Tips for Making Money via Pay Per Click

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

Those who want to be successful online in e-business quickly learn that traffic is a vital ingredient for profit and success. They also learn that there are many ways to capture traffic; although the methods aren’t always easy and they’re not always free. A PPC (pay per click) campaign offers several ways to get traffic to your website. Do it well and that traffic could translate to profit. Do it wrong and it could be an expensive lesson.

 In a nutshell, traffic received via PPC advertising can arrive to your sales landing page and you can then work on converting that traffic into a paying customer. Your ad could be placed in search engines, on websites and blogs, and even in someone’s email. PPC via Google Adwords could be a very profitable proposition.

 What is a PPC Campaign?

 A pay per click campaign involves paying a fee for visits to your website from people. You can arrange this with various search engines and marketing companies. You could pay a fee per click and you could also pay fees per page impression as well.

 Learning how to use pay per click to your advantage could be very lucrative and some websites and entrepreneurs use pay per click quite successfully as part of their search engine marketing strategy.

But how can you Make Money with PPC ads that cost money?

Here are some examples:

• Open an online store. Set up the website and start a pay per click campaign to drive interested traffic to your store. If the cost per click is low and the profit margin is high, you’ve got great potential.
• Do affiliate marketing. By being a facilitator that drives traffic to someone else’s site, you can make a commission for every sale. Bid on keywords that relate to an affiliate product and write great ads to drive qualified traffic to the landing page.
• Create a website and sign up for a Google Adsense account which will put contextual advertising on your website. Once your site displays ads, you can earn money when your site’s visitors click on the ads.

Let’s look at each of the above scenarios a bit more closely:

E-Commerce:

If you sell something in an online store, pay per click ads could be created to drive interested individuals to your store. If you sold shoes, for instance, you could arrange to have your shoe ads shown when people key in specific words related to shoes. Those people may be shopping for a new pair of shoes and land on your online store.

Affiliate Marketing:

Campaigns can be created so that you can direct traffic to a landing page that has your special affiliate code.  When that traffic results in a sale, you earn commission. The concept is used by many online entrepreneurs and by being an affiliate internet marketer, you don’t even have to touch product in order to earn from its sale. By getting traffic for the wholesaler or product creator, you could make commission fees.

Content Sites:

Many blogs and other topical websites are filled with ads. The website owner displays ads on their site and if people click those ads and / or buy something from the resulting page, the content site owner makes a percentage of a fee shared by a company such as Google.

More about Pay Per Click

PPC enables targeted advertising based on keywords and phrases.  Because people may be on a web page due to an interest in a particular topic on the page, relevant ads may also appear. If you’re the owner of a website selling vitamins, for instance, your ad could appear on a search engine results page related to particular phrases as well as in banners on health blogs, health forums, and in someone’s e-mail because of words in their messages related to health, vitamins, or illnesses.  

A PPC advertisement for vitamins might look like this:

Need vitamin C?

Check out our specials on vitamin C. Free Shipping!

URL

The advertiser pays for the click or the showing of the ad (depending on their campaign) and if you, the web surfer, buy something from that site, they’ve benefited from their PPC investment.

A Word of Caution:

A lot of different companies use paid search engine marketing campaigns to gain an edge but not everyone is able to do so successfully. Most use a combination of search engine marketing and organic search engine optimization (SEO) to drive as much traffic to their website as possible. Not all traffic is equal, not all pay per click ads will result in a sale, and not everyone will master PPC and make money at it.

Pay per click can be expensive and just because someone clicks, that doesn’t mean their click will result in a sale. It’s important to learn strategies of successful internet marketing techniques before creating a paid campaign.  Learning ‘as you go’ could be an expensive lesson.

Do You Need An Internet Marketing Degree to Succeed Online?

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 1 Comment

Post written by Dana Prince

If you want to be a successful internet marketer, search engine optimization is one of the most important things you should dedicate time to learning. For many, the question is: should you learn it alone or get help?

The time and effort you spend learning how search engines work will pay a huge return on your investment. A solid foundation in understanding how search engine optimization, or SEO, applies to marketing online can enable you to:

• Reach a larger online audience,
• Reach the right audience;
• And help you save money on your internet marketing efforts.

Learn SEO

SEO, also known as search engine optimization (or search engine optimisation in the UK), is a vital aspect of search engine marketing. This equals the act of optimizing your site so that it will be more likely to be featured in the top rankings in search engines relating to your niche. There are many different ways to do this and not all suggested methods are going to work.

