Web Business | Adsense

How to increase Targeted Traffic

2009-05-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

After your created your website (or blog) and optimized your Adsense, the next and perhaps the most important thing is to attract targeted traffic. Targeted traffic means visitors who come to your site because of genuine interest in the content you provide, not merely by accident. Such kind of visitors will probably search further and are more likely to click on your ads.

So you need to make your site visible to the people who are looking for the content you provide. Some of the common ways people find your site are:

By search by keywords on search engines such as Google and Yahoo: If you optimized your site properly, Search Engine Traffic can be fairly targeted and can produce good value for Adsense publishers. As they are searching for your content, these visitors can spend time on your site and explore further by clicking on related Ads.
Links on similar sites: If you manage to have your site linked from other websites that provide similar content as that of yours, these links can directly produce a highly targeted traffic. More over such links can increase your Page Rank, and increase the sites popularity on search results. So this helps in two ways.

Things to do for increasing Traffic:

So you should be doing the following to have your site visible to the users.

Keyword Optimization: Keyword optimization is an important task you have to do to make your content searchable for your keywords on search engines.
Building Links with similar sites: More people are likely to find you more easily on other sites and such links can increase your Page Rank, and increase the sites popularity on search results. So this helps in two ways.

Some techniques to get Targeted Traffic:

Not only that you have to get visitors to your site, you should also have to keep them there if you want some clicks.

Provide good, relevant content that keeps your visitor interested. Maintaining high targeted traffic means not adding just anything to your web site, but focus on your particular niche of interest. Update frequently, give readers reasons to come back.
Promoting your site by means of a Pay-Per-Click is probably the most effective way to increase targeted traffic. Visitors coming from PPC Ads are usually highly targeted. But this must be done very carfully and scientifically. You should not pay more per click to Google than a visitor is worth.
Focus on clean and appealing site design. You should organize your content and make is easy for users to find the content they need. This is a great way to increase the number of impressions.
One other good way is to write articles for Article Sites such as ArticleCity, eZineArticles etc. This is a good way to get one-way links to your site.
Spread the word about your site. Participate in related groups and forums. Show to the community that you are indeed an expert in the niche of your site. This gives credibility.

Adsense Ad Color Optimization

2009-05-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

To make money with Adsense, one of the widly agreed recommendation for Adsense Ad Color Optimization, is to make use of those colors that make your look like an integral part of your content. This is done by blending the ads by using the same colors that exist on your website. For more information, please visit Making Money Online.

There are three things you need keep in mind to do this:

Make the background color and the border color of the ad to match with the background color of the webpage.
Make the color of the link to match with the color of the links on your webpage.
Make the color of the ad description (i.e the ad text) and the ad url to match with the text color.

I generally only make three exceptions to this:

I make the actual ad link darker than the other links on the page but keep it in a similar color palette. When a visitor is finished with the page they are on and are looking for someone else to go they tend to see darker colors before lighter ones. I believe Google makes the links bold for the same reason - intensity draws the eye.
I use the standard internet blue link. Although this isn't as widespread as it once was, internet users still often associate the standard blue color with being a link.
I make the advertiser url a very pale shade of grey. It's still visible as it must be to conform to Google's policies but the link and the text draw the visitors attention and the ads appear more like internal links than Adsense ads. The success of this modification will often depend on the market your site is targetting. For example, webmasters know what Adsense ads are and so this change will have little impact. If your site targets people who are less familiar with the internet making the ads appear more like an internal link (ie simply a link and a description of what you'll find when you click on it) can increase your ctr.

The reason blending works better than colors that draw attention to the ads is that it's not a color that is going to make someone click on an ad - even if it's their favorite color!

Humans respond to words or better put still the meaning of words - and it will be the word or combination or words which your visitor connects to in the ad. This is why they will click on one rather than another.

Attention grabbing colors will only serve to put a barrier between your visitor and the words in the ad. More people may see them but less will click on them and Adsense is pay per click, not pay per view!

Google Adsense Products

2009-05-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Google offers 3 various Adsense products that can be used or promoted to monitise a website. Lets us examine these products.

Adsense for Content

The most common and most usful of all Adsense products for the content sites. These are the ads that you see at the right side of Google Seach results and on various other Adsense sites. These Ads are relavent to the content of your website and when ever the visitors clicks on one of these you will earn revenue. For more information read our article "Adsense Ad Formats"

Adsense For Search

Adsense for Search allows you, the publisher, to place Google search box on your site. This allows your visitors to search from the Google indexed pages of your website or from the Web using the database of Google's search engine. For every search by your user, Google dispalys ads related to that search (just like on the Google site) and you earn revenue when your users click on those ads.

Referral Products

These are non-contextual products that Google allows you to promote and rewards you for such promotion. In this Google offers products like "Google Adsense Subscription", "Google Adwords Subscription", "Fire Fox browser with Google home page", "Good Picasa Web Album" etc. When a user downloads and installs one of these Google pays you a fixed commission.

How to increase Adsense Click Through Rate (CTR)

2009-05-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

Maximizing the CTR means a lot to a publisher who wants to make money with Adsense.

Making maximum possible money with Adsense depends on three factors:

Maximizing your CTR (Click through rate)
Maximizing the targeted traffic
Maximizing the pay per each click.

The techniques you follow to maximize your CTR can not only increase the user responsiveness but also increases the targeted traffic.

Let's see what Google AdSense Engineers has to say about Adsense CTR:

"Due to the dynamic nature of Google AdSense, fluctuations in your revenue will occur. Your earnings will depend on a number of factors, including the types of ads being served to your pages, the cost per click or cost per impression of these ads, and your users' click through selections. Regarding ad placement - the best ad format varies from page to page. We've observed that, in general, wider ads perform better because of their reader-friendly format. We strongly recommend putting your users first when deciding on ad placement. Think about their behavior on different pages, and what will be most useful and visible to them. You'll find that the most optimal ad position isn't always what you expect on certain pages."

What should you do to increase Adsense CTR?

Webmasters have very diverse views on how to increase CTR. It largely depends upon the the quality of its content, keywords you are targeting, design and layout of your website, placement of AdSense ads, page optimization and various other factors. Generally, AdSense blocks wrapped between the quality content works the best. For the websites having poor quality content, placing the Ads before the start of the content works best.

Quality Comtent: If you develop a poor quality content website, even if you have high CTR and clicks, you will be getting low priced ads and also nobody will like to add your url to their favorites. But if you have quality content, that keeps the visitors glued, even if you get a little low CTR (not that you will), but you will be getting high priced ads and regular visitors, too. So the bottom is concentrate on providing quality content that provides value to your visitors. For Adsense, quality content is the king.
Proper Ad Positioning: Proper positioning of ads on your website has direct impact on your CTR. Change the location of the ads and watch changes in your CTR regularly. Try to locate the area of the page where the focus of the visitor can be. Generally, AdSense ads near the quality content or other crucial areas like navigation bar tend to perform better. But it really depends upon the keywords you are targeting, and the traffic you have.
Right Ad Formats: As the Google engineers say, more user friendly ads, more widespread tend to do better than towers and others. But you have to decide what work best for you based on your site layout, design etc.
Right Ad Colors: The colors you use for your Adsense Ad Units also affects the CTR. As a rule you have to use those color that will make the Ads look like an integral part of your content. Blend in colors are often recommended.

Tweak and Experiment

Experiment and experiment a lot, till you are satisfied with the tweaks you have done to achieve highest CTR. Track your page performance by making channels of ads in your AdSense Control Panel and experiment till you are satisfied with your CTR. Though, each such experiment will make you loose money for a day or two, as Google may take time to adjust with new changes, but it will be beneficial in long run.

KeywordCountry helps AdSense webmasters in increasing their AdSense revenue. KeywordCountry is a library of 2.83 million Top paying keywords containing thousands of niche keywords

Tips for making money with Adsense

2009-05-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Google Adsense is one of the best ways to monetize the niche content for Webmaster and online content publishers. And to create an Adsense site, all you have to do is have a free Google Adsense Account, a website or a blog (you can use Blogger or Wordpress for free blogs), and some interesting content, of course. Once you get your site up and running, the Adsense ads will be targeted to your content.

Therefore, those looking for your content will come by, read your articles, and have a high probability of being interested in the targeted ads. Every time someone clicks an ad, you get paid.

