Twitter Becomes A Search Engine

Twitter’s updated front page now shows a giant search box with trending topics under it. Is this where Twitter’s cannonball into the pool last summer really starts to create a giant splash?

Now people can search results taken from content updated within the past 1 second. Twitter’s search algorithm is expected to evolve quickly (currently all results are served in chronological order). Advertisers are chomping at the bit to see what type of self-serve platform Twitter may be constructing.

The new look and feel should engage a few folks still sitting on the sidelines who never enjoyed or understood blogging, much less microblogging or nanoblogging)

Dennis Yu Scheduled to Speak at SMX West Search Marketing Expo

High 5’s to Dennis Yu on being invited to speak at the SMX Search Marketing Expo.    I work side by side with Dennis at BlitzLocal and I can testify that this man is some sort of marketing phenom.   I have a feeling people are going to be excited by what Dennis has to say about Local Search and efficiencies.  

Here are the details:

SMX West – Santa Clara, CA – February 10, 2009

Outstanding content. Prestigious keynotes. Unrivaled community.

Get three days of sessions, keynotes, networking activities, special educational presentations and meals for which SMX events are famous.

Dennis Yu is scheduled to present @ 1:15pm on Feb 10th.

Local Search Marketing Tactics – Local search doesn’t only happen in relation what’s on a map. This session looks at a variety of local search tactics that are not necessarily tied to your physical location’s listing.

Moderator: Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

Speakers:

Matt McGee, Assignment Editor, Search Engine Land
William Scott, President, Search Influence
Dennis Yu, CEO, BlitzLocal LLC

See the full SMX Agenda

Things To Write In Your Business Blog

Great News! Your boss has informed you the friendly IT department has setup a personal blog area for each staff member, linked to from the primary corporate site, now what the hell are you going to include on this thing?  If you can’t figure out the first step you aren’t alone, I’ll be your teammate.

Things I’ve ruled out posting about :

What I did over the weekend.  Why I hate Mondays and weekends.  Trade Secrets.  Trying to define what Sensitive Information is or isn’t.

Things I consider positive about this type of blog:

It’s like a brochure for yourself, that is up to date and evolves.  The entire blog should be a carefully crafted sales pitch that doesn’t offend the user by making them feel like they are reading a bunch of bullcrap.   If you, or your products/services suck, you should not create a blog.   Tell your boss it will hurt your sales.

I think including brief posts about potential deals in a way that strokes the potential client’s ego could be a useful tool depending on what industry you are in .  You can always remove the post (or edit it) if they don’t sign.

If you don’t plan to update your blog more than twice per month, you should make sure the date tags are basically removed from the major areas and only contained on the posted article’s page itself.  This will keep your primary blog area from seeming outdated.

Here are the top 10 business benefits of blogging.

1. Search Engine Marketing
Spidering search engines like Google love websites that are regularly updated with fresh, well written, keyword-rich content. People will be able to find your website more easily (because Google will list more pages), Google will re-index your site more frequently (meaning new pages you put online will appear in the search results more quickly) and it will also give your rankings a boost

2. Direct Communications
Over time will you will build up a readership of people who have subscribed to receive updates to your blog because they are interested in what you have to say. Every time you publish a new article it gets pushed out to all your readers giving you the ability to communicate directly with your target audience. For example we are primarily a web design company so we write about web design and everything relating to it.

3. Brand Building
A blog is a great way to get your brand in front of thousands of people who otherwise would never know you existed.

4. Competitive Differentiation
How will your potential customers know what makes you different from your competitors? You will tell them on your blog! Show them how you work, what sets you apart and how your solution to their challenges is unique.

5. Relational Marketing
Successful selling is all about building relationships. By posting honest, transparent, heart-felt articles on your blog you will instill trust and respect in your potential customers. The best blogs are a 2-way communication where your readers can comment on your articles. This interaction gets them more involved and more engaged.

6. Social Media Marketing
Community sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and social bookmarking sites like delicious, Stumbleupon and digg can produce astounding results. If you are lucky enough to have one of your blog articles go ‘viral’ on one of these sites you should brace yourself for a surge of new website visitors and possibly some high quality inbound links.

7. Media & Public Relations
The chances are if you are running a blog but your competitors are not the media will contact you, not them.

8. Position Yourself as an Expert
Are you an expert in your field? Well tell the world on your blog. If you really know what you are talking about people will pay attention and before you know it you will have a dedicated following of readers who hang on your every word! These people are also far more likely to buy from you.

9. Reputation Management
Do you know what is being said about you online? Do you have a platform to counter any negative press your company is receiving? With a blog you do. It is one way you can help to manage your online reputation.

10. Low Cost
Setting up a blog doesn’t cost very much and maintaining one costs practically nothing.

Special Thanks to Simon Rycoft from the Benefits List.

Free Keyword Suggestion Tool

Adwords Free Keyword Suggestion Tool is a great resource to use when you are trying to pick the name of a new domain, a new directory, or a new article title.

Is Non-Search PPC Dead? CPA Wave of the Future? Hopes for Flat Rate!

I clearly remember in the mid 90’s you could signup for an ad campaign, make $.03/click all day long, and things were never easier. Over time, the payout rates increased at the same pace as venture capital financing, until anyone without funding who had a workable business model could not really compete with the unrealistic/unsustainable rates paid by cash rich advertisers. This worked well for general publishers who were just trying to make a living putting 2 banners on every page of their site; until the venture financing dried up and all the advertisers with negative returns packed up and went home.

Anyone who was left in the industry after the dotcom implosion of 2000 was pretty much wondering around stunned. There was no trust left, every offer seemed suspicious, and it seemed like everything was coming to and end. It basically was. There was a mix of failing companies trying to hang on, and new companies with new ideas trying to turn profits using certain elements of the first internet economy that were successful. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would be CPA, or pay per lead revenue. If SiteABC can make $14.00/year average from each user on their site, paying SITEXYZ $2.75 per referred user works. If a large publisher with low quality traffic comes on board sending tons of clicks to advertisers it doesn’t scew any profit margins, they just don’t get paid if they don’t produce signup leads. All Hail CPA!

Search PPC (pay per click) still works to generate revenue for the search engine because they often have keyword bidding systems, and can target words to relevant topics across a huge spectrum. One stop shops for large brokers and networks to use to fulfill their advertising campaigns. Sure you can get a peice of this action by joining AdWords, but it’s not really a very indepedent (they take 30%) solution for you. I can only try to guess at what they actually count as a qualified click-thru at this point. Of course without 100,000s of advertisers bidding against each other the most you’d ever make per click auctioning off your own targetted spots independently would probably yield you 1 cent per click, so an ad network like Adwords is generally the last option people have.

I like the Flat Rate ad sales features in Adbrite. For a long time we have listed our banners at flat rate prices in a shopping cart but there was only 4 or 5 sales total during a year. With adbrite, you can set your flat rate price and it’s seen by 1000s of advertisers. As long as your tracking clicks yourself you can do some simple math if you need to see a price per click breakdown of your income.