Internet Marketing Toronto - Ignite!

123People.com - A Yahoo! BOSS People Search Site

123people.com is a people search site based on the XML Yahoo! BOSS API.

Coming off my disappointment with Cuil’s ability to deliver “relevant” content for my name I was very skeptical when I tried out 123people.com. But when you search my name “Christopher Kata” you can see actual results for me! It includes pictures, emails, phone numbers, blogs and more  - that are actually mine!

Give in and try a vanity search on your name - you’ll be surprised with what you find! Perhaps it’s all good! Perhaps there is stuff you need to work on too. Either way - it’s cool, and it delivers “relevant” content.

Note: I tried Cuil again today - still not any better.

Google Enters The Browser Wars With “Google Chrome”

Google is entering into the ugly browser wars with Google Chrome.

According to the official Google blog they are launching the beta version of Google Chrome - a new open source browser developed by Google.

Have a look at the official post - and be sure to download it and take it for a spin! I’m already testing out IE 8 and I’ll be sure to install a copy of Chrome just to see what it can and can’t do!

Google Adding New Features to Blogger

According to the Blogger Blog Google is adding some new features.

It’s about time! Personally I’m a WordPress user - you’d notice by this blog. So I’m pleased to hear that Google is launching some new features for Blogger. In particular their launching a “Follow This Blog” feature.

Now you’ll be able to see right from your dashboard who is following your blog. You can also add a follow this blog widget to your blog which shows pictures of those who are following you and a convenient link to follow your blog.

Hopefully Google will continue to release new and exciting features for Blogger. It’s the only way they’ll continue to gain traction with it - or keep the users they’ve got!

Google Testing Ads On The Bottom Of The SERPS

Like Yahoo! Google is now testing the display of Ads at the bottom of the search engine results pages.

According to some marketers they’ve seen in the wild - tests by Google of Ads displayed at the bottom of the search engine results pages.

I use Yahoo! and I’ve never personally clicked an Ad at the bottom of the page merely because the quality of the results are usually so good that I never get that far. However, since Yahoo! has had this for quite some time I have to assume that it’s being used otherwise they would have gotten rid of it. Google’s test of it reinforces the fact that it must be working for some.

So it looks like there may be one more Ad position coming for Adwords soon! For more on the story  visit Search Engine Land.

A Great List Of Free RSS Icons

This is one great list of free RSS Icons!

I was working on a clients blog this evening and needed to find a good set of icons that would match the site. Google comes to the rescue after a search for “RSS Icons” I came up with this great post:

Free RSS Feed Icons, The Ultimate List

After a little poking around I found one that worked well and used it. If you’re in need of an RSS Icon and you don’t have the skills to create one, this post is for you!

Six Social Media Websites For Doctors

Six social media websites specifically for Doctors.

If you’re a Doctor looking to boost your internet marketing I suggest you check these resources out.

• Sermo
• DoctorsHangout.com
• Tiromed
• RelaxDoc.com
• SocialMD
• The Doctor’s Channel

New Ones:

• IMedExchange

Our Very Own Wordle Word Cloud

We’ve created our very own Wordle.net Word Cloud.

Wordle takes any kind of text content including RSS feeds and produces a customizable word cloud like the one we produced below. You can save it to their gallery and add it to your website!

I just thought it was pretty interesting the way the service works and thought I’d create and post ours here. To see the full size version just click on it to view it from Wordle.

Internet Marketing Toronto Wordle Word Cloud

The Olympics - Uniting Nations, Educating Australia’s Youth

I love the Olympics… its a great demonstration of sport and courage. Some great things have happened at the Olympics like Jesse Owen’s demonstration at the 1936 Berlin games, the Jamacian bobsled team (”feel the rythim, feel the rhyme” … you finish the song in your head) and many many more.

What I love more about the Olympics is the opportunity to learn about other countries and cultures. A spirit captured by one of our staff in Australia. This is Stuart’s 5 year old son Jack, who learned all about Canada in his class study of the Olympics.

Though we have no medals (yet), though we will always live in the shadow of our neighbour to the south, though we will most likely be subjected to hours of commentary of how we underfund amateur sport… we are still a proud nation - with fans around the world!

To Jack… Canada salutes you - Nice flag eh!

Internet Marketing Toronto: Post #9 Press Releases

Internet Marketing Toronto: Post #9 Press Releases

In our last post we talked about how the use of local directories can boost your local rankings. Today we’re talking about Press Releases.

Press Releases can be a very powerful tool in your local search engine optimization strategy. Specifically you want to create news about your company that is both interesting and geographically bound to Toronto (or any other location you are targeting). Most people are convinced that they have no news to issue as a press release. The reality is that all companies have something to say about themselves. Whether it’s new hires or new products or services. There is always something to say. In addition you can create news by responding to local events in a timely fashion. For example, if a small local disaster occurs as did here in Toronto this past weekend with the very large Propane Explosion which left thousands of people evacuated from their homes for more than 24 hours you could offer temporary help by offering supplies or shelter, or covering hotel bills for a family or two in need. This is certainly noble, newsworthy and good PR. The bottom line is that your company is likely not in short supply of newsworthy information.

Once you have a newsworthy idea to publish as  a Press Release you need to write it up. I’ve attached a very simple template to jump start your next press release. Write the story and be sure to target a specific related keyword, proof read it, and the publish it online. You can get away with using all of the free Press Release services most of the time. For those really newsworthy stories, those which you want to try and get picked up by mainstream media you need to opt for the paid services such as PRWeb.com. I’ve included URLs to some of the free PR sites below.

After you publish your press release you should be looking for three things:

1. In Google you want to see if you’re PR is coming up on the first or second page for keywords associated with your Press Release.
2. An increase in backlinks to your site as a result of the Press Release being picked up and published by other website.

Combined with the previous recommendations we’ve made in this series you’ll continue to see improved overall rankings for your geographically targeted keywords!

Free Press Release Sites

• 24-7 Press Release.com
• 1888 Press Release.com
• ClickPress
• EcommWire
• Express Press Release
• Free Press Release
• Free Press Release Center
• I-Newswire
• Newswire Today
• PR.com
• PR9.net
• PR-Inside
• PR-Buzz
• PR Compass
• PRLog

Downloads: Internet Marketing Toronto Press Release Template (MS Word .doc format)

Up next: Post #10: Backlink Development. Find out how to tie all of these activities together in a backlink development strategy!

New Google Tool - Insights for Search

I was popping by Google’s Inside Adwords Blog today and read a post about a new tool called “Insights for Search.” I tested it out and was impressed at what I saw so here is a review and some notes on how to utilize Insights for Search

The idea of this tool is to give the end user a glimpse into some search history, compare peaks and valley’s to news articles (much the same way Google Trends did) but also give a user the ability to understand search behaviour. It has some really powerful features, especially for an Internet Marketing agency like ours

Some very cool features include a “heat map” of the world or any geographic region you want to target and the corresponding rising search terms for a particular keyword you are examining. Additionally, you can compare up to 5 search terms and see how a users search habits differ across geographic areas. For example, if you are in the market for Laisk surgery - the west coast of the U.S. might be more inclined to use the search phrase “lasik eye surgery” while the east coast might use the phrase “laser eye surgery” more often. As an advertiser, it is important to segment these keywords and phrases depending on the target market you are focused on.

Furthermore, you can filter your queries by various categories. One example might be “java” which will have a different meaning depending on if you are looking for a programming language or a hot cup of coffee. Using the category drop down will allow you to segment the data accordingly.

You can also look at search trends by a particular date range. The default is set to 2004 - present but opening the drop down allows you to select some set ranges as well as a custom range.

Comparing your data by “location” and “time ranges” is also an option which can present some very powerful data but only for the top searches for the day, not custom keywords you select.

The tool also has a handy export feature to excel.

I was puzzled by the numbers that appear in the graph and upon further investigation found that these aren’t actual search numbers but rather “normalized” numbers that Google is displaying. You can read more about this here.