Google Audio Ads: Questions & Answers

Since the announcement of our relationship with Clear Channel Radio, we've been getting lots of questions from advertisers about our new beta offering. Here's Daniel Helmhold, from the Google™ Audio Ads team, to answer some of your questions:

Greetings! As a member of the Audio Ads support team, I spend a large part of my day answering advertisers' questions regarding Google Audio Ads. I thought it would be helpful to share with you answers to some of the more common inquiries.

1. What kind of radio adverting is this?
   This is traditional radio advertising, the kind of radio that our grandparents, parents and we ourselves have known throughout our lives. While you may hear ‘Google Audio Ads’ and immediately think it was created for use with online media such as internet radio or podcasting, Google Audio Ads are actually designed to facilitate advertising on traditional radio stations such as those you may listen to in the car, in the gym or anywhere else on your AM/FM radio. Our product aims to make the long standing process of buying radio advertising as simple and efficient as possible, while allowing you to manage it from your existing Google AdWords account.
   
   
2. Is this an auction like AdWords?
   For advertisers familiar with the traditional AdWords auction, fear not - one of the two options for booking a Google Audio Ads campaign uses an auction system very similar to that currently used in your AdWords campaigns. Additionally, for advertisers interested in securing ad space in advance, campaigns can also be booked using a Reserve Buy. This option allows advertisers to make advanced bookings of specific inventory so they can ensure their ads will play when and where they want them to.
   
   
3. Is this remnant inventory?
   No, Google Audio Ads is not remnant inventory. Remnant inventory (or leftover inventory) refers to unbooked advertising time that is sold by radio stations at the last minute to ensure all ad spots are filled. Google Audio Ads offers premium inventory throughout the entire week, including prime day parts such as morning and afternoon drive time. By offering inventory at all times and offering a Reserve Buy, Google Audio Ads ensures that you are able to effectively target who you want, when you want.
   
   
4. What if I don't have an ad or need help?
   We've created the Google Ad Creation Marketplace, accessible from within your AdWords account, to connect you with professionals who can create affordable ads customized for your radio campaign. This feature is especially helpful for first time radio advertisers. The Ad Creation Specialists in our marketplace are radio industry professionals who've been individually selected to work with advertisers who are new to radio. Through the marketplace, you're able to establish a direct relationship with these specialists to ensure they generate ads which combine your specifications with their experience and expertise to create the most effective audio ad for your budget.
   
   
5. I already use Google AdWords, why should I use Google Audio Ads as well?
   Combining your existing AdWords online campaigns with traditional radio advertising through Google Audio Ads can be more effective in increasing brand awareness than running online ads alone. In addition, radio and the Internet combined can reach over 83% of people aged 18-54, ensuring that your business is gaining the exposure needed to strengthen the value of its brand and drive users to seek out your products or services. You can learn more about the benefits of radio advertising here. [Source: The Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL), 2007]

To sign up for the beta, please visit the Google Audio Ads site. It takes about one week to process your request, but once Audio Ads has been enabled for your AdWords account, you can start experimenting with building a campaign or find a specialist to create an ad.

We hope this helped shed a little more light on Google Audio Ads. To review additional frequently asked questions, please visit the Google Audio Ads Help Center.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

The Used Blue Jeans Family

Always the critic, I love to find stores on ebay that I think stand out as a super example for the rest of the ebay community and, particularly, as examples for new ebay sellers to emulate. Yesterday, I found a winner.

Tom Meester and his wife sell used Levi jeans on ebay. That’s all they sell and they have sold over 20,000 pairs of jeans in the last seven or eight years. Tom’s a power seller with a feedback score of well over 15,000, receiving only 14 negatives in all those years (you can’t please everyone, I guess). Let me point out for you a few things that I like about Tom’s ebay store and his listings, things that both new and experienced ebay sellers can learn from.

1. He has a niche product, even a sub-niche product, that he researched, found suppliers for, refined, and has stuck with because it works. You won’t find blue jean pens or mugs here, and you certainly won’t find Pez containers, beanie babies, or other totally unrelated items. And the name of the store can’t be stated any more clearly: Used-Blue-Jeans.

2. He has created a look for his store and his listings that once you see it, you’ll recognize his listings forever. That’s called branding and it’s what store owners should strive for. Tom uses a simple denim blue with red highlights look that complements the product perfectly. Pictures of his jeans are always identifiable, with the jeans “posed” in the same position, all pictures with a bright red background.

3. His item listing template is clean with a great picture, perfectly sized, followed by a description that is short and sweet but complete. Included is a thank-you, which is always nice, links to add his store to your favorites list and another to search for similar items, both simple but important marketing tools, followed by his store policies. The policies are presented simply in positive terms, answering any questions that a potential buyer might have. No “Don’t bid if you’re not going to pay!” threats, just professionally-stated shipping, payment, and return terms. Complete contact information is at the bottom. A perfect layout in my opinion.

4. Tom’s store format is perfectly understated with the pleasant denim blue with red highlights color scheme and a logo that looks like it belongs, not too big, not too small. There’s nothing extra to get in the way of the whole point of the store, the product.

5. Tom’s family is pictured on their ‘me’ page with a story of the history of their family and their ebay business, the perfect approach to building confidence in the seller. Coupled with the impressive feedback, who wouldn’t buy their Levi jeans from this family?

The simple niche market approach with a clean layout is very appealing to me as an ebay shopper and an easy example for ebay sellers to emulate as they look to improve their own listings and store designs. I give The Used Blue Jeans Family two thumbs up and a hearty “Well done!”

Google versus Yahoo - A tale of two cities

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) are two of the 20 innovators of The Innovation Index.

“Google's sites had 528 million visitors worldwide in March 2007, a 13 percent gain from the same month a year ago, according to ComScore Inc.. Microsoft had 527 million, while Yahoo had 476.3 million, the researcher said.

The popularity of searching the Web and new sites such as YouTube helped Google grow faster than both its biggest rivals. Products such as the Gmail e-mail service, an online calendar and an online payments system are drawing users even though they aren't nearly as popular as Google's search engine.”

Google already is the most-popular Internet search engine, drawing 48 percent of U.S. queries in March 2007, according to ComScore. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo was the most-visited U.S. Web site in February and also had the most repeat visits of any Web site.

In March 2007 I wrote a report on Can Yahoo Catch Google? after Yahoo had recently launched Project Panama, Yahoo's answer to Google AdWords and the making of a better search mechanism.

In the last two weeks both Yahoo and Google announced their earnings for the latest quarter. Project Panama had not yet impacted Yahoo's topline revenue; however, Yahoo officials are hopeful that Panama will have some impact in 2007. The question from the investors and analysts looms is how much impact Project Panama will have when the dust settles.

When one examines the growing gap between Yahoo and Google in terms of quarterly revenue, quarter over quarter revenue growth, quarterly net income, quarterly net profit margin, yearly innovations and stock performance gains, the picture becomes increasingly clear. Google is unstoppable at this juncture! And as of recent quarter's earnings announcement, Google has achieved another historical milestone vis-a-vis Yahoo, a first in its storied existence -- The Quarterly Revenue Gap between Google and Yahoo doubled -- Or to put in simpler terms: Google's quarterly revenues are now more than double Yahoo's quarterly revenue. 2007 will mark the first year when Google's revenue and profits will more than double Yahoo's. It's not just revenues. Google has widened the gap in Quarter over Quarter Revenue Growth, Net Income, Net Profit Margin and Stock Performance. Only the volume of Innovations or Gross Innovations is an area where Google and Yahoo seem to have some parity. Which brings me to the central point: Are sheer number of Innovations (total innovations) a leading indicator on how well a company is growing, or poised to grow? Alternatively, one has to really examine under the hood and look at not only the actual number and type of new products introduced, new collaborations and acquisitions, but also current market leadership and execution to understand how well the company is growing.

Google versus Yahoo Total Revenue Comparison

In the latest quarter ending March 31, 2007, Google had revenue of $3.66 billion; Yahoo had revenue of $1.67 billion. The Revenue Gap (Google’s revenue minus Yahoo’s revenue) between Google's and Yahoo's revenue: a whopping $1.99 billion. The Revenue Gap between Google's revenue and Yahoo's revenue is now more than all of Yahoo's revenue. This is significant! Compare this to the quarter ending March 31, 2006, or a year ago, where Google's revenue was $2.25 billion to Yahoo's revenue of $1.57 billion, or a Revenue Gap of $687 million. Importantly, the Revenue Gap a year ago was only 40% of Yahoo's revenue. Google is widening its lead by leaps and bounds over Yahoo, and at current average growth rates for both companies, Google revenue will be at least three times Yahoo revenue for March quarter in 2008. Sobering indeed.

Google is growing strong not just within the U.S. but also internationally. Google Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $1.71 billion, representing 47% of total revenues in the first quarter of 2007. Finally, Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.35 billion, or 37% of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2007. This represents a 45% increase over network revenues of $928 million generated in the first quarter of 2006 and a 12% increase over fourth quarter 2006 revenues of $1.20 billion.

Google versus Yahoo Quarter over Quarter (Q/Q) Revenue Growth Comparison

The actual reason behind Google's insurmountable revenue position over Yahoo is owing to the quarterly revenue growth rate of Google. Google has averaged a quarter over quarter revenue growth of 12.99% over the last four quarters. This means, every quarter, Google's revenue grows over 12% from the previous quarter's revenue on an average. For instance, Google added $458 million in new revenue in the latest quarter from previous quarter's revenue. On the other hand, Yahoo has averaged a quarter over quarter revenue growth of only 1.7% over the last four quarters. Yahoo is growing, but growing quite slowly. Google is growing, growing quite rapidly. Hence the larger Revenue Gap. What is even greater is the Quarter over Quarter Revenue Gap growth between Google and Yahoo. Every quarter, the Revenue Gap between Google and Yahoo is growing 30% or higher. First, the current Revenue Gap is greater than Yahoo’s total revenue; now, the Revenue Gap is growing 30% plus each quarter; this means every three quarters, the Revenue Gap will double.

Google versus Yahoo Net Income Comparison

To many financial analysts and investors, total revenue or total sales alone are not a key metric. They look at net income, net profit margin, and earnings per share. Google has increased the lead over Yahoo in net income as well - the net income of Google is seven times that of Yahoo. Just a year ago, Google's net income was $592 million versus Yahoo's net income of $160 million, a difference of $432 million or less than four times. In the latest quarter, Google's net income is an astonishing $1.002 billion versus Yahoo's net income of $142 million, a difference of $860 million, more than seven times. Google was making more money than Yahoo a year ago; now, it is double that amount. Importantly, Google is adding a billion dollars in savings each quarter, which allows Google to create huge acquisitions such as YouTube in 2006 ($1.65 billion - although this included cash and stock) and DoubleClick in 2007 ($3.1 billion - all cash). Yahoo on the other hand has to be content with smaller or no acquisitions, and cannot invest heavily into new innovations. Yahoo just announced acquisition of Right Media, an online advertising auction site, for $688 million (cash and stock).

Google versus Yahoo Net Profit Margin Comparison

Another barometer of a company doing extremely well and putting more money in the bank is net profit margin, i.e. net income after paying income taxes as a percentage of total revenue. Google has averaged net profit margins of over 28% in the last five quarters; compare this to Yahoo's average net profit margin of just over 9%. Google's net profit margin is more than three times Yahoo's net profit margin. Yahoo has to work three times harder than Google to make the same amount of profits. Or Google has to work three times less than Yahoo. This means Google is running a highly efficient, operationally sound, profitable machine; Yahoo is doing good, but not as well as Google. Either Yahoo has to become more efficient (bottomline), or create a whole lot more revenue (topline) to really catch Google.

Google versus Yahoo Innovations Comparison

About the only area where Google and Yahoo are somewhat equal are total innovations. In 2006, Google had a total of 75 innovations including 44 new products, 25 collaborations, and 6 acquisitions. Yahoo meanwhile had 77 innovations in 2006, including 38 new products, 37 collaborations, and 2 acquisitions. In 2007, Google has kept up the pace with 26 new innovations through April 27, 2007, including 14 new products, 10 collaborations, and 2 acquisitions; Yahoo on the other hand has 24 new innovations, made up of 12 new products, 12 collaborations and 0 acquisitions. On surface, both Google and Yahoo seem to have the same pace of innovations. Why then Google is doing so much better in all the metrics above? Three reasons: 1. Quality of innovations 2. Meaningful acquisitions 3. Execution on current strategy. For instance this year, Google was able to acquire DoubleClick in an all cash deal for a huge amount of money; for Yahoo, this would have been difficult to swallow. Google's AdWords and AdSense are head and shoulders above Yahoo's Text Search solutions - Panama has narrowed the gap somewhat, however, Google continues to introduce new elements such as the recently announced WebSite Optimizer. Yahoo is quite fond of collaborations as a way to create a larger ecosystem and grow the business, and consistently leads Google in new collaborations. However, as with all partnerships, so much is not under your control, and there is a high dependence on how well your partner will do for you. Google has done well with the AdSense partnership program, and has built a mass of content partners all around the world - Google's partner growth is viral now. Yahoo has taken an early lead on the mobile platform though, and is betting that mobile is where the games will be played in the future.

Google versus Yahoo Stock Performance Comparison

Google stock has appreciated 16% since December 30, 2005; Yahoo stock is down 27% since December 30, 2005. However, Google stock has only gained over 4% this year (since December 29, 2006); on the other hand, Yahoo has gained over 11% this year. At one stage, Yahoo stock had gained over 25% in 2007; however, the latest quarterly results from Yahoo were received less favorably by the investors, and resulted in the drop. Google also had an early rally in the year, and was in the negative territory for a couple of weeks. Google's latest quarterly results eased the investor concerns about Google's torrid growth, and Google shares have gained ground since. Google stock has not appreciated in the same realm as the revenue growth. For a company whose revenue and net income has grown 63% and 69% respectively in one year, the stock performance gain has been only 16%. This has a lot to do with built-in expectation, and Google's already lofty valuation. Yahoo's revenue has only grown 7% in one year; and net income has dropped. Investors have rewarded Yahoo accordingly.

Bottomline

Google is firing on all cylinders, and has the making of a juggernaut. It appears that Google can only fall if Google makes huge missteps and places big bets on the wrong horse. Google has placed sizable bets with YouTube acquisition in 2006, and DoubleClick in 2007. YouTube acquisition led to some bad press owing to copyrights and a lawsuit by Viacom. Ultimately, Google will prevail, and YouTube in the meantime has seen nothing but huge growth in viewers each month. However, it has not come without some costs. DoubleClick will not have the same issues as YouTube; although it was valued astronomically high, hence the margin for error is small. In as much as Google can create timely innovations and execute well, it is poised to expand the market leadership further, and grow the revenue higher and faster. Yahoo has much catching up to do - both on topline and bottomline innovations; if Yahoo does not catch Google in the stride in 2007, it is possible that Yahoo could be relinquished even further in 2008. A time could come in 2008 and beyond wherein Google could outright grab Yahoo's market and begin winning away Yahoo's loyal base. The Disruptive Innovation Gap was created by Google, and now Google is running forward. How does Yahoo stop Google from doing this? It is a daunting task, and will take all of Yahoo’s Panama, Mobile and Content, and then some. Fundamentally though, Yahoo has to recreate that buzz and energy that used to be Yahoo, and get users to go to Yahoo in hordes as they used to go - before Google came knocking.

God Idea Or Just A Good Idea

Are you doing things for God or are you doing the things of god? Does it seem odd to you that churches are always building new church buildings, buying sound systems, or starting programs they can't seem to afford. Every Sunday they spend more and more time grinding out offerings and perverting scripture to crank out the bucks for these projects.Then they insist God told them to do it.

What we need to understand is there is the permissible, and the perfect will of God. It is possible to do programs or ministries that WE have invented to do. Don't get me wrong god will bless it as far as he can. You can't give a cup of cold water in his name and lose your blessing. I believe that ministries that the Lord is truly behind and leading you into, and that are in the perfect will of God, will be supernaturally financed by God. There will be no need for begging, whining, or sending out appeal letters for money. Where the Lord leads the Lord provides.

I know of a teaching ministry who began his ministry with rather odd instructions from God. He was told to send out all his teaching tapes for free, pay for tape duplication, buy the postage and the envelopes, and never let another human being know of any need he may have. God said he would be his source. All of this he started with 10 dollars in his pocket and no source of income in sight at the time. He was told to go to God for any need he may have. Today this man's ministry is worldwide on the internet and he still sends out no appeal letters nor does he take up offerings anywhere unless it comes from the pastor's prompting. He is well taken care of and God has done countless financial miracles. I believe this is a man who has heard from God. To me this is a God idea and the way we all ought to operate when we start out in ministry. The things god tells us to do are probably going to seem completely bizarre but because God is leading it will be blessed.

I know of a prophet who spent 12 years as a pastor who became very unsettled in his spirit. He said it was like taking a bath with your socks on. Something just wasn't right. Yet the church he was pastor of was providing him with a good living. One day he was in prayer when he heard the Lord say he never called him to be a pastor in the first place. The decision to become a pastor was his and not the Lord's. This man then went on to become one of the major prophets of our day. Kenneth Hagen is his name. It is very possible to get off track when it comes to hearing and moving in our call.

We can not always go by the written word. Paul was planning to go to Asia to preach. According to the written word in Paul's mind preaching everywhere was a good thing however the Holy Ghost forbade him to go to Asia at that time by way of a vision. The timing of God is pertinent and he has a perfect season for all things.

The Holy Spirit has the perfect plan and timing for us in all things we do if we will spend time to hear his instructions.

Import Export Business - Don't Put The Cart Before The Horse

Here in Central Pennsylvania where I live and operate our Import
Export Business and International marketing services, we have
Amish living nearby.

The Amish have a saying "don't put the cart before the horse".
Simply speaking, you ain't goin no where unless you know how
to hook the horse up to the cart correctly.

In the 19 years I have been operating this business, I have
probably spoken to hundreds and exchanged emails with
thousands of people who insist on putting their cart before
their horse when it comes to starting an import or export
business.

They think that they can buy a $12.95 ebook off the net or find
enough free material that will give them "all" they need to know
to get started and make their fortune.

One of the first things I ask someone when they call is what type
of course or book they have read that makes them feel they are
able to start this business. 99 and 9/10th percent of the time
they have done nothing but read how wealthy they can become.

If you think $160.00 for a comprehensive course on how to
start an import business or $316.00 for a comprehensive course
on how to start an export business is too much, let me tell you
a little story about one of the recent "cart before the horse" tales.

The following story is true related to you so that you understand
that it can become very, very expensive for you if you do not
invest in the right educational materials for starting an import
export business.

A gentleman called asking if we could help him expedite the
process of getting his food products from Vietnam approved
by the FDA. He went on to tell me that he had imported
5 container loads of food products from Vietnam. However,
he had put his cart before his horse.

He did not have all of the approvals necessary from the FDA
and could not distribute the food. Now here is the KICKER my
gllobal trade friends, he reltated how his storage costs at the
dock had already exceeded the value of the food. Whoa. Did
you get that. HIS STORAGE COSTS AT THE DOCK HAD
ALREADY EXCEEDED HIS COST OF THE FOOD! OUCH!!

Guess how wealthy he is going to be, no wait, guess how
much of a loss he is going to personally incur?

Let me ask you something? Did you ever wonder where all
these closeout stores and liquidation stores are able to get
much of their merchandise at sometimes a nickel or dime on
the dollar?

If you guessed wannabe importers who put their cart before
their horse, you get an A+. They were either too cheap OR too
arrogant to pay for a course to learn the processes of the
import export business and guess what, they are now going
to pay much more in the form of a "real life" learning experience.

