The End of Google's 'Do No Evil' Mantra

In a few days Google will change all it's 64 privacy policies into a single big one. I am no expert in the legal affairs of these giant corporation, but these are my comments for what they are worth.

We as Google users, whether we are using Search, Gmail, or any of Google plethora of services, we actually have very little choice.  If we want to carry on benefiting from Google, they we have to agree.  If we do not agree, we will not get the full benefit of Google. It's pretty black and white.

So what do you do if you don't agree with this.  And what's it all about anyway.

Google's made no secret they have stated that the purpose of a single privacy policy is to make things easier for us, we can use all Google's services without having to agree to any extra demands on our Data (we've already agreed to give that away).  Secondly, Google have stated that they plan to share our data across their services. If we're searching for a digital camera to buy, then we might want to see photos of it, or perhaps get emailed about digital cameras.  Certainly we would be announcing the fact we're interested in a digital camera to our connections on Google.

So Google's plan is use our data to benefit ourselves and our friends, this of course appeals to advertisers because Google will share some of our data with them too... (That digital camera).  But it does raise massive questions about intrusive Google plans to be.

What can you do - very little in my opinion... sign up and don't worry about it.  If you want to carry on using Gmail, Google Apps, Blogger, Picasa you'll have to agree to it anyway.  So live with it.

But the caveat is this... support those that are fighting your corner.  There is a growing industry of user-awareness groups that are examining every angle of these privacy policies, the same goes for all the Mega Corporations, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Amazon and so on.  These user-awareness groups set out to protect our rights and ensure that the Googles of the world don't actually take over our lives.

Spare some time for these people, because they need our support, the WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and other so called 'cyber-terrorists' might actually be on our side.

I do now believe that Google's Mantra to 'Do No Evil' is now officially dead, Eric Schmidt's reorganisation of the Google top management in the middle of 2011 is not truly coming to light, Google has hugely high aspirations and it would appear there is little we can do to stop them.

Keeping Up -How to stay on top of things

The idea of 'keeping on top of things' is an incredibly important concept in terms of the Internet.  I cannot stress it enough.  Once you've started a project you just have to keep going and going and going.

It's a flaw in the Internet or perhaps is a flaw in Google's algorithms, if you want to stay on top you have to keep on top of things.  This is both urgent and all to often under estimated.

Some examples:

• Blogging - I did a series of articles between mid December (6) and January (11) - never has my Blog been more popular, 1500 visitors in January.  Having relaxed a bit in February, I've lost a third of that traffic.
  
  Client Haxnicks - I can identify a consistent trend between Sales and Blogging, the more blogging the more sales we get - it's as simple as that.
  
  
• Social Media - The new measurement for good or bad in Social Media is called Influence. How influential you are matters, when I do lots of Tweeting and Facebook updates - it is noticeable that my Twitter Followers expand, people notice, maybe just a few, but they notice, but if I relax and take a few days off.  Pow, I lose that influence.
  
  Client X - We did a huge SMO campaign around September-November - plenty of interaction and activity generating decent buzz - now that it's stopped the activity has been reduced massively.  The core component for this client was Sales - these did not materialise in the form required. But had things been kept going, the question is what would have happened.
  
  
• SEO - The two core activities that are needed to keep on top are article submissions and link building, these are ongoing month after month jobs, - stop and after just a month or two you can see the results as you drop down the search engines.
  
  Client Skyschool UK - We've worked on and off with Skyschool regularly boosting their SEO, we drive it up the Google rankings then pause, it falls and the client returns for a bit more SEO.  It's fine to do this in a patchy on/off way, but it would be better to just keep going.

So how do you 'keep on top of things'.  The core is the Marketing Plan, I now seen others writing about this very subject.  If you have even a basic Marketing Plan, then you have something to refer to.  It's a good base to work from.  Set your goals, perhaps a timeline and work to that.

For myself I also set reminder, or tasks, use any software you like, a Calendar, Task Tool, Outlook, it does not matter, so long as it sends you an email about doing something.  Then leave that email in your Inbox until you've done something.

That's exactly how I write this Blog, I set myself a reminder task for 2 weeks post my last article.  That means I have a annoying email in my Inbox that's reminding me to write something.

Task lists and Reminders are the key method for 'keeping on top of things'.  They make you do it and you have to persevere.

The next most important part is to allocate a time period, it can be as little as 10 minutes, or a full hour.  But set yourself a minimum and then allow yourself to overshoot.  It should be daily as well.  Time is what most people lack, so you have to set yourself time and then make good use of it.

Now before I get off my high horse, I'd like to put out that my own marketing is a shambles... all I am trying to do is make clients consider their own positions and to see what may or may not work for them.  If you have ideas that are simple to implement and easy to stay on top, then I'm all ears.  Let me know, because there has to be a way to make this easy.

