Webmaster Discussions

People unconsciously ignore ads, not because they aren’t interested in the products or services that are being offered, but a natural instinct to focus on the material they’re reading and block out “distractions”. Remember: they’re on the web to look for information. That can be a particular song they want to download, an article on their favorite celebrity, or a chicken recipe they can cook for dinner. They’re concentrating on that issue, and their minds are quickly filtering out whatever seems to intrude on that search. That includes the background noise of the room they happen to be surfing in, and the visual noise on the web page.

Ads are said to be “visual noise”, and ironically, the larger (and more obvious) the ad, the more likely it’ll be ignored. That seems to go against all instincts of advertising-bigger should be better, right? That may work on a highway, when a looming billboard will catch your either whether you plan to look or not, but on the Internet, there are just too many ads. As a gut-reaction, the eye skips over anything that looks like the “traditional” advertising banners, regardless of the text contained in them. That’s why if you look at the studies, 468 x 60 ads, and the 728 x 90 ads, actually get the lowest click through rate.

But the challenge of Adsense is to make people read the ad, and click on it. How do you accomplish that if the brain automatically dismisses your message as “junk”? Simple: by not looking like an ad, and then inserting yourself at the point where people would be most interested in what you say. Then, website viewers not only notice you, but see you as a valid solution (or at least, a possible solution) to a pressing problem.

The Color of Money

Traditional graphic design principles will tell you to use bright, contrasting colors to get somebody’s attention (it’s also called the “bright neon sign” phenomenon). But for Adsense, you get better results when you take the subtle approach and blend into the page that you’re on. Instead of looking like an ad, you are seen as a valid editorial content: as informative, helpful, and credible as the article they happen to be reading.

That’s why your ad background and its border colors should be the same color as the web page on which it’s located. If your website’s white, then your ad assumes that color; if it’s blue, then you know what shade to pick. This isn’t sneaky, it’s reader psychology. Advertisers in magazines have been doing it for years-not copying the color, but the font of the magazine pages. Readers are then more likely to continue reading the ad text rather than skipping it over it because it’s “not part of the page”. By the time they realize that it’s an ad, they’re intrigued by the benefit being offered (and if they aren’t, at least they know about you-much more than what you would have accomplished if the ad had been dismissed). By applying this principle to your Ad Sense, you get better results.

Another trick: use the standard blue color for your links, but make the advertiser’s URL (the domain name below the ad text) in a very unobtrusive color and size. Combine this trick with making the rest of your website content a non-traditional color that is not as noticeable as blue (for example, a dark green), and you have a more subtle way of drawing attention to your Adsense links. Readers will gravitate towards the link, thinking that it is a neutral and objective way of finding more information, and click. And you know what that means for Adsense revenues.

Location, Location, Location

As they say in business, location is the secret to success: be where your market needs you (and in this case, reads you). For example, avoid placing ads on the left or right periphery of the page: people don’t bother looking there, since the webtext flow is from top to bottom. Unless a photo or other graphical element pulls their eyes to the side, there is no reason for them to look beyond those margins. Plus, Internet users are conditioned to look for content in the center- so you also have to be in the center to be deemed “valid content”.

This rule is particularly true for people who have a very specific question or concern and found the page by typing key words into a search engine. They are not interested in anything outside that query. To get their attention, place a large rectangular ad above your content (for example, the top center column) but below the title. Then, choose a message that is related to the key words that were probably used. For example, if it’s a website about “widgets”, and your article is a review on the latest “blue widgets” then Ad Sense on “Find Cheap Widgets Now!” would have a high percentage of clicks.

Why does placing Ad Sense underneath the title work so effectively? Because there is an immediate association with content. Your website title summarizes the topic or concern, the text expounds on it, and your Ad Sense is sandwiched within those two very important elements. You would not get this kind of click through if you placed it above the title, where it’s perceived as literally “outside” the topic and hence, irrelevant or secondary.

Since Google allows you to put three ad blocks, where do you put the other two? At the end of the content, preferably above the Author’s Box. This reaches the educated, and perhaps slightly more cynical reader, who had preferred to read up on the topic and is now ready to make an intelligent, informed decision about what products or services to buy. You can place a third ad block at the side if you have a short article or are concerned about cluttering the site. Otherwise, put it within the content, catching visitors who may be quickly bored with the article and may not reach the end of it, and is willing to “click away” from the site (and hopefully to the advertisers).

