11.1 Making Sense Of Stats, Logs And Reports…
Stats are a vital part of your success. If you can’t follow the results of all the changes you’re going to be making to your ads and your pages, then you’re never going to maximize your revenues.
But reading your stats can be confusing. You’re going to be staring at all
sorts of tables filled with all kinds of numbers which can be rearranged and reorganized in all sorts of different ways.
That’s why it’s crucial to know how to read your stats and understand the figures.
11.2 The Most Important Stat Of All
There’s one figure that’s more important than any of the others. Know which one I’m talking about?
Revenue! If you aren’t making money, no other stats matter.
If you are making money though, the next stat you want to watch is your CTR. The higher the percentage of clicks to page impressions you receive, the higher your CPM will rise — and the higher your revenues will become.
When you make a change to your ad placement, to your keywords, to your ad colors or anything else, wait a week and check your stats to see the result. And look first at your revenues.
Bear in mind too that when you have multiple ads on a page each ad unit counts as one impression — but you won’t be able to get three clicks from them! Multiple ad units then can reduce your CTR while still giving you good revenues.
You might also want to translate your results into charts. If you do want to do that, the most important things to look for are trends in CTR and in earnings. Tracking impressions too will also let you see any radical fluctuations in traffic.
11.3 Optimum CTR
Much of your success will depend on lifting your CTR as high as possible. Obviously, the more people who click on your ads the more money you’re going to be make but it’s not always easy to know when you’re inviting as many people as possible to get clicking. I’ve gone from less than 1% CTR to over 8% on some sites but I know of some sites that are getting over 30% CTR!
Your CTR will depend on a number of different factors, including:
Site Content — Some types of content get more clicks than others (but don’t necessarily make more money per click...)
Site Design — We’ve already talked about the importance of where you place your ads and how you place them.
Number Of Links — Why give your ads competition? If people want to click away from the page, you should get paid for it.
Ad Relevancy — If you’re not getting served ads that are relevant to your content, you’re going to have a low CTR.
11.4 AdSense Arbitrage
Once you get to grips with the numbers that you see on the stats pages and your logs, you might notice something interesting. You might see for example, that you’re getting 5,000 ad clicks on a page each month and that page is generating $1500.
Divide $1500 into 5,000 clicks and you’ll realize that each click for that type of content is bringing you 30 cents.
That means that when you come to buy content, as long as you spend less
than 30 cents for a click to that page, you’re going to make a profit. And one way to do that is to open an AdWords account and buy advertising space on Google’s search pages. You could pay as little as 5 cents per click, giving you a profit of 25 cents each time your 5-cent users click on your 30-cent ads.
That’s AdSense arbitrage and it sounds like a foolproof way to increase your revenues.
If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it.
The first problem with arbitrage is that you can never get a 100% CTR. Not every 5 cent click you buy is going to give you 30 cents back — and every impression that doesn’t result in an ad click is going to eat into your profits.
With these kinds of figures (and obviously, yours are going to be different), you’d need a 16% CTR to break even. (If every ad click costs 5 cents and gives you 30 cents, you can afford to lose five out of every six clicks or 16%).
So if you can see that you’re getting a 16% CTR, buying advertising on AdWords to send traffic to your AdSense ads could be a good deal.
Or not.
The second problem with arbitrage is that your CTR rate is based on users coming from your current traffic sources. The users you buy through AdWords might behave differently. They’ve already clicked on an ad once so they might not want to click on an ad again.
Or alternatively, because you know they’re the type who do click on ads, it’s possible that they’re exactly the type who’ll click on the ads on your page.
Results from using arbitrage vary. Some people report that the clicks they
buy on AdWords give them less revenue, others report that they’ve increased their CTR.
Some people are making SERIOUS money with AdSense arbitrage. The real
key to arbitrage success is buying traffic based on the right keywords. And to do that you need...
11.5 WordTracker
WordTracker is a great way to find keywords to target for arbitrage. The idea is simple: if you can find popular keywords that few sites are targeting, you can increase the CTR of the ads you buy and improve the chances that users
will click on the ads on your page. It’s those keywords that will give you
the best revenues for arbitrage—and the most clicks from search engine listings.
WordTracker actually helps in four different ways.
First, you enter a keyword—say, “football”. WordTracker will then give you a list of hundreds of different keywords related to football—words like “stadium” and “team” and “football player”. Some of those words you’ll probably have thought of, but lots of them you won’t.
Now you’ve already got more keyword options than when you started!
The next step is to see how popular these keywords are. WordTracker looks across all of the main search engines and tells you how many people
searched for each keyword in the last 60 days. That’s certainly interesting
information in itself but there’s not much point in targeting a word that 1,000 people search for every couple of months if a million Web pages are already targeting it.
Your ad would appear on page fifty-something of a search engine listing and get very few clicks.
The next stage is where things get really interesting. Wordtracker
compares the number of searches that people are making for each keyword with the number of sites targeting that keyword.
It even awards each keyword a score that indicates the size of the
opportunity for new pages that want target that particular keyword. It then becomes easy for you to see which words are likely to give the best search engine listings—and which will get the most clicks for the lowest prices when you pay to advertise.
