Internet Business Informations

Web Hosting Providers Rule The Web

2009-01-26T23:13:00.000-08:00

It has been reported there are currently more than a staggering 50,000 web hosting providers all competing for the honour of hosting your website.

Every day dozens of new web hosting compaines are launching and struggling to get your attention and your web hosting business.

Even though the web hosting industry is really quite young, it is certainly one of the most competetive and cut-throat industries on the web today. Yet the growth of this marketplace is assured for the forseeable future.

Now each and every week it is estimated more than 50,000 websites are launched and need to be hosted somewhere online. This figure continues to grow and grow.

In fact the current monthly count for the number of searches at Yahoo for the term 'web hosting' is a whopping 2,149,851. That's right, over 2 million!

Also just recently it was reported that the popularity of blogs was seeing tens of thousands of new blogs launched each and every day. While many of these are hosted freely, the more serious bloggers each require an account with a reliable web hosting provider.

Of course every paid web hosting account usually requires at least one domain name registration. Here are some amazing domain name figures for you:

The registrar holding the largest number of domain names is said to be WildWestDomains. They may be better known to you as Godaddy. They currently hold over an estimated 5 million domain name registrations!

The registrar holding the second largest number of domain names is estimated to be Enom. The registrar holding the third largest number of domain names is estimated to be Networksolutions.

Domain Name Registration Growth:

By far the most popular top level domain is the .com There are currently over an estimated 40 million of these registered.

The .com top level domain currently holds over an estimated 70 percent of the domain name marketplace.
The .net top level domain currently holds just over an estimated 10 percent of the domain name marketplace.

The good news for web hosting and domain name customers is that incredible deals have become available as competition increases among web hosting providers.

In fact the price of web hosting has plumeted to just under $10 per month for a quality service. Domain names that cost up to $35 just a fews years ago can now be bought for as little as $4.99.

This is a winning situation for both the web hosting providers and their customers. The quality of service continues to grow. The new web hosting providers must impress their customers to compete with more established organisations.

There has never been a better time to find a web hosting provider and establish an internet presence of your own.

How Not To Get Web Design Work

2009-01-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

I get the occasional web design lead from my website. I wanted to find a company I could pass these onto. So I put an ad on a freelance site. It specified the programming qualifications needed, stated that the successful candidate should have good English, and was for companies only.

The replies I got were enlightening. So much so, I made a list of things applicants did wrong. Here it is.

I should point out I was initially prepared to give everyone a fair go. After the first twenty-odd emails, my attitude changed. I was looking for reasons to delete applicants. I only needed one successful one; with 100 replies it was getting to be a headache, so I decided a brutal approach was needed.

1. Failed to read the spec.

Many applicants couldn't write properly in the English language. Many were individuals only. Result: instant deletion.

2. Failed to address the spec's criteria.

Applicants bragged about how great they were. Many copy-and-pasted standard marketing guff about 'solutions' and 'partnerships' into their emails.

To engage anyone's interest about a proposal you need to talk less about yourself and more about the benefits to *them* of using you. One of the first things I learnt about applying for jobs is you need to show how you meet the criteria in the job description; see if you can find the employer's wavelength.

3. Lots of jargon.

You quickly tune this out. Anyone dealing with web companies probably gets a lot of this. Applicants should talk to the client about *the client's* site and *their* needs, and avoid techno-babble.

Write an application letter. Leave it for a while, then edit it. Brutally. Short punchy sentences, no guff. Talking convincingly about how you can make the client money would be an attention-getter.

4a. 'Coming soon' client-listing pages.

You say you've done work for lots of clients, then put up a 'coming soon' sign on the web page where your client list is supposed to be. Hmmmm.

4b. 'Under construction' pages on your company web site.

This looks bad; something you'd see on an amateur's site. Another reason to bin your application.

4c. Only put up pictures of sites you've done, rather than links to the actual sites.

I'd have liked to see some working example sites. Pictures can be faked, and they don't show background programming.

4e. No mention of your main web site URL.

Let us guess where your own site is (if you have one). It's more fun! I tried guessing from the email address. After a while I didn't bother.

4f. No hyperlinks at all.

Just a short email spiel saying "I am great designer, hire me". Next!

5. Using Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com for your email address.

A pro designer shouldn't use a freebie email address service. Basic web hosting costs $5 a month these days.

I can conceive that a web designer might use a freebie account for some special purpose, but your own domain name is a basic advert that goes out in each email you send.

6. Bad spelling and grammar.

Western civilisation is doomed, if using SMS jargon becomes the standard way to write to people. It doesn't impress old frts lik me, fr strtrs :( Especially if you're looking for work where good spelling and grammar are important.

7. Front-loading Flash designs.

I admit it, I don't like Flash. I especially don't like it when it loads slowly on my broadband connection. I suppose it might impress an ignorant client, who doesn't know the economic consequences of having a Flash-heavy site.

8. Don't phone the employer up.

Unless they say 'canvassing will disqualify', 'phoning the employer is a good idea. Why? Because geeks are famously introverted and tongue-tied, supposedly. So if a web site designer can communicate clearly over the telephone, that, coupled with a good application, puts you streets ahead of the email-only applicant.

No need to jabber. A polite enquiry to establish contact will do. "Just checking you've got my CV", that sort of thing.

9. Keep yourself mysterious.

Emails are impersonal. Anything that can establish you as a human being, a person, a potential ally and friend, is good. It'll make you more memorable. No need to jump out of a giant cake, 'though!

However, you have to fulfil all the other criteria as well. However great a guy you are, if you're a Unix man and they want Windows, forget it.

10. Leaving unclear phone messages.

One chap left a phone message, in which he mentioned his site, twice, but not his 'phone number. His pronunciation was bad, so I guess I'll never know how good he was.

11. Too far away.

Most replies were from India, Ukraine, Romania etc. Anyone who was closer to home (the UK) stood out. I mention it simply as a winnowing criterion.

Also, I needed someone who could land contracts from UK residents; good English, written and oral, was important.

12. Give your rates per hour.

Forget that. You're not a lawyer. Web design jobs can be clearly defined, in terms of time, work and software required. A definite price can be agreed on in advance. It's called a contract. Otherwise, you leave the client open to escalating bills, and yourself to mission-creep.

13. Delay applying.

The first few applications were more scrutinised. After that, fatigue set in. After one hundred, only an applicant who seems a real prospect would be given more than five seconds' scrutiny.

Affiliate Programs Can Be Very Beneficial To Internet Market

2009-01-26T23:10:00.000-08:00

An affiliate program is, simply defined, a sales job in which you earn a commission. You will be an independent representative of a company, offering their services and products to prospective customers. When one of the customers makes a purchase, you get a portion of the profit. Internet marketers can increase traffi'c to their own web sites and make money form the sales of others through affiliate marketing programs.

Internet marketers can be affiliates for several products from multiple companies, on as many web sites as you operate, in as many businesses as you desire. You don't have to travel to remote locations, yet the internet places you in front of a worldwide marketplace. This gives you incredible diversity in the products you choose, markets in which you do business and neighbourhoods in which to sell, all from the comfort of your own home in front of your computer screen. You could possibly make several sales at once, but you will never have to deal with face-to-face rejection. When doing business on the internet, you don't necessarily need to make sales to earn lucrative commissions. Certain affiliate marketing programs will pay you if someone just clicks on a link you place on your web site, fills out an application, or even requests additional information. And here's the most attractive part - your web sites work for you twenty four hours a day, each and every day.

Commission rates will depend on the types of products or services that are offered. Tangible goods that will have to be shipped to customers will pay lower commission rates than products like e-books or software that can be downloaded immediately. However, 10% of a $600 television is more money than 60% of a $40 software program, so you have to remember to consider the big picture when deciding what affiliate programs to join. For the best affiliate sales experience, you will want to offer products and services that will appeal to the targeted audience of your web site. As an internet marketer, you will need to appeal to the interests of your customers when placing affiliate links on your web site.

There are various ways to join affiliate programs. Some retailers operate their own program, and you will join through the merchant web site. But many internet marketers choose to operate through an affiliate network. These independent companies offer sign-up, payment, tracking and affiliate program management services to retailers and affiliate marketers. A couple of well-known names are Clickbank and Linkshare. Simply perform a search for affiliate programs and you are sure to find more.

Your sales and clicks are tracked by software. It is your job to make sure your links follow the procedures and rules posted by your merchant or affiliate network. Some browsers, a'd-blockers, and coding practices can prevent the tracking links on your web site from functioning correctly, and you might not get credit if one of your clicks results a sale. Most affiliate marketers encounter this problem eventually. When it happens, remember it's not intentional, so do not feel as if you have been victimized in some way. Internet marketing technology is very good, but it's not perfect.

For almost all internet marketers, joining affiliate marketing programs give you a cheap and easy way to get started in an online business. These programs can help you produce income while you learn internet marketing techniques and work towards developing your own product or service.

How To Run A Successful Affiliate Program

2009-01-26T23:02:00.000-08:00

There are many people who log onto the internet everyday looking for a way to make money online.

They start with all the best intentions, but unfortunately, before they know it they are getting bombarded with information and are simply spinning their wheels.

I completely understand this. There is so much internet marketing information online and once you get started it seems like “information overload”.

Therefore, I will try to keep this as simple and short as possible.

Many people will sign up with an affiliate program promoting the affiliate’s product or program. This makes sense. Starting as an affiliate marketer is probably the easiest way to get started online. There are many affiliate programs out there that will give you everything you need to promote their products or program…Well almost everything.

You see, many of these affiliate sites will give you a website, but you don’t own the site. It is a gateway site. You don’t even own the domain name for that matter.

Being part of one of these programs is not bad though. I belong to several. SFI is a perfect example. I joined their program and have several sites that they gave me to promote their products and their affiliate program.

But if you are truly going to make money with these types of sites you are going to have to do a lot more than simply sign up for their program.

It is simply unreasonable to think that people are going to just stumble upon your site and sign up for your program and start making you money.

There are a few things you need to do if you truly want to make an affiliate program work.

First of all, you must have your “own” web page with your “own” domain name and your “own” host. You will then have links from your “own” site to the other “gateway” site(s). You will promote your gateway site it, but you will promote it through your own site.

There are so many reasons for this I couldn’t possible fit it into this one article, but basically the site is yours to run the way you want to. Think of it this way…it is “your” store and you are selling “their” product.

Your web page could be designed as a short sales letter that focuses primarily on this one program if that is what you choose. Or, you could focus on several affiliate programs and products within the same market. For example, a sales letter with the top 3-5 money making opportunities.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Either way, promoting one program/product or promoting several, you will not only want to own your own site, you definitely want to be able to “drop in” on potential customers from time to time. What I mean by that is you want to capture email addresses of people who visit your site.

To do so you need to give something away that is of enough value that people are willing to give up their email address and receive something from you week after week or at least month after month.

A newsletter/ezine is perfect for this. Send out a weekly or monthly newsletter on your topic that includes articles, tips, e-courses, bonuses etc. This way you can plug your programs over and over again (not just once).

I know this sounds like a lot…design your own web site and your own newsletter.

However, there are programs available that actually set everything up for you, including a website, an autoresponder, a pre-written newsletter, and even unlimited support.

Plug-in-Profit (PIPS) (http://www.money-teacher.com/pluginprofitsite.htm) is a perfect example. You can have a web site that site is 100% yours to change however you wish. The site comes ready to promote 5 different programs. You could work with as many of them as you want and you can also add your own.

You also get a pre-written newsletter and autoresponder that is also 100% customizable. The newsletter is obviously designed to promote the programs that come with the web site, but you can change it however you wish.

6 More Free Steps To Making Money Online

2009-01-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

If you read my previous article you will know that the goal of these articles is to teach you ways to get started making money online without having to spend any money.

This is the second in the series and this time we deal with having your own blog. There are endless ways of making money once you have traffic, and your blog will get you traffic. The income we will be looking at today will come from Google Adsense.

There are multiple benefits to having a blog including the low cost (or no cost), the resources that will help you get traffic to your blog and the fact that you can provide your blog as an RSS feed. An RSS feed will allow readers to automatically receive your updates into their RSS reader.

Let's get started with our 6 steps.

1. Set up your blog. You will need to decide what you are going to blog about. You should decide on a theme and name your blog appropriately.

There are a number of free ways to set up a blog & to have it hosted for free. We will go with Blogger.com for our first blog.

Blogger will allow you to set up a blog for free they will host it for free and they will ping search engines every time you update, meaning you will get spidered & found.

Visit blogger.com & click the button on the front page labelled 'create your blog now' then follow the step by step instructions that Blogger provide.

Some key settings you will want to get right are:

I) 'Host your blog at Blogger' = Yes
II) 'Add your blog to our listings' = Yes
III) 'Ping Weblogs.com' = Yes
IV) 'Publish Site Feed' = Yes

2. Write some content. Before we move any further there has to be some information on the site & that means that you have to make some entries. You can write some of these entries yourself & some can be quotes from sites of interest to your reader that you can post using the Google Toolbar.

You can download the Google toolbar for free at toolbar.google.com. The toolbar includes a Blogger button. When you visit a site that has something of interest to your readers you can highlight the appropriate text & click the Blogger button. The content will then be added to your blog along with a link back to the site.

3. Once you have some content eg a weeks worth of blogging with 1 or 2 entries for everyday, you can apply for an adsense account. When you sign in to Blogger you will see an invitation to join Adsense. Use this link and apply for an account.

You can find out all about Adsense on the Adsense page but basically you get Google ads on your site & get paid if your visitor clicks them.

Google will decide what adverts show on your site based on the content it finds within.

You need to be aware that Google will decline your application if your site is not considered to have content. Nobody outside of Google knows the precise rules on this.

Once you have been accepted you can get some javascript from Google to add to you site. Copy this & then log in to Blogger.

Once you have logged into your blog you will see that one of the tabs across the top of the screen is labelled 'Template'. Click this. You will need to know a little bit of HTML to help find the right location to paste your Google code. But with a little experimentation you will find the right place for you. See the resource box at the end of this article for more help.

I would suggest that the ads need to be seen when the site loads but should not be too obvious or dominate your site.

4. Write some more content. Try and keep your content coming at regular intervals as a number of directories will check on your site at regular intervals & the smarter ones will visit on a schedule based on your update schedule. They will probably determine this in the hours after you first submit to them. Which is what we will do next.

5. Submit your site to Blog & RSS directories. Because you are hosting at Blogger, Weblogs.com will already be notified when you update your blog. (That means that every time you make a new entry they are automatically notified) You will need to manually submit to the various other directories some of which will require a link on your site to theirs.

You can add these links to your template below your Blogger logo. For a list of directories to get you started visit www.themoneyseed.com/rss

6. Keep writing interesting content. Ideally you want people to come back again and again. As with customers its harder to get a new visitor than to keep existing visitors. So make it interesting, in fact make it so interesting that they can't help but tell all their friends about it also.

As with most free ways to make money this will take time to get going, but if you can build a following you will make money.

Gaga Over Google Adsense

2009-01-23T06:49:00.000-08:00

Google Adsense has taken the world by storm. Now the small guy can get a slice of big profits. But exactly how should one go about generating revenue from it? This article is designed to help you to decide what sort of web-page to make – one that will realize the largest profits.

First you should pick a theme where there is at least some competition. That is to say, if you choose a family history web page, you may only get genealogy ads in your Adsense boxes. These may be very low paying ads and hardly worth your while. Before building a web page you should check and see how much people are paying for a certain type of ad. To that end – PC Bidbrowser will give you an idea how much advertisers are paying at Overture, and you can extrapolate or take an educated guess at Adsense.

But is finding the highest paying keyword the best way to build a page around? Consider the point that there may be so much competition that your web-page may never see the light of day. If no-one ever reads your site, you have no clicks, hence no revenue. No, the money-making truth lies somewhere in the middle. You need a topic that has low enough competition that people will actually find it on search engines, but also high enough competition that you will receive some cash from advertisers.

A neat program called ‘keyword sleuth’ allows you to find alternate keywords that are still highly searched yet low in competition. Other programs do similar functions.

Find 6 or so topics that you find a nice balance between competition and reward. Now how do you build a web-page that will give some new slant on the topic?

Does your web-page really need to be unique? Perhaps you could write an interesting page or two about the subject along with some links. For instance, perhaps you want to write a site on stock market trading. If you’ve ever been in the stock market you could write a real life trading experience. Make it exciting, while keeping it truthful. What led you to invest? What stocks did you trade and why? Did you make money or lose some? Do you have any advice to give to new investors? Could you find a couple of links for free screeners or some other tool that would be useful? Did you employ any special techniques – humorous or not?

You see, it doesn’t have to be about making millions with your trading system, it can be a funny life experience which we all can learn from.

Thanks for reading and I hope you start your profitable business soon.

How To Verify And Monitor Your Search Engine Listing On Google.com ?

2009-01-13T03:42:00.000-08:00

Being listed in search engines and ranked high on searches is the overall goal a webmaster is trying to achieve when dealing with search engines. Search engine optimization is probably one of the most commonly used words among webmasters. In the Internet market becoming much more critical to business success this is almost natural.

While the professionals know how to verify search engine rankings and listings, the normal user or startup webmaster might not know how to verify these things. The often just type their domain name into the search engine of choice and are happy if they get a result back that includes their domain name. But there is a little more these startup webmasters should know about.
Every page indexed by a search engine is a possible landing page for visitors to enter the website. As more pages get indexed the higher number of possible entry points to the website. But how can a webmaster verify how many pages are currently in the index of a search engine?

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=site=omainName.com
http://www.google.com/search?q=site=omainName.com

Replace "DomainName.com" with the actual domain name that needs to be verified. A webmaster should also run the following variation to get an impression of what is really out there.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=site:www.DomainName.com
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.DomainName.com

The next thing a webmaster should check is to see how many other websites are linking to his/her website at all. As almost everyone knows nowadays - the higher the number of links pointing to a website (incoming links) as higher the possible search engine ranking on search can be (and we all want that number 1 spot, right?!). The problem is that Google will never show you all incoming links to a website. But even a ball park number can be helpful in finding out if the SEO work of the past paid off. So, how does a webmaster can get this ball park number of incoming links?

http://www.google.com/search?q=link:www.DomainName.com

This command will show the 'ball park' number mentioned above. It will give the webmaster a hint how successful the website is and how many people/websites are linking to it.

By researching the information of how many pages and how many links to/for a website are registered/indexed in a search engine a webmaster can gain important knowledge. This knowledge makes it easier to see what works and what does not work when it comes to search engine success for a website.

How to Succeed With Affiliate Programs ?

2009-01-13T03:41:00.000-08:00

Affiliate programs are the first choice of most newcomers to net earnings because they have many advantages:

1. All you have to do is to join a merchant program as an affiliate and send visitors to the merchant site

2. All other work such as making a sale, delivering the product or service, receiving payment, attending to the complaints or making a refund, is handled by the merchant site.

3. The merchant site also sees to it that you are paid commission when a sale is made through your efforts.

4. You are also rewarded when a sale is made through the efforts of an affiliate referred by you to the merchant site.

All easy and simple. But most affiliates soon find that in spite of their best efforts they are not making any money.

This is because the affiliate earnings depend not on how many visitors they send to the merchant site, but how many of them buy the product or service of the merchant.

So just sending visitors to the merchant site is not enough.
You can do this easily by joining traffic exchange or autosurf programs. Your merchant site will be seen hundreds of times but it will not make a sale. This is because these visitors are not interested in your site. They are looking at it to earn credits so they can show their site to others.

This is not to say that traffic programs have no use at all.
I have used them successfully to build my downline in free-to-join programs, but have never made a sale through them. Most members of such programs are promoting their own programs. They could get interested in joining other opportunities, but would rarely go for a product themselves.

So if you want to earn from affiliate programs, the thing to do is to send interested visitors to your merchant site.

Who is an interested visitor?
This is the visitor who reached your site by himself. He is looking for the product you are promoting. This is why he took the trouble of finding it from a search engine or from the particular kind of ads or forums.

This visitor is red hot for a sale. He is already interested in your product. If he finds what he wants on your merchant site, he is very much likely to look at the product's features, mentally compare it with other similar products, ask for more information by giving his email address. All this can lead to a sale and a commission for you.

How to target interested visitors
The best way to reach interested visitors is promoting your products through search engines submissions, placing catchy ads, posting in forums or through your own website.

This may sound daunting to newcomers at first but all these are do-able with a little effort. You can get help for mastering all these skills from the resources freely available on the internet.

Joining right affiliate programs can also help a good deal to gain affiliate mastery. While great many affiliate programs give you a few text ads and banners and be done with you, there are some programs that give valuable training to succeed.

Be positive
Most newcomers to internet earning fail because they expect to be rich in a week, if not overnight. When this doesn't happen as it rarely does in real life, they get discouraged. They are also influenced by others who like them tried but failed to earn with affiliate programs. The result -- they give up, frustrated.

The reality is that nobody becomes rich overnight in internet marketing. You have to work at it consistently. Most important of all, banish negative thinking from your life and believe that if others have succeeded, you, too, can and will.

That perhaps is the most important ingredient for your success.

Effective Marketing of a Small Business Online

2009-01-09T03:32:00.000-08:00

The selling of products/services online all require one ESSENTIAL ingredient : TRAFFIC. Marketing a small business online faces greater challenges such as manpower and budget. However there are some great tools on the market that can effectively improve traffic to your site or affiliate site.

Investing in a good keyword tool is essential for online and offline marketing. A keyword tool can be used to write copy, find niche specific competitive keywords and to plan advertising. Why you may be asking? A good keyword tool can determine what and why people are searching for in relation to your product. Wordtracker is the choice of the professional marketer. What I liked about this company, is they provide a FREE keyword-guide which will alter how you market on and offline. If your budget is tight they offer membership for 1 day or 1 month. Or you can look at some of the excellent FREE TOOLS on the market.

A popular technique used by many in the affiliate marketing field is building optimsed pages that refer the visitor to the main affiliate site. This technique can be applied to marketing a small business online. There are several software products on the market that will build optimised pages for your main site. Two I particularly like are Traffic Panther and Traffic Hurricane. I personally use Traffic Panther as I found the ease of setting up the software easier with them. They both offer excellent customer support, even to free users. However the Hurricane creates 1000's of optimised pages for your site whereas the Panther only creates 25 per project. Bear in mind the engines can drop your site if they think you are spamming.

Both introduce the technology of RSS, but the Traffic Panther introduces the small business to the power of marketing using Blogs. And how they can be beneficial to your business. So whether you are an attorney marketing your services, selling childrens books online or looking for the secrets of successful network marketing,these techniques can be beneficial to your business online. With these tools you can firtly learn more about your potential customers and then how to get those customers to your sites.

Concentrate On What's Important...

2009-01-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

1. Concentrate on what's important...

First of all, it looks like I'm missed seeing a lot of new products since I've been offline.

When I visited my forum I saw a number of programs/software being talked about that I'd never even heard of.

And, do you know what? I didn't really care that I'd missed the products being announced.

There's probably nothing wrong with them. They're most likely useful. They're probably worth investigating.

But... remember this.

It's IMPORTANT to not get distracted with new things all the time. You could spend all your limited web time learning how to use
new tools, when really you should be focusing on improving your sites and your skills and your own business.

I remember David Garfinkel and Mark Joyner saying to me in Vegas that I should focus on what I'm good at (in my case writing).

And that's what you should be doing too.

Play to your strengths.

Work out what you're good at/what your main interests are and give them most of your attention and time.

Don't get sidetracked by everything new that comes along.

Write down your "online business" plan, even if it's only on one piece of paper. And work out the steps you need to take to achieve success with it. Doing this will help you focus on what matters, and it will clear your head so that you know where you should be spending your time.

Once you've mapped out your action steps you need to follow them. Don't make a plan and then not stick to it. Don't let anyone or
anything put you off. Go for it.

Don't sign up for every crappy new scheme that comes along. Don't buy every new piece of software or every ebook.

Do what works for YOU and use the tools that works for YOU.

And just go for it.

2. One of the smartest brains around...

I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but James Maduk is one of the smartest business brains around. He's been working online since 1995, writes monthly articles for Entrepreneur Magazine, and he's an expert at online selling.

Plus he's got more products on the market than anyone I know, even beating the prolific Marlon Sanders.

So why he's not amazingly well known in this field I'll never know.

I'm a big fan, especially of his member only site

If you'd like an introduction to his style and knowledge have a look at one of his free weekly webcasts, where he uses "internet whiteboard" technology to get his messages across.

And when you've finished watching and listening you might fancy signing up for his affiliate program which is looks like turning into one of the best around.

3. Free Amazon Tools...

If you're promoting Amazon's affiliate program here are a couple of useful sites which help you automate the process.

http://www.associatesshop.com/

and

http://www.addassociate.com/add_register.php

Associatesshop lets you add an Amazon store to your site and sell products of your choice, while Addassociates provides you with code which works much the same way as Google Adsense -
meaning it "reads" the content of your webpage and displays context related products.

Of the two I prefer Addassociate, but you can't use it on pages where you're running Google Adsense ads.

Anyway, they're both free and could be a useful addition to your sites.

4. Beginners Bit...

I get heaps of letters about how difficult it is to build a good looking website. But I get even more letters about the complexities of getting a webhost and uploading pages to it.

One simple way around this is to use Site Build It! (SBI) because it offers an all-in-one solution.

The mastermind behind SBI, Ken Evoy, has been really busy with SBI over the past few months, constantly adding new features and making it easier to use. I've owned SBI for a few years now and it's now a far, far better site building tool than when I started using it. And it was good then.

One thing SBI is ideal for is displaying Google Adsense ads.

To really make big profits from Adsense you need a lot of content pages. Using SBI for these sites makes sense because once you've got over the learning curve it leaves you totally free to
concentrate on providing that content. So you can quickly put out a lot more pages.

Plus the in-built tools help you keep that content on topic, which means that Adsense can read that your pages correctly and display relevant ads.

In fact Ken has put together a very good info site about using SBI with Adsense. You should spend a bit of time reading through it.

http://salesnow.sitesell.com/adsense/

5. Stuck for ideas what to build a site about?

Try reading Michael Holland's Strike it Niche.
It's a great place to begin.

Michael's done a great research job, giving you ideas for 70 different sites, and explaining just what you need to do to profit from each
of them. Reading this ebook should leave you dancing with enthusiasm.

6. As a follow on to the stuff higher up...

Do you ever feel like you're drowning in a sea of data?
Well you're not the only one.

I just checked out the online edition of The Guardian, one of the best UK daily papers, and found this report:

"There's a lot of data on our hard disks, and there's more accumulating by the day. The University of Berkeley School of Information Management and Systems has just updated its "How Much Information?" study. In 2002 we created over five exabytes of data, in the form of video, print, magnetic and optical media — an increase of over 30% a year since 1999. That's equivalent to half a million new collections the size of the US Library of Congress — 92% of which was on magnetic media, and most of that was on hard disk."

Looking For The Best Sourced Opinion Relating To Junk Yards.

2009-01-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

When you are after excellent information relating to junk yards, you'll find it difficult extricating superior advice from amateurish junk yards proposals and directions so it is wise to recognize ways of judging the information you are offered. Find junk yards Your relevant result is a click away! Now we'd like to give you some tips which we recommend you think of using when you're seeking information about junk yards. Please be aware that the wisdom we're offering you is only applicable to internet advice about junk yards. We are unable to offer any guidance or advice when you are also conducting research in books or magazines. A good pointer to follow when you're presented with help or advice concerning a junk yards site is to ascertain who owns the site. This may divulge who is behind the site junk yards credentials The easiest way to work out who is at the back of the junk yards website is to look on the 'contact' page or 'about this site' information. Any worthwhile website providing information on junk yards, will nearly always have a 'contact', or an 'about', page which will list the owner's details. The info should make known a number of indications concerning the owner's requisite knowledge. This enables you to make an assessment about the vendor's qualifications and experience to advise people on the subject of junk yards.

Don't Forget About Offline Advertising

2009-01-07T18:01:00.000-08:00

A lot of online based businesses forget about offline advertising. It is important to combine offline and online advertising together in your marketing campaign.You can market offline more effectively by targeting people that actually have access to the internet. In all your advertising you want to include your web site address, e-mail or autoresponder addresses, and the e-mail address to subscribe to your e-zine. Below are 10 offline marketing ideas: -Place classified or full page ads in print publications. The print publications should be computer or internet related. -Post flyers in stores. They could be computer stores, software stores, libraries etc. -Buy mailing lists and send direct mail. You should make sure that all the people on the mailing list are internet users. -Buy commercial time on T.V. They can be during shows that are targeted toward internet users. -Pass out your CD-ROM or diskette business cards at special events. It could be at trade shows, seminars, fairs, etc. -Set up a deal with another business that targets internet users. Pay the business to insert your business ads in their product packages. -Hold a free offline class and teach people how to use their computer or how to use the internet. You could have your web site on display as an example. -Do co-op mailings with other businesses. They should also be targeting people with internet access. -Give away free mouse pads. Put your advertising on the mouse pads and give them away at computer or internet events. -Advertise in card decks. The card deck you advertise in should be targeted toward internet users. You would also want to target your offline advertising to groups of people that will actually be interested in your product or service. If you're selling business books, you will want to market to business owners. In conclusion, if you have a business that's only based online, you don't want to market to people that don't have access to the internet.

What To Look For When Shopping For A SEO Specialist.

2009-01-05T18:09:00.000-08:00

When, shopping for a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company/specialist you need to be aware of a few things.

If someone offers you fast results they may be pulling your leg. If you aren’t listed on search engines the average time to be index takes around 4 weeks. Someone offering submissions in less then that is coning you. Websites that are already listed and are just being updated will have a faster result.

A guarantee isn’t always reinsurance. Just because a site states they can get you in the 1 spot doesn’t mean they can deliver. Or, they may have you listed under an obscure keyword or phrase. Most legitimate SEO’s will tell you no one can guarantee a top spot on all keywords and phrases. Search Engine optimization is not an exact science. Trail and error along with constant tweaking will help bring your site closer to your goal.

Most SEO’s should give you some information on where your site stands currently. You links, keywords, where you rank on major search engines etc.. Or, do one yourself. My article “Google’s Helping hand” show you free tools that can help you evaluate where you are on search engines. Don’t go into any SEO work blindly. Know where you stand before and after.

Price is never an indication of how good a service is. More isn’t always better.

Shop around try to get the most for your money, but be realistic. If it seems too good to be true then it may just be. Be prepared to shell out some cash. SEO is not cheap. You should think of SEO as advertising. It should be contestant as should all of your advertising efforts.

Ask questions! Do not be afraid to ask what will be done to increase your ranking. Most SEO’s will have no problem telling you what they will do. They may not want to reveal their whole SEO operation. But, they will give you some insight to what they will do. Talk to more then one SEO company. Compare what each has to say. Do some research on your own. Find out if these companies have been reported to the Better Business Bureau. If the company or persons have had any articles or reviews written about them. Ask around. Try to have some idea of the company or persons creditability.

A few additional things to keep in mind are:

Is SEO there main business or is it a sideline to other businesses. SEO is a full time job. Especially, keeping up with the constant changes. Do they have a specialist? Do they outsource? How much do they really know?
What are there view points on link farms and doorway pages? Will they do anything to get you links and traffic? Even though search engines frown on those practices.
Can they explain to you clearly how their plan of action? Are they looking to take small steps with you? Or, are they trying to sell you the biggest SEO package possible?

Follow this outline when you are searching for someone to optimize your site. In the end it will be worth it.

Domain Registration: Why You Need Private Whois Service

2009-01-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

Privacy is the control of one’s own personal information, control over what others know about one, and control over how others may use or exploit the personal information. Policies and practices for protecting privacy aim towards minimizing the collection of personally identifiable information. Therefore, the basis of privacy is anonymity, where no personally identifiable information is collected. Making compulsory, the disclosure of personally identifiable information, as under current WhoIs policies for domain registration, cause privacy to be undermined For free speech, privacy is critical. For instance, if people are forced to disclose their identity, they are reluctant to fully express their ideas on account of fear of persecution. The protection of anonymity further enhances the one-to-many characteristics of the Internet through which an individual's speech can reach a global audience. Privacy and data protection laws may apply to domain registrars' WhoIs services and registrars' participation in thick registry WhoIs services in various countries, particularly in the European Union's member states. Current ICANN regulations require that the Private contact information (WhoIs Info) of each domain registration be included in a publicly accessible Database. The WhoIs database is the collection of information gathered by a domain name registrar from domain name registrants. The purpose for which the WhoIs system is accessed includes: 1. To find out whether a specific domain name is unregistered and currently available 2. To identify the person or organization responsible for a domain registration or website on the Internet 3. To support technical operations of Internet Service Providers or network administrators, including assistance in tracing sources of Spam or denial of service attacks 4. To collect names and contact information for the purpose of marketing 5. To aid government law enforcement, other than intellectual property When a WhoIs search is conducted, the information that is currently available about the domain name registrant leads to the name and address of the domain name owner. However, when a domain name is registered, the personal contact information such as name, address, email address, and even phone number might be made freely available. The domain registrant would not know who collected his/her WhoIs data, the reason for which the information was collected, and how the collector is likely to use the information This implies that the private information is displayed and made available to whoever wants to see it, at any point of time. Now it is possible to protect one’s private WhoIs information by switching the "public" domain registration to a "private" unlisted registration through a private whois service. A private whois service protects the private information and shields against its misuse. Hence, one is protected against: - Spam, - Identity Theft, - Data Mining, - Name Hijackers, - Etc. It works in a similar way to having one’s phone umber "unlisted" and it prevents people from gaining access to one’s address, phone number and other such private information. A private whois service works by: - Protecting the private information - Relaying important communication - Providing greater control Protecting the Private Information This implies that the private contact information is not exposed and is held confidentially, and protected by the Domain Privacy Protection Service. Instead of the individual’s contact information, their contact information is displayed to provide with the highest level of protection against spammers and identity theft. Relaying Important Communication Without a private whois service, those involved in spamming can obtain email addresses through harvesting and then use these for sending spam mails and redistribution to marketing firms. The email addresses can stay on record with various spammers and marketing firms for several years. With a private whois service, the visible email address is constantly changing, so it will change within a specific period of time and the previous address will not work for the spammer. The Domain Privacy Protection Service secures and maintains the real email address on record so that important information regarding the domain is received. Providing Greater Control The individual or organization subscribing to the private whois service retains full legal ownership and control over the domain registration. It is possible to sell, renew, transfer and change settings to the domain name just the same as otherwise. The domain control panel provides real-time access to easily manage the domain name.

What's Google AdSense?

2009-01-04T17:50:00.002-08:00

AdSense may be one of the fastest and easiest ways to monetize traffic to your web site whether you have products or services for sale or you simply provide free content to your visitors. Simply stated, Google AdSense enables website operators to place some code on their site that connects to Google’s ad server content database and pulls keyword-relevant advertising onto the web pages. The webmaster gets paid a percentage of the fee that Google receives from the advertiser every time a visitor clicks on an ad. There is no charge for the webmaster to participate in AdSense. All costs are covered by the advertiser who participates in the AdSense sister program called AdWords. Google’s sends out digital “robots” which use proprietary algorithms to parse the host web page and analyze the content in an effort to determine what keywords are relevant. It reports its findings back to Google’s ad server which then serves ads matching those keywords. Given that the entire process is automated, the “ad robots” do a pretty good job of getting the advertising content right most of the time. The History of Google AdSense Google AdSense has its roots in the old “Google Content-Targeted Advertising” program which they introduced back in March of 2003. Although this program was similar in concept to AdSense, there was no automated way of participating. Each webmaster negotiated a deal directly with Google, and websites that served less than 20 million page views per month were not welcome to participate. As Google grew, they began to see how much money they were leaving on the table by excluding the smaller sites, which greatly outnumbered the sites serving over 20 million hits that were willing to serve other people’s ads. Their answer to that problem was AdSense which has no minimum traffic requirements and is open to all sites meeting Google’s content and decency requirements. How much can you make running Google AdSense? The answer to that question depends upon three factors: 1. How much traffic your site draws 2.How many visitors click on your ads 3.How much those ads pay per generated click With some ads paying as much as $5 or more, it’s possible that you can generate a serious income with AdSense. There are relatively well documented cases of some people earning as much as $500 per DAY and more. Numbers like that are rare exceptions however. Even so, there is no reason why you can’t earn somewhere around $1,000 per month, or more, once you get the hang of it. How to get started using Google AdSense Make a visit to Google’s AdSense Site (https://www.google.com/adsense/) and sign up. Make sure that you read their Acceptable Use Policy and that you follow their content requirements. Google has their own “AdSense Police” who will have no problem booting you out of the program if you fail to walk the line. Using Google AdSense on your site is like collecting free money. There’s no reason not to do it and potentially thousands of dollars worth of reasons to do it.

The SEO Rip-Off

2009-01-04T17:50:00.001-08:00

I have decide to write this article as a result of numerous emails. It seems more and more people are falling victim to bad SEO. The main complaint is that they are paying entirely too much for little or no results. Additionally, many fall prey to bad SEO practices. If you plan to hire an SEO pro in the future, I suggest you use this article as a set of guidelines. Before going with any SEO firm or individual, do the following: A) Find out how established and experienced an SEO firm is before you negotiate. Do they have a sizeable client list under their belt? Are they published? B) Scrutinize their portfolio. What kind of results have they achieved? Contact a few of their clients. Were they satisfied with the work performed? C) Consider and confirm their methods? How will they optimize your site to reach your keywords? Do they use organic methods? Some individuals or companies use doorway pages, hide text in the background, utilize re-directs and other blacklisted methods. Stay away from these. D) Get a least three proposals from different SEO firms. Look at each one carefully. Are there similarities? Proposals will help you see which companies are honest and which are trying to sell you something you don't need. What is the cost? The cheapest isn't always the best, however, the highest price may not be attached to a comprehensive and viable course of action. Try to find find an individual or organization that will give you what you want within your SEO budget. E) Contract, Contract, Contract. Get everything in writing. Look over the document carefully. Be sure it covers everything you have discussed, including methods of achieving your desired results. Have the copies signed by both parties. If the job is a large one you may want to consult a lawyer. F) Clearly state the terms of payment. While most SEO firms will not do any work for free or agree to a results based pay scale, many competant SEO professionals will not shy away from a base plus performance incentive package. I am not a firm believer in prepaid contracts.. Most SEO professionals will abide by the 50% up front, 50% upon completion standard. Make sure all financial terms are as clearly defined in your contract as the actual scope of work. This will protect all parties involved in the event that expectations are not met. All in all, try to do your best to educate yourself on SEO. Have a basic understanding of SEO terminology and SEO methodology. Anyone offering SEO services should not have a problem explaining how they intend to get you results. If they fail gain your confidence or raise a red flag for any reason whatsoever, keep searching. You will eventually find someone who will help you reach your goals for a fair price. Happy hunting.