You will either pay a little now for a comprehensive course on
importing and exporting, or you will pay a heck of a lot more
later in "real life" payments.

Either invest in YOUR FUTURE by getting the import or export
(or both) course appropriate to the business you are SERIOUS
about starting. YOU NEED TO LEARN THE PROCESSES
or quit kidding yourself about starting an import export
business and move on to something else.

Putting his horse before his cart for 19 years now,

Ron Coble
Coble International Marketing Services
http://www.importexporthelp.com

PS: Just a little point of personal interest, in May 1984, my
then 10 year old daughter, wife and I went on an adventure thru
Lancaster county (PA). We got to see the farm where the
movie Witness was being filmed, the courthouse where the
underground garage was used to film the scene where
Harrison Ford was shot

Best of all (especially for our daughter), we got to meet
Harrison Ford. He came out of the underground garage
where they were filming the scene in which is shot and went to
his trailer for make up and a break. When he came out he
gave our daughter his autograph.

We also got to see Danny Glover that day and a little known
(at the time) actress named Kelly McGillis was practicing a
dance routine for a broadway production she was starring in.
She did the dance routine just a few feet from where we were
sitting waiting for Harrison to come out, never realizing that
she was a big star in the making. Just a little personal note
from a beautiful day in May 1984 - one my now 30+ year
old daughter (and my wife and I) will never forget.

How To Use Low Budget Online Marketing for Your Small Home Business

The pressure is on those small local home business owners who have been holding out, hoping against hope that the Internet would go away. It's become fairly obvious that that's not going to happen.

As a matter of fact, the Kelsey Group says that "70% of U.S. households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services."

It's become obvious that small home-based business owners who don't have an Internet presence are at a serious disadvantage, and are losing more ground every day to their competitors.

But where to start? Many small home business owners want to get online but the idea of it becomes overwhelming. One of the things many people are concerned about is the cost. Having a professional website created can be expensive, as can the online marketing needed to promote the site. Fortunately with a little work, there are some great low budget online marketing solutions for small businesses.

First, don't immediately buy web space or register your domain name with the first site that pops up in Google. Web space can be pricey or fairly cheap; it all depends on what company you go with. There are some sites that offer free hosting, but those sites usually force you to include banners or pop-up ads on your site. If you want to be taken seriously, you definitely do not want to host your business on a free hosting site.

There are places on the web that offer a good amount of storage for less than $100/yr, which is not bad. You can also find sites that will register your domain name for less than $10/year, such as the popular GoDaddy.com.

Once you have your website set up, how do you get people to visit? One of the best ways is to take advantage of social networking sites like Squidoo.com and MySpace.com. MySpace.com is a huge site designed to let people keep in touch with others. However a lot of businesses set up MySpace profiles and send out "friend" invitations to clients and prospects. Retail store owners, service providers, authors, bands, magazines and even tourism companies do MySpace marketing. Same thing with Squidoo. This form of marketing is becoming even more powerful than reciprocal linking.

Don't forget message boards, chat rooms and link exchanges either. They are great ways to get your word out. When you first began your low budget online marketing campaign, you'll probably spend anywhere from 5 to 10 hours a week promoting your site, or you can train an employee, intern or your resident teenager to do it.

The simplest way of marketing your small home business is to include your website address in your signature in emails and posts to message boards, even if they aren't related to your business. While this doesn't market directly to your targeted audience, it does make people aware of your website. Who knows, maybe they'll know someone who needs your services.

It's very easy to do low budget online marketing for small home business because so many things on the Internet are free -- message boards, networking sites like Squidoo and MySpace, and of course, email. The main thing it will cost is time, but even that can be "bought" at budget prices on sites such as rentacoder.com and getafreelancer.com. So there's no reason for even the busiest small business owner not to get their business online, even if they're on a tight budget.

Lastminute.com speaks and I agree a lot, a little and not much (all at the same time)

Travolution has just concluded its annual conference and awards. I was reading with great interest the blow by blow posts on the Travolution blog. I was particularly drawn to the comments of Lastminute.com CEO Ian McCaig in the final session (also carried by e-tid). In edited form he said the following:

1. that the online travel space, despite being only ten years old, was mature;

2. scale and/or niche are the only way to succeed, he insisted, and that, as in any mature market, the middle ground will get squeezed; and

3. that sites such as Friends Reunited and MySpace were now less influential among certain demographics than Facebook, WAYN or Second Life...he asked, rhetorically whether a business should be trying to tap in to a group of friends who use WAYN to meet up in Barcelona before going to the Benicassim festival, or whether they should focus on trying to win or retain the business of high spending individuals.

I agree completely with the first, mostly with the second but not with the conclusions in the third.

No question the online travel market is mature. The US has a big three that dominate (with Priceline on the side) and online travel will hit 51% of the market this year. Europe's growth is now outpacing the US, consolidation is in full swing (Lastminute bought by Sabre, Bookings and Active bought by Priceline, Laterooms bought by First Choice, eBookers and Flairview part of Orbtiz WW/Travelport etc) and the majority of airlines have online sales as the number one channel.

However I think he is being hasty in claiming that the winners will be either scale or niche. While traditional analysis would say that the middle is dangerous ground for most, there are some that can succeed in online travel. I see two types:

1. The market specialist - the Veneres, Wotifs, HRSs, Hotel.des, Asiarooms of the world that can hold out against the "scale invaders" because they have carved a customer, SEO traffic and supplier middle ground that will be very hard to shift. Some would argue that this is a sort of scale in itself but given that most are focused in only one inbound market it is fare to call them the middle ground. The difference and reason that each will likely stay and succeed in that middle ground is because they all have kept their supplier relationships strong (well really all except Asiarooms), technology simple and costs relatively lean. While I think these middle grounders will survive it will be a challenge for new entrants to join them as the market factors that allowed them to grow initially (mainly first mover advantage in their markets) do not exist any more; and
   
2. The adaptive content/SEO player - the creative, traffic generating, SEO magic weaving players like Travelpost.com (now part of Sidestep) or Gusto that, like online traffic remoras, are able to suction traffic off Google and out of the path of the shark like TripAdvisor. They are very low cost and usually able to withstand any offline marketing blitz. Their challenge of course is to maintain relevance in a culture of constant changing tastes as I discussed here.

On the final comment I disagree with the implied conclusion that companies must make a choice between chasing transactions or connecting groups of people with content and networking. In a mature market (as we all agree) scale players have to do both. If a large player focuses only on the transaction processing elements of travel (Phases 1 & 2 of online travel as I describe in this post) and not the content and community efforts then they risk being flanked in the battle for traffic. This is not to advise shutting down the transaction product team and shifting them to building community engines . No - it means having people in the organisation devoted to building traffic, content and community. Not for its own sake but to drive customers to the site, brand interaction and loyalty and protect yourself from new models.

