So, What’s the Problem?

Do you see the issue with this guys complaint?  For some reason, Mr. Chan thought that he could pay to get traffic TO his site AND click on ads.  By now, I am sure you see the issue here.  All of us want to make some extra money, especially online.  There are experts that have made it look so easy and there are rotten folks that lead people down the wrong paths.  The issue with Mr. Chans “dream” was that most of the time you are paying for traffic that isn’t targeted to ANYTHING.  Click through website users are all about one thing, their own websites.

Most likely these services are a traffic exchange program and the users on the site are given credits after viewing sites for a certain amount of time.  Then with those credits they can buy themselves crappy traffic that won’t do them any good.

What Site Did He Pay All This Money To?

The website that Mr. Chan used was www.engineseeker.com.  I have never heard of this site and naturally wanted to go check it out to see what type of website he was dealing with right from the “get-go”.  At first glance, I actually like the way the site is setup.  Straight to the point and all the information is right in front of you to see.

I don’t think that I would ever use a service to pay for traffic, ONLY because I have been learning my way through Adwords and other sites like Facebook and Myspace for advertising.  But with some of the features of EngineSeeker.com I would certainly keep them in mind for any large projects I might need traffic for.

What Do You Get for Your Money?

24/7 access to tools that include:

• Traffic Stats
• SEO
• Inbound link report
• Metatag optimization
• Competition analyzer
• Related link directories
• Crawler optimization
• Doorway pages

What The Hell Do I Think?

Well, I have two things going through my head right now.  Either Mr. Chan is BRAND new at the traffic game (most likely) OR (and it’s a big OR) Mr. Chan owns the site and used the magazine to promote it.  The second idea is pretty damn smart on his part.  Of course, he didn’t use a positive testimonial, BUT those that know you aren’t going to make crap from traffic like that understand the testimonial isn’t actually a bad one.

I started to think about how long I have seen this commercial in December and I can remember it on TV for a long time.  Of course, before my internet marketing days, I wouldn’t have thought about what Lexus was trying to pull with the commercial, but now, that’s all I thought about.

The Lexus car commercials make it seem like it is very possible to purchase a $30,000 to $100,000 car as a gift for a loved one, but it is hardly a decision an average joe can make.  How many Lexus vehicles are sold in December?  Do you think that Lexus makes big profits from people buying these cars as gifts?

I think that the Lexus commercials are a good ploy and that the dealerships probably do sell more Lexus than other months.  Why do I think this?  Well, those that have the money to do so, would love to spend before the year is up.  Also, those that have the money love to buy expensive things, especially for loved ones.

I read about a dealership in Wisconsin that actually says that he sells 1/2 a dozen  of these vehicles just as gifts every December.  That is quite a bit in my opinion even for those that live in Wisconsin.  There aren’t many celebs or rich folks just walking around the state as they have in California, or New York.

Why I think the commercial is STILL on?  Lexus knows the commercial works.  They hear from dealers that see sales go up during that time and they will continue to show it for Decembers to come.

What does this have to do with internet/affiliate marketing?  It’s simple.  We all that when we find a promotional method or offer that makes us the most money (like the Pepsi or Subway offers) we stick with that method until the money stops coming in.  If it doesn’t, like in the case of Lexus, then we do NOT stop the method.

Always keep your eye out for ways that big businesses are promoting their products and see if you can implement these methods in your every day affiliate marketing strategies.

When I am writing up a short post or a long article, I try to keep certain keywords in mind, but I also try to keep the reader in mind.  You may have to keep the reader insterested longer than you think.  That “12 seconds” you have to impress the reader is important.  If you are going to fill a post with a ton of keyword content and forget about the “real meat”, you aren’t going to have to worry about readers, that’s for sure.

I found a website that will check over your website and then rank how easy it is for your readers to read. 

Check out the readability of your blog:  http://www.addedbytes.com/tools/readability-score/

The website is extremely easy to use and you can check any number of variables as well.  For the most part you are just taking your text and pasting it into a box on the page.

