Internet Marketing Blog

Google Streetview Hits Home

Google Map's StreetView feature has finally arrived in the Twin Cities, reports Pioneer Press' Julio Ojeda-Zapata.

Like Twin Cities bloggers Ed Kohler and Aaron Landry, I've been messing around with the new view.

I've done the usual things with the new feature; looked at my work location, home, haunts old and new, and, of course, the sacred fields upon which I play touch football! :-)

StreetView is cool and well implemented but a little clunky to use. With snow on the ground here in Minnesota, it's a little weird crawling through the streets of Minneapolis and Saint Paul during the summer, when the photographs were taken. The whole dynamic creates a bit of a non sequitur type experience.

The grassy landscape brings up another issue for StreetViews: These days we increasingly expect our information to be very up to date, if not absolutely current. What is Google Maps' plan for updating StreetView? How often can they reasonably re-photograph an entire metropolitan area? Or, even, presumably, the world? That seems like a Herculean task.

Finally, the marketer in me desperately wants some way to add content to the maps, like you can do with the My Maps feature. There's gotta be a way to hook up people's My Maps data with the StreetView maps so we can see the world's annotations. Click a bubble on a photograph of a store for the hours and maybe even current sales or an embedded video.

The technology seems to already exist for this type of augmented reality marketing, it's just a matter of hooking the pieces together.

Augmented Reality Marketing

Remember the scene from Minority Report where Chief John Anderton walks through a shopping mall and personalized advertisements jump out at him from each store? That's Steven Spielberg's vision of augmented reality:

Spielberg's portrayal of the future of advertising probably isn't that far off the mark, except I'd think there would be far less clutter and the marketing would be less in your face and more targeted and useful and on demand.

Rather than basically having customized TV ads pop out at you wherever you go, think of augmented reality marketing as essentially a transparent overlay addition to your vision from which you can "click" for more information on a given thing in your environment.

Say you're walking through a shopping mall just like John Anderton but instead of getting unsolicited ads popping up at you, you get the equivalent of a hyperlink anchored to the store you are currently seeing. If you select that link, you can get the essential information about the store just as you currently can from Google Maps. You could save that information for later reference. You could view promotional content from the store itself. You read user-submitted reviews of the store. Or you could compare their prices and/or promotions with another store you've already saved.

Or maybe you're walking down 7th Street in Minneapolis passing the famous nightclub First Avenue and you want to see who will be playing there this week. Select the  events calendar that is augmented onto the building and you can see the bands playing this week and listen to a few of their songs or simply order tickets for a show.

About 38 seconds into this video, there's an example of how such an augmented reality might look:

This photo is an imagining of what directions might look like in augmented reality:

Augmented Reality Directions
Originally uploaded by kokogiak

This Flickr user has created a nice mashup of how augmented reality might look as a reputation system.

Augmented reality mobile phone concept
Originally uploaded by Leonard Low

The technology for such a future already exists. There are plenty of people working on wearable computing products, including data glove input devices. Broadband wireless access is growing in major metropolitan areas. The success of the iPhone points the way to the consolidation of Internet-connected communication devices. GPS-enabled cell phone adoption is growing. Camera technology gets smaller and sharper by the minute, it seems. Lightweight, flexible video screens exist. Geographic business data already exists at Internet yellow pages and Yahoo! Local and Google Local.

All of the required technology exists to make this sci-fi vision a reality, it's just a matter of pulling it all together and miniaturizing it to the point  that it's practical for everyday use.

Google Makes Embedding Maps A Breeze

Google Maps has made using their maps on your site as easy as copying and pasting code, just like YouTube. The Google Maps blog provides instructions. This is a Google map of our location:

View Larger Map

I'd like to see greater flexibility in how you can embed your map. Right now, you can only adjust the dimensions. I'd like to see, for example, the ability to set the default state of presentation, such as whether the map is just a map, a satellite map, a hybrid of both, or a traffic map. I'd like the ability to include the left-hand sidebar that lists the locations on a custom MyMap. Still, it's nice to be able to embed a map without having to go through the step of obtaining a Google Maps API key and then having to insert it into your code.

