Business Management Consultant - Stuntdubl Search and Marketing Consulting

One of the reasons I have a site like this (I refuse to use the “b-word”) is to vent when I get a little miffed. Sometimes it might come across as a little whiney (and this might be one of those times)…but hey…it’s my site right?

Here’s the deal…I thought it would be pretty cool to have a “google certified” logo…according to the requirements listed below I should be all set…pass the test and VOILA! I get a little piece of that awesome google brand, but to no avail.

• Sign up for the program successfully and be in good standing. This means that you’ve accepted the Rules of Use and aren’t in violation of them.
• Manage at least one AdWords account (yours or someone else’s) in My Client Center for 90 days. This timeframe begins after you sign up for the Google Advertising Professionals program.
• Build and maintain at least US$1,000 (or your local currency equivalent) total spend for your or your team’s My Client Center account during the 90-day period.
• Pass the Google Advertising Professional Exam. We suggest that you take the exam after you meet the above requirements. However, you can take the exam at any time.

My scenario–>

• Beta tested MCC with company 1 a month or so before the program was released. (I was the sole manager of the account - which I still assist with)
• Setup MCC center for personal consulting company approximately 50 (now 60) days ago.
• Passed test for personal consulting company (company 2) last weekend
• Signed up NEW company (company 3) for MCC today.

**Note: The first 2 easily meet spending requirements, and the last should in a fairly short time.

I tried explaining my dilemma at webmasterworld where other’s were experiencing similar traumas and getting some feedback and results , and even tried passing my problem on to some reps at the Google booth at SES in NYC. No dice as of yet. I guess I just whine a bit and wait it out ’til my 90 days are up (think I got about a month left). I think my glory has faded. I guess beta testing was meant to be thanks in itself.

*disclaimer…I am NOT yet a certified holder of the above logo, it is a spoof to go with this whiney post.

This is really goofy, so skip it if you don’t like the occassional cheesy inside joke be forewarned.

Story:
-Mr. Ploppy was used an example by someone in a WMW thread.
I believe someone told someone else the magic command for checking if you are out of the sandbox was mr ploppy: www.yoursite.com or something to this effect.
-Lots of people got a good laugh out of it.
-Being bored at the time…I place an Adwords advertisment for Mr. Ploppy…knowing that I had searched it after reading this stupid time consuming joke and wanting others to get another chuckle from my shameless self-promotion and time consuming low brow humor.

After running the ad for over a week or so I get rejected, and yet again, this childish joke consumes some more time:

Campaign: ‘ploppy,’ Ad Group: ‘mr-ploppy’
———————————————-

AD TEXT:

Mr. Ploppy? Are You 12?
Webmasterworld is Cool
I Like Cheesy Nickel Adwords
Stuntdubl.com

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unclear/Inaccurate Ad Text
~~~~~~~~~

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Ad Text: Please edit your ad text, as it is either unclear or does
not accurately reflect your site content.

Suggested Ad Text:

Internet Marketing
Advertising, Consulting, Affiliates
Marketing Journal and Forum
Stuntdubl.com

I thought it reflected the content of my site quite well. Sometimes goofy yet creative marketing ideas to draw more website traffic. The second description is much too professional for this site.

Thanks though Adwords guys. It is nice that you tried to write an ad for me:) Mr. Ploppy doesn’t agree with you though.

I saw this story a couple places yesterday, and it seems like a pretty cool idea. User controlled ads make a site experience more personalized…something I am certain we will see big G movin’ to more and more in the near future. Localization is already gettin’ hyped all over the place…specialization (video search, news, image search, job searches, etc.) are quite prevelant….personalization is the next big thing in search which hasn’t been highly yapped about yet…my guess is that it’s been kept fairly low-key since it tends to attract tinfoil hat wearing nutballs that scream about privacy invasion (which it certainly can be). I think G is startin’ to get some tough skin about bad press though, and will most likely bite the bullet and start rollin’ out all their big-brother-esque personalized search technology. Here is the first shot at personalized search, in case your worried about being on the first on your block to give up all of your personal information. Site flavored search seems to be a move in the personalized search direction as well. Now you know why all the best SEO’s are studyin’ social network theory right now. I imagine Orkut was quite a big help as well (the founder is a cool guy too.).

As with any new techology, there will be problems with this one. I’m sure those who are quite inventive can already figure out how to use certain content to display the ads they want. I wonder if the click frauders will be able to automate this to choose the ads with the highest CPC.

More on contextual advertising and Adsense, another screenshot, and the discussion at threadwatch

Google Beta Tests New AdSense Ads

They’re should be some cool tools to come with the Google Adwords API released. While I’m not a coder, and this does me personally very little good, I imagine their will be some great innovation here to push the limits in the PPC industry. From what I understand PPC marketing consutants have been clamouring for this for some time, and some have even managed to get beta releases of the API.

Google to release API to Advertisers/3rd Parties

Sounds like a more official rumor that only one affiliate will be allowed to bid per site. This is really a shame from an affiliate perspective, but after recent issues with affiliate from a manager perspective, it will make affiliate management a bit easier. Imagine trying to keep 100 eight year olds in a big circle that had candy surrounding the entire outside. That’s kinda what it’s like trying to keep a mess of affiliate honest about how “cutting edge” they want to be. I don’t envy too many affiliate managers. This would be quite a tough job to do on a full-time basis for a large lucrative program.

One AdWords Advertiser Per Landing Page

Also posted at Threadwatch.org

Keyword arbitrage has been on basically since Adwords began I would assume. The essence of it is similar to the stock market…basically, buy the traffic low and sell the conversions high. If I spend .05 for for 100 visitors and one of them makes a purchase that I make $20.00 for I am in a good spot. Well, it sounds a lot easier than it is, but there have been lots of folks that are successful with it. I talked with several folks doing this recently in Vegas at Pubcon.

The bad news is…the rumor mills are churning, and Google will most likely be putting a stop to affiliates bidding on Adwords and sending traffic directly to the merchants with their affiliate ID’s in the Adwords Ad URL. The good news is they can basically still do the same thing by just creating a “doorway” page that leads to the merchant. This will make one more click for the user and most likely lower conversion for the affiliate unfortunately. Of course this is all still speculation, but Shak at WW has been extremely credible in the past with breaking stories like this, and his word is regarded highly by others (well, me for sure). I’m sure the official Google details will be brought to light soon enough, and this one will most likely cause a stink among those doing it, but ultimately probably improve Google’s bottom line. Keyword arbitrage was quite a clever system (and I just like saying “keyword arbitrage”), but it looks like the days are dwindling for this method…fortunately affiliates are quite a clever bunch, and I’m sure the technique will evolve in some way, shape, or form.

Google - Affiliates - Update

Shak at WW gets credited for breaking this story. The “My Control Center” is a great way to manage multiple Adwords accounts, and Google is offering an “Advertising Professionals Certification”

Requirements:
-Sign up for the program successfully and be in good standing. This means that you’ve accepted the Rules of Use and aren’t in violation of them.

-Pass the Google Advertising Professional Exam.

I’ve actually got a chance to work with the MCC, and it makes life MUCH easier to have an overview of all clients when you work with a dozen or more. After so many, it’s real easy to let some accounts fall by the wayside if they are not at the top of your mind.

You can practice for the exam at the Learning Center.

I wonder what the shiny badge I’ll get to put on my website will look like.

Google launch “Google Advertising Professionals”