Showing posts with label online business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online business. Show all posts

Choosing Traffic Sources For Mobile Campaign part 2 | Mobile Traffic Sources Whitelist and Blacklist features

2nd part of the article below

Choosing Traffic Sources For Mobile Campaign part 1


Choosing Traffic Sources For Mobile Campaign


2. Mobile Traffic Sources Mobile Traffic Sources must have a Whitelist and Blacklist features , for me it's really important feature . One of the key in the optimization of this feature, so if a Mobile Traffic Sources do not have this feature you will find it hard to do the optimization especially in filter - Publisher Publisher that do not produce conversions may even tend to use robots in generating trafficnya . Another feature that should be held in this connection is the token parameter , the function that the data Publisher ( usually the domain name ) when the Campaign can be run on - passing to the tracking software that we use. Thus you can either your evaluation on which the Publisher Tracking software that can produce conversions and which are not , then you can enter the domains Publisher that no conversion to Blacklist feature in Traffic Sources. More details of this case I will discuss in the article regarding optimization. See the example in this article : xxx
Comparison among Thesis, Genesis and Socrates Themes updated 2016

Comparison among Thesis, Genesis and Socrates Themes updated 2016


Thesis Theme:

Thesis Theme is a professional looking theme out of the box, but it is also designed to be quite customizable so you can tweak your blog’s look and feel to your heart’s content. Thesis Theme 1.7 was just released last month, and it adds a whole new host of features to make Thesis even better. In this Thesis Theme review. Installing Thesis Theme is just like any other WordPress theme. After you have the theme activated, you will notice a new Thesis menu in your WordPress control panel. To customize the basic look of your Thesis install, head on over to the Design Options. The coolest feature here is the ability to change the layout. You can switch between 1 column, 2 column, or 3 column layouts and adjust the widths of each column directly on this page. What normally would be a complex coding operation is no longer any effort at all. And if you change your mind, you can switch your layout as many times as you like.

The Design Options page is also where you can set the colors and fonts of your blog. Almost every part of your site can be changed from within this page. You will  like the color picker which makes it easy to find and select the perfect color you want. If there happens to be something you can’t tweak in here, you can also get down and dirty and tweak the CSS using the custom stylesheet. This is separate from the main Thesis stylesheet so you won’t lose any customizations you make during the next Thesis update.
Other cool features of Thesis Theme are the ability to add your own Google Analytics or Mint tracking code from within the control panel. No more mucking around in the footer.php file of your theme to do that. Thesis 1.7 adds new options that allow you to make your WordPress blog more Ajax enabled by automatically including several popular javascript libraries like JQuery, MooTools, Dojo and others. Finally, You will  like the Multimedia Box. This is a spot on your page where you can rotate pictures, embed Youtube videos or even add your own custom code to include things like ad banners. Very cool.
Most affiliate marketers are very focused on SEO and normally when I install any WordPress Theme, the first plugin I install is the All-in-one SEO pack to help SEO optimize my blog. With Thesis Theme, that step is no longer necessary as it is SEO ready out of the box and easily customizable. You will  like the fact that you can add a custom title, description and meta tags specific to each post, category page, and tag page. This makes Thesis Theme one of the most SEO friendly themes out there.
Support is very good and it has a very large community of helpful members. Plus Thesis Theme is constantly being developed as demonstrated by all the new features introduced with Thesis 1.7, and customers get free lifetime updates. I hope you found this Thesis review useful and if you are looking for a good premium wordpress theme, I highly recommend giving Thesis Theme a look. Framework is a premium template system for WordPress that is designed to serve as the rock-solid foundation beneath any kind of website.

Genesis Themes:

The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Whether you're a novice or advanced developer, Genesis provides the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.
Technically, Genesis Theme Framework refers to the parent theme. Reviewing the parent theme without any regard to the child theme is just not possible, since part of the actual Genesis Theme Framework’s impressive attributes lie on its extension—the child theme.
1) Automatic theme updates for easy upgrades
2) Extensive array of built-in SEO settings
3) Good selection of theme settings to tweak your site
4) Custom widgets and options for multiple widget placement
5) 6 default layout options which can be applied site-wide or individual pages or posts
6) Wide selection of child theme design (fees apply per child theme)
7) 50+ hook locations—opens up opportunity to add more functionality by inserting codes
8) Enhanced security audit from WordPress lead developer Mark Jaquith
9) Compatible with BuddyPress
10) Forum Support
11) Step-by-step tutorials on how to use various features
12) Genesis Theme Framework Pros
Easy Site Makeover:  Updating the look of your website is easy with the parent/child theme framework. For some of you who have no idea how a parent/child theme works, the best way to explain it is to compare it to a painted wall. The wall is the parent theme and the paint is the child theme. If you want to change the look of the wall, you repaint it. The wall may look different because of the new paint, but it is still the same wall. With the Genesis theme as the platform, all you have to do is select, install and activate a child theme. Once you get tired of it, you can easily give your site a makeover by selecting a different child theme. Of course, your site will remain unchanged except for the new style.
Affordable Compared to Other Premium WordPress Themes: The amount $79.95 for the Genesis Framework and a child theme is a reasonable amount, especially when you can use them in creating an unlimited amount of websites. In fact, you can also opt for the Pro Plus All-Theme Package for $249.95, and you will get lifetime access to all present and future child themes, along with lifetime forum access. Whether you are a web developer or an internet entrepreneur, this deal is pretty much the best I have encountered so far.
SEO-Friendly Genesis is search engine optimized: It has built-in SEO options, which is a great feature, since it eliminates the need for SEO plug-ins. It will give you control over various SEO elements.
 Adaptable Framework: Advanced users or people with technical know-how will appreciate the theme’s adaptable framework. With Genesis, it is almost safe to say, the possibilities are endless.
Genesis Theme Framework Cons: Plain Output for Beginners But Impressive Output for Advanced Users. Do not let this flaw influence your buying decision. After all, this should not even come as a surprise to you. We are talking about web design. If you have zero to so-so knowledge of web design and development, you should not even be expecting to create a masterpiece, or more specifically, create something similar to those showcased themes in the StudioPress website. Until such time when you are well versed with coding, you should settle for a simple, yet working web design.

Socrate themes:

Socrate theme is a newly released premium WordPress theme that is well suited for niche bloggers. It was developed by Joel Comm and It allows you to create Adsense and Clickbank monetized WordPress blogs in a matter of minutes. You can customize Socrates Theme very easily to look however you like it which makes it perfect for internet marketers looking to create great looking niche blogs.Premium Wordpress.Socrates continues to grow in popularity and is now being used on over 50,000 sites.   That’s just amazing and makes us one of the most used themes online.
Here are some of the cool features of Socrates Theme:
Custom Header Design System – With over 160 niche header designs, you can easily insert these pre-made headers into your theme branded with blog title and description. You can easily upload your own custom headers if you like as well.
Custom Backgrounds – Socrates Theme includes over 50 different backgrounds that you can use to fit the style of your site. It’s easy to customize them too so the backgrounds will display however you like them too.
Easy Monetization – With the optional “Ad Bar”, you can easily insert a 728 x 90 banner above your content. You can also enter in your Clickbank ID from the control panel and rotate different clickbank products on the right hand side.
Multiple Layout Design – Socrates Theme is very flexible in terms of layout. You can choose to have a left sidebar, right sidebar, or even a split sidebar design.

