Archive for May, 2007
Responding To and Following Up on RFPs (Request For Proposals)
We get a handful of RFPs (request for proposal) each and every week, We actually call them “Request Free Quotes” (RFQs) as they typically come from potential customers submitting a form from our site. Receiving several RFQs each week not only requires a significant amount of time to respond to them in a timely manner, but requires a strategic follow-up plan to ensure that we give ourselves the best opportunity to secure the new business. I thought I’d write up a post on how we initially respond to them and our process of follow-up.
The Google Acquisition Report Card
Joe Sinkwitz from the Pay Loan Affiliate Blog has put together a “report card” on Google’s acquisition progress over the years. Not only does he list the date, the company and the type of product or service Google acquired, he scores each acquisition as good, bad or mixed.
Elisabeth Osmeloski Leaves Search Engine Watch, Begins New Venture
Sad news out of Search Engine Watch – Elisabeth Osmeloski is leaving her position as Editor to start a new venture with Zonder.com, a vacation rentals company. Zonder is a venture capital funded start-up, based in Salt Lake City where Elisabeth calls home. She will become Director of Online Media for the company. Nobody has been named officially to take over her role at SEW, however Rob Kerry (aka EvilGreenMonkey) has been appointed “Forums Editor” over the Search Engine Watch Forums.
Weekly Rap-up of Search Engine Industry News – 5/21 – 5/25
A summary of search related news items that occurred this week including Google to shut down arbitragers’ AdSense accounts – fact or fiction, an introduction to Kevin Ham, the world richest domainers and his success story, Technorati updates its data architecture and user interface, Google will acquire RSS management service Feedburner for $100 million in cash, Wal-Mart will begin to sell Dell computers in their stores, and finally, MyBlogLog adds new tagging features but at the same time calls social media optimizers “Schmoes.”
No Internet Tax Bill Introduced in Congress
To tax or not to tax? That is the question. Taxing access to the Internet, access to email and the like has been looked at by the government for several years now but so far has escaped their grasp. A new bill dubbed “The Internet Tax Freedom Extension Act of 2007″ was introduced in the Senate yesterday. If passed, this bill would extend the current ban on Internet access taxes for another four years.
Tapping Into Other’s WiFi Can Get You Arrested
Have you ever been someplace besides your home or office with the old laptop in hand and attempted to “sniff out” a WiFi access so you can get online? A hotel, a coffee shop, the doctor’s office, even the airport. I know I have (I didn’t just admit to that did I?). Well you better be careful in the future because apparently stealing tapping into a WiFi connection that you do not have authorization to do so can get you arrested.
Charity Link Meme, I’ve Been Tagged
Skitzzo has started a charity meme designed to share link love with posters favorite charities in order to help them improve their rankings in the major search engines. The idea is copy the list of charities of the person who tags you and add five of your own, linking to them using anchor text that is somehow related to their cause.
Weekly Rap-up of Search Engine Industry News – 5/14 – 5/18
A summary of search related news items that occurred this week including Digg Caught red handed censoring content by burying stories internally, AOL acquires mobile advertising network and ad-serving management platform provider – Third Screen Media for an undisclosed amount, computer giant Dell is sued for allegedly ripping off their customers, a new “social local site is launched – LocalGuides, and finally, Microsoft agrees to acquire online marketing firm aQuantive.
Does Google Frown On Links From Paid Directories?
Owning a few directories myself, this is a question that is of interest to me, especially after Matt Cutts recently stirred up some controversy when he invited people everywhere to report paid links as spam. With our directories, some listings are editorial while others are paid. In the beginning, every site added was editorial simply to populate the directory. Today we require payment for every submission simply to compensate for the time that is taken to review, edit and include the listing. Therefore the submitter is not necessarily paying for a link but rather paying for the editor’s time to consider the submission for inclusion.
Search Ranking Reports – R.I.P.
My thinking for the last few years now is that static search engine ranking reports hold little value in and of themselves. These are reports typically run by a software program in which a list of keywords is added along with the main URL of the site(s) you wish to check and the software then queries pre-selected search engines, creating a report showing where your site ranked for each term. This may have been a suitable way of measuring the success of an SEO effort (although traffic should always be measured as well) a few years ago but nowadays with the personalization of the search engines, not to mention all the other sources of traffic that can be derived including social media sites, press releases, blogs, etc., static ranking reports no longer paint an accurate picture.
Weekly Rap-up of Search Engine Industry News – 5/7 – 5/11
A summary of search related news items that occurred this week including MySpace to acquire Photobucket for $250 in cash, Google Analytics launches with new interface and enhanced reporting, Google rolls out Print Ads in the AdWords management console, SEOmoz releases their Web 2.0 Awards for 2007, and finally, Yahoo! has an “Ultimate Connection Contest” going on where the winner can earn $25,000 in advertising from Yahoo! Search Marketing, among other things.
New IRS Proposal Could Have Negative Impact on E-Commerce
I just came across this story at WebProNews regarding a new IRS proposal that could have a negative impact on e-commerce. Essentially, The U.S. Treasury Department wants to crack down on Internet businesses like eBay and Amazon.com and require them to share their customer’s personal data with the Internal Revenue Service. What data specifically do they want? The obvious – names, addresses, etc. but then the not so obvious, social security numbers.
