Save your top queries

If you use AdSense for search on your pages, we'd like to let you know about an upcoming change on December 10th that will affect your top queries reports. To prepare for a few upcoming reporting enhancements, top queries data older than a year old will no longer be available. In other words, you'll only be able to view top queries reports dating back one year from the day you're generating the report.

If you have important top queries data which are older than a year old, please run any appropriate reports and save them before December 10th. You may also wish to generate a report dating from the date you started with AdSense for search to today, as data not within the one year window will be continuously removed.


Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

Zuji is dead. Travelocity Lives (in NZ at least)

Back in August last year we saw a new logo for Zuji in Asia Pacific. Important elements were the Travelocity "stars" and font and change from "powered by Travelocity" to "A Travelocity Company". At the time I said that

"you could even start a long odds bet that Zuji will change its name - at least in AU and NZ"

It has taken a while but I have now been proven half right in that long odds bet. News today (from Australian TravelWeekly) that the Zuji NZ business will now be rebranded Travelocity.co.nz. This follows the termination of the New Zealand relationship with Stella. Is the right step and overdue. Even though Zuji Australia boss Pete Smith says there is no intention to change the AU name, I am sure it is only a matter of time.

Free Networking Leads: Have Must Click Sig Files

As network marketer, a great way to get free network marketing leads is to
have great singnature files in whatever type of online marketing you are
doing. Here are great tips on how to do this from Tom Schreiter.

"Great signature files.

You don't have to just say easy sentences, you can write
them too!

A cheap and easy way to send people to your home page is
to use attention-getting signature files. Don't use
boring signature files such as:


* The world's best home-based business opportunity
with lifestyle enhancement features. Go to
http://www.boringopportunitypage.com/1234/id=j2kt4

Now, that's bad.

Instead, use your imagination. Make a signature file
that creates curiosity and interest.

Here are a few examples:

* Click here to see a picture of my wife's stomach.

* Click here to see a picture of my boss' face when
I told him I quit.

* Click here to see a picture of the new car I won.

* Click here to see how much weight I've lost this month.

* Click here to see my "before" and "after" picture.

* Click here to see a picture of my dog biting my ...

See the difference?

Your prospects will click on your signature file and will
go to your sales page or testimonial page.

Did you notice how I started each sentence with:

"Click here to see a picture of ..."

There is magic in that phrase. You'll learn more about
that magic later in the no-cost e-course on prospecting
over the Internet."

Great tips that will be sure to get you free network marketing leads
from Tom. Use them to your success today.


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The Nokia Test

Nokia (the cell phone maker) uses Scrum. They have developed a test to check whether a team is really using Scrum or just doing what I call Cowboy Agile (see wikipedia on cowboy coding). Or doing Agilefall (talking Agile terms, but really doing mostly waterfall).

The Nokia Test is in two parts.

First, are you doing Iterative Development?

• Iterations must be timeboxed to less than 4 weeks
  
• Software features must be tested and working at the end of each iteration
• The Iteration must start before specification is complete
  

The experience is that if you ask a lot of "Scrum" teams if they can pass this part of the test, they can't. If you are at a conference, often not a single team in the room.

The next part of the test checks whether you are doing Scrum (in Nokia's opinion):

• •You know who the product owner is
• •There is a product backlog prioritized by business value
• •The product backlog has estimates created by the team
• •The team generates burndown charts and knows their velocity
• •There are no project managers (or anyone else) disrupting the work of the team

My reaction:
I think this is an excellent way to deal with Cowboy Agile or Agilefall.

Let me say this loud and clear: a firm can't in good faith say "we tried Scrum" and then move away from it if they never had any teams that could pass the Nokia test. And pass for a reasonable period of time. Of course they could say "we tried Scrum", but they did not.

The Nokia Test is demanding. That is clear. But a test of this nature is a necessary (if not sufficient) condition to doing professional agile software development. (Or did we expect to get out of Fred Brooks' tar pit by doing unprofessional software development?)

There are some forces in a firm that want to do Cowboy Agile or Agilefall or want Agile to fail ("it's moving my cheese"). This is true in every firm that I have worked in, I believe. So, if you use the Nokia Test, expect to get some resistance.

The Nokia Test is arguably too minimal. There are many other important parts of Agile or Scrum that it does not cover. Are the things in the test the most important parts? My thought is that this collection of principles and practices provides a good core of Agile/Scrum that will defend you from the most common dysfunctions. Not all. Is there a better test? Probably we could define one, but let's pass the Nokia Test now.

Should the test be significantly more detailed? I think not. First, to work with any test, we need the test to be simple enough to be comprehended easily by most of the people involved. In this way, it becomes self-policing. Second, Agile/Scrum needs to be adaptive, so having a lengthy test that puts all teams in the same straight-jacket would noticeably limit that adaptability.

What are your thoughts? Are you aware of similar tests? How does your firm limit Cowboy Agile?

Christmas Business Start Ups

By Luis Galarza - Affiliate Marketing Secret Training Guide Blog

Everyone knows that Christmas Is The Most Busiest Holiday Of The Year, But Is It A Good Holiday To Start A Online Business?

Well it depends... Christmas is an excellent holiday for gift sales. So, if you plan to start a gift shopping online store or anything that is on big demand for 2007 Christmas or any other year, the answer is YES!...

And you can even start your new online money making business with or without any money...

I usually recommend my clients to start their new Internet business at least 6 months before any Christmas so they can prepair their web sites with good SEO (search engine optimization) base, so when the holiday comes they can be ahead of their competition. If your business was an offline store then you will be OK.

But, thank God we now have Web 2.0 or Social Media Networking tools that can send highly targeted traffic to your web site fast and automatically if is use right. This mean that now the web is also good for holiday start ups.

So, if you plan to start a business this December 2007, just do it!... Make sure you have a good business and marketing plan in place.

SUPER TIP: Don't tell any one :), to make sure you get a successful start go niche. Find an on demand niche market and go for it.

To learn how can you be part of the Internet Entrepreneurs Club click here.

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 and offline without their own product.

A proud member of

The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.