For example, if you asked WordTracker to look up the word “football,” you
might find that 3,474 people look for “shoulder-pads” each day but only
2,375 Web pages are targeting that word. If one of the pages of your football site targets that keyword, you’re almost certainly going to find yourself high on the search engine listings, giving you plenty of free traffic.
But if you also choose to pay to advertise your site on a GoogleAd, you can be confident that you’ll get plenty of clicks—and great revenues.
WordTracker is a fantastic tool. It should definitely be in your money-making toolkit. Take a look at it at www.adsense-secrets.com/wordtracker.html
Thursday, December 6, 2007
11 How To Read Your Visitors Like A Book
Saturday, November 24, 2007
11 How To Read Your Visitors Like A Book
11.1 Making Sense Of Stats, Logs And Reports…
Stats are a vital part of your success. If you can’t follow the results of all the changes you’re going to be making to your ads and your pages, then you’re never going to maximize your revenues.
But reading your stats can be confusing. You’re going to be staring at all
sorts of tables filled with all kinds of numbers which can be rearranged and reorganized in all sorts of different ways.
That’s why it’s crucial to know how to read your stats and understand the figures.
11.2 The Most Important Stat Of All
There’s one figure that’s more important than any of the others. Know which one I’m talking about?
Revenue! If you aren’t making money, no other stats matter.
If you are making money though, the next stat you want to watch is your CTR. The higher the percentage of clicks to page impressions you receive, the higher your CPM will rise — and the higher your revenues will become.
When you make a change to your ad placement, to your keywords, to your ad colors or anything else, wait a week and check your stats to see the result. And look first at your revenues.
Bear in mind too that when you have multiple ads on a page each ad unit counts as one impression — but you won’t be able to get three clicks from them! Multiple ad units then can reduce your CTR while still giving you good revenues.
You might also want to translate your results into charts. If you do want to do that, the most important things to look for are trends in CTR and in earnings. Tracking impressions too will also let you see any radical fluctuations in traffic.
11.3 Optimum CTR
Much of your success will depend on lifting your CTR as high as possible. Obviously, the more people who click on your ads the more money you’re going to be make but it’s not always easy to know when you’re inviting as many people as possible to get clicking. I’ve gone from less than 1% CTR to over 8% on some sites but I know of some sites that are getting over 30% CTR!
Your CTR will depend on a number of different factors, including:
Site Content — Some types of content get more clicks than others (but don’t necessarily make more money per click...)
Site Design — We’ve already talked about the importance of where you place your ads and how you place them.
Number Of Links — Why give your ads competition? If people want to click away from the page, you should get paid for it.
Ad Relevancy — If you’re not getting served ads that are relevant to your content, you’re going to have a low CTR.
11.4 AdSense Arbitrage
Once you get to grips with the numbers that you see on the stats pages and your logs, you might notice something interesting. You might see for example, that you’re getting 5,000 ad clicks on a page each month and that page is generating $1500.
Divide $1500 into 5,000 clicks and you’ll realize that each click for that type of content is bringing you 30 cents.
That means that when you come to buy content, as long as you spend less than 30 cents for a click to that page, you’re going to make a profit. And one way to do that is to open an AdWords account and buy advertising space on Google’s search pages. You could pay as little as 5 cents per click, giving you a profit of 25 cents each time your 5-cent users click on your 30-cent ads.
That’s AdSense arbitrage and it sounds like a foolproof way to increase your revenues.
If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it.
The first problem with arbitrage is that you can never get a 100% CTR. Not every 5 cent click you buy is going to give you 30 cents back — and every impression that doesn’t result in an ad click is going to eat into your profits.
With these kinds of figures (and obviously, yours are going to be different), you’d need a 16% CTR to break even. (If every ad click costs 5 cents and gives you 30 cents, you can afford to lose five out of every six clicks or 16%).
So if you can see that you’re getting a 16% CTR, buying advertising on AdWords to send traffic to your AdSense ads could be a good deal.
Or not.
The second problem with arbitrage is that your CTR rate is based on users coming from your current traffic sources. The users you buy through AdWords might behave differently. They’ve already clicked on an ad once so they might not want to click on an ad again.
Or alternatively, because you know they’re the type who do click on ads, it’s possible that they’re exactly the type who’ll click on the ads on your page.
Results from using arbitrage vary. Some people report that the clicks they
buy on AdWords give them less revenue, others report that they’ve increased their CTR.
Some people are making SERIOUS money with AdSense arbitrage. The real
key to arbitrage success is buying traffic based on the right keywords. And to do that you need...
11.5 WordTracker
WordTracker is a great way to find keywords to target for arbitrage. The idea is simple: if you can find popular keywords that few sites are targeting, you can increase the CTR of the ads you buy and improve the chances that users
will click on the ads on your page. It’s those keywords that will give you
the best revenues for arbitrage—and the most clicks from search engine listings.
WordTracker actually helps in four different ways.
First, you enter a keyword—say, “football”. WordTracker will then give you a list of hundreds of different keywords related to football—words like “stadium” and “team” and “football player”. Some of those words you’ll probably have thought of, but lots of them you won’t.
Now you’ve already got more keyword options than when you started!
Fig. 11.1 WordTracker: “Find the best keywords for your website”. Says it all really!
The next step is to see how popular these keywords are. WordTracker looks across all of the main search engines and tells you how many people
searched for each keyword in the last 60 days. That’s certainly interesting
information in itself but there’s not much point in targeting a word that 1,000 people search for every couple of months if a million Web pages are already targeting it.
Your ad would appear on page fifty-something of a search engine listing and get very few clicks.
The next stage is where things get really interesting. Wordtracker
compares the number of searches that people are making for each keyword with the number of sites targeting that keyword.
It even awards each keyword a score that indicates the size of the
opportunity for new pages that want target that particular keyword. It then becomes easy for you to see which words are likely to give the best search engine listings—and which will get the most clicks for the lowest prices when you pay to advertise.
For example, if you asked WordTracker to look up the word “football,” you
might find that 3,474 people look for “shoulder-pads” each day but only
2,375 Web pages are targeting that word. If one of the pages of your football site targets that keyword, you’re almost certainly going to find yourself high on the search engine listings, giving you plenty of free traffic.
But if you also choose to pay to advertise your site on a GoogleAd, you can be confident that you’ll get plenty of clicks—and great revenues.
WordTracker is a fantastic tool. It should definitely be in your money-making toolkit. Take a look at it at www.adsense-secrets.com/wordtracker.html
10. How To Make AdSense Work With Internet Communities
Maximize your AdSense Revenue from Internet Forums, Message Boards and Discussion Groups!
In the chapter 8, we mentioned making revenue from blogs. But blogs
certainly aren’t the only types of content online or the only types that can use AdSense.
In an active Internet Community, users generate most of the content.
You cannot completely control the keywords or the topics, which means
AdSense might spring some surprises with the ads that show up. (Just have some Alternate Ads handy, in case AdSense pulls up a series of non-paying public service ads.)
Unlike passive surfers who like to explore your website for relevant
information, forum members are very focused on their messages and the responses they attract.
Many publishers that play host to Internet Communities complain of
negligible CTRs, scattered keywords (low content relevance) and low cost per click. What they don't realize is that Internet Communities are a hidden goldmine which inspire fanatical loyalty, repeat visits, unique content and a high level of user involvement with the content.
Mega-brands such as Apple and Harley Davidson were built on the same
foundation — a deep sense of personal bonding, high involvement with the product and strong referrals. You can achieve the same result with your website!
While all Internet Communities are not the same, they do have the same key strengths. You just need to recognize them and find new ways to cash in on them — as some savvy web publishers are doing already!
On the next page you'll find a few ideas to spark off your imagination:
10.1 Forum Members are very focused on their topic of discussion. Ads that appear on the top, bottom or side margins of the page may not distract them from their main objective — which is to read and write the posts!
10.2 The best way to capture their attention is to put your ads at the end of the top posting on each page. Posts that appear on top are read more often, and usually set the tone for the rest of the discussion.
Many web publishers swear by Google's 728x90 leaderboard ad with two ads trailing top-of-the-page posts.
10.3 What gets the most clicks in any forum?
The forum buttons of course! Put your ads close to these useful
buttons, sought out by users to search threads, create a new thread or post a reply. Check out this example:
Fig. 10.1 Positioned under the vital forum buttons, these Google Ads attract users in the right frame of mind- when they're ready to click! Turn to the next page for another great way to make your Google Ads more 'clickable'!
Fig 10.2 On this forum frequented by Internet deal hunters, I have turned my Google text ads into the hottest 'star attraction'. http://forums.dealofday.com
Without ever asking users to click, the heading "Deal of Day" turns the Google Ads into a recommended resource for finding the day's top deals.
Impressive forum stats, such as the number of members, threads and posts appear alongside the ads, making them look more legitimate. The sheer number of users creates a sense of urgency to check them out before other members get their hands on the coveted deals!
10.4 Make sure you apply the same text formatting as the user-
generated content. It's important to gain your users' attention first — then pitch your message when they're all ears!
10.5 Try putting the ads at the bottom of each post. If users spot the
pattern and your click-throughs start to drop, try putting the ads at
the bottom of every alternate post. The key is to keep them guessing!
10.6 Don't break up a post by putting ads in the middle. Since forums
have user-generated content, people are more sensitive to these
intrusions and might be offended if you make it seem as if the ads are their personal recommendations.
10.7 Don't lump a bunch of ads together in the middle of the page. It
works well with 'passive' visitors, but your forum members will read right around them!
10.8 Allow users to pull up targeted ads with a Google Search Box!
How often has a forum posting piqued your interest enough to launch a Google search? Once? Twice? All the time? If you're anything like me, the Google Search Box is an added convenience, welcomed by most users. It makes your visitors stay! And if they click an ad from the results page, you make money!
Which of these strategies will work for your Forums?
Only time can tell — but don't forget to track your results with Google's FREE AdSense Channels. There are publishers who have made a fortune with their community pages. It doesn't take rocket science. But a little persistence goes a long way!
