Where there's little space and little money for redeveloping urban areas, pocket parks provide a welcome solution. Small green areas with benches for sitting and swings and slides for kids, pocket parks help unify as well as beautify neighborhoods. These mini-parks are part of the Central Indiana Community Foundation's Keep Indianapolis Beautiful initiative, a wonderful example of making a little money go a long way.

My small business and professional practice ghost blogging clients are in something of the same boat, trying hard to do smart marketing on a limited budget.  Most owners enter the web world by having a site designed for their business or practice.  The website may be attractive and easy to navigate.  Still their "park" is not accessible to new customers and clients who don't know it's there!  That's where business blogs come in, and where I, as a professional ghost blogger, enter the "neighborhood".

Blogs are like pocket parks, much easier and much less expensive to create and then constantly redevelop.  People find your "pocket park" blog, not because they know the name of the company or even your own name, but because your blog content is organized around specific key words and topics.  People find the blog "right in their own neighborhood", exactly when they need it.

There is no practical way a website can change its title and its content every day or even every couple of days to match different key words searchers use.  Blogs, small and nimble, can readily adapt. Since, by definition, blogs are providing new thoughts and new information with every entry, your "pocket park" is right there, informing the potential customer or client that you have the know-how - or the products - she's seeking.

Eagle Creek Park offers far more amenities than the School 46 Pocket Park, to be sure.  But if you're far away from the big reservoir, the little park bench under a tree in the pocket park is where you'll sit for a spell.  Ideally, business blogging is just one piece of a multi-faceted business marketing and advertising plan.  But budget-conscious owners will find blogging delivers a lot of park bench for the buck!

 

 Talk about an ironic turn of events - blogging is turning out to be such a healthy marketing tool that hospitals are inviting blogs to check themselves in!

Community Health Network's new SharingSites (www.ecommunity.com/sharing site) allows patients to create their own blogs to tell family and friends about a newborn or keep them up to date on treatments. St Francis and Clarian North offer blogging, too, through a Chicago company called CarePages.   Meanwhile, links to the hospitals' main websites allow patients and families to find information about different medical conditions and treatments, and even participate in online discussions with other patients and their families.

Dan Rench, vice president of e-business at Community Health Network, was quoted in a recent Indianapolis Business Journal issue as follows: "There's definitely a lot of power in social networking from a health care perspective."

Businessowners aimed at robust growth should pay heed to this trend.  Many businesses think they have an Internet "presence" because they've had a website created for their company.  Often, there's little updating going on, and even less attention paid to how to help potential buyers find their way to that website.  Advertising, including online advertising, is certainly one avenue in marketing a business.  Very interesting and important, though, is a statistic I learned in a Compendium Blogware webinar from CEO and co-founder Chris Baggott:  80-95% of business conducted online comes about as the result of organic search, not pay-per-click advertising or sponsorships. What this means in plain terms is that people searched online for information about products or services.  Those businesses that were providing up-to-date, easy-to-understand, and relevant content through regularly posting blogs came out the winners - of new customers.

You know what they're starting to say…A blog a day keeps the doctor away!

Talk about a "sense" for marketing - the June 22nd issue of the Indianapolis Star, in an article about car dealers' flagging sales, singled out Colussy Chevrolet in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania.  Tim Colussy says he uses a box that sends up puffs of "new car" scent as part of his overall plan to entice buyers to visit his dealership (and to leave driving a new car).

In a sense (pun intended), that's exactly what a well-conceived business blog is out to achieve - lure internet customers to read the blog, then "enter" the website, and leave as a new customer or client.  The informally presented, relevant, and new information you provide in your blog is part of your business' overall marketing strategy.

Reading further into the article, I learned Colussy does a lot more to market his dealership than blowing scent - he's had the floors resealed and repaired, the lights brightened, added colorful displays, flat-screen TV, Wi-Fi access, workstations, and a coffee bar.

