Thursday, June 07, 2007

11 Tips for Pay-Per-Click Success

This list details some very important points to keep in mind when creating or managing any pay-per-click campaign. Is this all there is to know about pay-per-click advertising? Absolutely not, but for those new to PPC it should serve as good place to start. Additionally, pay-per-click veterans or at least the moderately-seasoned will want to touch upon these points now and then to brush up on their fundamentals.

1) Do your keyword homework.

Use Google's free Keyword Tool or sign up for a WordTracker account to find out which keywords are the most competitive. The more competitive the keyword, the more expensive your clicks will be. While you're finding out which keywords are too expensive you'll come across some that aren't being targeted heavily by advertisers. Take a good look at these - they may be your keys to a successful niche campaign.

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2) Don't bunch your ad groups.

You should be striving to separate your ad groups by keyword. Whatever your target, separate your keyword lists into closely related groups containing the same target words and write ads geared specifically to those words. Your ads will show up higher in results based on their quality, and search terms show up bold in results - a click-through rate booster.

3) Drive home your selling point.

What's your offer? Why are you better than the others? Remember that your ads are going to display with your competitors. The difference between a user clicking your ad and clicking a competitor ad is about 100 pixels on the screen - or a millisecond of time. You need to convince them that you are the one they want. You are better. Grab them.

4) Don't send users to your home page.

This is perhaps one of the worst things you can do to your Pay-Per-Click campaign. Internet users are notoriously impatient. Send them to your home page when they were searching for a specific product or service and see how fast they leave. Don't waste your advertising budget - send them to optimized landing pages.

5) Optimize your landing pages.

Your landing pages need to drive something home immediately for your users: "you have landed in the right place." They need to know that, yes, this is what they were looking for, here it is, here is why it is better than the rest and here's the easy thing they need to do to get it. In most cases you'll need to create multiple landing pages based on your different ad groups and keywords, but look at it this way - if your users aren't landing at pages geared exactly to their search phrases they'll leave and take your advertising budget with them.

6) Don't lie in your ads.

People aren't dumb. If you promise something in your ads you had better well deliver. Otherwise you'll not only waste advertising dollars but damage your brand. Be honest, and focus on points that make you stand out from the competition. Grandiose ad text might bring in clicks, but if it isn't the truth it won't bring in conversions.

7) Your domain name counts.

In most cases you can display a domain name that you own as the "display domain" but point the ads to a page on a different domain. Why does this matter? If you own a domain name that contains the keyword text it will show up bold and increase conversions. Enter the optimized domain as the displayed domain, point the ads to your landing pages and you can expect higher CTRs in most cases.

8) Utilize negative keywords.

Google has a new Negative Keyword Tool that will allow you to find negative keywords that you should specify for your ads. Negative keywords are those that you don't want your ads to display for. For example, if you're selling "blue widgets" you don't want to display your ads to those users searching for "free blue widgets." If you don't use negative keywords you are missing out on a chance to get more targeted traffic to your landing pages, and this can really hurt your conversion rates.

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9) Test, test, and test some more.

The greatest thing about internet advertising is the ability it grants you to measure your success. It's easy to create A/B split tests with Pay-Per-Click advertising. Change one word, add a comma, include a value proposition. . .just make sure you only change one thing for each split or you won't know which variable it was that made the difference! You'll find out right away that this is a great way to optimize your click-through rates - just don't forget that clicks aren't everything!

10) Don't focus too heavily on CTRs.

Getting tons of clicks isn't always the name of the game. In fact, if you aren't using proper techniques to ensure that you're getting targeted traffic and sending it to well-optimized landing pages you can blow through your advertising budget in no time flat. Remember that the success of any advertisement is getting back more than you put in. It's an investment, not a cost - so do all that you can to better your rate of return!

11) Don't pigeonhole yourself.

We all know that Google AdWords is the most popular Pay-Per-Click service out there. Your competitors know it, your users know it - even your grandma might know it. It would be foolish to ignore Google as a venue for advertising, but don't forget that there are other search engines out there who offer similar services. Yahoo!'s new Panama search system is catching on, and Microsoft's adCenter is nothing to sneeze at either. Both companies are currently offering sweet promotional deals to new Pay-Per-Click advertisers to stay competitive so take advantage and diversify!

About the Author: Mike Tekula handles SEO, SEM, usability and standards-compliance for NewSunGraphics, a Long Island, New York firm offering Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, W3C-Compliant web design using full CSS layouts and all things web design/development.
Five Proven Ways To Promote Your Web Site

1. Holding a contest or sweepstakes is an proven wayto promote your web site. You can announce your siteto hundreds of web sites that list free contests andsweepstakes. Send out a press releases about yourcontest or sweepstakes. Ask entrants to your contestor sweepstakes if they would accept offers from yourbusiness in the future by e-mail.

2. Use online chat rooms to promote your web site.Find the right chat room where your targeted audiencewould gather. Announce to everyone in the chat roomsomething interesting or free that's offered on yourweb site. This will draw visitors to your web site.Always be aware of chat room rules before engagingthe visitors in a sales pitch that could be consideredspam.

3. Cross promote your web site with other sites. I tryto find other web sites. that have the same targetaudience, but are not in direct competition with mybusiness. Doing cross promotions with other businesses increases your profits, sales, and beat your competition.You can find businesses to cross promote all over theInternet.

4. You can easily promote your web site by using trafficgenerators. It could be a free e-zine, service, e-book,contest etc. Giving away traffic generators gives you theopportunity to get free advertising by including your adon them . There are online directories that will also letyou submit your freebie information. You can even letother people give away your traffic generators.

5. Posting messages to e-mail discussion lists is a greatway to promote your web site An e-mail discussion listis a group of people connected together via e-mail thatcan communicate with one another. When you post amessage to a list include your signature file at the end.Include an attention getting sentence why they shouldvisit your web site.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

I have found a killer little appthat is saving me a bunch of timewith Web 2.0 site submissions toDigg, Netscape, Plime, and severalother sites.

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And you won't believe the extrasthat come with it. One is worthten times the price they arecharging for the software – easily!
Check it out, save yourself someserious time and grab thattargeted Web 2.0 traffic everyoneis talking about!

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10 Tips For Writing A Highly Persuasive Ad

1. Publish a picture of yourself in your ad. This willshow people that you're not hiding behind your website and you're not afraid to backup your product.

2. List how many famous or respected people havepurchased your product in your ad. These peopleshould be fairly known by your target audience.

3. Publish the results of any tests your product haspassed in your ad. Your product may have passeda durability test, safety test, quality test, etc.

4. Publish the results of any positive surveys you'vetaken from your customers in your ad. Just surveyyour current customers and list the results.

5. List any publications that have written about yourbusiness in your ad. It could be a product review,on a top ten list, an article, etc.

6. List any related books that you've written in yourad. When you list a book(s) you've wrote, it givesyou credibility because it shows you're an expert.

7. Have a professional looking web site to publishyour ad on. When people visit your site and it looksunprofessional, they'll relate that to your product.

8. Publish any endorsements from famous people inyour ad. Some people will think if a famous person,enjoys your product, so will they.

9. Use a money back guarantee in your ad. Thiswill remove the risk from your potential customersand show them that you stand behind your product.

10. Provide testimonials from satisfied customers inyour ad. The testimonials should include specificand believable results you customers have received.
Quote of the Day:

"It is by studying little things that we attain the greatknowledge of having as little misery and as much happinessas possible." -- Samuel Johnson
Warm regards,
Top 10 Things Every Site Should IncludeWhile almost anyone can have a web site these days it's much harder to have a good website. From design aspects to readable content many sites fall flat. Below I've arranged a Top 10 list, because everyone loves a Top 10!

Include a detailed About Us pageThe About Us page is a good place for new visitors and target traffic to find out who you are, why they should read your content or buy your products, how valuable your site can be, and also general information about your company, web site, or you.
It's a good idea to include contact information or at least a clear link to your Contact Us page. Keep concise and accurate. People want to read about you but they don't want a novel. Add important information on this page and point them to other pages for more in depth coverage.

