Pear Analytics

The answer is probably “yes.”  The search marketing business is already incredibly large and growing fast, and because of how lucrative it is, it’s attracting all types of “snake oil” salespeople.  According to a Forrester Research study done in July 2009, the search marketing industry is expected to grow to a $31 billion dollar industry by 2014, with 21% of that total on advertisement spending like Google AdWords.  This most certainly is related to the fact that over 85% of all products purchased started with an online search.

It’s also amazing how such a large industry is still very much in its infancy.  Google launched their first version of a search engine in 1998, so the industry is really only 12 years old; yet what’s fascinating is that what you knew back then almost certainly doesn’t apply now.  For instance, in the early days you used to have to “submit” your site to Google in order to let them know you existed.  Today all of that is done automatically through “crawling.”

The other fascinating thing, at least in the SEO world, is how disparate the expert opinions can get.  One says keyword density is a myth, the other says it’s important.  One says the h1 tag matter the most, the other one says it’s the title tag.  It’s enough to make a skeptic out of anyone.  Who should you believe?  And why do they charge so vastly different for their services?  One SEO consultant will charge $400 per month, and another one won’t take you unless you spend $5,000 per month.  How are you supposed to evaluate the differences between costs and expertise to make sure you get a “bang for your buck?”

Let’s look at a few basics that you should understand from your SEO:

1.  Does the SEO himself rank in the search engines?

You’ll have to take this one with a grain of salt since you might not readily know what terms the SEO is actually trying to rank for.  They should at least rank for their own name and some moderately competitive terms related to their field.  You can ask them what terms or phrases they are trying to rank for.  Maybe you got to them via a Google search anyway, but you’d be surprised.  I remember responding to an RFP where one of the other respondents was not even following their own advice on their website.

2.  Does the SEO tend to talk about or use old practices?

When evaluating the SEO, ask he or she what kinds of techniques they will use to help rank your website higher.  Beware of words or phrases that involve “keyword density”, “buying links” “one-way reciprocal links” or similar.  Developing inbound links is probably the most daunting task in any SEO workplan, yet can be the most rewarding.  Links are meant to look and feel “natural”, not purchased or manufactured.  Google is smart enough these days to pick up on footprints from link farms and other tricks.  It simply does not work anymore.  We once saw an SEO who built web pages for a client by creating them over 3000 pixels wide so that you had to scroll all the way to the right to see hidden content.  Folks, there are better ways to do this now.

3.  What was the last search marketing event the SEO has attended?

With an industry that can literally change overnight, it is important that the SEO keep abreast of the changes within the industry.  Ask them questions about how Google Caffeine will affect search, or semantically related words.  Or how is real-time search going to affect SEO?  If they don’t have explanations for these kinds of issues, then it’s likely that they don’t get out much or read some of the top search marketing blogs.  Beware of this person.  A good SEO will invest in the time and expense to travel to big cities, which is where all of these events are.

4.  Does the SEO speak at events?

For an SEO to speak at events, particularly search marketing events, it’s likely that this SEO is regarded as a highly knowledgeable and trusted colleague in their field.  They will probably have to present new technology or techniques that are new the field, which means they are more than up-to-speed with what’s going on.

5.  Does the SEO tend to talk over your head showing off their technical prowess?

Beware of these people.  Yes, technical prowess is good, but for most of your audience, they won’t be web developers or IT experts.  A good SEO is able to water down the explanation of what they are doing and why into “Fisher-Price” language so that you can understand it.  If the SEO is talking over your head, it could mean they are trying to over-impress you, and if they know that no one in the room can challenge them, they are probably embellishing most of what they are saying.  An SEO who openly admits for not knowing something is probably worth more and speaks volumes to their character.

6 Comments »Tags: forrester research, SEO

After catching up on some news this evening, I was appalled to learn how lacking the oversight is on the Government stimulus money that I feel like we were duped into in the first place.  CNN reports how a company in Tennessee was given $16 million of this federal warchest to do something useful, yet did not create one single job.  In fact, the money was used to do some soil remediation in Ohio – not even in Tennessee!  CNN also reports a bunch of money was given to Massachusetts company Aggregate Industries, who happens to be the same company who allegedly provided sub-par concrete to the Big Dig project (the largest civil project in the history of the U.S.) – so after the lies, cover up and lawsuit from the State, a big fat stimulus check arrives in the mail.

More capital needs to be accessed easier for the start-ups and small businesses to dramatically improve the economy.

Where is the funding for the start-ups?

I firmly believe that what will get us out of this economic slump is the start-ups and small businesses in this Country, not bailouts to companies who are “too big to fail” and prove over and over again that they can not manage their money properly.  The problem is that I don’t see any programs devoted to funding some of the small start-upst to develop new products, software or other intellectual property.  Sure, in Texas we have the ETF, or the Emerging Technology Fund, and I’ve even looked pretty closely at that program, but there’s enough red tape in that thing to go around the Equator.  It’s really not an attractive option for smaller start-ups like Pear Analytics.  The SBA program also has it’s limitations and hurdles.    Not too long ago I read in the local newspaper that a cap had been reached on the amount of loans available for small business.  That’s enlightening.  No more money there.  Small start-ups like us can really only turn to friends and family, or angels for cash.  A bank probably won’t give us a line of credit, so they’re useless (even though I thought that’s why they were given bailout money in the first place).

What I could do with just $1 million in Government stimulus money

If I could get just a small fraction of what these other sheisters got, I know I could do some serious stimulating.  For instance, I could easily hire an additional 2-3 web developers, 1 or 2 customer support staff, additional search engine experts and even an administrative assistant.  I would also hire a community manager, and I’m already looking for a content syndication specialist for a full-time position.  That’s easily 10 people I could hire to help stimulate our business to grow our user base and increase sales.  With more sales and more people, I would need to employ folks like Sales By 5 to handle our marketing and events, and I would need a larger office space in our building, which means Magi would be getting more money from us as well.  Of course, the 10 people I would hire would need to rent or purchase homes, eat out at restaurants and purchase cars and put money into the local economy here in San Antonio.  Think of multiplying this effect by 10 or 20 other start-ups, and look what it would do to the economy to a city like San Antonio with about 1.3 million people.

I don’t even mind if the Government stimulus money was a loan, and it worked just like any other angel deal (where they are typically treated as a convertible note) – unlike the other beneficiaries of these stimulus funds.  I would even report quarterly how the money was used and what kind of ROI (Return on Investment) I am getting for our taxpayer’s money.  I would repay the loan after five years with an 8% interest rate, just so the taxpayers gain interest on their money – unlike how it seems to be working currently.  Is any of this oversight in place now?  The best thing for me as the owner is that I don’t have to give up any more equity in exchange for the capital.

Other options?

OK, so the Government doesn’t exactly have the resources to oversee all of this and give out $1 million here and $1 million there.  But they can outsource it – they seem to be pretty good at that.  They should give a mere $1 billion to folks like Y Combinator or Capital Factory in Austin, Texas to come up with the process to screen candidates and dole out the $1 million chunks.  Sure, there would be some requirements, but these guys can process it out and streamline better than anybody.  What do we have to lose, President Obama?  We’ve already blown way more than $1 billion, and probably don’t even know where it went or what happened to it.

If you know of any programs where small businesses or start-ups can access cash a little easier, please let us know.

1 Comment »Tags: capital factory, economy, government stimulus, startups, YCombinator

The following editorial is actually a thesis written by Josh Lavine, a student at Princeton University who’s task was to interview a start-up company, preferably in the hi-tech area for an Entrepreneurship class.  It is quite long, but describes how Pear Analytics was started and where we are going, the challenges we face, and more.  I’ve also left out the Appendix due to length, which you may see notated throughout the report.  This is Josh’s final thesis, and frankly I was impressed by how much he learned about our business and industry in the mere 4 or 5 hours he interviewed me.  I also plan to implement several of his suggestions for improvement which he notes at the end of his report.  Josh is personally invited by me to come join our team at Pear any time. Enjoy!

It is December 23, 2009, noontime. I smooth my shirt and try to lick the tomato sauce stain off my sleeve, then open the door to the office of Pear Analytics. What I saw surprised me.

The office, located in San Antonio, TX is quaint, but strangely chic. It is only one big room with no walled-in spaces, except for the two small conference rooms in back. Large neon green and blue balls are rolling around the floor (I would later find out that instead of buying expensive chairs, the team realized they could just sit on cheap, cool colored exercise balls). Ryan Kelly, founder and CEO of Pear Analytics is presently standing (towering, really—he’s must be 6’6”) at one end of the room, watching one of his office mates from BrandStack, the company he shares office space with, play tennis on the Nintendo Wii on an enormous flat-screen TV—probably the most expensive piece of equipment in the room. If Kelly turned his gaze down and to the right, he would see Romy Misra, his senior analyst, writing equations in dry erase marker on a large glass table. She records her calculations on her laptop. Kelly’s other employees—just three web developers—were out for the day. I follow Kelly into one of the back conference rooms. We sit down and start talking.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment »Tags: josh levine, morris miller, pat condon, pear analytics, san antonio startups

Thanks to my friend Steve Patti (@polarityinc) who sent this excellent whitepaper from Marketing Profs this morning entitled “The Naked Truth: Insights from the State of Social Media Marketing” dated January 14, 2010, which you can download at the bottom of this post.  This is a really interesting read if you are wondering what works and what doesn’t in social media.  I know I hear from companies on a daily basis who are scrambling to figure out how to get involved with social media the right way.  The authors of this research did a fairly large survey, and included non-social media marketers to get an understanding of who is vs. is NOT using social media.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

1.  Facebook is the most popular with 48.2% of companies having a corporate profile

2.  Twitter is second most popular with 42.8% of companies maintaining a profile.

3.  Ever wonder what industries are participating the most in social media?

4.  Check out some of the Twitter tactics that worked vs. did not work as well

Here are some social media myths that the research indicates:

MYTH:  Social media is “free”.

While the media may be free, the marketer’s time is not.  The average marketer who spends 4-7 hours per day on social media activities is earning over $130,000 per year.

MYTH: Only young people are using social media.

While more young people are consuming social media, but good content is actually produced by older, more experienced social media marketers.

MYTH: It’s a good idea to have your 22-year old intern handle all of your social media activities.

It’s better to spread the work out. Let thought leaders lead thoughts, and customer service serve grumpy customers. (<– love that one!)

You can download the entire paper here. (However, you must visit Steve’s marketing blog since he pays for the Marketing Profs subscription!)

1 Comment »Tags: facebook, marketing, Social Media, twitter