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Thursday, 24 September 2009
Successful & Effective Marketing of a Small Online Business
The selling of products/services online all requires one ESSENTIAL ingredient: TRAFFIC. Marketing a small business online faces greater challenges such as manpower and budget. However there are some great tools on the market that can effectively improve traffic to your site or affiliate site.
Investing in a good keyword tool is essential for online and offline marketing. A keyword tool can be used to write copy, find niche specific competitive keywords and to plan advertising. Why you may be asking? A good keyword tool can determine what and why people are searching for in relation to your product. Word tracker is the choice of the professional marketer. What I liked about this company, is they provide a FREE keyword-guide which will alter how you market on and offline. If your budget is tight they offer membership for 1 day or 1 month. Or you can look at some of the excellent FREE TOOLS on the market.
A popular technique used by many in the affiliate marketing field is building optimized pages that refer the visitor to the main affiliate site. This technique can be applied to marketing a small business online. There are several software products on the market that will build optimized pages for your main site. Two I particularly like are Traffic Panther and Traffic Hurricane. I personally use Traffic Panther as I found the ease of setting up the software easier with them. They both offer excellent customer support, even to free users. However the Hurricane creates 1000's of optimized pages for your site whereas the Panther only creates 25 per project. Bear in mind the engines can drop your site if they think you are spamming.
Both introduce the technology of RSS, but the Traffic Panther introduces the small business to the power of marketing using Blogs. And how they can be beneficial to your business. So whether you are an attorney marketing your services, selling children’s books online or looking for the secrets of successful network marketing, these techniques can be beneficial to your business online. With these tools you can firstly learn more about your potential customers and then how to get those customers to your sites.
Investing in a good keyword tool is essential for online and offline marketing. A keyword tool can be used to write copy, find niche specific competitive keywords and to plan advertising. Why you may be asking? A good keyword tool can determine what and why people are searching for in relation to your product. Word tracker is the choice of the professional marketer. What I liked about this company, is they provide a FREE keyword-guide which will alter how you market on and offline. If your budget is tight they offer membership for 1 day or 1 month. Or you can look at some of the excellent FREE TOOLS on the market.
A popular technique used by many in the affiliate marketing field is building optimized pages that refer the visitor to the main affiliate site. This technique can be applied to marketing a small business online. There are several software products on the market that will build optimized pages for your main site. Two I particularly like are Traffic Panther and Traffic Hurricane. I personally use Traffic Panther as I found the ease of setting up the software easier with them. They both offer excellent customer support, even to free users. However the Hurricane creates 1000's of optimized pages for your site whereas the Panther only creates 25 per project. Bear in mind the engines can drop your site if they think you are spamming.
Both introduce the technology of RSS, but the Traffic Panther introduces the small business to the power of marketing using Blogs. And how they can be beneficial to your business. So whether you are an attorney marketing your services, selling children’s books online or looking for the secrets of successful network marketing, these techniques can be beneficial to your business online. With these tools you can firstly learn more about your potential customers and then how to get those customers to your sites.
Allow Incoming Links That Can Increase Web Site Traffic
Would you like to increase your web site traffic and sales? By using a simple web site promotion method, you can get higher placement in search engine listings, which translates to more money in your bank account. If you are willing to do some work, you can get more targeted traffic to your site every month, at zero cost.
Exchanging links with other related web sites can help your rankings with Google, one of the most used search engines on the internet. To get full benefit from exchanging links with other web sites, you must understand the policies of the Google Page Rank system.
In the past, many web sites used a "link farm" page to take advantage of Google's Page Rank system. Link farms (containing listings of all kinds of web sites, with no regard to quality or related subject) have been banned according to Google's current web site qualifications.
Google recommends that important web sites have inbound links from quality, related web sites. Conforming to this rule means your web site will get a higher Google Page Rank (which is a guage of site importance) and higher listings on Google search results pages. This equals more free traffic for you.
An effective link exchange directory should be focused on your web site's theme. If you have a web site that sells pet products, it will not help you to exchange links with an online casino site. Actually, doing so may actually hurt your rankings.
To make your link exchange directory work for you, you'll need to focus on sites that get a decent amount of traffic and relate in some way to your site theme. You can go to www.google.com and download the Google Toolbar to be able to see the Google Page Rank for any site you visit. If you target related web sites with a Page Rank of 4 or higher, your link exchange will have greater impact on your overall ranking with Goggle.
To make exchanging links less work for you, register your website with one of the online link exchange services. Link Partners.com is a good place to start, though there are others you can use. Just submit your site to the proper category and watch the link requests roll in. Now it's your job to research each one to see if you would benefit by exchanging links with them.
Don't be afraid to turn down a link exchange request. A polite note to the sender will be fine, or don't even reply at all. Avoid having unrelated or poor-quality sites in your link directory. You will be penalized by the Google Page Rank system for having unrelated links on your link directory that do not compliment your site theme. The more selective you are when exchanging links the more important your site will be according to Google Page Rank.
Add a link exchange campaign to your web site promotion plan today. Do it correctly and you'll get more free traffic from Google and some clicks from the sites displaying your related link.
Exchanging links with other related web sites can help your rankings with Google, one of the most used search engines on the internet. To get full benefit from exchanging links with other web sites, you must understand the policies of the Google Page Rank system.
In the past, many web sites used a "link farm" page to take advantage of Google's Page Rank system. Link farms (containing listings of all kinds of web sites, with no regard to quality or related subject) have been banned according to Google's current web site qualifications.
Google recommends that important web sites have inbound links from quality, related web sites. Conforming to this rule means your web site will get a higher Google Page Rank (which is a guage of site importance) and higher listings on Google search results pages. This equals more free traffic for you.
An effective link exchange directory should be focused on your web site's theme. If you have a web site that sells pet products, it will not help you to exchange links with an online casino site. Actually, doing so may actually hurt your rankings.
To make your link exchange directory work for you, you'll need to focus on sites that get a decent amount of traffic and relate in some way to your site theme. You can go to www.google.com and download the Google Toolbar to be able to see the Google Page Rank for any site you visit. If you target related web sites with a Page Rank of 4 or higher, your link exchange will have greater impact on your overall ranking with Goggle.
To make exchanging links less work for you, register your website with one of the online link exchange services. Link Partners.com is a good place to start, though there are others you can use. Just submit your site to the proper category and watch the link requests roll in. Now it's your job to research each one to see if you would benefit by exchanging links with them.
Don't be afraid to turn down a link exchange request. A polite note to the sender will be fine, or don't even reply at all. Avoid having unrelated or poor-quality sites in your link directory. You will be penalized by the Google Page Rank system for having unrelated links on your link directory that do not compliment your site theme. The more selective you are when exchanging links the more important your site will be according to Google Page Rank.
Add a link exchange campaign to your web site promotion plan today. Do it correctly and you'll get more free traffic from Google and some clicks from the sites displaying your related link.
How to Do Successful Effective Email Marketing
Recently, there has been a lot written about email and its (impending) death. From what you read on forum boards and in newsletters from well-known internet marketers, email marketing is dead. Too many ISPs are taking it upon themselves to limit the number of emails you can send at one time, or are blocking your emails from even getting to your subscriber’s inboxes.
As a way around this, many marketers are telling you to get a blog and an RSS feed. This makes good sense, and there is some indication that RSS and related technology will become more popular in the near future, but before you invest in an ebook or multimedia course from a marketer, ask yourself if that marketer has a vested interest in moving you over to an RSS system (i.e., they conveniently sell an RSS starter kit, or affiliate for someone who does).
On the contrary, though, email marketing is not dead. Recently, on a membership-only forum, discussion centred on how Getresponse and Aweber have improved their open and deliverability rates for emails, even as high as 85% for deliverability. One contributor, who owns an auto responder company, noted that many tricks marketers use to get their messages past spam filters (such as using "free" for "free") are actually backfiring and triggering spam filters, resulting in emails being blocked. Instead, marketers should focus on trick-free, valuable content in their emails.
Apparently, email marketing works much the same way as search engine marketing (and, really, all good marketing) does: in the long run, you are rewarded for building (and sending out) trick-free, useful, and informative content.
So how should you build your business? With one quality blog post or article at a time. And how should you market with email? With one quality email message at a time.
As a way around this, many marketers are telling you to get a blog and an RSS feed. This makes good sense, and there is some indication that RSS and related technology will become more popular in the near future, but before you invest in an ebook or multimedia course from a marketer, ask yourself if that marketer has a vested interest in moving you over to an RSS system (i.e., they conveniently sell an RSS starter kit, or affiliate for someone who does).
On the contrary, though, email marketing is not dead. Recently, on a membership-only forum, discussion centred on how Getresponse and Aweber have improved their open and deliverability rates for emails, even as high as 85% for deliverability. One contributor, who owns an auto responder company, noted that many tricks marketers use to get their messages past spam filters (such as using "free" for "free") are actually backfiring and triggering spam filters, resulting in emails being blocked. Instead, marketers should focus on trick-free, valuable content in their emails.
Apparently, email marketing works much the same way as search engine marketing (and, really, all good marketing) does: in the long run, you are rewarded for building (and sending out) trick-free, useful, and informative content.
So how should you build your business? With one quality blog post or article at a time. And how should you market with email? With one quality email message at a time.
The Simple amd Cheap Way to Make Money Online at www.imagechoti.blogspot.com
People are always asking me how I make money online. I’ve been doing it for almost 4 years now and, fortunately, haven’t had to get a “real” job yet (since graduating college). It’s definitely not easy to do, but anyone with some intelligence, creativity, and/or the willingness to do large amounts of research can make a good living on the Web. However, it’s important for beginner to start off small and cheaply. Despite what the marketing “gurus” try to tell you, you really don’t need to spend a lot of money on e-books and software to begin earning a nice income on the internet.
Anyway, here’s an easy and cheap way to create an online revenue stream that I developed for my friends:
1. Choose a profitable topic/theme - There are several ways to do this but one of the easiest is to use Overture’s free bid tool (Tip: It’s always best to choose a topic you know something about…. or at least are very interested in.)
