Although some would suggest keeping Google in the dark when it comes to their sites’ performance, I have a different opinion.  After working all last month to get my niche sites switched over from Commission Junction to the new eBay Partner Network, I decided to try to optimize my AdWords campaigns.  I send a lot of traffic to my niche sites using AdWords. 

Although I do use tried and true SEO strategies to get organic traffic, I’ve found that PPC traffic converts better for some reason.  I can spend weeks optimizing my sites to get them ranked for some decent-performing keywords, only to find that the majority of visitors coming from the search engines are just browsers.  I can send a fraction of the traffic to my sites using AdWords ads to get the same results.  It takes far less time and effort, and it allows me to focus more on building better content.

Anyway, I recently began optimizing one of my campaigns based on some knowledge I gained from a new StomperNet video on PPC ads.  I was able to improve my click-through rates dramatically using their strategies, and I was excited about the results.  But the excitement was a bit short-lived.

You see, I have my Analytics account tied to my AdWords campaigns.  I like to be able to track the performance of my campaigns down to the specific ads and keywords I’m using.  Using the StomperNet ideas, I was able to add a new ad that got a whopping 60% click-through rate. 

After seeing the results, I moved on to take care of other business.  I came back later to find that Google had doubled the minimum cost per click on my account and set my account to inactive until I raised my bids.  I was alarmed, and I waded through my campaign settings looking for an answer.  But the answer was only to be found in my Analytics account…

After clicking over to Analytics, I went to my AdWords campaign and clicked down to what I thought was my best performing ad.  Sure enough, the bounce rate for that ad was over 50%.  So, although the ad attracted lots of clicks and had relevant keywords for my site content, it wasn’t attracting customers - only curious clickers.  So, Google had done me a big favor by increasing my minimum cost per click.  They were actually saving me a lot of money.

After removing the offending ad, I soon saw my cost drop back to previous levels and all was well again.  I’ll continue to create new ads and research new keywords, but I’ll be sure to keep a close eye on the results in my Analytics account.  Some may call it the Google-slap, but I now prefer to think of it as a way to quickly learn how to improve the results of your PPC campaigns.

Finding good keywords for your website content is only the beginning.  Without a good strategy in place for getting traffic to your new site, it will simply sit there like an island in the middle of the ocean.  No one will have a clue that you’ve just published a great site full of wonderful articles just waiting to be explored.  So, let’s take a look at a few ways to get visitors to your new site.  I will go into this in more detail in future posts, but here are a few quick ways to get your site visited.

1. Create a blog and use a tool like Feedburner to help you promote it and publish it in a format readable by most RSS readers.  Search engines love fresh content, and blogs are great sources of fresh content.  You can get your site noticed much more quickly with a blog.  If you use the low-competition keyword strategy I outlined in the last post, you’ll already have content full of good keywords.  Getting the search engines to index the content will likely get you a top position for one or more of your selected terms relatively quickly.

2. Post comments on blogs, in forums, and on social media sites.  Include a link back to your site or blog, and the search engines will likely find you.  But be intelligent about this.  Don’t just spam the sites of others for your own benefit.  If you provide value, you’ll reap the benefits.  If you spam, you may get a short-term reward, but you’ll have a hollow victory at best.  And as search engines become ever more sophisticated, you could eventually find your sites removed from their listings.

3. Write a few articles related to the content on your site and include a link back to your site in your author bio.  I’ve used this technique successfully on numerous occasions.  In fact, I like to use this strategy to send traffic to landing pages where I promote various affiliate products. (We’ll talk more about promoting products and services as an affiliate in future posts.)  Submit your articles to sites like EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com.  When the articles are published, your link must be included.  This not only provides you with publicity, it also provides links back to your website all across the web.

4. Create a video and post it on YouTube.  Include your site URL as a caption at the end of the video.  Some of your viewers will look you up. 

5. Create a Squidoo Lens at Squidoo.com related to your topic.  Provide good, relevant content and include a link back to your site within a list of links to various other related websites.

6. To get traffic flowing to your site quickly and easily, set up a Google AdWords account and pay to have your advertisements displayed in search engine results or on other websites related to the content of your site.  Using AdWords effectively is a topic for another day, but take a look at the program.  If all of your other efforts fail to live up to your expectations, spending a few dollars can get traffic flowing to your new site.

We’ll look at other great ways to get traffic and effective use of AdWords and other PPC systems in a future post.

There are lots of ways to make money with PPC ads such as Google’s AdSense program.  You’ll find thousands of sites online with content targeting a specific set of keywords just to get a little money from the PPC ads on their pages.  Most of these sites are pure garbage, and the search engines are getting better at filtering them out of search results.  Add to that the fact that more people are using alternative methods for finding good content because sites like these show up in the search engine results.

So, what can you do to make extra money with PPC ads when the game seems to keep changing?
Obviously, the best way to make money with anything is to provide a quality product or service.  For website owners, that usually means providing high-quality information on a specific topic.  And by high-quality I mean fresh, original content that isn’t something you’ve purchased for a few bucks and republished.  But that doesn’t mean you have to spend hours at your keyboard writing content. 

You can let your visitors add to your content.
There are many ways to do this.

• Request articles. Some writers will provide content just to get their name published. 
• Create forums to discuss topics that interest your visitors.  
• Allow visitors to place ads for buying and selling products related to a specific niche.  Just make sure the ad script is SEO-friendly or you won’t benefit from the ad content. 
• Create a dating site just for people interested in a specific topic.  There are free and inexpensive scripts for this as well.
• Add cartoons or jokes on your site and update them frequently.
• Add online gaming (not gambling) to your site along with quality content.  The games will keep visitors coming back, and the content can include ads that may be relevant to their interests.  Be careful with this one because competitive gaming is governed by law in many areas.  If the games are just for fun, you should be safe.

I’ve used a few of these methods to build sites, and they provide me with a constant source of income.  The key thing to keep in mind is that you must provide quality content or a valuable service to keep visitors interested.  If you intend to make money with PPC ads, you want your visitors to be just interested enough to come to the site.  Then you want them to click away to something that catches their eye in an ad.  If you’re providing good content, it’s more likely that they will be really interested in what your advertisers have to offer.  That will keep your ad payment rates higher, and it will also help to prevent advertisers from asking to have their ads removed from your site.

The toughest part of building a community site is attracting those first visitors, so expect a bit of work up-front to get things rolling.  No one likes to be the first person to comment on a forum, so you may need to help your visitors feel more comfortable by “seeding” your forum or ad site with a few comments of your own - or from friends.   I don’t advocate being deceptive, but you really have to be creative in order to get a conversation started among your visitors.  When I started my first classified ads site, I simply included an ad that said “Place your ad here to sell your…  It just might get results. After all, you’re reading this aren’t you?”  That’s all it took to get things rolling.  Within a few weeks, I had dozens of ads - all getting indexed by search engines.