While many companies keep reducing their offline advertising expenses, online marketing budgets keep growing. Pay-per-Click advertising is known as one of the most popular and cost efficient online advertising methods. No matter whether you are engaged in affiliate marketing or promoting your own web resources, PPC is the most optimal and result driven solution.

Buying online traffic is a challenging and responsible process as it requires careful consideration of the following aspects:

• Quality of traffic and click fraud detection technology
• Quantity of traffic and thematic coverage
• Bids level and fluctuation
• Variety and quality of bidding and analytical tools

What Do We Call a Smart Balance?

Pay-per-Click advertising is based upon simple and straightforward principle. On one hand, quality traffic is expensive. On the other hand, cheap traffic does not convert well. If you are aiming at maintaining a profitable conversion rate, you need to buy high quality traffic from a trusted PPC system. In this case you will have an advantage of customizing and fine-tuning wide range of bidding settings but you will still have to deal with very expensive PPC bids, which may cost you a fortune (example: Google Adwords). At the same time, if you are trying to save on your advertising budget, and choose a second or third tier PPC bidding platform that offers you lower bids, you will typically get low quality or automated traffic, which will result in pure or no conversion. Advanced bidding tools and clever optimization can improve the situation but the main principle remains the same: cheap but low quality traffic is useless while high quality traffic tends to blow budget.

Qualibid is a unique and highly profitable combination of top quality traffic and affordable bids. These features coupled with the advanced bidding and tracking tools, comprehensive, in-house developed click-fraud detection system, convenient interface and dedicated support make Qualibid one of the hottest advertising playgrounds on today’s market.

Why Qualibid?

Qualibid was designed as a powerful alternative to existing bidding systems. Our goal is providing you with the top quality, highly targeted traffic at a lower cost combined with unparalleled flexibility in terms of optimizing and fine-tuning you ads and campaigns. With the time our bids will grow but at the moment they are more affordable then ever. Being among the first bidders is a rare opportunity of getting high quality clicks at an incredibly low price. Sign up for an account now, and your ads will be up and running in minutes!

Qualibid Features

System Efficiency

• A wide network of traffic sources providing millions of searches each day
• Bids significantly lower than Google, Yahoo and many second-tier PPC with higher traffic quality
• Comprehensive bidding management, analytics and keyword tracking
• Minimum bid as low as US $0.01
• Fractional bids up to tenths of a cent
• Campaign budget from as little as US $5
• Payments by Credit Card, PayPal, WebMoney, Check, Money Order or Wire Transfer

Bidding Tools

• Exact, phrase, broad and negative matches
• Ability to ban or to allow particular traffic sources
• Individual geo-targeting by campaigns, ads and keywords
• Individual bids on each of your keywords for each country and match type
• Up to 25000 keywords per ad
• Unlimited number of campaigns and ads
• Negative keywords for the entire ad and for each keyword individually
• Easy to use percentage based graphic settings representing daily bid schedules
• Immediate campaign activation, campaign pause and real time bid setting changes
• RON (Bidding on all keywords by default)

• Ability to select custom parameters for DTS optimization

Click-fraud Protection

• In-house developed multi-layer click-fraud detection system
• Constant manual monitoring of each and every traffic source
• Advanced testing system that analyzes surfer behavior patterns and determines content type

Statistics and Analytics

• Detailed stats by account, campaigns, ads and keywords
• Data sorted by date, traffic sources, countries, bidded keywords, searched keywords, impressions, clicks, CTR, average CPC and cost
• Hourly stats within current day
• Special URL parameters designed to track traffic sources, bidded keywords and searched keywords

Support and Communication

• Internal messaging and tickets system as well as ICQ, MSN and AIM support
• Highly trained and dedicated customer support
• Detailed Tutorial and FAQ

Sign up today or visit our website at www.qualibid.com for more information. If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to contact us and we will be happy to assist you. We are certain that once you start working with us, Qualibid will become a powerful addition to your marketing tools and will considerably contribute to your success. Are you ready to advertise?

Posted by Vitold at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I wasn’t blogging for a long time as I was busy with a number of new and exciting online marketing projects here at Search Anyway. While I was working on some web layouts I kept thinking about the typical surfers’ perception of today’s web portals and I believe that the big part of the success of an average online project is based upon two types of balance.

The information balance
The information balance is the balance between your content and the marketing tools you employ.

The visual balance
The visual balance is the balance between the text and the imagery.

The interesting thing is that the information elements and the visual elements often overlap and play two roles at the same time. Below I will describe how that happens...

