Armed with a client list that includes Netflix, Kaplan University, eBay, Lasik, InPhonic and more, the AzoogleAds network delivers targeted and un-targeted traffic from a variety of Web Properties and email publishers.
Link: AzoogleAds.
Also see: ADBUMb Readers Name AzoogleAds.com Top CPA and Affiliate Company of 2004
http://www.ereleases.com/pr/2004-02-23c.html
Also see: ADBUMb 2005 AFFILIATE SURVEY
http://www.adbumb.com/archives/2005/06/adbumb_2005_aff_1.php
Posted at 05:56 PM in Internet Advertising | Permalink
Dialog Central is a free system that enables you to acquire the page-by-page visitor insight you need to continuously improve your entire website...
Link: DialogCentral.
Posted at 02:15 PM in Research & Testing | Permalink
Found an interesting site called Textually.org. It's a site "all about text messaging and how cell phones are being used around the world." Noteworthy mentions include an entire section on SMS Marketing & Advertising, SMS and Micro Payments,
And of course Google has their own "Google SMS" in beta. Did you expect anything less? Oh, and don't forget Google Mobile...
Link: textually.org.
Posted at 05:55 PM in Information Portals, Search-General, Search-Google, Tech-eCommerce, Tech-SMS | Permalink
There are currently over 60 podcasts listed. This venue can be used to create solid marketing buzz.
Here's a podcast directory.
Link: www.techpodcasts.com - Home.
Free tools here include:
Posted at 01:32 PM in Free Tools & Info | Permalink
Offermatica's software is a hosted testing and optimization platform that enables marketers to rapidly test offer content to maximize selling effectiveness.
Posted at 12:41 PM in Research & Testing | Permalink
Vertster has an interesting product that helps you increase the effectiveness of a web based offer. If you are getting ready to push thousands of offers, you might want to check them out.
Posted at 12:28 PM in Research & Testing | Permalink
The Gilbane Report offers a 24 page report that summarizes:
If you want a good primer on blogs and wikis, this is it.
Posted at 12:59 PM in Tech-Blogging | Permalink
Posted at 09:26 PM in Tech-Software | Permalink
Want to use Google more effectively to generate better results and higher ROI?
Try building Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns based on secondary terms instead of only primary ones. Secondary terms generally have a lower cost per click, are considered less competitive, and usually offer better ROI.
The difference between "Primary" and "Secondary" terms
"Primary Terms" are those terms that most simply describe your industry or offering, whereas Secondary Terms" have some additional term or word attached to it that makes it longer (and therefore less competitive). Generally, the longer the phrase is the less it costs per click because there is less of a chance that someone will click that exact phrase. The upside though, is that less clicks per phrase on a less competitive term usually means a lower cost per click overall.
So, instead of running only 3-4 primary terms in your campaigns with each click costing you $2-8 per click, try packing your campaigns with primary and secondary terms. It might help you lower your average cost per click. Sure, you may generate less clicks on each term, and you may have to spend a bit more time managing your campaigns to be more effective, but overall, your cost per click will probably decrease.
A quick way to generate primary terms
Simply right click a competitors site (not on an image) and select "view source". There, you will see meta information something like: <title> what the company does in one sentence</title> and <meta name="description" content="more information and a longer description of the company, its offerings, and many primary keywords"/> and <meta name="keywords" content="5-10 primary keywords with a few (10-20) secondary ones>
Cut and paste all the terms into an excel list. Do this for a few companies you think are solid competitors to you. Use the most general terms that best describe your company, offering, or industry. Use these 3-5 primary terms to build out your secondary term list.
Creating secondary terms from primary ones
Enter (one by one) your short list of primary terms used to describe your offering into Overture's Suggestion Tool or Wordtracker. In your results will be variations of those terms, ranked by how many times searches are being made on them per month. If your primary term generated zero returns and shows no ranking, you may want to reconsider using that term.
