Friday, April 25, 2008

I accept miraculous occurrences in my world

I accept miraculous occurrences in my world.


Thursday, April 24, 2008

Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 24

Day 24: The Road To Success


What a long way you’ve come. Take a look! The Affiliate Masters Course has helped you to...

• understand the difference between selling and PREselling (DAY 1 - 2)
• develop your best Site Concept (DAY 3)
• brainstorm profitable topics (DAY 4 - 5)
• plan potential monetization models for your site (DAY 6 - 7)
• refine your Site Concept and registered your domain name (DAY 8 - 9)
• build a site that gets “the click” (DAY 10 - 12)
• generate free traffic (DAY 13 - 14)
• evaluate ROI and if appropriate, utilize paid traffic (DAY 15 - 18)
• establish credible long-term relationships with your visitors (DAY 19 - 20)
• use statistics to know your visitors (DAY 21 - 23)

As I said back in the introduction, successful business-building on the Net is all about following the right process and smart work. Do things right the first time, step by step... and good things do happen.

Remember, YOU have no brand. Amazon has a brand. Google has a brand.

You must build one. And there is only one way to build your “Brand of One”…

CONTENT -> TRAFFIC -> PRESELL -> MONETIZE

That, in a nutshell, is what builds the core for a long-term, ever-growing business with sustainable profits and true equity.

Please, please do not waste your time on playing the Search Engine Optimization game. It's doomed to “keeping up” with thousands of the smartest minds on the planet at Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Instead, leapfrog the SEO game players by “keeping it real”…

1) Build more and more and more related and high-value content that delivers what humans want.

2) Plant enough hooks on each content page you create to let the engines know what it is about (on-page criteria).

3) Secure a few quality relevant in-pointing links. Some of your PREsold visitors will give you inbound links without even being asked!

4) Build buzz, add PPC... and whatever else is relevant for your target market, and your business, and your circumstances.

And that's it. Remember that off-page criteria is nothing more than how engines measure human behavior after a visitor clicks on a Search Results Page to visit a site. It could be as short-term as how quickly does that visitor return to the engine. Or it could be as long-term as how many relevant links build up to that site over time.

SEOers are kidding themselves if they think they are anywhere near what SEs really want. But now you know exactly what the SEs want… Relevant Reality. Quality. Happy searchers finding what they want. The engines will only get better and better at figuring that out. As they do, SEOers will have a harder and harder time “playing the game of match the algorithm.”

By following the CONTENT -> TRAFFIC -> PRESELL -> MONETIZE process, your site will simply do better and better. And your business will grow bigger and more profitable!

The process works…

http://proof.sitesell.com/resources2success.html

Let those well-heeled advertisers pay for their traffic. You have the knowledge (and with SBI!, all the tools all in one place!) to build your affiliate business as big as you want. After all, it’s your road to success!

Ultimately it all comes down to what one of my favorite entrepreneurs once said...

“How to succeed? Try hard enough.” -- Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990)

There’s nothing else. Go get ‘em.

Thanks for following the Affiliate Master Course till far. If you find the Affiliate Master Course useful and would like to keep a copy for future reference, you can download it at Inspiring Journey To Financial Freedom soon.


Birth To Independence






Relevant Posts:
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 5
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 6
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 7
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 8
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 9
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 10
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 11
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 12
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 13
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 14
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 15
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 16
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 17
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 18
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 19
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 20
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 21
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 22
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 23

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

I am open to learn and experience life

I am open to learn and experience life.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

My grateful heart recharges my soul and...

My grateful heart recharges my soul and revitalizes my body.


Monday, April 21, 2008

Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 23

Day 23: Know Your Visitors – Part III

Knowledge is power...Power to boost income.

Reminder: Goal-of-the-DAY... Familiarize yourself with a good traffic-reporting package.

Convert your Theme-Based Content Site's OUTgoing links into special tracking links (no need to do this with Site Build It! -- all links OUT are automatically created as tracking links)...


http://buildit.sitesell.com/resources2success.html


10.3. Explore Click Through Analysis

Click throughs occur when people click on a link on your Theme-Based Content Site and leave it. (They don’t actually leave since you pop open a new window for them!) We should actually call them “click outs” -- but since the industry is used to “click through,” we're stuck with that term!

Click throughs earn you income. Why? Well, it all depends where those click throughs are going...

• affiliate programs -- a percentage of those turn into sales or leads (or whatever action your merchant-partner pays for).

• your own online store -- a percentage will buy, yielding you a profit.

• your “order page” that sells an e-book or software that you developed, or even your services.

• your Net auction listing.

To maximize click throughs, of course, you know that you must create highvalue content that OVERdelivers what your visitors were looking for. Blending “in-context” text links into your copy gets the click through.

Once you’ve done that, of course, you need a way to know what's “getting the click”... and what’s not! And that’s where Click Through Analysis comes into play.

In order to do “Click Through Analysis,” you convert your regular OUTGOING links (i.e., links to your merchant-partners, your online store, and your sales site) into special tracking links. When your visitor clicks on such a link, she first goes to a computer program that records the click and where it came from. Then the program sends the visitor to the income-building site that you had specified.

Click Through Analysis yields the following...

• total click throughs for all your ON-SITE links, as well as for each ON-SITE link (i.e., on a link-by-link basis)

• “first-time vs. repeat” click throughs for the total of all click throughs on all your ON-SITE links and also on a link-by-link basis. In other words, has the person who is clicking on a link clicked on it before?

• and, of course, the clicks divided by the page views, which gives you your “Click Through Rate” for all your links as a group, and also on a link-by-link basis.

Excellent Click Through Analysis would even slice and dice your click through analysis like this...

1) It would present you with link-by-link data, broken down for every page that each link appears upon (in other words, if LINK A appears on Pages 1, 2, and 3, it shows you how LINK A performed on each of those pages)

2) And it would present you page-by-page data, broken down with the performance of every link on each page. (In other words, if Page 1 contains LINKS A, B, and C, it shows you how each of those links performed on that page.)

And perfect Click Through Analysis would give you all this data for any time span that you request!

Bottom Line?

With Click Through Analysis, you have an exact success rate of every single ONSITE link. And that, dear reader, measures income... your money.

You’ll know exactly what people are clicking upon and what they are not. From that point, it’s just a question of building upon your successes and fixing your weaknesses to maximize your income.

Click Through Analysis is as critical for your Theme-Based Content Site as Click IN Analysis. Again, existing services are very expensive. And none give the degree of information that I have outlined for the perfect Click Through Analysis.

POWER-USER TIP:
Want perfect tracking of how effective your e-zine ad is?

Combine Click IN Analysis and Click Through Analysis!

Do this...

1) Place an ad in an e-zine, or bid on keywords from a Pay-Per-Click Search Engine. The link goes to a page on your site that receives clicks only from this ad. It can be a simple duplicate of one of your site’s pre-existing pages. But it should not receive links from anywhere else, including even from your own site.

2) On that page, create new tracker links to your affiliate programs, links that are unique for this ad. You should not use these tracker links anywhere else.

3) Now your Click IN Analysis can track the INcoming traffic and your Click Through Analysis can see how many of those folks coming IN actually go to your income-generating programs (or your sales site, online store, etc.)

You’ll know exactly and you will be able to say...

“This e-zine ad on this day (or this Pay-Per-Click listing) brought in this many visitors of which this many clicked on to this and that merchant.”

Since you know the Conversion Rate for each of your merchant-partners (or your sales site/store), you know whether it makes sense to keep advertising, or to find more targeted e-zines, or more targeted keywords on the pay-per-clicks.

This technique works for e-zine ads, opt-in mailings, or article submissions that direct readers to your Theme-Based Content Site, and it can be very helpful to test the cost-effectiveness of the Pay-Per-Click Search Engines

As I said, though, this requires a fair degree of savvy and some work. Definitely for power users only.

And, if it’s more appropriate to send readers directly to your merchants (instead of a page on your site), then this extra step would not be a good idea. It’s something to keep in mind.

Take-home lesson for DAY 21-23...

Know your visitors, the heart of your business, by following traffic stats. And tracking links in and out is the key to maximizing income by getting the most return from all your traffic-building expenses.

Please complete your DAY 21-23 Goal-of-the-DAY, and take note of your Ongoing Goal...

Ongoing Goal... Create one OFF-SITE promotion with special tracking links per week (or whatever fits for you).

Review traffic stats, and do both Click IN and Click Through Analysis regularly.

Watch for trends. Build on your successes and either drop or improve what does not work.


On the next DAY...

Wait! There is no next DAY! You are at the end of your masters course.

Stay tune for the wrap-up!

My Local Business (Landscaping) Loves Its Silent Partner




Relevant Posts:
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 5
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 6
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 7
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 8
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 9
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 10
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 11
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 12
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 13
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 14
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 15
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 16
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 17
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 18
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 19
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 20
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 21
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 22

My grateful heart recharges my soul and revitalizes my body

My grateful heart recharges my soul and revitalizes my body.


Sunday, April 20, 2008

I am healthy, whole and complete

I am healthy, whole and complete.

Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 22

Day 22: Know Your Visitors – Part II


Knowledge is power...Power to boost income.

Reminder: Goal-of-the-DAY... Familiarize yourself with a good traffic-reporting package.

Convert your Theme-Based Content Site's OUTgoing links into special tracking links (no need to do this with Site Build It! -- all links OUT are automatically created as tracking links)...


http://buildit.sitesell.com/resources2success.html


10.2. Explore Click IN Analysis

Let’s talk about Click IN Analysis first...

Click INs occur when people click on an OFF-SITE link and come into your Theme-Based Content Site. Click INs cost you time and/or money (explained above).

So analyze what works (do more of it) and what fails (drop or improve it).

In order to do Click IN Analysis, you create special tracking links. You create these links specifically to track the success of your OFF-site promotional campaigns. You place a different link in each of your promotional campaigns so that they are easy to track.

When the user clicks on a tracking link, she first goes to a computer program that records the click, and where it came from. Then the program sends the visitor to the page in your site that you had specified.

Click IN analysis yields the following...

• total clicks coming in, for all your special links, and also for each special tracking link that you create

• “first-time vs. repeat” click INs, for all click INs, and also on a link-by-link basis. In other words, has the person who is clicking on a link clicked on it before?

You now have a way of measuring the exact traffic-building success of every offsite promotional campaign, whether you’re...

• bidding for keywords on Pay-Per-Click engines

• buying ads in e-zines

• posting an ad on the bulletin board of your local grocery store

• no matter how you promote!

Here are some of the uses and advantages of Click IN Analysis...

1) The Untraceable Link -- Some links have no Referring URL, so it’s impossible to know where they come from through regular traffic analysis. But geez, we need to know this data. For example...

i) links from a free e-book that you are using as a promotional tool.

ii) links from e-mail of any kind... sig files, links in mailing lists, Autoresponder campaigns, links in the e-zine that you publish, ads that you buy in e-zines.

iii) links from non-Web based newsgroups (ex., anything you read with your newsreader -- but if you read newsgroups via deja.com and your browser, this does not apply since the Traffic Stats section will report on any visitor who arrives via a Web site -- you could, of course, still use a tracking link for this if you want to).

iv) links that are simply typed in, often due to offline exposure (especially targeted print media). Tracking links are great for any kind of offline promotion.

v) links from your blog.

By creating a special tracking link for each of these “untraceable links,” you’ll know what has been previously impossible to know.

2) Testing e-zine ads -- set a different tracking URL for each ad that you write.

That way you can measure which ad generates a better response. Here’s how...

Run Ad #1 in E-zine #1 and Ad #2 in E-zine #2, then switch a month later. Which ad got more responses overall? Stick with what’s profitable. Drop the rest. E-zine advertising becomes very cost-effective when you can drop the dogs and increase your budget for the winners.

3) Test Web-based advertising -- Even if your promotion is Web-based, it’s more convenient to run tracking links than to review the Traffic Stats Referrer information (which do tell you which sites links originate from). So use your special tracking links to track the performance of banners, Pay-Per-Click Search Engines, even posts to forums and discussion groups.

So far, we’ve talked about tracking the various possible origins of the tracking links (i.e., the OFF-SITE places where potential visitors see and click on your tracking link... e-zines, pay-per-clicks, etc.). And we’ve assumed that the ultimate destination of those links is to your Theme-Based Content Site.

But you have several options for the ultimate destination of your OFF-SITE tracking links...

1) Your Theme-Based Content Site -- Let’s say that you have a terrific page about a special kind of flower. That page has several in-context text links... links to books, growers, affiliate programs, etc, etc. You take an e-zine ad.

Where should the ultimate destination be?

Easy... to your Keyword-Focused Content Page! Since you have worked so many in-context text links into your OVERdelivering copy, you have a whole bunch of chances that a sale occurs on at least one of your merchant-partners’ sites.

