Why Google Wants to be in Your Life

When I talk with people who aren’t involved with internet marketing about Google, I’m surprised by the amount of trust they put in Google and how they feel Google is making the world a better place … for truly altruistic reasons. It’s not until I point out how Google will gladly provide all the services “for free” because the data they get in exchange is worth more–a lot more–than it costs them to provide the services which are slowly eroding your privacy, both online and offline that their understanding of Google begins to change.

So why does Google want to build cars that drive you around Jetsons style, like in the video below? They want to track you and have complete access to where you are going every day.

Click here to watch the video.

Why does Google care that I go to Pomodorino Italian restaurant in Seaford? So they can sell advertising to me before I go. I hop in my car and type in the address. Before departing, the Google car navigation asks if I would like to go to Piccolo in Bellmore. It’s the same distance, and they have a 3 course, price fixed menu and $5 off coupon. This type of instant groupon style offering has the potential to make a ton of money for Google. Is this good for the user? That depends. Do you value your privacy more than a $5 off coupon? Once Google is in your car, it’s tracking your every move. And just because I don’t have anything to hide doesn’t mean I’m doing anything wrong.

Access to your personal purchasing data is the same reason Google and other vendors are building ewallets. While I used a humorous tone, I actually meant what I said on Twitter: with Google wallet, they are just inches away from crawling completely up your ass. With the potential to create frictionless commerce that could top Amazon Prime for ease of use, if Google can critical mass for adoption, we’re all in trouble. Google could use your data and sell you promotions for everything you buy. But isn’t this helpful to the average consumer? Again, the answer depends on how much value you put on your privacy. While you may not care and actually like that Google gives you offers on tomato sauce or toothpaste, does it change your opinion if Google knows you are buying from swingers websites or adult diaper stores and selling that data to advertisers … any advertiser.

As some will point out, after reading the Google Wallet FAQ, Google doesn’t have direct access to what products you buy, which I believe to be true. However, even if they don’t know exactly what you’re buying from CVS or Rite Aid–heck they don’t even know what you are buying from Adam & Eve (NSFW) and EdenFantasies.com (NSFW)–they can figure out what you spend on average every month: $322 on restaurants, $243 on clothing, and $562 on adult websites. Is that the kind of information you want Google to have on you, to sell to advertisers, to use to profile or retarget ads to you, or to match up with your browsing history and advertising profile?

Some people will question whether your bank or financial institutions like American Express already have access to this data … the answer is that yes they do. However, those industries are severely regulated with what they can or can’t do with that data. Google, on the other hand, is going where no one has gone before, isn’t subject to those same rules, and no one is big enough to stand up and tell them “no.” Are you willing to trust that kind of data to a company who says patents and IP laws are anti-competitive, cost them money, and just “get in the way”? I hope not.

So what can you do? Opt out of Google ad profiling and, every few months, check that you stay “opted out.” When Google releases a new product, ask yourself how does it help them make money or better target advertising at you. Understand and educate your friends and family: these free services aren’t really free. When you don’t pay for something, you are the product being sold.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant.

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Last Updated on Saturday, 03 December 2011 23:22

Written by In Adsense - Google Adsense Explorer

6 links system for traffic building

Just by the title you won't be impressed. But here's the tagline "What will 1,000,000 visitors a month do to your income?"

This is a marketing system designed to get high rate traffic at no cost. It is completely free to use and of course there'se the promise to "propell your income to the dizzy heights of the top internet marketing gurus. In less than 30 days, you can realistically have over 1 million guaranteed real people visiting your website".

So here it is to check out:

PS. In my opinion it's a pyramid system. There's no "curse telling you that you are doomed unless you envolve at least 6 people", does it make the Internet a better place to be? I have my reservations.
If you have any experience with this system please leave your comments.

Good Luck!

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Written by In Adsense - Google Adsense Explorer

Earning with Amazon Associates

The number of ecommerce stores is growing every single day. All over the world companies are trying to get their share out of the global market place. Well, Amazon was one of the first companies that understood online business. My guess is that one of your first online purchases was a book from Amazon. It was available, the price was right and it was delivered ontime and in good condition. Well, this is my experience.
For me they kind of defined being succesful in Ecommerce.

So, you get the opportunity to build up your revenue alongside. The Amazon Associates program is made for that. It's quite straightforward and easy to advertise Amazon products by building links and banners. When you add these links and banners to your web page and visitors click on them from your page, you can earn up to 15% on all purchases made during their shopping session. So, compared to Google's Adsense it's quite a different business, even though on your site it's just an ad. And you can now make a choice here if you want to take that into account. Because Google is Pay-Per-Click it wouldn't be fair if you asked your users to click the ad. Well, with Amazon it's a different game. I think you could be wasting an opportinuty and revenue if you handled your content with an Amazon ad the same way you did with Google.

So you now need to sign up on Amazon Associate. It's quite easy. Just look it up on Amazon or click this Associates link. Make sure your site has at least a basic setup done to get passed the manual review.

Now if you're using a CMS like Joomla, you simply implement an extension and enter the unique Associates Id you got duting signup and let Amazon figure out what they present.
Or log into Associates Central, look on the left and navigate to Get Started Now button to go to the (not much surprising) "Get Started Tour". Next, you could select "Add Widgets to your Site", and you'll quickly see the difference with Google's Adsense. Here you can select the products that will be displayed using a widget from the Widget Gallery located here. So, why not do a "Product Cload" and present product titles relevant to your page. When you're writing your content, you can add a line like "want more info on this topic? I've selected a few titles to make life a bit easier" and then present the ad. Neat feature, right?
Next you need to tell Amazon things like width, height and customizable color theme. This gives you the possibility to blend-in the ad. Then save your creation and next click "Add to my webpage". If you're not using one of the blogs or sites selected, you can copy the code and paste it into your site's sourcecode.

the basic result is:

You can also go for another setup and refer to other blogs. You can earn some money referring to other people's blogs. BTW, if you use this on an Ecommerce product page, you can use it to get product-related content related to your site while getting paid instead of paying:

Then an example the other way round. Say you got your blog about healthcare products and lifestyle setup, but would like products there. This is another few clicks from Amazon using the Recommended Products widget:

Of course if you just "some interesting ads" you may include on any page, you could select everyone's friend "best deals", like I did below. In the end, there's a whole lot of possibilities and you need to select what works for you and to get the most revenue out of your pages:

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