Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

Friday Fun: Pogue on Podcasting

From Adrants: Pogue Promotes, Pokes, Prods Podcasts In a hilarious video that encompasses both the possibilities and the pointless stupidity of podcasts, The New York Times columnist, David Pogue, explains what a podcast is, where they can be found, how to listen to them and how to create one. That's the possibility part. Pointing out the pointlessness of podcasting, Pogue lip sychs actual podcasts and pays homage to their creators by donning appropriate attire.

Friday Fun: Pogue on Podcasting

From Adrants: Pogue Promotes, Pokes, Prods Podcasts In a hilarious video that encompasses both the possibilities and the pointless stupidity of podcasts, The New York Times columnist, David Pogue, explains what a podcast is, where they can be found, how to listen to them and how to create one. That's the possibility part. Pointing out the pointlessness of podcasting, Pogue lip sychs actual podcasts and pays homage to their creators by donning appropriate attire.

Affiliate and Search Engine Marketing: Should You Let Affiliates Bid On Keywords?

Guest post from DigitalGrit's own Scott Delea...

We have been helping clients implement and manage SEM and Affiliate Marketing for a while. Recently, a client asked us for a quick summary of our thoughts on having affiliates bid on keywords. It is an important topic so I figured we would share our perspective with our blog readers. Feel free to give us your thoughts.

The pros of letting affiliates bid:

• They occupy search engine real estate which could otherwise be occupied by your competitors
  • Having affiliates listed instead of your competitors will usually increase the number of net clicks you receive from any given search because you will obtain clicks from your listing and those of the affiliates. All are selling your product.
  • Affiliates would be using different types of copy and landing pages. It may provide us an opportunity to learn something from them. Better to learn from them then from your competitors. 
  • If you can't afford to bid on additional keywords, the affiliates may be willing to, so you are getting more visibility without having to spend the cash on the media. You only pay the affiliate on the conversion.

The cons of letting affiliates bid on any/all keywords without any restrictions:

• You are allowing affiliates to take advantage of all the equity you have built into your brand keywords. The brand keywords will convert the best. The branding keywords are the first place affiliates will go, if you let them.
• If the affiliates are allowed to out-bid you, they will be driving up bid costs for you and for them.
• You lose control of your messaging and brand when you let affiliates bid on any keywords they want and you don't restrict the copy or landing pages they use.

DigitalGrit recommends a "Hybrid Approach".

Let affiliates participate in bidding, but with clearly detailed guidelines and restrictions.

• We recommend you create a standards guide for your affiliates to follow. The guide would include:
  • A list of keywords they may not bid on, under any circumstance.
  • Keywords they may bid on under certain circumstances such as time of year, time of day/week, position, engine, etc.
  • Copy guidelines
  • Landing page guidelines
  • Problem resolution procedures if they have any questions or concerns.
  • Also include SEO guidelines and standards.
• Incorporate the appropriate "legalese" in your affiliate agreement.
• Companies should put a process in place to monitor compliance and handle inquiries.

The good news...DigitalGrit can help with every phase of this process from the strategy to the execution.

Affiliate and Search Engine Marketing: Should You Let Affiliates Bid On Keywords?

Guest post from DigitalGrit's own Scott Delea...

We have been helping clients implement and manage SEM and Affiliate Marketing for a while. Recently, a client asked us for a quick summary of our thoughts on having affiliates bid on keywords. It is an important topic so I figured we would share our perspective with our blog readers. Feel free to give us your thoughts.

The pros of letting affiliates bid:

• They occupy search engine real estate which could otherwise be occupied by your competitors
  • Having affiliates listed instead of your competitors will usually increase the number of net clicks you receive from any given search because you will obtain clicks from your listing and those of the affiliates. All are selling your product.
  • Affiliates would be using different types of copy and landing pages. It may provide us an opportunity to learn something from them. Better to learn from them then from your competitors. 
  • If you can't afford to bid on additional keywords, the affiliates may be willing to, so you are getting more visibility without having to spend the cash on the media. You only pay the affiliate on the conversion.

The cons of letting affiliates bid on any/all keywords without any restrictions:

• You are allowing affiliates to take advantage of all the equity you have built into your brand keywords. The brand keywords will convert the best. The branding keywords are the first place affiliates will go, if you let them.
• If the affiliates are allowed to out-bid you, they will be driving up bid costs for you and for them.
• You lose control of your messaging and brand when you let affiliates bid on any keywords they want and you don't restrict the copy or landing pages they use.

DigitalGrit recommends a "Hybrid Approach".

Let affiliates participate in bidding, but with clearly detailed guidelines and restrictions.

• We recommend you create a standards guide for your affiliates to follow. The guide would include:
  • A list of keywords they may not bid on, under any circumstance.
  • Keywords they may bid on under certain circumstances such as time of year, time of day/week, position, engine, etc.
  • Copy guidelines
  • Landing page guidelines
  • Problem resolution procedures if they have any questions or concerns.
  • Also include SEO guidelines and standards.
• Incorporate the appropriate "legalese" in your affiliate agreement.
• Companies should put a process in place to monitor compliance and handle inquiries.

