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Media Daily News Reports that a recent study by Clicklab indicates that "fraudulent clicks can account for more than 50 percent of all advertising fees attributable to certain categories". The report categorizes two types of click fraud, competitor clicks and affiliate clicks. The use of affiliate clicks here is another shot across the bow for the term affiliate in the industry. Soon affiliate will be synonymous with snake oil salesmen, and multi-level marketing. Perhaps this is why we have seen a move in the industry towards the term performance marketing. To be honest I like to think of affiliates as just independent commissioned sales reps. Perhaps Mercenary Marketers would be better... Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: ! Hot Topics September 29, 2004New Pet Peeve - Trademarks in Ad Copy
Ok, I have a new pet peeve and would love to hear everyone’s comments on this. Google has implemented a policy to prevent some trademarks from being used in the Advertising copy. So merchants can request Google to disallow all ads from using the company brand (regardless of the keywords being used). I am not opposed to this concept in general, but as an affiliate for a company, a internet sales partner who is driving traffic to the company's website, I feel like I should be able to request an exception in Adwords and be granted it rights to use the term as an affiliate without having to have the company fax in a letter of approval. Here is my thinking. Merchants provide all of their affiliates with banner ads and email text copy that ALWAYS include the company's brand name and product names to promote their services. If the merchant is willing to let me stick an add on my website with their brand, why would they be opposed to letting me stick their name in an ad on someone else’s website (in this case Google). I have actually run into some merchants who are willing to let me test their trademarks and misspellings to make sure their product converts but are unwilling to let me use their product name in my ad copy? So now when I am bidding on General terms for their product, I can't use their product name? Why would I want to promote someone's product without using their name in the ad? Sure, I could use general keywords, and promote benefits in the Ad copy without using the company's name, but that may or may not be as effective depending on the amount of competition, the quality of the brand, and the quality of the competitive brands in the space. Finally, the company misses out on all the Brand Awareness they could have gained from the ads, regardless of if they got clicked on or not. See the IAB's Press Release on the Branding Effects of Paid Search Merchants, let's not tie an affiliate's hands behind their back for doing paid search. If you are willing to let them use your brand on their own Website, don't prevent them from using your brand in their paid advertising that they buy on other sites. It just doesn't make sense. Comments (10) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: ! Hot Topics September 27, 2004UK Affiliate Programs on the Rise
Revenue Magazine reported that network-driven affiliate marketing will reach $1 billion in 2004 in the UK. Twice as lucrative as the previous year. Tradedoubler, one of the UK's largest affiliate networks, reported 54% growth just from February to March with sales up 328% over the same point in 2004. This makes Tradedoubler one of the fastest-growing affiliate networks. The magazine goes on to report that affiliate marketing will account for up to 3.5% of Brittish e-commerce this year and up to 20% for some merchants. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing September 25, 2004How NOT to treat your Affiliate Partners
Just though everyone might love a great example of the types of emails affiliates get. Here is one from CollectiblesToday, we don't even market them at this time... ++++++++++++++++ Just a quick reiteration on our search engine policy. Please do not bid on our trademark name, Collectibles Today, or any variation thereof. We have just implemented a strict policing policy and offenders will be deactivated immediately. Please also refrain from outbidding or bid jamming us on our sub-brands. These terms include Ashton Drake, Ardleigh Elliott, Bradford Exchange, etc. and any variations thereof. Other keywords are fair game. If it's in the OED, it's viable! In fact, we have a weekly text email that goes out with suggesed keywords. If you would like to be on this private distribution list, or if you have any questions please email me at okrylov@collectiblestoday.com. Best regards, Today, if you do a search for "Collectibles Today" with the help of their affiliates, they pretty much own the space. In a few weeks, as their partners are forced out, their competitors will own their brand. Shop.com is already on the first page, there are two other competitors bidding on their brand that don't make the first page today but will soon. Brilliant Strategy! Comments (9) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing September 23, 2004Trick for Tracking Search vs Content Targeted Ads on Google Adwords
I was talking to my Google Rep today and she showed me a great trick. Some of you may know this already, but just in case, I thought I would share it with you. I wanted the ability to track the performance of my content ads separate from my search ads, and I didn't want to have to create separate campaigns with duplicate words with one campaign set to search and the other content. (I had heard this approach presented as a work around at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose). You can use a dynmaic call in your url called "ifcontent" and "ifsearch" it works like this. www.CJ-URL?sid={ifsearch:Search-SID-Code}{ifcontent:Content-SID-Code} Using the dynamic insertion, the correct tracking code will be used for search and content targeted ads. Of course this can be applied to any of your links to add parameters. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (1) | Category: Pay Per Click Management Tools September 22, 2004Insight from Mr. Nobody on Affiliate Marketing
I'm open to getting feedback, however, I received an anonymous email today on affiliate marketing that appears more like the beginnings of a manifesto rather than brief comments on a previous post. The subject is Why Affiliate Marketing Sucks. The message is unedited. Keep them coming -- whoever you are... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Why Affiliate Marketing Sucks By Mr. Nobody (who is really somebody) Affiliate marketing sucks. First of all, you can't trust anyone. Comments (5) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing Fagoogle?
