If you’ve been involved in affiliate marketing or AdSense for at least a year, you’ve probably received at least one free Google AdWords credit.

For those who don’t know, Google AdWords is a pay per click program (PPC) that allows you to bid on keywords, and you only pay when your site gets a visit from the phrases you bid on.

The more popular the keyword is (volume of searches), the more it will cost per click.

You can view the AdWords ads by doing a Google search for almost any keyword phrase. The “Sponsored ads” are the ones that show up on the right side of the page or directly above the natural/free results.

(See example for a query on “web hosting”.)

Many hosting companies offer free AdWords credits from time to time and Google has been known to send them out directly.  In fact, this past December, they sent $100 credits to many AdSense members.

I don’t talk a lot about PPC and that is mainly because I’ve never taken the time to learn and master it.

So when Lisa of Christian-Single-Woman.com asked me to do a blog post about this, I was somewhat hesitant.

Then I decided to talk about what I’ve learned from my experience, and hopefully keep others from making the mistakes I made years ago.

Not to mention, others can chime in and discuss their experiences as well.

You Have the Free AdWords Credit.   Now What?

When you get one of those free credits, it may be tempting to sign up with AdWords and use it right away.

Many people make the mistake of bidding on their most important keyword phrases and use up the credit without even tracking their return on investment (ROI). That’s what I did years ago.

Remember, the point of using AdWords is to make a profit.  If you spend $200 on keywords then your goal is to make more than that on your traffic. So before you go and exhaust your credits, you need a strategy.

The Squeeze Page Strategy

Many people who’ve mastered PPC have done so with the squeeze page strategy.

Let’s say you promote a book on ClickBank where you earn $65 per sale.  You would bid on specific keywords related to that book, and create a benefit-rich landing page that has a goal.

That goal could be to offer a related, free download (teaser) in exchange for an e-mail address.  Now that you have e-mail addresses you can send them follow-up e-mails to help PREsell the ClickBank product.

Usually it takes multiple exposures before someone buys a product, so that’s why having an e-mail list can be so valuable. This is especially true if you learn how to use it to your advantage.

So if it costs you $35 worth of AdWords clicks/visits to get one sale for this book, your ROI is $25 ($60 commission – $35 spent on AdWords).

Congrats, you would be making a profit with this campaign!

Note: Google is big on quality and gives each page a score. So the days where you could submit a small page with nothing but a form to collect e-mail addresses are over.

If you are going to create a “squeeze page”, it should have substance and useful content. If your page is too pitchy, it may not receive a good quality score, which could hurt your ranking potential.

Why AdWords is Tricky

Google knows what they’re doing by sending out so many free credits.  They realize the average person has to spend way more than $100 to return a profit with AdWords.

So that free credit is just to get you started.  They know most people don’t figure out AdWords right away.  After all, it takes a lot of campaign testing (headlines, copy, keyword selection, bid price etc.) before you develop the right ad to return a profit.

I met a lot of people at the Affiliate Summit who do PPC full time.   Many of them earn 6 and 7 figures per year (Yes, seriously.) But they all told me they shelled out at least $1,000 before they began to return a profit.

They also spend hours per day monitoring every single detail about their campaigns. One extra word in their ad title may increase their profit by hundreds of dollars.

So if you want to master PPC, you have to be prepared to track everything and lose some money.  And if you are fortunate enough to turn Google’s free gift into a profit, that’s great!  You are definitely in the minority.

Is Using AdWords for Additional Traffic a Waste?

Many people use AdWords just to draw traffic to their site.  They scope out long-tail (very targeted, low-cost) keywords to bid on and set a small, daily budget to minimize their costs.

If you can afford to do this, fine.  Just remember, if you aren’t tracking what those visitors are doing then you could be wasting money.

All traffic is not necessarily good traffic and you really have to take the time to learn what keywords give you the best return on your investment.

Be Cautious of AdWords Gurus

There are a lot of people making a ton of money with AdWords.  As I mentioned, some are earning up to 7 figures annually.

So this kind of success breeds many self-proclaimed AdWords gurus who want to sell you the “secrets to AdWords”.

