Showing posts with label Google Adsense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Adsense. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

10 Most Valuable Free Google Marketing Tools


Google has become the dominant search engine on the Internet.
It would be hard to imagine a web without Google. For that
matter, it would now be hard to imagine a world without Google.
As frightening as that may seem to many people, it is none the
less true.
For better or worst, Google has permeated into almost every aspect
of our everyday life. Being Googled is now a common expression and
an act carried out by millions of users around the world each day.
New Google products and services are coming on stream at a frightening
pace, further increasing Google's impact on our lives.
Despite this dominating presence, many people still don't realize
Google offers some excellent free marketing tools for marketers
and webmasters. Marketing tools which can prove extremely valuable
to any webmaster or marketer trying to promote their sites or
products online. Useful tools that will make your promotions
easier and much more profitable.
Don't be fooled by the 'free' label, these marketing tools
might be free but there are also valuable. One even wonders
why Google would be giving away these tools and services for
free? It probably makes good business sense in the long
run, by providing these free tools Google is fostering a
lot of company good-will and building up the Google brand
name in the process. Good PR is good business.
Every marketer and webmaster should be taking advantage of
Google's good-will and snapping up these professionally run
services and marketing tools. Here's a quick run-down of
the 10 most valuable free Google Internet marketing tools:
1. Google Analytics
Perhaps the premier marketing tool offered by Google.
It will prove helpful to both the marketer and the webmaster.
Google Analytics gives you a daily snapshot of your web site. Google
Analytics analyzes your traffic, where it comes from and what it does
once it enters your site. You can monitor up to three sites
for free.
Google Analytics is extremely valuable in analyzing your
marketing funnel, it tracks all the steps leading up to your
sales or checkout page. Vital information for raising
your conversion rate and ROI.
You may be placed on a waiting list for this highly in
demand service from Google.
2. Google Sitemaps
Webmasters can use Google Sitemaps to almost instantly place
newly created pages on their site into the Google Search Index.
This is an XML file that is uploaded to Google as new pages
are added on your site. Needless to say this can be a valuable
service for any webmaster or marketer who wants to get their
information on the web quickly.
3. Google Alerts
Be notified when someone or another site lists your site
or mentions your name. Great way to keep track of all your
online activities. Great way to monitor all your online
business interests and products.
4. Google Froogle
Froogle is Google's price directory! It simply lists all
the cheapest prices for different products on the web.
For marketers and webmasters who are promoting products,
it should be studied and analyzed. Optimizing your
site's content for Froogle may prove to be very beneficial.
Follow Froogle or Google directions exactly on how to
list or display products on your site. Froogle will
spider your site and display your prices and products
to thousands of targeted customers. That, as they say,
is priceless.
5. Google Checkout
Not exactly free but for those marketers who use AdWords
--- for every $1 spent on AdWords you can process $10 for free.
You can also place the shopping cart logo on your AdWords ad
and take advantage of the prestige and trust the Google
brand name has built up.
Over time marketers may find this tool to be very
effective and valuable.
6. Google eBlogger
Blogging has become vitally important to the health and
functioning of your web site. No site should be without
at least one blog and RSS feed. Creating a blog (online journal)
on the topic of your web site or product will bring in extra traffic
and targeted customers. eBlogger is a simple free
blogging service that even lets you publish or post your blog
files to your own web site server. Keep in mind, each blog
has that all important Google Blog Search bar.
7. Google Toolbar - Enterprise Version
Try the new enterprise version of the Google Toolbar
for your company or business. Integrates countless
features with all your employees or corporate
network. These could include a common customer
database, company calendar, financial news...
Keep in mind, Google also ranks every page it indexes on
a scale of 0-10. While it is important to know the Page Rank of
your own pages, it is even more important to know the PR of
your competitor's pages. You can use the toolbar to get
the PR of each page you're visiting. Extremely helpful
information for webmasters and marketers to know when
forming online linking or business arrangements.
8. Google Groups
Every marketer knows the important of having a large
contact list of people with a similar interest. Social
networking will play an ever increasing role in your
success on the web. Just look at the growing popularity
of sites like MySpace and LiveJournal.
Google groups is another form of social and business
networking that every marketer should be aware of and
pursuing.
9. Google AdSense
One simple way to monetize your web content is to
use Google Adsense. Just place the AdSense code
on your site and receive a check from Google each
month. For webmasters who are not really into
online marketing (does such creatures exist?) AdSense
can be a painless way to earn extra income from
your site.
For professional marketers using the AdSense system can
supply a tremendous amount of marketing information on the
keywords in their particular niche. It keeps the
marketer informed on what keywords are being bid
on and how much advertisers are willing to pay.
AdSense also has an excellent real-time tracking
system you can use to keep track of all your
important web pages.
10. Google Writely
A recent addition to Google's stable of free products.
Writely is a full featured online writing editor with
spellcheck and great collaborating features. It also
lets you publish your content directly to your blogs.
One feature that may be of interest to marketers, it lets
your save files in the popular download format of PDF.
Lets face it, until video takes over the web in four
or five years time --- the written word is still king on the
net. It is the medium that markets, promotes and sells
your content or products. Writely will help you write better.
Honorable Mention - Google Trends
This Google program will let you search popular trends,
important for marketers searching for the latest hot
product to promote. You can also break down these trends
by different regions.
Final Note
Please take note that signing up for a Google account will
usually help you in obtaining most of these free services or
programs. Some of these programs may have to be applied for
individually. But be assured, all these free Google marketing
tools are well worth your time and effort. They will make your
marketing easier and they will help any webmaster or marketer
run their online business more efficiently.
By Titus Hoskins.  Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/315038

