If you havent been to HPs 367 Addison Avenue Blog , its a great resource for small-to-medium business owners with helpful tips, tricks and advice to help bring your business to the next level. Melissa Zieger, the editor at 367 Addison, has been kind enough to share some of her content with us; some of it will be cross-posted here from time to time. Tina Even if you have a small team,

As mentioned on Friday, we're compiling a step-by- step series of articles on paid search . This is the first installment of the series. In this first post I will explain the difference between paid and organic search. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Stay tuned to our 'back to basics PPC' series which we hope will make it easy for you to set up and run a successful campaign.

Late last week we rolled out some updates to the adCenter Support forums here on the Community site and wanted to take a minute to highlight these changes for those of you who havent seen them yet. Prior to the updates, the forum topics looked like this: Three out of those four topics were specific enough to make it easy to browse previous threads and find help via questions that have already been answered. The adCenter Advertiser forum, however, was in need of a revamp.

Are you ready to become a certified adCenter expert and adExcellence member? Dont want to pay the accreditation fee? If you answered yes to both of these questions, youve come to the right place! Microsoft adExcellence gives you the training and resources you need to become an expert and get the most out of Microsoft adCenter. Upon earning Microsoft adExcellence member status, you will receive an official member logo and will be listed in our membership directory .

Here at adCenter HQ, we know that the world of Paid Search can be a daunting and intimidating place. Filled with confusing acronyms )CTR, PPC, ROI(, complicated technology and mind-boggling concepts, it can be enough to make you slam your laptop shut.

Are you ready to become a certified adCenter expert and adExcellence member? Dont want to pay the accreditation fee? If you answered yes to both of these questions, youve come to the right place er post! Microsoft adExcellence gives you the training and resources you need to become an expert and get the most out of Microsoft adCenter. Upon earning Microsoft adExcellence member status,

Today at Social-Loco, I had the opportunity to share Bings thinking around local search advertising specifically around how consumers are embracing locally targeted content on the PC and mobile, and because of that shift, how Bing is helping advertisers engage consumers at the important moment of decision. For context, many know that mobile has become a medium where consumers are looking to complete tasks. According to a study we recently conducted with ROI Research,

Today at Social-Loco , I had the opportunity to share Bings thinking around local search advertising specifically around how consumers are embracing locally targeted content on the PC and mobile, and because of that shift, how Bing is helping advertisers engage consumers at the important moment of decision. For context, many know that mobile has become a medium where consumers are looking to complete tasks. According to a study we recently conducted with ROI Research,

In part one of this series, I explained how to edit match types for a handful of keywords in adCenter Desktop . That method is perfect for laser-focused changes to specific keywords, but what if you wanted to update 50, 100, or more keywords at a time? Well, adCenter Desktop has you covered. You can easily work in Excel to add match types, adjust bids, etc. and then simply copy and paste that data into adCenter Desktop.

If youve been following along here on the Community site, by now youve probably noticed that in addition to offering timely information to help you better manage your campaigns, were pretty keen on gathering your feedback and getting it in front of the teams that are working on adCenter . One of the major drivers of improvements to adCenter is what we hear from you, our advertisers. With that in mind,

If youre not already using the adCenter Desktop , now is a great time to give it a test drive. Not only did Glenn Gabe )of Search Engine Journal fame ( send over a couple of guest posts offering helpful tutorials on it the first of which went up today the April 2011 Update is now ready for download! This new update will let you work smarter, faster, and the way you want. New features and functionality include a new dashboard for instant account insights, easier exporting,

Paid search is a powerful online marketing channel, but it also can be extremely time-consuming. Since it can be so time-consuming, youll find that many search marketers focus on efficiency . The more efficient you can be at making adjustments to campaigns, ad groups, and keywords, the more time and opportunity you have for expanding )or refining( your campaigns. This can lead to a greater chance of SEM success.

A few weeks back, I published a post about plans for a new, toggled view of the Microsoft Advertising site that would help small to medium businesses )SMBs( find the information most relevant to them faster and easier, while also keeping the marketer and agency crowd current on the latest and greatest within the advertising industry. Today, we're happy to announce that after months of hard work, the latest version of the site is now live!

Isnt it nice when you get someones number? That is no different than getting their adCenter customer number as the first step to start a relationship. As an adCenter Program Manager, I often get asked how an agency can manage an account.

My first exposure to social media came through the old Bulletin Board Systems, circa 1992. Like many who were fascinated by the prospect of connecting with other like-minded people online, I followed the trends as I became aware of them; from BBSs to LISTSERVs to Prodigy to AOL and so on. Now, in the age of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare, social media has evolved to the point where enthusiasts are inviting family,

Isn't it nice when you get someone's number? That is no different than getting their adCenter customer number as the first step to start a relationship. As an adCenter Program Manager, I often get asked how an agency can manage an account on behalf of.

Summer is near and the concert season is about to start. Whether hot new artists or legendary favorites are hitting the stage, there is plenty of ticket shopping expected by all types of fans. And dont forget about all the other events, from sports to Broadway shows and major exhibitions. With the majority of tickets being sold online nowadays, optimizing your adCenter account early is crucial for a successful summer season.

In a previous post , we shared some of the details pertaining to adCenters soon to be released Quality Score )QS(. This post will explain how advertisers can use QS to determine what optimizations will increase their competitiveness and success.

Last year, the National Retail Federation released findings from their Fathers Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey , which provided insight into how people were planning to spend their money on dad in 2010. The NRFs survey predicted.

In addition to the resources here in the Community, the main Microsoft Advertising site )our sister site( is also a great place to find the information you need to be successful with your online marketing efforts. If youve ever spent any time poking around over there, youve probably noticed that the content most relevant to small-to-medium business )SMB( owners is mixed in with information thats more applicable to the agency/marketer crowd.