Copyright Law is the future for Piracy

Few things get me more uptight than Piracy and the invasion of our freedoms by the authorities.  Recently we've  had two laws attempt to pass the the US Congress, 20+ Euro countries have signed up to some EU law, we've a cookie law on it's way, a UK student is being extradited under US Terrorism laws for creating a dodgy website and we've closed down a quasi New Zealand/German/Indonesian website for running 14% of the Internet.

All in the name of stopping piracy.  When will it stop and how many of our freedoms have to go before Governments start taxing our internet use to pay for all the laws we're creating.

The truth is the horse has left the stable and no amount of door closing is going to induce it to return... The Internet is changing the world before our very eyes and new ideas need to be looked at.

My idea (as yet I've not read anything about this) - my idea - is that Copyright Law need to be looked at in much greater detail and updated accordingly.  Who says spending 30 minutes writing a best selling song should earn you millions.  Sometimes it can take a musician 30 years to write that magical song.  Authors, Screen Writers, Actors, all creative people spend a lot of time climbing to the top - all most all of it is unrewarded and as any artist will tell you for every success story there are plenty of artist who work all their lives unrewarded.

In what other walks of life does the situation exist whereby you slave day in day out for often years and then in five minutes you get your break and that's it, you're on the front cover of every magazine.

No - in almost every other profession you work diligently earning as you go a suitable sum for your endeavours and always towards an incrementally larger goal.  You don't walk into being the CEO of a multi-national company - you work your whole life towards.

The difference is you're paid all the way up to the top... Not so in an artist profession, not so in an actor career where the top paid success stories vastly out weigh the slave labour at the bottom.

All of this hinges on one thing alone - Copyright Law - the right of the individual to be paid for their conceptual idea ever after.  And in huge amounts.

Now I hear a few defences of the current situation - but it's no good - the Steve Jobs or James Dyson's worked hard - but still they were grossly over-paid for their contribution to humanity.

What we need is a new system that pays our copyright holders more fairly (rewarding the creators themselves and not those around them) - we need a system that pays out over time, small amounts to encourage these geniuses to produce more good ideas and we need those surrounding copyright holders to be severely curtailed in their rights to bits of the pie.

Only then will the costs of the material be reduced to an acceptable level that people will be prepared to pay - And when you manage to get things down to that level then and only then will you succeed in combating piracy.  You have to make it meaningless for the pirate to bother.

I reckon a track of music should cost no more than 4p, a digital book less than 20p, a photograph pennies.

So how does this affect you - ask yourself what action you would take if someone copied your idea, song, story... would it matter, do you feel honoured, put out - I suspect you'll only ever feel miffed is that someone made money out of your idea - and that's not a very noble thought.

Google Adwords Revisited

I am going to write this even though I'm on shaky ground with the flurry of changes Google brings us this winter.

I have compiled data on clients performance on Google Adwords over the last 4 years and two things I have known are happening have been proven:

1) The cost of Google Adwords is going up
There is no doubt in my mind that the cost per click is being driven  upwards - this is what Google wants obviously and there are numerous factors contributing to it.

• Google's own desire to get more out of us
• Increased competition between advertisers
• Google 'quality score' through which they charge more if an advert is deemed unsuitable.

What this means for us advertisers is simple - we're paying either more money for the same number of clicks or the same money for fewer clicks.

Example (the data is real):
Client A in 2008 was operating a budget of £100 per month and getting 590 clicks.  In 2011 this same budget brought them just 434 clicks - a drop of 35%.

You easily say that's actually a price hike of 35% in four years... wow.

2) The cost of Conversions is going down.

The truth is clicks don't matter - what matters is the cost of Conversions - getting someone to do want you want them to do on your website - be that buying something, enquiring about something, requesting something. Google Adwords in this area is proving remarkably resilient.  But only if you know what you're doing.

• Big updates in Google Adwords make it much more complicated to use and get the most from
• Your keywords and Adverts matter more than ever - they are what drive conversions
• Your website landing pages have to match a users expectations to increase the likelihood of a Conversion

The bottom line is the Conversion matter and it is the cost of conversions that counts.

Example (the data is real):

Client B in 2008 was operating a £300 monthly budget and we managed to get 1046 'Conversions' in 12 months.  In 2011 that number went up to 2043... a 49% rise in Conversions - this lead to a reduction is cost per conversion of 57% - from £1.76 to £1.02 per conversion.

For this client Google Adwords has been a success story - their website and budget remained virtually the same through out the period and the Advertising has paid off again and again.

Another Client C has had a Budget of about £300 per month and has seen the cost of clicks rise from £0.52 to £0.72 (38%) - but their cost of conversion has fallen from £90.69 to £49.42 (down 54%).  So even though Google costs more - it's very much worth it because the results are costing less.

