testing Going Up

testing going up for site stats.

£2.50 per click for "IT Jobs" with Google Adwords

Google have set the Adwords advertising bar even higher. Previously I thought paying 50p per wasted click was a ridiculous price but now Google want £2.50 per click.

Of those clicks for search keywords "IT Jobs" I have received so far none have resulted in a site visit. So imagine paying £2.50 for someone not to visit your web site.

Is send-a-quid.com an April fools joke?

I was looking at www.send-a-quid.com. Is this an April Fools Joke?

Complaint to the ASA about Google

I have complained to the ASA about Google:
- placing their own ads in the subscription links forcing up the price for other Google adwords listers. I estimate it costs everyone for my particular search words an extra 5p per click. This is anti-competitive.
- charging for clicks which do not result in web site visits (according to google analytics).

RESULT:

ASA can only deal with the content of an advertisement not whether the advertising medium delivers what it promises. So maybe the next time I see a poster for the ASA I'll stick one on top of it. As they can't complain about the medium - only the content.

Google Sponsored Links - anti-competitive?

When searching for 'IT jobs' Google says the average position for my adword campaign is 9.8. This would mean my ad appears on page 2 of any search near the 2nd or 3rd position.

But so far on any random test I have performed it has varied between position 12 and 16 i.e. an average of position 13.5.

I can only account for this by looking at the 2 google sponsored ads that 'load' the table of sponsored links thereby forcing everyone to pay more for the ads. But isn't this anti-competitive?

How do google pay themselves for these sponsored link ads?

I know I probably pay an extra 5p/click because of these 2 'free' ads by google themselves shoving my sponsored link down the list.

6% average error in my google stats over 5 days

I have calculated over a 5 day period that there is an average error in my google stats of around 6%. This is based on the number of page views counted by google adsense and the number of page views counted by Google analytics.

This is an average error - as on a day-to-day basis the error swings +ve and -ve.

Against my 1and1 stats (which include a total of 314 hits from google robots etc) the error is even greater (daily hits shown as the green line on the chart).

I wondered why no one else has reported this on the web. Is this a Google (do-no-evil) fear factor?

Allowed google analytics data sharing

If you don't share the data across google adwords, adsense and analytics you get incorrect stats for your web site.

But you wonder which service was right in the first place.

Google adwords v Google analytics data

Google adwords campaign stopped after x clicks.

Google analytics reports x/2 clicks - but no site visit.

Also analytics does not seem to record any chinese visits to site (recorded by 1and1 site).

Site fixed

Problem was a read/write permission problem. Resolved by Simbyo.com

Site not working error 1and1 wake up?

I now have a site not working error.

Google site map

I have set up my google site map after using 1and1's automatic system. But this didn't seem to work - so I went offsite and found another tool.

Also started my advertising:

- using google adwords. 610 impressions - 2 clicks later.
- using 1and1 banner ads.

Promotional experiment

I have set up a promotional experiment on yahoo pipes:

map on yahoo pipes

Jobserve - Can they be beaten?

Most IT contractors believe that Jobserve.com is THE site to search for IT contract jobs.

But jobsite.co.uk have proved that they can get more internet traffic than jobserve - at least for permanent job roles.

But is traffic everything?

Well yes if you want to be ebay or amazon or google.

But IT contractors simply want to find contract jobs quickly.

To use jobserve:
- Click on the site (though "jobserve" is sometimes difficult to remember so you may have to search via google)
- Register.
- Upload your CV.
- Set up your search preferences (sometimes annoying to set up).
- Finally click on the microscopic magnifying glass icon thingy to search.
- Click on a job
- Click to apply.
- Click lots of EU citizen type questions.
- Finally apply.


Similarly with jobsite.co.uk you have to track down how to register with jobhunter.
Then search for jobs on the site. Most of the emphasis is on permanent roles - because logically they get more of their income from permanent roles.

So what is different with Contractjob.net?

1. CONTRACT Jobs are easy to select from the tabbed categories - so you only have to look at the relevant job category.

2. CONTRACT Jobs are easy to apply for.

3. CONTRACT Jobs are shown by location.

4. You send your latest CV each time (where the role has been posted directly on contractjob.net) - so agencies don't use your old CV which you forgot to change on Jobserve or jobsite,co.uk. And anyway DO YOU TRUST JUST ANYONE WITH YOUR CV which after all for a contractor is your company's major asset?

5. The site LOOKS MUCH BETTER than all the others. Do you want people to see you looking at ugly webs at work? What sort of IT techie are are?

6. Contractjob.net plan to provide a FREE INVOICING system for contractors in the near future.