09.28.07

I need more impressions… badly

Posted in Questions and Comments at 8:55 pm by BCRice111

I won’t even hesitate to say that this is the one thing preventing me from making any good money with search engine marketing. So here’s the deal… I really can’t get any more than a couple of impressions a day (maybe 10-20) no matter what I do. I have tried almost everything. I have edited my ads and made the keywords phrase match so that they are specific to, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Google keeps all of my decent keywords inactive and the ones that are left only make rare appearances on searches. I’m starting to think that I dug myself into a deep hole with CTR in this campaign, since we all know Google keeps track of a campaign’s CTR in order to determine their little formula.

What makes it worse is that I am earing money on the campaign, but its coming in at such a slow pace, imagine if I could up the impressions and maintain the same click through rate.  Now what if I could do that to a couple of campaigns as well, the possibilities would be almost endless… right?

So Tony what can I do to fix this very… annoying problem? I would also appreciate any opinions and/or things that other people did that helped them to get more keyword impressions.

Thanks a lot

Permalink 3 Comments

09.25.07

Keyword Restrictions

Posted in Questions and Comments at 11:12 pm by itscarbone

Hi Tony, great book I really enjoyed it and wil be sure to write a review on Amazon. 

Speaking of Amazon and Ebay and others, I am finding all the fineprint and keyword restrictions to be a real headache.  Just to be clear, if you use “restricted keywords” the affiiliate program can simply not pay you commissions correct?  Is there any thing else they can do like sue you or something else nasty?  It’s like they don’t want referrals or something.

Here is my question:  If you use restricted keywords in a campaign but don’t belong to the affiliate program restricting them is this a problem?  For example if you do NOT belong to any Ebay affiliate program, but use the term “ebay” or some variation of it to promote an entirely different program, is this a problem?  I realize these terms are trademarked but you are not using them in an ad just as keywords, so what are the ramifications?

Permalink 2 Comments

09.24.07

Writing Ads

Posted in Questions and Comments at 8:22 pm by PeterB

I’m tryig to get a handle on writing good ads.  Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1.  Writing a relevant ad and writing an ad that pulls clickthroughs sometime seem to be polar opposites because:

a.  An ad is most relevant if you can work in the keyword both in the headline and the ad text.

b.  Including the keyword in both places creates an awkwardness that makes good copy almost impossible.

c.  Sometimes the keyword is so long that it is impossible to include the entire keyword in the ad while writing good copy.

Am I on the right track?

So, how do you write an ad that is relevant (in Google) and also pulls clicks?

Also, how do you make an ad relevant when you have numerous keywords in an adgroup?

Thanks.

Permalink 1 Comment

Thanks and a Few Questions

Posted in Questions and Comments at 4:34 pm by PeterB

Tony,

I read your book a month ago and have a few questions.
1.  Is it still feasible to do direct-linking campaigns instead of creating my own landing page?
2.  In a direct-linking campaign is the idea to outbid other advertisers (given the single URL display rule)?  If so, at what point do you decide that outbidding is too expensive?  If that happens, do you simply move on to test the next offer or do you do anything else (i.e. leave the ads to run on the content network?)

3. If a keyword is inactive for search and you leave in the adgroup, does that affect your account performance history and thus your quality score? If a keyword is inactive for search because the minimum bid is too high to make it profitable what should you do with it?

4.  Is there any way around trademark issues?  I understand that you can bid on trademarked terms but I don’t think you can have them in the ad text.  Is that correct?  (I’m basing this question on the example in the book of a Canon camera where you recommend putting the name and model number in the headline.)

Many thanks.

Permalink 2 Comments

09.22.07

A Little Success

Posted in Success Stories at 10:50 pm by D_Handley

I had two break-even campaigns until I broke in with a small success that I hope to build into more success, by plowing the revenue generated on this campaign into another.  I am a great believer in discussion boards like this one.  I have learned to fish through similiar boards open to positive people with an open mind willing to share their experiences and failures in the hope that the community as a whole will either avoid the mistakes they have made, or benefit from the success they have enjoyed.  It is with this spirit I post this.

 I have a thorough computer science background, and I have the knowledge and experience to create any website I want… that is why I purchased Tony’s book… I thought I would learn how to make a profitable website.  Much to my delight, I realized that one did not have to have a website, complete with ever updated content to make money online.  ( A very daunting task, emphasis on ever updated content!!) I had never thought of Tony’s niche in this marketplace, and was so thrilled with what I was reading, I jumped right in.

 My first two attempts wrere failures.  I used the free $50 credits the major search engines give to prove to myself that it is very easy to spend as much, or more, than the commission offered by affiliate networks to promote and make sales for someone else’s product.  The sellers made money on my efforts, but I did not.

I had one promotion where I was Selling a hot product.  For example, everyone knows of the real estate crisis that now plegs us all.  I promoted the best available foreclosure database known.  One with a quality product and a generous commission.  I broke even on that one.  Who cares!?  I made sales for them and made nothing for my efforts.

 Why?  because it is a HOT market.  The keyword cost to me was a breakeven proposition.  I could generate only enough sales to pay for my ads.  Images of slaves in bondage came to my mind.

