Posted by Marty Weintraub on May 10th 2008 in SEM
Securing SEO, PPC, social media and analytics advice can be risky, like buying diamonds from a jeweler you don’t know. The premise of the purchase is sometimes a customer’s (enthusiastic) lack of understanding of criteria by which to judge the actual value of products offered, a dynamic dangerous for both parties.
I personally gravitate towards buying bling from a trusted friend who’s family has owned a classic jewelry store for 3 generations. My personal friendship with the proprietor helps me feel safe about purchases. Most SEM shoppers don’t have the same luxury. 
Need to Hire SEM Help? Where to Find Industry Thought Leaders
Posted by Marty Weintraub on May 3rd 2008 in Paid Marketing, Seminars
[Thanks to David Szetela over at Clix Marketing for steady guidance speaking to PPC excellence and help with this article. Clix is doing some ground breaking work right now. Do not miss David’s upcoming content network presentation during “Amazing PPC Tactics” @ SMX Advanced, June 3/4 in Seattle.]
Nobody speaks seriously about Facebook social PPC at search marketing industry conferences. I can’t believe it. Shouldn’t we be discussing multivariate landing page testing deeply segmented by users’ interests and affinities as opposed to keywords?
Doesn’t Facebook provide us a prescient peek into future mainstream social PPC platforms? As an industry could we be missing a chance to get ahead of the curve in preparation for the ultimate revolution in commercial personalization, true social demographic targeting? I don’t get it…Does Facebook Social PPC Belong at Search Marketing Conferences?
Posted by Marty Weintraub on April 27th 2008 in SEO
Site owners all do it. It’s impossible to resist typing keywords into Google, searching to see where pages show up. Many seem to have no clue whatsoever that this classic self-test provides minimal insight as to actual rankings for keywords queried. The exercise barely matters.
Organic traffic from keywords is what does matter. Conversion from the traffic matters more. It’s the “average” Google ranking that is most important, a metric which unfortunately is impossible to measure directly. Organic traffic and conversion from keywords are the only true indicators, both of which are metrics-dependent on on expert use of analytics.
In light of personalized search it’s essential that everyone learn to measure natural search success properly, lest we get caught up in irrelevant vanity metrics. Reciprocally SEO professionals need to teach clients to judge organic progress properly by modern standards. Here’s some history and how-to behind the personalized search success-measurement conundrum and a blueprint for educating site owners. Measuring SEO Success: Solve Personalized Search Misperceptions
Posted by Marty Weintraub on April 20th 2008 in Paid Marketing
Facebook is marketing social PPC to those who’s “chatter” on the social graph reflects involvement in search. The ad says “Reach your customers BEFORE they start searching Pay per click.” Using their own demographic targeting tools, FB is taking on Google by marketing to Google’s very best foot solders and salespeople….search marketing professionals.Facebook Marketing Social PPC to SEM Pros on the Social Graph
Posted by Marty Weintraub on April 19th 2008 in Advertising Agency
Traditional advertising agencies help clients to better target and reach customers with brand and other messaging. Market research begets branding-think, PR planning, advertising strategy and media buys. Creative development, campaign design, and production lead to ad placement.
Common channels include television, radio, print, and now search and social media. As nearly every media channel folds into the dashboard, search marketing firms have grown indigenous capabilities which overlap and even exceed many traditional advertising agency’s capabilities. This totally blurs the lines of who does what. The Other Word For Search Marketing is “Advertising Agency”
Posted by Marty Weintraub on April 11th 2008 in Social Media, SEM Poetry Slam
Anyone active in social media knows, with certainly, the compounding annoyances of those who utilize mainstream social communities to network inappropriately. In a rapidly expanding universe where procuring a few influential “authority” players’ support can deliver oodles of traffic, valuable links and scads of motivated customers to the door, it’s clear why sites like Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Digg are rife for potential abuse.
Though unwritten there are implied rights and rules of engagement regarding friendship, set and enforced by the mob’s wisdom. I think we should make them official. The Social Media Friendship Bill of Rights (and Other Sticky Wickets)
Posted by Marty Weintraub on April 11th 2008 in Duluth, aimClear
What is projected to be a massive 3-day spring blizzard is now affecting Internet access and power to the City of Duluth, Minnesota (aimClear’s home). At least one large regional ISP has been taken down by the outage which is city and region-wide.
Over 10,000 electric customers and thousands of Internet users (including websites) are without service at this time. Weather conditions are so serious that one ISP, with over 20,000 customers, was down for over an hour in the pre-dawn light whilst crews hacked accumulated ice from an outdoor generator enclosure for proper exhausting. Massive Spring Blizzard Takes Out Duluth Internet Services & Electricity
Posted by Marty Weintraub on April 7th 2008 in Social Media
Since it’s debut last year, many of us have invested countless hours in Sphinn, SearchEngineLand’s “social news” community site for search marketing professionals. When the SEL team first released Sphinn in beta, I clearly remember thinking “CRAP, one more flippin’ site I need to keep track of to stay current on a daily basis.”
I had no idea whatsoever the depth of lessons to learn and (most of all) benefits to my writing.
In consecutive conversations @ SES New York with both Danny Sullivan and Kevin Heisler (it IS small world after all), I surprised myself in articulating what I’ve come to believe is the true booty for those months of total immersion in the “social news” model. The holistic nature of the revelation seemed to catch both gentleman off guard in-the-moment so I made a mental note to share the thinking in these threads. So here we go…
Sphinn & The Hidden Value of Social News Bookmarking Immersion
Posted by Marty Weintraub on March 31st 2008 in Social Media
A social media “front door pitch” means directly contacting folks to promote something only when you already KNOW with certainty that the future-friend (target) you’re engaging WILL love what you offer. While manipulative, the interaction serves all parties.
The ability to identify the passionate interests of community site-users is a modern media miracle. Conversational marketing is the true promise of demographic research embodied and a pillar of social media. That’s the beauty of SMO. The specificity of networking site tools facilitates stunningly detailed research into the habits of individuals for friend-making and holistic exploitation.Manipulate to Serve: Marketing by Holistic (Front Door) Social Media Pitch
Posted by Marty Weintraub on March 28th 2008 in aimClear
March 2008 marks the 1 year anniversary of aimClear Blog and WHAT an amazing year it’s been! We covered 7 major SES, SMX, and PhocusWright shows, immersed in Sphinn, I became an ongoing contributor to SearchEngineWatch Blog and recently posted my inaugural article regarding reputation management in SearchEngineLand.
This year we took on StumbleTrolls, discussed social rock star rules for little people, mingled with giants, discussed the evaporating yellow line between SEO & social media, and learned the ropes from consummate professionals. Tamar taught me not to Pee in the Pool.Happy 1 Year Birthday aimClear Blog!
