by mtraphagen | Jul 10, 2009 | Paid Search
Tested two ads for a client recently. One offered a stay at a resort for $19.95. The other offered it for free. $19.95 was the convincing winner. Go figure.Lesson learned: Don’t assume that giving something away will attract more people than selling it at a good...
by mtraphagen | Jul 6, 2009 | Twitter
I’m a huge fan of the Tour de France; love to know what’s happening over there as it’s happening. Downside of “over there” though is that most of the happening happens while I’m at work “over here.” So I was looking...
by mtraphagen | Jul 1, 2009 | Twitter
When it comes to user interfaces (UI), the “U” should also stand for “useful.” Flashy is no substitute.When I heard yesterday that Twitter had “upgraded” the UI for both “Following” and “Follow” pages for...
by mtraphagen | Jun 26, 2009 | Google, Social Media
In Google Profiles and Reputation Management – Part 1, I made a case for why building a Google Profile should be a central part of establishing a positive online presence (i.e. “reputation management”). Today let’s look at a second, but...
by mtraphagen | Jun 24, 2009 | Facebook
I have previously written about “Three No-Brainers that are No-Shows on Facebook Pages for Internet Marketing.” In that post I detailed some aspects of Facebook Pages that limit the feature’s utility for effective social web...
by mtraphagen | Jun 23, 2009 | Google
A few days ago I posted some suggestions about using social media sites to “ace” the front page of Google (fill the first page of Google’s search results for your name with links to sites and content that you control). Let’s review the value of...
by mtraphagen | Jun 18, 2009 | Social Media, Twitter
A co-worker pulled me in on a phone consultation with a client yesterday. The client wanted to know if they should be on Twitter, and my associate told them I was our “Twitter guy.” I only got one sentence into my pitch–“Successful marketing on...
by mtraphagen | Jun 17, 2009 | Social Media
Are you an ace? I don’t mean you’ve shot down boucoups enemy planes in some WW I video game. I’m coining a new usage of “ace”: to have all the first page references from a Google search of your name be your own links–or links about...
by mtraphagen | Jun 9, 2009 | Social Media
Two stories came across my FriendFeed feed back-to-back this morning:1. Compete: Facebook US Traffic Nearing Google, Yahoo – http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/09/compete-facebook-us-traffic-nearing-google-yahoo/ (via http://ff.im/3Lnxo)2. Study shows only 10% of...
by mtraphagen | Jun 3, 2009 | Facebook
As a Facebook user for several years now I’ve become pretty numb to the hysteria that greets each new major change of the user interface. I suppose all the “1,000,000 Strong Against the New Facebook” groups gave people a cause to live for for a...
by mtraphagen | May 19, 2009 | Social Media, Twitter
“You get what you pay for” is usually a pretty good dictum to follow. But the Internet often negates that truism. Certainly one of the most startling aspects of 21st century life, if you stop to think about it, is the amount of free resources available on...
by mtraphagen | May 11, 2009 | Hive Digital
AdBlock Plus, provider of the leading browser plugin for blocking display ads on web sites, has announced in a blog post today that they are considering introducing an option that would be a modified form of a ad-blocking meta tag first proposed on Virante,...
by mtraphagen | May 11, 2009 | Free SEO Tools, Hive Digital
This flowchart is a detailed guide that covers optimized website design, development and multichannel marketing integration. Web design doesn’t exist in a vacuum nor does marketing. The most optimized, easiest functioning and best performing sites are those that...
by mtraphagen | May 8, 2009 | Analytics
Ran Nir at econsultancy.com has posted a great, easy-to-follow tutorial on how to track links to your site (or your clients’ sites) from social media sites.For professional, proven results with your social media campaigns, check out Virante.