Top 3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions Overnight

The ideal world of affiliate marketing does not require having your won website, dealing with customers, refunds, product development and maintenance. This is one of the easiest ways of launching into an online business and earning more profits.

Assuming you are already into an affiliate program, what would be the next thing you would want to do? Double, or even triple, your commissions, right? How do you do that?

Here are some powerful tips on how to boost your affiliate program commissions overnight.

1) Know the best program and products to promote. Obviously, you would want to promote a program that will enable you to achieve the greatest profits in the shortest possible time.

There are several factors to consider in selecting such a program. Choose the ones that have a generous commission structure. Have products that fit in with your target audience. And that has a solid track record of paying their affiliate easily and on time. If you cannot seem to increase your investments, dump that program and keep looking for better ones.

There are thousands of affiliate programs online which gives you the reason to be picky. You may want to select the best to avoid losing your advertising dollars.

Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your site. There is a great possibility that you are competing with other affiliates that are promoting the same program. If you start writing short report related to the product you are promoting, you will be able to distinguish yourself from the other affiliates.

In the reports, provide some valuable information for free. If possible, add some recommendations about the products. With ebooks, you get credibility. Customers will see that in you and they will be enticed to try out what you are offering.

2) Collect and save the email addresses of those who download your free ebooks. It is a known fact that people do not make a purchase on the first solicitation. You may want to send out your message more than six times to make a sale.

This is the simple reason why you should collect the contact information of those who downloaded your reports and ebooks. You can make follow-ups on these contacts to remind them to make a purchase from you.

Get the contact information of a prospect before sending them to the vendor’s website. Keep in mind that you are providing free advertisement for the product owners. You get paid only when you make a sale. If you send prospects directly to the vendors, chances are they would be lost to you forever.

But when you get their names, you can always send other marketing messages to them to be able to earn an ongoing commission instead of a one-time sale only.

Publish an online newsletter or Ezine. It is always best to recommend a product to someone you know than to sell to a stranger. This is the purpose behind publishing your own newsletter. This also allows you to develop a relationship based on trust with your subscribers.

This strategy is a delicate balance between providing useful information with a sales pitch. If you continue to write informative editorials you will be able to build a sense of reciprocity in your readers that may lead them to support you by buying your products.

3) Ask for higher than normal commission from merchants. If you are already successful with a particular promotion, you should try and approach the merchant and negotiate a percentage commission for your sales.

If the merchant is smart, he or she will likely grant your request rather than lose a valuable asset in you. Keep in mind that you are a zero-risk investment to your merchant; so do not be shy about requesting for addition in your commissions. Just try to be reasonable about it.

Write strong pay Per Click ads. PPC search engine is the most effective means of advertising online. As an affiliate, you can make a small income just by managing PPC campaigns such as Google AdWords and Overture. Then you should try and monitor them to see which ads are more effective and which ones to dispose of.

Try out these strategies and see the difference it can make to your commission checks in the shortest of time.

Affiliate Marketing: Why is it One of the Most Cost-Effective Ways to Advertise your Business

Ever heard of affiliate programs? These are forms of Internet advertising that rewards the affiliates for driving traffic to the advertiser or for other transactions. The advertiser pays the affiliate to place a link on their website, and the affiliate sends traffic to the advertiser in return. Simply put, it's about paying commissions to people who help you make sales. It's that easy. NOT.

Affiliate marketing has its ups and downs. It could be draining if you are not armed with updated information and the technical how-tos. But this article's sole objective is to reach out to you and not to badmouth affiliate marketing.

Here are the following reasons on why web marketers go gaga over affiliate marketing as a form of Internet advertisement.

1) Low cost

Many are scared to go on a home based business because of the capital required. In affiliate marketing, you don't have to spend much to start raking in moolah.

2) Inventories not included

Product management fuss could be very stressing. An inventory is not asked to be maintained. The merchant does the maintenance required.

3) Unlimited income through leverage

When you have a paid job, your monthly income mainly relies on whether you go to work or not. With affiliate marketing, your affiliates could all just lead traffic to your site without having to lift a finger after providing them your ad copy and links. Though not every web marketer earns limitless, it still is a fact that all the necessary matters for the advertiser or Internet marketer are all there to be successful.

4) Go worldwide

With affiliate marketing, you are dealing with a global market place. All you have to do is choose a niche product and prepare all the necessary tools for your affiliates to lead traffic from just about anywhere to your website.

5) Low risk

The very main reason for Internet marketer's enthusiasm with affiliate marketing is its having a low risk factor. Especially for those with low budget set aside for advertising, affiliate marketing is just the way to do it.

6. No closing time

With affiliate marketing, your business works every single second of the day while targeting a worldwide market! What could be better than that?

But all of these will be put to waste if you don't have the right niche product and all the other important tools to make it big in affiliate marketing, i.e., well-SEO-ed website. So better work on this first before ever considering those benefits.

Using Google Adwords To Drive Laser Targeted Traffic

The biggest well known secret in generating wealth in the internet based business or e-commerce is Traffic. Everybody knows it; every site wants it and every site needs it. The point of websites is to be visited and viewed. Many elaborate designs, money and countless hours of developing a site to make them beautiful and attractive are utilized. Without traffic, it is for naught.

With traffic comes a potential customer which basically means sales which in turn means profit. While many sites have collapsed in the past with the downturn of many internet based business, many smaller sites have generated good money by concentrating on a certain niche and some subniches.

This is a reason why e-commerce site laser target certain groups of people and drive them to their site to showcase their sites and products. Precision marketing is essential so that you could count on all the traffic on your site as potential customers.

Using Money to Make Money

It’s a common business notion that if you want to make money, you have to spend money. One good way of spending money for business gain is through advertising. Advertising brings in the people because through advertising, they know that there is such a company or product in existence. With the right type of advertising, you can see the spurt of traffic growth to your site. With a high volume of traffic, even if only a small portion or percentage turns out to be buying customers it is still a good average of profit generating income.

Right now, there is no other advertising scheme that would be worth every cent than using Google’s Adwords. The surge in popularity of Google’s Adwords is very evident as you can see so many sites sporting this ad scheme.

In using Google's Adwords, you pay a certain fee depending on the number of keywords your ad is keyword sensitive to. Each time a person does a search in Google, the keyword or keywords use generate ads in the side of Google which are generated by the keywords they have assigned for their ads.

This method laser targets the traffic a site wants for their site. This also ensures that you are readily visible in the first page of a search result. Paying Google for this ad scheme ensures that your target group of people sees your ads. You drive your laser targeted traffic to your site which provides for their needs and wants. You can also be sure that you can meet their demands and needs.

Aside from Google, you can also be featured in their other search networks, these includes sites like, AskJeeves, AOL Search and Netscape. These sites also show Adwords ads that react to searches done by visitors. There are also content networks, non-search engine sites that feature Google Adwords, which will also carry your ads. But this is subjected to the niche the site features. Your chosen keywords will determine which content network shall feature your ad. The frequency of your ad shall also be determined by your allowed budget.

Laser Targeting your Traffic

To get a good number or estimate of the traffic to buying customer ratio it is good to laser target your traffic. Knowing that your traffic are all potential customers and are interested in your products and company provides you with a more accurate statistics. This will show you how effective your utilizing of Google Adwords is.

Drive laser targeted traffic to your site by using keywords or keyword phrases for your Goggle Adwords that pertains to your company and to your products. There are many online internet tools that can help you in choosing keywords and keyword phrases that are currently in demand that could help drive laser targeted traffic to your site.

With your Google Adwords ad, you are ensured that every click to your ad is a potential customer that is precisely looking pr interested in what you have to offer. Make sure that your Google Adwords ad has the right keywords so that you can drive you're laser targeted traffic to your site.

Using Google Adwords to help boost the drive to increase laser targeted traffic will prove to be very beneficial as many other companies can attest to. The benefits are high with the cost relatively justifiable.

Top 5 Ways To Generate Low Cost Website Traffic

There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating an income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.

BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.

Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic top their site? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.

Here I present to you the Top five ways to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.

Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.

Traffic Exchange

This is like exchanging links but on a different higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic, while you earn credits when someone views yours.

Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another’s site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so can you to his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias in the internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.

Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

Make a Newsletter.

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.

As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

7 Surefire Ways To Increase Your Traffic Starting Yesterday

Internet. Business. Profit. To fully integrate all of these words into a successful merging you will need another word. Traffic. Every article you will find about making your site or company successful would always include the importance of generating traffic.

So, we all know that in the core of it all, traffic is the most essential thing to a successful internet based business company. Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and you have your company’s internal organization well taken core of, it would be time to get to the nitty gritty of things, generating traffic.

If you already have a site and you want think that you're not getting the traffic that you're supposed to be getting, then its time to reconsider. If you are contending in these very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been done starting yesterday.

Timing is essential, that’s an old adage known to everyone. But with generating traffic, you should always be on your toes and be a day ahead of everyone. Never think of today and tomorrow as a starting point for making your site traffic laden, it should always have been yesterday.

To help you out in generating more traffic for your site, here are some seven surefire ways to increase your traffic starting from yesterday.

1) Invest in good advertising with search engines

Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great advertising schemes that are very truly popular and assures great traffic. Although with this surefire way to increase your traffic would cost some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords and Overture is the top surefire way to increase your traffic.

You could see for yourself the success this search engine advertising methods have reaped rewards for so many companies. Lots of site feature these advertising system and many have signed on to reap the benefits. Do not be left behind. Every penny is worth it with using Google and Yahoo’s advertising.

2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites

With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit from the efforts both of you do to enhance your sites traffic. When one site features another sites link, they could provide one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected.

3) Use Viral Marketing 

Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs or if ever low costs only. This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people.

4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you.

5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link.

6) Join forums and form online communities

Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

7) Lastly, Offer newsletters. 

If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic.

How To Monetize Your Traffic So You Get The Most Out Of It

Establishing your own E-commerce site is not like what it used to be. There are thousands of competition that is all too willing to get a bigger share of the pie. Every scheme and method you can find to augment your sales would be very beneficial.

We have got to admit to ourselves. Most of us are into it for the money. We are not going to waste our time and effort just for the fun of it. Many sites would not wait until hell freezes over just to see their profits. While there are some who takes things lightly there are always those who would rather see profit any given day.

It is common knowledge that without traffic we have no business. Like any business, without any customers you don’t get sales. Traffic represents all the people that gets a chance to see what you have to offer. The more people who see your products the more people there would be to buy them.

Nobody puts up an E-commerce site that doesn’t expect profit. We have a startup capital that needs to be regained. With a consistent traffic, we at least have a fighting chance to achieve that probability. Monetizing your traffic would optimize your chances of making the best out of it.

Making Money out of your Traffic

The best and most proven method of making a profit out of your traffic is using advertising. The internet generates hundreds of thousands upon hundred of thousands of traffic everyday. Most of them are searching for something. While some are just looking for information there is also a good percentage that is looking for something that they need.

The internet has proven to be a very reliable source in finding what was deemed to be a very unsearchable product. The internet has made the world a smaller place; you can advertise a product from the depths of Istanbul and still find a buyer from the center of Philadelphia.

Generating traffic is not an easy task. You have to contend with a great number of sites to generate a good number of traffic flow. But if done successfully this could open up a Pandora’s Box of possibilities. One of the benefits is monetizing your traffic flow.

So, to get to the core of it the more traffic you generate the more likely you are considered as a desirable, desirable, in a sense that a good traffic flowing site is easily convertible to profit. Basically traffic equals profit. Advertising is the name of the game; with the good advertising scheme you can use your traffic flow to your advantage.

When you have good traffic you have a good number of potential customers, customers that are willing to pour money into your coffers. Other than that these are also traffic that can be redirected to sponsored links that are willing to pay you for a sizeable portion of the traffic that you have generated.

This scheme is called “pay-per-click”. With every click a visitor of your site makes on an advertised link you will be paid. The more traffic you generate and the more clicks that happens would spell to more profits.

Affiliate Programs

Another method of monetizing your traffic are affiliate programs. You can link up with other tried and tested sites and online companies and monetize your traffic by having a percentage of sales generated by traffic coming from your site.

The basic idea is, traffic generated from your site will go to another site that can offer a product that you do not carry. Many programs can keep track and make records of transactions that was made possible because of site linkage.

When purchases are made by customers that was led by your site to their site you get a percentage of that sale. Affiliate programs would give you the benefit of monetizing your traffic without the actual need of carrying or promoting a certain product.

There are so many ways and methods to monetize your traffic. All it takes is a bit of hard work and the desire to successfully launch a profit-earning site. The internet is a veritable source of information, many tips and guides are offered everywhere in how to monetize your traffic and make your site a good profit earner.

How To Generate Traffic Using Only Free Methods

Putting up a company would of course require a lot of things, to get straight to the point, you need a capital. To make money requires money as well. But of course, with the versatility the internet offers, there are many ways you could find that could help optimize the potential of your site or business in generating traffic.

While there are ways to jumpstart your traffic flows, many sites don’t have the resources that others have to generate more traffic for your site. Well, you don’t have to spend a cent; all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You also must have the drive and perseverance to do hard work and research to generate more traffic for your site.

How sweet it is to have more traffic for your site without spending a single cent.  Now it’s a sure thing that many sites have articles that offer tips and guidelines in how to generate traffic using only free methods. Because it is possible, you don’t need to speed a single cent, it may take time, to say honestly, I’m not going to beat around the bush with you. You get better chances by paying for your advertisements, but at least you get a fighting chance with some of these free methods I’m about to tell you.

Take advantage of online forums and online communities. The great thing about forums and online communities is that you can target a certain group that fits the certain demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss about lots of things about the niche that you represent or offer.  Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them with your range of expertise about the subject, with that you can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your expertise and knowledge.

You can also make use of newsletters. Provide people with a catalog of your products and interesting and entertaining articles. If you make it really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who signs up for your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site increasing your traffic.

Another great idea is trading links with other sites. You don’t have to spend a cent. All you have to do is reach an agreement with another webmaster. With exchanging links, the efforts both sites do will benefit both sites. Every traffic that goes to the site could potentially click on the link of your site and visit your site as well. This works well especially when both sites feature the same niche.

Write articles that could pique the attention of people that have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge to other people would provide the necessary mileage your traffic flow needs.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. When people find interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a link or a brief description of your company with the article and there’s a great probability that they will go to your site.

Write good content for your site. Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not a requirement that a content should be done by a professional content writer. You could do your on but you have to make content for your site that is entertaining as well as informational. It should provide certain requirements as well as great quality.
Generally, internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword searching in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs.

All of these methods and more will drive more traffic to your site for free. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man hours. Learn all you can about the methods depicted here and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual costs that come with it.

Effectively Using Overture/Yahoo To Get Website Visitors

Overture or now known as Yahoo because of Yahoo’s takeover, was the original inventor of the use of the P4P or Pay for Performance. Overture saw that the internet was fast becoming the easiest and most convenient way to shop, and advertising was going to hit at an all time high because of the many businesses in the arena.

To get a person to go to a site than others, it needs to be very visible. Providing ads that could direct potential consumers and costumers to their site would allow them to have an increase in traffic as well as sales. Yahoo provides a service that can put a site or company’s ad in their sites that can be shown when certain keywords are inputted.

