Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Marketing a website can be frustrating, not to mention expensive. Plus, there are many times that it cost money to market a website and there is no idea if the method used will work. Throwing money away on a poor or unsuccessful online marketing method has no little or no benefit to anyone who owns or runs a website. That being said, there are a number of free alternatives available when it comes to marketing a website and getting more traffic to go there. These free methods should be mixed in with the more costly methods so that the benefits of both can be realized.
Ten Free Ways To Advertise A Website:
1. Online Coupons - A website can make coupons available for customers to use on their next purchase. This encourages traffic to increase in two ways, people may come back to the site to take advantage of the coupon, or people may distribute the coupon to their friends or co-workers which could result in them coming to the website.
2. Free Samples - Advertising that a website offers free samples is a great way to encourage people to click on a link and come to the site. People are confronted with recommendations and advertising for thousands of different websites each day, the thought of getting something free may be what makes them choose one website over another.
3. YouTube - Filming an informative or humorous video, adding a watermark to it which includes the URL of the site being marketed, and then uploading it to YouTube or other video sites is another free way of getting a URL and website name out in front of the eyes of people that could end up being traffic to that site. When doing this, attentions should be paid to making sure the video is labeled, titled, and tagged in the best way to so that it will be as beneficial to the website as possible.
4. Search Engines - Submitting to search engines is not always necessary as most search engines will come and find any site that is built and linked to by another site. There are however many things that can be done that are related to search engines to bring in traffic. This includes putting keywords into the website’s META tag fields, the text of the website, and any articles or links pointing at the website.
5. Create An Ezine - Creating an Ezine is a great way to market a website for free. Filling up an Ezine with content that is specific to the niche of the site being marketed can sometimes be difficult, but once it is created and submitted to a number of distribution sites, the Ezine works by itself directing traffic back to the website itself.
6. Free Classified Ads - There are a number of websites on the internet that feature free classified ads as part of their site. Some of these sites are full featured classified ad sites while others of these sites offer free classified ads as just a part of the services they offer.
7. Offline Methods - From giving away T-Shirts and hats that have the URL of the website being marketed printed on them, to putting the URL on bumper stickers, flyers, and other items that a business uses anyway, free offline methods of getting traffic to a website should also be pursued along with the great number of online methods.
8. Free Submission Sites - When it comes to finding free advertising or marketing ideas for websites, one of the most plentiful is the large number of free submission sites out there. There are a great number of directories, URL lists, and other linking possibilities out there that are one hundred percent free.
9. Blogging - Any website that is looking for traffic should take advantage of the great possibilities available as a result of successful blogging. Blogging is a free way to create new content, on a daily basis if need be, that will be found in search engine results and other areas of the internet. An additional benefit of blogging is that it encourages readers that have already visited the website an option to come back and see what is added or talked about in the next entry.
10. Online Communities - Whether chat based, social network based, or online forum based, joining and participating in an online community is another way to advertise a website and drive traffic to it for free. There are many communities that are either general in nature, or even focused on a specific niche, and when the URL of a website being marketed is posted in these communities it has a large chance of being clicked on and visited.
There are a number of important, effective, and useful ways to advertise a website that cost money to execute. Many of these have the exact results that the owners or managers of a website are looking for. There are also a number of free ways to advertise a website and try and find potential traffic to visit that site and they should be exploited too. Just because an advertising method is free, doesn’t mean that it is less effective.
Making Money By Starting Your Own Translation Business
How many languages do you speak? The more languages you speak the better. Being bilingual definitely has its benefits. In business use any skills you might have to your advantage. So if you speak many languages, than why not start your own translations business.
Starting your own translation business is a great money making idea that you should capitalize on. Even if you don't speak more than 1 language you can still do it. There are plenty of companies looking for bilingual people.
You can offer a service where you connect companies with translators. The easiest way to do this is to start a website. The website will serve as a meeting place for both parties. You can make money on the site by charging membership fees, or listing fees.
Starting your own translation business is a great money making idea that you should capitalize on. Even if you don't speak more than 1 language you can still do it. There are plenty of companies looking for bilingual people.
You can offer a service where you connect companies with translators. The easiest way to do this is to start a website. The website will serve as a meeting place for both parties. You can make money on the site by charging membership fees, or listing fees.
Money Making Ideas During A Slow Economy
Let's cover some money making ideas during this economy. We all know what a slow economy feels like because we are going through it right now. More and more people are being laid off every single day, it is getting really bad folks. Even a college degree is not going to help you much at this time. This just shows you that even if you have a college degree you still don't have as much job security as you might think.
