Do you hear that? The sound of clicks? It’s current and prospective customers and they are turning to the Internet as a primary source to learn about your company.

It is not a one-way street. In fact, businesses now regularly google their partners, clients, and even potential employees. Employers check social networks like MySpace and scour the blogosphere to find any and all dirt on candidates for hire, under the guise that it’s better to discover it now than later.

First impressions are huge. And on the Web, your first impression may not actually be your Web site. It is likely going to be one of the first three results derived from a search on Google or Yahoo!.

How is your company performing in the search engines? What does the blogosphere say about your top executives?

In the Web world, people are talking about you. So, you have a choice; join the conversation or let others shape the perception of your business.

What does the Internet say about YOU?

We think about Internet business every day – how to improve the bottom line by maximizing search engine marketing strategies, creating intuitive designs, and, ultimately, forging our roles as leaders in web innovations.

But, when senseless tragedies like those at Virginia Tech occur, we find ourselves momentarily interrupted from business as usual.

Everywhere we look – across television, newspapers, radio, and, of course, the Internet – people are reminded that life is precious and, at times, overwhelming. Even in the information age, where vast media is saturated with facts and speculation alike, questions during such crises remain unanswered.

It brings new meaning to and qualifies our work at the same time. Regardless of the details that undoubtedly will continue to unfold, one fact remains: lives were saved thanks to evolving technologies like email and cell phones.

Information in this age travels at speed unparalleled, but arguably not fast enough at times. Luckily, the work we do in our industry contributes to maximizing the potential of the web to inform – in fact, to reach across boundaries and capitalize on the user experience to a universal degree. It’s that unifying quality that tells stories and engages users to take action.

And, where the rubber meets the road, sometimes that action can make all the difference.

Several members of our staff here at Viget Labs attended Virginia Tech, and many of our clients and colleagues have children who attended or are attending the University. The entire Virginia Tech and Blacksburg community is in our thoughts.

First we were surprised to hear from some old contacts that our logo is in the April Lands’ End Business Outfitters catalog.  Then we were surprised to see that they put it on a red t-shirt (since we always order our stuff on navy blue apparel) …

Still looks great to me!

Pay-per-Action (PPA) is an advertising model based on, of all things, actions. Its cousin is Pay-per-Click (PPC). PPC campaigns cost advertisers money each time someone clicks on their ads. PPA campaigns only cost advertisers money when someone takes an action.

You may be familiar with both PPA and PPC without even knowing it. PPC ads are shown on Google all the time. They are the advertisements associated with keywords such as “web design” and “washington d.c. restaurants” and are typically shown in the right sidebar of search results. Google calls its program “AdWords” — and it has been wildly successful ever since it began.

There are a number of problems with PPC. One of the more significant problems is called click fraud. The idea behind click fraud is simple: click on competitor ads to run up their costs and run down their advertising budgets. Of course, Google, Yahoo!, and many others have made significant efforts to mitigate click fraud; but, it still happens.

PPA is not without flaw, but will definitely further fight these sorts of issues. PPA is not a new idea. For example, Amazon has offered this sort of affiliate relationship with web sites who list their books or other products. Anytime someone clicks over to Amazon and actually purchases one of their products, the affiliate gets a small referral fee.

But PPA is a new idea for Google.

Google recently announced a limited release of the PPA model. PPA ads will show throughout their content network (i.e., on web sites running AdSense) and also through text link ads (i.e., publishers will be able to link directly to PPA ads).

There’s more to dive into; but, here are a couple of take homes: How much are you willing to pay for a lead? How much are you willing to pay for someone to buy a product? Those answers may vary but, hopefully, you have a good idea. If you know a new customer is worth $1,000, are you willing to pay $5 for a lead? Well, if 1 in 10 leads convert to an actual customer, that means you would spend $50 for $1,000 of new business.

PPA in the Google context is going to be important, so stay tuned to when Google releases it to all advertisers.