Marketing tools are employed in order to monetize web traffic. Unfortunately many webmasters tend to overuse marketing tools as they want to pull maximum out their traffic. This tendency makes their web sites clattered, overwhelming and non informative. Most users try to avoid such sites and the webmasters keep loosing organic traffic. Keeping the right balance between content and marketing tools as well as chousing the tools that are appropriate to your content is critical.

Let’s take a look at the standard set of marketing tools and try to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Search Box
A search box is the very basic online marketing tool. It provides your web site with powerful functionality while not being aggressive. It is important however to place your search box at appropriate place and to make it visually appealing. Rather than using a standard HTML entry field with a standard button, consider using longer, larger and CSS enhanced text field along with a custom made and noticeable button.

There are two options of showing search results. You can show them either on your site or you can redirect the user to a public feed of your feed provider. Showing results on your site allows you to control the way they look. You can visually enhance the entries, which will increase the CTR. Adding “Related Searches” and “Popular Searches” columns is also a good idea.

Keyword Cloud
Adding a keyword cloud (or a tag cloud) to your web site is both efficient and aesthetically pleasant. While search box is a passive marketing element, a keyword cloud actively displays a number of relevant and / or profitable keywords in a variety of sizes. In fact it is nothing but a forced search. Controlling the size of each keyword allows you to set the clicking priority. In addition to static clouds there are dynamic and animated clouds.

Inline Text Links
Inline text links may seem efficient but the negative aspect of placing them is obvious. When users come across such links, they get an impression that the text they are reading is created only for the sake of placing the links. This text is no longer a trustworthy source of information; it’s just a platform for showing hidden ads.

Web Banners
Web banners play both marketing and aesthetic role on your web sites. Placing an appropriate and visually appealing banner next to your text can efficiently illustrate your content. The number of banners however should be limited on every page. Consider wide variety of mediums and banner rotators.

Text Blocks
Text blocks are efficient in a way that they are akin to showing search results without performing the actual search, which means one click instead of two. The problem with text blocks, however, is that they are everywhere. They become a typical part of any web layout. Surfers got so used to them that they tend to ignore this type of advertisement. Unlike graphic banners, text blocks also make web sites look cheap.

Popups & Popunders
Popups and popunders are very aggressive tools but most users find them annoying, which dramatically diminishes the initial efficiency. People usually do not like what they didn't ask for.

Floating Flash Banners
A floating banner is the most aggressive online marketing tool. Just like a popup or a popander it is very obtrusive (especially when it's hard to find a "close" button). This is the reason why it considerably less efficient than it may seem.

Posted by Vitold at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Getting Traffic

In some of my recent blog posts I mentioned so-called user generated content. Many webmasters believe it is a vital element of a long term, strategic SEO. Today I want to get back to this subject more in detail.

Let’s start from the basics. When you are building a commercial web site you are expecting to get certain amount of traffic. Getting traffic is not easy and it may depend on several factors:

1. Links to your web site on other sites
The links to your web site are placed on other web sites. People click on the links and get to see you web site.

2. Search engines
The links to your web site appear in search engine results. People see your web site in listings and click on the links.

3. Returning users
Returning users are users who already visited your site and are checking back.

4. Search Arbitrage
You buy and then sell clicks based on specific keywords. More information on search arbitrage can be found in our older posts.

Pull maximum out of search engines

While getting quality links on other web sites is a long and hard process (unless we consider blogs, forums and social networks) your web site’s presence in the search results is very important and it depends on three points:

1. Your domain name
The right domain name will provide your web site with better visibility in any search results. For example, if your web site has to do with selling car tires and your domain sounds like "megawheel.com" your web site will have fewer chances to appear in search results based on queries related to the subject, but if your domain name is something like "buycheapwheels.com" your web site might appear in the search results based on the query “buy cheap wheels” even you have very little content.

2. Your SEO methods / meta information and web site structure
Search engine optimization along with appropriate meta information and structuring your web site correctly is also important. I suggest you to read our older posts where I discussed these issues in detail.

3. Your content
Your content is a key factor in terms of your web site’s search engine visibility. More quality content you have- better your site ranking will be. At the same time, every single phrase or sentence written on your web site is akin to an anchor. Any time it can be pulled by a matching search engine request, which will drag your web site to the first page of search results. If one of your content blocks contains a phrase “need to buy cheap winter tires” and someone enters this phrase in the search box, chances are your web site will appear in the search results.

Let the Surfers Help You

Unless you focus on search arbitrage, everything you do in order to bring visitors to your web site will not matter much unless you manage to maintain a decent “returning user rate”. The only way to do it is to impress your visitors and to make them expect new information next time they visit your web site.

