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Using Affiliates To Protect Your Brand With Paid Search

Written on February 3, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, Object

If brand advertising using paid search is hotly competitive for you, your affiliates to help you win in the market. To determine if this strategy is right for you, evaluate the competitive landscape on your brand terms. A quick test: Do any of these statements apply to you?

There are more than 3 advertisers [...]



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Using Affiliates To Protect Your Brand With Paid Search

Google Founders To Sell 10 Million Shares Over Five Years

Written on January 22, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: Object

According to an SEC filing late this afternoon, Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin “each intend to sell approximately 5 million shares” — over a period of five years. This is not a reaction to any particular development in the market or perception of the outlook for Google; rather this is part of a [...]



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Google Founders To Sell 10 Million Shares Over Five Years

Google Applies to Enter Energy Market

Written on January 8, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

It’s been more than two years since Google’s last big big to enter a government-regulated offline business. They offered some $4.6B for wireless spectrum in an auction in 2008, but it seemed that the multi-billion bid was merely a ploy to get some of their demands for the spectrum met.

But that’s not quite the case with Google’s recent application to buy and sell power “much like utility companies do,” according to the New York Times. Google told the Federal Energy Regulation Commission that they need this capability to support their power-hungry facilities with more renewable energy sources. Google created a subsidiary last month, Google Energy, to handle this.

As the NYT points out, this isn’t Google’s first look at energy:

This is hardly Google’s first foray into the energy world. Over the years, Google has invested in renewable energy projects through its philanthropic and venture capital units. It has also embarked on a number of engineering projects and partnerships to, for example, advance plug-in hybrids and offer tools to measure home electricity usage. And it has an ambitious goal to help develop renewable energy that is cheaper than coal. Bill Weihl, Google’s green energy czar, discussed many of those initiatives and goals in a lengthy interview with The New York Times published on Thursday.

Google insists that they’re not getting into the market to trade energy, but if their application is approved, they could sell any surplus energy they own.

What do you think? Is this just Google’s carbon-neutrality quest, or a back-door entry into another market?

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Google Applies to Enter Energy Market

It’s Official: Baidu into Video

Written on January 6, 2010 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

Yesterday’s rumors have proven true: dominant Chinese search engine Baidu has officially announced their entry into the online video market in China. In fact, they’ve confirmed almost all of the rumors floating around yesterday: Baidu is involved, it’s a partnership, they’ll be soliciting content licensing agreements from professional content producers, it will be free with ad support (like Hulu), and Yu Gong, former China Mobile exec, will head up the site. Only Providence Equity Partners’ participation wasn’t confirmed.

As mentioned yesterday, the Chinese video market is lucrative—worth 162 million yuan ($23.73 million) in Q308, according to Analysys International. It’s little wonder that Baidu is eyeing the market (even though the Chinese search market is valued at 2B yuan [$293M], with Baidu controlling around two thirds of the market). China also faces piracy problems that seems more serious than those in the US, where a site with a similar model has enjoyed unexpected success at Hulu.

With all these concerns, the Chinese video market looks even less appealing in light of another point from Reuters: “J.P. Morgan analyst Dick Wei said most video sites in China were still making losses but Baidu had the added advantage of being able to offer more targeted advertisements given its search technology.”

Baidu didn’t say whether the new venture would feature UGC, with the additional content and IP problems it can pose, but even without that, they could face not only competition but content theft from video pirates. The Chinese video market is highly fragmented online, so there’s a definite possibility that Baidu could emerge as the leader (and winner) in this arena—but will they?

What do you think? Can Baidu succeed in two areas? Will China receive a Hulu of their own?

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It’s Official: Baidu into Video

Smartphones: Taking Over the World in 2011

Written on November 12, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: marketing

We talk and think a lot about mobile marketing. But frankly, only a small proportion of cell phone users have devices that are equipped for any substantial web interfacing. But that may soon change—Nielsen predicts that smartphones will make up the majority of the cell phone market in two years.

MediaPost reports that by mid-2011, half of cell phone subscribers, about 150M people, will be using smart devices. Smartphones are already showing a marked increase—Nielsen predicts that Q4 of this year will show that 40% of new phones sold are smart devices (as opposed to the Q309, slowest quarter in recent memory with smart devices accounting for only 25% of new phones).

I think that smartphone adoption will be crucial to mobile marketing finally taking off in the US. The fact that most phones today are still incapable of real web browsing has contributed to the slow start to mobile marketing. I’ve been saying for years that a better web browsing experience, like that of a smartphone, is crucial to the success of mobile marketing. And Nielsen agrees:

Nielsen also anticipates more users paying for video and premium content on their phones.

What do you think? Will smartphones reach this much of the market in another 18 months? Will 2011 be the year of the mobile?

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Smartphones: Taking Over the World in 2011

Landing Page Testing: Choosing Between A/B Or Multivariate Approaches

Written on October 14, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: Object

There are quite a few testing techniques available in the market. In this post I will dwelve into the two commonest testing methods: A/B tests and Multivariate tests. What is the difference between them? How can you choose which one best fits your needs?



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Landing Page Testing: Choosing Between A/B Or Multivariate Approaches

Google Defends Its Design Philosophy

Written on October 14, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: Object

In an interview on TechRadar UK, Google’s director of user experience goes a long way toward responding to claims earlier this year that the company’s design team is too reliant on data.
“Data informs decision-making but it’s less useful for conceiving and building conceptually new directions,” explains Irene Au. “It’s most useful for optimising and refining [...]



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Google Defends Its Design Philosophy

99Designs - Am I a Revolutionary or An Ass

Written on October 8, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: searchengineguide

by Sage Lewis

I am trying a site where designers bid on your design projects. Multiple designers enter the contest by submitting different designs for you to choose from. This kind of site is continuing to open up the market place to worldwide competition. But I’m not sure how I feel about this. Am I just being savvy and realistic about the world that we live it. Or am I cutting out and screwing really good designers? You tell me.

Check out our small business news site.

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99Designs - Am I a Revolutionary or An Ass

What Is The Potential For Growth In SMB Online Marketing?

Written on August 27, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: Advertising, Object

The handful of SEM companies that we work with at Palore make millions of calls to Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) every year. This raises the question of whether the market for SMB online advertising is saturated, and how much room there is for growth.
A good (albeit somewhat simplistic) way of answering that question is [...]



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What Is The Potential For Growth In SMB Online Marketing?

How To Construct Rational Landing Page Tests

Written on August 26, 2009 by admin

Filed Under: Object, marketing

All landing page tests are not created equal. What you test on your pages—and what you learn from those tests—can better inform tactics and strategies throughout your entire marketing program. Here are four kinds of landing page tests that can help you learn about your market.
Beware butterflies and magic bullets
How much can you learn from [...]



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How To Construct Rational Landing Page Tests