I have not tried out this network, but Webby has officially launched Link Vault, a new cooperative link network which uses static links.

What makes Link Vault unique is that although the links are dynamically generated, they are static and once we have allocated your links we keep these links permanent. The only time we might need to change a link (apart from if you remove it) is if the site your link is on gets removed from the network, or they reduce the number of links they want to display. In this case your link would then be placed on a similar website. New members are asked if they are unsure how many links to display they should opt for the lower number to start with.

So those who blogspam usually keep their tools to themselves or their friends because there is so much $$$$$$ in it.

Evidentally some sites have decided to sell scripts...

This site has one for only $115, but when you click on the link their merchant partner ShareIt says the item does not exist.

This site has one for $300, which is the same price as a paid submission to the Yahoo! Directory, but it can probably help you get many many many more links. ;)

Lots of quality features, including:

• Autosubmit to unlimited sites
• Use browser simulate system for anonymous Your requests
• Use random proxies
• Use random User agents
• Use random Referer sites
• Log file for requests
• Save bad urls
• Save successful submited urls
• Check the proxies
• Save bad proxies
• URL extractor extracts URLs for specific terms with most popular search engines using fast technology - the 1000 URLs You can extract up to 20 seconds.

They also sell 3 lists of 10,000 blogs each at $100 a pop. A friend of mine who is a big time blog spammer stated that the crawl was the hardest part of blog spamming.

Now I do not know a lot about blog spam other than I delete lots of the shit. I have not tried out the blogspam tool as using it is negative 1000 karma points, but if you give it a try please let me know what you think of it.

I also think there are many valuable techniques to the art of effective blog spam. Some people probably are better at getting their spam to stick than others are. Its all about relevancy and providing useful content. hehehe :)

[update: A mate of mine has slightly better in house software but said that this second piece of software is solid spam framework. Again, I have not tried it though.]

Hola:
Spainish Ask Jeeves

Lycos:
Lycos to use AlmondNet to target contextual ads

Who Owns Culture?
Webcast at 7pm Eastern tonight. Steven Berlin Johnson is one of my favorite writers, and he will be chatting with Jeff Tweedy and Lawrence Lessig.

Like Search Research?
DG's Desk links to a bunch of research papers.

SEO URL Tip:
this looks like a cool new blog about eBay, but why not spend the $8 /yr to buy a static domain name?

also, Gawker media lagunched Sploid. I think they come up with some pretty cool names.

Try Again:
Google alternate searches being tested? that or spyware...

Gel Conference:
April 28-29, 2005 New York City. Looks pretty cool.

Interview:
of MSN Search.

Across the Ocean:
apparently in the UK Online ad spend trumps airwaves

A Good Blog:
about social, legal, and economic issues.

Dirty Words:
Marcia. hehehe

Paris Hilton:
still looking for that video? view the Paris Hilton porncast podcast. you KNOW stuff is overhyped when a megacorp has Paris doing something.

Yahoo! Shopping:
rss feeds

VoIP:
AOL tries to be undead, launching a VoIP service. pricing structure hosed from the word go?

What's the Google Budget Optimizer(TM) tool?

The Google Budget Optimizerâ„¢ campaign management tool automatically adjusts your keyword Max CPCs on your behalf. All you need to do is set a target budget, and the Budget Optimizer will actively seek out the most clicks possible within that budget.

The Budget Optimizer helps you reach your target spend every month without requiring a lot of work on your part. You can save time, eliminate the guesswork related to setting your CPCs, and enhance your return on investment.

(Please note that the goal of the Budget Optimizer is simply to help you receive the highest number of clicks possible within your budget. The Budget Optimizer will not help you achieve a specific ad position.)

They certainly are going out of their way to make the ads as "self serve" as they possibly can. I do not manage many AdWords campaigns so I probably am not the best person to test this out, but it would be interesting to hear what effect this tool actually has on ROI.

With how far off Google is with day to day search volume / ad clickthrough suggestions it is interesting that they think people will trust a system which automatically adjusts bids for them based on a metric other than ROI. Of course some marketers do not want to share ROI data with Google.

I also believe that if a campaign is self funding there is no reason to put an arbitrary budget cap on it. Buy as many ads as you profitably can.

I am guessing that if you enable this feature you will want to enable it in ad groups where the keyword max CPCs and lead values are similar.

Mikkel spoke out against the use of budgeting tools recently (as older ones overspent on CPC), so it will be interesting to see if this one actually delivers on its claims.

A while back Danny Sullivan said search engines want to sell traffic on a per lead basis more than a per term basis, and clearly this is a step in that direction.

Real time channel stats and other fun stuff now at AdSense.

Also improved reporting: ad unit impressions vs. page impressions, & 2 new languages: Russian and Hungarian.