Chief Marketer Staff

• Digital

  Bringing Street Smarts to Search

  Ellen Siminoff, a member of the execuive team that founded Yahoo!, is bringing Wall Street tactics to paid search.

  The company of which she is now president and CEO, Efficient Frontier, takes its name from the investment concept that underlies the art and science of investment portfolio management—the notion that in any mapping of investment opportunities, there’s a thin line of possibilities that produce maximum return for a pre-set level of risk.

• Digital

  Should I SEM or Should I SEO?

  How do paid search marketing and search engine optimization interlock? When should marketers opt to pay for placement on a search page, and when should they spend their resources on making their existing Web sites more readable to search engine

• Fraud Rises in Tandem with Online Sales

  Online marketers are expected to suffer more than $2.6 billion in fraud losses this year, roughly $700 million more than last year, which reflects a 37% overall increase in sales lost to fraud, according to survey findings released by CyberSource Corp., based in Mountain View, CA.

• FTC May Allow More Recorded Telemarketing Messages

  The Federal Trade Commission is considering a proposal to allow telemarketers to use more prerecorded messages when they call consumers with whom they already have an established business relationship.

• eBay Hits the Mail

  (Catalog Age) eBay Inc. is the latest online-only marketer to expand into print. The San Jose, CA-based Internet auction site mailed “several million” catalogs to a cross-section of its 125 million registered users.

• Ad Network Will Target Online Behavior

  New York-based Tacoda Systems Inc. is making preparations to launch AudienceMatch Network (AMN), an Internet based pay-per-click advertising network for online direct marketing and search engine marketing promotions.

• People in the News

  James M. Sherman has been appointed director of direct marketing at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Sherman will oversee direct marketing and telemarketing programs.

• Short Cuts

  Overstock.com Inc. plans to offer 1 million shares of common stock. The product liquidation direct marketer plans to use proceeds from the offering for working capital.

• List and Database News

  Specialty Merchandise Corp. has appointed Listdata Management Services Inc. to manage its customer list. More than 3.1 million records are available.

• Kraft Sells Altoids and Life Savers to Wrigley

  Kraft Foods has agreed to sell off its sugar confectionery business, which includes the popular Altoids and Life Savers brands, to Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. for about $1.5 billion. The deal allows Wrigley to expand its expertise and distribution capabilities …