Vlad has a three question interview with Janet Meiners over at his My Affiliate Journey blog that is worth a read. Janet shares some tips that have helped her succeed as an affiliate.

One big thing I got out of the interview is that Janet, like many affiliate marketers, is a big fan of Jeremy Palmer and his QuitYourDayJob.com blog. Admittedly, I forgot about Jeremy’s blog, but after checking it out today I am pretty excited about rediscovering it.

Good work on the interview Vlad, I like the short interview format. And make sure you check out Janets blog as well.

You know how Google’s AdSense is considered one of the best contextual targeting platforms out there? You know how Google tells its AdWords advertisers that by using content match they will be able to tap into some of the most relevant content on the web?

Ummmmm, yeah. We found a case where a site owner is pulling the wool over Google’s eyes by doing some ninja moves on the backend of their site that result in AdWords advertisers wasting money on irrelevant clicks.

Want to see the example? Let’s check it out.

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Jeremy Schoemaker is my new hero. The guy is one of the few examples of on online marker who is willing to share the “secret sauce” or at least a part of the sauce recipe with others for no other reason than to give back to the affiliate community (and build the Shoemoney brand of course).

In a recent podcast, Jeremy is interviewed by John Reese about online marketing, AdSense, and AuctonAds. Both John and Jeremy give great insight into the world of successful affiliate marketers. The interview was supposed to last 30 minutes but ended up going over two hours…and after listening I could have stuck around for another two (hopefully a sequel is in the works).

I think John sums up the interview best when he says - “This interview delivers more value than most Internet Marketing ebooks being sold.”

Block off a couple hours and enjoy - if it doesn’t teach you anything you can directly use in your day to day work, it will at least spark so creative ideas about things you can do going forward. Right click here to save the podcast or left click to go to a site to stream it.

Other links:
John Reese’s blog post
Jeremy’s blog post

This month’s Business 2.0 magazine has a fantastic cover story this month called The Man Who Owns the Internet, which was written by Paul Sloan. No, it isn’t about Al Gore or even the Google boys, but about a guy named Kevin Ham. You see, Kevin Ham is a domainer - a person who makes money by buying, owning and selling domain names.

The article does a great job of explaining what the domaining business is all about, how Kevin built a $300 million business from domains and why the African country of Cameroon is playing a big role in his success these days.

If you have some time to kill, read this.

[Big hat tip to Business 2.0 magazine for providing its print stories online...seems like they are one of the magazines who get this "Web thing."]

Yesterday on the way home from work I listened to the Net Income podcast on Webmaster Radio and I was blown away. Jeremy Schoemaker, a.k.a Shoemoney, spoke with Tom Fuller who creates landing pages for affiliate marketers. While Tom’s insights were pretty interesting, Jeremy opened up during the show in a way that is seldom heard in conference sessions or podcasts.

If you’d like to hear some of the tactics that one of the best ringtone affiliates out there used to make thousand of dollars a day in profits, this is the podcast for you.

Go here to the Webmaster Radio site and click on the 5/15 podcast. You can thank me later.

Marketer, writer and Squidoo founder Seth Godin was interviewed by Chris Sherman over at Search Engine Land today, and it’s worth a read. Seth, whose knowledge and expertise transcend all facets of marketing, speaks primarily of the challenges we all face as search marketers and the direction to go if we are looking for long-term success.

Here is a sample from the interview on the topic of landing pages:

Q. Youve said that many search advertisers miss the boat by sending searchers to landing pages that try to get them to buy or convert immediately. Instead, savvy advertisers develop an “offer culture” where they experiment with landing pages and create a step-by-step process that encourages participation rather than a single event. While this sounds great, what about searchers who want to make an immediate purchase?

A. I think what I meant is that many advertisers make one of two common mistakes: a) they get lazy and send everyone to a generic page or worse, to a home page, instead of customizing an offer to match the ad itself, or b) they get impatient and try to turn that first click into a sale right now. While that works sometimes, we all know that real sales take time, and the beauty of permission is that you can educate and follow up later.

Interesting stuff…not sure if I totally agree about the click into sales part (at least in the lead generation world), but interesting none the less.

Read the full interview here.

This week I have been doing something I haven’t had to do in a while, pay-per-click reporting. You see, the infamous InsureMe Wonder Twins, Cassie and Brittany, are off at a conference, leaving a few of us in charge of the daily task of entering cost, click, impression, etc. numbers into our in-house reports. After two days of doing this I’ve made an observation - if your company isn’t named Google or Yahoo, your PPC reporting is likely going to be poorly designed and barely useable.

To be fair, there are a number of companies that have done a decent job with their reporting, but most companies have their quirks, and those quirks can be a little more than annoying when you have to deal with them on a daily basis. (Truthfully, I have no clue how the Wonder Twins do it…must be their Super Twin Power.)

Now to make this constructive and not just a rant, I’ve decided to give PPC companies a list of 7 demands suggestions that will help them build better reporting interfaces. Here goes nothing:

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I got my first look at the inclusion of Google’s new Universal Search results today when I typed in the term “health insurance.” As you’ll notice from the picture below (click it to enlarge), the web results have been pushed down one spot by the Google News results, giving the web search results only 9 spots on the front page of Google.

I’d be curious to know how the addition of news results into the search engine results page (SERP) is affecting the amount of traffic that is making it to the #1 web search result (now #2 on the SERP). I have a feeling the news result, especially since it has to do with a new movie, will bring down the number of clicks the #1 web result (now number two on the page). My guess is that this type of integration will serve to be more distracting than helpful at this point.

Your thoughts?

In the SEO world, misinformation is everywhere…and there are a lot of unscrupulous companies out there who are giving really bad SEO advice. With that in mind, I thought it appropriate to point you over to a post titled The Top 10 Worst SEO Tactics.

If you or your SEO company are doing anything on this list you are going to want to change your approach.

Happy weekend.

[UPDATE: Our faithful reader Magnus pointed out that this article is three years old, which is true, but I still think there is a lot that can be learned from it.]

First off - I’m back! Super huge thanks to April, Cassie, Brittany and Penny for contributing such great posts while I was out. It looks like they did a fantastic job keeping you all informed and engaged in the blog. My trip went well, Italy was awesome, and I popped the question to my lovely girlfriend Kristi on the trip. Luckily, she said yes (that would have been a big production to put on to get a “no”).

But enough about that, because we’ve got bigger things to talk about - namely Google’s new Universal Search.

It looks like Google has decided to throw another curve ball to search engine marketers by announcing a huge change in the way they display search results. Starting yesterday, Google started the process of integrating all of their search services (web, video, image, etc.), so that your search results could include elements of all the different search properties based on the search query. While the results of this integration are few and far between at this point, word is that the integration of “Universal Search” results showing up will increase over time, as Google continues to tweak and modify their algorithm.

To get up to date on Universal Search and what it means to Google and to you, check out these articles:

Andy Beal’s Report on Universal Search (a must read)
Search Engine Land’s Coverage
CNN’s Article on Universal Search

Ive always found consumer behavior fascinating. Figuring out what brings people to a Web site and makes them react in a particular way to what they see is such a study in psychology, dont you think?

Taking things one step further, knowing how consumers interact with your site can mean the difference between success and failure, depending on your goals. And though traffic analysis programs like Google Analytics offer some amazing stats, I recently ran across another free tool that claims to offer invaluable information on site activity that could really help in optimization and conversion.

Crazy Egg (yes, that really is its name!) tracks consumer activity on any page of your site, revealing:

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So we’ve all probably seen the Ask.com TV ads by now in which they talk about the “algorithm”. And people who work with the great search engine monsters know what an algorithm can do…but is it completely lost on everyone else who doesn’t work within the online world everyday?

