Google Adwords Course Gets Two Thumbs Up

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Jul 28, 2008

Everything I learned for the first two years of using Google AdWords was from a single book. It was that good, I didn’t need another…until I discovered thie one I’m about to recommend to you here. Same author, same book, just updated. And, you don’t even have buy the book right off the bat. Just get used to the guy first by signing-up for his free ecourse.

Google AdWords to a business owner today is the equivalent of what a telephone used to mean to a salesperson 20 years ago. Both have been described as the most cost-effective, measurable promotion avenues of their time. If you don’t know how to manage a Google AdWords campaign for your business or product, it’s the equivalent of not being able to talk coherently to a prospect on the phone about your business. If you go another day, week, month before learning how to setup an ad campaign, split test ads, and monitor your conversion rates another year will slip by and you’ll look back on this moment why you didn’t take the next step!

Now, I’ll be honest. I’ve got this banner I’ve posted and when you click on it and eventually buy the book I’m recommending, I’m going to get a commission for the sale. If you don’t have any affiliate programs of your own, then that is a whole different discussion we need to have and the subject for another post.

But, that’s one of the best uses of Google AdWords is to promote affiliate products related to your industry and sphere of influence. You’re intereted in the blog topics I write about related to websites and Internet marketing, so this is a fitting affiliate product for me to recommend to you. See how that works?

Get started with Google AdWords today and there’s just no reason for you to try other, far more expensive programs by other speakers. Believe me I’ve seen what the other guys are offering and there’s really nothing better than this book, especially to get you started.

Best Google Adwords Headlines

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Jul 14, 2008

I was splitting up search phrase results and adding a whole slew of Google Adword campaigns to promote my latest site LaughAtLayoffs.com.  On Friday, July 11th at about 2pm, I got this crazy idea to create a free mini-manual for people who are working for companies in financial strife and fearing the economic henchmen.

I just started writing.  By 6pm, I had 14 pages of what became Laugh at Layoffs.  When it came time for me to run some Google Adwords to the page, I needed a bit more inspiration.  So, I searched around and arrived on a site that gave me the neatest little rundown of Adwords tips that I’ve seen lately.  And, I was able to craft over a dozen headlines and completely different Google Adwords headlines and ads within about 5 minutes of reading the article.

Now, this post has been out there for a while, but the content is still relevant for sure.  I’m a little skeptical about one thing that was mentioned where the author said something about using any verbiage you can and that it doesn’t matter what you say in your ad to get attention, but if you read these tips for the broader picture, it’s right on!

Cartoons on Your Website to Make You Money

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Jul 4, 2008

Seeking Alpha blog reported that Google is coming up with an “experiment” expected to launch in September 2008 where they will produce a series of 50 cartoons that are each 2 minutes or less in length. You’ll be able to add these cartoons to your website and they’ll be much like Google Adsense where you the website owner will get a little cut each time one of your visitors clicks on the link to watch the video.

This is seen as Google’s way of monetizing video for themselves. I see it as a potential new method for viral marketing. If you see a good video on YouTube for example, you might send it to a friend right? If you come across a website with a hilarious cartoon, I think I might forward the page of the website to someone too.

The problem with that is the poor advertiser. I mean, someone has to pay for all of those clicks, right? If I search for a topic and come across a page on a website that has one of the cartoons, great, I’m targeted traffic. But if I send the page on to a friend or three or four friends, and tell them to go watch this cool new cartoon I’ve found, well, the advertiser suffers.

Suddenly their targeted marketing effort gets the additional traffic, but it probably won’t be targeted traffic. So, I dunno, I’m kinda skeptical about putting cartoons on my website. But, you know me, I’ll have to give it a try to see if my hunch is right.

So, go for it Google! Give me cartoons and I’ll make a buck or two off some AdSense style cartoon ads. Just hope the advertisers don’t blacklist me for sending a bunch of people to click on the cartoon ad only to see the cartoon. Or, maybe that’s their hope.

Essential Components of a Blog Header Graphic

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Jun 11, 2008

As I mentioned in a previous post about my relaunch of the Website Waves blog, the next step was to create a new blog header graphic. This week, the time finally came to git-r-dun. A blog header is that 2-3 inch high section that runs across the top of every post on your blog. The primary job of a blog header is to give a good first impression to your first-time visitor. Secondarily, a blog header tells the readers they are still on your blog and have not been directed to someone else’s website as they move throughout the pages.