Guide to Pay Per Click Search Engines

2009-01-04T17:48:00.000-08:00

A pay per click search engine is designed for pay for performance advertising. That means that an advertiser pays the search engine owners only for traffic that is delivered to his web site in accordance with key words that the advertiser chooses to bid on. Example: An advertiser has a web site that advertises vacations to Thailand. The advertiser can bid on "vacations to Thailand" as a key word. If he wants to be in the number one position on the search results page he can place a bid that is one cent more than the existing high bid for the key word term "vacations to Thailand". Let's say that the present high bid is $0.20 per click. A bid of $0.21 would than gain the top position for the advertiser. If his key word was clicked on 10 times in one day he would pay 10 X $0. 21 , or $2.10 for the traffic that was delivered to his web site for that day. The advertiser is paying only for performance. There is no charge for the number of times that the advertisers ad appeared on the search engine web site that day. The charges are based only on the number of times that a visitor clicked on the key word and was delivered to the advertiser's web site. Thus the name "pay per click". Why Use Pay Per Click Search Engines? In just a few words it is because the leading Pay per Click Search Engines (PPC) can quickly deliver quality targeted traffic to your web site. Anyone who has build web sites know that building web sites is the easy part. The tough part of the process is in driving enough qualified traffic to the site to make it worth while from a commercial view point. Even if you are successful in building a web site that the search engines love it will take some time, probably two or three months, perhaps longer, for the search engine spiders to find your site and for your site to be listed in the search engine. If you are trying to make money on the Internet that is a long time to go without traffic. No traffic means no sales and no income. That should not be your objective unless you enjoy building web sites no matter how few people ever visit them. With pay per click search engine accounts you can almost immediately drive qualified traffic to your web site. If you are serious about building a business on the Internet that is a pretty good reason to use Pay Per Click Search Engines. Pay Per Click Search Engine Tips. 1. Use quality pay per click search engines that already have a high volume of traffic. It doesn't matter how cheap the bid for your key words may be if there is little traffic on the search engine and your key words are never clicked on. 2. Know your market. If you are selling "vacations to Thailand" do some research to find out what words and phases folks who are thinking of traveling to Thailand are actually using in their searches. An excellent tool to assist in this research is Wordtracker . Wordtracker will quickly help you to decide which key words are truly worth bidding on. 3. Quality pay per click search engines will have starting bids from one cent to five cents per key word. It is important to know that about 80% of the traffic for any key word will go to the top three bids. So if you want a lot of traffic to your web site try to position yourself in the top three spots. Just as with real estate location makes all the difference in results. 4. Set up a realistic budget for each search engine. Quality pay per click search engines get a lot of traffic so be prepared for a lot of traffic to your site if you bid on popular key words. 5. Popular key words can be expensive so choose your key words with great care. It is best to stay away from key words that are too general in nature. Thus to continue with the example above bidding on the key word "vacations" would not be wise if you are selling vacations to Thailand. Yes, you would get a ton of traffic but it would be more than likely be too general and you would spend a lot of money for poor results. It is almost always a better strategy to bid on phases instead of one general keyword. Therefore bidding on "vacations to Thailand" would be a far better choice than bidding on "vacations". If you are selling vacations to Pattaya Thailand it would be better to bid on "vacations to Pattaya Thailand" than on "vacations to Thailand". The more keywords that you can find that exactly match up with whatever it is that you are selling and that folks will be searching for the more money you will save (less money will get you in the top three spots) and the better your results will be. Wordtracker is an excellent tool that can find key word phases that are actually being searched for and that you would probably never think of going it alone. 6. Think about using a lot of keywords rather that a common few. The common few will be expensive and will likely deliver to your web site a lot of poorly targeted traffic with poor conversion ratios (traffic to sales). People search for the darnest things and those who actually plan on buying something usually search by using phrases. With some effort you can find phrases that are cheap and that will deliver highly targeted traffic...the kind that converts into sales. 7. No matter how much traffic you drive to a web site if you are marketing sorry products or services or if you have excellent products and services but you have a sorry website you are wasting your time and money. Everything must be right to achieve business success. Make sure that your site is "order taking ready" before you turn on your pay per click traffic.

"Pay-Per Click" Ad Campaign: Earn More By Spending Less

2009-01-04T17:47:00.000-08:00

What is "Pay-Per Click"? "Pay-Per Click", is an easy to understand advertising strategy. There are around 300 million searches at major search engines everyday. This causes 80% of internet traffic. Placing your websites on these search engines is very important in reaching as many potential customers as possible. But in order to be seen and clicked most frequently, your website should be viewed at the top most of the search list. Most people only reach up to the third page of a search engine so the lower your rank, the lesser the chance you will be clicked. In "Pay-Per Click" advertising, you pay to be always visible on the internet. You select keywords or key phrases about your website, and the highest bidder ranks the best. There is no upfront cost. You only pay after a visitor clicks your link. This is why it is called "Pay-Per Click".
Everyday millions of people around the world click on Pay-Per Click Advertising Campaign. With the booming internet industry and the ever growing online business, an ad of virtually anybody on the planet can be seen on the internet anywhere in the world.
The "Pay-Per Click" advertising campaign is the premier growth area in online marketing. Last year, an estimated $741.2 million was spent on "Pay-Per Click" advertising. The usual search engine optimization can take weeks or even months to produce results. "Pay-Per Click" advertising can attract customers at an instant. Why? Because, this cutting edge ad campaign can be placed on any website and can be viewed by potential online customers, anywhere, anytime and all the time. The only challenge is placing the ads on proper websites that will attract possible customers for a specific product or services.
"Pay-Per Click" advertising campaign attracts the right consumers at the shortest possible time. This is the most cost effective way of marketing products or services. You can also monitor the customers who visit your site, what they are looking for and what they are buying. With the right creativity on using the right search-phrases, we can direct the right people who are willing to do business with us.
"Pay-Per Click" advertising can easily be managed 24 hours per day and 7 days a week through the internet. This allows you improve the campaign strategy by effectively responding to the activities of both customers and competitors.
So what are you waiting for? "Pay-Per Click" now and let your business take the fast route to success.

5 Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing An Affiliate Program

2009-01-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

When people decide to join an affiliate program to make extra money, or to have a full time job, they often do so with illusions and no idea of how the affiliate program actually works. Read the following top 5 mistakes people make when it comes to choosing an affiliate program and avoid these mistakes at all costs. Then, you will be able to be more effective and make more money for your time, so it is definitely worthwhile to read these warnings and avoid them.

#1 Don’t Compete, Support
Too many affiliate programs compete against their competitors which wastes money and puts affiliates out of business. However, if you are part of an affiliate program the more affiliates the better for getting more information and more money. One of the worst things to do is choose an affiliate program that believes in competing against other affiliates. Instead, choose an affiliate program that agrees with supporting and growing other affiliates to have a larger network and access to more affiliates.

#2 Little Reward
Another mistake people frequently make when choosing affiliate programs is choosing a program that offers little reward for the individual’s hard work. Too many affiliate programs pay too little and as a result affiliates find it difficult to make the money they should be making. Look for an affiliate program that has a good pay rate for your work.

#3 Old Statistics, if Any
You want an affiliate program that offers good, solid, real time statistics, not old statistics or ones that are no longer valid. There are not many affiliate programs out there that provide the kind of statistics an affiliate manager needs, but do your best to find an affiliate program that offers the most.

#4 No Support
Too often affiliates find themselves waiting days for an answer to an e-mail and an important question for their business. You want an affiliate program that guarantees you support round the clock if possible or at least within 24 hours. If not, keep looking for an affiliate program that wants to help you help yourself.

#5 Fresh Ideas, Creatives
Many affiliate programs provide few ideas or creatives to their affiliates and so thousands of web pages end up with the same advertising. However, affiliate programs would have a better success rate if many different ads were made available so affiliates could alternate ads and place different ads on different sites, depending on the products sold.

Commit these five mistakes to memory so you know exactly what you are looking for in an affiliate program, as well as what to avoid. You will be much more successful and happier as well if you do not get caught in these traps!

What Should You Know About Search Engines and Pay-Per-Click?

2009-01-04T01:54:00.000-08:00

Here’s a fact for you, 85 to 95% of websites are found through a search engine. You may have the most incredible website on the Internet, but it will receive little or no traffic without search engine visibility and ranking. Can you imagine a billboard in the Sahara desert? Who sees it?

So, how will searchers find your website? What types of search engines could they use?

Search engines fall into two categories. The first is referred to as natural, organic or standard. The second is called pay-per-click, paid inclusion or paid placement.

Natural, organic and standard are interchangeable terms describing a search engine that bases its search rankings on a ranking algorithm. The algorithms involve a number of criteria and parameters, all relating to the content of the website, the website’s size, the number of incoming links to the website, and the content’s relevancy. You will hear terms such as keyword relevancy and keyword density to describe various components of the algorithms.

For the standard search engines, you, your webmaster or hired search engine optimization specialist could spend considerable time optimizing your website to achieve top rankings. The goal is for your website to appear on the first or second page of the search engines’ results when your target user searches keywords or keyword phrases.

The good news is rankings on standard search engines are free. The downside is the tremendous amount of time and effort required to achieve exceptional search engine rankings. Let’s confess to each other that top rankings on standard search engines can be tough and timely to achieve!

The interchangeable terms pay-per-click, paid inclusion or paid placement describe a search engine that bases its search rankings on a "bid for position" basis. Simply stated, you "bid" a price to be in a specific position of the search rankings for a particular search keyword or keyword phrase. For example, the #1 position on the search phrase "pay per click" recently required a bid of $3.55 per click, whereas the 15th position required only a bid of 55 cents. As a result, your differential website advertising costs between position #1 and #15 can be considerable.

With pay-per-click search engines, your ability to bid high can dramatically impact your website's search engine ranking when the search results display website domain names or URL's for the search keyword or keyword phrase. The benefit is your website gains visibility with the searcher, but you are not charged the pay-per-click "bid" until a searcher actually clicks on your website domain name or URL displayed in the search engine results. The selection of your website in the search engine results is called a click-through.

In general, click-through rates range from 1% to 5% of the number of impressions. What is all of this? A click is when a searcher selects or "clicks" your pay-per-click ad. An impression is one display of your pay-per-click ad on the search engine results. So, the click-through rate is a measure of the total number of ad clicks versus the total number of impressions in a period of time:

Click-Through Rate % = Total Number of Ad Clicks / Total Number of Ad Impressions * 100

Let's do the math for our #1 position bid of $3.55 per click. In September, 2004 there were 21,535 searches for "pay per click." First, let’s assume a 1% click-through rate. The top bidder spent $764.49 (21,535 * 1% * $3.55). Now, at a 5% click-through rate the top bidder spent $3,822.45 (21,535 * 5% * $3.55). Budgeting and controlling marketing expenses with such a broad range of potential costs could be tough. Plus, such costs could be the tip of the iceberg. We still must consider derivatives of the keyword or keyword phrase. So, was being #1 worthwhile? That depends on your website’s cost per visitor, conversion rate and profit margin of your product or service.

From what we’ve covered so far, you should realize you can achieve a top or high ranking through the pay-per-click search engine. But, a high ranking will cost money and these costs can be volatile. Meanwhile, the standard search engine remains free.

However, pay-per-click offers one significant advantage. It enables you to achieve website visibility with a high ranking instantaneously or overnight. If you want to draw traffic to your website fast for any reason, pay-per-click can make that happen. Remember, maximizing the standard search engine process takes time!

Let’s summarize the pros and cons of pay-per-click marketing:

Pros

* Improves your website’s ranking and traffic quickly.
* Tests the marketability of your product or service swiftly.
* Determines the ability of your web site to convert visitors to a call to action or make a purchase promptly.
* Identifies which keyword phrases will provide the best conversion rate rapidly.
* Provides complete control of the search engine campaign, both position and cost.

Cons

* Cost

Many individuals criticize pay-per-click because of the costs involved. But, have you really thought about the cost issue? Unless you or someone in your organization has expertise in search engine optimization, you’ll probably pay several thousand dollars in fees to a search engine optimization specialist to improve and optimize your website to achieve higher rankings in the standard search engines. So, my question to you is. Are the standard search engine rankings really free?

At the end of the standard versus pay-per-click search engine debate, it’s like the old saying, "There is no such thing as a free lunch." Or, it’s like the old commercial, "You can pay me now or you can pay me later." The reality of the debate is you must evaluate your specific website situation and utilize the search engine approach that maximizes your website promotion goals and investment.

Public Domain - Internet Gold Mine

2009-01-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

With the advent of the internet and the ease of which information can readily be downloaded and compiled you would think that more people would realize that the public domain is a source of wonderful wealth that can be tapped into for huge profits.

I have spent the last 4 years "discovering" little known secrets of this information that is readily available to those who know where to look. Or should I say "prospect". That's exactly what it is. It's Mining. When you mine the internet, you are not mining little rocks in a quarry or dredging a cold river looking for that elusive nugget of gold. You are searching for the gold of the future, and of the past. Information becomes your ore. You now become an information prospector. A "Millennium-Age Gold Miner."

The tools of your trade are much different today than in the days of old. Your "pick-axe" has evolved into your mouse, and your "gold pan" is your hard drive. Your computer is the dredge and your internet connection is your "claim". In the old days when a prospector found gold he would drive a stake in the ground and this would become his claim. You are doing the same thing when you sign the contract for your internet connection. You are staking a claim to the largest source of wealth in the world. Public Domain Information.

You transcend the boundaries of the physical world by entering a realm in which it is possible to find riches in the deepest recesses and crevices of the web. The public domain is the undiscovered country of the information age. It's mysteries are deep as oceans and it's knowledge as expansive as the universe. The public domain now becomes ultimate natural resource.

Information has always reigned king since the beginning of time. There are millions of us who know not the sheer power and value of the information that is freely available to anyone who knows where to look.

The new millennium, and the information-age is very much like the GoldRush of 1849 in which hundreds of thousands of people rushed westward in a stampede of gold seeking pioneers. Some were young, some old, some in between, but all sought a common goal. Gold. Only this time it is different, the gold we seek in this age is information, and it's not mere thousands, but hundreds of millions people who are on this new quest blazing new trails and forging great new paths to wealth.

Information is abundant and widely available. You can mine this gold at anytime, from any place in the world. You do not have to travel vast distances facing the perils of the land to stake your claim. All you need is a computer and a connection to the web. From anywhere in the world you are able to seek out, find, download, and refine your treasure from the warm and cozy comfort of home.

Never before, in the history of man have you been able to procure such wealth so quickly. You are able to locate information on any subject in an instant, and your results are displayed before you faster than you could have ever imagined.

Your "gold pan" quickly become full of the valuable information-ore. Each time you find a nugget it motivates you to find more. You become entranced with the new found riches and it almost becomes obsession. The desire to find more pulses through your veins like a hot drug, steadily increasing your craving for more. The more you find the more you want. It the realization becomes obvious that you have "Gold-Fever" and now you can't stop searching for more information.

This is what the public domain is. It's an internet goldmine chock full of free information ready for the taking.

Stake your claim!

Traffic Exchange Sites

2009-01-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

Traffic Exchange Sites are websites where you get page views of your own site in exchange for visiting others. Many such sites are available. However, choosing the right one or a combination of them can be a very time consuming process.

Basically there are two types. Manual surfing and Auto surfing. Some Traffic exchanges cater for Manual surfing only, some cater for Auto surfing only and some cater for both.

Manual surfing - This requires your input by clicking a button after a specified time period, generally 15, 20 or 30 seconds, although there are a few other variations. With manual surfing, the surfer is expected to view each site. However, with most exchange sites, it is possible to minimize or resize the windows. This defeats the purpose because it allows multiple sessions to be run simultaneously. On the better exchange sites, security measures are often used to deter this. These are normally random prompts that require user input. For example, after x number of page views, you may be required to enter a code, select a color or image or perform some other variation of this.

Auto surfing - This requires no input. However in reality, your input may be required because of popup or frame breakers. Some traffic exchange sites require that the pages run are maximized and although you can minimize the page yourself, it will automatically maximize at the next refresh. You will also find that with some exchange sites, pages will run on top whereas with others, pages will run quite happily underneath, allowing you to do what ever you like without ever viewing the page content.

Both manual and auto surfing will bring traffic to your website, but there is a much greater likelihood of your web pages being actually seen with manual surfing.

Credits - As well as surfing, credits are usually acquired for subscribing, for referrals and for any winnings associated with exchange site lotteries, games or competitions. These credits can then be used to increase the traffic to your site. Some exchange sites will also allow you to sell your credits to other members.

Free or Paid - The majority of Traffic Exchanges offer a paid option. This option may give you a better surf ratio, bonus credits, money for referrals or other benefits. Before paying however, it is important that you test how targeted the traffic is that you receive. There's no point in paying for extra traffic if it doesn't generate any more income for you.

Click for Credits or Buy Credits - Is it worth buying credits?

This can depend on a number of reasons. The two main ones are time and money.

Let’s take an example

At the time of writing the cost of 2000 credits for free members of a well known Traffic Exchange Site was $40. This works out at $0.02 a click. For pro members the same $40 bought 2200 credits.

With the number of clicks limited to 250 per day and page views of 20 seconds this means that in theory it will take you 250 X 20 = 5000 sec or 83 minutes 20 seconds to view the 250 pages. However in practice you must allow extra time for clicking the next button, clicking the title of the page you will be viewing and any sites worth looking at.

Since I am a firm believer in practical results, I viewed the 250 pages. It took me 2 hours and 12 minutes to accomplish this. During that time, I accumulated 854 credits. To buy these credits would have cost $17.08 as a free member and approximately $15.53 as a pro member. Allowing for rounding up, this equates to almost 390 credits per hour or $7.80 per hour cash value.

Now ask yourself this. Would you work for $7.80 per hour?

I must emphasize that this is only one example and that other results will differ because of the random allocation of credits. It is shown here only as an example and to give you an idea of the cost implications for one particular traffic exchange site. The cost of credits may differ dramatically for different exchange sites. If you buy or intend to buy credits from a traffic exchange site, you can apply what is shown in the example. There's no need to click on a large number of websites to find out if your exchange site is giving you enough credits for your money. A sample of around 20 sites should give you enough information to produce a rough value-for-money guide.

If you enjoy this sort of thing or want a break from train spotting, you could expand on this. Increase your sample size, increase the number of samples, select a good representation of traffic exchanges and tabulate your results. Choose enough sites and you will be able to create your own league table. There’s a market for everything.

Whether you use traffic exchange sites or not in the quest for more visitors to your site, you should at the very least know what they are and what they do. But don't totally dismiss them. They are part of an expanding market. I recommend that you try at least one traffic exchange site. You could read every book on the subject, but without active participation, you will not be qualified to comment on their worth or suitability. The time taken for a few mouse clicks is a small price to pay. If it works for you, you have learned. If it doesn't work for you, you have learned.

Working With Affiliate Programs

2009-01-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

Everywhere you look you see affiliate program offers forevery product or service that you can think of। Some havefully automated systems that sell high volumes of hardproducts all over the world. In case you don't know, "hard"products are those that you can touch...unlike an ebook ordownloadable web template. Many affiliate programs haveseveral thousand affiliates and one or two of the biggercompanies have over one million affiliates.

What are the advantages of joining an affiliate program?

They provide a ready-made business। This is a very big plusfor those people who want to earn some kind of living offthe Internet but lack the knowledge or inclination to set upa business by themselves.

Commissions and rewards are generally good, and the moreestablished programs offer a real chance of advancement tohigher and better-paid levels.
Other affiliates are usually on hand to offer practicalsupport.
What are the limitations?
You are restricted in your promotional activities due to thefact that you do not actually own the affiliate site theygive you। You won't be able to put such things as banners,images, links, meta tags, etc. onto your page.The URL of your affiliate page is often either too long orcontains such awkward things as question marks, which manySearch Engines will not index.

Any promotional ads or articles have probably already beenused by thousands of other people and consequently may havelost its impact, making it more difficult to achieve salesor referrals.
If the program you have joined has not yet establisheditself (or in some cases even if it has), then you mayencounter problems with payments owed to you not beinghonored। You also run the risk of low quality products orsub-standard statistics that do not accurately record howmany referrals or sales you have made.

You may be required to purchase a minimum quantity of theproduct on a regular basis before you start to qualify forcommissions or even before you can become an affiliate.You may not get the technical or affiliate support you mightexpect from the company. This may be due to inadequatestaffing, or the company's negligence.
Other people in your downline do nothing to promote theprogram.
At least four of the above limitations can be overcome witha little time and effort। You could, for example, come upwith fresher ads to promote the program (provided this isallowed).

If the company supplies the email addresses of people inyour downline, then you could offer to help the less activemembers. Very often these people are passive not becausethey are lazy or apathetic but merely because they don'tknow HOW to promote effectively! your guidance could meanthe difference between no sales or referrals and healthydownlines and residual incomes.
As regards promoting your actual page, here are a couple oflittle tricks that should overcome a number ofrestrictions:

Cloak your Affiliate URL to stop hijackers Affiliate MaskerWhile this will not help you to get listed on the majorSearch Engines, it will make your web page easier forprospects to remember and type into their browser's addressbar.
Go to your affiliate page. Place your mouse pointer anywhereon the page and right click once. In the drop-down boxchoose "View Source". This will display the HTML for thepage. Save this to your hard drive as a HTML document usingthe "Save As" function. Upload the page to your web site.If you don't have a web site then get some free web spacefrom one of these:

http://www.tripod.com/
http://www।fortunecity।com/
http://www।hypermart.net/index.ग्स्प ://www.crosswinds.net/
http://www।htmlpublishing.com/
http://www।freehomepages.com/
http://www।pageproducer.com/

Submit your 'new' page to the Search Engines. You are alsonow able to place banner codes, links, images, testimonials,in fact anything you want onto these pages, because you arein control of the HTML. A word of caution, though. Don'tchange the actual HTML of your original affiliate page. Justput the other stuff, like banners etc, around it.
Making this "mirror page" of your affiliate page willdramatically improve your advertising options।

Google Adsense Strategies and Tips

2009-01-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

Adsense is beginning to make a huge impact on the affiliate marketing industry today। Because of this, weak affiliate merchants have the tendency to die faster than ever and ad networks will be losing their customers quickly.

If you are in a losing rather than winning in the affiliate program you are currently promoting, maybe it is about time to consider going into the Adsense marketing and start earning some real cash।

Google is readily providing well written and highly relevant ads that are closely chosen to match the content on your pages। You do not have to look for them yourselves as the search engine will be the doing the searching for you from other people’s source.

You also don't have to spend time in choosing different kind of ads for different pages। Google makes it very easy for you, with no codes to mess around for different affiliate programs.

You will be able to concentrate on providing good and quality content, as the search engines will be the ones finding the best ads in which to put your pages on।

You are still allowed to add Adsense ads even if you already have affiliate links on your site। It is prohibited, however, to imitate the look and feel of the Google ads for your affiliate links. One of the things you can do, however, is to utilize Google's custom palette to customize your Google ads, making them to appear a part of the web page itself. The idea here is to match background and links to match the theme of your site. People on the internet today are trained to click on a link that is blue, and if your Google ads have the same theme as your web page, it makes the Google ads appear to be a portion of your "content."

You can also filter up to 200 URLs। This gives you a chance to block ads for the sites that do not meet your guidelines, and also block competitors. Remember that it is unavoidable that Adsense may be competing for some space on web sites that all other revenues are sharing.

Owners of small sites are allowed to plug a bit of a code into their sites and instantly have relevant text ads that appeal to your visitors appear instantly on your pages। If you own many sites, you only need to apply once. Then ,you are issued a unique "publisher ID", which can be used on any site you currently own. A small snippet of Javascript is placed on your site in the location you wish the ads to appear in, and generally speaking, the ads from Goggle will appear in minutes. This ends the hassle of having to apply to many affiliate programs, and keeping track of many different URL's and user ID's and passwords.

As Google ads are very easy to customize, and can be placed anywhere on your site you wish, you can experiment with placement, colors, and themes। Many tricks are available to the resourceful webmaster, including adding images in conjunction with your Google ads to make them more noticeable.

The payment rates can vary extremely। The payment you will be receiving per click depends on how much advertisers are paying per click to advertise with the use of the AdWords. Advertisers can pay as little as 5 cents and as high as $10-12, sometimes even more than that too. Some savvy lawyers are currently paying as high as $75 for advertising the keyword mesothelioma! And you, as the ad publisher, are earning a share of that money generated.

If your results remain stagnant, it can help if you try and build simple and uncluttered pages so that the ads can catch the visitor’s eyes more. It sometimes pay to differ from the usual things that people are doing already. Google has many tutorials, including a "heat chart" which shows you where the best placement for ads are. You will need an account to access these tutorials. Sign up for an Adsense account at https://www.google.com/adsense/?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-et-awhome&hl=en_US। It is also a refreshing sight for your visitor once they see something different for a change.

It is still wise to look at other people’s information and format your Adsense in a like manner। A wise old business axiom is to "find a good business model, then copy it." Let others do the hard work for you, and learn from a successful site. Just think about it as doing yourself a favor by not having to work too hard to know what content to have. Look to sites that have high page rank, and carefully observe their layouts, their content, and placement of their ads. A little time spent doing research can put dollars in your pocket down the road.

Publishers have the option of choosing to have their ads displayed only on a certain site or sites। You can also have them displayed on a large network of sites if you so desire. Google now has the option to allow other people to advertise on your site. This only makes good sense. If you are marketing to a tightly defined niche, you can place your own ads, written by you, on site that allow this option. The choice is yours, depending on what you think will work best to your advantage.

It is important to note that you cannot choose certain topics only। If you do this, search engines will not place Adsense ads on your site and you will be missing out a great opportunity in making hundreds and even thousands of dollars cash.

Topics to be avoided includes gambling, firearms, ammunition, tobacco or drugs. If you are being offered more cash in exchange of doing Adsense with these kinds, it is just like signing your ओवन

With all the information that people need in your hands already, all you have to do is turn Google Adsense into your own cash cow. It all boils down to a win-win situation both for the content site owners and the webmasters or publishers.