Think about it.

Why would they sell the secret if it means creating more competition for them?

I’m not saying there aren’t good resources for mastering AdWords. Just remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it often is.  You may get some general guidelines, but no real AdWords master is going to tell you everything.

The bottom line is, AdWords can be a fantastic program to help improve your traffic and sales.  Just understand it’s going to take time, patience and probably more than that free Google credit to master it.

Don’t Be Scared

I am not trying to scare you away from using AdWords. It can really help your business if you use it right. Just understand you will probably have to spend more than what Google gave you before you make a profit.

Make sure to map out a strategy before you haphazardly bid on any ole’ keywords. Also, monitor your campaigns closely (see the Google Analytics Installation Guide) and set a daily spending limit.

So what about you? Have you ever used AdWords? What was your experience like?

I receive traffic from numerous sources; from my e-books to YouTube, social networking sites you name it.

But when I look at my traffic stats and review my top two sources, they have been the same for many years…

1) search engines

2) bookmark traffic

Of course, the percentage of traffic I receive from these various sources has changed. For example, my bookmark traffic has increased by quite a bit over the past few years.

Nevertheless my top three sources have typically been search engines, bookmark traffic and voluntary inbound links.

So I thought I’d open up a discussion about traffic here. What are your top two (or three) sources right now and how have they changed over the months/years (if at all)?   Noticed any patterns?

Let’s talk!

There are certain techniques that I put into the worthless, “busy work” category…

1) Spending several hours per day on directory submissions

2) Re-writing other people’s content and submitting them to other sites

3) Posting worthless (“Great Post!”) comments on people’s blogs

Be careful of spending too much time on empty promotional techniques.  Measure the results of everything you do.

If you aren’t seeing a direct benefit after a period of time, either adjust your strategy/technique or move on to something else.

For example, people are obsessed over obtaining links, but all links are not created equal.

Compare the person who spends 10 hours per week hunting for link exchanges to the person who creates one useful video or article that rewards them over and over again with traffic and sales.

I’ve learned that publishing one useful video is worth more to me than submitting multiple ezine articles on any given day. So the task that takes less time actually gives me the greater benefit.

If you take the time to evaluate and track everything you do, you may be shocked at how you can make better use of your time.  That way you can do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

Tweeting Just to Tweet

Many marketers are becoming obsessed with Twitter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great tool. But if you aren’t measuring the results, how do you know how beneficial it really is to you?

Just because you have 2,000 followers and you tweet 10 times a day doesn’t necessarily mean much if you aren’t measuring the effectiveness.

For example, did you know that you can track many of the URL shortening services (bit.ly, etc.) if you sign up with an account?

That way you can see how many people are clicking on your links. Many of you probably don’t do this, so you have no idea how your tweets are performing.  Doing this is useful because you can learn what type of tweets get the most clicks.

Then there’s the “how-may-people-are-following-me” obsession.  This is not a popularity contest, folks. If your followers are not engaged in what you’re tweeting about, then how valuable are those followers really?

Is there proof Twitter is helping you build credibility?  How about your sales?  How responsive are your followers to what you tweet about? Have you seen an increase in referral traffic from Twitter? Are you reaching your goals? Did you set any to begin with?

I don’t do a lot of direct promotion on Twitter, but I do monitor overall responses and referral traffic. I’ve learned what kind of tweets generate the most interest from my followers.

Plus, the RT’s (retweets) I receive from my followers alone have made Twitter worthwhile for me.

Even though I don’t use Twitter as much as many marketers do, I’ve found a way to use Twitter that is worthwhile for the time invested.

So if you are tweeting just because you just feel like you should be doing it and you aren’t measuring the benefits, you could be wasting your time.

Everything you do should have a strategy behind it and you should be tracking the results at all times.

You don’t measure the success of Twitter or any strategy by how many followers or subscribers you have.  You measure it by how responsive the people are to what you publish.

Are you getting more sales?  More traffic?  Is it opening up new connections with others?  Are you building more credibility?  Do people respond and give feedback?

I hear people say things like “I’ve been promoting my site for 10 hours per day for the last month and I’m not seeing any results.”

