Web Design Discussion

If you wish to attract lots of visitors to your web site or affiliate program try Google AdWords. It enables you to generate targeted traffic immediately and shows you which combination of keywords and ad copy produce the best results.

Here are 10 tips for creating a successful AdWords Campaign

1. Use a variety of keyword research tools

Instead of using the AdWords Keyword Tool that everyone else uses include other tools such as WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, WordPot and Thesaurus. Look for related keywords and misspellings. Often you can find keywords that no one else is using for their AdWords campaigns.

2. Use the right keywords in your ad

When bidding on a particular keyword make sure you include it in the title and body of your ad. ie

Italian Red Shoes
Authentic Italian Red Shoes
Money Back Guarantee.
www.italianredshoes.com

3. Create different ad groups

Don’t place all your keywords in one ad group unless they are all closely related. Your ad group should be tightly targeted with your ad. For example “italian red shoes” should be placed in one ad group and “fashionable red shoes” placed in another.

4. Split test your ads

Write 2 ads for your ad group and have them rotate evenly to see which one receives the most clicks. If one ad is not performing well, delete or pause it and write a slightly different one. Keep doing this to increase your CTR (click through rate). A high CTR will increase your conversions so you make more sales.

5. Turn off Content Targeting

Only show your ads on Google search, Search Partners, Desktop and laptop computers unless you’re an AdWords expert. Turn off the other options such as content targeting. This will save you spending a lot of money and generate specific data related to your ads.

6. Set a daily budget for your keywords

Calculate how much you wish to spend per day and per month. This will stop you from overspending. For example if you set your daily budget at $5.00 you’ll spend $150/month.

7. Set the maximum cost per click (CPC) for your keywords

Use the Google Keyword Tool to view the average CPC for your keywords. Bid above it if you want to be listed in the number 1 position on the page. Bid lower if you want a lower position. Remember you can always adjust your bids after setting up your campaign. Also don’t believe what Google suggests as often their suggestions are incorrect. Take charge of your campaign.

8. Track your keywords

You need to know what keywords triggered your conversions. I use AdTrackz to track all my keywords. It only takes a few minutes to set-up and you can view the results for each campaign.

9. Track conversions

The standard conversion rate is 1%. This means one sale per 100 clicks. For example if your CPC is 30 cents, 100 clicks will cost you $30.00. For tracking your landing pages or web site use Google Analytics. It’s a free tool offered by Google that tracks traffic, conversions and ROI (return on investment). Always work to improve your conversion rate.

10. Analyze and tweak campaigns for maximum conversions

After letting your campaign run for a day or 2, analyze the data, then adjust your bids, write a a new ad or try alternative keywords to improve your CTR and conversions.

If you’re starting out with Google AdWords, it will take several campaigns before you find a profitable one. The key is to try different products then set up a campaign for each one.

My previous article discussed the top 10 ways to attract web traffic to your blog however there are many other strategies you can also use that are also very effective. The key is try a few strategies that work well for you then focus on using them consistently.

10 advanced strategies to attract web traffic to your blog

1. Write and publish articles

The top article directories receive millions of visitors a day and get indexed by the search engines almost immediately. If you write and submit articles consistently to these directories you will build an ongoing stream of visitors to your blog. This happens because newsletter publishers constantly visit article directories to find fresh content. You can also increase the rankings of you blog or article by including a link to it at the end of your article.

To learn more about how to write, organize and submit articles pick up a copy of my ebook: Article Marketing Strategies

2. Guest blogging

Blog owners are constantly looking for new content. It’s difficult to always come up with a new topic and content that will interest readers. A guest blogger adds a fresh perspective to a blog plus you can include a link to your own blog at the end of the blog post. If the blog is a popular one you’ll receive lots of new traffic. Make sure the content you offer is unique (not published elsewhere) and well written.

3. Submit to search engine directories

Besides submitting your blog to blog and rss directories submit your blog to free and paid directories.

For more information read:
Which search engine directories should I submit to?

