When you have a new site that normally gets several hundred views a month and your weekly report comes in like this

You can be sure something is broken and it probably has something to do with Google not sending you any traffic. Its always something. This is a site that I haven’t been working because I want to move it from PixelPost to Wordpress before investing any more time, but still… I like some traffic coming in.

This is what I got for my first order of business today…

In case the image is too small it reads:

We’re sorry…

… but your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.

To continue searching, please type the characters you see below:

I know I work fast but this is ridiculous. AVG is up-to-date and reports no infection and AntiMalware Bytes is running right now but I am 99.99% certain I am not infected with anything doing automated Google queries.

I was having problems with GoDady last night while uploading some Wordpress Updates to a client’s account but that seems to have been a GoDaddy problem. Of course CMA Acces high-speed Internet cable here in Angleton sux the big one and I recommend avoid the service if you can get DSL. The added speed of cable is substantially mitigated by the continual Connection Reset By Peer errors. In many cases wireless Internet is faster than CMA Access Cable Internet. Getting a reset error really fast is hardly worth it. And they charge twice as much for worse service.

As I thought, AntiMalware Bytes also reports nothing.

I hope this is a one-off and I don’t need to start worrying about entering captcha codes to use Google search. I get the codes wrong about 1 out of 3 times.

News Corp’s MySpace Google deal at risk. So, how much is your Internet traffic worth?

Google agreed in 2006 to pay News Corp $900m for the exclusive right to provide search advertising to the once-thriving site over three years if MySpace could guarantee a minimum volume of traffic.

A guaranteed minimum amount of traffic sounds like a guaranteed minimum amount of ad revenue for Google. No wonder Google is doing so well if they can consistently cut sweetheart deals like that.

Here is what Rupert needs to do if he wants to bring MySpace back to a competitive if not dominant position: Let the people creating the content share in ad revenue. The way it is now, users make the content and MySpace and Google make a fortune from people looking at it.

Content is king on the Internet. Want to improve your traffic, improve your content. Since users create the content at MySpace, it becomes essential to attract users who can consistently generate quality pop content. Even if you have to pay to get them.

A simple setup based on traffic should do it. Here is a sample:

# hits/mo     Stipend
1000          $5
10000         $50
100000         $750

MySpace could also give users the option of selling lucrative local ad blocks in addition to using pluggable ads from whatever provider they want. As with all things, free people being fairly compensated for their work is the best way to build a strong and enduring enterprise. Fall away from free enterprise principles in exchange for the easier softer way and you always get the same things: decay and tyranny, illustrated appropriately here by the MySpace Google deal.

Google is the only game in town because they have made it easy for content aggregators to make a gjillion dollars. With a little innovation and work the ad monopoly can be wrenched from Google’s iron grasp. The we’ll see how dedicated to ‘do no evil’ they are.