Before you make any money on the web, you must have traffic. Of course, free traffic from the search engines is better than paying for your traffic. To keep your top rankings and the free traffic flowing, you must watch your positions diligently. Seeing fluctuations and trends in the datacenters allows you to react to changes in Google’s algorithms and rankings.

One indispensible tool for watching your Google rankings used to reside at McDar.net. That site has mysteriously disappeared from the web (and we all wish Caryl the owner well) leaving many search engine optimizers without their daily fix of DC watching. Here is a site with a replacement for the popular McDar Google Datacenter Watch tool that functions in nearly the same way:

KZAY Google Datacenter Tool

For website owners doing affiliate marketing or selling their own goods, generic contextual advertising such as Google Adsense should be an afterthought and not the focus of a site. Today’s review is an example of someone who aims to sell products online but they start mucking it up by sending users offsite through Adsense. I received a request from a Digital Point user, SFOD_D223, to review his site: Wares4Life. I didn’t ask for much information on it since if I’m going to tell someone how to fix their site, I better be able to figure out how it works and doesn’t work right now.

It took me a moment to figure out exactly how this site intends to make money:

The main feature greeting the first time visitor is the Google Adsense for search box! Is this a made for Adsense nightmare? No, I wouldn’t bother typing about one of those. It turns out this site is either a wholesaler or works through a dropshipper to find closeout goods and then markets them online. If the user does manage to scroll down on the index, they are faced with a nonsensical mashup of goods– everything from a decorative lamp with scrollwork and cherubs… to a pizza baking stone… to a home phone that looks like a cell flip phone. I was still puzzled as to what this site was trying to be.

I’ve never been a fan of huge online malls. If your name doesn’t start with Ama and end with Zon, I wouldn’t advise wasting your time trying to sell all things to all people from one site. If the user doesn’t recognize your store brand right away, the next best thing is to be specialized merchant that offers only a specific range of goods– that specialization imparts some degree of trust.

However, In an effort to fix what we have instead of start all over, I’ll offer up this quick blockup of what an mall site might look like:

The four columns of items (or even down to three columns) give visible separation and allow you to classify them into categories. Show that you have more lamps and more home lighting accessories. Show that you have other kitchen gear and a section for more baking items. This gives the impression of lots of stock rather than just a few items of random selection. And speaking of random selection, vary up the home page. Any programmer should be able to give you a solution in PHP or javascript that allows you to rotate what images and what items appear on the index. I don’t necessarily advocate rotating them on each page refresh but you do want to update them perhaps once a day.

The major thing I want to address about this site and the mockup is the simple point of wasted space above the fold. ‘The fold’ is a newspaper advertising term that refers to what people see without having to unfold the paper. On the browser– what does the user see without having to scroll down? With the current site, all they see is stock photography and a Google search box. That is a certain invitation to LEAVE the site as quickly as possible.

Get your products above the fold. Minimize the waste of space in the header as this is the most important part of your page. Above all, stop giving people a reason to click off of your site– you’re there to sell products, not push Adsense!

Nothing powers SE listings faster than getting additional backlinks from lots of varied sources. In a smart post at DP, Arizona Web Design makes an offer to all bloggers– review his site and he’ll pay you a commission. If you have a quality site and post an interesting review, you can get a bonus. That is a fast way to make a quick buck! For the new bloggers out there, it could double your weekly income with just a post.

Post a site review, make easy lunch money.

A post on DigitalPoint gave me the idea for this site:

One look and it was obvious why the conversion rate was so painful:

I wasn’t sure if this was a store or an informational site on how to make your own Victorian nightie. There wasn’t one shred of a “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” or “Click for more details” button. The sole product image didn’t look like a product display but rather a decorational image. I doubt many users took the time to figure out they could even shop on this site and simply moved on to the next.

It is a shame to waste a #1 Google ranking for “nightgowns” so I replied with a few places to start:

• concentrate more on selling on the landing page
• consider that not everyone searching for cotton nightgowns wants something from the Victorian Era. I realize that is her niche, but you could certainly increase conversions by offering more mainstream alternatives (either in store or through affiliate links)
• list out some of the actual nightgowns on the home page and put some “Add to Cart” buttons nearby rather than waiting for the user to click the small text link to see more
• a quick search of CJ showed a number of vendors offering between 6 and 10%

What about that last one? 6 and 10% on what? Affiliate Marketing!

While the main business of this site is Victorian Nightgowns, it already has #1 for the more generic term. Why not use that traffic instead of letting it hit the back button? Commission Junction has merchants that will pay between 6 and 10% of any sale that you send them. It is common sense to realize not everyone who searches for ‘nightgowns’ will want something Victorian. Since you have them on your site already, why not sell them what they want? Use an affiliate link and you don’t even have to stock the product.

Thistledown implemented a few of my suggestions and came up with this:

MUCH better! Coupons, info links, and more product photos will certainly increase the lagging conversions. I’m still waiting for them to implement a few affiliate links and to report back on if these changes have helped.

The dot-com internet gold rush made a lot of people very rich and a lot of other people just as bankrupt. In the late 90s, there seemed to be millions of free startup dollars floating around the internet. All it took was an idea… it didn’t have to be your own… buy a domain name, hire a few java programmers, and Bacchanalian Venture Capitalists would literally queue up to dump buckets of money on your head while you played foosball.

Did you have to produce a product?

Hell no!

Did you need a sustainable business model?

What’s a business model?

Money was plentiful and well-funded companies spent it like there was no tomorrow. No one seemed to really produce anything useful but at least there were comfortable chairs. A few large behemoth companies emerged and continue today (Amazon, eBay, the GOOG) but the vast majority have long since closed up shop. I was part of that boom and bust; I actually worked for a failed offshoot of one of the successes. I helped sell new cars on Amazon.

Brilliant, eh? I’ll let that sink in a moment.

New cars… on the web. What a great idea! We even got our own tab. I produced front page teaser graphics and banners on Amazon as well as integrating the look and feel of the order process with our monster parent.

Those days of instant VC funding disappeared but with (oh no, I’m going to say it) Web 2.0, the money available on the web is once again growing. Bright ideas that must actually have traffic and a profit are being bought left and right by the previous bubble holdovers. Is there any room for the little guy to make money online?

ABSOLUTELY.

Even the small sites that go huge are mainly monetizing their content in only a few ways. Most of them utilize text ads served up contextually… you know, Adsense. I also work in another area; in fact, I prefer it, and I’ll gladly show you why– Affiliate marketing. Selling something for someone else.

I don’t keep any stock, I don’t deal with any customer service, I never pack an order… yet if I have the traffic, I can make the same percentage on the sale as the retailer who actually sells the product. I’ll show you how, step-by-step, using real world examples. That is the reason we’re here– I will take your site, review it, and show you how to make more money with it:

• Improve ad clickthrough
• Advice on interface design and ease of use for your target audience
• Remove the blocks that stop people from checking out their carts
• Show you what you might be missing by marketing other products

If you’d like help with any of these things, for free, all I ask in return is that you let everyone here know if the advice has helped you monetize your site. Making more money yet? Why not? Email: money@merged.ca

Who am I and why should you care? Here is a little more about me.