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<channel>
	<title>Internet Marketing Rat</title>
	<atom:link href="http://imrat.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://imrat.com</link>
	<description>Biting The Hand That Feeds Me! A Critical look at the world of Online Money Making. Follow along with me on this treterous journey...we both will learn something.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:28:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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			<item>
		<title>Hell Freezes Over&#8230;..It&#8217;s an actual update!!</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2011/09/hell-freezes-over-its-an-actual-update/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2011/09/hell-freezes-over-its-an-actual-update/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:28:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Other]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[challenge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[projects]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stackthatmoney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=330</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two years ago I started online. I joined The Challenge (well&#8230;it was called the 30 day challenge then), failed to complete it, and the rest is history. Funny thing is&#8230;The Challenge is starting up again but in a vastly different format (more about that later in this post) Today kinda marks my 2 year anniversary.  So about [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Two years ago I started online. I joined The Challenge (well&#8230;it was called the 30 day challenge then), failed to complete it, and the rest is history.</p>
<p>Funny thing is&#8230;<a title="The Challenge 2011" href="http://imrat.com/challenge" target="_blank">The Challenge is starting up again</a> <img src='http://imrat.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />  but in a vastly different format (more about that later in this post)</p>
<p>Today kinda marks my 2 year anniversary.  So about time for this update dont you think?</p>
<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;">&#8220;So Whats Your Progress?&#8221;</span></p>
<p>Life is good&#8230;.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-333" title="the office at bang tao beach" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/the-office-at-bang-tao-beach.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="233" /></p>
<p>Not sure I am on track with <a href="http://imrat.com/goals/">all my goals</a> though!</p>
<p>I did manage to escape the dreaded cubicles (or in my case the M4/M5 motorways) In February of this year.</p>
<p>Shortly after, we packed up and moved over to Phuket for 4 months. Fantastic time, and all of us, even my 5 year old daughter, has caught the travel bug.</p>
<p>Any recommendations where we should go next?</p>
<p>And before you suggest it, yes I have seen <a href="http://finchblogs.com/2011/08/23/10-best-countries-to-live-in-for-the-online-professional/" target="_blank">Finch&#8217;s list of top countries</a> to travel to as an affiliate. And yes &#8211; he decided to head out to thailand before I even thought about quiting my dayjob.</p>
<p>So to avoid any rumours that I might be stalking him&#8230;..alternatives that are not on his list please <img src='http://imrat.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<h2>Stack That Money</h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-331" title="StackThatMoney Forum" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/STACKTHATMONEY-Forums.jpg" alt="StackThatMoney Forum" width="197" height="236" /></p>
<p>Apart from grinding out &amp; optimising campaigns i&#8217;ve spend a fair bit of time helping folk out at the <a title="Stack That Money" href="http://imrat.com/stm" target="_blank">stack that money forum</a>.</p>
<p>From simple beginners guides, to more advanced video tutorials. Im sure there is something there that takes your interest.</p>
<p>Here is just a flavour of some of my in-depth posts:</p>
<ul>
<li>iFraming CPA Offer Landing Pages within Facebook</li>
<li>Full walkthrough of a $30 per day PPV campaign (great for beginners)</li>
<li>Building Landing Pages On Speed</li>
<li>Rapid Offer Testing With High V0lume Targets</li>
<li>Super Sneaky Adplanner Trick</li>
<li>WARNING: Build Your Own Scraper With Google Docs</li>
</ul>
<div>And thats just a small subset of many other awesome posts by Polarbacon, <a title="MrGreen" href="http://mrgreen.am">Mr Green</a>, <a title="The STM Blog" href="http://stackthatmoney.com" target="_blank">Jordan</a>, and <a title="Aff Expert" href="http://affexpert.com" target="_blank">Besmir</a>.</div>
<div>To top it all off, Polarbacon and I have just finished something for all you Noobs out there to help you get started online! It&#8217;ll be available soon, but only to <a title="Join Stack That Money" href="http://imrat.com/stm" target="_blank">members of the StackThatMoney community</a>.</div>
<h2>Long Term Projects</h2>
<p>I love the chase of CPA marketing with paid traffic. But&#8230;.It aint a sustainable business really unless you build systems, process and offshore teams to run it all.</p>
<p>And to be honest I do get fed up sometime of the daily grind of churning out more and more quality campaigns.</p>
<p>So as a way of offering some variety, and building some long term assets, im making good progress with a bunch of projects:</p>
<ul>
<li>this blog (are you freakin kiddin me -&gt; need to show it some more love <img src='http://imrat.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </li>
<li>spy killer webservice to protect your campaigns from copycats</li>
<li><a title="RunItWhere?" href="http://facebook.com/RunItWhere" target="_blank">RunItWhere</a> (more info to follow soon&#8230;.its all about traffic)</li>
<li>Scraping toolset</li>
<li><a title="Easy Wysiwyg Page Tab Editor" href="http://facebook.com/tabedit" target="_blank">TabEdit</a></li>
<li>Sweepstake/contest apps for Facebook</li>
</ul>
<div>Keep an eye on my <a title="@imrat" href="http://twitter.com/imrat" target="_blank">twitter</a> / <a title="imrat @ facebook" href="http://facebook.com/imrat">facebook</a> feed to find out more when each of these get launched.</div>
<h2>&#8220;What About The Challenge?&#8221;</h2>
<p>Yeah i promised to talk about this years <a title="Challenge 2011 starts 1st September" href="http://imrat.com/challenge" target="_blank">Challenge</a>.</p>
<p>Whether your a newbie or experienced, I suggest you check it out for a number of reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ed has consistently over the last 7 years identified major shifts in online marketing and I have no doubt he will do it again this year. The Challenge is where all of this comes together with clear actionable steps!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Getting Stuff Done, Shipping, Focus finders, CFTs ~ Whatever your poison ~ The Challenge always offers a good dose of advice for streamlining your workflow and overcoming procrastination</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>All content will be available from Day 1</li>
</ul>
<div>Now in the past I have had one big issue with the format.</div>
<div>Too &#8220;much&#8221; content, in too short a time, and no easy way to quickly get the key points and move on to the next module.</div>
<div>I failed to complete 2 challenges <img src='http://imrat.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />  Got behind and lost the passion for it quit quickly. 3rd time lucky this year!!</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://imrat.com/challenge"><img title="The Challenge" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/The-Challenge.jpg" alt="The Challenge Is Different This Year" width="595" height="202" /></a></div>
<div><a title="Challenge 2011 starts 1st September" href="http://imrat.com/challenge" target="_blank"><br />
So go over to the Challenge, and signup.</a></div>
<div>It starts today, 1st September 2011.</div>
<div>Enjoy!</div>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://imrat.com/2011/09/hell-freezes-over-its-an-actual-update/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Rip Landing Pages For PPV/CPV Using bo.lt</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2011/05/rip-landing-pages-for-ppvcpv-using-bo-lt/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2011/05/rip-landing-pages-for-ppvcpv-using-bo-lt/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 29 May 2011 18:58:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Landing Pages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PPV/CPV]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bo.lt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pixlr]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=327</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Not much time to post these days in between launching new campaigns and doing tutorials and posts on the stack that money forum. Here&#8217;s a fast version of one of the videos i did today. Shows you how to quickly rip ppv/cpv lading pages using bo.lt You can get the music here: http://soundcloud.com/mustard-pimp/deftones-youve-seen-the]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Not much time to post these days in between launching new campaigns and doing tutorials and posts on the <a title="Stack That Money Forum" href="http://imrat.com/stm" target="_blank">stack that money forum</a>.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a fast version of one of the videos i did today.</p>
<p>Shows you how to quickly rip ppv/cpv lading pages using <a href="http://bo.lt" target="_blank">bo.lt</a></p>
<p><iframe width="450" height="286" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yEhdx7M-zlU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>You can get the music here:</p>
<p>http://soundcloud.com/mustard-pimp/deftones-youve-seen-the</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://imrat.com/2011/05/rip-landing-pages-for-ppvcpv-using-bo-lt/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Lessons From An Ex Facebook Virgin</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2011/03/facebook-virgin/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2011/03/facebook-virgin/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:25:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook api]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook php api]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[facebook php sdk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fbml]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=315</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I lost my Facebook virginity at the start of this year when I finally started using Facebook every day. It only took a couple of weeks of regular facebook use for me to realize the power of &#8220;the&#8221; Facebook. And many of these tools are of great use to us marketers. So for the last [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div id="attachment_316" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 257px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-316" title="facebook-virgin" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/facebook-virgin.gif" alt="I Was A Facebook Virgin" width="257" height="168" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">No Longer A Facebook Virgin</p>
</div>
<p>I lost my Facebook virginity at the start of this year when I finally started using Facebook every day.</p>
<p>It only took a couple of weeks of regular facebook use for me to realize the power of &#8220;the&#8221; Facebook. <img src='http://imrat.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>And many of these tools are of great use to us marketers.</p>
<p>So for the last month I have peered through every aspect of the Facebook platform, its Javascript API and the Open Graph Protocol. I have seen the light. (&#8230;and thats an understatement&#8230;)</p>
<p>In this post I share <strong>a few</strong> of the things I learned that will help me bank more from Facebook.</p>
<p>I dont give everything away &#8211; gotta leave something for you to figure out.</p>
<h2><span id="more-315"></span>Opting in with Facebook</h2>
<div id="attachment_317" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 240px">
	<img class="size-medium wp-image-317" title="Single-Click-Facebook-Optin" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Single-Click-Facebook-Optin-240x300.jpg" alt="Single Optin With Facebook?" width="240" height="300" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Anyone interested in Single click optins?</p>
</div>
<p>In their wisdom to rule the web and beat google, Facebook provide the <a title="Facebook Registration Plugin" href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/registration/" target="_blank">Registration</a> and Facebook <a title="Facebook Login Plugin" href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/login/" target="_blank">Login plugins</a> to help you integrate your sites with Facebook.</p>
<p>What you might not know is that with these plugins you can also grab your visitors Facebook data (ie email).</p>
<p>The most familiar use of this for affiliates will be to use Facebook Login as part of your Squeeze Pages.</p>
<p>Once they connect, you will get access to the users full name, gender and locality. With some extra flags (<a title="Facebook Extended Permissions" href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/permissions/" target="_blank">extended permissions</a>) you can get access to a whole host of other data. Most importantly, their email address.</p>
<p>I ran a number of tests looking at whether optins reduced if I asked to access more of their data. For the majority it didn&#8217;t. Whether I requested access to their  birthday, interests, relationship status, or  current location, optin rates stayed consistent.</p>
<p>Only when I requested access to read their mailbox, or requested the ability to publish to their stream, did optin&#8217;s reduce by about 45%.</p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>Warning &#8211; open loop <img src='http://imrat.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />  </strong></span>So what ive done is developed a Facebook App and a WordPress plugin that allows you to implement the form you see above on your landing pages. Once the users opts in by clicking the button, their details will be loaded into your iContact, Mailchimp or Awerber account <img src='http://imrat.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>I will release this plugin soon &#8211; probably as part of my blog upgrade &#8211; in the next couple of weeks. So <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Imrat" target="_parent">subscribe to the rss feed</a> and make sure you regularly check out my blog.</p>
<h2>Is your prospect on Facebook ?</h2>
<p>Imagine running a CPV campaign targeting a dating offer. The facebook app install versions of these offers (SmartDate, Flirt, Cupid etc) are all the rage at the moment.</p>
<p>But you dont really want to present a Facebook app to a non facebook user, right?</p>
<p>With the Javascript API you can test whether a user is logged into facebook or not. The uses of this are many.</p>
<p>For the above example, and with a bit more Javascript logic added in, you can send your visitors to different versions of the same offer depending on whether they are logged into facebook or not.</p>
<p>Or, you can adjust your landing page design and show something like &#8220;Free iPad For Selected Facebook Users&#8221;.</p>
<h2>Real social proof</h2>
<p>Social proof and testimonials are essential components to any successful marketing campaign, on or offline.</p>
<p>Imagine the impact of social proof if it is your actual friends who are using the same product?</p>
<div id="attachment_321" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 366px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-321" title="facepile" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/facepile.jpg" alt="Facebook Facepile" width="366" height="74" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Facepile Social Proof</p>
</div>
<p>The impact on conversions will be exponential.</p>
<p>Facebook apps, pages, adverts and even some of the social plugins will always show if your friends are using the same app or liked the same page.</p>
<p>So next time you start a campaign on Facebook &#8211; think about this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Sell the &#8220;<a title="Like Box" href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box/" target="_blank">Like</a>&#8221; to the user first, before they click through to your offer.</li>
<li>Embed the &#8216;<a title="Facebook Face Pile" href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/facepile/" target="_blank">Facepile</a>&#8216; plugin on your landing pages.</li>
<li>If &#8216;owning&#8217; your comments is not critical to you &#8211; Use <a title="Facebook Comments" href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/comments/" target="_blank">Facebook comments</a></li>
<li>And if you are running some form of Launch or Event &#8211; Check out <a title="Facebook Lifestream" href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/live-stream/" target="_blank">Livestream</a></li>
</ul>
<p>All of these will provide huge social proof and raise your credibility.</p>
<h2>Use Facebook Pages for Your Campaigns</h2>
<p>I dont know why more people dont do this.</p>
<p>Rather then using an external landing page for your Facebook campaign, embed your Lander in a Facebook Page.</p>
<p>Now that full iFrame support has been introduced (and static FBML discontinued), there is nothing you cant do within Facebook&#8230;.(As long as you stay witin the 520px width).</p>
<p>And you dont even need to know Facebook iFrames or Javascript. Create your page, and add your PageTab with <a title="Facebook iFramed Page Tab Editor" href="http://apps.facebook.com/tabedit" target="_blank">TabEdit</a>.</p>
