Lethal Commission Review or How to Get Rich on the Internet

I am a man of simple pleasures. I love Internet marketing, terribly bad action films, and stunt queens. So when I learned of Anik Singal’s Lethal Commission I knew I had to watch it.

What is Lethal Commission? From its trailer it is dubbed as the world’s first full-length Internet marketing movie. In actuality it is the most meta-tastic and downright embarrassing way to sell a product I’ve ever seen. To save myself some keystrokes, let’s just bypass the incoherent plot (involving a portly Indian spy stopping some sort of third-world Paypal thievery) and get into the meat and potatoes of what Singal is selling this time around.

Savvy Online Business Builders: The New Snake Oil Salesmen

A Look at the Growing Trend of Internet Marketing Con-men

We’ve all seen these people at conferences, pimping out their extra shiny business cards and talking like late-night infomercials – the online business strategists and social media experts. They claim to have the secrets to creating a successful online brand and promise “more profitable business now” if only you are willing to hear the pitch. They use buzz words like “online reputation score” and “viral marketing” to excite business owners into trusting their expertise and ultimately signing up for expensive year long contracts but never promise actual results.

For A Good Time Call…Why the Bathroom is the Perfect Place for Internet Marketers

Recently I tweeted a statistic from Google that 39% of searchers use their mobile devices while going to the bathroom. While it served the intended purpose of getting people to @ me (I’m incredibly thirsty for Internet attention), I didn’t think about what this statement really meant for SEO. Several days later a friend of mine posted the following on Facebook wall:

Why Villifying DKI Is Pointless

Image courtesy gamespot.com

Dear Paid Search Advertisers,

This {KeyWord:fallback phrase} is not your enemy.

Many veteran PPC marketers tend to vilify dynamic keyword insertions (or DKI). They usually present examples of DKI which have been obviously done by someone who is not skilled in the nuances of paid search copy writing – this bothers me.

It bothers me because I think there is a valid purpose for dynamic keyword insertion in paid advertising. While some uses are nefarious (let‘s be clear – I do not own a black hat) a lot of them are legitimately useful for marketing efforts.

Google Exposed! Don't Trust Webmaster Tools Reporting!

"The Simpsons" © 20th Century Fox Television (Don't Sue Me!)

In the middle of December 2011, Google rolled out some new changes to the Webmaster Tools. This update included search queries with top pages, organic CTR, and organic imprressions, as well as, intergrated graphs ala Google Analytics.

Since this update went live, I’ve been wondering if the data that Google is providing is accurate and how does it stand up against Google Adwords Keyword Tool and actual Adwords data.

We have a client who is position 1 for a cosmetic surgery term in a major metropolitan area. So I pulled the two sets of Google data reported and the results were mystifying.

Yes, Facebook Knows You're Gay!

Courtesy of www.break.com

I recently read a great article by aimClear‘s Marty Weintraub who used Facebook’s demographic targeting to determine how many people serving in the military are gay or lesbian. While it is interesting to see who is  romantically interested in who – I felt the data didn’t take in account members of the military who do not list what they are romantically interested in. So it occured to me, why not do a post where you target things that are stereotypically associated with gay and lesbian culture and explain how same-gender loving they are – and this post was born.

foursquare Gets Fancy with Photos & Comments

Is foursquare is more than just a game?

In attempts to drive more users and create revenue opportunities, foursquare has added comments and photos to their interface. This is a huge development for foursquare, which previously relied on Twitter and Facebook to be truly useful. However, is it too late? I’ve always seen foursquare, a location-based social networking site for mobile devices, as the adult version of Pokemon. The same principle that Nintendo follows with its “gotta catch ‘em all” tag-line is the basis of foursquare’s success. Sure collecting badge and becoming the mayor of your favorite establishments is fun (I am the mayor of several Uptown New Orleans bars), but there has to be more than that or the game get old fast. The addition of images and comments allows more options than just telling absolute strangers (and employers) what establishments you visit, it also gives new depth to foursquare that it was previously missing.

Top 5 Search Marketing Bloggers You Should Be Stalking in 2011

Why hasn't Matthew Lesko written a get rich with SEO book yet?

I’m a search marketing guy, have been since my first job out of college (if we are not counting that liquor store on Ponce I worked out for 2 weeks in the summer of ’06. You can’t beat a 30% discount…). Most people can’t grasp what I do or even understand why the company I work for exist (my mother thinks I’m everything from a telemarketer to an Internet panhandler) but it is what I do and love. Recently I have become increasingly more serious about being able to do my job better and become a more rounded internet guy (I mostly just hang out on the fringe of the internet with the /b/tards and tweeps heckling e-celebs for my own amusement). Now I feel I have to pour myself into learning new search marketing strategies in order to keep with the constant changes and competition.

Are Facebook Ads for All Businesses?

Facebook Ads. Are You Doing it Right?

Recently a slew of articles have been popping up about the ineffectiveness of Facebook advertising. While we recently touched on this subject in a previous blog post, I thought I would explain why this statement has little credence when Facebook ads are done properly. If you’ve read any of our previous FB blog posts, you are aware that for Search Influence, Facebook yields a low cost per lead making it one of our most effective ways to drive leads to clients’ sites. With that being stated, I can proceed to explain (in a Clarissa-esque manner) why Facebook is effective and ineffective for some online marketers and industries.

What Small Businesses Can Learn From Comics

Man of Steel Vs. God of Thunder, You Do the Math

Along with being a search marketing expert (that’s right, I said it), I am a huge fanboy (that means I like comic books A LOT). Very rarely do my two worlds meet but recently there was an article posted about the social media battle of rival comic companies Marvel Entertainment and DC (Time Warner) and I could not resist responding and explaining to how small businesses can win at social media. Despite my unending love for DC Comics, Marvel Entertainment does far better jobs at internet marketing. This post will explain how you can make your small business’s internet presence “marvelous”.