PPC ADVERTISING: HOW TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS “CLICK”

PPC stands for Pay Per Click - a popular advertising technique on the Internet. Found on websites, advertising networks, and especially on search engines, PPC advertising involves sponsored links that are typically in the form of text ads. These are usually placed close to search results, where an advertiser pays a particular amount to visitors who click on these links or banners and land on the advertiser’s web page.

In essence, PPC advertising is all about bidding for the top or leading position on search engine results and listings. Advertisers do this by buying or bidding on keyword phrases that are relevant to their products or services - the higher the bid, the higher the spot on the search results, the more the people will find the ad (and click on it) to go to their websites (this is why some people call it “keyword auctioning”). Advertisers would then pay the bidding price every time a visitor clicks through the website.

PPC advertising is also known under the following names/variations:

· Pay per placement
· Pay per performance
· Pay per ranking
· Pay per position
· Cost per click (CPC)

PPC advertising is usually done with the following standard procedures:

1. Setting up an account and/or deposit funds.

2. Creating a keyword list.

3. Choosing (and setting up) an account with a PPC search engine.

4. Bidding on the ad placement, including the search result words or phrases.

5. Writing out an ad copy.

6. Setting up the ‘landing pages’ for your ads.

7. Placing the advertisement in the search engine.

There are many benefits to Pay Per Click advertising, making it an effective way of promoting a business ‘online’. Some of them are listed below:

· Get launched immediately. PPC advertisements are implemented very quickly - they can go ‘online’ within an hour after winning the bid and paying for it.

· Obtain specific, pre-qualified, and quality traffic. PPC provides you with a quality or a well-targeted traffic. Visitors are narrowed down into ‘qualified’ people who are actually looking for specific products and/or services that you offer - those who are more likely to become a ‘lead’ (a convert) and complete a transaction (either by buying your product or subscribing to the service that you are offering.

· Widen your reach. PPC advertising provides additional traffic to your site, aside from the natural or “organic” search engines.

· Track your investment. PPC advertising makes use of a tracking system that will determine exactly who comes to the website and what they do once they arrive - the length of their stay on the site and the number of pages (including the actual pages) that they view. These are valuable tools in determining statistics such as return on investment (ROI), acquisition cost-per-visitor, and conversion rates (the percentage of visitors who are converted into customers or leads).

Below are some important things to consider when planning on a pay per click campaign:

1. Know your product. Take an inventory of the product and/or services that you have to offer (before anything else).

2. Stay within the budget. Determine your daily or monthly budget; and stay with it. This means keeping your budget in mind, avoiding bidding wars if possible.

3. Bid just right. Know how to bid right - a bid that is too high can exhaust all of your money, while a bid that is too low can make you lose that spot.

4. Watch the bottom line. Measure your profit margin against your spending or expenses. Know when to stop and terminate your PPC program - if you spend more on advertising but have little or no sales at all.

5. Find the right keywords. Decide which keyword phrases to opt and bid for. Do some keyword research, either by actually looking at existing search terms or with the use of online keyword suggestion tools, to know which terms are mostly used when searching for items that are related to your business. Focus on specific keywords, not on general ones.

6. Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is that which can persuade and move a searcher. There are several approaches to this:

· Discount offers
· Testimonials
· Celebrity/famous endorsers
· Money-back guarantees
· Free trials or sample offers
· Freebies
· Reverse psychology
· Major benefits (”Lose weight”)
· Direct instructions (”Click here”)

7. Maintain a professional-looking site. Your web content should be regularly updated and checked for spelling and grammatical errors. There should be no broken links or images. The website should be simple - designed in such a way that it will be easy for visitors to navigate and load. Include contact details to create a good impression among potential customers.

Done properly, PPC advertising can be an effective marketing tool that will maximize the return on your investment.

Firefox + Nintendo = Epic Firefox Addon FireNES

FireNes allows you to play around 2500 Nintendo games, without the need to download anything or emulator or roms. Super addictive - prepare to do no work whatsoever!

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Online Dating Expert, Stephany Alexander, Reveals the Top 10 Tips to Succeed at Online Dating

As an online dating expert who gives dating advice on a daily basis, I have determined there are 10 basic key factors that will help you to succeed at online dating. Online dating can be dangerous and getting involved with the wrong person can be destroy your life. How do you put the odds in your favor when screening an online date? I have broken down the top 10 tips to increase your success in the online dating world so you can date better, safer and smarter to find that special person.

1. Take time to write a careful online profile. Make sure you use proper grammar, punctuation and spelling. Be honest in your profile. If you aren’t honest in your profile, what’s the point? Eventually the truth will come out so don’t mislead people into thinking you are something that you are not. You wouldn’t want someone to mislead you so don’t do it to others.

