What They Never Told You About Adsense!

That's right! Many webmasters are getting suckered into joining adsense in hopes of earning quick cash. What they aren't being told is that it's harder than that.

Though google adsense is still one of the best programs out there to earn revenue from your site, there is more to it than that. For example if you think you can just past the links in your site content and watch the money flow in well... In truth few people ever get that lucky some of have to work at it for a while before we get our cash. One of the few mistakes people ever make is thinking google adsense does all the work for you.

Of course we all know that adsense has the most features out there and that it is the best in customer support. Still though if you have a hard time getting clicks off your adsense account, you are not alone. Truth is even though most people may find the ads relevent, many surfers out there have caught the anti-ad bug. This is due to the fact that most ads on sites always misleed you. Everyone knows free hats,free ps2s, and just about free everything. Wich in reality you won't get the said materials. So even though they see an ad they what to click they will not click on thinking that it will mislead them.

This is partly due to the fact that many ads are circling the net with false promises. There exist no way to get past this except fooling the users into thinking that the link is not an ad but a link written by you. Though this is hard hence the ads by gooogle label that goes with every adsense advertisment. But that's why most people get more clicks by blending their ads with their content. Though they the ads by google they believe the links are not misleading since the sites are part of your site.

It's like soldiers when they wear camo. They want to blend in as much as possible. Well try it and see what you get!

What The Adsense Top Earners Are Doing To Constantly Increase Their Earnings

It is really frustrating, is it not, to log into your Google Adsense earnings and find that you've had yet another disappointing day. Another day of making nothing or just a fraction of a penny.

More so when you continue to read about those guys making five figure monthly incomes from Google Adsense every day. Google Adsense terms and conditions require that earnings are kept secret. Still some of these guys claim that they obtained special permission to spill the beans. One of them recently revealed that they had made $45,000 in just one month. Perusing through the statement, there were single days where they made as much as 800 bucks. Can you imagine that?

Sorry, it is not my intention to make you feel worse than you already are so I will stop there and get on with my findings.

This article is based on my investigative journalism skills. Yep, some of us are still using skills we acquired years ago from our offline days. My objective was to find out as much as I could about what these top earners were doing different from the rest of us.

High Adsense Earners Do Exist

But first I had to establish whether these high earners existed at all. After all anybody can get online and tell all sorts of lies about anything. My investigations started off trying to separate the hype from the facts which is an almost-impossible task these days. I have read several articles by sceptics which clearly state that most of these so-called high earners do not exist.

Well the truth is that despite the high number of hype peddlers out there, these guys are for real.

Without disclosing too much about some of my sources whom I intend to use in the future and can therefore not disclose, there are several pieces of evidence that point not only to their existence, but to their growing numbers.

The first is the amazing pace at which Google earnings from this business is growing. Check any top affiliate program and compare their figures to Google Adsense and you will begin to see what I mean. Google is a public company and their figures from earnings are widely available.

Adsense Keywords Do Matter

High traffic is important and effective online traffic tools are well known. They include for example PPC ads, including the very same Adsense ads. Articles are increasingly important because when it comes to traffic, the numbers are not enough, the quality of the traffic is also very important.

But the absolutely critical factor in achieving high Adsense earnings is not traffic. It is actually the keywords used. With the difference in earnings from a click ranging from a fraction of a penny to $100, you can begin to appreciate what we are saying here.

This is the reason why almost everybody else is selling those lists online these days.

My investigations unearthed evidence that those top earners are constantly researching new keywords. They spend a lot of time doing that (more time than they spend doing anything else) and to pay for some of their wasted efforts (every genuine research effort will have plenty of that) some of them are peddling the lists that they have graduated from or do not need anymore. Before you get upset please remember that this is standard business practice. A smart entrepreneur always minimizes on wastage of any kind.

Generally there are some keyword topics that pay more than others. To give you just two examples, health and electronics generally score much higher across the board than other areas of interest in terms of high earning keywords. The top earners are using this information

Hire an Adsense Expert

This is the most amazing aspect my research unearthed.

By Christopher Kyalo

How to Increase Your AdSense Revenue Stream

Google's AdSense program is one of the best, if not the best, revenue programs for web site managers. While the program has certainly created wealth for many site owners, there are opportunities for you to increase your wealth if you follow these important strategies.

1. Increase Your Content. A small 8-10 page site can generate AdSense revenue particularly if the information is up to date and the site is well maintained. A better option: increase your site's size by at least tenfold and include AdSense ads on those pages as well. So, you're not a writer? Don't let that stop you! There are plenty of article submission sites on the internet which will allow for you to take their content and include it on your site as long as all the links listed within the article remain in place.

2. Experiment With Ad Placement. Ads that are clean, borderless and above the fold of the screen are certain to get noticed. Google has some wonderful tips on their site outlining the best strategies for ad placement; incorporate their suggestions and your revenue will increase.

3. Wrap Your Article. Your ads can appear right in the middle of your article [actually, to the left or to the right of it] and the text of the article will wrap around your ad. Guess what? Because Google does such a superb job of serving relevant ads, your readers will notice that the ads served match your content. They will click for more information it they notice the ad.

4. Declutter Your Site. An overcrowded page will look too busy, distract your readers, and cause them to move on without clicking on your ads. Make your site as visually appealing as possible; use Verdana or Arial as your fonts, black or navy as the font colors, size your fonts appropriately. Have your ad match your page color, omit borders, and go for a clean look.

5. Use Channels. Google has this to say about channels:Channels provide you with a way to view detailed reporting about the performance of your pages. By assigning a channel to any combination of pages, you can track a variety of metrics across your sites. Track your leaderboard performance versus the performance of your towers, or compare your motorcycle pages to your automobile pages, by assigning each group of pages to a specific channel and comparing results in your custom channel reports. You can even assign a channel to each of your separate domains, to see where your clicks are coming from.Naturally, by utilizing channels you will learn the specific amount of income generated by each page and then be able to adjust your pages accordingly.

6. Include High Paying Keywords. Some keywords pay more than others, much more in fact. You may be generating steady income, but at a nickel or dime a click that does not translate into much money. Learn which words pay more and include content containing those words.

AdSense revenue can vary greatly from month to month and you will even hear stories of people making a living off of Adsense. You can, but you need to do plenty of work by building a site that is relevant, AdSense popular, and loaded with content.

By Matthew Keegan

Internet Advertising Options

Your online business will likely require more advertising than a contemporary business downtown, yet some new to the world of online business do not spend the time and money to advertise their business appropriately and are, in turn, losing money. Your online business is crammed into the world wide web along with thousands of others selling the same product or service as yourself. Consider this scenario: In your hometown you want to open an art supply store. In that same town there are thousands of art supply stores. In order for your business to be successful, it will have to stand out in some way from the others. This is exactly what is happening when a business is opened online. There is so much competition, that you must take drastic measures to ensure that you are getting noticed. Advertising can be done in so many ways online. These are some of the most successful ways that you can promote your online business.

Advertising in e-zines is a popular way to promote your online business. Ezines are the magazines of the internet; they written on a particular subject and read by those interested in that subject. Therefore, ezine readers are already potential customers and advertising your site in ezines that are related to your business is almost guaranteed to help drive traffic to your site and increase sales for your product. You should be sure when advertising in ezines that you are not advertising along side competitors. Ask the ezine producer if there is a policy concerning posting competing ads. It is also a good idea to subscribe to the ezine before making a decision about whether or not to advertise in it. An ezine that runs fewer ads is a better choice than one that runs many ads. You can look at the online Directory of Ezines to find publications that are relevant to your company.

Pay-per-click programs are an excellent way to advertise your business without taking a risk that you have advertised in the wrong place. With pay-per-click, you can advertise you site and only pay for those who click the link and go to your site. Another popular pay-per program is the pay-per-lead program that allows you to only pay for leads. Usually this means that you pay for only those who download a trail, fill out a form or enter a sweepstakes; whatever you choose. Lastly you can display pay-per-click banner ads in which your company would be allowed to place a banner on their site and you will be charged for every click that your banner receives.

Opt-In email is a great way to advertise your business, however it is expensive and it can be misused very easily. Using opt-in emails, you would submit your sales copy to the company that will in turn email it to those on their mailing list. You should be very careful since some of the companies that advertise their mailing lists as opt-in email service is sometimes really SPAM. It is essential that you have a perfect and effective sales letter when using opt-in mailing lists. Without and effective sales copy your money and time have been wasted.

Advertising Click Fraud Rampant Online?

"Pay-per-click," by far the most popular form of online advertising, recently came under fire as charges of rampant "click fraud" gather steam on the Web.

Google and Yahoo! earn the majority of their money through sales of advertising to tens-of-thousands of online merchants, companies, and professional.

In fact, some estimate that 99% of all Google's revenue comes from advertising sales. Unfortunately, allegations of click fraud may well rain on Google's otherwise sunny parade and cause a whole scale revamping of current online advertising practices.

Pay-per-click advertising does exactly what it sounds: advertisers pay for each click on their ad, usually mixed in among search engine results or displayed on relevant websites.

"Click fraud" occurs when, for whatever reason, an ad gets clicked by someone or something (usually an automated "bot" that simulates clicks) with no intention of ever buying anything from the advertiser.

The sole intention of click fraud is to simply drain an advertiser's budget and leave them with nothing to show but an empty wallet.

Who commits click fraud?

Usually an unscrupulous competitor who wants to break a rival's bank, online "vandals" who get their kicks causing other people grief, or search engine advertising affiliates who want to earn fat commissions by racking up piles of bogus clicks.

Regardless of who does it or why, click fraud appears to be a growing problem search engines hope stays under their advertising clients' radar.

This problem isn't exactly news to the search engine giants.

In fact, on page 60 of their 3rd quarter Report for 2004, Google admits that they have "regularly refunded revenue" to advertisers that was "attributed to click-through fraud."

Google further states that if they don't find a way to deal with this problem "these types of fraudulent activities could hurt our brand."

Bottom line for Google and Yahoo! (which owns Overture, the Web's largest pay-per-click search engine): as word of click fraud spreads across the Web, they must act quickly to calm the nerves of advertisers who could well abandon them over doubts about the veracity of their advertising charges.

The search engines all claim to carry measures that identify and detect click fraud, but details about how they do it and to what extent remain sketchy.

They claim revealing details about security would compromise their efforts and give the perpetrators a leg up on circumventing their defenses.

This sounds good, but affords little comfort to advertisers who feel caught between losing out on their best traffic sources and paying for advertising that won't result in revenue.

One way to protect your business against click fraud is to closely monitor your website statistics.

Look for an unusually high number or regular pattern of clicks from the same IP address.

If you need help, enlist the aid of your hosting provider to aid you in spotting suspicious trends in your website traffic.

Also, a number of services such as ClickSentinel.com have sprung up online to help advertisers spot and quickly analyze and compile the data necessary to effectively dispute fraudulent click charges with the search engines.


By Jim Edwards

How to Beat Your Rivals on Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a great tool for driving traffic to your site; but you need to know how to make the most of the system. Many people just find they end up spending loads of money bidding on super-competitive keywords and sooner or later their ads get disabled for under-performing. While your competitors seem to be getting the top spot time and time again! Want to know how to beat them? Read on..

1. Always specify negative keywords. For example, if your product requires payment, include -free as a negative keyword; that way your ad won't be shown to people who include free in their search and you won't have to pay for visitors who have no intention of spending any money!

2. Bid on AS MANY relevant keywords as possible. If you're only bidding on a dozen keywords then you're probably bidding on the same ones as all your rivals and you'll end up having to pay too much per visitor. If you can think of interesting new combinations of keywords that none of your rivals are bidding on, you'll be able to get high up the results very cheaply. Of course, these less common keywords get searched for less often and will therefore bring in less visitors, but because you're paying less, these visitors are potentially more profitable.

3. Try to split your keywords into groups of similar words and then create a separate campaign for each group. In each campaign you can reword your ads so that they are exactly relevant to those keywords. This will dramatically improve the click-through rate. If you Ad contains any of the exact words which the person searched for, then it makes those words bold, and they are more likely to be clicked on. So make sure that each campaign's advert is very closely relevant to the keywords/phrases you bid on.

4. The higher your click-through rate (CTR), the higher you ad will be shown. Even if you are bidding less money than the person above you, if your ad gets a higher CTR Google will show yours higher. If your ad does not get at least 0.5% CTR, google will disable your ad; so do not bid on keywords that are not directly relevant to your adverts!!

5. For every keyword or phrase you bid on, you should also bid on "keyword" and [keyword]. Putting the keyword or phrase into "inverted commas" means that your ad will show any time someone searches for that word/phrase as part of a search with other terms included, putting it in [square brackets], means that your ad will show when someone searches for that phrase and NOTHING else. Google prioritises ads that are closely targeted to what people have searched for, so this will help you get higher up the results.

6. Always run at least two, differently worded, ads for each campaign. Google will automatically show both adverts alternatively, and you can then see which advert gets a higher CTR (i.e. which ad people are more likely to click on). When you've had a good number of clicks you can decide which advert is most effective and delete the less effective one. Then create a new second advert and see if you can get a higher CTR with a different type of wording. This way you are constantly improving the wording on your adverts to make them as attractive and effective as possible.

By Steven

AdWords: Setting Your Max Cost Per Click

We've received many emails from customers over the past several years asking how high we recommend setting AdWords' max cost per click. Generally, we recommend that our customers set the price somewhere moderately high, between the "base" rate and the max rate suggested by Google. For this entry though, I've decided to discuss a few options that may help you decide where to set your max cost per click to get a maximum return.

What kind of competition do you have?

Before you start, you'll need to do a little experimenting with the keyword tool and traffic estimator to see how high you'll need to bid. If the price to get your ad listed number one, in my opinion, it's a no-brainer. Bid what you need to bid to make sure that you have that number one spot. It will bring you the most visibility and generate the most clicks for your ad. Generally, the higher the ad, the better "quality" your clicks will be as well.

If the cost is relatively low, don't even think about it. Set your ads to be number one and then, if you're working with a limited budget, set your daily max spending limit to a number that is comfortable for you. It's generally better to have fewer clicks of "higher quality" than lots of clicks from "lower quality" traffic.

What if your keywords are highly competitive?

Some keywords in AdWords or in Overture (Yahoo Search Marketing) are incredibly expensive. Terms for gambling, web hosting, insurance, credit cards and many affiliate program related topics are very, very expensive. It's probably just not feasible for you to get the number one slot. If your budget is limited, you might get one to two clicks a day before the budget is gone. In these instances, you're going to need to pick a bid level that is comfortable for you and work on making your ads better. You aren't going to be able to get the top slot by bidding, so you'll need to increase your ad's click-through rate and make it more attractive to the viewers who do see it.

Experiment and decide

Ultimately, the decision is yours. I've found that it pays to have higher placed key words when possible. They seem to convert better than lower placed ads. You're going to have to experiment with your ads though to see what works best for you. Experiment for several days with different maximum click prices to see how your clicks and conversions rank. Only then can you make an educated decision for your website.

By Chris Burgess

How To Find Your Own Valuable Adsense Keywords For Free

There's tons of money to be made from the Google Adsense program for web masters and blog owners. That's why "the vultures are circling" and folks are getting sucked in with all sorts of offers that promise instant high Adsense revenue. One of the top-selling products these days are those lists with the highest-paying Google Adsense keywords. Many people are desperately searching out for these lists and many will not hesitate to pay for them, especially because there are some keywords that are reputed to be capable of earning $100 per click.
I'm not saying all the lists are bad? In fact a good number of them are genuine and are created by high earning Adsense webmasters looking to maximize on their profits and to get something back from their time-consuming valuable keywords research efforts. Nothing wrong with that, in fact it makes perfect business sense. Except that you don't really need those lists, there is a better proven way to increase your Adsense earnings.
The Adsense Secret Is All About Finding A Niche
The most important Adsense secret you will discover is that to make money and be successful, all you need to do is to stick to the basic rules for success in online marketing. The basics are that you need to find a niche that is not so competitive and one which you can contribute something special to based on your past experience, knowledge and skills. Everything else will then fall into place after this. Virtually every subject and topic you can think of will have relevant and valuable keywords.
This is in sharp contrast to the approach being encouraged by list-sellers. Which is to start by finding high-paying valuable keywords and then creating sites or blogs based on them. To start with Google do not like the idea because one of their rules is that you should not create a site or blog for the sole purpose of making money from Adsense. Of course it is easy to get round this one by quickly creating some products around your site and you really don't need to care whether they sell or not, but who are you fooling?
The World Wide Web is increasingly busy and increasingly competitive and what this means is that niches are becoming increasingly vital and critical to online success.
You Will Earn More From Adsense With Multiple Sites/Blogs
Once you've found your niche, you can create a number of different sites narrowing your niche even further in different directions. I've used this strategy very successfully and I find that I am constantly coming up with new ideas for new sites without leaving my area of expertise. Of course I create relevant links between my different sites so as to maximize on the traffic that I receive. The important word here is "relevant". There is nothing that puts off folks more than clicking on a link only to find that it is barely relevant to the information they are seeking. You're wasting their time and they will not appreciate it. Better not to link at all in the first place.
What some high-earning Adsense folks have done is to create numerous blogs (some up to 50 and even more.) This strategy makes sense because the more pages you have with Adsense ads on them, the higher the chances of somebody clicking on some of the ads and therefore the higher your potential income. What I can't imagine is how they manage to keep all the different blogs fed with quality content. I once tried this strategy with just one or two sites and it was very exhausting getting content for sites outside my area of expertise. There are increasing reports of incidents of pirated online content and I guess you now understand part of the reason why.
When you stick to one subject, keeping all your blogs fed with content becomes a breeze. You simply take one idea and modify it or slant it differently for the different sites. Even more important, it is easy to use the same valuable Adsense keywords for all the sites as you discover them.
A Free Tool To Help You Find Valuable Adsense Keywords
Here is a valuable tool that I use myself to constantly research valuable Adsense keywords. While you do not need those valuable Adsense keywords lists, you need to constantly research valuable Adsense keywords for yourself. Top Adsense earners spend a vast majority of their time doing this. You need to do the same if you want to be earn a serious income from the Adsense program.
By Christopher Kyalo

Google Adsense: What You Need to Know!

