My kids who are 11 have found this game and are loving it, but from a parent's point of view is it a good game for kids? If you click my post title you will go to the Outspark game page. My kids like the game called Fiesta.

One thing that you should be aware of is that you will need to help them download it as they will be asked if they are above 13 years old. Hmm, well you'll have to decide if you can handle that issue or not yourself. My kids equate it with Runescape but with hugely better graphics.

The game is actually quite entertaining and the graphics are really quite advanced. I find that this game will be best for 11 to 15 year olds and may bore older children or be too advanced and complex for younger children.

In Fiesta you can do quests, can fight mushrooms, get pets like dragons, the graphics are manga-like and so very cool. There is chat available and bad words are blocked out with stars - Thanks Outspark. Fiesta has new features added all the time. When you first log in, the control panel shows you what is new so you can know what to check out each time you log in. The kids have not seen any special events like on Runescape, but that doesn't mean that come a holiday they won't be there.

The very best thing is that you can go to different worlds and fight different creatures. From a parent's viewpoint the kids cannot fight people just funny creature-like things such as slime, blue crabs and mushrooms. There is fighting, but no graphic people oriented violence.

The ability to travel worlds, earn experience points from doing quests and fighting creatures, and you can buy things. My kids have not learned to buy things yet, but they love the quests.

There are four levels of cash; bronze silver, gold and gem. You get money from selling things that you have made as an artisan or from killing a creature and taking their holdings. If you have a younger child or one who has not played before on Runescape, you may want to check it our for yourself first, but if your child is already playing Runescape this is another game clone and you should be fine allowing its use. As always, download a game or watch the play for the first 30 minutes before you decide to let it stay in your house.

Labels: Game Review, Outspark Fiesta

Yes, even if you are not using social bookmarks yourself, you should implement their use on your web pages and blogs. There is a whole sector out there that can help you to promote your site if you allow for the easy tools to allow users to share your information with others.

There are several sites that allow for auto generation of the code that allows for automatic sharing versus many popular sites. If you click our post title you will go to one site that even allows for a variety of configurations.

Some social bookmarking sites give you code to install, others have easy to add Blogger or WordPress widgets, just do a web search and you will find many sites that will help to educate you on the installation and even allow you to select the services that you want to include.

Some of the hot social bookmarking sites on the Web that you will want to include for sure are Digg, Del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon just to name a few. If you have one you like to use not in my short list, just leave it as a comment below.

Labels: social bookmarking

The Google AdWords Quality Score just added another criteria for you to be concerned with. Read the full post at Google AdWords: Inside AdWords: Landing page load time now available on the Keyword Analysis Page

This is important for some AdWords sellers who love to have landing pages without end - you've seen them the wealth or get rich schemes with the landing page that acts like a website. Who knew you could scroll so much on one page :0)

You can view this important new information to check out your worst offending clients to help them make the changes now, by mousing over the spyglass to the right of the keywords on the ad group summary page, then click the more information and you will be able to see the landing page load information.

AdWords is working to try to provide the best experience for users and actually I appreciate it that very much as an account manager and advertiser both. But now we need to work on transparency on how much clicks cost, not guessing!

I had a client on let me know on Sunday night that they would be bringing their Google AdWords account management in-house. I disabled my access to their account Monday morning. On Wednesday, they let me know that they could not log into their account.

It appears that in three days their account was hijacked and someone installed two campaigns on their account and ran up a bill of over $9,956.00 in clicks. Some of the clicks were over $28 each. I contacted Google for them today as soon as I was told they could not login and got Google working on a click fraud and account hijack issue. I reported to the client to advise his credit card company to put a fraud alert on his account. I can still not get into their AdWords account, but have access to Google Analytics and can see that new campaigns were set up and nearly $10,000 spent in just two or three days.

I have to say as I am on my Google AdWords accounts daily through My Client Center, that it would probably not have happened on my watch!

This is just one of the values of an account manager, identifying strange behavior that could be fraudulent, finding new campaigns or keywords, and catching a spike in activity. If you are not monitoring your Google AdWords account on a regular basis, you really should start. I never thought that this would ever happen to anyone I knew but yet here it is. Fraud happens!

Labels: Google AdWords

Now that the Yahoo Microsoft merger is kaput, it is time to look forward to the future of Yahoo, and I have to say that I think that it is bright.

