Introducing the Tech B2B Knowledge Center

Back in February, the AdWords Retail team launched the Retail Knowledge Center to provide retail advertisers with up-to-date industry and product information. Our Tech B2B (that's Technology Business to Business) team is happy to announce a similar resource for advertisers offering business technology solutions. Megan Unyi is here to tell us more:

We'd like to invite advertisers to visit the new Tech B2B Knowledge Center, which features tips for success with AdWords, advertiser case studies, links to recent articles and research, and news of other Google products that may help your business. This site will be updated on a regular basis to keep you abreast of new trends and tools.

If you're looking for even more of the latest industry information and pointers, we hope that you'll check out the latest Technology Business to Business Newsletter. In this issue, we examine the importance of search in the buying cycle, best practices for optimizing landing pages, and the growing significance of blogs and other social media for business technology marketers. We also take an in-depth look at DataMirror, a provider of real-time data integration solutions that used the Google Content Network to increase sales, extend its reach, and boost brand recognition.

We hope you find this information helpful for your business, and feel free to send us any questions or comments you might have.

If you'd like to receive newsletters in your inbox, you can sign up within your AdWords account.

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew

Booking.com numbers broken out of Priceline results

Priceline released their numbers recently and I decided not to report on them originally. They were great numbers (even though losses widened due to litigation expenses) and analysts put up their expectations all over the place. In addition the numbers confirmed the pre-eminence of Priceline in Europe with European sales eclipsing US sales for the first time. The reason I did not report on it was because while this was a great story it did not add much to my other reports on the company. I had already commented on how they are getting it right in Europe and right in integration of Booking.com and Activehotels.com.

However the recent announcement of a new UK MD for Booking.com (Rachel Howes) has encouraged me to blog about the Priceline European results. The reason is that the report I found on Travelmole does something I have not seen from Priceline before - it breaks out sales for a brand. Specifically it states that Booking.com annual gross bookings are €1.2 billion on 12.5 million room nights sold in the 12 months to March 31. This is the first time I have seen a combined sales number for Activehotels and Bookings. Clearly puts them as the largest in hotels in Europe.

Important to remember that Booking.com charges no reservation fee or cancellation fee and takes nothing upfront from the customer. As a result there is likely to be a higher cancellation rate for Booking.com bookings versus other players. My guess is at least a quarter - increasing the total booked room nights with Booking to the 15 million room night level. I am sure that the cancellation rate it is a highly tracked metric and should have a team on it working on product and marketing ways to reduce it.

UPDATE - received an email from a Priceline representative who noted that Priceline have broken out European results in their reporting for the last few quarters. This is correct. The difference I was making was between highlighting "European results" and "highlighting brand results". I had assumed that European numbers had included the sales from the Priceline branded European sites (ie Priceline.co.uk) and not included sales on Booking.com branded sites (including Activehotels.com) generated from customers outside of Europe. I have asked for clarification on whether or not the Booking.com numbers from the above are the same as European numbers or if there was a difference. Will let you know when I hear back.

How to Avoid Recruiting the Wrong People To Your MLM Business

Sometimes, for those of us in MLM, it seems that we lose distributors like fly! We wonder why are people abandoning us like this!

The truth is, it's up to us to use this top secret in MLM. What is it?

Being SELECTIVE in your MLM recruiting will eliminate a tons of heartache and frustration and bringing in the wrong people and expecting them to explode, and they only disappear. This isnt' always easy.

Doug Fireball in his article on this topic says that:

"MLM Recruiting has always been and always will be a SEPARATING process: A process that separates the people who are open to a new idea from those who are not. Those are the only two types of folks that exist. Ones that embrace looking new ideas, and ones who resist them. Many times, folks who are CONVINCED to come into the business, but yet are not really sold on the idea of Network Marketing, fizzle out quickly"

Sounds kind of familiar doesn't it? Doug goes on to say that :

"All MLM recruiting is in a nutshell is looking for folks who are of the same philosophy that we are, and if they are not, make them a customer and get referrals.

Network marketing is a philosophy of personal growth, increase, success, helping others, making a difference, wanting the BEST out of life, and being open to new ideas and cutting-edge thinking.

Most folks are not even close to that, they simply drift through life. Why should it be any different in this mlm business? They simply drift through MLM"

Can you see why it is very important to carefully choose who will join us in our MLM business and who is coachable?

I know I can! More on this to follow.

To discover how to save yourself years of failure and frustration in your home business, visit http://mentormonique.bigmlmtruths.com/?mad=9091

Google Apps for WordPress bloggers

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

First off, congratulations to the WordPress team for recently hitting the one meeeeellllion blog mark. This is a great achievement for WordPress and another milestone for the whole blogosphere.

We were also thrilled to see that WordPress now recommends Google Apps for custom-domain email accounts to bloggers who have their own internet domains. This means that bloggers who use WordPress can send and receive email for free with Google Apps on the same domain where they publish their wordpress blogs.

If you don't happen to be one of WordPress' million bloggers but want fully customized email accounts and much more, Google Apps will work for you too. You can use Google Apps on an existing domain, or register a new domain when you sign up.

Simple tips for tracking campaign performance for offline businesses

While many of our readers may have been using AdWords to advertise their online stores for years, we also recognize that some of our readers may own a brick-and-mortar business for which it is harder to measure the effectiveness of online campaigns. For those readers, it's important to remember that success isn't measured by how many potential customers click your ad, but by what happens after those clicks. Today, we'd like to share with you a few simple tips that can help you assess the effectiveness of your AdWords campaign.

1. Start with the very basics. Ask customers who call or walk through your door, 'How did you hear about us?' This is a quick way to discover how many customers find you through Google. Also, you may try putting a short 'How did you find us?' form (but not a pop-up) on your website. It's relatively easy to do, and the results may surprise you.
   
   
2. Note the number of sales, leads, or calls received before and after you begin using AdWords, and compare the results. Then try the same kind of tracking when you change your AdWords ad text or keywords. If the number of your customer calls rise significantly, then the change was probably a good one.
   
   
3. Create a new business email address or phone number, and place the new contact information just on your website. (Keep using your existing email and phone information for flyers, the phone book, and other offline campaigns.) Start counting the number of prospects who come through the new contact information, and you'll know exactly which customers come from your website. Many email services, including our personal favorite, offer email addresses at no cost.
   

And of course, if you are using AdWords Standard Edition (as opposed to AdWords Starter Edition), you have access to advanced reporting tools that can help you track sales, leads, sign-ups, and other critical business information.

We wish you the best success with your campaign reporting and growing your business!

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

The eBay - Squidoo Connection

I didn't mean to, but it seems I've been holding out on you by not blogging here about Squidoo. When I discovered Squidoo several weeks ago, little did I know that I was going to fall in love. Well, you could call it love or you could call it an addiction, but either way I'm crazy about Squidoo and how it has worked to improve my online business, and especially my eBay business.

Quoting from the Squidoo home page, "Squidoo is the world's most popular site for people who want to build a page about their passions." Squidoo also has its own interesting vocabulary. For instance, each page on squidoo is called a lens and each person who builds a page is called a lensmaster. Squids have big eyes and long tentacles and they make an awfully cute logo, thus the name Squidoo. It isn't a blog site, though you could create a lens about your blog. You could create a lens about anything you love or want to promote. Thus, I have created a lens about eBay. (I've created a bunch of other lenses, too, but I will try not to digress.)

