Google AdWords Specialists

What to do with an empty Forum?

Sing the above lyric to the tune of “what to do with a Drunken Sailor”, something like that.

Here’s the deal.
I have agreed to help energize the SEMpdx Support Forums. Energize and sculpt I should say. It is a virtual blank slate at this point, so the early users will have huge input into the formulation of guidelines, topics, accepted practices, etc.

SEMpdx is a professional organization for Search Engine Marketing.
The organization is located in Portland, OR.

I am a dues paying member, and attend most all the events. The Board is made up of solid people that really know their stuff, some with expanding National reputations. Although relatively new, SEMpdx is rapidly becoming a resource of note for Search Engine Marketing education, information, and support.

Great organization, great resource.

The SEMpdx Support Forums are new. Therefore pretty quiet just now. But the potential for high quality Search Marketing discussion and information, in a short period of time, is very strong.

Stop on by. Introduce yourself.
Be one of the early users that will strongly influence the path of this community.

-T

Tom Hale
Internet Strategist - AdWords Specialist
http://ThomasCreekConcepts.com/
http://forum.sempdx.org/

What to do with an empty Forum?

Sing the above lyric to the tune of “what to do with a Drunken Sailor”, something like that.

Here’s the deal.
I have agreed to help energize the SEMpdx Support Forums. Energize and sculpt I should say. It is a virtual blank slate at this point, so the early users will have huge input into the formulation of guidelines, topics, accepted practices, etc.

SEMpdx is… Continue reading | 1 Comment

There is a rule of blogging, a Primary Rule.

That rule is: Don’t stop Blogging. A related rule is that you should blog frequently and consistently. Obviously I am in gross violation of those rules. Guilty.

But I do plead mitigating circumstances. Because those primary rules of blogging have collided with a primary business principal of mine, which is clients first. As in obligations to existing clients, trump growth activities (such as blogging), when resources (such as time), get tight.

And I was blessed with a flood of new clients awhile back. But the flood is about tamed, and I will be back blogging in earnest soon, I hope.

-T

There is a rule of blogging, a Primary Rule.

That rule is: Don’t stop Blogging. A related rule is that you should blog frequently and consistently. Obviously I am in gross violation of those rules. Guilty.

But I do plead mitigating circumstances. Because those primary rules of blogging have collided with a primary business principal of mine, which is clients first. As in obligations to existing clients, trump growth activities (such as… Continue reading

Appropriately enough, a concept has me in it’s thrall. A thought that has grown out of pondering the impact of the Internet on the age old art of persuasion. Such pondering has distilled down to this concept:

Tell a compelling truth to those that want to hear it.

Simple? You bet it is. But to fully embrace the inevitability of it, you have to shed years of Madison Avenue indoctrination, and understand how the Age of Information is changing the way people communicate and learn.

I have understood this on an intuitive level ever since I first heard of AdWords and was captivated by Google’s strident advertising ethic based on relevance and accuracy. That was a glimpse into something much larger than just advertising. As I have learned more about the so called Web 2.0 phenomenon, especially as it applies to search and social media, my intuition has become a creed.

Often I say that in order for my work to be as effective as it can be certain pieces have to be in place. First, my client/prospect needs to offer a product, service, or advocate a cause, that has value. Make that Value with a capital V. Second, that product, service, or cause must be presented on the Internet in a manner that does it justice. Then we must distill that value down to one or more identifiable compelling truths, and target the specific audiences that truly want to engage those truths. This applies to a great buy on a product, a respected professional service, inspiring works of art, a timely social-political issue, entertainment, etc.

Whatever form the value takes, I see a new marketing ethic emerging that focuses on not only identifying and communicating that value, but also identifying the likeliest benefactors and their communication proclivities. Not to persuade so much as to engage, inform.

The persuasion is in the truth.

As obvious as that may sound, that is not what most people seem to do. Most are so indoctrinated with the best-biggest-brightest, mentality of Broadcast advertising that they lose sight of where the true value is in their proposition and to whom it is valuable.

As a result we get Propaganda:

“Fabricating a truth for those most susceptible.”

or Preaching to the Choir:

“Pandering the obvious to the self serving”

or Broadcast Advertising (dare I say it, Spam)

“Bombarding the disinterested in a search for the few.”

OK.
I’ll stop with the self-righteousness before it gets too far out of hand and get back to Business Blogging. But I am so glad to finally be in a profession that matches my personal ethic, and to see that ethic in ascendancy in many facets of life due to the marriage of technology and information.

That does not mean there isn’t a corresponding explosion of misinformation to go along with populace fact-finding and the subsequent truth as consensus. This informational slope has it’s fair share of slippery spots. The shift from salesmanship to advocacy is a cumbersome one, and does not preclude those with bad or misguided intent from muddying the waters as they have since the dawn of human communication.

