Internet Marketing Blog

Content Promotion: Google vs Social Media

Google vs social

Social media has long been talked about in the Internet marketing world as the ultimate replacement for Google and I was somewhat skeptical about it in the early days. However, today as Google has become arguably the most involved and expensive promotion medium and social has become mainstream globally, it makes sense that we start looking at the latter with a lot of hope.

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What I’ve Learned in the Past 6 Months from Buying Websites

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, so I figure it’s about time I break the silence and spill some beans. For the past 6 months I’ve been focusing mostly on buying new websites to add to my portfolio, later updating them with new content. There’s a lot to learn from acquiring established websites in very different niches from very different owners.

As I’ve been buying websites from Flippa keeping it very safe, I haven’t bought any duds (with an exception of one site that has died out after having a fair run) nor have I been cheated, so that’s a good thing. On the flip side (no pun intended) I’ve only been able to buy sites with traffic from Google and income from Adsense. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

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How Do Websites Make Money?

how websites make money

I’ve come across a presentation put together by Flippa with the last years (2012) website sales data. Even with the current year ending it’s very valuable information on how websites make money. Some of the most important takeaways from the presentation are the following.

The average site site earns $133/mo with a bit over of 2,000 monthly uniques, that is $0.04 per unique. The average sale was $493 at 8x monthly income multiple. This greatly varies based on the type of a website, but it gives us a pretty good rough baseline on what to expect any particular site to earn. And more importantly to check against your own portfolio of websites to see how they fair against this baseline and if there’s a possibility to improve. Because, hey, if your sites makes $0.01 per unique which is 4 times less than the average, maybe there’s unrealized potential to monetize better.

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How to Buy Your First Website

Flippa

It’s been a while since I’ve wrote anything here, mainly because I was busy with other projects, mostly buying websites. In the past I’ve pondered the idea of buying vs creating, and I’ve settled with creating at that particular moment. Things have changed, however, and as I’ve come up with a budget to buy, I began doing just that and I’ve been doing it for the past year or so.

In the process of buying several websites, I’ve had my share of ups and downs. Some purchases were duds, some were ok, and some were little gems. It has led to the process of how I evaluate sites to minimize the risk of buying a dud or being cheated. This process is very conservative as far as risk goes so I think it’s very well suited for beginner buyers.

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Why You Should Stop Relying on Google

It’s time to forget the notion of starting a website by ranking it on Google once and for all. For years this method used to be the golden goose for Internet marketers. You throw together a site, not necessarily a good one, point some links its way using a desired anchor text and voilà, you have a ranking site that gets traffic and makes money.

Over the past year Google has fought a fierce battle against this manipulation, not without collateral damage of completely genuine sites getting hit. It’s become increasingly complicated to rank a new site, much less maintain a ranking for a length of time.

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More Google Update Horrors

In yesterdays post on Webmaster Central Blog Google has announced yet more updates to their SE algo which would affect 3.1% of English queries (as well as queries in other languages). The update targets backlink schemes, keyword stuffing and other signals Google didn’t divulge in the post.

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Build or Buy a Website?

I like building websites and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few years. However, lately I’ve been wondering whether building is the best strategy especially when the website buying/selling market is growing so fast and is more and more vibrant. It takes a lot of time and money to create a good website and most of the time it’s not the next big thing I’m pursuing, it’s the proven models that have been done and tried. Therefore, it is likely that the kind of a website I’m building is somewhere on sale. In fact, it’s more than likely since I use Flippa to find proven website ideas.

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A Warning About Instant Commission Affilliate Programs

They’re not new, you’ve probably heard about them and their virtues. You get 100% commissions of the front-end product sale straight to your PayPal account. What could be better? But things aren’t so pretty if you consider what else you get with these programs.

Now, let me make this clear, I’ve nothing against the concept of instant commissions, but there are serious considerations to make and risks to evaluate before taking up on offers like this. It’s not all so great as your next “guru” claims to be.

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Boost Your Site’s Sales with Enhanced Security Measures and Suggestive Aesthetics

Optimizing your online store is key if you’re going to boost your sales. There are a number of ways you can do this, but most of the time the advice you get revolves around creating better copy or using psychological sales tactics. These are legitimate aspects to the process, but there are two areas that are often overlooked: enhanced security measures and suggestive aesthetics.

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The 5 Hottest Jobs in Internet Marketing

There are many Internet marketing jobs out there, and knowing how to specialize in this market is crucial. While there are firms that build links, do graphic design and analyze competition, most people and businesses are more willing to hire specialized workers that are best in their field. This list represents the five hottest Internet marketing jobs, and you should consider fitting your talents to one of these jobs.

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The Top 7 Affiliate Marketing Forums

Illustration: Forum

Illustration: Forum Affiliate marketing can be an exciting but daunting endeavor. It helps to be able to chat with people who have had success and know what you’re going through. Forums are a great place to learn something new and commiserate with fellow marketers. Below we compare seven of the most popular affiliate marketing forums. Most have similar topics in a broad sense, but the focus and tone of each forum varies. Registration for all the forums listed is free.

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Why I’ve Deleted 30,000 Leads

When you’re starting out in the Internet marketing, an often advice you hear is “build a list” and “money is in the list”. I have too and I’ve followed the advice, I’ve signed up with Aweber and started building lists. I’ve amassed quite a list of subscribers at over 30,000 over the years. And yesterday I’ve deleted them all and canceled my Aweber account.

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The How & Why of Multilingual Keyword Research

Mastering a website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is no mean feat. With Google, and many other search engines, regularly changing their search algorithms, establishing the right keywords to attract the right netizens can seem near on impossible.

Or is it? If you’re looking to expand into multilingual websites, you’re already onto a winner. The foreign language Internet is not as content saturated as the English web, giving your website less competition per product and more potential to be found in searches. By investing time in multilingual keyword research and making a few small tweaks to your website content, you can unlock that elusive SEO ranking and attract more of the right customer traffic.

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Tips for a Newbie Online

Starting out online can be a daunting task. It seems like everywhere you look there is someone waiting there to show you how to make millions with their latest software Gismo or push button machine that is supposed to generate millions over night. It can be hard to know who to believe and you can be scammed over and over again if you do not know what you are doing.

The following tips are designed to make things easier for you if you are a newbie just starting out online at the moment.

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Marketing Ideas