The best way to see what Squidoo is all about is to visit there and explore the lenses. A great way to understand why Squidoo is what it is is to explore the mind of Seth Godin, its creator. A superb way to do that, and especially in relation to how Squidoo can benefit your eBay business, is to listen to this interview that Ina Steiner of AuctionBytes recently conducted with Seth Godin. Ina and Seth talk about Seth's latest book (did I mention that he's also a prolific writer and highly sought-after speaker?) and how the concept Seth writes about relates to eBay sellers.

So, if you're curious about Squidoo or about how Seth Godin and Squidoo can help you become an exceptional business person, do take 11 minutes and 20 seconds to listen to the interview. Then visit Squidoo and do some exploring to decide if becoming a lensmaster might be something you should do. You may start, if you wish, with my eBay Squidoo lens (and I thank you very much).

(To build your own Squidoo lens, click on the cute squid below.)

In defence of Qantas

I am well known for my comments on how Qantas needs to work on improving its customer service, get its Video On Demand system to work, correct the branding and business strategy for ReadyRooms and other comments best described as constructive criticism. However I do not agree with the harsh criticism coming out of a report from Australian consumer watchdog magazine Choice.

The Survey was based on responses from 4,000 subscribers to Choice magazine and has the following comments in the summary:

The surprise result was that Qantas — the national carrier and the airline most survey respondents had flown with — was rated the least satisfactory airline for international travel and the second least satisfactory in the domestic market. [my emphasis]

Newspapers that picked up the story carried even more harsh commentary. The Sydney Morning Herald said

The public's perception of Qantas has sunk so low that a survey by the consumer advocacy magazine Choice has given the carrier the lowest ratings for leg room, value for money, in-flight service and food of any major airline serving Australia. [my emphasis]

News.com.au was even tougher declaring

QANTAS has been forced to defend its customer service after being voted the worst international airline in an Australian survey [my emphasis]

I am a top tier Qantas flyer and would love them to make product improvements in how attentive the staff are, the speed of responses to requests for assistance on board, the ground staff's attitude and the "cost" for free frequent flyer tickets. Particularly I want a return to a customer service culture rather than a process culture. However to call them the worst of the international airlines (even with the qualifier "major") servicing Australia is simply untrue and a misrepresentation.

For a start the survey only covered 7 airlines - Singapore, Emirates, Cathay, Thai, Air New Zealand, Qantas. Yet all of the news coverage sounded definitive in declaring Qantas the worst. Simply not true. There is no contest in picking Qantas over scores of major airlines that fly to Australia but are not included on this list including United, Korean, Asiana, Gulf Air (though they just wound up Australian services), ANA, JAL and more.

Secondly even if you focus on just those on the list, the comparison is not fair. Thai and Malaysian have amongst the most cramped seats in the sky with terrible in-flight entertainment. All factors being equal (which means no significant price difference), no one of sound mind would fly with them over Qantas.

Finally the survey itself has been conducted with flawed methodology. The responses where voluntary and by means of filling in an insert to a magazine. There was nothing to ensure that there was a reasonable demographic split in the results. Most likely few if any of the respondents had flow more than two of the airlines in the list and the majority had only flown Qantas. Therefore you have a self selecting sample size that has experienced only a limited range of the products being sample. The effect was that there was a outpouring of anti-Qantas angst and little in the way of balance consumer feedback.

In defence of Choice, they acknowledge this a little in their summary section saying

We can only speculate that the difference in results beween that survey and CHOICE’s might be due to ours having an Australian rather than international base, and a tendency for people to have high expectations of their national carrier and so to be particularly critical of it.

Even with my defence of Qantas in this post there are important conclusions that Qantas should draw from this report. Though the survey is flawed, the conclusions over stated and sample size too small - the fact that 4000 people wrote in to say they were annoyed that Qantas does not deliver what they promise but still fly them is an important indicator of what could happen to Qantas if more competition is introduced. Qantas plays a dangerous game in simply relying on the size of its frequent flyer membership to measure loyalty. Surveys like this - while flawed - can provide a window into pent up consumer demand for change and improvement.

Oh and shame on the media organisations for falling for this beat up.

The Innovation Index races to 21%, crushes major U.S. indices - Weekly Report 05-25-07

The Innovation Index five-peats – five week of back-to-back gains. The Innovation Index added 3% last week, and is now up 21% for the year. The Innovation Index has already surpassed the 2006 performance, and we are just in May 2007. Could this be the banner year for The Innovation Index? The Innovation Index easily crushes the major U.S. indices including the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones. S & P 500 was unchanged, and is up 7% for the year; NASDAQ was unchanged, and is up 6% for the year; the Dow Jones Index lost a fraction, and is now up 8% for the year. This is the fifth week in 2007 where The Innovation Index is having double-digit gains.

The Innovation Index closed at 83.54 on May 25, 2007, up 21% from the closing price of 69.31 on December 29, 2006.



What caused The Innovation Index to add another 3% in one week? Five innovators caused the jump, the largest increase coming from Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM) that went up 10% in just one week, and is now up 30% for the year.

“NetSuite Inc. (www.netsuite.com) and iEnterprises (www.ienterprises.com), announced that iEnterprises and NetSuite will be offering Mobile Edge for NetSuite(R), a wireless application designed specifically for NetSuite customers, so they can easily mobilize NetSuite for use on BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM).” – RIM can boast on-demand software suite on the BlackBerry. RIM also completed the status updates on its financials, and benefited from upgrades.

8 of the Top 20 Innovators showed positive gains (compared to 10 in the previous week), 8 of the Top 20 Innovators showed negative gains (compared to 7 in the previous week), and 4 Innovators were unchanged last week (compared to 3 in the previous week).

Can The Innovation Index six-peat, and have another week of gains? The Innovation Index is on a roll, and knows no stopping.

Weekly Advances

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) was up 3% last week and is now up 5% for the year; Google increased the Search Market Share in the U.S. by 1.4% contributing to an additional 100 million additional searches. Google announced an innovative new Translation feature - Google Translate - that automatically provides the results of a search query in your own language from any other language (that Google supports).

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was up another 8% in just one week, and is now up a whopping 74% for the year. New innovations, analyst upgrades and short squeeze contributed to the rise.

“Leading online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced it has acquired Brilliance Audio (www.brillianceaudio.com), the largest independent publisher of audiobooks in the United States. The acquisition will enable Amazon to work closely with the book publishing community to further expand the number of books produced in audio format and provide customers with an even greater selection of audiobooks to find, discover and buy.” “Amazon.com is also planning to launch DRM-Free MP3 music Download Store with songs and albums from EMI Music and more than 12,000 other labels.” “Amazon.com's grocery store launched new Subscribe & Save feature allowing automatic fulfillment of most popular items.” – Amazon is innovating on all cylinders, and these announced innovations will positively impact Amazon’s growth in 2007 and beyond. In particular, the millions of songs that Amazon.com will offer for MP3 music lovers.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was up 3% and is now up 34% for the year; there is a huge momentum building for the soon to be launched iPhone, including rampant speculation on the release date, and rollout frenzy. “Prudential reiterated overweight target for Apple, and raised their target on AAPL to $125 from $115 following meetings with the mgmt. The firm says mgmt appeared confident on a number of fronts including 1) its prospects for Mac share growth over time, 2) the potential for iPhone success, and 3) the viability of the iPod platform despite the impending launch of iPhone. The firm says their checks suggest 1) continued momentum for Mac sales, 2) a timely launch of iPhone, and 3) series of new iPod launches beginning as early as June, extending through September.” – All these timely innovations bode well for Apple and Apple investors.

Discount retailer Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), amid innovations and strength in its credit-card business and better margins, reported an 18% jump in first-quarter profit on Wednesday. Target was up 4% in one week, and is now up 7% for the year.

On a conference call with analysts, Chief Executive Bob Ulrich called the results "excellent," adding that Target's (TGT) share of the market against competitors such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) and Sears (SHLD) climbed to 9%.

According to MarketWatch, for the quarter ended May 5, Target said it earned $651 million, or 75 cents a share, compared with last year's income of $554 million, or 63 cents a share.

Total sales for the Minneapolis-based discounter rose 9.2% to $14.04 billion from $12.86 billion a year ago. Revenues from operations climbed 9% to $13.62 billion while credit-card revenues were up 13% at $418 million. The most impressive data was: Sales at stores open longer than a year, which retailers use to measure growth, rose 4.3%.

The results outpaced Wall Street's expectations for a per-share profit of 71 cents but came up short of a forecast for $14.17 billion in sales.

Target said it still expects to post earnings of $3.60 a share for the full-year period, in line with the average forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Financial. And although quarterly guidance was not offered, CFO Scovanner called analysts' average estimates for the second, third and fourth quarters "respectable."

General Electric Co. - GE (NYSE: GE) introduced 11 new ecomagination products, services and projects, including the world's first hybrid locomotive and the ecomagination Homebuilder Program - a comprehensive package of energy efficient appliances, lighting, advanced building design and real-time energy management combined with a GE mortgage that rewards energy efficiency.

"Customer demand for the most advanced, most fuel-efficient and least emissive technologies is what sparked ecomagination," said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt. "Increasing demand from our customers is what is making it succeed beyond our expectations.

"Green is happening everywhere across GE," Immelt said. "From our transportation products to renewable energy to clean water to how we make television shows and movies to home building and mortgages, green is truly universal at GE." - GE was up 2% for the week, and importantly, is now in the black for the year – up 1%.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) “announced an agreement with Sanook!, the leading online portal in Thailand, to launch an e-commerce site that will enable individuals and businesses in Thailand to participate in local trade as well as cross border trade through eBay's global Web sites. Under this revenue-sharing agreement, the co-branded site -- Sanook! eBay -- will be managed and operated under a newly formed Sanook! subsidiary. The Thai-language local site is expected to launch in approximately five to seven months. According to research firm IDC, Thailand currently has more than 16 million Internet users - a figure expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent through 2009. The agreement gives eBay the opportunity to participate and drive economic growth in the region. Once the site is launched, Thailand will be the 38th market where eBay has a local presence.” - Way to go global eBay! eBay was even last week, and is up 9% for the year. I attended TiEcon 2007 the previous weekend, and was inspired by Meg Whitman’s keynote presentation, President and CEO of eBay. Check out: Innovation and Leadership lessons from Meg Whitman, eBay CEO and President, and top Innovator

Weekly Declines

The news of the previous week was Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquisition of AQuantive (NASDAQ: AQNT). Microsoft hits a walk-off home run with Aquantive acquisition. In last week’s announced innovations: “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 received U.S. Department of Defense 5015.2 Certification. 'Forza Motorsport 2' raced into living rooms on Xbox 360 worldwide.” – How hot is the Indian business for Microsoft? Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft India, in his keynote presentation at TiEcon 2007 believes it is “absolutely red hot”. Opportunities abound everywhere. Microsoft was down 1%, however is up 2% for the year.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) saw the biggest decline at 4% last week, however is still up 12% for the year; the rumors of a potential acquisition by Microsoft fizzled out upon Microsoft’s AQuantive acquisition and subsequent statements suggesting that Microsoft is set in the online ad business.

Yearly Leaders and Laggards

Who sits on the top of The Innovation Index? Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) gained 8% last week and leads all innovators with 74% gains for the year. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is next up with 34% appreciation for the year. America Movil (NYSE: AMX) stayed even last week to remain at 31% gains for the year. There are five other innovators with double-digit gains for the year, including: 3M Company (NYSE: MMM) at 13%, HP added 2% to grow to 11% (NYSE: HPQ), Intel Corporation (NYSE: INTC) at 10%, RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) at 30% and Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) at 12%.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) is down 19% for the year; can Starbucks rally in the second half of the year?

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index has returned 119% over the last five years. This assumes an investment in each stock of The Innovation Index (buying each stock). An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $219 as of December 29, 2006. By comparison, $100 invested in each of S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index returned $124. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by 77% over the last five years.

The Normalized Innovation Index has returned an impressive 174% over the last five years. This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001.

Alphabetical list of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Dell Inc. - (NASDAQ: DELL)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
Southwest Airlines Co. - (NYSE: LUV)
Starbucks Corporation - (NASDAQ: SBUX)
Target Corp. - (NYSE: TGT)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - (NYSE: WMT)
Yahoo! Inc. - (NASDAQ: YHOO)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2007, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: I invest in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.

Inside AdSense now speaks Japanese

We're excited to let you know that we've just launched a 7th international AdSense blog -- Inside AdSense: AdSense 日本版 公式ブログ. There, you'll be able to read up on the latest feature launches and find answers to your AdSense questions, all in Japanese. Going forward, our Japanese support team will provide optimization advice to help you maximize your earnings, and will also feature Japanese-speaking publishers who have found success with the AdSense program.

Visit the new blog today, and don't forget to subscribe to receive posts directly via email!

Posted by the Japanese AdSense blog team

For $10.5 billion you can rule the world part 2

In part 1 of "For $10.5 billion you can rule the world" I talked about the impact on the online trave industry of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and WPP undertaking a combined $10.5 billion acquisition spree in online advertising. At the end of the post I reach out to online marketing guru Mike Potts of e-interactive to hear his thoughts. has sent through some comments in the new part 2 of this article here. As part 2 in this story here is what Mike has to say...

Google is the “superpower” and looks to remain that way in the mid-term at least. Looking at the online marketing results of my travel clients who are spreading marketing spend across a few important media, Google PPC wins hands down from an ROI perspective. Add to this the ease of managing the campaigns from both an agency and in-house perspective, and the ease of integration of Adwords into Google Analytics, and the combination is all but astonishing.

The major impact for all industries - travel included - is that it should bring more powerful marketing tools to the market for everyone to use.

Google seems to repeating patterns of old, and everyone else is just playing catch-up:

• Google Step 1 - build in-house solution, or acquire a bad one and release an “okay” product; and
  
• Google Step 2 - figure out what the market really needs and go and buy someone else to support that.

There a now three clear examples of this strategy at Google:

• Google video followed by the acquisition of Youtube (so far a pure media land-grab rather than tech acquisition perhaps)
• Acquisition of Urchin which became Google Analytics V1, following by the acquisition of MeasureMap which became the awesome Google Analytics V2 (or perhaps V1 squared)
• Google Adsense followed by the DoubleClick deal (or perhaps Adsense squared)

As far as Google is concerned it continues to make previously high end technology and media space available to many more smaller companies and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this repeated with DoubleClick’s ad serving and tracking technology. Imagine, for instance, that a small online travel agent could judge Adwords ROI or earn money from Adsense on the basis of ads SEEN (and not clicked) but where that user still made a purchase later (TV style). The “view based” advert ROI metric is well used by DoubeClick as a way of realizing value from ad campaigns.