Now you can do several things you can either cry about it, or take advantage of some opportunities. Let's see what would be the best business to start at this time? That should be a no brainier, an online business. Folks, starting your own online business is probably the best way for you to make money at this time.
I am not just saying that to be saying it, lets look at some numbers. Okay, so the first thing you will need is a domain name. To register a domain name it is going to cost you roughly $10. Thats if you want one, you can use blogger.com instead. It is absolutely free. You get a free sub-domain and free hosting. Start up cost $0. Please tell me any other business you can start with $0.
Even if you buy a domain name you can still host it at blogger.com, either way you get my point here. Starting an online business is extremely easy and does not take much money at all. It is easy to start, but you will have to put in many hours if you want to be successful.
There are other business that thrive during these times as well, like pawn shops and thrift stores. Of course you will need some money to start a business like that, but if you have the funds go for it. Anything that saves people money works. People are scared now, they don't want to spend there money.
Odd-jobs also thrive during these times. Cheap cheap cheap that's the main theme during a slow economy.
Now you can do several things you can either cry about it, or take advantage of some opportunities. Let's see what would be the best business to start at this time? That should be a no brainier, an online business. Folks, starting your own online business is probably the best way for you to make money at this time.
I am not just saying that to be saying it, lets look at some numbers. Okay, so the first thing you will need is a domain name. To register a domain name it is going to cost you roughly $10. Thats if you want one, you can use blogger.com instead. It is absolutely free. You get a free sub-domain and free hosting. Start up cost $0. Please tell me any other business you can start with $0.
Even if you buy a domain name you can still host it at blogger.com, either way you get my point here. Starting an online business is extremely easy and does not take much money at all. It is easy to start, but you will have to put in many hours if you want to be successful.
There are other business that thrive during these times as well, like pawn shops and thrift stores. Of course you will need some money to start a business like that, but if you have the funds go for it. Anything that saves people money works. People are scared now, they don't want to spend there money.
Odd-jobs also thrive during these times. Cheap cheap cheap that's the main theme during a slow economy.
Making Money Online Might Not Be For You
Here is the deal, I truly want to teach you how to make money, and offer you plenty of money making ideas for you to try. I truly believe that making money online is not for everyone. Why do I say this? Well, the thing is that most people do not realize how much work is involved. That's why 9 out of 10 of you will fail ( Those Are The Stats, I Personally Wish That All Of You Reading This Will Succeed) but facts say otherwise.If you are a hard working individual that dose not give up easily, than you have a really good chance of making it big. If you think that you will become a millionaire over night doing this, you will probably not even make a dollar let alone a million. It has a lot to do with your mindset. You have to be happy with having $1000 before being happy with a million. I guarantee that some people would still live miserable even if they finally got there million.
Money is not everything people! I am not trying to preach to you in anyway, I just want you to think outside of the box. I will be the first to tell you that it is not easy to make a living on the internet. Why will nobody else tell you that? Because they want to scam you and sell you crap. They want to make you believe that they have the secrets to make you a millionaire in a few weeks.
So are you truly ready to make money online.....
Once technical aspects are cleared with the blogging provider, you can start your blog. At this point you come to the picture and start to customize your templates and writing that you post. Majority of the people like blogging as it offers them a platform that could be utilized to exhibit their thoughts. A few people also think of it in a business prospective.
In order to become an efficient blogger you will have to lay down a schedule for yourself. Initially begin with writing down a list of at least 20 various matters to write on. You will very quickly realize that it is not that easy to provide good effective writing for your readers’ everyday. Thus you will have to find a way to write on your own style and expand it. Do not try to inculcate a style that is not naturally in you. This would bore the readers very soon and you would find it difficult to write too. Simply aim at the matter and the flow would come naturally. This doesn’t mean that you have to strain yourself. You simply have to take one step at a time.
Take a break in between and also make use of spell check. After finishing one post it is good to take a break for five to ten minutes. It makes your mind free for a while and thus increases the productivity. Always keep n my how personal you want your blog to get. You cloud reveal you name if you wish. Normally people do not use their actual name. But by using your own name, you will easily gain people’s trust. It takes sometime for people to recognize your existence. You could also install a statistical counter. It’s normally free of cost and it lets you know the number of people who have visited your blog.
If you want to raise your blog’s traffic the following ways could help you. You will have to be active in the community first by giving your remarks on other people’s blogs. Utilize the name that you would create your identity when you begin your blog. See that your remarks are short and interesting to read. It is good to give your remarks on blogs that are related to your blog. When you do so, they might end up giving their remarks on your blog too.
By writing catchy headlines and excellent first line, you could grab the attention of your readers. Try to write on matters that are less explored. Do not try to impress everyone because that is never possible. If you work hard and put your full effort success would come in search of you.