SEO is an advanced topic with many facets and learning SEO the right way will help you reach success and profitability sooner. The wrong search engine optimization techniques will slow down your progress and lead to frustration.

The desire to be featured on page one of Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines for your business niche is huge and those who do get to the top of the rankings for the right keyword phrases have a good chance of being profitable with minimum (to no) advertising costs.  SEO isn’t just about reaching the top spot on search engines for your keywords, though. It also includes: knowing which words and phrases will get you there, which words and phrases will be more likely to lead to a sale, knowing how to optimize every page of your website, doing off-page optimisation, unleashing the power of social media, and being able to stay on page one despite fierce competition and changing search engine algorithms.

Some internet marketers try to buy their way onto to the front page through pay per click sponsored advertisements and while this does have its place in a search engine marketing strategy, organic SEO placement is the best way to get traffic and make money online without a huge investment. Getting educated on the latest organic search engine optimization methods is the best way to make money online with minimal investment.

In terms of search engine traffic, organic results are something to strive for. When people surf for something, they’re much more likely to choose the organic results rather than the sponsored ads on the sidebar and learning how to be naturally featured in the top spot by your target audience is an important first step in being able to market your product or service to those who are most likely to buy from you.

Search engines are vital. Trying to navigate the internet without them is difficult and they were designed to help people find what they are looking for. Learning proven SEO methods as part of a search engine marketing strategy will bring you the type of traffic that will convert from a visitor into a customer. If you know how to make your website appear to be relevant to your topic and learn how the search engines think, you will naturally get traffic from people who could be qualified customers.

Beyond SEO, there are many other facets to internet marketing but learning how to optimize your business for the search engines is a major part of internet commerce.

Question: How do most internet marketers learn SEO?

Through trial and error.

Learning the SEO Ropes

Some new online entrepreneurs who try to learn through trial and error have difficulty attaining success and give up before they make any real money. Some of them pay a small fortune for insider information that often no longer applies. Because some of the most profitable online niches are extremely competitive, quick tips aren’t the best way to get ahead of the competition for long. While there is a lot of free information available to those interested in learning SEO, much of it quickly becomes outdated and search engine algorithms change regularly so you need to stay abreast of changes so that you can continue to compete in your niche market. Many agree that the most logical way to do that is to get a formal internet marketing education.

Do you need a Degree in Internet Marketing?

There are people who have achieved online success without a degree in internet marketing.  But the vast majority of those individuals have had to endure a long period of trial and error before becoming profitable.

By investing in an accredited education, you can make calculated and informed business decisions about how to market your online business. You can also become qualified to apply to work for others as a consultant who teaches them how to be successful online. Whatever your business or personal goals are, learning how to do it the right—from the start — will make your journey toward success a smoother one.

Whether you’re new to search engine optimization or have an intermediate level of knowledge, investing in an internet marketing education is the smartest way to reach success online.

If your career opportunities cause you to need to move, don’t forget to complete a USPS Change of Address.

Social SEM – Tips for Succeeding Online with Web 2.0

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

Many online businesses do a number of different things to try to get traffic and increase their sales.  Tactics such as SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing) through pay per click campaigns, and working on getting high quality backlinks to your website will help you get found on search engines by potential customers. But web 2.0 is about collaboration and the social aspects of the internet and if you’re not using the free social tools that exist online to help your business, you are leaving potential profit on the table.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from social SEM (social search engine marketing) and SMO (social media optimization). Large corporations use it, online businesses use it, local pizzerias and barbershops even use it. And guess who else is using it? Your potential customers and your competitor’s customers are using it, too.

If you’re a budding entrepreneur or are looking to enhance your marketing skills so that they’re applicable for the 21^st century, you need to learn about various aspects of SEM and you should also take full advantage of what social media optimization can do for you.

There are many facets of SEM, such as SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click campaigns) and the latest emerging type of marketing is social marketing. Using social marketing to is a great way to learn to unleash the power of the Internet in a viral way. People and search engines read social marketing sites and many will use the information in them to make indexing and buying decisions.   Here are some tips to help you use it to your advantage in internet marketing:

Social Bookmarking

Many sites exist that enable users to sign up and add links to them. Some of these sites are very social in nature and by sharing helpful links and socializing in those communities, you can get people visiting your links, get search engines indexing them for your desired keywords, and they can also go viral and be seen by a lot of people.

Tip:

Be a helpful community member and bookmark for others. They may bookmark for you in return. Write a great profile and be professional at all times.  Social bookmarking site examples include: Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx, and Delicious. Don’t forget to use keyword phrases that relate to your business in your social bookmarking efforts.

Microblogging

Microblogging sites such as Twitter, Friendfeed, and others can be amazing for helping you to: build online popularity, get website traffic, and to help you make money online.  In a short update (usually 140 characters or fewer), you can share a link, share information, and get the attention of potential customers at their desks, at their homes, and while on the go with their handheld devices as well.  

Some internet marketers use Twitter to build a following and for their search engine optimization efforts. Businesses can communicate with their customers and prospects with these tools and they can also find out what’s being said about them, too. One hundred and forty characters isn’t a lot of room so learning to be succinct in your updates will maximize the potential of microblogging for you.

Data Mining

Managing your online reputation is an important part of social SEM or SMO. Just like pay per click campaigns require keyword research, social media optimization requires data mining as well. Luckily, there are many free tools that you can learn to use in order to help you gather business intelligence for your online optimization efforts.

Don’t forget to analyze your competition! Competitive analysis is another area that can help you increase your market share if you’re an established company and help you start to build a business if you’re new to the world of e-commerce.  Mining social sites can help you figure out: what people are talking about (you can use this to appeal to your audience), what people say about you, and what strategies you can use to help you find more potential customers.  

How can you begin using social search engine marketing today?

• Add bookmarking tools to your website or blog. Then, your readers can help you with your marketing efforts.
• Bookmark your best articles.
• Start profiles on sites like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and Google Wave.  Start getting involved in conversations and watching what experienced internet marketers do and then you can begin to create your own strategy.

Marketing for search engines is an essential way to increase your presence online. And due to the popularity of social media, social search engines are emerging and being used by people to make their buying decisions. Learning about various aspects of SEM and SMO will help you create strategies that can help make you knowledgeable and successful in all areas of internet marketing.

On Page SEO vs. Off Page SEO

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

SEO, or search engine optimization, is something that most online entrepreneurs quickly become aware of. One of the first things you need to learn, in order to be successful online, is to optimize your website so search engines will be able to find it.  But what some new internet marketers don’t realize is that there are many aspects of search engine optimization.

SEO consists of on-page optimization tactics, that occur directly on your website and off-page optimization tactics that happen outside of the site. Both are important and both can help you get traffic to the site.

On Page SEO

Search engines index pages. Every page in your website has the ability to be indexed and contributes to the overall popularity and ranking of your website. For this reason, there are various aspects of the web pages that you need to optimize.

Some novice internet marketers believe you can optimize a home page and be done with it but traffic has the ability to enter your site on any public page and because of that, you should optimize each and every page.  Here are some examples of areas of the page to optimize:

The URL:

A domain name can help your ability to be found online. When search engines read your page, they’ll want to categorize it and the domain name is one of the areas they look at. For this reason, it’s a good idea to pick a domain name that relates to the niche you’re in. Beyond that, you should choose a link structure that also utilizes relevant keyword phrases. If you’re selling widgets, your url could get more traffic if the domain is something like: widgets.com/buywidgets.

The Tags:

When you search online for something, the search engine results pages will show you a description of websites it deems to be relevant. The meta tag is the 2-3 line description that tells people what your site is about. From an SEO and SEM perspective this is important.

In terms of SEO, keywords will help. In terms of SEM, or search engine marketing techniques, writing a descriptive and keyword dense meta description can tell search engines and people that your site’s link is worth clicking.  You can also enter keyword tags for each page which gives the search engine a quick answer on what the page is about. Image tags are another area of importance in SEO. Not only do pictures help you from aesthetics and selling perspectives but search engines can read the tags related to the photos so remember to use keywords in image tags so that you increase the relevancy of your page to your topic.

The Title / Header:

A formatted and relevant title will tell search engines what the webpage is about. This can help drive the right traffic to the page. If all pages on your website are labelled the same way, this doesn’t help search engines send people to the page on the site that’s most relevant to the topic so it’s important to label your pages optimally. Keyword optimization of subheadings is also helpful.

Keyword Density and Latent Semantic Indexing:

If your page is about widgets, the word widget should appear on the page. Words related to the sorts of widgets you sell should also appear so that search engines know exactly what the page is about. For example, if you’re selling Apple computers, you’ll want to also list other words related to computers so that the search engine doesn’t think that people looking for information on apple-picking farms should be sent to your page.

