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The success of your testing program relies heavily on the cooperation of many people in your organization. In today’s By the Numbers column, “Assembling Your Landing Page Optimization Dream Team, Part 2,” Tim Ash continues with a look at more key roles needed for a successful landing page optimization program.

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E-commerce growth slowed to just 1% last month, according to comScore. This is the lowest rate since comScore began culling the data in 2001.

Let’s just rip this bandaid off (more like ripping your heart out) with the raw data. Here are the growth rates for every month, beginning in June 2007 and ending October 2008.

For the visually-inclined:

After you’re done throwing things against the wall and cursing at your screen, feel free to leave a comment.

Related Reading:
Women Plan to Spend Less this Holidays, First Cuts Going to Themselves
Bill Tancer of Hitwise Analyzes Economy on SES Webcast
60% of Marketing Budgets Remain Unchanged by Economy
Landing Pages: Test Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

So far, the majority of marketing budgets are not facing changes or cuts due to the economy, according to survey results released by eMetrics.

60% of respondents said their marketing budgets haven’t changed.

After that, the news gets a little discouraging.

27.6% said their budgets are being affected negatively, while 6.9% answered very negatively.

Only 3.4% said their budgets were being affected positively and a miniscule 1.7% answered very positively.

Don’t stay bummed for too long. The economy seems to finally getting senior management on board with those ever important analytics.

80.4% of marketers say interest in web analytics from senior management in the past 6 months has increased. On that note, it might be a good time to start pitching landing page testing as well.

So what advertising campaigns are specifically being affected? Check out this chart:

Some of the channels are being outsourced:

You can view the full report here (pdf).

What are your thoughts on the economy and marketing budgets? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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Search Engine Strategies and Market Motive are teaming up for a new online workshop series. The next workshop will be an action-packed one on “Landing Page Testing for Higher Profits” hosted by SiteTuners.com CEO and author of Amazon’s e-commerce bestseller “Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions” Tim Ash (yes me). This will be an interactive session with audience participation. If you would like additional information, please visit the event page.

Short summary:

Are you turning away your website visitors? Instead of guessing at your website visitor’s needs, you can ask them what they prefer. Landing page testing allows your visitors to design a more satisfying experience for themselves, and put more money in your pocket. Know what works — no hand-waving or techie talk in this session.

Learn how to quickly diagnose potential conversion problems, test, and uncover better performing versions of your landing page.

If you are like me, then you are a master of just-in-time planning. While Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2008 won’t be held until December 8-12, if you register by tomorrow – Friday, Sept. 26 – you can take advantage of the “recession special” and save up to $600.

So, if you were already planning to attend, register now and save some dough. If you haven’t made up your mind yet, look over the conference agenda below pronto.

SES Chicago is the only major search engine marketing conference and expo in the Midwest. And, with more than 70 conference sessions, strategic development workshops, keynote presentations, Orion panels, and training workshops, I’ll bet you find plenty of content that was designed for you – whether this is your first SES conference ever or the fifth one that you’re going to attend this year.

This is especially true if you are involved in retail marketing. There is a Retailer Track on Tuesday, Dec. 9, and a Vertical & Retail Track on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

I’ve been optimizing SES schedules for clients and Search Engine Watch readers for years. And there are plenty of sessions at SES Chicago 2008 that everyone should attend, including:
• On Monday, Dec. 8, attend the Conference Welcome/Orientation and Opening Keynote from 9:00 to 10:15 a.m. and the “Orion Panel: CEO vs. SEO” from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m.;
• On Tuesday, Dec. 9, attend the Morning Keynote Presentation from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. and the “Orion Panel: Why Does Search Get all the Credit?” from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.; and
• On Wednesday, Dec. 10, attend the Morning Keynote from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.

But, there are four to five concurrent tracks over the four-day conference and there are three concurrent training workshops on Friday. So, attendees of SES Chicago 2008 will need to make some choices about what to attend.

For first-time Search Engine Strategies attendees, here are the conference sessions and training workshops that I’d recommend:

• On Monday, Dec. 8, attend “Search Industry Update” from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., “Measuring Success in a 2.0 World” from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., and “Search and Packaged Goods” from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., and “Landing Page Testing & Tuning” 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
• On Tuesday, Dec. 9, attend “Introduction to Search Engine Marketing” from 10:30 to 11:45am, and “SEO Tools” from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m.
• On Wednesday, Dec. 10, attend “Search Advertising 101” from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., “Getting Vertical Search Right” from 12:45 to 2:00 p.m., “Blogging for Business” from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m., and “In House: Lessons Learned & Victories Won” from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m.
• On Thursday, Dec. 11, attend “How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively With Your IT Department to Get Stuff Done” from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., the “Ad Copy Continuity Clinic” from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m., and the “Site Clinic” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• On Friday, Dec. 12, consider attending the “Search Engine Optimization Workshop” from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and the “Optimizing for Universal Search” workshop from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