Yahoo offers a chance for any company to increase their traffic by using their services. With more people being aware of your site, there would be more traffic and visitors to your site given the chance to view your pages as well as your products. With even a small percentage of successful sales, with a high traffic volume this could still be a substantial figure for your company.

Getting a consistent substantial flow of website visitors is every company’s goal. Many methods are devised and utilized to ensure that there would be more people to boost the sales and to be aware of the existence of such a product or service. Website visitors are potentially the life blood of your internet based business.

Yahoo/Overture utilizes the same principle as Google’s Adwords. In fact, they are very similar to each other that they use keyword and keyword phrase searches and to determine which ads to show per search. When a person types in a keyword or keyword phrase to search for anything, the search engines gives out the results in a page. Then at the right side of the page, you will see selected ads that have paid for their ads to be viewed with certain keywords and keyword phrases searched.

For example, Lets say you run a car parts retail/wholesale site. You choose keywords that can prompt or trigger your ads to be shown in the page when a keyword is searched. When a search engine user types in Honda Accord, your ad may come up if you have designated that as one of your keywords. You don’t need to fully optimize your site with Search Engine Optimization methods and techniques.

While some labor so hard to make their site one of the high ranking sites per keyword search, you get the chance to be on the top of the list or at least in the first page of a search result increasing your chance to be clicked on. With that, you drive traffic and website visitors to your site a lot faster.

You will have to pony up some cash when using this service though. There are different ways Yahoo/Overture will charge you. It may be in the number of Keywords or Keyword phrases your ad uses or in the many times your ad is clicked on. Others offer many other services like having your ad show up not only in the search engine pages but also with some third party sites.

Third party sites support ads that have the same theme or niche as them. With more areas your ad is shown, you increase the chances of people knowing about your site or product. With more website visitors you increase the sales of your site which makes your investment with your ads a wise one.

With so many competitions in the internet based businesses, it is necessary to take a huge leap forward from the pack by advertising. Yahoo/Overture will be a great place to start. Many have utilized their services and have reaped the rewards of this decision. It’s a marketing strategy that will increase your website visitors as well as increase your sales resulting to profit.

It takes money to make money, while there are some methods that are basically low cost or free, using a marketing service such as what Yahoo/Overture offers will provide results faster and on a larger scale. Many businesses have learned this the hard way, don’t be counted with them.

Utilizing the secrets of opti lists

Emails are replacing regular mails from the post office. Not only because it is cheaper, since you do not need to buy a stamp, it’s also definitely faster. Emails can be sent in as fast as five seconds, depending on the server, anywhere in the world.

No doubt emails are being used to distribute news letters, promotional mails, and other stuff. How then would you be able to round up email addresses to send those marketing mails you have? Here is where an opt-in list comes in.

An opt-in list is a directory of email address you can send to those mails to. Though it seems to be easy to find email addresses, if you are talking thousands in numbers, it is going to be hard. Besides, you have to determine the recipient of the email. You wouldn’t want your readers mostly male if you are selling lipsticks, right?

A good opt-in list should include the profile of the email address owner. Here are tips on how to create a comprehensive opt-in list for target market.

Create your website.
Creating a website is made simple nowadays. A lot of programs are milling about assisting regular computer users in making and maintaining websites in a real simple way. Some website creator just needs you to cut and paste, like that of a regular paint program. Several web hosting sites are available too. Some are even free. If you have a site of your own, you can ask visitors to register with you or sign your guest book as they leave.

Set up a promotion or a freebie.
Not all the best things in life are free, as they say. But you can definitely try to give something out for sure. You can see this done all over the web. Free screensavers, free games, free download of programs. And what do they need from you? They just ask for an email address, your name and a little something more about you. Then you can place a check box on the registration form for sending of email. For sure, you can think of something to give out as well.

Write and write some more.
There are some web magazines where in readers can submit their writings for a particular topic. If you had a chance to do so, add a link to your article providing information about what you are trying to promote. Some readers of your article may enjoy your work so much they’d like to contact you, so don’t forget to leave your email address too.

Pose an easy opt-out option.
People who like to join your opt-in list would, along the way may want to opt out of it somehow. People who are wary of joining may not join at all if they see that it would be near impossible to remove their email address from the listing. Show them that it is as easy to opt-out as it is opting in.

Check other’s strategy too.
It would be better if you can find a partner in generating an opt-in list. This way, you can split the expenses and both of you can share the list generated. It will be best to partner with a company that has a business similar to your own line. Both of you can profit more should that be the case.

Use offline ways too.
You can put up a small raffle preferably in a supermarket for a certain item they buy. You can place an email address opt-in part in the raffle entry to add to your list. This way, you’d also know the buying preferences of the participants if you mark the entries systemically.

Creating an opt-in list entails a lot of work and funds. You should outline how much you will spend in creating an opt-in list. People appearing at opt-in lists are sales prospects. They are those interested in a certain product that you may be selling. Obtaining an optimal opt-in list would boost your sales up so these tools are undoubtedly essential.

Acquire an opt-in list now or generate one. Either way, you are reaching to people that can be your one of your treasured customers for a long period time.

Building opt in list and affiliate marketing - effective internet marketing plan

Building opt in list and affiliate marketing have become synonymous to online success as an effective internet marketing strategy. For many online sites, building opt in list and affiliate marketing have proven quite profitable. Primarily because most online users are not exposed to any unscrupulous internet marketing strategies prevalent on the World Wide Web.

As an effective Internet marketing strategy, users are given the option to signup for information or service provided by a particular site. Building opt in list and affiliate marketing reduces the risk of spamming since the recipient voluntarily chooses to receive emails from a website. Plus, building opt in list and affiliate marketing provides a direct link to the subscriber that will help shape a formidable customer relationship that will keep on going.

The basics of building opt in list and affiliate marketing

Different websites have different ways of building opt in list and affiliate marketing. However there are some tried and tested formulas to help new affiliate marketers develop their own opt in listing for their site. The first and most important factor to determine in building opt in list and affiliate marketing is to establish the site's target market.

Once the target market is established, building opt in list and affiliate marketing can be customized to meet their demands. This can be done using a variety of methods to convince site visitors to sign up for the site's newsletter or e-zine. After signing up, the customer will begin to receive a variety of newsletters, e-zines and brochures that the customer had registered for.

Strategies for building opt in list and affiliate marketing

There are a number of strategies that affiliate marketers can use for building opt in list and affiliate marketing. One way of building opt in list and affiliate marketing is by purchasing or leasing a subscribers list from third-parties. This is usually done by affiliate marketers in order to get easy access to many people who have consented to receiving e-mails, newsletters and e-zines on various topics.

Although it is the fastest approach to building opt in list and affiliate marketing, this method does not provide a focused consumer group for building opt in list and affiliate marketing. In addition, it may cost an affiliate marketer more than what they expect to receive in sales. Fortunately, there are other ways for affiliate marketers to get the most out of building opt in list and affiliate marketing.

Enlisting for co-registration services is great for building opt in list and affiliate marketing. This service usually costs about 10 cents to 30 cents per subscriber but it easily translates into an average of three hundred subscribers daily to an affiliate marketer's opt in list.

Writing articles is also an effective strategy for building opt in list and affiliate marketing. The articles can be published in various newsletters with specific links to the affiliate marketer's site. This serves as a great introduction to potential subscribers that would encourage them to sign up for an opt in list.

Joint ventures are also a valuable strategy in building opt in list and affiliate marketing. Joint ventures are a hundred percent free and at the same time can add up to hundreds of subscribers to an opt in list daily.

Incentives for building opt in list and affiliate marketing

Building opt in list and affiliate marketing can also be encouraged by offering incentives to potential subscribers. This subtle form of encouragement for building opt in list and affiliate marketing often helps stir the interest of potential subscribers to sign up for the opt in list. There are a number of methods used in affiliate marketing to egg on potential subscribers to sign up.