Take whatever results you have for each word and cut and paste them all (list by list) into one excel worksheet down the sheet so the numbers are in column one (A) and the terms are in another (B). When you are finished, highlight your entire sheet, click "A-Z Sort" (under "Data") and sort by Column A (the numbers column). If you decide to highlight only one column, make sure you click "expand your selection" to include the other column. Get rid of all duplicates and the ones that don't explain your offering. This will give you a clean list of potential terms, along with the number of times people search for that term - all ranked from most searched to least.
You can use this list two ways. One, is to pick out a few terms and develop individual Google campaigns entirely focused on that one term. Then set up a campaign for each term. Around these terms, create specifically tailored ads. The other way, is to cut and paste the entire list of terms (primary and secondary) into a campaign by themselves, and then go back and add the entire list again (into the same campaign), but this time enter them with extra words attached describing in more detail your exact offering. (i.e. affordable, virginia, maryland, dc, d.c., washington dc, etc.) This will give you a much larger list.
Let's use an example:
"content management" is a primary term
"affordable content management" is a secondary term
so is "affordable content management reston"
and also "affordable content management reston virginia"
...and so on. You see?
Where's the ROI?
The term "content management" is considered to be a primary term in the content management industry, whereas "affordable content management" would be considered secondary. Content management companies generally want to rank high on the primary term, but to do that, they need to spend a ton of money for each click - somewhere in the order of $5-20 per click. Unfortunately, in the process of trying to outbid each other, they inadvertently price each other higher and higher. Google is most often the biggest winner on this one.
Some larger companies can afford to spend heavily because their Content Management System (CMS) is priced at $100,000, and at that price point they can absorb a much higher advertising cost. They may see solid ROI at $3 per click because they know they are comfortable spending up to $7,500 to generate one $100,000 deal.
Using this example, this same company may have already figured out that they only need to have 3 proposals out the door, generated from a series of meetings with 9 different companies. They may already know that interest from these 9 companies will come from 27 qualified leads - all generated from 2500 clicks to the site during some period of time (let's say a month). They may also know that after they run the numbers, they will spend $7500 to generate that one deal - equaling 7.5% of revenue for that offering. They may know that this is acceptable - even considered successful. And in this example it just may be.
That's great for them, but what about us? What about those of us offering something for only $15,000 (or less)? Spending $7,500 (50% marketing investment) might not be feasible in our case. If we set up our campaigns with only primary keywords, we find ourselves competing for space with these larger companies, and would be positioned down the list on page two or three. Maybe. If we're lucky. If we decided to compete and price ourselves at $3 per click we might end up spending more to get the deal than the deal was worth. This is where using secondary terms at lower costs becomes valuable.
A last word
Google can be made to work for you, but you need to be willing to do more than simply enter 3-5 primary keywords. Instead, you need to know how much you can spend - based on product cost, ability to close deals - to make it work. Think of using Google as moving up and down many levers. This one opens you to more people, that one makes sure only qualified people find you. There's more to it than that, but hopefully this will help you some.
Posted at 05:28 PM in Google Advertising | Permalink
There's an interesting new search portal that could become important as a way to share, rent, or borrow just about anything.
Moogul, as it's called, still seems to be in the beginning stages of build out, and while I found it to be of little value to me right now, I suspect that if I come back months from now, I'll be much more interested. With some momentum, focus, and the right press, this could become a household name, and right up there in usefulness with Amazon, eBay, Snapfish, Google.
It seems to be an online marketplace where you can either request to rent or share something (anything), or post a description of what you want to rent out or share.
Search for a "Nikon Camera" and you will see books and movies about Nikon Cameras. No actual cameras, but I suspect it won't be long before cameras, sailboats, trucks, beach houses, and even teams of engineers (remember eBay?) will be available for rent or borrow.
