Marketing Blog Update

Friday, Jan. 16, 2004

 

My total affiliate commissions for the first two weeks of January was $3,270.81. My advertising costs are running about 40% of the commission total.

 

My daily commission average is $218.05 x 31 days = $6,759.67 a month potential.

 

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I'm going to get started on my book. It will be about finding affiliate products and marketing them with Google AdWords.

I will call it Google Cash. Only kidding!

 

Basically it will cover the Google Cash System, but it will go into more detail about the whole process.

 

This book will not be in EXE or PDF format, it will be a free online book and will be hosted on this website.

 

I'll pull all the relevant information from the archives and include it in the book. That way people don't have to dig through months of posts in order to find information specifically about the Google Cash System.

 

I know from the emails I have received that this is what people are doing. Quite frankly I don't enjoy going back through the archives to find specific information. This information needs to be organized so that it will be easy to find. Hopefully other people will feel the same way.

 

Many people are getting into the Google Cash System and that is what they should be doing because it is the quickest way to make a lot of money online in a very short time. Anyone can do it and you don't even need a website!

 

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I was just using the Affiliates Alert and I noticed the two changes. I most have missed an update newsletter if one was ever sent out.

 

It just got a whole lot easier to find good affiliate products in ClickBank.

 

First of all there is now a Momentum Rank. The Momentum Rank helps you to determine where the product sales are going. It is based on the Rank and the Change.

 

It is harder for a number 8 ranked product to go to number 7 than it is for a number 90 ranked product to go to number 89. This is all factored into the system.

 

You want to look for products that have high Momentum values. It also states that you have to use this Momentum value as a tool and you still have to look at other things like the sales page on the merchant's website.

 

The second new feature is Change Rank, which shows you how much the product's position has changed from the previous ranking date.

 

The good news is that these are two awesome tools. The bad news is that they are only available in the professional edition which costs $9.99 a month.

 

I became an Affiliates Alert affiliate for two reasons. The number one reason was the fact that everyone who downloads the free version through my affiliate link gets a copy with all my affiliate links throughout the ClickBank products listed.

 

Now if they make copies of the software to give to others my affiliate links are still there. If anyone buys a product through any of these links I make a commission.

 

The second reason was because If anyone subscribes through their software link I get a commission on the monthly subscription they pay. Not once, but for every month they continue their subscription. It's called residual income. It goes on and on,

 

I would suggest to anyone who has a website and/or a list, and the Affiliates Alert software is compatible to what they are doing, to become an affiliate and give away the free version of the software to others. You'll be in on the ground floor of this program before the rest of the masses who are joining the Google Cash System craze and you have the chance to make money two ways.

 

I haven't brainstormed on it yet, but I'm sure this software can be used by others besides affiliates. After all, it is a search engine for ClickBank that can help a consumer find a product on hundreds of different subjects.       

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004

 

One way to find out what people want to buy online is to do a search. Use the Overture Suggestion Tool and do a search for "buy" and you will find out what people want to buy online.

 

Check these words with the Overture Suggestion Tool and find out what people are looking for. What do they want to learn, what are they trying to create, etc. Your job is to provide the solutions that will give people what they want and allow you to make money from doing it.

 

learn

create

how to

build

repair

sell

find

 

This is one way to research for a market to target with a product or a theme-based website. Don't forget to use the Ad Word Analyzer to find out how much competition there is for the niche market from other websites and to see how many campaigns there are for it on Google AdWords and Overture.

 

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I have 5 active campaigns right now. Only 3 of the 5 campaigns are making money.

I started a campaign for the merchant website I previously mentioned where I got the merchant to add an opt-in pop-in and I got her raise the commission to 60%. She will also add a testimonial web page.

 

I thought I would add another product and go through all the steps I take from the selection of an affiliate product to actually launching the campaign with Google AdWords. I will also describe how I create Ad Groups, ads and adjust the keyword bids for the campaign.

 

I am going to find an affiliate product for the lotto niche market. This is the third time I have tried marketing an affiliate product in this niche market with Google AdWords. Needless to say, the first 2 campaigns failed.

 

One product was from Commission Junction and I cannot remember the name of the merchant's website or the product.

 

The other product I tried was from ClickBank. It was The World's First Honest Lotto System. I thought this second product was an AMM early on, but it ended up disappointing me.

 

Every time I'd get ahead and make a few sales, I would then watch for days before it made another sale. I think I actually broke even with it but I got tired of trying to make it profitable.

 

I know from past experience that I can get many keyword bids for only .05 cents, which will give me about 50-100 click throughs a day. I'll do this test campaign for 100 click throughs, which will cost me about $5 dollars.

 

The first step will be to open the Affiliates Alert software and do a search for "lotto."

 

Since I have the pro version of the Affiliates Alert software I am able to see the Momentum, Rank Change and the Historical Rank Charts.

 

One affiliate product stands out from all the rest. It is Lucky Sam Picks the Lotto and Wins! It has a Change Rank of positive 5. It made a strong move from about Rank number 7 to number 2.

 

The Momentum is167 for "Wagering" and 250 for "Casino." These are very good Momentum numbers, which tells me that this product sells and many sales have taken place recently.

 

These Momentum numbers don't tell me if this product is selling with Google AdWords, but it does tell me that someone is selling a lot of it. They could be selling the product on their website and/or with their ezine for all I know.

 

It pays 50% commission, but the product only sells for $7.95. Ordinarily I would never market a product that sold for such a low price. I usually go for products that pay $20 or more commission.

 

Since there are no other worthwhile products listed I'll go with this one just for the demonstration. The keywords only cost .05 cents so I cannot lose very much money testing it.

 

I'll stop here for right now and continue with this demonstration either this evening or tomorrow.

 

If you have been following my blog you probably have noticed that I have not been mentioning my daily sales totals and commissions.

 

My one day record so far is $397.85 in commissions with 19 sales set on January 8. If and when I start setting new records again I will start to mention them again. This might take about a week to happen. Of course I'm only kidding. I think that record will hold for a while. Right now I'm averaging about $220 in daily commissions with10 sales a day.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004

 

Yesterday wasn't a record day, but I did sell 15 affiliate products and I made $322.20 in affiliate commission, which is very good considering I only spent about $100 for advertising expenses.

 

I completed the cover for my online book. The title is Pay Per Click Profits - How to Find and Market Affiliate Products Using the Google Cash System. You can check it out here.

 

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NOTE: 03-20-07: I never did complete this website as I planned to. At the time it sounded like a good idea, but I ended up doing some other things which I thought would be more profitable.

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Later today I will continue demonstrating the process of setting up the campaign for Lucky Sam Picks the Lotto and Wins! with Google AdWords.

 

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Someone on one of the forums wanted to know what the cost and the position would be for keywords before they actually went through all the trouble of setting up a new campaign with Google AdWords.

 

It would be a waste of time to set up a complete test campaign only to find out that your most important keywords and phrases were not getting good positions with the displayed Google AdWords and you don't want to spend more for the keywords.

 

So to save time you would want to check what these keywords and phrases would cost with Google AdWords before you go through all the trouble of setting up your campaign.

 

Here is my reply on how I do this.

Hi,

Create an Ad Group within one of your Google AdWords campaigns.

Go through the process of creating an ad for this Ad Group. It doesn't matter what text and URL you insert in the ad since this Ad Group will never be active and will only be used to check the estimated cost and the click throughs for keywords and phrases.

At this point just add "-free" to the keyword list when you set it up.

In fact, you can even leave this Ad Group on the "pause" mode since it will never be active.

Then whenever you want to see what a particular keyword or phrase is going to cost you just add them to this "test" Ad Group and click on the "estimate traffic" link that will then show you the estimated position, keyword cost and the
daily cost for it with Google AdWords. Change the keyword bid to see how it will affect the cost, position, etc.

Once you have the information you need then just cancel out and don't actually add the test keywords to this Ad Group.

Best regards,
Barry Stein

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I'm going to set up a separate web page for the demonstration that I will do for marketing Lucky Sam Picks the Lotto and Wins! with Google AdWords. The reason for doing it this way is so that people don't have to read it in piece work throughout my blog. It will be in one location from start to finish.

It is going to take me a few days to complete it since I plan to go into detail and use a lot of screen shots. I'll have some of it completed later today. I know I said that earlier, but I just figured out in my mind exactly how I plan to do it.

It will be available to view before it is finished and as I add more content to it I will let everyone know in my daily blog along with a link to the web page.

I think these free online books are an interesting concept that can be used in different ways.

Why not create online books that have something to with your niche market or something that interests you? You could provide free content and work in some subtle recommendations for affiliate products. These free online books could be marketed with Google AdWords.

Another good thing about these online books is that they add content to your website. Maybe with a little work these online books can be indexed by the search engines and you can get a high ranking for your online book's keywords and phrases.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Monday, Jan. 19, 2004

 

I'll try to work on my demonstration today, which will include creating a keyword list for the Lucky Sam Picks the Lotto and Wins! campaign.

 

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I received an email from someone who has tried three Google AdWords campaigns and failed. One was for a weight training product and the other two were for dog training products.

 

Here is my reply to his email:

 

If you are building websites or using graphics then one tool you would benefit from owning is a screen ruler.

 

From the developer: "The JR Screen Ruler is a great tool that allows you to accurately measure anything on your screen. This is especially useful when measuring graphics, web page browser sizes or whatever. Screen Ruler can display Pixels, Inches, Picas or Centimeters."

 

Here's a free one from CNET:

http://download.com.com/3000-2192-7068114.html?tag=lst-0-1

 

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Just received an Affiliates Alert email. New products have just been added to the ClickBank database. If you have the Pro version you will be able to see them right now. If you have the free version you will be able to see them in about a week.

 

I need to get two new campaigns started for the two I just ended today. One was for bad credit guaranteed loans and the other one was for a personalized candy wrapping business. I did a 50 click through test on both of them. I had no sales for either one of them.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004

 

I just purchased the domain name AdwordProfits.com at GoDaddy.com where it cost only $7.95 to register.

 

I will use this domain for my free online book which I had titled Pay Per Click Profits. PayPerClickProfits.com was not available so I went with the AdwordProfits.com. Actually it worked out very well since I really do prefer the AdwordProifts.com domain name over the PayPerClickProfits.com since it is much shorter and describes the subject of the free book very well.

 

I'll post information here any time I update the book along with a link to the book. The book will remain on this website until I get the new domain set up and online.

 

Hosting will cost $2.95 a month at 123-Web-Host.com. So for a total of $10.90 I am able to launch a new income stream.

 

I stated before that this online book format is a good idea. If you have wanted to create a theme-based mini website and were having problems getting it organized then maybe an online book format might just be the ticket for you. Just make sure you do it on a subject that you are passionate about. That way you will be working with something you really enjoy and will be more likely to stick with it.

 

Another thing I'd recommend is to start an online blog or a journal. It doesn't matter if no one else but you reads it. What you will find happening when you write down your goals is that you are more likely to achieve them. It's basically like making a commitment to yourself and programming your mind for success.

 

Always put your goals and what you want in writing and either think about them a lot or read them a couple times a day.

 

Whatever you put your attention on gets stronger in your life. Whatever you don't put your attention on gets weaker and eventually fades out of your life.

 

Focus on what you really want and then take action. Once you make a commitment and take action the necessary people will show up in your life and help you to achieve your goals.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2004

 

I'm not happy with the demonstration I'm putting together for the Lucky Sam Picks the Lotto and Wins! Google AdWords campaign, which I am documenting in my free online book, Adword Profits.

 

There are not enough keywords to do the next step after you have a campaign which is profitable, which is to break up all the keywords and create additional targeted Ad Groups.

 

I'll complete this campaign since I started it, but I have decided to create another demonstration for another affiliate product. A product that has enough keywords from which to create a few Ad Groups.

 

Here's a link to the book if you have not seen it recently. Right now I'm on the third page of the demo, which covers writing the Google AdWords text ad.

 

It probably would be a good idea to have quite a few of these test campaigns documented in my free book since repetition always helps when learning something new.

 

I would appreciate feedback from anyone who has any comments about the book or if you think I might be off base with any of the information I am presenting.

 

That also goes for any comments you might have about the content on my blog. I'm not correct 100% of the time and appreciate being shown the errors of my ways. Plus I have been know to transpose numbers, letters and ideas. And worst of all I do all my own editing.

 

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I got the third section completed for Adword Profits. In the next section I will explain how I actually set up the campaign within Google AdWords.

 

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If you advertise with Overture you probably received their newsletter today. If not then below is the link to an article from the newsletter. It's an article about creating effective landing pages. Do it wrong and it can hurt your sales. Do it right and you might increase your conversion rates 1000% or more.
http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ac/re/nl/

jan04ma.jhtml

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004

 

Seems like many people are looking for pop-in or pop-over script, which is actually part of a landing page and not a separate window that opens up like a pop-up.

 

I think a pop-in and a pop-over are the same thing. If I am wrong on this then someone please correct me.

 

It would be great if more merchants used pop-ins on their websites. That way affiliates could promote their websites directly with Google AdWords without having to create landing pages.

 

I encourage all affiliates to contact merchants with websites that have pop-ups and educate them on the error of their ways. You also might include the links below in your emails to them.

 

Below are links to two free pop-in scripts and also a link to the website where you will find many more scripts.
 

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex

8/dhtmlwindow.htm

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex

17/dropinbox.htm

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/

 

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I wouldn't pay too much attention to the Affiliates Alert Momentum numbers since they can change very quickly.

 

When I started my demonstration for the Lucky Sam Picks the Lotto and Wins! a couple of days ago the Momentum number was167 for "Wagering" and 250 for "Casino." Today the Momentum number is -40 for "Wagering" and -50 for "Casino."

 

The Rank Change number and Ranking History Charts still look ok for this product.

 

So how did that happen? Well one possibility is that someone did a big promotion in their ezine or maybe someone paid to run an ad for it in someone else's ezine. The short term sales might have caused the Momentum number to take a big jump and then a couple of days later sales fell back in their normal range. I am not sure, but only speculating.

 

In any event I would not recommend using the Momentum number in your decision of whether or not to market a ClickBank product.

 

I will still use the Affiliates Alert's Rank Change numbers and the Ranking History Charts to help in my selection process. After all, I don't want to market a product who's trend line for sales is taking a nose dive.