To be honest, if Google had problems with Booble, I can't imagine them being willing to accept such a blatant rip off of their trademarked logo. This would be a terrible president for them to set. I think it's fine if they want to allow the search, after all that is what the Adsense search is for, targeted and more narrowly defined search. But the logo??? Come on.... Comments (2) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: ! Hot Topics $130 Million Headhunter
Executive Search Firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. said it earned nearly $130 million by selling Google Inc. stock it got as payment for finding the Internet company a new CEO in 2001. Nice Deal! Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: SEM Company & Industry News German Court Dismisses Trademark Case against Google
In Hamburg Germany on Tuesday, a state court dismissed a trademark infringement case brought by Metaspinner Media against Google Deutschland for selling keywords that were triggered of Metaspinner's trademark terms "Preispiraten" or "Price Pirate" software. Google also faces another lawsuit in the US, recent filed by Rescuecom accusing Google of allowing and advising rival computer service companies to use its trade marked term in their list of sponsored search terms. Google continues to be the Trademark lawsuit voodoo doll. When will the madness stop? Suing Google over Trademark infringement appears to be the newest PR stunt. Who ever heard of Rescuecom & Metaspinner anyway? If they start settling, it could be a gold rush! Get a lawyer and get in line! Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: ! Hot Topics Be a Blinker not a Splogger!
Goyami has been splogged twice in the past few days! What does being splogged mean you ask? You have been splogged when a spammer comes to your blog and adds a comment to one of your postings that is just a bunch of links to their websites in an attempt to get inbound links to boost their search engine rankings and site traffic. In the past few days we have seen two splog entries linking to vulgar adult sites. Don’t be a splogger! Of course every negative spurs positive ideas! Why not be a blinker instead. What is a blinker you ask? Blinking is when you actively participate in blogs by adding meaning full comments and include meaningful links in your message and or signature line of your message. So if I added a comment to a blog and put in an SEO optimized signature like the one below, I would be a productive blinker adding meaningful content to the blog discussion and helping my SEO rankings at the same time! Be a blinker! Adam Viener Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Organic Search Engine Marketing & Optimization (SEO) CJU Final Day
Today was the final day of Commission Junction University. My morning started with an 8am focus group. CJ asked some of their top pay-per-click search engine marketers to sit down with their product management group to discuss what CJ could do to help us drive more revenues. The general consensus was that CJ could do a better job educating their merchant partners on how PPC marketers could help their programs, and how the basics of search engine advertising works. I proposed that CJ offer affiliates the ability to put in their adwords and overture conversion tracking code information so CJ could dynamically serve these codes on the merchants’ conversion pages. This would enable us to get conversion data for each keyword without having to use unique urls with sid codes on each keyword. This idea was well received by CJ’s product management team, but several other affiliates expressed concerns about how much data CJ and Google had about their campaigns. Later in the day, I attended James Martell’s session about earning a living via affiliate marketing. See Todd's posting for a good run down. It left me thinking that I should be working on some more content sites. We continued to make great contacts, and I enjoyed talking with other top PPC search "publishers" about their businesses. Another great day, and great event. Thanks CJ! Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing September 21, 2004James Martell: Affiliate Rock Star
James Martell is the poster-boy of affiliate marketing success, and his presentation was part Tony Robbins-like motivation tips loaded with real world insight and road rules for becoming a successful affiliate and business owner. He’s a rock star at CJU. Trust me on this one: the audience was silly with joy as James spoke about his affiliate success. And, James is successful with a new personal goal of generating $100,000 per month in net income including some conspicuous purchases that include a custom-build 1967 Shelby Cobra that have recently been realized. James is the author of Affiliate Marketers Handbook that was first published in 2002. He started with three sites approximately five years ago and now manages 90 websites including http://www.1st-in-cell-phones.com. James relies exclusively on natural search to drive revenues. Here’s James Martell’s 10 Rules for affiliate marketing success: Rule 1: Think pages not sites. I just spoke to James about getting his presentation so that we can post it here. I’ll post it ASAP. Todd Comments (7) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing An Interview with Jeff Pullen, General Manager of Commission Junction
