Global Marketing Research

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As you start your blogging quest you will find that it's very easy to set-up a blog using any of the many blogging platforms. Among the most used platforms are Typepad, Wordpress, and Blogger, they are also the easiest to setup. You should also find it a simple task to set up Google AdSense, Affiliate Links and Banners as well as set-up an Ebay affiliate blogsite and repeat the process again and again if you wish.

Before you start blogging for dollars you should be aware of what type of blogger you are or you're going to be. If you're doing research on blogging and I assume that's why you are reading this article, you will find that there are only 4 real types of bloggers. The first being the "teenager or young person seeking fame" the second "online diaries" the third "any business person needing cheap web presence" and last but certainly not least "people trying to make money blogging." I know for certain that you...yes you, are in one of the above mentioned groups of people.

This is where it get baffling for most people when they first start blogging. You have everything setup, you've got your banners, links, and Adsense, you even have a post or two and now you don't know what to do next. This next step is going to be the hardest part for most of you simply because writing articles and blog posts daily or every other day isn't something that comes easy for most folks. Combine that with the fact that your content has to be not only unique but also interesting and informative as well, can make blogging for dollars more than most are ready to tackle. I'm not saying this to discourage you from any of your endeavours, but to simply let you know that it isn't all fun and games if you intend on making any real money blogging. You have to think of your blogging as a business and do the same things that anyone running an internet business would do.

Some things you for you to consider: Should you hire SEO services?, Should you hire writers?, Do you have the time to update your content daily?, Are you going to have more than one blog?, Are you going to use Adsense, Adwords or both?, Do you have the skills to do some of the above?, Is blogging going to be fun for you?

After you strongly consider the above you should learn these 5 simple rules of blogging. Rule 1. You must have UNIQUE CONTENT! Rule 2. You must be INFORMATIVE! Rule 3. You must be INTERESTING! Rule 4. When you can use VIDEOS! Rule 5. NEVER USE SPAM AS A MEANS OF ADVERTISING! Taking for granted you follow these universal blogging rules you can readily succeed in having multiple high ranking blogs. Keep in mind that if you have multiple blogs you must make sure the content is continually fresh and interesting. For your blogs to be considered good and read by many you should maintain about a 300-500 word posts on a daily basis.
Having said that, it's going to take both time and patience to establish, further, and develop your blogging network. There’s already a lot of competition, myself included and it’s only going to get more difficult. The good news is there is still room for everybody.

By
Blaine Wallace Stevens
The Global Research Team

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Recent changes in the Google Adsense program has many online website owners and marketers seriously concerned. Many have seen their Adsense profíts and income flatline... seen their four or five figure monthly Adsense income disappear overnight. For many the Google Adsense bubble has burst. What happened? First, Google made a change in its Adsense program, letting advertisers choose between putting their ads in the search results or on the content pages of Adsense publishers. Search won out and started to receive the higher bids. Search results convert better than content ads.

Next, Google has cracked down on Junk Adsense sites, like they should. These sites consisted mainly of software generated re-hashed search engine links and were totally annoying to say the least. But Google also cracked down on 'squeeze pages' or 'affilíate landing pages' - a lucrative source of income for many online marketers, mainly because these pages helped marketers build an opt-ín list or use permission based email.

The results of these changes produced an Adsense meltdown for many online marketers.

Some Internet marketers are speculating recent changes could even mean the death of Adsense. One online marketer, Scott Boulch even published a free report entitled 'The Death of Adsense".

Many affilíate marketers would agree with Boulch on some of his points, especially the obvious fact that using Adsense on your web content is starting on the bottom rung of the online marketing ladder. Instead of receiving pennies per clíck with Adsense, alert marketers and webmasters have already discovered that by using CPA (Cost-Per-Action) and direct affilíate links, they can produce significantly more revenue from their web pages. Why eärn pennies per clíck when you can eärn $5, $10 or OVER $100 per clíck?

But the fine people at Google are catching on...

In the past Google has made its own swing to the Cost-Per-Action direction with its referral system for the Firefox Browser and giving webmasters credít for signing up Adwords and Adsense accounts.

Many online marketers believe Google needs to expand on these baby steps and open their Adsense affilíate program up to third party products/advertisers. In a recent company statement Google offered some hope: "We're always looking for new ways to provide effective and useful features to advertisers, publishers, and users," the company stated "As part of these efforts we are currently testing a cost-per-action (CPA) pricing model to give advertisers more flexibility and provide publishers another way to eärn revenue through AdSense." Basically, in cost-per-action, advertisers pay for leads, purchases or customer acquisition. It would help with the clíck fraud issue and the monetary returns could potentially make Adsense's revenues pale in comparison.

As more and more commerce goes online... acquiring customers for such diverse services as ínsurance, real estate, telephone, marketing, web hostíng, travel, mörtgage loans, cable TV, banking... you name it, almost any service or product sold in the marketplace is now turning to the Internet for customers and lifelong clients.

Enormous sums of monëy will change hands. Perhaps, the most lucrative of these is customer acquisition. Advertisers are turning to the Internet and webmasters/marketers for acquiring these lifelong customers for their respective services and products. Businesses and companies are quickly realizing paying an attractive lead generating fee/commission is smart business. They quickly build a client base for their services or products and quickly recoup their expenses - realizing in the long run these leads will generate huge profíts.

It can also mean huge profíts for the CPA networks like ValueClick's Commission Junction and Rakuten's LinkShare who supply the advertisers with publishers and website marketers to harvest these leads. It can be a lucrative venture for all involved, especially for those online marketers who have cornered the search engines for lucrative niche markets in big ticket items. Even small ticket items pay quite well for those marketers who know how to market online.

Contextual advertising is fine, but CPA (Cost-Per-Action) will offer much better returns for the website owner. Making any profitable site much more profitable. It will and is opening up a whole area of marketing opportunities that nevër existed before we had the Internet. Creating a complex structure of advertisers, publishers and the Affilíate/CPA companies that connect the two.

Of course, cutting out the middle man has always been even a more profitable venture for most marketers. As more and more webmasters realize they can make much more with dealing directly with companies, rather than going through a middle process like Google Adsense or the countless other affilíate/CPA networks ... online marketers can reap even bigger rewards.

For an online marketer when you get a telephone call or email from the CEO or the affilíate manager with a company or service you're promoting with your website - you know you have made it! Dealing directly with a company usually means bigger commissions and special exclusive deals just for you or your sites.

Only fly in the ointment, all that extra paperwork and business wheeling and dealing. Many marketers and website owners like the idea of someone else handling all the tracking, collecting payments, promotional materials... they just like to sit back and build more websites and content. It gives the affilíate marketer a lifestyle that they are looking for on the web. They just like to market and promote with their sites and let someone else worry about the details. Therefore, there will always be a place for contextual ads like Google Adsense... "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

However, could CPA be a better alternative for the current Adsense contextual ads?

Google would be the natural choice for a middleman if there ever was one. Besides, many savvy marketers know the Google brand name is trusted online, any product/service promoted through Google would be an easy sell. Many argue Google already dominates the web, why should it not be the one to handle these CPA transactions through its Adsense program.

On the flip side, over countless updates and changes to its indexing, many webmasters have experienced more than a few negative dealings with Google. Many have won, many have lost in this Google Age, but all have realized riding the Google Search Engine is like running with the bulls at Pamplona, totally thrilling unless you're one of the unfortunate few who get trampled in the process.

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About The Author:

Titus Hoskins is a former teacher who now works full-time online operating numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing.