Google, Facebook, MySpace have all done it. Now another player, Yahoo, is dipping its toes into the self-service ad industry.

Yahoo recently unveiled its self-service option for display advertising aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses. The display ad solution is called Yahoo My Display Ads, and according to Yahoo it “puts display advertising within reach for businesses of all sizes.”

Should small businesses jump on board and start advertising with Yahoo My Display Ads?

To get the scoop on Yahoo’s latest venture, we chatted with Tamara Brooks, co-owner of Vancouver-based October 17 Media. Tamara is a seasoned marketing professional, having working in online marketing and the branding industry for roughly 12 years. With her business partner Brenda Cadman, October 17 Media has worked alongside clients such as Future Shop, Fitness Town, Canadian Gene Cure Foundation, Leahy Music, the District of West Vancouver, Homeworks Services Inc, Pennzoil Quaker State US, NAPA Canada and DDB Canada.

Could you briefly describe Yahoo’s latest display ad product?

October 17:  Well, what Yahoo is trying to tap into is the fact that display advertising has traditionally not been very accessible to small business. To run banner display advertising, you required a large budget and a web design team on hand to develop the ad creative.

With Yahoo My Display Ads, you have 800 templates from which to choose to develop your banner ad. Once you have created your banner ads, you’re set and can then run them across the Yahoo network. You can do all of this yourself, using Yahoo’s basic platform.

Is Yahoo display advertising any different from Google’s program?

October 17:  Yahoo’s display advertising program is actually identical to Google, but with a few twists. You have added control in targeting because you can target your display ads geographically, demographically and within specific content network placements. You can also schedule ads to run at particular times of day.

Another interesting twist is that contrary to Google; Yahoo’s new display advertising is not linked to your Yahoo-sponsored search account. What this means is that you do not have to have a Yahoo-sponsored search account to advertise with the display ads.

How cost effective is Yahoo’s display advertising product for small businesses?

October 17:  It is difficult to say at this stage what the potential ROI of this product is for a small business. There is a minimum budget of $30 per day, which is lower than the costs associated with traditional display advertising, but at the same time, $30 a day roughly equates to a minimum spend $900 a month. For a small- to medium-sized business, this could fall out of the budget they have allocated to online marketing.

What is the pricing model? Is it the traditional display advertising cost-per-impression (CPM) model?

October 17:  Actually, there are two pricing models. Yes, there is the traditional CPM model, but probably the better option is the cost-per-click (CPC) model just like in regular Yahoo search marketing.

Why do you say the CPC model is better than the CPM model?

October 17:  Well, I don’t entirely see why people would want to pay for searchers to simply see their ads. Certainly, the CPM model may have its benefits from a brand building perspective, but even if a searcher does not notice your ad on the page where it is displayed, you will be charged for the impression.
A click on the other hand, as in the CPC model, indicates a higher level of searcher interest and intent if they make the effort to click on your ad.

How easy is it to manage the creative aspect of Yahoo’s display advertising?

October 17:  Yahoo’s solution to managing the creative aspect of the display banner ads is actually pretty cool. You can choose from different business categories and Yahoo will provide you with various display ad design templates that you can quite easily edit and customise to your business.

Another neat aspect is that Yahoo gives you the impression count and click-through-rate for each template. You can then choose your design based on the past performance of that template. Though, given Yahoo’s product is still in the pilot stage, this will probably become more useful over time as more data is collected.

What is your overall impression of Yahoo’s move into display advertising?

October 17: In general, I think the process is super easy! Anyone can create an ad with Yahoo’s templates and then customise it for their business with their own logo, images, information and ad copy. So people who are creatively challenged or previously could not afford to have banner ads professionally designed can now do it themselves.

Is there anything that you haven’t liked about Yahoo’s new product?

October 17: Overall, I’d say the solution is pretty neat. The only bad thing I noticed was with the budgeting. Whether I selected a CPC model or a CPM model, Yahoo recommended a minimum CPC / CPM based on my ads and the industries I targeted. If I tried to bid below that recommendation, Yahoo indicated that it was too low based on my targeting selections.

Based on this, the recommendation looks more like a requirement. If you choose more than one channel in Yahoo’s content network where you would like to display your banner ads, your cost-per-click could rise quite quickly.

Also, at the moment, Yahoo’s My Display Ads are currently only deployable within the US, but I look forward to the product becoming available in Canada so that we can give it a proper test run.

For more information on Yahoo’s My Display Ads or online marketing services, you can visit October 17.

Google has embarked on a public-relations offensive claiming it’s not so big as regulators are intensely scrutinizing its every move.

“Some analysts say that government opposition, here or in Europe, could pose the biggest threat to Google’s continued success,” noted New York Times’ Miguel Helft.

Experts are also saying the steady stream of headlines about antitrust investigations could taint Google’s image with consumers, who view the search engine company in a positive light.

To be sure, Google’s “Senior Competition Counsel” Dana Wagner faces a daunting task, considering:

• Google handles roughly two-thirds of all Internet searches.
• It owns the largest online video site, YouTube, which is more than 10 times more popular than its nearest competitor.
• In 2008, Google sold nearly $22 billion in advertising, more than any media company in the world.

But Wagner insists: “Competition is a click away.”

It’s true. Google is a search engine giant. But we need to remember, just a few years ago, Yahoo was on top of the world. And now Yahoo could lose its number two spot to Microsoft’s increasingly popular Bing.

Google’s got a grip on the market – for now. Fortunately, they still have worthy competitors gnawing away at their heels, looking for a bigger piece of the pie. It’ll keep them innovative and honest.

Read full story: Google Makes a Case That It Isn’t So Big.

When web writers get fancy, they create barriers for visitors to complete their tasks.

When web writers get out of the way, they empower visitors to navigate, gather information and get things done quicker, and with little effort. That’s why good web writers always strive for simple.

Clear, concise web copy fosters satisfaction amongst website users and promotes higher conversion rates.

To see different web writing styles, and find out which work best, check out Web writing: The good, bad and ugly.

Web designers can make or break a business. In fact, a good web designer can be just as valuable to a company as any director or VP.

The reason is a good web designer can make your business look established and credible on the increasingly popular Web.

Some 15 years ago, if you wanted to build a successful brand, you had to hire architects and trades people to build a facility, and then spend major dollars on print, radio and TV promotions.

Today, quite often, all you need is a well designed website.

Even if your business is just coming out of the gate, a relatively small investment can get you a professional presence on the web, allowing you to out-brand and outperform an established company in almost any industry.

Don’t undervalue what a good web designer brings to the table. With approximately 70 per cent of the population using the Internet, a professional web designer can help you connect with prospects all over the globe, efficiently and with minimal cost.

And when seeking a quality web designer, remember the web design market has no boundaries. Whether your business is located in London, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Toronto or Vancouver, you can work with a web designer or web design firm situated in any city or country. That’s the beauty of the Web.

Partner with a professional web designer. Your brand will flourish and your bottom line will benefit, too.

Marketing mastermind Seth Godin noted in his blog that business cycles are far shorter these days. “More now than ever,” he wrote, “success today is no guarantee of success tomorrow.”

Few would argue that point. Yet, he points out that too often we spend more time than we should defending the old thing, instead of working to take advantage of the new thing.

The fact is people resist change when we perceive it as a threat. The true entrepreneurs, on the other hand, look at change as a big, fat opportunity. They have a positive outlook and create a productive spin.

For instance, I read about an owner of a high-end restaurant in Edmonton who insisted the downturn in the economy would create new opportunities for him. His reasoning? Well, instead of going out for four or five average meals monthly, people will go for one really nice outing each month.

Could this be true? Perhaps — or it might be far from the truth. But the key is true entrepreneurs see opportunities in everything, even during the most trying moments.

And today’s entrepreneurs need to be especially quick on the draw. As Godin pointed out, business transitions are virtually an annual event. To that point, he concluded: “The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does.”

Harsh, but true.

We often come across and receive killer resources from web industry partners — and we like to share, too.

Here are several that are especially useful for web designers:

Telling Google about domain changes
Moved a client’s site? Tell the king of search about your domain change. Google tells you how.

Are your clients’ soles starting to wear?
Smashing Magazine examines what exactly makes for a good website footer. This insightful article discusses what to include in footers, the importance of sitemaps, usability practices, and styling ideas and trends. Plus, it showcases approximately 50 well-developed footers. Play footsies with Smash Mag.

Fixed or fluid layout?
This Smashing Magazine feature goes over the pros and cons of fixed, fluid, elastic and hybrid layout designs to help web designers head down the right path.

Web browser standards
Web Devout promotes the health of the Web by providing web developers both knowledge and tools. This section covers Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera web browsers, with focus on the HTML, CSS, DOM, and ECMAScript technologies. Get standardized.

Give me speed!
Web users indicate slow load times are one of the key factors likely to turn them away from websites (see Users place more weight on design). Slow-loading sites are caused by everything from too many image requests to heavy javascript. Yahoo’s YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve website performance.

Useful Firefox plug-ins
Firefox is popular among web designers. Heck, almost 60 per cent of Webcoppylus’ visitors use Firefox.  Web Design Booth brings you 35 useful Firefox extensions for web designers and developers alike. Plug away.

This spring, forget about your garage and closet — clean out your website!

If your site’s been online for more than a few months, chances are it’s cluttered with unnecessary content. Meanwhile, every extra item on your website competes for your visitors’ attention, reducing the impact of your key message.

Employ the following six steps to eliminate these distractions and instantly improve your site’s usability:

1.    Sweep out useless items
Is that welcome message necessary? Are some of those buttons or links redundant? When it comes to web content, less is more. So scrutinize every element on your website and discard whatever you can.

2.    Update your information
Keep your web copy up to date. If you don’t have adequate resources, keep time-sensitive information to a minimum.

3.    Edit your web copy for consistency
Companies often have various people adding content at different times, which leads to a range of inconsistencies. Review your web copy from start to finish with a keen eye on spelling, format, style, narration, tense, flow and so forth.

4.    Review fonts
Check your fonts to ensure consistent size, style and spacing. Consider using a style sheet. Fonts optimal for the Web include Arial, Courier, Georgia, Time New Roman and Verdana.

5.    Re-evaluate PDFs
Is your company guilty of throwing PDFs onto your website to save time? PDFs are designed for print, not the Web. Unless you’re featuring an e-book, brochure or form, offer the information as a web page and give your visitor the option of viewing it as a PDF.

6.    Repair or delete broken links
Check all your links and be quick to repair or delete any that bring your visitors to the ‘404 file not found’ message. If a section is under construction, take it offline.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt slammed Microsoft’s new search engine Bing on Fox Business Network this week.

Here are some highlights from Schmidt:

“It’s not the first (search-engine market) entry for Microsoft. They do this about once a year. From Bing’s perspective, they have a bunch of new ideas and there are some things that are missing. We think search is about comprehensiveness, freshness, the scale and size of what we do. And it’s difficult for them to copy that…”

“(We’re) actually not (spending more money in response to Microsoft’s advertising blitz), given the name. But the fact of the matter is that we are spending all of our time on exactly what we’ve always done, which is innovation. I don’t think Bing’s arrival has changed what we’re doing. We are about search, we’re about making things enormously successful, by virtue of innovation…”

“You earn (the No. 1 spot). You don’t buy it with ads. You earn it, and you earn it customer by customer, search by search, answer by answer. And we believe that today we beat our competitors because we’re so focuses on comprehensiveness, speed, freshness and having the depth that people really care about.”

Schmidt is free to share his views, but ultimately it’s the market’s opinion that counts. So far, Google seems safe, but Yahoo might start losing sleep soon.

Read more at Seattle P-I.

The City of Toronto website, Toronto.ca, supports businesses by providing information on local programs and services. What’s really cool about their approach is that they’re planning a web redesign and are asking Toronto businesses for input:

“We’re in the process of rebranding the City of Toronto’s website. Our refreshed home page is only a starting point. Tell us what you think of toronto.ca and how we can make the website better for you.”

Asking your market how you can serve them better can never hurt, on or off the Web. It demonstrates you’re genuinely interested in your audiences’ needs, and striving to provide them the best products or services possible.

It appears the City of Toronto has taken a page from Toronto business coaching firm Wardell.

Its founder, Mark Wardell, states: “Leading companies teach their people to question what they do, and why they do it. They challenge their people to take a fresh look at their company and to get involved in creating its future.”

No doubt, the City of Toronto is wisely reaching out in a bid to create a bright future for its business community.

When it comes to search engine optimization, web writers should target a few short, broad terms as well as several longer, more specific keyword phrases.

It makes sense when you consider an iProspect report that revealed when an initial search is unsuccessful, 82 per cent of search engine users will re-launch their search using the same search engine, adding more keywords to refine their subsequent search.

Broad keywords can draw great numbers of visitors, however, they can be difficult to attain. To achieve high rankings for general terms in competitive markets, a web writer could require a small army of SEO analysts and programmers.

Longer, more specific search terms are less competitive, which makes it easier to attain higher rankings. Moreover, the detailed search terms – also known as long-tail keywords – often produce more qualified traffic and higher conversion rates.

That’s because searchers who type in more specific terms are deeper into the sales cycle, and are more likely to reach for their wallets.