Now that Commission Junction (CJ) has won the affiliate wars it’s clear the performance-marketing leader is planning to flex it’s market muscle through a number of growth strategies that will be lead by CJ’s General Manager Jeff Pullen. I interviewed Mr. Pullen yesterday following his opening remarks at CJU. Pullen outlined his plan to realize CJ’s vision of becoming the leading provider of online marketing solutions by continuing to strengthen merchant and publisher relationships, industry consolidation, maturing a growing marketplace, international expansion, value-based pricing as well as squashing rumors that BeFree is not scheduled for what Pullen termed “end-of-life in Q1” of 2005. He added, “these rumors are not true.” Mr. Pullen’s commitment to BeFree was somewhat surprising since CJ, a ValueClick division, was selected as the brand name leader following the formal merger of the two affiliate giants earlier this year and “the loin share of new advertisers,” Pullen noted, are signing up for CJ rather than BeFree including many new advertisers like HomeDepot as well as retailers who have recently launched CJ programs in preparation for eventually phasing out BeFree-side activities. Internally within the organization employees privately call the technology platform demolition of BeFree’s platform Central City. It seems apparent that IT and other operational resources will be diverted from BeFree as CJ takes the stage as the preferred solution bundle. Other road signs for growth pointed toward further international expansion including updated news on the official opening of a German office next month, and a slide with the map of Europe that Pullen shared unintentionally with the country of France shaded CJ green telegraphing future plans to expand European operations. When questioned about the slip, Pullen brushed aside questions about operations in France by noting no specific target date for formalizing Paris operations was scheduled. Other subtle messages shared in Pullen presentation included the use of the word client that was strategically repeated during Mr. Pullen’s presentation leaving audience members with the perception that CJ’s short-term strategy will focus more attention on nurturing merchant relationships in light of increasing advertiser demands related to data access, recruitment, expanding reach and program performance. In part, Pullen was playing to audience. Approximately 60% of attendees to CJU are sophisticated advertisers including well-known brand like eBay, Real Networks, Sony, Countrywide Home Loans, Best Buy, Circuit City, and Home Shopping Network among others. Pullen noted in his opening remarks that CJ managed 1,500 advertiser relationships and specifically reference the value of ISP advertisers have provided to CJ and hinted that additional revenue growth is likely to come from the financial services category when asked about other valuable advertiser categories. CJ’s dominance of the affiliate arena had relied on relationship and process leadership with publishers as a trusted third-party that allowed advertisers to leverage the power of a commissioned network paired with proprietary technology solutions to achieve specific business objectives. As CJ looks toward the future, focusing more energy on client-development activities and sharing merchant learning with new advertisers that are testing the affiliate waters for the first time may achieve Pullen’s realization of his company vision. Regardless of this apparent shift, CJ is a savvy, well-run business that is unlikely to ignore how they won the affiliate war: reaching out to entrepreneurial affiliates. Expect to see further innovation around affiliate management to expand CJ’s revenue growth. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing | Organic Search Engine Marketing & Optimization (SEO) Search Engine Advertising up 97% in Q2
USA Today reported today that according to a recent IAB / PWC Report, Search Engine Marketing is up 97% in Q2 2004 over the same period last year. Search represented 40% of the 2nd Quarter's overall $2.3 Billion in Internet Advertising. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: SEM Company & Industry News CJU Day 2