2) Straight to a merchant-partner -- On the other hand, suppose you write a wonderful article about this special flower as content for a prominent e-zine published by a third party. Your “payment” is that you can include your URLs.

Where should these links point?

Easy... work those special tracker links into the content of the article, and point them straight to your merchant partners. One link for each merchant. Since anyone who clicks passes through the tracking script first, you’ll see exactly how many people clicked on each link! No point in directing them to the same info on your site, right?

3) A free trial download -- Even a download URL can be the destination.

Offering a free e-book on that special kind of flower? Take an ad in an e-zine, offering the link straight to the download. Naturally, the e-book will have links to your various merchant-partners, and to your Theme-Based Content Site. Every one of those in-book links should be special tracking links, too!

4) Your online store -- Same idea. If you have an online store that needs traffic, and if the situation dictates that you’re better off by sending visitors “directly” to your store (after passing through the tracking script, of course), then do that.

Same goes if you have a site that sells single products or your services. If an ad costs you $100, but you see that it generated 500 visitors, and if you know that 2% of your visitors buy... it’s easy to figure out whether your ad is profitable!

No matter where these visitors originate from, and no matter where you send them to, Click IN Analysis reports how well each promotional effort is working.

Tips:
Click IN Analysis is vital for anyone building income through content.

Unfortunately, existing services are very expensive. Here are your best two options...

1) If you have some tech skills or if you employ someone who does, use our Ultimate Link Tracker. It’s free when you join our 5 Pillar Program...

http://affiliates.sitesell.com/resources2success.html

Don’t worry. There’s no obligation to work the 5P Program unless you want to. Consider the Ultimate Link Tracker as my graduation gift to you!

-OR-

2) Site Build It!
provides all this. The Tracker Library makes it a snap to set up your special tracking links. And you get complete Click IN Analysis reports at the click of your mouse!

Cost? Included in Site Build It!, which itself costs less than services that offer only this feature!

http://affiliatemarketing.sitesell.com/resources2success.html



The best has yet to come…stay tune for the best…

Why Do I Love Going To Work?




Relevant Posts:
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 5
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 6
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 7
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 8
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 9
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 10
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 11
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 12
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 13
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 14
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 15
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 16
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 17
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 18
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 19
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 20
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 21

Friday, April 18, 2008

I look forward with joyous anticipation to the day

I look forward with joyous anticipation to the day.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 21

Day 21: Know Your Visitors - Part I

Knowledge is power...Power to boost income.

Goal-of-the-DAY... Familiarize yourself with a good traffic-reporting package.

Convert your Theme-Based Content Site's OUTgoing links into special tracking links (no need to do this with Site Build It! -- all links OUT are automatically created as tracking links)...


http://buildit.sitesell.com/resources2success.html

It has cost you time and money to generate your INCOMING traffic. Your OUTGOING traffic generates income for you. You can measure both… INCOME minus EXPENSES equals PROFITS.

If we stopped here, your site would be a black box. A “black box” is a concept used in physics. You can measure what goes into the black box, and you can measure what comes out of the black box... but you don’t know what the heck is happening inside of that black box. In other words, you don’t know why things happen.

And for your long-term success, that’s critical. Why?

Because if you know more about the nature of your INCOMING and OUTGOING traffic, you can maximize your returns for every dollar and minute that you spend!

Yes, that is kind of important... “critical,” even.

And what do you need to know?
1) Traffic
2) Links in
3) Links out.


Let’s start peeking inside your “black box” by studying your traffic...

Traffic, of course, is your lifeblood. You need the means to do some “blood tests” to determine your site’s health.

Unfortunately, all the traffic analysis packages out there are written by techies... for techies. They give you so much data... just because they can! But all you need to know is... what you need to know! You need information, not reams of useless data.

The key to traffic analysis is to simplify. Forget the 150 different ways that traffic-analyzing software slices and dices hits, visits, pages, page views, and visitors. You simply don’t need to know how many left-handed Norwegians visit your site between 3-4 AM on Sundays.

So let’s prune away all the useless data, and keep just the “need to know” information...


10.1. Analyze Your “Big Picture” Traffic Stats

First, the big picture...

All traffic-reporting software packages cover the basics... average number of visits, visitors, and pages viewed per day, as well as the totals on a per-month basis. Here’s what those terms mean...

• Visits -- the number of visits to your site

• Visitors -- the number of different people who visit your site (ex., a visitor could account for 10 visits)

• Page Views -- the number of pages viewed by all the visitors during all the visits. A single visitor might view only one page... or twenty.

You have a question?

“What about hits? Everyone talks about hits!”

Great question! Short answer... forget hits.

A hit is simply a line in your site’s log file. If a page has 3 graphics on it, that’s 4 hits (1 for the html page itself, plus 3 for the graphics). But if that same page has 100 graphics on it, that’s 101 hits!

See why the number of hits is a useless stat?

“Yes, but why does everyone quote hits, then?”

Two reasons... either they don’t understand the term, or they understand it and use hits because it sounds bigger! In any event, “hits” is a useless thing to measure to understand your traffic.

By comparing your monthly “big picture” data, you should be able to see steady growth in your site’s overall traffic. If not, the “patient” needs a good dose of traffic-building medicine (luckily, that medicine is nearby... just above, actually!). Ongoing traffic-building is a good idea even if traffic is building nicely -- you can never have too much!

Now that you have the big picture, it’s time to delve inside and pull out some important details...

• Daily statistics -- visits, visitors and page views must be reported on a day-by-day basis, in both absolute terms and as a percentage of the total (ex., percent of total visitors). If you do a special traffic promotion on a certain day (ex., run an ad in an e-zine), a daily statistic report is an easy way to gauge the response.

• Most popular pages -- your page view stats must be delivered on a per-page basis, with the page generating the most page views reported first. By understanding which pages are most popular, you understand better the needs of your visitors. Correlate this with your link-tracking data (more on this below) to make sure that your most popular pages “get the click” to your incomegenerating programs. Also, use this data to get a better feel for what your market wants... and, just as important, what it does not want.

• Most popular entry pages -- same as the previous section, except that this specifically tells you which pages are the most popular “entry” pages. A page counts as an entry page when it starts a visit. Correlate this with how people find you (referrers and keywords, discussed just below), and you have a wealth of insight into how your site is being discovered, and what people want. Use these conclusions to give you ideas for other related, profitable areas for content development.

