AdWords vs AdSense

In my readings and research, I've noticed that more and more people are saying AdSense when they mean AdWords and vice versa. Makes things a bit confusing when I'm trying to research the latest happenings in those two areas.

An excellent Web Building Resource: The Web Style Guide

Many years ago when I was first starting to design and develop websites, I found an amazing sited called The Web Style Guide It helped me get up to speed on a lot of web design issues, and I referred to it often. However, as I learned more, I used the site less and less. Just today, I happened to find the site again, and it brought back memories of how useful it was to me. So now I'd like to share the site with you. I hope it's as helpful to you as it was to me.

You can also check out a hard copy version of the site at Amazon.

Firefox: Another Browser to consider.

The preview release of Firefox, has got to be one of the best web browsers I've used. Don't take this lightly, since I've been a heavy supporter and user of IE since version 3.0

It's powerful, full of great new features, and very user friendly. One of my favorite feature is the ability to open up new tabs. I'm a heavy surfer, which means that it's not unusual for me to have 10 plus browser windows open at the same time. Since I've been blogging and reading blogs more often, I also like the integrated RSS reader. This alerts you of a site's RSS feed on the corner of your window. You can then subscript to it and read feeds directly from the browser.

The #1 thing that helped make the switch from IE to Firefox easier was the fact that, during the install, Firefox can import all your favorites, options, cookies, stored passwords from IE. I don't know about you, but over the years, I've collected a nice bunch of favorites and customized my browser to suit my needs. the fact that I didn't have to start all over again was a very big deal.

So what does Firefox have to do with you as an Affiliate Marketer? Over the next few months, you are sure to notice that a lot of your visitors are using the Firefox browser. As I write this post, 1,671,594 copies of Firefox have been downloaded in just 8 days. This number is sure to grow. I recommend you get Firefox, and start testing your pages to make sure they show correctly. Unlike IE, Firefox is stricter about correct HTML code. You won't be able to get away with some of the things you've been able to do in IE. The last thing you want is to lose a sale because your website was incorrectly coded.

Google Conversion Tracker changes

Google has changed the AdWords conversion tracker image to a simple block of text. I like the look of this new tracker better since it's less intrusive. On top of that, the background color can now be customized to match your site.

Big Hip: Email Marketing for Free

Yesterday I found out about Big Hip, an email marketing service that provides you with powerful tools to manage your email marketing campaigns. I've been with them for less than a day, and I'm already liking their service a lot.

They have some very powerful list management and tracking tools that help you easily manage and track your campaigns. Each subscriber must complete a double opt in process, this makes sure that you only have people who are interested in being on your list.

There's also a cool category feature that lets you define different categorize. New subscribers can then select the categories they are interested in. You can then send mail to only members of a particular category on your list. This feature alone should enable you to target your emails in a way the produce maximum results.

Their statistics are in real time, and you will immediately know how many emails were delivered, and how many people actually opened your email. One feature I really liked, was the geographic statistics. It tells you exactly where your readers are located. You can then even send emails to users in a specific geographic location. Imagine being able to send a special email to only list members located in the UK. Amazing!

Do you want to know which links people are clicking in the emails you send? It's as easy as setting up a custom tracking url. This is built right into the system, and you'll get detailed information on which links were clicked.

Service and support is outstanding. You get unlimited phone and email support. There also a live chat support option. I used it today, and talked to a really helpful rep.

I found out that there some very exciting up coming features just around the corner. First, there's an auto responder feature. This will let you setup automated follow up sequences, based on a schedule you set up. Second, there will soon be a feature that can automatically categorize members based on their behavior over time. I didn't get the full details, but I image that you'll be able to get access to categories such as subscribers that read a certain percentage of your emails.

Finally, if you are familiar with email marketing you know how important it is to get your email delivered. Big Hip is AOL White Listed, and a member of the Bonded Sender Program. This means improved access to over 230 million mailboxes, MSN and hotmail use this program. So if a lot of your list members use MSN or Hotmail, this is an added advantage.

