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31 Oct
25 Oct I truly love how the search engines recommend bids when adding keywords. Take a look at what MSN's adCenter set as the default Cost/Click when I added in a few new keywords. $13.05. HA! How can anyone get a decent ROAS on a term that is $13 a click? The words I put in are not for high-priced products. Even in YAHOO!, pre-Panama, you could usually sit in the 3rd or 4th spot paying a decent Cost/Click while the top two bidders waged a battle for #1. It really bothers me that the Cost/Click that the search engines default to is always the #1 spot. As you can see from the screen capture, they are applying the $13.05 to all the keywords I added. So, MSN is saying that they ALL have the same cost data?
19 Oct This post is from from my other blog here As a SEM freelancer I run across a number of clients that have dealt with click resellers in the past. It amazes me how much these companies charge and how little they truly offer their customers. One recent client received a quote from AT&T/Yellowpages for two programs. One was for 400 clicks for $899 and the other was for 170 clicks for $499. The client told me that the rep said that they would generate these clicks from a list of 20 words. Over $2/click AND getting very little reach? Does not sound like a very good deal. The campaigns were not even going to be geo targeted to the radius around the client's business.AT&T/Yellowpages is not alone in their gouging of people who do not know any better. Look at Web.com's programs. They offer 30 clicks a month for $59 (plus a one time set up fee of $99). I actually spoke to them and they use a list of 10 words or less to get these clicks. Networksolutions.com offers a plan that is $50 (plus a one time set up fee of $99) for 125 clicks. They offer a management service feature as well. I typed in my budget of $400 (the minimum) and was given a quote of $200 as an ad budget and $200 as a management fee.I know companies need to make money, but this pricing model seems incredibly out of whack. As a SEM freelancer, I know it is difficult to come up with a good pricing model. It end to look at the amount of revenue that a business can generate through their online business and their budget and try to come up with a management fee that makes sense for both of us.Try www.newcustomersonline.com for a good and affordable pricing model
19 Oct As a SEM freelancer I run across a number of clients that have dealt with click resellers in the past. It amazes me how much these companies charge and how little they truly offer their customers. One recent client received a quote from AT&T/Yellowpages for two programs. One was for 400 clicks for $899 and the other was for 170 clicks for $499. The client told me that the rep said that they would generate these clicks from a list of 20 words. Over $2/click AND getting very little reach? Does not sound like a very good deal. The campaigns were not even going to be geo targeted to the radius around the client's business. AT&T/Yellowpages is not alone in their gouging of people who do not know any better. Look at Web.com's programs. They offer 30 clicks a month for $59 (plus a one time set up fee of $99). I actually spoke to them and they use a list of 10 words or less to get these clicks. Networksolutions.com offers a plan that is $50 (plus a one time set up fee of $99) for 125 clicks. They offer a management service feature as well. I typed in my budget of $400 (the minimum) and was given a quote of $200 as an ad budget and $200 as a management fee. I know companies need to make money, but this pricing model seems incredibly out of whack. As a SEM freelancer, I know it is difficult to come up with a good pricing model. It end to look at the amount of revenue that a business can generate through their online business and their budget and try to come up with a management fee that makes sense for both of us.
18 Oct Google has added a neat little tool to their Keyword Generator. Now, when you use the tool, instead of just an add button, there is now a way to select the word as BROAD, EXACT,PHRASE and NEGATIVE. Prior to this, you would have to select the type of word match you wanted at the top of the page. With this change you can select all 3 versions of the word or the negative right from the same screen without having to refresh the list. I don't use anything but broad terms, but I do use tons of negatives. 
18 Oct This post is from from my other blog here Google has added a neat little tool to their Keyword Generator. Now, when you use the tool, instead of just an add button, there is now a way to select the word as BROAD, EXACT,PHRASE and NEGATIVE. Prior to this, you would have to select the type of word match you wanted at the top of the page. With this change you can select all 3 versions of the word or the negative right from the same screen without having to refresh the list. I don't use anything but broad terms, but I do use tons of negatives.
15 Oct This post is from from my other blog here I fired up EA SPORTS NHL 08 for my Xbox 360 today during an extended lunch break and noticed something new. There was now an advertisement for the new Simpson's Movie video game on the boards behind the goal. I can't recall what ad it replaced, but after some digging, I did find that the Simpson's Movie game was an EA game. I am connected to Xbox live and EA must be adding ads to the game via the service. I had downloaded the demo of the Simpson's movie game via Xbox live last week. Did it know that I had? Was it serving me the ad in an effort to get me to purchase the game? It was kind of cool to see an ad in the game that wasn't a generic ad for hockey equipment, but I am not sure about EA serving me ads in a game that I bought. I do wonder if this will allow companies to serve ads to the most relevant users. I really do wonder if they served the ad because I had downloaded the demo. I also wonder if eventually we will be able to serve paid search ads within video games.
12 Oct This post is from from my other blog here Just a QUICK tip. As soon as you open the Google AdWords Editor make sure to click the GET RECENT CHANGES tab. Also, make sure to hit the POST CHANGES. I get a huge number of emails a week from people saying they made a number of changes using the AdWords Editor and then don't see them in their accounts. 
12 Oct This post is from from my other blog here Looking for a house? Just type in your town and real estate and get a great little pull down menu in your search results.
10 Oct This post is from from my other blog here Do you like Yahoo!?Do you like watching videos online?Do you like horribly cheesy acting?Then YAHOO! has something for you...Yahoo! Search Overview
09 Oct This post is from from my other blog here Google has added Video Units to their AdSense ad options. Interesting feature...and not much of a surprise. It will be interesting to see how much better (or worse) of a CTR these ads will have. We're excited about the launch of video units -- a new way to enrich your site with quality, relevant video content in an embedded, customizable player. Simply embed a snippet of code and have relevant YouTube partner content streamed to your site. You can choose categories of video to target to your site, select content from individual YouTube partners, or have video automatically targeted to your site content. Companion and text overlay ads are relevant and non-intrusive. To further blend the YouTube player into your site, you can also customize the color scheme and layout as well as choose from three different player sizes.I don't see the option available in my AdSense account yet...
04 Oct This post is from from my other blog here I know that Gadget Ads news is a few weeks old, but as an advertiser getting ready to launch one, I thought I add a bit of commentary about it. Google provides a few somewhat decent examples of the ads.  HERE.
01 Oct This post is from from my other blog here Yahoo! has finally made some long needed changes. New Traffic Quality Feature to Give You More ControlAs an advertiser, you want quality traffic—qualified clicks from the users who are most likely to become customers. Our new blocked domains feature, planned for launch later this month, will provide you with greater control of where your ads appear. This is just one of several ways that Yahoo! is working to improve the value of the traffic that we deliver to you.• Blocked Domains (New!)Now you can specify websites in our partner distribution network where you don't want your ads to appear.• Pricing DiscountsYou may automatically receive pricing discounts based on our assessment of the quality of traffic coming from our partner distribution network.• Click Protection SystemWe track click and search patterns across many data points to identify clicks that we believe shouldn't be billed to our advertisers. The click protection system generally discards charges from 12 percent to 15 percent of clicks.• Blocked ContinentsYahoo! automatically excludes traffic from continents other than North America. If global traffic is important to your business, you can opt into this traffic.• Traffic Quality CenterThis site is our home for traffic quality tips, tools and news. This is the place to go, for instance, if you want to learn how to submit click investigation requests. I am really really excited for the blocked continent feature as I want my ads to be shown globally.
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