How Contextual Advertising Works

As you read this post, you will truly appreciate the power of contextual advertising. Right now your focus is within the text of this article, and should there be any links within this text, they would be much more likely to grab your attention versus any banners or text links outside of the main content. The concept of contextual advertising is to create text advertising links within your content, which means they are right in the face of your readers, but also relevant at the same time.

Think about the success Google Adsense has had over the years, but instead of taking up the big banner ad space that Adsense requires, contextual advertising is placed within your content, allowing site owners to maximize their site space. When someone clicks on a banner or link from Google Adsense, the visitor will leave your web site. This is not true with contextual advertising, as the link will usually spawn in a new window. Which not only means you will keep your current site visitors at your site, but you will also be making additional revenue at the same time.

Just like Google Adsense, most contextual advertising networks will pay their site partners on a cpc (cost per click) basis. Some networks also back out their earnings on a commission basis, but in the end, you still see a cpc average in your earnings report.

While all of this may sound amazing and complex (and it is…), it’s actually quite easy for any web site or blog to get setup and running with contextual advertising. Many of the contextual networks will provide you with a simple line of code that you can add to your web site, or a nice wordpress plugin for any blog owners. You will also have access to a wide selection of options which include changing contextual links colors, underlining, how many links to display, and more. This way you don’t have to worry about people confusing regular site links versus contextual ad links.

What Sites Will Contextual Advertising Work on Best?

As much as I would like to say contextual advertising solutions will flood your pockets with a nice monthly recurring income, that simply isn’t the case. Depending on the type of web site and visitors you have, you will see a big difference in click through rates and earnings. Here are three examples:

• An education or technology web site will earn more revenue per click with contextual advertising, versus a recipe or cooking based web site. This is simply due to the fact that education and technology advertisements are higher end and they are spending a lot more money per click.
• A web site or blog with a webmaster or internet marketing audience will most likely experience a much lower click through rate, as the readers are already familiar with how advertising works on web sites, and will know a contextual link versus a regular link.
• Review, resource and shopping web sites will experience the highest click through rates and overall ecpm earnings, simply because the visitors to these web sites are already in a buying and researching mode. These site visitors are looking for relevant links and looking to click.

What is INTENTclick, and Why Do They Matter?

Now that you have a good understanding on what contextual advertising is, and how it may work with your web site traffic, let’s get back to INTENTclick and how they can improve the revenue generation on your web site.

If you asked a bunch of online marketers bout contextual advertising, many of them would probably be familiar with the name “Kontera“. INTENTclick is actually an exclusive performance network driven by the Kontera brand network. Kontera has established themselves as one of the premier advertising companies online, and have exposure across millions of web sites, many of which you already know.

So why does INTENTclick matter and how are they any different from Kontera?

If you’ve ever worked with Kontera or contextual advertising, you already know how their content based advertising works. INTENTclick is run off that same concept, except they are focused on higher end advertisers and content rich web sites that can drive high volume and results. If you’ve ever found success with contextual advertising or simply looking for a new revenue source for your web site or blog, you will want to give INTENTclick a try.

As the owner of a web site or blog, it’s not only important to know what your audience is looking for, but also how you can make the most money out of your traffic, while also providing quality content. Let’s take a look at three different ways to generate revenue from your site, while also providing value to your readers.

Recommended Products & Services

When you are a big fan of a blog or web site, personal recommendations go a long way. Using this blog as an example, I’ve used Neverblue for many years now, and through my recommendations on this site, I’ve been able to refer them over $2 million in new business from affiliates. In addition to making mentioned of their ad network here and there, I’ve also written tutorials on how to setup search and ad campaigns using their network offers. Instead of creating a product and charging a cost for this information, I simply used a referral link to Neverblue and would get a commission on all referred affiliates. This not only provides useful and free content to my readers, but also provides a value in the time it takes me to create the content.

In-Content Contextual Advertising

I’ve been playing around with INTENTClick contextual advertising on a few web sites over the past couple weeks. Contextual advertising is quite interesting. From a webmaster and internet marketing stand point, we already know what these links and advertisements look like, so we are more likely to avoid clicking on these links… however, on an information or review based web site, people love these links and find them very useful.