What Search Engine Directories Should I Pay to Get Listed?

4. Give away a free report or ebook

People love to receive free information particularly if it contains valuable information that you could easily charge for. Create a report of 10-20 pages then offer it to your newsletter subscribers, joint venture partners, forums, blogs, ebook directories and resource box of your articles, etc. Include links to your blog (product or newsletter) throughout the report to generate traffic to it.

For information read:
How to Create a Report

5. Write a press release

Your press release should contain content that is newsworthy such as a story about your product and what it will do for the customer. Select one of your blog posts that is newsworthy, expand upon it then convert it into a press release.

For more information on the benefits of a press release, how to write one and where to submit it read:

Press Releases Get Instant Traffic

6. Create videos of your articles

Not all people like to read content in its written form. Many prefer visual and audio presentations. To convert your articles into videos either read them in front of a video camera or create slides of them.

For an easy and affordable way to put videos on your web site purchase a copy of VideoWebWizard:

After creating your video distribute it to video sharing web sites to attract tons of new visitors that wouldn’t normally read your articles.

For a list for video sharing web sites read:
Where to Upload Your Videos

7. Do teleseminar presentations

You can use your blog articles to hold your own teleseminar. Google “web conferencing software” to find software to run your teleseminar. String a series of related articles together to present to your audience. Make an announcement on your blog, joint venture partners and newsletter subscribers about your teleseminar. Be sure to mention your blog URL several times throughout your presentation to gain lots of new visitors.

8. Use Social bookmarking

Social Bookmarking refers to web based applications that enables you to store bookmarks online instead of in your favorites or bookmarks on your computer. The immediate advantage of this is that you can access your bookmarked sites from any computer or mobile phone.

To make it easy for visitors to bookmark your posts download and install this plugin for Word Press:

I Love Social Bookmarking

This plugin currently supports the bookmarking sites:
Blinklist, Bloglines, Blogmarks, Digg, del.icio.us, Facebook, Furl, Ma.gnolia, NewsVine, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Technorati.

9. Set up an autoresponder

It’s well known in Internet Marketing you need to touch base with a visitor several times before they act (ie subscribe to a newsletter or buy a product). An autoresponder enables you to automatically build a relationship with your visitor over several days or weeks by sending them new information.

Instead of only contacting them once and losing them forever you have the potential to create a life long relationship.

The most robust and well known autoresponder service is Aweber. They even give you a free test drive or get started for $19.00 a month.

10. Pay Per Click Marketing

Pay per click advertising is a great way o get instant traffic to your blog. Your ads can be immediately displayed on the first page of the search engine results pages. You pay whenever someone clicks on your ad. The key to making a profit is your return on investment (ROI). For example if your product price is $100, your cost per click (CPC) is 10 cents and you sell 1 item for every 100 clicks your profit will be by $90.00. Google, Yahoo and MSN offer pay per click advertising.

For more information read:
How to Set Up A Successful Google AdWords Campaign

Tip
The success of these traffic generating methods for blog marketing will vary for each person. Select 3 methods that work well for you then use them on a consistent basis. Monitor your blog statistics to view the increase in visits each month, where they are coming from and what keywords they are using to find your blog.

*****
For more ways to attract traffic to your blog pick up a copy of my ebook:
101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site

The beauty of creating a blog is that you can add it to your current web site or use it as a stand alone web site then market your products or services with it to attract lots of web traffic.

Top 10 Ways to Attract Web Traffic With Blog Marketing:

1. Add fresh content

If you consistently add new content you will not only attract regular readers but also the search engines. Try to add new content to your blog at least 3 times a week.

2. Optimize your content

Make sure you optimize the titles, paragraphs and links within your content. This means you must first do keyword research to incorporate keywords related to your content.

3. Include keywords in your tags

WordPress allows you to include tags below each post. Place your most popular keywords in these tags separated by commas.

4. Add meta tags

Use the headspace or seopack plugin to add title and description meta tags to each post. Search engines place great emphasis on title tags that contain your keyword at the beginning.

The description meta tag is what visitors read about your site when they find it in the search engines. Make sure the description of your page will get the reader to click to your content.

5. Create internal links

A single doesn’t get much traction in the search engines unless you get links pointing to it. If you have related content from other areas of your blog create a text link (anchor text) within that post that links to your current content. Your post ranking will increase in proportion to the number of links pointing to it.

6. Encourage commenting

Include questions within your content and encourage readers to leave a comment. This increases blog interactivity. Readers will see that it’s an active blog and will want to read the comments and provide their own feedback.

7. Leave comments on other blogs

Find blogs that have content related to your own and write a comment that compliments their post or is in response to another other comments. With each comment include a link back to your own blog.

8. Use trackbacks

A trackback is procedure for notifying the original blog poster that you have referred to their blog post in another blog. Leave lots of trackbacks to popular blog posts on your own blog. This will encourage those you trackback to, to do the same and will increase traffic to your site.

9. Submit to blog directories

Here is a free list of the top 100+ blog directories you can submit your blog to…
http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com/blog-directories.html

10. Submit RSS Feed to RSS Directories

Here is a list of submission urls for RSS and blog directories you can submit your blog or RSS feed to.
http://www.toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories/

Blog marketing is a process that must be done consistently to reap great benefits. By employing the strategies above you will get a steady flow of web traffic that will increase over time.

*****
Want to know how to drive tons of traffic to your blog?
Get a copy of my ebook:
101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site

My last article discussed how to begin creating your report by simply writing short posts on your blog each day about a topic you’re passionate about.

How do you compile all the blog posts you’ve written and create the actual
report?

1. Use OpenOffice.org to compile your report

OpenOffice software is free and easy to use. With one click it converts your document to a PDF file that is ready to upload to your server. It enables you to create a table of contents, headlines, subheadlines, hyperlinks, bullets and add images.

2. Add content

First create an attractive title for your report followed by your table of contents. Copy and paste each article (post) from your blog into OpenOffice. Use sub titles and bullet points to split up the content on your page. It makes it much easier to read.

3. Edit your content

After adding all the content created from your blog posts edit it for correct spelling and grammar so you produce a professional document.

4. Convert DOC to PDF

Use the PDF icon in OpenOffice to convert the document to a PDF file.

5. Create an ecover or banner

An attractive ecover graphic will help sell your report. It not only draws the reader’s attention to your report but enhances the value of your content.

To learn more read:
How to create an attractive ecover

6. Create a sales page

The sales page is crucial to converting readers into buyers. It must keep the readers attention throughout the copy to the order button.

For more information please read my article:

How to write an effective sales letter for your eBook

7. Upload the ecover and PDF file to the server

Once you’ve uploaded all the ebook files to the server check to make sure everything works.

8. Link your posts to your product page.

You can promote your new ebook or report on your blog:

• Create new blog posts related to the content in the ebook.
• Create a strong call to action at the end of each blog post with a link to the sales page of your ebook.
• Offer to write guest articles on other popular blogs that link to your ebook.

9. Add a link (image) to the blog sidebar.

If you’ve been adding content to your blog consistently for several years you’ll probably have hundreds of content pages. Place an attractive banner in the sidebar of your blog that links to your sales page. The banner will appear on every page of your blog thus providing extra exposure for your ebook.

10. Write more related content

You can increase traffic to your ebook by adding video and audio content related to your ebook. Videos can be submitted to video sharing sites. Consider creating podcasts also. These can be marketed on iTunes.

Besides marketing your report or ebook with your blog, there are hundreds of other strategies to market your product.

****************
To market your report or ebook pick up a copy of my ebook:

101 Highly Effective Strategies
to Promote Your Web Site

My previous article discussed the types of products you can create to make money from your blog.

This article will discuss how to write a report or ebook using your blog.

How do you start?
What tools do you need?
How long will it take?

