Six Things You May Be Doing Wrong with Google Adwords

AdWords is a tool Google offers advertisers to help them gain traffic and, ultimately, sales through pay per click advertising. While AdWords is relatively easy to use, there’s a good chance you’re not maximizing your return-on-investment (ROI) due to some simple, easily correctable mistakes.

Here are six common areas where advertisers tend to make AdWords faux pas and ways that they can be improved.

TOO MANY KEYWORDS IN AN AD GROUP 

Using too many keywords in an ad group makes it more difficult to fit those keywords into your ad copy. Deftly incorporating keywords into ads so that the copy sounds natural is an art and a science. But if you include too many keywords, you won’t be able to properly customize the ad so that it matches the term being searched for.

For example, consider a retailer who sells a variety of shoes for athletic endeavors. If they create an “athletic shoes” ad group that includes keywords such as running shoes, tennis shoes and cross-trainers, it will likely result in a generic and vague ad, such as “Find assorted athletic shoes for men and women.” Consequently, when someone searches specifically for “running shoes,” they’ll be less inclined to click on the retailer’s ad because it’s doesn’t closely match-up with what they are looking for, which will lead to a drop in the retailer’s click-through rate.

Recommendation:  Group your keywords together as tightly as possible in an ad group and select keywords that reflect what someone would actually search for. For example, the athletic shoes retailer would be better off creating an ad group for Running Shoes, Tennis Shoes, Cross-trainers, etc. Then, under the Running Shoes ad group, they might include the keywords “shoes for running,” “quality running shoes,” “trail running shoes,” “road running shoes,” etc. To keep it simple, a general rule is to include no more than 15 keywords per ad group.

When it comes to selecting what keywords to include in your ad group, it’s best to mix common sense with Google’s AdWords Keyword Planner.

By breaking up your ads and keywords into themes, the easier your campaigns will be to monitor and optimize and the more likely a consumer will be to click on your ad.

NOT USING NEGATIVE KEYWORDS

In many cases, advertisers either don’t know to use negative keywords, or they are not adding or updating them consistently. Negative keywords might include locations where your services are not provided, terms that would reflect poorly on your brand, or related products that you don’t sell or don’t want to sell.

For example, if you sell knitted scarves and mittens but you don’t sell leather gloves, you’d want to add “leather gloves” as a negative keyword so that you are not wasting clicks or spending money on clicks that don’t matter to your website.

Recommendation: In addition to including words that you don’t sell or don’t want to sell, it’s also a good idea to include terms that generate a lot of clicks, but not conversions. You can find that information by running a Search Terms Report in Google.

You can also use negative keywords at different levels of your account. For instance, if you sell road and mountain bikes but you’re running a specific campaign to raise awareness for your mountain bikes, you might include “road bikes” in your negative keyword terms for that particular campaign.

NOT USING LANDING PAGES

Landing pages are super important for ensuring that you are directing people to the product/services that they are looking for.  Sending someone to your home page to find a specific product will only serve to overwhelm and frustrate them – especially if you’ve listed numerous other products on your home page. If a potential customer has to take the time to hunt for what they are looking for, more often than not, they won’t.

Recommendation: Make life easy for visitors and create specific landing pages for each of your products. This way, when someone shops for a product that you offer, they’ll be taken directly to that product page on your site.

This not only creates a better user experience for your prospective customers, it will also increase your relevance for that product’s search term. Google will recognize that your landing page is providing the information that the searcher is looking for and will likely improve your quality score.

NOT USING AD EXTENSIONS

AdWords allows you to created ad types that aren’t necessarily part of a standard pay per click ad, which typically includes an ad headline, description, and display URL. These other ad types are known as “ad extensions” and include sitelink extensions, call-out extensions, and review extensions.

Sitelink extensions are additional ads that can go under your ad. Since they also include a headline and a product description, they are essentially an ad unto itself. The beauty of sitelink extensions is that they give you more ad space to promote more of your products—all without extra cost. You only pay for the click, not to post all the different elements of the ad.

In addition to sitelink extensions, two other valuable ad extensions are:

Callout extensions – Google recommends that advertisers use callout extensions to draw attention to unique selling points and important product details and benefits. For example, “100% made in the USA. Free shipping. Free returns. 24/7 customer service.”
Google will rotate call-out extensions and sitelink extension based on viewers search history.

Review extensions – Review extensions are reviews of your product from a legitimate third party. In other words, it can’t be from someone’s Facebook comment or a review on your website. Review extensions add authority and authenticity to your company, products and services. When a user clicks on the review extension link, it will take them to the review page, blog post, etc. What’s more is that when someone clicks on a review extension, you don’t have to pay for that click.
Recommendation: Use ad extensions.

NOT BIDDING ON BRAND TERMS

Oftentimes advertisers don’t feel that they need to bid on the name of their company because it already ranks high in organic searches. While that may be, the reality is that someone else may bid on your brand term. If you’re not bidding on it and someone else does, their paid ad might show up above your organic listing results, leading a user to click on their ad instead of yours.

Recommendation: Bid on your brand terms because there are many advantages of doing so. First and foremost, it is incredibly inexpensive for you to bid on your brand terms. And if your brand is well-recognized, you should easily and cost-effectively be able to get the number one ad position for all branded searches. So it won’t cost you much and it will drive a lot of traffic, which means higher ROI.

Another reason why it’s beneficial to bid on your branded terms is because it will give you two listings on a page: your paid ad and your organic search result. What’s more is that, compared to an organic search result, you have more control over the messaging that a searcher sees and the landing page they are sent to when you bid on branded terms. This translates into more control over the user experience and conversions.

The bottom line is that even the most recognized brands in the world pay for ads using their brand terms, so it’s just smart advertising to do so too.

NOT KNOWING WHAT YOUR GOALS ARE

In order to be clear on what you can spend on your AdWords ad campaign, you must be clear on your goals and the value of your products. For example, a retailer who spends $55 on keywords clicks to sell $50 shoes is not running a cost-effective AdWords campaign.

