:: Media Viper ::

Google Affiliate Network

I just received an E-mail from DoubleClick Performics that they are now Google Affiliate Network.

This should really be interesting as many affiliate marketers will want to join Google now as another way to further earn revenues.

Here is the E-mail

We are pleased to introduce Google Affiliate Network . Effective Monday, June 30, 2008, DoubleClick Performics Affiliate will operate as Google Affiliate Network. The integration with Google’s brand is a reflection of efforts to quickly assimilate our business and teams, as well as reinforce Google’s commitment to the Affiliate channel. Together with our new colleagues at Google we are creating new opportunities for monetization, expansion and innovation in Affiliate Marketing.

Within the next couple of weeks you will see some exciting changes to the user interface reflecting the new brand. The platform will continue to be hosted at www.ConnectCommerce.com, but will eventually migrate to a google.com product url.

As noted in earlier communications, DoubleClick Performics’ Search operations are being spun off and sold to a third party. While many advertisers have relationships with both DoubleClick Performics’ Affiliate and Search, there have always been separate account teams and product-specific specialists servicing clients’ search and affiliate programs. These teams remain intact. While the formal separation will occur when the Search business is sold, the businesses are functionally separate today.

We are proud of what we achieved as Performics and this name change signals a new milestone. Google provides world-class resources and enables us to continue to attract the best talent to support our advertisers and publishers. Now as part of Google we have an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to advance our industry. We remain committed to ensuring you receive the quality service you have come to expect from us.

We appreciate your business and look forward to doing great

To say the least this definitely gives food for thought as to what can be accomplished once all the pieces are in place!

I would really like to see comments on this and what others think of the new Network!

Yahoo Becomes an Adsense Publisher For Two Weeks!

Good morning readers - One of the first to have the announcement MediaViper.com notes that Yahoo said Wednesday, that they will begin a test running Google ads alongside Yahoo.com’s organic search results.

The two-week trial run of Google’s AdSense for Search service will be limited to no more than 3% of Yahoo search queries, & will not include the company’s network of affiliate or premium publisher partners.

The move leads to speculation that Yahoo is trying to forge a stronger alliance with Google.com which Yahoo hopes will increase efforts to resist Microsoft’s hostile takeover attempt. The move was made following discussion the two companies held about Yahoo potentially outsourcing search ad sales to Google.

Yahoo basically becomes a publisher of Google Adsense yet unlike the rest of us Adsense publishers, likely to earn a majority of the revenue generated within any arrangement.

In announcing the ad test with Google Wednesday, Yahoo re-stated that thier board members are continuing to review their options to maximize stockholder value, including exploration of potential commercial business ventures.

Yahoo also went on to say “the testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense for Search program, or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result.” Yahoo also said it would not comment further on the nature or timing of any potential relationship.

Microsoft, just a week ago warned that it would lower its offer price if Yahoo didn’t come to an agreement on the proposed merger, within three weeks time, and immediately raised antitrust questions about Yahoo’s ad test with Google.

“Any agreement between Google & Yahoo would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google’s hands,” said Microsoft in a statement. “This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo.”

U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, voiced his thoughts on the Yahoo - Google venture, further vindicating Microsofts stance.

“We will be following closely the results of the short-term test alliance between Yahoo and Google,” he said in a statement. “Should there be moves to make this agreement permanent, we will examine it closely in the Antitrust Subcommittee to ensure that it does not harm competition.”

Yahoo’s board of directors has rejected Microsoft’s $31-a-share offer as “substantially undervaluing” the company, in its response Monday to Microsoft’s ultimatum. In exploring alternatives to a Microsoft acquisition, Yahoo has had discussions about a possible deal with companies including News Corp. and Time Warner Inc.

Two sources, paidContent and Silicon Alley Insider were reporting late week that Yahoo is in serious talks with Time Warner, which may see a Yahoo-AOL merger agreement which could be announced as soon as next week. A Yahoo-Google search partnership would only sweeten the deal, with Google already owning a 5% stake in AOL. Whether that deal will actually come together remains unclear.

Yahoo could possibly see its’ ad trial with Google, will push Microsoft to boost its offer price. Earlier on Wednesday, a large Yahoo investor criticized Microsoft for threatening to lower its bid.

1,000,000s of Businesses without Google PageRank!!!!

That’s right there are literally 1,000,000s of Businesses without Google PageRank!!!!

In New York City alone there are over 250,000 businesses without Google PageRank contributing nearly $4.5 billion in tax revenues to the city.. (2002 Stats)
Can you imagine how much money these businesses are earning without any Google PageRank?

