Last week, I was driving home from work when my car died in the middle of traffic. Eventually, it powered back up on its own and I was able to drive home. The following day, my girlfriend dropped it off at a auto garage in proximity to where we live. She told them the back story of how we recently had a battery installed by AAA and the car has been “acting up” ever since. She asked them to diagnose the problem and get back to her immediately because we had  to bolt out of town for a wedding the next day.

The garage contacted her a few hours later and said that we needed a new alternator and that he would happily have one installed for $600. We were in a hurry and they were adamant about having the car fixed there, but we decided to take it to an Acura dealer instead. There, we could get a second opinion (just in case) and make sure the part was a great fit for the car. I took it to the dealership and explained the situation. They tested the alternator and said there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. It was the battery, which had a bolt lodged underneath because it was improperly installed a few months back.

I’m not sure if the first garage we took it to was intentionally bamboozling us or if they simply had no clue what they were talking about, but nonetheless we nearly spent $600, whereas we spent $100 at the Acura dealership and the car has been running like new ever since. But what I am sure about is that both of these auto shops will be reviewed online. One will be negative and one will be extremely kind. And as these reviews build up over the years, users in need of this this type of service will see what kind of brand they are dealing with. In fact, many will filter their results for the highest rated businesses in the area. And who will be on top?

What I want to discuss is the unfair standards that Internet banner advertising is held to. Because of technology, we can track how many users view the banner, how many click and how many of the clickers complete a conversion. But just because we can track this doesn’t mean it is the ultimate metric on whether a campaign is successful.

Think about traditional advertising for a minute. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent every month on advertisements that are placed on billboards and in the pages of a magazine. This is brand advertising. Obviously, there is value in these forms of advertising or they wouldn’t be used as often. But advertisers can’t track who bought what from them after seeing a particular billboard or magazine ad.

So why, then, are banner ads held to such a standard that they are only successful based on clicks and conversions? The answer is because we can track them. It’s not because it’s the best solutions, but that it’s available. Online advertisers need to be aware of the brand advantages that banner advertising to the right audience can produce. This is especially true if you can reach a large audience for a small price. Click-throughs and conversions may be low, but think about exposure you will receive. Something to keep in mind when analyzing your campaign.

ShopTogether allows users to share their online shopping experience with others. You can view products at the same time and have a live chat in the meantime. ShopTogether also has capabilities with Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter that lets you share product links for friends to join in.

Some Sites already using ShopTogether include Charlotte Russe, Rugsale.com and NetShops. Visit one of these domains and try it our for yourself.

With this being said, I don’t think online shopping will ever dominate offline shopping. I do believe it will increase, however, as online shopping becomes more and more social and users become more savvy.

Two great examples of social shopping sites are Kaboodle and NetShops. Kaboodle is the ultimate social shopping site. Users can create profiles pages, recommend items, comment on products and associate themselves with their favorite brands.

Netshops is a leader in the home shopping realm. Their social features include user ratings and reviews, answers to frequently asked questions about each individual product, feedback forms, video buying guides and a Twitter page that offers updates and discounts.

Social shopping is becoming easier and more involved, but it can’t replicate the environment of a physical store. But a physical store is a very social place, which is why adding reviews and other social media to your site is critical in today’s market.

When someone is searching for a generic term, often they are looking for information, or in the research phase. Let’s take a look at the keyword phrase “jumper cables,” for example. If your site contains a page that sells jumper cables, this term may seem attractive because it receives a hefty amount of traffic. Here are some of the results I received when researching this phrase on Google’s AdWord Keyword Tool:

jumper cables – 27,100
battery jumper cables – 1,900
jumper cable – 12,100
heavy duty jumper cables – 1,000
buy jumper cables – 210

Now, if you ran a PPC campaign in for these exact phrases, I would almost guarantee that “buy jumper cables” would be your best converting keyword. When a user types this phrase into a search engine, we know exactly what they are looking for. If your page is properly optimized, you’ll have a shot at ranking well in the SERP’s.

Aside from the relevancy, generic terms are more often than not more expensive than long-tail keywords. Users searching for “jumper cables” could be looking for information on how to use them, or just browsing brands as they are in the research phase. It might be worth bidding on this term for branding purposes, if you can get it for a reasonable price, but don’t expect a high click-through-rate or conversion rate. As far as optimizing your page, make sure not to waste your time optimizing it around ambiguous keywords.

The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine, is about how our culture has changed its habits by demanding niche products. I’ll save the rest of it for you.

Jeff-ometer rating: 5 out of 5

If my above ramblings are accurate, it’s no wonder that over 85% of all sales are made in a physical store. We know that users like to use the internet as research tool, but why buy online when the action is at the store.

We want to be in a social environment when we’re shopping. We can try to imitate it online with reviews, ratings and other user generated content, but this will never replace the environment of a brick and mortar store. You can be around people, see what they’re buying, try out products and who knows – maybe you’ll even run into a friend.

At least that’s my theory.