Girl Named Captain

(Thanks Trophico for this link)

Above the Fold
A term traditionally used to describe the top portion of a newspaper. In email or web marketing it means the area of content viewable prior to scrolling. Some people also define above the fold as an ad location at the very top of the screen, but due to banner blindness typical ad locations do not perform as well as ads that are well integrated into content. If ads look like content they typically perform much better.

See also:

* Google AdSense heat map – shows ad clickthrough rate estimates based on ad positioning.

Absolute Link
A link which shows the full URL of the page being linked at. Some links only show relative link paths instead of having the entire reference URL within the a href tag. Due to canonicalization and hijacking related issues it is typically preferred to use absolute links over relative links.

Example absolute link

<a href=”http://seobook.com/folder/filename.html”>Cool Stuff</a>

Example relative link

<a href=”../folder/filename.html”>Cool Stuff</a>

AdCenter
Microsoft’s cost per click ad network.

While it has a few cool features (including dayparting and demographic based bidding) it is still quite nascent in nature compared to Google AdWords. Due to Microsoft’s limited marketshare and program newness many terms are vastly underpriced and present a great arbitrage opportunity.

See also:

* AdCenter – sign up for an account
* Microsoft AdLabs – view many of the free search marketing tools Microsoft offers.

AdSense
Google’s contextual advertising network. Publishers large and small may automatically publish relevant advertisements near their content and share the profits from those ad clicks with Google.

AdSense offers a highly scalable automated ad revenue stream which will help some publishers establish a baseline for the value of their ad inventory. In many cases AdSense will be underpriced, but that is the trade off for automating ad sales.

AdSense ad auction formats include

* cost per click – advertisers are only charged when ads are clicked on
* CPM – advertisers are charged a certain amount per ad impression. Advertisers can target sites based on keyword, category, or demographic information.

AdSense ad formats include

* text
* graphic
* animated graphics
* videos

In some cases I have seen ads which got a 2 or 3% click through rate (CTR), while sites that are optimized for maximum CTR (through aggressive ad integration) can obtain as high as a 50 or 60% CTR depending on

* how niche their site is
* how commercially oriented their site is
* the relevancy and depth of advertisers in their vertical

It is also worth pointing out that if you are too aggressive in monetizing your site before it has built up adequate authority your site may never gain enough authority to become highly profitable.

Depending on your vertical your most efficient monetization model may be any of the following

* AdSense
* affiliate marketing
* direct ad sales
* selling your own products and services
* a mixture of the above

See also:

* Google AdSense program – sign up as an ad publisher
* Google AdSense heat map – shows ad clickthrough rate estimates based on ad positioning.
* Google AdWords – buy ads on Google search and / or contextually relevant web pages.

AdWords
Google’s advertisement and link auction network. Most of Google’s ads are keyword targeted and sold on a cost per click basis in an auction which factors in ad clickthrough rate as well as max bid. Google is looking into expanding their ad network to include video ads, demographic targeting, affiliate ads, radio ads, and traditional print ads.

AdWords is an increasingly complex marketplace. One could write a 300 page book just covering AdWords. Rather than doing that here I thought it would be useful to link to many relevant resources.

See also:

* Google AdWords – sign up for an advertiser account
* Google Advertising Professional Program – program for qualifying as an AdWords expert
* Google AdWords Learning Center – text and multimedia educational modules. Contains quizzes related to each section.
* AdWords Keyword Tool – shows related keywords, advertiser competition, and relative search volume estimates.
* Google Traffic Estimator – estimates bid prices and search volumes for keywords.
* Free PPC tips [PDF] – my ebook offering free pay per click advice.
* Andrew Goodman’s Google AdWords Handbook – costs roughly $75, but is well worth it

(from seobook.com a great resource)

(Need to thank Mike for this, aircraft tools comments)

Flight terminology below may not always be technically correct due to the nature of these stories, and may also be edited or explained in parts for the benefit of non-aviation folk.

From AW (Mar 2010):

I met an SR-71 pilot a few years ago. (SR-71 was the USAAF advanced ‘stealth’ reconnaissance aircraft known as the Blackbird). He told me this story from his first flight with a new co-pilot: An SR-71 and crew were flying over Southern California when a bug smasher came on the airwaves in a dorky voice: Cessna 152: Ground Control, What’s my airspeed? Ground Control: 100 at FL 100. A few moments later a cocky voice came on: Mooney M20: Ground Control, What’s MY airspeed? Ground Control: 240 at FL 240. By this time the SR pilot was seething, but since communications were the duty of his new co-pilot, he remained silent. A few moments of radio silence passed, and in the calmest voice imaginable the co-pilot keyed in: SR-71: Ground Control, What’s our airspeed? Ground Control: 1875 at FL 800. There were no more speed checks called in that afternoon, and the pilot knew that he had a cool partner in the back seat.

From Dave (Mar 2010):

I was told this story by an air traffic controller from his time at a joint military/civilian airport. An F-4 (USAAF fighter jet) pilot requested clearance to take off, but due to the amount of civilian traffic the ATC told him he’d have to hold. After a repeated impatient request by the F-4 to take-off the ATC suggested that if the pilot could reach 14,000ft within half the runway length he could take off; otherwise he would have to hold. To the ATC’s surprise the F-4 pilot acknowledged the tower and began to roll. At the halfway mark the F-4 went vertically up until he reached 14,000ft, then levelled off. The ATC had no option than to hand the pilot over to departures and wish him a nice day, since he’d met the conditions laid down. The ATC said it was the darndest thing he ever saw.

From Stewart (Mar 2010):

Due to take off from JFK New York one morning in our Qantas 707 we were about eighth of fifteen aircraft in line. From one of the aircraft, presumably experiencing a slight problem, a voice over the radio said, “Fuck!”
JFK Air Traffic Control (angrily demanding to know): “Who said fuck?”
First aircraft in the line (gave callsign): “I did not say FUCK.”
Quickly followed by the second in line (gave callsign): “I did not say FUCK.”
Then the third, and then all of us, one by one, giving the same “I did not say FUCK” reply.

Another time, we were about fourth in a long queue waiting to take off in our larger Boeing aircraft. The JFK ATC allowed a B737 on a local flight to take a short-cut and start his takeoff run by joining the main runway from a taxiway causing us to wait for him to take off and clear. “How do you like them apples?” he said on local VHF as he started his takeoff run. Boeing aircraft had a warning horn for major problems that you can test. Half-way along the B737′s takeoff run, ‘someone’ held their cockpit mike to the horn and pressed it as they tested it. The B737 abruptly stopped takeoff with full reverse and full braking and sshuddred to a halt, tires (tyres) smoking. A few seconds later we heard a voice on our VHF: “How do you like them apples?..”

(from www.businessballs.com/airtrafficcontrollersfunnyquotes)