Internet Marketing Blog by Noon-an-Night

Anyone who has ever dabbled in internet marketing knows about Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN AdCenter. However, there are plenty of new (and even some experienced) internet marketers that have never heard of PPC engines like 7Search. Pay per click search engines other than Google, Yahoo and MSN are known as second tier pay per click search engines. Technically, there are also third tier PPC engines, but they are a COMPLETE waste of money because the traffic they send is awful (and often fake).

The biggest advantage of second tier PPC engines is that you can buy keywords for extremely low prices. You would be surprised how many quality keywords you can get for $0.01 to $0.10. Your budget will go much further with these engines than any of the big three.

As with most things, second tier PPC engines do not come without their downsides. The first issue with these engines is the amount of traffic they send. Because they are second tier, they do not send nearly as much traffic for keywords as the three larger engines. However, since the keywords are generally so cheap, you can make up for this lack of traffic by bidding on a lot of keywords.

The other major issue with some of the second tier engines is the quality of traffic they send. Some send quality traffic, while the quality of others is questionable. Additionally, a second tier engine may send traffic that converts well for certain niches and converts extremely poorly for other niches. Other than searching around for other people’s experiences with these engines, the only way to find out if they will work for you is to test them out. Fortunately, most of the engines allow you to open an account for $25 or less. Because the keywords are so cheap, this small amount of money will allow you to determine whether or not a specific engine is going to work for you. Before you open an account, make sure you have some type of analytics software installed that will allow you to see the sources of the traffic the engine sends you. By analyzing the traffic you receive, you can tell whether you are getting a great deal or being ripped off.

What is Squidoo?
Squidoo is a new way for users to find the information they want. According to Alexa, Squidoo is the 706th most visited web site on the internet. Squidoo allows anyone to create a lens on any topic that they want. A lens can include things such as an introduction to the topic, pictures, articles about the topic, links to relevant resources, related books from Amazon and an area for visitors to discuss the topic of the lens.

Why Should I Use It?
First, and most importantly, creating a quality lens on Squidoo is an excellent way to not only generate traffic for your web site, but also create strong backlinks with targeted anchor text. Because Squidoo is such a strong domain (over 1.5 million backlinks), the lenses on it receive a share of its PageRank. Adding links to your web site on your lens will help you improve your web site’s rank within the search engines for the keywords or keyword phrases you desire.

In addition to these major benefits, after you create a lens, you can receive a share of the revenue it generates. Although this is a minor benefit, it is still an extra little incentive to create your own lens today.

How Long Does It Take to Create a Lens?
Although creating a lens offers quite a few benefits, it actually takes less than an hour to create a quality lens. Once you have created your lens, there is really nothing else that you have to do or maintain.

If you have spent time in any of the large webmaster forums, you already know how popular .EDU backlinks are among webmasters. However, many people do not understand why there is such a demand for these backlinks. Although Matt Cutts has stated that Google does not give any special preference to .EDU backlinks, here are a few reasons why webmasters still go after them:

Authority: If you have ever taken a look at a .EDU domain, you will see that they have an incredible amount of authority. For example, Harvard has 315,000 backlinks and the domain has been registered since May 1997, while Stanford has 3.7 million backlinks and has been registered since January 1997. Because many of these backlinks are from equally strong web sites, the majority of .EDU domains are considered authority domains, which means the links and pages on them are trusted by the search engines.

Frequently Crawled: Since fresh content is regularly added to .EDU domains, along with a constant stream of incoming links from other blogs and web sites, the domains are frequently crawled by search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. This means that if a link is obtained from one of these domains, it will be crawled and indexed within a short amount of time.

Rank Well: If you have ever checked the SERPs for a keyword related to Viagra, you already know that the majority of the results are on .EDU pages that have been hijacked by spammers. Although this is an unethical use of .EDU domains, it does show the power that these domains have. If you obtain a link from these domains with targeted anchor text, it can improve your web site’s ranking for that keyword or keyword phrase.

