Lately many of my customers have been asking me this question:

“Which program is better? Adsense or Yahoo Publisher?”

It sounds simple, but the answer is not. The reason being is that both programs work well, but both also have different places when considering whether or not to use them for a specific website.

Here’s why.

Adsense has been around for a while now, and at the moment has the lion’s share of the market in the PPC (Pay Per Click) game. But anyone who has been promoting them on their websites will tell you that the payouts have also gotten gradually smaller as time has gone on. Why? Well it’s easy, they are still the best game in town, so they aren’t worried about losing their publishers to another PPC.

But then came Yahoo Publisher. Which unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past ten years, you already know the name, and know how big that company is. And with the purchase of Overture, Yahoo is coming into the game well equipped and ready for a fight.

So, what’s the difference between the two?

Here is what I’ve been able to learn from my own websites. Yahoo, overall, is paying more per click then Adsense. But before you jump from this article and start changing your code, read on a bit more.

Yahoo Publisher seems to be paying more then Adsense on similar content, BUT… Their ads are not nearly as contextually targeted as Adsense. So this can present a problem for website owners. For example, if you have a website that it’s primary topic is ‘HOME MORTGAGES’, Adsense will display ads that only link to mortgage sites. But that’s not true with Yahoo Publisher. Yahoo Publisher might display some mortgage ads, but also might display a Payday Loan ad (BTW if you need a payday loan, check out this page http://www.thegiftedone.com ), Vonage ads (Vonage must pay them some big money, as they seem to be the default when the script doesn’t know what to do), or some other ad that does not relate to the content of your website.

How do you choose which program is right for your site? This depends on the site itself and the type of surfers that frequent it. If you have a site that is highly targeted for a certain keyword, then I would suggest you stay with Adsense. This will keep the ads focused and targeted to your customers, presenting them with content that they will click. If they came to read about cooking recipes, they probably won t click the Vonage ad. Here s an example of a content targeted website: http://voip.magicanswers.com

However, if your site is more of a surfer hangout, where people go when they are bored, or if your site covers a multitude of topics, then you might be better off loading it up with Yahoo Publisher ads. This type of surfer is more likely to click an ad that s off topic, which in turn would pay you better.

At this point what it comes down to is the click thru ratio. If monitored closely, you can determine what your surfers like and what they don t like. What they click and what they don t click. If one program is not performing well for you, then try the other.

I m sure that as time goes on, Yahoo Publisher will become more targeted, and surely will be more competitive. With Google s Adsense as an adversary they have quite a fight on their hands.
My advice to you is this. If you have one website, then optimize your PPC links for YOUR website surfers. If you have many, optimize each site accordingly, but do take the time to test each program. Find out which one will pay you more. Whether you own a giant corporation with hundreds of websites, or a home based business branching out to the internet, the bottom line is always the bottom line. Which comes down to the paycheck. A simple test might lead you to more money, which is always the goal.

Till next time,
Chuck Crawford
http://www.magicanswers.com

Anywhere you turn today you ll find websites shouting at you about the millions you can make from Google s Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network, or some other PPC program. Self proclaimed Guru s with sales pages spouting riches beyond your wildest dreams if you ll only shell out $147 for their secret .

But is there really a secret method to making a living online? Not if you take a look at what the serious earners are doing. I m not talking about the above mentioned, so called Gurus , I m talking about the big boys and girls. Men and Women that are way too busy to tell you how they are making a fortune. What are they busy doing you might ask? They re building websites. Lots of them. Quietly, in the background, they are making millions.

So before you bill that $147 to the old Mastercard, let s talk about a plan that might actually work for you.

So where to begin? Why at the beginning of course. Let s assume that you re totally new to the whole concept of an online business. Let s build your Adsense or other PPC website from scratch.

1. Before you do anything, you must decide on what KIND of website you d like to have. Is it going to be an informational site? Something fun, like a joke site? Or maybe centered around a hobby or business you have offline? Whatever you decide on, please, make it something you re interested in. If you build a site strictly because someone told you that a site centered around web hosting will make you the most money, you ll be very disappointed in the long run. The reason is simple. Do you know anything about web hosting ? Does it interest you enough to do any kind of research on it? If not then you re going to have one heck of a tough time when it comes to actually promoting your site and getting surfers to it. Yes, it can be done, but it s a lot easier if you pick something you re at least familiar with.

