Internet Marketing Strategies and Marketing Tips by Neil Shearing

If it took Google a whole year to roll out more video ad format sizes, does that mean they work, or not? I would guess not… but then, why roll out new ad format sizes at all?

Google uses either a CPM payment model (where the site owner gets paid per thousand impressions of the static video graphic) or a cost per click model (where the site owner gets paid per clickthrough to the advertisers site. Note, the first click on the video merely acts to start the video… site owners get nothing for that click. Only a subsequent click which takes the visitor to the advertiser’s site earns the site owner money) depending on which way the advertiser has decided to pay for their ads.

Have you opted in to “image” ads… have they increased your earnings?

Message from online credit card processing company Worldpay to their customers…

“Over the past couple of years, Switch has been migrating to Maestro, MasterCard’s global debit brand. Switch has largely disappeared from most shop windows and this change now needs to be made online. MasterCard require all internet merchants to remove the Switch logo from their websites by 30th June 2007.”

It’s a UK thing, I believe. Just like “Access” became “Mastercard”, now “Switch” becomes “Maestro”.

Bah. I remember when “snickers” was “marathon” too.

I’m not sure why Google would even need to clarify this, but I guess it was a frequently asked question…

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“Many publishers have asked if they can place text on their sites which states that all or a portion of the earnings generated through AdSense will be donated to charity or another third party.

While we do appreciate your charitable efforts, this practice is not permitted by our program policies. We want users to click on ads because they are interested in the products or services offered by the advertiser, not because they are interested in supporting a site or a charity. Using this type of language can draw undue attention to the ads, and we aren’t able to verify whether earnings are actually donated to the third-party mentioned on each site. As a result, we don’t allow publishers to offer these types of incentives.

However, please know that once you’ve received your payments, you’re still welcome to use them however you wish – whether it’s donating them to a charity, paying your hosting bills, or treating yourself to a night out on the town. We just ask that you avoid using any language on your site that would directly or indirectly encourage users to click on your ads.”
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Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it?

If you say, “click these ads please… I’ll earn cash” you’re in trouble, and if you say, “click these ads and I’ll donate some of the cash to charity… honest!”, you’re still in trouble.

Don’t ask people click to click on the ads. Don’t click them yourself. Don’t encourage people to click on the ads. Don’t suggest people click on the ads. Don’t incentivize people to click on the ads. Don’t draw attention to the ads. Don’t have any page elements (like drop-down navigation bars) near the ads.

Just put the ads on your pages and leave them. Simple really.

Good news for fans of XSitePro. According to Paul Smithson, “there are NINE programmers working on it full time and numerous others on a part-time basis.”

Wow. That’s a huge project. It seems that almost all programming projects balloon in size and scope from the original requirements, and XSitePro is no different…

“I never planned on having this volume of dedicated programming staff working on it, but when I looked at the list of new features there was no way that we’d have it ready this year without making this huge investment.”

Here’s the best part…

“Anyone who purchased XSitePro V1 within the six months prior to the release of V2 will get this major upgrade for free.”

As Version 2 is due to be released sometime around late 2007, you can effectively get the upgrade for free by buying Version 1 now. It’s “VERY likely” that Version 2 will have a higher price tag. I’m not surprised, considering the development costs Paul must be incurring!

Paul promises…

“I’m sure that V2 will be out within the next six months, so if (people) buy it now they’ll also be getting the update to V2 for free.”

… check out XSitePro here, and grab a copy before the price increases for version 2.

(already own XSitePro? Paul says… “Anyone who purchased the software prior to that six month period will get it at a massively reduced price – even if you bought it two years ago.”)

I’ve just downloaded the free version of Brad Callen’s Directory Submitter. It’s a very nice piece of software… very slick. If you’re familiar with software that helps you automate submitting articles to article directories, it’s a lot like that.

The actual process of submitting your sites to directories is a right royal pain in the “you know what”. It’s only getting more difficult as sites add more hurdles such as setting up an account, adding a reciprocal link or filling in a captcha box before you can submit a URL. Lots of directories are also charging small fees before they accept a listing (usually $4 or $5). So, don’t expect submitting to directories to be a fun task.

Having said that, Brad’s software whisks you to each site and pre-populates the form fields… meaning your job is half done. And it’s free. So if you’re trying to get some one-way links from directories, check out the free software here.