If you can then you are much more intelligent than 99% of the so called business people running around online and who actually panic & fret over their business being alloted a stupid green ingot value to be assigned by who they believe is the savior to their business aspirations the almighty Google.com

Just because all the Forest Gumps in the world can’t find a better solution to building a business online or offline does not mean we all need to follow in their shoes.

I challenge you to go out into the village, town, or city where you live, and see how many businesses are alive and well without having a silly value assigned to them by a search engine.

Many of those businesses were in existence before PageRank and doing quite well without a silly green ingot value.

If your business is not doing well or your stomach twists and turns because your business suffered a green ingot devaluation, visit with a serious marketing company that can help you build a business online!

Microsoft wins Facebook

In a great win for Microsoft the software giant announced Wednesday that is investing $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook.com — The deal concludes that the social network is valued at a huge $15 billion. Beating out Google, Microsoft also won exclusive global rights to sell third-party banner ads on Facebook.

To put this in perspective for everyone, you know I have to toss in the reality, the Microsoft wins Facebook deal is reportedly expecting a profit of $30 million on revenue of $150 million. So the $15 billion valuation is based on earnings of just 10% of that amount.

A lot of people were thinking Google would win this one but Microsoft has an agreement to sell ads on Facebook in the U.S. since August of last year so it seemed they were in the pocket already. Another smart move by microsoft was to expand the agreement internationally because 60% of Facebook’s nearly 50 million registered users live outside the USA.

Microsoft believes that user base is on track to exceed 200 million and eventually 300 million members, said Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, during a conference call Wednesday.

On the call, Johnson downplayed what one analyst called the “faddishness” of Facebook. “Figured with [Facebook’s] monetization opportunities,” said Johnson, “you could very quickly get to the valuation” of $15 billion.

Analysts agreed that whatever Facebook’s prospects, social networking can no longer be considered a fad. “These are seasoned companies making well-thought-out investments,” said Gartner analyst Andrew Frank of the deal.

As you may know Microsoft owns a branded social networking offering, “Windows Live Spaces,” which has attracted an audience of 9.8 million, according to comScore.

Johnson said he was pleased with Microsoft’s ability to monetize Facebook’s network thus far, but that there are “many initiatives underway to drive that higher.”

Owen Van Natta, Facebook’s vice president of operations and chief revenue officer, did allude to Microsoft’s recent acquisition of aQuantive, saying the deal was “a deep strategic move for them.”

With this latest victory, Microsoft still faces an uphill battle against Google in the war for online ad dollars. In its fiscal year ending in June, Microsoft’s online ad revenue rose 21% to $1.84 billion. During the same period, Google’s ad revenue totaled $13.3 billion.

It seems this is also another shot at Myspace which was once the dominant social network but it seems first to market in the social networking space may not have been the best idea given the amount of negative press they were under initially.

So Google has told everyone they removed the supplemental results tag. Someone thinks that Matt Cutts gave away a secret to find supplemental results.

Matt Cutts stops by Sphinn to spin propaganda that he did not reveal anything about finding supplemental results.

From MattCutts A Sphinn

http://sphinn.com/story/5469

I haven’t checked on this myself. Personally, if someone find a search that returns supplemental results, that doesn’t bother me that much. It’s just that it didn’t really make sense to call out the supplemental label to end-users, and the label carried some connotations that no longer applied from the original supplemental index (e.g. that it was months or more out of date).

Now Matt did not reveal any magic trick and does not need to. The supplemental results did not disappear as Matt notes in the yammering above.

So reading this on Sphinn I decided to show everyone at Sphinn how to find if they have pages in the supplemental results.

This can be done by anyone even my youngest daughter has grasped the concept and she could careless.

For this lesson we need only a Google search box and 3 URLs any website can be found with.

I decided to see if Sphinn.com was a good candiate for an example site and it seems they are;

We take the websites URLs and enter them into the Google Search Box

Results 1 - 1 of 1 for http://www.sphinn.com

No supplemental results were found but the 1 of 1 for the absolute URL is the first indication there is something wrong.

Results 1 - 10 of about 144 for www.sphinn.com
Now this is better but in a way also telling since one would think Sphinn.com would have more than 144 pages to display. But what do I know?? I’m not in the SEO clique….not that I want to be… but it would be nice to know I could be….

Results 1 - 2 of 2 for http://sphinn.com

In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 2 already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.
What do we have here? but Sphinn.com sitting in the Supplemental Results……

So there is a lesson here…Do not believe most of what Google has to say especially if it comes from anyone other then the original owners and even then I doubt you can trust anything those two have to say in regards to their cash cow.

Until next time,

Peace!

Google Guruji??

