab the attention of your marketing department. And, we have made a… Read More
Blog Steve Gahler23 Jun, 2014
Marketers Dying By A Thousand Data Points
Data tells a story about the past, and helps us understand what we can expect in the future. But just like life, data has no guarantees. Even with all the data points and information in the world, it takes an experienced mind to transform insight into meaningful action. Marketers need to fill the gap between… Read More
Blog Braxton Kellogg10 Jun, 2014
Why Social Media Strategists Matter in the Digital Marketing Realm
If you work in social media, you’ve probably heard “Why?” more times than you can count. “Why does this matter?” “Why is social media valuable to my business?” “Why should we be paying you to help us?” I’ve been working in the social media world for three years now, and “why” questions are what I… Read More
Random Ian Lurie5 Jun, 2014
10 Lessons After 19 Years In Business
Today, Portent is 19 years old. It can now legally drink in Canada. I’ve screwed up a lot of stuff. But we’re still here, so I’ll give myself a small pat on the back. Clearly, we’ve done something right. If I could tell 26-year-old self 10 things to improve Portent’s first 19 years, here’s what… Read More
Random Ian Lurie29 May, 2014
When Idiots Attack: How to Handle Web Site Plagiarism
Earlier this week, a ex-Portent employee-who-remains-a-fan sent me a note: Sure enough, it had happened again: Someone ripped off our site, images, text and all. They didn’t even bother to change the names. Apparently, we now have an office in Sydney: To me, there are three classes of plagiarists: The smart: They steal your copy,… Read More
PPC Ryan Moothart28 May, 2014
Leverage Attribution Modeling for PPC
Are you using attribution modeling or assisted conversion data in your PPC reports? If you’re not, you’re missing out on some golden opportunities to leverage data to your advantage. We all know the LNDC model (last non-direct click model—the default used by Google Analytics) is not comprehensive enough for us to see the big picture.… Read More