Online marketing Blog

Here’s a post I just made at the Band of Gonzos regarding Google’s move to compete with Yahoo’s Home Page…Google’s Custom Home Page Gets Even Better Today…

If you haven’t seen Google’s customizable Home Page yet…

Google’s Home Page

It’s pretty sweet. Today they added more news options, bookmarks and most exciting…

RSS FEEDS! You can do a search for one and add it or enter any you have in mind.

You can also show your gMail account right there on your Google Home Page now and keep track of your incoming e-mails.

Maybe not totally business related, but we’re taking a time out…

It’s just plain cool.

Mostly because it is my Search Engine of choice… and I always dreamed of Yahoo & Google merging some features.

-Matt Levenhagen

Matt Cutts (AKA GoogleGuy) a Google software engineer explains if we should be using an underscore or dashes in our domain names (URLs):Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO » Dashes vs. underscores

This has been a question on the back of my mind forever! Which to use?

Of course… I had a 50/50 chance and I commited myself to the underscore…

BUT from a VERY good source above, I’ve been wrong.

It probably hasn’t hurt me 100%, but… it may have a little…

In any case, from now on dashes for me… even though I think the underscore looks better.

A lesson learned is a good thing.

-Matt Levenhagen

For those CSS junkies out there… You know who you are! Or anyone else that wants to learn about Cascading Style Sheets, here is a sweet resource my friend Rocky at the BoG dug up:

CSS, Accesibility and Standards Links

And by the way… if you haven’t been to the BoG…

The Band of Gonzos: Holy CSS Zeldman!

Fun place… a wild and crazy bunch. Smart developer talk with a spin of good old fashion non-sense and fun rolled in!

-Matt Levenhagen

The Campaign Blast Method Revealed
by Matt Levenhagen

——————————————–

Attention Adwords Experts OR Newbies!

To date, I have sold over 135 of the reports I’m about to present to you.

Because it has helped and inspired so many, I have kept the package alive and have expanded it’s reach!

The sales page can be found here:

C.O.I.N. Applied to Adwords

You’ll have to read the sales page above to get the true value of these 3 reports… Read the testimonials by Adwords experts including Jeremy Wilson! Owner of AdwordMentor.com. I will be improving and continuously updating this package. So get it and always be alerted of updates and get them for for no additional cost!

There is an Affiliate Program

I am running the affiliate program through Payloadz.com. For those of you not familier with Payloadz:

About PayLoadz

I use them exclusively for the sale and delivery of all my products… including this one. They work very tightly… seamlessly with PayPal…

You will see my product listed in the Payloadz Store here:

Payloadz Marketplace

Note: There is a place on that page for testimonials. Would sure be great if you contributed if you have read the reports!

Here’s how you sign up as my affiliate… Just go here:

Affiliate Code Generator

I have set it up to give you a $15 commission per sale. The 3 Reports are now $29.95.

So whether you want to learn some great techniques to find profitable niches and to make GREAT money with Adwords OR you are looking for a good affiliate program, I offer you “C.O.I.N. Applied to Adwords“.

If you have any questions about my product or the affiliate program, comment below!

-Matt Levenhagen

Are you frozen in information overload? Are you waiting for everything to be perfect??Well stop… focus… and launch.

I know how it is. You want everything to be in line… you want all your ducks in a row.

Some of you are simply shy or scared to put yourself out there…

Listen. People that get ahead in business make mistakes. The people that get furthest ahead, learn from their mistakes!

Obviously you don’t want MAJOR flaws, but if the core content and functionality is there… Just Launch It! You can always follow up with upgrades or new versions for those who bought.

Error = An Opportunity to Learn

Yesterday I bought a new domain that will talk to many of the issues we have in trying to bring an idea to the launch stage and beyond.

You know what? I’m not even sure what medium or form this site will take!! I just launched it…

www.JustLaunchIt.com

And would you believe people are actually signing up to be notified of the launch of a future truley informational and inspirational product… that they know nothing about?

Now that, my friends, is interesting.

-Matt Levenhagen

Sounds possible…Yahoo! Indexing New Sites via Whois Data?

I got this reading the SERoundtable Blog.

It’s been speculated that Google is doing the same thing… That means that you could be indexed before you want to be indexed.

Of course, they can use other data from WhoIs as well like measuring the age of your website…

Interesting I thought…

Why is competition a bad thing? Competition creates an environment that creates better products and services…

Someone might ask:
A competitor of mine is bidding on my trademarked name. What should I do!?

Be better. Beat them with price, quality, service, marketing or whatever else that will make you stand out from your competitor.

Adwords shouldn’t be designed with limits. It’s what’s best for the person clicking. Isn’t that Googles idea? Relevancy. They are supposed to reward for that. The more clicks your getting, the more relevant you are, the higher up the ranking you go.

In order for Google to provide the best service they need to open up the field and let the players compete.

Google wins because they are providing better results.
The Clicker wins because they are being provided the best results.
And the adverisers win, because it challenges them to be better…

Just because I have an ad in the Yellow Pages next to other competing businesses doesn’t mean there’s a trademark issue. A keyword is like a doorway. It gets you where you want to go in the results with your advertising.

The trademarked name is the key for that door. You’re not advertising until you get through the door… that’s when the trademark issues should start. The ads in the results (no trademarked names in the ads is exceptable); not the keywords, they just got you where you want to go.

