Select Keywords for Broadly Focused Ads (10/28/2008)
... Wordtracker collects actual search terms that have been submitted to not one but a collection of multiple search engines through the search service called Dogpile (www.dogpile.com). Dogpile lets users conduct searches on many different search engines at the same time. Its database of 340 million search queries is available to Wordtracker users, and when you receive results, they are ranked by how frequently they appeared in search engine queries in the recent past....

A budget maximum is a limit on the amount of money you can spend (10/28/2008)
... Once an ad proves it can earn you more money per click than it costs per click to run it, go ahead and open up that valve as wide as you like or can afford. But with a new and unproven campaign, use that safety valve to protect yourself. Don’t forget what I told you before: What most search engines refer to as a daily budget is really just a figure used to calculate a monthly budget. The figure you enter for a daily budget can be exceeded, even doubled or tripled, on any given day as long as by the end of the month the daily average is below your maximum. This isn’t something that will happen very often to you, if at all, but you should still be cautious and keep a close eye on new campaigns....

How to bid on keywords from my PPC campaign (10/28/2008)
... Theoretically, bidding on each keyword individual could allow you to optimize your return for every keyword you use. Of course, you would have to track the performance of each of those keywords individually and calculate your return per click (RPC) and total return on each keyword separately to determine the optimal bid amounts. In practice, this is not very practical, and even with special software that’s available online to help streamline the process, you still have to do a lot of the work yourself. The bottom line is, if you organize your ad groups carefully and the keywords they contain are similar in both relevance and focus (broad or narrow), then by setting your bids at the ad group level you will avoid the nightmare of tracking every keyword’s performance, and it should have very little negative impact on your actual earnings. For now, let’s concentrate on deciding what our initial bid should be....

Google Adwords program how to join (10/28/2008)
... Click on “Sign up now” to begin, and you will be taken immediately to the Choose Edition page. Choose Edition Here you must select from one of two choices. 1. Starter Edition. The Starter Edition is for advertisers advertising a single product or service....

Create an Adwords ad and choose a good description (10/28/2008)
... If I had not capitalized {keyword: . . . }, then it would read, “shop and save on eBay” without capitalizing the first word. If I had capitalized the K and W {Key- Word: ....

The Set Pricing page is where you start bidding on the keywords (10/28/2008)
... I have entered $100, but when setting your initial budgets, this amount is dependent entirely on your working capital and comfort level. What Is the Maximum You Are Willing to Pay Each Time Someone Clicks on Your Ad? This is the amount you are bidding per click for all the keywords in your ad group. I have set my initial bid at 5 cents, based on the three-month EPC (earnings per hundred clicks) of $4.07 for the eBay affiliate program at the time I was setting up this campaign, at which time the average returns were roughly 4 cents. My 5-cent bid, then, is very moderately aggressive, but I hope to do better than average, and I am likely to pay at least a little less than my maximum bid anyway....

Affiliate reporting explained Commission Junction Reporting (10/28/2008)
...com campaign earned in the month of October 2005. Commission Junction Reporting First, you must log on to the CJ Account Manager using the e-mail address and password you used when you set up your account. Next, click on the Run Reports link near the top of the page. (Disclaimer: The dollar amounts shown are examples of a publisher’s account and do not represent all Commission Junction clients.) On the Transaction Reports page, click on the Report Options link to expand the Transaction Reports page to include customizable report options....

Data from your search campaigns should be available (10/28/2008)
... It simply isn’t necessary most of the time to get the information I need. The AdWords interface is designed to give me quick access to the data I need. Simply select the dates for which you want to see the numbers and click Go. Report Totals. For this simple exercise, you may simply note that the total amount spent for my Monster campaign in October was only $359....

Affiliate Advertising for Web Pages explained (10/28/2008)
... WHY CREATE A WEB SITE? There are lots of reasons to create compelling, content-rich web sites. They can promote your business, if you have one, or they can give you a place to provide news to friends and relatives. Your site could become a soapbox from which to simply spout off on one subject or another. Web pages can also be a vehicle for promoting affiliate programs, whether these programs are secondary to the site content or the primary focus of the web site (e.g....

A variety of sites lend themselves to affiliate advertisements (10/28/2008)
... They typically include pages that describe the background of the organization as well as its mission or services. The site also provides a point of contact for the visitors from the general public, who usually get a page they can fill out or an e-mail link they can click on to send a message to someone in the organization. Even though you don’t have a large corporation or even a large business, your site can perform the same functions as that of a big institution. You can have a page in which you describe yourself and your experience or the aims of your company; you can have another page that describes your services; and you should definitely give visitors a way to contact you through your web site as well. Informational Web Sites On the Internet, information sells....

