Anne Holland sent out an email a few weeks back asking MarketingSherpa readers to contribute to a "lessons learnt" report for 2002. Astonishingly she ended up receiving best practice feedback from over 600 marketers.

The report, covering 26 sub-topics, is available free of charge here . I've yet to read it in full, but can confirm with absolute confidence that it is a gem.

Press Release: MakeMeTop becomes an Accredited Overture Search Engine Marketing Company

Kicking off in the UK Overture have started an accredidation scheme:

designed to indicate those SEMs who fully adhere to Overture’s list of best practices. Accredited companies are allowed to show an accreditation logo on their websites which are linked to a page on Overture to confirm accreditation.

To qualify companies must pledge to follow Overture's Best PPC Practice Guidelines:

1) Ensure our clients are made aware of the dynamic nature of the PPC marketplace.
2) Supply the broadest possible spread of relevant keywords for our clients' campaigns to help engineer consistent return on their PPC investment.
3) Not submit search listings leading to sites which: are still 'in construction', have disabled back buttons or unrelated content or are in any way in breach of Overture's Editorial Guidelines.
4) Always ensure that bidded search terms are reflected in titles and description, and that urls are 'deep-linked' where possible.
5) Mark-up our client's spend only to a level that can reasonably be demonstrated to still offer that client 'value for money'.
6) Assist Overture and other Accredited Search Engine Marketers by proactively participating in the accreditation program and any related initiatives.