Affiliate Marketing: Tips On How To Spot A Scam
Many of us want new jobs with new opportunities. We are either bored with what we are doing at the moment and desire new challenges, or dislike the place we are currently working and desperately want a change. Many of us would love to run our own businesses. The freedom and independence that this brings, answering only to you and working when you want is an incredibly desirable thing. However, the reality of this materializing is slim to none in most people’s cases. Most of us don’t have the capital required to start a small business. Others are frightened off by the risk factor involved. Your steady income will be gone as well as the fact that nearly 90 % of all new businesses fail within the first year.
Affiliate marketing is a way around the risk and start up costs. Affiliate marketing costs nothing to join and the risk is minimal. You paid according to what you produce and not according to how the company is performing. There are many wonderful affiliate programs for you to get involved with, however as with anything one needs to be cautious.
Unfortunately, today we live in an age of internet and business fraud. Countless people loose large sums of money on these home business scams. Unfortunately, the world of affiliate marketing is not immune to this. While it is impossible to list every precaution a person should take, there are some signs that people can look for. These don’t always mean that the company is fraudulent but they should be looked into carefully.
Many lull themselves into a false sense of security when it comes to affiliate marketing programs. They feel that, there is no cost to them money wise so they have nothing to loose. However, this isn’t true. You may get away with no money being lost but you could lose loads of your next most precious commodity, that being time. You’re going to have to work very hard to build up your affiliate marketing business so you will want to be legitimate.
You should definitely ask the company for testimonials. Don’t rely on the ones that they post on their website. Anyone could have written these. Ask for names and addresses of people that you can contact to find out how the program worked for them. You can also try searching on your favorite search engine. By looking under scams or the company name, you’ll have a good chance of digging up any dirt that is there.
Read the testimonials carefully. If you find a few bad reviews, this shouldn’t put you off. Sometimes people just are not cut out for certain programs. If there is more good than bad then things are likely okay. You can also use these testimonials for advice on what to do and what not to do.
If you have problems finding information then this should be a warning. Good affiliate programs will have been around for a while and will have a track record. Resist the temptation to join up while the offer is still hot. If it is a good program it will still be there in 6 months time. If the product or service is worth having, there will still be plenty of profit to make out of it.
The lure of running our own businesses attracts many. However, the reality of what is involved stops most of us before we get started. Affiliate marketing is a way to work for you without the financial risk. There are many great affiliate marketing programs in existence today. However, there are also many companies that are fraudulent. When deciding who to go with, check for testimonials. Use the internet to dig up the dirt. Check the company’s track record. No track record at all can be as bad as a negative record. Beware of new companies. If they are worth it they will still be there in a few months time.
Affiliate Marketing: Staying Away From Scams
When you join an affiliate marketing scheme, you either going to sell a product or a service. With products, you usually have a choice and range to sell. How you decide to do this is largely up to you. You could also sell a service. Web page designs as well as increasing sales and internet traffic are all examples of services offered by affiliate marketing programs.
How many times have you seen as ad on the internet promising huge earnings? Things like “Earn 1000$ a day” or Join our program now and become a millionaire. If your look closely at these ads they are not actually selling anything. Any company that is just selling the opportunity to make money is likely a scam. True, some affiliate marketing companies will have attention grabbing headlines like the ones mentioned above. However, if you go on to read the ad and information, there will likely be a detailed description of what they company sells. They will also have a disclaimer and terms and conditions listed.
These companies that offer, the opportunity to make money are likely pyramid schemes. The only people paying money in are the ones actually joining. There is no income being created, just money being passed from person to person. Not only are these scams and you’ll loose what you invested, they are also illegal and you can face prosecution.
Another thing to watch out for is no free participation. If you have to pay to join then you may have stumbled upon a scam or what is known as a multilevel marketing program. Multi-level marketing programs are completely legal and some people make good livings out of them. However, if you’re not successful you may end up purchasing a bunch of products that you cannot sell.
True affiliate programs are free. That is part of their attraction. There are no costs to you and they should also be risk free. Any Affiliate marketing programs that demands your money is not an affiliate program. You should ask yourself why they are misrepresenting themselves this way if they are legitimate.
Many of us dream of being our own bosses. We would love to be able to take control of our lives and careers. The attraction of answering only to you combined with setting your own working hours and committing what your choose bring loads of people into the affiliate marketing schemes. Affilaite marketing can be an excellent way for a highly motivated, creative person to make an excellent living. There are some wonderful programs out there just waiting to be joined. However, for every great program there is likely one that is fraudulent. Con artists operate in many areas and unfortunate affiliate marketing is not immune.
Before joining, check to see what the company is selling. If they are not selling goods or services then they are likely an illegal pyramid scheme. If they require your own money to get started then they are what are known as a multi level marketing program. Affiliate marketing can be a great opportunity but you need to do your homework.
Affiliate Marketing and Pay Per Click
Do you want to make more money? Do you want to turn that computer you spent so much money on into a cash cow? Well it is possible. It won’t happen overnight but with time and hard work you’ll soon be working from home if you choose.
Do you currently have a website? Do you wonder why it isn’t making you any money? You keep posting great content, wonderful writing samples and articles but still your balance is zero. Well perhaps you need to expand your horizons. By signing up for pay per click affiliate sites you can soon see cash going into your account simply by maintaining your site.
One of the most popular Pay per click programs is Google adsense. Google Adsense will take care of the advertising for you. When you sign up, your site will have new advertisements and banner places in the open spaces. If anyone visits your site and clicks on one of the ads, you get a referral payment. Again, Google takes care of the ad placement allowing you to concentrate on increasing the traffic to your site.
Joining a scheme such as Google adsense is a good idea. They will help to promote your site and advise you on how to increase your traffic.
If you have been maintaining your website for a while, you probably know that one of the best ways to attract traffic is through the use of keywords. The right keywords will have them flocking to your site. The wrong words will have them running in droves. Sites such as Google adsense can help with this as well. They operate Google ad words. This will help maximize the key word usage and help get the correct one for the most traffic. Google does charge for this service so you need to be sure it is worth it before you buy. You don’t want all of your profits ate up by the ad words scheme.
When you sign up for Google adsense, you can be assured that page appropriate ads will be places on your webpage. If you have a pet care site then things related to that topic will be placed. Obscure and ads that have nothing to do with your page are not likely to impress your reader or increase your earnings.
Google Adsense is only one example of search engines that offer a pay per click money making service. There are hundreds of others. One of the most notable is Yahoo publisher. It functions in much the same way as Google adsense and offers a similar style of service. Which one you choose will largely depend on you. If you have several sites, you could try both schemes. See which one is better and go with that one.
If you have a or several web pages that just seem to be doing nothing, then look into a pay per click program. Sites such as Google adsense and yahoo publisher will do most of the hard work for you. They will place the ads and decide which ads will be best for your site. This will leave you time to do the most important thing; increase your site traffic and eventually your ad revenue. If you have websites, look into pay per click. The service is free so you have nothing to loose.
Affiliate Marketing And Home Business
Many of us dream of being our own bosses. The lure of big money and flexible work hours is quite attractive. However, many are afraid to venture out on their own. They fear that they do not have the capital required to get a business started or they don’t want to loose the security of their day job.
The solution could be starting a home business. The truth of the matter is that you can start your home business with no money at all. Ask yourself this, do you have a spare room or space in your house. Do you have a computer with an internet connection? Do you have a phone line? If you have these three things you have the essentials of an office from which your home business can be made.
Affiliate marketing can be a great way for you to get started in your home business. Affiliate marketing will provide you with the opportunity to sell either a product or a service. With low capital and little space you may want to concentrate on services.
Once you have made the decision, you need to evaluate your skills. What services can you offer and what skills can you bring. Many people start of with affiliate marketing programs from major search engines. If you’re good at website design, you could register your page with someone such as yahoo publisher. This way your site will get traffic with the help of the search engine Yahoo. If yours is a sales website, your traffic could translate into increased sales. The more exposure to your site the better.
The other thing you can try to do is attract traffic to other sites. Retail sites such as Amazon and EBay have affiliate marketing programs. If you can generate traffic and increase sales then you make money. Both programs offer ways to increase revenues through links and blogs. These are usually free and worth using. Remember, the more you make the more they make.
Finally, your site can make money in another way. When it is posted on sites such as yahoo publisher or Google ad sense, there will be ads placed. Whenever a visitor clicks on an ad you make money. The more clicks the more cash. The operators take care of all the advertising costs and placement. They also try to place appropriate ads to your page. If you’re selling rare books ads for fish food are not likely going to get clicked.
If you want to start working for yourself but feel you don’t have the money then you’re wrong. If you have a computer and space to put it then you have all you need. You can also start you home business and work it around your job. You can gradually commit more time as your home business grows.
If you’re tired of your job and really want to work for yourself then stop making excuses and do it. Though affiliate marketing programs and selling services you will find that having your home business is easier than you think. All it takes is time and a commitment to succeed. By taking advanantage of the affiliate marketing programs that are currently available, you can make money and improve your own marketing skills. Remember, you can always expand into other areas and venture out totally on your own later. Right now, get marketing and get clicking.
A Day In The Life Of An Affiliate Marketer
Being in the affiliate marketing business is not that hard now with the internet at your disposable. It is much easier now compared to the days when people have to make use of the telephones and other mediums of information just to get the latest updates on the way their program is coming along.
So with technology at hand, and assuming that the affiliate is working from home, a day in his or her life would sound something like this…
Upon waking up and after having breakfast, the computer is turned on to check out new developments in the network. As far as the marketer is concerned there might be new things to update and statistics to keep track on.
The site design has to be revised. The marketer knows that a well-designed site can increase sign ups from visitors. It can also help in the affiliate’s conversion rates.
That done, it is time to submit the affiliate program to directories that lists affiliate programs. These directories are means to attract people in joining your affiliate program. A sure way of promoting the affiliate program.
Time to track down the sales you are getting from your affiliates fairly and accurately. There are phone orders and mails to track down. See if they are new clients checking the products out. Noting down the contact information that might be a viable source in the future.
There are lots of resources to sort out. Ads, banners, button ads and sample recommendations to give out because the marketer knows that this is one way of ensuring more sales. Best to stay visible and accessible too.
The affiliate marketer remembered that there are questions to answer from the visitors. This has to be done quickly. Nothing can turn off a customer than an unanswered email.
To prove that the affiliate is working effectively and efficiently, inquiries would have to be paid more attention on. Nobody wants to be ignored and customers are not always the most patient of all people. Quick answer that should appear professional yet friendly too.
In the process of doing all the necessities, the marketer is logged on to a chat room where he or she interacts with other affiliates and those under that same program. This is where they can discuss things on how to best promote their products.
There are things to be learned and it is a continuous process. Sharing tips and advices is a good way of showing support. There may be others out there wanting to join and may be enticed by the discussion that is going on. There is no harm in assuming what opportunities ahead.
The newsletters and ezines were updated days ago, so it is time for the affiliate marketer to see if there are some new things happening in the market. This will be written about in the marketer’s publication to be distributed to the old and new customers.
These same publications are also an important tool in keeping up to date with the newly introduced products. The marketer has put up a sale and promotion that customers may want to know about. Besides, they have to keep up with the deadline of these sales written in the publications.
It is that time to show some appreciation to those who have helped the marketer in the promotions and sale increase. Nothing like mentioning the persons, their sites and the process they have done that made everything worked.
Of course, this will be published in the newsletters. Among the more important information that have been written already.
The marketer still has time to write out recommendations to those who want credible sources for the products being promoted. There is also time to post some comments on how to be a successful affiliate marketer on a site where there are lots of wannabees.
Two objectives done at the same time. The marketer gets to promote the product as well as the program they are in. Who knows, someone may be inclined to join.
Time flies. Missed lunch but is quite contented with the tasks done. Bed time….
Ok, so this may not be all done in a day. But then, this gives you an idea of how an affiliate marketer, a dedicated one that is, spends the marketing day.
Is that success looming in the distance or what?
Search Engine Optimization and Advertising
In today’s net-savvy world it has become common for any business to have a website which they use mostly for advertising their products and services. With the advent of search engines it has become even easier for the customers to search for the stuff online. For a website to be successful its link should land in the first three pages which the search engine brings and the rank of the page should be high which means many visitors come to the site. This can be achieved by applying search engine optimization or popularly known as SEO. This is a marketing strategy which increases the quality and quantity of traffic flow to a particular website via search engines.
