Well more news seems to be coming in… guess everyone is back from conferences, events, yahoo, etc.

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• The Trifecta of Multimedia Search: The current state of video search, The current state of audio search and The current state of image search. Niall, you rock! I need to print these posts - they are that good.
  
• Choice Kills Conversion: “Users are coming to your site or landing page with a goal in mind. Optimization is the work of anticipating that goal and finding the right messaging so the user knows this is the place to fulfill it. Optimization is not about asking questions or presenting choices. Nor is it, in my opinion, about trying to persuade users to behave in a certain manner. You should have done that work BEFORE the user got to your page.” See also: Google Website Optimizer program. The Website Optimizer allows you to optimize your landing pages
• Freemiums: 9 Tips from VCs to make Your Freemium Service Soar (via: SteinBlog) “1. Have a product or service that truly stands out 2. Know your upselling plan from the beginning. 3. Once you’ve decided that a product will be given away for free, don’t change your mind. 4. Access to your product should be just one click away. 5. Make sure the major bugs have been exterminated. 6. Harness the collective intelligence of your users. 7. Keep improving the product to give users more reasons to stick with it. 8. Identify a range of revenue sources. 9. Timing is everything”

The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:

• DuggTrends (via: Micro Persuasion) Cool tool to plot Digg Trends and Forcasting which stories will make it to the front page of Digg
• Organized Wisdom - The collaborative health information community. (via: WOMMA). Good idea, especially in light of all the information on the use of the internet in health care research. See: More Americans rely on the internet for important health information, Eight in ten internet users have looked for health information online and Blogs and health care
• What Kind of Ad network is Right for You – Excellent article showcasing the different types of ad networks.
• Top 5 Search Marketing Opportunities for 2007 – PDF. I like the new chart that they have on SEO vs. PPC Conversions which includes average website conversion rates.
• David Armano’s Excellent Presentation: Blog’s Eye View (Power Point)
• Loyalty Programs Can Be a Waste of Money
• Second Life Hits One Million Accounts

Too Cool goes to: The Making of HP Hands. Pretty cool video on the creation process of those cool HP Celebrity hand commercials.

“A note to my opponents / Yeah I got now and I always got next ‘cause I seize every moment / I’m an opportunist with ambition / Keep an eye on that number one spot before it wind up missing” – We Got Now – Little Brother

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson

Are Microsites the Brochure sites of yesteryear? Like a new toy for Christmas, we wait with anticipation for it to arrive, someone pays a lot of money for it, and once it arrives we play with it, show it to all our friends, they “ohh” and “ahh” over it and then soon all the shine is gone and we move ont the next one… and someone wonders why they paid so much for a toy that no one longer plays with. Of course, at less than 100k companies can afford to build and burn microsites (I’ll save my thoughts on how companies can build and burn sites, yet balk at the price of SEO services for another date.).

When I think of the microsites that will have a long shelf life, I think of Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty and Converse’s ConverseGallery.com. What do these microsites have in common? They have moved from simply being glorified brochures to giving people a way to interact. Is the point where I mention Consumer Generated Content or Social Media Optimization (SMO post count:2)?

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• Consumers exposed to both display and search ads convert at higher rates – “Consumers exposed to both display and search advertising converted at a 22% higher rate than those using search alone, according to a study from the Atlas Institute. Atlas also found that search-click-only users converted at a rate 3.3 times higher than the display-click-only group. Combined display and search clicks converted at a rate 4 times higher than display click only.” See the full PDF: The Combined Impact of Search and Display Advertising
• Gender Marketing Web Design Differences – “If your target is men, make them happy now because they’ll probably forget you before the next page loads or they leave the store. …Women want to know more up front than a man does; men are more willing to gamble a bit in the hopes of a greater reward. Women will gather together but will make their individualized decisions in the end. Men, on the other hand, will make ‘individual’ decision based on following the herd” See also: The Power of Personas
• Top 21 Signs You Need a Break from SEO – (via the Daily Searchcast - And yes Danny, you have gotten funnier) “The S, E, and O keys on your keyboard are broken. When your son tells you he wants to go play in the sandbox, you fear you won’t see him again for eight months. And this one is actually a great idea. …your brilliant idea for 2007 is to create an alter-ego for yourself called ‘SEO Shaft.’ Your blog’s tagline will be ‘Can ya Digg it?’” I’ll add my own: You need a break from SEO when you read a post about an SEO idea and then buy the domain. See also: You Know You’re Working Too Hard…

The I Also Glanced Over Reading list:

• Viral Ads: It’s an Epidemic (via: Church of the Customer Blog)
  
• Estée Lauder Launches 1st Online Campaign – Welcome to 1999, I mean 2006.
• Scripps Network Opens Online Marketplace

The Too Cool: Goes to Graffiti Research Lab. I have a love of Graffiti and Street Art - my previous logo for this site should have given a hint (I need to find a way to incorporate that here) - so this is too cool. From the website: “The Graffiti Research Lab is dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artists and protestors with open source tools for urban communication. The goal of the G.R.L. is to technologically empower individuals to creatively alter and reclaim their surroundings from commercial and corporate culture. G.R.L. agents are currently working in the lab and in the field to develop and test a range of experimental technologies for the state-of-the-art graffiti writer. This site documents those efforts with video documentation and DIY instructions for each project.” WHAT!!! How cool is that?! (via: PSFK)

“They say I should be more focused / and be more patient /and find a better way to let off my fustrations” - Doin Me - Little Brother

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson

Not everyone needs a MySpace page, but everyone should have a MySpace page.” I said this at a recent conference and I could see the confused looks on faces. How could I in one breath tell the audience that they do not need a MySpace profile page, but tell them to get a MySpace profile?

