What Is Google Instant

So what is Google Instant?

Well it’s a new interface “that creates an interactive search experience for users” according to Dan Friedman, a member of the Google Inside Adwords team.

It works by displaying in real time search results as you are typing your query. It is predicting what you are searching from the letter sequence of your word.

So as you type “flow” you’ll see “ers”in light gray predicting the word flowers and the search results and ads will display in the Search page dynamically in real time.

If this isn’t what you are looking for and you continue to type it will go on predicting what it thinks you are looking for.

So in their example, flow becomes flowc or flowchart and the search results and ad display accordingly.

Benefits

Here are some benefits according to Google.

• immediate feedback
• more refined searches
• faster more relevant results
• relevant organic results
• relevant ads

Features

An important concept here is that of predictive search.  It combines real time and interaction with the user by “predicting the query as it is being typed” and “instantly showing updated results”.

The expectation is “increased user engagement” not only with the organic search results but also with the sponsored ads as well.

Impressions

An important element of Google Instant is how impressions are counted.

They are counted “if a user takes an action to choose a query”.

What does that mean?

Well it can mean these things according to Google.

• the user presses the Enter key
• the user clicks the search button
• the user clicks on the results page
• the user stops typing for three or more seconds

All of these actions will actuate a search result and create an impression.

For an advertiser and affiliate marketer working in PPC, this new development in search means a change in impression count with consequences yet to be measured in your campaign conversion rate.

The word from Google is that “Google Instant may ultimately improve the quality of your clicks since it helps users type queries that more directly connect them with the answers they need”.

Roll Out

Google instant is rolling out to users in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Russia on Google domains. And you need to use the latest browsers (Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5, for Mac and Internet Explorer v8).  You can only access Google Instant if you are signed into a Google account.

So there you have it. If you want a look check out my video on YouTube, Google Instant, How It Works.

Stay well, stay with it, may your travels be prosperous.

Hostgator Problem Solving

This can happen to anyone and does.

In the morning the website is up and running fine. In the afternoon you go to log in and you get a database error message.

Your site is down.

Luckily you backed up your data the day before after your last post so you don’t have to worry. Think again.

So you get on the phone and call your Host, in my case Hostgator.

I explain my situation to the Hostgator rep and he does some checking on his end. We end up loading in my back up and I notice that none of my images are loading on the site.

My embedded videos are there, the text data and banners are all showing. The sidebars all look good. It’s just the images that don’t load.

We decide at this point to fill in a ticket so that a back up database can be taken from the Sunday global back up Hostgator does on Sundays.

My rep is real patient as I fill in the ticket form with his assistance since I would have blown it if I had done it on my own.

I get email confirmation of my ticket submission with the notice that they will work as quickly as possible to implement it.

Thirty minutes later, I get confirmation that my back up has been loaded on the site. It’ll cost me $15. No problem.

When I go to the site I notice the problem hasn’t been solved. My images are still not there.

That tells me the database may not be where the problem is because on Sunday my site wars running fine and a back up would reflect that.

I call Hostgator and get Eric on the phone.

I lay out the issue to Eric and he reopens the ticket and starts to think it through.

Now these call centers don’t like to see a lot of time running on a call but at no time was there pressure to close it out and submit a new ticket.

He goes on the site and sees for himself what is going on and notes the missing images. LInks from the images are working, it is the image itself that is not loading.

So he does a couple of things. He checks the folder and files for the images and finds that they are there waiting to be referenced for loading.

He goes back and checks the integrity of the database and finds it to be in order. The database code has no errors and references the images for loading.

He then has to get authorization to go beyond his normal operating parameters and check the server status to see if it was connecting database with image files properly.

It is a hunch and it pays off.

Some forty minutes into the call, my site was back up and in full working order.

I want to thank Eric and Hostgator for the can do attitude. There are no problems only solutions if you have the right mindset and take the time to think out of the box.

Lessons learned.

Back up your site. That takes care of one important variable in the mix and makes it easier to eliminate that from the list of potential problems and find a solution.

Work with your rep. I was put on hold for three or four stretches of time. I considered that a plus. I was getting closer to a fix.

Take notes. You learn a lot from these experiences. I know what I’ll suggest if this happens again and I don’t get a rep as experienced as Eric.

And thank your Host. Thank you Hostgator, for giving your reps the time and space to work on solutions. Not all companies do that.

So there you have it. A day in the life of an affiliate marketer.

Stay with it ,stay well and may your travels be prosperous.

YouTube has introduced a new video section called Charts where it will be featuring top videos

It’s called Charts and is designed to keep you updated on which videos are trending in real time and also which are all time stand outs.

It also shows how videos measure up against each other.

It takes the top 100 in the most viewed, most subscribed and most liked categories.

You can filter by time frame; today, this week, this month and all time.  The one exception is the most subscribed does not filter for the today time frame.

YouTube would like to hear some suggestions from the community, so feel free to let them know.

I would like to see a break down by genre, say comedy, news, pets following the video types you can drill down on the browse categories page.

That said, it’s a great tool to see what is trending and I already got a couple of ideas of what might be some good niches to research.

So take a look and see for yourself.  You can check it out at www.youtube.com/charts.

I also have a video you can check out called YouTube Charts on my YouTube channel if you are a visual learner like me.

