Archive for Internet Marketing
Facebook PPC Advertising Explained
Posted by: | CommentsProfit From Facebook PPC Advertising
Facebook provides a lot of fantastic opportunities for online marketers, but there are also a lot of pitfalls. Here are some guidelines that can help you get started with Facebook PPC Advertising.
We can get clicks starting at 10 cents per click on Facebook. Those of you who were around in the early days of Google AdWords will understand just how profitable that can be. To our great advantage there is very little competition now and we can get high quality traffic if we do some research.
Target keywords that people use to describe themselves
With Facebook PPC advertising, you can target very specific keywords. However, these are not the same kind of keywords you’d use in Google AdWords campaigns. With Facebook, you need to consider the words people use to describe themselves, their interests and their hobbies. Instead of targeting a search term, you’re going to be using descriptive terms. In my experience, people search Google to solve a problem. Whereas people browse Facebook to check out Facebook pages and to mingle with friends online. This is an important distinction and must be considered when choosing keywords to target for your campaigns.
To read more on this topic: Pre-Qualify Clicks on Facebook
A picture is worth a thousand words
Your image is everything with Facebook PPC advertising. Select 4 or 5 good images that grab your attention and are related (even vaguely) to your topic. Ensure there are people in your image if possible. Of course, you’ll need to test all different kinds of images to see what converts best for you, but one thing I can say is that I try to use people in my ads. More specifically, I’ve found images of smiling, happy women to be very successful for most campaigns I’ve run.
Understand the rules of the game
Be careful. Follow the rules. Understand the Facebook terms and conditions and follow them or your account will be banned. I’m not saying this just to scare you. I want you to know that Facebook are very serious about breaches of their terms. To be successful on Facebook we must follow the rules they have set and be very aware they are very different than Google. The good news is that if you follow the rules, you can design great ads that will draw high quality customers to your offer/product/service.
Facebook’s advertising rules are different than Google’s. Facebook requires ads to be engaging but not too slick, sexy, or misleading. Your ad text cannot contain trademarked terms or be too shocking or offensive. Facebook requires that we place an image on all ads, and you can use text in your image. So, get creative with Photoshop if you can.
Click-thru rate is king with Facebook PPC
CTR (Click thru rate) is king on Facebook PPC. They won’t allow an ad with a low CTR to run on their site for very long. It’s in our best interest to test many different versions of our ads, images, and headline till we find a few that convert like gangbusters. If your CTR can stay high, you’re going to do well. If not, they will disable your ad without warning.
Facebook requires that the ads always remain relevant and interesting to their viewers. If your CTR is not as high as needed after 2 days look closely at the keywords used in your ad to determine if they are really relevant, compelling and not offensive in anyway. I suggest you get creative with your ad copy and your keywords. Think outside the box and come up with some unique combinations to get a killer ad. It’s fun once you get going!
Tips to profit with killer ad copy
Try writing your headlines in the form of a question. Perhaps you can make a bold statement. Whatever your headline, be sure it grabs the reader’s attention quickly so they read the rest of your ad copy and click through to your landing page.
Use an image that tells a story and grabs their attention. If you’re using a photo of someone, try using a smiling face or your image should represent your message and have text on it.
Avoid these mistakes & save time
You can’t use all capital letters or promise “free” stuff when there isn’t anything free. Be careful with email and zip submit offers – Facebook are now frowning on the promotion of these. When you’re writing headlines and ad copy, remember to use upper and lower case letters and be careful with your spelling. Avoid using slang, abbreviations or code words. Facebook does not permit the use of irrelevant images, symbols or anything offensive.
Watch it or lose it
Facebook PPC is risky and you have the potential to lose all your money very quickly. Be smart and follow these tips carefully. Once you’ve got your ads all set up, you absolutely must watch your campaigns very closely. Set very low daily budgets and don’t leave your computer when you’re testing a new campaign. Traffic comes through extremely fast and before you know it, your budget has been spent.
Facebook PPC Advertising is a dangerous, but exciting game and you’ve got to take it seriously to make money. I got started with Facebook PPC by learning the step by step methods being taught right now at Affiliit – an excellent training forum. I recommend you go there if you want to learn more.
You can also read more Facebook PPC Advertising Tips here.
If you’re up for the Facebook PPC challenge, let me know by sharing your thoughts, ideas, questions in the comments section below!
Selling Websites: My experience at Flippa.com
Posted by: | CommentsWebsites are important part of an internet business and, of course, if you want to make money online, you may need to get yourself a website. One good place to search for websites for sale is Flippa.
(**Please note, the links in this post to Flippa.com are not affliate links**)
Profit from unfinished projects.
