Ascii Art is an Innovative way to catch the searchers eye.

When planning and implementing a Google AdWords campaign, copywriting is a key factor to establishing a high quality score, relevance and CTR. Not only is persuasive copy a way to stand out among the crowd and include searchers in the buying process while still on the search results page, but sometimes copy can be used to stand out from the crowd.

Search engine copywriting is an art. It may not seem possible to pack creativity and strategy into such short headlines and descriptions, but copy is a tool you need to win the search marketing wars. Make sure you test different creative using the engines rotation of more than one creative to find the best creative for the specific AdGroups. Include the following in your variations of creative; Call to action, Unique Selling Points, Price points if competitive, Promotions, Brand Inclusion, Seasonal Messages.

ASCII Art is a way to form pictures and images using simple keyboard symbols, like dashes or plus signs; which has been used since the days of the Vic 20 or Commodore Pet to show images on a screen.

The company sixt.de used ascii art to create ads including the image of a car.
The folks at PayDay One tested ASCII Art. Google is trying to filter this type of art from being included in their Adwords copy; some of the creatives are still getting through (although disapproved after a while). This is an excellent mix of ASCII Art and creative copy.



To coincide with James Bond Film ‘Quantum of Solace’ and make use of the buzz surrounding the new film Littlewoods Direct advertised the James Bond Box Set:

Is web 3.0 (the intelligent web) nearly here?

Web 3.0 is a way of describing the next step in the internet evolution where websites/applications will be able to link data more intelligently.

Nova Spivack defines Web 3.0 as the third decade of the Web (2010–2020) during which he suggests several major complementary technology trends will reach new levels of maturity simultaneously. This stage of the web is shown in the graph (top left) which illustrates the history/future of the web.

The following websites are developing Web 3.0 ideas and are linking data in a more intelligently way. Subsequetly these websites have been described as the begginings of Web 3.0. Consequently Web 3.0 may be here already.

www.cooliris.com – A streamlined search engine for finding rich media content.
www.peer39.com - Peer39 is the global leader in semantic advertising solutions.
www.powerset.com – Semantic Search Engine from Microsoft.
www.qik.com – Stream live video from your phone. This is very cool (although not on the iPhone yet, should be an app soon though).
www.twine.com – Collect and share all the content you find on the web
www.gnipcentral.com – Similar to twine.

Eric Shmidt on Web 3.0:

Cooliris on the iPhone

Cooliris formerly known as PicLens, is a web browser application made by Cooliris that provides interactive 3D cinematic style views of online images and videos. This online application could be argued as the beginnings of a Web 3.0 search engine for videos and images. Visually it is stunning and is a very intuitive way of sifting through relevant media-rich content.

A free app for the iPhone has just been released by Cooliris, so you can now experience this great visual search engine on the move. The Cooliris way of searching really comes to life on the iPhone, which incorporates the touch screen, zoom function, and the accelerometer, where all benefit the Cooliris iPhone app. It is a very streamlined interface!

Cooliris for the iPhone can also bring you the latest news in a hassle-free manner. All of the Discover feeds and search engines that are available on the web plug-in are available on the iPhone, so you’ll always have the latest current events at your fingertips on the move.

Cooliris aim to bring even more search options to their iPhone app, which take advantage of the iPhone’s unique interface.

http://www.cooliris.com/

Googles Ad Search "more sponsored links"

There seems to be a potential issue regarding the "more sponsored links" button on Google; this doesn't actually lead you to more of the PPC results you would expect to see - it is a different set of results based og Googles "entire ad inventory".

These supposed PPC ads are not activated in the same way as the normal PPC ads. For example I have an ad appearing in the "more sponsored links' even though I don't bid on the keyword.

Google's answer: "Clicking More Sponsored Links on a Google search results page brings you to our Ad Search feature. Ad Search allows users to search through our entire ad inventory for relevant ads and provides advertisers with more opportunities to reach their target audience.

As an extension of Google's search results, these ads are ranked differently from competing AdWords ads. Clicks and impressions accrued by these ads aren't reported in your account, and their performance has no influence on your account or how our system calculates your keywords' minimum bids. Advertisers are also not charged for any clicks that result from these ads.

Please note that ads appearing on the 'More Sponsored Links' page may no longer be active at the time they are shown. In addition, because ads are shown based on a user's search terms (keywords), they are not filtered for language preferences. That means users may see ads in languages other than their own."

The potential problem of Google displaying ads that are paused in your account is that old offers maybe displayed in Google. For example old credit card rate offers maybe displayed, which is actually illegal.

