eComm Tips

When it comes to website or blog monetization, its always a good idea to diversify. For example, if the only thing you do is AdSense, then you only have one source of potential income from that blog. I mention AdSense specifically because it seems to be the most common.

Another way is by selling text ads on your website, and a great way to do this is through programs like TNX.net. Rather than summarizing it, I’m going to quote from their site what they do:

TNX.net allows publishers to sell links from each page on their website, and for advertisers it allows to buy millions of links from other sites in few clicks. TNX is a convenient tool that allows publishers and advertisers to save time, efforts and money: in just a few minutes you can have thousands of links from hundreds of high quality relevant sites linking to yours.

All links are direct, they are located on main pages and inside pages that are also very important. Ads are displayed mostly on well-noticeable spots so they can attract visitors. The system can be used to promote main page of the advertiser’s site as well as inside pages.

Site publishers can not only use TNX.net to earn money, they can also use it to promote own websites by taking advantage of our system as an advertiser (balance in the system is unified).

So basically what you are doing is placing some code on your site or blog to display free text link ads, and other site owners will buy that space through the TNX System. The more people buy space on your site or blog, the more you can make from a system like TNX. They also have an affiliate program so you can promote them directly as an affiliate as well.

Think about it: people don’t have to click on your ads or anything like that, you just have to have people inside the system buy that space. This is a great way to add to your different revenue streams for your site.

My thoughts on it:
I think its worth a shot. I haven’t personally used this particular system before but I’m going to give them a try over the next couple of weeks and see what happens.

One thing to understand about this system is that it’s all based on points. As you display ads on your site you earn points. Then you have several different options of what to do with those points:

• Transfer points to another user
• Use points to advertise your own site
• Cash in points for money

The points system will probably take a little getting used to. According to TNX the current exchange rate is $.73 for every 1000 points. So I’ll have to see how quickly the points add up. I’ll probably give an update on this in about a month, but for now its looking like a pretty good program!

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I know that to a lot of you this is going to be something that you fully understand, but I’m noticing that a lot of people at first don’t understand the difference between Google AdSense and Google AdWords. Let’s take a minute and go over the differences so you can better understand it if you need to.

Here is a summary of the difference from Google’s website:

For Advertisers: Google AdWords

• Advertise to people searching on Google and our advertising network
• Reach people actively looking for information about your products and services online
• Easily control costs - pay only when people click on your ad

For Site Owners: Google AdSense

• Maximize your site’s revenue potential with contextually targeted ads
• Customize ads to complement the look and feel of your site
• Track the success of different formats and locations with online reports

So basically, AdWords is an advertising program to create more exposure for your site. AdSense is a monetization technique that you can use to help your site generate some extra money. In the end they both should help with an income, but you don’t have to pay anything to place AdSense ads on your site.

I hope that clarifies this for those of you that weren’t sure about the difference. If not, please let me know!

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Web Pro News put out a video (news report) talking about the difference between SEO (Search Engine Optimization, free traffic for good rankings) and PPC (Pay Per Click, Paid Advertising, Adwords/Yahoo! Search Marketing, etc.). I know that a lot of people wonder which they should focus most of their time on. Both of them have their benefits and drawbacks, but both can play an important role in any campaign.

This report has some really good advice from Dana Todd and Jeremy Schoemaker.

Here’s the video!

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In the world of internet marketing, we base a lot of what we do on keywords and keyword phrases. But if you’ve been around this industry for any length of time you also know that not all keywords and phrases are created equally.

I personally believe that it takes testing before you’ll know what a really good keyword phrase is. But you can shorten the time frame for that testing by using a few simple guidelines when it comes to choosing the keywords you are going to focus on. Basically, you need to recognize that there are different types of keywords. There are basically 3 of them: Browsing Keywords, Comparing Keywords, and Buying Keywords.

Browsing Keywords

We all go through a pattern when we are searching for something. We’ll start with a general search, and then as we become more educated about a product or service, we get more specific. So the first type of keyword or phrase is the Browsing Keyword. These are the keywords that someone types into the search engine when they are just looking for general information about something. You might consider it to be “window shopping.”

Here are some examples of Browsing Keywords:

• Camping
• Tents
• Cheap Computer
• etc.

Browsing keywords are very general, and that’s why they get the most traffic out of the 3 types.

Comparing Keywords

By the time someone starts to use Comparing Keywords, they have a better idea of what they are looking for. They are starting to compare different brands of products. They may use brands, price ranges, etc.

Here are some examples of Comparing Keywords:

• Coleman Tents
• Computers under $700
• Cheap Coleman Tents
• etc.

The person that is using Comparing Keywords is getting closer to making a purchase. They’ve seen the general options and are comparing their options.

Buying Keywords

The person that is in the part of the pattern where they are using a Buying Keyword really knows what they are looking for. These phrases usually include words that hint at their intent.

Here are some examples of the words you’ll see inside of a Buying Keyword Phrase:

• Buy _____
• Purchase _____
• Find _____
• Best price _____
• Model Numbers
• Specific Product Names
• etc.

What Should You Focus On?

As I mentioned at the beginning, not all keyword phrases are created equally. So which of these three should you focus on? Comparing Keywords and Buying Keywords.

The Browsing Keywords are just too general for us to worry about. They get the most traffic, yes. But they also have the most competition because those are the phrases that everyone tries to use. It’s also where a lot of the big companies are going to put their money. So we focus our time instead on the more specific Comparing and Buying Keywords.

So when you’re looking at your keyword list when you’re doing research, take note of what types of keyword phrases you’re coming up with. This will help you decide which ones you should focus on in the end.

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Sometimes you may find yourself in a situation where you cannot directly attach a blog to your main domain name. For example, maybe you are using a website builder that doesn’t allow you to get access to the FTP side of things, so there is no way for you to add any blogging software. Does this mean that you can’t take advantage of blogging for your business? NO!

In this situation, what you’ll want to do is buy another domain name that is very similar to the regular domain name. For example, if the name of your main domain is SomeBusiness.com, you could get SomeBusinessBlog.com. Here are the benefits of doing things this way:

Link Building

In this situation you can really get a link building benefit. Every time you write a new blog post, use one of your main keyword phrases and link it back to your main domain name. Since you have a separate domain for your blog, each one of these links can count as an inlink to your main site.

Interaction

You can still get the interaction from a blog on a different domain that you will on the same domain. All you have to do is link from your main domain over to the blog. Most people won’t even know the difference when they go over there.

The one thing that you don’t get from doing things this way is the build up of content because you’re on a different domain name. But if you are unable to add a blog to your main site, don’t let that stop you from reaping some of the benefits of blogging.

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When I talk to people about this idea a lot of them ask me something like, “But aren’t blogs just for people that have nothing better to do? I thought they were all junk!” Well, yes, there are a lot of junky blogs out that that aren’t going to do us a lot of good. But what are the benefits to having blogs? Well, part of this answer depends on how you have your blog set up. For this you have two different options: a blog attached to your site, or a blog on a separate domain name. Today we’ll talk about the first option.

Content

The first reason to have a blog attached to your site is for content creation. Search engines like to see that your site is constantly changing. One of the problems with regular website is that they tend to be somewhat static, meaning that they don’t change very often. Well, if you site never changes, why would the search engines need to come back? Having a blog can definitely help with this problem.

Link Building

This is especially true if you have the site setup like blog.sitename.com. There is still some benefit if you have a setup like www.sitename.com/blog, but it tends to be better the other way. Basically, when you add a post to your blog, you should use one of your main keyword phrases and link back to the main site. When you do this you are adding to the links that you have out there, and you’re using key phrases!

Interaction

One of the great things about blogs is that they give your customers a chance to interact with you on a different level. You can use your blog as a newsletter of sorts. It also gives you a chance to perhaps create some good link-bait articles that others will link to as well.

So in short, yes there are many reason that you might want to consider having a blog for your e-commerce website. Blogging is not just for those that are bored. Lots of businesses are starting to get involved in the blogosphere because they’re finding that it can help affect their search engine rankings.

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