Shaun Low

SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) announced today it is launching its fourth annual industrywide survey to assess year-to-year changes in SEM spending and resource allocation.

The survey is open to all search engine marketing professionals working in an agency, or in-house. Participants do not need to be SEMPO members. Log on to to take the survey. As an incentive, SEMPO is partnering with Incisive Media, owners of the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conferences, to randomly select one participant who will receive an SES conference pass, valued at more than $1,000.

“This last year we in the search engine marketing profession have seen tremendous changes, with the major search engines making significant strategic company acquisitions, the exponential growth of social networking and their increasing influence in search and stepped up innovation in online advertising networks,” says Jeffrey Pruitt, SEMPO president and Executive Vice President, Corporate Partnerships, iCrossing. “SEMPO’s survey is the perfect opportunity to learn how these shifts in the market affect the role of the search engine marketer, whether agency or in-house,” and what changes are ahead in the coming year.”

Radar Research, a Los Angeles-based research and consulting firm which conducted the 2005 and 2006 surveys, is continuing as SEMPO’s survey research partner. SEMPO and Radar Research are conducting the survey through early January, 2008. Preliminary results will be available in February, 2008 with a full report expected in late Q1 2008.

“As the pre-eminent search marketing professional organization, SEMPO is committed to taking a leadership role in empirical research,” says Gord Hotchkiss, SEMPO chairperson and CEO, Enquiro Search Solutions. “Our annual survey and our new survey to collect salary data on in-house personnel are just two examples of how we provide unique, actionable market data to our growing professional community.”

2006 Survey Recap

SEMPO’s 2006 survey revealed that SEM spending had risen sharply, to $9.4 billion, a 63% year-to-year increase. The survey included data on paid placement, paid inclusion and organic search as well as spending on SEM technology platforms. The survey also found organic SEO to be the most popular form of SEM, with paid placement a very close second. However, in dollars, paid placement accounted for 85.9 percent of total spending, or $8.1 billion.

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About the Author

Manoj has been working in the search engine marketing industry since 2002. He started out as a software developer but now provides in-depth web site analysis using web analytics.

http://www.enquiro.com

Manoj is also the author of Web Analytics World. Web Analytics is an essential component in developing a successful online campaign. Help convert visitors into customers by understanding them.

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This is a great article by Chris Winfield, one of the top social media marketing specialists and a frequent collaborator with The Happy Guy Marketing: You’ve Made Digg - Now What?

As with so many business decisions, people tend to rush in without a long-range plan. The script is usually the same…

Hey, let’s get the latest gadget.

Now what?

I wrote about the same problem in this article about website planning, because so many companies still are rushing out to build a website without a clue what they want that website to do for them.

Chris offers a few good suggestions on what to do about a page that has benefited from a surge in popularity as the result of a home page Digg appearance, including reoptimizing the page, adding calls to action, advertising on it, or redirecting it to another page. I would add that basically you can do pretty much anything you want with the page. For example, you could simply add the page a related survey geared to building leads for your telemarketing operations. Just keep in mind what people visiting it will be expecting. If they come expecting a video on how to carve fruits for a New Year’s Eve party, don’t fill the page with wallpaper remover products.

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About the Author

David Leonhardt is a Canada-based SEO and viral marketing consultant. He operates in English, French and Spanish, providing custom SEO programs for clients aiming to be top players in their niches.

http://www.seo-writer.com/blog/

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Here’s a fun little quiz that measures how addicted to blogging you are. I scored 77% which probably means I am getting near insane in terms of blogging addiction.

Are you one of those people that tries to convince everyone around you to read your blog? Do you dream of RSS? I highly suggest you take this quiz, it could save your life.

Link: http://www.justsayhi.com/bb/blog_addiction

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About the Author

Manoj has been working in the search engine marketing industry since 2002. He started out as a software developer but now provides in-depth web site analysis using web analytics.

http://www.enquiro.com

Manoj is also the author of Web Analytics World. Web Analytics is an essential component in developing a successful online campaign. Help convert visitors into customers by understanding them.

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In part 1 of Getting past Bloggers Block we gave you 5 ideas on what to do when you simply have nothing to write but still want to put something insightful out. The 5 ideas from part 1 included:

* Providing your perspective on hot industry stories.

* Staying on top of the latest news by making relationships with PR Firms.

* Using Google Hot Trends to figure out the buzz on the Internet.

* Relating topics outside your niche to your industry (i.e.: sports or travel).

* Inviting guest bloggers to write for you periodically.

Below are 4 more ideas to help you during blog brain freeze:

* Reigniting Old Topics: Dig into your stats and figure out posts which have been historically popular (consider seasonality if appropriate) and then write an update to those posts explaining how strategies have changed or Part 2.

* Credit Other Bloggers: In any given week there are dozens of posts and articles around your industry which people should definitely read. This is your opportunity to categorize these other posts and spread some link love. Both Search Engine Land and Marketing Pilgrim both do this on a regular basis.

* Create a Compilation: Have you ever written 3 or 4 posts on the same topic which you think an organization can circulate around to it’s employees, then try combining those posts and offer them in a PDF version.

* Attend a Webinar: If you wanted you could probably attend 2 or 3 webinars everyday (and realistically 1 every 2 weeks) and for those who can’t make it, provide a brief summary for them detailing the “nuggets” from the webinar.

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About the Author

Manoj has been working in the search engine marketing industry since 2002. He started out as a software developer but now provides in-depth web site analysis using web analytics.

http://www.enquiro.com

Manoj is also the author of Web Analytics World. Web Analytics is an essential component in developing a successful online campaign. Help convert visitors into customers by understanding them.

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If you are the type of blogger who consistently posts everyday you occasionally come across days where you are struggling to find something to write about. This happens to me as well so I have created a list of some possible ways to help get the ideas flowing again.

* Hot Industry Stories: Everyday you hear about acquisitions, mergers, companies releasing new technology/services or even executives getting fired. Unless you are one of the first blogs to cover these stories, it becomes somewhat useless to your readers. Rather, I recommend you add your personal perspective on the story as well as help your readers leverage the news by offering advice on how to apply it to to their own businesses.

* Relationships with PR Firms: Try making relationships with PR firms who work for companies in your industry. It’s a win/win situation, you get hot news off the press and the companies get publicity in exchange. As you become more authoritative, PR firms will begin to approach you first.

* Google Hot Trends: This an excellent way to determine the buzz across the Internet, however you do have to apply your own filters per industry. Google Hot Trends also allows you to see a graphical trend on the level of interest for a given topic.

* Correlating Common Interests: You probably enjoy other interests outside of your niche such as sports or politics, so why not bring something your other passions into your professional life? I like to sometimes use Google Trends, Technorati and Social Bookmarking to reference the NBA or sports playoffs.

* Guest Bloggers: When you’re completely out of new topics try leveraging guest bloggers to offer their thoughts on new topics. This gives you a little break and gives your readers some fresh perspective to digest. Guest bloggers can be people from your industry or even fellow employees. Make sure to prescreen your writers so they adhere to your high quality of content.

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About the Author

Manoj has been working in the search engine marketing industry since 2002. He started out as a software developer but now provides in-depth web site analysis using web analytics.

http://www.enquiro.com

Manoj is also the author of Web Analytics World. Web Analytics is an essential component in developing a successful online campaign. Help convert visitors into customers by understanding them.

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Back in the days, Web 2.0 was defined as a new medium that allows people to share things. Blogs and social sites were Web 2.0 and forums and personal sites were 1.0.

State of the Web and the forums

In a Cre8asite Forums thread, a question is raised about the state of the Web and where forums find themselves in it.

And while this is a very good question, it got me thinking. What makes a forum and what makes a social site?

While a forum is open two way communication (compared to one way blogging or social sites, where members can’t write anything unless someone [blog or article author] has already written on the topic), surely there are other differences between forums and the social sites?

How are forums, blogs and social sites different?

In my opinion, the difference is the people and how people interact there.

The difference between Cre8asite Forums and Digital Point forums is the people. They make one forum the most populated and polluted one and the other the most tactful and thoughtful. And, ultimately, the people that post there give the newcomers a chance to make their choice, whether they want to stay there or not.

If we take social sites into account, people there can:

* learn what other people think on the topic

* discuss it with them

* share things of common interests

While this relation isn’t as strong as on the forum or via email, it still allows people to feel alive and useful and spend their time doing something more interesting, than staring at an empty ceiling (or working ).

How forums, blogs and social sites are different?

Often, a question is raised about the difference between forums, blogs and social sites. People start naming technologies, such as RSS, AJAX, comments, etc, but no one really mentions the people themselves.

Since all of the sites offer various kinds of communications, various types of people are attracted there (or at least for various reasons).

* If you want to ask a question from a knowledgeable community, you go to a forum (or email a blogger, which is harder to do, though).

* If you want to read an opinion on something, you go to your favorite blogs in your RSS reader or to Digg.

* If you want to learn the latest news in your field, you go to your social site, or Digg, if you are into technology.

Alternatively, on any of them, you interact with different people in a different way, thus making your experience unique and uninterchangable.

Why Sphinn is the best of them all

All in all, I think that’s why the launch of Sphinn for the Web building community means a lot (Slashdot tried, but isn’t as close, IMHO). Sphinn (or “Spin”) has it all:

* plenty of knowledgeable people

* a chance to start a discussion without an URL to link to

* post comments and discuss the topic, either in a discussion or some post

Sadly, because the discussion isn’t very actively encouraged there - or maybe because the people don’t participate them eagerly, Sphinn hasn’t yet become The place to go to discuss things. But it’s getting there.

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About the Author

Yuri Filimonov is a freelance website optimization and usability consultant, who writes about improving websites to gain more visitors, customers and profit at his blog, http://www.ImproveTheWeb.com.

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