Author: Dave J.

A quick search lets me know I am not the only one getting a gift package from Google for being a customer for five or six years. But I am personally honored.

Contents:

• Thank-you letter from David Fischer (VP Global Online Sales/Operations).
• Booklet “Advanced Tips from AdWords Experts” from Fred Vallaeys, AdWords Product Evangelist.
  Snip–“You’re part of an exclusive group of advertisers who have been with AdWords from the start.”
• Cookbook “Keyword: Delicious” from John Dickman, Global Food Manager.
  Contents are recipes for four seasons. Yum!
• Black Google Apron, with pockets

You may not know, but I enjoy cooking. I may not try the wood-roasted lobster, but there are a number of other interesting and do-able recipes in here. I may start with the ricotta-stuffed roasted nectarines.

Thanks to David, Fred, and John at Google.

“He prefers to keep his full identity hidden, but here’s what you need to know: He’s one of the most passionate, intelligent, helpful and enduring bloggers out there on business marketing.”

Yep, its a Friday Online Marketer Interview with yours-truly via email with Julie of the Internet Marketing Report…

(Includes 27 seconds of me and my new Suzuki D harmonica.)

I get a few spam emails a day that must be from semi-targeted lists my email (and our generic sales@ email) are on. Most look like one-shot wonders by folks who have never spammed before.

The one I just got was self-centered, which is typical. So I tried to figure out in the email what their organization is or does, but all they use is their acronym. Especially horrific was the head graphic in the email:

How small is that type under the logo? And as a graphic it is barely readable.

Stupid to spam, and even stupider to make sure your results are 0%.

Got an email from uber-EDI Ariba (EDI=Electronic Data Exchange=online purchasing system):

“We are pleased that the Network is helping your company facilitate business with customers, including XXX International.

Due to the volume of business your company transacts through the Network your account has been upgraded to Premier level status … As a new Premier Member, you are required to pay associated annual fees. “

Ahem … $207?

So that we can be on the receiving end of a paperless purchasing system??? Is this Ticketmaster I’m dealing with?

Of course some poor marketer had to come up with a list of Premier Supplier Benefits … “The Premier membership level is for mid-sized suppliers seeking advantage through value-added features.” Features include gems like “premium content” and “Premier membership attribution on Ariba Supplier Directory.”

Still sounds like a arm-twisting rip-off to me, just like Ticketmaster’s “$2.50 Print At Home Delivery Fee per order per ticket.”

I was digging thru my website traffic reports and noticed some referrals from beta.thomasnet.com. Of course I took a look and am sharing the link for the Thomas-watchers out there.

Overall, a nice visual improvement over the current www.thomasnet.com. I especially like the eye-saving and space-saving method of hiding sub-categories in the ‘Browse Categories’ block. Search pages all seem cleaner, too.

The cleanliness of the home page, while much nicer, still doesn’t give the feeling that they are the powerhouse in B2B directory sites, however. Not sure how to do that, but GlobalSpec‘s blue header-bar and bright logo seem more authoritative.

UPDATED: See clarification about ‘Also visited’ below.

Just announced that Google Labs’ Website Trends tool can put graphs side-by-side. Hard numbers are not shown, which is probably smart on their part. And ‘tiny’ sites like companies in my industry don’t have enough traffic.

So why not compare ThomasNet and GlobalSpec? This data I limited to USA users, since worldwide, the trends were nearly the same (and USA is my market). I also tried adding iqsdirectory.com, but not enough traffic to rank.

Thomas shows more traffic than GlobalSpec from USA visitors:

In the same screen they also show other sites their users visited. (Blue bar =TN, Red bar =GS)

TN’s visitors must include a lot of their salespeople, as the #1 ‘also visited’ site is their extranet. #3 Webtraxs.com is their website analytics tool.

UPDATE: Per a comment left at the site, this isn’t exactly true summation on my part:
“A better way to think about it is the reverse: Nearly all users of TRRep.com visit ThomasNet.com, which makes perfect sense. This creates, statistically, a very tight association between the two. The point is that it has nothing to do with frequency, but with statistical probability.”

Meanwhile GlobalSpec’s visitors hit have a high probability of visiting ip09.com the most, which I am guessing must host their newsletter content somehow. Interesting to see trade-pub Machine Design as #2 ‘also visited’ site.

Like any trend-graph, things are open for interpretation. What do you think this all means? Ultimately, I am looking at leads delivered, but this gives an overall idea of visibility.

I guess I titled this series wrong. I really want to talk about the B2Blogosphere. I’ve complained about the ‘noise’ drowning out the ‘signal’. We need more ‘signal’, but what counts?

Getting some ‘Signal’–here’s the kind of things that I like in a blog post:

1. Lists – Gotcha reading this post didn’t it?
2. Waffling – Its okay to post questions without answers. Lets discuss the tough issues and figure out the possible solutions together.
3. Train wrecks – The Internet gives us a chance to rubber-neck. It gives us a chance to learn from others’ mistakes and feel smarter for not making them.
4. Level 6 – In the seven levels of change, Level 6 = Different. This is what Seth pushes us to toward.
5. Hacks – Make me work smarter. Save me hassles. Yay.
6. Stories – Facts are boring…tell me a story about the facts instead.
7. New Stuff – Okay, I’m tired of posts about iPhones, but most posts about new things help me feel aware of the world around me.
8. Stuff from Left Field – Surprise works, too. Boing Boing’s theme of ‘wonderful things’ is a great example.
9. Attitude – What’s your voice? Speak up if you want me to hear you.
10. Links – Send me somewhere new. Back up your argument. Lead me down a path to learn more.

Okay, not a link to go with every point, but you get the idea. Probably sad that I could come up with multiple examples of ‘train-wreck’ blogs quickly and not ‘Level 6’ blogs.

11. And comments, and posts that make me want to comment…

So post yours here, please. Reactions to my list? What blogs are drawn to, that give good ‘signal’?

I got this email last week (edited down):

Dear David, At Microsoft adCenter, our goal is to help you attract more customers and maximize your search ROI while saving time. That’s why we’re offering you free one-on-one assistance from an adCenter representative. … An adCenter representative will be calling soon to discuss how to improve your search campaigns.

Oh geez, I thought. #3 is going to call, maybe, and if they do, it will probably be a telemarketer trying to set up an appointment or cross-sell or some hassle.

The call
I ended up talking to Cory this morning and he was prepared, approachable, and gave useful ‘ideas’ to tinker with my campaign without talking down to me, or forcing me to log in and follow him click-by-click.

At the end Cory gave me his number, and it was written down by yours-truly in appreciation of his professionalism and potential value.

Smart!
If others like me ignore our MS AdCenter account, you gotta think that this is a smart strategy to get us to look again, improve our campaigns, and see results that (hopefully) we will take notice of. Win-win results!

Got a link to this webpage from a magazine publisher: Magazine Vertical Search:

“Business-to-Business magazines drive more readers to their own website than any other medium. … The reader goes direct from the print page to an advertiser’s website to continue to search a product or service or new technology.”

The webpage is actually an attempt at a pitch for a vertical-search software, although it reads more like a manifesto about the value of B2B trade pubs, with half-a-dozen links to articles proving his case.

My opinion? Anyone can drive more traffic to their site via magazines and advertising than search can. It just takes a lot of money. One of the articles linked to references automobile website traffic being driven by advertising, which is not relevant to the B2B print ad discussion, although is a good example of what money can do to site traffic.

Yes, if trade advertising were measurable (which I have no idea how this guy’s software does this), it could make the case. The problem is that for many of us niche industrial marketers, the low-hanging fruit of search is so bountiful, and measurable, that trade advertising is no longer worth it.