So, IMHO, spend your energy on becoming better instead of worrying about your competition…

Why is competition a bad thing? Competition creates an environment that creates better products and services…

Someone might ask:
A competitor of mine is bidding on my trademarked name. What should I do!?

Be better. Beat them with price, quality, service, marketing or whatever else that will make you stand out from your competitor.

Adwords shouldn’t be designed with limits. It’s what’s best for the person clicking. Isn’t that Googles idea? Relevancy. They are supposed to reward for that. The more clicks your getting, the more relevant you are, the higher up the ranking you go.

In order for Google to provide the best service they need to open up the field and let the players compete.

Google wins because they are providing better results.
The Clicker wins because they are being provided the best results.
And the adverisers win, because it challenges them to be better…

Just because I have an ad in the Yellow Pages next to other competing businesses doesn’t mean there’s a trademark issue. A keyword is like a doorway. It gets you where you want to go in the results with your advertising.

The trademarked name is the key for that door. You’re not advertising until you get through the door… that’s when the trademark issues should start. The ads in the results (no trademarked names in the ads is exceptable); not the keywords, they just got you where you want to go.

So, IMHO, spend your energy on becoming better instead of worrying about your competition…

One of the best tools that you have is the ability to create competing ads in Google Adwords.

It’s a very, very smart thing to do. By playing around with multiple ads, you can get better click through rates. Some things you can change in each ad:

1) Change the capitalization of various words. You can’t capitalize all the words, but you can capitalize the first letter in words. This will attract more attention.

2) Changing how your URL reads can attract clicks differently. You can capitalize the words of your URL (i.e. WebOfOpportunity.com). Google will also allow you to change the end of a URL to show various ways (i.e. /becareful, /BeCare)

3) Try different keywords in your ad. This is a good idea anyway. Keywords in your ads and URL’s will attract more clicks… They’ll be highlighted in the search results.

All you do is go into your ad group and click on create new text ad or image ad.

Then you create your ad. Google will automatically deliver your ads evenly. Whether you have 2 or 20 ads running for that ad group (although, in most circumstances, I would keep it to 2 or 3 ads at one time).

The percentages will be close. Within a couple percent.

Adwords can be fun and challenging. With patience, hard work and experimentation it can be a lucrative effort!

For information about how to make money with Google Adwords, I highly recommend checking out either of the following:

1) Perry Marshall free 5 day e-mail course

2) Google Cash

These both have helped me tremendously. With their guidance I have realized a good income with Google Adwords!

Have Fun!

This is something I posted on the Warriors Forum after having a small, short drought. I hadn’t made a sale for a longer than average period. I finally made one this day and had to communicate how I felt to someone. It sort of developed into more than that…

QUOTING MYSELF:

I just want to say, I love this internet stuff!!

To all the newbies out there that are just getting started with their online businesses and haven’t seen the first sale yet or anyone that’s having a streak of bad luck… I just wanted to take the time to tell you to HANG IN THERE.

There is nothing better than being in business for yourself. I’ve been my own boss for years. I own my own insurance agency; I had a remodeling business a few years ago… I’m so conditioned to working on my own that I think it would drive me crazy if I had to punch a clock again. Getting up without an alarm clock every day is so nice.

It is so exciting when someone actually spends money on one of your products. You’ve worked so hard on your website or choosing the perfect affiliate programs that are going to offer the best products at the highest commission. It’s great when you see that hard work pay off.

My main product is affiliate programs. I’ve been doing PPC for a long time, but once in a while I fall into a rut like I have been the last week or two. It’s a little worry some, but I keep doing the things that I’ve always done.

I keep my eye on the ball and don’t let up.

I stick to my routine. I work on my site, I write my articles, I fine tune my PPC campaigns and add new ones, I study SEO, I learn from e-Books and Forums about the online business, and just systematically work the plan… yes, I do have a plan.

I’ve been a salesman for a long time. I’ve been an insurance agent since 1997. There is one thing I’ve learned from my sales experience that can be translated to online world:

Numbers.

Numbers. It’s all about numbers. I sell life insurance. I work with a couple different brokerages and can literally quote 100s of companies for any one person in minutes. I use various lead systems to find prospects.

About 2 years ago I hooked up with a lead program to sell “Mortgage Life Insurance” This one company really had an incredible system that really drove home the importance of knowing your numbers…

Here were my numbers selling Mortgage Products: If I got 10 leads per week, made 75 phone calls, I would set 5-7 appointments, and make 2-3 sales… Consistently. It’s a numbers game. It never failed. If I was making $5000 per month I could double that just by doubling the leads and the phone calls… of course it probably helps to be a good salesman also.

MY POINT: It’s the same way with online business. If you see X number of people, you will make X number of sales.

This is why I don’t worry. I can predict when I am due. I know my numbers. (i.e., I’ve had 300 clicks without a sale, I normally get one sale every 200 clicks… I’m due!!)… Maybe that’s why I like PPC, it’s a numbers game.

I’m certainly not making 1 million dollars a year online (yet). But I know it’s just a matter of time. More traffic = More sales

If I consistently work my plan and stick to my routine I will realize success… actually a nice 6 figure income would be sufficient.

And so can all of you! It may not happen overnight, but it will happen if you’re persistent.

I could write an eBook, but I just wanted to take a few minutes and communicate my experience…

I’m off a fresh sell after a short drought and still have the residual adrenaline effects running through my body. So please forgive me.

Stick with it everyone and I’ll see ya’ll at the top!!

END QUOTE

Sometimes I get in the zone and right something profound…