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...
by mtraphagen | Jul 14, 2009 | SEO
Fred Aun at clikz.com reports an observation that Microsoft’s re-branded and overhauled search engine Bing seems to be going after “quality” rather than quantity of PPC ad displays. In a test of keyword searches, Bing consistently showed fewer (and...
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...
