35 replies to this topic

[ScottSalwolke]

A news report today shows even a magazine's endorsement isn't always of value. Wine Spectator gave its Award of Excellence to a non-existent restaurant. The entry was sent in by a blogger and the magazine never took the time to check if the restaurant even existed. Yet, it gave out the award anyway and the blogger made national news.

[Orpheus Descending]

I think the ad shouldn't have to say how much each company spent to be in the ad. I think they should have to list the names or just the number of all of the companies that turned down the 'honor' because they wouldn't pay for it before said company made each slot. So it would read something like this:


THE 10 MOST DEPENDABLE SEO FIRMS:
150 firms turned down this distinction before 1. SEOsluts
78 firms turned down this distinction before 2. SEOdorks
513 firms turned down this distinction before 3. What's SEO?


I wonder if this will have any affect on magazine's like Inc and the integrity of their advertisers. Surely, this has enlightened me about this process, and it doesn't make me want to buy INC again.

ˇEvery year, People Magazine publishes a list of the 50 most beautiful people in the world, and somehow, I've never made the list cry_smile.gif It's really the 50 most beautiful public figures whose publicists managed to get the magazine to accept them, probably through promises for exclusive interviews and lots of nagging.

The reason you've never made the list is that you couldn't buy your way onto it. That's the point. Do you think if Brad Pitt refused to pay for even a photo shoot that would STOP People from making him one of the 50 most beautiful?

I'm more perplexed that the firms who refused to pay might actually be more 'dependable' and I'll never know who they were.

[Orpheus Descending]

I woke up this morning with a thought. Will the companies that do opt in and pay for this get to use this in their PPC ad campaigns as approved superlative content corroborated by a third party? Will there be a seal put on the home pages of these 10 sites? That's a whole lot of advertising mojo for being nothing more than able to pay an invoice. (Again the term dependable is a wet noodle, but people tend to be led by the terms 'top 10' more than by the adjectives that describe them.)

[Jill]

Good point OD. They could possibly even get it into their wikipedia profiles if they have one of those.

[qwerty]

I don't do PPC, so I can't speak to that part of the question, but I'm sure they'll be able to put some seal up on their sites. I don't think it's completely fair to say "That's a whole lot of advertising mojo for being nothing more than able to pay an invoice." If we take them at their word, these firms did have to meet certain criteria, in addition to paying a fee. Similarly, I have a BBB logo on my site, and I do pay for it -- a bit less than 5K a year, of course -- but the monthly fee isn't the only thing that allows me to display the logo.

[Orpheus Descending]

Hi Qwerty,

I don't really do PPC either, except occasionally writing the ad copy (if you can call 35 characters copy), but I do know that Google has a superlative rule that states you can't use a superlative like 'best,' 'most', or 'top' in your ad copy unless you have it corroborated on your website be a 3rd party of some repute. Being able to say something like: SEOsluts - one of the top 10 most dependable firms in the country - certainly will give their PPC ads a HUGE boost especially if the search queries come from companies that just don't understand that this is a paid for distinction, and since Google is so adamant that other advertisers can't use superlatives, when a superlative appears in ad it really, really sticks out.

How is that for the longest run on sentence in this thread? Do I get an award for the top 10 run-on-sentence writers? Can I pay you a dollar to get that distinction? (I have to stop now, I am actually having too much fun with this.)