Marketers Speak Out on Search Arbitrage
How big a problem is search arbitrage—and how effective are the measures the search networks, especially Google, have deployed to combat it? Two marketers talk about their experiences. And one suggests that the cure might actually be worse than the disease....
Body Art Site Looks to Double Revenue in 2007
TattooFinder.com hopes expansion of search engine marketing, a discount program with design studios and viral marketing will help double the size of its business to $2 million this year....
Search Helps Woman Turn Hobby Into Business
It all started back in 2000, when Stephanie White rediscovered a childhood pastime of making jewelry with beads. This, she thought, might be a good idea for an online business. She used search engine marketing to grow SW Creations, a burgeoning enterprise that's getting more than three million hits per month. ...
Turn Ad Network Automates for Action
Search marketing was founded on the rock of cost-per-click, but lately large chunks of that rock seem to be eroding or turning slippery with moss, thanks to click fraud fears. As a result, both search marketing power Google and other smaller online ad players are trying out new models that earn revenue not from clicks but through other performance milestones. ...
One StepUp for Local Search
San Francisco-based StepUp, founded in 2004, offers a software solution that makes it easy for small local retailers to link their product information to Internet sites via StepUp’s own hosted database. For that service, the company charges those merchants a monthly subscription fee that can be as low as $50 per category per location—a price that’s comfortable for retailers and comparable to the cost of Yellow Pages advertising....
Saving Grace
But why do you want to save? Are you putting away pennies for a sailboat, or to pay your daughter's way through college? Maybe you're dreaming of taking a trip to Italy to see the village where your grandfather was born. All of these reasons are emotional as well as fiscal, a theme HSBC Direct is using for a new series of DRTV ads set to air this month....
Selling the Shat
And now here's where we make the obligatory joke about selling boldly where no continuity program has sold before The William Shatner Sci-Fi DVD of the...
Where Do You Hang?
Everyone has their favorite haunts on the Web. Some are places that you pop into every now and then, to make a quick purchase or check up on news. Others...
Gold Standard
Sure, many people maintain that the older you get, the better you get. But that doesn't mean a makeover wouldn't hurt. Godiva Chocolatier did just that...
David Takes on the Goliaths
Retailer Dave's Soda and Pet City made its first move into the multichannel world last month with an e-commerce site to promote the national launch of Simply the Best dog food....
Ready for Syndication Soon?
RSS may stand for Really Simple Syndication (among other less-descriptive things), but there's nothing simple about selling the automated Web feed processes...
Web 2.0 Meets the Senior Set
Computer and application developers have long talked about the “grandma test”: If their hardware or programs were intuitive enough for older relatives to use, they knew they had something a broad swath of the everyday online public could find value in....
Number One? Not Always the Top Ad Strategy
San Diego-based search marketing firm Engine Ready recently came out with a look at the impact pay-per-click ad position has had on the clickthrough and conversion performance of a diverse selection of its managed accounts in the last year. While the data doesn’t rise to the level of a formal study or index, Engine Ready marketing vice president Brian Lewis thinks the project holds some interest as an informal look at bid strategy and performance....
Montana Legend Grows DM Business
About seven years ago, the Lazy E-L ranch in Roscoe, MT decided it wanted to try marketing directly to red meat lovers. It formed the Montana Legend Co., which markets angus beef online and through catalogs....
Online Marketer Goes After LGBT Market
Terrence Smalley, a longtime online marketing executive, has formed Outonthenet.com, a loyalty-marketing firm catering to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) market....
Taking Work and Waste out of B-to-B Search Marketing
The great basic advantage of search marketing directed at consumers is that users self-qualify: If they put into that query box the keyword that brings up your ad or the organic link to your page, then chances are strong that they’re interested in what you have to offer and may in fact be ready to buy. Ironically, that can be what makes business-to-business search marketing so hard. ...
Watch Your Rep on Social Networks
Last month I planned a trip to Italy to visit a friend in Florence. Snagging a cheap fare to London proved painless; all I needed to complete the junket was a frugal flight from London to Italy. My friend told me there were inexpensive fares via Ryanair. But before booking my ticket, I did a little research on this unfamiliar airline. My first stop: the Yahoo! Answers community site. Boy, did this community have a lot to say about Ryanair. ...
Last-Minute Holiday Testing Can Make the Sales Difference
Just because we’re deep in the holiday sales season, that doesn’t mean that online merchants should take a vacation from testing their Web sites and marketing to reach peak performance....
Scarebaby Seeks to Expand Horizons
Scarebaby Design is an online marketer of products like coffee mugs, t-shirts, stickers, tote bags in 40 different designs, including a line aimed at children. ...
Web Watch 2.0
SURE, THERE'S A LOT OF buzz about Web 2.0. But no one agrees on what it really means. Some say it's a new technology. Others, a social movement. Still...
Basket Case
After running small business and online operations for Hewlett-Packard and AOL, Dave Deasy wanted to make his own run at being an entrepreneur. He's the...
An Anti-Ad Complaint Straight From Booby Hatch U
AS THE OLD SAYING GOES: If you'eve taken an intellectually bankrupt position in a debate but want to stack it in your favor, change the definitions of...
The Power of Tower
THE PASSING OF A ONCE-GREAT retail chain tends to evoke both pity and awe, like the sinking of the Andrea Doria. So it wasn't surprising that the news...
For Local Business, Coupons Make the Online Difference
For small or local businesses who want to get contacts from their Web presence rather than clicks, there’s pay-per-call. If those same small businesses want to get customers in their doors, there’s online couponing through companies like the newly launched Zixxo....
Make Links Work for You—Carefully
If you’ve been running a Web site for any length of time, you’ve probably gotten at least a few e-mails offering to trade links with another Web site. Without doubt you’ve gotten offers to get “10,000 quality links for only $499.95!” But look before you leap, say linking and search optimization experts. ...
