Archive for November, 2008

Why Use Google Adwords?

Friday, November 28th, 2008

There are many reasons why you should use Google Adwords. One of the main reasons is because it can bring you instant targeted traffic. Not only is it targeted traffic but traffic that can make you money. The key is to how effective your website is at capturing that traffic. As long as you provide a good product or products and value to your traffic you are sure to succeed. The better the ad you write the better for your clicks, sales and positioning. Google does not necessarily place only the highest bids at the top, but ads that receive a good click through rate. If your ad gets clicked a lot you have a better chance of receiving a higher ranking than the high paying ad. However, you want to be careful with this technique because more clicks are not always better. You also want to make sure visitors know what you have to offer before clicking and how you’re different from your competitor.

The testing Google Adwords allows is crucial to profit. Testing is already a necessity but the system they give you makes it very easy. You can run several ad campaigns which will allow you to test which keywords are working and which ones are not. You will also want to track your conversion rate which tells you the amount of sales you receive from which ads. In order to get the most out of your money this is a must when using Google Adwords.

As you can see Google Adwords can be very beneficial and if you aren’t using it in some way, then you need to start. It will take some testing in the beginning to figure out what works but once you have it figured out, it’s smooth sailing from then on. If you could make $4.00 for every $1.00 you spent wouldn’t you want in? The fact is you will be spending less than you are making as long as you do it right.

Affiliate Marketing Networks

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

There are many affiliate marketing networks out there but which ones perform the best? There are few out there that perform the best and one of those is Commission Junction or CJ.com. Commission Junction is a global leader in Internet advertising like affiliate marketing and managed search. They operate the only truly global network in affiliate marketing. In 2001 they started publishing the performance metrics of all advertisers, publishers, and ads within their network. This allows advertisers and publishers a way to gauge the value of their existing and potential relationships. They did this by average earnings per 100 clicks (EPC) and network earnings.

ShareASale or ShareASale.com is also a good performing affiliate marketing network. As a merchant you decide the commission structure to pay and only pay when results come in. ShareASale started in 2000, provides award winning technology and service. You can connect with a network of established affiliates as well as recruit new ones to your program. ShareASale has a strict “no software” policy which means you will not have to deal with affiliates using adware, toolbars, or other desktop software.

Then there’s AvantLink or AvantLink.com. They have a unique, open environment for Cost Per Sale affiliate marketers. One reason they’re unique is because they work only with high-value merchants with substantial catalogs on a percentage of sale. This advertiser segment can best utilize the industry leading affiliate tools AvantLink is known for. Merchants accepted to AvantLink are required to have a functioning web store with good conversion rates, a technically sound platform and a dedicated program manager.

These are just a few of the affiliate marketing networks out there, but they are some of the best. When you set up your affiliate program for your website be sure to list it in these networks.

Banner Ads

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

Banner ads are a form of Internet advertising where ads are displayed on a web page. They are used to attract traffic to the website being displayed or sometimes used for branding purposes. The more effective short term method is to display banner ads specifically for click through traffic. An impression is how many views the ad received and a click through is when a visitor clicks the ad. Banner ads are normally JPEG or GIF files with JavaScript involved. To make your banner advertising the most effective you should advertise on websites that attract visitors who would be interested in your niche. You should also use effective tracking of your banner ads to make sure they are actually making you money. Say you made a $10.00 profit on your product and your advertising was $1.00 per click. You need to make sure that 1 out of every 9 clicks is making a purchase for that ad to be effective. It’s best to test this method over a longer period because you may not receive any sales for 10 clicks but then your next 5 clicks could all be sales. It’s always best to test before making conclusions on any advertising.

Isn’t There An Easier Way To Write Articles?

Friday, November 21st, 2008

Like it or not if you want to have a website that receives high search engine rankings you need to regularly add fresh content. The most common way of accomplishing this is to have a blog on your website where you regularly post articles. Articles also play a big role in your Internet marketing. The more quality articles you have, the more traffic you will receive. Articles help with other websites or blogs linking back to you. This is a very key aspect to generating traffic.

It’s a pretty simple concept but quality articles aren’t as easy to write as most would think or have come to find. Unless you’re truly fluent in every aspect of your niche you’re going to need some help. Many websites or blogs will use articles that you can get from article directories or other resources. This is not recommended because it will not set you apart from your competitors and you are not providing unique content to your readers and the search engines. The only other option you have if you do not want to write articles yourself is to hire a freelancer to write them for you. You can find freelancers all over the world that would be willing to write quality articles at minimal cost. One of the best resources you can use for any kind of freelancing is Elance.com. There are many others out there but Elance is your overall best bet. All in all, no matter which route you choose if you don’t have fresh content you’re missing out on thousands of potential visitors.

Work From Home Do’s

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Working from home is not as easy as everyone thinks. Many people have the dream to be able to work from home or to someday make it a reality. Some are simply just going for it and taking the risk. You’re going to need to master some things in order to make that work.

You must design a schedule or a list for yourself! If you do not set a schedule or list for your daily routine you will get easily get distracted and not achieve your goals in a reasonable time period. By making a schedule or list you can start with the first thing and work on it until it’s accomplished. Then place a check or completed next to it and move on to your next task. This will keep your mind clear to accomplish the task at hand and still allow you to be organized and make efficient progress.

Try to make working from home not seem like work but more like a lifestyle. It’s when you begin to do this that you become more creative and more efficient. One big key to making this work is to love what you do. If you do not love what you do this will be very hard to achieve and very hard to work from home. It can be done but you will have much better results if you actually enjoy it.

Try to incorporate other activities in your work day. If you work in the morning and then take a timed break to exercise, meditate or just relax and then begin work again you will be much more efficient. This will allow yourself to have some relief and keep your mind focused on working when it’s time. However, you must make sure you time your break otherwise it will take up much more time than you anticipated. A good break should be no more than an hour. It’s actually better to split that hour up into different breaks if possible.

