The Difference between now and then…
When mentoring publishers, I am often asked what is the biggest difference between when I started, and where I am at now. The answer, although seems quite simple, is actually what I believe is the key to success in this industry. I’ve been doing online marketing for quite some time (started in 2001) in all the different aspects of internet marketing and became really serious about search marketing specifically about 4 years ago. Below are some points based on my personal reflection between me now and then:
1.) Start campaigns with $1000 to spend, not $100! When I was starting off, I did the common mistake of depositing $100 into my Adwords account, and seeing where that got me. After I blew through the money in an hour, I would freak out and call my campaign a failure. This is HARDLY the case. There is a TON of trial and error in campaigns, especially when starting off. One ad group may get creamed and lose $80, while your other ad group may get a ton of leads for $20. The important thing to realize is that your statistics are worthless unless you have enough data to prove they do or do not work. 20 clicks and no conversions on an offer that pays $50 a lead does NOT mean it’s a failure. What happens if 2 clicks in a row convert? All the sudden your “failed” campaign is a huge success. It is important to make sure your keywords have atleast 70-100 clicks each before you make any decisions. In most cases, this will require more than $100 for your campaign to figure out. I’d say closer to $1000. Once I started depositing more money into my Adwords accounts, I started finding that MOST of my campaigns were actually having some sort of avenue to profitability. I found my converting keywords/ad variation combinations and scaled my traffic. This was only possible because I had put the proper amount of money into trial and error.
2.) If you’re not a designer, don’t create your own landing pages! There’s nothing wrong with admitting that a professional landing page designer is better at designing landing pages than you. Realize this, and accept it. A solid landing page increases your chances at success substantially. If you are truly serious about trying to succeed at online marketing, do it the right way. Spend the $100 and get your page done by someone who knows what they are doing. It could be the difference between your campaign hitting, or missing.
3.) Develop a healthy disregard for money. Don’t stress over a loss. Look at the situation similar to a college education. You are paying to learn. Be sure to reflect on every swing at a campaign, and develop a conclusion from your attempt. Document what you learn. The only way you really lose money, is if you don’t learn something new.
4.) Scale like CRAZY!!! If you find a particular keyword or niche that is working, SCALE! Do not hold anything back. Go after every single engine, every single language possible. Examine new traffic sources. You need to milk every cent of profit from you findings. You will find yourself in regret for not doing this when your niche dies down. Don’t leave a cent left on the table!
5.) Track your results thoroughly! This is the main reason why I made Bevo Media. I always found it a pain to track my results thoroughly, however it is of the utmost importance. I mean much more than tracking your keywords too. You should track your landing page and ad variations thoroughly. I built Bevo Media based on my needs as an affiliate marketer, and once I started tracking my results thoroughly with it, I found it much easier to draw conclusions about the aspects of my campaign that were successful, and optimized from there.
6.) DO NOT GIVE UP! A full time affiliate marketer, may as well be considered a full time ‘trial and error’ expert. 90% of the game is trial and error. Just keep trying different combination of keywords, landing pages, offers and ad variations. You are bound to hit eventually. Use your resources, such as your affiliate managers to let you know what niche is hot at the time. If you have a niche that is proven to be converting extremely well at the moment, then you know it’s working for somebody. It’s just the matter of figuring out the right combination within you campaign!
These are all points that have cost me both time and money to realize, and feel all newbies can get a jump start to success from my sharing. Do yourself a favor and take these points seriously. Don’t cut corners. Affiliate marketing is a dream job, but it’s still a job. Strive to be the best, but you need to earn it first. Lazy people do NOT succeed in life, no matter what the situation is. So work hard and celebrate after!
-RB
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The Art of Creating an Attractive Ad which Appeals to the “Right” Audience
Did you think that if your ads have an impressive CTR, the campaign(s) will automatically end up being profitable? Wrong! Think about it: the most important thing is convincing the people who click to perform a certain action. Maybe you’re selling something, maybe you want them to sign up for something.
Even if you have a brilliant landing page, convincing the “wrong” audience to perform the action(s) in question is so hard that it’s just not worth it. Most people think that it’s your job as an affiliate marketer to convince as many people as possible to click on an ad. Well, it’s not.
Do You Want Lots of “Curious Clickers”?
