DOSH DOSH

Infographics Can Help You Spread Ideas and Attract Attention

2010-12-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

An image is an act of communication. Images play an important role in the presentation of ideas. Worth more than a thousand words, they encapsulate meaning by both simplifying and embodying conceptual theories.They make information more appealing, more persuasive. In the realm of art or activism, images reflect the underlying current of collective feeling by vocalizing both public consensus and private desires.
On the internet, you can see the same popular pictures in websites of every language. Russian, Chinese, French or English. Images transcend linguistic and cultural barriers faced by text. There is no need for machine or human translation. No need for mediation.
Like videos, images can spread very quickly online with little artificial push. Are they inherently more ‘viral‘ than textual content? It is difficult to say with certainty if it indeed has a higher potential for popularity. But images have undeniable value in spreading ideas. Especially when they are elegantly integrated with the use of text to present information.
Unique, original images can attract an audience. They are not only high quality content for an interested readership but they can be useful promotional tools for anyone interested in gaining more attention. A particular form of image is relevant to this purpose: the infographic.

Visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics are used where complex information needs to be explained quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. They are also used extensively as tools by computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians to ease the process of developing and communicating conceptual information.

You’ve seen infographics everywhere. In books, magazines, newspapers, instruction manuals, maps, public signs and business reports. Visually, they come in many forms as well: charts, graphs, emblems, cartoons, diagrams and illustrations. Any image is suitable as long as it effectively works to convey data in a way that fulfills a specific or general purpose.
These graphics seek to inform. They can be a supplement to existing textual content or a hermeutically sealed construct, a stand-alone presentation which covers a subject in full. A complete statement and explanation that everyone can cite as a reference.
Infographics are a form of concentrated nutrition for data consumers. They are multi-vitamins, fulfilling basic info requirements in a simple hassle-free way. Like a pill, knowledge is condensed into essential components, enough to satiate your basic informational needs. They give you a general overview, one you can convert into talking points and social currency.
The amount of information they convey and the style used will vary depending on its purpose. Who is the intended audience of this piece? What specific frame or idea angle do you want to emphasize? How much abstraction and simplification is necessary for data to make sense?
Here are some examples from Princeton University’s International Network Archives. These infographics each give you a brief overview on a topic. See this page for full images and more.

The finished infographic is often beautiful to behold. Swirling gradients of color form into tangible shapes, contextually arranged to demonstrate quantifiable meaning. It’s easy to take it all in at one glance. Your eye darts around the numbers and skirts between the illustrations. You interact with it. You are thoroughly absorbed in its display of coherence.
And after looking, you’ll often think of sharing it. Maybe save the image, attach it to an email and fire it to a friend. Maybe you’ll include it in your latest blog post or tweet it. Or you’ll log into your favorite forum, drop the link and see what everyone else thinks.
There are many ways to propagate these images once they are produced. Apart from the usual social media channels, you can provide link codes by hosting the images and providing the html which points back to your site. Or you can package it into PDF formats along with other similar infographics to make a mini-report.
Unlike textual content, these images often do not include much text: you can consider pre-emptively translating them into other major languages so they can be shared more widely among different audiences.
They can also be produced on a regular basis as feature content. As a pictorial representation of information, infographics are often considered to be unique even if the data shared as already been elaborated elsewhere in text articles. Therein lies its appeal to a readership that might be jaded by the repetition of ideas in the content of other media sources/websites.
Good Magazine is an excellent example of a site that recently started creating infographics (known as ‘Good Sheets’) as regular online content. The print editions of these images were also given out free of charge at Starbucks. The combination of online and offline distribution is something that is suited to the nature of one-page documents like infographics.

Next time when you’re planning on sharing specific ideas or data, consider using infographics. They are a terrific way of making information accessible and a useful primer that will pique the interest of your intended audience. When created and marketed effectively, they can be part of a powerful viral strategy to magnetize attention to your website or business.
P.S I intend to write more on the topic of information design specifically as it relates to marketing. This is something I’m recently interested in and hopefully you’ll find it entertaining and useful.

How to Become an Authority in Your Niche: Eight Content Development Tactics

2010-12-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

Online content is usually created to express opinions or share information with others. For entrepreneurs and web publishers, content is developed as a means to generate direct/indirect income.
However, one should not only view content as a means to receive immediate benefits like traffic or revenue. It is not just fodder for pageviews but a tool to enhance more abstract factors like reputation, reader trust and peer relationships.
Jeff Quipp recently asked what is authority and how do you build it? and I thought it’ll be interesting to examine this question from the angle of web publishing and content development. To reframe the query: what kind of content should you create to position yourself as an authority or expert in your niche?
After looking at the definition of good content, let’s examine how it can be strategically used as an tool to develop the perception of authority.

Defining Authority or Expertise for Web Publishers

Image Credit: glimpse…
An authority is someone who has developed specialist knowledge and because of sharing this knowledge, has developed a reputation as an expert in the field.
This definition of an authority is one that is coherent with web publishing. Bloggers or web magazines are in the information industry and their business model deals with the packaging and dissemination of content and ideas.
For niche experts, knowledge only becomes an asset when it is shared. By freely sharing knowledge, experts allow their reputation to grow. Hence, the value in learning how to absorb and circulate knowledge to an audience who wants to develop proficiency or acquire a general understanding on specific topics.
Because we are mainly dealing with information flow and the sharing of ideas, I see experts or authorities as individuals who are somewhat similar to academics. Both are deeply entrenched in the field they specialize in and they provide unique, specialized knowledge gained through their research and experiences.
In my opinion, these are the characteristics of experts:

Well Informed and Up to Date on industry news. The need to be informed cannot be emphasized more because current developments in an niche usually has repercussions for most end users. Experts are up to date on all the latest happenings in their niche because this allows them to comment on issues when questions are posed by clients or readers. Some experts may also break news because of their networks and contacts.
Aggregate and Filter information for readers. Experts serve as aggregators and filters for their audience. They weed out the junk and extract the essence from content circulating around the web. They bring together related discussions by other thinkers/bloggers and provide a coherent overview of how to move forward in scenarios which require solutions/ideas.
Provide a Rigorous Depth of Research. Experts perform analysis on current events or case studies to derive data that may be useful. They study phenomenon more rigorously than others and hence will be privy to research-based data/knowledge that is unique and not found elsewhere.
Makes knowledge accessible for the general populace. The expert knows how to package dense information and make it easily understandable for a non-specialist audience. This includes explaining the impact of events/news for the end user by translating it into something they can immediately act upon.
Expand the Conceptual Field. Experts should change the way others think by challenging traditional concepts or practices that are widely accepted. Because they are knowledgeable, experts will also bring in ideas and principles from other related disciplines, thus expanding both terminology and the sphere of theory. This changes the way others think about key issues.

Content Development Strategies to Establish Authority

Image Credit: [K]
To achieve the perceived status of an expert, you’ll need a concrete strategy that focuses on the persistent publication of specialized content: one should consistently write about the same topics in ever increasing depth. Here are some tactics that will quite easily position yourself as a authority in the specific field:

Optimize Your Site Copy. You want to include social proof elements like testimonials from clients, recommendations from experts, awards and professional certifications. At the very least, revamp your about page to emphasize your experience/knowledge in the specific field. If you are offering paid services, ensure that your sales page includes at least a few testimonials from satisfied clients/customers.
Communicate and Invite Queries. The more you help people solve their individual problems, the more you win over people who believe in your ability. Open up the channels of communication and invite people to email or contact you with questions. Create a new page for feedback or put a comment box on your sidebar for questions.
Guest Blog. I think it’s very useful to publish articles on other related websites or blogs because it reinforces your visibility in the niche. Pick the blogs considered to be authorities in the same field. Branding yourself is more critical; the traffic you’ll get isn’t as important. Remember to include keywords in your byline: You want to be associated with the topic as much as possible. Also include a mention of your guest blogging gigs in your about page.
Create an Article Series. Writing an article series is an excellent way to give your website focus and is particularly useful if you feel that your blog is too inconsistent. A good series of articles also provides an entry point for recommendations. Others can easily promote your content when it is packaged in a cohesive framework that thoroughly covers relevant topics. Try starting an article series and publish new articles regularly. Bundle up your article series and display them in a page or a visible area on your blog. For convenience, you may want to use the In Series Wordpress Plugin.
Write an eBook/book. Publishing a book on a topic immediately establishes you as someone who is interested in the field: most amateurs do not cross the line to invest time and energy on stand-alone publications. An ebook is also a way to market your personal brand: they are concentrated illustrations of your knowledge and can be passed around easily from one person to another.
Join Conversations. Try to monitor conversations around a certain topic, in order to participate in them. One option is to actively offer advice on forums or communities in your niche. Publish an article in response to some general queries and drive traffic from these communities to your site. Alternatively, set up a Google Alert for blogs that use keywords in your field. Ping them via trackbacks or write comments on their articles with a link to your own. This is slow but easy way to develop your reputation from the ground up.
Highlight Achievements. People modify the way they think about your brand or site, based on input from others. It makes sense to highlight your achievements in a standalone page on your blog or perhaps in the form of a blog post. This involves the inclusion of your site in ranking lists, special awards, media coverage and interviews on important niche publications. An example: Lyndon Antcliff, a social media marketer recently got a mention in Time Magazine and this is the post he did. You’re not bragging but demonstrating that others recognize your value.
Develop Breadth and Depth. Try to develop the habit of building on your own content by writing articles which reference and expand on certain points or tangents. This increases the overall depth of your focus and takes into account the growth in reader interest as well. Seek to also increase the breadth of your content by writing for audience profiles as they may have different knowledge levels and info needs.

It goes without saying that you’ll truly come across as an expert when you are really passionate or immersed in the field. It is important to nurture the five characteristics of authority mentioned above while combining them with content development strategies that amplify your display of knowledge.
The development of authority may include other factors but I’ve limited my focus to content related issues: all of the tactics and factors listed in this article deal with how content can be strategically created to induce the perception of authority.
There is a lot more to be said about content development strategies and I will be covering the topic of using content as a networking and reputation building tool next week. Subscribe to Dosh Dosh if you don’t want to miss any updates.
How would YOU define authority and how do you become one?

What You Don’t Publish, Defines Your Site

2010-12-08T09:10:00.003-08:00

I didn’t write any articles in the last few days on Dosh Dosh because I didn’t feel that I had anything interesting to say. It’s not entirely self-censorship: I just don’t like to write when there’s no way to inject a new perspective on any topic.
Many will publish content regularly because they feel a necessity to generate pageviews and maintain site freshness. Some fear that their subscribers will go away if they don’t update their site.
They don’t mind repeating the ideas of others and writing variations of the same topic again and again. Some will tirelessly create resource lists every week for links.
I’m sure some readers will find such sites to be useful. I’m not disputing their value. After all content quality is relative and ultimately influenced by the audience’s specific needs or interests. Know one thing for sure: what you put on your site allows visitors to form judgments about your personal and business brand.
And conversely so, this leads to an important point often neglected: What you do not publish will define your site. The absence of specific content positions your site against another competitor and allows it to develop an identity among others.
I’ve decided a few months ago that Dosh Dosh isn’t a news blog. I’m not concerned with pumping out posts on the latest blogging widget or ad network, posts filled with affiliate links. I don’t care if there’s a new version of Wordpress. I don’t bother with the latest blog spats/gossip. And I have never done any paid reviews at all.

Image Credit: CNV00003
I am not going to spin you an incarnation of ways to get more blog comments nor am I going to give you 100 tips to get more traffic. These generic articles are generally boring, because they only re-circulate or promote ideas that are already firmly established. Status quo meta-blogging is banal and insipid to me.
You’ve read these type of content many times on other sites. What value do you have if you read it on Dosh Dosh? Not much. And so I’ve decided to focus on theoretical articles which make you think. It’s all about giving you new ideas to use as catalysts towards action. Theory is incredibly important but so often overlooked.
Conscientious publishing is not about being unique. It is impossible to be extremely original in every article; every good blogger repeats himself or herself. It’s a natural extension of how minds remember and work with ideas. But by controlling what is published, you can influence how you want to be perceived.
If you are an online publisher, take a look at your site today.

What information are you sharing? What does that say about your site?
What content topics or types do you not publish on your site?
How does your content currently define your personal or blog brand?
What are your peers and competitors publishing (and not publishing)?

Examine your reputation goals and learn to refrain from publishing specific content. This goes a long way when you want to carve out a distinct identity in your niche.

The Benefits of Keeping a Private Journal

2010-12-08T09:08:00.001-08:00

A private diary is tremendously powerful. It can help you to greatly improve your business or website. If you want to be a success, you need to think and act strategically. At the very least, you should keep your goals in mind in order to work towards them daily.
And a private journal achieves all this more effectively than a static to-do list, which only lists end goals and results to be achieved.
Unlike a to-do list, a well kept journal provokes introspection. It is a liberating and productive outlet for random ideas, thoughts and feelings.
Keep a daily journal about your business/website and write about your day in relation to your site. Make this journal private: This stops you from censoring yourself unnecessarily. Talk about your plans and most importantly, how you feel about your business or blog. Muse upon the objectives you’ve achieved or set for yourself.
Have a conversation with yourself and question your current strategies or aims. Criticize yourself. Praise yourself. Give yourself advice. Reflect on your mistakes.
Recent research in the medical field shows that keeping a daily journal improves the quality of life for cancer patients. In an experiment, patients were asked to write in a journal while waiting for their appointments. They were asked to answer one question: How has cancer changed you and how do you feel about those changes?

