Category: Advertisers
Tips, Tricks & Notes for LinkWorth Advertisers
Billboard Link Power . . . ACTIVATE
When we launched our Billboard Link Ads back in April of this year (2005), the power of this product was obvious to us. As more tests have been run and clients have reported, we are still discovering all of the benefits that come with a billboard ad. The complex webs in which one can create with billboards are endless, making many possible avenue’s for a potential customer to reach your website. With billboards still catching on, we thought a few possible billboard scenarios might help advertisers better understand and implement them into their existing campaigns.
We do recommend to compliment any billboard campaign with traditional text link ads. The ratio we use is 10:1; or for every one billboard, add ten text link ads. A billboard will almost always be a brand new page, so building that page’s popularity is a must. With the ten text link ads purchased, point two or three to the billboard. Now on to the scenarios. . .
SCENARIO ONE
The first example will involve a relatively small campaign that involves a single keyword or keyphrase. It is scalable, so for each additional keyword or phrase, double the numbers. Your first step would be:
- create three (3) very well written and unique pages on the subject revolving around your keyword or phrase. Use all SEO tools and tricks to ensure the page is developed as search engine friendly as possible. Make each of the three billboards a minimum of five hundred words or more. Do not duplicate the same billboard througout your campaign because search engines will identify duplicate pages and it will not work as well. Once the billboards are created, proofread and ready to go, create them in your LinkWorth account and approved. Be sure to not use any images, scripts or include any file outside of the page as it will not be accepted.
- Once the billboards are approved, visit the buy billboards section and find three relevant sites to your own and make sure their Linkrank is a minimum of two and PageRank is at least a three. The reason for this is to ensure the partner site is actively being indexed so your billboard will be found soon.
- Once your billboards are securely placed on the three partner sites of choice, create at least three text link ads using variations of your keyword or phrase. For example, if your keyword is text links, use other anchor text combinations like buy text links, or sell text links.
- Create unique text ads with the different combinations of anchor text and make the url of one to your website or maybe to an internal page of your website, then create a duplicate text ad and point the url to one of your billboards. Repeat this step until you have created all of your text ads. In this example, you would have a total of six (6) unique text ads created. Three hyperlinking to billboards and three hyperlinking to your website.
- Now search through the LinkWorth database and select all relevant partner sites and add them to your wish list. Using the wish list will allow you to add whatever you think might work, then once you move to the wish list, it’s just the task of shaving things down to the most relevant and cost effective. Try to add ten partner sites for each billboard, so in this example it would be 30 partner sites in your list.
- On the wish list, divide all 30 partner sites so each billboard receives at least two text ads with it’s respective keyword pointing to it, then the remaining eight text ads with that keyword are placed on partner sites pointing to your homepage or subpage. Repeat this process for the remaining two keywords using the remaining partner listings in the wish list.
- Now you are ready to put the remaining parts of your campaign into progress. Make sure all listings are checked, possibly use the calculation tool to see the prorated amount and the monthly renewing price, then press the buy links. This will not only build link popularity from relevant sites, but it will also boost the site’s authority with entire expert documents pointing to your site.
Now this may be confusing, so we plan on providing illustrations below. This may help paint the actual picture. Billboards can be tough to comprehend at first, but it’s like riding a bike. . .once you learn, it never leaves you.
SCENARIO TWO – GRADUATED CAMPAIGN
The philosophy behind this process it to gradually create and add five text ads and one billboard per week. This not only allows enough time to create unique and creative advertisements, but you also build your campaign in a more natural method. This is referred to the 5:1:1 process. Purchase five (5) links, create and purchase one (1) well written billboard, all in one week. The break down is as follows:
- Week One
- Create and purchase five (5) text ads using your keyword or phrase on relevant websites.
- Write a minimum of 500 words about your keyword or phrase using good seo copywriting skills. Hyperlink your main keywords within the content to your website.
- Week Two
- Create and purchase five (5) additional text ads using the same keyword in different forms (ex: if your term is medicine, different forms would be buy medicine, or sell medicine or cheap medicine online)
- Write another unique 500 word or more article about your keyword or phrase. Hyperlink your main keywords to your website. **Now on this billboard create one hyperlink using a keyword that represents the first billboard you created in week one, and point it to the first billboard placed during week one.
