Using the internet to build your business, it works equally well for an online or offline business, and is a great way to increase your exposure to get more customers. And one of the best resources available on the internet is small business articles. When you write an article and submit it to an article directory or a blog, you are vastly increasing the exposure of your business. To get the maximum exposure there are a few things you're going to need to do. For one thing you'll want to make sure that your article is optimized with keywords. And not just any keywords either, you have to focus only on those keywords that have fairly high monthly searches and low competition. It's definitely a balancing act. If you target keywords that have a lot of searches they will most likely have too much competition and will be virtually impossible for you to get a good ranking for. If you focus on keywords that don't have enough searches it won't get you very much traffic for your efforts. Everyone has their own opinion of what a 'good number of searches' and 'low competition' really means. I've always used the guide line of at least 1,500 searches a month and less than 20,000 in competition and it's worked very well. Find your own guide lines and determine what works best for your niche. Now that you've got a list of 10-20 keywords for your niche, it's time to write several articles for each keyword. If you have 10 keywords you can write 3-5 articles for each keyword. This will give you a lot of great exposure online. Make sure each article is slightly unique from the last. Now,you will submit those articles to article directories online so they can be published. Don't worry about the 'published' part. As long as your article is written in accordance with their rules it will be published. One thing to remember, most article directories won't let you do any direct 'selling' in your article. You will need to provide useful information but the selling needs to be done in the resource box at the end of the article. This is where you can put a link to your website that people can click on and be taken to your site. The resource box is your place to shine. Make sure you make it something interesting. Pique your readers curiosity and interest. The more compelling you make it the more likely they are to click on the link and check out your site...which is exactly what you want to happen. This method can work very well for most any type of business. The internet is an amazing resource for business owners and it would be just plain silly to not take full advantage of all it has to offer. Even if you can't stand the idea of writing you can take full advantage of small business articles. You can always hire someone to do your writing for you. You can find many good writers who would be willing to write your articles for you for only a few dollars each.
To ensure article marketing success there are many things you have to take into consideration. Article marketing is one of the surest ways to get some very targeted traffic to your website. It's easy to learn and do and it won't cost you a penny if you're willing to do the work yourself. There is a very low learning curve and since it's free to do, it won't cost you even if you do make a mistake or two in the beginning.
A brief overview of what article marketing is: you may know that the search engines online want to provide their customers with a good experience. That means that when someone does a search for something online the search engines want to make sure that that person finds just what they are looking for. They only want the freshest, most accurate information. This will keep their customers happy, which is what they ultimately want.
If you can provide that new, fresh content you will be rewarded by having your article appear at the top of the search engine results for that keyword. For example, if you've got a website that sells dog toys and you write a good article with the keyword 'best dog toys' your article can appear on the first page of results when someone types in the search term 'best dog toys'.
Of course the first thing you have to do is to pick a good keyword. I can almost guarantee that the keyword I used in the example above is way too competitive for you to rank for. There is a bit of a balancing act when it come to finding a keyword to target. You want a keyword that gets a reasonable number of monthly searches yet doesn't have too much competition. While there is no hard and fast rules a good guideline to follow is to find a keyword that gets at least 1,500 searches a month but has 20,000 or less competition.
So to increase your chances of success with article marketing your first step is to pick out several good keywords for your niche.
Next, you'll want to write several articles for each keyword. If you have 10 good keywords that you'll want to write 3-5 articles for each keyword. I know there'll be a little overlap in your articles since you're using the same keyword, just try to make them as unique as possible.
You don't need to write a novel, just help your readers learn a new skill or some new useful information. Make sure you proof read your article and check spelling. Insert your keyword phrase in the title, the first, middle and last paragraphs. That should be plenty. Don't 'stuff' your article with keywords or it will be rejected.
The next thing to do is to submit your articles to article directories. There are hundreds online to choose from but one of the best is Ezinearticles.com. Don't think of this like some publishing company that will turn you down. As long as your article abides by the rules of the article directory, it will be published.
Follow these simple steps to ensure your article marketing success.