There are broadly speaking two basic types of advertisements (10/28/2008)
... Banner ads have been around since the beginning of the Internet, and you still see a lot of them. Banner ads are not as effective as text ads, in most cases, and many Webmasters believe that Web surfers simply ignore them, but the fact is that advertisers still see them as cost-effective alternatives to advertising in more expensive media such as radio and television. Well-placed and highly relevant image ads can sometimes perform very well, and oftentimes they may be more aesthetically pleasing than raw text. This may be a primary concern for some sites whose ads are a secondary revenue stream and whose professional appearance must be maintained. Rich Media Ads....

Where your ad appears on a site counts very much (10/28/2008)
... Other informational pages on the site, such as order-tracking pages, also offer you a chance to promote an affiliate program without distracting the customer from making a purchase. Content Web Sites. You have a little more flexibility in placing your ads on a content web site, as advertisements likely represent the main source of revenue. Your main concern, in this case, is not to go overboard. Content is your hook for bringing these customers back, so ads should not crowd out the stories, discussion threads, product comparisons, and so on that make up the content focus of your web site....

Are affiliate ads your primary source of revenue (10/28/2008)
... Unless you are paid by the click (AdSense and some affiliate programs still do this), only a small proportion of the clicks you generate will lead to a sale or action for which you will earn a commission. You have two options for trying to overcome these disadvantages, and they are described in the sections that follow. Encouraging Repeat Visitors Repeat business is what really makes online businesses successful. The way to give visitors a reason to keep coming back to your site is to offer dynamic content that changes on a regular basis. You have to pay for the first click when visitors see your ad on a search results page and visit your web site the first time....

Designing a web site for affiliate advertisers (10/28/2008)
... Your potential clickers can do the same. Ask yourself: “How often would I bother to use a page like that?” You’re much better off spending the extra time and energy it takes to add value to your Web page by actually providing a useful service or helpful content. If your site promotes Internet gaming, don’t just list a bunch of casinos. Try categorizing them and allowing comparisons by different measurements. Who has the highest initialdeposit matching program? Who offers the most favorable odds? Which casino offers the most games? What games does each offer? If users can search and filter the results list on your page to help them find exactly what they are looking for, you stand a much higher chance of winning their repeat business....

A tutorial on how to keep your links up to date (10/28/2008)
... There’s no substitute for revisiting your page on a regular basis, checking everything, and sometimes adding something new, even if it’s only rewriting a heading or changing some text. Editing the text will also improve your search placement on Google, as described later in this article. Finding the Right Software The process of creating a web site is made user-friendly by the right software. The most popular and powerful Web page creation software is costly. But if you plan to spend a lot of time designing a site with dozens of Web pages, good software is definitely worth the expense....

How to submit your web site to Google Yahoo and MSN (10/28/2008)
...g., the headings and the first 50 or so words on each page) and file the contents to a database. When searchers actually retrieve a set of search results, they come from the content that’s been indexed in the databases, not live from the Internet. Each of the three main search and content networks gives you a way to submit your site for inclusion in its databases. By submitting, you help speed up the process of being included by taking action rather than waiting for the automated indexing programs to find you....

Calculate click through CTR and Cost Per Click CPC (10/28/2008)
... Multiple performance tiers can complicate this task even further. A properly tuned campaign can bring costs down and bring volume and earnings up. Performance monitoring and tuning can be a complicated process, but the rewards can be astronomical. I have managed several campaigns with daily earnings over $500, and my best-performing campaigns regularly earn thousands of dollars a day, so don’t just settle for good enough. Make sure you maximize your earning potential for each and every campaign that you run....

Calculating and Projecting RPC for Performance Goals (10/28/2008)
... Your commission will be much smaller, depending on which performance tier you reach. You are looking only at gross sales right now, because this is the measurement on which your performance is judged. Projecting Costs. To project your total costs at the end of June, you need to know only how much you have actually spent, how many days of complete data you have (in this example you have three days of data), and the length of the performance period (30 days in June). (Costs to date ÷ number of days passed) × performance period = projected costs If you have spent $15 through June 3, then the formula looks like this: ($15 ÷ 3) × 30 = $150 So your projected cost for June is $150....

How to start tuning your campaigns with keywords and bids (10/28/2008)
... If you went through the original keyword selection process carefully and thoughtfully, this area will likely need the fewest changes when tuning. Tuning Your Bids Obviously, the higher you bid, the more often your ad will run and the higher your position will be, which will result in more clicks (budget allowing). You will also see higher costs and lower returns per click. The lower you bid, the less often your ads will run and the lower your ad position will be, but your costs will go down and your RPC will go up. So the question you should ask is, do you need higher volume or higher margin (RPC)? Your problem is clearly your plummeting click volume....

Set your daily budget with the primary goal of limiting (10/28/2008)
... Each time you improve your keyword list, raise your bids, or perfect your ad text, you must revisit your daily budget to make certain it still meets your twin goals of generating as much traffic as possible and ensuring you do not run out of cash before your next commission check arrives. Tuning to Meet Performance Goals By far the most complex task you will undertake in this business is to performance-tune a campaign for an affiliate program that includes performance goals or a tiered commission structure. Don’t panic, it isn’t rocket science, and I have an approach that should make it far simpler for you than it was for me in the beginning. The first thing you need to be aware of is how the performance metrics we have discussed can function as simple levers that allow you to increase or decrease at will the traffic your campaigns generate. These two metrics are your keyword list and your maximum bid amount (and, of course, you must remember to adjust your budget to allow this additional traffic)....

Mistakes you can make in your affiliate advertising (10/28/2008)
... Outrageous expenses are the obvious danger, but an error in bidding can hit you just as hard when it cuts your revenue instead. Let’s start with your maximum bids, or maximum cost per click (CPC). Maximum Bids. Amistake in setting or adjusting your maximum bid naturally carries with it the risk of inflating your costs, lowering your revenues, and generally ruining an otherwise beautiful day. It doesn’t matter if the mistake is a typo the search engines will not care or a gross miscalculation on your part, the results will be equally painful....

Bad destination links a common error that can cost you money (10/28/2008)
... Oftentimes the search engine itself will catch this error quickly and shut off the broken ad, but it won’t be refunding your money, so don’t wait for the search engine to do your job for you. Every new ad you write, and every existing ad you edit, must be tested immediately by clicking on it yourself. If you don’t wind up where you wanted to go, fix it. Missing Tracking Code. Missing or incorrect tracking codes from your destination links can be harder to catch, and as a result they can go unnoticed longer, causing greater financial pain than a simple broken link might....

Obtaining a Business License for an online business (10/28/2008)
... Some cities tax businesses for the use of things like office furniture and computer equipment. • Business name. If your company’s name is different from your own name, you may be required to submit a Doing Business As (DBA) certificate that identifies you as the owner. You might even be required to publish a notice in your local newspaper stating that you have submitted this certificate. Visit or call your city or county clerk’s office to find out more....

Affiliate marketer Legal and Tax Requirements (10/28/2008)
... You probably think you’re just a lone entrepreneur sitting at a computer somewhere, placing ads and managing campaigns. The government, however, wants your operation to fall into a more specific designation than just “someone working at home.” Specifically, it wants businesses to be categorized by general designations, some of which are described in the sections that follow: sole proprietorships, corporations, limited liability companies, or partnerships. A New Jersey tax firm has created a free online utility that leads you step-by-step through the process of determining what form your company should take. Sole Proprietorship A sole proprietorship is the simplest form of business (versus a more elaborate form such as a corporation)....

A successful search marketing business is a growing search marketing (10/28/2008)
... This can mean a wait of between roughly 45 and 105 days before you see the return on your advertising investment. Without careful planning and sometimes even with it it is easy for a successful campaign’s demands to outstrip your resources. Planning Ahead Calculate how much you are spending on a daily basis for each campaign. Multiply that figure by 60 (i.e....

Achieving success in affiliate marketing is a two step process (10/28/2008)
... Whether you struggle for a while or find success quickly, remember to always keep searching for the next successful campaign. When you have been in this business for a few years, as I have, you will learn that even the most successful campaigns can dry up, suffer from program changes and cancellations, or be overtaken by a skilled competitor. The key to long-term success and security is the steady addition of new successful campaigns and new revenue streams to replace those that you will occasionally lose. Your first big success may bring with it the temptation stop the tedious search for new campaigns, but you will put yourself and your career as a search marketer in serious jeopardy if you give in to this temptation. The almost inevitable end to most campaigns, when they come, is hard enough to face....

AdSense for Search causes a Google search box to appear on your page (10/27/2008)
... You need to have a web site set up before you sign up for an AdSense account; the entire program is based on advertising through a web site. Your site doesn’t have to be oriented solely to your business, however; it can be a blog, a hobby site, or another site as well. The important thing is that you need to have a URL and a focus for your content on the site. NOTE: As part of the application form, you are asked to check whether you want AdSense for Content or AdSense for Search or both options. AdSense for Content causes the content-based ads to appear on your page....