Can I Really Make Money Online

Traffic Geyser is tough...

2011-10-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

I watched his Newbie Mike videos today. It is comprehensive. Traffic Geyser is not just video marketing, but it is also email marketing. However, almost every site that you go to these days has it! Everyone is giving away an informational product. Everyone has some incentive to visit their site. This leaves me a little stumped. I want to create a niche site. I really want something that will get a lot of volume and traffic. However, I am puzzling over what kind of information can I offer? What could I give away. Do I even have passion enough to write about some of my interests everyday? I like healthy living and environmental stuff. I am a personal trainer and pilates instructor. Somehow it would be great to combine these things and give away products that help peoples lives. Maybe books. Not entirely sure. Maybe DVDs. I should be able to create my own products, but I'm stumped as to what to create. Perhaps Traffic Geyser isn't really the answer for me after all. How much traffic did I get today? Only ten visitors. Only one of them to the post that I created yesterday, so clearly I am not doing great keyword research. Tonight I am going to learn more about keyword research.

2011-10-26T05:10:00.000-07:00

Traffic Geyser boosted my traffic from zero per day to 24 yesterday! That is simply amazing with one video. I guess it does make a difference if you offer a free informational product online. I am going to try to focus on beginners and internet marketing. Mostly because beginners do not always stick with it. I'm a prime example of that. My free internet marketing guide is geared towards beginners. No one really wants to be losing money doing the wrong things. It is awful. Spinning your wheels going nowhere. Persistence is the key. However, it is also extremely valuable and important to learn where you are making your mistakes. I let go of a domain that had started to make me $10 a day in adsense! Argh! None of my other domains were doing nearly as well. Why did I not analyze that domain? I was using an autoblog and assumed that no one was visiting it. Only when I started logging into adsense and seeing that I was making money that it hit me, I hadn't been seeing results because I was not analyzing my websites and my keywords properly. I simply picked something, wrote about it for awhile and then would give up. I was thrilled whenever a check came in from Squidoo or Google, but that was infrequently. The $100 check from Google was what caused me to sit up and take note of what I was doing. Some websites have too much competition. Other niches, you won't have a passion about. However, you should be able to find something that you love and are passionate about to make you money online. Some things will help make it easier for you to break into the competitive markets. LinkJuicer was the key to getting my autoblog found. Unfortunately, I let the domain expire and lost that $10 a day before realizing that was where the money came from. Now, I am back on track with my blogging! I am experimenting with different things to let you know what does work, and what is utterly useless!The key to internet marketing for beginners is learning what you will need to do. Focus your attention on these things and you will start to see some success. Focusing time and energy on things that don't produce results is a waste of your time. Start with the internet marketing for beginners free guide that I am offering to get your creative juices flowing and learn the steps to making money online that are simple and free!

Can I really make money online?

2011-10-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

I would have to state a resounding YES! However, you do need to educate yourself first. There are a lot of competitive niches out there and getting into a really competitive one will not help you produce results. Additionally, there are a lot of internet marketers out there ready to sell you the latest and greatest clickbank product. I have purchased one of these. What I purchased was a method to make money on twitter. Right after I bought it, it was taken off clickbank and I didn't make any money at all. Then I tried getting into Free and Powerful. Needless to say, I don't promote it. Waste of time. Don't try to sell people domains for the purpose of getting more people to sell domains that they otherwise wouldn't need. What I did find useful was learning from experts. You can get a copy of the Mad Marketing Method free. It gives some great ideas on how to get started in internet marketing. What you will to know for internet marketing:You will be creating content online. Content is king! The more you create, the greater amount of money you will make. DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST! If you pick a highly competitive keyword phrase, you may just be bumped down to page twenty. Who looks at page twenty? You want to select keywords that actually have a market. I have used wealthy affiliate's keyword research tool as well as MicroNiche Finder to locate keywords and keyword phrases that have a lot of searches and low competition.Stick to your niche. Ok, this is a lesson that I have learned the hard way. When I first started, I was all over the place. I wrote about a lot of random things that I knew something about. It is much better to narrow your focus for your website than a lot of random things. That will hurt you in Google's rankings. It is better to start a new website about another topic than try to have one website that covers all aspects of a niche. Getting too broad will hurt your rankings. Learn to use social media. This is another lesson that I am learning. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with facebook. I don't use twitter anymore, but I know people have had a lot of business success with social media. Many of my friends use it to promote their businesses.Can you really make money online? The answer is yes. You should try and learn everything that you can about it. You can start small with free methods such as Hubpages and Squidoo or you can try creating your own website. The amount that you make will be determined by how much effort that you put into it and how well your content is written. If you aren't a writer, don't sweat it. There are plenty of people who are willing to write articles for you. You could also create videos or have a friend help you. Opportunity is online now. People are more frequently going online to make purchases now. Helping them to find great products is an excellent way to earn money online!

Site Build It Review

2011-10-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

I am trying out Site Build it. My website is Pilates Mat Exercises Online. I recently got certified in Pilates mat classes and I am trying out my hand at creating niche websites. So far, I think Site Build it has an interesting concept. I don't know if it will actually work for me. I like the idea of creating a website and having other people contribute to it, but it seems like the information that they give you in the daily action guide is somewhat overwhelming. It is really easy to create pages, however it is pretty easy to create pages with wordpress. Whether or not those pages get ranked, we shall see! I will be making some more posts on my experiences with Site Build it!10/25/2011 Not loving Site Build it! It is so comprehensive and so complex. I like the idea of content 2.0, where other people add information to your site and help build it up. However, SBI is expensive. You only get one site for $300 a year! Granted that includes the autoresponder and hosting, but really that only adds up to about $150-$200 per year for multiple sites. It seems like a great way to begin. However, I'm not entirely sure that I will stick with SBI. Just economically doesn't make as much sense. We'll see what type of results that I achieve with it.

[POLL] Your Favorite Re-tweet Tactics

2010-11-18T21:36:00.000-08:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Aug 6th, 2010

In today’s poll we would like to know your favorite tweet/re-tweet tactics. What do you prefer or what works best for you? [P.S. Poll RTs very welcome, thanks!]

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-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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The “Hired Gun”: Why Hiring an Online Marketing Agency to Audit Your Website Makes Sense

2010-11-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Aug 27th, 2010

As the third quarter of the calendar year end approaches, we’re seeing an upward trend in clients and prospects asking about web site auditing services. These folks understand that a review of their website in terms of its marketing performance is needed on a more frequent basis than what has typically been performed in the past, i.e. not only before a redesign, and are looking specifically for outside counsel from online marketing professionals like Web Ad.vantage, not web development agencies or internal IT staff, to provide a non-biased third-party review of their sites.

The more common reasons we’re hearing as to what is driving this include:

Online sales, leads or marketing goals are not being met through the site and they want to know whyThose responsible for the site and/or its marketing efforts are looking for affirmation from outside counsel that the site is set-up to meet the organization’s online objectivesRecurring problems with the site have been voiced by customers/audience groupsInternal resources are not available or capable to perform this type of taskThe site is scheduled to undergo a redesign

Beyond the impending site design, it’s fair to say there is typically a problem that is pushing the need for an audit. An organization’s sales or leads may be declining or not meeting projections, and specifically online sales or leads are faltering. Complaints from customers about how the site is structured may be coming in. One recent client cited that their online audience couldn’t find the information they wanted, that the site was too disorganized and had too much information. A recent change in product or service offerings or a change in the resources that manage a site could also warrant the need to audit a site. Many organizations simply do not have the internal staff or time to take this on and want to hand this over to someone else.

