So here's your homework:

Grab a sheet of paper and write down your campaign name. Below that, list the ways you are currently using to drive traffic to the site. Then, count your time spent to accomplish the work. Make this a figure you are comfortable with.

Here's an example.

Campaign:

How Nonprofit Organizations Compete
According to the book Successful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organization by Barry McLeish, nonprofit groups compete with each other in roughly four areas: quality of programs or technology, positioning of programs or products, quality of support services and price. Let's take a look at each of these areas and compare them with regard to how a for-profit company competes.Quality of programs or technology: Many t

Today I want to touch on the costs of getting traffic to your site. Your earnings with Contextual Advertising will only grow when you have visitors who are interested in your ads and click on them. But you gotta have visitors.

Here's the formula:

Earnings = page impressions * ads per page * click thru rate * average price per click

Let's assume page impression is a constant p.

Then earnings = p * CTR * CPC.

So calculating how much your traffic is costing you is vital, because it draws from your bottom line.

There are MANY ways to drive traffic to your site; the main two, search engine optimization and advertising. Advertising takes on many forms: text ads, banner ads, newspaper ads, links, word of mouth, etc.

The most important part to remember is that there is no free lunch. In other words, every form of advertisement costs something. Effort was expended to get you the results. The key is that you need to quantify the effort. You'll hear me use that a lot - quantify it. Only when you can measure it is it possible to track.

And remember to count your time and effort. Here's my rule of thumb: count $10 for every hour of personal labor you put into traffic. This includes chatting with someone to spread the word about your site, work on SEO items, keyword optimization, literally anything that takes your time - you must quantify it.

Say you are out and talk with someone for ten minutes about your new site; that's $2.00 of your time.

Okay, Dave - that's getting picky.

Using AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing to drive traffic is a little easier to quantify. You can easily see how much of your budget was spent. But even here, I count my time spent creating ads, working on keywords, tweaking and refining.

So here's your homework:

Grab a sheet of paper and write down your campaign name. Below that, list the ways you are currently using to drive traffic to the site. Then, count your time spent to accomplish the work. Make this a figure you are comfortable with.

Here's an example.

Campaign:

Strategically Build Your Small Business
When is the last time you looked at your business plan? No matter the size of your business, you need a functional business plan. One common misperception with business owners is that the business plan must be very long, and torturous to create – this is not true!I recommend having a business plan for a finite period of time, like a budget. If you were writing your first plan right now, start with just the rest of t

* CTR * CPC.

So calculating how much your traffic is costing you is vital, because it draws from your bottom line.

There are MANY ways to drive traffic to your site; the main two, search engine optimization and advertising. Advertising takes on many forms: text ads, banner ads, newspaper ads, links, word of mouth, etc.

The most important part to remember is that there is no free lunch. In other words, every form of advertisement costs something. Effort was expended to get you the results. The key is that you need to quantify the effort. You'll hear me use that a lot - quantify it. Only when you can measure it is it possible to track.

And remember to count your time and effort. Here's my rule of thumb: count $10 for every hour of personal labor you put into traffic. This includes chatting with someone to spread the word about your site, work on SEO items, keyword optimization, literally anything that takes your time - you must quantify it.

Say you are out and talk with someone for ten minutes about your new site; that's $2.00 of your time.

Okay, Dave - that's getting picky.

Using AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing to drive traffic is a little easier to quantify. You can easily see how much of your budget was spent. But even here, I count my time spent creating ads, working on keywords, tweaking and refining.

So here's your homework:

Grab a sheet of paper and write down your campaign name. Below that, list the ways you are currently using to drive traffic to the site. Then, count your time spent to accomplish the work. Make this a figure you are comfortable with.

Here's an example.

Campaign:

Twelve Tips for Finding Good Freelancers
Business on the internet requires a good graphic designer and a good writer. Some studies show that you have less than 9 seconds (and some say a millisecond) to hold a visitor on your site or turn him away. That means you have one shot to impress anyone who sees your site. Does your site have what it takes?Building a website takes some planning and decisions. Relying on your own abilities for graphic design and writing

/strong>. In other words, every form of advertisement costs something. Effort was expended to get you the results. The key is that you need to quantify the effort. You'll hear me use that a lot - quantify it. Only when you can measure it is it possible to track.

And remember to count your time and effort. Here's my rule of thumb: count $10 for every hour of personal labor you put into traffic. This includes chatting with someone to spread the word about your site, work on SEO items, keyword optimization, literally anything that takes your time - you must quantify it.

Say you are out and talk with someone for ten minutes about your new site; that's $2.00 of your time.

Okay, Dave - that's getting picky.

Using AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing to drive traffic is a little easier to quantify. You can easily see how much of your budget was spent. But even here, I count my time spent creating ads, working on keywords, tweaking and refining.

So here's your homework:

Grab a sheet of paper and write down your campaign name. Below that, list the ways you are currently using to drive traffic to the site. Then, count your time spent to accomplish the work. Make this a figure you are comfortable with.

Here's an example.

Campaign:

Using Job Fairs To Decide On A Career Path
Making up your mind as to what you want to do in life is so difficult. Especially today, given the myriad options, with each profession looking better than the other. And you're not too sure what exactly it is you want to pursue. Enter the wonderful world of job fairs. Walk in and you'll see a vista of opportunities light up before your eyes, options even within professions. You can talk to people from various companies, find

someone to spread the word about your site, work on SEO items, keyword optimization, literally anything that takes your time - you must quantify it.

Say you are out and talk with someone for ten minutes about your new site; that's $2.00 of your time.

Okay, Dave - that's getting picky.

Using AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing to drive traffic is a little easier to quantify. You can easily see how much of your budget was spent. But even here, I count my time spent creating ads, working on keywords, tweaking and refining.

So here's your homework:

Grab a sheet of paper and write down your campaign name. Below that, list the ways you are currently using to drive traffic to the site. Then, count your time spent to accomplish the work. Make this a figure you are comfortable with.

Here's an example.

Campaign:

Increase Product Awareness by Becoming an Expert
While many consumers buy products and use the services of others on a daily basis, few stop to think about why they chose one brand or person over another. The power of print, advertising, and images from television and film often have more of an effect on consumer choices then they may admit.With a product or service to sell, you have likely already investigated the costs and demographics of various traditional venues

udget was spent. But even here, I count my time spent creating ads, working on keywords, tweaking and refining.

So here's your homework:

Grab a sheet of paper and write down your campaign name. Below that, list the ways you are currently using to drive traffic to the site. Then, count your time spent to accomplish the work. Make this a figure you are comfortable with.

Here's an example.

Campaign: Shelled Brazil Nuts - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Traffic: SEO work - $5.00 (30 mins/day @ $10/hr)
AdWords account - $7.00/day
Links - $1.00/day ($30/month)
Total: $13.00/day

So, great! We have a liability of $13.00 a day. Why do we need to know this number?

This number is key, because this is the number we must beat in order to see a profit. Anything over $13.00 is good. Anything less is not good. But there's more. Don't forget your other costs - hosting (unless you use a free blog account), bandwidth, and design of your site.

See how important it is to keep track of what our traffic costs are? It's vital, if you want to get profitable.

Next, I answer the question of how important it is to choose the right contextual ad company.

Until then, as Mom always said, "do your homework!"