Basics on Quality Index and Ad Copy

Your ad quality, which is based in part on how frequently people click on your ads relative to your competitors, matters a lot. High-quality ads can receive higher ranking on the search results page at a possibly lower cost-per-click. On the other hand, poor-quality ads can cost you more and are most likely not attracting customers. So it’s critical to write good ad copy that will help improve the quality of your ad and help you get more clicks.

Monitoring and Maintaining Your Quality Index
In your account, ad quality is represented by your quality index. You will see the quality index shown as one to five bars—the more bars an ad has, the higher its quality. Monitoring your ads’ quality indices, which are displayed on the Ad Group details page, can help you figure out which ads need more work.

Writing Effective Ad Copy
Well-written ads get the attention of your customers and may improve your click-through rate (CTR) and ad quality. Here are some tips for writing great ads:

• Be clear and precise - Write ads that are clear, concise, honest and, of course, grammatically correct. Don’t over-hype your business.
• Use your keywords in your ad - Use the Insert Keyword function, available when you create a new ad or edit an existing one, to automatically insert your keyword in your ad. Keywords in your title or description help your customers recognize that your ad matches their search.
• What’s in it for your customers? - Be specific as to how your service or product can benefit your customer.
• Include a call-to-action - Words like “Buy Now” in your ad may encourage customers to click. If you have a specific offer, make sure you state it.
• Set yourself apart - Let people know how you’re different from your competitors—free shipping, a money-back guarantee, many years in business and so on—and give them a reason to click your ad instead.

Find out which Ads Work Best
Make sure you use ad testing, also known as A/B testing, to test multiple ads. When you create more than one ad in an ad group, our system will automatically display the higher performing ads more frequently in search results. With different ad copy, you can see which ads attract the most customers.

Get the inside scoop! Yahoo’s Smart Start Guide for new advertisers can assist you as you manage your search marketing account. The guide also includes tips and best practices to help you spend wisely.

Starting a new forum is very time consuming as well as a difficult task. The biggest problem is not creating and setting up your forum but getting people to register and be active in the forum. I get asked all the time on how to build a successful forum. The most important thing is to make sure you already have a good flow of traffic. Already having a website established with lots of users visiting your website and then adding a forum will be much easier then starting a forum from scratch. Here are some tips that should help you get your forum moving along.

Hire people to post in your forum

There are a lot of companies out there that you can pay for so many posts. Do some research online and make sure they have good reviews and feedback.

Some services that offer paid forum posting

• http://www.forumpost.org/
• http://www.paidforumposting.com/v4/
• http://www.forumbooster.net/
• http://www.forumadvantage.com/
• http://www.postingdirect.com/

Offer Contest

Having a contest to help build your forum is an easy and cheap way to get people to register and participate in your forum. You could offer people who join your forum and post 10 quality posts (Not short “thank you” posts will count) an entry into a drawing to win an ipod or something related to your forum.

You can then post your contest on other similar forums or other websites to bring in traffic.

Offer Incentive

Similar to having a contest, you can offer new forum members points or rewards for posting so many times. There are a lot of forum addons that offer reward points that can be cashed in for rewards and prizes.

Ad Revenue Sharing

Offer to share your ad space with forum users who meet a certain criteria. When users sign up they can enter there google adsense ID and when they post messages in your forum a banner can rotate with the users ads. OR you can offer a rev share (percentage) of the click to your members.

These are just a few ideas to help promote your new forum. Check back soon as I will be adding new ideas later.

Doing Business As (DBA) - Fictitious Business Name

Most states require you to file a DBA if you are doing business under a name different than your legal name. So last night I was up searching the internet for how to file a DBA (Doing Business As) and costs related to it. I found numerous sites but they where all “services” which meant they would do it for you for a fee. So I did some more digging and finally found my states information website on it (Every state is different). Anyhow the next day I just made a call to my local county clerks office and was told it would only take 10 minutes and cost $10! I was excited. It was very simple and easy, just needed my name and address as well as my business address (can be your home address). Make sure you bring your drivers license. You have to get it notarized, but most clerks that work there are notaries and will do it for you. After that I paid her and she said I would probably have my certified papers tomorrow. Thats it, very easy and definitely not worth it to pay someone.

Overview:

DBA stands for “doing business as” and is an official registration of your business name. In some states, this is referred to as a “fictitious business name” or “assumed” name.

Our business filing experts can help you save time by filing a DBA application for you. We file your DBA with the required government agencies, and even publish it in most states. You’ll receive the approval and publication certificate for your records.

• Open a bank account and collect checks and payments under your business name
• Start advertising on business cards, signs and your website
• Present your business professionally by collecting checks and payments under your business name
• Discourage others from registering your name by officially using your DBA

DBA registration is necessary if your company conducts any business and/or collects money under a name other than your own name. Also, banks generally require a DBA registration in order to open a business bank account.

DBAs are not just for sole proprietors. If you are a corporation or LLC and want to do business under a name different than your corporate name, you may be required to file for a DBA(fictitious business name).

Have someone do it for you:

MyCorporation by Intuit Company also does DBA’s for you for a fee. They also have a nice free guide to registering your business name.

Click Here to Learn More About MyCorporation DBA Filing

Understanding Keywords

Keywords are the foundation of your search marketing account and help lead customers to your website. The keywords you select can have an impact on future traffic and sales.

Here are some guidelines for choosing keywords:

1.) Look for keywords on your own web site.
Think like a customer and pick the words that your customers might be searching on to find you.

2.) Use one of our keyword suggestion tools.
Click the “Add Keywords” link in your account for helpful suggestions. This feature provides three easy options that can help you generate keyword ideas: “Quick Add,” “Choose from List” and “Research Keywords.”

3.) Think about keywords that attract customers at each stage of the buying cycle.
The buying cycle has three major phases: research, shopping and purchase. The closer someone is to buying, the more specific your keywords should be. For example, customers may search for “guitar” during research, “Fender guitar” while shopping, and “American Standard Fender Telecaster guitar” when they’re ready to purchase.

4.) Pick a mix of broad and specific keywords.
Keep in mind that using more generic keywords, like “guitar,” can cause you to go through your budget and may not lead to sales as often, but can be helpful for driving traffic from prospective customers who are in the research phase. Selecting more specific keywords may deliver fewer clicks, but they may be more likely to result in sales.

I get asked all the time “How would I start a website?” So I decided to create a simple guide to setting up a website and choosing a domain and hosting. This is broken down into two things; hosting and a domain name. A good domain name is key and finding the right one can be difficult. Everyday hundreds of domains are registered and are taken. This means that good domain names are becoming harder to come by. You can either try your luck and register one that is not yet registered or buy a domain that is for sale or at auction.

Domains

If you want to register for a new domain, I recommend GoDaddy. You have probably already seen their commercials (Their famous Superbowl commercials).

If you are looking to purchase domains there are a few places I recommend.

Sedo - Buy and sell domains and websites with Sedo.com. Over 13 million domains and websites are for sale in our marketplace! Sedo’s services include domain parking, appraisals, and brokerage.

Pool.com - Pool.com offers new risk-free services including free domain backorders and searches of over 20000 deleted domains. There are no upfront fees. You pay only when domain is secured.

eBay - Great place to find cheap domains and recommend if you are starting out.

Hosting

When it comes to hosting you don’t want to cheap out and sign up for free hosting accounts. Free hosting sometimes place ads on your website and don’t allow you to have full control over your site. More important some affiliate networks will deny you for having your website on a free hosting account. If you are looking for reliable hosting I would stick with a few different hosting companies. I recommend you start with a shared hosting account (cheapest solution) which will be about $6/month or so depending on the plan you choose and your payment selection. The hosting companies below are in order of recommendation from highest to least.

Hostgator - Great service with 99.9% uptime. Excellent customer service and when you sign up you get a free $25 adwords coupon. You can find the latest coupons and promo codes for Hostgator at HostgatorPromoCodes.com.

Thinkhost - Quality earth friendly web hosting solutions from Thinkhost. Green FrontPage, PHP & MySQL. Web site hosting services all powered by solar and wind renewable energy! You can find the latest coupons and promo codes for Thinkhost at ThinkhostCouponCodes.com.

