I thought this was quite interesting and is a good example of how much google has diversified since its humble beginnings as a basic search engine. With yet another offering, which isnt even in alpha or beta stage yet (why IS gmail still in beta?), Google has christened the service "Google Voice Local Search" or "Google 411"  as it may come to be known.

Google describes the service with the phrase "Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone."

Currently available in the US only and using the same information database as google maps, it is a free service that is accessed by calling 800-GOOG-411. At present there is no advertising on the service but it is likely to add this in the future or there will be no way to make revenue from the service.

The fully automated system uses voice recognition software to process your queries, which will most likely cause some problems for some users, and can both read your results back or/and send them to your celular phone via sms.You can search for an exact business name or within a category after having told the system the location you wish to search.

This could certainly become a popular alternative to regular 411 enquiry service that introduced charges some years ago in teh US and if implemented in the UK will surely do well also.

Google worlds dominations edges a little further forward and with google 411 you dont even need a computer.

Googles Voice Local Search 

Google announced recently that they will be offering Pay Per Action (PPA) advertising in addition to their well established Pay Per Click (PPC) program.Currently in beta, and only available to US based subscribers, will this new program make huge waves in the affiliate advertising community?

What Is Pay Per Action? 

The google adwords (for advertisers) and adsense (for publishers) programs currently charge/pay each time a advertisement is clicked on by a user and this is open to abuse by fraudster publishers clicking on their own adverts or using automated clickbots to gain revenue. Google is very aware of this and some industry insiders quote figures of 10 to 30% of all clicks could be considered fraudulent.This is alot of profit for the fraudsters and a huge cost for advertisers even if only a small percentage of this is undetected. Dispite the click fraud problem the advertising model works well and continues to attract both advertisers and publishers.

Why Launch PPA? 

So why is google launching a new PPA product if the PPC click is working so well? Will it eventully move away from the PPC model that redefined online advertising and offer just PPA advertising? Most likely it will wait and see how the markets change before making any decisions. Are advertisers concerned enough about click fraud to jump ship altogether or will they see PPA as an addition rather than a replacement? Most likely both will remain side by side although I expect many advertisers to move away from PPC to PPA.

For some advertisers the PPA action model will definately be a better option. Online retailers will benefit as they can run a campaign that they will only pay fees whenever they make a sale of a product or service so they are guaranteed to make profit or not pay any advertising fees if they get no conversions. It eliminates the risk for retailers and will probably attract new customers that have previously stayed away from PPC which can be costly and ineffective if the conversions are low. Retailers that sell low value products and services though may be forced to remain with PPC as PPA might cost more than their profit margins as compitition for keywords pushes prices up.

For google however there isnt really much risk launching PPA. It will most likely attract some new customers and if customers leave PPC to use PPA then they have kept those customers happy by offering them another option and maybe retaining customers they would have lost to other affiliate schemes. Its one more string to googles bow. 

How will this effect adsense publishers and will it mean reduced revenue?

The PPA adverts will be shown ONLY on the content network and not the search network so this will amplify any effect in this area. The PPA program isnt exactly a new model and is basically the same as most affiliate programs that only pay for purchases or signups (more…)

End of week two and although I havent had as much time this week to work on the blog my earnings are really starting to take off. This was a bit of a surprise as I thought it would take some weeks to get to this point and I just hope I can maintain this level.

EARNINGS : WEEK 2

   CLICKBOOTH - 152.00 US$ - I love this affiliate!
   FRIENDFINDER - 14.00 US$
   ADSENSE - 0.00 US$
   FAIRYTALE PTR - 1.42 US$
   NILECASH - 0.03 US$ -
   MYLOT - 0.00 US$

   TOTAL - 167.45 US$

The clear reason for the earnings is the affiliate program CLICKBOOTH which earned me money from the blockbuster advertising and from the affiliate sign up program which both pay very well indeed. Considering I still have low traffic the earnings from this have been outstanding and I am very excited about the future prospects. I cannot recommend this program highly enough - do yourself (and me!) a favour and signup here for the best paying affiliate program out there. I will be trying out some other ads from clickbooth to see how they perfrom. There are many programs to chose from and I hope they earn aswell as the ones ive tried so far.

The Friendfinder network is still paying well and I would have been happy with just these earnings for a second week but clearly they have been outshined by clickbooth. I will still be promoting this as I feel the program earnings will keep rising and provide a steady income.

Traffic has increased but is still low and needs alot of work but my Alexa ranking did climb by millions from 5,450,998 to 1,116,789 - lets hope it climbs by this percentage each week! 

Overall Im very happy and have high hopes for earning money online - maybe I can even make a living from this sooner than I thought.

I will be trying to get more content posted this next week and work on getting more traffic (I still have directories to sign up with ….boring).

If anyone wants a link exchange please let me know!

Ive just spent a frustrating morning trying to get Ebays Turbolister 2.0 working properly again and have still not succeeded. I dont understand why Ebay with its millions (or is that billions?) of dollars profit each year (more than many countries GDP), cannot employ some decent programmers to produce a stable piece of software for bulk upload management.Turbolister 2 looks and performs like its been written by complete amateurs. I would be happy to pay a few dollars for a quality product (and so would thousands of other users) even though I do think its ebays duty to provide us with such a product for free.

Im not the only disgruntled ebayer, the forums are riddled with complaints about bugs that randomly appear. My issue is a common one. When I try to upload any auctions I get an error saying ’system cannot find the file specified’. Ive read countless different fixes , none of which have worked for me this time (but some that have worked in the past). Its so buggy and right now I cant upload the auctions I require and I will probably lose some sales because of it as some items are things requested by customers.  

Come on Ebay - get your act together and show you actually care about your users - if you do.

(This is not a crappy April fools joke - least I hope its not one from ebay cos Im not laughing.)