4) Encourage visitors to bookmark and tag your content
If you have a blog, add a feature that shows up at the end of every post that allows users to bookmark or submit your post to other Web 2.0 websites. 'Share This' is just such a blog add-on (or plug-in) that can do this for you. If you have a Wordpress blog you will be able to find a plug-in that allows you to integrate this type of feature (including Share This) into your blog very easily and without the need for any technical knowledge. If you write a memorable or compelling post, people can use this to make bookmarks to the post, Stumble it, Digg it and so forth. All of this can lead to more traffic.
5) Add a Web 2.0 feature to your website
First of all; your business website needs a blog. If you do not have one, then stop reading this and go to it. A blog provides you and your employees an easy way to post new information that is relevant to your business and helpful to your customers. And it allows your customers to easily communicate with you by leaving comments.
But beyond a blog, what other Web 2.0 features can you add to your website? If you are selling products, consider adding in a feature that allows customers to rate each product. It can be something as simple as one to five stars or more elaborate where they leave reviews. Amazon does this and it one of the major driving forces in their sales. When potential customers see that your products are rated by existing customers, they will be more likely to trust you and buy.
You could add a wiki to your website. A wiki is software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content. By encouraging your website visitors to create content for you, you are allowing your site to grow and become more informative, thus creating more chances to be found in search engines. These features can be found as third-party software packages and integrated into your existing website surprisingly easily.
The power of Web 2.0 is substantial. It is time you begin to harness its potential and by following these five suggestions, you will be well on your way. See JackHumphrey.com for a great list to start with.
Source From SitePro News
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Putting the "Ad" Into Adwords (2)
3) A Stitch in Time.
It is important to optimize your ads (and separately your keywords and bids) to a fixed schedule. By default, we run a three-month cycle: Every three hours for the first day. Every day for the first week. Every week for the first month. Every second week for the second month. At the end of the third month.
You can adapt this schedule to suit your click volume, but make sure you have a schedule and stick to it. You will learn more about your target audience, and employ your time more efficiently. Do not forget to take weekdays, weekends and seasonal trends into account.
4) Study your Competition First.
Before writing your first ad, take time to study your competition using a selection of core keywords and phrases.
This is particularly important if you are thinking of using Google's Keyword Insertion feature. This is becoming increasingly popular and can be counter-productive; making your headline look identical to the competition.
5) All for One and One for All.
Achieving a good Quality Score, and providing visitors with a rewarding experience, means treating your keywords, ads and landing page as a single unit.
Ensure your most popular keywords appear in your ad's headline and copy. If you cannot accommodate core keywords in your ads, segment your ad groups further.
Make sure core keywords follow through to your meta data and landing page copy. Try to write ad copy that flows naturally and qualifies visitors to your site. If you sell software for Microsoft Outlook, for example, a headline such as "Using Microsoft Outlook?" will help avoid Apple users, who might find your product of interest, but are unlikely to become customers.
6) Simplicity Sells Harder.
Capitalize letters and words in your ad copy for emphasis (not all the time). Capitalizing the first letter of every word in your copy actually makes reading more difficult.
Be honest and do not use words like "free" unless you are really giving something away for free within 3 clicks of your landing page.
7) Understand what Matters.
According to research undertaken by Google in 2005, the headline of your ad represents 40% of its impact. The first line of copy accounts for 25%, the second line 20% and the Display URL 15%.
AdWords' power comes from the ability it gives you to intercept prospects at the exact moment they are looking for what you sell. The basic PPC ad format is simple, and works best with a single clear message and a strong call to action.
Source From SitePro News
It is important to optimize your ads (and separately your keywords and bids) to a fixed schedule. By default, we run a three-month cycle: Every three hours for the first day. Every day for the first week. Every week for the first month. Every second week for the second month. At the end of the third month.
You can adapt this schedule to suit your click volume, but make sure you have a schedule and stick to it. You will learn more about your target audience, and employ your time more efficiently. Do not forget to take weekdays, weekends and seasonal trends into account.
4) Study your Competition First.
Before writing your first ad, take time to study your competition using a selection of core keywords and phrases.
