It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Google Personalized Publishing!

Have you ever purchased a magazine only to be frustrated that it only had a few articles of interest? Did you ever think you could make a better one? Well, fear not my faithful minions; Google is going to give you that chance. That’s right, your very own publication. You can choose the topics, choose all the content and even pick which advertisements (or none at all) that are in your on-demand point-of-sale printed ‘personalized publication’. That’s right my fine peeps… now you can be the editor in chief.

In case you didn’t notice, I tend to cover SEO and Internet Marketing around here, not publishing and related advertising. There was a patent that came out from the good ship Google yesterday that I simply couldn’t pass up. It is a system that allows you to create your own magazine or eZine, depending on your preference; and if I do say so myself, that is pretty freaking interesting.

The Details; Customization of Content and Advertisements in Publications

The system revolves around document processing, and, more interestingly, the customization/personalization of content and advertisements in various publication formats; e.g., print form (e.g., newspapers, magazines, books, etc.), electronic form (e.g., electronic newspapers, electronic books ("e-Books"), electronic magazines.

I don’t want your business! Really, it’s true... That is something I have said, not in so few words, to many prospects that come to me for SEO (and other) services. Truth be told, I probably turn away some 90+% of the projects that trickle in. Am I having some sort of an adverse reaction to more 000’s in my bank account? Have I finally flipped out from being a rant-o-holic? No - on all counts; You see, I have long been a proponent of the 80/20 rule, which for our purposes we’ll state as ‘20%  of your clients are responsible for 80% of your grief’. A liberal interpretation, but I am sure Pareto won’t mind.

What is important to get digested, is that you can lose a vast amount of time dealing with those ‘clients from Hell’ and other less than palatable situations. This can be cured through simple diligence and pre-qualifying of potential donors (to my bank account that is).

When it comes to qualifying clients you are trying to establish the best scenarios in which you have the highest likelihood of not only being profitable, but being successful. By that I mean leaving behind a legacy to be proud of, a client gleaming with joy for having known you and a website that purrs like a kitten snuggled up to a warm bowl of milk.   

There can be a variety of reasons that a prospective SEO client is shown the door;

I came across a post about some recent Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (or SEMPO) data released from their "State of Search Engine Marketing" survey over at Search Engine Land. I thought I post some quick hits – and thoughts – for ya’ll to ponder.

The survey focused on ‘spending trends on paid placement, paid inclusion, organic search engine optimization (SEO) and SEM’ with North American advertisers. North America still represents the majority of search marketing spent in the Global marketplace.

Apparently Search Marketing continues to erode traditional marketing channels – obviously offline marketing taking the biggest hit. Unfortunately for the freelance or small SEO provider, much of that increase is being spent on ‘in-house’ staffing than it is on outsourced. This means some potential tightening up and consolidation within the SEO industry itself.

Just in time for Valentines

Well I haven’t made mention of the bed fellows in the form of Google and MySpace in a while, seems the Utube happenings were more interesting. Anyways, it seems that the landmark search deal struck last year – never really got ‘done’. While hammering out the details - they had a minimum $900 Million (cough cough..2001 again?) shared revenue deal over the next three years – some one got cold feet. 

In short, MySpace wants the right to negotiate any other 3rd party deals as they see fit. And why not, outside of the afore-mentioned 900 Million reasons of course. I am sure that would have been fine with their new beau – if it was ANYONE but eBay. Which of course is exactly who MySpace would like to be her.. tennis instructor if U will; a nasty love triangle is taking shape.

A troubled Web we weave

You see, from where I am sitting at least, with Google trying to crack the payment processor market, the last folks they want to help is PayPal, who’s parent company just so happens to be ---- you guessed it – eBay.