PBAC Blog

So, what’s the big buzz about Google Adwords? Well, if you have a website and need to grow your sales, Google Adwords is the answer. Google Adwords is proven to be very effective at driving new business, and that’s the primary reason why everybody’s trying to get to the top of the paid listings. In short, if you want to increase your sales quickly and dramatically, you need to get started with Adwords. It’s cost-effective and really does work, instantly.

When you search on Google, you’ll no doubt notice the sponsored links on the right hand side of the page. These are examples of Adwords. These text ads, sometimes also found over the top of the natural search results, are advertisements from companies that pay for each click through to their website or landing page. These ads are keyword specific and help match searches for certain products and services with companies that can provide them.

If for example, you’re selling beauty products and have signed up with Google Adwords, your text ad will be seen in the sponsored links section when a surfer uses the search terms �?�beauty treatments’, �?�beauty products’, or whatever keywords you’ve selected - (multiple word and highly specific keyword phrases always work best). In this way, you advertise directly to those people who are already interested in (and actively searching for) what you’re offering. It’s a great way to build your business.

In essence, if you want more highly targeted traffic driven straight to your website, Google Adwords is one of the most effective tools available on the Internet today. Just by clicking your ad, the surfer will be funnelled to your landing page to make a direct purchase, get in contact with you or request contact from you. You pay a fixed amount per click to a pre-set daily budget, and the system proves to be a very convenient way to sell your products or services online. With a bit of experimentation, just a few keywords can make you a healthy profit.

Now, you’re probably wondering how to get started. First, you need to sign up for a free Google Adwords account. Then you have to choose the keywords that are relevant to your type of business and customer. Google itself can help you with this, and has a number of tools that not only suggest the keywords to use for your industry, but how many people search for them and how much they cost.

The next stage in the process is to write your ad. It’s important here to use your chosen keywords in the title of your ad, and make the body copy as punchy and benefits driven as possible within the allowed word count. This takes some practice, and it helps to split test different ads to see which ones work best. After you publish your ad, Google will only charge you if someone clicks on it, and will stop charging when your pre-set budget is reached. For example, you can set a maximum of ten pence per click, with a daily budget of £5.00, and so on. The tools mentioned above are particularly helpful in determining the level at which your budget should be set.

On top of all this, Google Adwords can also make your ads appear only to surfers located in a particular city or region of your choice. So, if you’re offering loans to residents of Manchester, for example, you can set your ads to show exclusively to surfers in this area. This makes targeting even more effective, meaning leads coming to your site are extremely well qualified. And when you understand a bit more about how it all works, there are also tools to help you monitor and improve your return on investment too.

Google Adwords has helped many online businesses grow very quickly. With this cost-effective marketing tool, not only will your web traffic increase, but your sales volume will grow as well. Like never before, Google Adwords enables you to advertise to potential customers at precisely the right time and place. Such laser targeting will revolutionise the way you do business.

An English graduate from the University of Birmingham and professionally trained journalist at postgraduate level, Laurence James has been copywriting for over ten years. A Member of The Institute of Direct Marketing, he is also founder of The Copy Box

It’s easy to become a Google SEO expert. Just read a few search engine optimization books and visit a few Internet Marketing forums then pass on what you learned.

You know better than that, right?

Experts like to talk about on page ranking factors and how having them will help you rank better in the search engines.

Some of these on page ranking factors are true and some of them are myths.

Some of the on page ranking factors many believe will help you rank better in Google include:

1. Your main Keyword should be between H1 tags, or

2. Keywords in the content should be made bold, underlined or italicized.

Experts also believe you should avoid having certain things on your page that would decrease your ranking such as:

3. Javascript

4. Frames

5. Outbound links

6. Pop ups

However, a statistical analysis on over 45,000 websites reverses what experts normally think would help or hurt search engine rankings in Google.

Without getting into a confrontation with these SEO experts, you should question to yourself the truth of their advice. How did they figure out that these on page factors either help or hurt ranking performance? Can they show examples of sites that rank well which follows the advice they give?

From there, you should come up with your own conclusions and believe only what you can verify with hard data. Become your own SEO expert based on the facts and not the myths and you’ll improve your search engine ranking in Google.

