The show starts TONIGHT at 6:30 PM Pacific Standard Time / 9:30 Eastern. Stop by early & say hi:

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

If you are a member of my Business Inner Circle, you should go to:

http://www.businessinnercircle.com
(If you’re not a member yet, just sign up & then click on “chat”… it only takes a minute)

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Google AdWords

The show starts TONIGHT at 6:30 PM Pacific Standard Time / 9:30 Eastern. Stop by early & say hi:

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

If you are a member of my Business Inner Circle, you should go to:

http://www.businessinnercircle.com/forum/forum/addonchat.php
(If you’re not a member yet, just click the link & sign up… it only takes a minute)

I look forward to seeing you there!

All the best,

Bill McIntosh

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

Tags

Google AdWords

I was just talking about this last week on the show, and it looks like today is a big day for mobile advertising!

Google’s really getting serious about mobile advertising.  In November they purchased AdMob, a mobile display ad technology provider, for $750 million.  If you’ve seen skinny horizontal ads at the top of an iPhone app or game, those have most likely been AdMob’s doing.  In the past, AdMob has concentrated on mobile display ads, while Google has focused on search ads.

The amount of money Google spent on this purchase shows how important Google feels the subject of mobile advertising really is.  It IS the future of advertising.  And to prove the seriousness of Google in this direction of advertising, here’s a bit of a letter that I received this morning:

“Dear AdWords Advertiser,

“We’re pleased to announce that beginning in January, your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your business just as easily as they click to visit your website. You’ll be charged for clicks to call, same as you are for clicks to visit your website…”

Google is making it easier for mobile users to engage with your ads.  And this is just the beginning.  Google’s own phone, which uses Android software, called “Nexus One” is being unveiled at the Googleplex in Silicon Valley right NOW as I type this post.  It’s intended to be part of a new class of phones called “superphones”.

The other very interesting thing about this is Google moving forward with an implementation of click to call advertising.  I’ve seen other networks like Commission Junction roll out this kind of program and I’ve even seen Google dong experimental click to call tests, but this is the first time that I know of Google fully rolling out this type of advertising.

What’s everyone else doing about this?  Not sure, but at the moment iPhone users are still happy with their iPhones, and Blackberry users are still loyal Blackberry users.  But here’s something:  the rumor is that Apple is acquiring a company called “Quattro Wireless”, which is a mobile advertising company who rivals AdMob.  So it doesn’t look like everyone is sitting back on their haunches while Google takes over the mobile universe.  Which is something I find comforting.

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Google AdWords

Tim presents Natural Link Building – What’s That? Says: “I was reading Matt Cutt’s blog this morning and specifically his new post Natural Links are better than non-natural, not a post I would really recommend reading but one that provokes some thought from the title alone. What are natural links? and more importantly how do we build them?”

Tim presents How To Get People To Spread Your Worst Content Says “I read a lot of GOOD quality info on one hand but then some terrible info in the next breath, the kind of information you get really cross at for wasting your time. The point is throughout all the blogs I read there are certain ones, that no matter what the quality of the post is like, always get, dugg, tweeted, sphunn whatever!

The posts can be a complete waste of two minutes of your time but why are people still spreading this junk all over the web?”

Tim presents The Link Between SEO and Usability Says: “The landscape of SEO changes so frequently that if your not on the ball, you will be caught wondering what happened to your rankings. That is what makes the SEO game such a buzz, the fact your always sprinting to stay ahead of the game, those who like certainty should stay as far away from SEO as possible. So what usability factors might Google look at that enhance the user experience and SEO at the same time?”

Robert Alan presents 20 Reputable SEO Firms to Consider saying, “List of reputable SEO firms to consider for small business owners.”

Angel Taylor presents How To Avoid 3 Common Affiliate Mistakes Says: “Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and quickest ways of earning money online and it allows everybody a chance to make a profit, Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pays a commission on a regular basis, more an more people are jumping on board. However, like all businesses, there are possible pitfalls which can quickly destroy your chances of making a profit.”

Emma Taylor presents 100 Business Execs You Can Learn from on Twitter Says: “Twitter is not often thought of as an educational tool, but the fact is that there are many people on the service that offer a wealth of information. There are CEOs, executives, and more users that have plenty of knowledge to offer you. Read on, and you’ll learn about 100 business executives that you can learn from on Twitter.”

Helene Zemel presents Internet Marketing Basics for Work at Home Moms & Dads posted saying, “Whether you own a brick and mortar store or work out of your home, advertising on the internet will allow you to reach thousands of people with your ads. This article provides you with some of the basics for getting started with internet marketing”

sagarika presents Skills that you should be learn for Success posted saying: “True Success is simply the realization and obtainment of a worthy ideal or result that your heart is deeply connected to it & what you desired, results fruitfully in your life, business, wealth, or a worthy ideal.”

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Start an Online Business: Open an eBay Store, Build a Website or Blog Says: “With the sour economy, the time is ripe for us to consider investigating investment opportunities and business prospects in the online realm. When it came to starting my own online business, I had tinkered with a few ideas, but never knew where to begin. But I’ve since researched this topic to some degree, and would like to share some of the things I’ve found.”

The Smarter Wallet presents How To Work From Home And Start A Home Business posted saying, “You may want to start a home business or a side business. Or you may want to telecommute to save on gas. Those who’d like to work from home may find these resources worthwhile. ”

Gabriel presents 8 Short Steps To Forecast and Calculate SEO ROI posted saying, “This article shows how to forecast the return on investment possible from search engine optimization. So many new entrepreneurs want to do SEO but don’t know if it’s a viable marketing channel! This article will facilitate the decision by showing how to forecast the ROI on SEO.”

Cris Santeiro presents How to Run an Internet Membership Site posted “Do some research and see what you can offer to make your membership site stand out. There are many membership sites on the Internet, so it is a very competitive market. Make sure you are offering excellent content and great customer service, in order to attract and keep your members.”

Robert Alan presents Tips for Effective Cross-Selling and Up-Selling posted saying, “Here’s a great list of tips for bloggers and online retailers on how to cross sell and upsell their products and services to increase revenue and total profits on their sites.”

Gregory E. Rouse presents What is Passive Income? posted saying, “As I watched these men and their friends over the years, I began to notice something. Those who were truly financially independent, owned their own business. And, not just any business, they all had businesses that made money even if they were not there.”

Amy Dyslex presents Learn Business Writing: A Few Commandments posted saying, “To learn business writing you can take a grab at a few coaching classes. But there is another way of training yourself. Like they say, it’s all about “matters of the mind.” So try out the following tips to angle yourself for effective business writing.”

Debbie Foster presents How to Ramp Up Your Blog Traffic Says: “You’ve created a blog and you’ve got plenty to say. Great! Now, the trick is to bring in some sizable traffic! After all, unless you’re independently wealthy, you probably need to make some income. Competing with thousands, or tens of thousands of other bloggers, writing in a similar vein or topic, makes this a challenging goal. Here I go over some of the best moves you can make to increase your blog traffic and spread the word.”

BrandonLaughridge presents Top 5 Non-Advertising Methods to Monetize Your Blog posted saying, “Some interesting ways to make money on the web without tradition ad networks.”

Madeleine Begun Kane presents My Advice To Spammers (Limerick) says: “Dear spammers, I wish you’d take heed…”

Merlyn Sanchez presents The 5 Biggest Time Wasters says: “As the saying goes: “Time is money”, so wasting time is wasting money. And very few of us can afford to do that, especially in today’s economy. Here are 5 pitfalls that many business owners and solo professionals fall into which can severely hamper their productivity and cost them profits. Do any of the following sound familiar?”

Robert Alan presents Big Mistakes to Avoid with Your First PPC Campaign posted saying, “For all those small business owners and new entrepreneurs who’d like to take advantage of paid search marketing, but don’t quite know how, I’ve provided a top ten list of all the major things that you MUST avoid when creating your first PPC campaign.”

Christian Russell presents How to Use Social Networking Sites for Business posted saying, “I like to keep it simple. Simple is good. Know why? Because it works. Social networking for business is not rocket science, but for some strange reason, many of us WANT it to be! Perhaps it’s human nature. Perhaps if we think it’s complicated, then we will be able to figure it out…and after we figure it out, it will be easy. And our lives will then be easy. And money will fall into our laps without us ever having to lift a finger, because we’ve figured it out. We know the secret!”

Christian Russell presents Quick Start to Internet Marketing posted saying, “Many people out there are looking for a quick start to internet marketing. I understand. Most people in my network are business people, and we are the kind of people who want to get things rolling quickly. You know being online and marketing yourself with blogging, internet marketing and social networking is essential, but you don’t know the best way to go about it, and you have a million questions.”

CarlsonCOS presents B2B DIY Media Buying, or Use A Pro? posted saying, “Agency Media Pro and a Client-side Marcom exec discuss a framework for media buying and the pitfalls/benefits of DIY.”

Technorati tags: online marketing carnival, blog carnival.

