Adwords are ordinary English words that have become special triggers to allow a website to appear when they are entered into a search engine, such as Google. Understandably, the use of such a powerful word is sought after strenuously.

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Over the last two years I’ve built two profitable niche websites and it wasn’t quick or easy. I can attest to the experience of other successful niche marketers who report it takes about two years to achieve a 4 figure monthly income.Along the way your patience is put to the test by daily income reports that never seem to budge and you start to wonder if it’s all just a big waste of time. If you’re a first time entrepreneur, waiting for your hard work to achieve critical …

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Anyone with an Internet access system can sit at home and run business of his/her own. However, having said so making money online is not an easy task as a lot of people make it sound! There are some important aspects one needs to be appraised in order to really make it happen.

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The FCC isn’t standing in the way of the local utility company rolling out broadband service over powerlines; state governments and the lobbying by competitors have obstructed this.

Powerline Broadband Hits 400Mbps

Ham radio operators have opposed broadband over powerlines (BPL) for a few years, as they cite interference from BPL with their hobby. Compared to the deep-pocketed cable and telecom industries, the hams are a small ripple in a multi-billion dollar pond.

Rather than celebrating the advances made in BPL, most recently demonstrated by the firm DS2, those who could benefit from the service will have to watch from the sidelines as the impact of lobbying against state governments has frozen deployment of the service.

An Ars Technica story on DS2’s latest demonstration of its BPL chipset that BPL can hit speeds of 400Mbps. Once other factors have been applied, their chipset can support hardware delivering 200Mbps, double that of 100-BaseT.

This useful commodity could be delivering true broadband service not only to underserved rural markets, but urban areas where rewiring a skyscraper for fiber would be a monumental expense. Big buildings and bucolic farmhouses have something in common: existing electrical wiring.

Since this would be a municipal operation, prices would be far less for service than existing competitors who won’t close the last mile to customers to provide service in the first place. That has the telecom industry lobbying against municipal BPL in several states, successfully in many cases.

It’s not just the telecoms who have reason to fear BPL finally fulfilling years of promise. Cable television can be delivered to a peering point and pushed over BPL; it’s just ones and zeroes like other data, but again, at a potentially much lower price than the local cable monopoly charges.

Interference with FCC-approved ham radios has been the major point of contention. The well-intentioned delays caused by the hams have allowed cable and telcos time to head off promising BPL initiatives long before they can be considered.

People shouldn’t put up with broadband service that underperforms alternatives, especially when considering just how much they pay for it. BPL needs a solid standard, which the IEEE has started to explore; that standard needs to consider how to protect ham radio frequencies.

Compared to the political problems and the money the entrenched interests can throw at politicians, we hope such a standard emerges quickly.

Broadband, Powerline, DS2

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The home business trend has been growing at a rapid pace these past few years. A home typing service is a terrific idea to get into. For the most part, it wont make you a millionaire but you can expect a few hundred dollars per month. Most people definitely could use that. However, if you are fast and good at typing, you have the potential to find plenty of business coming your way from referrals and recommendations and your monthly income could skyrocket, making it a great home business idea.

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Are you making the most of your squeeze pages? Does your headline draw people’s attention? Are your bullet points killer, just loaded with incredible benefits? And what about your opt-in box? Did you think a while before adding it to your page, or… did you just settle for what the autoresponder service gave you? Bad idea!First consider that you need to ask for only the information you need–name and email address, first name only, even. The Internet marketing world is f…

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These days, it’s hard not to find someone who owns a home based business. Many people the world over have started their own home business because they like the flexibility and freedom it brings…

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Lots of stories have swirled over the question of will they or won’t they bid in the FCC’s 700MHz wireless spectrum auction, but Google now looks like a lock to pony up some cash.

Google Ready To Bid For Wireless, Maybe

If Google bids for the 700MHz spectrum, they could do so with someone else putting up cash alongside the substantial pile of currency the search ad company has accumulated.

The Wall Street Journal summarized several steps Google has taken with regards to becoming a mobile business player. They left out a couple, namely Google’s acquisitions of Grand Central and portable graphics engine maker Skia earlier this year.

When Google does take that big step by grabbing some of the valuable 700MHz spectrum, they are as likely to do so with another deep-pocketed bidder alongside them as they are to go solo to the auction. That’s speculation by the Journal, citing the usual ‘people familiar with the matter’, but it makes sense for Google to arrive with a partner.

Serving the public with a GoogleNet wireless network should benefit the mobile-using public with less expensive service and broader availability. But serving the public involves customer service, and no one will ever confuse Eric Schmidt with Bruce Nordstrom in that discussion, as Google prefers to shunt its users to newsgroups rather than take questions by email, much less by phone, about its non-revenue generating products.

If Google chose to do so, it could provide world-class customer service. Financially it makes more sense for them to foist that dirty work onto someone else, which makes a partner scenario more likely once the bidding begins.

Google, Wireless, Spectrum, FCC

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What does nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars of market capitalization buy these days? How about not even a percentage of all the world’s information. I knew the dollar was having problems against other currencies, but this is ridiculous. (Yes I know market cap isn’t the same as liquid funds, I’m trying to make […]

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The New York Daily News is the fifth largest paper in the US, and will join both Yahoo’s general consortium and the HotJobs group. Classified Intelligence just dropped this hot little tidbit into the inbox. The Daily News recently passed Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post for top circulation in the metropolitan area, which both Yahoo […]

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Rumors are now running amok that the 2nd most powerful website on the entire Worldwide-Web may file BANKRUPTCY, with the deadline set for this December; being the date of both discharge and dissolution in a Federal Court of Law.

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Many are teased by the success story of world internet marketer. It seems to them that this business could change their life in one night. No wonder, as many of these successful internet marketer are interviewed by magazines and newspaper almost each month, and they usually show their income which could reach thousands of dollar in a month.

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Richard Ball hasn’t been happy with Google for several months. Now he claims they are charging advertisers for paid search clicks, but without a search taking place first to generate the ads that get clicked.We’ve asked Google to comment on the situation Ball described on his blog post, but have yet to receive a response. […]

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It is time to jump start your traditional business by setting up a website to bring the new internet set of customers to your store. Purchasing a website is only the beginning. There are many thousands already.

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People around the world are starting to talk about setting up multiple streams of income. The concept ‘multiple streams of income’ is in vogue, because job security is at an all-time low, and with rising consumer costs, people need another income stream to support their main income…

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Although many shoppers will have less to spend during this holiday season, some of that money will find its way to online retailers.

Budget Crunches Nudge Shoppers Online

More than a quarter of holiday shoppers surveyed by Zogby for AOL Shopping plan to part with at least half of their shopping dollars online this year.

26 percent of survey respondents planned to spend this way. Out of the overall survey, 74 percent will spend some of their budgets with online retailers.

Books, movies, and music will be the gift of choice for 57 percent of shoppers. Apparel items and gift cards followed those entertainment options as the top three holiday purchases online.

Internet retailers should take note of browsing habits by shoppers. Though many will make their purchases offline, 69 percent of those surveyed plan to do some research online first. That’s an opportunity for online entrepreneurs to offer a conversion opportunity, like a mailing list of upcoming deals, to those visitors.

Despite all the sunny news out of the White House about the economy, real-world respondents name lower income as the top reason for chopping their holiday budgets. General economic concerns and skyrocketing energy costs had an impact too.

Such concerns should be suggestive to online advertisers. People may demonstrate substantial price sensitivity when shopping this year. Ad copy conveying a suggestion of better pricing could help retailers draw some extra landing page visits.

Holiday, Shopping, Advertising

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Operating in over a hundred countries means Google has to juggle a lot of laws and cultural differences as they try to present information as openly as possible.

Google Has Controversy On Its Mind

Google’s Rachel Whetstone has not appeared in our pages since early in 2007, as the company battled Belgian firm Copiepresse over the indexing of news publishers managed by that firm. The Director of Global Communications and Public Affairs for EMEA for Google blogged a long post about the challenges of operating around the world.

On the topic of free expression and controversial online content, Whetstone’s post on the official Google blog defends Google’s regular practices with hosting content created by its users.

“In general, Google does not want to be a gatekeeper. We don’t, and can’t, check content before it goes live,” she remarked.

It also appears she doesn’t want to call attention to some of the more sensitive considerations of modern times. While Whetstone openly noted the Germany-specific ban on Nazism, there’s no mention of Chinese censorship, even while making this statement:

And, in extreme cases, we face questions about whether a country’s laws and lack of democratic processes are so antithetical to our principles that we simply can’t comply or can’t operate there in a way that benefits users.

Whetstone summarizes her post by stating Google wants to be as transparent as possible regarding freedom of expression and the choices the company makes as discussion takes place about its policies. Ok, we get it, Whetstone has a tough job, especially when considering the highly sensitive Middle East.

Reviewing and debating policies after opening up in a less-than-free market like China doesn’t do much for anyone. It’s akin to someone dropping themselves in the seat you’re saving for your spouse at the movies. You explain to the offender what they have done wrong, only to have the person say gee, that sounds interesting, let’s talk about that some more.

Balancing free expression with local laws may be a proverbial minefield. But considering Google’s financial success, they seem to be handling the task without much difficulty.

Google, Free Expression, International, Business, Search

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Could it be time to buy more stock in Lego? Eighty tiny Googler offspring will have a new two-story center to spend the day in while Mom and/or Dad cranks out that 20 percent time project they really want to finish.Google may have to tap their pals at Apple for a little design help. That […]

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Despite a slow start in November, online US non-travel retail topped $7 billion for the first 18 days of the holiday season, an increase of $1 billion from the same period in 2006.

US Holiday Shopping Up By A Billion Dollars

Energy prices and other economic worries have not put the brakes on Internet shopping yet. Analysis firm comScore said spending rose by 17 percent in the early November period.

ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni suggested in a statement that unseasonably warm temperatures may have kept people outdoors and away from the computer in the first few days of November, when sales were slow. He said sales have picked up sharply since the first week of the month.

“The growth rates during the second and third weeks of November are likely to be better indicators of how the remainder of the season will play out,” he said. Apparel in particular should see improvement.

Holiday season sales of $7.04 billion for November 1-18 easily outpaced the $6.01 billion spent by US shoppers during the same time in 2006. ComScore forecasted total 2007 holiday e-commerce spending of $29.5 billion, a 20 percent boost over last year’s seasonal spend.

E-commerce, Online Retail, Holiday Shopping

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Link baiting. You’ve heard of it, most likely, but maybe are at a loss as to how it works or how to make it work for you. In this article, we explore both the search and social aspects of link bait, what it is, and how it can be approached.

Making Link Bait Work For You

In marketing, you have one central task: Get attention that drives results. Pretty simple really, at least in theory. Online, the lion’s share of this process is generating links to your website or blog, which helps to gain ranking in the search engines and to generate brand awareness.

Do not underestimate that second element. The more brand awareness you generate, the more people search for you, the more it affects sales and/or leads.

Link baiting has been described as a kind of art form because, like art, what resonates with a group of people isn’t always predictable and certainly not controllable; only the after-effect – like book or box office sales – is measurable. But also like any creative endeavor, there are both guidelines to creation and case studies of what has worked in the past.

Wikipedia defines link bait this way: Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. You might be right to equate it to viral or word-of-mouth marketing, which is attracting more and more of the overall advertising spend each year.

I hereby claim that content can be both white-hat and yet still be wonderful “bait” for links. Personally, I’d lean toward producing interesting data or having a creative idea rather than spouting really controversial ideas 100% of the time. If everything you ever say is controversial, it can be entertaining, but it’s harder to maintain credibility over the long haul.

Indeed, we should approach it positively. Controversy works, and is often called the Contrary/Attack/Evil "hook." It works like the villain in professional wrestling, or tension in great storytelling. People love a good fight, but if you’re seen as always the one picking the fight, they could sour on you rather quickly. 

Fear also works – writing or creating content with the intent of scaring people to death. People will sign up just to warn others, and you get not only the link-love, but a healthy dose of fear associated with your product or service, which may or may not be what you want.

Perhaps the most famous example that didn’t go negative – well, that could depend on your point of view – is Burger King’s Subservient Chicken. Most agree that whether or not it sold more chicken is moot. The special website was a smash success and Burger King generated a lot of attention for itself.

But my favorite (and more practical) example of a business using link bait to its advantage is the "Will It Blend" series of short videos from Blendtec, which can be viewed at YouTube, or at their homepage. The one where they drop an iPod into their blender has been viewed over 4.5 million times, favorited over 9,000 times, and has attracted over 7,700 comments.

These were two wildly successful examples, but we’ll leave you with the tried-and-true approaches developed by the link-bait experts out there, sans the negative ones. All of them are excellent ways to become part of the 3.5 billion daily conversations happening on the Web, at Digg, Reddit, YouTube, wherever.

The Resource Approach (Becoming the Expert In Your Field/Niche)

–    Create expert articles/lists/data sheets 
–    Create practical or fun tools
–    Write How-To articles
–    Create a comprehensive blog roll (give link love, get link love)
–    Compile informative news stories and articles

The News Approach

–    Get the scoop. Be first with industry news
–    Interview prominent people in your field
–    Investigate a hot topic
–    Do an exposé

The Humor/Novelty Approach

–    Post funny/interesting/amazing photos related to your industry
–    Create humorous/unique videos (Use Blendtec for inspiration)
–    Create lists; people love lists – Top 10 Ways to…; 10 Signs You’re…

But whatever you create as link bait, don’t just post and forget it. Send out emails to industry people, drop a link into Digg, post at YouTube. In short, take advantage of every medium at your disposal.

