The world is full of people who feel they can take advantage of others to obtain their goals in life. Fraud, Deceit & Scams happen in the real world every day. Just tune into your local news to hear about them. But, Fraud, Deceit & Scams also happen in the virtual world as well. And, unfortunately they often hit those who can lease afford the losses.
Online we are always inundated with "get rich quick schemes" and their claims of "overnight success". If you're like me you find this kind of s.p.a.m clogging up your email box on a daily bases. They tell us how easy it is. How we can just sit back and relax, do nothing all day long and still make a roll full of money. Hell, we might as well go golfing because we'll be making money hand over fist while on the golf course. :-| Now while sitting back and watching the money roll in would definitely be nice, reality is, rarely does any get rich quick scheme ever work. The promises of millions never pan out no matter how hard you try.
The problem here is that so many people want and need to make more money. And they want to make that money as quickly as they can. So they believe, or hope that what the scammer is telling them will be true. But understand this, even the greatest, largest companies in the world took time and work to build. Martha Stewart for example will tell you that she started her business in the basement of her house. And look where that business is today. A multi billion dollar a year corporation. While we all can't be Martha Stewart or Donald Trump or Hugh Heffner we can have our own successful home based business if we just stay away from the scams.
So, how do we spot the scams? Well, if you are serious about operating your own home based business there are things you can watch out for. Sort of the red flags of the business opportunity world. Let's have a look at some now.
- Charging you for information about their business opportunity. It's pretty plain and simple. A so called business opportunity tells you all you have to do is go to your mail box pick up the checks and cash them, but first you must send them a check to get the information on how this is done. I'm of the thinking that your check is going to be the only check getting cashed here. This type of ad appears all over the internet. But if their business opportunity is so good why must you pay to find out what it is. Would it not make more sense to give you that information for free so they could get you interested in their product. I would think so! And unfortunately many people get scammed into sending these frauds the money they ask for. Then if they receive the information they paid for they will often find it pretty much useless and often they are require to send more money for more information. Stay away from these types of ads, they will not get you a successful home based business!
- They want to charge you a fee to sell their products.
O.K., I've got to ask - What's up with that?! If their product is so great won't you be selling them like crazy? Won't you be making money for not only yourself but for the company as well? Don't pay to sell someone else's products.
- They offer you free products.
Ever see these ads where you are entitled to a free (what ever) only to discover you'll need to purchase something first. ie: Sign up today and get (what ever) for FREE! Of course what they don't tell you is you'll have to purchase a sample package first in order to get the freebie.
- Fly by nights
Fly by night companies that pop up and take peoples money operate both offline and online. Very often they disappear without warning. So to keep yourself safe from these frauds ask yourself the following questions. Is this an established company? How long have they been in business? Do they have an actual street address or only a P.O. Box? Or worse, no address and no way to contact them at all? Do they use only an auto responder or do they have an email where you can get in touch with a real person?
I know that all these points seem like common sense. But why then, do so many people ignore them. That is why these scammers can exist. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" when looking for your perfect home based business it is important to look for a company that only gives you the straight goods. No promises of exorbitant amounts of money falling from the sky into your lap without you doing a thing to make it happen. And, they should not be charging you for any information on their business opportunity it should be laid out for you. Use your own common sense, if something looks to good to be true, then it probably is to good to be true.
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Thursday, November 11, 2010
How Non-technical Webmasters Are Harnessing the Power of RSS...
The opportunity to quickly and easily implement and harness the power of RSS is quite real and new programs become available every week that allow non-technical marketers and webmasters to capitalize on the effective use of RSS.
Jim Edwards spoke of this trend in the recent "For a Greater Cause" teleseminar. Media-rich blogs and content sites are stickier and keep visitors on site longer.
Consider delivering audio content via the internet by setting up a blog and incorporating streaming audio. By doing so, your media-rich message creates a relationship with visitors that cannot be achieved with text alone.
If you'd like to take this one step further, start using video content. It's the difference between reading a flyer versus listening to the radio versus watching television. Why do people gravitate to the TV when every home has a radio? When presented with the option, we prefer the satisfaction of both the auditory and visual senses.
The real power of blogs, audio and video is that you can invite your visitors to participate and interact with you by allowing them to post comments. Your blog becomes a community event and we all love a party.
If you'll be using the strategy of blogging with audio and video, there are three things that you should do.
First, as mentioned above, allow your visitors to post comments to your blog.
Second, always give visitors the opportunity to sign up for your newsletter or ezine directly from your blog.
Third, for those who prefer to receive news via RSS feeds, post your RSS feed on every page of your blog.
Recorded interviews with industry experts fed via podcast can raise your credibility simply by association. Arrange for a phone interview with an expert in your market area, get permission to record the call and post it to your blog. If you're offering publicity and exposure for the interviewee, it should be simple to find willing and eager parties.
RSS offers you the ability to provide high frequency content updates. It can be daily or hourly. Deliver important messages, news and other content on demand rather that waiting for your regularly scheduled e-zine.
What's next?...
Here's where things get fun for the online marketer and webmaster. One area in particular where you can really start to take advantage of RSS technology is to build sticky content on your sites and monetize it with programs like Google's Adsense.
RSS feeds are available in abundance that provide product news, press releases and updates. Sites such as PRWeb (http://www.prweb.com) want you to use their news feeds on your site. So why not? Build your site's content with news and information feeds that deliver steady streams of traffic.
Do a bit of searching and you'll find programs and scripts that make the addition of RSS feeds to your website very simple and fast.
RSS gives you an edge over your competition by allowing you to create a sense of community, offer interaction and provide the latest news and information nearly on autopilot.
Jim Edwards spoke of this trend in the recent "For a Greater Cause" teleseminar. Media-rich blogs and content sites are stickier and keep visitors on site longer.
Consider delivering audio content via the internet by setting up a blog and incorporating streaming audio. By doing so, your media-rich message creates a relationship with visitors that cannot be achieved with text alone.
If you'd like to take this one step further, start using video content. It's the difference between reading a flyer versus listening to the radio versus watching television. Why do people gravitate to the TV when every home has a radio? When presented with the option, we prefer the satisfaction of both the auditory and visual senses.
The real power of blogs, audio and video is that you can invite your visitors to participate and interact with you by allowing them to post comments. Your blog becomes a community event and we all love a party.
If you'll be using the strategy of blogging with audio and video, there are three things that you should do.
First, as mentioned above, allow your visitors to post comments to your blog.
Second, always give visitors the opportunity to sign up for your newsletter or ezine directly from your blog.
Third, for those who prefer to receive news via RSS feeds, post your RSS feed on every page of your blog.
Recorded interviews with industry experts fed via podcast can raise your credibility simply by association. Arrange for a phone interview with an expert in your market area, get permission to record the call and post it to your blog. If you're offering publicity and exposure for the interviewee, it should be simple to find willing and eager parties.
RSS offers you the ability to provide high frequency content updates. It can be daily or hourly. Deliver important messages, news and other content on demand rather that waiting for your regularly scheduled e-zine.
What's next?...
Here's where things get fun for the online marketer and webmaster. One area in particular where you can really start to take advantage of RSS technology is to build sticky content on your sites and monetize it with programs like Google's Adsense.
RSS feeds are available in abundance that provide product news, press releases and updates. Sites such as PRWeb (http://www.prweb.com) want you to use their news feeds on your site. So why not? Build your site's content with news and information feeds that deliver steady streams of traffic.
Do a bit of searching and you'll find programs and scripts that make the addition of RSS feeds to your website very simple and fast.
RSS gives you an edge over your competition by allowing you to create a sense of community, offer interaction and provide the latest news and information nearly on autopilot.
How can you make money out of your site with no product, no affiliate program, no services and no idea of how to sell …
This was the question my copywriter asked me at one of our meetings about joint ventures on the web. What follows is the question and answers as best as I can remember them. Just to let you know he was making money 24 hours later…
Question: How do you make money out of your site with no product, no affiliate program, no services and no idea of how to sell…
Answer: Easy use Adsense.
Question: But what is Adsense.
Answer: Adsense is the other side of Google's Adwords. These are little three line text adverts that companies use to get targeted traffic to their websites.
Question: But how does it work.
Answer: Simple. Your Website is Internet real estate. The more your website is vested the more valuable the real estate. Just like a piece of real estate you can sell bits off. In this case it is the same as you putting up an advertising billboard on your property. You rent this to a company; in this case Google and they put their ads on it.
Question. OK But how do I get paid
Answer: You get paid every time somebody goes to your site and clicks on one of the ads. Simple enough. (In fact very sophisticated from a technical and marketing point of view but that is getting off the subject.)
Question. How much do I get paid?
Answer. Well here is a thing; you will probably not be able to work out exactly how much you get paid for any one ad that changes ad to ad. But after a few days of running this system you can probably work out how much you are getting per page per day.
Question. How much are you getting?
Answer. I am not allowed to tell you because I have signed a contract with Google that tells me that I am not allowed to say. However, I can tell you that to get to a stage where you get up to $1 per page per page is not impossible, but if you work on $0.30 per page per day, for a well-visited site you could be very happy.
Question. OK but $0.30 per page per day is not a lot.
Answer. No not if you only have 5 pages. But even that would cover the cost of a web site. Have a look below at the figures.
5 page web site at $0.30 per page per day
5 x 0.30 x 365 days = $547.50 per Year
10 page web site at $0.30 per page per day
10 x 0.30 x 365 = $1095.00 per Year
25 page site at $0.30 per page per day
25 x 0.30 x 365 = $2,737.50 per Year
50 page site at $0.30 per page per day
50 x 0.30 x 365 = $5,475.00 per Year
OK We are not talking retiring owning your own island and helicopter. But if you said well I think I could put up one page a day for every day of the year. Have 50 pages per web site. That’s means 7 web sites with 50 pages each and 15 day off.
365 divided by 50 = 7 and 15 over.
That would give you 7 sites at $5,475.00 per year or $38,325.00 in annual income after all the pages were finished. Now does that sound interesting. And all you have had to do is write 200 words per day. Just to let you know this article is so far 543 words.
Even if it is only half that is $19,162.50 per year. That is the repayments on an interest only loan at 5% of just under $400,000.
Question. Why not just have one big website?
Answer. It is better to build a number of columns to hold up a building. Better to diversify and survive.
Question. OK if this is so good why isn’t everybody doing it?
Answer. Many reasons, some people make more out of selling their own products, some do not know about it, some are just too purest. In the end who cares; if you quest is to make some money. There is nothing bad here. In fact there is only good.
Question. What do you mean there is only good.
Answer. Well let’s think. Somebody has got to your site because they have either searched for you on a search engine or somebody has referred them. They will only visit your site if they are interested in what you have. The ads that google put up on their billboard on your site are targeted to what your site is about. Therefore your visitors not only get to see your info but they get to see other offerings. If they are interested they click on the ad. Now look what has happened here. You have made money because somebody has paid to put an ad on your site. The user has clicked on the ad because they are interested in the subject and ad. The advertiser gets a warm lead. Google make a slice as the middleman and can continue to run their excellent service. So everybody wins. And it only costs people pennies.
Question. OK I’m sold what do I do now.
Answer. Simple go to www.google.com/adsense download all the info on setting up and account, the details what specifications your site must meet. Basically, no competitive ads, not profanity, must be a reasonable site with good navigation and no to many spelling mistakes.
The just get going.
Question. Are there ways that I can maximize the adverts and make more money?
Answer. Yes there are. But that is not for this article.
For further information come back to this web site for the next article – Now to maximize your adsense review stream.
Question: How do you make money out of your site with no product, no affiliate program, no services and no idea of how to sell…
Answer: Easy use Adsense.
