Chris Rudolph's Internet Marketing Blog

Hostgator Discount Coupon

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:51:05 +0000

I’ve mentioned before that I use Hostgator as my main website host. Their support is very good and they offer good value for money.

I’ve just heard that they are offering a discount at the moment - you can get 20% off with this code: hgnews9.

To take advantage head on over to the Hostgator site.

What’s the best host for Wordpress blogs?

admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:02:56 +0000

Regular readers will know that I love Wordpress and have a number of self-hosted Wordpress blogs. I have them with a number of different hosts as it’s good to spread the risk when it comes to hosting. As I was setting up another site the other day, it got me thinking about which was the best host for a Wordpress blog. I did some research and found a site reviewing different web host platforms for Wordpress. As I write it lists:

Bluehost
Justhost
Inmotion hosting
Host monster
Fat Cow
Super Green
Hostgator
1&1
Go Daddy
Yahoo

as the top ten. Of these, I use Hostgator at the moment and have received a good service. I’d be interested to hear what other readers think and their experiences.

It’s worth checking out the web host site yourself as there is lots of information on both hosting and Wordpress itself. There’s a great series of articles on how to create a Wordpress theme, which is something I’ve never been brave enough to try, but now feel much more confident about!

I’ll be trying out some of the top 10 for my sites in future and will report back here with results. Please let me know your thoughts on hosting in the comments section.

Looking forward to the NFL

admin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:06:56 +0000

Slightly off topic, but I’m really looking forward to the new NFL season.

As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan I’m hoping that the World Champions will retain their championship again this year! I’ll be keeping a close eye on NFL football picks throughout the season.

Let me know which team you support and what your hopes are for the season!

Checking out The Minisite Formula

admin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:52:29 +0000

I’ve been reading an interesting blog post about Joel Peterson and his product The Minisite Formula. The writer is very excited about the product and on further investigation it looks a really solid piece of work. It’s a complete course on profiting through mini sites which covers everything you need to know.

In simple terms the formula covers choosing a topic for your mini site, how to publish your site, how to monetize your site, how to get traffic to your site, search engine optimization of your site and finally how you can rinse and repeat the entire process to make even more profits!

Rather than re-review it here, I suggest you head on over and check out The Minisite Formula review for yourself.

Want to know the best Wordpress plugins?

admin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:19:11 +0000

I love blogging and make a decent income from my set of niche blogs. One thing that can be frustrating at times is knowing about and keeping up-to-date on the best Wordpress plugins.

I just picked up a nice guide to the top 150 plugins for Wordpress and it only cost $7 which is well worth it when you consider the amount of time it takes to read up and research the best plugins.

You can pick up your copy at:

http://wppluginsguide.com

It’s a no brainer really if you have any interest in building a successful blog!

What does the future hold for online advertising?

admin — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:46:10 +0000

I’ve been looking at various marketing advertising opportunities recently for some of my sites. One thing that I’ve noticed is that online advertising is becoming even more targeted, which should deliver a better return on investment.

Google’s recent introduction of “interest-based” advertising is a case in point. The ads Google serve associate categories of interest — say gardening, cars, pets, internet marketing, etc — with your web browser, based on the types of sites you regularly visit and the pages you view on them. Google will then use those categories to show you more relevant text and display ads. This should benefit both advertiser and reader in the long run, but has caused some concern from online privacy groups who are worried about a potential invasion of privacy.

Contextual ads have been around for a long time now and will continue to be popular. CPA networks are also doing well at the moment.

Online Ad Exchanges are beginning to develop. They let advertisers buy online ads directly, like at a marketplace, so direct online media buying at hundreds of websites at once is possible, at lower fees and being less labour intensive.

Online advertising will continue to develop - I look forward to trying out some of the newer possibilities.

Listed at My Blog Directory

admin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:19:22 +0000

I just added this blog to My blog directory - it’s an interesting site listing all sorts of blogs. The great thing is that the more traffic you send to the site, the more chance you have of appearing on the front page of the site, which should result in a traffic boost.

Please check out my page at My Blog Directory.

Looking for hosting information?

admin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:07:49 +0000

I’m always on the lookout for web hosting options and like to keep an eye on the marketplace in order to ensure I am getting the best deal.

I like to maintain my sites with various different hosts in order to spread them and reduce risk. In order to speed up the process, I keep track of hosting comparison sites like Web Hosting Geeks which provides detailed reviews of many different hosts. I particularly like the way they split the reviews into different categories like best budget hosting, best blog hosting, best forum hosting, etc.

An added bonus is their web hosting blog which provides some great hints, tips and advice on hosting.

Another interesting part of the site are the user reviews - I like to read what others have to say, rather than just the site owner - it gives a more balanced picture, which is great.

Overall, Web Hosting Geeks is a good resource if you want a quick comparison of current hosting deals.

Google Annihilation Review - Don’t Buy

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:15:42 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted on this blog - I’ve been bust developing my niche blog network. One of the ways I have been promoting them is by getting inbound links, so I was interested to read about Rob Benwell’s latest product, Google Annihilation. I sign up but have been very disappointed.