Step by step process of becoming an affiliate marketer:
Affiliate marketing is a rising marketing technique now a days. This is one of the strong technique which can generate more profit for an organization and side by side it also takes care of the affiliates. Affiliate marketing is a large business, and it can be mighty successful for many of those involved in the industry, but it is a process you must go about on your own—not by clicking on another affiliate marketer’s links claiming outrageous payouts. The process of becoming an affiliate marketer isn’t as complex as it sounds, luckily. There is a step-by-step process that will allow to enter the business with relative ease—and a lot of elbow grease.
Step 1: Pick Your Poison
 The first step of the process is choosing the market or vertical that you want to get into. Make it something you are interested in because you might be working in it for quite a long time. If you love cars, pick cars—not gardening.
Within your chosen market you will then need to pick a product. I recommend picking just one product to start; this will help to keep you focused in the beginning. For your first product pick something relatively easy to market that people will be likely purchase online—for example carburetors for classic Mustangs. Having a specific product instead of a general one will boost your income as people coming to your site to learn about classic Mustang carburetors will likely need one in the near future. It will also put you into a smaller market than those marketing used books or affiliate marketing programs. Using a very specific products will mean your cost per visitor will be low and your profits high.
Step 2: If You Build It—They Will Come
 Field of Dreams was a smart movie. Next step, build your website/blog/social network/what have you. Put time and effort into this process because you need to be an expert in your market, so that people will turn to your creation for advice. Obviously this needs to be about the product you chose, so to continue with the example you would build a site or network about classic Mustangs or classic Mustang restoration. After you have your basic site built you will build a series around your product, something like “how to install a classic Mustang carburetor”, “how to source carburetors for a classic mustang”, etc. A hint for success: include on your site a forum that allows people to get involved in your website’s community. It will keep people coming back to the site and is also a great place to link to products for sale on the specific topic. Forum’s are also self-replicating so you won’t have to write all the content yourself.
 Step 3: Market the Crap Out of It
Once you are done with the build, AND ONLY ONCE YOU ARE FINISHED, you need to send people to your creation. There are many ways to do this, you can create a social buzz about it, you can use SEO techniques, place ads on similarly-focused content, post on relevant forums on your topic, etc. Initially you should use as many marketing techniques as you can to promote your website or network. Once you are up and running you can focus on whichever methods are working the best for your product. Over time you will want to refocus your efforts on self-replicating methods that require less effort on your part—but this will come in with experience.
Step 4: Join an Affiliate Marketing Program
 Now that you are done with the hard part comes the easy step. Sign up for an affiliate marketing program. Do plenty of research on the best affiliate marketing program out right now (they do change so me stating one here won’t be helpful). Choose the one that works the best for you. Just as a rough idea 80% of programs are revenue-sharing or pay-per-sale, 19% cost per action and the remaining 1% cost-per-click or cost-per-mile.
Step 5: Branch Out
 Once you have got the above process completed you will begin to see traffic and revenue coming from your venture. Be aware however that this will take time–so be prepared to not see immediate results. Also, the initial profits might be meagre but never fear, these should compound over time. Hopefully you aren’t relying on the initial profits as your only source of income as you will need to reinvest at least part of them into growing your network.After the initial product is successful, and hopefully self-replicating, you will want to branch out into others products like classic Mustang headlights, body parts, and other engine parts. Obviously the more products you have the more money you will make. When branching out try to stay within your original market (providing it was successful) because it will help you focus your energy, improve your expert status and it will be easier to join all your efforts together into one large reference site in the future. Joining your different products together is slightly easier to do if they are all related to classic cars than if you have separate websites about cars, gardening, dentistry and hair care.

Choosing Traffic Sources For Mobile Campaign part 1



There are so many Traffic Sources at the moment, and in the world of Mobile Marketing rivalry Traffic Sources extremely tight . Unlike on the desktop , the big players like Google have a great distance to its rivals , the world's Car , the distance between Google and its nearest competitor is not too large . That's why a lot of options for Mobile Marketing Traffic Sources , there are about 400 more Mobile Traffic Sources today which has good quality.
one of the skills that must be owned by an Affiliate Marketing is adept at using a variety of Traffic Sources. These skills will obviously be able to improve and maintain an Affiliate Marketing revenue .

But even so , at the beginning of running a Campaign , you have to focus only on the Traffic Sources alone . Do not try to move Traffic Sources before you can make a profit . Lope is the fastest way for you to fail . And basically , almost no Traffic Sources bad , there is always a chance or a gap where you can profit . All you have to do is look for the gap. After the meet and could make a profit , then do the horizontal scale- up to Traffic Sources another .

I have some tips in choosing a Mobile Traffic Sources. Some parametes I use to determine whether the Traffic Sources feasible or not I wear , the main consideration is the optimization , that is to say , Traffic Sources must have a feature that lets me do various optimizations when running the Campaign on Traffic Source . At least 4 big thing I noticed while selecting a Mobile Traffic Sources :
1. First
each Commercial Traffic Sources certainly have a lot of Publisher. Publisher is the person who entrusts his Traffic Traffic Sources for sale by the Advertiser , the Mobile traffics , publishers can deposit Traffic originating from the Mobile Web or Mobile Application has. You as the buyer of Traffic referred to as Advertiser.
This time based on the type of traffic is there are two major categories for Mobile Traffic , namely : non -adult and adult traffic traffic . Except as specifically as PopAds , PopCash , etc. which only focus on traffic Popup / Popunder and Direct Traffic , most Mobile Traffic Sources also divide the traffic into multiple types of traffic sources such as Banner , type the web ( blogs , tube , image , etc. ) , Popup / unders , Redirect , web / App , etc .

  • Banner, meaning that traffic comes from users who click on the banner on the web, usually there are some positions that you can select banners
  • Type the web (blogs, tubes, image, etc.), this is a type of web of Publisher in the Traffic Sources. Blogs are web that contains the article, while the Tube is usually a blog whose contents clusters video.
  • Popup / Popunder, traffic will be redirected (by opening a new window in the browser) to Landing Page you when the user clicks something on the Web Publisher. So for this kind of traffic you do not need a banner.
  • Traffic Redirect, like Popup / Popunder, but this traffic is generated not for the user to click on a web publisher, this traffic immediately redirect the user (by opening a new browser window) when the first entry to the web publisher. Even this kind of traffic do not require Banner.
  • Web / App, several Mobile Traffic Sources like Leadbolt, Decisive, Komli, Airpush, etc. have traffic coming from the Web and Mobile Application.

for the part 2, choosing traffic sources for mobile part 2
3 and 4 , in the next post

Source from tongkatajaib.com






























Facebook Marketing Mistakes Which You Should Avoid

Facebook Marketing Mistakes Which You Should Avoid


Do you really need to be told that nearly a billion people are on Facebook, or that a couple hundred million of them are logging on every day?

No. Odds are, you probably don’t even need to be told that it’s a great place to market your business, whether you’re an eCommerce shop or a brick and mortar supplier.

Unfortunately, many, perhaps even most, small businesses don’t understand how to use Facebook Marketing as a promotional tool. Here are some of the most common mistakes they make. Avoid these and you’ll already be ahead of the game.

Breaking the Service Agreement

We’ve become so accustomed to clicking “I agree” whenever we’re faced with a list of terms and conditions that sometimes it’s easy to forget they even exist.

This can prove fatal for small businesses who are trying to use Facebook to market their products, however. Losing your Facebook following can be an enormous blow to your business.

Any time that you feel unsure about doing something on Facebook, odds are you shouldn’t do it in the first place, whether or not it violates the terms and conditions.


Facebook Marketings - Getting Like
That said, there are a few things that can be considered a violation that you might not realize. Here are the most common mistakes:

- Using a Personal Profile – Many businesses don’t even realize that there is a difference between brand pages and personal profiles. Using a “normal” Facebook account to promote your business is a terrible mistake not only because it violates the service agreement, but because it demonstrates to your customers that you don’t know what you are doing.

