How to Make Money Online Without a Website

If you've got some successful keyword research and PPC advertising under your belt for your own website, why not capitalize on that and make money online without one? Affiliate marketing through pay-per-click makes it possible. MSN adCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing both allow direct linking to sites that are not your own. (But don't try this with Google AdWords.) Direct linking means that you can join affiliate programs, create ads for their products, and send click-throughs directly to the merchant's site. There's no need to build an intermediary site or use your own site to direct traffic. When your click-throughs convert, you get a commission. It's a way to create an extra stream of income--or several--with some big advantages: * It eliminates the time, effort, and costs of building and maintaining web pages. The only time you'll have to pay is when someone clicks on your ad. * It allows you to do affiliate marketing without cluttering up your own site with links that might send potential customers away. You can keep your site clean and focused on its job of selling your product, but still make commissions off other people's products. * It eliminates an extra click for users. One click less for them means more commissions for you. While direct linking is a good opportunity, though, it's not a walk in the park. The PPC programs that allow it restrict the number of affiliate ads that can point at the same display URL that shows on the ad itself. So ads by experienced affiliate marketers who know exactly what they're doing can bump less skillful ads. If you want your ads to be seen, here's what you have to do. Step 1: Start with a big, broad market Choose a broad market where there's a lot of searching going on. You want to get as many eyeballs as possible. Step 2: Do some keyword research Don't build your ads on broad, untargeted keywords, though. The competition for those will be fierce--and expensive. Your objective here is to find neglected, low-cost keywords within a broad, high-traffic market--and that's why it really helps to have keyword research experience. And as I mentioned in an earlier article, you need to look for specific problems that are shared by a lot of people within a market. Then find relevant keyword terms that clearly show a clear intention to buy or find out more information. Those terms are much more likely to convert. And remember, you pay for every click, but you get paid only when they convert. The Microsoft Advertising Intelligence tool can show you almost anything you'd like to know about any given keyword, including similar keywords, traffic, cost per click, and much more. The free Google AdWords Keyword Tool is also a quick and handy way of getting ideas for keywords with high search volume and low cost per click; just keep in mind that you can't use this strategy with Google. Step 3: Find a good affiliate merchant that targets your niche In order to find a merchant that offers a relevant product and pays you a good commission, check out these affiliate networks and directories: * www.associateprograms.com * www.affiliatesdirectory.com * www.ecommerce-guide.com * www.cj.com * www.clickxchange.com * www.linkshare.com When you're choosing affiliate merchants, ask these questions: 1. Do they offer a product that directly solves a problem you've identified? 2. Do they allow direct linking to their sites? Some don't. Check the terms and conditions before you commit. 3. Does the landing page generate pop-ups? If so, then forget it. This is not allowed. The back button on the page also has to be functional. 4. Is there a strong landing page for the product? If you send click-throughs to an irrelevant page, a confusing sales process, or a site that's just plain unappealing, then they won't convert and you'll end up wasting your money. Step 4: Write a PPC ad that drives buyers to the affiliate merchant's site Take a good look at the landing page your ad is pointing at and make your ad directly relevant to it. Your ad must: * address the specific problem you've identified. * include the keyword you've bid on, preferably more than once. * reflect the keywords of the landing page. * highlight a benefit of the product. * include a strong call to action. You can give your ad an extra boost by adding your keyword, or part of it, to the display URL at the bottom of the ad. The actual target URL will contain a big, ugly affiliate ID number, but the display version can show the domain name plus a subdirectory with a word or phrase that makes it look relevant to the search, like this: Display: internetmarketing.com/affiliates_ppc Target: http://www.internetmarketing.com/aff-iduao74elksdjdo-2u023f Before you create your display link, check out the PPC competition to make sure it's unique so your ad won't be bumped. The better your ads, the higher the click-throughs will be, which means your ads will be rewarded with better positions for the same money. It's worth polishing them, and then testing them to see which ones are performing the best. Running a pay-per-click affiliate campaign probably won't generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for you right off the bat--but it is the easiest way to leverage the keyword research and PPC skills you've developed in building your own site. And when Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing join forces sometime this year, you'll get the traffic from both, even if you only advertise on one. That makes direct linking even more appealing. Allen Moon is Director of Marketing for the Internet Marketing Center. He leads a team of internet business experts who stay on top of the changing online landscape. They constantly research the latest approaches and test them on real commercial websites, then pass on their knowledge in easy-to-use, internet marketing tools, instruction materials, and training services.

Calculating Return on Investment: Pay-Per-Click Search

Paid search marketing can help increase your visibility online, but it’s important that you make sure your investment, both money and time, is paying off. Generally speaking, return on investment (ROI) is the profit made from the money spent -- whether it’s new technology, new equipment or a marketing campaign. Understanding how to calculate ROI can help owners determine whether an investment was a good choice and decide whether you need to adjust the amount of money dedicated to a specific initiative. In the world of paid search marketing, calculating your ROI can help you determine which ads and keywords to continue using, which ones to scrap and guide you in the development of future marketing campaigns. Because you probably sell multiple products and services and advertise each of them individually, you’ll need the following information for each of your products and PPC campaigns in order to calculate the ROI on your paid search investment: • Ad cost: The amount you spend on paid search campaigns, such as your spend on keyword bidding. • Clicks: This refers to the number of visits to your site from paid listings. • Number of Sales: The number of complete orders from paid listings. • Revenue: The dollar amount generated from paid listings for that product. Simple ROI Calculators Now that you have your information in hand, use these simple formulas to begin calculating: • Ad profit: Revenue minus ad cost • CPA (Cost Per Acquisition/Sale): Ad cost divided by number of sales • ROI: The percentage of ad profits divided by ad cost, multiplied by 100

Setting Customer Acquisition Goals

The price you pay to acquire each customer (CPA) is a great place to begin setting goals and controlling expenses. You can adjust your spending to delete search campaigns that aren’t working, forecast ROI before beginning a campaign or negotiate deals for fixed placement search engine programs. The easiest way to determine what you should be spending is to start with your retail price. If you sell t-shirts for $15 and spend an additional $15 on advertising, you need to sell one shirt to break even. Fifteen dollars becomes your customer acquisition cost maximum. Because you probably want to do better than break even, you’ll want to lower your acquisition cost — perhaps to $12 per customer. When determining what you’re willing to pay per customer, also consider the lifetime value of customers (how many purchases they’ll make from you over the course of your business relationship) and your profit margin. Calculating ROI for product-based businesses is easier than for service-based companies. For owners selling services such as consulting, there is not always an immediate transaction associated with a tracked click-through. But, for instance, if you have succeeded in converting subscribers to your e-newsletter to clients for your services, you still want to set customer acquisition goals via the e-newsletter, set up pay-per click ads and track ROI.

Built-In ROI Calculators

The number of products and services that you sell, the number of places you advertise and the fluidity of the market can make determining ROI tricky. The good news is that most bid management programs on the market have click-through reports built into the software to help you get started. You can log on to check the number of times your site was listed in a search, the number of times a user clicked on your link and the charge for each keyword you are paying for. Click-through reports offer great insight but you’ll need to go into more depth to get the most from your investment. ROI tracking systems can monitor your sales data by search engine, product and campaign components. Programs like Yahoo! Search Marketing’s (formerly Overture) Marketing Console and Search Optimizer monitor how many searchers’ PPC-enabled clicks lead to actual sales — this will be very important information to have when you decide which paid search campaigns to continue and which to cancel. Usually, these programs take an aggregate of what you have paid for each click, factor in the traffic or site visitors, deduct any traffic not directly associated with the PPC investment and compare this number with the overall profit margin achieved through online activity. This makes it is easier to determine which keywords and search engines are giving you the most for your money. Monitoring your paid search efforts and tracking your results will help ensure that you spend your marketing dollars wisely.