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This is a guest post written by Vittorio Bosio of Tech Savvy Marketer.

Google Adwords is the fastest way to drive traffic to your website. It seems so easy to set up your account and start advertising on your main keywords. However, it is not uncommon to make these 8 mistakes that cost you money.

It just takes a little discipline to correct them, and the rewards are increased Click-Thru and Conversion Rates, lower Google bills and more money into your pocket at the end of the month.

1. Sending People To Your Homepage

I still see advertisers who use their homepage as the landing page for their ads.

Unfortunately, your homepage is usually too general in content to convert your traffic. Your visitors need to find what they are looking for immediately, without the need for extra-clicks.

If they don’t find what they are looking for fast enough, they are going to hit the back button and leave. But at that point you’ve already paid for that visitor.

2. Putting All Your Keywords In One AdGroup

If you put all your keywords in just one Adgroup, you are almost guaranteed a low Quality Score. Google penalizes advertisers who are not relevant enough by increasing their Minimum Cost Per Click. With a low Quality Score, you will have to pay a higher Cost per Click to have your ads appear.

If you want a High Quality Score instead, build many Adgroups, each one focusing on a particular keyword, then write a targeted Ad for each one. Make sure to include the main keyword of that Adgroup in the Ad itself. This will not only help your Quality Score, but also your Click-Through Rate.

3. Search And Content Network In The Same Campaign

Advertising on the Content Network means having your ads appear on websites that are related to your keywords. The Search Network, instead, is composed by Google and other Search Partners.

These two types of traffic are very different and you should create two separate campaigns, so that you are able to track the conversion rate of each one. You could find out that the Content Network doesn’t convert as well as the Search Network and you may be required to build a different landing page to target those visitors more effectively.

4. No Name Squeeze Page

If you are selling a digital or physical product, don’t drive your Adwords traffic directly to your sales page. It is very hard to sell a person on the first visit.

Instead, come up with a free gift that you can give away in exchange for the visitor’s name and email address. The page where you offer this freebie is usually called “name squeeze” or just “squeeze” page.

By doing this, you give yourself the opportunity to sell to that person over time. If he is not ready to buy now, you can start a conversation via email and convince him to buy your product when he feels ready.

Your gift can be an ebook, an mp3 audio, a weekly or monthly newsletter, a live teleseminar, and so on.

5. No Follow-Up

I have been guilty of this myself. It feels good to create a database of leads thanks to Google Adwords. But your job doesn’t end there.

You need to keep a conversation going with your list, or they will download your free gift and then forget about you. You should communicate with your list at least once a week, by sending them relevant information, that gradually moves them closer to the sale.

You can do that on autopilot with an Autoresponder software, such as Aweber or GetResponse.

6. No Tracking

Google gives you a free javascript code that you can paste in your thank you page (where people download your free gift), so that you know which keywords send you the most targeted traffic (targeted enough to take you up on your free offer).
By knowing which keywords convert best, you can start bidding higher on them and weaving out the keywords that don’t convert at all.

And if you want to know the conversion rate of both your landing page and your sales page, you can use a software such as AdTrackz. I will mention it in the next point too.

7. No Testing

You will be surprised by the kind of improvements in CTR and Conversion Rate that you can achieve just by running A-B split-tests.

An A-B split-test consists of running two ads or two landing pages at the same time, serving the first version to one visitor, the second to the following and see which ones gets more clicks or conversions.

You can split-test Adwords Ads just by adding a second version in your AdGroup. Google will automatically rotate them for you.

You can split-test your landing page with a software such as AdTrackz or the Google Website Optimizer, which is free.

8. Only One Landing Page

I know, this one takes a little bit more work. But if you take the time to tailor your main landing page based on the keyword the visitor used on Google, you usually see your conversion rate go up.

The offer you make on your Squeeze Page can be the same, you can simply highlight different benefits of your free gift based on the keyword the user searched for. And you can include that keyword in the headline too, so the visitor feels like you are continuing the conversation he has going on in his mind as he searches for your products or services.