We read about how to develop a Google AdWord campaign, but where do these ads get featured? To think that the advertisements feature only on Google depending on the keywords searched by users is not true as that isis only part of the ad exposure. Google AdSense can be considered the other half of AdWords. AdSense allows website owners to feature relevant Google ads on their website which matches user profile with the profile requirement of each ad and also allows website owners to EARN revenue via the traffic generated by website.

So if you have a website which attracts decent number of hits every month, Google AdSense is probably a good revenue generation model for you and the below mentioned benefits should be effective to get you convinced:

Add a revenue stream to your business:

Google AdSense provides an added revenue stream to your business which is very easy to set up and has a robust backend application which delivers the most relevant ads to the most relevant target group.

Set up procedure is very simple:

You do not need any technology know-how when it comes to signing up with Google AdSense. A simple sign up process, subsequent approval, and copying some basic html code onto your website will get you started with Google ads on your site right away.

Immediate advertisers on your site:

Since Google already operates a very successful AdWords program, where thousands of advertisers sign up, you get immediate advertisers who would like to be featured on your website. No sales or marketing is required by you to get advertisers at any stage.

Continuous Technology enhancement at no cost to you:

Google research team spends thousands of man hours in improving the AdSense programme so that users are directed to the most relevant ads and all this is available to you with no cost.

Don't fret if you don't have a high viewer ship rate on your site: You can still earn via Google AdSense. You can feature the Google search box on your site and the subsequent page displayed with the search results has ads featured on them which can be your revenue generating AdSense Campaign.

No Junk ads displayed on your website:

If you are concerned about displaying junk advertisements which might have no relevance to your website visitors, then Google AdSense is for you. Only relevant ads are displayed to users and that is picked by both the profile that you put together as well as the content on your website. A number of well defined filters work behind the AdSense programme allowing the application to be 'intelligent'.

Find Google ads a tad boring?:

You are not the only one. Even Google engineers realize that the ads need some colour to them and you can add that to the display option. This does not eat into the users' bandwidth and yet displays using a good colour combination on the website.

Google also operates a premium program for webmaster for the AdSense program if your website is attracting more than twenty million page views and five million search queries per month and this is known as AdSense Premier.

Getting started is easy:

It is difficult not to be convinced about the AdSense program, and you can start off quite easily with a single page form which requires basic information about the type of account you would like to have ( business or individual), website information, select product ( AdSense for Content or AdSense for Search) and contact information. Login needs to be created simply with a valid and frequently accessed email address. All the information submitted is sent to Google for approval and on approval, you receive a link to fetch code from which you need to post on your website and you are ON!

AdSense is an easy program to understand and implement and has already provided a steady source of income for many a net entrepreneurs! What are you waiting for?

By Matt Bacak

Google Adwords: Here is Why It Can Explode Your Business!

The beauty of Google Adwords set up is its simplicity. Google programmers seem to be a close follower of the maxim taught by Edward Debono when it comes to simplicity. Signing up and getting started is very easy and takes a few minutes to get your campaign rolling.

If you are new to the Google Adwords programme, all you need to do is relax, and go through the simple steps mentioned below to get you started off on one of the most technically advanced advertising plans on the internet:

Step 1: Define the eyeballs:

The first step would be to define the target group for your advertisement. There are multiple fields to select from which help you get the geography and language preference of the audience set up so that your ads are shown only to the relevant audience. This process results in an Ad Group, and you can define multiple Ad Groups for various campaigns.

Step 2: Word your ad:

All Google ads are text based and they are displayed in varying font sizes and color to define order and importance. Once your Ad Group is defined, you need to start putting the advertising message together. This is a bit tricky as you need to get the communication within preset character limits. You can write a headline of up to 25 characters, and a two line message of 95 characters. It might be a good idea to take a look at other Google ads in order to understand the choice of words for the ad. After the descriptions are done, you can enter a display URL.

Once the ad itself is put together, you can select the keywords for which the advert should show up. You need to careful with your selection here as your selection of keywords is going to be the key to success (as well as critical for your billing at Google) of your campaign. You can get a lot of help from the keyword tool which helps you find alternate keywords as well. It is recommended that you start with a few keywords in the first place and then proceed to add keywords as the campaign progresses.

Step 3: Define the commercials:

Here's when we need to start sorting out the preferred currency of billing and display. Google does not allow you to change currency of preference once you have set it so you need to be sure which currency you would like to be billed in.

Google Adwords allows you to set pricing of each click. The system would suggest you a maximum cost per click (CPC) which you can choose or define a CPC which you are willing to spend. The 'Traffic Estimator' allows you to see a hypothetical scenario of the traffic you can expect with each type of CPC you choose along with the cost of campaign. This helps you in choosing the keywords effectively.

The commercial section does have a number of sub steps to follow! You now need to finally define what you would like to spend on the campaign. Google will display your ad only till such time the budget permits and then inform you about the expiry of budget. This feature allows you to stay within a pre-defined budget. Google Adwords also recommends a budget based on your previous selection. You can set your budget based on this recommendation.

Once you have completed setting your preferences on the system, Google Adwords gives you an opportunity to review all the details and then click on the final process of signing up for the service.

Step 4: Signing on the dotted line:

True to the rest of the process, the signing up process is really quite simple. All you need is a valid and frequently accessed email account and set up a password and you are ready to roll.

Getting started on Google Adwords is quite simple as you can see from the above steps. All the best with your online marketing campaign with Google AdWords.

By Matt Bacak

Pay Per Click Advertising and Article Marketing Compared

At first glance, Pay Per Click advertising seems to be the fastest way to send targeted website traffic to your websites online. You choose some keywords and add your website's url and you are done. However, with most things online the competitive search terms are often very expensive and you spend lots of money to win the Pay Per Click wars. This article will list five reasons why article marketing may be better than Pay Per Click Advertising.

Permanent links

Anyone knows that once you stop paying for your pay per click results, you will stop getting website traffic. Articles on the other hand always stay on the pages of a high traffic website if added. This is like opening a shop in a busy shopping mall. You get more targeted website visitors this way quite easily. Once readers read the targeted articles and then click through to your website, they are in the mood to read whatever offers that you can sell and you tend to make more money this way as they treat you as an expert if they like your article. Thus in article marketing, you get traffic on a continuing basis and not just when you pay for it.

Viral effect

Not only that if publishers like your work, they put it on all their websites and send it to their newsletters with many readers and some of these readers will start clicking to your website and signing up or purchasing whatever you are promoting. Some readers if they like your article will forwarding the email to their friends and make you even more money. Some other publishers will start adding your article to their blogs and generate even more website traffic for your website that you are marketing. The more targeted website traffic the more money you will start making.

Page Rank

The basis of Search Engine Optimization ("SEO") today is based on PageRank and website traffic. Granted that you know how you get added website traffic with article marketing, we now turn to SEO. The major search engines today looks at the number of inbound links from targeted website pointing to your website. This means that if you have a cooking website, the more links to your website from cooking websites the better. Article marketing works in the same way as if your business is on health for instance and you write health articles, your publishers are going to be health websites and your PageRank due to the number of inbound links pointing at your website will increase. Your search engine rankings will also start climbing and you will start getting more targeted website traffic and make more money.

Price

Writing your own articles and publishing them can be free as compared to paying for Pay Per Click Advertising and the more articles you write the more well known you will be and the more targeted website traffic you will get. Why spend hundreds each month on Pay Per Click advertising when you can start getting website traffic for almost free by writing articles on topics relevant to your particular internet business. But that said, time is what you will be spending so if you want the easy way out, get someone to ghost write an article for you. You can get it for $5 per article or less at websites like Elance.com or getafreelancer.com.

In conclusion, this article highlights four reasons why Article Marketing is a good way to consider especially if you are on a tight budget and its ability to send your website continuous targeted website traffic is something that you should consider carefully if you want to use this method of online promotion.

By Joel Teo

Pay Per Performance Web Traffic

Why should you pay to get web site traffic, isn't SEO enough?

It's a fair question - after all most businesses on and offline have tight budgets to play with and need to make each and every penny count. So why should you as a business pay good money to drive targeted traffic to your site?

Perhaps there's a clue in the last question.

What other options are there?

You have 3 basic choices to get traffic to your website:

1. You pay - using PPC, ezine ads, banners etc...

2. You borrow - constructing Joint Ventures and endorsed offers with partners

3. You grow your own - with natural search engine optimisation

So which is the best?

Well they all do a different job and have different characteristics, perhaps the best information source you could hope to find on the subject is found here: http://www.trackingandtesting.com/dystatic/TrafficGeneration.php

But why PPC?

You need PPC because you can:

* Control the flow of traffic to your website

* Target buying customers and those most likely to buy through correct keyword targeting

* Test different offers

The last benefit above is perhaps the most important. Remember a page on a website doesn't have to stay recorded online forever...

