By Cassie

Good question. My goal was to find the perfect part time job while my kids are in school. What defines a perfect job? The perfect job for me is a job that is part time, one that is two miles from my front door, one where I can wear jeans, and one where everyone is super easy going and fun to be around. Why work you ask, to support my Target obsession (that is what my husband calls it), that is part of the reason but mainly because I just want to have my own money no matter how little it may be. All the working moms out there have no idea what it is like to purchase a birthday present or anniversary gift for your working spouse with his money. I, like most stay at home moms, am on a weekly budget (allowance is another good word) and this only covers the essentials (groceries, gas, movie rentals, etc). I know that his money is my money, but this just seems strange when it comes to gifts for him. The mortgage, family vacations, family dinners, and even family members birthdays are easy to justify, or easy for me to pay with his money. This week he turned the big “40” and I am throwing him a big party this weekend, and yes I will pay for a portion (small portion) with my own earned money. I have arrived.

One similarity I now share with the working moms out there is getting the kids to school on time. This is a new struggle I am still battling after only working for 3 ½ months. Just getting them out the door, this means dressed (as in the shoes to the rightful owner on the owner’s feet), clean face (not one smeared with oatmeal or stained with strawberry orange juice), lunches packed (not just with pudding and cookies) and their school work in their backpacks. This I know will take me some time to accomplish in a timely manner, or I may never figure it out. But will I keep trying?? Yes, this girl likes being in this place.

By Cassie

Okay here goes…this is my very first blog. I am a blog virgin no more. I am however extremely intimidated by the talented writers out there. I did do some research; reading several blogs, responses, helpful hints to get started and everything in between. I guess my goal of this blog is to introduce myself to whoever is listening and to put into words what my blogs will contain. I will start with the content, I intend to write about whatever is on my mind for that moment (or days rather since I hardly vent). This means it could be commentaries, reviews, endless blurts, hilarity (since that is what keeps me sane), I would not expect anything to intellectual (at least not while I am intimidated), and what you won’t find is anything relating to politics. I (ready this is a strong word) hate discussing politics with anybody and everybody. Now on to me, who am I….I am a mother (first), wife (second) and employee (third). What does that mean?? It means I am a busy woman. I have three children and with their school work and sports activities, I am booked solid. I work part time here at Toptenwholesale.com, about 23 to 29 hours a week. And somehow, some way the laundry gets done, meals are cooked (some more gourmet than others), pets get fed, and believe it or not the house even gets cleaned (by me). Okay I am done for the day. Wow, that didn’t hurt.

By Claudia Bruemmer

Wholesalers and retailers are big fans of paid search advertising. For that reason, it’s a good idea to be aware of and guard against click fraud. It is quite possible you’ll never be a target for click fraud. On the other hand, if you must use highly competitive keywords, you could become a victim with the need to defend yourself.

The click fraud controversy has been a constant subject of dissention for over a year. Advertisers and click fraud detection firms claimed click fraud rates were up to 20 percent. Search providers like Google challenged their methodology, claiming it’s only half that much. Then Google’s CFO mentioned that click fraud could threaten Google’s business model. Google executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt, quickly disavowed these comments. Articles in Business Week and Wired gave people cause for alarm over the prevalence and cost of click fraud. And the brouhaha goes on.

Last year’s Outsell survey reported said Internet advertisers paid over $1 million for bogus clicks on their paid search ads. This shook industry confidence and prompted some marketers to reduce their search advertising spend with Google, Yahoo and others.
How Search Advertising Works: Google, Yahoo and others charge advertisers by the click every time someone clicks on the advertiser’s sponsored links in the search engine results pages (SERPs) through services such as AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. Advertisers can also opt for a pay-per-click text, image or video ad on a search provider’s affiliate network such as Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network.

Definition of Click Fraud: Click fraud occurs when a person or a program clicks on the search ad without any intention of using or buying the advertiser’s product or service. In some cases, competitors click on ads to cause rivals to be overcharged. In other instances, fraudsters place the ads on their own web sites and then click incessantly on the links to get a portion of the shared revenue from Google or Yahoo as a result of being in the affiliate network. The most pernicious form of click fraud is posed by botnet masters that command tens of thousands of zombie PCs clicking fraudulently without possibility of detection.

