LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Greetings,

Yet another Summer gone by... time to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner!

This issue of "here and NOW" has some ideas on what might help you with the leading edge in these most difficult times. Even the online business that I'm involved with has seen a decline, even very recently, but remains steady. The customers are there if you can fill that niche market.

The secret is to have the best marketing tools in place.

Read on!
Coach Danny

IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE

-LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
-ONLINE RESOURCE OF THE MONTH
-Best Practices for Product Search
-Recent Plummet in Google Product Search Traffic
-Make Money Every Time You Share a Video
-eBay Forums: Sick of eBay's Feedback
-Google Making Affiliate Marketing More Productive

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
-Thomas Edison

ONLINE RESOURCE OF THE MONTH

This last week has seen an update to an old favorite free Windows application I've told you about in the past and heard some of my students use.

The photo organizer favorite is Google Picasa, which adds facial recognition in its update to version 3.5. The new feature uses technology that was first implemented in Picasa Web Albums, the product's online sibling for storing and sharing photos online. To make a long story short, Picasa for the desktop now scans your photos for recognizable faces. After you link a name to a facial structure, the app gathers those photos together in each person's album. So, after labeling your sister, you'll be able to search for a picture of her on vacation by looking in her personal folder, not just the vacation album.

Read up more on Picasa's new photo facial recognition features here.

How freaky - facial recognition on your desktop!

Best Practices for Product Search

from the GoogleWebmasterCentral.blogspot.com

If you run an e-commerce site and you'd like your products to be eligible to be shown in Google search results, then check out their "Product Search for Webmasters" video. In addition to the basics on Product Search, this video will cover:

• Attributes to include in your feed
• Improving products' rankings by including custom attributes in your feed
• When product listings expire after 30 days
• How often to submit your feed

Recent Plummet in Google Product Search Traffic

Retailers have reported that traffic from Google Product Search (a.k.a. Froogle/Google Base/Google Shopping) is down as much as 60-80% this past June.

Make Money Every Time You Share a Video

blinkx AdHoc
Make money every time you share a video on your blog,
website or social networking profile. It's easy to do!
blinkx's technology matches relevant, in-video text
ads to any video. Whenever someone clicks on an ad
in your video, you make half the cash!

blinkx AdHoc is the revolutionary new video advertising
platform from blinkx, the video search company. AdHoc
was launched last year and has been used primarily
for a closed beta program that has tested the
effectiveness of contextually targeting ads in video.

The blinkx AdHoc widget allows regular online users
to add advertising to videos they embed online. When
viewers watch the videos, they are shown the ads.
If the ads are clicked on, the user is diverted to
a URL of the advertiser's choice and the
advertiser's budget is depleted by a single
cost-per-click charge. Thanks to AdHoc's
targeting, widget users only get relevant,
useful ads, and advertisers only have to pay
when their ad actually delivers a user.

AdHoc looks at meta data and parses any speech
in the video to match the clip with an appropriate
ad. Suranga Chandratillake, co-founder and CTO
of Blinkx, says their network has improved ad
yields anywhere from 10-150% depending on the
content of the video. Short entertainment clips
don’t tend to see as much improvement, but longer
informational clips see higher gains by picking
out advertisements related to the concepts
being discussed.

Blinkx has done their best to not obstruct the
operation and ads of the original player. Ads
show up as drop down text links at the top of
video or as a static box displayed above
the player.

blinkx AdHoc rewards you for sharing videos.

Next time you embed a video from a video-sharing
site, simply run the embed code through blinkx
AdHoc first to start making money. When you add
the embedded video, it will have contextually
relevant ads placed near or on it.

If your viewers click on these ads, the advertiser
pays blinkx, and blinkx will share 50% of that
revenue with you.

Video sites that work with AdHoc tested include the
following are known to work: MySpace, GoogleVideo,
YouTube, Revver, Metacafe, Veoh, DailyMotion,
Break, FunnyOrDie, Vimeo, JibJab,
iFilm, and CollegeHumor.

To create an account, all you need is an email,
password, and PayPal email address. You must have a
PayPal account in order to get paid once you
start making money.

adhoc.blinkx.com
blinkx.com/products/AdHoc

eBay Forums: Sick of eBay's Feedback

If you are POSITIVELY sick of ebay's
feedback ideas VOTE HERE!!!!

There has been lots of chatter lately in
the eBay Forums about their recent changes
to Sellers not being able to leave
negative feedback for buyers.

Here is what some Sellers have posted:

I do not like this new policy and will find other
places that is fair for both buyer and seller.
I have had 10 buyers that have not paid and 2
that disputed claim in paypal after they received
the item...and leave me neg feedback..this is
totally wrong!

I also hate this new feedback, it is totally
unfair that I can't leave negative feed back
for non payment.. I never had this problem
before. now it is common.

I think as long as the complaints are "contained"
on this eBay web site......NOTHING will be done.
We have the whole internet at our fingertips,
maybe we should focus more on going outward with
our voices instead of staying on ebay and
discussing. I have went to WWW.TWITTER.COM ...
take it outside the walls of eBay it we might be
heard better. TWITTER recently was on our major
news channel in reference to them lobbying for
problems occuring on internet, maybe the is
the next "better business bureau"

GOOD LUCK ALL.

Google Making Affiliate Marketing More Productive

Google Affiliate Network
Making affiliate marketing more productive

Google Affiliate Network connects advertisers
and publishers who want to increase sales and
drive leads through affiliate marketing.

As an advertiser using Google Affiliate Network,
you'll discover pre-screened publishers who can
refer consumer traffic to you. As a publisher,
you can market your site to advertisers in the
network; if selected to participate in an
advertiser's program, you'll earn a percent
of sales or a referral bounty.

Google Affiliate Network offers:

• Industry-leading advertiser and publisher service
• Rigorous network quality standards
• Reliable conversion tracking
• Detailed reporting
• Automated payments to publishers
• Simple link and creative delivery tools
• Flexible commissions
• Access to top brands on the web


google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork