Karl Ribas.com Blog

Are Your Online Marketing Campaigns Stealing ROI From One Another?

2008-08-13T19:14:00.007-05:00

Ready for a shocker? No, not that kind of shocker you pervert (Greg). The shocker that I'm referring to is the one that leads a person to disbelief and is usually attributed to hearing or discovering something that is completely unexpected. Ready? Alright, brace yourself. Chances are... the website analytics that you've come to know and love - you know, the one tool that you count on most to help with making those very tough marketing decisions - is probably faulty, or at least in some way miscuing it's numbers. Scary thought, isn't it.

Did you know that most analytics programs currently offer what is referred to as the "last-touch" method to tracking - meaning that whichever marketing channel "tags" the visitor last before he or she makes a purchase is ultimately going to get full credit for that sale? That's a problem, and a huge one at that.

For instance, let's say that a person, wishing to research the differences between several brand-name MP3 players, had placed a search on Google for the term "mp3 players". This person stumbles across your highly ranked organic listing, clicks through, reviews your products and pricing, and then moves on to yet another store for additional research. After a week of researching website after website, the person decides to purchase an 8GB Apple iPod Touch from your store - and why not... your products are competitively priced, right? There is only one problem... the buyer had forgotten the exact spelling of your web address, and so in order to re-find your store he or she placed a search on Yahoo! for your company's name. The buyer sees your paid ad, clicks through, and buys an iPod.

Under this scenario, any analytics program using the "last-touch" method for tracking conversions has just awarded 100% of the sale to your Yahoo! PPC campaign, while it's quite obvious that your Google SEO campaign is well deserving of some, if not all, credit. If this happened once or twice a month, this would be no big deal. However, imagine a scenario where this is happening with 20%-30% of your monthly orders and across multiple marketing channels - Yahoo! PPC stealing ROI from Google SEO, Google SEO stealing from MSN PPC, Yahoo! SEO steals from email marketing mailings, and on and on. What a mess that would be. The problem is... its most likely happening to you right now.

In fact, this happens everywhere... even in sports. Consider this, when a basketball player steals the ball and then passes it up-court to an open player, and that player dunks it, who does ESPN credit? The scorer. In baseball, when a pitcher throws a "no-hitter" he gets the credit. The credit is not awarded to the third baseman for his incredible defensive play or even the center fielder for lying out to make a grab. It's awarded to the pitcher.

Now I won't go on record and reveal which analytics programs do this, nor the ones I've tested - that isn't what this post is about. However, if you're currently using or researching analytics programs then I would certainly encourage you inquire about that company's cookie settings, specifically if they employ the "last-touch" method of tracking.

As a person who is responsible for the well-being of several online marketing campaigns, I can't afford to be making decisions (i.e. increasing or decreasing PPC bids, adjusting email marketing offers, or tweaking highly ranked pages on a website) based on faulty data. And, neither can you.

We Got the Fridge

2008-07-18T15:30:00.004-05:00

No, Not that one. This one!

Thanks Google! While it is currently empty, I'm sure we'll all be stocking it with Gatorades, various sodas, candy bars and pudding very soon. What do you have stocked in your office fridge?

Follow Me On Twitter

2008-06-26T20:23:00.001-05:00

As if I didn't already have enough things currently wasting my time, a few weeks ago I decided to start messing around with Twitter - a newer social networking website that allows you to make 140 character comments to the world about what's going on in your life at that exact moment - and since then I've become somewhat hooked. I'm not exactly "twitter-happy" or twittering every second of my day, but I do chime in every now and then with my thoughts and happenings. Aside from some serious lag-time that occurs mid-day (mostly attributed to Twitter's growing pains), Twitter is easy, fun, and some-what relevant.

Currently I've arranged it so that I'm only following individuals within the search marketing space, as well as my some of my personal friends. However, if you're one of the millions who also has a Twitter account, than hit me up. I'd love to follow those with something interesting to say... especially search related. Twitter offers more than just an interesting way to communicate with friends and colleagues... it has its education advantages too. I'm constantly receiving relevant search news as it breaks from many of the best sources in the industry.

In any event, if you find yourself dying to know more about the man, the myth, and the legend that is Karl Ribas, first off you should seek psychiatric help. But, if that fails, and you still can't rid the urges, then by all means... I welcome you to follow me on Twitter. I can't promise a bunch of search talk, but if you want to know which game I'm watching, cigar I'm smoking, or what my crazy dog is up to, then this is the ticket for you.

My twitter URL is: http://twitter.com/karl_ribas/. Happy stalking!

Tend Your Garden

2008-06-15T14:53:00.005-05:00

My new outlook on life:

Some people say the grass is always greener on the other side. I say be the gardener. Water it. Feed it. Make your own grass grow.
I make the grass greener wherever I am.
I am the gardener.
- Chad Johnson, Cincinnati Bengals (ESPN Magazine)

Google Reader: 1000+ Unread Posts

2008-06-09T20:53:00.002-05:00

Wow... looks like I've got a bit of catching up to do. I've been busier than normal with work, travel, yard-work, and side-projects, but never did I think I would be 1000+ posts in the hole.

Time to put in some of the wrench work.

A Recap of SMX Advanced 2008

2008-06-07T15:22:00.008-05:00

First of all, let me start by saying that I have always felt a little uneasy when it comes to SMX using an adjective as subjective as the word "Advanced" to describe this conference. My reasoning is quite simple. The word "advanced" insinuates a level of complexity that is without a doubt going to vary, in some cases drastically, from every search marketer that attends. It is these very simple inconsistencies that bother me most. When I talk to the marketer seated to the left of me, his or her goals for attending as well as their knowledge of our industry will almost always differ from mine as well as the person seated on my right. Therefore, where SMX Advanced might be advanced to some, it poses the potential problem of not being advanced for all.

With that said and now out of the way, was SMX Advanced advanced? In my personal opinion (mind you, it is the only one that matters on this blog) yes... yes it was. I for one very much enjoyed the conference. The conversations, as well as the speaker presentations were at a distinctively higher level than those search conferences I've attended in the past. SMX Advanced provided an atmosphere where veteran search marketers could learn, share ideas, and even interact with others as proficient in the industry as they are. I was very pleased with how the conference was scheduled (location, time of year, times of sessions and breaks, etc.), and I very much enjoyed the smaller, close-knit atmosphere that was instilled upon us.

Additional Positive Feedback:

Offered Great Networking Opportunities
A Great Location within Seattle
A Growing Expo Hall
Hot Plate Lunches
New and Faster Q&A Abilities

The only negative feedback that I have to offer regarding the 2008 SMX Advanced conference is that I felt that too many speakers relied heavily on reading their PowerPoint presentations to deliver their content, instead of their public speaking skills. Granted, some material does in fact have to be visual, but certainly not all of it. And the fact that these presentations (essentially the meat and potatoes of this entire conference) will now be made available online and for free completely cheapens the whole thing. Attendees should be asking themselves; aside from the networking opportunities why in the hell did I even bother attending? To have someone read the PowerPoints to me? We could have all stayed home, saved our company a few C notes, and downloaded the presentations free of charge. We would have learned a majority of the information and at the same time saved both time and money.

My suggestion to the SMX crew is to find another way to provide attendees with the same value that you were with offering "slideshow" information online, but without making potential attendees question whether or not to attend or simply borrow the login details from someone who did. The value of your conference lies within your speaker's presentations... and essentially you're giving them out for free. Where's the value in that.

And that's all I've got to say about SMX Advanced 2008. For even more SMX Advanced conference coverage, be sure to check out my earlier conference posts:

Also, I've finally gotten around to publishing all of my SMX Advanced conference photos. You can view them here on my website:

http://www.karlribas.com/pictures-smx-08.htm

Or here on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlribas/

Thanks for reading. Please let me know of any thoughts you may have regarding the SMX conference or of my reviews.

SMX Conference: After Dark Party

2008-06-04T01:19:00.005-05:00

I just got back from the "SMX After Dark" party thrown by the fine people at Double Click, Impaqt, and Bruce Clay, Inc. - a great shindig guys, really - and thought I would share it with all of you. The event was held at the Odyssey Maritime Museum - which is located immediately next to the convention center - and featured lots of entertainment, food, drinks, and most of all fun.

I especially enjoyed my time on the pool table, as well as on the Wii and X-Boxes that were provided. In my opinion, Jackie and I totally stole the show with our Guitar Hero efforts. We're unbeatable.

#1 Reason Why SMX is Better Than SES

2008-06-04T00:45:00.002-05:00

Ready for the #1 reason of why I think attending SMX is better than attending SES? Here goes:

Ok... so it's probably not the single most popular reason, but I'd bet it's in everyone's top 5... guaranteed. SMX's hot lunch completely destroys those crappy box lunches at SES... hands down... and without doubt. And you know, I've noticed that more people actually take part in the hot lunch option here, as opposed to lunch at SES and therefore more people tend to sit down and network with others during lunch. At SES, I know several people who just grab their box lunches and head back to their rooms. I for one am one of them.

Just thought I would share.

SMX Conference: Keynote w/ Kevin Johnson

2008-06-03T22:29:00.004-05:00

Hey all... welcome back to Klog. As promised, I'll be providing you with day-to-day coverage of the SMX Conference - more or less my notes and thoughts of the events as they unfold here in Seattle.

Today was a great conference day for me... the perfect mixture of quality presentations, solid information, laughs, and networking opportunities. It all started with a quick trip to the registration area to pick up my access badge, conference guide, and freebies (a 2008 SMX Advanced Pin and an officially branded SMX backpack), then a pit stop at the continental breakfast for a cup of tea and pastries, and then off to claim my seat for this morning's Keynote presentation with Microsoft's President of Platform & Services Division Kevin Johnson.

To my surprise, I found the keynote to be an excellent Q&A discussion regarding Microsoft's Live Search, and the company's intent to eventually beat out Google, the very heavily trenched-in king of search, in the years to come. In fact just thinking about the possibility of this all happening makes me giggle with disbelief, as I'm sure it does you.

To think that Microsoft, a company with a current industry market share of just 9% - 10% of all Internet searches, will some day rule supreme in an industry where their biggest competitor already has them beat by margins of over 60% market share and is synonymous world-wide with the word "search", is just not likely going to happen. However, in that exact same breath I must also say that I for one would never bet against it either. To me, Microsoft is a lot like the New York Yankees. As much as you hate them, they're still a team to fear and no matter how badly they play you should never bet against them. That's Microsoft.

As one would expect after recent weeks, the topic of Microsoft buying Yahoo! did come up during the interview, but was quickly addressed and tossed aside. Kevin did comment stating that the idea of buying Yahoo! was a strategy for gaining market share and relevant search technologies that would allow them to further compete with Google, but it is something that didn't happen and so they've moved forward. After chatting with my friend Dustin Woodard in between sessions, we both feel that even though it appears that Microsoft is moving forward, that there is still some behind the scenes dealings going on - but, then again, what the hell do we know?

The topic of "brand confusion" also came up - referring to how frequently Microsoft changes the name of their search platform. First it was MSN, then Microsoft Live, and now it appears to be Windows Live Search. Kevin mentioned that this was not a new topic of discussion for them, and that it is something their marketing department will be addressing in due time.

Other highlights from the keynote include the mentioning of Microsoft's new operating system, IE8 beta. Kevin went on to say that he is really excited about the browser and firmly believes that it is an overall better browser than Firefox.

SMX Seattle: Microsoft Live Party

2008-06-02T23:58:00.000-05:00

So Jackie and I just got back from the SMX / Microsoft pre-conference bash, and I for one am very tired from all the "work". Who would have thought!

Microsoft rented out the Olympic Sculpture Park for this event - just a few blocks away from the convention center as well as our hotel - to officially kick-off this years SMX Advanced conference. The party featured free drinks and finger-foods, dj music, break-dancers, and lots of art / sculptures. Being a big fan of the arts, I really enjoyed walking around the park, and browsing through all the pieces.

Overall we both had a great time. I was able to catch up with a few of my conference buds before the show tomorrow (that's always good), and at the same time I ran into a few others that I've become acquainted with online but have never gotten the chance to meet in person. It was great meeting you all and I certainly look forward to chatting with you more throughout the conference.

Stay tuned for more SMX coverage

SMX Pre-Conference Weekend 2

2008-06-02T18:29:00.000-05:00

Today just happened to be one of those "bummage" kind of days for Jackie and I - a day where you don't really have anything planned, and you just sort of "putz" around the area. That was so us.

We started the day off early with breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and then pretty much just walked up and down the streets of the Pikes Place Market browsing and shopping. To some of you this may have just seemed like a waste of a day, but after considering that we had pretty much visited all the major tourist hotspots on last years trip (Space Needle, Seattle Aquarium, Harbor Cruise, etc.), and we had already caught a Mariners game, this seemed very appropriate and quite relaxing.

Don't worry though... today won't be all play. I will most likely be checking out the SMX "In the Park After Dark" pre-conference party sponsored by Microsoft a little later on this evening (Greg, I will be sure to tell the wonderful Mr. Bill Gates "hello" for you should I happen to run into him). That should be a few hours of really hard work.

SMX Pre-Conference Weekend

2008-06-01T19:19:00.003-05:00

So... Jackie and I just got back to the hotel after witnessing a very disappointing Seattle loss to the Detroit Tigers. Well, I guess it wasn't all that disappointing - I am a Cubs fan after all - but it sure would have been cool to see the home team win. Oh well, congrats to all you tiger fans out there - all twelve of you.

Here are a few pics from the game:

As it looks now... we're pretty much content on hanging around the hotel for the rest of tonight. With our travel arrangements scheduled the way they were, we've been pretty much going non-stop since about 4:30am CST. It is now 7:00pm CST, and my good friend Jack Daniels is calling my name down at the bar. If you happen to be in town for the SMX conference as well, you're welcome to join me. I'm shacked up at the EdgeWater Hotel - a tremendous Hotel right on the bay by the way - next to the conference center.

Otherwise, check back later in the week for SMX daily recaps.

Attending SMX Advanced in June

2008-05-22T16:20:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to drop a quick note to let everyone know that I will be attending this year's SMX Advanced conference in Seattle this coming June. I've scheduled a very early flight out of Chicago on Sunday morning (1st), and will be arriving in Seattle with enough time to catch the Mariners vs. Tigers game that afternoon at Safeco Field. Yeah buddy... I love me some $5 hotdogs and $10 brews.

My fiancée Jackie will be accompanying me on this trip - she's in need of a much needed vacation - and so after the ballgame on Sunday and all of Monday we will be doing some sight-seeing. We did quite a bit of sight-seeing on last years trip, so I'm thinking that this year we'll pretty much be revisiting Pikes Place Market and some of the smaller shops within the city.

Looking ahead to the conference, I'm extremely psyched to be attending SMX this year. I've already reviewed the conference agenda, and am looking forward to several of the sessions and events... specifically these:

SMX After-Dark In The Park (Networking Event)
Kevin Johnson (Microsoft) Keynote
Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques
Creating Value In Your SEM Businesses
You&A With Matt Cutts
Give It Up

All in all... this is shaping up to be a great trip with just the right mixture of work and play. Last year I walked away with lots of notes and ideas, and met some very cool people. Hopefully, I'll be meeting up with some of my industry buds (Disco, Todd, Li, Lisa, McGee, Taylor, Joe, Greg, Hooley, Balestrino, Rhea, Dustin - any of you guys attending?) as well as meeting some of you new folks, mainly those I've been reading via their blogs (Bill, Barry, Lee, Chris - Any of you guys attending?).

If any of you readers/marketers out there are attending and want to meet up... feel free to drop me a line at: karl [at] karlribas [dot] com. We can set up something then or at least exchange cell numbers. Otherwise, rest assured that I'll be delivering daily coverage and pictures of the conference and it's events as they unfold.

I Hired My Very First Employee

2008-04-30T18:58:00.005-05:00

Hey all! As the title might suggest, I have finally reached the point where I am unable to run the Klog blog all by myself, and so I have decided to take on a full-time correspondent... sort of speak. I have held multiple interviews over the past few weeks and have met with several very interesting candidates. However, none appeared to be more qualified and more of a fit that my new hire. Allow me to introduce to you once again, my Chow / Sheppard / Lab mix puppy... Bella!

Not what you were expecting? Sorry about that. The truth is that I just wanted to spend these few moments blabbing about my Bella, and how much she has changed since the first time I talked about her almost a year ago. That, and well I really do think of Bella as my work-from-home partner.

Aside from her daily doggie duties which currently include sleeping 10+ hours, barking at the neighbors and postman as they pass by, and constantly begging for attention, Bella has also taken on the role as my right-hand pooch during the few hours I work from home. Her responsibilities include keeping me company while I brainstorm and hammer out blog posts, reminding me every 25 minutes to take a break (which usually means I rub her head and belly or throw her favorite toy - currently it is a stuffed mallard named "Malley"), and taking her fair share of verbal abuse for those times I become frustrated. Thus far... she's done an excellent job with all.

So what's new with Bella? Well aside from turning 1yrs old earlier this month, and growing to a mere 2'6" tall and weighing 60lbs (she's a tank), Bella has acquired quite a personality. She farts in her sleep (deadly ones too), destroys anything paper that is left out, enjoys removing the squeaker out of her toys before decimating them, and has a wide range of "likes" and "dislikes". For instance,

Bella Likes:

Wearing Scarfs
Playing in Water and Snow
Chasing Squirrels and Birds
Riding in Cars and Going through Drive-Thrus
Wrestling w/ me on Monday Nights
Watching Baseball - She's a Cubs fan
Eating Ice Cubes and Sunflower Seeds
Watching Animal Planet

Bella Dislikes:

Drinking Tap-Water
Having to be Crated
When other Dogs are Near Our House
When we use the Vacuum or spray Febreze
My Friend Greg H.
When I Smoke Cigars
Wearing Halloween Costumes

Here are some updated photos of Bella:

Thanks for reading! The Klog will now resume to its otherwise normal scheduled programming.

Revised Guide: How to Set Up Yahoo! Site Explorer with a Yahoo! Store

2008-04-24T18:39:00.005-05:00

Some of you may remember that last year around this time (almost to the day) I published a 10 step guide here on the Klog which highlighted the process for setting up a Yahoo! Site Explorer account - a tool that provides valuable information about your website and shows just how it interacts with the Yahoo! Search crawler - for Yahoo! Store owners. While in a perfect world this guide would continue to help Yahoo! Store merchants for years to come, it appears that in less then a year my original guide has become slightly outdated. Not a problem though... I will address these changes and publish a newly revised version below.

I guess it doesn't surprise me all that much that this has happened. The Yahoo! Store development team has always put forth a huge effort to continually improve their platform, and to make building and marketing a Yahoo! Store headache-free... I mean why else would their team go through the trouble of taking an already simplified 10-step process and reduce it to a 9-step process.

