"So in order to not make any more sales during Christmas, I don’t need to do anything?!"

I shook me head.

"Nope. Nothing. Just leave your site as-is and your sales will remain more or less the same."

"Amazing…"

He was clearly impressed, both with my knowledge of search engines as well as their highly advanced AI-like technology.

My ego got the better of me and I decided to share some stories from the trenches.

Codicil: Anyone who knows me know I’m the second last person in the world to suck up to the boss… (I’d say last but that’s too much like aspiring to a recognizable title, which I don’t as a rule do.)

I would like to think I’m a good employee, showing up on time, putting in an honest day’s work, playing nice with all the other kids, telling all the other kids where I got my toys (cause let’s face it, no one really likes to share).

1. You + Long Tail + Making Money = Nonsense…
   "You can make money on the long tail but not in the long tail."
   – There’s No Money In The Long Tail of the Blogosphere, Alex Iskold, Read/Write Web
2. … but being rare is good…
   "When you try to maximize anything, you work to be efficient, to fit in, to appeal to the average person, since that’s where the numbers are. […] Most embraces systems and policies that make sense. But most rarely succeeds."
   – That Doesn’t Make Sense, Seth Godin

As anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock is well aware, tomorrow is Black Friday, which isn’t nearly as dire it sounds.

“Black Friday” actually refers to the day on the books when the ink turns black (positive).

With that in mind, one can’t help but have visions of cash registers dancing in their head. This, of course, has ramifications for marketers in general, be they online or offline or any mix of the two.

There are tricks of the trade and tips and all sorts of advice that can be proferred up, but call me Scrooge — I ain’t sharing.

Google’s been very very busy lately, devaluing Page Rank, penalizing those who buy and sell paid links, and those who engage in PayPerPost. I think in attempting to justify their actions, we can all surmize that Google is acting in its own best interest … and rightfully so. That said, hostility toward Google seems rampant and growing.

In 1989 Bryce Courtenay published The Power Of One, a novel I read and was young enough to be able to dismiss as relatively inconsequential, certainly by no means as ineffably good as THE GREATEST NOVEL EVER.

I like to think I’m older now, at least the graying hair informs me of such with daily reminders. Along the way, the power of one has become ever more intriguing. Not because it’s a great novel but because it’s a novel perspective.

Do you intuitively understand the strengths and weaknesses of search as it relates to all other media? I mean, most of us get that paid search has distinct pros and cons, as does organic search, but what about search in general relative to other media?

For example … why would search not be the ideal tool to create awareness of a brand new revolutionary type of laser drill for the home handyman? In the remainder of this post, I’ll explore the role of search in advertising, as it has implications for such questions.

Hot on the heels of a posting titled ‘Differentiate (Your Avatar) or Die’ by Michael (aka planetc1) over at Sphinn, and following the unique experince had recently by one of the ladies here in our office, I was prompted to create an avatar experiment and then test it. Essentially, she (our female staff member) changed her StumbleUpon avatar, and upon doing so, her friend count increased very quickly with virtually no effort.

Now, I’m sure many of you have theories about this, but it certainly caused many of us at SEP to chat and theorize in the office. After much debate, we hypothesized that:

So Google blew past it’s numbers last week but it seems it still may have a ways to go in monetizing YouTube.

Not so, for Simon Cowell. Yes, that Simon Cowell of American Idol fame.

For those of you who may not know, Cowell is also one of the judges on the UK series Britain’s Got Talent.

Enter Paul Potts. Paul who? Paul Potts. Think Pavarotti. Think phone salesman steps up to microphone, blows audience away with Turandot’s Nessum Dorma, winds up with an instant career faster than you can pour boiling water into a coffee cup and over 40 Million YouTube views. No, seriously, 40 Million YouTube views.