Generating quality content with the frequent update rate is not easy. It requires either considerable time or money investment. This is the reason why employing so-called “user generated content” has become so popular.

User interaction is the nature of Web 2.0 and web surfers generally enjoy it. Submitting user generated content can be performed in different ways, which can significantly contribute to your web site.

• Commenting on your articles or posts submitted by other users
• Submitting stories
• Discussing various topics
• Posting and answering questions
• Creating personal profiles (dating, social, etc)
• Posting resume
• Creating an online portfolio
• Posting various announcements
• Submitting corporate information in commercial listings
• Submitting product reviews
• Submitting pleas and problems

Building content is not the only advantage of using information submitted by users. User interaction can significantly improve returning user rate.

Posted by Vitold at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

“Easy Money” and Automated Web Marketing

Since the moment when the Internet became widely popular, online commerce has attracted vast numbers of people seeking “easy money”. For some of us, online marketing is a combination of hard learning and passionate work. Some of us are already extremely successful. Most people, however, get easily discouraged and give up after losing a few hundred dollars and a few weeks in front of their computers. The reason why this happens is the fact that these people continue to believe in the urban legend of “easy money”.

The idea of “easy money” has been promulgated by the wide availability of “easy tools”. Today, in order to pose as a webmaster one doesn’t have to be an expert in any of the related fields. All the components for slapping together a full-scale web site are readily available online. Numerous companies are offering wide variety of affordable solutions ranging from shopping carts and remote support services to web site templates, SEO and advertising plans. Such availability of technical components would only be beneficial if the concept of “easy tools” hasn’t been taken further. The core of any web project “the content” is now being automatically generated, prepackaged and available for sale. An example of such automated content generating service, provided by the major domain registrar GoDaddy, is its’ so-called “Power Content Plan”. You may know nothing about geography, but within a day a few clicks will make you the owner of fully functional and widely advertised traveling portal. Everything, including web content, design and functionality, will be provided to you.

What is the problem here? Contemporary societies have raised a whole new generation of “ultimate consumers”. Everything we consume is processed, prepackaged and aggressively branded. Unfortunately this parasitical approach has spread to online marketing. Potential “web marketers” readily absorb numerous web development products and services but the apparent simplicity of automated online marketing turns out to be quite misleading. Most of the beautifully branded web solutions are nothing but attractive packaging offering the inexperienced web marketer the idea of “easy money”.

Beyond the breaking point

Most beginners do not realize that becoming a successful web entrepreneur requires either the launch of a major project or managing a massive number of simple web units. One of their common mistakes is focusing on their first project and expecting it to become a super-star providing a substantial income. A much smarter (and at the same time, safer) approach would be working on several smaller scale units. Each of these units would be a playground for testing one or more marketing concepts. Some, or even most, of these units will fail, but the ones that survive will give new entrepreneurs ideas on which direction they wish to evolve their businesses.

Any webmaster knows three basic revenue models used in online commerce:

1. PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
2. PPV (Pay-Per-View)
3. PPA (Pay-Per-Action)

The first one is the most popular and relatively simple to start with, which is why most beginners choose it as their main marketing tool. The prevalent strategy, shared by the majority of new webmasters, is building a simple, niche web site based upon an open source platform (typically “Word Press”) and implementing ad text blocks (typically Google AdSense). Even moderate but improper advertising of these little web sites is often labeled “spam” and many of these undertakings quickly show up on “ban lists”. Others do provide some income, which ranges within $10-100 a month. This is the situation for most beginners – the results aren’t worth the effort. This is the breaking point, where discouraged individuals discontinue their endeavors; only those who are really determined will take it to the next level.

”Taking it to the next level” may include the following steps:

1. Optimizing the business scheme you are already working with so that it becomes efficient;
2. Enhancing this business scheme;
3. Multiplying this business scheme;
4. Exploring and implementing alternative business schemes;
5. Merging a variety of business schemes within a single unit;
6. Creating innovative, unique business schemes;

Speaking practically, this could mean that a little inefficient blog that brings 50 dollars a month can be significantly optimized. Consider everything that can be improved and ask yourself the following questions.

• Did I pick the right thematic niche?
• Is my domain name appropriate to this niche?
• Did I choose the right content management platform?
• Is my content interesting, useful, and unique?
• Am I updating my content on a regular basis?
• Do I use controversial topics in a way that generates more buzz?
• Does my web site have features that would encourage anyone to check back?
• What functional elements can I add to my site to make it better?
• Does my web site look attractive and appealing?
• Did I implement any SEO methods?
• What other ways can I promote my web site?
• Am I using the most profitable affiliate program?
• How much money and time do I spend to update and maintain my web site?

