Pay-Per-Click advertising is a beautiful thing. Set up an AdWords or adCenter account and your ads can target thousands of potential customers looking for a product just like yours. Mmm, that’s nice. But it can be complicated and difficult. Especially on a budget. And time consuming. PPC Essentials Package That’s why Portent is rolling out [...]

Who saved Middle Earth? No, not Frodo. His will shredded like wet toilet paper. Gollum took the lava bath, destroyed the ring, and saved everyone from a 36″ Dark Lord. Does he get any credit? Nooooooo. Nine-fingered Frodo is the hero. The ladies all swoon at Legolas and Aragorn. But not poor Gollum. Internet marketers, [...]

It’s amazing how 140 characters can have such an impact on your career. Now that we live in a world where “Google before you tweet” is the new “think before you speak,” we all know how important it is to digest a witty thought before broadcasting it into the universe. The next time you feel [...]

Good Design Roundup Good design doesn’t just mean pretty, it means functional too. Sometimes a website is born that combines those two things seamlessly. It’s like a miracle. Or more likely, people worked hard and communicated with one another, allowing design, functionality, and content to come together and deliver a clear and helpful message. A [...]

Hey Everybody! Don’t forget about Portent’s free monthly webinar on Thursday, April 26 at 11am PST. This month, yours truly will be presenting: PPC for Cheapskates. Pick up great tips and tricks to maximize your PPC dollars, whatever your budget size might be. If you have not registered yet, don’t be shy, registration is quick [...]

Custom tabs on Facebook Pages allow us to display our own HTML content inside Facebook Pages by embedding code in iframes. This is done by creating a Facebook app and providing a few parameters (like the URL where our custom HTML page is located). Here’s an example of a custom tab: Add a Custom Tab [...]

When it comes to writing updates in Google+, some of the most influential people use the following formula to make their posts stand out: (Title in bold) + (3 to 4 short paragraphs) + #hashtag + URL + Picture = Awesome Update The inspiration of this post comes from Avinash Kaushik. I’m sure we’ve all [...]

I’ve put in some time lately talking about what internet marketing is not. I thought I’d take a crack what internet marketing is, for a change. Internet marketing’s driven by three principles that are often in tension: Note that I didn’t say The three principles of internet marketing. These are principles of internet marketing. But [...]

I started working at Portent a year and a half ago as an intern. I was fresh out of college and did not know any specifics of internet marketing. I was introduced to the world of paid search during my first few weeks and found it intriguing. As I starting to do more work in [...]

At first Google was just a search engine; then it started to get funny. Now, Google tricks, or “Easter Eggs,” lurk behind every Google search. The right keywords or an “I’m Feeling Lucky” search will often lead you to odd and awesome Google jokes. And Google Easter Eggs aren’t just in Search, you can also [...]