Our Google AdWords Training Class

The Google AdWords training class went well this week.  I was very pleased that the students seemed to not only enjoy the class but learn quite a few new tips and suggestions that would help them.

I personally worked very hard on the class materials, format, and agenda to make sure it would assist a newcomer and/or someone who already had a Google AdWords account.

You can’t really tell from the picture, but the students came from very different backgrounds and levels of understanding…

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Google AdWords History Lesson

In getting ready to teach my next Google AdWords class, I wrote up a handout showing the brief history of Google AdWords.

I thought it would make a great blog post too.  Let me know what you think…

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Be Careful if your Business Handles Credit Card info

For any business that accepts payment with credit cards, you need to think about PCI compliance. 

PCI stands for “Payment Card Industry”.  What are PCI standards?

PCI standards are not laws, but regulations imposed by payment card companies.  In order to accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express, you have to fulfill certain contractual obligations to ensure the safety of customer data.

For small businesses such as e commerce businesses, it especially comes into play if you accept phone orders.  After all, the e-commerce orders through your website probably are secure.  But what if someone calls you on the phone?  Do you just write credit card info on a piece of paper before processing it?  What do you do with that paper?  What should you do?

If you are local to the Charlotte area, you may want to consider attending a free seminar from JStengel Consulting.  They have a free information seminar coming up at the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce on April 1^st.  (No, it’s not an April Fools joke.)

We are not affiliated with JStengel in any way.  We met them at the Lake Norman Expo the other week for the first time.  Yet, three from our office will be attending their meeting.

This is important to us.  If you handle credit cards, it should be to you also.

Here’s a pdf whitepaper with more info on the meeting.

Popularity: 21% [?]

When you think advertising online: Think Google!

Google wants to be the master of all advertising, especially online.  It looks like they are getting their wish.  What Google wants, they get.  At least this time.

Last week Google announced the completion of their acquisition of DoubleClick.  (It took an entire year because they were waiting on the European Union’s approval.)

DoubleClick has approximately 60% of all display ads (ads on other websites).  Google already has about 75% of all search ads.  Google will likely combine all this very soon into one interface – Google AdWords!

In other words, if you want to advertise on either another website or a search engine, the only place to start is at Google.  This forces more advertisers to use Google (often exclusively).  The logical reaction would be that more publishers will use Google to show ads.

Therefore, those percentages of 60% and 75% will grow!  This is especially true given the powerful brand that Google has built up.

• Want to advertise online?  Use Google AdWords!
• Want to sell advertising?  Use Google AdWords!
• Want to have job security?  Learn Google AdWords!
• Want to learn Google AdWords?  Come to our Google AdWords class in Charlotte on March 25, 26.

(I know, I know, that was a shameless plug for my class.)

But it is true.  Google AdWords is becoming the only place to start if you want to advertise online.

Google!  It’s not just a search engine anymore!

Popularity: 21% [?]

Yahoo can make it happen! You’ll see.

Yahoo is making some big announcements today.  They are expanding the idea that search should not just be isolated to searching websites.

They have a project code named “Search Monkey”.  (Cute name.)  The basic idea is that developers can provide Yahoo content that is more specific to queries. 

One example is LinkedIn.  Imagine doing a search on a person’s name and getting some quality information specifically about the person, not just a list of pages that mention that person.

To see it in action, TechCrunch provided this image…

Other businesses could do something similar… 

Imagine the consequences.

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The Lake Norman Expo – Take a LOOK!

Exhibiting at the Lake Norman Expo last week was a real success.  We had some excellent assistance from my graphics designer, a local sign shop, and even the local print shop to get everything we needed.

Our goal for the show was different than most other exhibitors.  We did not just want to distribute our information to everyone that came.  Rather, we wanted to actually sit and get to know the few that are specifically interested in online marketing.  We setup our booth so that others could sit in a comfortable chair and actually have an interesting discussion getting to know us.

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Google AdWords – Not just for search marketing

Last week I renewed my Google AdWords Professional certification.  If that sounds like fun to you, it’s not.  It involves taking a 117 question test that takes up to an hour and a half.

How do you prepare?  Personally, I knew I could pass the test without studying.  I practically use AdWords daily and keep up with the changes they make to it. 

But because we have an upcoming class on Google AdWords, I thought I would dig a little deeper.  So I literally spent about five hours reading all of the information that Google provides.  It was long and tedious.  It was a good refresher and I’m more ready than ever to teach the class later this month.

By the way, I ended up only getting 7 of 117 questions wrong.  Not bad.  Upon further review, the 7 questions seemed to be in topics such as reporting and billing.  The fundamentals I had down.

So what was the biggest benefit to doing all this?

In reviewing all this information, I started to think about what pieces of Google AdWords I could use more efficiently.  The one that kept hitting me was not the radio, newspaper, or even television ads they now offer.  It was the content marketing.

Content marketing on Google means showing your ads on other websites (not search engines).  Google now offers some really great ideas and tools for doing this.

The key is to treat it completely differently than search engine marketing.  It needs to be in its own campaign and the keywords and ads need to be very different.

I think I’ll be covering this often-forgotten concept in detail at our upcoming class on AdWords.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Charlotte SEO Meetup – Topics for Thursday’s Meeting

In case you have not heard, the Charlotte SEO Meetup is really taking off.

When I first heard about this group back in October, I joined immediately and attended the next meeting.  At that time, there were very few members.  In fact, only four other people attended the first meeting I went to…

Now, the group is now up to 44 members!  Who knew the Charlotte community had so many people interested in SEO and SEM?!?  In fact, over 20 members have joined in just the last two months.

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