How to Choose the Best Ads to Monetize Your Website

Paid ads are the simplest way to generate revenue with your website, but there are many options you need to choose from. You can have banners, or pop-ups; image, or text ads; and they can be CPM, or CPC ads. Then there's the question of which ad network to use.

Banner vs. Pop-Up

Pop-ups are often considered too annoying, and visitors won't stay long on sites that open many. Also, most web browsers have good pop-up blockers, so they might not work very well. Even though they pay better, I would suggest not using pop-ups on your website.

Image vs. Text

The same arguments apply here: some users, especially those with slow connections, consider image ads annoying. Those users may also block images, though it is not as common as pop-up blocking. On the other hand, image ads usually pay more. I believe it depends on your site content: if you only have text as your main site content, you should use text ads only; if you have a lot of images, image ads are fine.

CPC vs CPM

CPC ads have a price per click. So if you have a $0.20 CPC ad on your site, and 50 visitors click on the ad you will earn $10. CPM ads, on the other hand, have a set price per thousand impressions. So if you have a $0.50 CPM ad on your website, and you have 20,000 page loads you will earn $10 from that ad.

CPM ads will earn you money even if no-one clicks on them, but they often have quite low prices. However, you can use many of them on your site, and each page load will generate revenue from each of them. A highly targeted CPC ad, on the other hand, may get many more clicks, but having many on a single page does not help that much. I find that a combination of both works best for me, but it depends on your site, so you should experiment with both types.

Choosing the Ad Network

One of the simplest ad programs is Google's AdSense. It only takes a few moments to sign up, even less if you already have a Google account. They serve a combination of CPC and CPM ads, and their system analyzes your page content for ad targeting. That's why I recommend you to try it out first. For reviews of more networks visit my site from the author link.

Social Networking - What Small Business Marketers Should Do Now

I'm sure you've heard a lot about social networking and wondered whether you should participate. Companies like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, are talked about in endless marketing articles and hyped by the media. The phenomenon is huge. eMarketer.com predicts that ad spending on social networks will reach $2 billion by 2010.

But, as a small business owner, you need to maximize your time and effort. Is there something for your small business here? To make the most of this trend you need to consider the following:

1. How does social networking apply to a small business?

Social networking is a way of interacting with others online. Your communication doesn't have to be located on a particular platform or site to be considered social networking. It's a way to find others to interact with in a more direct way. It's not like an ad that you put up on a search engine site. It has your voice and your specific style at the heart of it. Of course, there are specific social networking sites available, but you don't have to sign up to one of them to do social networking. As the trend continues you will begin to see the features commonly seen on a social site integrated in most websites.

2. What if I don't feel completely confident about trying social networking?

When you read about people making great connections and getting referrals from their social networks, it's important to remember that networking is not usually a skill you are born with. Yes, there are those who can jump into any social situation and make it a success, but the majority of business people need to learn networking skills. And the truth is, they may never be fully comfortable. If you feel this way, start slowly. The bottom line for anyone who networks is to start with the idea that you want to meet and add value for others. When you meet like-minded individuals, you'll see how easy it is to build a network. Everyone will have a focus outside themselves which makes for more creative exchanges.

3. What specific ways can I participate now?

If you don't have a lot of time to devote to social networks, you don't need to jump into anything too time consuming. A business network like LinkedIn.com might be a good fit to start. There you can network with others, answer questions and show off your expertise without spending hours.

Some other things you can do that don't require a personal page on a networking site are:


Distribute information to forums and message boards about your business

Learn about competitors by reading other people's exchanges

Read blogs and ask questions that will draw others to answer

Comment on a new book and ask the author a question

Ask an expert who is not well known to be a guest blogger on your site to kick start their blogging


Anything you can do to start meeting people who care about the same topics you do, is a great way to get started without spending all your time chatting online

Making Money With Articles - Banner Advertisements

When you are trying to make money off of the articles on your website, it is important to effectively promote your site so that you will attract customers and they can see just what a good, quality site you have. There are several ways so market and promote your website, one of them being though banner advertisements.

What Banner Ads Can Do For You

Banner ads can help bring visitors from others sites to your own. Although monthly fees can be expensive to advertise on high traffic sites, in the end it may be cheaper and/or a faster way to start seeing significant revenue from your website efforts, rather than waiting for SEO techniques to bring your own site to the top of search engine results. Aside from paying to advertise on someone else's site, there are also free banner exchanges to choose from. We will look at the pros and cons of each banner advertising method below.

Free Banner Exchanges

Free banner exchanges are when you and other sites exchange each others banners. Their banner will go on your site and your banner will go one their site. Although this option is free, there are two main problems with it. First, if you want your banner on a significant number of sites, it will mean cluttering your own site up with these banners. This could even shot you in the foot if you run an affiliate website because, instead of clicking on your affiliate links, your visitors may be clicking on your banner exchange links. Secondly, you have to be really careful about the types of sites that you exchange banners with. Some sites like to gather a lot of banners so that they can be a directory or portal site and not have to have any real content. These "banner farms" or "link farms" will do nothing positive for your site and, in the meantime, you will be bringing them potential traffic.

Paid Banner Ads

As we saw above, paid banner ads cost money, but they will eventually pay off if you choose the right ones. You need to ensure that the site produces the amount of traffic that they say and that they have your ad placed in a way that invites visitors to click without being too pushy. You also want to choose a site that does not house too many other banners on the same page as yours or that there are no competitor links on the same page.

All in all, banner ads can end up being profitable for you site if you go about it the right way. If you do decide to check out banner advertisement as a marketing avenue, be sure to keep the above tips in mind.

7 Things You Must Remember When Choosing a Web Host

Everybody knows that a house is as good as its foundation. The stronger the foundation, the better the house you are building.

This principle is as true in the online world as in the offline medium. Because the foundation of your Internet presence is the web host you are working with.

But how do you choose the right web host when there are so many options available?

We'll show you here seven things you should keep in mind when shopping for a web hosting company. Let's start...

1) Choose a hosting account based on your real needs.

There is no point to pay for 300 MB disk space when all you need is 20 MB. This is true for data transfer (also called traffic or bandwidth) as well. A new website usually needs only 1-3 GB of monthly data transfer.

On the other hand, if you plan to build a big website and expect a growing number of visitors in a short period of time, then you should choose more disk space and a larger bandwidth.

Besides disk space and data transfer, based on what you plan to do with your website, you may need many other features. So take the time and write down what are your real needs.

2) Choose a web host that is fast and reliable.

The company should have a track record of at least 99% uptime (more is better) and a solid guarantee for this figure.

You really don't want your website to be offline in the middle of a large advertising campaign.

Fast access to your website is also essential. If your pages are not loading fast enough, you will lose your visitors. Internet surfers are impatient and they will just close that slow loading page and move to another website.

3. Choose a hosting company with a very good customer service.

Their support should function 24 hours a day, during all year, including weekends and holidays. You never know when things go wrong and you need someone to help you quickly.

Look for live chat and phone support. Test them. Send questions at various hours, even in the middle of the night, and see how fast they respond and how helpful are their responses.

4) Always read the fine print.

Do you know how much you should pay if you are exceeding the resources allocated for your account? If you are not happy with their services and you have paid for a full year, they will refund your money or not?

Unfortunately, not all of the companies we are dealing with are honest. So be sure to carefully read the fine print, like privacy details, legal pages or policy statements.

This will save you many headaches.

5) A reasonable price.

Although usually you get what you pay for, in this case the most expensive hosting companies are not always the best.

Again, you should pay only for what you need and use. And see if a higher price justifies the features you are being offered.

As always, a good price/quality rapport is what you should be looking for.

6) Do you have multiple domains?

Related with price is the possibility to host multiple domains on the same account and today there are hosting companies that offer this option.

This will not only save you money in the long run but it will also save you time. You don't have to switch between control panels for different domains and generally everything is much easier to manage.

7) Do your own research.

Don't choose a web host just because what they say on their website sounds good. Do your own research and see if they really walk their talk.

Find hosting review websites and read what they have to say. Although some of these websites are affiliates for the companies they review, you should still figure it out if something is wrong.

Ask questions in a few popular forums. Find people that are customers of the company you are inclined to use and listen to them. They will probably tell you if they had any problems.

Always keep in mind these ideas when choosing your web hosting company. This way you will be sure that you build your online business on a strong foundation.

Search Engine Marketing - Just Do It, Now!

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Fast Site Promotion - How to Create More Money Through Site Promotion

Right now, where ever you look in the World Wide Web, all you can see are businesses trying to outdo the promotional tactics of each other. And with the onset of so many freelance services that you can get for just a cheaper price, then you can be sure that you would be able to get the promotion that you wanted for your business. You can just invest in just a few bucks and you are ready to reap big, big money. Web site promotion is really getting popular these days, there is no denying it.

Surviving the online market may be tough at first but a little patience would surely work your way to the top. If you have good writing skills, then you can try blogging or article marketing for your expense. You can indulge in writing sales letters or go into press releases online. With this, you can be paid for the services you render and at the same time, the web site will gain more traffic.

Fast site promotion also involves link popularity which definitely aids in increasing traffic online. You can also hire affiliate marketers and participate in web site promotion programs. Before all of these, you should first make sure that the site is in good working condition. Do away with links that are not useful. They will just cause an annoyance. Just imagine how you would feel if you are trying to click a link that you are dying to access and suddenly it failed. You would just end up being frustrated. And you would not want this to happen to your visitors.

These are just simple stuffs that you can do to make sure that you would stand out from all those other businesses who are struggling to make it online. Just be sure to be keen and play fair in this online competition.

What Marketing Skills Do You Need To Succeed?

Marketing skills are extremely important to your business. If you don't know how to do it yourself, you should seriously look at finding someone who has such skills. Otherwise, you must learn how to market yourself.

The first step is to figure out what works and what doesn't. The best way to do this is to see what the gurus are doing. But you have to be careful whose advice you decide to follow.

Ask yourself, what does this person know about marketing. Has he done it successfully? Is he making the money I want to make or more? Has he been marketing for awhile, or is he just a newcomer who is still learning and who only knows a few things?

These are important questions to ask. There are too many so-called internet marketers out there who will be more than happy to sell you a worthless e-book that is full of misinformation. Such books abound, and if you look closely you'll see that the tactics suggested are no longer effective. You won't find the well-known internet experts selling such junk.

Learning how to identify the real experts is your first marketing skill. If you listen to the unsuccessful, or the mildly successful, you will waste a great deal of time. And as you know or should know, time is money.

To be a great marketer, you need to know how to read your target audience. You want to know them inside out - what motivates them, what do they want out of life, how committed are they to their hobby or career or lifestyle? With these answers, you will be better armed for writing that sales letter that practically guarantees a sale with every visitor.