No One Likes to Hear No, But We Aren’t a Good Match for Everyone

That’s right we do actually turn prospects away. We are simply not a good match for every prospect’s needs. What we do do, we do great. That being said in a nutshell, we have a passion for small to medium sized business owners who typically have a brick and mortar operation. We are typically also working with the business owner directly and not a corporate chain of command.

It bear repeating, but we do not work or provide any of our services for these business sectors:

Adult Content

Any site that has adult themes such as dating sites, soft core pornography, images of partially clothed women that are used to sell your products, lingerie, any sexual aids or products, we just do not provide services for regardless of whether it is blogging or even Google AdWords.

Stock Brokers, Day Traders, Forex Traders and Their Management Software

In this case we have simply found that the nature of your business is so complicated that the time it takes us to learn and be effective for you is just not cost effective for us. In many cases you are additionally governed by regulations making even blog writing a difficult operation.

E-Books and Products Sold by Squeeze Pages in Multi-Level Marketing Programs

We typically do not supply services for products that are e-books or online how to guides. Although you can still be successful with these approaches, we simply do not have a passion for working with products that are typically sold using these vehicles. This would cover e-books on how to make money in real estate, sell or trade stocks or use the forex, or how to sell multi-level marketing products.

No one likes to hear no, but it is by far better for you to find a supplier that has a true passion for what you do and what you sell. We can help many businesses, but just not all.

Microsoft adExcellence Does Away With Recertification Test

Nancy McCord is an adExcellence Member.I’m scooping even Microsoft on this one. Microsoft adExcellence Members will no longer need to annually retake the certification test. Take the test once and you’re in.

I know this because for the past two days I have been trying to retake the test to renew my annual certification and cannot. Nolan at the Microsoft adExcellence membership center has told me that Microsoft will be changing their FAQ page in the training site and will be sending out a letter to all adExcellence Members on this topic.

AdExcellence joins the Yahoo Sponsors ed Search Marketing Ambassador program in not forcing professionals to retake their test. Google AdWords requires their Google Qualified Advertising Professionals to retake the exam every two years.

PPC Strategy 101

If you need extra push for your business, then you should seriously be looking at Google AdWords first. Yahoo is a good second choice to consider, but for most people, you really don’t need to consider MSN at this time.

MSN has lost so much traction in the world of pay per click, that I have to say I just don’t think that investing in the set up and management of a program there warrants the expense. There is a very narrow market there and the return on investment is simply not happening.

It used to be that for the majority of accounts you would receive nearly half of your AdWords conversions on Yahoo and then again about another half of what you got on Yahoo on MSN, but now the figures are even more dismal. Here is just one very pointed example for one high tech client:

Google AdWords: 4725 clicks, 209,254 impressions 2.26% CTR

Yahoo: 1536 clicks 87,136 impressions 1.76% CTR

MSN: 69 clicks 1,970 impressions 3.50%CTR

This program is just showing on search and search partners, no clicks are coming from content. Clearly MSN simply does not have the technical search traffic for industrial and high tech customers that Google and Yahoo do.

If you are selling entertainment products, beauty products MSN may still be a solution for your needs but if your PPC program is for technical and business don’t waste your time with MSN at this point.

Microsoft Introduces a Desktop adCenter Application

Finally Microsoft has introduces a desktop adCenter application much like AdWords Editor. I am testing the beta application and so far it looks like AdWords Editor but simpler. From what I see, I like it and will certainly find it useful, just wish I had more clients using adCenter and that Microsoft had better market penetration. If only Yahoo would get on board and get a desktop version too.

I usually use the online interface of AdWords for certain functions and the desktop editor for others. Sometimes I am using both at the same time. So as a result, I am tickled to death to be invited to review the beta version before mass distribution by Microsoft.

I’ll let you know how I feel about it later this week, but some of my favorite things about AdWords editor I could see were already included in the Microsoft desktop version of their own application.