New Search Engine Marketing Magazine Just Misses Target

May 2006 marked the arrival of the first issue of Search Marketing Standard. I pulled my copy from the snail mail box at my home in Traverse City last week. I was quick to start paging through the issue even while I walked up the steps and sidewalk back to my house. Dumping a stack of unwanted credit card offers and local coupon booklets on my kitchen table, I took the magazine to my reading chair to see what it had to offer.

As I began to dig in I found that Search Marketing Standard is a new magazine devoted to the search marketing industry. It comes out of Brooklyn, New York, and the publisher is Boris Mordkich. Current plans are to issue the magazine on a quarterly basis. The mag was a fairly quick read being only 32 pages in length. Many full and half page ads filled the 32 pages leaving less than half of the real estate for articles and product reviews.

Featured articles included information on the biggest myths in search marketing, pay-per-click tactics to consider, an interview with a well known search marketing veteran, and a bid management software tool review. Having been in the search marketing industry over five years myself, I didn’t find any new ground breaking information. The articles would however be of interest to marketers that are just learning about this complex industry. I shouldn’t be too hard on this first offering as it clearly has value to the beginner.

As I closed the back cover, I decided that I’d give this first issue a rating of 3 out of 4. Between the ads and other graphics there were pictures of no less than 6 bull’s-eyes featured in this issue. At work the next day I joked with a colleague who also noticed this right away. We both wondered why so many people feel the need to use the bull’s-eye metaphor when trying to sell search marketing services. Well if nothing else it gave me the urge to go throw some darts in the play room at the back of the house.