Just because you've completed your site in terms of the pages you want to add (although in truth you'll never be finished as you can continually add more related content), this does not preclude you from testing other pages...

The value of testing

Simple scenario: You want to test 2 price points for a product/service. (Yes you can do this and people don't have to know about it so don't be worried).

With a PPC campaign you can have your normal web page (Page A) sitting as normal at the well known web address with all of your normal links pointing to it.

You 2 price point test pages (Page B & C) are a different kettle of fish - they sit off to the side and you push traffic to them using PPC to quickly determine which is the winner.

You can do this for any test you dream up, the bottom line is you can quickly determine what is working and what is not in your marketing.

Knowing what's not working is more important than what is (particularly if you are sailing close to the wind) because you SAVE money you would otherwise have thrown away.

The Affiliate Advantage

When you have a website that is converting well, you will be able to attract many affiliates (and even super affiliates if you are doing a good enough job and providing a good enough incentive package).

Affiliates can make your business explode overnight if you have done your homework and have the site converting well.

If you have not you may attract them, they may pump some traffic and then they will disappear to pastures new when they see you are not doing a good job.

In summary

If I could give you one reason why you should use PPC and in particular Google Adwords as part of your internet marketing campaign it would be this:

"Feedback fast, feedback cheap"

Yes you may spend a little money up front, but you can save yourself a whole lot of heartache on the back end.

By Tom O'Brien

Cost Per Click Bid Management

Cost per click or pay per click is a common phrase among internet marketers. It is fast catching up the SEO world. Here is an introduction...

What do you mean by Pay per click (PPC) Search engine marketing? When you ask a Internet surfer about cost per click search engines they view it as a search engine where you search for information. But when you ask the same question to a person who runs paid inclusion in search engines it is an inexpensive way to drive targeted traffic to their website.

This is how Pay per click works, if any one wants to bid on keyword in search engines for their website they open an account with these search engines which needs some amount as deposit to start with. After creating the account with search engine the next step is to enter the URL of the website, a creative Title, and a description and bid on keywords. The keywords are identified and researched carefully before bidding. So every marketer chooses the right keyword to target.

So when a visitor searches for a certain keyword for example "shoes" the information you had given appears in the sponsored links of that search engines. Sometimes your website would be displayed above all the organic listing in the search. So in that way you website is found by the visitor who is intending to buy "shoes".

Major PPC search engines?
There are numerous search engines out there but the top ones are Google Adwords, Overture and Findwhat how has got a major share in the PPC search engine market.

Initial investment for starting a PPC Campaign - There is nothing like minimum investment expect some amount for activating your account you can start the campaign for which ever amount you want even with Dollar Five. And the price of your keyword can be decided by yourself. Also you can adjust the price of the keyword according to your requirements. If the keyword you have picked doesn't gets your enough satisfaction you can drop it and pick a new work which works for you.

The bottom-line is Bidding the right keyword for you PPC campaign is key for a successful pay per click search engine marketing.

This article was written by Thomson Chemmanoor

Campaign Strategy for Paid Placement

Campaign strategy for Paid placement:

A Paid Marketing campaigns provides immediate search engines rankings for your most important keywords. It doesn't determine weather it is a dynamic, static or flash based website. A paid PPC Marketing campaign should be well versed and knowledgeable based marketing that fits your requirements. Your PPC campaign should be unique and designed to your company's marketing objectives.

Understanding the objective of your Pay per click campaign management should be your first goals. During that state you should determine which PPC search network is a best suit for your which return maximum cost-per-click for your selected key words and key phrases and aim at getting maximum return on investment (ROI)

Goals for PPC Marketing campaign Strategy:

1) Your first goal is to generate leads, increase sales and signup for your businesses.

2) What is the rate of clicks you receive per day per week and per month from what search network and also from which keyword phrases?

3) How does it cost for you per lead from the clicks?

4) What is your cost per acquisition per click?

5) How many order do you receive from your PPC Marketing campaign?

6) What is the conversion rate per click?

7) How good is your profit for PPC Bid campaign and how much is the margin

8) Who are your competing websites?

9) Cross check your campaign with other PPC campaign if you are running one.

The bottom-line is monitor your PPC campaign which is key for a successful pay per click search engine marketing.

This article was written by Thomson Chemmanoor

How You Can Make Serious Money Self-publishing With Adsense

Some folks may think that self-publishing began with the invention of the PC (personal computer) and others may be convinced that it has really taken off with the arrival of Adsense.

It is important to understand what self-publishing is and its' enormous potential to fully appreciate and indeed take advantage of Adsense. Actually self-publishing (the act of producing and marketing your own writing) is as old as America. It is an American tradition that is very much part and parcel of the American dream. Ben Franklin was one of the first Americans to self-publish and many others have followed since. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn was self-published. As was Ulysses, Lady Chatterley's Lover and the Tarzan series amongst a host of other popular classics that would never have existed without the authors ignoring publisher's rejection lips and taking the bold step of publishing their own work.

There are thousands of other examples from recent times that we can mention here but the point is that a few important developments in recent times have only helped to fuel the power of self-publishing but did not trigger off this revolution. The personal computer put a very powerful publishing tool on the desktop for the first time allowing the easy setting of type and design for publishers at a tiny fraction of what is cost previously.

Then the World Wide Web came along and proved to be many wonderful things to a self-publisher. They could use it to promote their work and sell millions of copies of their self-published work all over the world. Suddenly there was no niche that was too small to be viable. Then the Internet could also be used to publish online at a cost that was very close to zero.

Still, as wonderful and revolutionary as these developments were, none of them comes anywhere near what Google Adsense has done for self-publishers world-wide. Understanding this will open your eyes and enable you to fully cash in using Adsense as an key part of your online self-publishing efforts.

With Adsense, Traffic Does Not Matter In Online Self-publishing, As Much As Relevance And The Right Well-paying Keywords

I often wonder if those guys at Google fully understood the impact of what they were doing when they decided to open Adsense for smaller sites and blogs with very little traffic. Sure, they must have done it knowing that it would have an impact on their bottom line, but did they know that it would start an online revolution with far-reaching effects and impact? I doubt it.

You will already be aware of the fact that thousands of online concepts were dead in the water as far as making a profit online and this situation has been changed dramatically by Adsense.

Now anybody with a site online can apply to Adsense to carry their ads and within no time, the new revenue stream will be putting money into their pockets. You will of course need to do a lot of work to get to use the highest-paying keywords for every content written for your site. But the really exciting bit for online self-publishers is the fact that even a few visitors every day, clicking on high-paying Adsense ads will earn them lots of cash.

But let's be extremely careful here because Adsense rules do not encourage folks to start web sites or blogs with the sole intention of making money from Adsense ads. And if truth be told, anybody who does this is leaving a lot of easy money on the table.

Why It Is Important To Combine Adsense With Other Profit Centers In Self-Publishing

What Adsense has done, is introduce a revenue stream that helps a site focus more closely on its niche subject, and actually sets it up for success.

By Christopher Kyalo

Three Google Adwords Secrets for Massive Online Profits

If you know anything at all about Internet marketing, then I'm sure you're aware of how powerful a tool Google Adwords can be. At the same time, if you're like most marketers, you're still looking for a way to really cash in on this fantastic marketplace innovation.

Google Adwords is more than just a tool for earning affiliate commission through a one-time sale. I'll show you how to go much further, and to develop revenue streams that grow bigger and bigger year in and year out.

1. Have your cake and eat it too. When promoting merchant sites, set up your Google Adwords campaign so each person who clicks on your ad is taken to a newsletter sign-up page. Then be different from the majority of newsletter owners by giving them valuable information and making a genuine effort to help them succeed.

Recommend quality multi-tier affiliate programs and residual income opportunities to grow your downline, then take them by the hand and aid them in developing strong online incomes, which will help you to succeed as well. By doing so you will earn their trust and give them something to lose, and they will be your subscribers for life!

2. Give away a free viral special report and give them a huge incentive to give it away. Remember, every time something with your website address on it is given away, you're getting free publicity, which ultimately means more hits on your website.

You can use this free special report as an incentive to sign up for your newsletter, but another method is to give away the free item first, and then entice them to sign up for your newsletter within the ebook by offering them another freebie; if you play your cards right you'll be able to monetize them from both free items, and through your newsletter for as long as you provide them with valuable content.

3. Write an article about a creative marketing concept, and then tie in two to four affiliate links to products that help them to monetize this unique idea you are proposing. Try to make this article 1000 to 1500 words, long enough to go into some detail, but not enough to give the whole concept away.

Through this method you will be able to monetize your readers from, 1. the "sleeper links" in your article, 2. a ten to fifteen page viral special report that they can get by subscribing to your ezine, 3. your ezine, of course, and 4. the people who eventually receive the special report through the actions of others.

You can even capture the e-mail addresses of these people as well. Your profits are limited only by your thinking, so try to come up with some creative ideas to continue this profit cycle for as long as possible!

All three of these simple concepts have one thing in common: making a concerted effort to give your visitors something valuable that they can immediately apply to start profiting from it. Also remember never to share every marketing secret known to man with them; leave the meatiest information for the ebook that you'll sell later!

