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

http://www.netprofitstoday.com/blog/video-how-to-link-directly-to-a-clickbank-product-order-page/

Some nice tools per setting cookies when visitors land on your page

http://smugmarketing.com/tools/cookie.html

http://tools.marketingbully.com/covert-cookie/

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.

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.

For a better understanding of how to rank well in today’s more competitive environment it is important to take a brief look at the evolution of search engines and their respective ranking algorithms.

Flash back to the year 1995 when it was easy to rank well for a particular search term by doing one of several tricks including :

• repeating your keyword several times on the page
• including hidden text in your page which contained your search term repeated over and over
• changing the title of your page to your search terms.
• repeating your keyword in the meta tags

Flash forward to the year 2007 and the game has completely changed – for the better I would add. Ranking well for a particular search term on Google, Yahoo and Msn – especially in a competitive category – is not determined by factors such as meta tags, repeating keywords on your homepage nor any other factors pertaining to your website.

Search engines now imitate life in that ranking results are determined not by what you say your website is about but what other websites say about your website

One simple and very good analogy is that ranking for a search term is now determined by a popularity contest. I will give specific examples shortly but to make sure this concept is understood take the concept of a job interview.

How would you evaluate a job applicant ? Would you believe everything a job applicant would tell you ? Or would one of the most important parts of the interview be evaluating job references ? Clearly job references ( or links to a website in the case of search rankings ) are the most important part of an interview.

The analogy of a job interview fits very well for the in that you would look at the resume ( in this case the webpage ) but place most of your evaluation criteria on a candidate’s reputation determined by references ( link from other websites )

This is not fiction and to prove my point I will give several examples. First go to google and type in click here for your search term.

Notice that Adobe Acrobat reader download is returned as the first result.

What does Adobe Acrobat reader have to do with the search term click here ?

Not much actually but people all over the Internet have linked to this url http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html with the words “Click here to download Acrobat reader” or some other variation.

Therefore search engines associate the words “click here” with Adobe Acrobat.

Another example using my own website – search on google for the terms fields marshall.

Notice that my website is returned as the the first result. This is a new development because until recently I was competing with the department store Marshall Fields for those keywords.

What changed ?

A link from a popular website kayakchile.net refer to the bottom of the page where it says website designed by Ben May and Fields Marshall. Notice that the words fields marshall have been associated with the url http://fieldsmarshall.com

My final example — please search on Google for the search term “fields marshall american” .

Notice that my personal website gonker.net is being returned instead of fieldsmarshall.com

What is going on here ?

My friend Amit Mehta who has a popular blog has linked to my gonker.net website with the term “Fields Marshall is an American who moved to Pucon, Chile”.

Refer to the actual article http://www.superaffiliatemindset.com/5-things-i-love-about-the-affiliate-lifestyle/

Because Amit’s blog is popular with Google his opinion of my website carries weight with the search engines and as a consequence the phrase fields marshall is an american is associated with the domain gonker.net

I hope this article was helpful in creating a high level overview of the ranking formula that search engines use.

While Google guards their specific ranking formula as a company secret it is no secret that the single most important factor in ranking your site well for search terms are incoming links from qualified sources.

I can address strategies for ranking well in another post if there is interest.

Briefly if you want your website to rank for the term steel mill grinder then you will need quality links to your website with the anchor text or the link text set to steel mill grinders

Example, <a href=”http://yourwebsite”>Steel Mill Grinders</a>

For additional information you can refer to Google’s Webmaster guidelines or this Aaron Walls book on Search engine optimization.