Without further ado, here is my revised guide on how to setup up Yahoo! Site Explorer with a Yahoo! Store:

Step 1
First things first, open up a browser window, login into your Yahoo! Small Business account, and locate the "Store Control Panel" of your Yahoo! Store account. Click on the "Search Engines" text-link under the "Promote" section near the bottom-left-corner of your screen.

Step 2
Now on the "Promote Your Site on Search Engines" page, scroll down the page and find the "Yahoo! Site Explorer - View your Site's Online Presence" section. Click on the "Launch Yahoo! Site Explorer" text-link. This will automatically open the Yahoo! Site Explorer account in a new browser window.

Step 3
Now in the Yahoo! Site Explorer account, add your website. To do so, enter your website's URL in the specified section at the top of the screen, and click "Add My Site".

Step 4
After clicking "Add My Site" in the previous step, you'll find that your website has been added to Yahoo! Site Explorer and that it now appears in a table below. The next and final step in this process is to "Authenticate" your website. Authenticating a website will allow Yahoo! Site Explorer the ability to share additional information about your website that otherwise wouldn't be shared. To begin the authenticate process, click on the "Authenticate" tab under the "Status" column.

Step 5
Now on the "Authentication" page, you'll find that there are 2 different ways one can authenticate a website... via an HTML upload or by adding a special meta-tag to the homepage. In this guide, we'll be using the meta-tag option, as it is very easy for Yahoo! Store owners to do.

Using your mouse, highlight the meta-tag (it should start with "<" and end with ">"), and copy it (to copy hit "CTRL + C" on your keyboard). DO NOT CLICK "Ready to Authenticate". Instead, leave this page exactly as it is.

Step 6
Switch back over to the previous window where you should still be on the "Promote Your Site on Search Engines" page. Click on the "Done" button at the very top of the page to return back to the "Store Control Panel". Click on the "Store Editor" text-link to edit your Yahoo! Store.

Now in the store editor on your home page, click the "edit" button found on the editor's navigation bar.

Step 7
Now inside the edit screen, find the "head-tags" property and paste the meta-tag that you had copied in step 5 (to paste hit "CTRL + V" on your keyboard) inside its respective box. Should your store not already have a "head-tags" section on this page you'll have to overwrite your variables and include it – then again, you could always place this meta-tag in the "head-tags" section of your variables. When finished, click the "update" button at the very top or bottom of the page.

Step 8
Now back on your home page within the store editor, click the "publish" button found on the editor's navigation bar. Doing so will automatically publish your website as well as the newly added meta-tag needed to verify the authentication of your Yahoo! Site Explorer account.

Step 9
Return to your Yahoo! Site Explorer window where you should still be on the "Authentication" page. Click the "Ready to Authenticate" tab to complete the website authentication process. If all was done properly, you should now read "Your site is pending authentication" near the top-left of the page.

Congratulations! Yahoo! Site Explorer is now set-up. Give it a day or so to verify the authentication, and to retrieve data on your website. Soon you'll have all the information you need to understand how the Yahoo! search engine finds, crawls, reads, and indexes the pages on your website.

WTF? Blogger

2008-04-24T18:07:00.000-05:00

6 Tips for Generating Repeat Business

2008-04-09T20:57:00.003-05:00

While search marketing providers, analysts, and organizations continue to work together in educating the world on search and Internet marketing strategies, such as website optimization, pay per click advertising, and social network leveraging, I think it is fair to say that most businesses now have a somewhat basic understanding of what it takes to be successful online. Granted, there are still a lot of uneducated business owners out there, but I believe a great deal of them, compared to a few years ago, now have an understanding that there is a large amount of time, money, and effort needed in order to attract and convert website traffic. Those early days of being successful online simply because you were one of a few in your niche industry with a website are certainly long gone.

However, one element - arguably the most important one - that I feel isn't being communicated as clear and as often as it certainly should be is the idea of repeat business - the process of marketing to a customer after the initial purchase. While I would agree that it is awfully nice to have a solid PPC campaign in motion - one capable of converting high volumes of traffic with a decent CPA - such a strategy does not even compare to the rewards offered via a repeat business campaign. In most cases, I'd have to say that very little is being done on the part of online business owners to reach out to past customers... resulting in a mass of missed sales and opportunity.

Why is repeat business so beneficial, and why should it be included in your company's overall online marketing efforts? Well, for two major reasons.

First of all, generating repeat business is without question so much easer to attain than that of a new customer. We all know how difficult it is to get a new customer - employing marketing strategies, maintaining a website, addressing customer problems and concerns, and so on. Unlike with generating new customers, repeat business strategies provide business owners with the ability to directly engage a large group of extremely targeted buyers - those who've not only shown an interest in your products and services, but have also opened up their wallets for you once already - without the use of a middle-man, such as a marketing firm, search engine listing, or a newspaper ad. Removing the middle man immediately makes marketing a hell of a lot cheaper... bringing me to my second point.

Second, attaining a repeat sale is not only going to be cheaper then when compared to the cost of generating a new sale, but it is also going to be more profitable because of it. It's not rocket science. Spend $10, $20, $100 to get that customer the first time, and spend close-to-nothing to engage with them forever.

The following are a few "repeat business" strategies that I personally feel are worthy of at least trying. Consider combining a few of these ideas, with a few of your own, to develop a long-term repeat business campaign.

Send a Business Card with Every Order
Let's face it... not every person who places an order with you will remember the name of your company or the URL of your website. While some online shoppers, when satisfied, may add your website to their favorites list, others will simply forget about you 10 minutes after receiving their order. It is for this reason you should consider giving them a little something to remember you by.

Business cards and business magnets are perfect for such an occasion. In addition to being relatively cheap to manufacture, a business card or a magnet will almost always end up on your customer's refrigerator where it will remain for all eternity. However, it will also be there for when your customer needs to remember your website in order to restock or purchase other like products or services. Don't believe me... have a look at your refrigerator and then try and call me a liar.

Send an Occasion Email Offer
Just so we're clear, I'm not talking about flooding the inboxes of unexpected random people. There is certainly a right way and a wrong way to send out promotional emails, and spamming people as such is definitely the wrong way to approach email marketing. Instead, I'm suggesting that you use email as a way to engage your past customers - those who've shared their email addresses with you - with helpful information about the products and services you provide, as well as the occasion promotional offer here and there.

