The Power of Blogging

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Blogging is a free and effective internet marketing opportunity that can take your business to the next level.

The Power of Blogging:

1. The Internet is known as the information super highway because Internet users are seeking information. Blogging allows you to be a provider of information. Demonstrate your expertise in your field or niche. Blogging enables you share your knowledge and experience with others.

2. Blogging gives you a platform to introduce your products, services, and/or business to people interested in what you have to say and what you are doing.

3. Blogging daily increases your search engine rankings, making it easier for people to find you.

4. Blogging increases website traffic and backlinks to your website.

5. Blogging creates opportunities to establish credibility, gain referrals, communicate, network, establish dialog, and get valuable feedback. A blog is like your own online community and you are the center of influence. Being an influential blogger opens doors of opportunity for joint ventures and additional streams of income. As your blog grows so will the opportunities.

The Law of Opportunity- Your greatest possibilities will often come from the most common situations around you. Your biggest opportunity probably lies under your own feet…-Brian Tracy

Blogging is an opportunity in which the possibilities are endless. Use the power of blogging. Start blogging today.

Using Social Networking Websites to Promote Your Business

The goal of business owners is to make money. This often results with the selling of a
particular product or service. However, to sell that product or service business owners
need to alert the general public. Customer cannot buy a product or a service if they do
not know that it exists. That is why, as a business owner, you need to advertise your
business.

When it comes to advertising there are many business owners who literally cringe. Are
you doing this now? There is a good chance that you are because many advertising
methods cost money. As a business owner you want to make money not spend it, right?
Unfortunately, if you believe that all forms of advertising take money, you are sadly
mistaken. Although you may have to spend money to make your business what you
want it to be, there are ways to promote your business and the products or services that
you sell without having to spend any money at all.

Is your curiosity peaked yet? There is a good chance that it is, rightfully so. One of the
ways that you can promote your online business, without having to spend a dime, is by
using something that is readily available online. That thing is an online social networking
website. A large number of Internet users, in fact millions of them, belong to at least one
social networking website.

When it comes to social networking, there are many individuals who think of online
friendships or online relationships. While these types of relationships are the most
common, did you know that social networking is also used for businesses? In fact, that
was originally how social networking got started. If you are a small business owner,
especially one that operates an online business, there is a way that you can use social
networking sites to your advantage.

Although social networking websites are traditionally focused on those that would like to
make online friends or develop online relationships, there are networking sites that are
designed for business owners. These websites will not only allow you to share your
business information with other business owners, but it will also allow you to develop
close relationships with those that share an interest that is similar to yours. Essentially,
this means that you could not only learn valuable business information, but you could
also walk away with a new business partner or a new friend.

As previously mentioned, social networking websites with a focus on businesses, are a
great way to promote your business. However, this does not mean that you should
completely forget about the other online social networking websites, the ones that are
designed to make online friendships.

If you are looking to join an online community, you will need to create your own profile or
profile page. If you are planning on joining a traditional social networking website, to gain
access to millions of potential new customers, you are urged to be careful when making
your online webpage or profile.

One thing that Internet users hate is being solicited for
business. This does not mean that you cannot use social networking to your advantage;
it just means that you need to be careful with how you do it. Instead of creating a
MySpace page or a Yahoo! 360 page for your business, you are advised to make one
for yourself, but, of course, you will want to include information on your business.
By joining a social networking website, especially one that is popular and has a large
number of members, you should be able to generate interest in your business, including
the products or services that you sell. Who knows, but that interest generated could turn
into sales; thus making your social networking experience more than worth it.

YAHOO ANSWERS

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YAHOO! ANSWERS TRAFFIC GUIDE

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One of the easiest ways to generate traffic to your website is often one of the most overlooked methods as well, Yahoo Answers. Not only is it a simplified method of driving targeted traffic to your site, it is also absolutely free to use.

This strategy will be broken down for you in a step-by-step format, making it easy for you to incorporate this technique into your own marketing efforts. You’ll quickly discover just how incredibly powerful this tactic is when you begin to analyze your traffic and see just how much Yahoo Answers is directing your way.

And for those who might be wondering whether Yahoo Answers has a large enough user base to yield a worthwhile response, here is what Yahoo Answers has to say:

With more than 21 million unique users in the U.S. and 90 million worldwide, Yahoo! Answers is the largest knowledge-sharing community on the Web.

Is that big enough for you? If so, let’s get started!

Step One: Open a Yahoo Answers Account

You will need a Yahoo Answers account to be able to answer open questions. To create your account visit:

http://answers.yahoo.com

You will be able to create your account using your current Yahoo messenger account if you already have an ID:

Step Two: Complete Your Profile

Once you have created a Yahoo Answers account and are logged in, you will be able to create or edit your profile. You should take a few minutes to fill out as much as information as you would like to share and then save your information.

You can choose to allow Yahoo Answer members to contact you via messenger, or keep this information private. You can also enable “email contact” if you would like to receive comments via email, or you can choose to disable all contact other than through the questions that you answer.

When you edit your profile it is recommended that you add a photo or customize an avatar. It’s important to brand yourself and this is an easy way to make your profile more memorable as your photo will appear within your answers.

Step Three: Familiarize Yourself With Yahoo Answers

From the main Yahoo Answers page you will see categories listed on the left hand side. This is where questions are posted and grouped according to their subject matter. This is also where you will go when choosing the different types of questions that you would like to answer, and depending on the niche markets that you are involved in, you might find yourself answering a variety of questions from different categories and groups.

Before you start answering questions you should have an idea of what you plan to promote. That way you can find questions that are relevant to the website that you wish to advertise via the Yahoo Answers website.

Each time you answer a question, you can include a “SOURCE” in a secondary box that accompanies your response. This is an easy way to promote your websites and direct people to find out more information about the topic of their question.

You should also browse previously answered questions so that you can get a feel for the way other people have answered and addressed different questions, paying attention to those answers that were selected as being the “TOP” response.

As you begin answering questions, you may run into a series of questions that are no longer open. Here is a breakdown of the life cycle of a question from the time it is first posted:

Questions that are “Resolved” are typically closed from receiving future follow ups while questions that are marked “Undecided” have not yet received a “TOP” vote.

Questions are open for only four days but the original poster can extend the period for a few extra days or if a question has been resolved, they can close it before that time period has ended.

It’s important to answer questions as thoroughly as you can and avoid spamming your websites within your answers. In fact, there are few times where including your website URL within the answer is acceptable at all. If those viewing your response feel that it is spam you will not receive votes and your answer may be removed entirely. Therefore, you should try to keep your websites within the “Source” box only. Those who liked your answer are likely to follow your link to find out more especially if you are careful to answer questions that pertain to your niche market.

Start Promoting!

Due to the large number of people answering questions every minute of the day, it is important that you are quick when responding to open questions. As mentioned above, you must also do your best to answer the question as thoroughly as possible and be sure to address the person who posted the question by name (whenever possible). This has been known to increase your chances of being voted as “best answer” since the original poster feels that you are taking your time to address them personally.

Quick Tip: There is a built in spell checker available. Use it whenever possible to minimize spelling errors.

Remember that the ultimate goal is to be selected as the best answer (Top Answer) because the more often you are selected the more exposure your answer, profile and website will receive.

The Points System

As a member of Yahoo Answers you will earn points for each question that you answer. You will also discover that there are limits on the number of questions that you can answer each day until you build up your levels.

Here is a breakdown of the different levels that you can reach depending on the amount of points you receive every day. (For the first week you will be focusing on building up your levels so that you can answer more questions by increasing your daily limit. Those who reach Level 4 can answer an unlimited number of questions every day.

When you start out you begin at Level 1. You are able to answer 20 questions every day at this level. In the first day it is possible for you to earn 140+ points by answering 20 questions and you will earn more for every answer that is selected as the ‘top choice’.

You will be able to view your Points and Level on the main page of Yahoo Answers (on the right hand side) under your name:

Here is an overview of how the points are accumulated.

When you begin answering questions you should focus on targeting your main niche until your levels increase and you are able to answer as many questions as you like. That way, you can start driving traffic to your site right away, despite being limited to only 20 questions a day.

Locating Specific Niche Related Questions

To find niche-specific questions that are still open for answering, click on the “Advanced Search” link to get started. You will find this at the top of the Yahoo Answers website once you are logged in.

Once you have loaded up the Advanced Search page you will be able to enter in keywords that are relevant to your niche market. You can also minimize any time wasted by being certain to only search for questions that are still open for answering.

Enter in you’re a specific keyword that best describes your niche and set the “Keyword Match” to “Questions” as you are searching for questions to answer right away.

Next, choose “ALL” when selecting your categories as sometimes questions may appear throughout different groups.

