Got Ads?
9/28/2005
  The beginning of the end for Google

Ah, how fast Google's grown and reached the classic Silicon Valley milestone (aka "The Ultimate Kiss of Death"). They want to build a monumental HQ.

Google Inc. is expected to announce plans today to build a 1 million-square-foot campus at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, sources familiar with the plan said Tuesday

Irony is lost on these people. The SGI-built Googleplex they occupy today should be enough to remind them of the folly of building their own Xanadu.

 
9/27/2005
  The Essence of Google

Once again, the genius of Philipp at Google Blogoscoped is on display. He unearthed this gem:

“It’s hard to imagine a group of 23-year-olds with more responsibility on the planet.”
-- Marissa Mayer, Director of Consumer Web Products at Google, on Google’s several dozen product-manager associates

Is there anything that needs to be added about a statement so impressively self-important and egocentric?

 
9/23/2005
  Snap not doing so great

Snap, you may recall, is a search engine based on a CPA model that publishes all of its revenue data. It's open, in a financial sense. It was founded by Bill Gross of Overture/GoTo fame.

Anyways, Snap is not doing so hot:

Worst of all, Snap daily revenue is around $100 per day. That's maybe $35k a year? Enough for 1/3 of one person's salary. There are a ton of AdSense sites doing much better.

I like Snap. I think it's a cool idea. However, the world is not beating down the door to this mousetrap. Maybe people in the online ad world just don't care about accountability yet.

 
9/22/2005
  Pricing Secrets - the internet way?
Adam Penenberg replays the rigamarole he has to go thru to get back-of-the envelope guesses for how much professional bloggers make in this wired article. Apparently, the blog masters like Nick Denton and Jason Calacanis want to keep these numbers secret. Who knows why?

Overall, the entire internet advertising and marketing industry suffers from competitive paranoia so much so that it's impossible to know the price of things.

Example pricing questions that people just don't or can't answer:

When will pricing information be free of all this secrecy? Would it be better and easier for the online marketing world if it was?

 
9/20/2005
  Typeface Kung-fu

If you ever tire of building web pages that use Arial, Verdana, Georgia and the other stock web fonts, or if you have kids learning the alphabet, this might be fun.

 
9/19/2005
  Google rumor burn-out

I'm burned out on Google. Nothing they seem to do seems interesting anymore. It's all blah... I can't even get that excited about the following:

If any of this is interesting to you, go check out Inside Google, where they cover it all with a heavy dose of circumspection.

Oh for the days when Google could surprise and amaze...

 
9/08/2005
  The seedy side of the web
Wired has some great reporting on a how a businessman was allegedly using a rogue ISP and a group of hackers to take out his competitors web sites.
An Ohio computer hacker who served as a digital button man for a shady internet hosting company faces prison time after admitting he carried out one of a series of crippling denial-of-service attacks ordered by a wealthy businessman against his competitors.

Apparently, an unscrupulous businessman has a lot of ways to use the internet and the hackers who hang out on the IRC systems.

"Every script kiddy on IRC had a shell there," says Andrew Kirch, a security administrator for the Abusive Hosts Blocking List. "Spamming, hacking, phishing, DDOS networks -- you want to run scans for a large amount of IP space for prevalent Windows vulnerabilities? Set up there."

The internet is a scam heaven. Spam, click fraud, phishing, etc. What is more worrying is how the online marketing world - including affliate marketing can be drawn into the scam world.

Echouafni, who was CEO of Massachusetts-based Orbit Communication at the time, allegedly claimed that competitors RapidSatellite.com and WeaKnees.com had stolen his content and attacked his online business, which sold satellite TV gear over the web.

Though the article doesn't say so, some of the businesses mentioned are heavy affliate marketing sites. The incentives for illegal and unscrupulous practices are fairly large in lucrative markets like satellite TV affliates.

Where is Echouafni now? He skipped bail and is thought to be in Morrocco.

 
  Winning Results with Google AdWords

Andrew Goodman's book is finally out. It's called Winning Results with Google AdWords and it's chock full of AdWords info.

This book is detailed, and covers everything from the history of Google and AdWords to ROI, conversion rates, and metrics for your AdWords campaigns. It even mentions Orkut(!).

I think that this book is most useful for someone with a bit of SEO/SEM experience who's involved in day-to-day running of a PPC campaign. It's probably too detailed to give to your CEO or a complete newbie, unless they are really excited about AdWords and want to know everything about it.

The best part of the book is Andrew's straightforward philosophy, and if you read it through, you will be able to focus on creating AdWords campaigns that will really impact your business. You'll also be able to pass the AdWords Professional competency test if you read carefully.

Andrew also is the author of a very useful ebook (that costs $65) called: 21 Ways to Maximize ROI on Google. If you haven't bought the ebook, buying his new paperback book will give you most of the key information, and since the "Winning Results" book costs under $25, it's a very good deal.

In summary, a detailed and wide-ranging book on AdWords and online marketing in general. Check it out!

 
9/02/2005
  Mortgage leads and the bubble

Are there going to be reprecussions when the mortgage market changes - if interest rates go up, or housing really is in a bubble, and it pops? I think so. A lot of people have signed up for loans that they won't be able to handle. Since internet marketers have started to draw a lot of profit from this market, I wonder what will happen if it starts to go south.

Don't believe it will happen? Here's an article on Motley Fool which has emails from industry types who seem worried:

T.B., the owner of a mortgage-financing company, says: I have to chastise my fellow mortgage professionals for their money hungry nearsightedness. The interest only and option-ARM (pick your payment) loans are going to come back to haunt the majority of those who have chosen to use them.

...
The mortgage companies and lending institutions that are heavily promoting these loan programs don't care about the borrower (their customer!) all they care about is making a fast buck.

For internet marketers, a mortgage market shake-out or increased regulation will slow down the easy money in the most lucrative online lead market. One thing to watch out for is the inevitable blame game after the shake out, where the government or Eliot Spitzer tries to make people feel better by going after the people who made a ton of money when times were good.

 

Subscribe to GotAds?



Links



Recent Posts

The beginning of the end for Google
The Essence of Google
Snap not doing so great
Pricing Secrets - the internet way?
Typeface Kung-fu
Google rumor burn-out
The seedy side of the web
Winning Results with Google AdWords
Mortgage leads and the bubble


Archives

February 2005 /  March 2005 /  April 2005 /  May 2005 /  June 2005 /  July 2005 /  August 2005 /  September 2005 /  October 2005 /  November 2005 /  December 2005 /  January 2006 /  February 2006 /  March 2006 /  April 2006 /  May 2006 /  June 2006 /  July 2006 /  August 2006 /  September 2006 /  October 2006 /  November 2006 /  December 2006 /  January 2007 /  February 2007 /  March 2007 /  April 2007 /  May 2007 /  June 2007 /  July 2007 /  August 2007 /  September 2007 /  October 2007 /  November 2007 /  December 2007 /  January 2008 /  February 2008 /  March 2008 /  April 2008 /  May 2008 /  June 2008 /  July 2008 /  August 2008 /  September 2008 /  November 2008 /  December 2008 /  January 2009 /  March 2009 / 

The beginning of the end for Google
The Essence of Google
Snap not doing so great
Pricing Secrets - the internet way?
Typeface Kung-fu
Google rumor burn-out
The seedy side of the web
Winning Results with Google AdWords
Mortgage leads and the bubble