In most cases, you'll be able to collect a new email address with each new order you receive. Simply add that email address to your list, and proceed to email them with monthly specials, promotions, and relevant and educational information. Doing so will not only help remind your past customers that you're still around and willing to help them, but a worthwhile promotion may also persuade them to place additional orders with your company.

Offer Gift Certificates with all Order Discrepancies
A time will inevitably come when you will make a mistake on an order. It's going to happen. The most common errors are shipping the wrong size or color of a product, or the wrong product altogether. How you proceed and correct your error will ultimately determine whether or not the customer will buy from you in the future.

In addition to correcting the problem, say refunding the buyer or shipping out the correct order, include a gift certificate that can be used with the customer's next purchase. This action proves that your company takes order discrepancies very seriously and is committed to ensuring that things are corrected. Also, by providing such an offer, you're giving your customers a reason to purchase again (hence repeat business), and yourself another chance to make a great impression by accurately completing their next order.

Include Free Samples with Every Order
The word "free" is very rarely said or meant in a world where everything now costs a pretty penny, and so offering free samples of your product is a great way to not only get people to buy from you, but to get them to continually come back and purchase again. In my opinion, it does not matter how large or small a sample is, just as long as it is somewhat relevant to the buyer.

In addition, offering a free sample often means introducing the customer to something new. If shoppers tend to only buy one variation of a product, than it is possible that they are unaware that another exists or are wary about trying something different. This is a perfect opportunity for online merchants to reach out to their customers and recommend a product by providing a free sample of it. This kind of customer/merchant interaction will most likely encourage customers to buy again, and should the products compliment each other well enough, it may even lead to the customer purchasing both options upon their next order.

Integrate a Login / Password Shopping Cart
For me personally, I hate online customer accounts simply because I hate having to remember login and password information for every website I order from. However, integrating a shopping cart with login and password functionality can easily increase the amount of repeat business your online store receives. To an online shopper, remembering and entering a login and password results in them not having to enter several lines of billing, shipping, or credit card information with each visit. This convenience ensures customers receive a head-ache free and speedy check-out process upon future visits, resulting in a great reason for any customer to come back.

Integrate an Automatic Re-Order Option
This tip only pertains to those companies that sell consumables, such as health and beauty products, tobacco products, medication-like products, and so forth, but is great for attaining repeat business.

The idea is to set up an "automatic re-order option", either manually or programmed in the back-end, to be included within the check-out process. Customers can then enroll into the program which will be set-up to automatically charge their credit card and resend them their "refill" at the time they've specified. Therefore, if a customer purchases a box of cigars every three months, rather than having to go to the website, locate the product, and place an order each time they want to refill their stock, the customer can simply have a box automatically charged and sent to them every three months.

Under this system, and in addition to bringing convenience to your customers, you are now promised repeat business that you weren't otherwise before. Also, by utilizing an automatic re-order option, you have reduced the chances of losing business on the account that your customer forgot to reorder, misplaced your company's web address, or found an alternative supplier with cheaper prices.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Guerrilla Marketing

2008-03-13T21:00:00.002-05:00

A couple of days ago I was fortunate enough to receive a complimentary copy of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Guerrilla Marketing" in my morning mail. The book is co-authored by Susan Drake and Colleen Wells, and from the immediate looks of things... this promises to be a fantastic read.

"You're no idiot, of course. You know that people won't spend their money on your product or service if they don't know it exists. But competing against the mega corporations means stretching your budgeting too thin. You need alternatives to high-priced convectional print and broadcast advertising."
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Guerrilla Marketing offers exciting and cost-effective methods of promoting and publicizing your business. In this Complete Idiot's Guide, you get strategies for creating word-of-mouth buzz, the low down on Internet marketing via viral ads, email lists, streaming video, and more, unique ideas for marketing to your target base through unconventional venues, and tactics for product placement in the media.

Well, as always I appreciate the freebee. I'll be sure to give this book a read really soon, and of course I'll be providing my thoughts and a full-review. Until then... stay tuned.

Men: The Perfect Spam-Filter Ever Created

2008-03-06T19:13:00.012-06:00

WARNING: The following post contains a half-intelligent and over analyzed thought to which was spawned from deep within the depths of the author's brain. While in most cases, such thoughts would immediately have been acknowledged and then erased from existence, this particular thought seemed to have evaded the quality control police - the tiny little beings inside our brain that understand the difference between a good idea and a bad idea, and ensure that only good ideas are ever shared. In other words, this thought is armed and dangerous, and readers should proceed at their own risk.

I had a thought the other day, and while I am certain it is one that I should have left in limbo and forgot about, I just can't seem to let it go. For some strange reason or another, I feel the need to share it with someone... and why not all of you?

Ok, so I have come up with the perfect solution for ridding all junk mail from your email inbox. Scratch that. The perfect solution would be to permanently remove all spammers responsible for such junk email from earth. However, seeing how that is not likely going to happen anytime soon we'll just have to proceed with the second perfect solution... creating spam-filtering technology based off of the general male personality. I know, right? It's so brilliant.

It's certainly no secret that men and women communicate differently. While it would seem that both men and women understand the concept of talking, and thus have the ability to speak, I would argue that men and women don't quite share the same skill-set for when it comes to listening. I am of course referring to my fellow men, and our ability to block-out parts of any given conversation, if not entire conversations. Now usually one would only see this happen when conversing with a girlfriend or spouse, but I've personally experienced it outside of an intimate relationship. I'm sorry fellas, the jig is up!

Very similar to how pop-up blockers, email spam-filtering, and TiVo operate, a man's vocal spam-blocker is nothing more than his ability to filter out unwanted information from being pushed on to him. However, what sets it apart from the "all or nothing" blockers mentioned above is that a man's vocal spam-blocker offers a customizable experience in which each conversation is analyzed separately by a completely different set of rules.

For example, my internal vocal spam filtering technology understands that when I engage into a conversation with my mother in which she proceeds to turn a simple topic of discussion into a 20,000 word thesis, it needs to block me out from 100% of that conversation. However, when having a similar conversation with my fiancée, my spam filtering technology understands that the rules are different. Rather than blocking her out completely, it knows that I actually value her opinion and will want to hear what she has to say on a variety of topics.

I believe comedian Henry Cho explains it best in the opening seconds of this skit:

Pop-up blockers block all pop-ups. TiVo blocks out all commercials. And, generally speaking, email filters block out all messages pertaining to sex, Viagra discounts, and the like. While this would seem like an ideal solution to some, it leaves a lot to be desired for. For instance, what if I didn't mind pop-up advertisements or television commercials as long as each one I viewed was something worthy of being interrupted with? Or, what if I was someone who enjoyed viewing smut via email and wanted to save 50% on Viagra? These tools would be working against me rather than for me.

The idea of using a customizable approach, like the male vocal spam filter, is that each user would automatically apply different rules according to their interests at any given time throughout their life. When their interests change, so does your email filtering, pop-up blockers, and TiVo.

Sounds like a killer idea, doesn't it? Now if only if it were possible! The way I see it, we'll need a super-duper smart computer that can tap into our brains, understand what's important, what's not important, and what's desired at every moment of every day, and turn around and apply it to Internet, email, television, and the rest of our lives... thus saving us from having ever being exposed to unwanted information... aka spam.

Hell, it would have even saved you from wasting 3 minutes of your life reading this very post.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

2008-02-21T18:44:00.004-06:00

Simply put... "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" by David Meerman Scott is an absolutely fantastic read. And, I'm not just saying that because the man gifted me an advanced, autographed copy, or because he was courteous enough to credit me and my blog in the acknowledgements section of the book. As much as I really do appreciate it all... that's not how I roll. Instead, I state that David's book is a "fantastic read" because I truly and deeply feel that it is.

What about it, exactly, did I find so worthwhile? Well, aside from being way under-priced (currently $16.47 at Amazon), I find this book to be a great starting point for anyone new to online marketing, as well as those that would like a "refresher" course on how to effectively sell products and services by way of website promotion. Scott provides readers with an understanding of how to leverage the internet, how to break through the clutter, and how to let go of old-school PR techniques in favor of new tactics, such as writing and publishing news releases specifically tailored to your target audiences instead of reporters, blogging, podcasting, and viral marketing, that reflect the new ways consumers and customers get information.

Personally, I've learned a lot from this book and I've been involved with internet marketing for nearly 5 years now. In fact, the very few instances where I didn't pick up anything new actually served as reinforcement for ideas that David and I shared... which was kind of rewarding in its own right.

The following is and excerpt from the book's sleeve:

"The Internet has profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. It has also changed the way businesses communicate with current and potential customers. In the old days, marketers could only communicate through the filter of expensive advertising or media ink placed by a PR firm. Today, the rules have changed entirely."
"The New Rules of Marketing and PR shows you how to leverage the potential that web-based communication offers large and small companies, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, political organizations, consultants, even rock bands and churches. Finally, you can speak directly to customers and buyers, establishing a personal link with those who make your business work. You can reach niche buyers with targeted messages that cost a fraction of you bid-budget advertising campaign. Rather than bombard them with advertising they'll likely ignore, you can focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time."

It's a completely new ball game out their folks... and David has just presented us all with the new rule book. "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" is easy-to-read, chock full of good examples, and sequenced in a way that makes tremendous sense. This book needs to be a well-used part of your business library.

Trimming The Fat From My Google Reader: Part 2

2008-02-15T19:30:00.007-06:00

In the first part of this 2-part post, I alluded to the idea that I wasn't getting as much in return - in terms of quality and relevant industry information - from the large amounts of blog / newsletter reading I do on a weekly basis... at least not to the point that I once was. After spending some time last week analyzing statistics on what I read, how I read, and for how long I read my feeds (courtesy of Google Reader), I decided that the best course of action for solving this problem was to essentially remove those blog / newsletter subscriptions that weren't doing much for me... a pretty simple solution if I do say so myself.

I spent the greater portion of this week "trimming the fat", if you will, from my Google reader account. I started this process off with 104 feeds and eventually ended up with a final count of 58. Now, that's a lot of fat! Anyone that manages feeds like this on a daily basis understands full-well how big of a cut 46 feeds is.

Well, now the question becomes how did I determine which of my 104 feeds to cut? As much as I would like to say that this was an easy step for me, it was actually quite the opposite. I started with removing my dormant feeds - these are the feeds that for whatever reason aren't being updated. Typically these are blogs in which the author has either given up on, or has become so preoccupied with work that he or she no longer has time to update them. Almost instantly, I was able to cut my list from 104 feeds down to 81. While this sizable cut didn't really help to solve my "time / quality" problem any, I felt that it was worth the effort just to "clean house" a little bit.

Next, I spent a little time reviewing over my Del.icio.us account. Why Del.icio.us? Well, in my opinion the two go hand-in-hand. Should I come across something of value in my reading, I immediately bookmark it using Del.icio.us for future use - as explained in a previous post. I found that by analyzing these bookmarks, I was able to better understand which feeds were worth keeping. Moving forward, I was able to cut feeds one-by-one until I was confident that I had a list of quality, relevant industry reading.

Here's a look at my Google Reader account now, 46 feeds skinnier:

The first screen-shot here is a snap-shot of my feed subscriptions. See how nice and organized they are. Previously, I had my search feeds broken up into 3 different folders: "Daily News", "Daily Reads", and "Weekly Reads". I used this system as a way to properly allocate my time when reading feeds, but needless to say it didn't work out. Now, as you can see, I've simplified my feeds and organized them by topics.

The second screen-shot is a snap-shot of my "cigar" feeds. Smoking cigars is a huge hobby of mine, and like all hobbies, I like to educate myself through reading.

The third screen-shot is a snap-shot of my "Yahoo! Store" feeds. Even though I mostly dabble in search marketing, I do try and keep up-to-date on any new Yahoo! Store announcements, advancements, and the like.

The forth screen-shot is a snap-shot of my "Search Marketing" feeds. These feeds are the meat and potatoes of my industry reading and these are the feeds in which I get nearly 100% of my industry information from.

In conclusion, I want to go on record and say that yes I understand that there are several hundred other industry related blogs and newsletters currently in circulation, many of which I'm sure offer a lot of value to their readers, but these are the blogs that I choose to read at this point in my career. Obviously, as my needs change and my thirst for more industry reading spanning different topics grows, I will be adjusting this list again. However, for now, I think I have everything just as I should.