- Week Three and moving on until your budget is used
- Repeat the steps in week two for each week until the desired budget is met
The graduated campaign is a very popular method as it allows a more slow and easy to manage page. It depends on how fast you wish to have things gonig and the time to put into it.
SCENARIO THREE – BILLBOARD SITEMAP
This method is similar to creating a sitemap on your own site, except you are doing it on a partner website. Our rules on billboards have always been a maximum of ten links but only to one domain. We are changing this to allow links to other billboards and also up to three (3) additional links to other resources related to your content. This allows your billboards to become more of an expert document.
Now the steps to this campaign are fairly simple, but will require some time spent writing unique and content rich billboards.
- Step one is to create a minimum of ten (10) unique, content rich, seo copywritten billboards and have them ready in your account.
- Next, create a few text link ads using the necessary keywords needed and save them in your account.
- Now go through and add 25 to 50 partner sites to your wish list. Make ten (10) of them billboard partners, with the rest text link partners
- Shuffle around your text ads and buy the links, however dedicate 5 text link partners to a billboard text link ad.
- Go ahead and purchase the billboards on the partner sites chosen. Pick just one (1) of your billboards to be the sitemap BB.
- Now create a text link ad which links to the sitemap BB you have selected and place this text ad on the remaining five partners in your wish list
- Now edit the billboard you have chosen to be the sitemap bb and create a menu of sort, using your top keywords as anchor text, and point a single link from this billboard to all of the other nine billboards published.
- Another creative step is you can replace the text ad which points to your billboard with one of our rotating link ads. This way you can list all of your keywords and the link pointing to your billboard can be one of many keywords. This is just an alternative idea.
These scenarios are techniques that have either been tested by our own team or have been discussed with some of our clients and actually put into action. Results have been very good with traffic increasing tremendously. The billboards are wonderful pieces of advertising that prepares the reader before reaching your website. Make the information clear and easy to understand, but just enough to peak their interest. Search engines also can treat these billboards as expert documents helping your natural listings based on your content. Another big plus that can and will happen with your billboards is, more than likely you will see your billboards in the top of search results when your keywords are searched. We’ve witnessed situations where in the top 10 results, there were three of the advertisers well written, unique, content rich pages showing and then the actual advertisers website mixed in as well. This was four ways to capture all of the traffic and also builds a great visibility and name recognition factor that is invaluable..
We will have graphical illustrations of these 3 scenarios soon.
Become A Preferred Partner
In addition to these options, LinkWorth is proud to offer our new Preferred Partner account. When partners create new listings, they are presented with an option to become a Preferred Partner or a Basic Partner account. The basic account is everything we’ve had in the past with no changes. The preferred account offers the following extra’s:
- Highlighted listing on all websites listed in our database. A maroon background allows preferred listings to stand out from the rest.
- A fifteen percent (15%) discount on all listing upgrades.
- Receive first choice status for Managed Account purchases. LinkWorth specialists purchase all link ads for advertisers who enroll in our Managed Account services. LinkWorth specialists account for close to a 60% of text ads purchased in our system so as a preferred partner, our specialists will give your listing a first look before reviewing basic account listings.
- Quicker approval of new and changed submissions
- Additional perks as they are added.
The preferred partner option is a 50/50 split, rather than the 70/30 split for a basic account. One thing to definitely understand is there is no guarantee of anything with being a preferred partner. Our specialists will do their best to send as much business to each preferred account as possible, however, our advertisers ultimately have the final say and can remove anything we give them. It’s in our own best interest to drive business to preferred partners, however, it is in our advertisers best interest for links to be relevant and worthwhile that are purchased for them.
Basic Partner accounts must realize that specialists will also consider their listings as well. Our advertisers results are what is most important, so if a basic partner listing fits better, then our specialists will select them. Preferred partners will definitely get our first choice, but we cannot limit ourselves to only preferred listings as there are many great basic partner listings. So if switching doesn’t fit your needs, please do not be discouraged as business will still happen.
To become a Preferred Partner Account, if you are currently a LinkWorth partner, login to your account and on the home login page, there will be an option to become a preferred partner. Click this and it will take you to the preferred partner explanation. It pretty much says the same thing as it does here with an option to CONVERT. Once this is clicked, your account immediately becomes a preferred account.
Any questions or concerns should be submitted to our helpdesk. Thank you for your partnership!
New Sub Accounts Available
Due to the growing number of advertising agencies and SEO consultants using LinkWorth for their own customers, the need for simplicity of multiple accounts has been addressed. Many have asked for a solution to the problem of having multiple logins and accounts to separate advertisers from each other, so we have answered these requests.
Advertisers can now visit their ACCT INFO section within their advertiser account, then click on SUB ACCTS to create a new 2nd level account. The form to be completed will ask for all of the required information to build the 2nd level account and once submitted, a drop down menu in the top right corner of the page will appear. By selecting a different sub account from the drop down menu, one can toggle back and forth between each account created. Each sub account will be independent of the others, but your main login information is all that is required.
If you manage many of your own clients through LinkWorth, now you can give them their own sub account to keep billing separate, reports separate, linking campaigns separate and all other aspects different from your other clients.
Sub accounts can also convert to combo accounts allowing the advertiser of each account to sell links as well. This option is only available to advertiser accounts or combo accounts. Partner only accounts do not have the need or ability to create sub accounts at this time.
Any and all questions should be directed to our helpdesk or text links forum. We hope this serves well to those in need.
The Little BLUE Engine MSN Search
I’m sure anyone that has searched around through SEO firms or SEO wannabe websites; they always have their “portfolio” of websites they have pushed to the top of natural listings. What I find rather funny is how almost all of them show MSN results as their portfolio!! :))
I know MSN is trying so hard and all the while saying the same ole words the little red caboose once said, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…” but no matter how many dollars that “poor poor” man Bill Gates has, I don’t think he’ll ever catch the likes of Google.
Most have noticed the simplicity of MSN results, much like our “SEO Experts” out there, but has anyone noticed how volatile the results are? As you might expect, we have managed some monstrous linking campaigns behind the walls of LinkWorth and we have clients who are #1, 2 or 3 on damn near all of their terms with Google and Yahoo. The weird thing is, MSN was the first engine to shoot them to the top spot, however, now these people dominating their market on all engines fine themselves struggling to make the first page with MSN now.
Obviously these are signs of little Billy “bad ass” Gates trying everything possible to get the edge on the Google Nation who have risen to power over the rest of the world. Making tweaks here and tweaks there, adjustments here and adjustments there…there has to be a way to beat those Googuys. So let’s say Bill finally finds a smooth working algorithm to fit the internet searchers needs. He gets the MSN search engine purring like a e-kitten and search results are weeding out spammers with ease and allowing relevant sites built well to list high as they should be…what would be missing?
The answer to this question is simple…. PEOPLE!! As most of you have probably noticed over the past year or two there is a generic term everyone is using these days when they want to find something on the net….”GOOGLE”.
“I GOOGLE’d my name and found this.”
“Have you tried to GOOGLE that product?”
“Just GOOGLE the product name and look for one.”
Google has become the staple of search; in technology and within our own language. So before anyone has the remote chance of knocking Google off of the pedestal, they not only have to out code their brains, but they also have to devise a catchy phrase or name for their search that people will learn to say when referencing to search using their site. And not only learn, but enjoy saying. People like to say catchy phrases or names that are easy to get out.
Let’s do a little test here and see which one of these just do not belong…
1. “Hey buddy, will you get on the net and Google the closest Pizza Hut?”
2. “Hey buddy, will you get on the net and Yahoo the next movie?”
3. “Hey dear, will you MSN the driving directions for our trip?”
Out of these 3 search giants, there is one that flows naturally, one that flows pretty natural, but you don’t hear much, then there is one that you never hear and it definitely doesn’t flow naturally. Which do you think?
So in conclusion to this story, MSN not only has a long way to go with their technology involved with MSN search, but they really need to come up with a creative name to identify their search technology if becoming number 1 in search will ever happen.