INTERNET MARKETING: How To Use Text Link Ads To Market Your Website

By Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Training For Beginners Blog

Tips On How Using text link ads Can Help Your Site Increase Search Engine Rank And How This Service Can Help You Maximize Your Online Exposure To The Right Online Target Market.

Video.- In this video you are going to get some good point why marketing your website with Text Link Ads really work by two top online marketers; Kris Jones the CEO of Pepperjamsearch.com and Michael Gray the CEO of Wolf-hawl.com. Check my inputs at the end of this post. Enjoy the video.

Text link is the best Search Engine Optimization friend you can have, of course after you optimized your website with white hot SEO methods... With this contextual ad service you get the opportunity to put your link on high rank web pages and have some of that rank pass on to your web site or the webpage that your are trying to market.

Consider this method just another way to build links full of quality pagerank.

The other point that they talk about in the video is relevant markets, which mean you can put your text link ad in from of hot web prospects that are looking for information or products related to yours.

So, yes I also recommend this type of online marketing medium to increase website traffic and search engine pagerank.

To your success,

Luis Galarza
Make Money At Home Blog

About Author: Luis Galarza is a respectable Internet Marketing and Small Business Consultant Online and Offline in the city of Leominster MA. He had teached 100's of entrepreneurs how to make money online without a their own product for over 7 years. For more information on how to market online get his Free Affiliate Marketing Training

A proud member of

The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.

10 Sure-Fire Ways to Market Your MLM Home Business Offline

You and most other people involved in MLM know the ideal way to build your home business is not only online, but offline as well. Offline marketing is another word for building your business through your local market. Here are ten effective strategies you can use today to market your MLM offline.

1. Donate a high selling product from your business to your local Radio Station; they have numerous contests and are always looking for sponsors! This gets even better when you realize that your donation can be written off as a tax deduction, plus you get free advertising and business exposure for your donation!

2. Call your local Chamber of Commerce and find out about job fairs that will be in your city or county. Get a booth and set up information about your fantastic MLM opportunity!

3. Are there local colleges in your area? If so, great! Call the college or university and find out when their next job/employment fair is. Many times you can get a booth or table very inexpensively ( $30 or less). You can get a lot of great new prospects at events such as this.

4. Just about every area has a local gym. So, what an ideal place to target especially if you sell nutritional and health products! You can get a table space for $20 or less in most cases. Make sure you have three to five products on display, some free samples, plenty of business cards, and fliers. The free samples will be attracting folks like crazy who are starving after their hard workout like!

5. Make sure you network with others in your community who are in home businesses. Find out what events and activities that they participate in. They are good resources to assist you in getting started as you begin to network in your community.

6. Take advantage of all those lunch breaks! Contact companies in your area to see if you can come in and set up a table in the employee lounge or cafeteria. You know, the areas where people congregate when taking a break. These days a lot of companies will allow you to do this if you just ask.

7. Do you have a local cable TV channel in your area that allows business people to advertise? I know I do in mine. You can inquire about advertising. Did you realize an ad on a cable channel could potentially reach thousands of potential buyers for you? It would be best to use your MLM website address for these types of advertising and not your personal home address.

8. Make good use of those small hometown newspapers! Many people do not get a good response when they do a big newspaper ad unless they do a solo ad, display ad, or something along those lines. But, target a small hometown newspaper and you can see your response greatly increase! What you can also do is to inquire about getting your ads on specific pages in the newspaper that targets the group of people in your MLM niche.

9. Pizza anyone? Every town has a pizza place. Contact your local pizza shops, diners, deli’s, and coffee bagel shops to ask them about advertising on their paper placements. Customers do read those ads!

10. Summer is fast approaching. Why not take your MLM home business on the road? Contact your local area parks and community centers to see what their schedule of events are and inquire about setting up a booth or table.

As you can know see, there are numerous highly effective offline marketing strategies you can for your MLM business. Pick a few and get going growing your prospect base through your local market.

Making desktop search look good

Posted by Ryan Pollock, Google Enterprise

We've just released the newest version of Google Desktop for Enterprise, and if we do say so ourselves, it looks pretty good. Previewing your desktop search results inside the browser helps you find the right documents, emails, and files that much more quickly. We've also increased security with warnings for web sites that might attempt to steal your personal information or install malware on your computer. For those of you who'd like to make Desktop for Enterprise available to a broader segment of your employees, we now support 12 different languages.

We've rolled these features into a Desktop package that offers a completely new look and feel for the sidebar and gadgets, too. Go give it a try.

The Innovation Index races to 11%, crushes U.S. major indices – Weekly Report 04-26-07

The Innovation Index mounted a huge comeback last week, gained 6% in just one week, and is now up 11% for the year. The Innovation Index easily crushes the major U.S. indices, including the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones. S & P 500 gained 2% during the week, and is up 5% for the year; NASDAQ gained 2%, and is up 6% for the year; the Dow Jones Index gained 2%, and is up 5% for the year. This is the first week of 2007 where The Innovation Index is up to double-digit gains.



The Innovation Index closed at 76.87 on April 26, 2007, up 11% from the closing price of 69.31 on December 29, 2006.

What caused The Innovation Index to have this steep rise? Four innovators caused the jump, the largest increase coming from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) that went up a dizzying 41% in just one week, and is up 59% for the year! WOW! Amazon.com is the first innovator to cross the venerable 50% stock performance gain in 2007.

15 of the Top 20 Innovators showed positive gains (compared to 8 in the previous week), only 3 of the Top 20 Innovators showed negative gains (compared to 7 in the previous week), and 2 Innovators were unchanged last week (compared to 5 in the previous week). What a difference a week makes!

Weekly Advances

The week belonged to Amazon.com for the stellar stock performance gain in one week: 41% in just one week, and 59% for the year.

“Amazon reported a profit of $111 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with $51 million, or 12 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales rose 32% to $3.02 billion from $2.28 billion. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 15 cents a share on sales of $2.92 billion, according to analysts polled by Thomson Financial.” – Amazon has performed remarkably well in 2007 owing to the innovations introduced in 2006. Last week, I had reported: “Amazon.com analysts are bullish about the first quarter earnings and 2007 performance.” Perhaps some of the investors picked up on this, and invested into the Amazon.com earnings and profited.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) had another strong performance for the quarter, and the shares jumped to a new all-time high after the company reported an 88% surge in second-quarter earnings. Whereas 2006 was the year of the iPod, 2007 is shaping up to be the year of the iMac and iPhone.