2. Have fun. The most important part when meeting new people is to relax and have fun. When beginning your correspondence by email, be cautious and private, but don’t be overly serious either. A sense of humor online is just as important as offline.

3. Describe the person that you would like to meet in the greatest detail possible. If you want to meet someone who has never been married with no children, then say so. Otherwise, you will be wasting a lot of time turning people down who you have no interest in.

4. Give a detailed description of your interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes. It is just as important to describe what you like, as well as what you dislike, so you attract someone with similar interests.

5. Update your profile occasionally to keep it fresh. For example, if you just got back from a great Caribbean holiday where you learned to scuba dive, write about it. There is nothing more boring than reading a generic online dating profile that says “I love to travel and enjoy reading.” Where do you like to travel to and why? What do you enjoy reading and why? Details, details.

6. Add a bunch of different photos to your profile. Your main photo should be a head shot, preferably with you smiling. If your online dating service allows, upload more shots of you in various activities such as doing a hobby you enjoy, perhaps dressed up at a formal event or even a candid shot at work or school. Refrain from uploading shots that show too much skin or are too sexy because you will attract the wrong types of people. Having a photo on your profile is mandatory because a profile with a photo gets over 9 times the amount of replies than one without. If you are unsure if the person you are communicating with is for real, ask them to take a quick digital photo holding that days newspaper. Someone who has nothing to hide, would be more than happy to oblige if they really want to meet you and are for real.

7. Be polite when communicating online. If you are scared to tell someone “no” because it may hurt their feelings, simply tell them politely that you are looking for a certain type of person with specific characteristics and not to take it personally. Say “please” and “thank you.” If someone is rude to you or offends you, simply ignore them and/or block them.

8. Do not give out personal details such as your real first and last name or telephone early on and definitely do not include these in your profile. You have absolutely no idea who is on the other side of the computer. Con-artists flock to the internet because it allows them to hide behind phony online profiles. They usually correspond with dozens of people at a time hoping one will bite their hook. Take your time and pretend like you are buying a house by asking questions and researching carefully. Only give out small pieces of information after you have developed a certain level of comfort.

Smoking and Smokeless Tobacco

Tobacco is a plant grown for its leaves, which are smoked, chewed, or sniffed for a variety of effects. It is considered an addictive substance because it contains the chemical nicotine.

In addition to nicotine, tobacco contains over 19 known cancer-causing chemicals (most are collectively known as "tar") and more than 4,000 other chemicals. These include acetone, ammonia, carbon monoxide, cyanide, methane, propane, and butane.

Over 38 million people in the United States have successfully quit smoking. Yet there are still around 50 million Americans who smoke. The majority say they would like to quit.

And, while the number of cigarette smokers in the United States has dropped over recent years, the number of smokeless tobacco users has steadily risen. This trend is likely related to the false belief that smokeless tobacco is safe. It is NOT. Smokeless tobacco carries many of the same health risks as cigarettes. Some people who want to stop smoking, but who still crave the nicotine, turn to smokeless tobacco wrongly thinking that they are doing something good for themselves.

THE EFFECTS OF NICOTINE

* Nicotine acts as both a stimulant and depressant on your body. It increases your bowel activity, saliva, and bronchial secretions. It stimulates the nervous system and may cause tremors in the inexperienced user, or even convulsions with high doses.
* After stimulation, there's a phase that depresses the muscles in your airways. As a euphoric agent, nicotine causes relaxation from stressful situations.
* On average, tobacco increases your heart rate 10 to 20 beats per minute, and it increases your blood pressure reading by 5 to 10 mmHg (because it constricts the blood vessels).
* Nicotine may also cause sweating, nausea, and diarrhea. Nicotine elevates the blood level of glucose (blood sugar) and increases insulin production. Nicotine also tends to enhance platelet aggregation, which may lead to blood clots.
* Nicotine temporarily stimulates memory and alertness. People who use tobacco frequently depend on it to help them accomplish certain tasks at specific levels of performance. Nicotine also tends to be an appetite suppressant. (For this reason, fear of weight gain also influences the willingness of some people to stop smoking.)

Finally, tobacco is highly addictive. It is considered mood and behavior altering. Tobacco is believed to have an addictive potential comparable to alcohol, cocaine, and morphine.

