“I read the news today oh boy…”
Actually, I haven’t read the news today. I haven’t wanted to. I don’t have the stomach for the Dow today and having spent a week talking with CEOs, SEOs, Social Marketers and most importantly, CFOs, I don’t have the strength for another download of economic downturn stories. Except for [...]

Continue reading " The Success of SES Chicago Show "

Shares of Yahoo! surged upwards by 7% yesterday on news the former CEO of AOL, Jonathan Miller was mounting an independent take-over bid. As reported in yesterday’s Wall St. Journal, Miller is actively trying to acquire Yahoo! with an offer in the range of $20 - $22 per share.

Continue reading " Yahoo! - New Take-over Bid Coming? "

I’ve been city hopping for the past two weeks from search marketing conference to search marketing conference to search marketing conference. It’s been a long fourteen days and I have literally crossed the continent twice in the endless quest for better information about search, search marketing and online business.

Continue reading " Search Marketing Travel Time "

This economic downturn will force a lot of change to the search and social media advertising landscape. This is a sobering time and the high-flying days of buying eyeballs before knowing how to monetize the traffic are over.

Continue reading " Economic Driven Search Market Clarifications to Begin "

The process of search engine marketing is very much like running a marathon. It is hard work that can reap huge rewards but the actual preparation is often unseen and under-appreciated by observers.

Continue reading " Search Marketing is a Marathon, Not a Sprint "

While traveling around the United States, I was privileged to meet and interview some of the people who make the search and Internet marketing industry work. I spoke with the organizers of ad:tech, some of the largest affiliate marketing businesses in the world, the director of monetization at Facebook, the owners and/or operators of other search marketing firms, and innumerable conference attendees. I learned a lot more about the state of the industry in the past two weeks than I have learned in years. Unfortunately, much of what I learned does not make for good news.

Continue reading " Virtually Everywhere - Learning in Motion "

As I wrote previously, it is difficult to fully grasp the enormity of the problem until you see it in action or talk with those affected by it. While traveling across America, I received a crash-course in fear and desperation. Today, I intend to write about hope.

Continue reading " Virtually Everywhere - Learning in Motion Part 2 "

Rumour has it Microsoft Live Search is thinking of changing its name in a bid to rebrand itself as the up-and-coming #2 in the hierarchy of engines. While the name, Live Search has never taken hold in the imaginations, hearts or minds of search users, the name the company appears to be moving towards is so much less memorable or apparently meaningful it is almost downright crazy.

Continue reading " Microsoft Live Search Name Change? "

Tomorrow begins what is going to be the most watched, measured and written about 120 hour period in modern business history. Starting with the tracking of the movement of people through flights, automobile, bus and rail and ending with an accounting of the staggering amounts of money spent on consumer goods, the American Thanksgiving weekend marks the start of the all important holiday retail season.

Continue reading " Black Friday - Cyber Monday "

The final major search marketing conference of 2008 opens next week when the venerable Search Engine Strategies Conference rolls into the Chicago Hilton next Monday. The smallest of the three US-based SES shows, SES Chicago sports a unique character that makes it a special week for speakers and attendees. It’s the show I look forward to most each year for a number of reasons.

Continue reading " Search Engine Strategies Chicago - Dec 8 - 12 "