• Most frequent exit pages -- these are the pages from which people leave your site. Some people look upon high numbers for a given page as “bad.” But you have to correlate this with other data... If a “high entry” page is also a “high exit” page, that’s not really a surprise. If a “high exit” page is also generating tons of links out to your income-generating programs for you, that’s not so bad either, is it?

• Referrer URLs -- this tells you where your traffic is coming from... Search Engines, other Web sites, link exchanges, etc., etc. Extremely useful info!

• Keyword search -- which keywords are people entering into engines to find you? That’s what this super-valuable data tells you!

Taken together, referrer page and keyword search data tell you where and how your visitors find you, which gives you a base to build even more traffic-building ideas!

As you can see, traffic analysis is actually a pretty simple task... when you know what you’re looking for, and how to turn data into information.

By the way, Site Build It! provides you with exactly these traffic stats. No need to install or configure any software or to figure out what’s important. With SBI!, you have everything a good content site needs at your fingertips. And the information is presented cleanly and in an easy-to-understand manner.

http://buildit.sitesell.com/resources2success.html

Traffic analysis is the base. It tells you what you need to know about quantities of visits, visitors, and page views. It shows you where they come from (if via the Web) and what words they used to find you at the Search Engines. But you need more…

Now that you understand traffic flow, you need to be able to see exactly what’s working in the two bottom-line areas that matter most...

1) how you spend your traffic-building time and money -- what’s working, and what’s not. Spend only on the techniques that bear fruit.

2) how you make your money -- gear your content more and more towards what gets the click. Because that’s what builds your income.

So how do we get this information? Through two forms of analysis that are specialized for content sites like yours...

• Click IN Analysis

and…

• Click Through Analysis

Before we go further, let’s talk about two different kinds of links...

1) OFF-SITE links that bring traffic IN to you

2) ON-SITE links that send traffic OUT.

OFF-SITE links do not appear on your Web site. People will not actually click upon these links while they are on your site. Rather, your potential visitors see these links off your site... in e-zine ads, or offline print ads, in flyers that you distribute at trade or hobby conventions, or in your sig file (at the end of your e-mail). And they’ll use these links to come into your site.

Since you spend time and/or money on these traffic-building activities, you need a way to measure this, to track which off-site promotions are working, and which are not. Once you know which of your expense-generating activities work and which ones don’t... you know where to spend your promotional time and money!

And where to stop! You build upon your successes and fix your weaknesses.

Let’s contrast that with ON-SITE links...

ON-SITE links appear on your site, and send visitors out of that page. These links all go to income-generating sites (merchant-partners via affiliate programs, your own online store, or your own sales site for products that you have developed). In other words, ON-SITE links generate income.

So how do we track these two kinds of links?...

It all boils down to this. We track how to best spend our traffic-building time and money via Click IN Analysis. We track what’s generating income by Click Through Analysis.

The best has yet to come…stay tune for the best…

"Not Smart Enough" - Oh Yeah?






Relevant Posts:
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 5
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 6
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 7
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 8
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 9
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 10
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 11
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 12
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 13
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 14
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 15
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 16
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 17
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 18
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 19
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 20

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I know and believe I have what it takes to achieve what I need to

I know and believe I have what it takes to achieve what I need to.

Monday, April 14, 2008

A Terrible Customer Experience From Taking Firefly Airline

Just a sharing of my recent experience of taking Firefly Airline with all my friends and visitors who are considering Firefly Airline…

No doubt Firefly airline (a subsidiary of Malaysia Airline) promise to provide cheap and budget air tickets to passengers, I would advise those who would like to give Firefly a try to be aware of the potential delay of Firefly flight at the 11th hour whereby you can practically do nothing at that time but a terrible experience. Eventually, the incidental cost incurred is even more costly than the saving you might save from the so called cheap ticket.

Based on my experience and I am not sure whether I am the unlucky one or not, out of 3 flights, 2 were delayed and resulting we missed the last boat to Pulau Redang and incurred additional necessary cost to stay a night at Kuala Trengganu and wasted a day of supposed to be “happy hours” at Pulau Redang.
Also, on the same day (mid of March 2008), not only the flight from Penang to Kuala Trengganu was delayed, we also met a bunch of unhappy passengers including foreigners with sour and long faces who faced the same bad experience whereby their flight from Penang to Pulau Langkawi was delayed too...Some of the passengers told me that they were paying RM300+ for a return ticket from Penang to Langkawi which is not really cheap for a low cost airline like Firefly Airline.

Trust me this is definitely not a good experience especially when you are expecting to have a great and relaxing vacation and enjoy your precious moment with your love one on the beach... and ended up talking to a bunch of unfriendly Firefly personnel (that I believe that they need to attend further training to improve their customer service skills).

It is not worth your vacation time talking to a bunch of inexperienced and irresponsible customer service personnel who can only offer 2 options to you when you are going to miss your last boat: (1) cancel your flight and get a refund or (2) reschedule your flight to another day…They just ignore all the hassle, opportunity cost and inconvenience caused by the delay of the flights conveniently…

In view of this unpleasant incident to lose both monetary on additional hotel accommodation and loss of accommodation and vacation time at Pulau Redang, we have filed a complaint and request for compensation as advised by Firefly customer service personnel via email to feedback@fireflyz.com.my. To our surprise and disappointment, it takes 3-4 weeks for Firefly to respond and reject our claim with a simple note “Your request of compensation has been declined” and no feedback to our complaint.

Personally, I view this kind of service as irresponsible and would like to share our experience and suggest those who really stretch on their time for not trying your luck and taking the risk. It is not worth to waste both your valuable time and money this way....

Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 20

Day 20: Build Traffic Through Relationship-Building – Part II

Reminder: Goal-of-the-DAY... Identify a way to communicate with your visitors on a regular basis and build a relationship based on trust and credibility. Become a friend rather than a stranger.


9.2. Build Relationships With Other Technologies

On average, your visitor will need 7-13 exposures to your message before getting that click. Your e-zine is one way to increase exposure, but Webmasters use other methods to build familiarity as well…


9.2.1. Build Relationships With Forms

Forms are an easy and safe way to communicate and interact with your visitors and customers. SPAM-bots can read e-mail addresses off your Web site so having a Contact Form in place of an e-mail link is essential.