On a practical level, my travel clients are desperately trying to find ways of finding new users for their sites (outside of Google), and these acquisitions should make entities like RealMedia and aQuantive (and their media placements/markets/technology) more readily available to smaller businesses. Lets hope the ROI’s lives up to Google levels.

5 Steps To Successful Joint Ventures for Your Home Business

Hello and Happy Memorial Day! I hope you are finding this a great day to relax with family and to reflect on the sacrifices our armed have made in order for us to live in freedom. We have much to be thankful for.

Today's home business tip is on how to create successful joint ventures. This can be useful in many business. I hope you find it beneficial.

5 Steps To Successful Joint Ventures

by: Raam Anand

Most Internet Marketing related ezines have carried at least one article on Joint Ventures; probably many.

JV's are THE MOST preferred and fastest way to increase sales and cash flows.

It's no longer a secret!

Everyone knows a good JV is the master key to online success.

But... why many people are failing to use this master key? Why so many website owners are not able to make use of this powerful strategy?

Here are some reasons:-

1) Other marketers are NOT WAITING for your JV offer. Before sending your JV offer, make sure to address the question "What's in it for the JV Partner?". Unless you give a compelling reason, most partners are not looking forward to your offer. No, it won't work that way...like, you offer one of your products for free and your partner will gladly endorse it to her list. No, it won't.

It takes time to craft an irresistible offer. The offer should be beneficial to your potential partner and her customers/subscribers.

Take it from me... I told you it takes time... but it's definitely possible.

2) Many JV offers are passed onto the "recycle bin" with even being read (I told you... they are NOT waiting)

Some leading marketers get about 200 JV proposals every week! May be more. Most of these JV offers doesn't catch the attention of the busy marketer.

Some are lost due to SPAM email filters.

Solution?

Follow-up is the key. If you consistently follow-up, your chances of getting the attention of your potential JV partner is very high. Usually a second email will get the response.

A mixed-mode follow-up is sure to get higher success rates. An initial email followed by another email reminder and a phone call should normally get you going.

3) Another strong de-motivating factor is NOT sending personalized JV offers. If your proposal does not "speak" directly to your partner, it's chances of succeeding are very thin.

That's why I told you earlier, it takes time to create your JV proposal. You need to visit your partner's website, subscribe to their newsletter, study their online content and read their publications and articles before you attempt to draft your proposal.

Your JV proposal should address your potential partner directly, using their name. Mentioning a few things about their website, products, ezines or articles in your offer will surely catch their attention.

4) JV partners are not your affiliates. Differentiate your resellers with your strategic JV partner. To drastically raise the success rate of your proposal, offer a higher commission than your affiliates.

For example, if you are offering a 50% commission for your affiliates, your JV partner should be offered 60% or more.

5) Targeting a large corporation for your JV is a surefire way to failure. First, try and do several JV's with businesses similar or smaller than your own and build a track record. Then you can approach bigger businesses with a record of your successes.

Large businesses have large problems everyday to tackle. They have struggled hard to build their enterprise. They have their own range of products to sell and keep their customers happy.

However, if you have a compelling story to tell, along with factual proof of your claims, it will definitely bring you windfall profits.

I'm not discouraging you to keep away from these giants. I'm just telling you the right way to approach.

You see friend, I've revealed to you some key tips on Joint Ventures. Now, it's up to you. Follow these rules and create a compelling offer and I'm sure you will succeed in making highly profitable Joint Ventures.

About The Author Copyright (C) 2004 Raam Anand With Raam's Joint Venture Manager, you could make 10.. 20.. even 30-times more money! Click to learn more about JV Manager: http://www.infoYOGIS.com/track.cgi?1

Buying Wholesale Lots on eBay

Buy it on ebay, re-sell it on ebay. What a great place to get started! If you're already a buyer on ebay, you may have noticed the category called "wholesale lots" when you are searching for an item. While there is a "wholesale lots" sub-category included within most of the main categories, you can access all of them on this page.

A word of caution about lots advertised as "wholesale" on ebay. More often than not these items are not listed by true wholesalers but are repackaged lots from ebay sellers who are cleaning out their own inventories. Sometimes they will be items that the particular seller could not sell individually. Often, though, they are smaller lots that the seller has acquired in bulk and broken down into smaller, more affordable lots for other sellers on a budget or without a place to store a large inventory.

You'll also find that some people don't take seriously the definition of a "lot" and use this category to offer single items at what they consider to be wholesale prices.

So, as should always be the case, buyer beware. Make sure you understand exactly what it is you are bidding on. I have found real treasures from the "wholesale lots" page and you will, too, if you spend some time being a wise shopper.

"Absolutely Red Hot" Growth in Indian Business: Ravi Venkatesan - Chairman Microsoft India - at TiEcon 2007

Ravi Venkatesan is the chairman of Microsoft India, and is responsible for Microsoft's marketing, operational and business development efforts in India. Venkatesan provides a single point of leadership for Microsoft in all of India. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is one of the top 20 innovators of The Innovation Index.

Venkatesan delivered a keynote presentation at the recently concluded TiEcon 2007 in Santa Clara, California and shared with the audience of entrepreneurs, CEOs and venture capitalists the opportunities for growth and innovation in India.

And why not? The current annual Indian GDP growth is 9% and is showing no signs of slowdown, Indian business has unprecedented access to capital, Indian innovation and entrepreneurship is booming, Indian business is riding a wave of "incredible confidence", over 100 Indian corporations have market capitalization of over $1 billion, Indian IT exports are poised to grow 30% to 35% yearly, major multi-nationals have made multi-billion dollar investments in India, Indian manufacturing, retail, real estate and exports are becoming bell-weathers - Venkatesan calls this current state and growth of economy and business in India as "absolutely red hot."

Venkatesan believes there is abundant opportunity in every market sector that is facing big societal problems with "For Profit" business models. India is a "nation to be built" and hence is directing huge amounts of capital, resources and manpower to meet the needs of this unprecedented growth that he compares to "19th century America".

Venkatesan outlined six major opportunities in industries that are showing the highest potential for growth and innovation in India since they have "huge societal problems":

1. Communications - led by mobile, broadband, VoIP, SMS and more by innovators such as Ambanis of Reliance and Bharati. The cell phone has become ubiquitous in India, and everyone from a businessman, taxi driver, to a vegetable "laari waala" is using cell phone for business and entertainment.

2. Energy - with growth in renewable energy, green energy, solar energy, nuclear power, and more led by innovators such as Tanti - who started with 2 windmills and has now grown his company into a major energy powerhouse.

3. Water - led by access to pure drinking water which is a huge healthcare problem in villages, especially when the cost of water is 11 rupees a bottle, and the cost of treatment from healthcare problems resulting from drinking adulterated water is growing.

4. Healthcare - with 100s of millions of people seeking better and longer health, a large segment of aging population, foreign residents seeking better healthcare solutions in India creating a new market of "medical tourism", led by corporations such as Apollo, Ranbaxy, Fortis and more

5. Agriculture - with new innovations in delivering fresh food and focus on end-to-end supply chain led by companies such as Reliance Fresh, and through access to micro-finance for Indian farmers and agriculture companies.

6. Education - with focus on English and IT, leadership and employability, skill gaps and K-12 - despite the high GDP growth, a large percentage of India is still illiterate and requires bold initiatives led by state and national government and private entrepreneurs. For instance, can education tutorials be delivered through cell phones as an online service, especially when cell phones are being used by the largest segment of the population.

Venkatesan quipped that the biggest problem Microsoft has is that a majority of the SMB and consumer market does not want to pay for software. He provided some examples on how Microsoft has used creativity, flexible service-based business model and customer focused solution approach to address some of the IT problems facing small business and pharmaceutical industry in Tirupur and Ahmadabad.

Finally, Venkatesan provided four key takeaways for entrepreneurs who want to seize the Indian opportunity:

1. Address huge societal problems with For-Profit business models and focus on your most significant challenge, and "inclusive growth."

2. Don't forget entrepreneurship 101 - obsess about your consumer or the customer, and do rigorous thinking.

3. "Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast" - Venkatesan quoted Mukesh Ambani's mantra of growth that every entrepreneur should follow.

4. Talent. Talent. Talent. Hire the best and the smartest people who have a strong sense of purpose and believe in the larger mission of the company.

Venkatesan's presentation style was extemporaneous and to the point, without any slides, straight from the gut. His experience with the Indian industry was without a doubt. His poise, panache, and no-nonsense conviction made for an audience of entrepreneur believers who couldn’t wait to hop on to the next plane to India in search of new opportunities.

Also check:
Innovation and Leadership lessons from Meg Whitman, eBay CEO and President, and top Innovator

Innovation Lessons from the Top Innovators and 13-year old CEO at TiEcon 2007

TiEcon 2007 was hosted by TiE – The Indus Entrepreneurs at the Santa Clara convention center.

And past articles on innovations and growth in India:

Made in India - Innovations in Software Operations at the Top Innovators

The Growing Global Indian Innovation

Madame BOOT speaks - please save Tuscany

My wife - Madame BOOT - has taken over the blog. Demanding that a word be blogged in the direction of the campaign to save Castelfalfi. If the Sydney Morning Herald and others are to be believed, the entire Tuscan village of Castelfalfi has been bought by TUI. They plan to convert the location into a Tuscan resort for the German market. A ToscanaWeld if you like.

The small village is around 10 square kilometres of land and is reported to have cost around €250 million. Apparently title comes with everything in the village except the church. It will be able to serve 3,200 guests at a time. Travelling to Tuscany to hang out with 3,000 Germans seems strange enough. I wonder want sort of food they will serve: sauerkraut pizza; pesto flavoured bratwurst; or litre steins of chianti.

Madame BOOT is Italian and is throwing pasta at the walls at the thought of a Tuscany theme park - Germans or no Germans. What next: Irish bars in Florence (yes - already there); a Mexican restaurant in Rome (yep - they have one); a McDonalds in the Vatican (there is one less than 500 meters away at Roma Aurelia); or an Ikea in Milan (there are two).

The fact that Starbucks has not yet made it to Italy gives us all hope.

Note - can't find a mention of this deal on the TUI website but the SMH is crediting the Guardian so will assume is true for now.

UPDATE - The Upgrade: Travel Better blog has found other great example of a tour operator buying up a piece of one country exclusively for guest from other country. In this example a US operator Secrets Resorts is aggressively marketing their American themed bars and hotels located in Mexico and the Caribbean. You will see from the TravelWeekly article that they leave no hotdog unturned to ensure that the holiday experience is as American as possible - more like home than home. Reminds me of the Simpsons episdoe - "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" where the family visit the Americatown restaurant in Tokyo. Unfortunately here it is no joke.

Make Money Online With Picture Sharing Community Sites

By Luis Galarza - Internet Marketing Training Blog

The Web 2.0 Picture Sharing Market Is A Great Open Opportunity To Make Money Online From Home!

Picture sharing community sites are all over... looks like almost everyone on the Internet visits, upload, and download pictures from this Web 2.0 social networks. Which opens a big opportunity to make money from them... Read my article "Take Advantage Of Social Picture Sharing Viral Business Opportunity"

So, why picture sharing sites? Because, people love them, they have a viral word-of-mouth marketing power, which make them easy to promote online, and they are easy to monetize!

You can make money with Google Adsense, Affiliate Programs, or your own products...

You can have this site done for no less of $400 by a web designer or you can use advance picture sharing software that can help any beginner or advance marketer build a fully functional pic sharing website community. A excellent software I truly recommend is Viral Pix Software, because it has viral sharing tools, and uses Ajax features to make an even more powerful site.

Read the top article for more information on how to make money with your own picture sharing community site.

To your success,

Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Consultant


About Author: Luis Galarza is a respectable Internet Marketing and Small Business Consultant in the area of Leominster and Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Also, he had teach 100's of entrepreneurs how to make money online without a their own product. For more information about his Free Affiliate Marketing Training.

A proud member of

The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.

Increase Squeeze Page Opt-In Conversions With Images

By Luis Galarza - Internet Marketing Training Blog

Boost Your Squeeze Pages or Name Squeeze Sites Conversions Simply By Adding A Good Quality Image!

Improving your sales of opt-in conversions is the most important aspect of any online business that's why research, testing, and tracking needs to be your everyday task. I know for a fact that a constant research of your Internet marketing testing results, will give you a better picture of what's working and what it's not working...

And this goes to squeeze pages as well.

From personal and others online marketers research we found that adding a high quality image to your squeeze page can increase your opt-in subscribers up to 40%... Yes, a simple image, but well design image.

Avoid any crappy looking image because instead of improving conversions it will hurt it, plus your company and website branding will be damage.

So, type of graphic can you use for your opt-in capture pages?

A professional design website header, ebook cover or membership card (depending if you giving away a report or free newsletter membership), and a footer image will give your name squeeze site a quick boost in conversions...

NOTE: Not because you adding a nice graphic to your site you are going to add a poor sales copy, that will be a big mistake. The graphic will increase your squeeze pages conversions, but will not do the sale, your web copy will do the actual selling.

To your success,

Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Consultant


About Author: Luis Galarza is a respectable Internet Marketing and Small Business Consultant in the area of Leominster and Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Also, he had teach 100's of entrepreneurs how to make money online without a their own product. For more information about his Free Affiliate Marketing Training.

A proud member of

The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.

Click-to-play video ads available in three new formats

A year ago, we told you about the release of click-to-play video ads and since then, this new ad type has proven to be successful for AdWords advertisers in nearly 40 countries. Starting today, advertisers have three new click-to-play video ad formats to choose from: the 728x90 Leaderboard, the 120x600 Skyscraper, and the 160x600 Wide Skyscraper. These join the original four formats: the 300x250 Medium Rectangle, the 336x280 Large Rectangle, the 200x200 Small Square, and the 250x250 Square.

As you can see in the example below, users will first see a static opening image along with a play button. Once a user clicks the play button, the click-to-play video ad will begin to play within the ad unit. The actual size of the video will be smaller than it appears in the original four formats, but the video will play with the same crystal clear quality.



The new formats offer advertisers more options on how and where they can display their click-to-play video ads while offering publishers more ways to place these ads on their sites.

