FreshWebz Web Design & Affiliate Marketing Blog

Digital Window Acquires Buy.at

Perhaps better known to affiliate marketeers as Affiliate Window, Digital Window has purchased buy.at from AOL Inc. Digital Window themselves sold a majority stake of their company in 2009, to the German-based media group Axel Springer AG and the Swiss-based communications group Publigroupe S.A. who also own Berlin’s Zanox AG, continental Europe’s largest performance-based online marketing network.

Do AOL ever hang on to anything they buy?! lolol. They only bought buy.at in 2008!!!

I’d like to offer my congratulations to Digital Window, although it is tinged with a bit of Cadbury style sadness, for although Digital Window say they are now the UK’s largest affiliate marketing network, they are actually mainly owned by German-based media group Axel Springer AG and the Swiss-based communications group Publigroupe S.A.

It seems a shame we can’t keep any businesses British owned :/

Apple announces the new iPad……..

But will it be a success? After all, it is supposed to be a level between the iPhone & a laptop. But has anyone been crying out for such a device? Industry experts are already suggesting that netbooks have had their day, so how will another device succeed in a similar arena?

Or will it be that the usual collection of “oh it’s Apple, I must have it” adopters spark off demand for a product which already appears to be pretty flawed in it’s usability! Will the style of the iPad mean it’s a must have in the same way that the original iPhone was, despite it taking 3 generations to become the phone it should’ve been in the first place?!

Numerous names were being thrown around (iTablet, iSlate, iPad) but which name was Apple going to choose? Does iPad sound right. Why would Apple want to name their new product something that sounds so familiar to the iPod? Some people are already calling it the “iTampon” & you’d have thought they might have done a search on the Internet to see if anyone had used the name already!!!!!

Once again, no multi-tasking! So, if you’re writing a document you can’t listen to music, you can’t have TweetDeck open if you want to check your email, you can only do one thing at a time, which has always been a complaint with the iPhone.

There’s no camera on the iPad! There’s a microphone, but no camera. If you look at the size of the case that surrounds the screen, there is ample space for a camera so where is it? The iPad should come with a 3-megapixel camera built in. As it stands, this means no iChat/Skype chat for you.

More ridiculously large adapters!! If you want to access your camera or plug in something USB, then strat searching for your adapters; both huge. Apple has adopted USB on its Macs, why is it still insisting on propriety sockets for users, who will have USB on most other products.

The iPad needed to update the keypad for touchscreen devices & make it easier to use. So what have they done? Just make a larger version of what they already had. It’ll be incredibly hard to type on, unless you’re lying flat with your knees holding the device up, or you buy the iPad Case (essentially an book cover).

Still no Flash playback! Most of you are probably accustomed to Apple devices not being Flash compatible, but if Apple is truly wanting to compete with other Netbooks, they need to remedy this. With a larger screen comes more responsibilities, you can’t just leave gigantic holes in the middle of webpages if you then expect to be able to claim it “the best web experience you’ve ever had“. Even iPhone users are complaining that they want Flash on their device.

Unfortunately, Apple seems to be able to get away with leaving huge gaps in its technology, because people don’t know any better. They like the way it looks, it says iSomething on the case & will make other people jealous……….what about how it works people?!!!!!

bid4vouchers.co.uk is a site that auctions store vouchers, with the winner typically winning a voucher at 75%-90% off face value.

To make a bid, you have to buy a pack of bids up front, which is how the site says it makes its money.

Your chances of winning a bargain seem very good, as each item shows a “previously sold for” price, which is ALWAYS way below the face value of the voucher. In addition, since finding the site, a few days ago & monitoring it steadily, I’ve watched most auctions complete with only one or two bids.

However, in ALL of my auctions (I’ve bid on about 9 or 10 now), I ended up competing against someone who just went on & on bidding! Never more than one person though! I’ve spent nearly £200 on bids, with the price on each auction going way higher than any of the “previously sold for” prices. For example, the last auction cost me 65 bids before I ran out of money! That’s £30!!!

