The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog
- 2006Mar15Search Engine Marketing Fraud
More hype about search engine marketing click fraud in this article from B2B. I won’t pretend to know exactly how it would work, but I am still waiting for someone (Google/Yahoo!) to reintroduce the CPM model for search engine marketing. I know that they have information on average CTR (click through rate) and the average CPC (cost per click) so I’ve gotta think that there’s a way to make this model work.
Those of you that think “this guy doesn’t get it”. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I have received significant refunds for clients that were victims of click fraud. So, I support any measures that can be put into place to help elliminate the problem. My idea is that CPM resolves this issue, pretty quickly.
The real issue, in my mind, is that most marketers have an easy time understanding PPC (you pay when someone clicks…okay, “I get it”). It is, without a doubt, much easier math. I spend $100 on 10 clicks and I make $300…saWEET! When it’s CPM based, if you know your conversion rates and the CTR (click through rate) you should be able to “know” what you can afford to spend on a cost-per-thousand based [...]
- 2006Mar13Convergence Continues
Just reading this article on Ad Age and I had to chuckle a little bit.
When Internet advertising was getting off of the ground, there were no “Interactive marketing” teams at agencies, to speak of, and certainly no Interactive marketing teams client-side. In my position with Lycos, I would be bounced from the IT department to the Marketing department and rarely come across someone that said “oh, Interactive marketing…yes, that’s my department”. More often than not, the decision to get involved with Internet marketing came from the CEO and was pushed down.
Most successful websites, in the early days, were born from the most successful areas of the newspaper. Classified Advertising (the most profitable section of any newspaper) was hurt severely by Monster.com and others. CNN.com, and others, made the Main section of the newspaper seem outdated. ESPN.com took on the Sports Section of the newspaper. On and on until there are now websites for every section of the newspaper.
Now, the “web” is taking on television (or is television taking to the web?). In either case, it’s convergence. And, just as there was a shake up within marketing departments on how to deal with “this Internet thing”, there are shake [...]
- 2006Mar13Future of Search Engine Marketing?
Well, had another interesting discussion with Mike Grehan, last Friday. There’s nothing like a healthly debate on where the Industry is heading. I really respect Mike’s opinions and always love to share ideas with him.
One of the things that we touched upon was the future of search engine marketing.
If we are to believe SEMPO’s studies which say that around 60% of all companies active in search engine marketing are highly interested in branding via search marketing, then I believe we will soon see the return of the ad banner on Google and other major search engines. It would be really funny to me, to see this happen.
Years ago, I was blessed to have met Rick Boyce, formerly the VP of Sales at Wired.com who launched the first ad banner on hotwired.com a long time ago. He shared with me a story that the initial banner received a 40% click through rate. At the time, there were many websites and few business models to show how a web-based company would be profitable. I don’t think I need to tell you that when “advertising-supported” became the business model and VC’s got wind of how “well” these banners worked, the Industry exploded. When [...]
- 2006Mar2Search Engine Strategies – New York City
Well, I just returned from another great Search Engine Strategies event. It is amazing to me how much this conference continues to grow, year after year.
While it’s always good to attend these to see friends, meet potential and current clients, and learn a thing or two, I was struck by how much this conference seems – to me – to evolve into an Interactive marketing conference rather than just “search”. I think this is an indication of where the medium is heading…the convergence of all media.
Some of the presentations I was most impressed with were those regarding the podcasting and blogging space. Many companies are still trying to figure out a strategy here.
On Monday, I attended a session titled “Podcast Search” which spoke to the tactics one might use to promote Podcasts through search engine marketing. Although all of the panelists were wonderful (Daron Babin from Webmaster Radio and Ethan Fassett from Yahoo!’s audio search team), I was really struck with the presentation that Amanda Watlington shared. Fortunately, Shana Barkley is friends with Amanda and made the introduction. Amanda and I were able to get together one evening with other friends (Christine Churchill from Key Relevance, Mike Grehan [...]
- 2006Feb20Been Busy Lately
Wow…have we been busy, lately.
Something tells me that this won’t stop anytime soon.
The search engine optimization space continues to grow, and we’ve been very fortunate to have many new clients on board including Conferencecall.com and Palm Harbor Homes.
Along with the new business, we are now seeing Google’s backlink/Page Rank update and this has been fun as heck to watch. I’ve been tracking 20 different Google IP banks and am watching the hourly updates bounce around like crazy. With the fact that the VIZION Interactive website is so new (just launched in early November) this will be the first update that we’ve caught with the website up and running. It should be interesting to see how this affects things.
Some members of the VIZION Interactive team will be making their way to the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York City, next week. This will be the first time that I’ve seen many “old” friends in some time, so it will be very nice to get reacquainted with everyone. If you’re one of those, please feel free to contact us and schedule some time to get together!
Well…I hope that it won’t be another 3 1/2 months until [...]
- 2005Nov9Vizion Interactive, Inc. Debuts Its Website
New company…same growth pattern.
As many of you know, I was recently with another search engine optimization company that experienced tremendous growth. Too bad that things didn’t work out just a little differently over there, but – then again – maybe not. I have taken lessons learned (thanks for the MBA!) and moved on. New company. New attitude. Great prospects for the future.
I am very hopeful that this trip into WWI (that’s Wonderful World of Interactive) is a much more favorable experience. I am very excited by the team that we’ve been able to assemble and am very optimistic for our future.
In a very short amount of time, we’ve been able to bring in some very solid clients, and we’ve developed some cool tools including a search engine friendly content management system. I expect us to have two additional content management systems launched within two months.
I would love to hear your comments on the new website (www.vizioninteractive.com) . We plan on adding many more features, in the coming weeks/months/years. But, that being said, I believe that you should always welcome good feedback from folks.
I’ll try to keep this blog updated with interesting articles, insights and such. If there’s anything [...]
- 1969Dec31Reward your Affiliates!
It is not hard to understand that those who are incentivized are those who are likely to perform at a higher level. At the basic level of an affiliate program, if people send you traffic/leads they are paid for their efforts. With that in mind, those who are paid more will likely provide you more traffic/leads.
There are multiple ways to reward your affiliates. This can be done by monetarily rewarding top performers, holding top performing affiliate contests, or rewarding exceptional lead generators with heightened commission rates. Regardless of your method you are most likely to pad your pockets in return as you watch an increased amount of leads flow in, all due to your newly motivated work force. Rewarding your affiliates does more for your affiliate marketing program besides making you feel like a nice person. It defines the affiliates who have the potential and will to work hard for your products. Another benefit of rewarding affiliates is that it builds communication and a more personal relationship with your top performers.
While you may have many different affiliates promoting the same products, no two affiliates are alike. Considering this, affiliates in most cases prefer to be rewarded in different ways. [...]
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