Twin Cities Meals On Wheels Google MyMaps Mashup

Molly Kennedy of the Twin Cities are Meals On Wheels has created a wonderful Google Maps mashup of Twin Cities metropolitan Meals on Wheels locations. She used Google's new MyMaps feature.

We helped them out embedding the map into their web site, but Molly did all the hard work of creating the map and drawing the service boundaries. The map is an excellent, real-world, practical example of a maps mashup.

Google really needs to improve the ability to unearth quality citizen generated content like these maps, though. If you search for Twin Cities Meals on Wheels at Google Maps, you'll get a list of locations, but the only way you'll find this specific map is if you scroll down to the bottom of the list and click on See user-created content.

A few improvements:

1. The link should be called "See user-created maps", not content.
2. For any search that has user-created maps associated with the keywords of the search, perhaps the link should appear at the top of the list of locations, next to "Modify search."
3. Include a link to any user-generated map that is associated with an "official" location, within that location's listing; perhaps next to or within the "more info >>" link.

Google's Problem With Paid Links

I've been meaning to write about this but, you know, hey, whaddya gonna do? Things get in the way.  But the topic came up again when reviewing a potential client's web site that looked like it was at risk of being penalized by Google because of paid links. So, though the topic may be a bit dated, it's still relevant.

In April, Matt Cutts, Google's search engine marketing liaison, explained the company's attitude toward paid links and clarified in May. In short, the search engine does not like them because some search engine marketers use them to try and improve the ranking of their site in Google's search results.  As such, Google considers them Web spam.

You need not worry if you've been buying links from reputable, legitimate sites and not link brokers. Google won't penalize you for that but, if the site linking to you is viewed very favorably by Google, you will incur no benefit from that site linking to you. That's often the reason people buy links, to get Google to think of your site favorably because of a link from a site the search engine already views as very favorably.

Google's Paid Link Policy

Google's paid link policy is an eminently reasonable practice to keep Web spam from its search results. Google wants its search results to be as relevant and precise as possible because that keeps people using the service and the search engine's user base is what drives ad sales.

But the policy calls into question how Google will treat paid links that are not necessarily intended to game their search results or links that are intended to boost the linked-to site's search ranking yet are topically relevant.

Let me explain.

Buying Topical Links

Let's say I have a baseball blog that I've been posting to for a while but haven't really marketed in anyway. The traffic to it is low and I've finally decided I want to grow my readership. But I want to do it relatively quickly because the post-season is approaching and readership for baseball blogs in general is going to rise and my team, the Minnesota Twins, will likely make the playoffs. (Hey, they did it last year!) This will be my prime opportunity of the year to tap into a large audience.

So, I plan on buying some links from Twins blogs and I'll buy links from a few blogs that cover Major League Baseball in general but are not devote to a specific team. In both cases, the topics of the sites I'm going to buy links from and my own blog are the same: The Minnesota Twins and baseball.

Boosting Search Engine Ranking Through Link Popularity

My purpose for buying these links is to grow my own audience, so I obviously want those sites' visitors to visit and read my blog and become part of my readership. But I'd also like to try and get some search engine traffic, so I'm going to use relevant keywords in my link text. My link text will read "Visit my Minnesota Twins blog" to try and rank well in the search engines for the phrase "Minnesota Twins Blog."

Why should should Google disapprove of my links, much less penalize me for them?

As I said, Google needs quality search results to make money from advertising. But my link buying campaign is doing nothing to affect the quality of the search engine's results.

Let's say that I post daily, sometimes more, that I'm a brilliant baseball mind and a superb writer, so the content of my blog is of the highest quality. If my site ranks highly because of my link campaign, I'm improving the quality of Google's results for the phrase "Minnesota Twins blog" because my blog is as good as if not better than the rest that are listed. And a link to my blog precisely matches what the searcher wants.

Though they don't say specifically, it would make no sense for Google to penalize this type of Internet marketing because it only helps Google improve their results. It's a win-win for both my blog and Google's quality. So I have to think Google will not frown on such paid links.

That's the approach I take to search engine marketing: Help Google improve their search engine results by including my clients' high-quality, relevant content in their results. Such an approach is in everyone's long-term interests: Mine, my clients' and Google's.

