My first post in 9 months - Stuff Happening at WebMetricsGuru.com - ArtNewYorkCity.com and SmartMobs.com

This is my personal blog - but I hope someday soon to make it the repository of all my posting activity, because it really should be - I own it and I can control the blog template - I don't control the templates of Webmetricsguru.com, ArtNewYorkCity.com or SmartMobs.

And if any of these blogs goes "belly up" and don't want to lose all my subscribers and have to start all over again, like what happened to Andy Beal.

So I'm going to post more often here, even if it means making a special effort to do so - and to give information that maybe...I haven't put anywhere else - I hope you'll subscribe to Now-Seo if your reading this.

What's going on:
Just got back from the EMetrics Summit this week (I count Monday as the start of a new week - otherwise, it was last week as I got back Wednesday night). I wrote a lot of stuff on that - here's the link to that content on the Emetrics Summit at WebMetricsGuru.com. I also wrote a lot about blog ranking algos and how they differ, depending on how you count them. There was also a lot of interesting stuff going on in the Entertainment Industry and I wrote about it here - record companies spamming .. that's right...spamming .

In the Art world, I did did a 3 part post on Peter Saul, a well known American artist who has been painting for 55 years! I covered the show in 3 posts, part 1, part 2 and part 3, my thoughts on all of it.

I have also been painting a lot myself, driven by circumstances out of my control, things that let me to have to paint again - I had no choice - and now what comes out is not my rehash of Cezanne, or Manet, or anyone else - it's 100% Marshall Sponder. Many of my paintings were first published at WebMetricsGuru, along with other artists I saw, earlier this year. When I began ArtNewYorkCity.com on the Syntagma Blog.

And you can read my stuff on Smartmobs.com

AxROI - New Conversion Tracking Tool -

I posted information about AxROI at WebMetricsGuru

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO � Confirming a penalty

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO � Confirming a penalty: "I'd like to address those two points. I can confirm that Google has removed traffic-power.com and domains promoted by Traffic Power from our index because of search engine optimization techniques that violated our webmaster guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. If you are a client or former client of Traffic Power and your site is not in Google, please see my previous advice on requesting reinclusion into Google's index to learn what steps to take if you would like to be reincluded in Google's index.

Note: I'm turning off comments for this post. There are other places that are more appropriate places for discussing this issue. "

I'm glad that Google announced, via Matt Cutts, that it banned Traffic Power. At least now people know - they don't have to wonder about it.

Seth's Blog: Hearing, part II

Seth's Blog: Hearing, part II: "Hearing, part II
So, of course, the Eata Pita parable below is part of a bigger story.
How many organizations don't hear?
I don't mean the counterpeople and the customer service reps. I mean, how many organizations are organized to actually allow customers and prospects to share their insights and feedback?
Second, how many of those organizations have management that bother to listen to the feedback? Or employees that are empowered to do something with it?
And finally, once an organization listens, does it actually do something about what it comes across?
Insert [political party, relgious order, non-profit, for profit, teacher, school board, insurance company] here. Do they Hear, Listen and then Act?"

The funny part is that I passed Eat A Pita the other day on my way to work when I went to GCT - I imagine I could have bumped into Seth trying to order something there. The place looks seedy....I'd not order anything from there - it's no surprise the workers don't listen - they're apathetic.

Agree with the rest of this post though - most businesses are not set up for feedback or taking action on it.

WebMetricsGuru: Top Search Engine Search Numbers - just posted

WebMetricsGuru: Top Search Engine Search Numbers - just posted: "Search Engine Traffic share for US searches were just posted yesterday by Nielson//NetRatings. According to ClickZ
'The number of U.S. searches grew 55 percent in December 2005 over December 2004, according to data released by Nielsen//NetRatings. '

Top Three U.S. Search Share Rankings by Percentage Points, December 2004 and 2005
Search EngineDecember 2004 Search Share (%)December 2005 Search Share (%)Change (Percentage Points)
Google43.148.85.7
Yahoo!21.721.4-0.3
MSN14.010.9-3.1
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, February 2006

Most of the sites who i do both Web Analytics and SEO/SEM for show a much greater increase in Search Traffic from Google than the numbers above suggest. In fact, one of my house plans clients had a 300%+ increase in thier Google Search Referral Traffic from Dec 04 to Dec 05.
The data above is actually not the whole story - "

I posted this information in my new blog...www.webmetricsguru.com - where you can read the rest of my post (the formatting also looks better on my other site).

Loyalty Programs for Search (by Jeremy Zawodny)

Loyalty Programs for Search (by Jeremy Zawodny): "You might not think that web search is a commodity service, but I've seen public and private data that suggests we're headed that way. It was only a matter of time, right?"

Loyality as measured for return visitors via Search would be something interesting to compile for clients.

Greg Boser Says Big Companies Should Spam Search Engines (by Jeremy Zawodny)

Greg Boser Says Big Companies Should Spam Search Engines (by Jeremy Zawodny): "It's not the first time I've heard this logic, but Greg's done a better job than most by putting it in simple terms:
We'll be allowed to take cuts because search engines want our sites to show up. They want them to show up because their users expect to see them. And those users don't give a shit about what's contained in the source code. All they care about is whether or not they land on a page that matches their search.
Until that fact changes, there will be virtually no risk associated with aggressive SEO for big brands. And as long as the risks are low, managers of big brands would be foolish not to explore potential strategies that will ultimately improve the visibility of their brands simply because a search engine has said they disapprove.
Is he right? Are the big brands (IBM, BMW, Apple, Toyota, Playboy, etc.) so important to search engines (or their users), that they should 'optimize' first and worry about being discovered later?
Put another way, what if every one of the Fortune 500 decided to follow BMW's lead and spam Google? Who win?
Sure, it's an extreme case. But most fun thought experiments are. :-)"

Since I work for IBM and I met Greg Bozer a couple of times at WebMasterWorld Conferences (shady fellow) I found this post of interest to me.

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.