Question: But what is Adsense.
Answer: Adsense is the other side of Google's Adwords. These are little three line text adverts that companies use to get targeted traffic to their websites.
Question: But how does it work.
Answer: Simple. Your Website is Internet real estate. The more your website is vested the more valuable the real estate. Just like a piece of real estate you can sell bits off. In this case it is the same as you putting up an advertising billboard on your property. You rent this to a company; in this case Google and they put their ads on it.
Question. OK But how do I get paid
Answer: You get paid every time somebody goes to your site and clicks on one of the ads. Simple enough. (In fact very sophisticated from a technical and marketing point of view but that is getting off the subject.)
Question. How much do I get paid?
Answer. Well here is a thing; you will probably not be able to work out exactly how much you get paid for any one ad that changes ad to ad. But after a few days of running this system you can probably work out how much you are getting per page per day.
Question. How much are you getting?
Answer. I am not allowed to tell you because I have signed a contract with Google that tells me that I am not allowed to say. However, I can tell you that to get to a stage where you get up to $1 per page per page is not impossible, but if you work on $0.30 per page per day, for a well-visited site you could be very happy.
Question. OK but $0.30 per page per day is not a lot.
Answer. No not if you only have 5 pages. But even that would cover the cost of a web site. Have a look below at the figures.
5 page web site at $0.30 per page per day
5 x 0.30 x 365 days = $547.50 per Year
10 page web site at $0.30 per page per day
10 x 0.30 x 365 = $1095.00 per Year
25 page site at $0.30 per page per day
25 x 0.30 x 365 = $2,737.50 per Year
50 page site at $0.30 per page per day
50 x 0.30 x 365 = $5,475.00 per Year
OK We are not talking retiring owning your own island and helicopter. But if you said well I think I could put up one page a day for every day of the year. Have 50 pages per web site. That’s means 7 web sites with 50 pages each and 15 day off.
365 divided by 50 = 7 and 15 over.
That would give you 7 sites at $5,475.00 per year or $38,325.00 in annual income after all the pages were finished. Now does that sound interesting. And all you have had to do is write 200 words per day. Just to let you know this article is so far 543 words.
Even if it is only half that is $19,162.50 per year. That is the repayments on an interest only loan at 5% of just under $400,000.
Question. Why not just have one big website?
Answer. It is better to build a number of columns to hold up a building. Better to diversify and survive.
Question. OK if this is so good why isn’t everybody doing it?
Answer. Many reasons, some people make more out of selling their own products, some do not know about it, some are just too purest. In the end who cares; if you quest is to make some money. There is nothing bad here. In fact there is only good.
Question. What do you mean there is only good.
Answer. Well let’s think. Somebody has got to your site because they have either searched for you on a search engine or somebody has referred them. They will only visit your site if they are interested in what you have. The ads that google put up on their billboard on your site are targeted to what your site is about. Therefore your visitors not only get to see your info but they get to see other offerings. If they are interested they click on the ad. Now look what has happened here. You have made money because somebody has paid to put an ad on your site. The user has clicked on the ad because they are interested in the subject and ad. The advertiser gets a warm lead. Google make a slice as the middleman and can continue to run their excellent service. So everybody wins. And it only costs people pennies.
Question. OK I’m sold what do I do now.
Answer. Simple go to www.google.com/adsense download all the info on setting up and account, the details what specifications your site must meet. Basically, no competitive ads, not profanity, must be a reasonable site with good navigation and no to many spelling mistakes.
The just get going.
Question. Are there ways that I can maximize the adverts and make more money?
Answer. Yes there are. But that is not for this article.
For further information come back to this web site for the next article – Now to maximize your adsense review stream.
How are con artists stealing money from eBay buyers?
Someone is using another person as a middleman.
Just imagine: you want to buy a fast and modern laptop but you see that in retail stores and internet superstores it costs tons of money. Where will you go? Right! You will connect to Internet; start your favorite browser and type "www.ebay.com".
You find a laptop there and you like a price, you think: "Okay. It's very good deal! I will win this auction!" And you win.
You write to a seller and ask him how to pay. The seller is reply that you should send a money order to him/her. Then you send the money order and... nothing. You try to contact with the seller, but nobody replies on your messages.
You use eBay to get seller's information. What a hell!? I sent the money to another person!!! You call to the seller and find that he doesn't know what eBay is. Someone used his credit card to signup.
You find a phone number of a person who had received your money order. You call to her and learn that she is just receiving money orders on behalf of an overseas company.
She doesn't know what eBay is also. Heck! You want your money back! But it's very problematic…
As I know it's impossible!
What do you learn from it?
Before bidding on an auction:
- Look at the payments part of a page. If a seller accepts money orders and cashiers' checks only when it's a 95% scam. Feedback means almost nothing. I will explain it later.
- Ask a seller for his/her phone number and make a call to be sure that the seller is real person who is selling an item.
- If a seller is refused or avoiding to contact you via the phone ask for the eBay escrow service. Use eBay escrow only! Do not trust other companies.
- If you are paying a seller by http://www.PayPal.com always check that a seller name the same as on eBay. If different it's 95% scam.
- If you reached a seller by a phone and negotiated with him about a payment method you can bid on the auction safely.
Some advanced knowledge:
I said early that feedback means nothing. Why?
Because some scam artists are buying eBay accounts with a high feedback rating.
They are buying it from hackers who overtake legal users' accounts and inactive for a long time period accounts. It's also true for PayPal accounts.
And why you should trust eBay escrow services only? Because rippers are running bogus escrow sites and try to rip you off.
Theirs site looks very fine. You will see a professional design and great domain name. But... it’s only fake, intended to take your money and run.
Very often such services tell you to transfer money to an overseas bank account or e-gold account.
REMEMBER THAT A BIG PART OF SCAM ARTISTS SIMPLY DON'T DO THE NEXT STEP IF YOU WILL ASK FOR THE EBAY ESCROW OR PHONE CALL. I KNOW IT, BECAUSE I'M THE RETIRED RIPPER.
Just imagine: you want to buy a fast and modern laptop but you see that in retail stores and internet superstores it costs tons of money. Where will you go? Right! You will connect to Internet; start your favorite browser and type "www.ebay.com".
You find a laptop there and you like a price, you think: "Okay. It's very good deal! I will win this auction!" And you win.
You write to a seller and ask him how to pay. The seller is reply that you should send a money order to him/her. Then you send the money order and... nothing. You try to contact with the seller, but nobody replies on your messages.
You use eBay to get seller's information. What a hell!? I sent the money to another person!!! You call to the seller and find that he doesn't know what eBay is. Someone used his credit card to signup.
You find a phone number of a person who had received your money order. You call to her and learn that she is just receiving money orders on behalf of an overseas company.
She doesn't know what eBay is also. Heck! You want your money back! But it's very problematic…
As I know it's impossible!
What do you learn from it?
Before bidding on an auction:
- Look at the payments part of a page. If a seller accepts money orders and cashiers' checks only when it's a 95% scam. Feedback means almost nothing. I will explain it later.
- Ask a seller for his/her phone number and make a call to be sure that the seller is real person who is selling an item.
- If a seller is refused or avoiding to contact you via the phone ask for the eBay escrow service. Use eBay escrow only! Do not trust other companies.
- If you are paying a seller by http://www.PayPal.com always check that a seller name the same as on eBay. If different it's 95% scam.
- If you reached a seller by a phone and negotiated with him about a payment method you can bid on the auction safely.
Some advanced knowledge:
I said early that feedback means nothing. Why?
Because some scam artists are buying eBay accounts with a high feedback rating.
They are buying it from hackers who overtake legal users' accounts and inactive for a long time period accounts. It's also true for PayPal accounts.
And why you should trust eBay escrow services only? Because rippers are running bogus escrow sites and try to rip you off.
Theirs site looks very fine. You will see a professional design and great domain name. But... it’s only fake, intended to take your money and run.
Very often such services tell you to transfer money to an overseas bank account or e-gold account.
REMEMBER THAT A BIG PART OF SCAM ARTISTS SIMPLY DON'T DO THE NEXT STEP IF YOU WILL ASK FOR THE EBAY ESCROW OR PHONE CALL. I KNOW IT, BECAUSE I'M THE RETIRED RIPPER.
Help! eBay Selling
General productivity
Shortkeys
This is lovely utility which saves me hours of time each week. It is perfect for those occasions when you are required to key in information to websites. For example, how often do you key in your name and address, or a username and password, or an email address?
With Shortkeys, you associate 3 or 4 unique keystrokes with a string of frequently used information. Let's suppose I want to have a shortkey for my email address, and I set this as ##z1 in Shortkeys. Whenever I am required to key in my email address, in Outlook, on web forms, in Word documents etc, I just type in ##z1 and Shortkeys instantly replaces that with my email address.
Download Accelerator
If you regularly download ebooks or software, and it seems to take forever, you will find Download Accelerator is a useful addition to your portfolio. Download Accelerator increases download speeds by up to 300%, regardless of the speed of your internet connection. I don't know how it does it, but I guess 89 million users can't be wrong!
Ebook Production
Acrobat Adobe
I create all my ebooks in pdf format as this file can be read by anyone with Acrobat Reader, and this includes Mac users too. The way I create an ebook is to write it in Microsoft Word first. Once I'm happy that the Word version is exactly how I want it, I use an integrated converter which takes the Word file and converts it automatically into a pdf file. This conversion preserves everything which appeared in the Word document, including headers/footers, page numbers and web links.
If you are considering developing your own ebooks using Acrobat, the most cost effective way of purchasing it is to buy online from Adobe's US site, and select the download option.
At 167 Mb, Acrobat is quite a large software product. If you would therefore prefer to buy the boxed CD version, the cheapest way in the UK is to get it from Amazon. http://www.workwinners.com/nlramacrobat.htm
ebook Covers
It is a fact that showing your ebook in 3D form so it looks like a book really helps to boost sales.
Website creation and maintenance
Website design
I use Macromedia's Dreamweaver to design websites, and indeed to create eBay auction description pages. Dreamweaver is a premium web design product, and unless you're going to do serious website design I wouldn't advise you to acquire it.
It comes in boxed form, and Macromedia will channel any UK purchasers to a UK based reseller. The cheapest way in the UK is to get it from Amazon.
Image Manipulation & Optimising
I use Paint Shop Pro for picture manipulation and for optimising. This is important for auction pictures, as eBay have a size limit of 50KB on any pictures which you want to upload to their Picture Service.
The authors, JASC, have just released Version 9 of this software. I find Version 8 is perfectly acceptable for everything I want to do, and it's cheaper than Version 9.
You can't now buy Version 8 from the author's USA site, which is unfortunate as this was the cheapest way of buying the product before Version 9 came out.
Website upload
Cute FTP is probably the best known FTP software. OR FileZilla.
Website hosting
ProWebSpace are excellent and reasonable web hosts which I have now been using for over a year. I transferred to them from another host with whom I was having lots of problems. Now, I have a better service, and it's at one third the price! Of course, you can get web space for nothing from a variety of ISPs.
You only need companies like ProWebSpace if you intend to "go commercial" in your internet activities. If you do, it's important to have a paid service as this gives you the right to kick b**t if ever you experience hosting problems. If you would like to know the hosting company who I moved from, email me.
Newsletter and other Mailings
As my newsletter has grown, I've tried various ways of managing my mailing lists. I currently use Press-Manager, and have found their service to be very easy to set-up and to use. It's a web based service, and all mailings are performed from their site. This means there's no software to be installed, I can manage my mailings from any PC and my ISP no longer bears the mailing load.
Autoresponding
You may know that the use of autoresponders is one of the keys to marketing on the internet. I use Promasoft, and have found it can easily handle everything I want.
I hope this glimpse into the systems and services I use has been helpful.
Good luck in your own internet business developments and in your eBay selling.
Shortkeys
This is lovely utility which saves me hours of time each week. It is perfect for those occasions when you are required to key in information to websites. For example, how often do you key in your name and address, or a username and password, or an email address?
With Shortkeys, you associate 3 or 4 unique keystrokes with a string of frequently used information. Let's suppose I want to have a shortkey for my email address, and I set this as ##z1 in Shortkeys. Whenever I am required to key in my email address, in Outlook, on web forms, in Word documents etc, I just type in ##z1 and Shortkeys instantly replaces that with my email address.
Download Accelerator
If you regularly download ebooks or software, and it seems to take forever, you will find Download Accelerator is a useful addition to your portfolio. Download Accelerator increases download speeds by up to 300%, regardless of the speed of your internet connection. I don't know how it does it, but I guess 89 million users can't be wrong!
Ebook Production
Acrobat Adobe
I create all my ebooks in pdf format as this file can be read by anyone with Acrobat Reader, and this includes Mac users too. The way I create an ebook is to write it in Microsoft Word first. Once I'm happy that the Word version is exactly how I want it, I use an integrated converter which takes the Word file and converts it automatically into a pdf file. This conversion preserves everything which appeared in the Word document, including headers/footers, page numbers and web links.
If you are considering developing your own ebooks using Acrobat, the most cost effective way of purchasing it is to buy online from Adobe's US site, and select the download option.
At 167 Mb, Acrobat is quite a large software product. If you would therefore prefer to buy the boxed CD version, the cheapest way in the UK is to get it from Amazon. http://www.workwinners.com/nlramacrobat.htm
ebook Covers
It is a fact that showing your ebook in 3D form so it looks like a book really helps to boost sales.
Website creation and maintenance
Website design
I use Macromedia's Dreamweaver to design websites, and indeed to create eBay auction description pages. Dreamweaver is a premium web design product, and unless you're going to do serious website design I wouldn't advise you to acquire it.
It comes in boxed form, and Macromedia will channel any UK purchasers to a UK based reseller. The cheapest way in the UK is to get it from Amazon.
Image Manipulation & Optimising
I use Paint Shop Pro for picture manipulation and for optimising. This is important for auction pictures, as eBay have a size limit of 50KB on any pictures which you want to upload to their Picture Service.
The authors, JASC, have just released Version 9 of this software. I find Version 8 is perfectly acceptable for everything I want to do, and it's cheaper than Version 9.
You can't now buy Version 8 from the author's USA site, which is unfortunate as this was the cheapest way of buying the product before Version 9 came out.
Website upload
Cute FTP is probably the best known FTP software. OR FileZilla.
Website hosting
ProWebSpace are excellent and reasonable web hosts which I have now been using for over a year. I transferred to them from another host with whom I was having lots of problems. Now, I have a better service, and it's at one third the price! Of course, you can get web space for nothing from a variety of ISPs.
You only need companies like ProWebSpace if you intend to "go commercial" in your internet activities. If you do, it's important to have a paid service as this gives you the right to kick b**t if ever you experience hosting problems. If you would like to know the hosting company who I moved from, email me.
Newsletter and other Mailings
As my newsletter has grown, I've tried various ways of managing my mailing lists. I currently use Press-Manager, and have found their service to be very easy to set-up and to use. It's a web based service, and all mailings are performed from their site. This means there's no software to be installed, I can manage my mailings from any PC and my ISP no longer bears the mailing load.
Autoresponding
You may know that the use of autoresponders is one of the keys to marketing on the internet. I use Promasoft, and have found it can easily handle everything I want.
I hope this glimpse into the systems and services I use has been helpful.
Good luck in your own internet business developments and in your eBay selling.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Growing eBay Sales with Top-Notch Customer Service
Painters were at our house this weekend, doing the trim outside and a few rooms inside. My wife provided most of the direction, but I asked the head guy (and owner of the company) to pay attention to a few details for me.
The whole experience reminded me of how critically important it is to pay attention to customer requests when dealing with eBay sales. On the Web (and with email) it's easy to lose contact with customers and forget to address their concerns.
Make sure you don't fall into this trap. You may not see the results directly, but your customers will become upset and you'll eventually lose business - like my painter has. Not only did he lose business, he lost a valuable referral source.
He started to lose me when he failed to record my suggestions and concerns. I didn't get into interior design much, choosing between mauve and tope, but I did have some input as far as the whole project goes.
I wanted them to make sure they cleaned up the "misses" on the outside, where some black trim paint accidentally hit the white house paint. I needed them to unstick some of the windows and put all the screens back, as well.
When the project started wrapping up, it was obvious that the lead was ignoring some of my requests -- namely the screens and window unsticking. I loved the work, but I wasn't so hot on their finishing skills.
From a customer service perspective, the timing couldn't have been worse. Just when the painters wanted to consider it a job well done, I was having second thoughts about their competence.
That sinking feeling should not have come at the end of the project. The lead should have been going out with a celebration rather than with some gripes. He should have lead me around, showed me how great everything looks, showed me the extra work he'd thrown in, and gone down my list of requests one by one, demonstrating that he met my needs and respects my wishes.
If he performed these "finalizing" customer service/marketing steps, he'd have my 100% recommendation. I'd rave about him to friends, pass out his business cards and even write up a testimonial for him. I'd offer to help him out with his advertising materials, in fact. We'll certainly have more painting jobs in the future, and I'd like to stay on good terms with him.
On eBay, the same steps need to be followed in order to build business and collect loyal customers that rave about you. You need to send customers follow-up emails that confirm what they bought, what kind of deal you're giving them (on shipping, bonuses, etc.), and how you appreciate their business and would welcome any questions they may have. You need to offer them targeted cross-sell and up-sell items as they bid and shop. And, you need to quickly address their concerns as they come up. All this attention and service ensures that your customers refer you to others, leave positive feedback, and return to do more business with you.
Don't be like my painter. Pay attention to detail and your business will grow at a healthy pace.
The whole experience reminded me of how critically important it is to pay attention to customer requests when dealing with eBay sales. On the Web (and with email) it's easy to lose contact with customers and forget to address their concerns.
Make sure you don't fall into this trap. You may not see the results directly, but your customers will become upset and you'll eventually lose business - like my painter has. Not only did he lose business, he lost a valuable referral source.
He started to lose me when he failed to record my suggestions and concerns. I didn't get into interior design much, choosing between mauve and tope, but I did have some input as far as the whole project goes.
I wanted them to make sure they cleaned up the "misses" on the outside, where some black trim paint accidentally hit the white house paint. I needed them to unstick some of the windows and put all the screens back, as well.
When the project started wrapping up, it was obvious that the lead was ignoring some of my requests -- namely the screens and window unsticking. I loved the work, but I wasn't so hot on their finishing skills.
From a customer service perspective, the timing couldn't have been worse. Just when the painters wanted to consider it a job well done, I was having second thoughts about their competence.
That sinking feeling should not have come at the end of the project. The lead should have been going out with a celebration rather than with some gripes. He should have lead me around, showed me how great everything looks, showed me the extra work he'd thrown in, and gone down my list of requests one by one, demonstrating that he met my needs and respects my wishes.
If he performed these "finalizing" customer service/marketing steps, he'd have my 100% recommendation. I'd rave about him to friends, pass out his business cards and even write up a testimonial for him. I'd offer to help him out with his advertising materials, in fact. We'll certainly have more painting jobs in the future, and I'd like to stay on good terms with him.
On eBay, the same steps need to be followed in order to build business and collect loyal customers that rave about you. You need to send customers follow-up emails that confirm what they bought, what kind of deal you're giving them (on shipping, bonuses, etc.), and how you appreciate their business and would welcome any questions they may have. You need to offer them targeted cross-sell and up-sell items as they bid and shop. And, you need to quickly address their concerns as they come up. All this attention and service ensures that your customers refer you to others, leave positive feedback, and return to do more business with you.
Don't be like my painter. Pay attention to detail and your business will grow at a healthy pace.
Google to Compete with PayPal?
PayPal is secure in its domination over the electronic payment industry, at least for now.
Following reports that Google planned to launch a new Internet payment service (nicknamed Google Wallet), Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, denied that Google would be directly competing with PayPal. He did, however, acknowledge that Google has plans for some type of electronic payment service.
Without revealing any details, Schmidt emphasized that the Google payment service will not offer the same sort of “person to person, store-valued payments system” as PayPal provides.
The Internet commerce industry was rampant with rumours of the new Google service following an e-commerce conference hosted by securities firm Piper Jaffray. Speculation that Google Wallet would encroach on PayPal territory was reinforced by the appearance of a June 20th article in the Wall Street Journal which stated that Google was planning an online payment service to compete with PayPal.
PayPal is a unit of eBay and generates almost 25% of total eBay revenue. It is used by consumers for making a wide variety of Internet purchases. It allows purchasers to use their credit cards without divulging their credit card numbers to merchants. PayPal takes a percentage of each transaction and had revenues of $233.1 million in the first quarter of this year.
Most of Google’s revenue comes from online advertising and this expansion into online payments was seen by many in the industry as yet another example of the rivalry between the two companies.
Google is a giant in Internet commerce with revenues of $3.2 billion last year. A payment service that competed directly with PayPal would be a serious blow to both PayPal and eBay.
Google maintained silence about the rumours until Schmidt’s comments last Tuesday. Without elaborating, he stated that Google’s payment service would be an extension of its existing advertising programs.
Following reports that Google planned to launch a new Internet payment service (nicknamed Google Wallet), Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, denied that Google would be directly competing with PayPal. He did, however, acknowledge that Google has plans for some type of electronic payment service.
Without revealing any details, Schmidt emphasized that the Google payment service will not offer the same sort of “person to person, store-valued payments system” as PayPal provides.
The Internet commerce industry was rampant with rumours of the new Google service following an e-commerce conference hosted by securities firm Piper Jaffray. Speculation that Google Wallet would encroach on PayPal territory was reinforced by the appearance of a June 20th article in the Wall Street Journal which stated that Google was planning an online payment service to compete with PayPal.
PayPal is a unit of eBay and generates almost 25% of total eBay revenue. It is used by consumers for making a wide variety of Internet purchases. It allows purchasers to use their credit cards without divulging their credit card numbers to merchants. PayPal takes a percentage of each transaction and had revenues of $233.1 million in the first quarter of this year.
Most of Google’s revenue comes from online advertising and this expansion into online payments was seen by many in the industry as yet another example of the rivalry between the two companies.
Google is a giant in Internet commerce with revenues of $3.2 billion last year. A payment service that competed directly with PayPal would be a serious blow to both PayPal and eBay.
Google maintained silence about the rumours until Schmidt’s comments last Tuesday. Without elaborating, he stated that Google’s payment service would be an extension of its existing advertising programs.
Google's own AdSense Tips
Google is at least as interested as you are in having your ads perform well on your site. And they've gone to some work to provide the information you need to optimize your AdSense.
What's fascinating to me is that apparently not everyone bothers to read their tips. And even some that do, fail to apply it.
That said, you need to be aware that simply using their tips doesn't guarantee successful ads and decent CTR (Click Through Rate). How many times have you heard this? You have to test. You have to try alternatives and see what really works best for you, on your pages, with your content and your visitors. Test, test, test some more. Track your results, analyze them, try variations. Too many of us don't test. We hear the mantra, but we don't do the work.
First, let's see if we can get an idea about location. (The graphic is included in the article on my site or you can take a look at it at the Google link included below) Generally, above the fold, at the top center of your content, below top navigation is the hottest location. Not immediately below which is good but not quite as hot. In a left sidebar, to the immediate left of primary content or below the primary content are also good. Most other locations are generally cooler.
Again, you need to test and you need to consider your users behavior - and their behavior may vary on different pages with different kinds of content. Google suggests that in some cases, such as articles, the best location can be at the end of the article. To quote Google, "It's almost as if users finish reading and ask themselves, What can I do next?" Well targeted relevant ads right there can provide the answer.
Don't blindly assume that sticking a nice big rectangle in the center above the fold will do it. It may, but depending on your content, it may annoy or inconvenience your users.
Users tend to focus on content, navigation and to a lesser extent graphics. Positioning your ads near these elements will often work well -- if those ads are targeted to your visitors needs.
The top three performers among the Google ad formats are the 336X280 large rectangle, the 300X250 inline rectangle and the 160X600 wide skyscraper. Google reports that the wider formats tend to do better than the taller ones. One reason may be that these are, perhaps, easier to read since they have fewer line breaks and require less eye movement. But, you need to use formats that fit your pages well. Once again, you need to test, but redoing your pages to suit a particular ad format may not be a reasonable alternative and you may discover that a different format actually gets better results.
Now we come to color. Conventional wisdom says that colors which tend to blend into your content do better. Some go so far as to suggest that colors which make the ads look like part of the content are best. Personally, I think anybody really believes those ads are anything but ads, but who knows. Google suggests that you may find that colors that standout from your content do better - or maybe the opposite. This is absolutely an area where you need to test alternative color schemes. Going with the conventional wisdom usually works fairly well, but without testing you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.
Google allows you to have up to three ad units and one link unit on your pages. If you have long pages with lots of text, can only use small ad units or are in a niche with a large ad inventory, multiple units can pay off. Keep in mind that the way ad serving works is that the higher value ads are delivered to the first ad unit block encountered in your code. Always make sure that this first ad unit is displayed in the best location (yeah - test). You want the higher paying ads to be in the prime hot location on your page. Weaker locations can get the lower priced ads. And if none are available, then nothing will display unless you've included an alternate ad URL in your Google code. To maximize monetization you should be including alternate ad URLs, especially if you are putting multiple units on a page. The use of an alternate ad URL also eliminates the possibility of being served PSAs (Public Service Announcements). It's your real estate, maximize your returns.
Nothing here is secret. Except for using the alternate ad URL, all of this information is available from Google's Optimization Tips page - http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html . You can buy books and courses, visit a dozen forums and, in the end it comes down to what your visitors do on your site. The best you can get is general guidance. This means averaged outcomes over many sites, many types of content. If you are serious about doing whatever you can to really optimize your AdSense returns, there is only one thing to do - test. Whether it's AdSense, opt-ins, copy, headlines - anything with a measurable outcome that you can track - then the way to improve is to test and keep on testing.
What's fascinating to me is that apparently not everyone bothers to read their tips. And even some that do, fail to apply it.
That said, you need to be aware that simply using their tips doesn't guarantee successful ads and decent CTR (Click Through Rate). How many times have you heard this? You have to test. You have to try alternatives and see what really works best for you, on your pages, with your content and your visitors. Test, test, test some more. Track your results, analyze them, try variations. Too many of us don't test. We hear the mantra, but we don't do the work.
First, let's see if we can get an idea about location. (The graphic is included in the article on my site or you can take a look at it at the Google link included below) Generally, above the fold, at the top center of your content, below top navigation is the hottest location. Not immediately below which is good but not quite as hot. In a left sidebar, to the immediate left of primary content or below the primary content are also good. Most other locations are generally cooler.
Again, you need to test and you need to consider your users behavior - and their behavior may vary on different pages with different kinds of content. Google suggests that in some cases, such as articles, the best location can be at the end of the article. To quote Google, "It's almost as if users finish reading and ask themselves, What can I do next?" Well targeted relevant ads right there can provide the answer.
Don't blindly assume that sticking a nice big rectangle in the center above the fold will do it. It may, but depending on your content, it may annoy or inconvenience your users.
Users tend to focus on content, navigation and to a lesser extent graphics. Positioning your ads near these elements will often work well -- if those ads are targeted to your visitors needs.
The top three performers among the Google ad formats are the 336X280 large rectangle, the 300X250 inline rectangle and the 160X600 wide skyscraper. Google reports that the wider formats tend to do better than the taller ones. One reason may be that these are, perhaps, easier to read since they have fewer line breaks and require less eye movement. But, you need to use formats that fit your pages well. Once again, you need to test, but redoing your pages to suit a particular ad format may not be a reasonable alternative and you may discover that a different format actually gets better results.
Now we come to color. Conventional wisdom says that colors which tend to blend into your content do better. Some go so far as to suggest that colors which make the ads look like part of the content are best. Personally, I think anybody really believes those ads are anything but ads, but who knows. Google suggests that you may find that colors that standout from your content do better - or maybe the opposite. This is absolutely an area where you need to test alternative color schemes. Going with the conventional wisdom usually works fairly well, but without testing you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.
Google allows you to have up to three ad units and one link unit on your pages. If you have long pages with lots of text, can only use small ad units or are in a niche with a large ad inventory, multiple units can pay off. Keep in mind that the way ad serving works is that the higher value ads are delivered to the first ad unit block encountered in your code. Always make sure that this first ad unit is displayed in the best location (yeah - test). You want the higher paying ads to be in the prime hot location on your page. Weaker locations can get the lower priced ads. And if none are available, then nothing will display unless you've included an alternate ad URL in your Google code. To maximize monetization you should be including alternate ad URLs, especially if you are putting multiple units on a page. The use of an alternate ad URL also eliminates the possibility of being served PSAs (Public Service Announcements). It's your real estate, maximize your returns.
Nothing here is secret. Except for using the alternate ad URL, all of this information is available from Google's Optimization Tips page - http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html . You can buy books and courses, visit a dozen forums and, in the end it comes down to what your visitors do on your site. The best you can get is general guidance. This means averaged outcomes over many sites, many types of content. If you are serious about doing whatever you can to really optimize your AdSense returns, there is only one thing to do - test. Whether it's AdSense, opt-ins, copy, headlines - anything with a measurable outcome that you can track - then the way to improve is to test and keep on testing.
Google AdSense – The text link ad with clout
Webmasters place advertisements on their site to (hopefully!) help their web site visitors find additional information and products that are relevant to their site’s theme and therefore what those visitors came to their website looking for. Of course, it also helps if those advertisements also make money for the webmaster!
Unfortunately, serving advertisements online isn't always easy. Many advertisement companies offering the service of placing ads on our sites have managed to turn the advertisement business into one big mess. Thousands of sites are bogged down with non-relevant pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-ins and banners.
What happens to our sites if these advertisements rarely hit their mark? No matter how many banners and pop-ups we show about herbal remedies to our visitors if we run a website about car parts they will not be interested and they will never click on those ads.
Not only that, but this kind of untargeted advertisement can even have a negative effect on our traffic. Who wants to go to a site that requires us to close pop-ups every minute or for every page we view?
In order to have advertisements that are interesting AND relevant to our visitors there is now a program called ‘Google AdSense'.
Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, text-based, un-obtrusive Google AdWords ads on our website's content pages and earn money.
Since the ads are actually related to what your users are looking for on your site, you'll have a way to both monetize and enhance your web page content. The program is free, and Google pays you for clicks on the AdWords advertisements on your site.
Google offers their AdSense program to just about all website owners. After signing up for the program with Google you receive code to enter on the pages of your site and Google will dynamically generate ads that are relevant to your own web site’s content.
Whenever a visitor clicks on one of the links in the AdSense ad on your site Google credits you with a percentage of money that was paid by the advertiser for that ad.
AdSense also provides us with the option to be selective in which type of ads we want to display on our websites making it possible to send our visitors towards a certain type of products.
To make it possible for everyone to integrate AdSense into their sites the program offers a wide variety of settings that allow us to alter the ads appearance.
The Google AdSense program is incredibly accurate. By stepping beyond the boundaries of simple keyword matching it has become one of the most prominent tools to display accurate advertisements. A list of keywords is still used as the basis of triggering ads, but complex algorithms now ensure that ads that are not related to your site’s theme no longer show up.
An AdSense service can be set up within minutes from the comforts of your chair and by providing your website's visitors with a certain amount of directed ads you can generate for yourself anything from a small to a sizeable income through the use of AdSense.
Unfortunately, serving advertisements online isn't always easy. Many advertisement companies offering the service of placing ads on our sites have managed to turn the advertisement business into one big mess. Thousands of sites are bogged down with non-relevant pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-ins and banners.
What happens to our sites if these advertisements rarely hit their mark? No matter how many banners and pop-ups we show about herbal remedies to our visitors if we run a website about car parts they will not be interested and they will never click on those ads.
Not only that, but this kind of untargeted advertisement can even have a negative effect on our traffic. Who wants to go to a site that requires us to close pop-ups every minute or for every page we view?
In order to have advertisements that are interesting AND relevant to our visitors there is now a program called ‘Google AdSense'.
Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, text-based, un-obtrusive Google AdWords ads on our website's content pages and earn money.
Since the ads are actually related to what your users are looking for on your site, you'll have a way to both monetize and enhance your web page content. The program is free, and Google pays you for clicks on the AdWords advertisements on your site.
Google offers their AdSense program to just about all website owners. After signing up for the program with Google you receive code to enter on the pages of your site and Google will dynamically generate ads that are relevant to your own web site’s content.
Whenever a visitor clicks on one of the links in the AdSense ad on your site Google credits you with a percentage of money that was paid by the advertiser for that ad.
AdSense also provides us with the option to be selective in which type of ads we want to display on our websites making it possible to send our visitors towards a certain type of products.
To make it possible for everyone to integrate AdSense into their sites the program offers a wide variety of settings that allow us to alter the ads appearance.
The Google AdSense program is incredibly accurate. By stepping beyond the boundaries of simple keyword matching it has become one of the most prominent tools to display accurate advertisements. A list of keywords is still used as the basis of triggering ads, but complex algorithms now ensure that ads that are not related to your site’s theme no longer show up.
An AdSense service can be set up within minutes from the comforts of your chair and by providing your website's visitors with a certain amount of directed ads you can generate for yourself anything from a small to a sizeable income through the use of AdSense.
Google Adsense Page Positioning
Correct positioning of your Google adsense ads can make or break your success with the Google adsense program. Why is this true? Some studies suggest that eye positioning on website gravitate to particular sections of web pages. And if you don’t have the necessary ads in these positions you will not get the clicks.
I talked to countless people that have great traffic, some with 300 to 1000 new visitors a day that say that they only make approx. at max $10 to $20 dollars a month on the adsense program. What a shame. But when I look at their websites the ads are either buried in wording that no one usually pays attention to or the ads are located in positions that just don’t call any attention to their presence.
So were the best locations for you Google adsense ads. Well, I have found the number one best place for the ads are near or in proximity to your main menu. Why near your main menu. Because you know that visitors eyes will and always look for the menu structure of your website. So the common places for placement should be to the top right, the very top under your menu, or the top left. These are the most common locations for you main menu.
But what about the color scheme of the Google adsense ads? Yes, color is very important. You have to make the ads looks as seamless as possible. Here is an example on one of my website http://howtoblog.tk . Here I decided to position the ads at the very top right under my main menu. In direct eye contact. Also, remove the borders; just these two changes will increase your adsense proceeds one hundred percent.
By using these tactics I was able to increase my adsense click through rate significantly depending on traffic level and people's interest.
