Owner: Startup Hustle URL:http://www.startuphustle.com/ Join Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:43:45 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Startup Hustle was created to help with small business marketing and guerrilla marketing in the startup world. Site statistics:Click here
When AdPreview Saves Your Life (An Adwords Tale) 2007-09-07 08:54:05 The other day I got a call from the CEO and Founder of a company I work for asking why his main keywords, which are usually in positions 2-4, were either at the bottom of the first page or not on the page at all. As I run through the possible reasons in my head, I jump over to Adwords
to see where Google says the keywords are positioned. Adwords says the keywords are in positions…..2 to 4, exactly where they should be.
So….Google tells me the keywords are exactly where I want them, but the keywords are showing much lower in the search results, which is what the CEO is looking at.
Who do you think he believes me or his own eyes?
After researching the issue (aka…franticly calling my Google rep), I learn if you search a particular keyword continuously in Google and don’t click any of the ads, Google assumes those ads are not relevant to your search. Google adjusts the ads (bringing lower ads to the top) to find an ad that might interest you, thus lowerin Read more:Saves
Adwords Secret Negative Keyword Tool…..Sort of. 2007-08-14 09:06:36 Google Adwords
recently released a new report called “Search Query Report”. This report will show you which search terms prompted your ad to show (an impression). The report gives you the complete statistics for that keyword (clicks, conversions ect.). Google provided this report so that advertisers could find new keywords to bid on. Being the PPC pro that I am (wink), the report did not find any new keywords that would be beneficial to my campaigns; it actually had the opposite effect.
The “Search Query Report” is better to find negative keywords, than new keywords to bid on.
Actually, to Googles credit, this is the best negative keywords tool that I have ever seen. Since the report is directly connected to your Adwords campaign, it will tell you exactly which keywords are wasting impressions and clicks (= $$$$$$$).
I’m sure the report works well for others that are looking to add more relevant keywords. In a time where Google is trying to make Adwo Read more:Keyword
, Negative
Getting Indexed by Google can Suck 2007-07-17 20:37:23 You spend months, maybe even years trying to get onto the front page of Google
or Yahoo so people can find you. Now both search engines are to a point where new content is indexed relatively quickly, especially if you have already gained a positive reputation with their algorithms. So what is the downfall of being well indexed in the search engines?
Publishing pages that you, or worse your members, don’t want to be found.
I have noticed two instances of this occurring. Either you publish content that needs to be removed due to writing something controversial (when you’re not trying to be) or just being inaccurate. Or, members search their name, find their profile and want it deleted. The latter is what I have to deal with on a daily basis. Unfortunately members don’t understand that websites don’t have control over how long Google or Yahoo cache web pages.
How do you correctly a cache issue?
Google provides a tag that you can place at the head of the Read more:Indexed
Yahoo Finally Takes a Jump 2007-07-03 09:13:37 As Yahoo
has been following in Google’s search advertising footsteps, they have been falling further and further behind. The only way to catch Google is to be the first to market with innovative search ad technologies. Yahoo just released a new product called SmartAds….well, it is neither a new technology or the first to market in the search space, but they did beat Google.
SmartAds is the equivalent to behavioral marketing in the search arena. There are a few companies that already do this but they do not have Yahoo’s user base. This is good for small business advertisers because it is a very targeted technique and it should cost less than running ads on Adwords. We will have to wait to see if it is as effective.
Read more:Finally
HitTail Power Play? 2007-06-29 14:16:43 I love HitTail. It is a fantastic SEO tool and the best part….it is free. If you dont know what HitTail is, it is a web based program that will tell you which search terms lead to your site and keep track of the long tail for you. It also has a live section that will show you which websites lead a user to your site (it updates live as a link it clicked that lands on your site).
The free version is limited to 100,000 visits per month. So, conventional thinking would lead you to believe that once you hit that limit, HitTail would stop tracking for the rest of that month and restart next month….oh no. If you hit the limit you either have to upgrade to the $50 a month package or they will end the use of the service for you. Here is an email I got from them today:
“You are among our customers whose traffic volume exceeds the limit for free service, which is 100,000 visits per month. Therefore, we kindly ask you to pick a premium plan for high-volume sites and upgrade you
Google and Paid Content Transparency 2007-06-26 13:00:02 I spent the morning going through Google
’s new Placement Performance Report which show you where your content ads are displayed (Adsense). I just read a blog article over at the PPC Book that described exactly how I felt. A large number of the poor performing sites are not disclosed but are show as “Domain Ads”. Some of the most clicked URL’s that don’t convert fall under “Domain Ads” (surprise, surprise). Since Google does not show you the domain, you can not block the domain in the campaign setting.
So the entire reason to produce a Placement Performance Report is transparency, but they hide URL’s ….makes sense.