- Contest Rules – Put simply, no contest that you run on Facebook can make use of Facebook’s features. You have to use a third party app. No matter how many times you’ve seen ads that say “‘like’ us to win,” these ads are actually against the terms of service and can get your account banned with no warning.

- Tagging – Never tag a picture of somebody without getting their permission first. Those who get tagged can report you for abuse, which brings your entire account up for review.

Broadcasting

It can’t be said enough. Social media is just as much social as it is media. It’s just as much for listening as it is for talking. Marketing has been about broadcasting for so long that it’s very difficult for most companies to adapt to this fundamental shift.

Users expect their words to be heard and responded to. If you can pull this off, you can win their loyalty and dramatically boost your customer retention rate.

Being Predictable

Facebook is information overload. Many people’s streams are overloaded with dozens or even hundreds of new posts every day. Yours has to stand out in order to be effective.

This means shifting media and strategies regularly. Alternate between photos, videos, posts, and responses. Offer interesting or entertaining content that simply can’t be found anywhere else. This requires a steep investment of time but the payoff is worth the effort.

Do not overload your users’ streams with too much content. If they see you too often, they will start to get bored of you and feel like you are intruding into their space. It’s important to find just the right balance of updates.

Too little and they will forget who you are. Too often and they will tune you out, or worse, “unlike” you.

Conclusion

Stay interesting, join in on conversations, and pay attention to the service agreement.

Remember that social media is a place that people go to enjoy themselves, not a place where they look for something to buy. Those of you who avoid these mistakes will reap the rewards.
How to Promote Affiliate Products on Blog

How to Promote Affiliate Products on Blog

  1.  Indirect Promotion : I think it's always hundred time better to promote an affiliate product through blog post rather than just placing a banner anywhere in your blog.
  2. Personal Recommendation : Don't just promote for the sake of selling, share your personal thought. Not only discuss about the strength of the product but also show the weakness and limitation it poses.
  3. Maintain Relationship with Your Readers : If any of your reader have any question regarding the product you are promoting ask you any question, try your best to solve his/her query.
  4. Place Affiliate links Inside Your Blog Post : Whenever you find a perfect product (you are sure about it's valuability) relating your blog post, never forget to add a link to that product from your blog post. In this case you shouldn't expect good profit because you are not promoting the product but sharing your thought about a topic and as you find a good product relating to the topic you just share it with readers so that if some of they become interested then can buy.
  5. Multiple Promotion : I know some of you may raise the eyebrow knowing it but it's true. Peoples may overlook your recommendation (though they may look for that type of product) for various reason (either didn't visit your blog for few times, didn't catch your feed etc). In this situation wouldn't it be it helpful for them (also for you) to recommend them the product you already have promoted?
  6. Bonus and FREE Offer :Who doesn't know peoples like free offer, so if you able to provide free or bonus offer to your readers if they buy the product from your recommendation I'm sure you will just become surprised watching the result. One way to do this is to contact with the owner of the affiliate product to provide the offer only for your readers.
  7.  Be Transparent : Never forget the fact, not all of your loyal readers are going to buy the product, so after clicking on affiliate link if they launch to a sell page it will irritate them. Why not give them the understanding power to understand the link will take them to the sell page. One way to do this is to write just beside the affiliate link that 'the link will take you to the sell page', believe me it only improve your credibility on blogosphere. Thanks Darren from problogger.net for showing this tip.
  8. Promote Several Product : Not all of the time you are going to receive good amount of income referring a particular affiliate product. What seems (the product) good for you may not be upto the mark for your readers so try to promote several good quality products (you don't have any about it's functionality) in your niche.
  9.  Keep Track of Selling Result : This is the tip many of you just ignore. Peoples fail to understand how important is it to have a close look towards your campaign, it not only give the selling result but also other related notion like which ad work best, how placement affect selling etc. All of those top affiliate network has tracking tool, use it in its full potential to plan future affiliate marketing strategy.
  10. Don't Loose Heart : Many of those top affiliate marketers earn huge amount of commission overnight, keep in mind it's not possible for yes (at the initial phase). So never loose heart, we are blogger our first preference should be to earn money online through blogging, affiliate marketing stand next.


Affiliate Marketing Tips 2016 to Make Money –  Publishing 2016 Part 3

Affiliate Marketing Tips 2016 to Make Money – Publishing 2016 Part 3


MakeWebWorld brings you the third episode of Future of Publishing’s affiliate marketing tips mini-series.

In this segment, VigLink CEO Oliver Roup talks with a panel of affiliate marketing experts about how to fight affiliate fraud.

This is the last episode in the mini-series but don’t worry, Future of Publishing will be back next week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZn7NO2gtX4
Affiliate Marketing Tips 2016 to Make Money –  Publishing 2016 Part 2

Affiliate Marketing Tips 2016 to Make Money – Publishing 2016 Part 2


Affiliate marketing tips  were covered last week by Oliver Roup of VigLink on Future of Publishing.

This week, he continues his interview with Bret Grow, Phillip Kidwell, and Gary Warnes, some of the affiliate marketing industry’s leading experts on how to make money online as a publisher.

Instead of giving just a general overview of affiliate marketing, everybody talk in detail about a few topics relevant to publishers that can help them grow their revenue.


Affiliate Marketing Tips 2016 to Make Money –  Publishing 2016 Part 1

Affiliate Marketing Tips 2016 to Make Money – Publishing 2016 Part 1


Makewebworld is proud to join Future of Publishing as a media partner in syndicating their weekly show. In today’s show VigLink CEO Oliver Roup talks about some Affiliate Marketing tips .

Making money on the Web can be a difficult task, but there are many ways to do it and you should choose a method that best suits your business model.

If you are a writer, for example, you can make money by starting a blog and having pay-per-click advertising. This can be with banner ads, such as PPC (pay per click) banner ads, but also you can do this with affiliate marketing.

In affiliate marketing, you can make money when somebody clicks your ad and registers as a lead or a sale, and you can do it via a newsletter or with a banner.

In Future of Publishing, leading affiliate marketing experts to talk about how you can become better at affiliate marketing:


Highlights:

Consider running your affiliate program in-house if you’re a merchant…
First market to people you trust if you’re a publisher!
Don’t sell shoddy products no matter who you are!
Below are the other episodes from this series:

Affiliate Marketing Tips to Make Money Online Part 2

Affiliate Marketing Tips to Make Money Online Part 3
Affiliate Marketing Tips & Tricks 2016 Part 2

Affiliate Marketing Tips & Tricks 2016 Part 2



Get paid to display ads (google adsense):

Google AdSense is a free, simple way for website publishers of all sizes to earn money by displaying targeted Google ads on their websites. AdSense also lets you provide Google search to your site users, while earning money by displaying Google ads on the search results pages.
 Choose the type and placement of ad units to be displayed
* Specify where you want ads to appear
* Choose what types of ads can compete for those slots
Highest-paying ads display
* Advertisers bid on your inventory in a real-time auction
* Always show the highest-paying ad
Get paid
* Google bills advertisers and ad networks
* Get paid through our reliable payment options
Earning
There's no precise answer, because your earnings will depend on a number of factors.
The type of ads appearing on your pages: By displaying ads with AdSense for content, you can display ads that are paid when users click them or when users view them. All ads compete in an ad auction, and our system automatically selects those which will generate the most revenue for you while ensuring a good user experience.
The pricing of ads appearing on your pages: Not all ads are priced the same, so factors such as changing advertiser budgets, your specific content, and the ads your users choose to click will cause your earnings to vary even from day to day.