There are five essential components to a good “business-related” header that your blog should have. If I was to launch a blog that was purely for entertainment, or a kid’s blog that was purely for fun, these five components might vary. But here they are:

1. Photo – If you are a professional services provider of any kind, you need to have your photo somewhere easy and pronounced for people to see. Technically, this doesn’t mean you must have a photo of yourself in the header, but it’s a pretty safe place to put one. If you do choose to have a photo of yourself, put it on the right side. The exception that rule is if you want yourself to be part of your logo. Then, I’d suggest having your photo be to the left of the name of your blog. Don’t forget to add your name to your photo so that people know who you are. The reason I bring that up is because I forgot to tell my designer that when he was working on the first comp.

2. Logo – Blogs should have logos, especially if your blog is part of a company. A logo is just expected today and websites that don’t have logos just plain look funny without them. The image we chose for Website Waves is an image of a wave. We’ve even used the same graphic for a Favicon. Logos should be on the left…again because that’s what people are used to seeing.

3. Tagline – Our tagline for the Website Waves blog is Get Your Website on Higher Ground. You need to come up with some kind of short, 7 words or less, description of your blog. It should be catchy, original and related to the value of your blog. Taglines can appear under your logo or to the side of it. Experiment with different locations of where to put that tagline within the header.

4. Current Design – Blog header design is becoming much more important these days. You want to have a modern look and feel, especially if you service an industry that expects you are on the cutting edge of your field. A popular look has mistakenly become known as “the Web 2.0 look.” There is really no such thing as a “web 2.0 look” as the term web 2.0 refers to social networking as a movement rather than a graphic. But, that’s another issue. What they are referring to is a mirrored look where you have main text on the top and a mirror image of those letters below. Technically, it’s called an “inverse reflection.” Watch practically every television commercial and you will see this effect used. And, on many websites today too. It works and gives a professional image.

5. Speed – Ten years ago, I would’ve brought up the issue with speed as in speed of viewing, speed of appearing on the screen. Both are true. Your graphic header can’t be so overloaded that it slows down the time it takes for the page to load. But, that should all be a given with your designer now. I’m talking about speed of getting the visitor into the content. Keep your blog header section to less than 3″ high. I’ve seen blogs that you have to scroll just to see the first post. This is wrong wrong wrong! Inspire the visitor to scroll to see additional posts but provide a header that is thin enough to see enough content that they are interested in reading more.

So, there you have it. The next step on my blog journey is complete…well, until I have the graphics changed! Ha.

By the way, if you are new to blogging or have a blog that hasn’t been earning its keep, you might want to talk with me. We’re putting together a blog setup and blog promotion package deal to include installation, setup, hosting, design, and promotion that I personally have never seen anyone offer. And, I’m offering incentive pricing for the first 5 new clients we take on to prove it works. Give me a call at 303-743-0832 sometime if you’re curious or use the contact form to ask me a question about it.

Wal-Mart New Classifieds Site Mentors Us All

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Jun 3, 2008

I learned this morning from DMNews that Wal-Mart has launched a classifieds website to “give customes another way to save money,” according to DMNews’ email quote by Wal-Mart’s spokesman Ravi Jariwala.

But, we all know what’s really going on here, don’t we? Wal-Mart is trying to get into the social networking experience that the web has to offer. And, it figures going up against Craigslist and EBay is the best vehicle.

I’m not one to disagree with that. In fact, I’m embracing it. What Wal-Mart has done is a classic case of identifying something that works in their industry and copied someone else to do things a little better for their own gain. And, that’s something all of us with websites should model after.

Here, take a look. Give the Wal-Mart Classifieds a try. You’ll never find a link to the classifieds area on the Wal-Mart home page (and I’m not sure why), so I’ve provided you with this link that goes directly to it. Search for something. Post something.

If you’ve used Craigslist before, you’ll notice a few oddities with Wal-Mart’s Classifieds.

1. It takes more time to figure out how to search than on Craigslist. So, I’m wondering what percentage of people actually find what they’re looking for if it’s a job versus Craigslist or how much actually gets sold versus EBay.

2. It takes more time to post to the right category. I never even found a category for marketing or Internet marketing.

3. Search results seem to be more limiting. I mean if I wanted to hire someone to come work with me in Aurura, I’d still like my posting to display if someone searched for Denver. And, with Craigslist, that happens as I’ve used Craigslist many times to find helpers.

But there are some things that Wall-Mart has improved upon that Craigslist seems to conveniently avoid.

