Michael Roebuck's Blog

I will be in San Jose attending the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition from June 4-7. Internet Retailer is the world's largest conference in e-retailing, where more than 4,000 online merchants from retail chains, catalog firms, web-only merchants and consumer manufacturers will share ideas and experiences on the one thing they have in common: web-based retailing. This is usually a good show and I come back with some great ideas for all my clients.

This year Kelly, one of our RTML Yahoo! Designers, is coming with me and we will be exhibiting with Yahoo at there booth. We recently exhibited with Yahoo at the PESA conference in Chicago and had a great time. Yahoo invited us to this show and we will be in the exhibit booth on Tuesday, June 5th from 11:00am to 3:00pm. Please stop by and say, "Hello!"

Karl Ribas, All Web's Project Manager will be attending the Search Marketing Expo in Seattle at the same time. It seems to be a great week for trade shows!

If you are in San Jose or Seattle, be sure to let us know. If not, I'm sure I'll post an update throughout the week and Karl will be updating about the SMX show.

Labels: internet, retailer, yahoo

My birthday was Friday the 25th. As manager of All Web, I usually do not participate in birthday wishes as I'm really bad with remembering dates. Unless I'm told it's a special occasion, I'll forget. Thus, forgetting some people's special days and remembering others. So rather than forget someone's day, I choose to forget everyones.

Anyway, I happened to be at a client site all day on Friday and not in the office. I called in several times throughout the day and all seemed to be running smooth. Apparently, as I find out later, too smooth.

I got back into town about 7pm and on the way home was paged several times that one of the network drives was down. Since it was the beginning of a long weekend, I needed to stop by the office and reset it. Karl also gets paged but he must have worked too hard during the day to come back and reset the drive.

I get to the office and was stunned with what I saw. My first thought was, "How did this happen without Cindy noticing and blowing a complete gasket?" Maybe she did see and is waiting until Tuesday. Just have to wait and see.

After getting over the initial shock, I leave and reset the drives. Good thing too, as our entire network was down. Thanks Karl!!

Anyway, I had plenty of time to ponder, chuckle, laugh out loud and think, "Holy crap they got me good."

Yes, everything is individually wrapped. My mouse, computer, telephone, pen, everything!







I came back to the office on Saturday to show my wife and kids and take pictures. I then unwrapped my desk only so I could be somewhat functional Tuesday morning yet still leave enough items wrapped so other people could see it. A lot of time and effort went into wrapping every individual item in tin foil and I wanted to ensure others saw it as well. I showed pictures to lots of people over the weekend and it did get lots of comments ranging from the fact everyone must have way too much free time and weather or not I got billed for the tin foil.

We have a good group of employees and we all like to have a good time. This just sets a new level to the good times.

Anyway, Thanks for the birthday surprise everyone. I'll admit you got me this time. But what you failed to remember is; I don't get even. I get ahead!

It's On.

Labels: birthday, tinfoil

My good friend and co-worker, Karl Ribas was recently interviewed by Joe Balestrino with Mr. SEO. I'm a bit behind in my podcasts and finally got to hear his interview this morning. It was a great discussion about PPC advertising. As with every great discussion, I feel my two cents worth will only make them better. So, as you listen to this great podcast, here is my 2 cents worth....

1 Cent: My first cent involves the ability to run A/B tests with Google Adwords. Joe briefly stated the ability was there but I feel that topic needs more time. The ability to run an A/B test will help virtually every aspect of PPC advertising, from landing page design to ad copy. When asked what to avoid in ad copy, Karl mentioned each business was different. Well, how can you tell what works for your business if you don't run A/B tests? Google make the ability to test so easy, that not to test, is a crime. Changing one word in your ad can make a big conversion difference. (Karl mentioned Rob Snell; Our friend and Yahoo Store conversion expert) By running against a control, you can guage just how much of a difference you'll get.

By testing different landing pages within same viewable ad, you can test various aspects of your landing page copy. Yahoo trackable links make testing not only your ads but the landing pages easy as pie!

By the way, Yahoo Search Marketing also allows for ad copy A/B testing as well.

In short, the ability to do A/B testing is easy to do and a necessity. Call me (or Karl) if you get stuck or need any help.

2 Cent: My second cent involves Karl's comment about his use of Yahoo Search if he wanted to buy something and Google search if he was researching. I think he's wrong. Some people might say that different people search using different engines and different styles, but since he doesn't follow my style, he's wrong. (Joke)

I search differently. If I'm looking to buy something, I use Google Adwords because those people are paying for the ad and therefore want to sell something. If I'm researching, I use the organic results and Alta Vista. I like to read reviews on Amazon or other sites where people review. Organic results are chock full of independent reviews on why something is good or bad.

For example, Kelly sold me on the Cingular Blackjack phone. Before I buy, I want to see other reviews so I search Google for "Cingular Blackjack" and read the organic results showing me various opinions and reviews that have been published. When I'm ready to buy, I click on the paid links. Alta Vista provides good organic results as well.

OK. There you have it. My 2 cents worth on Karl's interview with Mr. SEO. Please be sure to listen to the Podcast and all Joe's podcasts as they are very educational and informative for the seasoned SEO person as well as the do it yourselfer. It's full of legitimate information and not fluff about what the speakers did over the weekend. Karl's blog is great as well! Check them both out:

Karl Ribas Blog

Mr. SEO

Labels: balestrino, google, karl, ppc, ribas, seo, yahoo

If you haven't read my post on accepting PayPal as a payment option within your Yahoo! Store, you need to read it. Then, you need to read on....

PayPal and Yahoo! have partnered to launch a major new promotion for Yahoo! Store Merchants. Recently they completed an updated checkout flow for Yahoo! Stores that allows customers to checkout quickly by using PayPal Express Checkout.

Yahoo! clients that take advantage of this new checkout flow get a special shopping cart icon next to your Sponsored Search ads to show searchers that you accept PayPal for payments.

In addition, clients get $100 credit in Yahoo! Sponsered Search credit.

A $100 credit is nice, but the best part is you will pay no PayPal transaction fees through the end of the year on orders completed through PayPal Express Checkout. Did you catch that? NO PAYPAL FEES. It's a beautiful thing!

More Details can be found here: www.paypal.com/yahoosearch or contact us. We'll be glad to help you get set up.

Labels: paypal, store, yahoo