Internet Marketing & Recruiting

by Todd Bishop | TechFlash | April 21st , 2009

Yahoo’’s quarterly results today confirmed the conventional wisdom that search advertising will fare better than display ads in the downturn, as advertisers seek more immediately measurable results. Display advertising revenue on Yahoo sites fell 13 percent for the quarter, compared with a 3 percent decline in search ad revenue, the company said as it reported a 78 percent plunge in Q109 profits.

Google, which makes money primarily from search ads, saw its Q109 advertising revenue increase by 5 percent, to more than $5.3 billion, compared to the same period the previous year. Still, that compared to a 40 percent increase in Google ad revenues from Q107 to Q108, so its clear that the search ad business isnt immune to the effects of the economy.

Read complete article: TechFlash: Seattles Technology News Source.

Travis External Content advertising, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

Things are about to get really interesting in the world of social media.

Sources: Google In Talks To Acquire Twitter [Updated]

Courtesy of Michael Arrington of TechCrunch on April 2, 2009

Here’s a heck of a rumor that we’ve sourced from two separate people close to the negotiations: Google is in late stage negotiations to acquire Twitter. We don’t know the price but can assume its well, well north of the $250 million valuation that they saw in their recent funding.

Twitter turned down an offer to be bought by Facebook just a few months ago for half a billion dollars, although that was based partially on overvalued Facebook stock. Google would be paying in cash and/or publicly valued stock, which is equivalent to cash. So whatever the final acquisition value might be, it can’t be compared apples-to-apples with the Facebook deal.

Read the complete story here:  TechCrunch.

Travis Scott External Content Google, Twitter

I came across this article this morning and wanted to share it with my followers.  Just another way Twitter can drive more traffic to your website if done properly.

Courtesy of Andrew Nusca | ZDNet.com | March 25, 2009

An eagle-eyed Robin Wauters over at TechCrunch points out that Twitter subtly optimized its title tags yesterday for an SEO solution that may just put your Twitter page at the top of your Google results.

Wauters:

Notice that title tag for my Twitter profile page?

It reads “Robin Wauters (robinwauters) on Twitter” where it used to say “Twitter / robinwauters”. For the TechCrunch Twitter account, it used to read “Twitter / TechCrunch” (only the username) instead of now “Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) on Twitter” (full name + username).

Minor tweak, you say? Mundane change? Perhaps, but with an undeniably big impact on how high Twitter pages will be ranked in search engines from now on.

Wauters says to Google his name for proof, saying that his LinkedIn profile and defunct internet marketing blog used to show up first, but now has been replaced by Twitter. (I tried this on my own name, but Twitter hasn’t yet changed in Google ranking.)

Twitter Improves Google SEO

Wauters said his results were correlated with other users who have had a public profile for more than two years, all with the same result: Twitter’s in the top five.

It’s a small change, but there are major implications to this for businesses and individuals alike.

For businesses — particularly startups — this provides a low-cost way to get instant Google love.

(Indeed, Wauters says Facebook is changing its profile URLs to better carry a person’s name for their profiles, too.)

For individuals, this means it’s now easier to brand yourself (like a business) without committing yourself to, say, a real blog. It also means that an employer may read your Twitter as easily as they would your resume or personal website — so think about what 140 characters you decide to tweet.

Furthermore, Wauters points out that the inflated rankings provide “one more entry point into Twitter, which should help it continue to grow visitor traffic exponentially.” So Twitter better continue to investigate ways to bring in revenue, n’est pas?

via Twitter improves SEO; may become your top hit on Google | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com .

Travis Scott External Content Google, SEO, Twitter

It could be a great business opportunity for some, but could really change the way people navigate the internet.  Would you be more or less likely to click on the link to a resource you may not be familiar with in this type of environment?  This is the type of question SMB’s must consider if this does come to fruition.  Will you get lost in the shuffle while large, branded companies get bigger?

The following is a direct quote from Paul Andrews post on TechFlash February 21st:

People also tend to think of micropayments in terms of written content. Why? A good YouTube video deserves payment just as much as a thoughtful blog post.

via Imagining a penny-a-click Web — with Google smack in the middle – TechFlash: Seattle’s Technology News Source.

Travis Scott External Content, LinkedIn Google, micropayments, pay per click, SMB, TechFlash