Google offers $1,000 credits for newspaper print ads

Google is offering AdWords publishers credits of up to $1,000 for trying out Google Print Ads, a new extension of Google AdWords that appear in U.S. newspapers.

In AdWords accounts, Google has added a "Print Ads" tab where publishers can choose from over 200 daily newspapers, ranging from small local papers to nationwide papers. Advertisers set their own price, upload their ads, and manage multiple campaigns in one interface.

Google makes about 95 percent of its earnings from Internet ads, but has been quietly testing the waters with print ads for two years.

The credits were offered in e-mails sent July 19 to existing AdWords accounts. If advertisers publish a newspaper ad by August 31, they receive a credit of $500. If the advertiser uses a participating ad creation specialist, they receive a $1,000 credit.

Here's a demo of Google Print Ads.

All credits will be applied to Google Print Ads account within 30 days of the end of the promotion on August 31, 2007. Since advertisers will receive the promotional credit after they've been charged for the newspaper ads, the $500 or $1,000 credit will be applied toward future costs.
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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Internet publishing requires more than a strategy, Cader says

The Internet changes so rapidly, publishers can't stick with a single strategy, but must experiment constantly, says digital publishing guru Michael Cader.

Cader recently urged all publishers to participate in Internet marketing programs such as Google Book Search and Microsoft Live Book Search. The comments came during a conference call hosted by the Copyright Clearance Center, archived as a recording and a transcript.

An excerpt:

[T]here’s a notion, whether it’s with the Internet or e-books or any other digital element, that you [must] have a strategy. That you do some research, you come up with an idea, and you stick with it. That’s not the way the electronic Internet culture works now.

The only operating rule of doing something electronically is that you change all the time. You can't come up with one strategy and stay fixed, because the nature of the medium and the nature of those using the medium changes all the time. The technologies change all the time. It’s designed for experimentation.

And the other good thing it’s designed for is tracking. You get more statistics, and more measurable, observable real-time information than you can get anywhere else. So I also feel strongly that to take most advantage of a proper digital/Web strategy is to be open to experimentation and to watch carefully, to use it as a way of trying different things, and understanding that you need to be flexible and you need to keep changing.

Google Book Seach doesn't cannibalize sales, Cader says

Many book publishers see Google as a content pirate, but those who want to survive can no longer avoid partnerships with the search giant, according to publishing guru Michael Cader.

To remain competitive, publishers must allow readers to sample pages of their book for free via Google's Book Search and similar services, said Michael Cader, founder of Publishers Marketplace and publisher of its daily newsletter "Publishers Lunch."

"Some publishers are nervous, but all the evidence -- anecdotal and hard -- is that nobody has lost sales due to people reading some samples of a book for free online," Cader said. "I strongly believe that anybody who's not at least experimenting is missing out on an opportunity and risks making themselves irrelevant."

Google Book Search has been highly controversial among publishers. The Authors Guild of America and Association of American Publishers have each sued Google claiming "massive copyright infringement." Google, however, maintains that its service is "fair use," since users can only view 20 percent of a book's content.

Not only should publishers be participating with Google Book Search, but should also be participating with Microsoft's new book search initiative, Live Books Search," Cader said.

Nowadays Google and the Web is "the place where people turn for information, whether the people in publishing like it or not," said Cader, who was speaking on a conference call Thursday afternoon conducted by the Copyright Clearance Center.

In the unlikely event that display of sample book pages cannibalize sales, publishers could simply take the material down from the Google or Microsoft services, Cader said.

Google adds new Book Search features, interface

Google upgraded the "About this book" page on its Book Search service. It now includes hyperlinked Table of Content headings, previews of sample pages, and a list of related books.

More from Google:

Next, we designed a new browsing interface. You can simply scroll through the pages, or, for full view books, view them in two-page mode and flip through just like a book. You can zoom in, switch to full screen, and jump directly to the chapters that interest you. If the book is part of the public domain, you can comfortably read it on screen or download it if you prefer. For an in-copyright book, just follow the links to buy it or to find it in a library.

Q&A: How does your domain registration impact Search Engine Optimization on your author site?

QUESTION: I've heard that the length of your domain registration can effect how well you show up in search results. Is this something I need to worry about with an author Web site?

ANSWER: It's hard to find concrete evidence on this, but I think you're right, the length of your domain registration can have a big impact on your search engine optimization (SEO). And of course that directly impacts how many people find your site and end up buying your book.

Many factors influencing how much juice your Web site has in search-engine results are outside your immediate control. For example, new domains -- those registered within the previous year -- are often shortchanged by search engines. One theory among experts, Google Sandbox, purportedly explains why new Web sites have a probationary period before they gain visibility.

Why would Google penalize new blogs and Web sites? Certainly a new site is just as likely to have valuable content as one that's been around a while. The answer, according to some experts is that it's the search engines' way of dealing with spam Web sites, which has been a growing problem in recent years. Fly-by-night companies erect Web sites using stolen content, and can make a bit of money with them until their Web host gets complaints about copyright violations and shuts down the site. So spammers only register their domain for the minimum, one year, since they know they won't be doing business there for very long. They don't want to pay registration fees for years in advance when they know they'll probably be closing up shop soon, involuntarily.

How can you take advantage of this? By letting Google and the other search engines know you're not fly-by-night. Instead of paying the minimum registration fees on your domain -- usually $9 per year for the following 12 months -- pay for 10 years in advance. It's an investment of $90, and it can worth a tremendous amount more. Google doesn't have an official policy about this, nor do the other search engines. But anecdotally, bloggers and Webmasters often report a huge increase in search-engine traffic a few weeks after extending their domain registration beyond one year in advance.

After hearing of this myself this past summer, I changed my domain registration on this site to expire nine years from now instead of during the next 12 months. Less than a month later, the traffic volume of folks coming here directly from Google search results went from approximately three people per day to about 85 people per day. Coincidence? I don't think so.

A new competitor for Amazon.com?

One of the overlooked bits of news to come out of last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was Google's suggestion that it would get into the online bookselling business.

The search company's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said inclusion in the store would depend on permission from copyright owners. Apparently the new initiative would be a premium version of Google Book Search, in which users would pay for downloading part or all of the books that publishers have approved for inclusion in Google's index.

Google has gotten lots of bad publicity from the Book Search initiative, but publishers interested in selling their content online haven't been shy about signing onto the program. And Google maintains that the program is all about preserving knowledge.

Meanwhile, Amazon.com has said it's already working on a similar program it calls "Amazon Pages."