To view Sony’s PPC text advert, I typed ‘sony’ into Google search UK:

Straight away, this text advert begs the question why it is even there? Nearly the whole of the first page of Google is dominated by links to different areas of Sony’s website. Therefore, why do they need to gain an even higher spot on Google for their own brand name?

The answer is to gain as much publicity for a certain product. If Sony did not have a PPC campaign, the only way web users would find Sony VAIO offer is through looking at the computer section of Sony’s website. Sony are using PPC to gain awareness of an offer that is occurring with the Sony VAIO range. However, don’t be fooled into thinking Sony are aiming at web users that are a bit strapped for cash. The offer is simply four years free warranty…No price discounts or extra goodies to go with the laptop.

What I notice about the PPC advert itself is the use of copyright logos ‘®’. This is optional because Sony have not included the ‘®’ on their organic title but only on their PPC advert’s title. This gives the impression that if Sony, Intel and VAIO have been trademarked and copyrighted, they are good products that are likely to try and be copied. Therefore, Sony has exploited the ‘®’ and ‘™’ symbols to make it seem like these products are very popular. It’s a pretty clever text advert.

When I clicked on the advert, I came to the following landing page:

Sony are definitely not trying to aim at price sensitive customers from the fact that no prices are shown above the fold of the landing page. Below the fold are the prices of the two laptops shown starting at £450 ($700)! These are not cheap laptops.

Looking at the design of the landing page, it has a clean look with a bland colour scheme of black and white with areas of slight blue (incorporating the Intel name into the landing page design). Sony have included navigation links at the top left of the landing page to help those that are not interested in the laptops shown or the VAIO series in general. Unfortunately, I am not too keen on this landing page. The landing page does not make me cry out ‘Wow! I want to buy one of those!’ when if you have a scroll through, let’s say, Apple’s website, I would say it for just about all their products. Sony is a huge brand name that is competing against Apple. If they truly want to compete with them, they need to make sure they entice the web user into wanting their products more. For example, don’t just list the specs of the laptop!

Sony could have easily said instead:

• Includes Intel Core i7 for super fast speeds.
• Windows 8 providing the best user-interface.
• A large 14″ display with high resolution.

And so on… It is not difficult to advertise a product well. For Sony, they make their products sound pretty boring unfortunately.

As a marketer, we sure love our forums. I can show you leader after leader who began their profitable business from daily and consistent work in forums. If they did it, why shouldn’t you? Not only are there SEO benefits to posting in forums, but you have the opportunity to meet others in your target market and drive traffic to your websites.

While it’s a relatively new space in mobile apps, there are essentially three major competitors in the forum space. Forumrunner, Tapatalk, and now Topify. Many twitter users will recognize the name Topify, as it used to be a pretty powerful way to manage your account via email.

Topify’s focus has since changed and is now competing directly in the mobile forum space. Imagine being able to participate in your favorite forums on your mobile phone. This free app allows you to do that on either iOS and Android devices, as it’s available for both.

Below are some of the reasons why I really love Topify already:

1. Easy to discover forums by enhanced search and by category

This is great if you want to find new forums to start participating in. Will you find new forums to add to your list?

2. Private threaded messaging system

Responding to threads is one thing, but Topify allows you the ability to communicate privately with other forum members. How neat is that?

3. BBCode integration

This is consistent with many of the forums online. It’s nice to see the same consistency from desktop to mobile devices.

4. View embedded files within the application

This is obviously a no brainer on forums, especially when you’re on a technical forum and you need to be able to show someone the issues you’re having.

5.  Free to use

The other forum competitors charge a premium for their mobile apps; however, Topify is free. Such a brilliant move, as they’ll be able to get more users. Nothing will stop people from using the app.

6. Be able to earn revenue from page views

I don’t exactly know how Topify was able to pull this off, but forum users can monetize the page views. This is just fantastic, as forums are generally a great way to earn money. People love forums and tend to visit them more often than other webpages.

Conclusion

I suspect this space will continue to grow even more now that Topify has entered the game. For the reasons mentioned above, I believe they’ve got the best application for experiencing forums on mobile devices. Will you download the app and begin participating in some of your favorite forums? I’d love to hear your experiences with it.

Sears.com is a great example of a super well known company that has done a successful job at going from a well known brick and mortar store to finding a lot of success online.

Let’s take a look at just a few of the places where Sears.com is excelling with their online promotions.

If you were to search for the “Sears” name or any of the appliances that they sell on their site, you will likely see them come up in the search results right at the top. Many of these results will be catered towards the exact match keywords that you are specifically looking for.

Another area where Sears has excelled lately is in the social networking space. If you were to search for Sears or related appliances through Google, you would likely see Sears ads in the right side menu of Facebook as well. Below you will see that Sears already has over 2 million fans for their Facebook fan page. Excellent work!

