Ask CEO Jim Lanzone Interviewed By The Guardian

I came across an interesting interview today conducted with Ask’s CEO, Jim Lanzone. This among conversation on the web this week that search marketers are beginning to take more notice of Ask when implementing their SEO strategies. I have always liked Ask, even when the butler was on board and have always included them in any SEO strategy.

We Are Not ChaCha.com!

Good Morning America did a story today on ChaCha.com, a new search engine that uses paid human beings (called guides) to find information for searchers. The searcher performs a query and then they wait for a human to return the results. I previously wrote about this and had voiced my opinion that I thought this was a service that was essentially antiquated. I mean why wait for someone to search for you when you can get results in literally nanoseconds at any one of the major search engines?

How Much Information Should SEO’s Reveal To Their Clients?

How Much Information Should SEO’s Reveal To Their Clients?

In performing search engine optimization, should SEOs keep their procedures and strategies secret from clients? Should their clients sit patiently by, waiting for the end results and not be concerned about the process that gets them there? I would answer no on both questions. In fact, I firmly believe that the client should know everything that is being done to optimize their sites for organic search. Not only do I believe in full disclosure, I believe in documenting it in writing.

Data Thieving Scam With eCards

We have all received them, right? eCards for birthdays, anniversaries or simply as thank you notes. American Greetings, Yahoo and Blue Mountain are some of the big names but there are a large variety of sites that allow one to send personalized greeting cards via email. Typically the recipient clicks on a link in their email and they are taken to the web site where the eCard resides. They are able to view the eCard and then send one in reply if they like.

Signs That You May Need a Break From SEO

I live and breath SEO and SEM. It is certainly a passion of mine and has been for some nine years now. However even passions can get weary and sometimes I just need a break. With that thought, my friend Matt McGee has come up with a list of 21 signs that may indicate you need a break from SEO.

Word of Mouth Advertising Still Reigns

A recent Inc. 500 study reveals what many of us business owners already know and that is that word of mouth advertising is still King. What percentage constitutes kingship? How about 82%. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association extracts additional percentages from the survey.

Blogs & RSS Becoming Increasingly Popular with B2B Users

A new study finds that blogs and RSS feeds are gaining momentum with business to business users. The survey was completed by more than 4,500 business and IT professionals around the world, representing a wide variety of job titles, vertical industries and company sizes. It aimed to explore how new forms of media such as podcasts and blogs are affecting content consumption and purchasing influence in the BTB marketplace. What was discovered?

Network Solutions – Can I Just Renew My Domain Already?

What does Network Solutions, the original domain registrar and Danny’s Family Carousel, a chain of car wash/oil & lube facilities have in common? They try to up sell you to the max. In other words, they not only want to sell you what you originally came in for but add on as many items as they can.

Microsoft’s Live Search is Now Live

Kind of a funny headline, “Live Search Now Live” but in reality, Microsoft’s new search platform dubbed Live Search has been in beta for quite a while now but as announced today is now live for all the world to see and use. Microsoft has been testing, accepting user feedback, iterating and testing more since March but now has release their new search platform both at Live.com and MSN.

Get Paid To Answer Questions Online at ChaCha.com

A new social search site called ChaCha.com will pay people to answer questions online. CNet reports that ChaCha.com will pay what they call “guides” up to $10 per hour as they search for Web sites that contain answers to user questions. Additionally guides can invite other guides to the site and earn 10 percent of what the invited guides earn.