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Experimental Post
Author: buzz42, 11/06
Lauren Jones, Bob Dylan, Al Roker, Billie Holiday and Steve Harvey all had nothing to do with this post.Thank fully.
But who are these people and why should you care?
One way to get traffic is to ride a new trend (of which all of the above save one are examples of). The result of trend riding and making psots about say, Steve Harvey getting married or Bob Dyln picking his nose (fake example) is good only for short term boosts to traffic.
Due to the large volume of content a hot topic produces there will be almost no long tail to a topic rider.
So be sure to stay within your niche. But do ride those
The Deadly Myth about Search Engine Optimization and Google
Author: buzz42, 18/04
by Alex roderickIn the present time, we are so obsessed with Search Engine Optimization and Google Page Rank that many of the webmasters tend to think that SEO and Top Positions in Google would lead them to a hidden treasure and would immediately result in Tens of Thousands of dollars of business flowing into their bank.
They are wrong, Top Rankings wouldn’t be your best bet always, I’ve seen websites in Top Positions in Google for the worlds most competitive keywords, sustaining there for a considerable time and then eventually, falling down, changed their business methodology, or changing their business plans altogether.
Apologies for my Grammatical Errors, but I’m only a techie trying to share my experience but not a Web Copywriter or a linguistic.
I wouldn’t name the website here, but I know well about them because I was trying to compete with them for two most competitive keywords “web design company” and “web designing company” If you doubt that these keywords are so competitive, I would like you to have a look at this great tool which would tell you how competitive a keyword and a phrase is, it’s fun to play with.
This website was on top for a long time, their portfolio was nice, their site design and layout was brilliant and there prices were very competitive, but suddenly one fine day I saw their business methodology totally changed, they were now selling an online casino package and have shut down their web design operations and kept them on a low profile (at least on their website it seems that way). After a month their rankings fell and they were virtually non existent on that keyword term, but of course they are on prominent position for their targeted keywords now once again, but the keywords are different obviously.
So why did they do that, If they were willing to foray into a different field, why did they leave their existent business, I would think because their existent business was not very profitable so they decided to shut it down and do something which is more worthwhile for them to do.
So, Top Rankings do not guarantee Mind Blowing Profits, If your Industry is over saturated, then you can’t count on Top Rankings for a pool of money flowing in to your business.
The idea is that Webmasters should not keep trying to compete on competitive keywords and spend all their valuable time and resources there, Top Rankings could help your business grow but it’s not the only way where you can grow your business, I was able to get top rankings on keywords “web design company” in Yahoo & MSN, so did it help my business?? The answer is – Not Much. Much of the Business (90% of it), I’m generating is from direct marketing, emailing and other traffic building activities. This is not good considering that 40% of Search Traffic comes from Yahoo & MSN, 50% from Google, and 10% from other search engines, so where did I go wrong. The answer is no where, I didn’t do anything wrong, It’s a fact that only 10-20% of your customers come from Search Engines by searching your most optimized keywords even if you are on Top 10 Positions on them. Of course if you solely don’t rely on Search Engines for your Business.
Opt in E-Mail Marketing is the cheapest media to grow your business, Currently I’m getting 150-200 inquiries from customers interested in my products and services, out of which only 5% of these inquires are coming from Yahoo & MSN Searches, so if I somehow manage to get top positions on my favorite keywords on Google also, would my inquiries increase considerably? I doubt that, it would surely help, but it’s not worth the sleep less nights I was devoting earlier for SEO.
I would now rather create a great looking website, launch brilliant products, develop more and more stuff in Flash, of course if it’s user friendly to my visitors and loads quickly, develop better advertising channels and wouldn’t care a damn about Search Engine Rankings, It would be better if I concentrate to convert my traffic better than creating textual ordinary looking pages for Search Engines or pray for Google’s Mercy on my website and awake countless nights for it, at least I learned the Lesson Quick.
The Lesson learned by me is to concentrate more on bringing visitors to your site and converting them well by giving them a sense of personal touch and value rather then only try and compete on Google Rankings and Page Rank.
Give them stuff for free, which is useful for them, provide them resources which are lying with you on your website for free, create a nice looking website, which interacts with your clients well, show your skills and the customers would love you, Merely getting a Top Ranking in Google and a Page Rank 7 won’t do wonders.
I have seen Page Rank 7 websites getting less than 50 visitors per day and Page Rank 4 Websites getting more than 500 visitors per day, So if you concentrate only giving your customers a value, it will automatically allow people to talk about you and give you your desired position, if you create a new site, provide valuable services, links will automatically flock to you and so do the visitors by word of mouth. It’s better to create a valuable site for your visitors then compete for the Page Rank 7.
Websites like Paypal.com, myspace.com, cnn.com, orkut.com etc didn’t have to spend very heavily on Search Engine optimization, where they did spend was on advertisements, pay per click, News and convert their customers well by providing exceptionally valuable and unique services, which lead to natural link building.
I doubt any link Building or SEO company would have built the 363, 000 links to paypal.com, or Yahoo would have hired 50 Search Engine Professionals to build their mammoth 1,990,000 links.
These companies concentrated on bringing more visitors to their site from every known channel and making them stick to their business rather than compete for Page Rank and top positions on a given keyword and they succeeded well.
While many sites which achieved Page Rank 7, by only competing for keyword position fail in the end, since they didn’t have an alternate sustainable business model or were not able to get their customers to buy their products.
One more myth that many people have is that if a given keyword is getting X amount of searches a month on Overture, they would perhaps receive the same amount of visitors on ther site too if they succeed in getting top rankings. That’s a myth.
For an example, my website is ranking No. 8 most of the times for the keyword “web design company” on Yahoo Search, According to Overture Keyword research tool the monthly searches done on this keyword are 13,000 for the month of January, 2007.
But according to my Webalizer stats, I’m getting not more than 100-120 visits per month from the given keyword, which is far less compared to the total number of visitors coming on my site ever month which is currently around 9000.
I wouldn’t be concluding anything here, since it’s up to the readers to decide how they want to perceive and act upon my experience, However I welcome everyone reading this article to contact me anytime if they think I’m not correct on some facts, or if they wish to clarify their doubts, Please feel free to contact me my clicking the below link and filling the feedback form on my website.www.webdesigningcompany.net
I would be more than happy to assist you.
Article Source: ACME Articles | Free Article Directory
Google adwords made easy
Author: buzz42, 14/09
By Salihu IbrahimA very Simple, Step by Step, Roadmap to Google adwords Success.
By Salihu Ibrahim
http://www.ebizstartups.com
Getting started.
The aim of any Google adwords campaign is to turn a profit. Whether tangible or intangible. Maybe you are looking to make more sales by generating very targeted traffic or have more visitors sign up for your ezine, download a free or trial software, free ebook etc. Ultimately the aim is to have a good return on your investment (ROI)
.
However, the immediate goals of your campaign is to
1. Have a high click through Rate (CTR)
2. and a low Cost per click (CPC).
These two parameters, together, put your ad in a good position (typical 1st to 6th position) on the search results page.
Google adwords is unlike other pay per click search engines where the highest bidder gets the highest position. Google wants to present the most relevant ads, matched with the keywords that generated these ads to searchers. So that a high click through rate means your ad is relevant to searchers even if the CPC is low.
