Righteous Marketing

You heard me correctly. Despite the fanboy love and media hype I intend to show you how humble PPC is better than the iPad.

The Evidence

iPad – Runs for 10 hours
PPC – Runs 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week, 365 days/year (or any combination of hours, days & weeks you choose)

iPad – Plug in through the proprietary Apple docking port
PPC – Plug into your Analytics for better metrics, connect it with your SEO and email marketing to improve copy or plug in through an API

iPad – Have a problem? Only Apple can fix it (that includes changing the battery)
PPC – Have a problem? Fix it yourself or have any company you want fix it

iPad – Name could be confused for a feminine hygiene product
PPC – Name can be misheard as “Paper Clip” instead of “Pay-Per-Click”

iPad – Maybe a few million users by this time next year
PPC – Millions of PPC ads are seen EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

There you have it folks. What would you add?

You may have seen a couple of these commercials on TV, but this is the most complete compilation of Dos Equis commercials for their “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign. I think they’re hilarious, so if you need a quick 7-minute break today, here you go!

Introducing the fighter in the blue corner. She’s a blogger known for her strong opinions and profuse Twittering. She’s the co-founder and Chief Branding Officer for Outspoken Media while regularly contributing on a number of top SEO blogs. Fighting out of upstate New York, I give you Lisa Barone!

And now, her opponent in the red corner. A former technical evangelist from Microsoft, current employee of Rackspace, and author of the popular Scobleizer blog. He’s 44 years old and is fighting out of Silicon Valley California. Give it up for Robert “Scobleizer” Scoble!

The Rumble in the Blog Comments

This mega-fight is one of those occasions where you get a hungry up-and-coming competitor calling out and established legend. Scoble established his reputation years ago as an evangelist for Microsoft. He was like Darth Vader, but from Return of the Jedi where you actually kinda like him. He’s an established figure in the industry and carries a lot of influence. Therefore, when he posted this blog: “2010: the year SEO isn’t important anymore?” (question mark included) a lot of people weren’t too happy.

Lisa Barone was one of those people, but she didn’t take this one lying down. She went public with a challenge post titled “Ignore the Silly Man, SEO Still Matters For SMBs“. With everything set up, Scoble came out swinging right from the bell.

Round 1

Scoble led with a strong “you missed the point” argument, saying that businesses shouldn’t focus on only SEO. Lisa blocked with an “I didn’t attack you” and countered with a “you’re pretending SEO hasn’t changed in 5 years”. They traded a few jabs, but Lisa takes the round by getting Scoble to take offense at being called a silly man.

Round 2

In this round Lisa tries to slow down the pace by focusing the fight on the headline of Scoble’s post. However, Scoble has no interest in slowing down and keeps swinging for the fences, even throwing an “idiot” into the mix. Lisa again tries to slow things down, but Robert keeps up the pace, even blocking a commenter on Twitter. The frantic pace continues throughout the round with plenty of blows hitting their mark, but in the end Scoble steals Round 2 on sheer persistence.

Round 3

In this the final round we’re treated to even more fast-paced action with Scoble sticking with his “the title was a question” defense and jabbing with his “I just wanted to start a discussion”. Lisa gets a big boost from her corner as Rae Hoffman changes the title tag of Lisa’s post to include Scoble’s name and moves it into the top 100 Google results for Robert Scoble. While Scoble is distracted, Lisa unleashes the haymaker by calling out George Revutsky’s “I’m disappointed Scoble used our interview this way” comment.

The referee calls the fight at 2:30 of the 3rd round for our winner, Lisa Barone!

Photo by markhillary

The other day my friend sends me an email with the title “Funny PPC”. Knowing that I’m often quite critical of poor PPC ads, I anticipated some situation where dynamic keyword insertion had made a nonsensical ad. Happens all the time (courtesy of the now defunct YourPPCSucks.com). However, this one exceeded expectations.

The Ad

If the image is too small for you, it says “Hideous, obnoxious condos – www.redlodge.com – lousy snow, lame nightlife and surly locals want your cash now”. And yes, my friend did click the ad, which goes to this very normal page about ski lodges. There are two possible reasons for this ad.

Reason #1: A Bold PPC Strategy

My friend clicked the ad because he just had to know what was on the other side of such a negative ad. We are so accustomed to ads that are positive and are trying to sell us something. Want to stand out from the crowd? Write ads that criticize your product. Your conversion rates might not be very good, but the CTR should be healthy.

Reason #2: Disgruntled PPC Manager

More likely is the theory that someone at the Red Lodge made their PPC manager (or someone with access to the PPC campaign) very, very angry. In revenge, they changed the PPC ads. Simple, yet effective at making your old boss pay (literally). So what do you think? Bold PPC strategy or disgruntled employee?

Regular readers will probably notice that this is not the first time a Haband ad has been featured on this blog. First we saw their awesome “Feel Topless” socks and then we cringed at their condescending geriatric advertising. So what’s next for Haband?

Get Lucky PJs

Honestly, look how happy that guy is to be wearing his very own Get Lucky Flannel PJs. Truly a must have for the holiday season.

Chris has a great blog and one of the few blogs I read regularly. However, as I sat down to write a blog for today I really came up blank. I know Chris has published numerous posts that give you ideas to post about, but I decided that I would just write a blog similar to many I’ve read on his blog. Two main steps are required:

• Bring up a good, thought-provoking topic
• End the post by asking people what they think about the thought-provoking topic

Here goes:

When Will MySpace Die?

For me MySpace died a couple of years ago when I left the network, canceled my account (no small feat by the way) and moved over to Facebook. I know a lot of friends who have followed a similar path and I know some who have stayed true to their first love MySpace. However, it got me thinking. MySpace is still a huge social network, especially in the US. Facebook, for all the positive press just recently passed them in US visits. While dead to me, MySpace is very much alive to millions of people.

Many people have discussed what happens to an individuals online identity after they die. Who has the right to cancel or take over accounts? Can you bequeath them to an heir? All good questions, but an even bigger question is, What do you do with a dead social network? The users won’t all disappear at once, but if MySpace goes belly up, what happens to the remaining users? The content? What do you think?

PS If you actually read this Chris, I would love to see your thoughts in the comments.

The other day my 28 year-old friend received a direct mail piece from Haband. For those of you unfamiliar with the brand, they provide clothing and shoes for retirement-aged men. So what do you think when you see this ad?



I don’t know about you, but socks weren’t the first thing that came to mind.