Yahoo's Competitors, Besides Google.

Yahoo offers advertisers more than just search engine advertising. In fact, they are the leader (as of 2006) for advertisers interested in branding.

Advertisers can run ad buys targeting specific users within contextually relevant articles and "centers" on Yahoo's ad network. For instance, you can execute campaigs by placing graphic ads within the Yahoo Finance Center, Yahoo Autos Center, or, in the Yahoo Email login screen (some of their best performing ads based on experience are within Yahoo's email login and viewing screens).

There are, though, competitors to Yahoo (e.g. TACODA, Quigo Technologies) coming into the scene that have enough traffic on their networks to consider testing campaigns on them. The key, though, is pricing, and payment terms. If you can't pay based on clicks or acquisitions -- meaning you only can pay based on impressions - it's very easy to lose money on these types of campaigs when evaluating if your $1 in marketing spend generates at least a $1 in ROI. Therefore, the metrics of success here should not be ROI based, rather it should be brand (or brand message) recall based. To measure your success here, you need to develop surveys, as well as other tactics, to measure if your campaign was successful or not.

Bottom line: don't rule out ad buys on ad networks, but know your metrics of success before doing them.

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

StumbleUpon - Search Engine 2.0

Marketers and product managers need to keep this Search Engine 2.0 on their radar: www.StumbleUpon.com . Wiki's new search engine works similarly to Stumble's, where users offer feedback to help refine the search results to be more relevant.

At the end of 2006, StumbleUpon.com has near 1.5 million users. Is this enough to run campaigns profitably? Or should you focus internal resources and efforts making money on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft? Test a campaign and see if it works! If not, wait and try again after more people are using the Search Engines 2.0.

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

Wikiasari - Search Engine of The Future?

There is a new search engine in the creation called Wikasari. It's creator is the founder of Wikipedia, and is different than Google and Yahoo because it invites real users like you and me to evaluate, and re-arrange, the search results as we see how they should be arranged.

It uses the re-rankings to evaluate the best search results for various terms based around the collective feedback of users.

As marketers, we need to be aware of this new search engine, but it is not yet at a stage where marketers and product managers should make it a high priority. It's still too early to make it a high priority in your marketing initiatives.

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com