Wednesday, May 28, 2008

How To Improve Adwords Conversion Rates

Learning how to market products effectively with Google adwords can be a powerful way to make money. Pay per click search engine traffic can be very profitable if you know what you are doing. Unfortunately most new internet marketers especially affiliate marketers fail with ppc because they run a few campaigns, blow their budget fast and make little or no sales.

You want at least a 100% return on your investment so if you spend $25 on a test campaign, you want to make at least $50 worth of sales. Of course the more sales you make the better. If you find that you are breaking even, then do not give up on the campaign just yet but instead make a few adjustments such as reducing bids slightly or using more highly targeted keywords.

If you are a product merchant then be sure to use the conversion tracking feature as this can make a big difference in identifying which keywords are actually making you money. Many people are reluctant to bid high however it is all about results so even if you are paying 80 cents a click, if the conversion rates are high enough then it can still be profitable. In order to maximize conversion rates be sure to only use highly targeted and relevant keywords, ad descriptions and landing pages.

If you are an affiliate marketer then be sure to use link cloaking to avoid commission theft. This is especially important for products such as those sold at Clickbank where most vendors do not cloak the links by default. Also it is best to avoid any advertising or external links on your landing pages since you want the visitor to be focused only on the product you want them to buy. Another tip that can help to improve conversion rates is to turn off the content network especially for higher valued clicks since the content network traffic converts lower in general than typed in search traffic.

Also you should target countries accordingly based on where your products can be sold and shipped. It may also be ideal to stick with wealthier countries as you want to target buyers and not freebie hunters. Also be sure to use the "-free, -cheap, -download" keywords in your campaign to avoid people looking for free products.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Social Bookmarking

Using social bookmarking can provide an effective way to increase traffic levels to your websites. Each day, thousands of people view top bookmarked pages so if you have just recently launched a website then be sure to get it bookmarked on the major social bookmarking sites like the ones listed below:

del.icio.us
www.blogmarks.net
www.furl.net
www.digg.com
www.stumbleupon.com

If your site is truly unique and useful then it can easily gain positive votes in the bookmarking sites which can propel your site's bookmarked pages to the front page thus bringing even more free traffic. The challenge with new sites is that the search engines do not tend to rank them very well so using social bookmarking is one way to get free traffic. This is also an effective way to increase link popularity which can help the ranking of your website down the road since you are getting one way back links from authority sites.

Most social bookmarking sites also allow you to have a personal profile with a link back to any sites you own. Thus maintaining good accounts with useful bookmarks can help to increase the popularity of your profile and generate more traffic to your sites as people learn more about you since they like the useful bookmarks you save on a regular basis. It is best to not rely on social bookmarking alone to increase the popularity of your website but use it as part of an overall strategy to increase your online profits. Click here for a detailed guide on how to use Squidoo, which is a powerful social networking site to make money from the Web 2.0 trend.

Friday, May 23, 2008

The Power Of Incantations

An incantation is similar to an affirmation however they are performed while doing something physical such as exercising. The reason to do them while you move is that the effect is stronger. The whole reason for doing them is to program your mind for what you want rather than letting the environment dictate how you should think and act.

The way to do an incantation is to repeat a phrase over and over again. The phrase is usually related to some goal or desire you have such as wanting more money. Here are some phrases you can say to yourself related to making more money:

- "Everyday I get closer to reaching my financial goals."
- "Financial freedom is just around the corner."
- "I am closer than ever to getting wealthy"

Here is a useful incantation you can say to yourself to maintain motivation levels throughout the day even when nothing seems to be going your way, you have probably heard this one before as it is from a famous song - "I get knocked down but I get up again, nothing is ever going to keep me down." The key is to say these phrases to yourself with conviction and belief and to repeat them as often as you can.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Arbitrage

Arbitrage is the technique of sending traffic at a low cost to a page and hoping to make enough back via clicks on ads on that page to make a profit. While the concept is simple, pulling it off is a different story. Unfortunately most ads do not pay out enough per click to justify the advertising costs.

While many internet marketers claim they have found success using arbitrage, the low payouts combined with the high ad costs resulted in losses. We feel the best way to make money with adsense is to send organic search engine traffic which is free so learning search engine optimization and creating a site that does well in the search engines is the key to developing good income.

Check out our section on SEO to learn some effective proven strategies that will help your site rank higher for the long term and will not get your sites banned or penalized. If you are going to send paid traffic to a site make sure that the site contains useful content other than the ads otherwise you may be violating the terms and conditions of many advertising companies and could get your account banned. Stick with white hat methods that work for the long term and build a real business.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Create And Market Your Own E-Book

The internet presents the perfect place to sell digital products such as e-books and software programs. The advantage to selling these kinds of products is that the buyer gets access to them almost immediately after purchase which gives them a greater incentive to purchase since it satisfies the need for immediate gratification rather than waiting for a physical product to be shipped to their location.

