Earlier this week Google and Verizon SuperPages.com came together and signed a deal under which Verizon (aka the classified ad provider) will help its tens of thousands of marketers get ads onto the Google search result pages. Verizon SuperPages.com is now an authorized Google Adwords reseller and will now be helping small businesses take advantage of the many opportunities that Google provides.

This is actually a great thing for search... specifically local search. Verizon SuperPages.com sends sales representatives out to businesses to sell them advertising that will appear in print and online, something Google and other big Internet companies don't have the resources to do. This new arrangement "marries" Verizon's sales channel opportunities with Google's vast advertising network allowing Verizon an opportunity to play a key role with getting small merchants online.

Search engines have plenty to offer the small-business market and deals such as this are critical to move the local search market forward. I don't see small businesses going on their own to Google or Yahoo! anytime soon, so it's nice to see an authoritative source bring Search Engine Marketing services and resources to small businesses.

The Google deal also gives Verizon SuperPages.com advertisers an opportunity to appear in AOL's, Ask's (formerly Ask Jeeves), and other partner search engine's search results through their deals with Google. Not a bad arrangement for small-business marketing if you ask me!

Here are a few pictures that were passed around the office and I thought I'd share them with you all.

Michelle Plym's baby boy Ethan is sporting a Yahoo! cap.

Michael Roebuck's baby girl Zoe is wrapped in a Yahoo! Blankie.

Michael's oldest daughter Toni is show-casing a Google Towel.

It is for this reason that search engines pass out free stuff at tradeshows and maintain gift-shops. They know Search Engine geeks like team All Web will proudly buy/wear this crap. I can't really complain though... I own my fair share of Yahoo! ball-caps and specialty pens.

Do you think if I were to plug "Karl Ribas.com" on a towel or a hat that somebody, other than my mother, would actually wear it? Who knows? Jessica had an idea to have little wooden Klog key chains made up or "I Heart Klog" T-Shirts printed and passing them out at the next SES Show... that would be pretty funny.

Before I get into today's post, I want to take a few seconds to say "Thank You" to last Friday's guest Blogger, Jessica Guadiana. As she mentioned in her debut post, "Do Students Want Google Rollin' Wiki style?", I had taken the day off to travel with my girlfriend Jackie on her way to southern Illinois for a job Interview. Jackie applied for a music teacher position at a small K-12 school, and I am happy to report that the school has already contacted her and offered her the job. Whether or not she'll take the position is still questionable at this point in time.

In any event... thank you Jessica. I (and I am sure my readers) enjoyed your commentary very much. I'll definitely have to get with you and see if we can make arrangements for another guest post sometime in the near future.

Oh... and if you guys haven't yet made your way over to Jessica's March of Dimes / WalkAmerica Web Page... please do. Your pledges help to fund a charity dedicated to saving the lives of babies. And for a $25 donation Jessica will print your company's logo/advertisement on her Walk-A-Thon T-Shirt and proudly show it off during the event. Come on People... it's only $25 and I am pretty sure it's even considered a tax write-off (Note: Karl Ribas is not a Certified Tax Person and is not/does not offer tax advice). Sponsor Jessica for WalkAmerica!

Ok... on to the good stuff. A few weeks ago, my good friend and fellow Yahoo! Store Designer Rob Snell emailed me and asked if I would read over a few chapters from his new, soon-to-be-printed book titled "Starting a Yahoo Business For Dummies". I immediately responded with "Sure... no problem." Personally it was an honor to even be asked. Rob Snell is one of few Yahoo! Store Designers that I would consider the best, and to have a chance to read up on some of his insider tips, tricks, and personal commentary is a designer/marketers dream.

For those of you who don't know, Rob is the older brother & managing partner of Snell Brothers Web Development. He and his brother Steve have been working with Yahoo! Stores since 1997, which was before Yahoo! had even purchased Viaweb (the company who had originally developed the platform). In addition, Rob is the author of his own Yahoo! Store Blog where readers can read his ongoing rants & ravings on just about everything Yahoo! Store related, such as the latest in SEO development issues, RTML custom templates, and the Merchant Solutions platform.

Most recently Rob has partnered himself up with fellow Store developers Istvan Siposs and Michael Whitaker to organize a series of Yahoo! Store training and development courses called "Y!Store101: Seminars & Workshops." These seminars are geared towards educating Store owners on how they can save time on developing their store, convert more browsers into buyers, and maximizing the resources made available to them.