Taking care of all these aspects will not make you rich, but it can provide you with your first working unit that proves the efficacy of the business model.

At this point you can either multiply a model, which has demonstrated its potential, or develop additional schemes. We all have different backgrounds and talents, which is why a diversity of approaches will help you determine what works better for you. Once you’ve tested a variety of business models, you will be better able to focus on the ones that give you the most return on your effort and investment.

Pay-per-click marketing is a good starting point in any revenue-enhancement program, because it doesn’t require an established web property. You can start a test PPC campaign with a small web site. Once you have an established web property you can try more marketing tools; at some point you may decide to use a combination of PPC, PPV, and PPA methods within one unit.

For some of us, the ultimate goal of online marketing endeavors is the introduction of a major project featuring one or more innovative and unique ideas. Sometimes it seems that everything has already been done and there is no space for new concepts, but if you make a research or better yet, check out KillerStartup.com on a daily basis you will find some interesting projects.

Like any business field, online marketing requires intensive and ongoing learning. However, due to the nature of the internet, the excessive amount and availability of information can be overwhelming. It is very hard to discern between genuinely useful tips and over-hyped marketing materials from a company that just wants your money. Successful webmasters do not like to share many of their secrets, which is why getting the right information and developing your own strategy will take time. Once you’ve failed but didn’t give up, you will see that your creative thinking, combined with the passion and the ability to push it to the very end, is all what it takes to succeed.

None of what I’ve said will be useful unless you work in a very organized and structured manner. If you are about to monetize one of your first web sites, I suggest you to consider the following points.

Information
• Do not trust a single source of information - including this article. Double-check everything.
• Ignore “Make up to $500 a day easily” and “How to become a millionaire in 6 months” programs.
• Learn as much as you can in order to be able to better control your projects (ideally: html, css, java script, and at least one server-side language, such as perl or php).

Budget
• Spend your budget carefully. Do not buy products or subscribe to services unless you really need them.
• If you have more than one web site, there are many host providers that offer multiple-site packages. You’ll get a global disk and bandwidth quota shared between all your sites – this way, a popular site won’t go over quota as quickly.

Theme
• Be accurate but creative when selecting your domain names. Depending on the nature of your project, find the right balance between a name that people will remember and a combination of keywords that people would naturally type into a search engine.
• Avoid making “general” web sites in the hope of covering everything. You’re not Yahoo! or Google. Since you don’t have their budget and technical abilities, focus on very narrow niches. Any niche subject will be ranked higher and get more targeted traffic.
• Consider projects catering to local needs, which can better develop a local following, and later expand.
• Ask yourself what you like or know and concentrate on your favorite subjects. Do not make web sites about pharmaceutical products just because it is a hot topic and you also want to take part in selling these expensive keywords. If you know nothing about pharmaceutical market, you will not be able to compete. Make web sites about tantric sex or ayurvedic cooking if it’s your thing.

Format
• Do not make plain search web sites as nobody likes them. Remember that search features and keyword links should only be an add-on to your content.
• Do not go for blogging unless you are certain you can handle it. I wrote about “Trap of blogging” earlier.

Publicity
• Employ proper SEO methods. In one of my previous articles I discussed this theme in detail.

Posted by Vitold at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I consider myself an experienced web marketing professional and my background ranges from concept development and project management to web production and SEO. The versitile nature of online marketing requires professionals like myself to perform wide variety of tasks and at times it is simply impossible to become an expert in everything. I'll give you an example. Significant part of my daily activities is web design and although I am good at graphic and web design applications, I am not a top expert in coding.

For most independent online marketers who are constantly testing various developments in the industry, building a complex online project may become quite a challenge. This is the reason why I was happy when I’ve come across a number of online agencies that provide you with the top quality HTML/ CSS code produced manually accordning to your design.

While being prompt and affordable this service solves two problems.

1. If you have a limited timeframe it allows you to get high quality product fast.
2. It prevents you from limiting the functionality or aesthetics of your project just because you do not have sufficient technical expertise.

Outsoaring is a global industry trend. Time/ money ratio is the factor that determines the efficiency of any project component. Proper management based on concept development and overall coordination between the components becomes the most efficient working method in the field. For a web entrepreneur who has limited budget, tight deadline or insufficient technical skills the online coding service may become quite handy.

Here is the list of agencies I found:

www.psd2html.com

www.w3-markup.com

www.htmlmarkup.com

Posted by Vitold at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I’ve come across an interesting web site: www.sitepal.com, which, I believe, is worth mentioning. The idea of creating animated speaking characters is quite old and there are a number of companies like mediasemantics.com, codebaby.com and noahx.com that do the same for some time now, but it seems like SitePal has taken this online service to the next level in terms of model quality simplicity of character customization and web implementation.

Compared to its competitors, SitePal offers higher quality models as well as wide variety of patterns, details and accessories. Important points are: Multilanguage support, ability to create a 3D model based on a photographic picture and an option to record speech by phone.

The lacking aspect is poor customization of speech emphases, no emotions, and flat behavior pattern. All models seem quite calm and artificial. One more point is speech synchronization. While simpler models make natural movements, the motion of photorealistic personages is far from being perfect. I sincerely hope that the next generation of speaking characters will be improved and we’ll see even more impressive product.

15 days trial and inexpensive packages make this exiting web add-on affordable to many small businesses. Visit www.sitepal.com to see all the details and take a look at the video below.

Posted by Vitold at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I’d like to share a few thoughts about search engine optimization and all the enthusiasm regarding this matter that I consider excessive. Many SEO aspects and spam techniques share the same traits. If you are a beginner, you have to be utterly careful with optimizing your web sites because a single error may result in having them penalized or even banned. Even if you are quite experienced with SEO, you can never predict how search engines’ algorithms will look like tomorrow, next week or in a few moths. This is the reason why some webmasters say that the best optimization is no optimization at all.

SEO has become a standalone professional field. Webmasters concerned with SEO tend to buy specialized software, buy and exchange links, submit their web sites to thousands of online catalogs and implement every SEO advice they come across, but they don’t realize one simple thing: optimizing an empty and badly designed web site is just like building muscles with steroids. You may achieve some rapid improvement, but it will never have a long lasting effect. Much better approach would be focusing on genuine content, design and social publicity. These SEO aspects are more time consuming but the long term advantage you’ll get is obvious. Let me share a few basic and efficient tips.

Carefully choose your domain name
Do not use names just because you like the way they sound. Make your domain names more similar to the actual search queries.

Produce genuine content
You’ve heard many suggestions about proper keyword density. I personally do not trust these formulas. My advice is to keep your content natural. Do not pack it with keywords. Just include them as often as your subject requires. Otherwise your text will look like spam to both search engines and surfers.

Update you content frequently
Make sure you update your web sites at least every week. You do not need to publish a novel every time. A few small updates would be sufficient. Once you’ve reached the level when you have constant traffic or you do not have time to make updates yourself, make your visitors work for you. Provide them with an option to comment your content but make sure you protect yourself from spam. Implement captcha and word filters.

Comment on blog entries
Find popular blogs with entries thematically similar to your content. Post informative comments. Bloggers are actively searching for new subjects. If you have interesting content, some of the bloggers will mention your web sites in their future posts. There is a good chance you’ll get links from highly ranked web sites with your keywords in the anchor text.

Use ALT tags
Many webmasters tend to ignore ALT tags. Do add them to all of your images. Make sure you are not including any irrelevant keywords in your ALTs. Just describe your images in short and informative way.

Make your Meta Description short and informative
Keep your Meta description short. Using one or two keywords from your domain name in the meta description is a good idea.

Do not use Meta Keywords
Just skip this Meta tag. Trust my experience.

Take care of design
Design is significant component of so-called social optimization. If people like your web site they will be coming back. Many webmasters still underestimate the importance of design.

Consider social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is free and simple promotional tool. Take a look at www.addthis.com.

Posted by Vitold at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

One of the major aspects of today’s web production is content. Search engines use it as the key indicator determining web sites’ ranking, which makes content a very efficient SEO tool. Search engines like content. Advertisers like content. Surfers like content. Everyone seems to be happy.

At the same time, popularity of text ad blocks (Adsense and alike) has turned content into the “fat soil” from which text ad blocks “draw” all the necessary resources, such as relevant and / or profitable keywords. If we want monetizing our traffic, we have to make sure this “soil” is properly “fertilized”.

As a result, web producers have made quantity, update rate and presence of keywords stipulated by commercial necessity a priority. These factors have dramatically diminished the informative value of web content as such. Internet as a global information source has become “a massive garbage collection” where questionable quality and keyword oriented content is mixed with numerous reformatted clones of the latter. As a result of this tendency, finding relevant information is now becoming harder and harder.

Of course, surfers’ opinion is still a factor (which means that surfers will tend to ignore pure quality web sites and keep coming back to the ones they like). Unfortunately few genuine content sites are just being lost within the “massive garbage collection”. More web resources there are in total - less significant the surfers’ factor becomes. In addition to that, the algorithm of today’s search engines does not take into consideration the informative value, which means that in most cases, genuine content sites can be barely found by surfers.

If someone has genuine quality content, they are not going to publish it online anymore.
Once they do, it will be immediately copied, rewritten and ultimately stolen from the author. Generating profitable text ad blocks without making sure the content is packed with appropriate keywords is also difficult. Producing genuine content for the internet has become obsolete because there is no point in distributing “real” while you can just substitute it with “fake” and achieve better ROI and CTR. As soon as somebody has quality content they will publish an e-book or even move the content offline. Time is money. It has never been as obvious as today. When I need quality and trustworthy information, I don’t have time to be searching for it among piles of garbage. I would rather go to a book store and buy a well structured, certified and up-to-date piece of content.

Everything I’ve said sounds pretty bad but fortunately internet is a complex system that constantly regulates itself by keeping the balance between its informative, commercial and technological components, and like any other system it is quite sensitive to deviations, which may potentially harm its normal functioning. The principles of internet marketing are evolving. So does the concept of online search. The so-called semantic search is one of the innovations meant to improve the relevancy of content based search. This evolution lets us hope that one day, the overall quality of online content will dramatically improve.

Posted by Vitold at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

The community of web entrepreneurs keeps growing. Beginners actively test different ways of making online money easily, but sooner or later most of them decide to build their own content-oriented resources.

Due to Google's search algorithm providing priority to original content and because of the severe online competition in every thematic niche imaginable, content-oriented sites have became one of the most trusted ways of establishing an online presence with long-term monetizing potential.

Many webmasters who decide to start a content site choose to build it using a blogging platform. There are plenty of blog platforms that are free and easy to set up and operate. A wide variety of custom templates allow users to create a professional-looking web site in less that an hour with no design or programming skills whatsoever. Once the blog is operational, it is very easy to update the content and to manage the comments. No HTML, no CSS, no PHP, no FTP, no SEO. It seems simple; however once you have selected the easy way you will have to pay for this convenience.


Problem # 1: The Vertical Information Structure

It is important to understand that the information structure of any blog is strictly vertical. Every piece of new content appears on top of the older layers and pushes these layers down. The visitors of a typical blog see the latest posts and rarely navigate through the site in order to find older posts.

In addition to that, every piece of information in a blog (such as posts and comments) is structured and indexed in accordance with the timeline. As I said, the newer pieces appear on top of the older ones and one can clearly identify when exactly these pieces were posted. This precise time reference significantly decreases the value of the older posts.

If you have old content that still has potential, you will not be able to bring back surfers' attention to it, unless you constantly quote yourself in your newer posts and create a confusing crosslink system.

The other side of the problem caused by the timeline order is the necessity to constantly provide fresh content. The blog cannot last long without new posts; it must be regularly and frequently updated. Maintaining frequency is time-consuming and very often we can see content for the sake of content, in other words “quantity instead of quality”. To keep the blog alive, a webmaster must maintain both the frequency of updates and the high quality of posts, which is nothing but the “work of Sisyphus” as it pushes the older content deeper and deeper “down to the past”. No mater how hard you try your blog will remain “an information iceberg”. Your surfers' attention will capture the top part, while the main information body is kept hidden.


Problem #2: Recognizable format

At some point blogging became so popular that it reminded me of an epidemy. The online space is full of blogs; no matter what you are searching for, you keep seeing them.

The reason that stands behind creation of most blogs is monetizing traffic using ads. Content is only used as means to attract traffic, to achieve search engine ranking or (at least) not to get banned. This is the reason why most blogs are lacking relevancy and informative value.

There was a period of time when blogs used to get high page rank by default, and corporate blogging was actively employed as a tool that helped promoting corporate web sites. All the above significantly contributed to a rather negative image of today's blogs that are often filled with questionable quality posts, links to other blogs and numerous ads.

The blogging platform is more than overused. The term “Blog” has lost its initial purpose of a diary and has become an easy-to-set-up web-content container with built in SEO features. As a result, an average surfer who comes across a new blog will most likely ignore it just because it is impossible to dedicate so much attention to the information source that is abstract, inadequate or similar to thousands of other sources. Given all these points and unless you aim to build a genuine blog I would like to suggest two solutions:


Solution #1: Horizontal Information Structure

• Clearly emphasize a category-based navigation, which will provide more visible access to a wider variety of your content.


• Display your content in a different way. Use the principle of information priority rather then time-line reference.


• Make your most valuable information either constantly appearing on one of the main pages of your site or easily accessible from them.

• Make sure your web site does not look like a blog: Avoid typical two and three columns layouts.


