South Florida Web Marketing Blog

Google is expanding it's marketing reach by adding the ability to include print ads in newspapers.

This is the e-mail I received from Google: 

Google AdWords Invitation from Google: Try newspaper ads and receive $1,000 in credit.

Greetings,

We're excited to introduce to you Google Print Ads, a new extension of Google AdWords that makes it easy to run ads in newspapers across the U.S. There's now a Print Ads tab in your AdWords account where you can do it all: choose from over 200 daily newspapers (from small local papers to major nationwide publications), set your own price, upload your ads, and manage multiple newspaper campaigns all from one easy online interface.

To help you get started, we're offering you the opportunity to receive up to $1,000 toward a Google Print Ads campaign. All you have to do is publish a newspaper ad by August 31, 2007 using the new Print Ads tab in your AdWords account. Then you'll receive either $500 or $1,000 in credits toward future Google Print Ads campaigns.

Here's how the credit works:

    * If your Print Ads advertisement runs in a newspaper by August 31, 2007, you'll qualify for a $500 Google Print Ads credit.
      
    * If you use one of the participating ad creation specialists to create your newspaper ad, you'll qualify for an additional $500 credit.
      
    * All credits will be applied to your Google Print Ads account within 30 days of the end of the promotion on August 31, 2007. Since you'll receive the promotional credit after you've been charged for your newspaper campaign costs, the $500 or $1,000 credit will be applied toward future costs.

Note that if you use one of the participating ad creation services to create your professional newspaper ad, the specialist will charge you separately, and the credit cannot be applied directly to these fees. When you use these creative services, the additional credit will be for $500, regardless of how much you pay for these services.

Print advertising can be the perfect complement to your online AdWords campaigns. With professional help to create your ad and a credit to help cover your Print Ads campaign costs, it's now even easier to see how newspaper advertising can work for you. Learn more about the Google Print Ads program and the benefits of newspaper advertising.

Or, sign in and try Google Print Ads now!

Please contact us if you have any questions about the promotion or about the Print Ads program.

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team

If you have not used Google's Analytics, you might be surprised how informative it can be. I had gotten this e-mail from Google about the service and decided to post the overview of the upgraded service.

The release of a new version of the Google Analytics reporting interface

For a smooth transition, we've listed some helpful resources and notes below.  Also, you will still be able to access your old reporting interface for at least a month by clicking "Previous Interface" below the "View Reports" link for any profile in your account. Other than a few improvements detailed in the version notes below, your data and configuration settings remain unaffected by your choice of interface and your data continues to be tracked in the same way as it was prior to this redesign.

*What is new?* In the new version, your reports have been redesigned for clarity, greater visibility of important metrics, and ease of use.  Here are just a few of the features you'll
notice:

    – Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc
      personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.

    – Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all
      the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can
      email to others.

    – Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select
      date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.

    – Contextual help tips: Context sensitive Help and Conversion
      University tips are available from every report.

The new interface has everything the previous interface had and more. In addition, links within reports make it easier to navigate related information and explore your data.

The following resources are available to help you get the most from the new Google Analytics interface:

    – Report Finder Tool: will help you see where data from the
      previous interface is located within the new version (it is
      also linked to from within your reports on the left
      navigation menu):
      http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/static.py?page=v1v2map.cs

    – Product tour:
      http://services.google.com/analytics/tour/index_en-US.html

    – FAQs for more details about the new version:
      http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/static.py?page=FAQ.cs

    – Help Center: includes articles related to the new version:
      http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/

    – Support: if you encounter any issues with the new version
      that you can't resolve with the help center, you can contact
      our support team through the Contact Us link at the bottom of
      the help center web page, or receive higher-touch support
      through a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant.  Find one
      here:
      http://www.google.com/analytics/support_partner_provided.html

    – Analytics Help Forum: If you would like to discuss the new
      version or get tips from experienced users, please visit the
      Analytics Help Forum in English within Google Groups at:
      http://groups.google.com/group/analytics-help

A few notes about the new version:

    – The new version works best with Flash 7 or higher. Most
      browsers have this installed already, if yours does not,
      please download it at Adobe.com <http://www.adobe.com/>.

    – Google Analytics now uses the same geo-data source as
      AdWords, therefore, map and geo-location report results may
      vary slightly between the previous interface and the new
      interface. For those of you with filters designed for
      geo-data, you may want to verify the results and edit if
      necessary.

    – Limiting the Available Reports for a profile by specifying
      which Report Dashboards and Report Categories are available
      has been removed from the product in favor of the new
      customizable Google Analytics dashboard. If you would like to
      limit the availability of data within a certain profile for
      certain users, we recommend removing those users from the
      profile and instead scheduling an email to deliver data to
      them.
 

