Tuesday, September 19, 2006
How to Increase AdSense CTR in Ten Easy Steps
by Codrut Turcanu
As an AdSense Webmaster, you can monitor your CTR and your site traffic to determine how and where your ads are most effective. Maximizing your success with AdSense will be experimentation and trial and error, but there are some things you can do from the start to help your CTR along.
1) Ad Placement
Many websites try to hide the fact they have ads. They put them at the bottom of the page or only have one or two that are so small, the rest of the page distracts from them. While it's okay not to want to bombard your visitors with a site of ads, those ads are also a crucial part of keeping your business functioning. If magazines tried to bury their ads under all the content, they wouldn't be in business for very long, would they? Your site should be the same way. Place ads where they can easily be viewed and where they're visible to your visitors.
2) Ad Text Color
The text color of your ads should match the text color of your site. If you use bright blue for headlines on your site, use that for your AdSense headlines as well. This makes it appear as if the ads are part of the content.
3)Page Content
Choose a broad niche for your site, then break it down into smaller niches. Those smaller niches go on separate pages. This is also site organization and will help you place better-targeted ads. For example, if you have a computer site, break it down into sub niches: repairing computers, new computers, used computers, software, etc.
If you lump things together on one page and don't organize, you'll find that your CTR will be lower because your content is unorganized and scattered; therefore, your ads aren't as helpful to the visitor as you may think.
4) Don't Label Them as Ads
Don't label them as ads or sites sponsors. Although these are the only two terms allowed by Google, there's no need to point out that these are ads. It will just prevent them from blending in with the content of your site. Since the ads are targeted, if you allow them to, they will appear to be additional information on what your visitors are already interested in. Don't put a sign there letting them know they're wrong and it is, indeed, a "dreadful" ad.
5) Ad Appearance
Take away the border and background colors of your AdSense ads. These make them stand out as ads rather than information your visitors will be interested in. As said earlier, your ads should blend into the page. By making them appear as information you're providing, you're giving them another point of interest rather than an ad that many people might shy away from.
6) Expand Your Site
Expanding your site and adding pages should go hand in hand. However, expanding your site could just mean adding and refining content. It's important that you add pages with quality content as well. This increases your search engine ranking and gives more pages for AdSense ads.
7) Move the Ads
Sometimes return visitors only see what's new or what's changed. Move your ads from time to time, especially if you notice your CTR dropping. More often than not, you'll see an increase again as those same return visitors notice something in a different place and actually start to click through the same ads they didn't "see" last week.
8) Ad Format
Wider ads appeal to more visitors because they're easier to read. If something is easy to read, someone is more likely to take the time to read everything rather than just glancing at the first few words. However, it's important to balance your ads and the content on your pages. You'll discover that the way you think the ads should be for optimal CTR aren't always where they need to be. Monitor your ad placement versus CTR and you'll find the place and format that works best on each page.
9) Don't Chase the Million Dollar Keywords
Don't try to compete with the experts for the $100 keyword. It may work from time to time, but you'll have more success with mid-range keywords, and less competition too. By using mid-range keywords, you are more likely to achieve success over the long term. Remember that success in driving targeted traffic to your site by being ranked high in the search engines will increase your CTR with AdSense.
10) Use Text Ads, not Image Ads
By far, more webmasters have had success with text ads and not image ads. They look more like part of the document and are more appealing to visitors. Feel free to experiment with both, but text ads blend into your site better and result in higher CTR.
When trying any new method of using AdSense or new placements, be sure to monitor and track the results. After all, you're experimenting to see what brings you the highest CTR. By documenting your results, you'll know what makes the most money for you and you'll become one of the AdSense Webmaster gurus in no time at all.
Authors Resource Box:
Grab 'AdSense Confessions' and Receive 4 Extra-Special
Bonuses To Help You Boost Your AdSense EarningsBy 450% or More...
View Original Article Source at Altrana.com
As an AdSense Webmaster, you can monitor your CTR and your site traffic to determine how and where your ads are most effective. Maximizing your success with AdSense will be experimentation and trial and error, but there are some things you can do from the start to help your CTR along.
1) Ad Placement
Many websites try to hide the fact they have ads. They put them at the bottom of the page or only have one or two that are so small, the rest of the page distracts from them. While it's okay not to want to bombard your visitors with a site of ads, those ads are also a crucial part of keeping your business functioning. If magazines tried to bury their ads under all the content, they wouldn't be in business for very long, would they? Your site should be the same way. Place ads where they can easily be viewed and where they're visible to your visitors.