Forms usage is limited only by your imagination…
• conduct a survey or poll
• create a series of sequential Autoresponder messages or an e-course
• collect feedback from your visitors
• get leads or referrals

Be on the lookout for new ideas. Two SBI! sites, with the help of Form Build
It! (another user-friendly module in the SBI! system), illustrate how a
simple Form can be an effective communication tool…

JuggleNow.com has implemented a brief survey...
http://www.jugglenow.com/juggling-equipment.html

Translate-To-Success.com helps visitors locate translating services...
http://www.translate-to-success.com/dutch-translators.html

Other form-building software is readily available. Start your research with these products…

Quask
http://www.quask.com/en/home.asp

SmartDraw
http://www.smartdraw.com/specials/forms.asp?id=31997

XIGLA
http://www.xigla.com/absolutefp/


9.2.2. Build Relationships With A Blog

An e-zine generally goes out from once per week to once per month. If you have enough content to write more frequently, consider a blog or Web diary. Give your visitors daily updates on your topic, offer your opinion on some aspect of your theme, and/or announce a new feature offered by one of your affiliates.

Use Search It! to find breaking information that you can pass on to your visitors.

Search It! > Reference Library for Content (STEP 1) > The Big 5 – CNN, NYT, BBC, USAT, WP (STEP 2) > cactus propagation (STEP 3)

Make your blog as formal or as informal as your audience will tolerate.

Publishing a blog is straightforward. The simplest method is to just keep adding new information to a designated page. A successful blog is frequent, reflects your style and delivers compelling content about your theme. Pull in your readers and give them a reason to respond.

Free blog hosting is available from Google…
http://www.blogger.com/

Now for the other side of the coin…

If you’re finding it difficult to publish a weekly or monthly e-zine, then blogging is probably not for you. Here’s why…

A blog is basically a frequently changing Web page. Yes, it offers the ability for folks to reply and track back. But when you boil it down, a blog is frequently changing content. The key word in that statement is “frequently.” A blog is a bigger commitment than an e-zine. If it’s not at least daily, it’s just not very active.

Several blogs that I've subscribed to started off great, but the frequency dropped and then stopped. Once a month, I delete a few that just seem to have lost interest or didn’t see the rewards for all that extra time.

My recommendation? Blog if it fits your time, passion and market.

Increasingly, some Webmasters publish their blogs through an RSS feed which is the perfect lead-in to…


9.2.3. Build Relationships With RSS

Don’t confuse a blog with RSS. Your blog is the content. RSS is how you distribute your content.

Think of it like your local newspaper. The blog is the newspaper. RSS is the paperboy.

But what exactly is RSS?...

RSS” stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” And that is exactly what it is... a new way for you to distribute content. That content can be any electronic communication (Web pages, m3ps, video, etc.)

A comprehensive overview, including easy-to-understand “how-to” instructions, is available at…

http://rss.sitesell.com/resources2success.html

This site provides everything you might want to know about RSS (but were afraid to ask)! Check out the information and see if this relationship-builder is right for your business.

DAY 19 & 20 is all about building a quality, long term, repeated exposure, one-toone relationship with your visitor/customer. It’s about building trust, credibility and a sense of community.

Once you achieve this, you become a knowledgeable friend making a recommendation. You are no longer a stranger.

You have only one last topic to go to complete the course.

Before proceeding to DAY 21, please complete your DAY 19 & 20 Goal-of-the-DAY, and take note of your Ongoing Goal...

Ongoing Goal... Reach out to your target audience, whenever and however you can. Make them think about your business first and not your competitors.

Now it’s time to analyze your traffic base from different angles...

Stay tune for more…

A Retiree Sharing His Passions





Relevant Posts:
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 5
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 6
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 7
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 8
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 9
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 10
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 11
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 12
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 13
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 14
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 15
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 16
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 17
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 18
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 19

Sunday, April 13, 2008

I feel fulfilled and happy everyday

I feel fulfilled and happy everyday.


Saturday, April 12, 2008

I can choose to feel great throughout the day

I can choose to feel great throughout the day.



Friday, April 11, 2008

Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 19

Day 19: Build Traffic Through Relationship-Building – Part I

Big shots are only little shots who kept shooting -- Christopher Morely (1880-1957)

Time to activate the last of the Big 3 strategies for building traffic…
#1) Free Traffic (DAY 12 - 14)
#2) Paid Traffic (DAY 15 - 18)
#3) Traffic Through Relationship-Building

You are building a solid traffic base. Now keep those visitors coming back for more.

How?...

The same old answer… relevant, quality content. This time the content is in your e-zine and other special publications.

Goal-of-the-DAY... Identify a way to communicate with your visitors on a regular basis and build a relationship based on trust and credibility. Become a friend rather than a stranger.

While you are waiting for the traffic to your site to build, look ahead and prepare…

Even when you do have good first-time traffic, most people don’t come back over and over again to most sites. It’s nothing personal. It’s simply a big Web out there... and visitors figure that they might as well see something new! So, unless the very nature of your site naturally tends to generate frequent, repeat visits, realize that your customer is in “now or never” mode.

So the question is... how do you reach her again and again, after she leaves?

You need a Backup Response, an alternative reason to visit. A good Backup Response must...

• deliver a benefit to your visitor at a “no-brainer” price (free is best), and...

• provide you with an ongoing opportunity to remind your customer about you and your product/service or the merchant-partners that you represent.

Sooner or later, a healthy percentage of those who trigger your Backup Response will deliver your MWR -- a sale or a contract, depending on your situation.

Why?

Because you’re building a quality, long term, repeated exposure, one-to-one relationship with your visitor/customer.


9.1. Build Relationships With An E-Zine

The most common Backup Response on the Web is the e-zine (an e-mailed newsletter). Once you have some decent numbers, it takes only a day to get an e-zine up and running.

A good e-zine tells its readers to revisit you…
• to click on something missed during the first visit
• to respond to an announcement you make
• to see new content you’ve added

The e-zine builds a relationship of trust between you and your visitors. Put yourself in the visitor’s mind. A new e-mail arrives from you. Full of excellent content that meets her needs, the e-mail prompts her either…
• to click on the link back to your site to take you up on your great offer
• to click on a link to one of your affiliate partners
• to file in her memory that you are the person with the answers to her questions.

You will use the content in your e-zine to get your MWR. It’s fine to give lots of information. But use that information to PREsell. Give your visitor a reason to click on a link back to your site or directly to one of your affiliates.

The WIN-WIN provides information for your visitor and income for you.


9.1.1. Build a Sales Page For Your E-Zine

How good of you to provide a free e-zine! But will your visitors subscribe?...

It’s free but… you still need to sell the idea that another piece of e-mail is a good idea. After all, your visitor is going to give up her e-mail address and the time it takes to read what you send.