How many AdSense products can be used:

 You can earn from AdSense in many different ways -- by displaying ads on your webpages, by providing search to your users, by displaying ads in feeds, and more. Using more AdSense products will increase your potential earnings.The best way to find out how much you'll earn is to sign up and start showing ads on your webpages. There's no cost, no obligation, and getting started is quick and easy. Sign up now.
Once you're a part of Google AdSense, you can see your earnings at any time by signing in and viewing your reports. You'll be able to see the total number of ad clicks, impressions, clickthrough rate, and your total earnings. This information will give you an idea of how well the program is performing for you and how much you can expect to earn over time in the program.

Best way to not look spammy:

One key component for ranking in Google image search results is the text around your image. One great way to make sure that you’re controlling the text around your image (and that it targets the proper keywords) is to use captions. So for instance if your target keyword were “Boston steakhouse” you would consider using those terms in the photo caption if there were a natural way to include them

Need to use Descriptive Names for Photo Files:

 It is fairly easy to upload images that are named based on something that is solely relevant to the person creating the web page. This, however, does nothing to guarantee that a search engine will find that image based on a person’s logical search phrasing. It also does not guarantee that a surfer who retrieves that image will understand why it is relevant to their own search. Sometimes, it is convenient for a person creating content to simply upload photos that retain the numbered labeling done by most digital cameras, i.e. “IMG000284.” This does nothing to help improve ranking.
If you understand how to SEO images, then you know that the name of the uploaded image should bear the keywords for the page where that image lands. It is best not to run the words in an image name together without a break between words – or use an underscore to separate in an image name. Pictures are harder to find this way. Separate words with a hyphen, instead, since this makes more logic to web bots. So for our Boston steakhouse example we might name the image file something like:

Need to use Descriptive Alt Text (Alt Attribute):

 Alt (or Alternative) text is the wording that appears when a user hovers over an image or that appears in results to describe the image (developers also call this text an alt attribute as it’s an attribute within a tag in HTML code; it’s also incorrectly referred to as an “alt tag” frequently. You can learn more about other important SEO elements in HTML in our HTML cheat sheet for SEO). Your alt attribute or alt text should contain very similar keywords to those you’re targeting on your page.

Getting the Images Clicked need to use Large, High-Quality Fast Loading Images:

 Nothing turns away traffic like poor-quality blurred images. Most Internet users will not even click on an image that is not crisp and presented well. The preferred universal image format for photos on the web is jpg, and larger images work best for the web for getting a clean view. Stay away from abstract images and choose images that clearly show things like faces. This will help to make your images more clickable when they do show up in search results, which will help you to realize your ultimate goal: getting more qualified visitors to your site. By also ensuring that your image files are compressed properly you’re able to ensure that you have images that load quickly and look attractive: this way when you get those images to show up in Google image search or the universal search results they’ll be seen quickly and they’ll be an attractive option for searchers.

Need to avoid those common mistakes:
 * Using spammy phrases, like "Click here!" or "Once in a lifetime opportunity!"
* Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!!
* USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING IN EMAIL (especially in the subject)
* Coloring their fonts bright red, or green
* Coding sloppy HTML (usually from converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML)
* Creating an HTML email that's nothing but one big image, with little or no text (since spam filters can't
read images, they assume you're a spammer that's trying to trick 'em).
* Using the word "Test" in the subject line (agencies run into this all the time, when sending drafts to
clients for approval)
* Sending a test to multiple recipients within the same company (that company's email firewall can only
assume it's a spam attack)
* Designing HTML email in Microsoft Word, and exporting the code to HTML (that code is sloppy, and s
spam filters hate it)

Comparison between chitka and kontera
Kontera
Kontera is an advertising network, providing in-text advertising and information services.
Kontera's technology is based on several proprietary semantic, statistical, linguistic, and yield-maximization algorithms that analyze online content, extract and rank topics and keywords, and then match them to relevant advertisements, content, and information. The company's flagship product is called ContentLink.Kontera ads are well represented on the internet and used in over 1% of the top 10,000 websites ranked by traffic.

Chitika:

Chitika is a data analytics company in the business of on-line advertising. Through the application of data and innovative technology in the fields of mobile, local and search Chitika has developed a vast global network that maximizes yield for both publishers and advertisers. Chitika  Premium displays ads to visitors that reach a page directly from a major search engine. They detect the search query used by the visitor and then return ads that best match that search query. Returning well-targeted, highly relevant ads should result in a higher Click-through rate. This is how the ads monetize the "second click". All Chitika  Premium ads are Pay per click (PPC) and are promoted by Chitika as their best performing ad product for publishers based on effective Cost per impression (eCPM). Chitika Premium ad units are 100% compatible with Google AdSense. According to Chitika the Chitika Premium ad units do not conflict with the Google AdSense terms of use because the ad units are not contextual and the ad units do not look like Google AdSense ads

Affiliate marketing:

 Simplest way to explain affiliate marketing is that it is a way of making money online whereby you as a publisher are rewarded for helping a business by promoting their product, service or site.
There are a number of forms of these types of promotions but in most cases they involve you as a publisher earning a commission when someone follows a link on your blog to another site where they then buy something.
Other variations on this are where you earn an amount for referring a visitor who takes some kind of action – for example when they sign up for something and give an email address, where they complete a survey, where they leave a name and address etc.
Commissions are often a percentage of a sale but can also be a fixed amount per conversion.
Conversions are generally tracked when the publisher uses a link with a code only being used by you embedded into it that enables the advertiser to track where conversions come from (usually by cookies). Other times an advertiser might give a publisher a ‘coupon code’ for their readers to use that helps to track conversions.

Facebook Event Ads Strategy:

The Facebook Events application is one of the most powerful advertising tool available and is provided at no cost to the user. It allows you the flexibility to advertise events to both your existing Facebook fan base, whilst also advertising externally and attracting new users to ‘attend’ your event and ‘fan’ you page.
The events application spreads events virally. When a users clicks the ‘attending’ button, this message is syndicated through their news feeds to their friends and colleges. As social groups are generally homogenous the ‘pickup rate’ is extremely high and we often find that the money spent attracting one attendee actually leads to 2 or 3 friends joining them. The viral aspect continues to perpetuate as those friends that also click ‘attending’ further the event through their news feeds and so the ball keeps rolling.

Google Retargeting Product Strategy:

Google retargeting (they call it remarketing) is an extremely powerful tool, continuing a conversation with consumers that have previously visited your website, either reminding them to complete an action, or using it for burst marketing opportunities. The structure of how you apply retarketing tags on-site dictates the strategic options you can utilise to generate positive marketing outcomes.
Retarketing tags can be applied to either a common footer of a website, meaning that you tag everyone that has accessed the page and send them generic marketing banners to keep the brand top of mind, and/or you can choose specific pages within the site and take a more disaggregated approach. For an e-commerce website I would recommend applying a huge range of tags to the various product pages by category. For example all the pages about office chairs would have a common tag, whereas office desks would use a different tag. The flexibility this provides is to provide more relevant advertising to the user based on their browsing history.

Social media marketing strategy:

I recently expressed the following opinion on a Social Media Blog Post – “I believe we are in the Toddler Phase of Social Media Marketing. Some companies will walk and talk faster than others - but we ‘ALL’ want to walk.” While not intending to “Coin a Phrase” - the more I thought about it, the more I realized how accurately it describes the growing pains most companies are experiencing in trying to integrate effective Social Media Programs into their 2012 Marketing Mix Strategies.
Being a Social Media Toddler should be viewed as a “good” thing. We are all “Social Media Toddlers” when it comes to Integrating Social Media Marketing into the Marketing Mix. The more we experience the positive effects of Social Media Marketing, the more inclined we are to take advantage of Social Media Strategies in new and different ways.
Some Marketing Consultants have also started to utilize the phrase “Re-inventing Social Media” as a possible solution to some of the challenges associated with Social Media Marketing. I believe it’s a little premature to re-invent something many companies still don’t fully understand. The greatest challenge associated with Social Media Marketing involves the integration of Social Media Strategies into the mix of our more traditional marketing strategies

PA internet marketing - PA search marketing strategy:

For any company STARTING A NEW SMALL BUSINESS, or even any established business, an effective 2012 Search Marketing - Internet Marketing Strategy is one of the key marketing strategies requiring attention and a great deal of patience. Unlike direct face to face marketing, B2B TELEMARKETING or EMAIL MARKETING PROGRAMS, Search Marketing and Internet Marketing success is not dependent on personal relationships. If a new business owner expects to achieve any success in the area of Internet Marketing, including SEARCH MARKETING – SEO - SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, he or she first needs to understand one important fact:
Search Engines such as Google® - Yahoo® - Bing® operate under their own set of guidelines. If a new or existing business owner makes a sincere attempt to understand and follow these guidelines, your website has a decent chance of obtaining high search engine rankings.
The focus of this month’s 2012 Internet Marketing article centers around two of the most important search marketing strategies critical to any effective search marketing program: Search Engine Guidelines and Engaging, Current, Informative, and Content Rich Website Content.

Mobile marketing:

Mobile marketing can refer to one of two categories of interest. First, and relatively new, is meant to describe marketing on or with a mobile device, such as a cell phone using SMS Marketing. (this is an example of horizontal telecommunication convergence). Second, and a more traditional definition, is meant to describe marketing in a moving fashion - for example - technology road shows or moving billboards.
Although there are various definitions for the concept of mobile marketing, no commonly accepted definition exists. Mobile marketing is broadly defined as “the use of the mobile medium as a means of marketing communication” or “distribution of any kind of promotional or advertising messages to customer through wireless networks”. More specific definition is the following: “using interactive wireless media to provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services and ideas, thereby generating value for all stakeholders".

Types of Mobile Marketing

    SMS: (short message service):  Also known as ‘texting’: Advertisers can send relevant marketing messages in form of texts
    MMS: (multi-media message service):  Marketing messages that utilize multiple, rich media elements such as images, video and audio
    Mobile Applications: The ads can be hosted inside the application design and logic. The applications comprise of managed platforms, virtual machines, native applications and widgets
    Bluetooth Wireless Proximity Based Marketing: It works like local TV advertising on cable or network channels where a customer in a particular location will be served custom ads for that area. You will receive an ad or a message based on the location your wireless device is picking up
    Location-Based Marketing: Delivers multi-media directly to the user of a mobile device dependent upon their location via GPS technology
    QR Codes (quick-response barcodes): Allows customers to quickly learn more about a business, by visiting a mobile version of their business page on a mobile phone that is enabled to scan the bar code
    Pay Per Call Mobile (also called click-to-call):  Pay per call is advertising that generates a billable event only when the reader of the ad does something—in this case, makes a phone call.  A mobile ad can contain a phone number that the customer can select and call instantly from their cell phone
    Voice Marketing: Voice broadcasting calls numbers from a computer managed list and plays a pre-recorded message to the customer
    Mobile Banner Ads: Like standard banner ads for desktop web pages but smaller to fit on mobile screens and run on the mobile content network

Gaming based marketing:

Social gaming, or ‘gamification‘ is quickly becoming an important aspect of marketing in today’s world.  The social gaming phenomenon has exploded.  Facebook reports that more than 200 million people are playing games on Facebook.  That is a small tip of a very large iceberg.  Social networking sites allow friends to compete and compare their progress in games, as well as assist each other in reaching goals.  It is an interesting meshing of social networking and social gaming, and something that will soon be ubiquitous.  Forward thinking businesses understand that social gaming can become an important aspect of their marketing strategy.  It is the smart way to do business.
The idea of using social gaming as a marketing tool is not new, however with the Internet playing a key role in most people’s lives, it has changed how gaming works in new and unexpected directions.
According to recent research from Nielsen, online gaming is now the second-most popular activity among US web surfers, behind social networking, and so it is no surprise to learn that marketers are looking to capitalise on this booming hobby. In fact, according to forecasts by eMarketer, almost $200 million will be spent advertising on social networking games by brands this year.
social gaming can offer even more value to marketers, explains Scott Sinclair of Capgemini Consulting. “One of the things that social gaming allows marketers to create is an experience around the brand which is inherently more memorable than simply showing an advert or popping something up on Google AdWords,” he explains. “To actually interact and involve the brand with an experience is almost the ultimate when it comes to marketing.”
Important things we need to consider:
1) Choose the right game
2) Identify the audience you are going after
3) Ensure the campaign has ‘stickiness’ and is interactive
4) Ensure the reward for the user has value
5) Encourage viral promotion

My personal thoughts on Marketing and specifically affiliate marketing
Business world is changing day by day. This is the right time to broaden our thoughts and expand our business into the new era. Marketing is the tools and techniques which can expand the business. Marketing is the Key to unlock the door of success. Affiliate Marketing is the new wing of marketing which can work and grow speedily with the help of affiliates. This is the latest technique which works faster than other technique of marketing. Affiliate marketing works through affiliate network.
Affiliate marketing can be a great and successful venture that one undertakes. It clearly has its advantages over traditional advertising and promoting schemes, but it should be known that there are many limitations too. It is a joint partnership between merchants and affiliates which runs on a commission basis. When somebody buys something on a website, the affiliate is given a commission of the profit based on per click, per lead or per sale.
The obvious advantages of affiliate marketing are that merchants have a wider environment generating more products and services signifying more sales. No additional time is spent in marketing with merchants and they can obtain more customers this way too. If done correctly, knowing customer needs and desires can create a knowing of market trends which can help future sales in the sense that the website knows how to market products more effectively next time.
The other obvious advantage is that it is an easy way to create additional income for both merchants and websites. Banners generate interest and does not need any kind of big capital expenditure to market and advertise certain products. It can be done with very little technical expertise and therefore is easy to start up. No physical connection is needed in the sense that anyone can work from anywhere in the world as long as the have an Internet connection. In this context it can be incorporated with one's current job. It is a handy source of income and can generate extra revenue without compromising one's regular job.
Affiliate Marketing Examples : Linkbait

Affiliate Marketing Examples : Linkbait

I'm constantly intrigued by the clever ideas I see and hear about that people are using for viral marketing and linkbait. While it's only loosely related to affiliate marketing , the concept of linkbait and starting an "Idea Virus" is definitely one that can be used to generate affiliate and/or advertising income on the Internet. I'm posting a list of example linkbait and viral marketing successes here to help people get their own ideas flowing.

1. All My Life For Sale - This was originally just a guy named John Freyer who decided to sell literally everything he owned on eBay. Now it's a website, a hardcover book, and a piece of performance art that's on display at multiple museums.

2. One Red Paperclip - Kyle MacDonald posted an offer on CraigsList to trade a red paperclip for something "bigger and better". Since then he has traded up 14 times, and just finished a trade to get a house. According to the Sitemeter on his website, he's receiving close to 200,000 visits to his website daily. If you assume that he's earning an average of $1 CPM for those Google Adsense ads he's got running on the site, then he's earning $6k per month just from that advertising. (And that $1 figure is a total wild guess on my part - it would be much more or much less than that.)

3. The $39 Experiment - Tom Locke got 100 39 cent stamps and mailed off 100 letters to various companies asking for free stuff. He then recorded his responses on his website.

4. The Million Dollar Homepage - Alex Tew decides to sell 1 million pixel ads on his website for $1 each and becomes a huge success story spawning literally thousands of imitators.

5. Pink Bunny Poker - Jeremy Enke auctions off his services as a poker player (wearing a pink bunny suit) at the World Series of Poker. He generates much publicity, many backlinks, and a good deal of money from his sponsor, Golden Palace Casino, who bought his eBay auction. (Golden Palace participates in these kinds of viral marketing stunts constantly, by the way.)

You'll notice that all of the linkbait and viral marketing examples mentioned in this post have some things in common:
  • There's actually a person with a name involved in the stunt.
  • All of the stunts are outrageous and/or quirky enough to warrant attention.
  • Most of them involve a combination of some kind of ingenuity with something that is already on the minds of consumers.
More on the last point. All My Life For Sale took advantge, in part, of the amazing success of eBay. One Red Paperclip borrows some popularity from the incredible success of Craigslist. Jeremy's Pink Bunny idea took advantage of the popularity of online poker, the World Series of Poker, eBay, and Golden Palace. The $39 Experiment is about 100 different companies, almost all of whom are well known.
Can you cook up a recipe for some linkbait now? Can you make money with a viral marketing campaign with these ingredients? I know that I have a couple of ideas now myself.
Affiliate Marketing Tips & Tricks 2012 Part 1

Affiliate Marketing Tips & Tricks 2012 Part 1


Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing  is an  an effective Internet marketing strategy used by Internet marketers to make more money online. An affiliate marketing  program is a partnership between a company wanting to sell its merchandise online and its client who promotes the company’s products online. When the company achieves a sale, a percentage of the profit is routed back to the promoter. Affiliate Marketing  is actually a combination of following topics. Following topics will give us a clear idea about affiliate marketing , how it works and how it generate profits.

Pay per Action Advertisement: 

Pay-per-action advertising is a new pricing model that allows to pay only for completed actions that you define, such as a lead, a sale, or a page view, after a user has clicked on your ad on a publisher's site. You will define an action, set up conversion tracking, and create ads that


publishers in the Google content network can then choose to place in new adunits on their site.
Pay Per Action will allow advertisers to create ads that cost only when a desired action is triggered. The advertiser sets the price per action; for example, an advertiser can decide to pay $5 per lead acquisition, as opposed to paying per click or per impression.These Pay Per Action ads are available to a limited number of AdSense publishers. Publishers will be able to select which Pay Per Action ads they would like to display on their content sites. A publisher accepted into the beta can choose to display all pay per action ads, or select to show keyword specific ads or select a specific ad from a specific advertiser. To do so, the publisher will have to login to their AdSense accounts, go to the referrals section and select other referrals from the options.

Contextual Ad networks:

When it comes to making money with a website, one of the most popular methods is running text or image ads on various pages. It's referred to as contextual advertising and "in line ads". Text or image ads are shown which match the content of the pages. In line ads appear as highlighted words on the page when the visitor hovers over highlighted text on the page. Ads appear in small boxes. Contextual ads are often displayed to the right or left of website copy, or as blocks within sections of the text. The ads shown are related to the content of each individual page. As visitors click on these links, you earn cash.

Affiliate Networks:

There are three kinds of affiliate networks: 1) Ad networks 2) Pay per click 3) Contextual
Ad networks:  An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to web sites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is aggregation of ad space supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser demand. The phrase "ad network" by itself is media-neutral in the sense that there can be a "Television Ad Network" or a "Print Ad Network", but is increasingly used to mean "online ad network" as the effect of aggregation of publisher ad space and sale to advertisers is most commonly seen in the online space.
Pay Per Click : Pay per click (PPC)  is an Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher when the ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system. PPC "display" advertisements are shown on web sites or search engine results with related content that have agreed to show ads. This approach differs from the "pay per impression" methods used in television and newspaper advertising.
 Contextual: Contextual advertising is a form of targeted advertising for advertisements appearing on websites or other media, such as content displayed in mobile browsers. The advertisements themselves are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user.

Writing Reviews:

It is the merchants job to sell the product. As an affiliate marketer we need to pre-sell the product. A good product review will assist the visitor with their buying decision so that they buy the right product, and feel good about doing it. We may choose to frame the product review around the visitors needs or wants, or may choose to frame it specifically around the product that we are reviewing. Either way, here is a description of each of the 7 elements we should include in our review. Those are: Product Image, product description, buyer description, proof, negatives, call to action, keyword phrase,

Writing Short Report:

A short report is also a great way to introduce new idea or business to target audience. It tells people who you are and what you do in just a short amount of time.  Affiliate marketing also comes into play when you are writing your short report. You can include links to both products and services you recommend, lending more credibility to them than if you were simply writing an article or a blog post. I like to discuss my short report topic, and then give my links to the products and services that are related to what I am talking about.

Creating Niche Blogs:

Niche blogs will provide readers with more comprehensive information about one product or even one aspect of the product that other blogs have never mentioned before. This will encourage readers to make purchase easily. This can generate 50X times of sale per month.
Niche blog is actually that type of blog in which blogger generally discuss about a particular topic throughout it's life span (or most of the time).


Benefits of Niche Blog:


  • Loyal Readers : This is the best way to achieve high quality loyal readers (i.e. targeted traffic) because they are going to receive article they are interested in.They not only visit your blog time and again and interact with you but also give you the opportunity to improve your knowledge on the topic you are discussing through valuable commenting, asking question and sharing thoughts.
  • Organic Traffic: If you are smart enough to use keywords related to your niche blog and successfully perform internal linking then you are going to achieve good amount of organic (quality) traffic.
  • Gain Authority: Quickest way to gain authority on blogosphere if you are going to publish good quality valuable content in your niche regularly.
  • Profit: Advertisers love to advertise in niche blog because it's one of the easiest way to get quality instant traffic. If you get paid writing review you know niche blog always get maximum number of get paid writing opportunity because backlink from niche blog is much valuable than any other source.Niche blogging always work fine if you want to make money by promoting affiliate products on your blog, because it has targeted traffic who are somehow blind to your suggestion.

Helpful Tips to Earn Income from Blogging

Helpful Tips to Earn Income from Blogging


Internet is the best way to generate income through blog or website. Blogs are the easy way to make money without having to work too much and its easy to setup.

What is a blog?
A blog is online dairy that displays data/content in chronological order. It displays the content in descending order with date and time. A blog is easily picked and crawled fastly by the search engines. So it is a good way to direct traffic to the desired websites. Regular updation and little seo work will increase the ranking of the blog in search engines and it can play and important role in selling the products or inform the users about the new products added on the website.

Write Unique Content for Your Blog
We all know that content is king. So if you are selling your products or add new product, write some unique lines about the product and direct the traffic to the product page of your website. Donot copy the content from your website and paste on your blog. Unique content will increase traffic on your website. So always update the post with unique content.

Blogging Daily
If a blog is not updated on regular basis, it becomes useless for you. So always try to blog about the products and services offered by your company. A content write can be hired if you have lack of time to update your blog.

Blog About Products
To direct more traffic to your website and earn, always blog about your products. Write it review. Also compare it with the other products. Comparing will provide option to your visitors to select the best one. If do not sell any products, join affiliate program and write posts on the products of the manufacturer. When a visitor purchase any product through your affiliate link, you get the commission.

Earn from Google Adsense
Google adsense is the best way to make money online for the publisher. It shows the relevant ads on the content pages. You will earn when a visitor clicks on google ads displayed on your blog. It easy to setup. Fill the form offered by Google to apply for google adsense account.

