Līve Ambitions

Is it just me or have you also noticed a big increase in poor customer service (in the U.S.)?   It almost seems as if our society and culture is accepting this kind of behavior.  Here are some situations that I come across quite too often:

• Cashiers or order-takers that have personal conversations on the phone or with co-workers while they have waiting customers.
• Sales people who are rude and talk-back to customers.
• Workers that don’t take their jobs seriously – which results in half-ass work.

I think there are some obvious reasons for this negative trend:

• As our economy declines, companies are paying less to its employees.  And with lower wages, workers don’t take their jobs as seriously.
• Our society/culture accepts this type of behavior.  Remember the days when we used to have respect for our elders and strangers.  Well, not anymore.  Now, our kids grow up with the mentality that it’s not cool to be nice to people.  Customer service is more deeply rooted than simple personal attitude – it goes as far as childhood up-bringing.
• Poor management leads to poor employees.  Why would workers give a rat’s ass about the company if the owner or managers don’t either?
• Lack of discipline.  Some people don’t know how to separate work from personal issues.  When your problems from home start affecting your work performance, then something needs to be done.

So…how does this affect the businesses providing the poor customer service?

• Loss of customers.
• Bad reputation.
• Negative workplace morale.
• Eventually, a failed business.

Businesses need to keep in mind that customers are the life-blood of their business.  Without customers, there is no money.  Without money, there is no business.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of different affiliate networks.  I tried many, but most of them I’ve simply collected for future reference.  By no means is this the most comprehensive list of affiliate networks.

AcclaimNetwork.com (credit cards)
AdFish.com
AdFusion.com
AdMarketplace.com
AdReporting.com
Adteractive.com
AdValiant.com
AffiliateBot.com
AzoogleAds.com
CJ.com
ClickBank.com (digital products)
ClickBooth.com
ClickXchange.com
Collective-Media.com
CommissionSoup.com (financial)
Copeac.com
CoProsper.com
CPAEmpire.com aka Affiliate.com
CPAJunction.com
CPALead.com
CPAStorm.com
Credit.com
CyberBounty.com
DarkBlue.com
Datran.com
DirectLeads.com
DirectTrack.com
eAdvertising.com
HydraNetwork.com
iCommissions.com
IncentaClick.com
Kolimbo.com
LeadClick.com
LeadHound.com
LinkConnector.com
LinkMo.com
LinkShare.com
MarketHealth.com (health & beauty)
MarketLeverage.com
MaxBounty.com
MoreNiche.com
MotiveInteractive.com
NCSreporting.com (financial) - owned by BankRate
NetPartner.com
NeverBlue.com
OffersQuest.com
PepperjamNetwork.com
Performics.com
PrimaryAds.com
QuinStreet.com (financial)
RevenueAds.com
RevenueAllies.com
RevenueGateway.com
RocketProfit.com
SearchCactus.com
ShareASale.com
ShareResults.com
WebClients.com
WebSponsors.com

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.  I hope to keep this list updated.

This is the age-old question that never seems to go away.  I think the answer depends on a number of factors.  I always try to do some preliminary research on the directory I’m thinking about submitting to, especially if I’m spending money on it.  Here are some questions to ask yourself before deciding to submit.

How old is the directory?  Websites are like fine wine, it gets better with age.

Is the directory banned or penalized in any search engines?  Run a simple check on all the major search engines.  Simply run a search on the domain name – if the site shows up in the results, it means that directory has been indexed by the search engine and is not banned.  If the directory isn’t ranked top 5 for it’s own domain name, then that’s a red flag for me.

Does the directory have a Google PageRank?  Having a greyed-out PR bar could mean that the directory is too new or it’s being penalized by Google.

Are the directory links “do-follow”?  Obviously if the links are “do-follow”, you’ll be getting the benefit of some link juice.  However, the amount of link juice you get will depend on the strength of the actual link page.

Does the directory have lots of backlinks?  The more backlinks it has, the stronger the directory it is.

Does the directory rank for popular keywords?  If the directory ranks for many popular keywords, it may be an indicator that it receives considerable organic traffic.

Does the directory have a good linking structure?  I look at the linking structure for 2 reasons:  One, to make sure that the directory is SEO-friendly.  And two, to make sure that your site can be found within a reasonable amount of clicks.  I think 1 to 3 clicks away from the homepage is good.  Although, some of the bigger directories like DMOZ or Yahoo will have deeper sub-categories.

Does the directory feature unique categories?  If you have experience with any of the popular directory scripts out there (such as php link directory), you would know that most of them come with pre-filled categories.  I’ve seen hundreds of directories using the same default categories.  This tells me that the directory owner is really not that serious about building a unique directory experience.

Is the directory using a dropped domain name?  Beware of directories that simply use dropped domain names.  Often times, these type of directories are put up overnight to make a quick buck.  Dropped domains normally have an existing PR from their previous website, so people are often fooled into thinking that the directory itself has the PR.

Does the directory have a unique custom design?  Seeing a unique design on a directory tells me that the directory owner is serious about his business, or at least investing money to promote his directory.  Not only that, it’s more appealing to the user.

Do you see a future for the directory?  If you get the sense that the directory was built to make a quick buck, don’t submit!  Try to target the directories that you feel will continually work to improve themselves and plan to hang around for long-term. 

Is the directory inundated with excessive advertising?  I think having moderate advertising is ok.  However, too much advertising can degrade the appearance of the directory and deter users from browsing. 