Let's look at seven tips for creating Adsense sites that create money.

1: Keyword Density

Before you place ads on your site, be sure your keyword density is good. You will want to be sure that the right kinds of ads are placed on your site. A free way to determine what the ads will look like on your site is to go to http://www.resultsgenerator.com/adsense/ and type in your keywords. You will then be able to see exactly what ads would show on your site.

If you don't like what you see, then you know that you need to make changes to your keywords. You can get keyword suggestions from Results Generator from Overture or from the free trial version of Word Tracker.

2: Niche and Focused Content

Not only will the ads be based on your keywords, but they will also be based on your content. You definitely want your keywords and your content to match as closely as possible. See How to build a Niche Site for more info.

3: Frequent Content Updates

The more information you have the better. Why? Because the more content you have, the more visitors you get. Many people suggest that you write a new article every day since no one wants to come back to your site to find the same old messages.

4: Choose the right Format

Adsense allows you to choose many different ad formats. Research has shown that wider ads are more successful. The top three formats are:

336x280 large rectangle
300x250 medium rectangle
160x600 wide skyscraper

Additionally, the 468x15 horizontal ad link under the navigation bar is also performs well in some cases..

5: Choose right Colors

You have the option to create a Google Adsense ad in any color of your choice. The best thing to do is to make your ad blend well with your site color scheme. You should make the border color and the background color the same color as your web site. You will want your text color to either be black or the color of your main content.

When creating your Google Adsense ads it is recommended to use the color scheme and style of your website so that the ads blend in well. Ads without background color and borders perform better than ads within borders with background color. See Ad Color Optimization for more info

6: Choose the right placement

It is well known that visitors to a website scan the site to determine if it is worth reading. You definitely want them to see and scan your AdSense ads. Therefore, the best place to put them is in the top left part of your page or directly under your headlines.

7: Increase Number of Ad Units

Adsense allows you to use up to three Adsense units on a page, two Adsense search boxes, and two units of ad links. Using all that you can increases the chances of earning money. In addition you can use video ads and referral ads.

Keep these seven tips in mind when creating your Adsense site and you will find that your click-through rates increase, thus increasing your money making potential.

How to Qualify for using Google Adsense?

2009-05-29T05:44:00.000-07:00

Qualifying for Google Adsense represent an interesting matter, as the demands for acceptance a site are mostly common knowledge and are nothing extraordinary.

To qualify for using Google Adsense in your website all you need is a decent website with atleast 10 to 15 web pages with qualifying content. Google specifies a list of topics for which they won't server Ads. Other than that there is no strict conditions such as how big the site should be and how much traffic should it attract. However a webmaster has to first understand Google's Terms of Service, in which Google outlines the Dos and Don'ts of using Adsense on your web site.

The webmaster need to be very careful before applying to Adsense and make sure that his website or blog indeed qualifies for Google Adsense. It is very difficult and frustrating to get into the program or reapply to the program, if you are once rejected. So here we outline some of the things you need to keep in mind before approching Google for Adsense (and to get success out of it, ofcourse).

Content

You need to keep in mind that Google Adsense is there primarily for content-based sites. Websites that focus on pure product sales or only for Ads kinds of sites may not be proper for Adsense. Moreover, all you are promoting is your own product(s), then hosting Adsense might work against you, as the Ads that show up will be direct competitors. So it makes no sense in such cases. If you are building content that is usful for general website visitors, or content focussed on specific topic (niche sites) then you will have good chance of succeding with Adsense.

Forums & Blogs

Some blogs or forums may not be accepted. Still, if the forum or blog is information-rich then they are not only accepted, but may work really well with AdSense for their owners.

Google started with not accepting this type of sites. But it turned out that, in some cases, they represent exactly what users are looking for: Honest, useful, unbiased information, where anybody can express just what they truly think, and right when they feel the need to do it. On condition they are not artificially created for other purpose than that of letting their users interact in the world of ideas and benefit from each other's experience and knowledge.
Suggested blog such as Blogger.com and Wordpress.com

Image Galleries

Image sites may host AdSense if the images are accompanied by as little as some brief explanatory lines, relevant for the Mediabot, the Googles Media crawler. But these may not yield good results compared to content sites.

Chat Sites

These are not suitable for Google Adsense and thay may not even allow these kind of small talk sites.

How to build website for Adsense?

2009-05-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

To create your own website to make money with Adsense you need to:

Buy a Domain name.
Take Hosting Account.
Build the website content.
Apply for Adsense.
Integrate Adsense code into your website content.

First of all, you need a domain name to put your website on. First this you need to buy a domain name that describes the topic you are building your website for from any of the domain registrars such as GoDaddy. Domain names usually costs you less than $10 for a full year.

Once you have a domain name, you need a place on the web to put your content. For this you need to buy a web site hosting service. For this you tipically spend around $6 to $8 per month.

Once you have the hosting, you then have to actually build the content and upload the content to the hosting server. The content you thus uploaded to the hosting server can then be viewed on web using your domain name. To build content, you should either know HTML (and a web programming language such as ASP or PHP for dynamic sites) or if know nothing about web languages you may buy a website building tool such as XSitePro.

XSitePro is a very good content development tool that has made the process of building a website so easy and is streaks ahead of all the other tools on the market. Within two to three hours you will have worked your way through the tutorial and will be in the position to build your own successful money vehicle. It's literally built to facilitate what this website is talking about and even has an insertion facility for Adsense.

You then have to learn about the basics of how to use Adsense in your site.

For the complete newbie to Adsense, AdsenseHowTo.net has it's limitations as it doesn't go into the very basic stuff of how to get the code, how you change the variables etc. The site focuses on what actually makes money with Adsense and this is down to building the right websites, integrating Adsense correctly and bringing traffic to that website. Therefore you are going to need another source so that you can get to grips with the basics. There are two that I would recommend:

(i) The Google Adsense Help Center - From the people who made the program this is a good tour de force of Adsense and how to use it. They also have some good "heat maps" which give you ad placement ideas depending on the type of website you are building.

(ii) Adsense Forums - Digital Point and Webmaster World both have good Adsense forums if you're the type that can happily sit and sift through thousands of posts.

Earn Money Online by Writing Articles

2009-05-21T06:04:00.001-07:00

If you have an hour or two a day and you can write at the eighth grade level (most newspapers are written at that level) you can turn your writing into cash online.

There are sites that pay for content. Most of the sites require that you post your article first and wait for a buyer to come by and purchase the articles. Other sites share the revenue they earn from ads when someone clicks on an ad after reading your article. Some freelance sites let you choose the articles you would like to write, but don't pay until the article has been reviewed and accepted.

AssociatedContent buys the article from you. The pay is minimal from $3 to $5per 500 word article. However there are occasions where AssociatedContent has paid up to $50 per article. The articles can be submitted on an exclusive basis, meaning they aren't and won't be posted anywhere else, or nonexclusive, which means you've used the article elsewhere. If the article has been used elsewhere it must have your name on it as the author.

It takes a day or two for AssociatedContent to review the article and make the offer. You are not required to accept the offer and can withdraw the article. It takes another two days for the article to be published and then two or three days for AssociatedContent to make the payment to you.

Articles on popular subjects usually make the most money, whether you're selling the article itself or just earning ad revenues. Scan article directories to see which subjects have the most articles. Go to Google trends for up to the minute keyword phrases that are the most popular.

Use keyword phrases in the title of your article, once in the first paragraph and once in the last paragraph. This method will make sure your articles show up higher in the search engine rankings. And that means people are more likely to find them.

Write the article in a friendly tone, as if you were answering a question from a friend. A good length for articles is between 400 and 500 words. Long enough to be interesting but not so long the reader loses interest.

Sitting and staring at a blank computer screen while you struggle to get started on your article can be frustrating. Here are three methods that work.

1. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell Them. Tell them what you told them. In the first paragraph state what the article is going to be about. Make a list of 3 bullet points that will be covered in the article. Write a paragraph to explain each bullet point and why it's important. The final paragraph is a summary of what has been covered in the bullet points.

2. State the problem. State why the problem is important to the reader. Provide a general solution. Provide a specific solution.

