Why Facebook Is Worth Over $10 Billion

admin    Facebook     Billion, Facebook, Over, Worth

Yahoo! have been in talks with Facebook for over a year now and apparently recently got shy at Facebook’s $1 billion asking price but as I will explain here Yahoo! have missed out on an absolute bargain.

Facebook have 18 million users, plenty. However MySpace has 100 million + and sold for a mere $580 million to News Corp’s in 2005. YouTube sold to Google for a reported $1.65 billion in 2006 but it serves over 100 million video’s a day and has over 25 million visitors a month. So what makes Facebook so valuable? It gets relatively huge traffic levels but not on par with YouTube or MySpace. Despite now being available to anyone it began life as an exclusive network for students (you needed an educational email to register) and this is still its primary user group.

So where’s the money?

Currently Facebook displays conventional banner advertising on users’ homepages and selected pages through the site. Adverts are unobtrusive and random in so much as they’re not targeted at any particular user- they’re just served to the entire site on a random basis. Facebook are doing ok out of this arrangement on the basis of the number of page impressions they receive, although in reality they’re keeping advertising at a minimum in order to build up the value of the site for its eventual sale which will almost certainly happen in 2007/8. Smart guys!

The power of information

Register with Facebook and quickly you can find yourself giving away huge volumes of valuable personal information. Think about it… Facebook know your name, they know how old you are (actually your D.O.B which is infinitely more valuable as I’ll go on to explain), they know if you’re male or female, they know your hometown, your postcode if you choose to give it away (although I doubt many users choose this), they know if you’re single, in a relationship (and who with), married, divorced etc, they know your sexual orientation. Ok so you can answer all these questions as honestly, dishonestly or vaguely as you like but from what I’ve seen people happily give accurate information about themselves as it’s their friends and potential friends who are going to see it- and no one else right?

But what else do Facebook know? Well they know where you went to school, where you work, more sinisterly your religious and political views. From this we can start to build up a pretty valuable market profile. As I’m telling Facebook I may as well tell you I’m Male, 22 (born in August), Straight, in a relationship, conservative, atheist from Brighton, England. Went to school at Blatchington Mill Secondary, college at a place called BHASVIC, University at Bournemouth. From this information we can draw further assumptions- I live in Brighton and based on the location of my schools catchment area we could pretty accurately map places in Brighton I know about, visit, and live in (think Google maps API). I’m a straight; conservative from a reasonably wealthy area in full time employment therefore I’m probably white, middle class with a decent disposable income.

So what else? Facebook know what you look like, they probably know what you used to look like a few years ago as well. Probably most significantly they know who your friends are, they know how you know them, they know when you talk to them, what they look like and ultimately they know exactly the same information about them as they know about you- you’re interests, likes and dislikes and your friends tastes as well.

They know your email address, so they know if you use Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail etc. They know your phone number so they could pretty easily work out your phone provider. They have your IP address so they could work out your ISP. They know where you’ve arrived at the site from so they know what search engine you use (enter Yahoo! And Google to the bidding war), what browser you’re on, they know if you’re visually impaired or have learning disabilities from the settings on your browser.

Facebook know when I’m logging in and from where so they know the hours I work, if I’m using the internet at work, the pages I leave Facebook to go to or the pages I come from so they know what other sites I look at. I can set my current status and tell Facebook exactly what I’m doing or feeling right this second.

Ok so you get the picture by now, one last thing though, is your Facebook password the same as your email account password, your internet and telephone banking password, every other password you use in your daily life (because until I wrote this post mine was!) how much more information do you want to give away?

What’s the risk here?

Realistically it’s pretty slim. Facebook are a nice bunch of guys and a great site, I love using it and despite knowing what I know about information security and the like I choose to give away a big chunk of the information I’ve talked about here.