**Attn Ezine editors/Site owners** Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.

Feel free to substitute your referral link in place of ours in the resource box. Thanks!

By Wanna

Broad, Phrase, Exact, Negative - Four Google AdWords Terms You Must Know for Advertising Success

A few days ago, I was setting up my latest Google AdWords campaign. My brother was watching me work through the process, and he asked me:

"Why do you put quotation marks and square brackets around some keywords?"

I was a bit surprised to realise that I couldn't actually answer him - not in any definite way, at least. So, I set to work finding out what the matching options mean, and how they affect results.

First up is the default, Broad Match. This is where a keyword phrase is written as is, for example: google adwords

This method means that your Ad will potentially be shown to anyone searching for 'google' and 'adwords', in any order and possibly with other terms. So, anyone searching for 'adwords google help' could see your Ad.

Next is Phrase Match. This is where a keyword phrase is enclosed by quotation marks, for example: "google adwords"

This is essentially the next step up from Broad Match - your Ad could be shown to anyone searching for 'google' and 'adwords', but only in that order, and possibly with other terms included in the search. So, 'how to start a google adwords campaign' could trigger your Ad to be shown.

The last in the 'positive' matching options is Exact Match. This is where your keyword phrase is enclosed by square brackets, for example: [google adwords]

This is the most specific of the three types. In this case, your advert will only be shown if somebody searches for 'google adwords' in that order and with no other terms.

These options each have their own merits, but generally, the more specific the search term, the higher your CTR (Click Through Rate).

If you have a small niche to start with, then Broad Match will give you the most exposure. The downside is that the large number of triggering phrases could push your CPC (cost per click) up, as a result of competition.

Larger markets require highly-targeted Ads, and this is where Exact Match (and Phrase Match, to an extent) comes into play. Imagine trying to get clicks from keywords such as 'car parts' compared to 'ford fiesta rear wheel bearing'. Obviously, the more specific your keyword terms, the more likely you are to get an interested visitor to your site.

The last of the keyword matching options is Negative Keyword. This is where a keyword is precluded by a minus sign, for example: -tricks

This stops your Ad from being shown if somebody searches using that term. For example, 'google adwords tricks' would stop your Ad from being shown.

This is useful for prequalifying prospect clients - if you are trying to sell something, then '-free' would be a good term to include in your Keyword list.

Of course, as with any marketing campaign, which of these methods will work best for you is unpredictable, so always remember to test, test test!

If you need more help with setting up your Google AdWords campaign, this particular resource is one that I found useful when starting up: Adword Equalizer - http://www.rob-barrett.co.uk/recommendations_marketing/google-adword-equalizer.php

Best of luck with your Google AdWords campaign!

By Rob Barrett

6 Easy Ways to Increase Your Adsense Revenue

How much revenue do you generate from Google Adsense?

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about people who earn over $10,000 a month just from Adsense. Furthermore, there are rumors of a few individuals who earn over $1 million a year just from using the power of Google advertisements.

So what is Google Adsense and how can you use this program to earn a six-figure income?

About two years ago, Google created this program to help websites to monetize their web-traffic.

Here's how it works:

Webmasters obtain a special code from Google which then displays targeted ads on their website. Whenever a visitor clicks on one of these ads, the webmaster earns a commission. Unlike other online businesses, there is no selling involved. All you need to do is get people to click on the ads.

Although this is an excellent way to generate an income, many websites are not effectively maximizing their Adsense potential. As a result, they are leaving a lot of cash on the table.

The question is how can you increase your Adsense revenue without increasing the number of web visitors?

The key to earning an income with Google Adsense is to have your ads match the rest of the site, making them look like part of your content. Your focus is to avoid having the Adsense blocks look like blatant advertisements.

The following are six ways that you can do this and increase your revenue at the same time:

1) Find the right place- Most website visitors read content that is in the middle of a webpage. As a result, the best place to put your Adsense block is in the top part of the page, at the beginning of your web content. You want to weave the Google Ads into your web content to give the appearance that they are extra links which expand on the information of the page.

2) Use the Large Rectangle-With Google Adsense, you have the option of picking different ad formats. Most of the time people opt to use the Leaderboard (728x90) or Wide Skyscraper (160x600) style ads. Unfortunately, this is the wrong choice, because both look like blatant advertisements. Instead smart webmasters have found that using the Large Rectangle (336x280) yields the best amount of click-thrus.

3) Ditch the border- Many people experience a sharp increase in Adsense revenue when they changing their border. What they change is very simple?they get rid of the border on their Adsense blocks. This is another way to make the advertisements look like useful web content.

4) Adapt the font- Whenever you write content, it should be the same font size and style as your Google Adsense block. This will help make it appear that the advertisements are a natural part of your website.

5) Match the colors- In addition to changing the fonts, you also should match the colors of your website. For instance, if your content is written in black, and your hyperlinks are blue, then the Adsense blocks should also be the same color. Again, this helps the advertisements appear to be normal web content.

6) Don't have too many distractions- On a webpage, it is important to give web visitor a limited number of options. By having too many links and graphics, the web visitor might go to a section that doesn't help increase your profits. While it is important to inform and entertain your web visitor, it is also vital that you monetize your site. So if the main focus of your site is to earn an income through Google Adsense, then get rid of all non-essential links and graphics.

By taking the time to implement these six simple steps, you'll see a dramatic increase in the click-thru ratio of your ads. If added to all of the content of your site, your Adsense income will skyrocket!

By Scott J. Patterson

Work Your Google AdSense to the Bone!

You got your website, you got your AdSense account, you have updated and published your new pages with AdSense code all over it and you are starting to see a little bit of money trickling through - and it is not what you were expecting!

Like you, I thought I would be rolling in the AdSense money so fast that I already had my resignation letter printed and signed. That did not happen (yet). Well, that does not mean I have to throw that letter away, I will just have to backdate it for when I can do it.

When you are faced with this predicament, which I think everyone will come to at some point; you will need to separate yourself from the AdSense pack! You will have to transform yourself into an AdSense scientist and experiment with your website to get the best results possible! You might try some of the following:

Let's say that you are getting decent traffic to your website, so therefore you are getting a lot of AdSense impressions, but with little or no clicks. The symptoms could be related to a lack of relevancy with the AdSense ads. Go to your website and view, but DO NOT click on, your AdSense ads. Now, imagine you are one of your visitors to your website; do the ads seem relevant to your site? If you think there is a relevancy problem, you can do two things to combat it:

Look for a common thread among the AdSense ads and see if there is a term in your keywords or content that relates to it. If so, you might want to change the words to eliminate the connection.

Look at the web addresses at the bottom of the AdSense ads, you might consider blocking those web sites from your AdSense account, by doing this you will eliminate that ad from showing up again, but realize that you may get a similar ad to take its place.

Create more pages and add more content that is relevant. Make your website stickier. Make the visitor want to stay on your site longer.

Try not to think of AdSense first when putting your content together, think of your visitors and giving them something worthwhile, the AdSense stuff should just be a bonus, that is why it is considered passive income, it means you are not supposed to think about it!

Make sure you have positioned the ads well, do not hide them, do not be ashamed of them, you got them there for a reason!

Ensure that your site is well optimized - that everything it pointing to one thing - your targeted subject matter.

The problem could be that your keywords are just not that "lucrative", get yourself a listing of top paying keywords to ensure that you are using appropriate keywords that will bring in more money per click.

If you are consistently making a couple of bucks, a day or a week then replicate it. Create other web sites on different topics, different keywords. Make a couple of bucks a day or week with that one, and then continue to make another and another. Compound your efforts until you are making the kind of money you want to make.

Look for ways to increase traffic to your site, but keep it targeted and keep it relevant for your visitors and for your AdSense ads.

Make sure that the pages within your website are well linked; there is nothing more frustrating then not knowing where to go or where you came from.

Open a Google AdWords account and run ads to direct traffic to your site. Make sure that the margin between what you are spending on AdWords and what you are making on AdSense is significant enough to make this worthwhile. The great thing about traffic from your AdWords is that the visitor has shown a tendency to click on these ads already; they have pre-qualified themselves to do it on your site. You will hope that they will repeat their efforts on your site. To learn more about creating well targeted AdWords, click here!

That is it, do whatever strategy you can to work your AdSense to the bone! Make sure you do things legitimately, don't scam your visitors or manipulate them to make a few dollars with AdSense or any related program, the internet society has grown far too sophisticated to fall for anything like that, your site will be ignored and forgotten. Therefore, be a professional, treat your website like a business, and give your customers something relevant - then as an added bonus your AdSense ads will work with you.

By John Pignanelli

How to Boost Your Adsense Revenue?

By using this tutorial you will learn how to increase web traffic and click-through rates. In short you can increase your Adsense income by increasing Impressions, Click-through and Effective CPM. Improving your web statistics in any, or preferably, all of these three key areas will increase your Adsense revenue.

Increasing Impressions (Increasing web traffic)

Basically the impressions are the number of times your web pages with Adsense ads have been viewed. So it is directly proportional to the number or visitors to your web site. So, you can increase Impressions by increasing traffic to your web site. Learn our tutorial http://www.roseindia.net/webpromotion/webpromotion.shtml on web promotion, which explains how you can increase your web traffic. In short here are some of the best ways to increase targeted traffic to your web pages:

More web pages means more traffic. So, create more web pages, with relevant, laser focused content.

Increase the link popularity for your web site

List your website/s under relevant categories in more directories

Set up a directory of relevant sites on your website and accept relevant reciprocal links

Write articles relevant to your web site and submit in the article directories

Increasing Adsense click-through Even if your web site is receiving a lot of traffic, you will be earn only if your visitors clicks on the Adsense Ads and visits the advertiser web site. Clickthroughs are nothing but it is percentage of viewers who click on your Adsense ads. You can increase click-through by increasing the relevance of Adsense ads on your site, and by tweaking the format and placement of your ads. You can try different placements and colors of the ads, but be careful that the ads mixes with the content of your web site style.

Try to make the different pages with different kinds of content. And make sure that these content pages are very clearly focused. Then Google will be able to serve highly relevant AdWords to your visitors. And in this way your visitors will be more interested in the ads, which results in higher click through rates -- and more money for you!

Increasing Adsense CPM

You can also increase your Adsense income by increasing Adsense CPM. The effective CPM is a measure of your average earnings, per thousand clicks. The CPM can be increased by selecting topics (keywords) that attract high bids from Adsense advertisers in your web pages. You can use overture bid tool http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/USm/search/tools/bidtool/ to find the bid amount for your key words. On the internet there are a number of keyword research tools available, both free and paid, that you can use to find the high paid key words.

In short here is steps that you should follow to Increase your total Adsense revenue:

Develop your web site using high paying key words

Design layout of your web site and put the ads focusing on the maximum click-through

Top 5 Secrets to Making Money with Adsense

Did someone tell you you can make money easily with Google Adsense? Did they tell you that to put up a site and people will click on the ads and you can make hundreds of dollars per day?

Maybe that's true, for them, because they have a system to make this happen. They may have omitted how to make and Adsense site successful. In this article I will highlight the most important points to make your site successful.

5. Position your ads so that they look as if they are part of the content.

Position your ads so that the ads are in the visitor's field of vision. Although, you might think that putting the ads in the right and left columns keep your site clean, the clickthrough is not as effective as putting them in between the content. Look at your newspapers classifieds. Notice how many of the ads are surrounded by the actual articles? Same concepts apply here. At the very least do some of both.

4. Don't make the ads look like Ads!

People get turned off by ads with borders. We are psychologically trained to think that anything surrounded with a border is probably an ad. Look at all the print media and all over the web, and you'll notice that most ads have borders that alert visitors that they are ads. This is NOT what You want to do!

Go in your Google Adsense Layout tool and change the border colors and backgrounds to match your website colors. This will make them look like they are part of your site not ads. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Removing borders will increase your clickthrough rate immediately!

3. Add a Google Search Box on your website.

Such a simple thing but often overlooked. Did you know that if your site visitors use your Google Search box you get credited with a click? People surf the web for one primary reason -- to find information. Your website provides information. However, it is rare that we find what we want on one website. And, if we want more info we tend to want to search for more. How convenient to have a Google Search box at the end of your article!

2. Provide good content.

You may be tempted to put little content on your site. After all you want people to click on the ads not stay on your site. This may have some truth in it, but think of it the other way. Having valueable content on your site means that your visitors are more likely to bookmark your site, and the search engines will like your site better.

1. And the NUMBER ONE secret to Making Money with Adsense....

Put up as many sites as possible! Yes, this is what is never told to you. Why invest all your energy trying to get traffic to one site? What if the topic you chose is not a very popular one or has so much competetion that you get little traffic? A well known strategy is to put up as many sites as possible and then monitor the results to see which ones work and which ones don't. With the ones that do, put in extra effort to get more traffic to those sites.

To do this without buying a domain name for each one, get an account at a web host that allows unlimited subdomains. When you register a name get something general for each theme. Then use subdomains to make all the related sites.

Finally, if designing web sites is not your strong point, you can get pre-built sites and/or templates which are already layed out with the techniques I described. That will get you up and running pretty quick. Take a look at http://www.instant-adsense-websites.com.

Much Success!

By Frank Mamone

Seven Strategies to Bolster Your AdWords Campaign

So, you've tried all the marketing techniques you have read about, and you're now ready to dabble on some pay per click magic. But this form of online wizardry needs more than just a sleight of hand, as it requires careful planning and a good sense of what should be expected.

We're talking about AdWords, that Google program that allows you to advertise your site through a link that is displayed prominently in every page of a search performed on keywords relevant to your business. The way it goes is that people would bid or certain keywords. The winner of the bid would have the link to his site attached to every query that contains the said keywords.

The bid price is not the only consideration in awarding keywords. Your Click Through Rate, or CTR, also plays an important factor. CTR is acquired by dividing the number of times a user clicks on your link whenever it appears on search engine results. Whenever your site's link appears in a search query, the event is called an impression. To illustrate, supposing your site's link appears 200 times in several searches. Your impression would be 200. Supposing further that 2 users click on your link during this period, your CTR would be 2/200, or 1%.

The best thing about AdWords is that the winner of the bid only has to pay when a user actually clicks on his link. This method has given birth to the term Pay Per Click, or PPC.

Here are some strategies to help you develop a strong AdWords marketing campaign.

1. RESEARCH YOUR KEYWORDS WELL. If you have an existing business, make sure that the keywords you will choose are widely used words or phrases that people type in their search queries. If you have yet to setup a business, make sure that the keywords you are considering are actually profitable, meaning, they cater to a market with a high demand.

2. CONSIDER CREATING MULTIPLE ADS FOR EVERY KEYWORD. By having several ads appearing for the same search query, you would be able to determine which works best. The ad that performs best should be used as a model for subsequent ones.

3. DO YOUR ACCOUNTING AND SET A BUDGET YOU'RE WILLING TO SPEND PER DAY. Google allows you to set a cap on the number of hits you could generate in a day. Study your finances and come up with a ceiling that would not eat up a substantial portion of your projected earnings.

4. WRITE YOUR ADS WELL. Make use of words that would attract the readers' attention. The words should be powerful without being flamboyant. The ad should also read nicely, with a good flow and accessible character. Do not write more than what is needed nor less than what is required.

5. ALWAYS STUDY YOUR ADS. Even if they are prominently being published on Google's search pages and producing passable CTRs, you should always take time to study and refine your ads. Changing their structure from time to time would also help in winning back the attention of those who have viewed them before. Dispose of the ads that are not performing well and design new ones.

6. TRACK YOUR ADS. There are many tools available on the net that would allow you to track which of your ads produce the most visitors. These tools would help you a lot in weeding out non-performing ads and discovering a pattern that makes your successful ones tick.

7. DESIGN NOW, ADJUST LATER. Since Google considers CTR before awarding a keyword, it is required that you produce a site that is rich with informative content. Content is what attracts visitors and increases your ste's CTR. Once a keyword has been awarded and your ads are producing a consistent number of hits, you could adjust your landing page to include a sales copy that would convert your visitors into successful sales. A good sales copy can also be informative despite being a sales pitch.

It has been said the Google AdWords is a fair playing field where the system does not choose between the rich and poor webmasters. But you could always play it smart and get the most out of AdWords.

By Dave Drake

Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization - A Perfect Marriage

Pay per click or search engine optimization, which one should you use? Many view PPC marketing as a colossal waste of money while others disdain search engine optimization. In reality, the two marketing strategies form a perfect marriage.

Pay-Per-Click - PPC

PPC marketing is a love it or hate platform. For the "love it" crowd, PPC marketing is a way to get instant exposure and feedback on site designs. In a matter of minutes, you can start receiving traffic and adjusting your site to convert the traffic at the best rate possible. For those in the "hate it" crowd, bids are to high and one never knows how may of the clicks are fake and worthless.

Search Engine Optimization - SEO

As with PPC, seo marketing has its proponents and detractors. Those who love it look at the free traffic and glorious profitability of a site that converts the traffic at a decent rate. Detractors view seo as an unnecessary waste of time since it can take a year or more to get high rankings, particularly on Google. Detractors also argue that high listings are subject to changes in the search engine ranking process, which means you can lose your rankings.

So, who is right? In truth, both sides make accurate arguments. PPC is expensive and click fraud is a monstrous problem. Seo produces free traffic, but it takes along time to get to the top and rankings are subject to the whims of search engine ranking changes. The truth, of course, is both marketing platforms should be used whenever possible.

Marketing Marriage

Every site is unique, but most should combine PPC and seo marketing as part of an overall internet marketing strategy. When starting out, the PPC campaign is critical for getting immediate traffic and tweaking the site to maximize conversions. At the same time, a seo campaign should be undertaken. As the site rises in search results, the PPC campaign should be fazed out for the relevant high listings.

PPC and seo marketing are not mutually exclusive. When married together as part of an overall marketing strategy, both platforms will deliver the goods.