If you are interested in building a list, I highly recommend you take a look Big Hip. The started plan gives you free usage for up to 50 subscribers. You'll be able to send 1,500 a month. This basically means, you'll be able to email a list of 50 people every day of the month without hitting you limit. Other plans with more subscribers range between $19.95 and $249.95 a month.

The Holidays are coming, are you ready?

The holiday season is just around to corner. Are you ready? For many merchants, the holidays mean an increase in sales and business. This in turn, means more opportunities for affiliate to earn more over the next few months. In order to make to most out of the holiday sales period, you must take some time to prepare your websites for holiday buyers.

Things to consider include:

• A color pallet change
• Holiday graphics
• Optimization of your content for holiday related keywords
• Preparation of holiday theme PPC campaigns.
• Launching your site early enough to get picked up by the search engines.

One good habit you can pick up from brick and mortar stores is that, they start their promotions very early. I've been seeing Halloween candy and decorations in store for the past few weeks. The earlier you start, the more time you have to make sale and earn commissions. Of course, you can't always start as early as you want. Your merchants also have to be on board.

Revenue Magazine: A magazine for affiliate marketers

I just recently received issue #3 of Revenue Magazine. From what I know, this is the first magazine dedicated to affiliate marketing. I think it's a great addition to any affiliate marketer's reading list. As affiliate marketers, it's always important to keep up to date with the industry. This field is steadily growing, and the competition is getting tougher.

Unfortunately, the magazine is only published quarterly, so don't expect a new issue every month. Issue #4 will be out in October, if you are interested, you should be able to find it at your local newsstand. You can also subscribe online at the revenue website.

Have any of you had a chance to read a copy of Revenue? I'd like to hear your comments.

Google Adwords Tip: Check your destination URL

Today while reviewing my campaigns, I had a feeling to check my destination url for a keyword that was getting a lot of clicks. Imagine my horror when I found out the destination url was not for the item the ad was describing. When creating the ads, I made sure that all links were going to a valid url. However, I think, in between the multiple cut and pastes I over looked this ad. Fortunately, I had a very low bid price for that Ad Group and didn't lose much money.

Take a look at your campaigns and ad groups, if you are getting a lot of clicks but no sales, it could be a sign that your destination url may be wrong.

New Google Adwords Power Post Tool

Here's another Google AdWords tool for you. For those if you familiar with Power Posting, I've designed this tool to help you quickly and easily generate a keyword list in the correct format for power posting. It's pretty straight forward and easy to use.

I spent some hours on this getting the formulas right and everything. If you like it, feel free to leave a donation :)

You can download the file here:
http://www.thebizbank.com/power-post-tool.xls (3.34mb)

It's quite big because I designed it to support up to 4000 keywords. If you are on dial up and want a smaller version of the file let me know.

New Free PPC Bidding tool

I've recently started running more PPC advertising campaigns on Google AdWords, and one thing that I always worry about is: "How high can I afford to bid on this keyword?" The last thing I want to do is run a campaign that loses money.

I seen tools that tell you your ROI etc, but I could find something that could tell me the max I could bid before I started losing money. I also wanted to find out what my max bid should be if I wanted to achieve a certain ROI.

With this in mind, I spent the past hour or so creating a tool that would answer my questions. I've uploaded it to one of my servers, and you are free to download an check it out. Please let me know what you think. I checked my math, but if you find an error let me know. I'd also like to know if there are other tools you'd like to see.

You can download the excel file at http://www.thebizbank.com/PPC-Bidding-Tool.xls

Free .info domains

I've just become aware of two domain name registration companies that are offering free registrations of .info domain names. I haven't yet registered any names with either company but, if I had to choose, I'd feel more comfortable ordering from NameSecure. They also have a tell a friend form that will send you a 10% discount on their other services and products. Have a friend fill out the form, or email me if you'd like me to send you the discount.

Check out both companies below:

Name Secure or their tell a friend form

DomainSite

AdSense News: Up to 3 AdSense units on a page

Google just announced that publishers can now have up to 3 ad units per page. This means more opportunities to monetize your content.