<p>(note: this is one of my apps &#8211; it would be awesome if you could recommend this to your fellow affiliates, like it, or suggest improvements).</p>
<p>The other benefits of using a facebook page?</p>
<p>Your domain will not be shown in your ad!! And your prospects stay within facebook which no doubt helps with the overall user experience.</p>
<p>And&#8230;</p>
<p>You might just get 254 likes before you have even started promoting the page!!</p>
<h2>Facebook Search your demographics and find hot trends</h2>
<p>With more then 500 million people on facebook, and most of them logging in every day, its also a great indicator of new hot trends and associated demographics.</p>
<p>Now you could use the Graph api for this and code your own tools to mine the data. Maybe this is something for another post one day.</p>
<p>For now lets just use the tools that already exist and the best way to explain this is with a little example.</p>
<p>Start with <a title="Facebook Trends 2010" href="http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=466369142130" target="_blank">Facebook&#8217;s trends of 2010</a> (a bit like Google Zeitgeist):</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter" title="Facebook Top Status Trends 2010" src="http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/162896_10150117992156729_20531316728_7361951_6807491_n.jpg" alt="Facebook Top Status Trends 2010" width="542" height="248" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>&#8220;As with last year&#8217;s list, big movies were much talked about. &#8220;Toy Story 3,&#8221; &#8220;The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,&#8221; &#8220;Inception,&#8221; &#8220;Alice in Wonderland&#8221; and &#8220;Iron Man 2&#8243; were the five most discussed (in that order).&#8221;</em></p>
<p>So lets say you decide that for your campaign, Inception is the right angle.</p>
<p>Check <a title="Openbook Search" href="http://youropenbook.org/?q=inception&amp;gender=any" target="_blank">Openbook and search for Inception</a> &#8211; you will see that its primarily men who refer to inception in their status updates, Its still hot (full page of results all within a day), and people are mainly confused about it (you knew this already).</p>
<p>Next tool is the Facebook API search by Zesty. Again, it allows you to drill down and explore public data of all facebook objects (users, pages, posts).</p>
<p>Lets search for all recent posts which referred to inception: <a href="http://zesty.ca/facebook/#/search?q=inception&amp;type=post" target="_blank">http://zesty.ca/facebook/#/search?q=inception&amp;type=post</a></p>
<p>And scan through the posts until you find something with decent amount of likes:  <a href="http://zesty.ca/facebook/#/771968114_158235987567399" target="_blank">http://zesty.ca/facebook/#/771968114_158235987567399</a></p>
<p>(tip &#8211; change the limit=25 value in the URL to something like limit=100 to see more posts on a single page)</p>
<p>Then click on the ID of the user that created that post, and start skipping through their public data. For example &#8211; you could check out the links they like to share:  <a href="http://zesty.ca/facebook/#/771968114/links" target="_blank">http://zesty.ca/facebook/#/771968114/links</a></p>
<p>Check out their comments, what they liked didnt like, and see whether there are any polls. Basically fill your notebook and build up an &#8216;avatar&#8217; of the real die hard Inception fan.</p>
<p>Here are the tools again that I use to explore facebook data:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://youropenbook.org/" target="_blank">http://youropenbook.org/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://zesty.ca/facebook/" target="_blank">http://zesty.ca/facebook/</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>My dream tool&#8230;</h2>
<p>You all no doubt know about Google Insights. A great tool for market research.</p>
<p>Wouldnt it be great to have a similar tool for Facebook. Here are some of the things I would want it to do:</p>
<ul>
<li>Scrape interests from the Facebook ads interface</li>
<li>Get the top pages/groups from facebook by fans / likes for each of the keywords</li>
<li>Get the 10 most popular posts from these pages</li>
<li>Analyse the users that like &amp; comment &#8211; find the 10 most engaging users</li>
<li>Analyse their profiles &#8211; are they male/female, frequent keywords in their status updates, favorite pages, etc etc</li>
<li>End with a summary profile and targeting criteria for my ad campaigns <img src='http://imrat.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </li>
</ul>
<p>What tool would you want that uses Facebook data to help you make more money online?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://imrat.com/2011/03/facebook-virgin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>7</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How To Track Multiple PPV Networks With A Single CPVLab Campaign</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2011/03/track-multiple-ppv-networks-single-cpvlab-campaign/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2011/03/track-multiple-ppv-networks-single-cpvlab-campaign/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:13:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cpv marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cpvlab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[leadimpact]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ppv networks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trafficvance]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=293</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I always look for ways to optimize my workflow. Specifically when it comes to ppv marketing, a streamlined process for launching, optimizing and scaling your campaigns is critical. In this post I will share with you a simple way to run multiple traffic sources within a single CPVLab campaign without loosing the ability to analyze [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><a href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-308" title="Can You Do This With CPVLab?" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/cpvlab-150x150.jpg" alt="CPVLab Tutorial" width="150" height="150" /></a>I always look for ways to optimize my workflow. Specifically when it comes to ppv marketing, a streamlined process for launching, optimizing and scaling your campaigns is critical.</p>
<p>In this post I will share with you a simple way to run multiple traffic sources within a single <a title="Get CPVLab" href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab" target="_blank">CPVLab</a> campaign without loosing the ability to analyze and optimize by target &amp; traffic source.</p>
<p>CPVLab is currently* my <a title="Get CPVLab" href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab" target="_blank">preferred solution</a> for tracking and optimizing my affiliate campaigns.</p>
<p><em>Note: Its my current favourite. But&#8230;delayed release of the ppc/social module for cpvlab are increasingly frustrating. CPVLab is usable with Facebook and Plenty Of Fish, but such an additional module, free for existing users, would be very very welcome!</em></p>
<p>You will need version 2.11, and a couple of simple configuration steps. This method does the job for now, but its not perfect. At the end of this post Ive got a couple of suggestions which would make things even easier.</p>
<p><span id="more-293"></span></p>
<h2>My PPV Workflow</h2>
<p>My workflow goes something like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Pick related offers i like</li>
<li>Create 2 landing pages with different angles &amp; setup the campaign in cpvlab (66% to 2 LP + 33% to DL)</li>
<li>Scrape targets</li>
<li>Run campaign in Trafficvance &amp; optimize</li>
<li>Scale profitable targets to other networks</li>
</ol>
<p>Currently you can run multiple landing pages and multiple offers in a single cpvlab campaign. But you cant run multiple traffic sources in a single campaign. Its also not possible to group campaigns into projects.</p>
<h2>Why would you want to track multiple ppv traffic networks in a single CPVLab campaign?</h2>
<p>Because it will give you a single view of the profitability of your campaigns, across multiple networks and traffic sources.</p>
<p>Secondly, the cpvlab campaign and stats summary screens can become rather cluttered if you have 20-50 campaigns live, each with several traffic sources.</p>
<h2>The basic CPVLab setup</h2>
<p>You will need <a title="Get CPVLab" href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab" target="_blank">cpvlab version 2.11</a> if you want to track multiple ppv traffic networks with cpvlab in a single campaign. If you havent upgraded, go and do it as this new version has got a whole bunch of enhancements.</p>
<p>This version of cpvlab comes with the option to track multiple variables (referred to as tokens) with your campaign url. The tracking data will then show those additional variables in the Stats screen for your campaign and how each target is performing against those variables.</p>
