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Today, February 11, 2008, Yahoo’s board of directors have decided to restart talks to merge with Time Warner’s AOL unit. This makes complete sense… Yahoo, a company struggling to merge with AOL with revenues down over 35% (reported in Time Warner’s most recent filing). This “merger” would be way worse than the one by Microsoft. This one would hurt both companies tremendously. Yahoo is like a cat who cannot find their way out of a paper bag. They would be better giving the advertising over to Google and swallowing their pride. Or, a possibly better option would be to merge with eBay. After all, Yahoo already handles all of the advertising already. That merger may actually work well. Yahoo, you really need to get rid of your upper management. They are the ones that are killing you. Steal some “talent” from Microsoft or Google. Both companies would love that move. It least it would appear you are not playing dead.

“Surprisingly”, Yahoo’s Board will officially tell Microsoft their bid is too low.(LINK)  Yahoo states the bid is too low and will not consider a bid for less than $40 bucks a share.  Yahoo really has little options if Microsoft comes back to the Yahoo board with $40 bucks a share or more.  However, the stock will undoubtedly tank on Monday due to this news.  Should Yahoo now start to grow a brain, they should consider combining their companies (Yahoo Ad Sales / Blue Lithium Ad Sales / Right Media / Etc) in to single state locations and downsize their unneeded staff in order to cut costs. Closing unprofitable offices would also be a step in the right direction too.  They should consider shutting down unprofitable ventures.  They need to do whatever is necessary in order to stay alive (and independent).  Other companies seem to fear Microsoft, so there would probably be no white knight outside of Google.

Should Yang make a deal with the other devil (Schmidt -  Google CHMN / CEO),  they would most likely jetasen their deals as becoming a true search engine, as Google would probably want to take that over.  This would give Yahoo the much needed cash on their balance sheet, but the billions (and humility) it would cause may hurt Yahoo in terms of morale.

Microsoft CEO, Steven Ballmer, is a nut and is making really questionable decisions.  This is not how CHMN Gates would had run things.  If Microsoft walks away and does not come back with a higher offer, this may be better for Microsoft in the long run.  Under this deal, Microsoft would had lost a big portion of their warchest (money), and take on debt for the very first time.  Building debt on debt is never a good solution for a company of any size.  If Yahoo digresses further, they may be able to comeback later in the year or next year and purchase them outright for a lower amount of money; should they choose this.  Knowing Ballmer as the uncontrollable and irrational nut he his, he will most likely push for a proxy vote from the share holders.  The last thing Yahoo CEO has in his arsenal is to unleash the poison pill plan they put together in 2001.  This would effectively stop Microsoft in their tracks.  This would also hurt shareholder value tremendously, as the beaten down shares will only continue to decline.

More to come….

I was on another site, Adotas.com, and found a really interesting article. The article was about the dot bomb (pun) 2.0 bubble. Here’s the article link - http://www.adotas.com/2007/12/here-comes-another-bubble-a-video-you-must-watch/. It goes to a YouTube parody video from Billy Joel’s 1990 hit, We didn’t start the fire. I think it sheds some light on the possible impending dot bomb (pun) 2.0 future. Take a look, most will find it amusing, if not semi-factual in a humorous way.

I know, it has been a while since my last post.  I have been working on acquiring a few sites and building them up.  Now that I have some free time, I will start to post more often.  Next post..  A few minutes away…  Its really funny, but interesting.  You’ll see….

Most traditional US ad networks will not accept sites which are not coded in the English language.  There is a good reason for this.  Most of their advertisers are targeting Canada, U.S. or U.K. traffic.  Therefore, it is understood, if not stated in the advertisers insertion order (Insertion Order - Advertisers submit this to networks or publishers when they want to place advertisement campaigns either on their network or particular site).  to target visitors within a specific region targeting via locale, category, text (I.E. Contextual), etc.  This is why this type of targeting is done.