1. The posting I made was immediate. Even with Craigslist you have to wait 15 or 20 minutes.
2. My posting actually showed up. Craigslist seems to hate any posting I make and I could never figure out why as much as I would eliminate obvious words that might get picked up.
3. The postings seem to have a higher-level flair to them. I’m not exactly sure what I mean by that. But, Craigslist draws a lot of frauds, y’know? And, they’re starting to get a little ‘rep.

Maybe it’s just that the Wal-Mart Classifieds are new and fresh and already highly populated with lots of things for sale and people looking for work…

Maybe it’s because they teamed up with Oodle to produce the site and probably an integrated database of some sort too so that Wal-Mart didn’t have to do any of that themselves…

Maybe I’m just glad to see yet another one of these fast-paced growing companies who refuses to reply to an email or take a phone call is getting passed up by a company that knows the customer (or in this case, the “visitor”) is still king…

But I believe that Wal-Mart’s launch of its own classifieds section is another lesson to us all to first think of an idea that will enhance our websites and then, second, find someone who already has something close to what we want and private label it with our company branding to make it our own.

Watch out Craigslist and Ebay. There’s a new social gatherer on the planet!

PayPal Turns Their Back on StatCounter

Posted by Marty Dickinson on May 29, 2008

I awoke this morning to an email from StatCounter, one of the systems I’ve used to track visitation.  They were sending a warning message to their list that they’ve had a major falling out with PayPal citing double billings and late arrival invoices as the biggies.  No surprise there I suppose.  I’ve heard all that before about PayPal.  But, c’mon now, this is StatCounter we’re talking about…one of the veterans in Internet tracking and PayPal is IGNORING them!

Don’t believe me?  Take a look at the StatCounter blog where they tell the whole story. I mean, listen to this from their post: “At StatCounter we have tried phoning, emailing, posting on the PayPal forums… Many of our contacts are ignored, but even when we do get an answer all we are told is that “Upon review of your account, unfortunately we do not have a time frame for a resolution to your issue…”

Now, how does this relate to Website Waves? Well, for many reasons probably, but as I posted a comment to their blog post, I believe this act on PayPal’s part is reassurance to us in the Internet marketing world that you MUST offer an alternative way for people to purchase things from your website (either in addition to or instead of PayPal).

News like this from StatCounter could be reported from any company.  And, once those PayPal users hear of such craziness do you think they’re very motivated to use PayPal for anything ever again?  Heck no.  If they even see a hint of PayPal in the buying process, they’ll abandon the checkout process immediately. So would I in the mood I’m in right now over all of this!

So, if you use PayPal, watch your charges and payments very carefully.  Do WEEKLY audits (if not daily) of all transactions going through your PayPal account.  And, if you take online transactions using PayPal as your only gateway, find an additional payment mechanism quick!

Or, you may one day soon find yourself sending out a similar email to your customers.

Landing Page Speed Increases Quality Score

Posted by Marty Dickinson on May 27, 2008

David Utter of WebProNews wrote today that Google will soon be including “page load time” as part of their Quality Score criteria.  What that means, simply, is if you run Google Adwords to a page on your site that takes a long time to appear on screen, your ad could be dropped further down the list in Google pay-per-click search results…no matter how much you’re willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad.

I can see the many reasons Google would make this addition.  Think of all those LOOOOONG sales letters that take forever to load.  Think of all those Video sales letters that have to pre-load before you can even watch them.

Well, from a sales standpoint, Google could be shooting themselve in their own foot because those loooong sales pages seeeeeellll!!  And, those big video sales letters are growing more and more frequent…because they convert too.

Google would love to see text-only…and just a paragraph or two would be best.  But, the problem as I see it, as I originally learned this from Simon Leung who was on the original Adwords team at Google, is that Google staff are NOT Internet marketers.  And, the Quality Score criteria they use makes that point obvious.

So, this response to David’s announcement is just a heads-up that you could see your positions in Google Adwords going down over the next few weeks even though you didn’t touch anything.  If so, you better take a look at your page load times and the landing pages used by your competitors.  Because, all things being equal, page load time will be impacting your Adwords positions shortly.

Because that’s how Google wants it.

How I Used My Own Ultimate Blog Setup Process

Posted by Marty Dickinson on May 23, 2008

As I was saying yesterday, I kind of went into “bloggernation” mode (that would be the merging of the words blogging and hibernate for the unaware) so that I could learn more about what makes blogs successful. I knew I was missing so many things, but I really had no idea how much until I went through the “re-setup” process of Website Waves.

