Tag Archives: google

Epic Fail! Google Deindexed Me

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I went to check on my Google Analytics stats last week to discover that my traffic had completely stopped. As in, there was NOBODY coming to the site. I know I haven’t posted much lately, but that seemed a little odd. I normally get at least 1500 visitors a month just from Google sending traffic to my old posts. So I did some more digging and discovered that around the end of June, my traffic took a nosedive and never came back.

Analytics Nosedive

I logged into Webmaster Tools, and found that my site mysteriously stopped getting crawled. Then came a couple of hours of wandering around forums and blog posts trying to figure out what happened. Something was blocking Googlebot from verifying my site, but what?

In the end, it was an issue with my .htaccess file. During some site speed optimizations, I inadvertently blocked all traffic from Google’s servers. Oops! That was a huge mistake… I’ve resubmitted my site to Google, updated my sitemap, and am waiting for the traffic to come back now. The moral of the story is, if you are working on your .htaccess file, be sure you know what you are doing!

 

Why Landing Page Loading Time Matters To Affiliates

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This is a guest-post written by Kate Carpenter, the lead designer over at the web-oriented design and development studio, Fireworksable.

What are page loading times?

I assume that simply by reading the phrase “page loading times” most of you understand what it means, but for those who don’t I’ll elaborate:

The page loading time is the time it takes for a web page to complete loading of that it’s content in a visitor’s browser. The time it takes to load a page increases as the file-size’s of the it’s content increases.

Making sure that page loading times are optimized should be a key concern of developers, however when you hire a cheap freelancer from Digital Point or Elance to put together your landing page or website, it’s often not taken into account, ultimately at your own cost.

 

So, why exactly do page loading times matter to me as an affiliate?

 

If you don’t take into account how fast your page loads, chances are you’ll experience a higher bounce-rate and lower conversion-rate than you would had you optimized properly, due to:

Impatient visitors, which tend to make up the majority of us.

In this day and age, we’re used to getting stuff done very fast. That’s why when we visit a web page that appears to load slowly, even if it’s just by that tiny little bit, we’re very much inclined to hit the back-button.

Google and it’s various algorithms.

Google search now takes into account the loading time of a page when ranking pages, so if you get a lot of visitors from organic search, you could see your primary source of traffic start to slip away.

It also plays a part of your “Quality Score” if you’re using Google AdWords as an advertising platform to run PPC campaigns (NB: I think I read it only effects the search network and not the display network, but I’m not entirely sure).

What can I do to improve my page’s loading time?

 

Here’s two things you can do to improve the loading time of your web pages pretty significantly without diving too much into the technical side:

Compressing those images of yours.

 

Images are by far the biggest contributor an increased page loading time, as they tend to make up the majority of a page’s content in terms of file-size. Compressing an image allows you to remove unnecessary little bits of data from it, and reducing it’s file-size.

For the average affiliate whose not too technical, the best way to compress images is by using Yahoo!’s SmushIt, image compressor.

“Minifying” any JavaScript you’ve got.

 

Often JavaScript files can contain additional comments, white-spacing or code indentation that pumps up their file-size. Removing these additions is called “minifying”.

 

Again, for the average affiliate whose not too technical, a great way to “minify” JavaScript files is by using Google’s Closure Compiler.

 

Some final words on the subject of page loading times…

You can also calculate your page loading time on a scale of 1 – 100 by using Google Page Speed, as well as advice for improving loading time, specific to your page.

In all seriousness, I really recommend that you check out the resources I’ve mentioned in this guest-post, as it shouldn’t take you much longer than 10 or 15 minutes to compress your images and “minify” your JavaScript, and while the impact won’t be a 200% increase in conversions, it will certainly be worth far more than the time spent doing it.

To Direct Link or Not To Direct Link?

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It’s one of the oldest questions in Affiliate Marketing: to direct link or not to direct link? Google made their stance on the issue pretty clear when they all but banned direct linking on AdWords. Now they don’t even like so-called “bridge pages” which lead to affiliate offers with little content on them.

But still, traffic sources such as Facebook and PPV still allow for direct linking. I get asked almost every single day whether you should direct link a campaign or create a landing page for it. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast answer. The truth is (and has always been) that some campaigns work better direct linked and some work better with landing pages. Neither method works better all of the time. You need to test it out.