Are there recurring fees?  I usually try to avoid directories that have monthly or yearly recurring fees.  The only exception I make is for the bigger directories like Yahoo or Business.com.  For BOTW, I pay the extra for the permanent listing, so at least I won’t have to worry about recurring payments.

After weighing out the goods vs the bads, it’ll be easier for you to decide whether to submit or not.

Once logged in your Google account, you’ll notice that search results will look a little different vs when  you’re logged off.  This is because Google has long been working to provide a more personal search experience for the user.  This means that when you’re logged into your Google account, Google keeps track of your online activity, such as which sites you visit and which sites you visit most often.  Google will also manipulate your search results based on your search behavior – placing sites you visit more often nearer the top of the results.

This search feature provides a better personal experience for the user, while at the same time allowing Google to capture greater accuracy in their data.  However, how does this personal search feature affect SEO and Internet Marketing?

I think personal search is changing the dynamics of SEO.  Google is getting their way, and so are the users.  We all know that on-site optimization has always been an important factor of SEO, but never more than now.  Website content and structure is the undisputed king of SEO.  Although link popularity is still an important factor of SEO, off-site optimization services such as link building will probably hurt the most in the long run.  This is what Google has been fighting for all along – more quality content and less SERP manipulation through unnatural link building.

From the Paid Advertising standpoint, business can only get better.  Because Paid Advertising such as display ads, PPC and affiliate marketing are not affected by the natural search results, you can expect this market to grow.  There is some sense of ”you know what you’re paying for” with paid ad placement, so I think advertisers will be more receptive to this type of online marketing.

I been meaning to take the Google Professional Advertising Exam for a while now.  I finally decided to take it yesterday after having gone over some of the tutorials in the Adwords Learning Center.  Fortunately, I passed – barely.  I’m a little embarrassed to share my score, but it was less than 80% and higher than 75%. 

The exam was a bit trickier than I had anticipated.  I’m not sure which questions I missed, but there were quite a few questions I had 2nd thoughts on.  You really have to pay attention to the wording of each question.  Also, there were some multiple selection questions which were a bit iffy. 

Personally, I don’t think there should have been so many questions related to billing and account information.  Isn’t the whole point of the exam to test your knowledge in setting up and managing an ad campaign?  I don’t see how billing or general account questions would help you optimize your client’s campaign and ROI.

I guess the bottom line is I passed, and I can now show off the logo.

There were a couple of things that I wasn’t aware of before the exam:

1. They require you to take the exam every year to renew it.  With so many frequent changes going on at Google, it would make sense to keep up-to-date.
2. You don’t get to show off an Adwords Certified logo until you’ve managed an Adwords campaign for at least 90 days and have spent over $1,000 within that period.

My Advice to You on Taking the Google Professional Advertising Exam:

1. Before you take the exam, go over every topic in the Adwords Learning Center.
2. Take the quizzes for each topic.  Many of the questions in the exam are similar, if not the same as the questions in the quizzes. 
3. Make sure the information is fresh in your mind.  It’s easy to forget if you haven’t looked over the tutorials in a while.
4. Pay close attention to the wording of each question.  Don’t breeze through - you may make costly mistakes.
5. Take the exam in a quiet, comfortable setting.  When I took the exam, I was in a room full of co-workers and their conversations distracted me.

I often get into heated discussions about this topic with colleagues and others in my profession.  My stance is that meta tag titles, descriptions and keywords are not as important as many make it out to be. 

I mean, think about it.  Meta tags are way too easy to manipulate.  Spammers have used it to their advantage because algorithms of the past gave too much credit to this data.  But, search engines have gotten smarter and more complex.  Gone are the days when you could easily rank top 10 simply because you plug in a bunch of keywords into the meta tag data.

Could you imagine if meta tags were weighed heavier into the algo?  We’d have all kinds of spammy sites ruling the top 10 rankings – such as porn or gambling sites showing up for “pet supplies” or “computer store”. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying meta tags are obsolete.  I definitely think it helps to some degree.  For example, it would be the deciding factor where two similar sites are competing for the same spot, but the one with the search query matching meta tag would outrank the other.

When I need logos or banners made, I usually look to forums or Elance type sites to find a candidate for the job.  Not this time.  This time, I simply ran a search on Google and came across a banner designing company called 20 Dollar Banners.  Right off the back, I had a good feeling about them.  I mean look at their website design – it’s nice, clean and professional.

I took the Starter package for $109, and added 5 PSD files to the order.  This includes 5 banners with up to 5 revisions for each banner.  The total cost came out to $134.  Not bad.  Also, I was impressed with the quality of work they produce.  You can check out some of their previous designs under their portfolio.  In my opinion, banner designs don’t get much better than that.  And for the price, you can’t lose.

Website:  20DollarBanners.com

I’ve tried selling stuff on both sites, but from my experience, I’ve had better results with eBay.  Here are the reasons why I think eBay is better for selling:

• Both sites get a huge amount of traffic, but eBay seems to attract the more serious buyers.
• Buyers tend to be more confident with eBay because they provide some protection for buyers.
• You would think that for local pickup items that Craigslist would easily win over eBay.  This is not the case.  eBay has massive coverage, so location is usually not an issue when finding local buyers. 
• Craigslist buyers are cheaper than eBay buyers.  I know the whole point of shopping at these sites is to save money, but come on now!

I like both sites, and use them regularly but eBay is simply more effective for selling stuff.  For everything else, I use Craigslist.  In fact, I found my current job using Craigslist.