Recently in Portent Interactive Category
- It Isn’t
Not really. I mean sure, I could come up with some long winded post using the ball as a metaphor for links and making some contrived puns about bouncing. But it isn’t really anything at all like internet marketing. But that won’t keep me from going on and on about it on this blog.
The Rundown:
Last week some of the members of the Portent team came to the realization that none of us had played Four Square (heretofore known as 4sq) since grade school. This was clearly unacceptable, and had to be remedied immediately. Starting small, they formed a coalition which quickly grew to a force to be reckoned with. So the stage was set for a true clash of titans.
The place:
Behind a nearby office park.
The time:
Friday Afternoon
The Challengers:
They were truly a fearsome lot, every one of them fell and dangerous to the core.
- Tracy “Normandy” Beach – Dominating with his crowd-pleasing “Van Halens”
- Andy “The Net” Schaffer – Master of the “Blackjack,” as well as the always controversial “Baby Drops”
- Michael “Hustle” Weigand – Deadly with a well placed “Sissy Spacek”
- Sarah “Tsunami” MacKay – Disorients foes with her fearsome battlecry.
- Mike “Russian Roulette” Fitterer – King of the dreaded “Slammie”
- “Shoeless” Stacy Conner – Keeping the rally alive with the unconventional “Double Bouncies”
- Miles “The Enforcer” Grover – Chaos on the court with the unpredictable “Bumbled Bobble”
- Dan “The Rookie” Scott – Keeping opponents on their toes with precision line drives
- And last, but certainly least, me: Mack “Stealth Bomber” Rieder-Johnson - Creator and champion of the treacherous “Fugitive”
Officiating the contest was Line Judge and 4sq veteran Chris “The Missile” Bachmann
The Result:
It was a Herculean struggle, to be sure, and though many tried only one was victorious. I say, with no small amount of modesty, that I emerged the victor with my last minute elimination of Miles. Though truly when such titans of sport clash, we are all winners.
(But really, I won.)
Over the last few months, Comscore has reported declining paid search clicks on Google.com. Hand-wringing pundits have therefore wrung their hands mightily, pointing to this as a sign that the End Is Upon Us.
We found out that the clicks weren’t actually gone. They were just lost for a bit.
Portent Interactive has conducted exhaustive research and discovered that Google’s Adwords click traffic has actually increased month over month for the last six months. The entire kerfuffle is due to a phenomenon known to anyone who does laundry and wonders where those odd socks end up.
After speaking with an unidentified Google search engineer, we confirmed that Google has also been searching for these lost clicks. After installing the new Google SockSearch on 2,000,000 dryers nationwide, the missing clicks have been found. As have 400,000,000 odd socks.
Google confirms that SockSearch is focused purely on aggregate sock data and collects no information about underwear or color/white separation habits.
I just searched tomorrow’s stock results, and Google’s stock is going up tomorrow due in part to the good news about their click volumes, but also because of the estimated street value of 400 million socks.
Monday marks the end of the first quarter for 2008 here at Portent Interactive. So far it's been a busy year. That's okay. I say, "Bring it on!"
But with the end of the quarter I thought it would be fun take a short breather and look back at some of the appearances Ian has made this year. Since presenting at Search Marketing Expo - SMX Stockholm, Sweden Ian has received several invitations. I hope you enjoy these highlights:
Search Engine Strategies New YorkMost recently Ian returned from Search Engine Strategies New York where he spoke about Multi Variate Testing with Sage Lewis of Web Marketing Watch and Gregg Makuch of Wide Mile.
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During SES Ian aso made a return appearance on Webmaster Radio: Webmaster Radio's SES Showcase
SEMpdx
In March, Portland's search marketing association SEMpdx asked Ian to teach them all about Search Marketing Analytics. Here are his slides.
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Search Marketing Expo West, Santa Clara
Ian spoke about using Personas to focus your online marketing efforts. Here are his slides.
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Jim Hedger from Webmaster Radio also interviewed Ian for his radio show..