If Your ad is presented (impressions) 1000 times and the CTR is less than 0.5% of the number of impressions, your ad gets slowed by Google and could eventually be disabled. If you ad is slowed you can edit it and run it again.
So here is your dilemma. To generate a decent CTR you need a good position. To get a good position you need a popular (competitive) keyword. Using a popular keyword means you will have to bid high. Yet you want a low CPC in the range of $0.05 to 0.10.
What to do? Look for not so popular keywords. Obscure keywords that few people use to search in your industry. Very few advertisers will be using them too. Identify many of these keywords. Make sure they are targetted. Add all the obscure keywords together. This will give you a good list that will generate a good amount of impressions, good CTR and at a low CPC.
Looking for good and obscure keywords
Use the keyword tools to check for currently used keywords, related keywords and alternative keywords. You can use the tools at:
1. Overture tool at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
2. Google tool at http://adwords.google.com/select/main?and=keywordsandbox
3. wordtracker at http://www.wordtracker.com
4. Espotting at http://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.asp
How to discover your obscure keywords
There are various ways to discover obscure keywords related to your industry or search term.
1. Use keywords with very low search count at Overture keyword suggestion tool. These are not competitive Keywords. They are not often searched on. But remember you are trying to add all obscure keywords to make a great keyword list.
2. Add variations to the keywords generated above. For example market to markets, marketing, marketers marketable.
3. Check your website log and fish out keywords searchers are already using to locate your site or product. You will be surprised at what people type into search engines to locate your site.
4. Use the Thesaurus and dictionary to check for alternative words synonyms. You can use more than one type of dictionary. When checking for meaning of words, you will often see in the description, alternative words with same meaning as the word you are checking for.
5. Ask friends, family members, what words they will use when searching for your product or the theme for your Website.
NOTE: Always keep in mind that, what the keyword tools will give you is a tiny fraction of what millions of people use on the Web. The keyword tools at overture won’t give you those keyword count because very few numbers of people use them at a time or period.
Features Provided by Google to Achieve your desired CTR
(1) Exact Match
(2) Phrase Match
(3) Broad Match
(4) Negative Keywords
Exact Match: To designate your keywords for exact match, put them in brackets. For example, (niche markets). So your ad will only show if “niche markets”, without the quotes, is searched for. It won’t show up for market niche. This is a highly targeted way of getting visitors to your site. Unfortunately, you will get very few impressions using the exact match feature. Though your CTR may be high.
How to use it
Use exact match feature when you are bidding on competitive keywords. Because of the low number of impressions exact match generates, not many advertisers maybe using it. So experiment and at the same time try to lower your cost per click (CPC).
Phrase Match: To designate your keywords for phase match include them in quotes. For example “niche markets”. Your ad will appear when these words are searched for at the search engine. Also when words are added to those. Example, “building niche markets” or “niche markets discovery”. The main keywords will always appear in the other which you set it. That is, niche markets and not market niche. Your ads will not appear for “niche successful markets”. The phrase match generates many impressions. Though not as targeted as the exact match, it more targeted than the broad match option.
How to use it.
This is the feature you will most likely be using often . Build a good keyword list. In the niche market example, you will not appear for niche marketers or niche marketing so include these and others in your keyword list.
One important feature you should use with your phrase match option is the negative keyword. This is explained below. Negative keywords help to make your keywords more targetted by allowing Google not to add them to your main keywords.When you designate a keyword as negative, Google will not add it when you are using phrase or broad match. If not, Negative keywords could make your keywords to have different meaning than what you intended. For example, a word like free. If you are not offering anything for free and free is added to your main keywords, then clicks to your site might be wasted and costing you money. So designating the word free as a negative keyword will make Google not to add it to your keywords
Broad Match: Broad match is the default setting for Google adwords and your ad is automatically shown for expanded match, plurals and other variations. So be sure to remember to change it when starting a campaign. Choosing the broad match feature allows Google to add other words to your main keywords. This makes this feature to be the least targeted. It produces the most impressions and probably the most CTR. But due to its non-targeted nature, could produce very low conversions or ROI. Using the “niche markets” example in broad match, you could have your ads displayed for searches on “locating niche markets”, “niche markets ideas, “succeeding in marketing niches” etc. your keywords will come out in many variations in plurals.
How to use it.
To have an appreciable success in using broad match, you need:
(1) To build three and four keyword phrases. This limits the number of words Google adds to your keywords phrases.
(2) Build a good and extensive negative keyword list.
(3) Use the Google keywords suggestion tool. It will show you words that will appear with your keywords. That is expanded matches.
Negative Keywords: This feature is used to eliminate words that could be added to your main keywords. For example, the word free. Just add a minus in front of the word ( –free ) to make it negative, this word will not be added to your keywords. Example, if your keywords are “niche ideas”. Your ads will not show for “free niche ideas”.
It is extremely important to use this feature so as to eliminate unwanted keywords, unwanted meanings and untargeted keyword phrases.
This is also important when you are dealing with children’s products. You will need to eliminate porn words so that your money is not wasted. Imagine a user searching for adult content and clicking to your site. Use of negative keywords is an additional way of making your keywords more targeted when you are using the phrase match or broad match options.
One tool you can use to search out negative keywords is at http://www.ebooksdeal.com/cgi-bin/keywordtool/keywordtool.cgi.
How to build a good campaign structure:
A good campaign structure saves you loads of time and contributes immensely to a successful adwords campaign.
Campaign 1 Campaign 2 Campaign 3
Adgroup 1 Adgroup 2 Adgroup 3
Ads 1 Ads 2 Ads 3 Ads 4
Keywords keywords keywords keywords.
Google adwords gives you the flexibility to test your ads as much as you want. You can delete ads that are not giving you the right CPC,CTR or ROI. Create more ads to take the place of the deleted ads. Test as many ads as you like until you attain your desired CTR or CPC.
But you can only do this if your campaign is properly structured and set out well from the start.
You need to know what ads and in what adgroup(s), associated with what keywords, are giving you the required results. And those that are not. So that you can quickly delete the unwanted ads. On this basis you can set out your campaign structure as indicated above. For example, explaining campaign 1.
Start testing your large keyword list by distributing them among the different adgroups. Group keywords that are:
1. closely related in one adgroup.
2. group keywords that are highly competitive in another adgroup.
3. group keywords that are not competitive.
4. group keywords that are in plural
5. group keywords with misspelled words etc.
If you have different kinds of products with different keywords, create one adgroup for each product. This allows you to create ads specific to keywords for each product . So, you don’t have general ads which apply to all your keywords.
The general idea is to group your keywords as you like them so that you can easily identify which ones are producing the required results.
For each adgroup you can now create different ads. For easy management , 2 or 3 ads per adgroup is okay. I use two ads per adgroup in promoting my home base business ideas site. You can use the same set of keywords you have allocated per adgroup for ads 1, 2, 3. the only difference in the ads will be the title and description. At the ads level you can change any ad that is performing below expectation. delete and write new ads. If it is the keywords that are performing badly, delete that adgroup and create another. However, do not get into the habit of creating and deleting adgoups. If you test and track your results properly at the ads level you will not need to replace any adgroup after deleting it. Your result would have shown you that the keywords for that adgroup are not profitable and need not be used again. You then research new obscure keywords that you can use.
