Those who know me must have got my usual rant at some point on how websites are poorly named. I have been preaching & teaching for years all the steps that lead to making that critical decision on a domain name, your online location that you will be stuck with for years to come. But the steps on choosing a domain name is not the subject of this post. Steve Kellas, worldwide chief online copywriter and also Associate Director for Fjord Interactive in Vancouver sent me this great list of hilarious domain names that were chosen for serious matters. Decision makers must have overlooked a few steps along the way before choosing their name. If you know someone with a bad domain name, a domain that do not contain relevant keywords, please share around. Everyone deserves a good laugh. Enjoy!

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is http://www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at http://www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a Pen? Look no further than Pen Island at http://www.penisland.net

4. Need a Therapist? Try Therapist Finder at http://www.therapistfinder.com

5. There’s the Italian Power Generator Company, http://www.powergenitalia.com

6. And don’t forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales http://www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for IP Computer Software, there’s always http://www.ipanywhere.com

8. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is http://www.cummingfirst.com

9. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site, http://www.speedofart.com

I will make sure to share this list in my next Search Marketing training session at YMCA in Vancouver on domain names. That should be quite entertaining while still make my point across.

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It is with great pleasure and excitement that I announce a new Search Engine Marketing (SEM) project with Brewster.ca, a large travel corporation based in Banff, Alberta. Brewster has launched 2 web projects, VacationsCanada.travel as well as VacationsCanada.tv to sell their Western Canada Vacation Packages worldwide. As part of my role, I will be working closely with Robert Hughes, Manager, E-Strategies.

If you are looking for the best western Canada train & bus vacations and packages, look no further and visit VacationsCanada.travel today. If you want more information about these web projects, please contact Robert Hughes at .

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2 weeks ago, I stumble upon the most amazing dish rack I have ever seen, made by a company called Simple Human. I did not expect to see this in a Costco for some reason, which basically added to my surprise. Sonia was exasperated to see how crazy I was becoming over this dish rack, but not so much my friend James, Chief Punk of AdHack, a DIY (Do It Yourslef) Avertising Community who immediately suggested that I should do an AdHack about it. Just in case you were wondering, an AdHack, like the name suggests, is basically an ad that I would do myself and that could potentially be commissioned to the company who popularized the product or service. Like most of you would think, what could be so special about a dish rack. More than you think. Stay put, you’ll see, it gets even better when I unfold the story.

So last week, considering I did not know exactly where to start creating an AdHack for my brand new dish rack, which only cost $45 by the way, I sat down with James to go over the creative brief. The creative brief contains the thought process by which you must go through in order to come with the killer idea that will make the ad to stand out. Here are some of my notes:

Goals:
The ad must raise awareness towards the existence of a better dish rack out there that destroys the one you currently have. The initial hypothesis is that you endure your old dish rack because you have never thought that there could be a better option. Dish racks are usually not something we shop for or think about. (I found it by accident and I have never shop around for a dish rack before)

Audience:
People who already have a dish rack: most likely old (the dish rack!), ugly with faded colors and too small. The audience is urban and they live close to where they work.

Context:
We thought that the best context to come across this ad would be in a urban-type setting, like in public transit for instance. The setting must be somewhat relaxed in order for the audience to open up the idea that they should replace their old dish rack.

Promises:
Ad promise (story): The ad is a personal testimonial based on my discovery of a new product & the delight in finding that product. More than just a dish rack, the experience of doing dishes is becoming augmented because you now think about where you are going to put the dishes. As in any intellectual games, doing dishes is becoming like a puzzle game, which transforms the experience completely.

Potential tag lines:
Now, I look forward to do the dishes
Makes a Mundane Task Extraordinary

Product promise: It is more than just a dish rack, it looks good. It is also very functional, versatile, flexible and customizable. You can also consider it like a game where you need to construct a puzzle with all the dishes you have. There are multiple options on where to put the dishes, which makes the experience fascinating.

Proof:
I am the proof. The ad is a personal testimony which gets its authenticity by the person who does it (me).

Tone:
Fun, Playful, Brisk

Requirements:
Not applicable

Directions:
Not applicable (yet) - experimentation

Executions:
Not applicable (yet) - experimentation

So after a few minutes of playing around with these ideas and picnik, a free photo editing online provider, I actually came up with something quite different than what I envisioned initially. This is the first test:

I do think that the polaroid treatment puts the product in the right category and convey the idea that it is so much more than a dish rack. Who would photograph a dish rack, unless it is really good quality? This still needs some work done, which is why I post it. If you have comments or would like to help me make it better, please let me know.