Include a Contact Us pageVisitors (shoppers, target traffic) need an easy way to get in touch. Have a clearly marked link for contact information and include every avenue you receive communication through. Telephone and fax numbers (both local and 800), e-mail addresses, physical addresses, etc. all should appear on this page.

To help navigate further, clearly indicate which contacts go where (i.e. Admin, Tech, Sales, etc.) This will decrease frustration on both ends and allow better communication to flow. You want to show your visitors that you are competent and friendly, being easy to contact is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal.

Add a News, Press Release, Blog, and/or Articles PageThese pages inform customers of current events, products, endorsements, and other company happenings all in one place. Make sure to maintain these pages with fresh content that is reader friendly so your target traffic is more likely to come back, bookmark your page, and they may even provide word-of-mouth advertising. Free advertising!

As a bonus, search engines love these types of pages. New, fresh, relevant content is the stuff of search engines (well, there's obviously more to it than just content). Each time a search engine spider crawls your site and find new content it ups your chances of ranking higher in the organic search listings. More free advertising!

A Relevant Page TitleAs uninteresting as this may sound your page title holds a lot of weight. If you're unfamiliar with a page title it is the name appearing in the blue bar across the top of the page. If your says something like "Untitled Document" I'm talking to you.

Page titles should be different for every page in your site. They should clearly and accurately describe your page, and you should try to use keywords in the page title.

Search engines display the title of your page on SERPs. The catchier and more accurate your title the better the chance you'll hit target traffic.

A Relevant Page NameAgain, not so interesting as flashy designs or up-to-the-minute content, but it's a necessity to get your target traffic to your page to see or read the goods.

It's better to have straightforward page name showing in the URL than names with ? or other symbols and numbers. For example, a search engine will go to www.yourdomain.com/about us.htm it will only go to the ? in www.yourdomain.com/aboutus?094837 . You want search engines to find your pages. You also want humans to be able to read your names. Keep it simple and clean.

Good Grammar, Correct Spelling, Complete Thoughts, Sentence StructureEverything you were supposed to learn in grade school, use it now. Not only should your site have relevant content - the more the better - people should be able to read your content. Choppy or runon sentences that seem to go nowhere cannot provide the type of readership concise, correct sentences can.
Misspellings, wrong word usage, bad grammar are all distractions. You do not want to distract your readers, you want to captivate them. Slang and derogatory language also distracts. If your site is a business site avoid slang and offensive language all together - unless that's your selling point. Jargon is different, just don't confuse readers more than necessary.

If you aren't in command of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. or if you'd rather focus your efforts elsewhere, that's fine. It's a good idea to beg, plead, hire, or force someone else to take care of this part then as ignoring the problem won't make it go away though it may have that effect on site traffic.

Professional Design, Colors, and ImagesDesign should be implemented with usability in mind. Not all visitors will be as web savvy as you'd like, create easy navigation and links to all your pages. A search bar for your site is also a good idea.

Colors should be inviting, not blinding. Use colors to emphasize your brand, product or content. Don't overpower the visitor with colors. Use colors to make text pop without being distracting or hard to read.

Images should be friendly and relevant to your site. Images of people work better than objects and clip art rarely has a positive effect. Make sure your images can load within a reasonable amount of time, you don't want to lose visitors because a single image caused an incredible amount of load time, or worse froze the visitors browser.

Make Sure ALL Links Are Working LinksThis should be a no-brainer, however it is always a good idea to check and double check your links. Fix any broken links A.S.A.P. Your reputation counts on it.

Think of any site you've been to with a broken link. Disappointing isn't it? You probably left or at least had a negative image about the company. Avoid this mistake and check, recheck, and check your links again.

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Use Your Log FilesLog files offer a plethora of information on your web site, your visitors, what works and what doesn't. You can't afford to miss out on this information - if you can afford it you shouldn't anyway.

Best idea: Get a program that converts the lengthy text into readable documentation. It'll save you time and energy while getting you the information you desire. Log files will describe customer behavior, they will show you broken links, and you'll see where customers flow freely and where they abandon the site. The invaluable information is at your finger tips. Use it!
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) CertificatesThese can be used on any site asking for sensitive information. Not every web site needs this, however if you plan to collect any visitor information it is a good idea to have some SSL pages. Though not every page need be SSL.

Pages requiring e-mail, names, telephone numbers, addresses, credit card information, social security information or any other information visitors may not readily be giving up online should be securely collected via SSL.
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About the Author: Kristen Owen, CEO of ContentWorth has written quality, unique articles for years. For information on articles and other services please email Kristen.
Few days ago I suggested you a great resource and yourresponse was amazing. It was about the Video WebWizard.

Now that you got that software you can easily add your ownvideos inside your pages. This message will answer the bigquestion that comes next...
"How can I drive TRAFFIC to my videos?"
:)
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Yuzairy has been my "student" for a long time and he understoodvery early that TRAFFIC is the no. 1 factor of success.

After Google bought Youtube.com for $1.65 billion it was obvious for everybody that the future of the marketing online will have to deal with videos on a major percentage.
So every creation that is video-oriented should be a HIT.

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To Your Success!
50 Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing
What Is A Joint Venture?

A joint venture is an agreement in which two or morebusinesses work on a project for a set period of time.Joint ventures can be long-term, like promoting aproduct together, or some can be short-term, likebartering (trading) products and services. Jointventure ideas are virtually endless.

The Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing
1. You can build long lasting business relationships.
2. You can i.ncrease your credibility by teaming upwith other reputable, branded businesses.
3. You can get f.ree products and services.
4. You can construct most joint venture deals withlittle or no money.
5. You can gain new leads and customers.
6. You can get discounts on products and services.
7. You can save m.oney on business operating costs.
8. You can beat your competition.
9. You can gain referrals from other businesses.
10. You can solve your business problems.
11. You can save valuable time.
12. You can get f.ree and low cost advertising.
13. You can o.ffer your customers new products andservices.
14. You can survive a depression, recession or aslow economy.
15. You can save m.oney by sharing advertising andmarketing costs.
16. You can target other potential markets.
17. You can expand and grow your business quickly.
18. You can gain valuable information or skills.
19. You can i.ncrease and protect your cash flow.
20. You can find new profit outlets.
21. You can become rich and wealthy.
22. You can start almost any business at little or nocosts.
23. You can get rid of your extra inventory.
24. You can reduce and eliminate your debts andavoid b.ankruptcy.
25. You can afford to sell your products at a lowerprice.
26. You can i.ncrease your o.pt in or ezine subscribersfor f.ree.
27. You can get your web hosting and design for f.ree.
28. You can save m.oney outsourcing your workloadfor f.ree.
29. You can find hidden income streams.
30. You can exchange useless products for profitableones.
31. You can create new business funding and c.reditlines.
32. You can reduce your taxes.
33. You can find and create new distribution channelsfor your products.
34. You can give your employees more raises,bonuses and benefits.
35. You can even trade non business stuff toimprove your personal life.
36. You can i.ncrease your sales and p.rofits.
37. You can send your ad to huge, t.argeted emaillists at no c.ost.
38. You can eliminate employee hiring costs creatingbarter outsourcing deals.
39. You can build your customer or o.pt-in l.ist forf.ree.
40. You can build profitable alliances with otherbusinesses.
41. You can learn insider information from otherexperts at no c.ost.
42. You can test your product for f.ree.
43. You can out-sell other affiliates much easier.
44. You can i.ncrease the number of affiliates thatsign up to your reseller program.
45. You can o.ffer more bonus products and incentivesto b.uy.
46. You can get highly credible endorsements andtestimonials from other experts.
47. You can quickly i.ncrease your ezine subscribers.
48. You can o.ffer your products at lower prices thanyour competition.
49. You can easily find new up sell and backendproducts to sell.
50. You can create products faster and with lesseffort.

These are only some of the benefits. They're endless!