Estimates of Click Fraud: Last year, there were reports of click fraud rates as high as 20 percent. Google claimed these estimates were inflated as an artifact of auditing firm methodologies. This year, Google admits to a click fraud rate of “less than 10 percent.”

However, the Click Fraud Index by Click Forensics reports a 14 percent click fraud rate for 2006. While Google has challenged its methodology for calculating click fraud, Click Forensics stands by its estimate as a third-party click fraud detection service. Click Forensics monitors online campaigns for click fraud by correlating data collected from search provider campaigns and the advertisers’ web sites.

Difficulty Tracking Click Fraud: The major obstacle has been the lack of transparency on the part of Google and Yahoo in their click fraud billing and tracking process. Google and Yahoo closely guard their anti-fraud systems over concerns that revealing crucial information might help fraudsters manipulate the system and evade detection. More recently, however, Google is providing a little more information and started letting advertisers opt out of contextual ad placement on competitor sites to avoid the fraudulent clicks by competitors.

Outsell Study Findings: Last year’s study reported that 75 percent of the advertisers surveyed indicated they were victims of click fraud. Subsequently, 27 percent of advertisers reduced or stopped spending on click-based advertising, and an additional 10 percent said they intended to curtail spending.

Outsell estimated the revenue lost by Google, Yahoo and other search providers at $500 million. Only 7 percent of advertisers requested refunds due to click fraud, and the average refund was $9,507. Additionally, unsolicited refunds were paid to 4.2 percent of advertisers, with an average of $9,444 from Google and $4,068 from Yahoo.

Ad Effectiveness: Search ads, which appear mostly as text and a link, are specifically tailored to the search terms. For example, a query for “European vacation” will typically show ads from travel companies. Most paid search campaigns show a healthy ROI, and that’s what makes this marketing strategy so successful.

Google Efforts to Prevent Click Fraud: Google claims “the percentage of invalid clicks actually identified by customers is 0.02 percent of all clicks.” Recently, Google shared information in Inside AdWords on how it protects advertisers against click fraud using a system of filters, offline analysis and investigations. Google’s standard prevention methods include monitoring IP addresses and detecting duplicate clicks and other basic patterns that suggest fraud.

The newer click fraud prevention firms offer algorithm-based programs to limit bad clicks. These programs estimate the statistical likelihood of a click being fraudulent based on behavioral variables in addition to IP address.

The Fuss Over Click Fraud: Click fraud has always been around, but it’s a hot topic now because we have more advertisers in paid search than ever before, making the market keenly competitive. With everybody on board, including small and medium-sized businesses, keyword prices have surged, and we’re faced with a higher incidence of click fraud.

Getting a Click Fraud Refund: All the search providers claim to give ready refunds. However, the onus is on the advertiser to document and prove click fraud. Sometimes this is difficult to do, and many times only partial refunds are approved. Advertisers must be vigilant in monitoring their campaigns with web analytics to spot aberrations that might suggest click fraud.

Paid Search Remains Unstoppable: Despite the click fraud imbroglio, Internet advertising in the U. S. increased in 2005, as did Google’s and Yahoo’s profits. Pay-per-click advertising totaled $5.5 billion in 2005 and $9.4 billion in 2006. Many large firms relegate click fraud as a cost of doing business.

By Claudia Bruemmer

Search is changing in many ways. We have personalized search from Google, social media search and Web 2.0 applications and sites. All this against the background of increased demand for sponsored text ads on the search engine results pages (SERPs). At the vanguard is the rising prominence of vertical and local search engines.

Major research firms show that vertical search engines have become a necessity because of dissatisfaction with general search. Reportedly, the average search failure rate is about 32 percent, which has given rise to the development of three varieties of specialized search engines: local, topical and vertical or B2B.

Verticals give B2B marketers an advantage over general search because they serve highly relevant results for their industry or niche, enabling users to find needed information quickly and easily. More importantly, they offer advertisers many distinct advantages.