<p>To track multiple traffic sources, all you need to do is setup one additional variable and assign a new unique value to that variable in your campaign URL for each traffic source.</p>
<p>There are 4 steps to set this up:</p>
<ul>
<li>Setup a multiple traffic category under the network settings</li>
<li>Setup your campaign variables</li>
<li>Customize your campaign URLs on your traffic networks</li>
<li>Analyze stats &amp; Optimize</li>
</ul>
<h2>Create New Traffic Source in CPVLab</h2>
<p>First of all, you will need to setup an additional CPV Network. Go to the Settings Menu and click on CPV Networks.</p>
<p>Then, under the Add Network section, fill out the form as per the screenshot below &amp; save:</p>
<div id="attachment_299" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 520px">
	<a href="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/multi-network-setup-for-cpvlab.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-299" title="multi-network-setup-for-cpvlab" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/multi-network-setup-for-cpvlab.jpg" alt="Setup Your Multiple CPV Network in CPVLab" width="520" height="304" /></a>
	<p class="wp-caption-text">CPVLab Campaign Setup</p>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Keyword Token can be anything you want it to be, as long as its the same as the name of the URL parameter in the Append Token field. These tokens are also known as <a title="URL Query String" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_string#Structure" target="_blank">Query strings</a>.</p>
<p>Also, because each PPV Traffic Network has a different way of passing the target to your campaign URL, you will need to remember to change the value of the Append Token to the one relevant for the specific network:</p>
<ul>
<li>Traffic Vance: {KeyWord}</li>
<li>Lead Impact: KEYWORD</li>
<li>Direct CPV: {{keyword}}</li>
</ul>
<h2>Setup Campaign Variables</h2>
<p>Next step is to create a new cpv campaign or edit one of your existing ones.</p>
<p>Set your predefined source as the “Multiple Network” option you just created, and estimate your average Cost Per View across the different networks and update the Stats CPV field.</p>
<p>Next, tick the “Capture Extra Tokens” option, or if your already using this feature, add an extra token. Configure it as per the screenshot below:</p>
<div id="attachment_301" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 520px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-301" title="cpvlab-campaign-setup" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/cpvlab-campaign-setup.jpg" alt="CPVLab Campaign Setup Options For Multi Network" width="520" height="364" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">Token&#39;s Need To Be The Same</p>
</div>
<p>Its very similar to the Keyword Token and the URL Append Token. “Name” is the title for this token that you will see in your Stats screen. “URL Append” is the section you will need to add to your campaign URL, and “Parameter” is the name of the token/variable which needs to be as its included in the URL Append.</p>
<div id="attachment_302" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 520px">
	<img class="size-full wp-image-302" title="extra-token-setup" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/extra-token-setup.jpg" alt="URL Token Setup" width="520" height="93" />
	<p class="wp-caption-text">CPVLab Stats View</p>
</div>
<p>The Campaign URL field in CPVLab is not automatically updated when you add additional Tokens, which must be a bug. So when you configure your PPV Traffic Network you need to make sure you add the Append section to your URL.</p>
<h2>Customise Campaign URLs</h2>
<p>Now copy the campaign URL into a text document so that you can quickly edit it and create the relevant versions for each of your Networks. Make sure you add any of the extra tokens you created, including the one from the previous step.</p>
<p>It should look something like this:</p>
<p><code>http://tracker.com/base.php?c=147&amp;key=ebf15b4ce5661c98b635b8d650ade6a7&amp;nw=<span style="color: #99cc00;"><strong>NETWORK</strong></span>&amp;kw=<span style="color: #99cc00;"><strong>KEYWORD</strong></span></code></p>
<p>Now for each ppv traffic network that you are using for this campaign, edit the campaign URL and replace NETWORK with a unique name for the network, and KEYWORD with the value used by the network to pass the target.</p>
<p>For example, here are 3 campaign URLs for the main networks I use:</p>
<h3>TrafficVance</h3>
<p>Network ID: TV<br />
Keyword Token: {KeyWord}</p>
<p><code>http://tracker.com/base.php?c=147&amp;key=ebf15b4ce5661c98b635b8d650ade6a7&amp;nw=<span style="color: #99cc00;"><strong>TV</strong></span>&amp;kw=<span style="color: #99cc00;"><strong>{KeyWord}</strong></span></code></p>
<h3>LeadImpact</h3>
<p>Netword ID: LI<br />
Keyword Token: KEYWORD</p>
<p><code>http://tracker.com/base.php?c=147&amp;key=ebf15b4ce5661c98b635b8d650ade6a7&amp;nw=<span style="color: #99cc00;"><strong>LI</strong></span>&amp;kw=<span style="color: #99cc00;"><strong>KEYWORD</strong></span></code></p>
<h3>Direct CPV</h3>
<p>Netword ID: DCPV<br />
Keyword Token: {{keyword}}</p>
<p><code>http://tracker.com/base.php?c=147&amp;key=ebf15b4ce5661c98b635b8d650ade6a7&amp;nw=<span style="color: #99cc00;"><strong>DCPV</strong></span>&amp;kw=<span style="color: #99cc00;"><strong>{{keyword}}</strong></span></code></p>
<h2>Analyze &amp; Optimize</h2>
<p>The final step is to send traffic from the different networks, and then analyse your stats.</p>
<p>You will see that the additional tokens/variables are shown in the first table in your stats view, with the performance down by target.</p>
<div class="mceTemp mceIEcenter">
<dl id="attachment_303" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 530px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><img class="size-full wp-image-303" title="multi-network-stats-view" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/multi-network-stats-view.jpg" alt="Stats View of a Multi Network Campaign" width="520" height="339" /></dt>
</dl>
</div>
<p>All you need to do is look which targets are getting click throughs and conversions on each network, and ditch the ones that are not.</p>
<p>There are some limitations at the moment:</p>
<ul>
<li>You cant change the columns to exclude some or all of the custom tokens. You can just do this for the standard CPVLab column types.</li>
<li>The tokens are not shown in the Landing Page Performance, Offer Performance, or Campaign Performance tables</li>
<li>There is no table showing overall performance for each token</li>
</ul>
<h2>Wrapup</h2>
<p>I hope this little tutorial helps you with understanding Additional Tokens feature in <a title="Go Get CPVLab" href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab" target="_parent">CPVLab 2.11</a> and maybe streamline some of your own workflow.</p>
<p>If you’ve got any questions about this, post a question below. I hope you enjoy this workaround.</p>
<p>However&#8230;</p>
<p>It remains a workaround. <a title="Get CPVLab" href="http://imrat.com" target="_blank">CPVLab should support this out of the box</a> in my view.</p>
<p>Here are some improvements that I would like to see to make sure this work even better:</p>
<ul>
<li>As mentioned in my previous cpvlab post: support for 1) multiple traffic sources per campaign, and 2) grouping multiple campaigns as projects</li>
<li>Fix the bug which stops the additional tokens being added to the Campaign URL at the bottom of the campaign setup screen</li>
<li>Include / exclude custom variables for the stats tables</li>
<li>Reflect custom variables in the Landing Page Performance, Offer Performance and Campaign Performance tables</li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Wakeup Call! Read The Millionaire Fastlane</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2011/03/wakeup-call-read-the-millionaire-fastlane/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2011/03/wakeup-call-read-the-millionaire-fastlane/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:15:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Getting Rich Fast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MJ DeMarco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Millionaire Fastlane]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wealth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=284</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I am only about 25% into this book, but I have to post about this. A summary of the book will follow at a later date. If you are at all serious about building wealth, and enjoy it before your 65, READ THIS BOOK! Confession: I have been stuck on the sidewalk and didnt even [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><img style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; border: 2px solid black;" src="https://img.skitch.com/20110305-tq9yi3741x9qk27abexxmsu6xm.jpg" alt="" width="176" height="259" />I am only about 25% into this book, but I have to post about this. A summary of the book will follow at a later date.</p>