Most of the posts from before yesterday I let alone, some I deleted. Pretty much EVERYTHING about this blog is different now. It took me about 6 hours of searching free blog theme directories (and installing them to see what they really look like on “my” blog) before I found this one.

Then, I installed 7 of 9 essential [no, essential is too weak of a word--how about, "YOU BETTER INSTALL THESE OR I'LL PERSONALLY COME OVER THERE AND..."] plug-ins.

The other two get installed today. Then I have to create my header graphic which I will attempt to do myself so who knows!

Now, the point of this post is that (other than finding the theme) I followed a step-by-step process. The process evolved from some client projects I was working with. One of those was The Capital Factor blog. We used a blog to promote the conference event. Several times per week our staff was making blog posts. But, we had to have the setup right.

So, as I spend hours, days, and eventually weeks to arrive at the perfect setup for The Capital Factor, I kept track of what I did in a notebook and documented what worked, what didn’t, and what I needed for things to work better. By the time The Capital Factor event came to pass, I had a 6-page document procedure in my hands.

Then came the big test. I had to put the process to the test. So, I chose another client project and gave it a try. It worked! It only took me an hour to go through all the setup steps. And, of course I made some modifications to the process along the way…always discovering something new y’know.

Then I thought, “Silly, you have another product now!”

So I called it my Ultimate Blog Setup Checklist and offered it as a free download. Go get it for yourself, because if you have a blog and are not working through the components of my Ultimate Blog Checklist, I fear you might be the next to find yourself bloggernating in some cave when your blog produce.

How Do I Get Started Making Money on the Internet

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Nov 9, 2007

Question: “I’m 74 and had a stroke last year. How can I begin making money on the Internet to supplement my retirement income?”

Answer: Unless you already have a product or service to offer immediately for sale online, probably the easiest thing for you to do is find a product that is already being sold online that is in an area of your interest and sign-up as an affiliate for it. It’s usually free to do that. First, buy the product and try it yourself so that you can ethically and accurately endorse it. And, then promote it to others in a niche area of your expertise and interest and get the commission for it. Technically, you don’t even need a website to do that.

So, first go to ClickBank.com and start an account for yourself and see what products people are offering in there and go through the process.

If you decide you do want to get a website up and running, I suggest you give this product a try http://tinyurl.com/2z2j3d

I’ve known the maker of this product for about two years now and it’s truly the simplest way I’ve ever seen of getting a website up and running that will begin producing immediate results.

Internet User Statistics are UP

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Aug 27, 2007

Internet user statistics are up according to Thomas Claburn’s report at Information Week. He says that the Center for Media Research reported that 47% of your day is spent using the Internet, which is 17% more than what was reported in 2003 as 34%.

That’s all interesting, but what really got to me was the reasons for the statistics increase. Video, Internet speed, better search engine technology, instant messaging usage, and the fact that there is just plain more information available were all cited.

Not that he’s wrong, but something is missing. What do these Internet user statistics really prove? Why is it important? And, how can this knowledge help your business?

Here’s my take:

1) These Internet user statistics prove that the Internet continues to increase in importance in our lives. We are nowhere near reaching a some sort of plateau. The Internet is still in the growth phase.

2) More people of all ages are using the Internet more and more, not just overall increases. My 9-year-old, for example, comes home from school every day and jumps right onto the Internet to play his favorite on-line game, instead of Playstation. My 71-year-old mother now uses the Internet to find values for rare books she finds at a bookstore she works at instead of only using the Internet for its e-mail.

3) People look to the Internet first (as opposed to the last place to try) as it now has so many more functions and purposes than it did before. We used to think of all of our possible reasources before we’d think of the Internet. Just think of when the last time was when you actually used a Yellow Pages BOOK or went to the library to look up an article.

Internet user statistics will continue to rise every year, not because more people are finding out about the Internet, but because it’s becoming a more valued part of our lives.

How can this knowledge help your business?

By tailoring everything you do with your business on-line to the ever increasing need for more information. Everything you do on the Internet to promote your business should be with the knowledge that Internet users are using the Internet more than ever before and will continue to use the Internet more and more every day for years to come.

For example, using the Internet for your business as a brochure type of website is practically an insult to today’s Internet user. Don’t just give them a bunch of bullet points telling visitors “what you do” but give them real content they can use. “10 Myths” about your industry, “10 Questions to Ask Anyone You’re Thinking of Hiring for (insert your business here)”.