One of easiest products to create and market is a report or ebook. I’ll discuss how to create a report because a report can easily be expanded into an ebook.

1. Find a niche you are passionate about

It’s easier to write about a topic you like rather than one in which you have little or no interest in. Your passion for the topic will be evident in your writing.

2. Create a blog

If you already have a blog create a category for your new topic and start writing short posts or an article about it. Create a blog if you don’t have one. This serves 3 purposes:

a) You’re building content that automatically will attract the search engines and drive visitors to your blog.

b) Each post or article can be used to build your report. You can also begin promoting your report by adding a link to the sales page at the end of each blog post.

c) Time management. Instead of writing a report in one sitting you can create small chunks (posts) of it over time. This makes it easy to complete in a set period.

For example if you wanted to create a 21 page report, write a post (article) each day for 21 days. So within 21 days your report could be completed. If you want to break up your writing just write a short post each day and combine 2 posts to create your article. It will take longer to put together your report but it’s easier to keep adding content to your blog.

3. Create content

a) Sometimes it’s hard to find inspiration for a new article. To overcome writer’s block do a search on ezinearticles.com for your keyword. You’ll instantly find articles written on your topic. After reading several of them you’ll have a few ideas you can use to begin writing your own article.

b) Write a catchy headline followed by an introductory paragraph that emphasizes a specific problem. The following paragraphs should offer solutions to the problem.

4. Call to action

The content you’ve written prepares your reader to take action. Your last paragraph should summarize what you have said in your content and end with a call to action and a link to the sales page of your report. Add the call to action to every new post of your blog.

You are now well on the way to creating a report or ebook that you can market with your blog. My next article will discuss how to create the report based on the content you’ve added to your blog.

******************
To learn more pick up a copy of my bonus report:
How to use articles to write your ebook and promote it for maximum profits

My last article discussed the pros and cons of marketing your own products with a blog. The problem is…what types of products are the easiest and fastest to create? Once you’ve made this decision it’s easier to take action and make money with your blog.

Types of products to market with your blog

• Software
• Ebooks
• Reports
• Hard Goods

Software

People are always looking for software that will save them time and money. For example Article Architect is the best software for writing, organizing and submitting your articles.

It’s easier to market software other people have developed (become their affiliate) because it is not something you can easily create yourself unless you’re a software developer. However if you have a unique idea hire a software developer from script lance or similar locations on the Net.

Ebooks and Reports

These are the easiest products to create and market because you just need to write articles about your area of expertise then compile them into a booklet.

An ebook will take a longer time to write but you can sell it for more than a report. Put together a report of 20-30 pages and sell it for a small profit (ie $7-$10) or give it away for free (viral marketing).

The beauty of marketing ebooks/reports is visitors can just download the electronic publications automatically after making their online payment. It’s a hands free system that can be marketed from your blog.

Hard Goods

These products include items such as shoes, tools, gifts, etc…anything which are not soft goods (ie ebooks, software, etc)

Hard goods are usually sold online by setting up an ecommerce store. In this case it would be better to place the blog in a separate folder of your ecommerce site, then create lots of content that relates to products you are selling. This will help place your visitors in a buying mood and make it easier for them to purchase your goods.

The internet provides the opportunity to sell almost anything online. The key to making a profit is to find a specific niche that is not too competitive then sell them what they need or desire.

*****
Want to know how to drive tons of traffic to your blog?
Get a copy of my ebook:
101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site

You can make more money with a blog marketing your own products than selling affiliate products. You only receive a commission with affiliate products however you receive the full amount with your own.

Pros and Cons of Marketing Your Own Products.

Pros

• Satisfaction of creating your own product.
• Receive the full product price.
• Get affiliates to market your product.
• Become recognized as an expert in your field.
• Make more money than just being an affiliate because you own the product.
• Build and expand your business.
• Build a warm customer list to offer future products.
• Generate multiple passive income income streams that run on autopilot.
• Repurpose your products into audios, videos, teleseminars, ebooks, etc.
• Own the copyright of your product.
• Create joint ventures with other online entrepreneurs.

Cons

• Takes a greater investment of time and money than marketing an affiliate
  product.
• You’re responsible for creating and marketing the product.
• Dealing with the possibility your product will not sell.

If you’re serious about building a profitable online business I highly recommend creating and marketing your own products. Your blog will be the vehicle to sell your product because you can build the sales page, add articles and market your product all from one location. This is one of the most profitable ways to make money with a blog.

****************
Get a copy of my ebook:
101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site

One of the fastest and easiest ways to make money from your blog is to sign up for various affiliate programs. This article will discuss which are the best affiliate programs to sign up for, how much money can you make and how to actually incorporate them into your blog.

What are the most popular affiliate programs?

Clickbank

This is the most popular affiliate program. It has over 10,000 affiliate products to choose from and the commissions go up to 75%…most are less than this. You can sign up for a free account at clickbank.com. You will receive an affiliate name which you use to promote a product. To select a product visit the clickbank market place and enter a keyword or select your category from the drop down box.

Once you’ve selected a product click the affiliate link at the bottom of the home page. This is where you get your affiliate code to create the affiliate link for selling the product. Sometimes vendors will provide text, banners, email messages, etc to help affiliates promote their products.

Insert the banner or text link on your web page then upload it to the server and test to see if it works.
To help promote the product use some descriptive text. To entice your visitor to take action offer them a free report.

Commission Junction

Commission Junction is one of the worlds largest affiliate marketplace for physical products. Even if you have no web site you can set up a Google AdWords campaign using Pay Per Click and start selling your product in a few hours.

Commission junction is a third-party online payment processor that handles all of your financial processes. Commission Junction is geared towards a vast range of physical products, which makes it very popular for publishers and affiliates.

Benefits of Commission Junction:

* There are thousands of products and services to promote
* Offers accurate statistics and reports
* Promote good quality companies
* Offer options to help market the products ie banners. text, buttons.

To learn more visit:
https://www.cj.com/faq.html#affiliate

An Example of a Successful Affiliate Program

The best affiliate program I have experienced is the 5 Pillar Affiliate Program from Ken Envoy.

It’s been hailed as “the best affiliate program on the Net.”

By becoming a 5 Pillar Affiliate, you will:

* Earn $75 commission for each Site Build It! (”SBI!”) subscription.
* Get paid annual commission on each and every SBI! renewal with their lifetime customer policy.
* Even earn commissions from 2 tiers of income through sales made by your own team of affiliates.

Site Build It! is software that not only enables anyone to build a professional web site but it also drives traffic to it with marketing tools that are integrated within the software.

Over half of Site Build It! owners purchase more than one SBI! (some over 10!). Since the customer is yours for a lifetime, you earn commissions on those multiple sales. And, of course, on their renewals, too!

So your 5 Pillar earnings really add up, fast.

Click here to learn more about the 5 Pillar Program

The beauty of marketing affiliate products is that you create multiple passive incomes streams that become hands free once they are set up.

If you write lots of content for your blog on a consistent basis you can make money from it by just adding some html code in appropriate sections. The beauty of this method is that you create a passive income stream.

7 Ways to Make Money From A Blog

1. Adsense

This is one of the easiest methods because you simply add the Google Adsense code to your blog pages. When someone clicks on the ad you get paid. As you create more content containing adsense ads you make more money because you receive more clicks.

Read How to Generate AdSense Revenue From Your Blog

2. Affiliate programs

Clickbank has over 10,000 affiliate products to choose from. You receive a commission for each product you sell. You simply get your affiliate code from the clickbank vendor and place it within the content on your web site. Fort example if the commission is 75% and the cost to the visitor is $100 you will receive a commission of $75.00.

3. Market your own products

Perhaps you have written an ebook or report. If you add a graphic and link to your product on every page of your blog you may sell multiple copies of it for years to come. This can be an ongoing income stream.

4. Promote your own services

You may write “how-to” articles to help visitors with services you offer. For example I offer Web Design, Hosting and SEO services so I provide lots of tips on these subjects then leave a call to action and link to my services at the bottom of each post or article.

5. Newsletter subscription form

Sending a newsletter to your readers on a regular basis helps build long term relationships. This enables you to recommend various products you find useful for them and make money from your list. Place the subscription form on every page of your blog to make it easy for readers to subscribe.

6. Write reviews

You can get paid for writing reviews about products or services. You simply write an article of 500-600 words. One of the best paid review sites is: reviewme.com

7. Text Link Ads

You get paid for placing text based ads on your blog pages. The company provides the html code that you place within the html code of your web site. Visit text-link-ads.com to sign up for an account.

Tip
To increase the amount of money you make from a blog, be consistent about adding lots of content
ie add content at least three times a week and make sure each post is optimized so it attracts
search engine traffic.

***************
Learn the step-by-step formula to start and build a money-making blog by picking up a copy of WordPress Goldmine

* Provides you with a money-making formula that has been tested and proven to work

* Is inexpensive and provides you with the results you’re seeking

* Is like no other Internet marketing product, course, or membership on the market today

* Provides you with the blue print to building your very own Internet marketing empire even if you know absolutely nothing about marketing right now.

Word Press blogs have the ability for visitors to leave comments at the bottom of each post however this feature can easily be abused by spammers. Your blog may receive 1000s of spam comments that are annoying because they take time to remove and if left alone, accumulate and use up a substantial
amount of hosting space.

How to Mass Delete Word Press Comment Spam

If you want to quickly remove 1000s of spam comments read my article on
How to Mass Delete Word Press Comment Spam

How to control the volume of comment spam

1. Edit Word Press administration settings

Login to the admin panel-settings-discussion-uncheck the box…”allow people to post comments on the article”. Keep in mind this will still allow visitors to post comments on future articles.

“I have disabled comments, but comments continue to be posted”

If you have unchecked “Allow people to post comments on the article” on the Options > Discussion panel, then you have only disabled comments on future posts. To completely disable comments, you will have to edit each past post and uncheck Allow Comments from the Write Post SubPanel. lternatively, you could delete the wp-comments-post.php file, or run this MySQL query, from the
command line on a shell account, or using phpMyAdmin:

UPDATE wp_posts SET
comment_status=”closed”;

Source
Word Press.org

2. Activate Akismet plugin

This plugin reduces and automatically removes comment spam. It’s already included with your Word Press blog. To activate it go to-plugins-akismet-activate. Under the akismet plugin you’ll read:

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.”

To get the WordPress.com API key sign up for a free account at WordPress.com. You’ll get emailed the details of your login information. Login to your free blog then go to profile to view your API key. Copy and paste the code into your own blog. You’ll get prompted for it when you activate the Akismet
plugin.

3. How to completely remove all evidence of spam comments

You may ask “why would anyone would want to do this if they are running a blog…isn’t that what a blog is for..to encourage interactivity?

Well, some of my clients don’t have the time or want to reply to comments.Other people want to use their blog as a static site and have all evidence of comments removed.

Here is the procedure to remove the comment code from your Word Press Blog

Go into your template folder and look for single.php
Remove the code:


<?php comments_template(); ?>


If you don’t have the file…single.php… look inside index.php or home.php and remove this code:


<?php comments_popup_link(__('Comments (0)'), __('Comments (1)'),
__(’Comments (%)’)); ?>


If you have other ways or plugins to remove comment spam leave add your comment to the bottom of this post.

Resources
Combating Comment Spam

***************
Learn the step-by-step formula to start and build a money-making blog
by picking up a copy of WordPress Goldmine

* Provides you with a money-making formula that has been tested and proven to work
* Is inexpensive and provides you with the results you’re seeking
* Is like no other Internet marketing product, course, or membership on the market today
* Provides you with the blue print to building your very own Internet marketing empire even if you know absolutely nothing about marketing right now.