“For the quarter ended March 31, the company said earnings for the quarter came in at $770 million, or 87 cents a share, compared to earnings of $410 million, or 47 cents a share, for the same period last year. Sales for the quarter grew more than 20% to hit $5.26 billion for the period ended March 31. Analysts were expecting earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $5.17 billion for the quarter, according to estimates from Thomson Financial. During the quarter, the company said it shipped more than 10.5 million iPods, its popular digital music player. More than 1.5 million units of its Macintosh computer line were also shipped during the period.” – Some of the improvement in margins came from "very favorable" pricing for components - memory in particular. Absent from Apple’s earnings announcement was an update on Apple TV, and the initial sales. The consumers and investors alike are waiting for the launch of iPhone in June 2007.

Google is building its lead on Yahoo!, MSN and AOL. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) reported revenues of $3.66 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2007, an increase of 63% compared to the first quarter of 2006 and an increase of 14% compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. Google is on a tear. Google Non-GAAP net income in the first quarter of 2007 was $1.16 billion, up 69% compared to 2006. Google-owned sites generated the highest revenue growth, brought in $2.28 billion, growing 76% from last year – this means Google’s core business is strong. Google shares are now up 4% for the year. Google also announced acquisition of Marratech software.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) “announced first-quarter 2007 diluted earnings of $1.21 per share from continuing operations, an increase of 12 percent as reported, compared with diluted earnings of $1.08 per share in the first quarter of 2006. First-quarter income from continuing operations was $1.8 billion compared with $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2006, an increase of 8 percent. Total revenues for the first quarter of 2007 of $22.0 billion increased 7 percent (4 percent, adjusting for currency) from the first quarter of 2006.” IBM had a solid quarter showing double-digit earnings growth. IBM innovations in service and delivery are taking hold.

“3M Company (NYSE: MMM) shares made their biggest one-day gain in about a year, growing 4.5%, owing to earnings that jumped 52% to $1.37 billion, or $1.85 a share, from $899 million, or $1.17 a share, in the year-earlier period. Although, the latest results reflect a net gain of $422 million, or 57 cents a share, from the January sale of its European branded drugs business, restructuring charges and environmental liabilities. The company said earnings excluding special items totaled $946 million, or $1.28 a share, easily topping analyst forecasts of $1.12 a share. Revenue at the St. Paul, Minn., company swelled 6.1% in the three months ended March 31 to $5.94 billion, also beating forecasts of $5.68 billion, as polled by Thomson Financial.” 3M is showing organic growth, and surprised the consumers and investors alike.

“Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) fiscal third-quarter profit surged 65%, beating Wall Street estimates, as the company benefited from sales of heavily marketed new products including the Vista operating system and Office 2007. The world's biggest software maker reported earnings of $4.93 billion, or 50 cents a share, in the period ended March 31, compared with $2.98 billion, or 29 cents a share, during the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 32% to $14.4 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected Microsoft to post earnings of 46 cents a share on revenue of $13.89 billion.” – Microsoft had projected conservative growth for Vista and Office; however, the results show that the market has adopted them rather well, perhaps even surprising Microsoft. “Microsoft's Client division, which includes Vista, reported $5.27 billion in sales for the quarter, compared with $3.15 billion in the period a year earlier. The business division, which includes Office 2007, reported revenue of $4.83 billion for the third quarter, compared with $3.6 billion in the period a year earlier.” Microsoft also provided a healthy guidance for 2008. Microsoft shares are up in after hours trading today.

Weekly Declines

Southwest Airlines Co. - (NYSE: LUV) reported its first quarter 2007 results. “Net income for first quarter 2007 was $93 million, or $.12 per diluted share, compared to $61 million, or $.07 per diluted share, for first quarter 2006. Economic net income for first quarter 2007 was $33 million, or $.04 per diluted share, compared to $64 million, or $.08 per diluted share, for first quarter 2006. This economic net income result is in line with First Call's mean estimate of $.04 per diluted share for first quarter 2007. (Refer to the reconciliation in the accompanying tables for further information regarding economic results.)

First Quarter 2007 Financial Highlights:

-- Record first quarter revenues of $2.2 billion, up 8.9 percent
-- Economic net income of $33 million, down 48.4 percent
-- Economic net income per diluted share of $.04, down 50 percent…”
Although Southwest had a record quarter, and showed profits, the net income went down 48.4 percent owing to rising fuel costs. Southwest shares were down 6% on the news, and are now down 5% for the year.

Yearly Leaders and Laggards

Who sits on the top of The Innovation Index? Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) leads all innovators with 59% gains for the year. America Movil (NYSE: AMX) is showing a strong 20% gains owing to another good quarter. “America Movil’s first-quarter net profit soared 52.5% year-on-year to 15.80 billion pesos ($1.45 billion), or MXN0.45 a share, on the back of strong revenue growth and higher margins. The market was expecting net profit of MXN11.50 billion, or MXN0.33 a share, according to the median forecast of 10 analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. America Movil added nearly 6.5 million wireless subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total to 131.2 million, of which 44.8 million were in Mexico.” Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is up 17% for the year.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) is down 10% this year. Starbucks is announcing earnings next week.

The Innovation Index Annual Report

I posted The Innovation Index Annual Report earlier in the year that included three Chapters:

Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity at the Top 20 Innovators
Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - The Innovator of Innovators
Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights and Roundup

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.

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.

Protecting your security online

An incident this week served as an important reminder about what we as an online community need to do to ensure our security.

On Tuesday, April 24th, Google identified and canceled AdWords accounts displaying ads that re-directed users to malicious sites. These sites attempted to install malware onto users’ computers. This is an issue we’ve taken very seriously and will continue to monitor. We are also evaluating our systems to ensure that the appropriate measures are in place to block future attempts.

Google is committed to ensuring the safety and security of our users and our advertisers. We actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware in both our ad network and in our search results. We have manual and automated processes in place to detect and enforce these policies, and products such as Google Toolbar that actively seek out and alert users when they access malicious or suspicious sites. We feel a responsibility to protect the security and safety of our users and advertisers, and recognize that secure products are instrumental in maintaining your trust.

We strongly encourage all of our users and advertisers to keep up-to-date antivirus protection on their computers and regularly run system scans. As a general rule of thumb, individuals should also take care to create complex passwords, change them frequently, and only use them on known or trusted (non-public) computers. Antivirus software (such as Norton Security Scan and Spyware Doctor) and instructions for use are available for free as part of Google Pack.