Recommendation: Look at the big picture and know what your ROI needs to be so that you can set an appropriate cost per acquisition. Ask yourself this question: Is your goal to make more sales or to lower the cost of your sales? Typically it can only feasibly be one or the other, which is why it’s critical to figure out whether volume or CPA is the goal. That will help determine your ad spend.

Being aware of these common Google AdWords pitfalls will make AdWords less expensive and more profitable over time. These tips are also exponential in the way in which they can help your AdWords campaign. If you can get more clicks and conversions, you’ll ultimately rank higher, which will help you continue to get more clicks and conversions.

http://www.accelerationpartners.com/blog/six-things-doing-wrong-google-adwords

The #1 Way For An Affiliate To Increase Conversions

Increasing conversion rates is a science. Achieving it requires knowledge, and testing. It often seems complicated, but for me, regardless of who you are, what your niche is, what you sell, or how much traffic you get, it all starts with this one idea…

MEETING YOUR VISITORS EXPECTATIONS.

A visitor first comes into contact with you via an ad. Whether that’s your page’s description ranking for a search term, or some paid ad, this is how your relationship with that person starts.

Right at that moment, an expectation is set. They read what your “ad” says, and they get some idea in their heads about who you are and what you’re going to give them.

Then they get to your site.

How well your site meets the expectation you set them determines how deeply they’ll engage with your content.

They read your content and if it’s what they were looking for, they see your affiliate link. They’re considering the product you promote.

When they look at your affiliate link, another expectation is set.

They’ve listened to what you said about the product and there’s a set of things they’re expecting to see when they reach the sales page for that product.

How well the sales page meets the expectation you set in your presell determines how likely they’ll be to buy the product.

These two meetings of expectation are what conversions rest on.

You therefore have two bits of analysis to do, if you want to increase affiliate sales on your site that’s getting SEO traffic.

1. “DOES MY TITLE TAG & META DESCRIPTION ACCURATELY REFLECT MY CONTENT”?

There’s plenty of talk about mentioning your keyword here. Or about being seductive and appealing so as to generate the click.

But neither of those will improve sales if you’ve set an expectation with your title tag and meta description that isn’t met in your actual page content.

Here’s an example.

The wonderful, and rather wise Priscilla Schoeman wrote a review of the Rankings Institute last year. It ranks for the keyword “Rankings Institute review”.

Here’s what it looks like to a searcher:

So the expectation is set.

I click this link thinking “I’m going to see whether RI is worth the investment… maybe she’ll tell me something no one else can, and maybe there’ll even be some special deal”.

Then here’s what I see when I get to the page:

Now this is by no means bad.

She’s established that this page is definitely about the Rankings Institute… like I expected when clicking.

She even shows the Logo of RI, to prove it’s definitely THAT RI we’re talking about. (This is quite important in many niches, when there are a lot of different products that are quite similar, perhaps even for the same brand).

But there are some bits that she doesn’t do straight away, which would certainly help those expectations be better met. Namely:

1. It’s not going to hurt to state right there at the top that this is a review, and from the perspective of someone in the course. Remember the expectation was set of “inside info”. I’d want to tell people straight away that what was promised, is exactly what they’ll get.

2. She didn’t say anything about the “investment” in this early paragraph.

Most of us have heard the phrase “tell them what you’re going to tell them” and this is key at this point, because expectations will be met if  tell them that what you said you’d tell them… you’ll definitely be telling them…

In other words, you need to assure them that this page is definitely going to have what you promised them. And assure them IMMEDIATELY.

Reading that first paragraph they have no trust in you. They’re still considering hitting the “back” button and choosing another site.

But that thinking stops if they instantly see that they’re going to get what you promised them.

To me, Priscilla’s review is more engaging (and will have more people reading on) if it says in that first paragraph:

 “I’ve made the investment in the Rankings Institute program and this review attempts to help others decide whether the same investment will pay dividends for them”.

Boom. Exactly what they thought they’d find at this page. They can feel confident to keep reading.

When you’re doing this analysis, you go through your own content in that same way, continually asking “Are readers clearly getting what I promised them here?”

2. “DOES MY REVIEW, (AND MY CALL TO ACTION IN PARTICULAR) ACCURATELY REFLECT MY PRODUCT SALES PAGE”?

It’s great to get people excited about the product you’re promoting. You want to tell them why the product is great and why people like it.

But if you aren’t also accurately reflecting what they’ll see when they click your affiliate link, it won’t be effective.

Here’s an example from a different site. This is a review of a GPS watch.

Here’s what I see on the review…

And here’s what I see when I click that – rather small – link to Amazon underneath the watch.

Let’s play spot the difference.

For one, the price is different. I was expecting $177 and I got $183. 

Maybe I won’t care about the $6 difference but there’s no reason for an affiliate to risk it. Probably this review just hasn’t been updated but this is definitely the kind of thing you need to watch out for.

For two, the image of the watch is slightly different. A different face is showing. This is negligible but in other cases it can be more significant. What they see on the merchant page has to be exactly what they saw on your page.

The point is, your prospect is close to making a purchase here. You don’t want to give them a reason to even blink, let alone wonder whether your review was definitely accurate.

That was an easy one, but common issues are things like:

- You promote a product that comes in 3 colors. Your affiliate site shows an image of the product in one color, and the first image visible at the sales page is the other color. It looks like a different product and people might be put off.

- You tell people there’s a special offer or some bonus currently available and they can’t see it mentioned on the sales page.

- You tell people about the 5 star reviews but when they get to Amazon there are a couple of 1 star reviews high up on the list, that you didn’t mention.

- Something you told people about the product is contradicted by something else on the sales page (can happen when a reviewer on Amazon contradicts something your review, and the manufacturer says)

And there are many more.

Making sure you’re meeting customer expectations at the content/call to action level is easy enough.

You just double check to make sure all the details are right, and that all the impressions you gave them about the product will be confirmed when they hit the sales page: No ambiguity, no confusion.

THAT’S THE BASIS OF HIGH CONVERSIONS

Everything else comes next. There’s no need to test different buttons, or colors, or adjust your pre-sell copy… or heck even abort a product review because it’s not converting… before you’ve taken the steps outlined here.

Go run the analysis on your sites and keep those affiliate sales coming.

http://andrewhansen.name/affiliate-marketing/the-1-way-for-an-affiliate-to-increase-conversions/

How to start a Blog & Make Money Blogging

Hi, have you ever wondered How to start a Blog? or more importantly 'How to Make Money Blogging'? It really is simple and in this guide I will show you everything you need to know to get started. I'll show you where to go, what to do and how to do it. So please just relax, grab a pen, maybe a cup of tea (or coffee), bookmark the page etc and get ready to learn how easily it can be done in a few short steps.

Most people see websites and blog's with links and fancy headlines, then think ''I'll never be able to do that!'' believe me I've been there too. The thing is, most people are greedy, make it seem way over complicated with the language they use and basically just want to keep it to themselves, which is where I step in. I want to show people that anybody can do this, not just the so called experts.

So here goes, let's get stuck in.....

Niche Selection

Before you get into composing the website itself, you need to think of what subject/category the website/your business is going to be about. This is what is known as the 'Niche', which means a focused, targetable part of the market. A specialist providing a product or service that focuses on specific clients needs. In other words, you provide the information that somebody is looking for.

Now, as I said, don't be concerned about not being a 'specialist' in anything, you don't need to be. There are places you can go, where the information/specialist knowledge is already written for you. I'll show you were to find it and how to apply it.

Ideally, this niche will be something of interest to you because if you're doing something that's close to your heart or you enjoy, you're more likely to want to make a success of it and put more effort into it. It's obviously a lot more fun. Alternatively, if you already have a business in mind you can apply these same methods.

There are so many different niche subjects you can choose, the list is endless. A simple Google search will reveal the most popular. See below a few ideas if you can't think of any yourself:
Money Saving

Money Making

Weight Loss

Personal Development

Health & Fitness

Gambling/Trading/Investing

You can only have one subject for your site, as multiple things going on will just cause confusion and lead to nobody wanting to visit, which would defeat the object. Further down the line, once your site is all set-up, bringing in the visitors and profits, feel free to set one up in another category and simply apply the same methods.

But, until then let's stick to one :)

Step 1 – The Basics

First things first, just to give you an idea of how a simple little blog can grow and expand to earn you a ridiculous amount of money, check out the screen shot below of the top 10 highest earning blogs in 2014.

Now, I'm by no means suggesting you're going to go away and earn the sort of money shown above by copying what I'm showing you (that really would be amazing!), but what it will do is give you the foundation and potential to generate your own income from home.

When the people named above started out with their first blog, I’m sure they also wouldn't have imagined earning those amounts in their wildest dreams. It just shows, everybody starts somewhere.

Also, don't just think you're going to set this up, then sit back and watch the money roll in, this isn't what this is about. Don't get me wrong, a lot of things are set-up to run on auto-pilot, which I think is fantastic, but if you don't continue to oversee things, make updates, tweaks, additions, alterations etc. Then your audience will desert you and that's exactly what your blog will do, sit there doing nothing. The best thing you can do is Keep up with the times and continue to learn and adpat in this ever changing world.

Right, enough of the chit chat. The very first thing you need to do, if you haven't already is register an account with gmail, which is FREE. Go to http://www.gmail.com and sign up for your Free account.

If you already have one, I would suggest creating a new one specifically for this (you do need to put your real mobile number in to verify your account. This number will not be used for anything else, so don't worry). You can untick the 'google using your information' box if you wish, entirely up to you.

Now close that down, head back to gmail and login to your new account. Once in your gmail account, you then type into your website browser at the top http://www.blogger.com.

You are then given 2 options ---> to create a Google+ profile or a Blogger Profile, which is the one we will use for now. You can also untick the 'email notifications' box if you don't want to receive any or if you do, just leave it ticked. 

Insert your display name, which is how you want to be seen (your actual name will be fine for this) and then continue to blogger. Your name will now appear at the top of the page and underneath this you will see 'Create new Blog', which is what we will do now, so click on this.

This can now begin to get a little exciting, as you can select the title and web address for your new blog. Remember, try and make this as relevant to your niche/business as possible. Whether it's 'losing weight', 'making money', 'personal development' etc. Or your already existing business. Don't worry too much, as this can all be changed if need be at a later date.

Example

Title: How To Lose Weight – Fast

Address: lose weight now – which becomes http://www.loseweightnow.blogspot.co.uk

Template: Choose any template of your choice

Now, when typing your new blog address, it may say that it is already taken. If this is the case, you'll need to keep going until you find one that is available (Be clever and make it as catchy as possible).

Once this is done ---> Create Blog. You can then go to 'view blog' at the top of the page, which will open a new tab with the basic blog you have just created, amazing and simple!? 

Anybody in the world can now type into google or their browser your blog address e.g. http://www.loseweightnow.blogspot.co.uk and it will take them directly to the blog you've just created.

Feel free to check it out yourself, as I'm sure it will give you a new sense of optimism, which I had when I first learned how to do this. Feeling good and positive?

The domain name you've just created (web address) is now hosted by google for FREE, so ''No hosting charges and no domain name purchases'', as you've just created it from scratch.

Step 2 – Blog Content

The next thing you will need to think about doing is writing/posting on your blog. I know this may sound hard and complicated as you're maybe unsure of what to write about etc. But it can be really simple. Surprisingly enough, ''you don't even have to write the articles yourself'', as I will show you where and how to do this.

Although on the other hand, if you enjoy writing and are good at writing articles or you already have things in mind for your business/niche, feel free to do them yourself or have a mixture of both.

