Marketing Blog
Update
Monday, March 1,
2004
I ended up
making about $6,300 dollars in affiliate commission in February. My
advertising expenses were about $2,300 dollars and refunds were
about $305 dollars, which gave me a net profit of about $3,695
dollars.
To clear
things up...
I
currently create the largest list of keywords I can think of and put
them all in the same Ad Group when doing test campaigns.
I
then make all the bids the same for all these keywords. Then I try
to get 50-100 clickthroughs for as low of a cost as possible for my
test.
It is
possible that I might end up with more than one Ad Group for
running my test campaigns. This will happen when I am marketing an
affiliate product that might have more than one specific keyword
group associated with it.
For
example, let's say the affiliate product is for an Internet
business. In this case I might use "Internet business" as the
keyword phrase that I create my complete list of keywords from and
create an Ad Group for it. Then I might repeat the process
with the main keyword phrase "make money" and create an Ad Group
for that also.
Once the
campaign gets a sale and/or is profitable I then break down the
large keyword lists into different Ad Groups based upon
similarity between the keywords. Each Ad Group gets it's own
ad.
Also, every Ad Group always has two ads running for it
all the time to determine which one gets the highest CTR.
The most
general keywords either have their bids remain the same or I make
them lower. The
most relevant keyword bids are increased so that they can be in the
first three positions in Google results if possible.
If the
first three positions are more than I want to spend then I try to at
least stay in the first eight positions on Google so that my
ad gets displayed on the first page of the Google search
results.
All new
campaigns are monitored very closely. If any keyword gets 100 or
more impressions with no clickthroughs then I delete it. If any
keyword gets 100 or more impressions and gets clickthroughs, but is
unable to maintain a 0.5% CTR, then they get deleted also.
By closely
monitoring new campaigns and the keywords I am able to prevent any
of my keywords from being slowed or halted. Plus the overall CTR
of all the campaigns are constantly improving.
Marketing Blog
Update
Wednesday, March 3,
2004
I received
an email from the creator of
Affiliates Alert, Maayan Marzan.
Chances are that you received the same email if you are using the
professional version of
Affiliates Alert or if you joined
Maayan's list.
Maayan
added a new feature to the software that will let you do a search
for affiliate products based upon how much the commission is for a
product sale in actual dollars.
For
example, if you wanted to promote a Business to Business product and
you wanted to make $20 or more commission on a sale then you could
enter $20 as one of the criteria for the search. Then only affiliate
products that paid $20 or more commission would show up in the
search results.
This new
feature will be available with the professional edition.
However,
it will also be available until March 20th with the free version so
that these people can try it out.
I was
going through my bookmarked websites. I never realized I had so many
of them. Perhaps others do the same thing I do and that's to
bookmark a lot of websites that you think are useful and never
getting back to the majority of them.
In any
event I'm going to do some house cleaning with my bookmarked
websites and see if I can remember why I thought so many of them
were that good that I would even want to bookmark them.
Below is
one website that I thought I would share. It's a free online tool
that will show the rank on Google for any of your website's
keywords.
http://www.googlerankings.com
|
The Brain
A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought.
The Twelfth Step Toward Riches.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon
Hill |
Marketing Blog
Update
Thursday, March 4,
2004
I just
purchased a domain name for my third Affiliate Money Maker (AMM).
I plan to use it to market the affiliate product/merchant's website
with Overture and Search123.
Both
Overture and Search123 will not let you send traffic
directly to a merchant's website. So you have to create a landing
page which will include a link to the merchant's website.
When you
create landing pages be sure to write just a few paragraphs with
some great benefits and a call to action link that tells the
prospect exactly what to do, which should also include a benefit
within the link.
For
example here's a call to action link:
Click here and discover how to
start making $4,000 a month with your own fax machine system
When you do your
pre-sell do not get into the features of the product, just try to
get the prospect motivated with benefits so they want to learn more
and will click through to the merchant's website.
I now have 3 strong
AMMs. I purchased domain names for all of them to market with
Overture and Search123.
So far I am averaging
about $260 dollars a day in affiliate commission, which means I am
on pace to earn over $8,000 dollars in affiliate commission this
month.
Most of this additional
earnings is a result of my taking my third AMM and marketing
it with Enhance (Formerly ah-ha), E-Pilot and
FindWhat. I also added many more keywords to these
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search engines for my other AMMs.
I will also add the
third AMM to Kanoodle. I would use LookSmart
but I don't want to pay 0.15 cents a bid right now which is the
LookSmart minimum.
You have to monitor
these new campaigns on PPC search engines very closely. You
usually don't have any idea how many clicks you will get. If you are
not careful it is possible to go through a lot of money in a short
time. So watch them closely.
What is great about
this third AMM is that all the keyword bids are less than ten
cents and I have very little competition from other affiliates.
Since I'm spending more
money on other PPC search engines, I have lowered many of my
broad keyword bids with Google AdWords. This is something you
have to test and measure constantly in order to optimize your
campaigns. Bottom line is profitability.
It makes no sense to be
paying 20 cents or more for broad/general keywords with
AdWords when you can get many relevant keyword bids on the other
PPC search engines for one to five cents each.
It doesn't matter to me
where my relevant keyword click throughs come from. They can come
from AdWords or any other PPC search engine. My only
concern is to get the lowest bids I can for them.
The magazine that I'm
running two classified ads for two of my AMMs should be out
any day now. The classified ads are in the March issue and I know
publishers usually get the magazine to the news stands before the
actual publication date.
In case you are new
here, or have not read my blog from the beginning, I am running
classified ads for two of my AMMs. I purchased domain names
for them that describes the affiliate products. I set up a redirect
through ShrinkMyLink.com so that I can count how many people
respond to the ads by visiting the websites.
The redirect works like
this:
MyDomain.com > ShrinkMyLink.com > Merchant Website
I tried to do a double
redirect so that I could also include a cloaked affiliate link, but
it slowed things down too much. I have a high speed cable connection
and it was slow for me. It may have nothing to do with the
connection and might just be something that slows down when you do a
double redirect. I really don't know. So I decided not to use the
cloaking.
It would be great if
the classified ads were profitable so that I could run them in other
magazines. The ads cost about $100 each and I'll need about
five sales from each to breakeven.
You are
probably wondering how I will know where the sales will be coming
from. Well, I won't be able to tell, but I will know how many clicks
each ad receives by the ShrinkMyLink.com counter. My main
concern will be to know how many clicks total I get from each ad. If
I'm paying $100 for an ad then I'd like to get at least 400 clicks
which breaks down to 0.25 cents a click. If I can do that then I
would consider running more classified ads.
Another possibility is
to buy 30 and 60 second time spots on some of the local cable TV
stations. You can often buy these ad spots for under $10.
Of course I would have
to produce the commercial, which could simply be slides with a voice
over. And of course the YourWebsiteName.com printed at the
bottom of every slide.
You couldn't do this
with just any AMM. It would have to be a product or service
that had a very wide appeal. Something that almost anyone might
want. One of my AMMs would work.
I will wait to see how
the classified ads work out. A TV promotion would be a lot more
involved, but it sure would be fun to try it.
|
The Sixth Sense
The Door to the Temple of Wisdom.
The Thirteenth Step Toward Riches.
The sixth
sense is that portion of the subconscious mind which has been
referred to as the Creative Imagination. It has also been referred
to as the "receiving set" through which ideas, plans, and thoughts
flash into the mind. The "flashes" are sometimes called "hunches" or
"inspirations."
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon
Hill |
Marketing Blog
Update
Friday, March 5,
2004
Today has
been a weird sales day. I didn't get my first ClickBank sale
until about 3:30pm PT. I thought for sure that ClickBank was
having problems.
So I
checked some of my ClickBank links to make sure everything
was OK and there seemed to be no problems.
It's now
4:29pm PT and I only have three ClickBank sales for the day.
I hope things pick up because I have AdWords and all the
other PPC search engines I use cranked up and it is costing
me money.
I see that
Phil Wiley's forum is still down. I have no idea what the problem
is, but I think it is odd that he hasn't fixed it by now.
In case
you are having affiliate forum withdrawal you can visit
http://www.associateprograms.com/discus/.
Marketing Blog
Update
Saturday, March 6,
2004
Days like
yesterday make me crazy. LOL
I ended up
with only five affiliate sales with total commission of about $100
dollars. $100 dollars is about what my advertising expenses cost me
yesterday.
I thought
I had my Google AdWords and PPC search engine
advertising set up to generate about $250 commission a day from my
three AMMs, but now I am back to square one.
I have
raised all my general/broad keyword bids with Google AdWords
back to where they were a couple of days ago. I have lowered many of
my other keyword bids with the other PPC search engines.
I come to the
conclusion that I cannot depend on these three AMMs to
generate about $250 commission every day. I need more AMMs!
So what needs to be
done?
I need to do more of
what got me here to this income level if I hope to make a steady
$250 or more commission a day. And that is to run more test
campaigns and find more AMMs.