When it comes to making the most of your online sales and marketing articles it's really a matter of getting the right message in front of the right people. Sounds simple, doesn't it? And while it's not that hard, it will take some trial and error. Don't expect to hit it out of the park your first try. You might, but it will be almost guaranteed to be a fluke and probably won't be repeated. Instead view your marketing as a work in progress. You will want to test various keywords and articles to see which ones perform the best for you. You should be willing to invest several weeks, or months, to find just the right 'formula'. Once you've got it dialed in that's when the magic happens. Once you know that you've got a winning article all you have to do is rewrite it, keeping the focus and the keywords the same but changing it just enough to make it unique, and re-submit it. Do this with several sets of keywords and you're going to get all the traffic you will need. And, that traffic will be highly targeted and totally free! Another thing to remember is that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of online article directories that will accept your well written, unique article and publish it. You don't have to worry about being rejected, you're not submitting a novel. As long as you follow their terms of service and abide by their rules your article will be published. There are two schools of thought as to how many articles you should submit. Some say submit as many articles to as many directories as is humanly possible, while others say it's about quality over quantity. In other words, several well written, keyword optimized articles will give you all the traffic you need so you don't have to submit hundreds of articles. Personally, I think an approach that lands somewhere in the middle of these two extremes is best. Submit a lot of articles, about 50, using several keywords spread out over the articles. Submit them to several online article directories. Another thing to keep in mind to increase the effectiveness of your articles is that they must be on topic. If you're selling product or services in the dog grooming niche you wouldn't write an article about bird watching, would you? Believe it or not that is exactly the type of mistake many people make. Keep your articles tightly focused on your niche market and their needs When you write your resource or authors box make it something compelling. Don't just say, 'click here for more information". Yawn. Instead be intriguing and tease your readers. Pique their curiosity or offer them something free if they click through to your site. To get the most out of your sales and marketing articles just use common sense. Provide your readers with a well written, informative, keyword optimized article and a strong call to action in your resources box and this is an extremely cost effective method of getting hordes of hungry visitors to your website.
If you don't know what you're doing when it comes to running a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign, it will cost you... a lot. It's so very important that you learn how works. There are a lot of variables that come into play when you set up an Adwords campaign, it is not a couple clicks and watch the traffic flow, far from it. You need to take some time, do some testing and repeat until you've got your campaigns dialed in. Of course, if you have the budget, you can hire a firm to manage your campaigns for you. There are many places that will do this full time for you. They can set up all your campaigns, write the ads, adjust your daily budget, find the keywords, etc. It's not cheap but if you have more money than time it may be a good option for you. The most important element of any Adwords campaign is picking the right keywords. If you've used PPC even a little bit you no doubt realize that some keywords will cost you a lot more per click than others. In order to save yourself a lot of money, but still get solid click through rates (CTR's) you will need to find those keywords that 'fly under the radar'. They will still get a decent amount of searches but they aren't as competitive. These 'long tailed keywords' are actually keyword phrases. The one or two word keywords are almost always way to competitive for the average small internet marketer. Most smaller online marketers simply don't have the budget to be able to compete on these keywords. Another thing you will need to keep in mind is that all the major search engines, Google in particular, love to change things up. They really aren't that concerned with the smaller online advertisers or the affiliate marketers. They are catering more to the people who actually do the searching as well as the big boys, the advertisers who spend millions a year. For that reason it's tough for the little guy to keep up with the constantly changing rules which can make managing any Adwords campaign a real challenge. If you want to lower your pay per click cost on a certain keyword, provide a quality ad. One of the ways Google decides how much everyone will spend on a certain keyword is by their quality score. Now, who in the heck knows exactly how they figure that but one component is your click through rate. The more people who actually click on your ad, the better your score will be and the lower your bid price will be. The way Google looks at it is that if a lot of people are clicking on your ad it must be very relevant to the keyword you have targeted. That's what they want so their searchers are kept happy. If you provide that relevance they will reward you by giving you a better quality score which can translate directly into lower bid prices for that keyword. Google can be a little like the land of OZ, strange and mysterious and you never know what's waiting around the next corner. To make your life easier try to find a professional to help you with your Google Adwords campaign management. If you can't do that than at least keep these tips in mind when you set up your next campaign.
When you are setting up adwords campaigns, it's very important to take the time to do it right. Adwords is a fairly unforgiving advertising method, if you don't know what you're doing and you don't set your campaigns up the right way you will spend a ton of money, and you won't make one red cent. I would highly recommend that you find a course, or a mentor who can walk you through the complexities of pay per click (PPC) advertising before you just plunk down your money and hope for the best. This isn't Atlantic City. Another thing to keep in mind is that the keywords you choose for your campaign can make all the difference. Some people make the mistake of trying to use the highly competitive keywords related to the market they are in. One or two word keywords will get the most traffic so of course, they are also the most competitive and the most expensive. Instead focus your efforts on longer keyword phrases, also called long tailed keywords. Phrases that have 3, 4 or even 5 words in them. It's true, they won't have the same high monthly searches (though many of them will still get a lot of monthly searches) but they also won't have the competition and the very steep bid prices. When you have your keywords picked out you want to make sure that you write an ad that is very relevant to your website or offer, where ever you are sending traffic. Google will penalize you if your ad isn't relevant since they don't want their searchers to have a bad experience. Part of that penalty will be to be charged more per click than someone who is targeting the exact same keyword but has a highly relevant ad. How do they determine relevance? Well, for one thing it's based on the percentage of clicks your ad gets. Let's say your ad is displayed a thousand times, but in all those times it's only clicked on once. To Google that means your ad isn't on target and they will penalize you. Another thing to keep in mind with all the major search engines is that they can, and do, change the rules frequently and when ever they want. So you could have a very effective PPC campaign running one day and the next they've decided that something you are doing is wrong and they penalize you. Now, that probably doesn't happen very often but it's important to be on the lookout for. Make sure you stay up to date on the terms of service. It's also very important for you to test your ads. Run several versions with different headlines, different body, etc. Find which combinations works best. Only make one change at a time when you are testing so you can pinpoint what has increased, or decreased, the ads effectiveness. Successful adwords campaigns can be a tricky proposition. Just make sure that you set up a realistic budget and test, test, test. That is the best way to assure yourself of a profitable campaign.
Unfortunately, when you're a fairly small fish in a big pond you have to play by the rules or you will get kicked out of the pond. No where is this more true than when it comes to your adwords account. Google is one mighty big fish and what they say goes, period. If you want to advertise on their Pay Per Click (PPC) network you had better be prepared to play by their rules or they will ban you and that will be one less stream of traffic you'll be able to rely on.
Google Adwords can provide you with a ton of very qualified traffic, and it can do it pretty quickly, but it's not without it's pitfalls. One of the things Google really looks for these days is a quality site. The days of mediocre sites is gone. Google expects, and demands, quality sites for their searchers. If you don't deliver you'll be gone, there won't be a negotiation, you'll just be gone.
Google doesn't have to explain why you've been banned either, and they won't, one day you'll have a successful campaign and the next you'll be done and so will a big portion of your traffic (which is one reason why you should never rely on just one source of traffic for your site).
In order to avoid this nightmare scenario, it's important you don't do anything that would put Google on high alert. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. Carefully read and follow the terms of service that Google spells out when you sign up for your account. one of the most important things to remember is that you can not direct link your ad to an affiliate offer. You must drive the traffic to your own website where you can then direct them to your affiliate offer.
That is probably one of the most common mistakes people make. They think that Google is so big they won't notice, and they may not, for a while. But when they do you'll be banned. It's just not worth the risk. Put up a great blog.
2. Make sure that the website you send your traffic to has some truly quality content. Don't just throw up some dumb blog or website with one article on it and expect that that will be ok, it won't. Again, Google's main concern is for their customers and,newsflash, that's not you. It's the people who search online. If Google doesn't think that their searchers will get what they're looking for when they visit your site, they will ban you.
Hey, I don't mean to scare you, I'm just trying to point out that you have to be careful when you're dealing with 'The Big G'. They have their rules and they expect you to follow them. Don't forget, you're just a visitor in their kingdom and they expect you to carry your fair share of the weight and follow their rules. When you set up your
adwords account make sure you read, understand and follow all the rules to avoid the nightmare from 'Big G'.
Many internet marketers understand the value of having a Google Adwards pay per click campaign. If done right, this type of traffic generation can insure a virtually never ending stream of extremely targeted visitors to your website. The problem is, that it's very rarely done right because there are just so many facets to running a successful campaign. Before you hire a company to help you run your Adwords campaigns make sure they are a Google adwords qualified company.
While any company who has this certification is by no means endorsed by Google, it is an indication that they've spent the time to learn the techniques needed to run a successful campaign. Basically it's a good starting point but before you turn your hard earned money over to anyone it's up to you to make sure that they really are qualified.
Some of the basic steps that must be completed in order to gain certification are:
1. You must sign up for the Adwords qualified individual program and remain in good standing. This is basically just a promise that you will abide by the terms of service Google establishes.
2. You need to maintain at least one Adwords account, it can be yours or for someone who has hired you. You need to maintain this account for at least 3 months. This is a win/ win for the person undergoing the certification process and Google. It allows you to gain in your knowledge base and allows Google to 'see you in action' and make sure you know what you're doing. During this time you will need to maintain at least $1,000 USD total spent through the Adwords account.
As with all things internet, and especially with Google, things online are constantly changing and evolving. It's for that reason that Google improved the certification program after implementing changes in the Adwords platform. It was their way to make sure that everyone who had the certification is up to date on the latest Adwords features and policies.
The new certification process requires the person taking the certification to not only pass the fundamentals exam but they must also take, and pass, one of three more advanced components. This is again, just a way to ensure the continued quality of anyone who is advertising them self as a Google certified professional.
