The Biochar Blog

Essentially the most basic of cycling training programs for boosting your cycling endurance is riding over rather long distances regularly and consistently. This cycling training program aims at building your muscles’ strength and improving your cardiovascular system so that you have better oxygen uptake, body recovery and to build-up your leg muscles power. In this article, you will gain knowledge of a cycling training plan that will aid you to boost your cycling endurance.

I have split this cycling training program into five steps for better mastering. Listed here are the 5 steps;

1. Ascertain your target distance.

If your reason for training is so as to be competitive in a long distance cycling race, then your target distance is the distance of your race. Therefore whatever your reason, determine an average distance of how far you would want to ride.

2. Select a route that is almost like your bicycling route.

If the route you are practicing for is hilly at some parts and level in other areas, then simply look for identical routes and exercise in such routes. This should help you to adapt easily when you go and ride in that particular cycling route.

3. Ride a 3rd or a half of the distance.

To start your cycling training, begin by riding a percentage of your total target distance. That means that you should ride for example, 1/2 or 1/3 of the total distance you are aiming towards. You must do this so as to build up your cycling endurance with ease. Ride over this distance at a consistent pace, not necessarily at a high speed, but at a pace you can maintain almost always.

4. Practice this cycling training program every week.

You should then repeat this cycling exercise every week. As you repeat this cycling exercise, you ought to aim to increase the distance you cover each week by a little margin, as you improve to your target distance. This can be done by increasing the distance simply by, for instance, 5% your target distance week after week.

5. Lower your cycling distance and intensity from time to time.

After every 4 – 5 weeks of exercising, decrease the distance and intensity you ride in order to avoid burnout as well as to let your entire body recuperate.

Among the things you should remember is that, you should not over do any cycling exercise. If you think a cycling training program is just too strenuous, just simply decrease its intensity, by for instance decreasing the distance covered or perhaps the interval time. Ensure that you are at ease with whatever cycling training plans you follow.

Why do you want to read about a particular cycling shorts review? Well, the answer is simple. There is only one reason. They are not cheap.

Other than a pair of cycling shoes or jersey, you have to get your hands on any cycling shorts review. If you are an experienced bicyclist, you will know that every pro cyclists wears a decent pair of cycling shorts. There are many benefits and advantages for wearing such a short.

Benefits

Increase your cycling performance immediately

If you think that you can simply wear any tight pants or shorts and cycle your way, you are dead wrong! A proper biking short is made from either special synthetic or natural materials. For the former, you have the Lycra (or spandex). For the latter, you have the wool material. Both spandex and wool can stretch and can be made into bib (shorts with suspenders).

Due to these special materials, you can pedal much more efficiently because wind drag is reduced significantly; as much as 60%.

The maximum comfort advantage

When you go cycling without a proper cycling short, you are just asking for blisters and bruises. Cyclists call this chafing. So, if you have done your homework and you have read the right cycling shorts review, this chafing problem should not happen to you. You will only feel comfortable.

Ride for hours

Remember that you don’t have the chafing problem anymore? This is the main reason why cyclists can cycle endlessly without having pains in their groin area. There is a special pad called the chamois that resides inside the shorts. The pad serves as a cushion for your groin. Depending on brands or models, it could be made from gel or foam.

Attractive design

Tell me one thing that you can remember about any major cycling events. Think about Tour de France… If you can recall one thing, it would be the striking colors of the short design. Even for recreational cyclists, you can still buy shorts with attractive designs, just like the professionals.

Respect the sport

A lot of people don’t know about this factor when you ask them. Well, you have to pay your respects to your bicycle that you are riding by wearing proper bike shorts. Can you imagine yourself riding an expensive road bike and wearing a pair of home cotton pants? The point is, if you want to cycle, cycle the right way. You have to wear a pair of cycling shorts.

When you read the proper cycling shorts review, you will know how to choose the best cycling shorts.

What Is Carbon Monoxide?

CO Carbon Monoxide is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in America, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Fifteen hundred people die annually due to accidental carbon monoxide exposure, and additional 10,000 seek medical attention. (Medical experts agree that it’s difficult to estimate the total number of carbon monoxide incidents because the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning resemble so many other common ailments.)