Offering products and services in exchange for signing up is commonly practiced by many affiliate websites. Products may include special e-books or software that would be of interest to the subscriber. Another way to get subscribers to sign up is to offer them special services that are only available for site members.

Regardless of the incentive used for building opt in list and affiliate marketing, the most important factor to consider is how to keep the interest of the subscriber. Remember, it is just as easy for a subscriber to opt out of the list as it was to opt in to the list.

Building and managing an opt in list for a website

Building and managing an opt in list for a website provides a seller direct access to a wide number of potential customers. Building and managing an opt in list makes use of a system that makes it possible for website visitors to fill up an online form in order to sign up for the latest products and services offered by an online site.

Building and managing an opt in list is commonly practiced by numerous sites on the Internet to maximize their visibility on the world wide web. Building and managing an opt in list is also a proven marketing technique that many business websites use again and again to keep loyal visitors updated on the latest products available from their favorite e-store.

Building and managing an opt in list is also useful for websites that provide news, technology and various forms of information on different subject matters. Visitors that sign up at their favorite website's opt in list can receive updates on products and services offered by the site. In addition the subscriber gains access to the site's regular ezine or newsletter.

The opt-in mailing list provided by a website is not spam, it is a legitimate sign up program for individuals sincerely interested in a website's products and services. No one is included in the opt-in mailing list without prior consent.

Gathering email addresses for building and managing an opt in list

A number of free listing services are available on the Internet to gather email addresses for a website's opt in list. However many of these free list services cannot be personalized to suit a specific site. In addition, the free service list has the option of shutting down a website's list at whatever time they choose to do so.

A better method for building and managing an opt in list begins with a good script for form processing. The script allows a subscriber to fill in a form and send it in to a specific address. The information is then processed and included in a database file.
After that, the website can send a personalized reply to the subscriber to thank them for their subscription to the site.

The online form to be filled up by a customer can also be customized to fit the format of a specific site. There are a number of websites that offer form-processing scripts wherein the generally cost price of a good script is about $30.

A pop email account should be created on the website's server in order to accommodate the influx of subscription requests. Email templates will also make the process of handling subscription request easier and faster. This will include an email template for subscription requests and possible requests from subscribers that want to unsubscribe from the Website opt in list. The option to unsubscribe helps build trust between the site visitor and the website.

Building and managing an opt in list database

Creating a database is essential in building and managing an opt in list for a website. There are a number of database programs offered on the Internet that can help process the information sent in for subscriptions. Once the database is set up, a mailing list needs to be generated. This process is essential to building and managing an opt list that will continually process subscription requests from site visitors.

A database program will automatically enable a website to attend to all the details involved in building and managing an opt in list. At the same time, easy access to a subscriber's personal information allows a website to send personalized messages to a specific subscriber at any time.

Building and managing an opt in list subscriber base

Websites can employ a number of methods for building and managing an opt in list subscriber base. Putting up incentives are a great come on for building and managing an opt in list. Offering a free gift as well as providing free services with each subscription is a great technique for building and managing an opt in list. Online contests are also a very popular way of getting people to join a website opt-in list. In addition, prizes that are related to the website's content also help generate interest in the other products and services offered by the site.

Remember, building and managing an opt in list is the ideal and simplest option to increase website traffic.

Building Your Business with an Opt-in List

Before revealing the secrets of the trades, here are myths and fallacies that need to be cleared before one indulges into building an opt-in list. These marketing misconceptions could pose so much of an obstacle towards your profitting well from your business.

Not a lot of people use email

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods nowadays simply because virtually almost all people use email. Check on those email fields or blanks required to be filled up on various forms needed in processing different transactions. A person without an email address is tantamount to a person without an online home, which is one big shameful truth for this generation.

Email marketing campaigns can offend a lot of people

The not-so secret way to surmount this dilemma is through permission-based advertising. There's no harm in trying after asking for permission.

It's stupid to send email to all the people

The key to this predicament is to have a very discerning eye on who to email and who to not email. Better look for some metrics on how to know which group of people would give you high ROI or return on investment.

The Real Deal with Building Opt-in List

After clearing the fog regarding email marketing myths, here's how one can benefit from employing the power of email marketing campaigns - building an opt-in list.

However, building an opt-in list is not a piece of cake particularly for the uninitiated. Here is a roundown of tips on how to succeed in this kind of marketing endeavor.

1) Strategic Collection of Data

Know which information from your audiences will help you in lowering expenses and/or make sales flourish. Devise a tactic to make people voluntarily provide you with the information necessary to create higher conversion.

Overload of data is not good. Ask only for opt-in, with their full name and email addresses. Make sure that the profiles that you gather are updated to aid in improving the relevance, timeliness and satisfaction from each deal you make.

2) Good Implementation

Old adage says it all - 'action speaks louder than words'. This easily translates to the difficulty one has to undergo during the execution of his or her email marketing efforts. It's a good thing that various methods, often low-cost, abound to hasten and facilitate the building up of one's opt-in database.

Tracking your email marketing results can pose great hardship, too. Technology and relevant sources should be employed in making this aspect of your marketing a lot manageable. Your high traffic groups of opt-ins with the greatest result should be taken noted of.

The following are the most widely used methods to leverage channels without overspending:

1) Make use of websites.

It is an excellent tool for data collation and providing you with relevant info regarding your email offers. Use forms that solicit your visitor's email address and consent.

2) Make use of print ads, brochures, TV, radio and direct mail.

These are the more popular ways of marketing aiming to lead traffic to one's site. You may want to ask for signups for email services. Make your website more visible through these media. Offering free electronic newsletters and or rewards program can do well in making it easy to win the nod of your audiences, too.

3) Maximize your sales force.

Customer service associates can help a lot in making you benefit more from your email correspondence. Sales people with proper education on how to aid you in this endeavor can very well contribute to higher ROI. Techniques like offering account updates and special programs through email can easily land you those lists of valuable visitors.

4) Don't make your point of sale pointless.

Forms for signup located at cash registers and other high-traffic and highly visible spots can be very excellent venues for your business to collect email addresses. Notification of upcoming sales through their email addresses and names can coax them to supply you with the information you need.

5) Conferences or trade shows can work, too.

Giveaway offers or entries on sweepstakes are great for opt-in to volunteer their contact details.

These tactics should be applied with adequate caution and should focus on earning the trust of your opt-in list instead of simply collating data for your sole own benefit. Always make sure that the forms that you will use and other methods that you will employ will not necessitate too much fuss to subscribe. This is for people to not be annoyed during the process of data supplication.

With that bunch of information, who can ever go wrong with the feat of building an opt-in list?

Google Adsense: What is Google Adsense for Search

Google Adsense for Search is different than Adsense for Content but it is just as important to your earning power with the Google Adsense program.

Just like Adsense for Content places targeted ads on your content pages, Adsense for Search places targeted ads on the results page of the search set in motion on your page.

You can use the standard Google search box on your site and the user can then search the web or even your site. When you feel more comfortable, you can change the look of the Google search box, essentially customizing it by changing the colors and using your logo.

The best thing about Google Adsense for Search is that you can track what your visitors are searching for.  That is, if the search has two or more hits.  Unique queries will not be tracked.  But you can see the top 25 searches performed from your website by clicking on the Advance Report from the Reports tab and specifying a date range.

Google Adsense: Using Google Adsense Without a Complete Website and Promoting Your Blog to Earn Money Through the Program

Can I use the Google Adsense Program if I Do Not Have a Personal Website?

You don’t have to have your own website to use Google Adsense.  Google doesn’t usually approve personal pages but that is not written in stone.  Consult Google Adsense support pages for more information on what kinds of pages are acceptable. If selling a product or service doesn’t appeal to you, you might consider blogging.

Blogging initially meant web log but has gradually come into its own. There are as many different kinds of blogs as there are blogs themselves.  A blog can be like a cyberjournal in that you make daily “journal” entries or it can be more like a newsletter set up to inform or communicate with other people.  There are several blogging sites in cyberspace that will allow you to create your own blog pages and have targeted Google Adsense ads running on them.

A few of the most popular :

• Writingup.com
• Blogger.com
• Bloggerparty.com

You can also search blogsearch.google.com for an extensive list of blogs.  Not all of these carry Google Adsense ads and if you’re going to write a blog you may as well make some money at it.  Look around and you’ll find the perfect site for your Google Adsense ads to nest.

How to Promote Your Blog When You Are Using it to Earn Google Adsense Dollars

Promote your site or blog.  You could write the great American novel and if there’s little or no traffic to your site, you won’t make any money.  Not only that, but no one will know what a great writer you are.

There’s several ways to promote your blog.

• Include the URL in your email signature.  Now you’ve just invited everyone you email to read your blog.
  
• Link to other sites and ask the webmasters to link to yours. Network!
  
• Read other blogs and notice who is getting the most reads and comments. What are they writing about?
  
• Comment on other people’s blogs but only if it is sincere.  This will increase your overall traffic as you will pique others’ curiosity and they will want to read your blogs.
  
• Write a newsletter and offer a free email subscription to your blog.
  
• Put a Referral button on your site.
  
• Put an Adsense for Search button on your site.

Google Adsense: Having Multiple Sites For One Account and Buying Google Adsense “Secrets”

Is it Possible for Me to Have More Than One Site For My Google Adsense Account?

Yes.  In fact, the more sites you have displaying Google Adsense ads, the more money you will make.  You don’t even have to notify Google of the new sites.  Make sure though, that any new site you add conforms to Google Adsense Program Policies, because if your account gets terminated for any reason, you would not be able to display the Google Adsense ads on any of them.

All you have to do is copy and past the same ad layout code you previously copied and pasted to your original site.

The same rules apply when adding an Adsense for Search box to your new site.  Simply choose all the parameters from the choices displayed, copy the code to the new site or new pages within the old site.  As in the beginning, Google’s webcrawler will detect the code and you’re all set.

Will It Help Me to Buy Google Adsense “Secrets” E-books and Reports?

As with any money-making venture, there are pitfalls, pros and cons and some outright cons.  As popular as Google Adsense has become, it’s no surprise there is a wealth of information for sale.  Try it.  Google Google Adsense and you’ll see what I mean.  There are those promising they make thousands and thousands of dollars a month from Google Adsense and they are willing to share their “secrets” with you – for a price.

The fact is Google Adsense will tell you everything you need to know – for free. They have a support site that covers virtually everything you would need to know about the program and experience will teach you the rest, although I admit I have seen a couple of interesting books on amazon.com.

There are a lot of people out there in cyberspace who will gladly answer your questions for free and there are many forums where you can post questions.  You can even email the Google Adsense Support Staff if you have questions that their Support Site doesn’t answer.

Experience will probably be your best teacher anyway. And the good news is the Google Adsense program makes that experience painless in that you have nothing lose. So just take a chance on yourself for now.  Learn everything you can to maximize your earning potential.

Google Adsense: How Much Money You Can Make and URL Channels Explanation

How Much Money Can I Make With Google Adsense?

How much do you want to make?  How hard do you want to work?  And how much time do you want to spend working the Google Adsense program?

These are the questions you must ask yourself in order to answer that question.

Look at it this way: how many business opportunities come your way where the only requirement is hard work and the time it takes to work hard?  Not many.  Almost any business venture requires some kind of start-up money.

If  your total earnings is showing 0.00 after a week, not to worry.  Keep reading and learning and working.  If however, you’re still showing 0.00 after a month, it may be time to implement some of those optimization tips you’ll find on the Google Adsense Support Site.  Play around with the placement of the ads on your site.  Consider changing the colors.  Look again at the content. Is it interesting?

As with any other business, with the Google Adsense program, the sky is the limit. Work hard. Work smart. Have fun.  After all, you’re the boss.

What Are URL Channels and How to Organize Them in Google Adsense

URL Channels allow you to view detailed information about the performance of your  Adsense for Content pages.

Suppose you have a blog at writingup.com and you also have a blog at bloggerparty.com. It might be interesting and profitable to track which one is getting more clicks.  Log in to your Adsense account and click on Adsense for Content.  Scroll down until you see Channels and click on manage channels.  You may need to scroll up when the next page loads.  Under Manage URL Channels you would type writingup.com and click on Create New Channel.  You will immediately see writingup.com in the Active URL Channels dialogue box  Now type in bloggerparty.com in the same channel text box and again click on Create New Channel.  You now have two channels and you will be able to track your progress on each channel.  You can view channel reports from the Advanced Report page under the Reports tab.

Choose Adsense for Content, choose the date range and then select the Channels Data radio button. Choose any number of active channels by holding down the CTRL key. Next click on Display Report.  It’s as easy as that.

Google Adsense: Why it is Important to Get Approved for the Program and the Advantages of Not Getting Your Own Blog Site

Why Do I Have to Get Approved for the Google Adsense Program

It’s not really about you.  Google has standards to which they adhere and there are certain sites that they don’t want their advertiser’s ads on.  Check the Program Policies for an exhaustive list of what kind of content sites are not acceptable.  For the most part, they do not allow ads to be placed on any site that has excessive profanity.  This is probably the hardest one to decipher as the word “excessive” could mean one thing to a publisher and another thing altogether to the Google Adsense program.  To be on the safe side, if you notice more than a couple instances of profanity on a site you are considering using for the Google Adsense program, you might want to consider another site.

Sites that contain ads for beer, liquor or tobacco products are not allowed to participate in the Google Adsense program. Sites that promote hate or racist attitudes are not allowed to participate in the Google Adsense program.

If the site you are considering promotes gambling, drugs, even prescription drugs then it is not suitable for the Google Adsense program.

A good guideline to go by might be if a site is family oriented. That may not cover everything but it’s a starting place.  Again, check the Program Policies for more information.

Why Your Should Not Pay for Your Own Blog Site

If you already have a website that showcases your wares or you’ve been thinking about getting one, that’s great.  Since you’re working on building a business anyway, you can only profit more by implementing Google Adsense on your site.  As long as it conforms to Google Adsense Program Policies of course.

If, however, blogging is your interest, I say stick with the most popular blogging site you know.  Or even two or three of them.  Why?  Traffic.  Lots of it.  Blogging on an already populated site versus dreaming up your own blog site is like the difference between 5:00 traffic in New York City and an old dusty country road.  Not only do the owners of writingup.com, bloggerparty.com and others like it bring in the traffic, they even help you make money when you bring in more traffic.

Remember what they say in real estate: location, location, location.

Google Adsense: How to Apply for the Program and Important Info on Paying Taxes

How to Apply to the Google Adsense Program

Applying for a Google Adsense account is quick and easy for any interested webmaster. Just point your browser to www.google.com/adsense and click on apply.  Click on the drop down arrow under account type and select whether you’re an individual or business.  If you’re not sure which one to choose, click on the question mark to the left. Next, select your country or territory.

Under website information, it asks for your primary URL.  If you have your own website, list it here.  If you are using a blogging site such as writingup.com or bloggingparty.com that URL goes here.

Select your website’s primary language. Google adsense supports Chinese (simplified), Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

Select the product you want on your pages.  Adsense for Content means you will have advertising targeted to the content on your pages.  For instance, if you write about flooring, you might have carpet ads on your page.  Adsense for Search is for you to add a Google search box to your pages.  To maximize your Google Adsense earnings, you will want to have both.

After that, it’s just the regular contact information and you’re all set.  You should receive an email in 2 or 3 days letting you know if your application is approved.