There is no need to invest money in hosting and domain registration for blogging. The Blogger and Wordpress are the most popular platforms for blogging. Create your account and start blogging. Wordpress is very user-friendly and most popular but you cannot earn money from google adsense here. The free version of wordpress will not allow you to add the google adsense code anywhere in your blog.

Affiliate Marketing Online : Simply What Does it Suggest

Affiliate Marketing Online : Simply What Does it Suggest


Just about all the people common in order to internet know about internet affiliate marketing ; however what does this kind of internet affiliate marketing  truly indicates. Many people identify it in many different techniques. Then what type will be many correct a single? This post is striving to solve the dilemma.

Just What Affiliate Marketing Online is Actually
Unquestionably, it is a enterprise training intended for business taken online. In this kind of exercise, an internet business house benefits a small business companion referred to as online for redirecting clients to his company’s web site; so that may possibly some of those rerouted customers purchase a few items offered at the website.

The Advantage of Internet Affiliate Marketing 
Affiliate marketing online offers win-win scenario for both the company home as well as the online marketer. The company home targets product development and delivering excellence for the program and also the other hand the online marketer focus on bringing clients for the internet site. The product maker or perhaps the company doesn’t need to stress about the particular marketing as well as the internet marketer doesn’t need to stress about the product production or service providing.

Several Types of Internet Affiliate Marketing 
Affiliate marketing could be of several types depending upon the nature with the products or services, on which the affiliate marketing online must be. A few business houses provide commission for the marketer on such basis as revenue made. Some others offer fee on such basis as amounts of guests redirected for their websites. There are a few various percentage constructions furthermore provided by another companies.

Consider the Benefit of the Theory
No matter you're a maker or even service provider, you should make advantages of internet affiliate marketing. If you're a maker, then you may need to look with regard to affiliate marketers in order to sale your products or services and at the same time frame you can even perform internet affiliate marketing regarding additional manufacturers or perhaps providers.

New Google AdSense Referral Program Affiliate Marketing

New Google AdSense Referral Program Affiliate Marketing

Google AdSense finally has a referral program worth promoting. The new public program, which seems to have launched today, pays $100 after your referral earns their first $100. They also pay $1 for every Firefox with Google toolbar download you referrer. This money is credited to your account and paid out during your next payout period.

I do recall some sort of limited referral program that was only available to a few sites a while ago, but now it's open to all. It looks like they really want to quickly ramp up the number of sites in their content network. Considering how much money these sites generate for Google, I'm not surprised.

There's now a new tab in the account center for creating referral buttons, but at the moment the options are limited to white graphical buttons. I hope in the near future, they allow publisher to customize the colors or even provide text based links. I'm kind of surprised they didn't do this to begin with, especially since I'm sure they know how well people click on text links as opposed to graphical banners.
How NOT to Recruit Affiliates

How NOT to Recruit Affiliates

So I got an email today from an affiliate manager, or an account executive, whatever you want to call him. The subject line read: "Randy will you promote our new widget".

Now that's not too bad. It at least got me to open the email. (I delete a lot of emails, especially the ones that say "You link to be removed".)

Then I read the first line of the email: "Dear sir, Widget.com has a brand new widget variation that is taking the world by storm. We would like to partner with www.genericwidgetdomain.com (place any website here) in promoting widgets."

This part, "(place any website here)" was literally actually in the email, word for word.

What's wrong with this email?

1- I'm already an affiliate, so there's no need to "recruit" me into their affiliate program. (If their affiliate managers were really on top of their game, they would know what all of my related wesites are already.)

2- Not changing the generic wording in the email is just a really bad, amateurish mistake. When I did affiliate recruitment, I hand-typed at the very least the first paragraph of every email I sent out, period. There is 0 excuse for sending out an email that isn't at least slightly customized. Hell, they obviously knew my name because they used it in the subject line, but in the salutation of the email, they referred to me as "Dear Sir".

3- The rest of the email wasn't bad, but it was short, and it didn't spell out the features and benefits of the affiliate program. Here's a hint for all you aspiring affiliate managers: if you're going to contact me about becoming an affiliate for your company, please include information about how much commission you pay, and what kind of earning potential that translates into.

Don't try to "tease" me into wanting to find out more. I'm busy, I work hard, and I don't have time for you to be coy, and the kind of affiliates you want to recruit are a lot like me.
The Keyword Report Review

The Keyword Report Review

I found a new service last week called The Keyword Report. This is a pretty nifty service. The company maintains a mailing list of webmasters who pay a fee to receive weekly emails with low-competition niche keyword phrases. I'm a big fan of brainstorming tools, and on any given day, there is no telling what I'm going to be interested in, so I thought I'd pony up $29/month to see what it's like.

So far I'm pretty pleased with the report. Not only are the keywords "good", but they really are non-competitive. I don't see any reason you couldn't come up with low competition keyword phrases on your own through other brainstorming techniques, but these guys have already done a lot of the work for you. They've already checked the cost per click and number of ads appearing for these phrases.

And you get the personal email of the person who publishes the report each week, and he's friendly and open with advice and information. Definitely a plus. I hate buying products with no customer support, and I love buying niche products with a personal touch.
Affiliate Marketing for Poker Webmasters

Affiliate Marketing for Poker Webmasters

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I've been busy launching my new poker website. Half of the content there is going to be dedicated to online poker tips, online cardrooms, and so on, but the other half of the content is devoted to poker and gambling webmasters. I'm particularly proud of my new article, Poker SEO Tips, which I just wrote and published today. Honestly, being a poker webmaster isn't much different from being any kind of other webmaster, although it does attract a different breed of webmaster I think. Replace the word "poker" with whatever word is appropriate to your niche, and you might find some benefit from those articles there too.

Another great place for info about making money as a poker affiliate is the poker affiliate forum at PAW. Definitely worth checking out.

Another thing - Shoemoney has been posting some great stuff lately. If you haven't visited his blog in a while, you should definitely check it out. Some of his new tips for success articles are worth their wait in gold, especially the one about not hiring friends to write for your website just because they're your friends.

Google Adwords Ads In Danger?

I don't know if this has already been talked about, but I just noticed something that got me wondering what Google is up to. I've taken a screen shot of the SERP for the search phrase "golf swing" to show exactly what I saw.

Basically, the ads showing for the search term have been pushed further down the page due to two video results, one from videojug.com and another from youTube.com directly below these are 2 results from Google book search.

Finally after all that, we get to the sponsored links aka AdWords ads. Most of the ads ended up being way below the fold in my browser. The screen shot actually show more ads because I hid the nav/link/tool bars on FireFox in order to get a better picture.

Thankfully, from what I can tell this is a layout test, because I tried to duplicate this on two other computers and didn't see the same SERP layout.

My guess is that advertisers are seeing much lower CTRs with this layout. Especially since the video results will probably capture more clicks due to their position and the fact that they basically look like the now banned AdSense ctr boosting trick of aligning images next to the AdSense ad unit.

If this new SERP layout is the sign of things to come, then advertisers in certain niches are going to have to reevalueate their marketing strategies and start to consider adding video to their marketing efforts since from the look of things the sponsored links for certain search phrases are going to be taking a 3rd place spot behind image, video and book search results.

On a side note, although the screen shot doesn't show it, after refreshing the page a few times I noticed that Google occasionally replace the image search results with premium AdWords ads, but most of the time the top spot had image ads.
Blog Comments and SEO

Blog Comments and SEO

Michael Martinez has some interesting things to say about blog comments and SEO on his SEO Theory blog, so I thought I'd express some thoughts here too. I haven't really updated this blog in a long time, but I thought now would be a good time to start, and that blog comments for SEO would be a good topic to write about.

