We have seen in the past few years Bing growing leaps and bounds in the search market. However, the growth really isn’t coming from Google’s market share, though it has nibbled some away. Instead Bing is growing because it is cannibalizing its partner Yahoo!

Growth is growth though, and Bing is becoming a significant player in the search industry. As a search marketer this is obviously very important to me. I personally don’t care how my users find my website (Google, Bing, or their mother), just that they do find it.

On July 4th 1776 a ragtag group, whom we respectfully refer to as our founding fathers, declared independence from Great Britain, the largest political and geographical power the world has ever known. Our founding fathers represented the small and unorganized 13 American colonies who were diverse in their beliefs and their allegiances. However, they had one common goal and that was to gain freedom to govern themselves.

This statement of independence, or what would be known throughout American history as The Declaration of Independence, came six years before the end of the American Revolutionary War. It was the winning of the Revolutionary War that made the Declaration of Independence  a reality.

Achieving the final goal of independence from Britain was fraught with mistakes and over-calculations. However, what was more important than the Declaration of Independence was America’s Declaration of Endurance. This declaration was created without pomp and celebration, and persisted throughout the colonies as an unwritten code.

After five years of blogging on anything and everything related to the Internet, MyMarketer has undergone a new focus and look. The focus is geared around my philosophy of how to be successful with web marketing.

Over the last decade I have seen, and have been guilty of participating in, many get quick or get rich marketing campaigns. It is a rare day that one, if any, have succeeded to bring the desired results to those who participated in them.

However, contrast these glitzy empty marketing strategies, with the marketing principles surrounding the laws of the harvest. Time and time again I have seen people climb to the top of their game and achieve their marketing goals by following the first law of the harvest: You Reap What You Sow.

12/30/2010 UPDATE: My good friend Tyler sent me over a more in depth case study on the LDS Church’s SEO efforts. It comes from a U.K. Web Development firm, and the author breaks down the Mormon Church’s strong points in SEO. Very interesting read!

If you want a good tutorial and an in progress case study on creating viral web videos, than check out today’s New York Times’ article on political YouTube Ads. The article is about Ladd Ehlinger’s work on creating successful (aka viral) YouTube political ads. It particularly follows Ehlinger’s creation of an ad for Republican candidate Sean Bielat of Massachusetts. After reading the article there were four take-aways I gained on how to have a video go viral. With the November elections around the corner we will have to see if having a viral YouTube video makes any difference in winning! ~Paul

1. Creating Buzz Around the Buzz
I think the major ingredient Ehlinger capitalizes on is the political hot-spots that are going on right now. It’s not necessary to completely create your own buzz. It seems the videos that do the best are those which focus on current interest (think Obama Girl in 2008).

2. Holding Hands with Traditional Media
One aspect the New York Times pointed out (in the video accompanying the article) was that Ehlinger’s major goal for his video was to get it on TV. Not as a commercial, but rather as part of the news. I don’t live in Massachusetts and won’t be voting for either candidates, but I am compelled to make a personal note to watch Mr. Bielat’s ad when it comes out. It looks like the New York Times helped Ehlinger’s achieve his goal by writing about his goal Ü.

I know the economy is struggling, but I was a bit surprised when I stumbled across a NPR story of an Idaho high school selling advertising on their test sheets. It has been over a year since this was reported and I am curious to know how successful this experiment of extreme personalized marketing panned out. Did it help bring in significant amount of funds, and did the advertising businesses feel that they where able to receive an ROI on their advertisements?

This is a unique case study and it makes me wonder how ethical it is to penetrate the academic veil. I know we have advertisements in the schools, like vending machines and other healthy alternatives =), but I wonder what damage we do when we start prostituting the actual learning environment. To me, having interruption advertising on the test teaches the kids that nothing is above the principle of making money.

If you are going to have advertising on the test, you might as well put advertising on the school toilet paper! You definitely would get more views, though you would be competing against the creative artwork and slogans found on the walls of the stalls.

With all the brilliant ways to do web marketing I am amazed that banner ads are still alive. We see them every where, so someone still finds impression advertisement effective. For me the banner ad was born dead (or at least mostly dead ). Even back in the 90′s I never clicked on them, I felt they were invasive and annoying (as I assume that a lot of people do).

Yet, like spam, banner ads penetrate the masses with nothing more than sheer brute force and undodged determination. Whether it is with the old static skyscraper ads or the new interactive—play a game or punch President Bush—banners, you cannot but surf a few popular websites without being annoyed by them.

The other day I clicked on my first banner ad in over a decade. The ad copy stated: “Warning: Smoking Can Used To Kill You” (see actual ad below). I looked at the ad for a long time before clicking on it. First, I was trying to tell myself that I didn’t need to encourage businesses using intrusive advertising to get my attention. Second, I was trying to figure out what the ad’sangle was. Finally, my curiosity won and I succumbed to yet another marketing scheme and clicked on the banner.

I had the opportunity to meet Seth Godin when he came to Salt Lake in 2007—quite an amazing man. I own a lot of his books and see him as one of the great marketing thinkers and philosophers of all time.

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Back in January my long time friend, Eric Proffitt, called me and said he had a crazy idea he wanted to share with me. First, though, before I share his idea I have to give a little background on Eric.

I’ve know Eric for 13 years and ever since I’ve known him he has sang like a well tuned canary. He has one of the most amazing voices. The last few years Eric has really pushed his talent to be the voice against human trafficking. He even sang and did a program for the United Nations last year, which highlighted the serious issue of modern-day slavery.

backlinks03jpg Have you ever wondered what the web would be if it was run by lawyers? Nah, me neither, but I received a tiny glimpse of what it might look like when a friend emailed me Advanstar’s Terms of Use for Linking. My friend wanted to be sure that her company was compliant to Advanstar’s Gestapo like terms.

At first, I thought my friend was kidding. Then I read Advanstar’s terms. My favorite is:

“Advanstar may at any time, in its sole discretion, without cause, revoke your right to link to any pages on this Site. In such event upon request, you agree to immediately remove all links to this Site”