aimClear Search Marketing Blog

One of the great pleasures of my job is traveling around the world to blog search marketing seminars and conferences. As August wanes the American SEM conference season is really heating up. Still on aimClear’s docket for 2007 are SES San Jose (August 20 - 23), SMX Social Media NYC, SMX Local & Mobile Denver, SMX Travel Orlando, and PubCon in Las Vegas.

This Year’s SES San Jose is Special.
SES San Jose this year is bound to be replete with emotion and nostalgia. Read the rest of this entry »

Lot’s of our favorite blogs use WordPress. This very useful little list of URL exclusions is used to exclude non-marketing WordPress traffic from analytics reports, whatever package you use.

For those uninitiated readers (future-analytics-warriors): by default modern analytics packages exclude requests for graphics and robots. (Remember the difference between hits and unique visitors ). Well, there are other types of “hits” which also do not qualify as marketing traffic-file types, like flash elements and admin pages which comprise WordPress back end and plug calls. Tuning the exclusion list can mean the difference between self-congratulatory, inflated, and less accurate analytics…and getting an actual read of your true marketing traffic. Read the rest of this entry »

Our founding office is in Duluth, Minnesota’s Canal Park. Duluth is a wonderful place to live and work. Biking trails, boutique restaurant offerings, Lake Superior kayaking, rock climbing and (oh yes) we’re just steps away from Lake Superior. Duluth is a world class city gateway to the Northwoods and a sparkling jewel.

DuluthGuide reports that Outside Magazine has ranked Duluth Minnesota (aimClear’s hometown) as one of the Best Towns in America to live in for “fitness, and fun packed adventure. “ Also making this prestigious index are Santa Cruz, California, Jackson, Wyoming, Read the rest of this entry »

We treat every analytics installation as a pilot, especially ecommerce apps’ which span a marketing domain and secure ecommerce sub-domain (or third party ecommerce domain server we don’t control). It’s in this analytics pilot process that we sometimes encounter site structures and applications SO nasty that they’re hilarious/depressing SEM sitcoms. Point blank: some web 1.0 file hierarchy and directory structures make for less effective analytics. Read the rest of this entry »

Companies seriously reliant on Internet marketing often reach a daunting crossroad, whether to grow a more substantial in-house SEM team or bolster internal marketing efforts by outsourcing. As a rule it’s difficult for small and mid-size companies to commit sufficient resources to keep up with voluminous daily research required to keep current. However as in all outsourcing vs. in-house-building decisions, there can be advantages to traversing the corporate learning curve towards nurturing indigenous capabilities.

Here are 6 surefire signs that it’s time to consider outsourcing your Internet marketing to a professional search marketing firm (actual examples):

1 Last month the pay per click expense ballooned from $3,300 to $6,100 while sales remained flat compared to the same month last year. The solution was to implement daily budgets in AdWords which resulted in ads not running after 7:30PM each night. The top 3 ads in Panama, including yours, all have headlines reading “Literal Keyword, Free Shipping.”

1.5 The only in-house keyword research tools are those available in AdWords and Panama. The PPC account manager doubles as the one-man IT department, never uses negative keywords, and doesn’t track the difference between exact, phrase, and broad match. He really doesn’t understand what content match or site targeted display ads are. Read the rest of this entry »

She sleeps little and obsesses at 4:45AM over analytic-flavored black coffee. So much traffic from StumbleUpon again? He wakes every morning, checks bid management software to see Google API charges month_to_date, and shoots off a quick support inquiry (Support Ticket #25486705-4456-432) to Australia. There’s time for her to read 3 Search Engine Land articles in on her iPhone while going to the bathroom. She emails herself post title ideas.

It’s 5:10AM CDST and he blogs for 43 minutes before breakfast. Blogging means Digg, and Reddit, and Netscape. Wikipedia bugs him. She settles comfortably into her Vaio shortly before 5:13AM. These serious writers, Mr. and Mrs. Good Morning America, feel ebb and flow in colorful word-play ideas, creativity, tech-think research prowess, and wit. Even the driest topic has at least one amazingly poetic core value. Any subject can be link-baited.

Make Every Word Pay.
The Fanatical Business Blogger’s ZEN is spending as little time as possible writing while maximizing the possibility of inciting a viral response. Stream-of-consciousness external linking and bread crumbing tactics exploit inherent human tendencies to congregate in human buzz pockets, be voyeurs and remain anonymous. Social media mirrors physical life. Committed to blogging means to TOTALLY do it, No Matter What. Average content doesn’t count. If you’re a new business-blogger and you’re considering (or committed to) aggressive business blogging to gain respect as an author, then be prepared to really work hard. Read the rest of this entry »

You get what you pay for. It doesn’t matter a fig whether the analytics service provider is a multi-billion dollar global empire corporation or a guerilla search marketing firm in Minneapolis. Serious SEM Clients don’t care if the hosted analytics service is Google-free-with-a-promise or cost thousands each month. When cash money is on the line and analytics disappear our clients are freaked out and pissed off.

In the Real World People Don’t Trust Free Things with Good Reason.
What kind of never-never land do we live in anyway? Have we been lulled into star-crossed stupidity by accepting mission critical hosted analytics services for free with no quality of service promise, little customer service, and spin doctors spinning social CYA laden sound bytes?

Sure Google’s a great company but would any business ever trust free van repairs for morning milk delivery vehicles in exchange for allowing the repair shop access to their bank account information? Would you ever trust an unlimited supply of free hard drives for your server in exchange for log files? How safe would you feel your child’s 33 year old full time school bus driver worked for free just because he loves to be around kids? Little in life is free. Read the rest of this entry »

Our hearts and prayers go out to victims and their families of the I35W bridge collapse tragedy which took place at 6:15 this evening. A number of our clients, strategic partners, and vendors work and/or live in close proximity to the freeway span over the river, which is now completely gone. It is a devastating scene. There were as many as 50 cars in the water including a school bus carrying 60 children. CNN is reporting that all of the kids on the bus survived.

The disaster site is literally blocks from aimClear’s Minneapolis office. I cross the 40 year old bridge, which was undergoing renovation, multiple times each day when working in the Twin Cities. Our good friend Zac Good (Brave New Media) crossed the doomed span within minutes of the tragic event. Read the rest of this entry »