Communications 2.0 - Event Marketing With Google Calendar & Upcoming.org

This is the tenth part of a presentation Ann Treacy and I gave on Web 2.0 technologies, called Communications 2.0. We presented to a nonprofit communications class at Hamline University.

The tenth segment discusses event marketing using calendar services such as Google Calendar and Upcoming.org:

See also:

• Communications 2.0 - The Theory Of Web 2.0 - Part 1
• Communications 2.0 - Flickr Photo Sharing Marketing - Part 2
• Communications 2.o - Podcasting & Podcast Marketing - Part 3
• Communications 2.0 - Viral Video Marketing - Part 4
• Communications 2.0 - Social Bookmarks Marketing - Part 5
• Communications 2.0 - RSS Marketing - Part 6
• Communications 2.0 - Blog Search Engine Marketing With Technorati - Part 7
• Communications 2.0 - Microblogging & Text & Instant Message Marketing With Twitter - Part 8
• Communications 2.0 - Marketing With Google Docs - Part 9

MikeCiresi.org - Cybersquatting In The Minnesota US Senate Race

I originally published this story in the June 7, 2007 issue of the Politics In Minnesota newsletter. I'm posting it here because it has a lot of bearing on Internet marketing in general and on online reputation management in particular.

Cybersquatting & Wikipedia Intrigue

A Google search for the words "mike ciresi" revealed an interesting Internet marketing tactic. But by whom remains a mystery. At the very top of the search results you'll see a highlighted link that is labeled a "Sponsored Link." That's an ad purchased by the Ciresi campaign that points to the ciresiforsenate.com site.

It's the first link in the "natural" or non-advertising search results that's  interesting. That link reads Mike Ciresi and points to mikeciresi.org.  Clicking on that link takes you to what appears to be, and is--and isn't--Ciresi's  Wikipedia entry.

It is the Wikipedia entry in your browser but that entry is "surrounded" by the mikeciresi.org domain. If you click on any link on the Wikipedia page, you'll notice in your browser's address bar that the address of the page never changes; it always remains at mikeciresi.org. Mike Ciresi's Wikipedia page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Ciresi yet that address never shows up in your address bar.

The technique is called domain masking. It entails some simple HTML code called "framesets" that essentially encloses all browser activity within the domain that is used for masking purposes. You can see how it works by using your browsers' "view source" function when you're at mikeciresi.org.

In effect, you never leave mikeciresi.org but can surf the Web within it. The only way to escape the domain is by hitting your back button until you reach your original Google search or by typing a different domain in your browser's address bar.

There is nothing sinister at all to this practice per se though it's a bit of a mystery as to why it is being done in this case.

The domain mikeciresi.org ranks 1st when you search for "mike ciresi" because it contains the words "Mike Ciresi" in the Title area of the site that shows up on your browser's title bar and the words are contained within the domain itself, an important consideration for Google rankings.

The campaign's domain, ciresiforsenate.com, has not been optimized for the phrase "mike ciresi." That basically means that those words have not been placed prominently or strategically enough on the pages of the site for Google to recognize that that is the topic of the site. It explains both why that domain does not rank well for Ciresi-related searches and that in turn explains why the campaign is buying ads on Google.

Though Google knows about ciresiforsenate.com (it has 21 pages from the site in its index), the search engine obviously doesn't consider the site relevant enough for the search "mike ciresi." Further searching revealed [NOTE: The following data was accurate when this piece was originally published but have since changed, possibly due to search marketing done by the campaign]:

• mike ciresi us senate campaign website - no links on the first page of Google
• mike ciresi senate campaign web site - no links on the first page of Google
• mike ciresi us senate - no links on the first page of Google
• mike ciresi for senate - no links on the first page of Google
• ciresi for senate 1 link to mikeciresi.org and no links to ciresiforsenate.com on the first page of Google

The ciresiforsenate.com domain name was purchased on February 11, 2005 by Ciresi's State Director Kerry Greeley (Tim Walz' former campaign manager). Six months later the mikeciresi.org domain was purchased anonymously from a domain registrar in Germany on July 14, 2005.

Greeley does not know who registered mikeciresi.org and no one has contacted the campaign about it.

But why mask Ciresi's Wikipedia entry?

There are only two reasonable explanations: 1) Since mikeciresi.org points to the relatively innocuous Wikipedia page, the domain is controlled by someone outside, but friendly to, the campaign, or 2) the domain is controlled by someone who may or may not be a friend but, if hostile, may be pointing it at Wikipedia to keep their powder dry, so to speak. Considering that the domain was purchased on foreign soil, if you will, the safe bet is on the latter. Also, since Google tends to rank Wikipedia pages near the top, masking that page may be an attempt to fool Google into thinking the domain is a Wikipedia entry so it will rank well.

View the screenshots (click on the graphic for more detail):

Google Search For "mike ciresi":

mikeciresi.org Masking Mike Ciresi's Wikipedia Entry:

HTML Source Of mikeciresi.org Pointing To Wikipedia Entry:

Mashing It Up With Google Mapplets

Yep, with two Ps...as in Applications, or Mapplications, as Google might have it. On the heels of their announcement of a street-level view for their Google Maps service, Google also released developer tools to allow the public at large to mash up their own custom Google Maps creations:

Google & Microsoft Offer Street-Level View Maps

Both Microsoft and Google announced this week the addition of a street-level view feature for their respective online maps services. Google includes this YouTube video explaining how to use the maps:

Both look like great applications but it looks like Google is opening up their API and betting that the added content and applications that result will help expand and enhance the service.  I've been messing around with Google's mobile phone maps application for a while and have been very impressed with it.

• Google's Street-Level Maps
• Microsoft's Street-Level Maps

AliShops.com: New Twin Cities Shopping Web Site Launch

On Monday we launched AliShops.com, The Insider's Guide to Twin Cities Shopping. The site is the brainchild of Pioneer Press Savvy Shopper columnist Allison Kaplan, and features short, informative, and engaging reviews of Twin Cities neighborhood stores.

Graphic Design

The site had to be visually appealing, quick loading, easy to navigate, and, just as importantly, search engine friendly. The illustrations for the site were designed by my friend Patty at Spot Design. They give the site both elegance, visual charm, while also immediately identifying that the site is about shopping.

Search/User Friendly Database Design

AliShops.com features a database backend to handle the content and administration of the site but we specifically designed the database to include search engine marketing features. Each page on the site can have custom meta titles, descriptions, and keywords. The URLs for each page use keywords rather than ID numbers to describe the content of that page. All of these features contribute to help optimize an individual page on the site for a specific search phrase while also providing more information for the site's visitors.

We also designed the database to make it easy to sort the stores on the site in numerous ways, such as by category and neighborhood, city, county and even zip code.

The site search function is fairly robust, searching nearly all the database fields for the stores. Site visitors can further refine their queries by sorting their searches by name, category, county, neighborhood, city, state and zip code.

Search Friendly Coding

The pages of the site use cascading style sheets for formatting and layout in order to both follow website design best practices and to make the pages as easy as possible for search engines to understand, and therefore index. The site looks and works well in all major browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari for the Mac.

Advertising Management System

Though AliShops.com does not sell advertising, we implemented an ad rotation/management system for Allison to run internal sitewide promotions, such as one encouraging visitors to sign up for her free email update. The advertising management system allows campaigns to run sitewide or within specific sections. Ad campaigns can be set to expire automatically at a date certain or after X number of impressions or click-throughs. The system can handle graphical banner ads, text-based ads, or even rich media.

Social Bookmarking Integration

In order to promote sharing of the site and to provide a helpful feature for visitors, we built in the capability of visitors to save individual store review pages (example, scroll to bottom) to popular social bookmarking services such as digg, Google Bookmarks, del.icio.us, Furl, or to email the page to friends.

Not only does this help visitors keep track of their favorite pages, but it also allows other people who are using those services to find AliShops.com.

Email Marketing

We also designed a template email to match the look an feel of AliShops.com for her to use for her weekly email update. The update service provides subscribers with sales and specials and notice of when new stores and shops are added to the site. Email newsletters are a superb way to build an ongoing relationship with visitors.

Blog Marketing

Finally, we designed a companion blog for the site, AliShopsBlog.com. The blog provides Allison with a communication vehicle that is personality driven--more intimate and informal--which helps to make a personal connection with her visitors. With the ability for readers to comment on her blog, she can engage her audience in a conversation while gaining valuable insight into what they'd like to see in her Internet presence.

The blog features the same social bookmarking features that AliShops.com boasts, as well as RSS feeds for popular RSS readers.

We designed an email update template for the blog that matched the look and feel of the site, as well. The blog's email update allows her subscribers to get a weekly email containing all the blog posts for that weeek.

Google Maps Mashup Tools & Resources

These are some tools and resources I put together for a demonstration I am doing today on creating Google Maps mashups using MapBuilder.net for MetroGIS:

Essential Google Maps Mashup Tools

• Mapbuilder.net – MapBuilder is a Web 2.0 online application that allows you quickly and easily build custom maps using Google or Yahoo Maps API and JavaScript.  MapBuilder provides a WYSIWYG interface that requires no knowledge of map APIs, geocoding, or JavaScript. Some fundamental HTML knowledge is required. The main features of MapBuilder include Address Geocoding, CSV file importing, icon selection, directions in a pop-up window, collaborative map development, map sharing, hosting flexibility.
• Google Maps API Key – In order to use MapBuilder for creating a Google mashup, you’ll need a Google Maps API Key, which you can get for free.
• Google Account – You will also need a Google Account in order to get a Google Maps API Key. If you do not have a Google account, you can sign up for one for free as well.

Google Mashup Examples

• Minnesota Dry Cleaning Locations – We created this mashup for our client Martinizing Dry Cleaners to graphically and interactively display their Twin Cities locations.
• Twin Cities Entertainment Hotspots - We created this mashup to try out both MapBuilder as a tool as well as to try and use a Google Maps mashup as a method for driving traffic to specific posts within a blog.
• The Sopranos Google Mashup – This is a superb demonstration of  a Google mashup used to promote the HBO hit series, The Sopranos. It is a map of the location of all the “hits” that take place in the show with video clips of that particular hit from the episode in question.
• Weather Mole – This mashup combines Google maps with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data to give you a local weather forecast.
• MashMap – Mashup of Google Maps data and movie showtimes and theaters.
• MapBuilder Examples – A list maintained by MapBuilder.net.

Additional Map Mashup Resources

• Google Maps
• Map Mashups
• e-strategyblog.com Map Posts

Technorati tags: google maps | google maps mashups | local internet marketing | mapbuilder.net | metro gis

Map Of Religious Denominations In The US

We hear a lot about values and faith-based communities but usually it is in a polarized political context, so it's easy to tune it out. But there's no denying that one's religious outlook informs much of how a person views any other issue. It is important, therefore, for marketers to understand the religious context within which they are marketing.

For a course called American Ethinic Geography at Valparaiso University  Professor Jon T. Kilpinen provides a map gallery that illustrated the "cultural mosaic" of the United States by overlaying population density data for different groups by geographic region. There are maps for ethnic groups, cultural regions, religion, language, politics, and socio-economics.

The maps are a fantastic tool for anyone who wants to understand the geographic region within which they are marketing.

Or the political landscape. For example, the map showing the distribution of members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America helps to explain North Dakota's legislature's recent bill outlawing abortion.

These maps are fascinating for anyone interested in the demographics of the United States but they are also an invaluable marketing tool.

Technorati tags: demographics | demographic maps

A Practical Use For A Google Mashup

We just launched a Google Maps mashup for our client, Minnesota Martinizing Dry Cleaning. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, a "Google Maps mashup" is simply putting one source of online data on top of a Google map, so you have data points on the map.

In the case of our client, we created a Minnesota dry cleaners map that features all of their Minnesota locations. If you click on one of the balloons on the map, you get a pop up window with the address and telephone number of the location, as well as a text box to enter your starting location so you can get directions. This is an example of a very practicle use for Google Maps that can add value and usability to your online presence.

For an example of a Google Maps mashup that is purely a marketing vehicle, check out HBO's absolutely amazingly done Sopranos Map. Click on a location on the map and you get a short video clip from season five of what happened at that location, a text blurb explaining the context, and other information that is tightly integrated into the Sopranos section of HBO's site.

The Soprano's map created a lot of online buzz when it was released and that buzz helps create excitement for season six that begins this Sunday.

Technorati tags: minnesota | dry cleaning | dry cleaners | martinizing | minnesota martinizing | minnesota dry cleaning | minnesota dry cleaners | maps | google | google maps | google mash-up | hbo | sopranos | sopranos map

Online Classifieds - Craigslist

Riffing off the new documentary 24 Hours On Craigslist, Nightline did an excellent segement last night on the online classifieds site Craigslist. The piece is done by Jake Tapper, who was one of my favorite reporters when he was with Salon.

Watch the Craigslist segment.

Technorati tags: 24 hours on craigslist | craigslist | online classifieds | nightline | jake tapper | salon | video

Marketing With Google Local Maps

Yesterday, on NPR's All Things Considered, Mike Pegg, who runs the Google Maps Mania blog that tracks Google Maps "mashups," was interviewed about the phenomenon.

"Mashups" are value-added Google maps that are overlaid with useful--nor not--information. An example cited in the piece was the Beer Mapping Project, displaying breweries and brewpubs accross the US on a Google map.

While the location of breweries and brewpubs may be useful only if you're a beer afficionado, there are some obvious practical applications Google maps mashups can have from a marketing persepective.

One that I find particuarly useful is a map of free wi-fi hotspots near my office. You can see from the map that most of the hotspots are provided by coffee shops. So, if I need some quick wireless access, as I often do, am I going to Starbucks and their T-Mobile for-fee wi-fi access, or do I go to my local Dunn Bros coffee shop and get access for free? That no-brainer drives my business to Dunn Bros.

You can see then, that the ease and usefulness of Google maps can provide businesses with numerous stores not only a useful tool for your web site visitors, but a great local marketing vehicle.

Keyword Research On Xbox 360 Searches

One of the primary things we do for clients is conduct keyword research to determine the exact search phrases people are using to find information about their product or service.

After compiling a list of relevant search phrases, we analyze the list for volume of searches (popularity), intent (search mode: is the searcher an information seeker?, in purchase mode? etc.), and efficacy (how likely is it that we will have success using that phrase for search engine marketing given the competition and other factors?).

Recent data from Hitwise on "xbox 360" searches will give you an idea of searcher's behavior. Hitwise released the following list of "Top 10 Sites receiving traffic from the search term "xbox 360" - based on volume of searches" for the four weeks ending 12/10/2005. The following list indicates which web sites got what share of traffic from the search phrase "xbox 360."

1.	Xbox.com	22.09%
2.	Microsoft.com	6.54%
3.	news.google.com	5.08%
4.	eBay.com	4.77%
5.	Atomicpark.com	4.14%
6.	xbox360.ign.com	2.53%
7.	MSN.com	2.29%
8.	Shoplocal.com	1.98%
9.	Bizrate.com	1.95%
10.	Walmart.com	1.83%

Based on the top 10 sites that people chose to go to after searching for "xbox 360," we determine several things. The top 10 sites can be divided into two general categories: informational and ecommerce. The preponderance of the searches were informational, with most people going to Microsoft-owned sites Xbox.com, Microsoft.com and MSN.com. That's unsurprising, given that the Xbox 360 is a Microsoft product. We also know that a subset of the information seekers looked specifically for news about the Xbox 360 because of the traffic to Google's news search engine and the traffic to the video game web site published by IGN.

The remaining sites are ecommerce-related. Even if we hadn't seen the news about Xbox 360 shortages, we could have gotten a hint that there were shortages because eBay was the top ecommerce site people visited. Why would people buy a product at a site where the price is not fixed unless supplies were scarce?

Atomic Park is primarily a software site but also sells Xbox 360s, so their traffic is probably a combination of people wanting to buy the actual console and people looking for information on Xbox 360 games.

Bizrate is a price comparison search engine, so the traffic to that site consists of people looking for a deal.

Shoplocal, as the name implies, is a site where you can find stores near you and, so, their traffic is fairly self-explanatory: Those people are trying to find a store in their neighborhood where they can buy an Xbox 360. The same might be said for Walmart, one of the official Xbox 360 retailers, because they have a store locator on their site.

Finally, when you look at the Xbox 360 searches in the three major search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN.com, you'll notice that the ecommerce sites are not listed in the "natural" search engine results but that they are heavy advertisers in the sponsored sections of the search results page. That tells us that most, if not all, of their traffic is coming from pay-per-click search engine advertising.

Google Bombs & Reputation Management

If you've been reading Minnesota's liberal bloggers, you may have noticed that a local columnist for the Star Tribune, Katherine Kersten, has been Google Bombed. Liberal bloggers have been linking to the arch conservative and Center of the American Experiment alum's section of the Strib site using the phrase "Minnesota's worst writer."

Google Bombs work this way: When a lot of web sites (or blogs) link to a specific web site using the same phrase as the text in the link, it helps that link rise to the top of the search results when using the phrase in question. The same thing happened to President Bush two years ago when a ton of liberal bloggers linked to Bush's biography on the White House web site using the phrase "miserable failure". You'll notice that the second link for the Google search "miserable failure" is to Michael Moore's web site; that's because conservative bloggers retaliated.

What we didn't know is if Google Bombs such as the "miserable failure" one were effective at anything other than garnering headlines. Now we have proof that it they can have a high click-through rate:

The word "failure" is the top search query that is driving visits to the White House web site, according to the Search Engine Watch blog. Search Engine Watch knows this because of a security hole in Google's Sitemaps service, a tool for webmasters to tell the search engine about the content on their site. By implementing some code on your site, you can tell Google about every page on your web site and they, in turn, will provide some rudimentary statistics on the phrases that people use to find your site and the frequency with which they clicked on said phrases.

The security flaw in Google's Sitemaps service allowed anyone to see those statistics on any site that was using the Sitemaps service. The White House site was not the only site affected--stats were available for eBay and AOL as well.

Online Reputation Management

The relative ease with which one can be Google Bombed highlights the importance of monitoring your online reputation, especially within the blogosphere.

There are some tools that will help you monitor the blogosphere and, if not help you discover if you've been Google Bombed, at least let you know what, if anything, bloggers are saying about you. Google's advanced blog search engine options are a good place to start. Technorati and IceRocket are excellent tools because not only can you monitor by search phrase, but they offer popularity indicators for individual blogs by telling you how many other blogs link to that blog and how many incoming links a blog has garnered. Visit my del.icio.us bookmarks for more blog search engines.

If you've been Google Bombed, it's probably a good idea to respond. Having a bunch of bloggers do a counter Google Bomb--as conservative bloggers did with Michael Moore--is probably not a bad way to go.

But if you don't have a pack of bloggers at your beck and call, populating search results with your own competing content through search engine marketing is likely your best bet. At the very least, you'll want searchers to have the option of reading your side of the story.

Targeted Internet E-mail Marketing

One of our clients, The Great North Alliance, publishes an email newsletter that will help to illustrate some of the elements that constitute succesful targeted Internet e-mail marketing.

The Great North Alliance is a regional civic leadership organization that focuses on the economic vitality of the Twin Cities, Minnesota metropolitan area.

In order to build a relationship with executive-level professionals in Twin Cities organizations that play a large part in the Twin Cities vitality, we suggested that The Great North offer a free, valuable email newsletter that would appeal to that audience.

We created a twice-monthly compilation of links to news stories that have a bearing on the economic vitality of the Twin Cities. The elements that made the newsletter a success are that it offers value in the form of compelling content that subscribers use in their jobs and it saves them time.

The numbers tell the story: The thousands of subscribers consist of corporate CEOs, nonprofit executive directors, entrepreneurs, government and elected officials at the state and local levels, members of acedemia and the media.

The Great North email newsletter allows the organization to communicate with these people on a regular, ongoing basis. It positions the Great North as an expert--if not the preeminent expert--on the Twin Cities econmic and competitive capacity.

The Great North publishes the semi-annual Oppportunity Forecast, which is the core of it's purpose. They've just released the most recent Forecast and the success of their email newsletter provides the Great North with an excellent distribution channel to the people in position to have the most effect on the vitality of the Twin Cities economic competitiveness.

You can subscribe the the newsletter (and get the Opportunity Forecast report) at TheGreatNorth.com.