aimClear Search Marketing Blog

When it comes to search, there are SO many channels requiring an SEM shop’s expertise. While targeting channels with optimized content is far from a “one size fits all deal,” it’s essential for any SEM team to have all necessary arrows in quiver. Here are some talking points we use to raise the level of discussion internally and with our clients. Share this post with your search marketing team and challenge the entire process to excellence. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it crooked pool to email, IM, Stumble, or shout at a friend to recommend content, if there’s a possible social media vote involved?

Recently my new friend Tamar and I hosted an amazing dialog amongst other search marketing pals in several comment threads including a triple Sphinn shot, sphunn OUT following one post each in Techpedia and aimClearBlog. Regarding this matter, I was paying careful attention to the difference in rules for rock stars and little people. Read the rest of this entry »

First order of business this week is to welcome Scott Sloan, who joined our team earlier this month, to the aimClear family of employees and strategic partners. Our Duluth office has been growing quickly and so has our server room, which now actually overruns the entire office .

We’ve enhanced our already-robust ability to serve up ClickTracks analytics using page tagging to surpass the “free” Google-flavor, have internal capabilities to develop on the Facebook API, and our house suite of API PPC bid management tools bring ever-enhanced transparency and effectiveness to our client-portfolio paid search reporting model. The technical infrastructure at aimClear is Scott’s domain and, trust me, he likes his tech toys shiny. Please join me in welcoming Scott Sloan as your paths cross.

I Sphinn all day long in between running a busy SEM shop, blogging conferences, studying and living life (sort of). There have been a couple of articles decrying the supposedly black practice of Sphinn story promotion recently and I’ve quietly bit my tongue because the hue and cry has been way over-simplistic and alarmingly utopian. Not today…

The bloggers I respect most are BUSY. Some of them won’t find submissions unless they are pitched. I’m BUSY. Often really cool stuff would slip by unnoticed if a friend did not alert me to it. The propriety of promoting Sphinn submissions among friends is NOT a black and white matter. Read the rest of this entry »

Relocate to lovely Duluth, Minnesota. Our search marketing agency, aimClear, is hiring a 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 »

News flash: How about if we begin an industry wide dialog regarding PPC trademark usage rules as concern big brand franchisees? The messed up paradigm is not really Google’s fault, though Google certainly lays down, and sucks up to big business without nary a protest regarding trademarks. We can’t blame Google-they’re just protecting themselves as is prudent.

Say you own lots of hotels, some of which are Best Western franchise products. Track this: you OWN these hotels, having paid millions of dollars for the privilege of flying franchise flags above the doors. Still, according to Google rules, you’re not allowed to use the keyword “Best Western” in PPC ads if Best Western so requests. You also can’t buy brand name keywords to trigger ads EVEN when Best Western chooses not to purchase PPC in the hotel’s local market-which often happens. How screwed up is that? Read the rest of this entry »

From an anthropological standpoint, humans lived in relatively small isolated pockets in the early days. In this millennium the social media revolution is deep, like the bible, and has changed the pathology of human interactions forever. The pathway to Facebook wound from extremely humble beginnings and now we’re all connected, biting each other with avatar-Zombies.

Massive global communities are defined by you and I using ever-more-open and delightfully idiosyncratic software like Facebook StumbleUpon, Digg, and MySpace. Micro communities inspire and arouse passions in smaller more focused gathering points like Avvo, Urbis, BakeSpace, FoodCandy, and Sphinn. Read the rest of this entry »

Well it’s the morning after SMX Social Media New York 2007 and I feel like a cigarette even though I totally don’t smoke. It was very cool to be live-blogging as part of the SMX press corps which featured some of my favorite writers including Kim Krause & Barry Schwartz (SEO RoundTable Recap ) Eric Lander, SearchEngineJournal Wrap Up, and Vanessa Fox (SearchEngineLand Roundup). Read the rest of this entry »

The web is becoming increasingly more dependent on community-contributed and moderated sites like Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers. The audiences are engaged and the traffic valuable. It’s possible for OTHERS to accomplish fantastic things for your brand (if you’re truly “notable”) and it is possible to safeguard the entry from information “vandalism”. However if you screw up, your career and reputation can literally be ruined. This informative session with leading Wiki experts offered protocol, tips and tricks. Read the rest of this entry »

Name any interest area and there’s probably a social media site with exploitable Web2.0 features serving a community. These sites might be “micro” in size compared to large and well-known services like Digg, but they have passionate members who might also be a more targeted audience comprised of the exact folks you wish to reach. This session toured some of the many smaller communities which are out there and offered tips for finding them and evaluating potential value. Read the rest of this entry »