Both Google and Yahoo provide lots of web services. Yahoo always was a portal & search engine, but over the years Google has continued to add more “portal” services — Google Maps, gmail, Google finance, and so on.

Take a closer look at the companies. Compare Google Finance to Yahoo Finance. One of these companies needs an engineer with a cup of coffee, the other needs an engineer, editor, and staff.

Yahoo is focusing on their own on-site content because of the display advertising revenue, there is no doubt about it. There is a problem with this approach. Short term, its not helping them keep up to pace. Long term, this model risks killing their company.

Yahoo is demonstrating a strong interest and desire to pursue an old model — a centralized content distribution structure (walled garden has been a popular phrase lately.)

Consider the two models. Yahoo pushes traffic to their own properties, presumably of good quality content. Google pushes traffic to outside properties, of the most popular content. Google doesn’t have to struggle or focusing on providing fresh content of the best caliber day after day. And, to make things even better, every hit to something the audience like is yet another point for Google’s brand value.

Take a look at YouTube and compare their traffic data to the monster video sites that existed years prior (such as eBaumsworld.) The owners of eBaumsworld certainly weren’t generating their own content. Like Yahoo, they were re-ordering and collecting outside content, presumably by hand. No matter how good the human element got at it, at some point, Youtube’s exponential growth rapidly dwarfed these older video sites within mere months.

Why? Because automated systems can sort and aggregate data far faster and far better than human editors.

Weigh these two things: As Google’s engineers work on rolling out next generation systems Yahoo’s editors have been building sub-portals aimed at a specific age demographic of women.

10 to 15 years out, where will Google be? Where will Yahoo be?

I’ve spent a lot of time weighing content verse data myself. Data won, I changed my business model. More on this topic in the near future.

Tech bloggers everywhere have been talking and throwing out predictions over the failed Yahoo Microsoft merger.

I’ll keep it simple. Google is a data company. Yahoo is a content company. That difference is night and day when it comes to focus and performance.

Content is a fine business model. Long term, a “be everything” model it is destined for failure. Niche publishers and aggregated feeds will grind away at their audience and profit margins.

Short term, the mis-focus has caused Yahoo to fail miserably by screwing up Panama. Also, for far to long they allowed garbage traffic access to the same PPC feed as high quality publishers and domainers. And thats just the beginning of the list. These are mistakes data companies don’t make. Google sure didn’t.

Brendon mentioned a particularly unimpressive web site, with particularly unimpressive earnings, making $1 or 2 a day from Adsense. What was special about it was it took just a few hours of work many years ago.

As beginners, everyone wants to jump in and have a six figure income by Friday. What is missed is starting small is just fine. And most importantly, if you build web assets, they will continue to make money for years to come.

For the real beginners — those who struggle with the bare basics of the web and business, starting small is critical. Building your own web site is both a classroom and boot camp in one.

Let me present you with a choice:

1) Pay $1000 for a “guru” kit on how to make lots of money online. Probably pay $50, $100, and more on additional information products.

2) Pay $0, build a website using free software and tutorials, be paid $1000, $2,000, $5,000 or more for years to come.

I really like choice number 2. Its like going to college, but instead of paying off a student loan for the next 30 years, the school pays you for your attendance.

Now to my own experience. Years ago I sat down and wrote about one of my hobbies. It took me hours of work, but by day 2 the website was up and fine. A few years later I added a forum and updated the design a bit, but that was all. The site continues to make $15-$25 a day. The Adsense income goes through direct deposit, I can forget the site even exists. It means little to me now, but years ago that passive income was what allowed me to create and grow bigger, far better projects.

I beat Brendon on his $500+ a hour, this project was more like $1000+. Best of all, I had almost no clue about making money online when I did it.

The catch? The site has to be good, the content legitimate. Write about something you know a lot about. Hack jobs aren’t going to be worth your time or effort 4 years out. Then there were the sites that I built, thinking that hack jobs would be ok, and they didn’t work out. One I slaved away for a month at and it made about $1 a day (and still does.) Ouch.

There are countless paths to get yourself launched in internet business. If you can write, this may be your best shot.

When I dropped out of my first class ever, as a senior in high school it was the right thing to do. When I dropped out of college halfway through my junior year, it was the right thing to do. When I decided to stop writing Web Publishing Blog, it was the right thing to do.

The past 3 months of 2008 and been spent expanding and automating my primary internet business. Part of that has involved aborting the projects that distracted me from my goals.

Since “shutting down” Web Publishing Blog my gross and net income have grown. Last month all revenue records were broken. No numbers will be given, but its fair to say that my quarterly taxes are supporting numerous families on welfare.

Look at your goals. Fill your time with things either you absolutely love doing or that drive you further toward achieving your goals. Everything else — get rid of it. If there is any message I want readers to take away from Web Publishing Blog, that is it. You may not get everything you want, but you certainly should have an enjoyable time along the way.

Don’t use rules other people made up in order to organize your time. Life is far too short to piss away.

I have been a member of several exclusive, paid forums as well as free private communities. The biggest downside is often a loss of momentum due to members cutting their subscriptions. Given how prolific Aaron Wall is with his blog and promoting I am willing to bet this will be a hit.

This is the only scenario I can see as someone becoming a serious threat to Google. Yahoo attempted to become a content company rather than a data company, as Google is. They made a lot of mistakes, going entirely in the wrong direction, in my opinion.

