Google Knol; Opportunity For Local?

Knol, (short for unit of knowledge) will invite authors on any topic to provide content to Google.

According to Google expect the following;

"Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.

Once testing is completed, participation in knols will be completely open, and we cannot expect that all of them will be of high quality. Our job in Search Quality will be to rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google search results. We are quite experienced with ranking web pages, and we feel confident that we will be up to the challenge."

I'm interested on the local take.

Is there opportunity for local business within Knol? On first view plenty. Do you know your local real estate market? Post it up, link to your real estate site and invite comment.
Local commercial painters or wedding photographers can take to pen and start talking.

Arborists can write about care of regional trees and trimming requirements. Caterers, whip out the calender and start writing.

If we know anything about Google we know they love scale and this means opportunity will present itself at the neighborhood level.

This is a great move by Google and proves again why they are the leaders in search and online marketing.

Google Enlisting College Students To Sell AdWords

Google today announced an innovative local marketing challenge designed to spread the word about AdWords to local business.

Student groups will receive US$200 of free online advertising and then work with local businesses to devise effective online marketing campaigns. They will outline a strategy, run their campaign, assess their results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing.

It’s a great chance for students to gain practical, real world online marketing experience whilst getting all the excitement of competing with other students from all over the world.

What a great idea. This is a win win for all parties. Local businesses that sign on will see what they have been missing in the digital marketing space and students will learn how to craft marketing campaigns for small business.

Yale University Keyword Modeling Study

Oliver J. Ruiz, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Yale School of Management authored this keyword modeling study. Professor Ruiz uses and hotel chain for his study.

It's long and detailed but worth the read if you are into the subject. My initial takeaway is confirmation of what I have found in managing keyword or PPC based campaigns. When dealing with multiple keywords for a service or product there can be no precise measurement of effectiveness per keyword or keyphrase.

This is where many clients get confused about pay per click. It's easy for the small business operator to understand the need to advertise on a TV or radio advertising spot or even a print yellow pages ad because it's traditional. While ROI is not easily quantified it's tried and true, safe though expensive.

Web based advertising is still new and is being sold to them primarily by the same guys that used to sell them old media spots.
If a small businessperson were to read the Yale modeling study above they might come away with skepticism and that would be a shame. For the small to medium business it's the surest way to get above the fold.

Local Online Ads To Double In 2008

Search Engine Land quotes a Borrell Associates study of local online ad sales projections for the upcoming year.

"Local search is expected to grow from roughly $2.5 billion currently to $5 billion in 2008. Borrell expects local video to roughly triple from just over $400 million today to $1.27 million next year".

Other highlights from the Borrell Report;

• The three largest categories are Autos, Jobs and Real Estate.
• Dramatic rise in video for local business.
• Average local business spend was $299 "per location" in 2007. (Range, $18,000 high end to about $100 low end).
• Independent online ad specialists will be in high demand.

Reviews, Your Key To Clickthroughs

Greg Sterling posts documentation on the importance of reviews at Screenwerks.
It's an education process getting small business to catch on to the importance of reviews.

Send us a note, give us a call, we have solutions.

No Bubble At Sierra Web Marketing

When is my 7 figure buyout offer coming?

Hulu Is Fantastic

I got into the beta for Hulu.com.

I'll say it right now, TV is about over. I see the future and Hulu is a preview of how we will watch TV. Real time TV was dead for me when I got Tivo but Hulu is almost the final shot to the heart. I'll still need live TV for football and live news events but it's really a matter of time before that is streamed as well.

Yeah I know I wrote a similar thought when I looked at the Joose earlier this year. I never followed through with Joose, for all I know it is still stuck in beta. I thought the idea was innovative but the interface was stodgy and the content was very limited.

Hulu contains content from Fox, NBC and others, both old stuff and new. For instance I was cruising the Hulu library and found the pilot episode of St. Elsewhere. I liked that show but never caught episode 1.

The Hulu player delivers a clean image with an intuitive control panel. I did not intend to do a complete breakdown here but if people wish to get an invitation all they have to do is follow the link above and sign up and wait. The earlier you get signed up the faster you get in.

