A few years ago, comparison shopping engines (CSEs) like Shopping.com, Shopzilla, Nextag and PriceGrabber were hot commodities. Many of them had been acquired for upwards of $500 million, they had strong profits, and a growing customer base. This despite the … Continue reading →

Last year I wrote about the different paths taken by FaceBook and Classmates.com and how Classmates’ decision to charge consumers up front may have ended up costing them the market that FaceBook now dominates. Today I received an email from … Continue reading →

For those of you who will be in SF on June 12th, I encourage you to buy your tickets now for the lead gen mixer. Tickets are $15 each and include beer, wine, food and fun. We’re selling 15o total … Continue reading →

As many of you know, the lead generation industry is filled with introverted, anti-social nerds who prefer quiet nights at home watching Dr. Who re-runs over interacting with others. With that in mind, Jay Weintraub (founder of the amazing LeadsCon … Continue reading →

As with any business, customer retention is far more valuable than customer acquisition. Companies that succeed in the long run are the ones that invest heavily in keeping their customers satisfied, rather than only spending money to acquire new ones. … Continue reading →

In a few weeks I’ll be taking my three month old son on an American rite of passage – the road trip. This one is pretty short – only four days – and does not include 20 hours a day … Continue reading →

This is totally not SEM-related, but it is worth writing about – if we can make even a small impact on this situation, it would be worth it. I’m hoping that after reading this you’ll also want to help and … Continue reading →

Yesterday I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. I had called the prescription in the day before and all I needed to do was tell the pharmacist my name, pay my co-pay, and leave. In front of … Continue reading →

Several months ago I wrote an overview of the seven most important aspects of SEM to master. At the time, I promised I would quickly follow up with details on each of these habits. Well, the definition of “quickly” is … Continue reading →

While it’s always flattering to be introduced as a “search engine guru” or something to that effect, there’s a dark side to such praise. To the majority of people in the world, search engine marketing is about as understandable as … Continue reading →