Category: News & Trends

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The New Digg – The New Place To Be

I am watching the evolution of social bookmarking move from a link tool to a full fledged social platform. Digg is leading the charge with integration of new sharing and interaction features. You can check out my own Digg page and profile by visiting http://www.Digg.com/mccordweb.

I really like Digg’s new interface. I was able to update my profile and find new interesting articles to read and people to follow in a snap. Additionally I can see what is happening in my industry  in an overview from strong Digg placement rapidly. You can even tie in your blog, feed, Facebook and Twitter accounts to maximize interaction and exposure.

I use many tools to stay on top of what is happening in my industry – RSS feed subscription, forum reviews, Twitter Lists, and now Digg. I have to say I think Digg may end up being my most valuable tool from my early use of the application. Why? because it aggregates top new stories in my industries not just information from people who I have chosen to follow.

There is some terrific industry related content out there, but sometimes the hardest thing is to find out who to follow and to “dig” to uncover them. The new Digg makes it easy to see what is trending, I think, in an easier way than even Twitter hash tags.

Check out the new Digg for yourself and make sure to follow me at mccordweb and I will follow you if you leave your Digg profile name in my comments below.

See you on the new Digg! P.S. I am not being paid for this review, just think the new Digg is a totally cool new application to use.

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McCord Web Services Becomes a Google AdWords Certified Partner

McCord Web Services is a Google AdWords Certified Partner
McCord Web Services is a Google AdWords Certified Partner

Just this last week I finished taking the last of two Google AdWords certification tests. This is my fourth test since I became a Google AdWords Qualified Professional. This time however passing the test allowed me to certify my business as a Google AdWords Certified Partner. That’s big news!

Not only am I a Google AdWords Certified Individual, but now my company has met the criteria of management of ad spend to qualify as well. A Google AdWords Certification is hard. I know, I have studied countless hours in addition to my regular work load. Over the years I have seen the tests become easier and then harder.

The very first Google AdWords certification test was killer, the second one two years later was totally watered down to allow more managers to be part of the AdWords program, the third exam two years later was tougher, and this last two part exam in the new AdWords Certification program was really tough.

What this means is that fewer people will pass to become certified and so the title Google AdWords Certified Individual or Google AdWords Certified Partner now actually means something – that your account manager is proficient not only in Google jargon and what Google thinks is important about AdWords, but effective in real account management scenarios in case study type questions that are like real world account issues.

If you are looking for a Google AdWords Certified consultant or account manager, I invite you to visit our website to learn more about our Google AdWords account management programs.

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PayPal Changes Fees for Recurring Billing Use

PayPal cannot seem to figure out what to do with their new recurring billing service. At first they said it was like setting up a subscription but with a separate control panel and greater payment control you and the client shared and that in January 2011 you would only pay $19.99 a month to have the service.

However, clearly this has changed as just this last month they decided that to get recurring billing you had to have web payment pro or virtual terminal set up in your account which is a $30 per month fee plus then the $19.99 billing on top of that monthly starting 1/1/11 for the recurring billing option. That’s a whooping $49.99 a month to use recurring billing. Talk about a changeroo! I had to phone PayPal to get the $30 removed from my account and am now no longer offering recurring billing as an option to customers.

Additionally, when they set up the recurring billing in my account they moved all my subscription customers who pay a set fee monthly into the recurring billing control panel. When I asked for the $30 credit they deleted all my subscriptions!

Hey, I thought subscriptions were different from recurring billing and recurring billing was only $19.99 a month. So what gives PayPal? As for me this is just way too expensive of a monthly fee for me to use the service for just a few customers so I am going back to the free subscription set up. Too bad as I did think recurring billing from PayPal was a really good idea.

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Getting Banned on Reddit!

Wow, Reddit is tough! If they don’t like your content or you don’t get enough article views, just plan on getting your account closed, all your links dropped, and your user account banned. All without letting you know anything short of “we don’t like the quality of the content you are linking to.” In my case, the content was in real estate!

What I have found is that Reddit will not like you if you are using their service to create backlinks to content that although may be unique is not catchy, trendy, or from their view point newsworthy.

Although Reddit has a Google PageRank of 8 and does allow dofollow links, be very careful what you ad. You can identify if they are targeting to drop you by the note that says you are adding too many links when you are simply adding three links a week. Additionally they will display a note you are adding links too fast add this link in one hour. Hey, the last time I added a link was Monday and it is now Wednesday, how is that too fast?

Well enough on my rant on Reddit. Just be cautious what you add is your very best quality and you may want to consider not using this service for clients where you can’t control content.