As for advertising it looks like big brands are filling the spots but in time I can see local targeted ads to individual profiles.

As I was looking over the site and finished watching the episode of St. Elswhere it occurred to me that Youtube is over. Don't get me wrong, I like stupid pet tricks and amateur comedians plying their wares as much as the next guy. "You Are a Pirate" is a kick, my kids love it.
But now that a site exists that offers first run proprietary content of shows I really like I say sayonara Youtube.
I almost feel sorry for Google. As they say it's all about the content.

Every Business Should have a Facebook Page

Whether you are a social networking butterfly or not you have to have your business "listed" on Facebook.

The interface is simple, the benefits as yet are unknown but you have nothing to lose by adding your business to Facebook.

I'm still studying the Facebook SocialAds platform. For now it looks like big brands are getting an early foothold. Unquestionably local business will have a place to lay out their wares.

MySpace Invades LookSmart's Space

MySpace will take residence in the "LookSmart Building" according to BizJournals.com;

"Los Angeles-based MySpace made a triumphant entrance into San Francisco last week at the Web 2.0 conference, throwing a bash at SFMOMA and announcing that it was opening an office in the city with about 200 employees.
While the company did not disclose the location of its new offices, it has signed a letter of intent to take about 35,000 square feet at 625 Second St., according to sources. MySpace, part of Fox Interactive, ...... ."

This is an interesting development. LookSmart leased all 130,000 + square feet of the building in 1999 for a ten year term. From the beginning the building has been a bane for LookSmart dragging almost $400,000 dollars a month from their dwindling coffers. Earlier this year LookSmart announced the building had been sublet IN FULL, helping to stop the bleeding.

How can the full building accommodate the MySpace mob? It's possible a few of the startups occupying space have gone belly up but it's possible too the primary occupant, LookSmart may be readying an exit themselves.

Let's examine the evidence. LookSmart has been selling off and dropping sites steadily over the last year. They shuttered Zeal with no explanation. They sold NetNanny for a song. Grubb was pushed over to Wikia for an undisclosed sum (guessing zero), and they just recently closed Wisenut.

Before Wisenut was closed they pulled the Dave Hills inspired vertical search sites.
The 180 vertical search sites are now folded into FindArticles but they are hard to find. Most of the subdomains are completely closed down registering 404 type messages.

Evidence exists suggesting they are in a deal of some sort with General Atlantic Partner property Network Solutions. Vortal.com (owned by NetSol I believe) houses the 180 vertical sites using the original LookSmart material. (under different URLs)

Combine the information above with the fact CEO Hills, CTO Grubb and CFO Simonelli (already past his announced departure date) have all quit and a picture of the future of LookSmart is unfolding.

It is interesting to note Dave Hills has a very nice severance that includes a sales position with the company. He is required to put in just short of one day per week, (15% of his work week) selling AdCenter etc. Interestingly, anything he sells he retains some residual payment. He will make more in this part time gig than he did as CEO and it's believed he still holds approximately 750,000 shares.

Early in the summer LookSmart retained the services of a Sand Hill Rd. venture capital law firm paying them in shares. This is documented in SEC forms that can be accessed from LookSmart's investor relations page.

LookSmart's job board has been downgraded. No more call for technical personnel. They are looking for sales and support people.

So will LookSmart's 200 (+ or -) employees move out to make way for the 200 MySpace folk?

SFGate.com wrote about the MySpace move to San Francisco Oct. 15 and did not mention the address though they knew the exact neighborhood.
Is LookSmart that far under the radar of everyone but a few shareholders?
If something is afoot I credit the LookSmart employees for maintaining the code of silence.

Absolutely nothing official or otherwise is coming from LookSmart lately that can shed light on what's really happening inside the big brick building.

Shareholders must resign themselves to guessing.

Update;
Valleywag linked to this post with an interesting take on the MySpace move into the LookSmart building.

Apparently LookSmart is moving from the fourth floor to make way for MySpace. In the LookSmart conference call Nov. 7 interim CEO West announced a 25% reduction in staff. He also announced the sale of Findarticles to CNET.