Trimming The Fat From My Google Reader: Part 1

2008-02-07T20:12:00.000-06:00

Every morning when I first enter my office, I sit down at my desk and begin to carry out what seems to be my morning routine. First I'll review over my phone messages, than I'll check and respond to email, and once I am in the clear I'll pop open my Google Reader and begin to digest the mountains upon mountains of blog subscriptions I manage... mainly industry related reading that provides its fair share of news, updates, and happenings.

However, over the past few months now I've noticed that the time I've allowed for such reading has increased, and well, the level of quality reading had decreased. Maybe you've experienced this as well? What does this mean exactly? Well, I think it means that while I am beginning to spend more of my overall valuable time reading blogs and other resources, I don't believe that I'm getting much, in terms of value, in return for that time... or at least to the extent that I once was. This is an obvious problem for me as I am one that values the time I put into my work, as well as my efforts with staying up-to-date in an industry as fast-paced as search marketing is.

Like with any problem, the first step to finding an appropriate solution is to first analyze the situation right down to the very core. Lucky for me, I use Google reader which just so happens to provide a series of statistical trends of the very information that I'll need in order to analyze my problem. Let's have a look, shall we:

The first screen-shot highlights the number of items (blogs and newsletters) read day by day over the past 30 days. According to this graph, of the 104 feeds that I am currently subscribed to, I was able to read just over 5,300 items. Amazing, isn't it! To think that I read through 5,300 different blog posts in 30 days is incredible. However, for the record, I must admit that I didn't completely read each of these 5,300 items as much of this "reading" is in fact title surfing - a process where I'll skim the titles of each item and determine whether or not to read. In any event, 5,300 is still a lot.

The second screen-shot highlights the number of items read by time of day. According to this graph, of the 5,300 items read over the past 30 days, 3,000 of them were read between the hours 8 - 9am... which is to be expected seeing how I purposely try and make reading my feeds apart of my everyday morning routine.

The third screen-shot highlights the number of items read by day of the week. According to this graph, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays are my heavy reading days... which again, is something to be expected. Mondays and Tuesdays are heavy due to the weekend, and Fridays are as well because bloggers tend to publish on Thursdays in order to get their information out before the weekend... much like my thought was with this post. :).

However, what does catch my eye is that this graph shows very little reading having taken place on Saturday and Sunday for the past 30 days. This is a tad misleading as I happen to do quite a bit of my reading on the weekends. Why the discrepancy? Well, it is most likely due to a completely separate web project that I have been spending my weekend hours working on... thus explaining the odd occurrence.

The forth screen-shot highlights the top 20 feeds (of my 104 subscriptions) according to the number of items I've been able to read from each source in the past 30 days. Personally, I find this to be key information which will help me to better understand how effectively my time is being spent. Using this list, as well as my understanding of the quality of information I am getting from my feeds, I will be able to determine how exactly to trim the fat, sort of speak, from my Google reader.

The firth screen-shot highlights the top 20 feeds (of my 104 subscriptions) according to the average number of items each feed produces daily. While this information alone doesn't provide me with much, it, combined with my understanding of the quality of information I am getting from my feeds, will also help to determine which of my subscriptions are a bust.

The last screen-shot highlights the top 20 feeds (of my 104 subscriptions) that have been inactive the longest. If nothing else, this list will serve as a starting point for where I can make my cuts... let's face it, 104 feeds is way too many for me to be managing.

And that's, that. After further analyzing the statistics and trends associated with my Google Reader account, I've concluded that I do have somewhat of a time / quality problem on my hands. It is very clear to me that I am spending too much of my valuable time reading industry stories, and getting very little in return for it - this is of course referring to the quality of new information I'm getting out of what I read - which brings me to my next step.

To solve my time / quality problem, I will spend the next week or so evaluating my subscriptions as well as determining which feeds still provide me with value, and which can be cut. I am hoping that with my next post, I will be able show you exactly how I was able to "trim the fat" from my 104 subscriptions and at the same time provide great value to future industry reading.

Until next time, peace.

SEO Suggestions for the Yahoo! Store Development Team

2008-01-30T19:20:00.000-06:00

So as most of you readers already know, I am a search engine marketing consultant for a company called All Web Promotion. In addition to providing search engine marketing services such as website optimization and pay per click advertising, All Web also specializes in the design and development of Yahoo! Store websites. In fact, the company is so proactive as a Yahoo! Store designer that a large majority of our SEM clients are indeed Yahoo! Store owners. It is for that reason that I have become very familiar with the Yahoo! Store platform and understand just how to optimize it for the major search engines.

Generally speaking, the developers of the Yahoo! Store platform (not to be confused with Yahoo! Store designers - but the actually people at Yahoo! who've created this platform) are very focused on providing the very best solution possible for their merchants. These guys understand full-well that there is a lot more to eCommerce than just providing a customizable website solution and a secure shopping cart.

How do I know this, exactly? Well, aside from having several meetings with the Yahoo! Store development team and getting to know these guys both personally and professionally, they've put out several tools and resources to assist Yahoo! Store merchants with their search engine marketing efforts. These tools and resources include Google Sitemaps integration, Yahoo! SiteExplorer integration, Yahoo! Search Marketing (PPC) tracking integration, submission links to each of the major search engines, and much more.

With all of this being said, I have a few simple ideas / suggestions that I would like to share with you readers, and to possible the Yahoo! Store development team as I know they stop by once in awhile - referring to you Paul B. I understand that these guys are uber-busy these days, but my suggestions are things I believe can be implemented rather easily (really, I have no idea) and will make life easier for merchants, not to mention myself, especially from a search marketing front.

