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Over the long weekend, I thought I would catch up on some industry news. I started browsing Web sites, only to discover Twitter… everywhere. I couldn’t escape the 140 character micro-blog site no matter what I clicked. And I came into work today, only to learn that Twitter was named the most popular word of 2009.

So, in honor of Twitter topping the entire English language, here’s my…

Top 10 Favorite Twitter Stories of 2009

1. Tweet & You’ll Be Shunned – Former Vice President’s daughter Meghan McCain exposes cleavage on Twitter, and then apologizes to her 60,000 followers after posting the revealing picture.
2. Tweet & You’ll Be Fined – Players from the Phoenix Suns and Charlotte Bobcats are fined $7,500 for posting to their Twitter accounts during games.
3. Tweet & You’ll Become News – Actor and comedian Stephen Fry announces on Twitter that he deleted his Plaxo account with 20 million friends after the site exposes his personal information.
4. Tweet & You’ll Be Thin – Actress Demi Moore posts the “original” photo of her recent cover for W, and experiences a backlash by followers accusing her of using model Anja Rubik as a body double.
5. Tweet & You’ll Be Sued – Rocker Courtney Love calls fashion designer a cocaine dealer on Twitter, gets sued.
6. Tweet & You’ll Be Suspended – A live Twitter feed to a local television billboard in Alabama creates a stir, leads to the suspension of the station’s general manager and news director.
7. Tweet & You’ll Go To Jail – Pulp Fiction writer is re-jailed after investigation that he tweeted from prison. Authorities deny twitter use had anything to do with his incarceration.
8. Don’t Tweet & You’ll Go To Jail – Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber attracts mob of teenage girls to a mall in Garden City, N.J.l. Island Def Jam Records senior vice president is arrested by Nassau County Police for refusing to tweet the crowd, asking them to disperse.
9. Tweet & You’ll Break Up – Jennifer Aniston allegedly dumps singer John Mayer over tweets.
10. Miley Cyrus Chooses Boyfriend Over Twitter – “FYI Liam doesn’t have a twttr & he wants ME 2 delete mine w/ gd reason”

Whew! What a relief she chose her boyfriend over Twitter!

Go here to read the rest:

Please join E-Commerce Expert Scott Pooler from http://www.iBusinessLogic.com and Jay Berkowitz of http://www.TenGoldenRules.com for a fun and enlightening webinar all about Best Practices for E-Commerce.

- Best technical solutions
- How to promote your store
- How to optimize your store for the search engines
- Best strategies to convert visits to sales
- Advanced E-Commerce Strategies

The event will take place on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: The Ten Golden Rules for E-Commerce.

Here is the original:
InternetMarketingClub.org Presents The Ten Golden Rules for E-Commerce

Remember having to go into the Adwords Report Center to find out what phrases people were searching to find your ads, what content placements your ads were appearing on, and whether your ads were performing better on search or content networks? Well, those days are near over as more and more advanced reporting is becoming readily available right in the Campaign Management tab.

It was always a hassle to go into the Report Center, set up a report, run the report, and analyze the report just go go right back to your Campaign Management tab to make adjustments. As part of Google’s latest Adwords interface, this problem is quickly being solved with great data being available without running reports.

For example, instead of running a report to see what keyword phrases people are searching, you can just click on the “See Search Terms” button on your Keywords tab and get the complete list of search phrases that generated clicks on your ads. Right from that screen, you can add phrases as negative keywords with a click. You can also add well performing phrases to your campaigns with all matching options very easily.

The new Networks tab displays all the content network placements your ads appeared on along with click and conversion statistics. You can easily remove any content placements that are performing poorly or you just do not want to be associated with.

I am sure that I am not the only Adwords advertiser that is waiting patiently to see the Adwords Report Center disappear altogether.

Go here to read the rest:
Adwords Report Center On Its Way Out

This holiday season, Google Checkout can help you save time and money. You can shop quickly and easily with one secure login for thousands of stores across the web. And through December 17, save with exclusive discounts of $5, $10 or $20 at hundreds of participating stores, including TigerDirect.com, BlueNile.com and Petco.com.

And for Cyber Monday, you can take advantage of special limited-time offers available at Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com and Buy.com. Visit our new Checkout deals page for more details and to browse participating stores. Finally, if you’re looking for gift ideas, check out the Product Search team’s list of popular products. May your “shopping season” be easier than ever!

Posted by Anita Barci, Google Checkout Team

See the original post here:
Holiday savings with Checkout

It’s rare that one day of shopping has the ability to impact Wall Street but financial forecasters are focused on this year’s Black Friday’s numbers as a gauge of how close to recovery our economy really is.  That $10.66 billion dollars in estimated retail sales only represents a scant 0.5% growth is a worrying sign.  Thankfully, online sales are the highlight.

According to Reuters and ShopperTrak, this year’s Black Friday sales underperformed.  Comparatively, in 2008, sales increased 3% year-over-year during a holiday season at the apex of one of the worst financial climates in US history. This makes this year’s 0.5 % growth year-over-year worrisome.

Consumers said they were planning to spend nearly 8% less on average, or about $343 per person, over the Thanksgiving Weekend, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).

Surprisingly department stores trumped discount retailers with 49.4% of shoppers visiting at least one. Discount retailers reached 43.2% of holiday shoppers with outlet stores grabbing 7.8%.

“In an economy like this one, every retailer wants to be a discounter,” said Tracy Mullin, NRF President and CEO. “Department stores have done an admirable job touting both low prices and good quality, which are important requirements for holiday shoppers on a budget.”

Online fared much better with a healthy $595 million dollars in estimated retail sales, according to comScore, which represents an 11 % increase year over year.

According to the NRF, over one-fourth of Americans shopping during the Thanksgiving Weekend (28.5%) were shopping online. There was little surprise in the online leaders with Amazon, Wal-Mart, Apple, Target, and Best Buy representing the top 5 most visited retail sites.

“Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. “The $595 million in online spending this Black Friday represents the second heaviest online spending day of the season-to-date and a double-digit increase from last year.”

The relative strength of online sales supports data from Compete which forecasts a 14% increase in consumers who will  spend at least some of their holiday budget online this year. At the start of the year advertising and sales online were down overall. The success of online sales  indicates that advertisers who invested their budget online and drove the growth in online advertising during Q3 of 2009, as reported by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers, certainly got their money’s worth.

For online retailers the big question is whether tomorrow’s Cyber Monday totals will be equally positive. For traditional retailers the question is whether shoppers, burdened in an economy with an unemployment rate above 10%, will continue to spend throughout the holiday season.

Read more:
Online Sales Bright Spot in Lackluster Black Friday

Books are a wonderful thing. With the variety of media available to us it is often easy to become oversaturated and forget to pick up a book. So to get your entrepreneurial spirit inspired and get you reading for the holidays, ReveNews is having our first annual book Giveaway.

From November 30th until December 19th, 2009 we will be giving away two books a day via the @ReveNews Twitter account.

Our picks for this holiday giveaway are:

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith (interview by ReveNews’ own CT Moore)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods by Shel Israel

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod

Click here to view the embedded video.

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR by Brian Solis

Click here to view the embedded video.

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk

Click here to view the embedded video.

Be the first to DM us on Twitter with the right answer to our trivia question, which will be about one of the authors, win the book of your choice from our five holiday picks.

See the rest here:
Get Inspired: ReveNews Book Giveaway

This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

This Thanksgiving week, and just in time for the holiday season, we give thanks to you, our users, with two new search features.

Holiday Interfaces
Last Friday, we started showing off our seasonal spirit with holiday-themed result pages. For the weeks surrounding various holidays in late November and December, results for seasonal queries will be adorned with decorative dividers. Try searching eid-ul-adha sometime in the next week, and your results will be separated from right-hand ads by a chain of crescent moons. In a few weeks, a search for [hanukkah lights] or [christmas trees] will also result in delightful holiday-themed pages. Put a cuddly knit sweater on your browser when you search!

Mobile Movie Results
For those of you who who plan to head to the movies this week, we’ve launched a mobile version of Google Search results for movies, making it even easier to find the latest holiday blockbuster playing in your area. From the web browser on your iPhone, Palm WebOS, or Android-powered device, simply search for [movies], and then tap on the “More movies” link. From there, you can either browse a list of movies or select the “Theaters” button to view a list of the ones near you.

