aimClear Search Marketing Blog

<This position has been filled.> Our search marketing agency, aimClear, is hiring an Paid Search Account Technician in our Duluth, Minnesota office. The successful candidate will have experience enough (or easily be trained to) monitor one of our agency’s mature account management portfolios.

The landscape of paid search is rapidly changing. Platforms and tools change in subtle and major ways at any time. Though entry level, this position a good opportunity for someone interested in growing a career as the “new” media buyer. There is also the opportunity for advancement as our business continues to grow. Read the rest of this entry »

<February 13, 2008 A second position has been added. Apply now> Our search marketing agency, aimClear, is hiring a Site & Server Webmaster/Administrator in our Duluth, Minnesota office. The successful candidate will have experience enough to interact with our clients’ ISPs, install and maintain Windows and/or Apache servers. Daily tasks include local and remote server maintenance, making non-design text and graphic changes to dozens of client websites using Dreamweaver and Fireworks, installation, hosting, and maintenance of open source applications (especially WordPress), maintaining firm’s employee computers, and researching technology solutions.

Go to the head of the class if you like to rip apart open source applications and get them to do interesting new things. Experience with WordPress a plus. Read the rest of this entry »

This post contains serious tips from a friend of mine who is a StumbleUpon authority figure. She has bookmarked over 3400 pages, has 365 fans, a network of more than 6500 Stumblers, over 70 SU members have reviewed her profile, and is a darn nice person. When this lady bookmarks content it’s certain the thumbs-up will drive 150 to 5000 unique visitors to a website or blog…for each post that catches her eye.

The StumbleUpon Effect
Once, a review she wrote ignited a spark that drove 25,000 visitors to an aimClearBlog post in the course of hours. We’ve experienced this phenomena a number of times for our clients’ sites.

I’ve not included my friend’s SU name to avoid opening the spam-gates and we asked permission to publish the tips below. In the StumbleUpon community, as with all social media sites (and life), making authentic friends and loyalty is what matters. Here are her tips for StumbleUpon success in response to questions about how she built her SU network:

Read the rest of this entry »

Attorneys, plumbers, financial advisor’s, electricians, pizza parlors, cleaning services, snowplow drivers, caterers, insurance companies, and hardware stores alike ask us similar questions: “How does the Internet change things? Should we keep our Yellow Pages ad? How do we keep from being left behind”

At SES San Jose Stuart McKelvey, President and CEO TMP Directional Marketing presented research regarding the usage and value of online and offline local search usage (”A Study of the Usage and Value of Online and Offline Local Search Sources”). TPG is a fascinating company with over 38 years of Yellow Pages, online search and marketing experience. The study “combines 3,000 survey responses with actual observed online behavior.” In a nutshell online search dominates while traditional printed Yellow Pages perform surprisingly well. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a wonderful Search Engine Strategies conference replete with up to date information, opportunities to network with search marketing peers, and brushes with rock star SEMs. My wife and I are on our way up to Sonoma for some much-needed Northern California R&R. This post includes 25 snapshots from the conference so you can get a sense of what this ultra cool event is like.

For comprehensive SES coverage check out the following sources: Ask.com Blog, BruceClay.com Blog, David Dalka, Top Rank Blog, Search Engine Journal, Unofficial SEO Blog, WebProNews and Search Engine Roundtable. Read the rest of this entry »

Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience at Google, charmed SES in a dialog this morning with Conference Chair Danny Sullivan. Her demeanor was colloquial, firm, deep, focused and simple.

She discussed Google’s moves in search including recent roll outs which added more personalized and “universal” search results and referred to Google verticals as her “children.” Marissa oversees products ranging from Web Search and iGoogle and was one of Google’s first employees. This is a very powerful lady. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the coolest value-adds to each Search Engine Strategies conference is the outstanding array of vendors who display in the Exposition Hall. Major analytics players, Google, Yahoo, MSN, research tools, consulting firms, agencies, rock star marketing startups, and established players alike display their wares and take the time to get to know customers.

Each SES provides a great opportunity for our agency to research state of the art search marketing technology developments, meet up with account reps, learn about new vendors, get ideas, and there’s lots of cool free stuff too! For those of you who have never experienced SES, here’s a POV walk-through video of this year’s exposition hall. You’ll meet some vendors and have a bit of fun. Read the rest of this entry »

Avinash Kaushik is an author, blogger, and respected analytics evangelist. With over 7000 inbound links from other bloggers his web analytics blog, Occam’s Razor, is on many a serious SEMs’ blogroll. Avinash recently published his new book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day. Avinash speaks here at SES San Jose Thursday @ 9AM on the “Analyzing the Analytics Players” panel.”

An independent consultant who has a holistic focus on helping companies unlock the power of Web Analytics 2.0, Avinash uses data to strategic advantage and is the official Analytics Evangelist for Google. He’s a frequent speaker at industry conferences in the US and Europe, such as eMetrics summits, Ad-Tech, Web 2.0 Expo and SES. We had a chance to sit down and chat here at SES San Jose. Read the rest of this entry »

This afternoon at SES San Jose, on the Issues Track, search marketers and audit firms gathered to discuss the click fraud problem. In this session issues surrounding fraud and tactics designed to safeguard media buys were explored. For many of us this session was the first time we’ve seen data to support our long-held suspicion: In terms of conversion, search networks outperform content networks at a rate of approximately 5/3 (Click Forensics).

How Much Does Fraud Hurt?
Traffic from Made for ad sites (MFAS) and parked domains convert at 1/20th the rate other PPC. 71.8% of sites that participate in the Yahoo publisher network are MFAS or parked domains as are approximately 60% of Google ad sense sites (Click Forensics). The victims of fraud are clients and advertisers who suffer lower conversion rates and higher CPAs, SEMs/Agencies whose usable budgets are lowered as a result, and search engines who make less money for clicks sent after writing off bad traffic. Average click-fraud rate across search advertising industries is 15.8% . Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been hearing about it all week…the Google dance this, the Google dance that. It’s one of the few public after-hours SES San Jose events. Coach buses are piling up outside the convention center to shuttle attendees to the 2007 Google Dance tonight in the Amphitheater at Mountain View corporate headquarters. I’m sure it will be great fun but I didn’t go. Maybe I’m crazy to miss an opportunity to party on Googlers’ home turf but I don’t think so. Here are the top 9 reasons to skip the Google Dance at SES San Jose:

#9) Free beer at the dance?…or Blue Point Long Island oysters, Mixed Greens with Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Balsamic Dressing, Kendall Jackson VR Sonoma Chardonnay, La Crema Sonora Coast Pinot Noir, and Swordfish Palua at The Fairmont Hotel 3 blocks from here? Read the rest of this entry »