SRC, LLC. WebEx Enterprise Site

SRC, LLC. WebEx Enterprise Site: " Date & Time Event Panelists Info
January 2006

I found some very interesting presentions on Demographics Analysis at the SRC Website - I'm going to attempt to attend as many of these meetings as I can. I believe Web Analytics and Search Engine Marketing/Optimization can be merged with Demographics Analysis data; in fact, Hitwise has attempted to do this on the high end - but at 18,000 - 46,000 per year for licensing, it's out of reach of most marketers that don't have a big agency to buy those packages.

I'll report back on how these packages can be used for Web Analytics here, so come back and visit often. Feburary should be an interesting month - based on what's being presented (below),

January 31, 2006
10:00 am- 11:00 am PST Introduction to Alteryx

Enroll

February 2006

February 7, 2006
10:00 am- 11:00 am PST HealthCare Demographics
Mandy Tehrani
Enroll

February 8, 2006
1:00 pm- 1:30 pm PST Updates and Custom Reporting In DemographicsNow!
T.J. Heyns
Enroll

February 15, 2006
8:00 am- 9:00 am PST Identify your Target market with Dnow
Nino Pozgaj
Enroll

February 20, 2006
1:00 pm- 1:30 pm PST Real Estate Research with DemographicsNow.com
Tony Thompson
Enroll

February 22, 2006
8:15 am- 9:15 am PST Learn more about adding aerial photos to your account
Nino Pozgaj
Enroll

February 22, 2006
1:00 pm- 1:30 pm PST Learn to Create Custom Maps with DemographicsNow.com
T.J. Heyns
Enroll

February 27, 2006
1:00 pm- 1:30 pm PST Power Up Your DemographicsNow.com with Add-ons
Tony Thompson
Enroll "

Know More Media: I Sneeze For Seth

Know More Media: I Sneeze For Seth: "Permission Marketing
You have to give something first to people before you ask for something from them. You have to date first, allow each other to get to know each other. Does your business know how many people you have permission to talk to? You REALLY need to know and track that number."

Here's some detailed notes from Seth Godin's recent conference in NYC; I'd love to go to one.

"With all the clutter, the only lasting way to stand out among the noise is to be remarkable. Remarkable means to have other remark about what you are doing."

SiliconBeat: Kosmix raises cash for a new search engine -- to compete with Google

SiliconBeat: Kosmix raises cash for a new search engine -- to compete with Google: "They are making an audaciously risky bet that they can crack the code on a vexing problem in search: finding the meaning, or at least the topic of a Web page. 'This is an unsolved problem on the Web,' says Harinarayan, from his office perched on the seventh floor of a Mountain View high-rise. His window commands a sweeping view of the valley, stretching out over toward the Googleplex, just three miles away. "

I'm interested in taking a look at Kosmix when it goes live. I have written about finding the true meaning of a page using Pertinence Summerizer; I also routinely use AdWords Keyword Planning tool which pulls out the likely keywords for a site (and a page as well). I'm curious to see what Rajaraman and Harinarayan have come up with.

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO � SEO Advice: linkbait and linkbaiting

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO - SEO Advice: linkbait and linkbaiting: "Linkbaiting sounds like a bad thing, but especially if it's interesting information or fun, it doesn't have to have negative connotations. I hereby claim that content can be both white-hat and yet still be wonderful bait for links (e.g. Danny's spam email analysis). And generating information or ideas that people talk about is a surefire way to generate links. Personally, I'd lean toward producing interesting data or having a creative idea rather than spouting really controversial ideas 100% of the time. If everything you ever say is controversial, it can be entertaining, but it's harder to maintain credibility over the long haul. "

This post goes along with my last- Matt Cutts is weighing in on Link Baiting and says it can be both a good and bad thing. My interest would be : "is Google going to penalize someone for using Link Baiting"? and the answer appears to be NO.

Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse | EnergyBulletin.net | Peak Oil News Clearinghouse

Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse EnergyBulletin.net Peak Oil News Clearinghouse: "Perhaps one of the answers relates to the same obfuscated reasons why the U.S. launched an unprovoked invasion to topple the Iraq government macroeconomics and the desperate desire to maintain U.S. economic supremacy. In essence, petrodollar hegemoy is eroding, which will ultimately force the U.S. to significantly change its current tax, debt, trade, and energy policies, all of which are severely unbalanced. World oil production is reportedly flat out, and yet the neoconservatives are apparently willing to undertake huge strategic and tactical risks in the Persian Gulf. Why? Quite simply their stated goal is U.S. global domination at any cost."