Carbon monoxide is a flammable, colorless, odorless, tasteless toxic gas produced during incomplete combustion of fuel.

During normal combustion, each atom of carbon in the burning fuel joins with two atoms of oxygen – forming a harmless gas called carbon dioxide. When there is a lack of oxygen to ensure complete combustion of the fuel, each atom of carbon links up with only one atom of oxygen – forming carbon monoxide gas.

What Is The Danger?

Carbon monoxide inhibits the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen. In our lungs, CO quickly passes into our bloodstream and attaches itself to hemoglobin (oxygen carrying pigment in red blood cells). Hemoglobin readily accepts carbon monoxide – even over the life giving oxygen atoms (as much as 200 times as readily as oxygen) forming a toxic compound known as carboxyhemoglobin (COHb).

By replacing oxygen with carbon monoxide in our blood, our bodies poison themselves by cutting off the needed oxygen to our organs and cells, causing various amounts of damage – depending on exposure.

Low levels of carbon monoxide poisoning (with COHb levels of 10%) result in symptoms commonly mistaken for common flu and cold symptoms – shortness of breath on mild exertion, mild headaches, nausea.

With higher levels of poisoning (COHb levels of 30%) the symptoms become more severe – dizziness, mental confusion, severe headaches, nausea, fainting on mild exertion.

At high levels (CHOb of 50% or more), there may be unconsciousness and death.

How Does CO Enter The Home?

Carbon monoxide can escape from any fuel-burning appliance, furnace, water heater, fireplace, woodstove, or space heater.

Any of these things can be very dangerous:

A faulty furnace, maybe from mechanical failure
A clogged fireplace from a bird’s nest resting on top
Water heaters, perhaps damaged in a flood
A gas stove in your kitchen
A faulty space heater
A gas dryer that’s not properly installed
A grill used inside a garage during winter
A car in the garage

Most newer homes are built very air-tight, thus cutting down on the supply of fresh air to your furnace – and creating an oxygen starved flame. Tight closing replacement windows and doors, as well as additional insulation can cause similar problems in older homes.

Carbon monoxide can spill from vent connections in poorly maintained or blocked chimneys. If the flue liner is cracked or deteriorated, CO can seep through the liner and into the house – slowly creeping up to dangerous levels. If a nest or other materials restrict or block the flue, CO will mostly spill back into the house.

Improperly sized flues connected to new high-efficiency furnaces and water heaters can also contribute to CO spillage. (Many new furnaces and water heaters are installed using the existing chimneys which may be the wrong size to allow the furnace to vent properly.)

Warming up vehicles in an attached garage, even with the garage door opened, can allow concentrated amounts of CO to enter your home through the car port door or near-by windows. Wind can also blow fumes back into the garage, and temperature differences between the indoors and outside can move CO back into your house or garage.

What To Do In A CO emergency

If you are suffering from chronic flu-like symptoms, see your doctor and ask her if it could be a low-level CO poisoning.

If you have a CO detector, and it alarms, open windows and ventilate your home with fresh air, have your heating system checked by a professional.

If your alarm sounds and you are feeling drowsy or dizzy, leave the house and call 911 from your neighbors’ home. You may need medical attention for CO poisoning.

Home inspection can help

Having your home inspected each year at the beginning of the heating season can help avoid deadly carbon monoxide gas from leaking into your home, according to Chairman Ann Brown of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

CO poisoning from the use of fuel burning appliances kills at least 200 people each year and sends more than 5,000 to hospital emergency rooms for treatment. Consumers can avoid this by having their fuel-burning appliances inspected by a qualified technician each year, and by purchasing and installing CO detectors.

Modern heating equipment is sophisticated and requires special training and tools for proper maintenance; consumers should not service their own appliances, but instead have a qualified professional perform an inspection.