There are hundreds and thousands of places you can obtain articles on the internet. You can either go to google and type in whatever niche/business your blog is about e.g. 'losing weight articles' or you could visit websites such as http://www.ezinearticles.com or http://www.goarticles.com to name a few.

Once you find something of interest or you think would appeal to your target audience, go to your blog and click on the pen/pencil icon near the top of the page, which is to 'create a new post'. You will then come to the page display below.

All you now need to do is go back to the article you have chosen and highlight it (hold down the left click of your mouse and drag the cursor to the end). Now, right click over the highlighted section and select 'copy'.

Go back to your blog post page and right click in the main section, then select 'paste'. This will now show the article you have selected in your page view (you can delete any unwanted information that is on there, such as links or advertisements to other people's products/services).

It is always good to try and have pictures with your articles, as they're more likely to catch people's attention and wonder what is being talked about. You then do the exact same thing for the 'post title', just copy and paste it into the section above the post, again making sure it is just the title and no other text that isn't required.

What you now need to do however is ensure the post is how you want it and no parts missing or added, then you need to show where you got the

article from as reference to prevent copyright. Basically, just highlight and copy the web address where you got the article from, then go back to your post (ensuring your cursor is at the end of your article) and click on the 'Link' icon and paste your web address into the section provided.

Make sure you tick 'open this in a new window', so if somebody does view your blog and clicks on the web address link when reading, they don't leave your page. It just opens another tab on their computer, but keeps yours there as well. Then click 'OK'.

Now you want to make sure you have what is known as 'Keywords' attached to your articles, which can be found in google searches. It just makes it easier for people to find your blog/posts. Down the right hand side, you have what is called 'Labels'... Click on this, where you will type in relevant keywords to match your post, e.g. Weight loss tips, Weight loss secrets, etc.

Example

If your post was an article on say, '5 Diet tips to help you lose weight'. Your 'Labels' could be – Weight loss, Lose weight, Diet tips etc. Any specific keywords that are talked about in the article. Just ensure you put a comma and space between each label like I have, then click done.

Once completed, click on 'Publish' and it will show your post title and the labels you've created. Click on 'view blog' at the top of the page and 'hey presto!' a new tab opens with your blog and your new post. Told you this was easy.

Although you may think 'Why would I put somebody else's link on my site?' Firstly, you have to for copyright reasons and secondly, it's a win win situation. They could get a little exposure (if people bothered to click on the link at the end of an article, I know I don't) and you get to post articles for free, without having to do any of the hard work in writing them.

Other benefits are that you can be the go to person for people looking for specific information that you can provide them with, rather than having to search the internet trying to find it themselves. You'll also be using different sources to get different articles, so it's not as if you're just

promoting the same individuals work all the time.

Step 3 – Improving your blog layout & structure

You've now got your blog created and know how to write a post. What you now need to do is begin to make it look a little easier on the eye and come across more professional. Go to your blog http://www.blogger.com (You'll need to sign into your gmail account if you're not signed in already) and click on the 'arrow' next to the pen/pencil icon, which will give you a little drop down menu, as seen below.

Click on 'overview'. For future reference this will show your blog's activity e.g. the graph shows how many views you have and on what date,

with your updates located next to it. This gets really exciting further down the line, once you begin to see people visiting your blog. 

Also, note that every time you click on 'view blog', this will also show as a person viewing it, when really it was you. You can take this off so it doesn't register as a view, but I generally just leave it on.

Next, you can click on the 'layout' label down the left hand side, which will show an overview of your blog. Firstly, you want to let people be able to share your posts on social media, which can put you in front of thousands of people and help generate a huge following. 

So, where it says 'blog posts' in the middle, click on 'edit' below. Here you can now alter some of the settings, as you see fit, this is personal preference. I would advise you always have 'labels' ticked and also 'reactions' are ideal for people leaving comments, so you can engage with your audience. You can alter these as you see fit e.g. you might want to delete the word 'cool' and add maybe 'fascinating' or 'intriguing', whatever you think might get a response from people.

Make sure, the 'show share buttons' is ticked as well, these are what enables people to link your posts to Social Media. At the bottom you will see your 'arrangements', the best thing to do is to left click on the 'social media share buttons' and drag them to the space above your post and then save (or wherever you feel suits best). This just makes it easier for people to see them when they look at your blog and are more likely to click on them. Once saved, also ensure you click on 'save arrangements' at the top right of the screen. This will save any alterations you have made.

If you look down the left hand side again underneath 'layout' is 'template'. So go ahead and click on this, as we need to change the structure a little to make it a little more user friendly. Here you can change the background image if you're not 100% happy with how it looks or just have a play around in case something might suit better, so click on 'customise'.

Here you can view the different styles available and then once

decided, click on 'apply to blog' at the top right of the page. If you click

on the 'background' you can also change the colours, images and so on, whatever you think suits best.

In the customise section of the templates, go to 'layout' (blog template designer) and I suggest you alter 'body layout' to the one with the 3 columns and title across the top. As highlighted below. This can always be changed later, so you have a browse around the internet and see what you feel would look the best for your blog.

Now what you need to do is 'adjust widths' and make the entire blog section bigger to approx 1250px and enlarge either sidebar to approx 300px (so that it fits nicely and you don't need to scroll sideways to view everything). This can instantly irritate some people, who may just leave your blog. Have a play around and find what suits. Again, all settings can be altered at a later date.

There is also the 'advanced' options, where you can change your fonts, columns etc. Again this is just personal preference. Once all has been applied, make sure you click on the 'apply to blog' in the top right corner and then go to 'view blog' to see all the changes have now been set.

Step 4 – Monetizing your blog

This is usually the place where people start to get a little more interested,

as we begin to look at ways you can earn money through your blog. One

such way is to create a Google Adsense account (although google have recently introduced a new restriction, which means you can only create a Google Adsense account after you have had your blog for at least 6 months). I'll just briefly run through this method for now, as it won't currently apply to you.