So what does all of this mean for you and how can you make money with a brown box business model of your own?

Thankfully the internet has provided us with some of the greatest opportunities ever. You are no longer required to start a local retail shop of your own to buy, sell and ship products. This can all actually be done online and sometimes you won’t even need to hold inventory or even interact with your customers. This is all possible through the use of wholesale buying, dropshipping and using affiliate programs for big name sites like Amazon.com and Sears.

There are plenty of web sites out there that can help you learn more about each of these business models and BrownBoxFormulas.com is one of the most recent ones to popup, which is focused on how Ezra Firestone was able to become the largest retailer for “mullets” last year. In the end, it really doesn’t matter which niche you are in or the product you are selling, but instead that you are the best at it.

This can clearly be seen with Sears. It’s taken them a long time to adapt and become a huge player in the online space, but their efforts are paying off in multiples. How can you grow you business and start shipping “real products” and making money with online marketing?

Take Advantage Of Free Services

Advertising is a powerful tool on the internet. So much that you may find out that you are paying for a service for your blog which other websites can do for free. The main one I am talking about is analytical tools which analyses the performance of your website. Unfortunately, Blogger and WordPress provide very limited analysis of the traffic from a website. This is what entices people into paying for analytical services. However, there are many websites that will do that for free such as Google with Google Analytics. There is always a cheaper version of what you are about to buy on the internet. It is just a question of time about how to find it. For most bloggers, they are lazy and are paying for convenience. However 5-10 minute research online may find that the majority of services you are paying for with your blog have free and possibly better alternatives.

Don’t Web Host With Google

This is a little tip just for those that have websites with Blogger (like me). When it comes to creating and buying your own custom domain name, Google gives bloggers the opportunity of convenience by letting them buy the domain name right within Blogger with services such as GoDaddy and eNom. However, what I found is that Google are charging bloggers crazy prices for domain names which are 3-4 times more expensive than if you went straight to GoDaddy or eNom’s website. It is not difficult at all trying to link a domain to a website. Therefore, when it comes to buying your own domain, do it through the actual website of the domain register rather than Google’s Blogger. I managed to buy one of my domains for 5 years which would have been the same price for just a year through Google.

SEO, is it Worth it?

I admit that SEO is a great tool for bloggers. However, I have never been solely dependent on paid SEO gaining me organic traffic. My website AskWillOnline.com, has been the only website that I have not pumped a single penny of SEO into. It has gained all its traffic naturally and, in essence, it has been quite successful without any services offering SEO help, tips or tricks or anything. Therefore, don’t feel obliged that you have to spend money on services to gain success as a blogger. The best success comes naturally when you least expect it.

Ultimately, the above points are saying ‘What running costs can I survive without?’:

• Can I survive without convenience?
• Can I survive with registering and setting up domains without Google’s assistance?
• Can I survive without paid SEO help?

If you can answer yes to these types of questions regarding your website, you are well on your way to reducing the running costs of your website.

Adsense

Google Adsense is no doubt the best PPC program out there for publishers to make the most money with. Putting this aside, there are areas which I feel Adsense can improve with.

The number one area they can improve with is with reducing the amount of accounts that are disabled. Although many of the stories of accounts being disabled have valid reasons for being disabled, there are still far too many accounts and unhappy publishers getting their accounts banned for no reason.

For example, it happened to one of my friends. He was expecting hundreds from Adsense and just before they were going to pay him, he was banned even though he had never touched any of his adverts and had been a loyal user of Adsense for more than three years. Adsense needs to provide much more valid reasons to banned Adsense accounts because most of the people that are getting banned are frustrated and unhappy with the vagueness of the ban. It all comes down to communication.

AdWords

Just like with Adsense, Google have done a pretty decent job with making Adwords a program for advertisers to use in gaining conversions on their desired landing pages. An area I think Google could really expand on with AdWords in the ways in which they display adverts to web users. For example, they are still displaying adverts the same way they have been doing since 2000: when Google first created Adwords.

With the ongoing advances in technology, the adverts Adwords use should take advantage of this. Yes, Google have mobile adverts for smartphones. However, what about a wider range of ad sizes and types? What about advertisers choosing what size adverts they want their adverts to appear on? Google can still make PPC much more contextual and specified than it currently is.

Another area I think Google could improve on is with with the introduction of mentors like Media.net have. Google are notoriously known for their lack of customer services unfortunately. This is a key area, I think, they should improve on. Media.net have used their customer service (of giving each publisher a mentor) as a USP to other PPC programs like Adwords. There are lots of publishers and advertisers out there that are only just starting in PPC without any knowledge, experience or idea on how to profit from it. To save them money, time and to give them a good opinion of Adwords and Adsense, it would be a great idea if Google gave much more detailed feedback to the users of their programs. After all  if it wasn’t for the advertisers that use Adwords and the publishers that use Adsense, Google would be nowhere! Again, it all comes down to communication.