First of all, leaving blog comments for SEO purposes is an OLD technique. In fact, it's pretty much played out. The only way to get direct SEO benefit from leaving blog comments is to leave them in massive volume. That requires software and robots and all kinds of nastiness that you're better off not messing with. And if you own a blog and have to approve the comments there, then you've seen literally hundreds if not thousands of blog comments that were put there solely for SEO purposes.

Here's a question for you: What is SEO if not a marketing technique?

Here's another question for you: Is pissing off dozens, maybe even hundreds or thousands of bloggers an effective marketing technique?

I daresay that it isn't.

If you want to participate in a discussion on a blog, then by all means, leave a comment. But don't do it because of any kind of SEO value that you're hoping to get. Comments that read, "This post gave me a lot to think about." aren't going to fool anyone. And the links you get from those kinds of comments are practically worthless anyway.

If you want to approach blog comments as part of your marketing strategy, then leave thoughtful comments that add to a discussion. Don't bother linking to your site or blog. Or if you do link, just use your name instead of using some lame anchor text like "Texas holdem online." If you write thoughtful and useful comments, people will search for your name and find your site without your having to leave a link.

You do have a page on your site that ranks in Google for your name, don't you?
How To Write 1000 Pages of Content

How To Write 1000 Pages of Content

In my last post (Does Google penalize affiliate websites?) I mentioned content rich versus content poor websites. Having a website that's rich in useful content is going to be a long term, smart strategy for getting traffic to your affiliate website via search engine optimization. (If I wrote the post well at all, then I made that point, among other things.) I don't think a website is "real" until it reaches 100 pages anyway.

Here are some reasons why having lots of content is an effective content and traffic strategy:
  • Sites with multiple pages of real content are more useful to a single visitor.
  • Sites with multiple pages cover multiple subjects and are more useful to a wider range of visitors.
  • Sites that are useful to lots of people are the kinds of websites search engines must rank in order to stay in business.
  • Internal links matter toward your SEO. So the more pages you write, the more links you have pointing at your other pages. (A 1000 page website which links to your homepage from every page has created 1000 links. There is no better link building strategy than writing content for your site.)
  • Multiple pages of content give you the opportunity to present different kinds of advertising and see which types of content make you the most money.
Webmasters who want to know how to write 1000 pages of content are concerned about two things:
  1. How do I come up with 1000 topics about this subject to write about?
  2. How do I actually get those 1000 pages written?
How to come up with 1000 topics on any given subject
1000 football pages


I like to boil the subject of any website I write down to a single word if I can. For example, I launched a website about football last year. Then I take that single word or phrase and add modifiers to it in order to create subtopics. One example of three no-brainer subtopics related to football is how the teams are set up:
That leaves 996 pages of content needed. Two more big subcategories I can think of really quickly are professional football and college football. (And if I wanted to, I could also use high school football as a subcategory.) But that still leaves me with 994 pages of content needed.

That's easy though, because I can subcategorize the category of professional football into 32 teams and give each team its own page. That only leaves me needing 962 more pages of content. (So I have a page about the Dallas Cowboys, a page about the Washington Redskins, a page about the Miami Dolphins, and so on.)

But I can also create a page of content about every college football team in the country. I haven't even started that list yet, but there are 119 college football teams I could write about too. (And finding a list of college football teams was as easy as doing a Google search for "how many college football teams in the USA".)

But that still leaves 843 pages of content needed. It seems like I haven't even scratched the surface.

But each of those subtopics have subtopics of their own. For example, I like to promote posters. So I've also created 32 pages (one for each NFL football team) for the posters that are available for each team. So I've got a hub page for NFL posters, and then pages for Baltimore Ravens posters, Chicago Bears posters, and Detroit Lions posters. Now we're down to 811 pages of content needed.

Another no-brainer subtopic for NFL teams is individual football players. We haven't gotten around to adding that content either, but each NFL team has 53 players on its roster. 53 X 32 teams = 1696 players. Bingo. Now we've got enough content ideas to build a 1000 page site (1885 pages actually). And we never once had to use a keyword research tool to come up with ideas for the pages. Those are all just topics and subtopics.

And a site about football could be expanded beyond that even. We could also write profiles of famous retired football players (likeTroy Aikman or Tony Dorsett). We could write about fantasy football. In fact, a lot of those subtopics might even generate 1000 page content sites all their own.

Finding affiliate programs to promote on a website about a particular sport is simplicity itself too. I already pointed out posters as one possibly applicable revenue stream. Here are some more ideas, off the top of my head:
  • Google Adsense
  • Ticket broker affiliate programs
  • Travel affiliate programs (Hotel rooms during the Superbowl are insanely priced - I'll take 5% of that action any day.)
  • Sports memorabilia affiliate programs
But what if you don't want to write about a sport? What if you want to launch a real moneymaker of a site? Suppose you want to focus on products?

1000 pages about satellite tv

Heck, that's even easier. Take the satellite tv dish niche as an example. How do you get 1000 pages of content out of that?

As far as I'm concerned, that one is even easier. Two words.

Go local.

Build pages that focus around the names of locations + "cable tv" or "satellite tv". There are 50 states in the USA. That leaves you with 950 pages to come up with.

Luckily each state has at least 19 cities in it you could write about. (There are actually a lot more than that.) Now you've got your 1000 pages.

But you can't write quality unique content about satellite dishes in 1000 different locations? Actually, I think you probably can with a little bit of effort. First of all, you provide directory listings with the names and addresses of the local cable companies in the area. Then you provide a price and feature comparison that you've researched for each location. Sometimes the cable company might be providing a better deal than the satellite dish people, but at least you're driving traffic. And if you use a combination of Google Adsense and affiliate advertising, you'll still make money. Finally, provide some insight into what kind of local television programming is available in a particular area. The top 20 or so cities in each state surely offer programming aimed directly at the viewers in their area.

What are you interested in?

If you're one of those blessed souls who wants to create a website about a subject just because you're interested in it, you can still come up with 1000 pages. Suppose you're a huge fan of the tv show Lost. Can you come up with 1000 pages of content about that show? I can.
  • A page about every character ever featured on the show.
  • A page about every actor who ever appeared on the show.
  • A page about every writer who ever wrote for the show.
  • A page about every episode of the show.
  • A page about every novel based on the show.
  • A page about the video game based on the tv show.
  • Reviews of other sites about Lost.
  • Pages about the special features and commentaries on the DVD.
Like Conan the Barbarian? Use the same thing - write a page about everything related to it. Harry Potter? Go for it. Buffy? It's been done, but maybe you can do it better.

Movies
Writing 1000 pages of content for a website about movies would be so easy that it would be almost painful. Just review every movie you've ever seen. Write profiles of directors and screenwriters you like. Build a directory of movie theaters organized by location. Visit them and write unique reviews. Ask your readers to submit their reviews of movie theaters they've visited.

You can monetize your movie site with Amazon links, eBay links, Netflix links, Blockbuster links, and AllPosters links.

How to find the time to write 1000 pages of content

Finding the time to write 1000 pages of content is the easiest part of the whole exercise. All you need is one of two things:
  • A year
  • Help
If you're willing to work on a site for a year, then you only need to write 4 pages of content 5 days a week for 50 weeks in order to have 1000 pages of content on your site. If you plan on having about 500 words per page, that's an achievable goal.

The other option is to get help writing your site content. You can do that by paying a writer. College students work cheap, and they produce better writing than the folks at Elance. Or you can get people to help write your content free by launching a forum. Every page of content on a forum counts too.

Whether or not your site needs 1000 pages of content is for you to decide. None of my sites have 1000 pages yet. But I think that 1000 pages is a worthwhile goal. I know it's a profitable goal, although it's more profitable in some niches than in others.