has 13+ years experience in web development, ecommerce, and internet marketing. He has been actively involved in the internet marketing efforts of more then 100 websites in some of the most competitive industries online. John comes up with truly off the wall ideas, and has pioneered some completely unique marketing methods and campaigns. John is active in every single aspect of the work we do: link sourcing, website analytics, conversion optimization, PPC management, CMS, CRM, database management, hosting solutions, site optimization, social media, local search, content marketing. He is our conductor and idea man, and has a reputation of being a brutally honest straight shooter. He has been in the trenches directly and understands what motivates a site owner. His driven personality works to the client's benefit as his passion fuels his desire for your success. His aggressive approach is motivating, his intuition for internet marketing is fine tuned, and his knack for link building is unparalleled. He has been published in books, numerous international trade magazines, featured in the Wall Street Journal, sat on boards of trade associations, and has been a spokesperson for Fortune 100 corporations including MSN, Microsoft, EBay and Amazon at several internet marketing industry events. John is addicted to Peets coffee, loves travel and golf, and is a workaholic except on Sunday during Steelers games.
My previous post dealt with a business model especially aimed at service providers. Today I’m going to write about a type of site that also provides a service, but in a very specific manner and for a very specific audience: link shop sites.
1. What is this monetization model about?
Sites and blogs whose main purpose is to sell links to interested webmasters. A little bit of traffic may also be sent to link buyers. However, this is not a priority in most cases. (more…)
As promised, today I’m going to write about an online business model that has a certain resemblance to the visitor-oriented sites. Let’s call it client-catching sites.
1. What is this monetization model about?
Sites and blogs that are used to attract potential clients for service providers. Mainly used by small businesses, freelancers and consultants.
2. Examples
In my previous post I discussed the pros and cons of fast money making sites. Now I’m going to write about an online business model that is quite the opposite of the latter: visitor-oriented sites.
1. What is this monetization model about?
Sites built for long term results. They tend to be heavily based on informative, entertaining or otherwise helpful content. Developing and maintaining a good relationship with the audience and with peers is essential.
2. Examples
There are several different ways to monetize your blog or site. In this series I’m going to discuss four methods. My aim isn’t to write an exhaustive list, but rather offer you a basic guide. You can use it to compare the proposed business models and then develop a strategy for future web projects — or modify existing ones.
Let’s start with a business model that is suitable to entrepreneurs who want quicker financial compensation for their efforts: fast money making sites.
1. What is this monetization model about?
Fast money making sites and blogs are those created to generate profits as fast as possible (yes, you guessed it). They can either be part of a short term plan or be used to generate passive income for several years.
2. Examples
There are a lot of reasons to like LinkedIn. It has a clean interface, it’s easy to navigate, and you get the opportunity to network with various individuals to enhance your business (something that used to take thousands of dollars to attend conferences and a good number of hours burned on the golf course). Last year, LinkedIn grew by a phenomenal 319%, and by latest estimate is now valued at $1 billion. Clearly, the people behind it are doing something right.
LinkedIn’s most recent project is DirectAds, a way for members to post their own text ads on the website, and it really looks promising. See, the great thing about LinkedIn is that compared to Facebook, the average member age is older and the average income is certainly much higher. It’s an extremely targeted form of advertising to business professionals – the movers and shakers. Furthermore, the ads can be tuned to appear to a specific age range, gender, industry, and seniority. If you haven’t signed up with LinkedIn yet, you might want to take a look around.
There are a few things to note about DirectAds:
So far it all looks great on paper, except that if I was an advertiser, I’d be more comfortable if they used the CPC model (cost per click). Anyway, reviews will start to trickle in once more people start using it, and then you can decide whether it’s a worthwhile ad platform for your business. As for the site itself, it seems like it can only get better.
The bulk of AdSense earnings for most people tend to come from AdSense for Content banners, and this is why they are the prime focus of optimization efforts – the right blend of colors, placement and ad sizes, among others. But I think it’s high time we also pay attention to the AdSense for Search text box, the little workhorse that adds both functionality and monetization possibilities to our sites. If you don’t have it yet, I strongly suggest that you try to get it from your AdSense account. These are just some tips on how to set it up. (more…)
You may be saying now: “Of course it’s SEO! There’s no such thing as SEOProc.”
Are you sure?
I’m going to show you that while most webmasters dream of reaching the SEO King/Queen status, many of them are in fact moving towards SEOProc stardom.
See if you recognise any — or all — of the following symptoms:
1. Spending time in SEO forums and blogs is essential. You read as many posts and comments as possible, trying to distinguish valid pieces of information from the useless ones. Eventually, you get confused and tired… and move on to the next forums and blogs.
2. Split testing is important because it helps you detect SEO techniques that truly work. For several times you’ve been about to run your own tests. But then you say to yourself: “Why would I want to do this anyway? There are already so many SEO specialists doing this. I’d better wait until they publish their own tests’ results.” And this is exactly what you decide to do.
3. Keyword researching is an absolute must-do for all webmasters. With this fact in mind, you research keywords all the time. You hardly — if ever — put your research’s resulting data in use, but that really doesn’t matter. At least you’ve taken the first and most important step in your SEO strategy and this is what counts.
4. Installing SEO plugins on a WordPress blog is easy. You often find posts listing such plugins. You love reading and bookmarking those articles. After all, by reading them you’ll be able to choose the right SEO plugin… someday. There’s no hurry; new plugins are released all the time and you prefer waiting for the perfect one.
If you relate to the list above in any way, beware: Search Engine Optimisation Procrastination — aka SEOProc — will hinder you from achieving web success. Unless you stop procrastinating and start taking action now.
Can you think of any other SEOP symptoms? Share them by leaving a comment.
Seeing a graph of your hits go up can definitely give a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Aside from the money it can bring, high traffic provides a sense of accomplishment. It is, undoubtedly, good for business, but some people, especially those who are just starting out, tend to make it the only goal, and therein lies the problem. There is more to making money online, and there is certainly more to traffic than just volume.
1. Targeted audience. In this era of a crowded Internet, people are increasingly creating niche sites to cater to a certain crowd. In order to work, these sites must attract people who are more or less predisposed to listening to what they have to say. Otherwise, they’ll just click away faster than you can say “Web 2.0”. This is why SEO and your overall marketing plan are very important.
2. Sustainable traffic. With sites like StumbleUpon and Digg, it’s fairly easier now to get huge spikes in traffic. However, these spikes are often unpredictable, and not really that good for business – that is, unless you can convert them into regular readers and sustain the momentum. There are various strategies for these and I may take them up in future posts.
3. Reader engagement. Let’s say you’re getting tens of thousands of visitors a month, which isn’t bad in any case, but nobody is commenting on your blog. Needless to say, it’s not a good sign. A successful site is one that can connect to its readers. It’s also validating to receive comments, even criticisms, because at least you know that people care enough about what you write to say what’s on their mind. There are even bloggers who purposely rile their readers to get tons of comments and generate buzz, but then that’s a different story.
4. Monetizability. Of course, the bottom line for online businesses, whether directly or indirectly. Can you convert your traffic? In Internet marketing, high quality leads will result to high conversion rates, whereas casting a wide net randomly is less effective. Observers have also noted that StumbleUpon traffic, though substantial, yields a poor AdSense clickthrough rate (although there are some workarounds on this, such as putting up CPM ads).
All in all, what traffic means to you really depends on what you want to achieve. Not everyone is aiming to convert through product sales. Some bloggers don’t even have ads on their pages, and that’s because they only write to gain credibility and establish their own personal brand (then make money in consultancy, public speaking or other services). In this case, catching the attention of the right people and expanding your network may be more beneficial than tens of thousands of hits. So unless reaching the mass market is truly your goal, it might be prudent to start looking at other aspects of your website traffic.
Once upon a time there was an adage that was born. It was named “Content is King”. Many people grew to know of this adage and became quite familiar with it chanting its name all over the land. Ok, ok enough of the fairytale.
If content is king, then unique and up-to-date content is what you are looking for, period. The days where you could simply grab content from the umpteen article directories out there and post it to your site getting full credit for it, benefit wise, just as if it were your own are fading away. Sure, you can still get that content and add it to your site but now the benefits have devalued in a major way, both from a search engine’s point of view and your users’. (more…)
One of the things any webmaster learns really fast in their field is the importance of time. With that in mind they continually seek faster more efficient ways of doing things. This isn’t something only webmasters do, it is done throughout every industry in the world.
If you make saving time one of your goals for your website business you will be astounded at just how much time you will have to do more and more important things. Here are some examples to help clarify my point:
Be prepared, think ahead.
You are looking for somewhere to find a great image for a project. For all of you that have taken some time to find the right image you know how much time that can be. Well if you already knew of a site where you would most likely find the image then that saves time. Don’t rebuild the wheel. If you know in advance that you will be needing a good Font Source then ask a designer colleague where would be a good spot. By the time you are ready for the fonts you know just where to go.Stay sharp, quality counts.
Your website is starting out with only 5 pages so you decide to just code it all in html making a static site, rather than making it dynamic with a server-side language. Time is precious. If you do it right the first time you save the time and money doing it over again plus the time spend on the original.Knowing is Half the Battle
Finding solutions to problems. In the internet world as the world itself people are always trying to find solutions. In the internet world this can be just a forum away but when time is of the essence you need to know where to go to get results. An example of this is a site called ASKAGEEK.com where technology related questions can be submitted with answers being prompt and well thought out. And yes, the service is free. I know that when I need an answer that that’s the place for me to go.
One of the major hurdles preventing the average person from being good at this is keeping a record of who is good for what etc. Don’t depend on memory. Keep a list, a file, something, so that you will always have it. (unless the dog eats it)
Sometimes in life its some of the most obvious things that seems so unthinkable. This is one of them. Take some time to think of ways you can save time. It can change your life.
Feel free to comment and let us know ways in which you have been able to save time. Here is one from me.
– I pay attention to the things I do daily and look for repetitiveness. One I find it I start thinking of a way to do it once or only a few times instead of continually.
Best of luck.