Once an individual or company completes the certification process they can display the Google GAP logo on their site. Google also helps them promote themselves by creating a profile for any individual or company that has completed the training.
Besides the huge advantage to anyone hiring these highly trained Adwords professionals for their own traffic generation, the holder of these certificates is also rewarded with many perks. A badge for their website, a profile listing them as a Google partner on Googles search directory, they can also gain access to a lot of training and development events that the average customer simply does not get access to.
So, before you hire a company to manage your Adwords account for you, make sure that they are qualified. Look for a google adwords qualified company.
When you are setting up adwords campaigns, it's very important to take the time to do it right. Adwords is a fairly unforgiving advertising method, if you don't know what you're doing and you don't set your campaigns up the right way you will spend a ton of money, and you won't make one red cent.
I would highly recommend that you find a course, or a mentor who can walk you through the complexities of pay per click (PPC) advertising before you just plunk down your money and hope for the best. This isn't Atlantic City.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the keywords you choose for your campaign can make all the difference. Some people make the mistake of trying to use the highly competitive keywords related to the market they are in. One or two word keywords will get the most traffic so of course, they are also the most competitive and the most expensive.
Instead focus your efforts on longer keyword phrases, also called long tailed keywords. Phrases that have 3, 4 or even 5 words in them. It's true, they won't have the same high monthly searches (though many of them will still get a lot of monthly searches) but they also won't have the competition and the very steep bid prices.
When you have your keywords picked out you want to make sure that you write an ad that is very relevant to your website or offer, where ever you are sending traffic. Google will penalize you if your ad isn't relevant since they don't want their searchers to have a bad experience.
Part of that penalty will be to be charged more per click than someone who is targeting the exact same keyword but has a highly relevant ad. How do they determine relevance? Well, for one thing it's based on the percentage of clicks your ad gets. Let's say your ad is displayed a thousand times, but in all those times it's only clicked on once. To Google that means your ad isn't on target and they will penalize you.
Another thing to keep in mind with all the major search engines is that they can, and do, change the rules frequently and when ever they want. So you could have a very effective PPC campaign running one day and the next they've decided that something you are doing is wrong and they penalize you. Now, that probably doesn't happen very often but it's important to be on the lookout for. Make sure you stay up to date on the terms of service.
It's also very important for you to test your ads. Run several versions with different headlines, different body, etc. Find which combinations works best. Only make one change at a time when you are testing so you can pinpoint what has increased, or decreased, the ads effectiveness.
Successful adwords campaigns can be a tricky proposition. Just make sure that you set up a realistic budget and test, test, test. That is the best way to assure yourself of a profitable campaign.
While there is no such thing, legitimately at least, as adwords for free, there are many places online that will provide you with a lot of free tips and tricks to get the most out of your Adwords accounts.
But before you head off to Google to do a search there are a few things you need to keep in mind:
1. Adwords is a fairly complicated method for generating traffic. If you follow advice from someone who really isn't qualified it can cost you more than money. If you disobey the terms of service Google has established you might well get banned and that would be very, very bad for business.
2. In order to really master Adwords you will need to find not only the training but you will need to be able to spend money while you are testing your ads. The truth is that no matter how good the training you get is, it will still take time for you to tweak and perfect your ads. During this time you will almost be guaranteed to spend way more money than you make.
3. Google is always making changes to their Adwords platform. In order to get the most out of any tips or tactics you may find online it's important that you make sure that whoever is providing the tips has the most up to date information. You will really screw yourself if you follow outdated information.
Now,when it comes to managing your own Adwords accounts you need to keep some things in mind too. For one thing, you will need to track your results. Many people seem to think that this step is a hassle and they ignore it, but the truth is that you have to know where your clicks are coming from and how much they are costing you. If you try to guess, you will waste a ton of money.
It's important to test all your ads to find out what combination of headlines and body work the best. To do that you will have to make changes to the ad until you can pinpoint the exact right combination. Make sure that during the testing stage you only make one change at a time. If you change more than one element during your test you won't have any way of knowing which change actually worked.
Don't go into your Adwords account as if you were in Vegas. What I mean by that is don't place all your eggs in one basket, don't blow all your money on one campaign. That never really works. Since you will need to test ads and you probably will make very little, if any, money during the test it's imperative that you set a realistic ad budget and don't go over that budget. That way you'll have enough money to follow through and find the ads that work.
If you really want to do an Adwords campaign the right way you'll probably be better off skipping the adwords for free hype and find a legitimate course that can explain the complexities of pay per click to you.
