Christmas Break

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I'm in Ohio for the holidays. Ohioans: Nice state. I like it. (Not the first time I've been, but the first time I've had this blog with which to tell you.)

It's been pretty cold, but not cold enough to keep me off the four-wheeler nor intimidate the kids I whipped around behind me on an inner tube. Maybe I'll get a picture or two up here later.

The paintball games were today's main activity. Good stuff.
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In the realm of affiliate marketing I will return to my review of 7Search.

The advertiser interface is decent. It is not quite up there with Adwords, but it's way, way better than Tygo. The 'Edit Bids' screen allows you to alter your current bid on any or all of your keywords/phrases. It also displays your positions on 7Search and on it's system of partner sites. The position information tells you if you're top 5 or not and how many searches were performed for each term during the previous month. It's easier to get top 5 (the good spots that most people would see) on 7Search than it is for the partner sites. This screen allows you to edit your ad. There are also some utilities there to help you do bulk submissions or get all your terms into top positions.

The bulk submission option might be a wise choice. This is because 7Search, unlike Adwords, does not allow you to 'expand' you keyword 'matches'. If you bid on "dog sharks" your ad will be shown when someone searches for 'dog sharks' but not for, say, 'fat dog sharks'. If you want the second term, you need to bid on that too. You can see how your list might grow pretty quickly. Especially when you're adding in things like misspellings.

The 'Edit Bids' page also leads to 7Search's Keyword Suggestion Tool. This tool does just what it sounds like and a little extra. It's kind of like Overture's tools ('Keyword' and 'View Bids'). It shows related terms, the number of times those terms were searched for last month, as well as what others are paying for them. It's a fairly comprehensive system, though it won't show you all possible terms (of course). You'll want to look into Wordtracker for a much more thorough keyword research solution.

The stats offered by 7Search are pretty good. I haven't got time to get into details at the moment (I'm sharing the computer with the rest of the family), but I will say this: They're certainly good enough for all but the true data junky. Though not as accessible as Adwords, they are there and you can see them (a novel idea that Tygo has not yet mastered). The entry page displays your total clicks over the last week or so and you get more detailed stats on all your words. You can even have them e-mailed to you.

So that's what I've got for now. I'm off for an evening of movie-watching and junk food.