Linking and Navigation:

Having an easily navigable site is going to help visitors and search engines find what they’re looking for. People and search engine spiders (software programs that index web pages) can enter on any page and it’s a good idea to help them easily find their way around your site. A site map can be helpful for giving search engines a bird’s eye view of your website and linking within the site while using appropriate keywords as link anchors will also help your site get desired traffic.

Off Page SEO

While what exists on the pages of your site is a very important part of internet marketing, what exists outside of the website can also be quite helpful in bringing you traffic and favorable search engine rankings.

Search engines look at popularity when indexing web pages and various things that you can do outside of the site can impact that popularity and perceived relevancy to your topic:
What’s the best off page SEO strategy? Get backlinks. Links pointing to your site from authority blogs and sites will help you tremendously with your search engine optimization efforts. If other sites link to your site, this is considered a popularity vote.  If that site links with a keyword anchor, this can help you even further to rank for the keyword or keyword phrase in that anchor. Article directories, website directories, press releases, guest posts on blogs, and social bookmarking links can all help. Social bookmarking creates links to your site that can be seen by people and indexed by search engines so the more high quality links that point to your site — the better. If the site linking to you is relevant to your topic and is well optimized, this is the ideal scenario.

There are many facets of SEO that can help a business or an entrepreneur gain online exposure. Learn all you can about how to optimize your site(s) and you’ll increase your chances of online success.

The Fastest Way to Learn the Secrets of SEM Success

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

How can you learn the secrets of search engine marketing so that you can drive traffic in droves to your website? It’s easy, take a course. Now you can get your Bachelor of Science or your Master’s Degree in Internet Marketing. Have some objections and think you’d rather just learn on your own? Read on to find out why investing in a course that teaches you SEM, or search engine marketing, is a better idea.

Objection #1:  But there’s a lot of info for free!

Why pay to learn search engine marketing when the internet is filled with articles, blogs, and free e-books that promise to tell you (for free) how to make money on the internet with internet marketing, affiliate marketing, or an online store? 

Many of those so-called ‘free’ resources are actually waiting to up sell you something. Many will obtain your opt-in to receive communication from them with the promise of a free report or e-book. Once your name is on their list, you’ll get inundated with e-mail offers that promise to teach you search engine marketing for a fee.  So much for those ‘free’ articles, huh?  Many only give you enough information to hook you into buying something. Those resources are using internet marketing tactics to their full advantage. They’re using permission marketing to get permission to market to you.  An accredited education course can teach you effective permission marketing techniques as well as search engine marketing: SEO, and Pay-Per-Click.

And, many of the free resources out there only provide information that’s opinion and commentary, that’s outdated, or that tells you something but doesn’t really show you how to do it. Accredited internet marketing courses are broken down into bite-sized bits of information and created by instructors who do more than tell — they also teach.

A lot of people who choose to learn about SEM and other aspects of internet marketing on their own spend a lot of time trying to sift through information to find useable strategies and current advice. While some info can be found for free, and you should take advantage of free resources that are credible, making the investment in learning in a step-by-step fashion is going to make more sense and give you an internet marketing education that you can easily apply to your job or entrepreneurial venture.

Objection #2:  But an internet marketing course costs money

The best investments you’ll ever make are investments in your future.  Investments in your internet marketing and SEM education tend to have the best ROI (return on investment) because of the ability to better your own life and your financial situation after you graduate. Not only can an internet marketing education’s costs be tax deductible but this small investment can also help you create income, financial freedom, and happiness because you’re going to be doing something that you enjoy.

Internet marketing degree programs and courses are often available with tuition assistance programs that enable you to get partial or even full scholarships. Some accredited courses may also be paid for by your employer through an employee education fund, and some programs can be paid for through employment insurance and other government programs as well. It’s worth investigating, don’t you think? Don’t let a little bit of money now prevent you from making a lot of money in the future.

Objection #3:  I don’t have time for school

Those who say that they don’t have time for school probably don’t realize that many courses today are available via flexible schedules and distance education. You can choose between online classes, correspondence classes, and traditional bricks and mortar learning. Many classes are available via self-paced training and no, you’re not going to be struggling on your own with concepts that are foreign to you.

Instructors are typically available for one-on-one training if that’s what you need to help you learn.  Online classes can be filled with interactive-media as well. You don’t have to simply read a text book and be expected to learn.  Today’s student can be any age, be juggling work and / or family, and still be able to succeed.

