Buying that first car looms as the typical consumer's biggest purchase to date, especially for those in the 18- to 30-year-old range. They don't take the decision lightly.

When we last checked in with pundits about the state of online marketing aimed at 18-to-24-year-old males, they soberly noted the difficulty of shooting at a briskly moving target.

I'm often asked what cool secret tools I use in my daily search-engine optimization work.

With a staff of 25 designers, developers, project managers, and writers, Raz Schionning oversees American Apparel's Web site, global online stores, and online marketing. Prior to joining the fast-growing chain, Schionning was vice president of production at digital agency AKQA, and director of production at Pantheon Software.

So you've finally turned the big 5-0. What comes next? Everything you've ever wanted. At least that's the concept behind Eons, the new media company that challenges its baby boomer and senior members to celebrate the second 50 years of their life with as much vitality as the first. Founded by former Monster CEO Jeffrey Taylor, Eons provides Web users with a forum to connect with other young-at-heart adults to discuss everything from financial planning to travel destinations and media preferences. Features include a longevity calculator with customized suggestions and a personalized life map, where users create …

In a workforce of "free agents" all hunting to climb the next rung on some other company's ladder, it's hard to staff up with people you trust. When Syracuse grad Michael Katz started the InterClick ad network in 2003, "I found the first couple of people I hired didn't care about the company the way I cared about it." Who better to trust than the frat brothers who shared antics that  well, Katz won't discuss them even to this day. "Probably nothing you can print, anyway," he says. So Katz hired Andrew Greenberg as vice president …

Real-time one-to-one relationship management is something every company dreams of but few companies achieve. Now more companies can attain it with the Applied Marketing Engine (AME), a new tool launched by integrated marketing agency Wunderman. AME's analytical processing system manages both on- and offline data, calculates metrics, analyzes business intelligence, and improves campaign management. Client data is supplemented with external information, such as socio-demographics and suppression lists. The net result is a robust and relevant customer profile that helps marketers deliver the most appropriate content to each individual. "AME takes a look at all the …

Broadband video is getting downright easy to pull off, thanks to so-called white-label online video services like WhiteBlox. The new service provides off-the-shelf modular software that lets potential broadcasters get on the Web quickly and cheaply. WhiteBlox creates software in chunks, with each chunk handling a different task. There are multicamera video chunks, e-commerce chunks, and bits for geographic targeting, streamed video, ad insertion, and other functions. Mainstream content providers are warming to the notion. WhiteBlox provided the software for the online multicamera in-car feeds for the recent Indianapolis 500 car race. It also supported …

A woman we'll call Suzy runs a book club. Twice monthly, six women gather to discuss books they're reading. They take suggestions from Oprah. They have a blog. And they're affiliate marketers. Rather than going to Barnes & Noble when they want to buy a new book, they simply post a Barnes & Noble link on their site and receive credit from the retailer for each sale. Though they're not a million-dollar account, they're just as important. Why? Because there are lots of Suzys, and they cost nothing to manage. They sell books for Barnes & Noble …

While search advertising has pioneered a real-time auctioning model for ad buying, display ads still operate on a fixed rate-card model. Ad network firm Experclick is out to challenge that model with an online ad exchange designed for display ads. Advertisers specify the audience they want to reach based on contextual, behavioral, or demographic factors, and then "bid" on how much they're willing to pay per impression, per click, or per action. When a visitor lands on a page in the network, Experclick's proprietary price engine SpotPrice compares impression bids, and the highest bid wins. Another …