Once completed, you will see the readability score of the text, from different scoring systems.  The higher the grade, the more readable the text is.  There are links to the Wikipedia pages of each test as well, so that you can read about how and what they grade the text on.

This post has a 81.70 (out of 100) for a score, so at least I know it is quite easy to read.  It’s useful tool if you are writing long articles for your  blog or website.  Check out how each system grades your text and see how you score.

If you want to make a brand out of some well taken photos for your business, then you need to head over to Animoto right now.  Dubbed the “end of slideshows”, Animoto takes some of your favorite images and puts them to music.  I know, you think it’s just like every other website on the net?  You would be WRONG.

Animoto was featured in the newest issue of Entreprenuer magazine and after I read through the interview, I had to try out the service.  Taking about 12-15 images for a 30 second short, the Animoto system puts your images to the music YOU choose.  What do I mean?  If you choose Latin music you will see a different video than if you choose a Beethoven piece.  Your images will be the same, BUT the effects and music will change.

It really doesn’t take all that long.  I did two quick videos with about 5-8 images each and the video was ready for review in about 3 minutes.  After I did my first test video, I realized that I could use the service to create an entire exprience through many images.  I chose the second set of images very carefully and really liked the second run through.

How to Use Animoto.com to Brand

If you run a website that provides a specific service, like web design, you could have one of these videos playing on the homepage that showcases your portfolio.  Set to music you can really create a buying atmosphere for your clients or first timers.  Check out the Animoto website and see if it’s something that works for you.

What Animoto Says

Animoto has case studies for come specific niches like, photography, real estate and classy resturants.  I think that you can use this type of service for just about any niche.  For blogging, you could take screenshots of your blog’s popular posts and just have them rotate to the music, pulling your readers into your blog.  Not to mention increasing the avg. time spent on your site.

The business, or commercial services they provide are priced very reasonable.  For unlimited videos and DVD quality downloads, you pay only $99 for 3 months or $249/year.  For business use you get amazing features like:

• Cinematic Artificial Intelligence
• Include Text
• Incredibly fast turnarounds
• Share with ease
• Call to action button
• Unlimited DVD-quality videos
• Remix
• Upload promotional videos to YouTube
• Sell DVDs to your clients
• Spice up your blog
• and MUCH more…

As you can see, the business part of the Animoto service can really brighten up and enhance the user experience on your site or blog.  For the price of $99 (3 months), I think it is well worth the time and money for your own case study.

Other Options with Animoto

If you do not want to subscribe, but want a full length video made, you can get them for $3 each or just buy an all-access pass (unlimited videos and downloads) for a small fee of $30/year.  All payments through the website are handled with Paypal & Google checkout.  This makes the process even more secure and faster.

Animoto Shorts are 30-seconds in length and free for everyone. You can produce, remix, and share as many as you’d like.

Full-length videos, in contrast, are extended in length. A video’s length is determined by the number of images and the music it uses. The length of a full-length video is limited only by our upload file size cap, which is 10MB for music files. This is generally 5-10 minutes of music, depending on the encoding.

 

That’s That…

While creating a couple of shorts for my blogs, I realized how easy the service really is and how addicting it was at the same time. Take your time and you can create some really nice videos, like the one I made for this blog.

Have you used this service before? Comment and link us to some of the shorts you have created.

Then I went to Google and this is what I found:

8 Reasons to Add a Newsletter to Your Blog by ProBlogger.net

After reading through these 8 reasons, I thought, “boy, I really never looked at it that way, at all!”.  I would like to thank Darren for posting such readable, valuable information on his blog.  And now, let’s get back to the newsletter.

What do I have to offer for a newsletter? 

Well, I could write longer, pointed articles, like tutorials, for the readers willing to sign up.  I would figure that most of my readers are curious due to the name of my blog, but I am not sure what % are actually looking for affiliate information they can get other places.  I try to keep this blog unique, by posting information about my experiments, where I am making the money online and which places I went bust, but occasionally I throw in the typical post you see just about everywhere.  All with my own spin on it of course.

