To publicize our CMS and CRM Vendor Satisfaction Reports, we tried including, in an AdWords campaign, the names of the software covered in the reports -- "Plone", "Drupal", "Salesforce", and so on. For 2 days, our impressions shot into the thousands. On day 3, it dropped to, oh, 36, 37 per day, and there was a message from Google that said, basically: "Your clickthrough performance is too anemic to be worthy of these keywords, so we've turned them off. Please increase your bid or improve your CTR."

Aaaaand they're still turned off.

So, I'm looking forward to our upcoming webinar, "Optimizing Keywords in AdWords", the 2nd in our series on AdWords, presented by some wonderful people on the Google Grants team.

We at NTEN love us some Google Grants. After a little trial and error, our complimentary AdWords account now provides nearly 5% of our total site traffic, almost all of it new to our community. Okay, a lot of trial and error. And some grumbling. And maybe a little cursing. If only we scheduled our webinars to meet our internal learning needs!

Our upcoming webinar series on Google Adwords, to be presented by members of the Google Grants team, promises to take a lot of the mystery out of a system that only appears simple.

> Learn more and register today!

Around here, one of the best indicators of success is the G word: If we put Google in a blog post, webinar, NTC session, or Ask the Expert call, we know that not only will you show up, you'll practically devour our offering. You can't get enough Google, and we can't answer your questions about their nonprofit offerings fast enough!

Luckily for us, the folks behind the Google for Nonprofits initiative have kindly set up a Nonprofit Google Group where you can ask questions and get answers to your heart's content.

Of course, we'll keep trying to satiate your Google hunger. We've got an Ask the Expert Session scheduled for August about all things YouTube. More Google Grants/AdWords content is on the horizon as well.

There's nothing like a little peer pressure when you need someone to do something. Combine it with instant gratification and total transparency and you have the fundraising triumvirate!

Google Checkout has a great little campaign going on in honor of Earth Day that gives you all three:

• You make a donation to an enviro org on someone's behalf.
• That certain someone gets an email and asks them to do the same.
• As the donations tally up, you get a personalized map showing all the people you inspired to donate, illustrating your network effect.

So, who wants to see if their friends are more generous then my friends?

Salesforce.com and Google announced a new level of integration today.  At first blush, a few things stand out:

• If you're already a user of Google Apps and Salesforce.com, installation is a breeze.  We configured the framework, then added Google Docs integration in roughly 2 minutes, 17 seconds.  (Yes, we counted.)  Now we can access Google Docs, and attach them to Salesforce.com records, from within Salesforce.
• The star of the show may be Gmail integration.  With two clicks, you can now attach messages sent from Gmail -- or even chats from Google Talk -- to a Salesforce record, where it is stored under Communication History.  This means that everybody in your organization will be able to access every email sent to a particular contact, without annoying CC::ed trails or desperate attempts to remember which keyword might bring a particular message from your 3 GB email archive to the top of your search results.  Nice!
• Events from within Salesforce can be viewed in Google Calendar, giving you a timeline view of your workflow.
• The demo people at Salesforce have pretty cool jobs.  Check out their 3-D demo:

At the close of his session at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference on Thursday afternoon, Google Adwords Evangelist Frederick Vallaeys announced a new partnership between Google and NTEN.

"Due to our similar goals in supporting the non-profit community, particularly through technology, Google Grants and NTEN are partnering to enhance their impact on non-profits. We would like to invite all qualifying NTEN organizations to apply to Google Grants and we will expedite the review of those that apply."

How cool is that? Very.

If you don't already know about Google Grants, they allow qualified nonprofits to use Google Adwords for the low, low price of free.

To take advantage of this offer:

• If you're not yet a member of NTEN, join today!
  
• Then, apply for the Google Grant at http://www.google.com/grants through Google's easy online application. Please spend some time reviewing the site to learn more about the program, eligibility, grant details, etc.
• Finally, send an email to grants-nten@google.com to help Google identify you as an NTEN member, which should hasten your application through the process.

I like to hang out where the cool kids are: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. And, of course, the Google Checkout Blog! This is how I learned that Google has put together a nice holiday page for those of you looking to spend a few bucks on a good cause. If you already have a Google account, the giving is that much easier!

Who isn't looking to drive more traffic to their web sites? Google AdWords is one of the most effective ways to do just that. And, thanks to the Google Grants Program, qualifying nonprofits can employ this marketing tool for free.

Following the enormous success of our webinar on Google Analytics, NTEN nabbed Google AdWords Evangelist Frederick Vallaeys for a two-part series on AdWords.

> Join us on Tuesday, October 16th, for "Introduction to Google AdWords", when we'll explore how Google AdWords works and learn the basics of running a campaign, including:

• Understanding the elements of an AdWords Campaign
• Selecting keywords and writing copy
• Setting pricing
• Tracking the results

> Register Today for "Introduction to Google AdWords"

> Come back on Thursday, October 18th, for "Advanced Google AdWords", to learn the tips and tricks that will make your AdWords campaigns hum:

• Improving your ad and keywords
• Managing multiple campaigns effectively
• Preparing effective landing pages

> Register Today for "Advanced Google AdWords"!

 

When: Tuesday & Thursday, October 16th & 18th, 11 am PT / 2 pm ET

Cost: $25 for NTEN Members, $50 for non-members (per webinar)

Presented by: Frederick Vallaeys, Google AdWords Evangelist

NTEN Members: Don't forget that if you renew with NTEN right now, you'll receive a $25 coupon good toward your next event registration. Renew your membership today and attend this webinar for free!

Google recently announced that presentations have been added to Google Docs, enabling users to create, import, collaborate, and even show their presentations online. But how does this new addition to Google Docs stack up against the par for the course, Microsoft Powerpoint?

Hard though it may be to take a pink site seriously, if you care about the future of internet access, you owe it to yourself to read David Weinberger’s broadside against the telecommunications industry, “Delamination Now!” David worries that “the incumbent carriers” are trying to turn the Internet into cable television, with a pricing model that will allow them to charge different amounts for different types of data or favor one content provider over another.

Network neutrality, the flipside of the current carriers’ model, would treat a bit as a bit, and nothing more. Payment to wholesale providers would be made for bandwidth used, while a new breed of ISPs could compete by offering different services: anonymity from one, outrageous connection speeds from another. David’s piece is passionate, heartfelt, and sure to provoke debate.