dagblog - Comments for "Small Players Seek an Alternative to the Expense of Pay-Per-Click"

Though I read most of the

artappraiser — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:51:29 +0000

Though I read most of the whole brouhaha here about being nice to newbies that might be trying to sell their writing, I was too busy at a project away from home to comment or get involved in the conversation (and too late now, happily!)

But if I would have, what I might have done is introduced the article below into that discussion, which is an extremely interesting piece about one of the main ways writing product is sold these days. In any case, I would suggest it as required reading for any struggling authors looking to sell their own products:

The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy
By David Streitfeld, New York Times, August 25, 2012

Some of the 331 comments are pretty interesting, too--

Available online as

Ramona — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:05:55 +0000

In reply to Small Players Seek an Alternative to the Expense of Pay-Per-Click

Available online as software-as-a-service, HubSpot helps business owners set up a blog and optimize it to be recognized by search engines. The site, which has more than 8,000 customers, most of whom pay $200 to $1,000 a month, helps users populate and manage their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, along with any pay-per-click campaigns. It also tracks visitors and helps subscribers calculate the return on investment for their marketing initiatives.

Even though Google is one of its investors, HubSpot cut back on its own pay-per-click expenditures after realizing that organic searches were accounting for 60 percent more traffic than paid searches. “Most of our paid efforts shifted to platforms like LinkedIn, where we could target for the right kinds of job titles in line with our target customer profiles,” said Dan Slagen, who is in charge of advertising at HubSpot.

This just seems insane to me. Add to that the quote in your comment, AA, and the whole thing makes me want to just fold up my tent and go home. No wonder people can't get anywhere these days selling small products or even just a thought or two. Everything has to be big business!

Buy Reviews on Yelp, Get

artappraiser — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:24:47 +0000

In reply to Small Players Seek an Alternative to the Expense of Pay-Per-Click

Buy Reviews on Yelp, Get Black Mark
By David Streitfeld, New York Times, October 18, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO — Businesses caught soliciting favorable reviews are increasingly running the risk of getting slapped with a badge of shame.

Like every Web site that depends on consumer critiques, Yelp has a problem with companies trying to manipulate their results. So it set up a sting operation to catch them. The first eight businesses — including a moving company, two repair shops and a concern that organizes treasure hunts — will find themselves exposed on Thursday.

For the next three months, their Yelp profile pages will feature a “consumer alert” that says: “We caught someone red-handed trying to buy reviews for this business.”

Potential customers will see the incriminating e-mails trying to hire a reviewer.

With online and offline commerce increasingly driven by reviews, businesses can be irresistibly tempted to make themselves look better than they are. They commission favorable descriptions of themselves and may even bribe customers to say how terrific things were. The most unscrupulous write unflattering comments about competitors [....]