Internet Marketing, Web Technologies & News – Best Web Ezy

I have recently launched my first eBay affiliate website.  Please view it here: The Incredible Hulk Shop.

In this shop, all the information are generated from RSS feeds from the eBay Partner program. The reason why I am using RSS on the website is that I can get updated information display on the website, freshly generated from eBay, whenever people visit the site.

And because Google loves new content, Google should love my site.

I am using CaRP to generate the content of the site. I am only using the free version but CaRP Evolution is also available at a reasonable cost. It gives you more freedom of customization.

All I had to do was to properly install CaRP on the server, get the RSS URL from eBay (with my campaign ID! This is important) and paste it onto the page. Fresh content in the form of simple HTML would then be displayed.

To build this site, I used 3 weeks. But that was 1 hour per night and about 4 nights a week. Too much distraction.

The next similar site, since I have already got the layout done, should only take me maximum 2 hours. It is so easy to guess what is my next site, isn’t it?

If you haven’t, then please visit my site: The Incredible Hulk Shop.

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Due to a specific reason, I have recently employed Zen Cart on one of my clients’ site.

The reasons I am choosing Zen Cart are:

• It runs on a Linux server with PHP & MySQL support
• It is easy to install – either you upload by yourself, or use Fantastico
• You pretty much don’t have to write any code, but to install already written modules by the community
• There are a wide range of modules around, categorized nicely on the Zen Cart website
• There are a wide range of themes around

As a first time user, it took me a bit of time to figure out how to turn several things off.  But I must say the whole installation was smooth.  I spent the most time figuring out how to import old database into the current one, but it is actually quite an easy task if you know what you are doing, and if you have no distraction around.

The only down side is that the user manual costs US$29 (the PDF version).  But I found a way out – our mighty Google.  If you are stuck, just Google it.  You would be able to find answers, mostly on the Zen Cart support forum, pretty much instantly.

I think I am already in love with Zen Cart.

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As mentioned in previous posts, I have joined Pepperjam Network.  The thing I like about this affiliate network is that it has a blog updated by different people including the CEO.  The blog is not just a usual blog that writes you some simple tips.  In fact, it is a rich source of information about the network.

Join the Pepperjam Network Now

The PJN blog acts as a support to the publishers.  It contains detailed information regarding the network, and also provides a list of new advertisers with their related information.  If you are not sure which advertiser to sign up to, this is a good start.

Another thing that interests me is the interviews with different, yet successful bloggers.  Reading the interviews does give me a lot of hints and inspiration of how to become successful in affiliate marketing.  If you don’t know where they are, try the ‘meet the affiliate’ section.

If you look through the list of tags available, you will also find that – yup, it is really long! Eg.  Just have a look at the ‘ebay’ tag you would be able to find all the posts related to being an eBay affiliate.  This has also made a very good referencing tool.

If you still haven’t joined, then Join the Pepperjam Network Now.  Don’t forget that currently PepperJam Network is offering $10 sign up bonus!

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In SEO, we believe content is king.  We believe bots can only read texts.  Therefore we usually don’t recommend flash contents on websites.

Nowadays YouTube is so popular.  Is it possible to optimize YouTube videos?

Yes, it is.  Remember bots can only read texts.  Hence we have to make full use of wherever we can put text in.  They are:

1. Title – make sure it has at least 2-3 keywords.  Targeted keywords.  Use Google Keyword Tool to look for inspiration.  Optimizing just this would already provide a significant improvement.

2. Description – of course you need to put in description.  Here you can ‘stuff’ keywords.  Well, not really recommended.  Put in target keywords (again).  Make sure you write a proper description.  Then your video would have a higher chance of being clicked and viewed.

3. Tag – this is something that many people ignore.  However, it is so important.  Again, use targeted keywords.  This is extremely important for the web 2.0 era.

Have I emphasized enough?  Targeted keywords.  Not just keywords.  Not just words.

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There are lots of ebooks / blogs / websites teaching how to earn money from Adsense.  Or similar ad systems.  But then, what is the main key point of it?

The most important factor of this is ‘Quantity’.  When I say quantity, I mean the people viewing the ads, ie. impression.

How to maximise impression, hence maximising the number of clicks?  The answer is ‘Traffic’.

No matter how you optimise the ads, where to put them, what keywords to use in your blog to bring up certain high-pay ads… Without traffic, these are just meaningless.

I found 2 ways that are the most efficient:

1. Maximize the traffic of a certain blog – put all your efforts on a single blog.  Use the best of your knowledge to bring the most traffic, eg. PPC, link building, commenting (not spamming!!), web 2.0 tools, email marketing, affiliate marketing…

2. Build smaller but niche blogS – yup, run more than one blog.  Make sure they are legitimate though.  After all, if your content is crap, no one is going to visit your blog.  Use keyword tools to find lucrative niches, optimise your blogs so that they can easily be found on the search results.

If you are good in web, you can also start a web 2.0 portal (maybe like facebook / bebo whatever) and build an online community.  If you are not that good, you can however start a forum.  A community site is likely to attract a lot of traffic if you are into the right niche.  How to know what is the right niche?  Easy – keyword tools!  Google now reveals traffic in numbers instead of score, so you should have a deeper insight for analysis.

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