Pay per click is a great way to get quick attention to your website. There’s no waiting for the search engines to discover and rank your websites for the keywords you’re after. You decide what you’re willing to bid and spend each day, and in a short time your website is out there waiting for searchers to discover it.

However, pay per click can also get expensive quickly, especially if you aren’t tracking your ROI. It takes time to develop a campaign that pays what you spend on it in many cases.

With this in mind, I’d like to go over some of the basics you need to know about running a successful pay per click marketing campaign:

1. Research your keywords.
I like Wordtracker for this. The free version does a fair job, but when you’re serious about it, pay for at least a day’s use of the paid version. You’ll get so many more keywords it really is worth the money. Failing to research your keywords can really limit your campaign’s effectiveness and you will miss some great keywords. Read the rest of this entry »

There are so many scams in home business that as soon as you mention the idea to someone, they or a family member are likely to assume that it’s a scam. Getting past this and other objections is very important to successfully building your direct sales downline.

Of course, worry about an opportunity being a scam isn’t the only objections you’ll run across. It’s likely to be the most common, however.

To effectively address this concern you need to know what constitutes a scam, especially in the eyes of the prospect. Explain to them what the symptoms of a scam are, and why your opportunity shows no signs of being a scam. These signs may include:

• Excessive emphasis on recruiting. Some opportunities are almost entirely about recruiting, and almost not at all about sales. If an opportunity pays for recruiting, there is a lot of temptation for marketers to work on that alone, rather than sales. This can be a sign of a problem.
• Required purchases. Requiring members to make purchases in order to be paid on their sales can be a symptom of a scam. Your opportunity should pay you whether or not you needed to buy anything yourself in a particular month. Otherwise, this is dangerously close to paying for recruiting. Read the rest of this entry »

Just because your business is run from home doesn’t mean you can’t look like you have a professional office. It takes a little work and some options will cost you a little money, but it’s still far more affordable than renting even a small office.

The first thing you need is a phone number specific to your business. You don’t want any of the kids or other family members answering that phone. You want the message on its voice mail to be professional.

There are more options than having the phone company run another line. You can use VOIP, a cell phone or a voicemail only service, depending on your preferences.
You may or may not need fax capability. There are services that will let you receive incoming faxes through your email for free. If you have a fax modem in your computer, all you have to do to send a fax is have fax software and scan appropriate documents into the computer. Hook up the fax modem to your phone line and send faxes easily.

If you aren’t comfortable having your home address out there, a P.O. Box is easy to get set up. Just check on the USPS website to learn about how to order a P.O. Box. They’re quite affordable, typically under $100 per year. If the Post Office isn’t convenient to you, you can get a box at the UPS Store for somewhat more. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most amazing things about the internet is how many different ways you can earn money from it. Some are pretty well known, while others may be options you haven’t even thought of yet.

No matter how you earn money online you need to do your research first. You want a market you will enjoy, targeted enough that you can get good traffic, something that has enough people interested in the topic. You want some competition, as that is an indication that there are people interested in the product. Too much competition can make for a difficult start.

Affiliate Marketing
My personal favorite, although not as easy as some would like you to believe. You can find great products to represent from Clickbank, Shareasale, Linkshare, Commission Junction and similar companies.

Blogging
More or less a subset of affiliate marketing, many people earn good money by blogging. It takes a lot of work but can be quite profitable. Money is earned most often through affiliate marketing or contextual ads. Read the rest of this entry »

When creating a website it’s easy to hurry a little too much and make mistakes. These mistakes can appear minor, yet they impact how customers view your business. They can make it harder for visitors to use your site or even for search engines to index your website.

Here are some of the more common mistakes:

1. Spelling and grammatical errors.
These are so easy to make as you type up your content, product descriptions and so forth. Do yourself a favor. Start out by typing in a word processor rather than in your blog, content management system or HTML editor, unless you take the time to use whatever built in spell checker these may have. Then read the text out loud, ideally to someone else. You’ll catch most other errors that way.

2. Poor color choices.
Color really matters online. Read up on how color makes people feel when online. Also consider how you mix your colors. Light text on a dark background is almost always a poor choice, for example. Other color combinations can be almost headache-inducing. Read the rest of this entry »

I love seeing how these reports get launched. You probably remember the Death of Adsense report a few months ago. It was a pretty good report, as was the followup.

Now Mike Filsaime has launched a report called The Death of Internet Marketing. Once again, a free download in exchange for your email address.

Just because I was curious about what he would get into with such a title, I signed up and downloaded it. Hey, I get curious sometimes.

It’s a pretty good report. Might even be a wakeup call for you if you’ve lost focus on what you want to do in your home business. It’s also a look at things you need to consider as you market, such as do you really want to focus on your fellow internet marketers?

I promote products every here and there, but really not that heavily. I’m much more into sharing information than in selling every random product that comes my way. I don’t mind suggesting products like this because it is free (aside from sharing your email address), and yes, I do earn something if you download. But I consider it worth the read as well as the thought processes it can inspire.

Technorati Tags: death of internet marketing, online marketing, report

If you have a blog you’ve probably tried commenting on other people’s blogs. It’s a great way to bring attention to your own blog, especially when the other blog has a dedicated readership. However, many people go about it all wrong.

The wrong way to comment on a blog is to post something like “Nice blog,” or “I agree,” or other useless comments. Most bloggers see such posts as spam and are likely to simply delete them, as they add nothing to the conversation.

Don’t get me wrong. A major part of blogging is the interaction between the blogger and readers. It’s hard to get a blog to that ideal level of regular interaction, where readers leave comments and really improve the blog.

The right way to comment on blogs is to say something useful. Add to the conversation. If you have a relevant resource, mention it in your post. If you do this right you increase the odds that people will come to trust your name and come to read your blog.

You can even disagree, so long as you are clear about why you disagree and avoid personal attacks. If you keep your arguments intelligent many bloggers will leave them alone or even respond.

Commenting on blogs in your industry is a great way to bring attention to your own site. Done right it can really improve your image as a knowledgeable and caring business owner. Done wrong, you’re just another blog spammer. Which do you want to be?

Technorati Tags: blog comments, commenting on blogs, blog community

One of the most easily overlooked tools for growing your online business is the statistics of your website. They get generated in the background 24/7 and there’s just an overwhelming amount of information available.

There are tools to make this easier, and you may not even need to pay for them. I use Google Analytics on some of my sites, for example. It’s free yet very thorough.

You want to know where people are coming in to your site and where they are leaving. You want to know the paths they take through your site. You want to know how many new and returning visitors you have.

In addition you want to know where your visitors are coming from. This includes which search engines, which articles you wrote that appear on other sites and even which link exchanges are proving to be send you traffic.

In the case of search engines you want to know what phrases you are being found under. Many of these will surprise you while others may inspire you to go into a topic in more depth. Read the rest of this entry »