I have many ghostwriters helping me write website articles. I have always believed that building good content for your online presence is the lifeblood of successful Internet Marketing.

One of the key items on my training agenda for these ghostwriters is to teach them how to research online keywords correctly. I have noted that even some of the more experienced ghostwriters still confuse the concepts of “most searched” keywords and “highest CPC keywords” (CPC refers to Cost Per Click).

Indeed, looking for these two types of keywords applies to two different situations. Let’s discuss each, one by one.

When you look for “most searched“ keywords, actually you are looking for keywords that most visitors are interested in. From the standpoint of Search Engine Optimization, you are looking for the related topics that people mostly seek. You increase the chance of being exposed to more online visitors if you are able to find the most searched keywords and at the same time rank your website in the first few positions of the chosen keywords.

However, usually the most searched keywords are also the most competitive, and are targeted by many webmasters at the same time. So the number of competitive websites for these keywords is also great, making it difficult to rank highly among those targeted keywords. We need to consider the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) before choosing the best keywords to be used.

For details of KEI, refer to the post

http://www.imarketings.net/internetmarketing/52

Keywords with highest CPC (Cost Per Click) refers to keywords for which online advertisers will be most willing to spend advertising dollars. Take one of my recent works as illustration. I asked one of my ghostwriters to write an article on pursuing an online degree. Having done thorough research using this Keyword Research Toolbar, I realized that the highest CPC of the related keywords are “online accounting degree,” “master degree in psychology online,” “masters degree psychology online,” etc. (If you are interested , refer to this excel-table for the results of this research completed using this tool.)

Those keywords are with a CPC of at least US $20 or higher. Targeting these keywords in your articles can potentially bring you more revenue per click by visitors visiting your website with pay-per-click advertisements such as Google AdSense. So I asked my ghostwriter to write an article targeting these keywords, and the resulting article is shown here.

This article is actually targeted for earning Google AdSense dollars, and that’s the reason it was written aiming at high a CPC.

So when you do the keyword research for website copywriting, keep the objective of your writing in mind. Are you targeting SEO, or are you aiming for Pay-Per-Click Advertising dollars like what is offered by Google AdSense program? (There are other popular Pay-Per-Click Advertising Networks such as Bidvertiser and Chitika. Search for the phrase “alternatives to Google AdSense” for those programs.)

The best situation is to have both goals in mind, as these two objectives are not mutually exclusive. However, it does involve more effort and time to figure out keywords that suit both objectives, so sometimes you need to make a choice before you proceed with your keyword research.

I hope this article helps as you research the best keywords to use in your content building. Just keep in mind that you need to do careful keyword research before writing website articles. Feel free to leave me comments if you have further questions.

Tags: Keywords Research, EverProfits Toolbar, Search Engine Optimization

This article combines two reports written by my students after going over the Standard/Poynter Eye-Tracking Project’s results posted here: http://www.poynterextra.org/et/i.htm

Stanford/Poynter Eye-Tracking Project

In 2000, Marion Lewenstein (Professor of Communication, at Stanford University) and the Poynter Institute researchers initiated the Stanford/Poynter Eye-Tracking project on online news reading behavior. It was the first project to introduce the idea of using eye-tracking equipment (SMI Eyelink system) to measure the eye movement over areas on a computer screen in conjunction with the application software for collection and analysis of observational data, which was written by the Advanced Eye Interpretation Project at Stanford University.

There were 67 subjects (with only 66 subjects’ data used, one was discarded because of unreadability) enrolled from two cities, from the states of Florida and Illinois. All participants were set up with head gear that recorded eye movement data while they read online news web pages. The research team collected images 60 times per second, and recorded each fixation point, the length of time for each fixation, and the order in which each fixation was generated.

The results of this study surprised many people in the industry. In fact, one of the findings was that a large percentage of the study participants look first to text, especially for news briefs and captions, which was just the opposite of the generally accepted notion that graphics and photos represent the first entry point for readers.

Other findings of the study are highlighted here:

Text Attracts Attention Before Graphics:
Of users’ first three eye-fixations on a page, only 22% were on graphics, and 78% were on text. In general, users were first drawn to headlines, article summaries, and captions.

Banner ads fared quite well.
Banner ads indeed did catch online readers’ attention — a notion that went against current thinking. 45 percent of banner ads were viewed by test subjects and the average fixation period was 1 second. This time is long enough for readers to perceive the banner’s message.

Online news users “do know how to scroll”
For articles on a news site, if a Web user has clicked to get to the page, chances are high that the article will be read, because the headline or blurb that led the user to click to the page gives enough information to the user that he/she knows in advance it’s something worth reading.

