tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28283582127088234412012-01-28T09:30:26.106-05:00Combining elements of technology, heuristics, science and marketing into coherent strategies.JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.comBlogger431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-85517789226852175202007-02-21T18:13:00.000-05:002007-02-21T20:05:35.630-05:00

From ClickZ, one of the best search engine marketing news sites out there, comes the announcment that HGTV is launching a new social networking site called Rate My Room.Several months ago, I was a part of a conference call with someone I wont name, but he has a fairly popular show on TV that relates to DIY related home improvment. As a part of the conversation, we had a conversation about his

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-2529417528896407642007-02-21T17:45:00.000-05:002007-02-21T18:11:06.179-05:00

MarketingVox, one of my favorite marketing sites has an excellent article about page-view becoming obsolete as a major metric for site success. This is an issue I've been very passionate about. While page-views are important for determining part of the overall site metrics, I personally feel that in the new era of social media, social networking, social sites that combine different technologies

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-26680310505238187822007-02-21T17:17:00.000-05:002007-02-21T17:44:44.491-05:00

CrossEngine looks like a very interesting tool for hard-core researchers who desire aggregations of information with as little wasted effort as possible. CrossEngine takes a simple query. For this case, I'll use the term "iPhone".The first thing I notice is that the default search is going to Google, it's appropriate and retrieves the same results as a regular Google search. I can then look

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-60111668072865739552007-02-08T15:54:00.000-05:002007-02-07T10:24:14.924-05:00

Freaking hilarious.

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-73278171325735916842007-02-07T09:13:00.000-05:002007-02-07T09:37:44.255-05:00

Change.org launched this morning. It's a social network that promotes networking, communication, and non-profit support. This is a great idea that has needed to happen.Having worked and volunteered for many non-profit organizations, I know that the plight of the fundraiser can be a fairly difficult job. It takes long hours, lots of research and of course, all forms of networking. The stress

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-18590620715826539082007-02-06T21:01:00.000-05:002007-02-06T21:10:21.856-05:00

Good 'ol WalMart... Wally-World... the crawling chaos of the western world... has entered the digital movie space to much hooplah.Good for them, they take an idea thats several years old and say "me too".Nevertheless, I'm sure it took a long time to work out the legal issues, the technical issues, design issues and all sorts of great stuff.So, can someone tell me why they never even bothered to

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-19865539431087657022007-02-06T20:42:00.000-05:002007-02-06T20:58:18.696-05:00

One of the holy grails of search marketing is to capture backlinks. It's hard to find the quality ones, it's hard to get some good (I hate the term) link bait, and it's hard to develop a backlink strategy that involves a ton of directories you've never heard of before. Now that Google's added backlink information as a part of its webmaster tools, people like Matt Cutts and Andy Beal are

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-62782407460098890182007-02-06T20:21:00.000-05:002007-02-06T20:39:00.233-05:00

There's been a lot of speculation about vertical search engines. Some think that vertical search will be the Google killer, others think they're ultimately doomed to fail under the giant footprint of the big 3. Nevertheless, innovation is at the heart of the industry and it's good to see another vertial oriented search engine enter the field. All The Code is geared towards coders. However, it

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-10890457607200334612007-02-06T11:18:00.000-05:002007-02-06T13:17:12.957-05:00

Earlier, I wrote about the 2000 bloggers project. It was started by Tino Buntic who had an idea to connect the bloggers in a photo collage.However, Technorati didnt seem to like the idea too much. According to David Utter, writer for WebProNews, Technorati views the 2000 blogger project as a "scheme" to manipulate blog popularity. Timo himself came out and said:"I guess Technorati is upset

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-46996767523145967692007-02-05T20:39:00.000-05:002007-02-05T20:56:35.090-05:00

One of the things I like about the Super Bowl is the mad rush and the pre-bowl ad buzz. There was a fairly innocuous ad with Kevin Federline (*shudder*) or K-Fed, imagining he was a rap star, when he wakes up, he's pulling fries out of some hot oil. Nationwide Insurance ran this ad, and of course, some people found issue with the idea of working in a fast food joint demeaning. This drew fire

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-25275555083675632742007-02-05T20:34:00.000-05:002007-02-05T20:39:10.526-05:00

My latest article about beta testing online games at LotRO @ Ten Ton Hammer.Not too long ago, beta tests were reserved for a select few people who had connections, experience and a reputation for testing games, however, as MMORPG’s became more elaborate, more massive and more complex, gaming companies realized that they needed more people in the game to test various aspects of the game. They