Be sure to filter out the questions so that you are searching only for questions in your primary language unless you are able to understand and respond in alternative languages.

And finally be sure to set the status of your search so that it generates a list of “Open Questions” only. There is no sense in searching for questions that have been resolved (or are closed) from receiving additional responses.

Once you have completed this step you will generate a search results page that includes multiple un-answered questions found using your keyword(s).

In my example search, I requested the search engine to find open questions relating to “Wordpress”.

Here is what was found:

By targeting the keyword “Wordpress”, 52 un-answered questions are available to me.

To begin answering questions, simply click on the links to load up the “Question and Answer” page.

By answering questions that target my niche market and including a website that provides additional information about the question that I am answering I can easily generate traffic to my site in a few minutes, the time it takes for me to successfully answer the question. Even if my answer does not end up being chosen as the “top” answer, I can still generate traffic just by using the “Source” box.

Remember as well that Yahoo is the most popular search engine, outranking even Google.

By answering recent questions rather than digging through older ones you are ensuring that your website receives traffic not only from the Yahoo Answer center (and those who view your answer from within that section) but also from the Yahoo search engine as well!

Quick Tips To Top Traffic

Tip #1: Focus on answering recent questions, posted within the first three hours.

Tip #2: Always post a relevant website link in the Source box using a URL that sounds similar to the topic.

(example: If I was answering a question regarding weight loss, I would create a landing page specific to that niche and include it in the source box: yourdomain.com/weight_loss_tips.html)

Tip #3: Answer questions as thoroughly as you can. The more specific you are with your answers, the better chance you have of being selected as the top choice.

Tip #4: After your limits are raised and you are able to answer more questions each day, start answering questions regardless of when they were posted (older ones are fine at this point). Every answer you submit will be included in Yahoo’s search engine results page regardless of how old the original question was.

Tip #5: Be sure to include your keyword (that you are optimizing for) in your answer as best as you can. You can also add your URL (using a href tag) but if you do this incorrectly and your answer reeks of spam, you will not be chosen as the top answer and in some cases your answer may be removed completely.

Tip #6: It isn’t just Yahoo’s search engine that will pick up your answers (and links). Google may also spider your answers and give you credit for a back-link to be sure to answer as many questions as you can each day, until you reach your limit.

Tip #7: Stick with it. Building an impressive portfolio and developing your back-links takes time but if you create a strategy where you are answering questions on a daily basis, incorporating your keywords into your answers and linking to your websites within the source boxes you will see results relatively quickly.

The more effort you put into answering questions thoroughly and being chosen as the top answer the more traffic your website will receive. Always keep this mind when you are answering questions.

While quantity is important, so is quality!

Tip #8: Since you are answering questions across a variety of categories and niche markets, be sure that you know enough about the subject to provide a helpful response.

If you answer a question incorrectly, your credibility will wear down. It is important that you focus on answering questions relating to topics that you are familiar with. If you are unsure about a question take a few minutes to research the correct answer before posting. It is not possible to edit your answers once they are published!

There have been times where I was unsure of the correct answer to a question but I was slowly getting involved in the niche and wanted to direct people to a landing page where I was showcasing a product via an affiliate link. I took a few minutes to search out the answer and posted it, only after I was certain it was correct. It resulted in my answer being selected as the “Best Answer” and a nice comment from the original poster:

And one word of caution; Once you begin to receive positive ratings and feedback you’ll find Yahoo Answers quite addictive!

Tip #9: Don’t underestimate the power of custom landing pages. Instead of directing people to the main page of your website, creating specific pages where you can lead people to find out more information, while sticking to the topic or subject that you are answering. This way you will avoid confusing your visitors who are simply looking for additional information about specific topics.

Tip#10: Points & More Points
You will receive points for answering questions (2 points per answer), 10 points for being selected as the best answer and an additional point for every answer you vote on. When you are building your levels it is important to collect as many points as you can so by voting on answers submitted by other people you are able to generate more points quickly, however you must be a LEVEL 2 to be able to vote on answers, so do your best to get to that level as soon as possible.

As you begin to earn points and answer more questions, you will become a top contributor and a badge will appear near your avatar picture. Once you are a top contributor you will be selected more often as the “best answer” and more people will view your answers, profile and your websites.

Use The Answers To Build Your Website

As a Yahoo Answers contributor you will begin to see a pattern emerge where the same types of questions are being asked over and over again. This is a great way to learn about the current topics that people are interested in and if you are clever enough to see the value in this, you can utilize these topics to create interesting blog posts that will capture attention and receive comments.

You can take it a step further and write articles based on the questions that you review. Submit these articles to EzineArticles.com and other directories to generate even more traffic. It’s an easy way to research various niche markets and see just what people are interested in or needing help with!

To make things easier, you can choose to keep track of specific questions that you plan to address by clicking on the “SAVE” option under each question. You can save it to your RSS feeder or to your private watch-list.

Be The First, Every Time

One quick technique that will help you answer more questions before others is to subscribe to the RSS feed available through Yahoo!. You will receive a listing of recently asked questions that are still open and available to be answered, and best of all, these questions will be related to your chosen niche markets!

Here’s how to set this up:

Go to the “Advanced Search” page as discussed earlier. Search for your specific keywords (primary ones that best describe your niche) and view the results page from your search.

At the very bottom of the page in the left hand corner, you will see the option to add that search query in your RSS reader, as shown below:

Once you have added this feed to your RSS reader, you will receive updates of new questions relating to your niche market (based on the keywords you just entered).

This makes it easy to be the first to answer new questions!

Repeat this process selecting keywords for each niche market that you are involved in and wish to receive notifications of.

Daily Tasks:

Every day, log into your Yahoo Answers account and view the open questions from the different categories or use the advanced tool to search for more specific questions based on keywords.

Answer the questions that are posted via the feeds.

Build landing pages that you can include in the source box with every question that you answer. Once you have designed a landing page for each niche market, you will always have a place to refer people to based on the subject of the question you are answering.

You should also take the time to create multiple pages for each niche so that if you answer a lot of questions in the same category you can direct your traffic to various places on your website. Writing articles relating to the niches that you are involved in is the best way to generate traffic and continue to address different topics on your website.

One easy way to categorize your articles or create new topics on your website for different questions you answer is by installing a WordPress blog and organizing topics into groups. This way whenever you answer a new question or you find that certain questions are continuously asked, you can create a category on your blog for these specific topics in the event that your blog covers a wide variety of topics.

Tip: Purchase a domain that is generic, so that you can create a multi-topic blog. This will make it easier to direct people to the same website without having to create multiple blogs or purchasing multiple domain names.

Create A Yahoo Swipe File

By creating a swipe file of previously answered questions you will be able to cut and paste your answers and cover more ground. Be sure to modify your answers whenever required so that the person posting the question believes you have answered it exclusively for them.

While this is a time-saver and a method used by a lot of Yahoo Answers marketers, be careful not to simply paste the same answer repeatedly. Every question is different and you need to ensure that you modify to your answer or change it up a bit from time to time, depending on the nature of the question.

Cover Multiple Niche Markets Easily

If you are involved in multiple niche markets, you might benefit from creating multiple Yahoo Answer accounts. This will also help you answer more questions each day under different accounts while building up levels on all of them.

By creating multiple Yahoo Answer accounts you can also create different characters, (men/woman, parents, single men, divorced, etc) which will lend credibility when you are answering questions in different categories.

Yahoo Answers allows multiple accounts so you don’t have to worry about breaking any rules, however voting for your own answers or point gaming is not allowed.

To make sure that you are familiar with the rules, you should read the Community Guidelines overview:

http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines.php

In the meantime, have fun with Yahoo Answers. It can be a very enjoyable and rewarding experience and an easy way to generate targeted traffic to your website. Just be sure to log in every day and build up your levels. The quicker you reach a level where you are able to answer an unlimited number of questions the more exposure you will receive.

To your success!