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Carnival Of Online Marketing

We had a lot of submissions this week about a variety of topics including: Google Adwords & PPC, Making money blogging, financial advice, Autoresponders and a lot of great Internet marketing help. Browse through the posts and hopefully they provide you with some value.  Let me know what you think of this weeks blog carnival by submitting a comment at the bottom of this post.  I’ll be adjusting the types of entries I accept based on your feedback.

Barbra Sundquist presents How to Set Up an Aweber Autoresponder posted at HomeBusinessWiz Autoresponders are a powerful tool and can do lots of things. You can customize them for marketing purposes and collect statistics on your leads and messages. To get started, there are four basic steps:

Ray presents Declutter Your Life By Getting Rid Of Junk Mail posted at Money Blue Book The average American household receives unsolicited junk mail equivalent to 1.5 trees every year, which comes out to more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined. Learn how to do your part in reducing junk mail.

Jim presents This coffee sucks. And so does your marketing. posted at B2B Rainmaker “If you want to be like everybody else, keep doing what you’re doing, it isn’t working for them either. If you want to be remarkable, do something we can talk about.”

Blogger presents Make Money Blogging: Top Bloggers And How Much They Earn posted at The Digerati Life If you’re interested in blogging to make money here’s some information on how to do it with examples of other bloggers who are successful at it.

The Smarter Wallet presents How To Earn Money Online, Get Free Stuff ! posted at The Smarter Wallet A few suggestions on how to earn money online and get free stuff on the internet. These and tools may provide you with a few opportunities!

Ayala presents If You Don’t Have A Website, Then You Don’t Have A Business | Internet Mogal posted at Internet Mogal In this digital era, if you don’t have a website you don’t exist. I know. It sounds so drastic and final. Let me explain what I mean.

Bobby Leong presents What is “WWW” the ? posted at Internet Marketing Solutions Have you ever realized that it is easier to say “World Wide Web” than “www” when you announce your website to the world verbally?

Brooklyn White presents 100 Free Web Design Tools and Resources posted at Becoming a Computer Technician A giant list of web design resources you can use that are free.

Mariano DiFabio presents Does Your Business Really Need Social Media? 10 Questions to Ask posted at The Web and You, saying, “Are you considering social media for your business but aren’t really sure where to begin? Here are 10 questions that every business should ask before taking the plunge and developing a plan.”

Welly Mulia presents Satisfy (The Majority Of) Your Customers posted at Internet Business Make Money Online With Welly Mulia When a customer’s expectations are not met, they are unsatisfied. When that happens, 3 things occur:

Ryan Healy presents 31 Ways to Grow a Business posted at Ryan M. Healy. There are essentially four over-arching strategies for growing a business. No more, no less.

Harrison presents 6 Steps to Successful Social Media Buzz posted at eSpire Marketing – A Twitter Blog, saying, “This 6 Step Guide is pulled from a number of case studies that have proven themselves useful on numerous occasions.”

Nesher presents Better Tracking of Visitors Interaction on your Blog posted at Blogging for Good in the Modern World. Do you mind, if somebody uses the content posted on your blog or website pages? I personally do not mind. However, it would be nice if there will be ability to track all the cases, when content is copied, and the proper credit will be presented.

Christian Russell presents 20 Ways to Instill Trust and Make More Money posted at Next Level Blogger. The methods we use to market products and services these days are changing rapidly, and if you’re reading this blog you’re obviously aware of these changes and are taking steps to learn. Kudos. But it’s important…absolutely essential…to understand one simple fact.

Christian Russell presents The Number One Reason Blogs Fail posted at Next Level Blogger. If you want a successful blog or internet marketing plan of any kind, you need a fully detailed plan to start off.

Martin Russell presents “Conspiracy of the Rich”- A Review posted at Word of Mouth Marketing. Robert Kiyosaki has tried to turn his latest book launch into an viral event by having chapter by chapter released online and inviting comments from readers. The end result will be a hardcopy of the book “Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money”.

Foster presents Some Things To Know About Pay Per Click Advertising posted at Internet Income – The Journey. There are many steps you must master before you can become profitable with PPC. It is not a matter of throwing up something in ten minutes and seeing what works. You will need to research and implement each part of the process properly, otherwise your campaign will not succeed.

Cynthia Medina presents What if your articles could talk? posted at MomzBusiness, saying, “Imagine if you had a full time employee at your disposal and his job was to turn every article you have written into a video and bring it’s message to life? Wouldn’t that be great? Well now you can but it’s not a warm body, it’s a software program.”

That concludes this edition. I’ll publish next weeks edition on Thursday night too.

