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Scheduled Downtime Today
Our services will be shut down at 6:00 PM Central Standard Time, today 8.11.09, for approximately one (1) hour. (That is -6:00 GMT)
We’ll be moving datacenters and to much faster equipment with lots of room to grow. This will help with lagging load times for ad feeds and also allow certain parts of our network to go down and not affect the main ad serving machines.
The best way to keep up with everything going on will be through our Twitter feed. We’ll be making constant updates to keep everyone informed during this upgrade and others still to come.
**Update**
As many of you know, LinkWorth experienced an outage last night. We’re back up and running now and we’ve completed our renewals cycle. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you!!
LinkWorth Makes Top 50 Ad Marketplaces
We’re happy to be noticed in Website Magazine as one of the TOP 50 alternative ad marketplaces. It means a lot to know our community has grown so much over the years with very little advertising and mostly hard work by our staff and most importantly, our customers telling their friends, families and business associates. We’ll keep on truckin’ on our way to the top!
Website Stats – Never Better
If you’ve been like many other customers, you’ve often wished we had better stats for partner listings. Believe me when I say, it’s been an extremely sore subject with us for quite a while!
With lots of new code and lots of new servers, we’ve managed to get a new process in place that will keep all sites in our inventory equal to or less than 30 days old thanks to a new website designers team who pitch in the process.
In addition to improving our stats data, we’ve also incorporated ways to purchase and/or add to your wish list(s) straight from the stats page, making the process of campaign building much easier than ever before.
Although we have a new product soon to be introduced (LinkBanners), the majority of our focus has been improving everything we have. We’ll keep everyone in the loop of new changes as they happen.
Follow LinkWorth on twitter to more current updates.
Authorize.net Goes Down In A Blaze of Glory
The title is only off by one word…”Glory”! Authorize.net, the payment gateway for 10’s of thousands of online businesses, had a fire in their datacenter that caused the sprinklers to go off and fry the generators. They’ve been down for over 12 hours of posting this and they’re slowing pulling things back together.
What does this mean for LinkWorth customers? Well, if you typically use a credit card for purchases, the transactions will not work currently. We do also have Paypal setup as a backup which we would recommend if you wish to make purchases or need to have renewals process. You can go to ‘my money’ > ‘add funds’ > ‘paypal deposit’ to make the alternate payment.
If you are a fellow merchant that also uses Authorize.net, if you wish to read about the issue further, you can pop over here to read more. You can also follow Authorize.net on their Twitter page here.
UPDATE
Authorize.net has processing back online and all testing on our end has gone without error. Obviously they’re still working on things and it’s possible some attempts might fail, but what they’re saying is it should be working as usual now. If you are still having billing issues, please send any billing errors to admin ^at^ linkworth dot com. You can also check for any updates on our LinkWorth Twitter page.
Bing Lights A Fire Under Google
There’s no secret that Microsoft is trying everything they can to reach Google’s level when it comes to search, while Google is trying everything they can to reach Microsoft’s level in everything else. I don’t think either have come close to taking over the others areas of expertise.
Microsoft’s new “decision engine”, BING, is their latest attempt to attract more search users and hopefully some of the advertising that comes with it. The results, to me, seem almost just like Google’s results, just with a bit more fluff involved.
Usually when Microsoft launches these new attempts, it seems Google doesn’t do much to react…except this time. According to the New York Post, Sergey has jumped in to run a team of the top cats to improve their search engine.
Since I read this story, I’ve been paying closer attention to the Google feed and they are having a lot of “improvements” popping out faster than normal.
- Page Speed
- SEO Starter Guide in 40 Languages (trying to keep the SEO people on their side..smart)
- Message Forwarding
- Complete Overhaul of Webmaster Tools Dash
- Update to Sitemaps
Then today I was doing a search and noticed they are labeling listings in their SERP’s that are forums. They are giving the total number of “posts” and total number of “authors“. I actually kind of like this because if you’re looking for help with something like a computer issue, I usually look for forum url’s but you never know what you’ll get until you open it. Now I can find the listings that are busier with the expectation of finding a solution. Here’s a screen shot:
The one thing I haven’t tested yet is when they show a listing that might be page 10 of 200 within a thread. Does it count the number of authors for the entire thread? Or is it just page specific?
Have you tried BING yet? I have to admit it’s kind of nice. Catchy name, results are very similar to Google and while they still have some kinks to work out, I think it has some advantages over Google.