Thanks to Opinionsource.com for bringing me links to this information via it's Blogorama weekly newsletter. Opinionsource.com is also an SEO client of mine for whom I do Pro Bono work.

Anyway, based on what I'm reading we're in for a rocky 2006, especially if the US attacks IRAN. It often feels as if events are moving out of control. In the past there was the US and Soviets - and between the 2 superpowers - things could always be worked out - even if we were always ready to push the nuke button. But now, it's hard to see how we get out of Iraq as the US is planning to attack IRAN.

SEOposition.com Blog � Catch of the Day is Link Baiting

SEOposition.com Blog Catch of the Day is Link Baiting: "Catch of the Day is Link Baiting
Looking for a different way to build quality links on your site? According to Rob Sullivan, SEO Consultant, Link Bating is a very underused method to try. It is not often used by your run of the mill website, which Sullivan reasons is the name association that the term Link Baiting could be considered a black hat technique and not a legitimate organic tactic."

I've never done anything like this in my link building. My wife brought this posting to my attension because of the reference to Clay Aiken, who she is a an avid fan of.

Look at this:
Contrary Hook: That’s when you take something that an important person in your field has theorized and criticize it. However, instead of being negative for negative’s sake, you will get more out of this hook if you can put your money where your mouth is. A random example: Let’s say that I am a record executive and I say that Reuben Studdard, should not have won American Idol, it should’ve been Clay Aiken. The “proof” being the amount of records sold by Clay as opposed to those sold by Reuben.

Wierd. I think this technique would take some "balls" to try. I probably would not plan on provoking commentary just to get links - but given the way modern media is setup up, particularly FOX news, ClearChannel, NY Post, stuff like that....it cuts both ways (they do it all the time, in my opinion); they Fake news, fake everything, just to get your attension. After a while, people became accustomed to having to fake thier own news just to get some attension. People are so provoked out that don't respond to just average news...it's got to be provoke you.

I probably would never try doing these techniques but I can see why others do.

MSN AdCenter Annoyances!

One of my clients is a beta test for MSN AdCenter . I found the PPC interface frustrating to use so we don't run ads yet.

I do use it as a research tool and MSN AdCenter has provided some very interesting search demand and demographic data that has never been made available before in such detail (and on demand). However, MSN has opened Pandora's box for me, because now I hunger for more and the data that is provided is not reliable or extensive enough. Here's some examples (below).

Keyword: Southwest House Plans (and associated keywords)
'>href="http://marshall.sponder.50megs.com/images-forever/search_demand.JPG">

The data for December 05 and January 06 (partial) don't match in Search Demand for days of the week or times of the month where there might be Peaks in demand. Now I want that percision but the MSN Beta doesn't provide it. Worse yet, there's no way yet to export the data to Excel so I can improve on it - in fact, only the current and previous months are shown, not enough data.

The location where those who are searching for SouthWest house plans also does not match from last month and this month - though there are overlaps.

'>href="http://marshall.sponder.50megs.com/images-forever/location_dec05.JPG">

'>'>href="http://marshall.sponder.50megs.com/images-forever/location_Jan06.JPG">

Now, Geotargeted PPC might work with this data (target all the locations) but they're giving you the cities only, not the states they are in (there's more than one Arlington and Albany). Again, I need the ablility to export the raw data into a spreadsheet and MSN needs to provide that before they go live, in my opinion. By the way, if we use GeoTargeted PPC, you'll also want to do custom landing pages.

AdCenter has also provided some information on who is looking for Southwest House Plans
'>'>href="http://marshall.sponder.50megs.com/images-forever/age_gender.JPG">

In this case, age and gender are fairly even; for many types of house plan styles, they aren't the same at all, and that should be a wakeup call to anyone that markets anything on the web...audinces can differ from offering to offering on the same website! The "show all and let visitors pick what they want" approach is effectively dead!