If you want to know more about the company, please go to simplehuman.com

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Today, SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization released the results of its 4th annual State of the Search Marketing Market Survey and the results indicate the that the search marketing industry has exceeded the projected search investment trends. Results for the Canadian Search Marketing portion of the survey will come shortly.

Search Marketing exceeded projections in 2007 and that the overall consensus from marketers it that the industry will continue to positive growth.

Here are key findings from SEMPO’s State of the Market Survey:

- The North American SEM industry grew from $9.4 billion in 2006 to $12.2 billion in 2007, exceeding earlier projections of $11.5 billion for 2007

- North American SEM spending (investment) is now projected to grow to $25.2 billion in 2011, up significantly from the $18.6 billion forecast a year ago.

- Marketers are finding more search dollars by poaching budget from print magazine spending, web site development, direct mail and other marketing programs.

- Paid placement captures 87.4% of 2007 spending; organic SEO, 10.5%; paid inclusion, .07%, and technology investment, 1.4%.

- Google AdWords remains the most popular search advertising program, but both Google and Yahoo sponsored search spending has decreased from a year ago.

Google, Yahoo Most Popular Search Media Companies:

SEM Is Getting Budget From Both Online and Off-line Marketing Programs:

North American SEM Expenditures to Reach $25.2B in 2011:

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I am not sure what to think about this, if this is true or not, and I would really like to have your comments. I just got an email from Quebec about a new search engine (sic), ecogle.fr, a supposedly greener approach to our beloved Google. They claim that white pixels take way more energy than black pixels and as such we should turn to their solution instead. We would still get Google search results but with a different (black) user interface essentially. As such, this is what it would look like:

Please try it and let me know what you think. I am not convinced that I would like to search in the dark. I think the claim of saving energy would better suit traditional media people because of the insane amount of junk mail we receive and as such, we should leave Google alone for the time being, but that is just me.

Here is the original email, en Français:

Comme vous le savez, l’état de notre planète est de pire en pire. Effet de serre, pollution des océans, etc. Nous nous devons de faire des économies d’énergie, et ce pour la protection de nos enfants, de toutes les espèces animales, végétales, pour la protection de la Terre en général.

Un blogueur canadien a démontré il y a quelques temps que si le site Google était noir, on pourrait économiser 750 mégawatts-heures par an, soit toute l’énergie produite par 1000 petites éoliennes ou par 26 turbines du barrage des Trois Gorges en Chine (barrage dont la construction, faut-il le rappeler, a engendré le déménagement de plus d’un million de Chinois, qu’ils le veuillent ou non). Cette économie est dûe au fait que les pixels blancs nécessitent plus d’énergie que les pixels noirs pour s’afficher sur vos écrans.

Suite à cette démonstration, un nouveau moteur de recherches noir est né, Écogle (ecogle.fr), moteur de recherches qui utilise toutes les données de Google.

J’incite donc tous ceux qui reçoivent ce mail à mettre Ecogle.fr en page d’accueil, ou au moins à changer cette habitude d’aller sur Google, et d’utiliser Ecogle. Un geste qui ne coute rien, et qui à grande échelle, aura une influence sur la santé de notre environnement.

Merci de votre attention, et merci de faire en sorte que notre planète resplendisse à nouveau.

Bertrand Caussin
Président
Greenpeace France

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In the last 2 hour session of a 10 hours intensive coaching program on PPC (Pay Per Click) Management to the students at Masters of Digital Media last month, we fooled around with Megan’s camera and experimented a little with the lights of the projector on a typical Google Adwords MCC (My Client Center) in the background. In this picture, we can recognize (in typical order) Sonu Sharma, Megan Cole, Nadia Aly and myself, which constitutes the PPC & SEO Workforce. We had a lot of fun taking these shots and this is what we ended up with:

Sonu Sharma, Megan Cole, Nadia Aly and myself: MDM PPC & SEO Workforce Team

Alex explaining PPC (Pay Per Click) Management 101

Here is the full set of pictures from that same PPC Coaching session.

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As a lot you know, dear fellow readers of the eMarketing 101 blog, for the last year or so I have been actively involved in the promotion of search marketing in Canada through the creation of SEMPO Canada: Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization in Canada. As I prepare the material for our attendance to the Massive Tech Show in Vancouver (BC) on April 01, 2008, which I invite you all to come, I was thinking it would be appropriate to share what SEMPO is and what we are doing to promote search in many countries, including our own. As such, I came across yesterday a good introduction and explanation of SEMPO made by Massimo Burgio, Chair of SEMPO Global, which SEMPO Canada is part of. He explains the advantages of becoming a member and how the organization evolved form the last 5 years. Quite interesting. Here it is:

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