Here’s the thing: even a complete beginner can come up with an ad which is so “different” (weird, interesting, maybe even shocking) that lots and lots of people end up clicking. But there’s just one problem: most of them would be “curious clickers” who have no interest whatsoever in what you’re offering. They would click that shiny ad of yours, drop by and then leave.
In other words, you’d practically be throwing money away. While it is true that you will get cheaper clicks if your CTR is high (after all, networks display ads based on how much money they make from each of them – they make more money from people with low bids but a huge CTR than from people who are willing to pay a lot more per click but have an ad which nobody wants to check out), it still just won’t be worth it in most cases.
Exact Science + Art = $$$
Affiliate marketing is an exact science as well as an art and in this case, you have to find the right balance between creating an attractive ad and not making it appealing to the wrong crowd. It sounds complicated but it really isn’t. If you have at least some basic understanding of marketing, you’ll be fine.
All you have to do is make the ad “different” but still make it perfectly clear what you’re offering. The potential visitors need to know exactly what they’d end up finding if they choose to drop by. Show them what your site is all about in a unique way. Tweak, tweak and tweak some more. Find something that works, scale. Rinse and repeat. Have fun!
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Most people start out by thinking that being an affiliate marketer is a piece of cake: sitting in front of your computer for a while, checking your stats and… well, that would pretty much be it according to most folks.
In a way, they’re actually right. There are a handful of marketers out there who have decided that they no longer want to hustle, that they want to take it easy and limit themselves to simply keeping their current projects alive. Sure, that involves work as well but still, we could say that these people are “living the live”.
But Can You Do That?
Probably, but definitely not right from the beginning! The problem is that the affiliate marketers who have decided to take it easy are a minority and that getting there was anything but a walk in the park.
Most (probably all) of the people who are now “living the life” have started out as workaholics, there’s just no other way. Learning the ropes, banging your head against the wall, making mistakes: it’s all a part of the game! Some people quit, others keep on hustling. The world can sometimes be a painfully simple place, there are winners and there are losers.
Adapt or Give Up
Unfortunately, nobody really cares if you think that life’s hard. The world is what it is, the Web is what it is. There are lots of life-changing opportunities out there and it’s ultimately your responsibility to make things happen. Ask any successful (online or offline) business owner out there, you simply have to suck it up and hustle when you’re starting out.
After one of your businesses (maybe a site, maybe a campaign, maybe several campaigns) is pretty much on autopilot, then maybe (just maybe) you can afford to take it easy for a while and reap the rewards of your hard work. After the (short) celebration though, it’s back to hustling if you want to stay on top.
If making lots of money online were as easy as most people think it is, everyone would be doing it. Why work 9 to 5 if you can make 10x more money just like that? Here’s the thing: yes, there are countless “harder” careers out there but this doesn’t mean that anyone and his dog can make it as an affiliate marketer. In fact, most people fail miserably because they’re not willing to keep at it when things get tough. Adapt or give up, what will it be?
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All of us want a piece of the action and that’s exactly why there’s an insane amount of competition when it comes to traffic, especially sources which have been proven to work. Let’s assume that you’re a beginner who wants some traffic: where do you go? In most cases, the answer is AdWords, YSM and/or AdCenter. Maybe Facebook, it depends on which websites, forums or blogs you have been reading.
But what about “Obscure” Traffic Sources?
Most people don’t have a huge budget at their disposal, so they’re not really willing to venture into the unknown. Second tier traffic sources may or may not be worth it, there’s just no way of knowing for sure until you test.
If you get it right, congratulations: you’ve just discovered a great traffic source where there isn’t a lot of competition. If your test campaigns end up being flops, too bad: learn a few lessons, analyze the data you’ve practically paid for and move on if you think that the traffic source in question doesn’t deserve a second chance.
Is Sticking with Established Traffic Sources the Smart Thing to Do?
There really is no “right or wrong” answer to this question, it depends. On the one hand, at least you know that you’re dealing with a legitimate company but on the other hand, you’ll have to compete with a lot of other marketers for a slice of the pie.
Let’s analyze AdWords Search as an example. If you’re an affiliate marketer and want to target extremely competitive terms, the chances of succeeding are slim to none. Why? Simply because you’ll be competing with networks and/or merchants directly!