Note: If you use the same keywords for more than one adgroup only one adgroup will be shown at any point in time. Also Google optimizes ads on an adgroup basis not on keywords basis. Better performing ads gets shown more often. For example,
Keyword : “high heel shoes”
Ad #1 15% CTR
AD #2 5% CTR
When high heel shoes is searched on ad #1 shows more often than ad #2.
Keyword: “low heel shoes”
Ad #1 10% CTR
Ad #2 20% CTR
When low heel shoes is searched on ad #2 shows more often than ad #1.
However, you can choose to remove the optimization feature so that you can test all your ads equally.
Achieving your goals
(1) Producing your best impressions. You need to present your ads to the right searcher ( visitor ). This is important so your ads are not displayed to the wrong searchers, thereby generating wasteful clicks. For best impressions-
(i) good keyword research
(ii) good negative keywords
(iii) use phrase match
(2) Producing your best CTR. The click through Rate (CTR) is the number of times your ad is clicked on compared to the number of times it is viewed, in percentage. So if out of 100 impressions (views) your ad gets clicked once, your CTR is 1%. To produce your best CTR put your main keywords in the title and description of your ads. Example, keyword phrase is “niche markets”.
Title: Discover niche markets
Description: Download software for discovering
Niche markets fast.
URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/niche.html
A user searching for niche markets will be instantly drawn to your title because it same as what he is looking for. The title catches the eyes and the searcher is drawn in to read the description. The description also talks about niche markets. Before you know it…click… and one very targeted visitor has gone to your website. This type of keywords – title – description gets the most targeted clicks in a adword campaign.
(3) Achieving your best return on investment (ROI). To produce your best ROI you must apply the keyword – title – description approach described above. This gets the searcher to your landing page. The landing page is the page your visitor will first see after clicking on your ad. This page must be specific to the product you are selling or the action you want the searcher to take. Do not send the searcher to your home page unless the action you want the searcher to take is there.
So it is keyword – title – description – landing page. You don’t want the searcher looking all over your website for what has been described in your ad. Also do not frustrate the searcher by a slow loading page.
(4) Achieving your best cost per click (CPC). The ultimate aim of every advertiser is to have minimum CPC while maintaining a good ad position. Typically position 1 to 6. Even though writing good and enticing ads is the key to a good CTR, having a good keyword list is the key to many targeted impressions. A combination of these two will produce your best CPC.
Tips and Tricks
(1) Keyword variation. Here are some easy ways to generate variations in your keywords.
(i) Make keywords plural. Example, niche market to niche markets.
(ii) Adding the ing to verb words. Example, market to marketing.
(iii) Adding er. Example, market to marketer.
(iv) Adding or. Example, invest to investor.
(v) Adding ment. Example, invest to investment
(vi) Adding -. Example ebusiness to e-business.
(vii) Combining and separating words . Example, Web site to Website.
(viii) Common misspellings . Example, successful to successfull
(ix) Interchange words . Example, niche marketing to marketing niche.
(x) Replace words . Example, marketing niche to marketing segment.
(xi) Use American and English spellings. Example, vigor and vigour.
Use these anywhere it is possible in your keywords or keyword phrase.
(2) Tweaking your ad copy: Are your ads attracting enough clicks? . Here are some ways you can use to generate ideas for greater CTR ads.
(i) Study the ads of your competitors. Study the way title and descriptions are written.
(ii) look at the regular result pages when you type in your keywords at Google search engine. Study the description and the title of the sites that come up.
(iii) Use very specific words like download, free, trial etc if it is relevant to your campaign.
(iv) Include the price of your product if you know that it has a comparative advantage.
(v) Emphasize benefits to users in your ads.
(vi) Write out your ad in the best possible way. Do not, at first, limit yourself to the number of words allowed. When you are satisfied then try to reduce it to number of words allowed per line.
(3) Tracking: Tracking the results of your campaign is about the most important aspect of your adwords campaign after building a great keyword list. Tracking helps to indicate where your campaign is heading, good or bad. You need to carefully follow your impressions, CPC, position, etc. All these are present in the report panel of the adwords interface.
GOOGLE ADWORDS SCENERIOS
There are different situations you will find yourself as you try to achieve and maintain a profitable adwords campaign. Sometimes, you will find that adjusting certain parameters might improve or get worsen your the campaign. The trick is to test. Don’t be afraid to test . It is only by testing that you can really get to understand how adwords works and then master it.
Let’s look at some situations we might find ourselves in while running our adwords campaign.
1. LOW IMPRESIONS AND LOW CTR.
(a) This can happen when you are just starting your adwords campaign. You have probably not read enough about the Google adwords program before drawing up your campaign.
(b) Also it can be that you have not done your keyword research very well . You might be using keywords that people hardly search for.
(c) It could also be that your daily budget is so low that Google would not want to exceed your budget. So your ad is presented very few times.
SOLUTION ;
i. Set your daily budget high. Do not worry. Google will not exhaust your daily budget. If your daily budget is set to $100 for example. You will be spending about $10 daily. Or if you set it at $20 you could be spending $5 to $7 daily. Setting the daily budget high enough gives you plenty of data to analyze your campaign. Your impressions will be high. CTR will be high too if your ad is well written.
ii. Brainstorm and research good keywords. Use the available keywords research tools to know which keywords searchers use to find your site .
iii. Write good ads that follow the keyword-title-description-landing page formula. This will increase your CTR and conversion.
2. HIGH IMPRESSION BUT LOW CTR
This is the situation new advertisers to Google adwords find themselves. Here you will be trying to convert most of your impressions to clicks. You can do this in two ways.
I. Increase your cost per click (CPC). Increasing your CPC places your ad in a high position which in turn generates high impressions. This will increase the cost of your campaign considerably. If your conversion is not good enough you might be running a loosing campaign.
II. Write better ads using the keyword-title-description-landing page formula. Searchers will be more likely to follow through from search results to clicking on your ad. This increases your CTR.
NOTE: If you have a keyword that is generating high impressions but low CTR , it is advisable to delete it. But if the keyword is important and related to your services or product you can create an adgroup for that keyword and also create ads for it. Then test and see which ad is producing the desired CTR. Further more, deleting poor performing keywords is like deleting your past poor performance. So that, the new adgroup will not be hindered.
Also, it not good to leave keywords that are not generating impressions. Delete them. Though Google will not penalize you for these keywords until the impressions have reached 1000, low impressions generating keywords will hinder keywords that are performing well. This is the case, because the Google adwords system budgets for all keywords and if your daily budget is low, your keywords, including the performing ones, will be shown less often. The system will not exceed your daily budget.
Bottom line; use fewer keywords for a low daily budget.
3. HIGH IMPRESSION,HIGH CTR GENERATED BY HIGH CPC.
Every advertiser wants high CTR with low CPC. Typically in the range of $0.05 to $0.10 per click. But in industries where there are heavy players with costly keywords, high CPC could be the order of the day. How will a small business compete in a situation like that ?
1. Again the answer is in keyword research. Extensive, in depth research will provide you with the obscure keywords that few people have discovered.
2. Another way to compete is to know how much a visitor is worth to you. You have to have a good conversion rate at your website.
If for example,
A click is $1 and you are converting at your site at 5% conversion rate. This means, for every $100 spent 5 visitors buy your product. For you to break even (that is, no profit no loss) your product must have a margin (profit) of $100/5 clicks=$20.
So if each product has a profit of $20 on top of the cost price, then for each $100 spent you will recoup $100. Anything less than $20 margin will mean a loss for you. And anything higher than $20 means a gain in your campaign.
However, due to fluctuations in ad position, CTR, conversion rate, competitive bidding by other advertisers, it is advisable to ensure that your visitors worth or click worth is such that the profit on each product is high enough to allow for these fluctuations. For the example, $35 to $40 margin would be good . I must stress that this depends on your product, industry, competitors etc. The example is to provide a general idea of what to do.
HIGH IMPRESSION AND HIGH CTR WITH LOW CPC.
This is the dream of every advertiser. Achieving this takes a lot of hard work and testing. Google adwords is unique in that your ads go online immediately. This allows you to test your ads as much as you want. When you are not satisfied, write new ads. You can also set CPC for campaign as well as for individual keywords.
One trick you can use to achieve this, is to initially set your daily budget high, CPC high, and write good ads. This will position your ad well, 1st to 6th position. Once you have achieved a good CTR (4% to 7%) gradually lower your CPC while retaining a high daily budget. Always remember that a high impression and CTR will get you a high position even if your CPC is low compared to your competitors’
HIGH IMPRESSION,HIGH CTR,LOW CPC BUT LOW CONVERSION.
In a situation like this, low conversion is due to several factors
1. Bad or wrong landing page. Your landing page must be directly related to your ad. Do not allow the visitor to search for the information which brought him to your site. Use the keyword-title-description-landing page formula. On how to create a landing page that converts very well go to http://www.wilsonweb.com/isalihu2001
2. Keywords that produce high impressions, high CTR but are not exactly related to the landing page. There are some keywords that are closely related but have different meanings. For example, the keyword phrase “web pages”. Your title and description could be for a software that builds web pages. But the searcher is looking for how to write web pages that sell. This results in many clicks to your site with very few conversion.
So you should make your title and description as explicit and direct as possible. This leaves the searcher in no doubt as to what is on the landing page.
GOOD AD POSITION.
A good ad position is from 1st to 6th position. A good ad position is obtained by having a high impressions and high ctr.
AVERAGE AD POSITION
This is typically between 7th to 10th position. A higher position is achieved by either increasing your bid or writing better ads for higher CTR
summary
1. Keyword research . Very important. The bedrock of your adwords campaign.
2. Good campaign structure as set out above.
3. Write good title, description with relevant keywords in them.
4. Follow the keywords-title-description-landing page formula
5. And test, test and test. Track your results efficiently.
This free report is by Salihu Ibrahim.
The author has worked online since 2000. The report is based on the author’s years of intensive Google adwords campaign experience. For more incisive articles on home base business ideas, check out his website at http://www.ebizstartups.com OR You can subscribe to his bimonthly newsletter BIZWISE by sending a blank email to bizwise@ebizstartups.com with subscribe as the subject.
Source: www.isnare.com
5 Steps to Starting a Successful Google Adwords Campaign
Author: buzz42, 11/08
by William JamesDoes working a couple hours a day at home on your computer and making thousands a month sound appealing to you? Well, there are people who are doing just that by using Google Adwords and loving it. They have more time to do the things they really enjoy in life. What they all learned is to work smarter, not harder.
What is Google Adwords? Whenever you conduct a search using google you will see a list of search results. These are displayed for free. In addition, you will see Sponsored Links displayed at the right of the search results and sometimes displayed at the top of the results. These are paid advertisements. The Adword advertisements are pay-per-click which means the person advertising pays google every time someone clicks on their advertisement.
People are using Google Adwords, a Pay-Per-Click program, to market their own website and products. In addition, many people are also using it even if they do not own a website. They use it to promote and market affiliate programs. The benefit to using adwords is that you can get instant traffic to your site.
Following are (5) steps to starting a successful google adwords campaign.
Step 1- Gain Basic Knowledge
Before you attempt to start making money with adwords you first need to educate yourself. You need to understand how adwords and pey-per-clicks work. Google has an informative site that provides demos and guides to learn the basics of how it works on their webpage. There are also numerous ebooks on the topic. However, make sure that the authors are credible, experienced, and professional experts. These experts share a wealth of information, tips and strategies.
Step 2 – Open a Google Adwords Account
After you understand how google works then you are ready to open a google adword account. Google has minimal costs to get started. Google will take you through several steps in setting up your account.
Step 3- Write a Creative Text Ad
You will need to create your ad. The purpose of the ad is to get as many people to click on it as possible. You want to stand out from the rest. Before writing your ad, study your competitor’s ads. Then write several different creative text ads and test each one to see which one has the highest click thru rate.
Step 4- The Keyword List
The keyword list is crucial. The right list can be the difference between success and failure so you will want to build the most efficient and focused keyword list. The more focused your keywords are the more targeted and interested the visitors who click on your ads will be resulting in more purchases. However, the more general your keyword list is the more visitors not interested in what you are selling and this can easily and quickly use up your advertising budget.
Step 5- Setting Your Budget
Google will ask you what is the maximum you would like to spend, on average per day and what is the maximum you are willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Set your maximum budget at an affordable and comfortable level and never spend more than your visitor is worth.
These are the five basic steps to get you starting towards google adword success. As you practice and gain experience with adwords, you will keep improving your campaigns performance. And as you performance improves you will get more targeted visitors that will result in more sales.
About Author:
William James is the owner of http://www.Money-Making-Online.net a site focused on how to make money online resulting in huge google profits. Featuring free tools, resources and useful articles.
www.Money-Making-Online.net
Article Source: Articles Galore
A Smart Trick for Attracting Higher Paying AdSense Ads
Author: buzz42, 01/08
By Diane Nassy
There are no guarantees in life, so I don’t guarantee that following these tips will bring you more money every time. However, I do guarantee that they will greatly increase your chances of pulling more of the top-paying AdSense ads to your site than if you don’t follow these suggestions.
Enough with the disclaimers, let’s get down to the business of making money. Google lets advertisers bid anywhere from a minimum of .05 per click right up to a whopping $100. It should be pretty obvious that you’re not going to get rich running .05 cent ads on your site, but getting a few $100 ads, or even some $10, $20, or $30 ads can’t be a bad thing, right?
Now the problem is, Google is pretty closed-mouthed about who is paying what for their ads, and there is no real way to determine which words pay the most per AdSense click.
But ah, far away in a parallel universe we find another Pay-Per-Click provider called Overture. It seems that Overture is less sensitive about releasing their top-priced words and anyone who cares to find out what web sites are paying for words and phrases can do so by simply using Overtures tattle-tale special pricing tool (http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/). And it couldn’t be easier to use. You simply type in a key word or phrase and the tool returns a list of advertisers using that word and how much they are paying. It even shows you the actual ad.
Oh what a treasure trove of wealth-grabbing results this can be if you know what can be done with that priceless information.
Consider this possibility
Any key word or phrase that’s worth big bucks on Overture is probably worth big bucks on Google as well, maybe even more, right? So try this experiment:
Enter the phrase “SEO Services” without the quotes in the Overture tool (http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/). When I entered that phrase on the day I wrote this article, I was found a company called SEO Inc. that was willing to pay $8.01 per click, followed by SEO Advantage at $8.00, and Online Web Consultants at $6.50. Other bidders appeared below them in the $3.00 range straight on down to some who wouldn’t pay more than a dime per click.
