It’s amazing who’s watching you…

Infographic byWordStream Internet Marketing

PPCBlog.com came out with this awesome infographic that breaks down how Google works… very cool.

Infographic by the Pay Per Click Blog

So… we did it!

Matt Cutts has officially been launched into space in his rocket, Spam Blaster!  We don’t want to fill this space with a whole lot of words.  We just want to thank those who came up with names for the rocket and those who voted!  What did we learn from this experience?  Well, Matt… you may be incredible at fighting spam… but as you will see, you may want to keep your day job. 

Oh, Adam and Joe… Your hard work and long hours were both AMAZING. Thank you!

You’ve asked for more information and we’re here to give it to you.

When we announced that we were going to launch Matt Cutts into space and asked for your ideas on what we should name the rocket we received many emails asking for specifics on what we were going to do.  So, we had our video pro Adam Perry create this demo video that explains it all a bit further.  It’s well worth the watch… check it out.

Be a part of the experience and share this on your site! We’ve already put together the code for you:

Vote Now For What The Matt Cutts Rocket Should Be Named!

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We are really thankful for all of the feedback that we have received through our blog comments in 2009. We would like to share some of those comments (we refer to them as love letters) with you.

VIDEO LENGTH: 1 Minute 15 Seconds

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I have been known when I speak to groups around the country when publicly asked about ranking in Yahoo! to smirk a bit. I have despised Yahoo! for years becuase of their completely unethical practice of having you pay them to be included in their “organic” results. Well, it’s coming to an end, largely because of their deal with Microsoft.

Barry Schwartz broke the news a few days ago and included this from Yahoo! in his post:

We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit. We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search retargeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI.

Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.

The Take Away

So what does this mean for business owners and marketers? My advice is to begin paying attention to Bing’s results if you’re concerned about engines other than Google. We believe that you’re going to see Bing’s results when you search on Yahoo! in the coming months.

So, today the boys had a “Jammie Day”. These are days when my wife, Jodi let’s the boys stay in their jammies all day while they play games and stuff. They had a pretty healthy lunch and Jodi was away for dinner.

Well, my boys are rather picky and they weren’t in the mood for anything for dinner. So, I decided to get their attention and tell them that we were going to make the best sandwich EVER.

They got all excited about what it was going to be and will remember it forever. Here’s the video.

The “Toasted Triple Decker Peanut Butter, Jelly and Fruitloop Sandwich” is a remarkable thing for my boys.

What are you going to do with your website that’s remarkable enough to get your potential customers and/or link partners excited about what you have to offer and remember it forever?

The telephone had no practical application and would fail…

Email wasn’t “personal” and would never replace a letter…

Now, you (business owner) don’t think there’s a place for social media in your business? Really? Watch this.

A full list of the statistics from this video can be printed from here.

We have decided in recent weeks to transition our blog’s focus so it becomes an educational resource to executives and marketing folks at companies who are NOT full time internet marketers. It gets really easy in this industry to become addicted to the “SEO Conferences” and the “potential fame” of being a part of the “in group” (yep… like high school!) with the goal of being asked to speak on panels and attend VIP parties. While it’s important to have relationships with knowledgeable people in the industry… it’s not always the best decision for growing a company to focus solely there… because your clients aren’t there.

Heads Up… This Paragraph Contains Whiny Complaints That Are Irrelevant.

As I have experienced, it can be vital to have personal, face to face relationships with people in the industry because you’re not often judged by what you know and what you’ve done… but by who you bought drinks for at a few conferences. Like when your site is removed from a recommended vendor list because you fired the guy who had the “one on one relationship” with the lists owner, even though you’ve built 2 successful internet marketing companies and other “experts” vouch for your experience and knowledge. Am I bitter? Yeah… a bit… but that’s ok… I still send my money every month for my “Pro Account“.

OK… off the inappropriate soap box.

Internet Marketers Shouldn’t Waste Time At Internet Marketing Conferences.

OK, that headline was intended to get you to read this paragraph, the conferences are actually very useful. The fact is, however, that speaking at events like PMMI, a conference that I spoke at a few weeks ago in Chicago, allows us to meet hundreds of executives and business owners who didn’t previously understand internet marketing at all or the potential that it has for their business. In other words… we speak at specific conferences not related to the seo industry and get tons of awesome new clients. It’s a win win. They get entertained and learn a lot and we get their business.

However, one of the problems with speaking at “non-internet marketing” conferences multiple times per month is that there’s little time left to attend industry shows related to internet marketing. That’s where people like Rae Hoffman, Lisa Barone and Rhea Drysdale come in. They work their arses off at almost every single conference session live blogging to make sure that people like me, my staff (and of course their clients) can be “in the know” about what takes place.

Here’s Where Outspoken Media Comes In.

I was reading posts this morning about what was happening at the conference and just as the jealousy set in because I didn’t feel like I actually knew what was “happening”… I remembered Lisa Barone’s conference posts from last year and I switched over to Outspoken Media’s blog to see if she was doing the same thing this year.

Note To Lisa:

Lisa… awesome job. Your SMX Advanced 2009 Wrap Up posts are not only entertaining to read… but they’re also informational. As my team and I read them we feel like we actually know what happened in the sessions because you take the time to talk about Vanessa Fox’s hatred for you and Rae breaking the computer. Fun + Education = All Star Live Blogging.

So while our team is sitting in our Lancaster, PA offices billing our 30 client hours per week each… we thank you for live blogging the events so that we can still be educated and on top of things in a way that we actually want to read.

“Thanks, Ladies!”

– The ProspectMX team

Stay tuned for a summary tailored for our clients of the information given at the conference.

I received in the mail one of the most remarkable direct mail pieces ever (Photo thanks to BruceClay.com – Virginia Nussey talked about it here) via FedEx this week. I opened the package and pulled out a very professional package of chocolate covered grasshoppers.

The first thing I said to myself was, “Are these SERIOUSLY chocolate covered grasshoppers?”

And then I read in fine print at the bottom of the package:

*Yes, these are real grasshoppers. They are even approved by the FDA of Thailand.

Brilliant. I didn’t have any idea what it was… but that alone made me look into it further.

A tag attached to the grasshoppers said, “Entrepreneurs can change the world. Join the movement now!”

Now I’m intrigued.

So, I went to their site and it looks like they are compiling entrepreneurs together and offering some discounts on services… but in the end, they are promoting telecommunication services of some type.

Here’s the lesson… To start something viral… it needs to be worthy of being viral. Business owners talk to us everyday about how they want to do these viral campaigns, but they often want to do things so lame, that nobody really cares. So, take a lesson from the grasshopper guys (and possibly gals, too)… and do something worth talking about in your next viral marketing campaign.

Oh… I brought the package home and had my kids eat them. That’s what the video above’s all about. I know it’s a bit long… sorry.