So stay with it, stay well and may your travels be prosperous.

Marcel Pagnol

Never thought I’d see a picture of Marcel Pagnol awaiting me in Facebook when I logged in today. But there was his picture. Smiling and ready. Seems my profile id’s are now communicating on a whole new level.

FB is scaling to offer more related content to me based on my profile defined likes and interests. I suppose I’ll be getting some book suggestions or maybe even Pagnol’s trilogy offered pretty soon in my ads.

There’s a howl going up now about where the privacy disclosure plans for FB are going though you can always opt to make your profile selections private.

As a marketer I think this offers demographic targeted marketing. This means a very interesting opportunity of reaching a finely targeted customer for a product or service. For charities and not profits it also means a whole new world of possibilities.

I wouldn’t rush to judgement just yet before seeing how all this will pan out. I think it will be a great way of receiving relevant suggestions for things I am interested in. And as a marketer it give me the opportunity to find a way to connect to the marketplace.

That is today’s tip of the day.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

PPC Profit Calculator

Mastermind Pros PPC Profit Calculator Tool

What if you could determine how much you should pay for a keyword in order to make a profit on a Pay Per Click campaign?

More people than are willing to admit it often launch a Pay Per Click campaign without fully knowing what their break even point is.

This goes with beginners as well as some advanced types who have been in business a while.  I witnessed a case study in which a super affiliate launched a direct linking campaign and two review sites for a software niche.  He lost $1500 on all three over a 3 week testing period and $2000 if you add in the design costs for his review sites.

Now there are a lot of factors that go into the success or failure of a PPC campaign, but there was no mention in this case study of how the cost per click worked in the campaign.  If fact I was not sure what the break even point was in terms of cost per click.   In other words, what is the highest you can bid before your campaign loses money no matter how many widgets you sell?

Well I found a tool called the PPC Profit Calculator that allows you to run numbers on a specific offer you may be researching.  It will ask you to input certain data like total exact search volume of the keywords you are using.  It will ask for a percentage of the total search volume you think will become impressions that your ads will show for.  It assumes a $1 a day spend to start. Yes, that’s right $1 a day budget to start.

You then input your estimated click through rate, cost per click, conversion rate, product price, and commission.  Once you’ve done that you can look at the profitability of your proposed campaign.

Their is one more input for a larger daily budget if you want to go with a higher daily budget.

The benefit here is that you get to see profitability numbers that show you if you are making money or not.  The beauty is that you can test different cost per click and conversion rates, as well as, click through rates to see what works and what doesn’t.

What I find when I research campaigns is that I will see by the cost per click and by the conversion rate whether a campaign makes sense or not.  For example, I tested a retail product campaign with commission rate of 8% and an average sales price of $90 and found that in order to make money, I needed a cost per click of  15 cents and a conversion rate of 6%.  For a PPC campaign that is a tall order. After testing every which way, I moved on to something else.

When I found a product line that ran $300 on up, my calculator gave numbers that began to make more sense.

You will get data that tells you what the maximum cost per click and minimum conversion rate should be in order for you to make money.  It will tell you what your maximum spend should be in your campaign.  With that information you can move ahead and look for products and services with pricing to make you a profit.

You will learn about the relationship between total exact search and impressions.  How to look to turn impressions into clicks.  When it is time to increase your click through rate to boost your conversions and what your maximum bid should be to stay profitable.

You will learn that increasing you budget will not increase you profits.  On the contrary, in some cases it will lose you money.

All in all the PPC profit calculator is a tool that every marketer should use in order to get data to make the right decisions.

For the advanced user it is a great tool.  For the beginner it is an essential tool that will teach you the key elements that control profitability.

So there you have it.  Take a look and see if it makes sense for you.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

How to Test A Pay Per Click Campaign At Low Risk For $1 A Day

The Strategy

As incredible as it may seem, there is a way to test a Pay Per Click campaign on a budget of $1 a day.

If you are new to Internet marketing and considering testing the PPC advertising waters, then this strategy is something you will want to consider.

If you are already launching campaigns for clients, or for your own account, this is also a marketing strategy that should be on your radar screen.

The typical pay per click management strategy calls for a minimum daily budget of $10-$50 as part of your testing plan. That means a test expenditure of between $300 and $1500 dollars over a 30day cycle. Even if you go with $5 a day, it still costs $150 a month out of pocket just to find out if a campaign works or not.

While a 30-day test period is a good way to test for traffic and sales, it is common for a product sales cycle to vary. One month can see sales while another may lose money. It takes time to really see what is profitable and what is not.

A $1 a day strategy allows you to control your costs all while developing your PPC advertising campaign. It helps in overcoming the fear of failure, not to mention the risk of financial loss, using a common sense approach that makes every dollar count.

The Process

The strategy breaks down the process into clear steps.

Keyword selection is the first step in the process. You need to research and select high capacity keywords that will drive traffic and offer low competition. You can also build large lists of low capacity keywords to aggregate numbers that drive traffic. The important point is that you use keywords are your traffic generators, sending prospects to your ads.

Ads are the vital second step in the process. Ad copy is what connects your prospect’s keyword to your product or service. The way a keyword relates to your ad copy and the ad copy to the landing page for the product or service determines your sales success. Writing effective and relevant ad copy is crucial in this stage of your PPC campaign.
It is what will make or break a sale.

If you have done it right. Your landing page or the merchant’s page will be a natural extension of the keyword and the ad copy. This all leads to sales.

Managing your budget is the other key part of the process. It determines how long you test and acquire data. What you spend is not the key factor. It is the duration of your testing that counts. The longer you test and collect data, the better. This is where the $1 a day budget has a major benefit. Why spend $100 over 30 days to get your data when you can get it for $30?

These are some of the parts of the strategy that make it a very attractive and effective testing tool.

Conclusion

If you are serious about marketing online, pay per click advertising will be one of the Internet marketing strategies you will need to learn and master. A marketing strategy that limits your risk and lets you test over time is something that should be in your plans.

This is not a way to get rich quickly.

It is a pay per click strategy that takes time and some money to learn. But it is a way to learn and execute pay per click advertising while controlling your budget and limiting your risk. For the small business owner, and for the not so small business owner, it certainly is worth investigating and seeing for yourself whether it makes sense or not.

So give it a try and make your business even more profitable.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous

PPC Marketing Strategy $1 A Day Plan

Pay Per Click Marketing Review

Mastermind Marketing Strategy Review

Mastemind Marketing Strategy Part 1 is a product I purchased and am implementing in my PPC campaign business.  It is a 96 page ebook and comes with a four part video series if you chose to order those as well.

I have the ebook and videos and use them as reference daily as I launch and test new PPC campaigns.

The basic thrust is that you can research and then test campaigns on daily budgets as low as $1 a day.  Yes you have it right $1 a day.  The thing to note is that this strategy allows you to test over a 30 day period at a fraction of the cost of the conventional strategies which say you start at $10,$20 or more a day.

What this does is allay the fear of losing a lot of money and let’s you test a greater number of campaigns than you would otherwise get to test.  While it does not give you the volume of data you would get if starting at a higher budget, it still gives you the same statistical trend as the higher budget campaigns.  While it takes more time to see what is happening, your ad spend is very reasonable., an important benefit to those who are just starting out in PPC campaign launches.

The ebook teaches a keyword research process for finding high capacity keywords and low capacity keywords and segmenting them into separate campaigns.

As in any PPC campaign, market research is the prime basis for any success.  So there is information on what you can do to  search outside of the crowd of the usual suspects and fadish trends that are hard to compete with if you are starting out.

Even if you are a seasoned veteran, the $1 A Day Plan is another way to look at testing ideas and products for potential profits.  It’s fast, cheap and easy if done right.

The ebook sells for $48 and the ebook/video combo goes for $96.  For me it is well worth the investment.  Frank Terranova who authored the program and who is President of Mastermind Pros is one the best, no nonsense trainers in the field of PPC advertising and tells it like it is.  This is not a get rich quick scheme and as someone who has worked other PPC programs I can  say that this is second to none in offering training and information to get you started.

If you are thinking of starting an online business and PPC is in your future, I highly recommend you consider this program.  I have read the ebook a number of times  and reviewed the videos several times for my own education as I research and launch campaigns.  It’s part of my daily work routine.  If you decide to try it I think you’ll be happy you did.

I hope this review has been helpful.

Stay well, stay with it and may your travels be prosperous.

PPC Classroom Live – Adrienne Devita

Adrienne Devita is the head trainer for PPC Classroom and a real gem of a person.  She is a go getter and get it done type of person.  Work smart, use common sense and don’t spend a ton of money as you move up the learining curve.  That can best summarize her philosophy for learning Internet Marketing.

She, like Shelby, builds SEO into everything she does in PPC advertising.  Her webinars are all based on using free tools, along with tactics and strategies that cost no money.  So for the beginner, she is exactly what you should be looking for in a teacher/mentor.

Her presentation was the very first one on the the very first day.  It was designed for beginners but there was a lot of information for all levels of marketers.

The first step in her process is to check out what is hot on some key sites.  Ebay, amazon, Buy.com, Dealcatcher,Dealcoupon are some of the sites that you can use to get ideas and see what’s hot.

The next step is to do some keyword research and find the “buying” keywords for your product or service.  Get a sense of the cost and how competitive these words are.  Buying keywords are very targeted and specific with action verbs,adjectives and adverbs that show real intent to buy.  For example, new car is too general.  Black,2007 BMW 750i low mileage and mint condition, is better.  The more detailed and specific the term, the closer you are to finding buying keywords; words that are in the final cycle of the customer’s buying continuum.

But finding keywords is just the beginning of the process because you have to check out the competition and see what they are doing.  You also have to see and check out the profile of your customer.  Competitive information is done using Google’s search results on one hand, and then going to the Google Free Keyword tool, on the other.  In the organic results you can see who is placing in the middle organic return and on the top and righthand side for the page, you can see who is advertising using PPC.  That is where your competition is if you are going to use Pay Per Click advertising.

Google Insights and Google Trends are tools that will give you the geographic and time sensitive information regarding your niche.  Tools like Quantcast and Alexa can give you the psychcographic and demographic information that you need to know about your customer.

Once you have done your market research and all your homework about your niche and your customer, then you are ready to find the product and service that fits tightly to your customer’s need.