Yahoo! And Facebook

So if Yahoo!, Google or god forbid Microsoft successfully purchase Facebook (as I say I’m reasonably confident this will happen this year) the Orwellian lucid dream proposed by this post becomes a perpetual nightmare. Imagine a company who have made billions and dominated the fastest growing market in the world by developing algorithms which crawl hundreds of millions of pages of random information (the internet) and categorize that information with the ultimate goal of matching it to businesses and selling advertising.

The search algorithm let loose on Facebook

Imagine the search engines let loose on Facebook. An algorithm tuned to pick out profile information (John, born 13.08.84). Map it to keywords in personal interests i.e. football, Manchester United. Plot your location on a map i.e. Brighton, England. Follow links to your closest friends with similar interests i.e. Bob and Dave who live round the corner and serve me an advert something like:

Happy birthday for next week John.

Did you know its Dave’s birthday the week after?

Why not book tickets for Brighton and Hove Albion vs. Manchester united on 12.08.07

Click here to book now and get 3 tickets for the price of 2 (why not ask bob to come along- he supports Brighton and you haven’t spoken in a while).

Book today and we’ll give you a half price limo from your house to the game with trashy-limo’s.com.

Now that’s powerful advertising and it’s just around the corner. If Facebook has 25 million registered users by the time it’s sold, half of whom visit every day that’s a minimum 12.5 million page impressions a day. Serve the advert above at $1 a click (which is far less than its worth based on the current AdWords CPC model) expect a click through rate of up to 10% based on the precise nature of the advertising and that’s $1.2 million minimum a day- almost $½ a billion a year. Grow that user group to 50 million (realistic if Google or Yahoo! can tap into their existing user database) and sell ad space on an affiliate basis say the football tickets at $300 with a 10% affiliate kickback and a 10% conversion rate =$3 per user x 25 million users =$75 million a day or $2737500000 in year 1! OK lets not get carried away people aren’t going to spend $300 every other day but the logics there and so the cash.

Will the audience except it?

Better quality advertising means less advertising- less websites rammed with banners so you can’t find what you’re looking for, less popups, less low quality products. This is the main driving force behind the success of search marketing programs and profile based advertising is already in place with Google’s personalized search returning more targeted AdWords ads than previously possible. If it falls into the hands of Microsoft then people may be more wary but with the image of Google or Yahoo! and Facebook profile information is seen as soft information as the company doesn’t sell you products directly and he service is free. It’s the way the internet is going and I believe it’s where we’ll be in 5 years.

Identity theft

The point I’ve been making tediously through this post is that we should be more careful about what information we give up and to whom. If the internet was a county it would be Nazi Germany and Facebook would be the Gestapo! Social utilities like Facebook are afforded the sort of privileged information fascist governments the world over would and have killed for. We moan about identity cards being introduced in the UK (ironically there’s several Facebook groups dedicated to the cause) but we happily give up personal details to a bunch of college geeks in the states who are ultimately planning on selling our details to the highest bidder (the value of any site is based on the volume, quality and amount of information they have about their traffic- but best of luck to them) possibly to the company who already control the majority of world business systems through the windows platform.

This post is not meant to scare- it’s simply a recognition of the power of new internet technologies, their possibly applications and to pose the question- if your Facebook friends are your real friends shouldn’t they know your birthday? Are Facebook really going to buy you a present?!

How Much is a Google Top Ranking Worth?

admin    Google     Google, Much, Ranking, Worth

But how much exactly is a top ranking on Google worth? What can a top ranking on Google do for your business?

If your website isn’t sitting at the top of the search engines, you’re letting thousands of dollars worth of potential sales slip right through your fingers… it’s that simple.

Here’s why:

Over 40% of web users only look at the first page of their search results (the top 10 websites listed)…

So if YOUR business isn’t listed on the first page, you’re losing TONS of sales to your competitors who are!

Paid search results are worth $37.7 million per day

Google published its earnings last month. Google-owned sites (i.e. mainly the search results) generated revenues of $3.40 billion in the first quarter of 2008 (that’s about $37.7 million per day).

