Category: PPC
Six NEW YouTube Practices to Grow Your Business
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Free Traffic, Tracking, Web 2.0 Marketing Tuesday, 13 October 2009 10:36 51 Comments
Read these six YouTube practices to staple into your brain the lessons you learned from Lurn’s YouTube tip sheet last week.
We at Lurn have used video marketing intensively over the past few years to build our company. Using video marketing, we have strengthened our partnerships, taught our students better, and attracted many customers.
You can now do the same by following these simple steps.
This Week’s Top Affiliate Marketing News Stories (May 29, 2009)
Posted by Kathy Jackson in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Programs, Tracking, Weekly eNewsletter Friday, 29 May 2009 17:49 2 Comments
There’s an App for That
On the ReveNews website, Barry Silverstein said, “Apple’s iPhone applications are opening the door to hand-held computing in a big way.” Barry goes on to explain the positive impact Apple’s opening up the iPhone to developers has had.
Affiliate Link Redirecting and Cloaking
On his blog, Shawn Collins said, “Affiliates cloak their links for a variety of reasons, but I do it so my affiliate links will be short, so I can use then in text email newsletters, and some people don’t like clicking affiliate links.” Shawn discusses a free redirecting and cloaking program called .htaccess.
Simple Keyword Conversion Tracking
In this interesting article posted on the CDF Networks website, the writer said, “Tracking is essential to the success of any per click affiliate campaign. In order to know what keywords are converting, you have to track down to the keyword level. This used to be a fairly complex thing to set up, but now its very simple.” There are both free and paid options, and the writer outlines both.
UStream of PPC Classroom Live Now Available
Tennyson Rog, blogging on the Affiliate Classroom Blog from the PPC Classroom Live Event in Las Vegas, said, “for those of you who aren’t able to make it, don’t despair! If you are not joining us in person, we invite you to come back here and watch the presentations LIVE.” Cool! It’s still happening!
Report: Online Video Fastest-Growing Medium in the History of the World
Gavin O’Malley, writing on Online Media Daily, says, “online video is the fastest-growing media platform in history, according to a new report from social media research consultancy Trendstream and research firm Lightspeed.” Interesting article.
PPC Live Event
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Classroom Events and Products, Affiliate Marketing, PPC Tuesday, 26 May 2009 23:29 1 Comment
Well, I’m heading off to the PPC Classroom Live event in Vegas tomorrow. The conference officially starts on Thursday (and it’s a sold-out event), but I want to get there early to get a good seat! 
If you’re going to the live event, look me up and say hi – and don’t hesitate to ask a few questions while you’re there. That’s what live events are for – networking and obtaining knowledge from the experts.
If you’re not sure how to go about making the most of your trip this time, you might want to read a few of our previous posts on Networking at Live Events. Here’s one of the best ones to review:
Easy Ways to Network At Live Affiliate Marketing Events
Then, keep an eye on this blog. I’ll be blogging occassionally about new things I learned, so if you didn’t get a chance to go this year, you can still get some good information from this blog.
Hope to see you there!
Find Specific Keywords With AdWords
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Keyword Generation Wednesday, 20 May 2009 12:09 1 Comment
Here’s an overview of how to get set up with AdWords so that you can determine the right keywords for whatever campaign you choose to deploy:
For starters, this requires an AdWords account to gain access to Google AdWords’ Keyword Tool. So, if you don’t have one, now is the time to register. Setting up an AdWords account is free and only takes a few minutes to set up and validate via email.
To start your keyword research, go to www.nichewatch.com and enter your keyword.
This site shows the top 20 sites in Google for any given keyword, plus other metrics like the number of pages indexed, the number of backlinks, and other search engine optimization data.
Keep this page open so you can refer back to it.
Open a new browser window for your AdWords account. Go to the main campaign management page.
Near the top of the page there’s a link called “Tools.” Click on that link and go to “Keyword Tool.”
