01.31.08

Any Explanation?

Posted in Questions and Comments at 5:50 pm by cpcdablue

Any Advise?  I have been having some success with a few campaigns in the first few days of running the ads; but then they drop off the face of the earth!  Is there any explanation to this?     One example is a campaign that was drawing thousands of impressions: over a hundred clicks a day. The first day brought 2/$16.00 sales, the second 3 sales,(starting to think retirement) 3rd day one sale then….. nothing for a week. The click volume hasn’t changed. One sale a week and a half later and still more days have passed. 

Is there anything that can be done about ads that drop off that were producing? Do I ad keywords/ cut keywords.. raise bids/ decrease bids? drop broad high volume keywords/ write more ads or less ads?  This is only one of several with this pattern which makes me think it’s something that can be fixed. Thanks for any input or advise

cpcdablue

 

01.24.08

AdWords and Page Rank

Posted in Questions and Comments at 6:00 am by loopster

Hey Tony,

OK, I was reading your post about Google putting higher priority on ads that point to a High Page Rank, here is my question:

1. What do you recommend for someone who wants a PPC campaign on Google, using AdWords, for a website they own which is brand new with very low Page Rank? Can you give some pointers on this question please…
Loopster

01.22.08

Signing up as an Amazon Affiliate

Posted in Questions and Comments at 12:45 am by Watussi

Hi,

I have read your book and decided to take your advice on signing up as an Amazon affiliate.  However, the Registration page is a bit different than what is shown in the book.  It wants the name of a web site and the URL which I do not have.  I tried putting in that I was a search marketer but it did not like that.  I also tried leaving it blank and it gave me an error message.

Any suggestions?

Thanks 

 

01.21.08

Insight on frustrating hurdles…

Posted in Questions and Comments at 8:53 pm by jhnnyg

Hi Tony,
I picked up your book up a while back, and very much enjoyed it your details into helping someone get started.
I’ve been trialing affiliate SEM as a side project, and have been doing some ‘investigating’ on my end on worthwhile opportunities.  I was hoping I might gauge your opinion on two issues I’ve encountered.
1.       Reluctance of affiliates advertisers to accepts SEMers.
 I’ve submitted applications to several (who accept SEMers) but often don’t hear back at all – is this common? Do you simply keep re-applying??
2.       Being profitable in highly competitive industries
For example, auto loan lead gen – I see the average commission bounty is around $12 per qualified lead. I’m generally able to generate a qualified lead for about $12-$17 in clicks via PPC, which is pretty well negates any profitability. I’ve struggled to find some ‘sweet spots’ – which I know is likely part of the challenge (or fun!) My thinking is that in highly competitive markets these days, the ‘supply’ of SEMers is so high that the margins have been reduced to very little on the main engines in the more common industries. Or else, my I need to work on my optimizing… Any tips?

 

Much obliged,

John

01.20.08

Link Dilemma

Posted in Questions and Comments at 12:48 am by craigpfall

Tony,

As a ‘newbee’ I am confused (even though I have read your book thoroughly) about how to reconcile the dilemma of DISPLAY URL vss DESTINATION URL.

I do not have a website of my own, but I am trying to follow your point that you really don’t need one to make this system work.

Most of the advertisers that I have looked at (and tried to write ad copy for) clearly state that you CANNOT use any of the URLs that would link your ad to a specific page on their website (by using the URL that is directly relevant to the ad you just wrote). How can I rectify this issue? In your book you said that nothing frustrates a would-be customer more than to be shuffled around back and forth on a website and never find what they are looking for. I don’t want to put the code that CJ provides to track my traffic (i.e. http://www.xxxxfrw.com/click-1234567-1234567) at the bottom of my ad copy because it really doesn’t TELL the person anything…it doesn’t seem legitimate to me…In fact, as a shopper myself I would shy away from a link that didn’t ’sound’ like it’s what I’m looking for. Maybe I’m just not getting how this all works.

I hope that I am clear in explaining this issue. I have been wracking my brain (and losing sleep, I might add) over this for about two weeks.

