scribd

Not sure if this was mentioned before but I just stumbled upon scribd, a document sharing site. I was looking on information on fudge factors for Vasicek trees (speak - fixed income stuff ;-) and found a whole host of docs! sign-up was free and I downloaded 10 really nice and intense academic papers (on yield-curve dynamics, multi-factor models etc. :-)

Selling on Amazon

I recently looked at my bookshelf and realized the amount of books I have collected during the past 18 months. As I am going to relocate to Hong Kong after the MBA, I wanted to purge my collection of those books that I either did not like or would not read again.
My first instinct was ebay, but I then remembered that you can sell used books on Amazon. So I set up my account (5 min) and entered the two books I wanted to sell. One of them (What color is your parachute) was the 2008 edition so I set the price quite low (the 2009 edition is already out.)
Within 20 minutes (!) I received an email that the book had been sold. Back to the amazon webpage and I found a link to a complete order delivery slip. I just needed to print it, cut out the address and stick it on the box I used to send the book. The rest of the order slip I put into the box with the book. Off to the post office and the first sale was complete.
This was (obviously on a small scale) a good example of how amazon is levering its database, reach, supply-chain experience and organisation to establish a second-hand marketplace. And with the powerful voting mechanism in place the risk of abuse is minimized as well.
Very impressive!
Don

Google reports and statistics, anyone?

It is really strange. Until yesterday all our ads had similar CTRs. Now only one group generates any CTRs. We looked into it and found that despite our average position being between 3.8 and 4.7, we did not have any clicks. BUT when actually searching for the leading keyword, our ads are only on the second page. So - why is the rank wrong?

The joy of adwords

Having started the google challenge I find the whole process highly interesting. It was really exciting to see the ad appear live! And the follow-up process of watching and refining is also great. We are suffering from low CTR rates right now but have started on variations and have created a more targeted placement strategy.
One question that came up from our client was - does google adwords affect the organic ranking? They found that their ranking had suffered (!) while the common question on the internet is whether the paid adwords actually improve the search ranking (more links to a site, more visitors).
The answer is no: the database and spiders/bots are different and even hosted differently. And the adwords links are not counted in pagerank.
The indirect effect is that if you optimize a page for adwords then this will also help your organic rank (naturally). But there is no direct effect.
Any other first-day revelations, findings, hints or tips?
Take care,
Don

The future of Apple?

For a slightly more financial perspective of Apple - the stock performance. So we have several concerns - attitude and product wise. And their products are premium products which people might not be willing to buy in a recession. While the stock performance can easily be attributed to the general market conditions, I think that part of the depressed levels can be attributed to a negative outlook for the company.

Books on SEO?

Hi all,

these three books all have good reviews - I just don't want to buy three books on the same topic. Any opinions?
Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day - Jennifer Grappone
Get into Bed with Google: Top Ranking Search Optimisation Techniques - Jon Smith;
Get to the Top on Google: Tips and Techniques to Get Your Site to the Top of Google and Stay There - David Viney;

Cheers,
Don

Fun

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