| LED Digest 1821: The End of I-Sales and I-Search |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ June 16, 2004 Issue #1821 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= <Moderator Comment> ~ The End of I-Sales, I-Search --== Using Affiliate Services ==-- ~ Linda Buquet "...it isn't as passive a marketing endeavor as PPC..." ~ Peter Warnock "...affiliate programs can be effective, but you're better off investing in your own affiliate software..." --== Google AdSense ==-- ~ Kenth Nasstrom "My guess would be that Google can't find enough 'text' about something..." ~ Lorelle Smith "[Adsense] is a wonderful tool to assess how well optimized and search-friendly a site is." --== Google's Image Search [was: Site Structure] ==-- ~ Tom Anson "Is there any secret to getting images indexed?" ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== ShareYourExperience Scam? ==-- ~ Dan Jeffers ~ Susan Reid-Pfau ~ Robert Bedard ===== CONTINUING ================================= <Moderator Comment> Just received a sad message from MarketingVox (or is it MarketingWonk? or Up2Speed? Who the heck knows! Some pages on their site say one name, others say a different name...) on the status of I-Sales. Here it is in part: --------------------- "To all I-Sales Subscribers, "Many of you have written, asking what happened to I-Sales. It's been a while since you have received anything from us. "You may recall that last spring when your moderator, Dave Cadoff, had to take a special leave because of some personal issues he needed to deal with. "Even prior to Dave's sabbatical however, user submissions had fallen to such a low level that we didn't really have enough quality content to put out a decent issue. "Dave did everything he reasonably could to stimulate discussion, but for whatever reason, the response was simply not there. Even when the Eisenberg brothers filled in during his absence, they found it very difficult to get discussion rolling, so it wasn't just Dave. "I ultimately decided that it would be best that we should put the list on hiatus. Dave is pretty busy with some marketing projects these days, doesn't have the time to do I-Sales again, and I can't put another person through the humiliating process of trying to shill for conversation." --------------------- A nearly identical message followed announcing the demise of I-Search. Are the other lists they publish headed for the same fate (I-Copywriting, I-Design, etc)? This is interesting to me, and not just because I used to own these lists when they were part of Adventive... and not just because I also publish a discussion list and work on others for clients... it interests me because it may represent the early signs of a sea change. Is this email discussion format we all know and love going the way of so many other extinct delivery and communication technologies? I don't really think so. This list is thriving, my other clients' lists are cranking away fine. However, that doesn't mean we're not seeing early signs of failure, so I may be wrong. I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this - not just the fate of I-Sales and I-Search (I think we all saw that coming), but on the bigger picture here. Thanks, Adam | adam, led-digest.com -------------------- From: Linda Buquet Subject: Advertising with Affiliates > Has anyone advertised with affiliates like CJ, Performics, > or Affiliate Fuel in a pay-for-sale arrangement...? Did you find > affiliates to be a successful component of your marketing strategy? - Ellyce S., LED 1820 Hi LEDers, Yes affiliate marketing can be a vibrant part of your marketing mix if done properly. How effective it is can be directly as a result of how much effort you put in, but is somewhat dependent on your market, how you set the program up and which network or software you use. Your site carries niche products which is good - affiliates like that! I have worked with sites that went from 500,000 a month in affiliate sales to 3.2 million a month within 6 months and many of my clients are generating over 100,000 a month in sales. So yes, this can be a significant way to increase revenue. However, it isn't as passive a marketing endeavor as PPC is so don't go into it thinking you just set up the program and sit back. Far too many business owners have the mentality that if you just start an affiliate program the sales will come effortlessly - much like in the "old days" when companies thought if you build a site, "they will come." Study and do lots of due diligence before you decide to launch a program and it can be one of the best marketing decisions you have ever made. I don't know if I can list resources here, but these are 2 of the best I know for good articles about how to start a successful affiliate program. http://www.partnercentric.com/pctogo.shtml http://www.affiliatemanager.net/scc/articles.shtml Linda Buquet - Affiliate Management Consultant http://www.5staraffiliateprograms.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Peter Warnock Subject: Affiliates Linkshare and Commission Junction charge an enormous amount. They work well for high volume e-tailers. If you're not willing to pay a 15% commission plus the publisher fees, the opportunity to gain exposure among the other advertisers is difficult. For niche products, affiliate programs can be effective, but you're better off investing in your own affiliate software and working one-to-one with your advertisers that have complementary content. Using affiliate software, you can offer fundraisers, too. The benefit is that several people may promote your product via word of mouth in an effort to earn funds for their organization. Peter Warnock ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Kenth Nasstrom Subject: AdSense > I can't get ANY Adsense ads to kick in for the home page... > any other page usually loads of four ads a time as expected... > but the homepage has none... - Dirk van der Werff, LED 1820 Hi Dirk, You have a lot of code in your pages. But the code is mainly for menus, iframes and tables. My guess would be that Google can't find enought "text" about something to tell what kind of ads to show. Put in the description and keyword meta tag in your page and at least a short Section of text aimed at using words focused on your site content. This might do the trick! Saludos and good luck! Kenth "The Designer" Nasstrom http://www.kndata.