Link building in a nutshell, is the process of getting other web sites and web pages to link to your web site. These links will not only drive direct targeted traffic to your pages; but more importantly will increase your overall search engine visibility and rankings. Building a solid incoming linking structure for your site is one of the most effective techniques used by search engine optimization professionals to improve your search engine rankings and boost the overall amount of traffic any given web page receives. However the process of building incoming links to your site can be a daunting and tedious task when just getting started. The purpose of this essay is to outline the importance of building a strong linking profile for your site as well as offer a handful of key strategies that any webmaster regardless of marketing budget can employ to climb to the top of the search engine ladder.

1.) Purchasing Links & Sponsored Reviews

Paying other web masters to place a link on their site back to yours is probably the easiest and most straight forward way to generate links to your site. However the down-side of purchasing or renting links from other web masters is that it can become a very expensive venture, not to mention you need to pick and choose your potential candidates vary carefully. There are many services out there to help connect you with other web masters that are interested in selling links from their web pages, however you will save yourself a lot of time, and money by working directly with other web masters as apposed to paying a middle man to act as a link broker. Unfortunately there is no set standard on determining what any given link is worth: however you should pay careful attention to a few key factors before cracking open your wallet and spending your hard earned money on a paid link. These things include but are not limited to the number of incoming links the candidate site itself has, it’s overall page rank, the age of the site and finally the search engine saturation (number of pages indexed in the major search engines) of the site. When approaching a web master to purchase links from make your goals as clear as day – and ensure that he or she knows you’re interested in purchasing a link for Search Engine Optimization reasons. You need to ensure the link will not be cloaked (hidden from search engine spiders) or nofollowed (marked to inform search engines not to follow the link with the rel=”nofollow” attribute) as either of these conditions will make the link relatively worthless from an SEO stand point.

2.) Comment and Post on Related Blogs & Message Boards

Even a web novice can find a litany of blogs and message boards for any given niche or market to post comments and feed back . I strongly encourage you to register on message boards related to your topic or subject and include links within the signature of your posts and messages. The same goes for blogs and commenting. There are many blogs that will allow you to include a link back to your site either within the content of your message, or make your user name a clickable link back to your site. However there is a fine line between spamming and offering valid comments, posts and responses to community based web sites and blogs. Making obvious spam posts such as “Cool site, check my site out at …” will likely get your IP address banned from the web site or network, and can negatively impact the reputation of your brand or web site. If you don’t have a valuable view point, or comment to offer other readers of the site you’re posting on, you’re better off not commenting at all.

3.) Write User Testimonials & Product Reviews

Writing user reviews or testimonials is an under appreciated technique to create a wealth of back links to your site. Most often when you write a review for a product or service you’ve had success with, the web master will include a link back to your site in the signature of the review. This technique is simple and straight forward; if you’ve purchased a product or service write up a short 100 – 300 word review for the product outlining it’s strengths and your positive experiences and include your full name, and web site address in the signature of the review. Nine out of ten times the web master of the site you’ve written the testimonial for will be more than happy to include and activate the link when they post the review onto their website.

4.) Develop a Free Online Service or Software Application

Most people wouldn’t even consider spending their valuable time developing an application or online utility to give away for free. However the benefits of creating and distributing a free online utility or software application can create several 1,000 back links to your site very quickly. A perfect example of this is creating a small, easy to use Mortgage Calculator with javascript and offer the code to embed the Mortgage Calculator onto other web pages. Include a link back to your site within the coding of the Mortgage Calculator perhaps in a copyright statement at the bottom of the application and require the link as a condition for using your free application.

5.) Write Articles and Distribute Them Online

Assuming this isn’t the first essay you’ve read on improving the amount of links to your web site, you should be well aware that writing articles and submitting your articles to the popular article directories is a fantastic way to generate many back links to your web site. The premise is simple yet effective; Write a handful of articles geared toward your topic and subject matter and distribute them to the many article directories on the Internet. Often times when your article is posted on these article directory sites they will include an authors bio, or resource box. Within the authors bio area you want to include a little information about your company or product(s) as well as a link back to your site. Whenever your article is picked up by other web masters or syndicated across other popular web sites you will receive a free one way link back to your site. Repeat these steps over and over to build several 1,000 links back to your web site. This is an amazing technique as your only investment is a little time to write and submit an article.

