King of all things Google search, Matt Cutts, has posted a list of questions that his readers have asked him recently. The questions range from the interesting to the frivolous.

Two of the more important questions in my mind are:

Q: “Is Bigdaddy fully deployed?”

A: Yes, I believe every data center now has the Bigdaddy upgrade in software infrastructure, as of this weekend.

And

Q: “Now that Bigdaddy is out, will there be a new export of PageRank anytime soon?” and “Will the deployment of BigDaddy stabilise the rolling PR issues we are experiencing at present?”

A: Ill ask around about that. If there arent any logistical obstacles, Ill ask if we could make a new set of PageRanks visible within the next couple weeks. Id expect that as Bigdaddy stabilizes everywhere, the variation in toolbar PR for individual urls is more like to settle down too.

Make sure you take a minute to read through all of the questions.

There is a new keyword trademark infringement case to keep an eye on; this one is Edina Realty vs. TheMLSonline.com.

This case could be the one to set more specific rules when it comes to trademark infringement through keyword bidding.

See the full News.com story here or check out a fantastic analysis from Eric Goldman, assistant professor of law at Marquette University Law School here.

We have been given some invites to the MSN AdCenter program and we wanted to offer them up here for anyone who is interested.

If you are an affiliate and are doing PPC, you should get an AdCenter account. While the interface leaves much to be desired, it seems like the amount of traffic coming through the system is on its way up, and the prices are very reasonable.

We are running this offer on a first-come, first-served basis. We do have a good amount of invites but the number is still limited. We do need to submit the invites in groups of 10, so once we have 10 people lined up, the invites will go out.

Please email me if you are interested in getting an invite or if you have any questions. My email address is jomdahl@insureme.com.

(File this tool under kinda cool but not likely to be useful.)

May I present to you the Yahoo vs. Google Web search tool.

Basically the tool looks at the results from Yahoo and Google, finds the similarities and then gives you a graphical display of what results are in both search engines.

Here is a screenshot:

The big takeaway from this for me is that there are some queries that are pretty close on the two engines and some that are totally different. This illustrates that optimizing your site for both engines is not a very easy thing to do, but not impossible.

Enjoy!

Its Friday, and with a bit of digging I have yet to find anything new that really has gotten me excited enough to post about.

That is good news for you because I cant stand missing a post. So instead, enjoy this picture of InsureMes staff accountant Eric and me.

Have a great weekend!

What does Yahoo! put on its toast? Jam?

There is some forum discussion taking place that calls out some pay-per-click (PPC) tactics being used by Yahoo!. In the simplest definition, “jamming” is positioning your click-bid to force the advertiser ahead of you to pay the most possible amount for clicks.

Does it happen? Yeah. Is it an efficient practice? Not if you consider the time required to monitor this tactic in order to ensure your fellow advertisers do not counter-atack by lowering their own bid just below yours. That does not leave much opportunity to grow campaigns and research new methods. There are other ethical questions that I will leave for you to ask yourself….

An interesting point was presented by “rustybrick” at Search Engine Roundtable: “Yahoo! Finance is a completely separate division from Yahoo! Search Marketing. Yahoo! Finance, as well as Yahoo! Real Estate and so on, are all huge online advertisers. I am 99% sure they run on separate budgets and have very little to do with each other, outside of being under the same company name. Keep in mind, Yahoo! Search Marketing was once Overture, it was then bought by Yahoo!“.

One thing I have learned as an affiliate manager here at InsureMe is that there are just as many interesting stories as there are affiliates out there. We have affiliates who used to sell insurance, play music professionally, and even owned mini golf courses.

Peoples stories fascinate me, and I think many of our readers would be fascinated to hear these stories too. So I would like to find out more about you. I want to hear about your background, how you do your business, and what you enjoy about being an affiliate.

I will start conducting email interviews with people in the affiliate/search marketing business and post them here at the affiliate blog. This is just an experiment for now but, if it goes well, well make it a regular “thing.”

Here is how it will work:

1. Send me an email letting me know you would like to be interviewed.

We will talk and find out a bit more about you and make sure you are legit :).

I will send you an email with a list of interview questions.

You answer the questions.

We will do any necessary editing and follow-up questions.

Once we have both agreed on the content, I will publish the interview on this site.

You dont need to be an InsureMe affiliate to be interviewed, just someone in the search marketing business. ( I cannot guarantee that everyone who applies for an interview will get their interview published…sorry about that!)

Oh yeah, and as a little incentive, we might be able to plug and link to your Web site from this blog, if it is appropriate. (Thats right, a free link!)

