Google Adwords Lets More Ads Display - No More Minimum Bids

Adwords does away with minimum bids.

In a run for more revenue Google does away with minimum bid levels. Advertisers previously had to bid a minimum amount per-click in order to even show up in search results. The minimum bid system did well in letting advertisers know the market going rate for advertising leads in their industry; however a major drawback was that it prevented advertisers from taking
advantage of smaller opportunities, such as a local campaign.

Minimum bid levels are driven by aggregate keyword auction, but when that auction takes places in a specific region, the competition can be very different. A minimum bid meant that the cost would be artificially increased to the average market values.

Keyword Expansion
Our local search marketing strategy has always included a broad expansion of keyword terms and permutations, sometimes taking advantage of up to 2,000 keywords per ad-group. This new change means that ads which were deemed below the minimum threshold will now surface. Our long-tail, expansive keyword work is now paying off by potentially providing more leads at the same or lower costs… incidentally it is also paying Google.

Economic Timing
It is perhaps more than a coincidence that the timing of this comes at a time when the economy and future earning revenues may be compromised. The elimination of minimum bid will more than likely bring in additional revenue.

Google KB – what happened to minimum bids
Google KB – what does the removal of inactive for search mean

User Outlook
One user benefit to minimum bids was to prevent spam-like ads from showing. We may see resurgence in arbitrage as advertisers take advantage of the bake sale on long-tail keywords.

Domain Name Length of Top 500 Websites

Is there an optimal domain name length?

The most popular websites have one thing in common; they're short! In analyzing the top sites identified by Alexa, we see that the average domain length is 6 characters.

	Rank	Web Site	Length
	1	yahoo.com	5
	2	google.com	6
	3	youtube.com	7
	4	live.com	4
	5	msn.com	3
	6	myspace.com	6
	7	wikipedia.org	9
	8	facebook.com	8
	9	blogger.com	7
	10	yahoo.co.jp	5

Chart 1.
The surge of 6 characters names isn't coincidental; "Google" alone accounts for 46 of these with country specified sites such as google.fr, google.com.mx and of course google.com. My associate, Mike Rosenthal, is quick to point out that the most important website is in fact a misspelling of Googol. Subtracting the internet giant from this analysis, we still find that 6 is the most common length.

Chart 2.
Here is a breakdown showing the percentage of sites that are less than or equal to the domain length.

Chart 3.

This shows that 90% of the top internet sites are under 10 characters in length. However the majority of domains are at least 11 characters in length according to Dennis Forbes finding.

PageRank Benefits Shorter Domain Names

Some search engine experts have long suspected that search algorithms may bias ranking of websites based upon the domain name length. While this study isn't looking at the full landscape of domain name, we can see the trend among the top 500. So is a small domain name have some algorithmic benefit in Page Rank? Or is magic number? It reasons that the smaller domains are typically older and more well established; factors that would contribute positively towards PageRank.

Chart 4.
According to this chart, the shorter domains tend to have Summary of interesting points about the top 500 websites-

• Average Length: 6
• Average PageRank: PR=6.5
• Count of ".com"'s: 300
• Number of domains that contain a dash: 12 with an average PR=5.6
  

Notes:
Maximum domain name length: 63 characters, plus 4 for ".ext" (previous limit
was 26).
Average domain name length of all domains registered: 11
Average PageRank (presumed) of all domains registered: 1

David Rodecker Founder &
CTO, RelevantAds “getting local
business online"

Metrics in Online Marketing

I presented this to CSULB Business School : Marketing 437 this past Wednesday.
The first portion of the presentation covers basic elements to online metrics, test and evaluation.
The second half focuses shows a value for search results by position and provides a means to calculate organic search result value.

Key points:

• Online advertising should be measured, tracked and tested to achieve measured results,
• Traditional search engine marketing charges CPC, gives the marketer the feeling of CPA, but actually charges CPI (inclusion) over time,
• Organic placement value can be estimated given the CPC rates.

Conclusion:
Measuring changes in a websites performance is fundamental to success. Changes in organic placement ranking is a new marketing methodology that can deliver substantial, and measurable value.

AOL/Time Warner Takes Over Unclaimed Domains

Cable broadband users are saying goodbye to "Page cannot be found" and hello to ads. AOL's subsidiary ISP, Road Runner Time Warner has taken all the unused names on the internet.

Normally when a users enters an invalid domain name they will receive a 4o4 page not found error, however by applying a method called wildcard DNS, users will instead be shown a landing page containing mostly ads.

Yahoo is powering the sponsored listings and the advertising arrangement should provide sizable revenue for the Time Warners ISP. Yahoo has several similar arrangements with domain aggregators which similarly allow advertising on unused domain URLs; this deal will considerably extend Yahoo's much needed advertising reach in the U.S.

You may remember that VeriSign did this in 2003, redirecting all bad .com and .net URLs. A move which affected nearly every internet user and enraged many online communities eventually pushing VeriSign to reverse the change. Since then the user acceptance of advertising-only websites has grown. Time Warner might skirt criticism because of its smaller footprint and cautious implementation. A key difference is that Time Warner allows a simple, non-intrusive way to opt-out of the wildcard DNS.

