Check out this email from Enhance Interactive (formerly ah-ha.com):

Dear Valued Customer,

Due to our expanded network of high-quality distribution partners and various other considerations, Enhance Interactive (formerly ah-ha.com) established a minimum click price of $0.03 for all paid keyword listings effective December 1, 2003.

In order to minimize the near-term impact on current advertisers, Enhance Interactive instituted a "grandfather period". This means that current click prices of $0.01 or $0.02 do not need to be changed while the grandfather period is still in effect. (However, during the grandfather period any click price changes are subject to the minimum click price.)

The grandfather period will end on March 1, 2004. At that time, all click prices that are still below $0.03 will be automatically raised to $0.03. To avoid this automatic update, I strongly recommend that you manually raise your sub-$0.03 click prices to $0.03 or higher before March 1.

Click here to view frequently asked questions about the end of the grandfather period, and the positive reasons for updating your click prices.

Please send me email at mnew@enhance.com, or call me at 866.244.2050 ext. 8199 and I will be happy to answer any questions you have about the minimum click price.

Thank you for your support!

All the best,

Mike New
Regional Account Coordinator
Enhance Interactive (formerly ah-ha.com)
e: mnew@enhance.com
t: 866.244.2050 ext. 8199
f: 801.705.7138

Enhance Interactive, Inc.
Delivering search marketing value.
www.enhance.com

They are recommending that we pay them more so they don't have to raise the prices on us...?

Gee thanks, but I think we'll wait untill you MAKE us pay more for the same service...

(hris

There is an exciting movment to put John Edwards in the White House! I think that we really do have a chance to get Bush out of there before an more damage is done. Sorry, but I was expecting wepons of mass destruction... and a massive deficet from an un-needed war is a bad was to boost the economy. If we put ourselves in debt to improve society and conditions for that that are lacking, it would be ok, but not Haliburton...!

(hris

I'm not a lawyer, but you know that...

It seems that under the law, booble.com the Google parody site is on pretty solid ground as a comedy site.

Check out this thread at WebProWorld.com that has a copy of the Booble response to the letter sent by some lawyer at Google.

(hris

It says it's a parody, but it does look like a real Adult Search Engine, www.Booble.com.

However, I think it's pretty darned funny, even though the owners are walking a fine line with infringment...



(hris

When I checked out the Wahlstrom Group site and saw this, I just had to tell someone...

It's just more of this crap from self-serving companies that realize they can make more money over a longer period of time by pushing SEM over SEO. SEM has it's place, but SEO is much more cost effective and will continue to be so for a while.

(hris


This text is to optimize the blog a little more for those searching for www.booble.com. Booble is an adult search engine called booble that is a parody of google. Booble is funny and very well done and full of links to boobles. Booble was sent a letter from google that they should stop being booble, even thogh booble is pretty cool as a parocy site. So booble has responded that they are not going to stop being booble, because they like being booble and why should they listen to anyone that does not like booble, boobles, or booblers? They are not and have responded to the letter with a booble lawyer of their own.

Reviews of Google Alert:

"A very useful service. Highly recommended."
Research Buzz

"Website of the Day"
Websites of the Day 2003

"Most excellent."
O'Reilly Network Weblogs

"This century's coolest automated tool to date."
Genetic Engineering News

"A handy little tool."
Small Business Computing

"Helps you stay up to date."
Canadian CTV

"Googling yourself in person is soooo last year."
Best Web Sites

"Very cool tool."
GeekNewsCentral

"The Best Thing Ever... It's better than sliced bread ever dreamt of being... super cool."
Traffick.com

"Google Alert is the Best Thing Ever."
geek/talk

"Now you can keep an eye on what's new... without lifting a finger."
BLOG.org

"Best Free Stuff on the Web... Google's great, but Google Alert makes it better."
PC World Magazine

"Great Google Secret"
PC Magazine

"Hot Site"
USA Today

"Website of the Day"
BBC

"Another useful enhancement to Google"
International Herald Tribune

"Sign up... It'll do the work for you."
The Boston Globe

"A free service that searches Google daily, updating you when new results appear."
http://www.googlealert.com/

(hris

I feel 2004 is going to be a great year...! There is much afoot and here are some predictions of things to come:

Several SEO/SEM and marketing organizations will appear or re-appear and a few will diminish.

Search engine and directory (SED) operators will come to realize that just being a member of a SEO organization does not serve their purposes very well. Look for at lease one SED organization to attempt to serve this market.

There will be 2-3 new choices for SEO keyword research. At least one will be free and paid for via advertising.

A very large software company will FINALLY enter the search marketplace, but initial efforts will garner more AOL users than Google eyeballs. They may have to resort to paying users for every search they do, but we'll have to see...

Some exciting little search players will blossom this year. Most you don't even know exist, but they are causing some buzz in the industry and if you are in the industry and have not heard, it may be because you are running in the wrong circles.

The technology that will drive these companies to the front are partner distribution networks, distributed crawling, automated/manual indexing and editing of listings, copycat implementation of text ads like the leader, and networking among SEDs that will increase search inventory while DECREASING work load. Yes, distributed submissions. Submit once and publish on many.

So, how much of all this is BS, dreaming, and some inside information? Well, we'll have to wait and see what comes to pass...

(hris

Last night I read a great publication written by Dan Thies of www.seoresearchlabs.com.

Special Report: How to Prosper With The New Google
This is a PDF file, use right-click to download and save.

This is one of the best things I've read in quite a while, and here is why: Dan not only offers good ideas on why things have changed at www.Google.com, but also why no one should be that surprised at the changes, and back up many of the things I learned from reading stuff from Jill Whalen and have come up with on my own.

It's a very enlightened, non-self-promoting look at the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry and promotes the common-sense moethods that work and should be used.

Dan's main site is at www.insideoutmarketing.com where I discovered he has a lot of good and free information and a resouce directory (I JUST submitted to links to this, so you may find me listed if he thinks they are worth sharing...). But he has a number of good articles on web marketing that are well worth the visit to his site.

(hris

Heard about SPLENDA®?

As I understand it, they add a chlorine atom to sugar somehow and while it still tastes like sugar, the body can't use it, kinda like that Olestra stuff that was causing problems for some people. The Splenda site says it's safe, but they would, wouldn't they? I found two sites that say it's dangerous, but they would, wouldn't they?

What bugs me is I bought a product (Swiss Miss Cocoa) that said it had no sugar only to discover this new stuff, Splenda was in it. Then I search in Google and find two sites that say it's NOT to be trusted. Then the other day I see a TV commercial that seems to be aimed at feeding it to KIDS! Am I worried? Well, Let's just say this seems a little familiar to me.

I saw cyclamates and then saccharine both banned after being on the market for years. Asapartamine has had problems too, and now we have a new one that some sites are saying has not really been tested for long-term results. I happen to know that some exposures, like to asbestos, can take 20-30-40 years to become a problem, so I think proper long-term testing is important.

Here are some important links that came up at Google for "Splenda"
www.Splenda.com
Sucralose Toxicity Information Center
Potential Dangers of Sucralose

(hris