This is the beginning
of my fifth month using the Google Cash System. I have
probably run about 70 plus test campaigns. I have three AMMs
which generate about $6,000 a month in affiliate commission.
If I hope to reach my
goal of $10,000 a month in affiliate commission by the end of this
year then I need to run many more test campaigns.
There is no reason that
I cannot duplicate my first four months of success if I run about
140 more test campaigns before the end of this year.
If I can find six more
AMMs and they perform about the same as my first three
AMMs, then I can expect to be making about $18,000 dollars a
month in affiliate commission before the end of this year.
$18,000 dollars a month
would mean that my daily average affiliate commission would be about
$600 dollars. Then when I have a bad sales day it might be for only
about $250 commission. So then even a bad day will be pretty good.
I know this is possible
and the only thing required of me is to do about 18 new test
campaigns every month. That would mean about 140 new test campaigns
total in the next eight months.
That is the real secret
of making money with the Google Cash System, which is to run
many test campaigns.
Of course it doesn't
hurt to know how to write great ads, manage all aspects of your
AdWords campaigns and to be able to recognize a great affiliate
product and/or merchant website, but the bottom line is to run many
test campaigns for affiliate products and services.
If you are up to the
challenge of running many test campaigns then the only other three
recommendations I would make are these:
1. Read my blog from
the beginning.
2. Read
Google Cash
3. Read
The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords
Yes, I make a
commission when you buy number two and three above, but you are
getting my blog for free. I have received many emails from people
who tell me that my blog was more valuable to them than either of
the other two, but I highly suggest that you read all three to
insure your success.
If you are serious
about making a full-time living using the Google Cash System
then you need to do exactly what I am doing. YOU HAVE TO RUN MANY
TEST CAMPAIGNS!
Sorry for shouting, but
I wanted to get your attention. Do you see a correlation here
between running test campaigns and having a profitable Google
Cash System?
There are other tools
that would also greatly benefit you. Like the Pro version of the
Affiliates Alert and Ad Word Analyzer, but you can get by
for now without them. Once you are in the black with your Google
Cash System then you can buy more tools, but right now you can
succeed with just the three tools above. However, you have to take
action right now and start running test campaigns or nothing will
happen.
I just received the
following email from Maayan Marzan about the
Affiliates Alert
software:
Hi Barry,
ClickBank Marketplace was just updated with new products and
ranking.
Please Note:
'Professional Edition' Users
============================
The new products are available right away.
Select in the 'newer than' box the values 1 & Weeks
and click 'Report'. This will show you only the newest products.
'Standard Edition' Users
========================
You'll be able to see the new products only 7 days from today (from
Mar. 13, 2004 and on). The updated ranking are available right now.
When you upgrade to the 'Professional Edition' you can see the new
products immediately. Most of the profits from new killer products
are made on the first two weeks because the product is brand new and
nobody bought it yet.
In order to see the new products at the 'Standard Edition' (older
than 7 days ago), select the values 2 & Weeks in the 'newer than'
box and click 'Report'.
All the best,
Maayan Marzan
|
Spiritual Law #1: The Law of Pure Potentiality
The source
of all creation is pure consciousness ... pure potentially seeking
expression from the manifest.
And when we
realize that our true Self is one of pure potentiality, we align
with the power that manifests everything in the universe.
The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra |
Marketing Blog
Update
Sunday, March 7,
2004
I made one
affiliate sale on Saturday. I couldn't believe it! How does one go
from selling 10-12 affiliate products a day to selling one? Well, I
guess it is possible since it happened to me. Odds might be similar
to winning the lotto. Only kidding!
The sale
was for a ClickBank product, but the sale came from this
website and not from my Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns.
So I made zero sales from PPC advertising on Saturday.
When I
seen no sales I wondered if my ClickBank affiliate links were
working. I checked all my affiliate links and they were working. I
went to the actual ClickBank order page from every merchant's
website and my affiliate nickname was listed and everything appeared
to be OK.
Next I
started to wonder if there was a problem with the cloaking link I
was using, but I was able to reach the ClickBank order pages
OK so that wasn't a problem. Plus I have been using this cloaking
system for about three weeks and I have had some great commission
days using it.
Then I
wondered if some ClickBank employee was diverting my sales to
his or her affiliate account? By the way, are there safeguards in
place for this situation? Whenever you have humans involved there is
the possibility that someone might try to beat the system in order
to make money.
I did more
research and the one thing I did notice is that none of my Google
AdWord campaigns were being displayed on the Google
network of websites showing content.