You’ll need to supply your email details in order to download the software, and it mentions Brad’s other software in unobtrusive ads inside the software. Oh, and there’s an option to upgrade to “pro” for a small fee if you really want to submit to 1,700 directories! (if you do upgrade, I suggest paying an assistant to do the submissions for you!)

I highly recommended the free Directory Submitter to make the task of getting links and traffic from directories easier.

If there’s a news website with “breaking news”, such as this page at Telegraph.co.uk, that page is, by definition, brand new.

So how can it have PageRank 2 already (according to my Google Toolbar)?

Does the Googlebot crawl the Telegraph (PR8) homepage so often it finds the breaking news pages almost instantly and assigns PageRank?

Or is the PageRank 8 homepage of the Telegraph powerful enough to pass instant PageRank to any page it links to, regardless of whether or not Google knows about it?

I guess, seeing as PageRank is Google’s system, it’s probably the former… but, boy, assigning PageRank to a breaking news webpage, which was either minutes or hours old is really fast!

… and I thought the Toolbar was only updated every 90 days according to the SEO folks. Well, if it shows the PR for a “breaking news” webpage, it must be updated much, much more frequently than that…?

click to enlarge

I just got a present in the post. (that’s one of the nice “perks” to being a top affiliate… you get really nice unexpected gifts in the post… sometimes for winning JV competitions, sometimes to solicit your participation in a product launch, sometimes just for fun.)

Ken Evoy sent me a little tortoise. He’s sitting with a cup of coffee, working on his laptop. No doubt building his e-biz empire.

I know Ken checks this blog, so, thanks Ken.

The message, if you can’t read it, says, “Passion… Action… Patience… Faith… Persistence. A special tortoise for a special SiteSell contributor! Wishing you much success, Ken and the SiteSell team.”

Why would Google Adsense want to verify your account using your phone number?

I’m guessing this is a North American verification system or only applies to new accounts because they haven’t asked me to verify my account this way yet. But it’s interesting that they’re using phone numbers to verify accounts. Wouldn’t that give them access to some very lucrative customer data?

And it doesn’t appear to be optional. From the graphic on the blog post, it seems that your earnings will be held until you verify your phone number (”Action is required to release payment“). I don’t see any explanation as to why you would need to verify your account using your phone number.

I seem to remember verifying my account using the PIN they sent in the mail, and verifying the test deposits into my account. I wonder if anyone is upset with the obligation to use the phone number verification system?

How about this one?

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I bought my first computer while recovering from a car accident. At the time I was on benefits & working part time as a club bouncer on a weekend for $150. One of the first things I bought online was a book which explained how to create your own products, and sell them on the Internet. I devoured that little book and went to work. Today I bank $25,000 per month from information products, drive a Mercedes SL Convertible, own 3 properties and am in demand as a consultant for the knowledge I have gained on this journey.

That first little eBook? – Neil Shearing’s Internet Success Blueprint.

Dave Shillito
Dixon Techno Ltd
www.dixontechno.com
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Nice one, Dave!

In an interesting development, PayPal has become a bank in Luxembourg and will migrate all their EU-based accounts to fall under the control of the new Luxembourg bank…

“PayPal was granted a bank license with the Luxembourg bank authority. Under this license, PayPal will be regulated centrally by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Luxembourg bank authority.

On 2 July 2007, your customer relationship will be automatically transferred from PayPal (Europe) Ltd. to PayPal Luxembourg.”
(source)

Why are they doing it? Well…

“Other eBay group companies, such as Skype and eBay, have an important presence in Luxembourg, so it makes sense for PayPal Europe to co-locate with them.”

According to PayPal, “The transfer will not affect the way you use PayPal. The only change is your customer relationship being transferred to PayPal Luxembourg.”

Which is all fine and dandy, assuming UK account holders trust the Luxembourg banking authorities as much as they trust the Financial Services Authority (FSA) based in London who PayPal are regulated by, but presumably won’t be if they re-locate to Luxembourg..

“PayPal (Europe) Ltd. is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom as an electronic money institution. PayPal FSA Register Number: 226056.”

Will they still have to be FSA-registered if they want to do business in the UK? I doubt it. What with the EU supposedly having a “common market” for the free movement of goods, people and (I guess), money and the fact that “The only change is your customer relationship being transferred to PayPal Luxembourg”, we’ll be looking to Luxembourg if anything goes wrong I guess.