(Google announced this in September. But I missed it, so I imagine others may have too.)

Google don’t ban competitors outright on AdWords. Instead, Google hike AdWords bids to make advertising untenable. Ten dollars per click to you, sir - and don’t forget to meet those vague (ergo unattainable) Quality Score factors!

The latest victims are price comparison sites and travel aggregators. Both are now unwelcome as AdWords advertisers. A statement on the Google AdWords blog reads:

The following types of websites are likely to merit low landing page quality scores and may be difficult to advertise affordably. In addition, it’s important for advertisers of these types of websites to adhere to our landing page quality guidelines regarding unique content.

• eBook sites that show frequent ads
• ‘Get rich quick’ sites
• Comparison shopping sites
• Travel aggregators
• Affiliates that don’t comply with our affiliate guidelines

(Via SEObook)

If you are wondering why Google list travel aggregators and price comparison sites next to get rick quick scams, there are two answers:

1. Google runs a mediocre price comparison site.

2. Google has already taken baby steps in the travel vertical with a travel Onebox.

Graywolf nailed it last month:

Why don’t you just come out and say listen we’re going to charge you whatever we want to, and there’s nothing you can do except pay it. At least I’d respect you for not lying to me.

[Full post]

Did anyone say abuse of monopoly power?

Keyword Discovery is one of my must-have keyword research tools. It’s the only paid keyword tool I subscribe to.

As well as the usual keyword tool features, it has multi-language support and shopping, eBay and news keyword research databases.

I’ve just noticed that Trellian offer Keyword Discovery affiliates a free trial. To claim a free two day subscription:

1. Sign up for a trial Keyword Discovery account
2. Add a Keyword Discovery affiliate link to your site
3. Complete this form

Think back to 2001. Altavista ruled the school in Nerdsville and AOL was cranking out enough free CDs to pave the Pacific. Business models were for squares, and ad revenue was for trad media, daddio.

Crazy days. Way back then, Dot.TK domains became the TLD of choice for spammers and scammers - the old school .info domain, if you will. Indeed, you’d be forgiven for concluding that the Tokelau islands‘ 1,300 citizens (pictured below) were all hard-grafting Viagra® salesmen and 419 scammers (in cahoots with PayPal’s *cough* ‘account verification team’).

The truth is less exciting (which is a shame, as my version would make a cracking tiki-themed reality TV show). The bijou South Pacific islands got their mitts on a TLD, and took the Yankee dollar Dutch guilder in exchange for allowing any Tom, Dick or beleaguered Nigerian Head of State the right to register domains gratis. The idyllic South Pacific islands now boast a staggering 1,300+ domain name registrations per capita.

A recent McAfee study concluded that a staggering 10.1% of Dot.TK websites were home to spyware, spam, phishing scams or some other flavour of malware. Hilariously, US ISP RoadRunner once decided the only solution was to block every Dot.TK domain bar two.

Since the Dot.TK registry brags of serving 6,000,000 unique visitors daily, we can guesstimate that a staggering 606,000 internet users get the chance to be scammed every day of the year in the name of the Tokelau people (I guess I can kiss my Tokelau visa goodbye).

Why the dot.com history lesson? Dot.TK domains are getting a makeover, with some interesting news for online marketing aficionados, cheapskates, domain geeks and, hey, all you trademark owners out there.

They’ve given a young child some new crayons to draw a Dot.TK logo:

They’ve coined a factually inaccurate strapline: “Renaming The Internet”. They’ve opened offices in Soho, London, seconds from Nonsense HQ and London’s finest burrito joint.

Heck, they’ve even crafted a mission statement, just like NASA. In the immortal words of MC Hammer, they now aim to be “too legit to quit”. Onwards with the news.

Free Domain Names

Common or garden Dot.TK domains remain free (read: longer than four letters, no ‘premium’ .tk domains, no trademarks). That’s right: free domain names. Be sure to read the quirky domain registration T+Cs, like the fact you lose your free domain if you get less than 25 visitors/day.

Free domains carry a Blogspot-style banner up top with contextual ads and thumbnails of popular .TK sites. Popular .TK sites? Hmm… I’d not be comfortable with promoting that kind of site. So lucky that paid Dot.TK domains start at $6.95/year. Ever wonder how Google stock hit $700? Witness Mountain View’s finest mercilessly monetizing those lucrative ‘Learn how to speak Tokelau‘ SERPs on Google.tk:

Dot.TK Contextual Ads

Fortunately for us, the Tokelau islanders are an ad-loving people. Dot.TK are launching a contextual ad platform to serve text ads on free Dot.TK domains. Forget the awful name (’Buy-an-Eye‘, anyone? ANYONE?), I’ll be investigating for cheapo, high volume traffic.

Plus every Dot.TK click you buy is one less user to get scammed on a Dot.TK domain. Signup now for launch notification by email. Rumours that Dot.TK registry emails arrive from the desk of deposed Nigerian President Shehu Shagari are yet to be confirmed.

Dot.TK Sunrise Period

Trademark owners have until December 3rd 2007 to claim their trademark domains
(NB. Google.TK is short on Tokelau sunrise photos, so make do with a Tokelau sunset up top).

Dot.TK API

The Dot.TK API allows you to integrate free domain registration into your site or application. While it’s hard to imagine Google.tk becoming a regular in your referral logs, throwaway Dot.TK domains could integrate well with noob-friendly web design packages, like the fabulous RapidWeaver.

Enough about Dot.TK domains. Go book your late, late summer break in Tokelau and be sure to share your top Tokelau tourist tips in the comments.

Facebook’s new Flyers Pro pay-per-click ads have got a lot of affiliates excited (see exhibits A, B and C).

The good news is Facebook have dropped their nonsensical $50/day ad spend cap. The bad news is it’s still super-simple to get banned and have your ad account disabled without playing dirty.

Late last night, I placed an ad for a prize draw sponsored by a well-known alcohol brand. The ads were shown only to UK users old enough to buy booze. The ad was disapproved. That’s fine; Facebook have every right to moderate ads on their site.

The kicker? It’s in three parts:

1) Facebook refuse to explain why an ad is disapproved (I later learned they disallow alcohol ads).

2) Facebook’s advertiser guidelines (PDF) are only displayed once you’ve had an ad disapproved. There are no guidelines for new advertisers.

3) One disapproved ad puts you well on the way to a ban.

Ergo there is no way for a new advertiser to understand Facebook’s advertising rules without inadvertently breaking them. And breaking the rules puts your Facebook Flyers Pro account at risk.

As far as I am aware, I did not breach any of Facebook’s other advertising guidelines. Yet in the early hours of this morning my Facebook ad account was disabled with this message:

“An error has occurred. Your account has been disabled. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its ads violate our Terms of Service or Advertising Guidelines. All of your ads have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms and Guidelines if you have further questions.”

My advice? Read Facebook’s advertising guidelines (PDF) very, very closely. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s banned by Facebook:

• Adult content
• Profanity, vulgarity and obscenity
• Defamatory, libelous or slanderous content
• Content that infringes upon the rights of any third party (eg, copyright, trademarks)
• Liquor, beer, wine, tobacco products or firearms
• Gambling
• Inflammatory religious content
• Politically religious agendas
• Political content that exploits political agendas for commercial use
• Hate speech
• Illegal activity
• Content from uncertified pharmacies;
• Web cams or surveillance equipment for non-legitimate use
• “Spam” or other advertising that violates applicable laws
• Web-based non-accredited colleges that offer degrees
• Credit card applications

Keep a close eye on the T+Cs, since the wording of these has changed since last night.

PS. The question everyone asks is “Does Facebook traffic convert”? My answer: Damn right, if you are smart with what you promote (ie, Facebook users aren’t shopping for mortgages).

Good news for PPC newbies in the UK. Yahoo Search Marketing have upped their new user offer, now promising £60 free credit on new accounts.

Yahoo’s Panama pay per click platform is still only weeks old in the UK, but addresses many of the problems with the god awful old Overture interface.

As a user, the difference with Panama is staggering and far closer to AdWords/adCenter than the old Overture. Major new features include:

• Ad copy split testing
• Geo-targeting
• Fast ad activation.
• New interface
• Improved reporting
• Improved budget control

Open a new account now or get free AdWords vouchers.

“Don’t be evil” - unless it earns you cold hard cash.

That’s the message from Google, who have finally admitted the truth behind ‘improvements’ to AdWords, their flagship advertising service.

The last year has seen a number of ‘quality score’ updates to AdWords, each leading to many AdWords advertisers complaining of ever-increasing AdWords bills (See Graywolf, Threadwatch [1] [2], PPC Discussions, PepperJam & more).

Google have always dressed these updates as improving user experience (um, because users don’t mind seeing junk provided the advertiser paid well for the privilege?).

But for the first time, Google has come clean. They’ve admitted the motivation for the latest updates is purely financial:

Even if you have a high quality ad, if advertisers below you are not bidding very much, your actual CPC may not be high enough to qualify your ad to appear in a top position.
[Full article]

(NB. The Google share price graph is a snapshot from Yahoo’s impressive new Finance Charts}

The subject of free credit for Google AdWords, Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing comes up every week on Digital Point. If you’re new to pay per click, the coupons help take the sting out of the inevitable early mistakes.

I’ve started a directory of companies offering their customers free credit for AdWords and other PPC engines. Many web hosts offer up to $100/£75 credit, so it’s worth checking if yours is on my list.

If you see other companies offering AdWords/adCenter/YSM vouchers, please drop me a line.

Good news from the Microsoft adCenter team at SES London. There’s an adCenter update due in March, which promises speed improvements and easy importing from AdWords.

Update: The adCenter update beta is available now for all users.

Search marketing (SEM) still feels like a dark art. Google are secretive about how bids are priced (cf. the AdWords’ Quality Score debacle), while Overture Yahoo Search Marketing is lumbered with an oblique editorial policy and a terrible interface (until Panama launches, at least).

That means it’s tricky for newbies to get started with pay per click (PPC) - and that’s before you’ve found the wealth of bad advice to contend with. Just Google ‘AdWords ebook‘ for countless fast ways to waste $100.

There is an easier way - just follow my five steps to AdWords nirvana:

1. Start by reading How to Cheat Google Adwords Select, an introduction far better than the hysterical tabloid headline. (Update: Sitepoint have seen sense and changed the headline).
2. Take Winning Results with Google AdWords as your bible. Tips on such a fast-moving sector date quickly, but Andrew Goodman’s bedrock advice is sound. It’s heavy on the history of PPC, so feel free to skip early chapters.
3. Read every word of the AdWords library, Inside AdWords blog and AdWords Google Group.
4. Join the outstanding WebmasterWorld AdWords forum for pay per click secrets from the finest minds in the industry, including Google’s very own AdWords Advisor. and Brad ‘eWhisper‘ Geddes
5. Avoid any ebook pairing the phrase ‘Google AdWords’ with ‘instant wealth’, ‘make millions’ or ‘work from home’.

Finally, leave a comment and let me know how you get along.

Forget condos and strip malls. Domain names, the real estate of the Web, have been delivering far greater returns. How some of the savviest speculators on the Net are making millions from their URL portfolios.

So starts an excellent Business 2.0 article on domainers - people who buy, sell and earn money from domain names.

The December 2005 write-up caught my imagination. But it wasn’t until I heard Jeff Libert (aka WebWork) speak at PubCon that I decided to dabble in domaining.

I thought the days of large-scale domain speculation were over. But the title of WebWork’s talk - “The $100,000 click” - made everyone in the room listen up (See Graywolf’s PubCon summary).

Everybody knows the value of a desirable domain (ie. lots of zeros), but Jeff explained exactly how he chooses domain names and makes money from his portfolio.

Unsurprisingly, resale value is often top of the list. But everything from lead generation to parking page pay per click ads can cover registration costs. That means a well-chosen domain portfolio can pay for itself in the short term and add a healthy source of income in the longer term.

Scoreboard’s post on domaining has given me the perfect target for 2007: aim to invest in one decent domain a day.