Top Four Common types of Affiliate program

ABC search buys social portal aftervote.com

ABCSearch is a subsidiary of Internext Media Corp. and a major player in online cost-per-click advertising. Aftervote recently voted No.1 on PC magazines The 100 best undiscovered websites of 2007″ is acquired by ABC search a major private help cost per click advertising company.

Google buys doubleclick for 3.24$ billion

Google has bought the famous internet advertising company for a whopping 3.24 billion dollars. That is very good deal for doubleclick. Cost was a bit more than what google was quoted buying doubleclick last year. Doubleclick will bring in a major impact when it comes to google’s revenue areas and its idea of expanding customer base

Live search webmaster center now out of beta

Webmaster center live search has been in beta for a long time, now after probably major testing done by them its out of beta version. I had been using webmaster center of live search for sometime and feel its better than google’s webmaster help center,

this is what MSN official live search blog reports

“This week we’re excited to announce that the Live Search Webmaster Center has moved out of its closed beta and we are now open for a public beta. In conjunction with this release we want to announce the creation of the Live Search Webmaster Center blog. In an effort to serve our webmaster community better we will be sharing information on how to improve your crawlablity and visibility.
We want the center and the blog to be a place for two way communication between Live Search and the webmaster community because we understand that SEO’s and webmasters need this kind of information and the tools we are building to keep their sites performing well.
In the coming weeks we’ll blog in detail about the improvements that we’ve made. Being a webmaster is what you do best. We want to provide a service that will help make you even better. Enjoy!”

Yahoo’s new ad testing feature – rocks,

Yahoo search marketing now provides an ad testing feature where we can test run our ads and prioratize based on which ads perform the best, Its a cool new feature since our clients have always complained ROI from yahoo ads are very bad,

Yahoo don’t have anywhere near the amount of traffic google has and it is very important we run a well organized campaign to get any returns from yahoo paid results. Since ads are judged by quality and click through rate it improves the ROI. Even lower cost ads can perform well based on the new quality index on yahoo search marketing.

Yahoo banning cigaratte ads

Yahoo search marketing has finally come up hard on certain things that are definitely not appropriate for youngsters and sensitive users. Yahoo has banned ads on cigarettes, cheating essays where people trick their colleges by buying essays online, firearms, ammunition ads etc.

This is a great move since I personally never wanted these ads to be displayed, Following is from yahoo’s official search engine marketing blog,

Cigarettes-Sure, James Dean looks cool smoking in that “Rebel Without A Cause” movie poster, but in our search listings we will not accept ads that sell, facilitate the sale, or promote the sale of cigarettes.
Essay-Writing Services-School is hard, writing papers is a drag, but going through life never learning a thing is even more painful. We no longer accept ads that promote academic paper-writing services and the sale of pre-written essays, theses and dissertations.
Fake IDs and Fake Diplomas-These days lots of things can be fake-nails, lips, other body parts. But we have to draw the line at fake IDs or credentials. For that reason, we will not accept ads that offer fake IDs, diplomas or educational transcripts.
Firearms, Ammunition and Fireworks-Go blow ’em up and shoot ’em up somewhere else, because we will not accept ads that offer or promote the sale of fireworks, firearms or integral parts for these weapons.

Fake IDs again is a major problem since children with fake ids enter adults only blogs and spoil learn things they are not supposed to do at their age,

Adwords editor – free ad editing tool,

Google is providing free tool to manage large and multiple campaign simultaneously. That way we can manage campaigns in the comfort of our home without logging into online adwords control panel every time.

This tool is simple to use yet pretty secure,

Following steps help to upload your changes,

You can post all changes in your account, or you can select specific campaigns to post. To post all changes in your account, follow these steps:
Click Post Changes in the tool bar.
You’ll see a summary of the changes that will be posted to AdWords.
Click Post to upload your changes, or click Cancel to cancel the post.
If you click Post, you’ll see a detailed summary, by campaign, of the progress of your post. (If desired, keep a record of your post by copying this report into a separate document.)
If you need to pause while your changes are posting, click Pause in the posting dialog. Then click Resume Post when you’re ready to begin.
Click Close when the post is complete. To post changes in select campaigns, follow these steps:
In the tree view, select the account name. If you only want to post one campaign, you can select the campaign name.
On the Campaigns tab, select the campaigns you want to post.
Click Post Selected Campaigns in the tool bar.
Select the radio button indicating you only want to post changes in your selected campaign.
Click Post to upload your changes, or click Cancel to cancel the post.
If you click Post, you’ll see a detailed summary, by campaign, of the progress of your post. (If desired, keep a record of your post by copying this report into a separate document.)
If you need to pause while your changes are posting, click Pause in the posting dialog. Then click Resume Post when you’re ready to begin.
Click Close when the post is complete.

