The end of the year is marked by many events: time off work, over-eating, festivities, spending time with friends and families and data anomalies.

If you’re currently in the “slow zone” between Christmas and New Year, then chances are that you’ve been looking at your Google AdWords account and/or web server logs.

Doing so might have left you puzzled. Even more than usual.

All AdWords accounts and web servers see very clear seven-day cycles, and most will also see assorted seasonal trends.

Many websites will have consequently seen a drop in traffic over the last week, and may now be seeing a sudden surge of visitors. Yet for many, the quality of the new visitors is low.

Why? Because a lot of people are in the “no-real-work” zone right now, and it’s a lot easier to click on ads and explore websites than do any real work. That can wait until the New Year.

If you’re seeing any such trends, don’t lose any sleep over it. It’ll be business as usual by next week. See you in 2009.

Even the most enthusiastic of online marketers need some time-off.

From myself, Aaron, Karin & Michael, I’d like to wish all of you a happy, healthy and restful holiday. I hope you manage to get away from your desks and PCs, and spend some quality time with family and friends.

See you next week… yes it’s brief, but better than nothing!

MediaPost’s SearchInsider has an interesting article outlining three four reasons not to touch PPC with a bargepole.

1. “There’s no faster, easier way to lose money”.

I don’t agree. I think that not engaging in PPC (or any other form of marketing) and missing out on potentially vast sources of targeted traffic and sales could be a far easier and faster way to lose money. I suppose burning it might be faster?

By the writer’s logic, driving a car has to be one of the most dangerous and high-risk activities that can be legally undertaken today. Obviously this has nothing to do with the person driving.

2. “Dabbling in search is dangerous”.

Sticking with what you know best is safer. Expanding a business is positively foolhardy.

3. “There’s very little low-hanging fruit left.”

I confess that my knowledge of fruit-picking history is somewhat dated, but surely it’s been a long time since we only ate the fruit we could reach? The ladder has been around for some time now.

The author also points out that “ PPC search is difficult, daunting, complex, and expensive”. So is dental surgery and accountancy. I can’t perform either, but I know some people who can…

What really grates me, however, isn’t just the over-simplification, the ignorance or the questionable judgement in giving such potentially damaging advice. It’s the attitude of “…well it didn’t work for me, so you shouldn’t do it either”.

Is Google AdWords for everyone? Absolutely not. Will it always work? No, not always.

But most companies who either take the time to learn the system or outsource to a qualified agency will soon see that Google AdWords is a phenomenally effective source of qualified visitors and sales. Dismiss it at your peril and loss.

Oh and there is no number four. I was going to add something along the lines of the end of the world approaching, but there are limits as to how much sarcasm should be squeezed into one post.

Common-sense is usually a good rule of thumb when it comes to all things related to Google AdWords, and the AdWords Agency Blog has official confirmation on what I’ve long suspected:

“A few bad days of test performance will not ruin your Quality Scores. If you find that the changes you’ve made don’t perform well after a few days, you can revise your experiment or delete those changes and the short term impact on your Quality Score will soon be outweighed by the positive performance you have accrued in the rest of your client’s account.”

In other words: feel free to experiment, and don’t worry too much about the potential damage that may be caused.

Effective Google AdWords management involves a great deal of experimentation. Even though your company’s agenda will often differ from Google’s, you both have much to gain by tweaking, experimenting, monitoring and improving your keywords and ads.

Microsoft announced that it has moved back the final availability date for their XP operating system to May 31, 2009.  The last date on which PC builders and distributors could sell machines with XP was originally set for July 31, 2009, then pushed back until January 31, 2009, and it has now been extended until May 31, 2009.

The extension is undoubtedly an answer to the highly unfavorable consumer response to Windows Vista. Due to a myriad of problems with Vista, many PC owners have chosen to stay with XP rather than risk “upgrading” to Vista.

With Windows 7 set to be released sometime in early 2010, the extension of XP’s availability might signal that Microsoft is beginning to give up on Vista and searching for stop-gap solutions to stem the bleeding until Windows 7 hits the shelves.

Good news for the software industry: prison for pirating software:

“Three defendants were sentenced to prison today for their roles in an online copyright infringement scheme involving the sale of counterfeit software worth $2.5 million, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton for the Western District of Texas announced.
…
The court also ordered the forfeiture of the Web site domain names – “valuesoftwaresales.com,” “allsoftwaredownload.com,” “esoftwarevalue.com” and “priceslashsoftware.com” – used in the sale of pirated software.” – backgroundnow.com

I always cringe when I read other people’s predictions for the following year, and have never understood why putting yourself on the line is so appealing to so many. But this year I’m overwhelmed by a desire to join the masses, so why resist?

The following, in no particular order, are my predictions for 2009:

1. The Economy – it’s going to get a lot worse before it even starts to get better. Hence the importance of Marketing During a Recession. My prediction within a prediction is that this time next year, many will be forecasting “the beginning of the end” of the recession. Frightening times.
2. Global mobility – data is going to begin breaking free of local hard-drives or NAS devices. When users start to realise that they can access the same data on their desktops, laptops, smartphones etc. they’re going to be looking for tools that can take advantage of this. Microsoft Groove, Windows Live Mesh, Cloud Computing and friends are only the start of things to come.
3. Friendly licensing – we all know that users don’t own software, they merely purchase the right to use it. As the recession deepens and businesses and consumers start cutting back on budgets, renting software might become a lot more appealing. The software companies with the foresight to build the bandwaggon will benefit the most.
4. The UK will be cold, dark, wet and windy for almost the whole year.

Have a happy, successful and healthy new year.

It’s that time of year again. We’re being inundated with “The X top ways to Y your Z” and “The X top Y’s of 2008″. You know the sort of thing.

Yet SearchEngineGuide’s 4 Tips to Improving Your Site’s Ability to Sell, Sell, Sell is actually worth a read.

Stoney deGeyter lists 10 examples of hurdles to sales, and four practical suggestions for knocking them on the head.

Are the ideas revolutinary? Not at all. But most websites would do well to implement them.

Maybe it’s time to add them to your New Year’s Resolution list?

Google have released AdWords Editor 7.0, as detailed in our Google AdWords News.

Two questions spring to mind.

Firstly, why the major version numbering? There’s nothing particularly new or ground-breaking, so why wasn’t this merely version 6.6? Could it be that some major new features were pulled before release?

Secondly, why so quietly? I haven’t seen a single announcement, unlike earlier releases. One explanation might be that Google learned from their last release. Version 6.5 caused a lot of problems for a lot of people, and Google were forced to issue an update only a few weeks later.

Is quality control the reason for all the above?

“An often overlooked fact is that there is no such thing as a “standard” recession; each have demonstrated individual characteristics and patterns. One thing, however, is certain. The recession will be bad for most businesses.

Yet some will not only maintain their existing levels of growth and sales, but will actually prosper despite the economic climate.

So what sets these firms apart from their less-fortunate siblings? One factor is their marketing strategies, capabilities and budgets.”

Marketing during a recession