Cash comes first. So as a search marketer are you more interested in organic or paid search? It probably depends on how you’ve “grown up” in online marketing.
As a writer I’ve always been drawn to the organic content side of search marketing. And by this I mean creating content that’s rooted in your audience’s interactions with your site. Answering questions for example.
Since stepping out into marketing with a partner I’ve become increasingly interested in paid search as an augmentation of media creation efforts. To some extent I think of it as getting more aggressive with getting subscribers.
If an email newsletter is part of your content creation strategy - and you’ve figured out how much you make per email newsletter you send - then why not buy paid search ads to get people into your sales funnel?
After yesterday’s paid search post I decided I wanted to dig a bit more deeply. What I found was something I’ve suspected for some time - a LACK of paid search blogs.
There are two others that stand out besides Hale though, and I wanted to point them out by way of some strong contributions they’ve made.
First there’s Evan Roberts at PPCLab (Evan’s a former colleague of mine). Check out his recent post “Say it ain’t so! Yahoo introduces Ad Quality into ad rankings.”
What does it mean to paid search that Yahoo’s following Google by scoring its ads for quality? Probably that the advertiser experience will get worse while the searcher’s experience will get better.
I surmise that this will increase Yahoo’s bottom line, as they are an advertising first company, while Google’s an engineering first company. They would not have chosen this route if it were not ultimately profitable.
Another great paid search resource comes from another former colleague of mine Al Scillitani. He’s a masterful paid search marketer who writes for theSEMZone.
He recently wrote Adding Match Types To Your PPC Account May Decrease Conversions. Much of what he writes in this post is over my head, but he clearly demonstrates that a) he researches his concerns in forums and b) writes directly to Google for answers too. That level of thoroughness earned Al my subscription to his feed.
So that’s what I’ve got folks. So Al, Evan and Tom - can you guys recommend any good paid search resources out there? Anyone else have favorite resources? And do you have any thoughts on why paid search marketers haven’t been writing in depth quality link bait like the recent Ultimate Guide to Building the Perfect Link?
Posted on January 25, 2007
