And look how things have changed in that time. How retro!

Pay Per Match

Oh wait a minute. Nothing’s changed at all.

As a promotional vehicle, the blog served us well. But now it’s time to move on.

One of the reasons that we’re killing the blog is our Competitive Edge newsletter. The bottom line? Competitive Edge is a newsletter to help software developers make more money. Really.

It’s also 100% unique content. We’re not linking to other articles, and everything is written by members of the SharewarePromotions team.

We also make each issue available online, and an RSS feed is in the works.

But… here’s an important note: Every now and then we’ll be releasing time-sensitive information.

And here’s the catch. (There’s always a catch.) If you want to read our fantastically useful content as soon as it comes out (and believe me you really do), then you need to subscribe. And don’t pull a face. We’ll only send you one issue per month, and will never share your email address with anyone. Ever.

The RSS feed and website will only be updated a week after the email newsletter is sent.

Not convinced? Take a look at some of the issues we’ve covered.

Through the Eyes of your Customers and Selling Abroad, Wherever You Are

The Top 50 Ways To Sell More Software and SEO Guarantees

When Google AdWords Fails and The Top Three Website Mistakes

Shareware Industry Conference 2006 and Growth of an Industry

The Keywords Issue: Google AdWords and the Long Tail

Web Log Gold & Can People Trust Your Website?

Taming Google AdWords & First Impressions That Sell

It goes without saying that the Competitive Edge newsletter is free. And did I mention that it’s really very good?

So subscribe now! And see you there.

Competitive Edge

Note that our Google AdWords News blog is also still alive and well.

Universal Music Group is leading the pack. According to the BBC:

“Universal’s lawsuit, lodged in a US district court, claims that MySpace “encourages, facilitates and participates in the unauthorised reproduction, adaptation, distribution and public performance”. In a statement it added: “Our music and videos play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace.”

MySpace have dismissed it as “meritless litigation”.

MySpace sued by Universal Music

If you’re interested in (possibly) avoiding the supplemental results, or increasing the clickthrough rates for your organic results, you want to read this.

Revenge of the meta-tag!

Others have reported seeing similar things in the AdWords ads, but never in the main search results. The current theory is that Google are simply testing out a new functionality.

Hmmm. I’m not sure whether this is a good idea or not. Imagine how many people will be tempted to get everyone they know to vote No for their competitors’ listings.

I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Click on the link below to read more and see a screenshot.

User feedback in Google Search

“One of the new features of Vista that hasn’t gotten much attention is Microsoft’s new “Computer Name” feature, which extends Windows XP’s Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) service. Simply put, Computer Name allows users to identify their machine by a unique name, rather than an IP address, from anywhere on the planet.”

Why? Because otherwise we’ll soon be running out of IP addresses, since there’s a limit of 4.3 billion. PNRP, on the other hand, allows up to 3.4 x 1038 unique addresses, which means that none of us should have to worry about it for a very long time.

Click on the link below to read more, and find out about the naming options you’ll have!

Every Vista computer can have its own domain name

“Yahoo is apparently already accepting submissions, although this is not clear from their Site Explorer submission screen. Microsoft is still testing sitemaps internally.”

Yahoo not being clear? Microsoft still testing? Who would have thought!?!

No, seriously: it’s great to see them all working together.

The big three search engines announce joint sitemaps support

First, there is absolutely no truth to the suggestion that a link sent to a Gmail account equals one link on one page. No kidding.

Second, it’s fine to run your website using your DSL connection at home. As long as Google can load the pages, it doesn’t matter if they take half a second or five seconds to show up.

Who would have thought?

Myth busting: Links in Gmail

Myth busting: Delays in page loading

Personally, I love having access to as much data as possible when I’m doing keyword research. None of the keyword tools out there are completely (or even remotely, in some cases) reliable, so using several of them is a great way to get a good idea of which phrases are worth targeting. I don’t know how reliable Wordze’s data is yet, and it doesn’t go back very far, but there were some additional features that really impressed me.

