PBAC Blog

By now you should know that advertising and marketing are two different things.

In this article, when I talk about advertising, I’m only talking about the copy you use to generate traffic to your web site, whether it be banner ads, text ads, or any other kind of advertising.

Pay-per-click advertising offers even someone new to Internet marketing a chance to test the waters and learn what works, and it can be done inexpensively at first, with a completely controlled budget. That’s nice for most people to hear, that you can put a cap on what you spend on advertising, and see the results as you go so you know what’s working for you and what’s not.

Here are the basics…

If you are advertising to a laser-targeted group of people, such as with search-based PPC advertising (like Google AdWords), you want your ad copy to be very specific and to closely match the content of the page you are sending people to when they click.

The reason for that is, you don’t want to pay for unqualified clicks, meaning - people who are unlikely to buy, signup or whatever you’re trying to achieve with the traffic. The more information you can give in your ad about what you’re offering, the more you can narrow down WHO clicks on your ads. That way you’re not paying for people to click your ad unless they are very good prospects for what you’re offering.

I’ve even gone so far as to include the price of my product in the actual ad.

With content networks (yes, Google has one of these too), you shouldn’t pay quite as much per click, bid about half of what you would pay for a search generated click. People on content pages might click your ad because it interests them, but they didn’t originate as being someone who was already searching for one of your keywords, so their value as a prospect is somewhat lower.

When you are advertising to a broader audience and paying by the impression (CPM = cost per 1000 views of your ad), your ad needs to appeal to a broader audience. It should not include specifics and it helps if it’s even a little edgy or controversial. Why? Because with CPM advertising, you’re not paying for the clicks, you’re paying for the views. You WANT as many people as possible to click on it, and since almost all CPM advertising is placed on content sites and is not search-based, having an edgy or eye-catching ad headline can help draw attention away from the copy of the page.

To be successful at CPM advertising, you have to be able to capture someone’s attention to the point that they click your ad instead of continuing on with whatever they were doing. You have to snap them out of a zone to get them to click. Since you’re not paying for clicks regardless, you’re paying for views, try to get as many clicks as possible. I’ve ran some CRAZY ads on a per impression basis that have done pretty well.

So let’s rinse and repeat.

CPC = detailed/exact/targeted CPM = broader/edgy/controversial (designed to get mass clicks)

I’m not at all saying you should take your edgy CPM ad and put it on ANY site just because it gets good clickthroughs. You should still be running it on sites that are likely to be hangouts of your target prospects, I’m just pointing out that it needs to differ from how you advertise on a per click basis.

FREE Advertising, does it work?

The answer to this is YES!

Of course it works, it’s all a matter of HOW you are advertising, and what method of marketing you are using once you get the click. The best sources of free advertising I’ve found are article submission sites, where you write an article of interest, then put your sig file and a link to your site in the author resource box at the bottom, and then your article gets picked up, used and passed around by others.

And #2, forums and message boards. With this kind of advertising, you really should NOT blatantly advertise. If you’re on a forum where people are in your target market, you’re likely to find posts that you can add to, such as helping someone who has a question, or putting in your two-cents on a post that’s just a discussion.

Again, you can have a sig file with a link to your site, but your posts should never just be an ad. Write good content, be of genuine help to people, and the people who land on that forum page will take notice and often visit your site.

Here are some other great sources of free traffic.

- Your own blog - Community sites, MySpace, Squidoo, Facebook - YouTube (put your URL in your videos)

If you write articles based on what you are selling or the market you are in, and submit them to article directories, copy those same articles and edit them a little, then use them as blog posts at the online communities you belong to, or if you want to take it a step further, recite or discuss the article on video and upload it to YouTube.

I’ve gotten some wild traffic from YouTube before, with just one of my videos generating a lot of free leads daily, just by including a link in the video that goes to my lead capture (squeeze) page.

If you have good marketing in place (squeeze page, autoresponder, follow-up), the major portion of your day could actually be spent with free places to advertise and you could do very well with that alone.

A guy I met in Austin recently revealed that 90% of his traffic, for his multi-million dollar per year information product business, came from articles he either wrote or had written for him, and submitted to article directories - an average of 2 or more articles submitted per day.

If he can do that and generate enough FREE traffic to build a $3 Million per year business, don’t you think you should give more consideration to the Web 2.0 strategies that are free AND work well, and will provide you with traffic for a long time to come?

The key to making this work for you is to come up with a game plan, what you’re going to do every day - and then STICK WITH IT. And ALWAYS direct traffic into your main marketing funnel.

It takes time for this kind of advertising to work, but as more and more of your articles and blog posts get spread around the Internet by others, your site will turn into a HUB of traffic. That’s what you want to happen!

Bram Smith is a home business mentor who has helped MANY reach a six-figure per year income level, and a leader of one of the fastest growing and highest earning teams in home biz.

Learn more at –>> http://www.MentorMeetings.com

You may reproduce this article in your own newsletter or on your web site provided you leave this resource box intact.

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Blogs are an extremely powerful tool for earning money online

The following are three time-tested methods for doing so:

Affiliate Programs

One of the most powerful and popular means of earning from your blog is through the marriage of your blog and an affiliate program. With the proliferation of gigantic affiliate networks such as Clickbank, Commission Junction and Share-A-Sale, it has never been easier to hook your blog up to a tested seller on a large network, and start earning.

These programs are extremely lucrative. They pay from 30% to as much as 75% of the selling price of the product. They do all the work. You, as the blog owner, collect the commission for driving traffic to their sales page.

A classic technique for matching up willing buyers with affiliate products is the use of a well-written review. The review adds value to the buying experience, educating your blog’s visitor about a particular product or industry, and offering several opportunities to check it out further on the provider’s web site.

Adsense and CPA Network Publishing

A second method of profiting from your blog is to establish a relationship with a CPA or Cost Per Action network such as Google Adsense or Yahoo YPN. Using this method, you build a series of ad blocks into your blog in strategic places, such that blog consumers who are reading your posts are also observing ads that are relevant to your content. When one of them clicks on an ad, you, as the blog owner / site operator, get paid. The conventional wisdom is that this method of site monetization should not be your only income source, but one that supplements your other strategies (such as affiliate programs)

Some site building applications are so easy to implement, you simply point your mouse in the right place and type in your publisher ID and your ad publishing system goes live. Others are a simple copy and paste routine, once you choose the position on your site and which type and size of ad is appropriate.

List building

A third way of earning from your blog, and one that is quite often overlooked, is the technique of building a double opt-in mailing list, and subsequently marketing to that list. Developing a mailing list of visitors is a natural progression of events when you own a blog, because your visitors are often interested in being kept in the loop as to what you have going on. Particularly if your blog is involved in contests, giveaways, carnivals and the like, it’s important to advise your consuming public what is happening.

A logical outgrowth of this mailing list development is the marketing of products or services that are related to your blog directly through your mailing list. As the blog’s owner, you already have established a sufficient rapport with the subscriber to your list as a result of them regularly traveling to your blog. It’s not much of a stretch for you to sell to them directly.

Blogs are a powerful mechanism for communicating ideas, adding value to the Internet and building relationships with your blog’s visitors. If you design them right, and take good care of them, they can also become a lucrative and continuous source of revenue.

Steve teaches blogging tactics and other online marketing techniques and skills at Internet Mentor, his online mentoring community

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Many people shy away from Google Adwords Content Network simply because they don’t understand it or know how to effectively manage it. This article provides important tips and strategies to better equip you for success.

Campaign Organization: When setting up your campaigns there are a couple of ways to effectively organize them. One way is to have a single campaign that is enabled for both Google.com (and their search network if you so choose) and Google’s Content Network. If you decide to go this route make sure you select the option that allows you to control bids separately across both networks. My preferred method is to set up separate campaigns … one is for Google’s Search Network (AOL, Earthlink, Dogpile) and one is for Google’s Content Network. This will allow you to better control the daily / monthly spend since you can only set budget caps at the Campaign Level.

Ad Groups Inside Your Content Network Campaigns. Duplicate keywords are not an issue inside your Content Network Ad Groups. Google decides where to show your ads across their Content Network based on the Ad Group relevancy as a whole. This includes both keywords and ad copy. So, remember it this way … Google’s Content Network is NOT keyword driven - it’s relevancy driven. After all, when you see ads on another site that are Sponsored Listings from Google Adsense, you didn’t have to type in a keyword to display those ads.

Laser Target Your Content Network Ad Groups. When adding keywords in your Content Network ad groups, keep the list short and Laser Focused! Remember, Google decides where to show your ads based on the Ad Group relevancy … not based on each keyword. For example, if your business is generating leads for colleges and schools providing nursing degrees, then it makes sense to have an Ad Group in your Search Network campaigns targeting keywords such as “nursing jobs” or “nurse salary”. But, for the Content Network, those keywords should not be in your Ad Group because this give Google the option to show your ads on medical job boards, resume writing sites and other non relevant sites. For the Content Network Ad Groups it’s best to keep your keywords laser focused - in Exact Match format - targeting your specific niche … like [nursing degree] [nursing degrees] [nursing school] [nursing schools] [cna degree] etc.

Placement Reports. Monitor your Content Network performance by pulling Placement Reports inside Google’s Reporting interface. When you receive enough data to start crunching useful stats, find the Domains that are driving quality / converting traffic to your site.

Site Match Campaigns. Set up Site Match campaigns targeting the Domains you identified in your Placement Reports and allocate your budgets accordingly. (Don’t forget to add these domains to your Excluded Domain list for your Content Network Campaigns). Here’s a tip - when crunching your data to determine which sites you want to add to your Site Match campaign, calculate your Avg. Cost p/ Impression for that site to start off your Site Match CPM Bid. After you start receiving conversion data from each site match site you can then dial in your CPM Bids to achieve your CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) target.

Pay Per Click Edge is a Full Blown Pay Per Click Management Firm that Focuses on Client’s Goals and Objectives. Contact PPCE Today at 888.451.6063 or info@ppce.net for a Free PPC Management Consultation and Proposal!

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Many internet savvy people focus on the tremendous opportunities in dropshipping, affiliate marketing, and SEO, but totally neglect the revenue stream that they could be cashing in on: Google AdSense. Google AdSense has been around for a while now but many people are still using AdSense as a principal source of income. In fact, AdSense has probably created more online millionaires than any other online revenue opportunity.

What is Google AdSense?
Google AdSense ads are those rectangular ads that you’ve seen on virtually every webpage you’ve visited. If placed correctly, you hardly notice that they’re even there. A skilled AdSense integrator will effectively “weave” their ads into their website content to increase clicks. Using AdSense as a revenue stream can be more profitable than any other online venture. In fact, many people who have put AdSense ads on their affiliate landing pages soon began to discover that they were actually making more money on AdSense clicks than they were on their affiliate conversions. The main reason for this is simple: Clicking on a Google Ad cost nothing. Nadda. Zippo. But if it’s your ad that is clicked on, you earn anywhere from $0.10 to $3.00 for each click. Can you begin to understand how you can profit from Google AdSense?

How Do I Earn with AdSense?
Earning with AdSense is simple. Just go to Google.com/AdSense and sign up for your FREE account. After you’ve got your free account, you’ll need a webpage to put your new AdSense ads on. Once your get your webpage up and running with your new ads on it, all you must do is effectively market your page so that you get visitors. In order for you to be successful at ANY internet based business, you will require traffic. Find a way to get a few 1,000 visitors to your site every day, and you’ll be rich by year’s end.

So How Do I Get Started?
A lot of bloggers on the internet will tell you what you must do and give you a vague description of how to go about it, but I’ll tell you, detail for detail, how to start a profitable AdSense business. To start a good AdSense campaign, you’ll need to group together many good keywords. Keep away from the keywords that are very competitive, such as “work-at-home”, “online business”, “jobs”, etc., etc. The key to succeeding in an AdSense business is to find a niche that is off the beaten path. Take “Golf Carts” for instance. Keywords associated with golf and golf clubs are very competitive, but golf carts - not so. So, find some odd keywords that are not very competitive and weave some context around them.

Now that you’ve got keywords, you’ll need a webpage. Don’t have a webpage? O.K., you’ll need a doman and a basic hosting package (about $8/month), go HERE to find a good, inexpensive host to get started. Pick the one that suits you and get an inexpensive account. Now…publish your AdSense site and submit your page to the search engines. You must get your site spidered by the Googlebot before you’ll get on Google - which is where you want to be. The fastest way to get your site spidered by Google is to put your link on a webpage that is already being spidered by Google. Once you regularly get crawled by the Googlebot, you can make adjustments to your page to increase your page rank. Once you start getting traffic, your clicks, and therefore your profits, will start to climb. Once you begin getting some regular traffic, your new revenue stream will be almost FREE. Now, repeat this about a dozen times (or a few hundred times) and you’ll be making some serious cash.

If you require a little direction with your AdSense sites, then I suggest checking out one of our AdSense Resources, which will show you the smart ways to start an AdSense campaign. Good luck and much success!

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