Triple Your Adsense Earnings in 60 Minutes!

Google's Adsense is one of the most powerful weapons in website publisher's arsenal. It enables you to monetize your sites easily and if used properly can generate a very healthy income. However, if you're not using it properly and maximizing the income you squeeze from it, your leaving money on the table – something we all hate doing.

Boosting your return from Adsense can be done very easily and quickly, and you'll be amazed by the results.

I ran Adsense on my sites for over a year before I discovered these techniques, and like many people, I though I was doing pretty well. My clickthrough rates and CPM figures were very healthy, and I didn't honestly think that they could be improved a great deal. How wrong I was. Immediately after I implemented a few quick changes my clickthrough rate more than doubled, and by doing some fine tuning I manged to get nearly three times as many people to click on the ads as had been previously doing so.

The first technique is one that was 'discovered' by the amazingly helpful Debs, on SiteSell's SBI! forums. When I read it originally, it made sense and I decided to goive it a go, but I wasn't prepared for the immediate impact it would have on my income. It involves making only a few simple changes to the format and positioning of your Adsense ads.

Firstly, forget about using banners or skyscrapers. These ad formats are almost universally ignored by surfers. Why? Because we've all been conditioned to recognise a skyscraper or banner as an advert and as these adverts are rarely of any interest, we ignore them. What's needed is a way of integrating Adsense ads into the editorial on your site as seamlessly as possible. To do this you need to do three things:

1. Use the 250 x 250 rectangle format 2. Make the background color of the ad the same as the background color of your site, or as close to it as possible. 3. Make the ads borderless by setting the border color to be the same as the background color of the ad.

These changes can be made by logging into your Adsense account and creating a custom format. Just select the 250 x 250 ad format, and create a custom color palette. Use the color picker to pick the coor you want. The Javascript is automatically generated at the foot of the page, ready for you to copy and paste into the pages on your site.

Now, you need to position your ads where surfers are most likely to click on them. Research using retina scanning technology has shown that the place that surfers tend to look at first and most often is the top left. I don't know the reasons for this, perhaps it's because that's where we're used to seeing the most useful search engine results (at the top of the rankings) and search engines are the sites we most often visit, so we automatically look at the same place on other sites.

Whatever the reasoning, as soon as I made the above changes to my Adsense ads, clickthrough rates doubled, immediately.

The second technique is much newer and one which is entirely based on my own experience. Google has recently added a new type of Adsense format, called Adlinks. This displays a series of links on your page in the same style of Ad unit as regular Adsense ads. When a user clicks a link they are taken to a page of adverts that resembles regular Google search results. As a publisher, you are paid every time a user clicks one of those ads.

Adventurous soul that I am, I jumped in with both feet and started to trial Adlinks on my most visited pages as soon as it was launched. I'm using the four links in a square box format, positioned top left of my page content. After a few weeks of running Adlinks alongside regular Adsense ads, it's clear that the return on Adlinks is about a fifth to a quarter higher than regular ads. There's no clear reason for this but one explanation may lie in the fact that clicking on an Adlink takes the user to page of 'results'. When a user clicks on one of these, you are paid for the click. If the user finds what they want, great, if not, it seems that they hit the Back button on their browser and try again, just as you would for normal search engine results. Then they click on another result, and you get paid again. So it's possible to be paid more than once from the same Adlink click. Now, this reasoning is speculative, but it does make perfect sense in the light of my Adlinks results.

Finally, Adsense has some excellent tracking statistics that allow you to track your results across a number of sites on a site by site, page by page, or just about any other basis you choose. This is a very powerful tool and you should use it to find out which ads are performing best for you and fine tune your Adsense and Adlink ads accordingly.

So you see, by spending an hour or so of your time making a few adjustments to the Adsense ads on your sites, you can very quickly treble your Adsense income. Give it a go, you'll be amazed by the results.

-Kenny Hemphill

Do You Have an Additional Passive Income yet?

Marty and his wife live at home with their 2 children. They own a 3 bedroom house in a middle class neighborhood and try to live within their means. Marty works full time in the Printing Industry, while his wife is in charge of the home and looking after the children.

They've accumulated some credit card debt and have 2 years left on a car loan. They try to stay out of debt as much as possible and together they've managed to contribute a total of $32,000 to their own Retirement Fund. It is kept in term deposits receiving 5% interest annually.

Two years prior, the couple bought an older house that they fixed-up and rent out for $850 a month. After paying the mortgage and taxes $300 is left over each month. This goes into their savings account each month.

At Christmas, the family bought themselves a new computer and decided to start a home-based business. Things started out fairly slowly but after 8 months they were receiving a steady check of $400 a month which also goes into their savings account. This part-time business will continue to grow with the effort they dedicate to it.

This business also offers them some very lucrative tax savings. By taking advantage of these Tax Strategies they are able to save an additional $300 a month on tax that was normally deducted from Marty's paycheck at work. This monthly income is also added to the couple's savings.

Marty has just begun writing an E-book about his "production expertise" at work. His plan is to market this book on the internet for profit

Every Sunday the couple takes a drive to stay familiar with the Real Estate market in their area. They're looking for another property, a "handyman's special" to fix-up and rent out. They have saved enough for a down payment and their credit with the bank is well established.

The family's total monthly expenses are $2000. Now, here's the question: Does Marty's family have Wealth yet?

To answer this question properly you first have to understand exactly what "wealth" means.You achieve wealth when: *Your Passive Income is the same or greater than your Expenses.* So what does this mean?

First, what is Passive Income?

Passive Income is money that you are paid over and over again for work that you only do once. (This excludes using a gun or finding cash on the street) Some examples of this would be royalties for writing a book or a song, commissions that you receive for sales that others make and interest from bank savings or dividends on stocks/options that you own.

Second, what Expenses are we talking about? This one's a little easier to understand. Expenses are the total amount it takes to run your household and your life. This includes, rent, mortgage payments, car insurance, food, credit card and loan payments, etc………

Let's look at Marty's family a little closer…………. Does Marty have any Passive Income? Yes he does. Marty's salary is not considered Passive Income. That's because he has to work 40 hours a week just to get the basic amount. If Marty doesn't go to work then he doesn't get paid. His overtime also doesn't count as Passive Income.

The interest from their Retirement Fund does though. It's paid to him month after month as long as it's left in that account. So, $32,000 at 5% is $1600 a year. Divided by 12 months equals $133 a month in interest. Ok…..what else?  After the mortgage and expenses are paid with the rent money they receive on their rental property they are left with $300 every month. This is Passive Income. Just as long as the tenant stays and pays his monthly rent.

How bout that $400 from the home-based business and the Tax savings. Is this Passive Income? Well, Marty's wife made sure that she chose a company where she could sign new business accounts and get paid commissions on those accounts over and over again. They've made a 5 year commitment to build this business part-time. So yes, both the $400 and the $300 in Tax Savings would apply as Passive Income. Let's add up Marty's total Passive Income.

Interest $166.00 Rental Income $300.00 Home Based Business$400.00 Tax Savings $300.00 Total $1166.00

Not including Marty's salary from work, his family's Passive Income is $1166.00. Not bad. Every month this amount flows into the family's bank account, regardless of anything else they do. We said that Marty's monthly expenses total $2000.00 a month. And we also said………… You have Wealth when: *Your Passive Income is the same or greater than your Expenses.*

$2000 Expenses subtract $1166 Passive Income = $834 monthly balance needed to have Wealth.

Marty's Expenses are still more than their Passive Income so they're not wealthy just yet. But they're well over half-way there. With this kind of knowledge a family can know exactly where to focus their financial attention.

Maybe when Marty writes that ebook he could get some sales and royalties from it. Also the new Real Estate and more work on their Home-based business would certainly help them to attain more Passive Income. Once Marty's Passive Income is more than the family's Expenses then Marty could start to have much more freedom. He may even choose to quit his job and continue developing his Passive Income streams.

Take a look at your own finances. What are your monthly expenses? Do you have more Passive Income than your Expenses? If you do Congratulations. You're Wealthy!!! If you don't. It's time to get started and start adding Passive Income from other
areas as soon as possible.

When you truly understand this principle, you'll be well on your way to becoming wealthy soon enough!

 

 

How to make profit on ebay + What to sell on ebay?

Secret #1: Find a ‘real’ wholesale and drop ship company

Do you know what one of the biggest problem is to be successful on eBay? ‘What should I sell”? I can tell you, I get many emails per day from eBay sellers, asking me what they can sell. Let me explain this more in detail.

