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Google AdWords’ New ‘Search-Based Keyword Tool’


Friday March 6, 2009

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Google has created another AdWords tool for finding keywords to put in a PPC account, creating more competition, bidders, which therefore raises the price in addition to other factors.  This time the tool proposes that it finds relevant keywords by ‘matching (keywords) to specific pages of your website with your ad and search share’.  To translate, it is trying to provide keywords not currently in the account that are best for the account as determined by looking at the whole picture- website, ads and budget.

Of course past PPC blogs on ‘helpful’ tools created by the big search engine giants have made my tone a bit cynical.  These tools are created at best based off user demand, but always tailored to and quietly aimed at revenue.  This is not to say that there isn’t utility and useful qualities of a tool like this one, but it is important to read between the lines.

I used the tool for the first time on a current account I manage, and found some keywords I didn’t currently use; but nothing major or shocking.  Having said that, that is the way it should be.  This should be a comment that I am doing my job as a Pay Per Click administrator.  On the other hand, this tool may be helpful for business owners who are attempting to run the marketing themselves and have to balance the business with the marketing.

The tool can be found in the Campaign Management tab, ‘tools’ sub-tab left-hand column.  Use of the tool is simple- put the web address in the search field and in another box type the essence of the topic to be explored.  The parameters included in the results are keyword suggestions, monthly searches, competition as a bar graph, suggested bid and ad share.

Use this tool in addition to the Keyword Tool, but in both beware of general and expensive keywords that will not return a positive ROI.

Do you need help with Google AdWords or any PPC tools like this one?  Let us know at Webconsuls.com.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Create your own Unique Ringtone with Audiko, using their cut and share technology. Not only can you make ringtones from your own music, but you can extract music directly from YouTube videos. If you are like me and you think that paying to make a ringtone from a song you have already paid for through iTunes is not that great, then Audiko.net is your solution! Audiko has very simple user-friendly instructions for creating your own ringtones. Audiko will create your ringtone in the iPhone accepted format; all you need to do is drag the file into the Ringtones folder of iTunes and upload it to your iPhone.

Just see for Yourself:
Whiskey-Change-survival-of-the-fittest.m4r

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Well the free fall for the stock market continued in February. Lets take a look. The Dow Jones fell a whooping 11.7% and was down 19.5% for the first two months.

Lets look at our portfolios.
First the portfolio of 10 stocks from the Fortune Magazine article.

Name Symbol Feb Close Shares Cost basis Mkt value Gain Gain %
Altria Group, Inc. MO 15.44 65.74 1001.31 1015.0256 13.7156 1.37%
Annaly Capital Management, Inc. NLY 13.9 62.38 1000 867.082 -132.918 -13.29%
Dell Inc. DELL 8.53 96.68 1000 824.6804 -175.3196 -17.53%
Devon Energy Corporation DVN 43.67 15.07 1000 658.1069 -341.8931 -34.19%
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. DO 62.64 16.8 1000 1052.352 52.352 5.24%
Fluor Corporation (NEW) FLR 33.25 22.06 1000 733.495 -266.505 -26.65%
Johnson & Johnson JNJ 50 16.55 1000 827.5 -172.5 -17.25%
Medco Health Solutions Inc. MHS 40.58 23.62 1000.71 958.4996 -42.2104 -4.22%
Pfizer Inc. PFE 12.31 55.9 1000 688.129 -311.871 -31.19%
Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) POT 83.97 13.52 1000 1135.2744 135.2744 13.53%
Cash -2.02 -2.02
10002.02 8758.1249 -1241.8751 -12.42%

So we were off 12.4% for the year.

Our low risk portfolio performed better, or less awful.

Name Symbol Feb Close Shares Cost basis Mkt value Gain Gain %
Schwab Total Stock Market Index Inv SWTIX 13.17 181.52 2800 2390.618 -409.382 -14.62%
Schwab International Index Inv SWINX 10.5 90.43 1200 949.515 -250.485 -20.87%
Schwab Total Bond Market SWLBX 8.65 670.77 6000 5802.161 -197.84 -3.30%
Cash 0
10000 9142.294 -857.706 -8.58%

It is no surprise that the medium risk portfolio did worse:

Name Symbol Change Feb Close Shares Cost basis Mkt value Gain Gain %
Vanguard Total Bond Market Index VBMFX -0.02 10.01 390.79 4000 3911.808 -88.1921 -2.4
Vanguard Total Intl Stock Index VGTSX -0.06 8.65 167.6 1800 1449.74 -350.26 -20.02
Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx VTSMX -0.38 18.29 195.43 4200 3574.415 -625.585 -16.66
Cash 0
10000 8935.963 -1064.04 -10.64%

but still beat the averages and beat the Fortune Portfolio.

Lastly the very simple rebalance portfolio

Name Symbol Feb Close Shares Cost basis Mkt value Gain Gain %
iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF) IVV 74.21 57.75 5217.45 4285.628 -931.823 -17.86%
Cash 4782.55 4782.55 4782.55 0 0.00%
0 10000 9068.178 -931.823 -9.32%

which we rebalance to

Name Symbol Shares Mkt value
iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF) IVV 61.10 4534.09
Cash 4534.09 4534.09
9068.18

For the year it is down 10.32%

Not a good start to the year.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Technology changes very often and same goes with the standards of web design. Traditionally, a website would have the foundation of the template built off of tables where as now, we have changed that to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) driven div tags.

What’s CSS? CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is a simple mechanism for adding style to web documents. These styles implement the look and formatting of a website. Div tags allow us to link styles to CSS which can benefit your website more than you know.

How does CSS benefit you?

– Great for SEO. Improve website speed. The speed will be noticed by search engines that crawl to your. It’s simply a difference of milliseconds which is a big deal for crawlers. Loading time can change from .25 seconds for tables compared to .1 for CSS-based layout.

– Easy to maintain. Global site wide changes for the look and feel. Changing the fonts, colors, borders, and navigation can all be done from one location rather than each page individually. This saves time and money to eliminate the tedious process. This also gives your website a visual consistency throughout your website such as the same header, font size/color, etc.

– Cross-browser compatibility. Having your website be W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) compliant makes your website friendly to different browsers. If some of your clients use Mozilla Firefox and others IE (Internet Explorer) or Google Chrome, a website that is W3C compliant will display the same all browsers.

How does your website look?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Labels are the answer to Gmail’s folder conundrum. Enabling the following lab functions in Gmail further expands the power of the label.

There are items on the Gmail POWER USER list of Gmail lab functions which I enabled in my own account to help manange email using labels. While the some of these items are self explanatory there are others that didn’t jump out at me as something I needed. Here are two that can become great tools to managing your email if you choose to use them.

  • Right-side Labels: With labels on the right-side you are able to view labels and email in boxes without scrolling.
  • Hide Unread Counts: This allows me to see how many unread messages reside with a label. For example if I have used the tag @call or _Call and there are 3 unread messages it gives me a constant reminder of what needs to be done. Make sure you keep your emails marked as unread for an accurate count.

These features enabled in Gmail can be applied to various organizational systems.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

We love gmail here at Webconsuls and I wanted to give you my tips today on how to use Gmail labs to become a Gmail POWER USER!

Step 1, Login to you gmail account and click Settings > Labs,

Enable,


Offline
Tasks
Quicklinks
Superstars
Pictures in chat
Signature Tweaks
Right-side chat
Right-side labels
Hide Unread Counts
Advanced IMAP Controls
Canned Responses
Default “Reply to all”
Quote selected text
Navebar drag and drop
Mail Goggles
Forgotten Attachment Detector
Vacation Time!
Custom Label Colors
Mark as Read Button
Go to label
Multiple Inboxes
Create a Document
Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat
Send & Archive
Location in Signature
Title Tweaks
Google Calendar gadget
Google Docs gadget
Add any gadget by URL

and click save changes.

If you have not done so already you should also install Google Gears to enable many of these functionalities.

I also recommend you use Google Chrome as it works faster than lightning with all of these google apps.

Got your own tip to share? Or Questions how to use mine? Let us know