6.) Submit Your Site to Directories

Over the past few years links from directories or web indexes has become less and less valuable. However there are still a handful of well trusted and high quality directories that you should consider submitting your site to. This will boost both your linking profile, as well as your page and trust rank. Some of the most notable directories to submit your web site to in no particular order are DMOZ, The Yahoo! Business Directory, JoeAnt, Gimpsy, GoGuides, Linkopedia and Uncoverthenet. Though most of the directories l’ve mentioned here are not free to submit to, the cost of submission is well worth the price as the links you’ll receive from this investment are quality one-way links that carry a good amount of page trust and rank. When submitting your site to any of these directories, pay special attention to the category you are submitting your web address to, make sure that you are submitting your site to the most relevant, and related topic to the subject of your own web site. As this will ensure that you’re submission is not denied, or skipped by the directory editors once it gets reviewed.

7.) Exchange Links and Build Partnerships

Link exchanges or trading links with other web masters is another technique that has lost a little of it’s gusto over the years, however this method of generating back links does still hold a bit of value and should not be overlooked. Many webmasters dedicate a page of their site titled references or resources and use this page to link out to other web pages that have agreed to link back to their site. As mentioned above this technique is not as effective as it once was; however picking and choosing web sites that are well trusted and ranked by the search engines and that are related to the topic and subject mater of your own site promise to be well worth the effort. Finding other web sites that are prime candidates to exchange links with are those that are linking out to other relevant sites in your field or niche. Once you’ve found a web site that you’d be interested in swapping links with, contact the web master via email with your offer. When soliciting another web master for a link you want to write a personal email message and refer to specific content and aspects of his or her web site. Doing so will show the prospective linking partner that you’ve actually taken the time to give their site the once over before sending your solicitation; as a result you will be far more likely to receive a positive reply. As with purchasing paid links you want to ensure that the site you are requesting to exchange links with doesn’t end up cloaking it’s outbound links (hidden from search engine spiders) or nofollowed (marked to inform search engines not to follow the link with the rel=”nofollow” attribute) as either of these conditions will make your link relatively worthless from an SEO stand point.

In this article we’ve discussed 7 of the most effective, and commonly used methods to generate a massive amount of incoming links to your web site. With any luck, after reading this article you should have a handful of ideas and techniques in your tool box that you can employ to kick-start your web site’s model for success. Building links to your web site is by no means a set-it and forget-it facet of web marketing and requires time, dedication and ongoing analysis. You can never have too many quality incoming links to your site and once you’ve had a small taste of success with link building I’m confident you’ll be hungry for more.

There a few ways of building reciprocal links to your website, the method im going to discuss is the online link exchanges.

What are link exchanges?

Link exchanges serve has a centre point for reciprocal link exchanges between one webmaster and another and are a gateway to communication between the two interested parties, the service they provide can be free with minor account limitations such as only being able to make five link requests a day or fee paid giving access to the full facilities such as checking whether the website you swapped with still has your link on their site or help with building link pages for your site etc.

One fine example is Linkmarket.net. Webmasters simply sign up and enter their website details and then are added to the link exchanges directory under relevant web content categories along with search engine ranking powered by Google or Alexa. From here webmasters can browse through and find websites which have relevant web content to their site and add them to their link basket.

Once they have finished choosing which links they are interested in, they can checkout and the chosen website webmasters are then informed automatically via email that they are interested in exchanging links with their site and then have a specified time limit in which to decide whether to exchange links or not.

This method works both ways and webmasters will be informed frequently via email when someone is interested and requesting to exchange links.

Conclusion

Link exchanges can be a good way of padding out your deserted links pages on your website, the more reputable link exchanges have huge directories from which to choose adequate links with relevant content to your site and gaining full access to all features are only usually a small subscription charge. One downside could be that websites you wish to exchange with wont because you haven’t got an adequate Google Rank, this can be a bit frustrating to the newly made websites, but this problem is very rare.

Okay, it’s now time for the next installment of… “6 POWERFUL VRE(Virtual Real Estate) Business Models You Can Start Building In 2006 Using Google Adsense” series.

By now you should have a good idea of what Virtual Real Estate is and why it’s to your benefit that you start a network of your own VRE sites depending on the model you choose.

In the last installment of this series I covered “Article Directories”.

In this part of the VRE series I’m going to cover “Web Directories” in general and then give you some examples of what they might be and look like.

Sound good?

VRE Model #2. Web Directories.

An “Web Directory” is simply a directory on the World Wide Web that specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links. Web Directory owners will often allow site owners to submit their site for inclusion. Then human editors will review their submission and if accepted, will be added to their database.