Read more:Content
, Transparency
Now this is how you Linkbait! 2007-06-18 16:52:57 There is a good discussion over on yCombinator about a guy that went to the Ebay Sellers Conference this past weekend and wore a Google shirt, which he claims led to him being thrown out. If you missed the story, Google wanted to throw an event for Google Checkout to compete with Paypal (owned by Ebay) at Ebay’s conference. So Ebay stopped all of their Adwords campaigns and Google backed down.
So this guy was at the conference to pitch his product to Ebay sellers when his Google apparel caught the attention of Ebay marketing executives, who apparently intimated him to the point that he left (escorted by security).
Regardless if the story is true or false (better if true) this was a great way to create linkbait in this tough linkbait time.
When to Submit to a Social News Site 2007-09-25 12:57:22 By “when” I mean down to the hour of the day. It can make a big difference considering the two largest population regions in America are separated by 3 hours. You also have to consider the day of the week.
Posting a great, compelling (linkbait?) article is most often the best way to drive traffic to your site using social news. You put in all the hard work of an eye catching title, detailed and researched articles, and then comes the traffic. You submit your article and nothing happens. It slips quickly through the newly submitted postings and in 15 minutes the hope has died. Then you question your article (which you should). Was the title wrong? Was the article too long? One often overlooked question is…..
Did you ever consider the timing when submitting to a social news site?
Working with a group of connected Digg users in the top 100, they recommend to submit articles at 2:00pm eastern standard time. Do remember, submitting to Digg has become a game of who you k Read more:Social
, Submit
Testing BlogRush 2007-09-21 03:10:05 Startup Hustle has added the BlogRush widget. There has been a ton of buzz about the widget with early reports giving it less than stellar results, but we are interested regardless. This is how BlogRush works:
“By adding the BlogRush Widget to a blog, a blogger can get instant distribution for their latest blog post titles across a network of related blogs.
BlogRush users earn “syndication credits” (the right to have their blog post titles shown inside a widget on another related blog) based on their own traffic (loads of the widget) as well as the traffic of other users they refer to BlogRush. Users can automatically refer others to BlogRush via special links on the widget, as well as through the promotion of a special referral URL they are given.
BlogRush is a “Cooperative Syndication Network” that rewards its users for their contributions to the network — from the impressions they provide of the BlogRush Widget to the referral of other users throu Read more:Testing
Need Press but Outside the Valley? 2007-09-19 08:49:21
Many startups are located outside Silicon Valley
(Austin, Boston, New York, Seattle) and have trouble getting press. The majority of the startup media is located in the Valley and likes to talk about…..the Valley. A growing startup needs all the press and mentions they can get, so take advantage of your “exotic” location by submitting your venture to Outside
the Valley.
Outside the Valley is a blog that scores startups to determine the success without the help of the Silicon network. Here are the categories a startup will be scored by:
Outside the Valley Score
Location: City, ST = 3
Founders: Experienced = 1
Technology:Some new technology = 1
Funding: Principals and a few private investors = 2
Total Score – 7.0 Definitely outside the valley……
While not scientific, the whole concept is quite interesting. Connections to Silicon Valley as a negative while everyone is trying to establish themselves with the Valley media. My metaphoric hat is off to you Read more:Press
Dont Bid on the Word ‘Keywords’ 2007-09-14 11:59:13 I know, I know…..who would do that? Apparently it is a growing problem that can be an expensive mistake.
It happens (most commonly) when you copy a keyword list from Excel or even Word and grad the header of the list called…..’Keywords
’.
If you search the term ‘Keywords’ in Yahoo you will notice a few companies that have nothing to do with the term ‘Keywords’ and made a mistake.
It can be small but expensive mistake. Make sure you run through your keywords before you publish them live. Thanks to Bill Hartzer for noticing this PPC mistake.
How Important is SEO on your Startup’s Priority List? 2007-10-11 11:25:59 I just walked out of a meeting with a startup, fighting the continual battle of what priority does SEO
have when put into the programming queue. This meeting worked in my favor because a month ago the SEO plan was deemed “low priority”. This week, as traffic numbers slump, SEO has been bumped to “high priority”.
The problem is SEO does not work overnight.
If the changes had been implemented a month ago we might not see the affects yet (even though it is an established site with high PR), but I’m positive rushing SEO at this point is not going to help. SEO work has to be planned well in advance. On-page SEO, from a programmers standpoint, sucks but it is not that time consuming. SEO needs to be implemented at least a few months in advance before you really see results. That time frame can shift depending on how established a site already is.
Regardless if you outsource SEO or have the in-house marketing team do it, is there enough emphasis on search engine Read more:Startup
How the new Google PageRank will Affect Startups. 2007-10-09 02:15:18 The online marketing community is buzzing about the new GooglePageRank
(PR) update and the number of sites that are dropping PR. If you are a seasoned internet marketer this update creates enough problems, but those new startups with fresh sites, you have a chance to stay clear of the new line Google has drawn.
The new PR update shows evidence that Google is trying to fight link buying. Selling and buying links is a popular way to increase your PR, especially if you are a new startup that needs love from Google. The link buying process will become even more covert now that Google is penalizing sites that are buying and selling links.
Be very careful with buying and selling links as you launch your new startups site.
The last thing a startup needs is to fight a Google penalty out of the gates. As Google is turning link buying into a black hat SEO act, it would be best for young entrepreneurs to stick with white hat SEO techniques till the dust settles.
Read more:Affect
, Startups
New Domain extension opportunity - .me 2007-10-18 05:30:45 The eastern European country of Montenegro is getting its own domain extension, and it has the chance to produce some fun domain names. Montenegro’s new domain is “.me“. If you have any entrepreneurial bones in your body the potential is filling your head. Examples:
buy.me
find.me
hire.me
pay.me
text.me
The domains are are scheduled to be available for registration during the first quarter of 2008. Do remember, nothing replaces a “.com” domain but it is not essential for success. Just look at del.icio.us.
Updating the “Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization” 2007-10-15 01:15:18 The group at SEOmoz are revamping their “Beginner
’s Guide
to SearchEngineOptimization
”. If you have not taken the time to better understand how the search engines (mainly Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask) work, then it is time to start. The majority of you are working on internet startups or at the very least have a website for your B&R shop and the search engines control new customers picking you or a competitor. Rand has released the first two articles (I will continue to update this thread as new articles are released) :
How Search Engine
s Operate
How Search Engines Operate Continued
Understanding the Visuals of the SERP’s
I recommend grabbing the RSS feed and reading each article. It is a great source to start your SEO education.
Read more:Search Engine Optimization
Google Obviously Doesn’t Use Their New SiteLinks Tool 2007-10-23 06:30:42 The Adwords crew missed the Google
Webmaster Central Blog post about the new SiteLinks tool in Webmaster Tools.
Or they have a real love for the Mozilla FireFox Start Page.
When was the Last Time You “Visited” Your Site? 2007-11-01 02:30:32 I spent the last week going through a site that has been up for over a year. I went through the site as the customer. What I found was scary:
Product confusion.
Poor Search results.
Differing messages to members.
The great part about working with a startup is being able to make changes and shift strategies quickly. The bad part of working with a startup is being able to make changes and shift strategies quickly. Every startup I have worked with does bug testing before a release. The problem is adding new features or lines of business to a site can have a snowball effect beyond bugs. In the consulting industry it is called the “customer journey”.
When was the last time you experienced your site from the users perspective?
The more you add to a site the more disjointed it can become. If you have ONE action your site performs, it is hard to mess it up. If you provide multiple actions, and involves a user base that needs to join, it can get crazy.
With all of the options on
How to Get A New Site Indexed by Search Engines 2007-10-29 03:30:03 You just launched a new site for your startup and you are ready for the traffic to flow. Lets not fight the obvious, being indexed by Google (and to a lesser extent Yahoo) is important for future traffic goals. The common rule of thumb is if a website is linking to your new startup site, the search engines will find it. To start, lets determine if your new site has been found.
Enter “site:www.yoursite.com” into the search bar in Google and Yahoo.
If the result is “Your search - site:www.yoursite.com - did not match any documents”, your site is not indexed. The good news is, it is easy to get indexed once you have your XML sitemap created.
How do I get indexed by Google? Google provides Webmaster Center that allows you to submit your XML sitemap. This tool will let you know if Google is having trouble indexing your site……valuable information to say the least. The quick version is to submit your URL only to Google. I still recommend using webmaster t Read more:Indexed
, New Site
, Search
Entertaining (Free) Keyword Tools 2007-11-05 04:45:10 Keyword research can be tedious and time consuming but extremely important. You know all the traditional (free) keyword tools:
Keyword Discovery (one of my favorite)
Wordtracker
Adwords External Keyword Tool
While I would like to argue that you have better things to do when launching a startup, keyword research is critical. The following tools represent keyword information in a more appealing way and will help expand your search for new keywords.
The first tool is called Quintura.
You insert the word you want to search and Quintura produces search results (powered by Yahoo XML) and a word cloud (on the left). The word cloud shows all keywords that are related to that term per search engine results.
Quintura is also great as a competitor keyword search tool. If you search the URL (ex. startuphustle) of a competitor, you will get a word cloud of terms that relate to that site. From the test I have run it is fairly accurate.
The next keyword tool is KartOO (below, Flash is needed to ru Read more:Entertaining
, Keyword
, Tools
Recommend Site To A Friend
