BizReport : Search Marketing : November 05, 2010

Google Instant has had a positive impact on click-through rates and ad impressions, according to recent research by Marin Software, despite earlier concerns the fast page displays would decrease traffic.by Helen LeggattGoogle Instant is serving up more relevant ads, according to Marin Software. This is reflected in a rise of 5.6% in click-through rates.”Google Instant was seen as a big gamble for Google when the company announced it, but it’s proved to be a positive change for the industry,” said Matt Lawson, vice-president of marketing, Marin Software.
“Google has pulled off the elusive win-win-win with the release of Instant, driving increased usability for consumers and increased volume for advertisers, while managing to increase their slice of the overall search pie in the process.”When Marin Software, who manage search ad spending, compared ad impressions in the two weeks after the introduction of Google Instant with those in the two weeks prior, they found these, too, had risen – by 9.3%.But is this rise due to

After all that hoopla of cities vying to get Google’s first–free!–ultra high-speed broadband network (you know, cities renaming themselves “Google,” mayors swimming with sharks), it turns out that the company is bestowing those riches on none other than its next-door neighbor…

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Skype made its VOIP calling capabilities available to HTC and Motorola smartphones running Google’s Android operating system version 2.1 and above.

Users with Skype accounts who own such handsets as the Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Incredible and HTC Evo 4G can now make free Skype-to-Skype calls and instant messages from their phones to users’ computers or phones.

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]]> http://skunkworkssolutions.com/internet-marketing-strategies/cash-flow-calculator/feed/ 0 http://skunkworkssolutions.com/internet-marketing-strategies/drawbacks-to-the-services-facebook-and-twitter-provide/ http://skunkworkssolutions.com/internet-marketing-strategies/drawbacks-to-the-services-facebook-and-twitter-provide/#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:58:47 +0000 admin http://skunkworkssolutions.com/?p=2529 Merchants must be careful not to overload their followers or friends with constant messages.

Facebook’s and Twitter’s potential to help businesses during a dismal economy should be enticing for many business owners.

At the Lodi Winegrape Commission’s Facebook page, posts are made three to four times a week and include times and dates for upcoming events, pictures and questions designed to spur responses from friends.

“The key is have a conversation and be listening to the audience,” said Shannon Harbert, marketing and communications coordinator for the Lodi Winegrape Commission. “We’re trying to use it as a vehicle to promote to the consumer.”

“This strengthens a great strategic relationship with Yahoo! and broadens the reach of our local advertiser network,” said Sean Greene, SVP of interactive at Dex One. “Through the network our clients’ online business information appears not only on DexKnows but also in prime locations on many of the Web’s most popular search sites, including Yahoo! Local.”

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Facebook Like is one of the social plugins offered by Facebook that lets people share your content with their friends.  When you add the Facebook Like button to your own small business ecommerce website anyone who clicks it will have a story appear in their News Feed with a link back to your website.

“Facebook is building another index of the Web,” said Charles Nicholls, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SeeWhy. “Only this index it isn’t based on Google’s arbitrary algorithms, it is built based upon people’s likes and preferences.”

Understanding how the Like Button works on the Web is pretty easy. Once you have the social plugin added to your website, Facebook users can click that Like Button your page and news of this activity and is added to their own public activity stream.  All of their Facebook friends will see their friend has “Liked” your page, and they can also click the activity and be taken directly to your page.

The good news for ecommerce site owners is that Facebook Like is easy to put on your website.  It’s a simple matter of getting a line of code and deciding where on your webpage you want to display the Like button.  Nicholls recommends that you should include Facebook Like on your homepage and also on your individual product pages.

To get started you’ll want to visit the Like Button Social Plugin Page on the Facebook Developers website.

Allowing business owners this added control over their Place Page  is an indication that Google is moving in the direction of the Facebook Fan Pages.  This added feature will help with reviews that are just being placed to discredit the business.

Visit Google Places to verify your business today, it is free.

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Out of all the traffic strategies attracting organic search engine traffic (i.e. FREE TRAFFIC) should obviously be of interest to you!  Since it is free and your potential customers tend to trust the authority a search engine assigns to your website – especially if it appears on Google Page 1.

