PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It is a method of paying for advertising on the Internet search engines.
Users who are searching for the products/services you are selling are in a receptive mode and most likely to convert to paying customers.
How does PPC work?
Taking Google search engine as an example, when a user is searching for "widgets", your PPC ads will be displayed as part of the search engine results. Depending on how compelling your ad copy is, a user can decide to click on the ad for more information.
Upon clicking on your ad, the user is redirected to your website and your account is charged a fee per the click on the ad. The most compelling aspect of PPC advertising is - you only pay per clicks. Or in other words, you only pay for qualified traffic delivered to your website. Rates range anywhere between $0.10 per click to $5 per click, depending on how competitive the market is.
I see several ads listed. Who decides which ads show up first?
Advertisers bid on keywords that their target market (people they think would be interested in their offer) would type in the search bar when they are looking for their type of product or service.
For example, if you sell red widgets, you would bid on the keyword red widgets, hoping a user would type those words in the search bar, see the ad, click on it and buy.
Who are the top players in the PPC market?
Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN AdCenter are considered the tier-1 search engines in the PPC market place. Tier 2 players include Ask, Kanoodle and several other smaller players.
Google, the most popular search engine, controls the largest portion of the market. If you're just starting out, we recommend you focus all efforts on Google AdWords and ignore the other search engines, at least initially.
How do I maximize my earnings from PPC?
1) Relevance is key:
The more time you spend on crafting your keywords to be as relevant to your web site as possible and creating a relevant focused landing page, the higher your conversion rates are going to be.
If you attempt to use a lot of broad keywords, you’re probably going to be disappointed at the performance of your campaign. Google rewards publishers for a high CTR (Click Through Rate). This means having keywords that are extremely relevant to your web site will ultimately lower the price per click you have to pay.
2) Long-tail vs. Short-tail:
If you're selling sofas online, trying to compete on the keyword "sofa" is going to be rather expensive. With thousands of other advertisers competing for the keyword "sofa", you will have to pay top dollars to get listed on the first sponsored results whenever users are searching for sofa.
This approach of going for the most popular keyword is considered "short tail". Most advertisers cannot afford to compete in this market and if you try going for the most popular keywords in your industry you will soon find you're paying more money than the sales you're bringing in. Since branding (losing money to build a brand) is typically not an objective during early stages, use a company that understands the power of "long tail".
Long tail is the art of identifying keyword misspellings, semantically related keywords and niche keyword with a high search volume and low competition.
For example: 687 users are searching for "sofa" every day. 79 advertisers are competing for this keyword. Yet, the keyword "sleeper sofa" is also very popular with 148 searches per day, with only 8 advertisers competing for it. Go after "sleeper sofa" (assuming you're in the business of selling sleeper sofas) and you'll experience lower costs per acquisition (CPA) of new customers.
3) Mask all affiliate and tracking links:
If you are driving traffic to a landing page with affiliate links or use special dynamic codes in your URL (mydomain.com/here.php?id=123), make sure you mask affiliate links.
Users don't like clicking on links that appear to be tracking the sale and Google may penalize you with a higher bid price.
4) Write strong ads:
Each one of your ads should have strong copy. You should write in manner that gives users a call to action. The quality of your ad copy can make or break a campaign.
After the selection of keywords, ad copy is the most important skill to master. SoftwareProjects typically spends a few hours for the creation of a single ad creative (headline + two lines of text). Google helps by automatically serving the ad creatives with the highest CTR (Click Through Ratio), however as is the case with all other advertising channels - it is important to test, test and retest.
5) Opt for Search Engine Results Only:
If the PPC engine you are using has a content network, turn it off! Google allows it and Yahoo allows it.
For most industries, the content network delivers lower conversion rates compared to the search network. The best way to ensure that you get the most targeted traffic for your investment is by only displaying your ads on search engine result pages.
By: Rhonda Wall
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Adsense And Autoblogger Pro. Low Maintenance PPC Income?