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

How To Make Money Blogging With Google Adsense And Affiliate Marketing

It’s important to understand how to use Google AdSense (or similar ad networks) and affiliate links effectively in order to make money blogging. But which advertising technique makes more money?
This article will show when to use Google AdSense ads, and when to use affiliate links to maximize your blog’s ROI (Return on Investment).
Before we compare and contrast each method of advertising, it is important to note that neither will work withouthigh quality content to drive targeted traffic.
High quality content is what drives engaged visitors in sufficient numbers to make blogging, as a business activity, worthwhile financially.
How to choose the best advertising technique
The type of content on your blog plays a pivotal role in which type of advertising is more effective. Successful advertising requires relevant, or targeted, ads shown to as many people as possible.
The relevance of an ad is determined by the subject matter of the content on a webpage.
Focused content and good SEO mean that search engines will send traffic based on the search keywords used.
Only people who are predisposed to reading your content find it in the first place, via search. That’s why implementing killer SEO is so important.
If your advertising strategy is properly implemented, then people reading your content are predisposed to clicking on ads or affiliate links because they offer products and services they are already interested in, generating revenue in the process.
Google AdSense ads
Google AdSense is an ad serving network that allows you to create custom ads and ad channels, and display text, image or rich ads using embeddable code snippets.
AdSense ads are easy to customize and configure so that they integrate seamlessly into your blog. However, there are limits to this configuration. For example, it is not possible to select custom ad sizes.
Google’s embedded ad code snippets analyze the content of the pages they are in, as well as the demographics of the visitors, and select the best ads to display from their vast, global stable of advertisers.
Advantages of Google AdSense:
·        Contextually aware
·        Geographically targeted
·        Easy-to-implement
·        Displays international ads
·        High CPC (Cost Per Click)
·        Large network of advertisers
All of the above points make Google AdSense a great option for anyone looking for low maintenance, targeted ads.
However, Google AdSense may not be the best option for everyone.
Disadvantages of Google AdSense:
AdSense doesn’t always get the contextually aware part entirely correct. For example, a blog on African wildlife and conservation may result in Google displaying ads for hunting safaris – obviously not appropriate for people who care about animals.
It is possible to block ads by various criteria, but it can be difficult to do this ahead of time (i.e. you may only find out about an offending ad once it is already displaying on your blog).
Also, while AdSense has a huge network of advertisers, it may be that it struggles to find the right advertisers in your particular niche. In which case, it may show more generic, less effective ads, and revenue will drop.
It’s also not possible to control pricing. A highly focused blog may not generate large volumes of traffic, so it becomes important to have a high CPC (Cost Per Click). This can be difficult to achieve with AdSense.
Affiliate marketing
Many online retailers and other businesses offer affiliate partnerships to help market their products and services. In return, affiliates receive a share in the profits.
Be warned that affiliate marketing is likely to undergo some big changes in the latter half of 2012 as a result of Google’s announcement that it will display paid product search results above organic search results.
The most successful of all affiliate programs is Amazon associates. But, there are also several large affiliate networks offering affiliate relationships with a wide range of businesses in a wide range of categories.
If you haven’t already, check out:
·        Commission Junction
·        LinkShare
·        Google Affiliate Network
Adding affiliate links and ads to your content allows for fine-grained control, but it comes at a price…
Advantages of affiliate marketing:
·        Manually targeted
·        Easy to use
·        Control over which ads and links display
·        Ability to select ads based on payout
·        Ability to select advertisers based on performance
In effect, affiliate ads give you complete control – you can decide which product or service to show at a particular point in, on, or around your content.
Disadvantages of affiliate marketing:
The primary disadvantage of affiliate links is that payout is not determined by clicks. While Google ads pay you whenever someone clicks on the ad, a click on an affiliate link has to result in a defined conversion before payment is made.
Visitors who click on an affiliate link may decide not to purchase the product or service displayed on the target page. In which case, not only is there no revenue, but the visitor has also left your site (most likely never to return).
While payouts can be very high for a conversion (in some cases, thousands of dollars), the conversion rate may be very low.
Affiliate links may also not be appropriate for international visitors. For example, a business may only serve customers in the U.S, in which case, the affiliate ad is effectively wasted space for anyone outside the U.S.
Which advertising method makes more money?
The answer depends on the type of content, and the audience.
While affiliate marketing has many disadvantages, its main advantage is that it has a relatively high payout per action. If you are able to focus your content and reach the audience you intend, then affiliate links are an ideal advertising method because it is likely that you will achieve a fairly high EPC (Earning Per 100 Clicks).
If your audience is less defined and more dispersed, then AdSense offers great advantages in terms of providing nicely targeted ads without requiring effort on your part.
In general, I use Google AdSense to bring in my baseline ad earnings – earnings that tick over nicely on a daily basis. I use affiliate links when I know precisely who the visitor is, and what they are looking for.
I hope this article has helped clarify which advertising technique, or combination of advertising techniques is right for your blog.
How do you use advertising to make money blogging? Are you selling your own ad space? Which advertising technique is the most effective on your blog, and why do you think this is the case? Share your advertising experiences in the comments or join the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Author: David Mercer; Article source: http://www.business2community.com/blogging/how-to-make-money-blogging-with-google-adsense-and-affiliate-marketing-0202802



 
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