Myspace for Yahoo!

Written by Pablo Palatnik on June 20, 2007

The Times has just announced a stunning rumor (at least it is for now and I hope it stays that way), News Corp., which owns Myspace, offered Yahoo! their social networking monster, Myspace, for a 25% steak in Yahoo!

The Times reports that these two companies have been in talks before Terry Semel stepped down as CEO yesterday. This would be a huge deal for News Corp. Myspace is nowhere near traffic wise than Myspace and a 25% steak in Yahoo would equal to $12.3 billion dollars as Yahoo! is estimated to be worth $37 billion dollars at the moment.

News Corp. bought Myspace in the summer of 2005 for $580 million dollars. $12.3 billion after 2 years? A good return on investment for News Corp?…I don’t have to answer that.

I completely oppose the idea of News Corp, Foxs’ parent company as well, having such control of the second largest used search engine. I really ask myself, is Yahoo really doing that bad? 25% of the engine for Myspace? Even with the swap, News Corp. will still have somewhat control of Myspace since it will have a 25% share of Yahoo!.

Great Deal for News Corp if they pull this one.

We’ll see how this one plays out.

Is Google The Affiliates Worst Nightmare?

Written by Pablo Palatnik on June 19, 2007

It wasn’t too long ago (in internet marketing years I guess it is) that affiliates, at least a lot more than there are today, had great success just advertising in Google. The process was way more simple than it is today…that is until the almighty quality score came to play into the GOOG.

Even though the rest of the players followed into making their own algorithm changes in paid search quality score, Google is making an art of cutting affiliates out of the picture. I’m not saying affiliate marketing is dead in Google, but if you are just starting out, you’d better know exactly how to comply with Google’s quality score criteria if you want to have a reasonable bid price on keywords. Even than, as of last weeks quality score change and implementation by Google left many in the dark not knowing why some of their best compliant and converting keywords became inactive or their bid price was raised to $5 or $10 minimums.

Aaron Wall from SEOBook believes it’s Google favoring big brands and states, “As soon as enough brand advertisers find your space you are no longer needed.” Wall continues…”Thanks for sharing the keyword data needed to tell the brands what to bid on, and best of luck getting traffic from somewhere else.”

Yahoo! Changes its Focus, Now its CEO

Written by Pablo Palatnik on June 18, 2007

Not long after a press release of Yahoo’s change in ideology for its future and mission of its company, its CEO steps down.

Now former CEO Terry Semel steps down and co-founder Jerry Yang replaces him. Semel still remains with the company as non-executive chairman. Susan Decker has been named president.

Good move, bad move? I think that is an opinion that is really up to ones point of view, but looking it at it from a competitive point of view against its biggest rival, Google, they keep requiring major changes to pull closer.

What did Semel say? “The Board and I have long talked about the importance of ensuring a smooth succession in Yahoo!’s senior leadership — and more recently, about the need for a leadership team committed to carrying Yahoo! through its multi-year transformation. As we discussed my future goals and plans, I was clear in telling the Board of my desire to take a step back sooner rather than later. I believe Jerry and Sue, with their superb talents and intense dedication to Yahoo! and its people, are the perfect combination to carry us forward. This is the time for new executive leadership, with different skills and strengths, to step in and drive the company to realize its full potential — it is the right thing to do, and the right time is now.”

Semel continued, “Jerry and Sue will make an unbeatable team. Jerry has long been recognized as an Internet visionary. His incredible experience and close involvement since founding the company 12 years ago have given him tremendous strategic, technical and industry insight as well as unparalleled knowledge and understanding of Yahoo! and its great potential. We are equally fortunate to have Sue Decker, one of the most talented executives in the industry, as our new President. Sue has played a broad and important role in driving our strategy over the years, and has shown even greater skills and leadership with the success she’s had in taking on more operating responsibilities. Both Jerry and Sue have been great partners to me and I am looking forward to collaborating with and supporting them both, as well as the Board, in any way that I can as Chairman. I’m proud of all that we’ve accomplished over the past six years during this exciting, still early stage of the Internet’s development, and my single goal is to ensure that Yahoo! achieves its full potential.”

Throughout the day, its stock was steady, and news actually gave it a push:

After Hours Market Price: After Hours: 29.36 1.24 (4.41%) as of 7:39PM ET on 06/18/07

Want more on this story?

Yahoo’s Terry Semel Steps Down As CEO

Yahoo! Co-Founder Jerry Yang Named Chief Executive Officer

Jerry Yang Takes Over as Yahoo CEO

Yahoo! Buzz or Google Trends?

Written by Pablo Palatnik on June 18, 2007

I tend to look at two sites for daily, weekly, or monthly search trends. You’d be very surprised as how Yahoo! Buzz differs from Google Trends.

vs.

Both actually serve different purposes and can really help you in your campaigns or really spark good ideas as to where to move to find the next marketing opportunity.

Yahoo! Buzz gives you an overall picture of search trends. It’s more in tune with actual offline trends as well than Google Trends. For example, Last weeks top 5 for search in Yahoo! Buzz were: US Open, WWE, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Jessica Alba. Google Trends top 5 (for Saturday): Nick Cortez, UFC 72 Results, Penny Lancaster, The New Guy, and Grandmas Marathon. Now, which one do you actually think is more on point with actual search trends?

Google Trends seems to be driven much more by keywords than by topic and also by the exact day of the trend. Yahoo’s method of analyzing trends seems to be on a stock system, analyzing increase or decrease in search volume. Yahoo! Buzz organizes its list by keyword (topic) rank, previous rank, subject, days on chart (buzz chart) and a score which it has its system and explained, “A subject’s buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.”
Google Trends does have a great tool in its portfolio in the trends section to analyze the trend history for a keyword and related news of its search peaks.

These are two great resources to really analyze trends and give you ideas for your next online marketing opportunities to bank on.

So How Can I Make Some Money?
**Follow the trends and you can make MFA (made for adsense) websites on a trend that its keyword wont be to expensive.
**If you have a campaign that relates to any of the keywords on Google’s hot trends list, ADD THAT KEYWORD ASAP.