I know the ads have great buzz behind them, but are people really remembering they’re intended to bring attention to Ask’s new and improved search engine, or is it more likely that they are going to “Google” the term to find out what it means? And then is it really worth Ask’s or IAC’s money to help out Google more–I think not!

Don’t get me wrong, I think the ads are really creative and I’m amused by them, but I am skeptical about Ask (ever since James did that little experiment that cost us over $400 for nothing…).

It could be possible that once they increase traffic through these TV and print ads it will be of a higher caliber but in an online world that changes so quickly, would we be willing to wait for Ask to get their act together? I really don’t know if it will be worth it, but it will be really entertaining to see how their whole advertising campaign pans out!

What do Blackle and a Jackel have in common?

Well, nothing really. A jackel is a nocturnal creature and Blackle is a website that basically is the black screen version of Google, but it supposedly saves energy. Soooo, how much energy would this actually save?

I decided to check out this Blackle and see if I was left out in the dark here….and apparently the black screen uses 59 watts instead of the usual 74 watts. If you would like to see the potential energy savings, check out Mark Ontkush’s blog… I’m all about saving energy and certainly agree with the belief that every little bit helps. In conjunction with it being so fashionable (black is always slimming), it can prove to be a little easier on the eyeballs, and for those of us who stare at a monitor for hours and hours, it could kill two jackels with one…um…well, I’m for leaving the animals alone and alive, and in tact.

So, check out Blackle and see if it’s the screen for you. Plus, you don’t need ackle to use Blackle!

Well it’s Friday! As I was enjoying my Friday afternoon I was reading a blog on Search Engine Land today about how the court has ruled it is okay to ‘google’ your employees. Interesting…

So naturally my train of thought went to, ‘Gee if my employer ‘googled’ me what would they find?’ Well if you type in ‘cassie carson’ into Google you will find beauty contestants, InsureMe blogs, and past jobs that I had at the University of Iowa (Go Hawks!) All the information can be picked through and you can come up with my graduation date, school address, and that there are a lot of dogs named Cassie, Cassandra, and Carson. Neat…

However, it fascinated me that employers would be willing to trust what comes up as results. Out of the top ten results only 2 of them are actually me. I guess what I’m suggesting is to make sure to ‘google’ yourself before going into a job interview. There may be a story on there that you need to defend yourself for, or just let them know it’s not you! Just some food for thought…

Happy Friday - Enjoy the Weekend!

Paid search is often hit or miss. Even for those of us who do it every day, it remains challenging and changing,
keeping us working to minimize loss and maximize ROI.

But we do learn best practices that help us along the way. On that note, I ran across this recent post today on the PPC Lab blog that I found up-front, true and helpful. Its about the most common mistakes made in paid search—a topic on which I think most of us can use refreshing.

If youre experimenting with new paid search accounts, I highly recommend you give this a quick read!

So how many possible markets could there be in the world….hundreds, thousands, even millions? And how many combinations of people make up these markets? It’s unquantifiable…

And as affiliate marketers you are supposed to figure out the exact market that you want to target and figure out what type of people make up the majority of that market. Now what I ask you is– what about those minor parts of your target market?

Are you paying any attention to them? In PPC campaigns, are your gearing your ads towards the majority or the minority? Do you even know who the minority is? Does it really matter?

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Who wouldn’t want to be in Sultry Miami? Oh, wait, this is July 8-10, their hottest, most humid time of the year…but who cares, because we will be inside with air conditioning and connecting with fellow affiliates.

Not to piggy-back (oh, but I am) on Cassie’s posting yesterday…however, I have to agree that this is truly a good time to be with fellow inhabitants in the same realm of work. I still can’t really explain what the affiliate world is all about to others. So, it’s really nice to be able to connect with those who “get it”…..any of you going? If so, I’d want to meet up with ya. I definitely like putting a face with the name, along with seeing some cohorts that I actually had the pleasure of meeting and spending some time with previously.

