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If you’ve been keeping up with certain blogs and news, Yahoo is cutting down on jobs and for the past year or two, because of Google, has been in shaky territory. Here is what bothers me more then anything else, how does the property on the net with the most traffic have such a hard time?

Lets look at some stats:

Fiscal Year Ends: 31-Dec
Most Recent Quarter (mrq): 30-Sep-07

Profitability
Profit Margin (ttm): 10.57%
Operating Margin (ttm): 12.30%

Management Effectiveness
Return on Assets (ttm): 4.68%
Return on Equity (ttm): 8.33%

Income Statement
Revenue (ttm): 6.84B
Revenue Per Share (ttm): 5.083
Qtrly Revenue Growth (yoy): 11.80%
Gross Profit (ttm): 3.75B
EBITDA (ttm): 1.46B
Net Income Avl to Common (ttm): 722.95M
Diluted EPS (ttm): 0.51
Qtrly Earnings Growth (yoy): -4.60%

The numbers it shows are all pretty positive but it has this weight on its shoulders and pressure to compete against Google. If Yahoo has an advertisement on TV (lets say during the superbowl) giving small businesses stats on their search and explaining what paid search is, sales would skyrocket. Same thing goes for Google but I guess they depend on advertisers or marketers like us to put out the word.

Is Yahoo too big for their own good?

Just when you thought someone couldn’t be that stupid, they go ahead and surprise you. So, the latest news yesterday is a woman posted a murder-for-hire ad on craigslist. OK, how stupid do you have to be when you plan for something like that?

This lady wanted to murder her lovers’ wife and offered $5,000.00 for the plot. What is more disturbing is I THINK someone may have responded to the ad but either way, come on…I can’t believe this story.

“…goes by the name Ann Marie Linscott, allegedly placed ads on craigslist under the heading "Freelance" and provided no further information. Those responding were asked to "eradicate a female living in Oroville, California" and provided information about the target, including a physical description.”

Now, although of course this doesn’t really look good or bad on Craigslist since almost everyone has heard of the site and although sometimes seen as controversial (escort services, murders) it’s still one of the most popular sites in the world. This is an example that you can post almost ANYTHING.

We’ll see how Craigslist handles this although you don’t see much PR from them.

Checkout the latest episode of the Palatnik Factor podcast. I touch on the domain name market in 2008, Buy or Sell? My experience this week with optimizing a landing page to test conversions and a new survey about eMail marketing.

SO…what are you waiting for?

Listen Now!

The Shoemoney post about disliking 95% of SEO Experts is bringing quite a few topics up. If you haven’t heard the latest Shoemoney show on Webmaster radio with guest Danny Sullivan, it is one of the best podcast discussions I’ve heard in a while. Two guys that just spoke honestly and truthfully about their views on the SEO industry as it stands today.

SEO and Affiliate Marketing are two industries that are very un-regulated. I can even get deeper to my passion and my biggest concern of an un-regulated industry and that is the lead generation industry which has a horrible, horrible, horrible rep among business owners but that may be my next post.

So, in regards to SEO. Lets take this Google ad for example which a company is promoting SEO:

Rank Top 3 For 1 Year
$159.95 For Top 3 & Top 10 Rankings
+ 1 Year Search Listing Guarantee.
www.servicewrap.net

You can’t promise results with SEO and that should be standard practice in the industry. I have to say, compared to recent years, all the ads read, “Rank #1 in Google Today!” The problem may be with too many people offering a service they aren’t too good at or just in general, have promised too much without delivering results.

I think SEMPO is a start to regulating the industry but it is a fairly young industry so it will be a while until it is really regulated. Affiliate marketing faces a very similar problem. I think we can all agree there are many shady tactics used by both CPA networks and publishers to get results and who gets hurt? The advertiser. The one factor that helps build the industry by providing their business.

How do you really qualify your SEO firm before going with them? I’ve touched on this before in a post, experience or results? What would make a client feel comfortable when putting $5-20k for optimizing a site without a guarantee of results?

I have to agree with Shoemoney on something that I’ve learned myself over the years. Good SEOs mostly work on their own projects and are too busy to take on other clients. I think Danny also agreed with that.
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Is the media scaring you about the recession the country may face or is facing now? Have a strategy in place if your business (affiliate programs, etc) seem to be declining or could decline because of financial insecurities? Is there a need or want for the product you are marketing?

These are all factors we have to look at and the one major factor we have to look at as online marketers is how peoples behavior will change in the coming months to position ourselves to build and create successful campaigns.

Listen To the Palatnik Factor Podcast —> Online Marketing Ideas For Recession 2008

THE PALATNIK FACTOR PODCAST IS ALSO NOW AVAILABLE AT —> GEEKCAST.FM

There are so many concerns in the industry about Google becoming an ad agency, I personally already consider Google to be one.

Forget its purchase of Double Click, Google itself is the most powerful site on the internet driving millions and millions of users each day and displaying millions of ads daily and being the biggest brand online.

Google is a self-serve ad agency allowing advertisers to choose paid search (search engine ads), content display ads, bid for audio ads, and print ads venturing into the newspaper arena. The acquisition of YouTube was a great vision for Google to advertise on user-generated video content which has 22.7 billion views in 2007 and growing an incredible rate.

So, back to Double Click, Google did acquire a search marketing/ad network/ company which is significant in what they are trying to achieve.

Google has also ventured into the mobile space which according to Nielson Ratings, mobile search was used by 46 million users in 3Q of 2007.

MarketingVox reports, “Last week Andy Berndt, who left Ogilvy to help launch Google's Creative Lab, told audience members at the Argyle Executive CMO Leadership Forum that "Google is not starting an ad agency."

What constitutes an ad agency? A team of people putting a plan for you? OK, there is a difference between the traditional ad agency and Google but…I wouldn’t argue the fact that Google is or is becoming an ad agency. By 2009-2011, Google Adwords platform, and probably others, will allow to bid for magazine spots and other media sources. Online search and use is only growing, Google has yet to see better days for its advertising revenue.