The Benefits of a Google AdWords Specialist

Posted on November 10, 2011 by patty

If you decide to advertise on Google and you do not have any experience setting up a Google AdWords account, you should consider hiring a specialist. There are a number of things that need to be setup in the account to make sure you are targeting the correct audience and setting the budget you are comfortable with. It may seem simple to set things up; however, it is very easy to pour your hard earned money down the drain if the account is not optimized properly. I am a Google AdWords Certified Partner and have had many a client contact me in a panic because they just received a $6,000 charge from Google for one month when they had planned on spending only a small fraction of that amount.

AdWords Certified Partner

Quist Interactive is a Certified AdWords Partner

A specialist will ensure that your daily budget is on target with what you want to spend and that bid prices per keyword are appropriate for your spending and for achieving clicks. They will optimize each and every keyword to make sure it has the appropriate match type to ensure irrelevant searches are not pulling up your ad. This is extremely important so that you are not throwing your money down the drain and if you don’t have the expertise to optimize your keywords yourself, you will not be spending your money wisely.

Quist Interactive (quistinteractive.com)

Quist Interactive is a Certified AdWords Partner

Additionally a specialist will ensure the correct geographical locations are seeing your ads according to your target audience. The times of day the ad appears will be setup appropriately. Also, the sites where your ad appears will be targeted appropriately. A specialist would also be able to help you create image rich media ads to be placed on these sites.

There are a lot of different ways a campaign can bet setup and it is very important that you know what you are doing so that you don’t waste your money.

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5 Holiday Content Ideas for Increased Google AdWords Income

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Mike

Holiday Content Ideas for Google AdSense Earnings

Holiday Content Ideas for Google AdSense Earnings

It is now early November and by now, if you run a content focused web site earning income from Google AdWords and/or other advertisers, you should be thinking of the holidays. Not only Thanksgiving, but Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, New Years, etc. You’ll want to get your message out there while everyone is thinking about buying and gift purchasing.

Regardless of your chosen niche, you can easily slant your latest blog posts and published content toward holiday material. Here are some ideas to kick start your idea generator for producing holiday related content in your niche.

1. Review a Niche Related Product and Suggest it as a Gift

Regardless of your subject niche, you can easily review a product such as a book, seminar, conference, or even a consumable that is related in some way to your niche. This is a great opportunity to earn income as an affiliate, if an affiliate program exists. One way is to become an Amazon.com affiliate and review a book related to your subject niche, then link to that book with your affiliate ID. If no affiliate program exists, that is fine, as the review will be beneficial to your audience regardless.

2. Create a Holiday Video

Have fun with video, upload it to YouTube.com, and stream it through your blog. It can be anywhere from a simple “thank you” video ,to a product review like above, to a humorous parody of the holidays, to a simple product demo as it relates to the holidays. With some of our recipe sites, we might do some fun holiday recipes.

3. Create a Free eBook Giveaway

‘Tis the season for gift giving, so why not give your readers a gift of content. Write a few thousand words of fresh content your customers and readers haven’t seen before, package it as an ebook or pdf file with some fun holiday graphics, then give it away free to them. Your customers will appreciate the gift, and you can always use some of the information later in future posts.

4.  Review the Year’s Most Popular Posts

Use the end of the year as an opportunity to revisit the posts from the previous year, then post about it. Give it a title such as “Top 10 Popular Posts from 2011″, provide a bit of analysis and commentary, then link to the articles.

5. Create a Holiday Survey and Publish the Results

The end of the year is also a great time to engage your readers with questions or a survey. Ask them how you might improve your blog or web site. What might they be looking for in terms of future content? Publish a synopsis of the results, them formulate your goals for the coming year.

Happy Holidays! As always, don’t forget your Google AdWords placement.

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Text Ads vs. Image Ads

Posted on November 3, 2011 by patty

When placing an Adsense ad on your site, you are able to select between Text Ads Only, Image/Rich Media Only or Text & Image/Rich Media Only.

Deciding whether to use Text ads or Image ads depends on a few factors to consider. This should be a decision made on a per ad basis according to the content and location of the ad on that particular page. If you have a long page of text, a text ad in the middle of the content blends in with the content and gets a much higher click through rate. If an ad is off to the side of the content, an image ad would typically work better. Always pay attention to what else is nearest to where you are placing the ad. The ad should appear to blend in with the rest of the content of the page so everything flows smoothly.

In many cases the best option will be to select the Text & Image/Rich Media option rather than selecting between the two. This is a good option in most cases, but if you are placing an ad amongst lots of other imagery or lots of other text, it’s best to select the ad that will match and blend in.

Another factor is the shape and size of the ad. Skyscraper ads are skinny and tall, while banner ads are wide and short. These ads lend themselves much better to image ads than text ads because the images fill the space well whereas text ads will display multiple and the ad will look sections off like a table.

Always make sure you select ads that will help to make your site look good rather than hindering the overall look and feel. Borders and color options help and with text ads, always choose appropriate font colors to match your site.

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Making Time for Blogging

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Mike

When I began my blogging efforts, it wasn’t even called
blogging. I just called it writing. I’ve always been a writer, whether it’s
fiction, a screenplay, or some non-fiction subject I’m interested in, so I
never found it difficult to fit time into my schedule for writing. Blogging is
the same thing. It’s all content development for your subject niche, and as we
know, continuously adding content is hugely important to the success of your
niche site. Here are few ways to help you make time for your blogging and web
site publishing efforts. This really applies to any of your writing projects,
including both fiction and non-fiction.

Create a Writing/Blogging Schedule and Stick With It.

Sound simple? It is, but only if you’re the scheduling type.
If you have solid discipline and can produce material on deadlines, this will
work for you. Keep your schedule reasonable at first and build up to your
tolerance level. For example, promise to write one 300-word blog post per week.
Create a checklist and see how that goes for 3 months. Too difficult? Adjust
your schedule to 2 posts per month. Too easy? Adjust it to twice a week.

Create a Monthly Goal List.

For those needing a bit more flexibility, a monthly goal
list might work better than a very strict schedule. If you set a goal to post
four blog posts per month, you might write them all in one week and simply
schedule them to post at intervals. You can easily get ahead of yourself and
then work on other projects the remaining weeks. Just be sure to check in with
your comments and respond to readers/commentary.

Give Something Up for Blogging

Some people try blogging and web site publishing only to run
out of juice. They complain that they just no longer have the time to fit
blogging into their lives because their daily schedules have inundated them.
Unfortunately, this will always be the case if you allow it to happen. If you
want to consistently blog or write but can’t find the time, you have to make
the time. Is your work schedule to hairy and demanding to allow you to write?
Simple – Work Less. Hopefully your blogging or writing will pick up some of the
income slack. Too many family obligations? Hire a baby sitter, or ask your
partner to help you make time for your writing. If you can’t cut back on work
or family time, guess what comes next? Yep, leisure time and sleep. Once a week
you might have to say “no” to that pizza night with the guys, and if
you just can’t do that, get up one hour early in the morning to make time for
your writing. At least you’ll have a solid hour of quiet to write.

Now, get blogging! Just remember to get your Google AdSense code implemented properly into your pages so visitors can click those ads and allow you to earn more money online.

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5 Ways to Choose Your Blog Niche

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Mike

5 Ways to Choose Your Blog NicheIf you’re looking for blogging success, one of the very first things you’ll need to ask yourself is – “What should I blog about?” Ideally, your blog topic will be highly focused. It should center on your particular subject matter and not deviate from the topic, but the question remains – “What should I blog about?” Since you’re interested in blogging, you may already have an idea in mind, but surprisingly, we’ve met a number of people interested in the idea of blogging who are unsure of what subject they might be able to sustain.

They’ll say something like, “Well, I really love my cat but I don’t think I can talk about Tabby week after week after week.” We couldn’t agree more. If you find yourself in this arena, a potential blogger without a topic to explore, these five ways can help you determine what that topic might be.

1. What are your hobbies?

This seems obvious, but hobbies are done because you love the activity, so why not turn it into a blog? That was partially how we started up our jalapeno pepper recipes web site. We were newly married and I had become very interested in cooking with spicy food. I started my jalapeno pepper recipes web site at JalapenoMadness.com with the intention of posting my experiments, and it became a success. Perhaps you’re an amateur photographer. You might start a photography blog and post tips you’ve learned over the years. You might also review camera products and post links where people can purchase those products, where you receive a small commission. Is reading your hobby? Why not do book reviews. Just don’t forget the ads, and perhaps links to Amazon.com with your affiliate ID so people can purchase the books you recommend.

2. What are your day job duties?

Most people don’t want to think about work when they get home, but there must be some part of your job that you love. Separate that which you love from that which you don’t enjoy so much. Identify that and you may have a blog niche on your hand. Let’s say you manage a retail store. You can’t really blog about your company, but you might start a blog about management advice where you can discuss ways to manage people, scheduling around holidays, and more. Or, let’s say you’re a graphic designer in an ad firm. You might love creating illustrations, but not some of the ads you’re hired to create for products you don’t care much about. Perhaps start a blog with illustrating tips, software recommendations, and even samples of your work. Sell that work on tshirts and mugs. Just don’t forget the ads.

3. How can you best help people?

Everyone has something they can teach. What are you really good at? And how might that skill solve a problem? An example – let’s say you’re very good at math. You might start a blog about math tutoring and discuss higher forms of algebra. This might certainly appeal to high schoolers who are struggling with math. Approach your blog niche this way by asking, “What problem can my blog solve for someone else?” This blog at AdMoneyMadness.com asks and attempts to answer a very specific question – “How can I make money online?” What if your mother is in a nursing home? Perhaps a blog discussing elder care could address problems that other people are also experiencing.

4. What is something you’ve always wanted to learn?

Years ago when I became interested in cooking, I also wanted to learn as much as I could about building web sites. I combined the two and started the JalapenoMadness.com web site. It was my training ground to put into practice everything I learned about SEO, Google AdWords and more. Let’s say you’ve always been interested in learning to dance. Blog about it. Take some classes and document each step of the way. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to learn how to tear down and rebuild an auto engine. Perfect for a blog! Just be sure to be honest with where you are and demonstrate your journey. Readers are always interested in a journey, and they will follow you for it.

5. What is the first thing you think about in the morning?

This may seem like a veiled question of “what are you most passionate about?” But when you ask people to tell you what their passions are, they often struggle to tell you. If the first thing you think of in the morning is “coffee!” Then perhaps a coffee lovers blog would be in order. Perhaps you think of your workout or your morning run. How about a fitness blog? If you roll over and think of how much you love your darling spouse, then perhaps a blog that offers marriage tips and advice would be more up your alley. If the first thing you think of is, “Ugh, I have to go to work! I hate work!” Then perhaps a blog about how to quit your day job would suffice. Again, just don’t forget the ads.

We hope these questions can help you choose your blog topic niche. Once you’ve come up with a short list, move onto the keyword research portion of your journey and begin to explore. Just don’t forget the ads, and have fun!

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