I absolutely love WordRank, a patent pending tool that analyzes the leading sites for a given keyword and estimates how difficult it will be to rank for it. Wordze also gives you access to Historical Keyword Data (even though it doesn’t go back very far yet), which lets you see how popular a keyword is on a yearly, monthly or daily basis.

Like I said, I still don’t know exactly how reliable the actual keyword data is, but so far I really like what I see. A one-day trial is only $7.95 - why not give it a go and see what you can discover?

Wordze

“Links to virtually hosted domains are treated the same as links to domains on dedicated IP addresses.”

There you have it. Straight from the horse’s mouth. No offence Matt.

Myth busting: virtual hosts vs. dedicated IP addresses

If you want to know what real people think, head on over to News.com. They’ve asked a panel of ordinary readers to share their opinions, and reveal what it is that they really, really like about Vista.

Not surprisingly, most of them mention the way it looks - Aero Glass is mentioned several times. But they also delve deeper into the functionalities, praising things like enhanced security, the new Windows Media Center, and the new Explorer.

Well worth a look if you’re itching to try it yourself.

Final version’s cool features

Launched last week by Aaron Wall and Andy Hagans, ReviewMe puts advertisers in touch with registered, approved bloggers. If an advertiser decides that your blog is right for their product or service, you will be paid between $20 and $250 to review it. Unlike other, similar services, ReviewMe requires bloggers to be open about the fact that their reviews are paid for.

So what’s to stop you from earning thousands of dollars a week reviewing products? Well, first of all your blog has to be popular enough to be accepted by ReviewMe. “A significant amount of readers” is probably a little more than your parents, your best friend, and your neighbour’s dog. Once you’ve been approved, you still have to sit back and wait for advertisers to approach you. In other words, all you can do is create a really great blog - easier said than done, perhaps.

Of course, there’s also the other side of the coin - if you have a product that needs some exposure, ReviewMe might well be useful. They have a list of popular blogs, and you pay (prices start at $40) to get a review that is bound to be read. Naturally, the reviewer might not like your product, but that’s a risk you have to take. Constructive criticism is always helpful.

It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out. There’s certainly a lot of potential, and the people behind ReviewMe are both clever and experienced. They spent a fairly impressive $25,000 to pay bloggers to review them - a great way to make sure that they reach a lot of people, very quickly.

New Site Pays Bloggers For Reviews Of Advertisers’ Products

It does look promising, and the website is quite slick (although they use “more then” instead of “more than” on almost every page, and I have to admit that gets on my nerves - details like that really can put potential customers off).

Read more about it over at TopRank blog, or try it yourself - a one-day trial is a very affordable $7.95.

WordZe Keyword Research Tool

Not surprisingly, real doctors have learned to dread all those Google diagnoses that people show up with. A little bit of knowledge in the wrong hands can be a terrible thing - or so they claim.

However, new research shows that you actually can come up with a correct diagnosis simply by using Google. According to an article on the BBC:

“A team of Australian doctors googled the symptoms of 26 cases for a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. In 15 cases, the web search came up with the right diagnosis, the paper published on the British Medical Journal website reports.”

Of course, they’re still keen to point out that the internet is no replacement for a real doctor. But this is the first time I’ve seen them admit that Google could be used “as a way of supporting doctors and their patients”.

Good news. Just don’t jump to any conclusions. The next time you Google “sore throat and headache”, it’s probably still only a cold.

Google ‘aids doctors’ diagnoses’

The Google AdWords team have decided we’re all getting too complacent.

Changes are afoot.

Google AdWords Landing Page Quality Update

Keith Smith, CEO of Zango, said that he “deeply regretted” any negative impact of the 6.9 billion pop-up ads his company had caused on computers worldwide. Unsurprisingly, he also claimed that it wasn’t his fault. On the contrary:

“It was his company’s “heavy reliance” on affiliates that “allowed deceptive third-parties to exploit our system to the detriment of consumers, our advertisers and our publishing partners.””

Hmmm. Ben Edelmann, spyware chaser extraordinaire, isn’t convinced, and has pointed out that someone should continue to keep an eye on Zango in the future.

“”[The company] continues plenty of bad practices, including some unlabeled ads and installation attempts predicated on security exploits,” said Edelman.”

Still, $3m does send a message, and I hope a lot of people are taking notice. Read more about the whole thing by following these links:

Company fined $3m for adware use

Zango settles with FTC over adware practices

Spyware Researcher Claims Zango Hasn’t Mended Its Ways

This strikes me as an extremely unusual development, to put it mildly.

The newspaper industry has already suffered terrible losses as a result of Google, who have been taking away both readers and advertisers. Yet here is an opportunity for them to recover some of their losses, while bizarrely feeding the very system responsible for their losses.

My two favourite quotes from the article:

“Tom Phillips, who runs Google’s print operations, said the company was attracted by the $48 billion spent every year in the United States on newspaper advertising.”

Me too for that matter.

And the best:

“Google, nonetheless, is trying to position itself as a friend of the newspapers.”

So the new guy in town comes and sets up business, and within a few years is taking most of your own income and revenue. Your own business suffers, profits plummet and the smaller companies in your field start dropping out. Time to start worrying.

Then the very person responsible for your problems comes and offers to send you some new people, but they take a piece of the action.

With friends like that, who needs ruthless enemies?

How’s that for weird. Wear down your competition, then just before they fall, throw them a lifeline they can’t refuse.

Odder still is the mixing of the old and the new.

The reason why many newspapers have seen their advertising income fall is simple. Why would you pay hundreds of dollars for a tiny little box ad that’s lost in hundreds just like it. How many people will even notice it? Especially when you can pay a whole lot less for the opportunity to push it right in front of the people who are searching for what you offer. Best of all, you only pay for when someone sees it and acts on it.

Why aren’t the newspapers seeing that they not only need to compete with Google, but clearly have the potential to do so, otherwise Google wouldn’t be interested in the first place?

I don’t understand what Google are doing here, and I don’t understand why the newspapers are cleaning the shoes of the army that marched in and occupied their homes. Oh well, the article makes interesting reading anyway.

Newspapers to Test Plan to Sell Ads on Google

European Shareware Conference 2006

For those who requested copies of my presentations, I hope to have these ready to go within the next week or so. Please email me if you’d like to receive notification when they’re ready. The articles will be placed on the DaveTalks website.

Luckily, some people do make a reality of those dreams. TIME Magazine have published a list of what they consider to be the Best Inventions of 2006. First prize, all categories, goes to YouTube - no great surprise there, although the story makes for an interesting read. But it’s once you start looking through the other winners that it gets really fascinating, and if you’re looking for a way to beat the Monday morning blues, this is it.

For example, how would you feel about a floating mattress, an alien-looking device that stays afloat with the help of some strong, repelling magnets? Or a hypo-allergenic cat that won’t make you sneeze? Perhaps you find the idea of solid espresso appealing, or like the thought of a sweater that can give you hugs?

Have a good look - if you’re a software developer, you’re also a kind of inventor. Take a moment to be inspired by other people’s ideas, and provide your brain with the opportunity to start thinking in new ways.

TIME Best Inventions 2006

CNN recently published this article. Aside from claiming that the web has reached a new milestone - 100 million sites - it also contains gems like the following quote:

“”The bottom line is it’s much easier to create a Web site nowadays, and it’s much easier to make money with a Web site,” said Miller.”

Ah, so THAT is the bottom line. Yes, we all know how easy it is to make money online. Thanks for that, CNN.

Anyway, over at SeoPedia, Cristian Mezei has a good rant about the fact that CNN clearly can’t tell the difference between top level domains and websites. It’s an interesting post, and serves as a good reminder not to put too much (if any) faith in statistics, even when they’re being served to you by a supposedly credible source.

Sigh.

“100 million sites on the web.” Oh really, CNN?

January 30th 2007 will see the product hit the shelves for the “normal” (if not slightly eager) people.

You heard it first here. Probably.

Vista gets official release dates