Some of the things I have learned from prior Summits:

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In a couple of weeks I will be heading east…going to the PPC Summit in Chicago. This will be my first pay per click presentation in this crazy paid-search marketing world. So I am throwing this out to you affiliate marketers - Have any of you gone before, and am I going to learn fun, new facts that I don’t already know?

I am a bit intrigued about going to a huge conference where there will be hundreds of search marketers speaking my language. I have the most difficult time trying to explain to someone exactly what it is I do.

Also, who doesn’t get excited when you have a really good day in the PPC realm only to be disappointed when you have no fellow person to tell about it? This will be a time for me to soak up information, meet new people, and talk about CTR, conversions and content bids without feeling like I’m making up my own language.

Here’s where I throw out a shameless invitation to anyone who will be going to the Chicago PPC Summit. Brittany (fellow wonder twin) and I will be there with all of our bells and whistles on so if you’re attending, let me know!

Now thats a mouthfull! But seriously folks, most people arent natural-born authors, nor are they pros when it comes to writing smart copy. (I know, I know, easy for me to say, right? But its true, it really is true!) So if you find yourself struggling to convey ideas on paper and actually make sense of them, theres good news: Web writing is nothing like writing for print. In fact, Id say literally anyone can do it (yes, you too!)—whether or not you ever plan on writing a novel.

So whats different about Web writing? Well, its much less formal than hardcopy writing. Its actually more like carrying on a one-sided conversation with yourself than presenting a formal argument like you had to do on those college papers (OK, so talking to yourself may be a little weird but its definitely not wrong!).

Web copy is often shorter too, with grabbing headlines much more comparable to traditional advertising than well-composed prose. After all, with an average of, what is it?, something like 5 seconds to grab the readers attention before he loses interest, those headlines definitely have hard work to do (howd you like my play on words?)

Today I want to encourage all you left-brain-dominant people out there to stop being so hard on yourselves about the fact that you cant write right (or should that be right write? Just kidding!) I want to pass on some thoughts I read recently on MarketingProfs.com that I hope will help you relax about your Web writing skills. To borrow a phrase, just call it “Deep Thoughts by Penny Hagerman” (sorry, that really was cheesy!)

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Don’t you just love how Google content network allows you to exclude sites, but never actually tells you where all that traffic is coming from? How about a fun new tool to cure that?

One of our top insurance partners told us about a great new tool - PPSeer.com. Some of you may already know about PPSeer, but maybe a few of you don’t–that’s my hope

So at this point you may be asking yourself what is PPSeer.com. Well, it’s a tool for tracking which websites in content networks are sending you traffic and how their conversions measure up.

“You mean I can tell where my content network clicks are coming from and whether or not they have converted? Fun, right? PPSeer offers a 14 day free trial - and we have taken them up on it.

5 days into it this is what I have to say…

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As I was dropping my cat off at the vet today to be put under anesthetic and have her teeth cleaned, I have to say I was nervous. Do I trust this vet? Do I trust these people will handle my little one with the care I would personally use?

Do I trust my own doctor? Luckily I can say yes, but, what about the people who change my oil in my car? Do I rightfully trust the people on the road to stop at lights when I cross? Who can I really trust?

We, as a people in America, seem to have interesting arenas for placing trust. We don’t measure high on the trustability factor with our government, but we do trust major airline pilots that work 4-5 days without sleep to fly us from one place to another, or surgeons who also have the same sleep habits to perform excellent with a hysterectomy or a triple bypass. Am I just paranoid?

What compels people to be motivated enough to take action on the internet?

Wikipedia describes trust like this: Trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises. Trust is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party.

This description would then make it difficult to actually create trust online…however,

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Well I don’t really love Yahoo as much as Molly and Gracie, but I’ve been thinking lately that I’ve only been in this whole online marketing realm for 6 months, give or take, and I’ve found Yahoo (well at least the new version) tons easier to understand than Google…in terms of algorithms, how to get placed where we want to be placed, etc., etc…

But sometimes I feel like it’s too good to be true…like one morning I’m going to come into work and BOOM Yahoo will have exploded our account and we will be in the red!

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