Linkie Winkie a Traffic Booster to legit sites
John Diffenthal noted that Linkie Winkie is driving traffic to his blog, and for good reason. The link building experiment (if not subjected to spam) is actually an awesome tool.
It shows a test on multiple levels, one being just an experiment, the second showing that SEO’s are literally the next generation of Ad Agencies (though Chris and Gurtie might disagree) the point being that only experts could generate traffic levels like that with a budget of 20 bucks.
I promise its not a link building experiment.
Honestly - there is ab-so-lutely no requirement to link to the site, we’ve never asked people to link to the site (except Aaron and Marissa originally) and at least two people who have never linked to the site have received links from it. Such is the culture of link building online now that people obviously can’t believe there’s such a thing as a free link ;)
I think SEOs will have to do a lot more than generate traffic to become the next generation of Agencies.
Traffic is just the start. That traffic has to be turned into buyers. That requires a sales process. Brand is a way of providing a short-cut in the sales process. It overcomes issues of integrity and trust. A site without a brand, selling against a site with a brand has to address those issues head on. A high traffic unbranded site selling unbranded products or services has to have a formidable primary and secondary sales process to be even moderately successful.
SEOs and Ad Agencies - even the cute and talented team at Tribble - need each other. I say this as someone who has never worked as either a SEO or an Adman.
Hi John,
I actually agree with you… see Tribble is more of a site saying that Ad Agencies need SEO’s.
There is this line of thought in the Ad Agency industry that SEO’s are a bunch of ‘clowns’ as per the inital post:
http://www.tribbleagency.com/?p=4
Social Experiments like this prove that SEO’s can actually be a vaild option for firms looking for an Ad Agency, meaning that online marketing IE: Search Engine Optimization is not something that can be ignored.
Tribble exists to drive that point home that Ad Agencies that ignore SEO’s are doomed to failure (As vice versa, a high traffic site with no branding — as you noted ) is not worth as much..
The funny thing is that Linkie Winkie for example, actually has a little bit of a brand… all from SEO.
These SEO firms are becoming non-traditional ad agencies.. and traditional Ad Agencies are not understanding the concept yet.
I saw the post, and you’re right - if Ed Dunn is representative of a class of thought within the sector, then the Agencies have a problem.
But don’t SEOs have a great Value Proposition to put to the Agencies?
The Agency knows what it is costing them at the moment, so if a talented SEO team can provide reasonable evidence that they can deliver more for less or even more for the same amount then the Agencies should be welcoming the approach with open arms. It might work, if Ed Dunn wasn’t part of the welcoming panel!
I agree 100% John,
That is exactly the point.. these agencies should work together.
But currently Ad Agencies are not realizing the fact that SEO is a very vaild branding option that could deliever the highest ROI of all marketing campaigns… (Example : Tribble)
20 dollars for thousand upon thousands of visitors.
The only way an Ad Agency could duplicate this without use SEO would be to spend tens of thousands for TV ads , Radio Spots, ect ect.
ok - now how is Tribble generating exposure/ROI from SEO? you’ve told people about Tribble via SG, TW etc - thats not SEO, thats product placement/advertorials, and you’re gaining lots of traffic via linkie winkie, which is sort of SEO but only because you’re an SEO, Blake Schwendiman wouldn’t consider himself an SEO, just someone who realised how to get visitors using a free resource…
How much of Tribbles exposure comes via your skills as an SEO and how much because you happen to be running a blog and have pointed people at it?
Thats my argument :) SEO’s did not invent online marketing - viral campaigns did not start by trying to get links, they started as marketing campaigns to sell product which had the side benefit of link building. Marketing agencies were SEO-ing accidentally ;)
You may be using skills you also use in SEO but Tribble isn’t ranking for Ad Agency (or Marketing Agency - which are two different things btw!) and until you are you aren’t promotig your site using SEO you’re using Marketing. An offline Marketing agency doesn’t have to use an SEO expert to do that. They do need one to do SEO of course, but thats an entire different discussion.
My Dear Gurtie,
Well Tribble is really too young for any SEO effect to take place..
This site is literally an experiment in social engineering… the concept of this is to allow individuals and businesses to see that search engine optimization is a vaild marketing method, and a fast growing that eventually will displace or modify in a big way other older types of media.
Going back to one of your statements:
What exactly is the diffrence between a Marketing Agency and an Ad Agency?
Many view it as synonyms.
‘xactly - so the exposure you’re currently experiencing is from marketing and/or advertising and not SEO!
Ad agencies and Marketing agencies are very different disciplines, although have divisions that do both and agencies normally work closely with each other. Advertising is exactly that - the design, development and placing of advertisements, Marketing is a much more holistic approach which sets a strategy for the company and involves the planning of campaigns which may involve everything from Advertising. PR, product placement, exhibitions, POS and even SEO.
I think the key is that in general a marketing company is expert in understanding what is required, consulting with the client and in pulling in expertise in each area where its needed. Advertising agencies would never never get involved in SEO imho, although they would probably do very good PPC management. Marketing companies should certainly understand the benefits of SEO but unless they start an SEO department with a really good SEO would always buy it in. Which is, I think, what most companies with good marketing campaigns do.
SEO/SEM can NEVER replace offline marketing, and the web has already modified it - the modification isn’t a result of SEO its a result of the new media available. SEO will obviously take a larger market share as the online audience grows but anyone from either side who says that the other is unnecessary is utterly wrong, imho.