Extending Google search with Webmynd

Makeuseof.com has suggested a few tools for extending Google search results. Webmynd seems the most interesting of the lot. Its integration with other search tools including Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, wikipedia and others makes it hard to ignore. Add the ability to tweet directly to Twitter and that just makes my day.

Affilliate Marketing vs Google Adsense

Affiliate Marketing is usually based on a CPA (cost per action) model.

• A company (a.k.a. advertiser or merchant) runs an affiliate program either by itself or through an Affiliate network such as Linkshare or Commission Junction.
  
• The publisher promotes the advertiser's services or products through a website, email campaign, ppc campaign or a combination thereof.
• A visitor coming through a publisher is tracked. If the visit converts to a sale, the publisher earns a commission paid by the advertiser. The network tracks, authenticates and confirms payments for every successful transaction.
  
• Publisher has control on what product/service they want to promote.
• Publisher does not earn any revenue for clicks.

Adsense is a CPC (cost per click) program from Google.

• The publishers in this case signs for the program and places the Adsense advertisement panel at various strategic locations on their site.
• The adverts are auto generated by Google.
  
• The publisher can tweak but does not have control to what gets displayed.
  
• The publisher is paid for each authentic click on the advert from their site.

Google added a CPA model into Adsense in 2006 to compete directly with the affiliate networks.

Amongst the major Affilliate Networks, Linkshare offers a CPC program for specific merchants (e.g. Kayak) Commission Junction had a CPC program. They closed this and have stuck to the CPA model.