For more information on Google’s security philosophy, and how to report possible issues, please visit our security and product safety page. You can also find more information on our software principles here.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

New Google Apps Demo

Posted by Kevin Gough, Sr. Product & Marketing Manager

The Google Apps website does a pretty good job of describing the various applications, Gmail, Google Calendar, etc., included in Google Apps. However, one of the most powerful aspects of the suite is how integrated the applications are. From accessing email from the personalized start page to adding a appointment to your calendar right from an email, we're working to build a seamless user experience, where you don't have to wait forever for a different desktop application to load before you can get to work. Here's Rajen Sheth, Product Manager, demonstrating some of the unique features of Google Apps.

Encouraging clicks

Many of you may remember our December post on the placement of images near ads. In that spirit, we'd like to remind you of a general policy issue: encouraging clicks.

As many of you know, our program policies prohibit any means of encouraging users to click on Google ads or bringing excessive attention to ad units. For example, sites may not contain phrases such as "click the ads," "support our sponsors," "visit these recommended links," or other similar language that could apply to the Google ads on your site. In addition, publishers are not permitted to label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements."

In light of this policy, you may be wondering if you're allowed to recommend your referral products to your users. As explained in Dan's post from February, unlike with AdSense for content ads, you can endorse your referral products by calling attention to the button or text link. If you believe in the quality of the product that you're referring, feel free to let your users know.

Generally, visitors should only click on Google ads if they're interested in the services being advertised. Encouraging them to click on your Google ads, either directly or indirectly, can lead to inflated advertiser costs -- and can cause an account to be disabled.

If you'd like to improve the performance of your ad units and attract more interested users, check out our Help Center's optimization tips to take full advantage of what AdSense has to offer.

Discuss this post

Posted by Mike Deeringer - AdSense Publisher Support

Priceline here, Priceline there, Priceline everywhere....well..almost

Announcement today that accommodation powerhouse and Priceline subsidiary Booking.com has opened offices in Cape Town, Munich, Warsaw and Dubai. Should be and is a great story. A company that invented a new model in the US and struggled for a long time yet made two very smart acquisitions in Europe is expanding further. All good right? Yes...but...no. This makes for offices in Cape Town, Munich, Warsaw, Dubai, UK, Holland, US (of course), Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Cambridge, Dublin, London, Loulé, Lyon, Norwalk (USA), Paris, Rome and Vienna. It should sound like a list of all of the best places in the world for an online hotel provider to be. However there is a huge part of the planet missing from this list and you do not get a special prize for guessing where.

Where are the people focused on Australia, China, Japan, India, Korea, SE Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore an more. All of these countries are booming for online travel. Should you should be nervous if you are a Priceline exec in missing these markets? Surely they were were "boom fodder" markets in 2000 (places where stupid money was spend with no return) and therefore should be ignored. However each has subsequently proven itself as a destination and source for significant online travel potential. Especially in hotel only. In each of those Asian markets the number one online intemediary is a hotel only provider.

Congrats to Priceline for its expansion. With 11 million room nights a year they are a player in every market - in Europe they are a powerhouse. However there is space, profit, opportunity etc in Asia Pacific that they (and others) are missing by focusing expansion efforts in only in an easterly direction of Europe.

Innovation Bloggers Virtual Forum ..... Rescheduled!

*****Latest Update*****
The Innovation Bloggers Virtual Forum will be rescheduled.

This message was posted by Jeff De Cagna earlier today on his blog:
"I am sorry to say that due to technical difficulties incurred this morning, we are going to reschedule both panels of the Innovation Bloggers Virtual Forum. I am totally at a loss to figure out what is going on, since I was able to dial-in. Apparently no one else was!

I will work with the roundtable participants to find a new time to have these conversations. Please subscribe to this blog for updates and please accept my most sincere apologies for this unforeseen technical issue. Believe me, I will be giving a piece of my mind to the conference call company!

Thank you all for your interest. I promise that the Forum will happen and soon. Stay tuned!"
*****End Message*****

Just a quick reminder to everyone that the Innovation Bloggers Virtual Forum is tomorrow, April 26, and we hope you will be able to join us. Jeff De Cagna, chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, will be hosting and moderating the Forum.

There are some changes in the lineup of participating bloggers; here is an update on the two roundtables:

Morning Forum Roundtable (11 am EDT)

Mark Brady, Fouroboros
Renee Hopkins Callahan, IdeaFlow
Dave Pollard, How to Save the World
Jim Todhunter, Innovating to Win

Afternoon Forum Roundtable (2 pm EDT)

Dominic Basulto, Endless Innovation
Sanjay Dalal, Creativity And Innovation Driving Business
Mark McGuinness, Wishful Thinking
Joyce Wycoff, Heads Up! on Organizational Innovation

If you would like to join us for either or both roundtables, you can use the following dial-in information:

From Skype call +99008275877560

In the US or Canada call 1-605-475-8500 (long distance costs apply)

International call-in numbers (National rate charges will apply)
In Austria: 0820 4000 1572 In Belgium: 070 35 9987 In France: 0826 100 275 In Germany 01805 00 7646 In Ireland: 0818 270 032 In Italy: 0848 390 172 In Spain: 0902 886 048 In Switzerland: 0848 560 152 In UK: 0870 738 0760 In Australia: 283 078 824 (can support only 2 concurrent callers)

Enter Conference Room Number 5877560

The plan is to record both roundtables and post podcasts early next week.

We are really looking forward to the conversation! We look forward to your participation. The Virtual Forum will be engaging, and the audience will participate as well.

MARKETING VIDEO: Get To Know Mark Joyner - Internet Marketing Godfather

By Luis Galarza

Interview To Mark Joyner "The Internet Marketing Godfather" At The World Internet Marketing Submmit Seminar.



Video Blog.- Now you can see why people including top online marketers called Mark Joyner the "Godfather Of Internet Marketing". Simply because he turn his online business into a success without any online expert help, or book, or any type of course... He also was the first infoproduct marketer who apply viral marketing strategies to promote his ebooks. Plus, he also master the art of selling your own book on Amazon.com, and become the top seller in just 24 hours.

To your success,

Luis Galarza
Make Money At Home Blog


About Author: Luis Galarza is a respectable Internet Marketing and Small Business Consultant. Also, he had teached 100's of entrepreneurs how to make money online without a their own product. For more information about his Free Affiliate Marketing Training go to: http://www.AffiliateCashSecretsClub.com/

A proud member of

The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.

MARKETING VIDEO: Ewen Chia Reveales The Number One Problem For New Internet Marketers

By Luis Galarza

Ewen Chia A Successful Affiliate Marketing Expert Talks About The Number One Problem For New Online Entrepreneurs.