You have
the option of whether or not you want your ads show as content on
the Google network of websites. I choose to have all my ads
show up in the network. This is something you have to test. Some
times it works, but sometimes you just get too many impressions and
not enough sales.
Not having
my ads show up in the content network reduced my campaign
impressions about 30-40%. However, I just added many more keywords
to the other
PPC search engines recently and that would off-set the decrease
in the content impressions.
Even if my
impressions were off 30-40% you would think that my sales would be
off 30-40%, but zero sales? Sorry, but I don't believe it.
My reaction is to think
that this is something that happened that I had no control over and
I will just have to keep on doing what I have been doing all along.
That is exactly what I
have done. I created three new test campaigns. My goal is to do 14
more before April 1st.
Here are some of the
stats for the three new test campaigns:
|
Test Campaign |
#
of Keywords |
Max CPC |
Clicks |
Impr. |
CTR |
Aver. CPC |
Cost |
Avg. Position |
|
#1 -
C |
301 |
$0.12 |
8 |
947 |
0.8% |
$0.05 |
$0.41 |
6.1 |
|
#2 -
M |
477 |
$0.15 |
2 |
717 |
0.2% |
$0.14 |
$0.28 |
4.2 |
|
#3 -
L |
301 |
$0.19 |
1 |
144 |
0.6% |
$0.19 |
$0.19 |
5.9 |
I'm happy to say that
campaign number one has had a sale today. It only pays about $15
commission, but one sale from eight clicks is excellent.
As you can see the
campaigns are targeting niche market keywords that are not very
active. Also, even though I selected the "content" option they are
not being displayed on the
Google content network.
By the way, I have
seven sales so far today for ClickBank affiliate products and
it is now 3:34pm PT. So things look like they are getting back to
normal.
Someone wanted to know
how I do so many test campaigns. They thought it would take me a lot
of time to get them set up, but that isn't the case if you have the
right tools.
If I am marketing a
ClickBank product I get the affiliate link and the domain name
for the merchant website first.
Next I choose the main
keyword or keywords and run them through
Ad Word Analyzer
and save the list.
Then I enter the
keyword list into
AdWords Wrapper to get the "exact match" and [phrase match]
for all the keywords.
I start a new
AdWords Ad Group, create the ad, enter the affiliate and
merchant website URLs, paste all three versions of the keywords into
the Ad Group and set the bid.
I can set up these new
campaigns in about fifteen minutes. The only thing that slows me
down is creating the keyword lists with Ad Word Analyzer (AWA).
I run AWA at the
medium "Courtesy" setting under options since the fast "Courtesy"
setting is something the search engines frown upon and I don't want
to get the search engine gods mad at me.
So once you know the
procedure you can set up a new test campaign quickly.
|
Spiritual Law #2: The Law of Giving
The universe operates through dynamic exchange ... giving and
receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the
universe.
And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the
abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.
The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra |
Marketing Blog Update
Monday,
March 8, 2004
Something
is wrong with ClickBank.
I had 11
ClickBank affiliate sales yesterday. The sales started coming
through about noon and were spaced out throughout the day. This was
accomplished with about 600-700 PPC search engine click
throughs.
This was
after having just one ClickBank sale on Saturday that didn't
come from my PPC campaigns. I had over 600 click throughs
Saturday from the PPC search engines and no sales. The odds
of that happening are extremely high, especially since I have been
averaging about ten sales a day for over 60 days.
I don't
know if it is a technical problem with ClickBank or if there
is some foul play going on, but something isn't right here.
I suggest
that you try to promote other affiliate products outside of
ClickBank. Don't have all your eggs in one basket. It's called
having multiple streams of income. That way if one stream is stopped
you will still have some money coming in from other sources.
I decided
that I would contact ClickBank. Below is a copy of the email
I sent them.
I have been marketing
ClickBank
products since
November full time. In
February I made about $5,900 in affiliate commission. In January
about $6,500.
I have three
ClickBank products
that are steady
producers for me. For over
60 days I have been averaging about 3-4 sales a day for each of
these products and do about 10-12 sales a day total.
I spend on average about
$100 a day for various pay-per-click search engines I use to
send traffic to these profitable affiliate products merchant's
websites.
My marketing with
PPC engines
results in about 600-700 click throughs a day to these merchant
websites.
On Saturday, March 6, 2004, I
had one ClickBank
sale for Google Cash,
which I do not promote with PPC
engines, so that sale came from
one of my
websites.
I had over 600 click
throughs on Saturday with no sales. I'm sorry, but that is a
little hard for me to believe.