By Halstatt Pires

10 Great Things NOT to Do with Google AdSense

There is no question that you can make some good money with Google AdSense, but you're setting yourself up for disaster if you make any of these Top 10 mistakes!

1. Do not use fake information when opening your Google AdSense account.

Google says that's a no-no and they will cut your account off and keep all the money you may have earned. Besides, trying to hide your true identity can cause serious problems with the I.R.S. or whoever your tax authority is.

2. Do not hack or modify Google AdSense code other than to change the parameters that Google authorizes you to change.

Any attempt to bypass Google's built-in algorithms not only poses a danger to the integrity of the network, but it threatens the financial modle that Google operates under. You're not dealing with some Mom-and-Pop company here, and Google has the legal muscle and deep enough pockets to drag you through every court in the land if you damage their business with your hacking antics.

3. Keep AdSense ads off of your registration, confirmation, and all "thank you" pages.

Don't ask me why you can't put your ads there. It makes sense to me that those would be wonderful locations. Google thinks otherwise, however, and doing so is a hanging offense according to their Terms of Service.

4. Do not display AdSense ads and a competitor's ads (like Overture's) on the same page at the same time.

That just makes plain good sense. Google doesn't demand 100% SITE loyalty from you, but they do insist that their own ads not be cluttered up by offerings from their competitors.

5. Don't "beg for clicks" or provide any incentive for clicking on your Google AdSense ads.

This is a biggie and you see this rule violated all the time. Any of the "get paid to do stuff" sites that put Google ads in the member's control panels are walking the plank and they don't even realize it. Even those sites with the polite little messages asking you to "help keep my site running by clicking on our sponsor's ads" are asking to be cut off if those happen to be Google ads.

6. Never click on the ads running on your own site, even if you are genuinely interested in the product or service and are thinking of buying it!

Nothing screams FRAUD louder than a webmaster running up his or her own click counts by happily clicking on ads fromtheir own site. The Google Gods can track this activity and it won't be long until you find yourself getting a goodbye note from their fraud team.

7. No misleading labeling

Google is very specific about what text can be placed around their ads. Their Terms of Service state: "Publishers may not label the ads with text other than 'sponsored links' or 'advertisements.' This includes any text directly above our ads that could be confused with, or attempt to be associated with Google ads."

This is to keep visitors from becoming confused and barking up Google's tree when they clicked on an ad that led to a porn site instead of the recipe site they were expecting to visit.

8. Avoid keyword spamming and other divisive tricks

You may be tempted to buy one of those "generates thousands of key-word rich pages in seconds" programs that are so popular these days but I'll tell you this: Their days are numbered. Google is wise to such shenanigans and they will be hot on your trail. Other prohibited gimmicks include:

? "Sneaky" page redirects that send a visitor off to a different site then they were expecting to visit.

? Multiple sites, domains, pages, etc. which have substantially duplicate content.

? Hidden text or links of any type.

? Excessive outbound links on any page. Google recommends no more than 100. I'd keep it way below that.

? And here is a nugget of wisdom straight from Google's mouth: "Do not participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your website may be affected adversely by those links.

9. Don't advertise anything on Google's prohibited items list.

It's a lot shorter lists than PayPal's or eBay's, but it includes a lot of the same stuff like hacking/cracking content, porn, illegal drugs, gambling sites, beer or hard alcohol (I guess wine is OK), weapons, and the other usual stuff.

10. And the 10th dumbest thing NOT to do with Google AdSense is to let the other nine things stop you from running an honest site that's designed to make the most out of this very profitable opportunity that Google offers!

Adsense Tricks to Explode Your Profits

Lots of people say to make your ads blend in. However, some people are having a lot of success by making their links stand out. The most effective style seems to be having your links blue, while your other links are a less-noticeable color. A good example can be seen at www.lockergnome.com

- Place images directly above your ads. This simple technique has been known to increase CTR by 400%. To keep the images fresh some people randomize related images on their site using PHP code. You can see an example of these images at

http://www.how-to-make-money-online.info/

- Google has cited the 336x280 large rectangle as the most effective ad size.

- Place ads where your visitors will likely be focused.

Check out this heat map by Google -

http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html

- Weave your articles into your content. This is shown at lockergnome.com

- Place link units in the top left-hand corner. This part of the website has shown to be clicked on more than any other part of the page. You can see an example at lockergnome.com. (Look at the links at the top, towards the left in blue.)

- Take advantage of the "alternate URL" feature to avoid Public Service Ads that seep money away from your website.

- One of the best things you can do is add additional pages to your site. A web site with thousands of pages and tons of content often does very well in the search engines. You can get free content from article directories. You could also use public domain content, which is a favorite tactic of John Reese. Or, you could use content in the creative commons. This is getting easier than ever now that Yahoo and others have created a search engine specifically for content in the creative commons.

Succeeding with adsense is largely determined by the amount of traffic to your site. However, there are many adsense tricks that you can employ to get the most possible out of your site. Often times, this means doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling your earnings. The key is to find out what works for your web site. Testing and tracking is the key to increased revenue!

By Alli Ross

When AdSense Goes AWOL

No matter how hard you work to optimize your page, there are going to be times when Google just can't figure out which AdSense ad to deliver, so it defaults to delivering a PSA (Public Service Ad) instead.

Now I don't have any problem with charities, but I give to the ones that I choose to give to. Since I don't have a non-profit license of my own, the goal of my web site is to make money and I depend on Google AdSense revenues to help pay my bills. Someday I want it to fund my retirement as well, so I can't afford to have non-revenue PSAs showing up on my site.

The good news is the Google understands the human's basic greedy nature, so it provides us with an alternative to donating our precious web real estate to charitable organizations. That alternative is known as AdSense Alternate Ads.

As strange as it seems, this feature allows you to let Google competitors into your site. Don't worry, Google is allowing it with their eyes wide open. They even tell you how to set up the alternate ad code to work on your site and they let you do it right in your AdSense control panel.

Once you add the code to your site, Google will pull ads from whatever service you defined rather than serve a PSA. Google will do that even if those ads are coming from Yahoo, or Overture, or your grandmother's attic.

This goes a long way towards ensuring that you never lose an opportunity to monetize a visitor's time spent on your site. How nice it is of Google to gives us that opportunity.

Who do you choose?

Ah, now that's the big question. Most people head straight for Overture or Yahoo, but there are other fish in the sea worth considering. In fact, some of these fish make their living almost solely by serving replacement ads for PSAs. Run this search (http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&hl=en&q=google+psa+alternatives&btnG=Google+Search) on Google and you'll have plenty of options to choose from.

Why bother?

Sometimes Google doesn't have any ads in its inventory to match your site's keywords. Sometimes Google gets confused and can't figure out which ads to deliver, so it grabs a PSA ad.

Google also has a not-so-readily-available list of what it calls "stop words". When the Google AdSense spiders detect these words on your page they automatically trigger PSAs. Some of the more commonly known words include severe profanity (think: George Carlin's 7 Words You Can't Say on T.V), as well as other words which may very be quite legitimate for your site such as pharmaceutical, drugs, death, dying, abortion, and the list goes on and on. At least we THINK that it goes on and on but no one really knows for sure outside of a trusted few Google staffers.

But no matter what the reason, you don't want non-revenue ads running on your site. There's no excuse when Google makes it so easy to keep the revenue flowing.

A Smart Trick for Attracting Higher Paying AdSense Ads

There are no guarantees in life, so I don't guarantee that following these tips will bring you more money every time. However, I do guarantee that they will greatly increase your chances of pulling more of the top-paying AdSense ads to your site than if you don't follow these suggestions.

Enough with the disclaimers, let's get down to the business of making money. Google lets advertisers bid anywhere from a minimum of .05 per click right up to a whopping $100. It should be pretty obvious that you're not going to get rich running .05 cent ads on your site, but getting a few $100 ads, or even some $10, $20, or $30 ads can't be a bad thing, right?

Now the problem is, Google is pretty closed-mouthed about who is paying what for their ads, and there is no real way to determine which words pay the most per AdSense click.

But ah, far away in a parallel universe we find another Pay-Per-Click provider called Overture. It seems that Overture is less sensitive about releasing their top-priced words and anyone who cares to find out what web sites are paying for words and phrases can do so by simply using Overtures tattle-tale special pricing tool (http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/). And it couldn't be easier to use. You simply type in a key word or phrase and the tool returns a list of advertisers using that word and how much they are paying. It even shows you the actual ad.

Oh what a treasure trove of wealth-grabbing results this can be if you know what can be done with that priceless information.

Consider this possibility

Any key word or phrase that's worth big bucks on Overture is probably worth big bucks on Google as well, maybe even more, right? So try this experiment:

Enter the phrase "SEO Services" without the quotes in the Overture tool (http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/). When I entered that phrase on the day I wrote this article, I was found a company called SEO Inc. that was willing to pay $8.01 per click, followed by SEO Advantage at $8.00, and Online Web Consultants at $6.50. Other bidders appeared below them in the $3.00 range straight on down to some who wouldn't pay more than a dime per click.

