Archive for 2009

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Adwords Max CPC Bid Simulator

September 13, 2009

I noticed in one of my Google Adwords accounts, their new Max CPC Bid Simulator doesn’t provide data on every keyword in an Ad Group.

Max CPC Bid Simulator

Max CPC Bid Simulator

I asked several Adwords Experts if they knew whether this was until more history data became available within the account or whether the tool didn’t have network level data to draw upon.

Any ideas why the Adwords Max CPC Bid Simulator doesn’t provide data for each keyword in an Ad Group?

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Posted in Adwords, Adwords Experts, Adwords Max CPC Bid Simulator | Leave a Comment »

Twitter Audience: Reaching 1,000 Twitter Followers

September 12, 2009

Today, my Twitter account briefly reached 1,000 Twitter Followers.

1000 Twitter Followers

1000 Twitter Followers

Having reached 1,000 Twitter “audience members” presents an obvious question: which is more valuable – a 1,000 person social media audience or 1,000 person search audience?

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Posted in Search Audience, Twitter, Twitter Audience, Twitter Followers | Leave a Comment »

Google Advertising and Marketing Trends Index

September 11, 2009

The Google Finance blog has announced a new set of tools for analyzing search volumes called Google Domestic Trends on Google Finance.

How Google Domestic Trends works:

Google Domestic Trends tracks Google search traffic across specific sectors of the economy. The changes in the search volume of a given sector on google.com may provide useful economic insight. We have created 23 indexes that track the major economic sectors, such as retail, auto and unemployment. Each index value is baselined at 1.0 on January 1, 2004 and is calculated and displayed on the Google Finance charts as a 7-day moving average. You can easily compare actual stocks and market indexes to these Google Trends on the charts.

The 23 categories available in Google’s Domestic Trends tool are: Advertising & marketing, Air travel, Auto buyers, Auto financing, Automotive, Banking & personal finance, Business, Computers & electronics, Construction, Credit & lending, Durable goods, Finance & Insurance, Furniture, Industries, Investing, Jobs, Luxury goods, Mortgage, Real estate, Rental, Retail trade, Travel and Unemployment.

The Google Advertising and Marketing Trends Index which tracks queries related to “marketing, do not call, advertising, signs, logo, commercials” etc. illustrates both the marketing industry’s peaks and troughs since 2004.

Interestingly, the lowest point in the index was reached in January of this year while the highest point since early 2005 was reached September 4 of this year.

The Advertising and Marketing Trends Index probably peaked as a result of increased advertising and marketing spending by the auto industry on the cash for clunkers program.

Google Advertising & Marketing Index

Google Advertising & Marketing Index

Google’s index data can be compared with actual stocks, the Dow Jones, or Nasdaq by entering the respective tickers in the Compare box.

Below, I have generated a Google Advertising and Marketing Trends chart comparing the performance of the Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq, Google (GOOG) and the New York Times (NYT).

Google Advertising Marketing Index Stocks Comparison

Google Advertising Marketing Index Stocks Comparison

While the indexes have remained in a relatively narrow trading range, Google and the New York Times stock have not. Google stock has climbed 350% while the New York Times Company stock has fallen 79% over the same time period.

Evidently, now is not the time to be in the content creation business.

Google Insights for Search provides more detailed information about the ten search categories that compose the Google Domestic Trends Index on a country by country or worldwide basis.

Google Insights for Search US Advertising & Marketing Index

Google Insights for Search US Advertising & Marketing Index

Additionally, Insights for Search now also provides a forecast for each of the 23 Domestic Trends.

In the case of the Advertising and Marketing Index, Google forecasts a 47% drop in US Advertising and Marketing activity for December 2009 compared to December 2004.

Google Insights for Search Worldwide Advertising Marketing Index

Google Insights for Search Worldwide Advertising Marketing Index

Google forecasts a 43% drop in Worldwide Advertising and Marketing activity for December 2009 compared to December 2004.

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Posted in Advertising Forecast, Advertising Marketing Index, GOOG, Google Domestic Trends, Google Finance, Google Insights, Google Trends, New York Times | Leave a Comment »

Largest Domain Name Owner

September 10, 2009

Tonight while searching for potential domain names, I came across a domain owned by the company who controls the largest single portfolio of domain names on the web.