This all matters to you - because it means Google Adwords is still have very effect way to advertise.  At the moment Google are getting bad press and people are thinking about leaving the system, perhaps spending more on SEO and other techniques to get their websites up on the search engines.  But Google Adwords still offers one of the fastest and most cost effective ways to advertise on the web.

My maxine holds true - if you are in any doubt about any advertising service compare it to Google Adwords and decide which one your money would be better spent on - Google Adwords wins every time in my book.

SEO Reports for Free - Limited Offer

I don't normally plug my services on this Blog - but we're doing such a good job on SEO for clients at the moment that I thought I'd rattle this out.

Basically, for whatever reason I can rattle out two comprehensive and separate full SEO reports for any website you like.  These reports will give you enough information to really work out what you need to do next. They are full professional and one offers a complete guide on what to do next.

Because they're free I am only offering this service until Friday 5th February.

Conditions - you must supply me with 10 keywords that you think are relevant to your website.  Send an email to guyh@ncompass.co.uk.

Is there still life in Google Adwords

Google missing an earnings expectation this week (www.wsj.com) and from my prospective Google Adwords is becoming a lot more complicated.  I have Chris however to help out and in our weekly reviews of all the accounts we run I am often astounded by the amount of work we have to do to keep to budget and stay on top of things.

The Very Very Old Days
Google Adwords built it's strength on the idea that the more you pay the higher up the listing you went.  A simple auction system... who ever pays the most gets to the top... easy.

The Very Old Days
But - said many advertisers - I don't want to pay at the weekend, or after 8pm or for France/another country, so Google gradually introduced more functionality to allow people to set their own criteria... That was awesome - because now you could advertise only between the hours of 9am and 2pm, Monday, Tuesdays and Fridays and only in the UK, and later London and later still SW19.

That power for the Advertiser was truly magnificent.

The Old Days
Google however weren't quite so happy - rather I might say Google 'big-spenders' weren't quite so happy... Now real spenders like eBay, Amazon and Walmart had to compete with every Tom Dick and Harry pays much higher prices depending on when and where there were advertising.

Googles response was to introduce a Quality Score system - this effectively and very largely handed a lot of control back to Google.  Quality Score takes into account, who you are, how much you spend, the quality of your keywords, brand and adverts and defines the cost you'll pay based on this.

You can see that if Google decide they like eBay or Amazon (because they spend a lot) then there Adverts would take precedence over yours.

Today
These days Google Adwords is a complex and gigantic beast of a machine... many people would feel daunted to start using it and Google have a scaled down version for beginners, the result is beginners often pay more faster and with less result.

Meanwhile big organisations have Google employees to help them out, doing a lot of the day to day work... but they also have to employee dedicated people or commonly specialist agencies to do the actual work.  Imagine your Marks and Spencers doing your Christmas Specials - Google Adwords becomes a huge undertaking very quickly.

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And that leaves us middle men - we know that to get the best from Google Adwords, we know you need to run a lean and efficient account, we also know how to do it (at least I assume Chris am not alone in this respect).  But we know there is much work to be done.

The question is who does Google think is doing the work and how does Google think they are going to be paid.  So I leave you with the following thoughts:

1. For your website - you could do it yourself - but that would be daunting, complicated and take too much time potentially without result
2. If you have the money and are big enough you could employ a proper agency to do it... but the starting budget for this is probably £5,000 per month...
3. You could use your website designer - but is it worth it for the work they have to do (and be paid for)

If there is anything to learnt from this analysis it's this... What does Google think it's doing?  I'm going to be watching Google Adwords carefully over the next few months, this isn't the last you'll have heard from me.

10 Biggest Brands in the UK

There is something daunting about working in the Web Design industry.  That well know brand the Daily Telegraph announced the UK's 10 top brands.

10) Microsoft

9) Facebook

6) Twitter

4) Amazon

3) Google

1) Apple

Others in the list include Marks & Spencers, The Co-Op, John Lewis and oddly Innocent Drinks... However there's a major lesson to be learnt here. (list source: Telegraph.co.uk)

Daunting at the Internet might be - it is the future of your business.  Many clients of ours still think if they have a website that will do - it won't and it doesn't - when's the last time you checked your stats and not only looked at the numbers but also considered the question 'What can I do to get more visitors'.

When I see a list of Brands like this - my anger spills as I think of all the lost opportunities clients of mine have had.  This should be a wake up call to anyone running any business anywhere.  You need to put your website at the centre of everything you do.

Lastly, just a small note - Marks & Spencers, Co-Op, John Lewis and Innocent all put major emphasis on their website/internet presence...When's the last time you thought of visiting Kodak's website?