"An opening or initiating move toward negotiations, a new relationship, an agreement, etc.; a formal or informal proposal or offer." Hmmmmmmmm...very interesting definition--especially that part about "a new relationship."

I think pay-per-click giant Overture should look up definition of their own company name, because they appear to be breaching their "relationship" with their customers big time!

Here are most common complaints:

* Suspicions that competitors are clicking on their listings just to cost them money.

* Competitors bidding up top three positions to ridiculous amounts, ensuring that everyone loses money.

* Fear of new, naive competitors coming onto scene ready to throw away their money and driving up Overture's exorbitant bids even higher.

* Wild fluctuations in bids. The top bid can double or even triple within just a few days.

* The slow, frustrating, and time intensive process of maintaining listings and changing bids.

* Poor, arrogant and unsympathetic customer service and support.

So, why hasn't Overture done anything about complaints? Because, and I'm going to as blunt as I possibly can here-- they don't care about you. They only care about your money! Arrogance and greed seems to be common thread that bonds major search engines.

But you have only yourselves to blame. That's exactly what happens when you "place all of your eggs into one arrogant search engine basket!"

When you're totally dependent on someone and they know you're totally dependent on them, more often than not, they'll put screws to you. That's exactly what you see happening with Google, Yahoo and Overture. They're screwing you over big time!

I received some very interesting e-mails in response to my article, "Googles Trap, DMOZ's Nap, And Yahoo!'s Crap." The writer of one of e-mails wanted to know if I was afraid of being penalized by search engines, because of my criticism's of them.

Penalize me how? How can you penalize someone who neither benefits from nor is dependent on your service? I don't depend on search engines! I don't benefit from them! I never have. I get almost no traffic from search engines. For example, so far this morning I've received over 300 unique visits to my website. Out of that total, none came from search engines--not a single one!

It is important to create a keyword list for each product or service you have. The keyword list might even change slightly if there are various groups or audiences for that product or service.

For simplicity, I have omitted word service and for word product to reflect both.

Creating your keyword list can begin after you have clearly identified buyer or audience for a particular product or service. You will need to know as much about buyer's demographic and charactertics as possible. I also recommend including their descriptive qualities and personalities. Here is a list to kick start your brainstorming process:

· Communicative · Competent · Dedicated · Enthusiastic · Expert · Hardworking · Improved · Positive · Negative · Professional · Relationship-driven · Self-confident · Successful · Tranquil · Spiritual · Understanding · Socially conscious · Early adaptor · Later buyer · Has to see it to believe it · Guarantee a must.

The list of keywords will describe product and target specific quality you have isolated as most important to those buyers. No grabbing out of midair. Take time and research, this will help you save money and reduce costly marketing experiences.

You can complete your research with any combination of methods. Here are eight methods to help you build from:

· Brainstorming · Yellow Pages or other indexes for services or products. · Reviewing your company literature already created · Checking out competitor’s literature · Surveying key customers · Searching through trade publications (articles and ads), and contacting them or visiting their web site looking for their buyer statistics/demographics. · Use a general dictionary and thesaurus · Use a specialized dictionary like the, Flip Dictionary.

You can use resources like yellow pages or other catalogue-type indexes listing grouping to discover keywords your product or service would be listed under.