Blogging for Profit Using AdSense
Jun/090
This article is designed to teach you how to profit from blogging, writing to a website in the form of regular posts, without spending anything. The keys to this idea lie in two of Google’s programs, Blogger.com and AdSense.
The first obvious step is to find a niche. While it is possible to have a general interest blog, it may not be as profitable as targeting a specific subject (click here to read the logic behind targeted advertising).
Once you settled on a subject you like, its time to set up your blog. Blogger.com is great for beginners. Not only is it free (and free of ads, unlike most free hosting services), it has integrated support for AdSense (more on this later). For now, pick a suitable but catchy name and choose one of the pre-made designs.
Of course, now you have to start making posts to your blog. There are two main types of posts. The most common type of content on blogs seems to be commentary plus a link to the actual news source or website of interest. Then there are original content posts which will have others link to you (much like you do in your commentary posts). Either way, make sure its interesting to have readers coming back.
Now its time to apply for Google’s AdSense program. AdSense is a pay per click program which matches ads to the content of your page. Every time a visitor to your site clicks on one of these links, you receive a small amount of revenue (the minimum advertisers can bid for a link is $0.05, of which you receive a percentage. Many phrases can have bids as high as several dollars per click).
The content of your site determines what ads appear, and therefore how much you will ultimately make. The placement and appearance of ads, however, can have just as great an impact on how much you make.
There are a few tips for maximizing ad revenue. First, the appearance of the add itself is important. Google clearly labels all its units as advertising, but allows you to determine the colors of the links and the background. It is important that this match the look of your site. The more blatant an ad is, the more likely it is to turn off visitors. Just as important is the location of the ad units. They should appear on the top half of your page, and preferably on the left side. This insures the ad is viewed by most visitors.
Having covered the basics, its now time for you to experiment to discover what works best for your new blog. The best part is, it costs nothing to try.
Eight Simple Ways To Use Promotional Products Online
Jun/090
With the increase competition on the Internet, it can be hard to find ways to make your company seem different from everyone else. One thing I believe Internet marketers are failing to utilize correctly is promotional products.
Promotion products are every day items that are printed with your company logo, slogan, web site address, or any other message you want to promote. The first thing that comes to most people’s minds are printed t-shirts’ but there are many other items you can use to make your company stand out from the crowd.
The following are eight simple ways you can use promotional products on the Internet.
Promote Your Company’s Website
This is the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think of how they should use promotional products. But some people over look this. Every item you choose to promote your business should include your web site address on it.
Find Promotional Items That Fit Your Niche
You can always find certain items that will compliment your type of business – items that you know your customers will use often! For Example: If you sell bicycles, it would be a good idea to include a free water bottle that has your logo on it every time someone purchases a bicycle. If you have an online drug store, you could give away pill organizers with your sites name and web address printed on them.
Free Contests and Drawings
A great way to get more people to sign up for your newsletter is to hold monthly, weekly, or daily contest drawings. The winner of the drawing would receive a promotional product with your URL on it. Since everyone loves to win stuff, more people would be willing to give you their email address. And if you make the product something that relates to your business, the people who sign up are more likely to be targeted.
Motivate Customer to Buy More
You can use promotional products to entice your customers to buy more products than they normally would have. How? By bundling multiple products a long with a promotional item. For example, instead of your customer buying 1 ebook, you also offer them a package deal of two ebooks and a free promotional item.
The promotional product can even be something related to the products you’re bundling it with. If you’re selling weight loss information, why not use a ’step counter as a bonus? If you’re selling cookbooks, offer an apron. There are hundreds of products that you can put your logo on’ find one that compliments your products!
Reward Your Best Affiliates
Consider thanking your top affiliates by giving them a promotional product. This shows them that you truly appreciate the fact that they promote your products. You can send gifts to your affiliate partners when they reach a certain goal, or you can give gifts to your top affiliates during the holidays. By rewarding your affiliates, you build a stronger relationship with them. They will thank you by continuing to promote your business.
Thank Your Loyal Customers
Just like thanking your top affiliates, you should also consider thanking loyal customers. You can express gratitude to customers that repeatedly by your products, customers who buy your high-ticket items, or both! Promotional items remind your clients that the relationship you share with them is important to you.
Create a Competitive Advantage
Because of increased competition, it’s getting tougher than ever to compete online. You can use promotional items as a way to show your customers that you are different than your competitors. Instead of appearing as ‘just another company’, you can demonstrate that you are unique. When someone receives a promotional item from you they are more likely to remember you over your competition.