Early last week Rob had finally gotten around to sending me those chapters and I had plenty of time to read over them on Friday's 3 1/2 hour trip to southern Illinois. Not only did it help pass the time, but it gave me a reason as to why I couldn't drive. Great timing Rob!

An exert from Chapter 17 - "Driving Traffic That Converts" says:

"Every day, millions of folks search Google, Yahoo!, and MSN for stuff that they want to buy. Anywhere from 60 to 80 percent of search-engine traffic comes from free search results, and anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of users click on pay-per-click ads. You need to crank up your search engine marketing to drive this traffic to your Yahoo! Store."

Rob is 100% correct. There's a lot of search engine activity that takes place daily and if a website is going to be successful than it's going to need tap into this resource and own top search engine placements of some kind. They could be organic listings or paid listings, but either way it's going to have to happen. And guess what... Rob will show you how!

In the 4 chapters I was privileged enough to browse through, Rob lays out everything you need to know to jumpstart and maintain your store's Search Engine Promotion. In these chapters, Rob explains how to collect, categorize, and classify keywords, how to cost-effectively use Pay Per Click advertising to help boost your sales, and how to strategically optimize your website to rank high in the search engines. And let me be the first to say that he does an exquisite job of doing so... maybe a tad bit too good.

The SEM content is fresh, updated, and most importantly it is relevant. So for what it's worth... I high highly recommend this book to anyone that is serious about taking their Yahoo! Store to not just the next step in the ladder, but all the way to the top.

Now I know what you're all thinking. How can I possibly recommend a book after only reading a few chapters? Well that's easy. I know Rob Snell, and if he's willing to sign his name to it then that's all the reason I need. Besides that... the 4 Search Engine Marketing chapters that I did read are worth far more than the books $15.74 price tag. It's a steal!

Do yourself a favor. If you're a Yahoo! Store owner and you're looking to maximize your store's design and layout capabilities, search engine visibility, and you're over-all sales/conversions... BUY THIS BOOK! It'll be one of the best things you ever did.

Click here to Pre-Order "Starting a Yahoo Business For Dummies"

My good friend and colleague Jessica Guadiana is participating in this years March of Dimes WalkAmerica event and asked if I would give her a quick plug on my Blog.

For those of you not familiar with the March of Dimes, it's an organization whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. As a charity event to raise money for this cause, the March of Dimes organizes several walk-a-thons called WalkAmerica. Participants of this event raise money, based on their involvement in the walk-a-thon, and then donate it to this very worthy cause.

When Jessica first asked me to plug her website, a place where people can go and donate / sponsor her, I first thought no way. I've got nothing against this charity, but I try very hard to keep this Blog geared towards Website Marketing and Design. I owe it to you readers to keep this resource relevant.

So why the sudden change of heart? Well Jessica has come up with a pretty decent marketing idea and as a Blogger it's my duty to share it with you. So here goes:

For every $25 dollar donation Jessica's website receives (because of this Blog post), Jessica will gladly print and press your company's logo/advertisement on to the plain white T-Shirt that she will be wearing the day of her walk-a-thon. Your company's logo/advertisement will be prepared by the Karl Ribas.com art department (thus... myself), printed in color, and sized as big as a 5in x 5in square. Everything will be prepared for you... all you have to do is donate.

So what does this mean to you as an advertiser? Well it's a chance for your website to be seen by a couple hundred other people who'll be participating in this event, not to mention any local newspaper and TV exposure that is usually associated with it. In addition, the March of Dimes is a nationally recognized charity. With that said, there's a chance that Jessica, and thus your advertisements, could get national exposure. I must admit that the chances are quite small, but then again the possibility is definitely there.

Other than that... you'll receive that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes to a person when they do something as rewarding as donating to a very worthy cause. You want that warm fuzziness don't you?

Here's Jessica's special web page: http://www.walkamerica.org/jguad. Please go here and give your donation. What the hell... its only $25, right? If you can't afford $25 and still want to donate, please do. Every little bit helps.

Because I feel this is such a worthy cause, I'm going to percent-match any donation that is associated with this Blog post. Simply go and sponsor her at the website above and then come back and comment telling me you did so. On April 21st, we'll add up all of these donations and I'll personally donate 25% of what you, my readers, contribute... in addition to what I've already agreed to donate.

It's for a great cause... its cheap advertising... sponsor Jessica!

I was digging around on Google news the other day and came across this very interesting press release where a company is offering free iPods with every new Yahoo! Store website package that is purchased. Has anyone else seen this?

