There are a lot of good bloggers with highly focused niches, but the authors still don’t know how to make money off of them. Almost everybody these days knows how to use Adsense ads, but there are other ways that can be used in conjunction with Adsense that you can use to make money off your website.
I’ve been in online marketing for years and I can share two great ways that you can make money off of your blog:
1) INTENTclick: Monetizing your text
Companies like INTENTclick, Kontera, and Viglinks work in a pretty unique way: They create advertising links on text that is on your blog. When somebody’s mouse goes over one of these links, a pop-up shows up which they can then click on.
Some of the older in-text monetization companies like Infolinks only pay you for each click, but the more modern ones like INTENTclick pay you a higher rate if you have a higher conversion rate. This is great for publishers (like bloggers) because it means that they get more money, and it’s great for people trying to sell products and services online because it incentives bloggers to produce high-quality content that is aimed at people who are likely to convert farther down the sales cycle.
2) Publish an eBook
Once you have a large amount of readers on your blog (or even if you do not if you do good SEO work), you can publish an eBook, which has two main ways of making money:
* Give the eBook away for free – The most common way to make money off eBooks is to give it away for free. You ask people to provide their email address and provide other information, and inform them that they will receive information about offers, or you can have them sign up for your newsletter as a requisite for downloading your eBook. Most people do not like it if you sell their data to other companies (that’s how you would make money if you go the “special offers” route) so make sure you clearly inform them if you do that. If you send them a weekly newsletter then you can put ads in the letter but keep your trusted readers’ information private.
* Sell the eBook – Selling the eBook can work really well if you have established yourself as a trust agent and if you have an audience that is wealthy enough to buy it. Pricing can be tricky but you need to keep in mind how much money you would be making per person (on average, though there can be high variance) if you had given your book out for free. Remember that people usually use PayPal and they can take a hefty rake!
This is a guest post by Murray Newlands of Influence People. His company does blogger relations work for a variety of clients, including INTENTclick.
Posted in Blogging
Keywords have always been an integral part of a website’s functionality and visibility, helping to draw searchers to a company’s online world. When going global with several multilingual websites it is important to tailor the keyword research and optimization strategy to each language in question.
Simply translating what already works, usually from English, rarely achieves the best results. The terms people use to search vary from language to language (naturally), as well as from culture to culture. Investing time in researching and understanding your new customers’ keyword preferences and their culture will maximize your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) and ensure it is attracting traffic.
So How Do Keywords Work?
Keywords match the content in a website with the terms or phrases being used in search engines. As people search for a particular product or service, the websites best matching the ‘search criteria’ are listed, with the most relevant (and best optimized) appearing first.
Naturally, every website wants to be at the top of that search list (search engine results page, or SERP) and getting there requires a combination of different SEO strategies. Working the right keywords into a website’s copy is the cheapest and most effective way to increase online presence, and it applies to all websites in all languages.
Choosing The ‘Right’ Keywords
The process of identifying the ‘right’ keywords for a website can seem counter-intuitive. Rather than using technical product terminology, people tend to search the web in more day-to-day terms.
Online tools, such as Google AdWords, are great for identifying key search terms. A search for specialist tea, for example, brings up 1,300 hits; however, a search for fancy tea brings up 6,600. Where Google AdWords excels is in pointing out that special tea – not a million miles away from the first search – produces over 18,000 searches. Making the tiniest of tweaks to a website’s copy can have an impressive impact on a website’s SEO.
Google AdWords is also great for identifying market competition. Despite being almost three times as popular in searches, special tea has less than half the amount of competition that fancy tea does; so which phrase would a tea vendor best use on their website? And the principle can apply to any sector or topic; knowing how consumers search is just as important as giving them the content they want when they get to your website.
Multilingual Keywords
Exactly the same principles apply when creating a website in another language. Working with a professional localization and internet marketing agency is worth every cent and highly recommended. Simply translating a crib-sheet of English keywords is not enough, and foreign language internet marketing agencies provide the vital cultural insight and the language skills needed to guarantee optimization across all your target languages.
Key phrases can even vary between countries sharing a common language. For example, in Spain, coche is commonly used for car, whereas in Latin America, it is used for a baby-stroller. Losing potential business for such a simple mistake can be a major optimization problem.
Current and Creative Content
Keeping your website content creative and up-to-date is a given for any successful website. Blogs and news sections are great avenues to keep the website current, as well as to boost its SEO. Keep abreast of issues both internationally and locally (in the target cultures), and work the relevant keywords into topical articles; their currency helps the website’s search engine rank position and the keywords help to attract interested consumers.
Other Important Keyword Rules
Once the ‘right’ keywords have been identified, they should be incorporated throughout the website. Google prefers a keyword density of around two to four percent, so apply the power of one to your keywords; once in the title, once in the description, and once or twice within the article…and in the URL as well. But as with everything, less is more – you should aim to optimize each web page for no more than two keywords. Articles that read like a hit-list of keywords are not only boring for readers, but can be flagged-up by search engines as spam.
Honing the content of your website through a few simple language choices can truly maximize its search engine performance, and the effects can be seen surprisingly quickly!
About the author:
Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, one of the world’s fastest growing providers of translation services. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 150 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over forty million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Lingo24 on Twitter: @Lingo24
Posted in SEO
It’s well known that online video marketing is incredibly popular these days. Almost every internet marketer is either already doing it or planning to jump on the bandwagon soon. If you don’t believe me just go look at a few product sales pages right now, or some popular internet business blogs, or discussions on your favorite online marketing forum. You could also check out a little site you might have heard of called YouTube. Okay, I think you get the point!