If you're new to click-to-play video ads, you can find instructions on how to get started here. To view a few examples of existing click-to-play click-to-play video ads, check out the click-to-play video ads demo page as well as the comprehensive click-to-play video ads guide in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

Make room for new video ad formats

This week marked the one-year anniversary of the launch of click-to-play video ads. To that end, we thought it'd be fitting to introduce three new members of our click-to-play video ads family: the 728x90 Leaderboard, the 120x600 Skyscraper, and the 160x600 Wide Skyscraper. Previously, video ads were only enabled for the 300x250 Medium Rectangle, the 336x280 Large Rectangle, the 200x200 Small Square, and the 250x250 Square.

Just like before, users will see a play button on these three ad formats when a video ad is available - this play button will appear on the right side of the Leaderboard and in the upper half of the Skyscraper formats. Once a user clicks the play button, the video ad will begin to play within the ad unit. Here's an example:



Generating earnings with videos ads in these new formats will also remain the same. If the advertiser has chosen to display the click-to-play video ad as a cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) ad, you will be paid for every valid impression of the static image, regardless of plays or clicks to the advertiser's site. If the click-to-play video ad is a cost-per-click (CPC) ad, you'll generate earnings from valid clicks to the advertiser's site rather than clicks on the play button. In either case, you and your site visitors are free to watch the video as frequently as you like. Please keep in mind that you'll need to be opted into image ads in order to receive video ads, but we aren't able to guarantee that video ads will always be available for your content.

We hope these new click-to-play video ad formats will help enhance the advertising experience for both advertisers and publishers. For advertisers, this change provides additional options and inventory for creating click-to-play video ads. At the same time, publishers will benefit from the increased competition among text, image, and video ads in these three formats; if a click-to-play video ad appears in one of your ad units, this means that it has won the auction against other ads and will generate the maximum earnings for you.

If you'd like more information about click-to-play video ads, feel free to visit our Help Center.

Posted by Sandra Tsui - AdSense Publisher Support

How To Use a Top Ten List To Market Your MLM Product or Service

Many people not only in network marketing, but in other businesses as well, use business cards, flyers, brochures, key chains, and all sorts of advertising tools to get their business name out there. You probably have used some of these methods as well.

While you may think they are innovative and creative strategies, what do you think your prospects really think? Well, to put it bluntly, they are not impressed. Ouch! I know that is probably surprising, but it’s true. Why aren’t they impressed? Because these items really don’t tell sell your opportunity to them. Here is an idea. Why not try a “Top Ten List”? It really works well! Let’s discover how this is done.

A “Top Ten” list is simply a list of reasons your network marketing prospects would be interested in your opportunity’s product or service. Here’s an example of an opportunity list.

Top Ten Reasons to join the Fantastic Company.

1. You can tell your boss what you really think of him.
2. No more car bills.
3. You can wake up in the morning when your kids wake up.
4. You'll always have money in your savings account. Plus, your retirement nest egg will continue to grow
5. Your paycheck will come to your mailbox every week.
6. You'll never have to ask for a raise.
7. Fun conventions in Florida twice a year.
8. You are paid what you are worth, not what someone else
decides you are worth.
9. . You can take a vacation any time you want.
10. You’ll be involved in an awesome, exciting, high-paying career that you'll enjoy instead of
boring work that only makes your company profits.

Here is an example of a product list.

Top Ten Reasons to use Wonderful Cream.

1. It will never leave your skin feeling dried out..
2. Only costs twenty-five cents a day.

3. Protects your skin from harmful sun rays.
4. Will stop all men in their track as they will turn their heads and stare.
5. Perfect base for long-lasting makeup.
6. Scent free so as to not interfere with your perfume.
7. Moisturizes all night so you'll never wake up with rough skin.
8. Will make you smile every time you touch smooth as a baby skin.
9. Makes wrinkles recede and look smaller.
10. Will make everyone jealous at your high school reunion.

Now, this isn’t too hard right? If you make a really creative list, your prospects will me be apt to keep it instead of throwing it in the trash!

This is just an example of one of the numerous ways to sponsor new distributors into your network marketing company. Use this and listen as your phone starts to ring!

To Discover How To Build Your Networking Empire Big and The Insider Secrets of MLM, visit http://mentormonique.successin10steps.com

12 Ways To Use Direct Response Video Marketing Online

By Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Training Blog

Here Are 12 Ways To Use The Revolutionary Power Of Direct Response Online Video Marketing or Internet Infomercials.

Today I want to talk a little about the potential of the right use of dynamic Internet infomercials or direct response videos. One easy way to start learning this Internet marketing strategy is by simply going offline and turning on your TV set, specially at night when most well done infomercials are out to sell you the viewer.

So, why so many marketers keep using TV infomercials?

...because it works, the video type advertising delivers an one-on-one merchant and viewer interaction that takes the selling to a more personal level (an easy to sell level).

Now, how can you integrate this successful marketing avenue to your Internet business or website? Before I give you my 12 tips of direct response online video I need you to know that using audio or video in your website can help you gain an extra 497% conversion rates.

Here are the 12 ways to use video in your business to make more money online:

1.- Customer Testimonials
Every Internet marketer knows that having testimonials on your website can increase your conversion rates. But, if you ad video testimonials you can double those numbers.

2.- Visual FAQ's
A question and answers resource web page is design to help you lower your customer service emails and phone calls. Now, by using online video you can take your question and answers support page to the next level, by providing site tutorials, product overview, and much more.

3.- Real Estate Listing
If you are a realty and have a website you can have the website to do the pre-selling by having virtual tours of each house on your list for sale.

4.- Video Press Releases
With the help of Web 2.0 video sharing sites like YouTube, Yahoo Video, Google Video and others you can upload a detail video press release about your new start-up company, new product, new store location, new website, new blog launch, etc... And have millions of online video fans to view your video.

5.- Sales Kits
You can give away video brochures and information files to show your web prospects or current customers product features, new product line, and product presentations.

6.- Video Shopping Shows
You can host video shopping shows in your ecommerce site, or blog to try to provide another way for people to see your products in action and a way to buy it instantly, by web or by phone.

7.- Training And Installation Guides
If you selling products that required a little help or training to get it up and running like a software or web script, you can make the process easier to your customers by providing a "How to" video to walk them through the installation process.

8.- Expert Interviews
If you have the chance to interview experts in your field or industry that can express how bad is to have the problem that your product can solve, and how nice it is when is fix. This can help you drive traffic when you let people know the date when the interview is going to take place or the day you are going to post it on your site or blog, we'll also increase your sales conversions.

9.- New Product Demostration
You can add a video product review and demostration to show your web visitors how your product really works and how well it performce or how easy is to use, all the thing that your buyers can do with it.

10.- Client Proposals
In this new Web 2.0 era you can forget about paper or email proposals, because with video you can make this proposal way more personal, and you an provide better details. You can use it in conjunction with an email, which will be the actual proposal, the video is your selling tool to get the customer into signing up for your proposal.

11.- Member Giveaways
If you running a membership website or email list newsletter, you can keep your subscribers hook to it by providing quality step-by-step information on video.

12.- Promoting JV Partnerships or Affiliate Programs
Using video to pre-sell your website or list members into visiting the main partner site and purchasing a product or service.