<p>If you are at all serious about building wealth, and enjoy it before your 65, READ THIS BOOK!</p>
<p><strong>Confession: I have been stuck on the sidewalk and didnt even realize. You will get it once your into the book. Time to change!</strong></p>
<p>The book was released in January of this year, has got 100% 5 star ratings on amazon (55 in total), and is destined to be one of the most important books written about money and building wealth.</p>
<p><a title="The Millionaire Fastlane - Order &amp; Read it Now!" href="http://bit.ly/i5Wbh0" target="_blank">Order it at Amazon.</a></p>
<p>Here is a video that in a couple of minutes gives you a solid impression of what this is about!!</p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="499" height="311" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9SnmFfLTNxE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a title="The Millionaire Fastlane - Order &amp; Read it Now!" href="http://bit.ly/i5Wbh0" target="_blank">What Are You Waiting For!! Order it at Amazon.</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Google Insights Updated With Social Media Trends</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2010/12/google-insights-into-social-media/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2010/12/google-insights-into-social-media/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:30:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[seo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buzz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google insights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[youtube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=278</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[4 Jan 2011 &#8211; Update: It seems this feature has now been switched off again on Google Insights. Guess they were beta testing a new release of the tool. Shame, but no doubt it will be back! Nice update google. You can now search for trends and insights related to Youtube, Twitter and Buzz! Great [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">4 Jan 2011 &#8211; Update: </span></strong></p>
<p>It seems this feature has now been switched off again on Google Insights. Guess they were beta testing a new release of the tool. Shame, but no doubt it will be back!</p>
<p><img style="border: 0;" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/google-insights-social-media1.jpg" alt="Google Insights updated with Social Media trends" width="491" height="148" /></p>
<p>Nice update google.</p>
<p>You can now search for trends and insights related to Youtube, Twitter and Buzz! Great for discovering new markets, keywords and niches.</p>
<p>Twitter and Buzz search are still buggy because there does not seem to be much data for the last 90 days. I am sure that in September the world did not stop tweeting about twitter or facebook!</p>
<p><span id="more-278"></span></p>
<p><img style="border: 0;" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Twitter-vs-Facebook.jpg" alt="Twitter vs Facebook" width="521" height="316" /></p>
<p>But there is some usefull stuff already.</p>
<h2>Trending Video Games on You Tube</h2>
<p><img style="border: 0;" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/popular-video-games-on-youtube.jpg" alt="Trending video games on youtube" width="514" height="287" /></p>
<p>Here you can see a basic insight search, with youtube selected as traffic source, and Games selected as the category. Very useful if you are targeting Video Games in your campaigns.</p>
<p>The top video games on you tube by growth were:</p>
<ol>
<li>Black Ops (2010)</li>
<li>Modern Warfare 2 (2009)</li>
<li>Gta 4 (2008)</li>
<li>Halo Reach (2010)</li>
<li>God of War (2010)</li>
</ol>
<p>Of course few of these are beating the most popular video games search terms on YouTube:</p>
<p><img src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Top-Searched-Video-Games.jpg" alt="Top Searched Video Games You Tube" width="481" height="305" /></p>
<h2>So What About Twitter? Here are The Top Rising Topics for 2010</h2>
<p><img src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Twitter-Rising-Topics-2010.jpg" alt="Twitter Rising Topics 2010" width="326" height="318" /></p>
<h2>And The iPhone is beating Android on Google Buzz!!</h2>
<p><img src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/iphone-beating-android-on-google-buzz.jpg" alt="iPhone Beating Android on Google Buzz" width="512" height="255" /></p>
<p>Happy Christmas Everyone!!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>From 33 to 629 Visitors In 4 Posts</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2010/11/from-33-to-629-visitors-in-4-posts/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2010/11/from-33-to-629-visitors-in-4-posts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:13:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Other]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[growing your blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guest posting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[user engagement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=254</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;ve been a visitor to my blog for the last 12 months you will have noticed some changes. Upto about July 2010 I had posted very little, and was mainly focussed on Adsense. Since August I have been more regular and now that I am looking back 12 months I can see the difference [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><a href="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Dashboard-Google-Analytics.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-255" title="12 Months From 50 To 750 Visitors" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Dashboard-Google-Analytics.jpg" alt="Google Analytics Unique Visitors" width="660" height="192" /></a></p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve been a visitor to my blog for the last 12 months you will have noticed some changes.</p>
<p>Upto about July 2010 I had posted very little, and was mainly focussed on Adsense. Since August I have been more regular and now that I am looking back 12 months I can see the difference it has made:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>From 33 visitors a week, to 629 in the last week.</em></strong></p>
<p>And I did this without blogging every day and without extensive link building.</p>
<p><span id="more-254"></span></p>
<h3>What Changes Did I Make?</h3>
<p>Rather than provide low value high volume blog posts &#8211; my aim is to be less frequent but offer significantly more content and value.</p>
<p>The graph above shows when I made big jumps in my traffic at 4 points in the last 12 months:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>11 January</strong>: <a href="http://imrat.com/2010/01/blogger-adsense-profits-template/">Blogger Adsense Profits Template</a> resulted in a 220% increase in visits</li>
<li><strong>8 August</strong>: Quoted a <a href="http://imrat.com/2010/08/15-ways-to-reward-yourself/">tweet from Ryan Eagle</a> (@ewanetwork), posted a tweet with the link which Ryan picked up and retweeted. This resulted in a 580% increase in visitors.</li>
<li><strong>31 August</strong>: Guestposted about PPV, Jquery and Landing Pages on <a href="http://ppvplaybook.com/blog/ppv-landing-pages/7-jquery-effects-to-explode-your-ppv-ctr/">PPV Playbook</a> &amp; linked back to a post on my blog about <a href="http://imrat.com/2010/08/ppv-landing-pages-p1/">building landing pages</a>. 279% improvement in visitors. I am still getting a steady 30 new visitors referred from this guestpost each week.</li>
<li><strong>28 October</strong>: Guestposted about PPV Url Scraping on <a href="http://www.jonathanvolk.com/ppv/build-your-own-url-scraper-and-scale-your-cpv-campaigns-sky-high.html">Jonathan Volk&#8217;s blog</a>. This resulted in a 235% increase in visitors.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Whats The Result?</h3>
<p>Comparing traffic from the week before the first change in January to the last week, the 4 changes/actions above resulted in the following improvements:</p>
<ul>
<li>1806% increase in visitors, from 33 to 629</li>
<li>2859% increase in pageviews, from 49 to 1450</li>
<li>2.3 pages/visit rather than 1.5</li>
<li>Bounce rate reduced by 28%</li>
<li>Average time on site from 2m 22s to 6m 53s</li>
<li>Increase in regular visitors by 63%</li>
</ul>
<h3>But What Does That Mean?</h3>
<p>3 lessons:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Guest Blogging Wortks:</strong> It works incredibly well if you are very targeted in which blogs you approach. I approached 2 blogs and got a guest post opportunity on both. The second one (Jon&#8217;s) as a result of the good press I got out of the 1st one.</li>
<li><strong>Quality rather than Quantity</strong>: As a new blogger you dont need to blog each day. Blog once a week, or twice a month but give 200% more value to your users and the traffic will follow.</li>