With the added functionality to play trailers right on your phone, access movie ratings, find the closest theatre, and view upcoming showtimes, this new search feature is sure to make entertainment options on the go much easier. Here’s a 1.25-minute video about it:

Hope you enjoy these new features. Stay tuned for more next week!

Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow

Continued here:
This week in search 11/27/09

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Here in the U.S., we on the AdSense Team are spending the Friday after Thanksgiving enjoying holiday shopping, American football, and leftovers.

On this vacation day, we’d like you to remind you that tax season is approaching quickly, so you may wish to take a moment to review your address information and even re-submit your tax information to make sure it reflects your most current tax standing.

If you haven’t entered tax information before, you can choose a form directly or follow our handy tax wizard within your account. If you’re updating your tax information, feel free to click the ‘change your tax information’ link.

In addition, now would be the perfect time for our publishers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to verify their bank accounts for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments. If you’re eligible for a payment at the end of December, you have until December 15, 2009 to select your bank account for payment, so we hope you give it a try!

Posted by Elizabeth Ferdon – AdSense Payments Team

Read the original:
Update your tax forms this holiday weekend

This is just from a couple days ago, but DazzleSmile is suing Epic Advertising (Azoogle) and Jesse Willms (Just Think) for basically abusing their brand. Read the PR Here.

In a nutshell (from what I believe and have heard), DazzleSmile was already a teeth whitening company that nobody has heard of really. Just Think comes along and makes DazzleSmile Pro, the rebill offer. Azoogle is one of the many affiliate networks that pushed Dazzle.

As you can imagine, when you brand something with a shady rebill you’re almost guaranteed to destroy it’s brand in some way. People will be pissed off, they’ll report it to scam alert and ripoffreport and that ranks high in Google. I’d be pretty pissed too if I had a brand I built and someone came along and basically ruined it. Don’t quote me on this as it may be rumors and what not, but I did hear that jail time is going to be involved in this.

If you want to check out the legal jargon, check this link out.

EDIT : Just read through that entire PDF. Pretty intense but an entertaining story to say the least. Seemed like an internet marketing version of Law & Order lol. Some major charges going on in there though.

It’s a good thing I didn’t name my product Hydroxycut Pro like I was planning on.

DazzleSmile Sues Epic Advertising + Jesse Willms

The traditional kick-off to the holiday shopping season, Black Friday, has arrived. If you’re anything like us, you’ll be seeking out the newest, coolest products and best deals today as you make those special holiday purchases.

Using Insights for Search, we took a look at some of the holiday gifts that were most searched for this year: Zhu Zhu Pets, Nerf N Strike, Mindflex and the “Twilight” soundtrack were at the top of kids’ wishlists, while netbooks, mini notebook computers and mp3 players will (hopefully) fill our “bigger” stockings.

But it’s not just about keeping up with the latest and greatest this holiday. The Internet can be a great holiday shopping resource, making it easy not only to find information on the hottest items for this year’s holiday shopping season, but also to track down the best prices for those items. You can see this as holiday shoppers are searching more than ever for deals online. Search terms like coupons, promo codes, free shipping and black friday sales have all increased recently. And, as more people turn to their mobile devices to search for deals, coupons are now also available on the go.

In recent years, we’ve also seen the proliferation of websites dedicated to Black Friday deals — these sites saw a 21% increase in visits during the week of Thanksgiving last year. You can find these sites easily with a search on Google for [black friday sites].

Retailers are increasingly responding to these deal-seeking shoppers. In fact, 60% of retailers report that they are increasing their promotional efforts during this holiday shopping season.* JCPenney, for example, is already promoting their 4 a.m. doorbuster sales and even offering wake-up calls from Cindy Crawford, Rascal Flatts and Kimora Lee Simmons to ensure we don’t sleep through the savings. We also love their YouTube homepage ad today, and hope that it encourages some happy holiday purchases (and keeps some significant others out of the proverbial doghouse).

And in-store sales are not the only places to save this year. Many of us will opt out of crowded malls in favor of cuddling up to our laptops, and retailers are taking their sales to the web during this traditionally in-store focused weekend. In fact, 40% of retailers are increasing free shipping offers during this holiday shopping season* — so watch for those deals both in-store and online!

If you’re interested in reading more about the holiday shopping season, including what shrewd retailers are doing and how you can take advantage of the same, check out the Google Retail Blog for insights from the Retail industry team.

Now after all this talk of shopping, it’s time to get started!

* OTX/Google 2009 Holiday Retailer Survey, May 2009. (Q20) Which of the following advertising tactics has your company used or does your company plan to use in 2009? n=600

Posted by John Mcateer, Managing Director, U.S. Sales

More:
The new Black (Friday)

It’s that time of year again. The time to eat, drink and be merry – or overeat, drink a little too much and pass out during football. Whatever your Thanksgiving weekend brings you, it won’t be complete without some shopping!

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday this holiday weekend, this is the prime time for amazing deals and timely gift shopping. Almost all merchants are running fantastic deals this weekend and this means we benefit from huge savings!

Been waiting all year to buy a new LCD TV? Me too, which is why this weekend I’m going to take care of that and take advantage of the savings.

To get a head start on what’s being offered, you can check our Special Holiday Edition of the Hot Deals Affiliate Newsletter, which showcases the best deals from our merchants. This includes both Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts for your visitors, as well as performance bonuses and coupon codes valid right through till New Year’s Eve. Furthermore, if you are an affiliate looking to maximize your sales during this busy spending period, you can read about the trends of the New Holiday Consumer on our Share Results Affiliate Blog.

There’s lots to be had out there, so be sure to look out for great deals and get your shopping done early this year.

Good luck!

The rest is here:
Black Friday Kicks off Holiday Shopping

We’d like to wish all our U.S. publishers a very Happy Thanksgiving. As always, we’d like to give thanks to our Inside AdSense readers for your participation and support. If you’re traveling, we hope your journey is safe, and wish you a fun holiday weekend with your family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by Dia Muthana – AdSense Publisher Support

Happy Thanksgiving

favicon support has recently been added, which to some may add a little more personality to his or her subscriptions. There have also been a few other additions such as “sort by magic” and “recommended sources.” Of course, the more you allow Google to study your reader habits, the more personalized these results appear for you.

Another really helpful feature I have been using more of lately is the “send to” ability. You can access this feature by going to settings -> send to. This feature gives you the ability to share a post from a specific site by the click of a button from within your reader as opposed to having to go to the actual website. For example, if you have a subscription to a site and upon reading a blog post you think to yourself, this would be a great post to tweet, you can simply enable send to Twitter, and Google Reader will pop-up a screen with the tweet already prepared [as opposed to going to the site and retweeting].

Do you find these new features helpful?

Read the original here:
Making Google Reader More Social Friendly & Colorful

Earlier this year, I visited Baghdad as a guest of the U.S. State Department to engage in conversations about the role of technology in Iraq. In discussions with elected officials, private companies and NGOs, I routinely heard the desire to connect with fellow citizens, Iraqis outside the country’s borders, and cultures across the world. But it wasn’t just the Iraqi Government who expressed an interest in YouTube — I was pleasantly surprised by the high level of awareness from a wide variety of Iraqis. One young student told us she uses YouTube to understand what is really happening in her country based on the variety of opinions, citizen journalism and news reports uploaded to the site. There was little difference between her examples and those we often hear in other countries, which speaks to both the global community on YouTube and the universality of the video experience.

Just this past week, our CEO Eric Schmidt traveled to Iraq to meet with government officials there about the challenge and opportunities they face. While in Iraq, Eric shot this video for Citizentube:

We hope that by launching on YouTube, the Iraqi Government and their citizens will also find it easy to use YouTube to engage in such conversations, and bring their proceedings, policies and ideas to a larger audience around the world.

Posted by Hunter Walk, Director of Product Management

Read more here:
Iraqi Government on YouTube

The power of positive thinking can be a powerful resource without the owner realising. Enthusiastic sellers can sell with ease and have fun doing so. Learn more about the power of positive thinking and how it can tranform your life.

Read the rest here:
Internet Business Success Using The Power Of Positive Thinking Posted By : Suzy Powell