Jul
30th

Yahoo! & Microsoft – It’s Not What You Think

Posted by Vern on July 30, 2009 at 8:47 am

It’s old news by now. Microsoft and Yahoo! have joined forces in an attempt to counter Google’s dominance of search. Steve Ballmer and Carol Bartz were all smiles during the announcement on Wednesday. But what’s really going on here?

I contend that the deal is not about partnering to battle an adversary. It’s all about bolstering a struggling profit center at Microsoft. And from Yahoo’s perspective, search is a dying technology, time to move on to the next big thing.

Steve Ballmer

Ballmer is a master of business gamesmanship and negotiated a one-sided agreement to buy Yahoo’s search market share. He orchestrated a chain of events over the past year that left Yahoo! with no upfront payment (Bartz’s “boatloads of cash”) and guaranteed income for only a portion of the agreement term. Yahoo! does all the heavy lifting, maintaining a sales force and customer service staff. Bing scales to a size where it can make a significant contribution to Microsoft’s bottom line. Brilliant!

How’d he do it? What’s the best way to stop your competitor from innovating and improving their product? Tell them you want to buy them. Tell them you like what they do, appreciate what they’ve done in the past and want to talk about an acquisition. How long did the off and on buyout/partnership talks go on between Yahoo! and Microsoft? When’s the last time Yahoo! presented anything truly innovative in search marketing? Remember the Panama launch? Seems like forever ago. Yahoo! has coasted ever since, as Ballmer put a deep freeze on Yahoo! R&D by talking deal, all the while developing a pretty darn good search engine.

On the other side of the deal – I have to believe Carol Bartz is clairvoyant. Why on earth would she agree to give up so much for so little? It’s pure speculation on my part, but, maybe she’s seen the future and search isn’t part of her vision. Perhaps she’s looking to get on board the “social” train in a huge way. After all, practically every internet user on the planet touches a Yahoo! property on a daily basis. Does she have a secret master plan to monetize those eyeballs?

The next big hurdle for the deal, the Department of Justice, will certainly push implementation into next year and beyond. It could be two years before we searchers, or the companies for that matter, see any tangible benefit from this union. That’s forever in internet years. In the meantime, Twitter and Facebook continue to grow, capturing the hearts and minds of internet users and advertisers. Will search as we know it in 2009 be relevant in 2011? It’ll be fascinating to watch what happens. And I’ve got a front row seat.

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Jul
29th

SEO vs. PPC

Posted by Bob on July 29, 2009 at 9:12 am

“Ladies & Gentleman, Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!!”

“Tonight we have two heavy hitters, ready to go fist to cuffs in a close combat grudge match. Let’s look at the tale of the tape. In the blue corner, wearing black trunks with gold trim is SEO. SEO has a bit of a reach advantage in this fight, and has been know to drive an incredible amount of traffic. This heavyweight has been responsible for so many accomplishments in his long career. Not only being magnificent at content optimization for core business terms, but also maintaining strong ranks among the SERP circuit. He’s been driving quality traffic for years. Yes, SEO has the endurance and is ready for a long fight. But wait, SEO has his hands full tonight.”

“Tonight’s challenger is waiting in the red corner. This combatant is wearing green trunks with navy trim; let’s give it up for PPC! The first strength that comes to mind with PPC is his speed and adaptability. PPC’s manager does a great job of controlling when his fighter should start and stop certain strategies. PPC has also been known to hit people square in the face, with the exact message that they need at that time, leaving them woozy, disoriented, and captivated by his maneuvers. And let’s not forget the tag team match that paired PPC and Landing Page, that combination was unstoppable.”

“The fight is just about to get underway here…but wait…what’s this? It appears a new contender has entered the arena. This is unprecedented: Social Media has entered the building and is approaching the squared circle. From my vantage point it appears that Social is proposing an alliance, an all powerful trifecta of power! The union of SEO, PPC, and Social, it’s unbelievable; this could possibly be the most effective marriage of online efficiency ever seen!”

Okay, maybe this is just a little bit cheesy and over the top. I’ve been accused by certain co-workers of being that “sports analogy guy”, and maybe it’s well deserved. I suppose I just wanted to make my point in an entertaining way. And my point is, the great thing about online marketing is that it gives us the ability to use several different approaches to achieve our goals. When online opportunities are put together in smart and innovative ways, the payoff can be great.

It’s really not the size of your business or the budget that you’re working with. What’s important is how you use the resources you have at your disposal. What’s important is how you maximize your budget. Your particular needs may not fall into a conventional set of line items on the online marketing to-do list. Your business is different, it may not conform to exactly what everyone else is doing, but you can still be victorious online.

A company like Oneupweb would be more than happy to look at your unique situation, and relentlessly assist your business to find the right solution (not just the traditional solution).

What do you think the future holds for online advertising?

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Jul
28th

Search – The Opportunities Are Everywhere

Posted by Chip Rice on July 28, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Today marks the start of the 5th annual Traverse City Film Festival, which of course has got me thinking about the opportunity to see great films that otherwise might not ever make their way to Northern Michigan.

