Search Engine Marketing and PPC Management News & Info

Paul Bruemmer Is Back in the Building

Ladies and gentleman we can report that the sightings of Paul Brummer are real, he's back! After taking some time out of the SEO industry, Paul resurfaced at SES today. I had a chance to chat with Paul and he let me in on what he has planned. I can't r
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No Blogging in the SES Press Room

How retarded is this? I'm sorry, but does Jupiter even know how viral marketing works? There is a new sign that just went up on the wall of the press room. It reads... Internet connections for checking presentations and filing storing only. Pleas
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Wiki Spam gaining Momentum and Coverage

As bloggers finally get a little more savvy in ways to thwart agressive search marketers automatically commenting on thousands of blogs at a time, wiki spam gains ground as the next wave of auto link generation strategy.

A wiki, for those still in the dark, is defined by Wiki.org as:

Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.

Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.

The threadlink above defines wiki spam:

Google measures its PageRank? based on links from one site to another, plus the PageRank? of the site linking to the other. Wikis are PageRank? machines, being both massively linked and with hundreds or thousands of pages. These two factors--openness and PageRank?--make wikis the ideal target for spam attacks. While this was well known for years, it took TheSeptemberThatNeverEnded before WikiSpam become economical enough to justify a spammer's attention.

and continues to explain why a wiki is an attractive spam vehicle:

Spammers are not asking you click on the link, although if you do they are happier. What they are looking for is higher Google results. The most useful wikis to spam are not even the most popular wikis, but rather the least traffic and the least PeerReviewed wikis. While previous spam techniques saught to hit sites with incredibly high PageRank?, it's possible now to use Google (ironically) and a robot to write links on millions of smaller WikiAsPIMs whose owners will not revert the vandalism since they won't notice. Millions of links from smaller sites is better than a few links from larger sites.

Interestingly enough, the page goes on to present some ways to thwart spammers but, like the blog efforts to his effect are just as useless as any good spammer will tell you.

I keep hearing stuff about wiki spam whispered here and there and as wikis become more and more common by the day im sure it'll become a common topic alongside blog based counterpart.

I can only see 2 effective solutions to either blog or wiki based spamming:

Use non-spiderable jump links
The engines (google) find a way to recognize it from legit stuff and act to remove it's potency

The first kills the whole idea of web. The second, at least in the short-medium term is unlikey - have a think about it, it'd be damn hard to do...

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads
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Affiliate Marketing in 2005 - Where to next?

A MarketingSherpa survey/report has some interesting findings from 2004 and predictions for affiliate marketing in 2005.

One of the areas covered is "worrisome tactics" of which i'll post a brief summary, there is lots more detail at the threadlink above:

Worrisome Tactics

Search Marketing
30-40% of respondants use paid search placement to drive traffic
49% of all said they'd not work with a merchant that banned paid search
27% said they'd not work with a merchant that banned trademark terms
51% of merchants had restrictions on search marketing
21% had banned paid search
Search driven revenues to decline due to:
Googles "death stance" - the active chipping away at affilate avenues of revenue generation
Increased trademark protections

The list goes on to include email, popups and spyware. They also list things merchants can do to better their affiliate generated revenue but, the above is the most interesting to Threadwatchers i think.

So, what do the Threadwatch boys and girls think the future holds for affiliates?

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads
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Google Engineer Exposes non-profit Site as a Fraud

In the post above a google engineer, GoogleGuy exposes a website that was stated as being a non-profit quit smoking site as a clumsy blackhat affiliate fraud.

It's the funniest thing i've seen in a very long time and there is much to learn from it. First, here's choice quote:

Interesting, I didn't realize that SEW was okay with people posting specifics. bobmutch, you're saying that quitsmokingsupport.com is a non-profit site? Here's what I see when I look. Last time I checked, I saw dozens of links to quit-smoking-quitting-smoking-stop-smoking.com. Oh look, from quit-smoking-quitting-smoking-stop-smoking.com, I'm able to take care of my other health needs, from friendly vendors such as pheromones-perfume-cologne-attract-woman-man-human-androsterone.com,
attract-woman-man-androsterone-human-pheromone-perfume-cologne.com,
better-orgasms-sexual-dysfunction-libido-enhancement-enhancer.com, and of course diet-pills-natural-fast-weight-loss-supplements-fat-product.com.
That's quite a bit of help.

ROFLMFAO!

He also goes on to point out that the website in question, for a "non profit" is linking out to a whole stack of blackhat agressive affilate scum sites... and that on at least one of them, it's easy to spot some very amateur hidden links using CSS.

So, what can we learn from this?

Dont post your sites on forums - well, duh...
Sites you link to can affect your rankings - well, duh...
Google aren't stupid - well, duh...
Think before you post - well, duh...

That one has made my week, it's an absolutely corking thread - killer funny!

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads
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Brands need to Follow Consumers - VC $$$'s fund Spam in 2005

SiliconBeat in the threadlink above discuss where VC money will be going next year. Spam (loose definition) is one key area as brands are forced to follow a TV abandoning consumer.

One VC from Mobius said:

Advertising as we have known it is over. Brand owners need to go where you are, and that isn’t on network television or the newspaper. In order to promote their brands and attract and maintain relationships with consumers, brand owners will have to come to you, on your wireless device, with your media stream, on your pc. In addition, they’ll have to follow you wherever you go -- into the retailer, the entertainment venue, or your place of business. As this revolution occurs, it will create huge opportunities for those companies who have created compelling in-venue experiences that can incorporate brand messages in a seamless manner. Also to benefit will be those companies who have created new and interesting ways to make brand advertising fun, unobtrusive, personalized, relevant, and continuing for the consumer.

It's an interesting read, and provokes speculation on where brand advertising is headed over the next few years.

Will we see brands die on TV and will they chase us wherever we go? Will it intude upon our online habbits and media consumption as it stands now?

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads
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M$ vs Google - Winner Takes all?

Interesting piece threadlinked above over at Tech Review by the former owner of Front Page, Charles Ferguson. Front Page being the dreadful, code choking joke of the web-dev world.

Charles sold FP to M$ and made a bomb rather than see his company die. He likens that to the decisions now facing Google:

Google now faces choices as fundamental as those Netscape faced in 1995. Google, whose headquarters in Mountain View, CA—familiarly called the Googleplex—is only five kilometers from Netscape’s former home, needn’t perish as Netscape did, but it could. Despite everything Google has—the swelling revenues, the cash from its initial public offering, the 300 million users, the brand recognition, the superbly elegant engineering—its position is in fact quite fragile. Google’s site is still the best Web search service, and Gmail, its new Web-based e-mail service, Google Desktop, its desktop search tool, and Google Deskbar, its toolbar, are very cool. But that’s all they are. As yet, nothing prevents the world from switching (painlessly, instantly) to Microsoft search services and software, particularly if they are integrated with the Microsoft products that people already use.

Thoughts on M$ vs Google anyone?

Threadwatch links: threadwatch home xml feed recent threads
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