Is it time to finally delist open rate as a success metric for email campaigns? While some marketers still see value in it, others are pointing to its inherent weaknesses and are proposing that we graduate to ‘better’ metrics like click-to-open-rate (CTOR).
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The veterans always espoused keeping the users in mind when undergoing a site redesign. This is still true but the one lesson people need to remember is that user preferences change. Whoever thought Amazon’s tabbed navigation would go out of fashion? Whoever thought 1024 would be the screen resolution to design for now (kudos Zappos - old and new)? Maybe it’s ‘Proceed to Checkout’ now but who knows in the next few months it just might be ‘Click Here to Send Us Your Money’.

There is a point to all of this. Competitive analysis is good to some extent, but what’s working for the leader today may not necessarily work for you.

The typical Web marketing pitch usually ends with a “if you can’t bring your business online, you’re fucked” slide. This Accenture study puts some fresh perspective into the long standing rumor that having a full e-commerce enabled website is the only way to go.
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Picked this one up from Andy Hagans. India’s having a SEO meet in Delhi in March. A similar event held last year got the attention of known rockstars and some even donated money for the event.

Indian youth is as captivated by the Internet as the rest of their ilk from around the world. A significant number has also turned to the net for earning their living doing things like programming, which we Indians excel at, blogging again cool for us since English is our forte, and of course, Search Engine Optimization since we are a brainy, improvisational and hardworking lot.

Okay, now after that patriotic prelude we come to the crux of this post. 31st March 2007 will see the top SEOs from India congregate in Delhi for a one-day symposium on SEO and basically all things Internet.

This meet is a follow-up on the SEO meet which was held in June 2006 and was a runaway success. It was attended mainly by the Indian contingent of Digital Point Forums.The SEO meet is going to be big not just because of its scale but also because it will be graced by the presence of many heavyweights from the world of SEO.

These are Andy Hagans , Rich McIver , Brian Thibault and Jim Westergren (and many more to come).

Fast forward to last week, I was talking to an IT recruitment agency that was very interested in the development of SEO in the Philippines. The managing director mentioned that they’ve had multiple placement requests for SEO-related positions from corporate clients and that they were interested in partnering with known organizations in the field. A smart move considering more and more companies with inhouse SEO requirements will be looking to setup shop in the Philippines.

But while the corporate side of the Philippine SEO market is alive and healthy (past colleagues have moved on to higher and hopefully better positions), the agency side, the small-to-medium companies that specialize in contract work) is practically nonexistent, save for a few players (more on that later). I’ve championed the Philippines as an alternative destination for SEO outsourcing to everyone I’ve met and talked SEO with but I’ve yet to see that critical mass of outsourced SEO work going to the Philippines.

This one got me thinking about the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between India and the Philippines from a SEO agency standpoint. The Indian model is by far not perfect, but it is the best model to look at when laying down the groundwork that will allow for that critical mass to happen.

So excuse this Sauroposeidon post :)
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Microsoft may own the desktop, but Google’s moving to own the Web. What’s Google’s recipe for Web domination? They can dominate by offering better solutions (search and contextual advertising) or they can undercut the competition…but can Google compete with established players in the applications space?

Here’s a preview of how Google can topple online market leaders like Salesforce.com. It’s a win-win scenario, even if Google didn’t choose to compete head on, it would still make a killing licensing its software to 3rd party companies.
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I have two advertiser campaigns running on CJ. I need help managing these campaigns (publisher retention/acquisition strategies, designing promotions, etc.). If you’ve handled the CJ Advertiser interface, I’d like to sit down and talk to you before I leave for PubCon next week!

Please leave your resume at marc-at-macalua-dot-com with Affiliate Marketer as subject.

If you know how to work your way around AdWords, adCenter and Y!SM, I need you to help me run some very high-end PPC campaigns. Maybe we can even take the Google Advertising Professional certification test together :P and if you know Atlas Search, consider yourself hired.

Please leave your resume at marc-at-macalua-dot-com with PPC Addict as subject.

Need someone who gets/does textbook SEO, can write with the best of them and has the marketing smarts to distinguish fluff from fact. I have the budget for paid directory submissions, the best SEO tools/resources money can buy and the willingness and patience to teach. Now how’s that for a pitch? :)

You can reach me through marc-at-macalua-dot-com, put SEO Apprentice in the subject line.

I’m looking for a Web Design Guru, one who let’s his/her PSDs do the talking. I have a very good package ready for the lucky candidate. Please send me sample URLs/studies at marc-at-macalua-dot-com with Web Design Guru as subject.

Know any Manila-based freelancers who can help design/implement a direct marketing campaign via email? I assume they’ll be with the big ad agencies out there. I have the email service provider (ESP) and the list, I need help designing a compelling offer and kick-ass creatives to go with it.

Appreciate it if you can email me contact details of interested people. You can reach me through marc-at-macalua-dot-com. Please write Direct Marketer in the email subject line.