A yearly inspection of your home by a professional should include a careful look at the following sources of carbon monoxide:

Furnaces, hot water heaters and stoves. If they burn natural gas, heating oil, wood or other kinds of fuel, these appliances are potential sources of CO.
Chimneys, flues and vents. Have flues and chimneys inspected before each heating season for leakage and for blockage by creosote or debris. Creosote buildup or leakage could cause black stains on the outside of the chimney or flue. These stains can mean that pollutants are leaking into the house. Have all vents to furnaces, water heaters or boilers checked to make sure they are not loose or disconnected.
High Temperature Plastic Venting (HTPV) pipes, which are used in mid-efficiency appliances, may separate or crack. This could allow CO from the furnace to enter a home. Homeowners with a gas-fired mid-efficiency furnace or boiler installed between 1987 and 1993 should have them inspected for cracking or separating.
Improper ventilation. Make sure that your appliances have adequate ventilation. A supply of fresh air is important to help carry pollutants up the chimney, stovepipe or flue, and is necessary for the complete combustion of any fuel.
Finally, consumers should be aware that charcoal grills can also be a potential source of CO. Never use charcoal grills in enclosed spaces such as a home, garage, vehicle or tent, and never bring grills with live coals indoors after use. Never use charcoal grills as an indoor heat source.

Carbon monoxide is a deadly threat, but it can be avoided by having a yearly professional inspection of your home fuel burning appliances and by installing a CO detector that meets the most recent UL standards.

Carbon Monoxide Alarms

If you wish to purchase a Carbon Monoxide Alarm or Detector then visit http://www.co-awareness.com

Products include – Honeywell Carbon Monoxide Detectors and Aico Carbon Monoxide Alarms

A carbon footprint measures the total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, event, organization or product. Carbon accounting (also called GHG accounting) does assess the carbon footprint to help organizations adopt strategies aimed at fighting climate change. As with financial accounting and reporting, generally accepted carbon accounting principles are intended to underpin and guide carbon accounting and reporting to ensure that the reported information represents a faithful, true, and fair account of a company’s carbon emissions.

Business community in India has started seeing value in undertaking carbon accounting and reporting it in public forums. Such forums include Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and company’s Sustainable Development Reports. The number of companies which responded the CDP’s information request on climate change strategy, risk and opportunities assessment and carbon accounting was answered by 37 companies in 2007. The number increased to 51 in 2008 and dropped marginally to 44 in 2009, partially explained by the global financial crisis.

There is still long way to go for Indian businesses on the path of carbon accounting and disclosures. Even in the top 200 firms in India (by market capitalization), the response rate in last few years has steadily increased and reached 20%, a rather dismal performance compared to developed markets.

There are a few sectors like the software and services which are clear leaders in being carbon-aware, accounting carbon emissions from their emissions, taking efforts in reducing it and communicating it to the stakeholders. Part of this can be explained given the fact that these companies are most export dependent and draw majority of their clientele and revenues from markets of US and EU. Clear laggards in efforts in this direction are companies in the field of banking & diversified financials, capital goods, real estate and retail. Very few companies in these sectors have responded to the CDP information request and have accounted for their carbon emissions. Part of the lack of drive can be explained by significant domestic base, relative inelasticity of demand to seemingly peripheral factors and relative less thought given to corporate social responsibility.

In the following discussion, we summarize the key issues that would become increasing relevant to Indian organizations and drive thorough and wide spread carbon accounting, reduction and disclosure efforts.

Upcoming regulations

Industries such as steel and textiles could soon face a carbon entry barrier, one way or the other, while exporting goods to markets where the country has enacted regulations stipulating guidelines for the domestic industry. The domestic industry, to maintain its competitiveness would ensure that less efficient (and therefore more carbon intensive) products entering into the economy pay for the difference in carbon levels by ‘carbon tax’ or equivalent.

Though these regulations may take some time to be widely implemented, it makes business sense for companies in select sectors to be prepared with a clear understanding of where they stand with respect to competition from developed countries and other developing countries such as China, Brazil or Vietnam.

Developing countries such as India, Brazil, China and South Africa (BASIC) are facing increasing pressure from the developed world to monitor and report their GHG emissions. This is due to the fact that the growth in GHG emissions worldwide in foreseeable future will come from these economies, thanks to their contribution to world economy and increasingly so. In order to make sure that the developed countries continue to finance emission reduction projects, energy efficiency and other technology development, the BASIC countries may have to undertake monitoring, reporting and verification of their national GHG inventories. When such an mechanism becomes a part of internationally negotiated agreement, carbon accounting and reporting would become statutory requirement like the annual financial reporting and auditing.

