Pieter van Gils

Me and My Colleagues

Pieter van Gils — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:54:09 +0000

The special occasion was the celebration of our company being in business for a decade! Read more about 10 years of Tribal on the website (Dutch only).

Affiliate trip to Valencia

Pieter van Gils — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:44:25 +0000

After Iceland (2007) and Malta (2008) I was again invited to join Daisycon on their annual affiliate trip. This time we went to Valencia where we spend 3 beautiful days with excellent food, lot’s of vino and great people.

Thanks to the staff and management of Daisycon for making this happen. I’ll do my best to be there again next year!

We are still number 1 for “search engine marketing” in the Netherlands

Pieter van Gils — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:46:00 +0000

As most people know, I work for Tribal Internet Marketing in Dublin. The focus of our Irish office is Search Engine Marketing, we do a lot off Pay Per Click advertising but also some Search Engine Optimization. I spend most of my time looking at the Irish and UK markets these days, but this afternoon I was checking some of our Dutch competitors to see what has changed for them in the past few months.

One of our competitors launched a new website and I immediately noticed the screenshot from Google on their homepage. The screenshot shows that they are number 1 in the organic results for the keyword “zoekmachine marketing” (dutch for “search engine marketing”). At first I was shocked because we had that position for a long time, it looked like they did a better job then us. The screenshot:

After taking a closer look at the screenshot I realized that there are a few things wrong with it:

There are no Adwords ads showing up, highly suspicious for a popular keyword like this one.
The page title says “search engine marketing” and not the keyword they used “zoekmachine marketing”.
Their brand name shows up bold and Google only does this for the keyword they used in the query.

The only conclusion I can make from these facts is that they used Photoshop (or a similar program) to make it look like they are number one for this important keyword (especially if you are in this business). I think they used a screenshot from a search on their brandname to make sure they would be number 1. Is this misleading for their (potential) clients or not?

A quick search in google confirmes that we still have the number 1 position in the Netherlands for what we do best, search engine marketing!

Paying more for AdWords then ever before

Pieter van Gils — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:18:09 +0000

Google changed their AdWords advertising program about two months ago with a new functionality called “extended broad match”. I was warned by several people that this would give me not-relevant clicks and views. I changed a few of my campaigns by including negatives and changing keywords to phrase and exact match, but I left some running as they where. I’ve been analyzing the data today and see a spending increase of up to 50% for some of the accounts… and guess what, the average conversion ratio dropped. My conclusion is that Google users get less relevant ads. Isn’t this something that contradicts with their policy and philosophy?

I’m now updating all my campaigns by adding negative keywords, changing broad to phrase/exact and changing the bids. If you have the same problem (speak Dutch) and are looking for more possible solutions, read “probleem van extended broad match (en 7 oplossingen)” on the TIM blog.

Twitter background PSD file

Pieter van Gils — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:31:33 +0000

I’ve been playing arround with Twitter today to create a background for my profile. You can see the result on my profile. You can download the PSD file here if you want to make your own design but need some help to get started. Below you see a snapshot of the image.

My most popular picture on Flickr

Pieter van Gils — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:48:08 +0000

I upload most of my pictures to Flickr because it’s a great service to use. This way I have a have a backup of everything and am able to show the pictures to who is interested. I just checked the stats for my Flickr account and there is one picture really popular…. 29,844 views, 15 comments and 31 people count this picture as one of their favorites.

It’s probably because of the tag “ass” that this picture gets so many views. I like the discussion that is going on, in my opinion the tattoo (and picture) are not offensive at all. I’m not religous so I have a different point of view then some of the commenters. Some information: the girl who got this tattoo is part Indian so she understands what the symbol is about. The titel of the picture says “ass” but if you take a look at the picture you can see that the spot is better described as “lower back”. She never wanted to offend anyone and is not showing of her tattoo in public or something…. so my final advice for the commenters who want me to take the picture down; Relax! isn’t it just really cool that a hot girl is interested in your religion?

Now, on to the 30k views for this pic!

Back to the Netherlands for a few days

Pieter van Gils — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:20:44 +0000

After almost 3 months I’ll be in the Netherlands for a few days, from the 8th till the 15th of July. Contact me if you want to meet up! I still have no plans for Friday and Sunday.

Timelapse Central Park – New York City

Pieter van Gils — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:53:18 +0000

Pim made this movie from the top of the Rockefeller center by taking a picture every 15 secs.

Back in Dublin

Pieter van Gils — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:41:42 +0000

I got back from New York this morning… the city is amazing! I’m trying to stay awake now and not give in to the jetlag. Some of the pictures are online in my Flickr account.

New York, New York

Pieter van Gils — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:37:14 +0000

Start spreading the news, I’m leaving June 3th.
I want to be part of it – New York, New York.
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray.
Right through the very heart of it – New York, New York.

Yes, I’m leaving to New York for a few days in June to claim our land back (New York was founded as a commercial trading post by the Dutch in 1624. The settlement was called New Amsterdam until 1664 when the colony jadiedadie…. more on wikipedia).

NYC has been on my list of places I want to visit for a long time, so I’m really happy that I can finally go there. I didn’t organize anything besides a plane ticket so all tips are welcome. I’m especially looking for someone who can give us some tips about the nightlife and places to stay.