But film isn’t the only thing that comes to mind for me. Oddly enough, it’s also got me thinking about search marketing.

What does the Traverse City Film Festival have to do with search marketing, you might ask? Well, it’s a perfect example of yet another search opportunity for businesses, mainly local businesses.

Consider for a moment how many people come to the Traverse City Film Festival from out of town, and the impact that this has on the local economy. Consider now that you’re the proprietor of a local business-say a local hotel, restaurant or any other activity that film goers are likely to be a patron of while they are in town to watch the films.

At what point in time do you want to start to get your message in front of this film audience? That’s right, as early as possible-probably when they are just starting to make their initial travel plans.

So let’s say someone is planning on attending the Traverse City Film Festival, there’s a good chance that a search engine will be involved during the initial stage of the plan making process. What opportunity is there for your local business to get in front of these people if they search, say “Traverse City Film Festival”?

Well let’s see, Google often times will offer recommendations for related searches. Do you see any opportunities in there?

But let’s not use those boring old text links. Why not make this even more fun by breaking out the Wonder Wheel?

That’s better. Now let’s say you operate a Traverse City hotel. And don’t out-of-towners typically need of a place to stay? So let’s just suppose that some of these out-of-town film goers click on the “Traverse City hotels” link in order to find a place to stay. Are there any opportunities there?

If I’m running a hotel in Traverse City, I can see four opportunities right off the bat.

1) Paid search – self explanatory (read up if you’re not familiar with paid search opportunities).
2) Google Maps – Local business results are front and center in local based Google queries-submitting my business here is definitely a priority.
3) Yahoo Travel – offering a wide variety of travel related information/resources-I’m making sure my hotel is included here.
4) Trip Advisor – offering reviews and comparisons of local hotels-I definitely want to make sure my business is included here as well.

Notice that I didn’t even bring up ranking high naturally in the search results, and yet, I was still able to identify four immediate opportunities to make sure I’m in front of my target audience within the SERP (search engine results page).

In my opinion natural search optimization is fundamental and always will be, but search has become a much more dynamic space than that, and as a result, the opportunities are ever growing.

So what’s the key to success in today’s search environment? Get creative, identify your opportunities and Be Relentless!

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Jul
28th

Searching for Whatever that Game is Called…

Posted by Lawrence on July 28, 2009 at 8:46 am

I don’t know if it is a cultural, regional, blast from the past, or a passing fad phenomenon, but whatever you like to call this game, you can no longer ignore it. I have recently played the “Cornhole” game in 3 different regional settings, with 3 different names for the game (and found out that I have some serious potential). I wanted to do some online research to find information on either buying or building my own “Cornhole” set, so that I can have my own game at home and practice up for the next competition.

Wikipedia has the entry logged under the term “Cornhole”, which is how some of the competitors I know in Mt. Pleasant, MI, refer to the game. Meanwhile, over in nearby Elk Rapids, MI, the game is referred to as “bag hole”. In the parking lot of the Alpine Valley Music Theater in WI, it is known as “tailgate toss”. Wikipedia also refers to this game with a variety of other official names, such as “bean bag toss”, “bags”, and “baggo”.

A Google search for the term “Cornhole” (shown above) returned some interesting results: 791,000 in fact. There were also a few more variations on the name of the game itself (Indiana Horseshoes and bean throw). There were many natural and paid listings that appeared to help guide me on my search. The website for the American Cornhole Association (ACA) appeared in the natural search results for many of the different name variations that I was searching for. They clearly displayed in their description and title tags that they were a qualified source for the information that I was seeking, and also provided a sense of “knowing their varied audience” by taking the initiative to appear in the results for the numerous names that people might call the game.

On their website, the ACA clearly listed the purpose of their chartered organization: to promote and grow the game to all fifty of the United States, to educate and inform those new to the game, to standardize the game and the rules, to recommend equipment and standards, to establish a ranking and rating system for tournament play, and to provide a forum for Cornholers around the world to share ideas, information and stories. This website also contained many easy to find links to rules, scoring, game board and bag dimensions, and numerous game products and accessories for sale. There were also many “officially licensed” college and professional sports team branded boards and bags, as well as “official” scoring towers to help the players keep track during the heated battles. Some of these scoring towers also featured beverage holders conveniently attached to them, however, the great ones who taught me the finer points of the game said that holding your beverage while throwing the bags was essential for balance and maintaining fluidity during competition.

Cornhole and the many name variations are essentially the same game, but with a few small differences. “Official” Cornhole rules, according to the ACA uses 4′x2′ game boards, whereas the “bean bag toss” and “tailgate toss” variations play with a 3′x2′ board. The bean bags, or Cornhole Bags, remain the same standard size of 6″x6″ (although there is debate as to the perfect bag filler). So it’s basically just the game boards that differentiate the games, while the dimensions of the playing field, scoring, and player throwing rules maintain uniformity across these variations.