To view Pets at home’s PPC text advert, I typed into Google search UK, ‘buy dog food’:

The first thing I notice is the fact that Pets at home are not the highest bidder for the keywords, ‘buy dog food’. This will not help them – especially from the fact that if you compare the two text adverts next to each other, you are more likely to click on Viovet’s advert seeing that the reviews is has are much higher on average and in quantity.

What is apparent, though, is that the Viovet advert uses a financial incentive much more by displaying prices (and the whole advert seems to be targeted towards price sensitive customers). Whereas, Pets at home have also looked for the price sensitive customers by including ‘deals’, ‘Up to 25% off’ and ‘Free delivery..’. But, what they have also done is include their brand name, ‘PetsatHome.com’, in the title of their advert. This is because they are a recognised name that is seen at retail parks and on TV (and not just the internet like Viovet is). Therefore, they want to use this brand name to their full advantage as with the brand name comes trust and a safe reputation in the pet supply market.

After clicking on the advert, I came to the following landing page:

My first thought on this landing page is the price sensitive approach Pets at home have taken to PPC. The advert craves savings and so does the landing page. All the products have a price cut or some sort of special offer making it seem like, to the web user, a bargain. Pets at home have been quite lazy with their PPC landing page because it is actually just a sub-page within the main website where all the dog food products that are on special can be located.

The point that may be coming across is that when it comes to PPC, you need make a separate landing specifically designed for it. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes, the best landing pages can be found on the website you are trying to advertise. For example, Pets at home are no likely to be a business that get it wrong in PPC. Therefore, it is clear that they have found they gain the most conversions (sales) through displaying a sub-page from their real page. Creating a unique landing page apart from a main website will confuse the web user when it comes to landing on the main website from the landing page. For best results when you want the web user to browse you website, you need to make sure the landing page design is similar to that of the main website.

Over the years, I have found myself using three main PPC programs to try and monetize my website AskWillOnline.com with:

• Google Adsense of course.
• Media.net.
• Ad Dynamo.

Google Adsense

I first used Adsense and out of the three PPC programs, have used them the longest too. They offer the widest pool of advertisers to bid for your advertising spaces, have a good layout and work in most countries to their own currencies. The best bit about Adsense is the fact that it makes money really well. By this, take an example of my earnings with Adsense today. I recently switched back to Adsense around 2-3 hours ago. The impressions have been a few hundred. My earnings have been £1.44  ($2.20). No advertising program, let alone a PPC program, can provide an RPM of £7.81 ($11.95). It’s ridiculous.

However, a common problem I have noticed is that getting banned from Adsense is all so easy. I was once banned long ago for invalid clicks. The frustrating factor is when you know you haven’t touched your adverts or are planning to either. It’s scary how much some bloggers rely on Adsense to make money and it can all go with just a click of a mouse. Should bloggers put that much faith into one program?

Media.net

I tried Media.net after I heard that it was Yahoo and Microsoft’s take on PPC. Two huge online companies. What first impressed me was that each publisher gets their own human mentor that will give them email advice about what is the best combinations to make the most money (where they also said to me, ‘leave it a week Will and we will experiment and change your ad colours, sizes, etc. for you and see which works best’). Another great thing about Media.net is that they offer far better advertising sizes and types than Adsense. The adverts look more like they are trying to help web users than make money from them – this is really important.

The downside is that Media.net doesn’t really pay big. I managed to get an RPM of $4 which is nothing to Adsense (but still good). I heard from online friends that bloggers should only use Media.net if their website is based on a niche because Media.net pays much more for niche websites.

Ad Dynamo

After looking at the above examples, I can’t really say much about Ad Dynamo. I only went to try them out when my Adsense account got banned. They have no advertisers and their CPC is awful. The RPM is in it’s cents. The same ‘spammy’ adverts always appear. If you have to pick between Ad Dynamo and Adsense, it is not even a fight. Choose Adsense.

However, overall, which PPC program is best to make the most from? From my experience, it is still Adsense. Media.net are getting close to being as good as Adsense. However, until they start paying that bit more for normal websites, Adsense will always be on top. The big question, putting mentors and ad sizes and types aside is ‘which will make me the most money?’. Until Media.net improves their RPM, it will always be Adsense.

3 Other Sources Of Traffic Other Than PPC

Sometimes, even some of the best advertisers can struggle with succeeding in PPC. In these rare cases, it might be best to try a different source of traffic other than PPC. In this article, I highlight three other sources of traffic advertisers can use with some being free and some not. It might also be a good idea to use these other sources of traffic alongside PPC to make the most out of four sources of traffic.

25 Quick Tips To Improve Your PPC Campaign

I love these types of articles above all others because they are easy to read and get to the point fast. In this article, I list 25 useful tips any advertiser can use to improve their PPC campaign. It is a great article, if you do not have the time, to quickly skim over because the likelihood is that you are not implementing all of the 25 tips from the article into your campaign.

Why Colours Are Important In PPC [Part 1] and [Part 2]

What most advertisers do not know is that the colour scheme chosen on your campaign’s landing page will contribute significantly to the landing page’s conversion rate. Therefore, it is a great idea to know exactly what each of the main colours will mean to the average web user. This is exactly what I do in this two-part article. I look at black, blue, brown, green, yellow, red and more with what they symbolise and whether or not you should use it in PPC as a publisher (for adverts) or advertiser (for landing page).

The rest of the most useful PPC articles from May 2013 can all be categorised under the ‘Analyse A Real PPC Campaign’. Each one of the below analyse a real PPC campaign from some of the largest companies worldwide. Therefore, it will prove to be extremely useful to advertisers to look at what the big companies are doing when it comes to PPC (and maybe even copy a few of their techniques too):

• Aston Martin which focus their campaign at the more price sensitive customers from running a campaign on pre-owned cars.
• Google Play and their take on online media stores.
• Ford and how they use PPC campaign to attract potential car buyers to their website.
• DKNY although if you read the article, you will see that there is a slight flaw with DKNY’s PPC campaign.

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” C. S. Lewis

Are you struggling in your current profession, either in personal satisfaction or with finding gainful employment? If so, then it may be time for a career change. A career change can be a scary thing, but it just may be the change you need in order to get over that feeling of being “stuck” in your career and move on to a more satisfying and lucrative lifestyle. Read on to see what you need to get going.

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” Anatole France

First of all, make a decision to change. You may be on the fence. If you were not thinking about changing your career, then you probably would not be reading this. You may have too many “what ifs” going through your mind. All you need to do is to make a decision one way or the other. Stick with that decision. In the long run, it will be better if you don’t waffle back and forth.

“Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.” Shunryu Suzuki

Next, do your research. Start with some soul searching. What traits do you have that would attract you to one career over another? Are there skills that you already have that would make the transition easier for you? What education or certifications do you need? Map everything out, plan it and write it down.

“Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.” Sydney J. Harris

Take action. Once you have most of your ducks in a row, then make the leap. You don’t have to have everything perfectly aligned. If you wait until everything is perfect, you will never move forward. Follow through with the appropriate action. Things will fall into place once you get the ball rolling.

If you want to get started on searching for or starting your new career and you need the college education to go with it, look no further. My friends over at The Edification can help you find a counselor, choose a new career path and then choose the right program for you. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection and you can access nearly any school, anywhere in the world that has an online program. For those who are curious about online education, look at the following infographic:

/>

Power Words

I have already mentioned power words a few times in some of my previous articles because they are so important to gaining a high CTR for your PPC text advert. Below are the main power words you can use in PPC:

• You
• Money
• New
• Save
• Results
• Easy
• Health
• Safety
• Love
• Free
• Discovery
• Proven
• Guaranteed

You might think that I am talking rubbish and that power words are not used by the best PPC campaigns out there. Well, have a look at my ‘Analyse A Real PPC Campaign’ series. DKNY uses ‘free’ and ‘new’ from the list along with others such as ‘receive’ and ‘explore’. Ford’s PPC text advert uses ‘you’. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer uses ‘free’, ‘now’ and ‘newest’. Do not be scared to use power words in fear that you will make your advert sound ‘spammy’. In essence  the biggest campaigns out there uses around 2-3 power words in their text advert. Therefore, to make sure your PPC campaign is just as good, try and use the same amount for your PPC text advert.

The Right Type Of Landing Page

If you have read any of my articles on landing pages, you might know what I am about to say. I strongly believe the landing page is the most important aspect of a PPC campaign because it is the last step to gaining a conversion: it is the make-or-break part of your campaign. For this reason, it is extremely important you know what type of landing page will be most successful for your campaign. To help you decide, if you are unsure, read ‘[How to] Choose The Right Landing Page For Your PPC Campaign [Part 1]‘ and ‘[Part 2].

A Section For Experimenting

You are not going to get anywhere far in PPC if you do not experiment. It is by far one of the most important aspect to PPC (along with the landing page of course!). Take a blogger for example that runs PPC Adsense adverts on their website. How would you suggest a way for the blogger to make more money from the Adsense adverts without having a traffic increase or any change to any significant variables? Experiment. The majority of websites will change ad sizes, colours, types and locations to make sure they get the highest CTR possible. The same applies to the advertising side to PPC. In order to make the most out of PPC from an advertiser’s perspective, you need to experiment. Therefore, make sure you have reserved some of your budget for experimenting with – the results you gain from experimenting have the potential to make your campaign extremely successful.