Geodelic’s Rahul Sonnad outperforms Google and Yelp

August 1st, 2010

picture-18.pngThe “best presentation I’ve head in 10 years” is how one person described it…..

At the AlwaysOn Conference, the audience were treated to a very entertaining pitch given by Rahul Sonnad, CEO & Founder of Geodelic. As you’ll see when you watch this musical riff of the journey of Geodelic vis-a-vis Facebook, Google and Yahoo! - Rahul and Geodelic have a “technodelic” look and breaking new ground in combining brands to be consumed by mobile users in an entertaining way. Even Sergey Brin, founder of Google, is shown checking out the app.

View the Geodelic - Ukele Smashing Presentation Video.

I think you’ll find it infinitely entertaining than Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and John Hanke, a Google VP of Product Management when they were on stage at Social Currency CrunchUp last week - http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/30/google-yelp-war/

Maybe Google & Yelp should start singing from the Geodelic song book !

Leave Google Alone, infinitely better business than Facebook

July 30th, 2010

I just posted this comment on http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/29/google-the-search-partpicture-38.pngy-is-over/

Journalists should not make the mistake that Facebook is a better business than Google.

I really believe Google can increase revenues by partnering with SearchForecast to become/facilitate a marketplace to buy/sell the millions of publishers you send checks to each month. The engine room of Google is their AdSense Publishers who contributed 30+% of their revenues. This global ecosystem of publishers is the long tail which helped built Google’s dominance in the past 6 years and is a strategic asset. SearchForecast can help leverage these publishers. This is why we launched http://marketplace.searchforecast.com - where AdSense Publishers can sell/buy their websites.

It’s not just Google who need a future vision, it’s the publishers who need new management. To do this, many need to sell their websites and online businesses and have new people embrace their online business with new vigor and ideas.

SearchForecast de-anonymizes URLs in Google’s Content Network with disruptive technology

July 29th, 2010

I’ve been updating the senior management of the major ad networks today that SearchForecast has been “de-anonymizing” the anonymous URLs Google show on their ‘placement targeting’ within Adwords for advertisers who spend money on their Content Network.

As pictured here, we are providing to media buyers and advertisers a list of URLs which we believe are those URLs which Google run the ads on across their Content Display Network and 3rd party networks via the exchanges.

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For those technically minded, our “de-anonymizing” process includes the following:

1. The first method is to basically match the numbers in the PubID string. So if for example the Pub ID is 5ca654dd9821cb84, we check for the following sequence numbers in our adsense database:

1.       654 – how many id’s match this number
2.       9821 – how many id’s match this number
3.       84 – how many id’s contain this number
4.       654 and 9821 – how many id’s contain 654 and 9821
5.       654 and 84 – how many id’s contain 654 and 84
6.       9821 and 84 – how many id’s contain both these combinations
7.       654, 9821 & 84 – how many id’s contain all of these combinations

2.       The second method is to use a standard bit encryption on our database of adsense id’s. So for example if the id is 654981, we run an encryption code sequence of 16 bit upon it. This gives us a alphanumeric character string of 16 characters. We then use the same code we used in the above example to run a combination.

3.       The third method is to do the same with an advanced bit encryption sequence
4.       Fourth method is to use an proprietary encryption sequence.

The simple fact is that advertisers are spending with Google and don’t know where their dollars are being spent. Lack of transparency leads to market inefficiency affecting advertisers and agencies. Advertisers and large media buyers are welcome to contact us for further information on how we can provide more transparency when advertising across the Google Content Network.

How do I sell iPhone Apps on SearchForecast Marketplace?

July 21st, 2010

With billions of iPhone apps downloaded and iphone app developers largely relying on word of mouth or the AppStore to list them in the Top 100, there is a massive supply of iPhone apps which need liquidity. SearchForecast’s marketplace to sell iphone app, aims to help solve that problem by allowing app developers to list their apps and facilitate an auction process.

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Live call recording of AdSense publisher outreach

July 19th, 2010

picture-13.pngAt SearchForecast, we make hundreds of phone calls each week for our adnetwork clients. After qualifying their websites from within the AdSense Directory, our internal sales team call the publishers.

Listen to a Live Call Recording with an AdSense Publisher.

Insight #1: Publishers are very polite, require little information to determine whether they are interested in learning more.

Insight #2: Publishers want to earn more money and are not contacted by large adnetworks by telephone. Give up the online marketing techniques and call them!

Selling Profitable Websites, Tips for Buying Websites

July 10th, 2010

picture-65.png“Buy low, sell high” is long associated with buying stocks and property but when buying a website, its important to focus on buying websites at auction that are atleast 1 year old, have at least 6 months of stable revenues and importantly has not moved hosting servers. When SearchForecast optimizes websites, we are very aware that the host IP address is an important part of the optimization equation.

We suggest people buying a website or those selling a profitable website, consider reviewing our list of website buying tips briefs as these hold insights into how to improve a website once you’ve purchased it but to also understand if the website has inherent SEO value. 

Buy & Sell AdSense Websites on SearchForecast Marketplace

July 2nd, 2010

Yesterday, we launched the SearchForecast Marketplace allowing publishers - NOT domain names - to be bought and sold. Many AdSense publishers have built recurring revenue stream online businesses and are ready to sell their asset. Many buyers are looking to inject new ideas, enthusiasm and web 2.0 ideas into websites that have reached a point where the owners want to sell. It’s an inflection point in the evolution of contextual publishing.

Over lunch in West Hollywood in Los Angeles today with Eytan Elbaz, one of the original founders of Applied Semantics which invented AdSense, we spoke about the empowerment AdSense gave to global publishers, how those monthly AdSense checks have enriched their lives and bring hope, understanding and help people learn about new cultures.

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We built the Marketplace so AdSense Publishers can realize their dream, capitalize on their entrepreneuralism and hard work with a pay day. We hope to attract buyers that aspire to joining the online publishing phenomena of passive monetization and bring new ideas to continue the growth of this industry.

Millions of people have worked very hard to build their websites - not speculated in domains - and have labored daily to build valuable traffic. The SearchForecast Marketplace is  another way we are embracing the publisher community and bring together people from around the world to learn, share and trade their websites. It’s a project for the publishers and we hope you all embrace and benefit from it…..

YieldBuild offers AdSense Publishers Higher Payouts

June 4th, 2010

pdap_300_250.gifYieldBuild offer publishers a terrific adjunct to AdSense as they draw ads from top network and agency network sources (like AOL’s Advertising.com and Traffic Marketplace) and do an exceptional job at filling publishers 300×250, 160×600 and 720×90 inventory. SearchForecast works with YieldBuild to help identify and qualify relevant publishers for their unique programs.

Here are a few examples from our publishers to show what I mean:

* A gaming reviews site gets $0.38 eCPM per ad unit via AdSense. Then an additional $0.59 eCPM per ad unit via Yieldbuild’s service.
* A music site gets $0.09 eCPM per ad unit via AdSense. Then an additional $0.67 eCPM per ad unit via Yieldbuild’s service.

This is another way that we are bringing publishers a better deal and helping them make more money. We’ve known the YieldBuild team, led by Paul Edmonson, from their HubPages days - so they are practitioners who know their stuff!  Sign up today for YieldBuild.

Is AdSense Placements to AdWords 
Good for You?

May 27th, 2010

images1.jpgHere at SearchForecast we are providing adnetworks and adbuyers with a simpler way to find AdSense Publishers than using the newly launched Export to AdWords feature which Google launched this week.

Whereas Google enables advertisers to export Google Content Network placements from Ad Planner into AdWords, SearchForecast works with our clients to hand-pick these from our AdSense Directory.

Compare fast-food to Mom’s home cooking! Whilst fast-food might be quick and taste good, the care and quality of a home cooked meal is ultimately healthier and better for you!

We all know there is very little convenience - or relevancy - for advertisers running text ads or display ads on the Google Content Network. SearchForecast provides a quality service that pinpoints keywords on publisher pages, identifies publishers that are often anonymized in the Content Network reporting and ensures our clients have an alternative to Google when selecting publishers and advertisers.

AOL explores new publisher universes and keyword galaxies with SearchForecast

May 18th, 2010

Eachhs-2005-28-f-full_jpg.jpg month, SearchForecast finds new AdSense Publishers. It is true,  “the universe of expanding”… much like the Hubble Telescope, our crawler is discovering new publishers every day which run Google Adsense.

Having read that surveys indicate 50% of the world’s population want to write a book, with blog technology and contextual advertising, billions of people can become publishers, monetizing their content with advertising. So what does this mean for the universe of publishers? images-1.jpg

Working with AOL, we’ve been able to reach deeper inside the publisher universe and find new publishers that we may not have previously been able to find. Being able to provide publishers with alternatives like Advertising.com is helping breathe new life (and money) into this ever expanding universe of publishers.