You want to make sure that all along the way Search Engine Optimization is properly executed on your product landing page, your merchant’s landing page and any pages along the way.  You want to make sure your merchant landing page is well designed to lead to the sale, with no click outs or phone numbers or anything that takes away from the sale.  But  you have to remember that SEO, is as important as pricing and keyword selection and all the pieces that go into designing a PPC campaign.

She also made clear the importance of developing an integrated business plan with several revenue streams.  Consulting for business clients, teaching, article marketing, and any related activity you can charge for in order to have multiple streams of income.  Putting all your eggs in one PPC basket is not the way to go.

So there you have it.  The presentation was high energy and really brought home the idea that you have to go out and do it.  Launching 5 or more campaigns a week was one suggestion she had.  You have get the experience to move ahead and there is no shortcut to launching and learning as you go.

Implicit in all this is the notion that you need to pick a system and stick with it.  It takes time to master Internet Marketing and jumping from one program to another before you have given yourself the time to learn the basics of your initial choice is not the way to go.

These were some of the bits of advice that came with the demos  during her time onstage.

I hope this was helpful.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

On the afternoon of day 3, Shelby Larson, a writer by training, mother of 5 and homeschooler by day and night and internet entrepreneur, presented a program called Buyer Attarction Marketing.  Actually, that’s more the category, she has a product called Contol Your Rankings, that she offers in partnership with Howie Schwartz.

The program is an outsourcing system that creates content, optimizes your web sites for keywords you select, creates 2.0 websites and bookmarks in your niche to build backlinks and establishes authority for your sites and your business.  It is a system that caters to Google’s standards of relevance and desire for the optimum user satisfaction and promises to deliver your sites to the top of Google’s organic rankings.

Her presentation keyed in on the importance of selecting buying keywords, presenting your content with rich media and diversified channels, with emphasis on strong landing pages the presell effectively and convert to sales.

Her system is very research intensive and looks for total integration of various media and venues.  Part of the process is to look at the competitive landscape and see where the “holes” are in the competition and exploit them when you find them.

A lot of the tools presented were tools you expect to find; spyfu,compete.com, quantcast and a few more.  Backlinking tactics and strategies such as comments on Yahoo answers and authority sites in your niche area were demonstrated live online. All of the strategies and tactics were high on SEO and the necessary on page and off page optimizing that has to happen in order to rank with Google.

The most attractive aspect of the system is the fact that all of what she layed out is what her company does and the beauty is in the outsourcing.  For the business owner who needs to run his or her business, you can leave all of the above to Shelby and her team.

A lot of the presentations emphasized PPC tactics and strategies to work the  Google system.  Shelby’s pitch worked the SEO and a lot of the non PPC areas of Internet Marketing which are an essential part of affiliate and internet marketing.

It was interesting because my immeadiate neighbor sitting next to me through the three day conference did not buy any of the products presented until Shelby showed up.  He did sign up for her optimization system for his online ad agency business.

All this to say that SEO and backlinking, manual and automated, article marketing, off page, on page optimization play an essential part of any marketing plan online.  And outsourcing in many ways is the only way to get it done if you are operating with limited staff and working from home.

That’s it, hope this was helpful.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

Mark Ling presented on the last day and at the last slot.  That meant he had to keep people’s attention after three full days of sitting and listening for the crowd at hand.

Guess what?  He did just that.

He was funny, engaging and very effective at going on line live to demo what he was talking about. 

Since he is in the top three merchant ranking in revenue generated and products produced on Clickbank, he had alot to say about working effectively on that network.

He demo’ed Building a Chicken Coop, an ebook on how to build a beautiful house for your egg laying freinds.  In passing he mentioned he looks for products with a minimum gravity of 30 but really any good product will do if it has momentum on the upside.  Sources of product ideas included Amazon, forums particular to a specific niche,keywords that have high traffic and even better “crisis” appeal, since that denotes strong demand to buy a solution.  He looks for author names, product names  and checks out review sites to see what is moving and what sectors are hot.

He also stressed the importance of on page optimization.  Meta tags (title,description,keyword),headlines,1-4% keyword density and the importance of building backlinks all figure into the Ling system of making money online.

On his web sites, the use of a Pop over option box was very useful.  This is different than the back button blocker prevelant on many landing pages and this must be noted since Google will slap any site and affiliate connecting to a site with an exit or back button blocker.

He also stressed the importance of email marketing and building and servicing a list.  He suggested offering a six part mini course in your niche,  properly designed with privacy and disclaimer policies. His autoresponder campaigns go out seven days with a time limit and bonus list as part of the campaign design.  Time limits and bonuses are crucial to success.

The trick behind finding success lies in looking off the beaten path more often than not.  Staying away from the pool and going to the beach where you have a whole ocean open to you was the metaphor for the success.

International markets were one area of limited competition, but you have to take the time to learn.  Image ads on the content network, forum signatures, writing free reports, use of squeeze pages and finding joint venture partners were among the many ways an affiliate could design a well rounded campaign for a particular niche.

A lot of what Mark said was material already known to many in the audience, but his demonstration live online was very helpful demonstrating how some of this all comes together.

All in all it was a fitting end to a very informative and enjoyable conference because it left on a positive and inspirational note.  It made you want to go out and launch a bunch of campaigns.

