Free Search-Marketing Tools

Search engine marketing tools that can help boost your ROI

By: Boris Mordkovich

During the last few years, the search engine marketing (SEM) industry has grown significantly. Many new resources have popped up to offer all kinds of information and advice. However, many people find this avalanche of information overwhelming. How can you distinguish the truly useful and accurate sources from the less trustworthy ones?

Here is a list of resources that I personally use to stay on top of the industry.

Best SEM blogs

Use these to stay on top of all the latest developments in (and analysis of) the industry.
o Searchengineland.com
o Searchenginewatch.com
o SEObook.com
o SEOmoz.org
o Stuntdubl.com
o Jimboykin.com
o Marketingpilgrim.com

Best SEM forums

Join the community of advertisers and SEM experts in sharing and receiving free advice regarding anything SEM-related.

o Forums.digitalpoint.com
o Highrankings.com/forum/
o Webmasterworld.com
o Forums.searchenginewatch
o Cre8asiteforums.com/forums/

Best free SEM tools

Visit these sites to access some of the most helpful tools for effective keyword use and to test your web pages for a variety of SEM-related attributes.
o Tools.seobook.com (almost every category of tool you can list)
o Seocompany.ca/tool/seo-tools.html (links to more than 150 tools)
o Searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/intro101.php (the very popular Yahoo! tools)
o Webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-optimisation-tools.shtml (especially their web page analyzer for "search engine friendliness" and overall SEO quality)
o Seochat.com/seo-tools/ (nice assortment of tools for many uses)
o Seomoz.org/tools.php (Page Strength tool especially interesting)
o Google.com/analytics/ (useful for the Google crowd)

These tools and resources are meant to help you improve your marketing campaigns, so use them to the fullest. Some may take a bit of time to master, but the results for your ROI will be well worth the time you invest.

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Selling With A Blog

Add value to your venture without a hard sell

By: Ryan Welton

Interactive marketing has its fashionable trends like any other industry, and the business blog has been its red carpet champion for the past few years. Heck, the blog has gained such widespread popularity that it's almost become passe in some circles --- particularly among those who look up to vlogs (video blogs) like those uploaded on sites like YouTube, or to more outside-the-box guerrilla marketing techniques. Web experts have begun to recognize and understand the underlying value of these online journals. A blog for your ecommerce business, done right, can most certainly produce positive results. Business blogs require expertise in the business at hand. They also require at least a nominal ability to write, albeit informally, a dash of creativity and a ton of perseverance.
"The most common mistake is starting your blog for a couple weeks and then stopping," said professional blogger Tris Hussey, the chief technology partner for One By One Media, a professional blog consultancy. He says the most common outcome of a successful ecommerce blog is that its creator is recognized as a subject matter expert or a thought leader in an industry or in regard to a product or service. This can provide value to an online business insofar as consumers would prefer to buy things from companies positioned as experts in a particular market. However, what many bloggers don't recognize immediately is the effect their efforts have on an ecommerce website's position in major search engines relative to industry-specific keywords. First and foremost, blogs help businesses establish more links to their websites, an important means to boost a site's rank in major search engines like Google.	5 Tips For Successful Business Blogging 1. Post often, at least three times per week. Daily is ideal. 2. Write about subjects related to your business, such as news and trends. Establish yourself as the expert in your field. As you do so, subtly link to pages within your website that showcase products and services. 3. You don't have to achieve perfect English with each post, but befriending a good writer or copy editor is never a bad idea. Simple spelling and grammatical mistakes can actually serve to undermine your efforts to demonstrate subject-matter expertise. 4. Allow people to comment on your posts. It gets them talking about your business and makes them feel connected to it. 5. Set up a link for people to subscribe to your blog via RSS in such a way that every time you enter a new post, they'll be notified.
Cluny Grey runs her jewelry business at Clunygreyjewelry.com and maintains her blog at Jewelrytrends.blogspot.com. "I can link from the blog to interior pages, which is very helpful," she said. The linking is still valuable, and now, people link to my blog so I'm really getting increased traffic and notice." A notable byproduct of blogs is the way they provide websites with a ton of fresh, original content. Jason Billingsley, vice president of marketing for ecommerce software company Elastic Path, says blogs also give businesses the opportunity to associate their websites with popular keywords related to products and services. "We still keep it at arm's length," he said, referring to posts that could be considered too promotional. Hussey noted, though, that blogs can still indirectly boost your business. "People come to the blog to read interesting stuff," said Hussey, "but you are allowed to earn a living and still blog." He suggested bloggers add a sidebar with links to products and services that always appears on the blog, in an anchored position. In posts, bloggers can link to pages full of information about products and services; it's best to do so in an informal, conversational manner. Many businesses approach blogging as a way to educate people and build brand awareness without a second thought, initially, about sales. Donna Miller, of Gourmetstation.com, said her initial goal in starting a blog was to extend her brand "through value-added content dealing with food and international culture." However, she said introducing readers to information about regional foods such as Parisian, Tuscan, Cajun, Fusion and Americana, actually resulted in a better bottom line.
"We never expected the blog to generate transactions, but it does," Miller said. "It also improved our search rankings, which was not expected." Successful blogging can even build an audience so big that business owners find themselves catering to customers at both a product and content level. Bloggers can develop an audience of such proportions that the blog takes on a life of its own. Matt Blumberg, CEO of ReturnPath says his blog OnlyOnce attracts upwards of 15,000 readers via Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds and email alone. The blog focuses on his experience as CEO, and it was so successful that ReturnPath reorganized its corporate website to take the form of a blog. "That has been transformational," he said. "It drives huge leads, visibility and other online press and blog mentions."