HEALTH RISKS

There are many reasons to quit using tobacco. Knowing the serious health risks may help motivate you to quit. When used over a long period, tobacco and related chemicals such as tar and nicotine can increase your risk of:

* Blood clots, which may lead to aneurysms and strokes
* Cancer (especially in the lung, mouth, larynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, and cervix)
* Coronary artery disease, including angina and heart attacks
* Decreased ability to taste and smell
* Delayed wound healing
* High blood pressure
* Lung problems such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis
* Pregnancy-related problems, including miscarriage, premature labor, low birth weight, and risk for sudden infant death syndrome ( SIDS)
* Tooth and gum diseases

You have the same risks if you use smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco, snuff, etc.) for a long time. In addition, smokeless tobacco users have a 50 times greater risk for mouth cancer than those who do not use such products.

SECONDHAND SMOKE

Those who are regularly around the smoke of others (secondhand smoke) have a higher risk of:

* Coronary artery disease
* Lung cancer
* Sudden and severe reactions, including those involving the eye, nose, throat, and lower respiratory tract

Infants and children that are exposed regularly to secondhand smoke are at risk of:

* Asthma
* Infections, including virus-caused upper respiratory infections, ear infections, and pneumonia
* Lungs that do not work as well (poor lung function)
* Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

TIME TO QUIT

There are a lot of ways to quit smoking and many resources to help you. Family members, friends, and coworkers may be supportive or encouraging, but the desire and commitment to quit must be your own.

Most people who have been able to successfully quit smoking made at least one unsuccessful attempt in the past. Try not to view past attempts to quit as failures, but rather as learning experiences.

Feel ready to quit? Here are some tips:

* List the reasons you want to quit. Include both short- and long-term benefits.
* Ask your health care provider for help. Find out whether prescription medications might help. Also ask about nicotine patches, gum, and sprays.
* Ask your family, friends, and coworkers for support.
* Set a quit date, and get rid of all of your cigarettes by that date.
* Quit completely -- cold turkey.
* Get more exercise. It relieves the urge to smoke.
* Learn self-hypnosis from a qualified practitioner. This helps some people.
* Make a plan about what you will do, instead of smoking, when stressed or other times you have the urge for tobacco. Be as specific as possible.
* Avoid smoke-filled settings and situations in which you are more likely to smoke.

Like any addiction, quitting tobacco is difficult, particularly if you are acting alone. If you join smoking cessation programs, you have a much better chance of success. Such programs are offered by hospitals, health departments, community centers, and work sites.

The best quit-smoking programs combine multiple strategies, including peer support and ways to overcome potential relapse situations. Counseling by telephone can be a very helpful reinforcement, even as effective as face-to-face counseling.

Short-term use of the antidepressant medication bupropion (Wellbutrin, Zyban), along with a quit-smoking program, may increase your success. Bupropion requires a prescription from your health provider and should not be used if you have a history of seizures or kidney failure.

If you aren't successful the first time, simply look at what occurred or what didn't work, develop new strategies, and try again. Many attempts are often necessary to finally "beat the habit."

THE BENEFITS OF QUITTING

* Within 20 minutes of quitting - your blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal and the temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal.
* Within 8 hours of quitting - your carbon monoxide levels drop and your oxygen levels increase, both to normal levels.
* Within 24 hours of quitting - your risk of a sudden heart attack decreases.
* Within 48 hours of quitting - nerve endings begin to regenerate and your senses of smell and taste begin to return to normal.
* Within 2 weeks to 3 months of quitting - your circulation improves and walking becomes easier; even your lung function increases up to 30%.
* Within 1 to 9 months of quitting - your overall energy typically increases and symptoms like coughing, nasal congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath diminish; also, the small hairlike projections lining your lower airways begin to function normally. This increases your lungs' ability to handle mucus, clean the airways, and reduce infections.
* Within 1 year of quitting - your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of someone still using tobacco.
* Within 5 years of quitting - the lung cancer death rate decreases by nearly 50% compared to one pack/day smokers; the risk of cancer of the mouth is half that of a tobacco user.
* Within 10 years of quitting - your lung cancer death rate becomes similar to that of someone who never smoked; precancerous cells are replaced with normal cells; your risk of stroke is lowered, possibly to that of a nonuser; your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas all go down.

WHEN TO CONTACT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL

Call your doctor if you are a smoker and:

* You want an individual health risk profile
* You want to learn about methods to stop tobacco use
* You are pregnant, planning a pregnancy in the future, or using birth control pills
* You have symptoms of specific diseases associated with tobacco use (even if you are a nonsmoker exposed to secondhand smoke)

Dunkin Donuts Pulls Rachael Ray Ad Because She Looked Arab

Observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was talk of a boycott. Said the suits in a statement: ‘‘In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist. Absolutely no symbolism was intended."