After the writing assignment, about half of the cancer patients said the exercise had changed their thinking about their illness, while 35 percent reported that writing changed the way they felt about their illness. Three weeks after the writing exercise, the effect had been maintained.
While a change in the way a patient thinks or feels about a disease may not sound like much, the findings showed that the brief writing exercise led to improved quality of life.

The key point to note is not the therapeutic effects of writing in a journal but rather the fact that regular journal keeping will influence the way you think or feel about an specific topic. If you’re an entrepreneur, blogger or marketer, reflection via a private journal will give you a fountain of ideas and initiatives to pursue.

Image Credit: mi moleskine folio
I know this because I’ve kept a private online journal for Dosh Dosh for 7 months and I’ve written in it every day. I write down random thoughts, possible marketing ideas and my feelings about the site: how I hate it or how it has changed me. All of what I write is uncensored and free from pretty grammar or fluffy, melodious words.
I don’t make an effort to sound good. I don’t check my spelling nor do I edit the post to make sure I don’t use the same words too often. The most I’ll do is to bold certain sentences which I find important after I’ve finished writing. This deepens what I want to remember and keep it in mind for the next day.
A private journal can be created and maintained through localized diary software or web-based blogging platforms. I’ve used Wordpress.com as a platform for some private journals because they give you the option of making your site entirely private and only visible some. You can also use Twitter or a basic paper notebook.
I like to use Wordpress blogs because it allows me to organize my thought processes. For instance, I have categories with names like ‘Achievements‘, ‘What I’m Unhappy With’, ‘My Competitors’ and ‘Marketing Ideas’. Careful filing of your thoughts can make the personal journal a motivational and useful breeding ground for change.
Here’s a simple question you can ask yourself while writing in your journal: How is my brand or website developing and how do I feel about it?
If this has piqued your interest, do try to keep a private journal for some time: you’ll get to experience the benefits for yourself. If you want to improve yourself or your website/business, I can’t offer a better low-cost, hassle-free solution than this.

How to Build a Successful News Blog: 10 Information Sources You Can Use

2010-12-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

News blogs are fast-paced blogs which track, aggregate and disseminate current news on a set range of topics. Their main selling points are comprehensiveness and timeliness: a good news blog must cover the field throughly and speedily by pointing readers to new information or developments.
Content for news blogs is published regularly on a daily basis and sometimes multiple times throughout the day. Apart from the value of the actual opinions offered by news bloggers: people subscribe to or follow these news blog largely because they help them to stay on top of current issues, innovations or ideas concerning a industry.
News blogs are also profitable if they are monetized because they publish a very high volume of content, which continuously attracts both search and referral traffic. If you’re an entrepreneur or webmaster looking to generate some online income, a news blog is a good foundation to start with because you’ll never run out of content: the consistent news flow drives you to publish regularly.
If you’re interested in a specific field, publishing a news blog forces you to keep up with what other people are talking about. It’s different from just reading other blogs because you’ll participate by contributing your own ideas or opinions. This is a good way for you to build a strong online reputation.
This article and others to come in this mini-series will examine what you need to create a successful and popular news blog.

Determining Your Information Sources: An Essential First Step

You’ve picked a domain name/brand, bought web hosting, installed a blogging platform, chose a blog design and optimized your site. What’s the next step? You need something to write about and picking the right informational sources will make sure that your news blog is not only relevant but timely and unique.
Let’s look at how you can create a list of news sources. I’ve broken the entire process in 10 points: you can choose to only use some of these sources although I would recommend exploring all of them if you have the time.
The only essential tool you really need as a news blogger is a robust RSS feed reader. It is very time consuming to check multiple websites several times a day for new content and the easiest way to go about it is to pull all the content into one cohesive location, which is your feed reader.
Whenever possible, you should always subscribe to news source’s web feed and categorize it accordingly in your feed reader. If you don’t use a feed reader, I recommend Google Reader or Feed Demon for Windows and NetNewsWire or other online feed readers for Mac.
Here are the 10 information sources you can use for your news blog.

1. Other Blogs in the Same Niche

Image Credit: the journalist’s blogroll
One of the best ways to find interesting news is to subscribe to other blogs in your niche. This includes both other news blogs and non-news blogs and I suggest that you pay extra attention to blogs which specialize in a sub-niche because they are usually the ones who publish unique content worth mentioning.
There are several ways to find other blogs in your niche:

Search Engines: Do a search for topic + ‘blog’ using Google.com or try their blog search engine, which allows you to do an advanced search so you can only look for blogs with the topic keyword (‘cars’ ‘food’ etc) in the blog title. This increases the relevance of the search results. Other blog search engines you can use include Ask.com, which allows you to sort results according to popularity. Technorati’s search also allows you to sort results according to authority, which is the number of links pointing to each blog.
Blogrolls: Some of the blogs in your niche will have blogrolls or a links page with links to other relevant blogs or news sources. This is an excellent to surf around and find other relevant blogs which cover the same topic.
Blog directories: A simple Google search for ‘blog directory’ will give you a good amount of sites to look through. Technorati has a blog directory which includes each blog’s authority score so you’ll have a rough gauge of popularity for each blog. Blog Catalog, Google Directory and Best of the Web are also good places to check out. If you’re using a directory, the most important thing is to make sure that the blog is still active. Don’t be surprised if you find lots of dormant sites sitting in blog directories.
Personal Recommendations: Sometimes the easiest way is to ask your friends or members of a forum for recommendations on sites you should check out. The benefit of personal recommendations is that you’ll almost always come across good weblogs. It’s a good way to weed out most of the junk.

2. Social News and Bookmarking Websites

Social news communities like Digg, Reddit and Mixx are great places to find a good source of both news and non time-sensitive content. Some niche social news websites will also allow you to network with other bloggers or webmasters in the same field and is quite useful for you to develop some useful connections.
Check out each social news website and subscribe to the frontpage or the appropriate category of news. Here is a list of social news sites to use.
You can also use unique sites like StumbleUpon to channel-surf specific tags that relate to your website. Personally, I feel that StumbleUpon is not an efficient method of accessing news because its slow and the content is often dated. However, it is useful for getting quirky or offbeat information not found elsewhere.
I highly recommend subscribing to the RSS feeds of active stumblers, instead of using the toolbar to stumble pages yourself. This is much more efficient way of accessing news via StumbleUpon. Make use of influencers who share content.
Social bookmarking websites will display what their users bookmark online and all these links are organized by tags. Content on social bookmarking sites is not always current but it’s a good place to find some obscure gems. The best way to process this information is to subscribe to these tags and put them in your feed reader.
When it comes to social bookmarking websites, don’t waste time surfing around and actively looking for content. Let your subscribed tag feeds collect in your feed reader and peruse them periodically. There are many social bookmarking sites out and you don’t need to use them all. I recommend using del.icio.us, furl and ma.gnolia.

3. Keyword Watchlists

This refers to the monitoring of specific keyphrases or keywords related to your blog in order to pick up on relevant news. Technorati has a Watchlist feature which allows you to monitor several keyphrases when they are used by blogs.
Google Alerts is watchlist tool I like a lot because it can email you with links quite frequently on a as-it-happens basis. You can also subscribe via RSS for keyword watchlists on sites like Twitter through Tweetscan or Twemes.
Some RSS feed readers like Feed Demon allow you to set up watchlists to monitor specific keywords that appear in all your feeds. This is very useful if you subscribe to a lot of web feeds as you may often miss out on relevant content.

4. Meme Trackers

Meme trackers are websites which organize blog posts on specific topics according to an automatic algorithm that determines which articles are cited or discussed the most. They give you a general overview of what’s being discussed in a specific niche at the moment
These meme trackers usually include a list of blog posts linking or related to the news story in question. This is useful when you want to write a quick news post and want to reference other blogs talked about it. Examples of meme trackers include Techmeme, TailRank, Megite and Technorati.
Meme trackers also exist for social media services like Twitter in the form of Tweetmeme and Twemes, which loosely organize conversations and links passed around by Twitter users. Not always an excellent source for breaking news but still useful to capture some off-the-radar information.
As always, subscribe to the RSS feed for each meme-trackers and monitor them a few times a day. They are an convenient source of content ideas and news.

5. News Aggregators

News aggregators are somewhat similar to meme trackers and social news sites except that they do not use any algorithm to determine story visibility. They are simply webpages which pull in RSS feeds to centralize them in one location online.
For example, here’s a short list of SEO News Aggregators, which focus on aggregating the web feeds of selected blogs writing about SEO. Other general online aggregators include Alltop and Popurls. I think aggregators can be useful if you don’t like to use web feeds or when you need a quick overview of what’s happening in a niche.
Personally, I don’t really fancy using them because I always tend to overlook news items because of their format. I prefer archiving my news through the feed reader because it allows me to search through and categorize content more easily.

6. Online Newspapers and Magazines

Online newspapers and magazines will provide you with a lot of news on your chosen topic and its a good complement to blogs and social news websites, which may sometimes overlook a particular piece of news.
Online newspapers also has the advantage of offering localized news on either a national or city-basis. This is useful if you run a news blog that is divided in country or region-based coverage. Start first by subscribing to the major news outlets like the BBC, CNN and New York Times.
After which, subscribe to sources which focus more on specific angles of interest. For example, if you’re running a celebrity gossip website, you should subscribe to the Daily Mail and People.com, both of which are sites with a strong emphasis on celebrity and other tabloid-style news.
Always subscribe to online magazine/newspaper feeds according to the specific news category. You don’t need to subscribe to a entire news-site because most of the news will be irrelevant to your interests. You don’t want to overload your attention with stories you cannot use for your blog.

7. Academic Journals and Trade Publications

Image Credit: little
Academic journals and trade publications often publish reports which you can highlight on your blog in the form of news. This usually includes polls, statistical analysis of a specific phenomenon or reports on the performance of an industry. Not all of these publications are free and some do require a paid subscription.
It’s possible to obtain complimentary copies of these academic journals regularly, if you’re a blogger with a certain degree of clout. In some scenarios, publishing houses will be willing to send you new books or journals in return for a mention on your website. It is also possible to obtain these journals by being a contributing member of a scholarly society or educational institute.
The content published in these journals is not news per se but not many bloggers pick up on these info sources so it’s an easy means for you to inject new ideas or content into the industry. This is a terrific way to position yourself as a thought-leader or maven.

8. Press Releases and Media Contacts

When you are starting out as a relatively unknown blogger, you need to take the initiative to accumulate media contacts. Email companies and web services which are relevant to your site’s topical focus and inform them that you are open to receiving email press releases from their marketing/PR department.
You’ll usually be put on an email list and you can take this chance to initiate better relationships with the specific PR manager/executive. Ideally, you want to be invited to launch parties and networking events as a member of the press.
You can also monitor Press Release sites like PR News Wire, which offers well categorized RSS feeds for specific industries. Press releases are great sources of direct information from both large companies and small businesses. Sometimes they can be a effective way for you to get the scoop on a big news story.

9. Insider Information

Image Credit: the scoop
This involves establishing inside sources within organizations or companies who will be willing to leak information for a big story. How do you develop these inside sources? Networking in the right places with the right people would be a strategy or you can simply offer to publicly offer to pay for scoops from people in the know.
In any case, ‘inside sources’ are often made up by bloggers and online journalists, in order to get attention and pageviews. For instance, this is very common amongst celebrity blogs because they are in the gossip manufacturing business: readers don’t mind too much if they hear another rumor that may be proven false at a later stage.
Just note that repeatedly offering false information may detract from your credibility so use inside sources only when you are very confident of their authenticity.

10. Reader Tips

Last but not least, your blog readers are great source of information. Set up a tips email account and publicize it on your website. You might not get many tips in the beginning when your site is new but this will change as your news site grows.
Several large blogs like Lifehacker and Boing Boing receive a good amount of reader tips daily and some of them are worthy enough to be transformed into a blog post. Personally, I really like this idea because this is a passive way of receiving news. Instead of actively searching for content, you’ll getting them sent to you.
Make sure your tips hotline is clearly visible from the site. Here’s a good example of a story suggestion page you can use for your site.

And this concludes the list of information sources you can use. In the next article in this series, I’ll talk more about the specific tools you can use to increase your blogging efficiency as a news blogger.
For future reference, feel free to bookmark this article at del.icio.us
If you have any suggestions for topics I should cover in this series on building a successful news blog, please leave them in the comments! This includes any questions you want to see answered concerning this topic.

Darkroom: A Text Editor That Helped Me to Write Better Content

2010-12-08T09:01:00.001-08:00

I’m busy with some other projects now and instead of leaving the blog alone for several days, I thought I’ll do a quick post on a helpful tool that I’ve been using for more than a year.
It’s called Dark Room and its a minimalist fullscreen word processor which forces you to focus on the writing process and nothing else.
This free Windows/.Net application transforms your entire computer screen into a dark background and removes all the usual word processor toolbars and quick buttons. The only thing you’ll see is the words. I feel that it really improves my ability to concentrate on the blog post or school essay I’m writing.
Darkroom is quite primitive because of the lack of features and in my opinion, that’s one of the reasons for its charm. You can tweak Microsoft Word and other standard processors to get the same look but I’ll rather use a simple application like this and keep the default look/feel of Word for other editorial purposes. Here’s a screen shot:

Some people have criticized it because of its poor functionality but personally, I think its terrific for that one essay or one blog post you want to crank out. You don’t want to use this to write a book. You use this to situate the 15 to 60 minutes of time you have in an environment that is more conducive for contemplation/writing.
DarkRoom is inspired by WriteRoom, a similar word processor for Apple’s OS X. There’s also a Java version of DarkRoom if you don’t want use Microsoft’s .Net framework. It works in the same way and has roughly the same features.
Try it today and let me know what you think in the comments!

