Michael Roebuck's Blog

With all the recent hype about tracking your sales, many people are flocking to companies such as "Keyword Max" or "Engine Ready" to create tracking programs. But did you know a basic tracking feature is included with Yahoo! Store, Yahoo! Merchant Standard and Yahoo! Merchant Professional?

In your store manager, on the lower left side under the "Promote" heading, you'll see two links. One called "Create links" and another called "Track Links." This is Yahoo's built in affiliate program that also works great as a tracking tool. Click here for Official Yahoo! Help File but it's pretty easy to set up. First, click on "Create Links" to create a tracking link and then click on "Track Links" to track it. Pretty easy.

When you create the link, you'll be given a URL that looks like:

"http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink
?yhst-123456789876+Xv9r4x+index.html."
Change the last part of the URL, "index.html", to be the destination page within your store that you want the customer to land on. Now, use that URL in your advertising. The above example would now look something like:

"http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink
?yhst-123456789876+Xv9r4x+mypagename.html."

To track the results of your advertising, simply click on "Track Links" and view the results. At a glance, you can view visits, orders and the revenue generated from that link.

Be aware though, if you use multiple Yahoo! Tracked Links, note that the most recent link clicked on will get credit for the sale. For example, Let's say you are using a Yahoo Track Link in an email and also on a specials page within your website. The customer clicks on the link in the email and while reviewing your website, clicks on the specials page that is also using a Yahoo Track Link, then places an order. The credit for that sale will go to the specials page because that was the last track link the customer clicked on.

Note also that the Yahoo! Track Links feature will not work on pages that have been saved and then forwarded. For example, I click on the trackable link and forward the page to my home computer. Because I didn't forward the trackable link and click on it with my home computer, the tracking will not work and will not get credit for the sale.

It's not a perfect system, but certainly an easy way to set up and perform a multitude of tests without spending money on additional services or software. I've successfully used the Yahoo! Trackable Links feature in Email Campaigns, Pay Per Click Engines, Links within websites to test sales on certain pages and many other instances. It's quick, fairly accurate and EASY!

Go ahead and play with it. Happy tracking!

If you are a Yahoo! Store owner and are using the new Yahoo Checkout, then you must be accepting payments from PayPal.

Before Yahoo! integrated PayPal with the checkout process, we were using a PayPal hack that inserted a PayPal link on the order thank you page. This was nice because it allowed customers to pay via PayPal and still comply with Yahoo! Terms of Service. Unfortunately, customers could check the PayPal button to place an order and never go to PayPal to pay. Nevertheless, it was the only option available to sell product on your Yahoo Store via PayPal. Below is a graphic of what it looked like:



Notice how you are already on the order confirmation screen? This order has already been sent to the merchant for processing and the customer hasn't paid yet. It's a nice option as the customer can click on the PayPal logo and the PayPal account is automatically loaded and populated with the sale amount, but the merchant needs to log into PayPal before shipping to ensure payment was paid. Note this option is still available for those of you not wanting to upgrade to the Yahoo Checkout Version 3 yet.

Now enter Yahoo Checkout Version 3. This new version actually integrates with the PayPal API and takes you to PayPal to pay for your items before finalizing the order. Here is what your payment section of the shopping cart will look like with the Yahoo Store PayPal Integration:

Since this is located in the shopping cart and uses an API, this means that the payment is approved in PayPal before the order is even completed. No more customers "forgetting" to pay! It was a beautiful thing.

What I didn't realize was exactly how beautiful it really was. Here is one case study.

Client "A" sells "green widgets." Now these green widgets are fairly expensive and not something you'd find on eBay. In other words, not something that I would say demanded a PayPal checkout option. After all, with the current PayPal hack, PayPal amounted for only .6% of sales (Yup, less than 1%). Therefore it was low on the priority list. We eventually upgraded the shopping cart and eventually added PayPal as a payment option.

Now, with the PayPal integration in place, PayPal revenues are amounting to just under 10% of sales. I know, amazing right? 10% Of sales coming from PayPal! Now, keep in mind that I don't see all this as 10% additional revenue, but an alternative method of payment. Would the orders have come in anyway with a credit card? I don't know. That's just something that will remain unknown for now.

So before you jump in and think sales will increase 10%, don't hold me to that. It's simply another way for customers to buy from you. And as my Daddy always says, "If someone is willing to give you their hard earned money, take it any way you can, and thank them very much."

If you need help Integrating PayPal in your Yahoo! Store, We can help. Please contact us at 815-883-9462.

Today featured our annual pilgrimage to Yahoo! Several developers descended upon Yahoo to hear the latest and have discussions with the Yahoo Store personel. Strict Non-Disclosures mean the blog ends here!

Today began with a discussion between Danny Sullivan and Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; otherwise known as chief babysitter. I was waiting for great news or hints of upcoming features or at least a comment about the jet plane fiasco. I was disappointed. Eric touched on issues such as click fraud and how it was important as well as a new Google partnership with MTV and Myspace and how these new partnerships coupled with the Google personalized homepage allow users to customize search architecture.

Eric Schmidt did mention a bit about privacy and a bit about the AOL disaster. (AOL released search data but only replaced user names. This data was able to be studied and was actually tracked back to users) Eric Schmidt stated Google takes privacy very seriously and works hard to prevent such data from being stolen or released.

The discussion ended with a few questions about how many times Eric searched daily and what his favorite Google tool is.

While the discussion, I felt, was rather pre-scripted and noncommittal, it was nice to see Eric Schmidt and see how he spoke and held himself. Thepublics appearance was very nice and seeing the press coverage, or lack thereof, I guess others weren't as interested. Perhaps they already knew it was pre-written, pre-approved and not very exciting.

The day followed with two very exciting presentations. The first was a presentation on usability featuring Matt Bailey as a speaker. Matt was highly focused and truly passionate about the topic and it was excellent. I highly advise everyone to visit his web site: Matt Bailey

Matt mentioned calling items what they were. Don't call it a "service" or "product" as people don't search for services and products. He mentioned a product that he had heard about while doing a Direct Marketing seminar in Chicago. I presume he was talking about one of my clients because they too attended that show and advised me of his comments. The product is Boudreaux Butt Paste. Matt wants it called diaper rash cream and I agree with him but also feel the brand name needs to be promoted as well.

A few takeaways include: Try tabs instead of graphical links and the "Add To Cart" button can never be too big. Also, Shari Thurow stated her friend advised her that, "Most people are basically stupid." Ironically, in another session, Todd Friesen stated to expect your customers to be dumb as a rock.

The second very exciting presentation included Rob Snell pimping Jenni Li's Yahoo web site. As a Yahoo Store developer, I was especially excited to hear a few shout outs for Yahoo Store but mostly I was excited for Rob. Rob is a good friend and to see him slowly getting the recognition for his outstanding work and contributions is exciting. If you are looking for a conversion expert, look up Rob Snell.

Press Coverage










Kelly and Karl at Yahoo






Matt Bailey






Rob Snell

Day 2 at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose has been a rather interesting one. I just returned from the Google Dance and it's late. Here is a very brief summary of the day; The highlight was a live demonstration of Yahoo Search Marketing's new Ad Platform scheduled for release in Q4. The "Googling of Yahoo" as one attendee coined it.

The new PPC ad platform means ads will no longer be positioned by money alone. It will now include quality. We've known about these changes for some time now but today was the first day we got to see it work. Some other changes include the ability to run and test multiple creatives (AB Split), run in geographic regions, etc. Much like Google. Two features I liked were the ability for Yahoo to spider your site and suggest keywords based upon your own site and the ability to not only place a maximum budget on your entire account but place a budget on campaigns as well. The keyword suggestions will be great for beginners and the budget will prevent total account shut-down should one of your campaigns become too expensive. A few pictures of screen shots of the new ad platform are below. Sorry, they are very blurry. Please don't ask me to fully explain each picture.

Another seminar included one about press releases. Did you know that 50 million americans read news on the Internet daily? 40% of searches on the Internet are for news. Press releases have surpassed trade publications as top news sources and Yahoo news is much more popular than Google news. In short, continue writing your press releases and ensure they are optimized for correct key phrases. (That's key phrases as told by Yahoo as they are the most popular... hint-hint)

Lastly, the Google Dance was a success as always. Good food, Good drinks, Good friends and Good Fun. Here are some random pictures from the show followed by the Google Dance. Have fun and we'll see what tomorrow brings. Two more days of this crazy excitement!

Matt Cutts from Google showing his dance moves at the mention of the upcoming Google Dance. This was a duplicate content panel that got rather lively at the mentioning of automatic word replacement to throw off the search engines from detecting duplicate content.


Co-Worker, Karl Ribas and Lori Weiman from Keyword Max: One of our PPC tracking partners.

And Now....
The Google Dance














Karl, Jessica and myself performing "What I Like About You" live at the Google Dance. As a special, "You saw it here first" treat, I've obtained the rights from Karl and Jessica to post some of this live performance. I've converted it to a 20MB file in MP4 format and you should be able to save it direct to your computer and then play. Enjoy! To download the video, Right Click on the link; Live from the GooglePlex: Michael, Karl and Jessica and then choose, "Save Target As." Save the file and double click the file once downloaded to your computer. (No autographs please, but we are booking for next season)




Super Special Treat.... Karl with Hat Head

Time has come yet again for another Search Engine Strategies conference. I always look forward to these events as I get to hear the latest from the search engines and I also get to see friends and colleagues that I've gotten to know over the years in the same industry. When you live in a small town like I do, it's nice to be able to talk with others that understand what you are talking about. I was especially pleased to run into an old colleague, Warren Duff from I Need Hits. He was a regular at these shows but has since moved up throughout the company and doesn't travel as much nowadays. We had a nice chat. It's probably been about 3 years since I've seen him. Of course I ran into other friends as well; Rob Snell, Dave Burke, and others.

Today was an interesting day. It's kind of a blur. Sometimes time flew by and others it seemed to lie still. It definately was a day of statistics. One fact that I hadn't really realized was the increase in paid advertising in search. Sure, we've all seen it, but I never put two and two together. The search engines are making money from the paid ads right? Then it's only logical that they show the ads more often. Because Search Engines are showing more ads, the organic to paid ad click ratio is changing. Over 70% of searches contain a paid ad. It used to be about 70% of searchers clicked on organic results and 30% clicked on paid. That ratio is now changing and 62% of the searchers are unaware of the difference! According to Comscore, there has been a 38% increase in paid traffic click thru's and a 29% increase in organic from last year.

Also, because big brands are putting more money into paid ads, they are driving up the prices and shutting out the small businesses. Because of this, there has been a big shift towards local search. We have already seen this and work with local search, but if you aren't testing local search, you need to start.

Another interesting study was with Enquiro and the heat maps. There studies show that searchers look at the paid listings on Google but not MSN. Go figure! We don't do a lot with MSN PPC because of very low conversions. I guess we aren't alone!

Some more fun facts for parties include:

According to Nielsen/Netratings; Market Share:
49.4% Google
23.0% Yahoo
10.3% MSN
6.9% AOL
2.3 Ask


According to Hitwise; Market Share:
60.2% Google
22.5% Yahoo
11.9% MSN
3.3% Ask
2.2% Other


Comscore reports:
Google Users typically have higher incomes
MSN Users typically are older than 35 years old
Yahoo Users typically are younger than 35


iProspect reports that 68% searchers click on the first page of results only.


Enquiro reports the best PPC positions to be in are 1,2,3,7 or 8.