3. Introduction of the problem. 3 or 4 tips to solve the problem. Conclusion

After the article has been written check it for correct spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. You don't have to be a great writer to earn money online by writing but well written articles will earn you more than poorly written articles.

Earn Money Online With These Two Successful Business Models

2009-05-21T06:02:00.000-07:00

There are so many empty promises and scams in the online money making world, that sometimes it is hard to believe that there are really any opportunities out there that can actually make you money. Don't worry though, there are a few opportunities that are legit and can earn you some good money online. They boil down to two online business models: Selling Information and Affiliate Marketing.

1) Selling Information

Offline, you either need to own a magazine or convince a book publisher to publish your book, in order to make some steady money off of information you write. Online is a whole different story. You can easily write a book and disseminate it, either for free or you can charge people for it. This is called an "e-book" and is generally a .pdf file.

You can setup a 1-page website that describes your book and you can place a Paypal or credit card processor link at the bottom, where people can pay you to receive your e-book. If there's a physical book about information you know, then writing an e-book for that same topic can be profitable.

Another key reason this is a successful business model is the low overhead costs. Unlike a book that needs to be published using physical paper, an e-book doesn't require continual printing. That leads to more money for you in the long run.

Another way to sell your information is by having a membership site. This is where people pay you either a one-time fee or on a monthly basis to have access to the information you write. If you provide quality information, people won't mind paying you each month for that information.

2) Affiliate Marketing

This is one of the top ways for people to make money online. There are people literally making thousands, hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, millions, each year, just by doing affiliate marketing.

Essentially, other companies pay you to promote their products, usually on a per-sale basis. So, for each sale you make, you make money. They happily pay people, because they usually end up making a lot more for each sale than they pay you. But, being the affiliate has it's perks too. You don't have to worry about a warehouse, shipping, or dreaded customer service. You just get people to buy and be done with it once you get paid.

You just need to learn how to drive traffic to websites, and you can either create a website that promote the affiliate product, or simply drive people to the program/product that you're an affiliate for, and you can start making some money. With many free ways to drive traffic to a website, you can make money with very little costs to you. Then you can just sit back and start cashing those affiliate checks.

Either model can be very profitable for you, just be sure you learn what it takes to succeed in each category. And understand you won't be making millions overnight, but you can make a decent income online.

Article Source:Ezinearticles.com

Earn Money Online Without a Website!

2009-05-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

Statistics show that eBay auctions generate around $86 million everyday, coming from its 2 million users that visit the website in a span of 24 short hours. These eBay users either buy products from online stores because they can't find these items in local stores, or sell items that they do not need anymore.

Of these 2 million eBay users, 430,00 of them do not own real shops. Instead, they run their part time or full time eBay business right from the comfort of their own home. What's more, there are even people who actually sell huge deals on eBay, like computers, cars, and even real estate. You, too, can be this person. You can setup your own eBay business from home, and you can start by selling various items that you don't need anymore.

Success in an eBay business starts with a few basic things that you must first learn about. First of all, the products that you are going to sell should be something of interest to you and your target market. Also, you need to consider where you are going to get your supplies, and that is through finding a legitimate wholesale supplier. You also need to know how to setup your own eBay store. These three things are the basic stuff that you need to know to maximize your business profits.

Contrary to what most people believe, you don't have to have a very large capital in order to start your eBay store. You also don't need to have lots of storage space in your home. Now that there are already dropshipping companies, you don't really have to find a spot in your house where you can store your stocks. For example, you have set up an auction in your eBay store. When the auction ends and you already have your winning bidder, you can just ask the wholesaler to ship the item directly to the winning bidder. That is how dropshipping works. You save both time and effort, since the only thing that you need to think about is how to promote your store. All the other stuff is the responsibility of your dropshipper.

You must know however that not all dropshippers can be trusted. Just like any other business venture, you have to be cautious in dealing with other people in the business. Beware of unreliable dropshippers, because not only will your profits suffer, you reputation as a seller might receive a blow as well. Remember, dropshippers are not supposed to middlemen, and anyone who claims otherwise is a scam. Don't be fooled by companies saying that dropshippers should share your profits. True, they have fees, but those fees are just small ones. Examples of good wholesale directories that you can try are Salehoo and The Ultimate eBay Dropship Power Park.

Article Source:Ezinearticles.com

Fastest Way To Get Top 10 In The Search Engines Of Web Business

2009-05-15T23:14:00.001-07:00

This is an article to show you the fastest way to get top 10 in the search engines for your own website. This method always work, especially for keywords with low competition. But there are some factors you need to consider before using it.

Ok, here is the method in summary:

Simply use the keywords that you want to rank for as the domain name of your website.

For example, if you want to get top 10 rank for “migraine headache relief”, you can name your website as one of the followings:

migraineheadacherelief (.com, .net or .org)
migraine-headache-relief (.com, .net or .org)

If those domain names are not available, you can add a prefix or suffix such as my, site, guide etc. For example,

mymigraineheadacherelief.com
migraineheadachereliefsite.com
migraineheadachereliefguide.com

The idea is to include the keywords in your domain name.

Before using this strategy, there are some issues you should consider:

1) It’s not a loophole

This method works for competitive keywords. If you don’t believe, search for ‘acne’ and see which website ranks top.

But this method is NOT a loophole.

You still need to build links into your homepage.

The only difference is you need lesser links compared to websites without the keywords in the domain names.

This brings us to the next important point - keyword research.

2) Keyword research

The more competitive the keywords, the more links you need and the longer time it takes for you to get top rank for that keywords.

As a start, it would be a better idea to aim for less competitive keywords.

How do you know if a keyword phrase is competitive?

Simple. Below are my personal checklist:

i) Google search result for that keyword phrase should have less than 500,000 results.

ii) Some of the webpages in the top 10 results should have a PR less than 3.

iii) Some of the webpages in the top 10 results are internal pages of Squidoo.com, Hubpages.com, Blogger.com, Ezinearticles.com and/or Buzzle.com.

If I found a keyword phrase that satisfies all the 3 criteria, plus the keyword phrase has a good demand, I know that I’ve found another gold.

3) Branding

If you think domain name such as migraineheadacherelief.com looks ugly, you are absolutely right!

But if I am creating an affiliate site or Adsense site, I don’t really care whether my domain name looks professional.

If I’m creating a website that requires some form of branding, I may have to give this trick a pass. Alternatively, I will try to include as many keywords as possible while making sure that the domain name looks professional.

Adsense: Why Bloggers Don’t Get It

2009-05-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

In doing the research for my series of Adsense articles and web business, two common ideas kept getting repeated:

My Adsense ads are horrible, they only pay out (insert low dollar figure here)
My Adsense CTR is horrible, I only get a (insert extremely low CTR here)

To be fair these comments weren’t coming just from bloggers, but bloggers did make up an overwhelmingly large percentage. I think this stems from a misconception on the part of the bloggers that they are entitled to high payout and CTR. I’d like to spend a little time to share my feelings on this subject. In the early days a blog may just have been an online diary or journal, but like the days of the Nehru jackets, they are gone. What a blog is now is Chronologically Structured Content Management System, as opposed to the classic web hierarchical structured implementation. Let’s be clear, you can still use a blog as your online diary or journal, but nowdays it’s just as likely to be used as a commercial blog. Yes, I did just say commercial blog, and no the earth didn’t open under my feet and swallow me whole for saying it. Let’s take some time to look at a your typical blog.

You may post about commercial related subjects like your job, what you like to buy, or even your hobbies. However these posts are all about your life, they are no more commercially viable or attractive than say Aunt Millie’s Holiday Newsletter. Yes we all have an Aunt Millie in our family, every year she sends out a finely crafted newsletter in a coordinating envelope she ordered from paperdirect.com telling us all about her family. We learn how hard her husband works, how many activities her kids are in and how good they are at them. We also read the details of how her scrapbooking business hasn’t taken off yet, but she promises to spend more time on it right after New Years. So if you were a business owner would you want to advertise anywhere on Aunt Millie’s Newsletter? Then why would a business want to pay you top dollar to advertise on your blog? What’s that, you say your blog gets (insert a high number here) of readers per day, surely that has to be worth something? Well did you know Aunt Millie sends out over 800 copies of her holiday newsletter to 17 countries, on 4 continents? Now before you get all fired up about it, understand that I don’t have a problem with you having a personal blog or sharing it with the public. However your expectation that it has value outside of your family/friends/community, is a serious misconception.

So what exactly is a commercially viable blog? Don’t think of it as publishing a blog, think of it as publishing an online magazine. You need to start out with good content or articles about a small area or niche topic. You will need lots of content, and unless you are well known, don’t expect much to happen until you’ve written at least 100 and more likely over 200 articles. Yes you will have to devote some time and effort to publicizing and marketing it as well. Once you’ve got a significant focused reader base, that’s the time to slowly ad in the advertising. Now here’s the one that causes lots of people to freak out. BE PREPARED TO GIVE UP SOME PRIME SCREEN REAL ESTATE, IN THE CENTER, ABOVE THE FOLD, TO ADVERTISING. If you’ve worked with print media at all you will know the middle of the right hand page is the most desirable spot inside of a magazine (excluding the cover pages). I’ve sat through meetings where people have said ” … you know we need more right hand pages …”. If you want people to click on your ads, you will need put them where they can see them, above the fold in the center of the screen, in a prominent location. Yes I can almost here the keys typing for the flame comments and emails now. Before you hit that send button though, ask yourself this, are you building a space sough after by advertisers, or are you working on Aunt Millie’s Newsletter? No I don’t think your pages should be filled with ads, in fact quite the opposite, there should always be more content than advertising, ALWAYS! Web Business is your main target.

Next thing, lose the fancy graphics and eye-candy from your template. Yes I know you may have paid for a fancy template, maybe you had your niece who’s a graphic artist design something for you, or you really like the way that spinning flaming platypus looks in your page header. Here’s the thing, it’s detracting from your content. Graphics should be simple, understated, and support the content, not overpower or compete with it. Now before some art student wearing a beret, corduroy jacket with elbow patches, and smoking a pipe or French cigarette, writes and calls me a Philistine, stop and think. Are you designing a commercially attractive and viable space, or are you designing an intricate macrame border for Aunt Millie’s Newsletter? Remember keep it simple and to the point.

Yes I know you feel like I just ripped off the band-aid, and now it hurts. Sorry but someone had to do it. I know some of you are still out there reading saying ‘but can’t I still have this … do we have to get rid of this … I really like that …’. Well I’m not your second grade teacher who’s going to tell you everything’s all right, that you don’t have to change a thing, and put a scooby-doo sticker on your shirt to make you feel better. If you want a blog that makes you more money than you spend at Starbucks every Tuesday, you will need to get serious about what you’re doing.

If none of this sounds incredibly fun, and really sounds pretty close to actual work, here’s the way I see it, getting an Adsense check for $5 is fun, getting an Adsense check for $500 or $5000 is work as part of web business.

Disclaimers:
I don’t actually have an Aunt Millie, she’s a fictional character. But like you, I do have relatives who send out holiday newsletters.

Yes I know the minimum Adsense payment is $100, so you never could get a $5 check, but I was just making a point, mmkay? Adsense as Web Business Main Target.

Adsense Tools

2009-05-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

Adsense Script Tools

These are the tiny little programs you install on your server (blech!) or locally on your machine that help you analyze your adsense clicks, CTR and earnings. Yeah.!! Web business like adsense also have some great tools. Some of them are easy, some of them are difficult, and some of them help you make pretty graphs. To be honest none of them are worth recommending. You could do just as good a job by setting up your channels properly and dumping a CSV file into excel. If someone has a specific one or wants to send me a review copy of thier software, I will look at it. DO NOT send me anything that has to be installed on a server. I run multiple websites on multiple hosting companies, so I don’t need something that requires more maintenance thank you very much.

Adsense Preview Tools

The Adsense Sandbox comes via Digital Point. You put in a URL and it lets you preview what ads are most likely to appear on a URL. Pretty handy IMHO.

Adsense Tracking

While not set up to be an Adsense tracking tool per se, the free log analyzer from AddFreeStats is actually pretty good. You put a small graphic tracking bug on the bottom of each of your pages and it gives you standard logging reports. You can also activate adsense tracking to find out what ads are being clicked on what pages. Combine this with an excel spreadsheet and channels and you are good to go. You can upgrade to a paid version and get an invisible tracking bug. TIP: Lock down your stats under a password, I’m fascinated how many people leave that open.

Adsense in Action

Probably one of the best things you can do to increase your adsense earnings is to go and look how other people are doing things. The adsense case studies are one place. While these are Google approved you really don’t have an idea how successful they are. So you’d be much better off finding someone you know is in the UPS Club. Jason Calacanis who runs Weblogs Inc is on a quest to make 1 Million dollars a year from Adsense. While I do give Jason a hard time sometimes, I do actually admire what he’s built, and think there are some very valuable lessons to be learned from looking at the websites owns. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger also has two sites I really like the Digital Camera Review and Camera Phone Review. Don’t be a wanker and copy exactly what they’ve done, it’s bad form. Instead look at them, learn from them, and use it as inspiration. Web Business is great.

Build an Empire?

2009-05-08T06:38:00.000-07:00

When you’re deciding to become a website publisher as part as web business program you will fall into one of two broad categories:

Publish 100 websites that each earn $1 a day profit
Publish 1 website that earns $100 a day profit

The reality of it is, most people end up somewhere in between. Having 100 websites leaves you with maintenance, management and content issues. Having one website leaves you open to all sort of fluctuations (search engines algorithm’s, market trends, etc). You can adapt your plan on the way, but you’ll have an easier time if you start out going in the direction of where you want to end up.

General or Niche

You can build your website or web business around general topics or niche ones. Generally speaking niche websites work better with adsense. First off the ad targeting is much better. Secondly as you have a narrow focus your writing naturally becomes more expert in nature. Hopefully this makes you more authority in your field.

If this is your first try at building an adsense website (web business), make it about something you enjoy. It will make the process much easier and less painful to accomplish. You should however make sure that your topic has enough of an ad inventory and the payout is at a level you are comfortable with. You may love medieval folk dancing, but the pool of advertisers for that subject is very small (in fact it’s currently zero).

Once you’ve gotten the hang of how Adsense works on a website, you are going to want to dabble in some high paying keywords, you may even be tempted to buy a high paying keyword list. This does come with some dangers. First off the level of fraud is much higher on the big money terms. Secondly there is a distortion of the supply and demand relationship for these terms. Everyone wants ads on their website that make $35 or more a click, however the number of advertisers who are willing to pay that much is pretty limited. Additionally the competition for that traffic is going to be stiff. So, don’t try to run with the big dogs if you can’t keep up. If you have to ask if you’re a big dog, then chances are, you’re not. I have used a high dollar keywords report from cashkeywords.com and was pleased with my results (see cash keywords free offer recap).

New Sites, Files and Maintenance

When you’re building a new site don’t put adsense on it until it’s finished. In fact I’d go even farther and say don’t put adsense on it until you have built inbound links and started getting traffic. If you put up a website with “lorem ipsum” dummy or placeholder text, your adsense ads will almost certainly be off topic. This is often true for new files on existing websites, especially if the topic is new or different. It may take days or weeks for google’s media bot to come back to your page and get the ads properly targeted. TIP: If you start getting lots of traffic from a variety of IP’s you will speed this process up dramatically.

I like to build my sites using include files. I put the header, footer and navigation in common files. It makes it much easier to maintain and manage. I also like to put my adsense code in include files. If I want/need to change my adsense code, it’s only one file I have to work with. TIP: I also use programming to turn the adsense on or off. I can change one global variable to true or false and my adsense ads will appear or disappear.Web Business

Managing URL’s and channels

2009-05-08T06:37:00.002-07:00

Adsense channels is one area where it’s really easy to go overboard with stats. You can set up URL channels to compare how one website is doing to another. You can also set up sub channels for each URL. If you wanted to you do something channels like this:

domain1.com - 728 banner
domain1.com - 336 block
domain1.com - text link
domain2.com - 728 banner
domain2.com - image banner
domain2.com - 336 block
domain3.com - 300 block

While this is great for testing and knowing who clicks where and why, it makes your reporting a little wonky. Your total number will always be correct but when you look at your reports with a channel break down things will get displayed multiple times and not add up to correct total. Makes things pretty confusing, so decide if you really need/want that level of reporting detail. TIP: At the very least you want to know what URL is generating the income so be sure to enter distinct URL channels.

