Search Marketing Blog Online and Internet Marketing Resource

Internet Marketing Maturity Models

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:29:00 +0000

I came across this great search marketing maturity model by ION Interactive and decided to capture all of the available 'maturity models' in one place: search marketing, seo and web analytics.

The benefit of a well-defined maturity model is that it gives practitioners a common framework by which to assess their organization, benchmark it against others, and develop a plan for improvement. Often, there is not just one achievement associated with a particular level, but rather a series of capabilities across several dimensions.

Search Marketing Maturity Model:

Ion Interactive offered this image as a “open source” project so feel free to offer suggestions. Everyone in search could benefit from a common frame of reference that systematically slices up the complexity of search into a logical, unbiased maturity model.

SEO Maturity Model:

This SEO Maturity Model above from Search Enginuity will give you an idea of what makes up each level or stage of the SEO maturity model. Most importantly, this model will show you what to look for within your organization, and how to make the leap to the proceeding stage.

Web Analytics Maturity Model:

Another way to 'read' Gartner's web analytics maturity model presented by Bill Grassman at eMetrics San Francisco is to analyze the vendors themselves in comparison to what they data they can provide. Google Analytics is a level 1, most of level-2 and some of level-3 type of tool. Omniture will cover you up to most of level 4 if you use Test & Target, Discover, Genesis and imports/exports. Level 5 goes beyond web analytics (think Davenport's "Competing on analytics").

Enjoy:)

The Most Powerful Web Directories

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:53:00 +0000

A while back I wrote about the top 35 Website Directories for Link Building. As a follow up to that post, I found a great article from Paul Teitelman on the Top 25 Most Powerful Website Directories many of which weren't included in my original list. There are a number of great suggestions in the comments as well.

I thought I would post a few of my new web directory favorites below:

1.) Family Friendly Sites
2.) Incrawler
3.) Ally Web Directory
4.) Kahuki
5.) Greenstalk
6.) Rakcha
7.) Goguides
8.) Biz Lightenment
9.) Enquira
10.) The Librarians’ Internet Index
11.) ALS Links
12.) Info Listings
13.) Skaffe
14.) Premier Business Directory
15.) Dmoz Zilla
16.) Data Spear
17.) World Site Index
18.) Most Popular Sites

Now, if you are looking for the means to find 'do-follow' links, you'll enjoy reading more about the top do-follow link finding tools. As we all know another important factor in link building is analyzing the competition. Check out this link analyzer tool!

Have any favorite directories of you own? Add them in the comments and I'll append to the list!

PPC Management for Firefox Download

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:53:00 +0000

There are all sorts of Firefox plugins available for Internet marketers. If you're a search marketer specifically, this PPC Management toolbar should be a included in your 'Firefox must have add-ins'. Note* As the name implies, this tool is more for the PPC manager not the client due to the requirements (which you'll see below).

So, why is this toolbar a must have?

Here's a quick run-down of everything this tool offers:

Keywords Estimate Tool
Keyword Suggestion Tool
Site Keywords Tool
Account Statistics Tool

Double Click this toolbar for your stats to update - it may take 60 seconds to update depending on the size of your account. The data you see will be for today only.

Right click to see the tool menu and drill down into your account level statistics.

Clicks: Total number of clicks accrued today

aCPC: average Cost Per Click today

Cost: Total spent today

Conv: Total number of conversions accrued today

C/C: Cost per Conversion today

So, what are the requirements?

-FF 2+ preferred but still works for versions 1.5-3.0.*

-AdWords Client Center

-AdWords API Tokens

Tip: Your statistics might take 60 seconds or more to load depending on the size of your account. If you still do not see data, you may need to restart FF and test your credentials again.

How to Install the PPC Management Firefox Addon?

Upon download, Firefox should automatically recognize the extension and install it.

If you get any errors:

Right click the logo, click ’save link as…’, after saving you can scan it with any Anti-Virus program, then open Firefox. In FF, click file -> Open File -> Find the file and open it -> Install

Every Google Homepage From 1998-2007

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:47:00 +0000

Take a trip down Internet-memory lane with every Google-homepage from 1998 to 2007!

Track SEO Rankings with Google Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:59:00 +0000

So, there are many ways to tracking keyword rankings. There are paid tools like Web Position-which was recently blocked by Google for a short period. There are free tools like Exact Factor - but the tool is limited to 9 keywords it can track. Because of these reasons as well as others, it makes sense to track rankings at the source - Google Analytics. I originally found the idea behind tracking seo rankings with google analytics at Yoast.com but decided to repost with some additional detail based on the questions I had while trying to implement.

So, the first steps are to setup a filter in Google Analytics. There will be a total of 3 filters needed to implement this Google Analytics SEO tracking. Filter 1 and 2 will take care of filtering out everything other than organic traffic. The 3rd will provide the tracking filter. This is important: you will also have to create a new profile to apply these filters to otherwise it will screw up your main profile's tracking! Now, onto the filters!

Filter 1: Google Analytics SEO Keyword Tracking

This filter will allow only Organic traffic into the profile. Create a new filter, choose filter type "custom filter". Then choose the "include" option, set the filter field on "Campaign Medium" and the filter pattern on "organic". A screenshot is below:

Filter 2: Google Analytics SEO Keyword Tracking

The second filter tells Google Analytics to capture traffic from Google, Yahoo and MSN. Create a new filter, choose filter type "custom filter". Then choose the "include" option, set the filter field on "Campaign Source" and filter pattern on "googleliveyahoo".

Filter 3: Google Analytics SEO Keyword Tracking

Set up the 3rd filter as an advanced filter like so-->

The SEO Keyword Ranking Results:

After a while the "User Defined" report will look like this (ignore the language):

What you see are not the actual rankings, but the number of the first result of the page the keyword was on. So when you see 20, it means the keyword was on the third page, and a 50 means the sixth page. (Yahoo and Live Search will report 21 and 51 in stead of 20 and 50).

There were a number of questions in the comments surrounding about not seeing a number but only "(page: ): it means the keyword was on the first page - a good thing:)

Got any additional tips? Suggestions? Share in the comments!

You can also read about advanced 3rd party PPC tracking with Google Analytics, Google Analytis 101 and 10 tips to get the most out of Google Analytics for additional tips.

Quick & Easy SEO Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:56:00 +0000

Google recently posted quick and easy tips for the holiday rush and, after reading back over it, I quickly realized, these tips aren't just for the holiday season nor should they be recommendations limited to Google search.

As a result, I have compiled a list of quick and simple tips for websites to increase traffic - whether it's to make the sale online or to increase foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar location, your web presence is a critical part of your business plan. The tips below are fast, free, and can make a big difference! Best of all, they were inspired by Google:)

Verify that your site is indexed (and is returned in search results)
Check your snippet content and page titles with the site: command [site:example.com] -- do they look accurate and descriptive for users? Ideally, each title and snippet should be unique in order to reflect that each URL contains unique content. If anything is missing or you want more details, you can also use the Content Analysis tool in Google's Webmaster Tools. There you can see which URLs on your site show duplicate titles or meta descriptions.

Label your images accurately
Don't miss out on potential customers with poor or missing alt text. Good 'alt' text and descriptive filenames help search engines better understand images, make sure you change non-descriptive file names [001.jpg] to something more accurate [NintendoWii.jpg]. Image Search has the potential to send significant search traffic, so you should take advantage of it.

Know what the search engines know (about your site)
Check for crawl errors and learn the top queries that bring traffic to your site through Webmaster Tools. You can use Google's diagnostics checklist or MSN's crawl issues tool to aid in this process.

Have a plan for expiring and temporary pages
Make sure to serve accurate HTTP status codes. If you no longer sell a product, serve a 404. If you have changed a product page to a new URL, serve a 301 to redirect the old page to the new one. Keeping your site up-to-date can help bring more targeted traffic your way and provide an overall more useful visitor experience.

Increase foot traffic too
If your website directs customers to a brick-and-mortar location, make sure you claim and double check your business listing in Google Local, Local.com, MSN's Local Listing and Yahoo Local.

Usability 101
Test the usability of your checkout process with various browswers and ensure the coding is valid. Ask yourself if a user can get from product page to checkout without assistance. Is your checkout button easy to find?

Tell the search engines where to find all of your web pages
If you upload new products faster than the search engines crawl your site, make sure to submit a sitemap and include 'last modification' and change frequency' information. A Sitemap can point searchbots to your new or hard-to-find content. Both Google's webmaster tools, MSN webmaster central and Yahoo!'s Site Explorer allow for sitemap submissions. You can read a quick question and answer on Google sitemaps for more details. Additionally, be sure to utilize robots.txt to funnel the search bots to content you want crawled and content that should not be indexed.

So, that's all for now. I know there are many, many more tips but these should help capture some low hanging fruit. Have your own tips? Feel free to add them in the comments section!

SEMPO Rings NASDAQ Opening Bell

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:44:00 +0000

The Monday after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Cyber Monday (which I blogged about in my Holiday Retail Strategies) I had the pleasure of joining the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) Chairwoman Dana Todd and about 25 other fellow New York SEMPO members to help ring the opening bell for NASDAQ. Included below is footage of the NASDAQ studio in New York’s Times Square, as well as exclusive interviews with Dana and SEMPO spokesman Greg Jarboe courtesy of Max Kalehoff of Clickable. You can see the back of my head for about 2/10 of a second in the beginning of the video:) LOL

How To Increase Ranking in Yahoo

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:54:00 +0000

During day 2 of SES Chicago, Sharad Verma, Senior Product Manager of Yahoo! Search Technology, broke down how Yahoo utilizes link building to determine your website's ranking, crawling & indexing in the Yahoo SERP. All of these relate to Inbound Links (IBL) to your site.

1) No Links to your site = NO Existence, Yahoo will Never find your site
2) Few Links to your site = Minor discovery, NO index
3) Some Links to your site = Crawl of your site, NO index
4) Some More Links to your site = Crawl of your site, Index of your site, NO Ranking in the SERP
5) Enough Links to your site = Ranking in the Top 10 of the Yahoo! SERP
6) LOTS of Links to your site – Helps you rank for the keywords and keywords found in the anchor text of your IBL in the Yahoo! SERP.

