Archives for February 2011

Link Building By Being Social

PPC Ian has been all over the press lately. In fact, I’ve been featured on three high profile blogs within the last week. I’ll get into the specific press mentions next, but first want to highlight my link building strategy. I’m a huge fan of this particular link building strategy because it’s a passive one. And, at the end of the day, there’s a real premium on my time (and I’m sure yours as well) so anything that can happen passively for me is truly rewarding.

My Passive Link Building Strategy

Basically, I’ve gone to all of the big online marketing blogs and have become personal friends with the bloggers. I’ve done this by sending direct emails to these high profile bloggers and also via my blog commentating strategy. As a result of being social, I have become part of the community. Because I’m part of the community and all these online marketing bloggers know me on a personal level, they’re happy to link back to me when I post something particularly noteworthy.

This is the real reason that Google values inbound links. They’re a measure of what others think of you and your blog. How can you get others to like you and your blog? Get out there, be social, and make friends! Want to learn more about this strategy? I recommend checking out my recent blog post about PR Driving Great SEO Results.

This Week’s Links

So, where did I get featured this week? It all started off with ZK’s Web Traffic ROI. I’m a huge fan of ZK and his blog. If you’re big on blog commentating like myself, there’s no doubt that you’ve run into ZK. He’s an absolute expert online marketer and one of the top commentators on the Internet. ZK discovered my recent series of six free videos from my Stanford GSB presentation and wrote a post all about my videos. (As a side note, you can view my free videos in the following posts: videos 1 and 2, videos 3 and 4, videos 5 and 6).

Now, just being featured on ZK’s Web Traffic ROI was a huge win on its own. However, my success did not stop there. Because I’m well connected on Facebook and posted a link to ZK’s post, my friend Owen Frager from The Frager Factor picked up and recapped ZK’s post on his own blog. This is a true honor, Owen is a true heavy hitter when it comes to online marketing and blogging. After all, his blog is one of the largest on the Internet.

My third success happened today! My friend Eric from My 4 Hour Workweek wrote a truly epic blog post about 142+ ways to make money online. I highly recommend checking out this blog post, it’s going to be one of the best of 2011 in my opinion. I have become friends with Eric and comment regularly on his blog, and Eric was kind enough to mention me as one of his favorite online marketing blogs in this truly epic blog post. Now, this gets even sweeter because Eric’s blog post went truly viral and made the first page of Delicious today. Cool stuff! An interesting fact: Eric won the blog commenting contest I ran on PPC Ian a while back and I reviewed his blog since he was one of the winners!

Images in this post © WebTrafficROI.com, FragerFactor.blogspot.com, and My4HrWorkweek.com

New Look & Feel For Google Sitelinks

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 27 10

I just searched for my brand name (PPC Ian) on Google and noticed that my organic sitelinks have a brand new look and feel! Check out the screenshot at the end of this post. I’m not sure if this is a beta test or a permanent change, but one thing’s for sure: the new sitelinks rock!

Google Organic Sitelinks: New Versus Old

You may remember from my post Happy Birthday To PPC Ian that I just started seeing sitelinks for PPC Ian around October, 2010. As you can see in the image in that post, the sitelinks were just links with no surrounding text. Moreover, I just had four of them.

More Brand Name Traffic

The new sitelinks that I just noticed today are much more pronounced. There are eight links in total and there is descriptive text below each of the links. My organic listing occupies a lot more space in general. Whenever someone types in my brand name, I’m going to capture a lot more traffic because this enhanced listing with the new style sitelinks really pops. Even better, many of my organic sites that never had sitelinks before now do. With this change, I believe Google is also displaying sitelinks for more sites.

Between the new AdSense formats, the new AdWords mega titles, and these new organic sitelinks, Google is making serious progress through testing. Awesome work, Google!

Screenshot of Google Search Results © Google

Pay Per Click Jobs Are Changing

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 19 12

I’ve been in the corporate world of pay per click search engine marketing since 2004. Back in those days, things were quite different. There was no SEM automation, no AdWords editor, and SEM overall was quite manual. In fact, back in those days it took new search marketing employees at least a month or so to start adding serious value to their employer. These days, however, things have advanced so much. New employees are adding value almost instantly and the leverage in our industry has advanced tremendously. As a result, PPC jobs are changing.

They’re changing in two main ways. First and foremost, advanced analytics, bidding, and testing are becoming mandatory. Second, it’s absolutely imperative these days to go beyond PPC and add value in other areas such as SEO, social media, and email marketing. Today, I’m going to share some quick win tips to embrace these exciting changes.