Here are some quick stats from my experience with testing INTENTClick contextual ad links. The first set of stats is from a pet web site that is mainly on coupons and pet health. People are coming to this site and looking for good information on their pets and how to save money in the process.

The second set of stats below is from a webmaster / blogging type site, which the users of the site are more inclined to know about advertising methods and are probably less likely to click on links that may look like ads. Between the two ads/sites, notice the difference in CTR and eCPM.

Depending on your type of web site, contextual advertising can work very well for your site. You will likely earn a lot more money with an information, product/services or review type site versus a  webmaster/blogging related site. Since contextual advertising doesn’t take up any extra web space on your site, it’s becoming an extra and preferred source of revenue for many sites.

Personal Products and Consulting Services

This last point is more for established blogs and brands versus a regular web site. When people are coming to a blog to read what someone has to say, or learn from them, they are truly interested and passionate about the topic and person running the web site. It takes a lot of time and trust to build up a loyal following, which eventually turns into a “brand”. Through that branding, you can then brand out and start creating your own high end products and consulting services. Since the blog is all about you and what you do, there is nothing wrong with offering your services and products through out the site, an your visitors will actually be more interested in your actual promotions, then seeing you promote/offer someone else’s services.

Clean Site with a Monetized Mailing List

Through the use of mailing list services like Aweber, some web sites have made it their goal to build up a massive mailing list, which is where they focus all of their monetization in. It’s a great plan and it works really well. One example is to pump out really great content on a clean web site, then offer an exclusive offer or follow up email course. The goal here is to keep the focus directly on your content, and getting the user to subscribe to your mailing list. It’s much easier to continually stay in contact and convert a mailing list subscriber into a lead, then a one time visitor to your web site. Through a mailing list, you can also create an autoresponder series that will do all of the work for you, while you just focus on getting new traffic and subscribers through your site.

Finding the Right Revenue Model for Your Web Site

Just like all web sites are not the same, neither are the ways we generate traffic with our sites. From Amazon’s associate program, to Google Adsense to Contextual Advertising using yourself as a person brand, your options for generating revenue are limitless. The mindset you should have, is to continually try different methods and see what works best for you, while also keeping your user experience in mind.

The party will take place at the Xtreme Couture MMA with Randy Couture on Monday, January 9, 2012 from 10:00pm until 3:00am.

The RSVP process for the party has just opened up, so make sure you get on the list asap!

In addition to getting access to some premium fights and rubbing shoulders with Randy Couture, you will also be in good company along side some of the best marketers in the game. Through ClickBooth and their awesome line up of sponsors (including myself), you can expect to leave the party not only with killer entertainment, but also some new business contacts and deals to fatten your wallet during the new year!

Join in on the action at the Affiliate Fight Night Facebook Fan Page and RSVP now!

Prosperity is not a commodity.  Unlike a bag of cash or a bar of gold, you can’t physically touch prosperity, and certainly no one can give it to you.  But that doesn’t mean nobody can help.  Bishop Jordan has been teaching people how to become prosperous for over 30 years.  The teachings of Bishop Jordan are based on the fact that success is divinely ordained for us all: God does not want his people to suffer.  He wants us to be prosperous.  And Bishop Jordan believes that anyone can prosper, as long as we live in accordance with the divine will for prosperity.

Discovering ones personal path to prosperity is easier said than done.  Luckily, the teachings of Bishop Jordan are available to help guide us down the right path.  Bishop Jordan holds a Ph.D. in religious studies and has offered his guidance and expertise to several heads of state and powerful economic leaders.

As the author of over 60 books, some of which are best-sellers, and the host of a national television show, Bishop Jordan is well qualified to teach people all they need to know about how to flourish in today’s world.  Over the years, the man has amassed an enormous following of devoted students and listeners, all of whom would gladly attest to the life-transforming truths behind Bishop Jordan’s lectures.