Did I Miss Anything?

I am sure there are many other mistakes people make when advertising on Google Adwords. If you can think of any of them, please leave a comment below, so we can all learn from each other.

If you are looking for Video Tutorials and Articles that can teach you how to Drive Traffic to your Website and Convert it into Sales, then your search is over. Head over to www.TechSavvyMarketer.com and meet Vittorio Bosio, the author of this article.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Popularity: 31% [?]

I bought SEO Book recently even though a couple people said much of the information in the ebook was freely available online.

Why did I buy it then? Because I wanted to save time. Time is money. I’m pretty knowledgeable in SEO but there’s so much to consider whenever you optimize a site for the search engines.

I learned SEO from reading blogs and lurking in forums for over a year. However, I didn’t want to go back and search for the blog posts and forum posts to remember what I learned. SEO Book saved me a lot of time.

All the information I needed was aggregated in the book in an accessible way. Whenever I needed to remember something, I just looked through the table of contents and read the relevant section.

When I was an accounting major, the teachers told us to save our textbooks instead of selling them once the class was done. We were going to need them in the future for reference sake.

It’s important to add a lot of value to your online business. One way to do this is to be an excellent aggregator of content.

If you’re good at researching and can organize existing content well, you can create profitable sites and useful information products that will sell.

Just don’t forget about market research. The business you create has to meet real needs. You’ll have to do market research to find out what those needs are.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Yesterday, I wrote about not relying on the header or sidebar to guide your visitors. Instead, use the content area to guide your visitors because many internet users don’t pay attention to the header or sidebar.

Today, we’ll look at how Brian Clark used the content area of his blog, Copyblogger, to guide his readers to his product. We’ll see how he promoted his product with multiple blog posts.

I think blogs are a great way to sell products - whether your own or affiliate products. Established bloggers make great salespeople because they have built trust with their readership and they have many repeat visitors. These two things make selling much easier.

Selling with blogs can be tricky though. While you have trust and repeat visitors, you don’t want to overdo the promotion of products. That would make your blog too commercial. Many people think blogs should not be overly commercial. Therefore, you have to find a way to mention products without coming off like a used car salesman :)

Brian Clark makes a living producing and selling information products. His latest successful product launch, Teaching Sells, was promoted through his blog so I decided to look at how he did it.

In this case study, it will help to know what Teaching Sells is about. It’s a paid membership site where you learn how to build your own paid membership site. You learn how to create interactive membership sites where you teach others through text, audio, and video. Currently, Brian is offering 5 courses for $197.

How did Brian promote Teaching Sells on his blog? To find out, let’s look back at his blog posts from September 30 to November 13. Make sure to check out Brian’s posts to get a better picture of his blog promotion strategy. I’ll only be giving brief comments for each post that mentions Teaching Sells.

Blog Promotion Timeline

Sept. 30, 2007: 40 is the New 20

It’s not often that someone begins to promote their product on their birthday, but that’s what Brian did. He promoted his product in a low-key way. The post was about his birthday but it also had a list of links.

The next to last link pointed to a post by his business partner of Teaching Sells. In the post, his partner briefly argued for the paid content business model. The last link had this curious anchor text: Don’t click here. It pointed to teachingsells.com. At this point in time, the only thing on the domain was the logo.

In this post, Brian subtly began to guide us to his product and also persuade us of one of the product’s selling points:

Online publishers should sell content to make more money.

Oct. 1: Guest post (None of the guest posts mentioned Teaching Sells.)

Oct. 3: A post that didn’t mention Teaching Sells

Oct. 4: Are You Truly Focused on Your Audience?

Brian talked about using audio and video because many people don’t comprehend well with text alone. By using multimedia, you can help more people. Some people learn better through audio while others learn better through video. Also, audio and video formats raise the perceived value of your content, allowing you to charge more.

