Biz Web Marketing

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Super stealth cloaking to protect your links, guard your commissions and put money back where it rightly belongs … your own pocket!

Get the Samurai Stealth Cloaker

I just bought the Samurai Stealth Cloaker, So far so good. I have been looking for a solution like this for awhile and have wasted enough time with other solutions and stuff I made myself. This is everything I wanted and more in one nice bundle.

By eHow Computers Editor

1. Make sure your computer will support multiple monitors. You’ll need either a video card with dual monitor output or two video cards. Multi-monitor support is supported in Windows 2000 and above. You may also have to upgrade your computer’s memory to handle the multi-monitor cards.
2. Find out whether your computer already has multiple monitor software. If you have a video card with dual monitor output, you may be able to use the default software. Right-click your Desktop. Click “Properties.” Click the “Settings” tab. If your hardware supports dual monitors, you should see more than one monitor listed.
3. Plug in the second monitor. Select “Extend my Windows Desktop onto this Monitor.” Test it out to see if you’re happy with the display settings.
4. Decide what you want to do with multiple monitor software. Get a free or inexpensive program for simple tasks, like mirroring a Desktop on two monitors. For more advanced functions, use a program like Ultramon, which supports wallpapers, screensavers and taskbars across multiple monitors.
5. Use a laptop or a second computer with a monitor as your second monitor with MaxiVista software. This is useful if you already have a second computer and don’t want to upgrade your video card. The second computer can be an older Windows 98 computer.
6. Add a convenient taskbar across multiple monitors with the free Multimon Taskbar software.
7. Figure out how many monitors you need to support. If you plan to use more than two, make sure the program you purchase will work with the number of monitors you want to use.

Basics on Quality Index and Ad Copy

Your ad quality, which is based in part on how frequently people click on your ads relative to your competitors, matters a lot. High-quality ads can receive higher ranking on the search results page at a possibly lower cost-per-click. On the other hand, poor-quality ads can cost you more and are most likely not attracting customers. So it’s critical to write good ad copy that will help improve the quality of your ad and help you get more clicks.

Monitoring and Maintaining Your Quality Index
In your account, ad quality is represented by your quality index. You will see the quality index shown as one to five bars—the more bars an ad has, the higher its quality. Monitoring your ads’ quality indices, which are displayed on the Ad Group details page, can help you figure out which ads need more work.

Writing Effective Ad Copy
Well-written ads get the attention of your customers and may improve your click-through rate (CTR) and ad quality. Here are some tips for writing great ads:
• Be clear and precise - Write ads that are clear, concise, honest and, of course, grammatically correct. Don’t over-hype your business.
• Use your keywords in your ad - Use the Insert Keyword function, available when you create a new ad or edit an existing one, to automatically insert your keyword in your ad. Keywords in your title or description help your customers recognize that your ad matches their search.
• What’s in it for your customers? - Be specific as to how your service or product can benefit your customer.
• Include a call-to-action - Words like "Buy Now" in your ad may encourage customers to click. If you have a specific offer, make sure you state it.
• Set yourself apart - Let people know how you’re different from your competitors—free shipping, a money-back guarantee, many years in business and so on—and give them a reason to click your ad instead.

Find out which Ads Work Best
Make sure you use ad testing, also known as A/B testing, to test multiple ads. When you create more than one ad in an ad group, our system will automatically display the higher performing ads more frequently in search results. With different ad copy, you can see which ads attract the most customers.

Source: http://www.ysmblog.com/

Came across a site today, www.freebusinessprinter.com where you can Receive a Free High Performance Color Printer or Copier for your Business. All you need to do is submit a simple application and if chosen, you can get a free Xerox Phaser 8560 printer.

What You Get:

* Xerox Phaser™ 8560 printer
* Free service and support for three years
* Free delivery of the printer

Program Qualifications:

* Print 2000 pages per month
* Three-year partnership
* Return the printer at any time—NO RISK!

Keywords are the foundation of your search marketing account and help lead customers to your website. The keywords you select can have an impact on future traffic and sales.

Here are some guidelines for choosing keywords:

	Look for keywords on your own web site. Think like a customer and pick the words that your customers might be searching on to find you.
	Use one of our keyword suggestion tools. Click the “Add Keywords” link in your account for helpful suggestions. This feature provides three easy options that can help you generate keyword ideas: “Quick Add,” “Choose from List” and “Research Keywords.”
	Think about keywords that attract customers at each stage of the buying cycle. The buying cycle has three major phases: research, shopping and purchase. The closer someone is to buying, the more specific your keywords should be. For example, customers may search for “guitar” during research, “Fender guitar” while shopping, and “American Standard Fender Telecaster guitar” when they’re ready to purchase.
	Pick a mix of broad and specific keywords. Keep in mind that using more generic keywords, like “guitar,” can cause you to go through your budget and may not lead to sales as often, but can be helpful for driving traffic from prospective customers who are in the research phase. Selecting more specific keywords may deliver fewer clicks, but they may be more likely to result in sales.

New Service for those affiliates who have multiple accounts out there and give their Social Security Number out. With some many affiliate networks coming and going I would recommend getting a subscription to LifeLock. Visit them at: www.lifelock.com.

If your like me, I am parternered with over 50+ netwoks and only work closely with a few. I was checking up on a few the other day and was surprised to see that they where out of business. I even had one email me back after inquiring about a payment I have’t received and got "I don’t know what you are talking about. We have been out of the affiliate business for months. Your account should have been inactive." Funny thing is, I can still login and pull offers. I get a bit worried now, as new affiliate networks are springing up all over and look professional but are run out of the country.

Just be careful. A good review site Life-Lock-Review.com has non-bias opinions about LifeLock as well as other users opinions and comments.

Written By Steve Patterson

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to learn how to easily add a copyright watermark pattern to a photo.

If you’re one of the many digital photographers or designers who are using the web these days either to show a client the work you’ve done for them or to show off your portfolio, one of the major concerns is that someone out there is going to steal your work. And while there’s no guarantee that anything you do will stop them, there are things we can do to make life more difficult for them.

One of those things is to add a copyright watermark to your images, and in this Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to see how easy it is to do.

The End Result

To read the rest: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/copyright/

Hey I stumbled upon a site a few weeks back and wanted to share with my fellow readers. Its Alert Deals http://www.alertdeals.com. It’s a great site for those looking for hot deals. You do have to check back often, as most deals seem to either sell out, expire, or placed on backorder. There is a broad range of stuff alerted on. I like how it explains how to use a certain promo code and stack coupons to make the deal sweeter and lighter on my wallet

Some stuff that was recent that caught my eye where:
- Sharp AQUOS Special Savings up to 50% off for Employee friends and family (had to use certain pass codes to enter site)
- $50 off PER NIGHT at Expedia.com (This was a really hot deal for me. Saved $150 on a 3 night trip to Chicago)
- Beach Sexy Triangle string bikini set for $5.99 (The wife really liked this also got Free VS Cotton Panty and Angels Secret Embrace Matte Hiphugger or Thong.)

So all and all, a great site for hot deals. So add this to your bookmarks and keep an eye on this site.

I’ll start with a quick fact. If I start a new domain it normally takes me anywhere up to 3 months to start ranking, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.

That’s 3 months of link building, writing articles, linkbait & working. That’s a lot of time.

If you’re starting out in Affiliate Marketing should you really be waiting around for your sites to come through Google’s filters? OR would your time be better spent hunting down some domains that could rank for you in as little as 2 weeks?

Bingo

Despite what many people say I feel there’s really no such thing as the Google Sandbox. It’s just that newer sites are subject to more filters than older ones. The more trust your website gains the less it becomes filtered & the easier you’ll find it to rank.

There are 2 basic ways to beat these filters & rank your sites quicker.

1. Build natural strong links from relevant sites (not too quickly)
2. Buy an aged domain with authority already

If you are planning on making Affiliate Websites then can you really afford to wait up to 3 months for a domain to start ranking? How much in potential revenue is that? Even more, say you’re creating a website to promote a particular product, what happens if you get filtered & by the time you end up ranking the competition is too fierce?

Don’t get me wrong, it IS possible to rank new sites quickly & it can be done (depending on the keywords) but what if you could buy an aged domain & rank right away & make money right away.

So what do you look for when buying an aged domain?

Age: This for me is the most important factor, the older the better. Pre 2000 is always a winner.

Banned: Check the domain hasn’t been banned.

Backlinks: Check Yahoo Site Explorer to see how many backlinks the domain has.

.Edu Backlinks: Does the domain have any authority backlinks?

Indexed: Has the domain been indexed before? search engines calculate a domain’s age from when it was first indexed. If a domain has a good Search History then you’re onto a winner. To check this out fire the url into Way Back Machine.

Price: What price are they asking for? You can pick up a good domain for around $10-100 if you look in the right places, a small price to pay for not having to wait to rank.

Pagerank: Generally Pagerank isn’t an issue for me although many sellers will try to sell the domain based on Pagerank. I’m more concerned about age & IBL’s. Although if pagerank is an issue please check to see it’s not fake.

Where to look?

• Digitalpoint Domain Forum
• Domain Name Forums
• Domain Forums
• Name Pros
• Sitepoint Domain Marketplace

I don’t think I really need to say any more on this subject. Buy smart, rank quicker, make more money

Source: http://www.earnersblog.com/aged-domains/

Associate Programs Newsletter #8

CONTENTS:

1. “Second generation” AShoppingGuide
2. New way to start your own affiliate program
3. Amazon.com now has 3.1 million customers
4. Pyramid scheme payout
5. OzEmail Buddy similar to ICQ
6. Anyone want to buy a web site?
7. What’s your web address worth?
8. A good one - not for foreigners

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1. “Second generation” AShoppingGuide
=====================================

I reckon it’s time to take a fresh look at AShoppingGuide - whether you’re a merchant looking for a place to get publicity or a webmaster looking for an good associate program.

AShoppingGuide has an attractive, easy to navigate layout, and Richard Hauf is pretty clever at attracting visitors to it.

The “second generation” AShoppingGuide will debut tomorrow, or maybe on Monday - I’ve been given two different dates. The updated site features “online communities” built around “revamped shopping channels”.

Who needs another shopping mall to add to the thousands? Whoa! Richard insists that the site is a “shopping directory”, not a shopping mall. “Unlike many cybermalls, we do not generate revenue for our site by selling shopping cart programs, credit card processing services, or web hosting to our merchants,” Richard says.

Also, it doesn’t trap visitors in frames. “Once a visitor clicks through to our merchants’ site, they are then customers of the merchants’ site and no longer ours.”

The part I like best is the completely revamped affiliate program, which offers commissions of $US7.50, $US75 and $US150, and real-time statistics. (A banner says payouts go as high as $100, but the site says $150, so I’ll believe what the site says.)

Richard says that affiliate models based on a per click-thru basis are difficult to administer and leave themselves vulnerable to fraud. (More about that in the newsletter next week.) So he now offers commissions based on a percentage. You earn 15% (or 20% if you design a banner which AShoppingGuide uses).

AShoppingGuide sells merchant listings in the directory. A basic listing costs $US50 a year, one with frills costs $US500, and the top of the range listing is $US1000 a year so “there is a tremendous income potential for our affiliate sites”.

Why would a merchant want to buy a listing in AShoppingGuide?

Richard says that, unlike many cybermalls, AShoppingGuide does not rely on free advertising to promote the site, rather most of the merchant fee is used for paid advertising for the site. “In fact, we currently purchase over 250,000 paid banner impressions PER MONTH for AShoppingGuide through select advertising channels.”

As well as that, I’ve noticed how Richard is very skilled at getting publicity for the directory by intelligent participation in popular mailing lists. Remember the name ShopSafeMall? That’s what AShopping Guide used to be called a few months ago. You’ve probably seen the name popping up in LinkExchange Digest, I-Sales, and all sorts of other places around the Internet.

It’s that clever combination of paid advertising and cunning free marketing which makes AShoppingGuide well worth considering for a merchant. With merchant “lease fees” as cheap as about $1 a week, “many of our merchants achieve cost per click-through rates (CTR’s) from AShoppingGuide site that are less than $0.01 per click through!”

That is a very strong selling point.

However, like most associate programs, this one doesn’t reward you for signing up new associates and - unlike my Favourite Web Cards - it doesn’t give you permission to use your special URL in newsletters or articles.

At first glance, I didn’t like some of the banners provided, because they emphasize how great the associate program is, instead of persuading merchants to list - which is how you will earn your commissions. On second thoughts, though, they are eye-catching ads, well designed to generate high click-throughs. And it’s getting people to click which is often the hardest part.

Overall, I think it looks good, so I’ve signed up, and I asked Richard for permission to use my special URL in the newsletter. I haven’t received a reply - probably because my web host is up to his favourite trick, installing new equipment, and some of my e-mail has been bouncing.

[UPDATE: This site has vanished.]

==============================================
2. New way to start your own affiliate program
==============================================

For merchants wanting to start their own associate program, there’s a new option, Affiliate Link software from AffiliateZone.com (and it has its own affiliate program).

AffiliateZone.com is a joint venture of BelHal Technologies and Interferenza. Craig Belcher owns BelHal - Triguide.com/giftshop - (pronounced bell hall) and Giancarlo Russo owns Interferenza , which specializes in advanced web services.

“We developed the software so any webmaster could start and maintain their own affiliate program without a large upfront cost that our competitors charge,” Craig said.

Affiliate Link software is a series of cgi scripts that allows a webmaster to start and maintain his own affiliate program for goods or services. “What we do is install these scripts on your server and give you some simple directions on how to use the software.”

The merchant can choose to pay a fixed amount for click-throughs or set the program to pay a percentage of the goods sold, or a mixture of the two.

“To help prevent fraud we have included a option where the link to your site from your affiliate’s site has to match the domain/path the affiliate had entered in his or subscription to your program,” Craig says. “Example: The domain/path the affiliate entered in his/her subscription was www.isp.com/user1 so if someone visits your site through www.isp/user2.com no sales or click-throughs will be accredited to that particular affiliate’s account.”

If you choose to use that option, the affiliate won’t be able to market your goods or services via newsletters, mailing lists, newsgroups, or articles on other web sites. It sounds unnecessarily restrictive to me, but the good thing is that it’s just an available option. It may suit some merchants who want tight control over how the marketing is done.

Real-time stats are provided so the merchant always knows who is selling what and how much, and the the affiliates have peace of mind that they are not being cheated. “You’ll attract larger companies to participate in your affiliate program since you have this type of service,” Craig says.

The Affiliate Link software can be installed on your server within three business days, he says.

“For a limited time we are installing the Affiliate Link Software on our clients’ servers for $250.”

If you’re too busy to start and run an associate program you can choose a Pay Affiliate option. Affiliate.Zone.com will mail the commissions for you.

By the end of August the new site will be 95% in place and the new domain will be used. You can expect to see some big changes at the site - but more about that when it happens.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot. The associate program pays a generous $US50 commission for every merchant who signs up for the Affiliate Link software. I think it’s an ideal one for my site.

http://www.affiliatezone.com/

===========================================
3. Amazon.com now has 3.1 million customers
===========================================

The mighty Amazon.com, king of associate programs, now has 3.1 million customers, attracted with the help of 60,000 associates, but it’s still losing money. Recent reports:

wired.com/news/news/business/story/13925.html
thestandard.net/articles/news_display/0,1270,1069,00.html

========================
4. Pyramid scheme payout
========================

Tempted to get involved in an illegal pyramid scheme? Checks totalling $3US.1 million have been sent to people who were defrauded in an international pyramid scheme.

wired.com/news/news/politics/story/13923.html

===============================
5. OzEmail Buddy similar to ICQ
===============================

OzEmail Buddy is a tool which tells you when your friends or business partners are online and allows you to exchange private and instant messages with them in real-time. It’s similar to ICQ and easy to use, says OzEmail, the largest ISP in Australia. “Simply compile a list of your friends’ email addresses and enter them into your buddy list. When you log on to the Internet from home or work your buddy list will appear. If your friends are online, their names will be highlighted in green and then you are free to start instant messaging them . . . it’s free and open to all Internet users around the world.” Of course, your friends need to have registered, too.

buddy.com.au

[UPDATE: This service closed.]

================================
6. Anyone want to buy a website?
================================

Lawrence Kellie writes:

SportsExtra.com says it is out of business.

Lawrence R. Kellie
Cala Creek Website Design http://www.calacreek.com
Affordable and elegant website design

=================================
7. What’s your web address worth?
=================================

If you haven’t bought your own domain name yet, this bit of news reported in the San Francisco Chronicle may persuade you to hurry up. Compaq, which owns the Alta Vista search engine, and has a ludicruous, hard to remember address - http://www.altavista.digital.com - has bought a better one.

It paid Jack Marshall of San Jose $3.3 million (US), for a much better address: www.altavista.com .

What will the name you buy today be worth in a few years?

Got a great idea for a name? See if it’s still available:
http://www.betterwhois.com

==================================
8. A good one - not for foreigners
==================================

Here’s bonus for people who read to the end of this: MyPoints. It’s another of those programs - like CarPrices and Web Cards - which reward you even when people don’t buy anything. MyPoints is a reward system. People earn points which can be redeemed for goods at various sites.

Here’s the really good part. The site is so lively and well designed that an amazing more than 30% of visitors sign up for the the free-to-join scheme. You earn $1 for each sign-up.

Work it out: Send 100 people there, and you earn $30.

The bad news: It’s for Americans and Canadians only. Whatever happened to the global village?

The associate program is run by a third party, LinkShare. You can join LinkShare here:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/linkshare

When you have signed up with LinkShare - it’s free - another program to consider is the Cyberian Outpost. It pays only 3% so I ignored it at first glance, but then I found out that the average sale is $US250 to $US300. It has a bright, lively site, designed for generating sales, I reckon.

I’ve just signed up.

[UPDATE: Cyberian Outpost was renamed Outpost.]

P.S. I’ve just checked my stats and I’ve made about $US90 this month with Web Cards - easy money for recommending that people ask for a free sample of an excellent product.

[UPDATE: I stopped promoting Web Cards after it started using spam.]

Free-Banners is AssociateProgram.com’s official banner exchange because it pays you for getting new members and rewards you with 10% of all banners displayed by members you sign up.

Sign up at Free-Banners now.

All the best

Allan Gardyne

By Allan Gardyne | Published 07/31/1998