2. Setup a blog - You can use a free one such as Blogger.com or MSN Spaces. This will become your main “site” since it’s really just a way to easily publish content.
3. Start writing high-quality, focused 400-700 word articles DAILY! - This is probably the most important thing you can do for long-term success. You can also use syndicated articles from article directories to “beef up” your site but don’t rely on it. Make sure all articles are based around your site’s central theme.
4. Post your theme-based content to your site/blog on a regular basis - Try to post at least one or two good articles per day.
5. Monetize your blog - Put related affiliate links and Google Adsense on your blog to start making some money.
6. Write and submit good articles to the online article directories - This will get you some free one-way links (great for search engine rankings), increase your site traffic, and help to establish your credibility.
7. Get a low-cost auto responder and start collecting the email addresses of your site visitors - Offer a useful free report or email mini-course to entice people to sign up.
8. Send out a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly newsletter with useful information and a couple affiliate links - If you “nurture” your subscriber list well it can quickly turn into your biggest moneymaker!
9. Continue to drive traffic to your site - Submit your blog’s RSS feed to feed directories, submit your main page and/or a few good internal pages to general web directories and theme directories (DMOZ.org is the most important), and trade links with good sites that have related themes.
Well, that’s just the beginning! But it’s a great way to get started making money online. In the future I may post an “extended” version of this list with much more detail but I hope this basic list helps you out!
Anyway, here’s an easy and cheap way to create an online revenue stream that I developed for my friends:
1. Choose a profitable topic/theme - There are several ways to do this but one of the easiest is to use Overture’s free bid tool (Tip: It’s always best to choose a topic you know something about…. or at least are very interested in.)
2. Setup a blog - You can use a free one such as Blogger.com or MSN Spaces. This will become your main “site” since it’s really just a way to easily publish content.
3. Start writing high-quality, focused 400-700 word articles DAILY! - This is probably the most important thing you can do for long-term success. You can also use syndicated articles from article directories to “beef up” your site but don’t rely on it. Make sure all articles are based around your site’s central theme.
4. Post your theme-based content to your site/blog on a regular basis - Try to post at least one or two good articles per day.
5. Monetize your blog - Put related affiliate links and Google Adsense on your blog to start making some money.
6. Write and submit good articles to the online article directories - This will get you some free one-way links (great for search engine rankings), increase your site traffic, and help to establish your credibility.
7. Get a low-cost auto responder and start collecting the email addresses of your site visitors - Offer a useful free report or email mini-course to entice people to sign up.
8. Send out a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly newsletter with useful information and a couple affiliate links - If you “nurture” your subscriber list well it can quickly turn into your biggest moneymaker!
9. Continue to drive traffic to your site - Submit your blog’s RSS feed to feed directories, submit your main page and/or a few good internal pages to general web directories and theme directories (DMOZ.org is the most important), and trade links with good sites that have related themes.
Well, that’s just the beginning! But it’s a great way to get started making money online. In the future I may post an “extended” version of this list with much more detail but I hope this basic list helps you out!
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Affiliate Marketers Need 3 Things
Every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest paycheck. Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is more complicated than that. It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication.
There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.
What are these three tactics?
1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.
Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.
You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.
2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible position them at the very top side of your page so it they simply cannot be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.
Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.
Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.
3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.
Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.
Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.
The tactics given above do not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.
Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end up maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do.
Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…
There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.
What are these three tactics?
1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.
Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.
You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.
2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible position them at the very top side of your page so it they simply cannot be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.
Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.
Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.
3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.
Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.
Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.
The tactics given above do not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.
Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end up maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do.
Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…
Top 23 Ways to Use An Ad Tracker
The ad tracker was originally developed to provide a record of all hits to a site resulting from ad placements. This article shows a host of different ways to utilise an ad tracker.
FOR AFFILIATES
#1. The Long Url Problem
Have you ever seen an ad where you are asked to click on an affiliate URL so long that it stretches over 2 lines, like this
http://www/anysite.com/cgi-bin/dir1/dir2/.cgi?code=123RT&type=102
35&subid=89715
Do you think your reader will bother to do the necessary cut and paste to put it in a browser?
Probably not.
And that's probably one lost sale.
And even a one line affiliate link may exceed the permissible length for some ad posting requirements.
The solution: use a short tracking URL.
#2. Losing Your Affiliate Code
As an affiliate you may have your affiliate code embedded in a link something like this:
http://www.abc.com/123
Some customers will bypass the affiliate code and just type in the home URL http://www.abc.com (possibly because they think that they will be paying extra for an agent's commission)
The solution: use a tracking URL - so that your affiliate code number is never seen.
#3. Make Your Ad Stand Out
FOR AFFILIATES
#1. The Long Url Problem
Have you ever seen an ad where you are asked to click on an affiliate URL so long that it stretches over 2 lines, like this
http://www/anysite.com/cgi-bin/dir1/dir2/.cgi?code=123RT&type=102
35&subid=89715
Do you think your reader will bother to do the necessary cut and paste to put it in a browser?
Probably not.
And that's probably one lost sale.
And even a one line affiliate link may exceed the permissible length for some ad posting requirements.
The solution: use a short tracking URL.
#2. Losing Your Affiliate Code
As an affiliate you may have your affiliate code embedded in a link something like this:
http://www.abc.com/123
Some customers will bypass the affiliate code and just type in the home URL http://www.abc.com (possibly because they think that they will be paying extra for an agent's commission)
The solution: use a tracking URL - so that your affiliate code number is never seen.
#3. Make Your Ad Stand Out
You may have seen search engine results showing near identical listings for the same product, differing only in an affiliate code appended to the URL.
Your listing here will be just one of many unless you make it stand out. So bypass the standard affiliate URL and use a tracking URL.
#4. How Effective Are The Links
You can measure and compare the effectiveness of the different banners or text links the affiliate programs provide you by using a tracking URL.
#5. Changing Links
If an affiliate company change their links then your existing ads, wherever they are posted, become worthless. But if you use a tracking URL you simply revise the affiliate URL at the tracking control centre.
#6. Affiliate Program Discontinued
Similarly if an affiliate program is discontinued you just change your tracking URL to a new page where you explain the circumstances and point your visitor to your other promotions.
#7. Better Affiliate Stats
Not all affiliate programs provide you with stats about visitors. And if they do are they adequate ?
Compare a basic monthly figure say
- Jan: 39 hits
with a detailed analysis such as
- Jan 12: 10 hits
- Jan 13: 2 hits
- Jan 20: 21 hits
- Jan 21: 6 hits
where you can relate those dates to particular ad campaigns.
Tracking URLs will give you these improved figures.
#8. Checking Affiliate Stats
Even if you do receive good stats from your affiliate program it still makes sense to use tracking URLs so that you can compare your figures with theirs.
A large discrepancy could mean errors in their software or (hopefully not) fraudulent activity on their part. An alternative reason is that their measurement takes place when their page is fully loaded rather than at the start, indicating that visitors are clicking away because it is taking too long to load.
FOR EZINE PUBLISHERS
Your listing here will be just one of many unless you make it stand out. So bypass the standard affiliate URL and use a tracking URL.
#4. How Effective Are The Links
You can measure and compare the effectiveness of the different banners or text links the affiliate programs provide you by using a tracking URL.
#5. Changing Links
If an affiliate company change their links then your existing ads, wherever they are posted, become worthless. But if you use a tracking URL you simply revise the affiliate URL at the tracking control centre.
#6. Affiliate Program Discontinued
Similarly if an affiliate program is discontinued you just change your tracking URL to a new page where you explain the circumstances and point your visitor to your other promotions.
#7. Better Affiliate Stats
Not all affiliate programs provide you with stats about visitors. And if they do are they adequate ?
Compare a basic monthly figure say
- Jan: 39 hits
with a detailed analysis such as
- Jan 12: 10 hits
- Jan 13: 2 hits
- Jan 20: 21 hits
- Jan 21: 6 hits
where you can relate those dates to particular ad campaigns.
Tracking URLs will give you these improved figures.
#8. Checking Affiliate Stats
Even if you do receive good stats from your affiliate program it still makes sense to use tracking URLs so that you can compare your figures with theirs.
A large discrepancy could mean errors in their software or (hopefully not) fraudulent activity on their part. An alternative reason is that their measurement takes place when their page is fully loaded rather than at the start, indicating that visitors are clicking away because it is taking too long to load.
FOR EZINE PUBLISHERS
#9. Win Advertisers with Tracking Reports
If you sell advertising space in your Engine you can offer to your advertisers to replace their URLs with your tracking URLs and Email them the results.
Tell your advertisers about these benefits in your advertising guidelines
- They will know the number of click through their ad has generated. They can then decide how to improve the ads for better performance
- If they use a tracker program with your own domain name in the tracking URL your Engine subscribers will be more inclined to click
- They can use your Engine as a test centre, modifying their ads until they are happy, before launching with other publishers
#10. Use Tracking Report Results
The tracking reports above will provide you with information on your subscribers' interests, influencing your editorial content and helping you select which potential advertisers to approach.
Also, once your advertisers have seen for themselves the benefits of an ad tracking program they will be inclined to purchase one. So set yourself up as an affiliate for a program and promote it to them.
#11. Measure Your Readership
You may know how many subscribers you have but how many actually open and read your Engine and which parts of it attract most attention?
Here's how to find out if you distribute your Engine in HTML Format: include an image on your page, e.g a banner or logo or a single pixel GIF. Then reference this image with a tracking URL.
For an Engine distributed as plain text it is not possible to see if it is actually opened or read. But what you can do is insert tracking URLs at the appropriate points, such as product offers or special articles, and get comparative figures for which items are being read.
AT YOUR WEB SITE
#12. The Problem Of Permanent URLs
Web sites are continually evolving and changing.
You may want to rename a page to make it more consistent and logical but there's a huge problem. You have given out the URL in an ebook, or a directory submission, or an article or wherever. There's no way you can undo this.
The solution?
Never provide the actual URL, just a tracking URL. You can then just edit the link at the tracking centre whenever a page is moved or renamed.
The external links, in your ebook for example, stay the same but they will redirect to your new page.
#13. What Are Your Visitors Doing ?
You have text links all over your site, links to your other pages and links to recommended sites.
Where are your visitors clicking ?
Where are they leaving your site, why, how can you stop them ?
Which graphic do they click on the most ?
Do they click on the text link more than the graphic link?
Your log files may tell you at best which are the most popular pages at your site but it is vital to know how your visitors move through your site and what is tempting them.
Use tracking URLs to replace actual links wherever you need to monitor click activity.
#14. Sell Website Advertising Space
You can offer tracking reports to your advertisers in the same way as for Engine publishers (above).
If you sell advertising space in your Engine you can offer to your advertisers to replace their URLs with your tracking URLs and Email them the results.
Tell your advertisers about these benefits in your advertising guidelines
- They will know the number of click through their ad has generated. They can then decide how to improve the ads for better performance
- If they use a tracker program with your own domain name in the tracking URL your Engine subscribers will be more inclined to click
- They can use your Engine as a test centre, modifying their ads until they are happy, before launching with other publishers
#10. Use Tracking Report Results
The tracking reports above will provide you with information on your subscribers' interests, influencing your editorial content and helping you select which potential advertisers to approach.
Also, once your advertisers have seen for themselves the benefits of an ad tracking program they will be inclined to purchase one. So set yourself up as an affiliate for a program and promote it to them.
#11. Measure Your Readership
You may know how many subscribers you have but how many actually open and read your Engine and which parts of it attract most attention?
Here's how to find out if you distribute your Engine in HTML Format: include an image on your page, e.g a banner or logo or a single pixel GIF. Then reference this image with a tracking URL.
For an Engine distributed as plain text it is not possible to see if it is actually opened or read. But what you can do is insert tracking URLs at the appropriate points, such as product offers or special articles, and get comparative figures for which items are being read.
AT YOUR WEB SITE
#12. The Problem Of Permanent URLs
Web sites are continually evolving and changing.
You may want to rename a page to make it more consistent and logical but there's a huge problem. You have given out the URL in an ebook, or a directory submission, or an article or wherever. There's no way you can undo this.
The solution?
Never provide the actual URL, just a tracking URL. You can then just edit the link at the tracking centre whenever a page is moved or renamed.
The external links, in your ebook for example, stay the same but they will redirect to your new page.
#13. What Are Your Visitors Doing ?
You have text links all over your site, links to your other pages and links to recommended sites.
Where are your visitors clicking ?
Where are they leaving your site, why, how can you stop them ?
Which graphic do they click on the most ?
Do they click on the text link more than the graphic link?
Your log files may tell you at best which are the most popular pages at your site but it is vital to know how your visitors move through your site and what is tempting them.
Use tracking URLs to replace actual links wherever you need to monitor click activity.
#14. Sell Website Advertising Space
You can offer tracking reports to your advertisers in the same way as for Engine publishers (above).
#15. Stop Piracy
If you have invested man-months of time setting up a vital resource site involving a directory of links it's very easy for a pirate to simply copy your page and provide useful content for his own site.
If you have invested man-months of time setting up a vital resource site involving a directory of links it's very easy for a pirate to simply copy your page and provide useful content for his own site.
If you use tracking URLs for those directory links you can detect this copy - because the ad tracking program will record the referring URL. At the same time of course you can measure the popularity of the directory links.
USING PAY PER CLICK SEARCH ENGINES
USING PAY PER CLICK SEARCH ENGINES
#16. Better Click Activity Reporting
Pay per click search engines will report to you click activity on your URL. Engines vary in the frequency and format of the reporting so you can use tracking URLs instead to obtain better information.
#17. Prevent Fraudulent Activity
You can compare your figures with the engines and should query any large discrepancy.
If click activity is unusually high you may have a competitor clicking on just to incur costs against you. You may be able to detect this by comparing the figures for unique hits and actual hits (several hits per visitor).
OFFLINE MARKETING
Pay per click search engines will report to you click activity on your URL. Engines vary in the frequency and format of the reporting so you can use tracking URLs instead to obtain better information.
#17. Prevent Fraudulent Activity
You can compare your figures with the engines and should query any large discrepancy.
If click activity is unusually high you may have a competitor clicking on just to incur costs against you. You may be able to detect this by comparing the figures for unique hits and actual hits (several hits per visitor).
OFFLINE MARKETING
#18. Check How Successful
If you have ever wondered whether it was worth advertising off line because of the supposed impossibility of measuring the response then ad tracking URLs will answer that problem. Just include them in your ads in
- newspapers
- magazines
- flyers
- billboards
- press releases
- shop notice boards
- and so on
#19. Use The Time Reports
The date and time when clicks are made will allow you to check the progress of your ads, for example
- has your newspaper ad been submitted yet ?
- has your billboard notice been removed?
- How long does a magazine ad stay around?
For a long running ad you can study the response and switch the link midstream if necessary to an improved web page.
EBOOKS
#20. Do Free Books Work?
The main purpose of a free e-book is to get the reader back to your site. But how successful is it proving?
Put tracking URLs in the book and you will find out.
#21. Maintain Control After Download
Once your e-book is downloaded it would appear that you no longer have any control over it. Not so. You can redirect the reader to other pages of your site by changing the tracking Url links.
OTHER WAYS
If you have ever wondered whether it was worth advertising off line because of the supposed impossibility of measuring the response then ad tracking URLs will answer that problem. Just include them in your ads in
- newspapers
- magazines
- flyers
- billboards
- press releases
- shop notice boards
- and so on
#19. Use The Time Reports
The date and time when clicks are made will allow you to check the progress of your ads, for example
- has your newspaper ad been submitted yet ?
- has your billboard notice been removed?
- How long does a magazine ad stay around?
For a long running ad you can study the response and switch the link midstream if necessary to an improved web page.
EBOOKS
#20. Do Free Books Work?
The main purpose of a free e-book is to get the reader back to your site. But how successful is it proving?
Put tracking URLs in the book and you will find out.
#21. Maintain Control After Download
Once your e-book is downloaded it would appear that you no longer have any control over it. Not so. You can redirect the reader to other pages of your site by changing the tracking Url links.
OTHER WAYS
#22. Become An Ad Tracking Affiliate
Since ad tracking programs are high demand marketing tools you can profit by joining their affiliate program (if they have one).
Owning the product that you promote always gives that extra advantage e.g you can give an example of how you use it or a personal testimonial as to how it has benefited you.
#23. Privacy
You may want to post an URL somewhere and - for reasons of your own - not let it reveal your website. You can do this with an ad tracking program where the supplier domain name is used in the tracking URL.
Since ad tracking programs are high demand marketing tools you can profit by joining their affiliate program (if they have one).
Owning the product that you promote always gives that extra advantage e.g you can give an example of how you use it or a personal testimonial as to how it has benefited you.
#23. Privacy
You may want to post an URL somewhere and - for reasons of your own - not let it reveal your website. You can do this with an ad tracking program where the supplier domain name is used in the tracking URL.
How to Get Instant Traffic to Your Website
At the same time, pay-per-click advertising (or PPC) is not as simple to use as the PPC companies will have you believe. If you jump into the system without preparing for ‘tracking' your results, doing deep keyword research, establishing your ROI and most importantly, testing your ads, you'll lose a lot of money really fast.
Before we start talking about the major PPC engines, here's a brief overview of what you need to know.
The Basics Of
Before we start talking about the major PPC engines, here's a brief overview of what you need to know.
The Basics Of
Pay Per Click
There are some terms that you should know if you want to understand any discussion on PPC. Some of these are self-explanatory, some you might have heard before. Either way, go through this section and make sure to read those parts that you don't know of.
The PPC Model
In the PPC advertising model, you have three core elements – keywords , ads , and bids . These three elements are combined with ‘ placement ' to create an advertising model that displays ‘relevant' ads on search engines (in response to keyword searches), portals and websites that opt to display such ads on their pages (the ads to be shown are determined by a keyword analysis of the page).
For a PPC campaign, you need to know the keywords that you are targeting. For example, for a niche site that promotes a time management product, I would create a list of keywords that included keyword groups containing terms related to time management, productivity, saving time, self improvement and maybe even business soft skills. As I've told you before about keyword research, you should have a big list so that you capture most, if not all, of your target traffic.
The next step is to write the ad copy for the ads that will be displayed for your searches. The ad copy is extremely important because along with your bid amount, this will determine the ‘conversion rate' (explained below) of your ads. Write concise, compelling ad copy that highlights the benefits of your website / product, and avoid fluff.
Once you've written your ads, it's time to bid . The bidding mechanism differs from PPC engine to engine, but the idea is the same – your bid amount is the maximum cost (usually calculated in U.S. dollars) that you are willing to pay for each keyword. It's important to know how much you can afford in terms of bidding costs so that you avoid going into bidding wars with your competitors, and also so that you don't spend more than you make through this campaign.
Cost-Per-Click
Cost-Per-Click ( CPC ) is the amount you pay each time a potential customer ‘clicks' on one of your ads that they see on their search engine results or on websites. This is often less than the maximum bid amount you set for each keyword.
Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate is the ratio of clicks over impressions (the number of times your ad is displayed on searches or page loads on websites). A typical conversion rate is between 2 to 3 percent – that is, for every 100 impressions, you get 2-3 clicks on your ads.
Conversion Rate is closely tied in with the quality of your ad copy, and also with Placement, which I'll discuss next.
Placement
If there is more than one person bidding for a keyword (as is almost always the case), the placement of the ads (which ad comes in on the first slot, which comes in on the second, etc.) is determined by bid amounts of each competitor. The higher your bid, the better your placement (Google adds the conversion rate into their placement calculations, and I'll tell you how later). Your conversion rate to a certain extent depends on how high your ad is placed on the ‘rankings' and this leads advertisers to place high bids just to rank at the top. The trouble with this approach is that you might enter into a bidding war with your competitors and lose a lot of money.
Tracking
Tracking refers to measuring which keywords are bringing you the best leads or sales, and which keywords are bringing you ‘window shoppers' – people who are ‘compulsive clickers' and don't buy or sign up. Tracking your ad campaign will help you further fine-tune your ads and improve your ROI.
ROI
Your Return-on-Investment (ROI) is determined by how much you are spending over how much you are earning in net profits from your ad campaign. It's important to establish a base ROI before your start your ad campaign – assume a conversion rate of 1 percent – so that you don't over-spend and are able to run this campaign within your budget.
The Pay-Per-Click World
Currently, there are two major PPC engines, Google AdWords and Overture (now known as Yahoo! Search Marketing ). While there are many alternatives such as Espotting (now Miva), Metrics Direct and Kanoodle, the top two PPC engines are a class apart when it comes to delivering results.
However, one of the first pieces of advice you'll hear from most people is that bigger PPC engines such as AdWords and Overture are too ‘expensive' to break into (with CPC for top positions easily passing $3-$4 for many keywords, and reaching $10 for really competitive keywords).
In reality, if you are just starting out, it's critical that you pick one of the top two PPC engines. Why?
Traditionally marketers judge PPC engines on the following criteria:
Reach – How large your potential target market is.
Cost-per-click
Quality of traffic – Do the leads fit your customer profile? Are the willing to spend on your products?
Quality of service – The tools and help offered by the PPC engines.
Overture and AdWords beat their competition on all of these metrics except CPC. However, the benefits of ‘cheaper' clicks are more than compensated for by the ease of use of the big two, and more importantly, as any PPC expert will tell you, the quality of traffic from Overture and AdWords is far better than from other PPC engines.
Overture
Overture was purchased by Yahoo!, and recently renamed to Yahoo! Search Marketing. The name's not catchy, but with Yahoo! Behind the ‘second-largest' PPC engine on the Internet, you can expect that the quality of traffic and services will improve over the next year. Yahoo's acquisition of Overture is the single biggest reason advertisers have started paying attention to Overture again, although Google AdWords still commands leading respect.
Overture is a manually edited PPC engine. When you write ads for your website, these ads (and the keywords you specify) have to be approved by human editors before they can appear in search results on Overture partner websites. While this ensures that the quality of ads remains above a certain level, this is also a hassle, as new ad campaigns can take several days to be approved, and there is a distinct lag between the time you plan to improve a section of your campaign (for testing) and the time those changes actually go live.
Overture keyword bids are totally transparent, meaning that any advertiser can see at any time what other advertisers are paying for that particular keyword. This is both useful and harmful – advertisers can accurately target their ‘ad placement' positions, but knowledge of the top 2 or top 3 bid amounts can easily lead into a bidding war, and competitors undercutting your ads by posting a bid that is $0.01 higher than yours.
Google Adwords
Google AdWords is the leading PPC engine on the Internet, although it's closely followed by Overture. Combined, the two PPC networks are distributed on nearly every search engine or portal.
Google is totally automated – your ads go live within minutes of being written. This is one of the two significant advantages AdWords has over its competition – no need to wait for ‘approval' of your keywords and ads, which can take a few days on other PPC engines.
Google AdWords, like Overture, does not charge you your maximum bid amount, but just one cent more than the bid lower than yours. On the other hand, AdWords bids are not transparent like Overture – bidders have no idea what their competition is bidding. This reduces the threat of bidding wars.
The second advantage of AdWords is that it includes conversion rate calculations in its ad-ranking algorithm. Simply put, your ad may rank higher than your competitors' even if you are bidding lower, just because you have a higher conversion rate. AdWords rewards ads that are better written, and thus provides a subtle barrier against ad spam.
PPC advertising has become the ultimate marketing tool for testing new ad campaigns, business models and landing pages without spending too much money. Where else can you test a sales page by sending it 100 leads for $5?
If you are looking to promote your website / product effectively but cannot wait for your search engine rankings to show on Google or Yahoo, you should seriously consider PPC advertising as an advertising tool that not only brings in instant traffic (and sales), but is a hedge against ranking fluctuations by ensuring that you stay on the top page for your target keywords.
This is just a general overview of Pay Per Click marketing/strategies. Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon, where I'll go into some much more advanced techniques to really ramp up your traffic, all the while spending less money!
There are some terms that you should know if you want to understand any discussion on PPC. Some of these are self-explanatory, some you might have heard before. Either way, go through this section and make sure to read those parts that you don't know of.
The PPC Model
In the PPC advertising model, you have three core elements – keywords , ads , and bids . These three elements are combined with ‘ placement ' to create an advertising model that displays ‘relevant' ads on search engines (in response to keyword searches), portals and websites that opt to display such ads on their pages (the ads to be shown are determined by a keyword analysis of the page).
For a PPC campaign, you need to know the keywords that you are targeting. For example, for a niche site that promotes a time management product, I would create a list of keywords that included keyword groups containing terms related to time management, productivity, saving time, self improvement and maybe even business soft skills. As I've told you before about keyword research, you should have a big list so that you capture most, if not all, of your target traffic.
The next step is to write the ad copy for the ads that will be displayed for your searches. The ad copy is extremely important because along with your bid amount, this will determine the ‘conversion rate' (explained below) of your ads. Write concise, compelling ad copy that highlights the benefits of your website / product, and avoid fluff.
Once you've written your ads, it's time to bid . The bidding mechanism differs from PPC engine to engine, but the idea is the same – your bid amount is the maximum cost (usually calculated in U.S. dollars) that you are willing to pay for each keyword. It's important to know how much you can afford in terms of bidding costs so that you avoid going into bidding wars with your competitors, and also so that you don't spend more than you make through this campaign.
Cost-Per-Click
Cost-Per-Click ( CPC ) is the amount you pay each time a potential customer ‘clicks' on one of your ads that they see on their search engine results or on websites. This is often less than the maximum bid amount you set for each keyword.
Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate is the ratio of clicks over impressions (the number of times your ad is displayed on searches or page loads on websites). A typical conversion rate is between 2 to 3 percent – that is, for every 100 impressions, you get 2-3 clicks on your ads.
Conversion Rate is closely tied in with the quality of your ad copy, and also with Placement, which I'll discuss next.
Placement
If there is more than one person bidding for a keyword (as is almost always the case), the placement of the ads (which ad comes in on the first slot, which comes in on the second, etc.) is determined by bid amounts of each competitor. The higher your bid, the better your placement (Google adds the conversion rate into their placement calculations, and I'll tell you how later). Your conversion rate to a certain extent depends on how high your ad is placed on the ‘rankings' and this leads advertisers to place high bids just to rank at the top. The trouble with this approach is that you might enter into a bidding war with your competitors and lose a lot of money.
Tracking
Tracking refers to measuring which keywords are bringing you the best leads or sales, and which keywords are bringing you ‘window shoppers' – people who are ‘compulsive clickers' and don't buy or sign up. Tracking your ad campaign will help you further fine-tune your ads and improve your ROI.
ROI
Your Return-on-Investment (ROI) is determined by how much you are spending over how much you are earning in net profits from your ad campaign. It's important to establish a base ROI before your start your ad campaign – assume a conversion rate of 1 percent – so that you don't over-spend and are able to run this campaign within your budget.
The Pay-Per-Click World
Currently, there are two major PPC engines, Google AdWords and Overture (now known as Yahoo! Search Marketing ). While there are many alternatives such as Espotting (now Miva), Metrics Direct and Kanoodle, the top two PPC engines are a class apart when it comes to delivering results.
However, one of the first pieces of advice you'll hear from most people is that bigger PPC engines such as AdWords and Overture are too ‘expensive' to break into (with CPC for top positions easily passing $3-$4 for many keywords, and reaching $10 for really competitive keywords).
In reality, if you are just starting out, it's critical that you pick one of the top two PPC engines. Why?
Traditionally marketers judge PPC engines on the following criteria:
Reach – How large your potential target market is.
Cost-per-click
Quality of traffic – Do the leads fit your customer profile? Are the willing to spend on your products?
Quality of service – The tools and help offered by the PPC engines.
Overture and AdWords beat their competition on all of these metrics except CPC. However, the benefits of ‘cheaper' clicks are more than compensated for by the ease of use of the big two, and more importantly, as any PPC expert will tell you, the quality of traffic from Overture and AdWords is far better than from other PPC engines.
Overture
Overture was purchased by Yahoo!, and recently renamed to Yahoo! Search Marketing. The name's not catchy, but with Yahoo! Behind the ‘second-largest' PPC engine on the Internet, you can expect that the quality of traffic and services will improve over the next year. Yahoo's acquisition of Overture is the single biggest reason advertisers have started paying attention to Overture again, although Google AdWords still commands leading respect.
Overture is a manually edited PPC engine. When you write ads for your website, these ads (and the keywords you specify) have to be approved by human editors before they can appear in search results on Overture partner websites. While this ensures that the quality of ads remains above a certain level, this is also a hassle, as new ad campaigns can take several days to be approved, and there is a distinct lag between the time you plan to improve a section of your campaign (for testing) and the time those changes actually go live.
Overture keyword bids are totally transparent, meaning that any advertiser can see at any time what other advertisers are paying for that particular keyword. This is both useful and harmful – advertisers can accurately target their ‘ad placement' positions, but knowledge of the top 2 or top 3 bid amounts can easily lead into a bidding war, and competitors undercutting your ads by posting a bid that is $0.01 higher than yours.
Google Adwords
Google AdWords is the leading PPC engine on the Internet, although it's closely followed by Overture. Combined, the two PPC networks are distributed on nearly every search engine or portal.
Google is totally automated – your ads go live within minutes of being written. This is one of the two significant advantages AdWords has over its competition – no need to wait for ‘approval' of your keywords and ads, which can take a few days on other PPC engines.
Google AdWords, like Overture, does not charge you your maximum bid amount, but just one cent more than the bid lower than yours. On the other hand, AdWords bids are not transparent like Overture – bidders have no idea what their competition is bidding. This reduces the threat of bidding wars.
The second advantage of AdWords is that it includes conversion rate calculations in its ad-ranking algorithm. Simply put, your ad may rank higher than your competitors' even if you are bidding lower, just because you have a higher conversion rate. AdWords rewards ads that are better written, and thus provides a subtle barrier against ad spam.
PPC advertising has become the ultimate marketing tool for testing new ad campaigns, business models and landing pages without spending too much money. Where else can you test a sales page by sending it 100 leads for $5?
If you are looking to promote your website / product effectively but cannot wait for your search engine rankings to show on Google or Yahoo, you should seriously consider PPC advertising as an advertising tool that not only brings in instant traffic (and sales), but is a hedge against ranking fluctuations by ensuring that you stay on the top page for your target keywords.
This is just a general overview of Pay Per Click marketing/strategies. Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon, where I'll go into some much more advanced techniques to really ramp up your traffic, all the while spending less money!
Necessary 6 Steps to Starting a Home Business at www.imagechoti.blogspot.com
Have you been a good student? Congratulations for making your dream of owning a home business a reality. Today you will learn how to get qualified traffic to your product web site and how to build your house list of email leads.
(If you missed the first 5 steps, you can catch up here) http://kenleonardjr.com/step1
Now that you have your online marketing system ready to go, it's time for you to learn how to bring targeted visitors to your site.
The fast way to get visitors to your site is to run targeted keyword based ads with one of the major pay per click search engines. You can open an account with Google AdWords, then learn how to use it properly. Though you can get fast traffic to your offer from a PPC campaign, you should direct traffic to your main page only for testing the offer and sales copy. The most efficient way to take advantage of PPC traffic is to send the visitors to a page that asks for contact info before they can see the advertised information. Those that don't give their email address (or more) are redirected to the sales page anyway when they close the lead capture page.
You must know what you are doing when advertising on Google, Overture and FindWhat, or you stand to lose a lot of cash very quickly. You can check out a very popular resource for learning the finer points of running ads with Google AdWords here: http://www.kljonline.com/GoogleCash.html
The online market research tool I mentioned earlier in this series would be a valuable tool for you if you decide to take advantage of Google AdWords. You can check it out here: http://marketresearch.for-your-biz.com
I mention this tool again because it comes with a very good AdWords tutorial. You could save some cash by getting the research tool with the free AdWords tutorial, then you don't have to get a copy of GoogleCash. You have to do something to educate yourself though, or you could really do some serious damage to your advertising budget.
Now for the cheap way to get traffic to your site, search engine listings. Learn how to optimize specific web pages to rank highly in Yahoo, Google and other major search engine listings. Create each page to focus on a specific keyword phrase that you found while doing online keyword research earlier in this series. But don't spend too much time on this method, since search engines are not very consistent in their listing ranking criteria.
The next method you can use for generating quality traffic to your site is to run ads in targeted email newsletters and ezines. Running ads will cost you some cash, but will really make your traffic meter go crazy. You can build your house list this way and make direct sales, too. Here is a free tutorial to help you write effective ezine ads: http://kenleonardjr.com/articles/WritingNetworkMarketingAds.html
Make sure you track every link you use in your email newsletter campaigns. Doing this will show you which ads are working and which are not. You will also find out which ezines are working, a valuable thing to know. What works for you will depend on your product and your target customer.
Writing promotional articles is a very good way to develop a long term traffic source. Write content that would be useful to your target customer, then ezine publishers and webmasters give your articles exposure to your market. This will send you high quality targeted visitors that like what you have to say. Here's another free tutorial for you, so you can learn how to write articles for web promotion that will bring you quality traffic: http://kenleonardjr.com/write
Buying banner and link space on high traffic sites that are related to yours can be a good source of targeted traffic, but be careful. You could spend a lot of cash, get a lot of traffic to your site but not get ANY sales or ANY leads! So start small and work your way up. This is a good rule to live by when learning to market online using any paid advertising.
Buying email leads is another effective way to get qualified visitors to your site, if done correctly. When purchasing email leads, make sure the lead signs up for your list specifically and that a proper record is made of the request. There are only a few reputable sources for co registration email leads, so choose carefully. Such a lead provider that is used by many professional online marketers can be found here: http://leads.for-your-biz.com
Put these methods into action and you will get targeted traffic to your web site and your offer. Some will produce short term sales while others will bring results later on. Some of these tactics will require a bit of cash while others will cost you your time. Don't make the mistake of thinking that your time is cheaper than spending cash, it is not. Treat your time as you would your money. Sometimes a small fee to get a job done is a lot cheaper than the time you would spend doing the job.
Now that you will be getting some serious traffic to your site, you will want to make sure you are using the most effective follow up series you can. Your follow up messages can make you a lot of cash if you know how to put it all together.
In Step 7 of this series, you will learn to follow up with your prospects effectively. How to deliver a powerful resource and sales message that will make buyers out of visitors that would have left your web site, Never To Return.
(If you missed the first 5 steps, you can catch up here) http://kenleonardjr.com/step1
Now that you have your online marketing system ready to go, it's time for you to learn how to bring targeted visitors to your site.
The fast way to get visitors to your site is to run targeted keyword based ads with one of the major pay per click search engines. You can open an account with Google AdWords, then learn how to use it properly. Though you can get fast traffic to your offer from a PPC campaign, you should direct traffic to your main page only for testing the offer and sales copy. The most efficient way to take advantage of PPC traffic is to send the visitors to a page that asks for contact info before they can see the advertised information. Those that don't give their email address (or more) are redirected to the sales page anyway when they close the lead capture page.
You must know what you are doing when advertising on Google, Overture and FindWhat, or you stand to lose a lot of cash very quickly. You can check out a very popular resource for learning the finer points of running ads with Google AdWords here: http://www.kljonline.com/GoogleCash.html
The online market research tool I mentioned earlier in this series would be a valuable tool for you if you decide to take advantage of Google AdWords. You can check it out here: http://marketresearch.for-your-biz.com
I mention this tool again because it comes with a very good AdWords tutorial. You could save some cash by getting the research tool with the free AdWords tutorial, then you don't have to get a copy of GoogleCash. You have to do something to educate yourself though, or you could really do some serious damage to your advertising budget.
Now for the cheap way to get traffic to your site, search engine listings. Learn how to optimize specific web pages to rank highly in Yahoo, Google and other major search engine listings. Create each page to focus on a specific keyword phrase that you found while doing online keyword research earlier in this series. But don't spend too much time on this method, since search engines are not very consistent in their listing ranking criteria.
The next method you can use for generating quality traffic to your site is to run ads in targeted email newsletters and ezines. Running ads will cost you some cash, but will really make your traffic meter go crazy. You can build your house list this way and make direct sales, too. Here is a free tutorial to help you write effective ezine ads: http://kenleonardjr.com/articles/WritingNetworkMarketingAds.html
Make sure you track every link you use in your email newsletter campaigns. Doing this will show you which ads are working and which are not. You will also find out which ezines are working, a valuable thing to know. What works for you will depend on your product and your target customer.
Writing promotional articles is a very good way to develop a long term traffic source. Write content that would be useful to your target customer, then ezine publishers and webmasters give your articles exposure to your market. This will send you high quality targeted visitors that like what you have to say. Here's another free tutorial for you, so you can learn how to write articles for web promotion that will bring you quality traffic: http://kenleonardjr.com/write
Buying banner and link space on high traffic sites that are related to yours can be a good source of targeted traffic, but be careful. You could spend a lot of cash, get a lot of traffic to your site but not get ANY sales or ANY leads! So start small and work your way up. This is a good rule to live by when learning to market online using any paid advertising.
Buying email leads is another effective way to get qualified visitors to your site, if done correctly. When purchasing email leads, make sure the lead signs up for your list specifically and that a proper record is made of the request. There are only a few reputable sources for co registration email leads, so choose carefully. Such a lead provider that is used by many professional online marketers can be found here: http://leads.for-your-biz.com
Put these methods into action and you will get targeted traffic to your web site and your offer. Some will produce short term sales while others will bring results later on. Some of these tactics will require a bit of cash while others will cost you your time. Don't make the mistake of thinking that your time is cheaper than spending cash, it is not. Treat your time as you would your money. Sometimes a small fee to get a job done is a lot cheaper than the time you would spend doing the job.
Now that you will be getting some serious traffic to your site, you will want to make sure you are using the most effective follow up series you can. Your follow up messages can make you a lot of cash if you know how to put it all together.
In Step 7 of this series, you will learn to follow up with your prospects effectively. How to deliver a powerful resource and sales message that will make buyers out of visitors that would have left your web site, Never To Return.
Great Website! But where are your customers by www.imagechoti.blogspot.com
You have a great website now where are the customers?
A great website without customers is like a mega mall in the middle of a desert with no road leading to it. In order to sell you need customers, but how do you get the traffic to your website?
There are numerous ways to drive traffic to your website, in this article we shall examine the paid methods of getting traffic.
1. Pay Per Click (PPC)
Nothing new to anyone on the net. Every major search engine offers it in one form or the other. A great way to drive traffic to your site. But only if you know how to use it.
You must select keywords that will drive traffic to your site but will not cause your CPC bill to skyrocket without converting prospects into sales. Your description must also complement your keyword so that it reinforces your products and services.
The persons who click have interest in your goods but are still prospects. What goods are they interested in however. If my food site should use a keyword phrase "oral pleasure" relating to food and tastiness, I might be surprised to get a lot of clicks but no sales. Why, you might ask? Most likely the persons clicking on my link got there while searching for adult links for oral pleasure.
Funny you might think, but everyday, advertisers haphazardly choose keywords that have no bearing on their site. They now start to receive customers but have no conversions as these were not targeted visitors. By now the CPC bill is high and sales are still low to non-existent.
So for my food site, a better choice of keyword would be "jerk seasoning", and if I wanted to narrow my target market more with specific searches, I would use "Jamaican jerk seasoning". This would be sure to send me only targeted customers searching for my products. My conversion rate will be higher out of this batch of qualified prospects.
2. Text Ads
Advertisers can sponsor text ads for varying periods on different search engines.
These text ads run from as little as $12 per 3 month period and give good exposure to a wide market, but is again dependent on keyword and description choices.
3.Buy Traffic
There are sites that are wholly designated to selling web traffic. The rates vary but traffic can be bought from as little as $2.99 per thousand visitor.
The type of traffic is dependent on where the traffic is from. Traffic is generated from expired domains and redirected traffic. Traffic can also be classified into geographic regions and by shopping preferences. The more targeted choices are more costly but give a better quality visitor.
If your business is in theUSA US Bahrain
Some traffic sites send visitors based on auto generated views. This might boost the stats on your site but will not generate sales. You need to ensure that real people are viewing your site and not automated software. If you are going to pay for traffic then you need to get real traffic.
Some websites will tell you they are sending visitors, when they mean hits. 1000 hits is not the same as 1000 visitors. Every time a visitor comes to your site they generate hits. Every image that opens generates a hit. So you can see the difference between the promise of 1000 hits vs 1000 visitors. 100 visitors just might, depending on your landing page, generate a 1000 hits.
4. Links
Joining paid link exchanges is a great way to get incoming links to your site. This method until recently was a good enough method, but Google's recent change to its view on paid Link Exchanges means that less value is placed on incoming links.
It is still a fairly valuable tool as the other members with whom you link, the traffic from their sites now have a link to you. The drawback is when your link is so far down the page that customers to that site will never have easy access.
5. Search Engines
Not by any means last or the least effective method. The major search engines will drive most of your traffic tot your site. Google delivers at least 60% of sites search engine traffic, and so websites must be optimized and tweaked to achieve higher ranking in the engines. Higher ranking translates to appearing in the first few results. the higher up you rank and place the more your traffic from the search engine. With this method, optimization and submission of the site is paramount. A good SEO can tweak your site to make it search engine friendly including optimizing your meta tags such as Keywords, description and title.
A great website without customers is like a mega mall in the middle of a desert with no road leading to it. In order to sell you need customers, but how do you get the traffic to your website?
There are numerous ways to drive traffic to your website, in this article we shall examine the paid methods of getting traffic.
1. Pay Per Click (PPC)
Nothing new to anyone on the net. Every major search engine offers it in one form or the other. A great way to drive traffic to your site. But only if you know how to use it.
You must select keywords that will drive traffic to your site but will not cause your CPC bill to skyrocket without converting prospects into sales. Your description must also complement your keyword so that it reinforces your products and services.
The persons who click have interest in your goods but are still prospects. What goods are they interested in however. If my food site should use a keyword phrase "oral pleasure" relating to food and tastiness, I might be surprised to get a lot of clicks but no sales. Why, you might ask? Most likely the persons clicking on my link got there while searching for adult links for oral pleasure.
Funny you might think, but everyday, advertisers haphazardly choose keywords that have no bearing on their site. They now start to receive customers but have no conversions as these were not targeted visitors. By now the CPC bill is high and sales are still low to non-existent.
So for my food site, a better choice of keyword would be "jerk seasoning", and if I wanted to narrow my target market more with specific searches, I would use "Jamaican jerk seasoning". This would be sure to send me only targeted customers searching for my products. My conversion rate will be higher out of this batch of qualified prospects.
2. Text Ads
Advertisers can sponsor text ads for varying periods on different search engines.
These text ads run from as little as $12 per 3 month period and give good exposure to a wide market, but is again dependent on keyword and description choices.
3.Buy Traffic
There are sites that are wholly designated to selling web traffic. The rates vary but traffic can be bought from as little as $2.99 per thousand visitor.
The type of traffic is dependent on where the traffic is from. Traffic is generated from expired domains and redirected traffic. Traffic can also be classified into geographic regions and by shopping preferences. The more targeted choices are more costly but give a better quality visitor.
If your business is in the
Some traffic sites send visitors based on auto generated views. This might boost the stats on your site but will not generate sales. You need to ensure that real people are viewing your site and not automated software. If you are going to pay for traffic then you need to get real traffic.
Some websites will tell you they are sending visitors, when they mean hits. 1000 hits is not the same as 1000 visitors. Every time a visitor comes to your site they generate hits. Every image that opens generates a hit. So you can see the difference between the promise of 1000 hits vs 1000 visitors. 100 visitors just might, depending on your landing page, generate a 1000 hits.
4. Links
Joining paid link exchanges is a great way to get incoming links to your site. This method until recently was a good enough method, but Google's recent change to its view on paid Link Exchanges means that less value is placed on incoming links.
It is still a fairly valuable tool as the other members with whom you link, the traffic from their sites now have a link to you. The drawback is when your link is so far down the page that customers to that site will never have easy access.
5. Search Engines
Not by any means last or the least effective method. The major search engines will drive most of your traffic tot your site. Google delivers at least 60% of sites search engine traffic, and so websites must be optimized and tweaked to achieve higher ranking in the engines. Higher ranking translates to appearing in the first few results. the higher up you rank and place the more your traffic from the search engine. With this method, optimization and submission of the site is paramount. A good SEO can tweak your site to make it search engine friendly including optimizing your meta tags such as Keywords, description and title.
Tips for Successful Pay-Per-Click Campaigns at www.imagechoti.blogspot.com
Introduction
Pay per click (PPC) is by far one of the easiest and quickest methods of driving targeted, consistent traffic to your website. While this may seem like a daunting method of advertising for some, it's actually quite easy and can end up becoming that one marketing method that you can't live without.
What I'd like to do today is provide some tips and techniques that I personally use when creating and monitoring PPC ad's. Hopefully these tips will help you in your future marketing endeavors.
Experimenting With Different Search Engines
There are many PPC search engines, with some being better than others. The top two are Google and Yahoo, which was previously known as Overture. It's a good idea to start your PPC campaigns with a small budget, spreading it out over a few different search engines to experiment and see where your target market may be lurking.
Generally speaking, I've found Google Adwords is better for more technically orientated products or services, including software, hardware, web design etc. Yahoo, on the other hand, is better for general consumer products, including insurance, toys, music etc.
What I wrote in the previous paragraph is very general, and you should analyze your campaigns carefully to see where they are performing their best. We'll discuss this in detail a little later in the article.
Selecting the Right Keywords
The keyword selection process is probably the most important of all when it comes to creating your PPC ad's. You'll need to select keywords that are specific to your product or service offering, but you need to be careful not to select keywords that are extremely popular, as this may deplete your PPC funds sooner than expected.
The keyword selection process begins by asking yourself just one question:
"If I was searching for a product just like mine, which words or phrases would I search for?"
Using your answer(s) to this question as your base, you can then use a thesaurus and common sense to start building your keyword list with plurals, synonyms, similar words, etc.
To see which keywords your competitors are using, simply try searching for them. If you see a PPC ad along the side for your competitor, then note that keyword down and add it to your list.
Another way of coming up with great keywords is to use the overture search suggestion tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Type in a set of keywords and it will list similar keywords, including the number of times that keyword has been searched for on Overture (Yahoo) in the last month!
There's often a fine line between selecting keywords that are either too specific or keywords that are too general. Try to keep away from these, as they can often result in wasted PCP funds.
A typical example of this would be an ad that I created recently for our latest product, TrackPoint, which -- not coincidently -- is an internet marketing return on investment (ROI) tracking tool. Although the product is heavily geared towards internet marketing, using such a broad term would have made it virtually impossible to compete with the other advertisers.
The term "internet marketing" is searched for 825,674 times per month on Overture alone. Combined with the huge number of different advertisers that target this keyword, the top bid for "internet marketing" on Google AdWords is $13.84 per click! With an average of 240 clicks per day, a single day of advertising alone would cost $505!
Now, unless you have an extremely high conversion rate of visitors to sales, or you're selling a high priced item that usually has a high customer acquisition cost, I suggest targeting more specific keywords. Not only will this decrease your overall competition with other advertisers, but it will also increase the chances of turning your newly found web site visitors into customers.
Back to my earlier example, I chose to be specific with my keywords. One keyword was "ROI tracking", which is searched for 1,828 times per month on Overture and has a much cheaper top bid. This keyword is also more targeted to the product I was marketing, meaning that a large percentage of people clicking on my ad should turn into customers.
It's also helpful to note that taking the top bid is not always necessary, and anywhere in the top 5-10 can generate great leads. This really does come down to budget and analysis.
Attracting People to Your Ad
Now that we've selected our keywords, we need to get those searching to click on our ad, which in turn will result in them clicking through to our web site and potentially purchasing our product.
One of the simplest ways to get peoples attention is to use their search keywords in the title of your PPC ad. This has been proven to increase click-thru rates on ad's by over 50%.
Why? Simple. If the potential customer is searching for "ROI Tracking" and the title of a PCP ad begins with "ROI Tracking", then their attention will be grabbed instantly. He or she doesn't need to know much else, other than that the PPC ad is catered specifically for him or her.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can sometimes create a more relevant title by combining your different keywords into one PPC ad. For example, I could have easily used something like "ROI Tracking PHP Script" as the title of my ad, which effectively would have decreased my click-thru rate, but definitely caters my ad more to a specific audience. Once again, this comes down to analysis and adjustment.
Another important technique to attract attention to your ad is to differentiate yourself from your competitors. In our particular case, the majority of our competition offer hosted solutions, whereby they manage the software on their servers in return for monthly or per traffic fees.
Our product caters to a different audience, those that want more control over their software, as well as those not wanting to pay monthly fees. So, in this example, I would make the title of my ad "Pay no monthly or per traffic fees".
Next -- and this is where experimentation is extremely important -- we need to create a description for our PPC ad that will attract the potential customer and let them know that our product is exactly what they are searching for. To do this, I start my ad's description with "Track PPC, campaigns & search".
Finally, it's good practice to add a "Call to action" at the bottom of your ad. If you're not familiar with this term, its usually an instruction to tell the person to do something, such as "Click here to view a demo", "Download Now", etc.
Marketing experts seem to agree that the average human needs to be prompted to click on an ad or take action, so we'll add this line to the end of our PPC ad's description:
"Track PPC, campaigns & search. Try demo!"
Reducing Click-Thru's
Sometimes it's important to reduce the number of clicks your PPC ad is receiving. This could be because you are attracting people who are only after free products/services, or even the wrong target market.
The two quickest ways to reduce click-thru's are to make the description of your ad more targeted and to add the price of the product to the ad.
Making the description more targeted (as I've discussed above) can reduce your overall click-thru rate, but potentially increase the likelihood of a click resulting in a purchase.
In my earlier example, by adding the words "PHP script" to the description, we are effectively filtering out those looking for a hosted solution, downloadable software or even those with a server that isn't capable of running PHP scripts.
We also increase the targeting of our ad because we now know that the majority of those clicking on the ad are looking for a PHP script, which is exactly what our product is.
Secondly, by adding the price of the product you are selling to the end of the ad, you instantly eliminate those looking for free products, and target those willing to purchase your product or service.
Tracking Your Clicks and Conversions
The fundamental core of a successful advertising campaign -- whether it be a PPC ad, banner ad or even newspaper ad -- is knowing whether or not your ad's are actually converting into sales or not.
If your ads aren't making you money then you're more that likely better off saving your advertising dollars and adjusting your ad's or using your marketing budget elsewhere in your company.
Both Google and Overture have built in tracking and conversion tools that you can use to get a holistic view of your current PPC ad campaigns. You can even use external tools which let you add conversion code to your website to tell you exactly which of your ad's are converting into sales and which aren't. This is often referred to as knowing your ROI or Return on Investment.
We need to know exactly how much money we are making per dollar spent on every PPC ad. If the ROI is positive and we are making more money than we are spending, then the ad is working and we can use this knowledge to further improve our other ad's or increase ad spending for that particular ad/set of keywords.
If, however, our ad's are costing us more than they are returning, then we can reduce our spend, change our approach, or remove these ad's altogether. It's a rather simple formula, but frustratingly ignored by many advertisers.
You must track your ads if you want to succeed with any form of Internet advertising. You should also constantly monitor and adjust your ads according to how they are performing, your return on investment, etc.
Conclusion
Hopefully I've provided you with a clear insight into PPC advertising and techniques that you can use to improve your advertising campaigns. It pays -- pun intended -- to do your research and understand your target market, because the rewards can sometimes be much more than you expected.
What I'd like to do today is provide some tips and techniques that I personally use when creating and monitoring PPC ad's. Hopefully these tips will help you in your future marketing endeavors.
Experimenting With Different Search Engines
There are many PPC search engines, with some being better than others. The top two are Google and Yahoo, which was previously known as Overture. It's a good idea to start your PPC campaigns with a small budget, spreading it out over a few different search engines to experiment and see where your target market may be lurking.
Generally speaking, I've found Google Adwords is better for more technically orientated products or services, including software, hardware, web design etc. Yahoo, on the other hand, is better for general consumer products, including insurance, toys, music etc.
What I wrote in the previous paragraph is very general, and you should analyze your campaigns carefully to see where they are performing their best. We'll discuss this in detail a little later in the article.
Selecting the Right Keywords
The keyword selection process is probably the most important of all when it comes to creating your PPC ad's. You'll need to select keywords that are specific to your product or service offering, but you need to be careful not to select keywords that are extremely popular, as this may deplete your PPC funds sooner than expected.
The keyword selection process begins by asking yourself just one question:
"If I was searching for a product just like mine, which words or phrases would I search for?"
Using your answer(s) to this question as your base, you can then use a thesaurus and common sense to start building your keyword list with plurals, synonyms, similar words, etc.
To see which keywords your competitors are using, simply try searching for them. If you see a PPC ad along the side for your competitor, then note that keyword down and add it to your list.
Another way of coming up with great keywords is to use the overture search suggestion tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Type in a set of keywords and it will list similar keywords, including the number of times that keyword has been searched for on Overture (Yahoo) in the last month!
There's often a fine line between selecting keywords that are either too specific or keywords that are too general. Try to keep away from these, as they can often result in wasted PCP funds.
A typical example of this would be an ad that I created recently for our latest product, TrackPoint, which -- not coincidently -- is an internet marketing return on investment (ROI) tracking tool. Although the product is heavily geared towards internet marketing, using such a broad term would have made it virtually impossible to compete with the other advertisers.
The term "internet marketing" is searched for 825,674 times per month on Overture alone. Combined with the huge number of different advertisers that target this keyword, the top bid for "internet marketing" on Google AdWords is $13.84 per click! With an average of 240 clicks per day, a single day of advertising alone would cost $505!
Now, unless you have an extremely high conversion rate of visitors to sales, or you're selling a high priced item that usually has a high customer acquisition cost, I suggest targeting more specific keywords. Not only will this decrease your overall competition with other advertisers, but it will also increase the chances of turning your newly found web site visitors into customers.
Back to my earlier example, I chose to be specific with my keywords. One keyword was "ROI tracking", which is searched for 1,828 times per month on Overture and has a much cheaper top bid. This keyword is also more targeted to the product I was marketing, meaning that a large percentage of people clicking on my ad should turn into customers.
It's also helpful to note that taking the top bid is not always necessary, and anywhere in the top 5-10 can generate great leads. This really does come down to budget and analysis.
Attracting People to Your Ad
Now that we've selected our keywords, we need to get those searching to click on our ad, which in turn will result in them clicking through to our web site and potentially purchasing our product.
One of the simplest ways to get peoples attention is to use their search keywords in the title of your PPC ad. This has been proven to increase click-thru rates on ad's by over 50%.
Why? Simple. If the potential customer is searching for "ROI Tracking" and the title of a PCP ad begins with "ROI Tracking", then their attention will be grabbed instantly. He or she doesn't need to know much else, other than that the PPC ad is catered specifically for him or her.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can sometimes create a more relevant title by combining your different keywords into one PPC ad. For example, I could have easily used something like "ROI Tracking PHP Script" as the title of my ad, which effectively would have decreased my click-thru rate, but definitely caters my ad more to a specific audience. Once again, this comes down to analysis and adjustment.
Another important technique to attract attention to your ad is to differentiate yourself from your competitors. In our particular case, the majority of our competition offer hosted solutions, whereby they manage the software on their servers in return for monthly or per traffic fees.
Our product caters to a different audience, those that want more control over their software, as well as those not wanting to pay monthly fees. So, in this example, I would make the title of my ad "Pay no monthly or per traffic fees".
Next -- and this is where experimentation is extremely important -- we need to create a description for our PPC ad that will attract the potential customer and let them know that our product is exactly what they are searching for. To do this, I start my ad's description with "Track PPC, campaigns & search".
Finally, it's good practice to add a "Call to action" at the bottom of your ad. If you're not familiar with this term, its usually an instruction to tell the person to do something, such as "Click here to view a demo", "Download Now", etc.
Marketing experts seem to agree that the average human needs to be prompted to click on an ad or take action, so we'll add this line to the end of our PPC ad's description:
"Track PPC, campaigns & search. Try demo!"
Reducing Click-Thru's
Sometimes it's important to reduce the number of clicks your PPC ad is receiving. This could be because you are attracting people who are only after free products/services, or even the wrong target market.
The two quickest ways to reduce click-thru's are to make the description of your ad more targeted and to add the price of the product to the ad.
Making the description more targeted (as I've discussed above) can reduce your overall click-thru rate, but potentially increase the likelihood of a click resulting in a purchase.
In my earlier example, by adding the words "PHP script" to the description, we are effectively filtering out those looking for a hosted solution, downloadable software or even those with a server that isn't capable of running PHP scripts.
We also increase the targeting of our ad because we now know that the majority of those clicking on the ad are looking for a PHP script, which is exactly what our product is.
Secondly, by adding the price of the product you are selling to the end of the ad, you instantly eliminate those looking for free products, and target those willing to purchase your product or service.
Tracking Your Clicks and Conversions
The fundamental core of a successful advertising campaign -- whether it be a PPC ad, banner ad or even newspaper ad -- is knowing whether or not your ad's are actually converting into sales or not.
If your ads aren't making you money then you're more that likely better off saving your advertising dollars and adjusting your ad's or using your marketing budget elsewhere in your company.
Both Google and Overture have built in tracking and conversion tools that you can use to get a holistic view of your current PPC ad campaigns. You can even use external tools which let you add conversion code to your website to tell you exactly which of your ad's are converting into sales and which aren't. This is often referred to as knowing your ROI or Return on Investment.
We need to know exactly how much money we are making per dollar spent on every PPC ad. If the ROI is positive and we are making more money than we are spending, then the ad is working and we can use this knowledge to further improve our other ad's or increase ad spending for that particular ad/set of keywords.
If, however, our ad's are costing us more than they are returning, then we can reduce our spend, change our approach, or remove these ad's altogether. It's a rather simple formula, but frustratingly ignored by many advertisers.
You must track your ads if you want to succeed with any form of Internet advertising. You should also constantly monitor and adjust your ads according to how they are performing, your return on investment, etc.
Conclusion
Hopefully I've provided you with a clear insight into PPC advertising and techniques that you can use to improve your advertising campaigns. It pays -- pun intended -- to do your research and understand your target market, because the rewards can sometimes be much more than you expected.
Determining the Value of Links from Link Renting
What is Link Renting?
Link renting is a means to ‘rent’ the popularity and traffic flow of another site – you pay a monthly fee in return for a text link pointing to your site. In doing so, you can directly and indirectly drive more targeted traffic toward your website.
Many industries such as travel, pharmacy, pornography, and gaming have search results which are hyper competitive and require heavy advertising or aggressive SEO techniques. Some niche websites may see an even greater ROI on smart link rentals since many of their competitors may not include link renting in their online marketing budgets.
Some rented links provide great value in direct targeted traffic, whereas some other links provide greater value from the effect they have on search relevancy.
Most links are rented on a monthly basis with an option to renew at the end of the month. Some link prices can be as low as a few dollars a month whereas some can cost thousands per month.
There is no singular one-size-fits-all way to directly assume the value of a link. Most effective marketing has risks associated with it, but you can minimize the risks and maximize your return by breaking the value of the link down into its elements:
1. Direct traffic from link renting
2. Viral effect of advertising
3. Effects of link rentals on search relevancy.
1. Direct Traffic from Link Renting:
Link renting can drive significant direct traffic. The first things you need to know are:
* what is the quality level of the traffic?