The Vertical Advertising Advantage: As an advertiser, you get more visibility in a less crowded environment, making it easier for users to recognize and interact with your brand. Your click-throughs might be lower, but conversions will higher with a targeted audience. These two factors result in a higher return on investment (ROI) for your marketing campaigns because you’ll pay for fewer clicks while gaining more conversions.

Vertical search engines offer pay-per-click search ads with excellent targeting opportunities. Many offer banner ads, direct links, special ad placement, user generated media and email marketing opportunities.

Banner Ads: You can request custom positioning for your banners on VSEs. Most verticals will go out of their way to please customers. They offer users highly relevant content with targeted banners on the SERPs, meeting their advertisers’ needs.

Direct Links: Vertical search engines will link directly to clients’ sites or requested URLs. This gives advertisers an excellent SEO benefit. Search engines can now associate the advertisers’ sites with a highly ranked VSE. Without such direct links, search engines might never find some sites.

Special Ad Placement: Vertical search engines can accommodate client requests quickly and on the fly. Major search engines, on the other hand, have to deal with corporate structure, perhaps running issues by IT and corporate, etc. Vertical search engines are lean and versatile; they can react quickly to changing market conditions and industry trends.

User Generated Media: Vertical search engines cover issues related to specific topics or industries. Therefore, they can allow customers to blog on their sites, encouraging industry participation. This transforms such verticals into Web 2.0 information super highways for their niche. Content can be user generated or industry generated. In fact, TopTenWholesale has been doing this long before Web 2.0. We employ journalists to cover industry topics. We provide forums for users and advertisers. We aspire to become the ultimate information resource for general merchandising wholesalers and retailers. Blogs and stories also provide great SEO benefits to the customers we link to in our stories.

Email Marketing: Many verticals have email lists, and these databases consist of recipients interested in the niche. TopTenWholesale’s opt-in email lists are much more relevant than any mass-market offerings. Our users look forward to receiving their weekly emails. By the same token, our customers love the responses received from their email newsletter ads. Relevant ads to a relevant and receptive audience make this offering a win-win.

B2B marketers would be wise to consider the above advantages of vertical search engines for their next online marketing campaign. You can run identical campaigns on general search engines and on a vertical in your niche, and then compare results. You may be surprised at the better performance you’ll achieve on vertical search engines.

We just noticed that a competitor is trying to copy us with a newsroom. TopTenWholesale started Wholesale News back in April 2005. It was a new idea at the time and has been very well received by both users and advertisers.

TopTenWholesale employs journalists and editors to bring you fresh general merchandising wholesale and retail news every week. We also encourage our users to comment and blog with us. We enjoy learning from our users and advertisers and use that information to better meet their needs. In fact, if there is a story you’d like covered, let us know through your comments.

Our new blog will be debuting soon. We’ve added some of the most talented and seasoned Internet editors around. Our coverage on general merchandise expands over 500 categories of merchandise. We also publish tips on:
• SEM
• Business Tools
• Retailing
• Product Sourcing
• Trade Shows
• E-tailing
And much, much more. We encourage user-generated content and we’d love to hear from all of you! Thanks for making us the #1 Wholesale Search Engine in the world and we look forward to initiating some of the most amazing innovations the wholesale industry has ever seen in the next six months. I’m sure our “friends” are waiting to copycat, so we need to get started. Happy selling!

More so than any other product introduced by Apple, the iPod has changed the company and the world of music and entertainment. Before its inception, MP3 players were in the realm of small companies with limited budgets that were unable to provide content. After the iPod, the entire industry has evolved and grown to the point where the largest computer companies in the world have major interests in the music industry.
Due to the popularity, many companies including Apple, produce and distribute a large assortment of accessories designed for iPods. This market is referred to as the iPod ecosystem. These accessories add more extra features than most music players offer, such as sound recorders, FM radio tuners, wireless remote controls, external speakers, and protective cases/films to personalize your iPod.

Just For Five is your one stop shop for all iPod accessories and offers a wide selection of items including iPod speakers, iPod cases, iPod headphones and anything else you can imagine to personalize your iPod.

Whether you have a small chain of stores, or whether you distribute to the retail market, Just for Five / iWholesaleiPods offers it’s customers the best prices, the best quality, and the best margins on all its products.

Go to JustForFive.com
iWholesaleiPods.com