This is particularly important if you are thinking of using Google's Keyword Insertion feature. This is becoming increasingly popular and can be counter-productive; making your headline look identical to the competition.
5) All for One and One for All.
Achieving a good Quality Score, and providing visitors with a rewarding experience, means treating your keywords, ads and landing page as a single unit.
Ensure your most popular keywords appear in your ad's headline and copy. If you cannot accommodate core keywords in your ads, segment your ad groups further.
Make sure core keywords follow through to your meta data and landing page copy. Try to write ad copy that flows naturally and qualifies visitors to your site. If you sell software for Microsoft Outlook, for example, a headline such as "Using Microsoft Outlook?" will help avoid Apple users, who might find your product of interest, but are unlikely to become customers.
6) Simplicity Sells Harder.
Capitalize letters and words in your ad copy for emphasis (not all the time). Capitalizing the first letter of every word in your copy actually makes reading more difficult.
Be honest and do not use words like "free" unless you are really giving something away for free within 3 clicks of your landing page.
7) Understand what Matters.
According to research undertaken by Google in 2005, the headline of your ad represents 40% of its impact. The first line of copy accounts for 25%, the second line 20% and the Display URL 15%.
AdWords' power comes from the ability it gives you to intercept prospects at the exact moment they are looking for what you sell. The basic PPC ad format is simple, and works best with a single clear message and a strong call to action.
Source From SitePro News
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Top 5 Ways To Use Web 2.0 for Web Marketing (2)
2) Web 2.0-ize other people's sites that contain a link back to your website
Assume you already know how your bookmarks (or Favorites) work in your browser. There are websites that exist that act in the same way, but the bookmarks you set are public. Del.icio.us was one of the first and a very popular example of this. People's public bookmarks are browsed by others and lead to clicks to the sites you have bookmarked. So be sure to bookmark your business website and inner pages that are important. Also, these bookmarks can appear in search results in engines like Google and Yahoo. And some even think that search engines use book-marking sites in their algorithms, although this has not been conclusively proven. Simply and BlinkList are two more examples of these kinds of Web 2.0 book-marking sites.
Let us say you write an original, quality article and post it to your business website. Then you submit the article to a handful of content rating websites like some of the ones explained above. To further market this article, you can then use social book-marking sites to bookmark the page on the content rating websites that list your new article and that contain a link back to your article. This can be very powerful.
Or you notice that an authority in your industry has a link on its website that points back to your website. Go ahead and bookmark the page on the authority site, thus marketing it, which in turn markets your site as well. One particular Web 2.0 website that is very popular and can generate tons of traffic is StumbleUpon. This site allows people to give any page you deem worthy a "thumbs-up". And if you get enough "thumbs-up", people browsing StumbleUpon will see it and click over to that page. So I always make it a point to "Stumble" my business websites' homepages and sites that contain links to my business websites as well.
If you become an active member in a handful of Web 2.0 websites and utilize these first two suggestions alone, you will be amazed at the kind of traffic you can generate.
3) Engage in the conversations and activities
When I suggest above to become an active member I mean that you need to visit a few of your favorite Web 2.0 sites on a regular basis and actually contribute to the site with your opinions, votes, comments and submissions. For instance, if you like Digg or News vine, visit them often and submit quality articles, content and sites to them. And they do not all have to be your sites. In fact, the more impartial you are, the more people will trust you when you submit one of your articles. And you ought to vote for other people's Digg submissions as well. You may enjoy Facebook, Linkedin or MySpace. First, create a profile on the site, then go out and make connections within the community. The more you do this, the more you can harness the power of the people you meet to help market your website or yourself.
Visit and comment on blogs in your industry. This is another tried and true way to engage in the online conversation. Blogs are Web 2.0 and have been around for a while now. Unfortunately, leaving blog comments has been abused by so many people that you absolutely must only leave blog comments that contribute to the overall blog post.
Only add your website's link if you are asked to. These links will not help your search engine rankings but can drive traffic to your site.
To be continued..
Assume you already know how your bookmarks (or Favorites) work in your browser. There are websites that exist that act in the same way, but the bookmarks you set are public. Del.icio.us was one of the first and a very popular example of this. People's public bookmarks are browsed by others and lead to clicks to the sites you have bookmarked. So be sure to bookmark your business website and inner pages that are important. Also, these bookmarks can appear in search results in engines like Google and Yahoo. And some even think that search engines use book-marking sites in their algorithms, although this has not been conclusively proven. Simply and BlinkList are two more examples of these kinds of Web 2.0 book-marking sites.
Let us say you write an original, quality article and post it to your business website. Then you submit the article to a handful of content rating websites like some of the ones explained above. To further market this article, you can then use social book-marking sites to bookmark the page on the content rating websites that list your new article and that contain a link back to your article. This can be very powerful.
Or you notice that an authority in your industry has a link on its website that points back to your website. Go ahead and bookmark the page on the authority site, thus marketing it, which in turn markets your site as well. One particular Web 2.0 website that is very popular and can generate tons of traffic is StumbleUpon. This site allows people to give any page you deem worthy a "thumbs-up". And if you get enough "thumbs-up", people browsing StumbleUpon will see it and click over to that page. So I always make it a point to "Stumble" my business websites' homepages and sites that contain links to my business websites as well.
If you become an active member in a handful of Web 2.0 websites and utilize these first two suggestions alone, you will be amazed at the kind of traffic you can generate.
3) Engage in the conversations and activities
When I suggest above to become an active member I mean that you need to visit a few of your favorite Web 2.0 sites on a regular basis and actually contribute to the site with your opinions, votes, comments and submissions. For instance, if you like Digg or News vine, visit them often and submit quality articles, content and sites to them. And they do not all have to be your sites. In fact, the more impartial you are, the more people will trust you when you submit one of your articles. And you ought to vote for other people's Digg submissions as well. You may enjoy Facebook, Linkedin or MySpace. First, create a profile on the site, then go out and make connections within the community. The more you do this, the more you can harness the power of the people you meet to help market your website or yourself.
Visit and comment on blogs in your industry. This is another tried and true way to engage in the online conversation. Blogs are Web 2.0 and have been around for a while now. Unfortunately, leaving blog comments has been abused by so many people that you absolutely must only leave blog comments that contribute to the overall blog post.
Only add your website's link if you are asked to. These links will not help your search engine rankings but can drive traffic to your site.
To be continued..
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Show your weblog at Acobay!
For those wish to show their blogs widely and reach more audiences and traffic to their blogs, then acobay.com will be the best place to make you dream come true.
In acobay.com, the more stuff you share with others, the more poeple you might connected to and the more people with visit to your blogs. Besides these, you also can have fun in showing your meterial to others, promote your blogs and get paid for the actions you made from there. For more information about acobay.com consumer network, please visit to their website.
In acobay.com, the more stuff you share with others, the more poeple you might connected to and the more people with visit to your blogs. Besides these, you also can have fun in showing your meterial to others, promote your blogs and get paid for the actions you made from there. For more information about acobay.com consumer network, please visit to their website.
Top 5 Ways To Use Web 2.0 for Web Marketing
Web 2.0 and Web marketing is a match made in heaven. There are many ways to create traffic to your website using the power of Web 2.0. Below I am going to examine what I consider to be the top five. Jack Humphrey, a well-known Web 2.0 expert, defines it this way in his Authority Black Book:
Blogs, wikis, file sharing sites, content rating systems, book-marking sites, and social networking sites are all examples of Web 2.0. Some of the more well-known Web 2.0 sites are YouTube (file sharing), Facebook and MySpace (social networking), Wikipedia (wiki), del.icio.us (book-marking) and Digg (content rating system). The list is almost endless, and the traffic that these websites generate is absolutely staggering.
So how can you harness some of this traffic?
1) Create original, quality and compelling content and submit them to Web 2.0 websites.
For example, if you write an original and compelling article, you can submit it to content sharing and content rating system websites such as Digg, Propeller, Newsvine, MarkTD or Reddit. Sometimes content sharing and content rating system websites specialize in a particular industry. MarkTD specializes in marketing, for example.
When you submit your article to these sites, people will give it a vote, and each vote moves the article up where it can be seen by more and more people. This has the potential of creating a lot of traffic for your website since each reader will need to click on the link to go to your site to read the full article. And you are building a permanent link pointing to your website that can be followed for months and years to come. (And do not forget, a link from a quality site to your website helps in your search engine rankings too.)
Or you can create an original video and submit it to YouTube. Here it will get rated and possibly seen by many people. If the video contains your website or a plug for your business, then all the better. YouTube is not the only video sharing website however. There are many, and one video can be submitted to them all. This same concept applies to your original images, photographs, digital art and audio files.
To be continued..
“Generally speaking, if people can submit links to content, submit content, make comments and vote good/bad content up/down thus affecting the amount of traffic that content can generate, it is Web 2.0.”
Blogs, wikis, file sharing sites, content rating systems, book-marking sites, and social networking sites are all examples of Web 2.0. Some of the more well-known Web 2.0 sites are YouTube (file sharing), Facebook and MySpace (social networking), Wikipedia (wiki), del.icio.us (book-marking) and Digg (content rating system). The list is almost endless, and the traffic that these websites generate is absolutely staggering.
So how can you harness some of this traffic?
1) Create original, quality and compelling content and submit them to Web 2.0 websites.
For example, if you write an original and compelling article, you can submit it to content sharing and content rating system websites such as Digg, Propeller, Newsvine, MarkTD or Reddit. Sometimes content sharing and content rating system websites specialize in a particular industry. MarkTD specializes in marketing, for example.
When you submit your article to these sites, people will give it a vote, and each vote moves the article up where it can be seen by more and more people. This has the potential of creating a lot of traffic for your website since each reader will need to click on the link to go to your site to read the full article. And you are building a permanent link pointing to your website that can be followed for months and years to come. (And do not forget, a link from a quality site to your website helps in your search engine rankings too.)
Or you can create an original video and submit it to YouTube. Here it will get rated and possibly seen by many people. If the video contains your website or a plug for your business, then all the better. YouTube is not the only video sharing website however. There are many, and one video can be submitted to them all. This same concept applies to your original images, photographs, digital art and audio files.
To be continued..
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Self Storage Guide
A cool website that provides facilities to make yourself organized, know what you own, protect against weather, saving for later, for occasional use.
According to the website, simple self storage could be easier than simply because it is the largest privately owned self storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. They operate over 228 facilities with over 16.1 million square feet of storage space. For more information about storage facilities, please visit to their website.
According to the website, simple self storage could be easier than simply because it is the largest privately owned self storage company in the United States and Puerto Rico. They operate over 228 facilities with over 16.1 million square feet of storage space. For more information about storage facilities, please visit to their website.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Putting the "Ad" Into Adwords
When you are new to AdWords, it is tempting to devote far too much time and energy in trying to craft that "killer" ad. But the truth is that writing ads is a science, not an art. Here are a few of the rules.
1) Do not Fly Blind.
In over five years developing AdWords campaigns, we have not ever seen a profitable example that did not track conversions.
AdWords Conversion Tracking is simple to install and a "must" for measuring ad performance. Remember, by itself the Click-Through- Rate (CTR) of an ad tells you nothing about the ROI it is delivering. We have seen many examples of ads with a lower CTR, but higher conversion rate.
Google Analytics obviously adds a great deal more data, but takes time to master. However, one feature worth using immediately is its ability to tell you which ad position yields the best results.
Finally, do not forget the AdWords Reports section. This has improved significantly over the past year, and the Search Query Performance report is a real asset in optimizing keywords and ad copy.
2) Cut out the Middle Man.
In this case, the "middle man" is Google. When developing and testing your ads, it is vital to put yourself in control as far as possible:
Delivery Method: By default, Google spreads the delivery of your ads evenly throughout the day, ensuring you do not exhaust your daily budget (and they get to spend as much of it as possible). However, it also serves to mask the true demand for your product or service. We have seen many cases where ads are more profitable at certain times of the day. If you have a limited budget, spend it when you will get the best return. We recommend running campaigns using Accelerated delivery. Keep an eye on your daily budget and adjust accordingly.