Additional Resources:
If Yahoo Answers isn’t enough for you, here are a few other communities that you may enjoy:

Answer Bag: http://www.answerbag.com

Yedda: http://www.Yedda.com

Social Media Resources

For a list of Social Networks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

For a list of Social Bookmarking Sites:

http://www.arsenalmarketing.com/blog-marketing/social-bookmarking-list-over-120-sites-with-page-rank

For a list of Popular Widgets to add to your WordPress blog:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

For hundreds of great free WordPress Templates:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/

http://www.web2themes.com/portfolio/

Social Marker

http://www.socialmarker.com

This resource is perfect for:
*For those who want a useful web application that allows them to easily and quickly create one way backlinks for all their posts
*For those desiring an easy approach to bookmarking content on social marketing sites

How to Quickly and Effectively Manage Your Daily Social Bookmarking, 9 page report on social bookmarking

http://www.internetmarketingformommies.com/downloads/QuickEasyBookmarking.pdf

This resource is perfect for:
*Those who want insights in how to establish a daily step by step routine for creating backlinks through social bookmarking
*Those who want links to 50 great social media websites where one can bookmark their site

Butterfly Reports
By Mike Filsaime

http://www.butterflyreports.com/go

This membership site, including a free option, is perfect for:
*Those who want to share and publish branded content
*Those who want to obtain brandable viral reports complete with affiliate links
*Those who want to tap into a membership community of 10,000+ people to share and market their reports

Video Promotion

For referenced article on Viral Video Creation & Promotion:

http://www.warwagonblog.com/internet-marketing/how-to-create-a-viral-video/

To create videos off your live computer desktop (to show you moving through a document, powerpoint presentation, website, etc.)
www.camtasia.com

Viral Video Secrets
Len Foley

http://www.viralvideosecrets.com/free/

These reports are perfect for:
*Those who want to tie into the power of viral videos for both themselves and their clients
*Those who want step-by-step templates that go from idea to finished video product
*Those seeking ideas on how to get upwards of 10,000 to 800,000 hits in an extremely short time

Digital Juice Video tutorials (as recommended by Armand Morin)
Digital Juice sells video clips but it has some great video tutorials as a resource to help its clients become more comfortable with the video process

http://www.digitaljuice.com/djtv/default.asp

These videos are perfect for:
*Those who want training on how to use video techniques and technology
*Those who desire to become more comfortable with video promotion including recommended software and hardware
*Those who want to gain knowledge of the process/lingo used for video production so as to act as a middle man for one’s client

Tube Me Some Traffic, (38 page ebook, you can get a rebrandable, resalable version for $9)
By John Millard

http://www.newbie-faqs.com/youtubetraffic/THANKS-EBOOK.htm

This ebook is perfect for:
*hose who want training on how to get started using YouTube
*Those who want to discover how best to use YouTube to drive traffic to their sites
*Those who want added video production details like using URLs in the video, maximizing exposure for videos, and ideas on creating tutorial videos to sell product
*Those who want to use YouTube to promote their consulting business
*Those who want important tips and techniques for getting the best out of YouTube

Create Music Intros & Outros For Podcasts & Audio

http://www.topsecretriches.com/Impact-Web-Audio-Resell.zip

This lets you wrap your audio tracks in front and back music, upload it to your site, and have professional sounding web audio. This is a rare site in which you don’t have to pay monthly fees. There are also tons of cool features here, such as 12 professional background loops, will stream live, you can record or upload audio, there’s fade in/out music, auto play feature, can play multiple files on one page, hundreds of colors and buttons and sizes. You can also JUMP to a URL after audio plays.

How to Correctly Use Audio & Video

http://www.top-secret-riches.com/avr.html

Social Promotion

Social Media Daily

http://www.socialmediadaily.com/

This blueprint is perfect for:
*Those interested in promoting client sites using Web 2.0 tactics such as “going grassroots, leveraging peer to peer sharing, and practicing buzz building”.
*Those interested in references that even a beginner can understand
*Those wanting solid search engine optimization principles working together with principles of Web 2.0 traffic generation.

Stompernet
By Andy Jenkins
http://www.stompernet.net/smartsreport/pdfdownload.asp (ebook)
http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural2/ (video)
These resources are perfect for:
*Those who want a lot of great free content about social marketing media. These resources are chock full of information from a well respected source.
*Those who want some of the best buzz on how to position oneself or one’s client using social marketing practices and resources

DOSH DOSH

http://www.doshdosh.com/

This blog is perfect for:
*Those who want a great blog dedicated to promoting social website information and best practices
*Those interested in being kept up to date on all the latest social buzz

Attention Age Doctrine
By Rich Schefren
Part 2 – http://www.strategicprofits.com/doctrinenew/
Part 1 – http://www.surefirewealth.com
These reports are perfect for:
*Those interested in learning more about the new paradigm that leverages attention through Web 2.0 resources
*Those exploring how Web 2.0 tactics bring better search engine rankings and traffic then PPC and SEO
*Those interested in accessing what one of today’s top Internet Marketers has to say about maintaining the attentive focus of one’s customers through the use of Web 2.0/social media sites.

StumbleUpon

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What Is StumbleUpon.com?

StumbleUpon is a popular social bookmarking community, owned by eBay that is used by thousands of people all over the world. As a member of StumbleUpon, you are able to rate websites, video clips, articles, photos and more. Members within the community are known as ‘stumblers’, and they highlight websites that they have frequented by clicking on the “Stumble!” button that is located in the toolbar of their browser.

The more ‘stumbles” a website receives, the more popular it becomes throughout the StumbleUpon community, and in turn, the more traffic it will experience from the constant exposure of new Stumbles.

In essence, StumbleUpon is a recommendation-based system powered by the members who visit websites and decide which ones are worthy of a notable stumble.

There is also a one-click blogging ability built in as well. Users can rate, or choose not to rate, any webpage with thumbs up or thumbs down options.

Clicking the Stumble button resembles “channel-surfing” the web with a series of websites in a system rotation of sorts. In addition, there are tool-bars available for those who wish to simplify their “stumbling” by implementing an existing toolbar into their browser. Then, with just a single click they can rate the websites they visit.

They can also provide a personal review on your website and categorize it based on the subject matter, all within a few seconds of visiting a site.

To get started, you will have to create a Stumble Upon account:

Create Your StumbleUpon account at:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/sign_up.php

Currently, there are tool-bars available for Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

As soon as you have created your StumbleUpon account, you will be given the option to download the toolbar. I suggest doing so.

Once you have it installed, you will see a button that will allow you to stumble (highlight for others to view), sites based on your selected preferences and options as indicated in your StumbleUpon account profile.

Just visit your website and click on the “I Like It!” button (with the Thumbs Up icon) that appears in your browser toolbar. This will open a pop-up window that allows you to rate it, and categorize your site, with a short description and tag with specific keywords.

Once you do this, your site will be entered into StumbleUpon’s database instantly, and will appear when other users with similar interests (as the tags you use) use their StumbleUpon toolbar to surf the Internet.

Not Seeing The Pop Up Rating Box?

When you, yourself Stumble Upon a new site that hasn’t been found or rated before, and you click on the “I Like It!” button, the pop up window will appear. If you rate a site that already exists in the Stumble Upon database, this window will not appear although you can still rate the site and you can also see what other Stumblers have found and rate it as well.

How Can StumbleUpon Benefit Me?

If you are looking to send a surge of traffic to a new website or blog, Stumbleupons advertising options may be a lucrative and easy way to achieve instant results.

StumbleUpon Ads allows webmasters to submit a page on their sites or blogs that is shown to StumbleUpon users as they stumble through a series of websites. It has quickly become a popular choice for bloggers who wish to advertise their new blogs, as the traffic received is purely organic, the best type of traffic you can get.

The cost is also quite reasonable at just 5 cents per impression, meaning, for as little as $5.00 in advertising credit, you can receive 100 Stumble Upon users visit and review your website.

It’s also an easy advertising vehicle, in fact, it doesn’t even require you to manually create advertisements, but instead, you simply select a website URL that you would like the traffic directed to.

Advertising with StumbleUpon is also quite flexible. You can target your pages to be seen throughout specific categories, or base it on demographics. This enables you to really target who sees specific pages .

As for price setting, you can choose your maximum daily spending limit, to ensure that you stay within your intended budget, and best of all, you can pay using either a credit card or via Paypal, if you choose.

Note: If you are particularly careful when creating your ad campaigns and target your visitors as best as you can, expect to receive a lot more traffic then you actually paid for. The more people who like your website when they visit (and therefore “Stumble! – it”) the more traffic you will continue to get, at no extra cost. Therefore, be careful when targeting specific categories, groups or demographics.

As an advertiser, you will be given full stats including a visible chart on how many visitors actually viewed your website, how many gave you a “Thumbs Up!” (or down) and so on. This helps you test the effectiveness of your ad-copy and modify if needed.

It’s truly a great source of traffic. In fact, traffic is quite long term. I am still receiving traffic for web pages that I stumbled weeks ago.

How Popular Is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is growing at a rapid pace (currently over 3,000,000 members), and considering eBay and Google were in a bidding war to obtain the site, you might say it’s rather popular.

However, the potential for targeted, organic and steady traffic with StumbleUpon is quite under-estimated, especially by newer bloggers who aren’t aware of just how feasible social networks like StumbleUpon really is.

Don’t make the same mistake. An ad campaign doesn’t have to have loads of activity to become a popular choice by Stumblers. All you need are a handful of “Thumbs Up” to reach hundreds of visitors.

