Pay Per Click Marketing and Swimming
By admin | November 14, 2008
I am on holiday in the Canary isles at the moment.The weather here makes a change from the UK where there were high winds and cold draughts when I left. Its great to have a bit of winter sun. Sure if you live in California,you must be used to ok weather most of the year but for those of us shivering in Britain, a trip to warmer climes is a must on the run up to xmas!
Before I left, I had been experimenting with PPC (pay per click) on one of my other blogs. Now, that is a steep learning curve but if you are sending money, it does tend to concentrate your mind. I wish I had tried it earlier, because I have learned a lot over the past few weeks.I havent made any money, in fact quite the reverse but I am confident that if i plug away at it, it will start to work. There are some many facets to it,and youhave to be really careful not to let it run away with itself or it can get very expensive. More on that in later posts.
I dont know if you are thinking of blogging and monetizing your blog long term but it seems that is where money can be made and I intend to find out. Will report back on this in later blogs. Off to the pool now!
til later
Jane
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Monetize your Blog
By admin | November 12, 2008
I gave you some tips on how to make money from your blog a couple of days ago so here’s a few more
1. Hyperlink Keywords
This is a neat way of making some affiiate income and works in a similar way to banners. If you hyperlink a keyword or phrase within your blog post, to an affiliate page or sales letter, where a product is being promoted, then you may make some sales that way. If you can upload pictures and hyperlink those back to the product as well.Its more technical but as you learn more you will find it possible to do this.
Have a look at Clickbank or Commission Junction for affiliate products
2. Sell Advertising Space
This is a possibility if you have an established blog with good volumes of traffic but for the new blogger, its not going to be possible. It is something to look at when you get into that position though. This leads me on to number
3 Build a list
If you add an opt in or sign up form onto your pages in your blog, you can capture email names and addresses. You must give good content in return for that though. I have a short email course and will be giving a free ebook to my subscribers. My intention is to give videos, newsletters and as much free iinformation as I can, without breaching copyright!
Opt in pages can be set up though your autoresponder (again more on that later and it will be something I cover in my free ebook).They capture the email name and address and that list can be the start of a beautiful relationship. My intention is to build a list of like minded people,give them as much info as possible and if I find or build products that they might like, then all the better. The point of building a list is to have a targeted audience that might be willing to look at the products you recommend and buy them!
Anyway, a list is important. I would love you to join mine,have a look to the right of this page, or there is a separate page, called freebies that you might want to have a look at.
Til next time
Jane
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2 Top Tips for Making Money with Your Blog
By admin | November 10, 2008
You may have already set up your blog or thinking of starting one.Either way, these tips might help you concentrate on where you might make soem money. I havent got arounf to doing it on thsi blog, but on my other blog, I have found that a combination of these has helped. I havent used them on this blog because they do tend to clutter it and make it look more “markety” if there is such a word. I am trying to keep this blog tidy and its more an information blog as such.
So what can you look at?
Creating blog revenue is simply a matter of properly setting up your blog with various income producing products and programs, and then getting as many new and repeat visitors as possible to view your pages on a consistent basis.
So here are a couple of ways for you to begin generating a blog revenue.
1. Google Adsense is the most obvious way of making money. You will need to apply to Google for it first, just go to Google,click on the advertising programs link and follow the instructions. If you are using Wordpress, you can get plug-ins (more on this later) that will add adsense to a variety of locations on your blog,header, footer sidebars etc.
Adsense is the corollary to adwords. If someone clicks on an ad in your blog, then you will get a few cents or even dollars depending on the niche. It can mount up
2 Banners
These are are great way of adding colour to your blog, but it can make it look cluttered so be circumspect. Banners are associated with various affiliate programmes and are free. Ensure that the affiliate programme fits in with your blog niche. No point having a blog about guitars and having banners advertising gardening!
You join the affiilate programme, see clickbank for these, and get an ID code which is inserted in the banners you are given.When someone clicks on the banner,then buys the product, you get a commission.
Of the 2, there is only the one step in the adsense process,someone clicks,you get money. With banners they have to purchase the product as well and that is a harder process but the rewards can be greater.
More tips next time
Jane
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Wordpress Blogs
By admin | November 8, 2008
If you are intested in starting to blog, there are a number of potential software programmes available,most of them are free but they all have different features that you may find more suitable to you personally. This is a Wordpress blog, but you can also look at blogger.com. Do a little research.and find which might suit you.
I am going to talk about Wordpress because its the only programme I have used and I wont pretend that I am using it to its full potential.
There are a couple of things I would mention.The first is the themes,ie the look of the blog.There are tons of themes available in wordpress and once you have taught yourself how to upload Wordpress,(more of that in a later blog) its easy to change the themes around instantly so you can decide what looks best for you.
The second is the use of catagories. I dont use many but I am going to increase them to make it easier to navigate around the blog both for me and you!
Let’s say the topic of your site is pay per click tips. You could create a Category for Adwords one for keyword hints and one for optimising click through rates for example.
Now when you add posts to your blog, you can choose which of your categories your post belongs to. Now your blog will archive your past posts not only by their month and date, but also by category. These are apparently very serach engine friendly and by using the Category feature, you will eventually have hundreds of pages on your site with links to those categories .All those backlinks to those keywords can result in much higher search rankings.
You can also set up Wordpress to ping all the RSS and blog feed directories every time you make a post. I will be posting about this too later but it is a very powerful feature if you want your blog to get traffic . On top of that, you’ll be quickly developing backlinks to your blog almost automatically.
Anyway have a look at wordpress. I think its a great way to get up and running pretty quick with a blog.You dont need a domain name or hosting but I would suggest that you do get those, the days of doing it all free are well gone I think and there is evidence that Google doesnt really consider those blogs without a domain name.
I will be posting more about wordpress and I am working on a free e book that subscribers to my list will get in the next couple of months.This wll give you a step by step guide on getting a blog up, getting domain names, hosting, uploading files (which has given me headaches until I got to grips with it) In the meantime there is a short e course that you will find useful if you are starting out. Just get on my list and I will send it to you. This will give you some useful pointers that I wish I had had a few months ago.
Til next time
Jane
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What is a Blog?
By admin | November 7, 2008
I have written about blogging and taking action over the last couple of days, but what is a blog in reality? You may not even know what one is. If I am speaking to the converted,many apologies but I realised yesterday that not everyone knows what a blog is. There is a theory that as you learn things, you forget how to relate to the basics ( something a lot of the gurus are guilty of in my humble opinion) and I have just thought how true that is. I have rattled on about taking action, getting a blog up etc and lost sight of the fact that you might not even know what a blog is. I was speaking to a friend who is in her mid 30s, a lawyer so not exactly bright but even so I would have thought she knew what a blog was but she didnt!
A blog is simply a form of website. There are still many people who frequent blogs without realising it. Its not just any old website though, blogs are different but how?
1 Content. Blogs are usually updated more often than the traditonal website, some of them many times a day. In theory, this keeps people coming back more often. Content is normally arranged in reverse chronological order, with the most recent post at the top, the older ones at the bottom and the older ones still in archives.
2 Conversation. You will see that the style of a blog is different from other types of websites. They usually have a more conversational tone and a community feel. Whilst they provide information,they also want to communicate direectly with their readers and get replies in the form of comments (not that I get many,something I am working on,please feel free!) Blogs also communicate with each other and attract replies and responses
3 Syndication. Blogs can be read through a browser and in the form of a feed. All recent articles can be read by those people who have the appropriate software without visiting the site. I havent set this up on this site because I would like to think that people are visiting. Makes me feel less lonely!!
The best way to see what blogs are is to visit a few. If you google your chosen subject and add blog to the search term, you will turn up a few at least. See how they look and feel,what appeals to you, what sort of content they have and how often they are updated. Visit a few,read them regularly and you will start to appreciate what they are, and how they differ in style and approach.
Til next time
jane
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Where do You Start, if You Want to Blog?
By admin | November 6, 2008
Yesterday I wrote about how you should take action and stop reading all the time! I spent 6 months worrying about blogging before I even made a start then I had to read all over again because I had forgotten most of it! if you have a photographic memory, then I am sure you will be fine, but if like us lesser mortals, you forget what you have read within minutes of reading it, you are probably better acting on what youhave read before you move onto the next step.
In the first stages then, consider what you know and like. If you are thinking you might want to make money from your blog then thats fine, but my advice would be get up an running with something you want to write about. It might not be the greatest money spinner in the world but you can treat it as your learning school. You may think about monetising it but in reality treat it as a method of learning the ropes. If its somehting you enjoy writing about and have some knowledge, then at least in the short term, you can apply your writings in an enjoyable way and teach yourself the finer points as you go along.
My advice would be to learn how to get a blog up, you can do this through wordpress or one of the other blogging platforms and read as you go along, teaching yourself the ins and outs. Concentrate on one aspect at a time. Learn how to post, then do it. Learn how to schedule a post, then do it.
As you get more familiar with the workings of a blog, you will then have to think about things like traffic, search engine optimisation and the like and apply them. The worst thing you can do though is to read ahead without actually doing anything. If you do that, you will simply waste time. If you don’t have a blog, there is no point learning about keywords, learn about that once you have the blog up. Then apply it. If you do it this way, you will find you save much time and probably expense.
