My Mom believes that most organic foods are over-priced and not necessary.
She claims youre paying more for someone not doing the work of chemically caring for the plants. Of course, she doesnt really mean it, and eats it when she can get it, but is frustrated to have to pay more for something smaller than normal.
However you perceive it, we are learning there is great value in organic food.
Another organic of great value are organic clicks. Just what are organic clicks These are the clicks that come to you direct from searches in the search engines. In other words, by and large, youve paid nothing for them. (Mom would love that!)
My long-term goal is to receive 80% of my traffic organically.
Heres how I plan to accomplish that. Since all of my income generating sites are created using blog software, I dont have to worry much that they get listed on search engines. They are currently all there, except for the newer ones.
My challenge is to get them ranked more relevant for the keywords I have built them around. As Ive discussed, at least in Google, website ranking has everything to do with how relevant your site is for the keyword presented. So, for example, when someone types in rental cars, they dont get a listing of sites on the Internet that use the phrase rental cars in their text, and list the site that uses it more as number one. Keyword stuffing and subsequent ranking is what put search engines like AltaVista and Netscape out to pasture.
Ive also talked about high quality inbound links. These are worth a lot because this is a major part of the ranking formula at Google. However, in building sites for great reading and using contextual ads to monetize the pages, the last thing you want is a leak.
A leak, you say Yes. A leak is anything on your page that would allow a visitor to leave without generating something positive for you. A leak could be an 800 number. It could be an off-site website. It could be an e-mail address. And a leaky site will cause you to lose traffic.
If you ask someone to link to your site, they expect a reciprocating link. A reciprocating link, especially to another quality site with a similar topic is a sure sign of a major leak.
Okay - so what do you suggest, Dave
There are a few options. First, address your friends - anyone with any page rank. Ask them to help you out. If they have more page rank than you, your site will gain ranking in the search engines.
Next, post in forums that relate to your topic. I dont believe the search engines would be dumb enough to include inbound links from groups to count for anything - but private forums are another issue. Look into these and post on them actively.
And, lastly, take a look at eBay for listings on websites that have a page rank higher than yours. Try a few cheap ones first - but wait at least 90 days before you swear it doesnt work. Thats how long Googles Page Rank takes to update. (Sometimes sooner.)
Do programs like Web Position or SubmitIt work Yes! Invest some time in submitting your site to smaller search engines - ones not typically spidering your site. Make sure you use the schedule feature so you constantly submit (within the limits of the search engine).
I leave you with something that will help you more than anything, and that is praying. Simply pray and believe that God will increase your territory and your ranking. He knows all and when we converse and trust in Him, things happen.
Work it like a business - and go out and buy some organic. Youll live longer, and in better health.
Founder of one of the first web hosting companies on the Internet, World Wide Mart, Dave Jackson has been teaching others how to monetize their web sites for over ten years. Currently he teaches others to create a solid residual income by creating quality web sites of great benefit to visitors and monetizing them using contextual ads. His blog is .
Today I want to touch on the costs of getting traffic to your site. Your earnings with Contextual Advertising will only grow when you have visitors who are interested in your ads and click on them. But you gotta have visitors.
Heres the formula:
Earnings = page impressions * ads per page * click thru rate * average price per click
Lets assume page impression is a constant p.
Then earnings = p * CTR * CPC.
So calculating how much your traffic is costing you is vital, because it draws from your bottom line.
There are MANY ways to drive traffic to your site; the main two, search engine optimization and advertising. Advertising takes on many forms: text ads, banner ads, newspaper ads, links, word of mouth, etc.
The most important part to remember is that there is no free lunch. In other words, every form of advertisement costs something. Effort was expended to get you the results. The key is that you need to quantify the effort. Youll hear me use that a lot - quantify it. Only when you can measure it is it possible to track.
And remember to count your time and effort. Heres my rule of thumb: count $10 for every hour of personal labor you put into traffic. This includes chatting with someone to spread the word about your site, work on SEO items, keyword optimization, literally anything that takes your time - you must quantify it.
Say you are out and talk with someone for ten minutes about your new site; thats $2.00 of your time.
Okay, Dave - thats getting picky.
Using AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing to drive traffic is a little easier to quantify. You can easily see how much of your budget was spent. But even here, I count my time spent creating ads, working on keywords, tweaking and refining.
So heres your homework:
Grab a sheet of paper and write down your campaign name. Below that, list the ways you are currently using to drive traffic to the site. Then, count your time spent to accomplish the work. Make this a figure you are comfortable with.
Heres an example.
Campaign: Shelled Brazil Nuts- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Traffic: SEO work - $5.00 (30 mins/day @ $10/hr)
AdWords account - $7.00/day
Links - $1.00/day ($30/month)
Total: $13.00/day
So, great! We have a liability of $13.00 a day. Why do we need to know this number
This number is key, because this is the number we must beat in order to see a profit. Anything over $13.00 is good. Anything less is not good. But theres more. Dont forget your other costs - hosting (unless you use a free blog account), bandwidth, and design of your site.
See how important it is to keep track of what our traffic costs are Its vital, if you want to get profitable.
Next, I answer the question of how important it is to choose the right contextual ad company.
Until then, as Mom always said, do your homework!
Founder of one of the first web hosting companies on the Internet, World Wide Mart, Dave Jackson has been teaching others how to monetize their web sites for over ten years. Currently he teaches others to create a solid residual income by creating quality web sites of great benefit to visitors and monetizing them using contextual ads. His blog is .