Site Design and Integration

2009-05-08T06:37:00.001-07:00

Once you know you are going to put adsense on your website you’re going to have to consider where to put it. If this is new site it’s easier, if it’s an existing site it’s more difficult. While there are some people who will be able to do it, in most cases I’d say if you just slap the adsense code in, you’ll end up with a frankensite monster (props to Tedster of WMW for the buzzword). While every website is different, Google has published some heat maps showing the optimal locations. No surprise that the best spots are middle of the page and left hand side. Now I’ve done really well by placing it on the right, but you should know why you’re doing it that way before hand, and be prepared to change it if it doesn’t work out.

Google has also has published a list of the highest performing ad sizes:

336×280 large rectangle
300×250 inline rectangle
160×600 wide skyscraper

From the sites that I run, I do really well with the 336 rectangle and 160 skyscraper. My next best performing ad size is the 728 leaderboard, I don’t really use the 300 inline rectangle too often. So really it depends on how well you integrate these into your site. Placement can have a dramatic effect on performance. TIP: When working on a new site or new layout you may want to give each location it’s own channel for a little while until you understand the users behavior.

Another ‘trick’ that can increase your CTR is by blending your adsense into your body copy. For example if your body copy is black, remove the adsense border and make the title, text, and URL black.TIP: Try changing all of your page hyperlinks to a high contrast color (like dark red or a bold blue) then change the adsense title to the same color.

The one area where I’ve found blended ads don’t perform as well is forums, especially ones with a high volume of repeat members. Regular visitors develop banner blindness pretty quickly. One ‘trick’ to keep the ads from being ignored is to randomize the color and even the placement. As with any of the decisions about location, placement and color it’s a trade off. How much do you emphasize the ads without annoying your visitors. Remember it’s better to have a 1% CTR with 500 regular visitors as opposed to a 5% CTR with 50 visitors. TIP: For forums try placing the adsense ads directly above or below the the first forum thread.

Using Images

2009-05-08T06:36:00.002-07:00

Using Images

One of the latest ’secrets’ to make the rounds is using images placed directly above or below an adsense leaderboard. This has been used for a while but came out in a digital point forum thread where a member talked about quadrupling their CTR. Basically you set up the adsense code in a table with four images that line up directly with the ads. Whether or not this is deceptive is fuzzy and very subjective. Obviously four blinking arrows would be ‘enticing people to click’ and be against the adsense TOS. However placing pictures of 4 laptops over laptops ads isn’t, so use your best judgment here and look at it from the advertiser or Google’s perspective. If you have a question as to your implementation being ‘over the line’ write to adsense and ask them to take a look.

As far as using the images, I’ve done it and can tell you it definitely works. You get the best results when the images ‘complete the story the ads are telling’. For example if you have ads about apple pies, use pictures of freshly baked apple pies, instead of granny smith, Macintosh, pink lady, and braeburn apples. TIP: Don’t limit yourself to using images only on that size ad unit, it works just as well with the other sizes, like the 336 rectangle.

Multiple Ad Units

2009-05-08T06:36:00.001-07:00

Another way to increase ad revenue is to use multiple ad units. According to Google’s TOS you are allowed to post up to three ad units per page. Similar to standard search results the highest paying ad units will be served first and the lowest being served last. If there is enough of an ad inventory, place all three ad units. However you should pay attention to the payouts. Current assumption is you get 60% of the revenue (on a $0.05 click you get $0.03). So if a click from the third ad unit is only paying between 3 to 5 cents you may want to omit it from your page. This is one are where giving your ad units channels does have value. If one ad unit is getting a higher percentage of click throughs you’ll want to make sure the highest paying ads are being served there. TIP:Use CSS positioning to get your highest paying ads serving in the location with the highest CTR.

PPC Arbitrage

2009-05-08T06:34:00.001-07:00

This is a dicey subject so I’m going to steer clear of precise examples. Basically you bid on low volume uber niche terms at a very low cost. You set up landing page that contains high payout ads for the related general topic. You are looking for terms with a large gap between the price you are bidding on adwords and the price you are getting on Adsense. If you pay $0.10 a click and get $1.00 a click you make $0.90 each click. To get your adsense ad approved you will need to ‘add some value’ along the way. You can make a killing or get taken to the cleaners with this one, so make sure you know what you are doing before you try it.

Have any other adsense tips, tricks or secrets? Drop me an email and let me know, I’ll give you credit.

Added
728 leaderboard works very well if it is just above the end of the
“above the fold” area on what would be considered your viewers average
resolution/browser window size if there are few other enticing links
above the fold. Makes for an interesting layout but if you’re building
a site for AdSense it may be worth it. We consistently receive very
high CTRs from doing this.

Try to build sites that allow you to quickly try any and all of
those locations outlined in the heatmap guide or at least allow you a
wide degree of freedom to easily change ad/content locations.

Affiliate Sites

2009-05-08T06:33:00.002-07:00

Placing Adsense on affiliate sites is tricky. Are you giving up a $10, $20, or $30 sale for a $1 click? This is something you have to test on your own to figure out. If you aren’t converting now it’s definitely worth a try. I like to use adsense on my article pages. For example let’s say you had an affiliate website where you sold shoes. You’re going to need some related articles to ‘flesh out’ the site. Things like ‘getting a shoe shine’ or ‘finding a shoe repair shop’ these are excellent spots for adsense. While you won’t get rich, they will usually provide a small steady income and cover things like hosting costs.TIP: If you find you have pages getting more than 50 clicks per month add more pages about this topic, and link the pages together. Mine you logs for the search terms used.

Adsense in RSS

2009-05-08T06:33:00.001-07:00

With the growth of blogs and RSS feeds you’re starting to see adsense included in the feeds now. IMHO this doesn’t work, and here’s why:

You only get to place one ad unit.
You have no control over finding the ’sweet spot’ for the ad unit.
The ads are usually poorly targeted (this is getting better).
People develop ‘banner blindness’.

I know people like being able to read full postings in their feed reader, and there are at least a dozen other reasons for full posts from pleasing your users to mobile offline computing, all of which are completely valid. However if your website depends on generating adsense revenue to survive, then bring them to the site and show them the ads there.

Contact Us

2009-05-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks for stopping by. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to freedownload121@gmail.com.

One of the best things about writing a blog over a long period of time is the large number of new connections and relationships you make with (in my case) other small and large businesses, PR firms and reps and other bloggers. I like to give visibility for products and services, because readers find them valuable, as long as the information is presented as a resource and not as a sales pitch. So…

HELPFUL SITES LISTINGS – Links found in our site are not sold. If you have a small business informational site or blog that would be of value to our readers, contact us to be included. We will review the site and if appropriate, add it to our list of Helpful Websites (our blogroll over on the right sidebar) free of charge.

GUEST POSTS – If you would like to have a post on this blog at no cost to you, write something of value to our audience: Web Business's. Keep the length to about 200-300 words and link to something; maybe the rest of a longer article, a relevant web page on your site, etc. Take a look at other posts here to see the style and kinds of topics that are appropriate. Email it to us — we will review it, approve it and post it.

ADVERTISING – OK, maybe you would like to get exposure on this blog but you are not a writer and maybe you just don’t get this whole blog thing but you know that your customers and prospects might be visiting. In that case, we offer inexpensive advertising:

Sponsor Banner: $100/month - If you look on the far right side of the page you will see a section called ‘Sponsors.’ If you would like to place a banner in this section the graphic size is 125 x 125 pixels.
Custom Solutions: If you are interested in doing more than a banner ad, send us an email and we will work together to come up with something.

Free Tools

2009-05-08T05:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Web Business Tips page. We have compiled a group of really helpful websites that offer free management tools and resources for your small business. There are lots of free e-books, business templates, checklists, business forms, white papers, free pdf files, and worksheets to choose from.

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Business Owner’s Toolkit - A large collection of free business forms, free tools, business templates and checklists that includes a variety of topics ranging from employee management, safety, asset protection, marketing, recruiting and hiring, IRS tax forms, compensation and benefits, government contracting forms and so much more. They also have a business card exchange where you can network with others in your industry.

