South West eCommerce Newsletter

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In this issue...

- Affili@Syd Summary
- The Difference A Top Ranking Will Make
- Graeme Olsen Reconfirms Google Accreditation

Affili@Syd Summary

by Graeme Olsen

Tuesday 8th June 2010 saw the second annual Affili@Syd conference held in Sydney, which I attended.

Affili@Syd is the only major affiliate marketing conference in Australia, bringing together merchants, publishers, advertisers, affiliate networks, and internet marketers from all over Australia.

The keynote speaker at this year's conference was "super affiliate" Zac Johnson, one of the world's most successful affiliate marketers. Also speaking at the conference were representatives from Facebook, Telstra, and other gurus in social media, search engine ranking, email marketing, plus many professional affiliate marketers.

For the me the conference was very encouraging because I was able to meet and shake the hands of several people who live off affiliate marketing full time. That is, they use the Internet to sell other people's products online, and the commissions they earn are enough to live on. Some of the more successful ones even earn tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Affiliate marketing is still quite new in Australia, and it was interesting to get Zac Johnson's view of the industry from a USA perspective, where affiliate marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry. He was of the opinion that like most industries, Affiliate Marketing will follow the US lead and that performance based marketing like affiliate marketing will become a major advertising option in it's own right. Most other affiliate and marketing experts agree with this view. This is particularly the case in challenging economic times when money is tight. Through affiliate marketing, advertisers and merchants can get extra sales or leads and only pay once they receive them (pay per sale or pay per lead).

There are some interesting trends happening online, as always. While more and more people get online, and more and more people purchase online, there are also other variances such as the younger generation, who you often can't access through traditional methods of advertising. They don't watch a lot of television, they don't read newspapers, and many of them don't use Google. Finding where they are online and promoting products to them is a whole new area of thinking in internet marketing.

I hope to bring you some insights from the conference over coming editions of the South West eCommerce newsletter, which should be of benefit to anyone trying to sell online, whether you are an affiliate or a merchant.

Until then, if you've got any questions about affiliate marketing, just drop me an email.

The Difference A Top Ranking Will Make

Statistics show the following breakdown of what percentage of searchers click on various positions in the search engine results:

This shows that the percentage of clicks drops off very rapidly after the first position. For example, the number 1 position receives roughly 4 times as many clicks as the number 2 position. What it also shows is that if your site is currently ranking around number 6, then if you were able to get your site ranking at number 1 in the search results, then the number of clicks you would receive from those searches would increase a whopping 926%!

These stats clearly show the importance of increasing your search engine ranking as high as possible. If you need help with that, don't forget to check out our Search Engine Optimisation service.

Graeme Olsen Reconfirms Google Accreditation

Google have an accreditation program for professionals who manage Google Adwords accounts. The requirements for this accreditation recently increased, with the exam system now being made up of two exams, not one, covering both basic and advanced techniques.

As part of maintaining his accreditation, Graeme was required to resit his exams under the new system. The good news is that he passed and has had his Qualified Google Adwords Professional status renewed for a further two years!

What's the benefit of having your Google Adwords account managed by an accredited professional?

Placing Google ads isn't just a matter of setting a bid price, budget and hitting "Go". There are lots of factors to consider which will affect how much you pay. For example, do you know about the different match types (broad, phrase, exact), what Quality Score is, and how it affects your ranking position and how much you pay? Do you know about all the targeting options and techniques that ensure your ads aren't being seen by people who aren't interested? By using the right techniques, you can dramatically reduce the amount you pay per click while still ranking higher than people who are paying more.

And then on top of that, most accredited specialists will be provided with vouchers from Google that will give you the first $100 or so of clicks free.

Find out more about Google Adwords and Pay Per Click advertising on our Search Engine Marketing page.

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Don't forget to check out our website for great articles on Internet Marketing and growing your online business.

Until next time!

South West eCommerce
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