The first thing I checked
was to make sure my affiliate links were working and that I
could get to the actual ClickBank
purchase page OK. There didn't appear to be a problem.
Averaging 10-12 sales a
day and going to zero with the same amount of click throughs is
ridiculous. I think there is a problem.
Yesterday things were back
to normal and I had 11 ClickBank
sales that started at noon and continued
Was ClickBank
experiencing any technical problems
on Saturday that would
result in my sending over 600 people to merchant websites that
have been steady producers for over 60 days and not getting one
single sale?
What safe guards does
ClickBank have
in place that assures that a ClickBank
employee, or someone who has access to
the whole ordering
process, isn't diverting sales from affiliates into a different
ClickBank
account?
|
Hello Barry,
I have been trying to make money on the internet since 1998 and I
have failed miserably. But I used the information from your site,
the Google Cash eBook, and Perry Marshall's Definitive
Guide eBook to create several campaigns this past Friday. By
Saturday night, I had my first sale ($22.00 commission) and as I
write this on Sunday night, I have two more sales for a two day
total of $66.00.
Barry, I had almost given up the idea of making money on the
Internet but you have helped to restore my confidence.
Plus, you've given me the inspiration to do something else I had
been considering for a long time - that is, start my own website
where I could share my experiences with others.
Hopefully I can help others not make the same mistakes that I did on
the Internet over the past 6 years.
Again, thank you very much and continued success!
Sincerely,
Randal Ray
http://www.net-knucklehead.com/
"The Net Knucklehead"
Minnesota |
Marketing Blog Update
Tuesday,
March 9, 2004
I sent a copy of my email
I sent yesterday to the sales@clickbank.com email address they have
listed on their website.
The only
other email address listed on their website is
accounts@clickbank.com and that's the one I sent the email to
yesterday.
If they
had a phone number listed I would give them call, but no such luck.
I asked
whoever is going to read my email to forward it to the owner or
whoever would have the authority to respond to my charges.
I also
told them that they need to have auto-responders set up to respond
to people who send emails to let them know when they could expect to
get a response.
You think
with all the ebooks they have in their database about running an
online business that they would take the time to read one of them.
The last
three days confirm my suspicions that there is a problem with the
ClickBank program. Since my zero sale day on Saturday I have had
the following ClickBank sales.
Sunday -
11
Monday -
13
Tuesday -
11 and it is only 6pm PT right now.
How could
I get zero sales from over 600 click throughs with three proven,
profitable affiliate products? Maybe ClickBank will let me
know, but I'm not holding my breath.
|
Hi
Barry,
I just want to say congratulations! You are someone that understands
the basic premise of marketing, build a list then USE IT!
True story:
In the past 30 or so days, I have made about 25 or so purchases, on
eBay, of informational products. All pertaining to some aspect of
Internet specific marketing. You are the first and ONLY person to
mail me with anything. All these people selling informational
products and nobody emailing to their list! Are they crazy? Or are
they lazy?
These people should read the products their selling! I hope they
never expect to make a full time living in marketing.
Anyway, got to go now but just wanted to congratulate you on being
someone who gets it!
Sincerely,
Thomas |
Marketing Blog Update
Wednesday,
March 10, 2004
Below is
the email I received from ClickBank in response to the email
I sent to them two days ago.
Hello,
We haven't had any recent downtime. You can be assured that
Clickbank employees are not stealing your money.
Tom
Customer Support
tom@clickbank.com
Now I feel
much better. Good old Tom in Customer Service really knows his
stuff. Now I am assured
that all is well with ClickBank.
Since
ClickBank didn't have any technical problems and I've been
assured that all ClickBank employees are honest, I have to
assume that it was just bad luck on my part to send over 600 people
to proven AMMS and not make one sale.
Unless
there was a way for me to prove that there was a technical or people
problem then I don't have a basis to press this issue any further.
Having a
bad sale day is just going to be part of doing business with
ClickBank. The last thing I want to do is get someone at
ClickBank upset with me. By the way, no sales today from
ClickBank and it is now 11:45am PT. More bad luck on the way?
It is just
a matter of time before another company competes with ClickBank
and offers ebooks and software. In the meantime I'll look for
affiliate products outside of ClickBank in order to diversify
my affiliate product portfolio.
Speaking
of diversifying, I have been trying to sign up with some merchant
websites for over a week that pay for leads, but so far I am am not
having much luck.
Every time
I find a lead program I like I have been turned down by the
merchant. I suppose they look at this website and think it is not a
good match for their product or service. They have no idea that I
want to market their product directly with AdWords and not on
my website. I guess my only option is to email each of these
merchants individually and explain the situation to them.