While the company remains fodder for bloggers and old SEO's with a grudge the company finds itself in the best condition since MSFT dumped them.

The company will have $57 million in the bank after the Findarticles deal closes which puts the value of the company at $2.46 per share. The stock trades at $2.40 as of Friday.

The company is valued below cash on hand. As it stands LookSmart has NO value! Of course it does but how do you value the company? On the publisher side AdCenter powers IAC's ASK.com, Reed Publising, Mainstream Media and others. In 2006 CEO Hills announced Facebook leased AdCenter but it's hard to gauge if it's been put to use in the new FB ad platform.
We know they are working closely with Wikia, interim CEO West mentioned in the conference call the two are actively working together. Currently LookSmart display ads are showing on selected Wiki's. On the advertiser side they serve ads to a variety of partners.

West announced they have several new AdCenter clients either signed or in the pipeline that will bring in six figures.

The biggest fish out there is MySpace who announced last week they are working on a self serve ad platform.
Hmm, seems awfully coincidental LookSmart is moving out of the fourth floor to make room for them.
I light of all of this LookSmart (LOOK) was upgraded to BUY by Craig-Hallum following the earnings report.

So LookSmart is moving . Not out of their building, just down a flight or two.

Search Marketing For Small Business

The L.A. Times runs a piece today concerning small business migrating to online advertising.

"Take Eddie Ugalde, 33, who runs an eco-friendly carpet cleaning business in Altadena. He started spending $1,000 a month with ReachLocal in March and got such a dramatic response from the search campaign that he moved Right Away Carpet Drycleaning out of his home, grew from two employees to 10 and bought a distribution business. He recently increased his monthly ad purchase to $1,500."

My small business friends, it really is that easy. All it takes is a commitment to growth and a willingness to break away from the hold your YP rep has on you.

Email us from the link on our main site. Let us help you GROW your business.

LookSmart Deactivates Wisenut.com

The index had not been updated for some time and traffic hovered around the 30,000 rank of sites worldwide for some years now so it's no real surprise that LookSmart shuttered Wisenut.


The "About Us" page offers the following message;

"We're sorry, but this site is no longer available.
Please visit www.looksmart.com to learn more
about other LookSmart products."

This action follows the sale of Grub.org to Wikia, the closing of Zeal.com with no explanation, the "fire sale" of Netnanny.com and the most recent removal of the vertical search sites.

As mentioned in the post below LookSmart revamped their home page this week. They demoted search to a tiny box lower left of the new page that returns results from their Findarticles site.

In other LookSmart news today Board president Ted West was promoted to (interim?) CEO. Along with compensation details was a healthy dose of verbiage including this quote;

"If during the term of your employment, there is a “Change of Control” event and (1) you are terminated without “cause” by the surviving corporation within twelve months after the Change of Control, or (2) you voluntarily resign for “good reason” within twelve months after the Change of Control, then all of your unvested Option Shares shall vest and become immediately exercisable." SEC Filing

I understand this is standard disclosure on SEC documents of this nature but it seems to me the company is polishing the fuselage for parking in a different hangar..

Disclosure; I own shares in LOOK but have no contact with anyone in the company and any speculations posted here are only that, speculation.

Update: Mashable and others caught the news 4 days after the fact!

New Look For LookSmart

LookSmart has revamped their home site with a cleaner, more direct message to advertisers and publishers. Take a LOOK!

Gone from the home page are the verticals search sites developed under the former CEO David Hills. There is no reference to FindArticles either. Last week LookSmart revealed the vertical search sites have been "folded" into their FindArticles index.

You can find the 180 vertical sites throughout Vortal.com, a Network Solutions site under the umbrella of web property giant General Atlantic.

I find the new look of LookSmart more appealing. It speaks to the heart of their business model, providing private label ad and publishing solutions to others.

It's apparent too that they are now deeply involved in display, something already being seen on Wikia.com, their recently announced ad partner.

PPC For Grocers Works, Cereal Case Study

Adtech, a majority owned subsidiary of Advertising.com points to this case study that cites how proper targeting of Kellogg's Special K increased sales volume. Please read the excerpt from this older press release.

