Google, of course, is the 900-pound gorilla of search engines, clearly dominating in the number of online searches performed daily. However, Google also equals Garbage, as the site attracts every unserious lookie-loo and teeny-bop with time to kill out there.
That being the case, is Google the best place to start your pay-per-click advertising campaign? Yes, if you do your research and prepare well, Google could well be the route to take. Making Google especially attractive are the offers of $25, even $50, in free PPC clicks offered by certain hosting companies when you sign up.
Still, you may want to get your feet wet elsewhere, as this is a costly proposition, and unless your PPC budget results in traffic conversions (sales) that double–at least–your PPC expenditures, you’re wasting your time and money.
Using a list developed by Michael Bloch, I’ve researched Bloch’s recommendations and narrowed his list of alternative PPC providers to three.
ABC Search offers both geotargeting and so-called click-fraud protection and will match you $100 for $100 when you sign up, but be careful–that generally means you have to agree for automatic renewal at $100 when your first "donation" runs out.
Bidvertiser also offers geotargeting and fraud protection and goes one step further–it allows you to choose the sites on which your ads will appear. You can also get $20 in free clicks as a new bidvertiser.
Search123, though it offers no geotargeting or stated fraud protection, maintains a huge network of partners and offers $20 in free clicks for your first $50 entry. What I liked about Search123 is the care and detail with which they explain their program. I eliminated many other services because they had no explanation, just a form to sign up. (Careful: 123Search is a virus-like copycat that will take over your browser.)
Now, any PPC campaign is only as good as the keyword phrases chosen for bidding. The traditional tools for keyword research are WordTracker and Keyword Discovery, but if you want to use both (a definite plus), join NicheBot, which is the service I use. If you want a good piece of automated software that will assemble your profitable keywords and phrases for you, then use Niche Inspector.
Some people try to make a living, or extra bucks anyway, by creating so-called parked domains, which are static sites devoid of content but rife with links, and Google is more than happy to oblige them by allowing the placement of AdWords advertising thereon, gaining the owners access to AdSense bucks.
Not so fast, some advertisers are crying–while shouting "wolf" at the same time.
Recent lawsuits have targeted Google for a) placing the ads on parked domains to start with and b) placing the ads on sites with URLs that allegedly violate trademarks and copyrights (such as bedbathandbeyondcom.com).
The latest to join the legal fray is an Illinois firm named JIT Packaging, which accuses Google of placing its ads on "low-quality" sites that produce few if any conversions.
(My favorite parked domain is gamil.com, which I land upon everytime I misspell Google’s gmail.com. However, never I am ever tempted to hit a link or an ad on a parked domain, which I guess helps prove the "low-qualityk" portion of the legal argument.)
Google reportedly had no comment over the latest lawsuit.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday will rule that Comcast wrongly interfered with file transfers among its customers who were sharing videos (almost certainly illegal bootleg copies).
Comcast countered that it was merely trying to protect available bandwidth for other customers who weren’t engaged in such (illegal?) activity.
In a real boost for First Amendment rights, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he believed that consumers should have "unfettered access to the Internet," according to the WSJ report.
Comcast and the cable industry are expected to challenge the ruling in court and hope eventually to implement "Internet metering" to charge more for higher bandwidth usage, while still retaining the right to block usage at will.
One of the primary sources for affiliate products–and profits–is Clickbank. If you haven’t joined or discovered its wealth, that’s your first step, certainly.
But now noted Internet video producer Jay Douglas nas come up with a program to provide you with promotional vidoes for the hottest ten Clickbank sales opportunities–ten videos each month for just $47, and he charges $1275 if you want an original (one only) 60-second video.
I signed up. For this slight monthly investment, I figure if I can parlayat least two or three of the videos into Adsense-driven sites, then I can see some steady sales and income.
But hurry, Jay is offering just 500 memberships, and then the door slams shut.
Recently, a site called MentalFloss (?) spread the suspicion publicly that it had been dropped from the Google search results because it was offering full-text RSS feeds, in other words, duplicating its content on subscriptions.
However, none other than Matt Cutts, the Google guru who knows all the answers, says that that wasn’t the case at all. The site had been dropped because Google thought it had been hacked. Cutts says that he himself uses full-text RSS feeds on his blog.
Cutts wrote back:
This has nothing whatsoever to do with RSS full-text feeds. I happily use full-text feeds on my personal blog, for example, and recommend that others feel free to do the same.
