Given the dominance of American-centric and Euro-centric websites on the internet, we Australians sometimes overlook some of the initiatives that are happening locally. The number of Aussie pure web plays that make it big globally are few and far between (Hitwise would be one of the few that comes to mind). But you don't  necessarily have to go global to make a great web based service, in fact there is an increasing focus on websites which deliver localized content. And what could … read on »

As its been reported everywhere from TechCrunch, the New York Times to some bark scrawling in the Amazonian rainforest, MySpace has launched its own advertising platform dubbed “My Ads”. While it’s not a particularly impressive moniker, it’s at least better than those Web 2.0 names which are irrelevant and usually unpronounceable. Social networking sites running their own ad platforms are nothing new. Facebook, probably MySpace’s only major competitor, has been running PPC … read on »

I recentley got an email from someone offering SEO services. I wasn’t really interested, but decided to check out their website anyway (no the email wasn’t spam). Now I’ve worked with this mob before, but only for their pure web development skills. And low and behold, I check out their website, and it’s a textbook example of how to write for a search engine only, and forget that most humans are, … read on »

Unlike traditional marketing, or even other forms of online marketing, measuring the success of a SEO (search engine optimisation) campaign is no easy thing. With a banner marketing campaign or even a pay-per-click-campaign, it’s very easy to get a cut and dry figure: X amount of impressions, X amount of clicks and X amount of conversions: costing Y amount. Since search engine optimization leverages a whole range of services including design, … read on »

Probably a week doesn’t go by where I don’t get some sort of spammy email from a dubious online marketing or search engine optimization company promoting their virtues. As you’d expect from such companies, 90% of them offer – neigh” guarantee” – a top #1 ranking for any keywords you want. Considering these companies are resorting to spam, you can put about as much faith in their abilities as you can in collecting that million … read on »