$1 Million in Google AdSense Earnings

They are calling him the million dollar man. Jason Calacanis recently revealed in his blog that he is on track to earn a million dollars from AdSense over the year ahead. 

And if that number doesn’t wake you up and have you sitting on the edge of your seat, consider for a moment that he reached this level in less than a year. His company only started using AdSense in September 2004. 

Calacanis runs Weblogs Inc., a network dedicated to creating trade weblogs across niche industries. And he’s quickly proven that AdSense is a credible advertising partner. 

As their network has grown, so has their AdSense revenue. In January 2005 they earned an average of $580 per day. In March it was $737. In May it was $1,585. One day in July, just before he made the blog entry referred to above, they earned $2,335. Remember that is just for one day.  If they can take that daily average to $2,740 they’ll be earning a rate of $1 million for a year. And Calacanis predicts that reaching daily earnings of $3,000 or even $5,000 is quite achievable. 

That’s quite an achievement. Keep in mind that Calacanis has 103 bloggers on the payroll and nine staffers. Even so, many webmasters would give an arm or a leg to have even a third of that. 

Google’s AdSense has been revolutionary. It has become firmly established as the darling of the online advertising industry. Although rumors are heard of major competitors launching a similar service, AdSense’s premier position seems secure for now. 

In essence, AdSense has made it possible for almost anyone with a web site or blog to earn some revenue from advertising, without having to employ sales people or spend precious time searching for advertisers.  

AdSense works like this. Webmasters sign up for an account in just a few minutes. They receive a small snippet of code to include on their web pages. Google will then automatically serve advertisements that are relevant to the content on the webmaster's pages. When someone visits the webmaster's site and clicks on one of Google's AdSense advertisements, the webmaster earns a fee. Advertisers can pay anywhere from five cents to a hundred dollars per click, and the webmaster receives a percentage of that fee.

Many webmasters are content with earning five to ten dollars from AdSense to cover the cost of web hosting. But many, unsurprising, have higher ambitions. At a popular WebmasterWorld forum, participants share tips and encouragement on reaching a goal of $300 per day from AdSense. So it is no wonder that Calacanis created quite a buzz when he made his million dollar blog entry. 

Google have proven once again that they excel at designing innovative Internet services. If you are in the web industry and have not yet used AdSense, then perhaps you should try it out. Or if you are already using it, perhaps Calacanis’ impressive results will encourage you to track the performance of your AdSense units more closely, fine tune their positions and formats, and take your earnings to a new level. 

Calacanis’ million dollar blog entry can be viewed at: http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000403051129/

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“ What If ? ”

What if, What if, What if. This question comes at us every day. What if I said this, What if I did that or what if I didn’t. It comes down to decisions. We all have decisions to make every day of our lives. We all make good and bad decisions. That’s life. When you look back on your life you can think of some really great decisions that you made, decisions that have altered the course of your life. You can also remember some really bad ones that have affected you in a negative way.

 Life is never static, it’s always changing and opportunities come and go. Doors open and we have to decide whether to step through and seize the opportunity or not. When you are standing in front of that open door of opportunity the question arises “What if?” do I or don’t I. We need to make a decision. How do we make decisions? This depends on our background, education, life experiences and sometimes advice from others. 

We don’t know each other, but I would like to give you some advice. Suppose I said that I knew something that could change your life forever for the better. Would you be interested? Suppose I said I knew someone that was showing other people how to acquire something like real estate for free. Suppose you could also learn how to build on your “land” something like a five star hotel. You would also learn how to market your “hotel” and collect rent from guests that pay to stay. Would you be interested? 

What am I talking about? It’s called virtual real estate. Your own space on the World Wide Web or Internet if you prefer. If you own a space there it can turn out to be very valuable property.

The most expensive house in the world is a 12 bedroom mansion in London England for which an Indian steel tycoon paid $128 million.

The most valuable web page in history, to date, will probably be thesixmilliondollarpage by Alejandro Saavedra  and Robert Kanaat. Now here’s the difference. The tycoon paid $128 million for the house. How much did these two guys pay for the page. Next to nothing. Maybe a couple hundred bucks at the most depending on how they went about it.

I am going to open a door for you that could literally change your life. The only cost is your time and effort. Now you must decide! Ask yourself the following question:-

“What if” I click on this link:

It could make all the difference.

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What is Affiliate Marketing?

Have you ever wanted to make money online without having to stock products and do all the necessary accounting, credit card transactions, and shipping? Then affiliate marketing just might be what you're looking for.

Affiliate marketing is a profit-sharing business venture linking a webmaster and an online business. The website owner will position advertisements on his websites to sell the merchant's goods and/or to send possible clients to the merchant's website, and then profits are shared accordingly.

There are three ways to earn money through affiliate marketing:

Getting paid for clicks - Whenever a potential purchaser leaves the affiliate website by "clicking" on the link leading to the merchant's website, a certain amount of money is deposited in the affiliate's account. This amount can be pennies or dollars depending on the product and amount of the commission.

Getting paid for completed sales - Whenever a sale is made as a result of advertising on the affiliate's website, a percentage, or commission, is deposited into the affiliate's account.

Getting paid for sign-ups - Whenever a potential client registers at the merchant's website as a result of the advertisement on the affiliate's account, a previously determined amount is deposited into the affiliate's account.

For many website owners, this is a good way to make some additional cash by doing something once and then continuing to reap the rewards over time. All it involves is placing an ad on your website. There's no special selling or promotion of any kind. The affiliate leverages additional income off of the website promotion he is already doing.

It's also beneficial to the merchant. He doesn’t have to spend any money out of pocket for promotion until a product has sold.

Affiliate marketing has its benefits, but there are also a few drawbacks. For the merchant, there is a danger that an affiliate’s dishonest or unscrupulous practices will tarnish his company’s image and reputation.

The affiliate has to do thorough research on the merchant before agreeing to affiliation. To ensure a satisfying and lucrative business arrangement, find out the answers to these questions before entering into any affiliate agreement:

1.  How much commission does the merchant pay? 50% is a good starting point; any less than that and you’ll be spending most of your income on advertising.
2.  How often are commissions paid? Make sure you have the financial resources to keep on selling a product if you have to wait a long time before you get paid. Also, find out the minimum commission that you have to earn before you get paid. Of course the best situation is getting paid as soon as you sell.
3.  Does the merchant use tracking cookies? You want to make sure that you get recognition as the referring vendor if the customer returns and buys at a later date
4.  Does the company pay on successive sales? It is vital that you get paid no matter what approach the customer returns by if you are to build a sustainable income.
5.  What promotional means does the merchant offer? Does he offer ads, websites, or articles? It usually works best to write your own promotions, but whatever is provided gets you off to a good start.


Affiliate marketing can be a first-rate starting point for anyone new to internet promotion.  Linking up with just the right merchant for you might be tricky; the tips in this article can help, and you need to trust your own judgment. Only you can make the right decisions that will help you achieve your personal financial goals.

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Keyword Density for Newbies

In past articles, we've discussed the importance and methods of choosing the right keywords for your site and your niche market.  

Keywords are the phrases that search engines use to categorize your site for future reference when someone is searching in your niche market.

Now, we've already learned that we need to put our keywords not only in our meta tags, but also in other important tags located in our HTML code.  Another important on-page factor is peppering your keywords throughout your content.  

This serves a couple purposes.

First, it backs up your claim to the search engines that your site is truly about what you say it's about.  So, should I quantify "peppering?"

Actually, the technical term is called "keyword density," and its mathematical equation is the percentage of keywords included in the total content of your page.  

You see, years ago when keywords were introduced as a strategic way to get your site seen in the search engine results, people would use their keywords over and over and over in their meta tags.  This has been deemed "keyword stuffing" and the search engines disapprove highly of such use.

The mentality was, the more keywords you had in your pages, the higher you'd be in the search engine results.  This extreme usage of keyword density now can actually work against you so much it can lead to your site getting "black listed" by the search engines.  

It is as bad as it sounds!

So, what exactly IS the best keyword density in your web pages?  Well, as far as content goes, the words people can see on your site should have between 3-7% keyword density.  

As far as the words the search engines see but your visitors can't, it's important that you use your comment and alt tags to increase your keyword density if your visible content falls a little short.

Now, other than in your content, where else should you be concerned about your keyword density?

A perfect example is in an article such as this one.  This article is to raise awareness of the keyword tool we're promoting.  We write articles such as these to teach people about the importance of keywords in their internet marketing.  

Each article focuses on keyword density for one of our keywords.  One of our keywords is, in fact, keyword density!  So, when writing this article, we make sure to have that phrase scattered throughout the article, staying within the guidelines I've listed above.

As it turns out, the keyword density of the visible content in this particular article is 2.7%.  So, we would have to include the phrase in our comment tags to bring up the ratio to the percentage range listed earlier in this article.

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Email Marketing - The Lifeline Of Your Internet Business

It is not unusual to have high ranking at the Search engines yet see low conversion rates. In fact, someone else whose ranking is lower than yours may be making a killing online with his products. How could that happen?  With all other things being almost equal, good web design, good sales copy, quality products, it is highly probable the other person has an effective email marketing campaign set in place.

It is a so-called 'known secret' of successful online marketers that the lifeline of any Internet business is email marketing. It brings longevity to your business. If you hope to make a long term living off your Internet business, you need to give serious thought to email marketing if you haven't done so.

I started off my Internet business without seeing the need for email marketing. I spent a lot of time on SEO. Then one day this question dawned upon me. What am I to do with the traffic that would show up at my door?

It is a known fact that not many people will buy your product or service on their first visit to your website. Yes, some may buy the products that you are promoting but the majority won't. The vast majority may never come this way again. You stand to lose substantial traffic in this way. Then what about those who bought something? How can they become your lifelong customers?

No wonder, successful online marketers have an effective follow-up system that allows them to touch base with their visitors.  What better cost effective way to do so than through email.

4 Benefits of Email Marketing:

1.Gives visitors a personal touch to your online business. Email communication is the most cost effective way at present to touch base with your website visitors.

In a highly impersonalized world of Internet marketing, simple personalized email communiques can do wonders for your Internet business.

2.Allows you to build credibility and trust with your visitors. You can achieve this by conducting short courses in the area of your expertise through email. The courses you conduct must be relevant to the products or services you are promoting on your website.

For example, if you are promoting weight loss products, you may conduct a short course like 30 days to lose weight.  People are more disposed to buy your product or service if they gain confidence through the information you have provided.

3.Exposes visitors to your product or service. Sales statistics reveal that most people need to be exposed to an offer 7 times or more before they buy. You have no way of exposing your products or services before your website visitors except through Email marketing.

4.Turns first time buyers into lifelong customers. Email marketing is an effective way to update your customers of your latest products and services.

Follow-up with your customers immediately after they made a purchase with an offer of a free gift or special discounts on products that are related to what they have bought. This is good marketing practice. You will endear first time buyers to you, and turn them into lifelong customers.

After all been said, how to get visitors to leave behind their email address? Nobody will give something in exchange for nothing. Offer a free e-book, or software, or email course, or newsletter in exchange for your visitors' names and email addresses. This is by no means tricking people into giving their email address. In the first place, your visitors have some expressed interest when they came by your website. Your job is to continue to arouse their interest that they want to know more about what you have to

offer them.

The names and email addresses you collect is called an opt-in email list. With it you can touch base with your visitors without being accused of spamming.

Follow-up with personalized email communique, offer relevant information and leads. Don't turn your email communique into one big sales letter. It puts people off. If they unsubscribe from your mailing list, it's your loss. Say goodbye to your potential customers.

You cannot maintain the number one spot at the Search engines all the time. Other webmasters will overtake you sooner or later. However, this does not diminish the importance of Search Engine Optimization. For long-term success, SEO and an effective email marketing campaign are needful.

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Mistakes Made In Email Opt-In Usability

The reader needs motivation in order to subscribe for emails from a company. This is the very first step towards increasing the email opt-in rate. The website should have display the benefits of subscribing. Simple, nondescript boxes inhabit the homepage which say ‘Subscribe to the company’s newsletter’ and nothing more than that. There is lack of reason why the user should sign up unless they already find the content of the website interesting. It is agreed upon by many that the content should be kept basic. But how basic is the question. Lonely sign up boxes are a big no-no. There should at least be a brief promotional line which gives a specific and concrete benefit that would get the reader motivated to fill the box with his email address and click on the sign up button. The promotional matter should answer questions such as ‘Why should the reader sign up for the newsletter?’, ‘What are the solutions being offered by the newsletter?’, and ‘Is the newsletter focused and specific, concentrating on the needs of the reader?’

The same technique is to be used with the type of words and language being used in the promotional copy or more better, on the complete website. The links should be clear and shouldn't have any empty, vague or generic matter. The content should be able to solve the problem which the reader is looking forward to be solved. The readers must be offered with back issues and sample to give them a good idea about what they can expect from future newsletters they will be receiving. 

After the reader signs up, many of them receive a big nothing. They get big blackness and dead silence. The subscriber wants something to happen in his inbox immediately. Therefore, it is a good idea to send a welcome email right away which can include the latest newsletter or sample of the best newsletters. Try to include some email-special offer. At the end of the message tell them they will be expecting such great offers and newsletter in a short while. The new subscriber should feel that he has joined the club and has already received some benefit. He should feel the signing up process worth the effort. The welcome email also does the job of confirming email, which checks for the validity of the email address. 

On one hand there are people who have barely any motivating information on their website and on the other there are people who have too much information on their website. The information is not organized and the users are overwhelmed with innumerable choices. If the company has too many things to offer, it should narrow them down by grouping them into categories. On the basis of these categories, the newsletters too must be sent out. The newsletters should have specific content and any new material posted on the website should be posted in just a link and not more than that. 

The last thing which puts off the subscriber is asking too many questions. In the sign-up page they are asked for their email address only. Next they are linked to the preference page, followed by twenty more pages. This is a really blown opportunity. Initially, it is good to keep it sweet and short by asking information like first name, last name, and email address. Then send them a confirmation email where they can click the link for making choices. Marketers should know where to draw the line. A box asking just for the email address is a great way of not getting any subscriptions.

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Optimizing Your Website For Maximum Traffic

The internet has grown into an extremely major venue for advertisements of all kind. Almost every company has placed ads on the internet. But with thousands of web sites being viewed by billions of people, how can you be sure that your ad is seen by the people who you want to see it? Here are a few ways.

- Advertise on websites similar to your own. You don’t want to advertise on a competitor’s web site, but if you can reach your preferred audience through a similar site, then you will receive more attention.

Be sure to also check the competition on the site you’re trying to advertise on. It is also a good idea to look for other sites that link to the one you’re advertising on. This way, more and more users can see your site.

- Placing ads can be an expensive way to increase traffic. However there are some sites that will “trade” links with you – you advertise for them, they advertise for you. This can be a benefit in 2 ways, because having links placed on your site helps in search engine optimization.

- Pay-per-click is another option for you. You just pay for the ad as many times as the link is clicked. If this sounds better, make sure you have a limit on the daily spending. You can find programs that will assist you in adding keywords that will attract search engines.

- Choose your domain name with great care. Having a domain name that reflects the true content of your site can aid greatly in drawing consumers into your site, and will help them to remember the address.

- Keep your website intelligible! Having lots of search engine keywords can help traffic, but if your site is complete gibberish then the customer might not stick around for very long. So make sure you use keywords efficiently but not excessively.

- Keep track of all your ads. Check frequently how much you've spent on getting your links out. You can find services that allow you to monitor how efficient each site is judging by how much you've spent and how much traffic it has generated. If an ad isn't getting you enough traffic, you might want to consider getting rid of it.

Many think that getting your site to the top of a search engine is difficult, considering tens of thousands of web sites are competing for the spot. This is correct, but this doesn't mean your web site shouldn't be one of the top results.

Strategic deals and publicizing, complete with coherent, useful content can get you to the top of the search results. Instead of battling competitors for the same old keywords, acknowledge these methods and use them. You won’t just see more visitors; you’ll see more sales.

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Skills You Need To Build A Home Internet Business

A home-based business is a great way for those with extra time on their hands to make money. Or for those who want to eliminate the stress that comes from working for others, setting up a home-based business is a perfect solution. It may be a perfect opportunity for you but it will also take a lot of work to get it up and running.

To be able to successfully build a home internet business ask yourself if have the patients to master the skills required to make your venture successful.

1. Getting a Business Plan Together

Having the skills required to be able to develop a successful business plan is paramount for any businessperson. Ask any successful entrepreneur, planning is essential to success. Make sure you have a solid plan before you do anything. Plan your business like you would plan the building of a home. The future of your company is like a business plan blue print.

Before you go and quit your current job to build a home Internet business make sure you do some market research. This is the foundation of your planning. You can then use the research data to effectively plan your business.

2. Can You Sell?

Selling is not always necessary, but with most Internet companies you need to be able to sell in one way or another. Being able to sell the product is usually more important than the product itself. Remember when you build a home internet business a very good idea can go to waste if you are unable to sell it to others.

One excellent way to get ideas is to search the Internet for similar products and see how your competition is selling it. Look at what is working for them and what is not. Knowing your target demographic is key to selling you product. Once you have narrowed that down you can tweak your selling techniques around your customer base.

3. Getting your Product Known

Marketing is a very important business aspect. Having a good marketing strategy is vital for success. The more comprehensive your marketing plan is the better chance you have of succeeding. A cost effective way to market is handing out cards to everyone, including friends and associates. Let everyone know that you own a business.

Try using a professionally made flyer. Make sure they detail every aspect of you business. Start by handing them out in your own neighborhood. Then post them on community bulletin boards. And talk continuously about you business. Word of mouth is the best advertising.

Mastering these three skills will help you build a home Internet business that will prosper. Being your own boss is not always easy but learning these skill will help your business grow. Remember to check and get all necessary license and/or permits. Support from your family and friends is the best help you can ask for.

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Who's Afraid Of Internet Marketing?

It's no wonder so many business owners have the ultimate desire to employ a marketing director. There are so many different means and methods to marketing a company to the public it can be difficult, at best, to mange them all and run a business.

There are certain elements that share a commonality between traditional marketing and online marketing, but there are elements to Internet marketing that may seem foreign to the sensibilities of a traditional marketing specialist.

Some of the more common themes are news items such as press releases that encourage the news media and interested individuals to keep up your firm's latest news. There is also the general commonality of simply getting your name in front of people. The differences often come in the 'how' and 'why' of marketing and not the 'what' and 'should'.

Most businesses understand the need to get people tuned into what their business is doing. Long standing brick and mortar marketing principles would suggest traditional media outlets such as newsprint, radio or television as obvious choices. While these media outlets certainly have a place in marketing, the bulk of successful Internet marketing happens online.

Marketing for the web requires an understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques along with linkable connections scattered throughout the web. What this means is that every time you post on a blog or forum you should make sure a link to your business is included in the signature box. This also means you ask business associates to consider placing a link to your site on their websites.

One of the most cost effective means of advertising your online business will be Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. This is one of the smallest advertisements you will ever see, but they are highly targeted so you have the best chance of reaching prospects that can be turned to customers.

Internet marketing may also mean developing knowledge-based articles or ezines that can readily connect with your customers. Many site owners have either personally developed articles or hired a freelance writer to produce an ebook on the subject of their business that can be passed along to members of their site either through autoresponders or as part of an opt-in membership. These members help you establish a mailing list online. List building techniques include offering a freebie to customers and often result in a very low cost means of growing your contact list.

Internet marketing is vitally important to the establishment and growth of your ecommerce site, but it may require learning a new language and developing new marketing skills. If you can't afford a marketing specialist you can still learn the skills needed to grow your site into a premier online ecommerce destination.

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Evaluating Your Email Marketing

Email marketing can be a very effective way to reach a target audience around the world. However, your marketing efforts may not reach their full potential unless you invest some time, energy and money into evaluating your email marketing strategy. During this evaluation you may determine whether or not the email marketing is helping you to reach your goals. Likewise you can determine if the email marketing is having an adverse affect on your business. This article will discuss the importance of evaluating your email marketing and will also offer some useful advice on how to do this. 

To say that evaluating your email marketing strategy on a regular basis is important is a tremendous understatement. Regularly evaluating your email marketing is not only important it is critical to the success of your business. Failure to evaluate your email marketing strategies can have adverse effects ranging from not producing results to causing you to lose customers to your competitors. 

Consider an email marketing campaign which is not effective because it does not reach the members of the target audience. Some business owners make the fatal mistake of not taking care to ensure their email distribution list features recipients who are extremely interested in the products or services you offer. Business owners who take short-cuts by purchasing large email lists, often find their short-cut did not pay off because the recipients of their marketing emails are simply not interested in the products or services you offer. In this scenario the email marketing is likely to generate very few sales or website visits. However, re-evaluating the email distribution list to include recipients who are interested in your products or services will likely result in significantly more sales and website visits.

Now consider a situation in which your email marketing is being construed as spam by the recipients. If you have taken precautions to ensure your emails are reaching members of your target audience but your emails seem like over the top sales pitches, the members of your email distribution list may view your emails as spam and not take your advertisements seriously. When this happens the member of your email distribution list may be more likely to seek out a competitor when they are in need of products or services rather than making a purchase from you.

Evaluating your email marketing efforts may be formal or informal in nature. If you have specific business goals in mind you might want to consider using whether or not you are on the way to meet this goal as an indication of whether or not the email marketing is working. You can evaluate your email marketing efforts by soliciting customer feedback. Asking customers for their opinions about the email marketing campaign and whether or not they were compelled to make a purchase because of the content, the advertising or some other element. Based on this information you should have a good indication of whether or not the email marketing is effective. If it is not effective you should consider making changes to create more interest in your products or services. The changes you make should reflect the feedback you receive though to ensure you are not making changes which will cause even less interest from the members of the target audience.  

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