Here’s what I wrote on the Warrior Forum:

Thought I’d throw my thoughts in having joined GA - I agree with most of what has been said already and I’ll be seeking a refund.

I’m a member of a number of 3-way links services and have had some good success with them in ranking for specific keywords, so I was interested in GA as for many of my sites I have the maximum number of links possible in the other services. I was surprised to see that the script is almost exactly the same as Jon Ledger’s 3WL - it may even be that Rob Benwell has purchased rights to it from Jon, which makes a nonsense of Benwell’s claims that he has spent months developing the software! (Apologies to Jon if this is not the case)

As I have had success with 3WL, I thought I’d load up some of my sites. First thing to say is that the instructions are virtually non existent and for newbies I imagine it’s very difficult to work out what is going on. After setting my sites up, I have been back in a couple of times to check my links but the admin area shows nothing! Checking the links pages on my site, I see many links there, but they don’t use anchor keywords, just the url, which completely defeats the purpose of the service! I subsequently emailed support to point this out but have had no response.

Overall, very disappointing.

If you want to try this sort of service, go for Neurolinker, 3WL or Dave Wooding’s Linktator2.

There you have it - don’t go anywhere near it.

Conversion Tracking - a key to online success

admin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:48:30 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted on this blog. I’ve been away on holiday and have also been busy on other projects.

One of the things that internet marketers often neglect is tracking converstions on their site or sites. Done properly, it really can make a massive difference to your bottom line.

Do you know if that Adwords campaign is paying dividends?

Is that ad you placed making you money?

Is your newsletter generating a return?

If not, how do you know what is working? You may be pouring money down the drain.

I’ve just come across a simple to use conversion tracking tool at conversionstats.com which handles all of your tracking needs for you.

The site offers a range of benefits:

It compares multiple websites
With ConversionStats you can analyze all data from website(s) at once, getting the necessary stats like best traffic sources, visitors’ location and best performing keywords. This will save you time, because you will no longer have to switch from once analytic account to another to see website traffic data for each site you own. The system allows you to classify all information according to specific criteria, to monitor web pages and to see what call-to-action tactics work the best for your site.

ConversionStats gives you and your clients the total access to all marketing data.
With this tool you can track from different domains, in real time and on a 24/7 basis.

ConversionStats allows you to track users by location.
Targeting customers is critical for your business growth: to convert random visitors into enthusiastic buyers, you should know their needs. Actually, studying your prospects is a never-ending process, and here ConversionStats can be very helpful, classifying your customers by country, state and city.

ConversionStats is compatible with all kinds of shopping carts.
It can easily track conversions from any merchant. Whatever shopping cart you have – it can be integrated with the universal ConversionStats system.

It has SEO Campaign Tracking feature.
ConversionStats will show you which of your link-building campaigns are the most efficient. By tracking incoming links, the tool enables you to improve ranking and to get more visitors.

It helps define the right keywords.
Using the best keywords for your niche you can attract your target audience and hence create sure-fire content for your landing pages. Thus, along with its ability to determine the best link-building campaigns and generate traffic, ConversionStats can be also useful for on-page optimization of your website.

ConversionStats offers heat map tracking.
This stats program will help you better understand your prospects and easily convert them into customers. By analyzing users’ click views, you can see how to build your web pages so that they start making money. The Heat Map Tracking feature from ConversionStats will show you where to place your call-to-action or affiliate links.

ConversionStats comes with a customer-specified access system.
That means that, once you have signed up, you become a super user and have unlimited access to all ConversionStats features, taking advantage of the latest innovations we have developed just for you. Besides, the super user status lets you add as many sub users as you want and give them access to website data. If you are working in a hosting, web design or consulting company or running any other online business, you may need this feature to help your clients with website monitoring. With ConversionStats you will be able to offer your clients more than you actually do – SEO, design, site promotion etc, – you will provide them with an effective and completely secure website analytic service. Now you can track website stats and share it with your clients – for extra payment or on a freebie. Thus, ConversionStats ensures that you increase customers’ loyalty, making them choose you among hundreds of competitors.

ConversionStats has a branding feature.
Thus, you can wrap your website around this analytic software, making it look like yours. After super users have logged in, the branding option can be selected on the menu and, when users click on it, they are allowed to point to a header and footer file on their website. To enhance the branding, ConversionStats can create free templates and add slight changes to the menu background and text – a remarkable benefit available for ConversionStats super users only.

It saves marketing dollars.
ConversionStats provides you with converting keywords and top converting sources. Using this data you can improve your return on investment and spend less marketing dollars on failed campaigns. With ConversionStats no campaign will fail.

ConversionStats is easy!
Despite its advanced features, this tracking tool is user-friendly and equally handy for skilled webmasters and newbie’s. ConversionStats is proud of its simple interface ensuring users to discover everything about their website as soon as they need it. Moreover, to make the offer even sweeter, ConversionStats provides a detailed description of each feature supported by a customized demo.

I’m very impressed with what I have seen and tested at conversionstats.com. In particular, the simplicity of the site and how easy it is to set up. I’ve tried other systems in the past which have been very complicated to implement - that’s not the case with ConversionStats.

So, if you are looking for a simple to use, free conversion tracker, give conversionstats.com a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!