Largest Domain Name Owner

Largest Domain Name Owner

For those of you actively buying and selling domains, Name Administration Inc. (BVI) is a company you are more than likely already familiar with.

What you may not know is how many domains Name Administration Inc. owns – 243,081.

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Indexed URLs Less Than Half of Total URLs

September 9, 2009

With having written a blog post every single day for over a year now, I have accumulated and published 556 unique articles for SearchMarketingCommunications.com via WordPress.

While all of my blog posts unique domains have been identified and crawled, less than half are appearing in Google’s index.

SiteMap

SiteMap

With no sitemap errors or warnings reported in my Google Webmaster Tools dashboard, I am somewhat perplexed why the percentage of my pages indexed is not 100%.

Sitemaps

Sitemaps

Granted, a 100% index rate may be rare but some of my other WordPress hosted sites are enjoying greater Google page indexing success rates like the example below.

Sitemaps

Sitemaps

What can I do to get all of this site’s pages indexed?

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Posted in Google Site Maps, Google Webmaster Tools, Wordpress, Wordpress Blog | Leave a Comment »

President Barrack Obama’s School Speech Text

September 8, 2009

To view President Obama’s School speech live,  visit the White House.

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK.  Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

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When Can I Access Google Voice From My Gmail Account?

September 7, 2009

I have had my Google Voice account for nearly two months now and I am impressed by its functionality and features.

Welcome To Google Voice

Welcome To Google Voice

However, my Google Voice account would be much more useful if I could access it from my Gmail account as well.

Gmail UI

Gmail UI

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Google Adwords Qualified Individual Status

September 6, 2009

My Google Adwords Qualified Individual Status expires September 21, 2009.

Google Adwords Qualified Individual Status

Google Adwords Qualified Individual Status

The Google Advertising Professionals program has migrated from the old Adwords interface  to the new Adwords Ajax based interface.

Google Advertising Professionals Old Interface

Google Advertising Professionals Old Interface

For some reason, My Client Center data isn’t linked to my original Google Adwords account which I created on March 5, 2002.

March 5 2002 September 8 2009

March 5 2002 September 8 2009

If it were, the days since my first Adwords account creation would be closer to 3,000 than the 1,756 days reported.

Google Advertising Professionals Company

Google Advertising Professionals Company

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Reaching Brand Advertising Impression Goals?

September 5, 2009

Watching a college football game for the first time in what seemed like years, I noticed an innovative brand advertising placement from Allstate Insurance.

Brand Advertising Impression Goals

Brand Advertising Impression Goals

Apparently field goal net advertising has been in use for several years but tonight was the first time I noticed a brand’s ad there.

With the price for the consumers attention at an all time high, will we soon see more innovative brand message placements in traditional media like those now appearing in college football field goal nets?

When will the NFL start leasing their field goal net “real estate” to brand advertisers like Allstate?

Surely NFL field goal advertising is imminent.

What other traditional media consumer attention zones could become potential brand advertising hot spots?

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Posted in Attention Zones, Brand, Brand Advertisers, Brand Advertising, Brand Advertising Impression Goals, Field Goal Net Advertising, NFL | Leave a Comment »

Editing Google Adwords In A Spreadsheet

September 4, 2009

Editing your Google Adwords account in a spreadsheet without being versed in Google Adwords Editor just became significantly easier for Adwords users of all levels.

Within an Ad Group, click “More actions” then “Spreadsheet edit” to add, edit, delete, or pause keywords. Adwords account managers can also set or edit unique keyword bids and Destination URLs with Google’s spreadsheets.

Google Adwords Spreadsheet Edit Feature

Google Adwords Spreadsheet Edit Feature

Adwords Spreadsheet edit isn’t Adwords Editor but it does provide Adwords advertisers with a similar level of online account control and management from within the Adwords user interface.

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Posted in Ad Group, Adwords Advertisers, Adwords Editor, Google Adwords Spreadsheet, Spreadsheet Edit | Leave a Comment »

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