Investor requirements

Having realized the crucial importance of good disclosure and corporate governance practices, investors across the globe are demanding companies to disclose their climate change strategies, perceived risks and opportunities created by climate change, contribution to climate change and efforts taken to minimize corporate carbon footprint. To reduce the transaction costs of responding to individual investors in unique format and vice-versa, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has been created as a not-for-profit non-governmental organization. Active since 2006, in 2010 CDP sent out information request to more than 3500 organizations across sectors and scales around the globe. In India, the information is sought from top 200 companies by market capitalization. The responses from companies in relation to their climate change strategies, perceived risks and opportunities and carbon footprint of their operations will be analyzed, compiled in a report and sent to more than 530 investors across globe. Investors also become aware if the organization chooses not to respond to such an information request or decline to participate. The list of investors who get seek such information from corporations through CDP includes Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Asset Management among others.

Such investor-facing communication should be taken seriously taken by companies and pursued pro-actively even if organization does not receive information request.

Basis for Energy efficiency

Carbon emission is a direct indicator of the energy consumption in a process or an activity. By mapping carbon footprint in detail, an organization can identify ‘emission hotspots’, the energy intensive processes and take actions to reduce the carbon footprint/energy consumption per unit product/service produced/delivered. This can directly lead to cost savings and thus addition to bottom-line, the ultimate test for evaluating success or failure of an activity/intervention.

Impact the national policy

Though the carbon accounting and disclosure efforts of an individual company may not have a direct bearing on the climate policy decisions taken by the Indian government, a wide participation by India Inc. in activities in the area of carbon accounting, emission reductions and reporting can send a strong signal that Indian industry is proactively engaging in the climate change dialogue and response process. Such activities will contribute towards political process through analysis and reporting. For example – the release of CDP India 2009 report coincided with landmark session in parliament where the environmental Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh announced that India will reduce its carbon intensity levels by 20-25% on its 2005 over the next 11 years. The Economic Times carried an article quoting the CDP India report and saying that India Inc. is well positioned to achieve the 20-25% emission intensity reduction targets given that companies are already voluntarily disclosing their carbon footprints and undertaking measures to reduce them.

It is evident that voluntary initiatives such as the CDP or company’s sustainability reports highlighting their carbon emissions, reduction measures and targets are influencing policy decisions and in future will play a significant role in India’s climate change strategy and policy.

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Kedar – +91-90007 72462

Some people have asked me what evidence there is to support the claim by CO2 Tropical Trees that the average tropical tree will sequester 22.6 kg or 50 lbs of carbon per year.  First off, let me stress that this is affected by location, soil type, rainfall and species. Having said that, most tropical trees located within 15 degrees northern and southern latitude of the equator do indeed sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, something that is supported by numerous studies and ongoing research. In this article I will offer some calculations in support of the efficiency of tropical plantation trees as a method of carbon sequestration. I will base my calculations on industry standard hectares (an area measuring 100 meters by 100 meters, or 2.47 acres) with 1,250 trees planted per hectare, later culled back to 600 trees per hectare. 

In an article entitled “Carbon sequestration in tropical agroforestry systems” by Alain Albrecht and Serigne T. Kandji, both of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, they found that the carbon sequestration potential of tropical agroforestry systems produced a median sequestration value of 95 metric tons (104 US tons) per hectare per year. Taking into account the variables of location, soil type, rainfall and species it can be as high as 228 metric tons (251 US tons) per hectare. Assuming a median of 95,000 kg divided by 1,250 trees per hectare one would get 76 kg (167 lbs) per tree. In a managed plantation trees are often culled back to about 600 trees per hectare, which would result in 158 kg (348 lbs) per tree per year. These numbers support the cubic meter increase of woody biomass observed in growing locations with excellent conditions, which I will address later. Please note that managed plantations generally produce 20 to 30 times more wood than do natural forests, resulting in higher carbon sequestration rates per hectare.

Studies cited in Science Daily show that natural African tropical forests absorb about 600 kg (1,323 lbs) of carbon per hectare per year. If you take 600 kg by 25 times more wood per hectare in a plantation setting, you get 15,000 kg (33,000 lbs) per hectare per year divided by 600 plantation trees per hectare, which results in 25 kg (55 lbs) of carbon sequestered per tree per year. I should also mention that one of the species CO2 Tropical Trees plants is Acacia mangium, a recognized nitrogen fixing tree (NFT). Studies like “Greater Soil Carbon Sequestration under Nitrogen-fixing Trees Compared with Eucalyptus Species” published by Ecosystems, a Springer publication, show that NFT’s sequester more carbon in the soil than do other types of tropical trees.