Hope this was helpful.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

PPC Classroom Live – Emil

Emil Paz is the creator of PPC Bully, a keyword research tool that gives you lots of competitive intelligence on campaigns running on the web.  Emil told the story of his own experience (Adventurer/Crusader in Frank Kern terminology), leaving a secure job, losing $10,000 bidding in AdWords and then having an epiphany. He decided to see what the real winners were doing and and decided to copy them in order to make money online.

In order to see what they were doing, he had to see what keywords the winners were using, what kind of ads they were writing and how successful they truly were.  With a couple of buddies he developed this tool and called it PPC bully.  It will track a campaign and display keyword information, indexed over time, and show you how these keywords are converting to sales.  He also showed how his tool can filter to find Ads that are profitable and making money for the campaign being researched.

His presentation was a very good demonstration of the importance of doing you research and due diligence before launching a Pay Per Click campaign and underscored the advantage you have with the information that shows what works and what does not work online.  In short the real benefit is that you can avoid making mistakes by copying those who have already made them and now are running successful campaigns.

The idea is not to clone literally but to build and improve on the data you get from a tool like PPC Bully.

That is the long and short of his presentation.  His official launch for his product was June 9 and I am sure it did achieve a pretty decent distribution.  It is something that is a must if you are going to build a business online, and given the competitive landscape, it is one of the best products I’ve seen.

I use Google Cash Detective and am very satisfied with it.   But I admit that if I were looking at buying a campaign intelligence tool I would look at PPC Bully as an option.  I believe it is priced in the $1500 range.  That is pretty much what these tools go for when you get serious about gathering real time data.  They can save you much more money than they cost, if you take the time to learn how use them properly.

And that brings us to an important point.

None of these tools is a silver bullet that will bring instant wealth.  They are the tools of the trade that help you make business decisions about what to promote and sell online.  In fact, in some cases, like with Google Cash Detective, they are educational systems with video tutorials and regular live webinars to teach you how to develop your business.  So they should not be looked at as one shot quick buys to a family fortune.  Such is also the case with PPC Bully.

So there you have it.

Hope this was interesting.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

PPC Classroom Live Review

Greg Cesar was the second presenter of the first day and was very engaging and interesting.  He is an Adwords expert, extemely successful and offered really concrete and clear lessons on how to set up your business online.

Greg’s basic approach is to keep things simple and not reinvent the wheel.  The trick is to find a wheel that is rolling and works.  That means find a market that is thriving, where affiliates are making money and then do lots of research.

Greg’s research begins with organic search results for a keyword he thinks he wants to bid on.  For example he used “web design” as an example because his company offered that service to the small and large business community.  He suggested looking at the same organic search results to monitor who showed up on the ads results at the top and right of the search page and keep a running score on the competition.  Knowing who your competition is and learning how they price their offer is important and tells you how to proceed with your pricing and positioning.  This process can take a couple of weeks and even longer depending on the market.  If done right you will have the knowledge of how best to launch into the niche you are researching. In his case he literally prints out the SERP on a daily basis and looks at the trends.

Keyword research is the next step and the Google Adwords Keyword tool is the first step.  Using the competitor url will tell you how Google sees your main competition and what keywords are being bid on.  Wordtracker and freekeywords are also a couple of tools Greg uses to come up with releavant and competitive keywords.  Bidding keywords is one approach, bidding domain names, book titles, celebrity names tied to the niche with spelling variations on these categories round out the keyword research process.  There are other tools available and you will develop some of your own over time but for just starting out, the readily available tools he suggests can work fine.

Once you have done the market and keyword research it’s time to launch and test.

The trick in all this according to Greg, is to think out of the box and avoid ending up on the same path to the sale as everyone else.  Look for different versions of a niche to sell to a product.  Look to sell on Yahoo and MSN when it’s appropriate.  You might even start with Yahoo and MSN to test and scale before going to Google.  In other words, be original in your approach and in finding the path to your customers satisfaction and pocket book.

Greg’s process is to establish a relationship. educate your customer, provide value and then close the sale.  You will want to make an attractive offer up front, even give away up front, in order to sell a bunch of offers back end.  The different ways to build your business include creating yuor own product, building a lead generation process, building a list to which you can make multiple offers over time.

Over time he suggested offering your serives to small businesses, pricing setting up a Google adwords account for $2500 and charging $500 a month to maintain it.  Then building that over time into a more sustained and higher priced retainer as the business profits grow

The key to success is to be able to answer Who, What, Where, Why and When of affiliate marketing.

Who are the customers?

What are they looking for?

Where are they looking for it?

When do they want it?

When do they need it?

If you you do you research right, you have the answeers to those basic questions , you will succeed in your campaign.

The only thing left to do with all of this information, is to take action.  With action there is no business.  So go for it!

That is gist of Greg’s presentation.  For those interested you can look Greg up Online and check out his offers.

Hope this was helpful.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

Mike Morgan, the premier copywriter, gave a great presentation on writing copy for ads, landing pages and just plain good writing.  As a veteran of 25 years of broadcast television, I can appreciate the importance of good content and great copy.  It is easier said than done and Mike gave a good look at what it takes.

Internet marketing is not effective without great communication and persuasion.  You need to know what your customer is looking for, what they want and learn how to address that need as directly and clearly as you can.