Take my advice and give it try. I believe you will see a change and hopefully make adsense a more pleasurable experience.
I talked to countless people that have great traffic, some with 300 to 1000 new visitors a day that say that they only make approx. at max $10 to $20 dollars a month on the adsense program. What a shame. But when I look at their websites the ads are either buried in wording that no one usually pays attention to or the ads are located in positions that just don’t call any attention to their presence.
So were the best locations for you Google adsense ads. Well, I have found the number one best place for the ads are near or in proximity to your main menu. Why near your main menu. Because you know that visitors eyes will and always look for the menu structure of your website. So the common places for placement should be to the top right, the very top under your menu, or the top left. These are the most common locations for you main menu.
But what about the color scheme of the Google adsense ads? Yes, color is very important. You have to make the ads looks as seamless as possible. Here is an example on one of my website http://howtoblog.tk . Here I decided to position the ads at the very top right under my main menu. In direct eye contact. Also, remove the borders; just these two changes will increase your adsense proceeds one hundred percent.
By using these tactics I was able to increase my adsense click through rate significantly depending on traffic level and people's interest.
Take my advice and give it try. I believe you will see a change and hopefully make adsense a more pleasurable experience.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Google AdSense and Blogs
If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting a blog, then you are definitely going to want to read this article. It’s all about how to line your pockets with money that’s just waiting to be made without working much harder than you already are.
No only are blogs the hottest thing on the ‘net right now, but they are custom-made for Google’s AdSense program. Why? It’s simple. Blogs represent constantly changing and fresh content to Google’s search engine spiders. Feeding fresh content to those little spiders is just like tossing raw meat to a tiger. They just gobble it up. The more pages of your blog that get indexed, the more traffic you get. And the more traffic you get, the more exposure your AdSense ads get. Are you beginning to see where I’m heading here?
It’s not just Google that loves new content, all of the major engines do. In fact, some web-savvy bloggers are testing Google ads on one page and Overture ads on the other. It doesn’t take too long to see which ads are doing the best when you have nearly side-by-side comparison statistics to look at. Just don’t make the mistake of putting Google and Overture ads on the same page together. While they won’t kill each other like a pair of Siamese fighting fish in the same bowel will, you will be violating both sites’ Terms of Service, and it isn’t worth killing the goose (geese) that laid the golden egg.
It’s a snap to set up Google AdSense ads on your blog. Everything you need to know is right inside of the Google control panel. What’s not so easy is figuring out what ads are going to appear on each page. Since Google targets your key words, and your blog articles could possible wander towards any subject, you never know what you’re going to get.
Well, “never” is a strong word because there actually IS a way to pre-test your blog’s ads before you post your newest edition. Here’s what you do:
• Write your blog article like you normally would
• Plug in your AdSense code and then post your newest page to a sub directory that’s not part of your blog.
• Click refresh a few times until Google wakes up and starts sending ads.
• If you don’t like what you see then fine-tune the article until you see the types of ads that you’re looking for.
With some ads paying as much as $5 per click or more, I’d certainly spend an extra 30 minutes or so tweaking my blog. That’s for sure.
If you’re working hard to get your blog in front of visiting eyeballs, then it doesn’t make any sense at NOT to be using Google AdSense to draw every penny out of your site that’s possible. OK, that’s the end of the article. Now get busy tweaking your blog and checking your ads. You’ve got money waiting to be made!
No only are blogs the hottest thing on the ‘net right now, but they are custom-made for Google’s AdSense program. Why? It’s simple. Blogs represent constantly changing and fresh content to Google’s search engine spiders. Feeding fresh content to those little spiders is just like tossing raw meat to a tiger. They just gobble it up. The more pages of your blog that get indexed, the more traffic you get. And the more traffic you get, the more exposure your AdSense ads get. Are you beginning to see where I’m heading here?
It’s not just Google that loves new content, all of the major engines do. In fact, some web-savvy bloggers are testing Google ads on one page and Overture ads on the other. It doesn’t take too long to see which ads are doing the best when you have nearly side-by-side comparison statistics to look at. Just don’t make the mistake of putting Google and Overture ads on the same page together. While they won’t kill each other like a pair of Siamese fighting fish in the same bowel will, you will be violating both sites’ Terms of Service, and it isn’t worth killing the goose (geese) that laid the golden egg.
It’s a snap to set up Google AdSense ads on your blog. Everything you need to know is right inside of the Google control panel. What’s not so easy is figuring out what ads are going to appear on each page. Since Google targets your key words, and your blog articles could possible wander towards any subject, you never know what you’re going to get.
Well, “never” is a strong word because there actually IS a way to pre-test your blog’s ads before you post your newest edition. Here’s what you do:
• Write your blog article like you normally would
• Plug in your AdSense code and then post your newest page to a sub directory that’s not part of your blog.
• Click refresh a few times until Google wakes up and starts sending ads.
• If you don’t like what you see then fine-tune the article until you see the types of ads that you’re looking for.
With some ads paying as much as $5 per click or more, I’d certainly spend an extra 30 minutes or so tweaking my blog. That’s for sure.
If you’re working hard to get your blog in front of visiting eyeballs, then it doesn’t make any sense at NOT to be using Google AdSense to draw every penny out of your site that’s possible. OK, that’s the end of the article. Now get busy tweaking your blog and checking your ads. You’ve got money waiting to be made!
Google Adsense
1. Google Adsense stuff
I've heard that Google have been getting tough on Adsense sites recently, investigating sites displaying Adsense and removing ones which don't meet the criteria.
You see, what's happening is that people are getting approved for one site, then adding the code to other sites they own.
That's fine by Google as long as the new sites have nothing wrong with them/don't break Google's small print.
Well some of that small print is mighty small and two friends have written to me this week to say their sites have been banned in the past 7 days.
Why?
Well both for the same reason. They both put a lot of work into building new content sites and put the Adsense ads up on almost every page.
But it was obvious that the sites had no purpose other than displaying the Adsense code.
They didn't try to get subscribers to their ezines, they didn't promote affiliate programs, etc.
All they did was have good quality targeted content + Adsense.
Now you might think there's nothing wrong with building a site like that, but Google just doesn't like it when it comes to Adsense.
One friend sent me the letter Google sent him. Here's part of what Google had to say:
"Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant."
Well what you have to do is give your sites an extra purpose.
Here are a few ways of doing that:
# also display some affiliate links on the pages, and include an affiliate graphic or two.
# perhaps run a news ticker. You can get good ones from a number of sources, but one of the best is http://www.moreover.com which
has newsfeeds covering a huge variety of niches.
# link to authority sites on the subject, even though they're probably not linking back to you.
# start an ezine and have a subscribe box displayed prominently on each page.
# if your site is about online business/marketing give away a free ebook or two. But make sure they're quality one's you can customize with your affiliate links so that you stand a chance
of profiting from them.
# have a poll running on your site. I use a good one from One Minute Poll
If I were you I'd do all of them.
2. Google Adwords Traffic:
One way of GUARANTEEING plenty of visitors from Google is by buying Adwords.
If you do it right you can make a fabulous income. If you do it wrong, you'll be well out of pocket.
3. Google and blogging...
Google is still ranking frequently updated Blogs very high. And having your own blog (and keeping it to the theme of your main site) could be a great way of getting more traffic.
To learn how to do it well I'd like to recommend you read James Maduk's Blogging Secrets which is a really good multimedia ebook. Very tasty.
Like his excellent Google course "How to Get Ranked #1 On Google" it's a combination of Audio / Video / Whiteboard Training and Screen Captures. (plus you get 4 Hours of bonus audio
interviews from his private E-learning sessions.
If you're thinking of blogging for profit you need to read this first.
4. More Google Stuff...
Your commercially oriented sites probably took a rankings kick in the guts in the last Google update.
Don't worry, you're not alone. This site lets you enter the main keywords for your site and see how many other sites with the same keyword phrase have dropped in rankings.
Not really useful, but interesting.
http://www.scroogle.org/
More useful - in fact a MUST READ if you're at all interested in learning more about how and why Google's latest update is affecting your sites - is a detailed online report "A Statistical and Experimental Analysis of Google's Florida Update" written by Leslie Rohde who developed that marvelous ranking software Optilink.
There's no charge to read it, though Leslie could easily have packaged it up into a "special report" and sold it.
When you've done with reading it though, I seriously suggest taking a look at Optilink.
Leslie is one of the most knowledgeable search engine people around, and the Optilink software works a treat.
Looks like an Adsense competitor is on the way early in 2004 http://www.quigo.com/adsonar.htm
Overtures efforts in this field are in beta, with some major sites already running content matched Overture advertising, (and rumors that it's going to be opened up to all of us) and Commission Junction have got a contextual advertising/content matching solution in the works - though unlike Adsense it's very unlikely
to offer pay per click.
You can get more on Overture's Content Match here and while you're there you might want to consider advertising on them. I've had an account there for years now and get tons of traffic to my mini sites. A friend of mine, Paul Manuel, wrote a free report
detailing how he makes a great living from his Overture advertising. you can get it here.
Ok, one last Google thing: Trackmeat.
It's no cost software that saves you logging into Adsense 50 times a day to check how your commissions are doing.
Once you install it and click "Go" it minimizes right away, and your AdSense income will update down in the taskbar and system tray at intervals set by you.
It also works for Commission Junction.
(note: I haven't used this software, so I'm not recommending it, just informing you that it exists)
I've heard that Google have been getting tough on Adsense sites recently, investigating sites displaying Adsense and removing ones which don't meet the criteria.
You see, what's happening is that people are getting approved for one site, then adding the code to other sites they own.
That's fine by Google as long as the new sites have nothing wrong with them/don't break Google's small print.
Well some of that small print is mighty small and two friends have written to me this week to say their sites have been banned in the past 7 days.
Why?
Well both for the same reason. They both put a lot of work into building new content sites and put the Adsense ads up on almost every page.
But it was obvious that the sites had no purpose other than displaying the Adsense code.
They didn't try to get subscribers to their ezines, they didn't promote affiliate programs, etc.
All they did was have good quality targeted content + Adsense.
Now you might think there's nothing wrong with building a site like that, but Google just doesn't like it when it comes to Adsense.
One friend sent me the letter Google sent him. Here's part of what Google had to say:
"Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant."
Well what you have to do is give your sites an extra purpose.
Here are a few ways of doing that:
# also display some affiliate links on the pages, and include an affiliate graphic or two.
# perhaps run a news ticker. You can get good ones from a number of sources, but one of the best is http://www.moreover.com which
has newsfeeds covering a huge variety of niches.
# link to authority sites on the subject, even though they're probably not linking back to you.
# start an ezine and have a subscribe box displayed prominently on each page.
# if your site is about online business/marketing give away a free ebook or two. But make sure they're quality one's you can customize with your affiliate links so that you stand a chance
of profiting from them.
# have a poll running on your site. I use a good one from One Minute Poll
If I were you I'd do all of them.
2. Google Adwords Traffic:
One way of GUARANTEEING plenty of visitors from Google is by buying Adwords.
If you do it right you can make a fabulous income. If you do it wrong, you'll be well out of pocket.
3. Google and blogging...
Google is still ranking frequently updated Blogs very high. And having your own blog (and keeping it to the theme of your main site) could be a great way of getting more traffic.
To learn how to do it well I'd like to recommend you read James Maduk's Blogging Secrets which is a really good multimedia ebook. Very tasty.
Like his excellent Google course "How to Get Ranked #1 On Google" it's a combination of Audio / Video / Whiteboard Training and Screen Captures. (plus you get 4 Hours of bonus audio
interviews from his private E-learning sessions.