Although some customers are offended; it can be expected that other ISPs will eventually follow suit in the pursuit of top-end revenue. From my vantage point, this reinforces the value of the search engine, a place where the majority of users already start their daily internet routine.


David Rodecker is the President of RelevantAds, a search engine optimization company that delivers highly targeted search result placements and provides specific solutions in getting local businesses online.

Newspapers online growth stifled

The newspapers industries growth into online ad sales has slowed according to the Newsosaur. The results found that newspapers trailed are growing 20% slower than other online media companies.

While growth of 21% vs. an industry average of 26% isn't shabby; considering their long head-start and position; its a crying shame. This is 1) a demonstration that the newspapers are failing to deliver for advertisers and 2) an indication that the fragmentation in online sales companies is being successful in chipping away customers.

Problems for the Newspapers include:

• Ability to perform on online product that makes sense for multiple price points
• Salesmanship to demonstrate accurately quote customers
• Reliance on top categories (real-estate, auto and jobs); the real-estate market slow down combined with the fragmentation in online destinations for cars and careers)
• Inability to produce a viable product for 2nd and 3rd tier categories, such as plumbers and dentists.

Missing Real Online Product!
The newspapers haven't been able to crack an online product that truly works for their local advertisers. It's ironic that the local newspaper can handle an international company such as Toyota versus the local tutor in Orange County.

Therein lies the opportunity that many SEM and SEO companies have fulfilled. I am President of RelevantAds, which specializes in bringing local businesses online. We see first hand that the advertising dollars shifting away from print companies.

Local companies generally invest in just one advertising medium; however when going online they want to be found whenever relevant. The package must be simple; place my business any time there is a potential customer; and that is just what local search lets you do. A newspapers website doesn't have nearly the reach capable to deliver anything of value here.

Further Problems
Online ad sales is also a natural outcome given the fact distribution is also shrinking. Many reports indicate that traditional print media is shrinking in readship. The onslaught of blog feeds and Digg largely replacing the way that people read news. Altogether, the Newspapers have a daunting prospectus; local businesses need to shop for advertising elsewhere.

Facebook beats out Myspace

November 15th may be D-Day for mySpace. The social uprising of Facebook has pushed it up to the most popular site social network on the net according to Alexa.


Perhaps this progression is obvious considering that Facebook essentially gets all the mySpace users as they mature, graduate high-school and college. So in time, Facebook will win.

Although mySpace had already declared victory in the social network space over Facebook (Pete Cashmere reported on Mashable); it has became obvious that their growth rate would push them over the top.

Google vs. Microsoft

mySpace and Facebook are the states at battling it out here, but the cold war is between search giants Google and Microsoft since they supply hundreds of millions of dollars to mySpace and Facebook respectively. Microsoft has obtain a substantial advertising distribution in Facebook, desperately needed in order for the software company to sustain its mark online. However Google has responded by taking countermeasures which will stifle the growth of new social destinations and thereby prevent Microsoft from gaining more traction.

Can Facebook Gain Even Higher Ground?

Facebooks CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has suggested that his site could take over Google in terms of popularity, however that is merely a dream since the majority of users use the internet for information retrieval (search). So Facebooks, market growth will now come more from increasing page views versus new registrations.

OpenSocial - the end of new social networks?

The End of New Social Networks
Social websites are still popping up and gaining traction. Their continual rise and expansion has created a land-grab game between the major online property holders including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and several 2nd tier organizations .

Google has already heavily invested in social clubs including MySpace for $900MM, YouTube for $1.65B among others. Their only intent is to simply lock in the advertising distribution on these sites.

While Google has established online dominance, Microsoft has got a big leg in by picking up Facebook ($240MM investment and advertising deal). While these sites are fighting it out, will there ever be an end to the next best social network taking gaining equity to the tune of millions of dollars? It's as if new ocean front property was developed in front your existing million dollar estates.



OpenSocial: What Is It?
In response, Google launched OpenSocial, a product standard that allows web programmers to incorporate 3rd party information tools and share their own content. Website owners will embrace the technology since it allows them to expand to the oer 250MM users in the OpenSocial network.

OpenSocial Reinforces Googles Market Dominance
On the surface OpenSocial is seen merely a response to the Facebook API. However the larger implication of OpenSocial is that is minimizes the possibility that a new or upcoming website could overtake a larger property in the OpenSocial network. The OpenSocial network partners will fortify their relative positions rather than be concerned about being displaced by competition.

This is good news for Google since they already has a monopoly of the advertising on the OpenSocial parter websites, so they've locked in revenue stability and allowed them to be less concerned about the "next best thing".

Of course the jury is not out yet as the OpenSocial standard has yet to take root and Facebook could be a hold out for adopting it. Nevertheless, with big names like MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning and others, the writing is on the wall.

Don't expect to see many more social networks popping up to a $10B valuation. Even if a new niche is found, it will likely be assimilated into the OpenSocial fabric and merely be embedded feature into myLinkedSpaceBook profile.