"Frankfurt, Germany – 22nd January 2007. The French survey NetImpact 3 bis has proven that online advertising has positively affected the sales of the fitness cereal Kellogg’s Special K in the supermarket. Firstly, advertising increased the sales volume in the retail business. Secondly, banner & co generated new customers for Special K in stationary trade.

Participating on the implementation of the advertising impact study were the online advertising provider ADTECH (www.adtech.info), the IAB France, the advertising customer Kellogg’s and the market research company Marketing Scan. Within six weeks, from mid June to end of July 2006, ADTECH delivered the online ads for Special K on numerous French websites – Advertising.com, Alice, Au Féminin, Benchmark Group, Doctissimo, France Télévisions, Hi-Media, Lagardère Active Publicité, Lycos, MSN/Windows Live, Orange, Régie Obs, Skyrégie, TF1 Publicité, Voyages SNCF, Yahoo!, Zefir Web.

Via geographical targeting, the ADTECH ad server adjusted the cereal banners in a way that only internet users from two French towns – Angers and Le Mans – got to see them. The market research company Marketing Scan had installed test panels in these two towns and was in connection with all supermarkets in the area. To compare the sales figures control data was collected twelve weeks before the virtual campaign and six weeks afterwards..."

Did you know?
"ADTECH is a leading international digital marketing solutions company. The company's flagship product is the Helios IQ ad serving platform. It enables web publishers to manage, serve and evaluate virtually any kind of online advertising campaign including display, video and mobile formats. The Helios IQ ad serving platform differentiates itself via its scalable, enterprise-class infrastructure and publisher-friendly tools, providing publishers with increased efficiency, reliability and ROI for their online advertising business.
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, ADTECH is an independent and majority-controlled subsidiary of AOL's Advertising.com division. Globally, ADTECH AG works with customers in more than 25 countries."

Attractive, Affordable CUSTOM Websites

As marketers for small to medium business we are pretty good at what we do. Website design is a separate skill and we do marketing better than we design.

As such we have teamed with WebsitePros.com, who offer attractive, affordable CUSTOM websites . They offer the best, most affordable price points we've seen.

Take a look at their pricing and sweet design options.

Oddest Headline Ever

Mashable posted this headline to an article today:

FireAnt Joining Odeo at SonicMountain

I can happily say I don't know OR care what any one of the above does alone or in combination with each other.

This is a little liberating for me because honestly reading news of the alphabet soup of start ups and angel backed ideas has worn me out.

It's far easier (but not easy) to follow trends and news involving Local Search Marketing.

Domaining Slowing Down

If you are holding domain names hoping someone will email you with a big offer you may have to wait awhile longer. DNJournal hints that sales are slowing. My reading of their weekly sales listings have been pointing to this for a few weeks now.
I hold a few very nice names and have sold almost a dozen over the past few years but offers are not to be had.
I guess it was only a matter of time.

For Sale

DEUTSCHBLOG.COM

LOCALINTENT.COM

LOCALATTORNEYS.INFO

LOCALSCHOOL.INFO

NEEDLEFREEINSULIN.COM

WEBSCIENCEDEGREE.COM

WEBSCIENCEUNIVERSITY.COM

VOICETOBLOG.COM

Branding, Nice Tips

With an entire week dedicated to Local Search Search Engine Land today talks about branding done on the cheap.
I wish SEL was pushing their local search expo every week, some very useful information for the local search marketer has come from their pages since Monday.

Google Shifts News Delivery Part 2

Again I'll venture off topic from the "local search marketing" scene to changes implemented by Google News over the weekend. The clearest example I have relates to how I report fire news from my hobby blog, Firefighter Blog.

Normally, up to this last Friday you could type in the name of a major wildfire into Google News and were presented with a couple of hundred news links from newspapers worldwide. Most of the links were to the same article licensed from UPI or AP, duplication was the order. Quaint but useless to read the same article from India, China and other points on the globe. This point was made beautifully in the screencast linked to in the post below.

Here is the immediate "new Google" news world I am seeing. Try a search for the 8,000 acre wildfire burning out of control in Henry Coe State Park in California named The "Lick Fire"....

