Digital Point's Cooperative Ad Network

Digital Point's Cooperative Ad Network:
Digital Point's Cooperative Ad Newtork is a powerful link exchange program. I believe sites participating in the network are assigned an ad weighting based upon traffic, PageRank, and number of pages number of pages indexed in Google. On your pages you place the code and random static text links pointing at other network sites magically appear. On other participating sites links to your site will randomly appear based upon your weighting. Many of the sites are community driven forums with thousands of pages so there is a ton of link popularity being parsed around.

Search Google for eBay and you will see Shawn ranking in the top 10. When asked about his eBay page Shawn stated:

Started monkeying with it about 5 weeks ago... Broke the top 10 a week after I started.

Coop Ad Network Rating as Currency:
The Coop Ad Network rating is actually becoming a currency...

Where there is Value...
When other people sign up under your account you gain added network credits. Some people are sending out affiliate link embedded emails recommending the coop ad network.

I haven't seen weight for sale on ebay, but I did get an email "reviewing" the ad network with someone's affiliate link in it. mattmdesign

Shawn replied to the thread saying that those who are spamming will be removed from the program.

Me Too:
The ad network has grown so popular that other cooperative networks such as
http://www.yourcan.com/ have sprung up
.

The general take is, so long as it is trustworthy, the more the merrier. From a forum participant:

I just signed up as #47
It's a complete rip, but I couldn't care less...
Another network= More links

Is it a Link Farm?
More forum quotes:

I haven't used the co-op. there's no reason any sites will be penalized by participating it the network. what it does is to AUTOMATE a legitmate ad process.

Not possible because links are randomly picked. A link farm is a group of fixed links where linking partners have the same set of links.

Those are example quotes from supporters of the network. I think it is somewhat of a link farm in that there is absolutely no focus on relevancy. There still are some big holes in that ad program if it is to be sustainable.

No doubt that short term it has been amazingly successful for some, but at this point the network is something that is "above radar," and if search engines want to do something about it I am sure they can.

I think the community driven link partnership idea is a golden ticket though (it is essentially the AdSense of link building), and the first person who creates that type of network which is focused on relevancy will do exceptionally well. I do not think it is easy to be relevant without indexing and understanding the pages though, and that obviously much more expensive than the current network setups.

Another Link Building Program:
The community link building idea will continue to grow more popular over time. LinkItForward is another similar version of the community link idea. I have not tried out their network so I am uncertain as to how high of a quality the participating sites are, but with it you at least get to select who you are willing to link out to.

Questions Going Forward:
How do you build critical mass while focusing on relevancy? Is it possible? Any thoughts? If you were to start a community linking program what would you think would be important? Can you make a scalable community linking program that does not leave footprints?

Search Engine Marketing Awards, Google AdSense Click Fraud, Keyword Difficulty Checker, SEO Legends Shirts

Search Engine Marketing Awards:
I nominate ;)
plans are in the making
as are plans for the alternative awards

Click 3 Times:
AdSense publisher is frustrated by the concept of targeted leads

Keyword Difficulty Checker:
I think the best way to tell is to look at the search results and do extensive link analysis. Some may like to try out this free tool though.

New Shirt
So I got my super comfy new shirt in today from the SEO legends collection.

I am getting a bit out of hand with my search related shirt collection...I now have the Google space shirt, MSN, SEW, SEL, IHY (unoffical bootleg version from a defunct thread that was later pulled), BlowSearch, LinkAdage, and Patrick Gavin might be making me one too. My shirt collection is only lacking Yahoo! Search, Ask Jeeves / Teoma, and SEMPO-Tahoe (hopefully the SEMPO Tahoe shirt could be added to the SEO Legends collection soon).

Its disappointing that I don't have any search related pants, but I can't really see me trying to wear a pair of these.

Google Beats Geico in Court, Google Spam Filters, MSN Desktop, Google Library

Google vs Geico:
Huge news for many marketers, Google won.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that there was not enough evidence of trademark violation to bar Google from displaying rival insurers when computer users search the word "GEICO."

Search Engine Filiters:
Three was a good thread on SEW forums about search engine filters. A couple people defaced the original thread with useless garbage, but ThreadWatch's coverage is a great read.

Search Engine Strategies:
I was going to attend, but decided not to at the last minute...anyhow, if you want coverage RustyBrick is posting about many of the sessions here...he may not be blogging the event though ;)

Funny:
GoogleGuy reviews a non-profit site: (really funny)

I'd recommend that he remove all links to these aggressive sites, and then send an email to us requesting reinclusion.

(found on ThreadWatch)

Google Suggest:
DaveN has opened up his scraper for public use.

MSN Desktop Search:
launched, & integrated into the MSN toolbar.

Search Stats:
ClickZ writes about a recent ComScore search survey

Of those consumers who converted on a trademark keyword, 91 percent did so after starting with a different term type. A full 80 percent started with a generic search term. Trademark searches, meanwhile, accounted for 20 percent of all online searches.

As for conversions, an estimated 92 percent of all computing and consumer electronics purchases occur offline. Meanwhile, 7 percent of conversions occur in the form of latent conversions. Only 1 percent of conversions occur in the same session online.

Google Library:
Google to digitize lots and lots of books...

Late to the Party:
Ask Jeeves desktop search

Brits Behind the Curve on Spam?
Nearly a quarter of all online UK consumers (23%) have purchased some form of goods or services from a spam email, according to new research. I wonder if thats why many of the UK SEOs are so good at what they do ;)

Google Redirects Google UK, Google Gets Sued for Google Scholar

Google UK:
Google.com was 302 redirecting to Google.co.uk for some people in the UK. You can override the cookie by using the no cookie redirect link: http://www.google.com/ncr (found on DaveN's SEO Spam Blog)

May the Smartest Search Win:
Google Sued Over Scholar... Have you sued Google for something or another yet? If not, why? ;)

For the Egotist in the Room:
PubSub link rank...kinda like Alexa + PageRank for blogs...it measures blog citation and the lower your number the better. My PubSub is brutally high, please link to me to help make the world a better place <-- desperate plea for help :)

NickW:
has a baby (actually it was his wife who had the baby) congrats Nick :)

Directory Owners Friend:
I will be doing lots of site submissions to lots of directories pretty soon. If you have a decent directory which:

  • gets indexed by major search engines

  • and has enough link popularity to get well indexed;
  • has some quality standards;
  • and provides static links...

make sure you are listed in my Directory Archives site...if you are not please submit :)

Also if you want to offer submission deals for lots of submissions I am all for that and would probably be more inclined to submit...

New Free SEO Tool, Spam Wars, New Google Media Search Patent

New Free SEO Tool:
Jim at WeBuildPages created a tool which shows the unique linking inboud domains. Currently I think the tool thinks a.com and a.com/ are two different sites, but I am sure Jim will have that fixed real quick-like...

The new link tool goes by the vapid name of WeBuildPages Tool #9. Hopefully Jim can get a bit more creative when he names any future tools he makes ;) ... I think #9 is a cool tool which will help at least a few webmasters save a good bit of time.

The Spam Wars
Chongq and the Spam Vampires (found on ThreadWatch)

What do Users Want in a Directory?:
this thread asks...

Sleezy Site Title of the Day:
"Make Your Millions with Vioxx"... that site offended many lawyers who were appearing in AdSense ads on it...they complained and, Google pulled the ads.

MSN Messenger:
It appears Chris Pirillo is none too impressed.

Google Patent for Searching Media:
Google could find a way to profit from Google news (and other media)... (found from MarketingVox)

Wikipedia:
Why Tim Bray thinks it competes well with encyclopedias.

Something Big is Coming?
Andy Beal says there is a big announcement tomorrow. MSN is sponsoring the Chicago SES which starts tomorrow. MSN also says they have a teleconference tomorrow (which starts at 10 a.m. PST)...wonder if thats all related or what the deal is...will know soon.

Tricks of the Trade:
Tips on how pros do their jobs just a little better. (found from Stephen Spencer's Scatterings)

Google Search Suggestion Tool, Spamming Google: a how to ;)

Spamming Google 101:
DaveN has created a new SEO blog. The early posts already have a few blog spam and page hijacking tips, and DaveN has comments open for all.

Google's Search Suggestion Tool:
Earlier Google released a search term suggestion tool which has already been reverse engineered.

Some people have discovered suggestion data via links like
http://www.google.com/complete/search?hl=en&js=true&qu=google
which DaveN stated should be used as a proxy.

JasonD offered many helpful reverse engineering tips to asstute webmasters throughout the ThreadWatch comments.

A couple more tools which have came out from the Threadwatch thread...

Slashdot has a good long thread about Google Suggest as well.

Problems with the Google Search Suggest Tool:
If this tool ever made default it would help users search with longer queries (and thus more targeted searches), but it would artifically condense traffic patterns...thus making top keywords more expensive and static on both the free and advertising side of Google. The drop in ad supply would cause prices to shot up and encourage lots of click fraud. The other obvious problem with the Google search suggestion tool is that it suggests Eric Rice is a child molester, which is obviously uncool for Eric...

Amazing Posts 101:
NFFC asks what is the Best put down line in a forum setting....

My personal favorite is "I don't think there are any medications for being "honesty impaired", but that's something hes going to have to own up to."

Google Financial Stats, Mobile Search, RSS Advertising

Google Finance:
John Battelle has lots of yummy stats about Google's finances...

  • nearly 17% of visitors click on ads.

  • Google makes an average of 54 cents a click.
  • Google makes on average nearly a dime from the average US search

Though Danny Sullivan makes a guest appearance in the comments to say the figures may be off (if they did not take in account for contextual ads).

Rob Frankel:
My favorite branding guru has a great rant blog. His view of Paxil and Prozac for children...

Trellian Seasonal Keyword Research:
Out of touch with the season?

Malcolm Gladwell:
One of my favorite authors gives a speech (about a month old, but his stuff is always good)

Contextual Ads:
Chitika is a new contextual ad network (their parent company has also been powering eBay's keyword driven banners)...rumor has it they might be writing some quality PR stuff too.

Laptops & Porn:
always a bad idea...

Mobile Search:
How it will change everything...or will it? I think there is a ton more to the world than just registering a name. Sure people will easily be able to link up regular publications and products to web locations, but the reason Amazon is successful is not just its product offering or customer service, but the rich feedback past consumers have left in their system. I think our social interactions and the trails we leave on the web are worth a ton more than this article seems to believe.

Mobile People Search:
US to use electronic passports.

Eventual RSS Doom:
Will its popularity destroy it?
Should People Run RSS Ads?

I think the links and attention you get from RSS subscribers will have more longterm value than their cost. If hosting costs are killing you go with Blogger or find a host who wants some cheap marketing (a hosted by link on your site).

Its not uncommon for businesses to have loss liters. If many of your readers / RSS subscribers also provide you tons of links then maybe you should look at the bandwidth as an advertising expense.

Those Random Late Night Purchases:
Internet Accelerator may help you download pages rack up credit card bills quicker.

SEO Tips & Search Engine Tips

SEO Old Timer Tips:
An Old Timers Perspective...from SEGuru

Search Engine Old Timer Tips:
Recently a friend of mine bought me a copy of A Theory of Indexing by Gerard Salton. It is a 50 page book from 1975 with lots of charts and math, but in those few pages it has a ton of information about many of the ideas which current search technologies have been built upon.

I am probably going to have to read it again because it was so dense with information and had lots of math that was a wee bit above me the first time around, but to anyone interested in learning about search technology it is a great book...much like Mike Grehan's.

A Theory of Indexing talks about a ton of interesting things like:

  • signal to noise

  • inverse document frequency
  • discrimination value
  • and lots of other stuff

Here is a small bit I learned from the last few pages...

If words exist in a high % of the total documents in a document collection then they are not usually going to be good at discriminating which documents are relevant for a particular query (since they appear in too many documents).

If words exist is a low % of the total documents then they are not usually going to be good at discriminating which documents are relevant for a particular query (since they appear in so few documents).

Words with a mid range document frequency are better discriminators.

To make better use of words that appear in a high % of the total documents you can combine the words into word pairs or triples - which will have a lower frequency and may be better at descriminating document relevancy.

To make better use of words that appear in a low % of the total documents you can cluster the words into groups via the use of a thesaurus - which will have the net effect of creating higher frequency word classes / clusters - which may be better at descriminating document relevancy.

Page Hijacking, Blog Ethics, Iraq Pictures, Bubble Wrap

Google Lecture:
Video: Eric Schmidt Lectures at Stanford's Business School

From the 101 Collection:
Page Hijacking 101: by Lots0

Oldie but a Goodie...
Why work output related bonuses do not work

SEO Articles:
I wrote a few more new SEO articles. I certainly feel a bit less original than I did at points in the past. Its like the more I learn the more I realize there is so much more to learn...

If you find my articles boring then you can have...
Hours of Fun:
with Bubble Wrap <-- cool

Interview of Tim Converse, MSN Search Beta Rank Checker, Google Grants Amnesty

For the Search Geek in YOU:
An Interview with Tim Converse (of Yahoo! Search) he talks about getting rid of "spam" via content classification.

For the Rank Cheker in You:
MSN Search Beta Rank Checker (found from SEW Blog)

Amnesty International:
Google Grants Lots0's sites amnesty for giving Google some hijacking examples.

Lots0:I don't think that is unreasonable to ask for a guarantee that the domains will not be banned or penalized because of THIS issue. I understand that other issues may still cause a ban or penalty and I never asked for a domain to NEVER be penalized/banned (would be nice though), I would just like to see some type of assurance on this issue.

GoogleGuy:Sure, I'll promise that no spam-related action will be taken based on the reports. If months later, the domain comes up for review for an unrelated reason, then that's a different matter, but I'll instruct whoever collects the feedback to only use it to check out how we pick canonical pages.

by the way, here is the cool official Amnesty International site.

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