Advertisers wouldn’t pay Google so much money if they didn’t profit from it. The dollar amount indicates how much it is worth to be listed on Google’s first result page. And these numbers only represent the value of the paid search results.

Listings in the natural search results are worth even more

An iProspect study showed that 60.5 percent of Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL users selected a natural (unpaid) search result over paid search result as the most relevant on a sample query. 60.8 percent of Yahoo! and 72.3 percent of Google search engine users chose a natural search result as the most relevant

That means that you will get many more clicks with an natural search engine listing than with a paid listing.

In addition, studies by Enquiro and iProspect revealed that 60.5% to 70.0% of users trust organic results while only 30% to 39.5% of users trust paid results.

In late 2007, information about an internal Google tool that assigned dollar values to the search results leaked:

It turned out that the Google tool was used by members of the AdWords sales team to help prioritize new customer acquisition.

Natural results deliver a higher return-on-investment

As you can see above, a listing in the natural search results is worth much more than a listing in the paid results:

web surfers click natural search results much more often
web surfers trust natural search results more

Although natural search results generate the most amount of targeted high quality traffic, there is still a great deal of companies that continue to spend their entire marketing budgets on pay per click advertising instead of investing in natural search engine optimization.

Optimizing your websites for high rankings in Google’s natural search results provides a much better return-on-investment than pay per click ads. The value of a listing in the natural search results quickly pays for the investment you have to make in natural search engine optimization.

The SEO solution:

The truth is you DON’T have to be a programming whiz or an Internet marketing master to drive TONS of free, targeted traffic to your website from the search engines.

“Discover The Secret SEO Club That Thousands Of Website Owners Are Using To Send Swarms Of Targeted Visitors To Their Websites For FREE…”

Using the right combination of simple SEO strategies can get you sky high search engine rankings for a lot less effort than you may think!

And here’s proof… => Search Engime Marketing Lab

Over $50 Million Worth of PPC Ads Was Given Away by Hophunt.com

admin    PPC     Away, Given, Hophunt.com, Million, Over, Worth

You read that right.

Over 500 smart webmasters quickly availed the $100,000 in Free PPC Ads offered by HopHunt… That was a total of over $50 million dollars worth of Free PPC Ads.

Some webmasters were anxious to avail the $100,000 Free PPC offer because of the following seven reasons:

1. HopHunt doesn’t ring a bell… who cares?

2. They don’t like to avail the $100,000 Free PPC Offer.

3. They think it’s too good to be true.

4. HopHunt doesn’t have much traffic… why bother?

5. They have lots of money to pay for paid ppc traffic.

6. They have much money to burn with high cost of ppc ads.

7. It maybe a waste of time if they try.

Well, that could be a crazy mindset my friend…

For just 3 months, HopHunt is now in the top 400,000 websites among millions of websites on the Internet according to Alexa traffic rank.

Over 300 of the free sponsors were active and already receiving free ppc traffic. Some of them have almost consumed all their free credits. That means they already received lots of free ppc traffic and they keep on silence because of competitions.

If you are a novice marketer you are likely to lose money on ppc advertising. At HopHunt, you have nothing to lose. With the rising cost of pay-per-click ads and of paid traffic, you are crazy not to avail the free ppc offer.

Just avail the $100,000 in Free PPC Ads offer and save your hard-earned ppc money. Promote now your products, services, or websites for free before it’s too late.

Speed PPC by Allan Gardyne-speed Ppc Worth Buying

admin    PPC     Allan, Buying, Gardynespeed, Speed, Worth

Speed PPC By Allan Gardyne

Speed PPC is a tool that will make your life easier with Adwords. I would like to call this blog a Speed PPC review, but since I used it , I recommend you to try it once.

What is Speed PPC?

The SpeedPPC System is a methodology combined with a set of in-house developed software tools, born out of the real world.A challenging affiliate marketing project that required us to increase our output by at least 10 times if we had any hope of pulling it off.

