Google's 10th Birthday

Google has turned 10. Remember when you were that age? Yea, ok maybe not but Google shares with you how far they've come in the last 10 years. Very cool, follow the timeline and see when they achieved each milestone. Like a baby learning to walk...they've come a long way in the last 10 years. Happy Birthday Google! You're my favorite search engine and I think you should even run for president. Say it with me "Google for President"....Yay.......

"Building Targeted Website Traffic With Yahoo Search Marketing"

"Building Targeted Website Traffic With Yahoo Search Marketing"

By Merle

Did you know that more than 4.7 million people use Yahoo every Day? That's more than 2.4 billion searches a month. Not as far reaching as Google, but still a good place to invest some of your pay-per-click dollars in order to advertise on Yahoo and their network of websites.If Google is number one in the pay-per-click market, Yahoo comes in a strong second.

Yahoo's program is called "Yahoo Search Marketing" -originally, “Overture”, and before that “Goto”. You'll find that Yahoo's partner network is not as large as Google Adwords. Some of their partners are: of course Yahoo itself, Disney.com, USA Today, CBSNews.com, MTV.com, Amazon, Ebay, Viacom, and Comcast.

The program works very similar to Google Adwords. You select your keywords, write your ads, pick the minimum bid you want to pay per click and you're up and running. Great minds do think alike.

Relevant keyword selection is again of the utmost importance. You'll want to choose a variety of keywords/phrases in order to reach more potential customers. Try to get "inside your customer's head" and think like they would, then choose keywords they might search for. If you find after a certain period of time certain keywords are not performing, delete them.

Just like Adwords, you can select keyword match types, but unlike Google's wider selection, here you have two choices.

1) Advanced Match Type: Your ads appear for a wider range of keywords. For example, if your keywords were “dogs”, “toys”, and “food”, your ad would be displayed for any of the following searches: "exotic dogs", "toys for dogs" or "food for animals".

2) Standard Match Type: Only displays your ad for exact matches to your keywords. If your phrase is "natural dog food", the searcher must type it in exactly that way. I believe this makes for a more targeted approach.

You also have the option of excluding keywords,and can block up to 250 domains from displaying your ads. If you need help choosing keywords you can use their "find keywords wizard". You type in a keyword and it comes back with suggestions along with traffic volume for those words.

Now let's move on to your ads. Again, just like Adwords, you'll want to include keywords in your title and description as they will appear in bold when the ad is displayed.

Ad titles can be up to 40 characters. You can enter a short or long description, up to 70 characters for the ad body. You also enter a "display URL" (what is shown in the ad), and the “destination URL” (which is not shown to the public, but where the searcher is taken after they click on the ad).

All ads must be named and the description should correspond to the ad group’s keywords. A campaign is made up of one or more "ad groups". If you need help putting your ads together, you can use Yahoo's "ad generation" tool.

Every ad has its own "quality index" which shows up as one to five bars (more bars=higher quality). A high quality index score is important as a low score can cause your ad ranking to drop, or prevent your ad from running at all.

So what goes into "quality index"? According to Yahoo, it's your ads expected performance plus the ads ability to meet the needs of the user (which also takes into account your ads click through rate and various relevant factors). You'll want to test different ads to find those that perform best.

The "Quality Index" also plays a role in your "ads ranking" and the bid amount required. Improving the quality of your ads can help to lower your minimum bid requirements and improve your ranking. So you can see why writing good ad copy is so important. Yahoo's ranking model is based on both ad quality, or relevance, and the bid amount you set.

So how much is the minimum bid? For the "Content Match", it's a minimum of ten cents. For "Sponsored Search", it can be lower or higher than ten cents. Minimum bids on Yahoo tend to run a bit higher than on Google, and they can vary depending on many factors such as: keyword relevance, (as measured by quality of the ads in the "ad group" they're associated with), the number of bidders, and the amounts they have bid. Your ad conversions do not play a role here.

Your keywords will appear as "active" when your bid is greater than or equal to the required minimum bid for that particular keyword. This can change, so you will be notified if the minimum bid is set to increase and given the opportunity to adjust your bids accordingly. You'll find these notifications on the "Dashboard Page" of the control panel.

Compared to "Sponsored Search", which displays your ads on search results pages, “Content Match” places your ads on related information based websites that are included in Yahoo's distribution partner network. Some of these partners are: City Search, CNN.com, Earthlink, Homegain, Homestore, National Geographic, MSN and others. Just like Adwords, you can turn off either “Sponsored Search” or “Content Match”. You can also set up a separate bid for your "Content Match" clicks (min .10). For more information see:

http://publisher.yahoo.com/strategic/contentmatch

Finally, again you'll want to pay attention to your "landing pages", test different versions to see what converts best. Use "Analytics" for setting up conversion tracking. Your landing pages must not include any pop-ups or pop-unders.

Two other excellent resources for Yahoo's Search Marketing are:

Yahoo's Search Marketing Blog: http://www.ysmblog.com

Traffic Quality Center:
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/trafficquality

In conclusion, if you're involved with pay-per-click search Marketing, you'll want to add Yahoo's Search Marketing to your traffic plan. While not as far reaching as Google, they're a strong contender. Besides, as they say you never want to put "all your eggs in one basket". When it comes to pay-per-click marketing, diversification is best.

Sign up and receive a $50.00 credit for new customers at: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/startnow

PayPerClickResearch.com- My Latest Site

Hi Kids

If you've noticed I've been rather quiet lately it's because I've been busy putting together my latest website http://www.PayPerClickResearch.com- If you use any kind of paid search engine advertising such as Google AdWords, Microsoft adCenter, and others then this website is for you. It's loaded with helpful articles, tips, and how-to's when it comes to paying for clicks.

Make sure you visit today and download my free ebook on how to advertise with pay-per-click search engines. It won't cost you a thing, but you will need to subscribe to my list to get it. You can unsubscribe at anytime.

If you have a related site and would like to exchange links with me, please contact me over at the site and I'll get back to you. Please keep it to a related topic only.

Thanks, and please check out the site and let me know what you think.

Merle
http://www.PayPerClickResearch.com

PLR Fest is Looking for Contributors

Thought I would let you know about a new Event that opened the doors to new JV Partners today. http://www.plrfest.com/contributor.php?id=70

As you may already know, Private Label Right products are extremely popular right now. Terry Anglin has made it possible for you to take advantage of that opportunity right now to start building your own list.

I recommend that you check out this event as soon as possible to get a heads up on the competition. http://www.plrfest.com/contributor.php?id=70

You will also want to check out the great offer Terry has put together along with Unbelievable cash prizes for his Elite status partners.

Enjoy!

"Coming in for a Landing: How to Make Sure You Don't Crash & Burn"

"Coming in for a Landing: How to Make Sure You Don't Crash and Burn"

If you're doing any kind of pay-per-click advertising,one of the most important factors of your advertisingcampaign is your landing page. So, what is a landing page and why do you need to pay special attention to what it contains? Great question - let me explain.

A "landing page" is where someone is sent after clicking on one of your pay-per-click ads. When running an advertising campaign, you don't want to send someone to your home page, it's too general. You want to send them to a "special page" that is a direct reflection of what you're advertising. You don't want to frustrate your visitors by making them search through your site to find the page that contains your advertised offer. You need to send them directly to it.

The success or failure of your entire sales campaign can be directly attributed to this page. Make no mistake, the landing page and what it contains is critical to your advertising success online. You might get them to click on your ad, but if your landing page is bad, you won't get them to convert. A conversion is what happens when they purchase your product, sign up for your newsletter, or download your free report. In other words, they do whatever it is you wanted them to do, when they arrive on your page. They perform a "specific action".

So what should a good landing page contain? If you do a search online you'll find volumes of books, articles and forums that deal with this exact topic. You'll find a variety of opinions on what works and what doesn't. While the advice is very helpful, it's best to do your own testing to see what works and what doesn't for your particular situation.

By the same token, there are some tried and true methods that you should utilize when designing your landing pages. The upper portion of the page is your most important real estate. This area is often referred to as "above the fold". You want to include your most important info here. You want to avoid waiting for them to scroll down, as some people may hit the back button before your page finishes loading due to loss of interest.

As a general rule, your landing page should focus on one thing. Ask them to do A, not A, B, C and D. Keep it simple and avoid confusing them by asking them to do too many things at once. Remember, ask them to do one thing and make it clear what that action is you want them to perform.

Have you ever considered how safe someone feels about sharing their personal information with your website? You need to make sure your web site reassures your visitors, via the use of trust logos and a strong guarantee, that their information will be kept confidential and secure. If you can't instil trust, you'll lose the sale
every time.

Following all of this, is the actual copy on your landing page. I can't stress enough how important the words you choose are. If it's littered with bad grammar and misspellings, you won't appear very professional. The actual words in the copy can help to make or break your pages. If you're not the grammar police, hire someone who is to review what you have written.

Also, make sure that the font you use is a decent size, avoid the use of super small fonts. They can make your page hard to read and really aggravate your website visitors. People read differently online, they tend to scan so make sure to use strong headlines through-out stressing major benefits or points.

In addition, you need to limit the amount of outbound links on your landing page. Don't give the viewer a way out. By offering up too many other options they may click away and never return. Take them by the hand and lead them step-by-step to the action you want them to perform. Don't allow them to become distracted.

Taking all of this into consideration, you should be doing A/B testing - also known as split testing – in order to find out what's working and what's not. Google's Website Optimizer is a great tool to use to test different headlines, graphics, layouts and calls to action. This way, you can tweak and make the necessary changes to improve your conversion rates. You can find it here http://www.www.google.com/websiteoptimizer


Finally, don't forget about load time. Make sure that your page loads quickly. Making someone wait for your page to load can have them reaching for their back button in a big hurry.

Furthermore, if you're doing pay-per-click advertising with Google Adwords, your landing page load time now affects your keywords quality score. So keywords with slow loading landing pages may get a lower "quality score" - and that also means paying higher minimum bids.

Taking this all into consideration, you can see how important a good landing page is to your pay-per-click advertising campaigns. If you don't get it right here, you'll be throwing good money down the advertising drain.

Remember, you should be continually testing and tracking so you know what's working and what's not. Knowledge is power and what you don't know can hurt you. Make sure when someone is coming in for a landing, it's a smooth landing. This is not a place to crash and burn.

MapQuest Local is Looking For You

MapQuest Local Content If you have a website and need local traffic don't miss out on this opportunity. MapQuest is looking for you. "If your site has geographically relevant content that you would like to share with their audience, let them know! They are working to extend their system to accept 3rd party content that can then be potentially listed on MapQuest Local. In return, they'll drive traffic from your content on MapQuest Local back to your site."

Free Report on Twitter- Download it Now

Hey Gang,

Walt Prorok & Chris Vendilli just joined forces & created what will soon be known as the internet's premiere resource for Twitter tips.

These guys really break it down and show you step by itty bitty step how to setup all of your Twitter related accounts & resources so that they're all geared for one common goal:

TRAFFIC

If you download this free report and go through the steps & suggestions they outline, you're guaranteed to see some free traffic fro Twitter come rolling
your way.

Just go here....
http://twitterhints.com/?vip=1687


PS - This is the original "Twitter Report" so when you see all the knock-offs come sure to come out in the next couple weeks & months just remember you were told about the real deal from yours truly.

Go:
http://twitterhints.com/?vip=1687

Twittad Let Your Ad Meet Tweets

Twittad So you're a big Twitter fan and love to post and have a huge following? Want to make some money at the same time? Now you can by selling ads on your Twitter background page. "You pay TwittAd a 5% service fee on the total purchase price. Minimum .99 cents." The rest of the bounty is all yours. So start twittering and sell that ad space.

Windows Internet Explorer 8: Beta

Well kids, it's been a long time coming but Microsoft has finally introduced a beta of Internet Explorer 8.0-If you've been waiting for this one now you can take her for a spin. Download it here.