Advertiser Sub-Accounts Live
This new feature is a wonderful tool that allows any advertiser to manage multiple accounts and keep the billing, reports, campaigns and everything else involved with an advertiser account separate.
Advertiser sub-accounts are perfect for a SEO company who use LinkWorth for their clients, ad agencies who sell LinkWorth as an extra bullet point or any other advertiser that needs to separate text linking campaigns and the billing.
To create sub-accounts you first must be an Advertiser, then follow these steps:
1. Login to your advertiser account.
2. Click on the main menu option labeled ACCT INFO.
3. Click on the sub menu option labeled SUB ACCOUNTS.
4. Complete the form on this page and submit your information to create the sub account.
5. Once the sub account is created, a drop down menu in the top right corner of the page will appear. In this drop down menu all of the sub accounts created will be shown. Select the account you wish to work in and it will change to the next account.
Sub Accounts will make those who need to run multiple accounts a breeze. All accounts will be accessed with just one login, which is your main login. If you have any questions about this new feature, please login to your account and visit the support section to submit a support ticket.
LinkWorth.com Facelift
After many tests and many failed attempts of putting a new look to LinkWorth.com, we finally have the much needed facelift! Page and linking structure has definitely changed quite a bit, but it was something we desperately needed. Our previous site was extremely tough to grow at the fast pace in which our company is. Our new design was setup to grow progressively as we do.
We have many additions that will soon be available on the new site, so continue to check back. We have many new solutions for advertisers and/or partners, so these will be available very soon. We hope you enjoy the new look and feel as it better represents our company.
Let us know your thoughts.
Own Your Market Tips
We felt a message forum post was worthy of a blog post as well. A special thanks to “Megadawg” for providing great information for those that may need it. Here is a post from the forum..
This morning our site finally broke the Top 15 on Google for an extremely competive search term that has over 25,000,000 results on G. We are taking about 100,000 unique visits per month on this site. Additionally, the power of this site has boosted our other sites.. Total monthly take : 250,000 visitors.
It took us about 18 months, but I think we might hit top ten in the next month or so.
I have a number of techniques to thank:
1. Link Exchanges – we originally exchanged with anyone that would give us a link. When we finally hunkered down and only started doing exchanges with relevant sites in our industry then we really saw some solid position moves.
2. Billboards – Over the last 3 months, we have added about 20 unique billboards through linkworth… We did about 2 per week, and every week we would see position moves of 1 – 2 positions. This is an extremely effective tool because it gives you relevant backlink content on different IP’s. Take the time to write good article/news stories and plug your company or product. This technique will pay off. Don’t believe me? pick an obscure term without competition, and put up 2 – 5 billboards using the term as anchor text through-out your BB’s and you will see position moves within 4 weeks.
3. Text Advertising – We sit in the top 5 with Yahoo and top 10 with G on a number of search terms as a result of some low-cost text link advertising on relevant sites. Linkworth makes text link advertising extremely affordable. My personal opininion: if you pay $250 for a PR8 and have a text link ad budget of under $1000 per month, then you are crazy. Stick with sites in your industry, PR4 – PR6 and don’t pay more than $25 a link. Word of advice: SEO companies mainly want your money. Be smart and do your research. Use Linkworth tools to determine the viability of putting a link on someone’s page.
4. Content development – Content. Content. Content. Find .gov sites that have research and information in your industry. Feel free to copy the info and modify it as you please. I learned at a freelance email copywriter course that GOV sites don’t have copyright laws! This is an EASY way to build mega content on your pages. Don’t expect top positions on top keywords unless you have at least 250 – 500 pages of relevant content on your website. If you wanna play with the big boys, you gotta sweat a little. Get on it!
5. On-site Menu structure – Make sure SE’s can spider every page on your site. Use tiered systems:
a. Home page should point to all relevant Tier 2 pages
b. Tier 2 pages should point out to every page on your site or within its category.
c. SE’s love categorization, so create mini-sections on your site. (make sure to interlink everything!). Use java/CSS menus to make it spiderable. Make sure your menu’s aren’t embedded so that SE’s can spider the links!6. On page SEO – Use H1, H2 and relevant keywords through-out. Don’t overdue it. keyword density should probably be 2% to 5%. Basically, use all that crap your english teacher taught you in 5th grade.