 But I kept trying.  And I found a campaign that is now making $100 per day… NET.  I know I’m not going to get rich making $100 per day, but there is no reason that I can’t find ten more campaigns just as profitable.  And I’m just getting started.

My advice is take it slow, invest a little (the free ads from new account promo codes help) try a campaign for 300 clicks and if its not working move on to another campaign.

I’ve had some very minor success, and I wish you all the more.  I’m going to plow my earnings into another campaign.  If this method of online earnings works, it will pay for itself.  That’s my feeling.  If it can’t build itself from its own success, its not worth any other effort.

Wishing you all the best.  Please post your success and failure… its all useful in the long run.

Best of luck!

Doug

Permalink 1 Comment

09.19.07

Some best practices questions

Posted in Questions and Comments at 3:10 am by shazlig

Hi Tony,

I’ve got a about 5 campaigns up in Adwords and the products I am trying to sell are varied and most of them are from CJ. I’ve made some money its about 1/5 of the amount I’m spending. I’m working and hoping that I can get more. But I would like to know from your personal experience.

1) How many campaigns do you have running at a time?

2) How many affiliate programs and products did you try before getting those Winning Programs?

Regards,

Shazli

Permalink 2 Comments

09.18.07

Thanks For Writing Such A Great Book!

Posted in Questions and Comments at 7:36 am by Sebastian

Hi Tony

I am writing from Singapore. A tiny country just below Malaysia. I came across Affiliate Millions in a local bookstore recently, bought it and have finished reading the whole book. It is very interesting, well written, easy to understand and topics are very organized. It is a must have step-by-step guide for any person who aspire to be a Search Marketer.

I have also started joining a few affiliate networks and do encounter some hiccups here and there. Below are some problems I have encountered:
- Affiliate Fuel rejected my application. I applied as a Search Marketer and stated a search engine as the URL. Can you help?
- A number of affiliate programs disallow search marketer to use the actual website as Display URL in search engines. When generating a Keyword Link, I have gotten URLs that look like this e.g. www.rzgbb.com/click-21333-555. It is very unlikely for a user to click a display URL that shows www.rzgbb.com. Any suggestions?
- As a guide, if the 7 Days EPC is $13, what is the ideal range we should bid for the max. CPC in search engines? Any other considerations to maximise Net Return?

I am new to affiliate marketing and want to succeed as a Search Marketer. Hope you can share more of your experience with us (newbies) so that we can be successful and able to have ’success stories’ to share with everybody. Thank you once again for the very informative book!
 

Permalink 1 Comment

09.16.07

Increasing Impression Volume?

Posted in Questions and Comments at 7:31 pm by username2481

Hi Tony,

In the book, you mentioned a campaign where you were spending $500/day & making over $2000/day. My dilemma is that I have successful campaigns, but can’t seem to get the volume high enough to make real money. Even increasing the bid to an unreasonable amount doesn’t help much to increase volume. Any advice? Is using completely unrelated keywords a bad idea? I’m contemplating some high cost ads on AdBrite to get more exposure as well.

Also, an idea for a new forum within the blog might be “New advertisers on CJ without trademark restrictions”. These ridiculous rules among the affiliate managers are becoming widespread and in my opinion self defeating. It would be nice to hear about new ones that allow, dare i say it, affiliates to use their display url, and god forbid, bring them business!

Permalink 1 Comment

09.13.07

281 clicks, no orders

Posted in Questions and Comments at 3:05 pm by soderbez

On CJ, I started a campaign with a new vendor PopCap (online games). Users can get free trials. Commission is paid if the customer signs up within 45 days. I reasoned that with a new vendor I wouldn’t have as much competition.
My ads got 281 clicks in 2 hours. I stopped the campaign to await results. It’s been at least a month and there have been 0 orders.

Tony, have you (or other members) had something like this happen? If the ads were good enough to get that many clicks, it seems to me the ads were OK.

Did I just happen to pick a bad product?

Permalink 1 Comment

09.12.07

September 2007 Newsletter

Posted in Newsletter Archives at 4:07 pm by Administrator

Hi Everybody,

Well, something’s been eating my chickens.  I’m down from about 30 to just 4.

What’s this got to do with search marketing, you might ask?  Well… nothing, I guess.  I just miss my chickens. 

At least it gave me an excuse to drive up to my ranch last week and spend a few days with my brother building a chicken coop to keep the remaining chickens safe (they’d been roosting in an open barn where the fox – or whatever it was – could get them pretty easily).  It was nice to do a little real work again, but I’ll tell you, I’m glad I don’t have to work that hard everyday. 

Thank God my day job is a breeze! 

But, forget about my success.  Let’s talk for a minute about your’s.  

For a couple months now, I’ve been promising those of you who’ve written to me about your own successes that I would set up a forum in which you could share your stories with everyone.  This week, I added a new category to the Affiliate Millions Discussion Board.  The category is Success Stories, and I’d like to encourage those of you who would like to share your stories to do so by posting them to this new category.  Remember, you have to login to the Discussion Site to see the “Write a Post” option on your account dashboard.  If you don’t know how to choose a category, don’t worry, I’ll make sure it winds up in the right one.

Now, on to the tips.


Tips for Beginners