Occasionally life will throw you curve balls.  Problems with your spouse or child can have a serious affect on one’s well being.  Strains and stressors such as these can have a negative effect on one’s financial security.  Bishop Jordan teaches that prosperity does not exist in a vacuum.

Although it’s said that family and blood don’t mix, the two are undeniably intertwined.  But when we synergize our perspectives on family and business, and work to correct all previous mistakes, we can obtain a level of success that was unimaginable beforehand.  Prosperity is yours for the taking; you just need to know where to look.

This guest article was a paid advertisement and written by Lindsay Nave.

Think about it for a second… is there anyone from your past, maybe a client, friend or even someone who is jealous of your success, that could potentially damage your name or brand online? In the end, all it really takes it a few high end and well established web sites to start posting negative reviews and content, that can rank really high in the search results and do some damage.

So what can you do?

That’s where reputation management comes in. With the usage and power of the internet growing larger and larger every day, it’s more important for every day small businesses and even Fortune 500 companies, to make sure they have a great reputation online. Through the use of reputation management services, anyone can help improve their reputation online, and lower any fake or negative comments/articles out there about their company.

How does reputation management work?

Let’s take a look at a case study of how Reputation Changer, one of the top reputation management firms out there works, and how they are helping their clients deal with reputation issues.

Case Study: UWC Corp received malicious listings online that were showing up under their company name: UWCCorp.com. In less than 6 weeks, Reputation Changer completely surpressed those listings from page 1 of Google and repopulated new / positive listings. With a brand new, very positive online reputation, UWCCorp.com saw an immediate spike in revenue.

A few weeks later, UWCCorp.com started to see an improvement in their search results, with more and more new and positive articles taking over the negative listings and pushing them down off the first page of Google.

You can take a look at the full slide show process and see a bi-weekly breakdown of how Reputation Changer dominated the first page of results for UWCCorp.com.

Improving Online Reputation through Google Suggests

While the majority of searching done online is through Google and looking directly for a company or brand name, have you ever thought about how much of an influence “Google Suggest” comes into play? When you start typing a search phrase into Google, it will start to suggest other alternatives or variations of what you might want to search for.

Another case study and winning example from Reputation Changer, is how they helped improved Michael Vick’s reputation through Google Suggest, which you can see in the screenshot below.

Have you ever taken the time to see what Google Suggest comes up with when someone is searching for your personal or business name?

Do Reputation Management Services Work?

Now that you have an idea how reputation management services can improve rankings, search results and how people can search for relevant information on a company, the best question to ask is “Do reputation management services really work?“. As you can see from the case studies mentioned above, they clearly do work, as the average person is most likely going to look through the first page of results to make a quick decision on whether or not they want to use a recommended service or company.

The business of reputation management is growing daily, and even Business Week has written a full article on the topic. In the article, a few interesting points mentioned where that there has been an explosive increase in reputation management over the past couple of years due to social media and the amplified voices of individual internet users. It was also mentioned that typical costs for a small online company, can range from $1,000 to several thousands of dollars a month for search engine related reputation management.

What’s Your Online Reputation?

When is the last time you took some time to really look into your search results and see what other people are saying about your name or brand online? Reputation Changer focuses exclusively on managing the reputations of Celebrities, Professional Athletes, Brands, High Profile Individuals, and Fortune 500 Brands.

If you would like to see how Reputation Changer can improve your image online, please feel free to contact them and see what they can do for you. Mention ZacJohnson.com and you will save an instant 10% off your reputation improvement package.

How many times have you gone to conference even and collected a ton of business cards, then look through them when you get home and find that most of them are boring and only a couple actually stand out? Wouldn’t you like to be one of those cards that stands out? Of course you would!

Through a special promotion with UPrinting.com, we are giving away a free set of die-cut business card designs. The winner will get a chance to upload their own existing business card design and have them printed out on high quality die-cut business cards, or can create their own cards from scratch using the UPrinting designing platform.

How to Enter to Win Your Own Die-Cut Business Cards

I wanted to make this contest ridiculously easy for anyone to will, so all you have to do is leave a comment on this post, along with your idea on what makes a killer business card. One winner will randomly be selected on January 15th, and they will receive the business card package below.