Networks, usually affiliated networks, who cater to non-English character coded sites are ones such as TradeDoubler and Zanox.  AdLink and AdPepper also claim to target some Western European languages such as Dutch, French, and German.  However, do not expect much from them on a CPC or CPM level.  In addition, Google’s AdSense program also targets a variety of different languages contextually.  CPA is, and continues to be the most popular format for advertisements (online) in Europe.  CPC is coming as a close second, and CPM is third on the web (not mobile or video) for non-premium types of sites.

There is a way to get around this little obstacle legally without violating a networks TOS (terms of service) agreement.  If you code your language in mulitple or dual languages, you should have no problem becoming accepted into any of the major U.S. CPM ad networks.  Most networks accept this and also long as you have a clear button or link on the top of each page to convert from one language to another, this should be fine.  Some networks may also ask you to only run their ads on the English coded characters.  This is a very fine line in which you need to be very careful when proceeding.  If you are unable to do this, then do not move forward, as you can risk loosing all of your earned income if the network finds out their code has been on non-English coded sites.  If you wanted to convert your characters manually, you can use a free service called BabelFish by AltaVista (now Yahoo).  With BabelFish, you are able to either convert paragraphs of text or whole pages into the different major languages.  Current supported languages are:

• Chinese (Simple & Traditional)
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Greek
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Spanish

You can convert from and to the said languages above into the English language, and vice-versa.   Once done, you should be relatively good to go with your newly minted English coded site.

There are many different ways in earning revenue from your site.  Once you get your site up and running, you can sell products as an affiliate and earn a commission on each sale.  This is a very good way to start earning money from your web site.  As long as you know what your audience is interested in, you can easily make several hundred to several thousands of dollars per month through affiliate programs.  As I mentioned in a previous post, you can do very well from some of the large affiliate networks.  Here’s a a list of the five which I use on my sites:

• AZoogleAds.com
• CJ.com
• Linkshare.com
• NeverBlueAds.com
• Performics.com

If you do not want to run affiliated offers (I.E. from the networks listed above), then you can run banner or text ads from a variety of different advertising (ad) networks.  These networks generally pay you via Cost-Per-Click (CPC) or Cost-Per-Impression (CPM) metric.  This means, for CPC, you will be paid for each click on each ad.  For CPM, you would be paid for each 1000 impressions you serve from the advertisement.  These ads come in a variety of different sizes.  The common Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) approved sizes are:

• 120×600
• 160×600
• 468×60
• 728×90
• 300×250
• 700×300 (pop-under)
• 800×600  (pop-under)
• 800×600  (interstitial)
• 250X250 (floating banner)
• 300×250 (floating banner)

Some quality networks to try are:

•  Google’s AdSense (International)
• Yahoo’s  Publisher Network (US ONLY)
• ValueClickMedia (International)
• BurstMedia (International)
• RealTechNetwork (International)
• Tribal Fusion (US & CANADA ONLY)
• Casale Media (US & CANADA ONLY)
• BlueLithium (US ONLY)
• 24/7 RealMedia (US & CANADA ONLY)
• RevenueScience (US ONLY)
• AdPepper (US & Western Europe)

A new more recent addition to online advertising, is in line or in text advertisements.  There are only four or five companies that offer this, and I’ve listed the ones that I’ve used (or tested) below.  They work by scanning the page the code is on, and placing under line (or double under-lined) color lines with advertisements.  A user hovers over them and an advertisement appears.

•  Kontera
• VirbrantMedia
• RealTechNetwork
• Text-Link-Ads
• Adbite

In a recent ADOTAS article, former Right Media CTO Brian O’Kelley stated the brains over at Yahoo! paid way too much for Right Media.  O’Kelley stated in the interview ““There is no way we quadrupled the value of the company in six months.”  Yahoo!’s former CEO Terry Semel rushed to do an initial investment in to the troubled company back in October 2006.  Before his resignation of Yahoo! CEO, he announced that Yahoo! has acquired the remaining 80% of Right Media.  This was most likely due to the fact that Google announced the possible acquisition of DoubleClick and Microsoft acquired AQuantitive (and later start-up little known AdECN).  It is assumed Semel and the Yahoo! board felt they were being left out of the buying spree, and needed to acquire over priced (by their own accord) Right Media.  eBay’s Meg Whitman recently stated the acquisition of Skype for almost three billion dollars was a bit overvalued.  Thus, they just took a huge billion plus write off.  Don’t we all wish we can just write off bad (and crazy) no brain heat of the moment investments and feel little pain.