Video Blog.- Aurelius Tjin (another top Internet Marketer) at the World Internet Summit Asking Ewen Chia (Top Affiliate Marketer) "What Is the #1 Problem New Internet Marketers Are Having?"

To your success,

Luis Galarza
Make Money At Home Blog


About Author: Luis Galarza is a respectable Internet Marketing and Small Business Consultant. Also, he had teached 100's of entrepreneurs how to make money online without a their own product. For more information about his Free Affiliate Marketing Training go to: http://www.AffiliateCashSecretsClub.com/

A proud member of

The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.

TripIt - not sure what they do but they have a million bucks to do it with

Alarm:Clock and Venture Beat are both carrying the story that pre-launch TripIt has raised a million dollars in funding from O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. Front page of the site gives away nothing as to what this million bucks will do but does have a catchy phrase about how online travel needs a new model. The only executive/f0under mentioned in the articles is Greg Brockway - formally of Expedia where he was originally the Chief Product Office (and a founder) at Hotwire before moving to run the offline wholesaler Classic Vacations.

A million dollars is a good money for a pre-launch start-up, especially in the crowded travel space. You could see this as evidence that there are still amazing opportunities for idea clutching entrepreneurs in online travel to raise funds. However as a co-founder of Hotwire, Brockway is not your typical idea clutching online travel entrepreneur because with the sale of Hotwire to Expedia (well really to InterActive but same thing) for $665 million plus in 2003 he made lot of money for PE power-house firm Texas Pacific Group (as well as airlines American, America West, Continental, Northwest, United and USAirways).

Good to see former Expedia staff sticking with online travel rather than start-ups in real estate, shopping, legal affairs and social networking.

UPDATE - looks like Expedia likes finding Classic Vacations bosses from Hotwire. News from the US TravelWeekly is that the new head of Classic will be Tim Mcdonald who, like Brockway, was in his previous role the head of product at Hotwire

UPDATE 2 - Here is how Greg Brockway describes what Tripit will do (thanks to Hotelmarketing)

"Online travel is more than a decade old and travelers use multiple sites to book their trips. TripIt is the next wave in online travel, helping travelers consolidate and organize all their travel no matter where they book.
With TripIt, you simply email us your travel confirmation emails and we do the rest. First, we’ll automatically add the basic information you need to make almost every trip easier, such as maps, weather, directions, destination info and more. Second, we’ll help you share your travel plans with the people who need to know--friends, family & co-workers. Third, with a consolidated view of your plans, we can anticipate user needs and make relevant suggestions. Finally, by integrating with the applications people use most, TripIt will give you access to the right information when and where you need it - online, in print, via mobile, or in your calendar."

Still not sure how that works so will have to wait until I can see it in action.

AdWords Optimization Tips: Part 5 - Beyond Keyword Basics

Over the past few months, Stephanie Lim from the Optimization team has been offering tips on optimizing your AdWords account. In her most recent post about keyword optimization, Stephanie offered many insights on how to build and expand your keyword lists. In this installment, she addresses other strategies that can help you refine and target the keywords in your AdWords account for even more effective performance.

Keyword Length

Research indicates that the majority of users' keyword searches are between one and five words long and that most users search with multiple-word phrases rather than single-word phrases. (Source: OneStat.com) While it is important to include a variety of keywords to ensure both quality and quantity of traffic, keep in mind that single-word, general keywords such as 'car' or 'mortgages' will be very high traffic but may not be targeted enough, while seven-word keywords, like 'find ways to rejuvenate unhealthy looking skin' may be so specific that no one ever searches on them.

The keywords that perform best for you will depend on your specific products and services and how your customers search for them. People may search for mortgage refinancing with just a few words but may search for engagement rings with a longer search query. For example, a keyword targeting serious jewelry shoppers could be as detailed as 'three stone princess cut platinum diamond engagement ring'. As always, it's important to keep an open mind about keyword length and adjust your strategy based on your campaign results.

Negative Keywords

Negative keywords, one of the four types of AdWords keyword matching options, can help target your ads to potential customers and increase your ROI and conversion rates. Unlike broad, exact, and phrase match keywords, negative keywords are keywords on which you do not want your ads to run. You can use negative keywords at either the ad group or the campaign level. When constructing a negative keywords list, try to be as exhaustive as possible, but be careful that none of your negative keywords overlap with your broad, phrase, or exact match keywords, as they will cause your ad not to show. For instance, an advertiser for a financial institution that provides loans but does not offer actual rate quotes may want to include 'rate' and 'rates' as negative keywords. However, if he wanted to include 'fixed rate mortgage' in his keyword list, he should not include 'rate' among his campaign negative keywords list.

Just as you can use the Keyword Tool to find keyword variations and modifiers for your 'positive' keywords list, you can also use it to find keyword variations and modifiers for your negative keywords list. You may also want to try searching on some core keywords in Google Search and looking at the first page or two of organic search results to find possible irrelevant themes for which you would not want your ad to show.

You may want to employ negative keywords to filter out certain searches for a number of reasons:

• Filter out different products or services: A real estate agent who is focused on selling homes may wish to include not only the negative keywords of 'rent' and 'renting,' but also use the Keyword Tool to find variations such as 'rents,' 'rental' and 'rentals.'
• Filter out irrelevant searches: An advertiser selling herbal remedies may discover that the name of a particular remedy also happens to be the name of a musical group. In such a case, it would be wise to include negative keywords such as: 'music,' 'band,' 'concert,' 'ticket,' 'lyric,' 'album,' 'mp3,' and the pluralized versions of these words.
  
• Filter for serious buyers: A seller of digital cameras may want to filter out research-oriented keywords such as: 'review,' 'rate,' 'rating,' 'compare,' 'comparing,' 'comparison,' and the pluralized versions of these words.
  

Deleting Keywords

Most of the strategies we have discussed involve expanding keyword lists. If you are optimizing an existing account however, it may be equally valuable to delete keywords from your account, starting with identifying keywords that are performing poorly. Depending on what your advertising goals are, you may want to apply specific strategies to deleting keywords.

If you are CTR focused, you may want to identify and delete keywords with high impression counts but low numbers of clickthroughs. These keywords may be too general or not relevant enough and are garnering many impressions but very few clicks. If you are conversion focused, you may want to identify and delete keywords that garner high costs but very few conversions. These keywords may be too specific and accrue very few impressions over a long period of time because very few people are searching on them.

You can identify extremely specific or general keywords by running a report and either modifying or deleting these keywords.

As we have emphasized before, optimization is a dynamic process that involves testing, evaluating, and iterating -- adjusting your strategies to best fit your advertising goals and the changing demands of the market. We hope our tips on keyword optimization have given you a good start. And please keep an eye out for the next optimization topic we will cover -- ad text.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew