Google’s Second PPC Revolution

Last week we looked at CTR (Click Thought Rate) that introduced competition in bidding beyond money. This was Google’s first of the two revolutions to the PPC concept through Adword, Google’s PPC department.

The second revolution has to do with what is technically referred to as “impressions”. Impressions are the number of times a PPC advert is displayed on a webpage. An impression means that the advert has been served and is available to the surfer to click.

Impressions have a direct impact on the earnings of a PPC company. The more impressions a PPC company can serve to its audience, the more the literal numbers of clicks. The more the number of absolute clicks, the more the PPC company earns. And this is even without an increase in CTR. This results to a positive spiral. The more the clicks, the more the visitors are channeled to the advertisers’ websites. Consequently the advertisers tend to find the particular PPC company effective in driving traffic to their sites.

To achieve this effect, companies looked into ways to increase the number of times surfers see the adverts- impressions.

Before Adword, PPC’s jostled to be displayed in websites of high traffic. Websites like AOL and CNN that have millions of visitors per month were targeted to display PPC adverts for a commission. Small websites with hundreds even thousands of visitors were considered insignificant. Then enter Google; they choose to display their ads in each and every website that carried what they refer to as “quality content”. Quality content is interpreted by most as referring to informative editorial content as opposed to sales letters, infomercials and plain keyword-based gibberish. Such websites were viable for PPC display in a program called Adsense. This was despite the number of visitors.

This had a near sudden drastic change in the effectiveness of PPCs.

Small websites with less than 200 web pages and a few thousand visitors monthly make up most of the internet. As a result Adword’s total impressions increased astronomically beating all its rivals. There was a further positive effect. Often such websites are highly topical and only concern themselves with specific niches like weight loss pills or out-size women’s clothing. Consequently the content sensitive Adwords that display on these websites are so relevant to their visitors that CTR automatically shot skywards.

This strategy of involving the small internet guy of the internet resulted to huge increase in earnings without increasing the cost to the advertisers. But most importantly, Google has positioned itself not only as the leading search engine but also the most preferred PPC due to wide reach and affordability. So successful is Adword that Yahoo is in beta testing of a similar concept, and MSN is rumored of being in process of developing “the mother” of all PPCs.

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Getting The Most Out Of Articles

As discussed last week, a big advantage of using articles to market your site is that you can position your articles to be effective in improving both your website’s PR (Page Rank) and SERP (Search Engine Rank Position). This is made possible by the author resource box in which you determine the quality of link you get. PR has implications on how popular your site is while SERP determines how much traffic and consequently volume of business your site experiences.

To get the most off your article marketing, it is not enough to provide reprint content within your site. You need to submit them to article banks or article directories for wider exposure. Article banks are websites that exclusively hold reprint content. Among their targeted audience are webmasters looking for content for their websites, blogs and newsletters.

For even greater exposure, you should submit the same article to several articles banks. There are several hundreds of article banks online you can submit to. However there is a drawback to this. Submission involves a process of logging into your account, inputting title, category, author resource box etc. This makes article submission time consuming. To navigate around this, invest in an article submission software like Article Submittter Pro or Article Robot that automates the process.

One more tick in getting the most out of an article marketing campaign is consistency. Submitting at least an article a week is a sure way of creating more back-links.

Search Engine (SE) bots or spiders that scout the net looking for content and links to index take time to find your links in both article directories as well as websites using your articles. For some reasons, the SE algorithm that determines SERP does not index all your back-links permanently. They find all the links then keep some and discard some. This results in to a bell curve in the number of back-links to your site over a period of a few weeks. The back-links first increase as the SE bots finds then, then reaches a maximum and finally starts to decrease as the algorithm settles in on its choice.

Consistent submission of articles to as many article banks as possible takes advantage of the bell curve by extending the maximum indefinitely. As the first article starts to lose some of its back-links, the second one kicks in to maintain the maximum. In reality this technique result to progressive increase of your back links because the links that the SE bots settles on also accumulate. Article submission services like Article Marketer.com have solutions that automatically queue your articles for consistent submissions.

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Finding Free Content For Your Website

The attraction to infringe on copyrighted work to use in your website is mainly driven by the fact that these kinds of works are either demanding to create or are specialized content. Either way, there are some sources of content you can use to get copyright free content or those allowing some level of use legally.

Free content is defined by Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, as any kind of functional work, artwork or other creative content having no significant legal restriction relative to people’s freedom to use, redistribute and modify the content. In particular such content is referred to as public domain.

Content in the public domain by definition does not have any rights whatsoever. Such content include works whose copyrights have expired or those whose creators have expressly stated as public domain. It can be used by anyone as they find befitting. However the reworking of a public domain can be copyrighted. For example if you redesigned a public domain artwork then you can copyright the new redesigned form. So you can also get such content and rewrite to fit your website and you will be protected by copyright laws.

Unfortunately, just by the nature of such works, they tend to be old and not exactly fashionable. The alternative is to use what is referred to as “copyleft” content. Though the term is not a legal term like copyright it is in common use. Copyleft content refers to works characterized by the author surrendering some but not all the rights under the copy rights laws. For example they may allow redistribution and use without pay but restrict reworking the content or charging for it. Copyleft keeps the work from completely falling into public domain.

Such content is usually copyrighted under General Public License (GPL), under Creative Commons or similar agreements.

You will find text or written content with minimal restrictions in article directories. Article directories are websites that hold thousands of articles on different topics in categories. You can pick any article and use in your website free of charge. Restrictions include using the articles on an “As Is” basis. Usually they carry an attribution to the author. Such article directories include EzineArticles.com, Isnare.com and GoArticles.com among other hundreds.

For images and pictures it becomes harder to find completely free content as they are a more specialized work. But you will get royalty free images at a fee in Stock Photos or Photo libraries. These sites include FotoSearch.com and Inmagine.com. Also recently you can get free video content at YouTube.com and Google Videos to imbed on your website for free.

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Desire Determines Conversion Rates

Once you have grabbed your visitors’ attention you want to sell each and every one that fits your customer profile. The only way to do that is to create enough desire for your offer for them to take action. Indeed the majority of an online sales letter or copy is made up of persuasive content with the express purpose of creating desire. Its persuasive ability entails the quality of the copy.

A poor copy has little conversion. The visitors are neither motivated nor compelled enough to take action now. The sales copy allows for procrastination and the like. Eventually the visitor does not buy. The very nature of the internet is such that if you cannot convince a visitor to buy now, they will probably buy somewhere else. You will lose them forever.

A fair sales copy results to half-hearted buyers. Such buyers tend to have a “so-so” kind of perceived value of what they have purchased. Often you will register higher rates of refunds. For the ones who keep the product or services, most were motivated to buy anyway so you just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

Equally important fair copies will rob you off the viral effect that results from word of mouth. Word of mouth commonly referred to as buzz online, can be a huge contributor in increasing both sales and conversion rates.

You want a zing bang copy that has you visitors still tingling with excitement weeks after a purchase. This will only be achieved by sufficiently creating desire and ofcourse a product that over-delivers. Sales is said to be a transfer of enthusiasm. Online, a sales copy should do that literally – pun intended. The reason for quality prospecting and capturing your visitors’ attention is to bring them to this point. And this is where conversions happen.

Creating desire involves persuasion which in itself is a transactional process that results to change in beliefs, attitude and/or behavior. The choice of words in the sales copy; sequence of though; what you choose to draw attention to ,what you do not; how you say what you say and what you do not say; these and more contribute to the effectiveness of you persuasion. With persuasion comes desire which demands action hence a conversion.

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Creating Ringing Online Headlines

A ringing phone may startle if unexpected and is irritating when unwanted. However if you expect to receive a call, your ring tone is the most anticipated for noise. It is most gratifying when it rings and you finally get to hear from the person you were expecting.

Similarly you can create online headlines that have an anticipated ring or resonance with your visitors; headlines that they are glad to find. When a surfer types in a query into a Search Engine (SE), they scan the resulting page to find a headline that identifies with their needs. A ringing headline would be one that would somewhat engage them.

There are a number of techniques you can use to create this resonance. Here we look at three.

Question Based Headlines: Online, the headline “Are you creating effective headlines?”
would tend to out do a statement-based headline like “Creating effective headlines”. The human brain is designed to seek for solutions. Immediately it sees a problem, in this case a question, it tries to determine if it has a solution. The process of determining if you have a solution to the posed problem, results to an engagement. On the other hand statements either interest you or they don’t- little engagement if any.

Problem Based Headlines: In an environment where everyone is trying to offer a solution, it pays to standout. Solution based headlines and titles have been oversold and are now common place. Use of a headline that identifies you visitors’ problems may standout from a list of headlines trying to sell them a solution. For example the headline “My site didn’t make any money either” has a pull to it not found in “How to make money from your website”. The stating of a problem tends to identify with the visitors current state. It makes a visitor feel as if you could be having a perfect solution because you identify with them.

Curiosity Based Headlines: Curiosity is one of humans’ strongest incentives. When you see a sign “Do Not Open”, on a door, all of a sudden you are interested in what’s inside. Humans have this nagging sense to want to know. That’s why gossip and tabloids do well. Online, the use of the words “How” and “Why” in the beginning of a headline tend to create curiosity. So is the use of the word “these”. For example, the headline “Are your headlines missing these psychological triggers” creates curiosity by using the word “these”. The word implies several psychological triggers that are not mentioned. To know them you will have to click on the title.

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Creating Effective Headlines

You have less than five seconds to capture the interest of your visitor. Unlike face to face sales where a prospect will stand poor salesmanship for etiquette sake, online the back button beckons. It is said people do not get bored in print. If a page does not deserve their attention they just flip over. Online, they click the back button; alternatively they go to the next link. When this happens, your chances of a conversion have just gone up in smokes, many times, for good.

With such a short yet critical time available to make an impression on your web visitors, effective headlines play a major role in getting results.

AIDAS, a common sales acronym that stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and Satisfaction outlines key points in the sales process. The more visitors you can squeeze through this process the better your conversion rates. This far we know that prospecting involves grabbing the attention of a specific customer profile by using keywords. But as mentioned, the reason for prospecting is not just to increase web traffic – turning heads so to speak. Rather it is to successfully lead them through a persuasion process and make conversions; sales or otherwise. As such, in the short time you have a prospects attention you need to quickly turn it into interest. Gaining their interest allows you to engage them. Engagement means that the prospect is opening up for persuasion. The visitor will be thinking, let me see what they have to say.

An effective headline should be able to get attention and translate it into interest. This is done by creating a rapport. A rapport engages your prospect by harping on their immediate interest. You achieve perfect rapport when your headline identifies spot on with what your visitor is thinking when searching for the specific keyword.

For example, if a visitor is searching for a Samsung hands free accessory, the keywords “Samsung” and “hands-free” in headlines would demand their attention. The exact keyword phrase “Samsung hands-free” on the other hand would grab their attention in a snap. This is the power of keywords in a headline.

If the visitor was unsure of how exactly to go about choosing the best accessory, the headline “The Cheapest Samsung Hands-Free” may demand their attention but will only translate to reserved interest if there is no option. However the headline “How to choose the best Samsung Hand-Free” would resonate with the problem the visitor is trying to solve and consequently create a basis for a strong interest. Keywords and resonating headlines that allow engagement (rapport) create effective headlines.

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Conversion Starts by Prospecting

An effective and efficient conversion starts by accurate prospecting. Indeed any good business plan starts with an accurate identification of its market. Likewise prospecting, which is a part of a websites marketing effort, has the onus of identifying effective demand in the market and thereafter wooing it.

Like the majority of web-marketing, prospecting occurs outside of your website. It involves getting the attention of the most likely customers and creating a rapport with the intent of introducing you business offer. The phrases “Targeted Visitor/Traffic” and “Qualified Leads/Visitors” so often used here refer to such individuals. Targeted traffic exhibits a propensity to buy. They show strong indicators of effective demand which is both the willingness and ability to buy. And though you cannot exactly qualify a lead in this early stage of a conversion process, they should show signs of both interest and ability to purchase.

Such interest is exhibited by a surfer searching for terms relevant to your offer in Search Engines or engaging content related to your offer. For example a surfer that searches for the term “Motorola C139″ is a prospect to an internet mobile phone accessory business. Similarly a surfer that is reading content about weight loss is a prospect to a purveyor of dieting pills.

Due to the monstrous size of the internet, poor prospecting can result to unnecessary inclusion of ineffective demand in your flow of traffic. This will in turn place unnecessary stress to your conversion techniques and further result to poor conversion rates. Ineffective demand occurs often due to lack of ability to pay. And this is not always due to lack of financial ability.

For example, a website whose offer is only good in a specific region in the world will tend by default attract ineffective demand from regions not included for the offer. This is simply because the website has a worldwide presence. Such a case is synonymous with crowding your supermarket aisles with people who will never buy. And though you cannot completely steer clear of ineffective demand prospecting should serve your sales process with the most likely customers.

Prospecting involves finding customers where they are and grabbing their attention. There are several techniques you can use to achieve this. Next week we will look at the major techniques and how to include them in your web marketing.

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Benefits Tend To Out-Sell Features

Would you care if a newer model of your car has a 90 degree engine block, whose cylinder displacement had been enlarged and compression increased? And that the old single overhead cam, three-valve-per-cylinder-head had been replaced with a dual overhead, four-valve-per-cylinder head with variable cam phasing on both intake and exhaust cams?

But what if the car salesman told you that the car’s new engine version allows for more power with no increase in fuel consumption? And they further gave you an example; that with the new version you would over-take another car moving at 60 KPH on a hill at half the time you would with the older model with absolute zero increase in fuel consumption. Which then gives you powerful accelerations as well as higher speed without increase in fuel cost.

I bet the second pitch would pique your interest for the new model. Obviously so as it gives you a feel of what the car will do for you. It explains to you the benefits of owning the new model. The former pitch would probably appeal to an expert mechanic, but gives the rest of us commoners a headache.

Desire, which in turn result to sales, is created by developing on the interests of the client. You do this by identifying an appropriate feature or a characteristic of your product and showing how they gain or benefit for that feature. Simply listing a feature or even worse, going on and on about a feature without showing the customer the benefits they get from having it, will work against conversion.

You realize in the above example that it is the new engine design that results to the powerful acceleration and fuel efficiency. However a good sales man will not harp on the engine design. Rather they will detail the benefits of the power you get from having the new engine design.

This by no means implies you should not include you product features or attributes in a sales copy. Infact a short detailing of the dynamics, technology or mechanics of a feature can exhibit expertise. Just do not forget to connect how those feature turn to benefit to the user. Nearly always, benefits out-sell features but often work best in tandem online or off.

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Attracting Lawsuits With Your Website

Every one has got a devil on their shoulder. They keep whispering these sultry things in our ears. For example if you have been online for sometime without being able to arrest any level of success, you could start listening. The small voice may nudge you to pick an already successful website, re-write it and pass it off as your own. You will soon be making money just like them, or so you think; “Slicing a website” is the slang for it.

Even more commonly, you or atleast your webmaster has very likely picked content, images or other creative materials from other websites, magazines or a variety of other media and used them without express permission of the owner. It is not uncommon to find webmasters searching for images in Google, to use in their clients’ websites. Beware; ignorance of the law is no defense. If you did not provide the images or/and the content you should have proof of their source. Incase you are unsure of the originality and/or legality of the origin of your content, you are at risk of receiving a “Cease and Desist” letter.

Considering the work you “picked” is a creative, it means someone put effort, time, thought and even money into it. Using it without their express permission is akin to stealing something valuable. Yet probably only one thing has made the theft of creative works easier and rampant than the digital technology that allows easy duplication; and that is the internet. The internet not only creates easy access but also allows easy distribution of the stolen materials, even for profit. And when you pick a picture of a roaring lion from another website to spruce up your Travel website’s logo, that is exactly what you are doing – stealing for profits.

Yet few things are more ludicrous as copying content from another website. With the current automated policing tools, it is no different from stealing a car from your neighbour down the road and parking it right outside your gate. And just like your neighbour would be, the owners of these copyrights are not finding these infringements amusing. Imitation may be the best form of flattery but they are not acting flattered. Infact they are increasingly fighting back.

Cease and Desist letters will soon keep arriving in more and more inboxes. The letter generally will notify you of infringing a copyright. It will demand you remove he material from you website. It could take it further by demanding you to account and pay the copyrights owner of any profits accrued from the infringement. And most often gives a notice, usually 24 hour to comply. Otherwise they notify the necessary authorities and establishments. These include your local copyrights office, your hosting company as well as search engines. Increasingly like credit card fraud, copyrights theft can result to serious repercussions. Such lawsuits are not things you want to deal with in your internet business.

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Article Marketing And Duplicate Content

For article marketing to be effective, you need to distribute your articles widely. As discussed last week, the use of article directories is most effective. Equally important, the articles need to be picked up by various webmasters and reprinted in their websites, blogs and newsletters. A resulting effect of article marketing then would be duplicate content around the web. Duplicate content is availability of the same or closely similar content in the internet.

Some quarters believe that duplicate content is penalized by Search Engines (SE). They argue that SEs indices would be bloated by duplicates which donot add value to the internet and as such SEs would penalize any content that is duplicated. The penalties speculated include decreased Page Rank (PR), dropped Search Engine Rank Position (SERP) and even complete de-indexing i.e. a complete removal from a SEs index or database. You will commonly come across statements like, “You cannot rank well with dupes”, referring to duplicate content.

Others hold the opposing view that a duplicate content penalty does not exist in the simplistic explanation above. They hold that a dupes penalty is more complex and it just does not penalize all duplicate content. They point to all major news websites that borrow content from each other as well as from common agencies word for word, as proof.

Furthermore if a dupes penalty existed in such a simplistic fashion, then article marketing would be ineffective for PR and SERP. However experience has shown that article marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods online. Even further some article directories that are wholly duplicate content have enviable SERP and PR. Examples include EzineArticles.com and ArticleDashboard.com.

The opinion on which this article is based on is from the authoritative MattCutts.com blog. Matt is an employee of Google the lead SE. He would obviously point to a more than fairly accurate direction to the matter. Responding to a question at a conference as to whether or not Google penalizes duplicated content, Matt explained that the SE would serve what it considers the best page. He did caution though against dupes within same domains or replicating a whole website on another domain,

Matt’s assertion is proven by the indexing of thousands of the same content in different domains. A search for a widely circulated article “101 Ways To Build Links in 2006” serves back over 100,000 backlinks in different domains. This proof of just how effective article marketing can be.

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