http://scottrandolph.net Tue, 26 May 2009 02:30:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So - I've been a little hard to find here lately, because I have been VERY busy.  What have I been up to? Well - I've been building a free online marketing educational community called the 7xo Academy.  I wanted to put something together that would help out small businesses that ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/wow-what-a-month/ Springtime - when kids all over the country sign up, dust off their gloves, and take to the diamond for a little baseball. This rite of passage has been much for difficult for deaf children, and, at times, nearly impossible. That's why it's so awesome that there are organizations out there like ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/its-that-time-of-year-again/ So - apparently, my phone call with the nice lady at Google yesterday did no good.  At least, it did no good for me.  You see, I called because their Adwords support team doesn't actually answer questions.  They reply with links to the their help section, and tell you they ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/google-adwords-update/ After a good bit of frustration trying to get a new account up and running - I decided to post the following in Google's help forum.  Perhaps by seeming fairly angry, and perhaps getting a few other folks to read this, I can actually get some support, and get my ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/an-open-letter-to-google-adwords/ Recently, I've run across several postings basically screaming that "We WON'T OUTSOURCE" - and I find myself wondering why. If you outsource with a reputable company, there are many, many benefits, especially for small business.  For one, you save on things like full time salaries, employee benefits, and payroll taxes. And, you ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/outsourcing-online-marketing/ I stole this idea from SI's Peter King, and I like to use it every now and then.  It's a good excuse to ramble on once a week or so, so feel free to ignore this if you're here looking for PPC or SEO help :) 1) Twitter has become my ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/10-things-i-think-i-think/ Here's a quick tip to improve the conversion rates for some of your pay per click keywords: If you're using broad match - stop.  I don't mean completely stop - that would be silly.  I mean stop and think for a second.  Pour yourself a cup of coffee and spend an ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/improving-ppc-keyword-conversion-rates/ Especially in tough economic times, the cost of online marketing can be quite a concern for business owners.  If you're a small business owner, this can be especially troubling.  How can you justify a $5000 pay per click budget, when you're having trouble making payroll? The short answer to that is, ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/online-marketing-costs/ If you hadn't heard of Twitter before yesterday, you likely have now.  Despite all the recent Twitter Hacks and Twitter Phishing Schemes going around, it's still a pretty good community. Note - I am concerned it could end up being like MySpace - ruined by spammers and MLM douchebags. Anyway - as ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/twittering-for-profit-etc/ You may have caught my recent SEM Video - The Difference Between PPC and SEO. If so, then you know that PPC (Pay Per Click) includes the sponsored results on all the search engines, where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) includes the natural, or organic rankings. Another acronym that gets thrown around ... http://scottrandolph.net/2009/sem-seo-difference/