Google says the ads "may no longer be active at the time they are shown". Consequently we have less control over them, but we also don't pay if anyone clicks on them...

http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=53502

Bravo to George Sampson, the winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2008. Google didn’t predict his win.

Searches for Britains Got Talent stars in May 2008
George Sampson the schoolboy from Warrington won the hearts of the nation with his fantastic, modern take on the Gene Kelly classic Singing In The Rain.

After an extraordinary final that was watched by over 13 million people on Saturday night, George Sampson was voted by the UK public the most talented after a closely fought battle with fellow dance act Signature (runner up). Andrew Johnston came third and surprisingly Faryl Smith didn’t make the final.

Google trends didn’t predict George Sampson (Blue) to win but predicted he would be in the top three. Andrew Johnston (Red) came third in the final even though more people had searched for his name in Google than George Sampson throughout the weeks coming up to the final. If you went on the proportion of searchers Andrew Johnston look most likely to win. Signature looked like they were going to come second according to Google Trends and this is what happened with lots of searches for front man Suleman Mirza (Green).

Searches for Britains Got Talent stars in 2008

Google Trends indicates that the voters of 'Britains got Talent 2008' were won over by George Sampsons performance on the night. Signitures' and Andrew Johnston's popularity throughout the tournament through Google didn’t mean they beat George Sampson on the final night.

Landing Page Load Time: Google Quality Score:

As you might already know Google has recently included the landing page load time into its Quality Score algorithm. Therefore you need to aim for a load time below 8 seconds.

Page load time is the time it takes a web page to load in seconds. If the load time is slow, Google says this will impact your quality score. Why? Slow loading landing pages are bad for your user.

Here's some info on how it affects your QS: adwords.google.com/landing-page-load-time and what needs to be done to reduce load time: adwords.google.com/reduce-load-time

I have heard that it should be below 8 seconds (which is a long time). However some Flash sites take this long to load.

You can see your QS for the load time in Adwords. If it has a 'load time faster than the average in your servers geographic region', it means the current landing page load time is improving our quality score:

Advertising on the Moon

How about buying advertising space on the Moon?

The beer company Rolling Rock was supposedly going to beam on to the moon on 21st March (they were lying): www.moonvertising.com ....However the concept is feasible.

You would be able to get a massive audience, nearly all countries at night time. All you need is a big powerful laser, which shouldn't cost too much (few million). You can't put the logo over the Suns reflection (too bright), but you could advertise on a new moon: advertising is everywhere and now on the moon.

1&1 Webhosting

1and1 Internet is probably the largest shared Web Hosting provider world-wide and one of the best from my experience. We found hosting packages and web tools that are simply hard to beat.

First, 1and1 Internet offers plenty of "product" for its monthly price. 1and1 also throws in free domain registrations (and annual renewal) at no additional charge. As you'd expect from a company like 1and1, the Control Panel's layout and navigation is smooth and logical.

We were also treated to a rather impressive package of client-side software after we signed up (although we did have to pay shipping to have a couple of the drivers and manuals sent). The package includes an FTP utility, search engine placement software and an application that helps boost a website's search engine rankings. But the gems of the bundle were PhotoImpact - a full-featured yet easy-to-learn photo editing program, and NetObjects Fusion - a complete, website building tool that (with a little practice) should allow even novice users to create sophisticated sites.

Included in the Applications suite is a website wizard called website Creator. This basic version let us choose from attractive designs and build websites with up to 18 pages. Keep in mind, this was in addition to the NetObjects software that 1and1 also gave us.

The control panel has lots of features that are easy too use. My favourite is the SEO tool that comes with all 1and1 packages its is a tool for 'site submission'. This tool submits your site of choice to hundreds of search engines including the major engines. Once you turn this tool on it submits your site regurly over time. It will update monthly on your site submission progress

Also inside the control panel are more useful applications, five basic CGIs are packaged together: guest book, forum, feedback form, visitor counter and date/time display.

1and1 offers 24/7 customer support via phone and email.

Just Six Numbers; Numbers that govern the Universe and Search Engine Marketing

Astronomer Royal Martin Rees shows us that the universe can be characterised by a mere six numbers, in his excellent, intriguing and not over complex book; Just six Numbers:

These six numbers constitute a 'recipe' for a universe:

• Δ (delta), is the number of spacial dimensions we live in (3D).

• N (nu), the ratio of the strength of gravity to that of electromagnetism (10³⁷).

• ε (epsilon), (0.007) the ratio of mass lost to energy when hydrogen is fused to form helium. Subsequently it describes how firmly atoms bind together.