Finally, MSN provides demographic clustering information, similar to Claritas Prizm Segmentation System though the cluster definations are not explained anywhere on tbe MSN AdCenter Beta site - frustrating to say the least. So you have to go outside MSN AdCenter to find out what the cluster segmantation means. Also, the information they are collecting from the MSN Toolbar is not yet comprehensive enough (but it's a start).
'>'>'>href="http://marshall.sponder.50megs.com/images-forever/Demographcs_dec05.JPG">

You can see those who searched the most (that MSN can figure out thier cluster) was the "Rural Inheritance" cluster ... except it's not part of the PRIZM system defination, which means that MSN is using another Cluster defination, or worse yet, mixing different companies definations of various clusters. What needs to happen is for MSN to publish the meaning of each of these clusters and they haven't done that yet.

Finally, there's wealth infomation (do people accurately give their income level to MSN?)
'>href="http://marshall.sponder.50megs.com/images-forever/wealth_dec05.JPG">

So now that we have this data, we need more precision and wider data sampling in time, plus the ability to export the data.

I wonder if Google is planning some super stelth version of this right now?

Seth's Blog: Understanding the funnel

Seth's Blog: Understanding the funnel: "Understanding the funnel"
href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/funnel2s.jpg">
I like this posting about the sales "funnel". I'm wondering how this applies to my own clients.

Not running Google Analytics on any of my clients' sites so I don't have an actual picture of what Seth is referring to, but I can imagine it.

Bush Administration Demands Search Data; Google Says No; AOL, MSN & Yahoo Said Yes

Bush Administration Demands Search Data; Google Says No; AOL, MSN & Yahoo Said Yes:
"Bush Administration Demands Search Data; Google Says No; AOL, MSN & Yahoo Said Yes

NOTE: We're continuing to update this news through postscripts below the original story."

This is really scary! Not unexpected though. What i did not understand earlier today is Bush already got most of what he was after from AOL, MSN and Yahoo.

John Battelle's Searchblog: Don't Look Now, But It's Happening

John Battelle's Searchblog: Don't Look Now, But It's Happening: "Don't Look Now, But It's Happening

(This is from John Batelle's SearchBlog)

From my book, written a year or so ago:
As we move our data to the servers at Amazon.com, Hotmail.com,
Yahoo.com, and Gmail.com, we are making an implicit bargain, one
that the public at large is either entirely content with, or, more likely,
one that most have not taken much to heart.
That bargain is this: we trust you to not do evil things with our
information. We trust that you will keep it secure, free from unlaw-
ful government or private search and seizure, and under our control
at all times. We understand that you might use our data in aggregate
to provide us better and more useful services, but we trust that you
will not identify individuals personally through our data, nor use
our personal data in a manner that would violate our own sense of
privacy and freedom.
That�s a pretty large helping of trust we�re asking companies to
ladle onto their corporate plate. And I�m not sure either we or they
are entirely sure what to do with the implications of such a transfer.
Just thinking about these implications makes a reasonable person�s
head hurt.
From the Mercury News, today:
The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google Inc. to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.
The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content inaccessible to minors.
In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the re"

B12 Partners Solipsism: Is Abramoff the New Monica

B12 Partners Solipsism: Is Abramoff the New Monica: "Frank Rich: Is Abramoff the New Monica?
The Jack Abramoff scandal may metastasize from a cancer on Congress to a cancer on the Republican Party in general and this presidency in particular. "


I have to search Technorati so I can now read the New York Times Editorials, like Frank Rich and Paul Krugman.

Then I heard last week that the email addresses used to reach the editioral comumnists was also taken away; it was replaced by an online form you can fill out.

Personally, that might make sense (have one form that everyone fills out to reach a particular editorial columnist) but following putting up the Times Firewall, and charging 50 dollars a year to read this stuff...it feels more like an insult...like "Take That"!

The NY Times is pushing away it's base.

John Battelle Video of talk at Google NY on December 7th 2005

I found a neat version of John Batelle's presentation at Google NY last December.

Being Fleeced - Being Judgemental

Spend a lot of time and energy looking at several company sites for problems using Web Analytics and SEO tools; it's much easier to look at other people's issues than my own. I'm reminded of the stories I hear of Doctor's not operating on thier own relatives.

Since last fall I've noticed my energy bills going up by almost 50% in some cases. My typical electric bill last year at this time was around 130.00 a month; it's now 180.00 a month. Natural Gas Bills are around the same, but I noticed a new charge on my bill for "gas-delivery" that I never saw before, effectively doubling the cost for 25.00 to 50.00 last month.

