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Affiliate Classroom Blog Archives

Not Every Hour Is The Same When You Advertise…

Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 3:15 pm by Anik Singal

As many of you know, I’ve always considered myself more of an e-mail and SEO affiliate. I never did much PPC at all, too much tracking and headache for me (the thought of logging in multiple times a day scares me - I prefer to sit around and collect free traffic). Yes, yes, I know, PPC CAN be “sit-around” traffic too, I just never played with it until end of last year and mostly starting in Q1 this year.

Honestly, I just got tired of hearing all the HUGE stories of affiliates making a GAGILLION dollars using PPC, so I wanted in!

Well, as my PPC brain swells with wisdom and knowledge, I’ve learned a few things I want to share with you affiliates who are also looking to grab a piece of Google, Yahoo or MSN’s traffic.

A) I found that a LOT of these affiliates who claim to make $1 million+ in commissions are also spending close to $989,000 in ad expense (yes, I do exaggerate a bit).

B) If you’re just starting, don’t expect your PPC to be profitable right off the bat - typically it can take days for you to work your costs down, tweak your keywords, etc…

But, here’s the real doozy for me that I’ve never really read in all these “I make a million bucks an hour sitting on my a** on the beach” guides. I noticed that Google lets you control what day of the week and exactly what times you want your ads to be displayed.

I thought, “Surely, it should not matter? All traffic should be equal so long as they are searching the same keywords and are from the same geographic location…”

WRONG!

Just to see why Google even offered this ridiculous option, I started keeping track of my sales on a few of my campaigns by time over the period of a month. I just created an excel spreadsheet and marked a sale when it came in.

Indeed on some of my campaigns I noticed an even spread - so it really did not matter what time the ad was running. But, on some of my campaigns, especially one of them - WOW was I wasting money!

I was actually wasting about $25 a day ($750/month)! I noticed that ALL my sales only came in between about 3 PM and 1 AM ET. The rest of the time was dead on sales, maybe a few stragglers, yet the clicks seemed to come in just as fast.

I was quite surprised and shocked (also felt sick to my stomach thinking about the amount of money I wasted). So, since then I have stopped advertising at those times and guess what? NO DROP in sales.

Now, your accounts may or may not be SO clear to see, but it’s worth a shot.

1. What times are the best for your niche?
2. Do your ads still pull on weekends?
3. What about holidays? Should you shut ads off?

So, you see, not every hour or even day is the same - track your ads!

Google Respects “Adsense Arbitrage?”

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 1:16 pm by Anik Singal

As a follow-up to our recent post, I found an interesting video inside YouTube by shoemoney where he tells us all to CALLLM DOWN!

First of all, although I have heard PLENTY of rumors regarding the Adsense Abitrage BANNING, I am yet to have even one student actually report that they received one of these e-mails.

I bring this up because ShoeMoney says the same thing - he hasn’t heard of anyone actually getting the notice.

Now, do “I” really do Adsense Arbitrage, the answer is yes and no. I only have a couple of Google Adword campaigns that take traffic to a page that has Adsense ads. I end up breaking even on these campaigns (maybe make a few bucks profit). But the best part is that I get a bunch of subscribers out of it, so in the end it is very profitable.

But, see here is the catch - my sites are GOOD sites with relevant content, they just have ads squeezed in them. So, no in the terms that it’s definitely NOT a “business strategy” for me, I think it’s silly to make it a business strategy (relying on the same source for traffic AND your income is not of interest to me).
So, I will agree with ShoeMoney when he says that people don’t really understand Google Arbitrage and what Google is trying to get rid of. Rather than focusing on Arbitrage, I personally believe that Google is just more interested in getting rid of “crap” sites.

“I’m guessing Google themselves is not going to ban themselves… because they buy traffic and then they sell it.”

..
..
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“Google is going after sites that are not converting well for their advertisers.” < - These would be "made-for-adsense" type of sites.

Apparently ShoeMoney also thinks it’s more of the same that Google has always been doing.

Here’s what he says:

YouTube - Adsense Arbitrage - Just The Facts!Also, if you’ve received such a notice, please leave a comment here, very interested to hearing from you.

Google KO’s Arbitrage Publishing Accounts

Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 5:10 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

I just read an interesting post that warned AdSense publishers that they will soon have their accounts disabled - as of June 1st to be exact! Even big accounts (those making $10,000 or more) have been notified that in two-weeks, their arbitrage accounts will be disabled.

