In case you're not familiar with John Reese, he's the guy whose network of sites gets as many as 2 million visits a day.  But most people remember John for the many success stories that were created from people that got his original Traffic Secrets course and put it to use.

Since John launched his original Traffic Secrets in 2004 he's since been studying hundreds of traffic strategies and has moved his Traffic Secrets course into today's internet marketing environment by taking advantage of all the powerful opportunities of Social Media,Video Marketing, Content Syndication, and more.

These are two videos narrated by John himself whereby he demonstrates a few of his own traffic secrets, the secrets that John uses to bring millions of visitors to his own sites.      

In the first video John talks about using the internet for what he refers to as 'results detection'. This results detection method is about tapping into the internet to find what is already working and use it to help you get the results you desire. 

Using this "results detection' methodology John shows us how you can:

• Get your content on various social networking sites
• Get more friends on social networking sites
• Monitor competitors
• Write successful ads
• Optimize your Google Adwords campaigns
• Find the highest paying niches
• Find out how to put out successful press releases
• Get more traffic and links to your blog posts
  …and more

In the second video, John talks about content and 'owning more of the internet'.  You'll need to watch the video for a clear demonstration of what this all means but rest assured that developing content for your business and lots of it is one of the most important things you can do and John demonstrates in this video how to go about doing that with a simple 5 step formula. 

Both videos are roughly 30 minutes long and are well worth your time. But don't take my word for it, take these few minutes and see for yourself

http://www.trafficsecrets.com/homenotion

John's also telling us that this is just the tip of the iceberg.  I think he's got a few more surprises up his sleeve  …so stay tuned. 

One of the things that's important to the success of your website, but often overlooked, is your website's structure. Today the search engines place fairly hefty weight on how your site is laid out, what components are included and your content.

Let's start with one of the basic components that easily get out of whack for most sites — directory structure…     

Before you begin building your website, sit down with a pencil and paper and map out what topics your site will include.  Your main topics should be included in your site's navigation.  Each topic should link to a separate page.   Don't try to include too much varying information on a page, instead divide your information into chunks and link each chunk to a separate sub-page.  

Try to keep your links no deeper than 3 pages deep as the search engines rarely index beyond that. 

Your Website Keywords
Your site has an overall theme or niche for which your site's domain name should reflect the best keyword.  If your site is about 'running shoes', then the words 'running shoes' should be in your domain name. It is imperative that you find not only relevant keywords but the keywords that will get you the most traffic.  That's why Wordtracker is my tool of choice.  Another pretty good tool is Google's Keyword tool, which is free

Next, each page of your site should reflect what is called your long tail keywords. 

For example, a site about running shoes should have ‘running shoes’ in the domain name.  A page talking about 'how to buy running shoes' might look like this:

http://www.runningshoes.com/how-to-buy-running-shoes.html

Your Title, Description & H1 Tags

It's a big deal to be #1 on the search engines but not everyone at the #1 spot gets the clicks they expect, that's often because their title and description tags fail them, meaning the title and description aren’t compelling enough to warrant enough interest. 

How unfortunate is that!

Your title tag should contain a clear title for your page that also contains your best keywords, but also think of the title tag as if it were an ad because this is what the search engines will use as the link descriptor to your site, so it's to your advantage to make it something that encourages a click. Keep the title to about 5-10 words, anything longer than 65 characters will get cut off so keep it short and direct.

I recommend creating a separate description for each page; your description can also influence the reader to click so again use your same keyword phrase as in the title tag and use a description that expands on your title tag. 

Your Heading or <H1> tags

Your heading tags are just good practice.  It's also a reinforcement for the search engines that your page really does contain what your title and description say it contains, and you want all the reinforcement you can get.

The header tags appear like this: <h1> Page Header </h1>

Your Site’s Content

The search engines require sites to offer value to its readers.  A search engines determines value by the amount of fresh, useful and unique content they find.

But what does unique content really mean?  Unique content is content that isn’t found everywhere.  An article on your site that is on 500 other sites isn’t going to do much for your reputation.  That’s precisely why private label content has become extremely popular because many PLR writers only distribute a set number of licenses. 

However the very best way to generate unique content is to generate your own.   Here are a few ideas for coming up with unique content:

• Perform your own case studies
• Perform your own product reviews
• Create an FAQ page derived from your own visitors
• Request feedback from viewers and post the results
• Start a forum – this is an excellent way to encourage people to visit and comment
• Personally comment on industry related news items

It's not hard to figure out how to create a website and there are plenty of easy website builders and information on how to create a blog, however before you start building and creating your website or blog make sure you focus in on a profitable niche, have a good idea what your will be offering on your site and organize it into a logical order and keep each page of your site focused.  No matter how good the site builder it will still depend no your ability to include the necessary information and organize it so your readers can find it.

[tags]website structure[/tags]

So what’s the secret to getting Adsense to generate enough income to make it worth your while?

Here are a few Adsense tips for higher revenue that have worked for me.

Niche sites produce higher Adsense payouts

Niche web sites typically generate more revenue simply because of the better search engine placement they get from being tightly focused.  But not just any niche will do.  The idea is to choose a niche that does well in the advertising market and that merchants are willing to pay more for advertising.  Finance and loans is one such example.

Target the right keywords

To complement the above statement you need to find the keywords.  High paying keywords will point you to the high paying niche markets.

So you definitely want to find the keywords that pay the most.  Overture use to have a nifty keyword bidding tool that told you how much was being bid for a keyword however that tool is no longer available, too bad because I really liked it :- (  But after searching around for some time I came across Keyword Country

I found it to be quite useful for finding keywords. I’ve used Wordtracker a lot and still use it for my websites, blogs and advertising but found that it doesn’t give me the CPC and the variety of the high paying keyword data that I need for using Adsense.

The problem is that a keyword may have a cost per click (CPC) of $50 or more, but its estimated cost per click (EPC) may only be $0.80.  Consequently the problem to overcome is finding keywords that have a high CPC but also offer you a high EPC; you also need to know that there are enough advertisers for keywords. So you need a good tool that’s going to give you this information accurately and Keyword Country does a great job of giving you thorough data.

Placement of Adsense Ads
Google suggests that the wider ads perform better and this is because of their reader-friendly format.

If you have an article page, placing ads directly below the end of the article typically perform better. That’s probably because when a visitor finishes reading an article they are thinking about what to do next, if there’s a compelling ad right there for them, they are likely to click on it.

AdSense blocks wrapped between the quality content also works well.  You can use the medium or large rectangle format and place it in the flow of your content or to the right or left of it for best results.

For the websites having poor quality content, placing the Ads before the start of the content works well, but keep in mind that if you have a poor quality content website, you might get a high number of clicks, but you will be getting low priced ads. On the other hand, if you have quality content that keeps the visitors interested you may get a low CTR, but you will be getting high priced ads and regular visitors.

If you have horizontal links at the top of your page or at the bottom of your page that look like this:

Home  |  newsletter  |  About  |  Free Ebook  | Archives |  forum

Try displaying one of the following Adsense horizontal link units directly under your horizontal links:

(468×15) Displays up to 5 links
(468x15_4) Displays up to 4 links
(728×15) Displays up to 5 links
(728x15_4) Displays up to 4 links

Blend your Adsense Ads for Higher Revenue

If you can blend your ads into your website so as not to make them look like ads you’re likely to get more clicks.  For example, removing the border and changing the background color so it blends with your sites background color is a popular strategy.

Use the same color schemes for you ad that your website uses. If your headline text color is green then using green for your ad’s title will help it blend better.   I like to keep the text of the ad in black and I use a dark gray color for the actual link color.  Some suggest that keeping the link color in blue is better, however preferences vary there and I haven’t experienced much of a difference in click through either way.

Blending your ads is pretty standard stuff but I’m amazed at how many people don’t do this.

Use the Adsense Heat map
Google’s done their homework in this area and based on tests and experience their Adsense Heat map illustrates the best locations on your web page to place your ads for higher click through.

It’s also a good idea to keep your ads above the fold of your website.  Keep in mind that this map is just a guideline and everyone will experience different click through rates, so it’s always wise to experiment and take notes on what works and what doesn’t.

Google Adsense Update:

Google Adsense just recently updated (Feb, 2008) their Google AdSense Online Standard Terms and Conditions located at:

https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms

If you use Adsense you would have received a notice to agree to the changes.  What you may not have noticed is that Google is requiring Adsense users to update their website’s privacy policy.

If you look closely at the terms and conditions under the ‘program participation’ section, you will notice at the end of the paragraph the statement that says:

“You must have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website.  Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.”

This means that if you use Google Adsense Ads on your website you must place a notice within your privacy policy that mentions the above.  If you need an example you can have a look at my Homenotion Terms of Use.

For a lot more quality professional tips, Joel Comm, the Adsense specialist, is practically giving away his Adsense Secrets

Best,
Elizabeth