Ad Serving: If you are running multiple ads, Google will automatically start favoring the one with the highest CTR once a certain volume of clicks have been received. We do not use the default Optimize option, and recommend you select Rotate for ad serving.
We have AdWords campaigns for some of our clients that have been running for over three years, but we always maintain at least two ad variations per ad group. Even if there is only a single word difference, one ad will ultimately prove superior and deliver an improved ROI.
The Rotate option also gives you more granularities when testing ad variations. Say you want to do a 1/3-2/3 split; you simply create two copies of ad "A" and one of ad "B". Using the same principal allows you to create 60/40 and 70/30 splits, which are very useful in some circumstances.
Network Options: Start your testing using Google's Search network only. Uncheck both their Partner and Content networks. Once you have some solid data from mainstream search traffic, you can add their Partners. Google's partners are a pretty "mixed bag", and you may decide to exclude them altogether (we often do).
Finally, enable the Content network and Content Bids. Do not run on the Content network with the same bid as Search - you are just handing Google money. By default, we set Content Bids at 1/10 of that on the Search network: so if your Search bid is 0.50p, set your Content bid to 0.05p for openers.
If you find your product or service has "traction" on the Content network (true in about 25% of cases in our experience), it may be worth running separate campaigns for Content searches.
All these options can be set from the Campaign Management tab in your account. Select a campaign and click the Edit Settings button.
To be continued..
1) Do not Fly Blind.
In over five years developing AdWords campaigns, we have not ever seen a profitable example that did not track conversions.
AdWords Conversion Tracking is simple to install and a "must" for measuring ad performance. Remember, by itself the Click-Through- Rate (CTR) of an ad tells you nothing about the ROI it is delivering. We have seen many examples of ads with a lower CTR, but higher conversion rate.
Google Analytics obviously adds a great deal more data, but takes time to master. However, one feature worth using immediately is its ability to tell you which ad position yields the best results.
Finally, do not forget the AdWords Reports section. This has improved significantly over the past year, and the Search Query Performance report is a real asset in optimizing keywords and ad copy.
2) Cut out the Middle Man.
In this case, the "middle man" is Google. When developing and testing your ads, it is vital to put yourself in control as far as possible:
Delivery Method: By default, Google spreads the delivery of your ads evenly throughout the day, ensuring you do not exhaust your daily budget (and they get to spend as much of it as possible). However, it also serves to mask the true demand for your product or service. We have seen many cases where ads are more profitable at certain times of the day. If you have a limited budget, spend it when you will get the best return. We recommend running campaigns using Accelerated delivery. Keep an eye on your daily budget and adjust accordingly.
Ad Serving: If you are running multiple ads, Google will automatically start favoring the one with the highest CTR once a certain volume of clicks have been received. We do not use the default Optimize option, and recommend you select Rotate for ad serving.
We have AdWords campaigns for some of our clients that have been running for over three years, but we always maintain at least two ad variations per ad group. Even if there is only a single word difference, one ad will ultimately prove superior and deliver an improved ROI.
The Rotate option also gives you more granularities when testing ad variations. Say you want to do a 1/3-2/3 split; you simply create two copies of ad "A" and one of ad "B". Using the same principal allows you to create 60/40 and 70/30 splits, which are very useful in some circumstances.
Network Options: Start your testing using Google's Search network only. Uncheck both their Partner and Content networks. Once you have some solid data from mainstream search traffic, you can add their Partners. Google's partners are a pretty "mixed bag", and you may decide to exclude them altogether (we often do).
Finally, enable the Content network and Content Bids. Do not run on the Content network with the same bid as Search - you are just handing Google money. By default, we set Content Bids at 1/10 of that on the Search network: so if your Search bid is 0.50p, set your Content bid to 0.05p for openers.
If you find your product or service has "traction" on the Content network (true in about 25% of cases in our experience), it may be worth running separate campaigns for Content searches.
All these options can be set from the Campaign Management tab in your account. Select a campaign and click the Edit Settings button.
To be continued..
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