2. A domain name. Your WWW address on the web. ( http://www.thegiftedone.com is one of mine btw) There are many different schools of thought when it comes to domain names, so I won t go into it in this article. Let s just say that you should pick a domain that you like, that at least in some way pertains to your topic. Don t register Bizoooooogle.com and plan on making it into an empire. Register something that reflects the topic of your website.

3. A website. Yes, the actual website must exist. So here s where some work or some money might come into play. If you have the technical skills, then obviously, build it yourself. If you don t, then you re going to have to hire someone to build it for you. Might I suggest that you contact me for such services; websiteinfo@affiliatewebsitedesign.com , shameless plug I know, but I ve built hundreds of PPC oriented websites for people, and I can help you too.

But if you want to be successful with Adsense or Yahoo Publisher, then just ANY website won t do. Your going to have to do several things. The main focus is that the website must be targeted and optimized for your target. If you re building a site focused on Caribbean Travel then you really don t want information on the local Motel 6. When building your website, stay on target, stay on the topic, it will pay off in the long run.

So now. Your website is done. Online. Looks great. When do the millions of dollars start rolling in? I know this sounds crazy, but I get asked questions like this every day. People just assume that as soon as their new website is up, the work is done. But I must tell you, at this point it hasn t even started. Let me break this to you gently . All your shiny new website is drum roll please . It s an AD. Yes, it s simply a big advertisement, put up to attract visitors who in turn click your Adsense links, or Yahoo Publisher links, or some other PPC. The point is this. Your website is worth nothing if you choose not to PROMOTE your website/ad. Contrary to what many of the Gurus say, you cannot just sit back and wait for that number one listing in Google to come thru. You MUST promote.

If you would like to learn more about Adsense, YPN, or any other PPC oriented website, and more importantly, how to PROMOTE this type of affiliate website, there s just too much to cover in this article. So I ve set up a forum at http://www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com .

Let me be frank. The magic software or secret method to riches simply does not exist. The internet is just like the rest of the real world, your online business success is going to take work. So come join us and learn about what DOES work.

Till next time,
Chuck Crawford
http://www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com

Yahoo Publishing Network

Its here.

AdSense lovers and former AdSense lovers alike have been waiting for an alternative to the grand daddy of pay per click advertising, and now they have it.
Rolled out by Yahoo, the program is titled the Yahoo Publisher Network…

Read more on the Yahoo Publisher Network here

Yahoo! manages to utilize its huge network of websites and portals to provide Yahoo! Search Marketing services which provides you an opportunity to advertise your business in a number of methods. The methods are sub-divided in the following categories:

Sponsored Yahoo Search: Display your ad prominently in leading search engines such as Yahoo!, MSN, Altavista, CNN and Infospace

Product Submit: Get your product listed in Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Buyers Guide and be found by millions of users.

Travel Submit: Get your travel product or service listed in Travel Deals marketplace or Travel Deals listings and allow easy access of information to potential travelers

Yahoo Directory Submit: Powered by the powerful Yahoo! Search, submit your business information in Yahoo! Directory.

Each category is defined to meet the requirement of a certain type of advertiser and you would need to first decide your category before proceeding further. Once you have decided which category suits your requirements best, you can proceed to set up your marketing campaign at Yahoo!.

Other than the above categories of advertising Yahoo! also provides…

Read more on Yahoo Search Marketing here

As more and more people are hosting their own webpage or pages, advertisers have learned how to make contact with the audiences who visit the pages. And not just randomly either; there are now advertising programs that target ads specifically to the site that the person is viewing. They are called contextual advertising programs because they search through the context and content of a page and identify keywords. They return ads to that page that the program believes would be relevant and interesting to the viewer. For example, if you are visiting a website on low fat recipes, you might find ads about low fat products or weight loss products.

Website owners aren t the only ones using this form of…
Read more on Yahoo Publisher Network Here

In the late 90s, only a small portion of the business population really understood online advertising. During that time, businesses were just starting to develop and use their websites as a marketing tool to increase revenues and brand awareness. Online competition was scarce and paying $3.00 per click on Overture was unheard of.