Google News results for Lick Fire

You see the UPI story as well as 86 related stories but when you follow the link to the 86 related stories you really only see about 20. Among those results are only a couple from out of the area and most are unique, written by local journalists.

This would cause me to alter my reasoning Google will kill local journalism if this is the way they are headed. Indeed if this is Google's intended path local journalists will be rewarded on the new look Google News. Before this weekend local news sources were buried by larger dailies like the Houston Chronicle and Washington Post as well as the Chinese new agencies.

For purposes related to Firefighter Blog there may be a down side. Normally I am successful posting about a fire event and having Google index the blog content on their blog search engine quickly. For some time now I have been able to trump local newspapers on Google Blog SERPs on these incidents.
Now two quick (and relevant) posts on the Lick Fire have drawn blanks. Google has strangely decided to ignore Firefighter Blog altogether. If you want Google Blog Search results for the Lick Fire you are served up near useless information for the keyword phrase.
Embarrassingly you see little but X-rated blogs related to licking and some odd blog posts about the Lick Fire on Flickr and even (gasp) MySpace.
Approximately two weeks ago I noticed Google Blog Search results showing local television news station stories about the Zaca Fire.. These were clearly not blogs, not even in the same category and I wondered how Google missed that. Now I believe they were tests.

So my conclusion is if this holds Google will downplay blog results in favor of pushing local news on the main Google News pages. This would be going backwards in my opinion. Blogs are only now finding their feet as contributors to breaking news events. My logs show a definite hunger for blog coverage of news events.

I am not drawing any hard conclusions just yet, what I am seeing may just be further testing by Google. If this is the way it will be in the future it looks like the local journalist will get top billing by Google. If so that's a good thing for newspapers and their employees. It will also force bloggers of good intent to keep up best practices to invite return readers.

Just when I thought I had it all figured out too.....

One Foot In The Grave; Local Journalism

Yeah I know this subject has nothing to do with local search or search engine marketing but there is a game changing event occurring in the way news is delivered. Google has changed their stance on how they present news.

This very well constructed video, (screencast) tells the story about Google's new approach to delivering your news.

Local newspaper websites worldwide will suffer. As for the print newspapers they are dead but just don't know it yet. I quit reading my local newspaper two years ago. I don't need the liberal bias with my morning coffee and it's far more comfortable to sit at the computer to scan for news that matters.

Donnelley & Yahoo Partner For Local

Caught this on The Kelsey Blog;

"R.H. Donnelley announced today that it will partner with Yahoo! to give its advertisers a more substantial presence on Yahoo! Local. This will come in three flavors.

From the release:

• Featured Listings — Sponsored listings with guaranteed placement on the first or second search results pages for broader exposure in a specific geography or category
• Enhanced Listings — Sponsored listings that offer the ability to add a detailed business description, photos, tagline and coupons to create greater online visibility for businesses and enhance their appearance within organic results
• Yahoo! Maps Business Listings — Sponsored listings within the context of a map-based view"

Smart for Yahoo and Donnelley, bad for the individual who is looking to get a Yahoo! Featured Listing with little competition as Yahoo! is working hard to fill every vacant sponsored spot.

When Bob the carpet store owner goes to place a featured listing on Yahoo! Local he will be jousting for one of the top three spots with big ticket advertising clients from Donnelley and SuperPages .

If you are a small business and you found your way this far you know you must expand your Internet footprint to stay with or rise above your competition. It's confusing as no blueprint for doing it right exists.

Your options are as follows:

• You can place your money with an IYP rep from R.H. Donnelley or SuperPages or your local print directory sales rep and let them guide you. (the same guys who have been roping you onto their print books since the beginning of time).
• You can learn the search marketing angles yourself. Cut out the agents and reps and have some fun learning this fascinating end of the market. (do you have the time?)
• You can hire an independent marketing agent to educate and guide you through the Internet marketing maze. (and save you a ton)

Option #2 is the best if a person has the time. Option #3 is the best if you want your business represented across the board, with a full presence on all the local directories, search engines and review sites. Option #3 also brings you a full time one on one Pay Per Click practitioner dedicated to making your business grow.