online advertising free; online advertising business; effects of advertising; types of advertising; advertising lesson plans

You can drive a lot of traffic to your website or blog if you start using images and if you start optimizing your images for Google Image Search.

A lot of people are using Google Image Search and you can get a lot of free traffic if you just start doing some minor changes.

There are many ways to get traffic from Google Image Search; you could insert keywords into your Alt text and name your images with descriptive titles and of course you could use relevant text around your images.

I am going to concentrate on five creative ways. The reason that I am only focusing on five techniques, is that I believe that you probably already know the basic ways to get traffic to your images; like inserting keywords into your Alt text, and if you don’t know, you can always find a great article about how to get traffic from Google Image Search.

My first creative way to drive traffic to your website using Google Image Search is to use images about really hot topics. My best example is probably about Britney Spears. She is still a really hot topic, but a few months back, she was probably the hottest topic in the world. You didn’t need to write a blog post about Britney Spears, but you could have used her as an example and used an image of her in your blog post, and finally, you could have used an Alt text with a really hot keyword about Britney Spears.  

My second creative way is using Google Image Labeler. If you haven’t heard of Google Image Labeler, I will do a short introduction for you (well, I have borrowed the introduction from Google):

You’ll be randomly paired with a partner who’s online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will:

• View the same set of images.
• Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see.
• Receive points when your label matches your partner’s label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is.
• See more images until time runs out.

After time expires, you can explore the images you’ve seen and the websites where those images were found. And we’ll show you the points you’ve earned throughout the session.

My third creative way is to include more than one keyword in your image title. It’s easy, just use hyphen in the name. For instance, if I wanted to use an image of google image search, I would have at least used the name google-image-search.jpg, but I could have also put another important keyword in there, maybe google-image-search-traffic.jpg?

My fourth creative way is to create an image site map. Create a page where you link to all your images. Site maps are great for SEO in general, maybe they are just as great when it comes to images?

My fifth creative way to drive traffic to your website using Google Image Search is to use images from topics/categories with few images, but many searches. Just do a search using Google Image Search and see if you can find a lot of images for your keywords, if you can’t, then great. You won’t have much competition then. You might have to guess when it comes to the amount of people who are actually searching for images with your keywords, because I don’t really know how to find out how many searches people do for images. Anyways. You are looking for keywords or categories with very few images, but with a lot of searches.

Finally.

Even though it might not help you at Google Image Search, you should always think about the best way to present your images. Remember that small images loads faster and unusual images are always the most interesting.

You have probably noticed that I am using a popover myself, and that’s because it’s a great way to grab attention and in my case, to get people to subscribe to my “Internet Marketing Tips Newsletter”. I am using the lightbox popover script from AWeber.

Anyway. I have found an example of another interesting way to use a popover. I am not sure where I found it, but I had to take a screen capture just so I could show you the example.

Usually, people are using a popover in order to get people to sign up for something (like a newsletter) or to get people to click on an interesting offer (just one offer).

This popover, actually it’s an exit popover (only shows when people are trying to leave the website), gives you three options.

It tries to cover every reason why a person was visiting the website in the first place; and when the person is leaving, this popover asks the question which option is the best for the prospect:

1. I’d like to discover how to easily make serious money with affiliate programs using powerful underground techniques

2. I’d like to learn some truly advanced Internet marketing tactics

3. I’d like to learn how to make “autopilot income” using the Internet

Depending on the option you choose, you will be sent to an affiliate program (one for each option).

I am not sure if this is a great way to use a popover or not.

But I am sure that I think it’s a creative way to use it and I do like it  

This is a guest post by Mark Schumann, the developer of The Publicity Wheel.

The Publicity Wheel is a new web service that can provide a large boost in traffic and exposure for any website.  The concept works by featuring one website (per category) at a time through banner/text links on participating members’ sites.  Unlike a traditional banner/link exchange program there are no impression figures or ratios to worry about, and by having your website promoted by hundreds of other websites on a permanent basis for several days, the benefits can be huge.  Instead of impressions and ratios, The Publicity Wheel works through a kind of ticketing system known as “publicity points”.  This is explained in further detail below.

Getting Started
After creating an account and selecting a category that best suits your site, it is recommended that you upload your own banner images in sizes of 125×125, 200×200 and 468×60 pixels.  These will be used when your site is featured and displayed on members’ sites.  If you don’t upload any banner images, generic “Publicity Wheel” banners will be used instead, but still forward all clicks to your site.

The next step is to begin earning publicity points so that you have a greater chance of being featured at the next “spin”.  Each point earned is effectively one ticket (or chance) at winning the next spin, so the more you have the better your chances.  If you don’t win, you don’t lose your tickets, so you have a greater chance of winning as you accumulate points over time.  Winners’ points are also reset to zero to allow lower-traffic sites increase their chances over time.

Ensure you are logged in, and open up the Earn Publicity Points tab to select the category of websites you would like to promote on your own site (generally the same as yours).  Choose the most appropriate banner or text link, and copy the code into the section of your site to have it displayed.

That’s basically it! Each time one of your visitors clicks on these banners/links, you will earn a number of publicity points, which are then used to select the winner of the next spin.

The Publicity Wheel is not for everyone, but it does provide a more unique and enjoyable method for promoting your website.

You might already know that I am writing an e-book about marketing mistakes and why people fail at Internet marketing. Today, I thought I’d start out with a series of posts about some of the mistakes. Some are minor mistakes and some should be considered as big (or even huge) mistakes.

Let’s start out with the popover marketing mistake.

You can probably see what’s wrong with this image. Check out the size of the popover. It hardly reveals anything, and it’s impossible to scroll and see the information. Even though this popover should show some really cool information and maybe even an offer most people can’t resist, not a single person will ever notice… because they can’t read the text (and they can only see part of the images).

The first lesson (and one of the most important lessons) is to always check your marketing (not once, but at least twice) before you publish it, and make sure everything is alright. Test it in different browsers (at least Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera), use different resolutions on your screen, this way most people will be able to view your advertisement.

Remember, even Gurus are making these mistakes

I almost forgot about the most interesting marketing system from the past week. I have been really busy, and I haven’t noticed that many new and interesting systems. But of course, I have one that I think stands out from the crowd.

It’s the Ever Profits Toolbar

It seems to be a very interesting viral marketing tool.

All you need to do is to install a toolbar (like the Google Toolbar or any other toolbar for that matter), and the system will do everything from there on.

According to their website, you will get:

The Internet Marketing Tactics, SEO Secrets, Unexposed Keywords & Niches, Automatic Content Tools, Spy on AdWords and Much More, On The Fly

This is of course a much easier way than receiving tons of e-mail.

The Ever Profits Toolbar is completely free, and you can even sign up as an affiliate and earn money marketing it.

What I find to be most interesting with this Internet marketing toolbar is how you can use it to do really advanced research. Just take a look at the video below, and you’ll understand what I am talking about.

The only problem I find with the Ever Profits Toolbar is that it’s currently only available for Internet Explorer. I am not using Internet Explorer, and I won’t start using it, no matter how powerful this toolbar is.

The Firefox version will be released soon, and then, only then, I will install it and start the testing

You have probably heard of Jack Humphrey as he is one of the real gurus of Internet marketing. Now, I have just received information about his new software called Utility Poster and the upgraded version called Trackboost.

First, take a look at this video from YouTube where Jack Humphrey explains the features:

As far as I know, the price for the lite version, Utility Poster will be $67 and the price for Trackboost will be $197, you can read more about them and buy them at trackboost.com

According to the e-mail I received from Jack Humphrey:

• It creates FAST, relevant posts.
• It pings the people you link to.
• It gets you some of the BEST LINKAGE to be had on the web.

It tracks those links so you know how many people link back
to each post you make. (Trackbacks)

It allows you to retroactively get trackbacks for posts
you’ve already made but didn’t have the time to go
searching for trackbacks by hand.

Has a built-in ping list to notify all the ping sites that
your older posts have been updated to bring the search
engine spiders back to re-index your posts.

Utility Poster does much of the above but DOESN’T include
trackback link tracking and doesn’t actively ping people
you link to.