So, if you are interested, send me an email and lets get this “thing” going!

As an update to James post back on Feb 15th, MSN is involved in a “search for charity” campaign in the UK.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) “will receive a donation every time users carry out an MSN search via www.clickscount.co.uk.” Apparently, MSN plans to add more charities in the near future.

There are no details on how much will be donated or what constitutes as a search. Will UKers switch over to MSN en masse? Would you? How will this improve the search engines relevancy?

Now that Google is public, they have to be a little more forthcoming when it comes to their company information. A great example of this is the 10-K filing by Google that just came out.

I am sad to report that they have not published the secrets to getting top rankings on Google; but they do give some interesting info on the following topics:

• Google products
• AdWords and AdSense
• Pagerank
• Search result ranking
• Possible threats to their business

I have yet to take the time to read the 103-page filing, and I doubt I will. But if you have trouble falling asleep or just are really into SEC filings, this might be a good read.

If you are more like me, Jim Hedger writes a good summary of the filing over at Search Engine Guide - it will give you the general idea and save you from the embarrassment from being found asleep and drooling in your chair.

Whenever I speak with new affiliates about marketing through pay-per-click (PPC), I always try to mention that the click-through-rate (CTR) of their advertisements will make or break them on Google. And with the change-over to a CTR-based model coming for Yahoo! Search Marketing (Y!SM) in Q3, I figured it was a good time for a few tips for raising your CTR.

This post will focus on tips for Google, but I am sure the suggestions here will translate over to Y!SM in Q3.

So, how can you make sure you are getting the best CTR possible?

Read the rest of this entry »

A company called Kinderstart has decided to sue Google because their Web site dropped in Googles natural rankings.

Thats right, they are trying to stick it to the Google man for losing their Web site ranking.

I mean, we have all been there (OK, some of us have been there): your Web site is ranking well for a great keyword on Google, and then one day you lose your ranking. You are mad, and you dont think it is fair. You blame Google and its “evilness.”

So it is good that Kinderstart is taking on the man. “Way to go Kinderstart!” you say.

But dont get too excited; it looks like Kinderstart.com, while marked as a search engine focused on children zero to seven, has a bit of a dark side—and most likely an ulterior motive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rand Fishkin has uncovered what he is calling the “Holy Grail” of search operators on MSN. Why is he so excited?

Well, per his example, you can type in:

(linkdomain:kennedyfunding.com linkdomain:hardmoneyfunding.com) (-linkdomain:avatarfinancial.com)

and you will get a list of sites that link to both kennedyfunding.com and hardmoneyfunding.com, but not avatarfinancial.com.

Why does this matter? When you do a search like this, you can find Web sites that could be potential linking partners. It also gives you the ability to see what links might be propelling competitors sites higher than yours.

Rand has also found that this type of search operator is effective on Yahoo! Search as well - which is great, since many people feel that Yahoo! shows the best results for backlinks.

Of course, if you are too lazy to type in the search operator, you can also use Hub Finder, which does a similar type of search on Yahoo! and/or Google.

Happy link hunting!

“Dont call it a comeback, Ive been here for years….”

There is a report out highlighting the comeback attempt of the Netscape browser.

The Time Warner Netscape will morph into a “social networking Web site, in which news stories and other items can be freely traded.” No particlar Web site name was mentioned.

Valleywag is cited as a source in the report. The Valleywag site is a pretty cool place to frequent for “tech gossip”.

What affiliate marketing possibilities will this create? Time Warner will be getting a one billion dollar investment for Googles stake in AOL.

So the name of the article is “Facelift For Yahoos Home Page”. The word “facelift” is what jumped out at me.

What does a “facelift” mean? Are we trying to re-focus something that was already beautiful? Or are we putting fix-a-flat in a busted tire?

“The latest design changes help promote some of the shopping features for Yahoo, as well as make some of Yahoos personalization features more prominent“

The promotion of shopping features should not come as a surprise when the billion-dollar-plus stream of online shopping is flowing as the indicators predict.

Will this add to the user experience? Will this grow the “shopping community” it desires?

I firmly believe that the NCAA mens basketball tournament, March Madness, is one of the greatest sporting events of the year: 65 teams; win and move on; lose and go home. This year will offer something extra special: free streaming internet broadcast.

CBS paid $6B for the tournament rights back in 1998. What kind of revenue stream is created by allowing viewers to watch the games for free on the internet? Advertising!

CBS knows that the NCCA tournament has a built-in audience. This audience will watch…this audience will go mad during March trying to watch as many games as possible. Advertisers will pay to be there as well.