This business is all about sending traffic to the most valuable source. Google understands that. Yahoo didn’t, or doesn’t. The question now, will Microsoft?

Between business and personal time, things are very tight. I am not alone, other top tier bloggers have done the same, or closed up shop completely.

Here are the facts. Launching the blog was the best business move I have ever made. I can not put a value on the personal contacts I gained as a result. The networking effect continues to compound on itself every single day.

Time goes on, and the law of diminishing returns begins to catch up. Right now I need to walk away for a while, and place my focus on my businesses as we scale them up and out.

Here is a New Years resolution for you. If you have not blogged, then try it out. Forget the organic search traffic, use the platform to aggressively network with others. Likewise, if you blog a lot (or post on forums) then scale it back.

I hate mixed messages, but some times it is what needs to be said.

By the way, you should already have your 2008 goals ready! Coincidentally the post I made exactly a year ago — December 2nd, 2006 echoed this same thought. I’ll just repost it below:

The countdown clock is rapidly approaching a new year. I like to get the gears moving on next years big projects a month or two before that new year actually begins. It is going to be a lot easier for you to meet 2007’s 2008’s goals if you are already working on them right now.

Last year , in 2005, I got the ball rolling for a big project in November, a strike of luck right before Christmas meant I was on the ground running by the new year. This year I had my 2007 financial goals set by September. Good news, I am already well on my way there.

Mapping out your goals based on years and dates may seem small-minded or arbitrary. I think it simply reminds us that we don’t have forever to accomplish what we want.

This works out wonderfully for many things. Driving a car. Making a sandwich. Opening a bank account. Creating a Power Point presentation.

In a business environment influenced by rapidly evolving market forces, this does not work out very well at all. Very quickly you’ll discover you are “dumb money.”

Consider this, Bloomberg reports John Paulson is at the top of their best-paid hedge fund managers so far this year. How much has he and his co-manager made this year? $2.69 billion. Thats averages out to about $8 million a day.

Whats the big secret? “Rather than depend on evaluations of mortgage- backed assets by rating companies such as Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s, he and his staff dig into the securities and look at thousands of individual loans.”

Each one of us owns and runs a unique business. We build a body of knowledge, skills, and assets that enable us to approach our market differently from everyone else. In order to discover what works for your business and what doesn’t you need to experience things first hand.

Personally, looking back at my various business ventures, my most profitable ones have involved things everyone said were “worthless”, “too difficult”, or “too much competition.” If I listened to everyone, I would have a college diploma right now

The reviews are trickling in, but I hope this one will be comprehensive enough for my audience. If you have any questions, just ask them in the comments of this post.

For beginners — why landing pages matter a lot

Landing page optimization is the quickest way to increase your web site’s revenues. A visitor arrives at your web site and based on countless variables decides to either buy something or not. A few changes and tests can double or even triple your earnings. This is a heck of a lot easier than doubling the number of targeted visitors arriving at your site. Surprisingly, many web business owners still do not take landing pages seriously.

A landing page isn’t just about making a sale. It is the foundation to all goal driven web sites, be it signing up for an e-mail newsletter, joining a forum, subscribing to an RSS feed, or arriving at a parked domain and clicking ads. Like it or not, your web site is just a bunch of landing pages.

If you are hesitant to spend the money there are lots of free articles and case studies that you can read online. I’d recommend reading this blog post first, which highlights the two simple rules I follow biblically myself.

The best part: ideas

This guide has lots content. Everything is laid out as straightforward guidelines and explanations with extensive charts and data to back it up. Just like with Marketing Sherpa’s case studies you will see images of pre and post-optimized landing pages along with the exact conversion rates for both. (If you want to see some cited case studies used in the guide, check out the links in this post from Jonathan Mendez at Optimize & Prophesize.)

Should their suggestions be memorized and followed exactly? Of course not. What you should do is read the handbook, make note of the new ideas you see, and then test them out. You may very well find that what they wrote doesn’t work for your particular site.

One of the parts I was really impressed with was a radio advertising case studio. I have never done anything with radio, but when I do, I will know exactly where to start. Again, I can run my own tests, but this information gives me a great starting point rather than attempting a blind entry all on my own.

Just as with radio, The Landing Page Handbook is not just about what is on your landing page. The chapters cover how the landing page relates and correlates with your traffic sources — banner, email, search, TV, radio. For me thats a plus, however for others it might be considered filler.

Downsides? While they do mention Google’s quality score, you won’t learn much about it. Given how complex and rapidly changing their walls of “deception” are, its probably better Marketing Sherpa avoids the topic. Additionally, if you are a smaller affiliate marketer, much of this information will not be helpful either since you can not control external landing pages (but thats not to say you will walk away empty handed.)

Final Thoughts

The Landing Page Handbook is just that, a handbook. It is not an end-all source or the holy grail to building landing pages. Anyone from a beginner to experienced web developer/marketer will learn new stuff from reading it. All but the most veteran of experts should be able to grab at least an idea or two from the book.

Just starting out, have no product or traffic? Then it might be best to avoid it and come back later when you do.

If you want to see a detailed table of contents or buy your copy (immediate pdf download with a hard copy following in the mail) check out The Landing Page Handbook’s own landing page. (not an affiliate link, by the way.)