If you go to your 'blogger overview' as before and down the left you will see 'earnings', click on this. Then you can go to Google Adsense (after 6 months remember) and create an account. Enter your details as requested for payments to you. The account type can be set as 'individual' and country is where you are currently situated/resident, then your name and address (you do need to be 18+ to create this account) and agree to all the policies specified ---> Be sure to read them first.

Read the terms and conditions, then accept. You will then need to wait for Adsense to accept you. Once this has happened, you go to your blog overview, select 'layout' and add a gadget on either side. Scroll down to Adsense and select, fill in your details, select what type you would like and save.

With Google Adsense, it basically allows people/companies to advertise on your blog. Don't worry, they don't just fill it with rubbish. You basically have control as to where these adverts are posted and can also opt out, if you change your mind. The beauty is, when people click on these links and make purchases etc, you'll receive a payment!

Other methods with which you can get started instantly are, affiliate add/links. This means you can have a banner/link situated at the side of your posts and if somebody decides to click on these, they will then be directed to that persons sales page, product or website. If they decide to purchase something, because they have come from your site, you will receive a very nice and welcome commission payment! Nice and easy with no hard work or selling on your part.

Where and how can I set this up I hear you ask? Well, look no further. One such place is where you can become an affiliate for FREE is http://www.clickbank.com, which is an online marketplace for people like us, promoting affiliate products (other peoples products). 

Go ahead and register your details for your FREE account, as these are the ones who will be sending you your commission cheques. Once registered, head to the marketplace at the top of the screen and select whatever area/niche you are involved in down the left hand side (don't promote anything, just for the sake of making money, ensure it relates to your target market). Try to look for good products, do some research and get an idea of what looks good and what doesn't. The last thing you want to be doing is promoting things that don't do what they say they do.

Example

Above is an example of a Clickbank affiliate product. Say your niche/business is in health and fitness. If you went to the Clickbank marketplace and selected health and fitness, you will then see a list of people advertising products. The products at the top are generally what people are making the most money with, although you can filter the search as you see fit.

Now locate one that you're happy to promote. Usually at the end of their paragraph describing the product/service they will have a link e.g. http://www.truthaboutcellulite.com/affiliates (just a current example). If you copy and paste this link into a new page in your web browser, it will show you as an affiliate of Clickbank, all the tools you can use to promote that product, e.g. they will have logo links, banners, swipe emails etc.

What we’re looking for here is an advertising banner. Ideally select one that will fit nicely into your blog, so for example a nice small square banner ---> 250x250. If you click on the banner of your choice, it will bring up a HTML code, all you do is highlight this and copy it. Then head back to your blog, go to 'overview', then the 'layout' section and select 'add a gadget' on one side of your blog. Scroll down to HTML/JavaScript and select, then paste your HTML code into the 'content' section.

Now make a note of this, what you ''Must Not Forget'' to do is change the XXX's at the start of the link, e.g. http://www.xxx.clickbank...... ---> Delete them and add your Clickbank ID, which you made when you signed up. Sometimes instead of XXX it may say something different like 'YOURID' etc.

Usually this is mentioned to you when you're obtaining your link from Clickbank. Then save this, go to 'view blog' and you will see your new affiliate banner. If you click on it, it will show you what somebody else would see if they did, which will probably be the sales page for the product. If they decide to buy, a nice little commission will come your way.

You can now got back to Clickbank and promote a different product (although be sure not to fill your blog with countless banners and promotions, as people will just see it as this and only this). Repeat the same method as mentioned above. If you want to remove any banners or links, you can either do it from your 'layout' section, by clicking on it and selecting remove, then 'save arrangements' or you can go to your blog and you will see the spanner tool next to your banner, just click on that and again select 'remove'.

Alternatively in Clickbank, some products don't have the affiliate web link for you to obtain your banner from. If there is one that your keen to promote, this can still be done, just in a slightly different way. If you click on the 'Promote' icon, next to the product in the marketplace, you can

insert your account name (Clickbank ID). Once you have done this, you select 'create'. This will give you your affiliate HTML code, which you need to highlight and copy.

Now as shown above, you will also need to find a picture of the product your looking to promote. You'll be able to get these by clicking on the product sales page, then copying and pasting them to you computer.

How about if you have your own product that you want to sell, so you can take all the profits? Well, you can do this too. What you first of all need to do is, find a picture of the product you're looking to sell/advertise, as any picture can be made into a banner.

Once you've done this, go to your blog and to the 'layout' section, then 'add a gadget', but this time scroll down to 'image' and select. You can now have a title if you wish, which will appear above the banner and also add a link of where when clicked on, you want the banner to send the person, e.g. a sales page or other website URL. Upload the picture you want as your banner, then save and go and 'view blog' to see the result.

Once you've copied your HTML code and saved a picture for your banner on your computer, you can head back to your blog. Go to 'overview', 'layout' and 'add a gadget', scroll down to 'image', then paste in your HTML code, upload your picture and save. 'View blog' and you'll see your product will now be displayed as your banner. Bear in mind though, as you may need to alter some of the picture sizes to suit when saving to your computer. You can always delete and remove anything, so don't be too concerned about making any mistakes.

If you click on the newly created banner, it will direct you to the sales page of that person's product on Clickbank. As I told you earlier, none of

this is particularly hard, but if nobody shows you how to do it, it can be practically impossible.

Step 5 – Monetize with Amazon

As in the previous step with Clickbank, you can also have an 'affiliation with Amazon' and just think, who doesn't buy from Amazon these days?

This is very similar to the Clickbank method. Type into your browser, either http://www.amazon.com or http://www.amazon.co.uk, whichever one you normally use. Again, you need to create a FREE affiliate account.