While she’s on your site, she needs to feel that continued contact with you will be worth her while. So you will…
• stress the benefits of your particular newsletter
• add a clear “call to action”
• finish with a subscription form

Make sure the benefits are clear. Add a testimonial. Link to back issues. (Some Web masters write an issue or two no one else receives so they will have back issues. Visitors can see what they will get.)

Stress that your e-zine is free.

Add a professional look with a great cover like those at

Killer Covers.com
http://www.killercovers.com/

Then tell her exactly what to do… Subscribe!


9.1.2. Develop A Format Template… And Stay With It!

Readers like familiarity and predictability… so develop a template, and stick with it. Make only minor, incremental changes every now and then, saving your last issue as the template for the next one. From top to bottom, here’s a quick list of things to address in your format...

1) Name your E-zine. You want your subscriber to smile in recollection when she sees it. Make the name short, memorable, descriptive, and relevant.

2) Subject, including Issue Number and Date

3) Small logo

4) First text block -- start off your e-zine with a catchy benefit-oriented slogan. For example, under your Cactus Gardening logo, you might type into your first text block...

“Prickly Issues, Creative Solutions”

5) After that, experiment with a combination of text blocks, line breaks and divider lines, so that you can deliver the following “starting information”...

i) Valuable PREselling Proposition -- stress the key points of your e-zine.

ii) A promo pass-along -- add something like this...

If you like this e-zine, please do a friend and me a big favor and “pay it forward.” If a friend DID forward this to you and if you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting...
(Then add a link to your page that promotes your opt-in newsletter.)

6) Issue number and Date (you did it in the subject, now repeat it in the body)

7) Table of Contents -- show your reader what you’re covering in this issue. Provide tantalizing “read me” headlines in your TOC.

8) From this point, experiment with…

• headline blocks to start each section
• dividers
• line breaks

9) Then the content!

10) You might want to add one more text block before the closing information (unsubscribe, etc. -- details a bit later) for your readers. This text block could include anything, for example...

Comments? Ideas? Feedback?
I’d love to hear from you.
Just reply to this e-zine and tell me what you think!

11) Closing information. You need to give readers a chance to unsubscribe, etc. Make sure to save all this as a template for future e-zines (more on this below), so you don’t have to do it all over again.

Tips:
SBI! makes building an e-zine a snap. From a building block approach to setting up a template, to creating a subscription form, to automating the mailing list, to tracking statistics like open rates, MailOut Manager does it all.
http://buildit.sitesell.com/resources2success.html



9.1.3. Set Up Your Subscription

You’ve already created a form for subscribers on your sales page. You may opt to include this form on other pages, or at the least include a link from other TIER 2 or TIER 3 pages to your sales page.

Some people create pop-unders to advertise their e-zines.

Do include an e-zine button on your navigation bar so visitors can find the sales page easily. And be sure to include many references to your e-zine so your visitor has many opportunities to sign up.

To prevent spamming and/or to prevent people from giving other people’s names and addresses without consent, use the “double opt-in” approach… your visitor must confirm her subscription.

Although adopting a double opt-in policy means you will grow your list slightly more slowly than a marketer using the single opt-in approach, there are several reasons why it is smart to adopt such a strategy...

1) A double opt-in policy builds a truly qualified, high value list. Do not be concerned about losing a few subscribers. The confirmation step ensures that your subscribers are interested in you and your product or service.

2) A double opt-in policy establishes your credibility with the subscriber, and emphasizes the value of your publication. It’s a great way to demonstrate that you are not simply paying lip service to a SPAM policy, but have taken concrete steps to prevent it.

3) As SPAM continues to increase in volume, so does the average surfer’s intolerance for it. A double opt-in policy lowers the risk of being reported to a spam policing server by an overzealous surfer.

The value of a qualified subscriber’s list? Priceless -- no credit card can buy that kind of confidence!


9.1.4. Advertise Your E-Zine

List your newsletter in major e-zine directories on the Web. You’ll find these work much the same way as the main directories (discussed in DAY 15-18). Drill down through the categories and sub-categories to find the best place and submit your newsletter to the most appropriate section of the directory.

Some submission tips to consider…

Try some tinkering first. Do a search for your most important keywords at each directory, and note from which categories the returned results are coming.

Check for keywords in the Title and the Description, as well. Remember, your subscriber is most likely to find you as a result of a keyword search. So do your best to ensure your site is listed for each particular keyword.

Keep in mind that your Description is the only impression a directory visitor will get of your e-zine, so make sure you sell it!

Bottom line on the e-zine directories?...

It depends. If your e-zine is about a popular topic that is likely to generate many keyword searches and you’ve listed your site properly (with a compelling Description), there’s no reason why these directories shouldn’t bring a constant trickle of subscribers to your newsletter.

Of course, if your newsletter is about a highly specific niche topic, your major concern will be listing in directories that receive enough traffic to generate keyword searches for that topic. It’s ideal if you can find a directory dedicated to a category that includes your theme.

All in all, if you can hit the major e-zine directories in an hour or so, it’s not a bad way to spend your time. Just be sure to do your homework. Learn how to submit properly, or you’ll be wasting your time.

Here are a couple of suggestions to get you started…

Ezine Articles
http://ezinearticles.com/

Email Universe
http://emailuniverse.com/

Or you can automate your promotion with…

Newsletter Promote
http://www.newsletterpromote.com/

There’s a pleasant bonus when you market your newsletter. Not only will you build your e-publication, you will build more traffic to your site (if you provide a link from your subscription page to your home page). On top of that, you will also generate some all-important link popularity which is always a good thing!

If you know that your potential ROI (Return On Investment) is high, it may be well worth your while to investigate...

1) Paid co-registration resources. You pay either a flat fee for every subscriber delivered (usually it’s pretty reasonable), or a base advertising rate (delivered by impressions). If possible, always stick to advertising that guarantees you results.

An example of a pay-per-subscriber service is...

LeadFactory
http://ProfitInfo.com/leadfactory/

2) Rent an opt-in list. Some reputable companies build and manage huge optin lists that are divided up according to interests, demographics, and so on. You can rent a list (or a portion of a list) in order to place an ad. The only caveat for advertising in this manner is that you must be very selective in choosing a company to do business with -- otherwise there’s a very real possibility that you will be guilty of spamming some or perhaps all of the recipients.

Some of the better services include...