One of the main strategies to get your site “discovered” (indexed) by the Search Engies is to utilize Social Media sites and Social Bookmarking. These strategies will maximize the exposure of your website and offers – to make More Money Online!

To maximize your results, you can not settle for just one Social Media or Social Bookmarking site, you need to use a strategy that includes a good sized selection and combination of Social Media and Social Bookmarking properties.

When you launch a new website, you need to do something to call the attention of the search engines to crawl and index it, and finally give it a place in the search results (rank it!). If you build a website and don’t drive attention to it, you are not going to have any organic traffic at all.  You need to make sure you have the best possible visibility for your website.

So, to keep calling Google’s attention to your website, we want to make sure we are adding backlinks to it on a regular basis month after month after month.  People often ask us “when do you stop promoting a website?”  Our answer is “We only stop promoting a website when we want to stop making money from it!” Remember the word of the day: Consistency!

This consistent effort will show Google that you truly care about what you are promoting. Not only will you maintain your rankings – they will grow over time as a result.  Website aging is one of the factors that affect Google ranks (Google LOVES crusty old domains!)

If you have a niche website and you are not receiving consistent traffic, pay attention to your marketing and promotion efforts. Usually, the main reason for limited success is lack of the right promotion and the lack of consistency.

Also understand that when we talk about promotion, we are talking at the page level. You must promote your websites page by page and keyword by keyword.  And, you must build a Web 2.0 campaign around every long tail keyword relevant to your niche…And that is just the beginning of what it really takes to make real and consistent money online!

Most people understand the importance of one way links to their websites and Web 2.0 properties to get them to RANK. But, what many of them miss, or find out the hard way, is that one way links are not enough. One of the most important strategies to use is to promote the promoters (the social media sites). This type of strategy must be spread out over time, and you will see these pages rank!

To bookmark a website is an ongoing project.  You only stop promoting when you don’t want any more traffic (and when you stop wanting to make money!).  The way we look at it is: if you don’t care enough to continue promoting your websites on a regular basis, why would you expect Google to keep paying attention to you?

This type of an internet marketing strategy requires a lot of work and time. These days to have a real business, you need to leverage your time. There is a limit to how much a business can grow with the effort of a “single man army”.

We take the pain and work out of a Social Media campaign by creating and implementing a search and response type campaign instead of just posting social comments which can consume your time and give little or no results plus automating your Social Bookmarking campaign to leverage your time so you can concentrate your efforts on your business.

So if you are ready for a successful internet marketing campaign contact Skunkworks Marketing Solutions now and position your business as a leader in the industry.

Social Media campaigns starting as low as $99

Content articles are an essential part of search engine marketing and when done properly they can have a tremendously positive and long term effect to your web site business! Effective article marketing is an investment in your business!

It’s true… Writing an article takes more than a couple of minutes. It comes easily for some people but it can be downright painful for others. Cutting corners and using the same articles that others have submitted to the search engines and directories will not get you anywhere. Many other written articles are void of any real information or useful content. Still others are simply loaded up with keywords and keyword phrases… not to mention the fact that they are boring and uninteresting.

These types of articles are the fastest way to the trash can from a reader point of view and ultimately from a search engine point of view. The end result for these types of content articles is GIGO. That’s right GIGO! Garbage in – Garbage out! You can’t do an inferior job and then expect to get better or superior results. Additionally, you can’t expect to get people to want to read, link-to and circulate an article that is poorly written, full of mistakes, lacking content and largely neglecting to provide any new or useful information to the reader.

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Mr. Paulson’s tally for 2007 was nearly $4 billion. It was the largest one-year payout in the history of the financial markets. The next year, he made another $5 billion for his firm by betting against financial companies with exposure to housing.

As Mr. Paulson and others at his office discussed how much was being spent by the United States and other nations to rescue areas of the economy crippled by the financial collapse, he discovered his next targets, certain they were as doomed to collapse as sub prime mortgages once had been: the U.S. dollar and other major currencies.