I really want to have long standing business relationships with the advertisers that I am interested in, but I certainly DO NOT want to even hint at trademark or copyright issues.

I want to make this business succeed, so how can I proceed?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Craig

01.19.08

Website required to start with Google

Posted in Questions and Comments at 11:43 pm by arlette

Hi, Tony

I bought and read your book, and am determined to do this, but so far everything I’ve tried signing up with requires a website. I got around this by entering “search engine marketer” on CJ and Amazon, but the standard edition of Google adwords requires a website, so I started to sign up for the starter edition, and it helps you create a website, but when it came time to create a campaign, it said your ad will direct people to your website, when what I really want to do is create a landing page with amazon and lead customers to it. Is there any way around the website issue?

Thank you in advance!

Arlette

01.14.08

Commission Junction Registration

Posted in Questions and Comments at 5:47 pm by Administrator

Hello,     

Hope all is well ! :)        

 I was trying to register on Commission Junction and under the category field .. the book stated to select web services>search engine.. but that selection was not there….. ? What should I select ?  It looks like the drop down stops at travel..     

thanks for all your help :)      

Kamal
* Copied from email with permission  

Google Page Rank and the AdWords Algorithm

Posted in Questions and Comments at 5:41 pm by Administrator

Tony,

I just started some google search marketing campaigns. There were no impressions or clicks earned from the adword campaigns, so I started to significantly overbid on the keywords just to get some results. It has been 2 days since I started the campaign, and there have still been no impressions or clicks earned from the campaign. It says that the campaigns are active, but does it take a certain amount of days from the creation of the adword campaigns before the ads start to actually run on google?

Thanks,

Seth

*Copied from email with permission

Keywords, domain names

Posted in Questions and Comments at 4:09 pm by loopster

Tony,

Hello!
Enjoyed your book, bought it and read it cover to cover 2 times, and still use it as a valuable reference.  Yes, I will definitely pay attention to chapter 10…

I’m getting started with getting an Affiliate Website up and running, and also, with getting AdSense (for the website) and Adwords projects (for search marketing).
Here are my questions:
1.  Do you have a good suggestion for finding niche keywords?  I’m looking at KEI, gravity, websites like Nichebot, Google suggestions, etc….  There seems to be lots of resources but nothing specific enough to make a clear choice on great descriptive keywords that aren’t overused by the competition.  Do you have any thoughts for clearing the air on this?

2.  How would you go about choosing the best domain name for an Affiliate site?

Please let me know!

01.12.08

Amazon Clarification

Posted in Questions and Comments at 11:43 pm by JKaz

Hi Tony

 Great Book!  I am just beginning to start my direct search marketing business, and plan on starting using Amazon then branching out after i get my feet wet.

I am a little confused about Amazon URL and the commissions earned from them.  If i have a link that goes directly to my product that I am selling and someone buys it, obviously I receive commission from that link.  On Amazon you can have your potential customer linked to search results (for example Harry Potter from the book).  Now if the potential customer clicks on my ad and goes to search results for Harry Potter, will i receive commission for any Harry Potter item that the customer buys?

 Appreciate the help!

01.10.08

820 Clicks, Only 2 Sales

Posted in Questions and Comments at 5:20 am by NJOYAZlife.com

Hi Tony,

I loved your book! I had some previous very limited experience with CJ because I have my own website and had posted some banners but never made any money. Your book was a real revelation about the possibilities that existed with Search Marketing. I devoured it in one night and started right into the process (I’m a little type A!).

I have been doing the search mktg for about 45 days now, and I’m wondering if you can give me any insight into why I’m generating hundreds of clicks, but virtually no sales. So far this month (Jan), I’ve recorded 820 clicks on 12 advertisers with CJ, but only two sales. All advertisers allow search mktg with direct links.

