| LED Digest 2283: PPC Dirty Laundry |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. November 7, 2006 Issue no. 2283 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Web Accelerator and Traffic Stats ==-- ~ Shaun Johnston "Google's new accelerator threatens to invalidate all traffic data." --== Shopping Wish List Feature ==-- ~ A. Brantley "Any suggestions on free or reasonably priced software to use?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Click Fraud ==-- ~ David Yancey "...the sooner all this search and PPC dirty laundry gets washed publicly...the better for all of us..." ~ Derek Andrews "They let too many sites into the Adsense network who don't have genuine and original content..." --== Strategic Web Marketing ==-- ~ Al Toman "...promotion is where the client should intend to budget / spend their money." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== New Browsers ==-- ~ Brad Waller --== What are You Doing with AJAX? ==-- ~ Rohit Sinha <Moderator Comment> ========== NEW =================================== From: Shaun Johnston Subject: Google's New Accelerator Google's new accelerator threatens to invalidate all traffic data. The accelerator pre-fetches web pages to your browser so, when you click on links, pages will appear immediately. It means a lot of pages will be prefetched that are never viewed. And since Google will deliver many of these pages from cache, a lot of pages will be viewed for which there is no log entry. Do I have that right? Here's an extract from http://webaccelerator.google.com/webmasterhelp.html#prefetch1 ---------------------------- "Prefetch requests include an "x-moz: prefetch" HTTP header. Websites can choose to filter out prefetch requests in their server statistics, as well as reject prefetch requests, which would cause the request to be sent only when a user actually clicks on a link. 5. What is the impact of prefetching on a website? - User experience: Prefetching can make the page download when a users clicks on a link close to instantaneous. - Traffic: Prefetching can increase the overall load on a website. However, thanks to the Google Web Accelerator cache, if a website's caching rules are well defined, this additional load can be minimal. - Statistics: If prefetch requests aren't filtered out in the web logs due to the "x-moz: prefetch" header, prefetch requests may be perceived as actual user page view. You can also configure your server to refuse prefetch requests by returning a 403 HTTP response code for requests which include an "x-moz: prefetch" header." ---------------------------- I can keep my log file records intact for PPC charging by sending 403 codes, or by adding a parameter to every page URL. But my sites will load slower than those of sites that don't depend on log files or web metrics. Cheers, Shaun Johnston -------- new post - new topic -------- From: A. Brantley Subject: Wish List Feature for Shoppers We need a wish list that will work independently of our shopping cart. Any suggestions on free or reasonably priced software to use? Thanks for your help. ABrantley ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: David Yancey Subject: Click fraud Michael Motherwell writes in LED #2280: > If we want a "solution" to click fraud, when need to > know what that looks like, and then go get it. So let's > hear some proactive ideas and means. Otherwise, > click fraud is just, IMHO, more noise... and: > ... the greatest risk to the profits of Google et al is > not click fraud, but the perception of click fraud. Clickfraud isn't being *perceived* as a major flaw in the search industry's PPC products, it *is* a major flaw, as is rapidly coming to light. Whether SEMs like Mr. Motherwell and others who defend Google's and its peers' business practices like it or not, click fraud is most certainly a smoldering threat to the PPC-based business model, and hence a threat to the continuing growth of internet-based marketing services. Suggesting that responsible media like Business Week and the New York Times are making the problem worse by doing their job of informing the business and general public about the problem is the oldest argument in the world for deflecting serious investigative journalism and independent research from the hidden affairs and data of big companies and institutions. Those who make this claim, as Mr. Motherwell does, simply help persuade webmasters, online publishers, and internet advertisers that, indeed, Google et al must have stuff under the search rug that won't bear the light of objective observation. To investigate and report a major business problem isn't compounding it, but helping others to mobilize to correct it. As to the business risk to Google's market cap, and, by association, that of other major internet search-based firms, if and when it is demonstrated that the earnings of Google and its PPC brethren are based on non-delivery of advertising value, then the size of the problem is easy to measure: if 10% of G's revenues and earnings are based on fraudulent, scammed clicks, it means that G's present market value is overstated by about US$15 billion. If the number proves to be 20%, it's a US$30 billion dollar problem. So yes, it is a serious issue and problem, but happily, like similar economic anomalies, it will self-correct sooner or later. My central point, which Mr. Motherwell seems to have missed or ignored, is that the sooner all this search and PPC dirty laundry gets washed publicly, and the sooner the search industry learns it doesn't need to rely in part on scammed or other fraudulent revenues, the better off all of us who work and publish online will be, since confidence in the superior advantages of online advertising can be restored. So, efforts to pooh-pooh clickfraud fears notwithstanding, I'll certainly be posting updates on this major industry scandal and problem as I find them. If these updates about updates cause some website operators to question what their SEM consultant or Google sales rep or the like is telling them about PPC, well, I see no harm in that. Finally, after warning repeatedly that the fear of clickfraud is worse than the disease of clickfraud, Michael piously tells us: > I firmly believe in and want click fraud to be handled > transparently and fairly, and I hope everyone tries to > keep that goal in sight, and not concern themselves > with fears that are irrelevant... Great, Michael -- me too! My problem is that you have yet to show how any of the issues I and others are raising about clickfraud are "irrelevant". But no problem: I think we can safely assume that Ben Edelman of Harvard and the serious experts assisting his and other independent efforts to stop this newest form of web-based scumbaggery will be "transparent and fair". You may wish to direct your sermonette about transparency and fairness instead to the operators of Google and their peers, who have shown no evidence of intent to be transparent about this issue, much less of being fair to those spending billions of advertising dollars on their PPC services. Michael also asks me to define an invalid click. Sorry, Michael, that's not my job. You can doubtless find dozens of debates elsewhere on that question. Or ask Google to cough up their data long enough for the experts to answer your question. With over forty years of systems programming, network development, and computer services marketing and general management, I don't waste time doing the job of much more competent technical folks and researchers. When I have a moment, however, I'll be happy to post (again) on our specific experience. But LED isn't about wordy rants or our specific experience with PPC -- it's about what we can rationally advise webmasters to do right *now*. This publication is for the readers, so they can learn how to get the maximum performance out of their limited promotional budget. PPC may or may not be the way. But over-priced PPC very likely isn't the best choice. David Yancey http://www.tootoographic.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Derek Andrews Subject: Clickfraud > Even after eliminating any non-Mozilla browsers and > any browser with "bot" in the name, some long sessions > have many intervals between page-accesses of less > than 5 seconds. Clearly not a human being surfing. - Shaun Johnston, LED Digest 2282 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1313/55/ Not necessarily so. I often land on website, quickly decide which links I want to follow, open them in new tabs, and then finish reading the landing page while the others open in the background. I quite often leave multiple tabs open for hours until I get back to them. I wonder what that looks like in the stats? > Actually, Google is very active in detecting this type > of activity. When we first signed up for AdSense years > ago, I saw an ad for a service I was interested in on > our site so I clicked. I got an email within a day > informing me that they had detected this click... - Brad Waller, LED Digest 2282 That has never happened to me. Not that I do it often, but occasionally I will come across something new that I really do need to check out. It seems inevitable that if I write content I am knowledgeable about, and Google serves up relevant ads, that a high proportion will be of interest to me. > Just yesterday I got 10% of my clicks for free. But looking at > one keyword for October, I was charged for 391 clicks, but my > stats show I got 681 visits. Another had charges for 427 clicks > and I recorded 578 visits. This implies Google is not charging > for all clicks, and I am assuming that these are the ones > being screened for fraud. Those are alarmingly high numbers. I interpret this as saying - Google isn't very good at stopping Adsense service to fraudulent sites. - They let too many sites into the Adsense network who don't have genuine and original content, ie they are there solely for the purposes of converting organic search into PPC, something that Google may not be too fond of stopping. - They