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7 Ways to Make Money from Website Traffic

Doug Williams @ 6:33 am

This blog entry was posted on January 30, 2010.

You can have a very popular website that doesn’t sell anything and still generate a nice revenue because of your visitor traffic. You earn money by displaying various forms of advertising on your web pages. These can take many forms.

  1. Display Advertising: You can sell your own advertising space on your website for a flat monthly fee. The more visitors your website receives, the easier it is to attract advertisers and the more you can charge.
  2. Text Link ads: Sell text based ads that directly link to websites or a landing page. These used to be popular as a way to promote search rankings, but Google has campaigned hard to discourage this use. They are still effective for advertising with or without “No-Follow” tags. You can sell these ads directly or through sites like textlinkbrokers.com
  3. PPC Ad Networks: With these are ads you are paid each time someone clicks on an ad and are taken off your site. These include ad networks like Google Adsense. Relevant ads in either text or graphical banners are served up on your site.
  4. CPM Ad Networks: These are similar to PPC ads except you are paid based on the number of times and ad is displayed (impressions). CPM stands for Cost per Mille or cost per thousand impressions. Examples include Advertising.com and Tribal Fusion.
  5. Affiliate Sales: You can get paid for connecting your visitors with other websites that sell products. You can keep a percentage of the sale for supplying the customer. Amazon.com is a popular affiliate where you can offer books and products that your readers would be interested in. You can also line up affiliates through services like Click Bank.
  6. CPM Video: Voxant Newsroom allows you to find and embed videos on your website. When video news content with an advertisement is played by your viewers, you’ll earn a flat-rate CPM (cost per thousand plays).
  7. Sell Products: If you have a good following you may want to sell products with your logo or slogan. Café Press offers an affiliate program where your visitors can order all sorts of products that they will apply your branding to. You will earn a commission on everything sold.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Pay per Click



How NOT to Do SEO

Doug Williams @ 5:26 am

This blog entry was posted on January 28, 2010.

If you really want to make sure your website stays obscure and all but invisible on the Internet, than these are the website tips you have been searching for. It seems many people put up a website without any consideration toward attracting prospects from the search engines. If this is you, then you are probably following one or more of these “how not to” tips.

  1. No focus: Start by covering as many different diverse topics as possible within your website. You might want to combine a travel website, a landscaping company and a computer repair business all in the same website. This will make insure the search engines are confused about your core topic.
  2. Keywords: Create your own keyword phrases using internal “industry-speak” jargon instead of doing research on phrases consumers actually search for. Focus only on 1-2 word phrases which are the most highly competitive and also have the lowest rates of conversion.
  3. Page naming: Name the pages in your website using numbers (instead of keywords) or use unfriendly characters such as underscores (instead of hyphens) between words.
  4. Graphical home page: Since you home page is the most important page, put your content in images or substitute a welcome page that says enter here (splash page). Search engines may not read text images (pictures of text), but it will allow you to have full control of the fonts you would like to use.
  5. Duplicate Content: Copy content from other websites in order to trigger duplicate content penalties. Copying other people’s content is a risky proposition because of copyright laws unless you follow fair use rules or reposting is specifically allowed as in the case of many articles.
  6. META Tags: Use terms like “home” in the Title tag which is the most valuable of the META tags because it is considered visible text. Create duplicate META descriptions and META keywords tags so they are the same across all pages. Stuff dozens of keywords into your META keywords tags instead of only the few that apply to that page.
  7. Analytics: Don’t apply any conversion tracking software or analytics that might allow you to understand how visitors find your website and through which keywords. Don’t make regular changes based on actual results

If you follow these simple tips, you will make life easier for the rest of us that really want to attract visitors and get business from the web.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Google SMS Search for Mobile

Doug Williams @ 5:45 am

This blog entry was posted on January 26, 2010.

You can search Google using SMS text messaging. Simply text message your search query to 466453 (“GOOGLE” on most devices) and Google will text message back your search results. Google SMS uses some standardized queries for getting your information.

SMS or Short Message Service is also caused texting. SMS search is an alternative to browser searches done on the web. You text questions to receive text answers.
Google SMS search shortcuts: For a full list of search shortcuts, go to Google SMS.

  1. Definitions: To find definitions on the Web, enter ‘define’ (or ‘d’) followed by the word or phrase (ex: define ubiquitous, d network)
  2. Driving Directions: To get driving directions, enter your start address then ‘to’ followed by your destination address (ex: 94040 to 94043, pasadena ca to los angeles).
  3. Local business listings: type in what you want to find followed by the city and state or zip code. Example: pizza 98665 or sushi salt lake city.
  4. Movies: To get movie show times, enter the name of a CURRENT movie and include a city and state, or zip code. Example: movies phoenix or movies 94110.
  5. Product Prices: To get product prices, enter ‘price’ followed by the product name (ex: price dvd player, price camera), or enter ‘upc’ followed by the UPC code or ‘isbn’ followed by the ISBN code.
  6. Stocks: To get stock quotes, enter a SINGLE stock ticker symbol or the word ‘stock’ followed by a less obvious ticker name (ex: GOOG, stock DUCK).
  7. Time: To get local time in a city, enter ‘time’ followed by the city name (ex: time London, time Boston).
  8. Translation: To get translations, enter ‘translate’ (or ‘t’) followed by the expression, ‘to’ and a destination language (ex: translate dog to french, t new to german).
  9. Weather: Look up the weather anywhere by entering weather followed by city and state or zip code. Examples: weather portland or; weather 10024.
  10. Web Search: Do a web search using SMS by entering the word web followed by your search phrase. The top 3 results are returned. Example: web small business consulting.

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Filed under: Mobile Web



Search Engine Optimization Made Simple

Doug Williams @ 6:44 am

This blog entry was posted on January 24, 2010.

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization is the process of preparing a website to rank highly in the organic results on Google, Yahoo, or Bing. You can get hung up on the technical details, but it really comes down to doing two things. Having lots of keyword rich content and getting other websites to link to your content.

  1. Create a Plan: Create a master topic plan for your website that is narrowly focused on offering solutions to your market that matched the products or services you offer. Highly focused websites will be easier to optimize than one that covers a range of topics. Use this plan in laying out your website site map.
  2. Choose Keywords using a keyword research tool such as Google’s keyword tool which is a free tool. Follow your master topic plan in selecting your keyword phrases and choose phrases that have a good traffic volume. Choose only 1-2 words for each page. Use phrases 3-5 words in length because people today use specific phrases when they are ready to buy. People use 1-2 word phrases when they are beginning their research.
  3. Write pages: Write your pages using your keywords you selected. Each optimized page should have 400-600 words of test and use each keyword phrase 1-2 times in the body text. These should be used as close to the top of your text as possible. In addition, use the keywords once in the page headlines and once in link text. This should link to another relevant page.
  4. Emphasize keywords: Use the keywords phrase(s) in the Title Tag and where possible, use them in other emphasized text such as bold, italics, ordered lists and numbered lists. This signals the search engines that these phrases are important.
  5. Add a Blog to your website such as worpress.org. Adding a blog and writing original keyword rich content is one of the best ways to increase the size of your website and to attract links from other bloggers. Look here to read more tips about blog marketing.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Creating a Successful Online Magazine

Doug Williams @ 5:38 am

This blog entry was posted on January 22, 2010.

Publishing your own online magazine is a powerful way to build your brand as the industry expert in your market. It takes work and planning to do it right. It is best to publish around a topic that you have a passion for whether it be a hobby, interest or business topic. Best of all, combine these so your work will seem like play.

  1. Market Niche: Find a specific topic or market where the competition for a new magazine is low. Select a catchy and memorable name that readers will identify with.
  2. Competition: Research your competition by doing a Google search for similar online magazines. Look at how they are organized, their articles, their writing style and who they use for writers. Plan how you can create an even better publication.
  3. Online Plan: How will your magazine generate revenue? Will it be a membership subscription site generating monthly revenue because of great content? Perhaps the content will be free, but ads will generate money.
  4. Content Plan: Develop an editorial calendar for the year with a plan for specific topics for certain months. Plan themes for certain issues, bring in interviews from recognized authorities and get industry experts to write for you.
  5. Graphical: Create a graphic look and feel that will appeal to your readers. Develop designs for your masthead and magazine layout. Create a cover that translates into a great reader experience.
  6. Writers: You will not want to write more than one article per issue yourself. You can hire freelance writers and ask industry experts to write your content. It is important to create a truly interesting piece that readers will look forward to receiving.
  7. Solicit advertisers. Find advertisers to offset the cost of production. The more of a readership you can create, the more you can make from advertising. Create a media kit and send this out to potential advertisers. Until you develop sufficient advertising revenue, you can use Google Adsense to develop revenue.
  8. Promotion: Start promoting early with blogging, contests and giveaways. Create anticipation and excitement so your publication can start with a bang. This is not unlike a grand opening for a major department store. Develop an email list in advance and use this to announce the launch of your magazine.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



5 Causes of a High Bounce Rate

Doug Williams @ 6:22 am

This blog entry was posted on January 20, 2010.

