The PIBlog: Internet Marketing Views and Tips
As we all already know Google AdWords has beta testing the AdWords Bid Simulator feature since late May/early June. So what’s new since then? I’ll show you: Previous screenshots of the new feature have not included this Cost versus Clicks graph, which gives you a nice visual on how your estimated stats will look like with an increase in bid. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much else on this new feature, it’s been like an Easter egg hunt just to even find campaigns that have it enabled. What we do know: It’s campaign based, not just account based. Last week I
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Continue reading AdWords Bid Simulator Update
On June 2, 2009 Google reversed itself when it announced that the nofollow attribute (rel="nofollow") can no longer be used to redirect PageRank. Google’s Matt Cutts stated that nofollow tags would now evaporate PageRank. This is a major policy change by Google’s, one that impact advanced search engine optimization. I want to discuss What is PageRank? What is a nofollow link? The old Google behavior The new Google behavior SEO Options and recommendations What is PageRank? PageRank,called link juice by some, is a signal created by and measured by search engine results ranking algorithms. This is the foundation of Google’s
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As promised, my presentation from the SMX Advanced session Writing Killer Ad Copy. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And you’ll completely re-think how you write ads. Keep in mind that this presentation was created for advanced paid search specialists. The purpose of the session was to get people thinking “outside the box.” My job was to go so far outside the box that it would be almost uncomfortable and to also bring humor to what can be a very tedious job, managing paid search campaigns. Writing Killer Ad CopyView more OpenOffice presentations from Elizabeth Marsten. Read the warnings and disclaimers slide
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Continue reading Writing Killer Ad Copy...and not getting arrested
I’ve been writing about the 5 S’s quite a bit of late. They’re 5 different kinds of optimization - story, search, strategy, spend, site - and they’re the core of our internet marketing philosophy. They also tie our services together. We have a long list of skills inhouse here at Portent, but really what we do is much more than a few items on a menu. Hopefully, this video explains a little bit about it: The 5 Kinds of Optimization: How Portent Works from ian lurie on Vimeo.
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Continue reading The 5 S's: How Portent Works
Try singing the title to High Hopes and you'll understand... Everywhere you turn, Twitter. Every move you make, Twitter! Every breath you take, Twitter! Twitter Twitter Twitter! It's not just you. It's not just young, social-media addicts or those pesky internet marketing geeks (Wait, we're Internet marketing geeks, really good ones!). Oprah's doing it. Ashton's doing it. Heck, my fifty-five-year-old father is doing it, without protection! There's only one problem. You bore us. Stop using Twitter to announce that you're drinking coffee. Well, it's okay if your coffee beans come out of a Peruvian dingo's behind while eco-friendly non-migrant fair-trade
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Continue reading We've got High Tweets - We got High Tweets
That’s right, yours truly is on one of many SMX Advanced panels this June 2 and 3rd in Seattle, dedicated to organic, paid search and internet marketing tactics. In particular my panel is on the paid search track for “Writing Killer Ad Copy- The Interactive Edition.” After the conference, I’ll post my presentation here (or rather a link to it) for those that couldn’t make it across the country or foot the entry fee into the conference. A sneak peak of what I’ll be presenting on: Writing ads that use guilt or are aggressive: Buy My Stuff Now Hey You!
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Continue reading Writing Killer Ad Copy: SMX Advanced Seattle Speaker
Sometimes when I walk through book stores I read the titles on spines and imagine what the story is about. I’ll develop characters and elaborate plots which could make quite convincing stories. Except, usually my story is nothing like the story in the book. I mention this because I watched Microsoft’s Bing video today. Supposedly, Bing will be the next evolution in organizing and presenting search results. Microsoft says Bing is not a search engine, it’s a decision engine. You can see the video at http://www.decisionengine.com/Default.html. Except for the video, I do not know what Bing will be like, not
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Continue reading The Future of Search - Bing It On
This week as part of the MSN AdCenter Spring Upgrade a new feature was released that’s been a long time coming: Content Network reports! Ever wonder what those mystery “Microsoft property sites” are? I sure have. I asked an AdCenter rep once and got a “we don’t know either” answer which I found pretty unsatisfactory. But now we can see where on the content network of Microsoft sites our ads are showing and even going that extra step to block a few. So what do we do next? Rip it apart of course! Accessing the reports is easy enough through
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Continue reading MSN AdCenter Content Network Reports
Today’s the day! Yes, you will jump off the high platform into the deep blue Internet below. All you know for sure is: the water is cold, and you can only hold your breath for 11 seconds. Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as the time we made you waltz on a floor of glass marbles with a guy dressed up like Chewbacca. p.s. Don’t worry, this is all just a dream...
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Continue reading Into the deep blue Internet
The Paid Search Problem Let’s be honest. All too often, starting or optimizing a paid search campaign is a guessing game. You make obvious changes to your keyword list, rewrite some ads, and setup a new landing page - but for the most part, it’s like a Jackson Pollock painting. You throw a bunch of things at a canvas and hope for a work of art. If that doesn’t work, you whitewash the canvas and start over. To be fair, there are tools that will give you a fairly good indication of what you’ll pay for a term, what kind
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Continue reading New Predictive PPC Tool: Paid Search Return Estimations