SEO not only affects the search engine results, but also image search, video search and industry specific vertical search engines. It determines how a search algorithm functions and searches what is popular with people. When a website link is submitted to a search engine, a spider crawls through a page to gather links which lead to other pages and stores those pages on the server of the search engine. The information collected from these pages is sent to the indexer, whose job is to extract information from those pages such as the keywords and their weights, the location of the page and other links that are stored for the spider to crawl in future.
In the beginning, the search engine optimizer algorithms were dependant on the keywords, Meta tags, and index files provided by the Webmaster. Meta tags provided information about a particular page, but using them for indexing the pages didn’t prove to be successful as some Webmasters added irrelevant Meta tags to increase the number of hits and earn huge ad revenue. They even changed the HTML of the web pages to achieve a good rank for the page. But this was a case of abuse as it fetched irrelevant pages.
Search engines then began utilizing complex ranking algorithm, which were difficult for the webmasters to manipulate so as to provide web surfers with genuine results. The rank of the web page was calculated mathematically by functions using strength and quantity of the inbound links. The higher the rank of the page the more chances it had to be viewed by a person. Later algorithms were developed which considered various other on-page factors such as rank and off-page factors such as hyperlink. Since the webmasters couldn’t manipulate the page rank, they began exchanging, selling and buying links, which lead to link spamming and even creation of numerous sites dedicated for this purpose.
Algorithms became more complex by every passing day and top search engines kept their algorithms a secret. As the cost of SEO increased, advertisers were roped in to pay for it, which finally resulted in high quality web pages. Although investing in SEO is very fruitful, but at the same time is risky because with out any prior notice the algorithms being used are bound to change and the search engine will stop directing visitors to the page. Many consultants are available in the market that provides SEO services. They manipulate the HTML source code of the web site like menus, shopping carts and sometimes even the content of the website to draw more traffic. Search engines like Yahoo has algorithms that extract pages not according to the page rank but according to the cost per click or set fee, that is if a advertiser desires that the page containing his ad be displayed, he is expected to pay money for it. This is a point of controversy, as only the big businesses will be able to increase the number of hits of their page but not the small business who might be having a better quality page.
Google Ad Words explores ads which have words typed in the search box by the surfer. The Million Dollar Homepage started the concept of Pixel advertising, which is a graphical kind of advertising. Depending on the pixels, the space is sold to the advertiser. Keyword advertising involves advertisers who buy URLs of a site and place their ads at that location. Thus SEO is a market in its own which is yielding great results for businesses on Internet.
Impact of Colors in Advertisements
Human brain receives signals faster through eyes rather than ears. Visual appearance is supposed to be more appealing when compared to any other senses, no matter what the medium of presentation is. So, there are methods by which one can increase the visual appeal. Other senses facilitate visual appeal, and are also important to concentrate on.
Typical example is color when accompanied with audio, and writing. According to a study, big budget companies spend billions in the color market research, which helps in product and packaging development. Color, along with content, helps to pertain the interest of the visitor and makes him surf the website longer. A colorful article will make the reader read it till the end. Color makes things look more amiable.
Colors are known to influence the behavior of a person. Like blue color is said to have a relaxing effect. Red represents passion and love. A dating website can have red as the background color. Fast food restaurants have bright picture of food beautifully decorated pasted on the walls. This tempts the taste buds of the customer and the customer pounces on the food, eats and leaves quickly. And this is exactly the reaction expected.
Light effects can also be used to play with the mind of the on-looker. Advertisements, especially for food products, have strategically placed lights. The light effects trigger the hormones in the brain, which increases the hunger. If the same is placed in a slightly dim light, it won’t be equally tempting.
Countries around the world have different cultures that relate a color to an occasion or emotion. Climatic conditions also attribute to this. Like in America, people relate black to death and where as in Asia, white is related to death. People living near the equator like warm colors and people living nearer to the poles like cold colors.
It’s a must for an advertiser to have the knowledge about the colors and what they refer too. Black stands for elegance, sophistication, seduction and mystery. White stands for peace, pure, clean, mild and youthful. Gold stands for prestige, luxury and elite. Silver stands for prestige, scientific and cold. Yellow stands for warmth, happiness and cheer. Orange stands for warmth, playfulness, and vibrant. Red stands for love, excitement, strength, passion, and danger. Pink stands for nurture, sweet, soft, and security. Green stands for nature, fresh, fertility and abundance. Blue stands for cool, trust, belonging and reliability. And lastly Purple stands for spiritual, royalty, and dignity.
From the advertiser’s point of view, we can conclude that colors can determine the shopping habits of customers. Black, blue, red and orange attract impulsive buyers. Smart shoppers are attracted to pink, light blue and navy blue colors. Companies use colors in logo, advertisement, etc., to pass the right message to the customer. Wal-Mart advertise has a navy blue background and its catch line is “We sell for less”, which means smart customers are their goal. Mercedes has a silver logo, true to its class.
Before designing an advertisement, the targeted customers should be recognized and the advertisers shouldn’t use the colors that are their personal favorites but according to the ad campaign. Advertisement for children should have bright and vibrant colors. Yellow, red, blue and green, which are the primary colors, are the colors, which attract the children, which is why parents buy those colors for their kids. These colors represent warmth, sweetness, trust, reliability, playfulness and security.
How to write good advertising content?
To write successful advertisement content is to catch the attention of the customer at first sight as they flicker though the brochures and fliers like they flip through a magazine and not how they will read books with concentration. It need not be necessary that the customer reads each and every line of the advertisement; hence, each line should be effective and should pass out a message. So it’s not only necessary to write logical matter, but it should also be creative enough.
Firstly, only relevant and specific matter should be written in the ad. Some content writers fear missing out information and write as much as they can. This will only disinterest the customers more and space will be wasted. The writing style should be related to the type of flier or brochure that is to be written. Its usual for the reader to read skipping lines in between and there is a possibility that they will read it from bottom to top. It always helps to use words that sell. But still, the content should be properly organized with the heading at the top, body in the middle and conclusion at the end. The main points can be written as sub-headings, in bold font. The body following the sub-heading should discuss the sub-heading and if it is related to any other sub-heading, even those points should be discussed. If the product is to be discussed from the technical point, it should not be so technical that it sounds like a foreign language to a common man.