• Add features to your web site that go beyond ordinary blogging activity. Allow your visitors to submit texts, participate in polls, vote, upload images, etc.


• Avoid blogging terminology: blog, RSS feed, tag, post, etc

• You can make everything manually, create your own web site and assign the desired functionality, navigation and information structure.


• You can use an open source CMS platform and customize it the way you find fit. Visit www.opensourcecms.com and you will find a number of interesting CMS solutions.

Posted by Vitold at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (16) | TrackBacks (1)

I've come across a number of articles discussing Facebook privacy, and I couldn't resist commenting, which, in turn, encouraged me to summarize my thoughts regarding this matter. I think that the mini-scandals having to do with online privacy issues in social networks are, to a large extent, groundless and exaggerated.

Ones you are using a social network like Facebook, your primary goal is to expose your online identity to a community. Facebook provides you with comprehensive control of how far you may go with this exposure. It also allows you to flexibly tune your privacy settings, making your information either accessible or not to certain groups of users.

If you are so concerned about your online privacy, stop using social networks ; do not upload your pictures and do not publish your contact information. Even if you take all these measures, someone may still take a picture or video of you, tag you or pretend to be you. You still have a chance “to meet yourself” on a dating site, find a comment made by you that you never posted, etc. Cyber-world has its own logic and once you enter it you should be ready for surprises.

The interesting aspect about social networks and especially Facebook is so-called identity control. Everybody knows how prevalent fake-identity activity is on the net, especially when dating or marketing is involved. Facebook takes this phenomenon to the next level, as dating and marketing are considerable components of the social network nature. In other words, Facebook has become a very attractive playground for fake personages. Perhaps more than any other social network, Facebook emphasizes the truth of its users. Their name, their friends, their past, their life. By fostering truth, Facebook has encouraged a new movement, what could be termed as social media nudity. However, while some users take an almost voyeuristic delight in this exposure, others see potential in faking their nakedness. Facebook's emphasis on the real has a counter-effect on some; they are attracted to the ability to re-invent themselves, or even create new identities.

The principle of networking and identity exposure encourages certain groups of real users to surround themselves with fake friends. A fake mini-community gathered around a given person is meant to boost his or her social status with the help of wall posts and comments. At the same time, a sexually-appealing fake profile is able to easily gather a community of real users around them. This community can be subsequently used as a target group, once a creator of the fake profile decides to market anything, be it a product or an idea.

If we take a look at online identity control in social networks, we may see some interesting examples. For instance, European social network www.one.lv requires your cell phone number in the registration process. Once you submit your information, they send you SMS with your individual code. This code is required to activate your account. Any cell phone number can only be used for a single given profile within this social network. Another simple way of online identity control is requesting a scanned photo ID. Facebook, however, does not employ any identity control measures.

Why don't they? Here is the answer: Facebook is booming and the number of its users rapidly grows. So does the traffic. Facebook is perfectly aware that a certain percentage of its user database consists of fake profiles and they are probably able to identify and block most of them. No wonder; fake users generate aggressive online activity and Facebook wants to constantly report more users and more traffic, which will see its price grow accordingly.

What do fake profiles have to do with online privacy? Your picture published on Facebook can be taken by somebody and used in a fake profile. If you are using a public computer and forget to log off, someone may replace your contact information. One of my junior colleague at SearchAnyway will even check my computer periodically to see if I've left Facebook open. I've had to clean up many of his messes before my caution took over.

My conclusion is that despite the fact that Facebook provides a fair level of flexibility in terms of identity exposure, it does not employ sufficient measures to protect your information against theft, which is a slightly different issue. The European social network www.mail.ru displays images of the users in a format that disables “saving picture as” function. In this case only advanced users who are familiar with “Print screen” function and photo editing software can copy images. Some other social networks require entering your password every time you intend to upload a new picture or change your contact information. These measures would be able to solve many of the above-mentioned problems.

Posted by Vitold at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (23) | TrackBacks (0)

Do you ever think about the actual significance of words and images in online search marketing? It is obvious that the proper use of these key web elements can dramatically improve user experience and therefore increase your profits. It is important to understand when and how words and images should be used, and what common mistakes one should avoid. When it comes to monetizing your web traffic, every single click performed on your web site becomes valuable. You should therefore consider several goals:

1. After opening your site for the first time, the surfer should be encouraged to make the first click on one of the keywords that caught his or her attention.


2. After seeing the results of the first click, the surfer should be encouraged to click on one or more results.


3. After clicking on one or more results, the surfer should be encouraged to perform additional searches and add your site to bookmarks.