And so, for what it's worth, I suggest the following ideas to the Yahoo! Store development team:

1) My first suggestion is no doubt one that will either be laughed at or ignored completely, but here goes. Please allow Yahoo! Store owners the ability to edit their store's robots.txt file. In doing so, merchants and their marketing teams will now be able to customize the depth of their search engine experience, and limit search engine spiders to crawl only those areas that matter most.
Now, I know what most of you are thinking... why would you ever want to limit the amount of exposure that your website gets from search engines. Well, there have been numerous times when my clients and I didn't want search engines to crawl and index specific pages, such as PPC landing pages which often at times means duplicating the same content across multiple pages in order to find the layout that converts the best, "specials" pages that change often and where such deals were created specifically for use with email marketing campaigns, or those product pages which are not to be promoted in the search engines per the request of the manufactures that produce the products merchants sell. These are all legitimate reasons for wanting to edit one's Yahoo! Store robots.txt file, and yet doing so is not an option.
2) Creating and distributing a website's sitemap file (as in a Google Sitemap) has become a very important part in getting one's website crawled and indexed by the search engines. Therefore, my second suggestion for the Yahoo! Store team is to integrate the URL for the Google Sitemaps file (in which your platform will automatically generate for us) into the robots.txt file. Why, you ask? Well, the sitemaps protocol that Google established has recently been adopted by all the major search engines including the Yahoo! search engine, as well as Microsoft's Live Search and Ask.com. These engines, while they do not currently offer a place to submit a sitemap, will instead crawl the robots.txt file and record its location via the URL provided.
3) Ask.com, a search engine which up until recently didn't provide a "submit for inclusion" option, is now providing website owners with a special URL that when edited and used properly will automatically ping the search engine and provide it with the location of their site's sitemap file. This URL, while pretty basic, is not really known outside of the SEM community, and could actually be somewhat problematic for merchants with little-to-no Internet/website experience. My suggestion for the Yahoo! Store team is to create a simplified process for utilizing this special URL. A couple of suggestions would be to either provide a link that merchants can click-on in which your system automatically generates the correct "ping" address, or provide a checkbox or something to that effect which would take care of things behind the scenes.
4) Microsoft Live Search has recently rolled out a program dubbed "Live Search Webmaster Central". This program allows website owners the ability to register their website and see key diagnostics and statistics regarding how their website interacts with the Microsoft Live search engine - a program very similar to Google's Webmaster Tools and Sitemaps program. My suggestion for the Yahoo! Store team is to create a tool, similar to the one that was created for the Google Sitemaps program, which will allow merchants to easily verify ownership of their website (something that must be done before Microsoft will relinquish any kind of data).
5) My last suggestion, much like the first, is probably one that will not be taken seriously, but whatever. My suggestion is for the Yahoo! Store team to allow Yahoo! Store merchants the ability to create 301 redirects. I don't care how... just find a way. The 301 redirect is the search engine's preferred way for redirecting traffic from page-to-page or site-to-site, and having the ability to apply a 301 redirect would have saved my ass more times than I can remember when trying to disclose to the search engines of a new page or site.

And that's, that. Again, I want to reiterate that while I am a huge fan of the Yahoo! Store platform, and of their development team and what they've been able to accomplish thus far - in terms of providing a customizable website solution that not only provides a secure shopping environment, but is also search engine friendly as well - I feel that the implementation of the ideas I've shared above will certainly make for a better kick-ass merchant experience.

My Thoughts on Del.icio.us

2008-01-17T19:07:00.000-06:00

So I know I've never mentioned this before, but I really, really, and I mean REALLY love the Del.icio.us bookmarking website. Aside from leveraging it in association with a well-rounded social bookmarking campaign, the site is essentially very useful and easy-to-use.

Del.icio.us, for those of you who may not know, is an online bookmarking tool where users can record all their favorite websites, tools, and other online resources... essentially, one can record any web address that they want to remember for future use. What I believe makes this tool so much better than say the standard "favorites" feature on your browser is that with Del.icio.us, your bookmarks are saved into an online account, and accessible from everywhere. This is a huge plus if you're geek like myself and happen to work from multiple locations such as an office and at home.

How I use Del.icio.us
I happen to use Del.icio.us daily... yeah man, seriously... that often. And, it's so easy. I spend anywhere from a half-an-hour to an hour each day reading through my collection of industry news, gossip, and happenings... aka industry blogs and newsletters. During this time, if I come across anything of importance, say like a new tool, theory, or SEM strategy, I'll bookmark it. To make things even easier, I've downloaded the "My Del.icio.us" and "post to Dec.icio.us" browser buttons (for IE and FireFox). These buttons make bookmarking so much easier as one does not have to actually visit the Del.icio.us website to add a listing. Instead, with one quick click of the "post to Del.icio.us" button (followed by a login and password session - one per day) I can bookmark any page instantly, and move on.

What I tend to do is bookmark all of the things I want to bookmark each day, and then designate some time at the end of each month to editing, tagging, and organizing my listings into their appropriate category. For example, I have a "search engine optimization" tag that houses all of my search engine optimization bookmarks. And, the same for when it comes to Pay Per Click bookmarks... and so on, and so on. Categorizing and labeling bookmarks is a big part of what makes this tool so valuable. How relevant would your list of bookmarks be if they were buried within your account? You'd never be able to find and use them.

Here is a screen-shot of the how I tag and categorize my bookmarks. As you'll see, I go into great detail when it comes to labeling my listings as locating them quickly is something that is important to me. To do this efficiently, I have utilized the "bundles" option and separate my labels into categories such as "Graphic Design", "Internet Marketing", and "Website Design".

How you can use Del.icio.us

1) One way to use Del.icio.us is to use it exactly how I do... bookmark everything that you feel is important to know or remember, and then later spend some time sorting it into their appropriate categories. As you're doing so, you'll essentially be compiling a library full of online tools, references, and resources relating to your specific industry. For example, in my online travels, I had found and bookmarked several guides pertaining to local search marketing. As it turns out, I currently have no use for such information, but nonetheless I have it and can reference it should I ever need to.

2) Another interesting way to use Del.icio.us is as a means for researching specific topics. Let's take the Internet marketing industry for example. If you were someone that was new to website design, development, and marketing and wanted to get a better understanding of how to improve your website's search engine placement, Del.icio.us makes for a good starting point. Here's my thought... because Del.icio.us accounts are available to the public - meaning you can view what others have bookmarked - you could simply find a well-known search marketer's Del.icio.us account, say mine, Matt McGee's, or even Tamar Weinberg's, and view everything that they've found to be important on a variety of topics. Instantly, you would have access to many of the same tools and guides that we use and find valuable. That to me sounds like a short-cut if I ever knew one.

3) Last, but certainly not least, Del.icio.us is one of those tools that can be leveraged to promote one's own website or cause. Bookmarking your own website, blog, press releases, or tools can increase the chances that they are not only found by Del.icio.us users with similar interests, but by search engines as well. Simply put, search engines crawl and index Del.icio.us accounts on a regular basis - just as they would with any other website - and their findings (aka links to your website) could in fact be used to influence search engine rankings... regardless of their use of the "no follow" tag. Hey, a link is a link.