Much like any auction site, there is no protection from the practice of bid shilling, in which the auctioneer uses a puppet to place bids in his own auction. This practice is illegal in legitimate auctions, but is particularly nefarious in bidding fee scheme auctions. Due to the risk of shilling, even after the players have spent large quantities of money purchasing “bids” in the auction, the auctioneer can still deprive any of the players of a winning bid by placing an additional bid of his own.

My results seem suspiciously high compared to previous auctions. There is no way to contact other bidders, so no way to check whether such bidders really exist. Whenever I wasn’t involved, the auction seemed to go for peanuts & rarely was I bidding against more than one person.

I don’t have enough evidence to say the site isn’t genuine, but I have suspicions, based solely on my experience & would like to know if anyone else has had the same results as me!

I recently read an article posted by a web design company, explaining how they monitor the use of social media by copywriters, designers and coders, who work with them on projects! It was a fascinating insight into how unthinking use of social media could cost you your job, or even your next one!! The relevant content is re-posted below:

That’s why we monitor what they say online.

Here’s the thing: If we can read it and you can lose work with us over it… how many POTENTIAL clients did you lose also?

It’s not only self-employed freelancers, that need be concerned about this. Anyone looking for a job, or already employed, needs to be aware of what they post on the social networks &  how deeply employers are prepared to probe to find out about YOU!

I personally find it far too Big Brother for my liking; who hasn’t gone out & had one to many & it’s no wonder if employers expect everybody to be like worker drones, but it pays to be aware that if you post every detail of your behaviour on a social networking site, people can see it who you may rather not know what you got up to last night!!!

Shares in sat-nav companies bombed today after internet giant Google upset their world with a free sat-nav tool for Android 2.0 mobile phones!

This new feature comes with everything you’d expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting. But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone’s internet connection, said Google engineers.

“When you use Google Maps Navigation, your phone automatically gets the most up-to-date maps and business listings from Google Maps — you never need to buy map upgrades or update your device,” said Keith Ito, software engineer at Google.

The software comes with a variety of views, such as Traffic View, where Google grabs traffic data over the internet, Satellite View and an amazing Street View feature that you activate by double-tapping your phone’s screen. The software also comes with a nifty “search by voice” function.

At the moment it’s only available in the US as a beta, but I can’t wait for it to come out over here, now I have my HTC Hero. What’s going to happen to the sat nav market (or even the iPhone, when the TomTom application for it costs around £60)?

I received the following announcement via e-mail today!

I’ll certainly be pre-ordering the Home Premium version of Windows 7 to save a few pounds; prior to 22nd October, it’s going to cost £79.99 rather than £99.99 afterwards. Windows 7 Professional is available for £189.99 as pre-order. Be aware that you cannot upgrade your current system to Windows 7, you have to carry out a full install; but Microsoft claim they’re selling the new OS in Europe at upgrade prices!

Pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium & save £20

Having bought the Ultimate version of Vista, I’m certainly not wasting money on any version above Home Premium. Ultimate was just a complete waste of money, with barely any of the promised “extras” ever materialising. With broken promises & waiting for ages for things to happen, I just can’t wait to get rid of Vista!!

It’s an interesting (unintended I’m sure) marketing ploy of making your current software so bad, that people rush to buy the new one. Not something that you would imagine working in any other field, but Microsoft can get away with it whilst rival OS’s are still not able to put together a big enough challenge. But what happens with the next version of Windows, if Google Chrome OS takes off?!!!! They’ll certainly have to improve their game then!!

Anyhow, here’s the official Microsoft announcement:

It’s almost here! We’re very happy to tell you that we’ve hit the last big milestone on the way to Windows 7: Release to Manufacturing. We’re packaging copies and manufacturers are putting it on new PCs. On October 22, you’ll be able to get the final shipping product. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done; you helped make this an operating system we’re all going to enjoy.

Don’t miss the good stuff. With the final release rapidly approaching, make sure you learn about special offers and other news including details about launch events in your area. A great way to keep up with what’s going on is to sign up for one of our free newsletters. Not only will you get the scoop on the Windows 7 launch, you’ll get useful news throughout the year.

