In This Issue...

Introduction

The Summer heat wave has really arrived here in Vancouver... I haven't seen rain in two weeks, and I've been spending more and more time on the beach, going to BBQs and drinking cold beer .

Because you're likely in the same boat as me, I'm keeping this week's issue ultra-short.

Ultimately, it's not about working harder or longer, but about working smarter. Be sure to read and implement a few ideas from the " 5 Tips to Beat the Summer Slowdown" article I published not too long ago... then head for the beach, that weekend camping trip, or your friend's BBQ.

Cheers,

Matt Mickiewicz
tribune@sitepoint.com

Editor's Perspective

Test 40 PHP & MySQL CMS Systems

Want to test 40 PHP & MySQL Open Source Content Management Systems, without installing any of them?

I knew that'd get your attention... Yes, there's a Website that lets you be the administrator of 40 different PHP & MySQL Content Management Systems. You can test and do everything: add and delete content, change the look of the pages, and more. All changes are reset every hour, giving everyone a chance to test the CMS Systems.

You can test CMS Portals, CMS Blogs, CMS Groupware software, open source forums and more... Finally, you can test and play around with a great number of CMS Systems without having to install everyone on your hosting account.

Here's the Website: http://www.opensourcecms.com/

This is one idea that I wish I'd thought of.

Google AdSense - Rumblings & Strategies for Advertisers

Google AdSense Network, which allows small content sites to display relevant text ads on their content pages, was a huge hit when it took off. Tens of thousands sites signed up and were quickly accepted. Lots of sites reported extraordinarily high CPMs (even though the Terms of Service state that performance numbers should not be shared).

However, many advertisers have dropped the "Contextual" portion of their campaigns, simply because the quality of the clickthroughs wasn't nearly as good. Clickthroughs and costs increased, but sales did not.

One theory for this occurrence, which is been reported over and over again is that most Google advertisers have written their ads for people who are in the active search mode, rather than passive Internet surfers who need to be "sold to" in a different manner.

Other advertisers were hit by "surprise" clickthroughs to their accounts, which quickly depleted their monthly budgets, ushering lower-paying advertisers to the top, while decreasing the earnings for AdSense Network participants.

Certainly, Google didn't set very strict criteria for AdSense sites. There are no minimum traffic requirements, and terms that say "You can place AdSense code on any site you own." This basically site owners you to get approval for one site, and then earn money by showing ads on a dozen un-reviewed Websites. I reported on Google's and Overture's untargeted traffic in issue #244.

Already, Overture has publicly stated that their "ContextualMatch" ads, which are syndicated on MSN, Edmunds, the Away Network, etc. won't be showing up on anyone's blog site anytime soon.

If you're a Google Advertiser, here's an idea that I bet more and more companies will be implementing:

1. Open a second AdWords account.

2. Import the keywords from your existing account, but at half the bid amount that you typically pay per-clickthrough for people coming through Google.com

3. On the "Edit Campaign Settings" page UNCHECK the "search sites in the Google Network" box, and CHECK the the "content sites in the Google Network" box.

And there you go... you get traffic from both sources, you can monitor the conversion rates independently by using unique clickthrough URLs, and you can adjust the cost-per-click as needed.

This way you pay more for the high-converting search traffic from Google.com, and you pay less for the casually interested visitors the Google content network brings in. You heard it here first!

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