As I'm reviewing this, I can't help but think of all the things we (as consumers that tend to purchase individually and not as small groups) get for occasional use. We buy lawnmowers, tools for weeding and trimming, riding mowers, combines (think big farms), motorcycles, kayaks and canoes, and more. We buy these things and only use them when we want to. The rest of the time, it sits somewhere and wastes valuable garage space or takes up half the lawn.
What if, instead of buying a tree trimmer and using it once a year and sitting it in the garage doing nothing, you could loan or rent it out throughout the neighborhood so everyone could use it...which is usually only to cut that one ugly dead branch dangling awkwardly. Nobody ever uses it so much that it can't be shared. Do they?
And if you were to add a local element to the process, you then would have a setup where a small community could share (at little or no cost) something that normally costs something more for each person. The people renting only spend when using it and they don't have to store it. The person offering something to be rented receives some of the initial investment back, even though some wear and tear occurs...which in the case of a tree trimmer would be minuscule.
Overall, this scenario seems like a win-win to me. I think it's just a matter of time before momentum takes hold and this site scales big time.
Posted at 06:49 PM in Search-General | Permalink
Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, in his article "The Science of Shopping" shows how much thought and planning is put into getting a consumer to buy.
Have you ever wondered why the typical supermarket often puts the meat counter, dairy products, and fresh produce against the edges of the store, and away from the middle? Or why some stores have the products you want most located in the back of the store? Gladwell sheds some light on these questions and more. To read the entire article, click through to Gladwell.com.
Posted at 06:46 PM in Articles and Books | Permalink
We were introduced to an easy and affordable method for selling merchandise at no cost - assuming you use your own prints and logos.
CafePress has set itself up as an inexpensive way to sell custom products online. There are no upfront costs.
I used CafePress to create my own store, and in under 10 minutes I was up and running and selling two mugs. All I had to do was sign up (which required nothing), decide which merchandise I wanted to sell, upload an image, and then position the image on the product. It's that simple.
See the end result at http://www.cafeshops.com/BuyChristopher
By the way, this service was brought to my attention by Scott Blust, the COO of Sterling-based Carpathia Hosting, a local Sterling based provider of high performance Web hosting solutions.
Posted at 06:41 PM in Free Tools & Info, Product Reviews, Tech-eCommerce | Permalink
With Google, you can now search the full text of your email, files, viewed web pages, and chats.
Once you download and install Google Desktop Search, it starts indexing the email, files, and web pages that were stored on your computer before you installed the application. It takes a few hours and happens while you aren't using your computer, so start the download before you go on a client meeting or a long lunch.
Here's the link to the About Google Desktop Search to learn more about the application and installation process.
Posted at 06:14 PM in Search-Google | Permalink
Google has a localized search engine that helps you to find local businesses and services on the web.
Google Local is easy. Simply enter any keyword you are searching for such as the word "automotive", and then enter your zip code or city and then search. Every local automotive dealer, car shop, and repair shop in Google comes up in the return. You can further tailor it to search more locally within 1,5,15, or 45 miles.
The top two link returns (or sponsored links) almost always come from Overture, or some other pay per click (PPC) advertising network. After that come the returns that simply came up in the search, not paid for exposure.
Posted at 06:12 PM in Google Advertising, Search-Google | Permalink
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If you're here because you've been tasked with increasing visibility, building momentum or creating new opportunities for your organization in and around the Washington D.C. area - you've come to the right place.
This site is packed with useful marketing information - and includes hundreds of links. You'll also find local technology calendar listings and networking links to help you get (and stay) plugged in. In addition, there are tons of marketing links, various news wires, links to useful blogging tools and Web-based systems, marketing book recommendations, local venture capital listings, font foundry listings, marketing associations listings and much more.
PS: Updates and additions are made regularly.
The Razorwest Team
Razorwest, LLC
Razorwest is a provider of marketingand business consulting services that help emerging technology and large companies to create organizational success through maximizing marketing results, achieving operational excellence and developing highly effective individuals and teams.
"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt." - William Shakespeare
Posted at 04:51 PM in About This Blog | Permalink