Brian told us about the benefits of multimedia because Teaching Sells is about creating multimedia membership sites.

Oct. 8: How to Create Ebooks That Sell

When this post was first published, Brian had a closing paragraph about a free report he was writing. The report was about the paid content model.

Oct. 9: Here’s How to Stop Worrying About Google Once and for All

At this time, Google had lowered the PageRank of some popular sites that sold links. Brian tied in his upcoming report to the news. He talked about how selling content helps you rely less on Google.

Oct. 12: Guest post

Oct. 13: Link Karma Story Time

This was another link post. Brian linked to a couple pages that supported the principles of Teaching Sells. He also linked to teachingsells.com. The domain still only had the logo.

Oct. 15: A post that didn’t mention Teaching Sells

Oct. 15: Free Report: Teaching Sells

We got the free report. Brian linked to the download page of the Teaching Sells report.

At the end of the report, Brian talked about Teaching Sells also being a paid membership site. He said he was working on it and getting it ready for launch. The free report was so good, many people were ready to join his site.

Notice when he first talked about his paid product. It wasn’t on the blog. Instead, it was on the short report. The report allowed Brian to keep his blog from being too commercial while still selling to those who were interested in the benefits of his product.

Oct. 18: Radiohead, The 4-Hour Work Week and the Importance of Raving Fans

He related his report to Radiohead’s decision to sell its new album directly to their fans.

Oct. 23: A post that didn’t mention Teaching Sells.

Oct. 24: Thanks Google!

Copyblogger’s PageRank was lowered. He used this event to write a humorous post saying his PageRank was lowered because he released a report that will help people rely less on Google.

Oct. 24: Teaching Sells is Live

Finally, Brian announced the launch of the Teaching Sells paid membership site.

Oct. 25: Guest post

Oct. 28: No Really… Thanks Google!

Brian’s PageRank increased. He snuck another link to Teaching Sells. He mentioned how busy he was with Teaching Sells that he didn’t have time to contact Google.

Oct. 28: Guest post

Oct. 31: The Blogger’s Guide to Indirect Selling

This was a perfect post to link to Teaching Sells. Brian did just that in the closing paragraph.

Nov. 1: Guest post

Nov. 5: A post that didn’t mention Teaching Sells

Nov. 8: Guest post

Nov. 12: Guest post

Nov. 13: What Web Writers Can Learn from the Writer’s Strike

Brian commented on the current scriptwriter’s strike in Hollywood. He said that freelance bloggers can avoid that situation by becoming a writer/producer rather than just a writer. He linked to an article on teachingsells.com that gave information on how Teaching Sells can help you become a writer/producer.

What We Can Learn From This Case Study

1. From September 30 to November 13, Copyblogger had 22 posts. 12 of these posts were related to Teaching Sells. That seems like a lot. Basically, every other post referred to Teaching Sells in some way. However, I don’t think Brian was overdoing his promotion.

My commentary may make it seem like Brian was constantly talking about Teaching Sells. However, when you look at his posts, much of the time he devotes only a small portion of the post to Teaching Sells. For example, this post was over 900 words yet he only devotes the closing sentence to Teaching Sells. This post was close to 1000 words and he only talked about Teaching Sells in one short paragraph.

2. Free reports are very useful because you can give a lot of quality information and introduce your product without hijacking your blog.

3. Use current events especially those in your niche and relate them to your product.

4. Gradual promotion builds buzz and expectation. First, Brian gave us the domain name. Second, he wrote posts about the principles of Teaching Sells while telling us about a free report in the near future. Third, he gave us the free report. And the free report told us about his upcoming paid membership site. Finally, he launched the membership site. He didn’t just make a product launch announcement out of the blue. Instead, he gradually showed us where he was going.

5. Finally, don’t try Brian’s tactics unless you have a loyal readership. Build up your blog first. Get some traffic and subscribers. Improve your brand and increase your mindshare.