The one thing about Web Directories is they are often used as part of a website marketing strategy for being indexed in the major search engines like Yahoo!, Google, MSN to name a few.

The main strategy behind someone submitting there website to a directory is that a new site needs to quickly build inbound links from reputable sources. In doing this they will get a higher ranking within search engine results under there target keywords depending on the PR(popularity ranking) of that directory or inbound link.

That’s the basic run-down of what an Web Directories purpose is and why they make a great VRE business model.

Web Directories can be and target anything you want them to. It’s your directory, so you make the decision as to what it is about.

As your directory grows, so will its traffic.

And if you have targeted affiliate programs strategically placed on your directory along side your Google Adsense code, you could be making a nice, steady income form your directory like many others are right now.

Now… as I said at the beginning of this article I would give you some examples of some Web Directories with Google Adsense so you see for yourself whether or not this is something you want to venture into.

So, with that said, here are 3 directories that I think will give you a good idea of what to expect:

Free Stuff Directory:
All Free Things – http://www.allfreethings.com/

eBook Directory:
Wisdom eBooks – http://www.wisdomebooks.com/

Software Directory:
Software5 – http://www.software5.com/

Now remember, your Online Directory can be about anything you want. Your in control.

These are just some examples of whats out.

Did you happen to see the Google Adsense ads?

BINGO!

Also, pay special attention to where those Google Adsense ads are positioned because this is KEY to getting a good CTR(Click Through Rate) with your Google Adsense ads.

Now, at this point, it’s up to you to make the decision on whether or not this is the type of VRE business model you want to use and start.

I recommend you surf around and see whats out there with your interests in mind. By doing that you will be able to get some good idea’s as to what to expect and more importantly, model your directory and/or VRE sites from.

Well, that’s it for now.

Incoming search terms:

• Bingo Remember my personal information Notify me of follow-up comments

I’m directing this article to those who are just starting their eBay Selling Venture. Whether you’re selling books, DVDs, CDs, collectibles or clothing, all things (with the exception of eBooks and services) need to be mailed. And it’s the postage, handling fees and mailing that seems to cause a great deal of angst among new sellers.

You’ve heard the advice ? don’t overcharge for shipping. That is very good advice, indeed, as nothing turns off potential buyers like sellers who gouge you on the shipping costs. It’s also a practice that can rack up bad feedback.

However, I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate here and suggest that you don’t go overboard and give so much of a break on shipping that you’re chipping away at your profits. It’s good to remember the “hidden costs” of shipping: bubble wrap to secure your breakables, tape, shipping envelopes, boxes, etc. Then there’s the gas you put in your car to take all those trips to the post office.

You might think I’m being cheap, but, if you added up all your eBay expenses for the year (as some did for their recent taxes) you might be shocked to see how all the packing materials and gas for your car added up and took a little chunk out of your eBay profits. And, believe me, they do add up.

Some people are even more surprised to find they underestimated the weight of their packages, causing their profits to shrink even further.

How can you be fair to both you and your buyers?

1. Buy a scale. It may sound simple, but purchasing a scale can save you a bundle in shipping. If you’re just eyeballing the weight of the package, you can often times guess too low, and be in for quite a shock when you go to the post office and see the package is going to cost twice what you thought to ship.

2. Know the dimensions of your packaging before listing the item. Some packages cost more to ship because of their dimensions. Knowing the weight alone isn’t enough.

3. Offer the buyer a variety of shipping methods. Some prefer speedy delivery with Express mailing, while some prefer to save money with parcel post even though the wait is longer. It’s always a good idea when using parcel post or other slower ground shipping to alert the buyer by email that it can take anywhere from 8 to 10 days.

4. Save yourself money whenever possible by using boxes that have been used. Most stores are more than happy to let you rummage through their old boxes and take some home with you. But, do remember to choose boxes that are presentable, secure and strong enough for your items. And, if you have breakables, don’t skimp on the bubble wrap.

5. Give yourself a small handling fee that will cover your expenses. Some sellers add on an additional $1 or $2 to the shipping fees for their handling fees (depending on the cost of the item and how much packaging you have to use). I really advocate doing this because your expenses will add up if you do a lot of selling on eBay. Be sure to be upfront with your buyers that you have a small handling fee so they can’t complain about it later.

Being fair to both yourself and your buyer will keep you both happy, and keep more of your profit in your pocket.