Marketing Pilgrim

I’m excited to bring you news of the launch of SoloSEO, a brand new project management solution for search engine optimization. I’ve been working with founder, Michael Jensen over the last few months – consulting on the development and launch – and I am blown away by what SoloSEO is able to offer.

While software for search engine optimization has existed for years, there really hasn’t been a solution that allows you to set-up, track, manage and progress your SEO campaign…until now (see screenshots).

SoloSEO allows both the novice, and SEO expert alike, to manage a campaign from soup-to-nuts. It’s packed full of features, comes with a 14-day, no obligation free trial and is just $29 per month (for up to 5 web sites).

Google Answers is a failure – Google has finally admitted it. Well, actually, they didn’t go that far. They’ve announced the closure of Google Answers, but they’re downplaying the fact that it was a big flop.

Google Answers was a great experiment which provided us with a lot of material for developing future products to serve our users.

Actually, by charging a fee for answers, you were actually hoping Google Answers would become a viable revenue stream. And, if it was just an experiment, why did it come out of beta? Why not admit that Yahoo Answers kicked your butt, because they decided not to monetize their service?

I’m sure someone like Robert Scoble would be all for the UK’s Press Complaints Commission’s suggestion that bloggers should hold themselves to a voluntary code of conduct, but I say “hell no!”

The BBC is reporting the Press Complaints Commission director, Tim Toulin, suggested the idea.

He said a voluntary code of practice would allow content to be checked without government involvement, stressing: “We’re not in favour of regulating the internet. The flow of information should not be regulated by any government.”

It shouldn’t be regulated by anyone or anything, period! If you want to go ahead an keep professional journalists – those that report for newspapers etc – on a tight leash, go ahead. But, how in the world do you apply standards to bloggers, when they range from 13 year olds talking about the teacher they hate, to retirees who happen to favor a particular political party.

Darren Rowse points to a post by John Chow that reveals details of an ad network that Google uses for Fortune 1000 companies.

The Google Display Advertising Network was created so Google can go after Fortune 1000 companies, which buy advertising to build a brand more than to sell a product…The goal being to sell these big companies display and video ads at a very high CPM – unlike the AdSense network, the display network is 100% CPM based.

I recall hearing rumors – or maybe just speculating myself – that this network existed, but it’s interesting that Google is breaking with the tried and trusted CPC model. I wonder if John Battelle is aware that Google is not content with the “milk” of advertising (CPC) and is now going after the “cream” (CPM) – John’s analogy, not mine.

Regular readers will notice the addition of Mozy as a Marketing Pilgrim advertiser. I try to be selective about which affiliate ads I run on the site, as I don’t want to fill the site with crap I would never use.

Mozy’s free online backups are awesome! Scott W first suggested I check it out and so I did last week. It’s simple to use, and offers 2GB of free online back-ups – enough for storing vital files – and it’s less than $5 a month for 30GB, if you need it.

Here’s what you get…

• 2GB of free, secure storage
• Open/locked file support
• Block-level differential backup
• 128-bit SSL support (to secure your data during transport)
• 448-bit Blowfish encryption (to secure your data on our server)
• Continuous or scheduled backup options

Over at the 10e20 blog, Chris has taken all of the available information on Matt Cutts and compiled 20 real facts about him.

Marketing Pilgrim is located in Wolfpack country, so we’ll defer judgement on the fact that Matt went to UNC.

Donna Bogatin has screenshots from Google that show how it plans to serve Google Audio Ads.

Here’s one…

See them all.