PostMasterDirect
http://www.postmasterdirect.com/

Yesmail
http://www.yesmail.com/

List Partners
http://listpartners.com/

An e-zine is not the only way to stay on your visitors’ radar screens…

Stay tune for more…

A Cowgirl Dares to Dream






Relevant Posts:
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 5
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 6
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 7
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 8
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 9
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 10
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 11
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 12
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 13
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 14
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 15
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 16
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 17
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 18

Thursday, April 10, 2008

I feel happy and it is the fastest way...

I feel happy and it is the fastest way to bring abundance to my life.


Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 18

Day 18: Build Paid Traffic – Part IV

Reminder:
Goal-of-the-DAY... If you have a new site and the Return on Investment justifies it, jump-start your traffic-building efforts by bidding on less popular keywords related to your theme at one of the Pay-Per-Click engines.



8.4. Pay For Listing/Placement At The “Free” Search Engines

Over the last few years, the SEs have been gradually phasing out their paid inclusion programs. Today, Yahoo! is the only major SE that maintains one.

With a paid inclusion program, you must pay to have your Web site included in a SE's database. It is not the same as a Pay-Per-Click Search Engine, where you pay a certain amount to be ranked in a certain position. Pay-per-inclusion does not guarantee ranking. It only guarantees you'll be included in the index!

Paid programs limit the SEs' ability to develop competitive databases from which to draw targeted search results. Obviously when you implement such a policy, you eliminate vast amounts of business owners who cannot justify the cost of inclusion. This leads to inferior search results. And when search results are poor, visitors will go elsewhere and ad revenues plummet.

Google had the foresight long ago to avoid a paid program. Over the years, it has built the largest and most competitive search database available on the Net.

The other SEs are still trying to catch up! Most have dropped their paid programs, and even Yahoo!, the last SE to operate such a service, actively adds sites to its database for free.

Please note that I’m talking about buying your way into Yahoo!’s crawler-based Service, and not the directory (which we discussed in earlier post.)

For that reason, there is very little reason for you to pay for a Yahoo! listing. Follow the proven C -> T -> P -> M process to build a content-rich site and obtain a couple of quality in-pointing links. Yahoo! will be happy to add you for free.

Why would you consider Yahoo!’s paid service? If you’ve submitted your site for free, and still aren’t included after 2 months, you may want to submit a single page. By doing so, you’ll get…

1) Fast inclusion into the index. You’ll often find yourself waiting up to 2 months after your site has been crawled before your site makes it into an SE index. Paying for inclusion means you should see your site included within a couple of days.

2) Repeated, regular spiderings. Page modification efforts are noticeable in a matter of a couple of days -- no waiting around for weeks for a spider to re-index your page and to display those changes in the SE’s listing results.

3) Guaranteed continuous inclusion. Search Engines are pretty mysterious creatures. One day, your site will be sitting pretty with a top 20 ranking, and the next day it’s gone, disappeared without a trace. Yes, it sometimes happens.

The SEs cull pages from their respective indices for no discernible reason.

Paying for your listing means it will never be dropped from the index.

Best of all, Yahoo!’s SiteMatch program will provide entry of your URLs into the entire Yahoo! network, which includes FAST/AllTheWeb, AltaVista, About, the unpaid listings in Overture, and most importantly, the search results delivered on Yahoo! itself. Of course, this comes at a hefty price…

First, Yahoo! charges a non-refundable annual review fee (yes, a Yahoo! Editor will review your content to ensure it meets certain quality criteria). Plus, there is a cost-per-click fee. Highly competitive categories (ex., real estate, professional services, electronics, etc.) will have a cost-per-click double the others.

At this point, unless you're driving traffic to a page with a proven Conversion Rate and established ROI, Yahoo!’s program is an expensive gamble, only to be investigated if you’ve failed to get listed through the normal means.

We’ve noticed Yahoo! has an increased willingness to spider and add sites to its database for free. At this point at least, there’s little point for paying for inclusion into Yahoo!. If, however, you'd like to investigate this option further, you can do so here...

http://www.positiontech.com/ds-overture.html

Bottom line for all Pay For Listing/Placement services? Stick to Pay-Per-Click offerings that bring you targeted customers and yield measurable results. Kill programs with poor results.

Time to wrap up the topic of Building Paid Traffic...

Pay-Per-Click SEs are good tools to bolster or supplement the free traffic you are obtaining from your highly optimized Keyword-Focused Content Pages. PPCs can bring you guaranteed, targeted and cheap traffic. Investigate how you can best use them to promote your business after you have created a minimum of 15-20 content pages.

Don’t make the mistake of relaying solely on the PPCs for traffic. High-quality content is what builds momentum.

Directories, on the other hand, won’t drive a ton of traffic to your Web site. Sure, you’ll get some visitors. However, their true value comes through the provision of quality in-pointing links.

As link popularity continues to grow in importance, so too does the importance of a couple of qualifying links. The best major directories and second tier directories offer just such links.

Key point of this DAY?

If you have an immature Web site, you really should investigate a few of the directory options presented in this chapter. You don’t need to spend a lot of money but a couple of decent links will go a long way to keep the SEs spidering.

Before proceeding to the next topic, please complete your DAY 15-18 Goal-of-the-DAY, and take note of your Ongoing Goal...

Ongoing Goal... When your site reaches 15-20 pages, submit to directories. If you build a good site that delivers high-value content, you’ll get into the directories. Being listed in a directory will not generate more traffic but it will provide a quality relevant in-pointing link.

Broaden your PPC bidding until you have placed bids for 100 keywords at the 8 biggest Pay-Per-Clicks (if your ROI justifies it).


Two of the “Big 3” down, one to go…

Turning Tennis Into Checks





Relevant Posts:
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 5
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 6
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 7
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 8
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 9
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 10
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 11
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 12
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 13
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 14
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 15
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 16
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 17

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

I am mentally and emotionally equipped...

I am mentally and emotionally equipped to enjoy a prosperous life.




~.~.~.~. Don't Miss This Opportunity To Earn Passive Income ~.~.~.~

Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 17

Day 17: Build Paid Traffic – Part III

Reminder:
Goal-of-the-DAY... If you have a new site and the Return on Investment justifies it, jump-start your traffic-building efforts by bidding on less popular keywords related to your theme at one of the Pay-Per-Click engines.



8.3. Submit to Major Directories When Financially Appropriate

Directories are a different beast from Search Engines. They do not spider pages.

Instead, a human editor reviews each submitted site and decides whether that site “makes the cut.” Think of directories as gigantic bookmarks of qualified, quality sites, organized into categories and sub-categories.