Visitors do have the habit of Interlaced Browsing
Users frequently alternated between multiple sites:

• they would read something in one window

• then switch to another window and visit another site

• and then return to the first window and read some more on the first site; possibly to turn to the second window again later in the session

Insights gained from the study

Improve Headlines and Briefs
Be straightforward and efficient with headlines. Recognize that getting too cute may actually turn off online users, who just want to quickly discern if a story is worth reading.

Edit online photos and graphics
Use an appropriate photo with a single focus or single subject, or crop the image tighter to help the user focus on the main detail.

The best of both worlds
It may be necessary to deliver two versions of the story: a high-end graphically intense presentation and one that is bare-bones and designed with both wireless and low-end computers in mind.

Reconsider animated banner ads
If a banner is animated, every animation frame must have the brand name included. Not doing so can mean the consumer will look at the ad but not comprehend who placed the ad, because the average fixation period only one second.

Conclusions:

The results of this study echo what Google has experimented with on the Internet ever since it launched its Google AdWords Program (Google’s own online advertising program) by using text-based advertisements rather than graphical ones. Google’s results do indicate that the effectiveness of pay-per-click text advertisements is higher than graphical advertisements for the click-through rate because online visitors tend to read text rather than look at graphics. In my view, this can be explained by the fact that the primary motivation of people going online is to “search and collect” information, and so they tend to “read” more on this medium when compared with other medium like TV and magazines.

My challenges to the test results:

One of my criticisms is that objects in this experiment are too focused in two cities within one country, and no information on how they were recruited. The failure to achieve “random sampling” in the experiment defeats the possibility to generalize the results to the general online population.

It is suspected most of the subjects are frequent online news readers and thus already have the tendency to “read” text rather than looking at other graphical elements of a website. Therefore, the test results are not conclusive.

Tags: banner advertisements, banner advertisements Vs text advertisements, Google AdSense, text ads, banner ads Vs text ads

Google once again demonstrates its exceptionally innovative power, as we have discussed in other posts, by stunning analysts with its greater-than-expected 30% increase in its first quarter report. Google’s share price in after-hour trading jumped 17% to 525.96 last Thursday night. Again, this demonstrates how important people are, as assets of a company.

Before this news broke, analysts worried about the “paid clicks,” or the number of times users click on Google advertisements and its affiliated websites slowing down. Among these critics, the loudest warning voice came from Comscore (Nasdaq: SCOR) whose share price slipped 8% because of Google’s unexpected good news. People now question the accuracy of Comscore’s survey, on which it based its cause for worry.

Google’s explanation of its success rests on the fact that more than 50% of its business is conducted outside of the US, which it says attributes to its ability to withstand a slowdown in US economy. Google achieved more than 20% growth in clicks worldwide last quarter.

In my view, Comscore might not be wrong. The paid clicks rate has dropped overall. Google’s growth in paid clicks was 30% in Dec 2007 and 45% in the preceding quarter. Obviously, there is a trend of slowing down. But the paid-click rate represents only one factor of paid advertising. The other factor people often overlook is the price per paid click.

Google does not have a standard price list for its pay-per-click Google Adwords program. It uses an auction model to determine pricing, where advertisers bid for “keywords” they use their advertisements, that they would like to appear in Google’s search results and its affiliated websites. The more competitive a keyword is, the more expensive a click could be. With some popular keywords like “web hosting,” the charge per click could be as much as several dollars.

In my experience using Google Adwords, there is a solid growth trend in the average per-click price of keywords in the past few years. With some of the popular keywords that I use, I have noticed that the increase in price is as much as several hundred percent within a three-year time frame. It is increasingly difficult to find effective keywords that are “cheap” now.

This can be explained by the fact that more and more businesses are entering the market, using online advertising media to promote their products and services. In the past, small business owners were the major players in this market. But now more and more big guys are coming in. More competition for keywords drives up the per-click price, and that helps to compensate for the drop in growth rate of number of clicks.

And Google makes continuous efforts to combat click-frauds and click-arbitrage by some website affiliates, by refining its Google Adsense program. This effort pays off in improving the quality of leads brought to Google customers. Advertisers are more willingly to pay for the clicks if the customers are of good quality. This also explains the increase in Google’s average paid-click price.

In my view, the recent setbacks of Google’s share price are largely due to the general market sentiment. Google’s value is not totally reflected in its current share price.

