AdWords Changes to Affect Google Advertisers

Google will soon implement changes to the AdWords system that will affect all Google advertisers. The changes address two major areas: status or "keyword state," and the AdRank algorithm. As both have considerable effect on campaign strategy and tactics, today I'll offer you a road map by which to navigate the upcoming changes.

In some instances, the prior system was too complex and didn't adequately balance the needs of advertisers and searchers. Not surprisingly, Google's changes make it easier for marketers to spend more. Initially, it may even spur escalated bidding, particularly among generic keywords and trademarks.

The Simplified Keyword State

According to sources, starting in August the status, or keyword state, will be simpler. On hold, in trial, normal, and disabled keyword states will be replaced with active and inactive keywords states. In the past, keywords added to an AdWords campaign wouldn't go live across the entire network; instead, they'd launch in trial for a period of time. Now, words go live immediately and remain live as long as the bid is above the minimum calculated by the system (minimum bids by keyword will be determined based on new parameters, but more about that later).

Keywords that were disabled in the past due to low CTR (define) can be re-enabled by bidding above the system's new minimums. Minimum bids may go up or down (even as low as $0.01), and these minimums will be visible to you in AdWords' interface, as well as within the AdWords API (define) for campaign management solutions. Once keywords are running, they'll keep on running as long as the bids are sufficient. No more on-hold or in-trial quality issues that appear to defy explanation because some keywords had difficulty maintaining the arbitrary 0.5 percent CTR threshold, regardless of creative tweaks.

One way to interpret this change is that marketers are encouraged to bid higher. If the ad is active and doesn't show up or its average position reported in the Google AdWords interface is very high (meaning a high number, lower on the page), you'll have a chance to bid up or improve your "Quality Score."

Be ready to identify keywords that were disabled in the past. Consider whether they belong in your campaign. If they do, determine the best match type (broad, phrase, or exact); write the most accurate, compelling creative you can; and reactivate those keywords. Google will keep the disabled keywords for a month before purging them, in case the earlier creative and match type options are ones you want. If your keywords failed before, however, you may want to reconsider creative and match type if only to improve CTR -- which matters all the more.

If some of your current campaigns contain lots of on-hold or in-trial keywords, you may spend more as they become active. If lots of your competitors have on-hold or in-trial keywords, they may suddenly be back in your face, bidding against you for your favorite keywords.

The Improved AdRank Algorithm

The other big AdWords change is the Quality Score concept. Google has always used a normalized CTR to calculate AdRank. The current method has been evolving for some time to more accurately predict your CTR at every position. Google's ability to accurately predict CTR is critical to determining position, because AdRank multiplies the predicted CTR against your MaxBid to determine position.

This normalized, predicted CTR has reached a point where it takes into consideration many variables beyond your current position, all of which correlate with Google's idea of quality. Google won't disclose all the variables in the Quality Score calculation, other than to state Quality Score is determined by a combination of historical keyword performance among all advertisers, as well as ad performance, relevance of the creative or ad text, and other undisclosed, predictive factors. Some of those other factors may be domain name, brand, a keyword in the title or description, and other linguistic triggers.

Google's algorithm continues to let searchers vote on ads with their mice. It used to be only Google searchers counted in the normalization algorithm. Now, Google's extended network will also be used to calculate AdRank. Clearly, the Quality Score is truly trying to predict CTR at every instance, using all the expanded variables and attributes Google finds to be predictive.

Prior history follows ads for a while, so even if you improve ad copy to boost your Quality Score for a brief time, the earlier quality score is used, even if you "deserve" a higher score. Google will constantly (as often as several times a day) factor in the latest data and heavily weigh it to calculate the Quality Score. As your Quality Score increases, you may see an ad move up in position, or a decrease in billed CPC (define).

The Discounter that bills you just enough to retain your position based on the AdRank system remains in place. A frequently updated Quality Score system means great creative and well-tuned AdGroups (the right keyword mix and match type) continue to be very important to success and efficiency.

With Quality Score, Google continues to be fairly opaque in terms of insight into what to expect for position or spending. At least it's eliminated keyword labeling that wasn't as helpful as originally intended.

A fresh look at your campaigns, creative, keywords, and match types is in order.

Kevin Lee is co-founder and executive chairman of Did-it.com, LLC. Did-it.com uses advanced strategy and technology to optimize the performance of its client's paid placement and paid inclusion search campaigns. Kevin and the Did-it.com team have been dedicated to helping search marketers succeed since 1996.

Pricing Strategies in Marketing

Price is an often overlooked marketing strategy, as many tend to focus on promotions or advertising. Pricing strategies, however, can have a large impact on sales and (more importantly) profit.

The price is what your customer pays and/or what the end consumer pays for a product or service. In the case of products not sold directly to the end user, pricing is often described as "wholesale" and "retail." When the distribution channel is long (such as when there is a manufacturer, broker/distributor, retailer, and end consumer), multiple mark-ups can occur between the wholesale and the retail price.

Your optimal pricing strategy will depend on more than your costs. Forces within your business environment such as your competitors, your suppliers, the availability of substitute products, and your customers come into play as well. Positioning (how you want to be perceived by your target audience) is also a consideration.

Pricing Strategies

There are a variety of pricing strategies in existence. Each strategy is used in a different set of circumstances. Some of the things to consider when choosing the best strategy for your situation are your costs; both short term and long term sales and profit goals; competitors’ activities; and customer lifetime value. A few of the pricing strategies available to you are:

Cost plus mark-up. Here, you decide the profit you want to make before setting the price. Figure out your costs and your selling price is simply your costs plus your pre- determined profit number. This approach helps keep your profitability top-of-mind, but may also result in prices that are out-of-line with customer expectations and competitor pricing.

Competitive pricing. When competitive pricing, you look at the prices your competitors are charging and use those prices as a benchmark when pricing your own products. You and your competitors’ positioning strategies will determine whether you price at par, slightly below, or slightly above the competition.

Price skimming. This technique is used when you offer a unique or scarce product with few or no substitutes. The price is set high, resulting in high margins for the seller. Buyers are those that are willing to pay the price because of the product’s prestige and/or uniqueness. In the case of a scarce but necessary product, customers pay the price because they have no choice.

Often, price skimming is a short-term strategy as competitors enter with their own products, bringing prices down. In the case of scarce products, either the need passes (Salt during an ice storm, for example.) or the shortage is temporary. Before considering this technique, be aware that if your customers feel your have taken advantage of them, you could be building "bad will" for your business.

Penetration pricing. This is the opposite of price skimming. Prices are set artificially low in an effort to gain large market share. Because the penetration price does not cover costs, this is also a temporary strategy. For this strategy to be profitable, customers must be willing to pay your normal, higher price.

Loss leader. Here, you price one or more products below cost to attract customers. You hope that those customers will purchase other profitable products from you. This strategy is often implemented as part of a short-term promotion.

Close out. This is a tactical move to clear slow-moving or excess products out of inventory. You sell the inventory at a steep discount to avoid storing or discarding the product. End-of season merchandise, perishables that are about to expire, and prior software versions or book printings are examples of eligible closeout items.

Multiple unit pricing. Also called quantity discount. The customer gets a price break for purchasing multiple units or large quantities.

Membership or trade discounting. Here, some customers (those that you know are heavy or frequent purchasers) are given an elite status, which gives them the privilege of a price discount on their purchases. This elite status can be based on occupation, membership in an organization, subscription status, or some other criteria.

Variable pricing. With a variable pricing strategy, different customers pay different prices. Often, this strategy is used for project work. Each project has unique characteristics so is priced by the job. In other cases, the price is negotiated with each customer (Cars are an example.).

Versioning. This is offering the same product with different levels of functionality. Each level is priced differently and includes a different bundle of attributes. Software and Web hosting companies often use this pricing strategy. A trial or very basic version may be offered at low or no cost. Upgraded versions are available at higher costs.

Bundling. Here, several items are sold together at a price less than if they were purchased alone. By bundling a popular item with lesser-known products, you can increase your sales. Additionally, in the case of inventoried items, you may be able to avoid a closeout.

Impact of Internet on Pricing Strategies

Aside from making some pricing strategies more prevalent, the Web has also affected the importance of choosing correct pricing strategies, by allowing customers to be better informed and more vocal. In the case of consumer products, the purchaser can go to www.MySimon.com or another price comparison service and in seconds look at a side-by-side price comparison from several online retailers.

There are also numerous forums and discussion boards where members discuss their experience with providers. For example, your customer in Paris can complain or spread praise about you to a potential customer in St. Louis. This means the customer can not only make a better decision before purchasing, but can also better spread the word (both praise and complaints) after the purchase. For these reasons, the Web has made it more important that you remain competitively priced with your competition and maintain sensible pricing practices.

Combined, smart use of both the Internet and available pricing strategies can help boost your company’s the bottom line.

About the Author

Bobette Kyle draws upon 12+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network - http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com - and author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business."

5 New Internet Profits Opportunities Through RSS

When it comes to new internet marketing opportunities for your business, RSS just might be the answer you were looking for. Here are just some of the new opportunities it can provide you with …

1. PODCASTING AND VIDEOCASTING

Podcasting (delivering internet audio content) and Videocasting (delivering internet video content) allow you to communicate via rich media messages, not only making your content more attractive and powerful, but also enabling a more personal »conversation« with your audiences.

Up until know, the internet was predominantly a textual channel. Adding audio and video to the mix, delivering both via RSS, goes beyond the basic capabilities provided by »traditional« internet content delivery channels. Rich media personalizes the internet experience and gives your company a distinguishable face, while at the same time providing you with a media platform to convey your message so that it is easier to understand, see and feel.

Think about ...

--> Delivering press releases in audio or video

--> Sending your customers a personal video message from the CEO

--> Doing audio interviews to expand your reach and provide more content to your visitors

--> Delivering video demonstrations of your products

--> Using video and audio to demonstrate how your customers and readers can easily resolve various issues that you are helping them with

--> Delivering important messages to your readers, customers and business partners via a more personal audio experience, instead of using impersonal e-mail communications

--> And so on ...

In addition, Podcasting and Videocasting form the basis of new business models, giving you the opportunity to expand your product base to include these formats with higher perceived value.

Customer education & support are improved as well, since you can now demonstrate key product usage points via online video  providing customer support content in a format, which can easily demonstrate everything you need to convey to your customers.

2. HIGH FREQUENCY CONTENT UPDATES

High frequency content updates, even on a daily or hourly basis, are now finally possible with RSS. No more need to hold on your important messages, news and other content for a week or even a month to include it in your e-zine --- with RSS you can update your content as often as you want/need, and your subscribers won't mind.

3. APPCASTING

Appcasting goes one step further, giving you the ability to deliver critical software updates and patches to your existing clients, without them having to visit your web site every week to see if the much needed update is already available or not.

4. PRODUCT NEWS, RELEASES AND UPDATES

Product news, releases and updates are now finally possible in an easy-to-consume way. Using RSS, you can provide your customers or prospects with simple tools to create their own »product feeds«, through which they'll be immediately notified when new products that precisely match their interests are available.

As soon as your product portfolio changes, so does the content in the RSS feeds that your customers are subscribed to.

Just think of the following possibilities ...

--> The search tool is one of the most often used in larger web stores, giving your visitors an easy way to find the products they are interested. But the same search results can be delivered via RSS as well. Imagine your customer doing a search for one of your product categories, and then also receiving a link to the RSS feed for those very same search results, to find out immediately when a new product matching his terms is released or available for order.

--> This works for complex searches as well. If your customers are in the habit of searching for specific product categories, but only in a specific price range, you can deliver those very same results to them via RSS, but with a small twist. So as soon as a new product matching their terms, including the desired price, is launched, they are notified about it via RSS instantly. No need to visit your site again to do the time-consuming search; the release comes directly to them.

--> Of course, the same approach that many are already using for e-mail alerts can be used for RSS. Give your visitors a simple form using which they enter their criteria, and then give them access to an RSS feed bringing them product updates based exactly on their criteria. Why not just use e-mail? Because no one really wants more e-mail messages in their inboxes and no one wants to give away their personal information, while RSS is anonymous, doesn't require an e-mail address and is read when the customer decides he has the time.

5. PERSONALIZED CONTENT SERVICES

Personalized/customized database listings are quite similar to product updates, but relate to any kind of complex information you provide to your visitors, such as …

--> Job listings

--> Dating

--> Real estate

--> Etc.

Using RSS, your visitors can decide exactly what kind of »content« (in this case, an individual content item could be a new job listing) they are looking for and then have that content delivered directly to them, via their own personalized RSS feed.

And yet, all of these are just some examples of what you can do with RSS. The possibilities for new content delivery & business development models are quite endless.

For example, some companies are already giving their visitors the opportunity to track their FedEx, UPS and other packages via RSS feeds. Yet others are creating new services that allow you to receive critical information from an RSS feed to your mobile phone via SMS (such as getting an SMS notifying you that a new job matching your criteria is available). Yet again other sites enable you to keep track of when you need to return your library material, and even when your holds are ready and when they are about to expire, all this using RSS.

All of these are new business opportunities made possible with RSS, and each of them in a way improves lives of end-users, without placing a larger burden (more e-mail messages) on them.

Rok Hrastnik is the author of "Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS", acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS experts. The complete guide on RSS for marketers: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html

The Web's Third Wave

Remember the first time you used a Web browser to access a document on the Internet coded in HTML?

It sounds simple today, but reach back in your distant Web memory and you may recall the fascination you experienced the first time you "went on the Internet," typed in a URL, and saw a poorly formatted, probably pretty ugly-looking Web page appear out of nowhere.

Do you remember clicking on your first link, which shot you off to your second URL? For me, this was one of those mind-altering experiences that caused me to view the world differently. If every piece of information could be linked to any other piece of information, and all information was placed on the Internet... the opportunities seemed unlimited.

What I didn't imagine was how fast the Web would happen.

Of course, the ideas behind the Web were not new when Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first Web client and server in 1990 at CERN. In the July 1945 issue of "The Atlantic Monthly," Vannevar Bush wrote an article titled, "As We May Think." Summarizing the piece, the editor concluded, "Dr. Bush calls for a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge."

Bush's ideas predate modern information technology. They became the inspiration for a large body of work, most notably Douglas Engelbart's pioneering work on early human computer interfaces in the '60s at the Stanford Research Center and Ted Nelson's Project Xanadu.

In the late '80s, I was working on some exciting research at the MIT Media Lab. We invented a way to create contextual hyperlinks in video. Though we imagined a networked world where all information was digital, our idea was to develop what we called the "tell me more TV," where access to information would primarily happen through a new-generation interactive TV.

It took less than 15 years for the Web to move from a research project at a pan-European center for high-energy particle physics to worldwide ubiquity. It's evolved dramatically from where it started, as a markup language and linking mechanism for text and graphics. Linking, whether in text or video, was about creating context.

Much of that context has been lost as the Web exploded.

In its first decade, the Web evolved from a focus on document storage and retrieval to an application and storage platform. This is a radical transformation. Two things drove this evolution. First, the Internet decoupled application location and access.

It doesn't matter where the servers are, because the Internet provides ubiquitous access, enabling tremendous growth of new consumer Web applications. Second, plummeting storage costs and the emergence of network-wide search engines fueled the information explosion.

This explosion of information and applications on the Web has led to a conundrum. In a word: clutter. We may know what we're looking for and that it's out there, somewhere. We may even have found it in the past. But we can never seem to find it when we need it. Applications are difficult to remember and use. Information is difficult to find. Moreover, the two don't integrate, so making use of the information even if you do find it is hard. Witness our "dependency" on search.

Still, the quest for new and better ways, and thus the evolution, continues. In the middle of the Web's second decade, a third wave of innovation is occurring. Having moved from document access to application access, the third wave is about simplicity, context, and unification. How does the consumer Web become fundamentally easier to use? That's the next burning question -- and challenge.

Not unexpectedly, this challenge is heeded from two opposite directions. Small companies, mostly newcomers, are taking a fresh look at old problems and developing innovative new solutions. Big companies are making acquisitions and consolidating, gradually merging previously disparate offerings with the goal of creating unified experiences through one-stop shopping.

Take a look at travel sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, Yahoo!, and SideStep. They all want to provide you with a lot more than just integrating air travel, car rental, and hotels. The "small company" in the group, Sidestep, has a very nice user interface. It's simple and interactive, demonstrating innovation from a little guy. Sidestep is also innovating with its business model: an ad-supported model, as opposed to transaction fees.

The consolidation phase of the Internet started a while back and will continue to gain momentum. Simplicity, context, and unification will be the backdrop. Amazon.com launched search service A9. It continues to branch out with ever more stores. I imagine it won't be long before it launches some kind of travel service. Shopping, travel, and information, integrated in one unified, simple experience. That must be what it aims to do. Yahoo! is no different.

Will this approach work?

I think so. Customers and their fickle loyalty are fueling the innovation ecosystem. Small companies will continue to innovate by creating new and exciting applications that simplify tasks and provide better context for information (and advertising). A few will be standalone efforts, but most will be acquired by the big guys. Larger players, in turn, will continue to consolidate and attempt, with varying degrees of success, to create unified experiences that make the Web easier to use, hence increasing the switching cost of the customer. They'll create loyalty through stickiness.

Hans Peter Brøndmo has spent his career at the intersection of technological innovation and consumer empowerment. He is a successful serial entrepreneur and a recognized thought leader. His latest company, Plum, is a consumer service with big plans to make the Web easier to use. In 1996, he founded pioneering e-mail marketing company Post Communications.

His recent book, "The Engaged Customer," is a national bestseller and widely recognized as the bible of e-mail relationship marketing. As a sought-after keynote speaker, he has addressed more than 50 conferences in the past three years, is often featured in national media, and has been invited to testify at two U.S. Senate hearings and an FCC hearing on Internet privacy and spam. Hans Peter is on the board of the online privacy certification and seal program of TRUSTe and several companies. He performed his undergraduate and graduate studies at MIT.

The Future Of Search: Finding Your Place In The Hive

Editor's Note: Search experts are increasingly speaking of the next generation of search that will give way to personalized "theme" engines, search engines that will be specially tailored to user preferences and habits. The transition will require a whole new approach to search engine optimization and search marketing. Of course, when things are in flux, speculation runs high. Do you think SEO techniques will require a radical change? Discuss at WebProWorld.

For many this isn't news. You're already tapped in, communicating by elaborate dances on par with quantum string theory and its highly intuitive mathematics. . You know already that the second generation of search is rapidly giving way to the third generation of search and you've adjusted your SEO techniques accordingly.

But for others, if you haven't been paying attention, a burgeoning third generation that probes the deepest and traditionally most inaccessible corners of the Hive, as I now shall call it, with evermore awe-inspiring technology and personalized self-redefining features will be surprising.

It will dawn on you, the way it has on me, that all the work you've done to get a higher search engine ranking ISN'T GOING TO WORK ANYMORE. What used to be content, content, content will become context, context, context.

Where We Were, Where We Are, Where We're Going

In 1992, there were just over 16,000 domains on the Internet. The only people that really knew about it were introverted techies who liked to impress their friends by showing how to find bomb-building instructions with their PS 2's. These are the same ilk who eventually grew up to work for the NSA.

The first generation of search engines emerged soon after with basic methods based upon keyword relevancy-the density of keywords on the site, keywords in the title, domain, etc. But a system so simple is wide open for abuse. Enter the spammers morphing search engines into just another advertising medium.

With the second generation, the algorithms became more sophisticated by not only measuring keyword relevancy, but also by adding off-page criteria like page rank, link popularity, click tracking, cache data, and two-word keyword combinations for added context.

The search engine world exploded, leading to the search king of the hill battle to see who would preside over the 30 million domains that had sprouted by 2001.

So here we are now in 2005 balancing on the edge of a new world so hyper-evolved that search engines are beginning to "think." The methods of generations one and two become only part of the equation.

"Theme engines," as they have been called by Michael Campbell, search engine strategist and author of the e-book, "Nothing But ‘Net," are the next incarnation.