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Top 7 Pay-Per-Click Marketing Problems

Time Spent on PPC Campaigns

PPC Marketing can eat up so much of your time, and with only 24 hours in a day saving time is a huge priority for a lot of us. See how SpeedPPC can save you 72,500% of time.

High Competition Driving up Costs

How do you hold onto a competitive edge when your costs are escalating into the stratosphere? Here’s how you can compete effectively in any market.

Poor Quality Score

Poor – OK – Great! Your Quality Score impacts what you pay for the privilege of a click. Start being more relevant, improve your Quality Score and lower your bid costs at the same time! See how to do it with SpeedPPC.

Ads With Low Click Through Rates

Want a super-quick, super-easy way to create ads that reap clicks? It’s simple and speedy with the SpeedPPC dynamic insertion feature and flexible ad templates. Check out how we do it.

Landing Pages With Low Conversions

Don’t persevere with low performing Landing Pages. Transform them into well-oiled conversion machines with SpeedPPCs dynamic insertion features and Landing Page Generator. See how SpeedPPC achieves this.

Skyrocketing Minimum Bid Prices

Are your minimum bids only heading in one direction? Put the brakes on, turn them around and improve your return on investment dramatically. Here’s how!

Ineffective Tracking

The cost of ineffective tracking is more than you can afford. Track your keywords and plug the holes in your PPC marketing campaigns. Here’s how to make tracking simple.

Spider Web Marketing Business Opportunity Is It Really Worth it?

admin    Twitter     business, Marketing, Opportunity, Really, Spider, Worth

This spider web marketing system has been going around the Internet allot these days and I’m here to see if it actually works, and to tell you if its worth investing your time into it.

The best bit about this system is that it is 100% free, like your thinking now i thought that that was a lie and i would have to pay for somehting in this system but nope you dont have to pay to use the system itself, there are some options to pay for things to increase your income but its not mandatory to do so.

I started this system about 2 weeks ago and i have to say it has been good to me iv seen allot of the so called “systems” but this one i have to say is quite easy to set up and get going as it has allot of video’s that are integrated into the system (step by step). It is easy for beginners to set up and to get there share of the growing Internet marketing businesses.

There is also one key feature in this system that no other has, its custom capture pages. These are so handy for say article writing and twitter marketing and many more as you can have your own website with all the same content as the affiliates link has, so they will still sign up under your name. I do think that that is one of the things that makes this system stand out from all the ones i have tested.

Now on the important bit HAVE I MADE ANY MONEY YET! The answer to that question is YES i actually have, even i was surprised in how quickly this system gets itself going is all i Had to do is get people to the sign up page and BAM the system takes over from there.

If you want to follow me in this procces of taking it from $0 to countless amount of money just folow me on twitter or youtube where i will be posting video updates on how im doing.

Thanks for reading

Matt

Twitter ID: AffiliateM

Youtube: 100kiseze

If you even want to take on this task of beating me to my $1000 goal then sign up now

http://100kiseze.ws

PPC Ninja Review With Bonus Worth $1800+

admin    PPC     $1800+, Bonus, Ninja, Review, Worth

Is Pay-Per-Click or PPC Ninja a scam? There are so many PPC courses out there, what makes this one so special? Does it live up to the promise or is it just another hyped up course?

Unlike other PPC courses that teach you the basic and some advanced topics like market research, keyword research, direct linking, landing pages, how to setup AdWords Campaigns, Google Quality Score, bid optimization, etc. PPC Ninja teaches you the ’stealth strategies and techniques’ NOT many PPC marketers know about.

Like a ninja – who is called upon to eliminate the enemies – must possess all the stealth strategies and covert skills his opponents never thought of before, PPC Ninja is designed to give you those skills. It consists of 7 manuals and 14 step-by-step videos you can follow and develop the skills.

If you’re new to PPC, many of the materials covered inside PPC Ninja are very advanced but fortunately, it does provide a 13-page beginner guide. That’s all for the beginners, the rest of the materials are all about teaching you the covert methods of making money online through the power of PPC + affiliate programs.

If followed and executed correctly, each manual (accompanied by step-by-step videos) is like the secret instructions to wealth. One particular covert technique that impresses me most is when Christian Weselak (the creator of PPC Ninja) shows us how to earn thousands of dollars from watching TV infomercial. He shows us a real case study with actual examples. After reading the case study, you’ll start to pay good attention to TV infomercials next time.

Another strategy that I like is when Christian demonstrates how he uses ‘reverse engineering’ to find successful affiliate marketers and see what they’re doing to earn big dollars. By following his instructions and videos, you’ll be able to reverse engineer many profitable affiliate campaigns. This can save you a lot of time, money and avoid all the common mistakes so many PPC marketers make. In short, you’ll learn the skills of replicating the success of super affiliates. Personally, this one covert method alone is already worth more than the asking price of PPC Ninja.

Another part of the course that impresses me a lot is when the author shows us how to recognise ‘weird’ opportunities that not many people know about. Again, the skills you learn here can help you make some good profits because you’re involved in markets where there are little competitors. After going through this section of the course, you’ll realize why a successful online marketer does not always compete head on with the usual “run of the mill” offers out there.

There are many more stealth strategies and covert methods covered in the PPC Ninja course but I won’t discuss them all here. You’ll need to sign up if you want to learn them.

One thing I would like to warn you is that some of the materials are not so easy to digest. You need to read and re-read them again and again.

Conclusion:

PPC Ninja lives up to its name, it covers many covert strategies and techniques that you don’t find in other PPC courses. However, some of the materials appear to be rather vague and hard to digest. You’ll need to read, re-read and try them out yourself. Major part of the course is based on personal experiments, experiences, and real projects with actual examples. You simply need to put them in practice to see whether they work for you or not.

Want to get our complementary bonuses worth over $1,800? Then, go and join PPC Ninja Course here.

Ppc Classroom 2.0 Review With Bonuses Worth $1400+

admin    PPC     $1400+, Bonuses, Classroom, Review, Worth

When it comes to Pay Per Click or PPC Marketing using Google AdWords, perhaps most has heard about PPC Classroom 2.0 by a renown PPC marketer Amit Mehta. He’s a self-made millionaire in PPC marketing and he’s also well known as a “no-holding-back” teacher. When we attented his class, he delivered a lot more than what was promised without holding back anything. That’s the style many students appreciate.

If you are using PPC advertising (especially Google AdWords) to promote affiliate products online, I’m sure you’ve experienced some pain and frustration of launching one campaign after another, day after day, with ZERO profit and a BIG hole in your wallet.

The main objective of PPC Classroom 2.0 is to teach you how to avoid the PPC pitfalls that many of us fall into when we first get started. It also aim to cut short your PPC learning curve so that you can see profit almost immediately without having to fall into the pitfalls or going through a constant trial and error.

In PPC Classroom 2.0, Amit has created an easy-to-follow model where anyone can duplicate his success in PPC marketing without having to spend too much time and money testing non-profitable campaigns. All the methods he teaches are well tested and proven to work if implemented as taught.

What exactly will you learn and does PPC Classromm 2.0 really work?

It’s an online course teaching you the ins and outs of PPC marketing using Google AdWords. Although it only covers Google AdWords, I find most of the principles and methods taught can also be applied in other PPC systems like Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

The entire course is designed in such a way that you can work through them at your own pace.

Here is a sneak peek of what you’ll learn in PPC Classroom 2.0:

- Market Research ~ how to find profitable market and products that are worth promoting.

- Keyword Reserach ~ how to find keywords that will guarantee you to spend less on ad cost and earn more in profit.

- How to set up and launch profitable AdWords campaigns ~ how to quickly find out whether you have a dud or a winner.

