I grew up playing water polo & swimming here in sunny Southern California.  As an former “aqua jock,” I watch swimming events with scrutiny.  I analyze a swimmer’s form.  I critique their turns.  I study their routine on the starting blocks.  One of my favorite races of all time was the 2008 Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay at the Beijing Olympics.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVZrne7X5ww

I remember watching this particular relay race with a group of friends who weren’t competitive swimmers.  On the final lap, when France took a body length lead, all my friends slumped down on the couch saying things like “dammit, it’s over” and “there’s no chance to catch up.”  I was still leaning forward in my seat watching the TV intently.  With about 35 meters to go, I yelled out “He’s getting shorter!”  My friends had no idea what I was talking about and looked at me like I was crazy when I continued to yell at the U.S. anchor (fellow Orange County resident), Jason Lezak, to “Stay long!”  As I began jumping up and down screaming at the television, my friends thought I had lost my mind…  until they realized the gap closing between Lezak and the French swimmer.  What I noticed was the French swimmer’s stroke was getting shorter.  You can even hear the NBC announcer exclaim “he’s tightening up.”  A shortened stroke is a telltale sign that a swimmer is fatigued.  On the other hand, Lezak kept his form…  and I was yelling at him like a maniac to keep his stroke long and smooth.

It was one of those moments where I just knew Lezak would surpass the Frenchman.  It wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when.’  It was just a matter of time.

I’ve been watching a similar race take place in the online world.  Sure, it’s not nearly as exciting as that Olympic race.  In fact this race was akin to watching a snail race a slug.  However it’s one of those races where you just knew it was a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if.’  Well, ‘when’ has arrived.  If you look at the chart below, you’ll notice the Millenials (18-29) have finally broken the barrier in the News race.  According to the Pew Research Center, Millenials (those rascals who wear their pants too low, play their music too loud, and text message faster than most people type) now say that the Internet is the primary way for them to get news.    Everyone knew this day would come as the TV news armstrokes tightened up and the internet stayed long.  I expect this gap to close for the Gen-X-ers as well in the coming years.  Increasing broadband has made the internet a multimedia platform for news.  You can watch the news, read the news, and listen to the news all on the internet.  The most alarming statistic is the drastic decline in newspaper readers.

Our company has been able to capitalize on this growing trend by adding our “Boomerang” retargeting service.  There will be more on this in the next newsletter but I’ll give you a brief overview… companies spend a lot of money bringing people to their site.  However, 98% of visitors leave the site without converting.  This is where the boomerang kicks in.  We place your ad in front of these visitors as they browse the web to check the news, sports scores, or read up on the latest fashion trends.  It makes sense since more people are going to turn to the internet for news.  Basically, people who visit your site are high quality prospects since they’ve already taken the first step of finding you.  They’ve already shown interest in your product or service.  Boomerang finds them as they peruse other sites, such as news sites, to bring them back when they’re ready to buy.  It’s an efficient and cost-friendly way to grow your business.  Give us a call if you’re interested.  We’d love to share more details with you.

- Michael

Nett Solutions is a SEM agency working with Yahoo! and Google. We are a SoCal based company built of an eclectic cornucopia of: marketers, mothers & fathers, husbands & wives, college grads & MBA’s, surfers, church-goers, athletes, comedians (and those who think they are comedians). Our common bond is that we like to help people succeed.

All these things reveal beauty in their classic, timeless, simple states. A major contributing factor in Google’s rise to dominance has been their ability to grasp the fact that people can indeed find beauty in simplicity.  It is widely believed that the average American is targeted by over 3000 ads and exposed to hundreds of them on a daily basis.  Ad space dominates our surroundings and it is no different in the online realm.   In a cyberworld cluttered with advertisements and widgets, Google continues to exercise its motto to “think backwards” by displaying beauty in simplicity.  I noticed a recent change in the Google search page.  Traditionally, the page would look something like this:

Google simplified things even further by removing all the peripheral links to reveal a pure, clean, simple search page:

The peripheral links in the image above don’t appear until you take action by moving the mouse over the page.  You can call it the anti-AOL or the contra-Yahoo!.  I simply call it beautiful.  Note that I am speaking purely from a search perspective.  A company like Yahoo! finds its strength in their network/portal.  When it comes to search, Google continues to deliver by sticking to one of their 10 philosophical pillars:  “It’s best to do one thing really, really well.”  That one thing is Search and the newest change to the homepage embodies this philosophy.

We often speak to e-commerce businesses who try to jazz up their site with way too much text, animation, dizzying color patterns, or overwhelming ads.  It should be well noted that potential customers and site visitors want to find the info they are searching for quickly and easily.  Simple, clean pages do wonders for website conversions, visitor satisfaction, and bounce rates.  The next time you give your site a facelift, I encourage you to take a lesson from Google and consider the ‘less is more’ approach.   You can always give us a call so we can discuss strategies for your website.

While we’re on the subject of Google ads, I hope you were able to catch the Parisian Love Super Bowl ad this past weekend.  I tend to judge Super Bowl commercials by watching faces of the viewers around me rather than how I personally react.  I noticed the faces of the viewers at the Super Bowl party were absolutely intrigued by this commercial and actually enjoyed watching it.  There was no humor, celebrity spokesman, or special effects.  It was simple yet captivating… how fitting of Google. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYavikKP8wI

On a personal note, this commercial is the one that got my vote:

• Michael

Nett Solutions is a SEM agency working with Yahoo! and Google.  We are a SoCal based company built of an eclectic cornucopia of:  marketers, mothers & fathers, husbands & wives, college grads & MBA’s, surfers, church-goers, athletes, comedians (and those who think they are comedians).  Our common bond is that we like to help people succeed.

This is a fun and interesting time to begin a new blog series.  The first two months of the calendar year always excites me because its earnings season, the aggregate holiday sales numbers are posted, the Super Bowl ads are creating buzz, many New Year’s resolutions broken by now, and the New Year generally marks a fresh start for everyone.    This new blog is designed to address current events in a way that is informative and applicable to small & medium sized businesses.    

As an internet marketing company we feel a high level of responsibility towards not just creating a good ad campaign, but also helping our clients succeed in their day to day business operations.  We have the opportunity to speak with 100′s of new SMB’s every week.  This allows us the ability to keep a finger on the pulse of the American business environment and offer fun & interesting blog topics that pertain to all aspects of the business.  I understand words like inflation, recession, and unemployment raise barriers when making business decisions.  I am faced with these similar decisions on a daily basis.  At the same time we believe there is opportunity all around us.  Our goal is to help businesses continue to grow during these challenging times. 

On a personal note, I believe in people.   I believe the small and medium sized American businesses must spearhead the charge out of this recession.  I believe American’s may not have greater dreams that those in other countries… but I believe we live in a country that provides the best platform to achieve those dreams.   Our passion is to use advertising and marketing to make dreams happen.

As an authorized reseller for Google and Yahoo!, Nett Solutions, Inc.(www.nettsolutions.com) specializes in placing websites in the Top 3 Sponsored Results of the leading search engines for a flat monthly fee. No more PPC charges and no website manipulation. It’s simple and straightforward.

/24-7PressRelease/ – ALISO VIEJO, CA, November 15, 2007 – Based out of Orange County, California, Nett Solutions has grown into one of the top Internet Marketing firms and a leader in Search Engine Placement. They do one thing and one thing only – place businesses at the top of Google and Yahoo! They don’t design websites and they don’t do SEO. As their CFO, Carl Hagmier, says, “Successful firms figure out what they do well and concentrate on excelling at it. Our goal is to be the largest and best Search Engine Placement firm and we are well on our way to achieving that goal.” As an authorized reseller for Google and Yahoo!, Nett Solutions realizes that having the ability to guarantee a company their site will always be in one of the Top 3 Sponsored Results on the two leading search engines is a powerful tool. As everyone knows, that’s where the action is and if a company wants a piece of the online pie, they need to be where the action takes place – at the top of Google and Yahoo!

About Nett Solutions
Nett Solutions is one of the largest resellers for Google & Yahoo! and guarantees placement 24/7 in one of the Top 3 Sponsored Results for both Google and Yahoo! For more information, please contact Nett Solutions at (949) 330-7060 or info@nettsolutions.com