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Lorelle Smith Subject: AdSense Dirk van der Werff is wondering why Google isn't placing Adsense ads on his home page. As an SEO, I've found that Adsense is not just a source of revenue -- it's actually a wonderful tool to assess how well optimized and search-friendly a site is. If you see irrelevant ads, or no ads, it usually means Google can't make heads nor tales of the page's content. If you want to see how a search engine views your page, the first step is to view the source. When I viewed the source code of Dirk's home page, I saw that the <.title> tag was not enclosed inside the expected <.head> tags. Since Google displays the info in your <.title> tag whenever it shows your site in the search results pages, you can be sure Google considers your <.title> tag to contain valuable clues about the page's content. That's why the <.title> needs to be well crafted with the very best keywords for that page (ones that also show up more than once in the visible content of the page). So Dirk's first problem may be that Google doesn't recognize a <.title> tag without it being in a <.head> section. Second, Dirk has no meta tags whatsoever. I know that because of long-term abuse they're not that important these days, especially the lowly keyword tag, but a meta description *would* help Google determine what the page is about. Another problem is that most of Dirk's content on his home page is not written in straight text. Instead, it's presented in JavaScript or images -- which Google isn't able to read. He'll need to add some content that is more SE-readable. So I would think that all Dirk needs to do is fix the broken HTML and optimize the page. But then I saw that all of Dirk's pages have the same problems. Somehow Google manages to put relevant Adsense ads on those, though. I suspect perhaps there just aren't that many AdWords advertisers selling plant-related stuff, and Google has to apportion out the few there are. Maybe it's decided that only certain pages are good enough for the main ads. Or maybe there are far better keyword phrases Dirk could be using on his site to attract more AW advertisers. First, I would use Wordtracker to uncover all the various phrases that searchers currently use to find Dirk's type of site. Then I would check Overture and Google to find out which are the top-dollar phrases. Then I would plug all the best plant-related search terms into Ad Word Analyser to see how many advertisers are competing for them in both AdWords and Overture. (You can also just do a search on Google. If you see the same ads on every page, or no ads at all past the second or third page, you'll know there just aren't enough advertisers. That's when it's imperative to do extensive keyword research so you can find better keywords to target.) Hope this helps Dirk and all the other online publishers who pour their hearts and souls into creating quality sites and just ask for a bit of ad revenue to help stay afloat and *maybe* even make it worth their while. As a longtime netizen and an AdWords advertiser myself, I just want to say You Rock! Lorelle Smith Search Engine Marketing & Keyword Phraseology http://www.keywordsmith.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Google's Image Search [was: Site structure] This really is off-topic, but Brian's post in LED Digest 1817 raised the question for me. I have a website with good Google rankings for several pages, yet when I do an image search, none of my sites images can be found. Is there any secret to getting images indexed? and does it benefit a site enough to worry about? Tom Anson Anson Aromatic Essentials http://www.therapeutic-grade.com ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Dan Jeffers Subject: Shareyourexperience > I'm wondering if any of you have any experience > or knowledge of shareyourexperiences.com. - Greg Robbins, LED 1820 We have been contacted several times with the same come-on. As they follow a standard spam pattern, hitting various e-mail address including info@, jobs@, etc., we're pretty sure it's a scam. Dan Jeffers ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Susan Reid-Pfau Subject: Shareyourexperience I have been contacted twice in the past week from the same place. Taking a chance, I followed the link, but also found that you must register to view anything. No way am I doing that. I believe if someone wants more information on my business, they can easily go to my contact page, or click on the email link on any of my pages. Or, they can call the toll-free number listed on any of my pages. Any of these options can still leave anonymity, if that's what they're wanting. I did reply to the second email I received from them, stating that I don't have a clue what I'm supposed to do with the request. That was several days ago... haven't heard a thing since. Susan Reid-Pfau Coffee, Tea & Spice www.coffeecoffee.com info, coffeecoffee.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Robert Bedard Subject: Shareyourexperience I have received e-mails from this place to several e-mail ID that I use, following a pattern. First, they say somebody wants to share infomation about me, then they say somebody actually has done so. When I first went and looked at their site, and found out that in order to find out what people "allegedly" had to say about me, I had to pay a minimum of US$28.50, I declined to support a business whose stock in trade was rumor and innuendo. I turned them into the FTC. They may be operating in a legal grey-area, but they are, in my opinion, operating an unethical business. I also did a WHOIS on the owner of the domain, and went to shareyourexperiences.com, and reported that I had information to share about him. (Yes, stupid, but I was apoplectic; and it seemed a fitting thing to do.) Yes, I think it is a scam. I bet if I did pay the money to be able to anonymously send e-mail to the alleged person who "wishes to share information about me", then that person would not respond. I think it is only about selling rumor and innuendo for money. Funny that the same accounts that I get the majority of SPAM on (from being old, and on virtually every CD of e-mail addresses sold), are the ones that I have received messages from these folks to ... Now I don't bother to visit their site when I get more e-mails from them. I suggest that everybody do likewise. rob't Robert Bedard Robert Bedard Horticulture http://www.robert-bedard.com/orchids/ ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Mathematics, the non-empirical science par excellence... the science of sciences, delivering the key to those laws of nature and the universe which are concealed by appearances." - Hannah Arendt |