Mr. Paulson calculated the supply of dollars had expanded by 120% over several months. That surely would lead to a drop in its value, and an eventual surge in inflation. “What’s the only asset that will hold value? It’s got to be gold,” Mr. Paulson argued.

“Three or four years from now, people will ask why they didn’t buy gold earlier,” Mr. Paulson said.

Paulson is starting a new gold hedge fund.  It will open on January 1, 2010 and Paulson will put up to $250 million of his own money into the fund, Zuckerman reported on The Wall Street Journal Online. He purchased billions of dollars of gold investments. Betting against the dollar would be his new trade.

Every quarter, hedge fund managers are required to file a 13F with the SEC detailing their holdings. It reveals that of the $20.5 billion in securities held by Paulson’s hedge fund, $5.8 billion are in gold and gold equities.  30% of Paulson’s $20 billion in securities is in gold.

We are not advising to rush out and buy gold.  But it is time to start putting together a plan for accumulating it when the market gives you an opportunity.  When it does, it won’t last long and you want to be ready.  We sure will be.

The new report, “Auto Advertising Outlook 2010: Running on Empty,” brings good news for online advertising in 2010. Meanwhile, the rack publications and yellow pages will continue taking it on the chin.

The US Ad Spending report analyzes the shifts in the media landscape due to changing usage patterns, economics and technology.

The media spending shifts predate the recession, but the current economy reinforces the new advertising models and makes them more permanent.

Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash conscious companies. Marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional media. This produces more efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing.

2009 may be a horrible year for advertising overall, but not for local online – and certainly not for some companies seeing double- and even triple-digit growth for local operations. Local online advertising is growing at a 12% clip this year, and we´ve taken a look at 2010 and expect further growth. Visit the best internet marketing agency in West Palm Beach to see double and triple digit growth in 2010 for your business.

Skunkworks Marketing Solutions specializes in turning out-dated, non-producing advertising campaigns into results based campaigns that generate traffic, maximize ROI and focus on the overall lifetime worth of your clients. Contact Skunkworks Marketing Solutions at 561-623-5324 or visit the best internet marketing agency in West Palm Beach for a complimentary competitive market analysis of your market today to make 2010 your best year.

Some of these include: ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, plus many more! This list even includes contacts for popular shows such as Oprah, Dateline NBC, the Today Show, and 20/20. These press release fax services are available separately and can be used in addition to Skunkworks Marketing Solutions regular email news release distribution service so that you can generate even more media attention for your press release. In order to get your press release distributed into the hands of the media professionals that matter to your business you need to contact Skunkworks Marketing Solutions Now!

An additional method that is highly effective in getting Radio coverage for any press release is Skunkworks Marketing Solutions Audio Press Release Services. For an extra fee we will create a professional announcement that paraphrases your press release and delivers it via a professional reporter in a standard audio format that will be included in your emailed press release to the media. We will also provide you with a link that you can place on your web site so that audio capsule can also be played by your web site visitors if they desire. Skunkworks marketing Solutions turn around time for this extra service is usually only 1- 2 business days and it does NOT require any extra time or effort on your part! This is a powerful way to provide the radio stations with an AIR READY press release that helps your company!

Would you like to send out a press release but you are not sure where to start? Or, do you have a press release idea, concept or information that you need to distribute but you don’t have the time to write the press release? Skunkworks Marketing Solutions has a SOLUTION to your problem!

A well written story about how a product or service is used, or a press release describing ways that people are benefiting from something, can go a long way toward helping to grow your business! Even better is a series of press releases announcing new products.

Skunkworks Marketing Solutions has skilled professional copy writers who can expertly and professionally write your press release for you. They will uniquely express your company, it’s products and services and your information to the targeted media that really count for your business. All of Skunkworks Marketing Solutions writers have press release writing experience and can write a press release (from scratch) for your approval usually within 1-3 business days.

All of our work must meet with your approval before it is sent out to targeted lists of thousands of media contacts. Most Press Releases typically reach 9,000 – 12,000 targeted contacts. Just supply us with the WHO, WHAT, WHEN and WHERE information about your product, service or announcement and your web site address if you have one, and we will handle the writing, creation AND full targeted news release distribution of your press release.