To do this you scroll to the bottom of the homepage and click on 'associates program' and register there as an affiliate. In future you can sign in as normal, then go to the affiliate program and it will bring up your affiliate page, as shown below.

If you hover over the 'Links & Banners' tab at the top of the page, it will drop down some further options and you need to select 'Banner Links'.

Now you will see a section that displays different categories, e.g. Amazon Homepage, Amazon Logo's, Books and so on. Have a browse through them all and you will see the different banner types and styles, so try to select one that best suits your niche/business.

Once you've located your preferred banner, it will have a HTML code below it, so as before you just highlight it and copy it. Go back to your blog, to 'overview', then 'layout' and 'add a gadget'. Scroll down to the HTML/Javascript section and select. Now paste your copied link into the 'content' section.

The good thing with Amazon is that by logging into your affiliate account, they have already embedded you're Amazon ID into the original link, so you don't need to worry about adding or deleting anything. You can just save it.

If you now go to 'view blog', your new Amazon banner link will be displayed in the location you put it and as before you can check it out by

clicking on it and it will take you directly to the Amazon website. What's even better here, is that the person can buy absolutely anything on Amazon and because they came through your site, you will receive your commission payment! Sound good?

The internet is full of millions of websites and businesses that will happily let you become an affiliate of theirs to promote their products/services.

This gives them exposure they wouldn't otherwise have and also gives you a product to advertise. You can now both make money out of it, which suits both parties (in a way it can be similar to a Joint Venture, which we'll go into more detail another time).

A website called http://www.jvzoo.com is another, exactly the same as Clickbank, that you can register for and become an affiliate promoting other people's products in exactly the same way, so check it out.

Ebay also have an affiliate program, which you can register for, that works in the same way as the previous set-up with Amazon. The list is endless!

A little tip, sometimes if you go to a website and cannot find where it says about becoming an affiliate, occasionally if at the end of their web address you put /affiliate or /affiliates, if they have one it sometimes takes you direct to their affiliate program.

Step 6 – Creating Your Opt-in List

In this section, I will be showing you how to set up an optin-box, which is basically a 'sign up' form. This is the heart of your online business, as this is where you will begin to collect and store your database of customers/subscribers.

Every company in the world requires this and is the most essential, as without customers you have nobody to buy your product or service. If you think back to when you buy something online or in-store these days, you're generally asked to give your email address etc. This is exactly what those companies are doing, adding you to their database of customers for future reference. In your case, you will be using this to provide things such as, valuable and essential information, new updates, new products within your niche etc, to your list of customers.

The amazing thing with this, is once they sign in you don't specifically have to do anything else. Everything is stored and looked after for you on auto-pilot. This is done by a fantastic piece of online software, which can be set-up to send emails to your list of customers at the click of a button. You can even set it up to send an email to everybody on a specific date and at a specific time. It truly is fantastic and one which millions and millions of people use on a regular basis.

This software is what is know as an 'auto-responder', which basically means everything can be automatically done for you and it responds to whatever you tell it to do, truly amazing and is nowhere near as complicated as it may sound. The only minor downside to this however (if you can call it that), is the fact that unfortunately you have to pay for it, as does everybody else in the world including myself. There is just no way around not having such software, if you want to run a successful work from home/online business. It is however, the only thing you do need to pay for to get this whole system up and running, which isn't bad really.

As with all the entrepreneurs and successful business people out there, I have also done my fair share of research and testing. There are however a couple that are the most popular in the industry, which are Aweber and Getresponse. In my opinion and the majority of people I am in contact with, the easiest to use and most suitable is by far Aweber.

If you are a little tentative, like I’m pretty sure you will be, you can just trial this software for 1 month for the small price of $1. Then you can set it all up, see how it works and then if you don't want to continue at the end of it, you can just cancel (although I’m sure once you see how good it is, you won't want to cancel anyway).

For your $1 trial you can simply go to ---> http://www.getdollarfreetrial.aweber.com 

This link will take you to the superb software that is Aweber. The good thing about this is that, even if you decide to continue to see how it goes for a while, you're not tied into any form of contract, so you can cancel your subscription at any time in the future, without any penalties whatsoever. 

Believe me, it will boost your business ten-fold and enable you to consistently connect with an unlimited amount people to offer your products and services to. 

In case you're wondering, after the first month the price then goes up to $19 per month (this is currently fixed by Aweber and all auto-responders are a similar price), which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things and considering what this does. This will be THE most important tool at your disposal.

Also, bear in mind you can continue to set-up your blog and affiliate links, without using the software. Although you won't be able to grow and develop your own business from home without this. I'm sure you're reading this booklet because you want to change your life and become a success in your own right. This is the first step to get you there.

Right, now back to setting up this opt-in. If you sign in to your new Aweber account (see homepage below).

Once signed in, you'll see a tab that says 'Sign up forms'. Click on this and then on the icon that says 'create new sign up form'. Here you can now decide how you want your 'sign up form' to look. Browse through all the template designs until you find one that you like or that best suits your niche/business. Once you have selected one, you can also change the colour, so feel free to pick your favourite and it will adjust accordingly.

Over to the left hand side, you have a section that says 'create new field'. This means, you can add other information categories as you please, e.g. You could request their telephone number (although this can possibly be

seen as a little intrusive, so I’d suggest not to and keep it simple), but the choice is yours. If you now hover over your sign up template, you will notice that it highlights each section and if you select it, you can edit any details yourself.

Example

If you click on the 'sign up/submit' button, you may feel that you want a different description, so you could edit this to say something like 'show me more' or 'I want it now' or any other alternative. Again, this can be altered as often and as many times as you like. There are lots of little features you can adjust, like writing captions in the header or footer by clicking on them and inserting text.

Once done, just head to the next step. Here you can give the web form a name, e.g. a title that only you will see, that if people sign up on your blog, they will come under a specific category. As eventually you could have different blogs in different niches/businesses, where you wouldn't want to be sending information about losing weight to somebody whose signed up for something totally different. The great thing is you can run as many different campaigns as you like.