 

I have changed the copy on the page in Adword Profits where I discuss choosing an affiliate product and the Momentum number to reflect my latest findings.

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Friday, Jan. 23, 2004

 

I made a sale for the Lucky Sam Picks the Lotto and Wins!

demonstration campaign this morning.

 

The commission is only $3.18. The average Cost Per Click (CPC) is five cents. It has received 21 clicks for a total cost of $1.07. Going to be hard to get rich this way. LOL

 

There were 2,019 impressions with a CTR of 1.0% and an average position of 3.4.

 

If you can come up with a lotto product that will sell then this niche market might be profitable to target.

 

The offer might even be for something free in order to build a list of names and email addresses to make more offers to in the future. Of course that is if you have an interest in lotto.

 

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I had someone email some questions to me about the Lotto Campaign. Below are the questions along with my answers. If this information isn't clear to you then the book might make more sense since you will be able to see the screen shots of the actual campaign that the questions refer to.

 

The questions and the answers:

Q: I have never seen a "Destination URL" on the screenshot page you show, when I look at my campaigns. Is this something you have customized?
 

A: You have the option in your AdWords campaign to enter specific destination URLs and price bids for individual keywords.

I usually use this feature to raise the bid amounts on my most important, relevant keywords. That way I can keep my broad keyword bids at the default bid setting I used when I originally set up the campaign.

I can also use this feature to do the opposite and lower specific bids for broad keywords that are getting too many click throughs and I think are costing me too much money. So I reduce the bids from what my original default bid for the campaign was in order to lower the position of these broad keywords, which results in less impressions and less click throughs.

Q: Also, why do you have all the URLs with a ClickBank address and "lotto" with the default URL? If you could explain the reasoning why and if applicable how to do it.

A: The URLs with the ClickBank addresses displayed are my ClickBank affiliate links and the ones I edited individually in order to change their bid amounts. All these custom bids and the default bids all have the same destination URL. Whenever you customize individual keyword bids you also have to include the URL of the destination landing page, which I stated is the same as the default URL being used with the ad.

 

Of course you could always change these custom URLs in order to perhaps do some tracking. I am not hundred percent sure about the tracking option since I don't use this feature for that purpose.

 

You can change individual keyword bids and URLs by clicking the boxes before the keywords. Then you will click on the button that has "Edit CPCs/URL" on it. Then you will be able to change each individual keyword you have selected with any bid in the "MAX. CPC" box that will be displayed. Lastly you will have to put in the "Destination URL" in the box provided. I just use my affiliate URL in this box. The same one that I am using as the default URL for the ad.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Saturday, Jan. 24, 2004

 

I just did a search on Google for the keyword phrase "marketing blog." My blog is listed at number four on the first page. It is no big deal since only about 156 searches were done on Overture for that keyword phrase in the previous 30 days.

 

From what I have read you can multiple the number of searches done on Overture by three and come up with the approximate number of searches on Google for the same keyword phrase in the last 30 days. So maybe we're talking about 624 searches total. Not enough to get excited about, but every little bit helps.

 

The only other relevant keyword that had a lot more searches for it was "business blog" with 297 searches and "blog" with 37,915 searches.

 

"Blog" had too much competition from other websites and it is far too broad or common a keyword to use.

 

"Business blog" had slightly more searches done for it than "marketing blog," but "marketing blog" had less competition from other websites.

 

So how did I get my web page ranked so high for "marketing blog?"

 

What I did was to leave lots of posts in online forums and leave my anchor text link "Marketing Blog" at the bottom of my post.

 

The anchor text link is the title you use to target the keyword or phrase you want to move up in the Google rankings for your web page. And of course the URL associated with the anchor text link is the web page you are directing the anchor text link towards.

 

It also helps to include the keyword or phrase you are targeting in the URL of the landing web page, in the headline of the web page and of course in the content of the web page.

 

You can do the same for any of your web pages. I suggest that you compare the demand (Overture Searches) and the results (The number of web pages listed on the Google search for the keyword). From those numbers you can come up with the Results/Searches (R/S) ratio.

 

You can save yourself a lot of time and trouble by getting the R/S and Overture searches with Ad Word Analyzer, which automates the whole process. In addition to that you will be able to see how many campaigns are taking place on Google and Overture for all the keywords and phrases in any niche market.

 

Start off by targeting the most relevant keywords and phrases that have low R/S ratios. They also have to have a good number of monthly Overture searches. Try for 500 or more searches a month minimum.

 

Then you do a lot of posts in forums and leave your keyword anchor text links. You could also do link exchanges with other websites and target the keyword or phrase by using it as the title for your web page link exchange.

 

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I receive a lot of emails from people asking me if they should try the Google Cash System and whether I thought they would make money with it.

 

Well, usually after conferring with my crystal ball I tell them I really don't know.

 

What someone is willing to put into something usually determines what they'll get out of it and that is basically what will determine if someone will be successful using the Google Cash System.

 

What I do know is that if someone enjoys running a Google Cash System and using AdWords, and has an open mind for new ideas, then they can make money doing it.

 

To be successful you have to understand the basic concept of the Google Cash System. If you are not familiar with using Google AdWords then you really should read one of the eBooks that deal specifically with that.

 

Knowing how to start and manage an AdWords campaign is probably the most important part of the Google Cash System success equation.

 

And of course there is no such thing as having read enough books on writing headlines and sales copy.

 

Once you focus your attention on creating a profitable Google Cash System the necessary people and information will start to come into your life to help you reach your goals.

 

How do you think you met me? Did you not focus on Internet marketing? Or perhaps more specifically on the Google Cash System? And then all of a sudden I was dropped in your lap?
 :-)

 

Here is a short story...

 

Six years ago I was unemployed and I owed a lot of money on my credit cards. At that time I made up my mind that I would make my living selling on eBay. I had no idea what I was going to sell.

 

 I bought my first computer and my first digital camera for about $2,500 total and charged them on one of my credit cards.

 

Within a week I found out what a Beanie Baby was and for over six years I made my living selling them online.

 

Fast forward...

 

In late October I made up my mind that I would make a good income marketing affiliate products. Within a week I got an email from a complete stranger asking me if I wanted to market his product. This month I will probably sell about 190 units of his product and make about $3,800 from the sales.

 

So my advice to everyone is to find something that you enjoy doing, make up your mind that you want to do it all the time and then do it.

 

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I ended the Lotto demonstration. To date this campaign had 52 clicks, 3,366 impressions, 1.5% CTR, an average CPC of five cents and a cost of $3.14. One sale has been made for a commission of $3.18. I broke even so I'm going to end this campaign. It served it's purpose for the demonstration, but obvious it isn't going anywhere.

 

I promise the next demonstration will be better since I will base it on a profitable campaign. That way I will be able to get into how the AdWords Groups should be set up and how I manage the keywords and the bids.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Sunday, Jan. 25, 2004

 

My classified ads will be out in about two months.

 

In case you haven't been following my blog, I am running two classified ads in a magazine for my two most profitable products. Total cost was about $200.

 

I purchased two domains to use the URL in the ads. The domain names closely target the products and describe them very well. After all, you wouldn't want to display your long affiliate URL in a classified ad.

 

Both domains will do a redirect to ShrinkMyLink.com where they will be counted and then redirected again to the merchant's website.

 

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NOTE: 03-20-07: I'd recommend using TinyURL.com instead of ShrinkMyLink.com because TinyURL.com has been more dependable.

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It would be cool if this worked out and both ads were profitable. If that was the case then I would take these campaigns to every other relevant magazine or national newspaper where others were advertising similar products with a website URL.

 

Whenever you run ads you have to run them where others are running similar ads. If you don't see ads similar to your product then you are usually better off not advertising there yourself.

 

My only concern is whether someone reading the classified ads will stop what they are doing and go to their computer to check out the website. That I am not sure of. I do know that there are quite a few ads in this magazine that list the URL to a website, so that is a good sign.

 

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I purchased The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords by Perry Marshall today.

 

I have had quite a few people asking me which ebooks I recommended besides Google Cash to help them get off to a quick start marketing affiliate products with Google AdWords.

 

I have been recommending The Definitive Guide even though I haven't read it. It was easy to recommend since so many people I know and respect have read it and have been recommending it to me. In fact, most of them said that if they could only buy one eBook on marketing affiliate products with AdWords that The Definitive Guide would be the one they would purchase.

 

I will spend the next couple of days reading The Definitive Guide and I'll write a review for it.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Monday, Jan. 26, 2004

 

Within five minutes of reading The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords I found a way to make more money with my Google AdWords campaigns.

 

Perry Marshall recommends targeting the following countries if the language on the website is English:

• Ireland

• Australia

• New Zealand

• Norway

• Denmark

• Sweden

• Singapore

• South Africa

• Virgin Islands

I wasn't targeting any of these countries and I know I have been missing sales. I have already added them to all my campaigns. I I will know how well this works since I can see which countries the buyers are from in my ClickBank reports.

 

I don't think I have been as successful as I could have been with the way I have been running my campaigns. Perhaps by only targeting relevant keywords I can get some profitable campaigns that might make me an extra $100 or $200 dollars per month. Get ten campaigns like that and you have an extra $2,000 dollars a month.

 

The only problem is that every once in a while I target a market niche and the relevant keywords just don't create enough action for me and I get impatient. I guess this would be an example of how a small money maker might come about.

 

I always added the common keywords with only low bids. So I didn't mind paying five or ten cents for someone who was curious about my ad and clicked on it. I always thought it was worth a small amount of money to have someone click through and read a good sales letter, but I am always willing to test new ideas.

 

While Perry cannot show you how to find an Affiliate Money Maker (AMM), he can quite possibly show you how to develop some small money makers. And who know? Maybe one of those little money makers will turn into a full blown AMM.

 

The one thing I need to really tighten up with my campaigns is tracking. I need to track them from my Google AdWords all the way to the merchant's sales thank you page. That way I can get rid of all keywords that are getting many clicks, but are not resulting in sales.

 

There is software that will do all that, but it appears hard to set up and I have read where it has a lot of bugs. I'm going to hold off until I can find a good solution. It is just a matter of time before some good solutions become available and are easy to use.

 

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Received an Affiliates Alert email this morning. New products have been added to the ClickBank database. If you have the Pro version of Affiliates Alert you will be able to view them right away. If you are using the free version of Affiliates Alert then it will be about a week before you will be able to view them.

 

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I posted a question on Phil Wiley's affiliate marketing forum asking if other affiliates were targeting the above countries I listed in their Google Adwords campaigns.

 

I got some excellent feedback from Christine who has listed some other countries she also uses for her campaigns. Plus she has given specific reasons why she has included them. Needless to say I plan to add these additional countries to my campaigns.

 

Here is the link to the forum thread: http://www.ozemedia.com/

 

I just read in The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords that Perry does not recommend targeting countries like Russia and India since there are a lot of non-buyers there. India was one country that Christine did recommend in her forum post. I think I'll have to go along with Perry on this one.

 

At the very start Perry lists 18 steps which includes the quickest tricks and shortcuts for getting your campaigns up and running quickly.

 

He also gives an excellent overview on direct marketing. His ebook is actually a crash course in direct marketing, using Google AdWords as the advertising medium.

 

Another thing I have learned is that I need to do more testing of my text ads within my profitable campaigns to see if I can get better CTRs. This is something that should be done on an ongoing basis for all my ads. Always test one against the other, making the bid prices the same and then eventually delete the the one with the lowest CTR.

 

One thing I need to do is create more Ad Groups for all my profitable campaigns. I need to put all the keywords with the best CTRs and that are similar into one Ad Group.

 

By improving the CTR of Ad Groups I will get a much better position on the Google results pages and actually pay less for those positions because of the higher CTR they have.

 

If Google AdWords is like a car then The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords is the owner's manual.

 

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I decided two things.

 

First I'm going to start doing test campaigns for affiliate products using only relevant keywords. If they prove profitable I'll then add my separate broad keywords to the campaign in their own Ad Group.

 

Secondly, I'm going to start testing landing pages with opt-ins. I will offer something like "12 Tips That Will Show You How To (something related to the affiliate product you are promoting)" that will be set up on an auto-responder.

 

An example might be for an affiliate product that is an ebook that shows someone how to increase their website traffic. My opt-in might be for "12 Tips to Bring More Traffic to Your Website." Each email would contain one tip along with a benefit and a link to the merchant's website.

 

I have done about 60 campaigns and I only have three profitable affiliate products. 57 affiliate products didn't pass the one visit test. Meaning that it is hard to find a product and a merchant website that can convert enough visitors on the first visit to make it worthwhile to keep it going with Google AdWords. I just think the solution is to do follow ups until they buy or opt-off your list. It's worthwhile giving it a test and see what kind of results I get with it.

 

Right now it is all or nothing. Meaning that if a campaign doesn't produce an AMM then it is ended. There has to be some affiliate products that may never turn into an AMM, but they might turn into profitable keepers if I can just get them to have a higher conversion rate. An opt-in is the only way I can think of right now to do that.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2004

 

I ended a campaign yesterday for anatomydrawingsecrets.com. It was for an ebook that teaches you how to draw people. The selling price was only about $15, but I knew I could get keyword bids for about five cents each.

 

In a matter of several hours I got 143 click throughs, I wanted to end the campaign at 100 click throughs, but I missed it and ended up with 143 at a cost of $7.15.

 

130 of the click throughs came from the keyword phrase "how to draw." This appears to be another one of those niche markets, like "lotto," where you can get many click throughs for about five cents, but there doesn't seem to be many buyers. I think most of these people were looking for something free.

 

Both lotto and drawing niche markets would probably be better targeted with a theme-based mini web site.

 

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After reading The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords I decided to stop my ads from being shown as content on other websites that are part of the Google network.

 

Based on what Perry has written I don't think this content traffic is targeted enough and you just get a lot of curious people clicking on your ad.

 

To make up the difference in lost traffic from the content promotions I will raise all my keyword bids, which are far more targeted for my affiliate product.

 

I have to go along with just about all the information that Perry is presenting in his ebook. Perry is a direct marketer, which means he has tested everything with Google AdWords. He isn't speculating as to how his test results came about. They are all based upon actual testing and measuring of various aspects of his campaigns.