- When to use direct linking, landing or pre-sell pages or your own sites.

- How to design high-converting landing pages and revel in the Google Quality Score.

- Advanced keyword research and bid optimization strategies.

- Killer copywriting secrets

- and many tried and tested PPC tricks that I haven’t seen before.

What I like about PPC Classroom 2.0? (the pros)

- It’s a very specialized course. It focuses everything on how to build profitable affiliate marketing business using Google AdWords. The format of the course is very well organized and easy to follow. You can easily move between modules at your own pace.

- It packs with so many new PPC tricks that I’m sure even experienced PPC marketers will learn a few. It also comes with some great productivity tool such as the ROI calculator and many other bonus materials.

- This course can shorten years of learning curve or effort. You only learn strategies and methods that are tested and proven to work.

- It has great after sale support. The PPC Classroom community is an invaluable resource where people at all level can learn and share their experiences.

What I don’t like about PPC Classroom 2.0? (the cons)

You may have heard many stories on how some of the students earn millions of dollars a year. Please take all these stories with a grain of salt. It’s their success (not yours) and it doesn’t mean that you can also be successful like them. You do need to have a plan and work hard initially. This course doesn’t provide you the magic pill. It just lays out the road map for you. You will need to take effort and follow it.

Also, for experienced PPC users, you may already know some of the materials taught inside the course. For the beginners, however, it’s important to go through the course module by module. Do not skip them!

Closing Comments:

I have no doubt that the PPC marketing strategies and the methods taught in the PPC Classroom 2.0 work. However, it does require you to play your part as well. The course gives you the formula and you need to work the formula. Don’t expect overnight success. Learn at your own pace and follow through the plan. Stay focused on on your goals.

For more information, go to the official site: www.ppcclassroom.com

P.S. To receive Exclusive Bonuses (worth over $1,400) for FREE! Click here to order PPC Classroom 2.0.

Insurance CE – Worth the Investment

admin    CES     Insurance, Investment, Worth

If you are an insurance professional, you would be well aware of the statutory requirements in the field of insurance – of continuing education (also known as CE) each year so that your license remains up to date.

Insurance CE is a huge industry; and there are hundreds of training centers across the country which survive solely on insurance continuing education. As the number of insurance agents in the country increases, there is more and more demand for continuing education, as it is mandatory in all the states to have a prescribed number of training hours attended each year, failing which the insurance license may be revoked.

But like many other things, insurance CE has also gone online, and in the last couple of years, there has been a major increase in the percentage of people who have shifted online for their training hours. In the beginning, the large training institutes shifted online and the certification was done from their local centers. However, today, there are superb online institutes which have been set up solely for the purpose of Insurance CE. Some of the best ones even allow their visitors to read through all the material online for free – even without registration, and then pay for the examination. Even the test is done online, and certification also is done through a secure server through the website itself. Since the whole process is done online, the insurance professional need not worry about booking a slot and attending classes at a training institute locally. From the comfort of his own home, he can log on, read all the topics any number of times, and then attempt to take the test.

The mandatory topic of Ethics is the first paper that people will need to take, and for every additional paper they attempt, the pricing structure is different. One thing, however, is certain. The investment it takes for people to get certified online is nothing when compared to what a training institute would charge you outside. That is one more reason (and a major one at that!) as to why a great number of people prefer to shift online for their insurance CE. Since the number of hours is to be logged every year or every couple of years (depending on the state) for the insurance license to be valid, it would amount to quite a bit of savings in the long run.

If you are not familiar with insurance CE yet, get there! You will enjoy it. You will not only fulfill your state requirements, but you will learn a great deal with every course you take. You will learn about new laws, sales tactics, and different products and services available for your clients. Whether you decide to do classroom CE or online, make sure you pay attention to detail and learn as much as possible. I would suggest taking your courses online, they are fast, easy, and affordable. You don’t have to sit in a classroom and it all ends with a short multiple choice exam.