Tip 1: It’s All About SEM Automation

Change Ahead

I’ve talked about this point quite a bit here on PPC Ian so I’m going to keep my first tip relatively short. It’s important these days to bid more effectively than ever, take your analytics to the next level, and manage your campaigns with precision. Why? Back in 2004, the lack of competition created a scenario of somewhat easy money. These days, you not only have to fight to win the PPC game, but you need to prove to yourself, your team, and your company that you’re doing everything possible to optimize your PPC program to the highest possible degree.

How do you accomplish this? Easy! It’s all about getting the right systems and technologies in place. Want to learn about making the best possible purchase decisions for your SEM platforms? Check out my SEM automation buyer’s guide whitepaper. It’s automation like this that will free up your time to diversify your skillset into other areas such as SEO, social media, and email marketing.

Tip 2: Become An Affiliate Marketer, Today!

I wrote about this topic when I first launched PPC Ian with a post titled moonlighting will accelerate your SEM career. I’m more confident in this philosophy than ever. To be successful in affiliate marketing, you must be an incredibly savvy marketer. You must challenge your intelligence, test wild new strategies, and push the boundaries on online marketing. Simply put, affiliate marketing is the education of a lifetime. The education I have gained from my blogging and portfolio of over 80 SEO websites has been truly invaluable. I’ve been able to take this education back to the corporate environment and perfect PPC operations while taking on major responsibilities within other areas of online marketing.

So, how can you get started? I took the affiliate plunge back in 2007. I basically started from scratch and learned as I went. In this day and age, I’m a huge believer in the affiliate network route. A good affiliate network can truly jump start your affiliate marketing career. You want to make sure to have the best offers, the best payouts, and of course expert advice and mentorship. That’s precisely where industry leading affiliate networks such as EWA Private Network and Blam Ads step in! So, what are you waiting for? Go sign up today!

Tip 3: Read Everything You Can Get Your Hands On

To close out today, I want to underscore the amazing wealth of information out there. If you want to get ahead in the corporate world of SEM, it’s imperative to read all of cutting edge material about PPC, SEO, Facebook, social media, domaining, email marketing, display advertising, and more. These days all areas of online marketing are intersecting and you must become an expert in everything.

One thing that’s really important, in my opinion, is to purchase eBooks and online courses that will take your education to the next level. Sometimes, the best information costs a little money (not much, but some). The leverage on your investment, however, is so much that it’s a no-brainer. Two must-haves include Jonathan Volk’s Facebook Ads Guide and Chris Guthrie’s Niche Profit Course.

Image of Change Ahead © arcady_31

PPC Jobs Are Great For Travel

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 14 7

I’m the largest proponent of the pay per click search engine marketing career path around. This amazing corporate career can really take you places! As you may know, I wrote an entire eBook about PPC career tips (I highly recommend reading it). Moreover, I wrote about three different PPC career paths (agencies, startups, large direct advertisers) and also PPC versus SEO careers. Today, I wanted to do a really quick career-oriented post because I just got back from an amazing trip to Boston, all because of my great PPC job.

A Great Leadership Opportunity, Travel For Free

Airplane

Last week, I had a truly great time at my company’s office just outside of Boston. It was a great opportunity to travel and see new things, get a bit outside of my day-to-day routine, and function as a leader in my organization. I really love my PPC job at a large direct advertiser because I get the opportunity to travel a few times a year, the perfect frequency for me. Just within the last year, I traveled to Seattle, Las Vegas, and now Boston, all free of charge thanks to my amazing job (my company pays all expenses).

Different Levels of Travel for Different Paid Search Jobs

Are you someone that likes to travel a lot? How about not much at all? I have advice for you! If you can’t get enough travel, the SEM agency career path will be perfect for you. As you get more and more senior within an agency role, you will have many opportunities to travel extensively and visit your clients face-to-face, all paid for by your company. If you like traveling a few times each year, but not as much as someone in the agency role, the large direct advertiser career path will be perfect for you. If you can’t stand traveling and would prefer to stay in one location, the startup route might be more up your alley. When you’re at a startup, there’s less need to travel, especially if you’re in an SEM role.

Now, let’s contrast this with the affiliate marketing career path. If you’re a super affiliate and are wildly successful, you can travel all you want (but it will be on your own bankroll). However, let’s say you’re just starting out don’t have a ton of funds. Then, you’ll definitely have less of an opportunity to travel. This is just one more reason I’m a huge proponent of the corporate online marketing career path.

