Comments on: Online Marketing Without Google – Can it be Done?!

By: Ada Ozoh

Ada Ozoh — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:49:43 +0000

Like some people have commented before me , I think the results would be a bit skewed. With an established site to help publicize the new one and friends like you, who are popular, blogging about the experiment, it’s bound to be a success even without the search engines. I don’t think it would work so well for us less famous folk. But then, I guess it should push some of us (like me) to socialize more. Who you are and who you know definitely matter.

By: ew Experiment May Show How Helpful Blogging and Social Media Marketing Really Are

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:15:33 +0000

[...] Wendy Piersall wrote about a project orÂ experiment by Jennifer LaycockÂ (from Search Engine Guide). She and Abigail Munday are going to see how well their experiment site can do without the search engines…YES, without them. They have blocked all indexing by the search enginesÂ for bentoyum.comÂ and will only rely on the following: [...]

By: Angie Hartford

Angie Hartford — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:56:19 +0000

It’s interesting how 15 years ago, this wouldn’t even be an issue, and now blocking one’s site from search engines is seen as radical. How quickly things change…

By: Loretta

Loretta — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:59:32 +0000

I think the case study is fantastic, and I can’t wait to read more about their results. I love it when people can prove that Google doesn’t rule the internet!

And Bento is very interesting indeed, I’m going to have to blog about that later tonight. Right now I need to go grab a snack because looking at all those bento lunches made me hungry!

By: Aruni

Aruni — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:41:53 +0000

If anyone can pull this off Jennifer can. In the few months I’ve gotten to know her through her site The Lactivist, I am completely impressed. I need to order a copy of her book SEG but for $79 I need to make sure I have the time to actually read it!

It would be interesting to see if someone can pull off creating a whole new popular blog without any tie to other blogs that are in search engines. Maybe as her next experiment, she can take on some of us new bloggers as case studies and see how it goes?

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:52:20 +0000

Bento looks so awesome! Too bad they keep selling out. I’d love to order stuff.

By: Stephen Welton

Stephen Welton — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:04:24 +0000

I think this will be interesting to follow. The buzz that she will pick up fro m the marketing effort may lead to loyal readership and linking from the blogging community. We will now see if the power of social networking is as strong as they say it is.

By: Wendy Piersall

Wendy Piersall — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:28:12 +0000

Although I agree with both of you as well, it is a testament as to how important it is to network and build solid relationships with others online – so until you have your own established readers to leverage – leverage someone else’s audience!

By: Michael Krotchie

Michael Krotchie — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:25:39 +0000

I agree with what Neena said, with an established reader base it is much easier to generate business than starting from scratch.

What would be more interesting would be to start a site completely from scratch and THEN see how well it would do using the aforementioned tactics.

By: Neena

Neena — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:44:49 +0000

That is impressive. But, I believe that Jennifer is leveraging her readership at her wonderful site – the Lactivist to generate traffic to the bento box site – and the Lactivist IS listed in the search engines.

I think it would be a lot harder to launch a product oriented site without the use of search engines if you didn’t already have a successful site to publicize it on.

By: Nathania

Nathania — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:12:02 +0000

I am so glad you blogged about this. And I will add a little anecdote.

The other day I was doing some simple stumbleupon-ing and I randomly came across a Hello Kitty bento box page.

Since I read Search Engine Guide, I knew about Jennifer’s Bento Yum site.

I looked up her email address and sent her the link. She sent a nice reply. I don’t know her from Adam but she seems quite accessible and friendly.

This is the power of social media, people! Just today, i got an email offering fantastic feedback for Guest Blogger. And it was from a dude who’s blog I’d commented on today.

So get your social media on!

By: Hethir

Hethir — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:46:14 +0000

All I can say is it is working! I had to buy one for myself. I love the ritual these boxes create around something as simple as lunch.

I will be waiting for the results of this project.