Whether you already have a web site or are looking for a way to establish your online identity, here are a couple of great reasons why you should start blogging today:

Claim Your Voice: Starting a blog gives you an excellent opportunity to claim your online presence and voice. When you write content for a web site, it is normally written in a way that disconnects you from your readers. However, when you write posts for your blog, you can use your true voice and connect directly with your readers.

Get Feedback: Blogs are the guest books of Web 2.0. Blogs allow you to get feedback on every single post you write. By paying attention to what your readers are telling you, you can ensure that the content you are writing keeps your readers coming back for more.

Generate More Traffic: Blogs are a great way to generate traffic. Whether you are creating a standalone blog or adding a blog to your existing web site, you can use it to generate quite a bit of traffic. By doing things such as commenting on other blogs, creating ping backs and publishing an RSS feed, you can attract a whole new audience to your blog and web site.

Build More Backlinks: Blogs naturally attract links. Other bloggers need inspiration for their posts, so if you are writing quality content, bloggers in your industry are going to link to your posts. Gaining quality backlinks from related blogs will help increase your search engine rankings.

1) Use Searchable Keywords: The next three steps will discuss where you should use keywords to maximize your image traffic. However, before we get to that, you need to make sure you are using the right keywords. If you put a picture of you and your family having a picnic on your blog, you might use something like “The Jones Family Picnic Last Sunday.” Unfortunately, the odds of anyone actually searching for this phrase are pretty slim. Therefore, you should pick a keyword or keyword phrase that people will actually search for. Using “Picnic” or “Picnic Area” will generate much more traffic than your original choice.

2) Name Your File: If you are using pictures from a digital camera, the default file name will be something like “DSC814.JPG.” As you can probably guess, this tells the search engines absolutely nothing about what that picture is. To make your picture more friendly, make sure to use your keyword in the file name. Using the example above, you could rename the file to “picnic.jpg” or “picnic-area.jpg.”

3) Use the ALT Tag: The ALT tag is another way to tell the Googlebot about your picture. Once again, you should use your keyword (or a variation) in the ALT tag. For example, if you named your picture “picnic.jpg,” your ALT tag could contain the keyword phrase “Picnic Area.” Using slight variations of your original keyword can help you gain some extra long-tail searches.

4) Use Your Keyword Next to the Image: Although many people are familiar with steps two and three, most people don’t realize the importance of using the image’s keyword close to it on the page. So, sticking with our example, you would want to use a sentence like “Here’s a picture of my family and I spending time together last Sunday on a picnic:” and then place your image directly after the sentence.

5) Remove the Google Images Frame: Here’s a new little trick that has been floating around the internet for a few months that allows you to remove the frame Google usually places your page in when people click on one of your pictures:

< script language="JavaScript1.1" type="text/JavaScript">
if (parent.frames.length > 0)
top.location.replace(document.location);< /script>

If you are running any kind of PPC advertising campaign, you should already know what a landing page is. A landing page is where you send visitors when they click on one of your ads. Having a well-designed landing page is vital because it is the most effective way to maximize your ROI on a pay-per-click advertising campaign. Regardless of whether you are advertising through Adwords, Adcenter or 7Search, you need to have a great landing page. Here are some common mistakes that can kill your conversions:

Navigation Links: Although you can create a landing page on a domain with a web site you have already developed, there is no reason to put any navigation links for that web site on your landing page. Unlike a normal web site, you do not want visitors to click around and explore your web site. Your only goal is to get them to complete your desired conversion (whether that is purchasing something or submitting their e-mail address). By taking away any distracting links, you can ensure that they stay on the landing page as long as possible.

Remember, it’s Web 2.0: If your landing page template is modeled after the millions of crappy e-book landing pages, it is time to give it a little makeover. Although you don’t want to clutter your page up with too many design elements, it is important to make sure that it is clean and attractive. Additionally, your target audience should influence the design of your landing page. For example, if you are promoting hip-hop ring tones, your target audience is going to be teenagers and young adults. Therefore, a page with some flashy elements will perform better than a boring, text-only landing page.

