March 22,
2006
In This Issue:
1. March Madness, indeed
2. In the News - SEO scam, Google sued, Irritate
your visitors
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - none
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
March Madness, indeed
CBS offered live video of the first weekend of
college basketball games over the web, and it
was a smashing success. Before the tournament
began, there was some concern that the online
video would dilute and harm the TV ratings --
if you give the video away over the web, people
won't tune in to watch on TV. And that would kill
CBS' TV ratings as well as their ability to sell
advertising. The naysayers thought giving the
content away for free on the web was a huge mistake.
Think again.
On the web, CBS had more than 14 million live
video streams over four days. On TV, the first
two days of the tournament -- last Thursday and
Friday -- had CBS' best ratings since 1997. Did
giving it away on the web hurt? Hardly. It helped.
Said CBS Digital President Larry Kramer: "We
hit record ratings on TV and on the web. We proved
the point – this is all additive."
What happened was the live streaming during the
day got people interested while at the office,
then they went home and made sure to tune in on
TV to see the rest of the day's games.
So why is this included in Net Gains? Because
it proves a point about great content and user
behavior: If you give away great content, users
will want more. Not everyone can stream live basketball
on the web, but surely you, the business owner,
have something of value you can give away in order
to create more interested in the product.
_________________
In The News
Latest SEO Scam
You really need to click the link below and read
about one of the latest cold-calling SEO scams.
Apparently, some company is calling web site owners
to warn them that Google is about to ban their
web site (as if anyone outside Google would know
that!), and that this company can be hired to
fix the problem right away. The first post explains
the scam, and then a few posts later there's more
information about some emails the company sent
after the phone call.
Rule #1 of SEO Club: If you get solicited for
SEO services via a cold-call and/or a spam/unsolicited
email, run in the other direction.
High Rankings Forum: Cold
Callin' Slick Talkin' SEO BSers
Google Sued....
Unbelievably, a company is suing Google for moving
its web site down in the SERPs. I'm not making
that up. And this kind of thing actually gets
mentioned on SEO forums quite often -- people
somehow feel they have a right to free traffic
and high rankings from search engines. As if....
Kinderstart
sues Google over lower page ranking
How to Irritate Your Visitors
This is pretty good.
Silicon Cloud: 12
Ways to Irritate Your Visitors
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
Google
launches financial news, data, blog site
March 21, 2006 - Reuters
Google
serves up 'starter edition' of AdWords
March 17, 2006 - Search Engine Guide
Google AdWords is now offering a streamlined "starter
edition" of their AdWords setup that's designed
to make it easier for new PPC advertisers to get
a small campaign up and running in record time.
Targeting
Local Audiences With Search, Part 3: Google Local
March 16, 2006 - ClickZ.com
What are the current and emerging opportunities
for local marketers on the major search engines?
Part three of a series.
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
The question pool is (still) empty at the moment......
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading, and
I hope business is treating you well.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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