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-10333055242356401822007-01-31T12:43:00.000-05:002007-01-31T15:36:21.011-05:00

SERP's & SearchersA compendium of magical spells for the wizards of search and technology. To the outside world, we are the mystical manipulators of magical energies that surround the inner sanctum of search. However, within our ranks, we are divided... the wizards of the white hat and the wizards of the black hat. We eternally battle to control the virtual domain of the everpresent Google, who

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-16483968742285067152007-01-29T22:38:00.000-05:002007-01-29T22:50:35.237-05:00

Rules:1. Grab the nearest book2. Open the book to page 123.3. Find the fifth sentence.4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.6. Tag 5 peopleHere we go:1: The nearest book is "Why Darwin Matters: The Case

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-56370865717536157882007-01-29T21:59:00.000-05:002007-01-29T22:29:55.659-05:00

Big Fish Games, with over 25 million unique visitors a month is planning on allowing their users to select which ads they want to see as they play their games.Big Fish Games is a gaming site with hundreds of flash games oriented towards the casual gamer is owned by AWS Convergent Technologies. In order to maximize the revenue brought by the traffic and advertising click throughs are planning an

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-1355362110864909042007-01-29T20:30:00.000-05:002007-01-29T21:49:38.736-05:00

A little while ago, I wrote about some of the challenges of monetizing video. Undeniably, user generated online video (UGOV) is very popular and there's a lot of discussion about the legality, trademark issues, freedom of speech issues and ownership issues. Yet despite the details of UGOV, it remains a dominant form of media. After Google acquired YouTube, there's been a lot of speculation to

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-84033995101883358652007-01-28T21:49:00.000-05:002007-01-28T21:56:14.993-05:00

From Google-Blogoscoped, they posted a video of how to get into Google TV's beta program. They listed some of the creative ways that Google has engaged the community, some of the jokes they've done and generally, set the stage to soften the user's skepticality... then they drop the bomb. This is the best kind of hoax, the kind that's almost believable, gives people what they want, and creates a

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-57529760217502027742007-01-28T20:59:00.000-05:002007-01-28T21:37:12.337-05:00

In my last articles about search engine metrics, I defined search engine presence as "the number of times a site shows across the search engines for a selected set of keywords". Next, I defined, explained and showed an example of search engine fluctuation as "the natural fluctuation of presence of the same selected set of keywords over time".This time, I want to talk about the two types of

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-33964644252473174262007-01-26T20:17:00.000-05:002007-01-29T11:45:18.492-05:00

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, brought to life by Turbine Games is going to be released on April 24 this year. This is the first time that Middle Earth, the legacy that launched and inspired the entire fantasy movement will be available to thousands of fans.There are two aspects of this release that I've found interesting. I would argue that 2006 was the year that MMORPG's (

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-29174478796059865382007-01-23T22:21:00.000-05:002007-01-23T22:38:10.330-05:00

James Taylor, Vice President of Product Marketing/Management at Fair Isaac runs an excellent blog called Enterprise Decision Management. Recently, he posted about an article from Informatics about businesses not understanding business intelligence. Nigel Rayner says:BI has been around a long time and people do get returns out of it, but it has been technology and infrastructure driven and is

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-57527417164392406132007-01-23T21:19:00.000-05:002007-01-23T22:02:33.253-05:00

LeeAnn Prescott, the research director for the US markets at Hitwise,revealed that after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at MacWorld, that the search demand for the iPhone has superceded the search demand for the iPod. It's only a slight coincidence that earlier I defined the concept of "search engine presence" using the example of the iPhone.That search engine presence measured the top ranking

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-50375334740732756782007-01-23T09:54:00.000-05:002007-01-23T13:22:58.358-05:00

In Game Advertising Could Be the Next Best Thing to Gaming By J.P. "Agon Thalia" Sherman There's no easy way to say this… ingame ads are here and they're only going to get more prevalent. There are racing games that contextually place billboard ads according to the players' web traffic habits, there are plans to make interactive items ingame, like a can of Sprite on a table that a player can "

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-32566729677208170452007-01-22T21:02:00.000-05:002007-01-22T21:25:34.194-05:00