Select the Site-Related Keywords tab. Copy one of the URLs listed in NicheWatch, and paste it into the URL field, then hit “Get Keywords.”
Google will check the site and display the related keywords on the page URL entered!
Add the keywords you want to the selected keywords list on the right (in the blue box) by clicking on the “Add” links.
Continue to copy and paste URLs into the URL field until you have a keyword list you are satisfied with. This isn’t your final list yet, so select as many keywords related to your site as you want. Save the final set of keywords to a text file or CSV, one keyword per line.
Next, you must find out which of your new keywords are, in fact, high-paying keywords.
So check Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool again to see the bid prices. There are a number of paid tools on the market that find related keywords and give you the top AdSense bids automatically and quickly.
But for those of us that don’t have the budget for these tools, you can search manually for free. 
We recommend using AdWords when researching AdSense bids, because using other systems like Yahoo! Search (Overture) won’t produce the same bid results.
Bids can vary significantly between AdWords and Overture.
Inside the AdWords’ Keyword Tool, click on the Keyword Variations tab. In the box, enter the keywords you already saved in the text file, one per line. For even more keywords, check the box that says “Use Synonyms.”
Next, click on “Get More Keywords,” and you will be taken to a results page.
You should have a good list of keywords in the results. Delete any keywords that are not related to your topic, in this case “macrobiotic diet.”
Go to the pull-down menu, select “Cost and Ad Position Estimates.”
This is important: where it says ” Calculate Estimates using Max CPC,” enter a high dollar amount like $100.00.
Click on the results, and Google will give you back the highest bids for position 1-3.
A number of steps are involved in doing keyword research. But AdWords helps make those steps easy.
More Bang for the Buck – Optimize PPC Campaigns
Posted by Kathy Jackson in Affiliate Marketing, Search Network, Tracking Monday, 4 May 2009 00:09 1 Comment
The whole idea of optimization is to make your advertising dollars produce more traffic and more conversions, and thus put more money in your pocket. Google has plenty of money. There’s not much point in giving them any more than you have to.
With just a little patience, dedication, and applying these tips to your PPC advertising campaigns, you really can get more bang for your advertising buck.
Choose Keyword Matches Wisely
Google really loves it when you choose the “Broad Match” option. THEY will make a lot more money. The fact is that choosing the “Broad Match” option means that your ad will be displayed many, many times, and you’ll get many, many clicks for which you will pay Google. But not many of those clicks will convert into sales.
Choosing “Phrase Match” or “Exact Match” will result in fewer impressions and fewer clicks, but the clicks are much more likely to convert to sales. Fewer clicks + more sales = More bang for the buck.
Develop a Meaningful Relationship with Negative Keywords
Adding a long list of negative keywords to your PPC campaign will prevent many clicks that will not result in sales. For example, if you don’t offer “warranties” or if you aren’t giving anything away “free,” those words need to be added to your negative keyword list. If you sell “red widgets,” then “blue widgets,” “green widgets,” “yellow widgets,” and “purple widgets” are all negative keywords.
Reduce the number of clicks on your ads by adding to your negative keyword list. Use negative keywords to get fewer clicks + more sales that will equal more bang for the buck.
Make “Educated” Bids
Your keyword bid will determine your ad’s position. If you bid too low, your ad will be so far down the food chain that you’ll be invisible. On the other hand, if you bid too high, you’ll go broke in an amazingly short period of time.
The only surefire way to get your bid “right” is to test, test, test, and then test some more. We’re back to keywords. Use Google Analytics to find out which keywords are actually producing traffic that converts into sales. Big higher on high-performing keywords and lower (or not at all) on junk keywords.
Use All the Tools You Have
Using Google’s Search Query Reports can give you real insight into what words people are using to search, and if they are relevant, or not, to the content of your site. And Google’s Keyword Conversion Tracker is invaluable.
Learn to use Google Analytics to get more bang for your advertising buck.
Think! Optimize! Remember the formula:
Fewer clicks + more sales = More bang for the buck.
