Marketing Tom - Internet Marketing

Madrid Tapas Parade - a Good Example of Online PR and Viral Marketing

If you don't already know, I have another weblog which is focused on offering useful advice and infromation for people visiting Madrid - it is called Mad About Madrid. Just before Christmas I received an invitation from a business in Madrid asking for help in promoting their new "Tapas Parade" service:

"My name is Andrés and I am one of the guys who run La Taperia de la Abuela a great restaurant situated in my favorite spot in Old Madrid. We are launching a new product - Madrid Tapas Parade and we want to spend the promotional money in having people talking about us instead of the usual advertisement thing. I think it would be great to throw one of our Tapas Parade parties for the people who run blogs about Madrid/Spain (for free of course and friends welcomed too). I think it would be a great chance for you to know each other (if you don´t yet), for us to meet you and for the Tapas Parade to take its first step into the web world."

Simple! Yet a very neat way to get their message out to a wide audience. Considering that typical costs of the Madrid Tapas Parade range from 19-24 Euros, this is a very cost effective way of advertising their service. Mad About Madrid receives around 450-500 visitors a day with some links getting upwards of 150 clicks per month. When you factor in all other Madrid-related blogs that may well write about the Madrid Tapas Parade experience, it certainly looks like blog promotion could be a very efficient tool, indeed.

Given that the website hasn't been picked up by Google yet, you also have the added value of relevant links (from Madrid-related sites) coming in from sites which have good PR's on Google. This should result in the site in the site being indexed a bit more quickly by the search engines.

I just can't wait now to meet up with the guys at Madrid Tapas Parade; sample their culinary delights and blog about it.   

 

Will Google Light Up for Christmas?

Have you noticed the Google logo over the past few days? Well, keep an eye on it to over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to see if it will actually light:

Post Christmas
They did light it up!

Using Amazon SIPS for Keyword Research

Not sure how useful this would be for some people but I thought I'd write about it anyway. I was just loking for a book on Amazon - Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival - when my eye was drawn to Amazon's SIPS. For those who don't know (probably everyone!) Amazon's SIPS are:

Statistically Improbable Phrases, or "SIPs", are the most distinctive phrases in the text of books in the Search Inside!™ program. To identify SIPs, our computers scan the text of all books in the Search Inside! program. If they find a phrase that occurs a large number of times in a particular book relative to all Search Inside! books, that phrase is a SIP in that book.

They actually offer quite valuable information - let's call them "keywords" - from within a book. In the case of the book I mentioned above, the SIPS are:

belay seat, boot snagged, belay plate, snow stake, snow hole, cooking rock, corniced ridge, ice cliff, rock buttress, ice screws, snow cave, steep ice, ice bridge, ice wall, second lake, powder snow, dome tent

It would appear that these SIPS act as tags and, on clicking, you get taken to a list of other books where these SIPS appear:

14 references in Touching the Void: The Harrowing First Person Account Of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
8 references in Antarctic Oasis: Under the Spell of South Georgia by Tim Carr, Pauline Carr
8 references in High Achiever: The Life and Climbs of Chris Bonington by Jim Curran
7 references in Highland Fling by Katie Fforde
5 references in Storm Mountain by Anne Fitten Glenn
5 references in Everest: The Unclimbed Ridge (Adrenaline Classics Series) by Chris Bonington, et al
5 references in One Man's Mountains: Essays and Verses by Tom Patey
4 references in The Mountain Skills Training Handbook by Pete Hill, Stuart Johnston

Click on any one of these and you get presented with a new set of SIPS. Brilliant!

By methodically going through this process, it is quite possible to build up a highly relevant, set of keywords. Quite often in search engine marketing people will develop their keyword lists from 'within', that is they will either write down the keywords that they, or their closest colleagues, use. Using something like Amazon's SIPS ensures that you are, potentially, tapping into the words that the 'community' is using in relation to your subject.

Let's say that your subject is 'mountaineering', well the people that write the books that are listed above (and other ones you will discover from further research) may well come from a wide variety of backgrounds. They may be climbers, mountain rescue people, walkers, abseilers, journalists beginnes or pros; they may come from different countries or prefer rock climbing to ice climbing. The point is that SIPS allow you to see the different perspectives of other people and help you use the language (read keywords) that they may be using.

You will also come across CAPS which are:

"Capitalized Phrases, or "CAPs", are people, places, events, or important topics mentioned frequently in a book."

They are another important source of keyword information.

Try typing in keywords relevant to your business or your clients on Amazon's site and see what SIPS are being used.

Technorati Tags: amazon | keyword

Open Source Marketing is Coming to a Brand Near You

Open Source Marketing has gathered quite a momentum over the past year. Open Source Marketing, in essence, means allowing your customers to interact much more with your products/services. It means freeflow of dialogue with customers and far more openness - often with customers involved in the creation of PR, Marketing and WOm activities. Here are some interesting examples of Open Source Marketing that I have come across:

• Customer-created Advert for Google Maps (YouTube)

• Spread Firefox does it brilliantly through their Firefox Flicks. Interestingly, you will see that some Advertising Agencies are contributing, too.

• Seth Godin has recently invited people to submit their own ads for his latest book (100% of the royalties will go to charity) which will feature on MSN's homepage for free. The winner will have their ad displayed and will be credited as the designer.

On a similar tack, John Moore over at Brand Autopsy, writes about the devoted Trekkies who have created their own episodes of Star Trek.

Technorati Tags: firefox | open source | google

More on Open Source Marketing
Open Source Marketing is the Future - Pass It On (Micropersausion)
Firefox Flicks: Open Source Marketing? (Firefox)
Open Source Marketing (Johnnie Moore)
Open Source Marketing (Clickz)
What Is Open Source Marketing?

John Battelle Assesses His 2004 Predictions

Going back a year John Battelle, author of The Search - How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, made some predictions for 2005. Here is a brief list:

1. We will have a goat rodeo of sorts in the blogging/micropublishing/RSS world as commercial interests push into what many consider a "pure medium." I've seen this movie before, and it ends OK.

3. There will be two to five major new sites that emerge from "nowhere" to become major cultural influencers along the lines of the political bloggers of 2004.

4. Meanwhile, the long tail will become the talk of the "old line" media world.

5. Google will do something major with Blogger. I really have no idea what, but it's overdue. Six Apart will grow quickly but face a crisis in its implementation as its core users demand more features that are "unbloglike" like customer databases and robust publishing support tools.

6. Ask will continue to consolidate traffic by buying smaller search sites.

7. Yahoo and Google will both test systems that combine local merchant inventory information with search, so that merchants can use search as a direct sales channel.

9. Firefox will near 15% of total browser share. Firefox faithful will wonder why it's not much much higher. But MSFT will release a very good upgrade of IE, see #8.

10. A third party platform player with major economies of scale (ie eBay or Amazon) will release a search related innovation that blows everyone's mind, and has everyone buzzing about how it redefines what's possible in search.

14. All year, Apple will be rumored to launch a video iPod, but it won't - it's still too early. By the end of 2005, we will just be starting to see traction in the video over IP market and its connection to search. Google will introduce Video search at some point in 05, but it will stay in Labs.

16. Perhaps most recklessly...I will finish my book

John Battelle was pretty close to the mark on most of his predictions. Take a look at how he fared in his article So, One Year Later, How'd I Do?

Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah from Virgin Mobile

Here's some festive Christmas fun from Virgin Mobile.

Technorati Tags: virgin mobile

Bono, Bill and Melinda Gates Named Time Person(s) of the Year 2005

Just saw that Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates have been named Time Magazine's Person(s) of the Year 2005 for:

"being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow"

Managing Editor James Kelly said the three had been chosen as the people most effective at finding ways to eradicate such calamities as malaria in Africa, HIV and AIDS and the grinding poverty that kills 8 million people a year.

Well, you can't argue with that. I saw Bill Gates speaking at the Live 8 concert in July and couldn't help thinking that it can't be bad that the richest man in the world is also prepared to give virtually all his wealth away in coming years to help people who are in greatest need.

Small Businesses Increase Spending on Internet Advertising

According to a survey of 700 small and midsize businesses by Boston-based Yankee Group, Internet Advertising has soared over the past year. According to senior analyst Sanjeev Aggarwal,

"..small and midsize businesses are using services from Google and Yahoo that allow potential customers to search for businesses within specific Zip codes. The whole notion of using the Internet for local advertising has become much more common, espcially for small businesses like beauty salons and restaurants that serve a local market.”

The company reckons that advertising shot up 50% to $1.3 billion.

Via: Small Businesses Spending More on Internet Advertising, Tech (Inc.com)

Search Engine Books for Christmas

If you're stuck for some stocking fillers this Christmas, here are some excellent Search Engine-related books you may want to consider. Or why not just indulge yourself?

The Google Story
David Vise

Winning Results with Google AdWords
Andrew Goodman

Search Engine Visibility
Shari Thurow

The Search
John Battelle

Search Advertising
Catherine Seda

Google Power
Chris Sherman

Google Adwords Changes the Size of Fonts

Not sure if anyone's noticed but it would look like Google has changed the size of the 'headline' font for their Google Adwords. I think this happened over the last couple of days. Google Adsense publishers should pay attention and adjust their adverts accordingly. I would say that this obviously means that Google will generate more revenue with larger font sizes or am I being cynical and it is actually designed to aid usability!