 

He takes his testing one step further than I can go since he was able to test from the Google Adwords ad right to the thank you page after the sale was completed.

 

What an advantage that would give you to know exactly which keywords were actually responsible for the sales. Then you could delete all the keywords that were getting lots of click throughs, but were not responsible for enough sales to cover the cost of those click throughs.

 

As I stated before, I have only found one software product that can track a sale to the merchant's website. The software is not easy to use and there have been reports of bugs.

 

It is just a matter of time before new and better software will be available. It will be easy to use and you will be able to track all your keywords right to the thank you page of the merchant's website.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004

 

Well, finally back online. The server was down for over eight hours.

 

I got some recommendations for a new host on Phil Wiley's forum, but I decided I'll give my current host one more chance.

I'll bookmark the hosting websites that interest me and I'll be ready to make a change when I decide to do it.

 

Is there such a thing as hosting where your website is never down? I don't know, but with all the problems with hackers, viruses, etc., I would have to guess that there probably isn't.

 

It's 4:23 PM and I really haven't done much today other than go to the health club I belong to. I think I need a vacation.

 

I have been thinking more about my idea for setting up landing pages for the affiliate products and having an opt-in to collect email addresses for a free series of "tips" that they would receive. The "tips" would be set up on an auto-responder.

 

I thought that the "tips" would target a specific niche market and be generic enough so that I could use them for more than one affiliate product or more than one campaign.

 

An example would be the diet niche market. I could go to the library and get some books on dieting and use the information to create my "tips" for the auto-responder. The only thing that would be altered in the emails would be the affiliate link for the merchant's website. That way I could do a test campaign for one affiliate diet product and if that didn't work out I could just choose another affiliate diet product and use the same "tips" with a new affiliate link.

 

Or if this proved successful then there would be no reason why I couldn't target more than one affiliate diet product at a time and use the same series of "tips" for both of them. All I would have to do is change the affiliate link in the email.

 

Of course having more than one diet campaign at a time with Google AdWords is hard because of the fact they would share the same keywords, but this wouldn't be a problem with other Pay Par Click (PPC) search engines.

 

I basically could keep adding my messages to the auto-responder and keep sending "tips" out until they bought or until they opted-out of the list.

 

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One thing that Perry pointed out in The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords is that he discovered that if he could create a rhythm with the text he used for the ad that it would improve the Click Through Rate (CTR).

 

He discovered this by testing various ads. He also tests just about everything else you could thing of with all aspects of his campaigns.

 

He suggests reading your ads out loud and see if they have a cadence to them. He claims that the best AdWords ads have a sing-song quality to them. Accomplish this with your ads and you should see the (CTR) for the ad go higher.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2004

 

Below is a list of the recommendations I received on Phil Wiley's forum for inexpensive website hosting.

 

Clevercast.com 

Mp3qhosting.net 

Ipowerweb.com 

Neureal.com  - More than one recommendation. 

Hostgator.com - More than one recommendation. 

Newwebsite.com  

Host.geeyo.com  

Dathorn.com - More than one recommendation. 

 

I will list all these hosting websites on my Free Internet Marketing Tools web page where you will find many other useful free tools and links.

 

One of the best affiliate products to sell online is something that has to do with making money. Seems like almost everyone on the Internet wants to make money.

 

Many affiliates don't like to market to this niche market since they think the keywords associated with it have too much competition and are too expensive.

 

Try using keywords such as home based business, work at home and make money. You will find that if you use the Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool that you will be able to create a very large list of relevant keywords that have reasonable bids associated with them. I get many of these keyword bids in the 15 cent range.

 

As I said yesterday I don't seem to be getting much done recently. I think my long term goals are all set up and I am making progress in reaching them. It is my short term goals that I need to get a handle on.

 

I will start writing my daily goals here in my blog. I think this will help me get some things done.

 

Today my goal is to...

• pick a new affiliate product to promote.

• develop a keyword list for it.

• go to the library and get some books on the topic of the affiliate product.

• create a 12 part "Tips" series of messages and set it up on an auto-responder.

• create a landing page for the affiliate product where I'll have the opt-in for the free 12 part "Tips" offer.

• start the Google Adwords campaign.

• document the whole process with step-by-step information along with screen shots.

 Having wrote that, I am now off to work.

 

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I ended up starting two new campaigns today. Neither affiliate product has a landing page. I decided I would do a 50 click through test with both of them to see if they will be profitable that way.

 

Whether they are profitable or not I will build a landing page for each of them with an opt-in and then run another 50 click through test. I figured that would be a good way to test them.

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Friday, Jan. 30, 2004

 

One of the new campaigns I started had a sale within the first 18 click throughs. That was a nice surprise. I'll have to see if this product is for real or just a "fluke." I was getting much action on it so I have added many more general/broad keywords to this campaign.