Copyright (c) 2007 by Leroy Chan

Discover the Google on page factors that either help or hurt your rankings in the search results. Visit http://www.internetmarketingview.com/seo/ranking-factors/ for details.

I have no doubts that I am going to get a lot of slack for this article, but that’s okay. I live in Jersey and I’m used to the heat. What I am about to share, as an opinion, is going to be met with many growls and snarls. If you want to know why, you’ll understand as soon as you’re finished reading. I make no apologies for my views on this subject.

Promoting an affiliate product means promoting a product that isn’t yours. Somebody else created it. Now, think about this for a second. You’re telling other people to go buy this product that you didn’t create. You’re essentially recommending it to these people. What do you base this on? If your answer is, “Because I got the product myself” then give yourself a cookie and a gold star. THAT is the correct answer.

I can hear all the affiliate marketers out there screaming at me right now. “Oh come on Steve, I can’t possibly buy every product out there that I want to sell. I’ll go broke.”

Will you? Think about how stupid that statement really is. If you buy a product for $97 and you get 60% commission on it, all you have to do is sell two copies to make a profit. Are you telling me that you can’t sell two copies of something that you have used, think is great, and rave about to others? If that’s the case, then maybe you should be in another line of work.

The truth is, the most effective way to sell any product online is from the perspective of the buyer. Think about when you go and see a movie and you tell your best friend that you just saw this really great movie. How many times have you done that and your friend went to see the movie? Well, why not do the same thing and actually get paid for it?

However, if you’re dead set against buying the product, try this. It does work. Contact the creator of the product and ask them if they would send you a copy to review because you want to promote the product for them. Many merchants will be happy to give you an advance copy if they know they can get a few sales. Ultimately, the same goal is accomplished…you have the product, know what it’s about and can write about it intelligently.

All my affiliate marketing is done this way, which is why I am one of the top 20 affiliates for many of the products that I sell.

Nothing beats the personal approach.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to earn a 6 figure income like I do but get there in half the time? Please visit my blog at http://work-at-home-based-business.com/2007/12/06/review-of-nitro-marketing/ and read my review of the greatest info product ever to come out online in the 4 years I’ve been doing this.

Google is very strict with AdSense and adheres closely to the terms of service, because the sister program, AdWords, is its highest revenue source. If Google even suspects you’re doing something against their rules, your account can be shutdown forever. If that’s already happened to you, let me give you some alternatives for monetizing your Internet marketing website.

1) Get an account with another contextual advertiser.

AdSense isn’t the only company producing contextual ads, though it’s certainly the biggest. Yet, companies like Bidvertiser and OpenTracker offer the same type deal. You publish ads related to your site, and they give you money each time someone clicks on an ad.

2) Sign up with an image ads company

Image ads are just as easy to use as contextual ads. Chitika is probably the biggest company, but you can try other services, like Affiliate Power Ads or Auction Ads. They’re supposed to follow the theme of your site, but you have to be careful. If you’re in the Internet marketing niche, and writing about list building, be sure the service isn’t putting building supplies on your website. But here’s the catch with these: You only get paid when someone actually buys a product, not when someone clicks on an ad.

3) Use affiliate advertising materials

If you use a web service that you like, or maybe software you’d recommend, see if they have an affiliate program. Then, see if the company has any advertising materials available. It’s easy to throw a button or a banner up on your site. It’s always best when advertisers house the images on their sites. It saves you disk space and trouble. If they don’t, you’ll have to upload the image to your own and probably do your own HTML linking. If you’re unfamiliar with that, just make sure the advertiser just gives you a snip of code and you’re on your way.

4) PPA could be the answer

PPA or pay-per-action is another form of advertising that pays you when someone takes action on an offer. For example, you sign up with Hydra Network, and there is a list of campaigns that you can choose from. You grab a banner or button, and providing it’s allowed (because some campaigns are email only), put it up on your website. When someone clicks on that ad and takes action, as in filling out a survey, applying for a credit card, or accepting a free offer, you are paid.

5) Write reviews

Why not write reviews of products you’ve used and would be happy to recommend to others? Word of mouth is very powerful advertising. Perhaps you like your web host or maybe you read a really great ebook and want to share it. Write a review and put it on your blog. Or, write an article that reviews the product or service, and in your resource box, give people your affiliate link. Check out the websites of products and services you’re considering reviewing and see if they have affiliate programs, first.

These are just a few suggestions. There are many ways to monetize your website or blog in the Internet marketing space. You just have to test offers from different places to see what works best for you.

As CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., Tellman Knudson has become a list building and Internet marketing ninja. Become a member of his list building club, free for 30 days, get a great list building CD delivered to your front door, and a one-hour consultation with an Overcome Everything list building expert–all free, when you visit http://listbuildingpower.net

Article marketing can be extremely powerful for your business if you apply this strategy correctly. However like anything it does take work and if the correct article marketing strategy is used then your business will see very good results. Most people write a few articles and then they give up. If you are not doing article marketing for your business then you are missing out on a very important part.

Let us look at the main reasons you may want to consider doing article marketing for your business. The first is that leads generated from article marketing are much more responsive and convert up to ten times better than leads from other sources. The second reason is that if you use it effectively you will generate long term search engine rankings that will drive serious traffic to your web site.

Now let us look at a very successful formula that you can use to write quality articles. You need to write articles based on the attention, interest, desire and take action formula.

Your title needs to grab your readers interest so that they will read your article. Your opening paragraph needs too generate enough interest so that they will continue reading your article. The rest of the article will focus on desire where you highlight the problems that they are experiencing and propose your solution. The conclusion will help the reader to take action.

Using the correct article marketing strategy is really profitable for your business. I was advertising using ppc, reciprocal link exchanges and banner adverts. After discovering this technique I have mainly concentrated on this method of marketing as it has produced very good results and does not cost a cent. Just think if you were to start today how much free traffic you could be generating in three months time from search engines.

Would you like to know more about the magical marketing techniques that have helped me to quit my day job? I have just completed my new guide.

Download it free here: Secrets Of Internet Marketing

Here’s your chance to drive massive traffic to your web site: Secrets Of Article Marketing

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

There’s a lot of different things you can do to skyrocket your income from Google AdSense. Repeatedly clicking on your own ads is not one of them. In fact Google takes a very strong stance on this - as you would expect - and rightfully so. You would make a massive mistake thinking you can fool Google that way - and if they catch you (they will!) - you’ll more than likely be banned for life.

That’s not an unreasonable punishment! After all - what you’re doing is defrauding Google’s advertisers - because they will be charged for your visit, without getting what they pay for.

The question is: Does this leave a golden opportunity for someone to hurt your AdSense income? Let’s assume for a minute that you’ve built a good AdSense income. You’ve also made an enemy or two. Is there anything stopping them from coming to your site - clicking your ads 20-30 times - and wipe out your income?

The answer is: No! Sounds scary? It should! Once you get banned - you’ve had it! It is extremely difficult to persuade Google to let you back in into AdSense once they’ve shut you out.

So - when it comes to protecting your AdSense income - it’s a good idea to be pro-active. Yes - it’s important to check your stats for the purpose of monitoring your click-through-rates and earnings, but you should also look out to make sure that no one is trying to land you in trouble with Google.

If you can see that your ads had a lot of clicks in a short amount of time - and from the same IP address - don’t wait for Google to get in touch! Their letter probably won’t be pleasant reading. Drop them a line right away - tell them that you have detected some suspicious clicks on your site - and ask them to investigate.

Don’t be surprised if they write back to you, telling you that those clicks won’t be counted towards your revenues, and that the money earned has been refunded to the advertisers. At least you still have an AdSense account - and you’ll still be earning.

Admittedly - it doesn’t happen very often that someone goes out of their way - to cause problems for AdSense publishers. Most people you meet on AdSense forums, social networking sites, and other online communities are good decent folk, who only wants to help.

It’s worth remembering though, that your site is vulnerable, and you should be taking steps to protect your AdSense revenue. After all - you install anti-virus software and firewalls on your computer - to protect it from external enemies. Keep a close eye on your AdSense stats - and be the first to make a move if you spot something suspicious.