More tips coming up tomorrow....

To your success,

Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Consultant


About Author: Luis Galarza is a respectable Internet Marketing and Small Business Consultant in the area of Leominster and Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Also, he had teach 100's of entrepreneurs how to make money online without a their own product. For more information about his Free Affiliate Marketing Training.

A proud member of

The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.

Introducing Google Innovation Blog

Check out my new Blog dedicated to Innovations at Google:

http://googleinnovation.blogspot.com

Google Innovation

Google Innovation Blog contains the latest:

News, Reviews, Articles, Case studies, Best practices, Insights, Ideas, Success stories, Blogs and more about Innovations at Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)

I am planning to incorporate the latest technology, business model, partnerships and software advances at Google as they are announced, and provide my review and analysis on the same. What insights can be gained from these new innovations? How successful will these innovations be in the marketplace? The Blog articles and posts will be as I see it, my opinion, my analysis, my thoughts on how Google is shaping new innovations and bringing them to the marketplace. There will be the occasional interviews with the innovators and product champions at Google. I also plan to include some of the best materials found on the web and the blogosphere on everything to do with Google innovations. Some of the pertinent blog posts on Google Innovation will find their way to the Creativity and Innovation Driving Business Blog.

For instance, in my latest blog post:

Google Trends: Everything Out in the Open, Move Over Zeitgeist

Bottomline:

Google Trends and Hot Trends are definitely Hot! It not only gives you a pulse on the latest happenings online as seen by Google Search, but also gives you comparisons on two or more trends over the time frame of your choice: today, yesterday, or any given day. Now if only Google can tell us what will be Hot tomorrow!! Move over Zeitgeist.

Google's New Search - Step in the right direction - Still some ways to go

Bottomline:

Google's new search technology is an early effort towards making searching for information better. Google has the right vision of integrating the search across various dimensions of Web, Images, Video, Products, etc. and providing comprehensive results. However, implementing this algorithm for new search, producing the results in parallel, and showing the results in a visually appealing and contextually easy-to-understand manner is going to be key as Google moves forward. Google may also be faced with the problem of what a majority of the user population may be seeking: a simpler answer to their search query. The more sophisticated users may appreciate the comprehensive answer that Google will provide. How would Google know whether the user is a layman user or a sophisticated user? One thing is certain though: Google has the ability to mine the world's information and present it in a contextual setting that is relevant to the user. Google just needs to make sure that in creating a new search, it does not make it confusing for the end user, as this would be huge step backward.

Google to create new R&D Center in South India

Bottomline:

Google is poised to expand its base in India with this new R & D center that can house up to 4,000 engineers. Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh in South India wins the nod from Google, partly because Google has already a 1,000 person engineering and services operation for the online sales running quite smoothly; however, when you have the chief minister of Andhra and his team wooing you to do more with all the incentives, it would have been very hard for Google to say no. Timing is everything. Don't be surprised if by the end of 2010, Google has a four thousand people strong R & D center in South India with plans to make it a ten thousand employee organization across all of India based on the kind of growth Google is seeing and its position as one of the top innovators of the world.

I invite you to explore the Google Innovation Blog, and provide me your valuable comments and feedback.

Here's to blogging on Google Innovation.

References:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.

Inside American Express' Centurion (Black) Amex card

Great article in Upgrade:Trave Better with an even better link. The original story is a discussion about whether or not having a Centurion or Black Amex card entitles you to automatic upgrades (the answer to which is that the Centurion card gives you automatic top status on a number of airlines which may lead to upgrades). The best part of the story is the link to a poorly laid out geocities page with detailed information on Centurion offers from around the globe.

Why is it so interesting to have insider information on an Amex card? The answer is because the Centurion/Black Amex is the top tier card and is very exclusive and secretive. You cannot apply for the Centurion/Black card, you have to be invited...and you have to be rich. The qualification details are not published but assumptions are that a spend of more than US$250k per year on a Platinum card is required. The upfront fees measure in the thousands of dollars year. As you well see from the Centurion Card geocity page the benefits vary country by country but basically you get:

• Top tier status and lounge access with a major carrier
• Top tier with a series of hotels
• Concierge services including booking travel and guaranteed seats/tables
  
• Travel insurance
• Limo collection and drop off from/to airports; and
• A very sexy titanium card, luggage tags and packets of marketing materials

Check out the link and see how the other 0.1% live.

UPDATE - Lots more information and commentary on the Black American Express card here at the Black Card Forum (reg'd required)

Accidents happen

As most of you know, our program policies state that publishers are not permitted to click on their own ads for any reason. For this reason, we've received many emails from publishers letting us know that they've accidentally clicked on their own ads. If you're one of these publishers, we truly appreciate the efforts you've made to monitor your account and keep it in good standing. However, we do understand that an accidental click may occur from time to time, so there's no need to contact us each instance this occurs.

Because we closely monitor all account activity using engineering systems and thorough human analysis, chances are we've already detected your clicks on your ads and discounted them. While these clicks still show in your reports, we filter out their associated earnings so that advertisers aren't charged. However, please keep in mind that we don't ignore the clicks completely; if it appears to us that a publisher has been clicking on his own ads to inflate his earnings or an advertiser's costs, we may disable the account to protect our advertisers' interests.

If you've been clicking your ads out of interest or to see who was advertising on your site, we strongly recommend using the AdSense preview tool as an alternative. This tool will allow you to check the destination of ads on your page without the risk of generating invalid clicks. You can also find more ways to view the URLs of your Google ads by visiting our Help Center.

Discuss this post

This marks the last post of our ‘Policy Thursdays’ series – we hope you've found the information from the last few weeks useful. Thanks for following along and participating in the AdSense Help Forum discussions!

Posted by Mike Deeringer - AdSense Publisher Support

Traffic

A Beautiful Morning's Commute in San Juan, Puerto Rico

The image on the left is a commute in New York City.

The image on the right is a commute in Austin Texas.


Lots of cars stuck in traffic. Lots of drivers who aren't driving... They're just sitting in their cars waiting for the opportunity to drive... and when they do get a chance to drive they are distracted.

Call me what you will, but I don't believe that mass transit will ever result in roads where cars aren't stuck in traffic. I have been to cities with very good mass transit, most notably San Francisco California, and I love being able to get around without using a car.

In San Francisco you can ride the train in from the airport, buy a transit pass, and go all over town on the trolleys, street cars, light rail, and buses. It's great.

But the roads in San Francisco (and other cities with good mass-transit) are still full of cars that are stuck in traffic.

We love our cars, and it is my personal belief that in metropolitan areas (during rush hour) there will always be as many cars on the road as can possibly fit on the road.

There are wonderful people out there who don't want to own a car and who actually enjoy not driving a car, and I applaud them.

If we'd all give up our cars the world might be a better place, but it's just not going to happen.

There will always be a lot of cars on the road... So there are two things that we really, really need to work on:

1. Cars, especially those stuck in traffic, need to have a lot cleaner (or no) exhaust.
2. We all need chauffeurs.

Cleaner cars is a no-brainer, but what about the chauffeurs?

In 2004 DARPA staged a Grand Challenge: Autonomous vehicles from several teams attempted to navigate a 142-mile route from Barstow California to Primm Nevada over rugged terrain. The challenge was not met... the most successful vehicle made it just 7.4 miles.