I have started many projects over the past year, and most of them were never finished. I am pretty sure this happens with a lot of internet marketers, so I hope I’m not alone. One project I started involved an iPod review site. I was pretty excited about it at the beginning and I spent a lot of time customizing the site, writing articles, getting links, etc.
But then, other things came along, and I lost focus. I started up another project, and then another. Does this happen to you too? My beloved iPod site drifted to the back burner. Luckily, I had done enough work on it that it began to rank highly in the search engines and earn some money through the Google AdSense program & the Amazon Associates program.
Flippa.com provides a safe, secure place to buy and sell websites.
Now, the time has come for me to let go of my iPod review site. The best place to sell your website is most certainly Flippa.com. Their system makes it safe and easy for buyers and sellers to transact securely.
If you haven’t checked it out, I encourage you to do so. Buying and selling websites is a profitable venture that you can engage online. With so many people doing business online, you can also invest on buying underdeveloped websites, enhance them and sell them. Online real estate is becoming more valuable as time goes on.
If you have some web design skills or even some programming skills, you can enhance the look of a website, make it appealing to potential buyers and make money when you sell it. Even with a small budget, you can take advantage of this moneymaking opportunity.
My site just sold for $380.
I’ve listed my iPod review site and I was so nervous. I feel close to my sites because I’ve spent so much time working on them. But, was I able to prove that I had spent time on it?
Some things that potential buyers are looking for are traffic, domain age, backlinks, and income. I’m learning that a big key to success is being able to provide documented proof of these 4 key factors. I wasn’t keeping track of these things for my iPod site and I could not provide proof. So I highly recommend to anyone considering selling a website at Flippa to document your stats before listing. It will have a big impact on the final purchase price.
Save time and buy an established website.
There are a lot of fantastic websites that you can buy. Every day people are selling high quality blogs, review sites, forums, job boards, social networking sites and established online businesses. If you are looking to enter a niche, or grow your presence in a niche, you’d be smart to check Flippa and see if there is an established site for sale. Buy that site and you have instantly improved your chances of success at market leadership.
Earn extra cash by flipping websites.
One thing that you can do to make the most out of buying and selling websites is to buy cheap sites, improve them with a little web designing and optimization and selling it at a higher price. Like selling real estate properties, improving the site to make it more appealing to clients in terms of design and being search engine friendly, can indeed help a lot in reselling it at a good price.
You can make more profits selling websites if you choose a good niche or topic. Your choice is important because the ‘money-making ability’ of your site can depend on the market. High-paying niches are those that attract high-paying ads. I recommend you use Market Samurai to determine the potential value of a niche, keyword phrase, or a domain name.
When it comes to design and appeal, you can make the site more appealing to buyers simply by adding pictures, a custom header graphic, and a new premium wordpress theme. This can make your site much more valuable to buyers.
Selling websites is easy.
I know there are a lot of people like me out there. You had a great idea, deicded to buy a domain name, and then you let it sit there for ages. If you have unused domain names or unloved blogs taking up space in your portfolio, consider creating sites and selling them with Flippa. Research shows that by simply installing WordPress and adding a few unique posts, you can double or triple the value of a domain name. Now, I’m not saying that simply selling domain names isn’t profitable. I am not a “domainer”. But if you have sites doing nothing, it can’t hurt you to try selling one or two for some extra cash.
When I started tweeting about my website sale, many people commented that they were eager to try selling a site of their own. If this is your situation, I encourage you to go for it. You really have nothing to lose. It’s a fun process & it only costs $19 to list your site for sale at Flippa. I paid for a few “featured listing” upgrades and that was an additional cost. Overall, I think the upgrades were worth the investment. I got a lot of traffic to my auction, and ended up with a good result.
Have you bought or sold a website? What has been your experience?
3 Steps to Learn Internet Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsTo make real money online, it is important to learn Internet marketing. Of course there are thousands of scammers out there who will promise you the world – quick cash, instant millions, retire in 3 months, blah blah blah. But the truth is that anyone who invests the time to learn Internet marketing does not learn the proper skills from a get rich quick scheme. It most certainly pays to invest the time into learning the basics from the ground up.
I love what I do. I am passionate about Internet marketing and helping others learn internet marketing. Here are some pretty basic steps to getting yourself on track as an Internet Marketer. Remember: I am here to help you along the way. You can find me on Twitter (@PpcMom) or on my Facebook Page almost every day.
Learn Internet Marketing Step One: Find a Good Training Program
You need to learn Internet marketing skills through a good training program.
I know a lot of people say they learned everything on their own and they didn’t need a training program. That’s cool – and that obviously worked for them. But it didn’t work for me. I love being a part of a larger group – learning together, and being able to ask questions as we go along.
Here at PpcMom.com I actively promote and support both Affiliit.com and Ppc-Coach.com as fantastic training programs. If you have any questions about either of these reputable sites, I am happy to help you decide which (if any) of these may suit your needs.
**Please note: I will earn a small commission if you use any of the links on this site to join Ppc-Coach or Affilit**
I suggest you find a training program that will teach you the best practice methods of generating traffic and how to convert that traffic into sales. This should include learning SEO techniques as well as how to use PPC effectively.
When you learn Internet marketing through a legitimate training forum, you gain the skills & the knowledge you need to expand your web presence, build an online business, and earn a solid living online. Knowledge is power.
Learn Internet Marketing Step Two: Learn How to Get Traffic
The first thing you need to learn in Internet marketing is how to drive traffic to your offer. Notice: I did not say that you have to learn how to build a website. In fact, I earned many thousands of dollars before I ever had a website of my own – and you can do it too. Traffic is king.
There are two main ways to get traffic: PPC (Pay Per Click Ads) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
An experienced Internet marketer knows how to drive pay per click traffic to products and services. And it’s even better if you know how to get free traffic. This can take a long time to learn, but it’s worth it in the long run. SEO takes a great amount of skill to master, but a beginner can see quick results in a matter of days with the right advice.
I strongly advise new internet marketers to learn both PPC and SEO techniques. PPC is great for instant income. SEO can provide a longer term stable income stream.
Learn Internet Marketing Step Three: Work Hard
This is NOT a get rich quick scheme. Internet marketing is a legitimate business model and you can earn a full time living if you follow a step by step plan and work hard. Now, when I say “work hard”, I really just mean that you have to love it. I eat, sleep, and breathe internet marketing, and I have for over 18 months now. I truly love what I do and I just can’t seem to stop myself from working. You’ve got to find this passion somewhere inside of you. Find that passion & ignite it.
To become successful online, you not only need to learn Internet marketing, but you need to dive in to the advanced strategies as well. There are many different strategies out there to make money online such as AdSense, AdWords, Facebook PPC, Facebook Pages, SEO, PPV ads, article marketing, setting up a blog, keyword research, finding a good niche to market, building a list of email subscribers, writing e-books and short reports, and taking advantage of viral marketing.
These are just some of the many techniques you will encounter on your journey to learn internet marketing. Thank you for letting me be a part of it!
Focus on a success plan. Invest in your own learning. Never give up.
Logo Design – My Experience at 99designs
Posted by: | Comments[the links to 99designs.com are not affiliate links]
Internet Marketers, we need to get smarter.
Most of us cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on advertising, branding, logos, and web design. We can’t rely on word of mouth, or SEO to bring in fast cash. We’ve all lost money on PPC campaigns, and we’re running out of options to start and grow our businesses.
If you’re anything like me, you have ventured into the “4 Hour Work Week” style of information products in an effort to create ongoing, passive income. Info products are a fantastic way to share your knowledge with people who really need it.
The big marketing questions still remain :
- How do you stand out from the crowd?
- How do you convince customers you are legitimate and trustworthy?
- How do you come up with new and effective marketing ideas that won’t eat up your limited budget and resources?
Building your brand is the initial step of promoting your information product effectively.
How can we create and build our brand image without spending a fortune?
The answer?
Logo design with 99designs.
By having an attractive brand image, you can gradually win the trust of your target market and attract them to employ your services and buy your products. High quality logo design is the most crucial part of building your brand identity. Large businesses can easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for this. However, with 99designs, even small operators like us can get the same results.
At 99designs, you set the parameters for your contest. You clearly state the kind of logo you require, and you set the prize money. Then, designers from across the globe will begin submitting designs for you to rate or eliminate. And, it’s SO much fun!
I’ve just run my very first logo design contest at 99designs, and it has been a huge success! I am thrilled with the results and had hundreds of amazing logos to choose from. The best thing about this process for me was the overwhelming number of usable options that were delivered. I easily could have used about 100 of the submissions.
You can view my contest for a “Chickens Guide” info product logo design here.
Now, I could have gone to a designer and worked one on one to have a design created. But the key problem is you’re working with 1 designer and 1 concept. With 99designs, I was working with over 80 designers and had hundreds of different concepts submitted. The end result is that I now have a very high quality logo design that captures exactly the image I needed.
It’s the #1 rule of branding: If your product or business logo is of high quality, you will be perceived as a quality business.
Have you used 99designs? What is your experience with logo design?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