Image of Airplane © travellinglight

Three Ways To Drive More Facebook Fans

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 10 18

There’s no doubt about it: Facebook has taken the Internet by storm and your Facebook Fan Page is very important to your business. Why? Just like YouTube (check out my recent post about YouTube and SEO), your Facebook Fan Page will drive SEO value to your site via a real dofollow link. More importantly, however, SEO is now being driven by social media citations (after the Google caffeine release). Your Facebook Fan Page will drive numerous citations and social buzz to your website, especially after you accumulate a lot of fans. So, how exactly do you get a lot of fans? I’ve been working very hard on my PPC Ian Facebook Fan Page and now have nearly 750 fans! Today I’m going to share three tips on gaining Facebook Fan Page fans fast!

Tip 1: Run a Paid Facebook “Like” Campaign

This just wouldn’t be PPC Ian if I didn’t start off with a tip that relies on paid traffic. There are two types of paid campaigns on Facebook: Campaigns that drive users to your website and campaigns that drive users to your Facebook Fan Page. The second type of campaign makes the most sense if you’re trying to drive likes because the ad itself will contain a like button in it and moreover the user will have the option to click like again once they land on your Facebook Fan Page. From my personal experience, you gain high quality followers (who are likely to read your updates and interact with your page) via this method for around $2 per follower (in the online marketing vertical at least).

Want to learn more about Facebook Ads? I highly recommend buying Jonathan Volk’s Facebook Ads Guide. This is where I really learned my foundation. Moreover, I’m looking forward to writing a future post with some specific Facebook like campaign tips.

Tip 2: Gain Facebook Fans With Fiverr

Have you heard of Fiverr? It’s basically a site where you can get almost anything done for only $5. One thing that a lot of Fiverr sellers can help you with is gaining more Facebook fans. It’s quite simple: You pay them $5 and they will recommend your Facebook Fan Page to all their friends. Some Fiverr sellers have as many as 13,000 friends that they’ll recommend your page to. It really comes down here to the power of personal endorsement. When someone recommends you to their friends, you can often get tremendous results.

Another benefit of Fiverr is the price. When only $5 is on the line, you only need 2.5 followers to break even with the results of a typical paid like campaign. That said, I’ll be honest here and would like to point two things out. First, results will vary by seller. Some sellers will deliver very little to no value. Others will totally hit the ball out of the park. It’s up to you to experiment with multiple sellers. Second, please keep in mind that followers you get via this method are less likely be be high quality followers that will interact with your page. But, you never know! I personally use this strategy to complement the paid strategy (but definitely not as a replacement).

Tip 3: Optimize The Conversion Rate of Your Facebook Fan Page

As my final tip today, I highly recommend spending a few hours and building a custom banner for your Facebook Fan Page. This is super easy. The maximum size of your profile image is 200×600. Leverage all that space and build an image that includes your logo, a picture of yourself, information about your social media profiles, and even some info that entices the user to like your page. If you’re going to so much effort to dive traffic to your Fan Page (especially via a paid campaign), it’s essential to have a professional looking page with a high like conversion rate. If you check out my personal Facebook Fan Page, you’ll see my 200×600 banner.

As a bonus tip: You can even create a landing page on your Facebook Fan Page that further entices users to click the like button. I haven’t done this just yet because I really like my wall being the landing page. So, there you have it! Now, it’s time to go out there and get 1,000 or more fans!

YouTube Channels Offer Great SEO Value

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 6 11

When it comes to optimizing your website’s organic ranking, quality dofollow inbound links are of paramount importance. It makes perfect sense: Each inbound link counts as a “vote” for your site in the eyes of the search engines. I’ve gone to great lengths building inbound links for PPC Ian. My three tiered approach focuses on PR that drives SEO, guest interviews, and social media profiles. Today, I’m going to talk about one of the top social media profile opportunities: YouTube. In short, it’s mandatory to have a YouTube channel for each and every one of your websites, even if it’s a five page minisite.

Get Your Free YouTube Link

Check out the screen shot of my PPC Ian YouTube channel to the right. As you can see, the profile section has a link to my blog. When you view the source code of my YouTube channel you can actually see that it’s a real dofollow link. In my opinion, this is a really valuable link because it’s coming from one of the most popular websites on the Internet, one that’s owned by Google. Of course, as you build out your YouTube channel and your videos get a lot of views, your link will carry even more weight. In an environment where it’s sometimes difficult to get high quality inbound links, this is truly an opportunity you cannot pass by!