Bounce Rate is the percent of visitors that leave without moving deeper into your website. These people leave directly from the page they entered on. A high bounce rate usually leads to a lower conversion rate. Typical bounce rates are 40-60%. This does vary by the type of site though. eCommerce sites will typically have the lowest bounce rates at 25-45%.

Visitors arrive looking for some answer or solution. If your website doesn’t clearly show them what they are searching for, they are gone in under 3 seconds. There is a science to converting traffic to customers. So, what are the causes of a high bounce rate and what can be done to improve it?

  1. Attracting the wrong visitors: If your organic SEO or PPC campaign is using the wrong keyword phrases, then you are attracting the wrong visitors. You should be targeting people most likely to convert. These are your target customers. Choose phrases that very closely match what you have to offer.
  2. Content not relevant: Even if you attract the right visitor, but the content is not relevant to solving the need or problem your visitor has, they will leave. The key is to deeply understand your arriving prospect and then clearly give them what they are after.
  3. No clear call to action: If your page has no clear path to action or even worse, too many possible actions your visitor will leave. Make decisions easy. After all a confused mind will always say no and just leave.
  4. Confusing page design: Keep your page layout visually simple. You want people to be able to quickly scan your page and know what it is you offer. Place your offer above the fold so that it is clearly visible to your arriving visitor.
  5. Confusing navigation: There is nothing worse than arriving to a site where the navigation is made up of obscure words with unclear meaning. If people arrive they will click thru to another page if they see a link to what they want. By using easy to understand navigation you can make sure those visitors don’t bounce.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Web Usability



Landing Page Optimization Tips

Doug Williams @ 5:28 am

This blog entry was posted on January 18, 2010.

Landing pages are typically simplified pages that are focused on getting your prospect to take a specific action. They are frequently used in a pay-per-click campaign or some other advertising campaign that drives visitors to a specific conversion page. Your goal is to catch your visitor’s attention in a fraction of a second and interest them enough to take some action.

  1. Purpose: Your landing page should have one single purpose. You want it to be laser focused on getting a single result. Many landing pages lack this clarity or have multiple possible action paths. This confuses the visitor which can cause them to leave.
  2. Audience: Design your landing page for a specific audience. This could be prospects, clients, investors, job seekers, current employees or the press. Each group will have their own specific needs and requirements. Don’t try and use one landing page for everyone.
  3. Conversion Path: Define your conversion path before designing your landing page. Some products have an almost instant buying decision where the purchase is immediate. Others require a long education and interaction strategy before someone is ready to commit. Frequently the conversion path will begin with a form being filled out so education by email can begin.
  4. Multiple Actions: It becomes more complicated when there are multiple actions a visitor can take. Suppose you are offering 3 options where someone can buy now, take a free trial or sign-up for a free newsletter. You would want to prioritize your offers where your number one priority is presented first and with the largest call to action button.
  5. Measure: Use Google Analytics or other website statistics package to track conversion rates. Decide what it is you need to measure such as form-fills, registrations or purchases. Start with creating a baseline or starting point. If you have multiple actions, place a dollar value on each action so you can measure improvements. Then systematically test changes you make to your landing page as you optimize your landing page.

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Filed under: Pay per Click



How to Get Your Website Visitors to Take Action

Doug Williams @ 6:56 am

This blog entry was posted on January 16, 2010.

How do you get your website visitors to take action? You may have exactly what they need. You have them interested, but what can you do to get them to commit? You may even have a clear and compelling offer, but that is not enough.

People are wary about buying online. You have to build trust by eliminating their risk. They are looking to you for reassurance. Adding trust building elements to your site is frequently the difference between a poor performing website and a money maker.

These are 20 things you can do to build your credibility and lower your prospects anxiety.