Chucking is another technique that can be used. Chucking is writing small stories with conclusion at the end. They can either have or not have connection between themselves. Its better if they aren’t connected, because it won’t require the reader to go back to a previous chunk in order to understand the present chunk he is reading. This works quite well when there are pictures in the advertisement and the chunk illustrates the picture. The two-dimensional picture is speechless unless some well-chosen words talks about it and motivates the customers. Obviously, while chucking, sub-headings can be used to let out critical information. Another point to be considered is the product or company about which the content is based on. Suppose if the brochure is related to a corporate, the style of writing should be formal.
Spelling mistakes should be avoided to the maximum extent. They reflect poor quality and bring bad reputation to the client. The design should speak clearly and loudly about the organization being discussed. Unclear, cluttered and illogical information creates an illusion that the company also has the same characteristics. Catalogues are the only source of advertisement for some businesses, because of low investments. Such kind of business catalogues won't require much writing, just product description will do. Instead one can work on the font sizes, colors, etc.
The next step should be writing information about contacts so as to buy the product; detailed forms are big turn-off. Contact information, postal address and website URL should be clearly specified. Also include whether the business accepts cash, check or credit card. Another thing to be taken care of is the contact information, which is usually written on the forms, which have to be mailed. It is better to write them on the advertisement also so that the customers can save it for future reference.
After the final content is written, it’s the time for organizing it. Depending on the demand of the products, arrange them in hierarchy, especially when designing a catalogue because each of the products should get the consideration and attention they deserve.
It is a good habit to write down procedures, which have been applied to every kind of advertisements written. And also save the information like what customers were targeted with what kind of advertisements, to use to the same kind of logic the next time to similar customers. This helps to create a blueprint for a future job.
Advertising on Internet
Ever since the advent of Internet, advertising on the World Wide Web has been very popular. Many corporations, companies and business have taken advantage of this and you can see ads on any web pages you visit. Consumer can go to any search engine and type the keyword relating to what they are looking for and hit search and they will be provided with a huge list from which they can select. This is a very cost effective and time saving method of advertising.
It has become really easy for any business to have a personalized website by which they can advertise, directly interact with the customer; provide details about their product and services. Regular newsletters, offers, discounts can be pasted on site to increase the interest of the website visitors.
Since it’s easy to reach any kind of audience concerning any kind of business, the possibility of misuse is always there. Based on this Internet advertising is classified into two kinds of advertisement, legal online advertising and illegal online advertising. Legal online advertising includes online advertising directories, search engine advertising, e-mail advertising, and desktop advertising. Illegal advertising is more commonly know as spamming. This is usually done by altering some system settings with the help of external applications after which pop-ups are sent to a particular network or computer. The external applications are known as adware or spyware. Some of these are really harmful, the most famous being Trojans, which are very hard to uninstall and remove from the system.
With the increase in technology, special effects are being used to make advertisement more interesting. Vivid colors, good page layout and lots of imagination is involved. Typically Adobe Flash is used to design advertisements these days. Depending on the technology being used to design advertisements can be classified into various categories.
Banner ads are animations displayed on the website usually created in HTML or Eudora. There is a range of type and sizes of the ads. Trick banner ads are banner ads that have an extra functionality of dialog boxes and buttons and are displayed as an alert or error message.
A pop-up is an advertisement displayed in a new window that covers up the active web page. A pop-under advertisement opens in another window that is under the active web page and can be seen after the present window is either closed or minimized.
Interstitial ads are those that are displayed before directing over to the desired page.
Wallpaper ads form the background of the web page.
The ads that float on the screen are known as a floating ad.
Polite ads download on a low pace without interrupting the normal functioning of the website.
An ad that enlarges and changes the contents of the page being displayed is known as expanding ad.
Advertisements which are displayed in a video form on a website is known as a video ad.
There are many ways by which advertising slots can be purchased on Internet like CPM, CPV, CPC, CPA, CPL and CPO. CPM or cost per mil means that the advertiser is meant to pay for a particular number of people to whom the advertisement will be exposed. CPV or cost per visitor means that the advertiser is meant to pay for the people to whom the advertisement was delivered. CPC or cost per click means paying for the number of clicks made on the advertisement by the visitors. Although the advertisement is put up on the website, the amount is paid only after the visitor clicks on the URL of the advertisement. CPA or cost per action means that the advertisement publisher bares all the charges of advertisement, but he gets paid only if the visitor clicks on the advertisement and purchases a product or signs-up for a service. CPL or cost per lead is similar to CPA, only that the visitor doesn’t have to necessarily buy anything; he or she can simply apply to get regular newsletters and special offers. CPO or cost per order is where the advertiser pays each time an order is placed.
Online advertisements cannot only be used to promote a product or service but in fact they can be used for purposes like promoting charity and spreading education.
Top Paying Keywords
In people's search for higher incomes from Google AdSense a lot of AdSense publishers are looking to find those keywords that really bring the best income possible. The higher an advertiser pays for a keyword, they more the advertiser receives when they click on a link.
But how can you find such words for your site? Well, the answer to that question depends a little on who you are and what you're prepared to do to get those keywords. But the general good news is that you can indeed find such words if you need them.
Of course, if you can afford such a solution, one of the best ways of getting your hands on those words would be to pay for them. There are specialized companies that do business by finding people good keywords, not only for the purpose of more AdSense revenue but for search engine optimization as well.
Such a service can be found on "Top Paying Keywords" http://www.toppayingkeywords.com/?hop=moneymkr and this is a no-brainer to getting relevant content on your site and increasing your revenue by a whole bunch quickly.
Of course, if such a solution does not work for you, you can ultimately resort to a method of personal investigation. That means you try out keywords by yourself and see which ones work better or worse for yourself.
While you might also be doing this for the first method (paying someone else to get the keywords) it would probably be better then this because you'd at least be narrowing down search to certain items.
While you're trying this make sure to keep using AdSense's 'channels' feature along the way as it can be a very good way of letting you know which sections of your site are generating income and which aren't.
Of course, you can also yield a great amount of help from AdSense's arch enemy Overture. Overture gives you the possibility of entering keywords and finding out not only how much advertisers are paying to get them on your page, but how much people are clicking on the words as well. This service can be found at: http://www.pixelfast.com/overture/
You can also try out a tool called Word Tracker http://jeremyburns.com/a/wordtracker. What this tool can do is tell you how many sites are already using the same keywords. Learn from this lesson and don't try to use the words that a lot of people are already using.