Day two at Commission Junction University was interesting. Jeff Pullen, CJ's General Manager, gave a good opening overview of where the industry has gone over the past year and what CJ's plans for the future are. He made special note to let people know that CJ is committed to maintaining and enhancing the BFAST technology that BeFree is based on. In the keynote address, Tim Smith, President, Tvtalk, Inc. presented "Karate vs. Judo: Marketing in the Age of Consumer Control". Although he focused a lot on broadcast media, he laid very thought provoking concepts about the progression of advertising as consumers become publishers. Basically, his theory is that advertising is being turned on it's head as consumers take more control of the content. Ultimately consumers become the broadcasters of content and therefore affiliate / performance marketing may become the key element on how these new broadcasters cash in on their content. I also think this theory also puts products like Adsense in a great position and should make us all think more about how to best leverage content match advertising. The funniest part of the keynote, was when Tim shared some of his "consumers creating content" examples. The audience loved the Bush and Blair's 'Endless Love' Video. If you haven't seen this, it's great! My favorite part of the day was the Networking Match session in the afternoon. The conference attendees were placed into NetworkingMatch.com's database and setup with seating arrangements at various tables. In a series of six 8-minute meetings, you got a chance to connect and network with other conference attendees and explore how you might be able to work together. I made some very interesting contacts which may turn into longer marketing partnerships. In the evening, CJ hosted a Dinner and Awards presentation. The presented Horizon Awards to outstanding Advertisers and Publishers. (Merchants & Affiliates). I am not sure if I can remember them all, but will post a link when CJ publishes them. On the merchant side I recall awards going to eHealthInsurance, BackCountry.com, and ShopNBC. One the Affiliate site I recall awards for FatWallet, UPromise, and Clicks2Customers.com. I think they said there were 7 awards, so I must be missing one. Day 2 was very productive. Comments (2) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing September 20, 2004CJ Panel: Launching Successful Search Marketing Campaigns
I'm blogging this session in near-live time since I have over 20 pages of notes from earlier keynotes and panels this morning. This first wave of afternoon sessions is one of three sessions going on simultaneously and people are slowly returning to the rooms following our outdoor lunch. So perhaps I’ve give you a quick overview of the sessions and topic. Today's afternoon session speakers for Launching Successful Search Marketing Campaigns includes the author of the best selling book Search Engine Advertising Catherine Seda, CEO of Seda Communications and Neal Karasic, a Senior Product Manager working primarily on product development for search-based technology solutions at Commission Junction. The session is being moderator is Don Muse, Product Manager of Commission Junction. The speakers are taking their seats now, and surprisingly the room is only half-full with attendees. Surprising because I keep hearing many merchant programs are relying on PPC affiliates to drive sales/leads. In fact, I was recently managing a major ISP program that relied almost solely on pay-per-click (PPC) affiliates. Here comes the moderator… it’s show time. Don: We're going to give you the low down – people actually say that -- on natural and paid search marketing. M: Requests a quick show of hands -- How many advertisers -- 75% of audience -- and how many publishers -- about 35% of attendees raises hands. Catherine is starting with a 10,000 foot view of search marketing by showing a Google search result page. Catherine notes search can be broken down into three components: content, links, and pay-per-click. Search engine Optimization Overview:
Page configuration: header, keyword tags. Content is king to search engines also consider Look at 10 ten sites and develop an average of the keywords being used by your competitors. Why? Don’t be a bully. It’s all about finding the medium range to get higher rankings. [Sounds a lot like playing both sides against the middle. ;)] Inbound links can establish your site as an expert link. Very important to build. Link Popularity: Create a specific page for links so create a resource area. Page Inclusion: How it works: Rankings determined by page keyword relevance, listings generated based on page content, fees per URL, cost-per-click or both. SEO Tools - traditional offerings including www.blueclay.com (SEO ToolSet) Pay-for-Placement: Important to be in top 1 to 5 listings and the top 3 listing to show up on distribution partner sites. Bidding Strategies: using various types of search-based solutions so that you generate inventory clicks against undesirable keywords/keyword phrases. Catherine's Tips: Increasing Qualified Clicks: Recommendations for Google and Overture 50% increase in CTR performance by using keyword in headline and description ad copy. Ad Copy to Attract Buyers, NOT Browsers Landing Pages that Convert Visitors to Buyers: Tips for Success 1. Pick the right page to show a visitor (provide a direct page) PPC Management and Tracking
Neal is about to review a mini-case study of Brooks Brothers. Here’s what he is going to cover: [Side Bar: A former Brooks Brother employee notes that the case study was an act of desparation due to the lost of LOOKSMART. Eventually, two or three affiliates made up the loss. HA] Here’s the formal presentation: Challenge: Rapdily increasing reach through search but need to balance ROI Here's an overview of how Brooks Brothers was successful: Benefits of using publishers/affiliates: Excution & what Brooks Brothers did: Paid Placment (PPC) Paid Inclusion Execution Notes: Audience Questions: When testing keyword what's the conversion rate average? Brand and Trademark terms (convert) through the roof. Question: What are you thoughts on Google's restrictions on online gaming. Question Page Optimization Techniques Q/Can you explain more about click flaud? Q/ Tip from audience Comments (1) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing Commission Junction University
Greetings from beautiful Santa Barbara, California! Adam & I are attending CJU 2004 the sixth event hosted by CJ, a ValueClick company, that brings top advertisers and affiliates with industry experts to share insight, strategies and success stories. Here's a link to the schedule of events over the next two days: http://www.cj.com/about/cju.jsp Last night's Welcome Reception at CJ headquarters kicked off the event and was packed full of deal making, boasting, and booze. The patio was an excellent spot for starting the night and deciding between which dinner/party to attend -- eBay or People PC. Adam and I both attended eBay's dinner at The Palace. Earlier in the day on Sunday, Vinny Lingham from Click2Customers, a division of Incubeta, based in South Africa spoke a performance marketing. I'll corner Vinny later today for an exclusive interview. ;) This is going to be a great event.... Talk to you soon. Todd Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing Commission Junction University Kicks Off
Yesterday (Sunday, Sept 19th, 2004), Commission Junction kicked off their CJU event in Santa Barbara California with a 101 course on best practices for Publishers and Advertisers. (Publishers and Advertisers are CJ slang for Affiliates and Merchants). The content of the session was interesting, but the most interesting part of the session came when the audience was able to ask some questions. After some general questions about how do I find and contact super affiliates (shameless seo plug 'grin'), some of the super affiliates used the open microphone as an opportunity to raise some concerns about trademark bidding. This promises to be a hot topic this week at CJU as Merchants are starting to face the new Google open trademark bidding policy and finding more and more competitors bidding on their names. Merchants need to start thinking of affiliates more as part of their sales force. As a sales rep for the company, affiliate managers have armed affiliates (their internet sales team) with lots of creative work. They have access to banner ads containing the company's trademark, copy for their site containing the trademark, and access to the complete product catalogs, many of which contain the trademarks of other company's products that the merchant sells. I think some companies believe that if a potential customer types in their trademarked name or misspelled name into a search engine that, since they were looking for their company's site anyway, they would have "obviously" gotten to the companies site and were ready to buy directly. To me this has some logic, but isn't 100% true. If this were the case, why does any company pay commissions to an inside sales team? In theory, the customers had taken the time to call the company anyway, so they must be ready to buy right? It's funny how we all recognize that customers need to be sold on the phone, why not online? As the discussion continues, it seems that the best affiliate managers and programs are starting to adopt a stance of controlled bidding so that affiliates don't drive up the prices for the merchant while insuring that the merchant's competitors don't encroach on their company's terms. After the session the evening kicked off with a party at CJU headquarters. It was great to see a lot of the affiliate managers we have been speaking with. After the CJU event, we went out for dinner with eBay and a great Cajun restaurant called the palace. eBay gave out a t-shirt that said "I came, I saw, I BID" which is interesting, because I actually did go to eBay yesterday, and saw someone selling a $50 Google Adwords coupon for only $9.95 and I did bid/buy. What a bargain! More to come... Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing September 15, 2004Pay-Per-Call?? FindWhat.com's New Ad Service
I’m not a big fan of Findwhat.com’s new Pay-per-call (PPC) search service allowing small businesses without an online presence to engage in pay-per-click (commonly known as PPC) advertising even if they don’t have a web presence. I believe the entire business model of this offering is flawed not to mention the acronym duplication. First, many providers of online presence including Network Solutions have developed easy-to-use web-based tools to help small businesses affordably, quickly and effortlessly get online. In fact, a hosted site starts at only $1.50 a month per-page which is a lot cheaper than Findwhat.com’s $2.00 minimum cost per click charges (note: this fee doesn’t factor in additional calling costs which are being waived during the introductory period) for Pay-per-call. Second, I don’t believe the premise “And, expect