Discovering A Perfect Web Hosting Provider For Your Blog
There are tons of web hosting providers. When you look for a web hosting provider for your blog the thing that you can almost neglect are the bandwidth and disk space. Many web hosting providers offer huge disk space and bandwidth that are much more than what you need.
They most important element is the safety of data. You cannot even think of missing all your data that you have worked on for years due to hardware failure on the web server. The web hosting providers must always keep a backup copy of data that is hosted through their servers. You mast also be able to get total technical help and time you are in need. Majority of the web hosting providers do not succeed in doing so.
To know how good the blog is just visit the forums and learn what the other users feel about the site. You should also make sure that the blog is accessible to your costumers all the time. Find out if you web hosting provider is providing Control Panel or not. Control panel lets you handle the files in your directory on the web server, track visitors, create e-mail, make use of disk space and bandwidth and much more.
Try to look for a medium sized web hosting provider as companies that have loads of domains could slow down the speed. A medium sized company contains sufficient number of users to rely on and yet they aren’t too large. If you want to install Wordpress then you will require a web hosting provider who provides PHP and MySQL database installed. Most of the web hosting providers have it but the cheaper ones may not have MySQL database. If the web hosting is not up to the mark then you may have to face a huge amount of problems. Thus it is very necessary to be cautious while selecting a web hosting provider.
What is a Blog?
This Post Is For A Real Beginner!
Before one enters into the blogging it is better to know what a blog is all about. There are varieties of ways to answer this question, from the simplest way to a highly technical one. Given below are few definitions of a blog.
A blog is a chain of text, images, data and media objects put together in a chronological order that could be viewed with the help of a HTML browser.
A blog is a recurrent, chronological publication of individual thoughts and web links.
A blog is principally a journal that is exists on the web. The process of keeping it updated is known as blogging and a person who owns a blog is known as a blogger.
A blog is a type of repeated journey with a human guide who you get to know. There are a number of guides to choose from, each creates an audience and there also politics among the people who blog. They point out to each other in many ways.
Blogs are normally updated everyday using softwares that let people with little or no technical knowledge to update and maintain a blog. The posting present in a blog are at all times set in chronological order.
A blog is a website where matters are posted daily and arranged in reverse chronological order. The word blog is abbreviated form of weblog or web log. Creating a blog, maintaining it or posting an article to a prevailing blog is known as blogging. Individual articles on a blog are known as blog posts, posts or entries. The person who publishes these posts is known as a blogger. A blog includes text, hypertext, links and images. Blogs make use of a spoken style of documentation. Normally every blog aims at a particular area of interest.
To make it easier – blog is a kind of website that is normally put in chronological order from the latest post on top of the page to the older posts towards the end. Blogs are mostly written on a specific subject. There are a huge range of blogs on any subject you can think of. There are blogs on politics, education, writing, personal account and much more. The whole blog communities have mushroomed around these subjects putting people into touch with one another where they can learn, make friends, discuss ideas as well as do business with people with same tastes from across the globe.
Blogs normally have some characteristics that are helpful to understand if you wish to get the most from them as a reader. Here are a few of them:
Archives: By looking at the first page of the blog you might come to a conclusion that there is nothing much in it. Some latest posts and a few links to some other sites and that’s it. But you should know that there are a many unseen things that might catch your interest. Apart from the main page of the blog there are a number of posts that are published sometime before. When a fresh post is published it appears on the first page and as it gets older and new posts are published it goes out of the first page. But this is not the end of those older posts; it just enters into the archives of the blog. You can go through the posts in the archive just by looking on the sidebar at the archives or categories section. There you will find links to the older posts.
Comments: Not every blog make use of comments, but most of them do. A blog is not a soliloquy but a conversation. You can give your feedbacks to a blog on any posts. At the end of each post you will find a comments button. You can leave your comments just by clicking it and keying your comments. The best way to understand what a blog is all about is to go through a few of them. You would understand it even better if you start one of your own.
Millions of people all around the world own a blog. It is not for any particular group of people. You need not be a computer expert to start one either. By just having access to internet just once or twice a week, you could start a blog and maintain it.
Popular Blog Search Engines
Blogs are listed by the search engines as any other website. There are some search engines on the web that are particularly good in searching blogs. Given below is a list of Blog search engines:
Google Blog Search:
By using Google blog search the user could get the recent blog posting and famous blog and could also look for videos, images and so on.
Icerocket:
It is a blog search engine that lets you search with the help of topic tag. You just have to choose a topic tag from the list given or add your own in the textbox that is given. The list that you come across is set in alphabetical order and the bigger and bold the text is, the more famous that particular topic is.
