Good Gourd! Was it just a coincidence that my all-in-one printer, fax, scanner, copier, dishwasher came to its demise this week? Shouldn't these things work for more than a year?
What about being told by a kind reader that my newsletter is fraught with 'gremlins'?
Oh, and of course the brand-new Vtech multi-handset cordless phone system works and sounds more like using tin cans on a string, replete with a very spooky echo.
Actually, despite the many 'ghosts in the machine', it has been an excellent week in my little corner of the home-based Internet business world.
Best of all, I received a virtual ton of email from subscribers to the 'Net Profits Today' newsletter, and not all were complaints! Wow! :-)
Thanks for that! Your excellent questions and comments get my wheels turning, and that helps me learn. In return, I want to share what others are asking so you too can benefit.
The bulk of questions this week were about pay-per-click advertising... and so are most of today's answers! Go figure!
Q & A - Keyword Research Tips 5. RE: Last Week's PDF Question
Q & A - Does Pay-Per-Click Advertising Really Work?
Q. I noticed that you are currently advertising your web site on Overture. I am thinking about using Overture to advertise my company, and I was wondering how Overture has produced for you. Are you generating leads, sales and traffic from Overture?
A. I think pay-per-click engines are an absolute gift to Internet marketers! :-)
What could be easier than to list words and phrases that your potential customers are searching on anyway, and pay as little as a penny per click to have them visit YOUR site?
Yes, a HUGE portion of my traffic, leads, and sales originate from my pay-per-click advertising campaigns.
I love services that are easy, fast, cheap AND effective.
Q & A - Should I Bid the Top Spot?
Q. Would it be a good idea to for me to pay top dollar to be at the top?
A. Being in the #1 spot on a pay-per-click search engine doesn't guarantee sales. It just means that you are
likely to receive more traffic than advertisers farther down the list.
To determine whether it's worth spending big bucks to be near the top you have to know and understand conversion rates.
ie. How many clicks does it take to produce 'x' number of
sales? What is your return on investment?
For example, if you make two sales per hundred visitors, then your conversion rate is around 2%. If your revenue per sale is $10, then paying 20 cents per click would completely negate your earnings.
REVENUE - 2 X $10.00 (revenue/sale) = $20.00 EXPENSES - 100 (clicks) X .20 = $20.00 NET - $0.00
However, if your cost per click remains the same, but either your conversion rate or revenue per sale increases, then 20 cents per click (in this case) might be worth it.
You need to play around with the variables. Decide what percentage return you want on your investment, then work the numbers to make that happen.
Q & A - How Many Keywords Do I Need?
Q. You mention that most of your traffic is from ppcse's.
How many keywords is necessary to become successful? How many do you have for sage-hearts.com? (I already use Oveture and I would think that the fierce competition would demand that I have thousands of targeted keywords.)
A. When it comes to keywords and pay-per-click advertising, it is certainly a case of 'the more the merrier'.
For sage-hearts.com, I advertise about 1700 keywords and phrases at Overture. I also advertise that site on several other PPCSE's. In addition to wide exposure, having many keywords allows you to 'dollar cost average' your bids.
For example, if you pay 30 cents for 1 keyword, and 5 cents for another, and both receive about the same number of hits, your average bid cost has just gone down to 17.5 cents per keyword.
The trick is to bid on popular keywords at relatively low cost.
The best way to dollar cost average is to place thousands of keywords in several different accounts. My 3 favorite PPC's are:
Overture Findwhat 7 Search
Q & A - Keyword Research
Q. Do you have any suggestions for doing effective keyword research?
Research is absolutely essential. I use both Overture's keyword suggestion tool and WordTracker.
I particularly like WordTracker. The service makes it easy to pick the right keywords. In addition to listing words and phrases that have been requested on leading search engines and directories, it also works out statistically how many visitors your site would likely receive if you were in the top ten on the major engines for a given phrase. Very cool!
You can also email WordTrackers results to yourself if you want to refer to the material later.
Check out their fr*e trial at:
WordTracker
RE: Last Week's PDF Question
Last week I asked:
What is the best way to create a PDF when the original files are HTML?
Thanks to all of you who replied! I got plenty of good solid ideas and resources.
Basically, the full version Adobe Acrobat was the readers' prime choice, followed by Adobe's online PDF creation tool.
Most of you agreed that Adobe's help files weren't that helpful.
When I have the time to put it all to good use, I'll let you know when the upgraded book has been uploaded! Thanks!
I hope that helped answer some of YOUR questions. Please keep sending them in. If I don't contact you personally, keep reading - you might see both your question and the answer in the Net Profits Today.
Until next time, I wish you Health, Wealth and Happiness!
Rosalind Gardner The Net Profits Today NetProfitsToday.com
