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Yahoo is Going Away – Well at Least the PPC Part

This past weekend I sadly removed all information about Yahoo Search Marketing from my website. I have been a Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador for years and have offered Yahoo PPC set up and management services. MSN adCenter however is taking over the Yahoo PPC control panel and is already serving Bing ads and Bing search results on Yahoo.

A sad goodbye to Yahoo Search Marketing. I’ve seen plenty of changes over the years and have always felt that Yahoo PPC was a good product and in many cases had strong conversions for businesses who advertised there. But, I am looking forward to the changes that are ahead as Yahoo and Bing merge.

One thing that I have found as the transition from Yahoo to Bing continues this month is that the automated import from Yahoo to adCenter can be problematic for accounts that do not have a good account structure and which have not readied their ads. In one case that I just recently saw for a very large program, the keywords all came over but nearly none of the ad text imported.

Before you click to import your account to adCenter, make sure to review your Yahoo ad titles you must be at 25 characters including spaces to have your ads import. If you are at 40 which is what Yahoo had allowed, your ad text will most likely not import into adCenter.

So goodbye Yahoo we’ll miss you, but be savvy and prepare your Yahoo account before you migrate to adCenter. By the way, Bing says that most accounts will be fully migrated by the end of October or so. Bing and Yahoo want to have completed the change before holiday promoting and shopping for year end take place. – a smart move!

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McCord Web Services Becomes a Google AdWords Certified Partner

McCord Web Services is a Google AdWords Certified Partner
McCord Web Services is a Google AdWords Certified Partner

Just this last week I finished taking the last of two Google AdWords certification tests. This is my fourth test since I became a Google AdWords Qualified Professional. This time however passing the test allowed me to certify my business as a Google AdWords Certified Partner. That’s big news!

Not only am I a Google AdWords Certified Individual, but now my company has met the criteria of management of ad spend to qualify as well. A Google AdWords Certification is hard. I know, I have studied countless hours in addition to my regular work load. Over the years I have seen the tests become easier and then harder.

The very first Google AdWords certification test was killer, the second one two years later was totally watered down to allow more managers to be part of the AdWords program, the third exam two years later was tougher, and this last two part exam in the new AdWords Certification program was really tough.

What this means is that fewer people will pass to become certified and so the title Google AdWords Certified Individual or Google AdWords Certified Partner now actually means something – that your account manager is proficient not only in Google jargon and what Google thinks is important about AdWords, but effective in real account management scenarios in case study type questions that are like real world account issues.

If you are looking for a Google AdWords Certified consultant or account manager, I invite you to visit our website to learn more about our Google AdWords account management programs.

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Free Phone Conferencing When You Need It

I need a phone conferencing resource for a client project that I am just getting ready to start up on, but I don’t want to pay a lot of money and I am not sure how often I will use the service. I found one that suited my needs to a T and it may be a benefit to you as well.

First, I didn’t really need a toll free line, although with the service I selected you can pay $.07 a minute for calls from all participants and get a toll free number if you want. For me, with nearly everyone having unlimited national calls on their phones or low cost long distance, having a toll free number for all participants was not a really big need.

What I did need was a way to not have the issues of trying to use three way calling from my Verizon phone service; which is too hard to set up. I wanted a call in number and a participant ID for callers.

This is what I found from research on the Web:

1. I liked this service for $.10 a minute toll free conference calls www.ConferenceCall.com.

2. I liked this service for my free toll conference calls www.InstantConference.com. In fact, this is the one I chose to start out with due to the ease of use.

I have tested www.InstantConference.com already and the calls are very clear. The information on how to use the service is really easy and they even send a log of the call times via email.

So, if you are like me and you hate free three way calling as it seems someone is always dropped from a call or it is hard to set up to get everyone on together, you may want to consider this free conference call service.

P.S. I am not being paid to write this post for either of these two companies. I found them and researched them on my own and just wanted to share their services with you as you may benefit from them as well.

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PayPal Changes Fees for Recurring Billing Use

PayPal cannot seem to figure out what to do with their new recurring billing service. At first they said it was like setting up a subscription but with a separate control panel and greater payment control you and the client shared and that in January 2011 you would only pay $19.99 a month to have the service.

However, clearly this has changed as just this last month they decided that to get recurring billing you had to have web payment pro or virtual terminal set up in your account which is a $30 per month fee plus then the $19.99 billing on top of that monthly starting 1/1/11 for the recurring billing option. That’s a whooping $49.99 a month to use recurring billing. Talk about a changeroo! I had to phone PayPal to get the $30 removed from my account and am now no longer offering recurring billing as an option to customers.

Additionally, when they set up the recurring billing in my account they moved all my subscription customers who pay a set fee monthly into the recurring billing control panel. When I asked for the $30 credit they deleted all my subscriptions!

Hey, I thought subscriptions were different from recurring billing and recurring billing was only $19.99 a month. So what gives PayPal? As for me this is just way too expensive of a monthly fee for me to use the service for just a few customers so I am going back to the free subscription set up. Too bad as I did think recurring billing from PayPal was a really good idea.