Now, I know the question everyone is asking themselves, but Sharad never got into the actual number of links that correspond with the above, however if you are an SEO or actively build links you can fully understand the value in the above items. The most important takeaway? There is no question of doubt if this is fact or fiction as the information came directly out of Sharad Verma with Yahoo! himself.

So, now that you know links are important, you can get started here, with my top 35 website directories.

Keyword Research Flowchart

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:39:00 +0000

I recently posted a useful SEO Flowchart that Aaron Wall over at SEO Book had put together. While folks found the SEO flowchart useful, it was more of a 'high level' look at the SEO process. The guys over at SEO Book have now put together a VERY useful keword research flowchart that digs down into the deepest of detail. You can see the chart below - and feel free to stop by the SEO Book site for a larger image and PDF download.

Top 35 Web Directories List

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Over at the Search Engine People Blog I found a great list of the top 25 website directories. I thought this list was a perfect supplement to my previous post on the top 8 dofollow link tools. As a result, I added another 10 directories for a grand total of 35!

Now, there are a lot of great directories that aren’t on this list because they are either too expensive, such as Best of the Web and the Yahoo! Directory, or they just take way too long to get approved, ie. DMOZ, Illumirate.

1.) Family Friendly Sites

2.) Incrawler

3.) Kahuki

4.) Greenstalk

5.) Rakcha

6.) Joeant

7.) Splash Directory

8.) Goguides

9.) Enquira

10.) ALS Links

11.) Clush

12.) Octopedia

13.) Info Listings

14.) Skaffe

15.) Global Weblinks

16.) Links 2 Go

17.) Dmoz Zilla

18.) Gimpsy

19.) Global Link Networks

20.) Business Directory

21.) Zorg Directory

22.) TWD

23.) Data Spear

24.) World Site Index

25.) Most Popular Sites

26.) The Librarian's Index

27.) Premier Business Directory

28.) The Ally Directory

29.) Zyas Directory

30.) 2YI Directory

31.) Romow Directory

32.) Lobo Links Directory

33.) Authority Directory

34.) Aviva Directory

35.) Dir Journal Directory

SEO Link Building Training

Building Links Through Do-Follow Blogs

SEO Flowchart

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:09:00 +0000

Perhaps a bit is lost in simplification, but I think Aaron Wall's SEO flowchart does a great job of conveying a lot of information in a limited space...as well as providing a good laugh! Check out the "Cry / Snitch on Competitors" LOL

How To Piss Off An SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:06:00 +0000

I just found this hillarious post from a fellow NY SEO - Alhan Keser: 10 Ways to Piss off an SEO.

Here are a couple of my favorites - mainly because they have happened to me:

1.) Forget to place a robots.txt file on the dev server.

It’s great that Google is already picking up pages and that our dev server is ranking for “cute puppy clothing”. Ever heard of duplicate content? Have fun writing out those 301 redirects. If you are not going to secure the dev server with a client login, then at least have the decency to place a robots.txt file that disallows bots from indexing a site before its in its final resting place.

8.) Link to the /index.php page from all pages on a website.
You cannot imagine the joy that I feel seeing high PR given to the /index.php page. It makes me proud to know that both versions of our home page are doing great.
Why the need to link to this page? Just link back to “/” and everything will be okay.

10.) Use H1, H2, H3, or H4 tags in navigational menu links.
I love seeing the same H1 tags used across an entire site. It really gives it that consistency that I look for. Unless you want to say “the most important thing on this page is in fact on another page,” then don’t do this. Please use Hx tags the way they were originally meant to be used: to designate priority. Also, while you’re at it, please do not use "b" or "strong" tags on links either.

Definitely a good read! Check it out!

Online Marketing for the Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:22:00 +0000

With the Christmas holiday peaking around the corner, it still isn’t too late to tweak and optimize a dedicated holiday search marketing campaign. A few weeks ago I wrote about holiday retail PPC strategies as well as holiday ecommerce pay per click strategies. Today I wanted to focus on link building and local search optimization.

Link Building & Organic SEO - Ideally, you should well on your way to building links for the holiday season. While low level link building such as blog commenting and directory submissions provide good passive SEO, more active efforts such include:

Paid links - Directly bought, or through sponsorships and partners.

Widgets & Quizzes- Incorporate pop culture and symbols of the holiday season in to build links.
Good Ol’ Link bait - Get viral, and spread the season’s cheer over social networks such as facebook and twitter.

Local Search Optimization - Don’t ignore local search for online shopping queries and conversions. Some tips to follow include:

Change titles to reflect holiday shopping keywords such as New York Toy Store Christmas Gifts.
Ask for reviews in all holiday email campaigns with links to appropriate local business citation sources, in both the US and Canada.
Ask staff, family, and friends to leave reviews on Google Local and on other sources with context to Christmas and Christmas gifts.
Use Google Coupons to stand out from the rest of the listings. Especially in today's tough economic times, coupons can go a long way!
Complete all fields in the local business centre that many businesses leave blank: store hours, methods of payment, links, contact details etc.
Buy P.O Box addresses in cities or areas represented by your business, but where you do not have a physical location.
Insert keywords in your business name for core products and/or services. This can boost conversions
Last but not least, don't forget to optimize for zip codes - a trend I've noticed lately has been an increase in 'search term' + 'zipcode'

Have any additional tips? Feel free to add them in the comment section!

Cool Search Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:50:00 +0000

So, I just learned this cool search tip. If you want to see what Google has indexed from your website domain (or a competitor domain for that matter) during, for example, the past five days? Just point your brower to http://www.google.com/search? q=site:yourdomain.com&as_qdr=d5 .

Simply change the “yourdomain.com” to your actual website domain name and alter the “=d5? to be whichever number of days you are looking to query (d5, d10, etc.). Or, change the “d” to “w” for weeks or “y” for years.

Got any other useful tips? Please share them in the comments!

DOs & DONTs For Holiday Ecommerce & PPC

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:30:00 +0000

The holiday season is almost upon us. It’s time to start looking over the inventory, keywords, and offers to make sure you’re ready for Cyber Monday. If you aren't familiar with terms like 'Cyber Monday' you should catch up on my previous post Holiday Retail Paid Search Strategies.

So, search engine land put together some great tips on what NOT to do as well as a few things to concentrate on when putting together Holiday strategies for pay per click marketing as well as website useability. A few of the highlights are below:

Don’t…

Forget to add a recommended gift buying section

We’re all short on time. I never know what to buy my Mom or Dad much less for the office Christmas party gift exchange. Offer a recommended buying section. While you should examine your products in determining how to section them out, here are some common categories:

Under $50
Niece
Under $100
Nephew (or young boy
$100
Mother
Father
Grandfather
Wife
Husband

And the chart could easily keep going. Hint* Check out your competitors!

Always use the negative keyword ‘free’ in your pay per click campaign

‘Free’ is one of the most commonly used negative keywords. However, if you use it, you will not show up for highly desirable searches like ‘last minute Christmas gifts with free shipping’ or ‘free delivery Sony plasma TV’.

Make shoppers register before buying

This is a personal pet peeve and one of the first recommendations I typically make for improving the ecommerce conversion funnel. Forcing someone to register before checking out adds a barrier to conversion. Do not require shoppers to register, confirm an email address, or do any action other than inputting their credit card and shipping address.

Give up too early

Last year, as the days grew closer to Christmas, the online spending grew as well. According to comScore, last year there was $430 million spent on black Friday, $610 million on Cyber Monday, and an amazing $660 million spent on Green Monday.

Do…

Show delivery dates and shipping options

One of the fastest ways to lose a repeat customer is for your shipment to reach someone on December 26th. Reinforce delivery date options throughout your site. “If you order by today, we guarantee your package will arrive by December 21st”. In your shopping cart, make sure you call out the delivery options and the arrival date for the product.

Offer gift wrapping AND gift receipts

This is a quick way to add a few dollars to each checkout. You should also allow the buyer to choose not to have the receipt included in the package in case it’s being delivered to another address. Don’t forget, some people will want the receipt included so that the item can easily be exchanged (especially in the case of clothes).

Offer gift cards

This vertical has continued to grow each year as gift cards become more and more popular. Offering gift cards is a great way to have the undecided audience buy from your store. You should also allow someone who buys a gift card to receive either an email certificate (for those who are shopping on the 24th) or a physical card which they can put inside a nice envelope.

So, what DOs and DONTs do you abide by for the holidays? Please share in the comment section!

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Stepping Down

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:52:00 +0000

So, it is official. Yahoo! stock holders and board memebers alike are jumping for joy as Jerry Yang has confirmed he will step down as Yahoo's CEO once a 'suitable' replacement is found.

Jerry Yang will be working with Chairman Roy Bostock and with the independent directors to find a successor for the CEO role.

You can read his company wide letter notifying Yahoo! employees of his departure.

To: all yahoos Fr: Jerry Subject: update

yahoos -

i wanted to address all of you on the news we’ve just announced. the board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process for the ceo role of yahoo!. roy bostock, our chairman of the board, is leading the effort to identify and assess potential candidates for consideration by the full board. the board will be evaluating and considering both internal and external candidates and has retained heidrick and struggles to help in this effort.

i will be participating in the search for my successor, and i will continue as ceo until the board selects a new ceo. once a successor is named, i will return to my previous role as chief yahoo and continue to serve as a director on the board.

last june, i accepted the board’s request that i assume the ceo role to restructure and reposition the company as a whole in order to more effectively meet the fast-changing needs of both users and partners. since taking on the ceo role, i have had an ongoing dialogue with the board about succession timing. thanks in large measure to your tireless efforts, we have created a more open, competitive yahoo! and we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.

despite the external environment we face, the fact remains that yahoo! is now a significantly different company that is stronger in many ways than it was just 18 months ago. this only makes it all the more essential that we manage this opportunity to leverage the progress up to this point as effectively as possible. i strongly believe that having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues, we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company.

all of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. i will always do what I think is right for this great company. while this step will be an adjustment for all of us, i know it’s the right one. i look forward to updating you on this process as soon as the board has developments to share, and will continue to do everything i can to make yahoo! fulfill its full potential.

thank you, jerry

So, what are your thoughts? Will the Microsoft/Yahoo talks start round 3? or was it 4? or wait, was it up to 5 now?

Top 75 Twitter Tools, Apps & Plugins

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:53:00 +0000

So, I have been a member of twitter for some time now. I used it intermittently primarily to see what the experts in the Internet Marketing field did during their day to day lives. It wasn't until I downloaded TweetDeck that being a full-fledged 'Twit' took hold.

I quickly realized that there are tons of tools and Twitter specific websites that many probably don't know about. Like me, these tools or websites could potentially make other's tweeting efforts much easier. With that in mind, I've come up with the following list. I know there are many more so please feel free to add your favorites in the comments and I will be sure to update the list!

Top Twitter Tools

Twootball - Where Twitter meets the NFL Football. Want to make a post about the Jets? Just add #jets to your tweet and your message will appear immediately on the Jets homepage!

Friend or Follow - FriendOrFollow.com helps you manage your Twitter contacts by showing who you're following that's not following you back, and who's following you that you're not following back.

Twitscoop - Want to know what's hot on twitter? Use Twitscoop to stay on top of Twitters hot topics or discussions. The results are displayed in a tag cloud.

Twinfluence - Measures the combined influence of twitterers and their followers, with a few social network statistics thrown in as bonus. What is your influence? Just put in your Twitter user name to find out.

Twitpic - TwitPic lets you share photos easily on Twitter by posting pictures to TwitPic from your phone, TwitPic's API, or through the website itself.

Tweetdeck - TweetDeck is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in public beta. It is a personal favorite because it separates the large amounts of data into manageable columns - Group messages, Direct messages, Replies, etc.

Quitter - Sends you a short e-mail when someone stops following you on Twitter.

Twitter Grader - Twitter Grader gives you a grade based on the power of your Twitter profile. Not only that, based on your description the tool suggests 'like-minded' Twits to follow on Twitter. (I scored a 96.6 out of 100)

Web Design Experts on Twitter - Looking to connect with web designers? Thomson Chemmanoor has done a lot of the legwork for you! His web designer Twitter list will give you a chance to follow some very talented web designers

Twithire - Review job openings or post an open position for programming or design specifically. There is also an 'other' category that includes all jobs under the sun.

Tweet Later - As the name might suggest, you can schedule future posts to keep your Twitter stream ticking over with new tweets even when you're not in front of your computer. Or, use it as your personal reminder system. It's best feature in my opinion is the ability to send automated thank you notes to new followers, and automatically follow new followers,
if you choose to do so.

Twhirl - twhirl is a desktop client for Twitter that acts much like an instant messaging client. It connects to multiple accounts: Twitter, laconi.ca, Friendfeed and seesmic. It also allows for cross-posting twitter updates to Pownce and Jaiku

Tweetburner - Allows for both shortening URLs but also provides analytic data on the links your share via Twitter and Friendfeed.

Tweeterized - Provides dynamic Twitter signature images that you can use on forums, websites, myspace profiles and more. The dynamic images display your profile image, last update as well as how long ago you did the update.

Hellotxt - HelloTxt lets you to update your status and read your friends' status across all main
microblogging and social networks all at once.. there are too many supported networks to list. Pretty cool service!

Twerp Scan - A helpful tool to analyze your followers and helps keep an eye on your growing list of friends and followers.

Twitter Karma - A Flash application that fetches your friends and followers from Twitter, then displays them for you, letting you quickly paginate through them. You can sort the list alphabetically either ascending or descending by Twitter ID. You can filter the list in several ways: only friends or only followers, all friends or all followers, and mutual friends.

Twubble - Twubble simply helps you find more friends by analyzing your friends graph and picking out twits you might like to follow.

Twittervision - A real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter. Keep in mind, you profile must have a location and an image defined to appear on the public feed.

Twittermeter - Twitter meter let's you query an index of all the words that have been sent to twitter's public timeline since 11/6/2007. The data then plots the number of times that word was used over time.

GroupTweet - This cool service allows grouptweet piggy-backs on the Twitter service via the Twitter API. All you need to do is set up a group!

TweetStats - Pulls together cool graphs based on your Twitter posting habits. Includes graphs for Tweets per hour, Tweets per month, Tweet timeline and reply statistics.

Twittervision - See where in the world people are submitting tweets from, real time.

TwitThis - Allow visitors to your site to easily share a page or post via Twitter.

MoniTwitter - Receive important updates about your site via Twitter.

TwitterNotes - Share private or public notes via Twitter.

RSS2Twitter - Share any RSS feed on Twitter, and have new RSS items automatically be tweeted.

TwitterBuzz - Find out what is being most linked to on Twitter.

Twitterholic - Shows the top users and accounts on Twitter.

iTweet - A mobile Twitter site designed for the iPhone.

iTwit - Mobile version of Twitter made for the iPhone.

Tweeter - Twitter on your mobile phone while avoiding text message charges.

Jargong - Browse Flickr, do some social networking, but most importantly, check and publish tweets.

WildSets - Extensve Twitter app for mobile phones.

TwitterBerry - Twitter built for various BlackBerry devices. Update and view timelines with ease.

jTwitter - View timelines, enter updates, and more, all on your mobile phone.

TreoTwit - Easily check and update your Twitter right from your Treo.

TwitBin - Send and view tweets right within Firefox.

TwittyTunes - A FoxyTunes addon that posts what you’re currently listening to Twitter.

Shareaholic - Share links and webpages via Twitter right within Firefox.

Search Plugin - Tweet right from the Firefox search box.

Tweetbar - Put Twitter on your Firefox sidebar.

Twippera - Twitter widget for Opera that can send and view tweets.

TwitterFox - Compact Firefox extension that can publish and view tweets.

Twitterverse - Search through archived public timelines and tweets.

Twittersearch - Search Twitter and tweets by word.

Terraminds - Search for specific users or tweets.

TwitDir - Allows user to search for users by name, location, or username.

Tweetr - Submit tweets, upload files, urltea built in, delete messages.

Spaz - Cross-platform client built with AIR.

Tweeter - Java based client with customizable UI.

Twinja - AIR based client which allows you to follow users on the fly.

Triqqr - Submit tweets directly to Twitter and view user profiles.

Pwytter - Cross platform Python Twitter client with Asian character support.

Teletwitter - Experimental open source client.

TwitBox - View and submit tweets, see replies and direct messages, delete your own tweets, and multiple account support.

Twitterlicious - Update Twitter status, easily check replies and direct messages.

Twitteroo - Client with rurl URL shortening, clickable links and tweets, customization, and both public and friend timelines.

Chirrup - Twitter client with extensive Japanese language support.

TwittIt - Extremely compact and simple app for submitting tweets.

MadTwitter - A reincarnation of Twitterrific, except on Windows.

Tweetwheel - A cool tool that, in graphical form, shows which of your friends know each other.

Twitt(url)y - Twitturly is a service for tracking what URLs people are talking about as they talk about them on Twitter.

Twitter CLI - Post tweets via the command line.

What’s Up? - Gadget that allows you to see latest tweets from your friends.

Twadget - Simple gadget that lets you view and submit tweets right from Vista’s Sidebar.

KipFolio Widget - Simple Twitter widget for KipFolio.

Twitter-Sync for Yahoo - Syncs Twitter status with Yahoo Messenger status.

TwitterYM - Simple Yahoo Messenger status updater.

Twessenger - Updates Live Messenger status to reflect latest tweet.

Twit4Live - Set status message as latest tweet, send tweets from within Live Messenger, and send tweets to contacts.

Twitterment: Search Twitter using keywords, and compare the buzz between different words.

Where.com’s GPS Twitter: Adds your current GPS-based location to your Twitter feeds from your mobile phone.

Twitter Tool: Give your WordPress blog the Twitter treatment.

Twitterphone - Send messages to Twitter by speaking your message.

Got any others I may have missed?? Add them below!

Google Analytics: Tracking 3rd Party PPC

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:06:00 +0000

If any of you have utilized your Google analytics account to track PPC programs outside of Google Adwords you have no doubt run into a tracking issue or two. Here is a quick run-down of how to get your URLs tagged appropriately in order to track accurately:

Data from Google AdWords is automatically included in your Analytics reports (assuming you have AdWords and Analytics linked). For your 3^rd party PPC campaigns, the “how” is pretty simple. First, go to Google’s URL Builder tool, and enter the destination URL from your ad texts (i.e. landing page). From here you can enter the five parameters that will become your URL tag.

utm_source: This is the name of the search engine or the source of traffic (i.e. Yahoo, MSN, email newsletter, blue banner ad).
utm_medium: This is how you tell Analytics what type of traffic your source is (i.e. cpc, email, banner).
utm_term: This is where you detail keywords! This can be manually entered or dynamically generated with Yahoo’s {OVKEY} or MSN’s {QueryString} parameters.
utm_content: Consider this the ad variation or ad group. You choose how detailed you want to get. Typically, I designate this as the ad group for my PPC campaigns.
utm_campaign: If the name isn’t obvious enough – this is where you designate the name of your campaigns!

Once the tool gives you the fully tagged URL, all you need to do is copy and paste that URL into your ad texts. Google Analytics will do the rest of the work for you and begin giving you keyword level data for all of your PPC campaigns!

Have any additional tips? Please feel free to add in the comments!

MSN adCenter New Updates: Pause Ads & Keywords

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:38:00 +0000

I just got an e-mail full of new features now available in adCenter. In addition, the new adCenter interface has gone through a light design update - what are your thoughts on the new re-branding?