If you are an authority on a certain topic that has a market then you can share your expertise by creating an e-book and selling it online. The first step is to decide on a topic. Make sure that your e-book solves a common problem and that there is a market for it otherwise you simply will not sell any since there are no buyers no matter how good your e-book is. You can use the free Google keyword tool to check for the market potential of your e-book idea.

It is important to do research in the marketplace on other similar e-books and then focus on creating something better. You want your product to be the best in your category. Never sacrifice product quality because you need to remember that word of mouth advertising is still and probably always will be the most powerful form of advertising around. Thus if you create a great product, your customers will refer friends and other contacts to purchase your e-book also so your product can literally sell itself even without any type of paid advertising efforts.

Creating an attractive cover for your e-book is important since you want to give a positive first impression. There are many services you can take advantage of that can help you create a great e-book cover. Here a few listed below:

http://www.ebookcovercreator.com/
http://www.ebookcompiler.com/
Photoshop E-Book Cover Tutorial

Once your e-book is completed the next step is to create an effective sales page. You want your sales page to look professional and thorough. There are many factors that go into creating a great sales page. Some tips to keep in mind can be to add video content as it helps to increase credibility. Always offer a money back guarantee as it proves that you are confident in the quality of your products. To encourage people to buy now, you can offer a limited time discount. Try to accept as many payment options as possible including credit cards, paypal, online checks etc.

Provide a detailed outline about the benefits your product offers and how it is better than anything else in the market place. Be sure to establish yourself as an authority figure and prove it by showing your credentials on the sales page in some manner. Before a full scale launch, you will want to run a beta test to ensure people like your product. You can give away some free trial copies of your e-book with maybe only the first few chapters to a test group in order to build positive testimonials which you can then use on your sales page to further increase conversion rates.

Use pictures and graphics effectively to highlight the benefits of your e-book. You can hire a graphic artist to create unique graphics for your sales page. You can visit http://www.designgururyan.com/ to get a quote on any design ideas you might have for your sales page. The price you sell your e-book for will depend on the market so offer a similar price to that being offered by your competitors. Once your sales page is complete, the next step is to market and promote the e-book.

You can use pay per click advertising to send traffic to your sales page. An important point to consider is to take advantage of affiliate marketers. Launching your e-book on Clickbank can be a great way to tap a significant number of highly skilled internet marketers. Be sure to offer generous commissions, at least $25 per sale in order to attract the best affiliates. Also create marketing tools such as banner ads and text ads that your affiliates can use to send traffic to your sales page. Use some of these tips to help you create your very own profitable e-book business.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Forex Investing Tips

Investing in the foreign exchange market can offer a lucrative way to make money from the net. One key point to remember is that if you make a bad trade then simply sell and cut your losses early. This is an important rule to keep in mind to minimize losses so do not hang on to losing trades. The forex market is the largest of all the money markets with daily trading reaching into the trillions of dollars.

It is best to trade during peak hours since this is when the highest volumes of trading is going on as this is when most people trade. Since volumes are so high during this period no large companies can drastically influence the direction of any currency during this time thus currency fluctuations are more stable and predictable.

Make sure that you are trading with large margins so you make the most profit possible. The problem with making small trades is that most of the profit ends up going to the broker and you are left with little or nothing. Remember that objective is to make money and large amounts of it as fast as possible so give yourself greater margins for your trades. Finding a good forex broker is important as there can be a lot of scammers out there. You can check out forex forums online as to which brokers are legitimate since these forums generally offer unbiased information.

Forex trading is a fantastic way to earn income as all you need is a computer and a desire to learn the basics. You can trade from the comfort of your home or anywhere else you like as long as you have a computer and an internet connection. Like anything else, you must make a commitment to learning the profession as there are many new skills to acquire. A key point to remember with investing is to never play with money you cannot afford to lose.

Start small and make a few winning trades before you engage in larger volumes of trading. Knowledge is power so learn what influences currency fluctuations so you can anticipate changes before they occur and thus earn greater profits from every trade. Click here to learn about a detailed system that can help you earn more money with forex trading.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Domain Name Investing

This approach to making money involves acquiring expired domains and then monetizing their traffic by using domain name parking services or by reselling the domains for a profit (domain name flipping). The key to succeeding with this strategy is to have a quality service that can help you locate profitable domain names to invest in either for the sake of monetizing existing traffic or to flip the domain name and resell it.

Many big name entrepreneurs enter the domain name investing game as it can be highly lucrative. One potentially effective strategy is to go on eBay and analyze any domain names for sale. When looking for a domain name, you want something that is short and catchy. Also perform a backlink analysis on the domain and its traffic ranking on Alexa. Also make sure the domain is indexed in Google and not banned in any way. In addition, you may want to check out the history of the domain using the Wayback machine at http://www.archive.org/index.php. Also check out the page rank of the domain. The higher the page rank, the more valuable the domain becomes.

