Marketing at ProfitFuel with Ryan Pitylak

It's been a lot of fun managing the marketing program at Profitfuel. With such an extensive customer base, we have to buy a lot of pay per click advertising. It's fun to apply so much math to our bidding algorithms, keyword selection, and overall strategy. On more of a strategic level, it's also enjoyable to look at where we're receiving traffic and to buy more of the most optimal traffic.

OtherInbox - It's Alive!

I've been helping Josh Baer of www.otherinbox.com since the beginning of the year, and it's been a real delight. It's been exciting to be part of something so revolutionary. A little bit about OtherInbox:

OtherInbox, a new email service for consumers who get too much email, launched today at TechCrunch50, where they were named one of the 50 top startups in the world. From the TechCrunch50 stage, OtherInbox Founder and CEO, Joshua Baer, introduced the world to the cure for email overload. With its new approach, OtherInbox automatically organizes commercial email so that its easy to find the messages you care about most and ignore the ones you don't have time for. OtherInbox keeps the newsletters, receipts, and social networking notifications out of your work email account so that it only contains important messages from real people. At the same time, it shows you the real reason why you are receiving each message and gives you the power to stop spam once and for all with a powerful new Block button.

Needless to say, I'm really excited that OtherInbox is finally live and ready for public use. I've been using it for quite some time now, and it's been a real life saver!

Exciting New Job

I recently accepted a VP Marketing job at ProfitFuel. It's been an extremely fun work experience for me, as I have an opportunity to make a really large impact at an already successful company.

ProfitFuel's flagship business, www.clicksmart.com, is a local directory service for local service providers, such as contractors and real estate agents.

It's exciting to be part of a great team and to have such a great opportunity to make a large impact.

Cellphone Advertising - Bluecasting

I wrote an article about Bluecasting, a new form of advertising that allows advertisers to advertise directly to your cell phone as you're walking around places like the mall. This is a fascinating more of advertising, and I think there are a lot of moral questions to be asked before it's adopted in full scale. However, with the right considerations, I think you could bring a lot to people's lives, given that personalization is such a real possibility nowadays.

Top 10 Myths of SEO

I wrote about the top 10 SEO myths, as originally posted by Search Engine Land. I think it's fascinating to hear what people believe about SEO, since it's such a "black art" to most people. At the end of the day, it's just complicated, and with the right research and connections, you can learn the ropes. Once you've learned what's really going on, it's not that hard, because the algorithm doesn't change that dramatically for those of us who are playing by the regular SEO rules.

Ryan Pitylak Anti-Spam Activist - How To Combat Spam: 700,000 Mobile Phone "Do Not Spam" Registrations

Ryan Pitylak Anti-Spam Activist - How To Combat Spam: 700,000 Mobile Phone "Do Not Spam" Registrations

"Do Not Spam" for mobile has yet to hit America, but when it does, it'll change the future plans for a lot of marketing companies. Mobile phones, much like email, will ultimately need regulation to keep any nuisances under control.

Viral Marketing in a Web 2.0 World

A viral marketing approach to any web 2.0 company is vital. The tools of the new internet allow information to disseminate quickly and inexpensively. A marketing executive in Austin recently told me: “if your company has a good product or service, people will talk about it.”

Is it enough to just have a good web 2.0 product or service? Will people tell their friends without you prompting them? The answer is yes, but how many friends will they tell? Will they tell enough friends to make the impact of viral marketing meaningful?

My friend mentioned that consumers will not necessarily come back to your service on their own….and in many cases, he’s absolutely right. Unless you’re a major brand, you need a way to communicate with the consumer so that you can remind them that “Hey, I’m still here, and I still have a great product for you!”

With all the competition for your attention on the internet, a passive approach to word of mouth marketing is probably not enough to really differentiate yourself. Look at many of the major successes in the web 2.0 world: digg.com, myspace.com, youtube.com, etc. These companies all had products worth talking about, but more importantly, viral marketing was inherently central to the product. When you post an article at digg.com, you are encouraged to ask your friends to digg the story. This value-added approach to your life is central for a viral marketing campaign.

At www.UnlockAustin.com, we create inherent value by having friends in your network. The complicate maze of the live music scene is difficult to filter. Now people can find live music events that their friends will enjoy seeing. This makes the process of finding live music shows much easier.

Ryan Pitylak