According to Google, more than 25% of people who use the Internet play games online. Ever on the cutting edge, Google has marched out AdSense for Games, which integrates video, text, and image ads into the gaming experience. The company is working with developers such as Konami, Playfish, and Zynga.

According to the company’s announcement:

With this program, advertisers can now reach the growing number of gamers who are engaged in online play. For instance, in anticipation of a sporting event, an advertiser can use the technology of AdSense for Games to feature its logo within that sports event’s accompanying online game and reach its relevant demographic as a result.

AdSense for Games delivers video ads based on intended placements, as well as image or text ads based on contextual targeting with keywords and tags supplied by developers and publishers. Advertisers are charged on a cost-per-impression or cost-per-click basis, and ad revenue is split between Google and game developers or publishers.

For those Internet advertisers wanting to reach the gamer market, this development is certainly a leap forward.

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Although you have multiple opportunities when it comes to Internet advertising services, joint ventures should always be added to the mix. Of course, the planning, development, and execution of strategies for growing a website will vary depending on the business, but all in all, marketing is a key dynamic. Therefore, no matter the product or service you offer online, you would likely benefit from creating joint ventures with other sites. The key here is choosing your partners carefully so you are benefiting from them and vice versa.

Now, joint ventures can come in many different forms. For instance, you will find some basic options like promoting the site’s ezines, article, or newsletters. On the other hand, there are more complicated and involved types of joint ventures whereby like products and/or services are being promoted or even sold. Again, you need to have an idea of what to expect so you can pursue the joint venture option that works best for your business.

If the joint venture is set up properly, regardless of how simple or complex, it can be an extremely powerful tool to grow your online business. The following are some suggestions in getting started with joint ventures:

* Research Partners - Before you lock into an agreement with just any online business, you need to do research. The best way to accomplish this is to log onto sites that you are interested in building a joint venture with and request one of their ezines, articles, or newsletters. Using that information, you can then gain a much better idea if that company would be a good match for your website.

* Take your Time - Remember, joint Internet advertising services are not something you want to dive into without reviewing a number of factors. Building a successful online business does not happen overnight, so when choosing a joint venture, you also want to take your time to gather as much information as you can.

* Be Realistic - The goal in using Internet advertising services such as joint ventures has one goal - getting more customers and making more money. However, this too will take time so you need to set realistic goals about the level of financial gain you will see.

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While most online business owners have a general understanding of search engines and the ways in which they work, we wanted to address those that use crawlers. The reason this is so important is that by understanding the methods of crawler based search engines, you have the unique opportunity of setting your website up the right way so you increase both traffic and ultimately, sales. Having an optimized site will make your website marketing efforts exponentially more effective.

With crawler based search engines, there is special software that sends out
“crawlers” to websites. As they go through the site, they work by scanning the information and actually coding the pages. From there, the website page is compressed, after which it is sent to a search engine query. Then, the page is indexed and ranked among other pages from other sites within the same query. The ranking is what established where in search results your online business would fall.

For the indexing to occur, the crawler based search engine will use a variety of factors. Therefore, prior to the page being indexed, the crawler looks at the link text, number of pages within the index, if a page is found within a directory, and so on. All of these variations are very important. Now, there are some ways in which you can help the crawler based search engine be more effective simply by using the right keywords and phrases on your site, title tags, and meta tags, etc.

The thing is that you need to know which crawler search engines to use, which will ultimately help your site get the attention it deserves so you can be catapulted to success. For instance, Google is the obvious top choice. The thing to keep in mind with Google is that indexing can take a few months, there is a high fee, and in some cases, your initial submission might be overlooked. Now, if this search engine can read a directory listing and find your website then Google would be ideal.

With Google having more than eight billion indexed pages, it is no wonder this is the search engine that every online business wants. Because of their reputation, Google is run by top professionals who work hard to ensure pages are found, scanned, indexed, and ranked appropriately. After all, they want online businesses to be successful, which in turn allow them to continue being number one.

Of course, while Google is without doubt the cream of the crop, it is not the only crawler search engine to consider. Others such as AOL, Yahoo, DogPile, MySpace, and Netscape are worth investigating as well. Keep in mind that while this type of technology works much the same across the board, there are some variations so you want to do your homework to learn as much as you possibly can.

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If you have a small- or medium-sized business, chances are you’ve at least heard of GoDaddy.com. They’re one of the top domain name registrars, but also provide web hosting and design, ecommerce hosting, blog software, and much more. Now, it looks like they’ve teamed up with the software giant Microsoft to give SMBs some of the benefits that larger enterprises enjoy, but without the high hardware and software costs incurred by corporate IT departments.

According to a press release from the two companies:

GoDaddy.com is delivering mobile and group e-mail plans with Microsoft Outlook, powered by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) improve worker productivity and communications regardless of physical location. The new e-mail plans from GoDaddy.com, including Personal Outlook, Outlook with Mobile, and Group Outlook with Mobile, give SMBs the ability to manage all of their online services from one place.

“We have many customers who currently use Microsoft Office Outlook for their e-mail. It was only natural that we expanded our offerings to include mobile and group e-mail plans with Microsoft Outlook,” said GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “Our goal is to be a one-stop shop for every customer. Business owners who want the advantage of Microsoft Outlook e-mail plans can rely on us, without worrying about system maintenance.”

Those engaged in Internet marketing are always on the lookout for ways to improve productivity and enhance profitability.

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