Much has been made about yesterday’s forecast of the SEM Industry. Long story short: things are pretty good, or in the words of Larry David: “Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.” According to Radar Research and SEMPO the SEM industry was projected to grow to an $11.6 billion industry in 2007, […]

Another SMX conference has come, and I sit waiting for Danny Sullivan’s open keynote. The lights go down and AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” comes over the speakers. And, then Danny is introduced. Danny opens by telling the story of SMX.
The keynote is titled “Search 3.0, 4.0 & Beyond”.
In Danny’s nomenclature, Search 1.0 was the original content […]

After more and more evidence that an economic downturn is coming, marketing departments and firms everywhere are bracing for a hit. Marketing has historically been on the receiving end of lay offs once a recession kicks in, but will this ring true for those in search engine marketing? Withstanding the dot com bust, SEM has […]

In a courageous show of unity against the oppression of Base 10 numbering systems, here is our list of a dozen predictions for the search engine marketing industry this year.
1. Management tools become the cost of having a seat at the paid search table, rather than a competitive advantage.
In past years, advertisers in competitive spaces […]

While the majority of other blogs would have you read the top trends of 2007 I’ve decided to bring you the trends that are either in limbo awaiting their fate, or have moved from limbo to a fiery eternity. What happened? Where did these trends go wrong? Could we have seen this coming? Is there […]

This afternoon I attended the PRSA teleseminar at Tocquigny Advertising’s downtown Austin office. The topic was “Leveraging the Social Web: How digital communities create dialogues to advance health care”. The instructors were Larry Weber, chairman of the W2 Group, and Bo Piela, senior director of corporate communications at pharma firm Genzyme Corporation.
To start, Larry pointed […]

In the history of monolithic number two companies there have been a variety of innovations that have shifted the market place’s attention from the leader. Pepsi made clear cola, Reebok put a .002-psi pump in a shoe, Burger King concocted some sort of Chicken French Fry, and now Yahoo is creating a social networking site.
With […]

If so, you most likely still missed the WSJ Online article about our pay-per-post marketing efforts. The article highlights the growing interest in sponsored reviews, and also draws attention to some of the issues businesses can come across when paying for honest, 3rd party reviews of their services.
Below is a quick blurb from the article […]

From the Search Sultan who brought you Search Engine Land comes: Sphinn (pronounced ’spin’), the newest social site for search and interactive marketers. Think of it as the area underneath the Facebook bleachers where all the geeks and misfits congregate to talk about what’s really going on throughout the web while looking generally standoffish.
The […]

It’s been rumored that Yahoo is looking to up their previous bid of $1.65 billion to a solid $2 billion to purchase the social networking site Facebook. It’s also been rumored that Google might pop up out of nowhere with a larger offer. However as previously mentioned these are just rumors, […]