Posted by Marty Weintraub on January 4th 2009 in SEM
Cash and ROI from ecommerce is easy to calculate. Measuring income from AdSense and other affiliate revenue is simple for publishers to weigh, in order to validate investments in content, SEO or arbitrage. Leads are easy to count, as are associated PPC expenses.
However, evaluating a website’s ongoing profitability is often not quite so cut and dried. In these times of budgetary duress, short-sighted thinking too often fosters short-sheeting the corporate web presence. Here are 6 less obvious cash-in-the-bank criteria, by which to measure a site’s hidden success. Start with the statement, “a website could be considered profitable if it:” Does Your Website Pay? 6 Hidden Success Criteria
Posted by Marty Weintraub on December 29th 2008 in Social Media
It’s delightful that our favorite social media marketers are so giving. In the daily SEM social content stream we’re all each others’ playground friends, mentors, students, scientists, satirists, freaks and thought leaders.
There’s so much to learn from each other in various social channels, to stimulate and further advise content ideas. To me, the most important social marketing skill is a willingness to share unconditionally.
Today we posed the question: “What do you think the most important ‘values’ are for social marketing?” It was slightly loaded in that the word “values” means something different to everyone. Here are the answers from some of my favorite industry folks. I’ve linked to their Twitter profiles and highly recommend following their tweets. What Are the Important Social Marketing Values?
Posted by Marty Weintraub on December 24th 2008 in aimClear
Download Song: The Gift
In 1993, I composed and released 2 CDs blending early digital recordings of dolphins communicating, ocean soundscapes, ambient habitat, acoustic grand piano, global percussion and my favorite pop/jazz musician friends in Minneapolis. Having just enjoyed (mostly) a couple of years songwriting for PolyGram International Publishing, “Dolphin Dreams” and “Dolphin Serenade” marked my entre’ on the national scene as a solo “new age” recording artist.
It was absolutely spiritual, recording dolphins in the semi-wild and humane captivity. My most incredible memory from that era was the privilege of being present during a live dolphin birth, hydrophone in the water and later orchestrating the birth playing grand piano, whilst looking over Boston’s skyline from the studio. A Holiday Gift of Dolphin Song, from aimClear
Posted by Marty Weintraub on December 21st 2008 in Blogging
Unlike most blog posts, I’m truly hopeful that (a) selected good Samaritan Mac evangelists will chime in to explain why I’m completely wrong. (b) Apple and software manufacturers will take this input and fix some baffling ticks. 7 Productivity Hacks My Pretty MacBook Won’t Do
Posted by Marty Weintraub on December 19th 2008 in SES Chicago 2008
SES Chicago 2008 was a wonderful experience for our team and it was great for them to meet so many friends in person.
I’m uber-proud of Nam, Peter, Manny and Marc for their hard work, thoughtful and detailed session coverage. Thanks to our buddies at Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch. Here’s a sign-off & roundup of their posts from SES Chicago 2008. See ya’ll @ SES NYC 2009! aimClear Coverage SES Chi-Town 2008 Wrap Up
Posted by Manny Rivas on December 15th 2008 in Duplicate Content, SES Chicago 2008
[Marty note: This interview has a terrific primer on duplicate content] Eric Enge has an an extensive background in the SEO industry and is a well respected figure in the search world.
He’s the President of Stone Temple Consulting, located near Boston, and Co-founder of Moving Traffic Inc. You can find most of his published content on the Stone Temple blog as well as Search Engine Watch and SearchEngineLand.
After meeting up for the interview, Eric shared his path in the search industry, offered a cool introduction to duplicate content as well as a taste of what we could expect from the long awaited and controversial session “Black Hat, White Hat and the Best Kept Secrets to Search.” [SES session coverage] Eric Enge PocketCam Interview at SES Chicago
Posted by Manny Rivas on December 12th 2008 in SES Chicago 2008
Michael Gray (follow him on twitter) has certainly earned his stripes in the internet marketing world. Next time you see someone yell @ Matt Cutts (Google’s affable anti-spam executive) from the audience at an SEM conference, there’s a good likelihood it’s GrayWolf.
Always buttoned down with ducks in a row, this guy goes out on a limb for the good of our community and has well-researched goods to back them up. I was pleased to chat with him @ SES Chicago this week by PocketCam Interview. Thought Leaders at SES: Michael Gray V-Interview
Posted by Peter Provost on December 12th 2008 in Paid Marketing, SES Chicago 2008
[This post is our continuining coverage of SES Chicago 2008] Proper execution of the basic, proven and successful models is necessary for success in any business endeavor. Search Marketing is no different. After spending the past 3 days listening to excellent people extol us to further develop and exceed current practices and performances, it was time to stop for a moment and “Get back to the basics.”
Search Advertising 101 was just the elixir and this baby was a cool tall drink. Covering basic tenets and language surrounding keywords, online ad creative, placement and campaign management processes provided an accelerated learning curve.
Moderator Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner and Founder of Beyond Ink did a great job setting the pace and handing over the podium to Matt Van Wagner, President of Find Me Faster and Mona Elesseily, Director of Marketing Strategy at Page Zero Media.
Welcome to PPC Boot Camp with Matt and Mona
Posted by Manny Rivas on December 12th 2008 in SES Chicago 2008
[This post is our continuining coverage of SES Chicago 2008] Kimberly Krause Berg is considered a pioneer in the relationship between usability and SEO. She has an extensive background in SEO, design & usability & is the owner of UsabililityEffect.com (2002), Cre8pc.com (1996) & cre8asiteForums (2002). It’s also pretty clear who her favorite blogger is 
. Kimberly Krause Berg: Full Circle Marketing & The Future of Forums
Posted by Nam Provost on December 12th 2008 in SES Chicago 2008, Usability
As snow flew sideways on the chilly frontier, SES Chicago 2008 participants waited to be regaled yet again with insight and information. Eisenberg did not disappoint.
This session focused on shifting the mindset from “Pay Per Click” to “Pay Per Conversation.” Clearly it is imperative to remain cognizant of the current state of the economy, where every click and hence every dollar matters.
Every click is a potential customer trying to engage you and their choices are limited. Will the customer continue the dialogue through to a purchase funnel or will they bounce immediately off your landing page? In order to continue the conversation, the value of the product and service needs to be demonstrated.
This session helped identify missed conversations and then how to woo them back. The introduction was given by Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink. Presenting valuable insight was Bryan Eisenberg, Co-founder, Future Now Inc. Pay Per Conversation: Changing Our Mindset
