New Ad Space in Google Maps?

I was doing a little check up on my local maps section for Houston Pest Control, and I came across an ad space that I have never seen before. Google now places ads under a businesses name. Very interesting.

Residential Pest Contol Service in Houston

I wonder how effective this ad is. It does have the benefit of finding an audience that is searching for relevant businesses. Those that buy from Orkin would be potential consumers for Bulwark Exterminating. This could indeed be a great ad space. On the other hand, those that are looking for Bulwark will most likely not be interested in a competitors ad, so long as Bulwark is taking care of it’s customers. In which case this ad will perform poorly. I guess the only way to know is to test. If you are going to test these ads then you may want to consider long and hard about what you will use to differentiate yourself from your competitor. If Google would allow me to create a unique ad for each of my competitors then I could see this as being even that much more effective.

“Have you considered buying from a Family Owned Pest Control company?”

“We offer a guaranteed scorpion control service in writing, do they?”

“Does your service suck? Tired of Corporate pest control?”

“We are the only Houston Pest Control Service with an Angie’s Award.”

As always, test, review, improve.

Related articles

• Update: Google Local Mixed Results Hit the Blender (dreamsystemsmedia.com)
• Google Maps Rolls a Ball Through Cube City in a Video Ad Spot (great-ads.blogspot.com)
• Bulwark Exterminating Customer Comment (pestcontroltulsaok.com)
• Big List of Local SEO’s to Follow on Google Plus (niftymarketing.com)
• Tiger Wood’s Ex Levels House = $12 Million in Pest Control (blogpestcontrol.com)

And if you need Houston Residential Pest Control Service:

Bulwark Exterminating‎
10900 Brittmoore Park Drive
Houston, TX 77041
(281) 668-4930

http://www.bulwarkpestcontrol.com/houstonpestcontrol.php

Images of SOPA Protesters

Today was to be the internet blackout day in protest of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Mike Halvorsen named some big names in his blog post on those that were going to protest: http://michaelhalvorsen.com/2012/01/google-amazon-facebook-twitter-shutting-day-protest-sopa/

Among those names were Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and Ebay. None of these have actually closed their sites for the day, but a few are voicing some protest on their site. Other big name websites, like WordPress, Reddit, and Wikipedia have stepped up to the plate. Here are screen shots of websites protesting the “Stop Online Piracy Act”.

WordPress

I actually found WordPress.com to have the more unique and creative protests. Imagine how many wordpress blogs could be in danger of SOPA regulations. In fact, this entire blog could be shut down for even using a screen shot of the wordpress homepage. Clearly wordpress has not blacked out their entire site due to SOPA, as this is a wordpress.com blog, and I am personally grateful they did not.

WordPress.org also strikes in opposition of SOPA. Although at the bottom of the page you can find a link back to the old wordpress.org page.

Amazon

Screen Shot of Amazon Homepage 1-18-2012

In case you missed Amazon’s protesting efforts…

So look again and you will see a small box in the top right hand corner labeled “Reasons to oppose or modify SOPA.” Amazon is walking a fine line here as many authors may have reasons to support SOPA.

Google

Google Homepage SOPA Protest

No doodle from Google in protest of SOPA. The google logo still appears on the google maps vertical, but does not appear in google’s other vertical searches. The link on google’s home page takes you to their page dedicated to protesting the movement and includes the following nifty PDF. < click the image to download it >

Surprisingly YouTube shows nothing in opposition of SOPA.

Wikipedia – Biggest Protester

Homepage of Wikipedia in Protest to SOPA - 1/17/2012

Very compelling message by Wikipedia, a site built upon FREE information. They also implement a great call to action to help push phone calls to “your representatives.” Their goal is to melt Washington D.C. phone lines. Worthy attempt. Although wikipedia did not have a complete blackout, and they are employing a rather sneaky redirect. Although I assume that Google will most likely ignore this black hat tactic. You will notice that the above page loads first then the redirect loads on top of that page. My guess is that Wikipedia understands the damage that could occur to their SEO should they show the search engines a bunch of duplicate content and/or pages down. And if you really need Wikipedia to do your homework then try http://simple.wikipedia.org.

Other Notable Protesting Websites

Mozilla‘s home page:

Mozilla’s blog mentions the protest but their blog and all other internal pages are still live.

_

Reddit‘s Entire Website for 12 hours:

This includes all of Reddit’s internal pages.

_

Wired.com is censored in protest of SOPA

_

Pinterest.com, upon login gives the following message and screen shot in protest.

Only visible upon login.

_

Slickdeals.net adds a notice on their homepage.

_

Congress Woman @RepAnnaEshoo of California is protesting on her site:

http://eshoo.house.gov/

Anna Eshoo represents California’s 14th Congressional District–the heart of Silicon Valley. She is Ranking Member of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

_

Craigslist.org is also adding a protest to their local directories, but with a link to click on through.

_

Slashdot.org marks through their logo and posts two articles at the top of their page explaining SOPA.

_

Fark.com Homepage Support for SOPA

Watch Why You should Support SOPA Video. Farks deeper pages are all still active. And instead of a blackout they went with a white-out.

Non Protesting Sites as of Today:

Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Ebay have nothing on their homepages in opposition of SOPA. Bing announced it’s protest, but nothing on Bing shows them as protesting. And while Godaddy was once listed as a supporter, they have nothing on their website going either way.

Perhaps it’s because the bill is nearly dead at this time, but with the exception of Wikipedia and Reddit, I feel that the protesting websites have failed to actually “BLACK OUT”, and their protests are weak. As a business, I can understand the actual costs involved in shutting down for a day. Google would loose millions if it closed it’s doors for one day. Wikipedia has the luxury of being a Non-Profit, so no money will be lost. As for Godaddy, they are smart for staying out of the political heat.

Feel free to add any additional sites in protest to the comments below.

Related articles

• Microsoft opposes SOPA (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• SOPA blackout list grows, as Google confirms plan to include link on homepage (100gf.wordpress.com)
• Stop SOPA/PIPA Censorship! WCMA Joins the Strike! (wcma2.wordpress.com)
• SOPA to be resurrected after blackout protests (slashgear.com)
• Say NO to SOPA & PIPA! (jeenus.wordpress.com)
• Stop SOPA And PIPA (neilperkin.typepad.com)
• What it SOPA & PIPA ? Why it is matter ? (ictreview.wordpress.com)

And that is a day in online protest, from your local pest control guy, at Bulwark Exterminating.

Facebook Ads Change with Timeline Layout

Samples of facebook ads and the change that the new facebook timeline layout has on the facebook ad space.

Old Facebook Layout with Traditional Ad Space

Old Facebook Profile

New Facebook Layout with Slimmer Ad Space

New Facebook Layout

Side by Side Mitt Romney Ads

Bulwark Pest Control Ad

110 x 80

Image size in facebook ads are 110 x 80.

Full post on Dream Systems Media : http://www.dreamsystemsmedia.com/blog/index.php/facebooks-new-layout-changes-ad-space/

Related articles

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Paul Schmitt the Spammer is a Pest

I have received a new spam letter from Paul Schmitt with Article Stars. “Below are the two best SEO WordPress Plugins out there for your SEO needs.” … and something about targeted keywords, and Google auto pilot plug-in. And very sneaky… using the “Schmitt” name to get that mental name association with google. FYI, Mr. Schmitt, you are messing with the pest control guy… and you sir bug me.

Grandma always says… “If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.”

Image via CrunchBase

Related articles

• Pest Control Guy Says Ba-HUM-Bug to the Likes of Paul Schmitt (pestcontrolseo.wordpress.com)
• SEO SPAM Mail by Kathy Lanten from Best Rank SEO (pestcontrolseo.wordpress.com)
• Schmitt Family to Rebuild After House Fire (lakemtka.wordpress.com)
• Top 10 WordPress Plugins (epiphanysolutions.co.uk)

Make it a great weekend!

SEO SPAM Mail by Kathy Lanten from Best Rank SEO

You know perhaps I have too much time on my hands and that is why I am actually reading these emails… Here is the pest report of the day.

Subject: Twelve Minutes

Hi, I was hoping you would give me just twelve minutes of your time to talk to you about your website. I am showing businesses like yours how they stack up against their competition, with a no obligation in depth analysis of their site.

I pride myself in understanding how search engines work, and can break it down to a simple science for you. If you give me an opportunity, I can show you how your site is currently stacking up against your competition and how you could be on top _ getting all the traffic your business deserves.

I am doing this at no cost. If by the end of twelve minutes you do not want my help, at least I will know you are making an educated decision and will remember my name when you are ready.

Please let me know the best way to reach you and any comments you want me to consider before I do my research.

I look forward to earning your business,

Kathy Lanten

Best Rank SEO | Outreach Department | San Diego, CA 92109

If you never want to hear from me again, just reply with REMOVE in the subject.

Twelve minutes? Well Kathy Lanten from Best Rank SEO, your 12 minutes is up, since you spammed this SEO crap to several of my websites. And LIES! ALL LIES!… As if you would only take 12 minutes of my time if you had me on the phone. Perhaps I am just that rude, to give you 12 minutes and hang up when you hit the 12 minute mark.

Consider this, if your SEO is anything like your email then you will be wasting my time.

 

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Attribution’s Value to the Customer Intelligence Function

Today’s email brings to mind a number of great questions… Read the following for a peek into the future of digital marketing attribution.

Attribution’s Value to the Customer Intelligence Function By Bill Muller, Editor With the emergence of the Customer Intelligence (CI) function within many enterprise-sized marketing organizations has arisen the desire to look at customer behavior across the entire marketing ecosystem. Inherent in attribution modeling’s functionality is the ability to do just that – to not only scientifically assign credit to the channel, campaign and campaign traits that helped marketers achieve success by whichever key performance indicators they choose, but also to associate that media performance success with the demographic and behavioral traits of given audience segments. Let’s look at just three examples of CI value that can be drawn from the attribution process: Customer Value As transactional data that’s associated with customers is fed back into the marketing attribution process, it can be married with media performance data and customer demographic information (that’s collected through the transaction process, surveys, or via overlay by any number of third-party data providers). As a result, algorithmically attributed media performance can be identified for an organization’s highest value customers, or by those with the highest propensity to convert, or by those with the highest propensity to be repeat buyers – as defined by the demographic and behavior traits of a particular customer segment. Armed with this information, CI professionals can advise their online and offline media buying colleagues to adjust their tactics by customer segment to increase LTV, conversion rates and yield. Mapping the Funnel By analyzing the demographic characteristics of customers whose marketing performance data has been fed through the attribution process, CI professionals can also identify the tactics that produce the best results at each stage of the conversion funnel – by audience segment. Which channel, publisher and offer serves at the first touch (“introducer”) for the customer segment with the highest LTV? Which combination of tactics serves as the last touch for the segment with the highest propensity to be repeat buyers? For the highest value customer segments based on several different key performance indicators, what do the ideal conversion funnels look like? With answers to questions like these, the CI function can not only advise the rest of the marketing organization on which tactics produce the highest results by customer segment, but can also prescribe at which funnel stage and in which sequence those tactics should be executed. Assessing Lag Time There are numerous “lag time” metrics associated with every customer’s stack of touchpoints on the path to a conversion. The time between every milestone – first impression, first click, first website visit, last impression, last click, last website visit, conversion, etc.-can be calculated, and as with the examples above, can be associated to the demographic traits and media performance of the highest value audience segments. With the intelligence gleaned from this analysis, CI professionals can advise media professionals on which audience segments have the longest and shortest lag times between critical milestones in the conversion funnel, the lag times for the highest value segments, and which media tactics should be employed to produce faster conversions, higher value customers, and the greatest return across the entire marketing ecosystem. Just Scratching the Surface Though attribution is rapidly on the rise within the media buying function at many organizations, the Customer Intelligence function is rarely taking advantage of the cross channel touchpoint intelligence that only the attribution management process can provide. But as these professionals begin to experiment with attribution and incorporate it in the value-add they provide to their media buying colleagues, it will undoubtedly become their default methodology, never again choosing to look at audience characteristics in isolated, non-attributed silos. Articles From Industry Publications Can Online Marketer’s Lead the Charge for Analytics & Attribution? By Manu Mathew, Co-Founder & CEO, Visual IQ Published in Marketing Land Search Campaign Optimization Through Touchpoint Analysis By Manu Mathew, Co-Founder & CEO, Visual IQ Published in Search Engine Land Proceed With Caution: Attribution’s Insights Not Always A Straight Line By Anto Chittilappilly, Co-Founder, President & CTO, Visual IQ Published in Online Metrics Insider

In This Issue Attribution”s Value to the CI Function Can Online Marketer’s Lead the Charge? Search Campaign Optimization Attribution’s Insights Not Always A Straight Line White Paper Click here to download 10 Steps to Enterprise Marketing Measurement: A Marketing Executive Checklist Note to The Editor Have feedback to provide on the content of this issue? Want to suggest a topic for a future issue? Drop a note to the editor here.

Attribution in 2012 and beyond

To think that analyzing touch points, lag time, and buying behavior has become so systematic and trackable is amazing. Marketing philosophy a decade ago only mentioned these processes, never before has a company been able to document these. Marketing in the past simply just gave into overlap of marketing. You show a message on TV, they see and ad in magazine, they hear your name across the dinner table… 21 impressions… 7 touches before a buy… ALL OF IT GUESS WORK. In the past you really just needed an intuitive guess on what was working. The way of the future will allow even more accurate tracking and documenting of the elusive touche points it takes for a customer to buy.

Related articles

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Reindeer Saves Rat

Story from BlogPestControl.com

“…But do you recall? The most famous reindeer of all…Shooter The Good Deed Reindeer!”

Err!

OK, so he may not be the most famous, but he certainly is the most thoughtful and service oriented toward rodent-kind.

Shooter the Good Deer Reindeer

Shooter, resident of the Pocatello Zoo in Idaho, was seen by zoo staff awkwardly handling his water trough. The large animal, which at times can be a bit overbearing for many of the staffers, eventually was able to dip his head and gently retrieve a rat from his barrel. Shooter then laid the distressed rodent on the floor and proceeded to nudge him with his hoof until he had the strength to scurry away into the bushes on his own power.

READ FULL STORY HERE >>

REINDEER SAVES RAT

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Pest Control Guy Says Ba-HUM-Bug to the Likes of Paul Schmitt

This Christmas season seems to only mean more, and more, and MORE, EMAIL SPAM!

Call me Mr. Scrooge, but I am sick and tired of emails about the LAST MINUTE DEALS, BUY NOW HOLIDAY SAVINGS, AND 1 MORE DAY TO SHIP FOR CHRISTMAS… BAH! Hum BUG! 

All this email spam is running my day… So this guy gets the heat, a Mr. Paul Schmitt wants to increase my Google Rank. Oh very clever using the name Schmitt and Google together. I don’t know but it seems to have a familiar

Hello,

My good friend Dan recently launched a very sweet SEO plugin I have ever got my hands on, its called Keyword Winner!

As you type to create a headline in your blog post, the results automatically display making it easier for you to get instant SEO Stats so that you can choose the best headline based on its competitive nature and search trend each time.

The information is there at your finger tips making it easier to target the right headlines and rank to the 1st page of Google easily.

See it here: http://tinyurl.com/7zub44u

Less competitive phrases are highlighted green, and more competitive phrases are highlighted red. You will get an instant drop down with up to 10 suggestions on other keywords!

This is one of the easiest to use SEO Plugins in history and is already revolutionizing the way we do SEO today!

Be The first to take advantage of this and see watch your headlines soar to the top and watch your competitors drop!

Get 1st Page for non competitive highly searched headlines guaranteed

http://tinyurl.com/7zub44u

Cheers To And Your Success,

Paul Schmitt

paul@articlestars.com

_______________

Matt Cutts Panda & Google Shoes

Now I didn’t actually bother to click on the tinyurl.com link as I don’t want to encourage this spammer to send more spam. And I am pretty sure that writing crap content about a non related subjects isn’t going to do me much for ranking these days. And the sheer fact that you are using email spam tells me that I don’t want your type of SEO, Mr. Article Star. What I can deduce from your email is that you are most likely an article spam farm. Which tells me that you are being hunted by the Kung Fu Panda.

And I am here to do whatever I can do to help eliminate pest like you.

The Pest Control Guy.

Giant Moth Found in Tulsa OK

Giant Moth - Large Bugs

This photo was taken by a Bulwark Pest Control technician working in Tulsa, OK. Moths are among the largest insects in the world. Some moths reach a wing span of 12 inches. They are quite beautiful in flight. Because of their size these large moths could almost be mistaken for a bat, except that they are much slower. Large moths beat their wings to a very melancholy beat, barely sustaining flight. This Tulsa moth isn’t as big as it may appear in the photo.

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Which Domain TLD Should I buy? .com .net .co .biz .org

I received a question about which domain to buy and the differences in the TLD, top level domain. TLDs are your .com, .net, .co, .biz, .org, .xxx, .tv,… etc. Today there are just so many to choose from. So what is the difference? Which should you buy?

Clearly the .com is the most widely used and recognized. Originally standing for “commercial”. It was introduced back in 1985. It was introduced along with com, edu, gov, mil, org, & net. Of those domains, edu, gov, and mil have specific requirements/restrictions and are not open for general use. ORG was intended for non-profits, but it has no restrictions for registrations.

Does the TLD effect SEO?

The search engines have stated that they have no real preference to the TLDs. However users do have a preference, in the fact that the users trust some more than others. Therefore, your CTRs will be higher, which in turn would effect your rankings. If I were to list the general use domains by my preference it would be as follows:

.com
.org
.net
.biz

What about the more recent .XXX and .CO?

As I understand the .XXX is that they are pushing for exclusive adult use. Therefore if your site has no adult content then you may be in violation of the terms for that TLD.

The .co’s have a benefit of being shorter, but they have a huge downside for being too similiar to the .com and that they are not yet widely recognized. Put a .co on the side of service truck and the majority of people are bound to think that you simply forgot the ‘m’ for the .com.

Related articles

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