Microsoft Live Search Offers Cashback

Microsoft live search is now offering cashback for searching using their search engine and buying products. Currently cash back option is available for US residence above 18 years only. Microsoft is inventing all possible ways to compete with Google which is definitely a great strategy,

What is Live Search Cashback?
“Microsoft Live Search cashback is “The Search That Pays You Back”. Find great deals on millions of products from hundreds of brand name stores that you know and trust. You will be able to earn cashback savings based on a percentage of the product price. Your savings will be paid to you via your choice of a deposit to your PayPal account, direct deposit to your bank account, or a check in the mail. It’s that simple! “

Microsoft live search product URL,http://search.live.com/cashback/
To read more about live search read the FAQ here http://search.live.com/cashback/faq

Some yahoo coupons posted in digitalpoint

Here are some yahoo coupon codes which you can use to have sponsored listing registrations in yahoo
$50

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch.php?o=US1521&cmp=Ambassador&ctv=Spon_Search&s=O&s2=PFP&s3=&b=50&kbid=1265

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=USCJ16

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=US2261

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=USCJ13

$75

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=USCJ15

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=US1522

$80

http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing/onlinemarketing.php?abr=2022416117&o=USCJ10

$100

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php?o=US2334

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=US2258

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=US2245

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=US2295

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=US2283

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/choose.php?o=US2300

I am not in anyway related to the above URLs use them at your own risk. Most of them are valid URLs and you will be able to register with yahoo with these URLs.

Craigslist counter sues ebay Inc, Ebay gets fired back by craigslist

Ebay recently had a lawsuit against craigslist now craigslist has counter sued ebay,

Lawsuit by craigslist and its claims read here http://blog.craigslist.org/etc/cl.vs.ebay.html

I am on Craigslist side. I love craigslist and hope they come out of this crisis soon,

Craigslist official blog post

“We filed a complaint in California today, charging eBay with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.
We respectfully ask the Superior Court in San Francisco to enjoin this conduct and order eBay to (1) make full restitution to craigslist, (2) disgorge their related profits (3) restore to craigslist all shares of the company acquired by means of, or for the purpose of unfair competition, and (4) pay punitive damages for their malicious behavior.”

http://blog.craigslist.org/2008/05/unlawful-and-unfair/

Yahoo Publisher Network Still US only

Yahoo Publisher network a programme similar to Google Adsense where Yahoo allows webmasters and siteowners to publish ads on their website which gives them an option to monetize their websites. The problem with YPN is its US only still , its been almost 3 years since the programme has been launched but they are not willing to expand the program for other country webmasters.

This is Bad on Yahoo’s part. They are not doing any favor to anyone by not expanding. Also they are missing out huge audience base since most of the countries now are active in internet and there are millions of websites run by people other than US. I seriously wish yahoo expands his program since this is getting too long a wait.

Only way they can compete with Adsense is by increasing YPN reach to a bigger audience than the audience base they currently have.

Automatic matching in expanded beta

In webmaster world shorebreak an active member says

“I’ve heard of at least two people who in the last 24-36 hours have received emails from Google stating that Automatic Match will go ‘Production’ as of May 20th, and that the checkbox for it will be pre-checked; that most likely means it will be an opt-out feature, not the opt-in feature that one would have assumed would be the case.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that this is one of the 3-4 most profound changes to AdWords and the entire paid search industry that have ever occurred, right up there with Quality Score, Broad Match and AdSense.
While those of us who live and breathe SEM will no doubt monitor this closely and make ROI-based decisions as to whether to use Automatic Match or not, IMO the majority of AdWords advertisers will start paying a massive surcharge as of next Tuesday. “

I see immediately Adwords Advisor dismisses his claim saying this post is wrong and Google has nothing like this active now, Following is Adwords Advisor reply

“I almost never post on the weekends, however – with today being the exception that proves the rule. I felt I had to jump in briefly to say that the headline of this thread and text of the post quoted above are simply not correct. Rumors that take on a life of their own trouble me, actually, and I don’t want to see that happen here.
What is happening: Automatic Matching has been in beta for some time as regular readers of this forum will know – and starting on May 20th the beta will be expanded somewhat. Even with the expansion of the beta, the number of advertisers who will see this beta option in their account is truly tiny.
Again, to be very clear Automatic Matching goes not go live 5/20.
I’ll gather some more details when I get back to work on Monday, and post again.
AWA “

How to view Yahoo Sponsored results for US outside US

I have seen many people ask this question often in forums how to view yahoo sponsored results that serves US people outside US. Well we have tried various methods to do this we mange some Search Marketing Campaigns for our US clients and to check the results we use web proxies.

US Web proxies are proxies on the web that allows you to view a website by masking your Identity. These proxy also help see what US people see when they visit a site. So we use this option to view results of search engines and their sponsored results.

Some prominent proxies are
megaproxy.com
clickgo.info
californiaproxy.com
proxyweb.net

Adwords bidding what is real with Adwords

In webmasterworld a member asks

“I figure only someone from Google like AdWordsAdvisor can answer this, but I’m curious.
I appreciate that ordinarily bidding is converted to $USD and it’s pretty much real-time and at regular interchange rates, and there is no advantage from using one currency or another.
My question concerns the maximum bid of $US100. In other currencies, the maximum bid is roughly equivalent to $US100, but is rounded. So instead of it being £51.445622 today, it is probably something like £50.00.
This figure seems to only get updated every month or so.
So, if the maximum £GBP bid of £50 equals $97.19, does someone bidding the maximum allowable in $USD ($US100) have an advantage over someone in bidding the maximum allowable in £GBP (£50.00/$97.19)? “

and Adwords Advisor replies

“I think I have spent somewhere in the neigborhood of 16,500 hours (I just did the math) working with AdWords and AdWords advertisers, and this is the first time I’ve ever heard this question. 🙂
I’m not saying that it’s not a good question. Just that it’s one that I have never thought about – nor have I had occasion to research it. And yes, this is a longish way of saying that I don’t know the answer. 😉
And, in a sense it’s a bit academic since one’s postion does not depend on Max bid alone – and all the factors are constantly in motion, rather than at a standstill. It’s worth remembering that the advertiser ‘A’ who is in position ‘X’ might actually be paying less than the advertiser ‘B’ below them – if advertiser ‘A’s quality is better.
I have had much less time to post on this forum recently, and have not made it a point to get an answer to this question due to that (bordering on severe) lack of time. That said, I will try to run down an answer – but, to set reasonable expectations, I can not speak to how soon that will happen. ;)”

Though the question is not too important its something different and worth while to hear

MSN adcenter exam like adwords professional or yahoo ambassador

MSN adcenter has a similar program like yahoo ambassador or Google advertising professional. Its the adexcellence exam. Please check out the link here www.adexcellence.com . All materials are free to read. Minimum requirement is to hold a MSN adcenter account for atleast 30 days before taking exam you can take exam as many times you like.

Yahoo recently closed their Ambassador program more news here . I hope MSN doesnt do it that way before they are upto it take your exams and qualify as a adcenter professional.

A good writeup on adwords quality score

Jeremy of PPC discussions has a very good write up on Frequently asked questions about Google adwords quality score.
Check out his postings here

Some of the questions answered:

Question 1 – How can I improve my quality score?
Question 2 – How many quality scores are there?
Question 3 – Will changing to a different keyword match type, for example from broad match to exact match, give me a better quality score?
Question 4 – I have been told (and read lots of places) that when I first start a new AdWords campaign I should bid really high so my ad is higher on the page. That will give me a higher click through rate and that means I will have a better quality score. Is that good advice?
Question 5 – Having Flash on your landing page is bad for your quality score right?
Question 6 – I get a lot of clicks from the Google Search Network. Does that help improve my quality score?
Question 7 – Does using dynamic keyword insertion help my quality score?
Question 8 – Does turning off the content network help improve my quality score? My CTR is always a lot lower on the content network so I assume turning it off will help my quality score improve.
Question 9 – How can I find out what my quality score is?
Question 10 – I am the only person bidding on a certain keyword but my minimum bid is higher than I think it should be. If I’m the only one bidding how come my minimum bid isn’t $0.01? My quality score is “OK”.
Question 11 – I just a made a lot of changes to my AdWords campaigns and to my landing pages to try and improve my quality score. How soon should I expect to see quality score changes in my account?
Question 12 – I just added a bunch of new keywords to my account and almost 1/2 of them received a poor quality score and minimum bid of $5.00 right away before I ever received a single impression. How the hell can Google say I have a poor quality score before my ad even gets a chance to run?
Question 13 – It seems like no matter what I do or try my quality score is always poor. Are there certain types of sites that just don’t work well with AdWords?
Question 14 – Is there a site or something I can sign up to find out in advance about quality score updates before they happen?

Head over to his blog to read detailed answers to about questions

How to track keywords triggering broadmatch

I have seen many people ask this question how to track keywords triggering broad match. Well there is no definite solution for this. Google doesn’t provide a way to see which keywords trigger broad match. But one thing is for sure broad match is mostly triggered if you set a high enough bid and don’t have any restrictions on the keyword. Restrictions like geo-targeting, low max bid will stop the keyword from being triggered by a broad match.
Also if the broad match option is disabled it will not show broad match. As Fast as i know there is no definite solution for find broad match keywords.