If you’re interested in general Windows topics, Exploring Windows is the best choice.

Want technical guidance and resources? Sign up to be a Springboard Series Insider.

Developer? Get MSDN Flash.

Meanwhile, RC’s downloads are still available. You can get the release candidate download until August 20, 2009. After that, you won’t be able to get the download, but if you have the software, you can still install the RC and get a key if you need one. (Keys will be available till March 2010. To get a key, just go to the Downloads page and follow the instructions.)

We’re listening. Tell us what you think. If you’re using Windows 7 Release Candidate, please go http://input.microsoft.com and tell us what you think. You’ll be able to give feedback on various aspects of the operating system.

Got the RC and need help? Experts on the Windows 7 Forum can help answer your questions. The forum also gives you a way to share what you’ve learned with other people.

Essential resources

The Installation Instructions give you the info you need to get started.

To get more information about Windows 7, such as feature descriptions, visit the Windows 7 website.

Looking for technical help or information? Here are a few sources:

The Windows 7 online forums are a great place to start.

You can keep up to date on news about Windows 7 on the team blog.

Find essential “getting ready” info at Microsoft Answers.

Got this e-mail from Google today:

***Important news regarding your account***

Hello,

We’re writing to let you know that your AdWords account will be upgraded to the new AdWords interface within the next few working days. After that time, you’ll no longer be able to switch back to the previous AdWords interface to manage your campaigns. The new interface doesn’t change how ads run, so bidding, ranking, Quality Score and the rest of ad serving will remain the same after the upgrade.

We think that you’ll like how AdWords has changed to meet your needs. Campaign management is now more efficient, with tools and reports that are easier to find and use. We’ve continued to add features and controls based on advertiser feedback and now the new interface is ready to be used exclusively.

We know that it can often be time-consuming to learn a new interface, so we’ve developed help materials to make it easier for you. To quickly familiarise yourself with what’s changing about campaign management and to watch videos about the new features, visit our new interface website: http://www.google.com/intl/en_GB/adwords/newinterface/

Should you have any questions as you’re getting up to speed, you can also use our full Help Centre (or simply look at the Help box in your account): http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/?hl=en_GB

We hope that you find the new interface easy to learn and we hope that the improvements have a positive impact on your business. As always, thank you for advertising with AdWords!

Yours sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team

So, the fact that I told them I hate it & haven’t seen many people complimenting it for it’s speed or usability, they’re just going ahead anyway. I’m starting to expect this from the Google Empire – marching on its way to world domination!!

What makes a world dominated by Google, any more attractive than one dominated by Microsoft?! There’s no room for the little man & basically you “get what you’re given”! The new interface is going to be imposed on users despite the fact that it’s slow, clunky & for me, unusable!

Along with the ridiculous PPC prices, it’s one more reason to stay off of Adwords!

New & Improved for who? Certainly not me!

Sky have just announced that they’re changing their Broadband Packages, replacing Mid with Everyday & Max with Unlimited (Base remains the same).

They key points of these changes are that the speed of Mid & Max are increasing, from “up to 8Mb” to “up to 10Mb” & from “up to 16Mb” to “up to 20Mb” respectively. However, despite living in London (where you would imagine you will get decent speeds in comparison with rural areas), my line is capable of only 5Mb. So this speed increase will be totally irrelevant. The emphasis on all broadband packages is the term “up to”. If your line doesn’t support it, you will not ever get close to these “up to” speeds.

What IS relevant however, is the change in usage allowance. The new Everyday package has had it’s monthly download cap reduced from 40Gb to just 10Gb. That’s a 75% cut in allowance!! Unlimited is as it states.

With people downloading more & more online content, this is a very clever marketing ploy by Sky (a money making exercise?) – they know that many people will think the extra speed is something good, without realising their lines will not support the higher speeds, but the usage cap WILL affect some users, who will have to switch to the Unlimited package, or start paying extra charges.

What a scam!

I’ve written to Sky to let them know what I think – however, as with all these corporations, it won’t make the slightest difference. Time to start looking around again to see if there’s a better deal out there.

I received an e-mail from Google, telling me about their new search-based keyword tool!