1. Efficient use of words and images


2. The overall quality of your site


3. Unique features that differentiate your site from other thematically-similar sites

1. Always use rollover effect. Be it a different color, shadow, underlined or larger text, the rollover effect will emphasize the function of the link.


2. Consider bold and oversized text unless it is expected. Properly displayed bold text will produce bold impression, especially when it is not really expected. For example, it can be used in the titles of your search results.


3. Consider slightly animated text links. Light animation (for example: change of color) will emphasize the function of the link. Make sure to avoid fast and irritating animation.


4. Use beautiful fonts. Be creative, find fonts that are interesting, contemporary and unusual. Make sure though that your fonts are legible.


5. Employ Web 2.0 style. It's popular and creates a light, pleasant web environment. Use color transitions, reflections and shadows where it fits.


6. Consider tag clouds. They look attractive and it is also smart way of imposing clicking priorities.


7. Use GIF and JPG images displaying text instead of large HTML text. Picture text will provide you with more creative flexibility. Do not forget about ALT tag.


8. Avoid mixing too many different fonts. It is one of the most common beginner mistakes.


9. If you add advertisement text blocks to your site, make sure the style of these blocks matches your content. Otherwise your attempt to monetize surfer's clicks will become too obvious and thus irritating.


10. Remember that text is not only a piece of code that transmits information. Text has significant aesthetic aspect to it. The more you explore it, the more your piece of text shares the powerful function of an image.
    
    

1. Do not use oversized images and image backgrounds. Image backgrounds look old-fashioned while oversized images look like backgrounds and loose their initial meaning.


2. Consider adding images to your keywords. This visual emphasis will create an additional stimulus to click.


3. Use only high-quality professional photographs. Bad photographs will make you site look cheap. The Internet is a global storage of trash photographs and there is a very clear difference between amateur and professional photography.


4. Avoid clipart images. They are all over the Internet and you don't want your site to look like hundreds of other sites.


5. Avoid default HTML image frames. In some browsers they have a bright blue color.


6. Avoid white images on white background. Use a narrow gray frame.


7. Consider adding shadows to your images. The 3-D effect will make your site look more stylish.


8. Make sure your logo look professional. No matter how bright your content is, bad-looking logos will make you site seem cheap.


9. Consider slightly animated gifs. They will make your images more vivid; just make sure you don't use fast animation.


10. Use images that convey powerful concepts. Choosing graphics, whether appropriate for a serious, corporate environment or a childish, user-friendly atmosphere will help create the mood the surfer needs. The surfer's mood is always represented by their clicking.

Posted by Vitold at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Vitold at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

In one of my earlier posts I wrote about the new search engine SearchMe.com, which has been available in Beta mode for some time now. In my post I've touched upon two innovative features this search engine was going to employ: visual fluidity and relevancy by niche.

I remember myself being quite excited by these new user experience concepts.

After using SearchMe.com, I've come to conclusion that the visual aspect is rather entertaining, but nothing more. Seeing web site previews is fun, but as soon as you try to do long and complex web research, the visual aspect is no longer helpful. I got tired and switched to conventional search engine results mode.

At the same time, the so-called relevancy by niche is a useful and convenient feature. It helps to narrow down your search, which dramatically increases the relevancy of results for you. It's interesting how such a simple thing is so efficient while another one, being considerably more complex is basically an entertainment. Online web search is a part of my daily work and the problem is that entertainment often becomes an obstacle for productive work fluidity. Well, at least in my case…

My conclusion is that SearchMe.com will only gain popularity among younger users and it will not see any global recognition at all. I think that becoming global is the only way of a long-term survival for any search engine. There are exceptions, especially when we are talking about niche usage, which is usually focusing on one particular field, for example www.ufoseek.com. Popularity among surfers who seek entertainment in an online search process is also a legitimate niche.

Posted by Vitold at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (1)

Episode 4 of Q&A with Sanjay reveals to Affiliates, online marketers and webmasters what the best source of search arbitrage traffic is. You can calculate everything from conversion rates to keyword price differences, but if Affiliates and publishers can't find the best source of traffic to purchase, then no PPC search engine or Affiliate program will accept it.

So here it is - the best source of search arbitrage traffic revealed...!

If you have a question you’d like Sanjay to answer, feel free to fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!.

Posted by Sanjay at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Episode 3 of Q&A with Sanjay provides a brief explanation of the difference between CTR (click-through rate) and conversion rates, and what it means to web publishers and online advertisers. If you can learn to optimize and read these two stats well, you'll be able to drastically increase your PPC search engine traffic and earnings.

If you have a question you’d like Sanjay to answer, feel free to fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!.

Posted by Sanjay at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)