Making Money Online, Google Adsense & Online Auctions

Ecommerce Website

Posted on 27th November 2009

Copyright 2005 Richard Keir

In a recent article I talked about Google AdSense placement based on eye-tracking research. However, research by The Poynter Institute, Eyetools and the Estlow Center for Journalism and New Media has a lot to say about more than where to put an AdSense block.

Designing an eCommerce site is more than making it pretty. You have certain desired actions you're looking for from your visitors. You have specific things you want to be sure they see and hopefully act on. Now, there's some research that can guide your design. Certainly you want your site to look professional, but you want it to do its job as effectively as possible too.

People are surprisingly alike in some of their basic visual behavior. It's been argued that our evolution as hunter-gatherers has shaped much of our ingrained visual patterns. Whether you buy that particular argument or not there are still important commonalities.

Typical behavior on initially viewing a site is to do a fast scan of the entire visible screen with short focusing periods around the areas that attract attention. First pass tends to include headlines, the page logo, photo captions, subheads, links and menu items. And the big hot spot is the upper left corner of the screen. I haven't seen any definitive research on whether these patterns also hold for users with native languages that read any way except left to right, but I'm assuming most of you are building sites for left-to-right readers.

The clear message is that your most important real estate is in that upper left area and that the lower right (particularly if it's below the fold) is the least likely to receive much attention.

How you use your words in a headline, paragraph or link can make a huge difference in your success at capturing a visitor's attention. The concept is called frontloading. Wherever you can make sure your critical terms appear at the very beginning of headlines, links and other text. It's still got to make sense, but the first few words are far more likely to be at least scanned then the middle or end of a headline or link or the inside of a paragraph.

The exact same words can have drastically different capture rates depending on their order. You want to maximize the probability that the visitor will read a whole headline or link and then act on it. So put the most significant, enticing words first - the ones that are the best grabbers and convey the subject immediately.

You don't have a lot of time to mess about. It's been reported that a typical surfer may be off your page in well under 14 seconds unless something grabs his or her attention fast. Remember the upper-left? You want to do an especially good job with headlines, link and text in that area.

Dropcaps (where the first capitalized letter in a line is in a different, often unusual, font and extends below the normal text base-line), bolding, font changes and color changes can also serve as strong eye-attractors. If you try these techniques you need to be careful that you don't overuse them (your page will look like a mess), and it's extremely important that you test whether or not they're actually doing what you want. Annoying as it may be, running tests is the only way to make sure it's an improvement.

Do you use lists? Have you made sure that they're in-line and as close to the left margin as possible? Don't ever use an outline format with multiple indents. People scan down, not across and they tend to scan close to the left margin. Indent too much and it might as well be invisible.

An interesting testing result that I read somewhere said that somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of site visitors don't even see centered headlines. Sure they look nice and a lot of sites use them, but if they're totally missed by even 3 percent of your visitors, you're paying a major price to look good. Suggestion? Put those headlines up against your left margin.

This also applies to links. Put those links up against the left margin, not inside a paragraph, centered or off to the right. And if you want any clicks on a link, never put it in that nearly unseen lower right area. Might as well just leave it off your page.

How about indented paragraphs? Now there's a great way to start an argument. Some argue that it attracts the eye, it's different, few sites use it so you stand out. Others insist that you're far better off staying left justified and frontloading each paragraph. There's only one way to resolve it for yourself, yeah, run some tests and see what works with your visitors on your site.

The bottom line is that once you get beyond the basics of placement, frontloading, and left-justified links and headlines, you need to test if you want to fully maximize the effectiveness of your website design. I wish there were a simpler answer too, but in the end only testing will tell you what works best for your site.


About the author:
Richard writes, teaches, trains and consults on business and professional presentations and eCommerce related matters. Visit http://www.building-ecommerce-websites.comfor more information on eCommerce sites and eCommerce site building - and http://www.building-ecommerce-websites.com/articlesfor more eCommerce articles.

Easy Stps To Hands Off Passive Income

Posted on 27th November 2009

Copyright 2005 MHG Consulting

So you want to increase your Adsense income? Log into your Adsense account, and look at your last month's stats. There are three key areas that contribute to your earnings: Impressions, Clickthroughs and Effective CPM. Improving your stats in any, or preferably, all of these three key areas will increase your Adsense earnings. 

Impressions 

Impressions are the number of times your webpages with Adsense ads have been viewed. You can increase Impressions by increasing traffic (preferably targeted traffic) to your webpages. Some of the best ways to increase targeted traffic to your webpages include: 

-create more webpages, with relevant, focused content 
-create more links to your webpages 
-list your website/s under relevant categories in more directories 
-set up a directory of relevant sites on your website and accept relevant 
reciprocal links 
-write relevant articles, with your site information in the 'resource box' at the end of each article, and submit them to article directories 
-advertise with pay per click search engines like Google's Adwords. www.Miva.com (formerly www.FindWhat.com, www.YahooMarketing.com (formerly Overture) and 100's of others. When of the best places for pay per click info is www.payperclicksearchengines.com with a descriptive list of 659 search engines.