I really can’t blame Google for taking this step. I was talking to a friend the other day who was doing some research and she just wasn’t getting anywhere because of all the garbage out there!

Thank goodness I’ve never concentrated on setting up “Made for AdSense” sites, mainly because I have a hard enough time managing my 10 Niche Affiliate sites. I’ve never really thought it was interesting enough to have thousands of five to ten page sites dedicated just to making money on AdSense.

That was, however, how a lot of people were making big money - both in marketing the sites and in selling “Made for AdSense” Templates. Now the good ole days are over!

The good news is that Google warned those who will be affected, so the advertisers won’t keep advertising and sending people to pages that can no longer sponsor ads. Current earnings will also be paid to those publishers who have received the “disable” warning.”

You can read Jen’s article yourself, for a more complete story. This is another good reason that you should never put all your eggs in one basket.

Hopefully, those doing arbitrage knew their cash windfall days were limited. I have a feeling it lasted longer than anyone thought it would - and now it’s time is up.

I’m Stalking Your Adwords Account Right Now…

Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 12:35 pm by Anik Singal

That’s right. You think you’re so slick in the affiliate programs you find, the keywords you use, the ads you test - not for long buddy!

Now, I have the ability to stalk your campaigns. As a matter of fact, the software is running as we speak - I MAY be researching one of your niches and finding everything out about it! Things like…

1. What affiliate program(s) you promote.
2. How long you run your ads.
3. What time/day you shut your ads off.
4. What keywords you advertise on.
5. What ads you use (all your split testing).
6. Which of your ads Google favors.

I’m not even done yet!

Ok, so before you start freaking out, no, I don’t have an “out” for you - I’m just using this post as an example of what I “could” be doing using this new Google Adwords Software I’ve been testing lately.

I’ve had this in my hands for about 3 weeks now and I am absolutely completely blown away. To be honest, this may be THE most shocking software I’ve ever seen in my entire life (no I’m not just hyping it up).

Lately, everyone has been all “goo goo ga ga” over Chris Carpenter’s new “Google Cash” report you can download for free. Click here to download…

I won’t lie - it’s a good report. But, personally, after logging in, I want you to watch the VIDEOS that show you how this software work. Actually, since you probably think I AM HYPING things up - well, I challenge you to go watch the videos THEN come tell me!

Click here to sign-up, once you log-in, you’ll see an area for the videos… />

I’ve already started finding new affiliate programs, writing better ads and really getting to know my competition.

The BEST part though is that I can –test– a niche now without blowing a bunch of PPC cash, all I have to do is plug some keywords into this tool, watch it for a week or two and I’ll immediately know WHICH ads are making money or coming in, testing and stopping.

Is it time all you PPC affiliates started looking over your backs? :)

Is The “Rich Jerk” Bankrupt?

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 11:54 am by Anik Singal

This is definitely the “eye-catcher” of the day for me. As I was doing my “blog rounds” today, I landed on a very shocking post by Shoemoney where he talks about how the Rich Jerk is selling out to avoid bankruptcy!

Apparently the business was found for sale at this website…

There were actually a few things I was shocked to learn by reading this story.

1. The Rich Jerk had investors.

2. He “apparently” blew all the money on buying advertising that — I guess — didn’t work.

3. The rumor that he’s doing this to avoid bankruptcy!

I don’t know about you, but I was under the impression that the Rich Jerk was VERY successful and making MILLIONS! As I sit here and read this story there are a few things that come to mind.

First of all, this could all be a rumor or some “marketing ploy” - I mean it IS the Rich Jerk, who knows with him!

Secondly, I guess we should not believe all the hype we see! No doubt, there was some great marketing behind The Rich Jerk, but if the story is true, I can’t help but question whether all the marketing was TRUE?

Thirdly, we should all remain a bit humble in our life, don’t ya think? :)

Don’t get me wrong, I actually admired The Rich Jerk empire in many ways. It was some of the most clever marketing I’ve seen in years. I also never doubted that he knows his stuff, he seemed to understand PPC better than most affiliates/marketers that I personally know (certainly seemed to know it better than myself).

I also learned quite a bit from him. My marketing in many of my niche has changed to be more edgy - to be a bit more outrageous and “buzz worthy.” No doubt I’ll never go as far as The Rich Jerk went, but hey, it worked!

