At SEMforSMB, I hear one speaker say that one type of permission marketing is Viral Marketing. He was saying that things like widgets and linkbait are just as good as emails, etc. I am not sure I agree there, if you think about what some people consider viral marketing. I must define before I move ahead, so please wait before butchering me. :) If linkbait is done the right way, it is just an extension of your regular marketing. It is an ...

Okay, off search engine marketing for a second. I'm not sick, promise. My other love is traditional marketing and when companies get things right. A friend of mine recently had plastic surgery and elected to participate in a 10 year study (yeah, I talked her into it). Well she sent me a link to the company running it (Natrelle) and I signed up to get more information about their product. Skip to a few weeks later, and I get a notice about a ...

There has been lots being debated about ethics in SEM, and I do mean all of SEM. We have all gotten the question "so what do you do?" and tried to explain to no avail. People always resort to the "oh, you're one of them???" And I spend the next 10 minutes explaining that I do not spam, make pop-ups, or otherwise annoy the hell out of people. With a recent piece of link bait it went further: there was a debate about whether Google should be ...

I think this man is the only one who "gets" it. Seth Godin hits the nail on the head again with his newest post, and I wish more CEOs and VPs would read and understand it. He asks a simple question "Who answers the phone?"At my last company, our customer support came out of Pakistan. Yep, one of those annoying companies you call and get someone that doesn't speak English very well. Don't get me wrong, I loved all our people in Pakistan, but the ...

It's 2008 and there are still companies doing the "Guaranteed #1 Ranking in Google" crap. I was in LinkedIn today and saw an ad for guaranteed rankings. I am NOT linking to them through here, but the name of the site is BeRankedNumber1 dot com. They even have a live chat person. I was curious, so I got online and asked what they do, what tactic they use. The response asked for my site and they'd tell me. I said no, that I wanted to know how ...

I've got to sound off about this. It's minorly related to SEM, but it needs to be said. The economy is in a collapse, we all know it. But those of us who work for a living aren't really feeling it. I just took a job as an in-house SEO. The people I market to are in financial trouble and we provide help. This is not affecting me or the SEO world from what I can tell. For the top executives at Bear Stearns, they feel it. Their "life savings" are ...

I was reading a Seth Godin blog entry today about his new book, Meatball Sundae. This entry was about organizations new obsession with Web 2.0 and Social Media Marketing. One thing he said hit home: They [company's efforts] fail because the Web and the New Marketing work only when applied to the right organization. New Media makes a promise to the consumer. If the organization is unable to keep that promise, then it fails. I see that a lot in ...

Love is being stupid together, originally uploaded by nattu. I found this photo through my iGoogle, and while it's sucha beautiful picture, I also love something else about it. Get ready for the geek in me. I love that I know she is holding a product made by Coca-Cola. Branding is a beautiful thing. ...

My roommate introduced me to a great site today. Goodhealth.com - A WebMD of sorts, but run by Seton Healthcare Network. It's a corporate shoot off really, but it has some great content (I haven't checked if its taken from Web MD or anything, but it doesn't look like it). This site and its creator (if you ever read this, let me know who you are) just get it! 1. It's a nice, easy-to-comprehend layout. There are no tricks, no content stuffing. ...