QuickBooks Simple Start 2009 FREE - Manage your small business better with Intuit’s free 2009 edition of accounting software for Windows. Keep all of your small business accounting records organized including tracking taxes, sales, expenses and customer information and will import data from prior versions of Simple Start. You can create professional-looking invoices & estimates, record cash and credit card expenses, write and print checks and more.

Free Small Business eBooks- A simple, free registration will give you access to nearly 200 free small business ebooks. Some examples of topics covered in the free white papers and free documents are maximizing conversion rates, getting website traffic, internet marketing, increasing profits and improving customer satisfaction. There’s something here for everyone including an internet beginner’s business guide and how to get a million visitors to your website.

Free Trade Magazines- Anita Campbell, Founder of Small Business Trends, offers an extensive list of free small business magazine subscriptions, eGuides, downloads, podcasts and white papers. Browse through a multitude of listings and search for titles that match your topics of interest such as small business management, franchising, marketing and entrepreneurship. Publications include eWeek, Website Magazine and many more.

Tools From Inc.com - A free membership to Inc.com allows you to access over 100 free small business tools that includes categories such as doing business online, financial management, finding capital, hiring and recruiting, managing employees, marketing, performance management, personnel administration, termination and workplace safety. Inc.com offers help for every area of business and is the “daily resource for entrepreneurs.”

SME Toolkit - This collection of free small business tools and resources consists of free training, calculators, small business forms and how-to articles. Topics range from accounting, franchising, payroll, insurance, marketing and technology. Browse the categories to locate the information you need and be sure to enroll in the My Own Business computer training course for those of you who want to start your own business. The course is free.

FormNet- Use this free business forms download service available on Entrepreneur.com. Save yourself time and expense by using these free business form templates and documents available in Microsoft Word, Excel or Adobe pdf. Categories include accounting, credit and collections, insurance, inventory, human resources, leasing, marketing, management, sales, shipping and starting your own small business. No more creating documents from scratch!

Small Business Resource Guide - The Internal Revenue Service is offering up to 5 copies of this Small Business Resource Guide CD-ROM for free. This free CD provides small business tax information including forms and instructions. The CD also contains various website links to government agencies designed to help small businesses comply with tax laws and provides useful information from government agencies, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions.

Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009 FREE- This free software download is designed to help you and your small business organize data, track employees and process payroll all while saving you time. Designed for US and UK based small businesses and works with other Office applications you may already know. Features include exporting reports to Excel, writing checks, Paypal invoices, payroll, customizable reports and create eBay listings in Office Accounting.

Professional Documents- At Docstoc you can search and share free small business forms, business templates and small business documents. Samples of small business plans, market research and business contracts are available to download free of charge and categories include everything from arts, fashion, educational, technology, finance, legal, real estate and more. Looking for documents and don’t know where to begin? This is the place.

Free Templates and Forms - The Fresh Focus blog has put together a list of free small business templates and forms to improve productivity. These tools are all organized in one place for ease of downloading. Come on over and browse around. Custom templates are also available that include notepads, weekly, monthly and yearly calendars, agendas, expense reports, to-do lists, graph paper, phone logs and more.

Free eBooks, Guides, Manuals and Legal Documents- Publish and share your small business documents FREE at Scribd. You can upload and store your business documents or explore their extensive library of available free tools and resources. You will find an array of free ebooks, guides, manuals and legal documents for your use. Embed your documents anywhere on the web. All major formats accepted with unlimited storage.

Free Small Business Guides and Government Forms - Business.gov is your gateway to official U.S. Government federal forms and business guides. Topics that are covered range from taxes, loans and market research. State and local information is available for small businesses in each and every state. Find out information on what is involved in registering a business, applying for a license, paying taxes and file forms.

Free Small Business Tools and Research Resources - Free access to helpful business information tools and resources designed for any business type and size. Topics range from starting a small business to growing, managing and maturing your business. Locate free resources not easily found through any other means, learn how to become a better business manager, organize with free templates, and manage human resources.

Free Productivity, Collaboration and Business Applications - A centralized collection of tons of free spreadsheets, presentation tools, management software and much, much more. There is even a new section of apps for your small business needs. Everything you could possibly need for operating a more productive business. Login for your free access and active forum discussions on the latest hot topics in Zoho applications.

Free Copy of “The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales“ - If you are looking to reach a completely new level of success for your small business, download your free copy of this ebook to take you and your business to the “next level”. Systemize and simplify your business operations while doubling your sales with the 9 proven techniques revealed within this free copy of the downloadable book.

Free Business and Entrepreneurship Courses - Take advantage of this large list of 100 Ivy League business and entrepreneurship courses that are completely free for you to attend! These top university courses are seperated into topic categories that include accounting and finance, economics, communication, management, leadership, marketing and advertising, product developmant and launch, technology and law.

HP Creative Studio - Hewlett-Packard has compiled an extensive collection of business tools and business marketing materials available for your use. Resources & templates found under the “DIY Free” level are obviously free for your use. There are lots of free designs, document and signage templates, presentation materials, business forms, website and blog templates and much, much more to choose from.

Free Tools & Forms - Winmark Business Solutions provides access to useful free small business tools such as business plans, official government forms, financial spreadsheets, checklists, legal forms and business templates. These ready-to-use business resources with help you work more efficiently and faster. Take advantage of the wealth of resources available to you here all at no cost to you.

Free Spreadsheet Download Library - JaxWorks.com has hundreds of Excel spreadsheets available on their site for downloading at no cost to you. These free offerings cover a number of financial, accounting and sales functions at all skill levels. Browse the selections and save any number of these for future reference. The free downloads are available for Windows Excel, Apple Macintosh Excel and Apple iWorks Numbers.

Free Quick Reference Training Guides - CustomGuide offers free downloadable quick reference computer training guides. These free pdf files are downloadable and printable for your office needs. Employees can quickly refer to these guides for general operating information on Microsoft, Mac, and Adobe software programs. You could also easily incorporate these free guides into new employee training handbooks.

Free Small Business Letters and Forms - Freebusinessforms.com provides a large selection of free small business letters and forms. You have unlimited access to printable invoice forms, receipts, debt collection letters, contracts, legal forms and more. There is also a section of reports, e-books, and employment information available for download. Sign up for their email updates to be notified when new forms are added.

300+ Completely Free Twitter “Follow Me” Buttons and Icons

2009-05-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

By now you’ve probably started trying your hand at Twitter. Everyone’s trying it, so why not you? If your business is new to Twitter, you’re probably working on gathering followers. One great way to make sure your customers can follow you is by adding a Twitter “follow me” icon onto your blog or website.

There are a lot of good Twitter graphics to choose from online. I’ve put together a list of sites that offer the best “follow me” buttons absolutely free of charge. Between all of these sites there are over 300 “follow me” icons to choose from.

Web Design by mts - This site offers 10 Twitter follow me icons for free download. There are 5 designs which come in both a white backround and a transparent version. The site is not in English but the download is pretty self explanatory.

Randa Clay Design - Randa has 18 free follow me graphics for you to download, post to your site and link to your Twitter account.

My Social Buttons - For a very different version of the follow me button, take a look at these 5 hand sketched Twitter buttons.

Limeshot Design - Ema Hoffmann shares 36 awesome follow me buttons. Each badge is very colorful and some even have retro backround designs.

Twit Buttons - This website offers 44 follow me button choices to choose from. You can enter your Twitter id to generate copy and paste code to quickly add the icons to your own site or blog.

Siah Designs - Josiah Jost’s list of over 40 free follow me buttons includes a few that are animated. For a small fee (only $10), Josiah will personalize one with your own name.

G34 Media - There are 5 very different Twitter icons on this site. Each one would make a fun and colorful addition to your site.

U Stand Out - Diana Freedman has 48 Twitter badge designs for you to choose from. A great selection of options with some basic, more professional versions also. The icon pictured above is from this website.

Blog Marketing Web 2.0 - Although this site is not written in English, the 31 colorful Twitter badges are. If you’re looking for something fun, this is the site to see.

Tab Folder - This site has 3 really cute buttons with a very whimsical looking Twitter bird on them. A different look but still very professional.

Twitter Buttons - Depending on your brand image, you may find these free buttons a bit too juvenile for your business. Over 80 cute and colorful designs to choose from. This site makes it a breeze by providing copy & paste HTML code for you.