Well in less than three years MySpace has now grown to the point where it is sending more traffic to ecommerce sites than MSN - I’m surprised that MSN didn’t issue it’s own press release the same way that Yahoo did when numbers said that it was being beaten in traffic by MySpace. (See: Yahoo - How dare you say MySpace has more Traffic) My point, who knows where MySpace will be in another 2 years…

In the same way that people squatted on domains of major brands, people are signing up for profile names of major brands (this may not be on purpose, as a person’s nickname may be the same as a brand name). People out there can easily sign up for www.MySpace.com/YourBrand in a jiff…. and if they did, boy could they go to town on your brand.

While I think that URLs for MySpace promotions should be named by the campaign, you may want to do some due diligence and secure your MySpace Brand URLs to ensure that the URL doesn’t get taken. Even if you never use it, better to have it in your name than have someone else using your brand URL.

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• AOL Launches Developer Program for AOL Video Search Engine - “Through its new AOL Video Search developer program , AOL has made available a set of open video search APIs (application programming interfaces) as well as implemented a system for video content owners to submit feeds to the AOL Video Search index through new AOL Director Accounts. For content owners looking to broaden the distribution of their video content, the AOL(R) Director Account program is a free, first-of-its-kind offering for site owners and content publishers to submit feeds to AOL Video Search. Unlike other video search engines, this fully self-service online sign-up and feed management system enables users to make their self-hosted videos easily searchable across the AOL Video Search network within minutes of being submitted.” SEOs start your engines…. I see new articles on Video SEO in the near future - lol. See also: Sponsored Video OK For Three-Fourths of Users: “71% of U.S. Internet users who watch online video prefer to watch and download videos for free, sponsored by pre-roll advertising.”
• B-to-B Web Sales Outnumber B-to-C Web Sales. “This year’s Abacus Business-to-Business Industry Insights Report shows that 40 percent of B-to-B sales occurred via the Web in 2005, a 16 percent increase year over year. These results indicate that B-to-B customers purchase online nearly 10 percent more than B-to-C consumers, who chose to purchase over the Web 31 percent of the time in 2005. The differences between business and consumer purchasing habits support what most marketers have long recognized: business purchases exhibit a different dynamic than consumer purchases.” Ok, does anyone have the actual report, I can’t find it on their website… and I have to see these numbers for myself. See also: Business Searching Beats Sex Queries & Who’s Handing Out The Query Data?
• And speaking of Flex and Search Engine Marketing… Making SEM Work in an RIA (Rich Internet Application) - “Budget for the additional work: You will need to display the content in two different formats, one for search engines and one for your users (of course, without cloaking). Based on how much of the content is in RIA and needs to be indexed, the incremental could be anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of your original budget/effort. Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate: Creative departments and agencies can create great engaging experiences but if SEM goals are not embedded from the start of the project and the site is not coded in a structured format, then you will have issues with SEM.”
• On the Rebound - AKA: The Jump Ship Syndrome of Search Marketing Professionals: “Soul searching is a common theme for SEM rebound survivors. Anne stresses ‘you have to know what gets you excited about this business and motivates you to do good work.’ I think we’re seeing big paychecks being offered, but the offering companies are not providing a role or work environment that keeps the employee motivated. ‘One must like what he does. If the job causes lost sleep, loathing Mondays and ethical compromise then the money cannot offset that.’” Truer words…. See also: SEM industry staffing data

The I Also Glanced Over Reading list:

• The ROI on PPC vs. Affiliate Marketing - (via Biz Report) “If companies invest sufficient time and effort to develop strong affiliate programs, can affiliates deliver a better ROI than PPC advertising? Please note that the purpose of this brief is not to encourage marketers to abandon their PPC advertising in favor of affiliate marketing. Instead we are suggesting that a strong affiliate program can deliver additional revenues with a very favorable ROI.”
• More auto dealers embrace natural and paid search- “Currently 75% of auto dealers use search engine optimization, J.D. Power and Associates says. While only 33% of dealers currently use paid search engine marketing, more than 80% of those dealers say they believe that it improves web site visitation, as it takes vehicle shoppers directly to the dealer web site as opposed to shopping through an online buying service.”
• B-to-B Blogging — Prelaunch Checklist and How to Build Interest. See also: Companies wake up to blogs’ barking (via Modern Marketing )
• Are You Listening? See also: The Social Bookmarking Faceoff

BTW: Make sure to check out Logic + Emotion’s Working Class Blogger Diagram. If it’s possible to fall in love with a blog, I think I’ve fallen in love with this one. Sorry Three Minds, I have a new love.

The Too Cool: Real Simple Furniture. The first week I moved to San Francisco, I bought a table from IKEA and I have literally rearranged it 3 times… ie: rearranged the IKEA box and the tools necessary to put it together… but I have yet to put it together. Finally ready assemble furniture that is actually ready to assemble. (via Springwise) “Real Simple Furniture lives up to its name: their flat-pack furniture can be assembled and disassembled with absolutely no tools, other than a pair of hands. The pieces simply click together using lips and grooves.”

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson