Search Engine Strategies (SES) Adds Four New Members to Advisory Board of Leading Conference and Expo Series

Search Engine Strategies (SES) Adds Four New Members to Advisory Board of Leading Conference and Expo Series

Mikel Chertudi of Omniture, an Adobe company; Bill Hunt of Back Azimuth Consulting; Erica Schmidt of iProspect; and Crispin Sheridan of SAP Marketing join board

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) December 7, 2009 -- Search Engine Strategies (http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/?utm_source=prweb) (SES) Chicago, the world’s leading and most established search engine marketing (SEM) conference and expo series, today announced that four new members are joining its advisory board. The announcement was made at the start of SES Chicago (http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/?utm_source=prweb), which takes place at the Chicago Hilton, December 7-10.

The new advisory board members are:

•    Mikel Chertudi of Omniture, an Adobe company, oversees global web demand strategy for Adobe’s enterprise business units

•    Bill Hunt, President of Back Azimuth Consulting

•    Erica Schmidt, Global Search Director for iProspect

•    Crispin Sheridan, Senior Director of Search Marketing Strategy, SAP Marketing

The four new members join nine current members, who will continue to serve on the SES Advisory Board (http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/advisoryboard/?utm_source=prweb), which is co-chaired by Mike Grehan, Vice President of Global Content and Director of Incisive Media, and Stewart Quealy, Vice President of Content Development for Incisive Media:

•    Matthew Bailey, President, Site Logic Marketing

•    Brent Crosby, Group PPM, Google

•    Bryan Eisenberg, New York Times best selling author

•    Jeff Ferguson, Senior Director of Online Marketing, Local.com

•    Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media

•    Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner and Founder, Beyond Ink

•    John Marshall, CTO, Market Motive

•    Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing

•    Pauline Ores, Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, IBM

“Our SES conferences are attracting more and more mainstream marketers, along with our faithful search marketers. This can be attributed to the real-world expertise of our advisory board which focuses on cutting-edge, innovative topics,” said Matt McGowan, Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group. “This announcement is also a good opportunity for me to thank the advisory board members who are rotating out. Our team appreciates the time they have dedicated to Incisive during their tenures.”

About SES

Incisive Media's Search Engine Strategies (http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/?utm_source=prweb) is a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include ClickZ.com (http://www.clickz.com/?utm_source=prweb) for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch (http://searchenginewatch.com/?utm_source=prweb) which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company's principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media's market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, Post, Risk, and Search Engine Strategies. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com (http://www.incisivemedia.com/?utm_source=prweb).

For more news and event updates visit the SES blog at: http://blog.searchenginestrategies.com/ (http://blog.searchenginestrategies.com/?utm_source=prweb)

For more information, contact:

Greg Jarboe

SEO-PR, Inc.

978-549-9537

Christian Georgeou

Incisive Media

1-212-457-7844

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Contact Information Jamie O'Donnell

SEO-PR

http://www.seo-pr.com

415-643-8947

Unlimited Services Lands 6 New Customers from Online Marketing Efforts

Unlimited Services Lands 6 New Customers from Online Marketing Efforts

Unlimited Services, a Wire Harness and Cable Assembly manufacturer, added six new customers with a sales value of over $600,000 in 2009, a direct result from their online search engine marketing efforts provided by Top Floor Technologies.

Octonto, WI (PRWEB) December 7, 2009 -- Unlimited Services, a Wire Harness and Cable Assembly manufacturer, added six new customers with a sales value of over $600,000 in 2009, a direct result from their online search engine marketing efforts provided by Top Floor Technologies.

"The results we have achieved from our partnership with Top Floor Technologies in 2009 have been outstanding," said John Herider, Sales and Marketing Manager for Unlimited Services. "We feel that our program with Top Floor is gaining momentum and we are excited about the potential to achieve even better results in 2010."

Unlimited Services contracts with Top Floor Technologies, a Search Engine Marketing (http://www.topfloortech.com/online-marketing/) and Web Development (http://www.topfloortech.com/web-design-and-development/) firm based in New Berlin, to conduct both their Pay Per Click (PPC) (http://www.topfloortech.com/online-marketing/Pay-Per-Click-Marketing.php) and Organic (non-paid) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (http://www.topfloortech.com/online-marketing/SEO/) programs. Top Floor assigned both a PPC and SEO specialist to manage Unlimited Service's account and already traffic and contacts from the site have increased substantially.

When reviewing the last five months, total traffic to the Unlimited Services (http://www.us-wire-harness.com) website has increased 22% and non-paid search engine traffic has increased 11%. More importantly, contacts from the website - contact form submissions and emails directly from the site - have increased 183%.

Top Floor's SEO Specialist Tony Verre sees this increase in contacts from the website as a result of targeting long-tailed keywords that are a core part of Unlimited Services business, such as "wire harness manufacturers" and "custom wire harness." Verre modifies the site's content and submits Unlimited Services into various industry-related online registries to build up the relevancy and trust the site has in Google's eyes.

"Users that are searching for these terms are clearly far along the sales funnel and once they reach out to Unlimited Services, they're very likely going to be ready to make a purchase or sign a contract," said Verre. "More important than the amount of traffic is the quality of that traffic."

Similarly, PPC Specialist Jo Stumpner has focused on pulling in more qualified visitors to the site through paid ads on Google. Rather than dwell on traffic levels, she has zeroed in on the conversion rate - or the clip at which visitors are contacting Unlimited Services from the site - which has increased over the last month by 108%.

"Since I started their PPC program, traffic has actually dipped, said Stumpner. "That doesn't concern me at all as long as the conversion rate is far outpacing the decline in traffic. In the end of the day, all that matters is if there is an increase in visitors taking the actions that you want them to take. If that's working you have a successful campaign."

Vice President of Sales and Marketing Tom Breen sees his Search Engine Marketing program with Top Floor starting to pay dividends.

"The results at this point reflect that Top Floor's efforts and strategy have been paying off!" Breen said. "I can hardly wait to see the results next quarter! We appreciate Top Floor's efforts on our behalf."

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Contact Information Shane Fell

Top Floor Technologies

http://www.topfloortech.com

262-364-0010

Mining for Keywords That Pull Traffic, SEO Tool Simplifies the Process

Mining for Keywords That Pull Traffic, SEO Tool Simplifies the Process

Austin-based Search Engine Optimization (SEO) agency RefreshWeb announces the launch of a new SEO dashboard, packaged in a monthly subscription and supported with expert advice. The announcement came at Innotech, Austin’s largest business and technology innovation conference.

Austin, Texas (Vocus) December 3, 2009 -- Austin-based Search Engine Optimization (SEO) agency RefreshWeb announces the launch of a new SEO dashboard, packaged in a monthly subscription and supported with expert advice. The announcement came at Innotech, Austin’s largest business and technology innovation conference.

The new RefreshWeb SEO dashboard is an SEO management tool which monitors the performance of websites on the major U.S. search engines. This SEO management software tracks keyword terms and search engine rankings for overall reach (the percentage of people looking for a client’s products and services who will see their site listed in the search engine results pages). The dashboard includes SEO reporting software, to track progress and highlight issues which need attention.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical to a company’s Internet marketing strategy. The information architecture of the site needs to correlate with the search terms most effective in delivering qualified leads. According to eMarketer’s 5-year forecast for US Search Marketing Spending (Feb. 2009), spending on SEO is expected to increase nearly 150%, to $3.85 billion in 2013.

“As clients move their sensitive search engine marketing in-house, we find they increasingly need help with strategy, education and tools,” states John Rasco, RefreshWeb president, “SEO is a powerful online marketing strategy, but clients tell us that the existing tools are too complex, and so granular that they are not useful on a day-to-day basis.”

Features of the SEO Dashboard Include:

•    Weekly updates with at-a-glance reach percentages for keyword phrases

•    Tables with sortable columns, to quickly assess gains and losses and reveal additional keyword opportunities

•    Ability to drill down into individual search engines and see the rankings for each term targeted and correlated to search volume

•    SEO progress reports, comparing any two dates, with detail for each keyword phrase

•    Reach/ranking summary reports show overall positions, individual keyword phrase rankings and visibility by search engine

•    Summary comparisons on rankings by search engines for any two reach/ranking summary reports—provides an excellent overview report for management

•    Trend charts for each keyword phrase, summarize results for baseline to current reach status

•    Reports drill down to 5-week history of rankings for each keyword phrase

•    Ranking summary and detailed reporting for each keyword phrase, showing math on reach numbers

•    Catalog of all available reach charts, reach/ranking summary reports and SEO progress reports

•    Password-protected client access

•    Administrative area for account managers to create reports

Each dashboard subscription comes with email-based support from real marketers on the RefreshWeb team. The software is designed to streamline the client’s workflow, and it reports critical information on SEO analytics in useful, actionable ways.

“The SEO Dashboard was built by web marketers for web marketers,” continues Rasco. “Expert advice from the trenches and an SEO management tool developed with marketing professionals in mind? That's a tough combo to beat.”

About RefreshWeb

Austin-based RefreshWeb is a business-to-business Internet marketing agency. It applies B2B marketing experience and technical expertise to promote clients’ web sites to the top of the results on Google and other search engines.

For more information about RefreshWeb or a demo on the dashboard, contact John Rasco at (512) 637-5271, 5828 Balcones Dr., Suite 202, Austin, TX 78731. The company’s website is www.refreshweb.com

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Contact Information Cynthia Baker

Refreshweb

http://www.refreshweb.com/

(512) 586-8278

Cynthia Baker

Accolades PR

http://www.accoladespr.com

(512) 586-8278

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network Debuts Redesigned Website

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network Debuts Redesigned Website

The Internet’s foremost authority on food allergies, www.foodallergy.org (www.foodallergy.org), has been completely transformed with a new look and functionality that provides greatly improved usability for visitors including the newly diagnosed, professionals, and members of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (http://www.foodallergy.org/) (FAAN).

(Vocus) December 3, 2009 -- The Internet’s foremost authority on food allergies, www.foodallergy.org, has been completely transformed with a new look and functionality that provides greatly improved usability for visitors including the newly diagnosed, professionals, and members of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN).

News Highlights

•    The Internet’s go-to source for information about food allergies www.foodallergy.org, has been completely transformed with a new look and functionality, providing greatly improved usability.

•    FAAN’s enhanced website will feature personal stories authored by members of the food-allergic community, allergy-friendly recipes, and tips and strategies for managing food allergies.

•    The much-anticipated website redesign by FWV Distilled now features a “members only” section where FAAN members can browse through a recipe database and check the archives of FAAN’s bimonthly newsletter, Food Allergy News.

•    As always, this content is comprised of the most current information on food allergies and anaphylaxis, which has been vetted by medical advisors.

•    New additions to the website include sections for health professionals and school professionals that feature helpful resources and tools for effective food allergy management.

•    Visitors to the website now have the ability to find a local support group with an easy look-up tool.

•    Connecting with FAAN on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube is simple on our website.

Quotes

•    Our website is an extension of our organization and one of the key ways in which we can serve individuals with food allergies and those who care for them. We are thrilled to unveil the newly redesigned website, where people can educate themselves about food allergies and find strategies for effective food allergy management.

~Julia Bradsher, CEO of FAAN

•    The new website has received an overwhelmingly positive response from Facebook and Twitter users. Comments have included:

•    “This new site is fabulous, a wonderful improvement! Thank you!”

•    “Love the new site. Nice and bright and easy to find things! Thank you!”

•    “New site looks FAAN-tastic :). Congratulations. Can't wait to read through more.”

Links

•    The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (http://www.foodallergy.org/)

•    Recipes (http://foodallergy.org/page/static-recipe)

•    Support Group Look-Up Tool (http://foodallergy.org/section/support-groups)

•    FWV Distilled (http://www.fwvdistilled.com/)

About FAAN

•    Founded in 1991 by Anne Muñoz-Furlong, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is the world leader in information about food allergy, a potentially life threatening medical condition that afflicts approximately 12 million Americans, or one out of every 25. A nonprofit organization based in Fairfax, Va., FAAN has approximately 27,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and 58 other countries. It is dedicated to increasing public awareness of food allergy and its consequences, to educating people about the condition, and to advancing research on behalf of all those affected by it. FAAN provides information and educational resources about food allergy to patients, their families, schools, health professionals, pharmaceutical companies, the food industry, and government officials.

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Contact Information Jennifer Love

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network

http://www.foodallergy.org

7035633061

VolunteerSpot Tops 100K Volunteers, Parents Give Teachers the Best Holiday Gift: Their Time

VolunteerSpot Tops 100K Volunteers, Parents Give Teachers the Best Holiday Gift: Their Time

The best gift to give teachers this holiday season: Your time volunteering is free and much needed; VolunteerSpot makes it easy; tops 100,000 volunteers online in less than one year.

Austin, TX (PRWEB) December 2, 2009 -- VolunteerSpot (www.VolunteerSpot.com), in the midst of great momentum and surpassing 100,000 volunteers since public launch in Spring 2009, reminds parents the very best gift they can give a teacher this holiday season is the gift of time. Many teachers are desperate for parent support and involvement in their classrooms and activities. And in this continuing tough economy, time is still free! VolunteerSpot, a free online planning tool to sign up and coordinate volunteers, makes it easy for teachers to let parents know where they need them, for what, and when, and for parents to sign up and help.

"We aren't saying that a scented candle or box of candy isn't appreciated," said VolunteerSpot CEO Karen Bantuveris. "But there is more and more need for parent help in the classroom. Match that with parents who struggle with how they can get involved, and what a teacher would really appreciate and value, and frankly the realities of their checkbook this year and voila! You have a beautiful solution and a collectively generous gift that benefits everyone, including the kiddos."

With modest funding and a focus just on helping people do good, easier, VolunteerSpot has helped 100,000 people - and growing - do good in the real world: supporting schools and local nonprofits, community groups, congregations and sports teams. What started with intentions of using technology to automate and organize one Austin PTA is literally growing by thousands every week. As we enter the homeward stretch of 2009, and the focus turns to holiday shopping, and gifts, VolunteerSpot reminds parents to make their gift, around this holiday season and beyond, their time.

"We've just finished Thanksgiving which tends to put giving back in the spotlight," added Bantuveris. "At VolunteerSpot we urge people to keep that focus front and center, yes for the rest of this holiday season, but throughout their daily lives as well."

VolunteerSpot can help right now to ensure people are always involved, but especially around National Volunteer Week, coming up April 18-24, 2010. There is a growing volunteerism movement in the U.S., which VolunteerSpot taps right into.

Other Value From VolunteerSpot:

•    A free eBook on how to build volunteering into family traditions: Family Friendly Service: Ideas from A-Z (www.VolunteerSpot.com/ebooks/FamilyVolunteering)

•    A Giving Tree Giveaway promotion, in partnership with the Arbor Foundation: plan a holiday service activity on VolutneerSpot and Arbor Foundarion will plant a tree in your honor in a fire-damaged national forest. To learn more, see: http://www.VolunteerSpot.com/ebooks/GivingTree.

•    Karen Bantuveris, VolunteerSpot CEO, can also share expert perspectives on cultivating family service traditions, age-appropriate volunteering strategies, and organizing local community service activities, among other volunteering, giving, charity, philanthropy topics.

•    Karen can also talk about her experiences as a momtrepreneur and quickly turning an idea into a growing company.

•    And with 100K+ volunteers, VolunteerSpot can also get you references, volunteers or the organizations/teachers needing the help, from pretty much any location across the US.

About VolunteerSpot

Based in Austin, Texas, privately held VolunteerSpot.com is a free Web-based organization tool that powers grassroots volunteering at school and in the community. In less than one year, VolunteerSpot has grown to support more than 100,000 volunteers, all across the U.S. Founded by Karen Bantuveris, a management consultant and mom, who found that traditional volunteer coordination methods could be time consuming, frustrating and caused good people to drop out or simply not bother. VolunteerSpot's easy-to-use online sign up tool saves time, streamlines communication and makes it simple for more people to get involved. VolunteerSpot is perfect for coordinating groups for anything -- PTA/PTO activities, food and toy drives, tournaments, service projects, mentoring sessions, group campouts, Girl Scout cookie booths, book fairs, swim meets, and more. … VolunteerSpot, DOING GOOD Just Got Easier!

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Contact Information Karen Bantuveris

VolunteerSpot

http://www.volunteerspot.com

512-241-2231

Laura Beck

Porter novelli

512-241-2231

Stanacard Licenses Key Technology to JB Plus Ventures

Stanacard Licenses Key Technology to JB Plus Ventures

Korean telecoms group secures benefits of patented technology for its customers.

New York (PRWEB) December 1, 2009 -- Stanacard, a leader in low-cost international calling (http://www.stanacard.com), and innodial, a Silicon Valley-based international calling service company, have jointly announced that innodial is now licensing Stanacard’s SmartDial™ technology. SmartDial™ allows telephone users to connect to international telephone numbers by dialing a local number, which reduces the cost of global calling and makes the experience simpler for customers.

In licensing the technology, innodial can now let its customers direct-dial international friends, family and professional contacts by simply connecting to a local number. The SmartDial technology then intelligently connects the call to the international destination.

innodial focuses on the Korean market at the moment and was funded by JB Plus Ventures, whose managing director, Brian Kim, was formerly Global CTO and president of international operations at SK Telecom, the largest telecommunications provider in South Korea. “This Stanacard licensing agreement will be a great thing for our customers,” said Brian Kim. “By dialing local numbers to make cost-effective international calls our customers will enjoy considerable savings on their international calls, particularly made from their mobile phones.”

“We are pleased to license our SmartDial™ technology to innodial,” said Anastasia Koroleva, Stanacard CEO. “It will greatly help their business, while at the same time rewarding Stanacard for its innovation and investment.”

Stanacard continues to pursue legal actions against Rebtel, Jajah and other services which Stanacard believes to be using this technology without a license. Stanacard will seek to stop such operations via court injunction if they continue to infringe.

About StanaCard

StanaCard is a global leader in low-cost international calling. With its patented ‘SmartDial’ technology, commercially launched in 2004, it allows customers to direct-dial friends abroad – while only dialing a local number. SmartDial gives users a free, permanent local number for each foreign friend, allowing the convenience of speed-dialing them from a mobile phone – without paying the premium international rates of a mobile phone company. To join StanaCard’s patent licensing program, please contact legal(at)stanacard.com.

About innodial

innodial communications, Inc. is a Silicon Valley based Internet Telephony services provider founded in 2007. innodial is revolutionizing the way people make and receive calls. innodial allows its users the smartest way to make low cost international calls from anywhere in the world by using their landline or mobile phones. innodial team members are all skilled professionals and have years of experiences in Internet Telephony services. innodial is working hard to provide better services and constantly developing new ideas and technologies to meet the rapidly changing VoIP needs.

About JB Plus Ventures

JB Plus Ventures is a venture incubation and investment firm founded in 2008. Partners at JB Plus Ventures are seasoned industry executives and technology entrepreneurs, each with extensive international business experience and strong domain expertise. It already has launched a few exciting initiatives in the areas of VoIP service, music eLearning, distributed IPTV, and other convergence services or technologies.

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Contact Information Rurik Bradbury

http://www.stanacard.com

646 827 1101

Hatch My House, an Interactive Gift Registry Launches

Hatch My House, an Interactive Gift Registry Launches

An interactive gift registry - to help couples and individuals save for a down payment, home improvements or furniture - launches for public use.

(PRWEB) December 2, 2009 -- An interactive gift registry, Hatch My House (HMH), allows couples and individuals to collect and save money towards a home in a unique and personal way. Using the graphic image of a house, visitors donate towards their family member’s or friend’s house fund by purchasing a part of that house such as a window, the front door or even a set of wineglasses! Visitors get to have fun while donating and users get to design, visualize - and hopefully realize - their ‘dream’ home!

HOW IT WORKS (http://www.hatchmyhouse.com/how-it-works/how-it-works-sign-up.html) Following five simple steps, users set up a registry towards a home.

•    To begin, in step 1, users write a welcome note to their visitors describing the goal of the house fund – whether that be a down payment, home improvements or even furniture.

•    In step 2, users customize their 'dream' house, selecting their desired setting, style - craftsman or brownstone (with more on the way) - and color.

•    Users finalize their registry in step 3 by linking their new or existing PayPal account to HMH. By completing a simple form verifying their PayPal email, they’re ready for step 4 - to publish their registry.

•    In step 4 users pay a one-time sign up fee of $24.95 to publish their registry and get directed to their personalized URL link.

•    By copying this link, in step 5, users direct family members and friends to their registry - and starting saving towards a home immediately!

HOW IT COMPARES (http://www.hatchmyhouse.com/how-it-works/how-we-compare.html) By using Hatch My House, users take advantage of PayPal, reaping the benefits of being aligned with a 10-year money transfer service business and a built-in security infrastructure (http://www.paypal.com/security), which includes data encryption and fraud prevention tools.

Users also benefit from lower transaction fees in comparison to other online gift registries; Paypal’s transaction fees are some of the lowest in the industry at 2.9% plus $0.30. In addition, HMH gives visitors the option to pay the transaction fee for the user, so some may never see such fees applied to their gifts!

WHO USES IT (http://www.hatchmyhouse.com/about.html) Hatch My House can be used by anyone who wants to save money for a home, but may especially interest engaged couples planning a wedding and saving for a down payment. Additionally, families in need of home repairs caused by a natural disaster can benefit from Hatch My House.

HMH registries often accompany an event such as a wedding, fundraiser, birthday or holiday celebration.

THE CREATORS BEHIND IT (http://www.hatchmyhouse.com/about/ourstory.html) Rieve and Erin-Marie MacEwen developed the idea for Hatch My House in the spring of 2008, just months after becoming engaged. Living together before getting married, as more than 50% of couples now do, they realized they did not necessarily need the things listed on a typical wedding registry. The thing they needed most was help with a down payment on a home. Living in San Francisco, a down payment seemed to be an unobtainable goal. However, they thought with a small start from friends and family their goal might actually be reached.

With help from family, friends, the business community and web development firm, SaberLogic, Rieve and Erin-Marie launched Hatch My House for personal use just days before their April 2009 wedding. In a little more than six months, they were able to save a few thousand dollars towards their future home using the gifts from their HMH registry. Now, they hope to give others the same opportunity by launching Hatch My House for public use.

For more information on HMH, visit www.hatchmyhouse.com (http://www.hatchmyhouse.com/), read customer testimonials (http://www.hatchmyhouse.com/testimonials.html) or check out an example registry (http://www.hatchmyhouse.com/component/hmh/2009_10_10_Michelle_Driscoll_&_Jake_Rosen.html).

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Contact Information Erin-Marie MacEwen

Hatch Registry Group LLC

http://www.hatchmyhouse.com

(415) 578-3409