Are we all asking to get robbed?  That’s what the guys behind PleaseRobMe.com are telling us, with their new website dedicated to a Twitter reel showing anyone who recently left their homes and then notified the public via location-sharing networks, such as Foursquare, Buzzd, Gowalla, all of which have been profiled in this blog.  Really it’s about time someone highlighted the dangers of sites like Foursquare and Google Buzz; when you break it down, it really does seem ridiculous to tell the entire world when you leave your home and to publicly list your address.  The site itself is overall quite primitive—all their “inside scoop” comes from a simple Twitter search that anyone could perform on their own computer in about 0.4 seconds.

Okay, so maybe these guys are exaggerating a bit, making it sound like we might as well put out a welcome mat and greet burglars with a tray of freshly baked cookies.  But they do make a very good point about how oblivious most users are to the privacy risks that come with being so connected.  And now that they’ve done that, and in the process garnered a whole lot of buzz, they want to dedicate the website to a foundation for online privacy awareness.

What does it all mean?

One reading of this development is as follows: privacy concerns are taken far too lightly by members and participants of these social networks.  People share too much information too frequently and are compromising their safety.  Conversely, one could argue that the size of these networks has grown faster than imagined, creating a wealth of information that is now being sifted through and sorted out, allowing for a disciplined thief to digitally case someone’s place.  If members start to post less information they will be protecting themselves, but they’ll also be providing marketers less information to assemble a profile from.  In the meantime let’s not forget the major precautions one can take to protect their home and belongings…like locking the door.

There are many exciting changes in the online marketing world coming in 2010 which will foster both new challenges and great opportunities.  More and more businesses will be using Internet marketing strategies in 2010 or will be increasing current online spending during 2010.  Companies that invested in online marketing last year are analyzing their results and making appropriate adjustments to those campaigns.  Businesses in all industries are continuing to realize that strategic online marketing is faster, more cost effective, measurable, and targetd. 

Many studies have been done over the recent months to assess how businesses will spend their online marketing budgets.  According to www.eMarketer.com, the majory of businesses surveyed will increase online budgets primarily in website design and development, email marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, and social media. 

Google also completed a survey with similar but slightly different results.  Some of these results were reported by B2BOnline.  Google asked b-to-b marketers where they will increase and decrease their marketing budgets this year and the responses showed:

• The top areas that will see increases are Website design and development (cited by 57% of respondents), search marketing (55%), webinars, podcasts and online events (50%), e-mail marketing (49%), social networks (47%) and blogs (44%).
• Areas that will see budget cuts include print advertising (51%), printed vertical directories (50%), direct mail (37%), outdoor (34%), TV advertising (31%), sponsorships (30%) and events (28%).

The results showing increases in website development most likely reflect companies that are revamping their website's appearance, performing conversion optimization to increase inbound marketing efforts and lead flow, and integrating Content Management Systems to make website maintenance easier and more cost effective. 

Our Vision for 2010

Internet Marketing Inc. is a full service interactive agency with a focus on cutting edge search engine optimization strategies and web design/conversion optimization/usability.  Internet Marketing Inc. continually monitors the pulse of the economy in order to better understand the business and financial goals of our clients that exist in all types of industries.  Our core goal is to increase online exposure and botton line profits for every client we service.  We design strategies that are specific to each client and align those efforts to achieve the client's core goals.  The company is backed by a strong management team highly educated in business, finance, law, and marketing. 

Most importantly, the company is driven by our outstanding team of professionals with decades of combined experience in website design, development, search engine optimization, paid search, social media, email, affiliate marketing, and mobile marketing.  With a focus on cutting edge search engine optimization, mobile search, and local search, Internet Marketing Inc. has redeveloped our SEO department under the leadership of our new SEO Director, Benj Arriola.  Benj has won multiple global SEO awards and designed SEO strategies for fortune 1000 clients.

The company has many new layers to ensure an even greater level of attention to detail, skillful project execution, and adherence to our specialized processes and procedures.  We are continuing great projects with brands like the US Army, Road Runner Sports, and Tropicana Las Vegas.  Between our San Diego, Las Vegas, and New York offices, Internet marketing Inc.'s growth from 2008 to 2009 was approximately 700%.  We look forward to a great year!

Brent Gleeson, CEO

Over the last decade, the Internet has become increasingly more interactive for its users by the year, by the month and even, by the day.  New innovations are happening constantly and it would be impossible to stay updated on them all on a regular basis (another good reason to read the IMI blog everyday!).  Today, I want to mention a relatively new phenomenon that is taking off like wildfire- website applications that allow user personalization.  And I don’t just mean custom forms that allow people to search the value of their old cars like on KelleyBlueBook.com or something; I mean true personalization with digital imagery upload- something that really hits close to home for our population’s more visual users.

So let’s start with something seasonal: Has anyone ever checked out ElfYourself.com?  On this website, users are allowed to upload pictures of themselves and four additional friends.  After the upload is complete, each of the head shots are inserted onto elf bodies, which then sing and dance to holiday themed songs.  Whereas two years you could only select one standard song, this holiday season, users have the option to select from country, disco, hip hop and more.  And now, when you’re done, you can embarrass yourself and your friends by sharing with Facebook!  It’s truly phenomenal.

But, if you’re already over the holidays and you’d prefer a blast from the past, check out YearbookYourself.com.  This website allows you to upload a head shot and after you’re done, it will place you in a persona from yearbooks of the past.  For some reason, whenever I try it, it has an uncanny ability to make me look identical to my mom.  Anyone else getting the same results?

My latest find in the interactive web arena is a site called MorphThing.com.  It would probably behoove you to check it out everyday for a good laugh when you’re in need of a smile because you never know what new morphs will be featured.  Today’s best morph was a cross of Marilyn Manson and Barack Obama.  Other featured morphs include: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie entitled “Brangelina,” Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez entitled “Bennifer,” Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook, Ashley Olsen and Mary Kate Olsen, and the list goes on.  Users can also make custom morphs and even baby morphs, which could be a very useful tool in marriage preparation (and might send some people to counseling).  Use these tools wisely!  Enjoy.

Internet Marketing Inc. is proud to announce the addition of our newest team member, Benj Arriola.  We are starting off the new year with an advanced SEO department lead by Benj and his team.  Benj is one of the most respected SEO’s in the country, a multi SEO award winning expert, an experienced developer in HTML and CSS, and an accredited conference speaker. 

Some of his accomplishments include:

• Won 1st place in the 2007 SEO World Championship winning a brand new car besting SEO professionals from all over the world.
• Won 2nd place in the 2008 SEO Contest by UK Webmaster World and was beaten by a 30-man SEO team.
• Has worked on SEO campaigns of top brands like Sony PlayStation, AutoDesk, Sybase, Caterpillar, American Red Cross, American Council on Exercise, Hasbro, and more!

Benj will be directing the Internet Marketing Inc. SEO process and strategy as well as representing the company at many conferences this year.  Welcome Benj Arriola!

Here is a great video interview with Benj by Lon Safko of the Social Media Bible:

As most of us know, Google has formally launched “personalized search” in an effort to continually improve each individual’s search experience in their engine.  The goal is to track user’s search behavior in order to continaully improve and “personalze” the relevance of results.  When these discussions first began, many SEO’s and Internet marketing companies feared that this would mean the end of Search Engine Optimization as we know it.  We are still waiting to see what affect this will have over the coming months but from the information disseminated thus far, it seems that most of the fundamental best practices will still apply. 

So How Does this Impact SEO for Our Clients?

The truth is, some of the important areas of focus that these changes bring to light, have really always been important.  The end goal of SEO is to grow a business through relevant natural search traffic that leads to conversions (whatever those conversion goals might be).  You can chase rankings all day long but if the result is not good quality traffic and conversions that lead to growth, there is something missing.  The key things that still matter are:

• Focus on traffic and conversions more than rankings:  Of course, we are still always going to look at rankings but now more than ever, we really need to combine the focus on rankings and the resulting traffic.  If a site sees an increase in rankings but stagnant levels (or decreasing levels) of traffic, personalized search may be posing a negative effect and the strategy shoulf be adjusted.  On the other hand, if rankings see a slight dip but traffic is improving, the site might be experiencing better results from the shift to personalized search. 
• This has of course been important for a long time but there is a renewed focus on “brand” quality:  The quality, interactivity, value, and user experience of a website will always impact traffic, bounce rates, repeat visitors, and link popularity.  Google is now placing more emphasis on this with personalized search.  This can create challenges for new businesses that may not yet be a “trusted brand” yet.  However, it certainly does encourage any business to develop great content and have a good user experience. 
• Other sources of traffic might have a positive impact on natural search results:  It seems that all traffic sources will now be taken into account with Google’s personalized metrics.  This could mean that paid search traffic and other key drivers to a website might positively (but indirectly) impact natural results within the personalized search spectrum.  It will be interesting to see the results of this in the coming months.

How Should We Be Adjusting Our Strategy and Campaigns?