Mike pointed out that there are eight “elite” needs, aspirations, motivations we all share.  These can form the basis for crafting a headline, subheadline, call to action and ad copy.  He described them as follows:

1. Survival–we all have the need to survive, enjoy life and look for life extension opportunities.  So this is one emotion with strong aspirational pull.

2. Enjoyment of food and drink—this draws on survival and goes to the deeper need to eat and drink to maintain both physical and mental health.

3.  Freedom from fear and pain–this appeals to all forms of fear both physical and psychological. Pain , whether it’s back pain or depression, is also a great motivator for action.

4.  Sexual companionship–is there anyone that doubts that the sex drive in not a primal factor in motivating behavior?

5.  Comfortable living conditions–this speaks to the need for a safe haven and an environment where we feel safe, wanted and relevant.  A place that recognizes our value.

6.  Superiority, winning, keeping up with the Jones–we are all competitive animals aware of our relative position in the grand scheme of things and always looking for an edge to keeps us ahead of the crowd.

7.  Care and Protection of Loved Ones–this addresses the very instinct of protecting our inner circle from all harm.  It dates from the cave days and is another primal instinct that has a very strong pull.

8.  Social Approval–we all want recognition and rewards for our work.  Ego plays a big role here.  Having your self worth validated is something we all aspire to and will seek when we can.

The presentation was filled with more advice on how to work a routine and how to select the right wording.  Mike showed how you want to define the tension that motivates desire.  This leads to a need to take action to satisfy the need.  This process is done through great copy that has relevance, clarity, connects with the prospect and validates that prospects experience. Validation means the action is something that appears entirely doable to the person reading the copy.

By the way, Mike pointed out that you want to write 7th grade copy. No fancy words, or long sentences, use simple copy and make it short and to the point.

There are several approaches that work well.  “Saving money”, “the big promise”, “the money back guarantee”, the “how to” and the “tell a story” are but some of the formats that are tried and true.

If you follow some of these points, or if you take a course with Mike to learn some of the basics, then copywriting does not have to be the dreaded task it is for many who fear writing.

It was a very compelling presentation on the importance of copywriting and writing in general, something that often falls by the wayside in all the noise, yet something that you cannot ignore if you want to succeed online.

Hope this was useful.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

The Google Review Process

On the very first day  Simon Leung did a presentation that was a biography of his work history with Google and a brief tease of what he would present on Day 2.   The tease was a 12 point list of things you need to know about how Google views affiliate marketing.  It was the information we all were interested in hearing.  Not necessarily because there would be anything earth shattering but just to confirm what some already knew or suspected.

One rumor or myth that was dispelled had to do with direct linking.  There were some who thought that Google no longer supported direct linking and wanted all affiliates to go with landing pages and authority sites.  While that is clearly the desired path Google prefers, direct linking, if done right, is still an option that is available to the affiliate marketer.  So much for that one.  Chris Carpenter was right when he declared in one of his presentations that direct linking is far from over.

On Day 2 Simon did a very animated and informative presentation on 12 important points and here they are:

1.  All ads in Google Adwords are manually reviewed.  Hard to believe but true.

2.  The user experience is the main focus of the Google reviewer.  The advertiser or affiliate marketer is a distant second in Google’s consideration.

3.  Do not put ads in your landing pages.  Keep them for page 2.  Put relevant and useful information for the user, no adsense, text links for flash ads. That will give a good Quality Score.

4.  The landing page/website layout should look professional and corporate.  Avoid the template look and cheap graphics.  Your site has to look top notch.

5.  Use short copy in your sales content not the run on format typical of scams.  Scams equals long copy.

6.  Your main keywords deserve their own landing pages.  Why?  Because relevancy and delivering what the use expects means higher conversions and higher quality score.

7.  Don’t insert outbound links, back button blockers,or click outs.  They will get you slapped.

8.  In your “about tab” or even on the site, include professional done photos of yourself, even photos that prove you authority in your niche or marketplace.

9.  Include proper content pages, disclaimer, privacy policy, contact and about tabs.  They are essential to establish the legitimacy of your site.

10.  Strive to improve the user experience with clear easy navigation, quality content and superior customer service.

11.  The product or service has to be perceived as quality and relevant to the user need.

12  In a lead generation page, you need to be very clear about the reasons and benefits for collecting user information.  You need to have a privacy policy clearly stated.  There can be no mention of “free” services if registration is required.  You need to convince the reviewer of the respect for privacy and the need for relevant information.

These are the main points to understand about the review process.  Simon made clear that though there is an appeal process, you do not want to cross the reviewer the wrong way because they can make your life quite difficult.  This a process where perceptions and judgement can be subjective and you have to go with the flow.

There it is in a nutshell.  A lot of what was presented was already known by the veterans but for many others it was helpful to hear confirmation of information that was largely partially known or misunderstood.

It was a very interesting session all in all.

Hope this post was helpful.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

PPC Classroom Live

Keyword Research and the Google Wonder Wheel

Howie Schwartz gave a really great presentation. No powerpoint, just pure Howie and live online demos of where to find great keyword ideas and research using Google free resources. He started by asking for a volunteer and a woman from Kansas who sells Geodeisic Dome Kits to build a dome home, steel and concrete, no composites, volunteered. She was great and discovered her website was in the number one position for her main keyword “dome home”. I think that was it. Anyway, Howie took her through organic search, suggested keywords at the bottom of the page and then to a new feature under the options tag on the upper left of the search page.