The key is to focus on designing your website so that it attracts your Stumbler visitors within the first few seconds of their landing on your page. Sometimes, that’s all the time you have to make an impression and encourage them to vote for you, or to return to your site.

Here are some tips that will help you capture their attention:

Tip #1: Clearly Define Your Blogs Subject Matter

You need to be clear about the subject matter of your blog. If your blog looks cluttered, or has too many categories, it could confuse the visitor and end up costing you a vote. Be exceptionally clear about what your blog is about. If your visitor can see exactly what your blog is about within the first few minutes of visiting, they are more likely to stay and look around, not to mention return to your site.

Tip #2: Eye Candy

Every aspect of your blog is important, especially the header. That is one of the first things your visitors see. Make sure it is crisp and attractive. If you are unable to create a customized header yourself, hire a graphic designer to do it for you – it’s THAT important.

This also goes with your blog’s theme template. You want one that actually represents the subject of your blog but is also attractive and professional. Don’t use the theme that comes by default with your blog, take the time to scout out an alternative replacement so that your blog appears to be unique.

Tip #3: Content Is King

Don’t start advertising your blog until you have enough content to justify a visit. You want your visitor to spend as much time on your site as possible, so be sure to include at least a few categories and at least two weeks worth of content, to start.

Tip #4: Pretend You Have A Captive Audience

Be sure to put your best effort into your blog. Even while you might feel as though you are talking to yourself when you first create your blog (and most likely you are), remember that every article, every bit of content that you publish must be interesting to those in your niche.

Do not skip this by plugging in saturated PLR articles that you purchased somewhere. Take the time to write your own stuff, people WILL notice the difference.

If you follow these tips you WILL increase your chances of having a successful advertising campaign with StumbleUpon. Taking the time to create the best blog possible will indicate to your Stumbler-Visitors that your blog is a useful resource that is both informative and unique. If they feel they can get the same information elsewhere, why would they stay at your site?

Tip #5: Copy From Those That “Do”

Check out what types of headlines the most popular sites in your niche market are using and simply design your headline to use a similar style.

Don’t Just Pay For Traffic – Earn It

You don’t want to continuously purchase traffic via StumbleUpon that should never be your ultimate goal. Instead, you should utilize the advertising services there to jumpstart your blog traffic with the goal being to encourage Stumblers to vote for you, which will in turn, push other visitors to your site, for free.

Some bloggers fail to do this and end up paying for traffic longer than they would need to, if they just focused on creating a useful blog. Even though the advertising costs are lower than typical PPC campaigns, you can save a ton of cash if you make your blog worthy of a stumble.

Set your blog in motion and watch the traffic continue to pour in, day after day!

Catch Them Before The Next Stumble

Since stumblers are similar to television channel surfers, you might not be able to hold their attention for long, no matter how compelling or interesting your content may be. To get the most out of their visit, offer a subscription form on your site where you offer a free report, eCourse, something – Anything – to encourage them to leave their information.

That way, you can work on growing your list as well as growing your site.

Your subscription box should be placed in a highly visible area of your blog. You should also utilize graphics, or compelling headlines to make sure it’s noticed.

Take Baby Steps

Don’t spend a ton of cash on your first StumbleUpon ad campaign, instead, test your ad copy with just a small spend. Once you see it working, you can increase your daily budget.

Be sure to pay attention to the available stats to determine how many people voted for your site and continuously tweak it for the best performance you can get out of it. Testing isn’t fun but it’s important because you want to get the most votes you can. Once you are consistently receiving votes, you will start receiving a flood of organic traffic and when that happens, be prepared to pause your campaign before you purchase traffic for nothing.

What To Avoid

Some bloggers believe that sending Stumblers to the very front page of their blog is the best choice, when advertising with StumbleUpon. I would suggest that instead; create a landing page specifically for each campaign. If Stumblers have to seek out solid content, they’ll be gone before you know it, assuming it’s a paid advertisement or sales pitch.

Solution:
Choose a thread or page that carefully relates to your specific group of visitors (using categories and demographics), and choose a post that you feel is absolutely compelling. Make it spicy, entertaining, controversial, whatever you have to do to make that page stick and become ‘viral’.

Also remember to add your sites to StumbleUpon by creating an ‘alias’ account and Stumbling onto your own pages, after first checking to see if they have already been Stumbled.

You can check by visiting:

http://reviews.stumbleupon.com/

No Ads

Do not fill your landing page with banner ads, text ads or any ads whatsoever other than perhaps Adsense, but be careful with that as well. As a Stumbler myself, if I come across a website that looks like Adsense is their primary content provider, I will not stay there and might even consider giving it a “Thumbs Down”.

Inappropriate Categories

Make sure if you “Stumble” your own websites that you choose the appropriate categories to put them under. Remember when people stumble onto sites and rate them, they are given the option to categorize them based on the subject matter. If you incorrectly categorize your website, it will get poor reviews from visitors feeling cheated or misdirected.

You’re A Stumbler, Not A Salesmen

Make sure that your writing is personable and friendly. Do not come across as a salesmen, Stumblers aren’t out looking for things to buy, you need to earn that by first capturing their attention and drawing them in deeper. This is why I suggest writing articles instead of directing them to your front page. You need to GIVE them something, make them feel that they are benefiting by rating your site and returning to it.

How can I convert a Stumbler into a regular visitor?

One thing you will need to understand right from the start, is that you lose the majority of “Stumbler visitors” once they have reviewed your front page.

That being said, StumbleUpon can send you SO much traffic that even if a small percentage are converted into subscribers or regular visitors, it more than makes up for it.

Here is how you can increase your chances of obtaining new regular visitors and opt-in subscribers using Stumble Upon.

Tip #1) Make certain you have an RSS button AND an opt-in email subscription box visible on your landing page. Don’t clutter it into some side-bar that is difficult to see, make sure it’s upfront and center, surrounded around good, solid content.

Also, because a lot of visitors will be scrollers, make sure to have a link to your opt-in box towards the bottom of your landing page as well.

Tip #2) Implore a Call For Action

Either direct them to a product or service using a cloaked affiliate link, send them through a CPA offer, send them to another one of your websites, articles, or blogs – just be sure to prompt them to take action.

Don’t leave them wondering what to do next.

Tip #3) If possible, and you have created a customized landing page for your StumbleUpon advertising, personalize it by mentioning StumbleUpon on your page. For example:

“Stumbled Across Any Decent Sites Today?”

They’ll love it, and feel you are part of the community and not just some advertiser. This will increase your conversion rate significantly.

Recommended Free Resource:

I would also strongly suggest, that if you use WordPress you consider installing the plugin, “What Would Seth Godein Do?”. It’s a plug-in that encourages all new website visitors to subscribe to your feed.

You can get it here

Tip #4) Everyone Loves Contests

Create a contest on your landing page. Who doesn’t love the chance to win a free digital product, cash, service, etc? Have them opt-into your subscription box to be entered into your draw. This is an easy way to convert one-time traffic into repeat visitors who want to find out more about the contest or receive updates.

Getting Traffic From StumbleUpon At No Cost

SureFire Method #1

Multiple Accounts For Multiple Niches

You should always have one account for each niche market that you intend to target (example, one account for fitness, one account for health, etc). There are also categories that you can pre-select using StumbleUpon and this is critical for the type of niches that you would like to obtain traffic from. You will need a unique username (which is an email address) for each StumbleUpon account that you create.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you are logged into one StumbleUpon account and you attempt to create another, you will receive a warning advising you that you may lose your original account by creating multiple accounts, so be sure to log out of one account before creating a new one.

Sure-Fire Method #2

Copy Already Successful Stumbled Sites

If you look on a person’s favorite website list you can see what people have recommended in the past. Use that to your advantage! You won’t see a lot of squeeze pages or one page sales letters. Check it out for yourself and see the types of landing pages that are popular and are highly recommended by other members.

Then, create your landing page with the same style or layout.

Sure-Fire Method #3

This is a great way to build your list quickly and people are already doing this on places like YouTube with great results. To start, create a short video teaser clip and call it Part One, with a link that indicates in order to see Part Two, they need to enter their name and email address into your opt-in form.

Try it out and see how fast you build your list =)

Sure-Fire Method #4

StumbleUpon allows you to join groups and choose friends with similar interests. Be certain to only add friends who are interested in your niche market!

For instance, if you are promoting a Health related blog, you should only add friends who have similar interests listed, since you are able to recommend they visit the sites you stumble (and of course, you are going to Stumble your own =)

Joining a few groups relating to your subject matter is a great way to obtain instant traffic to your blog. Look for the larger, more popular groups.