Adsense is hot, no doubt about it. So hot in fact that many people are jumping on the bandwagon with the hopes of getting rich without any clue to what they are getting into. Take a quick second and do a search on EBAY for Adsense sites and you’ll see what I mean. The titles of most of these auctions are absolutely ridiculous…. “Make ten thousand dollars a month if you buy a site from me!!!” The list of these cookie cutter Adsense sites goes on and on and on. But can you really make any money by plopping down $50 bucks on one of these ready made sites?
Sadly, the answer in most cases is no.
First of all, if the person that sold you the site was really making hundreds or thousands of dollars a month from ‘similar Adsense sites’ do you really think he or she would be selling them on EBAY for $30??? Probably not. Most likely the seller in these cases is just a web designer shooting out as many cheap websites as they can, trying to cash in on the craze. They build the site, you buy it, and the relationship ends there. You now own a website that has zero traffic. Which translates to zero money. And to make it worse, the person you just bought the site from will most likely relist an exact duplicate the day after your transaction is completed. Causing your site to become even more worthless in the eyes of the search engines.
So what is a person to do that really wants to start an Adsense site business?
Well, there are really two paths that you can choose at this point. If you have the knowledge to build and promote your own website or websites then obviously this is the route you should take. But the majority of the people jumping in on the Adsense craze today are people that have zero knowledge in these areas, so where should they start?
Start with a basic knowledge of what it takes for a site to be successful with surfers and the search engines. By now you’ve certainly heard the phrase ‘Content is KING’. And it’s true. So when considering building or purchasing your first website you should take a look at the content and make a plan to keep the site fresh content wise, for both surfers and search engines. This means that you’re going to probably have to update your site from time to time. But how do you do this if you have no programming skills or html knowledge?
By far, the best method I’ve found to date is by using the new AutoBlogger Pro (http://www.autobloggerpro.com/ ) script with Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org) What this script does is absolutely fantastic for those that don’t want to spend all of their time adding to their new website. The concept is pretty simple. It’s a Wordpress blog automatically fed and updated by RSS feeds and unique content posted by the owner of the site. Literally, all of your updates to the site are done by the click of one button. No html knowledge? That’s ok, Autoblogger Pro has got you covered. Once the site is configured, you simply login once a day or once a week and click one button. It in turn pulls in all kinds of new, fresh content, and then blends it smoothly into your site. Here’s an example of an ABP site that I setup for one of my customers: http://www.blogs.pn (You can also get information on where to purchase a site like this there)
The best feature is that you choose the content that feeds your site. It completely optimizes your content for the search engines, allowing you to also focus on the highest paying keywords in Adsense. And it’s going to be completely unique, not at all like the cookie cutter sites mentioned in the first part of this article.
No longer do you have to spend hours each week updating and adding to your content. You are now free to spend all of your time where it should be spent. Promoting. Driving traffic to your website. Which is my favorite subject to discuss. However there’s just too much to cover on website promotion to put into an article or two. That’s why I have setup a forum dedicated to ethical website promotion. If you would like to learn more on this topic, please feel free to visit us and jump right in: http://www.affiliatewebdesign.com
By: Chuck Crawford
Sadly, the answer in most cases is no.
First of all, if the person that sold you the site was really making hundreds or thousands of dollars a month from ‘similar Adsense sites’ do you really think he or she would be selling them on EBAY for $30??? Probably not. Most likely the seller in these cases is just a web designer shooting out as many cheap websites as they can, trying to cash in on the craze. They build the site, you buy it, and the relationship ends there. You now own a website that has zero traffic. Which translates to zero money. And to make it worse, the person you just bought the site from will most likely relist an exact duplicate the day after your transaction is completed. Causing your site to become even more worthless in the eyes of the search engines.
So what is a person to do that really wants to start an Adsense site business?
Well, there are really two paths that you can choose at this point. If you have the knowledge to build and promote your own website or websites then obviously this is the route you should take. But the majority of the people jumping in on the Adsense craze today are people that have zero knowledge in these areas, so where should they start?