Regardless, here are a few quick notes included in the e-mail:

Pause the delivery of your ads and keywords. Now you have more control and flexibility as you manage your campaigns.
Receive better help with disapproved ads and keywords. Get easier-to-find information about the reasons for the disapproval and how to update the ads and keywords for resubmission.
Create multiple users for your account. You’ll find new options for easily creating multiple account users and assigning user permissions.

To get step by step instructions on the new features you can also visit the what's new with adCenter website.

Free Dunkin Donuts Coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:17:00 +0000

Free Dunkin Donuts Coffee Offer

So, I'm not really one for posting 'free offers' or even keeping e-mail forward chains alive. Even more rarely do I make a post on this blog that does not relate directly to search marketing on some level (well, maybe the PPC Rap videos are stretching it), but my love for all things coffee made me do it!

Click on the image above and get Free Dunkin Donuts Coffee delivered right to your door!

Holiday Retail PPC Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:52:00 +0000

So, this post will be short and sweet. With the holidays right around the corner, I wanted to point a couple key dates that every pay per click marketer should be focused on. Shift budget, changed ad copy, expand keywords, etc but make sure your accounts are 'live' and online all 24 hours during these huge retail days!

2008 Expected Busiest Shopping Days of Holiday Season:

Black Friday: 11/21/2008
Cyber Monday: 11/24/2008
Green Monday: 12/08/2008

Here are a couple additional trends to focus on for the holiday season:

All Mondays during the month of December tend to generate more revenue than other days during the week.
On average, the first and second week in December are the highest revenue generating days online.

One final note .. make sure you are calling out your promotions, competitive price points, etc in your ad copy and reinforcing it on your landing pages! Here's to big holiday retail sales!

PPC Terminology & Glossary for Pay Per Click Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:59:00 +0000

I have been in the Internet Marketing industry for 5+ years and moved up the 'ranks' from a pay per click specialist, to a search account manager to search engine marketing manager. One thing I realized, however, is that as I interacted with clients more and more via conference calls, in person presentations and e-mail, the conversations were filled with industry language that some PPC beginners may not understand - much less a small business owner. I ran across a number of these industry definitions at PPC Hero's Blog and thought it was great information to share! If you have any more to add please leave a comment and I'll update to the list!

1. Adwords Editor - A software application by Google to make account changes without posting live until you’re ready. Adwords editor is free and allows you to add new campaigns/ad groups/keywords or to make bid changes and more.

2. Application Program Interface (API) - The Google Adwords program allows developers to use applications that interact directly with the AdWords server. With these applications, advertisers can more efficiently manage large AdWords accounts.

3. Assist - When a keyword helps another keyword convert into a sale/lead. Assists currently only occur in Yahoo!.

4. Bounce Rate - Percent of people who enter your site but leave without visiting any other page.

5. Clicks - A click is registered when someone clicks on your pay-per-click ad.

6. Click-Through rate (CTR) - A way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is determined by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions).

7. Content network - The content network is available on all three of the major search engines and it allows advertisers to display their ads on other websites, blogs and email programs that have partnered with Google.

8. Conversion - When a user/customer completes a sale, a form, submits and email or downloads a whitepaper, etc. A conversion is essentially the same as a lead.

9. Cost-per-Click (CPC) - The amount of money an advertiser pays search engines and other Internet publishers for a single click on its advertisement that brings one visitor to its website.

10. Cost-per-lead (CPL) - The amount of money an advertiser pays search engines and other internet publishers for a lead generated on its advertisement.

11. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) - Pricing means advertisers pay their maximum bid amount for every one thousand impressions received.

12. Google Checkout - Google Checkout is a service that makes buying and selling across the web fast, convenient, and secure. When you utilize Google Checkout an icon will be displayed within your pay-per-click ad and this can build trust with users and increase your click-through rate.

13. Impressions - Number of people who see your PPC ad.

14. Keyword - a word or phrase that PPC advertisers use to display their ads in the sponsored search results.

15. Lead - When a user/customer completes a sale, a form, submits and email or downloads a whitepaper, etc. A lead is typically what every advertiser is trying to increase.

16. Longtail Keywords - A specific keyword phrase that consists of 2 or more words. Most advertisers use long-tail keywords to target the customer at or near their buying stage.

17. Match types - Match types allow an advertiser to control when their ad shows for a particular search query that may or may not contain a keyword listed in their ad group. There are three different match types, Broad, Phrase and Exact; these occur in Google and MSN. However Yahoo! has Standard and Advanced Match.

18. MSN Adcenter Desktop - A software application by MSN to make account changes without posting live until you’re ready.

19. My Client Center (MCC) - A powerful tool for handling multiple AdWords accounts. MCC is ideal for large advertisers with more than one account.'

20. Negative keywords - Advertisers add negative keywords to their account so their ads do not display when a customer types in a search query containing that keyword. Negative keywords help you qualify the clicks to your site more effectively.

21. Pay-Per- Click (PPC) - A method of advertising where the advertiser pays for each click he receives on the search engines.

22. Placement targeting - Placement targeting lets AdWords advertisers choose individual spots in the Google content network where they’d like to see their ads displayed.