Link baitlink baitingonline marketingviral marketingsocial marketingword of mouthSEO

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Shimon Sandler found a little something extra in his AdWords that allows for extending management of multiple accounts without needing a separate service agreement for each.MDS, or Manager Defined Spend, works in a similar fashion to the familiar My Client Center for AdWords. Shimon Sandler pointed out the differences:the big difference is that the advertiser […]

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A popular, low cost method of creating links to your website is to write short articles about the product or service you market. These are published at no charge on the many informational sites.

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Pay per call advertising firm Ingenio has been acquired by AT&T to boost the telecom’s search and advertising services.

AT&T Dials Up Ingenio Buy

When we reported on Ingenio riding the CPA wave, we didn’t know the wave would drop the company on AT&T’s shore.

The privately held Ingenio, which has Benchmark Capital as its biggest backer, joined up with AT&T. Bringing the pay per call technology Ingenio possesses will give AT&T the ability to promote leads across mobile, Internet, or print media as the advertiser desires.

AT&T already does local search advertising through the Yellowpages.com Network, AT&T Real Yellow Pages and 1-800-Yellow Pages. They cited a growing trend towards performance-based advertising as the motivation for making the Ingenio deal.

“As advertisers add performance-based advertising to their marketing mix, this investment makes sense for our business,” said Ray Wilkins, AT&T group president for Diversified Business. Yellowpages.com will be Ingenio’s destination within AT&T, which expects to keep the existing management in place.

Kevin Harvey, general partner at Benchmark and a member of the Ingenio board, could not comment on specifics of the deal. We asked what made now the right time for this deal, to which he averred the timing must have made sense to AT&T at the time.

Ingenio, AT&T, Pay Per Call, Advertising

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It’s a beautiful place to be in! You never run out of leads nor run out of money and over time you watch your business grow. You are in the position of sifting and sorting from generic leads to business partners.

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PageRank zero became the big number for blogs participating in Izea’s PayPerPost program; Google’s move to drop the rankings of those blogs drew a harsh rebuke from Izea’s CEO.

PayPerPost Bloggers Unranked By Google

Ted Murphy has been a lightning rod for criticism ever since the unveiling of PayPerPost, an ad system where bloggers are paid to write about an advertiser. Murphy’s company, now called Izea, fought back against early complaints about non-disclosure by instituting a disclosure policy.

Compared to what happened recently, that brouhaha looks like a minnow compared to what the big fish in the search industry did to PPP bloggers. Murphy blogged that Google had tweaked the PageRank of a number of those bloggers, dropping them to PR 0.

When it comes to finding blogs on Google, PageRank is one of a number of factors used to qualify the authoritativeness, and therefore the placement, of a site or blog in Google’s search results. Higher PR sites tend to rank well, which means people are more likely to find them and visit.

“Once again Google has proved that PR has little to do with blog traffic, influence or relevance and everything to defending their monopolistic stranglehold on search and online advertising,” Murphy said in his post.

He suggested services like PPP and similar competitors offering revenue to bloggers all have a common denominator: they aren’t Google AdSense. Google’s content network of AdSense participants extends the reach of its AdWords ad platform.

Despite the ominous drop in PageRank, it has been suggested that the blogs victimized by the change have not suffered a loss in traffic, according to Tony Hung. “My take on things is that Google wants to make an example out of Izea,” he wrote.

Traffic may not be impacted today, but the effects of the dramatic lowering of PageRank may be evident in the months to follow. As the dominant search engine, Google drives traffic to websites, and the higher they place in search results, the better the chance a site will receive a visit.

If the PageRank drop knocks blogs out of places where they had been ranking well in search, we expect that traffic will fall as well, and we will hear about this again.

PageRank, Google, PayPerPost, Izea

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Looking to create a good MLM newsletter? One of the most important ways to get training into your business is to publish a newsletter. Let’s look at what goes into making a successful newsletter that would encourage most anyone in any mlm business, to read and learn something from it.

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Everyday many people are joining the Internet, some with the hope to make some extra money, while others with the hope to make a living online.Most of them are facing a common problem which is that they don’t know how to get started. They don’t have any idea about the first step they have to take…

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Product launches, when done right, have made many marketers rich in a matter of days. Most product launches don’t succeed without one thing - leverage…

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Many people would jump the opportunity to this kind of business because of the easy entry factor. But a lot of so-called affiliate marketer makes simple mistakes and end up not getting anything from this ultimate business model. All you need is the drive and the know-how. To maximize your income from Internet Marketing, you have to know the sizzling sales tactics for your Internet Marketing.

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We’ve been speculating on this for some time, but now the really big dogs in the media have picked up on it. Andy Beal let out a great big yawn over the Wall Street Journal’s piece on connecting a Google Phone with carriers. No real details have emerged that haven’t been mentioned previously:The Google-powered phones […]

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