My Comments

• B2B Pay Per Click Search Engines - 07/15/2008
  I've had great success with MSN for B2B clients as far as cost/lead and conversion rates, but volume is so low that it is almost not worth it. I tend to find much higher volumes from Business.com, IndustryBrains, and the like. Personally, outside of Google, I tend to prefer to go straight to the business search engines in order to get the right kind of traffic for my clients.
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• B2B Pay Per Click Best Practices for Online Lead Generation - 06/30/2008
  Scott & Allen, What a tricky subject. Click qualification, as you mention, can be very important for the success of a campaign on your internal metrics, be that ROI, cost/lead, etc. Unfortunately, putting qualifiers in your ad reduces your click through rate (CTR), which negatively effects your Quality Score (QS) with Google AdWords. While there is no way to avoid this, and it often makes sense to take the QS hit, I find that segmenting AdGroups into smaller arrangements of relevant keywords can often help improve your CTR even as you continue to use qualifying language in your ads. Hope that helps! ~Lindsey
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• B2B Pay Per Click Best Practices for Online Lead Generation - 04/02/2008
  Steve, I don't believe this is the best location to air your grievances about Google AdWords. If you are having such problems with your online advertising, I'd seek help from an expert who might be able to tell you what you're doing to cause Google to solicit such high minimum bids. Either way, continued commenting here is irrelevant to this guide.
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• Getting and Using 800 Numbers - 03/03/2008
  Thanks for the guide. Glad I found it, with all those useful links.
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• B2B Pay Per Click Best Practices for Online Lead Generation - 01/19/2008
  Steve, Google does occasionally disable keywords due to a lack of relevance. Low relevance is detected through low click through rates, either indicating your keyword or ad copy aren't of interest to searchers. Google takes the initiative to protect the relevance of their product, the search engine, by removing your ad unless you're willing to pay extra to offset the relevance issue. To avoid this in the future, I have a few suggestions: 1. When you start an account, use high bids in the beginning. During this review period, it's crucial to get enough impressions for Google to give you a good rating. 2. Make sure your keywords are segmented into small AdGroups based on relevance. 3. Make sure your ad text is concise, encourages a click, and is related to that specific AdGroup, perhaps by using the keywords within the ad text. 4. Use negative keywords as a way to segment out non-relevant traffic so that it doesn't affect your click through rate and Quality Score.
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• Automotive Advertising Agencies - 12/07/2007
  Great guide Jenni. I learned a lot.
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• Writing Effective "About Us" Web Pages - 08/12/2007
  Wow. That's an impressive set of resources on a topic that so many people ignore for the status quo. Thanks for organizing it.
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• B2B Pay Per Click Best Practices for Online Lead Generation - 08/06/2007
  Paul, It's a fairly old stat in the realm of online marketing, but I think it provides great insight into the benefits of using relevant landing pages instead of sending traffic to your homepage. It's a win-win situation for the business to be able to present great information, and for the consumer to get the information they were looking for.
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• Increase Website Conversions by Reducing Customer Anxiety - 08/05/2007
  I agree, Anita. I tend to forget about things like shipping & return policies since I mostly work with B2B companies. However, those are definitely things that I look for as a consumer. It's all about building credibility before I'm willing to trust a company.
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• Online Maps for Small Businesses - 08/05/2007
  Good information Greg. Do you have any advice for what should be in a listing for a local business? Are there any guidelines or ways that you can make your listing stand out?
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• Finding Freelance Projects - 07/24/2007
  You have hit every single one of my favorites except the old standard: Craig's List. Here are a few other smaller options to add to peoples' lists: http://www.webprojobs.com/, http://www.freshwebjobs.com/, http://gigs.37signals.com/, http://www.simplyhired.com/
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• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Consulting Services - 07/23/2007
  I think you've missed quite a few additional ways to find a search engine marketing consultant. And I say this as one myself. Here are the additional places I would look: -http://www.craigslist.org: Post a free listing in their computer gigs section for your local area to get responses from potential consultants. -http://www.sempo.org: That is the 'Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization' and it's name speaks for itself. They have listings of SEM professionals by location or other criteria. You can also post a listing to get responses to your needs. -http://www.guru.com: Put your SEM project up for bid to receive competitive responses from consultants. -http://freelanceswitch.com/jobs: This is a general job board for freelancers (aka consultants). You might be able to find a search engine marketer here. I hope these additional resources help people find an SEM consultant they trust.
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• Improving Pay-Per-Click Advertising Results - 07/23/2007
  You've got a great analysis here, and quite a way with words, if I might add. While this list may seem overwhelming at first to newcomers, each of these steps is essential for improving your search engine marketing. I suggest people use this guide as a step-by-step checklist...and don't stop until you've done them all! If you just can't fathom taking the time to implement all these excellent suggestions, hire a consultant who specializes in your field. They'll know all the tricks of the trade to get the most out of your investment.
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• Buying Traffic for Your Web Site - 07/23/2007
  For those just starting out in search engine marketing, one of the easiest things you can do to keep your costs low is keyword research. Many companies start out just the obvious keywords, usually less than 50, and that means they're competing for traffic against everyone. If you take a bit of time to research more keywords (>200), you'll start out ahead of the game because you'll only be competing against people that are as smart as you are. This will keep your CPC and overall cost low, as well as increasing your click through rate (CTR). Or, if you have the budget, hire a search engine marketing consultant or firm who will know other tricks like these to make the most of your investment.
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• Choosing a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Firm - 07/23/2007
  I'm another search engine marketing consultant, and I have to say, I think it's important for people looking at SEM firms to know how different SEO and PPC truly are. There aren't that many people that can effectively do both, considering one is advertising and the other is technical. So, unless you're willing to pay the big bucks for a full service marketing agency, businesses should look for separate firms that specialize in one or the other as their expertise. Myself, I focus solely on pay-per-click optimization, and in doing so, know that I'll stay on top of my field because I only have to focus in one area.
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• Tracking Your B2B Pay-Per-Click Online Advertising Campaign - 07/23/2007
  I'm always amazed how many B2B companies jump into PPC because their boards tell them to, but don't think to track their results before starting out. I've dealt with many clients that saw immediate results from the smallest changes...but that only happened after they discovered what results they were initially getting. I do have to disagree on one point, though. Google's internal tools and their Analytics tool have proven quite sufficient for tracking the source of traffic, provided they have an internal tool such as SalesForce.com to track leads after they've entered the sales pipeline. I don't think it's necessary to spend money on analytics tracking just for PPC optimization.
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• Increasing Your Online Visibility Using Work.com - 07/23/2007
  This seems like a great place to start getting tips on writing articles for Work.com. I think it is humorous that many of your suggestions are related to search engine marketing, my field of expertise!
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