Last year I read a book called “Affiliate Millions” that really got me excited about Search Engine Marketing (SEM). After reading the book, I plonked down a few bucks and opened up a Google Adwords account. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t really know what I was doing and ended up losing my invested capital in a matter of 2 days. I learned a lesson in those 2 days, however. SEM is not easy.

Recently I have been re-energized about SEM and am doing some research on how to do it right. I’ve been reading a few blogs, keeping an eye on the Digital Point forums, and even looking for random bits of information floating around the Internet as of late. My SEM goal for 2008 is now to learn how to not lose money while conducting advertising campaigns through search engines.

In the past few days I have scooped up 4 new domain names that I will use to test out advertising campaigns. My checklist now includes building the sites, setting a budget, and creating the campaigns.

• Building the websites. This step is trivial for me at this point. I can whip up an OK website in a couple of hours so I’m not entirely too worried about this aspect of the operation. I’m definitely not a graphic designer so my sites won’t win any awards for design, but I think they’ll look good enough to convince people to click through the ads to make me money.
• Setting a budget. This part is a little foggy for me. I have no idea what to expect to pay for keywords nor do I know how long this money will last me. I would like to set a budget that would get me good exposure off the bat, so I’m thinking that I’ll have to pay more to rank well upfront in the first few weeks of the campaign and then I can start paying less per click. As far as a budget goes, I don’t have much. This month has been going well for me (this blog has made $50, my other sites have made about $200) so I can use most of that to invest in this new venture.
• Creating the campaigns. Writing up exciting ads will definitely be a fun task. I’d like to think that I’m creative, and I have some creative friends and I may tap their knowledge bank and experience to help me create ads that will drive quality traffic to my site. I’m kind of looking forward to this stage and think that it will be as much fun to do as nearly any other aspect of this new task.

I plan to start this new phase of my Internet prowess within the next 2 weeks. School is starting to get busy and work has thrown a few projects down my way but I’m really excited about the potential of this project. I’ll keep you all posted as I go along and I hope to share some great news with you in the next few weeks!

How are you currently making money online? Are you doing well what you do “just because” or do you have a plan of action? Do you keep an active watch on your stats as well as trends in your niche? If you’re like I was, you probably had all of your eggs in one basked at one point or another, and you may still have only one plan to make money online. After the performance of my main website started to decline, I had to go into panic mode for a little while and try to figure out what I could do in order to start making some cash online. The plan is still coming together but instead of just 1 site up and going, I have a total of 6. These sites are a combination of affiliate sites and eBay stores. Their performance has not yet reached close to their potential and I am working on figuring out what it would take to make these sites shine.

If you’ve ever had an income stream online, you’ve probably thought to yourself at one point or another that you really should have more than one way to make money, just in case something would happen to your site. These are 5 reasons to do it now:

1. Trends Change

It should be no surprise to learn that we live in a fickle, materialistic society. People want the latest and greatest things at a moment’s notice, especially when it comes to technology. If you have a website that revolves around technology, you’d better be prepared to act quickly and serve those people who may no longer be interested in your product line.

The same goes with many other niches; health, fashion, automotive, etc. If you are sitting still in an ever changing business environment, a new trend will come up and your site will be left in the dust.

2. Competition Changes

Remember the old way we used to obtain music? Going to the store, shopping the aisles, finding the right genre, looking at shrink wrapped packages (On a side note, why do they have to make CD’s so hard to open? I wonder if a music exec has ever had to open one. I doubt it, else they’d realize how dumb that packaging is.), opening up the CD and popping it in to our CD players or portable Discman’s.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, comes iTunes and revolutionizes how we listen to music. Now we can buy individual songs or entire albums with the click of a button. Music executives didn’t believe in iTunes or digital delivery, now they’re crying foul and wondering why they’re not selling any more CD’s.

The same can be applied to your website. Things could be going along just fine, then all of a sudden a new competitor arises. You can do one of two things: Prepare your business to tackle the opponent or sit there like a lame duck and blame others when thinss start to go wrong. I suggest the first option.

3. Google Changes

Google is a business baromter of sorts. They claim that the good stuff shows up first and the bad stuff is not displayed at all. Many web business live and die by the rankings given to them by Google.

If you currently just have one site for one product, then you’d better be prepared for a rocky road ahead. Google’s algorithm changes occasionally and if you are not prepared to take the hit, then you’ll be in trouble when changes head your way.

Google search rankings mean everything to some businesses, and unless you’re really good at obtaining one of the top spots, you’ll have to rely on luck and little else to make money online. Prepare yourself, make good websiteS and have a solid business plan to make you money for the long run

4. Stuff Happens

Another reason to have more than one income plan is that, in all honesty, things happen out there that are beyond your control. For example, if you had a site that was somehow making money selling Enron gear, the day they went out of business you too would have been out of business. If you sell health products and the FDA changes stance on them, you’d better be prepared to take a hit.

5. More is Better

If you’ve manage to stay out of trouble, either through luck or preparation, you should diversify your net portfolio because in all honesty, we’re in this for the money. More income streams = more earning potential. More earning potential = more money in the long run.

Prepare yourself, make GOOD QUALITY websites about your niche products, and stick to your guns. Always grow and learn in order to position yourself ahead of your competitors.

A while back I wrote about the new Facebook Ads platform and how I thought it was just fluff so that the company could claim that it had some income stream in order to raise more money from the big fish like Microsoft. After working with it since then, I have not yet been able to post a successful affiliate advertisement on the site.

Whenever I create a new ad, I end up with this message saying my ad was not approved:

• This ad has been disabled and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Service and Advertising Guidelines if you have further questions.

I love the part where it says “Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations”. What this means to me is “We’re sorry, we don’t really have anyone looking at your ad but our algorithm didn’t like it for some reason. We really don’t know. Try again though, kthx!” If Facebook is serious about it’s super duper ad platform, I think it should want money from affiliates. The law of large numbers says that a little money * a lot of affiliates = a lot of money for FB.

So, Facebook, get your act together and make an advertising system that works, will ya? I’m trying to give you money but you won’t take it! What kind of business is that?