Do I Have to Pay Taxes on My Google Adsense Earnings?

Google Adsense is required to collect tax information from those who participate in the program. If you’re a business, you’ll need to put your EIN number on your application.  If you’re an individual, all you’ll need is your social security number.  If you don’t have that information when you initially sign up, you can still apply for the Google Adsense program.  But be advised that Google Adsense will withhold payments to you until they receive your tax information.

While Google does not withhold taxes or provide any tax advice, they will send you a 1099 once your earnings reach a certain amount.  Of course, if you are a Non-US business and have no activity in the United States, you will not need to provide this information.  For more tax information regarding the Google Adsense program, visit the Google Adsense Support site.  For other tax-related questions or concerns, you can log onto www.irs.gov.

Google Adsense: Where to Place Ads on Your Web Pages and a Profile of Bloggerparty.com

Deciding Where to Place Your Google Ads on Your Web Pages so That They Will Be Most Profitable

This is one of the best parts of the whole Google Adsense experience. No one else gets to make this decision except you.  It’s your page.  You get to decide how many ( up to 3 ads per page), what colors and shapes you will use and on what part of the page the ad will be placed.  Should you place your ads at the top or bottom?  In the middle of the text?  To the left or right?

The most important decision should be based on the needs of the visitors to your site?  What are they looking for? Are they there to read or merely to browse.  If they are there to read an entire article, say, you might try placing your ads at the bottom of the page so they will have something to do next.  Some publishers swear by placing the ads at the top left of the page because they think customers look there first.

The fun thing is experimenting with all the possibilities.  Try different ad locations and different colors for a week and note the differences in your reports.  When you hit on something successful, you’ll see the difference.

Profile of Bloggerparty.com For Those Who May Want To Use it For Google Ads

Blogger Party is another blog hosting website where you can make money with Google Adsense.  You create an account and use the publisher id you got when you created your Google Adsense account.  If you have not done that yet, that is the first step to making money with your blogs.

At bloggerparty.com,  targeted Google Adsense ads will be displayed on your blog pages.  Fifty percent of that time, the ads will have your Google Adsense publishers ID and the other fifty percent of the time they will have Blogger Party’s Adsense ID or split between them and the person who referred you.  That’s right, referrals get 25% of the ad time, which comes out of Blogger Party’s share and not the original blogger’s or the referral’s.

Blogger Party promises “party points” any time you write something or comment on someone else’s blog.  They don’t do anything as yet, but later you will be able to trade them in for prizes according to Blogger Party’s admin.

YAHOO! SITEMAP: A USEFUL INTERNET MARKETING TOOL

A website refers to a compilation of Web pages that can be typically accessed through a software package, commonly known as  a Web browser (one example is the HTTP on the Internet). These pages, which are essentially documents that are in the HTML or XHTML format (HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language), are accessed from a 'common root URL' - or the website's homepage (as most people know it). From this homepage, the visitor/Internet user can browse or look through the entire website either with the use of the hyperlinks or the URLs of the different web pages.

Viewed on computers and other devices that are capable of connecting with the Internet (such as PDAs and cellular phones), websites can be grouped into numerous types, depending on their use or the services that they offer. Some of them include the following:

Archive site - maintains and protects electronic contents that are valuable to the point of extinction.

• Business site - promotes a business or a service.
• Commerce or eCommerce site - offers goods for sale.
  
• Community site - allows people with related and similar interests to communicate with each other (either through chat or message boards).
  
• Database site - searches and displays a particular database's content.
  
• Development site - provides data and sources that are related to software development and web design, among others.
  
• Directory site - contains wide-ranging contents that are usually divided into categories and subcategories.
  
• Download site - allows users to download electronic contents, such as game demos and software.
  
• Game site - provides a 'playground' where people meet and play.
  
• Information site - contains data or content that have the sole purpose of informing visitors (not for commercial purposes).
  
• News site - dispenses or distributes news and commentaries (similar to an information site).
  
• Pornography site - shows pornographic videos and images.
  
• Search engine site - provides general information and serves as a 'gateway' for other sites and resources (can also be a web portal site).
  
• Shock site - shows images and other materials that aim to offend viewers.
  
• Vanity site - a personal site that is run or maintained by an individual or a small group, the contents of which can be of any information that the site owner wishes to include.
  
• Blog site or blogs - registers online readings and posts online diaries or discussion forums.
  
• Wiki site - allows users to collaboratively edit the contents.

Yahoo! is perhaps the most famous example of a very large website. The most popular and widely-used website, Yahoo! is a mixture of the different types of sites - it is a directory site and a search engine site, among others.

Because of the enormous (and diverse) amount of information that it contains, the Yahoo! site map is an extremely useful feature in the Yahoo! website.

A site map is a web page that lists the entire pages on a web site. Organized in a hierarchical fashion, site maps can be in textual or visual form (a diagram or an image).

The Yahoo! site map serves as a blueprint for the Yahoo! website. Similar to a book's Table of Contents, the Yahoo! sitemap makes it easier for visitors or users to find specific information or pages on the Yahoo! web site without having to browse many pages, because the site map gives an overview or a visual outline of the Yahoo! web site, with each location provided with active links to enable the user to directly move to a specific location.

In addition, the Yahoo! site map allows web developers to put out links from across their sites, making it easier for search engine robots (or engine spiders) to find these pages.

Because the Yahoo! site map improves the search engine optimization of a site, this feature can be considered a valuable tool for online marketers, whose aim is to stimulate and direct traffic to their web sites.

Note, however, that the Yahoo! site map can only give you the 'basics'. Because it is important for web marketers to 'rank high' on main search engines, an effective web marketing strategy that promotes your web site is also very much needed. Listed below are some search engine strategies to consider:

1) Write a descriptive page title at the top of your webpage that avoids 'filler' words like "the" or "and".

2) Incorporate descriptive keywords on your home page, along with your business name. This is  called "keyword prominence".

3) Include a Description Meta Tag at the top of the web page. This refers to the sentences (1 or 2 lines, with a maximum of around 255 characters) that describe the content of your web page.

These are just some of the many techniques that you can employ to get more users to visit your website. The important thing is to focus on keywords - and let Yahoo! site map do the rest.

SEO Sitemaps Give Websites a Boost

A lot of web pages will find an SEO sitemap useful in improving their performance.  SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, the process that aims to create or revise Internet sites so that it can be better found by search engines.  The objective of SEO campaigns is to have websites appear in the top listing or first results page of search engines.

Internet search engines, such as Google and A9, maintain a very large database of Web pages and available files.  To do this, they devise a program called a web crawler, or spider.  This software automatically and continuously surfs and hunts content in the Web.  Pages that the spider finds are retrieved and indexed according to text content, giving more weight to titles and paragraph headers.  Spiders never stop navigating the web from page to page, to index the relevant content of the Internet.  Besides looking at the text of titles and headers, some programs are able to identify default tags and keep a library of these page keywords or key phrases in the index.

When a user connects to the Internet types a query, which is automatically interpreted as keywords, the search engine scans the saved index and creates a list of web pages that is most appropriate to what the user is searching for.  

SEO will use all the combined techniques of keyword analysis, smart code, good content literature, link popularity study and website organization to place the subject web page as high as possible in the list of search results in search engines.  Web pages displayed on the top of results pages are assumed to get the most attention, and therefore, opportunity for earnings for web businesses and pages with sponsor links.

Search engines usually return a list of results ranking pages according to the number of Internet sites linked to them.  Results can be classified as organic, or sponsored links.  Sponsored links are shown prominently because their creators or agents paid the search engine.  Sponsored links are the main source of income of search engines.  “Organic” search results are the lists of actual results from the engines index and are directly related to the keyword typed in the request.
One of the more effective techniques of SEO is the creation of a well-organized site map in a website.  Since the site’s main page and other content are directly linked to a site map, spiders can more easily move through the website, identify the key words of the content, and index these for a search engine.  This is where the SEO sitemap helps the website creator or administrator.

