A while back, Marin Software put on their Biggest Search Geek contest, which I blogged about. The winner was chosen a while ago, but now Marin has released the list of those who scored in the top 10% of all participants.

How do I know this? I made the top 10%! From the looks of things, so did a boatload of other people. Still, it’s nice to be recognized. I only wish the list included full names. While I understand why it doesn’t, I’d like to know just how good the company is at the top.

Either way, the contest was a fun idea and I’m sure Marin is getting good mileage out of it.

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This has been out there for a while, but if you haven’t gotten around to taking the Biggest Search Geek test, now is the time – the last day to try your luck is January 28.

It’s not an easy test. According to Marin Software and Search Marketing Expo (SMX West), sponsors of the test, the best score as of Wednesday was 76.8%. I didn’t do that well, and I’ve been doing search for a long time. Median score to date (of those answering at least one question) is 33.33%. I did a lot better than that, but still.

According to the test sponsors, “Thus far, the highest scoring contestants have taken the longest to complete the test. There is no time limit, so contestants who are serious about winning should take their time in answering this complex set of questions.” This was part of my problem – I took it on a lark and just breezed through. And I still beat the median (grin). The test focuses mostly on paid search, so if you’re a PPC pro, you’re likely to do well.

There’s a nice payoff for a high score: “The winner will receive a free trip for two people to SMX West in Santa Clara, California, February 10-12, 2009. The prize includes round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, and passes to SMX West 2009 for the winner and a travel companion. The winner will also receive an award on stage from Danny Sullivan, and will gain nationwide recognition as the Biggest Search Geek.”

Not too shabby. Give it a shot!

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Alex Cohen of Digital Alex has published a list of 26 Useful Paid Search Blogs. If you’re involved with PPC in any way, you need to take a look at his list. It’s an all-star cast of really good, really useful PPC blogs. I’ve added a couple from his list to my own feed reader. You should do the same.

Full disclosure: This blog is listed there; however, I’d recommend his list even if it weren’t.

Happy New Year, SEM friends!

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I know – silly question, because the answer is “It depends:” on whether you’re an agency or in-house SEM, whether you’re an e-commerce retailer or a B to B organization, and pretty much a bunch of other variables too numerous to list. All that said, it’s interesting to look at the variations.

For me, it seems like the busiest months are August and December. August is when summer travel season meets the back-to-school frenzy. Our travel & tourism clients are trying to squeeze every bit of ROI out of their campaigns, and many e-retailers are just getting geared up after a quiet summer. It’s a challenging time personally, as well – it seems like my family ends up taking our vacation in August every year, despite saying every year that we need to do it earlier; and of course my kids are getting ready to head back to school. I’ve said for years that someday, I’m going to take the entire month of August off, just so I can get everything done and enjoy some of the summer. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m optimistic. (grin)

December, of course, is when the holiday craziness reaches its peak. In the e-commerce world, you have Cyber Monday and Christmas Eve and all the other big December online sales days. But even if you’re not an e-commerce business, December is busy – you’re doing end-of-year budget wrap-up and finishing next year’s budget; and in general evaluating what you’ve done and what you want to do. As an agency, this means we’re really busy with meetings, budget reviews, planning and strategy sessions, and the like – not only for our business, but for our clients as well.

On top of that, we have SES Chicago in December. I’ve only missed one SES Chicago since I first attended in 2003, and it’s a must-attend for SEMs in the Midwest. However, the timing is terrible – it’s a crazy-busy time of year, both personally and professionally. At the show, I find myself getting up super early to check email and do a little “real work” in my hotel room before the sessions get going for the day, and I don’t get to bed all that early at night due to all the great networking at SES and all the fun Chicago has to offer. And it’s not easy to enjoy Chicago when it’s 20 degrees and snowing out – although being a Michigander, I’m used to that! Then I get back from the show, and I’m thrust into the holiday nuts at home – parties to attend (and host), gifts to buy, food to fix, decorations to put up…. oh my.

I suppose if I were a 20-something single, August and December might not be as frenetic. But almost everyone celebrates some kind of holiday in December, and year-end planning isn’t holiday-related, so it’s still a crazy month across the board.

What’s your busiest month as an SEM?

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For the past couple weeks, I’ve had trouble downloading my favorite SEM podcasts, including the Daily Searchcast and PPC Rockstars, into iTunes. Since I’m no iTunes pro, I figured I was doing something wrong. Finally yesterday I went to webmasterradio.fm to try to re-subscribe, or at least download the mp3 files. But when I tried to access the most recent episodes of the shows, I was taken to a login page promoting registration for “less than $.99 a day.”

Huh? Does this mean that I have to pay a couple hundred bucks a year just to access the podcasts I previously could download for free?!? I couldn’t find another way to get at them, other than to listen live – not all that convenient for me, which is why I use iTunes.

If this is truly the only way to subscribe to these podcasts, it’s a huge shame. Was the advertiser-supported model not working? Is there no other way to share this great industry resource without having to pony up?

I hope I’m wrong about this – if anybody has any more info, I’d love to hear it.

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We can’t all be A-List bloggers. I know I’m not – I mostly do this for fun! But just because you’re not on the A-List doesn’t mean you can’t get publicity across the web.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve found a couple good options for the rest of us. One is the Best of the Z List, where bloggers with fewer than 3,000 subscribers can submit articles for publication. This blog’s gotten a lot of publicity on Sphinn and elsewhere, and while it’s fairly new, I think it’s going to be a great resource for finding new SEM blogs.

Another place for non-A-listers is SEO Scoop’s List of Search Bloggers by Dazzlin Donna. This is a list of bloggers who regularly write about search, and includes everyone from A to Z. All you need to do is to write about search, and let Donna know about your blog. I’ve found a few new blogs to add to my feed list here.

I’m sure there are other resources, so if you run across any, post them in the comments.

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A co-worker recently shared this free tidbit with me, and it’s been so helpful that I wanted to share it here. It’s called SplitTester, and it was developed by Brian Teasley and Perry Marshall. The way it works is simple: you enter clicks and click-through rate for two test cells, and it spits back the likelihood of the test having the same long-term results, along with the confidence level.
If you’re a stats genius, you probably won’t need this tool. But for the rest of us, it’s a great way to quickly make sure that you’re making statistically significant decisions. Not only can it be used for click-through prediction, but I’ve used it for conversion rate prediction as well – which is actually more relevant, anyway.

Check it out, and let me know what you think!

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Much has been said about the shortage of search marketing professionals and how difficult it is to hire good SEMs. The field is growing rapidly, and many companies (ours included) are suffering from growing pains, made more painful by the difficulty in hiring good SEMs. This got me thinking about what traits are desirable in an SEM, and particularly a PPC manager.

This topic has been covered before, but experience has given me some ideas to add to the list.

To me, the number one trait a successful PPC manager must possess is a passion for finding the answer and to get to the bottom of the mystery. I’ve often said that a good PPC manager must have a “CSI mentality,” meaning they must keep digging until they find out the real answer to the question. This mentality is important for several reasons:

1. PPC is a performance-based medium. Campaigns succeed or fail based on metrics like ROI, CPA, ROAS and many other alphabet-soup measures. When a campaign fails to meet objectives, a good PPC manager must (1) be able to recognize this quickly and (2) dig until they find the reason. It’s not enough to say “well, this campaign is a flop.” Yes, some campaigns do turn out to be flops, but all avenues for optimization and improvement must be explored before this declaration can be made. There are many reasons why campaigns under-perform, and it takes a curious mind to look at all these reasons and test and tweak until, as I mentioned, all options are exhausted.
2. In a similar vein, PPC is a constantly-evolving field. A good manager has to have a desire to learn and dig out the answer not only from the campaign data itself, but from external sources such as PPC program help sections, industry newsletters and blog posts, forums, search conferences, and other resources. Yes, it’s challenging to keep up with the information overload when you’re already so busy because you’re handling the workload of 3 people due to the SEM pro shortage – but it is imperative to take the time to stay on top of the news anyway. Not taking advantage of the collective wisdom of the many PPC and SEM pros who willingly share their knowledge for little to no cost is foolish.
3. Good PPC managers have the confidence to take risks. Most direct marketers know that testing is critical, and that sometimes tests perform the opposite of what you expect. The same is true in PPC, except the feedback happens much more quickly. A good PPC manager is willing to test everything, even the craziest of ideas, without hesitation. To do this takes initiative, decisiveness, creativity, and self-confidence – hemming and hawing has no place in PPC. Take the ball and run with it – if it turns out you were running the wrong way, you’ll know quickly and can chalk it up to testing.

Not every marketer is cut out for PPC management, just like not every law enforcement professional is cut out for CSI work. If you can find a marketer who likes to solve a mystery, though, chances are that he or she will make a good PPC manager.

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