How big of a deal is this? According to Larry Page, president of CBS digital media operations, “weve built enough capacity to exceed any other planned event in the history of the Web.” For the sake of “research”, Ill visit the game stream on Thursday; however, Im off to watch the real thing on Friday. The Internet: pretty cool.

I think anyone who is in the search marketing business has a love/hate relationship with Google. Today, for reasons I will not elaborate on, I am hating the big GOOG. But enough about my personal problems…

Search engine guru Danny Sullivan has put out a list of 25 things he loves about Google and 25 things he hates about Google. Both are worth a look - because when Danny talks, (sometimes) Google listens.

Thanks to Threadwatch.org for the link.

Did you know that every time you performed a search on Google, they make $0.12? Now multiply that by 2.7 billion for the searches Google performed in January 2006. Yeah, I know…I couldnt think of anything funny to say either. The screen on my calculator cracked. This info comes via a BBC report that outlines the search engine battlefield.

As many may already know, the search engines make the majority of their coin from sponsored advertising. So what are the search engines doing to protect their revenue stream?

They are always on the look-out for the returning salmon. What do you mean, Jack? Well, they are purchasing companies that have a built-in, batteries-included audience: Flickr, Del.icio.us, MySpace.

Check out the article and let me know what you think. I really enjoyed the knowledge, and I hope you get something out of it as well.

Search Engine Watch has an interesting article on PPC “drafting” and “hijacking” that is worth checking out. See the article here.

For those who want the Readers Digest version - here are the definitions:

Drafting - where an advertiser conducts a search marketing campaign and a competitor takes advantage of the traffic by bidding on related terms

Hijacking - when a competitor outranks an advertisers campaign by outbidding them

But seriously, the full article is like 13 short paragraphs long, so read it already!

It appears that Google is attacking one of the key features of MSN AdCenter - demographic targeting of ads. On the 8th, Google rolled out their new demographic targeting feature.

Googles demographic targeting engine allows even more control over your demographic ad placement than AdCenter. In addition to age and gender (like AdCenter), Google offers demographic filters for annual income, ethnicity, and children. Search Engine Watch has a great breakdown of the demographics available in the new system.

While on the surface this sounds like great a new feature, there is one fundamental problem: the feature only works on site-targeted campaigns that are served through AdSense. This means that the demographic feature is currently useless for advertisers who do not use content match or site targeting.

Another problem is the process of ad placement. All demographic information for Google demographic targeting is pulled from comScore networks. The ads are targeted to Web sites that fit advertisers selected demographics from comScore, not targeted to the profile of an individual user. This basically means that, while on average you might be able to target the right market, there is no guarantee that you are really hitting the demographic you want.

Hopefully, Google will continue to refine this logic and start to target by individual demographics. I can see this becoming a very useful tool for affiliates and companies who are looking to increase profitability by filtering out unprofitable consumers.

For more on demographic targeting, visit Googles explanation of the program.

One of the big questions today: how and where do I get a piece of the Google $90 million

• “Is anyone eligible to claim part of the $90M?“

According to the official Google blog, the “agreement covers all advertisers who claim to have been charged but not reimbursed for invalid clicks dating from 2002 when we launched our “cost per click” advertising program through the date the settlement is approved by the judge.”

• “What does one need to do to prove and collect for click fraud?“

The current process will remain in effect for reporting suspected click fraud. You will need to contact the click quality team and submit your case.

The reimbursement will be in the form of a credit that will be applied to your current campaign(s). However, the total amount of all credits & expenses from this settlement (i.e. lawyer fees) will not exceed $90 million.

Ill keep our scouts out on the streets on overtime to turn in any updates! If you need any info, just ask

Microsoft has announced a new search interface called Windows Live at www.live.com. The interface will go through a period of testing and then be swapped out with the current MSN Search interface. Some of the notable features of Windows Live are:

• a search slide bar that allows you to increase or decrease the amount of information that is displayed in the results (from titles and URLs only to longer text descriptions.
• a “smart scroll” that allows users to search through hundreds of results without having to go to new pages
• the ability to save search parameters as a macro so you can go back and conduct the same searches again or share search parameters with people of similar interests
• support for tabbed web browsing

The features are really pretty cool, however there is still one problem…

Read the rest of this entry »

In some breaking Yahoo! News (interesting how fast this was flown to the top of the flagpole), Google will settle a “click fraud” case and pay advertisers a $90 million settlement.