Having a third-party and specifically, a third-party online marketing agency perform this audit allows for a non-biased review by marketing experts instead of relying on a web developer or internal staff. An online marketing agency, such as Web Ad.vantage, will bring years of online marketing experience to ensure a site will meet its intended online marketing goals. In contrast, Web development shops who are experts at design and development often fall short on the marketing side of the equation. Plus, hiring an online marketing agency eliminates the need for internal resources and in many cases, gives the company’s marketing person “credited” ammunition needed to get site revisions implemented or bought-off on from internal IT or management. It is no secret that website development/IT folks and marketing folks don’t always have the same agenda or priorities. In fact, most don’t even like each other.

Without making this too “salesy”, Web Advantage’s web auditing services can include but not be limited to the following:

Discovery kick-off whereby the organization’s online marketing goals and objectives are establishedStrengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) AssessmentReview of navigation and user interactivityReview of messaging, call-to-actions and contentReview of marketing funnelsReview of overall branding and Review of analytics to see what pages are performing, where people enter and exist, how the site is being found, if there are any breaks in the sales funnel streamBest practices recommendationsSpecific recommendations on improving identified problemsReview time to discuss

If you or your company is in need of an audit to review your web site’s marketing performance, please give us a call at (410) 942-0488 or email us at sales@webadvantage.net to discuss—we’d love to hear from you.

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-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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Our Top 10 Blog Posts of 2010 (So Far!)

2010-10-25T03:10:00.000-07:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Jul 27th, 2010

Here in the Web Ad.vantage blog we like to discuss the latest trends and developments in internet marketing, and we post new articles regularly. In fact, today marks #690 published since 1999! Our most popular blog posts often relate to our biggest strengths: SEO, PPC, Online Media Buying, and Social Media.

This week we’re gearing up for our upcoming webinar, Part 2 of the “The 7 Deadly Sins of Online Marketing“, which is all about web analytics, and how to use the data to develop online marketing goals and objectives. (The webinar is tomorrow, but there’s still time to register—click here!)

To prep for the webinar, we used Google Analytics to examine our site content and discovered that our blog pages rank among our top content. So today we thought we’d revisit our Top 10 Blog Posts of 2010 (so far!) and share them with you—enjoy!

How To Set Up Event Tracking in Google Analytics (And Why You Should!)The Rise of Mobile Social NetworksThe Senior Side of Social MediaInternet to Replace Newspapers As Largest Ad Medium in 2011Hey Health Care Industry…Social Media is Here to Stay!FDA Hits Pharmaceuticals Where it Hurts: OnlineA How-To Guide to Creating Facebook (Fan) PagesSocial Media is Not the Silver BulletWhat Can Web Widgets Do for You?Kid & Family-Friendly Social Media Sites

We post new blogs every week. Please subscribe to our blog to receive the latest updates via RSS, or use the handy buttons below to share it on your favorite website. We hope you find the information here useful, and that you come back to read us often!

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-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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Behavioral Targeting: “To BT or not to BT?”

2010-10-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Aug 6th, 2010

Sometimes internet advertising can leave agencies, media planners, and brand marketers feeling like teenagers: lured by the latest technology, distracted by shiny new gadgets, and seduced by marketing savvy and trends. When we are deep in strategy talks with our clients and discuss ad targeting options, behaviorable targeting (BT) often comes up. Behavioral targeting—delivering ads based on a user’s browsing habits—is often considered an attractive and effective but controversial strategy. Though BT is not new or buzzworthy to us, it’s a tactic we don’t treat lightly.

There are many facts and realities that need to be considered before venturing into BT waters. In an effort to “keep it real” for our clients and avoid what we like to call fadvertising, let’s face the facts about behavioral targeting together. Today we’ll explore what behavioral targeting is, weigh a few BT pros and cons, and share the types of considerations we typically weigh before recommending behavioral targeting to our clients.

First, a quick primer on BT from Wikipedia:

And a few recent BT stats from eMarketer:

Behavioral targeting sounds like the perfect way to target ads and double conversion rates, doesn’t it? However, the reality is that the use of behavioral targeting raises many privacy concerns and recent studies indicate that a majority of US internet users reject it:

BT has been controversial from the start and may move from self-regulation to stricter opt-in regulation. Currently, internet users must opt-out of receiving behaviorally targeted ads. But privacy experts and advocacy groups feel that the notice-based model is outdated. As recently as last week, Federal Trade Commission Chairman John Leibowitz surprised many when he informed the Senate that the FTC might recommend a “Do Not Track” registry for behavioral targeting.

The above facts help highlight why we don’t recommend behavioral advertising without full disclosure. When venturing into online media buying on your own or assisted by an agency, we recommend proceeding with caution around BT to limit risks and avoid pitfalls. When we recommend a strategy or tactic, we like to provide strong rationale if something will benefit your overall marketing campaign. If we have not recommended behavioral targeting, then we have evaluated, with good reason, if this is a right fit for your advertising campaign.

Are Behaviorally Targeted Ads a Fad or Fate?

Scenario: You are idly surfing the web for dating advice, having just broken up and feeling pretty lonely, when you notice an ad for an online dating site. Ignoring it, you move on to other sites but the ad seems to follow you, becoming more progressive with each of your on-site actions in its promise to help you find true love. Do you: A) finally click the ad, feeling like fate intervened, pay the sign-up fee and start creating your dating profile on the spot; or B) feel like you’re being stalked, get a bit creeped out, and avoid the ad at all costs?

If your ads are being served this way, there’s a good chance your audience will have one of the two reactions above—is the risk of turning people off worth it? The truth is, a good media planner who carefully selects relevant, interest-targeted sites is effective without the aid of automated behavioral targeting technology. There are also safer avenues to consider, like the Google Content Network, which incorporates multiple targeting methods like location, age, interest level, content, keyword and contextual into your ads; cover all the latest campaign buzzwords in one network buy. Some media buyers view behavioral targeting as a fad and do not even present it as an option; if clients are adverse to the risks, BT may never make it past discussion stages.

On the other hand, there are certain situations where behavioral targeting is very appropriate, and can be extremely effective: when your ad offers a great value to the end user. For example, using the same scenario from above, what if that ad you saw offered a free sign-up or a free month of service? Would you be less offended and more willing to click it then? Most likely, yes. In other words, the value of the ad outweighs your uncertainty: it’s a very appealing offer that popped up at the right time as opposed to a sub par offer that just felt lukewarm. The point is, don’t use BT just to use BT with all its associated risks—make sure it’s appropriate and well-suited to your offer.

How to tell if you are a good candidate for Behavioral Targeting:

Your ads and placements offer increased relevance and value to end product users.You have enough budget, time, and patience to use numerous simultaneous ads and multivariate testing.You have a large enough budget to receive a high level of traffic before analysis of the metrics provide confidence that the probability of an offer will yield a conversion from a set behavioral profile.Your message or offer evolves over time.You are able to customize landing page content according to a user’s interests.You have a sophisticated analytics team who can track and report progress.You are able to set up audience segmentation and personas.You can develop unique content or change it to be compelling within each segment.You are able to follow best practices, FTC regulation, and The 7 Self-Regulatory Principles of Behavioral Advertising established by key regulatory trade groups such as the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Ensure you engage a network or are represented by an agency that is up to date on BT guidelines, discloses risks, and knows about regulations. Web Ad.vantage provides Online Media Buying & Planning services that incorporate a variety of tactics that achieve results. Let us help you decide if behavioral targeting is right for you.

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-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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Upgrading to Google Analytics Asynchronous Tracking

2010-10-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Aug 17th, 2010

Google Analytics asynchronous tracking is the latest version of the Google Analytics tracking code designed to take advantage of web browser support of asynchronous JavaScript technology. In a nutshell, using asynchronous technology allows the Google Analytics tracking code to load at the same time as other page content.

Speed! Using the traditional Google Analytics tracking code, there may be a slight delay as the JavaScript code is downloaded and executed independently within the web browser. When properly installed, GA asynchronous tracking will run within the browser while other page content is being rendered at the same time. This allows the overall page to load faster, increasing visitor satisfaction and helping to reduce bounce rate.

Another huge benefit is more complete visitor tracking. Properly installed Google Analytics tracking code allows it to load sooner while the page is loading, which can count visitors that may click away before the page is fully loaded. This can be particularly helpful on large, media-intensive web pages and/or tracking visitors with slow internet speeds.

We ran speed tests on our own home page, averaged over 5 tests and found using the asynchronous tracking code reduced page loading speed by about 1/4 second (246 milliseconds). This is beneficial for both site visitors and search engine optimization since Google considers page loading speed as a factor in search rankings.

Installing the asynchronous tracking code can be as easy as copying & pasting, but accurate implementation is a must. These basic instructions assume you have a Google Analytics account; if not, you can set up a free account here.

Remove the existing traditional Google Analytics tracking code, if applicable. If your GA tracking code has been customized, save a copy of your code to migrate customizations into the new version.Add your Google Analytics web property ID number to the asynchronous tracking code snippet. Customize the new tracking code snippet, if applicable.Place the prepared Google Analytics asynchronous tracking code in the TOP of your web page source code, after the appearance of any other JavaScript code and before the closing tag. (See this Google Analytics help page for detailed instructions.)Load the updated page and check your HTML code to ensure the new tracking code is placed properly.Check your Google Analytics reports the next day to verify site visitors are being reported as expected.

Below are two screen capture images showing the traditional vs. asynchronous tracking code. In practice you would replace the “xxxxx-x” with your web property ID number provided by Google Analytics.

Are you interested in Google Analytics consultation, setup guidance and reporting? We have experienced, full-time Google Analytics certified staff ready to help! Contact us today to discuss your web marketing needs and receive a free proposal.

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-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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7 Legal Issues to be Aware of for Social Media Marketing

2010-10-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Aug 11th, 2010

As social media continues its pattern of rapid growth, marketers are discovering new and innovative ways to reach consumers, and in some cases, social media has replaced traditional marketing altogether. Though new and exciting, the social media marketing frontier is still largely unsettled and self-governed.

Concerned about the potential for advertiser abuse, the Federal Trade Commission has been working on regulations for companies to adhere to when engaging in social media. Presumably, the final regulations will be much like the standards that the FTC has had in place for years concerning Ethics and Deceptive Trade Practice Standards.

Respect State Laws
Be mindful of which states your message is reaching, and what the laws are in that area. Violating a state law can lead to prosecution regardless of where you are physically located. For instance, if you tweet about a sweepstakes and one of your followers resides in a state where sweepstakes are prohibited, you could be fined.Use Disclaimers
Disclaimers must be used in all acts of social media when representing a client or affiliate. Some common examples of disclaimers: I work for…Paid for by…I was gifted by…Sponsors Are Liable Too
Sponsors are obligated to monitor endorsers and their actions and ethics. If a disclosure is not made, a sponsor can be held liable.Endorsements Must Be True
Any endorsement you make must be true. If you falsely indicate that you use or prefer a particular product and it is later found to be untrue, you can be held liable and charged with deception. (Note, the FTC tends to make exceptions for celebrities, because most people assume that if a celebrity promotes something, he or she must be getting paid.)Don’t Falsify Testimonials
Testimonials must be true and accurate. For example, using a physician to endorse a pharmaceutical product that is not in direct relation to his or her field of practice is considered to be deceptive. The FTC would argue that the advertiser has no right to present this person as an “expert” in the specific field in question. (Here’s an example of a real case: Pfizer to End Lipitor Ads by Jarvik.)Show Real Results
If a client claims that their product has a specific (or even general) success rate or some other statistical claim, they must have the proof and they must share their studies. The FTC no longer considers “Results May Vary” to be an acceptable statement in advertising.
Agency Employees Must Provide Full Disclosure
Any employee of an advertising agency who promotes a client and/or a client’s products and services through social media, even in a casual exchange, must provide full disclosure of the client/agency relationship. Let’s see an example: Wrong: Got to love this!! Visit Baltimore is offering an amazing Harbor Pass deal, check it out! http://baltimore.org/harborpassRight: One of our clients, Visit Baltimore, is offering an amazing Harbor Pass deal, check it out! http://baltimore.org/harborpass

Of course, providing full disclosure is difficult to do on Twitter, given the 140-character limitation per tweet. One convention that seems to be gaining ground is to use the #ad hashtag, indicating the tweet is an ad or endorsement. However, please note the acceptable usage of #ad could change at any time per the FTC’s guidelines.

Many companies outsource their marketing campaigns to agencies like us, but be advised that if the agency is running a social media campaign, then the client company still remains liable for anything said or done by that hired agency. In other words, you need to be constantly aware and monitoring what is being said by all parties. It is for this reason that Web Ad.vantage usually recommends hiring an agency to build the strategy and plan for the campaign, but leaving the execution up to the PR or Communications department. We do things like this with our Social Media Roadmap offering. (If you are interested give us a call or drop us a line today to learn more.)

With social media continuing to break new ground, advertisers must learn to grow and evolve along with it. It will be interesting to see where the chips will fall—which companies will have their hands slapped by the FTC, and which ones will get it right? When in doubt, you should always defer to the FTC’s ethics guidelines for the advertising industry, which are already in place, and of course, use your best judgment!

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-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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Online Video Advertising FAQ | ClickZ Rewind

2010-10-20T03:31:00.001-07:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Jul 16th, 2010

his article by Hollis originally appeared in ClickZ on September 22, 2009.

What’s the state of online video advertising as we enter Q4 2009? Last year around this time, some bemoaned that, as a consequence of the economic crisis, experimental budgets for online video advertising were gone. Ad rates all over, including those for online video, fell as much as 25 percent and many of us held our breath to see how our clients’ budgets would be affected.

Suddenly, though, a slew of good news about online video advertising came out last month:

Even our intrepid executive editor, Anna Maria Virzi, wrote recently about this resurgence, so perhaps it’s time to gear up your online video advertising know-how and determine the right questions to ask.

What are the online video ad standards, and have publishers accepted them? How can I avoid needing to have multiple versions of the same video ad just to accommodate different specifications?

The IAB has laid out Digital Video Guidance standards, though reformatting, recoding, or resizing of video ads is still a common and problematic occurrence due to lack of adopted standards. Brands used to television advertising yearn for widespread adoption like the 30-second commercial.

How will the viewer see my ad?

Though standard video ads exist, some solutions still provide custom ad deliveries, like ad-sponsored player skins or display ads embedded around or within the player.

What kind of targeting is available?

Much like with other online ad buying, targeting capabilities vary among networks and publishers, but they do exist. Find out how the targeting is determined and delivered, however.

How much control and transparency do I have over where my ad will appear?

If you’re planning on using a network or large publisher or portal, this question is even more important, particularly for advertisers who have restrictions around what kind of content their ads can appear.

How can I limit competition?

Just because I can buy, for example, the pre-roll ad placement, how do I know I’m not exposing my advertiser to a competitor’s ad around, nearby, within, or after it?

Can I see past performance metrics?

Recognizing that ad creative has a lot to do with performance, it’s still helpful to see performance metrics for your site or network when comparing it to others.

What kind of rates should I expect to pay? How much do they vary among those providing online advertising opportunities? What kinds of cost structures will I encounter?

I won’t speak to rates, but in addition to CPM (define) pricing, increasingly more providers have rolled out or are rolling out performance-based pricing, like cost per engagement or cost per completed view.

How will our online ad reporting have to change to accommodate online video metrics? How do we show ad effectiveness as compared to our other online ad buys?