If you're thinking of blogging for profit you need to read this first.
4. More Google Stuff...
Your commercially oriented sites probably took a rankings kick in the guts in the last Google update.
Don't worry, you're not alone. This site lets you enter the main keywords for your site and see how many other sites with the same keyword phrase have dropped in rankings.
Not really useful, but interesting.
http://www.scroogle.org/
More useful - in fact a MUST READ if you're at all interested in learning more about how and why Google's latest update is affecting your sites - is a detailed online report "A Statistical and Experimental Analysis of Google's Florida Update" written by Leslie Rohde who developed that marvelous ranking software Optilink.
There's no charge to read it, though Leslie could easily have packaged it up into a "special report" and sold it.
When you've done with reading it though, I seriously suggest taking a look at Optilink.
Leslie is one of the most knowledgeable search engine people around, and the Optilink software works a treat.
Looks like an Adsense competitor is on the way early in 2004 http://www.quigo.com/adsonar.htm
Overtures efforts in this field are in beta, with some major sites already running content matched Overture advertising, (and rumors that it's going to be opened up to all of us) and Commission Junction have got a contextual advertising/content matching solution in the works - though unlike Adsense it's very unlikely
to offer pay per click.
You can get more on Overture's Content Match here and while you're there you might want to consider advertising on them. I've had an account there for years now and get tons of traffic to my mini sites. A friend of mine, Paul Manuel, wrote a free report
detailing how he makes a great living from his Overture advertising. you can get it here.
Ok, one last Google thing: Trackmeat.
It's no cost software that saves you logging into Adsense 50 times a day to check how your commissions are doing.
Once you install it and click "Go" it minimizes right away, and your AdSense income will update down in the taskbar and system tray at intervals set by you.
It also works for Commission Junction.
(note: I haven't used this software, so I'm not recommending it, just informing you that it exists)
Google AdSense: 7 Tips For Creating Sites That Make Money
Having a Google AdSense site is a great way to make money. And to create an AdSense site, all you have to do is have a Google AdSense account (which is free), a website or a blog (which is free), and some articles (which are free if you write them yourself). Once you get your site up and running, the AdSense ads will be targeted to your content.
Therefore, those looking for your content will come by, read your articles, and have a high probability of being interested in the targeted ads. Every time someone clicks an ad, you get paid! That is, as long as you have designed your site to maximize AdSense clickthroughs!
Let's look at seven tips for creating AdSense sites that create money.
#1: Keyword Density
Before you place ads on your site, be sure your keyword density is good. You will want to be sure that the right kinds of ads are placed on your site. A free way to determine what the ads will look like on your site is to go to http://www.resultsgenerator.com/adsense/ and type in your keywords. You will then be able to see exactly what ads would show on your site.
If you don't like what you see, then you know that you need to make changes to your keywords! You can get keyword suggestions from Results Generator from Overture or from the free trial version of Word Tracker.
#2: Focused
Not only will the ads be based on your keywords, but they will also be based on your content. You definitely want your keywords and your content to match as closely as possible.
#3: Write Often
The more information you have the better. Why? Because the more content you have, the more visitors you get. Many people suggest that you write a new article every day since no one wants to come back to your site to find the same old messages!
#4: Choose The Right Format
AdSense allows you to choose many different ad formats. Research has shown that wider ads are more successful. The top three formats are:
" 336x280 large rectangle
" 300x250 medium rectangle
" 160x600 wide skyscraper
Additionally, the 468x15 horizontal ad link under the navigation bar is also a good bet.
#5: Color Counts
You have the option to create a Google AdSense ad in any color of your choice. The best thing to do is to make your ad blend well with your site color scheme. You should make the border color and the background color the same color as your web site. You will want your text color to either be black or the color of your main content.
When creating your Google AdSense ads it is recommended to use the color scheme and style of your website so that the ads blend in well. Ads without background color and borders perfom better than ads within borders with background color.
#6: Position Counts, Too
It is well known that visitors to a website scan the site to determine if it is worth reading. You definitely want them to see and scan your AdSense ads. Therefore, the best place to put them is in the top left part of your page or directly under your headlines.
#7: Increase The Number
AdSense allows you to use up to three AdSense units on a page, two AdSense search boxes, and one unit of ad links. Using all that you can increases the chances of earning money.
Keep these seven tips in mind when creating your AdSense site and you will find that your clickthrough rates increase, thus increasing your money making potential.
Getting Great Deals on EBay
I love getting a deal. I try to smell them out from miles away. I love frequent garage sales, flea markets, closeouts, and more -- but found that I could much better by simply buying through online auctions - if I shop carefully.
Getting a deal out of EBay auctions is an art. Buying from auctions can be a costly proposition or a very economical option depending on your tactics. Buy wisely by learning from my (sometimes costly) experiences.
1. Is the Seller Trustworthy?
Both EBay and Yahoo auctions have seller ratings. Read these and their associated reviews. If the seller has a great rating from buying and a poor one from selling, you probably don't want to buy from them. Look at both praises and complaints as they may or may not apply to what you are bidding on.
2. Read the Description Throughly
It is very easy to read what you want to see in an Ebay auction rather than what is actually written there. Read both what is in the Ebay description and what is NOT in the description. Often your mind will want to fill in details with what is your dream interpretation. You need to re-read the description until you find out whether what you are searching for and what the seller is selling match.
* Used or New?
Is the item you are buying used or new? If it doesn't say new, you are most likely buying something that is used.
* Real or Fake
Is the item you are interested in "real" gold, sterling silver or pearls? For example, a description saying: "gold necklace for sale" does NOT say 14 kt gold or 18kt gold. That most likely means a gold COLORED necklace which may or may not have actual gold metal. This also applies to pearls as many call plastic fake pearls simply "pearls".
If the seller is selling beads, those beads could be plastic, glass, stone, scrap metal, crystal, chips, wood, clay, gemstone or some other material.
* Item Details
Does the EBay description really say how much you are getting, how long the item is, and quality of the item? Selling by the pound can be a great deal - or a horrible deal.
* Beware of Hidden Costs
Look at shipping and handling costs. I've seen many penny auctions that have $13 or more shipping. Some auctions even have handling fees.
* How Fast Will it Ship?
I've been seeing a fair amount of auctions that note that the product will ship in 2 months or that shipping time is 2 months. If you are buying for a particular holiday, be sure that you will get the item in time.
3. Is it a Bargain For You?
Many times an EBay auction will say that the items are "worth $XXX". In many cases, that price is inflated. Often you can find similar items much cheaper tah "$XXX" at normal stores. (However, the auction price may still be cheaper than you can by elsewhere - it really helps to know how much you usually pay for items!) If you are only interested in some of the items in an auction, adjust your bid to reflect how much you are willing to pay for just those items unless you plan to sell the rest as that is how much you would pay for it elsewhere.
4. Auction Fever
Compare prices on the net at the same time to avoid overpaying. Know that usually you can get the item later elsewhere. Wise buyers know to walk away when the price is higher than the item is worth to them.
Getting a deal out of EBay auctions is an art. Buying from auctions can be a costly proposition or a very economical option depending on your tactics. Buy wisely by learning from my (sometimes costly) experiences.
1. Is the Seller Trustworthy?
Both EBay and Yahoo auctions have seller ratings. Read these and their associated reviews. If the seller has a great rating from buying and a poor one from selling, you probably don't want to buy from them. Look at both praises and complaints as they may or may not apply to what you are bidding on.
2. Read the Description Throughly
It is very easy to read what you want to see in an Ebay auction rather than what is actually written there. Read both what is in the Ebay description and what is NOT in the description. Often your mind will want to fill in details with what is your dream interpretation. You need to re-read the description until you find out whether what you are searching for and what the seller is selling match.
* Used or New?
Is the item you are buying used or new? If it doesn't say new, you are most likely buying something that is used.
* Real or Fake
Is the item you are interested in "real" gold, sterling silver or pearls? For example, a description saying: "gold necklace for sale" does NOT say 14 kt gold or 18kt gold. That most likely means a gold COLORED necklace which may or may not have actual gold metal. This also applies to pearls as many call plastic fake pearls simply "pearls".
If the seller is selling beads, those beads could be plastic, glass, stone, scrap metal, crystal, chips, wood, clay, gemstone or some other material.
* Item Details
Does the EBay description really say how much you are getting, how long the item is, and quality of the item? Selling by the pound can be a great deal - or a horrible deal.
* Beware of Hidden Costs
Look at shipping and handling costs. I've seen many penny auctions that have $13 or more shipping. Some auctions even have handling fees.
* How Fast Will it Ship?
I've been seeing a fair amount of auctions that note that the product will ship in 2 months or that shipping time is 2 months. If you are buying for a particular holiday, be sure that you will get the item in time.
3. Is it a Bargain For You?
Many times an EBay auction will say that the items are "worth $XXX". In many cases, that price is inflated. Often you can find similar items much cheaper tah "$XXX" at normal stores. (However, the auction price may still be cheaper than you can by elsewhere - it really helps to know how much you usually pay for items!) If you are only interested in some of the items in an auction, adjust your bid to reflect how much you are willing to pay for just those items unless you plan to sell the rest as that is how much you would pay for it elsewhere.
4. Auction Fever
Compare prices on the net at the same time to avoid overpaying. Know that usually you can get the item later elsewhere. Wise buyers know to walk away when the price is higher than the item is worth to them.
Getting Approved by Adsense in a Jiffy…
I don’t understand why everyone makes Adsense out to sound like some kind of devil. So far, I have a 100% approval rate for my consulting clients. You would think that we spend months developing the site to submit for approval – but to be honest; I spend less than a day (if that!)
What we found is that Google is not nearly as picky as they make themselves sound to be. The trick is to make your site in such a way that you are just providing content; we have found that the less selling you do on your approval site, the better.
Don’t worry, once you’re approved you can use that code wherever you want – so put it on other sites that sell later. But for the purposes of getting approved, try to limit to just content, content and more content!
Now, for the disclaimer before we start talking about how to get your site approved for Google Adsense. I am not a member of Google at all, everything I am about to say is all speculation and experience. I have helped over 50 clients get approved for Google Adsense without having even 1 of them not get approved – we have 100% approval rate on FIRST try.
All I am going to teach you is exactly what I do for them.
There are three main elements that I focus on when getting a client approved:
1. Site look and feel – Not that Google wants a $10,000 professionally designed website, but they also don’t want some piece of junk. Make sure to at LEAST have a presentable website – even if it is just a few tables and a solid background color. Avoid using tacky backgrounds or unprofessional color contrasts.
2. Content – The most important – Google believes in content. If you try to get a website with just a few pages approved, I don’t think you will have any luck. You need to have at least 15-20 pages, preferably, 15-20 pages of articles/resources, a.k.a. content.
3. Traffic – Many “experts” say that Google looks to see what kind of traffic you have and that they do not approve new sites with no traffic. My experience says that these experts are FULL of it. BUT, just to be safe, before you submit your site for approval – try to get your site some traffic.
Here are useful tips you need to make the entire approval process easier and quicker:
>> Get content from article directories like www.goarticles.com – just put those articles in your site, getting 15-20 is easy.
>> Before you submit your site for approval, post at some forums with your website’s link in the signature file – this will help you get some immediate traffic.
>> Make a very simple website with 15-20 articles, a contact us page, a privacy policy and the typical disclaimer.
That’s it – you’re ready to get approved for Google Adsense. I know I made it sound too easy, but honestly, we have a track record that proves it. And remember, if you do not get approved, you can always fix things and try again.
So, stop waiting – apply now – Google Adsense is a great source of income.
What we found is that Google is not nearly as picky as they make themselves sound to be. The trick is to make your site in such a way that you are just providing content; we have found that the less selling you do on your approval site, the better.
Don’t worry, once you’re approved you can use that code wherever you want – so put it on other sites that sell later. But for the purposes of getting approved, try to limit to just content, content and more content!
Now, for the disclaimer before we start talking about how to get your site approved for Google Adsense. I am not a member of Google at all, everything I am about to say is all speculation and experience. I have helped over 50 clients get approved for Google Adsense without having even 1 of them not get approved – we have 100% approval rate on FIRST try.
All I am going to teach you is exactly what I do for them.
There are three main elements that I focus on when getting a client approved:
1. Site look and feel – Not that Google wants a $10,000 professionally designed website, but they also don’t want some piece of junk. Make sure to at LEAST have a presentable website – even if it is just a few tables and a solid background color. Avoid using tacky backgrounds or unprofessional color contrasts.
2. Content – The most important – Google believes in content. If you try to get a website with just a few pages approved, I don’t think you will have any luck. You need to have at least 15-20 pages, preferably, 15-20 pages of articles/resources, a.k.a. content.
3. Traffic – Many “experts” say that Google looks to see what kind of traffic you have and that they do not approve new sites with no traffic. My experience says that these experts are FULL of it. BUT, just to be safe, before you submit your site for approval – try to get your site some traffic.
Here are useful tips you need to make the entire approval process easier and quicker:
>> Get content from article directories like www.goarticles.com – just put those articles in your site, getting 15-20 is easy.
>> Before you submit your site for approval, post at some forums with your website’s link in the signature file – this will help you get some immediate traffic.
>> Make a very simple website with 15-20 articles, a contact us page, a privacy policy and the typical disclaimer.
That’s it – you’re ready to get approved for Google Adsense. I know I made it sound too easy, but honestly, we have a track record that proves it. And remember, if you do not get approved, you can always fix things and try again.
So, stop waiting – apply now – Google Adsense is a great source of income.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Gaga over Google Adsense
Google Adsense has taken the world by storm. Now the small guy can get a slice of big profits. But exactly how should one go about generating revenue from it? This article is designed to help you to decide what sort of web-page to make – one that will realize the largest profits.
First you should pick a theme where there is at least some competition. That is to say, if you choose a family history web page, you may only get genealogy ads in your Adsense boxes. These may be very low paying ads and hardly worth your while. Before building a web page you should check and see how much people are paying for a certain type of ad. To that end – PC Bidbrowser will give you an idea how much advertisers are paying at Overture, and you can extrapolate or take an educated guess at Adsense.
But is finding the highest paying keyword the best way to build a page around? Consider the point that there may be so much competition that your web-page may never see the light of day. If no-one ever reads your site, you have no clicks, hence no revenue. No, the money-making truth lies somewhere in the middle. You need a topic that has low enough competition that people will actually find it on search engines, but also high enough competition that you will receive some cash from advertisers.
A neat program called ‘keyword sleuth’ allows you to find alternate keywords that are still highly searched yet low in competition. Other programs do similar functions.
Find 6 or so topics that you find a nice balance between competition and reward. Now how do you build a web-page that will give some new slant on the topic?
Does your web-page really need to be unique? Perhaps you could write an interesting page or two about the subject along with some links. For instance, perhaps you want to write a site on stock market trading. If you’ve ever been in the stock market you could write a real life trading experience. Make it exciting, while keeping it truthful. What led you to invest? What stocks did you trade and why? Did you make money or lose some? Do you have any advice to give to new investors? Could you find a couple of links for free screeners or some other tool that would be useful? Did you employ any special techniques – humorous or not?
You see, it doesn’t have to be about making millions with your trading system, it can be a funny life experience which we all can learn from.
Thanks for reading and I hope you start your profitable business soon.
___________
Google, Google AdSense, money, Google Adsense, revenue, How to, search, advertisers, traffic, business, income, how to, Secrets
First you should pick a theme where there is at least some competition. That is to say, if you choose a family history web page, you may only get genealogy ads in your Adsense boxes. These may be very low paying ads and hardly worth your while. Before building a web page you should check and see how much people are paying for a certain type of ad. To that end – PC Bidbrowser will give you an idea how much advertisers are paying at Overture, and you can extrapolate or take an educated guess at Adsense.
But is finding the highest paying keyword the best way to build a page around? Consider the point that there may be so much competition that your web-page may never see the light of day. If no-one ever reads your site, you have no clicks, hence no revenue. No, the money-making truth lies somewhere in the middle. You need a topic that has low enough competition that people will actually find it on search engines, but also high enough competition that you will receive some cash from advertisers.
A neat program called ‘keyword sleuth’ allows you to find alternate keywords that are still highly searched yet low in competition. Other programs do similar functions.
Find 6 or so topics that you find a nice balance between competition and reward. Now how do you build a web-page that will give some new slant on the topic?
Does your web-page really need to be unique? Perhaps you could write an interesting page or two about the subject along with some links. For instance, perhaps you want to write a site on stock market trading. If you’ve ever been in the stock market you could write a real life trading experience. Make it exciting, while keeping it truthful. What led you to invest? What stocks did you trade and why? Did you make money or lose some? Do you have any advice to give to new investors? Could you find a couple of links for free screeners or some other tool that would be useful? Did you employ any special techniques – humorous or not?
You see, it doesn’t have to be about making millions with your trading system, it can be a funny life experience which we all can learn from.
Thanks for reading and I hope you start your profitable business soon.
___________
Google, Google AdSense, money, Google Adsense, revenue, How to, search, advertisers, traffic, business, income, how to, Secrets
Free instant auction traffic
Here's an easy way to get extra traffic to your eBay auctions...
...and we all know, the more traffic, the more bids and ultimately, the more sales you'll get!
First...answer this question:
"Do you look at other people's feedback ratings?"
You probably answered yes...
So here's my idea -
"Whenever you leave feedback, put your website URL in the feedback Comment"
If you don't have a website, no problem, see below for details.
I have only seen this done once! - me.
It's so easy and EVERYONE looks at feedback ratings before they bid.
So, the idea would be to try and leave feedback for users that get a lot of traffic...
How? - check out ebay pulse and look at some of the highest watched items and try bidding on one of them.
After, you bid and win, leave your feedback with your website URL in your feedback comment.
For example,
**AuctionResourceNetwork.com** - Excellent communication and great eBayer, Highly recommended
You can see how the domain will *jump-out* at the reader.
Also, when you leave feedback for your auction sales, do the same.
Now.., if you don't have a website, here's a quick trick on how to direct that traffic to your about me page.
Simply create a free account at NameCheap.com and purchase a domain name, i.e. www.your-domain.com
NameCheap.com only charges $8.88 per year for your domain name!
...then, in your NameCheap.com account, you can set your new domain to redirect to your eBay about me page...here's how:
Login to your NameCheap.com account
Click the 'view' link beside 'Number of domains in your account'
Click your new domain name
Click URL Forwarding under the Host Management section on the left
Enter your about me page URL in both textboxes and click Save Changes
Viola...you now own a domain that redirects to your about me page!
And make sure you place your new domain name in all your feedback comments.
Ok...now that you know how to get some extra free traffic by using eBay's feedback comments, answer this question:
"Do you want to know how to turn that extra FREE traffic into cash?"
Yes/No? - Well, I'm going to tell you anyways... ;-) There are a few things you can do...here are 2:
Place your auction links on your AboutMe page so that your new visitors can get to your auctions. Place a newsletter signup form in your AboutMe page as well as in your auction pages and collect leads. Then market to those leads over and over again. I think the second idea is the most powerful...although it takes a little work on your part.
The quick`n`dirty way is to use AWeber.com to manage your leads and use their capture web form generator to capture your lead's name and email address.
BUT, there are certain rules you must obey in order to collect client information from your auctions pages as well as you about Me page.
__________
Google, Google AdSense, money, Google Adsense, revenue, How to, search, advertisers, traffic, business, income, how to, Secrets
...and we all know, the more traffic, the more bids and ultimately, the more sales you'll get!
First...answer this question:
"Do you look at other people's feedback ratings?"
You probably answered yes...
So here's my idea -
"Whenever you leave feedback, put your website URL in the feedback Comment"
If you don't have a website, no problem, see below for details.
I have only seen this done once! - me.
It's so easy and EVERYONE looks at feedback ratings before they bid.
So, the idea would be to try and leave feedback for users that get a lot of traffic...
How? - check out ebay pulse and look at some of the highest watched items and try bidding on one of them.
After, you bid and win, leave your feedback with your website URL in your feedback comment.
For example,
**AuctionResourceNetwork.com** - Excellent communication and great eBayer, Highly recommended
You can see how the domain will *jump-out* at the reader.
Also, when you leave feedback for your auction sales, do the same.
Now.., if you don't have a website, here's a quick trick on how to direct that traffic to your about me page.
Simply create a free account at NameCheap.com and purchase a domain name, i.e. www.your-domain.com
NameCheap.com only charges $8.88 per year for your domain name!
...then, in your NameCheap.com account, you can set your new domain to redirect to your eBay about me page...here's how:
Login to your NameCheap.com account
Click the 'view' link beside 'Number of domains in your account'
Click your new domain name
Click URL Forwarding under the Host Management section on the left
Enter your about me page URL in both textboxes and click Save Changes
Viola...you now own a domain that redirects to your about me page!
And make sure you place your new domain name in all your feedback comments.
Ok...now that you know how to get some extra free traffic by using eBay's feedback comments, answer this question:
"Do you want to know how to turn that extra FREE traffic into cash?"
Yes/No? - Well, I'm going to tell you anyways... ;-) There are a few things you can do...here are 2:
Place your auction links on your AboutMe page so that your new visitors can get to your auctions. Place a newsletter signup form in your AboutMe page as well as in your auction pages and collect leads. Then market to those leads over and over again. I think the second idea is the most powerful...although it takes a little work on your part.
The quick`n`dirty way is to use AWeber.com to manage your leads and use their capture web form generator to capture your lead's name and email address.
BUT, there are certain rules you must obey in order to collect client information from your auctions pages as well as you about Me page.
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Google, Google AdSense, money, Google Adsense, revenue, How to, search, advertisers, traffic, business, income, how to, Secrets
Four Reasons Why You Should NEVER Use Animations In Your eBay Auctions
Inexperienced auction sellers, or those lacking in confidence, often want to make their auction listings more dramatic and exciting. They dread the possibility that buyers will be bored by their auction and turn away with indifference.
Therefore, they reason, they will spice up their auctions with some "animations" - graphics that blink, change colors, spin, travel around the web page.
Or the seller may be a tech person who loves toys and is proud of his ability to create unusual effects.
Regardless of their reasons, animated elements on an auction page are almost never a good idea for the following four reasons:
1. Rather than attracting attention to the merchandise in your auction, your potential customer may watch a spinning ball or follow Santa and his reindeer through the sky. We want the customer's total attention on that all-important question: "Do I want to buy this widget or not?" Distractions are not good for your wallet.
2. Animations can make the load time of your auction listing much longer. I have been using DSL four years and have forgotten (happily!) how horrible it is to use dialup. However, for many places on this planet, high-speed connections simply are not available. For these folks, loading your page might take forever, and you can be sure they won't wait. Experts tell us that the average user spends only 7 seconds at a webpage before departing for greener pastures. If your sales page is still loading, no sale for you.
3. It takes time for you to figure out how and whether to use animations. This is time that would be better spent on writing more exciting and dynamic copy - copy that will turn a prospective customer into a real buyer. A smart business person will treat time as her most precious commodity and spend it on what is most likely to bring a sale.
