27
Dec
2009
Maintain Your Lifestyle Using AdSense
Google AdSense is a great way to supplement your web site’s income and if you haven’t already signed up, then you need to do it this instant! So what exactly is Google AdSense?
AdSense is an ad serving application run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are governed by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click. You essentially sign up for free, paste some code on your website and every time an individual clicks the links on your site, you get paid a certain amount per click. Some clicks are worth more than others depending on the keyword the advertisement is targeting. This is because AdSense are contextually based ads, meaning that they show the links for people to click on based on the theme of your website.
For example if you have a website about free stuff then the advertisements AdSense will display will be generally be about free samples. Google is so intelligent they rotate the ads automatically and each ad contains advertisers that relate to the theme of the page. When a visitor to your site clicks on an ad you make a small commission. This could range from a few cents to several dollars on each click dependent on the site’s subject.
To maximise your earnings with AdSense follow a few simple instructions:
1) Adapt your page matter to a particular niche or focus. As you should know, page content that is tailored towards a specific theme is much more likely to trigger AdSense ads that closely match the content and is more likely to spark interest from your readers to click. My site focuses on free stuff, and often when I check the ads by Adsense closely align with my site’s content.
2) Blend your ads into your site’s theming. People are so conscious of advertisements that they’ll look over your AdSense ads if you make them look too much like actual ads. Remove the background and the border of your ads and make them merge with your own site’s background.
3) Never click on your own ads! It is enticing to earn that potential revenue for yourself but as we’ve mentioned before Google is clever and will find out and you’ll have your account suspended and you won’t get a payout.
If you just apply these 3 simple and effective tips, you will see an increase in your Google AdSense revenue and be well on your way to earning a sustainable second income.
More about FreeStuff4Free
FreeStuff4Free.com is a website that specialises in finding free stuff, free samples and freebies. This site is visually compelling and easier to navigate than text based free sites. The site is updated daily and dead links removed regularly. There are no scams and all freebies are 100% legitimate.
22
Dec
2009
Can Twitter Be Used To Make Money?
Is Twitter useful for business as a marketing tool? Since the hype peaked this year, I’ve often mulled over this question. Even during the peak of the hysteria over Twitter when Ashton Kutcher and CNN were racing to be the 1st to make it to 1 million followers, I just could not understand the hype. For those of you who have lived under a rock for the past 24 months and have no idea what I’m talking about, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters shown on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or third party applications.
Whilst I do not think I will ever fully understand Twitter, it’s more a case of if you can’t beat them, then join them. So over the past 6 months, I’ve begun using Twitter to compliment my site where possible. Because I had no idea about Twitter, initially I was unsure on how to use it to generate revenue or traffic.
There are many uses of Twitter but I decided to use it to drive more traffic to my site and indirectly generate revenue through Adsense. Given my site focuses on free samples, the fact that I can use a free service is just great.
To begin with you will need to get followers. Basically I manually followed a couple of people and began from there. Obviously much like Google search, you want followers that are interested in your niche. So type your key word into Google and check out all the sites on Page 1. More than likely they will have a Twitter account. Start following all their followers and you will notice that you will increase in number. However after a while, you won’t want to keep manually following people because it’s time consuming. That’s where an automated following software comes in handy. We purchased a licence and have been using this service for a couple of months. We now have over 17K following us.
Also for efficiency sake, I’ve installed the Twitter bar that allows you to type your message into the URL bar for immediate posting instead of logging into my Twitter account. Once a day I update my Twitter account with the latest offerings and freebies, spending less than 5 minutes a day on Twitter.
All this and according to Google Analytics, I receive between 80-100 hits from Twitter a day. Is it worth it? Well I suggest it is after getting the initial setup. So whilst I still will never understand Twitter, as long as it continues to drive traffic to my site, I will use it.
More about FreeStuff4Free
FreeStuff4Free.com is a website that specialises in finding freebies, free samples and freebies. This site is visually compelling and easier to navigate than text based free sites. The site is updated daily and dead links removed regularly. There are no scams and all freebies are 100% legitimate.
6
Oct
2009
Why a Marketing System Is So Important For Your Companys Success
In a perfect world every part of your business would work flawlessly. You’d sell more product, schedule more services, make more money. Sounds great doesn’t it? The truth is that in real life, nothing ever works flawlessly. If you’re not selling products, or services you’re not making money. If your service is poor and you get a bad reputation, you’re not making money. If your product is breaking all of the time and word gets out, you’re not making money. This sounds more like real life doesn’t it? The truth is there are so many negative things that can affect your business that it’s amazing any company can make a profit in this day and age.
Does Microsoft spend hundreds of millions of dollars on TV commercials just for fun? Does Apple spend hundreds of millions of dollars on TV commercials just to slam Windows for being insecure? They do these commercials because they have found them to be profitable to advertising on TV. They do it because they developed marketing systems that work, and they stick to them. Why develop a marketing plan for just TV commercials? Well because it works! In fact they probably have a system for how their websites get updated, how they answer the phone, how particular problems with software or hardware are handled. In fact, I guarantee you that they have systematized absolutely every aspect of their companies.
It’s amazing how many businesses I speak to each week that do not have any type of internet marketing system in place. A lot of people think systematizing a business is only for large corporations, it is definitely not. Having a system in place for every aspect of your company is essential to whether a company will be successful, or wilt and die out in the future.
Not only does systematizing a business make sure that every single task of your business is handled quickly and properly, it documents those tasks so if your accountant decides to leave for new opportunities, a new accountant could be hired, handed the systems and get to work right away. All the new employees you hire will need to do is read the systems, apply the systems, and if they can follow directions well they will be ready to go! How much overhead time would this save your business in the long run. Think about it for a few minutes, training a new employee how to do every task of your business and answering countless numbers of questions that eat up your precious time versus handing the new employee a binder or cd full of all your businesses systems that they can read and apply almost immediately. Depending on the amount of responsibility each employee gets at your company this could amount to weeks of information that just got handed down through a binder containing all of the needed info! This means that none of your imperative employees need to spend countless hours training and hand holding a new employee. At my company I projected that it saves me roughly 200 employee hours, that is five weeks of time that I was losing before I systemized my business.
So the question is, why haven’t you created a marketing plan or marketing system for your business? The experts have already done it for you! Just Google search “marketing system” or “marketing plan” and you will get hundreds of results in all types of flavors that will suit your business! The initial investment will be low too. Most good ones start around $2000 and can go as high as $25,000. You could make up $2000 very quickly. If you hire a new employee and pay then $30.00 and hour, which would mean it would take you approximately 67 hours to earn back the money. If you normally spend weeks training them to perform at their job, you earn your money back on your very first hire! That’s not even including your valuable time!
So what are you waiting around for? Have your business start using a marketing system. Get your company systematized. Set up marketing plans so your business will succeed. Start reading marketing blogs to find new strategies! Don’t just sit and wait for your competition to go out of business, be the more successful company and do it for them!
About the Author:
Travis James is a successful business owner and has sold 10 businesses before the age of 40. He now specializes in business consulting and marketing plans for small businesses and marketing companies. His new marketing system will be available in January of 2010. He can usually be found at many marketing conventions and does require a fee to speak at consulting events.