Archive for September, 2006

Another example of “Flash gone amuk” — Too much time spent making too many perty flash animations without thinking very hard about how your site will appear in the search engine results pages. Someday perhaps Paul Frank will call me and I can give them a few pointers - they are a very cool company. Until then, make sure to check out Isle Of You - an awesome Paul Frank Store.

I was in my local warehouse club today and came across what is easily the tackiest holiday yard product I’ve ever seen in my life. It was more than 10′ long, and entirely inflatable. In the display, it was partially deflated, cocked to one side, looking miserably… well… words are failing me. It played loud, scratchy sounds that I think were some kind of pre-recorded holiday music-like-stuff. I just felt so sad looking at it. If you see one of these, please, shoot it with a BB gun as a public service. Darts work. Anything you have around. What has Christmas become anyway? I considered pulling the plug but as you can see in the photo, there were shoppers around and I thought it might hurt somebody - who would then have to fill in a rather embarassing insurance form.

On a breezy day, I can see these things bouncing down the street - shooting out across the road in front of unsuspecting holiday-goers on their way to grandma’s house. Oh well, at least they’ll only last until January, when the frustrated owners will destroy them in a fit as they try to stuff them back into the flimsy boxes they came in. Oh wait, I can see it now… they’ll be left out as year-round ornaments in trailer parks ’round the country. Oh, Joy.

Here’s a quick way to sink a full hour with zero output on Yahoo Search Marketing. Sign a client up for a new program. Fill in 40 new listings with seperate headlines and carefully researched ads. Decide on the last page that you want to tweak one of the previous ads. Click on the ‘back’ button (not the browser back button, but the actual button they’ve made called “back”)….. you will not be a happy camper. Attempting to refresh will take you to the “single headline and description page.”.

Folks… if it’s potentially devistating to hit a button on your page, please use javascript to tell me so.

After using Gmail forever (I was one of the first) my account has now been completely run over by SPAM. It is totally useless to me. RIP Gmail.

MSN Groups - 404 errors around every corner
bCentral - 404 errors around every corner
Listbuilder - 404 errors around every corner

…. I can’t get any freaking work done!

There are several consumer concepts that drive the success of every SEM activity I do.

1) Perceived Value.

2) Perceived Ease of Use.

3) Perceived Future Peril

When a visitor searches for an item, and they see a search result or a sponsored link, they run through these concepts in a fraction of a second.

“Is there anything in this for me?”
“Is it easy to find out?”
“If I stick my head in, will I get hurt?”

I think that if any of these three perceptions are interrupted during a visitors search process or purchase consideration cycle, the cost to convert that visitor to a customer goes up exponentially.

If your website or marketing effort doesn’t make the answers to concerns like these automatic and clear, you are going to have to spend a lot more energy finding business on the web.

My office mate Chester tries to cover the screen every time I visit Search Engine Watch… what is up with that?

What is he hiding?

Is he a spy for my SEO / SEM competition?

Does he want me to miss all of the great tips that cross the SEW blog every day?

Is he trying to tell me that I should get back to work!

Well, I guess I better.

In the Wednesday August 30 edition of the Lexington Herald Leader, owned by McClatchy Newspapers, full page ads meant for families of Comair Flight 5191 were placed by attorneys. Without question, it was the most offensive single marketing piece I’ve ever seen in my career.

The Kentucky Bar Association named a special task force to look into complaints, and ads were pulled for the Thursday edition. The KBA’s letter to the Herald Leader stated “The advertisements were offensive and outside any common bounds of decency and could not be more inappropriate while the families, friends, and this community are still grieving.” They are trying to determine their legality.

If any families get direct contact by attorneys, they should tell the National Transportation Safety Board at (202) 314-6185, according to U.S. Attorney Amul R. Thapar. Thapar said federal law prohibits any lawyer from making an unsolicited communication with family members who lose a loved one in an accident within 45 days of the accident. A violation is punishable by a $1,000 fine.

I am relieved that decency (not to mention rules of conduct) kept local firms from putting ads in the paper over this. [update: Oops. Chalik and Chalik attorney Debi Chalik is a Lexington attorney whos firm placed an ad in the obituary section Wednesday. Missed that one earlier. She pulled her ad.]

I realize that the Herald Leader is in no position to reject advertising but I am disappointed they couldn’t find some sort of administrative loophole to delay the ads, or perhaps the layout file might have somehow become “corrupted” until the KBA found a way to lock them out. I know, I know. To their credit, the Herald Leader is donating revenues earned from the ads to the United Way care fund set up for victims.

I also understand that there are good reasons to begin lawsuits early in such cases With litigation filed, it can open parts of the investigation early and let more people have more answers. It can prevent defendants from rushing to a settlement with confusing terms while victims are still in shock. It’s harder to sweep stuff under the rug with the critical eye of the legal process staring over your shoulder via representation. Supeonas can expose important facts that defendents would rather not see the light of day - and hopefully be shared so that everyone can get answers to what happened.

But full-page ads in the obituary section?

The advertisers should take a moment and think about those waking up by themselves in their bed in the morning - empty spots at family dinner tables - the forthcoming holiday season - the questions about when Mommy or Daddy are coming home. It’s too soon, things are too raw. If you’ve taken the years past to build a word-of-mouth reputation with your firm, now’s your chance to enjoy it - but it’s not the time to plaster ads in the face of tens of thousands of Lexingtonians opening the obituaries of the city newspaper.

UPDATE 9/26/06: KBA finds these ads probably violated law.

The brainiest cities in the United StatesTop 25 cities with more than 250,000 population, ranked by percentage of
bachelor’s degrees among residents 25 and older

1. Seattle - 52.7%
2. San Francisco - 50.1%
3. Raleigh - 50.1%
4. Washington - 45.3%
5. Austin - 44.1%
6. Minneapolis - 43.2%
7. Atlanta - 42.4%
8. Boston - 40.9%
9. San Diego - 40.4%
10. Lexington - Fayette - 39.5%
11. Denver - 39.0%
12. Charlotte - 38.8%
13. Portland - 38.8%
14. St. Paul - 36.5%
15. San Jose - 36.1%
16. Colorado Springs - 34.9%
17. Honolulu - 34.7%
18. Oakland - 33.8%
19. Pittsburgh - 32.3%
20. New York - 32.2%
21. Albuquerque - 32.2%
22. Anchorage - 32.2%
23. Omaha - 31.9%
24. Nashville - Davidson - 31.7%
25. Columbus - 31.4%
26. New Orleans - 31.4%

Source: CNN/Money