Site maps are usually pages filled with links.  These are shown as tables or lists, although lists are generally more effective.  Writing code for SEO sitemaps is very easy and simple to format and maintain.  These are ideally basic HTML pages with default tags, logical titles and keywords scattered in the Meta description.  Introduction areas can contain more of the keywords.  The site should have a main heading for every directory.

A simple list layout helps reduce unnecessary tags that might “hide” your keywords.  Some spiders give more weight to the following, than text in the normal body of the webpage:  heading text, content within link elements, text nearer the top of the page and the text written for a link.  Therefore, writing the keywords and links in these areas could somehow move up the web page’s ranking.  This goes for SEO sitemaps as well.

Web sites should be designed consistently, so navigation models should follow the flow of the site map.  Therefore, the first section in the site map should be the first link in the navigation bar.

In an SEO Sitemap, and most pages, the headings contain title attributes where more key phrases in the site map can be added. Keywords are generally well chosen and written in the body of a webpage.  However, in an SEO site map with little text, key words should be added as much as possible.  As much as possible, web links should follow web page titles, and must undergo SEO during coding.  Care must be exercised not to cram the page with keywords and links, or the page will be interpreted as blatant spamming and not receive any traffic at all.

There is no way to guarantee that a website will be shown in the topmost ranking of "organic" search results for an extended period of time.  However, smart and responsible SEO sitemap techniques can be used to place the website high up in the search position.  Regular monitoring and adjustment of the SEO Sitemap and search results would ensure that a website is kept near the top ranking and receiving lots of web user traffic.

Benefits of a generator sitemap

Generator sitemap programs can be downloaded from various sources on the Internet. Generator sitemap programs have two fundamental purposes. Generator sitemap programs help surfers navigate a site effectively. At the same time, a generator sitemap program encourages search engine spiders. Google offers one of the most popular generator sitemap programs ever to hit the Internet.

The generator sitemap of google makes it possible for a website to get listed and get updated by the google search engine. Setting up the generator sitemap helps speed up the addition of the web pages of a site to the google listing. The generator sitemap also makes it easier for a site to get noticed by online surfers. In addition, any changes made to a website that has a generator sitemap is immediately picked up by google. The generator sitemap also helps keep online information fresh and up-to-date for users. 

Visibility is key to generator sitemap

Visibility is a major concern when using a generator sitemap. A website that is completely indexed has better chances of getting top search engine placement in page results. Many of the popular browsers used by searchers and that support java recognize generator sitemap programs. These include firefox and Internet explorer.  

An online consumer that searches for a specific content on the web can immediately be directed to any one of the web pages of a particular site. The generator sitemap makes it easier for a search engine to provide accurate results from web pages they are familiar with.

Who can benefit from a generator sitemap?

A generator sitemap is highly recommended for websites that often do repeated modification of their web pages. A generator sitemap can be used for websites of any size, regardless of the number of web pages a site may contain.

Although using a generator sitemap is not a guarantee of increased site rankings, it does however provide a website a better opportunity of getting listed on a search engine.

Working with a generator sitemap

Most of the available generator sitemap programs available on the web make use of extensible markup language or XML. Similar to hypertext markup language or HTML, XML is used widely in blogs and syndicated feeds on the Internet. Each line of a XML code for a generator sitemap has a specific purpose.

The location or <.loc> identifies the name of the web page of a website. The line <.lastmod> indicates when the web page was last modified. The format for <.lastmod> can either be dd.mm.yyyy, dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm, dd/mm/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm. Shortcuts can also be used to simply the assignment of dates to the cell.

<.changefreq> advises the search engine of a specific time frame when the web page is regularly updated. This can either be done on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. For web pages that are not updated, the value 'never' is used. <.priority> indicates the level of priority that a search engine should give a particular web page of a website. These levels range from 0.0 for least priority to 1.0 for high priority.

Creating a dynamic generator sitemap

Creating a dynamic generator sitemap is useful for websites containing various web pages. The google search engine makes it easy for users to adapt their google sitemap with the help of a python script.

The python script generates a sitemap using sitemap protocol. This creates a sitemap from either access logs, URL lists or from web server directories.

Tips for using a generator sitemap from google

As one of more popular search engines offering a generator sitemap for websites on the Internet, google offers a few tips for its loyal users. Using the google sitemap url encoder/decoder is helpful for submitting sitemaps to google. For websites that have numerous web pages, creating a sitemap can be a tremendous task. For this situation it is best to click on the column title in order to make it easier for a URL list to get sorted.

The google generator sitemap allows users to save their settings after creating a sitemap. Users can use these saved settings as a guideline for succeeding generator sitemap updates. The generator sitemap also recognizes the use of robots.txt files. Using a generator sitemap is a positive move in getting top ranking on the Internet's top search engines as well as high visibility among online users.

A GUIDE ON RSS TOOL

RSS is an abbreviation that has evolved into the following, depending on their versions:

• RDF Site Summary (known as RSS 0.9; the first version of RSS)
  
• Rich Site Summary (known as RSS 0.91; a prototype)
  
• Really Simple Syndication (also known as RSS 2.0)

Today, RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication', and it has the following 7 existing formats or versions:

• 0.90
• 0.91
• 0.92
• 0.93
• 0.94
• 1.0
• 2.0

RSS tools refer to a group of file formats that are designed to share headlines and other web content (this may be a summary or simply 1 to 2 lines of the article), links to the full versions of the content (the full article or post), and even file attachments such as multimedia files. All of these data is delivered in the form of an XML file (XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language), which has the following common names:

• RSS feed
• Webfeed
• RSS stream
• RSS channel

They are typically shown on web pages as an orange rectangle that usually has the letters XML or RSS in it.

RSS feeds can be used to deliver any kind of information. Some of these 'feeds' include:

• Blogs feed - each blog entry is summarized as a feed item. This makes blog posts easier to scan, enabling 'visitors' to zoom in on their items of interest.}
  
• Article feed - this alerts readers whenever there are new articles and web contents available.
  
• Forum feed - this allows users to receive forum posts and latest discussion topics.
  
• Schedule feed - this allows users (such as schools, clubs, and other organizations) to broadcast events and announce schedule changes or meeting agendas.
  
• Discounts or Special feed - this is used to enable users (such as retail and online stores) to 'deliver' latest specials and discounted offers.
  
• Ego or News Monitoring - this enables users to receive 'filtered' headlines or news that are based on a specific phrase or keyword.
  
• Industry-specific feed - used by technical professionals in order to market, promote, or communicate with current (and prospective) customers and clients within their specific industries.

RSS feeds enable people to track numerous blogs and news sources at the same time. To produce an RSS feed, all you need is the content or the article that you want to publicize and a validated RSS text file. Once your text file is registered at various aggregators (or 'news readers'), any external site can then capture and display your RSS feed, automatically updating them whenever you update your RSS file.

RSS tools are useful for sites that add or modify their contents on a regular basis. They are especially used for 'web syndication' or activities that involve regular updates and/or publications, such as the following:

• News websites - as used by major news organizations such as Reuters, CNN, and the BBC.
• Marketing
• Bug reports
• Personal weblogs

There are many benefits to using RSS feeds. Aside from being a great supplemental communication method that streamlines the communication needs of various sectors, RSS tools and feeds can also have tremendous benefits in your business, particularly in the field of internet marketing.

RSS tools and feeds provide Internet users with a free (or cheap) and easy advertising or online marketing opportunity for their businesses. Below are some of the RSS features that can help make your internet marketing strategies more effective.

1) Ease in content distribution services. With RSS, your business can be captured and displayed by virtually any external site, giving you an easy way to 'spread out' and advertise them.

2) Ease in regular content updates. With RSS, web contents concerning your business can now be automatically updated on a daily (and even hourly) basis. Internet users will be able to experience 'real time' updates as information in your own file (such as new products and other business-related releases) is changed and modified simultaneously with that of the RSS feeds that people are subscribed to.

3) Custom-made content services. With RSS, visitors can have personalized content services, allowing them total control of the flow and type of information that they receive. Depending on their interests and needs, visitors can subscribe to only those contents that they are looking for (such as real estate or job listings).

4) Increase in (and targeted) traffic. With RSS, traffic will be directed to your site as readers of your content summary (or 1 to 2 lines of your article) who find them interesting are 'forced' to click on a link back to your site.

These are just several of the many things that you can do with RSS. The possibilities are endless, and they are all aimed at providing you with an effective internet marketing strategy for your business.

All you need to know about RSS

What does RSS mean?

RSS may mean three different things. The original RSS (RDF Site Summary RSS 0.9) was developed by Dan Libby for Netscape. After a couple of months, they produced a simpler and easier-to-use version called Rich Site Summary or RSS 0.91. But they later lost interest, leaving it without an owner. As more and more users were using RSS, Winer made an adapted version of RSS 0.91 for Userland, claiming it as his own. Later in 2005, Microsoft developed Really Simple Syndication in relation to its Simple Sharing Extensions.

What is RSS?

RSS is a XML file format for syndicating content and news in the web. It is usually used by websites that constantly need to update their content regularly such as news websites (CNN, BBC and Reuters) and weblogs. Since it essentially gives one’s webpage more traffic, it is now more widely used in marketing, web publications and virus reports. Today, large and small websites alike are usually RSS-enabled.

For example, you’re an avid fan of baseball and you want to share something recent about one of the players. Other than content, you can also attach multimedia files, like videos or pictures. By using RSS feeds, other Internet users subscribed to RSS-enabled sites can read your “headline” for free. They can also track for changes and updates using news aggregators, which will be discussed later on.

How does RSS work?

To be able to use RSS, you first have to download a software (content management system), by which XML format can be read. The title and, excerpt of the article, and a link to the full article are shown. Other than just text, you can also insert multimedia files in RSS feeds like pictures, videos, mp3s and others. Broadcatching, picturecasting, photocasting, and podcasting are some features you can incorporate into your feed, but will not be discussed in this article.

For users to access a RSS feed, they need to use an aggregator or a feed reader. An aggregator searches for updates on RSS-enabled webpages then displays it. It can either be a standalone program or a web browser extension, depending on your operating system. Search engines for web content broadcasted over RSS feed are also available such as Plazoo and Feedster.

How can I make an RSS feed?

It is definitely easier to make an RSS feed if you know HTML. If not, you could sign up for a blog (there are hundreds out there), some of which automatically creates RSS. If you’re using a personal webpage building system, you need to understand more about RSS. Making an RSS feed from scratch is relatively easy.

A RSS feed should always contain an “item”, whichever version of RSS you might use. If you wrote about a recent event in your city or a book review, the contents of this article can form an item. An item is essentially composed of three things: a title, its description, and link (where they can find your webpage). In choosing a title and description, use something that will describe the web content best. Although it will be easier for you, it doesn’t follow that the title tag of your webpage and the item title are the same.

An item will look like HTML tags. First, you need to put an opening channel tag that defines it as an XML file. Then, label the tag as an item by putting <item> after the channel tag. After this, you can now insert the three essentials of your item: <title>, <description>, and <link>. Just like HTML, we need to close the tag by writing </channel> and </rss> at the bottom.

An RSS feed that contains multiple tags looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<item>
<title>Anne Rice’s Belinda: A Book Review</title>
<description> If you haven’t read any Anne Rice books yet, you will be greeted with shocking romantic relationships forming between unlikely characters… </description>
<link> http://allaboutbookreviews.com/belinda </link>

<item>
<title>Harry Potter IV: Darker with More Deaths</title>
<description> The recently released Harry Potter installation has proved dark for its younger readers…</description>
<link> http://allaboutbookreviews.com/harrypotterandthehalfbloodprince </link>
</channel>
</rss>

Now, if you’re still having a hard time understanding these tags, look for HTML tags tutorial to further grasp the concept. Have fun!

Learning the Basics of RSS

What is RSS?

You probably have seen this three-letter acronym in the course of your internet surfing. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; syndicating means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website.

An RSS is a means of publicizing updates about websites. It may or may not include a summary and photos of the latest posting. But those that provide summaries (thus Rich Site Summary) allow users to skim through the article so that they could decide later on if they want to access the website source. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the update originating from the website. It is also usually the link to the website source.

What are the benefits of RSS?

RSS gives benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers.

1) It gives you the latest updates.
Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updates site learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.

2) It saves on surfing time.
Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user’s time by helping s/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.

3) It gives the power of subscription to the user.
Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.

4) It lessens the clutter in your inbox.
Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.

5) It is spam free.
Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from spam mails.

6) Unsubscribing is hassle-free. 
Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why s/he is unsubscribing and then the user would be asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.

7) It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool.
Users who subscribe or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending spam mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.

What are the drawbacks of RSS?

The disadvantages of RSS use are brought about by its being a new technology and some user-preference concerns.

1) Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.

2) Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds.
For conciseness and ease of publication, RSS feeds do not display the photos from the original site in announcing the update except for some web-based aggregators

3) The identity of the source website can be confusing.
Since RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the website, it can sometimes get confusing on what feed a user is actually reading.

4) Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they would not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.

5) RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server.
Most readers still prefer the whole update over a brief summary of the entry, thus they still access the site.

6) Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.

How do I start using RSS?

There are two things needed: an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. The RSS feed comes from an RSS-supported website. There are also websites that provide a list of RSS feeds of different websites. An RSS aggregator is used to read the RSS feed from the source website. It scans and collects data on latest RSS feeds from the worldwide web.

An aggregator comes in two forms: a downloadable program also known as desktop aggregator and an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators may require payment before they can be acquired, while internet-based aggregators are usually free of charge. All you need to do is to register an account then you are ready to use their services. Both versions allow you to customize or choose which RSS feeds to enter. Paid aggregators are usually chosen by more experienced users and they usually allow more freedom in customizing feeds.

1) Choose an RSS aggregator to use. For beginners, web-based aggregators are recommended since they are usually user-friendly

2) Scan the homepage of your target website for the RSS or XML button. It contains the RSS code you need to enter in the aggregator. Copy this code. Syndic8 provides a directory of websites that support RSS.

3) Paste the code (which contains the URL of the website) in your aggregator. There is a space provided for pasting the code.

After you have done these three easy steps, you can start reading the RSS feeds coming from the website. New postings appear as they are published real time at the source website.

RSS and Internet Marketing

The original idea of RSS came from Netscape, where their intention is to provide a means for users to customize their personal homepage to contain links to websites that interest them, similar to bookmarking websites.

The application of RSS to internet marketing was an unforeseen development to RSS technology developers. Since users are given the freedom to add RSS feeds to their aggregators, those who are interested in particular products and services available in the internet can now be notified real time. Marketing becomes more specific to interested people and not a hit-and-miss operation.

Those who intend to use RSS for marketing their products and services should consider linking up with email account providers, (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google mail); networking websites (e.g. Friendster, Multiply, My Space, Hi5); websites of newspapers and television network websites (e.g. New York Times, CNN) for medium to big-scale companies. Small-time industries can also look into networking websites as well as personal blog websites (e.g. Blogspot) and websites of clubs and organizations that would probably make use of their products or services e.g. a fishing supplies store can look for the website of their local fishing club for possible RSS marketing.

Clearly, RSS is an innovation in information management in the worldwide web as well as online marketing. We can expect better RSS technology in the not-so-distant future as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.