The PIBlog: Internet Marketing Views and Tips

These days more and more companies are using social media to build influence on the web. It’s challenging. Many fail or give-up because social media sites possess a formidable barrier to entry, one designed to keep hawkish salespeople at bay. Web 2.0 or community sites reward genuineness just as they toss commercial behavior into the spam bin. So how can a business build a successful non-commercial "commercial" presence in social media? By being active, genuine, creative and, most of all, keeping the business angles on the back-burner. As an example of this, here is my Facebook strategy for businesses just …

It’s Monday, only a day before the election and time to predict the outcome of the 2008 Presidential race based on search engine rankings. The results are interesting indeed. Based on What Google AdWords tells us are each candidate’s popular keywords The keywords’ Google rankings The monthly search traffic for those terms based on the 2006 AOL data traffic ratios John McCain [Keyword Chart] receives 456,862 monthly visits while Barack Obama [Keyword Chart] receives 375,168. Obviously both candidates receive far more visits than this each month from sources like links, direct traffic and long tail keywords. But if we assume …

As promised, here are the keywords and rankings for John McCain. If you are wondering about the methodology you can visit Barack Obama’s keyword chart. On Monday I will compare the rankings and traffic estimates and use them to predict the 2008 Presidential Election. KeywordsAvg. Search VolumePositionMonthly Organic Traffic Est.Web page [Exact Match]Broad Match[Exact Match]Broad Match john8230001346483http://www.johnmccain.com346483 john macain240011010.4http://www.johnmccain.com1010.4 john maccain19001799.9http://www.johnmccain.com799.9 john mcain1210015094.1http://www.johnmccain.com5094.1 john mccain campaign10001421http://www.johnmccain.com421 mccain110000146310http://www.johnmccain.com46310 mccain 200816001673.6http://www.johnmccain.com673.6 mccain campaign16001673.6http://www.johnmccain.com673.6 mccaine19001799.9http://www.johnmccain.com799.9 sen john mccain10001421http://www.johnmccain.com421 senator john mccain440011852.4http://www.johnmccain.com1852.4 cindy mccain4950025890.5http://www.johnmccain.com5890.5 john mccain301000235819http://www.johnmccain.com35819 john mccain issues16002190.4http://www.johnmccain.com190.4 mccain speech16002190.4http://www.johnmccain.com190.4 health care13500048235http://www.johnmccain.com8235 john mccain bio24005117.6http://www.johnmccain.com117.6 senator mccain29005142.1http://www.johnmccain.com142.1 campaign3310061357.1http://www.johnmccain.com1357.1 health care plan2900798.6http://www.johnmccain.com98.6 john cain1600754.4http://www.johnmccain.com54.4 …

When designing a website for a business, it’s easy to overlook the little things. A lot of time is spent on design, layout, and development. Other, less glamorous things like image file size and product images are often overlooked. Attention to the little details in a website can make all the difference in the world when it comes to catching a customer’s eye. In less than five minutes I’ll teach you how to spruce up your product images in Photoshop. Keep in mind you can do this with any jpg. I start with a nice high res photograph of a …

I was about to run this morning’s keyword chart on John McCain when I noticed that Google is outbidding Barack Obama for his own name in AdWords. The advertisement is for Google Maps Election ‘08 Map Gallery and goes to a timeline of Barack Obama’s life. BTW, if you are ever in this neighborhood be sure to stop by Zippy’s and get a bucket of chili. Oddly, Google does not give John McCain equal treatment. Yes, there is a John McCain’s Journey in Google Maps and the ‘08 Election Map Gallery features it, but at the time of this writing …

With the 2008 Presidential Election only a few days away it’s time for a little end of campaign fun. Today I present you with Barack Obama’s keyword chart and Google ranking report. Tomorrow I will present John McCain’s keyword Chart and Google ranking report. On Monday I will run both ranking reports then compare them and predict the results of the 2008 Presidential Election. Before you review Senator Obama’s keyword chart let me explain the methodology. Get a list of internal links from http://www.barackobama.com/index.php. Run the first 50 pages through the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Remove duplicates and keywords with …

Portent Interactive is now hiring slave labor interns. If you are: Smart; A capable communicator and a good writer (meaning you can write a sentence that doesn’t make our copywriting team cringe); Want to learn the wild and wacky world of Search Engine Optimization; Looking to do real, honest-to-goodness work that generates real, honest-to-goodness value; have we got a job for you! Internships may be paid if we find the right candidate. We’re looking to fill half-to-full time positions. SEO Interns will: Work with the SEO team to recommend SEO improvements to client sites; Write recommendations reports; Assist with keyword …

We’re all familiar with the wedding industry’s spending power, no matter what the economic climate, the lavish wedding will always prevail. The industry is highly competitive with high barriers to entry, so how do you generate a positive ROI in a sector that can bleed your budget dry within an hour? Build Up & Be Smart. Pick a few items or products to start out with. Go with broad long tail keywords and with more of a budget on those niches rather than trying to break right out of the gate into [wedding invitations], [wedding favors], [wedding dresses] and [wedding …

Become an internet marketing creature unlike any other Times are tense, and now more than ever, you feel the burden of needing that ever-elusive advantage over the competition. If you’ve overdosed on tipping points, purple cows, and cheese-moving, it’s time to turn to the true treasure-trove of internet marketing secrets: the dating bible “The Rules” by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider. Read on to see how these guerilla dating tactics brilliantly translate into internet marketing maxims to live by. The Rules for Internet Marketing Be a creature unlike any other. This is probably the single most famous line from this …

Google AdWords is a mystical beast sometimes, capable of dumbfounding and goring the best of us. My cost-per-click cohort, Elizabeth, kindly tipped us off to Google’s most recent Quality Score update - and it appears the latest changes are starting to affect the paid search landscape in a big way. For some, scores have dropped considerably, prices have gone up and general unrest has befallen bidders. With that said, it’s a good time to reiterate a few things at the crux of achieving good quality scores, especially given the apparent added weight Google is placing on certain key variables …