great conversion rates” is going to hold up against bidding limitation when pay-per-call advertisers can only select category and not keyword specific searches even if geographic selects are incorporated. Category performance is too generalized and I wouldn’t be able to recommend to a small business that paying for untargeted ad inventory is worth $2.00 or more a click. Further, the notion that “Calls often come later in the buying cycle, closer to purchase” may be true, however, what FindWhat.com seems to be claiming is searchers are only going be calling when they are ready to purchase which seems unlikely since I believe many of the pay-per-call advertisers are not likely to be part of a considered set of providers since individuals who value the time saving benefit of shopping online are unlikely to take the time to learn more about a business without a website. Finally, banner-like ad units are hardly compelling enough to make the service revolutionary rather ho-hum. Here’s a link to the FindWhat.com press announcement, and an article published yesterday by ClickZ touting the new offering. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: SEM Company & Industry News September 14, 2004Trademark Bidding Discussion Continues
I recently ran into a series of articles on the affiliate trademark bidding debate on RevNews by David Lewis. These are three good articles worth reading on the subject: PPC Bidding by Affiliates: It's about Controlling Your Brand (Part 1) Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing Companies Ask Top Affiliates to Bid on Trademark Keywords
With Google's recent change in their trademark bidding policy, many companies are finding that their competitors are now free to bid on their company’s trademark terms. With little legal precedent to hang their hat on, companies are starting to turn to their affiliates for help. In the past, many companies have specifically banned affiliates from bidding on the company’s trademark terms as part of their affiliate agreement. At the same time the companies started bidding on their own trademark terms on Google. But, companies can typically only buy one ad under any keyword phrase, and they have started to see the remaining spots being taken up by their competitors and their competitor’s affiliates. In order to combat this, companies have started to turn to their top Affiliates for help by allowing their top affiliate partners to bid on the company trademarks with strict advertising copy guidelines that protect the company’s brand image. Typically the companies will also ask that their affiliates not overbid them for top position to ensure that their new strategy doesn’t bid up their price of bidding on the trademark terms. Commission Junction has started promoted this “Blocking Strategy” to their clients. At the IAB Road show event in New York in August, representatives from CJ presented Brooks Brothers as an good example of successfully deploying a brand blocking program using their top affiliate partners. So far I have personally had two companies approach me about starting to bid on their trademarks, and have seen a lot of programs that allow trademark bidding with maximum bid amounts defined in the contract. “We would rather make a portion of the revenues and share them with our affiliate partners than let our competitors steal our sales!” Said one such affiliate manager. Could this be the way the industry is heading on trademark bidding? Comments (0) + TrackBacks (1) | Category: Affiliate Marketing September 9, 2004How many PPC Accounts do you manage?
I’m taking a little survey of goyami readers, and I’d appreciate hearing from you on the question: How many PPC accounts do you manage? Presently I’m managing 36 unique PPC accounts on Google alone. The average Google AdWords account has approximately 15 campaigns and 45 ad groups per campaign with 15,000 keywords per account. How many PPC accounts do you manage?? Please post your response, and I’ll tally numbers in early October or send me or Adam an email. Todd Comments (2) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Pay Per Click Management Tools September 8, 200425 Free .info Domains
I just stumbled across a great deal from NameSecure. For a limited time you can get up to 25 free .info domain names. This is great if you are looking to build some sites with some keywords in the url, because .info isn't as crowded as .com. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Organic Search Engine Marketing & Optimization (SEO) Yahoo Betas Travel Search Engine
Yahoo! announced yesterday on their blog that they have begun beta testing a travel search engine that searches over 50 travel sites for air, hotel, and rental car rates. Their new program is based on the technology of FareChase that they acquired earlier this summer. It will be interesting to watch and see if and how they integrate additional pay-per-click advertising opportunities into the search. I suspect they will leverage their new Local Search / Advertising platform. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: SEM Company & Industry News September 7, 2004Hosting - Shrewd or Spam?