Build Out YouTube Channels For All Your Websites

I currently own over 80 active web properties. They range from large authority sites, like PPC Ian, to small five page minisites. If you’re operating an authority website, you’ve probably already have a YouTube channel. (If you don’t, drop everything and go start one now!) However, I’m here today to argue that you should create YouTube channels even for your smaller sites. Even if your site is only five pages, this is an amazing way to market your website while driving SEO value.

How To Scale Your Time With Multiple YouTube Channels

If you have a YouTube channel, you probably know just how much time it takes to shoot, produce, and upload videos! It’s really time consuming. So, you might be a little intimidated to create YouTube channels for all of your long tail websites. It’s actually easier than you may think thanks to a new website called Fiverr.

Fiverr is basically a marketplace where you can get anything done for $5. Many sellers on Fiverr are amazing at quality, entertaining video. (Some are also really low quality so you’ll want to run a few tests to find the best people to work with.) I’ve personally leveraged Fiverr extensively for video introductions and testimonials for my SEO websites. If it’s not one of my core properties, I go to Fiverr to get videos so I’m able to create a YouTube channel while saving my personal time for my larger websites.

With SEO, It’s Always Important To Think About Quality

Now, you may be thinking: Why don’t I just create a YouTube channel without any videos? While this is possible, I don’t recommend it. Just think about it, what’s a channel with no videos? It really adds no value. I’m all about avoiding stuff that adds no value because it will always catch up with you (and I’m all about doing the right thing). If you’re going to create a YouTube channel, make it something useful. With Fiverr you can build out a high quality YouTube channel with a great video for only $5 and about 1/2 hour of your time.

As a closing tip, I also encourage you to embed your videos on your sites. Video adds substantial value to any website. Search engines like websites that have videos!

Google AdWords Testing New Ad Formats

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 3 8

I love Google! How couldn’t I? AdWords has fueled my online marketing career. Another reason I’m a huge fan, however, has nothing to do with my personal online marketing career. It’s really just the simple fact that I love innovation and Google keeps innovating. Back in August, Google really started innovating with their new AdSense formats. I’m an AdSense publisher and my personal earnings improved handsomely as a result of the new AdSense formats. Just recently, I’ve seen some major tests in the AdWords landscape as well! In short, Google is testing a new AdWords format where D1 is in the title, if you’re a top bar advertiser. This test could have some really big implications on large paid search advertisers!

Your AdWords D1 Is Now In the Title

Check out the screenshot below. In the amazingly competitive auto insurance industry, you’ll see that D1 is now part of the title for the top three top bar advertisers. This is really interesting because it’s all about the title. When it comes to paid search ad copy, the title is your single biggest leverage point. Adding more real estate to the title adds a new world of opportunity for AdWords advertisers and is likely to improve CTR quite a bit.

So what can you do? Keep a close eye on your campaigns. Right now, it appears Google is just testing this new format on a very small percentage of their traffic. I only get it once in a while. However, if this new format starts spreading, you may want to re-think your ad copy strategy to further optimize your new mega titles! Also, you’ll want to prepare yourself for a large potential influx of paid search clicks.

I Made It To The Affiliate Top 50

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 2 15

I just learned earlier today that I made it to the Affiliate Top 50. What’s the Affiliate Top 50? It’s an exciting list of the top 50 blogs on the Internet about affiliate marketing and making money online. This list includes the really big names in affiliate marketing such as Shoemoney and John Chow. (As a side note, you may wish to check out my review of John Chow’s book.) It’s a true honor to be on this list (I’m #35), and I truly thank you for your support in reading my blog!

How Is The Affiliate Top 50 Calculated?

So how is the Affiliate Top 50 determined? This list looks at a variety of factors including your Google page rank, Yahoo site explorer inbound links, and Alexa score. Then, it puts these factors into an algorithm and calculates an overall score for each blog. That overall score then determines the order of the list.

As you may know, Google recently updated page rank. My page rank is now 4 and I’m sure this factor certainly helped placing PPC Ian on the list. One thing I also noticed is my Alexa score has room for further improvement (at 208,255). I’m expecting an improvement over time as more people visit my blog. Moreover, I’m considering placing an Alexa badge on my blog, something that would certainly improve my Alexa score, but not sure yet because I also like my clean blog design.

I’m super excited about my inclusion in the Affiliate Top 50. It’s not only an honor, but it’s also great PR. PPC Ian has been getting some great PR lately and I’m a big believer in PR driving great SEO results. Thanks everyone for your support!