Blogger:
Blogger is a blog publishing and search site that is as well owned by Google. It offers the exact search as Google Blog Search but through the Blogger interface. If you wish to get out-and-out updates as fresh blog posts get posted then subscribe for blog feeds.
Technorati Blog Search:
By keying in the topic or just clicking from the topic list that is given you could search for blogs on Technorati Blog Search. You will also find a list of currently posted blogs as well as the day’s extremely famous blog. To search for the most popular blogs across the globe go for the Explore option that you find in Technorati. You could either enter topics yourself or choose from the list of topics. You can also search by tag in Technorati. The extremely famous words emerge bigger and in bold.
Technorati Search:
You just have to key in a word or a phrase in a single or more text boxes and later choose a Search in category.
The above were some of the popular blog search engines.
Selecting A Blog Platform
There are a number of questions regarding which blog platform to select. You cannot specifically say which blog platform is the best to select because it totally depends on the purpose of your blog. Here are some factors that you would want to consider in selecting a blog platform.
There are a huge number of blogs platforms available in the market. You could change your blog platform anytime later if you wish to, majority of them have methods of importing and exporting the matter later. Normally there are some costs attached with such transfers. It is wise not to hurry and select the first option you come across. Take some time to decide, research a little and you could come across a perfect platform that would last for a long time. Try to answer the questions given below and you might end up getting the perfect track.
The most fundamental thing to do while selecting a blog platform is to keep in mind what is your requirement and purpose of your blog. Beginners would find it a little tricky to make a decision. But considering the following questions would help you to decide easily.
- What is the key purpose of your blog?
- Would you like to continue blogging for a longer period?
- Are you thinking of adding ads on your blog?
- Are you planning to start the blog as a hobby or as a professional?
There would be many other doubts you would want to clear. It’s a good thing to clear these doubts with some research because there are a few platforms that are suitable for people who want to maintain a blog as a hobby and the ones who think of maintaining it professionally.
If you are planning to select Wordpress, then it’s a good choice. This blog is using WordPress. You may easily install it with one click at webhosts that support wordpress.
Blog platforms are available in a wide selection. You will come across the ones that are free of cost and also paid ones. But you really don’t need paid ones, as wordpress and blogger are great and free! (plus others too). There are three essential things that are worth paying for. They are:
Various blogging platforms provide diverse levels of service. A few of them like Wordpress and Blogger provide platform, domain name and free hosting as well. But it’s better to get your own host, and install the free platform on it.
The other expenses that you would want to consider in the initial stage are:
Design: each platform is available with free templates. However, if you wish to have a more personal look then you will have to know some design skills or take the help of someone who can design or get a design by paying.
Blog tools: There are huge amount of tools that are available if you pay for them, to help your blogging better. They contain stats packages, offline blog posting tools etc. If you are new to blogging you will not need these tools but as you get deep into it, you might need them.
If you are a newbie in the field of blogging and not too technologically minded then there are a few blog platforms that are better suited for you. The other alternative is to search for someone who could help you technically. The best part about blogging is that there are a wide range of information available as well as some devoted forums that help people to understand more about the platforms they have selected. While selecting a platform it would be good to find out what others are into. In the past few years a number of platforms have taken birth and later perished and it would continue to happen.
Once you are clear with the above questions then you will have to ask yourself if you want a hosted platform or a stand alone platform.
Hosted Blog Platforms:
Hosted blog platform is a kind which many bloggers select in the beginning just for the reason that they are easy to use and less expensive. The most popular hosted blog platform is blogger.com. However you will also find platforms such as MSN spaces and Wordpress.com. These platforms are hosted blog platforms as they host the blogs on their own domain. Once your blog is created, you will be given a web address that is normally a combination of the name of your blog and their own URL.
Stand Alone Blog Platforms:
The other type of blog platform is stand alone platform that is hosted under your personal domain. Textpattern, B2Evolution, are some of the stand alone blog platforms that you can make use of.
How To Begin A Blog And Make It Earn
If you are looking forward to start a blog for the first time then here is a list of things that you could follow and make it work.
Decide on what you want your blog to stand for:
You should always know what you want your blog to be on. Because if you don’t know on what your blog is; then you won’t have any clue about your niche. If this is the case your blog will perish very soon. Therefore choose a niche and make sure that it is a wide one so that you can keep blogging on it for a long time.
Think of a title that is attractive, interesting and simple to keep in mind:
Once you have decided on what your blog is supposed to be on, and then post something that captures people’s attention. Keep your blog’s brand catchy so that people will click on it.
