aimClear® Search Marketing Blog

Greetings, guys and ghouls. Halloween is just around the corner, and I don’t know about you, but here at aimClear we love a good scare. Any seasoned search marketer will tell you that in our industry, there’s blood-curdling terrors and freak-shows to behold… if you know where to look. From downright dreadful habits of search conference speakers to positively hair-raising social media faux pas, the petrifying threat of intra-community bloodshed… sometimes it’s like we’re one bucket of pig’s blood short of a B-rated horror flick. (Side note: Carrie = not B-rated.)

But perhaps one of the most spine-chilling aversions the search marketer could encounter is a so-called marketing must-read filled with outdated, misguided, flavor-of-the-month type garble, all held together by a gaudy eyesore of a book jacket and a really god-awful title.  In the [evil] spirit of sharing a spook and scream with our friends in the online marketing industry, we tapped into our Twitter communities this morning to help assemble the quintessential bookshelf of horrors. I give you: 66 of the Worst Search Marketing Books You’ll Never Read. Read the rest of this entry »

Bryan Eisenberg is, in the world of online marketing, generally a man who needs no introduction. Co-author of bestselling books, frequent keynote speaker and session sequencer at an array of conferences, co-founder of this, advisory board member of that, authority and pioneer in persona marketing, conversion rate optimization, persuasion architecture and more. Wait, this is turning into an introduction. Let’s just get to it!

Next month at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2011, Bryan will take the stage on Day 1 to contribute his insightful two cents to the Conversion Tools of the Master Craftsman session. On the advent of #SESCHI, I had the chance to share a candid Q&A with Bryan on a variety of topics, from his professional background to thoughts on marketing personas, favorite conversion optimization tools to favorite vacation spots. Read on for the full scoop. Read the rest of this entry »

You might say Simon Heseltine, Director in charge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) at AOL Inc., knows a thing or two about organic search. In addition to managing all organic search and training across AOL and Huffington Post Media Group properties, he and his team do SEO consulting for the AOL team across the pond in the United Kingdom. He’s been at the forefront on development and implementation of successful organic and social strategies for an array of clients spanning a variety of verticals. He’s also a familiar face on the search marketing conference landscape, speaking with tip-top knowledge on SEO, social search, and even reputation management. Did we mention he teaches SEO (yeah, that’s a course, now…) at Georgetown University? Oh yeah, and he a regular contributor at SearchEngineWatch.com. So… yeah. He knows a thing or two about organic search.

I met Simon last year at SES New York, and in addition to being a seriously smart dude, let me tell you – he’s got a super magical accent. On the advent of SES Chicago 2011, I got to share a casual Q&A with Simon over tea and crumpets (well, I imagined that’s how it went down, anyway), with topics including favorite animals to the overlap between search and social, even a sneak peek at his upcoming #SESCHI preso on Strange Encounters of the SEO Kind. Read on for the full scoop. Read the rest of this entry »

Melissa Mackey, better known in some circles as @mel66, is a Search Marketing Manager at Fluency Media based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over two decades of traditional marketing experience and a breadth of professional achievements in the online marketing realm help make Melissa an authoritative force, particularly on the pay per click front. She stays fresh on industry ongoings as an active contributor to various online publications a la Search Engine Watch, moderator on SEW forums, and host to a lively PPC and SEM themed feed over on her blog, BeyondThePaid.com.

I remember kicking it with Melissa at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2010, and right off the bat it became apparent that this venerable industry pro was also a super-cool down-to-earth gal. On the advent of #SESCHI 2011, I had the pleasure of sharing a candid Q&A with Melissa. Topics spanned AdWords obstacles, PPC platform secret weapons, brand term cannibalization and a peek at her upcoming Day 1 presentation on Introduction to Paid Search. Read on for the full scoop. Read the rest of this entry »

Since we published our post (Did $10 Million In Destination Marketing Make Duluth Famous?) I’ve enjoyed stimulating exchanges with folks we respect. To those who reached out, thank you! We received a number of thought-provoking questions. These inquiries resonated with us, because the very idea was to inspire dialog. We thought our readers would find some of the questions and answers interesting.  Read the rest of this entry »