Promote a New Product
If you are launching a new product, you can capture your audience attention and publicize it by using promotional items. At the very least, you should send a promotional item to your top customers when a new product comes out. You might also want to consider sending items to your top affiliates too if you have a new product they can promote for you.
My goal is to get you to think of new ways to use promotional products. I hope you will implement some of the ideas I have laid out here and also brain storm different ways to use them. If used correctly, these little trinkets can help you say ahead of your competitors!
Online Advertising Primer
Jun/090
I sat down with a client recently and went through the steps involved in setting up an online advertising campaign. The first meeting was a bit slow as we spent the entire time going over the terminology associated with online ad campaigns. Here’s a sampling of what we had to cover before we could begin to work on the terms of the deal.
What types of ads are there? Everyone has heard of banners, and often that term is used for any online ad, but there’s more to it than that. The Interactive Advertising Bureau has laid down voluntary guidelines for ads (which they call Ad Units). These guidelines are widely followed and lay out clearly standards for sizes and formats for the variety of ads being used today, be they banners, buttons, skyscrapers, or other more exotic formats. Visit the IAB site to become fluent in the terminology of this realm. (www.iab.net)
What kinds of campaigns can you create? Ad campaigns are generally sold on the basis of either Impressions, Clicks, or Duration.
An Impressions Campaign: If you sign up for an Impressions Campaign you buy a set number of impressions or ‘views’ of the ads. An Impression occurs when a banner is downloaded to a web page and (presumably) seen by the visitor to the website. Accurate calculation of Impressions is difficult, but the important thing to remember is that the number of page views the site registers is not necessarily an accurate indicator of ad impressions. Some page views do not generate opportunities for a visitor to see you ad and accordingly you should not be charged according to that ‘gross’ number; rather, you should insist that certain page views are removed from the calculation. Specifically, make sure they do not count visits from spiders, pages that generated errors, or redirects. This concept is called ‘valid hits’ and that is what you want to be billed for.
A Click Campaign: This method of selling ads is performance based and is easier to measure and benchmark. Essentially, you only pay when someone clicks on the ad. This method of ad measurement is less prone to manipulation and therefore preferred by many advertisers. Clicks can be measured both from their ad tracking software and from your site traffic reports.
A Duration Campaign: Sometimes called a ‘Fixed Placement’, this type of campaign is based on the old fashioned model of buying a position on a page for a set period of time; say you want the ad at the top of page one for one month. It is a simple and easy to calculate approach to online advertising, but it is often impossible to arrange on active sites, which tend to use one of the two approaches outlined above.
How do you structure payment? Different campaign types use different payment models. While a Duration Campaign is likely to charge a flat fee, the two other types mentioned above use CPM and CPC.
CPM (Cost Per thousand): CPM is used for Impression Campaigns and represents the cost per thousand impressions. For example, a website that charges $5,000 per banner and guarantees 250,000 impressions has a CPM of $20 ($5,000 divided by 250). You banner will run until the 250,000 impressions are achieved, then it will be removed.
CPC (Cost Per Click): CPC is used for Click Campaigns and represents the amount you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Some programs, like Google’s AdWords, provide a bidding system where you bid for a position on the page in terms of the maximum you are willing to pay to appear in that position. The actual price you pay is not determined until the page is displayed and the various bids are taken into account. If you pay in advance, your ad runs until the number of clicks you purchased is achieved, then the ad is removed. If you are billed monthly, the total clicks for the month are tallied then the amount of the charges billed to you.
How do you measure success? While every firm has their own benchmarks for measuring performance, the two metrics described below are commonly used.
Click Through Rate (CTR): CTR is the rate at which visitors click on an advertisement. It is usually calculated as a percentage of the ad impressions. If you are doing 0.2% or higher, you are doing well.
Conversion Rate: This metric refers to the rate at which users complete a sale or registration once they reach your site. Calculating conversion rates can be a bit of an art form, but if you tie your ads to pages that give clear links to the action you desire the visitor to take, for example registration for a newsletter or site membership, you can benchmark this with some accuracy.
Of course there is much more to the world of online advertising then this short list, but at least it is start. Online advertising has been growing up fast and it is now possible to find people who are fluent in buying for this media. Shop around and find a professional and you will benefit in the long run.