2) Ad Text Color
The text color of your ads should match the text color of your site. If you use bright blue for headlines on your site, use that for your AdSense headlines as well. This makes it appear as if the ads are part of the content.
3)Page Content
Choose a broad niche for your site, then break it down into smaller niches. Those smaller niches go on separate pages. This is also site organization and will help you place better-targeted ads. For example, if you have a computer site, break it down into sub niches: repairing computers, new computers, used computers, software, etc.
If you lump things together on one page and don't organize, you'll find that your CTR will be lower because your content is unorganized and scattered; therefore, your ads aren't as helpful to the visitor as you may think.
4) Don't Label Them as Ads
Don't label them as ads or sites sponsors. Although these are the only two terms allowed by Google, there's no need to point out that these are ads. It will just prevent them from blending in with the content of your site. Since the ads are targeted, if you allow them to, they will appear to be additional information on what your visitors are already interested in. Don't put a sign there letting them know they're wrong and it is, indeed, a "dreadful" ad.
5) Ad Appearance
Take away the border and background colors of your AdSense ads. These make them stand out as ads rather than information your visitors will be interested in. As said earlier, your ads should blend into the page. By making them appear as information you're providing, you're giving them another point of interest rather than an ad that many people might shy away from.
6) Expand Your Site
Expanding your site and adding pages should go hand in hand. However, expanding your site could just mean adding and refining content. It's important that you add pages with quality content as well. This increases your search engine ranking and gives more pages for AdSense ads.
7) Move the Ads
Sometimes return visitors only see what's new or what's changed. Move your ads from time to time, especially if you notice your CTR dropping. More often than not, you'll see an increase again as those same return visitors notice something in a different place and actually start to click through the same ads they didn't "see" last week.
8) Ad Format
Wider ads appeal to more visitors because they're easier to read. If something is easy to read, someone is more likely to take the time to read everything rather than just glancing at the first few words. However, it's important to balance your ads and the content on your pages. You'll discover that the way you think the ads should be for optimal CTR aren't always where they need to be. Monitor your ad placement versus CTR and you'll find the place and format that works best on each page.
9) Don't Chase the Million Dollar Keywords
Don't try to compete with the experts for the $100 keyword. It may work from time to time, but you'll have more success with mid-range keywords, and less competition too. By using mid-range keywords, you are more likely to achieve success over the long term. Remember that success in driving targeted traffic to your site by being ranked high in the search engines will increase your CTR with AdSense.
10) Use Text Ads, not Image Ads
By far, more webmasters have had success with text ads and not image ads. They look more like part of the document and are more appealing to visitors. Feel free to experiment with both, but text ads blend into your site better and result in higher CTR.
When trying any new method of using AdSense or new placements, be sure to monitor and track the results. After all, you're experimenting to see what brings you the highest CTR. By documenting your results, you'll know what makes the most money for you and you'll become one of the AdSense Webmaster gurus in no time at all.
Authors Resource Box:
Grab 'AdSense Confessions' and Receive 4 Extra-Special
Bonuses To Help You Boost Your AdSense EarningsBy 450% or More...
View Original Article Source at Altrana.com
What Companies Use Soft Marketing and Why?
by Selvyn Patterson
Marketing on-line or off-line, your potential customers are always skeptical. Consumers, today, are quite resistant to sales messages.
During the mid 70's, a store could run a "10% off" sale and people would flock in. Now, more stores got into the discounting mode. It is common to see "70% off" sales - especially in jewelry. Consumers are now more intelligent. These promotions do not produce the desired response anymore.
Constant, high powered sales events do not a excite anymore. Presently, you cannot offer a big enough "deal" to get the public excited. The big three car makers played this game for three years. By January 2006 they found themselves in deep financial trouble. They had borrowed customers from the future by offering a bigger, better sale every couple months.
Most successful businesses, now and in the future, must practice "soft marketing". To make sales today, marketing efforts have to come in under the consumer's sales-pitch radar.
Many large companies have known this for a long time because of their on-going marketing analyses. You can take advantage of their research for free.
Picture Coca-Cola in this example.
Coca-Cola was world famous for their many flashy, high-powered TV commercials. Today you seldom see such ads. Have they cut back on their marketing expenditure? No. In fact, they are now spending more using soft marketing techniques. Most people do not even realize they are being advertised to. That is the beauty and power of soft marketing.
Look at how Coke is using a soft marketing approach to build profits and market share.
1. Have you seen Coke products displayed on TV shows and movies?. "American Idol" is a popular TV show, with about 35 million viewers. The three judges are a big part of the success of the show. In front of each judge is a tall Coke cup. These characters, in effect, are recommending Coke to their viewers. Coke pays a lot of money for this and sells a lot of product based on this endorsement type advertising.
2. Coke creates new loyal customers by bringing them in through the "back door" using nostalgia products. Coke collectibles are a huge market today. And once caught up in the hobby of Coke collectibles, a person and possibly the whole family, become avid Coke drinkers. And Coke is being advertised to everyone who enters that home.
Coca-Cola's soft marketing techniques have made them almost bullet-proof in the soft drink market. They have built an image of being the most popular soda. Since it is human nature to want to be on the winning team, swarms of new customers are joining the group every day.
Some powerful soft marketing tactics you can start using today.
1. Be an expert. Credibility and trust are the two most important ways to succeed in any business. Write and submit articles and press releases. If you cannot write, hire someone to do it for you. There are several good writing service web sites on the internet.
Some are very cheap. Also, you can join a "Private Label Rights" content site. They provide already written articles that you can put your name on as your own. This is pure gold for on-line or off-line marketing.
Having a business on Main Street, your local newspaper should be your best friend. Do whatever you can to develop a relationship with them. You may or may not be able to get your news articles and releases printed for free, but even buying the space will return big dividends.
2. Give away a free report on the topic of your product or service. Your local newspaper will probably give you some free editorial space in the beginning if the report is of interest and free to their subscribers. A real life example is a realtor in this area that offers a free report - "10 Ways To Get Top Dollar For Your Home". It reveals what is valuable, and what is not, when getting your home ready for sale. With this he becomes the expert in the consumer's mind and a person who cares about them.
Write a book or report or get one written for you for a few hundred dollars by the same on-line companies that ghost-write articles and press releases or from your "Private Label Rights" membership site. This realtor has been using the same report for over ten years now. It is estimated this report has generated about $1.6 million in profits.
3. Get into partnership with related, non-competing businesses. One dry cleaning operation partnered with clothing stores in the community. The store, when selling a garment, would give a gift certificate to the customer. The gift certificate was good for a free first-time cleaning and pressing of that new garment.
Customers thought the store was paying for the dry cleaning. The fact is the dry cleaner was giving the service for free. The customer saw the store as being a "hero" and the store saw the dry cleaner as being a "hero". Both stores gained a load of new and repeat customers.
Make these soft marketing strategies yours or think up your own to fit your product or service. Brainstorm with other energetic, savvy business people, like you. Resulting ideas will astound you, and your traffic and profits will increase manyfold.
Authors Resource Box:
Writer, Entrepreneur and internet marketer.
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.Marketing-AffiliatePrograms.com
http://www.adsenseprofitsource.com
http://www.virtual-marketing-concepts.com
http://www.mktg-ebooks.com
View Original Article Source at Altrana.com
Marketing on-line or off-line, your potential customers are always skeptical. Consumers, today, are quite resistant to sales messages.
During the mid 70's, a store could run a "10% off" sale and people would flock in. Now, more stores got into the discounting mode. It is common to see "70% off" sales - especially in jewelry. Consumers are now more intelligent. These promotions do not produce the desired response anymore.
Constant, high powered sales events do not a excite anymore. Presently, you cannot offer a big enough "deal" to get the public excited. The big three car makers played this game for three years. By January 2006 they found themselves in deep financial trouble. They had borrowed customers from the future by offering a bigger, better sale every couple months.
Most successful businesses, now and in the future, must practice "soft marketing". To make sales today, marketing efforts have to come in under the consumer's sales-pitch radar.
Many large companies have known this for a long time because of their on-going marketing analyses. You can take advantage of their research for free.
Picture Coca-Cola in this example.
Coca-Cola was world famous for their many flashy, high-powered TV commercials. Today you seldom see such ads. Have they cut back on their marketing expenditure? No. In fact, they are now spending more using soft marketing techniques. Most people do not even realize they are being advertised to. That is the beauty and power of soft marketing.
Look at how Coke is using a soft marketing approach to build profits and market share.
1. Have you seen Coke products displayed on TV shows and movies?. "American Idol" is a popular TV show, with about 35 million viewers. The three judges are a big part of the success of the show. In front of each judge is a tall Coke cup. These characters, in effect, are recommending Coke to their viewers. Coke pays a lot of money for this and sells a lot of product based on this endorsement type advertising.
2. Coke creates new loyal customers by bringing them in through the "back door" using nostalgia products. Coke collectibles are a huge market today. And once caught up in the hobby of Coke collectibles, a person and possibly the whole family, become avid Coke drinkers. And Coke is being advertised to everyone who enters that home.
Coca-Cola's soft marketing techniques have made them almost bullet-proof in the soft drink market. They have built an image of being the most popular soda. Since it is human nature to want to be on the winning team, swarms of new customers are joining the group every day.
Some powerful soft marketing tactics you can start using today.
1. Be an expert. Credibility and trust are the two most important ways to succeed in any business. Write and submit articles and press releases. If you cannot write, hire someone to do it for you. There are several good writing service web sites on the internet.
Some are very cheap. Also, you can join a "Private Label Rights" content site. They provide already written articles that you can put your name on as your own. This is pure gold for on-line or off-line marketing.
Having a business on Main Street, your local newspaper should be your best friend. Do whatever you can to develop a relationship with them. You may or may not be able to get your news articles and releases printed for free, but even buying the space will return big dividends.
2. Give away a free report on the topic of your product or service. Your local newspaper will probably give you some free editorial space in the beginning if the report is of interest and free to their subscribers. A real life example is a realtor in this area that offers a free report - "10 Ways To Get Top Dollar For Your Home". It reveals what is valuable, and what is not, when getting your home ready for sale. With this he becomes the expert in the consumer's mind and a person who cares about them.
Write a book or report or get one written for you for a few hundred dollars by the same on-line companies that ghost-write articles and press releases or from your "Private Label Rights" membership site. This realtor has been using the same report for over ten years now. It is estimated this report has generated about $1.6 million in profits.
3. Get into partnership with related, non-competing businesses. One dry cleaning operation partnered with clothing stores in the community. The store, when selling a garment, would give a gift certificate to the customer. The gift certificate was good for a free first-time cleaning and pressing of that new garment.
Customers thought the store was paying for the dry cleaning. The fact is the dry cleaner was giving the service for free. The customer saw the store as being a "hero" and the store saw the dry cleaner as being a "hero". Both stores gained a load of new and repeat customers.
Make these soft marketing strategies yours or think up your own to fit your product or service. Brainstorm with other energetic, savvy business people, like you. Resulting ideas will astound you, and your traffic and profits will increase manyfold.
Authors Resource Box:
Writer, Entrepreneur and internet marketer.
To find the best home based business ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home visit:
http://www.Marketing-AffiliatePrograms.com
http://www.adsenseprofitsource.com
http://www.virtual-marketing-concepts.com
http://www.mktg-ebooks.com
View Original Article Source at Altrana.com
Only Get Traffic Using Expiring Domain
by Rolf Ken
Do you know that over 20,000 domain names expire everyday and can be used by others. If you want more hits or want to resell the domains for profit, these expired ones can be a valuable resource.
But before taking it over, you surely would like to know how many people have owned it before and the reasons for giving it up, right?
Well, an expired domain may have been used by one or more persons in the past. They may have designed a website, advertised it, linked it to search engines, done business deals on it and even had reciprocal link connections with other websites. The reasons for expiry of domain name may be :
1. Loss of interest of owner
2. Closing down of business
3. Registration was not renewed on time
4. The fees was unaffordable
There may have been any of the aforementioned reasons or any other cause, but whatever the case, the domain is now an available option for you. You can use it by designing a website on it or you may link it to your existing website,or add more cream to it by adding google Adsense to it.
The main advantage of taking over an expired domain is the traffic. There may still be visitors who, on finding the better alternative offered by you, can redirect their business. It is not possible to know the exact amount to expired traffic to a particular domain. However, the analysis of some specific aspects lets you gauge the amount of expired traffic. They are as follows :
LINK POPULARITY
This will give you an estimate of the number of portals or web pages that are linked to the expired domain. The more the number of links, the higher is the possibility of future traffic. Also, a higher link popularity betters the probability of quality traffic.
ALEXA RANK
An Alexa toolbar keeps tabs on the number of hits for a domain and then awards a rank based on this. If the site has had no traffic for the past three months, it is automatically dropped by Alexa. So, look for an Alexa rank to get an idea about the number of visits and the domain's worth.
To give you a rough idea, an Alexa rank of about 100,000 means that the domain receives at least 2 hits a day. A rank higher than 1,000,000 discloses that the domain hardly ever receives any visits.
GOOGLE PAGERANK
The popularity of a domain is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 and this is called a Google PageRank. This ranking system takes into account the number of quality web pages that contain links to a specific domain name.