The CAN-SPAM Act is an important set of rules for all companies should know about massive e-mailing. The following information came straight from the FTC.

The CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site. A “transactional or relationship message” – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. CAN-SPAM also gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators, as well.

What the Law Requires

Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:

• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
• It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
• It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
  
  
• It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

Penalties

Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.

Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules described above, but also:

• “harvest” email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email
• Generate email addresses using a “dictionary attack” – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations
• Use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email
• Relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.

The law allows the DOJ to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial emailers who do – or conspire to:

• Use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it
• Use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message
• Falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages
• Register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant
• Falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.

Additional Rules

The FTC will issue additional rules under the CAN-SPAM Act involving the required labeling of sexually explicit commercial email and the criteria for determining “the primary purpose” of a commercial email. Look for the rule covering the labeling of sexually explicit material in April 2004; “the primary purpose” rulemaking will be complete by the end of 2004. The Act also instructs the FTC to report to Congress in summer 2004 on a National Do Not E-Mail Registry, and issue reports in the next two years on the labeling of all commercial email, the creation of a “bounty system” to promote enforcement of the law, and the effectiveness and enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act.

See the FTC Web site at www.ftc.gov/spam for updates on implementation of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The FTC maintains a consumer complaint database of violations of the laws that the FTC enforces. Consumers can submit complaints online at www.ftc.gov and forward unwanted commercial email to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.

For More Information

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair practices in the marketplace and to provide information to businesses to help them comply with the law. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

Your Opportunity to Comment

The National Small Business Ombudsman and 10 Regional Fairness Boards collect comments from small businesses about federal compliance and enforcement activities. Each year, the Ombudsman evaluates the conduct of these activities and rates each agency’s responsiveness to small businesses. Small businesses can comment to the Ombudsman without fear of reprisal. To comment, call toll-free 1-888-REGFAIR (1-888-734-3247) or go to www.sba.gov/ombudsman.

This is amazing…

California will be home to the 80-megawatt plant, 17-times bigger than the nation's current largest.
July 6 2007: 4:42 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — A San Francisco company said Friday it plans to build the world's largest, solar power "farm" near Fresno, California.

The 80-megawatt farm is to occupy as much as 640 acres (260 hectares) and, upon completion in 2011, will be 17 times the size of the largest U.S. solar farm, said Cleantech America LLC, a privately held 2-year-old company.

The farm will also be about seven times the size of the world's biggest plant and double the largest planned farm, both in Germany.
Big Solar's day in the sun

Bill Barnes, CEO of Cleantech, said the scale of the San Joaquin Valley Customer Choice Solar Farm will change renewable energy and make California the global leader for huge solar projects and replace Germany as the solar energy hub of the world.

"We're pretty confident that solar farms on this scale are going to have an industry-changing impact," Barnes said by telephone on Friday. "We think it's the wave of the future. This scale of project, I think, creates a tipping point for renewable energy."

Barnes declined to give the estimated construction cost of the Customer Choice farm.

"We think the impact for it will be similar to the impact of the computer chip," Barnes said.

"So too will economies of scale like the Customer Choice farm drive down the cost of solar," Barnes said.

Cleantech has announced two solar farms so far and the future projects it will announce are, as of now, to be in California and also in the range of the 80-megawatt farm near Fresno, Barnes said.

Cleantech will partner with public agency California Construction Authority in building its projects.

Among the hurdles to be crossed before the new farm can be built, said Barnes, is buying the acreage somewhere in the San Joaquin Valley, hooking the farm to transmission lines, and contracting with a manufacturer of photovoltaic solar panels.

Cleantech plans to sell the solar-generated power – enough for almost 21,000 homes – to the Kings River Conservation District, which is a public agency that seeks to supply power generation for 12 cities and two counties in California's Central Valley.

Kings River is the water management arm of the San Joaquin Valley Power Authority, which was formed in November in order to purchase and generate enough power for the 12 cities and two counties to replace power now bought from investor-owned utilities Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (a unit of PG&E Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500)) and Southern California Edison (Charts, Fortune 500) (a unit of Edison International).

Last week, Cleantech announced plans to build a five-megawatt solar farm on 40 acres near Mendota, California, also in the Central Valley. Power will be delivered to PG&E.

The biggest solar farm now in operation is the 4.6-megawatt Springerville Generating Station near Tucson, Arizona, which delivers power to Tucson Electric Power, a subsidiary of UniSource Energy Corp. (Charts)

The Customer Choice farm will not need state approval because Kings River is a self-generator and the farm is a renewable resource and does not emit pollution, Barnes said. But that designation must be approved by the California Energy Commission. Local permits must be given, he added.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/06/news/companies/solar.reut/index.htm