Understanding Google Ad Quality Score

This is probably the most simple explanation I've seen yet of how Google PPC bidding works & how increasing / improving certain factors within your ads to make them better for users will actually lower your overall PPC spend.

Essentially a higher quality, more targeted & more well written ad will attract a higher click through rate & therefore improve the ad rank quality score. The actual cost per click is determined by the quality score of the ad & the maximum cost per click ... therefore a higher quality score means a lower cost per click and higher ad rankings. A win/win situation.

Remove 'Powered by GCalendar'

I came across this today & thought I'd share a simple way of removing the 'Powered by GCalendar' text link for the Joomla Gcalendar module.

The author doesn't mind people removing the text link as he is distributing it as free software, but a small donation (or even a blog post about how great the Gcalendar Joomla module is) wouldn't go amiss!

Ok, the instructions.

Blogger doesn't like live code so I've had to put this in a text file - free download here.

Evolution Festival 2010 Set Times (Sunday)

Here are the set times for Sunday Baltic Stage (Wax:On Dance Stage) for the 2010 Evolution Festival

• 12pm - 2pm: People Get Real
• 2pm - 3pm: Jaymo & Andy George
• 3pm - 4pm: Rusko
• 4pm - 5pm: Beardyman
• 5pm - 6pm: Eskimo Twins
• 6pm - 7pm: Filthy Dukes
• 7pm - 8pm: Scratch Perverts
• 8pm - 9pm: Benga
• 9pm - 10pm: Doorly
• 10pm - 11pm: Fake Blood

Enjoy!

Create Friends Lists -Hide Your Online Status on Facebook Chat from Select Contacts

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In times gone by, you could either be online or offline with regards to Facebook chat. This was annoying because what if you wanted to speak to some people but not others?

Now Facebook has an option that allows you to do just that. It's called Friends lists.

Basically you create a list, assign a friend to it & can then set your online / offline status in bulk.

Lets say you have two lists: Friends & Family / Business Contacts.

Want to be online to your business contacts during the day, but not available to your friends & family in case they disturb you? You can be.

OK, I get it ... but how!?

First thing is to create the lists & assign friends to each list.


Log in and click on Account > Edit Friends


Under the Lists heading, click the Friends option.



Then choose Create New List. A new box will appear where you can name the list and add friends to your newly created list.

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Online or Offline? You Decide

Now that your lists are set up and you've assigned contacts to them (don't worry if you haven't you can drag & drop from the chat window. You are now in full control of who sees you as online or offline.

Simply open the chat box at the bottom right of the page. You'll see little sliders, green means online and grey means offline. Simply slide them to toggle whether you appear as online (green) or offline (grey) to that particular group.

Any ungrouped friends will appear in the Other Contacts list.



Adam Gardner is a freelance SEO / Social Media Expert. Follow him on twitter @agseo or subscribe to this blog via RSS.

QR Codes / 2D Barcodes

QR (Quick Response) Codes / 2D Barcodes

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QR Codes, or 2D barcodes aren't new, they've been around for sometime (in fact they were developed by a Japanese company, Denso-Wave in 1994) buy as mobile devices & technology become more advanced and connected to the world via the internet. QR codes will only become more and more important to your marketing effort.




Why is it important for me?

Well, 2D barcodes can contain any information you want:

Use a map location & scan it on a mobile (eg. iPhone) Google Maps will launch and show you where to go.

Use your business card information - Allow someone to scan it & your business information will automatically be added to their address book.

Use your web address - Whether you choose your Facebook profile, LinkedIn account or business URL, scan a code and you will be taken directly to whatever page you choose.

There are tons of other places QR codes can (and should be used) in promotional material, marketing materials, paperless registration for events, paperless tracking of students in schools etc. etc..... Use your imagination!


Take this page, for example. It's a photo of a QR code on a sign. Use your barcode reader app and scan this code (straight from your computer screen) and it should work ... these are super versatily & certainly my new favourite toy!

I have tried a few iPhone QR code readers and can highly recommend QRReader. It's free and scans in real time. I also haven't found a QR code that it couldn't scan yet.

Just search for 'qr code' and you'll find it.

Update: Here are some captures from QRReader app on the iphone. As you can see, none of these are particularly great in terms of clarity or alignment & yet all of them were successful scans!

PLR Articles - Are They Worth It?

PLR articles are private label resell articles. That means that once you purchase the article / content you are free to resell it.

A common belief in SEO / Internet marketing circles is that if you purchase PLR articles you can then spin them (reword them) and make them unique enough to promote as your own without incurring any duplicate content penalties from Google.

The main problem I have with this is: How much of a difference do you have to make to an article / page / piece of content before it becomes unique in the eyes of the search engine?

Plus, if you are only rewriting it purely to get round the duplicate content filter, surely it isn't going to be saying much new that isn't already available ... therefore you're unlikely to get people linking to it ... and therefore unlikely to gain much benefit from it.

My other problem is probably more personal. You see, when I write an article I want it to have value and be genuinely useful to myself (as a reference) as well as a website visitor. Therefore I often find it difficult purely to switch a few words around and change a pre-written article.

Very often I'll end up scraping it and writing my own from scratch anyway .... so there's no huge benefit for me to buy PLR articles.

That said, I'm sure people will continue to buy them & tweak them & they will continue to evade the dup. content filter ... but shame on you! Bring some value to the web & your followers and they'll be forever greatful :)

Adam Gardner is a freelance SEO / Social Media Expert. Follow him on twitter @agseo or subscribe to this blog via RSS.

Phonat vs ATFC - Sleep Talk hits the Fan

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This one is simple, could help but feel that the brilliant Love Hits the Fan by Phonat needed some vocals ... Sleep Talk by ATFC fit the bill perfectly. Enjoy :)



Comments / Suggestions below please!