Online Marketing Blog

There have been several new developments in the search engine world recently:

1. Launches new program for AdWords advertisers called Jumpstart, to help new advertisers select keywords, write ads and choose bids. Reported by Clickz.com

2. Yahoo adds storage to fee email, Google begins selling graphic ads on network, Yahoo replaces Google on CNN, and so on. Good stuff from CNET

I noticed a few articles recently about keyword optimized press releases. It’s good to see the concept starting to attract a broader audience. News sites like Yahoo News and Google News have more readers than CNN and BBC, and in order to find a particular story or release, you have to search for it. So while there’s a broad audience, the viewers of a particular story or release have pulled themselves to it via search - and that qualifies them a bit as a prospect in terms of the marketing value. That’s the beauty of search marketing - visitors pull themselves to your message rather than the message being pushed out to them.

Small and Medium Businesses Rely on Online Research for Technology Purchasing Decisions “59 percent use search engines on a daily basis.” - From MediaDailyNews. Based on research sponsored by Yahoo! and Grey Global Group and conducted by IDC.

Here’s another report supporting the notion that technology marketers needs to emphasis their online marketing component - especially search. I’m continuously amazed at how many technology solutions companies do not effectively market themselves via search engines. The market is there, searching products and solutions every day.

Vote for Online Marketing Blog - Marketing Sherpa is taking votes for favorite marketing and PR blogs. Vote for the blogs listed. The TopRank Online Marketing Blog is a write-in on #7. Thanks! Lee

Blogger Launches Updated Format and Functionality - Very cool. A mix of new features makes Blogging at Blogger.com even easier and more fun.

Official Google Blog Goes Live - It’s nice to see this initiative as with events this year, many will be curious about happenings at Google.

Google is close to releasing new keyword tools - The tools will develop automated lists of keyword combinations that are likely to turn up in search queries, thereby increasing the number of matches. From news.com

Tacoda Systems Testing Audience Match - Search Engine Advertising to reach specific demographics. From CNET News.com

Study shows searches prone to click on unpaid, or “natural” search results. From DMNews

http://pingomatic.com/
“By sending a small ping to each service you let them know you’ve updated so they can come check you out. They get the freshest data possible, you don’t get a thousand robots spidering your site all the time. Everybody wins.”

http://www.blogpatrol.com/
Free Blog Stats Tool

Atom to RSS Conversion Many syndication services only take RSS format, so this free tool is very handy.

http://www.bloglet.com/
Free tool enables you to email subscribers with updates to your blog.

The new Seth Godin eBook featuring TopRank Search Engine Optimization was made available this week: Download for free - BULLMARKET 2004 :: COMPANIES THAT CAN HELP YOU MAKE THINGS HAPPEN (PDF format)

My Gmail account is working great. I am definitely a fan of the the message organization and the slick JavaScript used for functionality. The message thread-style of archiving messages works well. It’s interesting what some of the people offered Gmail accounts are doing though.

Searchers find organic search results more relevant - from Internet Retailer

Secondary PPC networks become more popular as bidding competition rises on Google and Overture. From BtoB