Powerhouse hosting has announced that they will offer 10 inbound pr4 links free with every hosting account. Details from their site: Finally.. Something you can really use. Join the only hosting company willing to work harder for you. 10 PR4 or higher Incoming links to your site. A $200 Value FREE with purchase of our web hosting package. Your sites link popularity (number of other sites linking to yours) is a big deal if you want to be found on search engines. 1 Way PR4 links are especially hard to obtain unless you pay for the placement. 10 PR4 incoming links will give your site a jump start on page rank. On one hand I find this very smart, because it will help their customers get listed on the search engines, on the other hand, the links don't sound relevant, so it stinks of Spam. I wonder how long the links will be counted for before they are marked as spam? Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Organic Search Engine Marketing & Optimization (SEO) September 3, 2004Google Employees can now sell shares
According to CBS Marketwatch. The first batch of employees at Google were able to sell some of their shares yesterday. The stock closed up $1.26. 4.7 Million Shares came due yesterday, another 39 million will be available for sale in November, and another 177 million in February. If the article is correct in indicating that only 19.6 million shares were offered at the offering, there could be a lot more sellers out there than buyers. It may be an interesting stock slide through February. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: ! Hot Topics WebmasterWorld's Search Conference
WebmasterWorld will hold it's 7th Search Conference in Las Vegas on November 16th-18th, 2004. There will be three tracks (Seach, Affiliates & Advertising, and Webmaster General). For more information about the event, visit: http://www.webmasterworld.com/conference/. Search Engine Roundtable has posted some more upcoming events. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: SEM Company & Industry News Judge Rules that Geico can sue Google & Overture over Trademarks
CNET reports this morning that "Geico gets green light to sue Google, Overture". Judge Leone Brinkema of the U.S. District court for the Eastern District of Virginia has denied Google and Overture's motion to dismiss six charges brought by Geico, which alleged that the search companies' use of its name to trigger search-related advertisements was trademark infringement, unfair competition and dilution of its marks under the Lanham Act. The judge did, however, grant Google & Overture's motions to dismiss claims of tortuous interference and statutory business conspiracy. This case will be an interesting one to watch. If Geico prevails there will be floodgates of litigation and settlements against PPC Engines, and could hurt the industry as a whole. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: ! Hot Topics September 2, 2004Disappearing in Yahoo?
Stephen Mahaney of Planet Ocean Communications pointed out in one of his Monthly subscriber newsletters that it appeared that pages that contain Google's Adsense advertising codes were being removed from Yahoo's index. This month he has done additional tests and appears to have confirmed that this is the case. He suggests putting the javascript code in a separate .JS file or else using IP delivery to show Yahoo's bot a page without the Adsense code in it. Hopefully this Yahoo "bug" will go away soon. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Organic Search Engine Marketing & Optimization (SEO) September 1, 2004Revenue Magazine: The First Magazine Dedicated to Affiliate Marketing
A good sign that Affiliate Marketing is growing is the launch of Revenue Magazine - the first magazine dedicated to Affiliate Marketing. I have read the first two issues cover to cover and am anxiously awaiting the 3rd issue which was just recently published. Although a lot of the magazine is focused on traditional affiliate marketing methods of putting links on your own Web site, I am sure they will branch out quickly into the world of search engine marketing and affiliate search arbitrage, the art of buying pay per click ads for less than the commissions you receive from the affiliate partners and pocketing the difference. It's well worth the $25 subscription fee. Visit their site to subscribe. Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing Search Engine Radio
I recently stubmled across Search Engine Radio with Brad Fallon. It looks like they air lve on Tuesdays from 9am - 10am PST (11am for those of us on the East Coast). They also have their initial 3 shows available for listening. Enjoy Comments (1) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: SEM Company & Industry News How much should I bid for an Affiliate Ad?
When buying keyword advertising on Google, a lot of the going wisdom says to start bidding high so you get good visibility and then reduce your ad spend when you have built up a good conversion rate on your ad. This has always sounded good in theory, but it also opens up a lot of risk of losing a bunch of money up front on a company that you may not be sure can convert on the traffic you are paying to send their way. There are really two pieces of information you need to get a good guess on what you can afford to pay per click: Conversion rate, and commission per lead or sale. Your affiliate manager for the program you are working with should be able to give you this information. If you would rather take an educated guess, you can take a look at average conversion rates by vertical. For example: Comments (0) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Affiliate Marketing
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Adam Viener
Oh brother. 