I really like the idea of people coming back to this blog, if they like it or whatever the reason is, but right now that number sits at about 80-90 per month.  I would think that with a newsletter, I would see more return and according to Darren, more loyalty.

On the search for a nice, easy-to-use newsletter packed with tools and tracking, I found 2 that I am happy with.

• Aweber – obviously the most popular choice on the web today
• ConstantContact – another system I found to be as useful and in the price range

I haven’t decided which one to go with, because I am also checking into some open source options that I can run on my server.  I really like the tools and tracking that Aweber offers, so I am leaning towards their service at this point.  We’ll see, I hope by the start of 2009 I will have thought of some valuable content to pass around via newsletter.

Being able to interact with your readers is a huge part of operating a blog.  If you can create some sort of community through a newsletter, you will see traffic go up, as well as, affiliate sales of products you offer, etc.  The overall return is huge compared to the actual commitment.  So, do you need a blog newsletter?  I would say NO, but if you would like to create a nice loyal community of readers, you might want to at least check it out.

Most newsletter services will offer a trial period (try Aweber below) so that you can test how it will go over with your readers, it’s at least worth that.  Good luck and if you already have a newsletter going, leave a comment and let me know how it’s helped (if it has).

Well, I went to the website today, because I just realised they will track emails, feeds and bookmarks for you.  Looking back at the last year of using the plugin on various sites, including this blog, I actually have ZERO users using the button.  What the hell?

But wait a minute, have I ever used it?  I must admit, I have not.  I have seen this button on many sites and I have not used it one time.  Does that mean all others are doing the same, by not using it?  I would hope not.  The button seemed like a good idea, packing all the “addthis” stuff in one place.

There are many ways to get people to interact with your blog.  Floating newsletter subscriber boxes, links to subscribe or comment at the bottom of a feed and even special badges so you can addthis or stumble or digg whatever it is you are ready.  But when users are not using them, they are not a helpful part of any user experience you are trying to provide and sometimes are even getting in the way.

So, the question is whether to keep the button or not.  I am not sure, I will have to analyze this one a bit more before I make a hasty decision.  I would think that readers to my blog are in the affiliate blogging or marketing business, and my content is nothing more than what they have already seen.  Which would be bad for me, but a reason users would not use the button.  What is the point of bookmarking something you have seen already, right?

Or maybe new users don’t know what it is or what it is for.  Most people that read blogs and websites need to have their brain tickled to stick around for more than 10 seconds.  If they aren’t getting or finding any value here, they won’t be looking for a button like addthis either.

I don’t know, I will have to take a week or two and see what others think.  I have a nice network of blogging friends that I can count on, so we’ll see where this is going to go and I will report back in about a month.

What do you think?

Those are higher profile blogs with some decent daily visitor numbers.  Of course, if my blog wasn’t on the same topic as theirs, I wouldn’t get as many visitors from them.

Of the 8 blogs that I have showing, there was a total of 233 visits and an average of 2.03 pages per visit.  I didn’t comment on each blog every single day, but if I read a post of theirs and I thought that I had something to add, I certainly did.

Not all of it was affiliate marketing related either.  Some of the posts that Shoe has added this last month have been political, but because the focus on the blog is generally the same, I commented with my AffiliateObsession anchor text.

This isn’t a huge amount of traffic to my blog, but if you think about the blog only being 4 months old, it was well worth it to get my blogs name out to the blogshere one comment at a time.  Over the past 4 months I have also been in contact with more people via Twitter and the twhirl application.  That has also shown some results

Sample Google Text Ad

Well, in my experience, with numbers to prove it, I see that text ads will convert better almost 75-80% of the time with the same impressions.  People are banner blind, you may have read that in the past, but it is 100% true.  Take Google Adsense for instance.  Do you think Google was insane?  They knew exactly what they were doing with contextual advertising.  Allowing users to create ads that blend into their content was genius.  Some people were clicking those ads without even thinking about that fact that it was an ad.  On the other hand, if you have bouncing, flashing or talking banners on your site, the user is automatically turned off by them and will not click through.

I have ONE post on another blog of mine that is seen over 20,000 views in the last 6 months alone.  I also have an ad related to the content of that post, but at first started with a banner ad.  Even though there was some conversions, I soon switched it over to a text link pointed to the offer landing page.  What did I see?  Almost instantly I saw more clicks, as well as, conversions for that text ad.  Most of the readers were on my site for less than ONE minute, but that didn’t matter.  They were on the site long enough to read the text ad and click through.

Conversions went up almost 60% from when the banner ad was in the same place, with the same impressions (+/-100).  I couldn’t believe it, but that didn’t matter.  The offer was making more money now than it was with a flashy banner, even though it blended in just fine with the content.

Have you replaced a banner ad with text links and seen the same results?

Blog directories help you get your websites or blogs exposure and with some, it can be free exposure.  Obviously, with FREE exposure comes a ton of competition and usually a bunch of spammy websites that are added to the directory by someones script or program.  Some blog directories that allow you to pay for a top spot or featured post, will get you more traffic than other normal listings.

What you have to keep an eye out for is whether the directory has a page rank higher than 1.  If so, the links to your site are seen as a bit more popular to Google search than if it were a PR 0.  Now, the higher the PR the better for you, but then again, the more you will be paying to get into the directory.

Most listings are permanent, which can be worth a couple of bucks or $20.  Some listings are paid by the year, but these can also be well worth the money, depending on the amount.  When you choose a directory, be picky, make sure you want your site or blog associated.  As I said before, some directories can be filled with sites that were added by a bot or script of some sort.

Directories like http://www.totalblogdirectory.com/, seem a bit amaturish, but you never know what you are going to get.  Most likely anyone clicking on the link will be clicking out of the site within seconds.

BlogCatalog.com is a nice directory to be a part of.  For the most part it’s free and has plenty of features to keep you happy.  They also offer paid listings or advertisements so that you can advertise your blog or website on the top of category pages.

Then you have sites like Best of the Web.  Now this directory is charging a one-time fee of $49.95!  Right away you can tell you are going to see quality sites, because people have to open the pocket book just to get in.  When you are at the site you can see a very simple design with categories that are easy to read.  This makes it much easier for a user to find your site within all the ones listed.

Bloggeries Directory is another directory that is on the up and up.  The regular link price on that directory is only $29.99 or you can pay for a featured listing for $49.99 per year, which still isn’t all that bad for a directory that is tied to a large forum and will send you visitors!  The forum is active and the directory allows you to see and vote for your favorite sites.  Just another option in a directory that allows people to see the higher rated sites instead of filtering through all the junk.

There are plenty of different types of directories so make sure that you find that one that is going to give you the most for your money.  Check features like RSS feeds, ratings, “latest blog post”, full details and things of that nature.  At least if you have to spend money you can get what you pay for.  Good luck!

I can’t think of any website that I have ever visited for less than 5 seconds.  How can anyone even make a judgement call in that amount of time?

Today I am taking a look at average time on site, yes again, and I see a referral or 39 from StumbleUpon.com.  That is fine, I have had a couple of pages stumbled in my day, but the average time on site is > 00:00:00!!  Is that not a freak of internet nature?  That is telling me that people from SU are on their way out the door before getting all the way into the door.

It doesn’t bother me though.  I understand the mantality of social network and bookmark sites like SU and I don’t expect the users to find my blog worth reading for more than 1 minute, but what the heck, right?

Just a quick rant about that amazing stat that seems to be slipping away on this blog more and more every month.  Of course, this is all in conjunction with me trying to increase that number with better content and more reasons to read.  Good luck to me I guess.