It’s true that online video metrics will be different than other typical online ad buys. To some extent, online video engagement is closer to measuring social media marketing than typical online advertising. You may want to segment your reporting accordingly, rather than trying to draw direct comparisons.

Besides YouTube, where else can I go to locate online video advertising opportunities?

Most of the major publishers and ad networks now have online video ad offerings. Based on potential reach of unique U.S. viewers, comScore ranked the following as top video ad networks:

Along the way, you might want to check out these companies also providing online video advertising solutions:

With talk of the recession lifting, more advertisers will likely be asking about online video ad placements. The time to get educated on the topic is now.

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-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

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Why Your Content Management System (CMS) Isn’t SEO-Friendly: 9 Things Your Developer Didn’t Tell You

2010-10-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Sep 27th, 2010

Here’s the scenario: Your company just paid a developer a fortune to build a shiny new website with a content management system (CMS) and lots of great-looking pages. Life is good…until the day you decide you want to do search engine optimization (SEO). You find out that your CMS is “not SEO-friendly,” and suddenly you’re getting an education about a whole host of problems you never knew existed. Why? Because your web developer failed to mention (or were ignorant to) the constraints of your CMS with respect to SEO.

As a search engine optimization agency, it’s a scenario we’ve seen over and over again. Here are nine things your developer may not have told you about about your website’s CMS:

1. “It lacks basic SEO requirements.” Believe it or not, there are still content management systems out there (and lots of them) that do not offer even the most basic requirements for SEO. Most of the SEO-unfriendly CMSs we’ve come across lack SEO support altogether or include it only at an additional—and often exorbitant—cost. Your CMS is not SEO-friendly if you…

Have no control over page titles and meta tagsCannot modify H1 headingsCannot add alt tags to your imagesCannot customize pages independently of all other pages

The above is by no means a complete list, but if you’ve read this far and have already identified one or more of the above issues with your CMS, run away from it! In fact, don’t even bother reading the rest of this post.

2. “It doesn’t generate clean, SEO-friendly URLs.” We’re listing this SEO requirement separately, because it’s a big one. Page URLs are one of the most important elements to optimize for search engines. Search engines like Google place a lot of weight on URLs in ranking algorithms, and therefore, it is preferable for URLs to be completely customizable. Unfortunately, there are many CMSs that won’t allow you to do this. Ideally, the URL should be both “human-friendly” and search engine-friendly. It should accurately represent the page’s content, contain related keywords separated by hyphens, and be free of unnecessary clutter.

All too often we see CMSs that generate excessively long, practically unreadable URLs that contain virtual or unnecessary sub-folders, session ID variables, and other code oddities where simpler text would suffice. Example:

In many cases, the generation of such undesirable URLs is hard-coded by the CMS and cannot be modified at all. We’ve also seen CMSs that completely duplicate every URL, generating both an “ugly” version (containing mostly numbers) and a “pretty” version (containing keywords) without a built-in requisite to force one over the other, creating a duplicate content issue. Which is a nice segue into our next point…

3. “It has duplicate content issues.” Duplicate content is one of the biggest SEO sins to commit. As we mentioned above, we’ve seen CMSs that generate multiple URLs all containing the same content. Some CMSs also generate “print-friendly” URLs that contain additional duplicate content. In these cases, extra care needs to be taken to specify canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content being “discovered” be search engines at multiple locations. On the more shameful end of the spectrum, we’ve seen CMSs tailored to specific industries that push generic, non-unique, template-based content through a feed and replicate it across all the websites they power (the real estate, automobile dealership and healthcare industries are ripe examples).

4. “The page hierarchy is flat.” Your site’s hierarchy—that is, how your navigation and pages are organized — plays a large role in how search engine crawlers sift through, prioritize, and categorize site content. A well-structured site that is organized into logical directories helps search engines distinguish between your most important, top-level content and less-relevant,deeper, sub-content. We’ve encountered some CMSs that have no hierarchy, where all pages are created and stored in the website’s root directory without the ability to modify. Your CMS should facilitate the creation of at least one level of sub-folders, to provide “depth” and better hierarchical organization of site content.

5. “It generates a ton of dynamic content.” Dynamic content refers to frequently-changing website content that is generated and served on-the-fly. Such ever-changing content is generally considered more engaging to a visitor because it’s kept fresh. In this context, dynamic content doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, does it? Unfortunately, when it comes to SEO, too much dynamic content does not necessarily equate to a good thing when there’s so much dynamic components to a page that there’s no static “anchor material” for which the search engine spider to index. Dynamic content works best when it’s only a portion of an otherwise static page, not the entire page. Make sure your CMS is capable of striking a good balance between static and dynamic content.

6. “It’s slow-loading and generates sloppy source code.” Do your website pages seem to take forever to load? Is your site’s source code mired in Javascript, Flash or code that isn’t compliant with web standards? Your CMS may itself be contributing to the problem or suffering performance issues due to a site design that relies too heavily on the use of Flash and Javascript. Some CMSs are simply inefficient, run slowly and cannot manage high peaks in site traffic. Others may generate cumbersome code that search engine crawlers stumble over. Whatever the case may be, speed definitely matters when it comes to SEO…and a slow-loading or hard-to-crawl site can adversely affect your site’s search rankings.

7. “It doesn’t play nicely with other CMSs.” Some clients have come to us with large, complex sites powered by multiple CMSs that each do their individual job well, but aren’t necessarily compatible when it comes to SEO. For example, we’ve worked with some sites that have one CMS powering e-commerce, and a different CMS powering blog content. When multiple CMSs are in play, it’s important that each one be SEO-friendly, independently configurable, and not override or work against each other.

8. “It’s so custom, it’s not even a CMS!” Sadly, we see this a lot: CMSs that are so custom they can hardly be called a content management system. A content management system should help you manage your content (duh, right?). The whole idea behind having a CMS in place to begin with is to make your website easier to manage. That’s why it pains us when we see clients stuck with complicated, over-customized CMSs that practically demand additional assistance from the developer(s) who created it. If you have a custom CMS and plan to do SEO, your ability to implement SEO in house may be severely limited.

9. “You can make SEO changes to your website…but it’ll cost ya.” Implementing SEO requires making many changes to a number of different aspects of your website. If your site uses a CMS that you don’t have full control over, or one that requires additional development costs every time you need to make even the simplest of SEO-related changes, you should seriously consider other options. After all, a CMS is supposed to save you money by reducing development costs! Before starting SEO, make sure you have a CMS that won’t bear you that much in additional cost to implement SEO changes—or else, budget for them accordingly.

The above examples are actual issues we’ve encountered when assessing our client’s content management systems prior to starting SEO. We always recommend CMS due diligence and a thorough analysis of a website’s back end before engaging in SEO to identify and address issues that would ultimately impede optimization.

Comments(1)

-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

View the original article here

The Pressure to Generate Content

2010-10-17T06:28:00.001-07:00

Posted By Hollis Thomases on Sep 10th, 2010

Ask any social media expert, consultant or marketing firm about how to market through social media, and they’re likely to tell you to get ready to generate boatloads of content. Blog content (posts and comments), video content, Twitter content (tweets, retweets, shared links), Facebook content (Wall posts, events, photos & more), LinkedIn content (updates, Group discussions, connection requests), photo sharing content, podcast content…the list feels like it could be endless. As someone who both generates content and advises others to do so, I’m not oblivious to the fact that not only is the constant need for content a potential thorn in someone’s side, but I’m also not immune to the pressures content creation causes.

Make no mistake, though: Online content has been and continues to be King. Those advising others to generate content are not misguided in their guidance. More than ever, people are insatiable content carnivores, and they want to keep feasting at the table of never-ending, newly-created content like King Henry VIII’s hungry courtiers. The danger is that this insatiable appetite is a beast of our own creation, and its belly is growing ever-larger.