Other utililities are going up too; I noticed my T-mobile cell phone bill had communication charges to cell phones within the same network (one T-mobile phone to another) for 6.99 per month. However, for as long as I remember, communications between Tmobile cell phones was sopposed to be free of charge.

My rent went up also, partly to compensate for the increased energy costs the landlord pays for heating the building I live in.

But most of these charges are being slipped in "under the door" without being explained or approved of beforehand (as if I'd approve a "gas delivery charge" - of course I would not approve it).

I get angry when companies "rob" the consumer. This is how the issue relates to Web Analytics and metics: When it's someone else's problem, it's easy for me to look at it and perhaps make statements, based on the analytics, of my opinion about issues I point out.

It's not at all easy for me to do that for myself though. For example, the same analytic skill that I employ for others should be leading me to compare the cost per killowatt hour last year at this time to now, to see how much it changed. Did I use more energy this year than last? I don't know yet. In fact, I'm afraid to look. I don't really feel like calling the gas company either to find out what the "gas delivery charge" is all about. I did call Tmobile and cut back on a couple of things - and then the service person told me about the 6.99 Tmobile to Tmobile charge.

So, my belief is that someone who looks at others' problems and issues ought to be able to look at thier own problems and issues the same way --- but it's much harder to do so. But I don't want to be too judgemental, too hard on myself. It's human not to be perfect.

New Jersey Search Symposium cancelled

The search conference that I was going to speak at later this month got cancelled. I'm not surprized as it was announced only 3 weeks before it would take place. I suppose it could have been promoted on short notice, but it's very unusual to plan something like that so close to the date when it's going to happen.

So I was not surprised by the news. IT would have been nice to pick up some of the newest strategies and meet new people - oh well...it'll happen later.

Trending and Tracking the Blogosphere and Newsosphere : SEO Book.com

Trending and Tracking the Blogosphere and Newsosphere : SEO Book.com

I found this reference to Blog Buzz tools that are free to use; I use them. Like Arron, I can't afford WebFountain, but then again, WebFountain might give me more information than I'd know what to do with.

3-Day Tactical SEO Strategies Symposium at the Sheraton Suites in Weehawken, New Jersey

I've been working with Robin Nobles and John Alexander for over 2 years as a chat moderator for the World Resource Center. A couple of days ago Robin asked me if I would reccomend a site in New Jersey to hold thier lastest SEO Strategies Symposium. At first they wanted to do it in Newark, NJ; I suggested this location and hotel instead.

color="#000080">Join leading SEO industry educators
Robin Nobles, John Alexander and Dave Barry at the
3-Day Tactical SEO Strategies Symposium
at the Sheraton Suites in Weehawken, New Jersey

Sheraton Suites on the Hudson
500 Harbor Boulevard
Weehawken, New Jersey 07086

Located only a half-mile from Manhattan, the hotel
offers easy access via the New York Waterway Ferry
right outside the hotel door with a spectacular view
of the entire New York City skyline.

Hopefully, I'll be able to attend all 3 days, but I drop by in any case - here's what the hotel looks like; I stayed in this hotel twice about 5 years ago and liked it alot-it's also not that far from where I live so I don't actually have to stay in it this time (though I might consider spending a night there).

Here's the link to sign up for the SEO Straegies Symosium which sounds really, really great. I'm looking forward to meeting Robin and John there, as well as a bunch of other people that I've heard and are well known in the SEO field.

Gates: IBM, Not Google, Top Rival; Shows off Vista Features � MarketingVOX

Gates: IBM, Not Google, Top Rival; Shows off Vista Features � MarketingVOX: "'The biggest company in the computer industry by far is IBM. They have the four times the employees that I have, way more revenues than I have. IBM has always been our biggest competitor. The press just doesn't like to write about IBM,' said Gates. "



IBM more of a threat to Microsoft than Google? Interesting. Why does Gates feel the press does not like to write about IBM?

Quote from Jill Whalen's latest High Rankings Advisor that I liked

I read this quote from Jill Whalen that really rang a bell with me. I've seen Jill at several of the SEO/SEM Conferences I've attended but never personally spoke with her; she strikes me as a strong woman with a lot of confidence in herself, kinda sexy actually. I really find most of her newsletters filled with basic stuff. Still, a gem is a gem.