Providing Too Much/Little Information: Convincing a visitor to complete a conversion requires persuasive copy. However, how much copy is required depends on what you are trying to convert and who you are targeting. Most people need more than five sentences to be convinced, but if you give them twenty paragraphs, they are going to get bored or lost. So, how do you determine how much copy you need for your landing page? Test, test, test! When it comes to landing pages, the only way to determine if Version B is going to convert better than Version A is to test each page and then look compare the results. By implementing the tips above and conducting thorough testing, you can create the most effective landing page possible for your goals.

If your analytics software shows a lot of new visitors but very few returning visitors, here are four things that might be causing this problem:

1) Confusing Navigation: If new visitors to your web site are unable to successfully navigate through your web site and find what they are looking for, it is almost guaranteed that they will not ever visit your web site again. Make sure that your web site is easy to navigate and organized in a way that allows even novice internet users to find what they want.

2) Poor Web Site Design: If your web site has blaring music, five scrolling banners and neon green text, chances are your visitors are going to run away as fast as possible and never return. In addition to having consistent, easy to use navigation, you need to make sure that your web site is aesthetically pleasing. Sticking to conventional web standards such as using dark fonts on light backgrounds will ensure that your visitors are not scared away forever by your 1996 web design.

3) Hard to Remember Domain Name: No matter how great your web site design or content is, if your domain name is difficult to remember and a visitor forgets to bookmark your web site, they are going to have a hard time finding their way back. Always choose a domain name that is easy to remember and relevant to the topic of your web site.

4) Advertising: There are two types of advertising that can cause you to miss out on return visitors. The first are pop-up advertisements. The definition of a pop-up ad is any window that opens without a user clicking on a link. Simply put, people hate pop-up ads. Therefore, you should find alternative forms of advertising that provide a better experience for your users.

The second type of advertising that can cause you to send your visitors away is any advertising medium (such as AdSense) that does not open in a new window when a user clicks a link. Obviously, you are probably going to eventually use AdSense to monetize your web site, but you should wait until after you have launched your web site to add any type of advertising. In a recent presentation, Shoemoney recommended that you should wait until your web site is receiving 1,000 unique visitors a day to add any type of advertising that does not open in a new window when clicked.

3 Traits of Quality SEO Web Design

When it comes to web design, there are so amazing designers out there. Most web designers are very creative and have a strong artistic background. They are able to use their artistic talents to create layouts that are guaranteed to catch the eye of your visitors. Unfortunately, there is one major thing that most web designers are missing. The majority of web designers are not familiar with the concepts and implementation of search engine optimization techniques. Even if a web designer has at least some basic knowledge of SEO, the majority do not worry about implementing search engine optimization strategies into their designs.

While this may seem like a trivial detail, it can actually be the root of some major problems. No matter how attractive your web site is, if it is not indexed by the major search engines, the traffic it receives is going to be minimal. Once you realize this is happening, you are going to have to hire someone with SEO knowledge to fix your layout. Therefore, you may end up paying double for something that should have been done the first time around. Whether you are a web designer or someone getting ready to hire a web designer, here are three traits of quality SEO web design:

Usability: As a general rule of thumb, if the design of a web site makes it easy for your human visitors to navigate, it will also be relatively easy for search engine robots to access, crawl and index your web site. Making your site user (and search engine) friendly includes minimizing (or completely eliminating) things such as Flash, Javascript navigation and layouts designed with tables. By designing with usability in mind, you can be sure that your visitors and the search engines will be happy with your web site.

Avoid Being Sneaky: Because web designers are generally very creative people, they like to push the envelope when it comes to designing web sites. Although this mentality can result in some truly amazing web layouts, it can also cause problems if taken too far. When creating a web site layout, it is important to keep the web master guidelines of search engines like Google in mind. Incorporating things like hidden text into your designs is a sure way to get penalized (or de-indexed) by search engines. It is ok to push the envelope with your designs, but just make sure that you avoid doing anything that the search engines tell you not to do.

Onpage SEO: Although this is the last item on the list, it is actually the most important. Onpage SEO is the basis for quality SEO web design. It is vital that properly implement things such as title, meta, H1 and H2 tags, along with internal linking and the other key components of onpage search engine optimization. Taking the time to employ these practices will make a significant difference in where your web site ranks in the search engines.

Over the past few years, pay per click advertising on the internet has literally exploded. In the past, search engine optimization was considered to be the main component of search engine marketing. However, in today’s online world, PPC has become just as important and valuable as organic search engine traffic. Even in situations where your web site is ranking well organically for your desired keyword, a strong pay per click advertising campaign can help with things such as brand recognition and trust building among potential visitors.

Although the idea of running a PPC campaign may seem simple enough, pay per click advertising campaigns can become extremely overwhelming and much more complicated than you originally intended. Like most things in the internet marketing world, a pay per click needs to be monitored on a daily basis. If it is left unattended, there are several bad events that can potentially take place. The most obvious consequence of neglecting a PPC campaign is losing money. Although a well-managed campaign can provide you with significant financial benefits, one that is not carefully watched can cost you a lot of money. Whether it is caused by click fraud or a raised bid, losing money as a result of a pay per click campaign is not an enjoyable experience. In addition to losing money, an unsupervised PPC campaign can be affected by other events such as a drop in quality score or un-targeted clicks.

Because a pay per click advertising campaign requires a lot of work and a lot of monitoring, it is best to find a qualified professional to manage your PPC campaign. Professional PPC bid management companies can provide you all the resources you need to have a successful campaign. From the beginning, the can optimize your landing pages and ad text, research keywords and bid information, detect any unusual activity and continually monitor your ROI. With the help of professional PPC bid management, regardless of whether you are a single person operation or a large company, you can ensure that your PPC campaign helps you achieve all of your online goals.

Search engine optimization has been described by many experts as an art and a science, the art/science of publishing information and then marketing that information in such a way that enables search engines to find and index your site and that the information on your website is relevant to relevant searches or queries.

Search Engine Optimization involves more than just repeating a few keywords and hope that the search engines ‘trip’ over your site. SEO is a bit more complicated than that. Search Engine Optimization and how the search engines view your site should be a consideration at all phases of your site’s development.

Your site should include a site map, titles for each page (make sure these are not longer than 64 characters), and descriptions (no more than 190 characters) that highlight the main focus or reason your site exists and why it should be considered relevant by the search engines.

SEO consists of many aspects but the key areas of focus should be keyword research, content writing and page appearance, link building, and site submission.

Keyword research is the process through which you identify 100-250 keywords that are related to or associated with your products or services. Through the review of these keywords you will need to determine what words best represent your site offerings. It is best to not use common words that will be used on millions of sites. The key here is to choose words that are relevant but not dominated by others. You will not want to use generic words like computer or software as searches for those terms will return close to a billion possible websites that include them. Use more focused words such as Austin Computers or Atlanta Software.

Content writing is also a major focus of any good SEO campaign. Your website content should be written to capitalize on your keywords but the site’s content should also be well written and informative. If you are only repeating your keywords several times on the site, your site may show up in the search rankings but your potential customers and clients will click away quickly if you do not keep them interested. Additionally, your site’s pages should be laid out well so that when properly optimized, with the right mix of keywords and relevant content, the images or sight structure is pleasant to look at and keeps the visitor’s interest.

Link building and site submission each have their unique place in SEO and are extremely important in how quickly and for how long a site will be viewed current but more importantly – relevant. I learned early in my career that it was not necessarily ‘who you know but who knows you.’ And in the spirit of who knows you, you will want to link to and have other relevant sites link back to you. Site submission is the act of making search engines and related websites aware of your website. In some cases you do not need to submit your website to the major search engines, they follow links and index content. The best way to submit your site is to get others to link to it.

For more information call Noon-an-Night Marketing at 1-877-PPC-2ROI or 1-877-772-2764

Edward Noonan