Easy Keyword Generator
The first step to doing any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is to have a keyword list of the targets you are going to go after. Generating a long list that combines different commonly used phrases can be difficult so that is why I was pretty happy when I found this keyword variation generator for excel.
It is fairly easy to use. All you have to do is come up with a list of prefixs then a list of keywords. The spreadsheet then gives you all of the different combinations for the two.
So let's say you have an e-commerce store that sells dog supplies. Your keyword list might look something like this:
Prefixes: Blue, Red, Holiday, Yellow, Black, White
Keywords: Collars, Leashes, Clothes, Placemats
The spreadsheet would then combine the two, giving you 24 different keyword variations.
This isn't a perfect solution, since some of your keywords might use certain prefixes and others note. In our example if you are selling carriers, treats, or food then having those prefixes might not give you the best combination to go for.
After you have your keyword list, you can then start targeting these combinations with your SEO efforts, or if you do PPC advertising then you have a nice list of keywords to start testing and tracking.
Creating a Squeeze Page
If you have have already read my article on the importance of building up a list then you know how much I love email marketing for making money online. If you are using free traffic from the search engines, then you are probably using the different ways to capture leads like a hover box and a signup page. However, paid advertising can also give you a boost in profits if you can make more money off of each lead than it costs you to acquire them. The place to start with online advertising is the most popular pay-per-click platform around, Google Adwords.
The key here is to send these visitors to a squeeze page. If you are paying for clicks it is because you want the visitors to take some sort of action, in this case it's sign up for your newsletter. If you send them to your site's homepage then you take the risk that the visitor will become distracted by reading a few articles and will leave your site before signing up for your newsletter. Instead, create a squeeze page that focuses all of the users attention solely on signing up.
How do you create a squeeze page that works? The easy way to do it is to sign up for the Squeeze Theme. This is powered by WordPress and will allow you to create custom squeeze pages in no time at all. It's so easy to use, all you have to do is choose the theme you want to run, add the text, photos, or videos, then enter your Aweber email codes in and let the Squeeze Theme do the rest. Take a look at some of their examples and I don't think it will be hard for you to see the value in their product.
How Much Do You Make From Your Traffic?
There are a couple of questions that every business owner who is trying to make money online should ask. One is how much money do I make from each visitor to my site and the other is how much money do I make from each lead that I generate. While these figures are not all that difficult to come up with, not knowing what they are can cause you to spend either too much or not enough money on advertising.
Revenue per Lead - In order to figure out revenue per lead you have to have actually made some money off of your site. Your Aweber autoreponders and newsletter should have been operating for at least a month and your readers should have taken some action on the offers that you have promoted. Then all you have to do is total up how much money you have made from the offers sent to your subscribers and divide it by the number of leads that you have. That is the average amount of money that you make from each lead that you acquire. Your goal should be to get as many leads as possible, as long as the acquisition cost is less than your revenue per lead. This will allow you to make more money off of more leads.
Revenue per Visitor - Not every visitor to your site is going to sign up for your newsletter, but they still can buy products from you, click on your advertising, or generate money from you in another fashion. If you are using Google Analytics or have another way of generating site statistics, you just need to divide your total revenue by visitors to your site to figure out your revenue per visitor. When looking into PPC advertising or any other method of driving traffic to your site, the cost per vistior needs to be less than this revenue per visitor.
If you are tracking your affiliate revenue by clicks from the newsletter and by clicks on the site you will have a better idea of your revenue per lead v. revenue per visitor. The more accurate your numbers the better picture you are going to have of your online business.
Other Goals to Track - How many of your visitors sign up for the newsletter? How many end up purchasing one of your products? If you use Google Analytics you can set goals for different areas of you site, and track just how the visitor got to that page, what PPC campaign is converting, and more.
Improving Quality Score
Google doesn't exactly tell you what formula they use to determine quality score, but there has been plenty of testing done by experienced marketers to give us a few guidelines. If you have a quality score of 0-3 that is considered "poor" while 4-7 is just "OK." The scores of between 8-10 are "great" and it means you are definitely on the right track. If you are in the 0-3 category then you might need a major revamping of your whole website, but a few simple tweaks can turn those OK ads into great ones.
1. Improve Your Click Through Rate - How do you do this? By split testing your ads, waiting until you get at least 30 clicks and then throwing out the loser. Then test the winner against a new ad you create. Rinse and repeat until you have the ad with the highest possible CTR.
2. Put Your Keyword In Your Ad - Are you using one ad for several different, related, but not totally similar keywords? Then get more specific with your ads, putting the keyword somewhere in the ad. This will also help your CTR as the keyword will be in bold.
3. Check Your Landing Page - You need a lot of keyword-relevant content on your landing page. This again goes with your keywords, if you are sending a lot of related but not similar keywords to the same page you could be hurting your score. Maybe it's time you create a specific landing page for a tunneled down version of your keywords.
4. How Quick Your Visitors Leave - Are you matching your visitors needs with what you are offering? Give them plenty of options with links to other sections of your site. The days of just having an opt-in page are long gone. You need the visitor to stick around and not hit the back button or just leave and go elsewhere.
Follow these four simple steps to improve your quality score and to help keep you from receiving the dreaded "Google Slap".
Google Adwords Tips for Beginners
Getting your site to rank high in the search engines is not a quick and easy process. It takes a lot of work on your part and it takes time for the search engines to find your site and then trust it enough to rank it high in their results. If you want to get a jumpstart on using Google, Yahoo, Bing or other engines then the quickest way to get your site out there is to use pay-per-click advertising. I personally prefer Google Adwords, since they are the biggest and have the most tools available to advertisers. This will help you test out what ads work and which do not before moving your campaigns over to different properties.
1. Educate Yourself - There is a pretty steep learning curver so make sure you read or watch all of the information in Google's learning center guide so you know your way around the Adwords interface. If you want to really become an expert in pay-per-click marketing though, try Perry Marshall's definitive guide to Adwords. This five day program will have you ready to get started in no time, and will have you prepared to dominate your niche.
2. Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew - If you are just learning how pay-per-click works, you are going to want to start off small in a non-competitive niche. The goal for your first campaign will be to learn how the system works and which tools are available to you. Don't try bidding on weight loss keywords against a lot of experienced competitors when the cost per click is going to quickly eat up your budget. Make sure you use plenty of negative keywords and exact matches so you really narrow down the viewers to people you know will be interested in your product. Set up a budget so you don't login one day to see Google has spent drastically more than you were planning on them spending to send visitors your way.
3. Study Your Competitors - I like to use Keyword Elite for this from Brad Callen. This way you can find out which keywords your competitors are also bidding on so you won't be left out of the loop on successful campaigns. Also take a look at what seems to be working for them in terms of successful text combinations.
4. Don't Forget : Keep Testing - Rotate different ad groups to track which ones get the most clicks, and how many of those clicks are converting for you. Never stop testing because every little percentage increase in conversions means more money for you and your business!