Jason Poteet - Life In The Second Digital Decade

Microsoft Adcenter Clicks Are Worth More

I decided at the first of the year to get a better handle of my arbitrage by figuring out which traffic was converting best for me.  The easiest way for a non programmer like me to do this was to buy a new domain and put up the same landing page on it.  So I have Domain A and Domain B and they both have the same content.  Domain A traffic comes from Microsoft Adcenter and Domain B traffic comes from one of the two remaining big three.

The results are in and they are staggering.

Microsoft Domain A - Clicks = 564 Imps = 973 CTR = 57.97% CPM = 385 EPC = $66.49

Other      Domain B - Clicks = 690 Imps = 2426 CTR = 28.44% CPM = 61.83 EPC = $21.74

For  this specific page and product, Microsoft Adcenter owned the competition.

I love Audible.com

My wife and I generally spend at least an hour a day in driving to and back home. We would listen crappy FM radio drive shows to pass the time, but they are all the same old tired act. I decided I was gonna start making my commute time more productive so I got me a subscription to audible.com. Not only does it make the once wasted hour in the car more productive, it makes the trip go by much faster.

My wife and I have the luxury of riding to work together so I started downloading my books to my Pocket PC. I started with some marketing books by Seth Godin and some investing books by Jim Cramer. These were books I wanted to read, but didn’t have the extra time and I am definitely ADD when it comes to sitting down and reading. I listened to a few books like this with my headphones when my wife decided she would like to listen to try listening to some books as well. I decided at this point to move away from my educational/informative books and get some mysteries and horror books. What a great decision this has been. We have really been enjoying books and it actually makes the commutes enjoyable.

If you haven’t already done so, try out some audio books during your commute. They are so much better than the mindless crap you will find on the radio.

Viacom Sues Google, YouTube for 1 Billion Dollars

Well, it looks like Mark Cuban is a little smarter than some people give him credit for. Everyone laughed and mocked him when he said buying Youtube was stupid because the big video players were just waiting for someone with money to purchase YouTube so they would have someone to sue.

Here is his vindication. Viacom Sues Google, YouTube for 1 Billion Dollars

Rumors of my Death are Greatly Exaggerated

Well, it has been a month since my last post and this is my first one of the new year. I could give you excuses about my lack of posting, post about a post someone else took the time to make, or tell you straight up why I haven’t posted anything.

I am literally at a point right now where I am learning so much each day I look back on yesterdays post and chuckle. Since you did make it here though I am gonna give you the best piece of advice I can. Don’t come back here until you can recite from memory every word you can read at Todd Malicoat AKA Stuntdubl.

P.S. It is kinda nice to be back and I am gonna leave you with some lyrics.

“Right Where I need to Be” By Gary Allen

There’s a plane flyin’ outta here tonight
Destination New Orleans
Boss man says my big promotion’s on the line
He says that’s right where I need to be
Lately I’ve been on the road more than I’ve been home
All this leavin’ her alone is killin’ me
And holdin’ her right now has got me thinkin’ more and more
This is right where I need to be
Where when I hear her I can see her
I can smell her sweet perfume
I can feel her skin against me when I sleep
Where I won’t miss her I can kiss her
Anytime that I want to
Yeah that’s right where I need to be
Yeah that’s right where I need to be
There’s a plane flyin’ outta here tonight
With an empty first class seat
‘Cause I’ve finally got all my priorities in line
And I’m right where I need to be
Where when I hear her I can see her
I can smell her sweet perfume
I can feel her skin against me when I sleep
Where I won’t miss her I can kiss her
Anytime that I want to
Yeah that’s right where I need to be
Yeah I’m right where I need to be

Is Your Web Server Secure?

Is your web server secure or are you unknowingly allowing access to all of your personal files?

Most universities in the United Stated provide server space for students and faculty to use for websites, homework, and various other reasons. While a great practice, it also creates very serious security risk when inexperienced computer users and improperly secured web directories meet. Many students use their personal web space to store resumes, pictures of family, class projects and many other personal items that contain very sensitive information. When the student places these files in an unsecured directory, the files are offered up to anyone who happens to browse the folder. Here is an example of what an unsecured Apache Server directory looks like to someone on the internet who is browsing your personal files after a very simple Google search.

Consider the possible ramifications of a student storing pictures of themselves, their resume including home address, phone number and email address. Those ramifications could very serious in today’s society with online predators.

There are a few different ways to combat the problem of open or unsecured directories but the easiest way is a slight modification to the http.conf file for Apache servers. By default Apache servers display the contents of a directory if the server does not find an index.html or similarly associated file. To make the needed correction webmasters should find a line in the http.conf file that looks very similar to this:

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes

Remove the term Indexes. Save the http.conf file and restart your Apache server.

Now when an internet visitor navigates to a directory that doesn’t have an associated DirectoryIndex file the surfer will get a permission denied error instead of a listing of all the files on the server.

Danny Sullivan

This guy is just good. There isn’t more to say about it than that. Forget how smart he is and what a great show they put on at the dailysearchcast.com, Danny Sullivan is just entertaining to listen to. He doesn’t say Uhh every 15 seconds, he cracks a few jokes, ( Come on, I am geek just like the rest of you, but it is damn hard to make Search Engine Marketing funny) and he keeps his show interesting. Danny Sullivan could easily be somewhere else doing a traditional radio show. That is assuming he wanted to take a pay cut. Check out Danny Sullivan at dailysearchcast.com and Digg Danny Sullivan.

Google Christmas Card

Did everyone get their Google Christmas Card?

I’ve Been Blog Tagged

Thanks to Ryan McCoy over at Blog Ryan for the Blog Tag. Blog tag is a game going around where you post 5 things about yourself that most people don’t know. So without further adieu here is my list.

1. I am a huge Jimmy Buffett fan and have a tattoo on my left ankle of the chameleon logo from his Caribbean Soul t-shirts.
2. I love horror movies. Especially the ones from the 70’s. I have a Michael Myers McFarland figure on my desk and have seen Halloween hundreds of times. I will even pop it in the computer and play it in the background just to listen to it.
3. I have been in the tech field for 8 years and using computers for 20+ years. I still don’t own an MP3 player. ( I cheat and use my old Pocket PC phone to listen to Audio books from audible.com
4. I have a 2001 Black Mustang Bullitt, number 4301 out of 5500ish made. Thanks to Atlanta traffic, I hate driving it.
5. I spent a month ranked number 1 in the world playing thesportingnews.com paid fantasy hockey.

Now let me see. Who can I tag. I think I will get: Chris Hooley, Steve Pavlina ,Greg Gaylord, and Cristian Mezei

Stay on top of your winners

I have this one affiliate marketing ad that is doing pretty well for me.  I had run it up the flag pole with a few other offers and this one stuck.  It is averaging almost $60.00 EPC and is pretty close to 90% profit each month.  That may not be the baddest boy on the block, but I will sure take it.  All of it’s traffic comes from Microsoft Adcenter.

The problem I realized tonight while going over some of my sites was I have not  stayed on top of my keyword list for this search arbitrage website.  I put one of my main words in the keyword suggestion tool at digitalpoint and found several keywords with decent traffic I wasn’t bidding on.  I had let this bad boy get behind.  A lot of us run many websites and the point of this post is to remind you to take a look back at some of your  good ideas because they could be great ideas.

Undercover Google

Randfish over at seomoz.org had a blog up yesterday talking about early gossip at SES Chicago. One of the rumors making the rounds is Google’s  search quality team has undercover people buying links.  Now my question is this.

If you ask a person buying a link from you if they work for Google, are they required by law to tell you and show you their badge?

Bad boys bad boys.  Whatcha gonna do.  Whatcha gonna do when they come for you.  LOL