Remember, the more friends you have, the more traffic your website will receive, since the more people will view your recommendations and visit your listed sites, but if you want TARGETED traffic (and you should) choosing only those within your niche categories is the only thing that makes sense.

Warning: Be Careful With The Friends You Add!

StumbleUpon restricts the number of friends each of your accounts can have, currently it is a 250 maximum limit, therefore be sure to only add friends from categories that serve your niche market.

Make Money With StumbleUpon:

You can make easy money with StumbleUpon and CPA offers. You can also build your list quickly this way.

Locate good solid CPA offers, and then write interesting articles about the product, prompting them to take action by clicking on your CPA link. I have found that building articles that are focused on “How To” guides, or “Lists (example: Five Sure-fire Ways To Get Traffic, Ten Super-Charged Methods Of Building Profitable Blogs, etc) work best.

Also, limit the number of links on your article page so that the only links visible are ones that will lead them to an offer where you get paid.

What To Expect:

How many visitors you get will depend on the way you have created your landing page, but on average, expect to receive between 100-8000 daily unique visitors.

STUMBLE EXCHANGES

There are StumbleUpon related exchange programs available where you can create a free account and exchange ‘stumbles’ with other members (you stumble their site, they stumble yours).

http://www.stumblexchange.com

http://www.linkyme.com/faststumbles/

http://www.avuw.com/index.asp?page=register

Other free ways to get your site stumbled without having it tied to your account (so people don’t see you are stumbling your own site) is to exchange stumbles with other people. You can find free-stumble offers at:

NamePros: http://www.NamePros.com

Digital Point Forum: http://www.digitalpoint.com

Site Point: http://www.SitePoint.com

Remember, this will not be targeted traffic but it’s a great way to jump-start your stumble campaigns!

I hope you have enjoyed the information contained with the Stumble Upon Traffic Guide. Being both an advertiser and stumbler of the Stumble Upon community can be an enjoyable and rewarding way to browse interesting websites while promoting your own.

Have Fun Stumbling and Being Stumbled!

Pay Per Click Marketing A-to-Z

Introduction

The Internet has now become an important medium for product and service advertisements. Almost every company that can afford print, radio and TV advertisements have also ventured into placing ads on the Internet.

But with millions of websites out there being visited by millions of computer users, how can you make sure that your ad can be seen by your target customers and that your leads will be followed by these users? Here are a few tips.

1. Place an ad on the websites frequented by your target customers. Before doing this, you need to define who will be your target customers. Placing an ad on sites that they usually visit will increase the possibility that your ad will gain the attention and will be followed your target customers.

Also, consider the website’s search engine placement, traffic, external linking and the other ads placed on it. External linking will determine if there are other sites that link to this site. This will mean that people can get to the site where your ad is placed, even if they are browsing a different site. Check if many of your competitors have ads on this site.

2. Placing ads on some sites cost some money. However, there are also sites that can place a link to your site, product or service in exchange of having their link being displayed on your site. This is also true about the newsletters sent by site owners to its mailing list members regularly.

Also, having helpful links placed on your site and having sites link to your pages help in boosting search engine ranking. This is similar to making a statement that your site’s content is important that other sites have links to your web pages.

3. Pay-per-click (PPC) is also a good method in Internet marketing. You will only need to pay for the ad if the link is clicked. If you prefer this method of advertisement, make sure that you are using services that set limits on daily expenses. There are also services that help you determine effective keywords and monitor the PPC results.

4. Choose your domain name wisely. It is still being debated if domain names matter when it comes to search engine placement. Whether it does or not, having product related domain names help consumers remember your domain, that they can go back to your site even without the links.

5. Make sure you have useful content on your sites. While keyword density is important in search engine placement, having useless information or annoying repetition of keywords will not increase your customer’s confidence in your site. It may even affect your sites traffic and can get your site removed from search engines. So make sure that keywords are used strategically.

6. When thinking of keywords, think like your target customers. What do you think are they going to search so they can get to your site? Also, use specific keywords or key phrases. Submitting a single word or a very general phrase to a search engine will not get you to the top of the search results compared to submitting specific keywords that describe your product and services perfectly.

7. Track your ads. Always check how much you have spent on placing links on frequently visited sites and on PPC. There are services that allow you to monitor PPC transactions and how many of these end in sales. You always need to consider if the ads that you have placed on these websites are getting you to your target consumers and if these ads can lead to revenue.

One final tip on marketing products and services, sell the benefits. It will help your marketing strategies a lot if you highlight the benefits of choosing your products and services instead of merely discussing the product specifications. Product specifications may not mean much to customers, unless they know what these stand for (how these specifications affect the quality of the product or service).

Many people say getting to the top of search engine results is difficult since millions of websites exist, which can be using the same keywords. While this is true, this doesn’t mean that your website has to stacked under your competitors’ websites when presenting search engine results. Strategic advertising and linking, together with useful content, can also get you to the top of the search results.

SEO or PPC?

The online community is definitely a large market place that you cannot ignore, especially if you have an internet business. There are thousands if not millions of consumers that you can tap in the internet.

At the same time, the internet also poses a quite different challenge. The easy access that internet provides also gives you as much competition as you can imagine. It is too crowded and congested.

Having a website is not enough to make your business running and able to compete. You must take other alternatives to give way for the online community to access your website at any rate or chance possible.

You have to expose your website. Make it known. It has to be visible. It has to be frequently targeted by consumers and surfers.

Invest in marketing your internet site. There are basically two options available to you, the SEO and PPC.

These two are probably the most desirable alternatives you can get for your internet business as strategy for search engine marketing.

1. SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Some researches indicate that 60% – 70% of internet surfers and users actually resort to using the Google search engine to find and locate web sites and pages, for any topic they desire. SEO is the process taken to make sure that the internet uses will find your website when ranked among the top results of a search. This way you can make sure that you will be visible and can clearly stand out from the rest.

To get a search engine optimization, you will have to build on your own internet site frequently hit internet links to web site pages. The process will involve IBLN or Independent Back-Linking Network, wherein hundreds or even thousands of pages will be utilized to promote a particular website of a client.

In SEO, there is no need for you to pay for the clicks although it will require you to spend time doing research to get a favorable combination of ads and target audience. The SEO process is a long term one. It requires months, 6 months at the least, before the proper outcome is fully achieved, but once the goal is accomplished, you will definitely get a steady source of profit.

2. PPC

PPC means Pay Per Click. It gives way advertising on a search engine. These are sponsored listings that you see whenever you make a search. There will be a charge whenever a visitor or web surfer clicks on any of your ads. There will first be a bidding process. The highest bidder for the price per click will definitely get the chance to be first listed in the search engine.

With this kind of advertising, you can still basically control your campaign as you get to create your own ad. You will also manage the target audience and still stay within the bounds of your budget. Most of the providers of PPC advertising will allow you to specify the target market, either by topic, industry or geographical location. You can also very well check if your ad gets to be shown at all and if it is competitive with the rest.

There are some guaranteed benefits when you get to maximize the PPC strategy.

1. PPC lets you advertise to the whole of the online community. It is also relatively easy to set up.

2. At first glance, PPC advertising may seem very expensive. Could it possibly happen that someone out there will go on clicking on your ad? This will definitely give you a large bill without the expected profit on your part. If this provides a lot of worries, be rest assured that there is a protection for you. Networks are able to recognize fraudulent clicks.

3. You can also set a budget for a certain period. The moment your budget has been used up by the target number of clicks, your ads will no longer be displayed until the next period you want it again displayed.

4. You will also be able to adjust well to changes in market demands and trends.

In deciding which of the two strategies will work right for you, think of your goals and of your resources. They definitely offer benefits and advantages that will work for your good. The better way to approach this two is to evaluate according to your short term and long term plans. Take the PPC course for your short term goals and choose SEO if you have long term ones.

There world is out there for you now. Just make sure you do what will work best for your entrepreneurial endeavors and visions. The secret to success lies in your hands. Just study your options well and you’ll get exactly what you want.

Affordable PPC Search Engine Advertising

PPC search engine advertising is by far the most affordable form of advertising available. PPC search engine advertising is a flourishing business that by 2008 is expected to reach $ 8 billion. PPC search engine advertising is about producing leads. Creating leads will help potential buyers find the specific website that will provide them with the product or service they need.

However, PPC search engine advertising does not end there. It is important to understand that although PPC search engine advertising generates leads, it is also important for users to find relevant information at the website they are directed to.

Information is a valuable asset in PPC search engine advertising that is often left unchecked by many websites. Keep in mind that users are more likely to purchase products or services from a company that provided them with the necessary information they needed in the first place.

Qualified Traffic with PPC Advertising

One of the benefits of PPC search engine advertising is that it provides qualified traffic to a specific website. Users that click on a PPC ad are those in search of a particular product or service. This helps eliminate unnecessary clicks from non-prospective buyers that only produce expenditures not profits. PPC search engine advertising is also the fastest way to get a reasonable return on investment.

A bidding process is used to establish the price of a specific keyword. In general, the budget for PPC search engine advertising may be a $100 to $100,000 depending on the number of keywords used. These prices can skyrocket in just minutes as more and more sites bid for the same keyword thus causing the prices to jack up.

PPC ads are placed alongside search engine results to which they are relevant. The highest bids for a specific keyword or phrase gets top billing on the search engine results page. Getting top placement provides greater odds for a PPC ad to get clicked by a qualified searcher.

Elements of PPC Advertising

PPC search engine advertising involves three basic elements; constant monitoring, response analysis and refinement as the essential factors involved in PPC search engine advertising. Proper management of PPC search engine advertising can result in big profits for a website.

PPC search engine advertising makes it possible for sites to monitor the productivity of each PPC ad they place.

This gives a site the opportunity to turn off any PPC ad that is not performing at its best. PPC search engine advertising provides the most economical way for a site to advertise on the World Wide Web.

The cost entailed in PPC search engine advertising is dictated by the clicks made on a particular PPC ad. The number of clicks made on a PPC ad is subtracted from the initial amount paid by the business to a search engine company. To minimize cost and maximize return on investment, a business will have to regularly monitor its PPC search engine advertising campaign.

How to Use PPC Advertising

Many businesses are unable to get the most out of their PPC search engine advertising campaign. PPC search engine advertising involves a lot more than just bidding on the highest keywords. Information is a main concern of many online users.

Providing online users with relevant information they need will help bring about a more long-term relationship with an online user that will more likely result in a sale.

Information provided to online users may be in the form of a newsletter or e-zine that online users would likely sign up for. Sign-ups may be enough to cover the expenses of a PPC search engine advertising campaign.

Sign-ups also help generate leads for websites as they build opt in list from qualified online searchers who clicked their PPC ad. Getting personal information from qualified online searchers can be done in a variety of ways such as offering freebies for surveys or signing up for newsletters.

PPC search engine advertising is a continuous process that requires hands on supervision and a thorough understanding of PPC search engines. Businesses may opt to hire the services of a professional or do PPC search engine advertising with in-house experts. Whatever course of action is selected, a business is sure to get a huge return on investment with PPC search engine advertising.

PPC Advertising for Maximum Web Promotion

Engaging in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has its own benefits and drawbacks. But what exactly is PPC advertising and what it can do to your business?

Business nowadays is doing different kinds of austerity measures when it comes to advertising their products and services. This is because of high rates of placing ads on print and on television. But there is a fast growing approach that businessmen can utilize to bring their services closer to the people and that is through Internet Marketing.

One tool that is causing internet marketing popularity is PPC advertising. This is a technique used in search engine marketing that requires one to pay a fee every time someone clicks an ad on your website.

Usually this placement is done through a bidding process. If you are a top bidder for your keywords/phrases, you are sure to be on the number one spot on all search engines. Just be sure of the effectiveness of your ad copy to get the most number of clicks you need for your business.

Here are the benefits of PPC advertising are:

1. You need not be a genius in computer and technology to be able to run this ad campaign.

2. Immediate results are seen after a few days.

3. No need to make a website conform to the SEO rules.

4. Nothing to lose even if you do not top the pages of different search engines. You can still always choose PPC advertising.

5. You can make use any search engine available.

6. You can type in any keyword you like.

Cons of PPC advertising includes:

1. Fixed payments every month to the search engine you choose.

2. Pay for each click received by your website. At times, visitors are just competitors or people playing pranks on search engines. This hassle wastes money you put in to this advertising.

3. Inability to pay for the fees next month would mean removal of your website on the paid listings.

4. This advertising can only be used temporarily because it is difficult to handle in the long run.

5. Pay-per-click pricing can be costly for long periods of time, therefore, this should be stopped after an ad campaign.

But how exactly PPC advertising can increase traffic, leads and sales?

PRE-QUALIFIED TRAFFIC. All visitors of your website are already considered as a qualified consumer or buyer of your product. PPC advertising leads your customers to you for a lesser cost.

INSTANT EXPOSURE, IMMEDIATE PROFITS. PPC search engines enable you to get your desired results fast. They will have your website live within just a few hours which means immediate increase in sale.

CONSISTENT TOP LISTINGS. This is to get your website on top of the sponsored search results for free. You just have to choose the keywords related to your site and business and place them within your web pages. After this, you are done.

PPC advertising enables advertisers to control their advertising campaigns. Advertisers have effectively targeted their audience and set their own price per click. PPC advertising networks provide the platform to identify the desired audience by geographic setting, topic and industry. These networks have a list of websites of the publishers where the ads will be placed.

Tools are provided by the networks to check how the pay per click limit is working for a certain advertiser. If its still competitive, would it be even listed among the paid search lists or does it generate sales?

Of course, if the advertiser made the highest bid, the better chances the ad will be seen in the search engine. These networks too provide protection for the advertisers against click fraud.

This advertising set-up allows advertisers to set a daily budget for his ads, thus, less spending for unnecessary clicks. Advertiser will never go over his budget.

In PPC advertising, what are important are the keywords and phrases. You have to select at least ten “very specific” keywords that would give you the best traffic in the search. Then, write the ad creatively but straightforward.

Tell the truth about your product or service and do not lie. Good thing if your product or service will not disappoint those that are relying on your ad’s promise – but what if it did otherwise? Important too is the clarity of the ad. Do not use very vague languages. Include important details like the price.

You should also remember to budget your bids. Do not go overbidding because you will only lose your money and do not go so low that your ads will never get the chance to show up. Check your profit against your spending. If you see no progress then most likely you have to drop your ad campaign.

More and more advertisers have been using PPC advertising and it will continue to grow faster than any online advertising techniques. From revenues of $2.6 billion in 2004 to $5.5 billion in 2009, cost per click will dramatically go up as well from $0.29 to $0.36.

PPC advertising is new in online marketing and it is going to continue in the years to come. For advertisers, this means increase revenues with fewer advertising expenses, savings, more sales, good return of investment (ROI) and effective ad campaigns in the days to come.

PPC Bid Management

Tools for Internet Marketing have been rising to popularity these days because of cost-effectiveness and the possibility of measuring increase in profits and sales.

Pay per click (PPC) is a means to advertise business through the use of keywords/phrases in the search engines. The advertiser is required to only pay for each click that sends a visitor to his website. Search engines such as Overture, Google Adwords, Search Yahoo and Miva are just some examples of search engines.

They offer top positions among the sponsored listings for particular keywords/phrases you choose. The idea for bidding is you have to buy/bid on keywords/phrases relevant to your business.

The highest bidder gets to be on the top of the search result listing and the second highest bidder, of course, gets the next top listing and so on. Every time a visitor clicks on your website, you will have to pay the same amount that you bid on that particular keyword.

PPC can be very costly, time consuming and sometimes not worthy. But if you know how to go about the step by step procedures, PPC is a welcome change to traditional advertising.

If you do your searches for products, articles and auctions in the net, you usually type in a keyword or a set of phrase to guide you in your search. Either you use Google or Yahoo Search depending on where you are most comfortable at and where you usually get the best results.

As soon as you key in the search button, immediately a long list of keywords or phrase will be displayed containing the keywords you key in. The first or the top link that you saw is most likely the one who bids the highest for that keyword you type.

In this way, businessmen will produce the desired results; they get to be advertised, at the same time, saving and spending only for the clicks they need that might translate to potential sales.

The way to start PPC bid management is to identify first the maximum cost per click (CPC) you are willing to pay for a given keyword or phrase. CPC varies from time and even search engine to search engine too. Maximum CPC can be measured by averaging the current costs of bids (bids range from $0.25 to $5).

Average of these bids is to be used as the maximum CPC to begin with. As your ad campaign progresses, the actual conversion rate (visitors turning to potential buyers/sales) will be determined and you may have to adjust your CPC (bidding rate) accordingly.

When you start to bid, see to it that you adopt different bidding strategies for various search engines. Search engines have their own PPC systems that require different approaches. It is also worthy to identify different bids for the same keyword phrases in various search engines.

Another thing, it is wiser not to bid for the top spot for two reasons: 1) It is very expensive and impractical, and 2) Surfers usually try different search queries in various search engines before they settle on the right one that fits to what they are looking for. This hardly results to conversion. Try to bid for the fifth spot instead and work your way up.