I’m in the advertising business for goodness sakes, where lines are fine. One persons truth may be another’s malarkey. But I, along with many of my contemporaries, have a compass to try and steer by. The points of that compass are truth, relevance, transparency, and value.

Progress is messy thing. But I am positively optimistic, on the whole.
Know your value, know those that can benefit, and thrive.

-Tom Hale
http://ThomasCreekConcepts.com

Appropriately enough, a concept has me in it’s thrall. A thought that has grown out of pondering the impact of the Internet on the age old art of persuasion. Such pondering has distilled down to this concept:

Tell a compelling truth to those that want to hear it.

Simple? You bet it is. But to fully embrace the inevitability of it, you have to shed years of Madison Avenue indoctrination, and understand… Continue reading | 4 Comments

I have read, and heard, from blogging mavens that a little bit of a personal touch is good in a Business Blog. As opposed to something more sanitized like say a Press Release. That being said, I realize I may be pushing it with my third post in a row largely about Me. But this is different. This is an effort at correcting an omission in my previous Link Love post

This is about Scott Frangos.

Now I can’t explain why Scott deserves a post in my Business Blog without incorporating a micro-bio about myself. So, believe it or not, more yada about yada me.

I gave my best years, as they say, to the Food Service industry. To put it much more precisely, I spent many of my younger years in the Food Service industry. Primarily in that hottest of crucibles, Restaurant Management.

The last, and longest, of my tours of duty was as a General Manager for Pier 101, a relatively-fine Steak and Seafood establishment in Portland , OR. You know, stained glass, lots of greenery & ferns, hardwood, and antiques of course. Anyway, I hired a bartender once named Scott Frangos. As a bartender, skill-wise, he was average, not someone I would dare put on the Front Lines on Friday or Saturday night. But that isn’t why I hired Scott, I hired him because he not only could tend some bar, but because he could do magic, literally, he was a magician, an illusionist.

On those chaotic Friday and Saturday nights he would be my secret weapon, entertaining customers waiting in the lobby and bar for tables, roaming the place spreading additional good will. If there was a problem at a table, Scott would go over and delight those ruffled feathers back into place. Nice.

As I recall Scott was recently out of school, a Journalism major or such. I hadn’t been out of college ALL that long myself, a grad of Portland State’s Scholars Program with an English Degree and a bent for American Fiction and Poetry. Managing a restaurant as a result - of course.

Scott and I became friends. Many a “what are we doing here” kind of conversations. Eventually he moved on, so did I.

Actually, chewed up and spit out, would be a better way of describing my path. Food Service can be a hard business. I was in it for many ill-suited years. It left me a low-down wreck.

While befuddled and depressed concerning my fortunes in life, Scott reached out to me. Now this in the late 80’s maybe, lifetimes ago. Scott was doing something called desktop publishing, on a new fangled thing called a Mac. Now these are the recollections of a Food Service refugee suffering from shell shock at the time mind you, so for you tech historians out there I hope these time lines match up.

The point, Scott was pioneering, way back then. And he tried to include me, for no other apparent reason than some kind of regard for my intellect, integrity, and love of communication - words.

I wasn’t up to it. I couldn’t rise to the challenge back then, of learning something so radical. After a few sessions in front of the Mac, I drifted away.

What followed were a number of years regaining my sanity at Elmer’s Flag and Banner, (yes the same Elmer’s Flag that is now an AdWords client), under the wing of my gracious older brother Mike Hale, then manager, now owner, of Elmer’s.

And then another wrong turn, for this strategic wordsmith anyway, into almost a decade of Financial Services and Insurance, just wasn’t my cup of tea as it turns out. But once again that old acquaintance, Scott Frangos, was there. Even though we had been out of touch for a number of years, he bought a Life Insurance policy from me. Now that’s trust.

Now fast forward, through a bunch more of my story, (ok, ok already - I’m 50). Actually I’m skipping the good parts, how I finally got on the right path that led to AdWords for instance, but that will have to wait until another time, because I sense eyeballs rolling back into heads.

So, a rush to the finish….. A couple of years back or so, already an “AdWords guy”, I was going over my Google News Alerts, RSS I believe was the subject. I saw a byline, Scott Frangos of WebbFadds.com (Owner)

Could it be? Scott? Magical, Mac-Publishing Scott? Of course it was, still pioneering. Web 2.0 had brought our spheres together once again. I emailed, and we have kept in touch.

When I started this blog, not too long ago actually, Scott helped me get the WordPress machinery going, because I am actually a tech-ninny. He also published an article of mine in WebHelperMagazine.com, of which he is Managing Editor. The first time any of my AdWordian thinking had ever been published.