Clickthroughs 

Clickthroughs are the percentage of viewers who click on your Adsense ads. You can increase Clickthroughs by increasing the relevance of Adsense ads on your site, and by tweaking the format and placing of your ads. 

Although you can't dictate which Adsense ads show on your site, you can 
influence the relevance of the ads by maintaining a tightly focused website. If every page on your site focuses tightly on the site topic, its more likely that the Adsense ads will too. For example, if every page of your site is about fishing, and the word 'fishing' appears several times on every page, its likely that your Adsense ads will relate to fishing. 

The best way to tweak your ad format and placement is to invest in an Adsense Tracker, and test, test, test! People who have done this tend to suggest that the best format is the large rectangle, with background and border the same color as the page behind it, so that the ad blends into the page. The best placement is towards the center or top left of the first screen of the page. Try these suggestions first, and then track and test, to be sure of what works best for your pages. 

Effective CPM 

Effective CPM is a measure of your average earnings, per thousand clicks. You can increase your Effective CPM by selecting topics that attract high bids from Adsense advertisers, and building pages and whole websites on higher paying topics. 

Although Google doesn't release information on Adsense bids, you can get a good idea of the top paying topics by looking at information on Adwords bids, or, for that matter, bids on pay-per-click search engines like Overture. There are a number of keyword research tools available, both free and paid, that can help you find high paying topics. 

The Formula 

So now you have the basics of increasing your Adsense income. Its a deceptively simple formula: 

-Build pages and websites on high paying topics for the best Effective CPM. 
-Format and place your Adsense ads for maximum Clickthroughs. 
-Promote your sites to drive targeted traffic to your Adsense webpages for maximum impressions. 


About the author:
For a step by step detailed approach to creating 'residual income' with Adsense, go to: http://www.ad-alyzer.com/727/autoincomesecrets Youcan also subscribe for free to an e-course, "Hands Off Passive Income" and get 2 special bonuses. http://www.ad-alyzer.com/727/ezwebbiz

Free Instant Auction Traffic

Posted on 27th November 2009

Copyright 2005 Auction Resource Network

Here's an easy way to get extra traffic to your eBay auctions...

...and we all know, the more traffic, the more bids and ultimately, the more sales you'll get!

First...answer this question:

"Do you look at other people's feedback ratings?"

You probably answered yes...

So here's my idea -

"Whenever you leave feedback, put your website URL in the feedback Comment"

If you don't have a website, no problem, see below for details.

I have only seen this done once! - me.

It's so easy and EVERYONE looks at feedback ratings before they bid.

So, the idea would be to try and leave feedback for users that get a lot of traffic...

How? - check out ebay pulse and look at some of the highest watched items and try bidding on one of them.

After, you bid and win, leave your feedback with your website URL in your feedback comment.

For example,

**AuctionResourceNetwork.com** - Excellent communication and great eBayer, Highly recommended

You can see how the domain will *jump-out* at the reader.

Also, when you leave feedback for your auction sales, do the same.

Now.., if you don't have a website, here's a quick trick on how to direct that traffic to your about me page.

Simply create a free account at NameCheap.com and purchase a domain name, i.e. www.your-domain.com

NameCheap.com only charges $8.88 per year for your domain name!

...then, in your NameCheap.com account, you can set your new domain to redirect to your eBay about me page...here's how:

Login to your NameCheap.com account
Click the 'view' link beside 'Number of domains in your account'
Click your new domain name
Click URL Forwarding under the Host Management section on the left
Enter your about me page URL in both textboxes and click Save Changes
Viola...you now own a domain that redirects to your about me page!
And make sure you place your new domain name in all your feedback comments.

Ok...now that you know how to get some extra free traffic by using eBay's feedback comments, answer this question:

"Do you want to know how to turn that extra FREE traffic into cash?"

Yes/No? - Well, I'm going to tell you anyways... ;-) There are a few things you can do...here are 2:

Place your auction links on your AboutMe page so that your new visitors can get to your auctions. Place a newsletter signup form in your AboutMe page as well as in your auction pages and collect leads. Then market to those leads over and over again. I think the second idea is the most powerful...although it takes a little work on your part.

The quick`n`dirty way is to use AWeber.com to manage your leads and use their capture web form generator to capture your lead's name and email address.

BUT, there are certain rules you must obey in order to collect client information from your auctions pages as well as you about Me page.


About the author:
Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 a month on eBay. Claim your FREE 14 Day "Learn How to Sell on eBay" e-Course Here: http://www.auctionresourcenetwork.com