Carrying on with my comparison, your blog is just one piece of the strategizing you do with your web designer, marketing consultant, ghost blogger, managers, and employees.  It's all part of what sales trainers call your "unique selling proposition".  Your blog is a key piece of that proposition.  It's the" whiff that whets" - your potential customer's appetite for doing business with you!

 

Decades ago, just beginning a career in insurance and investments, I had the privilege of hearing the great Zig Ziglar speak about good selling practices. He described selling pots and pans to the nurses at the hospital on New Year's Eve, right after his wife had borne their first child.  Zig ended the presentation with one of his signature lines.  If we would devote the time to practice good selling habits and product knowledge and if we focused our efforts on achieving our sales goals, he would "see us at the top" !

All these years later, Ziglar's still traveling the world, motivating people to reach the top in their professions. Today, however, "getting to the top" has another meaning, one that is essential for doing business effectively in our increasingly web-driven world.  Backbone Media Corporation conducted research on 140 companies that advertise on the Internet.  These companies spend a combined $36 million a year on Google Advertising, and the reason they do it is for search engine rankings.  (In other words, they are buying placement through Sponsored Links or Pay-Per-Click arrangements.) 

Blogging on the Internet, in contrast to purchasing domain names and sponsored links, by contrast, isn't "bought".  Yet effective blogging can translate into the kinds of favorable search engine results that online advertisers seek.  The results in blogging come through a sort of "sweat equity", meaning consistent, disciplined hard work creating relevant materials and posting them on the Web. While each search engine (along with Google are MSN, Yahoo, and others) has its own "algorithms" for judging the merits of blogs and hence their rankings, there are three primary keys to success. 

First, post often - if not daily, then three to four times a week. (If this is out of the question, that's where a professional ghost blogger comes in!  - visit www.sayitforyou.net.)
 
Second, keep doing it - the scorecard is cumulative; blogs that have been appearing for longer periods of time rank ahead of "newbies". 

Third, provide relevant content about your topic, using and repeating the search terms people are most likely to use in the effort to get information about your type of product or service.

Not to steal any thunder from the great Ziglar (as if anyone could!), I'll end by saying that, if you will follow these blogging steps faithfully enough - and long enough - to win customer hearts along with search engine rankings, I will see you - at the top! 

 

A month ago, a building began to sing.  "Playing the Building" is a project that, this summer, is turning a New York City landmark building into an interactive keyboard.  Rock singer and artist David Byrne wired an antique organ to a few dozen spots throughout the building, so that visitors can stop in (free of charge) and touch keys that trigger hammers which clang against pipes and columns, activate motors that make ceiling beams vibrate, and shoot blasts of air through pipes at different pitches.

While this building is not the first to be "played", this latest Byrne exhibit is quite different from former offerings by him and by other artists.  "People going into an art institution are treated as passive consumers, as vessels to be filled with …music emanating from the stage", Byrne explained in a Newsweek interview.

The artist goes on to explain the one aspect of his project that's so very important for today's business owners to comprehend.  "'Playing the Building' only exists and comes to life when the public participates in it," Byrne said.

In today's world of marketing, it's not enough to "hand out" material about a business.  Yes, brochures, postcards, advertising, billboards - all of those things can still be valid business marketing tools.  But, as with David Byrne's building, the best blogs don't "sing to people", but instead invite them in to make music together with the business behind the blog.  Blogs, by their very nature of being on the Worldwide Web, are available not only for reading, but for acting and interacting.  A good blog invites readers to post comments, and makes it easy for them to subscribe to the blog (through an RSS feed or an email service).  Individual readers whould be able to get back to earlier posts to read more in depth on a topic that particularly interests them.

In short, it should be all about "Playing the Blog"!

As a professional ghost blogger, I've come to realize, I'm actually part of a big trend.  It could almost be considered a movement, the Movement Towards Delegating and Relegating. In the case of blogs, a ghost blogger develops materials for businesses.  The owners of those businesses need to use their time making and selling products or consulting, with no time left to write about what they're doing and why.