The Insatiable Beast
Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

The more content that gets created, the greater the pressure to generate more content seems to be. Not only is it advisable to create content if you want to help your organize reach its social media marketing goals, it’s now becoming inadvisable NOT to generate content. In other words, you snooze, you lose.

The frequency and pace of content creation has also accelerated. It used to be OK to post new content at least once a month; then it became several times a month; then multiple times a month and now it’s almost a daily requirement for some — even multiple times daily. It feels like content creation has become an obsession, a competition, an addiction where the top players seek to outdo one another to claim some sort of crown like Top Blogger or Most Prolific or even Most Personal Life Exposed. Is this obsession healthy? Is it good marketing? If you’re not trying to build and market a personal brand, is it necessary for a business to be a never-ending font of content? Does it even make sense for a business to place so much company effort, resources and attention on generating overly-generous amounts of new content, and could there be a backlash from doing so?

I have to say, in observing this trend towards generating mountains of content, I do have to wonder if the efforts are all worth it or, even if they are, what tolls is the effort also exacting on those responsible for the content? Within my own experience I have seen no less than these varying circumstances:

The benign and helpful:

Conference attendees live-blogging or -tweeting from within a session audience;Bloggers with writer’s block asking the Twitter universe what they should write about

Benign but less helpful to themselves?

Conference attendees leaving a session early to be the first to compile and post an entry about a session (but they may have missed the best part by leaving early);Video bloggers excusing themselves early from networking events so they can off to a quiet room or leave altogether so they can film their latest “genius post.”Content generators not even attending events at all because their content generation responsibility overwhelms them altogether

Not so benign:

Hijacked content — When other websites scrape your blog (or your blog headlines via your RSS feed) and house it on their own sites, making it look like it’s their own content and if nothing else, using it for their own site marketing purposes.

Uncredited Web Ad.vantage RSS Feed/Blog Content

In the hijacking instance, the saving grace is that the hijacker at least provides links back to your site (see the last section for truly evil offenders);

Unattributed content — These days, particularly on Twitter, it’s not uncommon for original authors of tweets or content to be completely bypassed or removed from receiving credit. When this happens, the poor sap who put all the time and effort into writing a piece to begin with gets no visible benefit…other traffic coming to their article, but by then, it’s always possible that the reader of the article doesn’t connect the dots or doesn’t care.Content Managers having to play bad cop and rat out under-delivering producers to supervisors;The pressure to produce content trumping other business priorities that otherwise get left unattended as the content developer struggles to churn out a new piece;Content produced under pressure leading to mediocrity — Too many social media content pieces these days are just useless fluff or “link bait,” serving no other purpose than to entice others to link to it which in turn helps elevate the content’s visibility within the search engines

The evil:

The worst Link-baited content could also house scams, worms, viruses or other maliciously-intended postings;Stolen content — Don’t be surprised if you find your original content re-published elsewhere on the Web without any credit or even a link back to your original post. It’s difficult to police this too. Try doing some searches for unique phrases in your content and see what comes up.

So what’s my point? Thought I clearly still value the production of content (why else would I be writing this post, right?), I encourage you to avoid falling into the pit of creating content for creation’s sake. Be judicious. Write good material that people actually want to read and find value in. Consistently good content will generate trust in your reader and that trust and demonstrated subject matter expertise, can bleed into your marketing efforts to positive effect. But whatever you do, don’t succumb to the pressure to generate content to ridiculous extremes and definitely don’t sacrifice your personal life to do so. Sure, you might end up viewed as a great writer, but many a great writer throughout history died penniless and in misery. Seriously, it ain’t worth all that.

Comments(3)

-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

View the original article here

5 Reasons Rich Media Ads Rule Over Standard Ads

2010-10-15T12:40:00.001-07:00

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Oct 11th, 2010

In my next media life, I want to be a Flash designer. Marketing may be a science to some, but graphic designers are turning out real innovation these days in the form of rich media ads. Although there’s still a place and need for standard banner ads, it’s the hipper cousin, rich media, who rules in terms of engagement. Whether you are already running rich media ads or are planning to, here are five reasons you may never go back to standard or animated banner ads:

1. Rich Media Ads require more time and expense, but are well worth it.

When was the last time you clicked on a display ad? And the last time you played with a roll-over, mouse-over, or watched a video banner ad? (I bet it was pretty recent.) Interactive ads attract our attention like magnets, so spending the time and money to build them is worth the effort. I still recall the first time I saw this Ford ad inviting me to customize my own Mustang:

It may require additional development costs and two or more months to develop an entire rich media campaign, but the payoff is having truly memorable creatives. Rich media ads can engage, entertain, and inspire us—and there is quantifiable proof that higher ROIs will follow.

2. Rich Media Ads outperform Standard Ads.

Rich media ads can outperform standard and animated counterparts by 300 – 3000%. The industry average click-through rates (CTRs) for standard banners are in a sad state (.025%). With rich media ads, clients, agencies and creative teams are looking beyond the CTRs at engagement and interaction rates (IRs), which offer a truer picture of an ad’s success.

In 2009, one of our client’s campaigns was optimized for CTR, the only metric available at the time, resulting in a .04% increase. When rich media ads were introduced to the campaign in 2010, .4-1% of people tracked as engaging with the same client’s ads. Here’s a look at a costing scenario that justifies rich media ad results in terms of cost-per-actions when comparing standard ad CTR (o.40%), rich media ad CTR (39%), and 1% ad interactions:

3. Rich Media Ads are measurable and scalable.

Rich media ads have over 150 measurable elements and yield a 300-1000% increase in ad interactions—this alone supports the added development costs. Measurable elements, targeting possibilities, and interactions have a lasting impact. Here are some other compelling ways you can track, measure, and evaluate rich media ads:

Track any ad interaction, including expandable ads, user-generated clicks, mouse-overs, auto-expand, and auto-collapse.Track total ad interaction time in seconds.Evaluate CTR after interaction or before.Optimize creative on metrics other than CTR.Dynamically deliver creative and messaging.Track video initiation, video view completions, performance, and view time.Data collection within the rich media ad.Track in-banner interactivity, re-target and dynamically change messaging.

4. Rich Media Ads have higher recall rates and favorability.

Most studies offer overwhelming support of the success of rich media ads over standard or in-page flash ads. A recent Unicast by Viewpoint study revealed a much-increased purchase intent, brand awareness, and ad favorability. Unicast Video and Unicast HD3D ad formats outperformed the GIF and simple rich media examples, leading to a 229% increase in unaided brand awareness, 108% ad favorability, 79% purchase intent, and 77% brand favorability.

According to Nielsen Netratings, online videos have 65% recall rate when comparing to TV ads. Message recall is 39% from online video ads versus only 21% from TV ads.

5. Rich Media ads are winning audiences and awards.

Have you noticed standard banner ads don’t seem to be winning any prestigious awards or gaining favor these days? On the other hand, innovative, attention-grabbing rich media ads seem to be racking up awards and wining over audiences. They’re also constantly being showcased and given new life and visibility, adding another valuable benefit to investing in rich media. Here are some examples of rich media ad showcases:

Are you considering rich media for your next ad campaign? Talk to us today to learn how our Online Media Buying and Planning services will maximize your ROI.

Today’s blog post was contributed by Shea Park, online media planning expert at Web Ad.vantage. Shea is a 12-year internet marketing veteran and founder of Ad-Spark.com.