Whether BING does well or not, at least they’re keeping Google from becoming complacent with their search product.
PowerMeter – Google Can Track Energy Use
All you need is a “smart meter” that allows Google to tap into your energy usage and they’ll tell you where you can save money based on consumption.
I have to give it to Google…they sure do have some smart people that come up with unique ideas. Go read more about PowerMeter over at their .org site.
Next on the invention table? Keyboards for your computer that read your fingerprints so online billing information is no longer needed. You go to a shopping cart and they know who you are already. The project will then turn into small electrical currents that are sent through the keys into the human body where they can read your brain and index your entire life.
Ad:Tech San Francisco – Next Week
Ad:tech San Francisco is starting up next week (April 21-23) with the actual exhibit hall being Tuesday the 22nd & Wednesday the 23rd. LinkWorth will have a booth on the 2nd floor right as you walk in the entrance, booth 2545.
This is our first trip to one of the ad:tech conferences. We’ve always chosen other conferences in the past but this year we wanted to give it a shot. We hear it’s one of the busiest, as far as foot traffic, and also a really good time, but we’ll see how things go.
If you’re attending, please stop by and ask Jeffrey about his hair.
Upcoming Upgrades to LinkWorth
We have decided to make 2009, the year of upgrading. We know there are many things people would like to see differently, so we’re putting ‘most’ of the new development on the back burner while we make what we have better. I thought it would be good to inform everyone of what to expect in the near future.
Here are a few changes to look for soon:
- REPORTING: – we are about to launch a much needed reporting upgrade. It’s something that has been one of the most requested, and we finally have the manpower to put it into production. We are about to launch our new reporting that will help display the numbers you have always wanted with LinkWorth.
- LinkBB (Billboard Ads): – our LinkBB has been around for a few years and was the first of it’s kind in our market. Almost like a magazine advertorial, but a web version. However, things have changed since we were the first to launch this type of product, so it is time to give it a much needed upgrade. Look for the upgrades you’ve always wanted with our LinkBB product within the next couple of weeks.
- LinkInTxt Upgrade: – our LinkInTxt product is a very hot commodity. It’s something that is becoming more popular by the day. The way we currently discover new keywords or key phrases is outdated. We are working on a more updated way to discover new keywords and key phrases on partner sites/blogs. This means more opportunities for partners and more opportunities for advertisers.
- Banner Ads!: – we announced the upcoming new product a while back but had to put it on hold while we worked on other improvements. The new product is back into production and we’re extremely excited about launching it soon. Banner ads have made a huge comeback, so offering it to our customers makes complete sense.
This is just a small list of upgrades we have on deck. Our goal is to make the Control Center much easier to use and maintain. Since our staff uses it daily, their feedback is usually very similar to much of our customers. If you have suggestions, PLEASE send them to admin **at** linkworth **dot** com.
Cleir dot com – Hall of Shame Nomination
Typically, someone really has to do a bonehead thing to get the hall of shame award. Cleir.com pulled a completely bonehead move, but I don’t think they really turned into a complete douche of a company to earn the actual award. Which, by my rules, is actually worse than winning the award. You suck enough to get nominated, but you don’t suck enough to win!
Nalin Singapuri, who is a co-founder and developer of Cleir dot com, was recently contacted by one of our sales people and he thought he would be Mr. Bigshot and fire back with a “I know it all” attitude. He made idiotic claims regarding laws of email and his “worthless” knowledge of SEO. Which is what his company seems to offer to their clients.
Let me be the first to inform anyone looking for SEO or web development, DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH CLEIR DOT COM! This clown who says he’s a co-founder, knows absolutely ZERO about the industry. I’m sure he’s read a few blogs, which probably makes him a seasoned pro, but the truth is, Nalin Singapuri, co-founder and developer of Cleir dot com is a bubble gum dispenser SEO company. Here is “Nalin’s” bio:
Nalin – one of cleirs cofounders – primarily focuses on Search Engine Optimization and Marketing of PHP e-commerce sites. In the past he has worked with Native Sun Communications, Home Prodigy, Museum of Jewelry and others in the capacity of a lead developer.
The good thing is, he primarily focuses on SEO and Marketing. www.cleir.com is the exact type of “SEO” or “web marketing” company that this industry needs less of. I’ll go ahead and let Quest RV continue to hold the coveted trophy because Nalin and Cleir dot com doesn’t really deserve anything but a tongue lashing.