Now the thank you page is what the subscriber will receive upon sign up, just to say 'thanks for subscribing', which I would generally advise to leave as it is. If you wanted to, you could change this to a 'custom page'. This is where, going back to Clickbank for a minute, you could put your web address/referral link in here, which means when somebody signs up, they would be directed to an affiliate sales page, where you could gain your commission if they purchased something. This is personal choice, as it could lead to sales but also could seem a little pushy, it's your call.

You will now need to save your form before you can move on to the next step. In this section, if you click on 'I will install my form', all you need to do is highlight and copy all of the text displayed, then open another tab in your web browser and go to http://www.blogger.com 

Go to your 'overview', 'layout' and 'add a gadget'. Select the HTML/Javascript and just paste in the code and save. You can add a title here if you wish e.g. 'Do you want to know the secrets to losing weight fast!?' and you could also have altered your sign up button to say 'Yes Please'. Once finished, make sure it's saved and then go to 'view blog' to see the end result.

You can now check this out for yourself if you wish, by signing in with an email address and you will see exactly what anybody else would see, the welcome page or your referral link. If you then log into your Aweber account, you will notice that you have a new subscriber stored in your newly created campaign.

Please don't spam people with unnecessary information or products, that they haven't signed in for, as this can get you banned and listed as a spammer.

On your blog, you can move all your 'gadgets' around to suit your preference, although I would advise keeping your sign up form at the top, as this is the most important feature. You can do this by going to your 'layout' section and clicking on one of the gadgets you have installed, hold the left button down and drag it to whichever location you choose. Once you've had a play around and got things where you want them to be, make sure you click on the 'save arrangements' icon at the top of the screen, then you can view your changes.

It can also be a good idea to create some free gifts for people when signing in, maybe as a little enticement or good will gesture, as everybody likes getting something for free. If you decide to do this, you would then want these free gifts to be automatically sent to them upon sign up.

Surprisingly, Aweber can do this for you! What you need to do is log into your Aweber account, click on the messages tab and go to 'Follow up series' and then 'create a follow up'. This really is so simple and easy to do. Enter your subject title e.g. ''welcome, enjoy your free gifts or congratulations, your free gifts are here'' etc. Make sure though, if you have multiple campaigns, at the top of the page, it will show you which list this is being created for.

Now, you can click on the 'templates' if you wish to alter the design or just leave it as it is, plain and simple. If you click into 'templates' and then

click on the 'first name' icon in the text section, you can alter this to say what you want e.g. 'full name', 'first name', 'email address' etc. which means when your email is sent out to your list it will say, 'Hi Joe Bloggs or 'Hi Joe', whichever description you choose, clever I know.

This follow up series can be set-up for whatever you like and you can also have as many as you like. If you are sending a free gift or ebook or any sort of attachment, simply click on the paper-clip symbol at the bottom (attachment) and just upload it from your computer, easy as that.

Once done, click on save, then go to the next page. This takes you to the settings section, where you tell the software when you want the email/follow up to be sent to your list. You might want to send it immediately, so leave it as that or maybe 1 day after sign up, so just alter it as you like. You can even put a specific day and time if you wish, entirely up to you. Then just click save and exit.

To prove to yourself this works as intended and how you've designed it to, just click on the 'send test'. Put an email address of yours in and send it to yourself. Your pre-written email and attachment will arrive, as if you had just signed in as a subscriber or better still, you could visit your blog and sign up and see how the whole process works.

Initially you should be diverted to your 'thank you' page, then you will be sent your 'follow up' email. Now surely you're beginning to get a little excited with seeing the amazing potential of this!? All at your finger tips. Plus if you ever get stuck or have any questions or queries, Aweber has 24/7 support and as I’ve found out in the past they are fantastic, so don't be scared to ask.

If you ever want to send a one-off email to one or multiple people, that isn't an automated 'follow up', like shown previously, this is just as easy to do. You might get a new product you want to tell people about or a promotion or just a great piece of advice you have stumbled across.

To do this, go to your Aweber account and then to 'messages', 'broadcasts' and 'create a broadcast'. It's now the exact same set-up as the 'follow up' procedure. Fill in your message, subject and any attachments, then save and next.

You can share this if you wish via the different forms shown, but I generally don't bother and just leave it as it is, then head to the next page. Here you can either, turn the scheduler ON and set a date of when you want the broadcast message to be sent or if you want it to go out straight away.

Simply fill in the details on the right hand side and which subscribers you wish to send it to if you have multiple lists and save message. Click on send broadcast, job done. Now everybody you wanted will receive your email. I bet you can't believe how easy all this has been, well you do now! Your one of the people making your way on the inside and not on the outside looking in wondering how things are done all the time, everyone of us has been there at some point, so give yourself a little pat on the back.

One thing you can do with Aweber if you wish is remove the 'confirm opt-in' email. This is added by default, so you would need to take it off. It basically means, if someone fills in their details and signs up as a subscriber, they will receive an additional email asking them basically are they sure they want to sign up, in which they have to confirm.

In this day and age, people don't want to do anything that is a little more work and ignore it and might also make some people a bit cautious as to why they're being asked again. Also, for me if they are filling in their details to sign in, then they quite clearly want to do that. It's not like they're stuck there forever either, as they can unsubscribe at anytime anyway.

So, to do this you go to your Aweber account, click on the 'List options' tab and then 'List setting', scroll down to section 2 and click OFF so it is highlighted, simple. Then you can save your settings. Alternatively you can leave this on if you wish as Aweber recommends.

Step 7 – Adding To Your Blog

Now, to get your blog looking a little better and easier to navigate, I suggest you add a few more gadgets. You can add as many or as little as you wish, just add whatever you think may help and if you don't think it looks right afterwards, you can always just delete them and try another.