4. Many of these animations are just downright annoying. I personally do not enjoy looking at screens that are twirling, whirling and blinking. Two particularly irritating animations are an inescapable message that follows up and down the left side of the page, regardless of where I'm looking, and "trails" that follow my mouse.
A huge majority of people feel the same, apparently. Sellers need to make it as easy as possible for people to buy, rather than throwing obstacles in the way.
Are there any occasions when animated pictures are of any value in an auction listing? Possibly. For example, if you are selling to graphic designers then animated elements might be appropriate. As always, testing, testing, testing is the only way to truly know.
But for the rest of us folks - forget the glitter and focus on your merchandise. That's what makes us buy.
Google, Google AdSense, money, Google Adsense, revenue, How to, search, advertisers, traffic, business, income, how to, Secrets
Therefore, they reason, they will spice up their auctions with some "animations" - graphics that blink, change colors, spin, travel around the web page.
Or the seller may be a tech person who loves toys and is proud of his ability to create unusual effects.
Regardless of their reasons, animated elements on an auction page are almost never a good idea for the following four reasons:
1. Rather than attracting attention to the merchandise in your auction, your potential customer may watch a spinning ball or follow Santa and his reindeer through the sky. We want the customer's total attention on that all-important question: "Do I want to buy this widget or not?" Distractions are not good for your wallet.
2. Animations can make the load time of your auction listing much longer. I have been using DSL four years and have forgotten (happily!) how horrible it is to use dialup. However, for many places on this planet, high-speed connections simply are not available. For these folks, loading your page might take forever, and you can be sure they won't wait. Experts tell us that the average user spends only 7 seconds at a webpage before departing for greener pastures. If your sales page is still loading, no sale for you.
3. It takes time for you to figure out how and whether to use animations. This is time that would be better spent on writing more exciting and dynamic copy - copy that will turn a prospective customer into a real buyer. A smart business person will treat time as her most precious commodity and spend it on what is most likely to bring a sale.
4. Many of these animations are just downright annoying. I personally do not enjoy looking at screens that are twirling, whirling and blinking. Two particularly irritating animations are an inescapable message that follows up and down the left side of the page, regardless of where I'm looking, and "trails" that follow my mouse.
A huge majority of people feel the same, apparently. Sellers need to make it as easy as possible for people to buy, rather than throwing obstacles in the way.
Are there any occasions when animated pictures are of any value in an auction listing? Possibly. For example, if you are selling to graphic designers then animated elements might be appropriate. As always, testing, testing, testing is the only way to truly know.
But for the rest of us folks - forget the glitter and focus on your merchandise. That's what makes us buy.
Google, Google AdSense, money, Google Adsense, revenue, How to, search, advertisers, traffic, business, income, how to, Secrets
Five ways to quadruple a websites revenue.
Many website owners all too often give up on their website, even before their site has had time to shine. It can take months, or even years to reach the optimum for a business so why not expect the same out of a website? It is hard to find a business that finds the desired revenue within the first year. So why should a website be as popular as it should be within the first few months or years?
First of all just like any successful business you must believe that you'll
succeed and never give-up. To be successful with a website you must have the same mentality, never give up and always put time and effort in. Giving up is the single major problem, if you give up on your website too early it will fail.
I have built many website over the years and found that what I have set out for you in this article will work, and keep on working.
Secondly, you need to increase your traffic, or hits to the website. I advise you to read my previous article “Six Techniques To Triple Your Website Hits.” This article illustrates six functional ways you can increase the traffic to your website.
Thirdly on the list, make sure you have branded your site well. People want to remember you and believe your site is quality. So build a clean and functional website that is appealing to your potential customers. The more professional your site is, the more you will impress the visitors.
Fourthly, one of the most important parts to a website: Quality content. You must have quality content. Always make sure you are original and unique. By having quality and informative information on my websites has benefited me to no extent. I found one of my website advertised on eBay. Not only was my site featured in an auction, but they were referring to my website and the products I sold. This alone gave my website over 40-50 extra hits from the eBay website alone, per day.
Not only did I find my website in eBay, but I found it in many other websites. I took a look at my link popularity and found my link popularity had risen from 60 to 300 within six months. These links were from quality websites and all were talking about my website as an example. No wonder my websites visitor count was dramatically increasing!
Fifth. Now that you have a quality and possibly a very well established website, you need to advertise. Advertising can be very expensive, and often not rewarding. So why not allow people to make money reselling your product or service?
I have found that every successful website I have setup, has an affiliate programme. Not only does an affiliate programme allow you to receive more new customers but it also increases your link popularity. As you all know, increasing your link popularity is something we are all trying to do.
I have found that affiliate programmes are the most important part to any website that sells a product or service. There is no other way to beat the free link popularity and the added bonus of extra sales you would not have had earlier. I cannot guarantee that you will quadruple your revenue, but the above information given will ensure that your website has a positive future and will prosper into a successful website. I have used every single example in the implementation of my current websites, and has worked for me. There is no time limit to how long it will take, although I have found a six month old website can quadruple its revenue within six months!
First of all just like any successful business you must believe that you'll
succeed and never give-up. To be successful with a website you must have the same mentality, never give up and always put time and effort in. Giving up is the single major problem, if you give up on your website too early it will fail.
I have built many website over the years and found that what I have set out for you in this article will work, and keep on working.
Secondly, you need to increase your traffic, or hits to the website. I advise you to read my previous article “Six Techniques To Triple Your Website Hits.” This article illustrates six functional ways you can increase the traffic to your website.
Thirdly on the list, make sure you have branded your site well. People want to remember you and believe your site is quality. So build a clean and functional website that is appealing to your potential customers. The more professional your site is, the more you will impress the visitors.
Fourthly, one of the most important parts to a website: Quality content. You must have quality content. Always make sure you are original and unique. By having quality and informative information on my websites has benefited me to no extent. I found one of my website advertised on eBay. Not only was my site featured in an auction, but they were referring to my website and the products I sold. This alone gave my website over 40-50 extra hits from the eBay website alone, per day.
Not only did I find my website in eBay, but I found it in many other websites. I took a look at my link popularity and found my link popularity had risen from 60 to 300 within six months. These links were from quality websites and all were talking about my website as an example. No wonder my websites visitor count was dramatically increasing!
Fifth. Now that you have a quality and possibly a very well established website, you need to advertise. Advertising can be very expensive, and often not rewarding. So why not allow people to make money reselling your product or service?
I have found that every successful website I have setup, has an affiliate programme. Not only does an affiliate programme allow you to receive more new customers but it also increases your link popularity. As you all know, increasing your link popularity is something we are all trying to do.
I have found that affiliate programmes are the most important part to any website that sells a product or service. There is no other way to beat the free link popularity and the added bonus of extra sales you would not have had earlier. I cannot guarantee that you will quadruple your revenue, but the above information given will ensure that your website has a positive future and will prosper into a successful website. I have used every single example in the implementation of my current websites, and has worked for me. There is no time limit to how long it will take, although I have found a six month old website can quadruple its revenue within six months!
Five Ways To Detect Shill Bidders On eBay So That You Don't Pay Absurd Prices
There is as a lot of buzz about shill bidders on the eBay forums. But in actuality, shrill bidding isn't that common and is rather easily detected.
A buyer will sometimes attempt to use shill building to raise the price of merchandise he is selling. The idea is that the shiller will bid increasingly high prices, in the hope that legitimate buyers like you will top the artificially high prices in an effort to win the goodies for sale.
Here are five ways you can recognize a shill bidder:
1. Few shill bidders will have any feedback. This is because they never follow through with transactions and therefore don't have anyone to leave feedback. If the shiller does have legitimate transactions on ebay, he is usually smart enough to use a separate ID, because he does not want to get caught shilling and lose all buying and selling privileges.
{It is important to note, however, that just because a bidder has no feedback that does not mean that he is necessarily a shrill bidder. This may simply be a new account that has not had time to build a feedback reputation.}
2. Generally, a shiller only bids on the auctions of a particular seller. When in doubt, you can check the current and completed options of a seller and see if this shiller has bid on other auctions by the same seller.
3. Shill bidders are most often newbies. You can check the feedback, and the date that the eBay account was created, for any ebay member. If the bidder's account was created two days ago and he is bidding on several auctions of the same seller, you can be pretty certain about what is going on.
4. eBay has ways of the tracking shillers. Of course we don't know everything they do (and if I did know I wouldn't tell!) but some clues all are dead giveaways. For example, if the seller and the bidder have the same IP address, eBay knows to take a closer look.
5. Shill bidders retract many more bids than normal buyers. eBay does allow any buyer to retract a bid, although this is only supposed to occur for specific reasons. But in actuality, a retraction is rarely challenged and ultimately what can eBay do? It cannot force a person to pay for a particular item.
It is wise not to use this option on a frequent basis. Remember that your eBay behavior deal is constantly tracked. A retraction is considered to be a "black mark" on your reputation so don't do it very often. Shillers, on the other hand, don't care because they're unconcerned about their reputation. If caught, they simply open a new account.
Sometimes a shiller is the high bidder at the end of an auction. In that that case, the seller and buyer can agree to cancel the bid, rather than retract it. However, all this takes a lot of work, planning and effort. In the end, shill bidding is rarely worth the trouble and time. Instead, smart sellers spend their time finding products and writing listings - the two basic moneymaking activities of an ebay business - instead of plotting how to raise profits on individual listings. Success in business is about efficiency.
A buyer will sometimes attempt to use shill building to raise the price of merchandise he is selling. The idea is that the shiller will bid increasingly high prices, in the hope that legitimate buyers like you will top the artificially high prices in an effort to win the goodies for sale.
Here are five ways you can recognize a shill bidder:
1. Few shill bidders will have any feedback. This is because they never follow through with transactions and therefore don't have anyone to leave feedback. If the shiller does have legitimate transactions on ebay, he is usually smart enough to use a separate ID, because he does not want to get caught shilling and lose all buying and selling privileges.
{It is important to note, however, that just because a bidder has no feedback that does not mean that he is necessarily a shrill bidder. This may simply be a new account that has not had time to build a feedback reputation.}
2. Generally, a shiller only bids on the auctions of a particular seller. When in doubt, you can check the current and completed options of a seller and see if this shiller has bid on other auctions by the same seller.
3. Shill bidders are most often newbies. You can check the feedback, and the date that the eBay account was created, for any ebay member. If the bidder's account was created two days ago and he is bidding on several auctions of the same seller, you can be pretty certain about what is going on.
4. eBay has ways of the tracking shillers. Of course we don't know everything they do (and if I did know I wouldn't tell!) but some clues all are dead giveaways. For example, if the seller and the bidder have the same IP address, eBay knows to take a closer look.
5. Shill bidders retract many more bids than normal buyers. eBay does allow any buyer to retract a bid, although this is only supposed to occur for specific reasons. But in actuality, a retraction is rarely challenged and ultimately what can eBay do? It cannot force a person to pay for a particular item.
It is wise not to use this option on a frequent basis. Remember that your eBay behavior deal is constantly tracked. A retraction is considered to be a "black mark" on your reputation so don't do it very often. Shillers, on the other hand, don't care because they're unconcerned about their reputation. If caught, they simply open a new account.
Sometimes a shiller is the high bidder at the end of an auction. In that that case, the seller and buyer can agree to cancel the bid, rather than retract it. However, all this takes a lot of work, planning and effort. In the end, shill bidding is rarely worth the trouble and time. Instead, smart sellers spend their time finding products and writing listings - the two basic moneymaking activities of an ebay business - instead of plotting how to raise profits on individual listings. Success in business is about efficiency.
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