There's certainly no lack of variety in task doers in the personal arena.  In an earlier piece, Blogging Is A Concierge Service, I wrote about all the many chores concierges perform, from airport pickup to pet-sitting.  Now businesses are joining the Delegators and Relegators, outsourcing tasks ranging from computer maintenance to hiring employees.

On the surface, it would appear there are certain tasks better not delegated to others, because in some areas things need to be done in a very individualized way.  You'd think, for example, a businessperson who does a lot of traveling would want to select her own wardrobe for the trip and pack the clothes in exactly the style she prefers.  Turns out, packing and lugging suitcases is a chore many business owners would just as soon relegate to others.  A clothing butler from Flylite, a Massachusetts company, will be happy to take over the all the packing and lugging.

New Flylite customers pack their own bags - once.  The "clothing "butlers" take it from there, picking up the bags, cleaning and pressing the clothes, even polishing the shoes.  All the clothes are scanned into an online virtual closet.  Each time a trip is coming up, the traveler drags and drops the icons into the "bag" (all done with clicks of the computer mouse).  Flylite delivers the actual packed bag to any U.S. destination.  When the stay is over, the butler picks up the bags, takes care of the clothes and stores everything for the next trip.  Even golf clubs can be carted to the destination by a Flylite butler!

Interestingly, ghost-writing blogs for a business follow a similar model.  The style of the business and the target market dictate the tone for the blog posts.  The "wardrobe" (the business mission, the demographics of the target customers, the type of products or services the business offers) comes from the business and is very individualized.  The blogger then becomes a "butler", maintaining the discipline of "frequency and recency" that is so crucial to winning online rankings.
 
Your "blog butler" picks up the information about your business, "cleans, presses, and polishes" the material into finished articles, then conveniently "delivers" those directly to the Worldwide Web in the form of blog posts.  And that's how I, your friendly and oh-so-handy blog-butler "Say It For You"!  

Some years ago, I read about an experiment having to do with people's attention and the way in which that attention is engaged. The subjects of the study were people (several hundred of them) who drove the same route every day to work and back, passing a giant billboard advertising new cars.  When questioned, almost none of these people could remember even seeing a billboard, much less that it was about cars.  On the other hand, the moment any individual was in the market for a car, he'd notice the billboard immediately. In other words, if what the billboard was advertising was not relevant to a person's life right then, his brain "brushed off" the information as not useful, never making room in his memory for the image of the billboard.

This study about car billboards sums up the reasons blogging  has become such an important part of any business' marketing plan. Blogging for business is about promoting yourself, your products, and your ideas.  Your blog posts are out there on the Internet "super-highway", available for anyone to see.  But the only people who are going to notice your blog are those who are searching for the kinds of information, products, or services that relate to what you do! That's because your blog will come up on their screen based on their search of the Internet. Millions of other people are "driving" on the Internet highway every hour of every day.  The important thing, though, is that you'll engage the attention of the ones who might be in the market for what you sell or who need your particular type of expert advice or service.

(By the way, "strike while the iron is hot" is a blacksmith's phrase.  An iron horseshoe needed to be shaped at exactly the time the metal was hot enough to be flexible.)  As the study with the car billboard demonstrated, the folks most likely to become your customers have an immediate need or interest in your type of product or services.  And, exactly at that time while the "iron is hot" for them, your blog is catching their attention and introducing them - to YOU!.  
 

Alan Alda, as he’d be the first to admit, never went to medical school (although he did address the 1979 commencement at Harvard Medical School).  But as Hawkeye on M.A.S.H., Alda helped millions of viewers understand the crucially important role medics play in wartime.  Pat Dempsey, playing Grey’s Anatomy’ Doctor Derek Shepherd, at least has four sisters who are real-life doctors.   Perhaps that explains why, without any medical training himself, Demsey is able to very effectively convey to viewers the realities of hospital medicine. Andy Griffith, through his role on Matlock, offered a glimpse into the legal world without ever having attended law school.  All three actors, like many of their colleagues in the acting profession, successfully helped viewers identify in a favorable way, not with themselves and their own profession, but with the character they’d adopted, and with that character’s profession.