How has Teaching Sells sold for Brian?

Currently, Brian has over 800 members. Some have paid $97 (early bird special) to join his 3 month course while others have paid $197. Crunch the numbers and that’s a good chunk of change.

What can you take away from Brian’s blog promotion methods?

Popularity: 14% [?]

Popularity: 14% [?]

From SEO Book page 11:

If you want your site to convert, assume many site visitors will ignore the
global navigation. Actively guide people toward conversion from within the
active content area of your website.

I’m starting to realize the importance of using content-based links to guide my visitors to important pages in my site.

You’ve probably heard of the phrase ad blindness. This happens when internet users start ignoring your ads. They ignore the ads because they want to read the content instead of the ads.

I think there is a similar phenomenon with sidebar and header navigation. Sidebars and headers rarely change so oftentimes your visitors will ignore them. I know I often ignore sidebars and headers. If what I want is not in the content portion of a site, I usually close that Firefox tab and look for another site.

So, if you have an important page and want many people to see it, find a way to link to it within the content area of your pages.

For example, some home pages look like this (the links in the picture are pointing to internal pages):

Many people will ignore the header and sidebar links. If don’t find what they need in the two links in the content area, they will click the back button and look for another site.

But what if you home page looked like this?

By having more links in your content area, you give your visitors more options to explore your site. You show your broad knowledge in your niche because you’re pointing to many different pages. Your pageviews will increase. Your visitors will stay on your site longer. And you can guide your visitors to more of your best content or your best converting landing pages.

Obviously, you don’t want your home page content area to have too many content-based links. That looks disorganized and spammy. But don’t be afraid to add an extra link or an extra paragraph filled with 2-3 links.

What about blogs?

Since many of you are bloggers, here are some ways to apply this principle to blogs.

Within your posts, link to other related posts. For example, this post is related to blog design and usability and navigation.

Figure out your best posts through by looking at backlinks, traffic, and feedback in the comments. Find natural ways to link to these posts often.

I think category pages can be improved. I would aggregate your best posts for each category. Next, write a short description for those posts. Then, add those posts with their descriptions at the top of their category pages. When someone visits your category pages, the first thing they’ll see is your best posts for that category.

At the end of each month, highlight your favorite posts of that month with a montly wrap up post.

Write a series of posts that are thematically related and link them to each other. Darren’s blogging tips for beginners is great example. This method allows you to demonstrate expertise in a topic. You’ll build trust with your readers. At the end of the series, you can leverage that trust with an product offer.

Conclusion

Don’t rely on sidebar and header links to guide your visitors. Instead, use the content area. Add more links in the content area to guide your visitors to your best content.

Do you use the content area to guide your visitors?

Popularity: 9% [?]

Popularity: 9% [?]

Performancing, an excellent blog about blogging for bucks, is celebrating their 2 year anniversary with an online treasure hunt.

The prizes include:

1. 1 hour free consultation with Chris Garret (value $150)
2. Free custom logo from Randa Clay (value $350)
3. 1-year free Professional MegaEdition subscription to PMetrics (value $99)
4. Professional linkbait service - 1 linkbait plus promotion (value $2,000)
5. Blog Reboot - a step-by-step report on how to improve your blog (value $500)
6. SEO Reboot - free keyword research report + SERPS analysis (value $350)
7. Custom tweak / install of Brian Gardner’s Revolution theme (value $500)

I’m doing the SEO Reboot, so if you win I’ll give you an SEO and keyword research report for your site.

I’ve never done an online treasure hunt before. It’s pretty fun. Basically, you’re trying to figure out 6 words and then arrange them into a sentence. Each day you get a clue for one of the words. The clue is a phrase. For example, clue 1 was “sleazy link-whoring tactics”.

Search using the clue phrase. Next, visit the pages with the exact phrase. Once you’re on the page, look for the outbound links in the article. Then, write down the first letter of the domains of the outbound links. Once you’ve collected all the letters for a clue, unscramble them into a word. Each clue represents one word. Finally, contact Ryan with your word.