In the old days, the major directories were able to drive a significant amount of traffic. Today, however, the human-compiled directory model is simply too slow and inefficient to keep up with the rapidly growing Net. Very few surfers use directories to perform their keyword queries because they cannot provide the breadth of diversity and relevance of search results that the major SEs can.

So forget about a directory listing driving zillions of visitors to your site. A directory listing’s value is not the traffic it brings, but the quality of in-pointing links it provides.

The best directories are managed and maintained by human editors. Every site in a directory has met a certain minimum standard of quality. A Search Engine that finds your listing in Dmoz or Yahoo! can be pretty confident that your site belongs in its database. For a new site trying to establish itself and build some link popularity, securing a directory listing is a “must-do” strategy.

It generally costs cold, hard cash to submit to the major directories. But paying the fee does not guarantee that your site will be accepted. So use paid resources wisely, and only when you are sure your site is ready for “prime time.”

While a listing in Yahoo! is quite expensive ($299 annually), the good news is that you can obtain a decent quality in-pointing link from most second tier directories for $15-$30.

My top recommendation?

Wait until you’ve built your site up to at least 15-20 pages before you submit to the directories. If you’d like to err on the side of caution, create 30-40 pages first.

Anything less is likely to be rejected for reasons of insufficient content.

Let’s take a look at the directories…

Zeal.com
http://zeal.com/

Some of you may wish to hold off on the commercialization of your Web site.

This will enable you to submit to the Zeal directory which is free but only open to non-commercial sites.

Why is Zeal important? It provides a back-door entrance to the LookSmart directory. It will provide a decent quality in-pointing link, as well as a smattering of traffic from LookSmart and its directory partners. However, you’ll have to become an editor yourself before you can submit your own site. This can take an hour or two, so be prepared.

The Open Directory (OPD)
http://www.dmoz.org/

The Open Directory provides directory listings to many crawler-based Search Engines which use OPD to supplement their crawler-based results. There’s no charge for submitting your site, which makes this a “no-brainer.”

However, take your time researching the right category for your site, and do not resubmit, even if you are not listed after 6-8 weeks. The OPD is often backlogged, and notoriously slow for adding new sites. Resubmitting may make your site lose its place in the listing queue.

You can check the status of your listing at the public forums…
http://www.resource-zone.com/


Paid Directories

Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com/

Yahoo! is the grand-daddy of all directories. Got a commercial site? Want to list in the “Shopping and Services” or “Business to Business” areas of Yahoo!? You must use Yahoo!'s Business Express service.

This service has a $299 annual recurring fee ($600 for adult sites). That’s enough money to give many budding netrepreneurs pause, and for good reason.

These days, search results default directly to Yahoo!’s own crawler based listings. Relatively few people perform directory and directory drill-down searches, so your listing is unlikely to bring much in the way of traffic.

However, the value of a Yahoo! listing isn't the amount of traffic it will drive, but the quality in-pointing link it provides. New sites looking to establish some critical link popularity may find real value in a Yahoo! listing. A link from Yahoo! is still considered to be one of the best you can get. However, an established site with plenty of in-pointing links may not receive the same value for a listing.

If you do decide to list with Yahoo!, be sure to list your site in the correct category, with your most important keywords in the Title and Description fields.

These elements factor into how Yahoo! ranks your listing for related keyword queries.

Should you list in Yahoo!? Ultimately, that’s a question that only you can answer.

Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to measure the ROI of a Yahoo! directory listing.

Your best strategy is to investigate the free options (Zeal and The Open Directory) and the second tier directories first. They may provide you with all the link popularity you need.

LookSmart
http://listings.looksmart.com/

LookSmart is looking less and less like a directory, and more like an advertising medium, a sort of cross between Overture and Google’s AdWords. To make matters worse, LookSmart has been losing many of major distribution partners of late. As a result, a LookSmart listing is diminishing in value.

Rather than paying a one-time fee for a static directory link, LookSmart charges a review fee plus a minimum cost-per-click of $0.15 for every listing it approves. (They offer two PPC models – a static model and a “bidded” model.)

Like Overture, LookSmart has a minimum monthly spending amount. Listings that do not reach that benchmark will be charged the difference. Listings that use up their ad budget before the month end are taken offline unless the account is topped up.

Best advice?

Investigate LookSmart as an advertising option but keep in mind that it’s becoming less and less valuable as a source of an in-pointing link. Wait until you’re “up and running” and have determined your ROI before you seriously consider LookSmart. Their service pales in comparison to the power and flexibility offered by Google’s AdWords, a much better alternative.


Second Tier Directories.

Second tier directories are not quite on par with the majors. That shouldn’t deter you, though. Remember you’re not after traffic from these directories. You want the in-pointing link.

In some ways, second tier directories offer greater value than the majors.

Submission costs, for example, are quite reasonable -- between $15 and $30 will get you in, usually within a couple of days. Because they are not as congested, it’s easier to obtain the listing you want, higher up in the directory hierarchy (i.e., a listing in Health > Weight Loss is more desirable than a listing in Health > Weight Loss > Supplements). Even though these directories are not as highly trafficked, it will be easier for your visitors to find your site.

Bottom line recommendation?

Second tier directories offer Webmasters a cost-effective means to build their link popularity quickly. Well worthwhile, and highly recommended!

Here are some smaller directories that are worth considering...

JoeAnt
http://www.joeant.com/

GoGuides
http://www.goguides.org

Business.com
http://www.business.com/

Gimpsy
http://www.gimpsy.com/

Blue Find
http://www.bluefind.com/

Skaffe.com
http://www.skaffe.com/

SevenSeek
http://www.sevenseek.com/

Wow Search Directory
http://www.wowdirectory.com/


Automatic Directories

You are automatically listed in the following directories when you submit to another one, as shown here...

AOL Search -- you are listed automatically in AOL’s directory when you submit to Open Directory.

MSN Search -- you are listed automatically in MSN’s directory when you submit to LookSmart.

Netscape Search -- you are listed automatically in Netscape’s directory when you submit to Open Directory.

Ask Jeeves -- you are automatically submitted to Ask Jeeves' directory when you submit to Open Directory. It also lists its own (Teoma-generated) results prominently.

More tips to be shared in the next posts…

Who Needs Traffic!





Relevant Posts:
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 5
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 6
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 7
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 8
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 9
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 10
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 11
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 12
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 13
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 14
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 15
Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 16