Is SEO an Art or a Science?
I’ve been asked a lot of interview questions in my career, some more creative than others, but few have ever stumped me as much as this one: Is SEO an art or a science? Think about it for a minute. You may have a strong opinion one way or another; I know people who fall [...]
How to Evaluate an Online Marketing Service
If you’ve got a budget for website promotion, I know about a hundred companies that want your business. Be it PPC, banner ads, link placements, paid blogging, search engine optimization, or any of a dozen other industry buzz words, they all have different strategies for driving traffic. With so many choices, it can be hard [...]
NumberNeal Responds to Digg Bans: Insights in Community-Based Website Strategy
Earlier this month, popular social news site Digg banned a number of its users, citing script abuse. This sparked an outcry from the Digg community, including the following video letter from power Digg Neal “NumberNeal” Rodriguez (the same Neal to whom I recently offered some SEO career advice): I only started using Digg recently, so [...]
SEO Career Advice for Power Digger Neal Rodriguez
A few weeks ago, my good friend Simon Owens introduced me via email to noted Power Digger Neal Rodriguez. As it turned out, Neal was interested in a career in SEO, and I was more than happy to weigh in with the following advice. Don’t just be an SEO specialist; be an online marketer. SEO [...]
Explaining Social Media Optimization to the Uninformed
One of the major challenges of online marketing is communicating the value of new techniques such as corporate blogging, SEO, or social media optimization. Uninformed superiors are often wary of marketing tactics they don’t understand. If you think you’re ready to ride the wild wave of social media optimization but your boss is still skeptical, [...]
The Purple Cow Level: An MMORPG Lesson in Remarkable Marketing
Case: LF1M healer for norm BM Unless you’re a seasoned World of Warcraft player, the string of acronyms listed above probably doesn’t mean much to you. To translate, it stands for, “We are looking for one more party member to fill the role of healer for a normal-difficulty run of the Black Morass dungeon.” Yes, [...]
How to Pass the Google Advertising Professional (GAP) Exam
Last year, I managed millions of dollars worth of online advertising, well over a million of which was through Google AdWords. Adding up those numbers for my yearly review brought me to the sobering conclusion that I was long overdue for completing my Google Advertising Professional (GAP) certification. For those who don’t know, the Google [...]
Show Results, Win a Free Lunch
Case: Marketing Contest Earlier this month, my supervisor challenged our team to produce our own original marketing campaign proposals. The rules of this little game/performance evaluation were simple. We were to create our own lead generation campaigns using any renewable audience, in any medium, targeted toward any of our company’s products. A week later, we [...]
Launching a Successful Website, Step Seven: Growth
You’ve come a long way since you first envisioned your website. Ever since it launched, it’s been fulfilling its intended purpose beautifully thanks to solid construction, an enticing brand, and diligent maintenance by a team of experts. Congratulations; you’ve come farther than most ever do. Whether or not you stop here is really up to [...]
Launching a Successful Website, Step Five: 3, 2, 1… Lift Off!
Every step so far has led up to this: Launching your website. Of course, the technical bits should already be taken care of, leaving only the launch itself. If your site is small, this can be as simple as turning the key and hoping for the best. More than likely, though, you’ll need to spread [...]