Here is a neat little trick I came across that allows you to make Google display the search results as if you were searching from an different country.

See, with the Googles adwords program, advertisers can choose to display their ads to only certain countries, thus eliminating wasted clicks. If your business can only service people in Australia, what good is having your adverts displayed to those in Belgium, right ?

So, whilst doing some “strategic industry research” for On Hold Advertising I wanted to try and find some proactive international on hold companies (read: overseas adword advertisers) I could contact and create some strategic marketing alliances with (more on that technique in another post). But given I am located in Australia, its not that easy…

However what I discovered is that by adding the code ‘&gl=us‘ to the end of a searches url, it will display those results as if searched from that country.

For example, if I search ‘messages on hold’ from Australia I get the results and adwords from Australian companies that have added ‘messages on hold’ to their list of keywords. And the url that is generated is:

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=messages+on+hold&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-44,GGGL:en

Now by adding the code &gl=us to the end of this string in the browsers address bar I get the results as if I was in the US.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=messages+on+hold&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-44,GGGL:en&gl=us

Neat trick to see what the pro-active businesses in your industry are doing online…

If you want to do this for other countries here are Googles Country Codes.

Technorati Tags: adwords, google, messages on hold, on hold advertising

I can’t believe I missed this…

In early January the Australian Institute For Commercialisation published a press release “calling on all Australians “from individual inventors and entrepreneurs to those working in industry, research organisations, or government to adopt 2007 as the Year of the Idea.”

“Everybody has at least one idea everyday, but how many people actually do something with them? Ideas have the capacity to transform our lifestyles, our businesses and our economies and yet many of these ideas are hidden or even discarded. Now is the time to harvest more ideas and reap the rewards.”

I couldn’t agree more…

Something else I pulled off their blog is:

“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas is a famous quote from double Nobel Prize laureate Linus Pauling”

For those of you playing along at home…we have just launched an all new website for On Hold Advertising.

Please check it out and leave me your comments:
www.onholdadvertising.com.au

Technorati Tags: on hold advertising,messages on hold

Hi All,

I just wanted to touch base and let you know what I am up to this weekend, because I hope you’d like to contribute.. and if you do, I have a thank-you gift I’d like to give you.

See this weekend is the Geelong Relay For Life. The Relay for Life is an overnight team event to raise funds for cancer research, education and patient support programs.

How does it work?

It’s a team challenge! – The challenge is for teams of 10 or more to complete a relay-style walk or run at selected venues throughout Australia. Team members take turns to keep their baton moving overnight, enjoying the sensational festive atmosphere created through entertainment, camping, spot prizes and, most importantly, the vibrancy of the hundreds of lively people on the track!

How can you help ?

Now I am not looking to team members, that’s all taken car of…. but what I am looking for is support from you in the ‘fund raising area’. Almost everyone has been affected by the terrible disease of cancer and it is important that we all work towards a cure. If you would like to help contribute to this great cause please click the button below now, which will take you to a paypal site where you can make a donation of your choice.

or pay directly via the Relay For Life page here