Taking action and get a blog up today.Then learn how to fine tune. It may not be a blog that you continue with but you can learn much by having it as a testing site.
Til next time
jane
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Starting Blogging
By admin | November 5, 2008
I have had this blog for a few months now and I am learning all the time. Yesterday, I was sorting out some HTML in the “backoffice” something I wouldnt have been able to do, or even know about 3 months ago. I just found what Iwas looking for by doing a google search, copied and pasted and bingo. I think it worked but time will tell!
Anyway why did I start blogging? I’m not entirely sure why I did now. Its been hard work but I do enjoy it. If you are thinking of starting a blog, what will you do? Have you got any ideas on where you might go with it? I think the best piece of advice I could give is to just do it. There is a load of information out there about, finding a niche, domain names etc and they are very important but if you are just feeling your way,just testing the water, why don’t you blog about something you enjoy? Even if there might not be a market for it, even if you dont make any money in the first weeks, if you are taking action, then you will be learning on the job.
I think some of my problems and frustrations in starting up were caused by trying to get perfection. I thought, I needed to find a market, get all those keywords, think of domain names, learn about adwords and list building. I ws worrying about how I would get traffic to my site and I hadn’t even got one!
There is so much information out there, so much to buy ( and a lot of it is c**p) you can quite easily get sucked in, I know I was. I have spent thousands of pounds and I am only just scratching the surface now. The main reason I find myself in that position is simply because I didnt take action.
So, If I were you, thinking of starting out now and wondering about the best way to do it, dont think too much, there will be plenty of time to fine tune things but do it as you go along. Just look at the basics, find out how to set up a blog and do it. Then teach yourself how to set up pages and posts. then you might want to look at changing the look of your blog, etc. The point I am trying to make is you spend all your time researching and reading and no time taking action on what you have read, then you will not get going.You will be wrrying about how to get traffic and how to monetize but you wont have a blog, so its academic reading.
Obviously there is an amount you need to know to even get going, but my advice is, read it, then take action on it . Step by step.
Til next time
jane
Update. Theres me boasting about html. You may see that I have lost my sidebar from the left. Iknow why it happened but can I sort it?? Nope! I havent got time to do it at the moment. Hopefully it will be sorted by me in the net few days. It happened because I put too large a document in that kind of “broke” the sideS . I have taken it out and seleted that post but cant get it back at the moment,more on this later!! Still my opt in form is on a different page so i havent lost that- phew!!
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More About Commission Junction
By admin | November 4, 2008
This is just to finish off on Commission Junction. I dont know if you have looked at the site yet, but I have started to over the last few days, and I have to say I find it a little bit confusing… I have tried to focus in on the information in there and there is a lot to consider. If you look at the earnings per share or EPC, you have to make sure that you remember that the cost per click comes off that before you start to make any money.
What else have I found that you might think important? Well you have to look at the three month trend, click on view trend in the 3 month epc column and that will show you in a graph what the trend is.
Also have a look at the average return cookie. This means if someone visits them through your link, then buys at a later date you still get the credit.
Are there any performance incentives? I havent thought any further than making a sale at the moment,never mind the incentives but I suppose if you are comparing merchants then it is something to consider.
Are there any promotions?Is the merchan providing any discounts to buyers that might attract them and give you a sale?
What if any restrictions are there on you as a potential affiliate? Some of these merchants dont want you to use their tradmarks, brandnames etc. If you look at the keyword link, this will tell you whether they allow it or not and if they dont then probably the answer is dont. I’m sure that they will check on affiliate sales and see how they are made and will probably reverse your commission so , dont!
If you are thinking of affiliate marketing, take a look at Clickbank and Commission Junction as a start and have a couple of hours tinkering, to see what there is and how you might be able to use it to make money online.
For my part, I will keep you posted on my progress and give you information as i find it.
Til next time
Jane
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Affiliate Marketing With Clickbank
By admin | November 1, 2008
Yesterday I told you I made my first sale. Done another today! Onwards and upwards..
I have been looking at products through Clickbank. What should you look for? Well once you get onto Clickbank and get a member ID as I suggested yesterday, take some time to scroll through and familiarise yourself with the site. I showed you what I look for and gave you the info I have gleaned from various sources I have paid for.
If you follow the sort of process I showed you yesterday, you should be able to narrow down your search for products and I think you should decide which ones you might feel comfortable promoting. There are some products in Clickbank that I wouldn’t promote and additionally Google doesnt allow some in adwords, so be careful about that and check Google Adwords policies before you start.
Have a closer look at your potential product. Click on the “view pitch page” link. Is the page nice and clean, easy on the eye, would it appeal to you as a potential buyer?
Click on the affiliates link. What exactly are you being offered as an affiliate?Will you be provided with any sort of advertising help in the form of banners, articles content,keywords and any form of tracking? Is this an “affiliate friendly “product?
Does it provide conversion tracking? I havent got to grips with this yet (but I will!) I know that it is extremely important to be able to track which keywords are converting and if you go with a merchant that provides this, you will find it much easier in the long term. I believe that a considerable number don’t but if they do take it as a bonus even if like me, you arent sure how it works.
So in summary, this is what I have found,and this isn’t just my experience, its come from a number of research tools both paid and unpaid that I have used:
- Has the product a high ranking both in gravity and high %refd?
- Is there a high percentage payout ie higher than 60%
- is the sales page one taht would appeal to you as buyer in this market.Is it clean and uncluttered?
- Is the merchant affilaite friendly? Will you be getting tools and marketing help with keywords,content etc?
- Is there any form of conversion tracking?
These are all important considerations, but you also have to consider whether you are going to be able to promote this through your existing blog if you have one or start another (as I did). The blog has to be relevant to the product if you intend to market through a blog or webspace. It is possible to link directly to the merchants page but it seems that the market is moving away from that as a way of doing it, mainly because of how Google treats that sort of link and moving more to having dedicated pages.
There is a lot of work involved in hunting down the right clickbank product and making it work.I will keep you posted on my results. Off to check adwords again now!
Til next time
jane
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Click with Clickbank and make a Sale!
By admin | October 31, 2008
I thought I would give you a bit more information about me today. I started this site to record my endeavours to make money on the internet and to let others follow my trials and tribulations if they were interested.
If I had posted this time last week on this, then I would have said that to date, I have spent many thousands of pounds (and even more in dollars) on this and made not a cent in return. I truly am a total novice and I hope you what I do helps others to see what might work and what doesnt(for me in any event).This site is really a record of where I have been, what I learned and what might help you,if you are starting a similar journey,or are already on the road.
I decided a few weeks ago to concentrate on this blog, reporting what I learn about blogs and blogging and on affiliate marketing, which I will also tell you about as I go along.
Anyway, this week, I have made a sale!!. This comes after many months of flogging away at this. I have no idea whether it will lead to others and I will keep you posted on that, but at least I am moving in the right direction. It was for $40 and that will at least pay something towards my subscription to wordtracker!
Anyway, have a look at Clickbank:
There are over 100,000 products available in Clickbank and it has announced only in the last couple of days that it is now able to allow transactions in English,Spanish French and German, including trading in 13 currencies, so that should give you plenty to play with! If you are multilingual then this may be of interest to you, as the order form,confirmation page, phone and emails can all be conducted in those 4 languages.
So, back to basics. If you havent got an account already at Clickbank, get one they are free and take only a couple of minutes to arrange. You will get a clickbank ID that you then register with any of the merchants whose products you might be interested in promoting.Think carefully about your ID, because you will be stuck with it thereafter..
Once you have registered,head over to “Marketplace” and this is what you will see.
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You will note that there are loads of categories to choose from, so choose a catagory that interests you.Now I’ll show you how to quickly analyze a ClickBank offer.Have a look at one of the products within your chosen category. The green line that begins with $/sale is the average commission you will receive after any refunds ie if pepole send the product back. I think you have to be looking at products paying more than $10 to have any chance at all of making any money. I have seen that you should be looking at a minimum of $30, so take your pick. The problem is that there is a conversion rate of around 1-2% so you may have to spend quite a bit and if you are not getting much by way of commission, this could eat into any money you make.
Then look at $/sale: %, . Thats you commission percentage and obviously the higher it is, the more commission on a sale. I have come across various figures quoted here, from “dont take less than 60%” to a figure of 75%. I guess the same applies as to the commission in $. The lesser figures are not going to be as attractive given that you will probably have to enter into the realms of pay per click as I have recently done, in order to make this pay.
%refd: X% and gravity: xxx. These are 2 important figures,the first being the % sales coming from affiliaites and the grav or gravity being a mysterious figure, arrived at by a mysterious formula but representing the popularity of the product with affiliates. Again the higher the number, the more popular but the more competitive.
So at the very least sign up with Clickbank, explore some of the products and I will write further tomorrow. I am off to examine my adwords account that I have paused because of a combination of a slight loss of bottle but more that I know part of it isnt working, so I have to fix it. You do learn by making mistakes in this game, but there is no doubt you have to take some action before you can make those mistakes. My advice has to be, get going with it.
Til next time
Jane
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