View Ads About?

For some reason, my Google AdSense ads on another site started appearing with a search box including "view ads about:". My first reaction was that Google is testing a different way to display ads, but I can't see why someone would enter a topic and click through. I did a little research and it appears that this is what displays by default when Google AdSense fails to recognize a match for the content on your site. This does make sense, but there is still a lot of keywords that could match some ads on the site. Why doesn't Google keep track of the content theme of your site and just display default ads for your site theme. I'm a little disappointed at their search box approach. They should at least list this as an option in their ad display list. What are your thoughts?

SearchWiki: Search Engine Paradigm Shift

After my initial knee jerk reaction to Google SearchWiki, I have had some time to digest the change to user assisted search results. It appears as though this may be a signal from the world's most popular search engine that a major change is afoot. SearchWiki provides proof there is major change in the way we interact with the web, a search engine paradigm shift.

Could Google's attempt at a SearchWiki be a realization of the limits to an open search engine? Will search results in the future become more like results you see on social media sites like Digg.com where users vote on the best article? Will it force companies to focus more on brand building and user experience?

Most social media sites tend to fit a niche community and produce niche results for that community. It could be a huge gamble by Google to try to be all things to all people, not staying focused and damaging their brand. Personally, I would have rather seen Google spin off a version of their index with new experimental features rather than make it part of their general results.

HTML Email Marketing Tips

Found a good video tutorial below on sending HTML email campaigns through Campaign Monitor. I have personally used Campaign Monitor for small campaigns and it does a fine job of delivering emails. Campaign Monitor's website is also a great resource for email marketers. While this is a good tutorial for starters it implies that emails are simply web pages. Emails use HTML similar to web pages but must be constructed differently to render properly across different email viewers. Hope this video provides a good starting point for your marketing efforts.

Top Internet Marketing Blogs

Looks like I didn't make the list of top internet marketing blogs yet, but it gives me something to aspire to for 2009. I have been listed thanks to Gyutae over at Winning the Web. Since writing on this blog since 2005, it gives me a moment to reflect on the past four years in technology and search marketing. Back in 2005, the iPhone was a distant rumor, as well as the gPhone. No one had any idea what a tweet or twitter was back then and MySpace was all the rage. I wonder what websites or topics will be popular in 2013?

Passed Google AdWords Exam

I normally don't toot my own horn, but thought this achievement was worth a post. Just took the Google AdWords exam today and passed with a 83.9%, needing a 75% or better to pass the test. The test was a little more challenging than I originally thought. There were some really odd questions that I thought could be worded more clearly. Also, I am not a fan of multi-option select questions. I feel they leave a lot of room for interpretation. True / False or single selects are the way to go. I have spent more time on organic search engine optimization in recent months so I needed to change my focus for a few days. Going back to study paid search over the last couple weeks helped refresh my skills and got me thinking about some creative ways to use pay per click advertising.

Web Analytics Advanced Segmentation

Just noticed some really cool features in my Google web analytics account this morning. The new advanced segmentation features are easy to apply by dragging and dropping groups of data to make your own reports. I hope to learn more about these features for measuring SEO in the coming weeks and post my findings.

Building HTML Email Campaigns

I wanted to share this presentation from a little while ago I did on email marketing. Hope you find it helpful when building or designing HTML email campaigns. Enjoy!