Purchase a Domain Name that is concerned to your title:
This is because it will be easy to remember. As there are loads of websites coming up, Domain name too counts these days. Try keeping it short so that people can easily remember. The shorter it is the better.
Select a blogging platform:
Consider your requirement and budget. There are a number of free blogging sites that you will find in which you can start and run a blog for free.
Search for a trustworthy web host:
You will have to search for a trustworthy web host as your visitors would get annoyed if the server doesn’t connect each time. Try to find out the web host that is best suited for you. (Read:Get A Cheap Host - Host Your WordPress Blog)
Look for a flexible theme and Edit it:
The design of your blog is an element of your blog’s brand. If you have some knowledge of CSS and HTML, try to edit a few nice themes of if you don’t know much about designing then you could take some help from a professional. Simply keep in mind that it has to be distinctive.
Register for Web Analytics:
To find out whether you are doing the correct thing, if your marketing strategies are doing good Web analytics is very essential (eg: Google Analytics) . It can let you know what is popular on your blog and what is not and also what majority of the visitors like and so on. With the help of web analytics you can find out where your visitors have come from; may be through referral, directly, search engine and much more.
Create your first post regarding your blog:
In you first post write about your blog. It will be easy for your visitors to understand as to what your blog is all about.
Post genuine content:
Make sure that all your posts are written on the basis of good research and all your content is right. Blogging is not as easy like it seems. It takes a little hard and sincere work. Also do not make your posts totally serious. Add some humor too so that it gets interesting to read.
Mingle with other Bloggers:
Once you have the content then it’s time to share it with people. Try to mingle with other bloggers too. Try to make them your friends, but also do not totally rely on them. In the world of internet unexpected things can happen. Thus don’t reveal your personal information, passwords and so on. Just see what you can learn from them.
Create readership:
Just because loads of people visit your blog in a short time don’t be contented and sit back. Think about whether they would return to your site. Regular readers can earn you much income. Thus see that your regular readers are happy because they are the ones who will help you even when you are going down.
Making money:
Once you have are done with each of the following steps its time to earn some money and be contented. For this, there are a number of advertising programs but you will have to look for a reliable one. A few of them are: Google AdSense, Review Me, Affiliates and so on. (More at Money Making Programs)
Keep Blogging till your blog perishes:
It is a fact that your blog cannot survive forever. But the only thing you can do to keep it alive is try to make it as attractive as possible so that it still draws audiences.
Is it Necessary to Register Domain for a Blog?
Many websites provide easy means to create a Blog (eg: blogger.com). The only drawback that you come across is that you won’t have your personal domain name, as an alternative your blog address would be something like: yourblogname.blogspot.com and so on. As long as you write attractive posts, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a domain name. The only significant element is the quality of your content.
However, if you desire to be identified and kept in mind among loads of other blogs then it is better to have your own domain name rather than a sub-domain. But if you are planning to write on less popular subject such as your pets, then perhaps you won’t require your own domain name. In case you are a professional and desire to create a blog that would assist you in constructing your professional status then it is very essential for you to register your own domain name.
Many of the free blog hosts provide unlimited room for your text but not for videos and photographs and music that you wish to upload and share with your readers. It would have a big impact if you have huge amount of readers and if your posts are straightly aimed towards media interests. All good web hosting providers will give you huge space that is enough to post loads of images, music and videos. Owning a Domain Name might make you appear professional but it may not make you a Pro-blogger. A few ad networks don’t permit your site if it doesn’t have its own domain name. A few free blog services don’t let you add ads in your blog. Sometimes if you don’t have a domain name, you would be losing some profit. But if you succeed in drawing some visitors and RSS subscribers then your blog has the possibility of earning income. Blog can earn some additional income for small investment.
Alexa Traffic Rank of a site or blog is important for every webmaster. While Alexa traffic rank is determent or calculated by the number of visitors to your site who are using Alexa toolbar (ie; not all your site’s real traffic), still it is a major factor to rate a site’s
value (visitors).
The number of visitors to your site is important for you as a webmaster, but if you got the traffic you want, but not from people using Alexa Toolbar, you will still not get a good rank on Alexa.
Why Is Alexa Traffic Rank Important?
For anyone to evaluate your site they will check your Alexa Rank (that is your site’s
traffic), along with your Google PageRank (that is the value of your site’s content). So you need to improve it!
Improving your Alexa Traffic Rank is important specially if you are selling advertisement on your site (banners, text ads, etc..), or posting sponsored reviews on your blog. A good
Alexa Rank will improve a link value at your site….That is the better your Alexa Rank, the more money you can make from your site.
Tips To Improve Your Alexa Traffic Rank:
- Install Alexa Toolbar in your internet browser and set your site as the default URL
Go to Alexa Website and download Alexa toolbar now, and make your site as the default URL. This way whenever you open your browser Alexa will get informed and will count that as a visitor.
- Put Your Alexa Widget on your Site
Alexa offers you different widgets for your site. Chose the one that fits you and put at
your site right now! This will help a lot in your rank.
- Ask your family and friends to download and install Alexa Toolbar, and to set your blog as their default homepage
Why not?! and even more if you can you may downloaded Alexa Toolbar in all the computers at your work place, and set your blog as their default homepage there too.
- Blog about Alexa Traffic Rank and encourage your blog readers to download and install it
Write about the important of the toolbar for their Alexa Traffic Rank.
- Join Webmasters Forums
Webmaster forums members are always webmasters! So probably they have Alexa Toolbar installed, and if not why not mentioning the important of it in your conversation there?! When they visit your site it counts by Alexa.
- Submit and bookmark your posts in social media websites
Sites like:
Propeller
StumbleUpon
Digg
Reddit
Sphinn
Here is A List Of Top Social Book Mark Sites
Most of the users of those social media websites are bloggers and webmaster. Same goes as the previous point!
- Get friends to review and rate your Alexa website profile
Not entirely sure of its impact on rankings but it might help in some way.
- Post in Asian social networking websites or forums
Some webmasters have suggested that East Asian web users are big Alexa toolbar fans, judging by the presence of several Asia-based websites in the Alexa Top 500. This may be another option if you have time.
- Create an Alexa category on your blog and use it to include any articles or news about Alexa
This acts as an easily accessible resource for webmasters or casual search visitors while helping you rank in the search engines.
- Buy banners and links for traffic from webmaster forums and websites
A prominent and well displayed ad will drive lots of webmaster traffic to your website, which can significantly boost your rank.
- Try Alexa auto-surfs
This may only be suitable for brand new sites. I think they are mostly suitable for new websites with a very poor Alexa rank. Also note not to have Google Adsnese when you are using them. They aren’t also long term solutions to improving your Alexa Rank so I suggest using with caution.
So you want to learn more about Google Adwords?
Whether you are a business owner or a web marketer or an affiliate, understanding Adwords is crucial if you want to have any advertising success on the internet. If you are serious about web marketing you will need to use Adwords. This is simply because Google's mission is to provide the best search result for users has meant ...everyone uses Google to find the information quickly. This is the whole basis of Google's strength...which you can use to your advantage.
But why do so many Adwords Campaigns fail?
Most people start off with Adwords without the of benefit any "lessons" and make a lot of mistakes. This is why so many campaigns end up being paused in frustration and without any return for the money and effort spent. The main problem for most people is that they never have been shown how to set up an Adwords Campaign PROPERLY and use the tools provided. Adwords is a simple concept but the reality is that it is becomes very complicated if you don't know what you are doing.
By doing it on the cheap- without proper training - you end up paying more than you need to for your campaigns, and you fail to be seen if you are on page ten, when you want to be on page one. As well as wasting money, you are wasting valuable time and effort when you could be driving a ton of qualified traffic to your web site and converting them to real sales - EVERYDAY.
So, how to Create Successful Adwords Campaigns?
The answer to your problems is really simple... VIDEO COACHING.
For some reason, people feel the need to do everything for themselves, when you can make your life much easier and benefit from someone else's experience. The fact is, we never stop learning. From the day we are born...we learn from our parents... then at school we learn from our teachers, ...at work we learn from our peers and trainers.
Why waste 12 months and a stack of money?
There has never been a better time to use Video Coaching. The latest Video technology has meant it is now accessible to all users - without the need of expensive software.
Now, literally, in ONE day you can be shown what to do EXACTLY step-by-step ...from:
- opening an account
- creating advertising campaigns
- writing advertisements
- optimizing your bids
1. Without doubt the biggest mistake a newbie to Adwords makes is compiling a long list of less than targeted keywords and whacking (technical term) them into a single ad-group.
2. Using broad match only
3. The unholiest of the trinity – not tracking results.
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#1 The Single Adgroup
Although at first it may seem tempting – collecting all your keywords and lumping them into a single ad-group for ‘ease of administration’ is not a good idea for a multitude of reasons.
First off, let’s say you have managed to find 1000 keywords for your campaign and you pop them all into a single ad-group. Yes, you get a single point of administration (or more accurately a single point of failure) but look at what you miss:
• The ability to group tightly cohesive keywords (which are the mindset of your prospects) and construct targeted adverts which are more likely to gain a click through to your site.
• The ability to have specific landing pages on your site for specific customer psychographics. This alone will greatly increase your chances of getting a prospect respond to your call to action – be it an email address capture or a sale.
• The ability to keep tight control over the budget of your ‘best’ keywords (where best are high traffic/high conversion). Sure you can adjust individual CPC’s within an ad-group, but the granularity and control is not there and the problems inherent with grouping too many loosely assembled keywords will ensure your efforts are thwarted and money wasted.
Have you ever had your account slowed? It’s a pain for sure but the more keywords you have administered in a less than disciplined way, the more of your keywords will be put on hold/in-trial and/or disabled.
Remember Google rewards good advertising performance and looks at all advertiser histories & your advertising history when determining how well you are doing.
Adwords is not a fire and forget medium (unless you have a very niche market with very little competition – but the days of such markets are numbered).
Active campaign management is required to ensure you have not just a return of your investment but a positive return ON your investment.
#2 Using Broad Match
Consider the keyword ‘widget’.
How many ways can you search for this keyword? In theory there are infinite number of searches that can be conducted but in practice there are considerably fewer thankfully.
However, how should you specify your matching options within Adwords?
Option 1: Broad Match
This specifies the keyword in an unadorned fashion within your list like so:
Blue widget
What this means is that should somebody search for the keywords:
Blue widget
Red blue widget
Widget blue
Widget who searches for these things blue?
Don’t need blue widget
Then, your advert would show for all of these. This is all very well when broad match (I’ll not talk about expanded match searching for fear of confusion!) shows your advert for terms relevant to you. But…
For every term relevant to your market there could be 10, 100 or 1000 others which are not (which is why when you utilise broad matching you should use negative keywords exhaustively).
The upshot of this is two-fold:
1. Your advert will have more untargeted impressions which will result in a lower Click Through Rate.
2. You will receive more ‘tyre kicking’ clicks from visitors who are not in the least bit interested in your product/service thus increasing your costs.
Option 2: Phrase match
This specifies the keyword by surrounding it in quotes like so:
“blue widget”
What this means is that should somebody search for the keywords:
Need blue widget
Blue widget
Blue widget where are you
Don’t need blue widget
Then your advert will show because the phrase is found within the keywords. This is the next most highly targeted form of search matching and is an ‘improvement’ on broad match – in terms of specialisation.
Option 3: Exact match
This specifies the keyword by surrounding it in square brackets like so:
[blue widget]
Now, your advert will only show if and only if the keyword
Blue widget
is searched for.
In an ideal world, you will know exactly what every keyword is that your prospects are searching for and you could therefore have an exact match for a keyword search. This would serve to both minimise your advertising expenditure and increase your return on investment simultaneously.
But, to get to a point whereby you know the keywords (or at least know as many as possible) which are profitable to you, you need to conduct some research within your adwords campaigns.
So which is the best matching options to use?
Starting off, it is best to utilise all 3 matching options within your ad-group because:
1. You get to know if there are keywords out there you have missed in your research and can dig further to find out if they should be specified with more targeted matching or added to your negative keyword list.
2. The assignment of your keyword status (on hold, in trial, disabled) is delayed because the impressions are spread between the variants of the keywords.
3. More targeted terms (using exact match) generally have higher conversion rates so you can assign different more cost effect cost per clicks accordingly.
Eventually, as your campaigns mature in time, you will have more and more exact match and less phrase & broad match. As a result your advertising costs will decrease whilst your return on investment will naturally increase.
#3 The Unholiest Error
Ok, this isn’t an adwords tip perse as it should be adopted and applied to each and every part of your online and offline advertising.
It’s time to be honest – for each and every piece of advertising/PR you have on the go, how well are you tracking results?
I mean can you categorically put your hand on your heart and say, “Yes, by handing out business cards, I generated £x of business last month” (doh! – I’ve just got a new batch printed up and even I’ve missed out on this, slap my wrist, practice what you preach Tom!).
In the world of Adwords, you need to know what keywords are giving you results and focus your budget and efforts accordingly.
If you have an advert that shunts prospects to a generic landing page, which is not tracked and you have no idea as a result whether they signed up or bought a product/service.
Then, you are wasting tens, hundreds, thousands (bigger companies are some of the worst offenders wasting millions) of pounds every year.
Now you can no longer claim ignorance on the biggest mistakes made with Google Adwords. And I shall make sure my next batch of business cards are trackable!
2. Using broad match only
3. The unholiest of the trinity – not tracking results.
-----------------------------------------------------
#1 The Single Adgroup
Although at first it may seem tempting – collecting all your keywords and lumping them into a single ad-group for ‘ease of administration’ is not a good idea for a multitude of reasons.