Now, if a company is willing to pay that much money for a click on Overture, it is probably willing to pay that or more on Google. Even if that particular company isn't advertising on Google, you can be pretty sure that the same key phrase is drawing near the same bid price from other companies who do advertise on Google. So what that means is there is no way that you can possibly afford NOT to have some web pages posted somewhere that are targeted to those sweet-paying words.

All you have to do is use Overture's pricing tool to find the highest-paying key words that are related to your site and then optimize those words to start pulling similar ads. If all goes to plan, you can perhaps double, triple, or even quadruple your AdSense revenue without needing any increase in traffic or click-through rate.

How to Make Every AdSense Ad on the Google Network Pay You!

Wouldn't it be great if every keyword in Google's entire inventory could be relevant to your site? Imagine that no matter what any person searched for, all of the ads that came up in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) paid you whenever someone clicked on them.

Sound good to you? That's great. I think it sounds pretty cool as well, so let's get busy making it happen for your web site.

Here's a very much overlooked opportunity for AdSense users

That opportunity is called Google Search and this is how it works:

Tucked inside of your AdSense control panel is a section for creating a Google search box. Most AdSense users don't even pay attention to it, and that's a shame because hidden inside of that box is a lot of money that's wanting to be yours.

When you add that search box to your web site you are creating an instant portal into Google's entire keyword inventory. Any time a visitor runs a Google search from your site, every resulting AdWord ad that appears on the SERPs is tagged back to you. That means that no matter which ads they click on, money goes in your pocket. Got that? What an amazing earning opportunity.

By combining AdSense with the Google search box you open yourself up to an incredible opportunity to monetize your site. In fact, many AdSense users say that they earn more money from searches then they do from AdSense ads on their own page. And it makes sense when you think about it.

A clever idea gets even better

Just as you would expect, Google doesn't leave you hanging without support or some great ways to make even more money. Take a look at the features and options that you can set up right from within your AdSense control panel.

Customized look and feel

You can grab the standard Google search box and be up and running in seconds. Or you can add your logo and make the box match your site's color scheme with over 200 available colors.

Control the scope of your user's search

You can configure the search box to search just your site or the entire Google network. It's your choice. You can even provide your visitors with radio buttons that let them perform either search. No matter which search they choose, you're making money every time they click on an ad.

Google will even host your internal site search result pages for you so you don't have to spend a penny buying extra bandwidth or disk space from your ISP. How's that for user-friendly?

Online Tracking Tools

Of course, Google also provides you with online tracking and reporting tools so you can see how well your shiny new search box is doing for you. You can see your queries, clicks, click-through rate and total earnings just like with your AdSense for Content ads.

So if you're not earning money from every ad in Google's inventory, log into your AdSense control panel and make it happen.

By Diane

Tips for Maximizing Your Google AdSense Revenues

Despite what you may hear, the Google AdSense program is not for everyone. There are some types of web sites that do poorly no matter how hard the owners try, and there are others that should be doing well but the webmaster simply isn't putting in the effort to make things happen.

Here are some tips to make AdSense work better for you. If you do them all and you're still not having any luck, then you just might be running one of those sites that don't make money

1. Determine if your visitors are "in the mood"

Like I mentioned at the top of this article, some web sites just don't work with pay-per-click programs. The best performing sites fall into one of these categories:

? Sites where users go and expect to buy something while they are there. E-commerce sites fit the bill here..

? Sites where users go to find specific information on something that they want to buy now. Music and video review sites, vacation information sites, resume building sites, etc. You don't have to actually be selling these types of things; your site can just be a mecca for information pertaining to these things. Then, when the visitor comes to read your content, they are more likely to click on your ads.

? Sites where people who have disposable income and a credit card like to visit. This includes sites with money management, investing and lifestyle content.

? Sites that draw a large amount of new users every day. Free coupon sites and "How to" sites are good examples.

? Sites where people go who expect to read ads. Classified ads and shopping comparison sites fit into this category.

2. Make sure that your visitors don't feel that you just want to grab their money

Give them plenty of relevant and well-written content. If writing isn't your best skill then hire someone to do it for you. Good content brings steady traffic and steady traffic pays the bills.

3. Play by the rules

Google has some very specific Terms of Service (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) for participating in their AdSense program. Learn those rules and follow them so you don't lose all of your investment by getting shut out.

4. Use the tools that Google gives you

Google gives you tools for determining the best keywords for your site, measuring ad performance, and setting up different ad "channels" for fine-tuning ad results. These guys and girls are the 800 lb. Gorillas in the Pay-Per-Click market. They didn't build these tools just to keep their programmers busy. Take advantage of their knowledge for they are very big and you are not!

5. Tweak, fine-tune and then tweak again

You should never be happy with your AdSense performance. If it's good, then you need to make it great. If it's great then you need to make it amazing. If it's amazing then you need to take it to the UPS club. The UPS club? Google sends all checks over $10,000 per month to the webmaster via UPS overnight delivery. Now there's a club that I wouldn't mind belonging to.

6. Get more traffic

No matter how much traffic you have, you need more. More eyeballs translate to more clicks. Even if you're only pulling a 2% click-through. That's a lot of clicks when you have thousands of visitors each day.

7. Experiment with new keywords

New keywords can bring new ads and new eyeballs along with it. Set up some new pages on your site and experiment with different content. Once you get something that's working then refer back to Tip # 5.

You can see results in near real time when you use Google's AdWords. Don't be afraid to be different. If something that everyone else is doing doesn't work for you, then invent something that does work and get it on your site.

5 Top Tips for Maximizing Your Adsense Profits

1: The ideal Google AdSense page should have great content about a very specific topic. Take pains to be very clear about what the topic is, and carefully choose the keyword (or key phrase) describing the topic. Users don't like vague pages that don't make it very clear what the page is all about.

Don't even think about trying to 'trick' AdSense. (They have penalties, including getting kicked out.) Don't create a page on one topic and give it a file name about a different topic-that's too confusing.

In a nutshell, you want to make sure the page you create offers great value to people interested in the topic. When you provide excellent information on a specific topic, your visitors will benefit and will be more likely to click through to relevant AdWords.

2: Everyone's seen way too many horizontal banner ads up top. Thus, Google recommends you choose the vertical -- not horizontal -- format to display your AdWords. I agree. People have become "banner blind" to a horizontal format. Plus, Google has "trained" us to click on relevant text ads on their own site and they use the vertical format.

3: It's to your financial advantage to put the AdWords near the top of your page on the right. Make sure there is enough "breathing room" -- i.e. white space around the ads -- so that they will easily attract your visitors.

4: The latest marketing tests have revealed that placing pictures beside, or above you're a ads can have a massive impact on click-thru rates. This is because the eye is immediately attracted to the picture, once they see the picture, they see the ad!

5: I know it's tempting, because it seems so easy and it's just sitting there waiting for you to do it, but do not click on the AdWords displayed on your own site to increase your revenue. Google (rightfully) frowns on this.

Plus, Google has some of the smartest engineers around, and they are very good at detecting this kind of fraud. And really, for an extra $1, is it worth getting kicked out of a money-maker like AdSense? I think not?

By Gary McCaffrey

Meet Adwords, AdSenses Fraternal Twin

AdSense is one of the best ways to monetize your web traffic. People see those little "Ads by Gooogle" tidbits and they click like crazy. Or at least that's the plan. But have you ever given though to where those ads are coming from? That would be AdWords, the Pay-Per-Click program for people who want to advertise their products on Google.

They are the fine men and women who are willing to part with some coin of the realm every time a visitor to your web site chooses to click on an AdSense ad. Google grabs the cash from the AdWords' member's account, keeps some of it for themselves, and gives the rest to you. How much they keep and how much give away is a State secret, but who cares; just as long as we're getting ours each month.

How AdWords Works

AdWords provides pay-per-click advertising to merchants who are willing to shell out anywhere from a minimum 05 .05 per click all the way up to a maximum of $100 per click. Can you imagine anyone paying $100 just to have someone click on an ad?

Anyway, the advertiser joins the AdWords program and gets a control panel similar to the one that we AdSense users get. They can write their ads, pick their keywords, and establish an advertising budget. They get tools to track performance as well as to help them pick keywords. There are no monthly minimum spends required and they can turn their ads on and off at will.

Once an advertiser is happy with their ad, it gets released to the network and shows up on web sites like yours and mine. That's if the keywords on your site match the keyword requirements of the brand spanking new ad, of course.

They can't "buy" their way to the top

Google doesn't simply push the people with the highest paying ads to the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). They use a rather fair methodology that takes into consideration not only the maximum CPC (cost per click), but also includes a secret recipe for determining an ad's placement based upon the number of clicks the ad receives. So, at least in theory, an ad paying .05 per click could rise above one paying $5.00 per click if it's more popular with Google's audience.

I say "in theory" because if the owner of the $5 ad is paying attention then he or she will see that they are being bested by a lowly nickel ad and do some serious rewriting to get back up to the top where they belong.

Personally, I'm not sure that I have the guts to invest a lot of money into hoping that people who click on my ad will actually buy something, since I still have to pay Google whether I make a sale or not. But, as a dedicated AdSense user, I'm sure glad that my AdWords brothers and sisters have more nerve than I do. And you should be thankful as well.