GroupM Search Study Reveals Advertisers Could See CPC Increase Up To 78% With Yahoo & Microsoft Search Alliance Transition

GroupM just released an incredible study and analysis on the potential impact on pay-per-click campaigns running in Yahoo, Bing or both during and after the search alliance process which show increased costs as much as 78%!

All I can saw is wow. One of the things that I really appreciated about Yahoo and Bing, to a lesser extent was the cost savings on a CPC basis over Google, but with these potential increases much of that advantage is now erased and it will be interesting to see how this play outs for advertisers.

You can read all about it and the methodology at the link below:

Financial Implications of the Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance White Paper

Google Instant Search vs. Bing Seamless Search

Bing beat Google to Instant Search functionality by introducing it way back in 2009.

Click here to see - Bing Instant Search

Okay, well Bing (or Microsoft) did not actually produce an Instant Search function, but some kid with too much time on his hands took your browser and Bing's AJAX APIs and created basically the same thing to some extent.

What is all the hype with Instant Search? Really nothing. The idea is to shave time off your search queries, but to date it has only made my ADD more advanced and actually take me longer to get to what I was actually trying to find (sidetracked by too many interesting, not relevant results that kept popping-up along the way).

So, what I do find interesting is what I am coining Bing's upcoming Seamless Search. This interface is a work of art that is functional, while Google's Instant Search is just an annoyance. Check out the video below to seem a glimpse of Bing's Seamless Search functionality in action:



I think the interface war is going to heat up and make for an interesting 2011, now Bing just needs to make sure that it's results are equal or better than Google's otherwise all this eye candy means nothing.

6 Best FREE Web Directory Submission Software and Services

Online Free Web Directory Submission Service:


EasySubmits - http://easysubmits.com/
- Great service that updates directories often and allows you to check back to see if your submission was accepted, but it lacks the ability to have multiple titles and descriptions for rotation (can be done manually, but it is very time consuming). Great for beginners.


Free Web Directory Submission Software/Scripts:


digiXMAS Directory Submitte - http://www.digixmas.com/directory-submitter.php
- Limited features in FREE mode like only 150 directories (out of 2,000+ available in paid version), but overall a good piece of software.

Fast Directory Submitter - http://www.fastdirectorysubmitter.com/
- Another great piece of software that limits the submissions in FREE mode to just 150 (out of 1,700+ available in paid version).

SubmissionGate - http://www.med-sites.com/SubmitterGate/directory_submitter_software.asp
- Great software, but limited to 60 web directories in FREE version.

Free Directory Submission Software - http://www.imguru.biz/internet-marketing-downloads/view.download/4/46.html
- Free, easy to use, but some limitations. Overall a good product to get started.

Submit'emNow 3.0 - http://www.submitemnow.com/
- Great, completely free directory submission software. A bit dated, but still very usable.

Twitter - The Movie!

Enough Said......

New, Cool Free Backlink Checker Tool!

Just thought I might share a new tool I found today as I was wandering around the Web. This backlink tool does a great job of pulling data correctly with the exception of PageRank (PR), which I hope will be updated soon. It is not clear where they are pulling the data, but it appears to be pulling the better quality backlinks to a website (possibly Google data?). Also, not even though it may appear as if it is done pulling data, let it keep running as it probably is not (I thought it was done and then suddenly about 2-4 minutes later new backlinks started to pop-up again, so give it time - Just an FYI).

Check it out for free at - Blue Backlinks (beta)

Facebook and Brand Friends, Why Do People Friend Brands

A new, interesting study by Google (Facebook's arch enenmy) shows something that most of us suspected, but never had research data to back up. There has always been a lot of discussion around 'friending' a brand and what that means in real value to the brand. Well, the results below show us two things:



1. People who do 'friend' brands, do so somewhat selectively and....



2. The number one reason for 'friending' a brand is to receive discounts and promotional offerings.

So, the moral of this story is that if you are a brand and do not have many 'friends', you could offer up special 'friend' discounts and promotions in order to drive brand loyalty, but most people are not going to be your 'friend' just because they love your brand. Which leads me to believe that Facebook 'friending' does not create new opportunities for brands, but could actually cannibalize existing sales by driving demand for discounts where they may not have existed before. I would love for a deeper study on this topic to tell the second part of this story. Does 'friending' a brand help (increase sales) or hurt (sames sales, lower profit) a brand.

Learn more that the official Google study page - Why do Customers Friend Brands?

Supercharge Your SEO With 401 FREE Backlinks to Your Website!

So, I may have mislead you a bit with the 401 FREE backlinks title. The reality is I just found an incredible tool with lots of potential. You may or may not be familiar with web stats or whois websites, but they offer great potential for burst search marketing efforts.

What do I mean by burst search marketing efforts? Well, these sites allow a user to submit a URL and then they analyze the URL and provide feedback as web stats or whois information. The great part is that many, if not most of these sites keep a log of the recent websites submitted which are highly indexable by the engines as these sites tend to get crawled much more rapidly than most sites due to the ever changing content.

What does this mean to you? Well, if there were a way to automate submissions to a large grouping of these types of sites this activity would have value otherwise the time it would take to do each one individually does not make this a good use of your time.

So, now there is a completely automated solution for this opportunity that is nothing short of awesome. This new service from Webmaster Deck that will submit your website to 401 web stat and whois sites completely automatic while allowing you to also see every one of the submission as it is happening in real-time.

What are you waiting for? Go check it out now as you have nothing to lose and much to gain!

Click here to visit Webmaster Deck's Web Stats Backlinker