According to a recent survey published by eMarketer, paid search ad spending has grown dramatically during the first five years of this decade, rising from a mere $108.5 million in 2000 to 3.85 billion in 2004. As the competition gets more fierce, companies struggle to stay ahead and look for creative ways to maximize their ROI through website promotion strategies.

For those businesses that are managing their search engine marketing campaigns in-house, the following issues may rise:

1) Larger search engines are getting too expensive to advertise on
2) There is a need for more targeted traffic to websites
3) There is a need for more local traffic to sites
4) Managing bids on a daily basis is too time consuming
5) Fraudulent click charges from competitors reduces ROI

Larger Search Engines Are Too Expensive To Advertise On

Have no fear - second and third-tier search engines are here. Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing may bring you tons of quality traffic but there are several search engines out there that can perform just as good, if not better. To name a few:

http://www.enhance.com/
http://www.kanoodle.com/
http://www.miva.com/
http://www.business.com/
http://www.goclick.com/

The reason is that these are less efficient marketplaces, where not as many companies are bidding on keywords, which naturally drives up prices. For example, while the keyword phrase refinance loans currently costs $12.00 per click on Yahoo, the same phrase costs only $0.30 on Enhance. Over time, prices on these less popular engines are likely to increase; however, in the meantime, the current discount from Google and Yahoo presents an opportunity for the savvy marketer.

If you would like an alternative route to online advertising, you can always hire an Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist or outsource it to a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) firm. Although results can take up to six month to appear, with a qualified company, it is well worth the investment.

Marketers who reallocate a portion of their paid search budgets toward Search Engine Optimization efforts will tend to get higher conversion rates, since users prefer natural listings over pay per click advertising.

There is a Need For More Targeted Traffic To Websites

Businesses which are inexperienced in online marketing typically get wide-eyed and caught up in the numbers when setting up their keyword targeted campaigns. For one, they pick general keywords that have a high search volume but are not as targeted in definition. For example, if you run an online shoe store that specializes in women s designer shoes, select key phrases such as womens designer shoes or specific brand names like womens puma shoes instead of shoes or womens shoes .

If you happen to run an e-commerce site, a few good Pay for Performance advertising sites are Shopping.com (minimum CPC bid starts at .05 cents) and Yahoo! Shopping (ranges from 0.15 - $1.00 CPC bid depending on category). When searchers are looking for specific products, these two sites tend to show up a lot on the first page of some of the major search engines.

Another way of getting targeted traffic to your site is through Contextual Advertising. Contextual ads are sponsored links that appear next to relevant, non-search-engine-generated content, such as news articles. The ads are delivered based on the content of a web page that’s being viewed. A contextual ad system scans the text of a Web site for keywords and returns ads to the Web page based on what the user is viewing, through ads placed on the page. For example, if the user is viewing a site about finance, and the site uses contextual advertising, the user might see sponsored ads for finance-related companies, such as investment plans or stock options.

A couple of search engines that provide contextual advertising solutions are:

1) Kanoodle.com Calling their contextual ad program ContextTarget , Kanoodle places ads on highly respected content sites like MSNBC.com, MarketWatch, USATODAY.com, NASCAR.com

2) Overture.com - Their ad program is called “Content Match.” Your ads will appear on pages of their partner sites such as MSN.com, CNN.com and ESPN.com.

There is a Need For More Local Traffic To Sites

Several search engines have begun to provide local search matches to serve business owners. Last year, Overture launched Local Match, which allows advertisers to specify a list of keywords describing their services or products and then select the area they serve using a map. Overture s system shows their ads when searches are carried out that contain their keywords and locations that are within the area specified. To learn more visit http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/local/ls.php?mkt

Similarly, Google added its Local Ad Targeting, designed to pick up the searcher s location by looking at the user’s IP address, and also by looking at the user’s search terms. If someone types in “Indian food 07306,” the technology concludes the person wants Indian food restaurants in that zipcode. To learn more, visit https://adwords.google.com/select/targeting.html.