My response is always, “What are you doing and have you been measuring and tracking the results?” All busy work is not effective work, and unfortunately there are no rewards or honors for “time spent online.”

How well are you making use of that time online? THAT is the key.   Successful marketers work smart.   They track and evaluate every task they perform.  Then they keep the best and drop the rest.

Is it time for you to do a self audit on your marketing techniques?

A gentleman named Stephan asked me last week…

Lisa, how much money do you make from Twitter?

My short answer…

Nothing.

However, if I were to answer that question more indirectly, I’m sure it would be greater than that.

Here’s what I mean.

I promote my sites a lot of different ways online (through my forum, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)  However, I don’t do much direct selling on any of these sites.

In fact, I tweeted an affiliate link once on Twitter and I just felt dirty.   I personally don’t like hard selling on Twitter.  It feels a little cheap to me.

Nothing against people who do, and if it works for you great… keep doing it.  I just prefer to use Twitter to inform, educate and connect with my followers.

Now let’s talk about my forum, Website Babble.

This may surprise you, but I didn’t create it with the intention of making a lot of money.  Sure, I make some money from banners and sponsor ads, but it is hardly anything to brag about.

So what’s the point of creating a forum if you don’t plan to make a lot of money? (I can hear you thinking that.)

One thing I’ve learned about earning a full-time living as an affiliate marketer is you have to learn to build a brand…

A brand of Y-O-U.

Website Babble is just another site (like my YouTube channels and Twitter) that allows me to help and connect with my audience while I continue to build my brand and enhance my credibility.

My primary and most successful website has always been 2CreateAWebsite.com.  I use my blog, other websites and places like YouTube and Twitter to provide more advice, help, and drive traffic back to my main site.

Because of the credibility and trust I’ve gained through helping others on these sites, this strategy indirectly drives more affiliate sales in the long-run.

Maybe you don’t like Twitter and other social networking sites because you don’t see a direct way to make money from them.  But you’re failing to realize the compounded value of using multiple channels over time.

You may not be able to generate many direct sales from these microblogging and social networking sites. But if you do a good job of educating, teaching, helping, etc. you can use these tools to drive traffic to your sites and make more money in the long run.

It’s not always about getting the sale, at least not right away.  It’s a process.

Stop looking for quick, worthless traffic.  Develop your brand. Seek trust.  Become accessible.  Use the available free sites and tools online to develop relationships, connections and educate your audience.  Then watch the targeted, loyal followers that will develop over time.

These are the people who will come back to your site over and over again.

These are the people who will trust you the most.

They are more likely to buy what you recommend.

They will tell their friends and family about your site whenever they get a chance.

They will email you before buying and make sure they are purchasing from your affiliate link so you get the credit.

These people will become your bread and butter as an affiliate marketer. 

So are you just pitching products or taking the time to build your brand? Position yourself today to earn a steady, long-term income that will reward you forever.

There’s been a lot of buzz about the value of directory submissions on my forum, so I thought I’d do a video that gives my opinion on this topic.

If you’re reading this post via an RSS reader or email, click this link to view the video on my blog.

Here’s the link to Matt Cutt’s video that I mention in the video where he discusses what Google thinks of directory submissions.

One of the biggest challenges I face with teaching people how to market their sites online is the constant comparing.  People want to know exactly what I did to draw in so much traffic over the years because they are convinced if they do the same, they’ll have the same (or similar) results.

One guy even accused me of keeping my REAL traffic tips a secret because he just couldn’t seem to get enough traffic to his website.  He requested that I write out a list of everything I did from day one to generate traffic to 2 Create a Website.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to learn from someone who is already seeing success, but you have to remember the Internet has evolved.  Yes, many of the techniques I used years ago still work, but a lot of them don’t anymore.

In the video below I discuss why new Webmasters have to be careful about doing direct comparisons with more established websites when it comes to traffic building…

And just for the record, there are no secrets when it comes to building traffic.

In the last site review I mentioned how offering e-books from my site has really helped boost my traffic and income over the years. So I thought I’d create a video showing you how simple it is to create an e-book using Adobe Acrobat Professional.