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Carnival Of Online Marketing

I would like to have my entire marketing team get you search engine rankings & a TON of traffic to your website. This is the same team who does the marketing for my websites & they’ll use the exact same techniques that I use. Don’t worry, it’s WAY more affordable then you could possibly imagine. Check it out here:

http://www.websitemarketingdreamteam.com/traffic/

Also, if you are interested in becoming a reseller or joint venture partner I have special packages that can even include brand new websites for your clients as part of the package. Here’s a chance for you to earn a very high monthly residual commission for the lifetime of the clients you refer. To learn more about this amazing program give Carlos a call at 1-888-436-7180. I really look forward to working with you.

We’re also having a meeting here at my office this evening for resellers & JV partners. So if you’re local: you’re invited to attend. Just call Carlos to get directions: 1-888-436-7180. If enough people outside my area are interested I may decide to stream the meeting live so let Carlos know if you’d like me to stream tonight’s reseller/JV meeting.

You can also sign up to the affiliate program here:

Web Marketing Dream Team Affiliate Program

I look forward to working with you.

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online marketing

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

I’ll be doing free training on how to set up your Google AdWords and SEO campaigns.  It’s all about keyword research.  I’ll cover what tools to use and how to use them.

Stop by after and leave me a comment.  Let me know: Did you like the show?

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Bill's Schedule

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

I’ll cover my recent testing of YouTube’s new sponsored search campaigns.  Will the be the next AdWords?  Or will it be a flop?

I’ll also be taking your live questions on anything to do with doing business online and Internet marketing… See you there @ 6:30 PM Pacific Time.

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Bill's Schedule

YouTube Sponsored PPC Search: The New Google Adwords

It should show you everything you need to know in order to get started.  It basically works like any other PPC (pay per click) search advertising.  You put in the keyword you want to target and the highest price you’re willing to pay for clicks.

If Google handles this right, it could become the next Google AdWords. I’ve been doing a lot of testing the past few days and will be sharing all the tips and tricks I figure out to my subscribers.  So if you aren’t already subscribed, enter your name and email address into the top right of any page on my site http://www.billmcintosh.com and sign up.

I’ll also be covering everything I’ve learned in my upcoming live broadcast of my Internet marketing show that happens every Tuesday at 6:30 PM Pacific Standard time.  To tune in, just go to: http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live when it’s show time.  There will be a live chat room and I’ll be answering your online marketing questions.

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YouTube

Last week Google accidentally let slip that they will be penalizing AdWords advertisers for slow loading times of landing pages. You can view the Google’s FAQ on this topic here.

(For those not intimately familiar with AdWords, if you are bidding $.05 for the keyword phrase “best keyword ever”, you may have to increase your bid anywhere from $.20 to as much as $10.00 if Google thinks your landing page is too slow.)

Wow. This brings up a bunch of questions. What is “slow”? How will I know if I am penalized? How do I fix it? How much will this cost me!?

What is “slow”?

Since “slow” is a relative term, you may think your page loads great. Google says in their Help Center:

…we evaluate your load time relative to the average in your server’s geographic region.

How will I know if I am penalized?

Look at how your keyword is graded on the Keyword Analysis page. If it says, “This page loads slowly”, you are affected.

How do I fix it?

Put simply, if you are a web developer, just follow the directions they list: use few redirects, reduce page size, stop using interstitials, and minimizing iframes. If you aren’t, you will need to get someone to help you.

And even once you do fix it, it will take awhile for Google to take away the penalty:

The AdWords system re-evaluates landing pages on a regular basis. If you make significant improvements to your landing page’s load time, you should see an improved Quality Score and lower minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bids. Note that your Quality Score may update incrementally over a number of weeks after you improve your load time.

How much will this cost me?

No one knows yet the extent of “slow” that Google is penalizing. But irregardless, if you are not actively managing your AdWords campaign and watching for penalties, this could cost you A LOT of money. Like any of the other penalties Google lists in their 100 page document, if you don’t know what they are, you can’t be possibly be able to ensure they don’t happen to you.

My takeaway from this: AdWords Is For Professionals

Adwords is going from “too darn complicated” to “tax law complicated”. With so much money being spent, it is not a system for an AdWords newbie to dabble in. Unless you have a wildly successful campaign that can make you money even with all the mistakes you WILL make, it will more than likely cost you A LOT of money.

If you start an AdWords account with the desire to “learn as you go”, you are shooting yourself in the foot. You will cause penalties to your account that can take years to correct. Sometimes, the problems will never go away.

And with this penalty, you could be over-paying Google, not know it, and not even realize it was because of your site speed (or dozens of other factors most new webmasters wouldn’t have a clue about).

Trying to figure out AdWords as you go is like trying to represent yourself in court. Sure, you may get lucky, but do you want to bank on that?

photo credit: biscuitsmlp

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Google AdWords