I have
stopped all three test campaigns I started the other day.
I only had
one sale and that was within the first eight clicks for Test
Campaign #1. The commission was about $15.
Here is
the list of the actual affiliate products I tested:
#1 -
www.ChihuahuaCare.com
#2 -
www.QuiltersCoupons.com
#3 -
www.CarbTrack.com
I set up
one new test campaign yesterday and I'll add two more today.
|
Hi
Barry,
I really like your newsletter and is full of information. The
AdWords marketing blog is fantastic-not only you mentioned about
your success but also why you failed in certain campaign. I believe
you will always have this word in your mind "Each failure brings me
to the next success" am I right? I admit that I learn a lot from
your WONDERFUL marketing blog.
Best Regards,
Jestine |
Marketing Blog Update
Thursday,
March 11, 2004
I received
some bad news yesterday. One of my AMM merchants will no
longer use affiliates to market their website. This product made
$700 net profit for me last month.
Now I need
to find a replacement product for this niche market, which I think
is going to be hard to do. Right now I am feeling a sense of urgency
with regards to finding new AMMs.
I am going
to go back through my blog and Adword Profits and change the
part where I said that you can put your Google Cash System on
auto-pilot. I am afraid that you have to always monitor your
campaigns.
Especially
if you are having your ads displayed in the Google content
network. The problem is that some times the ads are displayed and
some times Google will stop displaying the ads.
So when
the ads stop showing up in the content network I have to raise the
bids of all the keywords so that I can keep my impressions at a
certain level. Then when they start showing up again I have to lower
my bids. Bottom line is profitability.
I read a
post on one of the forums where someone was having a problem picking
ClickBank affiliate products to market.
One
response from someone was to find the problem and then search for
the solution rather than trying to pick the product first. This is
the technique most authors or software developers use.
They don't
create a product and try to market it. First they research the
market and see what people need or want and then they create the
product to meet these needs or wants.
One
recommendation I would make is to look for the products or services
that have the widest appeal to the most people. Something that
most people would be interested in. Something that people won't be
looking for free information about.
Also look
at the ClickBank top ten selling products in each category.
The reason these products are in the top ten is because people are
buying them. Your job is to find the ones that can be sold with
Google AdWords.
Have you
ever had a profitable affiliate product and all of a sudden it
stopped making sales? Maybe for a couple of days or longer?
When that
happens to one of my affiliate products I tighten my bids in order
to minimize my losses. In most cases an affiliate product that has
been historically profitable will some times go through a period
where sales have slowed or stopped.
When that
happens I tighten my bids by keeping the most relevant ones high and
lowering all my broad keyword bids.
In most
cases the problem affiliate product will eventually come back and
make some sales again. Then you can raise all your broad keyword
bids again.
This
recently happened to one of my AMMs. For about three days I
had no sales for it. Then all of a sudden sales picked up again and
I had seven sales in one day. I cannot explain how or why it
happens, but it does. It's hard to predict how many sales you will
get in any one day for an affiliate product. You have to keep track
of your sales and your daily averages in order to get a clear
picture of what is happening with sales.
However,
some times after you try a few things and you are still losing money
then you may have to cut the affiliate product loose. Perhaps if you
have a great set of niche market keywords you could simply find
another affiliate product to insert in the campaign.
Don't fall
in love with any of your affiliate products. They are only
worthwhile if they are making money for you.
|
Spiritual Law #3: The Law of "Karma" or Cause and Effect
Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like
kind ... what we sow is what we reap.
And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to
others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success.
The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra |
Marketing Blog Update
Monday,
March 15, 2004
I started
eight new campaigns over the weekend. All but one are for pay-per-lead
programs that have high keyword bids associated with them.
I started
all these various keyword bids very low and have slowly been raising
the bids over the weekend. Right now I have all the bids at about
$0.25 and still the click throughs are coming very slowly since most
of the keywords are in high numbered positions on the Google
search result pages.
I'll keep
raising the bids until I'm able to get my 50 click throughs for each
test campaign.
I am going
to spend time this week doing some product reviews for this website,
which I hope to see in the Google search results in the future. Sean
Burns is very good at this and he is the one that I learned how to
do it from. Sean has many of his reviews showing up on the first
pages of Google searches.
I had a
very weird thing happen yesterday with one of the keywords.
The
keyword in question is a general keyword. I have the bid at $0.16
and it usually receives a couple of hundred impressions a day with
about five click throughs.
Yesterday
I was checking my campaigns a lot since I had started eight new ones
over the weekend. At about 3pm PT I checked all the campaigns, old
and new, and they all looked OK.