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Keyword Tips For Writing Powerful Google Ads

How to get high-quality visitors

By: Mat Greenfield

Writing effective ads in Google is a formidable task. I often joke that the best ads I've written have never been seen because they exceeded the 70-character limit. Yet it is possible to write powerful ads. Here are some quick ideas to do just that.

1. Use the keyword
When an ad is displayed on Google, any of the words in the actual search phrase that also appear in the ad will be highlighted. That means some ads draw more attention than others due to these highlights. Regardless of your ad display position, this additional attention is a key way to get additional clicks. Also, use of the keyword makes the ad relevant to the searcher and enhances the sense that your ad is a good match for his/her search phrase.

2. Qualify your traffic
Because we pay per click, simply creating an ad that people will click is not necessarily the mark of an effective ad; rather, you must create an ad the right people will click. Not all traffic is equal. Even people who search with the same phrase might have different needs. One purpose of your ad is to appeal to your target audience, while signaling to anyone else that your business would not be a good fit for their differing needs.

3. List a feature and a benefit
Using the description lines to state both a feature and a benefit creates a compelling ad. You'll have to be creative to craft a short sentence that communicates your value, but it can be done.

4. Mention your offer
In many cases, mentioning your offer in the Google ad will increase conversion rates. This is not always possible due to the limited number of words Google allows but it's worth considering (and testing, but we'll get to that later).

5. Stand out
A quick look at existing advertisers often reveals a pattern of similar ads। This type of reconnaissance can provide helpful information about who you're up against in your market. It also sparks ideas to write an ad that stands out. Since you are literally competing for a click, blending in tends to attract only people who are researching all the

You also need to be aware of Google's editorial guidelines, which may cause your ad to be disallowed. Here are some additional rules to ensure your ad won't be disqualified in the editing process.

1. Use correct grammar and spelling
It's tempting to misuse grammar and spelling in order to make an ad fit within the character limit but Google tends to disallow ads that contain such errors. Some abbreviations seem to be acceptable — "mgmt" for "management," for example.

2. No superlatives
Google does not allow the use of superlatives such as "best," "cheapest," "fastest," etc. Instead, be creative and come up with other ways to express value.

3. Restriction on trademarks
Google oftens disallows ads that use the trademarked names of competitors. I have found that not all trademarks trigger a disallow, so it's usually worth a try. However, be prepared to rewrite if your ad does get flagged.

4. Avoid excessive capitalization
Google seems especially sensitive to inappropriate capitalization in headlines, and Google editors also disallow ads for excessive capitalization. Title case (capitalizing the first letter of each word) is allowed, and often gets great results.

A word about testing
Even if you apply the above rules, you might still end up with ads that perform poorly. Luckily Google has built one of the most powerful marketing strategies available into its system — ad split testing. This means you can run more than one Google ad and see what results each generates. Ad split testing should definitely be part of your ongoing refinement process.

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Can Product Recommendations Help You?

The feature lets buyers give feedback on products they’re happy with

By: Chris Malta

Most people prefer to get an opinion before purchasing a product — and if that opinion is from a current user, all the better. This desire to make informed buying decisions has given rise to product recommendation networks, such as Thisnext.com, which allow consumers to express opinions and preferences regarding any product on the market. Says Gordon Gould, ThisNext’s CEO, “Social shopping is the future of the Internet experience… More and more, people are trusting the voice of their peers more than traditional media.”

What Exactly Is a Product Recommendation Network?
A product recommendation network (PRN) is just what it sounds like — it’s an Internet site that enables buyers to give feedback on which products they’re happy with and why. Consumers are permitted to recommend products they like, but not products they’re unhappy with. The reasoning is that a few recommendations of the best products in a given category will be far more helpful to shoppers than sorting through numerous products that aren’t user-friendly.

The networks aren’t all-inclusive, and products covered tend to be lifestyle specific. Recommendations range in content from unique uses to product specs to visual descriptions. Some users share reasons they prefer a particular model, or which features they appreciate; others explain what makes a product conducive to their daily life.

How Can a Network Benefit My EBiz?
You can actually derive two key benefits from utilizing product recommendation networks. The first is the important market research opportunities they present:

• Because they do cater to niche markets, PRNs provide you, as an e-tailer, a look at not only the products that are in-demand within certain special interest groups, but also the products that are likely to remain in-demand.

• PRNs also let you see which features and qualities attract different demographics to the same product। This makes them a helpful tool both for designing your marketing message and for constructing offers and advertisements targeted to your niche market.

The second benefit product recommendation networks provide is a valuable channel for promoting your online business:

• Some PRNs offer a service in which they facilitate your building relationships with their most influential contributors. These key contributors can guide you in your product selection; and as you add new products to your line-up, you’ll be getting feedback from people in a position to send business your way, if they like what you have to sell.

• You can advertise your business next to recommendations for the product models you sell, or next to specific keywords, so everyone who sees your ad is already looking for what you’re selling. You can also get listed as a retailer of recommended products, so shoppers doing their homework can find you quickly and conveniently.

• PRNs can help you power a recommendation service on your website, so you can spread the word to your own customers. And they’ll syndicate the recommendations back to their broader network, so their users can find your product and make their way back to you.

To be successful, you need to sell what your customers want — that’s why listening to and applying consumer feedback is crucial to your ebusiness. Says Gould, “The tremendous opportunity here is to revolutionize brand marketing online. More and more people are spending more and more time on user-generated content sites; so tools like product recommendation networks are going to become increasingly important.”

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Crash Course on Pay-Per-Click Arbitrage

What is it, and how does it impact your ecommerce business?

By: Boris Mordkovich

If you've spent any time on pay-per-click (PPC) forums or in the blogosphere, you've probably heard about PPC arbitrage — the ill-reputed practice that drives bid prices up and makes life more difficult for advertisers. So, what exactly is it, and how can it affect you as an advertiser?

In a nutshell, pay-per-click arbitrage is the practice of bidding on low-cost keywords, purchasing clicks from Google, Yahoo! and other search engines and then redirecting the visitors to dummy, one-page websites created solely for the purpose of hosting expensive AdSense ads.

The arbitrageur makes money because he/she buys the first click at a cost much lower than the fee received as an affiliate when visitors click on the dummy site's ads. Enough clicks through the affiliate ad and the arbitrageur collects plenty of money to offset the cost of the initial PPC ad.

Still, why is this even an issue for discussion when it could be argued that someone is simply taking advantage of market inefficiencies?

There are two major problems with this practice of PPC arbitrage.

First, it senselessly inflates click prices for legitimate advertisers। By adding an extra step to the process, it generates unnecessary clicks and higher bid prices for everybody else.

Secondly, and more important in the long run, PPC arbitrage has a highly negative effect on the user experience. Since arbitrage sites provide virtually nothing of value to users, arbitrageurs have to trick people into visiting and using the site. These dummy sites generally confuse users and coerce them into clicking more ads. This has the potential to scare a prospect away or just ruin the user's confidence in the quality of the search results.

Taking a look at the whole picture, it's bad for the advertiser, bad for the user, and bad for the search engine. In mid-2006 Google promised changes in algorithms to help deal with PPC arbitrage. Diatribes on quality content — or lack thereof — at Google, Yahoo!, MSN and other search engines are common. The effect so far has been less than optimal, but at least the problem has been acknowledged and efforts have begun to limit its spread.

As competition increases, search engines will need to find better ways to combat PPC arbitrage if they hope to compete more effectively for advertiser dollars and user visits. What can you do? If you want to fight the problem, and you've come across a "dummy" site, resist the impulse to click on an ad, which will only help the arbitrageur increase his hoard of ill-gotten gains. Vote with your mouse and insist on quality content.

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What Should I Sell Online?

Ideas for Choosing Product Lines

By: Chris Malta
From: www.practicalecommerce.com

Everyone who starts an ebiz faces the question: What do I sell? And most everyone seems to make two classic mistakes in the beginning:

1. They try to sell what everyone else is selling ? DVDs, electronics and designer clothing. The problem they encounter is that the market is already saturated with these products and the suppliers typically do not work in small quantity. To make any profit at all, they'd have to buy huge quantities.


2. try to sell what they know and love. Unfortunately, unless there is a significant demand for what they know and love, they are going to be stuck with a lot of product they can appreciate but can't move.

What's an IDEA HOTSPOT?

Lisa Suttora of www.whatdoisell.com coined the term "idea hotspot" to refer to anything, any place or person that "provide[s] you with an unending source of new product ideas, of market trends, of developing niches and product line education?It is a fertile ground for product ideas." These hotspots keep you in touch with what people are buying, what things are up-and-coming, and what things are on their way out.
If your ideas all come from one or two places, you are limiting yourself. Expand your thinking?you might consider looking at one of these "hotspots" for inspiration:

• Newspapers. You can get an idea of what is on the minds of consumers by simply reading the lifestyle section, the business section, or looking at the advertisements the big stores are putting out.


• Consumer Publications. There are hundreds of magazines designed around niche products, niche hobbies and niche markets. They are a terrific resource for building niche product lines.


• Malls/brick-and-mortar stores. Talk to the salespeople, find out what is selling. You can even source your suppliers off the boxes. Get the manufacturer's name, call them up, and ask who their local distributor is in your area.


• Trend-spotting websites, such as www.trendwatching.com, www.influxinsights.com and www.trendhunter.com.


• The entertainment industry ? movies and TV drive product trends. If you know what is coming out in the movie industry, you can start sourcing related products before the trend begins. Imdb.com maintains a list of movies that are going to be released in the coming year. So if you know now that a particular movie is going to be coming out, you can start stocking up on relevant products before they become pricey ? such as Batman, Superman, Curious George and Star Wars.

Write It Down

Suttora strongly suggests carrying a product sourcing notebook, be it a PDA or hand-held notebook, to keep track of your ideas as they come. She warns, "Ninety percent of ideas that you don't write down will get lost?When you're at these idea hotspots, if you see a hundred ideas for products to sell, you won't be able to remember those. You've got to write them down in your product sourcing notebook and then go back and start researching them."

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What's Selling, What's Hot and How to Find It

$12,470 of thread sold on eBay, 1,069 listings

By: Mitch Bettis
From: http://www.practicalecommerce.com

Are you searching for the next trendy gadget to sell at your online store? Many people are looking to catch lightning in a bottle, but locating trends in the marketplace requires thought, research and analysis.

Find Clues to New Trends

There are resources for online entrepreneurs who are searching for products to sell, but the next big thing might be right under your nose according to Lisa Suttora, founder and CEO of WhatDoISell.com™ and co-author of What to Sell On eBay and Where to Get It.

“To find clues to new trends, you need to get out in the world and begin looking and listening in order to learn what people are thinking and doing,” Suttora said. “It’s a process of gathering clues to new niches and putting together pieces of the puzzle. It’s about connecting the dots to things. You start seeing opportunities everywhere.

Turn On Your Radar

In her book as well as during free, online eBay forums and at workshops, Suttora counsels business owners to turn on their radar and develop the “Product Sourcing Mindset™” (a term trademarked by Suttora). She advises etailers to put everything they encounter in a day’s time through a product-sourcing filter.

When you’re reading a newspaper, sitting in a dentist’s office looking at old magazines, walking down the aisle at a grocery store or watching your child play soccer, study your surroundings and be open to new ideas and new trends. When you observe something, write it down in what she calls a “Product Sourcing Notebook™” (another term she trademarked). This is simply a small, portable notebook where you can write down ideas. For you high-tech types, a PDA will suffice; just write it down.

“You should always be looking at products and ways to add to your product line, but do it in the routine of daily activity,” Suttora said. Many people, she said, try to think of new products to sell by plopping in front of their computer and plowing through search engines. According to Suttora, you’ll have greater success if you turn outward and begin evaluating what’s happening around you.

In her book, she outlines many free ideas to help identify new products and trends in the marketplace. Some of the things she suggests for creative online product-sourcing strategies include:

• Sign up for Google Alerts for a particular topic. When a new story is released in your area of interest, and the search engine captures the story, it will be emailed to you.


• Watch television programs and be attuned to other media within your niche. If you have an online site with home and garden products, you should be watching Home and Garden Television or DIY Network on a regular basis. When you see new products featured, take note. There’s a good chance they will be hot sales items.


• Sign up for free newsletters from trade associations in your niche market as they are full of new trends in the industry.

Suttora says “Idea Hotspots™,” like trade shows, trade organizations, magazines, consumer catalogs and newspapers, are resources where people can get an unending supply of product-sourcing ideas.
Once you’ve narrowed down products that you are interested in selling, you’ll be well served to capture as much quantifiable data on the product and the marketplace that you can. That’s where a company like Terapeak (www.terapeak.com) comes in.

Find Easy-to-access Market Research

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Service Provider that offers in-depth, easy-to-access market research. Do you want to know if sewing thread is moving on eBay? Terapeak showcases a tremendous amount of data, including: average sales price; average starting price; average listing duration; quantities sold on each day of the week; whether it was more successfully sold at a bid auction, fixed price or multi-item; if a bold listing moved the product more quickly, etc. You can see there was $12,470 of thread sold on eBay on Tuesday, May 2 on 1,069 listings and $15,187 in sales on 1,340 listings on Sunday, April 30.

A particularly handy feature is the “sell-through rate,” which tells business owners the percentage of listed products sold. (In case you’re wondering, 47 percent of listed threads were sold on May 2 compared to 27 percent of the 1,558 listings of black iPod Nanos on the same date.)

Evaluate Opportunities

“Terapeak can help an online entrepreneur evaluate an opportunity and the potential of that niche,” said David Frey, Brand Manager for Terrapin. “It lets you get in and see the trends and do the research. By combining Terapeak data with what’s going on in the real world, businesses can make an educated decision on products.”

Terapeak analyzes eBay’s data and packages it as an easy-to-understand tool for people looking for product trends. Its graphing option allows entrepreneurs to take a longitudinal view of sales activity so they can closely monitor where the item is in its product cycle.

Frey said their “Hot List” is one of the site’s more popular offerings.

There is a $16.95 monthly fee for the service. Its data covers 100 percent of the traffic on eBay outside of eBay Motors and Real Estate. Like Terapeak, eBay itself also sells marketplace data and provides three tiers of pricing options. The general data is the same as Terapeak’s, but it’s not presented in the same form. Terapeak also includes features like its “Hot List.”

To make it in the highly competitive online marketplace, a successful merchant must employ various tools to ensure success. Some, like Suttora noted, are free, and others are paid resources.

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