If you apply these basic concepts you are sure to achieve better results. I wish you good luck on achieving your work from home goal and hope you learned something beneficial.

5 Internet Marketing No-No’s

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

1. Download to Display – If you have to download something in order for your website to work correctly, don’t do it. Many of your visitors will leave because they don’t want to download anything or they don’t want to wait for a download.

2. No Email Sign Up or Free Report – If you are not giving your customers the ability to sign up for your email list or to receive something free you are making a big mistake. When it comes to Internet marketing this is a must do. Without either one of these or both you are completely wasting your traffic and might as well hand it over to someone else. Many of your visitors don’t know exactly what they are looking for when they first come to your website. This is why keeping in contact with them is important so you can have the chance to help them figure that out. For instance you may know that you need Internet marketing but don’t know whether you need email marketing, affiliate marketing or both.

3. Do Not Use Too Many Graphics – When you design your website you want to use the least amount of graphics possible but still have a good looking website. The reason for this is because if a website takes too long to load due to its graphics your visitors may leave before they even get there. It is best to use text whenever you can. Not only is text better for page load time but it’s also better for your search engine rankings.

4. Selling To Everyone – Selling to everyone is only a good idea if you’re going to compete against Amazon.com. Unless you have already achieved substantial Internet success, I would suggest you not start with that objective. The best way to produce an Internet business that is successful with not a great amount of work is to target towards a specific niche.

5. Not Letting Your Website Do Selling – Most websites simply just want you to contact them by phone or email. While this is good but by pushing this too much they forget that their website can eliminate more than half of those customer service calls. This can be done by simply providing everything and more than the customer is looking for. You can never have too much information. Not only does it reduce the amount of questions asked but it’s better for your search engine rankings.

Offline Marketing Your Internet Business

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Offline marketing can be very beneficial to your Internet business if it’s done correctly. There are many different methods of offline marketing; some of the most popular are direct mail marketing, magazine marketing, newspaper marketing and billboard marketing.

Let’s take magazine marketing for example, if you’re going to do magazine marketing the first thing you want to do is find one that is closely related to your niche. Without taking this first step correctly you are throwing money down the drain and marketing to those who aren’t interested in what you have to offer. Once you’ve figured out which magazine you want to market to you then need to create or pay a professional to create an advertisement for you. Something that will give your customer enough information to leave them wanting more and to visit the website you have displayed.

Most people will display their direct website but this is not the correct way to effectively use offline marketing. You need to be able to track how many unique people are actually going to your website based on that advertisement. Some people will say well I’ll just have them visit a subpage of my website to track how many visitors are coming from that advertisement. So the url they would display would look something like this myurl.com/subpage. The problem with this is that a good chunk of your visitors coming from that advertisement are simply going to just type in the first part of the url. So really the advertisement may be bringing in a lot more traffic than you think.

To solve this you need to display a url different from your website, that redirects to your website. This way you can track all of the unique traffic and sales coming from that advertisement since it’s a unique url. There are several programs you can use in order to do this or you can have a programmer design one for you. No matter what advertising you’re doing for your Internet business you must track everything. Without tracking how do you know what works and what doesn’t? The key message to this article is if you’re going to do offline marketing you must track it in order to know if you should keep doing it.

Targeted Traffic

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Without traffic you have no business, but you need to make sure you are receiving targeted traffic. This means that if you sell cameras then you need to find people interested in cameras.

Pay Per Click or PPC is one of the quickest ways to get serious targeted traffic. It will cost you money but if it’s done correctly can produce tremendous results for your business. For instance if you are selling cameras you would have a better chance at converting your clicks into sales if you paid for the keyword phrase “canon cameras” instead of just “cameras”. Basically the more targeted the keywords you pay for are, the better conversion rate you will receive.

eBooks can also be a good way to get targeted traffic. First you must write an eBook that is targeted towards your niche. Two good places to sell your eBook are eBay and ClickBank. The purpose of this eBook is not to make a substantial amount of money but to build a list of customers interested in your niche. You want to make sure that your price stays between 10 and 30 dollars. This way it’s affordable and not priced so low that its value is degraded. You can’t just write any eBook however, you must right one that has serious benefits to the customer. This way when you promote your website or products in your eBook you will have a better chance of them making another purchase.

How Often Should you Email Customers?

Friday, November 7th, 2008

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools you can use in Internet marketing. The bigger your email list becomes the more powerful it will be. With the proper email marketing tools you can send personalized emails to your entire list in just a few minutes. You must email your customers enough so that they keep interest, but you must also make sure not to email them too much. A good email marketing path to follow would be to email your customers every two weeks or every month. This will depend on whether or not you are releasing a new product or if you have time sensitive information you want your customers to know. You want to make sure three quarters of your emails are good information and not just trying to sell them something. This will make all the difference in how effective your list is.

Affiliate Marketing and Cost-Effective Advertising

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Affiliate marketing can be one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising. However, you must setup your affiliate marketing program correctly. Your affiliate marketing program must be setup so that your publishers only get paid if you receive a sale. This way you only have to pay your publishers once the money to pay them is already received. This insures that you are not spending more for advertising than profit you’re receiving. There are many people who will say well this won’t work because there are not publishers interested without great pay. To some extent this is true but the way you solve this problem is by offering the publishers more of your profits than you receive. This way they are receiving big commission checks and you are still earning profit that you would have never seen without that publisher. You must realize that even though you don’t produce large profits from these sales, they can turn into repeat customers down the road, where you will receive all of the profit. So the lesson here is to use affiliate marketing in a non-greedy manor and it will bring great return.