If you are now going steady on your PPC biddings, it is time for you to develop your own bidding strategy accordingly. It is important for you to track down which sites bring the bulk of your traffic and identify the ranking of your paid ads.

This will help your bidding strategy to be effective and you should also decide where you want your ad to be positioned. Usually your maximum CPC will limit your choices.

Bid gaps (e.g. $ 0.40, 0.39, bid gap, 0.20, 0.19, 0.18) occur when there is a significant price increase to move up one spot in the PPC rankings. It is best if you take advantage of the bid gaps by filling them in so you can save up your cents to other bidding opportunities.

Often there are keywords worthy of lesser bids to get the appropriate ranking on the list and produce a good number of clicks and higher conversion rate rather than bidding higher but having a poor conversion rate. You have to put in mind that overbidding too is not good but rather the best position for the most effective bid.

Using pay-per-click bid management in promoting your website will only be successful if you take time building many lists across many engines and studying the performance of every listing. In this way, you can make the most value from what you spend in the bidding process. The key is to use the necessary precautions to stay ahead of the competition.

Bid Management Tools

In ensuring best results, you may use bid management tools. There are accepted and approved management tools that will help you in your bidding. They are categorized in two different types:

• Web based (services by monthly subscription) or,
• PC based (a purchased software)

Monitoring tools too may help in the tracking down of your keywords/phrases and search engines as to which among them often generate sales, overall and in relation to your cost per click. This is what you call return of investment (ROI) monitoring.

These bid management tools may include additional functions that may not get from online marketing tools that are readily available.

Other tools can monitor competitor’s bids, produce reports for different parties and offer the ability to interface with multiple PPC engines. This is particularly helpful to those who manage more than a hundred keywords across several PPC engines to boost productivity and save time.

Pay-per-click bid management is ideal for the effective promotion of your business online without the hassles of draining your financial keeping too much. It is now fast catching up as a means used in marketing your goods and services to reach to as many consumers as possible.

PPC Campaign Management

So you spent all your time and energy building the perfect website. Now you want to share the fruits of your labor, and maybe even make some money on the side through your online ads.

Maybe you have an online business that markets a hot product that you are selling on your website; but you find that you are having trouble bringing customers into your site. So instead of gaining money, you are actually losing money because of the monthly rent that you’re paying to have your website hosted in cyberspace.

The best solution to this problem is to advertise. Let people know that you are here and ready to do business. One of the quickest and most effective ways to advertise your website on the net is to come up with a great PPC campaign management plan. PPC is an abbreviation for Pay Per Click.

Certain keywords or phrases that people type into a search engine lead to hundreds and hundreds of search results that pertain to that specific keyword.

Businesses that want to advertise on the net using a PPC campaign have to come up with a plethora of keywords that is associated to the business that they are running; so when potential customers type in these keywords, it will lead them to their business site.

This is pretty much the whole concept that operates behind PPC. This is how a PPC campaign brings in traffic to your site, with the selection of the right keywords that people can search through the net.

Some keywords tend to be more expensive than others, especially popular ones. It is vital to select the right keywords, in order to get your money’s worth. This is why it is important to manage you PPC campaign wisely. Sometimes you are better off opting for the less popular keywords that are not so expensive, especially if you have a limited budget. Some businesses even hire the help of a consultant to manage their PPC campaigns.

There are experts that specialize in PPC campaign management. They come with strategic plans, and assess the need of their clients. They then come up with a PPC campaign that caters to their client’s specification.

This is why big online businesses seek the expertise of a professional to run their PPC ad campaign, because the right set of plans, can potentially bring in a large amount of profits. The more keywords you have, the more you increase the chances of customers clicking these keywords that would lead them to your website.

If you are running a business online, and are planning to run a PPC campaign, it is advisable to purchase keywords that are extremely related to the theme of your business. This way, people know what they are getting, and don’t get confused about the content of your website. The secret is to use keywords or phrases that are searched frequently, but cost very little.

The chances are, the longer people stay in your site, the likelihood of these potential customers making a transaction. But first thing is first. You must lure them into your turf.

This is why a lot of entrepreneurs spend a large amount of their budget on advertising, because they know that the right advertising campaign can start the ball rolling.

Also, you should do some research before you start your PPC campaign. There are a lot of PPC search engines to chose from. Those who are less renowned charge less for the same keywords that you’d find in the bigger PPC search engines.

The great thing about PPC campaigns is that you can reach a worldwide audience. Advertising online means global marketing.

Most PPC search engines require a monthly payment in exchange for their services. But if you fail to make payments, they will automatically take your listings out of their search engines. So make sure that you pay your monthly bills, so all the efforts that you put into your PPC campaign don’t go to waste.

The potential earnings that can be generated by starting a pay per click campaign is significant. That’s why a lot of online businesses now are trying to get in on the act. Now, with the right set of keywords, and a smart PPC campaign management plan, more than ever, online businesses are bringing in the big bucks.

Tracking And Conversion Testing Resources

Google Analytics
www.google.com/analytics

Google Webmasters Tools
www.google.com/webmasters

StatCounter
www.statcounter.com

Split Test Accelerator (paid testing software)
www.MySplitTestAccelerator.com

List of Multivariate Testing Software

David Bullock & His Recommended Tools
www.davidbullock.com/testingtools.shtml

ABC Google Analytics
By Althaf Ahmed, 35 page ebook

http://www.blogrepreneur.com/i-have-released-my-book-finally/

This ebook is perfect for:
*Those who want to get the most out of Google’s free Analytics tool
*Those who want to use Google Analytics to maximize online campaigns (PPC, traffic, keywords, Adwords) in order to track, attract and keep website visitors

How to Double Your Conversion, Stompernet
By Andy Jenkins
A video that explores how the human eye functions when viewing web pages, so as to learn how to better increase conversion rates

http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural2/?vid=4

This resource is perfect for:
*Those interested in how to best design a website to capture and keep the interest of visitors
*Those interested in increasing conversion rates by working with the human eye rather then against it
*Those who want to keep up with some great technical information by following the stompernet blog http://stomperblog.com/

AD Tracking Guide
By Harvey Segal, 60 page ebook in both PDF and EXE formats

http://www.ad-tracking.com/adbook.html

This ebook is perfect for:
Those interested in identifying the precise points where website visitors lose interest
*Those interested in finding out which search engine keywords bring the most sales
*Those interested in finding the best ad tracker program to meet their clients needs
*Those interested in a clear and specific plan for using ad tracking programs to help monetize ad campaigns resulting in better traffic and sales for the client.

107 Killer Traffic Conversion Secrets – Dan Lok www.surefirewealth.com , 15 page ebook

Increase Sales Letter Conversions
This is a great resource for anybody who writes any kind of copy. It helped Rachel Rofe fix up a sales letter (which is converting at a little over 5%).

http://www.topsecretriches.com/copysins.html

PAY-PER-CLICK RESOURCES

PPC Essentials for Affiliate Marketers
Cover Story for AffiliateClassroom.com monthly magazine (includes giveaway rights) – July 2007 magazine

http://www.affiliateclassroom.com/magazine/download/issues07-07.html

This resource is perfect for:
*Those interested in exploring short concise articles on the Many Uses of PPC Marketing
*Those wanting streamlined information on How to Write Winning PPC Ads
*Those interested in an article that cuts through the fluff of PPC, highlighting its pros and cons

Google Adwords Made Easy, 85 pages (rebrandable)
By Brad Callen

http://www.googleadwordsmadeeasy.com/

Quality Adwords Guide, 47 pages
By Google Lady

http://www.googlelady.com/614/adwords-quality-guide-free-ebook/

Google Adwords Primer, 84 pages
By Richard Driver
www.surefirewealth.com

Adwords Power Tips, 58 pages
By Tom O’Brian
www.surefirewealth.com

Explosive Payperclick with Adwords, 17 pages
By Darren Yates
www.surefirewealth.com
These ebooks are perfect for:
*Those interested in step by step instructions for becoming successful with Adwords
*Those interested in a number of different Adword approaches from beginner to advanced
*Those interested in simple to advanced foolproof strategies that will help to grow their client’s business
*Those who want to improve their keyword effectiveness, ad copy, cut their budget and simultaneously improve your click through rate.
*Those seeking to optimize and develop their advertising strategies
*Those looking for an assortment of tips and techniques to maximize the power of their client’s advertising money.