The Design Superhero - This free icon file download gives you three designs in 5 different resolutions. The collection is centered around their version of the blue Twitter bird but this one has very large eyes.

Once you’ve built up your followers with the use of these free icons, you can start using some of the Free Twitter Applications For Small Business.

5 Free Tools to Boost Your Online Marketing Results

2009-05-08T05:50:00.000-07:00

The 2009 business world is competitive, and consumer expectations are high. As costs rise and marketing budgets shrink, small businesses are looking for ways to improve their ROI with every dollar spent.

While many businesses have realized search engine marketing is a smart way to grow a business, some launch a website, start-up a PPC campaign, or invest in professional SEO, and neglect to spend time optimizing their efforts, leading to low conversion rates to less than stellar search engine rankings.

The good news? A variety of tools are available to help you boost your online marketing results. Here is a breakdown of five of the best to help you get started. All tools reviewed in this article are either free to use or available as a free trial.

1. Twitter

The microblogging service has taken the online world by storm, but there are many small and large businesses out there that aren’t quite sure how to use it. Figuring out just what it means to ‘tweet’ may seem daunting at first, but taking the time to understand the Twitter phenomenon can reap huge rewards for your business. From growing your customer base to establishing your brand and building rewarding partnerships, Twitter has a myriad of uses and all it takes to get going is patience and an open mind. The best thing about Twitter? It can help you achieve calculable sales and marketing goals in a fraction of the time it would take to do achieve the same goals using only traditional means. For a list of small businesses and small business resources on Twitter, check out The Ultimate Small Business Twitter List.

2. Google Analytics

A robust tool with enterprise-level features, Google Analytics helps you gather data about your advertising and website and make improvements to improve your bottom line. Use the tool to determine the sources of your website traffic, the value of content on individual pages on your site, which keywords produce the most conversions, and how different elements of your marketing mix compare in terms of ROI. It can take more time to get comfortable with Google Analytics than it takes to get going with other tools on this list, but once you paste the Google Analytics code onto each page of your site, you can begin to classify sources of traffic, create unique links to track online and offline advertising campaigns, and import AdWords data to analyze PPC performance. For more information and help getting started, watch the Google Analytics product tour.

3. Site-Perf

It happens all the time. People hire a graphic designer, build a stunning website, pay a programmer to make things run seamlessly, and then forget to address one important thing: site loading speed. While Site-Perf isn’t nearly as sexy as the other tools on this list, it is invaluable for determining how users experience your website. Failing to address user experience can lead to disappointing marketing results, and low conversions, but with Site-Perf you can spot and correct problems, test the effect of design changes on loading speed, and balance elements like CSS, images and links to achieve the ideal visitor experience. Other useful features include the ability to test the speed of your admin area by creating a Site-Perf login, gauge the experience of users who visit your site from anywhere in the world, and test the effect of moving your domain to a new server before you make the switch.

4. ClickTale

Easy to set-up and understand, ClickTale lets you start learning more about how your visitors interact with your site in just minutes. With ClickTale, you can record ‘movies’ of your visitor’s browsing sessions, view heatmaps that detail visitor scrolling behavior, and analyze how visitors interact with buttons, links, and fields to identify where users hesitate, click, and abandon pages and forms. Use the data you collect to improve site usability, increase form conversions, reduce abandons, and establish empirical best practices regarding what works for your site.

5. CrazyEgg

Similar to ClickTale but with fewer features, CrazyEgg is another tool focused on site usability. Although it doesn’t record movies like ClickTale, CrazyEgg is great for those who want a quick overview of how users interact with their site and don’t need a detailed analysis on abandons, hover time, and scrolling behavior. Particularly useful for testing content and layout performance when optimizing landing pages, CrazyEgg makes it easy to determine which content on your site is getting the most attention, which call-to-action is generating more clicks, and how design changes affect conversions. CrazyEgg can be used in connection with Google Analytics to analyze clicks at-a-glance and optimize landing pages based on a streamlined set of data.

Customer surveys: Writing a customer satisfaction survey

2009-05-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

Measuring customer satisfaction is a great way to focus your business development on the areas that will really make a difference to your customers. So how do you go about writing a customer satisfaction survey?

Here are some established customer satisfaction survey methods used by professional surveyors.

Number based scales

Numerical scales are useful in a customer satisfaction survey because you can work out averages and use these to track whether customer satisfaction is going up or down over time. Make sure you define the end points of the scale: lowest = very dissatisfied, highest = very satisfied. People generally think in low to high ways, so it is better to do scales from low to high.

Ten point scale

A scale out of 10 is useful when you want your customers to think in terms of percentages, because they can easily convert the number. Eg: 5/10 = 50%.

This can also be helpful when you are comparing two ways of asking about an aspect of your business, such as importance and satisfaction. Eg: if importance is 8/10 and satisfaction is 6/10, you can easily tell the percentage difference is 2/10 = 20%.

However, there are some disadvantages to using such a long scale, discussed next.

Seven point scale

Long scales can look a bit overwhelming for customer satisfaction survey participants, resulting in a limited range of responses. Because of this, they can be misleading.

For example, 7.5 out of 10 might sound like a good result, but most people will only range between 6 and 9 unless they feel very strongly about the issue. This is unlikely in a customer feedback survey. Taking this into account, a rating of 6 actually indicates they are somewhat dissatisfied, 9 is satisfied, and the mid point of 7.5 is only neutral. Not so good.

So if you don’t need the percentage information provided by a 10 point scale, then a scale from 1 to 7 could be a better choice. The mid point of 4 is clearly visible and you get more differentiation than a 5 point scale, which can be too short to be useful.

Word based scales

An alternative to numerical scales is to provide verbal response options. Rather than looking at the average, you compare the percentage of responses in each category. For example:

very dissatisfied | dissatisfied | neutral | satisfied | very satisfied

You can remove the neutral option from your customer surveys if you want to prevent your participants from sitting on the fence. Just make sure the scale is balanced.

If you are looking to improve customer satisfaction over time, focus on the top and bottom categories - aim to increase the percentage of “very satisfied” responses and decrease the percentage of “very dissatisfied” responses.

An alternative to rating scales

Maybe you had problems with rating scales because everyone rated your services so similarly that you couldn’t differentiate between them. Here are two alternatives.

Best and worst selection

One alternative is to list the range of services or other business aspects and ask your customers to choose their top three and bottom three, or just the best and worst if it is a short list. This will establish both the areas your customers approve of and those they feel you need to work on improving.

Ranking from highest to lowest

Another option is to ask participants to rank the aspects from highest to lowest satisfaction. This approach should not be used with very long lists as it can get too confusing.

A final word of advice: be consistent!

Regardless of the customer satisfaction measure you choose when writing customer surveys, the most important thing is to be consistent so you can track how customer satisfaction changes over time.

How To Overcome Fear Of Selling

2009-05-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

When I started out in business I had a real fear of selling. I thought salespeople weren't to be trusted, and I never wanted to hear 'no' from a prospect.

Here are three main reasons I realised I had to get over this fear of selling - and fast:

1. If you don't sell, your business suffers – that's obvious.

2. If you don't sell, your confidence suffers – that's obvious, too.

3. If you don't sell, you can’t help as many people. Obvious, but not always remembered.

If you've got a 'I don't-want-to-be-a-slimey-salesperson' fear of selling, then there's never been a better time to knock that block on its head. You don't need that self-imposed handicap in the middle of an alleged economic downturn!

I asked myself “why do I feel resistance to selling?” This is what I discovered - it may be familiar to you.

I love to buy, but I hate being 'sold' to

Have you ever had that sleazy car salesman experience where the subtext is – they don’t care about me – they just want my money? It's awful! Like a dog sniffing a skunk, you can smell 'desperate and self-focused' a million miles away.

I believe all salespeople have a touch of 'snake oil' deceit about them

Somewhere along the line, from my parents, friends, school, or daily life, I linked salespeople with some pretty unflattering notions: insincere, dishonest, just out for themselves and so on. No one wonder I didn't want to be one myself!

I have a fear of being rejected

I'm afraid of people saying ‘no’. It's the cold, sharp knife of rejection. I associated a 'no' to my offer with a 'no' to me as a human being.

If you feel as I did, then it's likely you’ve got some limiting beliefs about selling and what you have to offer.

This is how I 'cured' myself of the fear of selling, and you can too.