It makes finding and posting the best, most recent blog
posts in your niche easy as pie and will save you TONS OF
TIME over doing the same thing by hand.

You’ll become a more PROLIFIC, regular writer because of it
which means more content. And that means more traffic and
more search engine rankings for more keywords.

It seems to be a very interesting software (or two versions of an interesting software) that can really help you promote your blog. As I am writing this it’s 12 hours untill they will launch, so I really don’t know if they will be worth $67 or $197.

Take a look at Trackboost and tell me what you think.

I guess that the problem with most affiliate products, including Affiliate Silver Bullet, the product that I have been promoting using this blog, is that they don’t help you drive traffic.

Most affiliate products that I have been involved with, in fact, I think all affiliate products that I have been involved with did not help me at all driving real traffic (unique visitors). Many products/services helped me understand more or less what I was doing online. But they didn’t really help me promote their products.

Some helped me using Google Adwords, some helped me realize how to become a better blogger and some helped me understand SEO (at least help me get a better understanding than I did have when I started blogging).

But none did help me drive traffic straight to my blog or my product.

I realize now that I probably should have started all over, because I am about to mess up my message to you, but I’ll continue and try to be more specific.

What I am talking about is that most products or services talk about how to drive traffic and how to promote, but they don’t do it for you. Usually you end up buying a product or a service and you need to know how to get people to read your messages and how to market the product to the masses.

It’s exactly the same with Affiliate Silver Bullet. If you don’t know how to promote, then you have no future using Affiliate Silver Bullet. Well, their new system is kind of different and the owner and creator, Dustin Stuckman have told us that he will also be promoting Affiliate Silver Bullet (and the Internet Marketing Genius Newsletter) and he will be providing us (the members) with the leads. This way, when someone buys something from his e-mails (sales messages), we will earn the commissions.

So far, I have not received any new leads from him. I am not judging him or Affiliate Silver Bullet, it’s only been about a month since the launch of the new and upgraded system (the Internet Marketing Genius Newsletter).

I am waiting, and I am very interested to see if in fact we will receive any free leads from the system. If we will, then I am really going to be impressed, it will be my first time ever…

I am not sure if you can expect to join a service or buy a product and have the company do all the marketing for you, or even help you with some of the marketing. But sometimes they do promise you stuff, and sometimes you might in fact get more than you were hoping for when you joined.

This is more a question than a suggestion of something you really should do. The reason for the question is that I actually don’t know if this is legal or not. Well, it’s not breaking any laws (the cops won’t be after you), you might just be breaking the rules over at StumbleUpon.

Anyways, I don’t want to break any rules, and that’s why I am asking you about this.

I am not sure if it’s possible to earn any money by doing this, but I am sure that you can get a lot of extra (free) traffic to your affiliate sites.

What I am trying to say is this; can you/should you vote on your own affiliate sites and help them get many stumbles? A lot of people at StumbleUpon will see the sites, and the sites will have your affiliate links (and if they order, you will earn commission).

This is sort of like stumbling your own blog posts, but instead you are stumbling your affiliate programs.

The reason I am saying that I am not sure if you will earn any money by doing this, is that (in general) people coming to your websites from StumbleUpon are not converting that well, and I am not sure how happy they’ll be looking at a sales page

You will have to test this, in order to find out what works. 

I have never tried this myself, and that’s because somehow I think applying this technique might be breaking the rules at StumbleUpon. I haven’t read the TOS (for a long time), but if many people start using this marketing technique, StumbleUpon will just end up being like any traffic exchange.

… and that’s why I think it might be breaking their rules.  

I have just joined SuTree, actually, I have just joined SuTree as an expert on online marketing. I don’t feel like an expert at the field of online marketing, but when someone asks me if I’d like to be title an expert, well, it would be rude to say no

Take a look at my profile at SuTree (you need to be logged in to view it)

What is SuTree?

Instead of providing you with my own definition of what SuTree is, I will use the one from TechCrunch, SuTree is

a video aggregation service where users can add and categorize instructional videos from across the web, providing a directory of video that would often be buried under the weight of competing content on sites such as YouTube and MetaCafe

So, it’s a web 2.0 site, where users can communicate and upload videos and of course view the “how to” videos. It seems to be a great place to learn all kinds of stuff, not only things related to Internet marketing.

Why did I join SuTree?

I joined because I believe that SuTree is a very interesting site, and that I can help SuTree with content.

It’s actually fairly easy. If you find cool “how to” videos at YouTube or anywhere on the Internet, you can just provide the link and some description to SuTree and the video will be your contribution to the SuTree community.

And more than 33,000 videos have been indexed by SuTree as I am writing this.

Why instructional videos?

I think that instructional videos are very important; it’s probably the easiest way to learn anything online. I have tried reading long and detailed e-books, and I have tried listening to audios, but nothing comes close to video.

SuTree will (soon) have all the instructional videos you are looking for, and this alone will be something most people will appreciate. And of course, when you add features like Blackboard (like the Facebook wall), where other members can send you messages, SuTree seems to be a lot more interesting than similar services like Scouta (videos) and iLike (music).

It’s important to me that SuTree is all about instructional videos and not a service that will include all sorts of videos. And it’s important that they have editors (the members) that will help me (and all the other members) find the best instructional videos on each topic.

Let me give you an example

As I told you earlier, I haven’t been using SuTree for more than a few days. Well, today was actually the first day when I had the time to watch a few videos, and I published a comment as well.

I just found an interesting video about how to write a great email subject, and this is an example of videos you can find at SuTree.

Remember, it’s completely free to join SuTree.

The widget

If you look at my sidebar (on the right side of my blog), and scroll down at the bottom. There you’ll see that I have added a widget from SuTree. It will show interesting videos related to Online marketing. This is just a way to get more people interested in SuTree.

It’s time

If you find instructional videos interesting, then it’s time to join SuTree and then add me as your friend.

I thought that this was too good to be true, yes, that was my first thought when I heard that Mike Filsaime was giving away four of his bestselling software (PowerLink Generator, ProTrack Manager, ViralFriend Generator and ButterflyMarketing Manuscript).

Guess what?

It’s too good to be true.

My second thought was that if Mike Filsaime is giving away his software, he is doing it to build a much larger list.

But when I visited his sales page and tried to sign up for a free copy of ButterflyMarketing Manuscript, I saw that he was doing exactly the same as Matt Bacak did. And I think that Matt did a huge mistake and I think that Mike is doing one right now.

When you choose one of the four products, you will end up at a page that, if you read it closely, tells you to:

Please send me this added bonus absolutely free! ($97 Value) Mike, please send me a complimentary copy of your “Best Damn Newsletter” for free. I Pay Nothing Today! - Just S&H. I know that this newsletter holds some of your best kept secrets that I can use to make hundreds, or even thousands of dollars every month. I also know that, while there are no guarantees, just one of your nuggets can impact my business by thousands, maybe even millions of dollars, if I apply what I learn from it. And I know I can learn several each month over and above just One!

I know others pay $97 each month to get your newsletter, and I am happy to get this months copy for free. I understand that you will give me a huge 80% discount for life on this as long as I continue to stay on your newsletter. Please bill me the discount price of only $29.95 (free S&H) each month starting in 30 days from today. I understand that is newsletter is over $77 off your normal price.

You’ll need to enter your credit card information, and you need to sign up for his newsletter and pay for shipping and handling $29.95 today, you’ll receive a free copy of his newsletter, but if you don’t cancel it, you will receive it in the mail each month and you’ll have to pay $29.95 each month.

I am not saying that it’s not worth it. His newsletter might be the best, I have no idea. I just don’t like this kind of marketing. It looks like everything is free, and when you are just about to download his software, you realize that it’s not free. Well, the software might still be free, but you will have to pay for something completely different. Something you didn’t know a thing about when reading the sales letter.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you where to visit and get your “free” software.

Just visit Get My Sofware Free and remember to read the last page.

One thing that I find to be really cool is the popover video starring Mike Filsaime, if you don’t want his “free” product, you should at least take a look at his video. It would be cool to have one just like that.

Internal Tags:,internet marketing,matt bacak,mike filsaime,Software