are over sensitive to the issue. There is potentially a negative to this in that Adsense users may not be getting credited for their fair share of the clicks they provide. Derek Andrews, woodturner http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com http://chipshop.blogspot.com - a blog for my customers <Moderator Comment> I want to point out something obvious that hasn't been mentioned yet Because of the work I do, over the course of a week I'll access the Web via several different networks (all wireless but one). I usually have my laptop, but sometimes I use another computer or handheld. It would be ridiculously easy to click on my own AdSense listings from these different networks and never be traced. Granted, doing this repeatedly would raise a red flag, but I'm sure I could get away with it for awhile. But as Barry Mills said last week, I'm not sure this type of fraud matters *that much* because it's always going to be tiny compared to the kind of clickfraud that's reportedly happening from botnets and such. -Adam -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Al Toman Subject: Business Strategy > I like to summarize this by saying, "It's not WEB Marketing; > it's MARKETING on the Web." From that perspective, I state > a simple model of the five factors... Strategic Planning, > Content, Design, Technology and Promotion - Michael Linehan, LED Digest 2278 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1297/55/ A good supplement to Mr. Linehan's post is the interactive business planner provided by the People of Canada located at: http://www.cbsc.org/ibp Strategic Planning: Firstly, the client has to have some idea what s/he wants the web site to do (objectives, goal) to achieve their ultimate goal. The ultimate goal may be to suppliment the sales of his / her existing shoppe of which the web site goal may be 1) increase the marketing radius, customer base, 2) expedite sales electronically (versus taking orders over the phone), 3) provide an extended linecard for his / her on-road sales personnel. In each case, the "design" of the web site is different. The ultimate goal may be to provide information (where to get your flu shots this year; vote for me; how to quit smoking; etc) of which the sales of goods is secondary (sponsored links) if at all. This requires a totally different web site "design". Strategy is dynamic. What the client first thinks, may not be what the reality is until the homework is completed. Strategy changes or flexes throughout the process, beyond the final and published "designed" web site. Depending on these objectives and goals, the client needs to think about who makes up their targeted audience. Then, where are these targets (on the W.W.W.). What is their demographics? How do they search? Where do they search? How do they (like to) interact with web pages? Once the client has mapped a route, the client should secure a domain, a web host, and immediately publish a single page web site to gain longevity, become indexed, establish their major keywords, and generate an interested party email "subscribe" base. Content: Before any work can be accomplished, the tools and materials need to be gathered. In this case, the materials is the content and the tools include but are not inclusive of 1) the people and 2) the scripts. First, we all know that content has to be placed on the blank web pages. It all needs to be organized and keyword tested. The client knows their business best. The web designer, if outsourced, needs to learn the client's business. This is achieved through content and discussion. Content consists of the organization's name, logo, slogans, colors, personality, location, products, and services, to name a few. Some of the content will stick, some will be excluded. The tools may include cameras, video cameras, audio recorders, graphic design artists, HTML, XHTML, XML, RSS, PHP, MySQL, RDF, Java, Javascript, SWF Flash, and the like. Some tools will be used, others not. Design: Once all of the above is laid out and digested, the design pretty much falls into place. This includes the client's personal querks (that often cause web designers to cringe). Technology: I choose not to categorize technology as does Mr. Linehan. It, in my opinion, comes with the desgin, the web designer, the web design team. However, it is included above as tools. This is because the technology plays in the back of one's mind whilst speaking with the client, "Okay, we'll need to throw some flash in here, we'll need the web site to be viewed in cell phones, we'll need a secure data base, etc, etc". Promotion: Though listed lastly, promotion begins in the planning stages (who are my viewers, how do I get them to view my web site, where are these viewers now on the W.W.W., etc) which leads to researching and making lists of directories, online publications, industry related ezines, forums, and link partners. The rest of promotion is out of my expertise and I leave that up to Mr. Linehan. However, it appears to me, today, that