Best practices still apply.  As mentioned above, we must conitue to improve user experience, brand loyalty, content, and traffic (from all sources).  Continue to follow best pratices for basic SEO coding and making all pages accessible to the search engines, use a keyword strategy relavent to your business goals and that is aligned with your user’s search behavior, continually develop good content, and earn great inbound links by being proactive in your industry.

Here are some recent comments from our PPC & Affiliate Marketing Director, Keith Posehn:

As you may have heard, Google has been on a website banning spree recently. In the last 48 hours, they have apparently banned several thousand accounts – agencies, merchants and affiliates alike. Further, they have given some guidance as to what to expect moving forward.  Here are some key factors to consider for all pay per click advertising and affiliate marketing programs:

1. Isolated landing pages and micro-sites are a thing of the past. When creating an AdWords campaign it is now essential to have a site that is ranked (and ranked well).  Addionally, is is crucial have a lot of quality unique content on these web pages.  Google seems to be placing more weight on content for PPC campaigns.
2. It is important to note that you can have a landing page, but it must be on a ranked and on a trusted domain; also, you should have a link directly to it from a page on the site that ranks well for the keywords being bid on.
3. Paid Search affiliates are largely gone – many affiliates are leaving paid search as affiliates. This is both a plus and a minus, because it means less competition but also fewer affiliates in the various networks.
4. SEO is much more important, even more so than last week!  If a site has no inbound links or trust, it will not be awarded a good Quality Score.
5. Google is not showing its cards in terms of what sites it does not like. There is a great deal of uncertainty right now.  Google is also now entering the market as a competitor directly (i.e. Google Affiliate Network)

What does this mean from an Internet marketing perspective (specifically PPC, Affiliate, and SEO)?

1. SEO and content-heavy sites are now an even more important part of PPC and therefore it is imperative to be pursuing both avenues in an online marketing strategy.
2. Every AdWords campaign needs much more content, trust and quality to survive.  This of course can be provided by Internet marketing companies as well as the brands/clients themselves.
3. A much greater level of research and care must be taken when planning any pay per click campaign.  Many factors must be considered.
4. It would be highly recommended that all e-commerce companies now have an affiliate program on the Google Affiliate Network.

We expect to see more developments over the next few weeks and will keep our readers informed!

Many companies using Internet marketing strategies out there drive most of the traffic to their home page or possibly another internal page of their website.  The optimization of any online marketing campaign should focus on both the traffic drivers as well as where the traffic is sent.  This is especially true when using search engine marketing strategies like Pay Per Click advertising in any search engine. 

It is now crucial to use a landing page for PPC advertising in Google because it wll have a direct impact on your Google Quality Score and conversion success.  The idea of consversion optimization is pretty simple but the purpose should be understood in order to execute it correctly for your webpages.  The main idea of course is to always be improving your ROI.  There is no point in spending tons of money in online or offline marketing if you are just planning to drive traffic to your home page (unless of course your home pages acts as a well optimized “landing page”).

Here is an example.  Jet Select Aviation (a premier private jet charter service) has performed various form of marketing (online and offline), including Yahoo PPC.  All the traffic was being channeled to their home page and results had been fairly dismal.  They were recieving about one or two leads a month.  Here is an example of the home page:

Once the marketing campaign started, aggressive Googe PPC was added and four landing pages created.  The ad copy for the ads was written according to their direct business goals.  It is important to understand Google Quality Score guidelines in order to properly optimize your PPC campaign for the best possible results.  Here is an example of one of the landing pages created.  Notice the update in design, graphics, clear calls to action, simple booking engine right at the top of the page, and simple information (there is more content below the fold). 

Landing pages can really be as simple or content heavy as you want (in my opinion).  What matters really is what is above the fold and how the call to action is designed.  Of course, this all depends on your conversion goals and what you plan to obtain from your landing pages.  Those goals should be defined first before designing the page or launching any marketing. 

The initial result of the properly optimized PPC campaigns and well designed landing pages was going from one or two poor quality leads per month to five to eight high quality leads per day.  The results will of course vary depending on your business, industry, and specific goals. 

Either way, you must use landing pages with great content ands clear calls to action in order to get the most bang for your buck from your Internet marketing strategies. 

I recently read and article with a somewhat missleading title, but the content was interesting, and a bit scary.  The article is from the LA Times and was called “Congress is Cracking Down on Internet Marketing Companies“.  Now, when I think of Internet Marketing companies I think of firms offering actual marketing services.  In this case the article is really referring to Internet advertising and sales technology companies.  Either way, the topic is about these technologies being used by major retailers which use people’s credit card info and share it with other services.  Next thing you know you are getting reoccurring bills from some site you have never heard of.