I’m really hoping you can help - I’m really commited to being successful at this so we can eventually replace our current income and retire, so any advice or insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Here’s the breakdown:

Advertiser

 Commissions  
Sales Sales  Clicks  Imps  Google 

Costs

 EPC 
 
Advertiser 1  $32.00 $99.00 1 54 0 31.75 $59.26
Advertiser 2 $12.25 $245.00 1 141 0 21.32 $8.69
Advertiser 3 $0.00 $0.00 0 33 0 11.05 $0.00
Advertiser 4 $0.00 $0.00 0 10 0 0.29 $0.00
Advertiser 5 $0.00 $0.00 0 285 0 68.71 $0.00
 Advertiser 6 $0.00 $0.00 0 90 0 10.88 $0.00
Advertiser 7 $0.00 $0.00 0 6 0 0.60 $0.00
Advertiser 8 $0.00 $0.00 0 74 0 9.58 $0.00
Advertiser 9 $0.00 $0.00 0 12 0 1.34 $0.00
Advertiser 10 $0.00 $0.00 0 4 0 0.40 $0.00
Advertiser 11 $0.00 $0.00 0 7 0 0.77 $0.00
Advertiser 12 $0.00 $0.00 0 104 0 10.35 $0.00
Report Total
 $44.25
 $344.00
 2
 820
 0
 $167.04
  

Thanks, Margaret

01.07.08

Amazon still Allows Direct Search Marketing.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing News at 4:57 pm by Administrator

With the announcement last month that eBay UK would join eBay US in disallowing direct search marketing, I decided to check on another favorite brand of mine, Amazon.com, to make sure they still allow the practice.

After reading their updated terms and conditions, I was completely uncertain, so I simply wrote the Amazon Associates Program and asked them.  Here is the relevant protion of their reply;

“You are still welcome to advertise Amazon.com on search engines and link directly to our site. However, please note that we do not allow the use of Amazon keywords or any variation of the word Amazon for the search terms of the ad. You are welcome to use “Amazon” in the ad title, ad copy and the display URL.”

Perhaps this is a bit of a non-news item, since Amazon’s policy on direct search remains unchanged, but I felt my reader’s might be wondering, with other big companies moving away from direct search, and since the terms and conditions did not clearly state whether or not this was allowed, I felt I should help get a clear answer out there for everyone.

Tony

 

01.04.08

Direct Product Link - how do you do it?

Posted in Questions and Comments at 8:40 pm by investwithbrad

Rather than send a potential customer to a retailers home page, is there a way to have a link go directly to a page with the product I am advertising?  Assuming of course that the company allows direct search engine marketing (i.e. no web site of my own).  I see that I can get a “product link” but it appears that the link would need to be pasted into a web site page, rather than in the destination URL field on my ad.  I notice on CJ for example, that there is a warning that says, “You must include all the above html in your links. Any missing html, including the image source, will prevent the link from tracking properly and result in a loss of commissions.”  Is this really true?  Or can I just copy and paste a certain portion of the link and still get paid?  Thanks in advance for anyone’s help!  Love the book - VERY Helpful

01.02.08

Click Traffic

Posted in Questions and Comments, Success Stories at 9:55 pm by cpcdablue

Tony,

After applying your book I netted over 700.00 last mo. Thanks! One thing I notice is talk about thousands and hundreds of clicks at a time.  I have ads and niches that are pulling profits but how do you and the people I hear about get hundreds and thousands of clicks?  I have been setting monthly budgets at 50.00, 300.00 for the higher profits and one that was making hundreds a day at 1500./ mo and I am never getting clicks up to or even near affordable budget.  Is there any advise to getting volume of clicks on paying ads?

Thanks In Advance- I appreciate the book!

Corey

case study

Posted in Questions and Comments at 5:20 am by Meto

Here is a snapshot of my first attempt at aff.
Clicks    Impr            CTR         Avg        Cost        Avg.Pos

97        129,5050       .10%     $.25        24.22        3.2
I am promoting a ebay nich I am very familiar with on adwords. The ad group has been running from 12/18 to 1/1/08, when I paused the campaign. Over the weekend I tuned my campaign daily and continued to lower my cpc and increase my ad position. There are no earnings in my commission junction account which concerns me. I have checked tracking code (cj PID # with ebay link code). Is there enough data to make a decision? Shouldn’t I have had at least a penny or two in my cj earnings? Should I continue running the campaign or wait to see if earnings come in or start new campaign? What am I missing?