If you do any type of interactive marketing and reside in the Phoenix area you will want to be a part of the Arizona Interactive Marketing Association (AZIMA). Founded by Arnie Kuenn, AZIMA is a 501(c) nonprofit organization helping businesses and individuals gain better insights on digital marketing advances and best practices. Meetings are held monthly and provide members with great education tools and networking opportunities. Noted speakers such as Bryan Eisenberg, Facebook, and Go Daddy have been featured presenters with many more on the radar.

This month’s meeting covered local search and review sites with presenters Chuck Reynolds and Matt Siltala. Attendees received actionable game plans for promoting local businesses through Yelp, foursquare and many other popular search and review platforms. There was also an informative Q&A session, undoubtedly the most valuable part of every AZIMA meeting.

Upcoming events include an overview of Social Media in politics and a special presentation by search engine guru, Danny Sullivan. If you don’t already know, Danny has helped marketers and business owners improve search marketing performance for over ten years and is the editor-in-chief at Search Engine Land as well as Third Door Media’s chief content officer.

Along with attending such timely and highly regarded events, AZIMA members also receive access to special resources such as informative videos and webinars on their website at http://www.joinazima.org. Also available is a specialized hub for posting and reviewing industry job opportunities. Information about AZIMA’s Academic Outreach Program is also available for students looking for internship opportunities and resources.

Joining AZIMA is easy and surprisingly affordable for individuals and companies and free for students. Visit the AZIMA website for more information or send an email to joinazima@gmail.com.

The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance transition is fast approaching, and if you are advertising on either engine you need to be ready. The expected switch-over will take place before the 2010 holiday shopping season, however there is a possibility this could be extended until 2011.

Microsoft and Yahoo! have finally teamed up in their efforts to compete with Google and gain a bigger slice of the lucrative search marketing pie. By combining resources and their complementary strengths, Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Search Alliance is expected to provide improved results for advertisers as well as a better search user experience for consumers.

For advertisers, the major change taking place is that the Yahoo! Search Marketing platform will eventually disappear. Once the Search Alliance is implemented, Microsoft will deliver the paid and search results for Yahoo!. This will enable advertisers to manage their campaigns on both sites, as well as on their respective partner sites, solely within the Microsoft adCenter. 

Although the search and sponsored results will be identical, Yahoo! and Microsoft will still compete for search queries and provide different search user experiences. The benefits expected for advertisers, however, are increased volume, better efficiency, and more value with higher powered development advances.

You can learn more about the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance at: http://www.searchalliance.com. From there you can navigate to Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Transition Center sites that will help guide you through the steps you need to take to make sure you’re not left behind once the merger takes place. Currently, both sites will tell you to manage your campaigns as usual and to be on the lookout for upcoming communications related to the transition.

If you haven’t already, the most important step you can take is to open a Microsoft Advertising adCenter account. You can then begin importing your campaigns from AdWords and Yahoo!. If you need assistance with migrating your campaigns, be sure to contact a specialist at Site Pro Specialties. We can handle the transition for you and make sure your ads don’t skip a beat once the Search Alliance is fully implemented.

Years ago my brother and I worked with a friend of ours to create a web startup based on doing Movie, Music, and Book recommendations. 

There are some fundamentals the even companies like Facebook can misjudge occasionally. Give it read! Facebook like feature.

• Placing you on the top half of the page on Google search.
• Get listed in Google in 5 days.
• Getting placed on the first page on Google.
• Etc