Jason+: A Blog about WordThink

It's late Friday afternoon, and I'm checking in on my Feedly . Feedly is one of my favorite news aggregators, and I came across ' Through the Google Lense ,' which is an official column by Google on trends in search queries. Through the Google Lense  is pretty sad when you drill into it. Why? Because the tool its actually based on - Google Trends - is in and of itself a sad little tool. Google Trends gives you only the most basic access to search query trends on Google: you can compare two words to each other, but you can't really drill into words (phrases, synonyms, related words, etc.) and you can't really do much with the data, quantity or value of search terms. You can't really customize Google Trends to any significant degree.  So it's a more a temptation than a tool . Why is that? The reason, I submit to you - dear reader - is that Google is a monopoly, and like all monopolies, Google stifles innovation. If It Walks Like a Duck, It

Andy Warhol (who happens to be my favorite artist) called his workshop in New York City, the factory .  The concept being that he didn't "make art." He orchestrated the production of "stuff," which may or may not have been art. Warhol played with the continuum of where mass production ends and where art begins or vice-versa. Mad Men would have been proud of him, as he was both thoroughly commercial and thoroughly brilliant . The SEO / Social Media Marketing / AdWords Factory How does the "factory" pertain to SEO / Social Media Marketing / AdWords? Well, many people think of this marketing task like ART: create the PERFECT website (one time), create the PERFECT Facebook Page (one time). It's a "work of art" and once done, it's done. Not to mention it takes a long, long time to produce. That's not how to think about it! You want to think about it like Andy Warhol: your SEO / Social Media / Adwords is a factory : G

I love AdWords! I hate AdWords! It's all about the details. Meaning Do you know your keywords?  Really know your keywords: which ones are "transactional," which ones are "converters," which ones are "dogs?" Do you write strong ads that ATTRACT customers and REPEL non-customers? Do you have a strong landing page that leads to a CONVERSION? And - have you forgotten about SEO ? Can you get what you're PAYING for with AdWords for FREE via SEO? Spell Check Your Ads Oh, and as a Harvard Alum - shout out to Harvard.  Do you SPELL CHECK your ads? You gotta kinda sortta look intelligent on your ads.  See screenshot of currently running Harvard ad. A guy walks up to the "8 items or less" aisle at a store in Cambridge, MA, with 25 items. The clerk asks, "Are you from Harvard and can't count, or from MIT and can't read?" Click to see Full Image

Food for thought on a Friday. AWeber had an informative webinar by a company called LeadPages . As is so often the case in these free webinars, the presentation was pretty cheesy , and felt a bit like being at the state fair: it slices, it dices, but wait - there's more! I enjoyed it, however.  The product looks good, especially for those who are not good at Web design.  It helps you make quick landing pages for ad campaigns, email signups, or any other type of offer for which you want to "squeeze" out an email sign up. The Takeaway: Good Enough Content Beats Great Content Here's the unusual take-away. The presenter indicated that in their experience "high quality" information can be easily trumped by "low quality" information. The somewhat cynical idea being don't stress so much about having to produce the ultimate, best content. Just produce "good enough" content, and use it as your "carrot" to capture an email

Google had an important AdWords livestream today, and you can watch the really really long 45 minute video, here .  Unfortunately, it's very long and they talk v e e e e e r r r r r y y y  s l  o o o o  w.  So here's my wrap up. Mobile, mobile, mobile.  Google wants everyone to "go mobile," and that includes AdWords. So it's all about mobile these days. Now, whether that works for you is another matter. A lot of these "searches" on mobile are very consumer-oriented, and not particularly in-depth. So if you are in restaurants, auto's or big brands... mobile may be great. If your product is complicated and not phone-friendly, then the phone might not be for you.  Tablets and PC's might be better - but Google has completely and utterly drunk the mobile koolaide, as if "everything" were mobile.  Sorta kinda maybe. Apps. Some new stuff is coming out in Apps, including app promotion tools and ads are coming to the Google Play store (t

Facebook is going ga-ga for video... What's interesting here is that (finally!) YouTube has a contender that could really contend (sorry Vizio). Facebook wants you to  Upload your videos to Facebook Share your videos via Facebook Watch videos on Facebook Advertise videos on Facebook And foggetta about YouTube.  You can learn more about Facebook for videos here   (as a user) and here (as an advertiser). For information specifically about video ads on Facebook, click here .