Social Media blog

One of the most common misconception of internet users is that organic (or natural) search engine rankings, (the rank of a website when making a search), are influenced by the number of visitors to that website. This is not true… Read more

An opportunity not to be missed from StumbleUpon for advertisers is now available. The social networking site (now owned by Microsoft) is offering clicks for just $0.05, beating Google, Yahoo and most other pay per click offerings in the market.
StumbleUpon traffic is highly qualified as members are obsessed about discovering great websites and referring their friends, family and other users to them.

This is a unique opportunity and you could not guess how long it will stay at this price level.

Trade reports show spending on social media very low compared to other forms of online marketing. Whilst exposure is currently very affordable compared to PPC or display marketeers seem bewildered from the space and 33% prefer to devote budgets to search engine optimisation.
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A real threat to newspapers has cropped up in Google news. A recent deal with Associated Press and the Press Association means that Google will pick news stories straight from the source without the need to display heavily duplicated content.

This has to be a good development as more people that invest their time in writing original articles will get more exposure. Newspapers are looking to lose out but they are already benefiting from large traffic numbers due to their status and trust element by Google. Read more

The professional networking site LinkedIn has launched profile pictures functionality for members. There is a huge division over the websites decision all over the web.

The main pro argument is that faces are often easier to remember than names. In particular for people with the same name.
The other side claims that this Facebook-style move will detract attention from professional experience and someone’s work and bring prominence to their appearance. Read more

Likeness is a very popular app in Facebook and key in the effort to turn Facebook into a dating service. The Likeness application has now developed an UNRATED version. However listen to this. The first quiz:

List crimes you are MOST likely to commit first:

• buy drugs
• drive drunk

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Pay per click seems to have significantly changed in the last couple of weeks. If you perform a search for “service” + “location” e.g. “car hire London” and then after a couple of different combinations go back to a generic search such as “service” e.g. “van hire” you will see that the location entered before sticks with you. Works better with specific locations (rather than generic London) so you can have fun drilling down.

Of course this means that Google has made major advancements in the way it is targeting ads to consumers, by second guessing Read more

Social networking or rather socialising site Facebook is going to be encouraging users to make their profiles available in search engines. This is a no-brainer move for Facebook to get a lot more exposure in organic search listings and increase it’s traffic.

However information appearing on Facebook is in many ways a lot more sensitive and personal than on sites such as LinkedIn used to expose one’s resume and build professional connections. So if you don’t want competitors or future employers to be able to easily find you and your friends on Google or other search engines then you need to adjust your privacy settings. Go to Read more

After over 37,000 impressions and total commission of $0.64 I have pulled the plug on ActionAds. The affiliate platform that allows you to earn commission on people being referred to eBay to join the bidding and buy items clearly does not work, to my humble opinion. Time of course will tell and we will see if more affiliates are choosing to pull out.

eBay must be laughing of course as it is driving huge amounts of traffic to the site for very little cost.

Goodbye Action Ads.

This post is to welcome Oliver Ragg of Flight Comparison Ltd, 77 Queen Victoria Street, London, Gtr Manchester, EC4V 4AY that runs flightcomparison.co.uk owned by Media Corporation plc. It is a real shame to see such crap websites in search results. And you can really tell that its not there by merit.

Naturally Mr Ragg would not have a job if the likes of Airline Network, AdSense and DoubleClick did not help him earn some money.
A truly disgusting site littering search results. I hope that Mr Matt Cutts and Cuttlets are listening in.

Anyone spotted lots of SPAM in travel recently?