akmg

It’s hard to think just how many meetings, lunches, dinner and events are jam packed into such a short time frame – Ad:Tech came and went extremely fast this year and Kim and I arrived on Saturday and left on Thursday.  This was by far one of the most fulfilling shows on a personal and business level, and it wasn’t just because we were living at the gorgeous St. Regis hotel for 6 days.  It was rather exciting to close the acquisition several days before the show, and travel to San Francisco as AKMG, A Neverblue Company.  (CHECK OUT OUR NEW LOGO!)  We had quite a large amount of representation and members of the team manning the booth at all times.  Our new affiliate managers are hustlers and if you fit the mold of a potential traffic gangsta of an affiliate, you definitely weren’t getting by them without giving them a business card!  For those of you who stopped by the booth looking for a deck, just be sure to keep in touch with your affiliate manager because we will have one shipped directly to your home or office.  The print is pretty slick, but for the sake of surprise I won’t give too many details other than good ole' Franky Blue Eyes graces the top.



AKMG also sponsored the Mailer Meetup for the first time and was very pleased to have done so.  The event turned out to be a pretty big success, and the location was very unique while capturing the spirit of San Francisco.  It was really exciting to introduce the CEO and VP of Neverblue to our mailer clientele and also show them just how knowledgeable in email the AKMG team is.   Since so many of the team attended this show, there were a lot of events we were able to have a presence at such as the Hitpath BBQ, The Engage BDR party and the Marketers Ball.  (Thanks for the invites!)  All of these parties were fun – But not as fun as the tables we hosted at the Clift on both Monday and Tuesday night.  I know I know.... EVERYONE goes to the Clift every year, but it is the spot of Ad: Tech to see and be seen.  Most of the times you can get more networking done at the Redwood Room lounge than the actual event show itself!  Just in case you were wondering – yes I was there with the usual champagne and stilettos!



The exhibit hall was packed as always, and the AKMG booth always poppin’.  Kim and myself even spoke at the conference about the Benefits of Email Marketing for brands.  Our speech was a solid 10 minutes, but filled with information to support that email is in fact one of the most profitable forms of CPA marketing.  As the industry continues to evolve, so do the conferences on both productivity and benefit levels.  Above all, the relationship strengthening opportunities that Ad:Tech brings is worth all the travel, hustle and hangovers because relationships are the key to success in affiliate marketing!  Kudos to the Ad:Tech team for putting on such a successful event and thanks to all our clients that took the time to meet with us!  

After 13 years in the online space I've come to one major conclusion, our industry is all about ones and zeros... one followed by a comma and a whole bunch of zeros.  At first I blamed every pre-pubescent publisher in our space. You know, the ones that feel the need to floss. Whether it be a limited edition Segway sitting on spinning twenty-fours, the biggest diamond encrusted belt buckle you've ever seen, or a pinky ring so large you can see the reflection of your leased phantom in it....one thing’s for sure - You’re not fooling anyone with your big  “wannabe” game.  Plus, the street lights just came on so you better hurry up and get home before your mommy gets upset. But I recently had an epiphany and realized that the Internet ankle biters are simply taking their cue from the industry giants who are living the lifestyle of the rich and techy. Check out how the founders of our industry are living:

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Palo Alto, CA
The 26-year old Harvard dropout is one of the youngest members of the Forbes Richest Americans list with an estimated net worth upwards of $6.9 billion. Zuckerberg joins other Tech CEOs, living in the upper class area of Palo Alto, CA.

Eric Schmidt, Google

Atherton, CA
Google CEO and former Apple, Inc. board member, Eric Schmidt, lives in affluent neighborhood of Atherton, CA. Schmidt's home is valued at $3.7 million and has approximately 4,840 sq ft with 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.

Evan Williams, Twitter

San Francisco, CA
Evan Williams, despite being the founder for many internet startups is most notably known as CEO of Twitter. However, we you may not know about Evan is that he purchased a $2.4 million, modern Victorian home that spreads over 3,000 sq ft and has 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms.

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder

Medina, Washington
Bill Gates with a net worth of over $54 billion is the 2nd richest in the world. He currently resides in a 66,000-sq ft, 8-bedroom, 25-bathroom compound in Medina, WA. Gates' property spans 5-acres and sits on the edge of Lake Washington. His home boasts 6 kitchens, a 60-foot swimming pool, domed library, and 1,000-sq ft dinning hall.

Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc.

Palo Alto, CA
Steve Jobs one of the original co-founders of Apple, joins his fellow CEOs in Palo Alto, California. Jobs spends time with his family in his 1930s Tudor-style home. The residence is 5,768-sq ft, and has 7 bedroom with 4.5 bathrooms.


It's easy to scoff at the younger generation of would-be Web ballers, but really, they're just living the dream that was outlined by those that came before them. Moderation is all well and good, but there's nothing wrong with living it up a bit if you've made it. If rockin' a rolex is how you roll, don't be ashamed. But humility and modesty can add even more game to your game. Look at Zuckerberg’s rental digs or the philanthropic efforts of big baller Bill Gates. Don't be afraid to enjoy success if you've earned it, just strive for balance if you can.