Some of the pre-made regulation and branded Cornhole game boards seemed rather pricey for me to make an immediate purchase, and since I am a novice woodworker, I thought that I would also look up some information on building my own set (basically a board with a hole in it, and some hand sewn bags). An interesting website called “Cornhole Cornhole” provided some great tips and plans on how to build my own game set, as well as some needed strategy and terminology to read up on. Reading the numerous responses to the various topics could take forever, but there were some very serious players responding to some very serious topics about the finer points of the game.

While Cornhole – or whatever you call it – is a physical game played with official products, rules, and regulations, it appears that it’s also a game that is competing for your business within the online space. With many different companies and organizations trying to provide you the valuable game information and products for sale, it is a fierce battle being fought within the natural, paid, and social online arenas as well.

Whatever the product, service, or information that you or your business is selling or providing, keep in mind the need to diversify your online portfolio. Don’t forget to take into account the fact that online searchers may know exactly what they want, but might not know exactly what it is called or where to find it. Be where your audience is searching, and be descriptive as to what makes your business the best source for what these searchers want and need.

Here is an fun added bonus: a link to the Cornhole song video posted on YouTube. Enjoy!

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Jul
24th

Who Knew That Finding Outrage On the Internet Would Be So Easy?

Posted by admin on July 24, 2009 at 9:13 am

This Tuesday marks the kickoff for the fifth annual Traverse City Film Festival, an endeavor that has grown in size and scope every single year. People from all over the world come to the jewel of Northern Michigan to enjoy films that don’t play at their local Cineplex.

My friends and I have gone to the festival every year, and one of the only “complaints” I’ve ever heard is that there are “too many” good movies, and it can become difficult to decide what to see. That’s a problem I don’t mind having every year. But what can you do to help figure out the best course of action?

Thankfully, the ubiquitous search engine Google can offer plenty of help. By its very nature, the lineup of films at the TCFF is very good, and the descriptions written on the website and in the program guide make each movie sound like a winner. Many of the films have either opened in large markets like New York or Los Angeles, or played at festivals like Sundance or Cannes. So when trying to make a tough decision, looking at the organic Search Engine Results Page (SERP) can offer some valuable insight from a wide variety of sources.

For example, when I was readying myself to wait in line for five hours to buy tickets, I was reading some of the synopses, and I came across a movie called “Outrage”. The first line was something like, “the new film from the Oscar-nominated documentarian Kirby Dick…” and I stopped reading right there. Having seen Dick’s previous documentary, the brilliant “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”, I knew I had to put it on my list. Now, having bought the ticket, I realized that I would like to know a little bit more about the movie.

People don’t have to do much searching for films like “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” or “Bruno”, which opened on 4,325 screens and 2,756 screens, respectively, are backed by multimillion dollar studio ad campaigns, and are part of the pop culture that people talk about in general conversation. “Outrage” opened on five screens and never played on more than 18, so water cooler conversation about it in most sectors is probably close to nil.

Thankfully Google is there to help. As you can see below, just typing the word “Outrage” into the search bar returned four relevant results right at the top of the page: the official film website, the trailer from the Apple Movies website, the Internet Movie Data Base page, and a blog from the Los Angeles Times about the film. All of these sites can provide valuable, pertinent information for Dick’s latest documentary.

I must admit that this isn’t what I expected. The word “Outrage” is a fairly common word in the English language, particularly on the Internet, where someone is always Outraged about something. The fact that Google can interpret my intentions of this search, with seven of the 10 results returned on the first page for the film, is quite frankly pretty astonishing.

With the exception of the LA Times blog, most of the information found is “official” information. I want to know what people who have seen the movie are saying about it. Simply adding the word “reviews” brings up an entirely different SERP with none of the sites listed from our original search, as seen below. Reviews from Pop Matters, the New York Times, and Rolling Stone, among others, offer a wide variety of opinions that can help give you a better idea of what the movie is like, and if it’s something you really want to see.

The SERP also offers results pages from the sites Meta Critic and Rotten Tomatoes, the preeminent film review aggregators on the Internet. These are great websites to get an overall feeling for how critics rated the movies; Meta Critic is based on a 1-100 scale, while Rotten Tomatoes uses the “fresh” and “rotten” denotations, accompanied by a robust red tomato graphic for fresh, and a squished green tomato for rotten, and displays the overall “freshness” as a percentage. A score over 60% is “Certified Fresh.”

Another option for finding reviews is to click the “Show Options” tab right above the first result. This provides links to videos, forums, and reviews. It offers different time frames and the choice of sorting by date or relevance. This gets a little bit further away from the actual film, but the reviews tab is certainly helpful in this instance.

So all you Cinephiles, if you’ve got a few holes in your Traverse City Film Festival schedule and aren’t sure which movies to fill them with, check out the natural search results on Google. You’ll be sure to find enough information to satiate your cinematic needs.

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