The good news...DigitalGrit can help with every phase of this process from the strategy to the execution.

Blog and SEO Best (and Worst) Practices

Blogs and SEO: Top 10 Best Practices

1. Determine business objectives and resources to sustain a Blog campaign
2. Conduct a keyword analysis to derive a list of Blog-wide and post specific keywords
3. Post regularly with keyword rich copy. (Don’t forget your editorial calendar to keep you on track)
4. Select a Blog platform that is search engine friendly
5. Identify conversion points
6. Stay on topic to keep your readers engaged
7. Find relevant and best sites to obtain links from
8. Have a sustained Link Building campaign
9. Track SEO rankings for your Blog and your competitor’s Blog
10. Measure visits and conversions to your Blog
11. Keep your content focused on the strategy and topic

How NOT to Increase Natural Search Traffic

1. Do not keyword stuff your content
2. Do not link your Blog off of irrelevant Blogs, sites or link farms
3. Do not create multiple Blogs for the sake of Link Building
4. Do not comment Spam

...more gems to come from yesterday's webinar!

Blog and SEO Best (and Worst) Practices

Blogs and SEO: Top 10 Best Practices

1. Determine business objectives and resources to sustain a Blog campaign
2. Conduct a keyword analysis to derive a list of Blog-wide and post specific keywords
3. Post regularly with keyword rich copy. (Don’t forget your editorial calendar to keep you on track)
4. Select a Blog platform that is search engine friendly
5. Identify conversion points
6. Stay on topic to keep your readers engaged
7. Find relevant and best sites to obtain links from
8. Have a sustained Link Building campaign
9. Track SEO rankings for your Blog and your competitor’s Blog
10. Measure visits and conversions to your Blog
11. Keep your content focused on the strategy and topic

How NOT to Increase Natural Search Traffic

1. Do not keyword stuff your content
2. Do not link your Blog off of irrelevant Blogs, sites or link farms
3. Do not create multiple Blogs for the sake of Link Building
4. Do not comment Spam

...more gems to come from yesterday's webinar!

SEO & Blogs Webinar Attempts to Weather the Heatwave (Slides Here!)

Well - today was our much-posted-on SEO & Blogs Webinar.  And while we took every precaution under the sun - literally - to ensure a smooth event during this outrageous east-coast heatwave...it seems our web conference service provider wasn't quite as cautious. (Not to throw them under the bus, they're great people, but...well, it kinda was their fault.)

Halfway through the event, their server froze up (or melted?), and the web portion of our Webinar was literally fried. The current slide just hung there while we all got booted out of the web conference.

Not pretty.

Most of our interested participants were engrossed enough to stay on for the rest of the call. But the web portion was toast. (I'm flyin' with the puns today!!)

For everyone who hung in there with us, I thank you heartily. You're amazing sports, and damn! Y'all asked some pretty incredible questions. You were definitely paying attention!

Here are the slides, as promised. And for those of you who registered, you'll be receiving an email from me this afternoon (if you haven't already) and the transcript as soon as it's ready.

Download DG_SEO_Blogs_Webinar_final.pdf

By the way, we are going to attempt to answer all the questions submitted to webinar on this blog over the next few days.

SEO & Blogs Webinar Attempts to Weather the Heatwave (Slides Here!)

Well - today was our much-posted-on SEO & Blogs Webinar.  And while we took every precaution under the sun - literally - to ensure a smooth event during this outrageous east-coast heatwave...it seems our web conference service provider wasn't quite as cautious. (Not to throw them under the bus, they're great people, but...well, it kinda was their fault.)

Halfway through the event, their server froze up (or melted?), and the web portion of our Webinar was literally fried. The current slide just hung there while we all got booted out of the web conference.

Not pretty.

Most of our interested participants were engrossed enough to stay on for the rest of the call. But the web portion was toast. (I'm flyin' with the puns today!!)

For everyone who hung in there with us, I thank you heartily. You're amazing sports, and damn! Y'all asked some pretty incredible questions. You were definitely paying attention!

Here are the slides, as promised. And for those of you who registered, you'll be receiving an email from me this afternoon (if you haven't already) and the transcript as soon as it's ready.

Download DG_SEO_Blogs_Webinar_final.pdf

By the way, we are going to attempt to answer all the questions submitted to webinar on this blog over the next few days.

SEO & Blogs Webinar is WEDNESDAY

Last chance to register... http://www.digitalgrit.com/webinar.

Even if you can't make it, register anyway for the free transcript!

SEO & Blogs Webinar is WEDNESDAY

Last chance to register... http://www.digitalgrit.com/webinar.

Even if you can't make it, register anyway for the free transcript!