<li><strong>Engagement is Key</strong>: Embedding yourself into a community and a market is more important than Search Engine Rankings. Engaging with your market gives much longer term value and the rankings will take care by itself over time.</li>
</ol>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>3 Ways To Use Blekko For SEO Research</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2010/11/3-ways-to-use-blekko-for-seo-research/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2010/11/3-ways-to-use-blekko-for-seo-research/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Nov 2010 02:30:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[seo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blekko]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search engine optimization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=239</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today saw the long anticipated launch of Blekko &#8211; a new search engine thats been in the works for 2.5 years. This is not an extensive post on the features that Blekko has. For that check out these posts by techcrunch and mashable. Two things set blekko apart: 1) users have tools to do new [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Today saw the long anticipated launch of Blekko &#8211; a new search engine thats been in the works for 2.5 years.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://blekko.com" target="_blank"><img title="Blekko - Great For SEO" src="http://a.blekko-img.com/045/gz/theme19/imgs/logo_135x53.png" alt="blekko shows SEO love" width="135" height="53" /></a></p>
<p>This is not an extensive post on the features that Blekko has. For that check out these posts by <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/19/techcrunch-review-the-blekko-search-engine-prepares-to-launch/" target="_blank">techcrunch</a> and <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/10/31/blekko-launch/" target="_blank">mashable</a>.</p>
<p>Two things set blekko apart:</p>
<p>1) users have tools to do new types of searches, using slashtags (/date) to filter and sort results</p>
<p>2) users have unprecedented level of access to the algorithms and data that determine relevancy</p>
<p>This post focusses on the second, and gives you a quick summary of how you can use Blekko for your SEO research.</p>
<p><span id="more-239"></span></p>
<p>For a detailed summary of all the SEO features, check out <a href="http://searchengineland.com/blekko-a-search-engine-which-is-also-a-killer-seo-tool-49100" target="_blank">this post by Aaron Wall</a> and <a href="http://searchengineland.com/blekkos-seo-tools-what-information-do-they-provide-54479">this one</a> on search engine land.</p>
<p>Note that Blekko is still in beta, and that it does not replicate google results. Rankings and data from Blekko can therefore differ from Google.</p>
<h3>1. Analyse the inbound links to your site</h3>
<p><a href="http://blekko.com/ws/imrat.com+/inbound"><img class="size-full wp-image-240 alignnone" title="blekko-inbound-links" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/bekko-inbound-links.jpg" alt="Search for inbound links on Blekko" width="500" height="42" /></a></p>
<p>Using your domain with the slashtag /inbound in the search gives your a wealth of backlink data. If you click on the graph link it will show you a bunch of helpfull graphs:</p>
<ul>
<li>inbound links by domain &amp; ip</li>
<li>included &amp; excluded inbound links</li>
<li>inbound links by year</li>
<li>inbound links by month</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-link-domains.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-241" title="blekko-link-domains" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-link-domains.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="253" /></a></h2>
<p>Below the various graphs it shows you the table with all the backlinks to your domain. You can sort by rank, to see the most powerful sites on top, and highlight the anchor text used and whether the link is a nofollow link.</p>
<p><a href="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-backlink-stats.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-242" title="blekko-backlink-stats" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-backlink-stats.jpg" alt="" width="499" height="289" /></a></p>
<p>The other slashtag to use here is /urlseo which gives a great summary, in particular the backlink breakdown by %piechart and the anchor quality.</p>
<p><a href="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-anchor-quality.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-243" title="blekko-anchor-quality" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-anchor-quality.jpg" alt="" width="499" height="482" /></a></p>
<h3>2. Review the competition</h3>
<p><a href="http://blekko.com/ws/internet+marketing+/rank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-244" title="blekko-serp-rankdata" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-serp-rankdata.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="41" /></a></p>
<p>The second great SEO feature of Blekko is the /rank slashtag. There are different ways to view the data, starting from simple to complex.</p>
<p>First it will show you the sites ranked for the keyword, and whether the keyword is included in the domain (D), anchor text to the site (A), title (T), or URL (U).</p>
<p><a href="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-rank-analysis.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-245" title="blekko-rank-analysis" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-rank-analysis.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="163" /></a></p>
<p>By clicking on the more detail link you will see the same characteristics of the pages that rank including a bunch of others. For SEO and Internet Marketing, the most useful ones are:</p>
<ul>
<li>anch &#8211; is the target keyword in the anchor text to the page?</li>
<li>title &#8211; does the page title include the keyword phrase</li>
<li>adsense &#8211; Does the site use adsense?</li>
</ul>
<h3>3. Compare yourself to the competition</h3>
<p><a href="http://blekko.com/ws/www.searchengineoptimising.com+/compare?c=seomoz.com"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-246" title="blekko-compare" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-compare.jpg" alt="" width="499" height="44" /></a></p>
<p>To compare a site to your own, enter your domain and add the /compare slashtag. Then just add one of your competitor domains to the second domain field.</p>
<p>This will show you a couple of nice graphs. But the really valuable information is in the inbound links table below. It basically shows you which top domains are providing links to your competitor but not to you.</p>
<p><a href="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-compare-inbound-domains.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-248" title="blekko-compare-inbound-domains" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/blekko-compare-inbound-domains.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="491" /></a></p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Blekko is sofar looking to be an awsome tool. I have not compared the quality of the search results to google yet, but I am sure someone else online will be blogging about this soon.</p>
<p>Loads of potential!</p>
<p>What do you think? Have you tried blekko?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>How To Setup an iFrame Campaign with CPVLab</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2010/10/cpvlab-iframe-campaign-setup/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2010/10/cpvlab-iframe-campaign-setup/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 23:03:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[PPV/CPV]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cpvlab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iframes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/2010/10/223/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you have not heard about cpv:lab you must live in a cave. It blows Prosper202 out of the water for advanced campaign setups. Dont believe me? Just check the buzz about this new tracking solution: Finchsells CPV Lab Review and ppc.bz cpvlab a week in review. Here are the steps I went through to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>If you have not heard about <a href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab" target="_blank">cpv:lab</a> you must live in a cave. It blows Prosper202 out of the water for advanced campaign setups.</p>
<p>Dont believe me? Just check the buzz about this new tracking solution: <a id="somy" title="Finchsells CPV Lab Review" href="http://finchsells.com/reviews/cpv-lab-review/">Finchsells CPV Lab Review</a> and <a id="eqc7" title="ppc.bz cpvlab a week in review" href="http://www.ppc.bz/cpvlab/cpvlab-a-week-in-review">ppc.bz cpvlab a week in review</a>.</p>
<p>Here are the steps I went through to setup an iframed campaign on <a href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab" target="_blank">CPVLab</a>.</p>
<p><span id="more-223"></span></p>
<p>Why iFramed?</p>
<p>Two reasons.</p>
<p>First of all, it allows me set the main offer in context of the Angle I am taking for the particular campaign.</p>
<p>Second, I find that some offers are slow to load due to multiple redirects. The iframe helps in making sure users dont click away before the offer is loaded.</p>
<p><img style="float: right; height: 215.663px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 0px; width: 300px;" src="http://docs.google.com/a/imrat.com/File?id=d93jkwd_1009m9htcf4_b" alt="" /></p>
<h2><span style="font-size: medium;">Campaign Type</span></h2>
<div>Because I want to track performance of the popup LP, the main LP and the iFramed Offer,  I will use the Landing Page Sequence setup.</div>
<div>This way I can split test the performance of different pages at each step. For this particular campaign the opt-in and thankyou pages are not applicable.</div>
<h2>Landing Page Sequence</h2>
<div>Here is the Landing Page Sequence for the campaign.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">You will notice that before showing the user the lander with the iFrame, that I have a simple popup landing page.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">This way, you can stay compliant with the CPV network ad requirements (ie no exit popups) and use these and other tricks freely on your main landing page.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://docs.google.com/a/imrat.com/drawings/image?w=600&amp;h=600&amp;ac=1&amp;id=sPsffTEJ8rdFfQY_YdvHA5A&amp;rev=152" alt="" /></div>
<h2>Campaign Setup</h2>
<p><img style="float: right; height: 147px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 0px; width: 261px;" src="http://docs.google.com/a/imrat.com/File?id=d93jkwd_101fp2pwtcn_b" alt="" /></p>
<div style="text-align: left;">This is not gonna be a detailed walkthrough. The videos that come with <a href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab" target="_blank">CPVLab</a> provide much better and more detailed help.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">Start by creating your new campaign, and choose the Landing Page Sequence campaign type.</div>
<h3><strong>Campaign Config</strong></h3>
<p>Complete the campaign details. You should be familiar with most of the settings at the top, but two are worth talking about specifically.</p>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li><strong>Engagement Rate</strong>: You have <a id="j2.5" title="4 seconds to engage your user" href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,95426,00.asp">4 seconds to engage your user</a>. So set your Engagement Rate to 4 seconds. In my experience, the higher the Engagement% the higher your CTR. On pages with 80%+ Engagement I am getting 50%+ CTR (not statistically sound, but a broad average across a number of campaigns).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<ul>
<li><strong>Stats CPV</strong>: With CPVLab you can upload your actual CPV Network cost for most major networks. This is a manual task, so for ongoing tracking of your campaigns use the Statistics &amp; Trends options. In the Stats CPV field enter the average cost per view when you create your campaign. Update this as your campaign receives traffic to make sure your Stats give you an accurate view of your P/L.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Setup your Landing Pages</strong></h3>
<p>You need to setup the links and URLs in your landing pages to the relevant cpvlab URLs. So scroll to the bottom of your campaign setup screen, where CPVLab lists all the URLs you will need to use.</p>
<p>In your CPV Network Campaign, include the CPVLab Campaign URL. This is URL1 in the campaign flowchart above. This URL will looks something like this:</p>
<pre style="text-align: center;">http://yourdomain.com/base.php?c=10&amp;keyword={KeyWord}</pre>
<p style="text-align: left;">In your first landing page, which will be the popup ad, link your Call To Action using the Offer URL. This is URL3 listed in the flowchart, and looks something like this:</p>
<pre style="text-align: center;">http://yourdomain.com/base2.php</pre>
<p>Finally, in your main Landing Page which includes the iframe, you need to include two URLs.</p>
<p>First the iframe src URL, enter the url (URL5) listed under auto redirect. This looks something like:</p>
<pre style="text-align: center;">http://yourdomain.com/base3.php</pre>
<p>For the exit popup script, use the Campaign URL of the separate campaign you have setup for that offer or Direct Link to the offer URL (URL7). I use the latter so I can track performance, something like the following:</p>
<pre style="text-align: center;">http://yourdomain.com/base.php?c=10&amp;keyword=exit-popup-c10</pre>
<h3><strong>Setup your Levels</strong></h3>
<p>Because of the Landing Page Sequence I want to use, you will need 3 levels.</p>
<p>Level 1: Your CPV Popups (URL2)</p>
<p>Level 2: Your Main landing pages with the embedded iFrame (URL4)</p>
<p>Level 3: The Offers to load in your iFrame (URL6)For each level, name your URLs and add the URLs of the pages you want to splittest in each level.</p>
<p>I am hopefull that in a future update of cpvlab the Multiple Options setting will be available as part of a Landing Page Sequence. That way the main lander can link out to different split tested Offers and track performance within this campaign.</p>
<p>Until this is available, I link the exit popup of the second landing page to a separate Direct Link &amp; Landing Page campaign with Stats CPV set to 0.</p>
<p>It looks more complicated than it is. Honest!</p>
<p>So have a go and enjoy <a href="http://imrat.com/cpvlab" target="_blank">cpvlab &#8211; its a pleasure to work with</a> and I am sure that I have not seen half of what is or will be possible.</p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">Feel free to ask questions about the above approach by commenting on this page? Or, if you have an innovative cpvlab setup, why note share it!</span></strong></p>
<h2><strong>CpvLab Ideas?</strong></h2>
<p>Before I close off this post, here are some new features I would really like to see in cpvlab. Its already a great tool, and these features would make it exceptional!!</p>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li><strong>Dashboard</strong>: Show daily, weekly, monthly performance of preferred campaigns</li>
<li><strong>Campaign Domain Redirects</strong>: Currently you have to use your main cpvlab domain for each of the campaign and tracking links. Wouldnt it be great if you could use your LP/campaign domains for this?</li>
<li><strong>Projects</strong>: Combine multiple campaigns in a single project and view stats at the project level</li>
<li><strong>Multiple traffic sources per Campaign</strong>: Setup several traffic sources per campaign with an individual tracking link for each traffic source</li>
<li><strong>Drill down/filters in Stats</strong>: Investigate data by drilling down, for example viewing data filtered by trafffic source, target, landing page, country, etc etc</li>
<li><strong>Capture &amp; analyse user data</strong>: os, browser, screensize, country etc etc. Similar to google analytics</li>
<li><strong>User defined analytics variables</strong>: When the social media &amp; ppc functionality is implemented it would also really be good to be able to pass custom variables in the campaign URL and be able to analyse the data. For example, with PoF you can pass key demographic data from PoF to your landing page (sex, country, etc).</li>
<li><strong>API access to stats</strong>: rather than cpvlab writing a alerting app for each platform, I would like to see some secure api&#8217;s that make it easy for 3rd parties to write apps and integrate with their platform</li>
<li><strong>User profiles &amp; access</strong>: I want to be able to give certain staff access to certain campaigns or functions. Userprofiles and accounts would be a great way to streamline and outsource admin tasks so I can focus on building new campaigns.</li>
<li><strong>Secure</strong>: Get someone to really test and assure the security of the data in CPV Lab. The data it contains is my businesses lifeblood. I want to be reassured that 3rd parties wont be able to access the data</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>In addition to the above wishlist, here are some other minor enhancements:</p>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li>Set default sort for statistics pages, so that by clicking on Stats you can see the data in the way you prefer to see it. For example, when I have just launched a campaign, I tend to sort by Views Descending.</li>
<li>Improved Graphs: A whole range of things would make this functionality fantastic. For example 2 dimensional y-axes with 2 graph lines, 1 for for views and 1 for conversions. Or cumulative P&amp;L graphs per day, graph CTR by day, graphs by week, month, etc.</li>
<li>Campaign view grouped by project rather than campaign type</li>
<li>Archiving old campaigns without loosing the data</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">What do you think of CPVLab? Let me know by commenting what you think of the suggested features above, and what you would like to see in CPV Lab.</span></strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Scraping Google Instant Search</title>
		<link>http://imrat.com/2010/09/scraping-google-instant-search/</link>
		<comments>http://imrat.com/2010/09/scraping-google-instant-search/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:30:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>imrat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Automation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dapper]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google instant search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google search results]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scraping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yahoo pipes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://imrat.com/?p=198</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[About 10 days ago I showed you how to build a simple Yahoo Pipe to scrape the Google Hot Trends. Today, I am going to take that tutorial to the next level. You might want to use the hot keywords in your CPV campaign. Rather than manually copying each of the top 10 results, you [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>About 10 days ago I showed you <a href="http://imrat.com/2010/09/yahoo-pipes-101-for-internet-marketers/">how to build a simple Yahoo Pipe to scrape the Google Hot Trends</a>. Today, I am going to take that tutorial to the next level.</p>
<p>You might want to use the hot keywords in your CPV campaign. Rather than manually copying each of the top 10 results, you should really automate this task.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Yahoo Pipes does not work with Google.</p>
<p>The reason is that Yahoo Pipes supports the robot.txt setting which asks &#8216;spiders&#8217; not to scrape.</p>
<p>No worries though. There is another excellent tool that you can use:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://open.dapper.net" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://open.dapper.net/images/dapper-logo-big.gif" alt="Open Dapper Tool" width="250" height="66" /></a></p>
<p>So today I will show you how you can easily scrape URLs from Google with Dapper. Its a simple and quick method that still works, even after Google switched on Instant Search.</p>
<p><span id="more-198"></span></p>
<div>For an introduction to Dapper, <a href="http://open.dapper.net/dapperDemo/">watch this video</a>. Dapper is basically a simplified version of the Fetch Page module in Yahoo Pipes.</div>
<p>Note: throughout the next steps described below, a window can pop up offering you a demo of the next step in the process. Feel free to watch these to get to know how dapper works.</p>
<h3>1. Switch off Google Instant</h3>
<p>To scrape URLs with Dapper you will need a google search URL. You dont want to use the one from Google Instant. So switch it off by starting to type something in the search box. Then select the option to switch it off:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-201" title="Switch of Google Instant" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/switchoffinstant.jpg" alt="Select The Off Option To Switch Off Google Instant" width="361" height="127" /></p>
<p>Next, click the Advanced Search button, and select the option to return 100 results. Do your random search and grab the Google URL once the results are showing. If you want you can clean up the URL, but its not essential.</p>
<p>Note down the URL in a text document as you will need it later.</p>
<h3>2. Create the Dapp</h3>
<p>Next, log in to Dapper, and <a href="http://open.dapper.net/dapp-factory.jsp">create a new Dapp</a>. Then just paste the Google URL from the previous step into the &#8216;Enter the URL&#8217; field  and press ‘Next step’.</p>
<p>This will then show you a window with the google search screen, where in the next step you will save a couple of pages.</p>
<h3>3. Saving pages</h3>
<p>To ensure that Dapper scrapes the right information, you need to teach it what text to grab. You will want to grab a couple of pages to make sure it does this correctly.</p>
<p>You need to add the page to dapper by clicking the ‘Add to Basket’ button. Then enter a different result in the search box, and press seach. Again, add this page to the basked. Do this once more.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-202" title="Add Google Pages" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/addpages.jpg" alt="" width="568" height="169" /></p>
<p>Then click ‘Next Step’ in the left side bar.</p>
<h3>4. Selecting content</h3>
<p>You are now at the 3rd stage of the dapper scraper, where you select the content you want to scrape.</p>
<p>All you need to do is click the title of the first search result to select the content you want to scrape:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-203" title="dapperselectcontent" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dapperselectcontent.jpg" alt="" width="573" height="165" /></p>
<div>This should highlight all the 10 titles of each result in orange, and the tabs for each page you put in the basket should show 10 items like in the following diagram:</div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-204" title="dappercontentselected" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dappercontentselected.jpg" alt="" width="591" height="212" /></p>
<div>You now need to name the variable that you want to assign this scraped data to. At the bottom of your screen you see the scraped data and the ‘Save Field’ button. Click, name, and click the next step button in the left sidebar.</div>
<div><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-205" title="dappersavefield" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dappersavefield.jpg" alt="" width="642" height="129" /></div>
<div>Don&#8217;t worry that when you have named the field that the selected content box on the left is empty &#8211; this basically means you have saved the data to the field.</div>
<h3>5. Preview feed (nothing to do here)</h3>
<div>In this case we dont have multiple variables so in step 4, Preview Feed, you dont need to do anything. Just click again on the next step button.</div>
<h3>6. Saving &amp; configuring your Dapp</h3>
<div>Your are now ready to save your Dapp.Give it a recognisable name, ie Google Search.</p>
<p>Then, under the input variables heading, click edit next to ‘Query’. This will open a input box with the google URL. You will need to edit this URL to identify the query variable. The full url is below and the bits you want to edit:</p>
<p>q=<span style="background-color: #ffff00;">searchkeyword</span><br />
num=<span style="background-color: #ffff00;">100</span></p>
<p>In the URL, replace this with {url} and {num}.</p>
<p>Click save next to the input box, and this should show the URL, with {url} and {num} highlighted in green, which means this is treated as an input variable.</p>
<p>Then click the Save button in the bottom right of the screen, and you will be taken to the Dapp results screen.</p>
</div>
<h3>7. Getting ready to use your Dapp</h3>
<div>To make sure your Dapp is working correctly, just enter a test URL under the ‘Set Input’ heading (see 1 in the screenshot) and press Update Input. This should show a list of links from related sites.</div>
<div><img class="size-full wp-image-206 aligncenter" title="dapperusingyourdapp-1" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dapperusingyourdapp-1.jpg" alt="" width="398" height="577" /></div>
<div>
<p>Next, you will need to choose your format. It is set to XML as default, so all that you need to do is click go to go to the screen to configure the xml feed.</p>
<p>What this does is create a URL that will load the search results and return them as a simple XML feed. This way you can easily import the results in Yahoo Pipes. Make sure you add some easily recognisable text to the url field, and click ‘Update Input’. This will update the XML url and add the required variables.</p>
</div>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-207 alignnone" title="dappercreatexml" src="http://imrat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dappercreatexml.jpg" alt="" width="496" height="268" /></p>
<div>Now all you need to do is click on the XML URL to select it, and copy &amp; paste. I recommend you copy and paste it into a text document so you have it for later reference.</div>
<h3>Whats next</h3>
<div>In most cases, once I have the XML url from Dapper, I use Yahoo Pipes to extract the data and modify &amp; merge it with other sources. I am not going to cover that here, but keep your eyes out for a future Guest Post which covers this and many other tricks.</div>
<div>If you liked this post, I would really like it if you could leave a comment below.</div>
<div>Thanks</div>
<div>tijn</div>
]]></content:encoded>
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