Ahh, Comcast, volumes have been written about this wonderfully managed organization and their customer service.  I do have to give them credit for developing a monopoly in my local area where they are the only, though crappy, high speed internet provider available in my neighborhood.   But I digress…

Apparently I am a very loyal customer.  Because I am, they sent me a nice little mailer telling me that since I am a “very loyal customer” that I am worth up to $5.99 to them.  But to get that $5.99 I have to really work hard.

I could just say thank you and watch my movie and be happy.  But no, I would not have an opportunity to rant.    The first problem I see is that I have autopay. Which means I am one of the really loyal customers who make sure Comcast gets their money on time and they don’t even need to mail me a bill.  Bang, they have payment the day it s due.

The requirement of this offer is to cut this “original coupon” then enter the details of the movie purchase – what is interesting is they have my address and name so they know I am a Comcast subscriber.   Why can’t they just do match in the database -  if on demand movie purchase and loyal customer = credit to my account.  My guess if the loyalty was reciprocal they would do it this way.

Now, this whole situation could have been prevented had the direct marketing folks had the foresight to bang the loyal customer offer list against the autopay list and not sent me the mailer – oh yea right… different departments.  I always forget about silos.

Now, why can’t they be more like other merchants or like Japan and use a barcode on these rebate forms so they can just scan it and sync to my account?

Why, because they want me to watch an on demand movie and not get a rebate.  25,000 subscribers take the bait and do it and forget to put the coupon on their mail in bill, put the wrong movie, illegible account number or make the mistake on the day – all human error opportunities to deny the rebate – cha ching – instant MBA case study on revenue generation.

Worst yet, the September bill won’t come till early-October and I am sure that the offer will expire at the end of the month and not be eligible for credit against the October bill.

I guess with all the unemployed and people cutting back the greedy bastards need more revenue than they make off leasing remotes for 25 cents a month.

[Mini-Rant]

Now, in today’s current digital and advanced systems environment when I see a rebate, refund or some other cash back incentive where I have to fill out paperwork, solve a Rubics’ cube (little known fact I did it in high school in 17 seconds) or some other feat of intelligence I know that the company is running a modern bait and switch scam.   Mail in rebates are rife with fraud – there are many instances where the finance models are ran to show that 80+ percent won’t send it in, will make a disqualifying error and/or companies managing it are actually incentivized to make sure you don’t.  I have fought too many of these battles to have any faith in rebate programs other than those that give me a direct result.

Legit companies are doing what Staples and Apple do – they process it off the receipt or right in store.  For example, at Apple, when you guy a Macbook they often give you a $100 rebate when you buy a printer.  You can get a low-end printer for free or buy a better printer for the price of the low end.    The cool thing is you have to do little to get it.  Simply go to apple.com/rebate and put in your receipt number.  They know a few things – what you bought by SKU and serial number so they can immediately do the matching that you meet the qualifications.  Since you enter your email they send you a note a few days later telling you the check is on its way and about 10 days later the check is there.   No hassle and you actually get your $100 and not an extra 100 for the retailer or merchant who’s product had the rebate.

At Staples, if you buy a rebate product they either give you the rebate when you are checking out on your receipt or the same thing, go to the rebate page and enter the receipt and bam about 4 weeks later you get the rebate.

Why can’t others do this?  Show me the love Comcast.

[end Mini Rant]

As Motoko and I were going through security at Hiroshima Japan airport last week I notced the sign below and grabbed a pic with my iPhone.

After being wowed most of the week by a lot of new technology this sign wrapped up the week… sometimes simple is just easier…

This is a form of Etch A Sketch that allows people to write on it and and them clear easily.  With all of the new regulations with air travel and many deaf and older Japanese traveling if is great to see that the security team are willing to communicate with people with hearing disabilities.

I also like this photo since I use a similar device to communicate with my SCUBA students during the class.  You simple write on it and then swipe a lever and it cleans it for them or you to respond.

Google has launched a new Internet Stats site in the UK at http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/internetstats/

They have broken the information down into 5 main categories: Macro Economic Trends, Technology, Consumer Trends, Media Consumption and Media Landscape. Within each topic are subcategories focusing on a deeper segment of that category area.

For example in the Consumer Trends category they have various segments like community, entertainment, information and ecommerce. The data is relatively recent and not exclusive to the UK. There tends to be more UK and European data than US right now but I am sure this will change.

I find it interesting there is not a “Search Category” nor did they have a lot of date from their own research especially from the CPG study that would fit in the Consumer Trends category.  Nevertheless, this is a good resource and a quick way to find relevant stats and the source. They even have a link to send them your data.

If you are stuck for a stat or hear one and need a source, this is a great place to try.  I will monitor it and let you know if they add any additional information.

South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) opened its panel picker on Monday allowing the community to vote for the panels that should be added to the event. You can vote until September 4th 2009. The actual interactive event will be March 12 – 16, 2010. For those who are not aware, there are also music and film events before during and after the interactive week.

The SXSW panel picker process is one of the coolest ways of developing conference content and validating market and attendee interest. Over 2,000 sessions are submitted because it is one of the coolest events around and everyone wants to be on the panels.

Since I want to make sure my interests at the event are represented, I want through all of the social media submissions and picked the top 10 panels that I wanted to attend and voted for. Now, just because this is my choice that does not mean you have to vote for them.

Top Social Media Panels (in no order)

How (Not) to Get Banned on Social Networks!

This panel looks interesting and I think with all of the hype around social media we need at least one that tells people the damegers of constantly pimping products and services and not giving back to the community. It will be John Adams from Twitter and Jennifer Leggio who blogs at Mediaphyter and ZDNet

Social Media for Unsociable Companies

This one will help you understand why big companies don’t get social media. This session will be the Todd “Turbo” Watson from IBM and myself and Julio Fernandez from Global Strategies. We will examine the challenges, issues, and opportunities of adopting social media marketing practices in large, Web 2.0-unfriendly organizations that don’t “get it.” The panelists will come prepared with war stories, dirty laundry, and practical guidance on how to get your CEO on (or off) Twitter in no time at all.

Scaling Social Media: Getting Credible Content To Mass Audiences

This panel strikes at the heart of why many big companies don’t get social media – they want mass audiences not smaller highly focused audiences. This panel has some of the top social media marketers that can walk the walk on this panel – Jim Cuene, General Mills, Yaron Galai, CEO, Outbrain, Scott Kelly, Ford Motor Company and Brett Wilson, Tubemogul

Understanding Social ShelfSpace & Creating Actionable Deliverables

I am sort of biased to this panel since this is my old team from GSI and I was the first (I believe SMX Stockholm 2007) to have used this term Social ShelfSpace at a conference. This is the next generation of search marketing to “own” multiple search results incorporating text, images and video as well as social commentary. Come hear how you can make simple workflow changes and collaboration with others result in ownership of the first page of Google. The integration of search marketing and social media will enable organizations to achieve a new level of success with their online activities and intersect with more relevant consumers.

Building Social Strategies at Fortune 100 Companies

This panel looks interesting since we may finally get some real actionable tips on how to crack social media in the F100 arena. A new of us on the consulting side have been trying but this panel own social media in these companies and will, hopefully, bring loads of tips and ideas. Jon Storer, Community Roundtable with Scott Monty, Ford, Shawn Morton, Nationwide, Rawn Shah, IBM, Marty Collins, Microsoft, Mark Yolton, SAP and Lionel Menchaca, Dell .

Prove it! Exploring Social Media ROI for Business

This is one of the big open switches in social media right now. How and what do you measure. This panel’s description will make the attempt to answer those big questions and give actionable insights.

Adobe and Julio Down by the Social Schoolyard

This looks like a great case study session I am just not sure Adobe will allow Julio and gang to spill all the goods but if they do open the kimono and walk us through how they are leveraging loyal fans (like me Adobe Lightroom rocks!) and their evangelists then this will be an awesome session of how to really deploy a social media program.

Combining Online/Offline to Strengthen Brand

This panel caught my attention right away since I don’t hear anyone talking about integration of traditional media to social media to continue the conversations. This panel should be able to give some great examples of how to really do this. On the panel are Doug Meacham, IBM, Kaitlyn Wilkins Ogilvy PR and David Armano, Dachis Corp.