1.You need to reframe your concept of 'selling'. Selling is an exchange of value. For example, if I give you something, you give me something in return of equal value. I give you two cows, you give me three bushels of hay. I give you my product or service, then you give me a certain amount of money. There's giving AND receiving in any sales process.

2. You need to believe in your product or service heart and soul regardless of whether people buy it or not. You would rave about it even if you weren’t selling it. This is called the 'raving fan syndrome'.

If you don’t have the 'raving fan syndrome' about your product or service, here are some questions to consider:

How do you feel about the price of the product/service? Is it a no-brainer/sensible investment?
Do you use it or have used it before yourself?
If you weren’t selling it, would you still use it or rave about it?

Unless you answer yes to each of these questions you will have an ‘out of integrity experience’ in your selling and you will give off that shonky used-car-salesman vibe.

3. Practice this mantra: “The customer is more important than the sale”. You may not make the sale this time, but if you focus on offering value and helping people with their needs, rather than serving your own, you will build a lifetime fan. And that will mean more sales over the long run.

Happy selling!

The Essentials Of Good Business Writing

2009-05-08T05:43:00.000-07:00

Good business writing is at the heart of successful marketing. Without it you will be at best, misunderstood, at worst, totally ignored. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure your business writing hits the spot.

Write readable sentences by writing the way you talk

There is a misconception that good business writing is complex and flowery. It is simply not true. The only people who can ignore this advice are lawyers by virtue of the fact that it is their intention to make everything more complex than it need be, especially as they are paid by the hour to explain to you what they have written!

Use ordinary words

Don’t try to be too clever; don’t use a long word where a short one will do.

Variety

Vary your punctuation and sentence length to add life and movement to your writing.

Use the personal pronoun

Use "I" or "we" wherever you can.

Make your point

Make your main point early and make it easy to find. Don't introduce new ideas until you have thoroughly explained the first.

Intention

Make your purpose for writing clear. Say what you have found, address the issue or problem and make a recommendation or provide a solution. Tell the reader very clearly what you want them to do. Never make the assumption that the reader will make the mental leap between the information and what you want them to do about it.

Structure

Help your reader get to the point by revealing the structure of the document. Allow them to have control over what they discover and when.

White space

Leave plenty of white space. This can be created by using headings, lists, bullet points and short paragraphs.

Use font types wisely

If in doubt stick to the classic fonts. Don't litter your writing with bold, italics CAPITALS or underline; it makes the text harder to read.

Wherever possible, remember:

Use the active voice
Use ordinary words
Construct clear, simple sentences
Concrete not abstract – use examples, metaphors and details
Personal
Informal, conversational style
Make every word count or get rid of it
Use just enough punctuation to assist the reader
Watch your grammar – don’t switch tense.
Say what you mean and mean what you say
Don't use jargon - if you have to, explain it the first time you use it
Strive to express yourself clearly

Get to the point fast, or at least allow the reader the option to if they choose to

But most of all have fun with it. Never be afraid to reflect your own personality in your writing and it's okay to break a few rules now and again!

Seven reasons NOT to blog

2009-05-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

Seven reasons NOT to blog

You’ve read enough articles telling you why you should blog. What about reasons not to blog? This will help you objectively decide whether you should or shouldn’t start a blog.

1. You expect overnight results

Although it’s generally quicker than traditional marketing methods, blogging is still a slow and steady process, very much dependant on how much thought and effort you contribute.

Before expecting any results, work through the reasons why you’re blogging and what it is you want to achieve. Only then can you start expecting and measuring your results. Without clarity of purpose, your blog will most likely deliver less than desirable results.

2. You’ll only blog when an idea hits you

If you only blog sporadically about whatever pops into your mind, your blog will be ineffective.

Blogging is another marketing tool and should be treated as such. You need to make a plan. Brainstorm your post ideas, revise them and then arrange them in chronological order. Then work out a posting schedule, and stick to it.

Do this every 6 to 8 weeks, allowing for breaking news posts. This way you won’t ever be stumped on what to blog about which increases the quality of your posts and your readers can spot your blogging patterns, so will be more likely to return.

Keep a little journal or file to jot down your great post ideas in the interim.

3. You’re a really bad writer

You’re full of wonderful blog post ideas, but you know you are a terrible writer. Unfortunately, no matter how practical and valuable your ideas, if you cannot write coherently, you are better off not to blog.

Paying someone who can write to blog for you is an expensive exercise. More importantly, the essence of you simply cannot be portrayed in the same manner.

Bite the bullet and learn! Learning to write well will benefit many areas of your business, not just your blog.

4. You don’t read or comment on other people’s blogs

Reading and commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to attract new readers, build your brand, learn and find inspiration.

Make sure you include this step in your blog plan. Keeping your blog goals in mind, read and comment on selected blogs that will help you achieve your goals. If your goal is to attract new clients, then comment on blogs where you know your target market hang out.

Don’t forget to include a link to your blog in your signature.

5. You’re a fence-sitter

Boring. You won’t solicit many comments - or readers, for that matter.

Readers look for decisive, powerful, posts. Whilst this does not mean each and every post must be a controversial, shock-value rant, it does mean that you take a substantiated stand. Readers don’t have to agree with you; they have to be confident you know what you’re on about.

6. You’re going to remove comments you don’t like/agree with

We cannot please everyone. There’s always going to be that someone who doesn’t like/agree with us. Unless the post is blasphemous or insulting, leave it.

Do, however, respond with your own comment. This shows that you care about your reader’s thoughts and are willing to engage. This is one of the most valuable opportunities to showcase your client service acumen.

7. You’re blogging because everyone else is blogging

Your competition is blogging, and it’s all over the media, so you think you should blog, too. Perhaps - but is this a good enough reason? How successful will your blog really be if this is the only reason you’re blogging?

Again, it comes down to your blog plan. If you honestly cannot see value in blogging or you don’t have clarity of purpose, then you shouldn’t blog.

What other reasons are there not to blog? What elements of a blog do you think scream out ‘I don’t really care?’

Five tips for naming your business

2009-05-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

Naming your business is one of the first steps in flying solo, although it is often not an easy task and there are many factors to consider. Here are some practical tips to help you with the process of naming your business.

Your business name needs to be original, legally available and it must be able to represent you and what you do for many years to come. Although you also need to consider other factors when naming your business such as trade marks, registering your business name and branding, here we are going to focus on five things to consider when brainstorming your business name.

1. Don't choose a name that limits your business

Are you starting your business with the intention of selling it down the track? Lots of soloists name their business after themselves but if you plan to sell, it is better to come up with a more generic name.

Another reason for using a generic name is that although you probably have a good idea what your business intends to do in its first year. My experience of dealing with businesses is that what they start doing and what they end up doing may be totally different.

2. Choose a name with passion

If you have a passion or an inspiration from somewhere else, use it. Explaining why you chose your name can attract people to your business and to your enthusiasm. For example Dotty Dalmatians, Queens Corgis’, Miniature Poodles and Ruff are all great names for someone who likes dogs.

3. Emphasis qualities you want to promote

Using words such as bi-lo, discount, cheap and affordable when naming your business ensures customers know about your prices. Likewise you could emphasise high quality or another aspect of your business that you want to promote.

You may want to emphasis the suburb, city, or state you reside in and encourage the community to shop locally, or you may be targeting a more global audience. Either decision may be appropriate for your circumstances, but make sure your business name reflects this decision.

4. Make your name easy to spell and pronounce

If someone hears it on the radio can they Google the name and find you?

5. Set yourself apart

Before you decide on a name, Google it. Are there other businesses with similar names or is it too general, such as ‘Exotic Cars’, and so it will bring up too many listings on search engines?

Make a list of all of your competitors. Do you want to sound like them or do you want to be distinguished from them? Sounding too much like a competitor can have consequences.

For example, a client of mine ran a well-known business in a county of England and then a business with a similar sounding name started up nearby. Apart from the name, the two businesses were very different. My client would often receive purchase orders on his fax machine that were intended for the other company. He would then source the equipment and sell it to them making a tidy and easy profit!

What next? Get out the whiteboard and markers and start brainstorming using these practical tips. Play with the words and make a shortlist of suitable candidates. Try them out on colleagues and friends that you trust.

Your business name is just waiting for you to discover it!