Hey, you’re new. We like you already! You obviously have great taste! If you like what you read here you’ll probably want to subscribe to our RSS feed (or the audio RSS feed). Stick around and be sure to speak up and post a comment or two!
We all want to know if we […]

Google Labs recently introduced an experimental Digg-like “voting” system in which users are able to vote up or bury results. This idea stems from social news sites like Reddit and Digg, in which users are able to vote on links that are appealing or give a thumbs down to less appealing items. It […]

I’m not a blogger, I just play one on the Internet. There are a lot of professional bloggers out there. I’m not one of them. Like many small business owners that also happen to blog I have to find ways to balance my time between the demands of running a business and pushing out information […]

Since the “purchase” is the ultimate conversion, it is imperative that you remove as many obstacles from the customer’s research-to-buy cycle as possible. Providing your visitors the key ingredients in their shopping experience creates a smooth and worry-free transaction process. The easier it is to shop and buy the more customers will overcome the […]

“The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.”- William James

Coming from a background in training, I always appreciate a useful training tool. I found Chapter 4 “Paying to Play: Pay-Per-Click” by SitePoint Search Engine Marketing Kit, to be an excellent training/learning tool.
The chapter is laid out logically, giving a brief introduction of the entire Pay-Per-Click system and process. After the intro, you’ll find that […]

Struggling For Links In Competitive Markets? Try Reputation Link Bait
How to Get High Profile Article Exposure & 24 Recommended Authority Sites
21 Factors that Influence the First Impression of Your Website’s Visitors
SEO Linking Gotchas Even The Pros Make
Press Release SEO Tips
Publicize Your Publicity to Create Successful Viral Marketing Campaigns

I don’t know about you but I’m glad to be back to work after such a long weekend. I don’t do well over long weekends. Mostly because I’m extremely lazy and I end up sleeping about 12 hours every night. And that’s not including the morning, mid morning, noon, post-noon and early evening naps.
So […]

Many SEOs obsess over search engine algorithmic details. They spend hours looking at the minutest of details hoping to achieve the perfectly “optimized” web page. In the process they often forget that the web page can’t just be optimized for search engines, but must also be optimized for human visitors.
Optimizing for spiders and […]

Interface Research - hat tip to the Grok
Divide and Conquer: Creating and Managing Your Link Campaign
13 Rapid Backlink Gathering Tricks You Don’t Use

Cyber Monday

I recently spent a couple hours in a waiting room and thankfully remembered to bring the latest issue of Search Marketing Standard along to pass the time. I read a few good articles, including Using the Power of Urgency to Increase Online Conversion Rates by Nick Usborne.
Creators of direct response TV ads, direct mail […]

On my task list is a task to write a blog, my first blog. The only thing that comes to mind is how thankful I am to have been chosen to work at Pole Position Marketing. I wanted to thank everyone at PPM for the opportunity to work for an ideal company. […]

A Chat with ‘We Build Pages’ Jim Boykin

A few weeks back Michelle found a fun little document by Bill Gammel that outlines 7 marketing lessons from the show Seinfeld. I can probably count the number of full Seinfeld episodes I’ve seen on one hand. (That’s all about to change as I was just gifted with the entire series on DVD). But that […]

Google
October: 58.5%
September: 57.0%
Change: +1.5
January 2007: 47.5%
Change: +11
Yahoo
October: 22.9%
September: 23.7%
Change: -0.8
January 2007: 28.1%
Change: -5.2
MSN
October: 9.7%
September: 10.3%
Change: -0.6
January 2007: 10.6%
Change: -0.9
ASK
October: 4.7%
September: 4.7%
Change: 0.0
January 2007: 5.2%
Change: -0.5
AOL
October: 4.2%
September: 4.3%
Change: -0.1
January 2007: 5.0%
Change: -0.8
Source: comScore

The Pole Position Marketing team would like to wish all our readers a happy Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy a few days of R and R in the company of others with whom you share your happiness.
Here are my top 10 reasons to be thankful every day:

My salvation
My wonderful wife, Dionne
My incredible children, Kejana, […]

At work:

Proper grammar and punctuation (as evidenced by my title);
Having a job that I truly love;
Continuously learning more about this amazing industry;
Working with people that teach me, challenge me, and encourage me (and make me laugh almost every second of every day);
Sharing what I’ve learned with others;
Having a boss that supports me and makes my […]

I spent some time today reviewing a link-building service called Text Link Revolution (TNX). The company specializes in rapidly buying / selling links for websites and blogs. I know lately the paid links ethical issue has been increasingly controversial, but this post is simply for review purposes, not a treatise on Google’s paid-link […]

Optimizing for organic ranking is a long term process. We have all heard how PPC is the end all and be all of answers for instant visibility. But in some industries the competition is still rough. How does a small jewelry web site compete with sites like Zales or Kay?
One of our […]

Communication Breakdown: 5 Avoidable Failures That Derail Search Marketing Campaigns
Controlling the Flow of PageRank & Link Juice

Think of all the ways that companies use branding to build awareness of themselves or to promote their social awareness and customer service values. A few things come to mind such as greeters at the entrance of your my favorite store, go-green awareness issues, charity drives that “give back” to the community for every […]

The 3 Pillars of SEO, SEM and their Relationship
How To Maximize Your Exposure In Google

Let me apologize for last weeks Q&A session. I just simply wasn’t funny and I feel terrible about that. The problem is, these Q&As don’t leave much room for humor. Unless I make fun of someone and, well, I’m trying to get people to ask questions, not run away from me.
Which begs the question… […]

In leafing through my personal mail last week, I was pleased to come across a small, hand-addressed piece. This clearly was not a bill, a lame 10% off coupon or a credit card offer…what I was about to open was going to be something fun to read from an actual human being, and probably […]

5 Ways Small Business Can Benefit From Social Media/Networking Sites
The 10 Most Common SEO Mistakes
Facebook Videos You Should Watch
100+ Untapped Link Building Strategies
25+ Free (and Useful) SEO Tools

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Authors: Malcolm Gladwell
Hardcover: 320 pages
Cost: $10.87
Published: January, 2005
Blink is a book about the human brain. While it helps the reader better understand how the human brain works, don’t expect to be able to use that understanding to your advantage. In fact, while the book provides a fascinating discovery of […]

As a small business owner I’m often looking for business documents. Over the years we’ve put together an employee handbook, process manuals and confidentiality / non-compete agreements among others. For the most part, we’ve pieced these together from friends who have their own businesses, or by looking for the documents from free or paid […]

Almost exactly four years ago, my husband and I decided to check out some new cars at one of the dealerships in town. We had no intentions of buying a new car, but we were just curious what was available and what prices were like. Six hours after walking on the lot, we […]

Since creating a website that is “user friendly” is often difficult and time consuming, I thought it would be fun to explore a few ways to create a dissatisfying user experience on your website. Unlike the dozens upon dozens of things that go into creating a website that provides a positive visitor experience, […]

I’m a generally pretty reasonable guy. I can usually adapt and amend myself for the better good of the world. But lately, I’ve become quite nasty towards our little friend, Internet Explorer. The delinquent browser lacks any integrity and forces me to spend countless hours trying to adapt my coding to fix. […]