At about
9pm PT I checked the campaigns and saw that the campaign had reached
the daily budget I set.
Checking
the Ad Groups I found that the keyword I mentioned above with
a $0.16 bid had 33,216 impressions and 352 clicks for a total cost
of $41.79. Needless to say I flipped out. LOL
33,216
impressions is more searches than were done on Overture for
all last month for this keyword. 33,216 impressions is more than the
total impressions for this keyword since I started the campaign in
November.
I sent an
email to Google and asked them for an explanation, but I
haven't heard back from them yet.
I suggest
that everyone monitor their Google AdWords and watch for any
unusual activities so far as impressions and click throughs are
concerned.
I am
expecting a refund from Google and anything less than that
will really make me mad.
Below is a
copy of the email I received from Google. I have never had
anything like this happen to me before with AdWords.
According
to Google they syndicated this keyword to their partner
sites. 33,216 searches/impressions in about a six hour period? How
do they decide which keyword will be syndicated?
They
randomly choose any keyword they want from your campaign and insert
it in their syndicated partners search websites. This is pretty
unbelievable based on the number of impressions.
I am not
going to post the return email I sent to them, but I am sure you can
tell by my venting what the nature of the message was.
Hello
Barry,
Thank you for your email. I understand that the keyword gained a high number of impressions on March 14, 2004.
I researched your account and found that your ad was reviewed on
March 14, 2004. After one of our specialists reviews your ad, it is
syndicated to our partners. The reason there was an increase in
impressions is because
your ad began being showed on our partner sites.
Please feel free to email us at adword-ssupport@google.com if you
have additional questions or concerns.
We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising
available.
Sincerely,
Sonia
The Google AdWords Team
Below is
Google's response to the last email I sent them. Maybe there
is something unusual with getting 33,216 impressions/searches in
about a six hour period after all?
Basically
what the email says is that it can take three to four weeks for
Google to respond to my charges and they are hoping I forget
about it in the meantime, which I won't.
Hello
Barry,
Thank you for your email. I understand your concern regarding the
sudden spike in activity for the keyword. This
may be a case of invalid clicks and I whole heartedly apologize for
the misdiagnosis.
If you believe that your account reports reflect clicks that are
more extreme than ordinary user behavior or that exhibit strange
patterns, please email us at adwords-support@google.com. Please be
sure to include
the following information to significantly expedite the
investigation process:
1) The keyword(s) associated with invalid clicks.
2) The related URL(s) of ad(s) receiving invalid clicks.
3) Suspicious IP address(es) (this information may be found via web
logs).
4) The date(s) and time (s) of each invalid click activity.
5) A paragraph describing the trends in logs and/or reports that led
you to believe the click activity is fraudulent.
The verification and research process is very time consuming, and we
greatly appreciate your patience while our click investigation team
reviews your account. Please allow at least 3-4 weeks for them to
respond. If you have any other additional information, please be
sure to let us
know so that we can include this in our review.
Please feel free to email us at adwords-support@google.com if you
have additional questions or concerns.
We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising
available.
Sincerely,
Sonia
The Google AdWords Team
Someone
just brought it to my attention that the first eight positions on
Google AdWords get displayed on the AOL results page for
searches for any keyword. That is providing that the top eight
bidders are participating in the Google syndicated network.
There are
four Google AdWords ads on the top of the AOL search
results web page and four Google Adwords ads at the bottom of
the web page. I have made the mistake in the past of stating that I
liked to be in the top three Google AdWords positions so that
I can have my ad displayed on AOL. Just wanted to get the
correct information out to everyone.
So try to
be in one of the top four positions if you can afford it. Otherwise
shoot for positions five through eight with Google AdWords.
That way you will also get your ad on AOL.
|
Spiritual Law #4: The Law of Least Effort
Nature's intelligence functions with effortless ease ... with
carefreeness, harmony, and love.
And when we harness the forces of harmony, joy, and love, we create
success and good fortune with effortless ease.
The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra |
Marketing Blog Update
Tuesday,
March 16, 2004
Below is
the email I received from Google today. Some advertisers are
now able to get phone support from Google, which is great because
some times it can take over a day to get a response from them by
email.
Hello,
Thank you for advertising with the Google AdWords program. As a
special thank you, we are pleased to offer you an enhanced level of
customer support for being one of our top AdWords advertisers.
You can now call our customer support team toll-free for a quicker
response to questions about your account or the AdWords program in
general.