That being said, a strategy that I have seen work well for affiliates is to direct link a campaign to quickly evaluate whether or not it has potential before they go to the trouble of building out a landing page. Especially if it is in a brand new niche that you have not promoted before, where you don’t have any creatives or landers sitting around ready to be used.

It’s easy to throw together a direct link campaign on PPV or Facebook. Run some traffic to it, and if you are getting enough conversions to break even, or even just under, it’s a good sign that the offer has some life to it. That’s when you can buckle down and put together a landing page to bring the ROI into the black and start making money.

 

5 Things I Love About PPV

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After I wrote my post called 5 Things I Hate About PPV, some people asked me to write about what I love about it. So here it goes.

1. You Can Bid On Anything

Any keyword or website that exists, you can bid on it. There is no other traffic source that allows you this type of freedom. For example, if you want to advertise on Wikipedia.org, you can. There’s no ads on it, so you can’t buy media on it and Google can’t serve AdSense on it. The only way to do it is with PPV. This allows you to get really creative and think outside the box with your campaigns to break away from the pack.

2. There Is Less Competition

Even though PPV has been one of the most talked-about and blogged-about traffic sources of the last couple of years, there are still far fewer advertisers utilizing it than PPC or traditional Media Buys. Less competition means more inventory and lower bid prices for the rest of us.

3. You Can Direct Link All You Want

Direct Linking has been all but impossible on Google for a long time now. This makes it hard to throw up a quick test campaign and see how an offer will convert. Even though usually Landing Pages beat out Direct Linking in the long run, it is definitely nice to have the option. I always split test a Direct Link versus a Landing Page to see what does better for each offer. You can never be sure until you try it.

4. Incredible Freedom With Your Ads & Creatives

It is super easy to get your ads approved. The only reason they disapprove ads is if they have prohibited content (see the Terms for your PPV network). There are no character limits, or size limits on images (other than the size of the entire browser window that pops). This means you can do things you can’t do on any other traffic source. On Google or Facebook you are limited to a short headline, a short description, and a tiny image (on FB). With PPV you can make the entire ad a big image with all the words you want on it and make the whole thing clickable. You can also add audio and video, which is unique to PPV as well.

5. There Are Less Copycat Advertisers

Even though there are now tools available that let you spy on some PPV campaigns, there is still way less copycatting going on than on practically any other traffic source. On Google, Facebook, Plenty of Fish, or anything else I can think of, you can just go to the site and see the ads that other people are running. This is why dating ads are so often copied on Facebook and then re-submitted ad infinitum (see what I did there?). It is still quite difficult to systematically spy on PPV campaigns, and you will have things run for much longer without getting copied.

PPC Is Dead, Long Live PPV

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It’s funny to see the different cycles that affiliate marketers go through when it comes to traffic sources. One thing will be hot for a while, then it’s dead and the next big thing is the only way to make money. As you know I personally love PPV and use it to promote things every day. But whatever happened to that old stalwart of traffic sources, PPC?

I work at an affiliate network, and I know from experience that there are very few affiliates running PPC these days. It’s true that Google hates affiliates, for the most part. They made it extremely hard for people to make money on their platform. There are some people running offers on Google, but certainly a lot less.

Steampunk iMac

This steampunk iMac has nothing to do with PPC or PPV. It's just awesome.

So why am I bringing this up? It may be time to take a second look at PPC (yes the title of this post is sarcastic). I’m not saying to drop PPV, but there is still lots of money to be made on Google and also Bing/Yahoo. These are some of the largest traffic sources in the world. Their sheer volume trumps all the PPV networks put together. It’s going to take more work. You will have to build quality landing pages and deal with the possibility of a Google slap. But for those who persevere, the rewards can be great.

Don’t count the PPC engines out. They aren’t down for the count just yet. While the majority of affiliates have moved on to greener easier pastures, that leaves a lot of inventory out there for the open-minded and experienced affiliate. Go get it.

Another Bevo Media Post

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In case you haven’t seen all the posts lately (like this one and this one) about Bevo Media, it is now publicly launched and ready for action.  It is a tracking platform for paid traffic, along the lines of Prosper202.  It does have a lot of nifty features that 202 doesn’t have, and they are putting some serious marketing muscle behind this release to make it a major player in the PPC / PPV / Media Buy tracking & analytics field.

Bevo Media was designed by Ryan Bukevicz and a team of programmers, and the finished product is definitely quite polished.  The interface is quite visually striking.  But looks aside, there are several things that set it apart from 202 and other competitors.  First of all, it has built-in support for the top CPA affiliate networks.  You just enter your login details and it will automatically pull the stats for you.  This is a massive time saver!  It also has built-in API support for the big 3 PPC engines.  This means that it will pull your click costs automatically as well.  That means no more logging in to your networks and search engines 10 times a day.  Bevo Media becomes your hub for everything.

Another cool feature that I’ve never seen before in a tracking system is the Classroom.  It has different articles, videos, and tools to help the newbie affiliate get their feet wet and make some money.  If you are already a successful affiliate, there’s probably nothing in here that will be new to you.  But if you are just starting out it’s definitely worth a look.

They have both an online hosted version (like Tracking202.com), and they also have an open source self-hosted version (like Prosper202).  They both look the same, and if you opt for the self-hosted version they have a very nifty tool that will automatically install and configure it on a Rackspace Cloud server for you.  For people that have never installed anything on web server before, this is a godsend.

So is Bevo Media better than Prosper202?  Ultimately that decision is going to be up to you.  202 has a lot of diehard fans, and it’s become the industry standard over the last couple of years.  That being said, I think for people running PPC traffic from the big 3 search engines, this is going to give them a huge advantage over the standard Prosper202 installation.  It’s more on par with Tracking 202 Pro, only it’s free.  Definitely give it a shot if you’ve got some time to test it out, and let me know what you think of it in the comments!

Demand Media Banks It Hard

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If you’ve ever searched Google for the answer to a practical question (and who doesn’t?), you have probably seen the website eHow.com.  It seems to appear on the first page of results for literally thousands of unique terms.  What you may not know is that the company behind eHow.com, Demand Media, has created a cash machine so big that Wall Street and even Google itself has taken notice.

Demand Media Banks It Hard

Essentially, Demand Media is a massive content creation company.  But instead of using employees to do the work, they outsource it all to freelancers.  Authors get paid a set price per article, and they are encourage to crank out several at a time with strict deadlines.  If you like writing but don’t have the time to create your own blog, this actually could be a nice way for you to make a little extra cash on the side.

I can’t help but be impressed by Demand Media and what they’ve done.  They took a simple concept that’s been around for ages, Article Marketing, and scaled it to an unimaginable degree.  The company is rumored to be worth around $1.5 Billion.  It will most likely be acquired by a major public company or have an IPO of its own in the near future.

The reason I felt this was worth a post is to remind all of us of the power of the internet and the opportunity that we have each and every day to get a piece of it.  Don’t get discouraged because you got in the game too late, there is so much money to be made out there.  The world hasn’t even begun to realize the changes that the internet has brought into our daily lives, and the more it gets integrated, the more opportunity there is for us to make money.

You don’t have to create something completely unique and original to make millions of dollars.  Just ask Google.  They certainly didn’t create the search engine, they just built a better one.  All you have to do is keep your eyes and ears open, and when you see something that could be done better or bigger or more profitable, do it!

Were MMORPGs The First Social Media Platform?

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For the uninitiated, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs for short) are a type of computer game that is played over the Internet with a large number of fellow players who take on character roles in a fantasy or science-fiction based universe.  The most well-known and commonly referenced MMORPG is Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, which has roughly 11.5 million players worldwide at last count. Each one of those players is paying $14.95 per month to Blizzard for the pleasure of continuing to play the game. Talk about the ultimate rebill, how would you like to have approximately $171,925,000.00 coming in to your company’s bank account each and every month? Granted, that is just revenue, not profit. Even so, revenue of over $2 billion per year is enough to make even Warren Buffett stand up and take notice. But I digress…

World of Warcraft vs FacebookEarlier today I was talking to an affiliate friend of mine and World of Warcraft came up. Being a recovering WoW addict myself, it got me thinking about the concept of why these games are so popular. The gameplay isn’t entirely original, they use the same basic mechanics of the Role Playing Games that have been a video gaming staple ever since the original Nintendo Entertainment System was released. It’s also not that they are the latest and greatest games out there. In fact, most of these games (including WoW) have been around for many years. It is certainly not the allure of the best graphics and technological breakthroughs that makes these games so addicting. So what is the secret sauce?

The social interaction.

It’s not the endless quests or the epic boss battles or even the pursuit of better and more powerful gear. The ability to spend time online engaging and interacting with your peers is what keeps people coming back. In fact, the effect of the social interaction in these games is what keeps people so glued to them that they forget to eat, sleep, or go to work. It’s not just a set of computer-manufactured goals that are in play, you are constantly seeking the approval of your fellow players. Since there are so many people playing online at the same time, there is no pause button. You can’t just walk away when the phone rings or when the pizza guy comes to the door, if you do that then your character will simply stand still in the online world and most likely will be killed and/or cause the deaths of everyone in your group.

My point is this: even though the world at large is just waking up to the wonders of “social media” and how much it transforms the lives of everyone that uses it, gamers have been experiencing and subscribing to the very same thing for years and years now. The first MMORPG was called Ultima Online, and it was released on September 25, 1997. The creator of Ultima Online, Richard Garriot, even coined the term MMORPG himself. The most amazing part about this pioneering game is that it is still active and running online today, almost 13 years later. I’m not sure how many of you remember the internet circa 1997, but there was no MySpace, no Facebook, and definitely no Twitter.

The funny thing about all this to me is that today we are seeing social media heading right back to where it started, with games. Just look at the success of Farmville and the other games being created and pushed on Facebook and beyond by companies like Zynga. You can’t even get a Slurpee at 7-Eleven right now without being bombarded with advertising for social games, and now that Google has invested some major capital into Zynga, we are only going to see these games evolving further and further into the mainstream.

So were MMORPGs the first social media platform? In my opinion the answer is clear.

AffExpert > AffPortal (A Review)

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AffPortal was the first “PPV Tools” website on the block.  It took a whole bunch of tasks that PPV marketers have to do on a regular basis, and made them faster and easier.  Things like URL scraping, etc.  Now that it’s been out for a while, a competitor has sprung up called AffExpert.  At first I was skeptical, because I am a huge fan of AffPortal.  But once I got the chance to dig in and use the tools during their free Beta period (which has expired), they won me over.

Most of the tools are self-explanatory by the title, but there are a couple of things that I really like about AffExpert’s system that make it unique:

  1. When you are scraping URLs, it automatically shows you the Alexa, and Quantcast rankings for all of them.  This is pretty cool because you can tell how much traffic a target is going to get before you even test it out on the PPV network.
  2. There is a really cool Basket system that you can save all the URLs to that you want to keep, and then download them all at once in one nice file.  This eliminates the all-too-common problem of duplicate URLs you get when you are scraping  through other methods, and it will also give you the option to add or remove the final slash (/) at the end of the URLs.  Since PPV networks like DirectCPV consider “domain.com” to be a different URL than “domain.com/”, this can be handy.
AffExpert URL Scraper

URL Scraper in action

Here are the PPV/CPV tools available:

  • Related Keywords
  • URL Scraper
  • Site Analytics (Alexa, Compete, Quantcast)
  • Domain Expander
  • Related Domains Finder
  • Top 1 Mil Domain Explorer
  • Domain Typos
  • URL Query Generator
  • YouTube Scraper
  • URL Follower

There are also some PPC tools:

  • Google Campaign Builder
  • Competition Spy
  • Adsense Finder
  • Keyword Grouper

There is also a self-hosted Weighted URL Rotator.  You can install this on your own server so you don’t have to worry about the data being snatched by somebody else (unless they have access to your server, and then you are just a moron).

I haven’t personally used the PPC tools much, so I can’t report on how they work.  That being said, it’s nice to get them for the one monthly fee, and if you are paying for another keyword tool that does the same thing, you can eliminate that extra expense and just use one tool set for everything.

All in all, I highly recommend AffExpert.  I use it personally on every PPV campaign I do, and it is a major time saver.  You can get a 7-day, fully functional trial for only $1, so what are you waiting for, give it a shot!

P.S.  Use promo code “BETAUSER” to get a discounted membership for life.