Find out more about How To Make Money With Google Adsense at Squidoo

Google has come down hard on paid links. Don’t believe me? Just ask sites like washingtonpost, forbes, and many other high profile sites that have just had their page rank reduced by two to four points. Are you still considering hiring that SEO firm that offers “paid text links” or “paid ad buys” as part of their strategy? I hope not.

Google staff began talking about an upcoming shakedown on paid links several months ago. One of the reasons for the shakedown is that paid links are not true, natural links, and therefore shouldn’t qualify as “voting” links for the purpose of transferring PageRank. Google prefers to have sites naturally linking to each other, as natural linking is the more reliable way to ascertain the relative importance of a site. In the past, Google has come down on FFA or “free for all” linking schemes, link exchange schemes, link farms, and appears to discount reciprocal linking (link trades or link swaps). Now their target is paid links.

Google is not against paid links per se. Conspiracy theorists aside (who believe Google is trying to end all advertising on the Internet except through their own AdWords service), Google is not stupid and they know that there are legitimate advertising reasons for purchasing links from quality sites that would be good sources of qualified traffic to your site. However, the problem is that people were (and still are) purchasing paid links not for advertising or traffic purposes, but rather to artificially inflate their link popularity.

Google came out this summer and said that all paid links should be identified as such or risk a penalty. Specifically, it has been suggested that paid links should utilize the nofollow attribute, which is an attribute in the linking code of a site which tells Google the link is not intended to transfer PageRank. Use of this attribute clearly identifies the link as “non-voting”, and solves the problem. However, many sites ignored Google’s warning. Then, in the fourth week of October of 2007, Google slammed down its iron fist. Some very high profile sites, including many in the search engine optimization industry, were hit hard through reductions in PageRank of several points. These were sites such as washingtonpost.com, forbes.com, searchengineguide.com, suntimes.com, and seoroundtable.com. Additionally, many high profile blog sites were hit. The one thing that all of these sites have in common is that they sold text link ads, and did not employ the nofollow attribute.

This served a dual purpose - it served as disincentive for the site owners to continue selling paid links absent a nofollow attribute, as well as a disincentive for link buyers to buy links from these now low PageRank sites.

Rumors in the SEO industry are that the buyers of these paid links could be the next to be hit. So buyer beware. If you are shopping for SEO, avoid any firm or strategy which offers a “paid link buy”, “text ad purchase”, or anything similar. You do this for a few reasons: first, the links will likely be worth nothing (for SEO purposes), either through use of a nofollow attribute or low PageRank.

Additionally, you could be putting yourself at risk as the link buyer. Finally, any SEO firm offering this service obviously does not know anything about SEO, and as such any of their purported search engine optimization services are suspect.

How can you protect yourself? If you are a seller of links, use the nofollow attribute. If you are a buyer of links, don’t do it for SEO purposes, or you will be sorely disappointed. If buying a link makes sense for your business (i.e. the link will be a good source of qualified traffic), then do it. If you expect it to improve your positioning in the engines, however, you are misguided in your efforts.

About the Author: Matt Foster is the President of ArteWorks SEO, a top 3 search engine optimization company in the world. For more information, please visit http://www.arteworks.com

Part 1

It is amazing how small businesses understand the need for seo training or the need to hire an accomplished seo as a part of their search marketing initiative but just can�??t seem to pull the trigger when it comes to committing to one or the other.

Stop me if you�??ve heard this one before. I am sitting in my dentist�??s chair in Toronto when our one sided conversation turns to web marketing. Dr. Bob utters those 7 famous words; �??Nobody can find me on the internet.�?�

Now, we�??ve all heard that statement too many times and we all know the routine that accompanies the website in question; all flash; no content. Well guess what Dr Bob; NO GOOGLE FOR YOU!

Dr. Bob is one of the best dentists in Toronto so I am usually able to grab 40 winks while he is restructuring my dental work, but now he has my attention. I gargle out my seo training spiel as to the usual problems inflicted upon websites by web developers, would-be search engine optimizers and of course, site owners themselves. I suggest that he send one of his employees to a search engine optimization (seo) training course in Toronto and then promise to review his website and get back to him before my next dental examination in 6 months.

�??Six Months!�?� screams Dr. Bob! I thought he might shatter a crown if I let him continue, so I agreed to look at his website when I got home and get back to him before the weekend.

My suspicions were realized when I looked at the site. Leading off with flash, every page has the same title and description tags and absolutely no connection to keyword phrases that his audience may actually be typing into the Google search box. Beginner seo training would have revealed a host of possibilities for the site.

The weekend arrives and I find myself in a dental office in Toronto hunched over a computer screen while desperately trying listen to NFL football on the radio. Not exactly where I want to be on the weekend but at least I am not in THE chair. We begin discussing seo strategies and web site changes that Dr Bob might want to make.

We email the requirements to the web site programmer in Toronto and guess what? Three weeks later Google, Yahoo! and MSN have FOUND Dr. Bob. He is now appearing on page one for his most important keyword phrase and pages 1 and 2 for the next most important. All without any seo training, it�??s a miracle!

Time, however, is money and anyone involved in seo or seo training will tell you that the effort you must undertake to maintain your listings is considerable. So, when several months later I get the alarming phone call that WE are now on page two, I explain to Dr. Bob that I don�??t take clients but I can refer him to a couple of accomplished seos or, as I previously suggested, he can send someone from his office for an seo training workshop in Toronto.

My dentist is great at his profession because he is both talented and brilliant. It doesn�??t take him long to do the math and figure out that the cost of hiring an seo firm is substantial. His return on investment would take the lifetime of a client approach rather than a yearly approach. That is, he would have to look at how much revenue a client would generate over the 7 year average lifetime of a dental client in Toronto as opposed to the revenue generated in the initial year. The seo training is starting to look good to him.

In fact, our illustrious Toronto dentist has decided to take the training himself through once a week private training sessions! We scheduled our first lesson next week but I wanted him to start thinking about keyword selection and adjusting his content to make it relevant to the new keywords phrases.

So I asked the good doctor to consider the following before his first training session; �??Think about the famous line in Field of Dreams but in reverse: If They Come, You Will Build it.�?�

In other words, your customers are already typing specific keyword phrases into search boxes in order to find your services. They are already coming to your site but you�??re not there! I left Dr Bob with several tools available to choose the best keywords for a Toronto dentist.

Google Suggest

Overture

Wordtracker

Keyword Discovery

Barry Byers and Greg Mate have a significant body of experience as Professional Search Engine Optimizers and Internet Marketers and they have owned and operated successful National Yellow Pages Advertising Agencies for the past 15 years. Together they have helped a number of businesses achieve top search engine rankings and increased web site traffic in both Canada and the U.S. Together, they have designed and programmed effective websites as well as consulted on SEO and marketing on existing sites. Offices located in Montreal and Toronto. Web addresses: http://www.serchengineacademy.ca and http://www.adperformancedirect.com

Building your website with search engine appeal - or search engine optimization - is more art than science but experience has shown that there are some very useful guidelines. The question is, why bother? With effective optimization you’ll attract free website traffic that the search engines will send you. Free traffic goes a long way towards not only making your site income-generating but, hopefully, profit-generating as well.

With search engine optimization you might even receive a high traffic volume. Let�??s just say you have a conversion to successful sales with 5 to 10 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good number of sales already. If you get only twenty or so hits a day, you only get one or two sales if any at all. Higher traffic, especially if it’s free, means potentially higher revenue.

Search engine optimization involves a variety of methods for making your site appealing to the search engines, such as having relevant keywords, title and content. It also helps to have other similar sites linking to yours. The aim is to have your site listed in the search engine results and apearing in, preferably, the first two or three pages. The higher the better. This will ensure that your site is displayed in answer to public inquiries as being possibly relevant. In turn, this increases public awareness and directs more traffic to your site - traffic that could lead to potential sales, revenue and profit.

There are many locations on the internet that can help you improve search engine optimization, including those that help in tracking keyword phrases. For instance, the free Yahoo/Overture Suggestion Tool, as well as many commercial keyword analyzers. There are also some content writers and article directories that can provide suitable keyword-laden content for you.

However, most people performing a search examine only the ten top results, which are on the first page. Those entries further down the list languish, with little attention. So making it to the top three pages is a barometer of a site’s success in search engine optimization as you will get more people clicking through to your site when you have a higher ranking on these pages. And, as mentioned, more traffic means more business for you.

As you might have guessed, search engine optimization may require a fair bit of work to be fully realized. For instance, researching the keyword phrases that are popular for your niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your site’s contents so that you get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too awkward to read. There are useful guidelines that can be followed to assist with this.

Also consider collaborating with other web sites to obtain link exchanges and page transfers. Having inbound links definitely increases search engine appeal. Possibly the best way of gaining these is to write quality articles on the subject of your website and submit them to article directories for others to use. This generates desirable one-way links from those who post your articles on their websites, and they have usually selected your article because of its relevance!

When you need help just search the internet. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are abundant and easily found. There are also many articles freely available that can help you optimize your website. Just posing the question on Google or inquiring at your favorite article directory will quickly locate some of these. The more informed you are the better. But resist the temptation to buy ebooks when so much free information is available.

This all helps in getting those high rankings. It may require a little time and effort but the benefits can be astounding.

E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the knowledge and tools needed to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites clamber for higher rankings and, if you get careless, you may just get trampled and be left in cyber dust.

In recent years, and in the foreseeable future, search engines have been the most widely used internet sources of information. Use them well and prosper.

However, even with effective optimization in place, don’t just rest on your laurels; it is a continuing process. Check your ranking from time to time and also have a good look at what the top sites for a keyword are doing. Why do they have a higher ranking? What do you have to do to secure the top spot? Each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites or, as Scarlet O’Hara said: “Tomorrow is another day!”

Ivan Kelly managed a Direct Mail business with extensive mailing lists for ten years and has designed and promoted many websites. He also provides a quality f’ree course on Search Engine Marketing. For details go to: List Of Topics

Introduction

The Google Sandbox is a metaphorical term to explain why most new websites have very poor rankings in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Very few people know for sure if the ’sandbox’ actually exists, but it seems to be a filter added to the Google algorithms sometime around March 2004.

What is the function of the Google Sandbox?

The generally accepted principle behind the Google Sandbox is that it enables Google to filter out ‘Flash-in-the-Pan’ websites from those that offer good quality, up-to-date content. It is within Googles interest to ensure that the results it displays to its users within the SERPS lead to highly relevant, up-to-date, useful websites Relevancy is key to the search engines success so it will take all steps it can to ensure the relevancy of its search results. Filtering out new websites and monitoring them may allow them to provide more accurate results within the real SERPS.

Indentifying the Sandbox?

How do you know if your website in in the sandbox? Most new websites under newly registered domains will get relegated to the sandbox once Google knows about the site. Google will find the site by following an Inbound Link (IBL) from another site that the Googlebot crawls. You will then see the website in the normal Google SERPS if you search for the actual domain name, but the website is unlikely to be listed for any of its keywords. Google also won’t show signs of any other websites linking to your website, nor will it display pages related to yours. In addition Google won’t list any pages other than your Home (index) page.

If you track your websites visitor stats whilst it is in the Google Sandbox, you will see that the Googlebot comes crawling fairly regularly and that it does crawl, and therefore catalogue, all of your pages. Google does know that your pages exist and knows what they contain, but doesn’t list them in the main SERPS. In other words, because your website is new, it is under probation in the ’sandbox’.

How Long Will My website Stay in the Google Sandbox?

It is difficult to say how long a website will stay in the Google sandbox as this seems to depend on the types of keywords it will be completing for in the real SERPS It can be up to 6-8 months and the only way to get out of the sandbox is to wait.

The Google Sandbox isn’t all bad news. If your site contains good quality relevant material it will find its way out of the sandbox and will get the rankings it deserves in the Google SERPS. I even have some theories that may mean that your time in the sandbox can be used wisely to actually improve your final rankings.

You also shouldn’t forget that Google isn’t the only search engine out there. MSN is widely used and with the might of Microsoft behind it is likely to become a bigger player in the search engine world in the new future. At the time of writing, MSN or other search engines such as Yahoo! and Alta Vista don’t have a ’sandbox’ filter and your new websites will be listed in the quickly and should start driving traffic to your site.

Alan Cole runs http://www.pixelwave.co.uk, a one-person web design studio. His aim is to provide cost effective website design production and maintenance by offering professional web solutions that stand out from the crowd.