And what’s the difference between you and them? The payout! You’re practically competing with people who make more money for each lead or sale they generate and, especially if the merchants are involved, it’s anything but a fair fight. Unless your approach is the best thing since sliced bread, you’re better of focusing on less competitive keywords, on the Content Network or even on other traffic sources.
So, What Will It Be?
If you’re just starting out, it makes sense to check out a few established traffic sources while learning the ropes. After you become more experienced and have a bigger budget at your disposal, you can take things to the next level.
Most people end up failing because they want things to happen yesterday. Be reasonable and don’t rush into anything because you’d probably end up losing your shirt. Seriously, just don’t.
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Putting Together a Solid Search Keyword List
When selecting keywords for your search campaign, many of the concepts of SEO keyword selection apply. The biggest difference is that, since we are paying for each click, we need keywords that are very specific and have a high probability of converting.
Develop a Preliminary List
The first step in developing your list is to find a large number of potential keywords that we can peel down through research and testing. Using the Google Keyword Tool as described in the SEO article, enter a few generic terms which would apply to the demographic you want to target with your offer. The Google Keyword Tool will give you a number of keyword ideas to work with.
Scout the Competition
There are two main pieces of information you need to gather during your competition research stage. The first piece is which keywords are currently being used for the offer you are promoting. If the offer is not currently widespread, this may not be important. If, however, you are promoting an offer which many others are promoting, you will want to know which keywords they use.
When checking out others promoting the same offer, you will want to take note of which position your competition is paying for. This will of course affect bid price and should play a part in your total analysis of which keywords you bid on and at what price. The second major type of reconnaissance is the competition for keywords you are interested in using. If the competition is not promoting your offer for a given keyword, this could be an opportunity for you if you think the keyword could be successful. You also want to know the types of offers being promoted for a given keyword. If the offers are similar, this is a good sign as it shows you may be targeting the correct audience. You need to be careful of keywords with heavy competition as the bid price may be
too high for you to bid on that keyword.
Keyword Elite and Google Keyword Tool
As with evaluating keywords in the SEO article, you should perform an analysis of competition vs.
searches. Using the Google Keyword Tool, green bars will show you the number of searches on a
keyword in a given month, as well as the competition for that keyword. Always compare searches to competition level – a word with high searches and low competition offers an opportunity to get your ad shown for a low bid price. Of course, you must always mind how well the keyword is targeted to your audience as I will explore later in this article.
Keyword Elite is a paid tool which offers more detailed research on keywords. I would suggest using a paid tool such as Keyword Elite if you are serious about putting together professional keyword lists. Keyword Elite will show you exact search numbers and competition levels, providing you with much more detailed research. Of course, Google’s free tool still provides enough information to develop a strong keyword list.
Less is More
You DO NOT need an enormous keyword list to be profitable with search marketing. Instead, you need a list of quality words targeted to your audience. It all breaks down to a science – you need keywords that have a higher conversion rate (producing more revenue) than what you spend bidding on the keywords.
A good strategy is to develop a number of small keyword lists with separate sub IDs so that you can track the success. Pay attention to each keyword clickâ€through ratio, as this shows attractive keywords, but you also need to use sub IDs to know how well your keywords are converting. By creating a number of small lists with separate sub IDs, you can easily track how well your keywords are doing, and delete those which are not profitable.
Targeted Keywords
When selecting keywords, always think about the audience you want to target. Think about the
demographic of the users clicking on an ad displayed from each keyword you bid on. Are there multiple reasons why a user would search for that keyword? Would users searching for that keyword be interested in the offer you are promoting?
Focus on keywords that are very specific, as opposed to generic, broad keywords. Broad keywords may show your ad, but will probably not target your audience well. If the broad keywords don’t convert on your offer, you will end up spending a lot of money and making very little. Pick specific keywords and track their conversion rates. Delete keywords which aren’t producing.
Keyword List Mistakes
1. Broad or popular keywords which are not targeted to the audience you know will convert
2. Not researching the competition
3. Targeting keywords with very few searches
4. Failing to test your keyword list and update as necessary
Test, Monitor, ReTest
Using sub IDs, you should always be monitoring the click through ratios and conversion rates. By
breaking down your keyword lists into small groups with sub IDs, you can track performance and make modifications just as you should with your landing page. After you test and monitor, you can delete keywords that are not paying off, and reâ€test to check performance. Competition and audience taste is always evolving, so testing and modifying is essential to keeping your keyword list profitable.
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