Google Instant is a new predictive search feature that’s designed to give users a faster, more efficient search experience. Whenever Google rolls out a big update the SEO and SEM communities must make adjustments. Here’s a quick rundown of what Google Instant is and how it will change the way people search.

New Features

Google Suggest allows users to type in specific words or phrases and choose from a drop down menu of relevant search queries. That’s nothing new. What is new is the grayed-out, auto-complete feature that actually attempts to finish your query as you are typing. With Google Instant, you can type in just one letter and Google will attempt to predict what word or phrase you are trying to search for. This will certainly skew people’s search habits, searchers who allow Google to choose their query for them may actually end up conducting more searches in order to find more relevant results. 

Before Google Instant, a user would need to type a word or phrase and press enter (or click search) in order to reach the search result pages for that particular query. Now, users can scan through multiple result pages on the fly. Results will appear instantly as you are typing. By showing results before you finish typing, users are able to scan through more options in a shorter timeframe in order to find the exact results they’re looking for. As more result suggestions pop up, users can cycle through different queries and see different search result pages in real time.

What Does It All Mean?

That’s the short update on the new search features, but what does the roll out of Google Instant mean to SEO and SEM types? While the search algorithm, the actual result pages and ad serving process remains unchanged, these new developments are going to have an impact on SEO and SEM efforts.  

For one thing, the new update changes how Google counts impressions. Users who select a result, press enter on a query or press search to get to a result page and pause for three seconds will count as an impression. This is an important distinction. Advertisers can anticipate an increase in ad impressions and a slight downturn on click-through rates from users who pause too long while navigating through different sets of results. 

Long tail search queries will likely take a hit as well. As users are presented with more and more options as they type, it’s unlikely that a user would ignore all auto-complete and drop down suggestions in order to enter in a long, multi-phrase search query. That’s not to say that optimizing for the long tail is no longer important, but head terms and mid-tail terms will likely attract even more searches than they have in the past. Users who conduct search queries on head terms may find more relevant results in the drop downs and auto-complete options, so just as longer tail queries may occur less frequently, head term searches will also be expanded to longer options. Google Instant will likely create a rush to the mid-tail. 

Conclusion

The rollout of Google Instant likely means more traffic for big brands and an increase in the importance of achieving top rankings. With so many users now cycling through different search results, websites and advertisers only have a few seconds to influence user behavior and prompt users to take action. Effective ad copy and keyword-focused, action oriented title tags and meta descriptions are going to be essential for attracting click-throughs for users skimming through multiple result pages. Google Instant will bring about some adjustments in approach for search marketers, but core best practices will not change drastically. It’s still the same Google, but it’s a different user experience. 

After testing and tinkering for months now, Google has finally rolled out an updated look. You may have noticed the changes this past week. Here’s a quick rundown on what’s new with the new Google.

Simpler Logo

Nothing crazy here, but the new logo on Google.com is a little bit leaner and cleaner.

Left Nav

Once you enter in a search query, you’ll notice a new left nav on the SERPs. The new left nav makes it easier for you to refine your search query to search for everything (default) or look specifically results in news, images, videos, maps, books, blogs, shopping, updates  and discussions. Again, all these fancy nav options are there to help users refine their search queries in a quick and easy way.

A Bunch of Other Stuff on the Left Nav

Google visitors can also sort their search results by time, by proximity or social-ness and there are additional options to view related searches, a timeline, filter for sites with images, page previews and use the fancy new Wonder Wheel tool.

What Does It All Mean?

With the SERPs getting a facelift, and with more universal search results and other features popping in all the time, it’s becoming much more difficult to grab the attention of search users and prompt them to take action. Whether you’re targeting paid or organic traffic, creating compelling headlines/title tags and attention-grabbing ad copy/meta descriptions is absolutely essential if you want to succeed in today’s spruced-up Google SERPs.

There's a popular topic of debate asking which is more successful, SEO landing pages or SEM landing pages.

Let me end the discussion right here: neither.

For those of you who think I'm crazy, give me one more line.

Neither is successful alone because you can't have one without the other.

That is, of course, assuming you want to have a successful site. If you don't, feel free to skip one or the other. Personally, I like the money, so I'll use them both.

With the obvious stuff out of the way, let's get into why there's confusion on this subject. What exactly is the difference? Why do people strongly contest the difference between these two landing pages?

In SEM, the emphasis is on getting traffic to your site by spending money. In SEO, the emphasis is on getting traffic to your site via organic, natural placement. However, herein lays the heart of the problem. People over think the methodology utilized to get people to their sites.

You can ignore the method people took to get to your site. Why is that? No matter how people got to your site, a text ad, a banner, natural placement, paid links, etc. the goal once they're there is the same: you want them to take action.

When they take action, it's going to happen where? Landing pages.

Consequently, this becomes more of a discussion on proper landing page design, layout and utilization of multivariate testing, which is a completely different discussion.

Once you have fully tweaked, tested and created an amazing landing page, why wouldn't you hedge your bets on both SEM and SEO? The added volume of users to your site from SEM will help you stand out in search engine's eyes due to the traffic. It will also help increase your chances of getting inbound links to your page and/or site and it will increase your organic placement.

So get out there, make some amazing landing pages, throw in some cash for SEM, optimize the page for SEO, and work with the understanding that you have great landing pages, get ready to watch users take action on your site!