How did I repay him? This man who has reached out and given me a lift three separate times over about two-decades. By forgetting to mention him while I have been doing all this horn blowing about “Link Love” lately, that’s how. Shame, shame, shame.

I’m exhausted. That’s a lot of remembering.

Do I endorse Scott Frangos? Damn Right I Do!!!!

On the Human Level most of all.
The Highest of Citations.

I have read, and heard, from blogging mavens that a little bit of a personal touch is good in a Business Blog. As opposed to something more sanitized like say a Press Release. That being said, I realize I may be pushing it with my third post in a row largely about Me. But this is different. This is an effort at correcting an omission in my previous Link

This is a Business Blog, and my Business is AdWords. As well as other Internet Strategies, but primarily I am an AdWords Specialist. So it is most appropriate to post about my services, don’t you think? Good.

And it just so happens, I recently addressed some of the features of my practice in a recent Client Newsletter. So here is that info, with a few revisions for blogability.

———————————

The question I want to address, is one that I am sure most, if not all of you (my clients), have asked at some time. What do I get from Tom Hale? What’s the value?

I think this is a different question than “what do I get from AdWords”. Related, but different nonetheless.

Ultimately both AdWords, and I, will be judged by your cost/profit calculations. As it should be; although I would like to point out that AdWords advertising alone doesn’t generate a lead or close a sale, a website or a person does that. Still, if you aren’t making money, or are not on the road to making money, accomplishing your goal, etc, - then what good is the advertising. So let’s state the obvious, the bottom line metric is always bucks in the bank.

How you measure value along the way can be trickier. It takes work, and smarts, to get those bucks in them there banks. No “get rich quick with AdWords” crap served up here thank you. The AdWords jungle is fiercely competitive.

Now with AdWords you also get a tangible of sorts, in that the traffic going to your website can be easily measured and verified. The Quality of the traffic, as we all know, is a little trickier. But still at the end of the day you paid for so many clicks/visits and it cost you so many dollars.

But what about me? What do you get from me? How do I help you not just survive, but hopefully thrive.

I’ll try and break it down a little;
Into three categories, plus.

Communication:
I communicate with you, the vendor (Google), and your technical people. For those eager to learn - education, coaching, consulting, all fall in this category.

And as you know, part of my approach entails getting to know you and your business; because my work has a much better chance of success if we are on the same page as far as goals, message, target market, and the like. Also every client situation is unique, if for no other reason than each client has a different website. Therefore the traffic you are paying for may react differently when it lands on your website, than it will when landing on some different website

If the communication channels are open, so much the better for finding your “unique” key to success.

Hands on Management:
This is the obvious one I guess: building ad groups and campaigns, wrangling keywords, budgets, and bids, etc. etc. I have a hunch this is what most of you would consider my job description.

Believe me though, the magic isn’t in the mechanics.

Expert Analysis and Strategy:
This is the one that is hard for some clients to appreciate. It is far less tangible. I can spend a lot of time scratching my head and pulling my chin while pouring over data, analyzing the kw-ad-landing page-result matrix, just flat out attacking problems with my gray matter.

Some such sessions are more productive than others, but this is also where the breakthroughs come, the leaps forward. Analysis is the secret sauce that can make it all work, or makes it all work better.

Plus, like many professions, but probably even more intensely in this field, there is an incredible amount of continuing education that goes into staying ahead of the competition. My competition (others bidding on AdWords), is your competition. Your profit hinges on my expertise giving you the edge over others, whether they be professionals or do-it-yourself types like many of you once were.

You blink, and before you know it, the strategies and tools with which you once generated profit are obsolete. And I am talking just about the world of AdWords, let alone the broader fields of search and internet marketing.

I can’t bill clients individually for continuing education, but the time I spend reading, going to seminars, conferences, and such, does result in value for my clients nonetheless. It takes time and money to be an up-to-date expert. That has to be built into the value equation.

In fact, what all three of these things, plus, have in common is time, they all take time. So that is what you get: to twist an old maxim - your money buys my time.

So you say, “fine Hale, wrap it up will you. Who says you are an expert anyway?”.

Hard to answer, without sounding like a blow hard.
But I attempted to so, in a previous post. Follow the Love.

AdWords Link Love

Oh yeah, there is that Certification from Google thing also.
Qualified Google Advertising Professional

This is a Business Blog, and my Business is AdWords. As well as other Internet Strategies, but primarily I am an AdWords Specialist. So it is most appropriate to post about my services, don’t you think? Good.

And it just so happens, I recently addressed some of the features of my practice in a recent Client Newsletter. So here is that info, with a few revisions for blogability.

———————————

The question I… Continue reading | 2 Comments