If so then here is a quick checklist for you.

• Is your ad or product link featured prominently ?
• Is your ad / affiliate link getting clicks ? (Use a tracking system such as Google Analytics )
• Try to improve and optimize your website so that you get more click thrus and sales.  ( Use split testing software )

Here is a run down of some of the best split testing software out there.

1. Google Website Optimizer – In first place and also free, we have GWO or Google Website Optimizer.  GWO is not easy to use but, once installed, it does function well. I could explain it here but really Google does a much better job  – so check out GWO here.  Google Website Optimizer is free however you will need a Google Adwords account to get signed up. ($5 one time charge). One negative about GWO, is that it mangles your HTML code a bit.
2. Splitgenie - In second place, and almost free ($27) we have splitgenie - I like this software because it is EASY to use and install.  Its a one time payment and as the picture shows here it’s easy to install just edit a little php code on the page to test and the thank you page and you are done.  Here is what it looks like when you are finished .
3. Splitest Accelerator -  For advanced affiliate marketers, there is splittest accelerator -  I haven’t tested this myself but at a $900 price and looking at the documentation (it looks complex) I think its better to start off with GWO and Splitgenie.

Check Out Split Genie or Check Out Gooogle Analytics

Another interesting blog post — that I found out in my research was on how to split test wordpress themes to see which theme will get an improved meaning lesser bounce rate –  http://www.leewillis.co.uk/how-to-split-test-wordpress-themes/ -  how to split test wordpress themes – something I have been waiting for myself !

One final suggested practice is to name all off your outgoing links similarly and set a goal in Google Analytics for all simliarly named link as I have explained here — http://fieldsmarshall.com/8-tips-for-tracking-with-google/ – and then either use the gocodes plugin or the pretty link plugin for wordpress – to track clickthrus.

Check Out Split Genie or Check Out Gooogle Analytics

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html

Or just download it here .. Great info but I didnt see any mention of having W3C valid HTML which is one additional thing to consider.

search-engine-optimization-starter-guide

If you are an affiliate marketer working on a landing page then thickbox fits the bill perfectly. If you are focused on selling something then you really don’t care what flavor of web 2.0 technology it uses (Jquery) but rather that is quick to load 20k compressed and that its easy to use(very)

http://jquery.com/demo/thickbox/

The first and most important rule of SEO is knowing that the secret lies in how other websites link to you.

This is important to know as you maybe editing your own website text in hopes of better rankings, when really your time is best spent evaluating how other people/businesses are linking to you.

There are two important tools to help you see whom is linking to you.

• typing in link: domainname.com in yahoo site explorer
• Using Google Webmaster Tools to see you is linking to you.

Remember first priority optimize how other websites are linking to yours and try to build a website that offers something of value so you can easily generate links.

Unlike paid search or PPC (Pay Per Click), there is no guarantee that you will appear in a natural search result. Google decides using their secret algorithm – Its a secret but then again its really not a secret.

They tell you everything you need to know here
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=34432
And they explain – In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages

If you are in a competitive search environment or trying to rank for a term where money can be made then this process is going to be more difficult. So it goes hand in hand that generally the high the average bid for paid search then the more difficult its going to be to rank naturally for a search term.

What happens if my website is an established website with inbound links and pagerank but I am still not ranking well?

If you have an established website that is not ranking well then the first thing you need to do is to make sure that you website was created to rank well on Google.

Again Google makes all of this information public so this is no secret. You need to follow Google webmaster guidelines

Here are some keypoints

• Create a useful, information-rich site
• TITLE tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate
• correct HTML – validate your HTML with W3C
• Descriptive and Relevant Url
• Trying looking at a text only version of your websites to see how a search engine would view it

Basically to rank well you need to have a website that follows Google’s webmaster guidelines and then is linked to with relevant terms see my other post search engine ranking 2007.

The easiest way to have a website that is linked to is to have some linkworthy – ie a neat service, tool or some good articles but thats an article in itself.

For those of you who dont know what WinnerAlert does – Its simple – it send you an email when you have a winning adgroup.  They have recently added additional functionality so that you can test which adgroup converts to sales better instead of testing click thrus.

Here is a screenshot of my personal adwords account:

Yes I know the red indicates I haven’t setup my adwords account correctly on my first campaign. Its on my todo list .

Anyways, Why would you need this ?

If you are have a large adwords account or managing other google adwords you want to be notified when there is a winning ad so you can write another one.

This way you keep making continual improvements. They offer a free trial here.

If you signup through my link – I get a small comission – let me know and I will take a quick look at your adwords account to see if its setup correctly.

Im using it myself and finding it helpful in keeping me organized with my adwords campaigns.

It also works with Yahoo and MSN

WinnerAlert – Worth Checking Out.

They sent me three strategies they had outlined :

1. Buy specific keywords for autos : such as 350, 307, etc and send the traffic to their website called daves-used-autoparts.com (name changed)
2. Instead of buying keywords: We want to create several websites such as usedchevyautoparts.com , usedfordautoparts.com,  then optimize them  for natural search engine traffic and wait for natural traffic.
3. A combination of the strategy 1 and 2 – both buying and optimizing smaller websites for search engine traffic and buying appropriate keywords to drive traffic

Furthermore they had a few questions about how much does it cost to buy 150 keywords for specific autopart names.