Under the options tag appear a number of tools you can select. One is called the Wonder Wheel. Select that and you get a return of all related keywords to the root keyword of the page. It is a great way to mine for ideas and is an indicator of what Google is telling you about your niche, your keywords and what you might do to optimize your site.

There were a number of those tools to go through and that is just what happened with two volunteers. The second volunteer had a RV lifestyle site.

Howie showed how you can harvest negative keywords to further target your campaign by going through the suggested keywords that were not relevant to your niche and building you list from that process. Checking videos on YouTube, reviews and relevant forums and blogs was part of the mix.

The main point of the exercise is to find a problem people want solved and then go about getting to the solution.

To test, you want to test 7-10 days using 300-500 keywords tracking exact match. A great way to find out what your customer wants is to have a survey that gives that customer the chance to tell you what they are looking for. Key is to give a test the time and getting enough data to determine if you have buyers not tire kickers.

Oh by the way, according to Howie, marketing online is like going to war. It is a war and there are no friends to be made when you are on the field. If it’s fun you want to have stay home and take up a hobby.

There is the long and short of it. If you want to find out more check Howie out, just google his name.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

Just returned from PPC-Classroom Live in Las Vegas.  It was three days of presentations by the best in the business and gave those in attendance a chance to see what was available as far as marketing systems go.

The first day Anik and Amit gave a general overview of the program and tips on how to launch and test a campaign. It was very helpful to see that launching and testing was not only tough on the new marketer but can be just as trying for the veteran

Basically what came out of this was that launching is a numbers game. You have to launch multiple products to see which one will make a partial return or maybe break even before deciding what to drop and what to grow and scale.

The odds run at one out of every ten before something takes hold.  That means that you have to be persistent and clever in your research to make things work for you.  With that in mind it was left to the next day to see and hear from the line up how you could make things work in your favor.

The first up, Simon Leung, the wunderkind who developed the very Google AdWords gauntlet that all marketers go through. Stay tuned for that write up.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

L

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I just spent the week end with the StomperNet 2.0 dvd set that was distributed as a freebie.  For the newcomer to the affiliate marketing scene this is material that is very useful to have.

The first dvd is a series of conversations between Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins on the basics of keyword research and SEO optimization along with anecdotal history behind their respective success as internet marketers.  It is definitely very educational and useful stuff to hear.  The process and logic that they offer is a must to know about and practice.

The downside of the first dvd is that the conversations took place in 2004.  A lot has changed on the Web since then so some of what they talk about, like Yahoo Overture for example, no longer is relevant today.  So that is the limitation of the first dvd.

The second dvd is up to date and gives an overview of the program they will offer along with informaiton about the current search engine environment regarding spamming, white,gray,and black seo practice and what to expect in upcoming lessons to get you going.  There is a presentation of the first major lesson on how search engines work.

The program then goes on to 8 more modules that I will review as I move through the program.

To follow up after the freebie you have to sign up for the program.

I found the material really useful and a must know if you want to be in this business in a serious way.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous

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Thought I’d review the Internet Marketing process I learned from the 30 Day Challenge. It is an approach that makes sense and applies to a product or service offering that you may have in mind. It also addresses the fact that most online (and offline for that matter) business start ups fail for the following reason. They have the process wrong from the beginning.

A lot of people pick a product or develop a technology and then try to find a market for it. That is putting the cart before the horse and is why lots of money and effort go to waste.

The 30 Day Challenge process does not do that. It is as follows: market research, traffic, conversion, product.

Market Research

Market research involves taking an idea and doing some serious keyword research at the outset. That means finding out what people are actually using as search terms when looking for a product or service. What terms are they using? How often are those terms being used in a 24 hour period? In short what are they looking for specifically. You want to mine your research to find a niche that allows you to start a small business under the radar. You don’t want to pick an area where the big guys will crush you in a minute.

There are tools and methods to help you do that. Google adwords, Wordtracker and one that I like Market Samurai.

Once you have developed your keyword list, you are ready to test for traffic with a test product or service.

Traffic

Traffic is one of the critirea of keyword selection. You need to pick keywords that have a minimum volume of use in order to assure that enough traffic (better known as customer demand) is there for your product or service. That demand has to be qualified demand, people who want to buy, not customers who are just browsing.

How do you create traffic? One way is to write content, ie articles, and post on different sites and article directories. The other way involves buying your traffic through Pay Per Click on Google Adwords. The latter involves an investment of anywhere from $100 to $500 in the early stages.

Conversion

Once you have traffic coming in,  you want to measure the volume that is visiting your site. 200 visits per day is the minimum volume the 30 Day Challenge looks for. If you have a 1% conversion rate you would get 2 buyers per day. That is considered low. If you get a 5% conversion rate, or 10 buyers per day, that is considered great and you have a winner site.

Product selection

Product selection occurs after you have passed the keyword selection, traffic and conversion testing and you know you have a site that will convert. If it does not convert, drop the test site and start over.

If you have a site that tests well, then you go and search for a series of products or services that will build on the product or service concept you just tested.  You are now on your way to building your Internet Marketing business.