One problem in the literature is the vastly varying time-lines on which research has been based. The CO2 Tropical Trees program relies on a 10 year cycle from seed to mature tree for all of their calculations. This fact further enhances their credibility on the issue, because in the study “Carbon sequestration through afforestation: Role of tropical industrial plantations“, their methodology of using a 10 year cycle to maximize woody biomass growth and carbon sequestration is supported. The article also confirms that once tropical trees reach maturity their effectiveness for carbon sequestration purposes declines. That means that using a 10 year cycle maximizes the carbon sequestration efficiency of their tropical tree plantations, with every cycle ending in harvest and followed by re-planting.

Let me cite some additional studies and methodologies. A Dutch study entitled “Estimation of Tropical Forest Biomass for assessment of Carbon Sequestration using regression models in remote sensing in Berau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia” by Irvin K. Samalca, Alfred de Gier and Yousif Ali Hussin, of the Department of Natural Resources at The International Institute for Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation, confirms and shows that 50% plus of a tropical tree’s woody biomass is carbon. That means that fast growing tropical trees like those planted by CO2 Tropical Trees, which reach maturity in just 10 years time, are excellent carbon storage vessels.

Let’s calculate this from a different perspective. We know from several studies that the woody biomass of a tropical tree plantation can increase by at least 35 cubic meters plus (14,382 board feet) per hectare per year. Depending on the hardwood species, one cubic meter (424 board feet) of tropical hard wood can weigh from 600 kg to 1,200 kg (1,322 lbs to 2,645 lbs). Assuming 1 hectare of trees with a gain of 35 cubic meters of wood times a conservative average of 750 kg (1,653 lbs) per cubic meter, and you get 26,250 kg (57,871 lbs) per hectare per year. If at least half of that woody biomass is carbon, then one gets 13,125 kg (28,935 lbs) of carbon. Divide 13,125 kg of carbon by an average of 600 mature plantation trees (after culls) and one gets 22.6 kg (50 lbs) per tree, the number used by CO2 Tropical Trees. There is atable on wood weight in my free download Acacia mangium e-book, as well as a useful table regarding the weight of cubic meters of wood at the Computer Support Group’s web site.

Why do I say conservative? There is ample scientific support for much higher carbon sequestration rates by tropical trees. For example, Reforest the Tropics is an applied research program in Costa Rica demonstrating climate change mitigation through sustainable farm forestry. Using a 40 year base line they suggest that a natural tropical forest can sequester between 100 US tons to 160 US tons of carbon per acre (90.7 metric tons to 145 metric tons). This translates into 224 metric tons to 356 metric tons per hectare stored in a natural tropical forest over 40 years. Their research also suggests that a managed plantation of tropical trees will store as much as 800 US tons of CO2 per acre (725 metric tons). That translates into 1,792 metric tons per hectare. If one were to take 1,792,000 kg and divide by 40 years and then divide again by 1,250 tropical trees planted per hectare one would get 35.85 kg (79 lbs) per tree per year.

CO2 Tropical Trees is actually relying on the most conservative estimates of carbon sequestration for its carbon neutral program. They are not alone in relying on those numbers. For example, Carbonify.com has a carbon calculator that is based on 22.6 kg or 50 lbs of carbon per tropical tree per year. Another typical example is the article published by James Post, citing a 2005 study published in Wikipedia that uses 22.6 kg or 50 lbs of carbon sequestration per tropical tree per year for the purpose of calculating carbon offsets. In conclusion all I can say is that every time someone funds the planting of a tropical tree with CO2 Tropical Trees, the very least they can expect from that tree is 22.6 kg or 50 lbs of carbon sequestered per year from our atmosphere. Given these facts and numbers people and institutions really don’t have any more excuses for not funding tree planting as an obvious partial solution to climate change.

Air pollution is one of the most pressing problems in our world today. Due to the developments in terms of industry and economy, our environment is one of the most affected areas; usually, air pollution results. If this is to continue, then surely our environment and our planet will be destroyed.

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We should be able to reduce air pollution around us. We should know how to reduce air pollution. In our own little way we can surely achieve measures to reduce air pollution. There are a lot of things that we can do. May it be in or homes, our workplace and everywhere. We can surely do it.

Here are some of the steps we can do on how to reduce air pollution. 1) Conserve energy. Turn off the lights, appliances, electronics and other gadgets when they are not in use. 2) Practice the 3Rs which stands for reduce, reuse and recycle. 3) Plant trees around your house, this is to provide shed as well as cool breeze during hot, humid weather. 4) Try not to use as much air condition as much as possible.

5) Know your itinerary well; see to it that you plan ahead of time your trips to save on gasoline. 6) If your destination is just near, try to walk rather than using your car. 7) Have your car checked from time to time and see to it that they are maintained very well. Enjoy riding bicycles as a means of transportation.

9) Buy green products or those which are good for the environment. 10) Minimize the use of plastic and plastic bags; a good alternative is a canvas bag. Those were just some of the tips on how to reduce air pollution. Do it now and do your part in lessening the damage that air pollution gives.

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Carbon credits are a financial instrument that is part of national and international attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One carbon credit is equal to one ton of destroyed greenhouse gasses. These credits are generated by projects that either absorb carbon or otherwise reduce emissions through clean energy. Many individuals are now taking an interest in their carbon footprints, trying to lower their usage, as well as trying different ways to offset their carbon usage.

Carbon credits are part of an approach to emissions trading. With a certain amount of greenhouse gas allotted to markets, each individual group is given the opportunity to decide how much of a limited amount can be designated to each area. This allows industries to control the amount of greenhouse gasses they are using. This also allows industrial and commercial processes to market in the direction of lower emissions, or approaches that are used to not emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. This helps to finance carbon reduction schemes.

Carbon credits are in two different markets, the large compliance market and the smaller voluntary market. Corporations and industries participate in the compliance market where they purchase carbon offsets to comply with caps on carbon dioxide emissions. In 2006, about .5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market. This represents about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions.

Many companies sell carbon credits. Carbon credits are purchased from investment funds or carbon development companies. Many of these companies have saved these credits from other individual products, and offset themselves and the buyers by selling them. The quality of the credits is based on the validation process, the type of fund, and the development company. The price is also affected by these things. Voluntary units typically have less value than the units sold through the rigorously-validated Clean Development Mechanism.

There are common features to carbon offsets: vintage, source, and certification regime. Vintage refers to the year in which the carbon reduction takes place, while the source refers to the project or technology used in offsetting the carbon emissions. The certification regime describes the rules and regulations that are in correlation to the carbon offsets.

In the smaller, voluntary market, individuals, companies, and others purchase carbon offsets because of their own determination to lower greenhouse emissions. The emissions they focus on lowering are most often transportation and electricity usage. In 2006, about million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market, representing about 24 million metric tons of CO2e reductions.

There are two distinct types of carbon credits: carbon offset credits (COCs) and carbon reduction credits (CRCs). Carbon offset credits consist of clean forms of energy production, wind, solar, hydro and biofuels. Carbon reduction credits consist of the collection and storage of carbon from the earth’s atmosphere through reforestation, forestation, ocean and soil collection and storage efforts. Both ways are valid and positively recognized, each used in different situations.

Carbon credits initially came into existence as an attempt to inform and create awareness of the need to control emissions. Since then, it has been proven that the concept of carbon credits can be highly successful. This tradable system is one of the policy instruments that are very effective. As long as prices are maintained it should continue to be positive.

As any salesman will tell you, buyers typically move through stages of a predictable cycle when they make a purchase.

That cycle starts with an initial enquiry and ends with the placement of an order. In marketing terminology, those stages are described as the research and engagement stage, the consideration and comparison stage, and finally the purchase stage.

The buying cycle has several important implications for anyone conducting pay per click (PPC) search marketing campaigns:

1. Campaign Objectives

Your campaign objective will influence which stage of the cycle you need to target. A manufacturer who distributes nationally via resellers should be interested in reaching consumers early in the buying cycle. The same goes for a B2B marketer seeking to influence business buyers researching all the available options. A retailer on the other hand will usually prefer to connect with consumers later, when they are ready to buy.

