Fathom Online Marketing Newswire

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:55:22 -0400

Internet Video Production & Marketing

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:54:58 -0400

In this edition of The Starting Lineup, Cliff Karklin and Steve Kozak discuss Internet Video Production and Marketing, as well as the future of video on the internet, with host Paul Richlovsky.

Too Much of a Good Thing is Not Always a Good Thing in SEO

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:54:36 -0400

In organic search engine optimization, we often refer to practices and techniques as "good" or "friendly." While there may be a moral or ethical component to Internet marketing, calling something "good" can be deceiving. If something is truly good, there can never be too much of it. If you follow the logic "I read that Google likes this, so I'm going to do a lot of it," you may not have the results you anticipated.

Sender Reputation: The Secret to Email Delivery

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:54:11 -0400

Just like other forms of online marketing, email marketing is a constant challenge. The rules of the game are continuously changing to counteract hackers, spammers and evil-doers. Unfortunately, these changes often also affect legitimate commercial marketing activities In email marketing, sender reputation is the primary factor in filter messages. In fact, a Return Path report analyzing email delivery found that sender reputation causes 83% of delivery issues

Google's New AdWords Interface & How It Can Help You

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:53:56 -0400

At the Search Engine Strategies conference I had the pleasure of hearing from and speaking with the head of Google AdWords about some of the new features offered in the new release of Google AdWords that is slowly rolling its way out across all AdWords clients. If you are not already using it, here are some things that you can look forward to

Forecast: Marketers Trust in SEO, PPC

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:30:07 -0400

Marketers may slow their spending a bit, but they're not turning away from search engine marketing, according to a new survey from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization(SEMPO). In fact, Radar Research, Inc., which oversaw SEMPO's survey research, projects that the pace should pick up. Search engine marketing (SEM) could reach $26.1 billion by 2013 - up significantly from $13.4 billion in 2008.

Easiest Way to Rank? Through Video.

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:29:54 -0400

Online Video just keeps proving its increasing importance in marketing efforts. Since the launch of Google Universal Search in May 2007, videos have slowly started to find their way to the first page of the search results. But now, nearly two years later, a study by Nate Elliot with Forrester Research has revealed just how prevalent these videos have become.

SEO: Take it Fast or Take it Slow ... How Do You Know?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:29:40 -0400

When beginning the process of optimizing a website, is important to survey the "lay of the land." It is often repeated that "content is king." A marketer or business owner who has devolved a website loaded with content may be easily lulled into false perception that all the hard work is done. The effort it took to create this content may also cause its owner to be protective of any large changes.

How & When to Make Money Using the Google Content Network

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:29:20 -0400

The Google Content Network can be a tricky beast. It is always a good place to get a low cost-per-click, but with that low cost-per-click you also get a much lower conversion rate to turn a visitor into a lead or a sale. In addition, the lead quality that the Google Content Network can generate is often of much lower caliber than the Google Search Network. Yet, when used at the right time and in the right ways, a fortune can be made by advertising in some of the places located within the myriad of websites within the Google Content Network.

10 Sure-fire Ways to Boost Leads and Sales with Calls to Action

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:29:05 -0400

Calls to Action are the bread and butter that any marketer can invent and manage to help their companies prosper. Of course, each campaign has its vulnerabilities. It's a matter of getting the right offer, colors, price, phone number, image size, font type, etc. Some Calls to Action will work well, but even a less-than-perfect one can be effective

When Times Get Tough, Turn to Email Marketing

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:19:06 -0400

Maybe the economic slump hasn't yet affected your company or you personally, but chances are good that it is affecting a good portion of your customers right now. It is in times like these that companies carefully analyze their marketing budgets and adjust them accordingly to make sure they are getting the most bang for their buck. When you analyzed your company's email marketing campaigns from last year, how did they perform? According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing's average Return on Investment in 2008 was $45 for every $1 spent, or 4,400%.

What to Do When Your PPC Campaigns Results Decrease

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:18:40 -0500

If often happens that when running a pay-per-click campaign, you test something out or make a change and the pay-per-click campaign performance actually decreases. Examples include when the total number of conversions goes down, the conversion rate goes down, the cost-per-click goes up, or ads just stop showing in the top results. Testing with some failures is part of running a good pay-per-click campaign; however, a good pay-per-click account manager quickly learns from failed tests, adjusts and moves on. So, what do you do when your PPC campaign results decrease?

When it Comes to Email Marketing, Leave it to the Pros

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:18:16 -0500

Emailing marketing presents many unique technical, creative and analytic challenges to marketers. That is why it is important to follow a well-designed set of best practices and stay up-to-date on technologies. Partnering with an experienced company is perhaps the best way to accomplish this.

Analytics: Visitors, Time On Site, Pageviews can hide the real story

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:17:50 -0500

A great advantage of Internet marketing enjoys over other methods of advertising is the measurability of results. Marketers have struggled for years to get a grasp on how effective their campaigns actually are. Compared to other forms of marketing, we have much more data at our fingertips to assist us in making decisions. But within this lies a hidden danger. Marketers can sometimes focus on the numbers, and overlook what the numbers represent. We use shorthand expressions to say more pageviews and an increased average time on site are "good". More visitors are always a good thing, right? Maybe not, here are a few things to consider.

The Last Batch of Basic Camera Settings You Can Tweak To Help Your Video Stand Out

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:16:55 -0500

In the third and final video of our Camera Settings series, Cliff Karklin explains the last batch of basic camera settings that can enhance the quality of your online video.

Plain and Simple: SEO Requires Change

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:16:37 -0500

Business executives often convey a quiet respect for search engine optimization. At the end of the day, they'll admit that it's probably good for them to pursue. But sometimes they're a little uneasy about what it might involve for them, staff and the website. We try our best at every stage to set expectations. Business development managers pull back the curtain with prospects and show our process and meeting schedules. We provide a sense of what homework we would hand out to complete our deliverables. Once a program gets going, we use presentations to remind clients about where they've been and where they're going. Occasionally, the question still comes up. "What exactly are you going to do?"

Is "Blog" a Verb or a Noun?

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:39:21 -0500

If you said "both," you are correct. A blog (noun) can be either a standalone website or a portion of a website. To blog (verb) is the act of creating posts or entries on that entity. This is also called "blogging." Late-breaking, amusing, insightful, inspiring, informative and entertaining topics are without a doubt "bloggable." (Just don't look for that last one in your dictionary.) Terminology associated with blogs and blogging can sometimes be confusing. With that in mind we offer this mini-glossary:

No Blog? Yikes!

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:38:45 -0500

I'm amazed at the number of companies that resist launching blogs. Legal, branding and resource issues can be addressed (no one is forging new ground here). From a practical matter, corporate blogs offer tremendous value in their ability to reinforce relationships with existing customers, appeal to potential customers and drive referral traffic to websites.

Keeping SEO & PPC Data Separate in Google Analytics - Part II

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:38:19 -0500

Last month I wrote about the importance of keeping PPC & SEO traffic separate in your Google Analytics account so that you can get an accurate read of organic search traffic and how it makes you money, as well as pay-per-click search traffic and how it makes you money. We covered linking Google Adwords with Google Analytics, so let's focus this month around learning how to integrate Google Analytics with Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft Ad Center.

5 Items to Quadruple Check Before Every Email Campaign

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:37:30 -0500

It's a fact of life: everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes, you can get the chance to correct them. However, in Email Marketing ... you don't. Your best bet is to have a solid process in place to help make mistakes as infrequent as possible. Here are 5 items to quadruple check before sending out your next email marketing campaign:

Instant Replay Showcase

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:36:32 -0500

Over the past year, the Instant Replay Team has created many great videos for our clients, and continued to add new and exciting techniques to their workflow. To showcase those new videos and techniques, the team has assembled an updated demo reel.

Stay Focused on Your Email Marketing Goals

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:14:44 -0500

Keeping your email marketing program on track in the face of a tough economy is essential. You may be tempted to increase your frequency in order to generate more sales in the short term or reduce frequency in order to cut costs. These changes may work in the short term, but will they be beneficial to your overall email marketing strategy?

Be Kind to Those Who Link to You.

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:14:18 -0500

Websites of any size tend to be difficult manage over time. As content is created or removed, navigation changes and Web pages come and go. It seems straightforward to move or remove content within your site. But do you always consider the impact of these changes to other interested parties? Three relationships you will want to consider: the search engines, websites that link to your content and the visitors who arrive at your site through these avenues.

Keeping SEO & PPC Data Separate in Google Analytics

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:13:02 -0500

nalytics can be a very powerful tool in your aresenal of Internet marketing. With it you can discover which keywords make you money, which keywords don’t, and which keywords are being delivered to a bad landing page. However, when looking at website analytics, nothing can mess with your analysis more than having PPC & SEO data show up in the same report as “search engine traffic.” Since Google Analytics is a robust, free and user-friendly analytics package, I thought I’d take a few moments to explain how to properly set up Google Analytics to report pay-per-click and organic search data separately.

More Basic Camera Settings You Can Tweak To Help Your Video Stand Out

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:11:35 -0500

Cliff Karklin discusses more camera settings that can enhance the quality of your Internet video.

Finding Links in Your Own Backyard

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:08:26 -0500

In the world of link building, companies spend considerable time and money to get quality links from websites, blogs, forums, newsletters and other Internet places.

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