Anyway, my initial thought was ok big deal, the company is obviously just marking up their prices to cover the cost of the iPods, but after some thorough digging around I found that this wasn't the case. The company is really handing out free iPods as their newest promotion and still maintaining the prices they offered in the past. Here is an excerpt I pulled from the press release:

Click here to view the entire Press Release.

The company's name is YStore Made Easy, and even though they are a competitor of mine / All Web Promotion, I must say that they have put together a pretty clever promotion. iPods are indeed a hot commodity right now as they are advertised everywhere and anywhere. Hell my dad has heard of an iPod and even though he hasn't a clue as to what one is... I know that he'll be interested in getting one for free... as I assume most people will be. I say, great job on associating yourself with a well known and very popular brand such as Apple. I only wish I had thought of it first.

Oh and if by chance a representative of YStore Made Easy does come across this entry, I suggest that your company considers revamping a few of your "Promotional" pages. I noticed (as of today's date) that the following 5 pages pretty much highlight the same details and even used the same/similar content to do so.

Yahoo Online Store
Yahoo Store Development
Yahoo Store Developer
Yahoo Store Designer
Yahoo Store Web Design

Granted you're not doing anything extreme or spam-like, not like most other doorway-type pages, but duplicate content is an SEO no-no! That's my free SEO lesson for today!

Looking to get involved in MSN's adCenter, the new Pay Per Click program allowing advertisers to buy search ads directly from MSN? Until now, participation has been limited and only a handful of "invited" search advertisers have been able to take part... that is until yesterday.

From 9am until noon Pacific Time, MSN opened a 3-hour window and allowed anyone willing and wanting to create an account the option to do so. Like all other PPC programs, registers had to provide basic company/affiliate information as well as some general billing-type information... a process that took at most 10 minutes to complete.

So why am I Blogging about this now... after all, the window has been shut and sealed? Well, I am happy to announce that I was fortunate enough to have learned about this ordeal just in the knick of time and was able to register an account. That's right! As of today I am officially taking MSN PPC clients and if your one of the many interested in buying PPC advertisement on MSN... I'm your hook-up.

As an advertiser, the obvious benefit is that not too many advertisers and Search Marketing companies have access to MSN's adCenter. This detail alone allows you the ability to pick up top-choice keywords for fractions of what you're currently paying at Google and Yahoo!, and I may add without a bidding war with your competitors.

In addition, there's no telling how long the current partnership between Yahoo! and MSN (the agreement that allows Yahoo! to show its paid advertisement on MSN search results) is going to last. I can easily see MSN buying out the rest of that agreement at any time and thus leaving Yahoo! advertisers exiled from MSN. Not a good place to be when you consider that MSN is 1 of the 3 biggest search engines in the game today.

If you're interested in getting your MSN campaign going, check out my Pay Per Click Management page for further details.

2 weeks ago I made this statement while ranting about some of the issues my colleagues and I were having with Yahoo! Search Marketing, specifically their customer service teams. Little did I know, my "voice" would carry so much weight as to be heard by not one, but a few Yahoo! employees... all of whom I might add were very concerned with our issues and more than willing to sit down and address them.

Yesterday, team All Web and I took part in a phone conference with Yahoo's Landon Armstrong, Customer Solutions Manager, and other representatives from Yahoo's elite management team. 45 minutes to an hour later we were off the phone and immediately feeling better about our Yahoo! Search Marketing partners. Although I am not at liberty to discuss the exact details of our conversation, I will comment on the fact that our communication issues with our district representative and the YSM Gold team have been addressed.

In addition, it appears that Yahoo's keyword automation system does have its faults and we were not the first to come across this issue. To bring everybody up to speed, this is the process of submitting search terms to YSM so that, as advertisers, we may bid on them. Our problem (and it appears a lot of other people's problem) is that the system would decline a large number of our submissions for reasons that just didn't fit the bill.

Yahoo!, in our conference call, had no problems acknowledging this issue and even commented that solutions would soon be in place to correct it. They could not disclose specific information as to when the problem would be solved, but it's just nice to know that the problem does exist, they are aware of it, and it will be taken care of shortly.

The question now remains though... will we receive and continue to receive the level of assistance needed to manage our Pay Per Click accounts or will our issues just be "scribbled down in a black notebook", as they have been before, and forgotten about. I, being the optimist, believe things will be different this time for the simple reason that it was Yahoo! Search marketing who went out of their way to contact us and to address our problems. I guess only time will tell.

Furthermore, I'd like to take this moment and thank Landon and his team for their willingness to chat with us. I'm glad that we could solve our differences and I look forward to our future.