Seasoned Marketer

Hi – Well it’s Summer time and you’ve reached the Seasoned Marketer.  My name is Robert and I have been doing online marketing for about 8 years now or about 32 seasons which ever comes first.  And in that time I have learned quite a bit about marketing on the internet ranging anywhere from getting traffic to your site to increasing conversions for ecommerce sites and every where in between.

So in this blog, we’ll be covering interesting things about internet marketing and it’s related components.

There is a lot to talk about and we’d recommend you subscribe to this feed by adding the feed to your RSS Reader.  If time allows, I might even add a newsletter, but I’ll be honest, I am extremely busy these days and adding a newsletter will be a luxury if I can get to it.

Feel free to leave meaningful comments or questions and I’ll see if I can give you a worthwhile answer.

Thanks and enjoy this site!

Robert Sigler

Well, after several MONTHS after I applied for the Chitika program, I got accepted.  Finally.  For those that don’t know, Chitika is a way to make money online from your websites / blogs.  By placing the code they give you onto your website by simply copying and pasting, the ads will appear and you make money anytime anyone clicks on those ads.

Since it’s been so long since I applied, I think it was being deemed as a replacement for Yahoo’s publishers tool (which is no longer an option).  So Chitika it is.  However, my Google Adsense revenue is at an all time high, so I think it’s going to be hard for Chitika to compete.  And apparently, there is no conflict with adding Chitika ads and Google ads on the same page.

I will probably start testing on some of my less visited pages first and see what the conversion and click through rates and most importantly how much money they make.  Who knows, maybe it’ll make more than the Google Adsense program, and if so I’d be shocked!

There actually are some cool things about Chitika and they suggest that using both Google ads and their ads will result in more revenue than just Adsense alone.  We shall see.

Anyhow, will keep you updated on this site about my Chitika results as soon as I get any…

There are tons of web hosting companies out there.  And if you want your site on the web (unless you have a server at home), then you’ll need to use one.  Some are better than others.  But just recently, the worst one I have had dealings with has been JustHost.com.  Absolutely horrible and not a company you should want to do business with.  They are just pure SLEAZY in my opinion.

They bill you 2 weeks BEFORE your renewal period.  And supposedly if you don’t cancel PRIOR to that 2 week notice, then they charge you for and keep your money for the next billing cycle (a year).   Now keep in mind, that you paid for a years worth of hosting, but they BILL you for only 50 weeks.

So I tried to cancel and get a full refund, and they said no, but they’d refund some of my money.  But when my bank charges went through, they had charged my account in full and there was no refund.  And this was 2 WEEKS BEFORE I was even supposed to be renewed.

That’s just pure SLEAZE and a PURE SCAM.  AVOID JustHost.com at all costs.

Also, you want another reason to avoid them?  Well, their security sucks.  My account was hacked into on my blog a couple weeks ago.  That’s NOT good.

So, in short, DO NOT USE JUSTHOST.com.  I think they could be one of the worse web hosting companies online.

There are better companies out there, for example, I like Bluehost and have several sites hosted with them.  And I have never had a problem with them.

That just cracks me up.  All these so called ‘gurus’ have been banned from Google.  Let me tell you one thing.  If you are following the advice of any of these ‘gurus’ who got banned from Google, then I’d recommend finding someone who isnt’ trying to scam you or Google.

The reason they got banned is that they were not following the Terms of Service that Google clearly lays out.  And you really have to do some serious BS to get banned from Google.

Recently, I saw this guy was selling a PPC secretive course for like $197 teaching all these great techniques for how to get cheap traffic from Google Adwords.  The next thing you know this guys course is WORTHLESS because he got the boot by Google.  His techniques were not only unethical, but now are completely useless and if you used them, you might just get banned yourself.  And he’s not the only one, there are lots of these guys trying to use shady techniques that are pretty much just to make a quick buck.  They don’t care about building a long term business and they certainly don’t care about helping people through their so called ‘courses’.

And it seems most of them are in the the ‘lead generation’ business.  Which seems to be all the rage now.  And while they might be showing you their massive profits, what they aren’t showing you is how much they spent in ads.  So they probably aren’t taking home most of the money. 

So what’s all this mean?  A whole new slew of HOW TO GET TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE courses, other than Google, of course.  Go figure.  And the top products from some sleazy marketers are even suggesting using adware secretly installed on peoples computers to get ‘targeted’ traffic to your site.  Uh, yeah, that’s exactly how I DON’T WANT TO BUILD MY BUSINESS.  That particular company by the way got busted a while back and has apparently changed their name and is now back in business. 

Getting traffic is not hard to do.  SEO is still as valid today as it was several years ago.  PPC done correctly is still a quick and easy way to get traffic.  All these traffic networks popping up are also worth a shot, but I would test the big 3 first before wasting money on the other networks.  The big 3?  Yep, Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft Ad Center.