Also, a great aid may very well be found in Google itself. Search Google for any keywords you may wish to include in your pages and look at the results. The results on the left will probably be your competitors (and if they have Google AdSense ads on their page you can bet then are) while the links on the right display ads relevant to your search.
If your search doesn't yield any AdSense results then you might want to reconsider including those keywords in your site.
Make sure you don't use any dead words (words that don't get any links on AdSense other then public ads. That is probably the most important thing you should be doing.
Of course these are only a few methods of getting out of the dead zone and starting to make serious money with AdSense. If you've seen a lot of people with "not so hot" websites generating a lot of AdSense revenue, using these tips can get you right behind them (or in front if you're really smart) very fast. Although this is the case it is also very important to remember that having the highest paying words does not mean that you make the most money. You have to also consider how many times the advert is clicked on.
The Future of Google Adsense
There are many ideas springing up concerning what AdSense will look like in the future and how the system will change as opposed to what it is now.
Firstly, it's clear that targeting algorithms will become even better and more powerful then they are now. This has clearly been seen with the Google search engine itself over the last few years and it should be of no surprise as this happens with AdSense. Advertisers will appear in more appropriate results and those advertisers who manipulate their content to allow high paying keywords to appear may struggle to do this unless it is actually appropriate to their content.
Another thing which is bound to happen is more protection for AdWords advertisers concerning click fraud. Google acknowledges this to be a very key issue that it needs to address as quickly as possible and there's no doubt it will happen as fast as possible. At the moment those who have high levels of traffic, can easily disguise IP addresses and increase CTR ( Click Through Rate).
Google is always keen on improving its products and this has been seen before in AdSense. The search engine company has introduced site-targeted AdSense CPM, "smart pricing" and domain blocking and there will probably be improvements that have already been added by other similar sites.
One such example is the option for the advertiser to have more control over where the content is being displayed. This could mean blocking your site from displaying on several addresses that host AdSense banners.
Another idea that has been advanced is that Google will integrate AdSense in other forms of media like newspapers or television and so on. While this might seem to be more on the science-fiction side of the facts there's no indication that this might not happen.
Google have access to an international array of over 150,000 advertisers of whom may choose to penetrate offline markets in different countries. With Google’s strong network of advertisers, they may choose to appoint or allow offline distributors to create a format for Adwords advertising in content, in search and now offline.
More options could be implemented for AdSense publishers, allowing them to specify keywords of their own. While Google has been reluctant of this there's no indication that this will not happen in the future.
Also, a lot of people are demanding a clear specification of the pricing policy of AdSense. Google has given no indication of why this isn't public information but at this moment it seems highly unlikely that such information will ever be present on Google AdSense.
Another feature that could find itself into AdSense would be letting website publishers see which links are generating clicks on their website and based on what keywords they arrive there.
This could end up being a major issue that could threaten the entire system as it could perhaps encourage more adsense only websites as profits become more transparent. A lot of people may make AdSense-only sites, designed just for making profits through AdSense.
While this is already happening today, it might be foolish of Google to put such tools in the hands of its publishers.
However, one thing that could happen is a way for users to fix their issues with low AdSense generated income on their site. This could be done through an on-line wizard or something similar that would make suggestions to website owners based on their contents.
But the major buzzword of the day is RSS. The possibility of sending targeted ads directly to users without requiring any navigation on their behalf is becoming a reality with RSS. And there are clear signs that Google isn't going to let such an opportunity pass by.
This is what "interactive television" and similar items have been trying to do for quite some time now. But the Internet would be a much better medium for this, because there are no mediums quite as interactive as the Internet.
But in the end, this is mostly speculation and we are bound to have Google surprising us with new features we would have never thought of.
SEO for Adsense
If you've been using Google's AdSense on your pages you obviously feel the need to somehow generate even more traffic for your website, which in turn would translate to more AdSense click and a higher income.
But who do you do this? Well, the major way you'll get visitors to see your website (other then using AdWords, which is encouraged as well) is to use some techniques to have search engines send more and more users towards your page, by ranking high in search results for your topics of interest.
Believe it or not this is a technique, better known as search-engine optimization or simply SEO. So here are a bunch of tips that come handy under every amateur or professional optimizer's belt.
The first thing you need to take care of is the actual source code and layout of your page. This has to be kept as simple as possible. The problem comes when AdSense and the search engines themselves begin to have troubles in extracting the most relevant keywords on your site because of a too complex layout.
Secondly, try to have each one of your pages target only one specific topic. This way it is a lot easier for them to get indexed properly and for the AdSense ads to be consistent with the content of the site itself.
Also, try not to include too many hyperlinks in your page as well. This also means you should try not to use too many AdSense ads on your page either.
If there are certain keywords you wish to target, make sure the word you wish to target is present in the title, in the first paragraphs as well as in the name of the file. While you're at it you might want to ensure the word springs up in the page's last paragraphs.
And of course, it's very important for your content to have original and compelling content. How do you do this? Well the easiest way to do it is to find something you're really passionate about. That way, providing you give it a lot of effort you're bound to have a great page quite fast.
If the content you use in your site is in the public domain (which is highly discouraged) make sure that you at least give it an original title, and add an opening and a closing paragraph of your own.
This takes a little while, but if, after waiting, you still can't find your page near the top, you should try rewriting your title and your first and last paragraphs. It doesn't take much, often just changing a few words will give you the right results.
And of, course there's the use of keyword tools that may aid you in finding some good keywords to include on your page that will drive visitors to your site more and more.
So those are about the basic techniques in search engine optimization. You can find a lot of computer tools to aid you in doing this, and of course, Google is a great place to search for this.
In the end, you'll find that SEO is a complex topic, and entire books have been written on the topic as well. You might find that you have a lot of optimization you need to do in order to get more and more visitors to your site and clicking those precious AdSense banners.
How Much Money Will I earn Through Adsense?
If you're looking at Google's AdSense program you're surely asking yourself how much you could make from such a program, and you probably think you can't make as much as you can from traditional advertising schemes.
Google, of course, keeps a great deal of secrecy regarding how much AdWords advertisers pay per each click directed to their site and the same applies for how much AdSense banner holders make from their websites.
While there's nothing official, rumors circulate around the Internet concerning the amount of cash a website can earn by using AdSense. And many people (illegally) disclose how much they have been making with AdSense. There are stories of people raising over one thousand dollars per month using AdSense.
There are also stories of people exceeding $100,000.00 per month but it's a bit hard to believe such stories. The truth to the matter is that if you have a small website and you just want it to support itself, and don't wish to reach your pocket for its maintenance costs you can probably do this with AdSense.
AdSense is also very good for people who host a lot of pages. Even if the said pages don't generate a lot of traffic individually, every click counts and you can earn up with a lot of money by doing this. And that just goes to prove that sometimes quantity matters nearly as much as quality.
There's no telling how much money you're going to make by using Google's AdSense but you can sort of tell for yourself, before actually starting, by taking a few things into consideration.
First, is the amount of visits you get every day. While there's no way to estimate precisely on this, you can generally make a safe assumption that if you have a lot of clicks per day you'll be making good money.
Also, this depends on what exactly your site is about. If your site is about anything popular (music, sex, whatever) you're bound to get a lot of banner clicks. These have a coefficient associated with them, called the CTR (click through ratio).
Basically, what it translates to is that if a large proportion of your site's visitors click the ads you'll be making more money. And the best way to do this is to have some popular content in your site, ensuring the links direct users towards popular items as well.
Then of course, there's the position and number of ads on your website. While you don't want to overdo it, having many links will undoubtedly generate more income for you as a webmaster. Do not however believe, that if you just add a lot of ads in an important portion of your site, visitors could always just skip them (and be assured that many do just that).
There's something between an art and a science to positioning your ads. People generally look in certain places and never look in others, and knowing this a website author and/or webmaster can do a great deal of things to increase his earnings with AdSense.
All in all, the amount of money you make with AdSense depends on many factors. But if you have a site with interesting contents and/or many pages, and if you see a constantly large amount of traffic every day, you can bet you'll be making a lot of money with AdSense.
Even if you aren't in the above categories, AdSense is still worth using because there's very little hassle in setting it up, and many times it can help financially support the site, whilst being a nice bonus to get through the post at the end of the month.
Adsense - Pros and Cons
You have that site on-line for quite a while, its generating a good number of hits every day and you're thinking whether or not to use AdSense advertising on it to make it generate some form of income.
Well this is a description of the pros and cons of this approach to Internet advertising. AdSense has definitely hit the Internet like something from another planet and people are very excited about it everywhere. There are negative aspects to Adsense and alternatives to consider.
AdSense is generally a great tool for webmasters. Whereas, they would use to worry about how to raise enough money to keep their sites profitable, or at least keep them on-line those worries are gone.
AdSense allows webmasters to forget about those worries and concentrate on creating good content for their sites. In fact, the emphasis is now on creating quality content (often associated with the top-paying words) which will bring you many visitors.
AdSense can also very well integrated with your website, it's easily customizable in terms of colors, size and position which means you can experiment with it in any way you like to maximize your income.
AdSense is a very good means of generating a constant revenue on your site. All you need to do is create some quality content and keep it updated constantly and you can literally live off your website. A lot of people are doing just that nowadays with AdSense, so it's become sort of a business in itself.
It's also a great program because you can have the same account advertising on all your pages. This is great for webmasters wit a lot of content because it means they don't have to create many accounts unnecessarily.
But as stated, above, there are some negative aspects to advertising with AdSense and here's a small list of such cons.
Clearly the largest negative impact the AdSense program can have on you is through Google closing your accounts. Most of the time this happens because of so called 'click fraud', which means somebody would be producing artificial clicks on your page.
There's one really nasty side to that. It doesn't have to be you making those artificial clicks. It could very well be your competition doing this in order to shut you down, or the competitor of whoever is advertising on your page, looking to drive their marketing costs up.
The earning AdSense brings you are by no means constant. In fact, they're not even close to that. Anything you do to your site could end up being a big mistake costing you a great deal of money. It's that kind of pressure that has a negative impact on you.
First of all, you constantly need to make sure your site is in the spotlight of search engines when people are searching for whatever it is your site is about.
If you fail to do that you won't have any visitors, and that of course means you won't have any AdSense revenue. In a way this is nothing new, as any form of generating revenue on the Internet with advertising has such a drawback.
And finally, another major problem is that you constantly have to feed your site with better and better content. Now, of course, certain sites are very well geared towards doing this but with some types of content this is rather hard to achieve. This is often why the services of a copywriter are employed to generate more and more content.
When writing original content, the best thing a website owner can do is research a topic thoroughly and then return to writing with lots of information they can out in their own words, and show their own opinion on.
So there are the pros and cons of using the AdSense network for generating profits through advertising. Now the choice of whether or not these work for you is yours.
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Adsense is for Everyone
Yes, all those nay sayers ended up eating their own words in the end. And that is because the folks at Google never go and do something without assessing whether or not it will be profitable, or exactly how profitable it is.
But of course, as you might very well know, AdSense isn't just profitable for Google. It's also profitable for the people who advertise via AdWords and very profitable for publishers who use it to make earnings which are sometimes just enormous.
So one must ask himself why this is such a good deal for everybody. And the question in itself is very justified because you hardly ever come across something that's profitable for everyone in the chain. So why would AdSense be any different.
Well, AdSense is where it stands today, giving benefits for everybody in the game because it exploits a gap in the Internet's advertising model.
You see, the Internet is a very interactive environment, and its interactions come from the people who are browsing. They choose whether or not to follow a certain link and the term "navigating" is probably the most precise one at describing this situation.
So AdSense is great because it links together buyers and sellers. Yes, you have to hand it out to Google for a brilliant idea. They know there are people out there that want to buy stuff and people who want to sell them what they're interested in. And Google AdSense helps members of the two categories find each other.
It works for the visitors, because the model is very transparent. You don't see a huge graphic banner which tries to lure you into buying something. You just see a few words. And if you like what you see you can just click it. It works because visitors don't have that feeling of someone trying to lure them into spending money. Ironically, however, they're wrong.
It works for the AdWords advertisers because their ads go everywhere. Not only will they find themselves listed in Google's search which gets gazillions of hits per day, up front without working as much for SEO and waiting so much.
Their ads can reach any website that deals with anything similar to what they're trying to sell. Now you must realize they could never pull of such great advertising by themselves. And that brings us to the thing that makes Google's AdSense a publisher's best friend.