  1. Offer a 100% unconditional money back guarantee.
  2. Include an option for a free trial or introductory offer.
  3. Include a video clip of the product in action to help the customer see what they are buying.
  4. Have a simple and hassle free returns policy.
  5. Prevent surprises by disclosing shipping costs early in the shopping process.
  6. On your home page and ordering pages have “trust logos” prominently posted (BBBonline, Truste, VISA, HackerSafe).
  7. Give reassurance that you will guard their privacy (no spamming, emails won’t be sold to spammers).
  8. Include helpful product education and how to advice. The more time they spend on your site, the more they will trust you.
  9. Include user product reviews and ratings.
  10. Include real testimonials and reviews by people who have used your products.
  11. Get endorsements from industry experts and professional organizations.
  12. Include links to press coverage from the mainstream media include an “in the news” or “press”  section on your website.
  13. List any Industry awards you have won.
  14. List any industry associations you are a member of (or use their logos in #5).
  15. Include actual case studies you have done.
  16. Disclose any ongoing costs to maintain and operate the product.
  17. Include your phone number and physical address prominently on your site.
  18. Offer offline ordering alternatives such as finalizing the purchase by phone.
  19. Offer multiple payment options.
  20. Offer multiple shipping options.

Your goal is to be transparent and to show your prospect why they should trust you. Provide real value and offer your customer choices.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing,Web Usability



H1 Tags – How to Use Them in SEO

Doug Williams @ 5:18 am

This blog entry was posted on January 14, 2010.

Effective organic search engine optimization uses many factors all focused on your keyword phrases. Heading tags are one way of emphasizing your keywords to search engines. Heading tags are used on the headlines on your web page. Heading tags (H1 through to H6) are given much more importance by search engines than regular body text. They should be used to reinforce your page’s overall keyword theme.

Many designers don’t even bother using H1 tags in their designs because they don’t understand their importance.

Keyword Phrase: Use your most important keyword phrase for a page within your H1 tag. H1 tags are given the most importance by Google. You will want to use only one H1 tag on each page. A common mistake made by designers is to waste this valuable SEO tool on non-critical text. Posting dates or “Welcome to Our Site” will not help your search rankings nor does it communicate what you do to an arriving visitor.

Page Title: Use your H1 tag to define your page title. It signals the search engine what topic your web page is about. Choose a keyword phrase that summarizes the content on the page.

Formatting: You can adjust the size and color of the fonts heading tags through CSS. Using CSS, you can still include these important structural tags without sacrificing your page design.

H2,H3 tags: If your page requires multiple headlines, use H2 tags or H3 tags on these. Use keywords in these heading tags as well. Think of heading tags structure as an outline format for your web page with H2 being a section of the page and H3 being a sub-section.

  1. H1: One per page and descriptive of the entire web page
    1. H2: multiple topics OK, describe a section
      1. H3: sub-topic of H2; multiple H3 are OK.
    2. H2 Topic. This would be another section of the page.
      1. H3 sub topic.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Who are Your Best Buyers?

Doug Williams @ 5:45 am

This blog entry was posted on January 12, 2010.

How do you tune your website to focus on your best customers? You do this by creating a behavioral profile of your best buyer.  Behavior is considered the best way to predict future actions, so understanding what drives behavior is critical. By creating a “best buyer persona” you can effectively market to this group. It helps you to design into your site value, trust and persuasion to purchase . This helps in converting traffic into customers.

Start by creating 3-5 customer segments that are your major buyers of what you offer. Prioritize these groups from best to least desirable for you in terms of profitability, repeat buying and your ability to please them with your service. Use your own formula for what is best for your company. More on user personas.

Focus on your “best buyers” but you will want to apply these same ideas to your other customers, you just want to put the focus and emphasis on your best buyers.

Start by asking a few questions about this group.

  1. What problem, goal or need is driving them to search for your product?
  2. What is the main obstacle that might stop them from choosing what you sell?
  3. What one thing is most likely to persuade this group to immediately buy once they learn this about your product?

Think of your best buyer persona as a character. Define their job position, demographics and education. What are their buying criteria? What is their role in the buying process? How do they reach a decision? How skilled are they? You want to develop your character’s personality around traits that show how your character views the world, speak, thinks, and acts.

Developing a persona is meant to create empathy and understanding for your buyer’s situation, feelings and motives. Once you personalize this into a user persona, your team can best create a selling strategy for your best buyers. Decide what call to action will be most effective with this group.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



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