Here is an example.  You are ordering tickets online and during your check out process an ad pops up urging you to “click” in order to get $20 off your next purchase.  That click then automatically sends your credit card info to another company you have never heard of and signs you up for a “membership”.  You then get billed automatically for months before you realize it and cancel.  Most people are too busy to notice or forget whether they signed up for something and never really pursure it beyond cancelling. 

As I said before the article refers to these firms as online marketing companies.  The companies they are talking about are the ones who are creating and distributing these technologies and then partnering with major retailers.  Some of these companies include (according to the article)  Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty.  The scary thing is that these shady companies have been able to partner with major retailers like Hotwire.com and Continental Airlines.

The article stated that stories like these have encouraged members of Congress to seek legislation designed to crack down on these types of aggressive sales tactics (and the technology that makes them a reality).  This type of thing is no doubt something no consumer should have to worry about!

Has this ever happened to you?  Please share!

Google is at it again on their quest to rule the internet. They recently completely the acquisition of Admob, a leader in the mobile marketing space. The deal was for $750 million in Google stock. Google sees this as a way for them to really get their advertising into mobile phones and it is timely with the new Droid phones taking off right now. Mobile search has been growing rapidly since the iphone came out and now there are a ton of phones with fast internet speeds and good browsers out there. Internet Marketing is now everywhere and Google is betting that it will work very well on mobile phones too.

Google is getting very good at fast takeovers. In fact, the ads on Admob starting showing up as Google ads less than 1 day after the buyout. If you own an iphone, you know how much time you spend on your phone daily, talking, browsing, listening to music, and playing with apps.  Mobile advertising is only going to get larger.

I personally spend a lot of time on the new CNN application on my iPhone. I think it is an amazing way to get the news and they have great mobile video content. They use mobile advertising extremely well on this application and Lexus is the largest purchaser of ads on their application. Chevron is another huge buyer. This will only get bigger as the world of internet marketing further expands to the mobile space.

Dean Loudermilk and Ellen Albert with the Alumnae Women of Emory board

Although Dean Loudermilk still teaches the semester long class at Emory University, Social Movements and the Media (the basis for the presentation): let’s just say it wasn’t your average college class last night! We had guests from Atlanta, attendees ranging over 20 class years and even a Cornell Alum who eagerly signed up to get in on the action too. Well, seems like everyone had the right idea, as the talk was spectacular—funny, futuristic and engaging all at the same time. It seemed as if everyone was laughing on cue, but really, it was just a good speech coupled with some racy images that boasted a broad appeal.

The event, hosted on November 11th at MTV Studios by Emory Alum, Ellen Albert, was from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., but it seemed like the crowd didn’t want to leave! We had a wonderfully diverse group of 30 guests. A surprising amount of men actually showed up to listen to the talk too, which was, even in the event description but more so in actuality, largely focused on feminism in advertising. Dean Loudermilk began by plowing through the history of various different social movements and their effect on the media, but guests became overwhelmingly engaged during the saga on feminism, which was presented in conjunction with commercials and ads. The presentation spanned the gamut of brands—beginning at Dolce & Gabbana, critiquing Virginia Slims and ending with oomph on Maidenform Bras.

At one point, an Emory Law Grad, Marni Galison, was so intrigued by an ad and Dean Loudermilk’s interpretation of it that she interrupted mid presentation to play devil’s advocate. In older Virginia Slims marketing, a lot of feminists hated the “You’ve come along way, baby” campaigns. Marni, after vehemently denying smoking, exclaimed: “Is there any cigarette ad that feminists do like?!” Her point, essentially, is that, if they inherently don’t like the product, they certainly will disapprove of the ad. But, we did see some commercials that feminists happened to be fonder of—for a sexy 45 seconds, I recommend checking out “The Diet Coke Break” on YouTube.

Regardless, thanks to Marni, the tone was set for an informative and inspiring feminist advertising debate post presentation. The group finally concluded, with Dean Loudermilk’s guidance, that feminism in advertising moves in waves and eventually always comes full circle. Last night, we learned that only 16 percent of people in senior advertising roles are women! So, who is really spurring the innovation here? Our best bet is that it stems from men in high positions with slight interferences by politics and presidential administrations. Keep your eyes peeled for the future because, just like with the Reagan and Clinton administrations, we are certain to see a new wave of advertising with the “Change” advocate, President Obama.

What do you think?!  Tell us below and check out the EAAvesdropping blog.