Everyone typically agrees that you need to do both; top position PPC (if your conversions allow) and organic listings. Searchers tend to think those listings in the top 3 to 5 positions are authorities on the searched subject. Therefore, get top rankings!

You like statistics? Visit Hitwise blog at ILoveData.com.

OK, that's enough statistics for one day. Come back tomorrow for day 2 of Search Engine Strategies from San Jose, California! (Or the next day as tomorrow is the Google Dance. I might be out late. Don't wait up for me!

Also, before I go..... We were fortunate enough to arrive in San Jose two days early so we could take the train to San Francisco. We had a great time and managed to visit Alcatraz. Below are some pictures of the trip. If ever in San Francisco, be sure to eat the Clam Chowder from a sourdough bread bowl as well. Absolutely delicious! Take Care and see you tomorrow!

Google Sitemaps Presentation. Lots of cool new happenings with Google.


Matt Cutts with Google


Karl and Jessica on the train to San Francisco.




Al Capone's cell














Remember my post about the oxygen bar in Las Vegas? I guess they have one in California as well! At least it wasn't next to a plastic surgery doctor.

Vacation time has come. And for me, has now gone. My family, along with my Dad, his wife, my brother, sister and respective families converged on a house in Isle of Palms, South Carolina for a week of rest and relaxation. My Dad and my family headed out Friday morning in an RV for the 15 hour drive down. I recently acquired a cellular wireless PCMCIA card for my laptop, so I was checking email and looking at statistics while driving through the beautiful countryside. I know, warped version of a vacation.

Because of the upcoming West Coast Swing; AKA Search Engine Strategies in San Jose next week I flew home yesterday in order to work today and Friday before we fly out to California on Saturday for a week. My beautiful wife and family are still sunning it up while I'm stuck here reformatting a hard drive from a crashed computer. Not what I was hoping to be doing. What I need to be doing is taking my mother-in-law out to dinner in hopes she'll feel sorry for me and do my laundry before I go.

Anyway, with the recent Microsoft Adcenter changes and Yahoo Search Marketing (Formerly Overture) changes along with several rants about Google Adwords raising various bid minimums, tied in with an annual visit to Yahoo to see the design reps and get specific solutions to various new problems, a trip to California couldn't have come at a better time. Also, I'm sure you all know about the Google settlement being approved. I wonder what the Google dance will be like. Since they are only liable for $90 million, they should have a few extra hundred thousand to put on a traditionally good time. I wonder what we'll hear about the Google Jet that has caused so much controversy the past few weeks. Who cares. Let the boys play with their toys.

Since I'm on Google; what's been up with them lately? Is it just me or have they been a real pain in the butt lately. With the Adwords upping my minimums on various accounts and representatives giving me contradictory advice on why it's happening along with dealing with Terms of Service for the new checkout service (I design Yahoo Stores) and several other little fires, it's really been a headache. I don't know why Yahoo Search (Overture) feels they have to change to be more like Google. They, for once, have not been the cause of my problems!

Anyway, I'm discussing search engines this entry. Today I write about my family. I told you we went to the beach right? The weather was beautiful. Actually, too beautiful. I would have preferred overcast weather but that's just because of my lily white skin and tendency to burn quickly. But I showered in Sun Block and suffered through it. My kids really had a great time. From boogy boarding to collecting sea shells to searching for crabs at night with a flashlight. It was an action packed time with lots of laughs and truly a fun time. It was a first beach experience for several of my children and watching them play in the surf was fun. I wish I could still be with them.

View of the pool and ocean from the back porch


View of the pool with some of the gang in it


My son, Malcolm, relaxing in the pool


My other son, Zach studying the layout to determine his boating path

Below are other pictures of shell searching, crab hunting and generally playing around. My son Nathan and daughter Toni were even brave enough to pick up a few crabs.

Enjoy and see you San Jose!

I couldn't have beach pictures and not include a picture of an angel!