Yahoo! Online Advertising Campaign

Yahoo! has today announced a major advertising campaign to coincide with the launch of its redesigned home page. According to Yahoo!’s executive VP and chief marketing officer, Elisa Steele, Yahoo! wants to be the place where an individual’s world meets the larger World. But Yahoo!’s vision of providing an all-encompassing wide range of interactive content has already been superceded by rivals Google and Facebook, Twitter and a range of emerging sites.

In theory Yahoo! is the most popular website in The World, but this does not seem to be reflected on the ground. Does anybody in the UK actually use Yahoo!? We manage Pay Per Click Advertising on Google, Yahoo! and Facebook among others and the volume of traffic available – and, in our judgement the quality – is way lower on Yahoo! than on Google. The only saving grace is that the volume of traffic is so low that many advertisers overlook Yahoo! altogether, reducing the competition for keywords.

In a key move, Yahoo! has now opened up its home page to rivals like Facebook and Hotmail – essentially admitting that these third party offerings for social media are in more demand than its own. This may yet bring a strategic advantage over Google, which allows users to customize their iGoogle home page but doesn’t provide any external links on the core home page until they are searched for.

But surely the battle is largely lost - they publish an analytics solution, but it can surely not compete with the dominant analytics tool on the market Google Analytics, for which we provide Google Analytics Consultancy?

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Online advertising policy change

Last Friday - 17th October 2008 - Google opened up its pay per click advertising platform AdWords, which displays pay per click advertising listings on the page with natural search results, to gambling businesses provided they’re registered with the UK’s regulator - the Gambling Commission and to any companies in Europe that are registered with their own national gambling regulator.

Google AdWords pay per click ads will not, however, be displayed to Internet users in Northern Ireland as the policy change is only being put in place in England, Scotland and Wales. Google's new policy also states that users with their browsers set to safe search will not see the new online ads for gambling, although this will only in fact be true for users with Google's strictest safety setting.

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Cuil displays wrong listings

Anybody involved with search engine marketing will have seen the launch of Cuil in June this year. It;s a search engine claiming to have a larger database of results than Google does. But if you look a bit closer at their search results you'll see that something is wrong. Searching for the term "Advertising Agency", which on most search engines will show a listing for this Advertising Agency, will on Cuil display the AdStorm logo, alongside a listing for a totally spurions advertising agency. Apparently this is a problem across the entier search engine, and not only on searches for "advertising agency". Some experts think Cuil are showing the wrong images, but I beg to differ. Surely they must be showing the correct images but the wrong listings!



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From accounting to advertising, develop the best content!

An important method for attracting new customers these days, is bringing them to your web site. No longer does everybody go to trade shows and conferences to identify their new suppliers, collect details and maintain a brochure cabinet full of the best suppliers.

A popular selection process nowadays is simply to carry out a Google, Yahoo or MSN search, to visit supplier websites and to shortlist potential suppliers from there.

To make the most of this opportunity it's essential to advertise online and to develop the very best content you possibly can for your particular subject, in order to give yourself the best chance possible of appearing high in organic search results.

There are many techniques for doing this. For example, the business and accounting software vendor Lakeview Computers, based in Bexleyheath in Kent, provides an Accounting Software Glossary, which many Internet users working in the field of business management or accounting will find useful. At the agency where I work, we provide a marketing services companies directory, and the managers of Brochure Design recently introduced a range of online services, such as their Graphic Design Forum. This type of website content provides useful services to end-users, who discover the content through organic search, and end up developing a relationship with your brand. Then, when they search on the Internet, they already know your website and are more likely to visit it.

Google and other search engines are totally committed to listing only high value, relevant listings in their search results, so it's essential to build your website content with genuine end-user value in mind. Aim to make your site the very best site on the Internet, on its particular subject.

Rob, AdStorm Advertising Agency

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Free Online Advertising from BT Tradespace

Here's a great new, and free service from BT. They let you advertise your company online for free. Here's AdStorm's entry by way of an example - Advertising Agency. It's called BT Tradespace and they offer companies the opportunity to publish a mini website advertising your business, the products you offer, you can write a company blog like this one - AdStorm Advertising Agency Blog - and various other details - great in particular for small companies or for designers / freelancers maybe who don't want to go to the expense of developing their own website but want some kind of presence to advertise themselves online.



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Sales & Marketing Analysis is Key in Accounts Software

How do you actually know which customers you make a profit out of? This is key to making a profit in business. A customer of ours, Lakeview computers obviously recognise this as they recently introduced an integrated analysis tool to 'slice and dice' sales history, product and customer data as part of their accounting software. Details of the release can be found on PRWEB here - Lakeview Accounting Software - Analytics Solutions.

Other recent releases from Lakeview accounting software include;
Lakeview Launches Product Promotions Module in its Business Accounting Software
New Purchase Order Authorisations Module Within LM4 Accounting Software
Accounting Software Vendor Lakeview Provides Proactive Customer Support

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Gatekeepers to the mind

According to Brand Republic, Microsoft has today offered $44.6bn to buy Yahoo!, representing a 62% premium on Yahoo!’s share price. The gloves have been off for some time now in the battle to be the gatekeeper to people's minds. The battle for the power to bombard consumers with information on the information superhighway. To this end, Microsoft is flexing its financial muscles, having recently acquired rights to third party advertising on Facebook and also recently signing a deal to manage advertising on the Wall Street Journal.
The question I am now asking is, how important will online marketing ultimately become? Can Yahoo! really be worth nearly half of the value of News Corporation, the biggest media company in the World?

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