Adobe Acrobat is quite expensive and may not be in the budget for everyone, so if you have experience with more economical software solutions please feel free to comment on this post.

Just remember that you always get what you pay for and some of the lower cost solutions may not provide the benefits that Adobe does like securing the book from theft and creating feedback forms that people can complete and print right from the book.

However if those features are not important to you, you can use a more economical solution for creating your books. I would still recommend using the PDF format, however, because they are compatible with both Macs and PC’s.

E-Book Creation Video

Watch the video on how to create an e-book with Adobe Acrobat Professional.

E-mail subscribers, click this link to watch the video.

What is your ritual for creating a web page to rank high in the search engines?  Do you spend time counting the keywords in your meta tags?

Do you obsess over the number of outbound links you have, thinking they might be hurting you in some way?  Do you copy your competitor’s meta tags hoping you can steal their rankings?

Maybe you’re puzzled by the lack of traffic you’ve been able to receive from popular search engines like Google and Yahoo.

If any of this sounds like your SEO habits, you’ll want to watch this video…

Do you spend an excessive amount of time checking your Alexa rank?

Do you often wonder how long it will take your PageRank to go up to the next number?

Are you stuck in the site brainstorming phase until you find the the perfect supply/demand combination in the AdWords Keyword Tool and WordTracker?

If you can relate to any of the above activities, chances are you may be expending a lot of energy in the wrong places and not focusing on what really matters.

Alexa

I remember when I first learned about Alexa. I was fascinated that it displayed my site’s ranking and I could compare my site to other competitors.  I watched webmasters proudly display their Alexa widgets and badges to let people know their site was in the top 1%.

Even though Alexa has improved their ranking algorithm, you still have to remember it’s largely based upon people who have the Alexa toolbar installed on their browser.  This opens the door for a lot of skewed data.

I’ve watched my site’s Alexa ranks go up and down like a yo yo, but the most important thing is my traffic has steadily increased. And in my opinion, THAT is what counts more than anything.

PageRank

Ahhh yes… Google’s measurement of your site’s quality backlinks. This pesky little green bar has caused more frustration, exhilaration and confusion over the years, leaving people obsessed with their own PR and how to improve it.

Many people are stuck on the idea that improving their PR is the best way to get more traffic from Google. What they don’t realize is that your PR is more reflective of the traffic and quality backlinks you already have. So it’s more of a reaction to your site’s existing activity.

So rather than worrying about what it takes to improve this number, work on producing a quality site and delivering solid information, features or products to your target audience.  Your PR will take care of itself.

PR seems to have little or no impact on your traffic potential from Google.  I watched my PR drop from a 5 to a 4, yet my traffic from Google doubled since that time.

Keyword Tools

While tools like The Adwords Keyword Tool and WordTracker can be quite useful to help you determine your niche, focus, keywords to bid on for PPC, etc., they can also overwhelm you if you let them.

The Internet is saturated with blogs and websites on thousands of different topics.  It’s going to be insanely difficult to find the perfect topic with high demand (number of monthly searches) and low supply (existing competition).

So when you’re using these tools, you should definitely take the supply and demand into consideration, but if that’s the only thing you look at, you may find yourself spinning your wheels and never making a decision.

I’ve noticed that Site Build It! customers often suffer from decision paralysis because of the brainstorming phase.  Don’t get me wrong, SBI! probably has one of the most comprehensive brainstorming tools available, but that also makes it easy to get stuck.

Take the numbers into consideration, but also do your homework.  Don’t let these tools do all the work for you. Physically research your competition by typing in the keywords you want to target. Look at the quality of sites that show up.

If they are sub-par then that may leave the door open for you to compete in this niche — especially if you work on developing a good spin on the topic.

So it’s important to look at the overall picture — the supply, demand, your passion, topic interest, and potential competition before making a decision on your topic.

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There will always be tools available for you to compare, monitor and gawk over.  But don’t let them paralyze you and cause you to lose focus.  Tools may develop, change and evolve, but one thing has always remained the same…

People who succeed online produce quality work that meets the needs and desires of a specific audience.  When you do this well, it will be hard to lose, no matter what the measuring and ranking tools say about your site.

