Critique of Google's new text link ad units.

Critique of Google's new text link ad units.

Found in the search marketing forums: Google Introduces Pay Per Action Beta; New Ad Format on Google AdWords; My Blog Log - Why Am I Doing This?; and more.

In many markets the top ranked site is determined by popular opinion OUTSIDE their niche market. If you are new to a market or want to reach an audience that normally ignores you, the easiest way to do so is to co-brand something they DO care about.

As ads and content continue to blend eventually there will be some type of blowback where websites that are driven by passion will keep taking marketshare from sites that lack passion. If you have a hobby the odd are you are passionate, spending a lot of time on it, and may also be spending a lot of money on it. Why not align work and play? If you turn your hobbies into businesses at the very least you get a tax write off, but on the upside you might create a sustainable profitable business model.

Search Engine Watch's recap of top search engine stories and blog posts since our last newsletter.

First principles form a core set of working assumptions, hypotheses, and key beliefs about a single area of interest.

A new VP-level focus and increased transparency mark Yahoo's commitment to fighting click fraud and addressing other marketplace quality issues.

If the top competing sites are monetized by feeds from third tier search engines and / or off topic pop ups you can probably buy targeted ads on their sites cheap. You don't need to rank if they already are, and if the ad buy helps you rank that is a bonus.

If spam is hosted by Google, ranked by Google, and displays Google ads, then why the need for outsourcing that fault? Why can't we just call those people Google affiliates and leave it at what it is, Google = spam?

Post about the value add and costs of adding a user generated content section to your site.

Scoreboard Media has a great post on the best question to ask a potential SEO service provider.

Elite Retreat just finished, and I think this one was even more fun than the last one. Wendy and Kris both blogged it. Thanks to everyone who attended and spoke....

Google beta launched a distributed pay per action ad network.

Featured posts to the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week, along with recent search-related headlines from around the Web.

Was it a gift from the SEO gods that Yahoo Pipes and Google's enhanced Links data became available the same week? Or a cruel joke?

If you emailed me recently it may take me a while to reply.