Case Study: Winning With Email Deliverability
An illustrative scenario of a mid-size retailer that clawed its way off a spam blocklist in 2002 by rebuilding its sending practices from the ground up.
The Archive
2002
A Practical Guide to Banner Advertising
Banner click-through rates have collapsed from the 44 percent HotWired saw on its first one to a fraction of one percent today, as new sizes reshape what works.
Online Lead Generation: What Every Business Needs to Know
A 2002 decision framework for weighing online lead generation against trade shows, direct mail and cold calling, and where it fits your sales process.
9 Web Analytics Strategies That Work
Nine concrete web analytics practices for 2002, from choosing between log files and page tags to segmenting visitors who convert.
The State of Affiliate Marketing in 2002
Affiliate marketing has spent three straight years growing while online advertising overall contracted. Here's the market now that it's a mainstream channel.
The State of Quality Score in 2002
In 2002 Google began weighing click-through rate alongside bid to rank ads, years before the term Quality Score existed. Here's what that early system did.
Search Engine Marketing Mistakes on Overture and Google
Five paid search mistakes costing small advertisers money on Overture and Google AdWords in 2002, and the fixes that work.
The Rise of Email Marketing Amid Filters and State Laws
How email marketing matured from a permission-based experiment in 1999 into an industry facing real filtering technology and a looming federal law by 2002.
Building a Lean SEO Strategy After the Dot-Com Crash
A leaner 2002 build guide for businesses that survived the dot-com crash and need search traffic to pay for itself, not just look impressive.
Case Study: Winning With Google AdWords
A 2002 case study on the shift from flat-rate impressions to click-based pricing, and how one advertiser rebuilt its account to take advantage of it.
Case Study: Overture vs AdWords Pay-Per-Click in 2002
How a small software company split its budget between Overture and Google's new quality-based AdWords auction, and what the split taught them.
Keyword Bidding: What Every Business Needs to Know
A decision framework for whether keyword bidding on Overture or Google AdWords makes sense for your business right now, and how to size a first budget.
Case Study: Winning With Online Branding
A 2002 case study on recovering from banner-ad fatigue: how a business rebuilt trust through consistency across its site instead of louder advertising.
Building a Landing Page Design Strategy From Scratch
A ground-up process for planning a landing page design strategy in 2002, for a business that has never approached its pages systematically before.
Email Deliverability Trends Shaping 2002
Why 2002 was the year email deliverability became a board-level concern, from maturing spam filters to Europe's new opt-in rules.
How Banner Advertising Changed Digital Marketing in 2002
Banner spending is stabilizing after two rough years, but the format recovering isn't the one that crashed: rich media replaced generic reach buys.
A Practical Guide to Online Lead Generation
Lead generation is about quality, not just quantity: the wrong leads waste sales time and money. Here's how to attract, capture and qualify leads that convert.
The State of Web Analytics in 2002
A new EU privacy directive, a post-crash push for measurable ROI and consolidation among analytics vendors defined web analytics for businesses in 2002.
Why Affiliate Marketing Matters After the Dot-Com Crash
After the dot-com crash gutted ad budgets, affiliate marketing's pay-for-performance model became one of the few channels businesses could justify in 2002.
Why Quality Score Matters for Your Bottom Line
Google's 2002 shift to click-weighted ad ranking meant relevance, not just budget, determined your effective cost per click. Here's the actual financial case.
Case Study: Winning With Search Engine Marketing
An illustrative small mail-order business's first three months running Overture and Google AdWords campaigns, and what moved the numbers.
Building an Email Strategy Around 2002's New Opt-In Rules
A 2002 guide to starting an email marketing program while ISP spam filters were getting sharper and Europe was moving toward mandatory opt-in rules.
Search Engine Optimization Mistakes: Doorways and Link Farms
The mistakes costing sites real rankings in 2002, from doorway pages to link farms, now that Google is actively hunting for manipulation.
Google AdWords Trends Shaping 2002
The four developments that defined AdWords in 2002: the switch to click-based pricing, Overture's patent lawsuit, expansion abroad and a shift toward search.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising Trends Shaping 2002
What's carrying over from 2001 and what's likely to change this year, from Overture's expanding deals to early signs Google may rework its own auction.