Also, be sure to “Like” UPrinting.com o Facebook and you will be entered to win one of 3 iPod Touches and an iPad 2! Winners are chosen weekly.

Prize Details:

- 250 pcs Die Cut Business Card Printing for one(1) winner

Sizes to choose from:
2 x 3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×2″ Rounded Corners, 1.75×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×3.5″ Leaf, 2×3.5
Rounded one corner, 2×3.5″ Half Circle Side, 2×3.5″ Oval, 2.5″ Circle

Paper to choose from:
14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated,
6 Business Days Turnaround *Free shipping

In addition to business cards, UPrinting provides a ton of other online printing services. Be sure to check out their web site if you are looking to have any printing and design services done.

It is important to understand the players in the game of affiliate marketing.  There are four at the forefront of the game: the merchant, the network, the publisher and the customer.  The merchant is the retailer or the brand, the one who presents the product.  The network deals with the payments and is the pool of options for the affiliate.  The publisher is the affiliate, and the customer is the consumer.  Capital Online Revenue can help you be an effective publisher.  You want your message or product to get out there, and that is where affiliate marketing and Capital Online Revenue can help.

Affiliate marketing can be put into play on many different kinds of website.  The most common form of affiliate marketing is the pay-per-click method.  Pay-per-click drives traffic towards websites.  Advertisers pay the publisher or website owner when an ad is clicked.  Through Capital Online Revenue, you are that publisher or website owner.  You can make money through people clicking on advertisements on your website.

A step towards success with affiliate marketing is joining an affiliate network.  The network controls the relationship between the merchant and the affiliates or associates.  The affiliate network locates affiliates, gets new advertisers on board, and takes care of payments.  The affiliate network takes care of a lot of the behind-the-scenes business.  The networks act as a middleman and take a lot of the work off the shoulders of both merchants and affiliates.  Researching is important in helping you find an affiliate network that you can trust.

Capital Online Revenue can help you get started with affiliate marketing.  Capital Online Revenue can set you up with that middleman between you (the website owner) and your market.  You can start making money through affiliate marketing while you sleep.  Understanding the game of affiliate marketing and getting website owners set up with the right network are key factors in successful affiliate marketing.

This guest post was written by Lindsey Miller, a lively free-spirit who loves to go out and experience life and then write about it.  She takes photographs frequently, listens to music constantly, and bikes aimless hours around Philadelphia—sometimes all at the same time.  Lindsey is truly fascinated by human beings and the relationships they have with one another.  All she really wants to do is travel the world… and write about it.

In what other industry can self made millionaires, nerds, gurus and everyone alike mingle with the likes of Randy Couture and have one of the best networks around flip the bill for it! Simply priceless!

Here’s everything you need to know.

Monday, January 9, 2012 / Time 10:00pm until 3:00am

• Affiliate Fight Night at Xtreme Couture MMA with Randy Couture
• Live Fights!
• Meet UFC Champions
• VIP Open Bar-Go Go Dancers
• Hot DJ
• *Transportation provided to and from!

Join in on the action at the Affiliate Fight Night Facebook Fan Page!

Let’s look at three different ways you can start increasing the quality of your click throughs and leads generated.

Stop Trying to Trick the User

Remember those banners that would flash non stop and say that you were the millionth visitor and were awarded a prize? Those banners were doing exactly the opposite of what we are talking about here. They were going after as much traffic as they could possibly get, then sending their visitors to an email/zip submit type of offer. The data provided usually has a very fast turn over rate, and is sold to multiple media/ad buyers.

Instead of trying to trick your audience into clicking on a link, think about the ways that you can relate to your audience and make them want to convert. While an insane blinking banner may bring in a lot of clicks, the conversions might be terrible. Spend more time on targeting the right audience and giving them banners they want to see and can relate to. Your cost per click may be higher, but you will also see higher conversions and provide the end advertiser with better quality leads.

Make the User WANT to Click

One of the best ways to find an audience of people who are anxious to click on your little blue text links, is to provide them with exactly what they are looking for. Let’s take review and coupon sites for example. How many times were you searching for a product or service to buy, and you were just looking for the right review or coupon code? Once you found the information you were looking for, you would gladly click on a link in their web site to go forward with the sale or purchase.

This is exactly why coupon and review sites do so well. When is the last time you did a search for “web hosting reviews” on Google? The web sites paying to rank for these terms are paying a lot of money for where they rank, but all of the traffic to these sites are high quality. Sure, the site owners are probably getting $100+ in commissions per sale, but they know they can convert their traffic because they are providing exactly what their site visitors are looking for.

Pre-Sell Your Audience: Withholding the Click!

Another excellent example of getting high quality click throughs is through the use of video marketing. We can relate to this method all too well. How many times have you received an email from another guru/marketer, and you have to wait and watch their annoying video before being able to click to the next page and/or place your order?

It’s annoying, but it works! By making the viewer not be able to click away from the page, it’s actually making them listen and watch your video, with is continually selling them on the dreams of what their product can do for you… further increasing the chances they will stick around and buy once that final “Click Here to Purchase” link becomes available.

What Type of Traffic Are Your Providing?

Don’t get me wrong, there will always be a market and business of cheap, dirty and crap leads… but when you are looking for long term and high end commissions, lead quality is where your focus should be. When promoting any ad campaign and pushing volume, it’s important to keep in touch with your ad network or the advertiser directly. If you are pushing quality leads that continue to convert on their backend, they will gladly send a few more dollars your way to increase the volume and reward you for your efforts!

For years companies have tried to create a platform that could easily be sent through email, without the hassles of getting blocked by filters, while also making it a big frustration for the email users to send/receive mail. WRAP Mail is that solution.

The best way to explain what WRAP Mail can do for your business and branding, is to show you. You can visit the WRAP Mail web site and watch the short video on their web site, which is quick and fun, but also shows you how easy WRAP mail is to use, and how it works.

In short, WRAP Mail…

• Turn every day emails into brand marketing
• Wraps your emails with a unique interactive letterhead
• Shows your email recipient your regular text email, with a great design
• Reports to you “Click Alerts”, which tells you who is where on your web site.
• Provides benefits for any type of  business, web site or personal use

Driving New Sales & Customers with Daily Emails

Now as I mentioned earlier, the average employee sends 38 emails a day… If you only send around 27 emails a day, that’s still over 10,000 emails a year! Using a system like Wrap Mail can dramatically increase your business by putting your brand and advertising right in the face of your customers. If you were to only convert 1% of the people reading your email, with the additional branding and links within your wrapped email, that’s an extra 100 leads. Depending on your sales or lead generation, this could actually be much higher.

What Will Your Wrapped Mail Look Like?

After talking with Rolv from WRAP Mail and looking through the different options and services they offer, it’s quite a great looking program. Nearly any web site or business can customize their emails with a wrap that represents the look and feel of their business, while also increasing the bottom line.

The Wrap Mail design team can built a customized look for your web site or business. Just take a look at some of the custom designs posted on their site from current customers.

Yes, You Can Even Earn Money with WRAP Mail Too!

With such a unique and fun service, you would think there would be an ad serving network attached to it, right? Well, there is! WRAP Mail is in the process of rolling out their new advertising program, where clients can earn money for users to get paid when people click on their links and complete offers or decide to sign up for a product. This platform will be similar with Google Adsense, in that the users of WRAP Mail can opt-in to receive a pay per click rate based on their recipients clicking on advertisements placed within their email wrapping. Since many people are using WRAP Mail as a personal choice and looking to customize their email, and not specifically promote their own business or web site, this introduces a whole new world when it comes to emailing. You can read their latest press release on this announcement here.

What Does it Cost, and How to Get Started?

Surprisingly, WRAP Mail PRO is free for companies and individuals looking to use their services, as long as they are less than 100 employees. It’s easy to signup, all you need to do is fill out a short form and you will get started immediately. If you would like to set your 100+ employee company up with an account and custom email design, simply contact WRAP Mail directly.