AdWords Specialists can be reached by first dialing 1-866-xxxxxxx
(866-246-xxxx). Then, please follow the steps below:
1. Press 2 to access the AdWords menu.
2. To expedite your call, press 1 to enter your Customer ID. This
number is located at the top of every page in your AdWords account,
next to your name and email address. You will then be connected to
the next available AdWords Specialist.
3. Press 2 if you do not have your Customer ID on-hand, and you
would like to be connected to the next available AdWords Specialist.
You can reach our AdWords Specialists by phone Monday - Friday, from
7AM to 7PM Pacific Time.
As always, we are happy to assist you in any way possible with your
AdWords account. Please feel free to contact us via email at adwords-support@google.com,
and we will reply to your message within one business day.
We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising
available.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
I made
about $2,800 in affiliate commission in the first two weeks of this
month. I had $212 in refunds and about $1,100 in advertising
expense, which gave me a net profit of about $1,488.
I have not
made a sale yet with any of the pay-per-lead campaigns I started
over the weekend. There are seven total. I still have all the
keyword bids set at $0.25.
As I
previously stated, clicks are coming very slowly since these are all
very competitive keywords. I'm not in a hurry and I'll keep the
keywords bids low until I make a sale.
Once I
make a sale with any of these affiliate programs I will get more
aggressive and raise all the bids. Right now I just want to run the
tests at the lowest possible cost to me.
|
Spiritual Law #5: The Law of Intention and Desire
Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its
fulfillment ... intention and desire in the field of pure
potentiality have infinite organizing power.
And when we introduce an intention in the fertile ground of pure
potentiality, we put the infinite organizing power to work for us.
The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra |
Marketing Blog Update
Thursday,
March 18, 2004
I
downloaded the free PDF995
software yesterday. It allows you to create a PDF file from a
document you create in any application (Word) and turn it into a PDF file.
It is
suppose to be easy to use. I thought I could create ebooks or reports and sell them on
eBay. Or perhaps I could give the ebooks away for free and
have affiliate links inside. Or perhaps the ebooks or reports could be sold from a website with a sales page.
Everyone
should consider creating their own products. That way you will have
control over them. One of the problems with affiliate products is that
you don't have total control over them. Meaning that a merchant can
stop the affiliate program or perhaps many other affiliates start
marketing it and it cuts into your profits.
Having
your own product, especially a profitable one, will allow you to
have your own new stream of income. An income stream that you
control. Who knows? Maybe you might even have affiliates selling the
product for
you.
Another
advantage of having your own product is that you can have a much
lower price than many of the products you have to compete against.
So if you have been getting a $15-$20 commission selling an
affiliate product, maybe you could sell your own similar product for $19.95
while the affiliate product might be $39.95.
Of course
if you are using affiliates to sell your product your pricing
strategy will probably be different.
I ended
all seven pay-per-lead affiliate product test campaigns I was
running. I
didn't get one sale, but there is always the chance that a sale
might come in later, but I'm not going to holdin my breathe.
I started
two new test campaigns today. I think I will stay away from starting
more than 2 or 3 new campaigns at one time. And I probably won't use
a pay-per-lead campaign again unless I come up with an idea that I
think will be unique and profitable.
I received
an
Affiliates Alert
email. New products have been added to the ClickBank
database. If you have the Professional Edition you will be able to
see them right away. However, if you have the standard version it
will be about a week before you will be able to view them.
|
Spiritual Law #6: The Law of Detachment
In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty ... in the wisdom of
uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is
the prison of past conditioning.
And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all
possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that
orchestrates the dance of the universe.
The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra |
Marketing Blog Update
Monday,
March 22, 2004
It has
been a few days since I last blogged. Quite frankly I am bored with
it and it is no longer fun for me. My motto is: "If it isn't fun, don't do
it."
So I have
decided that this is my last entry in my blog.
I will
continue to send out my newsletter from time to time. I don't send
out a newsletter very often. I only send one out if I have
some worthwhile information to share.
I intend
to continue marketing affiliate products. I cannot think of an
easier way to make money online that takes less time and effort.
What are
your intentions?
Regardless
of whether your intentions are for better health or more money, keep them in
your mind always. If you can believe it, you can achieve it.
Also learn
how to meditate. Your ability to go into the gap will enable you to
make contact with the force, spirit, God, or whatever you want to
call it. This connection will allow you to get whatever you want.
Best of
luck to you!
|
Spiritual Law #7: The Law of "Dharma" or Purpose in Life
Everyone has a purpose in life ... a unique gift or special talent
to give others.
And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we
experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is
the ultimate goal of all goals.
The
Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra |
