Feb 04 2008

Super Bowl Advertising - A Final Statement

Published by bgfeener under advertising

I’d rather spend 20 minutes solving a problem for a customer than $2.3m to air a borderline racist advertisement.

Seems like Careerbuilder knows how to build everyone’s career but their own.

(Do the Chinese have an anti-defamation league? I bet someone’s on the phone right now trying to get one started if there isn’t.)

No, I’m not boosting their “viral marketing” stats by linking to YouTube and I ask that you not visit the site.  For those who haven’t seen it, it’s Pandas speaking in indiscernible, ‘generic’-Asian accents, eating their bamboo supplies, and doing everything but saying “no ticky-no shirty.”

The part that I’m flabbergasted about is that this is an online business using the megaphone of traditional media to try to reach people - - AND! this online business is convinced that the one who yells the loudest will be the one to “win.” How does this keep happening? I expect this sort of stuff from Bob Parsons, but not from you, Matt Ferguson.

One response so far

Feb 01 2008

The Great Almighty Search and $20,000 URLs

Published by bgfeener under business, marketing, web design

Are people really paying $20,000, $100,000, $150,000 for URLs?

The answer is yes, but WHY!?

The obvious answer is so that the URL comes up in search.  Rather, The Great Almighty Search (TGAS).

To many companies, TGAS is the end-all and be-all of internet commerce.  To many companies, having a great URL is the secret to generating traffic and loyal users and money and repeat visitors and this and that and everything else.

Wrong.

Your URL is a lot like the sign on the front of your business in the biggest strip mall in the world.  Without it, people aren’t going to be able to figure out which store is yours.  But, just because your sign says “Tax Help.com” people are not more likely to go to your store, especially if it’s next to “Turbo Tax.”

Want to build your business? Then build your business.

Google knew this.  Amazon knew this.  Facebook knew this.  They made up a word and now it’s a noun AND a verb.  (The correct spelling for the 1 followed by a hundred zeros? “Googol.”)

You know who doesn’t know this?  The guy paying $7,500 for “automobiledealer.com.”

Some $9.99 suggestions from GoDaddy.com…

  • FeenerAuto.com
  • SmellTheLeather.net
  • LongLineOfCars.com
  • Elibomotua.com (Automobile backwards! Srac.com is not available.)
  • DrivewayPrize.com

The quote at the end of the article says that that small businesses need to work harder to get some great domain name.  Wrong - - small business just needs to work smarter.

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