There are lots of articles posted on SoftwareProjects as well as on other Internet Marketing forums about How to generate traffic, Website conversion, How to Build content etc. but I personally feel there's a big shortage in specific step-by-step "show me the money" guides, that take a newbie through all the steps involved in building a successful website online.

Mike posted a Beginner's guide to Making Money online, Tyler posted a Beginner's guide to Link Building but even those two are not true step-by-step "show me exactly what to do because I have no clue what I'm doing" guides.

So as part of this 4 part series, I'd like to demonstrate exactly what's involved in monetizing a new website, taking it from $0 to $500 passive income per month in less than 60 days. My idea as I go through this process is to show you EXACTLY what I'm doing every step of the way, so that you can understand the basics of Internet Marketing & Web Development.


The Rules:

* All expenses must be documented.
* I cannot spend more than $200 on this experiment.
* I cannot use any "pull" from other SoftwareProjects owned sites. I have to build everything from scrach.
* I am not allowed to use any pre-existing scripts that have been developed prior to starting this experiment.
* I am not allowed to utilize any of my industry contacts to drive traffic to the site.
* Any form of monetization is acceptable as long as it is ongoing and not a single deal (like a single ReviewMe posting).

The website:

To keep it real, I asked one of the guys in the office to pick the site I should focus on for this website monetization experiment.

Big mistake on my part!

Jason picked the absolute (or one of the) most challenging website to monetize.

A Proxy Server.

Proxy servers are websites designed to allow people who are at work or school to visit sites blocked by their network administrator. As I will find out later, a proxy server is also a popular way for horny men to visit porn sites without leaving a history trace on their browser for the wife/girlfriend to find out about.

Why is a proxy website so difficult to monetize? That's because users on a proxy website are not in the "mind set" of reading content or clicking on ads. These users are typically trying to access the desired content as quickly as possible and be done with it.

Tip: Before you set out to monetize any website, it is important to understand user habbits and get familiarized with how similar websites are often used.

As much as it is challenging, I was up for the task. $0 to $500 from a proxy server in 60 days or less, here I come!

Step 1 - Building the site:

Now that it has been decided what type of website I'm going to use for this experiment, I had to build it.

I could go out and hire developers to build a proxy server for me, but building something new from scratch is going to take time. And I have 60 days to produce a reliable $500/month passive income.

I decided to do some research online and search for pre-existing proxy server packages I could use.

Searching Google for Proxy Script brought up 2.7 million results.

After going through the first two pages, it became obvious there are two top proxy scripts recommended by everyone:

* PHProxy
* CGIProxy

Both scripts were free and offered very similar feature-set. I recall one of our engineers said at one point that PHP code is easier to maintain and scale, so I picked PHProxy.

I downloaded the script and saved it on my local machine. Now I had to pick a Domain name for my new site and purchase a Web hosting package to host the site.

While you could go with any of your favorite domain registrars or hosting companies, I chose to use SoftwareProjects Domain registration and ultra scalable Web hosting (Multihomed) package. I knew as the site grew in popularity I may need to scale it and I didn't want to risk running into any roadblocks.

Got my new domain and hosting package activated within less than 5 minutes and I used CuteFTP to upload the PHProxy script onto my new site.

All done - I now had my new Proxy server up and running.

Financial review:
Revenue to date:
+ $0
Expenses:
- $29.95 Annual domain registration NoTraceWeb.com
- $49.95 Monthly web hosting (multihomed)

Total Expenses = $79.9
Total Revenues = $0


--

On the next parts of this series, I am going to share how I submitted the site to popular directories and forums for some initial traffic, what I did to learn about usage patterns and how I began the monetization experiment with 4 monetization channels at once: AdSense, AuctionAds, AdBrite and another one I'm going to keep as a surprise.

View 2 Comment(s)

Most affiliate tracking systems and affiliate networks, rely on JavaScript and Cookies to track affiliate payments.

Typically the way the technology works is as follows -

Step 1: You promote an affiliate-offer on your blog or landing page, by redirecting users to the target merchant URL, embedding your affiliate ID at the end of the link.

Step 2: User clicks on your affiliate link and lands on the merchant page. The merchant page has logic that picks-up your affiliate ID from the URL and stores a cookie on the user machine to identify this user session was referred by your site.

Step 3: After reading more about the offer, the user decides to proceed and sign-up. The user surfs to the payment page and submits his/her payment information.

Step 4: User lands on payment confirmation "Thank you page". This page has logic to pick-up the cookie that was dropped on step 2 and if that cookie matches your affiliate ID, you are then paid.

Sounds straightforward, right?

Guess what. With the rising popularity of Windows Vista, SpyBot and other ad-blockers, more and more users employ tools that strip or block all tracking cookies.

Going back to the example above, the user will land on the payment confirmation page, but the affiliate cookie will not be picked up properly and You Lose Money.



Commission Junction, LinkShare, ClickBank and many other top affiliate networks, rely on cookies to track affiliate commission payments. No cookies - you don't get paid.

How bad is the problem?

A recent study we conducted internally, shows a frightening increase in the number of users with Javascript disabled or no cookies. We found 5 to 10% of the user base, depending on the program, falling under this category.

Jupiter research released a study that states as many as 39% of internet users perform a deletion of cookies on a monthly basis.

What can you do about it?

As an affiliate, you can go out and try to fight Microsoft, SpyBot, Norton Anti Virus and others, for making it so easy for users to block and remove tracking cookies.

But don't waste your time. You're not likely to succeed there. Phishing, Viruses and Identity theft are a few of the problems driving users to demand more security.

Your best bet is to provide value to your users when they sign-up using your affiliate link. Disclose you are promoting a product using an affiliate link and make it worth-while for your users to sign-up using that link.

Contact the merchant and find a way to provide an incentive to your users. Here are a few examples:

John Reese promoting AuctionAds and explaining if you sign-up using his affiliate link, you get a $5 sign-up bonus.

Modern-SEO promoting TextLinkAds, noting if you sign-up using their link, you get $100 free from TextLinkAds

Make it worthwhile for your users to buy using your affiliate link by adding value and you'll minimize the amount of money you're leaving on the table as lost commissions.

--

Starting your own affiliate program?

If you are looking into starting your own Affiliate Program, find an affiliate system that supports "cookieless tracking". A system that does not rely on JavaScript, Cookies or Redirects for tracking.

The most reliable affiliate tracking methodology is server-side tracking, where the affiliate system tracking code is embedded into the thank you page and is not dependent on the user browser.

View 4 Comment(s)

Have you ever heard the saying Content is King? The reason that this saying is so popular among internet marketers is because it is extremely true. Quality content is the basis of any successful web site. If you are using your web site to sell yourself, your company or a product, the best tool to do so is the content you place on your web site. When visitors read your content, it is much like them meeting you for the first time. This means that within a matter of seconds, they will already have an opinion of your web site in their mind. As you can see, there is not much time for your content to grab their attention and hold on to it. Regardless of what you are writing about, here are a few tips that can help you write the most effective content possible:

Write for Your Visitors!
Instead of trying to craft pieces of content with the perfect keyword density, focus on writing directly to the people that are going to be visiting your web site. If you write in this fashion, instead of trying to cram every possible keyword into your writing, not only will your conversions increase, but the search engines will actually be more trusting of your content and web site.




Think About What Your Visitors are Looking For
Expanding on the first point, make sure that you gear your writing towards what your visitors are searching the internet for. If you need, look at the search terms that is generating your traffic and think about the questions that your visitors have which make them type in these search terms.

Don't Forget the Details
Many internet marketers are too quick to generalize the things that they are selling. Don't make your sales page sound generic! Be sure to include specific details that set what you are selling apart from your competitors.

Show All the Benefits and Features
Along the same lines as including lots of details, make sure that you tell your visitors what your product/service can do for them and why they need to purchase it. You can use the power of benefits and features to create a stronger connection with your visitors.

Keep it Fresh
Whether it means updating old content or creating new content, it's always good to having something new and relevant for returning visitors to check out. Fresh content will also help ensure that search engines are continually crawling your web site!

The relationship between video and the internet has been steadily growing over the past few years. As more and more internet users switch to high-speed internet connections, internet video becomes accessible to a larger audience. In addition to popular video web sites like YouTube, another major use of internet video is advertising. Although it has not been used as much in the past, internet video advertising is growing and will continue to rapidly expand over the next few years (as evidenced by Google's inclusion of video into their AdSense program).



Personally, I'm a huge fan of this move. Internet video picks up where television advertising generally misses out: you can show your video advertisements to a much more targeted audience. When properly planned and created, video advertisements have the potential to convert extremely well. In order to get maximize the conversion rate that your video ads deliver, here are three tips that you should always keep in mind when working with video as an advertising medium:

-Research has shown that the majority of purchases made by consumers are based on emotion. However, many inexperienced advertisers create their advertisements under the false impression that more consumers make their purchases based on objective rationale. The great thing about video is that you can really connect with potential customers on an emotional level. By using a character in your ad that they can directly relate to, you can ensure that the people viewing your ad will be fully attached to your product.

-Along the same lines, if you can take anything from what large-scale advertisers that spend billions of dollars have learned, it should be this:


As you can see again by this quote, the key to creating truly effective video ads is knowing who your target audience is and how to properly communicate with them.

-Finally, don't forget that the entire goal of any advertising is to motivate and persuade your target audience. Whether you are writing PPC ads or creating a video campaign for network television, you need to grab your audience and make them do exactly what you want. As previously touched on, internet video ads are becoming so popular because when executed properly, they are extremely effective in achieving these two goals!

Although most companies are taking action against it, click fraud is still a major issue within the pay per click advertising industry. From bloggers to the mainstream media, everyone is talking about click fraud and its negative impact on advertisers. In order to identify and eliminate click fraud, be sure to follow these three steps:



You Started Advertising with a Company Before Researching Them
Advertising with smaller PPC companies can be a cost efficient alternative or addition to advertising with Google, Yahoo or MSN. However, it can just as easily be a huge waste of money. For every legitimate smaller PPC company, there are multiple PPC companies which will take your money without hesitation. In order to separate the bad seeds from the rest, make sure that your research the company before you sign-up. Performing a simple Google search and reading what others have to say can give you an extremely good insight into what the company is really all about.

Your Conversion Rate is Close to Zero
If you have used the SoftwareProjects extensive resources to optimize your landing page and PPC campaign, you should be seeing a conversion rate of at least ten percent. However, if your conversion rate is closer to zero, it is definitely time to start investigating what is really going on. Conversion rates that low are usually a reliable sign that the majority of your pay per click traffic is not actually real people.

Your Website Gets HAMMERED with Traffic
Although a flood of traffic is usually something to celebrate, when it comes via pay per click advertising, it can actually signal that something suspicious is taking place. While PPC advertising can send a significant amount of traffic, any legitimate traffic is going to come in a steady stream. So, if you suddenly see thousands of more visitors than you normally receive, it's time to really scrutinize where those visitors (or more likely robots) are coming from.

It may sound obvious, but many people forget to optimize their website for their visitors. Instead of focusing on their visitors, many people let their personal preferences take precedence when deciding on specific web design and formatting elements. Although this may seem harmless, it can dramatically decrease your conversion rate. I've included some useful tips for ensuring that your website is actually optimized for the people that are going to be looking at it:

Ad Units
Ad units are a very common feature of the element. Unfortunately, this has resulted in many internet users becoming banner blind. If you want to ensure that your visitors are actually looking at the ad units on your website, you should place them within your content or at the top-left area of your website.

Articles
-If you weren't already aware, most internet users scan the content of website instead of reading it word for word. To ensure that you grab their attention, you should write a short introductory paragraph that touches on the main points of the article that follows it. Additionally, you should always write a headline that will grab the attention of anyone that sees it.
-Instead of writing extremely long paragraphs, make sure that all of your articles are made up of shorter paragraphs with relevant subheadings.

Fonts
-You may think that underlining your headlines is a great way to grab the attention of your visitors, but in reality, most internet users quit reading when they see underlines. The only things that you should underline are links (you should also stay away from using horizontal lines or other visual line breaks on your web pages).
-Even though you want to ensure that your visitors can read the content of your website, don't fall into the trap of thinking that bigger is better. You should always stick with reasonable font sizes for all the elements of your website (even headings). As long as you use proper CSS to control the font sizes on your pages, visually impaired users will be able to easily increase the font size of your website to accommodate their needs.

Navigation
Don't make people think! People are used to seeing navigation at the top or top left of websites, so keep them happy and place your navigation menus in one of these prominent areas.