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Pay-per-click campaigns can be incredibly effective traffic generators. Although achieving PPC search engine rankings is more difficult and competitive than when it began, the number of online users that employ search engines has grown substantially, so there is a significantly larger audience to be reached.

Many eCommerce entrepreneurs have employed pay-per-click ads and lost serious money simply because they didn’t understand what they were doing. According to Internet marketing strategist Catherine Seda, of http://DriveTrafficToday.com, you can avoid blowing your budget by following some general guidelines in your PPC campaign:

• Chase the Tail

Stay away from broad keyword phrases, and even single keywords. Cautions Seda, “They’re too wide-ranging to hit a targeted audience, and you’re going to have significantly more competition bidding.” For example, if you sell car insurance, bidding on the search term “insurance” will pit you against other car insurance agencies, as well as health insurance, life insurance, home owner’s insurance, and the list goes on.

Dig deeper with your keyword list to find “tail terms” that are made up of low cost, lower volume words, but that are super-focused. Generally a tail term is made up of multiple words: like the phrase “free car insurance quote.” It might not pull in massive amounts of traffic, but it’s going to convert very well because a user who types in that phrase is the precise audience you’re targeting.

• Read the Fine Print

When you set up your PPC campaign, you’re going choose not only your keywords, but also your estimated budget. Once your bill hits the specified amount, your ads stop appearing in the search results for the remainder of that budget period. This allows you to know exactly what your maximum bill will be.

It’s very important to be aware that this is normally an estimated daily budget, not an estimated monthly budget. Don’t just race through the set-up, plugging in numbers without paying attention to what they mean. If $1,000 is your maximum monthly budget, you want to make sure that you aren’t topping out at $1,000 in clicks each day. Not paying attention is an excellent way to rack up serious charges that can sink your business in a matter of days or weeks.

• Make It Easy

Don’t just dump your visitors on your web site’s homepage and expect them to do all the work. If they have to search around your site, you’ll likely lose them. If they found your ad by searching for a particular product, take them directly to the page that sells that product. If they clicked on your ad promoting one dollar shipping, make sure the page on which they land highlights the fact that you provide shipping for one dollar.

It’s also important to ensure that the information that caused the user to click on your ad is above the fold. (In other words, make sure it’s immediately visible within the constraints of the monitor). Don’t make users scroll down to the bottom of the page to find it, because they might not. You want to instantly reiterate the message that your ad promotes, and reinforce to visitors that they’re in the right place.

By implementing good PPC practices, you can help ensure the traffic that you drive converts well, and that your campaign is profitable. States Seda, “Any E-Biz owner can benefit from a smart, well-run pay-per-click campaign. Just be careful to keep your ads and your marketing message focused, and you’ll see a big difference in your bottom line.”

When you are developing or designing a website you have to imagine to a certain extent how it will be used and what will attract the right kind of visitors to this site. Once the site is up and running the best way to test your theories or to find out where you can make improvements is to have hard data that you can analyze.

There are various ways of gathering information on people who visit your site. You can ask for personal information if the user wants to register but there is no guarantee that the information will be correct and not every visitor will register if they are not required to. The best way to get a definitive and accurate set of data is through visitor tracking. Each visitor to your site however has a web log that can provide very specific and relatively accurate information on everyone that lands on any page of a site.

Web tracking is non invasive since there is no personal information available through the web log. A java script is attached to each page that you want to track and when a visitor opens that page it is used to collect the information from their browser. Most users’ internet preferences will allow this and also allow a cookie to be stored so that they have a unique tracking history. Statistical analysis can then be done either on individual behavior or behaviors can be grouped into certain actions.

The kinds of information that are usually available from a web log are:

• Geographic location or domain
• How the site was reached; from which directory or site they linked through
• Date, time and duration of visit and how often unique visitors returned
• Which page they landed on first and how they navigated from there
• Keywords used in directory searches and site searches
• The users browser and operating system
• Which visitor made a purchase
• At what point did those who initiated a purchase give up before the sale was completed

Other information is available such as the presence of click robots or HTTP errors and the data gather can be interpreted using web log analysis software. This will generate either a tabled list or graphic information that can be used for the following:

• Understanding where your visitors are from and what markets you can accommodate more efficiently
• Establishing peak visiting hours and capacity levels
• Seeing which content and features receive the most attention and what is ignored

This kind of information can also be critical in making improvements that will make a site easier to use more relevant and will drive traffic to and through the most relevant pages. It will show you clearly:

• What keywords are most effective
• Where improvements can be made to the functionality and user friendly ness of the site in order to increase sales
• Which marketing campaigns and directories deliver the best results

Apart from discovering which links are the most valuable to your business the nature of the sights which feed into yours can also give you a lot of other information on your visitors such as their interests and you can even abstract a certain amount of personal information from the other sights that they visit.

Visitor and sales tracking has become and integral part of CRM (customer relations management and helps to determine ROI (return on investment). It can also be used to supplement other forms of interactive information gathering such as blog pages. Although there is no way to link the statistics to information gathered on user forums you can get an idea of how and when they are being used or whether they are being underutilized. Indirectly it can also be used to develop social media marketing.

Affiliate sales tracking software has a slightly different objective and creates more of a two way relationship between affiliates and traders. A different kind of software is required but there are some similarities to ordinary sales tracking. The main difference is that you are not tracking visitors but analyzing the performance of other sights. There are also more functional tools that can be used such as automatically generated e-mails, sales reports and commissions.

If you have a website from which you conduct or facilitate your business activities then the best way to ensure the success of your business is to ensure that your website does not hinder the function of your business in any way. As the web is a constantly evolving environment, it is almost ensured that no site will be created perfectly or in a way that will not need to be changed over time. Without viable information on how your current model is operating you have very little idea of where you can make improvements. In this regard it makes no sense to run any website for a profit if you do not intend to track sales and visitors.

Viral marketing is the way to go in this day and age of social networking and online communities. You must induce other people to tell their friends and social contacts about your business, products and services. Here are the steps for using viral marketing to generate traffic to your site.

People dread computer viruses. They are prolific, attach to anything and spread everywhere. Bad virus aside, this same characteristic (prolific) makes viral marketing effective.

The medium you would be using for this type of marketing would be prolific as well in generating leads and sales. There are many kinds of viral marketing that you could use to generate more traffic to your website. Generally, if used well, viral marketing is an extremely effective way to get more interest and produce more leads and sales. Here are some viral marketing methods using reports or ebooks that people can use to generate more traffic to their websites.

Step 1: Write a free report

This does not end there. You must also convert your report into a PDF file. Your report should be concise, inviting, interesting and informative. It must give information about your website or your products. It should be written in such a way that it would encourage people to buy your products or visit your website.

A free report once downloaded would be left behind for people to read later. Chances are, if these reports are written well, they would guarantee you that people downloading and reading them would once more check your website. People love a well written report with good content.

Avoid writing an ad and avoid marketing. Make sure that your report is informative. If you are selling supplements, write an article on how effective these supplements are. Your articles would be passed on from one person to another for years to come. Perhaps, you don’t have to immediately write another report on the same subject matter.

Step 2: Write a teaser

This is most effective if you are marketing an ebook that people can buy from your website. Give people a free chapter that they can read. Generate interest by arousing their curiosity. Remember to give only a teaser of the whole book. Do not give out the whole thing. Make sure that people can only obtain your ebook by visiting your website and paying for it or by subscribing.

Usually, this type of marketing is effective because people would quickly exchange information with others or forward the same to others whom they know would be interested in the content of the ebook. Thus, this is called viral marketing. Your traffic will noticeably increase with little or no effort from you at all. You would also have a huge and increased level of generated leads and sales.

Step 3. Write an ebook which you can give away

Whenever people visit your website or join your newsletter, give them a free ebook. This is usually a very short informative report relating to your products or services. Make sure that the content is interesting and useful so that people would want to share it with others. This is a very good strategy if employed correctly.

It is also wise to not give the whole information. Make sure that people would want to visit your website to get the more complete report on the subject matter. This would be a great viral marketing campaign to generate more traffic to your website.

1.  Categorize Information and Create a Master Outline

Look at your business and decide how you want to categorize your information. For example I have: Administration, Marketing, Finances, etc. as my Master Outline and than under those larger categories, I create subcategories: My sample

Administration

Policies & Procedures
Forms / Templates
Business Structure
Clients

Marketing

Brochures
Business Cards
E-zine Content
Networking Groups

Create tabs for the Master Outline and use on hanging folders, use manila folders with labels for your subcategories. Make sure that you give all files a name, do not use Miscellaneous as a file name, because the file will began to accumulate papers and you will not be able to find items easily and quickly. You can use this same format to keep electronic files as well.

2. Create a Tickler File System

Get twelve manila folders and label them January – December, then you will need 31 more vanilla folders labeled 1 – 31 for the days in the month and two additional folders labeled for the upcoming years. As I am writing this it is 2006, so you would create a 2007 folder and a 2008 folder.

Which ever month that you are currently in, include the days of the month folders (1-31). Whenever you have a planned task, appointment, project deadline just put the information in the folder that you need to get it done. For example, If I need to complete and submit an article to a publication that my target audience reads on December 15, 2006, than I would put the contact information and due date and a checklist in the folder for December 15, 2006. On Dec. 15, everything that needs to be done is in my tickler file.  Review you tickler file daily.

What if I am planning to attend a conference in May 17, 2008, than I would put all the necessary information in the 2008 file and file those items according once I get to that month and year. Tickler files should also be in sync to your daily planner.

3. Purge Your Filing System

Do not let files contain more 25 – 30 pieces of paper. It is best to block time on your schedule once every three months to go through your files to see if there is any information that can de discarded or scanned and saved electronically.  Check with your accountant and banker to see how long documentation should be retained. Also check out www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mtg/20000518h.asp it contains a checklist of how long you should keep financial documents. You must keep your filing system neat and easy to obtain the information you want when you want it. It is best to keep the most used files near you in your desk drawer.

© 2006 Bridgette Boudreaux

If you’re looking for information on how to start a home based business, there are several things that are vital to your success. As someone who has earned 6 figures for the last five years with a home based business, I’ve learned through trial and error what it takes to successfully earn a very comfortable living from home.

In this brief article, I’m going to give you an overview of 3 very important things that you absolutely must do in order to start and success with a home based business idea or opportunity. Hopefully by the time you’ve finished reading this, you’ll have an idea of what it takes to make it in this industry and be better prepared to get the ball rolling.

1. Have a dedicated work space or office at your home. – Having an area that is classified as your “home business office” will allow you to stay organized and focused on your daily tasks. There is nothing that is more frustrating than trying to get work done in a common area, where you have to compete with conversations, the television, and more.

2. Turn off the TV. – When I first started working from home, I would get easily distracted by the television. I would turn it on while having lunch, and before I knew it half my day was gone. I made what at that time was a very difficult decision to discontinue my cable TV subscription, and my income dramatically increased as a result. While this may seem extreme to some, eliminating unproductive distractions has proven to be one of the most valuable decisions I have made in regards to my home based business.

3. Set daily work hours. – When working from home, it’s very easy to turn into a workaholic. Due to the fact that you’re always home, it can actually be tempting to work too much. While it’s important to become successful, it’s also vital that you live a balanced and healthy life. Set “work hours” and stick to them, you’ll be better off for it and will avoid the dreaded “burn out” that many work at home entrepreneurs encounter.

Hopefully this article has given you some good ideas on what it takes to become successful if you’re looking to start a home based business. Working from home isn’t always easy, but it will be the best decision you’ll ever make.