One recommendation would be to alter the title of your 'labels', so head to your blog 'overview', 'layout' and 'add a gadget', scroll down to 'labels' and select. Be creative and put a title such as 'what we talk about' or 'hot topics', as you'll see in your blog this is where people can click on a label and it will take them directly to the article talking about that specific subject (remember, these are the labels you added when putting in a new post). Save this and then 'view blog' to check out your update.

Another feature I would add, is the search option, so people can just type in what they're looking for if they don't want to browse around the site. Go back to 'add a gadget' and scroll to 'search box' and select. I'd untick the boxes apart from 'this blog', so people are only searching within your blog, then save and view to see the outcome. As you can begin to see, all these additional features make a more pleasant experience for your viewers and gives it more of a professional edge.

The third gadget I highly recommend would be 'popular posts'. Go back to 'add a gadget', find 'popular posts' and select. This is good because it will show you what your visitors like and view the most, that way you can begin to post more information regarding that specific subject. Save this and then I'd personally position this under your 'labels' post, but again arrange the blog how you see fit. Always 'save arrangements' when moving your gadgets around.

Along with these gadgets I would recommend you give your website a more professional look that initially catches the eye. As you now have your page title, I'm sure you'll agree that it doesn't really stand out as it should. It needs to grab people's attention as soon as they look at it.

There is a simple little FREE website that you can use, called http://www.puresilvabannermaker.com (see image below).

Simply select a background image of your choice, insert your text title and sub-title if you have one and alter any colours or fonts to your taste. You can do this as many times as you wish, so trial different ones and see which is best (make sure you adjust the text align to centralise).

I personally tick the box below and don't have a foreground image, but check it out, it might work well for you. Set the pixels initially at 950 wide and 120 height (these can also be adjusted later, depending on your blog content and how big you want your banner), then you can click on preview banner.

Give it time to load up, then go back and make any changes if necessary. If not, save banner. Then follow the instructions provided, right click and 'save as' to save to your computer. Return to your blog, go to 'overview' and 'layout', this time click on the 'header' and simply upload from your computer and there you have a free professional looking headline.

Another alternative would be to pay for one if you wanted it to look really spectacular. One really good website, which is not expensive at all is http://www.fiverr.com (see image below), which is a website where you can practically get anything for $5. Somebody will be more than willing to do a headline banner for you for $5, you can't complain at that. It is 100% legitimate and extremely popular, as you'll see. I've used it myself on many occasions over time, for one reason or another. Go check it out. My advice would be to search around on there and go with the highest rated people, as they'll generally be the best at what they do.

Step 8 – Statistics & Monitoring

Here I'll show you where to look to locate who your target market are and increase your traffic. Go to your blog in the usual way, 'overview' then 'layout' and 'add a gadget'. This time scroll down to 'blog stats'. Here this will give you the stats on people viewing your blog. You can have a play around and see which set-up you like best, whether it just be figures, graphs, graphs and numbers, you decide.

Initially you obviously won't have many visitors, but over time you will see this begin to increase and as with anything, people will start to follow what seems popular and what other people are following. When you begin to get more and more viewers, people will see that as a good sign and a popular site to visit. If your blog is busy, it will get attention. I'd suggest placing the gadget somewhere near the bottom.

Add as many gadgets as you see fit. You could add the 'language' gadget, which enables your viewers to alter to their needs and it isn't just specific to one language. This can come in handy if your projecting further afield, other than just your own country.

There's another great gadget that can come in handy for followers, which is 'subscribing' specifically to your blog. This means if they do sign up, they will receive an email whenever you create a new post. You could add 'share it' buttons, which is all the social networks. People can share it to Twitter, Facebook etc. This will provide great advertising to potentially thousands of people.

You can keep up-to-date with all the statistics linked to your blog by going to your 'overview'. This will initially show your visitor details, but if you click on 'more stats' it will show you even more detailed information. This can be fascinating, as it can show where in the world your blog is being shared and viewed the most, the traffic sources of how they are getting to your site and so on. It really is brilliant and can help you focus more on areas not doing so well and do more of the things that are popular in others.

Overview

So, there you go.... You now know how to successfully set-up a simple website that can earn you money, with no need to pay any website designer or hosting fee's, as is hosted for FREE by Google. You have your own domain name, opt-in box and affiliate links, so you can now concentrate on any little layout details or gadgets you feel may benefit your niche/business to make it stand out. The next step for you will be promoting your blog and generating what is known as traffic, to get as many people viewing your site as possible, which we'll go into another time.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and it has opened your eyes to the amazing potential of making money online and starting your very own blog as the first step.

Kind regards,

Mark Swift

P.S. Check out some useful resources below.

Resources

·      http://www.ezinearticles.com - Expert authors sharing their best articles.

·      http://www.goarticles.com - Well respected article directory.

·      http://www.google.com - Simple, but effective, enter keywords in the search bar and find relevant niche articles.

·      http://www.clickbank.com - Affiliate marketplace.

·      http://www.jvzoo.com - Affiliate center.

·      http://www.clicksure.com - Affiliate marketing.

·      http://www.myfreecashextractor.com - FREE software that can help generate Money Making Blogs.

·      http://www.webfire-traffic.com - FREE training videos on Generating Unlimited Targeted Traffic.

·      http://www.socialmedia-profits.com - #1 Guide to Generating millions of potential customers using the power of social media.

·      http://www.youtube.com - The hub of video production. Access to millions of videos you can utilize for your Blog.

·      http://www.fiverr.com - Get jobs, posts, outsourcing, basically anything you like from here. Have a browse and check it out.

·      http://www.puresilvabannermaker.com - FREE ‘do it yourself’ banner design.

·      http://www.getdollarfreetrial.aweber.com - Top recommended autoresponder out there. Simple, easy to use and excellent customer service. 1 month trial for only $1 with this link.

- http://www.mttbvip.com - The Ultimate Online Business Education - Earn Huge Commissions with this High Ticket Affiliate Marketing Program.