Link Building 101 Rap

Market Research Tutorial

Marketing Tutorial: Market Research

Overview
Use this tutorial to conduct keyword or market research. You should also do market research for any article writing or promotion.
This tutorial will take you through creating the following deliverables for your online marketing campaign:

1. Industry Research Spreadsheet: list of competitors and industry leaders, complete with rankings, targeted keywords, and incoming links

2. Master Keyword List: list of industry keywords including number of monthly searches and amount of competition

3. Prioritized Keyword List: list of top 10 or 20 keyword phrases you should target to get the fastest and highest rankings, meaning they have the best ratio between demand (searches) and supply (# of sites)

There are a couple paid keyword research tools you can use to identify great keywords in your client’s market. These include:
www.nichebot.com
www.wordtracker.com
www.themezoom.com

We recommend you download this free software to do some of your keyword research:
www.goodkeywords.com

We prefer to use nichebot because it gives vital information you can’t find for free: # of sites optimized for each keyword.
This piece of information helps greatly in market research. Why? Because you may search a keyword on google and see that it has close to 1 million search results. That would lead you to believe it would be far too hard to rank for. Yet, it’s possible that only 100 sites are optimized for that term. This is your only real competition because as soon as you optimize a webpage for your term, it will automatically rank above any sites not optimized to show up.

(By the way, ‘optimized’ in this case just means that the keyword appears in the title tag of the page.)

But though this information helps you better identify great keywords to target, it by no means is required. Besides, with our Web 2.0 world, what matters more now is overall theme across an entire website and long-tail keywords that are easy to identify as they traditionally have low search results on google.

Therefore, for the purpose of this tutorial, we’re going to discuss the free way to conduct market research.

Research the Competition
You may not particularly care for your competition. But in researching your market or industry, your competitors are your new best friends.
You can learn a lot about your market and the best way to capture it by seeing what your competitors are doing well, and where they’re lacking. Capitalize on their strengths to find out what works without researching it yourself—and leverage their weaknesses by pulling ahead in the areas they ignore or miss.

Step 1: Download Alexa Toolbar
Alexa is great for market research for several reasons:

• It tracks and displays the popularity ranking of a website in terms of how many people visit. An Alexa ranking of “1” means it is the number one, most trafficked site in the world (Yahoo.com). If it has an Alexa ranking of “10,000” then there are only 9,999 websites in the world more popular (this is a REALLY good ranking by the way).
• It can tell you what sites are linking into a site
• It also tells you what sites are similar—this is where you identify competition! (And combined with the benefit above, you can see who links to your client’s competition.)

Now, many of us don’t like having the actual Alexa toolbar on our browsers because it tracks our actions. So, if you have the Firefox browser, you can download a wonderful extension called SearchStatus that will give you Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank (right click on either rank bar for access to additional information).

We like having this information for all of our web surfing and marketing activities. However, you can also get a lot of this information with www.goodkeywords.com free research tool.

Step 2: Identify & Research Competition
Create a list of any competitors/partners in your market. Yes, you have them! You want to know who the leaders are in your industry—companies who have done a good job at researching and targeting their market (and who share the same market as you).

Next, visit your website, and each competitor’s site, and use the Alexa toolbar (or Firefox Extension) to identify all related sites.

Create a spreadsheet with the following columns:

• Website
• URL
• Alexa Ranking
• Page Rank
• Homepage Keywords
• Other Keywords (see if their internal pages have different targeted keywords. If not, this is a good sign that your client can rank far better by creating targeted content!) Don’t review every internal page, just a few…particularly any articles if you can find them
• Search Rankings
• # of Incoming Links
• Notes

Where to Get the Information:

Website
Make note of the name of the company

URL
Record the URL of their home page

Alexa Ranking
If you have the alexa toolbar, it will list the rank in the toolbar. If you have the Firefox extension, it will display a bar similar to Google’s Page Rank. Hover your mouse over the bar to see the actual numerical ranking.
You can also use Good Keywords tool.

Page Rank
You can get the Google toolbar, or use the Firefox extension to get the page rank.

Home Page Keywords
While on the site’s home page, click “View” in your browser window, then “View Source” or similar. It will display the source code for the website and at the top, you’ll see meta tags between the <head> and </head> tags. Look for a list of keywords and copy those down.

Other Keywords
View the source code of a couple internal pages, particularly those with a lot of content, or article pages. See if all internal pages have the same keywords or if each one is targeted to only one or two keywords (as will be obvious in the meta tags).

Most large sites just put the same keywords in the meta tags of all their internal pages. If this is the case, you are in luck, because their sites are not well optimized for SEO!

Search Rankings
Only do this for one or three of the most popular competitors. You can download a free version of Internet Business Promoter (http://www.ibusinesspromoter.com/download/index.htm),  or a similar ranking check software.
Then enter the website’s URL you want to check, and a list of the keywords they provided in their meta tags.

# of Incoming Links
Using Good Keywords tool or Alexa to find out the Link Popularity for each site (the amount of websites that link into the site).

Later on, you’ll add more competitors to the list, but for now, just get the above information and move on to the next step!

Develop Initial Keyword List
Now it’s time to get a basic idea of keywords you should target for decent rankings. The idea here is to find keywords that have enough people searching them each month while few websites display in the search results.

As mentioned earlier, you can easily do this research using NicheBot or a similar keyword research software. However, here’s how you can do it for free:

Step 1. Create Master Keyword List Spreadsheet
First, we want to get an idea of how many people search the keywords you want to rank for, as well as those keywords you found in your competitors’ websites.

Create a new spreadsheet titled “Master Keyword List.”
Create the following columns:

• Keyword
• Searches
• Competition

Step 2. Research Basic Themes
Go to: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
Type in the first keyword you want to research. For example, let’s research “gardening.”

As you can see, it tells us how many people search the term “gardening” each day. But more importantly, it’s telling us several other popular keywords within that theme.

Copy and paste the list into a new spreadsheet for your Master Keyword List.

If you see any particularly interesting keywords that also have high searches in the list, such as “organic gardening,” go back to the first screen and type that term in. Again, copy and paste the resultant list into your spreadsheet (under the first list you copy and pasted).

Repeat this with each high-level keyword (meaning the keyword is more of a theme or niche rather than a very specific phrase) you gathered from your client and initial research. Copy and paste each list into your spreadsheet. You’ll have to flip the searches and keyword columns, or change the order of the columns in the spreadsheet to match the results (it’s up to your personal preference—I like to organize my list by keyword, so I like that to be my first column…if you want, you can cut and paste the search column to its new location after you’ve finished all the keyword research).

Step 3. Research Keyword Competition
Now it’s time to figure out how hard these keywords will be to rank for.
With paid keyword research tools, they will give you this information automatically with the search amounts, however if you’re conducting your research with free tools, you have to research competition for each keyword, one at a time.

To reduce your time, I recommend you only do this for those terms that are worth exploring, i.e. they are targeted to your audience and offerings and have enough daily searches to be meaningful (around 50 per day, depending on the size of the market).

Go to www.google.com.

Search each keyword with the following format:
intitle: [keyword]

So, if we were researching “gardening,” we would plug into the search field:
intitle: gardening

Look at the number of results. Write that number in the “competition” field. This is the number of websites that include your keyword in their title, meaning they’re at least minimally optimized to show up for that term.

To demonstrate the importance of this distinction, try searching “gardening” by itself. You’ll see over 4.8 million results!

Search for only those sites who have that word in their title tag, and now you’ll see only roughly 60,000 sites. HUGE difference! Only those 60,000 websites are your true competition. You’ll immediately outrank all other sites as soon as you create a page with your keyword in the title.

Develop Prioritized Keyword List
Your last step is to now develop your prioritized keyword list and identify the true competition you have to beat to gain meaningful search rankings and traffic.

Step 1. Identify Most Rankable Keywords
Create a new spreadsheet title “Prioritized Keyword List” with the same fields as your other keyword list.

Now add to it any keywords that have a fair amount of searches and the least amount of competition. This is a ratio game, so though some keywords may have less searches than others, if they have virtually no competition, you want to prioritize those. Same with keywords that may have more competition—if they have tons of searches, they’re worth pursuing.

Depending on how large your market is, and how many hundreds of terms you initially found, your priority list may be 10 keywords or 50 or more keywords.

Once you’ve identified those keywords, open up your industry research spreadsheet.

Use IBP (mentioned earlier) free trial software, or a similar program, to discover the top ranking websites for your targeted keywords (these are the websites you have to beat).

Type in each keyword and get a list of the top 10 or 20 websites that rank for it (or just search Google).

Add these websites to the TOP of your industry research spreadsheet and go through your original steps to again gather the necessary information for each site. Be sure to place the ranked page in the URL field, and not the home page of the site (unless the ranked page IS the home page).
In the notes field for these top competitors, list the keyword density for the ranked page. You can get this information from the free Good Keywords tool. You may also want to identify the actual pages that link into these top competitors so that your client can try to elicit incoming links from them as well.

Based on the information, you can begin optimizing your website for the search engines and promote it with optimized articles and website content.
And that’s it!

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