Now, if a company is willing to pay that much money for a click on Overture, it is probably willing to pay that or more on Google. Even if that particular company isn’t advertising on Google, you can be pretty sure that the same key phrase is drawing near the same bid price from other companies who do advertise on Google. So what that means is there is no way that you can possibly afford NOT to have some web pages posted somewhere that are targeted to those sweet-paying words.
All you have to do is use Overture’s pricing tool to find the highest-paying key words that are related to your site and then optimize those words to start pulling similar ads. If all goes to plan, you can perhaps double, triple, or even quadruple your AdSense revenue without needing any increase in traffic or click-through rate.
Diane provides marketing and internet profit tips. For more Google AdSense tips, visit http://www.adsense.deeljeabiz.com
Email : deeljeabiz@gmail.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Diane_Nassy
Google adwords made easy
Author: buzz42, 25/07
By Salihu IbrahimA very Simple, Step by Step, Roadmap to Google adwords Success.
By Salihu Ibrahim
http://www.ebizstartups.com
Getting started.
The aim of any Google adwords campaign is to turn a profit. Whether tangible or intangible. Maybe you are looking to make more sales by generating very targeted traffic or have more visitors sign up for your ezine, download a free or trial software, free ebook etc. Ultimately the aim is to have a good return on your investment (ROI)
.
However, the immediate goals of your campaign is to
1. Have a high click through Rate (CTR)
2. and a low Cost per click (CPC).
These two parameters, together, put your ad in a good position (typical 1st to 6th position) on the search results page.
Google adwords is unlike other pay per click search engines where the highest bidder gets the highest position. Google wants to present the most relevant ads, matched with the keywords that generated these ads to searchers. So that a high click through rate means your ad is relevant to searchers even if the CPC is low.
If Your ad is presented (impressions) 1000 times and the CTR is less than 0.5% of the number of impressions, your ad gets slowed by Google and could eventually be disabled. If you ad is slowed you can edit it and run it again.
So here is your dilemma. To generate a decent CTR you need a good position. To get a good position you need a popular (competitive) keyword. Using a popular keyword means you will have to bid high. Yet you want a low CPC in the range of $0.05 to 0.10.
What to do? Look for not so popular keywords. Obscure keywords that few people use to search in your industry. Very few advertisers will be using them too. Identify many of these keywords. Make sure they are targetted. Add all the obscure keywords together. This will give you a good list that will generate a good amount of impressions, good CTR and at a low CPC.
Looking for good and obscure keywords
Use the keyword tools to check for currently used keywords, related keywords and alternative keywords. You can use the tools at:
1. Overture tool at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
2. Google tool at http://adwords.google.com/select/main?and=keywordsandbox
3. wordtracker at http://www.wordtracker.com
4. Espotting at http://www.espotting.com/popups/keywordgenbox.asp
How to discover your obscure keywords
There are various ways to discover obscure keywords related to your industry or search term.
1. Use keywords with very low search count at Overture keyword suggestion tool. These are not competitive Keywords. They are not often searched on. But remember you are trying to add all obscure keywords to make a great keyword list.
2. Add variations to the keywords generated above. For example market to markets, marketing, marketers marketable.
3. Check your website log and fish out keywords searchers are already using to locate your site or product. You will be surprised at what people type into search engines to locate your site.
4. Use the Thesaurus and dictionary to check for alternative words synonyms. You can use more than one type of dictionary. When checking for meaning of words, you will often see in the description, alternative words with same meaning as the word you are checking for.
5. Ask friends, family members, what words they will use when searching for your product or the theme for your Website.
NOTE: Always keep in mind that, what the keyword tools will give you is a tiny fraction of what millions of people use on the Web. The keyword tools at overture won’t give you those keyword count because very few numbers of people use them at a time or period.
Features Provided by Google to Achieve your desired CTR
(1) Exact Match
(2) Phrase Match
(3) Broad Match
(4) Negative Keywords
Exact Match: To designate your keywords for exact match, put them in brackets. For example, (niche markets). So your ad will only show if “niche markets”, without the quotes, is searched for. It won’t show up for market niche. This is a highly targeted way of getting visitors to your site. Unfortunately, you will get very few impressions using the exact match feature. Though your CTR may be high.
How to use it
Use exact match feature when you are bidding on competitive keywords. Because of the low number of impressions exact match generates, not many advertisers maybe using it. So experiment and at the same time try to lower your cost per click (CPC).
Phrase Match: To designate your keywords for phase match include them in quotes. For example “niche markets”. Your ad will appear when these words are searched for at the search engine. Also when words are added to those. Example, “building niche markets” or “niche markets discovery”. The main keywords will always appear in the other which you set it. That is, niche markets and not market niche. Your ads will not appear for “niche successful markets”. The phrase match generates many impressions. Though not as targeted as the exact match, it more targeted than the broad match option.
How to use it.
This is the feature you will most likely be using often . Build a good keyword list. In the niche market example, you will not appear for niche marketers or niche marketing so include these and others in your keyword list.
One important feature you should use with your phrase match option is the negative keyword. This is explained below. Negative keywords help to make your keywords more targetted by allowing Google not to add them to your main keywords.When you designate a keyword as negative, Google will not add it when you are using phrase or broad match. If not, Negative keywords could make your keywords to have different meaning than what you intended. For example, a word like free. If you are not offering anything for free and free is added to your main keywords, then clicks to your site might be wasted and costing you money. So designating the word free as a negative keyword will make Google not to add it to your keywords
Broad Match: Broad match is the default setting for Google adwords and your ad is automatically shown for expanded match, plurals and other variations. So be sure to remember to change it when starting a campaign. Choosing the broad match feature allows Google to add other words to your main keywords. This makes this feature to be the least targeted. It produces the most impressions and probably the most CTR. But due to its non-targeted nature, could produce very low conversions or ROI. Using the “niche markets” example in broad match, you could have your ads displayed for searches on “locating niche markets”, “niche markets ideas, “succeeding in marketing niches” etc. your keywords will come out in many variations in plurals.
How to use it.
To have an appreciable success in using broad match, you need:
(1) To build three and four keyword phrases. This limits the number of words Google adds to your keywords phrases.
(2) Build a good and extensive negative keyword list.
(3) Use the Google keywords suggestion tool. It will show you words that will appear with your keywords. That is expanded matches.
Negative Keywords: This feature is used to eliminate words that could be added to your main keywords. For example, the word free. Just add a minus in front of the word ( –free ) to make it negative, this word will not be added to your keywords. Example, if your keywords are “niche ideas”. Your ads will not show for “free niche ideas”.
It is extremely important to use this feature so as to eliminate unwanted keywords, unwanted meanings and untargeted keyword phrases.
This is also important when you are dealing with children’s products. You will need to eliminate porn words so that your money is not wasted. Imagine a user searching for adult content and clicking to your site. Use of negative keywords is an additional way of making your keywords more targeted when you are using the phrase match or broad match options.
One tool you can use to search out negative keywords is at http://www.ebooksdeal.com/cgi-bin/keywordtool/keywordtool.cgi.
How to build a good campaign structure:
A good campaign structure saves you loads of time and contributes immensely to a successful adwords campaign.
Campaign 1 Campaign 2 Campaign 3
Adgroup 1 Adgroup 2 Adgroup 3
Ads 1 Ads 2 Ads 3 Ads 4
Keywords keywords keywords keywords.
Google adwords gives you the flexibility to test your ads as much as you want. You can delete ads that are not giving you the right CPC,CTR or ROI. Create more ads to take the place of the deleted ads. Test as many ads as you like until you attain your desired CTR or CPC.
But you can only do this if your campaign is properly structured and set out well from the start.
You need to know what ads and in what adgroup(s), associated with what keywords, are giving you the required results. And those that are not. So that you can quickly delete the unwanted ads. On this basis you can set out your campaign structure as indicated above. For example, explaining campaign 1.
Start testing your large keyword list by distributing them among the different adgroups. Group keywords that are:
1. closely related in one adgroup.
2. group keywords that are highly competitive in another adgroup.
3. group keywords that are not competitive.
4. group keywords that are in plural
5. group keywords with misspelled words etc.
If you have different kinds of products with different keywords, create one adgroup for each product. This allows you to create ads specific to keywords for each product . So, you don’t have general ads which apply to all your keywords.
The general idea is to group your keywords as you like them so that you can easily identify which ones are producing the required results.
For each adgroup you can now create different ads. For easy management , 2 or 3 ads per adgroup is okay. I use two ads per adgroup in promoting my home base business ideas site. You can use the same set of keywords you have allocated per adgroup for ads 1, 2, 3. the only difference in the ads will be the title and description. At the ads level you can change any ad that is performing below expectation. delete and write new ads. If it is the keywords that are performing badly, delete that adgroup and create another. However, do not get into the habit of creating and deleting adgoups. If you test and track your results properly at the ads level you will not need to replace any adgroup after deleting it. Your result would have shown you that the keywords for that adgroup are not profitable and need not be used again. You then research new obscure keywords that you can use.
Note: If you use the same keywords for more than one adgroup only one adgroup will be shown at any point in time. Also Google optimizes ads on an adgroup basis not on keywords basis. Better performing ads gets shown more often. For example,
Keyword : “high heel shoes”
Ad #1 15% CTR
AD #2 5% CTR
When high heel shoes is searched on ad #1 shows more often than ad #2.
Keyword: “low heel shoes”
Ad #1 10% CTR
Ad #2 20% CTR
When low heel shoes is searched on ad #2 shows more often than ad #1.
However, you can choose to remove the optimization feature so that you can test all your ads equally.
Achieving your goals
(1) Producing your best impressions. You need to present your ads to the right searcher ( visitor ). This is important so your ads are not displayed to the wrong searchers, thereby generating wasteful clicks. For best impressions-
(i) good keyword research
(ii) good negative keywords
(iii) use phrase match
(2) Producing your best CTR. The click through Rate (CTR) is the number of times your ad is clicked on compared to the number of times it is viewed, in percentage. So if out of 100 impressions (views) your ad gets clicked once, your CTR is 1%. To produce your best CTR put your main keywords in the title and description of your ads. Example, keyword phrase is “niche markets”.
Title: Discover niche markets
Description: Download software for discovering
Niche markets fast.
URL: http://www.yourdomain.com/niche.html
A user searching for niche markets will be instantly drawn to your title because it same as what he is looking for. The title catches the eyes and the searcher is drawn in to read the description. The description also talks about niche markets. Before you know it…click… and one very targeted visitor has gone to your website. This type of keywords – title – description gets the most targeted clicks in a adword campaign.
(3) Achieving your best return on investment (ROI). To produce your best ROI you must apply the keyword – title – description approach described above. This gets the searcher to your landing page. The landing page is the page your visitor will first see after clicking on your ad. This page must be specific to the product you are selling or the action you want the searcher to take. Do not send the searcher to your home page unless the action you want the searcher to take is there.
So it is keyword – title – description – landing page. You don’t want the searcher looking all over your website for what has been described in your ad. Also do not frustrate the searcher by a slow loading page.
(4) Achieving your best cost per click (CPC). The ultimate aim of every advertiser is to have minimum CPC while maintaining a good ad position. Typically position 1 to 6. Even though writing good and enticing ads is the key to a good CTR, having a good keyword list is the key to many targeted impressions. A combination of these two will produce your best CPC.
Tips and Tricks
(1) Keyword variation. Here are some easy ways to generate variations in your keywords.
(i) Make keywords plural. Example, niche market to niche markets.
(ii) Adding the ing to verb words. Example, market to marketing.
(iii) Adding er. Example, market to marketer.
(iv) Adding or. Example, invest to investor.
(v) Adding ment. Example, invest to investment
(vi) Adding -. Example ebusiness to e-business.
(vii) Combining and separating words . Example, Web site to Website.
(viii) Common misspellings . Example, successful to successfull
(ix) Interchange words . Example, niche marketing to marketing niche.
(x) Replace words . Example, marketing niche to marketing segment.
(xi) Use American and English spellings. Example, vigor and vigour.
Use these anywhere it is possible in your keywords or keyword phrase.
(2) Tweaking your ad copy: Are your ads attracting enough clicks? . Here are some ways you can use to generate ideas for greater CTR ads.
(i) Study the ads of your competitors. Study the way title and descriptions are written.
(ii) look at the regular result pages when you type in your keywords at Google search engine. Study the description and the title of the sites that come up.
(iii) Use very specific words like download, free, trial etc if it is relevant to your campaign.
(iv) Include the price of your product if you know that it has a comparative advantage.
(v) Emphasize benefits to users in your ads.
(vi) Write out your ad in the best possible way. Do not, at first, limit yourself to the number of words allowed. When you are satisfied then try to reduce it to number of words allowed per line.
(3) Tracking: Tracking the results of your campaign is about the most important aspect of your adwords campaign after building a great keyword list. Tracking helps to indicate where your campaign is heading, good or bad. You need to carefully follow your impressions, CPC, position, etc. All these are present in the report panel of the adwords interface.
GOOGLE ADWORDS SCENERIOS
There are different situations you will find yourself as you try to achieve and maintain a profitable adwords campaign. Sometimes, you will find that adjusting certain parameters might improve or get worsen your the campaign. The trick is to test. Don’t be afraid to test . It is only by testing that you can really get to understand how adwords works and then master it.
Let’s look at some situations we might find ourselves in while running our adwords campaign.
1. LOW IMPRESIONS AND LOW CTR.
(a) This can happen when you are just starting your adwords campaign. You have probably not read enough about the Google adwords program before drawing up your campaign.
(b) Also it can be that you have not done your keyword research very well . You might be using keywords that people hardly search for.
(c) It could also be that your daily budget is so low that Google would not want to exceed your budget. So your ad is presented very few times.
SOLUTION ;
i. Set your daily budget high. Do not worry. Google will not exhaust your daily budget. If your daily budget is set to $100 for example. You will be spending about $10 daily. Or if you set it at $20 you could be spending $5 to $7 daily. Setting the daily budget high enough gives you plenty of data to analyze your campaign. Your impressions will be high. CTR will be high too if your ad is well written.
ii. Brainstorm and research good keywords. Use the available keywords research tools to know which keywords searchers use to find your site .
iii. Write good ads that follow the keyword-title-description-landing page formula. This will increase your CTR and conversion.
2. HIGH IMPRESSION BUT LOW CTR
This is the situation new advertisers to Google adwords find themselves. Here you will be trying to convert most of your impressions to clicks. You can do this in two ways.
I. Increase your cost per click (CPC). Increasing your CPC places your ad in a high position which in turn generates high impressions. This will increase the cost of your campaign considerably. If your conversion is not good enough you might be running a loosing campaign.
II. Write better ads using the keyword-title-description-landing page formula. Searchers will be more likely to follow through from search results to clicking on your ad. This increases your CTR.
NOTE: If you have a keyword that is generating high impressions but low CTR , it is advisable to delete it. But if the keyword is important and related to your services or product you can create an adgroup for that keyword and also create ads for it. Then test and see which ad is producing the desired CTR. Further more, deleting poor performing keywords is like deleting your past poor performance. So that, the new adgroup will not be hindered.
Also, it not good to leave keywords that are not generating impressions. Delete them. Though Google will not penalize you for these keywords until the impressions have reached 1000, low impressions generating keywords will hinder keywords that are performing well. This is the case, because the Google adwords system budgets for all keywords and if your daily budget is low, your keywords, including the performing ones, will be shown less often. The system will not exceed your daily budget.
Bottom line; use fewer keywords for a low daily budget.
3. HIGH IMPRESSION,HIGH CTR GENERATED BY HIGH CPC.
Every advertiser wants high CTR with low CPC. Typically in the range of $0.05 to $0.10 per click. But in industries where there are heavy players with costly keywords, high CPC could be the order of the day. How will a small business compete in a situation like that ?
1. Again the answer is in keyword research. Extensive, in depth research will provide you with the obscure keywords that few people have discovered.
2. Another way to compete is to know how much a visitor is worth to you. You have to have a good conversion rate at your website.
If for example,
A click is $1 and you are converting at your site at 5% conversion rate. This means, for every $100 spent 5 visitors buy your product. For you to break even (that is, no profit no loss) your product must have a margin (profit) of $100/5 clicks=$20.
So if each product has a profit of $20 on top of the cost price, then for each $100 spent you will recoup $100. Anything less than $20 margin will mean a loss for you. And anything higher than $20 means a gain in your campaign.
However, due to fluctuations in ad position, CTR, conversion rate, competitive bidding by other advertisers, it is advisable to ensure that your visitors worth or click worth is such that the profit on each product is high enough to allow for these fluctuations. For the example, $35 to $40 margin would be good . I must stress that this depends on your product, industry, competitors etc. The example is to provide a general idea of what to do.
HIGH IMPRESSION AND HIGH CTR WITH LOW CPC.
This is the dream of every advertiser. Achieving this takes a lot of hard work and testing. Google adwords is unique in that your ads go online immediately. This allows you to test your ads as much as you want. When you are not satisfied, write new ads. You can also set CPC for campaign as well as for individual keywords.
One trick you can use to achieve this, is to initially set your daily budget high, CPC high, and write good ads. This will position your ad well, 1st to 6th position. Once you have achieved a good CTR (4% to 7%) gradually lower your CPC while retaining a high daily budget. Always remember that a high impression and CTR will get you a high position even if your CPC is low compared to your competitors’
HIGH IMPRESSION,HIGH CTR,LOW CPC BUT LOW CONVERSION.
In a situation like this, low conversion is due to several factors
1. Bad or wrong landing page. Your landing page must be directly related to your ad. Do not allow the visitor to search for the information which brought him to your site. Use the keyword-title-description-landing page formula. On how to create a landing page that converts very well go to http://www.wilsonweb.com/isalihu2001
2. Keywords that produce high impressions, high CTR but are not exactly related to the landing page. There are some keywords that are closely related but have different meanings. For example, the keyword phrase “web pages”. Your title and description could be for a software that builds web pages. But the searcher is looking for how to write web pages that sell. This results in many clicks to your site with very few conversion.
So you should make your title and description as explicit and direct as possible. This leaves the searcher in no doubt as to what is on the landing page.
GOOD AD POSITION.
A good ad position is from 1st to 6th position. A good ad position is obtained by having a high impressions and high ctr.
AVERAGE AD POSITION
This is typically between 7th to 10th position. A higher position is achieved by either increasing your bid or writing better ads for higher CTR
summary
1. Keyword research . Very important. The bedrock of your adwords campaign.
2. Good campaign structure as set out above.
3. Write good title, description with relevant keywords in them.
4. Follow the keywords-title-description-landing page formula
5. And test, test and test. Track your results efficiently.
This free report is by Salihu Ibrahim.
The author has worked online since 2000. The report is based on the author’s years of intensive Google adwords campaign experience. For more incisive articles on home base business ideas, check out his website at http://www.ebizstartups.com OR You can subscribe to his bimonthly newsletter BIZWISE by sending a blank email to bizwise@ebizstartups.com with subscribe as the subject.
Source: www.isnare.com
Has Google Lost The Plot?
Author: buzz42, 21/07
By Courtney HeardWith the help of MSN, recently I’ve been reminiscing about the Google of old. Remember those days? When you could take a good quality site, add a few keywords, get a few incoming links and bada-bing, bada-boom, it’d be #1 on Google? Remember the old days, pre-Florida, pre-sandbox? The days when we, as search engine optimization specialists, didn’t feel like a private schoolgirl smoking in the bathroom? When we didn’t feel like the iron fist would come crashing down at any moment? Yes, those were the good old days. And MSN has finally brought them back, though on a much smaller scale.
Google hit it right on the nose back then. Search results were almost never irrelevant - venturing to the second page of results was an event that drew gasps. There was never, ever any reason to leave Google and search for the same query on another search engine. Satisfied users the world over, it was the search engine of choice almost everywhere searches were conducted. I myself never strayed from Google, I was loyal and I was rewarded for my loyalty with consistently relevant results.
But has Google taken their quest for perfection a few steps too far? Case in point: http://www.jimmylerner.com - this web site is the official site of an author. Search on MSN for his name, “jimmy lerner” and his web site is the top result. Now, try the same search on Google. The top results are pages devoted to reviewing his book, book stores selling his book, a press release I sent out to announce his new site and a few times I’ve even seen sites show up in the top ten that simply have a link to his site from theirs and are completely unrelated. His site has been jumping from the second page to the first and back again.
This begs the question, optimization or no optimization, what, exactly, is the problem with a quality, informative web site reaching number one for a search query that is probably conducted specifically to find that exact site? Has the focus and aim of Google changed from offering relevancy to satisfied searchers to simply impeding the progress of SEOs? Is Google’s main concern now, to stop individuals from helping a site reach number one? It can seem that way, can’t it? And I can only say one thing about it. Bad move, Google.
I’ve heard a few people say that it’s just a transition period. That all web sites are in the same boat, everyone’s waiting to see the fruits of their optimization labour. Perhaps this is true, and perhaps over the next little while we will see changes at Google that make our jaws drop, impressed at the level of perfection we never thought possible. But I think maybe Google needs to re-focus their energies. Take the focus back to the user, not the SEOs. Get back to the near-impeccable relevancy level before I start using MSN to learn about all my favorite authors.