Lunarpages - Lunarpages offers Hosting with SQL database, JSP, ASP, and shopping cart. You can find the latest coupons and promo codes for Lunarpages at LunarpagesPromoCodes.com.

Getting accepted to CPA Affiliate Networks should not be a difficult task, but for newbies or someone starting out this can be hard if you don’t know how or what you need to do to get accepted. A lot of people send me messages for tips or “how to’s” for getting accepted by affiliate networks. Before I began I want to give you the number one tip…BE HONEST!

What you’ll need

1. Name
2. Email
3. Other contact details (Daytime & Evening Phone)
4. Current Address
5. Business Name
6. Payment details (Paypal or DD)
7. Tax Information / SS (Unless outside USA)
8. Website details including UB’s & niche
9. How you intend to send traffic (i.e. Email, PPC or SEO)
10. If Email you may be asked for the IP address of your mail server
11. Other affiliate networks you’re working with

Domain

You’ll be asked to provide the domain that you’re using to carry out any activities. Make sure the domain is active & isn’t a holding page. Also make sure that this is a reputable domain that has potential to provide leads/sales to the network.

Avoid putting adwords.com or anything similar as your domain because this probably won’t get accepted (depending on the Network, most are fine with PPC only affiliates as long as you specify). If you’re just doing SEM I wouldn’t bother putting any website down.

I submit a few domains as most of the networks like to see I can run various offers. This also gives you a better chance of approval. For example, say they only allow Health related websites and you submitted three different websites; sports, diets, ebooks. Well if the network only approves health related websites then they might no approve you for the sports and ebooks website but will approve you for the diet related website. If you have 10 websites or more, there is no need to list them all unless needed. Maybe list your top three. Later on once approved by the affiliate network you can discuss your other sites with your affiliate manager and they will help find you offers to promote.

Email Address

This is a vital part of the equation. It’s best to provide an email address that corresponds with the domain name you’ve submitted above, this helps to cement the fact that you’re legitimate with the network you’re applying to. Try to avoid free email accounts like hotmail, gmail or yahoo.

I have a lot of websites and keeping up with my emails from all my accounts is tough, so I forward all my emails to one account hosted from Google’s Gmail. I recommend gmail because of its vast amount of tools and easy interface. UPDATE: Google’s Gmail now allows you to send/reply emails from another email address. Learn more here.

Verification

Quite a large number of networks will now ask you to verify that you either own the website or ask you to call up & have a chat with them. This is a good opportunity to start up a conversation with an AM before you get accepted. This may give you some insights into how knowledgeable they are.

What not to do when accepted

1. Don’t lie about the website that you own
2. Don’t start trying to get a better payout on offers right away, wait until you start pushing volume
3. Don’t hassle the hell out of your AM, use them wisely
4. Avoid brand bidding, you’ll get booted fairly quickly for this
5. Be careful with incentivized traffic, some offers allow it but most don’t

How you should use your AM

Account Managers are a wealth of information at some Networks, the bottom line is that the better you do, the more money they make.

• Ask the right questions, don’t bust balls
• Which offers are converting well currently?
• Which landing pages are kicking ass? (most won’t tell you this but it doesn’t hurt to ask)

This should be all you need to really start rolling. After you apply you should get a response by email and hopefully someone will call within a day or two. If not, give them a call! This is really important - it shows that you are are keen on working with them, not just applying to anyone that’s out there. Take a look at my recommended best networks if you are looking for somewhere to start. They all have a good range of offers.

PART I:

COPY WRITING!!!

Master this skill and your sites really will convert like crazy because copy writing is the key to conversion.

Good copy + good offer = cash.

It really is that simple. In fact good copy + bad offer has still made many marketers a fortune. Plus it’s not as difficult to learn how to write good copy as you may think.

So I’m going to start posting my guide to great copy, piece by piece. I’ve studied copy writing for years and I love it, because it’s actually all about psychology as you’ll see.

So first of all, always remember that visitors to your site are usually in the market for what you’re selling. People will not just wander onto your site, they’ll arrive because:

• They’ve clicked on one of your ads
• They’ve read your article and clicked on your link
• They’ve read your comment on a forum and clicked on your link
• They’ve found your site in the search engines because they searched for
your site subject (keyword)
• They’ve clicked on some other form of advertising or self promotion

In other words, when they arrive at your site, all you have to do is convince them they’ve made the right decision. Now before you run off screaming, please understand, you don’t have to become a copywriting expert. But it would help if you understood the basics.

And I mean really help. Then as you go along you can build your knowledge and techniques.

Rejection free selling

Copy writing can best be described as “Salesmanship in print”. It’s persuasive writing that aims to get someone to do, something you want them to do. It could be to buy your product, sign up for your list or click on one of the links on your site.

Now don’t panic about the word “Salesmanship”, because unlike a normal salesman, sorry . . salesperson, you never have to face your prospect.

You don’t have to cope with the rejection attached to real world selling. Simply because the only way they can reject YOU is if they don’t buy your product, click on your link etc etc.

The good thing is, if people aren’t doing what you’re asking them to do you can simply change your copy. Maybe your headline, your benefits, your call to action.

You could simply change these, one at a time, and log the results. Did they make your conversions increase? Or decrease? Perhaps there was no change?

That’s the great thing about having a website, you can change things in minutes, watch the results, then keep or discard the changes. I’ve actually seen examples of changes to a sites copy, improving conversions by 400%, 500%, even up to 1000%!!

When you understand the main principles of copy writing, marketing becomes so much easier and so much more effective.

So what are the main principles? Well to start with you need to learn about headlines . . . and that’s where I carry on next time.

PART II:

I told you in Part 1 that I’d explain the main principles of Copywriting didn’t I? OK, well the first one is Headlines.

Some of you may have read this before. I posted on MoreNiche about the importance of headlines. So if it sounds familiar, you now know why.

The most important part of your copy is your headline. It draws people in to the rest of your page. (Or Ad) If someone finds your headline interesting, they are far more likely to then read your sub-head or opening paragraph.

And your opening paragraph should keep your visitors interested enough to read your second paragraph, and so on.

Your headline should GRAB your visitor’s attention.

“Hi, welcome to my site” just doesn’t cut it.

How about . . .

“New top secret Russian herbal weight loss discovery, will give you the firm, toned and sexy body you’ve always dreamed of OVERNIGHT . . . without leaving stretchmarks!!! ”

Tell me if I’m wrong but you would read the next paragraph . . . would you not?

Now I’ll agree, it’s an extreme example. Or is it? I’ve seen real headlines that are not that far removed from the above.

The best headlines are normally based around the benefits someone will have once they’ve used the product. In the example above the benefit is getting a sex symbol body without stretch marks. Simple enough?

This approach normally works because it’s emotive. And always remember, we buy based on emotions and rationalise that decision later, just to make us feel better.

Find the problems your visitors need to solve and offer the solution. It’s generally far easier to sell to a “hungry crowd” than hobby type markets.

The hungry crowd need it now, right now, TODAY!

That’s why your headline is so important.

We live in an OCEAN of marketing messages and yours has to stand out. One of my favourite copywriters is an Australian guy called Brett McFall. I always remember something he said about making yourself noticed:

“You have to stand out like a hippo in a herd of flamingos”

When people arrive at your site, you need a way to capture their interest. A good headline will do that. After all, the majority of people go online looking for information.

Have YOU got the information they’re looking for? Can you solve their problem? Make their life better? Make them richer? Make them slimmer? Tell them.

When you pick up a newspaper, how do you decide which articles to read? Headlines of course.

1. “Local woman finds pine cone washed up on beach.”

2. “Government to lower age of retirement to 40 and introduce £50,000
bonus, plus unlimited cash on demand system for pensioners.”

Which story would you read? Unless you’re a rare pinecone collector, I’m guessing number 2.

OK, so you are starting to understand why your headline is the most important part of your website copy, aren’t you? Good! Next time, I’ll cover the types of headline you can use and why they’re effective.

Written by Phil, who is a Project Manger at highprofits.com

In the success story of a website, both design and search engine optimization (SEO) play an important role as their work is vital for a successful online presence. While SEO helps in driving traffic to your site, the designing part helps in grabbing the attention of the users. Even though both are essential for the success of a website, yet they employ very different techniques and ideas.

Designing Part Any experienced web designing company, whether based in the UK, the USA or Asia, would keep one objective in common while designing a web site – and that is what is the purpose of the web site and who is it being made for. In keeping with Web 2.0 trends, a web site today needs to be designed keeping in view the users’ perspective. It is a user-driven economy on the web now and all web sites must conform to what users want. It is not enough to have a wonderfully appealing graphic design or some superb flash and animation work on the web site. The web site also needs to offer enough interesting inputs to the user through relevant information, interactive features, user-friendly web design and navigation structure.

SEO Part If the designer is responsible for making the website look appealing and be user-friendly, it is the job of the SEO experts to make its presence felt amongst its target audience. SEO helps in driving traffic to a website to increase its visibility. SEO does not only mean placing relevant keywords at the right place. It is an intricate and laborious process involving indexing of pages, directory submissions, link building, talking about the web site in relevant social forums and networking sites and so on.

Which one is more important?

The credit for overall popularity of a website can’t be given singularly to either designers or SEO experts. It is a joint venture and there must be a balance between the two. One cannot single-handedly establish the brand identity of an online business without the support of the other.

Suppose, the SEO experts have successfully driven traffic to your site, but what happens if the user doesn’t find the site up to the standard? Again, what’s the use of a good website design if its online presence is significantly low? The web designers must understand the basics of SEO and on the other hand an SEO expert must comprehend the importance of designing elements required for branding. It is essential for both to understand and meet the expectations of the web site’s target audience. Users want both search visibility and appealing design and this in turn helps the web site in establishing a strong online presence.

Source: Heroinez is an author over at WebOverDrive.com

To begin, I have to say that Search Engines are just like another area in this business (Link lists, TGPs, Pic Post, etc.), whatever area you choose, you have to learn as much as you can about it and then keep trying until you master it. So if you are completely new to Search Engines and don’t know nothing about the way they work, I recommend you to go to Search Engine Watch and read every article explaining how Search Engines work. But after reading about Search Engines you may be a little insecure about what are the right keywords to use.

To find all the related keywords to your main keyword, go to Google and do a search. You will get a list of all the keywords related to the word or words you wrote. At the results page you will see that the number on the left sorts the terms returned from higher to lower. Those are the number of times a search for that specific keyword was done on Google Search. Now you have a list of terms related to your main keyword, so how can you choose the best ones for you? If you are a newbie to Search Engines, you should try to stay away from the top terms and go down to the less searched terms, why? Because those top terms are searched a lot of times and you will find a lot of competition (real good competition) if you try to create pages with good ranking for them.

As a newbie to Search Engines you need to feel like you are having success in what you are doing or you may get disappointed and give up.

If you go for the less searched keywords you have more chances to get good rankings, very good rankings and your confidence will grow up and you will stay working with SEs.

Another tip is that you should select the keywords with at least three words in it because is easier to get good rankings with larger phrases than with short phrases, for example, to get a good ranking for one word: “affiliate” takes a lot of experience while getting good rankings for “mastering affiliate marketing” is much easier. It is true that larger terms get fewer searches but we are trying to balance some hits with good rankings while you build confidence in what you are doing.

The last tip is: it is easier if you go with less general terms. I mean, going for “affiliate” related terms is going to take more hard work than going for “unmastered affiliate” related terms. If you search in Yahoo for “affiliate” you will find 150,000 results while a search for “unmastered affiliate” returns about 12,500 results. The less competition you will have, the easier for you.

Source: Web O is an author over at WebOverDrive.com

Question:

What is incentivization and why shouldn’t I do it?

Answer:

Incentivization is when you encourage a visitor to fill in a form or click on a link by offering them a reward or a prize.

The reason that incentivization is discouraged in some instances is because incentivized leads often gives the advertiser customers who are not interested in the product or service they have to offer. Incentivization also give advertisers a false sense of the level of interest in their product as incentivized leads may not be interested in acquiring the product or service at all.

There are instances where incentivization is acceptable especially in certain sale campaigns. In the case where a website owner wants to reward a customer for purchasing a product through their website, that incentivization is acceptable in the sense that the customer actually purchased the product. And giving a prize or reward in this case could be seen as saying thank for using my website to make your purchase.