A Google toolbar is required to obtain a Google PageRank. You can type in the website name in the address bar of your browser and get the PageRank.
YAHOO AND DMOZ LISTINGS
A domain owner may have been included in search engines. He may have paid for registrations on search engines like Yahoo and LookSmart. A domain also may have been approved by a Dmoz editor. If you take over a domain, these listings are automatically transferred to you. You can do your own research by visiting these search engines and typing the full URL in the directories section. Your results page will show you whether the domain is listed with them or not.
An inclusion in the top search engines does not ensure continuous visits but it certainly increases the chances of receiving worthy traffic. If you do not want to use the domains yourself, you can easily turn it around and sell it. It will certainly be profitable if the domain is registered with the top ten search engines.
We publish a list of expiring domains that is updated daily. There are tools to assist you to carry out an easy and hassle-free research absolutely FREE.
Acquiring expired domains is an inexpensive way of increasing visitors to your website. A HELPFUL TIP : Always try and get a domain that is related to the type of visitors required by you. If you want webmaster visits, go for relevant a domain name and not one that appeals travel enthusiast.
Authors Resource Box:
Rolf Ken, Creates this articles to help every one with
a website,to start earning extra cash from
>Google Adsense.Find out how! http://www.only-speed-cash.com
View Original Article Source at Altrana.com
Do you know that over 20,000 domain names expire everyday and can be used by others. If you want more hits or want to resell the domains for profit, these expired ones can be a valuable resource.
But before taking it over, you surely would like to know how many people have owned it before and the reasons for giving it up, right?
Well, an expired domain may have been used by one or more persons in the past. They may have designed a website, advertised it, linked it to search engines, done business deals on it and even had reciprocal link connections with other websites. The reasons for expiry of domain name may be :
1. Loss of interest of owner
2. Closing down of business
3. Registration was not renewed on time
4. The fees was unaffordable
There may have been any of the aforementioned reasons or any other cause, but whatever the case, the domain is now an available option for you. You can use it by designing a website on it or you may link it to your existing website,or add more cream to it by adding google Adsense to it.
The main advantage of taking over an expired domain is the traffic. There may still be visitors who, on finding the better alternative offered by you, can redirect their business. It is not possible to know the exact amount to expired traffic to a particular domain. However, the analysis of some specific aspects lets you gauge the amount of expired traffic. They are as follows :
LINK POPULARITY
This will give you an estimate of the number of portals or web pages that are linked to the expired domain. The more the number of links, the higher is the possibility of future traffic. Also, a higher link popularity betters the probability of quality traffic.
ALEXA RANK
An Alexa toolbar keeps tabs on the number of hits for a domain and then awards a rank based on this. If the site has had no traffic for the past three months, it is automatically dropped by Alexa. So, look for an Alexa rank to get an idea about the number of visits and the domain's worth.
To give you a rough idea, an Alexa rank of about 100,000 means that the domain receives at least 2 hits a day. A rank higher than 1,000,000 discloses that the domain hardly ever receives any visits.
GOOGLE PAGERANK
The popularity of a domain is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 and this is called a Google PageRank. This ranking system takes into account the number of quality web pages that contain links to a specific domain name.
A Google toolbar is required to obtain a Google PageRank. You can type in the website name in the address bar of your browser and get the PageRank.
YAHOO AND DMOZ LISTINGS
A domain owner may have been included in search engines. He may have paid for registrations on search engines like Yahoo and LookSmart. A domain also may have been approved by a Dmoz editor. If you take over a domain, these listings are automatically transferred to you. You can do your own research by visiting these search engines and typing the full URL in the directories section. Your results page will show you whether the domain is listed with them or not.
An inclusion in the top search engines does not ensure continuous visits but it certainly increases the chances of receiving worthy traffic. If you do not want to use the domains yourself, you can easily turn it around and sell it. It will certainly be profitable if the domain is registered with the top ten search engines.
We publish a list of expiring domains that is updated daily. There are tools to assist you to carry out an easy and hassle-free research absolutely FREE.
Acquiring expired domains is an inexpensive way of increasing visitors to your website. A HELPFUL TIP : Always try and get a domain that is related to the type of visitors required by you. If you want webmaster visits, go for relevant a domain name and not one that appeals travel enthusiast.
Authors Resource Box:
Rolf Ken, Creates this articles to help every one with
a website,to start earning extra cash from
>Google Adsense.Find out how! http://www.only-speed-cash.com
View Original Article Source at Altrana.com