• Ω (omega), describes the amount of dark matter and other material contained in our universe (lots). The 'Observable Universe' weighs in at 3x10^52 which is thought to only make up 5% of the universe the other 95% is made up of dark matter & dark energy.

• λ (lambda), the cosmological constant (or anti gravity, which is very small).

• Q, related to the scale at which the universe looks smooth (1/100,000).
  

In our Universe these numbers seem to have been finely tuned so that intelligent life can exist. If these numbers were any higher or lower we would have taken a different form or never existed in the first place. Interestingly if there are multiple universes outside our own universe these may have different values for the six numbers and therefore different physics entirely. Consequently if there are infinite amounts of universes, then there was bound to be one that was tuned for the existence of intelligent life?!

Search Engine Marketing: These six numbers/metrics constitute a ‘recipe’ for a great search campaign:

• CTR, (Click through Rate), if your creative is relevant to your keywords this will be high.

• CPC, (Cost per Click), if your keyword is relevant and therefore has a high CTR which equals a high quality score, you can have a low CPC.

• CPA, (Cost per Acquisition), this metric is useful for optimising bids depending on keyword CPA performance.

• CTC, (Click to Conversion), if you have a good landing page relevant to your keywords this should be high.

• ROI, (Return on Investment), bid optimisation depending on keyword performance can boost your ROI.

• IS, (Impression Share), this metric indicates how dominant your campaign is. Brand keywords should preferably be 100%.

Get these numbers finely tuned and you find yourself with an intelligent campaign!

Google Holiday Logo Changes

It’s very refreshing to see a huge brand experimenting/playing with its logo. Google have adopted different logos for different celebrations, holidays and seasons.

50th anniversary of the LEGO brick - January 28, 2008

Recently they have donned some clovers in a green Google logo to celebrate St Patrick ’s Day. Other logo changes were brought on by Valentines Day, Easter, spring’s arrival, even Alexander Graham Bells 161^st birthday whose invention was a precursor to Google’s existence. Most Brands would stifle any creative development to their brands logo. In contrast Google relishes these changes and it has become a brand for all seasons in the process. Online brands need to be flexible to compete in the ever changing World Wide Web and Google embodies this philosophy.

More Google Holiday Logos: http://www.google.co.uk/holidaylogos.html

How can we take advantage of the hype around Google Holiday Logo changes? Well one idea is to bid on the keyword of the resulting SERP that the logo clicks through to. The hard part of this is noticing the logo change, as they only last one day. Moreover you will need to wait for a Logo that is relevant to your brand. When it does come along though, there is plenty of traffic to tap into.

Hot Trends show that there is lots of traffic & searches around the subject of the Google logo change to be taken advantage of: http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

The Guy Behind Google Logo’s

The Google Story in Logo's

Googles Australia & UK April Fools

With the arrival of April Fools Days it is difficult to accept Google would have anything serious at all to say on April 1st.

This year Google Australia has developed a Search Engine to see into the future: http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/index.html


Furthermore in the UK, Google has been hard at work in collaboration with Virgin to send 'Virgle Pioneers' to Mars to colonizes the 4th rock from the sun.


Virgle http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

Larry Page and Sergey Brin on Virgle



Richard Branson on Virgle



Googles April Fools get bigger and better every year!

Firefox Search tools & add ons

First of all Firefox is a great web browser and its free: www.mozilla.com. Secondly there are plenty of add ons for Firefox. These are easily added here: addons.mozilla.org

Some of the add-ons I have found that have been particularly helpful for search engine marketing include:

- Rank Checker is a Firefox add on that indicates your websites position in the search engines for specific keywords: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

- CustomizeGoogle is a Firefox extension
that enhances Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam). www.customizegoogle.com

- Adsense preview: Preview the Google ads that may show on any web page. addons.mozilla.org/adsensepreview

- Fast Dial gives you fast access to your favorite sites through thumbnails, like Opera speed dial: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5721

Wikia Search

So Wikia Search is finally here: alpha.search.wikia.com

Wikia have been working to develop and popularize a freely licensed (open source) search engine. They have released the alpha version. However to their own admittance the relevance and quality of searches are poor (for now apparently).

"We are aware that the quality of the search results is low..

Wikia's search engine concept is that of trusted user feedback from a community of users acting together in an open, transparent, public way. Of course, before we start, we have no user feedback data. So the results are pretty bad. But we expect them to improve rapidly in coming weeks, so please bookmark the site and return often."

Once you make a search you can rate websites on how relevant they are via a five star system. Therefore the more people search and rate the better Wikia search becomes. There is also the option to discuss the results, hence social searching.

There was a lot of hype surrounding Wikia Search causing disappointment from searchers who were expecting something more unique and exciting!