Yahoo! released an update earlier this week that they are now posting at the top of all Paid Search accounts. The message does not provide any new insights about the merger of Yahoo! and Bing search, but rather assures advertisers that their balances and accounts will be transitioned smoothly. They have even taken this a step further by providing a link to the Yahoo! Transition Center…I’m not joking!

The Search Alliance update mentions that there is no rush to create an Adcenter account immediately if you don’t already have one. They casually suggest making the move in the next couple months. I disagree with there statement and here is why…

Experts like Addie Connor have suggested with their studies that the older a campaign is the better the Quality Score will be in Bing. By creating an Adcenter account today and migrating your Yahoo! accounts over, you are giving Bing plenty of time to evaluate your keywords and ad copy. We all know that age plays a huge roll in Organic Search so it only makes sense that it would carry over into Paid.

Bottom Line: Get your Yahoo Paid Search accounts copied over to Adcenter ASAP!

Read the full article on the Yahoo Blog.

Linkedin.com sent out an email this morning offering $100 of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for free. I know I am not the only Linkedin user to get this opportunity so make sure you check your email and double check your spam mail folder.

I have heard several people say that the targeting for Linkedin PPC is not that great in this first version of Linkedin advertising. Hopefully they will create some additional targeting features for us to choose from. I will be using this $100 promo code as a test to see how their system works. Stay tuned.

This week I came across a few interesting articles that were worth pointing out to our readers. Take a look and be sure to add your comments!

Pretty sweet installation video of an iPad being custom built into a Toyota dashboard. I was honestly disappointed it wasn’t in a cooler car, but oh well. Seen first on Mashable.com.

Read the full article at the Google Webmaster Central Blog.

Code to insert into your XML sitemap for images:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″
xmlns:image=”http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1″>
<url>
<loc>http://example.com/sample.html</loc>
<image:image>
<image:loc>http://example.com/image.jpg</image:loc>
</image:image>
</url>
</urlset>

What are Yahoo! Smart Ads? Great question! Yahoo! is offering a better way to target the right demographic for your products and services. These Smart Ads have automated optimization to help ensure that each message is hitting the right users at the right time! You can read more about Yahoo! Smart Ads on their official page or watch the Smart Ads Demo video!

Features & Benefits:

• Real-Time Delivery of “Right Time, Right Product” Offer
• Delivers right message to distinct user groups based on targeting such as behavior, demo, geo, lifestyle and more
• Greater ad and landing page relevance
• Demonstrated lift in response and engagement
• Read more benefits & features from Yahoo!

If you have a blog or a website in a niche market you are more than likely enjoying the benefits of displaying Google Adsense. If for some reason you have not signed up for a FREE Google Adsense account…you need to get on it! It is quick and easy to setup and the payout can get quite ridiculous depending upon your site’s traffic volume and the competition in your market.

Google Adsense Options:

1. Adsense for Content
2. Adsense for Search
3. Adsense for Feeds (RSS & Atom)
4. Adsense for Domains (Make money on your parked domains!!)
5. Adsense for Mobile Content

Skype just blasted all of their subcribers with an email today offering free Wifi access uses hundreds of Wifi hotspots across the globe. In this email they also extend an offer to join the Skype affiliate program. Read the full article below and give the skype wifi a try if you are interested.

Skype Wifi Weekend:

Skype’s latest product, Skype Access will enable free WiFi access in over 100,000 hotspots worldwide this coming weekend, 20-21 March 2010.

Skype Access lets anyone pay for WiFi access per minute using Skype Credit, so that they can surf the web, email and make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls in a massive network of WiFi hotspots including cafés, hotels and airports worldwide.

From 00.00 GMT on Saturday 20 March to 23.59 GMT on Sunday 21 March, Skype Access will be completely free to use from anywhere in the world. All that?s needed is a connection to a Skype Access Hotspot and the latest version of Skype (Windows 4.2 or Mac 2.8) which can be downloaded from www.skype.com/go/download

You may also find a list of skype wifi spots on skype.com.

SEM Dave made me aware of the Google Webmaster Tools change this month. On March 8th Google added a new section on the left column called Labs. In this section you have the option to examine your site with Fetch as Googlebot, Malware details, Sidewiki, and Site performance details. It was also noted that they now give webmasters the option to block specific Sitelinks that are unwanted.

Take a look at your account and see how your site is doing. If you do not yet have a Google Webmaster tools account, get one!

Microsoft just sent out an email today that mentions the improvements for the Adcenter desktop tool. Below is what Microsoft had to say about the new improvements to their tool.

We’ve even made recent improvements to adCenter Desktop that make it faster and easier to make bulk changes to your adCenter account. The latest version of Desktop now includes:

• A clearer, easier-to-understand user interface.
• Faster campaign importing from other search engines.
• Targeting via importing and exporting

You’ll also find keyword research tools within adCenter Desktop, so you can easily build or add to your keyword lists offline and then upload them at your convenience when you’re back online.

You can download the new and improved Microsoft Adcenter or just update your current version.