Archive for 2009

Track Any Airplane Flight Online

January 9, 2009

Private airplane tracking services have come along way toward filling the gap that once existed between government and commercial airline data – and then some.

My curiosity about aircraft and their whereabouts peaked today after having seen five private jets all return to our local airport within one hour of each other.

I searched on Google for airplane tracking and found FlightAware.com.

FlightAware.com

FlightAware.com

I hadn’t yet seen an online flight tracking service quite like FlightAware.com.

If you know a commercial airline flight number or are curious about where your aircraft owner buddy has flown recently – just enter the flight or tail number (N-Number) into FlightAware.com to see the status and or location of the airplane.

If you don’t know the tail number you can search the public records for specific aircraft at the FAA by name, state or county or several other attributes.

Once you have the flight or tail number enter either into Flight Aware to track any airplane ✈…

Private Aircraft Tracking

Private Aircraft Tracking

Twitter Support in WordPress

January 8, 2009

WordPress is slowly integrating more Twitter related features into their blogging platform.

As of today there are 12 Twitter topics in WordPress support.

I expect the number of Twitter related support issues will grow significantly within WordPress throughout 2009.

Twitter WordPress

Twitter WordPress

An example of a recently added WordPress feature is the ability to subscribe to Twitter Streams in the WordPress dashboard.

Twitter Streams

Twitter Streams

Although its a bit time consuming to hand key in every Twitter stream a Twitter user follows-

Readomatic Twitter

Readomatic Twitter

the Readomatic feature may ultimately help both WordPress and Twitter users conserve their keystrokes.

Google 2009 Buying Spree?

January 8, 2009

From Google’s December 15, 2008 SEC filing via the Associated Press:

Google December 15 2008 SEC Filing

Google December 15 2008 SEC Filing

Although not necessarily in the “online advertising” industry and as I wrote before, I think Google will buy Twitter in 2009.

Laptop TVs

January 7, 2009

According to the Wall Street Journal in their recent interview with Geneieve Bell anthropoligist and director of the user experience group in Intel’s digital home group, “The number of people who watch an entire TV show on their laptops has tripled.”

My 11 year old son uses his MacBook to watch sports clips on YouTube daily.

Will his generation be the first to consume more video through laptop computers than through traditional television sets?

Top 10 Marketing Tips from Google for 2009

January 6, 2009

The Google Conversion Room blog has posted their Top 10 Marketing Tips specifically for 2009 and the current economic climate.

Google 2009 Marketing Tips 1 – 6:

1. Adapt your message to suit today’s climate
2. Track your spend and bid strategically
3. Learn how users engage with your website
4. Increase the value of your website
5. Understand what consumers are searching for
6. Take advantage of the Google network

To see the remainder of Google’s Top 10 Marketing Tips for 2009, checkout Google’s Conversion Room blog.

Naymz?

January 5, 2009

I received an invite today from the “Naymz Reputation Network”.

Naymz Reputation Management

Naymz Reputation Management

If I recall correctly, Naymz was originally a Google Adwords based people search and find service.

It looks like Naymz has now morphed into a Linkedin.com like professional networking service.

I still haven’t figured out how “professionals” cost justify the time required for creating and promoting their social network profile and footprint regardless of which networking service they have chosen.

Before I would invest any significant amount of time building a web based  “social presence”, I would first ask the social media providers how many of their social network users have produced a measurable, consistent, predictable return on their investment – whether in time, money or both – and how often have social network users replicated their results?

Size Matters?

January 3, 2009

Today while returning from a week long ski vacation in Colorado, I noticed another billboard advertising company’s billboard pitching the merits of outdoor (billboard) advertising.

Their pitch?

Advertising: Size Matters.

The billboard’s message obviously referred to the size of the billboard and it efficacy to presumably deliver its message more effectively than other alternatives?

Granted a large advertising message emblazoned on a highway billboard will be more effective at delivering its message than the same message being delivered by a billboard half or one quarter the size.

However, in this day and age of precise real time internet ad targeting the traditional advertising media’s argument that message delivery to an audience matters more than audience targeted messaging is outdated at best and misinformed at worst.

December 2008 WordPress Blog Traffic Stats

January 2, 2009

This blog: Search Marketing Communications generated its third highest month in terms of traffic during December 2008 with 10,154 views.

Previously, this WordPress blog’s highest trafficked month was September 2008 with 22,897 views.

Approximately 50% as many views occurred during December 2008 as compared with September 2008, however combined traffic totals from September, October, November and December 2008 have generated 53,894 views – or slightly over 50% of all blog traffic received since inception.

By the end of December 2008, cohn.wordpress.com had been viewed 105,994 times since its launch in September 2006.

In its first month of existence this blog had 1,593 total views.

December 2008 traffic was approximately 7 times greater than September 2006 traffic.

Few people subscribe to this blog, thus the vast majority (an estimated 99% or greater) found this blog through some type of search query, which is why this blog is titled:

“Search Marketing Communications”

Search Traffic December 2008

Search Traffic December 2008

Third Largest Month Blog Search Traffic: 10,154 Views

December 2008 Total Blog Traffic

December 2008 Total Blog Traffic

Total Search Traffic December 2008

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2009

Watching my three children watch the 2009 New Year’s Eve fireworks show on Keystone Lake in Colorado last night.

Happy New Years

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you and yours!