The person who contacts Ryan first with the correct word gets a prize. And whoever contacts Ryan first with all six words gets ALL the prizes.

Read the complete rules here.

Also, if you blog about the contest and link to this page, you’ll be eligible to win one of the prizes.

Two days have already passed by in the contest, so here are the first two clues:

• Clue 1
• Clue 2

Good luck! It would be neat to see a Net Business Blog reader win :)

Popularity: 11% [?]

Popularity: 11% [?]

I’m trying to outsource more to use my money and time more effectively. One of the things I’m outsourcing is blog commenting. The company where I work as an online marketer has a couple sites in different niches. I don’t know all the niches well. For me to leave quality comments, I would have to spend time getting familiar with the niches. Niche research takes time so I put up an ad on various outsourcing sites and webmaster forums looking for blog commenters.

I tried a couple people but they were unreliable and their comments were not very good. They were not familiar with the niches. Their comments were very general.

But later, a blogger answered my ad. I was familiar with her because we trade votes on a social media voting site. I was surprised she answered my ad because her own blog was in my niche.

Anyways, she’s doing a great job because she’s passionate about her niche. She writes quality blog posts on her blog and it’s getting some traffic. For me, she often leaves comments of more than 3 sentences even though I only asked for 2-3 sentence blog comments. Her comments are high quality. The other bloggers respond to them and we’re getting traffic from her comments. Also, she makes our site look good. Our brand is improving because of her comments.

I’m learning that quality writers and bloggers make excellent blog commenters.

So, if you want to promote your site on the grassroots level, think about hiring a quality writer/blogger to leave blog comments. Find someone who’s passionate about your niche. Be willing to pay extra. If you’re worried about the lack of connection between your blog and their comments, ask them to read your blog so they know where you’re coming from. Also, you can even have them post on your blog once or twice a month.

This same strategy should work for forum marketing too because it’s similar to blog commenting.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Popularity: 9% [?]

Hello and welcome to Your future at NetBusinessBlog…

Get ready for a nice change here at NBB as I’m currently in the process of sorting out a lovely new design which will benefit YOU the readers and new visitors to this blog. I have been waiting to do this for some time and in the next week you will see a new look NBB!

I cannot wait, as it will have much needed and improved usability which will provide easy access to our “Top Articles” I love the fact that we are going to be getting away from a blog look and adding more of a Standard Website feel to it.

I hope this will go down well with old and new visitors…with the new look will also come some nice Goodies for our readers! -

Our Launch Competition Prize Giveaway will include a brand New “Samsung Pebble SM2232BW 22″ TFT Monitor” details will be shown on how to WIN this and more on Launch Day! One other change will be with our Advertising, we are going to be moving away from “Text Link Adverts” in favour of fresher options for our Advertisers. More information here - Advertise

Do you want to Make Good Money? - our Affiliate Network will finally launch to offer “Per Advert Sale Commission” share. Until launch I cannot be definate but Affiliates will be allowed to promote our “In Text Adverts” which are priced at $300 p/m - for every 300×250 Advert they sell we will offer 50% of the Sale! again full details on launch day.

Get ready for it as it will be a great day when the new look NBB goes live, I’m also expecting to sell lots of our Ad spaces. If you want to pre-book any Advertising for the new launch please do so here - Advertise

We will also be on the look out for a new “Talented Writer” here at NBB. If you think that’s you, get in touch on our launch day. Again, we will have more information on the big day! - (the right applicant will be given a nice package)

Keep reading and don’t forget to sign up to our RSS Feed or Subscribe by email at the top right hand corner of this page.

I think I’ve covered everything, more news coming soon - see you on our Launch day!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Popularity: 10% [?]

In my post about collaborating with others, The Money Post asked me which niche I was working in. I don’t mind that he asked. But the niche is obscure so I declined to tell him.

If you’re working in an obscure niche, much of your advantage is being one of the few businesspeople in the niche. If too many people work in the niche, your profits will drop.

Obscure niches are usually niches with a small market. These niches can’t financially support a lot of competitors.

It is to your advantage not to let others know about these niches. The barrier to entry in online business is not a big one. It doesn’t take much to buy a domain name, build a site, and find someone to produce content to sell. Also, you can drive traffic pretty easily with pay per click (PPC).

Many of the wealthy internet marketers will not give away their niches. I know of one guy who uses aliases when doing article marketing on Ezine Articles. He’s well-known in some internet marketing circles. He doesn’t want people to Google his name and come across the articles in his obscure niches.

I remember browsing through a forum about pay per click marketing. One of the members started a case study thread. In this thread, he explicit gave away his niche including his landing pages and keywords. He started making money. Within a couple of days, his whole PPC campaign was copied by other marketers. Needless to say, his profits went down and he was pretty mad.

If you’re in a small niche that’s profitable, don’t tell others about it. Keep it to yourself and let others also do the hard work of niche research.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Popularity: 12% [?]

Today I went to a locally owned restaurant. It was my first time there. I looked at their menu and decided to buy a bowl of black bean soup. I love soup. When I got my order, they gave me soup and chips. Nice.

As I ate my soup and unexpected chips, I was reminded of the power of bonuses in online business.

I’ll be coming back to that restaurant to see if they offer other bonuses for their other foods. And it will be hard to forget that restaurant because they did something unexpected and valuable.

Bonuses are a great way to increase sales and help people remember you.

I used to build Squidoo lenses for internet marketers. For anyone that bought a lens, I would give them a short keyword research ebook for free. This helped me get more sales. Also, the bonus built my reputation as an expert in keyword research.

You don’t need your own product to use bonuses. One of the best affiliate marketers for Wealthy Affiliate (a great internet marketing membership site) uses bonuses to increase his affiliate sales. He gives away 2 short ebooks to anyone who joins Wealthy Affiliate under his name.

Bonuses work because you’re adding value to the sale. And people love free stuff.

So, if you’re selling stuff, add a bonus. Your customers will remember you and you’ll increase your sales.

Have you ever offered a bonus with your products? If you have, what did you give away?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Popularity: 5% [?]

Something that’s frustrating to me is most of my passions lie in niches that are not very profitable (NBA basketball, board games) or too saturated (SEO, internet marketing). I don’t have an interest in profitable niches like credit cards, real estate, and travel.

However, I’ve begun to realize that collaboration allows you to enter profitable niches you know nothing about.

I recently saw one of my old friends from high school. His job involves getting certifications to earn more money. He passed four certifications in eight months. This is unheard of in his industry. But he’s a smart guy with a couple of college degrees. Also, he has knack for taking tests and he understands his niche. Because of his new certifications, his hourly rate went through the roof.

He told me how many people in his industry will buy books, DVDs, and even enroll in a class to pass the certification tests. I asked him about the pricing of those products. It was very good :) This makes sense because people will spend money in hopes of making more money.

I asked him if he knew about any of those products being sold online. He told me he didn’t.

He knew I was an online marketer and had built websites.  We both realized the business opportunity in front of us. We struck up a 50/50 deal. He’s creating a video teaching product to pass the certifications.  I’m going to build him a website to sell his video.  He’ll write the content for the website.  And I’ll do marketing to drive traffic.

He works full-time so it will take a couple months to produce everything, but I’m excited. I’ll be working in a profitable niche that has low competition.

If you share my same frustrations of being interested in mostly low profit or saturated niches, try collaborating with someone who’s passions lie in a profitable niche. With your online business experience, you’ve probably gained skills that allow you to help them create and sell a product online.

When people talk about their passions, listen. You might discover a great business opportunity.

This post was inspired by: Teaching Sells Report

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]