Social Media Marketing for Your Business

This is a panel of seasoned pros who actually do this for a living and just don’t talk about it. The session includes, Chris Winfield, Tony Adam, Brent Csutoras and Todd Malicoat, all are great speakers and know what they are doing. They will tell us how to develop solid strategies, how to measure success, and all the tools we need to succeed in the fastest growing marketing medium on the web.

On the fence sessions:

Social CRM: Managing Conversations to Protect/Shape Brands

I am on the fence on this one. The idea of Social CRM and generating “earned media” and how to reengage those evangelists is what I was looking for in this session but the description did not match my hopes. It has Brian Solis who is a great speaker so this one may have hope.

Measuring Brand Engagement in Social Networks and Communities

I am not sure there is a lot to say in this one – the description cites a focus on innovations in measuring online engagement and discuss experiences and case studies in measuring ROI from the agency and brand perspectives as well. If they can do it that will make this a great session.

Bonus Session

Armed with Social Media: The US Air Force

While I am a loyal Marine and not necessary known for promoting the Air Force, this does sound like a very interesting session for military and business alike. The moderator is David Meerman Scott who is a brilliant speaker and author and I am sure will have these guys deliver a rock’n panel with some great social media best practices.

Go and register and vote for these or find your own. If you plan to attend SXSW and you don’t vote you loose the right to bitch that there were no interesting sessions.

Disclaimer: these are my opinions based on my interests and what I am currently working on with companies. If I did not pick yours I am sorry. Leave a comment and tell me why I should add it to the list. If you come to SXSW and these sessions suck don’t blame me either.

I recently had an interesting discussion with a CMO of a personal computer manufacturing company about how little they were leveraging search marketing.� He told me that their main objective in this recession was to maximize traditional advertising to generate awareness and therefore increase demand for their products.

I told him that was admirable but what are you doing to capture those who are already aware of these types of products?� You are not doing anything to leverage the existing demand demonstrated by the millions of searches each month from consumers who are already aware, and are actively looking for information for products like yours.� He seemed stunned by the comment for a moment then asked me to explain what I meant.

I explained that all of your current advertising is �generating awareness� as is the advertising of your competition.� There are over 10 million searches each month for variations of the phrase laptop and notebook computer � this is existing demand and all we have to do it be there with the right message when they are looking for your type of products and services.

These are �hand raisers� or consumers who have explicitly told you they are interested in a laptop or notebook computer.� �Many of these are actually using phrases directly related to your brand.� Surely you want to capture those who took the extra step of searching for your specific product.

Companies are too focused on �creating demand� since that is what they have always done.� This is what we not call �faith based marketing� which is spending money to attract consumers and hoping that we have a corresponding increase in sales.

In these trying economic times it is imperative that we �intersect� with the existing demand and ensure we are capturing as much of these opportunities as we can.�� Nimble companies are seizing this opportunity already � is it not time for your company to capture your share?

The Web task-oriented environment

The work �search� is a verb and implies to do something.� Consumers use search engines to �find information.� In fact, research shows there are only three types of searches that consumers do:

• Navigational searchers want to find a specific Web site (perhaps because they do not know the exact URL), and use queries such as �Baidu� or �Beijing City Airport.�
• Informational searchers want information to answer their questions or to learn about a new subject, and use queries such as �what is scuba� or �green tea diet.�
• Transactional searchers want to do something (buy something, sign up, enter a contest, and so forth), and use queries such as �Sydney weather� or �discount laptops.�

We need to examine each kind of searcher so that you can reach them with content from your Web site. Understand that real people shift roles all the time�the same searcher might enter informational queries to learn about your new product and suddenly decide to use a transactional query to buy it. A clear understanding of the types of searchers and their respective intent will help you reach more searchers with less effort.

This is what turns much of traditional marketing on its head because customers find content themselves, rather than the traditional model of content being carefully placed in front of them (such as with print or TV). In order to be found (and not summarily rejected when the user is dissatisfied with the resulting Web site), you must know what words customers use when they search.

Speaking the Customers� Language

As already stated, with search marketing we are simply trying to intersect with existing demand.�� Once problem we face it this �demand� is in the language of the customer with does not often sync with the language you use on your website to describe your products or services.

If you do not use your customers� language you provide little value, as your content does not match their mission. By speaking your customers� language, you uncover opportunities to find new customers or better serve existing ones.

So, how do you know what language your customers are speaking? Keyword research is the practice of mining various sources of data mixed with intuition and a little brainstorming with a dash of guesswork.