Whether you want to learn search engine marketing for the purposes of furthering your career or starting your own profitable online business, doing so in a formal setting and earning your Bachelors Degree in Internet Marketing or even your Masters Degree in Internet Marketing can make a dramatic and positive impact on your life.

Pay Per Click – Why Pay for Clicks to Your Website?

Posted by admin on 11/30/2009 | 0 Comments

Post written by Dana Prince

If you want to make money online, PPC (pay per click) advertising is one way to do it.  Most people who surf the web are very familiar with advertisements that turn up on search engine results pages, on blogs, and even in their free e-mail inbox. When you click those ads, someone is paying money for your clicks so that they can have an opportunity to market to you. If you sign up for a pay per click advertising campaign, you could bring interested traffic to your monetized website.

Just like companies pay to advertise on the TV, on the radio, and in newspapers and magazines, companies and entrepreneurs can also pay to advertise on websites. Google, for instance, offers the Google Adwords program, which gives website owners the opportunity to get the attention of people who may be interested in what they have to sell.

Google Pay Per Click Ads

A Google sponsored advertisement can appear on websites and in search engines.  If you have a Gmail account, for instance, you’ll probably notice that advertisements are regularly displayed horizontally across the top of your screen. Those ads typically relate to your email subject matter. Google software eavesdrops on your conversations in order to present topically relevant advertisement that may interest you. 

The same thing happens when you’re surfing the search engines for something. Google presents organic listings of what it believes you are looking for and you’ll notice that both horizontally as well as vertically on search engine results pages page you’ll also see sponsored advertisements that relate to your search engine phrases as well. Website owners subscribe to particular words and phrases and if you click those ads, the advertiser pays a fee for getting your attention.

Contextual Advertising

Web publishers who have websites and blogs can also display contextual sponsored advertisements so if you participate in a PPC campaign, your ad could be displayed on a site that gets a lot of traffic on a daily basis. Google’s software reads the page and then based on the words and phrases in the page, it determines which relevant ads to display.  Website owners that participate in pay per click campaigns have a lot of opportunities to get the attention of interested prospective customers.

How do you Create a Profitable PPC campaign?

PPC ads can be very profitable but they can also be very expensive and it can be a bit like taking a gamble. But you can get educated so that you’re taking a more calculated risk, rather than playing a game of roulette.  

It’s important that you recognize that it may cost you money in order to get a sale. If you’re selling a product on your website that’s $30.00, it may cost you only $0.25 to get that sale. But it could also cost you more than $30 to get a sale so learning PPC strategies and preparing for your campaign is important.

Here are some tips for maximizing the potential of your pay per click campaign:

• Look for information that helps you learn PPC strategies before you get started. Taking time to get acquainted with this type of advertising will help you earn a better return on your advertising dollar.
• Carefully set your budget. Analyze the cost of the click against the profit for the product you’re selling. An average conversion rate from visitors to customers is often about 2% if a website has a product people want and good sales copy so factor in the cost of 100 clicks equating to about two sales. (The numbers aren’t guaranteed but this can be an average to keep in mind). In this case, for example, twenty-five cents per click is probably too high of a fee for a thirty-dollar commission.
• Do keyword research. Choosing the right keywords in PPC advertising is vital. Because you’re paying per click, you want to pay for words that can have a good chance of converting to a sale so that you attract people who are ready to buy.  The goal is to look for highly searched terms that aren’t highly competitive (whenever possible).
• Work at achieving as high a Google quality score as possible. Your quality score is assigned based on several factors including: how relevant your landing page is to your advertisement, whether or not your domain name uses keywords in it, and several other factors. By learning about these factors you can get better page placement for your ad as well as pay less for each click.
• Search engine optimization is also important for pay per click campaigns. Work on organically optimizing your site. Paid traffic is nice but optimization for natural site indexing is a good idea as well. Not only will it bring you free traffic but this, too, will up your Google quality score.
• Learn to write compelling ads. In order to get people to click your ad, the text in the ad has to be attention-grabbing. You have just two small lines of text to do so, so it’s a good idea to analyze other pay per click ads to help you come up with ideas.
• Analyze your reports faithfully. By regularly looking at your pay per click reports and website analytics you’ll be able to see what’s working, what’s not, and adjust your campaign(s) accordingly. This information can help you tweak your sales copy, adjust your keywords, and replicate campaigns that are successful.

The more qualified traffic you get to your site, the better. There are a lot of ways to do that in internet marketing and pay per click campaigns can be very profitable if you learn how to maximize their potential.