The third generation is much more personalized and takes into account factors like geographic location, demographics, time of day, search history, and user preferences.

Microsoft's highly anticipated Longhorn operating system is expected to integrate desktop and Internet searching by building a complete portfolio around a user and tailoring the search results accordingly.

Take Andy Beal's example of a searcher who routinely downloads music from the band "Heart." When typing in the keyword "heart," results for the band will appear instead of links to the American Heart Association.

But most intriguing is how the search engine spiders (worker bees) will learn to judge the content of websites.

Campbell explains it better, so I'll leave it in his words:

- G3 adds Web maps which…are a useful filtering tool to get rid of duplicate sites... This means pages like doorways, gateways, entry, splash…will soon get filtered out.

- What you say about your Web page, how the structure of other people's Web pages compares on the same topic, and what other people say your site is about, must match, be in harmony with each other, be as one.

Or, in the cold hard world of the search engines, where everything is weighted and calculated according to mathematical formulas, whoever is closest to the 1.000000 without going over is the winner, coming up tops in the search engine.

Since keyword relevancy and page rank are reduced to links in the logical chain, here are some helpful hints (with a little help from Campbell) to prepare for the future of search:

- Diversify. Think in terms of "themed" Web sites by creating several static sites each with their own topic. If you sell carnival equipment, set up one site about food vending, another about games, and another about transport equipment, and link them together. Give all sites a similar format so people know that they are connected.

- Don't sweat the small stuff. With link text, get rid of punctuation and unimportant words like "a," "and," and "the." Keep it to the keywords only.

- Big brothers help little brothers. If one site is very popular and indexed often in important places, use the site as a portal to lesser-known or new websites by providing links to them.

- FOCUSED CONTENT. Create the content for your sites by writing articles that revolve around your keywords and subject matter only.

- Keyword placement is more important than density. Use keyword phrases in the title, ALT, URL, link text, and META tags. The weight of keyword density is top-heavy, with more weight given to the top, and then the middle, with the bottom of the page deemed less relevant.

That's the skinny on the future of search. There's much more that can't be squeezed into this article, but hopefully the information will be helpful.

While your competition is still working with outdated second generation SEO techniques, you'll be well along the garden path of the third generation. You'll even have your own niche in the honeycomb.

About the Author: Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. View All Articles by Jason Lee Miller.

Zoom Your Internet Profits With Niche Keywords

What I'm about to reveal will shock you...

In fact, you may end up feeling outraged.

But in the end, I promise you'll thank me for this.

You see, I've got a secret to share with you... a secret top internet marketers don't want you to know.

Here's the story...

If you haven't yet realized, many top internet marketers have been quietly "doing their own things" the past few months.

Lying real low.

Real low.

As if they've suddenly vanished from the face of this earth... only to return occasionally to sell you a big and expensive program or course - to make their big fat commission checks.

Then they vanish into thin air yet again .

What have these top internet marketers REALLY been up to?

The truth is, they have been secretly spending their time locating 'niche money holes' - researching and discovering tons of 'hidden' unexploited niches.

Niches that NO ONE else is targeting... profiting quietly from them.

And they've been using a special something to help them achieve their mission.

Find out more about this special something:

http//www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com/dowser

As you visit the webpage, you'll also discover something strange in the copy..

There is a 'hidden' secret when you read and scroll down to the bottom, and I think it'll make a lot of business sense to you as you're reading it.

The price break however, is only good for about 72 hours till the actual launch date this Friday, so make sure you 'steal' the software while you can.

So make sure you use your first mover's advantage to the fullest.

You'll surprise yourself when you discover how easy it is to use the software to turn mere words into fast internet profits...

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Valeriu

P.S. You'll end up kicking yourself if you miss out on this one:

http//www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com/dowser

P.P.S. Here's a great PDF report to download: "Jo Han Mok's Golden Keywords Teleclass -- How To Turn Mere Words Into Online Cash!"

Featuring: Keyword Research Developers Fabian Lim & Ivan Wong, developers of Dowser software.

http//www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com/bonus/dowser.pdf

How You Can Increase Your Internet Profits by More Than 400%!

"Test for Success: Learn the Top 12 Things to Test on Your Web Site"

In the last few weeks, and especially in the last newsletter we sent out, I've been laying down a challenge to you. I've been urging you to "test something new" on your web site in honor of Corey. And your response has been fantastic: I'm sitting here with an inbox full of e-mails in response to this challenge, asking for suggestions on exactly what to test.

That's why we're devoting this issue to giving you the top twelve tests you can run on your web site right now. These tests are quick and easy to implement and can start increasing your sales by 400%... 700%... even 1,000%... in less than 48 hours!

And I haven't just grabbed those figures out of the air. These are ACTUAL results that we've seen by running literally hundreds of our own tests every month.

Bottom line... testing is the ONLY way to discover what works -- and what doesn't -- on your web site, and it's the BEST way to start increasing your sales exponentially. And if you take the plunge and test even just one of the following twelve things, you'll learn just how true this is... especially when you start seeing a dramatic improvement to your bottom line!

Test #1: Offer ONE product or service on your homepage

Do you offer a number of products or services on your web site? If so, we strongly recommend you test whether or not this is the most effective strategy for you. We've found that offering fewer products in one place with more copy describing those products ALWAYS translates into higher sales.

It's all about focus. Instead of trying to please everyone who visits your web site by offering a large range of products with minimal detail about each one, if you offer just one product (or one set of related products), you can really focus on one key set of benefits and answer all of the possible questions and doubts your visitors might have about your product. And you don't have to stop selling your other products -- you can always offer them to your customers from other web pages or by using follow-up offers (see Test #12).

Of course, the only way to find out for sure if this will work with your target audience is to test it! Write a salesletter for your lead product and put it on your homepage. Run the test for a week or two to see how it increases your sales!

Test #2: Reposition your opt-in offer to BOOST your opt-ins and build a bigger list of loyal subscribers!

Your opt-in offer is your tool for gathering your customers' e-mail addresses. In exchange for their address, you might offer them a free report containing valuable information or a regular free newsletter. Your opt-in is your mechanism for building your e-mail list, which allows you to regularly keep in touch with your subscribers, build relationships of trust and loyalty, and sell them your products or services.

But did you know that WHERE your opt-in offer appears on your site can have a huge impact on how many subscribers you attract?

If you don't use a long salesletter, test placing your opt-in offer in as prominent a position as possible on your homepage -- the top-left of a page is where visitors' eyes are often drawn first. At the very least, test placing your opt-in in the "first fold" of your salesletter -- the area of screen first visible to a visitor before they scroll down the page.

If you have a long salesletter, you should test placing it within your second "page" of text -- after you've grabbed your visitors' attention by identifying a problem they have and established your credibility by impressing them with your credentials, experience, and glowing testimonials from happy customers.