Yahoo Sponsored Search is a good application, delivers clicks and conversions and is a great place for some to start out with a pay per click campaign. With prices lower than Google AdWords, a very user friendly interface, and the ability to see what top bids are for your keywords, Yahoo Sponsored Search is a great value.

The reality is however that you will get one half the clicks and one half the conversions that you will on Google AdWords, but for some this is satisfactory and a great place to start especially if you are managing your own pay per click campaign.

I for one and still expecting great things for Yahoo and know that this merger threat will help to strengthen them as they move forward. So Yahoo, it's time to get back to business!

Labels: Yahoo Sponsored Search

Click our blog post title to read our May newsletter. Topics are:

1. Getting Links the Easy Way with "Link Bait" Articles
2. Build Search Engine "Authority Links" with Press Releases
3. Become an Authority On the Web in Your Field by Blogging

Labels: Newsletter

Finally, the feature that has made WordPress our top choice is now available in Blogger - future publishing. As professional bloggers, my team works on many client blogs. Auto publish on Blogger will now give us the ability to enter in all our posts for a week and have them auto publish on specific dates. This is a feature that we have really wanted Blogger to introduce.

To set up auto publishing, enter your blog post in the content field and then down at the bottom click open the post options. Enter in your desired post date and time with AM or PM. Then click publish and Blogger will publish your blog on the correct date.

Wow, finally, thanks Blogger!

Labels: Blogger.com

Are you looking to build readership on your blog? You'll want to click in to our post at Blog-World Watch to read our blog traffic and blog readership building tips to make sure that you are doing all you can to push your blog to the top!

Labels: blog traffic

There are some ways to get your domain name to work hard for you. Read our tips on how to choose an effective domain name at our sister blog Design-World Watch today.

Labels: Domain Names

You can do Google AdWords on your own right? So why would you need an account manager?

Sure, you can do AdWords on your own and even manage your own account and get results, but an effective account manager can help you to get more value from AdWords. Here are a few examples of items an account manager can help you with.

1. Make sure that you have website statistics installed or can help you get Google Analytics installed so you have valid metrics for measurement of success.

2. Make sure that you have conversion tracking implemented for your Google AdWords program and that you have it properly implemented on your website. Again metrics!

3. Perform keyword research to assure that you have the "money" words on your account as well as to make sure that your keyword list is targeted to your services.

4. Set up your account architecture to maximize returns. Grouping ad groups by geographic location, keyword importance to your program, and service theme are all ways that a good account manager will get your account going right.

5. Monitor your cost per click based on the marketplace, evaluating ad position on the query page, positioning your ads based on return on investment so you get exposure but without breaking your budget.

A good account manager will help your account to hit the ground running and to position your program for success. If you are looking for an effective Google AdWords account manager, I invite you to review our account management program for consideration.

Labels: Google AdWords

If you're using WordPress for your blogging platform, you'll want to check out my top WordPress plugins at Blog-World Watch today.

Find out which plugins we recommend for installation of all new blogs. Get the links to the plugins and review them for your blog.

Labels: blog set up, WordPress

There is much more to measuring your success with Google AdWords than how many sales did you get? I consider sales the most important measure of success, but for some accounts success should be measured by more than just that.

Some of the metrics that are important when measuring the success of any pay per click program are:

1. Of course sales!
2. Increased traffic to your website
3. Requests for more information from phone calls and completion of your contact form
4. Subscriptions to your e-newsletter
5. Requests for quotation on your services or requests for your brochure or catalog

For some accounts number 2 to 5 are the best measures of success and are called micro-conversions. Remember Google's measure of success of a program is click through rate and not sales or micro-conversions. This is important to remember when you consider raising your budget or continuing with Google AdWords when you are questioning whether the program is working for you.

I am not an advocate of leaving your wallet open indefinitely to Google if you are not having your measures of success met. However, if you do not have website statistics, scripted contact forms, targeted landing pages, and Google AdWords conversion code implemented, it is nearly impossible to make informed decisions about the success of your program.

Labels: AdWords Tips, Google AdWords

I don't get many, but when I get one, I respond and leave it. Now I am not encouraging hate mail, personal attacks, but when someone has a legitimate and even differing point of view, I leave it.

Find out why negative comments may even be good for your blog and my candid view. Then let the fur fly!

Labels: blog writing