Rethinking Blog Comments: Much More Than Just A Quick Way to Get Web Traffic

2010-12-08T08:59:00.001-08:00

Rethinking Blog Comments: Much More Than Just A Quick Way to Get Web Traffic

A comment left on a popular blog may be viewed by a few hundred people in one day. Multiply that by the lifespan of the blog and you’ll see that a simple comment may say a lot about you. Every blog comment is usually permanent. It’s not just a hyperlink but a long-term representation of your brand.
Too many webmasters view blog commenting as only a traffic or link building strategy. This rigid marketing emphasis has led to certain modes of behavior. For example, one might make the effort to comment exclusively on blogs with nofollow turned off, while using keyword names in order to increase the search engine ranking for one’s website.
Alternatively, you may also try to be the first to comment on popular blogs and/or include links to your website in a bid to gain some extra traffic from the additional visibility. There’s nothing wrong with this if you truly add to the discussion or include a relevant link. But not many do.
I’m not here to talk about improving the quality of comments. Nor am I going to lecture you about comment etiquette because I don’t want to regulate the way you interact with any website (other than Dosh Dosh).
What I’m trying to change is the way you think about comments. They are ways for you to get some quick traffic. They may help (in some small way) with your search rankings, but is there anything more to marketing via blog comments? And my answer is of course, yes.

Take this Perspective: View Blog Comments As a Networking Tool

Image Credit: A Mini Adventure…
I’ll get right to the point. See blog comments as a way to network with the author, so that you’ll be able to obtain a particular benefit in the future. Think long-term: not just incoming traffic today but exposure down the road. Don’t just focus on getting an immediate return (visitors via your link drop) but use comments to develop relationships of ongoing value.
Bloggers are not difficult people to understand. Almost all of them read all the comments they receive. They moderate them. Comments affect how they feel or think. Many see comments as an indicator of interest in their content. They like people to discuss what they wrote.
An article on a blog provides you with the perfect way to connect with the writer. You have the context right before your eyes. There’s no need to search for conversation fodder. Are you going to scan the entire article, write a very brief comment and quickly drop a link to your site because you just want maximum, immediate visibility? Is that all you want?
Building a relationship with the other blogger allows you to leverage his or her brand in the future because he or she will be more inclined towards your propositions. Comments are a way to converse with a prospective collaborator or friend and they are especially beneficial when you’re trying to interact with an influencer.
Influencers have to wade through a lot of noise everyday because many people clamor for their attention or help. But that doesn’t mean they don’t pick up signals. Consistent and value-added interaction with an influencer via blog comments will allow you to reap benefits you will not get from comments made entirely in favor of immediate self-interest.

How Comments Fail When You Think Only of Short-Term Benefits

Image Credit: A Mini Adventure…
A popular affiliate marketer recently left a comment on DoshDosh. It was initially caught in the spam filter and when I retrieved it, I did a quick google search for the comment in quotes. What did I find? The same exact comment was posted word-for-word on several other blogs, even when each article was about completely different topics.
This wasn’t a nobody but an established marketer. And this wasn’t the first time he left generic comments on my site. I don’t have anything against him as a person because I don’t know him personally but this sort of behavior just turns me off. It doesn’t appeal to me at all. And he probably just lost someone who could really get him some attention/traffic.
This is an extreme example, one bordering on spam but I feel it is indicative of what happens what you only view comments as a means to access instant benefits.
When you think in the short-term, you’re usually overlooking the value of relationships. And if you want to be successful in any industry or field, it helps to make friends with people who can help to get you there. Commenting is an extraordinary easy way to not only get visitors to your site, but develop mutually beneficial relationships along the way.
This is not about flattering an influencer or lying to curry favor. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t drop comment links. This is all about having a different mindset, about rethinking how commenting can benefit you in the long run, over and over again.
I feel that adopting a networking-oriented perspective when commenting will actually improve your comment quality, not to mention that people will more easily recognize that you’re reaching out or trying to connect on a more personal level. Bloggers are usually good at sniffing out people who are just out for a link or some quick traffic.
Think long-term, think relationships and think about getting repeat benefits.

You’re Not Just a Writer, You’re the Editor-in-Chief.

2010-12-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

You’re Not Just a Writer, You’re the Editor-in-Chief.

Blogs are quite often a one-person show. The owners maintain the blog, write the content and promote the site themselves. They switch between different roles whenever necessary and that’s the natural result of a DIY system where one is personally in charge of everything. Sometimes, we tend to see themselves more as writers and less as executive editors.
We are more occupied with the process of developing an article idea, writing the blog post and then doing some minor editing to correct inaccurate usage of grammar, spelling or punctuation. To us, editorial work mainly involves prepping a post for eventual publication.
For bloggers, the editorial and writing process is intertwined: an efficient setup that works tirelessly to churn out content. We are editing and writing at the same time, seamlessly transitioning from one role to another in a instinctual instant. This usually happens when both the writer and editor are the same person.
Ive been writing on this blog for over a year. The writer in me has matured, while I feel that my editorial vision remains limited to the usual adminstrative concerns involved in day-to-day publishing. Somehow I think I’m not living up to my full potential. Maybe its because I’m not thinking like an editor-in-chief, like someone with absolute power over doshdosh.com.
I can do anything I want with this blog. It is all mine. But yet here I am, still thinking like a freelance writer who finishes an article and leaves it at that. Where is the competitive development strategy? Where is the expansion plan? Where is the readership analysis?
I’m thinking like a foot soldier and not a general. I throw out article after article against the wall, hoping that some of them will stick. But I’m not strategizing or thinking in the long-term beyond the immediate present, beyond the comments I have to reply to and the emails I have to write. There’s something more to that. Perhaps I’m missing the executive perspective.

Image Credit: crazy autofocus
The editor-in-chief is the person who ultimately decides the content direction of the publication in the long run. Like a curator of some sort, the editor-in-chief determines what topics to cover in the editorial calendar and decides how content is arranged together in a way which coheres with the standards of the publication as well as its overall strategy/purpose.
The editor-in-chief is responsible for keeping up to date with reader needs, industry news and competitor publications. He/she is a specialist in analyzing and framing news sources in order to emphasize specific unique angles. This is the person who looks at a piece of writing, thinks beyond copy, and asks: How can I best use this to improve the publication as a whole?
What are you publishing? Does it differentiate you? What image are you trying to cultivate? Who are you trying to reach? What works for others and how can you learn from them? How do you repackage old information in new ways? Who can you collaborate with?
I’ve written many times about having a strategy when it comes to creating content. Too many times. Now I just need to remember that I’m not just a writer but an executive editor. Someone who’s actually in charge. Sometimes, it’s so easy to forget .

How to Say Nothing in 500 Words (A Lesson on Writing)

2010-12-08T08:54:00.001-08:00

How to Say Nothing in 500 Words (A Lesson on Writing)

The ability to write well is very useful for our personal and professional lives. It helps students, business people, politicians, writers, bloggers, marketers and everyone who has ever needed to arrange words together to convey ideas or opinions. The written word has become an essential means of social communication: mastery of it helps you to enthrall and persuade an audience that would look upon you favorably in return.
It goes without saying that learning how to create compelling content is a part of one’s success as an online publisher. Reading widely and deeply while consistently honing your writing skills helps a great deal in bettering your prose. Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to read a few stylebooks/essays on writing by professional teachers or authors.
One of these essays on writing is Paul McHenry Roberts’s How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words, a brilliantly humorous introduction on writing college compositions. I discovered this essay today and read though easily in one sitting, possibly because it was so well-written and entertaining. It’s a perfect example of the writing techniques listed within.
Here’s a quick summary of the 9 main points mentioned. I’ve extracted some of the key paragraphs from the text but be sure to read the full essay because these points are elaborated in much greater detail with some excellent examples.

Avoid the obvious content.“Say the assignment is college football. Say that you’ve decided to be against it. Begin by putting down the arguments that come to your mind. Now when you write your paper, make sure that you don’ t use any of the material on this list. If these are the points that leap to your mind, they will leap to everyone else’s too. Be against college football for some reason or reasons of your own. If they are keen and perceptive ones, that’s splendid. But even if they are trivial or foolish or indefensible, you are still ahead so long as they are not everybody else’s reasons too.”
Take the less usual side. “One rather simple way of getting into your paper is to take the side of the argument that most of the citizens will want to avoid. They are intellectual exercises, and it is legitimate to argue now one way and now another, as debaters do in similar circumstances. Always take the that looks to you hardest, least defensible. It will almost always turn out to be easier to write interestingly on that side.”
Slip out of abstraction. “Look at the work of any professional writer and notice how constantly he is moving from the generality, the abstract statement, to the concrete example, the facts and figures, the illustrations. For most the soundest advice is to be seeking always for the picture, to be always turning general remarks into seeable examples. Don’t say, “Sororities teach girls the social graces.” Say, “Sorority life teaches a girl how to carry on a conversation while pouring tea, without sloshing the tea into the saucer.”
Get rid of obvious padding. “Instead of stuffing your sentences with straw, you must try steadily to get rid of the padding, to make your sentences lean and tough… You dig up more real content. Instead of taking a couple of obvious points off the surface of the topic and then circling warily around them for six paragraphs, you work in and explore, figure out the details. You illustrate.”
Call a fool a fool. “If he was a fool, call him a fool. Hedging the thing about with “in-my-opinion’s” and “it-seems-to-me’s” and “as-I-see-it’s” and “at-least-from-my-point-of-view’s” gains you nothing. Delete these phrases whenever they creep into your paper. Decide what you want to say and say it as vigorously as possible, without apology and in plain words. Writing in the modern world, you cannot altogether avoid modern jargon. But you can do much if you will mount guard against those roundabout phrases, those echoing polysyllables that tend to slip into your writing to rob it of its crispness and force.”
Beware of Pat Expressions. “Other things being equal, avoid phrases like “other things being equal.” Those sentences that come to you whole, or in two or three doughy lumps, are sure to be bad sentences. They are no creation of yours but pieces of common thought floating in the community soup… No writer avoids them altogether, but good writers avoid them more often than poor writers.”
Colorful Words. “Some words are what we call “colorful.” By this we mean that they are calculated to produce a picture or induce an emotion. They are dressy instead of plain, specific instead of general, loud instead of soft. Thus, in place of “Her heart beat,” we may write, “her heart pounded, throbbed, fluttered, danced.” Instead of “He sat in his chair,” we may say, “he lounged, sprawled, coiled.”
Colored Words.. “When we hear a word, we hear with it an echo of all the situations in which we have heard it before. The word mother, for example, has, for most people, agreeable associations. When you hear mother you probably think of home, safety, love, food, and various other pleasant things..The question of whether to use loaded words or not depends on what is being written.”
Colorless Words. “A pet example is nice, a word we would find it hard to dispense with in casual conversation but which is no longer capable of adding much to a description. Colorless words are those of such general meaning that in a particular sentence they mean nothing…Slang adjectives like cool (“That’s real cool”) tend to explode all over the language. They are applied to everything, lose their original force, and quickly die.”

Learning how to create content using concrete, lean, colorful and vivid prose with unique perspectives will help you to get more readers, customers and supporters. But bear in mind that its not just about writing in a fancy way to entertain. It’s also a conscientious way of differentiating yourself from thousands of similar writers/thinkers in the same field.

Tell People What You Want Them to Do for You

2010-12-08T08:51:00.001-08:00

Tell People What You Want Them to Do for You

In marketing and advertising, a ‘call to action’ is a message or statement which encourages the prospect to perform a specific action. Most of the time this involves buying a product, making a donation, subscribing to a newsletter or requesting for more information. The specific action to take is defined by the marketer in accordance with his/her goals.
If you think about it, call-to-actions are really a natural result of most human interactions. You call a friend to chit-chat and before you hang up, you ask her to have lunch together tomorrow. She thinks about her schedule for a moment and says “Sure, let’s do that”.
It’s just a way to conclude a moment of interaction. It’s telling the other party ‘what’s next’ and how to continue. If used alongside exceptional content, the call to action no longer becomes a gentle request but an imperative that requires your immediate commitment.
I often feel that way when I’m reading well written brochures from charity organizations. And it works the same way (sadly) for get-rich-quick scams that prey on the human desire for happiness, of which wealth is widely seen as the best means. If the message is overwhelming enough, people will generally do whatever it is you want them to do.
Even in day to day interactions, people react to call to actions that are coherent with what they are currently feeling or thinking. It flows on from an initial encounter: Here is how you can get even more of the same. Here is how you can continue down the path of success. Here is how you can share your love (or hate) for this brand.
We have a predilection for sharing information: We often tell people about our good or bad experiences with products or places, sometimes even if no one asks for our opinion. If you want someone to spread the word about your content or service, ask them directly. They will do it even if you don’t give them an incentive. This is what I believe from experience.
Modesty and pride are usually the main obstacles. You don’t want to come off as too conceited and you’re too proud to beg. So you publish free content and give away free tools without asking for anything in return. Maybe its just a hobby for you and you don’t care. That’s cool. But if you’re interested in reputation or revenue, this won’t help you at all.

There’s Nothing Wrong With Asking for Help

I’ve been using Ozh’s Admin Drop Down Menu, a Wordpress plugin that arranges the current admin area menus in a horizontal, instead of a vertical format. This is a great feature that helps me work faster and better with Wordpress websites.
In the settings menu for this plugin, you’ll find a series of call to actions:

People have a few options of what to do after installing and using the plugin. Two of them involves increasing its social proof (rating and sharing the plugin) and one is a revenue generator (donations). Generally, people are more willing to part with compliments (free) than money (cost involved) so I would imagine that most would pick the first two options.
The plugin has a perfect 5 star score (with 316 ratings) at the Wordpress plugin directory, which as some will know, is a rare feat for any plugin that has over 100 ratings. Impressive stuff, although part of its success is also due to the simplicity of the plugin itself.
This is a free tool. Some would have just installed it and forgot about sharing if they were not prompted to do so. We have things on our mind, goals to fulfill, people to meet and jobs to do. Call to actions break through the clutter and say ‘do this now’. Don’t let your prospect’s interest or satisfaction fade beneath the noise of other things that demand their attention.
If you give away free content, you should not only ask why you are doing so but learn to embed call to actions in some of them. Don’t be too modest or proud to tell someone what you want them to do for you. And never underestimate the power of reciprocity. It’s an influential social norm that you can use to your advantage when marketing online.

Affiliate Blogging and The Art of Slow Cooking

2010-12-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

Affiliate Blogging and The Art of Slow Cooking

I’ve been researching on how blogs can be used as a means to promote affiliate programs because I’m pretty interested in how blogs seem to have some natural potential for building stable and long-term relationships between the affiliate and the customer.
Blogs grow over time and their accumulated content is a gold-mine for search engines and the targeted traffic they bring. While contextual Ad networks like Adsense are effective, passive ways of earning money from a blog, I think affiliate programs are superior in many aspects, particularly in terms of long-term profit.
Here are some reasons why.

Higher earning potential – doesn’t only depend on ad impressions and clicks
Better integration with a blog’s niche/content- No matter how you blend contextual ads, they won’t fit in completely.
Earnings do not entirely depend on a blog’s popularity, Page Rank or number of readers
Variety – There are a large range of products to suit every website niche.

Organic Blogs and Affiliate Marketing
In a recent post, Shoemoney offers an answer to the question of how to choose a CPA affiliate:

My approach is to build organic traffic to a niche and test different affiliates. Then when I find something that works I will put a lot of PPC money behind it. This is not the popular way to do it though because a lot of people will not put in the time and effort that it takes to build a organic site that will stand the test of time (not spammed to crap) and they want overnight millions. it just is not so.

Some background information. CPA affiliates or Cost-Per-Action affiliates refer to ad networks, retailers or companies that will pay you commission for every visitor you refer to their website, who fulfills a specific action such as subscribing to a newsletter or opening a new account. The more popular CPA affiliates include loan consolidation services and cellphone providers but are not limited to these categories.
When we relate Shoemoney’s advice to the area of blogs, this does suggest that real blogs with search-engine friendly content can be a effective long-term way to promote specific affiliate programs. I think the emphasis on an organic site (one that receives most of its traffic from search engines) is accurate because such a site continues to receive highly targeted traffic over time and doesn’t solely depend on ad campaigns for traffic.
Here are a few other reasons why I think organic blogs are an excellent ways to make money from affiliate marketing.
You can only milk so much out of a static squeeze page. Once a consumer has seen and dismissed it, there’s very little chance of them making a repeat visit. On the other hand, blogs can offer a variety of updated information and are a persuasive means that will eventually convert doubtful consumers into willing referrals.
A prime example of how blogs are rapidly used to promote affiliate programs can be seen in the massive number of blogs created to solely promote Agloco, a program that pays you to surf the internet. I ran a search on Google for ‘Agloco‘ and easily found several blogs in the top 20 search results. If you take a look at these blogs, you’ll notice that they update relatively regularly to generate buzz and dispel doubts, while actively calling for sign-ups.
Blogs are like slow-cookers. They work by gradually cajoling a visitor into action, while seeking to diffuse all misconceptions or hesitation surrounding a specific product. Blogs can also be persistent in a non-intrusive way. One page ads hammer the consumer with benefits and testimonials while the well developed blog makes friends with the consumer, saying “Here’s all I know about the product. Let me know if you need more help.”
Some thoughts on the Ideal Affiliate Blog
I’m planning to set up some blogs for some specific affiliate programs and so came up with a list of axioms I wanted to follow:

The blog should use unique content as much as possible. Good for both search engines and readers.
The blog must have a very strong niche that relates to the affiliate program in question.
The blog must provide easy access to information that is perceived as authentic or even ‘objective’
The blog should not run too many ads. Consumers tend to see over-monetization as profit > value.
The blog must be up-to-date on the trends surrounding the niche. Outdated news doesn’t reflect well.
The blog should practice invisibility. The consumer should not know that you are doing affiliate marketing, i.e. getting a cut of the product sold. Debatable.
The blog should evolve seamlessly to include other product or market trends.
The blog should have a personality and opinion. In the end, it’s a person-to-person recommendation that does the trick.

While not exhaustive, I think these points can help to determine the effectiveness of a blog that is solely monetized by affiliate commissions. While traffic is important for contextual programs like Adsense and Page Rank is vital for link selling, affiliate blogs need to focus more on persuasive copy writing, effective search engine optimization and most importantly, issues of trust between the customer and the affiliate.
Affiliate marketing with blogs is a fascinating topic for me, because blogs just seem to have so much natural advantage when it comes to building a consistent consumer base for affiliate programs. More on this topic to come.
If you’re interested in participating in a little affiliate experiment, please visit my post on how to make money with Pageflakes.

Affiliate Marketing Tip: Use Unique Brand Names to Increase Conversion Rates.

2010-12-08T08:46:00.000-08:00

Affiliate Marketing Tip: Use Unique Brand Names to Increase Conversion Rates.

I was checking my Gmail account when I noticed an interesting ad near the top of the screen. It was from a recruitment team that was seeking to hire professionals with an interest in marketing guru, Seth Godin’s work.
The copy for the ad read:

If you Read Seth I Want U: If you are reading Seth Godin’s blog I want to hire you!
The main reason why I clicked on the ad was because I am a regular reader of Seth Godin’s blog. After clicking on the ad, I was taken to a webpage which immediately requested for my resume and credentials. Talk about super targeted Adwords traffic!
Here’s a screen shot of the Seth Godin Ad. Click for a better view:

The advertiser got exactly what he wanted:

A perfect candidate that is interested in Seth Godin’s work.
A visitor that is looking for information related to Seth Godin.
A visitor that is ready to consume any product or sales pitch concerning Seth Godin.

The advertiser could be trying to sell me Seth Godin T-shirts and I might even buy some if there was a convincing sales copy and offer price.
Why? Because the advertiser is appealing to me through a subject (Seth Godin) that I’m already familiar with and is of interest to me.
This proves what most expert affiliate marketers already know: that unique brand names or phrases are effective ways to presell a product or service through Pay Per Click Campaigns.
If you’re an affiliate marketer running a PPC program, you want value-for-money clicks that lead to conversions and not poorly targeted traffic that disappear when they find that your product or website is different from what they expected.

How Unique Brand Names Can Be Used in PPC Campaigns: An Example

Here’s an example. Let’s assume that I want to promote subscriptions to a popular independent rock music magazine.
Instead of using generic promotional terms like “Coolest Indie Rock Magazine Ever” I could try using unique related brand names or phrases to get targeted traffic.
For instance, I might use the phrase “Sonic Youth loves our indie rock mag“.
By doing this, I’m preselling the subscription through a unique brand name (the band, Sonic Youth), one that not only appeals to indie rock fans but will only be appreciated or understood by indie rock fans.
This ensures a very high conversion rate and allows you to get the best results from your Pay Per Click campaigns.

Another benefit of using unique names is that they tend to attract curiosity clicks. For example, If I didn’t know who Seth Godin or Sonic Youth was, I might still click on the ad just to find out more about the person behind the brand name.
This can be useful when you are primarily using Pay Per Click campaigns to generate awareness for your product, service or website.
Learning how to use unique brand names is a beginner’s trick that has helped me consistently in all of my affiliate campaigns.
Researching on relevant brand names can help you to maximize your Pay Per Click campaign potential while ensuring that you’ll only attract the most targeted and willing consumers.
Seeing the Seth Godin Ad just reminded me of this affiliate marketing tip and I thought I should share it with you all out there.
Have fun optimizing your PPC campaigns!

Pre-empting the Buyer: How to Increase Affiliate Conversions and Advertising Sales

2010-12-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

Pre-empting the Buyer: How to Increase Affiliate Conversions and Advertising Sales

I recently signed up as an affiliate for Aaron Wall’s SEO Book (aff) and took a good look at the salesletter, which was apparently rewrote by Brian Clark late last year. The copy for the new sales letter was well done and I think the main improvement was the reduction in its length as well as the strategic insertions of recommendations from notable personalities like Seth Godin and Wharton Professor J Michael Steel.
A more subtle but equally powerful change was moving the specific call to query or feedback all the way down to the bottom of the page. Here’s a side by side comparison of the old (left) and new (right) sales letter.

The old newsletter puts a list of additional recommendations and reviews below the call to query and potential buyers who are as yet undecided might be swayed to click on them instead of the designated query link.
This is a bad move because these links point to reviews or webpages that may not be effective in taking advantage of the buyer’s interest in SEO Book. It also assumes that the buyer requires more detailed information or sales pitches when this might not be the case all the time.
On the other hand, the new sales letter removes all the external links and leaves the call to query right at the bottom. This is more professional and gives the effect that all information has been duly presented and laid out before the buyer.
Having had the impression of perusing all there is to know about the SEOBook, the buyer will be persuaded that clicking on the link is the final option available.
Here is a screenshot of what shows up when you click on the “if you aren’t ready to buy, click here” link:

Collecting feedback from your potential buyers or advertisers is a tremendously important process because it allows you to customize your product price or ad offering to suit their needs.
Implementing the Call-to-Query on your own Blog or Affiliate Landing Page
Here are two very quick and simple steps you can undertake in order to increase the likelihood of affiliate conversions and advertiser signups

Create a short one-liner that pre-empts the potential customer by suggesting that they are still indecisive about buying a product or committing to an arrangement. Include this at the bottom of your sales page or Advertising options page on your blog.
Develop a customized feedback page and point the link in the one-liner to it. For bloggers, I would suggest creating another Contact page with a customized message for advertisers. Something like Aaron’s feedback box would be ideal.

And you’re all set. Potential customers and advertisers can be rather hesitant when it comes to spending money and this little trick allows them to directly communicate all concerns they might have with you one-on-one.
This feedback loop also allows you to enter into a two-way negotiation process which ultimately gives you more willing and long-term buyers or advertisers.

Six Powerful Blog Strategies that will Rapidly Increase Your Affiliate Referrals

2010-12-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

Six Powerful Blog Strategies that will Rapidly Increase Your Affiliate Referrals

Imagine this scenario. You’ve just came across an amazing website which offers a lucrative affiliate program. You signed up instantly as an affiliate and are itching to promote your referral link to as many people you know.
You hook up a new thread in a forum and insert your referral link after a short pitch, perhaps you’ll also leave a few comments on a few blogs with the referral link as the URL or signature.
You might even publish a short blog post which consists of nothing but a short opener, an excerpt from the website in question and your big fat affiliate referral link.
You sit back and eagerly check your referral stats. How many people signed up? How much am I earning? You set plans for tommorrow: maybe send some emails to people you know and create a banner or button for your blog. You probably think you’ve done a good job and are guaranteed a cashcow that will give you recurring earnings. Right?
Wrong. Promoting your affiliate link goes beyond the above steps, which are really promotional spurts directed at short-term gains. If the affiliate program offers recurring commission earnings, creating a focused, long term promotional strategy is of vital importance.
Six Key Strategies to Boost your Affiliate Referrals
Here are a collection of six points which anyone can use to increase their number of referrals for any affiliate program or website. These points apply across various industries and emphasize on long-term over short-term referral gains.
Note that they mainly apply to blogs, though they could easily be applied to other general websites.

1. Early Search Result Listings are Essential – Get Ranked Fast.
Being one of the first few people to write about a specific website or affiliate scheme will allow you to easily get ranked within the top 10 for most search engines. This is because there is very little competition for the specific term or keyphrase.
Another benefit of getting listed early is that people will usually do a search for a specific website because they need more details about it. You should aim to fill that information need because they’ll very likely sign up through your link if there are no other or very little sources available.
I’ve gotten over 1,000 Agloco referrals just because I’ve written a review of Agloco when it was just released a few months back.
I’ve not even bothered to update the review with fresh information and I’ve done absolutely nothing to increase my referrals. No forum spamming, no blog post pitches, no PPC campaigns, no email marketing, no article submissions. Nada. Nothing.
This was largely because I was ranked number one on Google for ‘Agloco Review‘ for some time. In fact, my post is still listed in the Top 5 results at the moment. This has allowed me to receive consistent search traffic everyday for several months.
Dosh Dosh also has strong result rankings for dozens of unique keywords, which ensures that I continue to make money through affiliate recommendations, even though my blog is completely free of contextual or banner ads.

2. Project Authenticity, Personality and Objectivity through Your Blog
Visitors who arrive your blog looking for specific information do not need another sales pitch. They’ve very likely been pre-sold, meaning that they’ve been persuaded to some extent by the website or business in question.
What they want is personal recommendations. Strive for objectivity and honesty when you are writing your review about the specific product. This means giving both good and bad points about a specific product.
Your review will be even better if you can include your personal experiences with the product in question. My Gangster Greed review is a good example of how I try to inculcate all these points.

3. Strive for Content Depth, Breadth and Uniqueness
Always try to surpass the other blogger that writes about the same topic by coming up with a review of far greater depth and detail. Explore questions which have not been addressed and link to sources which the other bloggers have missed.
Being unique and meticulous makes you a reference point and authority on the topic. This builds incoming links which will eventually help you rank well in the long run.
An example of this is my post on Adsense Wordpress Themes. The amount of material covered and the uniqueness of it (no one has ever done it before) has led a very large number of natural incoming links over time and has allowed me to consistently rank in the top five for several keywords.
Put yourself in the potential linker’s shoe. Would you rather send your reader to a short blog post with only 100 words on a product/website or you prefer to send them to a well-written 1000 word article which thoroughly examines the subject in question?
4. Optimize your Blog Post for Search Traffic
Writing with search engines in mind can make the whole article feel stunted and so I’ve never emphasized on stuffing keywords or phrases in specific sections of content. Don’t do it. It’s a waste of time and may degrade the overall quality of your post.
Demonstrating a personality that others can relate too is far more important when you are planning to increase affiliate referrals.
The only place where its absolutely essential to include your keyword or phrase is within the title of your blog post. Adjusting your post-slug and permalink to include the keyword structure is also helpful and can help to reduce the length of the URL as a whole.
However, pleasing the reader or potential referral is of utmost importance. Always try to target niche phrases that fit nicely within your article and if you really want to, buy or get others to include keyword links to your article.

5. Use Trackbacks Effectively to Generate Exposure
Don’t just come across a specific item and write about it as if you were the one discovering it. By referencing the original news breaker, a relevant link to your post will be listed beneath their original article in the form of a trackback.
This is a great way to get very targeted traffic because readers might need more information on the specific website/program. If your article is good enough, the blogger in question might even update the original post and include a link to it.
The trick to trackbacking is to reference as many relevant and high traffic blogs as possible. To keep on top of popular news from other high profile blogs, I suggest using content aggregators or meme trackers which allow you easily reference several blogs at once.

6. Leech Traffic from Relevant Blogs
This is a method that I have used for a while. Say you’ve just written a great article on a specific website or program and included your affiliate links. The next step is to promote your article through relevant niche blogs.
How do you do this? Use Google Alerts to set up notifications when bloggers write a post about the specific topic in question. This sends an automated email to your inbox every day or once a week.
You can then visit specific blogs and leave a relevant comment while discreetly mentioning your review. This is a great way to acquire potential referrals who are commitment-phobic and need more information.
Depending on the traffic level for each blog, you’ll tend to get a few visitors who will be interested enough to visit your website. Just remember to deeplink to the specific post and not your blog homepage.
This method also has the benefit of allowing you to easily stay in touch with the latest news concerning the specific program, which allows you to update your blog or website accordingly.
Another way to do this is to hang out at social websites like Digg or Reddit and visit blogs that are very likely to hit the homepage. Leaving an interesting comment will induce visitors to your blog. This is far less targeted than using Google Alerts but can lead to greater traffic flow.

Key Point Summary – A Checklist to Follow

Write a blog post after you sign up for an affiliate program. Pick keywords or keyphrases that are likely to receive more search volume.
Check if you are making a personal recommendation and come across as authentic/objective.
Is your review detailed and unique enough? Does it cover new ground or offer new perspectives?
Optimize your Blog post. Are the keywords in the title?
Remember to use references and send trackbacks.
Keep track of articles from other bloggers on the same topic. Have you set up a Google Alert or found a way to keep up with news on a specific topic?

How to Use Blog Traffic Exchanges to Make Money with Affiliate Programs

2010-12-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

How to Use Blog Traffic Exchanges to Make Money with Affiliate Programs

The key to making money through affiliate programs or other forms of advertising is traffic, which is simply the sheer number of visitors who arrive at your blog daily.
In terms of affiliate marketing, the more visitors you have, the more opportunities or capacity you will have to recommend or successively promote any products, services or websites.
There are many different ways to market your blog and gain more visitors which will eventually allow you to make money through blog-based affiliate marketing.The use of blog traffic exchanges is one method you should consider.

How do Blog Traffic Exchanges Work?

Blog Traffic Exchanges are simply websites which operate on a reciprocal viewing ratio, whereby you’ll manually surf and visit various blogs in the network, in return for other users to visit your blog.
For example, by logging into a blog traffic exchange and visiting one blog in their network, I would earn one credit which means that I’ll get one visit in return from another blogger who is using the same traffic network.
This is the most basic principle of all blog traffic exchanges, although some exchange networks will allow you to buy credits which will translate to visitor traffic from other users.

What are the requirements to use a Blog Traffic Exchange?

The most basic prerequisite is that you will need to own a blog. Registration for these blog traffic exchanges are usually free and all you’ll need to do is to submit your blog and start surfing to accumulate traffic credits, which will ensure that other users surf and visit your blog as well.

Do I really need to use a Blog Traffic Exchange?

I would say that these exchanges are very useful for new blogs who need to get more exposure but established blogs with strong organic traffic from search engines, probably do not need to use them.
Note however, that this post is less about getting traffic or exposure to your blog and more about how to make money through the targeted monetization of blog traffic exchange visitors.
As such, it could apply for both new and more established blogs as long as the blogger in question is looking for a way to make money off their blog through affiliate programs.

Types of Blog traffic exchanges

There are several of them out there and most of the ones I’ve tried seem to have similar blogs on their networks. BlogExplosion and BlogMad are two of the largest traffic exchanges out there and I suggest only using them if you don’t have much time.
Here is the list of four blog traffic exchanges I’ve come across and used so far:
1. Blog Explosion

2. BlogMad

3. Blog Soldiers

4. Blog Advance

Benefits of Using Blog Traffic Exchanges

Free exposure for new blogs. New blogs usually have very little referral or search traffic and the focus is on getting people to know your blog actually exists. Blog Traffic exchanges can perform this function and may even help to increase your initial reader base before organic traffic from search engines starts to kick in.
Building long-term referral traffic. Traffic exchange visitors are all bloggers and are the people you want to attract when you are trying to build a much bigger readership. The more bloggers you have reading your blog, the more potential for incoming links and future referral traffic.

Disadvantages and Limitations of Blog Traffic Exchanges

Here are some points to take note of, if you are interested in using blog traffic exchanges for your blog. Only after taking these factors into consideration, should you proceed to the six steps that I’ve outlined in the later part of this article.

Negative Effects on Publisher Accounts with ad networks
Some bloggers have suggested that advertising networks like Adsense do not allow the use of traffic exchanges, because they generate artificial traffic and ad impressions.
I have used blogs with Adsense on them in the past and have not received any warning. But this was probably because I was not actively using traffic exchanges on a regular basis.
I would recommend that you email your ad network to confirm if they allow the use of traffic exchanges. I personally would not run any advertising programs while using these exchanges.
If you want to monetize this traffic, I would suggest purely using affiliate programs for products or services.
Visitor Traffic is Poorly Targeted Blog traffic exchanges are similar to StumbleUpon in that you’ll never really know what to expect. For some exchanges like Blog Explosion, you can choose to surf blogs only in a specific field but I’m not sure how many users actually use this function.
Unlike search traffic, visitors coming through traffic exchanges do not require or seek specific information so anything you offer could be hit or miss. I suggest sticking to general topics if you are promoting affiliate programs.
Limited Market Scope The traffic that you are trying to monetize is actually limited only to the users of each Traffic Exchange. This means that after consistently using each exchange for a while, the quality of the traffic as it relates to affiliate programs might decrease.
One can only hope that by then, you would have build up a strong enough audience base which you can tap for future monetization efforts.
Manual Surfing is Time-consuming Unless you buy traffic credits, you’ll have to manually surf other blogs through the traffic exchanges in return for other bloggers to visit your website. This can be a time consuming process and can also distract you from other tasks at hand.

How to Use Traffic Exchanges to Make Money from your Blog

Before I get into the gritty details on how you can effectively monetize blog traffic exchange visitors, I’ll be very clear on what type of blogs will work best for this.

Your blog should have unique content and should not just be a feed scrapper blog which reposts articles and links. Spam and copyright issues are of some concern to blog traffic exchange networks.
The blog must not be a sales letter or website in disguise. I’m referring to blogs whereby every single article sells a product or contains various affiliate links. Bloggers and exchange network admins can usually identify these sites as spam, not to mention that it might negatively impact the trust level of a new visitor.
Blogs with cookie-cutter templates will not work as well as blogs that have unique and well designed themes. This is a simple fact because you only have less than 30 seconds before the visitor clicks through to the next blog. The design must magnetize and capture the blogger’s attention.
The first blog post on the blog should not use excerpts or the more tag. The blog post should be displayed in full so there is less risk that the visitor will ignore it. Other non-monetized posts without affiliate links should be excerpted.

Six Steps to Easily Monetize Blog Traffic Exchange Visitors

The emphasis here for both new and established blogs is to ONLY start using blog traffic exchanges immediately after one has publish an article that promotes a specific affiliate program or website.
This is because your blog post (with affiliate links) will be right at top in your homepage and this is where most visitors will direct their attention.
Traffic exchanges are time consuming and if you have not written a post which promotes an affiliate program or product, I see no reason to waste your time on them because the monetization potential is just not there.
Remember, don’t use these exchanges everyday for every single new post you write. Only use them extensively after you write a post which contains affiliate/referral links that will allow you to make money through personal recommendations.
The emphasis is on getting visitor to read your post, click through on the links and proceed to either sign up for the recommended website or make a quick purchase.
Here are the six steps you should take:

Write a great post or review about a specific affiliate product or website. Offer an authentic opinion which provides both pros and cons of the program. Do NOT aggressively sell the product. Write naturally in a conversational style.
Remove all other advertising networks on your site. It helps to build a little credibility while centralizing focus on the article. You can always put them back up after you’ve done a few rounds of traffic trades.
Dress up your sidebars and the area after your post by prominently displaying buttons, banners or text links which either lead to a review page on your blog about the affiliate product or an affiliate landing page or original product website through your referral link. This is another net to catch visitors who don’t click through within the article itself.
Start to surf the blog traffic exchanges. Open up two or more exchange websites in separate tabs and start manually surfing. If you don’t mind spending money, an alternative would be to purchase some traffic credits.
Monitor the number of click throughs through basic stats programs like Google Analytics or MyBlogLog. Also check to see the number of signups or purchases through the affiliate center for the programs you’ve promoted.
Repeat the entire process if there is an acceptable number of conversions. A minimum of 5% conversion ratio, i.e. five new signups or purchases per 100 visitors over two days would be considered an appropriate standard.

Conclusion: Blog Traffic Exchanges & Monetization

We have examined the use of blog traffic exchanges from a very targeted perspective, which only emphasizes the importance of getting multiple visitors to view specific affiliate program recommendations on your blog.
As such, blog traffic exchanges could also be seen as blitz marketing tools which will allow you to get rapid exposure for a specific post within a short time frame.
It is important to note that the use of traffic exchanges should definitely accompany a well rounded monetization strategy that focuses on building consistent organic and referral traffic from search engines and other websites.

Make Money with Website Templates – Template Monster’s Affiliate Program

2010-12-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

Make Money with Website Templates – Template Monster’s Affiliate Program

Template Monster is a popular online store which offers readymade website templates for webmasters and businesses. Other products from their large inventory includes pre-made Flash templates, Wordpress and other CMS themes, logos as well as osCommerce templates for online stores.
Affiliates earn 20% commissions on all purchases made via their affiliate link or template shop. Templates generally range from $5 to $3500, which means that you do have a chance to make some substantial earnings.
I do like the fact that Template Monster’s affiliate program uses permanent cookies, which means that when someone visits Template Monster via your affiliate link, a cookie is set on their browser which allows you to get commission from purchases even a few months later when the visitor revisits Template Monster to make a purchase.
This is useful because the visitor may not buy something on impulse but may return to the site a while later to make a more thorough purchase.

What is the target market for Template Monster’s products?

I assume that the majority of the potential buyers would be businesses or webmasters who are establishing new business projects or ventures.
While there are CMS and blog templates, I doubt most bloggers would purchase them as there is a large variety of free Wordpress themes readily available. You might just do slightly better with bulletin board crowd, although they have their fair share of free templates as well.
Other web designers might also be a possible target market. Your affiliate links for Template Monster would perform well on websites largely dealing with webmaster, business or design orientated topics.
Similar to the affiliate program for Best of the Web, Template Monster could also be used as an add-on referral if you are providing a professional service (SEO and Marketing etc.) for a client.

How do I make money with TemplateMonster.com?

There are three main ways to make money with Template Monster:
1. Refer visitors through your affiliate link to the Template Monster website.
2. Set up your own online store with the ready made store templates and scripts from Template Monster
3. Refer other affiliates to Template Monster’s affiliate program. This is known as a Supervisor program and allows you to receive 25% of the sum they earn as commission.

What Payment Methods do Template Monster offer?

Template Monster will only pay out via four methods: Moneybookers, ACH transfer, check and wire transfer. The minimum withdrawal amount is $800 via wire and $100 for the other three methods. Payment is made on a monthly basis.