I taught a course called the UpStart Network a couple years ago.  And the techniques I taught in that course are 100% still valid and still useful.  And they didn’t get people banned from any of the search engines or from their ad programs.  And as promised I am re-opening that course (after 2 years) and updating it and it’s set to open this summer, hopefully in June 2010.

In the meantime, just build a business the right way for the longer term and you will have a HUGE head start on the competition.  Don’t fall for these get rich quick, do no work schemes.  They are leading you down a path that they have already shown you once to be worthless to your own business.

I just opened a brand new course I have been working on for several months now, called Make Money Online Rules.  And inside this course I teach 11 different ways to Make Money Online.  I have used these same techniques to build sites that have made me a lot of money over the years, including a site that has made several million in sales.

I also included an entire training section on how to build a website.  I even included a custom template that people can use and get started pretty easily.  And there is no extra software required to make your site, we are using free software that anyone can use to get started online. 

 This course is great for learning how to make extra money online or even to build an entire web business from.  It’s ideal for beginners wanting to make some extra cash to anyone who is serious about building a home based business.  This course is not some 30 page ebook on some ways to make money, but rather it’s a comprehensive online course completet with step by step training videos.

Inside this course we cover the essentials of internet marketing and getting started with your own website.  You can literally take this course and within 24 hours be online and start utilizing these money making techniques.  I have been been making money online for 8 years now and continue to do so today.  I have built many sites that have made money over the years and in this course I show people how to do it.

Considering it’s been suggested that only 15 – 20% of the population actually knows what a feed is, I doubt few people know that you can make money from your feeds.

So first of all, when we are talking about feeds, we are usually talking about RSS feeds these days.  And all the blogs out there have the capacity for generate a ‘feed’.  A feed is a way to update any subscribers to your feed via the use of feed readers.

Let’s say you have a blog about Popular Musicians. And you post a new article about a band coming to your area.  What happens is that article updates your RSS feed and feed readers are often times setup to ‘check’ feeds every 15 minutes or so.  It’s kind of like email, except with blog content instead of  a personalized email.  And everyone who is subscribed to your feed will get that update via their feed reader.

There are 3 easy to use and popular feed readers out there.  Internet Explorer 8 has a built in feed reader, Firefox has a built in feed reader and I like feed demon – a free desktop feed reader.  You can easily to subscribe to a sites ‘feed’ if when you go to your favorite site and see that orange ‘feed’ icon. If you click on that, then you can subscribe to that feed.

Reading your feed is easy, for example, with IE 8, all you have to do is go to your “favorites’ and click on ‘feeds’ and you’ll see all the feeds you are subscribed to.

Now, if you have a blog of your own, or a site with an RSS feed, you can place Google Ads in your feed and you get paid anytime clicks on one of those ads.  Really, if you have a blog, it doesn’t make any sense not to use Google AdSense for feeds.  It’s a way to build passive income without much work on your part.

To learn more, login into your Google AdSense account and click on ‘Ad Setup’ and choose AdSense for feeds.  It’s actually pretty easy and straight forward to use.

So effective April 30, 2010, Yahoo will no longer be running their publisher network.  This was a network, much like Google Adsense, where people could sign up and place ads on their site and make money anytime anyone clicked on one of those ads.

Instead they have decided to recommend people sign up for Chitika.  Which is another network very much similar.  You place ads on your site, you get paid when visitors click on those ads. 

I have been going with Google Adsense primarily these days.  AND as of March 31, 2010 have made more money from Adsense than I have made in the last 5 or 6 years.  Apparently with Chitika, you can also run concurrent Adsense ads as well.

I tried the Yahoo Publisher network, but didn’t have time to really test the results between Google and Yahoo.  And now I just have to go through and get rid of Yahoo altogether off my sites.

Just thought you might want an update on this in case you were thinking of joining or had sites with Yahoo ads on there..

That’s a funny question.  A good bounce rate is zero %.  But, that’s just not very likely to happen. 

A bounce rate is a term used by Analytics software to measure people who have visited one page on your site and immediately left your web site from that same page.  They came, they saw, they left.  Without going to any other pages on your site.

Typically speaking, it’s been suggested that a good bounce rate is 30 – 40%.  Meaning 60 – 70% of the visitors to your site visit other pages on your site.  And any bounce rate above 50% is worth taking a look at and bounce rates of 80% or higher and you’ve got some issues on your site that should be dealt with pronto.

Use your Analytics program to take a look at your overall bounce rate.  Under 50% and you’re probably doing just fine.  But if not, then take a look at your navigation and your design and see if that’s an issue.  You might also want to look at the ‘exit’ pages as well and check them for navigation, content, purpose, etc.

Now depending on your goal, a high bounce rate might not actually be so bad.  Especially if you have an Google AdSense site.  You often times want people to come to your page and click on an ad and leave.  So if that’s the goal, then you want a high bounce rate.

Also if your site is only 1 page long, then of course you’ll have a high bounce rate.  For example, if you have a blog with tons of posts on the first page, then people might read a few posts and take off.  Now if you wanted them to click deeper into the site, then you could just break up your posts with the –more– insert tag and continue the article on another page.

But if you have an ecommere site or a site with multiple pages and your goal is to have them surf your site and hang out a bit, then it’ll be advantageous to fix and redo your pages with very high bounce rates.

Give me a break already.  I don’t about you, but I am getting tired of these product launches.  And the tons of bogus emails that come along with it.  Check it out – It’s the best thing ever!  Yeah whatever.

For those of you who don’t know what a “Product Launch” is, consider yourself lucky.  But in essence a product launch goes something like this:

1. A Marketing Guru has a new product or just a rehash of an old product and wants to make money
2. He / She emails all of their marketing buddies (who have tons of subscribers on their list) with bribes of future affiliate cash
3. Their buddies email their list of subscribers telling them how great this product is going to be (half the time I bet they’ve never even seen the product) and the link in their email contains an affiliate link so they can get credit for sending people to the launch
4. The guru emails their own list (obtained over years of doing this very same process)
5. They have squeeze pages (sign up forms) and a video promising more videos (say 3 or 4 or a couple weeks) to funnel that list into one list of prospective customers
6. They use or try to use Cialdini’s Influence strategies in their campaign and on their videos
7. They blast their stuff everywhere telling you everything else sucks and THIS IS THE ANSWER to all your problems…
8. People get all stirred up and frenzied
9. They continue to release more videos and create more hype over a week or two
10. They launch their product which is usually $2,000 and then email people how much they’ve sold in the last 6 hours (Cialdinis Social Proof Technique)
11. There is usually a small time frame that this product is available, so if you don’t hurry you can’t get this product that will change your life (Cialdinis Scarcity Model)

Well good for them.  At some point I would hope people get tired of this method.  And for God’s sake, the next time someone emails me with the subject line “Important!” – - it had better not be that this guys product launch is coming to an end.  That’s not important to me – that’s a relief actually.

But this is also nothing new, except the technology makes it easier.  If you have ever read any of Daniel Boorsteins stuff, especially the Image, then you’ll see this what’s known as a ‘pseudo-event’.

And I can tell you one thing.  The gurus are using this method because it is working right now, but I wonder for how long it will continue to do so.

And I can’t remember the last time I bought a $2000 info product.  That’s alot of traffic you can buy for your own site

This option has been around for a long time.  Except is used to be fairly expensive to buy the ad space.  However, you’d probably be pleasantly surprised by just how easy and affordable it is to advertise on late nite TV.  And on major stations, like MSNBC, HGTV, ESPN, etc. 

If you have a Google AdWords campaign, then you’re half way there.  All you need is a video and in your Adwords account, you can simply upload that video, choose which channels and what time you want your TV commercial to run and then you choose your budget and that easy you can be on TV.

This is a great video that is quite eye opening.  Keep in mind, in this example, they are still paying $1.30 per click (and who knows what kind of conversion he’s getting) but it’s certainly worth trying.

There might be a couple commercials to get through, but this video is worth watching.  The data is quite interesting.  Who knew it could be so cheap.  Look for a barage of websites coming to your late night channel.

Oh yeah, what channels can you run your own commercial on?  Just look at all the possibilites Google has partnered with – Run Commercials on these channels through Google

Actually we are working on a commercial now for one of our own sites and we will let you know what kind of conversion you might be able to expect…Coming Soon!

For one of my sites, which has been around a few years, I took a look at the Analytics which shows a good deal of information about visitors to your site.  One of things it shows is which browser people are using.  And so here’s the stats from Jan 1, 2010 to Mar 15, 2010 and approximately 26,000 visitors.  So that’s probably a statistically significant result…

Name / Percentage of people using that browser

1. Firefox 43.41%
2. Internet Explorer 36.59%
3. Chrome 10.25%
4. Safari 6.48%
5. Opera 2.32%
6. Mozilla 0.58%
7. Opera Mini 0.14%
8. SeaMonkey 0.07%
9. Mozilla Compatible Agent 0.05%
10. Konqueror 0.03%

So in this case, surprisingly Firefox has overtaken Internet Explorer. And equally surprising, Google’s Chrome is currently ranking #3 in the browser wars. This just shows you that you really ought to download those top 5 browsers and see what your site looks like in those browsers.

Different browsers, espcially older ones, can display CSS formatting differently.  So it’s pretty important to check different versions of the same browser as well.  You wouldn’t want your site to look great in one browser and horrible in another.  And believe me, I had that happen on my last site I built, but after checking it was easily correctable.  But you can’t fix it, if you don’t even know it’s broken.