Lijit Search
Monday, July 31, 2006
This article gives you the "cliff notes"version of a longer article on the future of e-mail. The article looks at e-mail in a different light not as singular channel that's losing its luster but eventually a blurred communication tool that will include innovations such as RSS, mobile marketing & blogs that are said to replace e-mail.
Also, email as our notification agent:
"alarm clock, Post-it® Note, pager, cell phone, fax machine, instant
messenger, and document management system all combined. It will be supported on
any device via many different sources. "
Who knows the exact role e-mail will take in our future but based on current technology and the present possiblities this article is on track.
Posted by Megan Riley
2:04 PM
0 comments  
Friday, July 28, 2006
I love it when research involves one of my favorite things--coffee. Currently, Google Checkout is offering $10 off at certain merchants, as an incentive to try out the cart, which I happily took advantage of (all in the name of research!).
Google's interface is very simple--just the facts, ma'am. After filling my cart with coffee beans, I had two choices, either check out using the store's current processing methods, or proceed to google's checkout. Once there, all store branding was removed and I was in Google-land. If you are a web page scanner, the interface will take some getting used to as essential items such as where to put your coupon code or how to make your shipping address different than your billing address are bland (almost invisible) text links.
Once the order is complete, you can track orders (and their status) from any store in your account area. One feature I really like is that you can stop all those promotional emails sent from the stores after you make a purchase (especially those pesky emails from wedding gift purchases).
What is interesting to me is that Google is in no way pushing a visually "seamless" shopping experience in the checkout process. There was a time when having the checkout process look different from the actual store lessened the credibility of the merchant (for example, if the checkout process looked clunky or did not match the store's branding, it reflected badly on the merchant). But, in keeping the checkout process branded by Google, the merchant can actually benefit from Google's credibility and user's trust in the Google brand.
Posted by Ingrid Alongi
11:16 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Digg is a very popular technology/pop science news zine where stories are submitted and ranked by users. If your site is linked by DIgg your traffic immediately jumps dramatically. Dealpl.us - a new user ranked deals site - got linked on Digg recently. They recieved a huge spike in traffic and and posted the reporting the 'Digg Effect' had on their site.
Posted by damo
10:38 AM
0 comments
Just as with blogs: "Create content worth reading", the same goes for podcasts: "Create content worth listening to".
This article gives you a 'how to' for anyone who is interested in developing a podcast.
creativepro.com - Producing Podcasts: "In the first part of this series, I covered creating a blog to lend more personality to your Web identity. But useful as blogs are, they're a dime-a-dozen. Increasingly, anyone who's anyone posts not only a blog, but also the audio blog known as a podcast.
The requirements of podcasting are a bit more demanding than blogs -- they take more time and a different skill-set to create and require a bit more gear -- but they're well within the reach of most people. Here's how to get started with your own audio adventure."
Posted by jeannie fratoni
9:57 AM
0 comments
Monday, July 24, 2006
The latest JupiterResearch forecast on Internet advertising indicates that advertisers will continue to increase their online budgets, amounting to $25.9 billion or about 9 percent of the total U.S. advertising spend in 2011.
“U.S. Online Advertising Forecast, 2005 to 2011” also indicates paid search is responsible for the tremendous growth in online advertising. Search advertising has outranked banner ads since 2005 and will continue to account for the largest portion of online advertising for the next five years.
more info...
Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer
8:58 AM
0 comments
Friday, July 21, 2006
We’ve been saying it all along, segment your media to improve marketing campaign results. Now Atlas Institute comes out with a study showing that when you integrate banner ads with your search campaigns you can boost your search results.
The study reported a 22 percent increase in conversions when users were exposed to both a search listing and a display ad from the same advertiser versus exposure solely to a search listing. Increases ranged from 20 to 65 percent for the majority of direct response advertisers in the study (eight out of 11).
Atlas concluded there is a benefit to conducting both SEM and banner ad campaigns at the same time. It stands to reason you’ll get the same effect when you have prominent SEO listings with a banner ad on the same page.
More info
Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer
10:48 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Ad agencies large and small have creative teams dedicated to the viral concept, because these ads are cheaper to produce and because more young consumers are likely to pay attention. Ground zero of viral advertising is the video sharing Web site YouTube.com, which has more daily viewers than MTV.
Posted by brian_tsang
11:03 AM
0 comments
I remember as a small child taking drives during the holidays to look at the Christmas lights around town. Then came the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and put an end to that. So now, 33 years later, how far have we come?
Is the relevant statistic that sales of hybrid cars doubled last year to 200,000—or that they were outsold by SUVs by a ratio of 23-1?
Posted by Anne McColl
9:53 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
E-Mail Losing Its Clout in the World of Text-Driven Communication
Posted by brian_tsang
2:00 PM
0 comments
Monday, July 17, 2006
Wufoo - Making forms easy + fast + fun.
Another example of how even large, corporate sites could be nothing more than very good mash-ups.
It is so darn easy to make sophisticated sites using readily available technology. Why bother with a CMS that is "pretty good" at most things when you can have a bunch of Web 2.0 components put together that are stellar at all things?
Disclaimer: Right now, it is very hard to do this elegantly, in a structured way, and relinquish the hands-on control of every aspect of your site that humans have come to desire. However, there are several companies and sites that are doing it this way right now and you'd never even kn0w it... (I won't divulge who they are here, but you can take a guess...)
Posted by Reid
11:32 AM
0 comments
Thursday, July 13, 2006
I saw this article on Yahoo! this morning and immediately thought of another deserving person, our very own Reid Carr.
