Archive: August, 2009

As one can imagine creating, managing and maintaining a successful set of Google AdWords campaigns can be a daunting task on some occasions. The Google AdWords Team historically has provided its users with a plethora of very valuable tools to help with the day to day needs of an AdWords manager.

The tools that really are of high value are the ones that can save the “guess work” being done. There are two benefits to access of these types of resources with the first being saving time to perform a task or develop a strategy. Secondly, these time saving tools can have a positive impact to a budget’s bottom line. If one can find a balance between a given keyword’s maximum bid and the volume of impressions it may accrue over time without using a best guess approach this may help eliminate unnecessary clicks and cost. Typically it can take a few days of monitoring and manipulating bids (and yes, ad copy and landing targets as well) before one understands the users click behavior resulting in a more firm bid setting. This can, in some cases slowly chip away at your budget without any initial results.

Recently a client had taken a similar attitude towards domain name annual renewals. As puzzling as it was for me, I had taken for granted that not everyone understands how domain names actually work! There are a number of misconceptions that I uncovered after conversations with clients and colleagues and here are some examples to help you understand why domain managers are so essential.

First, let’s cover the renewal issue. Most domain name customers buy a one year term. This is largely due to the recent low priced buy-in that many service providers like Godaddy are offering. Some extensions such as .info have been as cheap as .99 cents for a one year registration. However, when you read the fine print, you will be paying around $9 on average at renewal time per domain. This is assuming that there is a basic understanding by the customer that there exists an annual renewal. The ugly truth behind domain names is that you actually own nothing; you are “leasing” the right to use a word that represents a numerical location on the World Wide Web. This lease is due annually. Also this is not the same as a website and hosting, as many first-time domain buyers wrongly assume.

I wrote about Twitter in my last blog enty, and I explained how twitter may or may not have what it takes to survive. I wrote that entry before some recent legal cases happened regarding free speech, Twitter, and the law. How will these cases impact social media and how we use it? The outcome of these cases have the potential to forever change the way we use the internet, at least in the US. Until we have the verdicts of these cases, consider the following:

In the United States, we have the Bill of Rights. These are the first 10 amendments to the constitution which lists certain freedoms that the Federal Government cannot infringe upon.
For example: The Fifth amendment guarantees the right to due process, double jeopardy protection, eminent domain and, protection against self-incrimination. When in court, you have the right to exercise your 5th amendment rights and cannot be compelled to become a witness against yourself; basically, this means you have the right to shut up. As Americans, we have a huge problem sometimes remembering that.
We also have the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. This means that as long as you don’t hurt someone else, you can say pretty much whatever you want, and it is 100% legal. Many of our US citizenry (and those in other countries) would be well served to review the fifth, as shown below: