Entries tagged " advertising "
Today TechCrunch has a post written about the rise of click fraud in 2007. The article references a new report from a company named Click Forensics. The report states that click fraud rose 15% for 2007. If you are using PPC to help you make money online, then this news is obviously important to you!
The TechCrunch article notes the following: "According to this data, nearly one out of every three clicks on a Google or Yahoo ad is fraudulent." Yowza!
Detecting Click Fraud
There are lots of options for software solutions on how you can track click fraud. Some options are more expensive than others. But how can you detect it on the cheap?
First, you need to make sure you track your incoming clicks. Usually this is done by sending the user to a specific URL when they click one of your ads. That URL will handle the tracking for you by making a note in a database. This is easily accomplished in PHP (and other scripting languages). If you aren't one for writing code, there are scripts available for download that are either very cheap or completely free.
The easiest — and most obvious — way to spot click fraud is seeing multiple clicks from the same IP address (or IP address subnet). There are companies out there who's sole purpose is to commit click fraud. They have multiple servers running 24/7 submitting phony clicks. So pay attention to the IP addresses and look for patterns.
Filing Click Fraud
So if you happen to notice that one of your campaigns has been the victim of click fraud, what do you do? For the big search engines the process is usually very simple. Give their advertising department a call and let them know about the trend you spotted. They will usually ask you to submit a ticket of some sort with the evidence you have as well as a URL where they can see the evidence for themselves. So if you keep your data password protected, you may need to add a new account for the search engine folks.
Some companies — like Google — issue a credit pretty quickly (48 hours or so) but it can take up to a week for them to investigate. I've noticed that Yahoo tends to take longer than most to issue a credit. I had one case with Yahoo open for nearly 3 weeks before credit was issued.
Conclusion
Since PPC advertising is so important to affiliate marketers, the trend of click fraud is costing you money (after all, time is money!) If it starts to become a serious issue for you it is probably worth the time and effort to submit the trouble to the advertising platform and get some credit issued to your account.
Even if the fraud isn't denting your pocket too much, it is a good idea to keep track of it. Removing fraudulent clicks from your over all tracking will help show you your true conversion rate.
Technorati Tags: click tracking, advertising, click fraud, ppc
I realize that the title is pretty obvious in the internet marketing world but it's something that many of us forget far too often. A good web & graphics designer can sky rocket your conversions (profits) and turn an OK campaign into a great one.
One thing I usually try to do when creating a new web page is take a free template and tweak it into something I think looks good. Problem is that I don't have a creative bone in my body — at least in the web design sense. The end result is I wasted time because I still end up paying someone a few bucks to make a nicer page for me.
I am a programmer not a designer and because I know how to write HTML, and CSS to a lesser degree, doesn't mean that I should. I've also purchased templates in the past and that has been OK but my best results have always come from a unique design created by someone with the proper mind for it. Meaning, someone who can envision the website and then bring it to life.
Finding a good designer is not always easy. I use two guys who I got via a referral and they give me a break on the price. I usually only need a single page from them and I can create any other pages needed from their one page template. So that helps lower the cost but I still have to pay for any additional graphics I may need.
Here is a recent example. I built a "rating" type site for a niche I am starting to promote. After the usual test, tweak, repeat process I didn't feel it was performing very well. The next step was the design and that cost me money that I was trying to save for advertising costs. After the new design was ready and put in place, I saw conversions jump up at least 150%. I still can't explain it because the site doesn't look so great to me, and presents the same information as the old design, but it obviously has something that is more appealing to the end user. My brain just doesn't see things in that way.
As a programmer I tend to want to do things myself. Sort a control freak I suppose. I am slowly learning that design is something I need to outsource because in the long run, I'll save time and money.
Technorati Tags: advertising, graphics, marketing, web design
I normally don't like to write about the sites I use to generate income but I have blogged about this before. I co-own the NSFW website AhCabron.com. The basic idea is that users upload their photos so others can comment and vote on them. Most of the work that I need to do on this site is just help approve the uploads. We try our best to make sure that the uploaded photos are not obviously copyrighted, etc. and the users take it from there.
Adult sites that are free to use are usually more difficult to monetize. A good chunk of the users will be 14-18 year old boys who have no credit card and rarely click ads. The only form of monetization we currently use is text ads via BlackLabelAds (or AdBrite) and some affiliate banner ads.
In the past we were working hard doing direct deals with advertisers. That made much more money than just text ads do, but was a lot more work. We didn't feel the return was worth the effort, so we slowly phased that out and went back to text ads.
We also do ZERO advertising. All our traffic is, and always has been, referral traffic. Some how word got out about it and people starting flooding in and bringing a friend with them. So much so that we had to buy a second server to split the load.
With all this traffic success, I still haven't figured out how to turn that traffic into real money. We are averaging 250K page views per day, but our checks every month are very low compared to our traffic. I have a few ideas I want to try to up the websites income but I have been thinking...
How do I successfully monetize a "free to users" adult website? I am hoping someone out there in the blogosphere will have some experience in this area and send me a tip. Any takers?
Technorati Tags: adult websites, ahcabron, make money online, advertising
A few months ago I decided to look into, and learn about, internet marketing, affiliate sales & PPC (pay per click) techniques. The industry was interesting to me and I figured I could use my skills as a programmer to make me some extra cash on the side. I will write more on this in an upcoming post.
When I started learning I found that "writing" is the bread and butter of affiliate marketing & sales. I decided to educate myself and help improve my writing skills. I ran into a book titled "Hypnotic Writing" by Joe Vitale. I was a little skeptical because the cover art was pretty cheesy. I tried not to judge this book by it's cover (insert "buh bump bump" sound). Best decision I could have made as this book is awesome. I keep it on my desk now for immediate reference when I get stuck trying to spice up some of my sales copy or PPC ads.
So what is Hypnotic Writing?
As I was working on this post I stumbled across this article written by Chris Bloczynski, where he accurately defines Hypnotic Writing as:
"Hypnotic Writing is an effective technique that marketers and advertisers have used for years to make the most of people’s natural inclinations and conditioning."
If you consider the potential that a hypnotic sales letter or advertisement has, you can see that it's a pretty powerful technique. As a side note, Chris also wrote an awesome article titled 99 Headline Techniques Revealed that is related to this topic; I suggest you read it.
There are several types of hypnotic commands that can be used when you are writing your sales letter or ad copy. Here are a few methods mentioned in the Hypnotic Writing book.
Direction
Directing the reader to complete the action that you want them to. Just read the example below to see what I mean:
"As you continue reading this page..."
Quotes
It's a fact that people read what's in quotation marks. Ever notice that the headlines on various sales pages are almost always in quotes? People naturally read what is in quotes so headlines that are hypnotically powerful placed in quotes can be very effective. You can also use an actual quote from somebody famous or one that is inspiring and can be related to your sales letter.
"Finally! Free from the Rat Race!"
Conversation
Reading a conversational dialogue is a great way to invoke emotion in your reader. When the reader relates to the dialogue they place themselves in the conversation. This is a natural reaction and can be used to help with your sales conversions.
"Man! My tooth is killing me!" Johnny said.
"Ouch! I had my wisdom teeth removed last week." I replied
"Woah... Sounds painful!"
"Nah. Dr. Smith is the best! No pain at all."
These are just a few techniques that can be used in Hypnotic Writing. You're smart enough to see the benefits that Hypnotic Writing can offer you when used correctly. It just might be what your sales letter is lacking. Take some time and do some reading on the subject. In the world of internet sales, your ad & sales copy is your "pitch" so why not give yourself every advantage possible?
Oh, by the way. Notice how many times I mention "Hypnotic Writing" in this post? Repetition is also a method of Hypnotic Writing =)
Technorati Tags: advertising, hypnotic, ppc, sales, writing