promotion is where the client should intend to budget / spend their money. This is unfortunate but real and costs us as consumers. Management: This has been left out of Mr. Linehan's 5-point list, the best that I can tell. It is often stated as "maintenance". Once the web site is design-built and published, the fun begins. That is, if the web site is at all dynamic (not just a line card with a non-working phone number and email address). Al Toman studio9.ws ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Brad Waller Subject: New browsers The browster stats from W3Schools was interesting, but way off from everything I have seen published. They do not explain how they get their data, but I assume it is from their own site, which is likely biased by the users who frequent it. I use HitsLink for analytics and they have a page that not only shows my browser data, but total across all 40,000 sites they track, which is much more accurate of what is happening. This is the data for the total market they track and our own site for October 2006: Browser Market EPage.com IE (all) 81.28% 84.01% Firefox 12.96% 11.94% Safari 3.93% 1.99% Netscape 0.83% 1.13% Opera 0.61% 0.46% Mozilla 0.24% 0.30% OS Market EPage.com Windows XP 84.62% 85.32% Windows 2K 5.79% 5.96% Mac OS 4.09% 2.35% Windows 98 2.04% 3.16% MacIntel 1.12% 0.48% Windows ME 0.96% 1.38% Windows NT 0.75% 0.45% Linux 0.39% 0.60% You can read their historical data from their site: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/ Brad Waller Manage and Sell your own site advertising http://adjungle.com waller, adjungle.com -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Rohit Sinha Subject: Ajax > What are you doing with Ajax, is it as good as the hype? - John Smart, LED Digest 2279 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1298/55/ One use that I can think of is a contact form on a web page or a comment form on blogs. If you use AJAX to both load and submit the form, the page's HTML won't contain the code for the form, so bots won't be able to access it. Should help reduce some spam. I haven't given it too much thought though. Just something that came to my mind while I was reading John's post and thinking about what I could do with AJAX that goes beyond the coolness factor and is actually useful. I would like to know what others think of it. It's quite possible that my suggestion above is plain stupid. It's also possible that someone has already done this and I have been living in my cave for far too long. I myself haven't done any advanced stuff with AJAX yet, but I have created a small portfolio viewer for my designs and also for showcasing some of my pre-designed templates (neither of these are live yet, and will go live once I finish the redesign of my site and upload the new pages). My little SBI! site will have AJAX. Cool! :-) And they say you can only have static pages with SBI! Bah! I can't have my own database with my SBI! site, but I can sure store stuff in an XML file, which is good enough for my modest needs. I am also thinking of (but haven't implemented yet) comment forms at the bottom of articles on my sites. Upon clicking the "Click here to provide feedback on this article" link (OK, OK, the "Click here to provide feedback on this article" link), the form will load via AJAX and then get submitted via AJAX as well. This is essentially the same thing as my suggestion above. I just thought of this too, while writing this post. I think AJAX will be most useful where used in ways that don't disrupt the visitors' expectations about how the page is going to work. Maybe give their expectations a little nudge, though. That's how progress is made. By nudging others and feeling your own way ahead. Does anyone have any ideas on how to nudge people's expectations of a web page? Regards, Rohit Sinha <Moderator Comment> One pretty cool application of AJAX is Google Analytics. It's a nifty site tracking service for those not using it (you should be). Stats, graphs, user data, cross segment stuff, etc is all available in real-time. It is the best use of AJAX I've seen yet - really useful Web app. One funny / random side-effect of the programming on Analytics is that I can type in anything I want for headings and most labels. So for example, on a graph of unique visitors and total pageviews, right at the top I can replace "Visits and Pageviews" with "Visits in millions, Pageviews in billions" or something like that. There are all sorts of places you can do this. Totally useless, but pretty humorous. I took a screenshot to show you what I mean. An executive summary of traffic by college football team loyalty! http://www.led-digest.com/images/stories/analytics_screen.png -Adam ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2006 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Every Englishman must have a hobby. Some like to collect the stamp, some like to make the jam, but the most fun is to a kill a little animal with a shotgun or rip them up with wild dog." - Borat |
