Posted by bubbleplanner on Jun 27, 2009 in
Google Tools Google has some really good tools for helping you build a successful online business. Here are just a few that will get you started in the right direction.
- Google Analytics – I’ve used a couple of different programs to track visitors to my websites, but as Google kept adding features to their program, the others lost their appeal. Since Google Analytics (GA) is free, it only makes sense to try them first. GA allows you to track visitors from Referring Websites and Search Engines (including which keyword was used). It will tell you which sources are generating sales or other conversions, such as newsletter sign ups. Books have been written about the incredible power of this program. For now, just know that GA will give you great information about the following important areas: Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content, and Conversions.
- Adwords Keyword Tool – You can spend days researching the right keywords for your website. Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool will save you countless hours in this process. In a few minutes, you can determine which keywords are right for you, how much monthly traffic they generate, and how much it would cost to buy clicks for these keywords. The cost per click is a big hint about which words are generating sales. You have the option to search by keyword or by looking at the keywords your competitors are using. Be sure to show all columns initially so you can see what information is available. Also, consider downloading the list to excel so you can build a tracking spreadsheet of the best keywords and how you are implementing them on your website.
- Google Alerts – Often overlooked, this tool will give you an edge in determining what’s hot and who’s talking about your industry, your competitors, and you. You can select which type of item (News, Web, Blogs, Video, Groups, or All) to monitor for specific keywords. You can choose whether to have this information delivered to your inbox as it happens, once a week, or once a day. It takes about 20 seconds to set one up, so, get started right now. What are you waiting for? Go ahead, set one up, you can always remove it later.
Be sure to check out all of Google’s Tools as they are constantly adding new ones. The tools above are powerful and effective, but they are only a sample of what’s available through Google.
Tags: Google Tools, keyword research, web traffic analytics
Posted by bubbleplanner on Jun 10, 2009 in
Internet Marketing 3 Simple Steps to Make a Living Online
By Robert Spadinger
Making money online isn’t really that simple as most “online gurus” who want to sell their latest gimmicks make it sound like. There is quite a huge learning curve to overcome and some patience and discipline is required to make a living online.
On the other hand, if you stay focused and start treating the “whole game” more like a real business rather than just trying out one “secret tip” after the other to make a few quick and easy bucks, it actually becomes relatively easy (compared to other ventures) to make a living online.
So, what should a newbie do to get started making a living online?
To me, there are 3 crucial pillars, which build the foundation for long-term success (the kind of success you should be going after):
* Traffic
* Conversion
* Repeat Sales
Let’s have a closer look at these 3 pillars:
Traffic: There are many different ways to generate traffic and I’d like to warn you right upfront: There isn’t such a thing as free traffic – either you have to pay for it with money or with your time. To make a long story short, I think, the best kind of traffic is pay-per-click traffic. It’s targeted, converts well, provides a decent ROI and it gives you immediate feedback about what to expect from a particular niche.
Of course, you first have to master PPC before you can enjoy the advantages I mentioned above. Otherwise it’s more than likely that you will loose most of your money.
Conversion: Getting a lot of traffic is great, but if you don’t know how to convert it into leads and sales, it’s pretty useless. Conversion is all about understanding your niche and your market. Who are your most likely customers, where do you find them, what do they want, what are their concerns and problems…
Answer these questions and provide true value for “your people” and they will start listening to you, they will become your customers, your friends and even raving fans. They will buy from you and do it again and again as long as you are providing outstanding value. That’s conversion! It’s not always easy to achieve, but if you keep up that great work you’ll get there.
Repeat Sales: That’s actually the easiest part. The hardest part is to get people to buy from you the first time, but once they trust- and like you it’s a piece of cake to sell them again and again. Just make sure not to betray their trust in you or your business will quickly start going downhill.
Also, you don’t even need your own products. There are thousands of products and services you can sell as an affiliate – just make sure to select only top quality products.
All you need to do is to take one step after the other:
* Generate some traffic and direct it towards a squeeze page that appeals to your market.
* Study your market, find out about their concerns, problems, desires… and provide valuable information together with great offers.
* Optimize your lead generation- and sales process. Test and track everything, split test your ads, landing pages…
* Once you get a positive ROI, buy more traffic
* Rinse and repeat: Keep on growing your list, provide more great value, offer outstanding products, test, track and optimize your processes… you get the idea.
Now you have a great long-term business that runs almost on autopilot. And now you can go after other niches and do the same again and again – the sky is the limit.
Completely automate the setup of your Google AdWords campaigns with my free PPC Campaign Builder Tool. Save yourself days and even weeks of tiring and boring work tasks. Reduce the setup of your campaigns (which may contain possibly thousands of keywords) to only a few minutes of doing some drag & drop and clicking a few buttons. Click the following link to get immediate access to my free AdWords Tool
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Spadinger
http://EzineArticles.com/?3-Simple-Steps-to-Make-a-Living-Online&id=2447242
Tags: Closer Look, Converts, Discipline, Free Traffic, Gimmicks, Gurus, Learning Curve, Many Different Ways, Money Conversion, Money Online, Newbie, Niche, Patience, Pillars, Raving Fans, Repeat Sales, Secret Tip, Simple Steps, Term Success, True Value