Whether it's search marketing or any other business that you want to getinto, no person, book, website, or seminar can make you successful; not in15 minutes, 15 days, or even 15 years. Only *you* can make yourselfsuccessful, and it can only happen through hard work, dedication, andcreativity. Resources and teachers can point you in the right direction,but being successful is an ongoing, lifelong process that can't be taught.Success comes from doing and -- surprisingly enough -- from making a wholebunch of mistakes along the way. So stop reading those get-rich-quickwebsites, and start trying your hand at doing stuff. The worst that willhappen is you'll have a few mess-ups along the way. As long as you learnfrom them, then you're on the right track. As to opening up an SEO company after taking an SEO training class, I amhaving a difficult time imagining any class that could get you up to speedquickly enough to own a company that gets paid to optimize other people'ssites. Even our own High Rankings Seminar is just a start. You simplycan't learn SEO in a few days. You have to try things, see what works foryou and what doesn't, and then adjust from there. Since results can taketime, you won't even know if you're really good at SEO until you've beenpracticing it (hopefully on your own sites or on those of your friends) forat least 1 year, if not longer.

Microsoft Trying To Buy Yahoo!

!Microsoft Trying To Buy Yahoo!: "Wednesday, January 04, 2006Microsoft Trying To Buy Yahoo!You and I know damn well that Microsoft wasn't going to go down in search flames without putting up a fight after losing the 'Battle at AOL-burg' to Google. Microsoft has officially thrown the gloves off and pulled out its' wallet. Microsoft, like the rest of us would do, pulled out some billion dollar bills, 80 to be exact, and slid them over to Yahoo in attempt to buy Yahoo Inc. This rumored bid was slightly more then 30% of Yahoo's current market value and they kindly said ..... NO?"


Wow! Microsoft buying Yahoo would be interesting - it would put Yahoo-MSN Search engine with about the equal share of searchers that Google has. But, intergrating MSN and Yahoo are also sure to spur layoffs as there is duplication in both companies that would be eliminated. At the end of the day, I'm not sure if the merger of these two companies is a good thing for the Search Engine world.

Dropping out of MSN Search - the value of conferences

I have a client whose listings suddenly dropped out of MSN Search. All of a Sudden.

Tried to find someone to talk with, a name, not a form; got nowhere.

Remembered that I heard Eytan Seidman, Program Manager of MSN Search, speak at a couple of conferences. Tried to find his email address by looking at PDF files of his presentation from Webmasterworld in New Orleans that I last attended - no luck - his email address was not on it.

Did not keep his card, but I do recall he had his email address on something I saw over the last year.

If you ever want to know why it's important to attend conferences, this is one of the reasons. When something goes wrong you need a contact and you meet people at conferences, people in charge of things. I still haven't got Eytan's email address, but I left 2 postings in the MSN Blog for him. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a hold of him.

In the future - collect and keep business cards, you'll never know when a contact will come in handy.

Happy 2006!

Spent the last 10 days working on my own projects, including an interesting demographics study for a non-profit called www.opinionsource.com.

Pulled some very useful information from MSN Ad Center Pilot for some of my clients and while the data MSN is providing is raw, it goes beyound what has been provided by Search Engines previously. This year I see some competition in providing intelligence similar to MSN from Yahoo, and possibly Google.

I also went by the Metropolotian Museum to see the Fra Angelico show; i'll go back before the show closes on the 27th. There was also a show about Occult photography at the turn of last century that I would have liked to have looked at more closely. Both shows were so packed I could not enjoy them as much as i'd have liked.

Another show I saw last month and again on Friday was the Oscar Bluemner show at the Whitney Museum; Bluemner was a great artist but his personality made it hard for him to get along with authority figures and he ended up killing himself.

But getting back to SEO, I picked up Andrew Goodman's book on AdWords PPC that is very insightful and easy to read; i've been enjoying it and going slow. Also finishing up on Juan Enriquez's book The Untied States of America ; I did his blog buzz project and learnt something about blog advertising using BlogAds and similar networks and found the whole thing facinating.

I also gave a chat at the World Resource Center on Developing Blog Buzz and on the 16th I'll be doing another chat on Search Engine Spam Techniques you in the house plans industry.

Finally, my wife's hard drive died and we replaced it; the first time that has happened - I read about it all the time...but it happend. The replacement drive was put in and the OS restored quickly - that went fine. What was more more difficult to restore was the customization that she put into the PC, things that were not backed up.

And after today it's back to IBM, where I work with Search Metrics.