Managing Bids On a Daily Basis Is Too Time Consuming

No one said search marketing was easy. The bidding war is on and depending on what industry you are in and how competitive the listings, you may find it difficult to maintain top paid listings. A good solution for this would be to outsource this to an SEM firm or invest in a third party Pay Per Click management software. A few recommendations are:

http://www.atlasonepoint.com/
http://www.keywordbidmaximizer.com/

SEM firms charge anywhere from a 15-25% management fee on your online ad budget, which may be well worth the saved time for companies, not to mention the value-added of professional management and reporting.

Fraudulent Click Charges From Competitors Reduces ROI

If an online ad campaign drives 10,000 clicks to your site and only 50 sales, then either your website needs a lot of work, you are bidding on the wrong keywords, or there is some type of click fraud going on. When it comes to click fraud, it is the advertisers job to track and search for click fraud and present it to the search engines. In order to combat click fraud, engines have to take more action by fighting click fraud, punishing fraudsters and issuing refunds. The best thing to do is just be mindful of any huge spikes in clicks that seem out of the ordinary, and report it to the search engines if you suspect foul play.

In closing, there are numerous ways to increase your bottom line through online advertising. The trick is in testing which ad outlets work best for your business and to track everything in the process to ensure a positive ROI. You must be creative and focused, always looking for new ways to reduce your cost per click.

Author-Bio: Dali Singh is the Managing Director for Blueliner Marketing, a full service marketing company specializing in Internet Marketing strategies including Search Engine Optimization, Online Advertising and Web Analytics. Visit www.bluelinermarketing.com

Search engines: What are they?

A search engine is one of the most important tool that helps you find information on the web. Search engines are giant sized automated cataloguing & retrieval systems. They typically have large databases of web pages & other information found on the net. Upon specific query by the users these databases are scanned & the matching results displayed.

The utility of search engines in web search lies in the fact that they are the repositories of large amounts of information which can be searched very conveniently using certain keywords. This natural language searching & many advanced features now available with search engines makes the recipe tantalizingly attractive. Hence it is no wonder that 78% of the users start their search process for any information via a search engine.

Before we go any further lets clarify the difference between a search engine & a web directory. Search engines as we have learnt are automated software based systems which aid the web search. Directories are generally human based indexes in which the web sites are visited & catalogued by human beings. In the directories the web sites are included in the categories & sub categories . These categories or taxonomies are specific to specific directories.

Users can search for relevant sites in a directory by either mining on the subject they are looking for or searching through keywords. The most famous commercial directory is Yahoo. There are hundreds of directories available. We will be discussing them later. A point to note here is that most of the SE have now started to mix their web results with some kind of directory results.

Though there is a category of SE which are not crawler based. They accept money to list your web site. These paid listings search engines will be dealt in greater detail in subsequent section.

For the moment, lets look at search engine internals a little more closely:

What goes into making a search engine

To have a birds eye view of search engine functionality will help the searcher evaluate the relative search engine merits amongst themselves as also compared with other search resources.

Search engines as we know them, to put simply, are divided into three parts:

Crawler

Index

Search software

Lets take them one by one.

Search Engine Crawler: A traditional database is populated using conventional data entry methods. Not so on the web. Search engines send a software called spider or crawler to the wild web. This spider will visit a web site once it hears of it (through other links pointing to the web site, cataloguing in some directory or direct submission to the SE) & will start to crawl around. Based on links in the site it will digest as much information as it has been programmed to receive about the web site. Thus crawlers are search engines inventory(index) suppliers.

Search Engine Index: Index or the catalogue is that huge book which contains a copy of all the web pages that have been spidered. This in other words is the database of the search engine. Once the site has been crawled it is added to the index of the search engine. This database is refreshed & updated as per the settings done by specific search engines on a regular basis.

Search Engine Ranking Software: This is the sauce which is mostly instrumental in different crawler based search engines serving different platters on being queried about the same recipe. In other words, this is the area where most of the search engines differ in the way they handle queries & display results. This portion of the SE deals with scanning the database (index) according to specific user queries & then ranking the matches found.

This brings us to the variety found in search engines.

Types of search engines:

Search engines come in various flavors. There is as much variety in search engines as one wants. From a searchers angle it makes sense to have a handle on the major search engines in multiple categories as one important aspect of doing a good search is to be aware of specific tools to be applied in specified conditions. To illustrate, a good medical search could be done using medhunt.com as compared to say altavista.com.

Broadly the categories that the major search engine could be divided into are:

General search engines

Specialty search engines

Meta search engines

Paid search engines

Search utilities

All of these search engines have a specific utility & specific application. Lets take some examples to demonstrate.

The almost eponymous General search engine is google.

In specialty search engines we have search engines specially for multimedia, medicine, blogs, law, industry ,scientific papers…

The meta search engines are which use two or three other general search engines to generate results & then customize the format in which they are presented. Some prime examples are mamma.com, myway.com, metacrawler.com etc.

This category of search engines are really growing as a category. Starting with overture.com they come in multiple varieties as well. While some accept paid inclusions like inktomi to PPC( pay per click) engines like overture, espotting etc.

Search utilities are specialized tools utilized for special applications. One example of such utility is lexibot which scavenges the deep web for information.

Author-Bio: Vikas Malhotra is a successful Internet marketer utilizing both pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization to increase website traffic. To learn more, visit http://sem.mosaic-service.com

The “duplicate content penalty” myth is one of the biggest obstacles I face in getting web professionals to embrace reprint content. The myth is that search engines will penalize a site if much of its content is also on other websites.

Clarification: there is a real duplicate content penalty for content that is duplicated with minor or no variation across the pages of a single site. There is also a “mirror” penalty for a site that is more or less substantially duplicating another single site. What I’m talking about here is the reprint of pages of content individually, rather than in a mass, on multiple sites.

Another clarification: “penalty” is a loaded concept in SEO. “Penalty” means that search engines will punish a website for violations of the engine’s terms of service. The punishment can mean making it less likely that the site will appear in search results. Punishment can also mean removal from the search engine’s index of web pages (”de-indexing” or “delisting”).

How have I exploded the “duplicate content penalty” myth?

* PageRank. Many thousands of high-PageRank sites reprint content and provide content for reprint. The most obvious case is the news wires such as Reuters (PR and the Associated Press (PR 9) that reprint to sites such as www.nytimes.com (PR 10).
* The proliferation of content reprint sites. There are now hundreds of websites devoted to reprint content because it’s a cheap, easy magnet for web traffic, especially search engine traffic.
* Experience. I’ve seen significant search engine traffic both from distributing content to be reprinted and from reprinting content on the site.

How I Doubled Search Engine Traffic with Reprint Content

When I first started distributing content for my main site, I was stunned by the highly targeted traffic I got from visitors clicking on the link at the end of the article. Search engine traffic also slowly increased both from the links and from having content on the site.

But I was even more stunned with the search engine traffic I got when I started putting reprint articles on the site in September. I had written quite a number of reprint articles for clients and accumulated a few webmaster “fans” who looked out for my articles to reprint them. I wanted to make it easier for them to find all the reprint articles I had written.

I didn’t want to draw too much attention to these articles, which had nothing to do with the main subject of the site, web content. So I secluded the articles in one section of the site.

The articles got a surprising amount of search engine traffic. The traffic was overwhelmingly from Google, and for long multiple-word search strings that just happened to be in the article word for word.

Why was I surprised with all the search engine traffic?

1. The articles had so little link popularity. The link popularity to the articles came primarily from a single link to the “reprint content” page from the homepage, which linked to category pages, which linked to the articles themselves–three clicks from the homepage. The sitemap was enormous, well over 100 links, so its PageRank contribution was minimal. Since these articles were on the site such a short time I strongly doubt they got any links from other sites.

2. The articles had so much competition. These articles had been reprinted far more widely than the average reprint article, which is lucky if it makes it into a few dedicated reprint sites. As part of my service I had done most of the legwork of reprinting my clients’ articles for them. In fact, I guarantee at least 100 reprints on Google-indexed web pages either for each article or group of articles. So that’s up to 100 web pages, sometimes more, that were competing with my web page to appear in search engine results for the search string.

Why Do Reprint Articles Get Search Engine Traffic?

You would think Google would just pick one web page with the article as the authoritative edition and send all the traffic to it.

But that’s not how Google works. All the search engines look at factors beyond just the content on the web page. They look at links. Google, at least, claims to look at 100 factors total. Many of these must relate to the content on the page, but not all of them.

The whole experience has given me great insight into what factors Google uses in addition to what we would consider the page itself, and the relative importance of each.

* Web page titles (the one in the html title tag) are extremely important as tie-breakers between two otherwise equally matched pages. Most reprinters waste the html title, using the article title as the web page title. Set yourself apart by creating unique five-to-ten-word web page titles that include target keywords.

* Content tweaks. You can also introduce the article with a unique, keyword-laden editor’s note, and finish the article off with some keyword-laced comments.

* Intra-site link popularity and anchor text (that is, for links to the article page from other web pages on the site) are also important. If you can’t link to the page from the homepage, keep it as close to the homepage as possible and weed out extraneous links (try putting all your site policies on a single page).

Reprint articles, like the search engine traffic they bring, cost nothing. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Forget the “duplicate content penalty.” Get in on content reprints and share the search engine wealth.

Author-Bio: About the author: Joel Walsh (http://www.joelwalsh.com) owns UpMarket Content which has Joel’s articles available for reprint, and also lets you order the complete website promotion content package of content and distribution services: http://www.UpMarketContent.com

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You’ve paid for your ticket and your ads are up on Google AdWords and Yahoo’s Overture, but have you set up a safe landing for your clients?

Run a test landing. Do a search and find your Pay Per Click (PPC) ad in Yahoo or Google. Click on it. Where does it bring you? Your home page? I hope not. You should create a specific landing page for your PPC ads. A landing page is the page you create to convert your PPC traffic into sales. This page should get your potential customers (that you have already paid for!) to go exactly where you think they want to go.

Here are some tips to create a good landing page:

1) Focus! Focus! Focus!

The landing page should be about your product or service. No links to other sites, no advertisements, no “how do you do”. When people arrive at your landing page, they should already be predisposed to buy (since you wrote such an excellent ad to get them here in the first place) and are trying to either: a) Get more information about your product or service b) Find the “Buy now” button Use the search term on the page, because searchers will key into the section of the page with their search term. If the search term is “buy skidoo” then have a button that says “Buy Skidoos Here”. Don’t distract them - give them what they want.

2) Customize your landing page

Use a different landing page for each group of keyphrases. If you sell seadoos and skidoos, don’t use the same landing page for each. Create a new landing page for each product (or each group of products) and send the clients directly to the page they are interested in.

3) Give them information

If they are not yet sold on your product or service, then they are going to be looking for more detailed information when they arrive at your landing page. Give it to them. You have to convince them that you have the perfect product or service to solve their problem. If they run out of information before they make a commitment to buy, then you have lost them. Nobody will spend money until they are convinced that your product or service is the right choice for them. So prove it.

4) Tell the reader what you want them to do

Use calls-to-action. If you want them to buy your product, than tell them often how to do it (”Click here to buy”). If you want them to call you, post the number up with instructions (”Call us now at 1-877-717-3667″). Repeat it throughout the text, then again in big and bold at the end.

5) Use graphics

Use pictures to sell your product or service. Pictures of the product or pictures of satisfied customers sell. Use them - and use them often.

6) Run tests

Set up two landing pages to see which one converts better. Set up two identical ads and send one to each landing page, then compare conversion rates for each page. Figure out why one converts better and try to improve the other one. Then, run more tests until you are completely satisfied with the results.

Set up your landing pages so that your potential customers arrive for a safe landing. If all goes well, they will step out of the plane with their credit cards already in hand - and their money almost in your pocket.

Author-Bio: Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. (www.redcarpetweb.com) He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.

Yahoo is busy rolling out their text ads in beta stage. I already signed up. You have to apply and then get approved to serve the Yahoo ads. It took them about a week to answer me, but I was approved.

Now the BIG question… Who pays more, Google or Yahoo?

Right now I am making MORE on Yahoo. I have about 10 pages optimized with Yahoo ads and about 300 to 400 pages optimized with Google ads. The sales are running neck and neck.

What does that tell you? I need 300 Google optimized pages just to keep up with Yahoo’s 10 page sales.