While the doctors or lawyers who have credentials for real-life practice bring healing and legal recourse to hundreds, even thousands of patients and clients, few have the potential for their message to reach millions.  In a sense, the actors are their “ghost” portrayers, reaching out to viewers on their behalf, offering valuable information and breeding respect for the professions of law and medicine.

As a ghost writer and ghost blogger, I’m sometimes asked how we do it.  How can we ghost bloggers write for business owners and professional clients without being trained in those fields ourselves?  It takes two things:  research and good hearing.  A ghost blogger uses a “third ear” to understand what the client wants to say and to pick up on the client’s unique slant on his/her business or profession. 

In these days of Internet commerce, marketing is more and more about search engine optimization driving business to websites than about billboards and advertising.  Blogging can be an absolutely indispensable tool.  But, since web rankings are based on frequency of posting new content, often business owners and professionals, even if they enjoy writing blogs, lack the time to keep up enough “frequency and recency” to win the Internet search.

So, while I may not be a doctor, a lawyer, an auto mechanic, a telephone technology expert, a travel guide, a gourmet chef, or a  tax expert – as a ghost blogger, I can still play one! 

I’m fond of thinking of ghost blogging as an art, but, truth be told, there’s quite a bit of science to it as well. Part of the science has to do with targeting an audience.  By that I mean your blog can’t be all things to all people, any more than your business can be all things to everybody.  The blog must be targeted towards the specific type of customers you want and who will want to do business with you.  Everything about your blog should be tailor-made for that customer -–the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry– all of it.

Science comes into play in another sense as well.  As your ghost blogger, I’ll be using, and repeating, “search terms” to help search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN “notice” your blogs and move them higher and higher on their list. In other words, your blog becomes a marketing tool to achieve SEO, or search engine optimization.

In What’s On Your Blog Bumper? I wrote about blogs bringing you to “top of mind” status with customers. Well, in the same concert program booklet where I found the specialty license plate ad I was writing about, I saw a second advertisement.  Very interesting, this one, called “Make Every Day A Great Performance”.  Talk about targeting an audience – this ad is printed in a symphony concert program book, remember, and every word of that full-page ad had to do with performances and with music.  The ad wasn’t about music at all - it was promoting a retirement living facility!  “So, if you’re looking for a great performance every day, consider how Marquette Manor is in tune with your lifestyle.” My compliments to the ad agency or whoever created that page! It was designed to appeal to the type of customer they knew would be seeing that ad.

Your company blog is definitely not an ad and should not sound like one.  What it is, though, is an invitation to learn more about your field of expertise and about the kinds of products and services you have to offer.  Everything about your blog needs to be targeted for your audience.  And everything about my work as a ghost blogger,  both the science and the art of it, must be targeted to Say It For You – to the right people!

 

Talk about traffic congestion - you wouldn't believe how many folks are venturing into the blogosphere.  Millions of people are putting ideas and information out on the World Wide Web, often just to share knowledge and give others the benefit of their opinions.  But if you're a business owner, you're probably using your blog as part of your marketing campaign.  The only reason you're establishing a blog is to attract new business to your website.  Your blog is your podium - you get to showcase your business so customers will want you to be the one to provide them with the product or the service they need.

The other day, In BusinessWeek magazine, I read a short piece called "Choose Your Podium Wisely". The article talked about the fact that top corporate executives get lots of speaking invitations, so many that they need to choose which engagements to accept.  A consulting firm named Burson-Marsteller took a survey of CEO's to see how they measured "return on investment" for a speech. Was the speech rewarding because it brought in business leads?  Did it attract new talent to the CEO's firm? Did the speech build the company's reputation?

The consultant's rule for executives planning speaking engagements is actually a perfect fit for business bloggers: Keep a specific goal in mind.  Then find the audience most likely to deliver that benefit to your company!

As a ghost blogger, I find this rule to be absolutely essential to keep in mind when I'm doing planning with business owners. Before your blog can be used as an effective tool, you need to focus in on one specific goal.  Who are your target customers or clients? What approach would have the most appeal to that segment of your market?  Will the emphasis be on your product or on special service and expertise?  Pick one primary area of focus - don't try to do everything in one blog.  In other words, choose your blog "podium" wisely.

Consumer Generated Ads: Friend or Foe?

By Tony Fannin, President, BeBranded.net

From a marketer’s point of view, what’s not to like about consumer generated ads? You get free ideas from all over the globe. They’re submitted by the very people you want to reach. And, there’s an inevitable PR halo effect that glows over the very contest which is generating new and winning concepts. Voila: Instant ad that saves on creative and production fees.

But from an advertising agency’s viewpoint, what’s to like?

First, though the ideas come free, most don’t support the overall brand messaging or fall in line with other executions across different media platforms. Second, the chosen ad tends to only reflect one voice at the expense of other interpretations. And third, the PR push you get is likely short-lived and runs the danger of overshadowing your true marketing message.

In reality only a very few Consumer Generated Ads (CGA) have worked.

Research has shown that adults 25 and under see CGAs as less trustworthy, less socially responsible, and less friendly than professionally produced ads. Those over 25 see CGAs as friendly and creative. The 25 and under crowd also sees CGAs as the marketer’s attempt at pulling the wool over their eyes by trying to be “real” much like when your dad says he’s got the “411 on your new sled.”

Here’s one CGA that backfired recently for a major consumer brand: Chevy Tahoe. The major auto maker invited ads to be made by average consumers. On a special Web site, Chevy provided soundtracks and video for users to “mix up” and then download for general viewing. But the pitch backfired when one spot slammed the SUV as a gas guzzling drain on the environment—causing more harm than good. By the time the spot was taken down, hundreds of thousands had viewed it not only on Chevy’s site but also YouTube.com.

Before you invest in CGAs, consider these points:

Look at CGAs as a dialogue, not the answer.

Allow your customers to show, tell, and sound off what they think of your brand. It also shows you how your brand interacts in their daily lives. People want to tell you what they think. Instead of filling out a generic questionnaire or survey, they can express their emotions in a way that will convey key secrets about your brand. Your goal, and the goal of your advertising agency, is to find common threads in the “conversation” that relate to the most customers—addressing their most pressing needs and desires.

Don’t let CGAs hijack your brand.

It is an easy trap to fall into. Someone creates a unique piece that is entertaining, but is a little off your brand message. Over time, this gap widens. Conflicting messages begin to surface, and before you know it—your brand has been hijacked. Having consumers interact with your brand is one thing; having them redefine it is another. Being hijacked means you’ve lost control of your company’s message.

CGAs can be part of an overall marketing strategy.

There is a place for CGAs. Be creative in incorporating them into your marketing plan. Planning how and where you will use them will let you create a unique experience for your customers and prospects. For example, CGAs can be used at an interactive display in the mall. By surrounding the environment with your agency’s crafted messages and visuals, CGAs can work into the mix to enhance the total experience of the visitor at your display.

Consumer generated ads are new and intriguing. No one really knows how to harness this newfound tactic just yet, or tap its true potential. Experimentation will be necessary. Knowing your own brand and how it may or may not fit is important. If you can turn CGA opportunities into meaningful dialogues with consumers, you will be able to gain insights and ultimately, deliver a brand your customers want.

In an article about Toshiba pulling the plug on HD DVD, a spokesperson for the company commented that "Marketing was a weak point for Toshiba." That is the understatement of the year.
 
 In the continual discussion about how to properly market to today's consumer - whether offline or on the web through banner ads, PPC advertising, search engine optimization, viral marketing or otherwise - one thing seems obvious to me with the demise of HD DVD: Toshiba's marketing department did an absolutely horrendous job of choosing a name for their product.
 
 From day one, HD DVD didn't stand a chance against Blu-ray merely because we like to say "Blu-ray" and we hate to say "HD DVD." It does not matter now that it may actually have been a better and more useful technology for the masses, because we'll never know as a a result of bad branding.
 
 I try to not be critical of others, especially in areas that are not my specialty, but the victory of VHS over Betamax decades ago is not a clue as to how to name a product for today's marketplace. That should be obvious to any creative director.
 
 The clues are everywhere as to what types of catchy names have been attached to successful new brands in the last decade: Google, iPod, Starbuck's, Scion, MySpace, Facebook, Panera's Bread, Under Armour, and many more. These names flow off your tongue and are pleasant to utter and repeat over and over. I iPod this; I Google that; I Facebook you; I MySpace me; and Under Armour for all.
 
 Not too many recently introduced brands that I can think of have initials as their main focus. The MD in WebMD was already a universally used acronym, so it brought recognition and value to that brand's name. With FUBU, you pronounce that name like a cool word.
 
 Congratulations to Sony for finally winning a format war and getting the Betamax monkey off their back. Pretty soon "Blu-ray" will be a verb that describes the action of shooting hi-def video footage. "I was there and I blu-rayed it!"
 
 So, when you want to introduce a new product, be sure to remember the lesson of HD DVD, and stay away from a long string of initials for your brand, which needs to convey a warm and fuzzy emotional relationship with your target audience, not an initialed, commoditized, and cold connection.

One of the benefits/hardships of running an Advertising Agency is you go where your clients want you to go. Sometimes this is a wonderful thing, especially if you’ve not yet been there. Other times you think “not again!”

Either way, a 1 to 3-hour meeting with the client turns into much more. Time spent planning the trip, making arrangements for responsibilities beyond life as a Project Manager, and postponing other work at least a few hours in the process is where a lot of my creative genes are expressed.

Being a Project Manager I have tried to relieve the stresses for my clients by using my nifty cell for access to e-mail (and phone too! Except during flying of course) and taking my laptop with me. Having a mobile office is the way I prefer and has served me well during my travels.

I need to be connected and I need access to all my files –I’m just more comfortable that way. I’m the woman who will be taking her huge purse to Heaven because they might not have something I or someone else will need. My husband jokes that it’s a diaper bag! Therefore, it fits me perfect -to have an office on the go. Needless to say clients have appreciated it too. More often then not, the files that they need are right at my fingertips. 

Advertising is a fast paced, opinionated, and 24/7 on call career. If you think you can handle becoming a resource for multiple clients then consider a career as a Project Manager of an Advertising Agency. This Dangerous, think on your feet, big league game is not for the “thin-skinned day-dreamer”. Even when you’re rushing your kids to the grocery store on a Sunday night before school –look like you’re going to run into a client because it happens. This Advertising game has a style like no other. They are buying you and you need to show them why they would be lost without you. Enhance your strengths and build your weaknesses.  There are sharks in those waters and they want you to hurry up so they don’t have to wait. They have an expectation that you will deliver the best service, stay one step ahead on projects, and always deliver only good news. The truth is you have to deliver impeccable service (they are your only client), stay two steps ahead of them, and be the “best friend” that only delivers fantastic news. –And why should they get anything less. Don’t they deserve to have those expectations? To keep a client from looking around for a different agency you have to be able to consistently exceed the expectations. This is a people business. They need to hear from their Project manager by 10am or they start to wonder “Where did ??? go” and being referred to as “???” is not a good thing. Reinforce who you are. A client has a million plus things to think about in their mind daily and they have little room for someone not so memorable.  

“On top of it all!”

I love days when I feel on the same page as the best of the world. My number one client –and yes –I said #1- will soon expect to hear from me almost every day before 10:30am. I check e-mail when I wake up (before 6am) and respond if needed. Let clients know I am thinking of them, their projects, and what’s most critical in their minds. Especially, if they need to deliver important information to me –I need to let them know I am working for them and expecting to hear from them. It’s about being two steps ahead. I am growing ever more passionate about finding out what they mean by the “end of the day” 2pm, 3pm, 5pm, 8pm, or midnight and similar details. Detail, detail, detail, and finding out what makes them tick. I am enjoying learning about their expectations and adapting accordingly. I love change (because most of the time it involves fine-tuning or improving my ability to bond and relate with others). A fascinating new realization (epiphany), relationships should not be about them understanding you –they should be about you understanding them and using their styles to get your points across. Boys…think of it as self-evolution –I know you can’t and mostly don’t want to change –but consider this new idea of evolving! By learning about your client…you may be able to see exactly what they are asking for and make a better connection.

Advertising is a strategic way to market to the masses –be smart and learn about the masses. When involved in a career as a Project Manager it is helpful to learn about who you are communicating with. Pick up on their general attitude, common phrases, likes, dislikes, preferred ways of communication, family, what do they enjoy doing out of the office, what is their pain –who knew a more accurate title for this position would be “Client Analyzer & Adaptation Specialist”. Learn to love people, make them laugh, know your boundaries, develop many deep relationships, and let them get to know you! 

May he rest in peace. It could be said that with the passing of Karl Ehrhardt, blog heaven receives the original blogger as its initial resident. Who is Karl Ehrhardt and why do I think of him as the original blogger?

For those of you who are (1) baseball fans, (2) old enough and (3) from the New York City area, or a Mets fans for some reason that is known by only you and your therapist, then you might know him as the Sign Man of Shea Stadium.

For almost two decades from the Mets's earliest days, Sign Man used his box seat near third base to post short, almost instantaneous, highly-poignant, and often-humorous opinions about what just occurred on the field. And with the Mets, that could be just about anything from absurd to amazing.

In the pre-Internet age, Frank used his advertising agency background to conceive and create simple block-letter signs, which he held above his head with both arms extended high for all within the stadium to see.

Eventually, as television gained a bigger role in disseminating baseball games, Sign Man's opinions were broadcast nationwide; globally during those few Miracle Mets championship seasons. The TV cameramen knew to focus on him after any significant moment in a game, so his opinions eventually became as much a part of the flavor of games at Shea as the hot dogs and beer.

Perhaps because of their instantaneous and brief nature, his messages might be considered more akin to Twittering than blogging, but if I just wrote about Twitter, or the main topic of this search engine optimization blog, then I would not be able to take advantage of the keywords "blog," "blogger," and "blogging."

So, a memorial virtual toast and tip of a Mets cap go out to the innovative Frank Ehrhardt, a familiar face and spokesperson from my past, and one of the founding fathers of Internet Age - a world where everyone's opinion matters in the global conversation that connects us all.  We'll miss you, Sign Man, and we'll see you someday in blog heaven.

 It must been have a humbling experience for Microsoft to admit defeat with its decision to takeover Yahoo! as its last-gasp attempt to remain relevant. As we SEO's know, relevancy is the key to suucess in the search engine marketing arena, and Microsoft has been anything but for several years. (And I'll save my comments about Windows Vista for another day.)

So, what does this mean for marketers who rely on organic rankings through optimization and/or Pay-Per Click (PPC) advertsing to generate web traffic? In the short run, not much. In the long run, probably not much either except for a possible slight decrease in rates as competition heats up.
 
Though this planned merger makes for good headlines and commentary, the bottom line for marketers is that success on the search engines has always been based on the basic principles of good old Marketing 101: get the right message to the right person at the right time and place. That won't change, no matter who owns what search engine or what percentage of search traffic uses Google or any of its competitors.

The combined Microsoft/Yahoo! search engine platform may prove to be a more formidable competitor than they've been recently as separate entities, which may reduce the cost of advertising, but regardless of where or how much you spend on your SEO, PPC, and other online advertising campaigns, you still need to focus on the tried and true aspects of successful marketing.

I'm not going to spend too much time focused on the analysis of pundits about the back-room politics and finances of this proposed merger, but instead I will keep my eye on the changes that Google will start to make as a result, because those will have a bigger impact on my clients' success until the merger dust settles and becomes a permanent part of the search engine landscape.