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What Types of Traffic Are There?

by Paul Perrin

So you have the best website money can buy you are immensely proud of your finished product but still no-one is buying. Why?

Your final profit is simple to calculate it is a factor of number of visitors * conversion rate * profit per visitor. The third factor, profit per visitor is usually where people focus their resources. It is a known quantity and easy to manipulate by simply charging the right price.

But the killer question is always how much traffic am I getting? And further are they the sort of visitors who will buy my wares?

With that simple statement in mind let’s have a look at the main sources of traffic on the internet today.

Search Engine Traffic

The best because it’s free. The worst because it is easily taken away. SE traffic is risky. It is easily acquired for relatively low competitive keywords with a simple knowledge of search engine optimization best practice.

Each search engine orders websites for any given term according to it’s own proprietary algorithm. This algorithm usually is based upon the various factors detailed in the SEO checklist, however the weighting applied will differ for each.

There are currently 3 major search engines being:- Google, Yahoo and MSN. Google is by far the most popularly used search tool. For more competitive terms the SEO checklist is still applicable however will require additional effort in the key areas of the same key factors. You can investigate competition via these useful tools.

Directory Listings

These are not the massive source of traffic they once were. Submission to a directory is now more use to substantiate your link popularity, a key factor in search engine positioning. The most popular free and paid directories are included within our directory listings.

Paid Advertising

Once banner advertising reigned supreme, however today it is generally recognised that most website visitors suffer heavily from “banner blindness”. Visitors have seen so many banners over the years that they are now subconsciously tuned out when looking at the website.

Much more effective in today’s market place is the basic text link. Not surprisingly a link which is text only! These form the basis of advertising in many a Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign. Pay Per Click is the notion of paying only for visitors to a website that click on your link. Hence you will only pay for visitors to you website and not each time your banner or text link is displayed.

The two largest PPC engines are Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture services. PPC allows you to instantly drive traffic to your site without having to weight for your search engine optimization skills to be appreciated by the search engines.

Guaranteed traffic is a term used for relatively cheap traffic, usually purchased in bulk. The traffic is usually generated by a popup or popunder on another site, and in my experience has not proven very effective.

Traffic Exchanges

These tend to fall into 2 general styles. The first, ad exchanges are a reciprocal agreement, usually via a co-operative site to add a piece of code to your page(s) which displays adverts on your site. In return your site will be displayed on other members websites according to the individual co-operatives weighting factors.

The second, traffic exchanges require you to browse websites presented on a central site. You are awarded points according to how many sites you have browsed and in turn these credits may be spent by promoting your site in the same way to other browsers. Repeat Vistors

So often overlooked. You have done the hard work in getting a first time visitor to you site now get him to stay and later to return for more. There are various methods for making your site “sticky” these include:- including a newsletter and appropriate sign up form, supplying good content, either written by yourself or sourced from the abundance of free information on the net.

Such simple things as including contact details and appropriate use of autoresponders can make all the difference.

Viral Marketing

A rather flash title for a collection of techniques which are common sense but often forgotten. Such examples include:- writing your own articles, building communities via forums, offering free items/bonuses/competitions, producing your own e-book and issuing press releases.

If you are marketing your own product one of the most successful methods will undoubtedly be starting your own affiliate program and getting others to sell for you.

Competition

Not really a traffic category as such however careful analysis of your competition’s website, traffic, links and ad placement can all be obtained if you are diligent. This market intelligence will in turn lead to further opportunities to drive visitors to your site.

After a while it all becomes just good fun!

Source: www.promotionworld.com  29-06-2006

Tags: search engine optimization, traffic, MSN, Google, Yahoo!

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By Juan Carlos Perez

Google will try to convince a judge on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the heart of the company’s business: its methods for indexing and ranking webpages.

In March, Google was sued by KinderStart.com, which alleges it suffered crippling financial harm after its site got dropped from the search engine’s index.

The case reflects the enormous impact of search engines on the business world at large. It has become crucial for many businesses to rank well in search engine results. An entire industry has sprouted to serve this ’search engine optimisation’ need.

World wide web window monopoly

As the world’s most popular search engine, Google wields the strongest influence. Having a site that ranks low or disappears altogether from the Google index can have devastating effects for a company. This is what KinderStart.com alleges happened to it.

"It’s a very important case for many reasons. Everyone uses search engines, so the question is: Are you seeing true and faithful results?" said Gregory Yu, KinderStart.com’s attorney.

"Google shouldn’t have completely free range to be able to remove sites or hit them with a zero PageRank," he added, referring to the patented technology at the heart of Google’s algorithmic ranking.

KinderStart.com is charging Google, among other things, with violating its right to free speech; illegally using a monopoly position to harm competitors; engaging in unfair practices and competition; committing defamation and libel; and violating the Federal Communications Act. The web publisher seeks a class action certification for the lawsuit, damages and injunctive relief, among other things.

Court or consensus?

In motions filed in May, Google argues that Judge Jeremy Fogel should dismiss the lawsuit, saying that the case boils down to one essential question: Should search engines or should courts determine sites relevancy? "If KinderStart were right … neither Google nor any other search engine could operate, as it would constantly face lawsuits from businesses seeking more favourable positioning," Google’s motion reads.

Google also asks the judge to strike three of the suit’s counts, alleging they violate Google’s exercise of free speech in connection with a public issue. This is prohibited under a California law called the Anti-SLAPP statute, Google argues.

KinderStart.com, based in Norwalk, California, began publishing a site for parents of children under seven years old in May 2000 and in 2003 the site joined Google’s AdSense ad network, according to the complaint. Yet, starting in March and April 2005, the site suffered a "cataclysmic" fall in traffic of about 70 per cent and a drop in AdSense revenue of about 80 per cent, from which it hasn’t recovered, and which the company blames on its removal from the Google index.

KinderStart.com claims it has never been notified by phone, mail or in person of the reason for its site’s exclusion. Google reserves the right to remove sites from its index for various reasons. KinderStart.com states it hasn’t knowingly violated any of Google’s webmaster guidelines.

Find - or begin - a discussion of this story in Macworld UK’s busy Forums.

Source: www.macworld.co.uk  29-06-2006

Tags: googgoogle, yahoo, search engine optimization, kinderstart.com

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Source: www.pcpro.co.uk  29-06-2006

Tags: search engines, google, yahoo, Mobile Web

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Source: www.publications.mediapost.com  29-06-2006

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Google announced a new cost per action program that will be rolled into its AdSense program. Why are we talking about that in a series that covers building a web site from scratch? Keep reading to find out.
This is part of an ongoing series. The easiest way to read the previous parts is to go to this link HERE. There you will find links to all of my articles; the four most recent comprise the beginning of this series.

Affiliate marketing has been around for quite some time. Networks that help put together affiliate managers with affiliate marketers have also been around for a while. These types of activities are often referred to as "cost per action." Essentially what that means is that an affiliate marketer will get paid by an affiliate manager for performing a certain action (such as generating a lead or a sale).

By far the two largest affiliate networks are Commission Junction and ClickBank. Both of these companies are probably quaking in their boots right now. The reason is simple: Google is entering the cost per action fray.

When Google entered the search engine market we saw the face of search change. When it entered the cost per click fray we saw the face of that market change. Therefore, it does not take a crystal ball to realize that Google is probably going to change this market as well. Part of the reason why this prediction is so easy to make is because this new program is going to be rolled into the wildly popular AdSense system.

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Tags: google, adsense

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No matter how hard you work to optimize your page, there are going to be times when Google just can’t figure out which AdSense ad to deliver, so it defaults to delivering a PSA (Public Service Ad) instead.

Now I don’t have any problem with charities, but I give to the ones that I choose to give to. Since I don’t have a non-profit license of my own, the goal of my web site is to make money and I depend on Google AdSense revenues to help pay my bills. Someday I want it to fund my retirement as well, so I can’t afford to have non-revenue PSAs showing up on my site.

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Tags: google, adsense

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There are lots of different strategies that you can use to skyrocket your AdSense income. Repeatedly clicking on your ads isn’t one of them. That’s the sort of thing that Google take a pretty strong line on - and rightly so. It’s just plain dumb and Google have a strong punishment for it: they can ban you for life.

That punishment’s not unreasonable when someone’s deliberately trying to con Google’s advertisers. But it does leave a golden opportunity for anyone who wants to sabotage someone else’s income. If you’re making a lot of money using AdSense - and you’ve also made an enemy or two - there’s nothing to stop someone coming to your site, clicking your ads a couple of dozen times and wiping out your income.

Sound scary? It should. Once you get banned, that’s it. It’s very difficult to persuade Google to let you back in.

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Tags: adsense, google

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Finally! Google has introduced Ad scheduling for AdWords. This new system allows advertisers to choose when ads should appear, and how much each ad should cost.

To access the dayparting features in Adwords, just edit your campaign settings. Click on "Turn on ad scheduling". You will have to specify a time zone if you have not already done so. Now you can specify the time periods your ads will appear. For example, if your B2B customers are located in the U.S. and Japan, you can specify that your ads only be shown during business hours in those areas. If you are directly targeting consumers, and you know that your customers are more likely to buy during the usual "after dinner" hours, you can specify that your ads only be shown during this time. There is also the control of adding several day parts within each day.

To make life easier, you can also do a "bulk edit". This means you can specify hours of the day, and apply them to every day of the week. The default setting is to have all the ads on all the time.

You have even more control when switching to advanced mode for Ad Scheduling. You can specify how much you want to pay for each ad. If you know that your customers buy more during the hours of 9-5pm, you can up your bid to 130%, for example. If your normal max bid is $1.00, then during the specified hours, your max bid becomes $1.30. After the time period ends, your max bid reverts back to $1.00. During low-conversion hours you can pay less for an ad - just specify a lower bid percentage.

Bear in mind, however, that the time of day on which all this is based is your time zone. Your ads will appear within the time frames you specify in your own time zone. Make sure you allow for different time zones when specifying your ad scheduling. If you are in EST, allow 3 extra hours for those in PST.

According to Google, Ad scheduling will not generally affect your budget. Remember, however, that there is the risk that Google may not be able to spend all of your budget if you specify too narrow a time frame, or too low a bid price.

Of course, maximizing the power of ad scheduling will require some testing. Check your analytics program for the best conversion times, and see what happens when you raise or lower your bid prices. Remember, however, that sometimes customers may require some time before they actually buy something. A customer who finds your site on their lunch break may not be purchasing until after dinnertime at home. It will require some analysis before you can be sure that you are getting the most out of Adwords ad scheduling.

All in all, Ad scheduling for AdWords is a feature that has the potential to really improve the efficiency of your ad spend, if you are willing to put in the time. Google dayparting is a feature that has been long in coming.

Source: www.selfseo.com  26-06-2006

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Tags: Clickbank, affiliate program, AdWords

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Source: www.isedb.com  26-06-2006

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Tags: serach engine optimization, google, yahoo

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Arbitrage is defined by Wikipedia as "the practice of taking advantage of a state of imbalance between two or more markets." When related to Internet Marketing, specifically paid search and contextual advertising, this practice has become known as "AdSense arbitrage" since this was probably the first widely used platform. Essentially, people make money by bidding on less expensive terms to drive people to a page with AdSense or some other Publisher Network ads. When people click on those ads, the money that the site owner makes for the click exceeds the money that he spent to drive the traffic to the site. With a good enough "conversion rate," this can be very lucrative. Note that we spoke about this in April when covering a SEW thread.

A more recent thread at WebMasterWorld brings up the subject of AdSense arbitrage in a slightly different manner, but leads to many similar points about the ability to make money using this process. One member states:

Arbitrage works best when you can take advantage of the differences in cost/return on 2 different networks.

And another ads:

Whenever I have used AdWords my AdSense earnings have averaged 25-30% of the advertising investment however I use AdWords to introduce new product lines or a new site.

It is speculated that Google and Yahoo are trying to do something about this. One would have to wonder how long that may take, however, since it makes the portals money even though it may muddle some search results. See the thread at WebMasterWorld Forums. The other very long and entertaining thread you may remember is at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Source: www.seroundtable.com  28-06-2006

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Tags: adsense, adwords, google, yahoo, contextual advertising, adSense arbitrage

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