For veteran attendees responsible for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, here are the SES conference sessions and training workshops that I’d recommend:

• On Monday, Dec. 8, attend “Search Industry Update” from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., “Measuring Success in a 2.0 World” from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., “Is There Life Beyond Google?” from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., and “Landing Page Testing & Tuning” 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
• On Tuesday, Dec. 9, attend “Advanced Keyword Research” from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., and “Managing Automated PPC Bid Management” from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m.
• On Wednesday, Dec. 10, attend “Advanced B2B” from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., “Search Advertising Tools” from 12:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., “Ads in a Quality Score World” from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m., and “Advanced Paid Search Techniques” from 12:45 to 2:00 p.m.
• On Thursday, Dec. 11, attend the “Contextual Ads & Ad Sense Clinic” from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., the “Ad Copy Continuity Clinic” from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m., and “Brand & Reputation Management” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• On Friday, Dec. 12, consider attending the “Search & Analytics Workshop: Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness” from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and the “Advanced AdWords” workshop from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

For veteran attendees responsible for search engine optimization (SEO), here are the SES conference sessions and training workshops that I’d recommend:

• On Monday, Dec. 8, attend “Universal & Blended Search” from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., “Measuring Success in a 2.0 World” from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., “Igniting Viral Campaigns” from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., and “Semantic Search: How Will it Change Our Lives?” from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
• On Tuesday, Dec. 9, attend “Usability & SEO: Two Wins for the Price of One” from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., and “Advanced Link Building” from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m.
• On Wednesday, Dec. 10, attend “SEO Through Blogs & Feeds” from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., “Video Search Engine Optimization” from 12:45 to 2:00 p.m., “SEO Friendly Flash” from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m., and “The Next Wave for Online Video” from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m.
• On Thursday, Dec. 11, attend “How to Speak Geek: Working Collaboratively with Your IT Department to Get Stuff Done” from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., “Affiliate 2.0: New Distribution Value Using Search & More” from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m., and “Black Hat, White Hat & the Best Kept Secrets to Search” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• On Friday, Dec. 12, consider attending the “Link Building Tactics, Tools & Techniques” workshop from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and the “Viral Marketing & Link Baiting” workshop from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Of course, veteran SES conference attendees already know how to navigate the conference agenda. They may want to check out the Issues Track on Tuesday, the Social Media Track on Wednesday, and the Local Track on Thursday. The point I’m making is there are plenty of conference sessions, strategic development workshops, keynote presentations, Orion panels, and training workshops to help them take their skills to the next level.

You’ll also see a couple of sessions “reserved for late-breaking topic.” Every year that I’ve been attending Search Engine Strategies – which goes back to the spring of 2002 – there have been unexpected developments in the search industry. So, use the optimized schedule above to get the folks in finance to approve your plans to attend. But, even I expect to be “calling audibles” when I get to SES Chicago 2008.

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Deciding whether to outsource your landing page optimization and testing program is not an easy decision. There are advantages to each. In today’s By the Numbers column, “Landing Page Optimization — Insource or Outsource? Part 2,” Tim Ash shares three more important considerations before you choose to outsource your testing program or “insource” it by doing everything in-house.

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Sourcetools.com, a former business directory, was making $115,000 a month in profit until the summer of 2006, when Google changed its algorithm and spiked some AdWords bid prices for sites with “poor landing pages.” The business model was one employed by many an internet entrepreneur - bid on AdWords and slap some AdSense on the site.

Of course, Google calls this ad arbitrage if all you have is a made-for-adsense site. But Sourcetools provided a service - a business directory not unlike many other directories out there.

Sourcetools spent a ton of money revamping their site to make it to Google’s liking, not that Google was being terribly specific about what that liking is. But they could never get back into Google’s good graces, and now the domain sits service-less, and up for sale.

This is just one of the many complaints being sent to the Department of Justice as they conduct an investigation into Google’s ad deal with Yahoo.

Last week, the Association of National Advertisers sent a letter to the DOJ expressing their opposition to the deal. And the DOJ is taking the concerns seriously. They hired antitrust lawyer Sandy Litvack to consult on the deal.

Whether Google’s actions are an inadvertent breakdown in internal communications or intentional pursuit of power, they do appear to be monopolistic. That along with today’s financial news is a good reminder that to be wary of fast money and to diversify your site’s income!

via NYT