List of Micro Blogging Websites

Micro Blogging is emerging as new trend in India also to gain more traffic on Your Website. 

Micro-blogging is a term described by Wikipedia as "a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually less than 200 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user". The most notable name is Twitter. Ah who donot knows about twitter & its popularity & if You don’t know you are heading behind. And also who have time this days with 140 character you can convey your message to larger audience. In addition, numerous social networks - including Facebook and Bebo - have integrated similar status update services. The space is hot and it's still heating up. 

Here is the list of few microblogging sites:-

http://www.twitter.com

http://www.meme.yahoo.com

http://www.jaiku.com

http://www.beemood.com

http://www.brightkite.com

http://www.plurk.com

http://www.bloggino.com

http://www.identi.ca

http://www.yonkly.net

http://www.utterli.com

http://www.plerb.com

http://www.qaiku.com

http://www.tumblr.com

http://www.mysay.com

http://www.hictu.com

Managing your Adwords Campaign

What are the mistakes done while Managing ppc campaigns?

Here are few mistakes that u should avoid :-

1. Creating a long list of irrelevant and generic keywords

When you create your campaign it is very importance that you donot need to Create long list of less then targeted keywords which is too generic. The reason is being that CPC (cost-per-click) for generic keywords are high instead of descriptive relevant keywords. The generic keywords may bring visitors to the site but do not produce any conversions. If visitor do not found what they are searching for, they will leave soon.

2. Failing to identify unique aspects of your products or services

Before making your AdWords campaign you first indentify your unique products or services which makes you stand out from your competitors. You can also perform competitor analysis what keywords are they using. After conducting competitors analysis & after knowing uniqueness of your product & Services you will be able to rise above your competitors.
 
3. Lack of keywords in your Text Ad

When creating your Text Ad it is important to put keywords into your title and description while maintaining the delicate balance of clarity and relevance.Your Ad copy should be mentioned in such a way that when read by a visitor they know what they are getting into when they click on it.

4. Directing users solely to your home page

Not taking the time to decide which destination URL should be designated to which ad or keyword is an oversight that I come across far too often. When you finish making your list of relevant keywords that describe unique products or services of your business, why would you then send everyone to your homepage and let them navigate through your site in hopes of finding what it is that they are looking for. Instead why not send them straight to the page that contains exactly what was described to them within your ad copy.

5. Using only single ad groups

If you want to have much higher level of control over your entire campaign then categorize your ads that’s are targeting related keywords into a common adgroup. In this way you can create in-depth reports on the performance of every ad-group ypu created.

6. Utilization of single campaign for a website

Once you categorize Ad Groups next step is to create relevant campaigns. Having highly organized campaigns is the key to determining which ads are creating optimal conversions. Which most people don’t use.

7. Use of broad match keywords only

There is chances of missing out potential customer & creating higher CPC when you don’t take advantage of keyword matching options available to you. Broad matches are usually less targeted than exact and phrase matching. Broad matching is the default option your ads will appear for expanded matches such as plurals or relevant keyword variations. When utilizing phrase match your ad will appear for search terms in the order that you specify and sometimes for other terms. Exact matching is by far the most targeted option to use. You will appear for the exact keyword specified. Negative keyword is also a fantastic option to utilize in order to specify which keywords you do not want to appear for.

For more information on Broad, Phrase & Exact Keywords u can visit here http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=enamp;answer=6100

8. Failure to optimize ad serving for your ads

When you take advantage of the AdWords Ad Serving service basically what you will be doing is showing your most popular ads more often. The AdWords platform will give weights to ads with the highest click-through rates (CTRs) and display them more often then keywords with lower (CTRs) within the same ad-group.

You can set Ad serving option by clicking on campaign sitting --> Ad delivery: Ad rotation, frequency capping --> Optimize: Show better performing ads more often

9. Failing to track results

In order to have any idea on performance of your AdWords campaign you must be able to see the keywords & Ads that work as well as those that do not. You can also use tracking tools like Google Analytics which provides you with in-depth reporting on all aspects of your campaign performance.

10. Entering the content network without modifying bids

You have Choose to sit different bids for the content network compared to that of search network. If you do not set different bids for content network, you may be paying more CPC than you should be. 

How to Setup Google Adwords Campaign?

Here are few steps to easily setup your first Google AdWords campaign

1. Signup Google Adwords account

You can easily Signup Google Adwords Account at http://www.adwords.google.com with the activation fee of US$5 or INR250 as a one time activation fees. Then you can decide how much you want to pay per click and you can decide per day budget for your campaign. You can choose a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) from US$0.05 - US$50 and set a daily budget as low as 5 cents USD or ashigh as you want.

2. Sign In http://www.adwords.google.com

Now after signing in you’re a/c Next step in to Create Campaign.

3. Create Campaign 

After Signing you will see window go to campaigns then click on New Campaign button. See following screen:-

4. Then Fill indetails. Give your campaign name, select country or location where your ads should be shown, select language, select network, devices and extensions, set your bidding option, set your daily budget then click on save & Continue

5. Now here give your adgroup name, create an text ad as mentioned in my last post and then add keywords. You can also add placements here and set separate bids for content placements & automatic placements then click on save & Continue.

Your first Campaign is ready. Remember to Monitor & Manage You Campaigns on Regular Basis

AdWords Terminology

In my Previous post I have discussed about What is Google Adwords and Now here I explain some terms commonly used in Adwords

PPC Campaign:

The service allows you to create your own ads, choose keywords to help match your ads to your audience, and control the cost of your advertising. you pay only when people click on your ad (a cost per click plan).

Keyword :

A word searched in a search command is known as keyword. Keywords are searched in any order. Use spaces to separate keywords in simple keyword searching. For ex:- If I were a Mobiles Phones seller, I might bid for the keyword "Mobile Phones" or related search queries. Most campaigns will have many different keywords.

Search Term:

A "search term" is the same as "keyword".

Text Ad:

It refers to an Ad which shows when someone search for keyword. It contains five lines Heading-25 characters, Description line1-35 characters, Description line2-35 characters, Display URL- 35 characters, Destination URL:1024 characters. Will Explain in detail some other day.

Ad group:

An ad group is a collection of keywords that have the same ad. Normally, a well-designed PPC campaign will divide its keywords into a number of different ad groups.

Google Content Network:

The Google content network is the collective name given to all the websites that display Google ads. These ads are identified by the words "Ads by Google" and are often referred to as "Adsense".

Google Search Network:

The Google search network is the Google search engine plus the other search engines that display Google Adwords ads. For Ex:- websites like AOL, EarthLink, HowStuffWorks, & Blogger etc.

Impression:

No. of times your Textads appears whenever user enters keyword related to your Website either in search network, content network and placements.

Clicks:

No. of times user clicks to your TextAd showing in search results.

CTR:

It Stands for Click Through Rate. CTR is clicks against impression. CTR is a tool to measure the success of an Ad words Advertising Campaign.

CTR can be calculated as : Clicks/Impressions * 100

CPC:

It Stands for Cost Per Click. CPC is a cost that we pay to Google for a click.
 

MAX CPC:

Maximum Bid which advertiser ready to pay for one click.

Cost:

Cost of clicks. Total amount that advertiser pay to Google.

Conversion:

Lead or sell generated depending on nature of your website through your PPC Campaign.

ROI:

It Stands for Return on Investment.

CPL:

It Stands for Cost per Lead. Total cost/number of leads.

CPM:

It Stands for cost per 1000 impressions. For some campaigns you can choose to pay Google as per 1000 impressions for your Ad rather then clicks. Max. CPM is amount you are willing to pay per thousand impressions or Ad views. CPM bid is available only for content network not for Search network and search partner sites.

Quality Score:

Google uses a "quality score" to evaluate the relevancy of the ad, the keyword and the landing page/website. Quality scores can be "poor", "ok", "good" or "great". If the score is "poor", Google will often increase the minimum bid price for that advertiser.

First Page Bid Estimates:

On Google Keyword Analysis Page you can see Bid Estimates. The CPC required for Ad to appear on the first page of Google search results when a search query exactly matches your keyword.

Minimum Bid Price:

For any keyword, Google will set a minimum amount you have to bid for your ad to be active. This minimum isn't a contant and will change from keyword to keyword and, also, from advertiser to advertiser. So, you might have to pay more to enter a market than your competitors (for more information, see "Quality Score").

Negative Keywords:

A negative Keyword is a related term that you don't want your ad to appear for. So, if you were selling Accounting software, you may want to use the word "free" as a negative keyword. By doing this, your ad won't show when someone searches for "free accounting software". And this will mean you won't be clicked on by someone who doesn't want to spend money. It also means, and this is very important in Google Adwords, that you waste impressions on the wrong people and reduce your clickthrough rate.

Split Testing:

Adwords allows you to test one ad against another. This means you can see which wording is most effective and profitable. Frequently you will find a small change can make a difference of as much as 20-40%. However, I've done split tests that have increased clickthrough by as much as 500%. Split testing is regarded as an essential tool by most Pay Per Click professionals.

Maybe I am Skipping few terms. Please let me know through your comments.

What is Google AdWords?

Google AdWords is a easy, quick and simple way to advertise on Google and its ad partners, regardless of your budget. AdWords ads are displayed along with search results on Google, as well as on search and content sites in the growing Google Network, which includes websites like AOL, EarthLink, HowStuffWorks, & Blogger. With searches on Google and page views on the Google Network each day, your Google AdWords ads reach a vast audience. 

When you create an AdWords ad to run on Google and its search partners, you can choose keywords for which your ad will appear and specify the maximum amount you're willing to pay for each click. You pay only when someone clicks on your ad which is also called pay per click advertising. Advertisers specify the words that should trigger their ads and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click. When a user searches Google's search engine on www.google.com or the relevant local/national google server (e.g. www.google.co.uk for The United Kingdom), ads (also known as creatives by Google) for relevant words are shown as "sponsored links" on the right side of the screen, and sometimes above the main search results.

For eg. let us say that you are selling "Mobile Phones". And your target market is USA. Hence anybody in USA, searching for "Mobile Phone" or "Mobile Phones" keywords can be your ideal client. Just assume if you get 1,000 such visitors, who are searching for "Mobile Phones", and all of them are from USA, you can very well imagine how much business your site can generate for you by all these visitors everyday coming to your site. See the Screen Shot below to see where your adds are shown:-

There's no minimum monthly charge with AdWords -- just a nominal activation fee. You can choose from a variety of ad formats, including text, image, and video ads, and easily track your ad performance using the reports in your online account Control Center.

In my next post I will discuss about some technical terms used in Google Adwords and also how to setup your campaign.