You should also test placing your opt-in offer on EVERY page of your web site so it's always in front of your visitors, and try using a "hover ad" (see below). The more sign-up opportunities you provide, the more subscribers you're likely to get. Test it and see!

Test #3: Add impact to your promotions with "hover ads"

I'm sure everyone's familiar with pop-ups. They're the small windows containing a special offer or other information that sometimes "pop up" when you visit a web site. Love 'em or hate 'em, pop-ups have been a very useful online marketing tool for years. However, because a percentage of Internet users disliked them, Google, AOL, Netscape, and others developed pop-up blocking software to combat them.

Of course, Internet users should be able to choose whether or not they want to view pop-ups. However, much of this software automatically blocked pop-ups, meaning visitors to a site started missing out on valuable information that could benefit them.

But that was before we discovered a very impressive technology that actually lets you use ads that BEHAVE like pop-ups, but that are NOT pop-ups -- so they don't get blocked. They're called "hover ads" and they're well worth testing on your site.

In fact, when we tested adding a hover ad to our site, sales increased by 162%! They're effective because they put important information, such as your opt-in offer or a special time-limited promotion, right in front of your targeted visitors.

You can test placing your opt-in offer in your hover ad to see if that boosts subscription numbers. When we did this, 86% more people subscribed to our newsletter! You can also test how many more people click through to a special offer page on your web site through a hover ad versus through a regular link on your homepage. For more information about how hover ads can work for you, check out www.marketingtips.com/hoverad.

Test #4: Feature different benefits in your headline

Your headline has a HUGE impact on your sales. It's often the first thing visitors to your site see so it must grab their attention and compel them to read your salesletter.

A successful headline should highlight a problem your target audience faces and stress the main benefit of your product or service in solving this problem. Let's look at an example that illustrates how a headline can be changed for maximum impact.

One of our clients was using the following headline on his site: "Box4Blox -- The Amazing Toy Storage Box For Lego." The problem with this headline is that it tells you what the product is, but not what it does for you. It doesn't give a visitor any good reason to continue reading the rest of the page.

Contrast this with "Finally! Discover the Secret That's Got More Than 50,000 LEGO-Crazy Kids Worldwide Actually *LOVING* Clean-Up Time!" This headline presents a major benefit of the product and a solution to a problem -- in this case, how to get kids to clean up after themselves, and actually enjoy it.

Test #5: Establish a problem in your copy and show how you can solve it

In the first couple of paragraphs that appear on your homepage, you need to go into more detail about the problem you introduced in your headline -- showing your audience that you relate to them. (Only when your audience feels you understand their problem will they feel confident that you can solve it.)

Once the problem is established, you can then begin introducing your product or service as the solution to this problem. By emphasizing exactly how your product or service will solve your reader's problem, you are guaranteed to see a boost in sales!

Test #6: Add credibility to your copy... and enhance your visitors' trust in you

It's vital that your salescopy establishes your credibility: It's through this process that your visitors come to trust you and feel comfortable enough to buy from you. There are several ways you can do this effectively and we'll talk about two of the quickest and easiest ones here. If you're not already using these techniques, revamp your copy and test it against what you're using now. You'll be surprised by the difference.

One of the best ways to establish your credibility is to include customer testimonials in your salesletter. These should be excerpts from genuine e-mails or letters from customers expressing how your product or service helped solve the particular problem they faced. This last point is important: A customer testimonial that states how your product benefited them is much more effective than one that just says something like, "Your product is great!"

You can also enhance your credibility by adding a section to your copy that outlines your credentials, experience, and any background information that makes you qualified to solve your target audience's problem. Your aim should be to effectively convince readers that you are the best person to offer them a solution to their problem.

Test #7: Focus on your readers... not yourself

The most successful salescopy focuses on the reader. Too often, business owners neglect this simple golden rule. Look carefully at your salescopy. Is it filled with references to "I," "me," and "we"? Instead of using sentences like, "I designed my time-management software with the busy homeowner in mind," try "Your new time-management software will free up hours of time for you to spend with your family."

Try searching for "I," "me," and "our" in your salescopy and replace them with "you" and "your."

Test #8: Instill urgency into your copy -- and convince readers they need to buy NOW!

It's very important that your salescopy instills a sense of urgency in your visitors, compelling them to buy NOW. The best place to do this is towards the end of your salesletter, near the call to action (when you ask for the sale). Here are a few of the most effective ways to create a sense of urgency. Try testing each one against your current copy:

- Offer a limited-time price discount offer where visitors must buy before a certain date in order to qualify for the discount

- Offer additional bonuses for free if they buy within a certain time frame

- Offer only a limited quantity of your products or services

- Offer a limited quantity bonus

Test #9: Remove references to "buying" from the first fold

People usually go online looking for free information. If you start your sales pitch too early in your copy, you may end up losing them before you've had the chance to hook them. You first need to get them interested in what you have to say by relating to a problem they're facing (as I outlined in Test #5) and how you can solve it. Once you've accomplished that, you can start to sell to them.

Here's an easy way to improve the tone of your salesletter: Try removing references to "buying," "cost," and "sale" from the first fold, and compare the results to the copy you're using now. Don't mention anything to do with making a purchase or spending money until after your reader is interested in your product and trusts you enough to buy from you!

Test #10: Boost your product's desirability by adding images

Images of your products make them seem more tangible and "real" to your visitors and are a powerful sales tool. In fact, our testing shows that you can increase sales by more than 10% just by adding product images.

But sometimes revealing what the product is too early in the sales process can kill the sale -- you may need to highlight the product benefits and value before you reveal exactly what it is.

Test placing images near the top of the page against placing them near the call to action at the bottom (where you're asking for the sale). You should also test adding images to your order page, and test the response to using no images at all. By carefully analyzing sales during each test, you'll learn exactly where to place product images for maximum impact.

Test #11: Grab the attention of "scanners" by changing the formatting and appearance of your copy

Very few visitors to your web site will read every word of your salescopy from start to finish. Most will "scan" your copy as they scroll down the page, reading only certain words and phrases that jump out at them or catch their eye.

That's why you need to test highlighting your key benefits to find the right combination that will grab the attention of people who scan rather than read online.

These include:

- Using bold, italics, and highlighting (sparingly) to emphasize the most important benefits of your offer

- Varying the length of your paragraphs so the page doesn't just look like a block of uniformly formatted text

- Adding sub-headlines that emphasize your key messages and compel your visitors to read the paragraphs that follow

- Leaving the right-hand side of your text ragged (as that's easier to read than "justified" text that uses the whole width of the page)

- Centering important -- but short -- chunks of text or sub-headlines to further draw them out of the main body of text

- Using bullet lists (like this one!) to emphasize key points

Test #12: Fine-tune your follow-up process to maximize sales and attract more repeat business

Following up with your customers and subscribers using autoresponders (automated e-mails) is crucial to generating more sales as it often takes several contacts before someone buys from your site.

In your follow-up e-mails to new subscribers who haven't bought from you yet, you can restate your offer and ask for the sale again. Try sending an immediate follow-up after new subscribers sign up, giving them a reason to return to your site the same day they sign up. You can test this against sending a follow-up three days after subscribers first visit your site to see which method works best.

Following up with existing customers is just as important. In fact, tests show that 30% of customers will buy again if they're given the chance. It helps you develop profitable long-term relationships with them and allows you to offer "backend" products relating to their original purchase. You can test sending a backend offer immediately after they make a purchase against sending one three days afterwards to see which approach generates more repeat business.

(You can send unlimited free autoresponder follow-ups using software like Mailloop.)

Use the Web's hottest new testing strategy to refine your sales process

When testing, it's vital to only test one thing at a time so that you know what change influenced the results. A method of testing known as "split-testing" does just that. It allows you to split your audience into two groups and test, for example, one headline with one group and another headline with the second group -- both at exactly the same time!

It's an ideal testing strategy for any online business, but especially for newer web sites with less traffic, as it provides an excellent method for generating accurate test results no matter your level of traffic.

Let's look at an example to illustrate how this works...

If you want to test elements of your salesletter, you need to use your best-performing salesletter as a "control" -- a benchmark against which all tests will be measured.

To test a new headline, for example, you need to create another web page that's identical to your best-performing one, but which includes the new headline. Using special testing software, you then redirect half of your customers to the old page and the other half to the new one -- over exactly the same time period. For example, if you have two customers called Bob and Jane, testing software ensures that Bob sees salesletter "A" at the same time as Jane sees salesletter "B" -- both on the SAME URL. Your other customers are likewise split evenly between the two different salesletters.

If you discover -- through tracking how many visitors go to each page and how many sales each page makes -- that the salesletter containing the new headline converts 15% more visitors into sales, you know that the new headline is more effective. Then test other elements of the salesletter one at a time and gradually fine-tune your sales process.

The software gives you the great advantage of testing the two different letters over the same period. If you instead test one headline over a couple of weeks, then the other headline over the next couple of weeks, what if one of those test periods includes a major holiday like July 4th, while the other doesn't? Or what if a major television event happens during one test period but not the other? Both of these factors could significantly skew your results if they resulted in fewer people being online during one of your tests.

It's easy to set up a few basic tests, but as your business grows and you become more experienced, you can carry out more advanced testing by using software like the following:

WebTrends 7 offers a range of testing services for a one-time cost or monthly fee, and you can road-test their services for free. WebTrends 7 allows you to go beyond split-testing and start testing a few different things at one time. You can analyze exactly which combination of elements (for example, a particular headline and opt-in offer placement combination) works best.

Like WebTrends 7, Offermatica allows you to conduct split testing and multivariable testing. Pricing is based on a per visitor fee, and you can try their services out first through their free demo.

ClickTracks allows you to track the response to your tests and understand where your visitors come from, as well as how they travel through your site. You can try their products for free, then pay a one-time or monthly fee depending on your needs.

Final thoughts

At the Internet Marketing Center, one of our core values is "Test everything; assume nothing!" That's because we know after all these years on the 'Net that you just never know what strategy or angle is going to work best for you... until you test. Corey taught me how important it is to keep on testing, even retesting your star-performing strategies, because there is always room for improvement.

It's all about constantly striving to be the best you can be, in business as in everything else. And so my challenge to you now is to put at least one of these tests I've outlined for you into action TODAY!

Try tweaking your salescopy so you can "transfer ownership" to your reader... or try a new hover ad to collect opt-in e-mail addresses... or try using a new product image on your sales page...

And never stop testing! As Corey proved time and time again, success will be yours if you test everything... and assume nothing.

Article by Derek Gehl, CEO at The Internet Marketing Center

THEMES...The Next Evolution of Search Engine Optimization

Themes... many cringe at the mere word, being taken back to a time of term papers and book reports. However, in the field of search engine optimization and search engine positioning, "themes" are beginning to play a CRUCIAL role in the long term success of online businesses.

So what exactly are "themes" and why are they becoming so important?

To understand this, we have to look at why the search engines implemented this new indexing technique.

With the incredible growth of the web, search engines continue to look for, and implement, new and better ways to serve up relevant results while still maintaining a manageable database.

This technological evolution has resulted in the following:

- the use of filters to get rid of duplicate content and invisible text.
- the importance of META tag indexing (and other tags) being reduced or completely eliminated.
- the counting of click-thru's
- link popularity and link quality being added to ranking algorithms

Despite these changes, and there have been many more than those noted above, search engines are still struggling to keep up with web growth and provide relevant results.

This has led to the new concept of "themes".

Theme indexing takes into account most of what I previously mentioned, but instead of looking at each page as an individual entity, it takes the "theme" of the entire site into account.

An engine that incorporates "themes" into its ranking system, looks at the content as well as the theme of a page, the overall theme of the site, the link popularity of the site, as well as what other sites are "saying" about that particular site.

All these factors put together determine the "theme" of the site and page and thereby the ranking of the page in question. The narrower and more focused the theme of a site, the better the site will rank in regards to a matching search term.

Now trust me, this is an extremely simplified description of themes, but my goal here is not to go into the technology behind it but it's impact on search engine optimization and positioning in general.

More and more search engines are incorporating the use of themes to at least some extent into their ranking systems, and because of this, it is crucial that any webmaster who wants to continue to succeed on the internet understand themes and how to use them to his or her advantage.

Now that we understand a bit about themes, the question becomes how does it affect you and your web site.

Quite simply, it means that we have to re-evaluate the way in which we design our sites. The days of the all-purpose site are quickly coming to an end.

Think about it. If you offer a wide range of different products and/or services, when a theme indexing engine visits your site, what will it determine to be the overall theme of your site?

If a visiting engine can't determine a specific theme for your site, you will have little or no hope of coming up well for the search terms you are shooting for.

To thrive in this new world of search engine technology, you must be able to describe the content or "theme" of your site in two words or three at the VERY most.

Can you do that? Can you describe the content of your entire site in two words?

If not, you need to begin re-thinking the focus of your site. You might consider splitting your site into separate sites. Using the same look and feel for each site, only different domains for the different categories of your site. In this way, your visitors will still feel as if they are on the same site, but the engines will see different sites, each with their own "theme".

If you can describe the focus of your site in two or three words you're already well on your way to having a very themes friendly site.

The next step should be your homepage. The homepage of your site should focus on the overall two word theme of your site. The same two words you used to describe your site. These should be the focus of your homepage.

All of the subpages on your site, should focus on a narrower version of the same theme you targeted on your homepage, using an extension of the same two word description of your site. If your two word description was "computer hardware", then your subpages should focus on keyphrases such as "ibm computer hardware", "toshiba computer hardware" etc.

The key is to always have the same two word description as part of the focus of your subpages. This keeps the overall theme of the site pure and focused, and easily picked up by a visiting engine.

A good example of an implementation of this would be an electronics store. A smart owner of an online electronics store would give each section of his store its own domain name. This could include a domain specifically for cell phones, another for televisions, another for stereos, etc. In doing this, he could then focus individual pages within each domain on specific types of those devices.

Let's look at an example.

Primary domain - www.daves-electronics-store.com

cell phone domain - www.daves-cell-phones.com

cell phone subpages: nokia-cell-phones.html, motorola-cell-phones.html, ericcson-cell-phones.html etc.

stereo domain - www.daves-stereos.com

stereo subpages: panasonic-stereos.html, aiwa-stereos.html, sony-stereos.html etc.

televisions domain - www.daves-televisions.com

televisions subpages: toshiba-televisions.html, big-screen-televisions.html, sony-televisions.html etc.

As you can see, by using the above technique, you can focus the overall theme of each web site. The cell phone portion of the site may deal with different types of cell phones on each page, but the overall theme is still "cell phones" because this phrase would be found on each and every page.

When dealing with a themes based engine, focus is key. If all other things are equal, the site that is most focused around the specific search term, will come up on top.

John Buchanan is the author of the book "The Insider's Guide to Dominating The Search Engines", and publisher of "The Search Engine Bulletin", a FREE monthly newsletter. Visit him at http://www.se-secrets.com for more information or to sign up for the newsletter

The 7 Secrets of Creating Any Online Business From The Ground Up

If you're looking for tips and how tos on creating any business, starting from ground zero, then this article has some good tips for you.

The first question of course is, what stops someone from starting a business from ground zero?

Obstacle #1: The first thing is fear of making mistakes. That's something we can all probably identify with at one time or another.

I know there are situations I've been afraid or concerned about making mistakes. I think most often we're afraid of doing something new, where we think we may be embarrased or feel disappointed with the results we get, and so forth.

So that has to be obstacle #1.

Obstacle #2: is just getting started. Anytime you start something new or try a new thing the law of inertia applies. "An object at rest tends to stay at rest. An object in motion tends to stay in motion."

So the obstacle is, if you're not started, how do you get the momenum to get started?

The good news is, once you get started you tend to keep things going because of the laws of momentum. The solution to getting started is to jump start the process. It really helps if you have someone else giving you some energy or motivation, or impetus to get the ball rolling.

That would be the second obstacle.

Obstacle #3: The third obstacle from building your business from the ground up would be the lack of specialized knowledge.

A person can take 500 pages, throw them in a dryer, turn it on and theoritically in some point in time you might come out with all the pages stacked in order in the form of a book but trial and error can be a really frustrating process.

A lot of people feel frustrated because they're taking their plans, their how to's, throwing them in a dryer, turning it on and hoping they end up with a book.

The thing is, there's a process, a preocedure, a system to put a book together. You follow step 1, you follow step 2, you follow step 3 and at the end of the checklist, you have a book. So to put the book together you need a checklist, system and a process. That's the same as putting together income streams, a business, coming up with new ways or ideas to market or promote. You need a system and a checklist.

And the lack of a system or checklist would definitely be obstacle #3.

To turn these into a positive, to answer this question then in the positive of, what do I need step by step to create a business or income stream from ground zero the first thing would be to get someone to show you the way so that the fear of making mistakes is not as big a problem. If a person has someone experience showing them how to take the different steps, it takes away an awful lot of the fear.

Maybe not all of it, but probably the vast majority of it.

The second key is to get some momentum and the way you get momentum is to get started. And the secret of getting started is to have someone else provide some impetus or energy.

The third key to get the specialized knowledge and how to's, the step by step lessons, checklists or procedures to make the thing happen. Whatever the cost to acquire the specialized knowledge or to get an experienced person to assist you typically pays off because a person can waste a lot of money, and I do mean a LOT of money trying to reinvent the wheel.

You know, without any plans, just trying this method, hearing about the hottest new whatever, giving it a whirl, buying this, putting your foot in this water, putting your foot in that water but never really getting anything going. A person can waste a lot of money doing that. They could blow $500, $1000, $2000 or more and not have jack to show for it.

There's a new place called MILCERS that can help a person get specialized knowledge, how to's, motivation, experience, guidance, checklists to follow and more.

To get the full scoop on it, click here: Milcers Club.

A lot of people don't know this but I built "Higher Response Marketing, Inc." pretty much from the ground up. In the very early days I was running free and cheap clsssifed ads on Compuserve and AOL, practicing writing emails and ads, etc.

Later, when the WWW came along, (in case you didn't know, there wasn't always the "world wide web") I didnt invest a lot of money. I didn't start out with a big server or staff, none of that. What I did though was I got 1 product created then started selling it, then created another product, then created another product and started selling it and so on.

Somewhere along the way I found success. If you take the time to find out what people want, then create the products, then put together promotions, get your website up and running and so forth, sooner or later success will find you. I'm a living example and proof that you can start from the ground up. I've been there and done it so I know that it can be done.

Get more information here: Milcers Club.

Article by Marlon Sanders

12,487 Success Stories -- Totaling $5.4 Billion In Windfall Profits

You know what a “Who’s Who” book is? It is one of those monster-sized encyclopedias of the most influential prestigious luminaries in different fields of endeavor.

Well, there’s one man who probably ranks at the top of more who’s who in business-building than any other single individual I know. His name is Jay Abraham.

Odds are high you’ve heard of him before because his reputation is almost mythical throughout the online & offline world. He’s engineered more impressive financial breakthroughs for more people in more types of businesses, in more ways, in more countries, and in more industries than almost any other person out there.

If I took the time to list his credentials, to summarize the remarkable articles the press have written about him, to list the hundreds of prominent people he’s personally helped or riches to super-riches success stories he’s single-handedly engineered and orchestrated, it would take literally a thousand pages.

In fact, there are two thousand pages of case studies alone that have been written about this man’s near miraculous feats. He’s so good at what he does, he commands $5,000 an hour -- $40,000 a day when he does it. People line up to pay him $25,000 each to participate in his expensive seminars.

I want to introduce you to a brand new service this man is launching today, right now. Expressly for people like you who would benefit monstrously and wildly profit from his help---but wouldn’t ordinarily be able (or willing) to pay his staggering fees.

If you think this is hyperbole, think again. There’s a report I’ve gained access to that I’d first love to share with you. This man wrote it and it’s entitled “Windfall Profits Paradox.” In one 32-page reading, you’ll learn more ways to put a pot full of money in your bank account than you’ve probably learned in your
entire business career.

To get your copy of his report, go to:

http://www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com/bonus/windfall.pdf

It’s my incentive to you to stimulate you to immediately investigate the impressive and enriching proposition he’s come up with for business owners, start-ups, entrepreneurs and self-employed people like you. It’s exciting. It’s unparalleled, and frankly it’s almost indescribable and indefinable.

I believe it’s the answer you’ve been searching for. And with that, I will leave you purposely intrigued and challenge you to trust me so that you can learn about this all-important opportunity.

PS: One more thing. It’s important.

Because this generous man wants to reward every business owner and entrepreneur who’s decisive and takes action today--the first day of the launch of his brand new service, he’s offering to gift you a $400 book that 60,000 business owners have paid almost $400 apiece to get their hands on. It is his famous called “Money-Making Secrets of Marketing Genius Jay Abraham and Other Marketing Wizards”.

I recommend and urge you to move fast. If you would prefer to just read his executive overview of his brand new service, everything is spelled out at:

http://www.internetmarketingprofitscenter.com/jay-abraham-club

Want more traffic? Read this now!

If you have a website (or plan to), you NEED to read this right now. This impacts EVERY marketer online. In fact, the sudden DEATH or survival of your websites (and traffic) depends on it!

I am totally serious here (not exaggerating).

As we speak... you are being watched. You are being judged... analyzed, probed, and ranked... Not "you" personally. I'm talking about your websites. The facts are on the table. Some people are in a state of panic, running scared. Others... are laughing.

Why?

Everyone knows that Google is the "Mother" of traffic. And lately, "Mama" is pissed off and back with a vengeance! It's happening as we speak...

Google is trashing, de-listing and de-ranking thousands of websites per day. Top ranked sites are watching their rankings -- and traffic -- plummet literally overnight.

In case you missed this back in March 2005, you are already 3 months behind the 8-ball. And time is running out! What am I talking about here?

After filing their recent US Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005, Google is telling you the exact scorecard they use to rank your websites.

Bottom line. Google is cracking down -- BIG TIME!

If your goal is to get more traffic and dominate the search engines, this is YOUR wake up call. Your days may be numbered, the writing on the wall... IF you don't start playing the game by "Google's rules". In fact, Google is TELLING you "how" to do so.

Let me explain...

Did you know that Google now checks the year your domain name was first registered?

Get this. It's a known fact that search engine spammers rarely own websites that are 6 years old. 6 months? Probably. And that is just ONE "X" on your scorecard if this applies to you.

But, this is only a "general" guideline that Google follows. The rest of it gets a lot more ugly and specific.

Here's more bad news...

Google now places huge emphasis on links. They want to see a slow, gradual number of incoming links to your websites. And not just ANY links either.

These links need to be a variety of anchor text links. If all your anchor links are the same -- look out -- you could get de-listed or de-ranked in a heartbeat. Say "adios" to your traffic (and rankings).

It's happening right now... MORE so every day!

Plus, Google is telling us that they look for relevant, quality content on your websites (no surprise) and that Page Rank is once again a good indicator of a website's "authority" (and relevancy).

So, now that the facts are out and Google is about to tear apart your website like policemen raiding a crack house... the clock is ticking and time is running out!

Odds are, your websites are not "authority" websites that started back in 2000...

I'll even bet that (today) you have few incoming links to your websites -- and hardly any anchor text links at all. Those that wised up early and made the necessary changes to Google-proof their websites are the ones laughing now.

Everyone else... is a little nervous. And rightfully so!

So, what should you do?

Well, I say... If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! How would you like to "piggyback" off high search engine ranking, high page rank websites that are loaded with thousands of keyword-rich, optimized pages?

... and these same sites are willing to give you hundreds of incoming links (often anchor text) to your websites within 7 days at NO cost!

It takes about an hour to set this up (one time). Ok. So that easily solves your link problem, right?

Wait, it gets better... these same "authority" websites have been around for 5 years or more and want to advertise YOUR business, product and website to the thousands of visitors that they attract every day.

That's right, it's like getting them to run your Google or Overture ads on their site, but you don't pay a penny for it.

And best of all, I'm not talking about using link farms or link generator software. This is all totally legitimate, Google-approved, above-board stuff -- no short-lived tactics or trickery here.

In fact, this has ALREADY worked for several years.

Go ahead, give yourself a pinch on the arm... this is NOT a dream or some weird search engine fantasy. It's REAL and you can tap into this RIGHT NOW! Chances are you were completely unaware of all this. It's been sitting here all this time right under your nose.

Don't wait for Google to come knocking at your door next. Get smart. Prepare yourself. The answer is a lot easier than you might think.

Click below right now for complete details!

Corey Rudl legacy - inspiration for thousands of people

Another issue of my Internet Marketing Profits newsletter is ready. Since I my issues are pretty long, I cannot post them entirely into this Internet Profits Blog, but I will outline couple of good things here.

The first article is called "How to Eat, Sleep, and Breathe like an Internet Marketing Genius. What I Learned from My Good Friend and Colleague, Corey Rudl -- Genius Internet Marketer, Inspirational Leader, and Mentor to Thousands."

I wanted to give you at least SOME insight into Corey's personal philosophies for business success because I'm hoping they will inspire you to:

- Choose success.
- Test something new today.
- Make opportunities to learn.
- Seek out great teachers.
- Define your goals, and take action to reach them.

These are the philosophies that Corey inspired the entire Internet Marketing Center Team to run his company with.

Corey's legacy wasn't just cutting-edge marketing strategies or industry leading software -- it was the inspiration he shared with thousands of "real people."

Corey really believed that you just need to set goals that you're excited about, and then take persistent action. It's absolutely shocking what ONE step a day... just 10 minutes a day... one hour a day... can accomplish over one month... three months... six months.

If you think these information are useful for your Internet business, read the full article posted on the Internet Marketing Profits Newsletter, issue 55.

The second article is called "The Worst Internet Marketing Profits Strategy Ever?". Many people are downright frustrated. And when you look at their internet marketing strategy, it's no surprise. Yet, they all fall into a classic trap that can ruin your chances of online success before you even get off the ground.

Remember, the name of the game is targeting. When putting together your internet marketing profits strategy, pick your partners wisely -- aim to find that golden 3% as quickly as possible.

Take your time and get this part right from day one. It makes all the difference in the world when you are sending people something that is of real interest to them. If it appeals to them, they will pay attention, and the boost in response you receive will speak for itself.

Everything is available into my Internet Marketing Profits Newsletter, issue 55.

Enjoy reading!

PS: if you like what you read, don't forget to check my other articles available on my Internet Marketing Profits Newsletter archive -- strike for more tips on how to skyrocket your internet marketing profits.