They state “the Search-based Keyword Tool compares the content of your website against actual Google search queries to provide a list of relevant keywords which you don’t currently have in your AdWords campaigns. This new tool can help your business to grow and innovate on your keyword choices by taking the guesswork out of the process. Rather than adding keywords to an ad campaign based on what one thinks a user might search on, this tool enables you to manage your keywords based on what you know users are searching on.”

I visited the tool & was presented with a list of over 800 keyphrases, which Google says have been searched for & appear on relevant pages in my site. I decided to pick all the phrases that had a suggested cost per click up to and including £1.00 (246 of them).

I’ve spent the last 4 hours adding the phrases to my AdWords campaign, targeting the landing pages to the ones indicated by the Tool & using the suggested bids. However, as soon as I checked the keywords, all bar one are not displaying due to the bid amount being too low (even though it was the one suggested!). The quality score of the landing pages are also deemed poor, despite them being the ones that sparked off the whole process!

So, thanks Google; for suggesting I use your new tool; only to find that despite following all your suggestions, you STILL don’t display any of my ads unless I bid some ridiculous amount per click! I’ve just basically wasted an entire afternoon on this nonsense & on top of it, the new interface is rubbish! It’s slow, jerky & very frustrating to use.

What on earth is the point in giving me this information, which appears to be totally useless? Their e-mail ended:

“The Search-based Keyword tool actually found 2954 recently-searched keywords related to your site. For each suggested keyword, the tool will also show you:

• The average number of searches per month
• The competitive bidding level for each term
• The estimated bid to appear in the top three ad positions
• The suggested landing page for each keyword

To see all 2954 new keywords and decide which ones to add to your campaigns, go to www.google.com/sktool, sign in to your AdWords account, and enter your website URL. We hope that you find the Search-based Keyword Tool useful in driving even more business to your website through Google AdWords!”

Errrrrr! No it isn’t useful, has wasted my time & has not given me any new (& reasonably priced), keyphrases that I can bid on!

I will definitely not be returning to AdWords any time soon!

I recently wrote about my problems with tiscali customer service, followed by 1and1 and this problem rumbles on:

I was interested to read a web page on someone else’s battles with 1and1 http://www.simonjones.info/1and1internet/, which appear to be similar to my own!

It appears that 1and1 have a POLICY of not bothering to reply to their customers as my e-mail to complaints@1and1.co.uk has also been ignored. I am now sending them a letter by normal post, in an attempt to stir them into some response! The irony is that I am quite happy to pay them any amount owed; all I want is an itemised bill showing what it is I am being asked to pay for!!!

My letter is shown below & is pretty self-explanatory:

I’m writing in connection with the appalling customer service I have (not) received from you.

I originally contacted your billing team after receiving a letter from a debt collection agency (Arvato Finance), for an amount that I had no knowledge of owing.

Since this initial letter, I have repeatedly asked for an itemised statement of account, so that I understand what it is I am paying for.

I asked for my account to be closed on 8th February 2009 after being a customer of yours for a number of years, because I was having more & more trouble with my account; domains were being suspended for too much traffic & I was told I had to have a dedicated server! I was also being told I was spamming people using the newsletter tool (which I wasn’t) & in the end, I felt it better to move all my domains to a new web host (where I have had NO problems).

Although I was closing the account, I did not expect complete access to be withdrawn immediately, as the cancellation page said that the contract would be ended on 22nd February. As a result, I was unable to access my mailing lists & lost all records relating to who was still subscribed etc. Despite asking your support teams if I could have access to the account, just to download the addresses held in my newsletter tool & to check the final balance, I was told it was not possible because the account was closed. That was it; no other help or information was offered! One of your customer service team did ask what I meant by “accessing my mailing list details”, I replied, but never got any response!

As far as I was aware, my payments were being made by direct debit throughout the whole of the time I was a customer, so I therefore had no idea of whether there was a balance due & never received a closing statement of account. I wrote a number of times asking for an itemised bill to be sent to me, but the only response I got was an e-mail telling me that I owed £187.03. I don’t know of any other business that just tells people they owe an amount & expect them to pay it, without sending a final statement/bill, so I again, requested this to be sent to me.