Let’s take John and David for example. Both are sellers and try to make money on eBay. Let’s start with John. He mainly gets his items from garage sales. So, every Saturday morning he gets up very early, hops into his car and drives around the neighbourhood to check out the garage sales. So he went last Saturday. John did not purchase anything on the first two garage sales, but on his third garage sale, he found a little treasure. An old book from 1897 - for a bargain price of $10. Bingo! John was proud! ‘I can sell this for huge profit’, he thought and he went home. He took his digital camera and he made a high quality digital photo. It took quite some time but finally he was happy with the result. Then he had to upload this picture to his computer and he spent some time writing the sales copy. Late Saturday afternoon finally he was finished and launched this book onto eBay. 7-10 days later his item got sold for $75!! John is excited. He packs the item, labels it with the purchaseers address and then he drives to the nearest post office. Oh no, what a long line. After 15 min of waiting he could finally post this item to his customer! Wow, a lot of work for $65 profit? Don’t you think?

Let’s look at David. He usually gets up very late – usually at Saturday around lunchtime. He is still in his pyjamas and he makes himself a nice cup of coffee and gets onto the Internet. He logs into his drop ship account and browses through some hot selling product. ‘Yes, I can sell that” - A nice laptop for a bargain price of $550 (wholesale price). But David does not have to pay upfront for this item, so he just downloads the professional digital photos offered by his drop ship company to his computer. ”Oh wait”; David has just discovered that this drop ship company has also a ‘ready-to-use’ auction sales letter available. That’s really cool …and David copies and pastes the source code of this letter into his eBay listing and he launches his auction. A Dutch auction, since the drop ship company announced that they have more than one of this laptop currently available. Great, David could sell 6 laptops. He hits the submit button for this Dutch auction of 6 laptops and enjoys his coffee (which is still hot by the way). After 7-10 days David has sold all 6 laptops for $830 each. All what David does is the following: He waits until he gets the payment from his 6 customers in his paypal account, sends the address of the customers together with 6 x $550 (wholesale price) to his drop sip company via paypal. He has made pure profit of 6 x $280 = $1,680 in about 25 min of work – total. That’s why David is a smarter eBay seller than John. I think the idea is clear …drop shipping can be the answer to your problem what to sell on eBay and it can saves you a lot of time too. No packing, posting etc.

Secret #2: Have a professional auction listing

A professional eBay auction site is like your business card. If you are serious selling on eBay you should show your potential customers that you are a professional seller and that you are selling high quality products. Please, don’t just upload a photo and type the text in the description box. Do your homework and learn some HTML. Look around there are many professional tutorials and ebooks around helping you in that matter. It’s definitely worth it. And you’ll be surprised, because if your auction listing looks nice and professional potential purchaseers stay longer on your site and usually it’s more likely that they place a bid.

Secret #3: The money is in the follow up

“Yes, I’ve heard this before”, you may say. But, this is a very important aspect of your successful eBay career: Follow up with your customers. Send them an email ~10 days after they have purchased the product and ask them how they are going with the product and if everything is all right. Invite them to have a look at your other auctions. (You have to be careful though not offending anyone, but if the products are related and you ask how they went with the product, that’s fine). I never got complaints by doing that and your customers are happy to get some “insider tips”. You’ll be amazed how many customers will purchase from you again, since they value you as a seller. Keep in mind that it is easier to keep an existing customer, instead of getting a new customer. You could also send them a thank you gift in form of a downloadable digital information product. That’s easy for you and they get some valuable information. You’ll see that your existing customers will be very thankful and they feel good that they have bought from you and will do again in the future.

Secret #4: Sell internationally

This aspect is often neglected by many eBay sellers: Sell internationally! First, check with your drop ship company in which countries they are shipping and how much postage they charge to send the item overseas. If you have sort out these details, you can go ahead and list your item internationally. You’ll be surprised how many more items you are selling when the potential purchaseers see: Ship worldwide. Don’t miss this opportunity or you are leaving big bucks on the table.

Secret #5: Be creative – Be different

How do you think your listing will be stand out from the crowd? Good question isn’t it. In my 4 years of being an active Power Seller, I have tried and tested a lot. First have the photo in the gallery; it just costs a bit more to list but these additional cents are well spend. A recent study has shown that people almost ignore listing without a picture in the gallery. So that’s mandatory! The next step is your title. Do you know that only the title is spidered by eBay when potential customers are searching for specific products? So, you have to make sure that your title includes as much keywords as possible. But be careful here, eBay does not like “keyword stuffing”. So, be creative and come up with 2-3 different titles for the same item. Try them all and you’ll see what works best.

-Jason James

Why placing Background Music in ebay listings is a bad idea

There are 147 million registered users on eBay, and tens of millions of those are desperately fighting to make sales on eBay. When trying to make their auction listings as powerful as possible, many sellers use ill-advised tactics. They think that if they entertain purchaseers, they are more likely to get a sale. And as the Internet becomes more multi-media, there are many temptations thrown in our way, especially the use of sound.

Using background music or sounds, unless you're selling music, is probably a bad idea. If you are going to include music or even an audio product pitch, you are wise to include a command panel that will allow the viewer to listen or not as she pleases. Do not! Do not! Do not! set up your auction listing so that a potential customer is greeted with loud music as soon as they click on your page. Here's why:

1. Potential purchaseers are there to see your Gucci handbag or Oakley sunglasses, not to be entertained. Making a purchaseing decision is serious business and you to do not want to take their attention away from your merchandise. Instead, the entire focus of your page should be directed at whatever you are selling. Music is simply a distraction.

2. At this time, we cannot count on the quality of audio technology. purchaseers have different browsers, different connections and possibly antiquated equipment. Even worse than unwanted music is unwanted music that sounds terrible, that is scratchy, too loud or of awful quality.

3. You will most likely not know what kind of music your perspective purchaseer wants to hear. If you are selling to teens you can be reasonably certain that they do not want to hear Big Band music. But can you know whether they prefer Eminem or Travis Twitt? Obviously not.

4. Consider the situation of your purchaseer. He might be prowling eBay while he is at work and is not supposed to be surfing the net. Sudden blaring music as the Vice-President of the company walks by is the last thing he wants. Or a Mom might have just gotten her colicky baby to sleep and when your music wakes up a cranky infant you can be certain you will never get a sale from that irate parent.

5. Audio files take longer to download than text. If your prospective customer has dialup instead of a high-speed connection, they will most likely be gone before your auction page has even loaded.

Ignore the temptation to make your auctions 'more exciting', and instead, concentrate every element on the page on your merchandise. The last thing you want to do is distract a serious purchaseer who might decide to purchase. Let them find their entertainment elsewhere!

-Sydney Johnston

How to increase income when working as a consultant or freelancer

Here are just a few ways to increase and diversify your income from your consulting business.

1. Sell More Services to Your Existing Clients
Instead of spending all that time and money trying to get new business, why not try to sell more services to your existing client base?
If you are an accounting and tax consulting firm, for example, you likely have clients who need some assistance in their record keeping and documentation. In addition to your year-end tax services, could you provide monthly bookkeeping and financial statements, accounting system
setups, training in accounting software, or other services to assist your client? Monthly services, in addition to annually billed fees, will help you smooth out your cashflow and minimize the seasonal nature of your business.

2. Mass Market Your Advice by Productizing Your Services
Could you produce a folio, special report, newsletter, e-book, book, audio cassette, video, or course? If so, you could enjoy making money even when you're not billing for your time. While asleep or on vacation, the sale of your information products could be generating additional income
for you. Sell such products through direct mail, mail order, exporting, and Internet marketing (your own website, your own affiliate programs, eBay auctions, and so on). As well as the passive, residual income that information products can produce for you, they also help establish your
credentials as an expert. This, in turn, produces more consulting opportunities for you.

3. Perform Group Consulting
Seminars, workshops, and teleclasses enable you to help many participants in a cost-effective manner. In addition to paying for admission, your attendees may also purchase some of your information products or even become your regular consulting clients.

4. Consider Additional Markets
Could you sell your consulting services to federal, state, provincial, or municipal governments? Could you be an expert trial witness?
If you consult with local clients, could you extend your reach nationally or internationally by using the telephone and Internet?


These few ideas are a starting point for you to brainstorm all the possibilities for exploding your consulting income.