My reply would be option number 3.

Daves Used Auto Parts ( again the name has been changed ) although not the direct manufacturers of the autoparts are  nonetheless in control of their own product. Daves Used Auto Parts set their own prices and profit margins and when a sale is made on their website – they know or they should know how much profit is made.

Knowing how much profit you make from a specific sale is very important when buying pay per click traffic because ALL pay per click prices are set by your market and your competitors. Pay per click prices start at 1 cent per click  ( The lowest I have seen personally has been 2 cents) and then just keep going up. The highest I have personally seen in my own campaigns has been $3 per click.

Returning to the point that you must know your profit margins because you want to buy all the traffic that you can provided that it is profitable.  Normally buying very specific keywords such as “305″ , “307 engine”, “used small block chevy 350″ is always a good idea but again you need to know your  profit margins because undoubtedly you will have competitor bidding against you.

Daves Used Auto Parts might be able to buy traffic for keywords such as “used chevy parts” and if they are able to buy them cheaply then they maybe able to make a profit of buying this keyword.  Repeating myself again – you have to know the value of your webtraffic (tracked by actually sales on the Internet) to know whether buying more generic keywords will offer a good return on your investement.

Normally more generic traffic equals more traffic but less sales – however it might be profitable if you can get the traffic cheaply enough.

So the answer to how much does it cost to buy 150 keywords is that it depends on the market. Obviously there are lots of startegies that you can do to make traffic buying profitable (thats a new subject I could address later) but generally the overall price range is set by your competitors and your specific market.

To address the strategy of creating several smaller websites usedchevyautoparts.com , usedfordautoparts.com, etc and then optimizing them for search engine traffic as opposed to sending them all to a generic sounding daves-used-autoparts.com.

From a traffic buying point of view,  it is always better to have a more specific sounding URL such as usedchevyautoparts.com as opposed to a more generic dave used autoparts. Users are more inclined to click on an ad that they feel is specific and relevant.

Having an ad that has a high clickthrough is VERY important to google and your ads can become disabled and bid prices go up if your ad is not clicked on often enough.  Google makes more money when you click more which they like and also they think that your ad is more relevant and not spam if your ad receives more clicks.

From a search engine optimization point of view having a topic specific domain name is helpful as most links to your website will  contain the keyword that you want to optimize your website for.

In summary,  buy all the profitable traffic you can – more specific keywords are normally more profitable but you need to test out and track profit margins. Finally creating smaller more topically related websites can improve both your search rankings and pay per click campaigns.

In this article we take a look at three ways to keep tabs on your google adwords campaigns when they are outside of your personal geographic location:

• Google Ads Diagnostic Tool
• Redfly Marketing’s Google Adwords Extension For Firefox
• Proxy Server in your desired Geographical Location

The first option would be the google ads diagnostic tool which is found under the campaign management tool. The ads diagnostic tool has a nice interface which can help you figure out why your searches may not be working.

Ads Diagnostic Tool

Adwords Extension For Firefox

Second as mentioned we have Redflymarketing’s extension for Firefox that can enable you to view your search results from any geographical location. This is highly recommended if you are serious about PPC in other parts of the world.

More Information : Google Adwords Firefox Extension or just the download here.

Proxy Server For Seeing Google Adwords

These first two tools will give you a lot of information about campaigns running remotely but really nothing can be better than a proxy server in terms of final accuracy.

I have tried a lot of proxy servers and proxy software but for affiliates I would recommend Hide The Ip – Download A Trial Version Here. The good thing about Hide The Ip is that you can choose the select the country that you want to be in and it will find a proxy server in that country.

Sure you find proxy servers manually by searching list but Hide The Ip saves you A LOT of time and I mean a LOT you can waste hours trying to find good proxy servers.

Finally, in addition to hide the ip, we have pickaproxy.com. Pickaproxy.com uses the tor network and select an exit network in a specified geographical location. This is a very new service but worth checking out.

Any comments or questions let me know.

If you are serious about making the most out of your website or thinking about buying traffic via Pay Per Click then you to be optimizing what happens when a visitor comes to your website.

The best way that I have found to optimize a website is to use Google’s Website Optimizer which is free by the way if you have a google adwords account.

There in the lower right we see Google Website Optimizer – just click and then create a new experiment.

I suggest you get started by doing A/B testing.

That is, start testing one version of a webpage against another version of a webpage to see which version is best.

Google has some suggestions about how to start using their website tool but I would recommend to just get started with simple a/b testing until you get familiar with their website optimizer.

If you have gone through the effort of making a website then you, no doubt, want to make it work well. So do try google optimizer out and starting improving various page on your website.

Here is an example taken from one of my websites where I am testing the use of audio on an opt-in page. Here are the results: Notice that the statistical margin of error has been calculated as well. Pretty nice, eh ?

Click on the image to see it better ..

After a few more weeks you will start to see better statistical results. Click on the image below and notice how my website signup form with audio is becoming more and more statistically valid with more traffic.