Although searchers are growing more sophisticated each year, the task of actually choosing the words for the query is one of the most difficult parts of searching.� It is especially complex in China where entering characters into a keyboard or a mobile handset is a challenge.� Chinese tend to use fewer variations of keywords than they would in the west.

Develop a Keyword Strategy

The objective your keyword strategy is to identify, prioritize and map a complete set of keywords that best match the business objectives of your company but more importantly, the terms searchers are using to find you.

This process consists of a number of steps each of which is designed to make the case for or against a particular keyword by gathering and examining a variety of data. �We suggest that you look at demand volumes provided by the search engines, your current paid search program, conversion metrics, the content you have, your on site search engine database, your competitions� website and most importantly conduct searches in Baidu to see how many pages containing those phrases are currently indexed.

Once you have your list, there is no rule on how large or small the list should be, the next step is to understand why a searcher would use that phrase and what type of content they are looking for when they do the search.

Understand the Searchers� Intent

John Battelle refers to search engines as the �Database of Intentions� because of the vast amount of data about what people want to know or do that has been amassed by the various engines over the last 10 years.�� By carefully looking at �why� someone did a search and �what they hope to find� we can discover many opportunities to connect with the searcher and truly offer them exactly what they are looking for at that phase of their discovery process.

The �why� is actually a very simple question that not enough companies ask when they start their search marketing program.� Too many times companies want to �tell the searcher� what they want them to know or do rather than understanding that the searcher wanted when they did the query.� We must remember the searcher is in control and if we understand their needs and wants we can create an unmatched opportunity to connect with them and lead them down a path that will result in significantly higher engagements.

For example, a leading art and print site in the US was spending millions of dollars on paid search placements for art-related search queries. The marketing manager knew that �monet� was one of its most heavily trafficked queries.� He noticed that the cost per click for the phrase �monet� had increased significantly. �What had changed?� There were two new competitors for the phrase who were willing to pay significantly more for the click.

This prompted a deeper look into the click and conversion data for the phrase �Monet.� As well as a survey on the landing page to ask the visitors why they did this query.� Of the survey respondents, 95 percent indicated they were students simply looking for biographical information on Monet and information about his paintings. These were informational searchers who had no desire to ever buy a Monet print.

Armed with this information, the marketing manager switched his paid placement buys from an informational query (�monet�) to specific transactional queries (the names of Monet paintings such as �water lilies�). This strategy not only increased traffic but also increased sales, by capturing people who were more informed about the painter and more likely to buy a specific print.

As you can see, careful study of the searcher�s intent pays off in more visitors who are focused on your site�s goal. It can be just as important to avoid the wrong traffic as to get the right traffic.� By focusing on queries that real purchasers use, the art and print site reduced the art students and attracted more art buyers at the same time, thus selling more and getting more overall value from their search marketing program.

If you, as the experienced marketer, do not believe the searcher is in control, simply look at the bounce rates for not only your paid search campaign but your site in general.� The bounce rate refers to the visitors who came to a page on your site and immediately clicked the back button leaving to go back to the search results.� Most companies who do not try to leverage searcher intent experience bounce rates of sixty to eighty percent.� A goal would be to keep your bounce rates to below twenty percent.

Emphasizing your Value Proposition in 95 Characters or Less

The switch to PPC from traditional marketing tactics was a big one.� This monumental change has forced companies to drop imagery and communicate their message through words alone.

With PPC, marketers today are forced to present their value proposition to consumers in 95 characters or less which is the typical size of the search ad space.� This new brevity can be a daunting task for those experienced in using voice, images and full-page newspaper ads to create a compelling and moving experience and generate awareness to their product or service.

With search the awareness is there since they have stated what they are looking for and it is our opportunity to connect with them by saying �yes, we have what you seek� and get them to click our listing over those of the competition.

You can dramatically improve your search marketing by thinking about the �need behind the query.� This knowledge helps you deliver the best possible content to your visitors when they search while ensuring you only pay for the clicks which convert and guarantee a positive searcher experience.

Add Search Marketing to your Marketing Mix

But the fun does not stop there.� Many companies are integrating paid search into their other marketing mixes with great success. They are leveraging paid search ads to test their email subject lines and even starting to test TV and print advertising messages before they are integrated to see which work best with consumers.

Search is unmatched as the logical next step for those consumers who have seen any of your other advertising.� If they saw the newest mobile phone commercial and want more information on that phone their option is to go to a local merchant or simply do a search on Baidu.� Many companies in the west are using increases in search volume and clocks from search as a proxy for awareness of new products and how well the message is received from consumers.

While search marketing may seem to be a daunting task, leveraging even a few of these simple best practices described above will reap significant gains and help you to see that search marketing is the most effective marketing tactic available to marketers.� We are finding more and more savvy marketers not only adopting search marketing but mandating that it be the first Yuans you spend of your precious marketing budget.

I received a Google Alert this morning about a site that was referenced my Search Engine Marketing Inc. book.

As you would expect, I went there and it was a �standard scrapped site with the reviews all neatly listed on the page clearly hoping to make some cash off the four sets of AdSense ads on the page.

I encounter this type of site half-dozen times a week and if it sells books then I guess am fine with it.� However, what intrigued me in this case was the actual AdSense ads that were on the page � all for DUI and Drunk Driving legal support.

Following all of the reviews of the book and the table of contents were the footer ads

Why is this happening? Possible scenarios:

• Option 1 � Search Marketers are drunks?� Anyone who has been to the after-hours parties of a search conference knows that the search community can put down some alcohol � however, they typically stay at the hotel and don�t drive � can�t vouch for that they do at home though.
• Option 2 � My book drives you to drink?� The 695 pages of top notch content of Search Engine Marketing Inc can make your head spin and alert you to how poorly your campaign is being managed resulting in a desire to drink away your sorrows?
• Option 3 � Broad Match Targeting -� It appears that ALL of these campaigns have the phrase �drunk driving� set on broad match and come up for the keyword �driving�� �as in �driving search traffic to your company�s website� which is the tag line for the book.

Answer:� Option 3 – it could be all but most likely it is because of the broad matching on the phrase.

This is one of the reasons many marketers become disillusioned with the content network because the ads are poorly written and even more poorly targeted especially when they use broad match.� I ranted about delivering on the promise and wasted opportunity this over on the book site a few weeks ago.

If these ads are working for the DUI lawyers then great � continue running them as broad match.� Maybe because I am still jaded from the dot com boom and people believing that just because person x is interested in y then they will jump at the chance to buy from us.

I strongly recommend that advertisers look at some of the sites on the content network and see if their ads show up in the right context or remote relevance.

Last week Search Engine Strategies celebrated its 11^th consecutive year as a west coast conference.� I recall being at the first SES in San Francisco and have only missed one of the west coat shows since.� �I have to say that this one was one of the better I have attended.� I got a good vibe from the attendees as well as the sophistication of the questions.

For the first time in a long time I got to attend sessions that I was not speaking on or moderating.� It was great to sit in on sessions and not running to a dozen client meetings in the area because I was there or taking one of the hundreds of conference calls

I have to give Marilyn, Stuart and Jackie a lot of credit for developing a brilliant program.� This time around there were 70 sessions with over 150 speakers.� There will always be an issue with hacks on panels and it is immediately obvious, to the trained search marketers, which people that really don�t know what they are talking about and people who just don�t talk about anything of real substance.� Not only do people just walk out they hammer them real-time on twitter.

It was disappointing that there was not a Google Dance this year � I was at the very first where it was a boom box and people dancing on the volleyball court.� But Google now believes that every breathing human knows who they are and there is no need to support and reach out to the audience who supports them.� We can always count on Darren and Brandy to have the killer Search Bash and this year again topped all previous events.� I loved the Alice in Wonderland theme and the DJ played just the right amount of 80�s music to get the search old timers out on the dance floor.

Beyond the parties and the sessions, I still believe the best part about search conferences is the chance to network with my friends and peers.� Without a doubt the people in the search industry are the most friendly and helpful around.

So what did I observe at SES?

Services/Software that I thought were cool

Wordstream � they offer an interesting and robust keyword management solution that takes a lot of the drudgery out of managing your keywords.�� It starts w2ith any list and pulls it into the system, gets keyword popularity data via the Google API and starts a segmentation process that flows right into ad group development for Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

Yield Software -� this is a dream solution for small and medium companies that do not want to outsource their paid search and SEO programs.� A fully integrated SEO/SEM solution that is surprisingly easy for anyone to deploy and manage.

AdGooroo � not a new solution but they announced a more robust competitive analysis as well more keyword-centric data.� Gary and team continue to impress with new features that align with how the more successful campaigns are managed.

Favorite Sessions

I moderated three sessions as part of the CMO Track at the event – so will say they are some of my favorites and a link to some blog coverage:

• The Adaptive CMO
• From the CMO�s Office
• Launching a Global Website
• Preparing for the Future of Search

Just wanted to give a quick wrap-up. Once I sort through my notes I will post more.

When I look at the common element of large companies that are doing well in search marketing I almost always encounter some sort of Center of Excellence (CoE). While they may not always be called a CoE, some call them Search Council�s none the less, they are some sort of centralized information repository or governance on how search is deployed around the world in the organization.

The CoE should be focused on improving the content creation workflow practices, compliance levels, policies, support and awareness and measurement across the program. It is also highly focused on building a culture of Search Marketing excellence that will have a measurable impact on the bottom line.

Center of Excellence Defined

Essentially a Center of Excellence brings together varied people and skills that promote collaboration and best practice usage around a specific focus area to drive incremental business results.

Search Center of Excellence Role & Function

The COE, to be effective, needs to be an aggregation of multiple disciplines and levels of the organization in order to provide insight into the various stakeholders roles and how they should collaborate with each other in order to be more effective.

In addition to role representation, the COE needs to provide a broad base of information, guidance and should provide the following:

Shared Learning � first and foremost a proper CoE will prevent, or minimize the reinvention of the wheel for most business units with a base from which to start their understanding of a process or technique. These formalized and uniform roles and process enable shared learning:

• Aggregation and evangelizing of best practices
• Training and certifications
• Skill assessments & team building

Measurements & Metrics — CoEs should be able to demonstrate they are delivering the valued results that justified their creation through the use of output metrics.

• Uniform Metrics
• Uniform tools and collection methods
• Aggregation and evangelization of the results

Support — For the specific area of focus, CoE�s should offer support and mentoring to the business lines. The level of support will vary based on ability and resources and organization.

• Sourcing and procurement of shares tools and resources
• Share subject matter experts
• Air cover and support with executive management
• Develop process and opportunity for scale in the service offering
• Where possible, financial and resource support

Governance � Not be confused with the dictatorship or gatekeeper of a process or strategy but an enabler, arbitrator, and motivator and in some cases the decider of what is the better of two practices.

• Creation and arbitration of common standards, policies and methodologies
• Enforcement of a consistent architecture and uniform approach across the organization
• A common method and set of techniques for managing information
• Developing and enabling well defined Roles and Responsibilities for team members

Search Center of Excellence Benefits

The most effective Centers of Excellence are ones that offers a variety of benefits that can be gained from centralizing a set of essential functions to support global search and social media marketing programs. Some of the benefits include:

• Better reuse of capabilities across programs
• Reduced speed of delivery
• Cost reduction or elimination through shared infrastructure and tools
• Cost savings through shared skill sets and elimination of redundant or inefficient process or approach
• Reduction in frustration and disorganization for those just adopting search marketing or another marketing function that have no previous experience or basis to form their approach or deployment of the new activity

In summary, a Center of Excellence brings together varied best practices in program development, deployment and measurement to achieve better speed to market, consistency and reduced complexity. The quicker the organization adopts this centralized process for information sharing the quicker they will see a more wide-spread adoption of these practices and a reduction to barriers for improving performance in their specific discipline.

Note: I think companies that are struggling with social media adoption in their organizations can take a page from the playbook from the Search Center of Excellence and the adopt the same set of principals to deploy their social media strategy.

Trying to deal with these two companies on iPhone issues is like a dog chasing its tail � you will never get anywhere.� They are like “who’s on first” skit always referencing some bullshit restrictions of the other and in the end, neither really care about the consumer.

That being said, I really love the functionality my iPhone offers and beleive it makes me more productive.

I upgraded to the 3g version and have been using my old iPhone as an expensive iPod touch that I take to the gym in one of those geeky arm bands.� Being fat I sweat like a pig on the elliptical and did not want to drown my good iPhone.�� This option has worked well for the past few months.