DARPA tried again in 2006, and got quite different results. Five robot vehicles completed the 132-mile course, the fastest in slightly under 7 hours.

In two years the state of autonomous cars (driven by robot chauffers) went from the best getting stuck after 7 miles to the best driving the entire course incident free in only 7 hours. That's a phenomenal improvement and hints that all of the technical factors necessary for practical autonomous vehicles are now close at hand. Let's hope that legal and regulatory factors don't keep all of us from having robot chauffers in our next cars.

Update:04Nov07 - DARPA's Urban Challenge for Autonomous Vehicles has a winner!

Wotif and ninemsn part ways

Australian accommodation powerhouse Wotif.com and the local MSN JV ninemsn have parted company after 9 months. They launched a promotional deal in September last year (as I reported here) which was probably Wotif's largest marketing spend to date. The official announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange of the end to the deal (here is a link but will require registration) does not go into the details. My guess is that the transaction flow to Wotif did not justify the spend on a direct response basis. This is typically the case with a big portal buy from a travel company. There are few if any of those deals that can be justified on a pure transaction return basis. As I said in my initial reporting, advertising buys on portals are for "branding" purposes (ie you spend more than you make in direct response). Does not mean that the deal is no good, just that you have to be in it for a brand spend, not direct marketing spend.

Don't you forget about the Google Mini

Posted by Ryan Pollock, Google Enterprise

The Journal's Dave Nagel just wrote that it's easy "deploy and forget" the Google Mini because of its easy setup and minimal administration requirements. Fortunately, Dave didn't forget to write his very complimentary review of the product.

The review does a thorough job providing background about the Mini and recapping some of the new features in our recent release, such as OneBox integration, secure search, and Google Analytics integration. If you need a search engine for your intranet or public website, make sure to check out the Mini.

The Innovation Index edges up to 17%, maintains lead over major U.S. indices - Weekly Report 05-18-07

The Innovation Index four-peats – four week of back-to-back gains. The Innovation Index added 1% last week, and is now up 17% for the year. The Innovation Index has already surpassed the 2006 performance of 13.2%, and we are only in May 2007. The Innovation Index easily crushes the major U.S. indices including the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones. S & P 500 added 1% point, and is now up 7% for the year; NASDAQ was unchanged, and is up 6% for the year; the Dow Jones Index gained 2% points, and is now up 9% for the year. This is the fourth week in 2007 where The Innovation Index is having double-digit gains.

The Innovation Index closed at 81.00 on May 18, 2007, up 17% from the closing price of 69.31 on December 29, 2006.

What caused The Innovation Index to add another 1% in one week? Three innovators caused the jump, the largest increase coming from America Movil (NYSE: AMX) that went up 7% in just one week on strong economic reports from Mexico and Brazil.

10 of the Top 20 Innovators showed positive gains (compared to 9 in the previous week), 7 of the Top 20 Innovators showed negative gains (compared to 9 in the previous week), and 3 Innovators were unchanged last week (compared to 1 in the previous week).

Can The Innovation Index five-peat, and have another week of gains? We will find out next week.

Weekly Advances

The news of the week was Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquisition of AQuantive (NASDAQ: AQNT). Microsoft shares were unchanged last week, and are up 4% for the year. Microsoft hits a walk-off home run with Aquantive acquisition.

Besides America Movil, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) went up 3% last week, and is now up 60% for the year.

“Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced it will launch a digital music store later this year offering millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels. EMI Music's digital catalog is the latest addition to the store. Every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store will be available exclusively in the MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM) software. Amazon's DRM-free MP3s will free customers to play their music on virtually any of their personal devices -- including PCs, Macs(TM), iPods(TM), Zunes(TM), Zens(TM) -- and to burn songs to CDs for personal use.” – This will be in direct competition to the market leading iTunes music store. Several analysts and investors believe that Amazon will be successful in this endeavor based on its market leading online music sales (CD) and customer base.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) also announced “it has acquired www.dpreview.com, the web's most comprehensive site for digital camera information and reviews. Founded in 1998 by Phil Askey, dpreview.com provides unbiased reviews and original content regarding the latest in digital cameras, and offers a host of features and forums designed to make it easy for consumers to find the camera that's right for them. With its unique voice and in-depth technical reviews, dpreview.com draws millions of unique visitors each month.” – This acquisition will allow Amazon to lure more digital camera buyers to the electronics store, and will ultimately provide Amazon valuable reviews of digital cameras. This is a great example of marriage between online content and catalog. Expect Amazon to create more acquisitions along these lines.

The Board of Directors of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) announced “some business unit realignments and associated changes to its executive management structure effective July 1, 2007. The company's three global business units will be: Beauty Care, Global Health & Well Being, and Household Care.

"We are making these moves to realign our business units and top leadership structure to meet the changing needs of our larger, more diverse, faster-paced global business," said Mr. Lafley – Chairman and CEO of P&G. "These changes are designed to help P&G's businesses consistently win at both the first (in-store) and second (at-home) moments of truth with consumers.

"Our business has nearly doubled since 2000. We've had three major acquisitions including Clairol, Wella and Gillette. And, we have tripled the pace of our business initiatives over this same period," said Lafley.

P&G also announced full conversion of Liquid Laundry Detergent Portfolio to New 2X-Concentrated Formulation in North America in 2007-2008.

"Concentrated laundry products represent another example of how the cleaning product industry, through groundbreaking research, collaboration with ingredient and packaging suppliers, and innovative manufacturing practices, is living out its commitment to deliver valuable products to consumers while reducing their environmental impact," according to The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA).

P&G shares were up 3% last week, and are only down 1% for the year.

Weekly Declines

eBay India launched eBay Blogs and My World for the Indian market. These two new services would allow India users to express their personality and increase their engagement with each other according to TechWhack, India. eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was down 4% last week, and is now up 9% for the year. I attended TiEcon 2007 over the weekend, and was inspired by Meg Whitman’s keynote presentation, President and CEO of eBay. Check out: Innovation and Leadership lessons from Meg Whitman, eBay CEO and President, and top Innovator
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) declined 2% last week. Cisco announced that it has received foreign regulatory approvals for the WebEx acquisition (NASDAQ: WEBX).

Yearly Leaders and Laggards

Who sits on the top of The Innovation Index? Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) gained 3% last week and leads all innovators with 60% gains for the year. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is next with 30% appreciation for the year. America Movil (NYSE: AMX) notched 7% points to rise to 30% gains for the year. There are five other innovators with double-digit gains for the year, including: 3M Company (NYSE: MMM) at 10%, Intel Corporation (NYSE: INTC) at 13%, IBM (NYSE: IBM) at 11%, RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) at 19% and Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) at 16%.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) is down 18% for the year.

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index has returned 119% over the last five years. This assumes an investment in each stock of The Innovation Index (buying each stock). An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $219 as of December 29, 2006. By comparison, $100 invested in each of S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index returned $124. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by 77% over the last five years.

The Normalized Innovation Index has returned an impressive 174% over the last five years. This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001.

Alphabetical list of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Dell Inc. - (NASDAQ: DELL)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
Southwest Airlines Co. - (NYSE: LUV)
Starbucks Corporation - (NASDAQ: SBUX)
Target Corp. - (NYSE: TGT)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - (NYSE: WMT)
Yahoo! Inc. - (NASDAQ: YHOO)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2007, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: I invest in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.