Start with a basic knowledge of what it takes for a site to be successful with surfers and the search engines. By now you’ve certainly heard the phrase ‘Content is KING’. And it’s true. So when considering building or purchasing your first website you should take a look at the content and make a plan to keep the site fresh content wise, for both surfers and search engines. This means that you’re going to probably have to update your site from time to time. But how do you do this if you have no programming skills or html knowledge?
By far, the best method I’ve found to date is by using the new AutoBlogger Pro (http://www.autobloggerpro.com/ ) script with Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org) What this script does is absolutely fantastic for those that don’t want to spend all of their time adding to their new website. The concept is pretty simple. It’s a Wordpress blog automatically fed and updated by RSS feeds and unique content posted by the owner of the site. Literally, all of your updates to the site are done by the click of one button. No html knowledge? That’s ok, Autoblogger Pro has got you covered. Once the site is configured, you simply login once a day or once a week and click one button. It in turn pulls in all kinds of new, fresh content, and then blends it smoothly into your site. Here’s an example of an ABP site that I setup for one of my customers: http://www.blogs.pn (You can also get information on where to purchase a site like this there)
The best feature is that you choose the content that feeds your site. It completely optimizes your content for the search engines, allowing you to also focus on the highest paying keywords in Adsense. And it’s going to be completely unique, not at all like the cookie cutter sites mentioned in the first part of this article.
No longer do you have to spend hours each week updating and adding to your content. You are now free to spend all of your time where it should be spent. Promoting. Driving traffic to your website. Which is my favorite subject to discuss. However there’s just too much to cover on website promotion to put into an article or two. That’s why I have setup a forum dedicated to ethical website promotion. If you would like to learn more on this topic, please feel free to visit us and jump right in: http://www.affiliatewebdesign.com
By: Chuck Crawford
An Adsense - Yahoo Publisher Network Comparison
As more and more people are hosting their own webpage or pages, advertisers have learned how to make contact with the audiences who visit the pages. And not just randomly either; there are now advertising programs that target ads specifically to the site that the person is viewing. They are called contextual advertising programs because they search through the context and content of a page and identify keywords. They return ads to that page that the program believes would be relevant and interesting to the viewer. For example, if you are visiting a website on low fat recipes, you might find ads about low fat products or weight loss products.
Website owners aren’t the only ones using this form of advertising to generate revenue. You’ll see these ads on search engine pages themselves. For example, on Google, the ads appear in a column on the right hand side of the results page. The keywords you enter in the search box are used to target ads to you. Advertisers are hoping that the short ad they supply will lure you to their site, where hopefully you’ll either order their product or use their service.
Website owners can now earn money by allowing contextual advertisers to place ads on their webpages. The more people visit and click the ads, the more money the advertisers will pay to the website owner. Many website owners make a considerable stream of income from these programs. But the ads have to be well targeted in order to get people to click. Which is why right now there is so much excitement about a new contextual advertising program being tested and prepared for the market. Everyone out there making money on contextual advertising is waiting to see if the Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) product will return better results than the leading Google Adsense product.
At the moment, YPN is still in beta testing. A group of users were invited to trial the product and the reviews on blogs and postings all over the web are somewhat consistent on one aspect. As of now, it seems that YPN is not returning ads that are as relevant as the ones that Adsense users are finding. For example, one blogger reported that on a website on PHP programming, YPN returned ads for a florist and for a phone service provider. The blogger couldn’t understand what words the YPN program picked up for the florist. But it was the word ‘hello’ that apparently signaled the ads regarding the phone service.
Additionally, some users have complained that YPN doesn’t seem to update earnings and visitor information as often as Adsense. So website owners have to wait to learn if changes they have made have actually impacted the visitors that they get. However, although neither program will release payment schemes until you register as a user, it seems that YPN is paying more per click than Adsense. But the feeling is that payments will be made more appealing long enough to get website owners to switch from Adsense to YPN, but then prices will even out. Some argue that in the long run it won’t matter if YPN pays more if they can’t improve their ad relevancy because they won’t get the number of clicks from visitors to see a real difference in their earnings.
As YPN is being tested, they are getting opinions and feedback from the participants. So in time, the service may be improved. However, competition for Adsense is a healthy thing. It will force both companies to continually strive to improve their service and offerings so that webmasters can continue to benefit from a healthy stream of income in the future.
By: Richard Warren
Website owners aren’t the only ones using this form of advertising to generate revenue. You’ll see these ads on search engine pages themselves. For example, on Google, the ads appear in a column on the right hand side of the results page. The keywords you enter in the search box are used to target ads to you. Advertisers are hoping that the short ad they supply will lure you to their site, where hopefully you’ll either order their product or use their service.
Website owners can now earn money by allowing contextual advertisers to place ads on their webpages. The more people visit and click the ads, the more money the advertisers will pay to the website owner. Many website owners make a considerable stream of income from these programs. But the ads have to be well targeted in order to get people to click. Which is why right now there is so much excitement about a new contextual advertising program being tested and prepared for the market. Everyone out there making money on contextual advertising is waiting to see if the Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) product will return better results than the leading Google Adsense product.
At the moment, YPN is still in beta testing. A group of users were invited to trial the product and the reviews on blogs and postings all over the web are somewhat consistent on one aspect. As of now, it seems that YPN is not returning ads that are as relevant as the ones that Adsense users are finding. For example, one blogger reported that on a website on PHP programming, YPN returned ads for a florist and for a phone service provider. The blogger couldn’t understand what words the YPN program picked up for the florist. But it was the word ‘hello’ that apparently signaled the ads regarding the phone service.
Additionally, some users have complained that YPN doesn’t seem to update earnings and visitor information as often as Adsense. So website owners have to wait to learn if changes they have made have actually impacted the visitors that they get. However, although neither program will release payment schemes until you register as a user, it seems that YPN is paying more per click than Adsense. But the feeling is that payments will be made more appealing long enough to get website owners to switch from Adsense to YPN, but then prices will even out. Some argue that in the long run it won’t matter if YPN pays more if they can’t improve their ad relevancy because they won’t get the number of clicks from visitors to see a real difference in their earnings.
As YPN is being tested, they are getting opinions and feedback from the participants. So in time, the service may be improved. However, competition for Adsense is a healthy thing. It will force both companies to continually strive to improve their service and offerings so that webmasters can continue to benefit from a healthy stream of income in the future.
By: Richard Warren
Money Making Program Review: PPC Formula Will Skyrocket Your PPC Earnings
Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing has long been a popular way of both generating traffic to websites/blogs as well as generating income through having visitors either purchase your affiliate products or enter their details into a Cost Per Action program. The concept of PPC marketing seems simple enough - purchase some keywords in the major search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN, and get your advertisement in front of millions of people searching every day. Whilst it seems simple enough, the reality is its anything but simple and thousands of people who try it quickly find that they are paying more for their ads than they are making back in commissions.
However, there are those that are making a lot of money through PPC marketing, and I mean a LOT of money. Some of the experts claim commissions in the six figure range on a weekly or even daily basis. These are the experts that have perfected systems of PPC marketing that are setting their ads above the rest. These are the experts that you need to learn from and replicate what they do in order to make sure that you become part of the 20% that are making 80% of the profits.
One of the best known PPC marketing experts is a guy by the name of Gauher Chaudry. Gauher has been involved in PPC marketing for a number of years and in that time, he has learned a lot and perfected a system of PPC marketing that has him earning copious amounts of profit. Right now, using his formula, he is aiming to earn $US1million in one month and he is well on the way of doing that.
Gauher has put together a comprehensive training program for anyone wanting to learn all about how he makes his millions of dollars through PPC. The program is called PPC Formula and you get everything you need to know and use in order to perfect your PPC marketing and have you dominating the major search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. I signed up for Gauher’s program not too long ago and I was very impressed by what you receive which includes workbooks, CD Rom tutorials, videos and software that which teach you everything from woah to go in order to become a PPC expert. Gauher also runs a support forum and I have found him to be very responsive to my questions even if I just email him directly.
He’s also the kind of guy that has his head screwed on straight, and he treasures his time with his family and encourages all to do the same. This is pretty unique from an internet marketer - many of the so-called experts will do anything to prise dollars away from you. I’ve learned a great deal for his course and I am still learning. There are many success stories found in his forums and the community that is there is very open to helping you and discussing how you are going.
If you’re interested in perfecting your PPC skills and generating huge amounts of commissions, then I definitely recommend you check PPC Formula out for yourself. The initial price might seem high, but let me assure you what you get is worth so much more.
By: Colin Lim
However, there are those that are making a lot of money through PPC marketing, and I mean a LOT of money. Some of the experts claim commissions in the six figure range on a weekly or even daily basis. These are the experts that have perfected systems of PPC marketing that are setting their ads above the rest. These are the experts that you need to learn from and replicate what they do in order to make sure that you become part of the 20% that are making 80% of the profits.
One of the best known PPC marketing experts is a guy by the name of Gauher Chaudry. Gauher has been involved in PPC marketing for a number of years and in that time, he has learned a lot and perfected a system of PPC marketing that has him earning copious amounts of profit. Right now, using his formula, he is aiming to earn $US1million in one month and he is well on the way of doing that.
Gauher has put together a comprehensive training program for anyone wanting to learn all about how he makes his millions of dollars through PPC. The program is called PPC Formula and you get everything you need to know and use in order to perfect your PPC marketing and have you dominating the major search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. I signed up for Gauher’s program not too long ago and I was very impressed by what you receive which includes workbooks, CD Rom tutorials, videos and software that which teach you everything from woah to go in order to become a PPC expert. Gauher also runs a support forum and I have found him to be very responsive to my questions even if I just email him directly.
He’s also the kind of guy that has his head screwed on straight, and he treasures his time with his family and encourages all to do the same. This is pretty unique from an internet marketer - many of the so-called experts will do anything to prise dollars away from you. I’ve learned a great deal for his course and I am still learning. There are many success stories found in his forums and the community that is there is very open to helping you and discussing how you are going.
If you’re interested in perfecting your PPC skills and generating huge amounts of commissions, then I definitely recommend you check PPC Formula out for yourself. The initial price might seem high, but let me assure you what you get is worth so much more.
By: Colin Lim
Adsense Or Yahoo Publisher?
Lately many of my customers have been asking me this question:
"Which program is better? Adsense or Yahoo Publisher?"
It sounds simple, but the answer is not. The reason being is that both programs work well, but both also have different places when considering whether or not to use them for a specific website.
Here's why.
Adsense has been around for a while now, and at the moment has the lion's share of the market in the PPC (Pay Per Click) game. But anyone who has been promoting them on their websites will tell you that the payouts have also gotten gradually smaller as time has gone on. Why? Well it's easy, they are still the best game in town, so they aren't worried about losing their publishers to another PPC.
But then came Yahoo Publisher. Which unless you've been living under a rock for the past ten years, you already know the name, and know how big that company is. And with the purchase of Overture, Yahoo is coming into the game well equipped and ready for a fight.
So, what's the difference between the two?
Here is what I've been able to learn from my own websites. Yahoo, overall, is paying more per click then Adsense. But before you jump from this article and start changing your code, read on a bit more.
Yahoo Publisher seems to be paying more then Adsense on similar content, BUT... Their ads are not nearly as contextually targeted as Adsense. So this can present a problem for website owners. For example, if you have a website that it's primary topic is 'HOME MORTGAGES', Adsense will display ads that only link to mortgage sites. But that's not true with Yahoo Publisher. Yahoo Publisher might display some mortgage ads, but also might display a Payday Loan ad (BTW if you need a payday loan, check out this page http://www.thegiftedone.com ), Vonage ads (Vonage must pay them some big money, as they seem to be the default when the script doesn't know what to do), or some other ad that does not relate to the content of your website.
How do you choose which program is right for your site? This depends on the site itself and the type of surfers that frequent it. If you have a site that is highly targeted for a certain keyword, then I would suggest you stay with Adsense. This will keep the ads focused and targeted to your customers, presenting them with content that they will click. If they came to read about cooking recipes, they probably won’t click the Vonage ad. Here’s an example of a content targeted website: http://voip.magicanswers.com
However, if your site is more of a surfer hangout, where people go when they are bored, or if your site covers a multitude of topics, then you might be better off loading it up with Yahoo Publisher ads. This type of surfer is more likely to click an ad that’s off topic, which in turn would pay you better.
At this point what it comes down to is the click thru ratio. If monitored closely, you can determine what your surfers like and what they don’t like. What they click and what they don’t click. If one program is not performing well for you, then try the other.
I’m sure that as time goes on, Yahoo Publisher will become more targeted, and surely will be more competitive. With Google’s Adsense as an adversary they have quite a fight on their hands. My advice to you is this. If you have one website, then optimize your PPC links for YOUR website surfers. If you have many, optimize each site accordingly, but do take the time to test each program. Find out which one will pay you more. Whether you own a giant corporation with hundreds of websites, or a home based business branching out to the internet, the bottom line is always the bottom line. Which comes down to the paycheck. A simple test might lead you to more money, which is always the goal.
By: Chuck Crawford
"Which program is better? Adsense or Yahoo Publisher?"
It sounds simple, but the answer is not. The reason being is that both programs work well, but both also have different places when considering whether or not to use them for a specific website.
Here's why.
Adsense has been around for a while now, and at the moment has the lion's share of the market in the PPC (Pay Per Click) game. But anyone who has been promoting them on their websites will tell you that the payouts have also gotten gradually smaller as time has gone on. Why? Well it's easy, they are still the best game in town, so they aren't worried about losing their publishers to another PPC.
But then came Yahoo Publisher. Which unless you've been living under a rock for the past ten years, you already know the name, and know how big that company is. And with the purchase of Overture, Yahoo is coming into the game well equipped and ready for a fight.
So, what's the difference between the two?
Here is what I've been able to learn from my own websites. Yahoo, overall, is paying more per click then Adsense. But before you jump from this article and start changing your code, read on a bit more.
Yahoo Publisher seems to be paying more then Adsense on similar content, BUT... Their ads are not nearly as contextually targeted as Adsense. So this can present a problem for website owners. For example, if you have a website that it's primary topic is 'HOME MORTGAGES', Adsense will display ads that only link to mortgage sites. But that's not true with Yahoo Publisher. Yahoo Publisher might display some mortgage ads, but also might display a Payday Loan ad (BTW if you need a payday loan, check out this page http://www.thegiftedone.com ), Vonage ads (Vonage must pay them some big money, as they seem to be the default when the script doesn't know what to do), or some other ad that does not relate to the content of your website.
How do you choose which program is right for your site? This depends on the site itself and the type of surfers that frequent it. If you have a site that is highly targeted for a certain keyword, then I would suggest you stay with Adsense. This will keep the ads focused and targeted to your customers, presenting them with content that they will click. If they came to read about cooking recipes, they probably won’t click the Vonage ad. Here’s an example of a content targeted website: http://voip.magicanswers.com
However, if your site is more of a surfer hangout, where people go when they are bored, or if your site covers a multitude of topics, then you might be better off loading it up with Yahoo Publisher ads. This type of surfer is more likely to click an ad that’s off topic, which in turn would pay you better.
At this point what it comes down to is the click thru ratio. If monitored closely, you can determine what your surfers like and what they don’t like. What they click and what they don’t click. If one program is not performing well for you, then try the other.
I’m sure that as time goes on, Yahoo Publisher will become more targeted, and surely will be more competitive. With Google’s Adsense as an adversary they have quite a fight on their hands. My advice to you is this. If you have one website, then optimize your PPC links for YOUR website surfers. If you have many, optimize each site accordingly, but do take the time to test each program. Find out which one will pay you more. Whether you own a giant corporation with hundreds of websites, or a home based business branching out to the internet, the bottom line is always the bottom line. Which comes down to the paycheck. A simple test might lead you to more money, which is always the goal.
By: Chuck Crawford
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