Besting Adwords

dnScoop is Broken

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:49:16 GMT

I've often used dnScoop to get a quick valuation on my domains and websites. Today, I checked one of my lesser domains (www.talk-sports.com) and found it's worth $12 million. That's just broken. It's worth at most $1000, most likely a lot less.

My Site is worth
$12,360,000

How much is
your site worth?

Signs of a Weak Economy

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:47:59 GMT

I'm noticing that some of my AdWords campaigns that have been running for months are getting more and more impressions of late. My immediate thought is that AdWords users are pulling their campaigns in response to the weakening U.S. economy. This is moving my own campaigns into better positions, more impressions and more clicks. I think you can also expect bad earnings news from Google in the coming months.

PayPay Resolution Center is Borked!

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:41:44 GMT

In the last couple weeks, I received three phony PayPal chargebacks. Here are some incidents.

I contacted the buyer for the first and he said it was a misunderstanding with PayPal. He told PayPal to allow the payment. PayPal sent me an email saying that the buyer asked to cancel the chargeback. A few days past and PayPal sent me a second email saying that the buyer asked to cancel the chargeback. A few more days and PayPal sent me a third email saying that the chargeback was reversed. A few more days and PayPal sent me a fourth email saying that the buyer claimed the merchandise was returned, reversed the reversal and fined me. A few more days and PayPal sent me a fifth email saying the reserval of the reversal was being reversed, as well as the fine.
The buyer of the other two cases was the same. I tried contacting them, but they ignored my emails. I then tried to resolve the case and ran into a bug that prevented me from doing anything with the case other than viewing it. I reported the bug and PayPal claimed they couldn't reproduce it because they didn't have access to my account. They told me to call a phone number for further assistance. I called the phone number and nobody could help me. I played hot potato with their clerks for 30 minutes before simply giving up.

I'm already looking at Google checkout as an alternative, but I'm not sure the devil I don't know will be any better.

AOL passes Yahoo!

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:02:15 GMT

My various websites get around a million search engine referrals per month. Of late, my referrals from Yahoo! have been falling. In fact, in the last 30 days, I've gotten more referrals from AOL than Yahoo! It's not that AOL is gaining marketshare. They are simply not losing as fast as Yahoo! And Google continues to gain marketshare lead. These are my own stats, which don't necessarily match the real world, but I suspect you'll find similar data from the more thorough sources.