To invest in a company, you need to consider the market, the industry, and the company’s management. As far as the industry goes, the online advertising industry is still budding and there is a lot of room to grow. As for the company, I always opt for Google’s exceptional management team that can attract and retain smart people to knock down its competitors (read my post about Microsoft Acquires Yahoo!). And with its ability to withstand the recession in the US economy (as proven by its first quarter results), it seems that Google is very likely to keep its momentum going in the coming years.

Tags: Google first quarter results

When people talk about keyword density in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), they usually limit themselves to saying, “use the exact the same keyword throughout your web copy to stress the related keywords”. And the general rule is: the more repetitive the keyword is, the more it looks relevant to your site from the standpoint of search engines.

However, search engines have become even cleverer now. They do not simply index your page by keywords in your site. They also use applied semantics technology to aid the work.

Applied semantics is a technology that teaches search engines to group variations of your targeted keywords into meaningful clusters. What this means is that synonyms and other related, relevant words are counted into the calculations of the keyword density of a particular keyword.

It is not an easy job to apply the semantic technology to different articles using the exact words. Let’s look at an example to illustrate what I’m talking about. Search engines have to distinguish the word “Apple” in a website discussing Apple, Inc – the manufacturer of iPod and iMac – from that of the site that discussing farming technology or agriculture.

Here’s another example of what could be a headache for you. Search engines have to understand more than a dozen variations of the same word, “design”. According to Thesaurus.com, design could also refer to:

• Architecture
• Arrangement
• Blueprint
• Chart
• Composition
• Conception
• Constitution
• Construction
• Diagram
• Draft
• Drawing
• Idea
• Layout
• Makeup
• Method
• Model
• Outline
• Paste-up
• Pattern
• Perspective
• Picture
• Plan
• Rough draft

And that’s just 23 variations. There could be many, many more! So do you see why I say that it could be a headache?

In 2003, Google acquired Applied Semantics, giving it a new platform for its contextual pay-per-click Google Adwords and Adsense Program. However, what I have been watching closely since then, is that its adoption of the semantic technology can effectively be put to use in their search engine technology.

Many SEO forums are discussing the changes in the past few years in Google’s ranking algorithm. However, few of them are able to attribute it to this acquisition of Applied Semantics

What I conclude is that the tactic of using a carefully planned list of identical keywords in a single passage is no longer a good strategy. You now need to use a variety of synonyms of the specific theme in your website copy.

So is this good new or bad? The good news is you are no longer tied in your copy to using the identical keywords just because you want to build keyword density in your article.

However, the bad news is that you don’t have a simple formula to calculate the keyword density of your website copy any more.

Perhaps there is one conclusion can be drawn: Search engines are getting smarter. The SEO game is becoming more difficult to play.
Related Topics: SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimization, Applied Semantics, contextual advertising, pay-per-click advertising, keyword density, Google Adwords, Google Adsense

Get this report if you want to earn multiple streams of income by selling advertising space in your websites.

Nowadays, People flock to setup Adsense program to earn. But indeed, there are a lot of rumors about this program. How easy it is to get banned and how difficult it actually is to earn good amount of money now using Adsense.

The fact is: The Adsense program has been changed since November 2005 and you are unlikely to earn easy money using Adsense.

Take a look at this report and you’ll understand how an Adsense guy has earned more than US$50,000 per month using non-Adsense ways.

By all means, grab this report before he stops giving away his method for free.

Best Internet Marketing,

Damen

Related Topics: Earn Money without Adsense, Adsense is dead, My Adsense Account is banned

It violates the terms of use of Google AdSense program if you try to manipulate their Adsense scripts embedded in your site. However, there is an official guide from Google telling you how to do the split testing without violating their rules. You can view it here: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/08/abcs-of-ab-testing.html

Bear in mind the three fundamental principles of marketing: test, test and test

Best Adsense Advertising,

Damen

Webmasters are trying their best to put up Google’s Adsense advertisements on their website and make people click on any one of them to earn Adsense dollars. Here is a very good demonstration

You can see how clever they setup the format of their content to totally blend into the Google’s Adsense content. People could click on those advertisments accidentally.

I’m neutral to this strategy. Indeed, I have reservation to overdoing this like this website.

If I’m a smart visitor, I think I don’t like to be tricked in clicking those Google’s Adsense advertisement. However, once you realize that you have clicked on any one of those advertising links, you’re too late. The webmaster has already earned the Adsense dollars by your very action. So this strategy actually works.

This is actually created by a website builder software from here.

I have not used this software myself. But if you have tried it, let me know your experience!

Best Adsense Selling,

Damen