So my note to Rich Jerk - “Sorry you have to go through this bro…you sure did have an attitude, but just WATCHING you market, I learned more than I probably have learned from 10 marketing courses. I wish you the best of luck. I also hope that this truly is all a great big rumor!

5 Things I’ve Learned about Indexing

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 6:15 pm by Kathy Jackson

I really like to do things the easy way. Unfortunately the easy way usually turns out to be either the hard way, or the way that won’t work. I admit that I have tried some shady “get indexed in 24 hours”methods, but most of them don’t work!

I have learned that if you really want to get indexed and STAY indexed, patience is a virtue and planning is essential.

Here are five things that I have learned about getting indexed:

1. Money won’t get you indexed faster. Throwing money at a problem rarely works and getting indexed isn’t an exception. Buying links or even purchasing entire high PageRank sites is no guarantee.

In fact, when a new site comes online with hundreds of back links, it raises red flags. No search engine believes that a new site can come online with a hundred sites already linking to it so not only is throwing money out there to get indexed not helpful, it might even slow the process down.

2. Plan ahead. Getting a domain and instantly going live is a big mistake. You need to plan ahead. Actually, registering your domain name a full four months before you launch the site is a really good idea.

It’s also a good idea to know the history of the domain name that you buy. Google has a long memory. Domain names can be blocked for a lot of reasons. Check out the history of the domain name that you are considering before you buy. You can check the history of domain names with Domain Tools or Way Back Machine .

3. Blog and Ping but use your head. Blogging and pinging can get you indexed faster, but do it responsibly. Overdoing the pinging can raise red flags and get you banned from ping servers.

Natural linking is always best. Contact a blogger who is active in a related niche and get a link in one of their blog posts. This is even better than links from your own blogs you’ll get real, targeted traffic. Blogmasters are often more open to giving or trading links than you might imagine.

4. If the niche is small, keep your site small. By small I mean 200 pages or less. Now some affiliates would disagree, but I side with the theory that smaller sites get indexed faster and easier than mega sites.

5. Check, double check and triple check. Make certain that your HTML is clean and watch your logs to see what happens when the spiders crawl your pages. If they never get past your home page you need to add the tag, to the HEAD in the HTML of all your other pages. And don’t forget keywords in your page title tags, using keywords in tags, and all the other basics of good on page SEO.

May Affiliate Classroom Magazine - Turn Traffic Into Sales

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 3:42 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

Affiliate Classroom magazine’s May 2007 Issue - Traffic Techniques - will help you turn traffic into sales!

Believe it or not, this is issue #29 of the Affiliate Classroom Magazine! That means we started publishing this eMagazine over 29 months ago! That’s 2 years and 5 months!

This issue highlights one of the most important things an affiliate marketer needs be able to do - generate traffic to his or her web site!

The May 2007 issue of Affiliate Classroom Magazine will teach you a few easy ways to start directing traffic your way.

You’ll get a Step-by-Step 5-day action plan for acquiring traffic after you read “5 Days To more Free Traffic.” “Turning Traffic Into Sales” will teach you the best way to handle all that new traffic. It’s important to know where those visitors are going after they reach your site. And that’s not all.

“Measure That Traffic!” will teach you how to track your statistics. You will know know if the changes you are making are getting results!

Affiliate Classroom magazine is free - and so are most of the traffic generation methods mentioned in the articles. Get Yours Today!

Remember, the AC Magazine is brandable! If you’re an AC affiliate, be sure to brand the magazine with your personal affiliate ID’s. If you’re not an affiliate, sign up today!

Which to Build - Website or Blog?

Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 3:19 pm by Matt Van Atta

Usually in my blog posts, I take a concept related to affiliate marketing and explain it in a way I hope is beneficial. Today, I’d like to touch on the concept of the blog itself.

Don’t worry – I won’t drone on about the definition of a blog. (That would be like the teacher in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” calling the roll in the classroom: “Bueller…Bueller…Bueller…”) You already know that a blog is an interactive online journal, or you wouldn’t be reading this particular blog.

Instead, I’ll focus on a key question: should an affiliate marketer build out a website, or a blog?

The question gave me pause. After all, I’ve said from time to time that one of the most important things you can do in starting an affiliate marketing business is to build a website. By that I’ve meant a “traditional” site, containing a home page and links to additional web pages that help you promote products and/or services.