Reid was chosen to represent 40 Under 40 for the 2005 San Diego Metropolitan Awards; view here:
http://www.reddoor.biz/aboutus/awards/
or here:
http://www.sandiegometro.com/2005/sep/40under40/carr.php
I wish we had known about Inc.coms 30 Under 30 because I am certain he would have been chosen for that as well.
The article talks about how very young people with very big ideas started to make entrepreneurship cool. Back in 2000 when Reid, myself and our other founders were working together at another agency, Reid had big ideas that he felt we couldn't meet at our current agency. It's called 'Internet Presence Management' (IPM). Read more about that here:
http://www.reddoor.biz/businessservices/internetpresencemanagement/
You may here about IPM from others these days, but the truth is, we've been practicing, and implementing it for our clients now for over six years now.
We are providing award winning IPM for some amazing clients here in San Diego. View our client list here:
http://www.reddoor.biz/experience/
I could go on and on but I'll let you get to the article. Thanks for listening!
Inc.com: 30 Under 30 -- America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs - All Business - Yahoo! Finance: Who Are the 30 Under 30?
By Rod Kurtz
Inc. com
Youth, we've been told so many times, is wasted on the young. Not this group. A generation ago, when many of our entrepreneurial whiz kids were still in diapers, starting your own business was considered akin to career loafing, occupational flailing. The kind of thing your parents would frown upon, and encourage you to find work in, say, plastics."
And then a funny thing happened. The Michael Dells and Richard Bransons of the world -- very young people with very big ideas -- started to make entrepreneurship cool (not to mention, finding fame and millions in the process). Why spend your early years toiling away in Corporate America, the thinking evolved, when you could circumvent it from the get-go? Add to that a proliferation of college programs, an entire how-to industry, a legion of overnight dot-com millionaires for inspiration, and you have the makings of a new, well-treaded career path.
Posted by jeannie fratoni
10:18 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Great tips for graphic and web designers on every stage of the creative process.
The following are a few tips pulled from the article:
13 KEEP IT CURRENT
“Visit sites such as pixelsurgeon.com or designiskinky.com and read Computer Arts. Staying up to date with design doesn’t mean just looking at the work of others, you should know the industry and stay ahead of the software curve. Don’t fall behind as many designers do, but don’t chase fads either.”
SUPPLIED BY: JJ JOHNSTONE
30 THINK ON PAPER
“Use often-ignored tools called a felt-tip pen and sketchbook first, then a scanner, then various applications – the usual suspects. My tip is to think with a pen and paper first, then use computers. It will lead to a stronger, more original voice.”
SUPPLIED BY: JEREMYVILLE
45 WORK WITH CLIENTS
“Everyone knows about ‘thinking outside the box’, but in creative circles, the real excellence comes from finding the best possible solution inside the clientmade box. Don’t look at external direction as a damning prison wall, but instead as a clue to finding your solution.”
SUPPLIED BY: DAVE CURD
Posted by Michelle Preston
1:49 PM
0 comments
It was a great idea. Let's let the consumers create the commercials. Give them product film clips and music to use as raw materials online. Let's involve the consumer!
That's what monster SUV Chevy Tahoe did. And in minutes they got ads like:
Super: 13 miles to the gallon.
Super: $3,000 a year just for gas.
Super: But you can park anywhere.
Super: F#@k the earth. Get yours.
Super: Chevy Tahoe. An American Revolution.
Oppps.
Posted by Anne McColl
12:34 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Even in the era of agency consolidation, search continues to be sold as a stand alone service. Is it possible to put together a decent performing search campaign in a vacuum? Sure. Does it deliver the best possible results? Definitely not! As powerful as a carefully orchestrated search initiative can be, it becomes significantly more so when you add user experience (UX) and analytics to the mix.
Posted by Erika Tyker-Werner
6:07 PM
0 comments
Google AdWords is changing its landing page quality scoring algorithm to improve ad quality for consumers, advertisers and publishers. This change is aimed at fixing the problem of “click arbitrage,” which results when a publisher or site owner buys low-cost traffic from AdWords to encouraging a click on their higher-priced AdSense ads on the landing page. These ad take users to low quality landing pages, some of which have nothing but ads (MFAs or Made for AdSense pages).
Google put advertiser landing page quality into its quality score last December. Since then, advertisers that provide low-quality landing pages get lower quality scores that result in higher minimum bid requirements for those keywords.
More Information...
Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer
12:18 PM
0 comments
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Yahoo settled a click fraud class action suit with a better deal for advertisers than Google. Not only is Yahoo paying up to $4.95 million in attorney fees, it will give advertisers the choice of cash refunds or ad credits for the entire amount overpaid. Google only promised ad credits for a percentage of the overpayment.
Another important settlement term is that the Yahoo agreed to work with a third party to develop a definition of click fraud and a comprehensive list of known perpetrators of click fraud. Yahoo will also host a click fraud protection center with a full time person to act as liaison between advertisers and Yahoo Search Marketing.
Why was Yahoo so generous? Maybe Yahoo realized that protecting advertisers and users against click fraud goes a long way toward preserving the integrity of the PPC ad model.
http://www.imediaconnection.com/news/10269.asp
Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer
1:12 PM
0 comments
EMarketer reports that Q2 marketing budgets are up after being flat over the past few years. This is good news because when you under-spend on marketing you are not identifying your customer’s needs and serving those needs. This results in under-serving your customers with less profits for your business. By not marketing effectively, you are leaving money on the table.
The report further shows that if ROI is a goal, then paid search gives you the highest ROI among other online marketing strategies.
"We believe combining paid search with SEO further boosts ROI."
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004041
Posted by Paul J. Bruemmer
9:30 AM
0 comments
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