23. Quality Score - A ranking system that Google uses based off relevancy to determine bid price.

24. Quality Index - A ranking system that Yahoo uses based off relevancy to determine bid price.

25. Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) - Ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of advertising (PPC) money invested.

26. Return on Investment (ROI) - Ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested.

27. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The method of increasing organic (free) rankings on various search engines.

28. Search query - A basic search query is a keyword or a keyword phrase a user enters when searching on any search engine.

29. Search Engine Results Page (SERP)- The results a user sees in the search engines after typing in a search query. The results would consist of a series of Organic ads as well as Paid or sponsored search ads.

30. Website Optimizer - Website Optimizer allows you to test changes in the website content of your pages in order to determine what will be most effective in getting conversions.

Search Engine Rap Battles

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:09:00 +0000

So, I've posted a blog post or two in the past with pay per click raps or SEO raps, but I came across these last week and thought I would share. If you are familiar with the 'underground' rap battles featured in the movie 8-mile, imagine that type of setting only you have search engines battling it out for the top spot.

These search engine rap battles are pretty entertaining!

PPC Quick Fixes: PayPer Click & Low Ad Position

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:26:00 +0000

Pay Per Click Advertising and Low Ad Position

Let’s face it: you can write the most amazing ads and your landing page can be wonderful and marvelous, but if your ad isn’t getting noticed, then the rest doesn’t matter. A sure-fire way to gain more attention is by increasing your ad position. Here are some quick fixes to get you ranked higher:

Raise your bids! Again, that may seem rudimentary, but let’s just get that out of the way. You need to keep your CPC and ROI in mind. Don’t raise your bids beyond your comfort level, but could a slightly higher ad position increase your clicks, and conversions? It might pay off!
AdWords has a very handy tool to help regulate your ad position: Position Preference. This tool does exactly what it’s name says; you can choose your preferred position. This is helpful when determining your “sweet spot”: the ad position where you get the right amount of clicks and conversions.

SEO Training Options Online

noreply@blogger.com (Jon Clark) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:20:00 +0000

SEO Training Courses and Book Reviews Below

As you start looking around for a training course for SEO you need to ask yourself what style of training suits you best. If online SEO training is something that appeals to you, there are many options available.

One of the main benefits of online training is you can learn at your own pace. You also don't have to worry about travel costs or what to wear to class. In some of the in-person, instructor-led courses, travel costs alone can be a significant expense.

On the other hand, online courses do not provide the classroom style that provides an instructor to ask questions, clarify principles, or share personal experiences. If in-person learning is your preference, then tune in to my next column, when I'll take a look at those options.

Online SEO Training Courses

SEMPO Institute
A great place to get a gain an education about search marketing is the SEMPO Institute. One of the mandates of the organization is education. Last year, SEMPO embarked on developing a distance learning program for both beginners and practitioners of search. It originally came from the need for more educational resources to be available for its members.

Today the SEMPO Institute is available to members and non-members worldwide. Although if you are considering taking the course, you should know that there are discounts up to 30 percent for SEMPO members. Current pricing is $399 for the "Insiders Guide to Search Marketing" course on SEO and PPC fundamentals, and $1399 each for the Advanced SEO and Advanced PPC courses.

Recently Jeffrey Pruitt, SEMPO's president, and Fionn Downhill, chair of the SEMPO Institute, were interviewed on Online Marketing with RSS Ray. These two segments, Part 1 and Part 2, provide more insight into SEMPO and the SEMPO Institute. They even bring in a recent "graduate" of the institute to share his views on the course.

Search Engine College
Search Engine College, run by Kalena Jordan, is another great place for online training. There are several courses to choose from: you can take an individual course or a full program they call "Certified Pathways." Their Certified PPC Marketer Pathway is $695, as is their Certified Search Engine Optimizer Pathway. The Certified Search Engine Marketer Pathway, combining SEO and PPC, is $1,195.

On their site, they offer a sample course and a sneak peak into the online classroom structure. For those looking for expansion in specific areas of SEO, they also offer specific classes in Keyword Research, Linkbuilding, Copywriting, and other areas.

Online Web Training from Search Engine Workshops
Online SEO Training from Search Engine Workshops approaches the training process from the same angle as the previous two sources mentioned, with a $149 Beginner SEO Course and $179 Advanced SEO course. However, they also add a new dimension by offering – for about $100 more for each module – 32 weeks of access to an instructor to help you through the course. Search Engine Workshops also holds yearly refresher courses, both online and in an in-person workshop format at locations all over the country.

GNC Web Creations
GNC Web Creations is a web design, graphics, and SEO company based out of Mississippi that takes SEO Training into a new methodology by building it into Yahoo Groups. By signing up for the private group, you will receive emails through the group that will guide you through the basics of SEO. This is also the first offering we've covered that is completely free. That's right: free. As in no cost is involved. If this is linkbait, it's very good linkbait. They also offer eBooks on SEO and other topics at a modest price.

Computer Geek Books
Computer Geek Books offers a highly interactive, six week (12 lesson) SEO course delivered online. This offering goes for $250 and is very much in the same tradition as the first few classes we've discussed.