It comes from the fact that the ads are contextual, that they somehow related to the keywords you deal with on your page. Because people or on your site, which deals with a certain topic, you already know they're interested in that topic.
But, hey, wait a minute, Google knows some companies which want to sell your visitors something related to their topic. Google wants your visitors, you want Google's advertisers and the visitors just want to buy stuff. And that is the essence of what makes AdSense a great deal for everybody.
This is by far the most profitable hook-up deal you're ever going to see anywhere on the Internet.
So you have to appreciate Google for realizing a killer deal. You have to appreciate how well thought out, yet simple this scheme really is. Sure, in practice it has a few quirks but those are minor and, up to this point everyone seems to be enjoying Google's AdSense.
Adsense alternatives - part 2
Bidvertiser (http://www.bidvertiser.com/)
Like AdSense, Bidvertiser displays text ads in your page. But the difference lies in the fact that advertisers bid over your advertising space, ensuring you earn as much revenue as you possibly can. This also means that bids will increase over time, earning you even more cash. You also get a great way to customize your ads with a very easy to use tool and detailed reports on your site's status.
Quigo AdSonar (http://www.quigo.com/adsonarpublishers.htm)
Quigo AdSonar achieves relevancy by placing a filter according to your site's categories. It also offers you on-line reports of your site's status and the possibility to add your own custom ads replacing ads that don't gain you any revenue. The setup is very simple, in a similar fashion to AdSense's and quite customizable as well.
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT (http://www.intellitxt.com/site/web_01a.html)
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT offers user-activated ads, highlighting certain words within the content of the page and presenting relevant ads when a user hovers his mouse over them. It uses a pay-for-performance pricing scheme and can easily be used along with other advertising methods, because it is unobtrusive. It places you in full control, allowing you to easily integrate it within your site with some simple JavaScript.
Nixie (http://www.nixxie.com/display.php?section=Partners)
Nixie claims to hold a technology that can read and understand your site, enabling it to display the most relevant content to your site. Besides text ads, Nixie also features price comparison listings as well as live auction advertising. It's very easy to implement and has a good payment policy as well.
MIVA AdRevenue Xpress (http://www.miva.com/us/content/partners/arx.asp)
MIVA AdRevenue Xpress is targeted towards small and mid-sized publishers. It implements Search Box functionality and also features things like a Category Directory as well as the handling of 404 error pages. It can be integrated with your page using a simple on-line wizard.
Fastclick (http://www.fastclick.com/publish.html)
Fastclick offers you an impressive 65 percent of what it makes from a click on your website. Payments are done monthly, via PayPal or through checks. The ads can be formatted as you wish, and Fastclick even offers a free support serice for its members and no fees are required to register with the service.
contextWeb ContextAd (http://www.contextweb.com/Corporate/publisher/publisher.shtml)
ContextAd offers the possibility of contextual ads for dynamic pages, meaning ads will change as soon as your page does. It's very easy to use and free to sing up for and offers a transparent payment policy. The ads are fully customizable and real-time reports are available 24/7.
AdBrite (http://www.adbrite.com/)
AdBrite offers publishers the possibility of integrating text ads in their pages. These are done on your own rates, with the websites you approve by hand so it bares some similarities with a classic advertising scheme. You also have the option of adding a "Your Add Here" button that buyers can immediately click to ad space on your page. It can also be used in conjunction with Google AdSense, maximizing your CTR and offering advertisers the possibility of showing their links in your Google AdSense space. You have full control over the look and feel of your adds and finally, you get an incredible 75% of what the advertiser pays for on every click.
So, as you can see there are many offers for this kind of advertising, and many hybrids based on AdSense like advertising. Also, a lot of services can work together with AdSense to earn you an even greater amount of revenue for your ad space!
Adsense alternatives - part 1
Type the phrase "paid surveys" in Google, and you will see a countless list of paid survey web sites. Some claim $150/hr payment, others say it's the perfect work at home job, while others say online paid surveys are just a scam. With all of these conflicting links, it's hard to know what to believe. Are online paid surveys an Internet Jackpot, an online scam, or somewhere in between? Are you missing a great opportunity or should you stay away?
The first thing that you must understand is that market research is a real business. Market Research firms have been paying customers to take surveys and participate in focus groups long before the internet was a household commodity. It's just that with the increasing number of people online, the internet has become an effective and efficient way for marketing companies to collect data and test their advertisements. Also the internet gives these market research firms access to a wide demographic of users, which allows them to get a better idea of how their products will perform with people of different age, sex, nationality, etc.
Unfortunately, many questionable sites have popped up on the internet which has ruined the image on online paid surveys. These sites usually make outrageous claims about how much money you can make by working from home. They usually charge a "membership fee" to gain access to a list of web sites that conduct online paid surveys. They claim that their lists are special, and offer the highest paying surveys. But the truth is that the survey sites they list can be found for free on the internet. Legitimate market research firms do not charge panel members any fees or try to sell you any products. With a little research you can find all of the quality market research firms yourself. Also, there are several good sites on the internet that offer free reviews and listings. You should never have to pay for information or access to online paid surveys.
Assuming that you manage to avoid the scams, and stick with legitimate market research firms, the question remains is it really worth the time? The answer lies in your expectations. If you are looking for the perfect work at home dream job, this is not it. If you would be happy with an extra couple hundred dollars a month then read on.
The typical pay for any given survey varies, but most offer between $2 to as high as $50 or more per survey. The problem is that these firms are usually looking for a certain demographic, and you may not always qualify for all the paid surveys that are sent your way. These survey invitations are usually sent to you via an email, with details about the incentive offered, and a link to the survey. Usually you are asked to fill out a short screener survey, and if you qualify then you can continue on and earn the full amount promised. If you do not qualify, you are dismissed, with some sites offering a small incentive or a sweepstakes entry for your time. The screener survey usually takes less than 5 minutes, and the full survey can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.
If you sign up with several quality market research firms, and can qualify for several surveys, you should be able to make anywhere from $50 to several hundred dollars a month for the household petty cash piggy bank. It's not exactly a fortune, but it can help offset some of your monthly bills, and it only takes a couple hours a week.
Are Online Paid Surveys A Pot Of Gold Or Ever-decreasing Petty Cash?
The first thing that you must understand is that market research is a real business. Market Research firms have been paying customers to take surveys and participate in focus groups long before the internet was a household commodity. It's just that with the increasing number of people online, the internet has become an effective and efficient way for marketing companies to collect data and test their advertisements. Also the internet gives these market research firms access to a wide demographic of users, which allows them to get a better idea of how their products will perform with people of different age, sex, nationality, etc.
Unfortunately, many questionable sites have popped up on the internet which has ruined the image on online paid surveys. These sites usually make outrageous claims about how much money you can make by working from home. They usually charge a "membership fee" to gain access to a list of web sites that conduct online paid surveys. They claim that their lists are special, and offer the highest paying surveys. But the truth is that the survey sites they list can be found for free on the internet. Legitimate market research firms do not charge panel members any fees or try to sell you any products. With a little research you can find all of the quality market research firms yourself. Also, there are several good sites on the internet that offer free reviews and listings. You should never have to pay for information or access to online paid surveys.
Assuming that you manage to avoid the scams, and stick with legitimate market research firms, the question remains is it really worth the time? The answer lies in your expectations. If you are looking for the perfect work at home dream job, this is not it. If you would be happy with an extra couple hundred dollars a month then read on.
The typical pay for any given survey varies, but most offer between $2 to as high as $50 or more per survey. The problem is that these firms are usually looking for a certain demographic, and you may not always qualify for all the paid surveys that are sent your way. These survey invitations are usually sent to you via an email, with details about the incentive offered, and a link to the survey. Usually you are asked to fill out a short screener survey, and if you qualify then you can continue on and earn the full amount promised. If you do not qualify, you are dismissed, with some sites offering a small incentive or a sweepstakes entry for your time. The screener survey usually takes less than 5 minutes, and the full survey can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.
If you sign up with several quality market research firms, and can qualify for several surveys, you should be able to make anywhere from $50 to several hundred dollars a month for the household petty cash piggy bank. It's not exactly a fortune, but it can help offset some of your monthly bills, and it only takes a couple hours a week.
An Online Survey Job For Teens 18 And Younger Paid Surveys Online
No online survey job for teens younger than 18 will be better than paid surveys. I can't put it any simpler than that, even though I know that most teenagers hate them. They hate them for good reason, too, because they are sick and tired of getting sucked into a vortex of websites that never, every pay what they said they were going to pay you. If you want an online survey job for teens 18 and younger, here's how you will find paid surveys and the sites that give you high earnings.I want to get you off on the right track, so I first want to share a little something that I picked up about 3 years ago when dealing with an online survey job for teens. You know how we all get on the internet and look for info and websites that same way? That's right, we all go over to whichever search engine we feel the most comfortable with. While it normally works very well for us, it's the last thing you should go to when you want to know exactly which websites are going to pay you the best money for your efforts. Out of the 256 pages of results they give you, only about 2 of the places on those pages will be worth going to. How will you know which two sites will pay high, with out spending 3 weeks signing up to each and every one of them.
Enough about that nonsense, though. Let me get to the best part of this article, so I can put a smile on your face once you try it. Here's the real deal: You know what message boards are, right? Well, the biggest ones are going to be your secret weapon against the low paying websites, while actually finding the best paying ones. You can make paid surveys into a fantastic online survey job for teens 18 and younger by just using their archived topics about this subject. If you haven't been there, go to one and see how many topics on this subject there are. Hundreds of them will come up if you do a quick search. It is what I use every single week, and sometimes daily, when I want to make even more cash. You will turn paid surveys into such a great online job for teens younger than 18.
All Paid Surveys Sites Need To Pay Via Paypal
Let's begin with the largest advantage of getting your cash this way...
You Get More Money - That's right. I am not exaggerating even a little bit. The more of us who receive their cash this way, the bigger the payments will start getting. It's even more beneficial to get with the places that exclusively pay through this method and do not even bother with sending checks in the mail. Why is that? Well, it's as simple as this next sentence: When survey sites give cash this way, they do not have many overhead costs. If the site lets you get paid via Paypal, very little money gets taken out of their wallet. They do bot have to deal with their bank as much. They also do not need to take time out of their day to ship checks, or pay some person to do it for them. Also, they don't use stamps, leaving a bunch of cash for them to give you for surveys, meaning higher payments for us. Pay Pal is in your account instantly and has very little costs associated with it, and none for you when receiving money.
There one more advantage, too...
It's A Safe Option - Now, I am not saying that nothing ever occurs, because I'm sure it does, but I've never had 1 issue in my three years of receiving money this way. When you get a check every month, expect 2 checks a year to get lost in the mail system, depending on the number of survey sites you're with. When dealing with surveys, if you choose to get paid via Paypal when taking those surveys, you're cash is secure and quickly in your account. It is the safest method I know of when getting cash through the internet. That's why I always get paid via Paypal and rarely get cash by check.
A Survey Job Online For Extra Cash
A survey job online requires you to focus on taking surveys daily and to sign up for as many surveys as you possibly can. The more surveys you sign up for the more money you will make. Taking surveys is a numbers game and a credibility game. Survey companies need to know that they can depend on you to fill out the surveys when they send them to you. Every time they send you a survey they keep score on your ability to answer there questionnaires promptly and as accurately as possible. When they know that you are serious about taking surveys then they will send you the higher paying surveys.
Research companies depend on the survey sites to have the best people on board to take there market research surveys. Sometimes they need answers quickly. This is how the survey sites make their money and in turn give you a percentage of what they get paid for your opinion.
Taking a survey online for cash is just like any other job. If you do not take your day job seriously and get lax you will not get raises or possibly will not keep your job. Well online surveys are the same way. If you do not take your survey job seriously the survey sites will not send you the higher paying surveys. You will not get fired but the survey companies will not send surveys for cash your way.
When you first start out with your survey job online you will only receive the lowest paying surveys. Most will only be a dollar or two. Eventually you will receive the higher paying surveys. This is why you need to sign up for hundreds of survey sites. I recommend joining a paid survey site. Most of the paid survey programs have around five hundred survey sites in their data base. It would take you months on months to find enough survey sites on your own and you run the risk of giving out your information to the wrong people. Stay with a paid survey program to play it safe. You will not qualify for all of these sites but try to qualify yourself to as many as you can. Like I said earlier, it is a numbers game.
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