7. Regular updates – Add at least 2 new pages to your website per week. Don’t be a slacker. This is important.
8. Patience – Be patient. Don’t do anything stupid. If you build it……….they will come.
—-
That is all.
Megadawg————– Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwt.
This is great information that anyone can use and we just want to thank Megadawg for revealing his techniques.
We’ll see you on top!
Extended Sub Page Links
This has been a question asked from time to time by many partners and we have finally implemented a new feature that will make those of you very happy! It is available to everyone right now and let me explain what it is. The first section will be for the Partners and below will be for Advertisers.
Partners Information
Welcome the LinkWorth extended subpage links. Many partner sites are comprised of huge directories or sites consisting of many sections, sub sections and pages. Up until today, we have always offered only one option for sub page links, but now we have created an option to list as many sub page links as your heart desires, as well as, pricing each as you wish. Just remember to be competitive in your pricing since we check all pricing and overpriced links will be refused. Feel free to use our free link pricing tool to help guide you in the right direction.
For those who wish to offer additional sub page links, it’s as easy as editing your current listing and under the sub page option, it will ask how many sub page links you wish to add. The max in the drop down is 10. If you wish to add more than 10, add the first 1o, then submit. It will give you the option to add more after the first 10 are added.
When adding a sub page link, it will ask you for the following items:
Name Descriptor
Make it short and sweet as it has a maximum of 12 characters. This is just a quick reference name used for each link.
Price for link
Pretty straight forward. Select a set price or custom price. If you choose a price other than we have listed, be sure to select the “CUSTOM PRICE” option and then enter the price in the next field without the dollar sign. for example: 10.00 . If you do not select custom price, leave the custom price field blank.
Address / URL
This MUST BE the full url to the sub page the links will appear. Make sure the link works or we will have to decline the listing. Do not include the HTTP://, only from the www or the subdomain name.
Description
Use this field to give a short description about the link. For example, if the sub page is located in the health section of your site, mention this. Feel free to give stats in the description, but make sure you keep it short since we only allow 255 characters. Give enough to sell, but make it short enough so they don’t skip by due to too much info.
Active Checkbox
This is just as it seems. If you put a check in the checkbox, it will make this sub page link available for advertisers to select. If it is not checked, it will not be shown to the advertisers.
This will greatly increase all partners the ability to offer more of their web real estate to potential advertisers.
Advertisers Information
Advertisers really do not have much to know, other than knowing how to find these additional sub page locations. We wanted to make it as easy as possible, so the only thing that changes is, when you are reviewing a potential partner website to buy space from, all additional sub page locations will be included in the drop down menu which contains prices and locations.
If the partner has multiple sub page locations, they will have a view link out to the right of the drop down menu which can be clicked to open a window showing all additional sub page links and the link to view the sub page. This will also have a more descriptive explanation of each location in the new window.
Now in the drop down menu, you will see the short descriptor, or reference names to choose from. What needs to be done is open the view window and see the names and match each with the actual location. This will help you select the appropriate sub page location.
One thing to always remember is if the wrong sub page location is chosen, contacting the partner and asking to move your link will not work. Our system checks the link locations selected in our system and if they are not right and your link is not found on the page selected, the entire deal will be expired and both parties notified.
If anyone has questions, feel free to open a support ticket within your account and ask away. We hope this is a wonderful new feature that will help all.
LinkWorth
Rotating Keyword Ads
While most advertisers and partners as well, are still getting used to our latest new technology in Billboard Link Ads, LinkWorth has been working on yet another new and innovative contextual advertising product. Rotating Keyword Ads (RKA’s) is the newest product offered by LinkWorth and while it is not a technology no one is using on the internet, it is definitely not a service that is very easy to find offered. One of the easiest ways to stay ahead of your competition and run a very profitable online business is to keep up with the latest and greatest technology used for online promotion. LinkWorth has the goal to keep itself and it’s customers in the driver’s seat of ground breaking advertising technology. Now on to our new product, RKA’s.
When an advertiser gets ready to launch an effective contextual ad campaign, they must consider a multitude of possible options and techniques in order to make it a successful one. Just throwing something out blindly would be a quick route to failure, so “having your ducks in a row” is important. For example, the online advertising industry has many possible keywords; ROI, targeted, traffic, visitors, demographic, unique clicks, unlimited traffic and so on. While one advertiser’s mouth may water when seeing the keyword ROI, the next advertiser may get excited at the term unlimited traffic. So the trick is to find that right keyword or key phrase that sparks the level of interest from a potential customer. If a text link ad is placed on a high traffic site and the visitors from this site happened to mostly like the term ROI, yet the text ad mentioning unlimited traffic was placed, the conversion rates might be horrible. As one could see, selecting the right verbiage is extremely important.
Let us introduce a cure to situations like these…Rotating Keyword Ads…now it is possible to select the right keyword or key phrase every time. The creation of the text ad is almost identical to that of a traditional text link ad, except rather than listing one keyword or key phrase for the anchor text, a list of keywords can be used. The creation would go something like this if creating a RKA for the example given above:
1. Create a reference name…basically a name that is only used within the LinkWorth account.
2. The next field would be where keywords/phrases are entered. Place each title/keyword/anchor text (whichever you prefer to call it) on a line by itself. This means after the first keyword is entered, press the return or enter key to go to the next line. Do not separate by commas as this will treat it as one long keyword or phrase.
3. The next field is the website url, or web address which is being promoted. Only one web address is placed here. This could be a homepage address or a subpage address. Try to stay away from redirection url’s or variable filled addresses as this can often deter visitors.
4. Following the address is the description field. Supply a small but catchy description the user will read to know what will be found on the other side of this hyperlink. Making long and wordy descriptions are very ineffective, so try to keep it short and sweet.
5. Finally is the category that best fits this Rotating Keyword Ad. This is pretty straight forward.
This is the extent of creating a RKA. Now the way it works is fairly simple as well. Only partner websites who allow feeds to appear on their sites can participate with these types of ads, as special coding other than static html is needed. If the partner site allows PHP, ASP or CFM coding, then that partner can place RKA links on their site.
Once a partner has placed the line of code provided to them on their website, the RKA is immediately live and working. Each time the advertisement is shown, a keyword in the list is shown. The next visit or page view will be shown the next keyword on the list. This will continue to happen to each and every page view no matter if it is the same person or all new visitors. It will recycle the list continuously allowing all of your keywords and/or key phrases to be used. So if the right keyword is in the list, the conversions will start racking up.
Like always, if there are any questions or comments regarding this new product, please login to your account and submit a support ticket. LinkWorth hopes our new products bring as much success as possible.
The Disappearance of PageRank
As of today, May 28, 2005, the Google PageRank has been grey’d out of everyone’s toolbar. Is this just a glitch? Is it a huge update? Is it a move to something new? Or is this the disappearance of PageRank to you and I?
Personally, I believe it will be back anytime, but what if this is a turn towards PageRank being invisible? How does this effect webmasters and most importantly, how does this effect LinkWorth?
LinkWorth has been built around “link popularity”, not PageRank. The reason we do not base prices of links and the way our system works off of PageRank is for reasons just like we’re experiencing today. PageRank can disappear at any time without notice. If this happens and LinkWorth is built specifically around PageRank, then “goodbye LinkWorth”! This would not be a smart business decision, therefore, we focused on something that is the base of EVERY search engine…LINK POPULARITY.
So if PageRank disappeared today, LinkWorth would only benefit. Others in our market who sell text links based on the PageRank of that site will suffer tremendously. While this would help our business, I personally would hate to see that happen to any of those guys. It might just put them completely out of business and that is not good, no matter how you view it. I can only wish the best for those companies.
What does this mean to individual webmasters? Nothing really. Google isn’t going away, they’re just making changes (possibly) to how their search results are displayed and ranked. As long as you are building your link popularity with great relevant inbound links, you are fine.