I got tired of receiving the note to upgrade the old phone to v3.0 when I synced with my computer and last weekend succumbed and upgraded – that was a HUGE mistake.� Once I upgraded it turned it into a brick and that is where the circle jerk started.

Because the old iPhone does not have a sim, they moved it to my new phone, I was not able to connect to AT&T to verify that it was registered and thereby nulling the phone since it could not ping AT&T to make sure it was registered with AT&T.

I headed to trusty Google and started to find a away to roll back the upgrade.� Online, I read of people going to AT&T and them putting in a demo sim and then syncing with iTunes and it working.� I also heard of a number of people just accepting defeat and chucking it into the trash.

So, I paraded down to my local AT&T store and asked for help. They told me that the only way I could get a sim was to add a new account to my phone � at a minimum that would be $10 for 24 months.� They told me to go see if Apple support, since this was a �technical issue� not �connectivity� and they should help me at the Apple Store.� They further suggested that I give it to one of my kids or sell it on Craig�s list.�� A true salesperson would have had the balls to suggest I upgrade my current phone to the 3gS version to get those additional features and use the current phone as a �newer iPod.� �;-)

I went up to the Apple store and got an appointment with a �Genius� � now to be fair, they have rocked on helping with the ton of Mac gear we have in our house.� But in this case, they told me that due to the agreement with Apple they can� even tough the phone unless it had an active sim card.�� They told me to take the one out of my current iPhone and use it to sync � nope, the card is tied to my current phone and wont� work.� They told me that there is no way to roll back the upgrade so my only option was to try to sell the phone on Craig�s List, get an account or donate it to a women�s shelter.�� I told him none of them were acceptable and that it worked before the stupid upgrade and they have rendered it useless.

So clearly I was pissed that I could not use my expensive iPod.� So I went home, did some research on cracking it and 45 minutes later my phone was working again � good as new without the bonds of AT&T.��� So now it is working and I can take it to the gym and I am happy.

I am very dissatisfied with Apple and AT&T and will not likely to give either of them any business very soon.� I have persuaded a number of people already this week from adopting the new generation iPhone and become an evangelist for cracking your phones so you can get out from under the restrictive practices of AT&T.

I totally understand the desire to keep people locked into single suppliers but there should be a way to �demilitarize� the phone so that people can use the multiple other features that the device allows.� This is not one of the cell phones of old that once you were done with them they had no other function so you chucked them or donated them.� �There is residual functionality to them.� There must be a better solution since now most people will not be upgrading all of their toys as frequently as they were.

I was helping a friend in China research Danube river cruise options for his upcoming trip to Europe.�� I have wanted to do a similar cruise so I too was curious of the options so I spent some time researching the options.

As you would expect from a savvy search marketer, I did a search in trusty Google.� The #1 organic listing for �Danube river cruise� was the site European River Cruises (shown below) – they are also the top paid search listing.
I clicked the link and landed on following page.� Slightly over optimized (multiple phrases in the title tag and choppy body copy) but it told me a bit about cruising on the Danube.

I clicked the highlighted text to learn more about the options and prices and was stopped cold by a form asking me to register to get the information. This is a little too old school for me.

I did not see the need to register and hit the back button twice to return to my Google results page. I looked at the next few sites in the listing and since I was curious, visited the rest of the top 10 sites. ALL of the remaining 9 sites within the top 10 offered me detailed information about the various cruise options, dates, schedules and pricing without having to register.

I picked two or three to send to my friend in China who ultimately booked with one of them.� I will most likely book with one of those finalists as well.� That was a 2 for 1 opportunity that this site totally missed.�

What I would suggest to the team at European River Cruises is that they look at their bounce rates, especially with paid search. If nearly everyone is completing the form then that is great and that would mean I am just the odd ball. My guess is they are not completing the form.� That means all of their hard work to achieve that coveted #1 position has been squandered by the perceived need to capture email addresses.

Now, I agree with the attempt to capture email address and for that maybe offer tips or something special.� In their paid search they are offering 50% off bookings.� Have some call to action like – “ask us how you can save 50%” or something to have them engage.

The moral of the story is we often have to give a little to receive a lot. Who knows if these guys had killer cruises to choose from � I did not take the time to look.