For all you SEM-types that still peruse this blog, I just passed the Google Adwords Professional exam this morning. I don’t have years of PPC experience or anything, but it was surprisingly easy. I did make time to watch almost all of the lessons in the training center, which took a considerable amount of time. Anyways…if you haven’t taken it and have ever considered it, I’d say go for it! If this turkeyhead can get a 93%, you’ll have no problem!
Along these same lines, I’ve been writing a new page you’ll find on the right column called My Occupation. Just a personal introduction into SEM for those of you interested. I’m not finished yet, but you can read what I’ve got so far.
Tyson Search
News about Search and Politics together today! Until recently, a google for the term ‘miserable failure’ presented the bio page of our favorite president. Well, looks like the friendly Whitehouse staff is finally trying to do something about that. The page that used to rank (http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html) is now redirecting to the general president category (http://www.whitehouse.gov/president).
I already posted over at Zunch about how this may not be as strategic as it at first looks.
BTW, John Kerry still ranks for ‘waffles‘.
Tyson Politics, Search
Received a few copies of Search Marketing Standard in the mail today. I must say, there’s a noticeable improvement over the first issue…more content and the ads seem to be integrated better. Nice job guys, keep up the good work!
Tyson Search
Microsoft announced yesterday that IE7 would be pushed out to Windows users as an automatic upgrade later this year, prior to the release of Vista. This had to be a no-brainer for Microsoft, seeing as how Vista continues to get pushed back and Firefox continues to gain marketshare. So…everyone…quickly go download IE7 from here.
Tyson Search, Technology
Apparently all the positive press they are getting is a little too much to handle, as the site is currently down…regardless, Rand and his team have created a very useful Page Strength Tool. This tool simplifies the common task for an SEO to determine how likely a page is to rank for a particular term. If you’re interested in SEO, definitely check it out.
Tyson Search
From the AP: “President Bush’s plan to send man to Mars in coming decades received a green light Thursday as the House passed a bill funding the annual budgets of NASA and the departments of Commerce, Justice and State.”
I’ll try to be optimistic…maybe we’ll find Usama bin Laden there. But really…what are the nuts in Congress thinking!? We’re cutting intelligence and law enforcement budgets, but we’ll throw money at Mars. Rep. Barney Frank states it well:
Sending human beings to Mars … is a luxury that this country cannot now afford. The justification for sending people to Mars is political. It is psychological. It is cultural. It is not scientific.
Tyson Politics, Search
My frustrations with AdCenter are well known, but they seem to be never-ending as well. Today, while trying to add keywords to a new campaign, I received this message:
Before submitting your keyword list, please resolve the issues noted in the Status column.
Now, I only had about half a dozen keywords, and the status colum for every one simply said “New”. Hmm…OK, so now the continue button is disabled, and I can’t figure out what the “issue” is. What do I do? Beat my head against the wall, close the browser and start over, hoping for a different result. (Insanity, anyone?)
Tyson Search