 

Andy Grove - Leadership Role Model

Fortune Magazine has got a great feature in their latest issue on leaders and leadership - How to Become a Great Leader. There are many good articles in this issue (listed below) but the one article - The Education of Andy Grove - really caught my intention. Andy Grove, for those who don't know, survived both the Nazis and the Communists in Hungary before finally settling in the USA, where he completed his Doctorate. Andy Grove is an inspiration to us all and this article has some fascinating insights into what it takes to become a great leader.

Further articles from this issue
Grove of Academe
A photo shoot and a chance encounter spark a $26 million gift to his alma mater.
10 Top Leaders Tell Their Secrets
Demand criticism. Let subordinates have the floor. And think more like Vaclav Havel. What you can learn about leadership from Paul Tagliabue, A.G. Lafley, Stan O'Neal and other heavyweights.
 Throw It at The Wall and See if It Sticks
At Intuit, failure is very much an option as long as you learn from it. How a Silicon Valley legend and a GE veteran teamed up to lead a thriving culture of innovation.
Advice From the Master
From the pages of FORTUNE: Peter Drucker on the making of great business leaders.
Quoted Often, Followed Rarely
Thirty years after he published the "bible of software engineering," Fred Brooks talks about managing teams of people and why projects so often go wrong.
The Man Who Bought Elvis
Investor Robert Sillerman is combining the King, American Idol, and other entertainment assets to build his next media conglomerate.

Technorati Tags: andy grove | leadership

Keyword Research (Suggestion) Tools

I got asked today about which were the best tools to use for keyword research. Here are some of the tools which will give you an idea of what, potentially, your target market is likely to be typing in to the search engines.

Overture Suggestion Tool (USA)- displays results from the previous month

Overture Suggestion Tool (UK) - as above but for UK

Word Tracker - you can use their free trial version (for a certain number of keywords) but need to pay £140.00 / $242.24 per year for the full version.

Google Adwords is probably the best tool to use for keyword research (suggestions), though it doesn't exactly tel you the number of times a search word has been typed in to its search engine. To get started you will firstly need to set up an account, which is pretty straighforward. Once you set up an account you will need to activate it (having received email notification). Once activated, you will be able to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, which includes the NEW "Keyword Variation" and "Site-Related Keywords" features. These tools are great for viewing the popularity of a search term and the volume of advertisers for that term (I will include some screenshots and a more detailed overview in a folow-on article).

MIVA Keyword Tool (formerly eSpotting) offers a keyword generator which gives you an idea of the popularity of a keyword across its network (UK) over the past 30 days. This is actually quite a simple, yet neat tool and ideal for keyword research.

**Update**
Online Marketing Blog also points to these Keyword Research Tools:
Keyworddiscovery.com and Google Suggest  - incidentally, the latter can be used with Google Toolbar within Firefox:

Related Article

SEOmoz has an interesting article on this subject: When Wordtracker is Not Enough - Some Alternative Tips for Keyword Suggestions and Traffic Estimations

Technorati Tags: google adwords | overture | wordtracker

The High Cost of War in Iraq

This is a picture which was doing the rounds in April of last year (somehow I missed it), but remains as sad now (probably sadder!) as it did then. If you can't see, the image is made up 700 photographs (each used twice) of dead US personnel from the Iraq war. Over a year and a half later that figure, according to Michael Moore's website, stands at 2128 - much the same as the Anti-War site (2127).

The original images come from American Leftist.

Source: Photomatt

The Rise and Rise of the Million Dollar Homepage Guy

How often do you think, wow! I wish I'd thought of that one? The Million Dollar Homepage is just one such example and it started like this:

I had this little idea the other day. I was trying to think of interesting ways to make some cash before going to Uni (which is in about a month's time) and somehow this crazy thought entered my head: I'll try and make a million dollars, by selling 1,000,000 pixels, for $1 each.

And so 'The Million Dollar Homepage' is born...

The website was launched back in August when Alex Tew decided that he would try to make a few bucks before he went to University (Nottingham). Here's a brief breakdown of the past few months:

Friday 26th Aug 2005

Site Launches

Monday 29th Aug 2005

"Wow! Today I sold my first pixels: 400 of them. That's $400." 

Thursday 8th Sep

"Today things really moved up a gear. I've absolutely, definitely got enough for some swanky new socks: $2500 in the bank today."

Wednesday, 14th Sept

"At last count, I've sold over 10,000 pixels today and yesterday alone. The stats are going through the roof, I've got hundreds of e-mails to answer, and for the first time ever in my life, last night I fell asleep AT MY DESK!!"

Cyber Monday Sales up 35%

WonderBranding picks up on an interesting stat from CNN Money about the huge upsurge in Internet activity last Monday (28th November). It appears that traffic to the top 100 etailing stores on Cyber Monday was 35% higher than on a typical Monday. They go on to report that 43% of online retailers will offer special promotions and discounts.