“But I don’t want people to leave my site or buy from other people” you might say.  Trust me. It’s not likely to happen.  Better yet, trust [...]]]> To use the jargon, are you monetizing your site?   The most common way to monetize a site is to use Google Adsense to show Google ads on your website.

“But I don’t want people to leave my site or buy from other people” you might say.  Trust me. It’s not likely to happen.  Better yet, trust all those big companies who show Google ads on their websites.

And once you’ve set up an Adsense program, you can specifically exclude certain websites from showing ads on your site.  So, you can “filter” out your competitors.

Google gives you lots of choice for the type of ads to show.  You can choose those little text lists that I’m sure you’ve seen, or you can show banner ads with images or just text.   If you look at www.reenactmenthq.com, you will see what I mean.  On some of those pages, I show a column of text ads and on others (or maybe on the same page), I might have a Google ad with images.

Now, unless your site gets millions of visitors, you aren’t likely to get rich from including Adsense ads on your website.  But if you could even earn $20/month (from people clicking on the ads) for the rest of your life – or your website’s life, and all you’ve invested is the time to set up the Adsense account and your time or mine adding the code to the website, isn’t that worth it?

I like revenue streams that I don’t have to worry about once they’re set up.

And if you’re still worried about losing sales, consider yourself as the typical website visitor.  If you go to a website to consider buying something, do those Google ads really distract you or stop you from buying.  In my experience, the answer is no.  Even if I see something that looks interesting and I click on it, it doesn’t stop me from buying what I originally came for.

If you’re a client and want me to help you with this, give me a holler

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2012/03/impact-of-organic-ranking-on-ad-click.html

The deadline for compliance is August 31, so if you have a lot of products, better get cracking!

So, word to the wise: If you want to change [...]]]> A client and I just found out the hard way that the PDShop cart has a 50 character limit in the Shipping Methods field. If you exceed that, it lets you and doesn’t tell you that customers will no longer be able to order.

So, word to the wise: If you want to change the default description, do so with care. Make sure your new description is under 50 characters, including any spaces.

Your website’s purpose is not to make you happy.   The goal of any commercial website is to get customers.   This is one of the hardest things I have to deal with in my business.

Clients have an idea or even a very specific design and color scheme that they want to [...]]]> Short answer:  It “ain’t” you, buddy.

Your website’s purpose is not to make you happy.   The goal of any commercial website is to get customers.   This is one of the hardest things I have to deal with in my business.

Clients have an idea or even a very specific design and color scheme that they want to use and, since the client is always right – supposedly, I’ll try to subtly tell them it might not accomplish what they want, but some people simply don’t pick up on subtle.

One way to see if your website’s design is a help or a hindrance is to see how much time people spend on the first page they enter the site on.  This is not always the home page, contrary to what many people think. 

If people are spending less than 2 seconds on the entry page and then leaving the site, you should assume that your site design needs some work. 

Examples of problems along this line that I’ve encountered (details changed to protect the ignorant):

• The client’s favorite color is yellow.  Yellow is one of the harder colors to show on the web because monitors are all different.  What looks yellow to the client may look gold or orangey to me and beige to someone else.   Stick with web-safe colors.
• The client likes some other business’s web site.  But the other business is in a completely different line of work and their type of layout is great for them, but not appropriate for my client’s business.
• The client hates change.   Yes, what we know is so much more comfortable than what we don’t know – to most people.  But consider this:  in 1995, almost no one had heard of the Internet or had a pc, much less an iPhone.   Times change.  Just because your website was ideal in 2006 doesn’t mean it’s ideal now.

If you’re really brave and will not take it personally, ask your webmaster what they really think of your website.   I don’t care if the webmaster is me or someone else.  If they are at all experienced, they will have a good idea of what your website should look like.  Your job is to trust them and quit worrying about whether you like it or not.  You should be proud of your web site, but, remember, it’s just a website.  It’s not you.  Trust your webmaster to create a web site that shows you off to your best advantage -even if you don’t care that much for it.

And,  ideally, you and your webmaster can come to an agreement on design.  Maybe you don’t love it, but would you rather love your web site or have customers?   Your choice.

Wow, I was surprised.  I’ve managed campaigns, my own or others, over the years and while .10% may be average, I certainly don’t consider it good – unless that tiny percentage translates to hundreds of visitors.  

I [...]]]> According to Doubleclick, the average click-through rate for an online ad campaign is .10% .  Yes, that’s one-tenth of one percent.  

Wow, I was surprised.  I’ve managed campaigns, my own or others, over the years and while .10% may be average, I certainly don’t consider it good – unless that tiny percentage translates to hundreds of visitors.  

I expect a campaign to be really worthwhile if it’s getting at least 1.5% click-through and, even then, I’m going to tweak to try to get it higher.  I consider it really successful if I can get it to 5% or higher.

Of course, all of this is very dependent on the phrase/keyword/brand being advertised.   I’ve always felt it’s better to be a big fish in a little pond and if you read this blog regularly, you know that Yahoo! recently issued a whitepaper that said the same thing.

Be specific with your ad phrases and demographics.

Be a big fish in a little pond!  You’ll get caught more often [...]]]> A recent study by Yahoo! confirms what I’ve said for years:  it’s better to bid on very specific phrases than generic terms.  So if you have an Adwords or Yahoo! advertising program, go for those specific products or services when listing your keywords.

Be a big fish in a little pond!  You’ll get caught more often – in a good way.