About the Author: Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, a search engine optimization company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney's articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/.
Source: www.isnare.com
10 Great Things NOT to Do with Google AdSense
Author: buzz42, 20/07
By Diane NassyThere is no question that you can make some good money with Google AdSense, but you’re setting yourself up for disaster if you make any of these Top 10 mistakes!
1. Do not use fake information when opening your Google AdSense account.
Google says that’s a no-no and they will cut your account off and keep all the money you may have earned. Besides, trying to hide your true identity can cause serious problems with the I.R.S. or whoever your tax authority is.
2. Do not hack or modify Google AdSense code other than to change the parameters that Google authorizes you to change.
Any attempt to bypass Google’s built-in algorithms not only poses a danger to the integrity of the network, but it threatens the financial modle that Google operates under. You’re not dealing with some Mom-and-Pop company here, and Google has the legal muscle and deep enough pockets to drag you through every court in the land if you damage their business with your hacking antics.
3. Keep AdSense ads off of your registration, confirmation, and all "thank you" pages.
Don’t ask me why you can’t put your ads there. It makes sense to me that those would be wonderful locations. Google thinks otherwise, however, and doing so is a hanging offense according to their Terms of Service.
4. Do not display AdSense ads and a competitor's ads (like Overture's) on the same page at the same time.
That just makes plain good sense. Google doesn’t demand 100% SITE loyalty from you, but they do insist that their own ads not be cluttered up by offerings from their competitors.
5. Don't "beg for clicks" or provide any incentive for clicking on your Google AdSense ads.
This is a biggie and you see this rule violated all the time. Any of the “get paid to do stuff” sites that put Google ads in the member’s control panels are walking the plank and they don’t even realize it. Even those sites with the polite little messages asking you to “help keep my site running by clicking on our sponsor’s ads” are asking to be cut off if those happen to be Google ads.
6. Never click on the ads running on your own site, even if you are genuinely interested in the product or service and are thinking of buying it!
Nothing screams FRAUD louder than a webmaster running up his or her own click counts by happily clicking on ads fromtheir own site. The Google Gods can track this activity and it won’t be long until you find yourself getting a goodbye note from their fraud team.
7. No misleading labeling
Google is very specific about what text can be placed around their ads. Their Terms of Service state: “Publishers may not label the ads with text other than ‘sponsored links’ or ‘advertisements.’ This includes any text directly above our ads that could be confused with, or attempt to be associated with Google ads.”
This is to keep visitors from becoming confused and barking up Google’s tree when they clicked on an ad that led to a porn site instead of the recipe site they were expecting to visit.
8. Avoid keyword spamming and other divisive tricks
You may be tempted to buy one of those “generates thousands of key-word rich pages in seconds” programs that are so popular these days but I’ll tell you this: Their days are numbered. Google is wise to such shenanigans and they will be hot on your trail. Other prohibited gimmicks include:
• ”Sneaky” page redirects that send a visitor off to a different site then they were expecting to visit.
• Multiple sites, domains, pages, etc. which have substantially duplicate content.
• Hidden text or links of any type.
• Excessive outbound links on any page. Google recommends no more than 100. I’d keep it way below that.
• And here is a nugget of wisdom straight from Google’s mouth: “Do not participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your website may be affected adversely by those links.
9. Don’t advertise anything on Google’s prohibited items list.
It’s a lot shorter lists than PayPal’s or eBay’s, but it includes a lot of the same stuff like hacking/cracking content, porn, illegal drugs, gambling sites, beer or hard alcohol (I guess wine is OK), weapons, and the other usual stuff.
10. And the 10th dumbest thing NOT to do with Google AdSense is to let the other nine things stop you from running an honest site that’s designed to make the most out of this very profitable opportunity that Google offers!
Diane provides marketing and internet profit tips. For more Google AdSense tips, visit http://www.adsense.deeljeabiz.com
Email : deeljeabiz@gmail.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Diane_Nassy
How To Get Your Site A Top Ranking In Google
Author: buzz42, 19/07
By Paul BlissIt's the new American dream. Your website appears in a top spot on Google for your chosen keyword. Next thing you know, orders start coming in faster than you can handle, and you are rolling in the money. If only it were so easy, right?
Well,
It can be done. I've done it many times in many different industries. There is no secret, but rather, it's just knowing what to do. I've made just about every mistake one can make with a website, but I learned from every setback. If you were only allowed to do one thing to get ranked for your site in Google, without a doubt, all you'd need to do is get links for your site.
Yes, there are many other factors involved in getting your site to a top position. But this is the most powerful way as of this writing to get a top spot in Google. It's not just enough to have links pointing to your site, but you need to have your keyword "anchor linked" to your site. Anchor linking is when you use your keyword phrase as the click-able text for a link. So, instead of saying "Click Here", you would use "Widgets" as the link text.
Now, another point of consideration is determening what keyword/phrase you want to use to get your site found. Most times, people impulsively choose a one word phrase. While this would be a great way to bring traffic to your site, would it bring targeted traffic, with people looking specifically for your product or service? Most times when people type in a one letter keyphrase, they are in the beginning of their search.
They may type in "Shoes", but are really looking for "Running Shoes". So, if you have a top ranking for shoes, do you serve that user's needs? Maybe, but they may also be looking for dress, casual, Women's, Men's, Children's, athletic, girl's, boy's, etc. This is why when you begin to optimize your site, you should focus on more targeted keyword phrases.
Suppose you sell a certain brand name of dress shoes. For this example, we'll call the famous brand XYZ. So, by getting anchor links as "XYZ Dress Shoes", you are already eliminating those users who are looking for another brand or line of shoe. Next, you need to make sure that the page that gets linked contains the on the page content with "XYZ Dress Shoes". If you would link to a page without relevant content, Google would view this link as possible spam, or more appropriately, irrelevant content.
Now, once you have compiled your list of keywords, you need to see which one are searched on the most. The best tool for this is WordTracker, and it is worth the tiny fee you need to pay to have access for one day. There are also free tools online that you can use, but WordTracker will give you the most accurate results.
Once you have run through your list of all your keywords, the obvious choice is to pick the ones with the highest amount of searches (and content relevant to your site!). The next step is to then begin the process of a link campaign. Now, I can already hear you complaining about doing a link exchange. This is only 1/3 of your campaign. The ideal method is to not only engage in a reciprocal link exchange, but to also engage in strategic linking.
Strategic linking is when you get a link to your site without having to return the favor. What's the best way to do this? Write an article just like this one. If I get one website to use this article and have it point to my site, I've just created another link to my site. Pretty easy, eh?
Since you have now engaged in a linking campaign, you should expect to see results in Google in as little as 4 days, and as far as 6 months. All of this is determined by where your links are coming from, and the popularity of the site from which the link came. Next, you need to get as many links as you can pointing to your site with your popular keyword phrase anchor linked to your site.
As I mentioned before, there many other factors that will only enhance your rankings in Google, but the implementation of a link campaign is the strongest method to get your site to a top ranking!
-To your online success!
Paul
About the Author: Paul Bliss is a leading authority in the emerging field of search engine optimization. Paul has more than four years experience in the field and has produced some truly amazing results. Email Paul at pbliss@seoforgoogle.com or visit his site at: http://www.seoforgoogle.com
Source: www.isnare.com
