When the potential of Google AdSense became clear, it was a seminal moment. It was a revolution in entrepreneurial opportunity. You didn't need to be a programmer, a computer whiz or a venture capitalist to make money out of the Internet. All you needed to do was identify one thing that you knew a lot about, write about it, surround your content with ads and if you could bring in the traffic, you had a... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Andrew Albritton) Last week we talked about getting your Google AdWords account set up and the overall importance of SEM. This week we'll focus on optimization. Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Andrew Albritton) Search engine marketing (SEM), sometimes referred to as paid search, is the practice of bidding on keyword strings to increase a website's visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs). For Internet marketers SEM can be a highly effective means for promoting and driving traffic to a website or sales page. In fact, when optimized and managed effectively, a well-performing SEM campaign is one of the most sought-after and... Continue Reading

It's a sad moment, but it was easy to see coming. Google has now officially killed off site targeting. The function that allows advertisers to choose to advertise directly on your Web pages still exists. But now it's called "placement targeting." There are two differences. Continue Reading

Last July, I wrote about how Amazon.com was breaking into contextual advertising with its Omakase program. Now they're at it again with another context-based advertising system. This time though, they've taken a leaf right out of Kontera's books. Instead of placing ads in ad units, they're linking to keywords in the text and serving floating ad balloons. You can see samples here and here. Continue Reading

Ever since Google changed its Terms of Service to allow publishers to place other ad programs on AdSense pages -- provided those other ads don't look like Google's ad units -- publishers have been wondering how to make the most of this bonanza. It's like telling a child he can put as many different types of cake on his plate as he wants. On my blog for example, I'm using Kontera's text links to supplement... Continue Reading

There's a look that I've seen way too many times. It doesn't happen often, but even once is enough. I'll be standing in front of an audience at a conference or teaching a class, and I'll see my audience's eyes glaze over. Instead of looking at me, they start looking at the conference program or at their watch or at anything but me. It's a look that says I've lost them. Whenever that happens, I... Continue Reading

Like most things on the Internet, marketing can be divided into two distinct periods: Before Google and After Google. Before Google, getting a link to your site on other sites took a huge amount of work. You'd have to write to each publisher separately. You'd have to try different CPC networks until you found one that worked for you. And you'd have to create a new Web page just for reciprocal links. After Google... well... Continue Reading

Around 3 pm Sunday afternoon, Mary came into the office and said something like, "If we would have thought of it, we could have just left today." I stared at her for about one second and spoke, "Well, why don't we?" I don't think she realize what she got herself into! We furiously gathered everything together and packed up the van. Just when I thought it was full, Mary pointed out another item that needed... Continue Reading