Epicenter Network Blog

After some months of canoodling, the social networking giant and Microsoft decided to take their relationship to the next level. The two announced yesterday that MySpace will be available for Windows Mobile this summer and that MySpace will be supporting Microsoft’s new Silverlight platform.

While this is exciting news for some, it may be leaving a bad taste in Google’s mouth. This relationship adds a new dynamic to the rivalry that exists between Google and Microsoft and puts MySpace in the middle of a technology-sharing love triangle.

Currently, Google holds a multimillion dollar deal with MySpace and handles their search and other FIM properties. This relationship was formed in 2006 and cost Google around $900 million.

To make matters more complicated, Microsoft also has a $240 million deal with Facebook that was formed back in 2007. This deal gave Microsoft extended control over Facebook’s advertising and took claim to a small portion of their ownership. Google competed against Microsoft for this position, but ultimately lost out in the end.

Will MySpace’s double deal making cause even more problems between Microsoft and Google? Will this new relationship between MySpace and Microsoft break the bond between MySpace and Google? What about the relationship between Facebook and Microsoft? This technology soap opera could end with some big break-ups as each of the players keep bouncing between partners.

The deal between Google and MySpace will expire in 2010, leaving the social network to decide if they will continue the search deal or perhaps move everything over into their partnership with Microsoft.

This week Video Professor filed suit against Amazon for trademark infringement for using the phrase “video professor” in their pay-per-click ads on Google. They claim that the search phrase was directing visitors to a site that sold instructional videos by Professor Teaches and was misleading to the consumer.

Oh Amazon, don’t you know you shouldn’t do that?

VPI (Video Professor, Inc.) explained in their complaint that once the user clicks on the Amazon.com link for the search term “video professor” they are taken to a page with the name Video Professor at the top, but are mislead as the page only sells Professor Teaches CD-ROMS. They claim that the consumer may purchase the Professor Teaches product under the assumption that it is created by Video Professor.

I wonder how well this will hold up in court, since it is a case based on assumptions of the consumer’s behavior. Someone may have Googled “video professor” simply looking for instructional videos, not videos specially made by VPI. Additionally, they may use the same search term to view similar products and to do a little comparison shopping.

Another issue that may work in Amazon’s favor is the fact that both products, Video Professor and Professor Teaches, are featured on the same landing page. Therefore, Amazon could argue that they used the search phrase for legitimate product placement and accurately placed the consumer on the correct page.

When I Googled “video professor” this morning and clicked on the Amazon ad, I landed on a page with Video Professor as the title but didn’t see a Video Professor product until I scrolled down to the 12th item listed.

We’ll have to see who picked the better lawyer.

Amazon isn’t the first to make this mistake, here are some similar lawsuits.

• Geico vs. Google
• American Airlines vs. Google
• Heartbrand Beef vs. Yahoo

For those of you who consider themselves to be social media “experts” and who love socializing online more than human interaction, brace yourself for what I am about to say. Social media is not a good place for advertising. Some may even go as far as saying that it is the worst medium for advertising.

I am not one of those people. However, I do agree that your product is not going to start flying off the shelves by simply Twittering about how it holds 12 times its weight in water, is machine washable and is made in Germany (this of course is the ShamWow! And it is pretty great).

Social networks were created as a place for people to connect online and share ideas, resources and pictures of their weekends. People don’t log in to their accounts for shopping, so advertisements either have to be extremely convincing or be targeted toward a very specific audience. This isn’t to say that Facebook and MySpace ads are not effective, because many online marketers are successful at driving revenue from them.

Jason Calacanis, CEO at Mahalo, believes that advertising through social media may not work. He compares sites like Facebook to online parties and during parties people don’t pay attention to advertising. The real way to succeed, he says, is through search.

In pay-per-click ads the customer basically comes to you and is actively seeking information. This raises your likeliness of a conversion since they already have an interest even before you pitch your product to them.

Calacanis says Twitter should be considered a one-on-one direct marketing tool and called it the new Super Bowl commercial. I agree with his point and would go on to say that Twitter, and similar sites, are also great for studying your audience and collecting data. You can tap into what your consumer is interested in, what they are unhappy about and maybe even figure out how to get them to buy your product.

If you feel differently about this and successfully advertise and convert through social media sites, I want to hear from you.

A landing page is like the store front of your online business. It influences whether people will come in and how long they will stay. You want to make a good first impression and make the consumer feel comfortable so they will stay and click through the rest of your site.

Overall, I would say that copy is your number one priority. Not only does copy provide your visitor with instructions on what to do, but it is also crawled by search engines and helps your page rank so that people will ultimately be able to find it. This is not to say that design is not important, but just to emphasis the key role that content plays in a landing page’s success.

When creating your landing page content, here are a couple things to keep in mind:

• Provide helpful information that offers a solution to the visitor’s needs
• State the benefits of your products – give your visitor the idea that they need your product
• State what you need to say in as little words as possible
• Make it easy to order – keep your checkout process to three clicks or less

Apart from content, other factors in creating a converting landing page include setting goals, obtaining testimonials, adding relevant links, choosing keywords and driving targeted traffic.

To keep your page simple and easy to follow, set one main goal per page. The first page may be informational, with the goal to create an urge to purchase in your visitor. The second page may be to enter their personal and payment information. And the third may be a thank you page and to provide them with additional offers they may be interested in.

Testimonials build trust in your visitor and can help them to believe in your product. This is especially powerful when you attach a picture and a name, giving it the whole human element.

Adding relevant links to your site makes you more trustworthy and a more valuable resource to the customer. If your site can offer solutions to multiple problems, it is more likely that you will create repeat customers and earn more referrals.

When building your page, brainstorm all the relevant keywords associated with your product. Think about what keywords you want to rank for and the words that will bring in the most targeted customer. This links right into driving targeted traffic, as you would use these same keywords with your PPC campaigns while also trying to rank for them organically.

Lastly, work on the design of your site and keep it consistent. Try not to make your site too busy and use color to emphasis action buttons and key areas to draw the eye. It’s also a good idea to take a look at some of your competitor’s landing pages and see how you can offer better solutions and easier-to-use pages.

If you’re looking for a way to boost your web traffic and capture your targeted audience, pay-per-click is the way to go. There are tons of PPC search engines and directories to choose from and many online tools to help optimize your keyword selections and ad content.

Pay-per-click search is exactly what it sounds like – you pay a set amount every time sometime clicks on your ad. You begin by setting up an account with a ppc search engine, bid on keywords that describe your business, product or target audience and then create captivating advertising content. Depending on the search engine or directory you use, the higher you bid on a particular keyword or phrase, the higher your ad will appear on a search results page.

When it comes to choosing a ppc search engine it’s all about preference and performance. There are a lot of different options out there and each one uses a slightly different bidding system, monthly fee and method of placement. Here I will examine a few of the top players.

Google AdWords
I put AdWords at the top because I like it the most and it was what I started out on. AdWords displays their search results in several search engines including Google, AOL, Ask Jeeves and Teoma.

Another reason I like AdWords is because they use your click-through rate and cost per click to determine where your ads are shown – so you can never get locked out of the top. This means that if you can write really great ads, optimize your keywords and phrases and at least stay competitive with your bids, you have a good chance of staying on the first page of results.

Activation fee: $5
Minimum bid amount: $.05
You set your daily budget and only pay for the clicks you receive.

Overture
Overture, or Yahoo search marketing, is another top choice for pay-per-click. Their results are displayed on Yahoo!, Lycos, HotBot and MSN search. Overture is one of the most expensive ppc engines and also one of the most competitive.

Overture works differently than AdWords, as they place the highest bidder’s ads on top. If you have a big marketing budget, place your ads here. The number one listing may receive three times the click through rate of the number two listing and Overture provides the top three advertisers links to several web portals and search engines as the top three results on each page.

Activation fee: $50 non-refundable initial deposit
Minimum bid: $.10
Minimum charge per month: $20

Adhere (formerly Enhance)
If you were part of Enhance Interactive, you are now part of Marchex Adhere. This network is easy to manage and displays ads on Metacrawler, Dogpile and Ask and has over 200 distribution partners.

Adhere works similarly to Overture, as ad placement is determined by bids and the more you pay, the higher you will be displayed. Personally, I’ve never used Adhere, but have heard some great things about it and know that they have excellent chat support if you ever need assistance.

Activation fee: $50 deposit
Minimum bid: $.05
No monthly service fee.

MIVA (FindWhat)
MIVA is a pretty popular ppc engine, as it costs less than many of the larger ones and has a great user interface. MIVA is not a destination site, but a network of partner sites, including memolink.com, InfoSpace, eurekster and search.com to name a few.

MIVA places ads based on bids and works similarly to Overture and Adhere. You choose your position, price and how much you want to spend. Additionally, you only pay for results, so it’s a safe place to start.

Activation fee: $25 to open an account
Minimum bid: $.05

Here are some other worthy pay-per-click networks to check out:

Lycos InSite AdBuyer
Look Smart
Rocketlinks.com
Kanoodle.com
Live Search
7search.com