Starting a blog instead of a traditional website has one particular disadvantage – you have to create content nearly every day to entice readers to come back time and time again. (Then again, you may find yourself doing that with a traditional website.)

But blogs have advantages, too. For starters, producing fresh content every day gives readers a reason to revisit a blog regularly. That can lead to increased sales. Also important, search engines like Google take notice of a blog’s daily dose of fresh content. A traditional website without regular updates runs the risk of sinking in the search engine rankings. A blog that is updated daily, with targeted content, can maintain a high place in those rankings.

This can lead to marketing opportunities. For example, you could devote a series of posts to particular features of the merchant’s product. Each post could contain the important keywords and links to the merchant’s website. You could also experiment with keywords, inserting a different one in each day’s post and tracking the resulting progress in the search engines. And you can utilize the readers’ comments to fine-tune your marketing messages.

As blogs continue to impact our daily web activity, could the traditional website become obsolete within a few years? I’ll leave that answer to you, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

The New Niche Content Packages – Choice In Stellar Articles

Sunday, May 13th, 2007 at 7:33 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Long time readers of Affiliate Classroom magazine, and thousands of others, will already be familiar with Stefan Everaet’s Niche Content Packages site. For two years now, Stefan has offered the finest PLR content for sites looking for new or fresh articles.

Well, a great thing just got greater.

Stefan has revamped the business model, and done a complete makeover on the site to go with it. The results are spectacular in both function and looks.

Formerly, Niche Content Packages allowed a certain number of subscriptions and no more. That helped keep the possibility of duplicate content across multiple sites down to a reasonable level.

Responding to customer requests, the membership cap has been removed and new options for accessing content have been implemented. But the advantage of keeping the number of sites with similar content low has been retained. Downloads are limited to only 250 copies of an article package.

More importantly, Stefan has implemented a credit-based system to track members’ allowance. Members decide which articles they’re interested in then download, using up their paid credits. Several subscription levels are available and credits can be purchased on an individual basis, too. This is a distinct advantage for niche affiliates.

With most other PLR sites, members get x number of products whether they are interested in the niches or not. But the Niche Content Packages credit-based system means you decide what niche content you really need, then use your credits to download whatever you wish.

Readers of this blog who sign up through this link will get 50 bonus credits with their first purchase. Use coupon code acmag at any time, and you’ll get an additional 10% off your purchase.

And all packages still contain the superior content that Niche Content Packages has always been known for. Stefan hires only professional, expert writers. None of the $5 per, amateur knock off stuff here.

The Niche Content Packages site itself is a good lesson to those building their own sites. The interface is clean, well laid out, and easy to navigate. The copy is well-written, and you know just where to go to get what you want.

Apart from publishers looking for content, there’s a section that allows writers to earn by submitting their work for sale. But, take note, Stefan will maintain the same high standards before offering anything to his customers. Any submissions will be thoroughly reviewed before being made available.

Affiliates will also be glad to hear that Niche Content Packages has its own affiliate program. Sign up and earn 50% of every sale for all orders placed through your link. Lifetime commissions on recurring, monthly subscriptions.

Check out the new Niche Content Packages today!

Tell Us How We’re Doing and Win Up To $1,800 In Business Building Resources!

Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 12:00 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

We are very excited to announce that the entire Affiliate Classroom web site will soon be updated!

Like every smart Training Facility, we need to know what works, and what could be improved upon. That’s why we are asking for your Case Study or Testimonial on what worked (or is working) for you as a student of the Affiliate Classroom.

If Affiliate Classroom or AC Magazine has helped you start, change or grow your online business, we will reward you for telling us your story! Just submit your Personal Case Study or Testimonial about AC. You will also have a chance to win cool prizes.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to get your web site listed on the AC web site and get a LOT of exposure.

You see, if your Case Study or Testimonial is selected, your web site’s address will be listed on our newly updated AC Home Page. That’s definitely a bonus that will help your site get recognized, as well as bring traffic to you as we continue to grow.

Our number one goal has always been to help you grow - just as we did when you were a student, and just as we continue to do for current students.

It will take you only a few minutes to do a Case Study or Testimonial. But you need to hurry! Only a limited number of Case Studies will be chosen.

And the best part is, ALL legitimate testimonials will receive a very large gift of resources, software, and audio books immediately!

So take advantage of this opportunity to get your site more exposure - submit your testimonial or case study today! Click here now to tell us your story.

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