2. Keyword Research and Selection

In the context of online search, the buying cycle manifests itself as the keywords people use.

Those at the beginning of the cycle tend to use a small number of general keywords and phrases, which are typically only 1 to 3 words in length and describe the niche in generic terms. These often form the bulk of the most popular searches in any given niche through sheer volume and attrition. There’s always going to be more people populating the mouth of the sales funnel than make it all the way to the end of the cycle.

An offline analogy would be the average retail clothing store. There may be 10 or 20 people enter a store for every 1 that buys.

And therein lies one of the great ironies of keyword buys… advertisers bid up the cost of these general words and phrases because they’re easily discovered and individually represent the most volume, but they usually don’t convert so well.

Search users later in the cycle tend to use more specific terms and phrases. That means the query might include a brand name, a model, even an SKU product number.

These are the keywords that constitute the bulk of the now legendary ‘long tail’ of marketing (and search). These terms often cost less and convert better. However they cost less for a reason… they take time and effort to find and aggregate in sufficient numbers to make the volume worthwhile.

3. Campaign Structure

You should separate early and late cycle keywords in your Ad Groups for Quality Score optimization and reporting reasons. Depending on the size of your campaign (read number of keywords), it may even make sense to have completely separate campaigns.

4. Ad Copy

Search marketers should be deliberate in targeting different stages of the buying cycle with PPC ad copy. Ads that offer a free report, a review, or specifications will attract people who are in the early stages of the buying cycle, looking for information. Ad copy that mentions price, free shipping, or a special offer will attract those further along in the cycle.

5. Landing Pages

Your keywords, ad copy and landing pages should all reflect the same consistent message… and that message must be in sync not only with the subject of the query but also with the users’ current position in the buying cycle.

A user in the research stage of the cycle should land on an information page, while someone who specifies a product model as the keyword should be delivered to a page where they can actually buy that product.

So don’t just send them to your home page.

A 2004 report from Atlas OnePoint found the average conversion rate for lead generation sites that used the home page as a PPC destination was just 6.3%.

The same Atlas study found that landing pages that match the theme of the keyword have a 9.3% conversion rate, and pages that match the keyword specifically have an 11.8% conversion rate.

That’s 47% and 87% more conversions, respectively!

6. Bid Strategy

Depending on your campaign objective, you may decide to use ‘stage of cycle’ as a reference point in developing a bidding strategy. For example, a retailer may decide to bid lower on less targeted, early cycle keywords and higher on more targeted, later cycle keywords.

7. Performance Analysis

You’ll often see advice from commentators that you should analyse your PPC results down to the keyword level. “Keep the keywords that convert and ditch those that don’t. You’ll save yourself a fortune” goes the mantra.

And there’s no doubt about it… there are always savings to be made by deleting keywords that never convert, especially very general and irrelevant ones.

But the buying cycle provides at least three reasons why you might not want be too literal in your interpretation of that advice.

First, analysis at the keyword level won’t be appropriate for some business models. For example, B2B vendors selling high value products with a long sales cycle often only have a few conversions during the average month, so analysis at the keyword level would be overkill. Analysis at the AdGroup and campaign levels is usually more meaningful in those cases.

Until recently, the lack of click trail reporting meant that many valuable ‘assist’ keywords – those keywords which introduce users to your brand but don’t get any credit for subsequent conversions – were deleted unnecessarily.

A 2006 SearchIgnite survey found that 37% of purchase transactions were completed with at least one ‘assist’ click… and these multi-click conversions accounted for two-thirds of all clicks measured in the study. One of the strengths of Yahoo’s new pay-per-click system is that it can correlate and report this type of data. Sadly, this is not yet a feature of Google AdWords.

Early cycle ‘assist’ keywords may also play a significant role in the well documented web-to-store conversion trend. Consumers evidently often prefer to research products online, then go offline to complete any subsequent purchase at a local store. A 2005 benchmark survey by The Dieringer Research Group estimated that 83 million people a year do that in the U.S. alone.

So there you have it… seven ways the buying cycle impacts Google AdWords marketers.

Happy advertising!

About the Author

Gary Elley is a Click Here For Fast Video Testimonials
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