There are marketing videos all over YouTube and all the other major video sharing sites. And just as with guest blogging, social networking, article marketing, and other popular traffic generation strategies; video marketing can make you a lot of money if you do it correctly. This post is going to provide you with three online video marketing tips that you can use to become a rockstar of the industry.
One of the most important things to remember is… You need to be outrageous! People aren’t interested in watching (or sharing) a boring video of you sitting at your desk talking about the hottest new internet marketing trend. You need to catch and keep their attention, and give them a reason to share it with their social network. So you want to do something that’s original and off the wall to be different from everyone else creating marketing videos.
The next tip is to not be super cheap. Yes, I know there are some decent free solutions out there for making videos. But your videos are going to seem amateurish and not look as good if you use them. You don’t have to spend a fortune on equipment or software but if you’re going to be a video marketer, you might as well do it right. At the very least you should get a high quality camera, a good microphone, proper lighting, and great editing software.
Last but not least, you should script your videos. Chances are you aren’t a professional actor, or even a very good one. Maybe you are but the vast majority of internet marketers are not, so this online video marketing tip is for them. Therefore, you can’t just step in front of the camera and totally wing it. If you do that you will make tons of mistakes and your video will suck. So, script out what you want to say/do and rehearse it until you have it just right. Don’t hit record until you know what you’re going to say and are ready to go. But also remember not to simply read your script or your video will be super boring.
Alright, that pretty much covers it. If you want to become an online video marketing rockstar you need to concentrate on being original, entertaining, finding the right equipment, and scripting out your videos beforehand. Doing this will ensure they turn out much more professional and end up getting you a lot more traffic, which will make you tons more money from your internet home business.
Posted in advertising, Internet Marketing, online business
Asking for feedback from people on social media networks can be one of the best things you could do to help your internet business grow and find more ideas to make it even better. Be prepared though because asking them for their honest opinions can often times bring out some pretty nasty things about you and your business, or even your entire industry. But that is actually a good thing because getting to know what your customers, potential customers and other people truly think, although sometimes very harsh, can be a life changing experience that will help you and your business grow to be a lot better.
It’s tough to do but you just have to not be afraid to let your guard down for a little while and ask people for feedback on social media networks. A great place to start would be Facebook. Although the opinions you get from FB might be a bit biased because the people you will be asking are typically your friends, family, business associates, industry peers, and other people close to you. But asking for honest feedback from them and then building upon it from other sources where the people might not be as close to you such as Twitter, LinkedIn, forums, and other social networking websites can be a great way to get the information you need.
Fixing the negative things you are told can often be the hardest part because you may not agree or you might take it personally. Just remember not to take criticism personally or negatively, but instead as something that is positive and will help you to grow your business by fixing your mistakes. If someone tells you that your information product (ebook) is horrible and you should never write again don’t get defensive or depressed. The best thing you can do is ask them for details on why they said that and more information on what they think the problem is so you can look into it and fix it.
Solicited Feedback:
Social media sites let you interact directly with the people who might be your potential customers or who already are your customers in a meaningful way. If you have taken the time to develop good relationships with your friends, followers, fans, and customers on social networking sites, they will be happy to help you if you ask them to. If you engage with them on a regular basis and use your social media accounts the way they are intended to be used, you should get a good response any time you ask a question, or send them a request for feedback.
Unsolicited Feedback:
The feedback you ask for can be very helpful in determining the future of your online business and internet marketing strategies, but unsolicited feedback can be much more beneficial. If you are active on social media networks, you will find that sometimes your customers and peers will send you both positive and negative business feedback without you even asking for it. Unsolicited feedback is great for two reasons… First, it’s extremely honest. Your customers are sharing their feedback with you because they truly have something to say, not because they were asked. Second, your customers might surprise you with the ideas and advice they present. They might come up with things you hadn’t thought of on your own and maybe never would have. And those ideas can help you to evolve your products, services, and overall business in a way that suits the wants and needs of your customers.
You should not be afraid of feedback whether it is positive or negative. Either way it can only help you and your business to be the best you can be. Have an open mind and wisely use the information you get, you might be surprised at how much it actually does help. Social networking sites are some of the best places to get the feedback you need. Go for it!
Posted in Social Networking
Did you know that there are around 29.6 million local small businesses in the United States alone that need help with their online marketing?
Do you know what they would say even if you only have a little internet marketing experience?
“Will You Help Me?”
Why should you consider helping these local businesses?
It’s actually quite simple.
They need a lot more leads and customers but don’t know how to get them.
No matter how much experience you have marketing on the internet, you are certainly an expert compared to them.
Marketing for local small businesses is a simple way to bring the following into your life:
* Less Work
* More Time with Your Family
* Higher Income
* And Much More
You could be earning anywhere from $500 to $20,000 per month working part-time or full-time helping local small businesses with their online marketing.
Who is making that type of income doing this?
* School Teachers
* Truck Drivers
* Insurance Salesman
* Widows
* Housewives
* Firemen
* And all other types of people with little or no experience.
But don’t take my word for it.
My friend Mike Koenigs is the most knowledgeable person I know in this area and he has a proven system called Main Street Marketing Machines.
He’s offering a free video course on marketing for local small businesses.
All you have to do is enter your email for instant and immediate access.
There are no hoops to jump through once you do this.
Just click the Instant Access button after entering your email into the field and the first video is shown immediately.
You can unsubscribe anytime, but I can assure you that the entire course will blow you away.
Sign up now for instant access.
Main Street Marketing Machines
Talk soon,
Sandra
P.S. – This incredible course on marketing for local small businesses won’t be up for long so go watch it now…
Main Street Marketing Machines
P.P.S. – Doing internet marketing for offline businesses is one of the best ways to make money online right now!
Posted in online business, Small Business