Comments(0)

-Mark Brownlow
Internet Business Forum

View the original article here

Frog Halloween Costume

2010-09-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

Every kid has to have a costume, but there are times when it is appropriate for it to be scary. When children are toddlers, they do not want to be too scared. A halloween frog costume is a perfect idea for a toddler. Not only can they dress up as Kermit the Frog, but they can be a number of fun Disney characters including Prince Naveen of The Princess and the Frog. If you like having a family theme when you go trick or treating, just purchase an adult frog costume for yourself!
Not into masks? Some face paint will turn your skin a lovely green color and you can combine that with a green sweatsuit. Frogs are fun, lovable characters for Halloween. You definitely won't be seeing as many frog costumes as witches and ghosts, but they are fun when you catch a glimpse of them!

Of course you can make money online - especially selling bras!

2010-08-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

I found some wonderful things on Amazon to promote! The most fun thing that I found was a glow in the dark bra. You can also find glow in the dark body paint. That is great for parties or creating kinky tattoos with your partner. So much fun and money can be made when you promote Halloween and all its craziness!

Yes! You really can make money online!

2010-08-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

Some of the free websites that I have created have moved into the top position for their google keywords. I created two new sites today - mask clown and another clown topic Halloween clown. The second one will show you scary masks that you can use with your Halloween costume as well as great techniques for applying scary clown make up.

Squidoo Fun!

2010-07-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

Yes! You really can make money online! It does take some time to learn and you actually have to write and create, but it is possible. In fact, you can get started easily on Squidoo Top ten summer toys for 2010 is one website that I have noticed going up in the ratings. I thought I'd create a few backlinks and see if it climbed a little higher. I've also created a sqidoo lens about seasonal marketing. Yep! Halloween is coming up and I don't want to miss out on the Halloween traffic. Summer toys, halloween traffic, what else is there to write about. Hmm...pretty much everything! You can find a halloween niche like Best Baby Halloween Costumes or even the popular cheap halloween costumes idea. Getting creative will go a long way in internet marketing!

Summer Camp Craft Activities

2010-06-25T03:02:00.000-07:00

Summer camp craft activities is a squidoo site that I created as part of my journey to make money online. It is an arts and crafts niche. If you look at the website, I have selected the keywords "summer camp craft activities". I used that in the title, in the url, and throughout the page. Right now, it is not generating traffic. I just created it an hour ago. I spent about an hour researching a keyword and creating the page. It still isn't complete and I need to generate traffic to it. I pinged it so google would find it. I'm not quite sure how the ping thing works, but I did that. I also linked it to this blog. That created one backlink. I will write a few articles using carefully selected keywords and put them online. While I find it unlikely that parents are going to plop down money to buy crafts online, I know about crafts and how great they are for kids, so I created the website. I also know that parents are desperate to get their kids to do something during the summertime.

blogging is tough...Wealthy Affiliate is easy

2010-06-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

I needed some serious help to make money online as the social media marketing was not cutting it for me. I discovered wealthy affiliate. I have loved what I have been learning from wealthy affiliate. I would like to invite everyone who is following this blog to check out my new and improved blog and sign up for my FREE mad marketing course. Learn the latest online marketing techniques that will make you money!

Free Piano Lessons Online

2009-12-23T06:13:00.000-08:00

My latest niche market involves free piano lessons online. This first link will take you to the squidoo lense that I created highlighting the benefits of free piano lessons online. The second link that you can check out, free piano lesson online will take you to the rocket piano sales page where you can sign up for a free downloadable piano lesson. It s a great way to get an introduction to the piano. Not only that, but there is far less competition for keywords using piano and music than there is for making money and therefore it is easier to write articles about.

Five Components to Search Engine Keyword Research

2009-12-22T04:10:00.000-08:00

There are five key components to effective search engine keyword research. The things that need to be considered to successfully complete search engine keyword research in your target market are research tools, specific keywords, high volume, high relevance and great resources.

First you want to start your search engine keyword research with the right tools. You can use google's keyword research tool free or you can get assistance from a software program such as keyword elite, which will help you identify search terms to help you dominate your niche. Another great resource for search engine keyword research is a subscription to wealthy affiliate. There is a research tool, niche marketing tools, a forum with successful people sharing ideas and personal coaching. Based on how much information you already know about internet marketing, you can determine what tool would be right for your search engine keyword research.

Second, you want to look for specific keyword phrases when you do you search engine keyword research. The reason for looking at specific phrases and not simply words is that you will reach a more targeted audience. People who are close to making purchases often have figured out specifically what it is they want and narrow their search by adding terms to it.

Third, look for keyword phrases that have a high search volume and low competition. You want to be listed on the first page of the search engine results. You do not want to be buried by the competition. Do not try to break into a market where there are over 10,000 search results. That is going to be too competitive. Try to find keyword phrases with fewer that 10,000 google search results that get at least 65 searches per day. This will take some time and effort. Be creative and combine relevant terms that are related to your product or service.

Fourth, when doing search engine keyword research, make sure that the terms are highly related to your service or product. Buyers who can't see the relevance between your product and the search term that they typed in will not purchase your product.

Fifth, make sure that your product is a great resource. Search engine keyword research does not stop at finding the terms. You need to be able to stay on top of the search engine results. This means that people will need to link to your article. Make sure that your product satisfies the needs of a consumer and that the product is worth linking to another person's blog or website.

Search engine keyword research is essential to the internet marketer's success. Neglecting to do search engine keyword research can result in being lost online under the competition. Simplify the search engine keyword research with the an appropriate research tool and you will be on your way to internet marketing success in no time.

Search engine keyword research is a vital component to internet marketing success.

2009-12-21T04:32:00.000-08:00

For the best chance of internet marketing success, make sure that you are doing search engine keyword research. The best and most effective way to receive traffic to your website is through a search engine. Therefore, it is essential to perform some search engine keyword research before starting your internet marketing campaign.

There are many different products out there to help you perform search engine keyword research. Keyword elite 2.0 is one of the best on the market. Typing the keyword into google alone will give you an idea of how much competition you face with your selected keyword. Another great idea is to join a forum such as wealthy affiliate and use their tools for search engine keyword research. Not only will you easily be able to find the right keywords to target your niche, you have the ability to interact with other successful internet marketers in the online forum and exchange ideas.

What should you look for with search engine keyword research? Ideally, you want low competition. Most people only click on the first couple listings. Therefore, for your website, blog or article to get ranked, you want to find a keyword that does not bring up more than ten thousand results. You also are looking for a keyword that does receive a fair amount of traffic. When you are doing your search engine keyword research, focus your attention on keywords that are receiving over 100 searches per day.

Be specific when doing search engine keyword research. The biggest mistake that beginners make is trying to make their search engine keyword research very broad. For example, some people target the whole "make money" audience and end up losing a lot of their own money because they were not specific enough. Your keyword selection should be very relevant to the product that you are marketing. In fact, most buyers will type in longer phrases for more specific results. Those are the serious buyers that you will wan to target.

Search engine keyword research is an essential component in internet marketing success because search engines are one of the keys to finding what exactly you are looking for online. Ensure that you are doing your search engine keyword research for optimal results in your internet marketing campaigns. You can make money online. It just takes a little bit of perseverence, determination and research.

Search engine keyword research is essential to internet marketing success.

Newest Venture - Wedding Weight Loss

2009-11-30T13:39:00.000-08:00

I've started marketing a clickbank product that helps with weight loss. It is designed for wedding weight loss. Many people try losing weight for their wedding day and struggle because they don't know what metabolism boosting foods will help. This product is designed with suggested exercises and a diet generator to help you identify the most effective foods to eat to lose weight for your wedding day.

New Venture

2009-10-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd let you in on a secret. I've started article marketing in earnest. It is fantastic. I love the idea of writing my own articles and having them posted on websites. I am currently in the process of marketing http://my3hourprofits.com. It is a simple, easy way to affiliate market online. I am excited to write the articles and happy that people might actually purchase something from me.

Comments on my Hubpage

2009-07-07T14:52:00.001-07:00

I received notification in my inbox today that there were comments on the hubpage that I created. I was so excited and nervous. What if they told me I had no idea what I'm talking about. I actually don't, so it would be true. The comments were nice and only mildly critical. It is amazing that anyone actually reads what I write. I'm quite excited about it. I looked at my other blog today and there were 2 comments! They just wanted to know how frequently I was updating, which I'm trying for daily, but don't always make it. I haven't made any substantial money online, but I'm enjoying myself. I don't think that people continue doing things that they aren't interested in for very long and that is why a lot of people fail at making money online. Writing doesn't really interest them.

The numbers just aren't there...

2009-07-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

I have received 130 page visits to this website. While I'm thrilled that anyone out there in the blogosphere is reading this, realistically I am not going to make money off of a website that doesn't have many visitors. I'm more than happy to share my experiences and actually I am finding that I enjoy writing and get a kick out of seeing my name when I google. I can see the three articles that I have written online and that has become a source of pride, so while I haven't made millions online writing about my marketing experiences, I have gained insight and knowledge.

I wrote an ezine article!

2009-07-05T03:32:00.000-07:00

While writing on the internet can be fun for some people. It is easy to make mistakes. I wrote an article for ezine. It was short, light and easy to read. I quickly edited it. After they decided to publish it this week, I noticed that one sentence doesn't quite make sense. Oh well. Life is full of many lessons. I just wish this one weren't public.

Twitter Traffic

2009-07-02T03:45:00.000-07:00

Usually, I love John Chow's advice on internet marketing. However, the most recent advice was to access a database of people who will automatically follow you if you follow them. Great advice, people follow the crowd. However, he didn't categorize or explain that you could get some people who post pornographic messages. I blocked them and found out using Twitter Traffic Machine how to target your marketing niche. Click Here! The videos last about an hour and take you step by step through the process of becoming an setting up automated responses, finding people who are in your niche, providing them with pertinent information. Then if you like, you can become an affiliate and share it with your friends and make a few buck off each sale. I'll keep you updated as to how this works for me on the blog.

Wordpress is hard

2009-06-30T03:40:00.000-07:00

I've purchased a domain and found a host. The site uses wordpress. It is so complicated. I read about how much better it is than blogger, but trust me, if you aren't in it for the money, blogspot is the way to go. I'm sure there is a learning curve and my opinion will change. But right now, I can't figure out how to add pictures. I have no idea how to rearrange the components or chose the background. I know it can be done. I've seen my friend's wordpress blogs. They look great!

How to Utilize Social Media

2009-06-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

My cousin told me that she was going to start following my internet marketing blog. I thought to myself, if anyone could make money online it would be Lynn. You see, my cousin has an actual passion for music. Whereas, I just have a lot of random interests. She could create short youtube videos teaching the basics of piano. Post one each week for people who are interested in music, but not committed to it enough to take lessons. While she could charge for them, the goal initially isn't to make money, but to gain a following and share your passion. Once you have people following you, then you can promote products that you believe in. You can find them online and become an affiliate. They don't have to be your own. Lynn could sell advertising space on her blog for pianos or write an article about how to use metronomes and which ones are the best. She is a composer and could use the blog to showcase some of her work. Perhaps someone listening will ask her to compose something for a special event or write the background music to their wedding video. She could create a site and have "musical moments with Lynn" where she introduces her followers to other artists that she enjoys.
Right now, Lynn has 363 facebook friends. Even if only 10% of them chose to subscribe to a weekly audio of her playing the piano, that is 36 people. Those 36 people might enjoy her music enough to post a link to their facebook sites. Assuming they each have 100 friends, 360 people might see the link, listen to her music and like it. While 360 isn't a lot, Lynn can increase the number of people who watch the video by using other social media sites. She can post a link to it on twitter and anyone who is searching for jazz music might click and listen. The goal is to keep them interested and keep them coming back to discover new things.
To increase traffic to her site, she could run contests, promote concerts, give away free tickets or even create her own free event. People are addicted to free items and will return to her blog just to see what is new.
I hope this post helped you to generate some new ideas and give you insight into how social media works.

So much to learn

2009-06-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

I've switched to using wordpress. I really wanted my own domain. Blogger.com is great to get your feet wet, but in the long run having someone externally host your blog imposes some limitations. For example, blogger can shut down your site whenever they want. It is great because it has a nice little template. But a template is limiting when you get a little more creative. Also, you can't monetize very well, unless you are satisfied with a few cents a week. In two months I want to start generating $400/month. Why? Because I want to take a break from my other part time job teaching swimming. That would replace my swimming income.
Follow my learning curve at melindacurle.com. I reveal the goals I've set for myself and the actions that I'm taking to generate traffic to my website. Next month, I will focus on monetization.

Signed Up!

2009-06-26T02:32:00.000-07:00

I finally signed up for blog hosting. I was really disappointed that BlueFur did not accept my credit card information. I signed up for a year with another company that was listed as the best in a google search. We shall see. I was disappointed that I had to pay the full $64 upfront. It was less to sign up for a year of hosting than for just a couple months. I'm willing to try this out for a year. And my gardening hobby probably costs me at least $64. I'll be more dedicated to blogging now that I've invested that much in it.
My theme for my blog is increasing traffic in 30 days. I will consider myself a success if I get 1000 people to visit in a month. I think that is actually a reasonable goal. I have no real technical knowledge, so there is a huge learning curve. But, I think there are more people without technical knowledge online that would like to improve traffic to their sites than there are people who know technology well. People will be able to relate to me.

More Goal Setting

2009-06-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

I've decided to create a blog whose goal is to come out of obscurity in 30 days. I plan to have 1,000 views within thirty days. Those in the social media realm will want to know how I've done it. Other people could care less.
After viewing John Chow's most recent video and following some of his advice, I've realized how I could do this. I'm going to offer a free weekly newsletter. I don't have time to update everyday, but thanks to technology, I can easily write something up every week.
I am going to spend a total of two hours daily on this blog. Why only two hours when some days you are so bored and want to spend more time? Because this blog is an experiment to see if someone can generate income from the internet on a part time basis. If I came home from my regular job and spent another 8 hours on the blog then that would represent a second full time job.
I am still looking into blog hosting sites. While I like the idea of going with BlueFur, who hosts someone incredibly successful, I'm a little disappointed that the coupon code I was give isn't working and the pricing is higher than quoted on John Chow's site.

Pacing is Key

2009-06-24T02:22:00.000-07:00

If your expectations are too high, you risk becoming discouraged early on. I'm so grateful that I set those five weekly goals. All I have to do is post daily, learn one new thing daily and come up with a unique website name and get it hosted. I'm glad my goals have a time line too. Yesterday, I realized I can still procrastinate (one of my favorite things to do) and be successful at this experiment. I still have five days to figure out my unique website name and get it hosted by Blue Fur. I could have put all my ideas down in my first blog. In fact, the first few days I blogged a number of times. However, it would leave me with nothing to write about if I laid it all out at once. I would have major writer's block and probably admit defeat. Set realistic goals and you will feel success regardless of whether people are visiting your site. Eventually they will if the content is good enough.

Check off Goal #3 for the week

2009-06-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

I found out what twitter is and signed up for it this morning. I was super hesitant to try twitter. I don't need my inbox filled exponentially with one sentence messages about what someone is doing right now, however, I realized that I don't need to read every single tweet. I can read at my own convenience and delete the ones just like I delete the excess spam in my inbox. For some reason I thought you had to use twitter from your cell phone. I don't have internet capability on my cell phone yet, so I assumed that it was out of the question. Twitter can be accessed from your computer. Apparently there is a way to make money from twitter. I don't fully understand it yet, but will do some more research after my EEG this morning.
Already I have one person that I don't know signed up to follow my tweets. I'll let you know if it increases traffic to this site.

Bidvertiser

2009-06-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

I signed the blog up for bidvertiser. I learned about Bidvertiser through John Chow's ebook. It is a CPC ad network that competes with Google Adsense. The advantage to Bidvertiser is that it has a low initial payout of $10. Small blogs with low traffic that are just getting started would benefit from the low payout. Google payout is $100. It will take years for me to reach the google payout.
I'm not quite sure which advertisements on the blog are from Bidvertiser. I'm not even sure if there are ads from Bidvertiser on this blog. I signed up because I wanted to experiment and learn about the different ways to make money online. In time, I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Hub Pages experiment

2009-06-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

So, Hubpages lets you become a published author quickly and efficiently. They let you write about things you know about. I tried my had at this and came up with the following article. It is a bit like a blog entry of my experience taking coconut oil. Hubpages hooks you up with links to other sites to become more of a presence online. While they do take their cut of the profit from the clicks, I decided to try writing for them because it would help improve my composition. Practice makes perfect and the more I practice writing the better I will become.
Coconut Oil Cures

I've made money!

2009-06-22T03:44:00.000-07:00

I checked my monetize link and I have made a whopping $0.71 from this website. That's amazing! It has only been viewed 39 times. That is almost two cents per view. Someone actually clicked on one of the advertisements! I am going to pursue this even more. I'm going to follow the advice in John Chow's book more closely now. My goals are by the end of the week to
1. Come up with an original blog title
2. Create an account on BlueFur (that's the blog hosting service John Chow uses)
3. Figure out what the heck twitter is and how to use it. (I'm way behind the times here.)
4. Post Daily
5. Learn about a new idea or technique daily from John Chow's ebook or website
According to the ebook, if you don't set goals, you won't succeed. This is probably true. Therefore I set five short term easily accomplishable goals today.

More Mistakes

2009-06-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

I learned about Hub Pages as a way to easily get published. I was so excited. I wrote down all the ideas that I could turn into an interesting website. I even started writing five websites. There was a challenge to write 100 in 30 days. I read about some people making money off of them. Here's the kicker. After spending five hours trying to be creative and think of things to put on an informational website, I read through Hubpages a little. I found where they take a cut of the profits you would get as an afiliate. Hmm...not so sure that I want to write webpages anymore. I may take the challenge just to get practice writing. I can be very good at it when I want to be.

Mistakes I've Made

2009-06-21T06:17:00.001-07:00

According to John Chow's ebook, I should have gone for web hosting. I've also discovered there is an internet site that is internetmarketexperiences.com and that is much simpler than internetmarketingexperiences.blogspot.com. I'm not an expert on the subject. There is so much for me to learn. So people who visit my site are not coming here for expertise. They are probably visiting for amusement. The likelihood that any of them are going to click on a link and buy something is close to none, so I've decided to shift direction slightly. I'm going to continue writing daily on my experiences, but I'm also going to try being a writer for hubpages. I've always enjoyed writing. While I'm not an expert on many things, I have some friends who enjoy reading my work. As long as I have a day job, I'll have a plethora of experiences to write about. I have an upcoming sleep deprived electroencephlogram on Tuesday and I'll need something to do to keep myself up on Monday night. I doubt the quality of writing will be great at two in the morning, but if I don't try I shall never know.

Tattoo

2009-06-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

The fastest growing affiliate network contacted me today. I learned about them through John Chow dot com. They sent me a personal email requesting information on what my interests were and what type of products I would be willing to promote. I'm very glad that they asked! I don't think I would be very successful trying to promote something that I didn't like. I can't figure out from their website exactly how they operate, but I liked the personalized service of an email that looked like it was written just to me. It addressed me by name, but that was probably a form email response and they just filled in my name where it was appropriate. At any rate, I'm excited about it.

John Chow dot com

2009-06-19T03:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not an affiliate of John Chow dot com. I haven't figured out how to be just yet. I read his free ebook and like his stuff. However, from my last few days of internet marketing, I've discovered it is very difficult to tell good advice from bad advice. On his blog there are a lot of marketing links. That is how he makes his money through affiliate programs. However it is difficult to tell which ones he actually endorses and which ones were put there by Google Adsense, which I've discovered puts up mostly relevant advertisements.
At any rate, I thought I'd let my readers know that I'm following his lead. There are hundreds of people out there telling you how to make money on the internet. John Chow dot com is just one of them. I'm overwhelmed by the sheer number of ideas that he has for me and he updates his blog everyday, which means that daily I get more ideas. I must have subscribed to an email service from him because I got an update in my inbox yesterday.

Text Link Ads follow up

2009-06-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

I was informed that don't have enough traffic on my website for Text Link Ads. Maybe someone will look at my blog someday. In the meantime, I am learning that there is way more than I had ever imagined out there in terms of writing online. It has excited me and fueled my creative juices.

Opportunity Abounds

2009-06-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

I learned that there are jobs out there that pay money to blog. Companies are looking for people to write on things. Not just post ads on their internet blogs and make money if someone happens to be interested in the ad that you posted or Google Adsense posted for you.

Text Link Ads

2009-06-18T03:47:00.000-07:00

I signed up for Text Link Ads. Woo Hoo! They accepted my request and are going to review my website. I should be notified shortly if they are going to place ads on my website. I agreed to let 8 total ads be place by them. For some reason that number was highlighted. While I could have changed it to more or less, I figured it was highlighted because it was the number most commonly chosen. Please let me comment if you know otherwise. I'd love to find out.

Kontera

2009-06-18T03:18:00.000-07:00

I tried signing up for Kontera. After typing in the characters to confirm ten times, and being told I was typing in the incorrect characters, I gave up. Kontera is suppose to add in text ads. Unfortunately I was unable to sign up for this. I am moving on to John Chow's next idea. He actually has a ton, so there is no reason to focus on this one for too long. If necessary I can come back to it.

DealDotCom

2009-06-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

So I reviewed the free ebook that John Chow dot com sent me via email. I saw the word free and immediately double clicked. His ebook is free because he wants you to click on his blog which is littered with marketing. John Chow does share some interesting advice. One piece of advice was to sign up for DealDotCom. You make a percentage of the profit when you refer your friends and they buy stuff. So far, it looks like more books on how to be successful marketing online. I'm really struggling to get excited about posting links about making money, but I'm realizing that I can write about a lot.

Second day efforts

2009-06-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

So far I have three blogs going. One about random stuff, one about my medical condition and one about my experiences making money. I noticed that Google Ads puts up advertisements that are related to the words in your post. For example, on the random blog, I mentioned that I was trying internet marketing and all the ads are related to internet marketing. This blogs ads all relate to making money online. The one about my medical condition has advertisements that don't relate, but we'll see how that goes.
I have notified all of my facebook friends that I am doing this. I posted a blog entry on each of my blogs. I visited a few blogs about making money online and notice a common theme. Most of them claim that all the other websites are scams and that theirs is the only one that will tell you how to make money.

Easy, but not clear

2009-06-17T02:16:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I'm ignorant, but it took me awhile to realize there was a monetize button on blogger. I tried to sign up for Google Adsense. It received an email telling me that they did not support the language used in my blog. Huh? I tried again. Then I noticed that next to layout is an icon to monetize. I double clicked on that. I don't know if the ads that will appear on my blog will have anything to do with what I blog about. I guess time will tell. I also signed up for clickbank. I had read about combining google adsense with clickbank and it sounded like a good idea.
Clickbank is a way to try to sell your friends stuff. You do have to work for it. Look through what you think might be worthwhile and then promote it. I found this link which might be worth your time.
Click Here!