Dream Systems Media Blog

If you hadn’t heard, Mozilla Firefox released another new update.

I don’t mind updates, but this one forced me to complain a bit.

As a pretty consistent blogger, I frequently will take pictures of sections of a website with an Add-On called Screengrabber. Screengrabber would allow me to simply copy a section of a page, copy the entire viewable page, or copy the entire screen and then paste it in an email to share with my team.

It would also allow me to save those same images to my desktop easily for future blogging pleasure.

The point is, most, if not all, of my blog posts that show images of how-to posts, step by step guides, or “check this out” ideas, were created thanks to Screengrabber.

Until today.

Due to the Firefox 8.0 upgrade, there are quite a few Firefox Add-on’s I’m used to using that are not compatible.

Industry News, Rants

Introducing the new Google Adwords button.

How will Google Adwords +1 Button change Internet Marketing? Does it affect PPC? Will it help or hurt CRO? Can it really increase CTR? What’s the Math?

In a recent email from Google Adwords was the following notification:

In the coming weeks, your search results and ads on Google will include a +1 button, which users can click to recommend your ads. You don’t need to make any changes to your account in order to take advantage of them. The final landing page URL of your ads can also appear on the Google profile of any user who +1’s your ad.

That time has arrived.

Google, Industry News, PPC +1, AdWords, Clickthrough rate, Google, Google +1, Google Plus 1, NoIndex, Organic search, Pay per click, pest control guy, Quality Score

Google Offers Quick Facts:

How is it Promoted?

• Email to Subscribers
• Google shopper app.
• Google network

Businesses can Limit the offer:

• Limit how many offers sold
• Limit Redeemable by date
• Limit on Areas Serviced*
• Limit Uses Per Customer

*important for pest control guys

Offer runs for a 24 hour window.

http://google.com/offers

The primary way they will promote the offer is via emails to subscribers. Email, according to social media studies, is still the most used social media vehicle. (*CMB Consumer Pulse 2010 ) If the local business makes the offer juicy enough then the business can anticipate that coupon lovers will forward the deal out to their friends and family. This method is ideal for local businesses as the consumers are spreading it by digital word of mouth and are pre-qualifying the target audience for the local business.

Google, Industry News 360 images, Google Offers, local advertising, Local Businesses, pest control guy, places page

YouTube Video Preview in Google Search

Google update: Youtube gets video previews in Google’s Universal Search.

Google recently added the website previews. Now Google is adding video previews. Not all video results are getting this preview. Those that do get previews include Youtube videos, 5min.com and Discovery videos. But sites like MetaCafe.com, videojug.com, and break.com, while still being found in the video section, are not getting the 4 framed previews.

Video Previews and Click Through Rates

The four framed previews actually show 5 second clips of the video. For the Superbowl commercial of the StarWars kid you can get a quick jest of the short commercial. But for the short 30 second video of Rene Higuita and the Scorpion kick (AWESOME VIDEO) you might get most of the clip, but sports move so fast that you may want to click through and see the whole thing. Ultimately the video preview might be enough to satisfy or enough of a taste to leave you wanting more. And careful, these videos do have sound enabled. Sound could be bad, as it is often a discouragement on websites. You can turn it off by clicking on the speaker, which I did as to not annoy my office.

Google, Industry News Google Updates, pest control guy, Video Optimization, Youtube

Announcement:

Retiring the position preference setting

In early May, we’ll be removing the option to set position preferences. Learn more about what this means for your campaigns.

Google, Industry News, PPC, Sales and Marketing Google, pest control guy, PPC

Google Boost is now Adwords Express

Local search marketing may be in it’s infancy for Google, but this baby is booming. In two short years they have grown through a 10-pack, to a 7-pack, to a mixed local and organic result. They have further added a revenue stream with Google Sponsored tags (Yellow tags) and most recently they added Google Boost. Google boost has been active for about 6 months now, so time for a review of the latest GEO/Local adverting package from Google. To Boost but not to boast.

What is Google Boost?

Google boost is a new pay per click (PPC) advertising push from Google that is being promoted through Google Places. This ad is unique in it’s style from other PPC ads because it features a blue pin drop and is only offered to local businesses that have a local physical office.

Google, Industry News, Local Marketing Geo Marketing, Google Boost Review, google local, Local Marketing, pest control guy, What is Google Boost

Raven Tools

Yesterday, Raven Tools launched the second edition of their online scavenger hunt, RavenHunt. Once again they have some awesome prizes up for grabs: an Apple iPad, 1 year Pro subscription to Raven, books by Tamar Weinberg and Avinash Kaushik, a Search Engine Land premium membership AND RavenHunt t-shirts!

Participation is easy. Each day you are given riddles that you’ll need to solve in order to find clues that contain secret letters. Keep track of all of the secret letters you find, because at the end of the week you’ll need to unscramble them to form a secret word/phrase. The contest started yesterday, but you can join in at any time. The riddles and clues stay up throughout the contest, and are posted on the Raven Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Industry News raven, raven tools

If you are attending Pubcon this year in Las Vegas, you should know that we will be there representing as well and I do have to say that we are getting a little bit excited, could even say giddy, about our soon approaching travels to Vegas for Pubcon.  Pubcon means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but for DSM it comes down to good eats, good drinks, good friends, good business, and good times.

Along with everything else that comes with the territory, both Mat and Dave will be speaking this year.  Here are the details and I suggest you don’t miss these sessions as they could change your life forever!

Wednesday Nov. 11 @ 2:55 pm
Interactive Site Reviews: Focus on Brand and Social Reputation Management
Location: Salon F

David Mink, Industry News, Matt Siltala, speaking Las Vegas, Pubcon, speaking

Thumbs Down to bad business!

You know, I am no longer amazed at the number of off line businesses going under these days, IMO, I think some probably deserve to be going under and here’s my rant why. They would like to blame it on the bad economy, but in some cases I think they need to take a look internally at their bad business practices involving customer service!

Industry News Business, customer service, offline business, online business

SMX West 2009

If you are thinking about attending SMX West, you need to decide soon or pay 200 bucks more tomorrow after midnight.  I have the honor of speaking this year at SMX West on the “tapping into image search” panel with Eric Enge of Stone Temple. There will also be two other speakers – one from Google and one from Yahoo.  The moderator of our session is Matt McGee (Assignment Editor, Search Engine Land)

Here is the official announcement I got in the email today:

The Early Bird Rate for Search Marketing Expo – SMX West ends at midnight tomorrow (Friday, January 9). You save $200 on your All Access ticket by registering now!

Hurry and register and save money!

Industry News smx 2009, SMX West