The news arrived late Wednesday amidst the lawsuit that alleged Google attempts “to conceal the magnitude of click fraud to avoid making refunds.”

“Mischief makers and scam artists repeatedly click on specific advertising links even though they have no intentions of buying anything. The motives for the malicious activity known as click fraud vary widely, but the net effect is the same: advertisers end up paying for fruitless Web traffic.”

Yahoo! is also a party to the lawsuit, and stated they will fight the accusations.

Click fraud…that uncle of the Internet world who always creates a commotion at family reunions….

What are some thoughts out there on the scope of this issue? Is it an unavoidable risk of our world, or is it something bigger?

Did-it.com, home of the frog blog, has released a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Conversion Index.

Did-it.coms VP of Technology, Craig Wood, stated, “Some are abandoning search and that concerns us…. I would love for a takeaway from the index to be, Heres a way to rethink my campaign.”

The current data encompasses several months of data, and Google has steadily remained as the champion converter (sounds like something i would buy at an auto parts store) throughout the testing. MSN has been a recent conversion climber as well since December.

Read the entire article here.

Who is gonna step up and challenge the crown of Google? Does your own reporting validate this info?

A French professor and his students had a task to perform…which search engine is most accurate? Well, the results are in—and Google & Yahoo! tie.

Among the results:

• even though Google and Yahoo! tied for first place in user satisfaction, all search engines tested received less than 50% user satisfaction rate.

What do our SEO peeps think? Agree?

I have two confessions:

• I am really into blogging.
• I often forget that most everyone else on the planet is not

So, I thought (actually my boss suggested) that I take a second to talk about RSS feeds and how to use them.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you have not run across this video yet, take the 48 minutes to watch it.

The video is Seth Godin, author of numerous marketing books (and marketing guru IMHO), speaking to Google at the Plex last week.

Seth explains his belief that Googles success is because of marketing, not technology. He also talks about the challenges Google faces as it continues to grow. Seth goes over many of the key concepts from his books “The Purple Cow” and “All Marketers are Liars.”

There is a lot of buzz about this video on the Web, and it is a great way to spend an hour.

Enjoy!

The Times Online reports that Googles top executives did a great job calming investors fears last night. This comes after a stock sell-off sparked by CFO George Reyes comments about slowing growth rates (from 100% to 60% a year).

How did they do it? Simple: they announced their plan to become a player in all forms of media within the next few years.

That means there will be Google radio ads, TV ads, print ads, etc. Basically, Google is getting into the traditional media business and wants to be a $100 billion a year company.

The implications are huge for the advertising industry, which is already seeing online marketing eating away at traditional media budgets. Now, with Googles sights set on their market, what do you think traditional ad agencies are going to do to survive?

You know what is fun? Typing in a million variations of the same word, over and over again, just so you can have a giant keyword list for Google AdWords. So much fun.

Actually, not fun at all.

And that is why someone, we will call him Olaf, created an awesome tool called the Keyword Generator for Google AdWords (and Overture) TM (a very creative name.)

Basically, the way the tool works is this: you enter multiple keywords into up to 5 text boxes. Then the tool will put together multiple variations of the keywords based on the different words.

For example:

Read the rest of this entry »

The yellow brick road of Internet is winding up to Capitol Hill. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden (D) is introducing the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006.

What are the bullet points?

• “The bill is meant to ease growing fears that open Internet access may be blocked or compromised by the Bell phone carriers and cable operators”
• “Prevent network operators from giving preferential treatment to affiliated companies”
• “Phone and cable companies largely agree that they should have the right to offer Internet companies the option of paying for faster delivery of their content”

Read more detail on the proposed legislation and what it hopes to accomplish here.

What lies off the side of the path? Lions & tigers & big business, oh my?!

I found some interesting info in this report that “top 10s” the news and info sites. Personally, I have Yahoo News! set as my IE browser home simply because I like to scan the top news headlines during the day, and they give me what I want.

I was surprised to see Wikipedia in the top 10, since it has an open editing function and, as a result, may not have the most reliable or accurate info. However, I personally use Wikipedia on my down time for music-related searches. Music fans are fairly dedicated to ensuring their favorite bands/music have accurate and current info.

What should have made the list? Let us know and spread the knowledge!

Jenstar at Search Engine Watch posts that for a three hour window on Monday, March 6th, MSN AdCenter will have an open signup for all advertisers who want to get on board.

We have seen pretty good results from AdCenter and the traffic, as Jack reported, is cranking up as we speak.

So get on board the AdCenter train - you will love the traffic and hate the interface.

But that is another blog post