First off, let’s say you have managed to find 1000 keywords for your campaign and you pop them all into a single ad-group. Yes, you get a single point of administration (or more accurately a single point of failure) but look at what you miss:
• The ability to group tightly cohesive keywords (which are the mindset of your prospects) and construct targeted adverts which are more likely to gain a click through to your site.
• The ability to have specific landing pages on your site for specific customer psychographics. This alone will greatly increase your chances of getting a prospect respond to your call to action – be it an email address capture or a sale.
• The ability to keep tight control over the budget of your ‘best’ keywords (where best are high traffic/high conversion). Sure you can adjust individual CPC’s within an ad-group, but the granularity and control is not there and the problems inherent with grouping too many loosely assembled keywords will ensure your efforts are thwarted and money wasted.
Have you ever had your account slowed? It’s a pain for sure but the more keywords you have administered in a less than disciplined way, the more of your keywords will be put on hold/in-trial and/or disabled.
Remember Google rewards good advertising performance and looks at all advertiser histories & your advertising history when determining how well you are doing.
Adwords is not a fire and forget medium (unless you have a very niche market with very little competition – but the days of such markets are numbered).
Active campaign management is required to ensure you have not just a return of your investment but a positive return ON your investment.
#2 Using Broad Match
Consider the keyword ‘widget’.
How many ways can you search for this keyword? In theory there are infinite number of searches that can be conducted but in practice there are considerably fewer thankfully.
However, how should you specify your matching options within Adwords?
Option 1: Broad Match
This specifies the keyword in an unadorned fashion within your list like so:
Blue widget
What this means is that should somebody search for the keywords:
Blue widget
Red blue widget
Widget blue
Widget who searches for these things blue?
Don’t need blue widget
Then, your advert would show for all of these. This is all very well when broad match (I’ll not talk about expanded match searching for fear of confusion!) shows your advert for terms relevant to you. But…
For every term relevant to your market there could be 10, 100 or 1000 others which are not (which is why when you utilise broad matching you should use negative keywords exhaustively).
The upshot of this is two-fold:
1. Your advert will have more untargeted impressions which will result in a lower Click Through Rate.
2. You will receive more ‘tyre kicking’ clicks from visitors who are not in the least bit interested in your product/service thus increasing your costs.
Option 2: Phrase match
This specifies the keyword by surrounding it in quotes like so:
“blue widget”
What this means is that should somebody search for the keywords:
Need blue widget
Blue widget
Blue widget where are you
Don’t need blue widget
Then your advert will show because the phrase is found within the keywords. This is the next most highly targeted form of search matching and is an ‘improvement’ on broad match – in terms of specialisation.
Option 3: Exact match
This specifies the keyword by surrounding it in square brackets like so:
[blue widget]
Now, your advert will only show if and only if the keyword
Blue widget
is searched for.
In an ideal world, you will know exactly what every keyword is that your prospects are searching for and you could therefore have an exact match for a keyword search. This would serve to both minimise your advertising expenditure and increase your return on investment simultaneously.
But, to get to a point whereby you know the keywords (or at least know as many as possible) which are profitable to you, you need to conduct some research within your adwords campaigns.
So which is the best matching options to use?
Starting off, it is best to utilise all 3 matching options within your ad-group because:
1. You get to know if there are keywords out there you have missed in your research and can dig further to find out if they should be specified with more targeted matching or added to your negative keyword list.
2. The assignment of your keyword status (on hold, in trial, disabled) is delayed because the impressions are spread between the variants of the keywords.
3. More targeted terms (using exact match) generally have higher conversion rates so you can assign different more cost effect cost per clicks accordingly.
Eventually, as your campaigns mature in time, you will have more and more exact match and less phrase & broad match. As a result your advertising costs will decrease whilst your return on investment will naturally increase.
#3 The Unholiest Error
Ok, this isn’t an adwords tip perse as it should be adopted and applied to each and every part of your online and offline advertising.
It’s time to be honest – for each and every piece of advertising/PR you have on the go, how well are you tracking results?
I mean can you categorically put your hand on your heart and say, “Yes, by handing out business cards, I generated £x of business last month” (doh! – I’ve just got a new batch printed up and even I’ve missed out on this, slap my wrist, practice what you preach Tom!).
In the world of Adwords, you need to know what keywords are giving you results and focus your budget and efforts accordingly.
If you have an advert that shunts prospects to a generic landing page, which is not tracked and you have no idea as a result whether they signed up or bought a product/service.
Then, you are wasting tens, hundreds, thousands (bigger companies are some of the worst offenders wasting millions) of pounds every year.
Now you can no longer claim ignorance on the biggest mistakes made with Google Adwords. And I shall make sure my next batch of business cards are trackable!
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