Tino Buntic has decided to put up the faces and links to 2000 bloggers. It doesn't matter if they're A-List, D-List or complete unknowns. He's creating a very cool little mosaic blogging meme. And of course, I had to submit myself. Shout out to Cord Silverstein of Marketing Hipster for letting me know of this. My pic's a little fuzzy and I look 15 because of the hat.. but what the hell, it's

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-51538509914994274382007-01-21T09:10:00.000-05:002007-01-22T13:00:40.423-05:00

You know the kind of guy who does nothing but watch TV and analyze it on the net, then wonders why his friends think he's crazy? Well, that was me. Every time I watched something good or bad on TV, something had to be posted on the internet. That’s when I realized I had to change. My name is JP.I really enjoy the show My Name Is Earl. I started watching it because I would turn on the TiVo early

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-30844033127118247182007-01-20T13:19:00.000-05:002007-01-20T14:06:12.247-05:00

eMarketer, one of the best sources for marketing information, research and analysis posted an interesting article the other day about user generated online video (UGOV). They referenced a study from London's Screen Digest that found that user generated online video was responsible for 47% of all the video consumed in the US in 2006. They further predict that by 2010, UGOV will account for 55% (

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-10528678863238334592007-01-19T23:08:00.000-05:002007-01-19T23:52:30.553-05:00

Virtual worlds have been getting a lot of attention lately. It seems that people are realizing that digital property can translate into real world profit. In the past year, we've seen companies like Dell make announcements in Second Life and even some politicians like George Miller and Mark Warner have held events there as well. We've seen ideas about the taxation of virtual property, and

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-51585338372731581952007-01-19T07:57:00.000-05:002007-01-19T08:34:19.653-05:00

One of my favorite blogs, Good Math, Bad Math has an excellent article describing standard deviation as it relates to the mean of the data.The mean is more commonly called the average. It's calculated by the sum of the total data points in the population, then divided by the number of data points. A simple example of that would be the data set: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The sum of this population

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-62823223757409927562007-01-17T22:54:00.000-05:002007-01-17T23:02:33.047-05:00

I love this cartoon, and as I go through Pfeffer and Suttons' book, there are parts of the book that remind me of this. This cartoon has been used to entertain math geeks, critique pseudoscience like Intelligent Design, and brilliantly show that knowledge starts with data and ends with something useful (hopefully). But somewhere in the middle is the arduous task of analysis, being wrong, being

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-5385792360797598172007-01-17T22:37:00.000-05:002007-01-17T22:49:39.965-05:00

From Eric Mattson's Marketing Blurb, he writes about an interesting study from Susquehanna about the trends of content. In Eric's article, he mentions that in 2005, content sites accounted for 36% of the users' time. However, in 2006, that trend went upwards to 45%. The interesting point here is where that trend is going to go, and where it will reach a critical mass. In 2007, will the numbers

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-30871317032111470652007-01-17T21:59:00.000-05:002007-01-17T22:27:10.743-05:00

This book is organized into three sections, for this post, I will be talking about the section called "setting the stage" in Pfeffer and Sutton's book.Pfeffer and Sutton start the book by describing what evidence based decision making is. It's essentially defined as a process to find the best evidence that you can. Through primary or secondary research, collecting the data and acting on that

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-47858377786882729062007-01-14T21:44:00.000-05:002007-01-14T22:07:43.221-05:00

I've started to hit the books hard, books on search, competitive intelligence, analytics, data gathering, analysis and even math. The more I read... the more the world of data opens up into an amazing pattern. Rather than stay in my little reading hole, As I read the books, I'm going to do a section by section review of what I've learned.The first book I'm going to take a look at is Jeffery

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-9904763772159988822007-01-13T08:13:00.000-05:002007-01-14T20:16:53.594-05:00

A recent eMarketer article - "Is Privacy Overrated?" shares some interesting information about a "Personalization Survey" from ChoiceStream. They report that giving up personal information for more personalized content has a pendular affect.In 2004, 63% of people who were 18-34 were willing to divulge Demographic information in order to obtain personalized content. In 2005, that number dropped

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-36480995837977254892007-01-10T20:52:00.000-05:002007-01-10T21:15:22.539-05:00

In an earlier post, I mentioned (without explicitly defining) the term of "search engine presence". This came from the dissatisfaction I felt when talking to clients about the health of their search engine optimization/ marketing campaigns. All too often, I would hear the same mantra..."I want to be number 1 for the term X" or "Why aren't I number 1 for the term X?"This felt inherently wrong

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-17836109306337368152007-01-10T14:29:00.000-05:002007-01-10T14:39:43.326-05:00

Techdirt, one of the sites I read several times a day is looking for bloggers to join their community of experts in technology, business and the internet to become a source of feedback and information.Currently, it's in beta, so all you have to do is sign up, list your blog, recommend a few other blogs for them to look at and they'll contact you when they can. Techdirt's Insight Community should

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-74771176529937101122007-01-08T20:37:00.000-05:002007-01-08T21:37:39.107-05:00

When I first started to apply competitive intelligence methodologies to search, I had to find a way to define and determine the left and right limits of not only the search marketspace but justify those limits with the clients' goals. With this in mind, I developed a theory. Not a theory as it refers to speculation or an opinion, but a theory in the scientific sense of the word to mean:

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-49199934968651844752007-01-07T12:03:00.000-05:002007-01-07T12:44:28.546-05:00

For those of you who know me, you know that Michael Shermer is one of my heroes. Ever since I read his book "Why People Believe Weird Things", I realized how much of my life I had spent being a pattern seeking animal. I loved science, but never took it to be much more than a series of facts or theories. In fact, I couldnt even define "theory" very well.It is due in part of Shermer and the

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-23449917579822117852007-01-07T11:37:00.000-05:002007-01-07T13:03:21.982-05:00

For the past two years, I worked for a single company with three names: Keyword Ranking, WebSourced and lastly, MarketSmart Interactive. On Friday, 5 Jan 07, MSI closed its doors for the last time. People like Garrett French, Andy Beal and Stephen Ward (all of them are amazingly smart and talented people that I have no end of respect for) have posted on its closing and its effects on them.From

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-15280458657594267132007-01-03T19:25:00.000-05:002007-01-04T07:54:30.839-05:00

From ClickZ and MarketingVox comes a report from Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications that the Lesbian/ Gay/ Bi-Sexual individuals consume social media more than their straight counterparts.Lets look at some of the data:YouTube:visits for an hour or less per week27% of the GLBT population22% of the heterosexual populationCraigslist.org:Visits for an hour or less per week20% of the

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-52686484303550174502007-01-03T12:39:00.000-05:002007-01-03T14:24:21.756-05:00

NPR recently did a story that I had the distinct pleasure in listening to called "The Listeners of National Public Radio". The show was done by NPR's On The Media. What impressed me was the incredible power of stereotyping and how it skews actual data.I listen to NPR almost exclusively. I find that they have good analysis, good stories and a diverse group of people sharing different ideas in

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-8046704855652338712007-01-02T20:52:00.000-05:002007-01-02T20:56:41.329-05:00

Now I too can arbitrarily put things on notice!!my friends better stay on my good side, or else.

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-66587670574297485682006-12-29T11:06:00.000-05:002006-12-29T11:45:36.761-05:00

While slumming through YouTube, I found a cool little video that takes some of the ingame footage from the upcoming game Lord of the Rings Online.The first one sets the mood, it's Leonard Nimoy singing "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins". I hope you'll forgive me for the assault you're about to get.The second one is a video taken from ingame and set to the Nimoy song. While this was a clear

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-37054476363851608392006-12-29T10:41:00.000-05:002006-12-29T11:06:10.774-05:00

As I've mentioned before, I'm one of the staff writers for the MMOG site Ten Ton Hammer. While the Ten Ton Hammer organization as a whole organizes the communities and continually creates new features and values for their users, each sub-section - each game has, like World of Warcraft or Everquest 2, has their own community, staff, writers and participants.In fact, they've just recently launched

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-8212454741738929152006-12-28T19:38:00.000-05:002007-01-04T07:52:26.929-05:00

When I was much younger, I was active in the dance club scene. I would go to some of San Francisco's and Sacramento's hottest industrial and dark music clubs. I would dress up to match the culture, my hair (when I had it) was various colors and various styles. My friends and I would enter the club fashionably late and immediately start dancing and mingling with the other regulars there.One of

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2828358212708823441.post-22088803485617706202006-12-28T10:26:00.000-05:002006-12-28T22:32:36.831-05:00

Welcome to my new blog and its introductory post... welcome to Competitive Market Intelligence. While blogging isn't new to me, I've done several articles and posts for Search Engine Lowdown, the public face of the company I work for, MarketSmart Interactive. However, since MSI is known to be a SEO/ SEM type company, there are often offshoots of marketing that interest me a little more. In

JP Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15898865095268464613noreply@blogger.com0