My Buy Essay

Archive for December, 2007

Joel Comm, the Internet Marketing guru, has developed and refined one of today’s most well-known and revolutionary industry books, ‘What Google Never Told You About: Making Money with Adsense’. In his highly sought-after third edition, fully beefed up, updated with the latest techniques and expanded to include even more money-making Adsense techniques than ever before, Comm gives us the architecture and toolbox every to-be online entrepreneur and Internet Marketer requires to truly prosper.

He begins his book with the basics, a refresher course for more experienced Adsense users and an outstanding core foundation for those just beginning. He speaks clearly and understandably, avoiding highly technical jargon and defining terms in the books comprehensive glossary. He explores techniques anyone can use to launch an unlimited stream of cash with no money down, no experience, no inventory and minimal time investment.

Readers acquire a thorough understanding of website development, profitable domain naming, web hosting, content creation and search engine optimization. In his book, Comm also demystifies the lucrative world of blogging and how anyone can use this new medium to make money working from their home, office and abroad. He explains, in easy to understand language, the secrets to profits, what makes some websites sell and others falter right down to fine details like the colors and link locations on a page.

In addition to offering guidance on what you should do, Comm also explores frequent pitfalls and mistakes both new Adsense users and seasoned professionals need to know. He discloses the biggest (and often costly) mistakes Adsense publishers fall into, along with practical ways to avoid them. His techniques, followed step-by-step, can help anyone earn significant advertising revenue online.

Comm leaves some of the most powerful information geared toward established Adsense Internet Marketers for his chapter on troubleshooting. This chapter dispels the myths and sheds light on common obstacles faced in ad publishing. Through years of experience, Comm is able to rectify why publishers might be getting low revenues, traffic levels, click through rates and click prices. He shows why too many public service ads may be running through your ad stream and why ads may have a low relevance to your page. Each chapter, page and lesson is powerful as a whole or individually as a reference.

Before you start to think that this is another SEO technique that may or may not work depending on the current algorithms of the search engines, think about it…

EVERYTHING on the internet is CONTENT.

The internet is a veritable treasure trove of information. Good, bad, valuable or not, the internet is all about providing information to people. That is why smart internet marketers know that people want information from their websites &ndash not just SEO enriched pages of advertising.

The loopholes that search engine optimizers have been trying to use for high ranking in the search engine has created a plethora of sites that boast high keyword ratios, thousands of irrelevant hyperlinks and sometimes even redirection. These redirected websites try to create an optimized web page that the search engines will rank high but actually redirect the viewer to a less search engine friendly site.

Well, the search engines caught on. The websites that were getting the highest placements weren’t always providing quality information or useful content. In fact, they not only lowered the ranking of these sites &ndash they even removed them from the listings completely.

This sent a shock wave through the internet community and smart marketers realized that there is only one sure way to convince the search engines that they were meant to be at the top: Quality Content.

Not only do the search engines love content, but visitors do too. By providing visitors with useful information and relevant links to other sites, they come back again and again! And that’s not the only benefit.

Because website owners are now hungry for content, there is a huge market for informative articles that other website owners can use on their sites. By offering information to these sites in exchange for a hyperlink to your website, you get even more exposure, both to search engines AND customers.

Writing content for the major article directories and including a signature or “about the author” at the end of the article with a link back to your website is one of the best ways of generating free website traffic. If the article is well written and about a strong niche topic, the article will get picked up by many websites for their own sites, which can provide you with a wonderful set of viral links to your site. The more frequently your article gets picked up, the more opportunity there is for another webmaster to see it and pick it up, too.

Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internet marketing campaign, and the success or failure of your site depends greatly on how specifically you have defined your website goals. If you don’t know what you want your site to accomplish, it will most likely fail to accomplish anything. Without goals to guide you in developing and monitoring your website, all your site will be is an online announcement that you are in business.

If you expect your site to stimulate some form of action, whether it is visitors filling out a form so a representative can contact them, or purchasing a product, there are steps you can take to insure that your website is functioning at peak efficiency. One of the first indicators of how well your site is working for you is finding out the number of visitors in a given period of time. A good baseline measurement is a month in which you haven’t been doing any unusual offline promotional activities.

However, just because hoards of people have passed through your gates does not mean your site is successful. Usually, you want those visitors to actually do something there. It is equally important to monitor the number of visitors to your site who made a purchase. This figure is called the site conversion rate, and it is an essential element of the efficacy of your website.

To find the site conversion rate, take the number of visitors per month and figure out the percentage of them that actually performed the action your site is set up for. For example, if you had 2,000 hits to your site, but only 25 of them purchased your product, your site conversion rate equals 1.25%. To get this figure, take your number of visitors and divide that figure by the number of visitors who made a purchase. Then divide that result by 100 (25 ?00 X 100).

If your website is set-up to get visitors to fill out a form, make sure to then figure out what the difference is between your site conversion rate and your sales conversion rate. This is because not everyone who fills out your form will actually become your customer. However, whether your site is set-up to sell a service or product, or to get the visitor to fill out a form, the site conversion rate will measure the success or failure of your website whenever you make changes to the site.

You may find that you need to implement some additional marketing strategies if you find that traffic to your site is extremely low. There are several effective methods to improve the flow of traffic to your website, particularly launching a search engine optimization campaign. This campaign is targeted at increasing your position in search engine results so that consumers can find your pages faster and easier. You can either research the steps you need to take to improve your search engine rankings, or employ a search engine optimization company to do the work for you. In either case, after your have improved your search engine positions, make sure you keep on top of them by regular monitoring and adjusting of your efforts to maintain high positions.

Another factor to examine is how easy it is for a visitor to your website to accomplish the action the site is set-up for. For example, if your goal is for the visitor to fill out a form, is this form easily accessible, or does the visitor have to go through four levels to get to it? If it’s too difficult to get to, the customer may just throw in the towel and move on to another site. Make sure your buttons are highly visible, and the path to your form or ordering page quickly accessible.

Finally, have a professional evaluate the copy on your website. The goal is, of course, to get your visitor to make a purchase or fill out your form. Website copy must be specifically geared to your online campaign and not just a cut and paste job from your company brochure. The right copy can make the difference between profit and loss in your online campaign.

I was referred to a prospective client recently that had their website redesigned. They paid $60,000 for a site that really does nothing for them. It is a simple brochure site that provides visitors nothing and it certainly does nothing to convert traffic into sales. Since all their budget went to design, they have no money left over to properly market the site. Mistake #1, don’t pay $60,000 for a branding exercise.

A corporate website is about supporting the business. The beauty of the Internet is there is no guessing. You can measure pretty much anything. What are you trying to accomplish? Increase traffic? Generate leads? Increase sales? If it is yes to one of these questions, then a $60,000 investment should get you another $600,00 to your bottom-line? Can a brochure site deliver a 80-95% ROI?

Web design is a commodity today. The cost of design should represent about 25% of your total spend. Design costs are competitive today, so spending more than you have to should be the last thing you do. There are excellent open source Content Management Systems (CMS) that give you the power to manage your own content. The cost of the software is $0 to you. We recommend using either Plone or Joomla. Both of these platforms provide you with Web 2.0 compliant back-end at low cost for setup and maintenance.

The value in web design is working with companies that can properly market what you do. To properly market the site, you should be spending 10-12x what you should spend in design. So, it is possible to get a Web 2.0 website at an affordable cost. If you are a small company that is spending $4,000-$8,000 on a basic website, you should plan over 12 months to spend an additional $30,000-$80,000 on marketing. The dollars spent on marketing brings the traffic to the site. Simple rule, more traffic through the front door means more business.

Unlike other advertising, you can control your spend and measure your ROI pretty quickly. You can turn your marketing dollars on and off depending on the performance, it is all measurable.

DeFabis Photography is an example of a client that went through the redesign process. We built a Search Engine Friendly website that allows him to manage content on the site. Prior to working with us, his website was not listed in the top 100 on Google for the popular keywords. Since working with us, his visitors and page views have increased. But most important, he has doubled his bookings from this time last year. And, he did not spend $60,000 on his web design.

If you need help in evaluating a prospective vendor, here are some question that may help you understand their knowledge:

1. How do capture visitor traffic off the Internet? Can you track their movement through my site? If so, how?

2. How do manage pay per click advertising dollars to ensure I am maximizing my spend and not wasting money?

3. How do you measure whether my site is friendly to my users?

4. How many page views would you estimate my site would get to determine the right level of hosting?

5. What things will you need to change on my website? What things can I change on my own?

6. If I want to change the look, does it require changes to the backend scripting on the site?

7. What will it take to add a new page to match an ad we are running to the new site? For instance, I want to advertise a special and build a page specific for it, what will it take for us to do this?

8. What do you anticipate the average cost per lead for the website to be?

9. Who owns the source code to the site?

So, think about your objectives. Think about what you want to accomplish and spend your money according to the results you want to achieve. A pretty website just does not generate the type of results you should and can get using the Internet. Don’t get mugged for $60,000. It’s bad for your business.

The title of this article may prompt you to think that you should have a website based off the rock band “KISS”. No, “KISS” in this case refers to the old marketing adage “Keep It Simple Stupid”. It is critical to keep this marketing strategy in mind when you are creating your website.

How can you use the KISS method when creating your website? Employ the following technical and marketing strategies and you will have a KISS certified website. These strategies can apply to any Internet business. In addition, it doesn’t matter what your educational background is because everyone can utilize these techniques.

Your KISS strategy should encompass the following three types of websites: Branding site, Sales Letter site, and Power Squeeze Site. We will discuss each site in further detail.

Site #1 – Branding Site: The purpose of your Branding site is to brand your company, products, and/or services. This page needs to be basic so keep the number of options to a minimum. Remember, a confused mind never buys. A potential customer will leave your site in the blink of an eye if they are overwhelmed by the number of options.

It is also important to note that only 1% of your customers will come from the subscription box on your branding site. Also, only 1% of your customers will come from the product page here. Therefore, the main purpose of the branding site is to create your brand.

Site #2 &ndash Sales Letter Site: The purpose of your Sales Letter site is to get the customer to purchase your product or service. Your Sales Letter site will contain your sales letter. You don’t want customers to leave this page because once they leave the page the chances of creating a sales conversion dramatically decrease. Therefore, don’t put in options that allow people to leave your Sales Letter site.

Site #3 &ndash Power Squeeze Site: The purpose of the Power Squeeze site is to capture personal information from your customer. The only information you need to capture on your Power Squeeze site includes: first name, last name, and primary email address. This will allow you to start a relationship with each customer. You can always capture more personal information later.

It is also helpful to tell customers exactly what you want them to do on this page. In other words, you want them to sign up for you customer list, so have text that says “Just sign up here…” This direction will increase sales conversions.

Your Power Squeeze site is your most valuable site. You may need to tweak it often.

Take great care when creating these three sites. These sites are the key to attracting and retaining valuable customers that purchase your products and services.