Every day hundreds of domains expire for multiple reasons. The webmaster might have passed away or simply lost interest in the site however many of these sites were good quality and had many links scattered throughout other websites that generate traffic to them. There are a lot of services that specialize in notifying you about domains that recently or are about to expire and using their services is critical. You will have to pay a small fee to use these services but the good ones can be worth it. Here is a list of a few domain name marketing services:

Domain Profiteer
Name Spy
Revenue Domains Exposed

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

How To Make Money With Blogs

Managing a blog can be a great way to make money from the internet. A blog is like an online diary where you can add your thoughts and ideas on certain topics. The great thing about blogs is that they are very easy to maintain. Most blogging platforms make it really simple to add content and make changes to your blog. You do not need to know anything about programming or html to be a successful blogger.

In order to first create a blog you need to decide what your blog is going to be about. If you are an expert in a certain topic or are in a particular profession, you can use your blog to share your expert knowledge on that topic. The biggest key to a long term successful blog is the content that you add to it. Be sure to add genuinely useful and original content as this will keep visitors returning to your blog often and also update and add new content on a regular basis.

There are many ways to start a blog. You do not even need your own web host as you can take advantage of free blogging sites like Blogger.com. If you do own a site then you should still be able to easily add a wordpress blog through your website management interface such as cpanel. Once you have a few good posts up, consider visiting similar high quality blogs and leave useful comments on them with a link back to your site. Also tell as many people offline as you can about your blog that might find it useful.

Always keep in mind that most people are on the internet looking for free information so you need to provide good quality free content in order to attract the most visitors. The better the content on your blog the more people that will link to it and over time this will also improve the search engine rankings and drive even more traffic. There are many ways to monetize your blog.

The most obvious is adding advertising such as adsense. Be sure to check our section on adsense tips to learn more how to effectively use this to make income. Some basic points to keep in mind is to have an ad unit above the fold on your site which is the region of your page that is seen without having to scroll down. Also try to position the ads as close to the center of the page as possible. In addition try to blend the colors of the ads with the rest of your site.

Other sources of revenue can be affiliate links to related products and services. There are many affiliate programs online and a good way to locate a few is through some affiliate networks like Clickbank, Commission Junction, Linkshare and Azoogle. Try not to flood your site with ads as this tends to turn off a lot of visitors. You can also send traffic to your blogs through paid advertising sources like Google adwords or Adbrite but be sure to watch your budget and conversion rates closely to ensure profitability. Click here to learn more detailed information on how to succeed with blogging.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Squidoo Marketing Tips

Creating quality Squidoo lenses can offer a potential way to make good money. If you know a lot about a specific subject or have a passion for something then simply use Squidoo to create a lens about that topic. These lenses can get a lot of traffic depending on how much people like them.

If your lens becomes a featured lens then it can generate significant traffic levels just from people that like to browse various lenses. The biggest key factor is quality and originality since you will be faced with high competition levels. A good tip is to select a keyword rich lens title and url as this will help to attract more search engine traffic.

Also make sure that you are frequently updating and adding to your lens to make it better as this will help to improve its rank over time. Squidoo will pay you a portion of all the revenue generated from your lens which can add up if you create a few quality lenses. It is very easy to create good lenses and requires little technical knowledge of html or any other programming languages.

Try to make your lens interactive and encourage others to leave feedback as this will also help to increase popularity levels. There are various modules that you can easily add to your lens that will allow people to rate and leave feedback. You can also further monetize your lens by discreetly adding affiliate urls pointing to products related to the topic of your lens.

Also, if you own other related websites you can also have links on your lenses pointing back to them. This will help to increase your websites link popularity and search engine ranking. Do not be surprised if you find yourself getting somewhat addicted to making lenses. You can also create your own groups and build a network of like minded friends. Squidoo can be a great way to make money online and have a lot of fun in the process.

Click here for a detailed guide on Squidoo marketing.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Get Angry To Get Rich

Sometimes it is necessary to get a little disturbed with your current situation if not even angry in order to change it. The inevitable fact that you must face is that succeeding in a business whether online or not is a great challenge and most that try fail. In fact, statistics show that 95% of all new businesses fail within the first 5 years. Out of the 5% that survive, 95% of those fail within the next five years. Thus the odds are not in your favor.

In order for you to succeed you are going to have to develop a thick skin and be able to handle failure. You need to look at each failure as a stepping stone towards great success. One of the ways to keep going even if all hope seems lost is to simply get mad at your current situation. Are you not tired of being broke and not having the kind of lifestyle and freedom you always wanted. Focus on that and believe that you will find a way.

If a particular approach did not work then simply learn from that failure and make a few adjustments and try a new approach. The only way to truly fail is to stop trying. As long as you keep stepping up to the plate and keep swinging it is inevitable that you will eventually hit that home run!