This in short is the 30 Day Challenge process.  It is one that I have found makes far more sense to me than the get rich quick schemes that proliferate the Web.  This is not a short and easy path to riches.  It is a methodical approach to starting an Internet Marketing business whether you try the 30 Day Challenge or chose to go your own way.

Take a look for your self and see if it makes sense for you.  I think you will find it does.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous

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I signed up for +Partnering Profits, a program offered through Copyblogger. It is written by Jon Morrow, a partner of the owner/creator of Copyblogger, Brian Clark. I received the 158 page eBook that anchors the course and read it over the first couple of days after was emailed.

Overall I am impressed with the information and the emphasis on the business of partnering as much as the tactics and strategies that Jon and Brian are going to teach. One thing that I have found missing from other offers is precisely how to go about setting up a viable business online. It is no surprise that setting up the legal framework for an online business is no different than setting up an offline business. It’s just that it doesn’t get covered in most of the other products I have bought. So that is a big plus from the get go.

As far as the course is concerned the first installment starts December 4, so we’ll see how that plays out. The cost for the early adopters is $97. That includes the eBook, the follow up training and one year membership in the +Partnering Profits forum.

I’ll be making periodic updates so stay tuned.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

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Took in Lynn Terry’s SelfStarterWeeklyTips webinar today. It was very informative and useful. Among the important points to remember:

• Don’t pretend to be what you are not. If you have a blog let folks know what you can do for them and be ready to help.
• When posting several items to your main home page use the “read more” function on your longer posts to keep information in smaller increments. That way you don’t overwhelm your visitor with too much information. The “read more” function also shows your reader is really interested in the article and is more apt to leave a comment.
• Lynn left a couple of useful links. One is for learning to use and editorial calendar in order to schedule regular content to your blog. It’s a blog activity organizer. http://www.clicknewz.com/1389/babb-13-use-an-editorial-calendar-for-your-blog/
• The other link is for Yanik Silver’s Web Site analyzer. Check it out and see if this is for you. http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/free/dl/14-point-web-copy-analysis.pdf

Hope this is useful for you.

May Your Travels be prosperous.

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Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

Partnering Profits Teleclass

It is snowing and no one is going anywhere right now so what better time to write about something fun and interesting.

Thursday night I sat in on the third teleclass of Partnering Profits. Brian Clark. founder of Copyblogger and host of the class, was interviewing Rich Schefren, founder of Strategic Profits.  The discussion was two hours and coming from television, I thought that it could never hold up.  I’m used to working in two to three minute segments, so it was going to be interesting to see how Brian would pull this off.

To my surprise as Rich began to tell his story, time just seemed to melt away.  The threads developed from the beginning business that Rich turned around, a retail store in lower Manhattan that was a family business, to his latest projects online in which he forms successful joint ventures with some of the biggest names in direct response and Internet Marketing.  Brian kept the focus on the role of partnerships in growing your business so the session covered  all aspects of how joint ventures play a vital role online.

Tactics and how to structure a deal were covered, but it was the personal story lines that really added depth to the session.  For example, Rich told the story of moving to Florida and meeting the realtor who was showing him properties.  Long story short, he formed a partnership with the realtor and set up an online business to funnel leads to his realty office.  They agreed to a profit split and Rich was off to his first successful venture in his new found home.

The intangibles were also covered.  When and how to use your gut to feel out the compatibility factor before you enter a partnership.  How to place value on what each partner brings to the deal.  How to gauge when the time is right to approach someone.  How to approach someone.  Do you look for partners on your level or do you shoot for someone who is a notch higher than you are?  What about the level of commitment?  What if partner does not have the same drive you do?  How do you pace yourself to avoid burn out?  What does it take in the early phase of establishing yourself to make things happen?

All these issues were covered and when the session was over, you felt like you do after a great run; like you had accomplished something that was good for you.  Not bad for sitting there for two hours.  Actually, it was not all sitting.  There was time for some Q and A.  A lot of good stuff came out of that too.

All in all it was well worth it.  So there you have it.  If you are going to set out on the Web, it is nice to able to hear from the top performers. It is also sobering because it tells you the level of commitment needed in order to compete with the big guys.  So what are you waiting for?  Get to it.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous

Claude Pelanne

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-Allan Gardyne, AssociatePrograms.com

The definitive guide to planning and managing a successful online affiliate business

“Make a Fortune Promoting Other People’s Stuff Online” is your hands-on guide to starting your own profitable affiliate marketing business quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Leading affiliate marketing authority Rosalind Gardner gives you a proven five-step plan for identifying a niche with a huge market, choosing products to promote, and selling the benefits effectively. You’ll see how to: Navigate the different affiliate programs, from commissioned-based “ click-through” programs to CPM impressions to flat-fee referral Identify the products and programs that are profitable-and the ones to avoid Ask the right questions before you join an affiliate program Research, understand, and sell to your niche market Negotiate for a higher percentage on your commission Stay on top of developments in the industry

Packed with time- and money-saving techniques-including twelve ways to drive traffic to your website at no cost-this comprehensive guide is all you need to make big profits as an affiliate marketer

Rosalind Gardner is the creator of several successful online businesses and the author of the bestselling “Super Affiliate Handbook,” Her website is NetProfitsToday.com.

Product Specification :

ISBN :0071478132
Format aperback: 249 pages
Publisher :McGraw-Hill
Date Published :04/26/2007
List price :21.95

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