The point of this post was not to state how these prices were out of control and uncalled for (the Google and Microsoft initial acquisitions actually make sense.) crazy price evals on these unproven debt ridden companies are crazy.  Later in the article, it shows where some sites with crazy names get millions of dollars but little game plan on exactly how they are going to make any real revenue.

Things are getting really crazy in Silicon Valley.  Someone should pour some hot Starbucks (pun) coffee all over them and wake these people up.  Innovation is good, but companies shedding (or shreadding) millions (if not billions) of dollars on start-ups which make little money (or sometimes sense) is really out of control.  It should be interesting to see where everything ends up over the coming months and years.

I’ve found the product (or service) I want to market. How do I build a successful site?

Unfortunately, there is no secret sauce in building web sites. However, there are a few suggestions I can lend to at least point you in the right direction.

First, you’ll want to know what type of site you want to build (e-commerce, blog, news, social, community, etc.). I would recommend going the open source (or free) route first. You can always upgrade to professional customized scripts later in the game (of online web building). For blogs, you can checkout Blogger.com, WordPress, or Movable Type. For e-commerce, OSCommerce is a good customizable setup. For free (and paid) pre-designed scripts for the other types of sites, a script portal called HotScripts.com is a great source to search from.

I got the service (or script) I want to use. How do I mold it to my needs?

Most scripts have read me files within the zip or tar file you’ve downloaded. They are usually K-I-S-S (keep it simple stupid) formatted for easy setup and installation. For the script you will need

1) A web site address (Go to Godaddy.com to find a site address for your script)

2) Get a host. There are free hosts like Blogspot.com, WordPress, Geocities, OneSite, etc. For a professional look and feel, it is always a good option to get your own host. Its only a few bucks a month and well worth it. Some decent hosts (I hear) are HostGator, Go Daddy Hosting, and Yahoo Web Hosting.

3) Once your site is setup and you have hosting up and running, you just need to build your web site. Most scripts have a default style, which you can use, but, your site will look very cookie-cutter like. Not very original. It is recommended to try and design a site that is a little more unique. This would help you stand out from the crowd; at least in terms of design. If you are unable to design your site yourself, there are plenty of sites to go which would either help you in your design or you can hire a private designer / developer. Check out Sitepoint, WebHostingTalk, and DigitalPoint for this guidance or assistance.

Marketing 1o1

Marketing your site or service is very tricky. It is sometimes just hit or miss. It takes time to start seeing results if you do not already have a high traffic site. Until you become good with this, I would recommend staying AWAY from PPCs. You can loose your money fast if you do not know what you are doing. The best and probably least expensive way of doing business is via old fashioned SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You can check the forums (listed above), as well as WebMasterWorld for some really useful tricks on how to get things started in SEO. It does take time, but it does really pay of the best if done correctly.

Other types of marketing also help. These go with building links with directories and like minded sites that have the same interests are your product or service. When you join a forum, consider (if allowed in the forums TOS) to add your link to your signature. You’ll be surprised to see how that helps the search engines find you as well as other potential clients. For SEO, it is important to register your site to be crawled. The ones important for this is Google, Yahoo, and MSN Live. The others will find you via these three main search arteries.

I will discuss other tips and ideas on building traffic to your site in future posts. This one will get you started in setting something up. I do not mean to sound like a broken record, but it takes time in building a successful site on many different levels. Setting up a site and wishing for the best with no interaction may had worked in 1995, but it does not work in 2007. Much more competition and much smarter people (usually).

The secret to the successful affiliate marketers is the ability to excel in what they market. It is important to pick out the different things you want to market very carefully. If you just want to setup a few affiliate shops for Amazon and eBay, that is entirely possible; as well as very simple to do. However, there is one major draw back; the competition is amazingly intense. There is a good reason for this. Anyone, and I mean anyone can create these sites with easy free scripts from HotScripts.com or Mr. Rat. With that said, there is intense competition in this space. It may not be fruitful to setup these types of sites, as unless you have a lot of traffic already, you’ll find it hard to make an income.

So what should I try and market?

Good question. It is always best to go into areas where it is a niche or not much competition. Some good affiliate programs can be found and utilized from affiliate networks such as CJ.com, LinkShare and Performics.  Just sign up for each service and browse through the different merchants who are within each service.  There are a good 1000 + programs in total from the three affiliate networks listed above.

 But what do I look for in a program?

That is entirely up to you.  You should look for a program that is not really generalized and works for a specific niche.  Collectibles, affinity sports, hobbies, and even travel are all good examples.  I’ve personally never found an affiliate program that works well with just text links and banners.  Datafeeds or XML feeds are the best bet for making a successful marketer.  With feeds, you can create a custom web site (or part of a web site) devoted to just those products.  It is highly more effective marketing products this way that with banners and text links.

 So I should not market on the search engines?

That is entirely also up to you.  Bidding on terms with Google and Yahoo are increasingly more expensive.  It may not be prudent in using direct affiliate links (or specific links to a page on a site) within Google’s Ad Words or Yahoo’s Search Marketing.  Instead, building traffic to your site via SEO (search engine optimization), link building, forums, link posts, etc. works best.  It is a bit slowing in turing out sales, but in time, it will become much more cost effective in the long run.

 But I want to make money now.  This is the Internet.  Instant gratification.

That may be so, but if it was so easy everyone will be doing it and everyone would be millionaires.   A lot of people try affiliate marketing.  It is not something that is so easy to do.  It takes time, effort, and patience.  Even then, you may not make a dime.  This is not 1996 and there are millions of people you are competing against.  In order to make some headway, you need to think outside the box and back to basics.

Basics?  What do you mean?

Simple.  Build a website, start building traffic to the web site.  Then market products.  There is no get rich quick scheme that works on the Internet.  As I said before, it takes time, effort, and patience.  If you cannot and will not give it 110%, then do not try it.

According to today’s Wall Street Journal, people are starting to dust off all indicators in reading the well being of start-ups and the possibility of another tech bubble. Not as big as the one in the 90’s, but one that seems to be having some of the same effects. Lawyers, land-lords and such are again accepting company stock in lieu of actual a recognized currency; such as the all mighty United States dollar. While I am all good and happy for emerging companies and ideas, but I would hope the venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and company start-up heads would think of actually creating something that produces some sort of value for the mass market. Everyone loves things for free, but lets be real for a moment. Things that are given away for free are not something that can sustain a business. Yea, all us small “webmasters” and small (or large) site owners/operators can make some fair coin from advertising; but I do not think that will be the same case if we all had huge budgets to go by, staff, rent, employees, marketing, trade shows, etc. I may be wrong, but unless you really have your own ad sales staff living off of advertising is not a great long term idea.

Yes, Google and Yahoo! do this; but what is going to happen to them when advertising dollars slow and possibly reverse? The all mighty Google has around 99% of their revenue derived from advertising. That is great when the advertising industry is running on all engines, but if (or when) we go into an advertising recession, they will get hammered. It happened from 2001 - 2003. Can it happen again? Of course it can. And Yahoo? They have executives running for the door. Making crazy purchases on technology or services not proven yet. Yahoo should had sold to Microsoft when they had the chance. If the door is still open, I would definitely consider walking through it.

I guess we will see in due time how the 2.0 Internet generation moves forward. I for one hope we are not going into dot-bomb 2.0; but if we go with crazy evaluations, free ideas, and sites that rely 100% on revenue from outside sources, then I think we could maybe possibly move forward into the 2.0 bubble WSJ authors REBECCA BUCKMAN and KEVIN J. DELANEY are writing about.

Until next post…