Sometimes it’s the little things you do that help build loyalty, and I’ve made a vow to come up with more ways to reward my visitors — particularly the ones who continue to add value to my blog and forum.

With the emergence of the social networking scene, developing connections and acknowledging regular contributors is an important part of marketing (particularly if you’re a blogger).

Having said that, I thought I’d discuss a few of the ways people publicly reward their visitors…

EntreCard – Top Droppers

Many EntreCard members make the occasional post to their blog with a list of their top EntreCard droppers.

If you aren’t familiar with EntreCard, it’s a free service that allows you to promote your blog by dropping your card (a 125×125 image) on other blogs.

You earn credits for every “drop” you make and you can use those credits to buy advertising space on other blogs.

I haven’t posted a list of my top droppers as of yet.  On one hand, I like the idea, but on the other, it opens the door for a bunch of empty drops by people looking to make my “Top Dropper” list.

Nevertheless, it can be a good way to build up loyalty.

Top Commenters

I read every comment posted here and often follow them to view the person’s blog.  But I pay even more attention to the people who take the time to craft insightful posts.

Blog comments are important because they make a blog look active and they encourage participation from other readers.  So I appreciate it greatly when people take the time to make a thoughtful comment.

WordPress has a plugin that allows you to display the top commenters as a widget on your sidebar.  While that’s a very generous thing to do, you still have to monitor rewards like this very closely.

People are competitive, and any time there’s a reward for quantity, some take advantage of that and the quality of the content begins to suffer.  So you have to evaluate if it’s worth implementing.

Your top commenters may not always be your best contributors. Personally, I’d much rather reward someone with a few good comments than someone else with a bunch of empty ones who is just looking for first billing on my widget.

That’s why I’m a fan of the new partnership between SezWho and EntreCard.  Hopefully this will enhance the commenting community and encourage more productive discussions across the blogosphere.

As an EntreCard member you can now earn credits for leaving comments on SezWho-enabled blogs.  The catch is you only earn credits for quality comments.

This keeps people from flooding other blogs with quick comments like “nice post” or “great info”, just to drive up their credit totals.

Just for the record, this blog uses SezWho, so if you’re an EntreCard member, get to commenting and earn those credits.

vBulletin – Top Posters

There’s a hack out for vBulletin 3.x that allows you to show your forum’s top posters for the month.  I’ve installed it and posted a link to this list in two places on my forum Website Babble.

While the quantity vs. quality issue could come into play here as well, I’m not as concerned about that with my forum due to the high number of regular, quality contributors.

As many of you know, it takes a lot of work to build and maintain an forum active, and I am truly grateful to the active members who have helped Website Babble grow.

My forum is nowhere as active as Digital Point or ABestWeb, but for someone who has launched 3 forums that failed in the past, you won’t hear me complaining.

When I first launched Website Babble, I held 2 contests and gave away cash prizes ($300 and $150 respectively) to the the MVP (Most Valuable Posters).

I do believe that incentive helped my forum grow in the early days, and I do have plans to offer more prizes in the near future.

The great thing about this reward was that it was based on quality of posts, not quantity.

Even though I had to manually review several posts to determine who was eligible for the contest, it was worth it. It’s important to recognize and give back to quality contributors.

You can join my forum here.  I’d love to get to know you.

If you’re thinking of starting your own forum, think of ways you can reward your members.  It doesn’t haven’t to be money.  Perhaps it’s free advertising space on your blog, or you could give away EntreCard credits.

Public Response to Tweets

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net is good at this.  Anytime someone poses a question on Twitter that he feels is best answered publicly on his blog, he’ll post a link to the person’s Twitter account in the post.

When you get a link from a blog with over 50,000 RSS readers, you’re bound to get some kind of reward, even if it’s just a few extra Twitter followers.

I just started using my Twitter account in the last week to announce my blog posts, and plan to come up with more useful ways to interact with my followers.

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The bottom line is people love to be recognized, and it’s important to show your audience that you appreciate their support.

Do you reward your visitors?  If so, how do you do it?