Apr 24 2008
Happy Birthday to the “baby”!
Two years ago today the dLook website was officially launched after, of course, much time in development.
Launching a (startup) website really is like having a (another) baby. Why? Well let’s see:
- she takes months of planning
- she takes months to form
- her birth is painful
- and expensive
- she will keep you awake at night
- she has no end of teething problems
- if you don’t feed her properly (i.e. traffic and advertising) she won’t grow
- if you don’t pay her enough attention she will not reach her full potential
- if you don’t stimulate her with new ideas she will stagnate
- if you don’t keep a watchful eye, others may take advantage
- she will go through typical growth stages, baby, toddler, infant, adolescent…
- at rare times you wonder if she is worth the effort but then you realise
- you are so in love and committed that you just have to tell everyone how wonderful she is, and show her off
- there are days you wonder if she’ll ever get married and live somewhere else 😉
But I did get a wonderful present for my baby’s birthday. It’s a piece of bling that means quite a lot to me.
For the last 2+ years (well 859 days to be precise, but who’s counting? Oh, it seems Google is – thanks) I’ve been running a Google AdWords campaigns for both of my commercial websites.
This involves several thousand keywords and numerous Ad Groups and ad variations.
When I heard about the Google Advertising Professional qualification I thought it sounded like a good idea – to at least get a little banner to say I was actually qualified to do what I do 😉 .
Well, I finally got around to signing up, passed the minimum spend requirement, and sat the exam a few days ago. I passed! 111 questions in 90 minutes. Let me tell you, if you don’t know what you’re talking about there’s no way you could fudge your way through that.
It’s been a while since I did an exam. Nothing like the sense of accomplishment of a passing grade 
. Proudly presenting an image of my newest arrival, exactly 2 years apart:
Isn’t she gorgeous?
19 Responses to “Happy Birthday to the “baby”!”
Happy Birthday to your baby!
And you know we all knew you would pass with flying colours cause you are one awesome biatch.
Smootches babe.
Kelley’s last blog post..Interesting.
Congratulations. Very nice. What sort of questions do you have to answer?
Colin Campbell’s last blog post..Sturts Desert Pea
Congratulations Meg, two years old and a qualification to boot! I think your baby is gifted:-)
Joh’s last blog post..ANZAC Day and Pa
Excuse my ignorance, but what does that qualification mean you are able to do????
Congratulations by the way.
Lightening’s last blog post..Buzzin’
Well done Meg! And congrats on the anniversary. It’s a big achievement.
Christine Parfitt’s last blog post..Format For Local Business Results Changed
Happy Anniversary and congratulations on getting certified!
Riayn’s last blog post..Hurry Last Days!
Kelley – thanks babe, you say the nicest things 😀
Colin – thanks mate. I could tell you but…. 😉 All about setting up, managing and optimising AdWords (some 100+ A4 pages of material), ranging from really easy to pretty intricate.
Thanks Joh – LMAO, but of course 😉
Lightening – Thanks! it’s more a recognition that I’ve passed the exam than I am suddenly “allowed” to do it. But it’s all about the advertising (sponsored results) on Google, selecting keywords to make ads appear, writing the ads and making sure the advertiser doesn’t pay more than they have to for each click.
Christine – thanks! I nearly missed it 😮
Riayn – thanks. I guess that makes me certifiable 😉
Happy birthday to your baby and congrats on your award!!
Bettina’s last blog post..Lest We Forget
Wow. Congratulations on your achievement, and a big happy birthday to your blogbaby.
A Maybus’s last blog post..Two Kinds of Courage.
Ohhh congrats on your baby’s birthday, the certification looks to be the perfect gift !
Greg’s last blog post..Anzac Day
Congratulations on the Birthday and the certification.
Its great that all the hard work you have put in over the last 2 years and especially for the certification get the acknowledgement they deserve.
Gemisht’s last blog post..Rosemary and Poppies
Congrats Meg! You totally deserve the award. Happy birthday to your “baby” too! Have a good weekend ahead (hopefully you would be able to catch some rest this week!)
Jasmine Shanea’s last blog post..“Oh it’s a lady driver”
Happy Birthday for your baby and congratulations, Meg 😀
Jayne’s last blog post..Trivial History April 27
Congrats on both fronts!
I love seeing and hearing stories of other bloggers success, I find it inspiring. Congratulations on your achievement.
PlanningQueen’s last blog post..More On The Purpose of Preschool
Congrats on reaching the terrible two’s Meg!
Burgo’s last blog post..Live Music Friday – The National Black Sessions
I was wondering if someone could shed some light on the genre of UGC and how they could work with local directories. I have noticed that truelocal has gone down this route. What good is UGC though if it is heavily moderated?
Let me give you an example…. http://www.truelocal.com.au/business/truelocal-com-au/sydney ….. this URL is the where truelocal has a listing on their own website. You will notice that they are excellent…. well with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 i would say that is very high.
Now i have not had such a great time with their service. I mean its ok, but nothing exceptional in terms of information quality. So what does one do? They go through the process of signing up and filling in their forms. You then leave a review you feel is fair. I allocated them a half star and left the review
“fairly average, search results do not make sense. Its not what i am looking for and its not in the location i need it to be in.”
This was written on the 6th of March 2008. Now i do not think this is a rude or in any way deflematory, it is simple a user leaving their review. When i got my email informing me that it has been declined, i replied to their customer service team asking why this has happened. I sent that email on the 7th of April 2008. Now over a month has passed and i still have not had a reply from them.
So please fellow bloggers i ask that you cast a verdict instead as to how correct this is. Obviously my half star would have effected their overall 4.5 star rating. Now if they do this for themselves, in what other way are they manipulating their reviews to suite their paid clients? How trustworthy is any review on the truelocal site?
Hi Confused Customer,
You raise some really valid points – what’s the point of leaving a “less than glowing” review if the only reviews that are allowed are the positive ones. It really devalues the whole feedback concept.
As a directory owner, and publisher of such reviews, one does need to be careful of defamatory comments (which you mention). However, this should not preclude honest and constructive comments.
Not everybody’s experience is going to be similar. As a case in point one of our (paying premium) businesses is a restaurant called Indulgence. I have eaten there and had great service and food. However you will see from the reviews, that not everybody’s experience has been positive, and the feedback seems to reflect the range of experiences:
http://www.dlook.com.au/business/1730210/Indulgence-Restaurant-Parramatta
Your comment was honest feedback about their service, and as such I feel it should have been published. Businesses should view negative feedback as an opportunity to improve their service, and actively engage with their customers in the feedback process.
Hi Meg,
First time i’ve found your blog… anyway congratulations.
Thats alot of questions in just 90 minutes.. whats to stop you just googling the answers while you complete the quiz ?
Chloe Baby’s last blog post..Baby ASCII Art