Google Adwords is still the best way to drive traffic to any website. Sure. It has gotten expensive. Google is not exactly making life easy for its Adwords customers either by changing the rules around all the time and introducing strict policies from time to time. Google has been pretty clear about what it will and won’t allow to be advertised on its network. But a lot of people still get away with a lot of things on Google.

Let’s say you want to pick up an e-book reader and start your search on Google instead of Amazon or B&N. What would you do if you saw the following ads?

Essentially, some of these apps are promising you a lot off on Kindle. Some are comparing a device that is not available for sale with Kindle. Let’s not forget that Kindle and iPad are trademarked terms. And let’s not forget about Amazon Associates Program’s policy either. Use of:

any trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, or any variation or misspelling of any trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, in any domain name — for example, a domain name such as “amazon.mydomain.com”, “amaozn.com”, “amazonauctions.net”, “facebook.com/amazondealsgroup,” “endlessboots.com,” “endless.mydomain.com”, “endlss.com,” “kindlemagazines.mydomain.info,” or “kindlewirelessreader.co.uk” would be unsuitable (more…)

If you have been in the business of online marketing for a while, you know the importance of tracking anything and everything. Marketers don’t like to fly blind, and that’s exactly what you would be doing if you didn’t track your advertising links. That includes your affiliate links as well. Many newbies just grab affiliate codes from their affiliate programs and post them on their blogs or websites. While you can track a lot of things with Google Analytics, it’s always nice to have a way to figure out how many times each link on your website has been clicked and by whom.

Think about it. Let’s say you have acquired a sponsored link on a top blog or website. You don’t want to just look at the number of people who have come to your website. You also want to know the referring URL for those links and maybe the number of impressions it has gotten as well. Besides, you want to make sure you can break-down your data all the way back to each individual link. (more…)

There are plenty of ways to make money online. In fact, a lot of people are doing it already. But online marketing is not a walk in the park career. There are many things that an online marketer or business owner has to take into account and master to maximize profits. You can always use services such as Google Adwords to drive traffic to your website, but that’s not where the story ends. You’ll also have to watch your analytics data to see how others are interacting with your website, and how you can get more out of your traffic.

Web Analytics is one of the most underrated aspects of making money online. Without it, you are essentially operating blind, and that is not the way to run a business. Before throwing money at your problems with your online business, you want to make sure you have all the data you need to figure out ways to improve your business’ online performance. That is precisely the reason the below 4 analytics books are must read:

Web Analytics 2.0: one of the most exciting web analytics books in years. It shows you how to conduct advanced analysis on the data you get from your analytics software. Best of all, it teaches you how to develop actionable strategy from that data.

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is being used by many bloggers and website owners these days. Even some of larger organizations rely on Google analytics to optimize their online campaigns. This book covers everything you need to know to get started with Google Analytics. (more…)