 

The second new campaign I started yesterday has already received 50 click throughs and I halted the campaign. This one was for a Photoshop course. I will now create a landing page for it with a opt-in for the free 12 Photoshop Tips and Tricks that they will receive over a two week period.

 

Since I own Photoshop and I have books on it, it will be easy for me to put this 12 Photoshop Tips and Tricks course together.

 

Below is an example of how the email might look. It only took me a couple of minutes to create it and I am sure it can be improved upon, but you get the idea.

 

Hi (Name),

 

Below is your first Photoshop Tip or Trick.

 

Photoshop Tip or Trick #1:

 

(TIP LISTED HERE)

 

(Name), if you want to learn how to become a Pro at using Photoshop then I highly recommend that you take our low cost course. It has a 100% money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Visit the website now and discover how to become a Photoshop Pro.

http://www.MerchantWebsite.com

 

Best Regards,

Barry Stein

 

Just a short message that will be quick and easy to create.

 

If I make any sales with this approach then I will just keep adding more Tips and Tricks to the auto-responder. They will continue to receive more Tips and Tricks until they either buy or opt-out of the list.

 

I'm not feeling to optimistic about the Photoshop niche market since all the keywords are very cheap and there isn't very much competition from other Google AdWord listings.

 

This niche market seems like another one of those that are hard to sell to and many of the searchers might be looking for free stuff

 

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I decided that I am not going to build a landing page for the Photoshop niche market. It doesn't pay enough commission for me to take the time and effort to set up the auto-responder messages for it. Plus I don't like the fact that there is a lack of other affiliates selling there.

 

I think it is a good idea to sell where other marketers are also selling. I think there is a better chance for success doing it this way. There is usually a good reason why you can find a niche market with five cent bids and no other advertisers. It usually means that you will have to capture email addresses and do a lot of follow-up if you want to make a sale.

 

Bottom line is that you have to have fun and try new things. Who knows? You might just come up with something that turns out to be very profitable.

 

I plan to do the landing page and auto-responder for other affiliate products. I will write about the ones that fail and let everyone know which product it was. I will also let everyone know about the ones that are profitable, but of course I won't mention them by name.

 

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I purchased WebLock Pro software today. It will hide the source code for my web pages. I basically want to use it for my web pages that I don't want people copying.

 

I had promoted a landing page for Google Cash with Google AdWords and within a couple of days I found three people who had ripped me off by using my web page's source code to create identical pages on their websites.

 

In addition to hiding your web page source code, you can also use WebLock Pro to disable printing, right clicks, text selection, caching, screenshots and more.

 

 

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Marketing Blog Update

Saturday, Jan. 31, 2004

 

It looks as if my commissions this pay period might beat my last pay period total of $3,270.81. If you were thinking about buying a product from my blog then today might be a good day to do it and help me over the hump.

 

It seems like it gets harder all the time to beat previous commission totals. That is what happens when you are unable to find new profitable affiliate products to add to your portfolio.

 

I have one new mini Affiliate Money Maker (AMM), which is now in my portfolio of profitable affiliate programs. This new mini AMM was started on January 5 and to date has made 20 sales for me at about $11 a sale for total commission of $220. The advertising expenses this month for this product was about $100. Now all I need is about 20 more affiliate products that can do the same thing or one or two monster AMM would work.

 

I'm heading for the health club where I go every day. I do about 20 minutes on Nautilus equipment and another 20 minutes on the stair climber. I have been exercising most of my adult life. It is a great way to relieve stress and it allows me to eat anything I want to. It is also a great time for me to think of new business ideas, which 99% of the time amounts to nothing. However, that 1% can and does turn into something worthwhile and profitable.

 

Then I plan to go to the library and get some books dealing with the niche market for one of the affiliate products I am creating a follow-up for with an auto-responder.

 

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There were no books in the library on the niche market topic that I want to create an email follow-up for. I ended up reserving two books that should be available later this week.

 

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I don't enjoy creating opt-in forms and landing pages. I guess I am too much of a perfectionist and I always spend way too much time designing these things. And of course setting up the auto-response messages is a real pain.

 

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It's 5:35 PM PT and my commission total for this pay period is now at $3,210.08. I need $60.74 more to break my last pay period record of $3,270.81. This is sort of like the countdown on New Year's Eve.

 

I am going to spend some time and see if I can create a pop-in for some of my web pages. Unlike a pop-up, which is actually a new web page, the pop-in is part of the landing page. I have some free pop-in script which I will try to customize for my own use.

 

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It is now 6:32 PM PT and my commission total is $3,257.08. One more sale will do it!

 

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OK, it's 7:29 PM PT and someone bought a copy of Google Cash and put me over the top! My new record commission total for one pay period is $3,279.68 and there is still about 4½ hours left.

 

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I was looking at the various features that the WebLock Pro     software has. One feature that is really cool is the option to password protect your web pages or website. So you could create an online book to sell or paid membership websites and password protect them.