An official announcement is expected very shortly (in the next day or so!) that MSN is going to launch its own pay per click program which will be similar to those currently on offer by Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions (formerly known as Overture) and Google.

As you will know, MSN currently displays paid listings via Overture/Yahoo's program but there has clearly been a clash of interest since Yahoo's acquisition of Overture.

It is anticipated that the new program will be tested in France and Singapore over the next six months. Although MSN's agreement with Overture is not due to expire until June 2006 there is no real reason why they will not roll out the new (as yet unnamed) program worldwide long before then.

This news appears to have been widely greeted as positive with advertisers welcoming the extra competition this brings to the paid advertising market.

Danny Sullivan has a lot more to say on this subject which you can read at:

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3490346

Our last snippet advised on the necessity to focus on web analytics in order to be able to monitor your visitors' behaviour on your web site. Search Engine Workshops is shortly to announce a new training program for the Award winning suite of web analytical software,ClickTracks, and we will be letting you have further details of this new exciting opportunity very shortly. We'll keep you posted!