The next thing I know, a letter demanding £178.59 (plus £15 costs) arrives from Arvato! Naturally, I queried this, as the amount is different from what I was previously told & to be honest, I expected a reply from you with an account, not a threatening demand for payment with costs.

Since then, I have repeatedly asked for an itemised account, explaining what the charges are in respect of, which I would then be happy to pay. I am not prepared to just hand over nearly £200 (bearing in mind the actual amount quoted has changed 3 times without any explanation), not knowing what the charges are for.

I was originally receiving responses to my e-mails from Idil Ahmed, which were usually one line answers, totally unhelpful & completely ignored my requests for a broken down, itemised account, as well as my requests for the matter to be dealt with by a manager, or someone else who COULD provide what I believe I am entitled to receive, BEFORE involving a debt collection agency!

All the e-mails to Arvato were answered simply saying that I should query the balance with you, although one stated that you had told them my account was not closed, even though it was! I have been quoted three different figures & you tell your debt collectors that my account is not closed – hardly competent!

All I want is a closing account statement/invoice, which shows how much I am being charged & what the charges relate to. I do not see why this should be such a problem to provide, but it seems to be beyond the abilities of Mr Ahmed, which is why I asked for the case to be passed to his manager.

However, all I was given was your complaints@1and1.co.uk e-mail address, which I wrote to on 8th May. I have NEVER received any reply from this address & today received a further e-mail from Arvato, which stated:

“I have received information back from 1&1, stating that the account was cancelled on the 22nd February 2009. However your invoices were raised in January and beginning of February, therefore as stated in 1&1 terms and conditions the account an acount has to be cancelled 14 days prior to an invoice being raised, therefore the full balance of £193.59 is due.”

IS the balance of £178.59 up to the period 22/02/09? Even though I could not access my account, all my records & mailing list from 8th February, I am EXPECTED to pay up to 22nd February? I understand if I had to give you 14 days notice of cancellation, but why then was my account closed from 8th February? It made things very inconvenient for me & I had to pay a couple of hundred pounds to re-clean my mailing list, because you wouldn’t let me access them.

All I have been asking for is an itemised statement for my records, showing the charges & what period they are for. However, you seem completely incapable or unwilling to provide this! I now think the reason you can’t is that you messed up by closing my account too early & now can’t produce an accurate bill!!!!

As a former debt recovery manager, I would not have expected any customer to pay an amount which they had not been sent a bill for and I would be able to produce a copy of that bill should they query it, or state it had not been received. I believe this is simply good practice & do not understand why your staff, or your billing system, is unable to do this.

I can provide copies of all the e-mails that have been going back & forth for the last 4 months & would be perfectly prepared to provide them to a court, should you deem it necessary to go that far! I do hope that this will not be necessary & you can provide me with a closing account, which will show that I am being charged legitimate charges for hosting services that I am liable for. Upon receipt, I will make immediate payment!

I have said this constantly throughout the last 3-4 months, but it seems that your customer services people have a set routine of answers & cannot deviate from these in any way! Usually, they just stop replying & as stated previously, I have not received ANY response from you following my e-mail to your complaints address! However, having viewed other people’s similar problems on the internet, it appears that it is your POLICY to just ignore your customers, if any enquiry is slightly out of the ordinary!

I hope you will now be able to deal with this complaint, provide a closing, itemised statement, which I will then pay. I do not really want this to go any further, in what is really a very simple request, which you seem unable or unwilling to meet. However, I am prepared to stand my ground & will not be bullied into paying you amounts of money that you (for all I know) have plucked out of thin air!

I look forward to your response (finally) to this complaint.

To quote Simon Jones (see his web page): “1AND1 INTERNET IS A CHEAP WEB HOSTING COMPANY, BUT AS WITH MANY CHEAP THINGS, IF YOU USE THEM YOU’LL FIND OUT SOONER OR LATER THAT THEY ARE IN FACT… RUBBISH!” Amazingly enough, this is also my view on Tiscali!!!