www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/

Google PPC introduces Demographic bidding,

According to adwords blog,

What is demographic bidding? It’s a feature that helps you target your ads to users of a particular age group (such as ages 18-24), by gender, or to combinations of those groups. You can use demographic bidding whether you are using contextual or placement targeting and with both CPC and CPM bidding. You can refine your reach based on users’ gender and age on certain sites in the Google content network such as MySpace and Friendster, whose users provide that information about themselves. AdWords receives the data in anonymous and aggregate form from participating partner sites, which means that users can’t be personally identified. Here’s an example of how demographic bidding works: suppose you sell women’s basketball shoes and want your ad to be seen by 18-24 year-old females. You could raise your bids to increase the frequency with which those users see your ads. You can also restrict your ads from certain users if you think they’re not meeting your ROI goals. In the case of women’s basketball shoes, you might find that the male, 18-24 year-old demographic is receiving a significant number of impressions but not clicking-through or converting well, and decide to restrict that group.Overall, demographic bidding gives you more control over the demographic groups who see your ads. You can also use demographic reports, available in the AdWords Report Center, to get insight into how your ads perform for specific demographics. These metrics can help you decide how to adjust your bid modifiers and restricts to reach the audiences that give you the most clicks and the best ROI.Lastly, it’s helpful to know that demographic bidding and demographic site selection are two separate ways of targeting your ads. Demographic site selection, found in the AdWords Placement Tool, helps you find and target entire websites that, in general and based on comScore data, have the audience you’re trying to reach. On the other hand, demographic bidding lets you modify your bids or restrict your ads’ visibility based on the age and gender of the users viewing your ads on participating sites in the Google content network.

Looks like a cool new way of bidding through adwords we are planning to give it a try very soon, We feel this is a very good option since different audiences see ads in different ways. I am 26 when I search for a particular product and see google sponsored results I get a bit freaky when it doesn’t read properly to me,

Try the new google demographic bidding and post your comment here,

What is Pay per Click?

10 Tips for Choosing Bid Management Software

Don’t even think about building it yourself. I speak from experience here. Building bid management software requires a full-time team, ongoing maintenance, and a lot of trial and error. It will take you at least a year to build a basic version, and at least two to three engineers to maintain and iterate it after that. And it won’t be as good as the software currently available on the market.

Assess your expertise and what you really need. Assuming you listened to my first tip, you next step is to understand how you are going to use the software. First, let’s talk about your level of expertise. If you are an expert, you may want to let the bid management software run your tail terms (the 98% of keywords that make up 2% of your revenue) and focus on optimizing the head yourself. If you aren’t an expert, you probably need software that can manage everything for you, with a very simple interface, and possibly the option of full-service bid management combined with the software. Either way, you need to know exactly what you want before you start talking to software providers. Otherwise, you might end up paying for a Ferrari when all you really needed was a station wagon.

Understand implementation and de-implementation effort and impact. A lot of bid management software only works if you install a snippet of code on your Web site and if you allow the bid management company to change your URLs on the search engines. This can require significant effort by your internal tech team and changing your URLs in your search campaigns can result in a loss of keyword history (i.e., you will need to pay more to get the same position). Moreover, you need to understand what happens if you end your relationship with the company – will they change your URLs back, or are you stuck with their tracking for the rest of your life?

Always do a trial first. I’ve seen some really great PowerPoint presentations from bid management companies. It turns out its easier to make a good PowerPoint than it is to make a good bid management software. Never sign up for anything until you have taken it for a test drive for at least one month and if possible three or four months.

Set benchmarks for initial and ongoing success. Before you start any trial, understand the status quo of your campaigns. What’s your current revenue? Profit? Margin? Tell the bid management company your actual metrics and tell them what you expect them to hit for them to win your business. Make sure you factor in the cost of their services. For example, if a bid management company wants to charge you 5% of your spend, and you currently have a 10% margin on your spend, you should demand that they at least bring you 15% margin (and probably higher). By the way, most bid management companies will thank you for this – it gives them something tangible to shoot for!

Look for hidden fees. Does the contract include API costs, or do you have to pay these? Is there a charge for consulting and implementation? Is there a minimum monthly bill? Read your contract carefully and ask a lawyer for help if you are at all confused.

Ask for performance pricing. I know my co-panelist Kevin Lee is going to kill me for saying this, but don’t be afraid to ask your bid management company to put some skin in the game. If a company’s bid management software is a good as they say it is, offer them 50% of the incremental profit they make you to prove it! More realistically, perhaps ask them to take a slightly lower percentage of spend in return for a performance bonus if they achieve certain goals (see Kevin, I’m not as unreasonable as I first seem!)

Get a short contract. If possible, try to get a month-to-month contract (though this will be hard to do). If you can’t make this happen, a six month contract is usual very doable.

Be hesitant about handing over your head keywords. For the 50 to 100 keywords that drive most of your revenue, I usually recommend good old human management. Why? Well I believe that a good search analyst just gets an almost intuitive feel for how to grow top keywords, something that computers just can’t do. And managing your top keywords in-house can save you a lot on bid management fees, especially if less than 50 keywords make up 20-30% of your ad spend.

Keep testing new competitors. The bid management world is ever-changing. I see new and exciting bid management companies popping up regularly. Always keep a campaign or two available for the next great thing.