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TRUTH SQUAD: MEN LIE MORE THAN WOMEN?

Women say it so often it has become a cornerstone of female dating wisdom, passed on from sorority house to sewing circle:

Men are liars. Or, if the speaker is in a kindly mood, she might add: Most are, anyway.

Hard-nosed 21st-century journalist that I am, I went to google.com in search of the truth.

I typed in "lying men" and found angry, disgusted, disillusioned women who are sick of being deceived. High on the list of sites was manhaters.com, which bills itself as the world's largest Internet database that ranks individual men.

It promises to help women avoid wasting time with "cheating men, lying men, abusive men or just plain ... " well, you get the picture.

"We don't hate all men," the site proclaims, "just the jerks."

It offers women the Holy Grail of man-examination: a chance to hear from his exes. Women send in their ratings of ex-husbands and boyfriends on everything from infidelity and abusive behavior to hygiene and manners.

Nice guys finish first, the site says. But considering the site's blood-red background and picture of a she-devil with pitchfork and bullwhip, I'm not sure nice guys want to finish first here.

On dating sites, women repeatedly declare in their profiles that fork-tongued "players" shouldn't even bother. The ones who are really steamed start typing in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS when they touch this third rail of a topic.

You'd think there was an epidemic or something.

Amy Sohn, a writer for New York magazine, said as much last year, blaming Internet dating and the ready availability of casual sex for the fib-fest she sees unfolding in the Big Apple. Men, she suggested, see women as disposable dates and feel no compunction about lying to one as they trot on to the next.

Heidi Muller, a relationship correspondent at AskMen.com, calls lying the favorite pastime of men. The only men who don't, she added, are either gay, sincerely religious, "or have had their tongue removed."

I called psychology professor Bella DePaulo, who has studied lying for two decades. I wanted to know: Is there any evidence men lie more than women?

"There is evidence that it's not true," she replied.

"Really?" I asked.

"Really," she said.

DePaulo, a professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara, recalled research she published about a decade ago in which nearly 150 people were given little notebooks and asked to jot down notes each time they told a lie.

"We found that in terms of pure numbers of lies ... men and women were equal," she said.

There were some differences, though. When women lied to other women, it was usually what she called kind-hearted lies, like "You look great in that dress" or "Your casserole was fantastic." When men lied to other men, it was usually a more self-serving lie, say, fibbing about their golf handicap.

But she didn't see any clear gender-based distinction when she studied lies men told women and lies women told men. . So why do so many women believe so strongly that men simply can't tell the truth?

"Maybe the lies the men tell to them are the ones they notice," DePaulo said. "They're the ones that matter."

6 Ways To Keep Your Marriage Intact

Advice on how to keep your marriage happy and healthy.

1. Address marital conflicts before baby arrives. Issues that spark small disagreements before baby comes can cause all-out arguments when you add stress and sleep deprivation to the equation.

2. Avoid other high-stress situations at this time. If possible, put off changing jobs or moving to a new home around the time baby is due. “A lot of people buy a house when they’re expecting, and it’s the worst time,” says Los Angeles psychotherapist Marcia Bernstein, L.C.S.W. “You’re already going through a stressful transition.” Wait at least six months or whenever you resume some sense of a daily routine before taking on a new project or financial obligation.

3. Set limits on visits from relatives. A nonstop stream of house guests can challenge any marriage, but more so now than ever. Agree to time limits, communicate them to visitors and stick with those limits, suggests Bernstein.

4. Talk to other new parents. To be stuck in the house with a newborn for weeks on end can make both of you feel out of touch with the world and resentful. Reach out to other new parents who are in your neighborhood or whom you may have met in a childbirth-education class.

5. Adjust to the family bed. Sleeping together as a family in one bed has its advantages, but if you go the co-sleeping route, make sure you find other comfortable places in the house for cuddling and sex.

6. If the road gets rocky, seek help. Don’t wait until you’re on the verge of divorce to talk with a marriage counselor. Sometimes just a few sessions with a qualified therapist can open clogged lines of communication. For a referral to a licensed counselor in your area, contact the National Association of Social Workers at (800) 638-8799.

How Google Really Places Map Markers

I knew it!

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Alanis Morissette Is Pregnant and without Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds and Alanis Morissette have called it quits – and this time, it's official.Their reps, Dvora Vener and Meredith O'Sullivan, tell PEOPLE in a joint statement, "Ryan Reynolds and Alanis Morissette have mutually decided to end their engagement.

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Unhappy with your job? You’re not alone.

Get to know why you are unhappy with your job. 10 reasons to take care of.

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