* how related is this audience to my product?
* how much traffic does the site receive?
What is the Quality Level of the Traffic:
Where does the bulk of their traffic come from? Someone recently asked about ePilot, the pay per click search engine, at Search Engine Watch forums. Andrew Goodman replied "The first question I would ask myself would be: 'where does ePilot's traffic come from?' Answer isn't clear? Then it would be no surprise that the so-called traffic doesn't convert to anything."
This same concept holds true with any site. If you do not see any quality inbound links that could indicate a problem: or they could get most of their traffic from pay-per-click ads. Whatever the case, if you are going to spend money renting links for traffic, make sure you know where their traffic comes from.
How Related is the Audience:
It will be somewhat of a guesstimate as to how exactly how related the traffic will be, but generally it is fairly obvious when something is on theme or off theme. Some things you may want to consider when determining traffic quality:
* What is the mood / mind set of their traffic? Related traffic may not be traffic that converts. At the 2004 Webmaster World Las Vegas Conference a speaker mentioned that a website about prom hairstyles may not be a good place to advertise prom dresses since girls do not usually look at prom hairdos until after they have already purchased their prom dresses.
* What product should I advertise? Sometimes it makes sense to send traffic to your home page while other times it is more logical to advertise a specific product because it is hot or more related to that particular audience.
How Much Traffic Does the Site Receive:
Most honest webmasters who sell ad space understand that the traffic they receive is a large part of their ad value and should have no problems giving you that information?
Some systems such as Alexa also track traffic, but their statistics can be inaccurate due to their limited distribution.. The best way to use such systems is not for traffic estimates but for comparisons between sites. Note that Alexa has a heavy bias toward webmaster resource type sites. Additionally other companies such as Hit wise may provide more accurate traffic statistics.
From the base traffic level there is a bunch more research you can do to determine how much traffic the site may bring:
* Who currently advertises on the site? You may want to ask them about their advertising experience. Some ad networks such as AdBright show past advertisers average cost per click and ad renewal rates.
* How many ads are on the page? Each additional ad will split up some of the traffic.
* Where does your ad sit? Ads that are tucked away in the footer or in common ad space may get less exposure and drive less traffic. Ads near the content may gain additional exposure and drive more traffic.
* What ad formats can be used? Certain ad creatives may provide greater value than other ads.
* What is the ad turnover rate? Advertisers tend to stay with a site that delivers traffic. A high turnover rate may indicate other problems.
* Have advertisers made any suggestions? Ask if any of their past advertisers made any suggestions or stated that they found any particular setup as being especially helpful.
* Is the traffic seasonal? Some sites have large shifts in traffic volume due to seasonal factors.
2. Viral Effect of Advertising:
Some ads go through click tracking systems which may prevent them from being indexed by search engines. This means that the only value of those particular links would come from direct traffic. Sometimes ads lead to additional exposure though.
3. Effect of Link Rentals on Search Relevancy:
Many links have a greater indirect value than direct value.
When someone links to your site it is seen by search engines as a vote of quality. The anchor text and other page elements such as the page title and headers may also help search engines further classify the link. On image links the image alt text plays the roll of the anchor text.
On the commercial web many links are bought and sold, and thus for search engines to remain relevant they must find ways to regulate link purchasing.
Some of the things you may want to look for when buying links to help maximize your ROI and minimize your risks:
* Are the links direct links? Links that go through an ad server usually do not help build your link popularity.
* Is the page on theme? On topic links from industry hubs are given significantly more weighting in clustering or community based algorithms such as Teoma's topic distillation and Google's Hilltop. If the site allows off topic links then it has a greater chance of having its link popularity blocked or devalued.
* How many links are on the page? If a page sells an unlimited number of ads then the outbound link popularity is split up many ways, and that also could look a bit unnatural to search engines. If there are hundreds of internal links on a page then each additional link will be getting an exceptionally small share of link popularity.
* What anchor text can I use? If you can use descriptive anchor text then the value of the link is greater since the link text helps search engines understand what your site is about.
* What is the cost difference between site wide and individual page links? Generally site wide links may drive significantly more direct traffic, but likely they do not provide much additional weight beyond a single link from the best page on the site.
* What is the PageRank of the page? Generally many people place too much value on PageRank, but a higher PageRank does equate to greater connectivity and slightly additional value.
* Who links to the page and to the site? If the page or site is well connected within your topical community then search engines will likely consider links from it as being far more important than links from pages which are not as well connected
Link renting is a means to ‘rent’ the popularity and traffic flow of another site – you pay a monthly fee in return for a text link pointing to your site. In doing so, you can directly and indirectly drive more targeted traffic toward your website.
Many industries such as travel, pharmacy, pornography, and gaming have search results which are hyper competitive and require heavy advertising or aggressive SEO techniques. Some niche websites may see an even greater ROI on smart link rentals since many of their competitors may not include link renting in their online marketing budgets.
Some rented links provide great value in direct targeted traffic, whereas some other links provide greater value from the effect they have on search relevancy.
Most links are rented on a monthly basis with an option to renew at the end of the month. Some link prices can be as low as a few dollars a month whereas some can cost thousands per month.
There is no singular one-size-fits-all way to directly assume the value of a link. Most effective marketing has risks associated with it, but you can minimize the risks and maximize your return by breaking the value of the link down into its elements:
1. Direct traffic from link renting
2. Viral effect of advertising
3. Effects of link rentals on search relevancy.
1. Direct Traffic from Link Renting:
Link renting can drive significant direct traffic. The first things you need to know are:
* what is the quality level of the traffic?
* how related is this audience to my product?
* how much traffic does the site receive?
What is the Quality Level of the Traffic:
Where does the bulk of their traffic come from? Someone recently asked about ePilot, the pay per click search engine, at Search Engine Watch forums. Andrew Goodman replied "The first question I would ask myself would be: 'where does ePilot's traffic come from?' Answer isn't clear? Then it would be no surprise that the so-called traffic doesn't convert to anything."
This same concept holds true with any site. If you do not see any quality inbound links that could indicate a problem: or they could get most of their traffic from pay-per-click ads. Whatever the case, if you are going to spend money renting links for traffic, make sure you know where their traffic comes from.
How Related is the Audience:
It will be somewhat of a guesstimate as to how exactly how related the traffic will be, but generally it is fairly obvious when something is on theme or off theme. Some things you may want to consider when determining traffic quality:
* What is the mood / mind set of their traffic? Related traffic may not be traffic that converts. At the 2004 Webmaster World Las Vegas Conference a speaker mentioned that a website about prom hairstyles may not be a good place to advertise prom dresses since girls do not usually look at prom hairdos until after they have already purchased their prom dresses.
* What product should I advertise? Sometimes it makes sense to send traffic to your home page while other times it is more logical to advertise a specific product because it is hot or more related to that particular audience.
How Much Traffic Does the Site Receive:
Most honest webmasters who sell ad space understand that the traffic they receive is a large part of their ad value and should have no problems giving you that information?
Some systems such as Alexa also track traffic, but their statistics can be inaccurate due to their limited distribution.. The best way to use such systems is not for traffic estimates but for comparisons between sites. Note that Alexa has a heavy bias toward webmaster resource type sites. Additionally other companies such as Hit wise may provide more accurate traffic statistics.
From the base traffic level there is a bunch more research you can do to determine how much traffic the site may bring:
* Who currently advertises on the site? You may want to ask them about their advertising experience. Some ad networks such as AdBright show past advertisers average cost per click and ad renewal rates.
* How many ads are on the page? Each additional ad will split up some of the traffic.
* Where does your ad sit? Ads that are tucked away in the footer or in common ad space may get less exposure and drive less traffic. Ads near the content may gain additional exposure and drive more traffic.
* What ad formats can be used? Certain ad creatives may provide greater value than other ads.
* What is the ad turnover rate? Advertisers tend to stay with a site that delivers traffic. A high turnover rate may indicate other problems.
* Have advertisers made any suggestions? Ask if any of their past advertisers made any suggestions or stated that they found any particular setup as being especially helpful.
* Is the traffic seasonal? Some sites have large shifts in traffic volume due to seasonal factors.
2. Viral Effect of Advertising:
Some ads go through click tracking systems which may prevent them from being indexed by search engines. This means that the only value of those particular links would come from direct traffic. Sometimes ads lead to additional exposure though.
3. Effect of Link Rentals on Search Relevancy:
Many links have a greater indirect value than direct value.
When someone links to your site it is seen by search engines as a vote of quality. The anchor text and other page elements such as the page title and headers may also help search engines further classify the link. On image links the image alt text plays the roll of the anchor text.
On the commercial web many links are bought and sold, and thus for search engines to remain relevant they must find ways to regulate link purchasing.
Some of the things you may want to look for when buying links to help maximize your ROI and minimize your risks:
* Are the links direct links? Links that go through an ad server usually do not help build your link popularity.
* Is the page on theme? On topic links from industry hubs are given significantly more weighting in clustering or community based algorithms such as Teoma's topic distillation and Google's Hilltop. If the site allows off topic links then it has a greater chance of having its link popularity blocked or devalued.
* How many links are on the page? If a page sells an unlimited number of ads then the outbound link popularity is split up many ways, and that also could look a bit unnatural to search engines. If there are hundreds of internal links on a page then each additional link will be getting an exceptionally small share of link popularity.
* What anchor text can I use? If you can use descriptive anchor text then the value of the link is greater since the link text helps search engines understand what your site is about.
* What is the cost difference between site wide and individual page links? Generally site wide links may drive significantly more direct traffic, but likely they do not provide much additional weight beyond a single link from the best page on the site.
* What is the PageRank of the page? Generally many people place too much value on PageRank, but a higher PageRank does equate to greater connectivity and slightly additional value.
* Who links to the page and to the site? If the page or site is well connected within your topical community then search engines will likely consider links from it as being far more important than links from pages which are not as well connected
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