Affiliate Dashboard & Stats Tracking

Template Monster includes a pretty detailed commissions statistics program that is built in all affiliate dashboards. You can track your own and your sub-affiliates earnings as well as monthly traffic statistics for your template shop.
There is also an ad campaign tracker which is an analytic tool that allows you to gauge the usefulness of your advertising channels.
How this works is relatively easy: you’ll just need to include a modified link in the banner or promo ads that you buy on other websites and the campaign tracker will monitor the number of clicks and conversions from each advertising campaign you run.

Template Monster’s Affiliate Forum

What I really liked about Template Monster’s affiliate program was the forum which allows you to interact with other affiliates and discuss sales techniques or conversion rates.
You can also ask for reviews of your site and banner placement. Free and open to all registered affiliates, the forum has some useful information as well if you need tips on how to better your sales.
The only drawback is that most of the threads and discussions in the forum are months old which indicates that not many users are actively using the forum.

Affiliate Tools and Promotional Materials

The affiliate tools section for Template Monster are quite advanced and offer a whole range of promotional and conversion methods. For the basic affiliate, you can chose from a range of static or dynamic banners which you can simply copy and paste to your website or blog (An example of a static banner can be seen below).
If you are running your own Template Monster store, you can choose to establish your own chat system which connects your visitors directly with Template Monster’s live chat support. You can also turn on or off merchant systems and determine the price/commission ratio for sales generated through your affiliate links and banners.
An interesting feature is that you get pick and choose any template from Template Monster and pay for it using your commision while receiving a 20% discount. This is useful if you’re running new online projects and want to put up a new site template.

Other Related Affiliate Programs

Template Monster’s affiliate program is managed by MyTemplateStorage.com, a website which also manages affiliate programs for Site2You and Template Tuning, both of which are online website builders.
You’ll have access to the stats tracker and affiliate tools for both these websites as well through the MyTemplateStorage.com central dashboard.

How much will I earn with Template Monster?

While I’m unable to find any apparent faults with Template Monster’s affiliate program, do bear in mind that I’ve not used their affiliate program and promoted their products extensively and so I cannot comment on how well they convert as well as their potential for profit.
I will however be straight up with all of you who might be interested in signing up for their affiliate program so you’ll have no illusions about how much money you will make. According to the research I’ve done in their forums, the conversion rate for Template Monster seems to be around 1 sale per 1000 targeted visitors, with a lot more affiliates doing much worse.
By targeted visitors, I’m referring to visitors who arrive at your website through Pay Per Click ads or search engines through highly relevant search terms.This simply means that you shouldn’t expect a lot of sales unless you’re willing to spend time and money either targeting the right keywords and ranking for them.
PPC advertising will help but you’ll need to pick the right keywords and generally know how to manage your costs and campaigns.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are affiliates in the forum who reputedly sell 5 to 10+ templates in a day, with each individual template bringing in commissions of $30 to $600.
Like every other affiliate program out there, you’re likely to earn a lot more money if you are aggressive, persistent and skilled at the entire process of driving targeted traffic to your site.

Signing up with Template Monster

If you’re still interested in giving Template Monster a try, here’s the signup link. Note that this is a link for Template Monster’s affiliate referral program and you should be using a similar link (with your unique id) if you chose to refer other affiliates to Template Monster as well.
Do any of you have any experience promoting Template Monster’s products? For those of you who are web designers, are their products reasonably priced? I have considered purchasing some templates from their site and a second opinion would be very useful indeed.
**This article contains affiliate links.

How Pre-sell Pages can Easily Increase Conversions for Your Affiliate Links

2010-12-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

How Pre-sell Pages can Easily Increase Conversions for Your Affiliate Links

Making money from a website often entails the use of proverbial income generators like product sales, affiliate programs and on-site advertising.
All of these monetization methods rely on inducing the visitor to perform a specific action such as clicking on an ad or an affiliate link, purchasing a product or subscribing to a newsletter.
Your success in getting the visitor to act the way you want often depends on the visual structure (design/ad placement) of your website and the type of content preceding or surrounding the product or promotion.
The success of affiliate programs are especially susceptible to the influence of well written copy and the power of personal recommendations. Nothing is more effective when you want get others to act upon your affiliate link.

Why Direct Affiliate Links do Not Work Sometimes
Direct affiliate links are links which point directly to an external website, of which you are the affiliate. These links send traffic away from your website and the effectiveness of getting a visitor to convert on it depends a lot on the host website.
If the website in question has a poor landing page or is weakly designed, you’ve just lost a potential referral. I’ve seen many websites which are simply not designed effectively enough to accommodate an incoming visitor’s initial interest.
Sending them directly to these types of external webpages is akin to affiliate suicide and I highly recommend that you create a well written presell page on your own website for greater conversion rates and overall success.

An Example of an Integrated Pre-Sell Page that Works

Brian Clark from Copyblogger has used two presell pages which are well integrated on a sitewide level on his blog. If you take a look at the left sidebar under the ‘Resources’ section, you would notice two text links. One for Midphase Web Hosting and the other for Glyphius Copywriting software.
These two webpages each promote a specific product. The Midphase Web Hosting page is created using an individual page format whereas the Glyphius copywriting software is converted from a blog post in which Brian reviewed the software thoroughly.
As would you expect, both of them feature great copy and are good examples to follow if you are planning to create your own presell page. The Midphase piece is short and utilizes a scannable list format while the Glyphius article features a more detailed review, which carefully avoids over selling.
I remember that Brian used to run the Midphase hosting webpage as an 125 x 125 ad square on the right sidebar as well so keep in mind that there are several ways to highlight your pre-sell page once it is created.

Benefits of Creating a Dedicated Presell Page
The benefits of developing a pre-sell page dedicated entirely to the product or website you are promoting are many. Here are just some of the most important advantages:

Attracts Search Engine Traffic. Creating a pre-sell page means that you’ve have a keyword relevant webpage that will show up on the search engines. If optimized well, this webpage will bring you some extra search engine visitors who might be searching for information on the topic.
Leverages Existing Visitor Trust. The use of a personal voice in affiliate promotions is one of the main things often overlooked. If your overall website is well designed and genuinely offers useful content, it will invite trust from visitors. Creating a presell page and offering your thoughts on the product instead of blindly linking out to an external site capitalizes on the trust you’ve already gained.
Makes it Easier for Off-Site Promotions. A presell page on your website makes it easier for future promotions. Using affiliate links on forums, blogs or other public websites makes you look like a spammer. Instead, you can drop a link to your webpage which clearly explains the product or program in question. You’ll also be driving traffic to your website instead of purely sending visitors to the affiliate website. This allows you to gain new blog readers, customers and list subscribers.
Can be Used as Future Reference Points. When you are creating content for your website, you can insert a link to your pre-sell page and use it as a reference point. For example, if you’re writing an article about web hosting, you might like to drop a link to your pitch page, instead of linking directly to the host.

How to Create a Pre-Sell Page on Your Website
Creating a presell page on your website is a rather simple process and involves several steps that can be easily accomplished by anyone. They simply involve developing a webpage with your copy and promoting it visibly on your website.

Create a new webpage and include your pitch and recommendation concerning the product. You can also use an existing blog post as well although I would suggest using a separate Page.
Make the new webpage visible by linking to it through a graphic banner or text link. Be sure to make this link highly visible either sitewide or on a special ‘recommendations’ page.

Seven PreSell Page Guidelines to Follow
The effectiveness of your sell page depends on several factors and strong, enticing copy is by far the most important rule you’ll need to observe. Here are some guidelines you can use to create a great sell page.

Do not oversell. Try to provide a balanced perspective on the product. Projecting objectivity and honesty is usually the best approach.
No redundant hyperlinks. Don’t link to other articles on your website or other external websites. The only links you should include are your affiliate links. You don’t want visitors to get distracted and go elsewhere.
Use multiple affiliate links. Try to use the same affiliate link multiple times within the pre-sell page. A good start would be to use it at both the start and the end of your article. Vary the anchor text as well so they don’t look repetitive.
Try cloaking affiliate links. Cloaking your affiliate link is likely to improve your click through rate although a lot also depends on your overall site look/feel and its reputation in the niche. If you’re undecided, try going with the regular affiliate link for a period of time and then cloak it for a similar period to measure click through rates.
Keep it short. A pitch page should not be too long. Visitors usually click away if its too heavy to consume within a few minutes.
Focus on Usability. Write for scannability, use subheadings and bold specific keywords or phrases to help increase the visual impact of your copy.
Offer Benefits. It’s very important to make sure that the visitor understands how the affiliate program benefits him or her. If you would like to provide an additional incentive for signing up under your affiliate link, be sure to include it as well.

Now you have all you need..
Setting up a basic pre-sell page should take less an hour and it usually doesn’t require you to maintain or update it. If you’re interested in making the most out of the traffic your website receives, creating a presell page for your affiliate programs is one of the most important steps to take.
I’ll be taking the weekend to create some webpages for several affiliate programs on Dosh Dosh and if you have some time, try to do up a page or two on your website as well. It’ll be well worth your effort in the long run.

Make Money with Website Templates – Template Monster’s Affiliate Program

2010-12-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

Make Money with Website Templates – Template Monster’s Affiliate Program

What is the target market for Template Monster’s products?

How do I make money with TemplateMonster.com?

What Payment Methods do Template Monster offer?

Affiliate Dashboard & Stats Tracking

Template Monster’s Affiliate Forum

Affiliate Tools and Promotional Materials

Other Related Affiliate Programs

How much will I earn with Template Monster?

Signing up with Template Monster

How Pre-sell Pages can Easily Increase Conversions for Your Affiliate Links

2010-12-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

How Pre-sell Pages can Easily Increase Conversions for Your Affiliate Links

Attracts Search Engine Traffic. Creating a pre-sell page means that you’ve have a keyword relevant webpage that will show up on the search engines. If optimized well, this webpage will bring you some extra search engine visitors who might be searching for information on the topic.
Leverages Existing Visitor Trust. The use of a personal voice in affiliate promotions is one of the main things often overlooked. If your overall website is well designed and genuinely offers useful content, it will invite trust from visitors. Creating a presell page and offering your thoughts on the product instead of blindly linking out to an external site capitalizes on the trust you’ve already gained.
Makes it Easier for Off-Site Promotions. A presell page on your website makes it easier for future promotions. Using affiliate links on forums, blogs or other public websites makes you look like a spammer. Instead, you can drop a link to your webpage which clearly explains the product or program in question. You’ll also be driving traffic to your website instead of purely sending visitors to the affiliate website. This allows you to gain new blog readers, customers and list subscribers.
Can be Used as Future Reference Points. When you are creating content for your website, you can insert a link to your pre-sell page and use it as a reference point. For example, if you’re writing an article about web hosting, you might like to drop a link to your pitch page, instead of linking directly to the host.

Create a new webpage and include your pitch and recommendation concerning the product. You can also use an existing blog post as well although I would suggest using a separate Page.
Make the new webpage visible by linking to it through a graphic banner or text link. Be sure to make this link highly visible either sitewide or on a special ‘recommendations’ page.

Do not oversell. Try to provide a balanced perspective on the product. Projecting objectivity and honesty is usually the best approach.
No redundant hyperlinks. Don’t link to other articles on your website or other external websites. The only links you should include are your affiliate links. You don’t want visitors to get distracted and go elsewhere.
Use multiple affiliate links. Try to use the same affiliate link multiple times within the pre-sell page. A good start would be to use it at both the start and the end of your article. Vary the anchor text as well so they don’t look repetitive.
Try cloaking affiliate links. Cloaking your affiliate link is likely to improve your click through rate although a lot also depends on your overall site look/feel and its reputation in the niche. If you’re undecided, try going with the regular affiliate link for a period of time and then cloak it for a similar period to measure click through rates.
Keep it short. A pitch page should not be too long. Visitors usually click away if its too heavy to consume within a few minutes.
Focus on Usability. Write for scannability, use subheadings and bold specific keywords or phrases to help increase the visual impact of your copy.
Offer Benefits. It’s very important to make sure that the visitor understands how the affiliate program benefits him or her. If you would like to provide an additional incentive for signing up under your affiliate link, be sure to include it as well.

Web Hosting Affiliate Programs: A Collection of Ways to Make Money Online

2010-12-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

Web Hosting Affiliate Programs: A Collection of Ways to Make Money Online

Web hosting is a very competitive market and affiliate programs are often created by web hosting companies in a bid to obtain more customers. According to each web hosting affiliate program, you’ll earn a commission when you refer a customer who purchases a hosting plan.
For web hosts, there’s nothing easier than getting other people to promote their web hosting services for them. The returns in investment for each new customer is usually high as well, because each signup gives the web host recurring income over the long run.
For webmasters, bloggers and internet marketers, web hosting affiliate programs can be a rather lucrative source of income.
You’ve probably seen many web hosting ads on numerous websites all over the internet. These web hosting affiliate programs work well for almost all types of websites, particularly if you are offering a site-building or website consultation service for clients or businesses.
One particular benefit of affiliate programs for web hosts is that they offer high commission rates which can range from a minimum of $60 to over a hundred dollars just for referring a single customer who purchases a web hosting plan.

How do I Make Money with Web Hosting Affiliate Programs?
There are several ways to make some money of web hosting affiliate programs. You can create a website or blog solely dedicated to web hosting or simply include the affiliate links and banners on your existing websites.
I would recommend creating a pre-sell page instead of linking directly to the web host. An honest and objective review of a web host you are familiar with usually does wonders in webmaster referrals.
You can leverage existing traffic from your website or use PayPerClick advertising to send targeted visitors to any specific webpage. The goal is to get as many interested individuals to click through on your affiliate links as possible.

Dosh Dosh’s List of Web Hosting Affiliate Programs
Here is a list of web hosting affiliate programs I’ve found to be the most lucrative. There are a great number of web hosts and I’ve only picked the larger ones with established affiliate programs and tracking systems.
In terms of sheer monetary potential, I would recommend going with MidPhase, DreamHost and HostiCan. If you are looking for second tier earnings, affiliate programs you can use include LunarPages, HostiCan and DreamHost.
1. BlueHost

By driving customers to sign-up at BlueHost.Com, you will receive $65.00 per referral. Through your personal Affiliate login and their online administration you can view click-through ratios of your links or banner promotions.

2. Yahoo

Yahoo’s program structure is simple: The more customers you refer, the more you earn. You get $60 to $70 for each Yahoo! Web Hosting customer and based on volume, you can make up to $100 per referral. Yahoo also pays 20% of the total sale for each Yahoo! Domains customer.

3. Hostgator

Hostgator utilizes a commission scale. Referring 1 to 5 customers a month will make you $50 per sale and 20+ customers a month will earn you $125 per sale. Payment is monthly via Paypal.

4. LunarPages

You earn $65.00 for every new customer you refer to Lunarpages from YOUR website. Refer advertisers to sign up for LunarPages’s affiliate program and earn $5 for every new customer they refer to LunarPages.

5. IX Web Hosting

Sign up customers through their affiliate program and receive commissions starting at $50 up to $150 for each signup (varies depending on the hosting plan and billing cycle). Commissions are paid no later than the first week of each month following the first 30-days after the sale that achieves the minimum level was made.

6. MidPhase

MidPhase’s affiliate program covers four different webhosts (Midphase, Autica, Thrill host and AN Hosting) and commissions range from $25 to $85 per sale, depending on which host you promote. Payments are made every two weeks via check. Cookies are set for one year and premium rates exist for premium publishers who are able to send over 20 signups a month.

7. DreamHost

You can choose to receive substantial one-time credits for each of your referrals, or recurring credits for every payment that your referrals ever make to DreamHost. For one time payments, a new customer you send to Dreamhost will make you $97 and each customer your referral sends will earn you $5.
For recurring payments, You’ll earn 10% of every payment that your referrals ever make and 5% of every payment that their referrals make – for as long as they remain customers too. Credits can be paid out via PayPal or check, or applied to a hosting bill with DreamHost.com.

8. HostiCan

Affiliates will receive $70 for the first 4 successful sales and then $90 per successful sale. Commissions are only paid for qualifying and approved sales. You will earn $5 extra for every sale that a sub affiliate makes for HostICan.
Commissions are paid one time a month for all verified and approved sales. Payment is made via Paypal. Performing affiliates have the advantage of earning $250 bonus for 25 new referrals per month, $500 bonus for 50 new referrals per month, and $1000 bonus for 100 new referrals per month.

Future Web Hosting Affiliate Updates
This post will be updated to include other web hosting affiliate programs I come across in the future. I’m quite sure that I’ll add a lot more web hosts to this article so do feel free to bookmark it for reference purposes.

What Will the Future of Advertising Look Like?

2010-12-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

What Will the Future of Advertising Look Like?

A billboard located at the street corner is watching you. A camera is embedded in the billboard and a computer analyzes the people who pass by it. It tells the advertiser how many people walked in front of the screen, turned to face the ad and how long they looked at it. It reads your gender with an accuracy of 85%, so men and women will each see different ads.
Plans are already underway to detect different ages and even family groups. This intuitive digital advertisement exists, courtesy of Quividi, a French marketing technology firm.
In the future, ads themselves are engineered to obtain information on its audience, with the mined data immediately fueling message customization. Consumer data is a valuable commodity that will influence businesses and their initiatives even more than the present.
It’s already happening on the web. Internet services and media companies like Yahoo, AOL and Google are fast understanding that effective contextualization of ad messages requires the continous accumulation and usage of individual data.
Static print ads are no longer enough to engage an audience besiged by an empire of signs:

Holosonic, a US technology company, is taking the idea [of advertising] one step further. It has developed the Audio Spotlight, a system that fires a beam of sound onto a small area from a distance of more than 60ft. The effect, the company claims, is to “startle and entertain” pedestrians without being audible to anyone outside the zone….Can we expect 3-D soap packets and jingles beamed into our heads as we commute to work?

Image Credit: apwbATTACK
Advertising in the future will simply advance what marketers have always advocated: Firstly, ultra-targeted campaigns using customized messages that are highly relevant to the interests of the audience. Secondly, the launching of initiatives which build wide-spread buzz and natural viral recommendations amongst user networks and/or a broad general market.
The only difference is the improvement of both strategies by using new technologies which enhance the visibility, portability and impact of messages. Ideally, ad campaigns must become favorable interruptions which pre-empt consumer needs by being exceedingly relevant. This is the ultimate result of an architecture which collects/analyzes consumer behavior through the timeline plotting of individual data nodals.
The success of viral videos online suggests that a new advertising paradigm is here. And it inevitably involves user-generated media. Businesses must understand that their brands and messages can be shaped into successes by the participation of their audience. A campaign will have to create avenues for consumer involvement. Absolute control is no longer unnecessary.
Reverse engineer the future and we’ll see that businesses/entrepreneurs should now start to keep abreast of developments in new technologies/social channels that will help them understand their audience. Consumers will always be primarily attracted to messages that are highly relevant and interactively intriguing. Learn how to give them that.
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A Review of Kontera – Monetize your website with Contextual In Text Advertising

2010-12-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

A Review of Kontera – Monetize your website with Contextual In Text Advertising

I recently started using Kontera on Dosh Dosh a few days ago and some of you might have noticed the cute little ad boxes that show up when you hover over certain links. Kontera is a contextual advertising network that offers In Text advertising based on keywords within a body of text.
Known as ContentLink, these specific words are double underlined and will reveal small bubble like boxes with an advert, whenever you move your mouse cursor over them. Clicking on the text in the ad will take you to the advertiser’s web page.
Here are some screenshots of Kontera in action on Dosh Dosh.

How does Kontera work?
Kontera is an In-Text advertising solution that automatically converts specific keywords on your website into monetized links. You’ll simply need to install a script on every page of your website and several words per page will be transformed into links with bubble box advertisements. Like Adsense, you’ll earn money according to both Cost-Per-Impression and Cost-per-Click.
According to their website, Kontera currently only works for publishers in USA, Canada and UK. Do note that these limitations could be outdated because I’ve read that some Australian, European and Indian publishers have been accepted into their network as well. I would suggest emailing Kontera or just signing up to check if your application will be approved.
Why should I use Kontera?
Kontera doesn’t conflict with Google Adsense, an advertising network that you are probably already running on your website. This means that you can use Kontera alongside Adsense, which gives you another way to monetize your website. Kontera is also a reliable option for webmasters who do not like to use blocks of Adsense-style contextual ads on their website.
Several publishers using both Adsense and Kontera have indicated that they have not experienced any drops in CTR for Adsense, so it’s possible that using Kontera will not have a negative effect on your integrated Adsense ads.
While this has been the experience of most publishers using Kontera, your mileage may vary depending on factors such as ad placement, site design, content type as well as keyword density.
What qualifications do I need to be accepted as a publisher?
According to Kontera, your website should have more than 500,000 page impressions per month and must be rich in textual content. Your site must also be in English and must not cover subjects like pornography and other illegal activities.
The largest barrier of entry is obviously, the page impressions prerequisite. Most smaller blogs do not meet that requirement so using Kontera was originally next to impossible. However, I recently came across news that Kontera is currently opening up its doors to publishers with smaller traffic levels.

Dosh Dosh’s Review of Kontera
In-text advertising will work best with websites that have a lot of textual content and traffic. Like Adsense, your earning potential is largely dependent on how much you traffic you get.
I’ve used Kontera for a few days and like many publishers, have noticed that Kontera did not adversely affect the CTR for Adsense. I’m earning an extra 20% of my usual ad income, which is very nice because I decided not to fully optimize Adsense for Dosh Dosh at this point in time.
Examples of Publisher Stats and figures on Kontera
I would say that the most important factor when it comes to making money with Kontera is traffic. Higher traffic will inevitably lead to stronger CTR and earnings. Traffic will also compensate for the possibility of getting low paying keywords which can give you less than $0.07 per click.
I’ve collected some general figures from various publishers who participated in a specific Digital Point forum thread. Here are some general ad earnings and rates that were reported by some publishers using Kontera.

$30.20 from 6063 impressions and 295 clicks$18.88 from 5374 impressions / 218 clicks$110.0 from 6,003 imp / 1270 clicks$0.34 from 115 impressions / 7 clicks Since setting up Kontera a few days ago, I’ve gotten a 2.75% CTR and have averaged around $0.20 per click, while my Effective CPM remained around $5.41 for each 1000 impressions, which I think is pretty decent. Note that this will of course vary, depending on your site content and traffic levels. The payout rate for Kontera is currently set at $100, which can be reasonable when you have a strong website that receives lots of visitors daily.
Will Kontera have a negative impact on my content?
I did find Kontera to be a little obtrusive. Some publishers may find that In-text advertising might devalue the worth of their content because they interrupt the experience of the general reader. I think this will depend on what type of website you own.
Professional or political websites will seem a little silly running Kontera, especially when the advertisements are poorly targeted. Video, humor or Tech websites and blogs should do comparably better with Kontera because of the lighter topic focus and stronger product-based targeting.

Kontera Review – Final Thoughts.
Here’s a summary of what most publishers have mentioned about Kontera. Some of the points come from my brief experience of using Kontera on Dosh Dosh.
What’s Cool.

Efficient and personal customer support.
Legitimate. Kontera pays on time.
CPM rates are negotiable if your site attracts significant traffic
Very easy to install. Only takes a few minutes to set up the code.

What’s Not

No real time stats – reporting is 1 day behind.
Advertising may not be targeted. Some manual tweaking needed.
Doesn’t work in Firefox. I can’t see Kontera ads when I’m running FF. Anyone verify this?
Kontera script slows down loading time for webpages.
In Text advertising may detract from content.

Verdict
I think that Kontera complements Adsense pretty well and can be an additional and effective way of monetizing your website. The main issue is that the inline pop-up links can irritate your visitors who might not like the pop-ups that show up when they hover over a link.
Another important issue at hand is to confirm if Kontera monopolizes your Adsense clicks.
Did your CTR go down? Did you get a higher or lower average cost per click for Kontera than Adsense? How do your site visitors or blog readers react to Kontera’s in text ads?
You could probably run some heat map or tracking tests to find out how your visitors interact with the ads and determine if they should be part of your site’s long term monetization strategy.
I don’t think Kontera will cause any negative repercussions to your existing ad programs, but then again the best way to find out is to simply sign up with Kontera and carefully monitor the results.

Thoughts on Contextual Advertising: Site Building, Monetization and Ethics

2010-12-08T08:11:00.000-08:00

Thoughts on Contextual Advertising: Site Building, Monetization and Ethics

Jeremy Schoemaker aka Shoemoney and the owner of this famous Adsense check has put up a nice little video about his presentation at the recent 2007 New York Search Engine Strategies Conference.
Part of a panel on contextual advertising which included Jennifer Slegg, Jeremy’s presentation was mainly centered around his personal experiences on making money with contextual ad programs like Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network.
The video in question was 27 mins long video and was a brief introduction to contextual advertising, primarily from a publisher’s perspective. I took some notes on Shoemoney’s suggestions and made a short list of the key points:

Build a site and develop strong user functionality for your site before thinking about monetization.
You should at have at least 1,000 daily visitors before throwing up Adsense ads on your website. Before you reach that traffic level, the key emphasis should be on building critical mass.
Good points about contextual advertising: It allows one to avoid the headache of looking for direct advertisers and chasing after payments.
Negative points about contextual advertising: Lack of editorial control over the type of ads that are displayed. Adsense ads might contrast greatly with the content on your website. Users might associate Adsense ads as recommendations from your website. (E.G. Ads for puppy mills on a quality dog breeding website.)
Another negative about contextual advertising is that to earn money, your visitors have to click away from your site. You might lose users who might not come back again to your site.

And there’s some more stuff on Adsense Arbitrage and publisher compliance. A full text copy of the panel on making money with contextual ads can be found at SEO RoundTable. There’s some great Adsense tips from Jennifer Slegg as well, so be sure to check that out.
Contextual Advertising on Blogs: Balancing Profit Motives and Long-Term Goals
One of the points that Jeremy mentioned was similar to my confession that monetizing too early was one of the biggest blogging mistakes I’ve made.
Contextual advertising is profitable only if you have a consistent and large traffic flow to your website. Even if your ads are perfectly optimized and blended, you won’t make much money if only a few hundred people visit your site daily.
Why aggravate visitors and push the profit issue when it’s evident that traffic and audience building should be of primary importance? Alternatively, ask yourself this question:
Would you rather earn $4 a day everyday for the next 3 months or would you want to forgo the minuscule monetary incentive and focus 100% on building defensive and search traffic, which has the potential of exploding your ad earnings?
If you’re seriously interested in gaining a large reader base or making money from blogging, understand that monetization is a gradual process that comes after site and traffic building.
Contextual advertising is also not the only solution. Monetize with different methods according to traffic levels and site growth. Most of all, focus on long-term development and overall site growth instead of short-term benefits.
This is doubly important when you don’t own several websites and only have one flagship site that is your main money-maker.
Contextual Ads Relevancy and Niche Branding/Site Objective
To the web savvy surfer, adsense ads are seen as different from actual editorial content on a blog or website. These users won’t think that the Adsense units are personal recommendations from the site owners.
However, some other visitors might mentally associate the contextual ads they see with the general content on this blog. Herein lies a dilemma that was on the mind in the last few weeks.
One of my goals was to always to make money through Adsense but I soon realized that giving up prime ad space on Dosh Dosh to contextual ads on eBook, affiliate or MLM scams is not really my cup of tea.
The hypocrisy bothered me. While I righteously blog about monetization strategies and traffic building, a get-rich quick ad unit silently refutes what I say by offering empty promises of instant monetary gratification and long term financial success.
Can I still bitch about evil eBook scams, while my site has its real estate overrun by ads that promote such products?
Dosh Dosh is a tiny dot on the world wide web which belongs to me and taking editorial responsibility for whatever shows up on it is an important criteria for gaining user/visitor trust.
The site’s purported motive is also of primary importance. If Dosh Dosh is all about ‘helping you to make money online‘, it’s raison d’entre is to perform that duty at all cost or risk losing its niche identity. Putting ads which claim to help you get rich quick while not actually doing so runs contrary to the motive or identity of this site.
On the opposite end, running Adsense on sites with little content (proxies, parked domains etc.) or weakly branded sites with a very general and wide range of topics means a lesser risk of going against your site’s mission statement or content focus.
Then again, a lot also depends on how you optimize your site to make sure that there is the highest relevancy possible. This includes making your articles keyword dense while choosing the right page titles/meta tags etc.
An important point to remember is that contextual ad relevancy can negatively impact your site’s identity in the eyes of new visitors. This is probably another reason why going ad-free during the site-building process can be very helpful for longterm growth prospects.

Simple Adsense Hack for a higher CTR

2010-12-08T07:54:00.000-08:00

Simple Adsense Hack for a higher CTR

I don’t remember where I first came across this tip but I do remember reading that it’ll helped some people get a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) for the ads on their website. I’m not too sure if it actually works for everyone but I do think that it’ll definitely make your ads blend in better with text and media. This Adsense hack works by removing the ‘Advertise on this site‘ text that shows up with every Adsense unit on your website.
Here’s a screen shot of what I am referring to:

Removing the ‘Advertise on the Site’ Link
Log in to your Google Adsense account and click on the ‘My Account‘ tab.

After which, scroll down the page until you reach the ‘Onsite Advertiser Siteup‘ section. Click on the edit link.

Now, just untick the box which includes your website in the Onsite Advertiser signup program. (More info on the On-site advertiser signup program here.)

Viola! And you’re done. Now the ‘Advertise on this site‘ link is removed from all the ads served to your websites. The only downside for this tweak is that it won’t be so easy for Advertisers to target ads specifically for your site. However I think the benefits of removing this link outweighs the cost for most bloggers. Here are some reasons why:

A larger percentage of visitors to your website are end-users and not advertisers.
Most advertisers will not want to put up specific ads on relatively new/obscure blogs or blogs with low traffic
Removing the link makes it far easier to blend ads with text – which ensures higher CTR

I think that leaving the On-site advertising link up will be beneficial for websites that are very popular, because advertisers often want their ads to go out to as many relevant eyeballs as possible. But if your website doesn’t fall into that category, why not try this tip to see if it actually improves your blog’s Adsense click through rate? My suggestion would be to set it up for two weeks in order to observe the number of clicks you receive on each ad channel.
After monitoring the results, you can decide if you want to keep the change or revert back to the default ad setup. Alternatively, if there is no significant improvement you could try rearranging your ad placement to see if it’ll bring better results.
What do you think of this simple Adsense tweak? Do you think it’ll actually improve your Adsense CTR?

Making Money Through Adsense Firefox Referrals: A Look at Explorer Destroyer

2010-12-08T07:46:00.000-08:00

I’ve only recently come across Explorer Destroyer, an interesting website which helps you to make more money from Adsense by switching users from Internet Explorer to the Firefox browser.

As you probably already know, Google’s Adsense referral program will pay you $1 for every person who downloads Firefox from your referral link.
Explorer Destroyer expedites the task of getting more Firefox referrals by offering a free script that allows you to automatically promote Firefox to IE users visiting your website.
Once the script is installed, a message which sells the benefits of using Firefox (along with your referral link) will appear to IE users when they visit your website or blog.
There are three types of settings for the script, depending on how aggressively you want to push for conversions. Installation instructions are clearly provided at the Explorer Destroyer website.
Level 1 will make IE visitors see a message across the top of the page, encouraging them to download Firefox.

Level 2 will direct IE Visitors to a splash plage with a download link and a link to continue to your site.

Level 3 will not allow anyone using IE to access your website. A splash page is shown instead with a Firefox download link. This seems to go against Google’s TOS, so you’ll have to use a regular, non-Adsense referral link instead.

It is interesting to note that Explorer Destroyer was started by a team of four people with the sole aim of overturning Microsoft’s dominance over the web browser market. Their manifesto offers more clues into Explorer Destroyer’s mission:

Firefox is one of the most important software applications in the world because it can play a big part in determining the future of the web. It is crucial that an open-source, standards-based web browser becomes the most popular browser, and Firefox has a shot at being that.
We’ve spent days fixing computers of our family members that have been hobbled by spyware that Internet Explorer allowed in. These annoyances alone more than justify a aggressive campaign to switch people to Firefox.
But what really matters is putting the internet back in the hands of the public and ensuring that the technology that will remake so much of our world in the next 30 years is a public resource not a corporate one.

The Explorer Destroyer idea does seem like it would lead to more Firefox downloads, although it seriously affects web usability because it interrupts the viewing experience of all visitors to your site.
Level 1 of the script setting is the least intrusive and will probably be the only one that is doable for most blogs or websites. Level 2 and 3 might be more successful in getting sign-ups but they will most definitely drive visitors away from your site as well.
See this parody website for an alternative perspective on Explorer Destroyer’s campaign to win more Firefox users.
I haven’t seen any other websites using the script so I’m not 100% sure if the script still works. If anyone has used it before or am currently using it, do leave a comment to let us know if it still works.

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Effective Adsense Link Units Optimization

2010-12-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Effective Adsense Link Units Optimization

Most webmasters and bloggers make money from their website through Google Adsense and I’ve noticed that not all of them include Adsense link units as part of their contextual monetization strategy.

It’s useful to note that Adsense link units can and will help you to generate more income from your website, if you are able to integrate them perfectly within the overall site design and layout.

Google has recently updated their Adsense program policy and publishers are now allowed to place three link units on a single page instead of just one:

As we’ve noted in the past, link units are a great way to provide relevant, user-friendly ads in hard-to-fit locations on your site. With the new opportunity to place three link units — and the plethora of link unit formats — we hope you’ll find great ways of incorporating this unique ad format on your site.

While this change won’t drastically improve your monetization potential, it does offer more placement options for publishers. I thought would be helpful to create a basic primer on how to use Adsense Link Units for your own website or blog.

If you’ve never used link units before, this might be a good time to experiment and find out how they work for your website and monetization goals.

What are Adsense Link Units?

Basically, link units are simply a collection of four to five links within a horizontal or vertical format. When clicked, each of these links will open up into a webpage that consists of nothing but Google ads.

Characteristics of the Adsense Link Unit

Link units are unobtrusive. They do not take up much space and can be easily integrated into any single webpage. Their small size and design will not affect the viewer experience of content on your website.
Link units do not seem like ads. Unlike other contextual ads, link units can be skillfully blended to look like navigational units on any website. This increases the possibility of click-throughs.

How do you Make Money with Adsense Link Units?

Unlike other Adsense ad units, you’ll only make money when the visitor clicks on the link unit and then clicks on any link within the link page. In other words, you’ll need two visitor clicks before you actually make any money.

This means that, in order to maximize your earning potential, you’ll need to get as many people to click on the link units as possible in the hope of receiving a larger percentage of second clicks.

The link units earnings model simply emphasizes the importance of ad blending and placement. From my experience with link units, I believe that one can easily see a decent number of ad clicks if your link unit is well blended on your site.

Setting up Adsense Link Units for your Website

First of all you’ll need to signup for Google Adsense if you haven’t already done so. After which, log into your account and then click on Adsense Setup and then Adsense for Content. You’ll come to the following screen:

Select the Link Unit and click Continue. You’ll then be able to choose a horizontal or vertical link unit while determining the number of links that will show up in each unit.

After which, you’ll have the option of setting up a channel to track the performance of the link unit. Create a channel by clicking on the Add New Channel link at the bottom of the screen and give it an appropriate name that suits your site.

And you’re done! Just copy the code to your site template and the link units should show up immediately.

Optimization Guidelines for Adsense Link Units

Most of these optimization tips apply to Adsense ad units as well so they may not be new to you:

Text color for the link unit should be the same as the link color for your website.
Remove the ad borders and ensure that the background color matches your site. This will increase the potential for blending and clickthroughs.
Above the fold placement or placement of link units near the top of any webpage will work best for link units.
Avoid Ad Congestion and clutter. Link units should not be placed too closely to other advertisements because they may be easily overlooked by visitors. Link units work best when placed to navigational links or as standalone units.
Optimize for Search Traffic. Link Units work best with visitors from search engines and should be placed on pages which receive the most consistent search traffic, even if you don’t want to use them on a site wide basis.
Use Ad Channels. Ad channels allow you to measure the performance of each link unit you use and allows for comparative analysis. Essential if you want to know which link unit to drop and which to maintain.
Mirror your site link structure. One useful method to improve your link unit click through rate is place your link unit beneath or beside your on-site navigational links. This conceptually makes them blend in extremely well although they may confuse visitors.

Four Link Unit Placement Examples

Adsense link unit placement can be broadly divided into four formats, each involving different usages of both horizontal and vertical link units.

I’ve included several screenshots of each format and have included a brief commentary on how you can use them for your own website.

1. Horizontal Link Units as Menu/Navigation Links

In my opinion, this is by far the best way to use link units because they do appear to be exactly like menu links and will attract navigational clicks from visitors who are trying to find more information from your website.

You can include the link units within your header, just beneath your header or only on individual webpages or blog post pages. The key point is to keep them above the fold to ensure maximum visibility.

2. Horizontal Link Units as Footer links

Footer link units are the most unobtrusive and will attract clicks from visitors who browse or scan your website from top to bottom. They can be a useful addition to other link units placed above the fold.

I’ve used horizontal link units as a footer link on Dosh Dosh for about a week and the results have been rather satisfying, given its almost indiscernible placement on the homepage.

I initially put them up as an experiment and I have found that this link unit makes me a few dollars a day, which is not too bad at all.

3. Vertical Link Units as Category Links

I’ve seen some blogs and websites use vertical Link Units as some sort of a category unit in their sidebar. I think these vertical ad units generally perform poorly in comparison to the horizontal link units, which are more well blended and less ad-like.

Unless you’re willing to create a linking structure similar for the link units (see the first screenshot on top), they are likely to stand out like a sore thumb.

Then again, the vertical link unit’s performance may depend on your actual site design and layout so you’ll need to test them to see if they do attract ad clicks from visitors.

4. Vertical Link Unit within Content

I’ve come across very few websites which include a link unit within actual content of a web page and I always wonder how they are performing for these publishers.

Most webmasters would rather include an Adsense ad rectangle instead of a link unit because it only provides one click earnings, instead of the two-clicks which you need from link units.

Giving up a prime in-content spot to link units is not a good idea and it might actually add to the overall clutter of your webpage.

Disadvantages of Adsense Link Units: Factors to Consider

Some have suggested that very well-blended Adsense Link Units are unethical because they can be made to appear as legitimate navigational links which have a high chance of inducing clicks from visitors who are searching for information on your site.

A visitor might click on the link thinking that it is a category or menu button of some sort, only to be led to a Google Adsense page full of links.

While the links might be relevant to the link unit text and your site, some visitors might not like the feeling of being ‘tricked’ when they click on the link unit.

Another issue to consider is that these link units are exit points which siphon traffic away from your site. Instead of browsing more pages on your site, a visitor might click on a link unit and then click on another link to be led to another site.

The visitor might not return to your website again and the likelihood of this is higher if they are led to a page full of ad links which point to similar websites or even your immediate competitors.

Experiment, Document and Evaluate.

As many have mentioned before, experimentation and analysis is the best to way to ensure that you’ll make money with Adsense. You need to put up ads and measure them over time to assess their performance.

Don’t be reluctant to tweak your ad placement to see if you can achieve higher click through rates. Only by experimenting with different ad formats and placement positions can you find an format that will bring you the most potential for profit.

DOSH DOSH

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Thoughts on Contextual Advertising: Site Building, Monetization and Ethics

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The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Effective Adsense Link Units Optimization

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Characteristics of the Adsense Link Unit

How do you Make Money with Adsense Link Units?

Setting up Adsense Link Units for your Website

Optimization Guidelines for Adsense Link Units

Four Link Unit Placement Examples

Disadvantages of Adsense Link Units: Factors to Consider

Experiment, Document and Evaluate.