by mtraphagen | Oct 1, 2009 | Paid Search
From a search on Google for the keyword “ball cancer” (in the Sponsored Results column): Next time I’m looking to buy cancer balls, I’ll know where to go for the best deal! How does this happen? How could Google be showing me an ad for...
by mtraphagen | Sep 30, 2009 | Twitter
If you’re trying to do marketing on Twitter the “hard but right” way (i.e., actively engaging with and listening to followers instead of just link spamming), one of the most pain-in-the-but burdens you take on is deciding who is worth following back....
by mtraphagen | Sep 29, 2009 | Facebook
I wrote a couple of months ago about some elements of fail in Facebook’s Pages feature from a marketing standpoint. A recent new feature at Facebook solves the main gripe in that post…sort of.Facebook now allows users to “tag” other users or...
by mtraphagen | Sep 29, 2009 | Hive Digital
Bloggeris a great, easy to use site for creating a personal blog. However, if you are planning to build a blog for business purposes, it is probably not your best choice, even to start out on. I just learned that Google does not allow Blogger sites to 301 redirect....
by mtraphagen | Sep 28, 2009 | Google
Proving once again that it is the Santa Claus of the Internet, Google last week announced yet another free toy: Google Sidewiki. Sidewiki is an addition to the Google Toolbar (so far only for Firefox and Internet Explorer) that allows anyone to leave comments and...
by mtraphagen | Sep 2, 2009 | Paid Search
If you’ve been using Google’s AdWords and/or Analytics products for any length of time, you must be aware that the numbers don’t always add up. In fact, they don’t add up at a sometimes alarming frequency. That is to say, the reported numbers...
by mtraphagen | Sep 1, 2009 | Paid Search
(Reading hint: If you’re already familiar with the value of negative keywords in PPC advertising, skip to my last paragraph for my new suggestion.)Your mother and your favorite motivational coach will both tell you: negativity is a bad thing. However, when it...
by mtraphagen | Aug 28, 2009 | Apps, Facebook
Facebook’s long-awaited total makeover of it’s extremely popular yet notoriously horrible iPhone app finally arrived in the app store yesterday. By all accounts I’ve seen, everyone’s thrilled with it. Finally, it just works. The new interface...
by mtraphagen | Aug 26, 2009 | Social Media, Twitter
It was inevitable: as fast as Twitter became the fastest-growing social media outlet, it also became a primo target for Internet spammers. Most people I know on Twitter who use it regularly have said that they’ve noticed a sharp uptick in the amount,...
by mtraphagen | Aug 20, 2009 | Social Media
RE: My post yesterday “The SEC Makes One Hell of a Bad Call”The New York Times reports today that the SEC has clarified their rule. Turns out they weren’t really after Joe Bleachersitter sending his blurry phone cam picture of pinpoint-sized...
by mtraphagen | Aug 19, 2009 | Social Media
College sports’ Southeastern Conference (SEC) has probably had to overrule a few bad calls by umpires in its day. This week it was forced to overrule one of its own calls.The conference had actually proclaimed a ban on any and all social media postings about its...
by mtraphagen | Aug 14, 2009 | Google
Google is contemplating eliminating keyword-based search and advertising results in favor of “just let Google decide who to connect with your ads.”So reports Rebecca Lieb at clikz.com from Google AdWords’ team head Nick Fox’s keynote at the...
by mtraphagen | Aug 13, 2009 | Paid Search
We noticed yesterday a subtle change in the layout of Google search: the column of paid ads has been shifted into a fixed space, more to the left than they were before. Whereas previously the ads were aligned with the right edge of a fixed-width page, they now float...
by mtraphagen | Aug 11, 2009 | Social Media
URL shortening service tr.im wasn’t turned into a newt, but it did very suddenly make a self-enacted disappearance yesterday. Citing inability to come up with a revenue model (and inability to compete with the virtual monopoly granted bit.ly as Twitter’s...