Yes I know people are going to say I am insane and to be honest that’s fine. One of my partners gave me the title this past week.
Here is why it’s okay and why I may be the Google Guruji. Google has now agreed with me!!

Yes I know that sounds egotistical and big headed, but then when Google agrees with you it’s hard not to start to feel that way. Honest at least.
On Valentines Day 2005 (Eons ago in the search world) I wrote an article for seochat.com on why a couple of things involving links were likely to hurt webmasters and seos more than help.

Those things were reciprocal links and buying links.

Reciprocal Links Are Useless!!

Well it seems the search Giant today August 17, 2007 has decided to agree with me. They updated the items that fall under link schemes at this page.

Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
• Buying or selling links

Google’s Link Schemes Page

As you can see above two things I wrote of back then, are now added to the list of ban-able offenses in Googles method of operation.

Reciprocal linking and buying / selling links. Over the years it seems many of the other so called “SEOs” thought that I was completely wrong, off course, and dismissed me as being behind the times.

Indeed this issue is going to catch fire as the blogs and forums are filled with the news.

Reciprocal links banned

Google bans reciprocal linking

Reciprocal links will get you banned

Links schemes don’t work

SEORoundtable has a clue

Those clients & partners who have stood by me and my disdain for links and my love for long term results sit at the very top of their results months & years on end for a reason.

Now having Google prove me right makes everything worth all the BS I had to put up with in the ultra-competitive Search Engine Optimization field.

In closing I do have some concern as to why Google waited so long to drop the bomb???

Peace and Good luck!

Your Google Guruji

Google Local Business Referals

Want to get paid $10.00 for each business you register in your area and that you help list on Google Maps?

If you have an internet connection, a digital camera, and can gather some basic information you can earn $10.00 for each business in your area that you gather information for, take a couple of pictures and then send to Google Maps. Once the business is verified you get the $10.00

I don’t think you can beat that deal and if you live in a major city you could make some serious scratch.

You’ll need to visit local area businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell the business owners about Google Maps and Google AdWords programs.

Yes your sort of a Google sales rep, but youre not lol so don’t get all googly on me.

Take a few digital photos of the business that will appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information.

You have to enter the business’ info and pics to Google through your Local Business Referrals Center

The fee is split and includes $2 when a business referral is approved by Google; and $8 when an approved business verifies that the information you submitted is accurate.

You have to earn $25.00 or more per month to get paid.

You can read more here.

Google Business Referral Representative FAQ

Gmail Paper

Well the newest thing coming out from Google is Gmail Paper

Google in it’s effort to be green is using 98% soybean based paper to print your emails and send them to you free of charge.

All of the printing and postage to ship you your e-mail is offset by ads that are printed on the backside of the paper which is used to print your e-mail.

The really cool thing about this is no spam or pop ups!

More about Gmail Paper

Can You Really Spy For Cash?

I just picked up a copy of an eye-opening report called “The PPC Spytool Conspiracy” by a guy named Mark Roth.

I had never heard of Mark before… but this report is bound to get some people’s attention, because he claims to expose the truth behind the spying tools that have come out recently like Undercover Profits and Google Cash Detective.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much… but then I found out that Mark has quietly become a PPC Super Affiliate in just two years, even breaking the $1 million dollar mark in his first year online. I really started listening after seeing the certificate Google sent him when he got his 1 millionth lead with Google AdWords… that has to get your attention.

I sat down to read the thing through… and I was shocked at the content Mark is giving away for free in this jam-packed 30+ page report.

It seems that Mark just wants to set the record straight once and for all about spying tools… what they can do, what their limits are, and how they can cost you big time if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The report would have been great if he stopped there… but he dropped some of his secrets to attaining PPC Super Affiliate status that really blew me away. Here is a guy who’s not trying to come off as a guru, he’s just talking from experience about how he mastered the PPC game.

This report is worth so much more than most $47 ebooks out there, so I highly suggest downloading your copy while Mark is still crazy enough to reveal these secrets for free: Free Report

To your success!

PS- There is a lot of controversy surrounding spying tools, so I would seriously hurry to get your hands on this before Mark has to take it down: PPC Tool

Google print ads are next to hit the search marketing options for Google Advertisers via Google Adwords
.

I found a new tab in My Client Center today which at this point does nothing but it is there.

So it seems Advertisers will have the choice to run ads in newspapers and magazines and be able to track the metrics. That would be great for advertisers…maybe not so great for the newspapers & magazines.

Personally I like the idea of having greater choices in where to market for my clients and the ability to refine the target market whom we wish to places ads in front of when they are receptive to new ideas or seeking to learn via reading.