Today was blog-worth because of  two potentially life changing events.

The first was extremely geeky and technical and involved the number 4 a lot.

But first, the second event.

Today on the train to work it was choc-full as usual. I hopped on a carriage, squeezed past some obstacles (inert commuters standing in the doorway) and went down to stand in the aisle because there were no free seats. As I passed a seated teen-age school kid, he stood up and moved into the aisle … but didn’t exit the train.

Ah, so he got up to offer his seat to someone. You can see where this is going (it’s a train – destination known).

I looked around but there were no elderly, women or non-school kids stand.

Did he just free his seat for me?!

Good lord! Am I now old enough to look like someone a school kid needs to offer his seat to?

Possibly, due to the first event.

At about 4 in the morning I was awake and in with my 4 year old daughter, trying to get her back to sleep. I’d already been awake for what seemed like hours and my sleep deprived brain came up with what is probably the most geeky creations I’ll ever make.

I haven’t checked the internet, so I don’t know if anyone has already done something like these but I claim independent creation.

Here are the first 4. What does the following C++ (isn) code mean?

#ifndef try
  (do || !do);
#endif

OK, how about this one?

struct {
  longint force = 4294967295;
} one;

Too easy?

while( looking( !droids )) { move++; }

And the forth early morning one:

hope[] = { obi wan; }
me -> help( hope );

And here are a couple of others for good (or bad) measure:

luke.father = i;
( !!!!! true );

(( i = jedi ) == father );

( that = moon ) != true;

No-doubt more will follow.

Browsing the web, I stumbled across this image and my illusion alarm went off.

It’s 4th in a collection of images called “Game Over!”. The artist, Henry Hargreaves has taken a series of monochromatic photos of childhood games.

The connect four game was immediately of interest to me as at first glance I wondered why all the pieces dropped into the slots were hanging from the top and hadn’t fallen straight to the bottom.

They had, of course, but because the discs show the shadows from the hole cut outs, the discs make it  appears that there’s a solid back on the frame.

The holes with no discs behind them show the background straight through with no shadows, which actually looks like the slots are occupied.

This unintentional illusion is strengthened by the fact that the front faces of the unused discs shown around the base of the game look closer in lightness to the background than the discs already in the slots. The discs in the slots look far too dark.

Compare the unused disc sitting almost vertically on at the bottom left with the disc in the slot directly above it and then compare it with the empty slot up and to the left of that.

Spooky.

Getting a professional to manage your PPC or Google Adwords campaigns is a great way of getting better results for less money spent – but there are dangers.

I’m going to show you 7 things you must ask before signing up with anyone.

There are many companies and individuals out there jumping on the “Pay Per Click Management” bandwagon.

Some of these people are making some great promises … on the surface … but when you look a little deeper, they seem to have more in common with snake oil salesmen.

I don’t want this post to be a big selling session for my services (which are great, by the way) but I have been alarmed at some of the unethical practices followed by some companies out there, so I’m going to give you 7 tips/questions that you can ask these people, which will weed out the charlatans from the genuine PPC managers who really know what they’re doing.

But first, here’s one company owner’s experience with almost being ‘taken in’:

I had this owner come to me via a colleague and ask my opinion on a group who were pestering him about doing his Google advertising (Google Adwords are a great idea, don’t get me wrong).

This group were promising that his advert would be on the first page of Google if they managed his account. First page on Google sounds great, right?

This isn’t hard to do … really! It’s no harder that getting an advert on the first page of your biggest city’s newspaper: you just pay a lot of money, and then you get your advert shown. Simple.

When I read through their 6 page terms and conditions document, I discovered that he’d only be on the first page when the money in his budget allowed (so he could be there for maybe just one day a month). Not only that, but this particular company has a clause explicitly stating that they didn’t guarantee to get any extra traffic to his website.

Listen up: The whole purpose of advertising online is to get more web traffic to your website. Why spend the time and money on it otherwise?

Anyway, advising this company (and having them decide to use my services in the end) prompted me to write these:

7 tips for choosing the best PPC or Adwords manager for your online advertising

1. They should run their own personal online advertising campaigns.

It’s one thing to play around with a client’s money, but nothing motivates an expert to stay at the top of their game like putting their own money on the line. (I’m constantly advertising for my own products and services online.)

2. They must run your campaigns with lots of keywords.

They should include as may keywords and phrases as your budget allows.  Any internet marketer worth their salt will know this. Using 3 keywords is just … dumb. (I might use 3 keywords as just a starting point and build from there.)

3. They should monitor your campaign results and progress regularly.Online advertising isn’t a ‘set and forget’ system. A professional should be constantly testing and tweaking the adverts and keyword selections. (I monitor keywords, adverts and the performance of pages of the website the adverts link to.)
4. They must have a performance guarantee.

If they don’t guarantee to improve your website traffic or lower your costs, you should get a refund. Simple. But make sure they don’t weasel out of it in their terms and conditions. (I have a 30 day ‘happiness’ guarantee. If you’re not happy with the increase in web visitors or a reduction of your costs, I’ll refund your money.)

5. They should be constantly learning new tricks for marketing.

The internet is changing all the time and what work well 6 months ago might not work so well now. A professional should be actively learning new tricks. (I personally spend hundreds of US dollars a month in training – just don’t tell my wife.)

6. They must research the best keywords for your particular business type.

Not all search keywords are created equal. They must also choose, or help choose the buying keywords for your products or services. Generally, using your company name or broad business type as keywords isn’t useful. (I’d rather have 10 buyers over 1,000 tyre-kickers any day.)

7. They must track everything.

They must be able to regularly tell your what the best performing adverts, keywords, phrases and website pages are. Everything needs to be tracked from the point where a potential customer clicks on your advert to when they buy or contact you for a quote. (I do this so I know what the buying keywords are, not just the ones that get lots of traffic.)

And here’s a bonus tip for you:

8. They should offer a service to increase your organic website rankings.

Adwords is a quick way to get more web traffic fast – within 24 hours. The great thing about online advertising this was is it lets you discover the buying keywords for your product. You can then do Search Engine Optimisation on your site to rank ‘organically’ for these keywords. (I’m not interested in wasting your money and effort optimising for keywords that don’t sell.)

So there you have it. Next time you’re contacted by a company offering to manage your PPC or Google Adwords advertising, ask them if they do these 8 things and you’ll have a much better idea if you’re dealing with a genuine and professional company.

If you don’t know why using online advertising is a good idea, stay tuned for another post on that topic soon.