eComm Tips

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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I was reading a post today from Yaro Starak on his great blog Entrepreneur’s Journey. The post was 4 Tips For Becoming A More Productive Entrepreneur. The tips are pretty simple, but it’s with simple things that we make big changes. Here are the 4 tips that he suggests:

1. Don’t Watch Television
2. Hire A House Cleaner
3. Don’t Eat Processed Sugar
4. Don’t Respond To Email

I’d like to take these tips and break them down a little bit into some other general ideas for you. I would break his 4 tips into 3 main categories:

1. Don’t waste time with meaningless activities
2. Spend your time doing the most important activities
3. Take care of your health

Don’t Waste Time With Meaningless Activities

Watching TV and a ton of other activities are in essence a waste of time. Does that mean that they don’t have their place in life? I’m sure they do, but make sure that you’re putting first things first. Too many people these days make the excuse that they “don’t have enough time” to build a business or any other worth-while activity, and yet they wouldn’t miss American Idol for anything. It’s a matter of priorities.

Spend Your Time Doing the Most Important Activities

Emails can take up a ton of your time. Set up spam filters and anything else you can to limit spam and pointless emails. Also, only respond to those email that necessitate a response. There are other “busy work” activities that can take up your whole day if you like them. Sure they’re important, but prioritize your time to do the most important activities before doing the busy work stuff.

Take Care of Your Health

What good would it be to become a wealthy individual and not have the health to enjoy it? Not only that, but when you’re healthy you work better. You feel better and can work harder when you feel better physically, and also when you feel better about yourself. So take care of yourself!

I know these are simple points, but I think that a lot of us forget these simple things. Check your life and see if you need to make some adjustments somewhere.

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So I realized yesterday that I haven’t updated the plugins page for a long long time. So I figured it was time to do so! I’ve added 7 more WordPress Plugins (read more about them on the Plugins Page):

• Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
• Favicon Manager
• Google Sitemaps
• Leprakauns Word Count
• Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam
• All in One SEO Pack
• WP-PostRatings

I have also added a couple of FireFox Plugins that I left out before:

• SEO for FireFox
• StumbleUpon Toolbar

I hope you find these useful, and I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

(Ugly birds…but man they’re tasty!!! Happy Thanksgiving )

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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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Aaron Wall of SEOBook.com put out some really good videos about various SEO Topics. If you haven’t heard of Aaron or SEO Book, you should check it out. SEO Book is one of the best books about SEO out there, and if you’re looking to dominate the search engines it would be a really good read for any of you.

Here’s the links to the videos so you can check them out. It would also be a good idea to subscribe to his video feed so you can be updated when he puts out any more.

SEO Book Videos

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