How to: Automate Reciprocal Link Exchanges
I am not normally a fan of automating link exchange contact emails, but Doug Heil (also known as Ihelpyouservices) points out a "refreshing" link exchange request email that did a good job of fooling him. Arelis is one of the more popular reciprocal link exchange software programs.

What is Goog Edit?
Goog Edit is an extremely useful simple program which makes managing Google AdWords campaigns easier...for free.

What does Goog Edit do?
Taking in a keywords list, it cleans it up for use in Google AdWords campaigns:

• Removes invalid characters (quotes and brackets, leading, trailing, and doubled spaces).

• Removes duplicates.
• Makes all entries lower case.
• Sorts the list.

From there, it then applies several Google keyword rules to better help you track traffic & conversions:

• Multiword phrases are duplicated, and quotes are placed around (Google's 'phrase match').

• All entries are duplicated, and brackets are placed around ('exact match').
• All entries are also used as entered without quotes or brackets ("broad match").

Goog Edit's Other Useful Features
Additionally this tool is great for doing many other features with AdWords. Added useful features include:

• Optional Number Stripper: If you copy data from a keyword research tool such as the Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool or the Digital Point's Keyword Suggestion Tool you now can easily strip search volumes out of your keyword list.

• Phrase Remover: Many times stored data has useless charaters of some sort in it. You can easily remove these using the Goog Edit phrase remover.
• Word List Combiner: You can add identifiers or various word combinations in sequenced lists and use this tool to create a list of all combinations and format it for Google AdWords.

One of my favorite parts about this blog is finding cool new programs and helping programmers make their software even cooler. David is willing to add other features if you can think of any. Download Goog Edit Today

Thanks for making the cool software David :)

One of the best ways to get lots of cheap traffic is to appear on AdSense ads for many people writing articles in your industry. One technique to help acquire this traffic is to bid on some of the names of various article authors.

Some people are not a fan of this and some are.

I have gotten a wide variety of responses:

• "I am honored you are bidding on my name."

• Tell me the search volume you are getting and I will give you a free $100 gift.
• I have also got a phone call, a cease and decist letter, and a copyright violation notice.
• Recently I noticed the following ad:
  
  running on AdWords for "SEO Book" and "Aaron Wahl." If one wants to use my name as a marketing / brand strategy you would think that they would take the time to spell it correctly? It is a good idea to use misspelled words to pick up additional traffic, but the incorrect spelling & targeting means the ad will likely get limited distribution and makes it lack credibility.

You should be aware of local trademark / copyright laws before bidding on competitors names. If they ask you to stop then I usually suggest doing so unless you are trying to push the envelope.

My goal is not to piss people off, but to:

• extend my distribution;

• build more link popularity;
• build business partnerships;
• and sell more ebooks.

Some of the responses you will get from other businesses will be positive...some will be negative. The good thing is that you are getting responses.

• Running these ads helps you open the doors to some future business partnerships.

• Running these ads helps you glimpse the motives and thought processes of others in your field.
• Running these ads also help you view some of the relative branding strength of various businesses / personalities in your industry.

Just a reminder to everyone about the upcoming SEO Roadshow conference in London. It is free, but by invite only.

If you can make it to London next week, need an invite, and are super cool just send me an email and I will see if I can invite a few more people.

The 80 / 20 rule
Well sort of... ComScore search results for July show that 20% of searchers do 68% of the searching.

Branded Search ROI
Google exec David Scacco spoke at the ChannelAdvisor summit. Among Andy Beal's notes of his speech were the following #s

28% of Google searches are for a "product name", 9% are for a "brand name" and 5% are searches for a "company name". "Brand" keywords also have a 8x higher ROI than generic keywords

Google Adwords and the Lost Art of Copywriting

Tens of thousands of businesses, large and small, use Google Adwords and Overture Match (from Yahoo!) to advertise their products and services on the Internet. ... There are many variables, but SEM professionals have focused heavily on the importance of "keywords" – to the extent that entire sub-industries have sprung up to show clients how to create lists of keywords! What has been overlooked, in our estimation, is the good old art of copywriting itself – how you write the ad. ... After all, an ad is an ad whether it appears in a newspaper, a magazine, or on Google or Overture. You've got space for a short headline and a brief description – briefer on Google than Overture, but at least Google doesn't truncate your listing, as Overture does. Given how little space you get to work with, and the fact that you have no visual opportunity, it is crucial to create compelling, snappy ads. Unfortunately, the vast majority are nothing of the sort. Most of them look like badly written classified ads – and that's the main reason most of them will deliver poor click through rates and disappointing results. source: BusinessKnowledgeSource.com

Frequently direct ads that are focused on the customers needs and wants use easy to understand language and are the best performing ads. Many classified ads are tested over and over again...against the rain, the day of the week, the season, etc. and they continue to reappear because they provide exactly what the consumer wants. Most flashy magazine or TV type ads are not tested anywhere near as deeply...if they were, more of them would become the boring ads that speak directly to the consumer.

When setting up a Google AdWords campaign today I noticed that Google ran it through some sort of relevancy checker. At SEW Forums AdWords Advisor stated this new automatic review feature is aimed at streamlining the review process and helping ads get listed quicker.