What I will tell you is this. If you want to make Real affiliate income in 2007, this is the ticket you don’t want to miss.

It’s no accident I haven’t promoted anything in months: almost all internet marketing products don’t make the cut on this blog.

This one does.

I have a massive and extremely powerful bonus for those of you that opt to purchase through this link.

This isn’t reseller junk, magic interviews, old products, an ebook, mind map or anything of the sort. In fact it’s something so new it’s top secret.

All I can say is that it fits the bill as the perfect bonus for a powerful PPC course. You’ll have to be patient because it’s not launched yet. If you can sit tight, you’ll be handsomely rewarded.

PPC Classroom gets my full recommendation as all but the super affiliate ninjas have a lot to get out of it. Heck, even those guys are buying it.

It goes live tomorrow at noon Eastern. Buy within the first hour and you get a one hour direct consultation on the phone with Super Affiliate Anik Singal.

You also get a free pass to the first seminar in December (Las Vegas). Who knows, I might see you there

To claim your bonus, just forward your receipt to alex –at– netfrontiermarketing –dot–com .

Tags: PPCclassroom, ppc, google, adwords, ysm

Here is what happened.

Once upon a time, in its ongoing quest for global domination, Big G launched Google Checkout. This new payment system obviously made leading provider Paypal (owned by eBay) a little bit uncomfortable, to put it politely.

When it came time to integrate this new payment processor into the world’s largest marketplace (eBay), they refused to consume the marriage. eBay declined to approve Google Checkout as an acceptable gateway, stating amongst other things that it had “no valid track record”.

You may think this is complete baloney but if any semblance of logic existed in today’s conflict resolution methods, a lot of lawyers would have to relinquish their BMWs, and that just wouldn’t do.

The aforementioned parties are in court over an anti-trust suit at this time.

You’d think they could leave it at that for now… But Google, in a sweep of great arrogance, which is quickly becoming their new trademark, decided to pick the bone by throwing a party that would cater to eBay sellers protesting for the integration of Google Checkout as an accepted processor.

That’s all fine and dandy, but they chose to do so right in the midst of an eBay event held in Boston.

Now I’ll be the first to say it: business is war. Play dirty, aim below the belt, throw sand in the other guy’s eyes… Playing fair is for wimps.

Except when you do decide to attack, make sure you can win or at least put up a fight that wouldn’t make a third grader blush in shame.

But not this time. When eBay learned of the party, they stopped all their U.S. market Google ads, responsible an estimated $25 million yearly in Google’s pocket.

The party was promptly canceled, the ads came back up and everyone was happy again.

Except Google ends up looking like an elementary school bully that can’t stand and fight when their strong armed intimidation tactics meet with a semblance of resistance.

Considering the Paypal / Google Checkout and now the AuctionAds / Adsense tensions, these two giants are not friends. They tolerate each other as largely silent enemies.

In a world where the thin line between genius and folly grows increasingly fuzzy, things may not be as clear cut as they seem.

So we either have to assume Google is extremely smart because they succeeded in attracting media attention to the situation and ongoing lawsuit, in which case eBay played right into their hands by reacting to their little ploy.

Or they are extremely stupid and made a dumb mistake inspired by their overinflated sense of invincibility…

What do you think?

Tags: google, ebay, marketing, googlecheckout, paypal

As per Google’s unwritten policy, there is no warning and no explanation.

“You’ve done something wrong. You’ve been doing it for some time. Just today, we’ve decided to inflict severe penalties on your campaigns. We haven’t emailed you because actions speak louder than words, and when you log into your account, you’ll be hard pressed to miss the fact we’ve multiplied your advertising costs by 20.”

Now have fun guessing what the problem is.

One poster on Webmaster World writes:

“Never in the history of advertising has the medium set the rules.”

And from here stems the real problem. Never before has an advertising medium had to set the rules. Never before has advertising been a brand rather than a simple commercial vehicle.

Consider newspaper ads, billboards and TV spots. All of them are interruptive. When you read an article in said newspaper, the ads are there, displayed in all their glory. You do not have a choice but to consume them. Whether consciously or not, they leave a trace on your psyche.

Whether you look at them or not, they exist on that piece of paper distributed to millions of consumers. The job is done and paid for.

As a search engine user, when you query Google, your consumption of advertising eventually becomes a choice that you make.

Oh, those are ads?

That was the reply when I explained a facet of affiliate marketing in very simple terms to an uncle at a family function. The new surfer is a goldmine to Google. In many cases, they don’t know that the results on the right are paid advertising.

They eventually figure this out and their experience with the quality of the sites advertised will dictate their future behavior for years to come.

Chances are Google is hurting right now.

Earnings are up. Ad sales are up. Online promotion will only expand in the future.

New computers are connected to the internet everyday. New minds exposed. But what if existing data suggests surfers enjoy a brief love affair with AdWords only to develop near total ad blindness over a short period of time. One can only assume that is the case.

Once the load of newcomers being thrust into the Google pool reaches critical mass, the money source becomes non-renewable unless a favorable experience is created for information seekers clicking on ads.

Google depends on you to make a decision to consume their advertising. If you don’t elect to spend your time eating their ads, they don’t get paid. Exposure is not enough, participation is necessary.

Allowing the results to be flooded with thin affiliate sites sends the following message:

“Only click here if you want to buy something. Information seekers not welcome.”

And that is a calamity of epic proportions. The clearer the line between organic and sponsored results becomes, the less money Google makes.

Some affiliates were outraged at the re-slap, asking “why doesn’t Google mind its own business and let the consumers decide which ads they want?”

That’s exactly what Google is doing.

It may be tempting to think some form of natural selection in advertising should suffice to weed out the weak from the strong. That is not the case when the ad vehicle is also a brand.

The battle is a steep one. The entire business model depends on the long term willingness of the individual to consume commercial messages.

Welcome to the next frontier.

Tags: adwords, google, googleslap, thinaffiliates, affiliate

“Oh the humanity”

Herb Morrison, reporter for WLS Radio in Chicago

Uttered as the Hindenburg fell from the sky engulfed in a giant ball of flame…

Following what will become known as the “June First Email” whereby Adsense is disabling the accounts of those engaging in Arbitrage, the forums and blogs are on fire – with wannabes repeating what they heard and dramatizing something they know little about.

Away from the computer when the storm hit, I almost fell for it. Almost…

I’ve now received over 10 emails from readers and subscribers asking me what I think about this situation, so here it is:

Starting a couple of days ago, some publishers engaging in arbitrage have received the dreaded “your business model is unfit and we’re giving you the can” email from Adsense.

There are no numbers available as to how many people are getting this kick in the gonads from everyone’s favorite monopoly. What the postings seem to suggest is that only an incredibly minute, nearly negligible percentage of publishers have had their accounts banned.

At this time, it seems like your chance of having been hit by this ban is about the same as that of dying in a car accident over the weekend.

Here’s why this is making waves:

Number one: whenever Google so much as passes gas, scourges of butt-kissers think it should be front page news.

Number two: whenever sissy white hat whiners have even the slightest ground on which to stand and point the finger at Black Hatters to say “haha, serves you right” or “I’m so glad Google is finally taking out the trash” or something of the sort, the public expression spaces overflow with such comments.

It’s the pent up frustration and anger of those that don’t make money and whine about it while calling other people names instead of actually figuring out how to build an income.

Nothing new here.

Number 3: Big name bloggers are starved for content. Whenever something even smells like news, they fight for the honor of bringing it up first while making it as dramatic as possible. When it includes Google in anyway, it’s sure to get them lots of buzz and links and that’s good for their business.

Number 4: It’s all a self-reinforcing circle of people running their mouths to look interesting or positioning themselves on the side of truth and “Rightfulness” (with a capital “R”).

Here’s what it looks like:

A couple of dozen people get their Accounts disabled. The influencers get wind of it and seize the opportunity to cash in on their readers, just like the National Enquirer salivates whenever a new photo of Britney Spears in a compromising situation surfaces.

Tens of thousands of people read these posts and repeat what they heard on forums, and just like the game of telephone, they add their own interpretation into the mix.

The echo comes full circle and all of a sudden, what you hear is: Google is banning all arbitrage sites and the SERPs will finally be free of those despicable made for Adsense sites.

Black Hat is dead! You now have to build for the Users Only! Web 2.0! Authority Sites! User Generated Content! Buzz Word, buzz word, Hoopla!

The internet will finally be a better place where the forces of evil have been pushed to the brink of extinction and only the Righteous can walk in the light.

So let’s look at the reverse side of things:

I know at least 4 big Arbitragers and none of them has gotten the letter. None of them is doing straight Adwords to Adsense, which certainly seems to be one of the criteria Google is cracking down on.

I personally know over a dozen black hatters that collectively make as much money as a 4 dozen employee business in full swing. Not a single one has received the “June First Email”.

If you look at syndk8.net or the Pginsider.com forum or other places where black hatters congregate, the general idea is that hardly anyone at all is getting banned over this. And these are the worst Adsense abusers of them all. I can count on a three fingered hand how many have been canned…

I have not gotten this email and I dare say one of my early Adsense Accounts, which I started using before I had even the slightest inkling of the need to protect it, is more polluted than the Hudson River.

Thin content with only Adsense above the fold. Cloaking that redirects to fake search engines jammed to the brim with Adsense, all complete with a script that forces high paying ads…

But let me be plain honest with you right now. My account will probably get banned someday. Someday.

I’ve been thinking that for years and so have tens of thousands of others. It will happen. Someday.

Stuff like this just reminds me of it…

And another thing. Adsense Sucks. There’s no other way of putting it.

Not only does Google act like the fascist parent that scolds and withholds without any justification or warning, speaking the words “do no evil” while breaking their cardinal rule at every turn, no. Adsense sucks because you can do so much better.

If you build based on an intelligent strategy, you can get higher payouts and diversify your income streams so that if one of them dries up, it’s only a minor bump in the road. Plus you get to deal with a respectful company that thanks you for your business rather than giving you the silent treatment or worse.

There are only extremely rare situations where Adsense is your best bet for monetization. I can hardly think of one now.

That’s why I faze them out as much as possible. It makes me more money.

And someday. Someday. When my account (s) get banned, I’ll just say good riddance, thanks for the ride.

Tags: adsense, arbitrage, mfa, madeforadsense, blackhat, seo, google

Next time you’re looking for that hard to find item or trying to get your hands on that anniversary present that’s “just right”, don’t even waste your time elsewhere.

If you want it, Ebay has it.

For example, if you’re lonely, you might be interested in some company:

All shapes and sizes…

A bit sad, moving right along…

If a whole woman is too much for you to handle right now, just purchase the part you have your sights set on.

Sometimes you don’t know who to believe anymore…

Humans can be more trouble than anything else. This is a bit disturbing though. Used dead pets? I like mine fresh.

And what about kids? Forget about fertility clinics and pesky childbirth:

I’m not much into changing diapers. You’re not either? Ebay’s got you covered.

They’re much more docile when they have no where to go. But if it’s hard labor you’re looking for you might prefer:

They can be hard to come by in the Northern States. Not any more!

For those who don’t speak Spanish…

Looking to really be original?

Yes folks, fascists make excellent conversation pieces at family get-togethers, just make sure you don’t keep them in the same place where you keep the

Then there are those more hard to find items:

Why make your own when it’s so simple to buy it?

Perhaps this is why you can’t sign up for Paypal if you live in Iran?

Hey buddy, you want a fat lip? No actually I’ll take a

Which one sir? We carry a wide selection of

But here’s my personal favorite. It really saved the day when I turned 25 and my shoulders were still bald…

One might be tempted to call this false advertising, but there’s no small print here:

At least you know what you’re buying.Happy Shopping!

It’s estimated that nearly $1.9 Trillion are traded daily on the world’s largest market: FOREX.

An entire industry exists to exploit the spread between one currency and another. This may be the most poignant example of Arbitrage of them all.

In the traditional sense, arbitrage does not entail the possibility of a loss: it is the practice of buying something at a fixed price and selling it to an existing buyer for a pre-established price. The profit margin is built in.

In practice, this is often not the case as billions of dollars are “gambled” on the currency and stock markets, buying low, selling high… when things go right.

The players in these markets sit on enormous sums of money. Even a difference of 0.5 percent can make a killing for the portfolio owner and this is what they strive to do, day after day.

The problem with arbitrage at this level is not its complexity but rather the obscene amounts of capital required to make it worthwhile.

0.5% of 100 million dollars is still five hundred thousand: not bad for a day’s work.  (For someone with only $1000 to invest, the profits are negligeable…)

The capital and profits are flipped again and again and the capital base often grows quickly and effortlessly.

Adsense Arbitrage functions on a completely different level.

It involves more variables that require “personal” attention. It does not enjoy infinite vertical scalability. Meaning at some point you can’t just pump more money into the same “pick”: you have to diversify.

This makes Adsense Arbitrage unattractive to huge money players since they would potentially need ten of thousands of sites and pages to flip their hundreds of millions on a daily basis.

That is very good news indeed, as it leaves room for small players to make their mark and fortunes.

On a smaller scale, with anywhere between 5$ and $50,000 daily cash flow, profits can be shockingly high, creating an augmentation of starting capital in the several hundred percent range.

Very small numbers like a basic 5$ per day can quickly amount to important sums of money when combined with spectacular ROI, as can be achieved with Adsense Arbitrage.

A very attainable figure is to double returns on investment. For every 5 dollars spent, 10 dollars are returned. On an annual basis, the capital growth exceeds what can be achieved on any stock market.

Assuming that one reinvests all profits from their operation and starts with a capital of only $5 per day for 30 days ($150), Adsense Arbitrage could allow this capital to double every month.

At the end of month 2, capital would be $300, by the end of month 6, it would have grown to $4800. 4 months later the capital would be $76,800.

After a full year, starting with only $5 a day, the reinvested capital would reach a whopping $307,200.

As you can see the profit potential is plainly astronomical. However do not be fooled into counting your dollars before they hatch. The possibility exists but the road to these riches is fraught with the need for proper application and discipline as well as continual testing and improvement.

Adsense Arbitrage Exposed was not written to coax you into taking foolish action based on the desire for fortune. It was written to clarify a system in which exists the possibility of explosive and multipliable profits.

This report assumes a certain level of knowledge from the reader as I cannot cover all the bases, which for the time being will be relegated to the “fluff chapters” of less savory ebooks.

As you get started on your journey to Arbitrage profits, I invite you to proceed with caution and patience, giving each step and element the importance it deserves.

Choosing to keep this report brief, I have only covered in its pages the most essential aspects of the system, none of which can be safely ignored.

Adsense Arbitrage Exposed goes out tomorrow.  If you aren’t on my preferred mailing list, I suggest you sign up now.

Once you download it, please leave any questions or feedback here.

Tags: adsensearbitrage, googleadsense, forex, stocktrading, currencyexchange

This is nothing new and examples of it are found everywhere, from currency trading right down to Adsense.

The latter is becoming increasingly popular, and with good reason. Adsense Arbitrage maybe one of the easiest ways to make money online because it requires precious few skills. None of these skills fall into the “you got it or your don’t category”.

Here’s what you will need:

1) A website
2) A niche finding strategy
3) A keyword research tool
4) Traffic
5) The knowledge needed to do things right

I’m currently in the process of writing a quick start guide covering all the essential elements of successful arbitrage. It will be offered as a bonus in my Adsense Decoded Review.

I also purchased “Adsense Arbitrage and Leveraging” by Micheal Plante.

On the whole, I’d say it’s an honest product. The sales letter is not hypey, the claims are not inflated and the tone of the book is very refreshing. It’s down to earth, substantiated and very genuine.

On the other hand, the author is not an expert and still has a lot to learn about the “best of Adsense” practices that would surely make his sites more profitable and the book’s students more successful.

The book is not expensive at $67 and can be an interesting purchase although I would save and buy Adsense Decoded if given the choice.

Finally, upon the recommendation of one of my readers, I also downloaded and read Brad Callen’s Adsense Arbitrage report. It’s free and a good place to start, although it has the obvious purpose of selling Keyword Elite.

I have tremendous respect for Brad Callen as an excellent marketer and creator of top notch products and reports. Like many still do, I used to believe that Keyword Elite was the holy grail of keyword research. I’ve changed my tune on that one. While it pulls a surprising number or tricks, for pure keyword research, it is no in my top 3 choices.

Through these three resources, the fundamentals of Adsense Arbitrage remain the same and it seems the top shelf knowledge can be condensed with relative ease, which is what I propose to do.

The biggest stumbling blocks are niche targeting, site building and traffic sourcing, all of which have strong misconceptions shrouding their practice.

I’ll be providing the completed report to all my subscribers and you can get your copy too. I’m too lazy right now to make a separate sign up for so go ahead and sign up to my black hat Seo newsletter here.

You’ll only get one autoresponder message which you’re free to ignore and you’ll also see that I neither mail hard nor often. Just click the link above and enter your name and email to get a free copy of Adsense Arbitrage Exposed as soon as it comes off the printing press.

Tags: adsensearbitrage, adsensedecoded, adsense, arbitrage, keywordelite, bradcallen

The problem is that competition has gotten rather extreme and almost everybody is doing it all wrong.

Before we get into the “how” of achieving these benefits, let us list them. Here is what a landing page should do:

• Get clicks for the lowest price possible (this can make a huge difference on your cost per click on Google Adwords)
• Get your visitor to read the whole page
• Plant your affiliate cookie by having the user click on your link
• Give the visitor an incentive to buy it from you instead of somebody else

As you can see the logic is extremely simple and straightforward. Trouble is, it’s easier said than done. With the simple guidelines below, you will be able to enhance many elements, simply by implementing missing items or giving your copy a brief facelift.

Lower Your Cost Per Click:

Google has been amply clear on this subject and yet it seems a lot of affiliates are missing the boat. The quality score of your landing page will make a big difference on Google’s willingness to send you cheap traffic. The formula is all but black magic…

• Include the keyword in the title of the page and in the first or second sentence of the review.Repeat this keyword as appropriate to get a keyword density of between 3 and 4%. Exact figures are not what we are looking for but you do need a minimum density to establish firm relevance.

• Include a link to privacy policy, terms of service and about us. These are the most often overlooked because many people think they detract from conversions. If done right, that doesn’t have to be the case and you can reap the benefits of giving Google what it wants.

Quite simply, all you need to do is make simple disclaimer type box at the end of your page. Smallish grey text with the aforementioned links. Make the links the same color as the text and format them so they are not underlined. Voila, a boring disclaimer box that doesn’t attract attention but incorporates all the needed elements. For extra brownie points, include a link to your home page or an authority site.

• Get your Ad CTR up there. Choose your product well and get in for the long run. You’re already putting in considerable effort so make it pay off. Test and tweak your ad until you find the winner and start out bidding high. It may seem fearful at first but you will be able to lower your bids gradually while retaining a high CTR and position. Medium to long term, you will make more money and pay less for more traffic.

Ads that tend to work well follow the same formula of attacking the product, cultivating doubt and offering free information. “Is product XYZ a scam? Don’t buy before you know the truth. Free Report Here.”

Get Your Visitor to Read the Whole Page:

This is a tough one. Remember this person has the choice between your review and likely a dozen others. They know it and so should you. You need to squeeze in certain elements that will help you make the sale but you also need to keep interest and readability high.

• Use tiles, subtitles, bold and perhaps even color

Make the text look easy on the eyes. If each individual part looks highly readable, it makes it easier for your visitors’ ADD addled brains to keep reading.

• Use a Product Attack Title

Visitors are becoming more and more savvy. Their instinct is telling them you want to sell the product. Throw that instinct off as hard as you can right in the beginning without losing credibility as you attempt to close the sale later.

“Is Product XYZ a Giant Money Sucking Scam?”

So far so good, the visitor needs to read on. You can tone it down depending what market you’re in. The most competitive markets need such “blood and gore” titles.

• Introduce yourself and develop credibility while siding with the customers.

“Hi. My name is Alex Goad. I’ve been earning a living online from 2005.  Since then, I’ve been fooled more than once. That’s why I wrote this page. I’m damn sick and tired of being taken advantage of. I’m extremely skeptical of sales letters and I hope you are too.

If you want a “no B.S.” lowdown of product XYZ, stick around and I’ll even tell you a secret tactic I stumbled upon that makes me hundreds of dollars a week on autopilot. You’re going to love this.”

Introduce Story Breaks:

Nothing holds attention better than curiosity. Notice the “secret” tactic being used above? That helps the user keep reading. Tell a story and stop right before the punch. Keep the whammy for later and the visitor feels compelled to keep on reading.

“I really wasn’t sure about Product XYZ until my friend Steve called me at 1am last Friday talking like his pants were on fire.

I was half asleep on the couch but when I heard the excitement in his voice, I sat bolt upright and was about to give him some flak for waking me up but he kept going on about a hidden message he found in XYZ. Now this guy is no quack and I started to think he might be on to something. More about that in a minute.”

• Be brief and concise about the product. Stay very cold and objective, raising your enthusiasm just a bit at the end as you validate the quality of the purchase. Right when that happens, transition into another negative.

“On page 56, that’s when I had an epiphany. How could I have overlooked something so simple yet effective? I’m pretty sure you’re going to have an “aha moment” here too. Nobody else talks about this and that’s what makes it so powerful.

As I started applying what I had just discovered, my enthusiasm quickly died down when I realized it was going to be a lot harder to apply than I thought.

I reread the manual and there was this gaping hole where the author had either accidentally or voluntarily left out a huge chunk of information needed to apply the XZY tactic. Personally, I think the author did this on purpose so that only a select handful of people would really get it…”

• You’re now ready to fill the void left by the product creator with your custom tailored bonus.

Plant the Affiliate Cookie:

If you’ve built dozens or more landing pages, you’ll have noticed this too. While blogging on Net Frontier Marketing, I’ve built my fair share…

No matter how attractive your bonus is, some people will buy the product and never claim the bonus. How did that happen?

Well it won’t happen if you don’t plant the affiliate cookie early… Some readers are just too impatient to make the purchase to read your entire review.

Remember, when you are bidding on the brand name, the traffic is extremely targeted and the customer is itching to whip out their credit card and make the purchase. Often all they need is a tiny bit of validation and the deed is done.

They may not even finish your review. Finding it more convenient to go back to the merchant site by clicking on one of your links than having to find the site again by their own means, they just gave you an easy sale.

Either that or they clicked your link to view the sales page again, forgot about your page, read another review and purchased from the site directly. No matter how it happens, you just got an easy sale.

Thus the importance of planting your affiliate cookie early and often.

The last thing you want is for the customer to leave your site. The best way for them to leave your site is with the firm intention of buying through your specific affiliate link because they want your bonus. The second best way is for them to leave by clicking on one of your cookied links earlier in the text because they were tired of reading.

Some marketers only put their affiliate link at the bottom of the text, assuming the visitor will go through the entire text in linear fashion and end up right where you want them. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

I am often surprised by this but it repeats itself time and time again. People buy through my affiliate link on a review page that offers a solid bonus and they don’t claim the extra.

Plant your affiliate link in the text right there at the top and then use it again every couple of paragraphs.

This is even more true with a big product launch. People have been pre-sold for days if not weeks. They are itching to buy. This creates a regular feeding frenzy as affiliates fight for the easy sale. Bid prices go up in the several dollar range but conversion are high.

In this case, I’ve seen as many as 30% of buyers not claim their bonuses. Those sales were consummated because the affiliate link was there early to be clicked on.  Enough said.

Incentivize the Purchase:

Ya that’s right, incentivize. As I write this, Word underlines the term in red, but make no mistake, incentivizing should be a part of your vocabulary.

It takes many shapes and forms and can even become a mode of marketing in and of itself: giving users rewards to buy things through your affiliate links.

I have entire sites that do nothing but let people earn rewards for completing trials and surveys that are cookied with my affiliate link. Check out this incentivized marketing script and you will understand what I mean.

Although the word doesn’t officially exist yet, its meaning is amply clear. It refers to giving the buyer a bonus or in another reason to buy the product beyond the benefit of the product itself.

The Rich Jerk was the first to publicize this method. He suggested you give cash back to your buyers in exchange for them purchasing through your link.

There is a little problem with offering cash back though since a lot of products are too easily refunded and certain buyers make a regular practice of returning products. That means the safe marketer needs to get paid by the affiliate network before he gives cash back to the buyer.

It all looks good on paper but I’ve found this particular application more theoretically appealing than in practice. Users might be enticed into buying from your link for a direct $30 rebate on the latest product, but that loses a lot of its appeal if they have to wait a month or two to get their money.

Thankfully, there is a different and far better approach. You can offer a complimentary digital product. This is what I’ve done with my most successful promotions: propose something intimately related to the product I am advertising.

If you remember above, we left off transiting from the review to the bonus part of the pre-sell. We’ve generated interest, drawn the reader and demonstrated that the product was a winner without using any hype.

We then called out the product and showed a flaw or shortcoming that dooms an otherwise sharp offering to lie in the graveyard of internet products that couldn’t deliver.

The good news is, you have the solution and you’re about to clinch the conversion.

People like money but they like products more, otherwise they would keep their money and not be looking to buy another one. Pricing is a very flexible thing on the internet due to scarcity and uniqueness.

Who says such and such ebook is worth $97? The author does, that’s who. And you have no alternative. Either pay the price or do without. The same holds true for your bonus.

Could a well made bonus have a value of $67 or more? It sure could. This appears to be a much stronger value than a $30 cash back offer and it also solves 2 problems. It fixes the product’s fatal flaw and can be delivered instantly at no cost to you.

The transition would look a little something like this:

“When I saw that this “magic bullet tactic” wasn’t as straightforward as I’d first thought, my first impulse was to call it quits and go back to what I was doing before.

But it seemed like such a waste and I knew if I could make it work, this would be big. Really big. So I rolled up my sleeves, did my research, tested until my eyes were about to fall from their sockets. And then I hit the nail on the head. I wasn’t in the bathtub when I cried “Eureka” but I’m sure I felt just the same way.

I was now one of the only people able to use the full power of the XYZ tactic and it paid off immediately. I got my first “insert result here” about 2 hours later and the rest is history.

I’m tempted to be selfish but my conscience will only allow me to go half way. Plus I’m too proud of what I did to keep it to myself. That’s why I’m going to allow the next 20 people who buy XYZ through my link to hold this extremely powerful guide in their hands.

20 people. That’s it. Not one more. If you’re sharp, you understand what this means. I guarantee you; you’ve never see anything like this.”

And there it is, you’ve introduced scarcity, finished with a bang and created even more desire in a red hot prospect. You’ve done your job and you’re ready to reap the rewards.

This is a rinse and repeat tactic. It will work for you again and again.

This is the recipe of the secret sauce. The affiliate that uses it will soon be a rich affiliate.

Tags: landingpages,, conversion,, adwords,, google,, make, money,, affiliate

PPC traffic with affiliate products is the budding direct marketer’s wet dream:

• No product creation
• No inventory
• Little or no overhead
• Extremely low cost of entry
• Instant and cheap feedback on performance

That’s one of the reasons why Adwords Guides are so popular on Clickbank as well as other digital product marketplaces.

However, for every successful new player on the Pay Per Click stage, I’d be willing to estimate that 9 others fail miserably and withdraw with their tails between their legs. And I’m being generous.

This unfortunate majority could have learned their lessons the hard way, but the fact is they probably learned few lessons if any at all. Failed PPC is so unforgiving that its victims will run from it faster than a hypochondriac from a coughing chicken.

To save you from the agony of becoming part of the ridiculous metaphor above, here are the top 10 blunders that kill your profits in PPC and send your credit card pining for the hills.

1) Poor Keyword Selection:

Too many beginners jump in and pick the most obvious looking keywords. Problem is, everybody is doing the same thing. You therefore end up with over inflated prices for keywords that won’t convert anyways. The classic example is the newbie who tries to promote an internet marketing package on the keyword “make money”. That will set you up for a brutal awakening in a hurry.

Using the Right Keywords 

2) Paying Too Much For Keywords:

Sometimes, a marketer will have chosen the right keyword (often amidst a mass of poor choices). Thinking they are looking at the golden goose, the entrepreneur will bump their bid up in order to appear on the very top of the page, sometimes refusing to settle for anything but first place. Unless you have a very sound strategy in mind as well as a top level sales funnel, this will drain your bank account fast.

It will also make a perfectly good keyword seem unprofitable. If you are making money for each click at $0.40, you may not be when paying $1. Settle for less traffic and stay in the green.

Reasonable Bidding Advice

3) Ignoring Quality Score:

Never mind the fact that you could get Google Slapped, quality score can have a much subtler but just as devastating effect on your Adwords pay per click campaigns. Quality score is a general measurement of several factors that allow Google to evaluate how relevant and user friendly your ads and landing pages are to the customers you propose to leach away from the search engines with your ads. The higher your account quality score, the less you pay, even for higher positions. If your account quality score is generally awful, you may have to pay more for your keywords even if you are getting a higher CTR on your ads.

Improve your Adwords Quality Score

4) Poor Ad Grouping:

Ad groups are not like “one-size-fits-all” souvenir sweaters. Too many new comers make the crucial mistake of dumping all their keywords into one or 2 ad groups, sitting back and watching as the campaigns crashes and burns.

Not only will doing this murder your quality score, it will reduce your conversions and force you to pay much more than your competitors for the exact same keyword, all other factors being equal.

Optimize Your Adgroups 

5) Inadequate Budgeting:

This can work two ways. Leave your budget too high for unproven campaigns and come back the next morning to a loaded credit card. It’s been done thousands of times and there is no shortage of new comers who will perpetuate this mistake until the cows come home. The other side of the medal is having a daily budget so low that your ad serving gets cut off everyday. You will never benefit from the best CTR and ad position this way, and ultimately be paying more than your competition for the same keyword.

Optimize Your Adwords Budget 

6) Misusing the Content Network:

For advanced PPC marketers, the search and content networks are a blessing in disguise: using them properly is sometimes so difficult that the real competition is thin, making for spectacular profits. For the beginner, using them is like navigating a mine field on a pogo stick: a recipe for disaster.

It’s a good idea to stay away from them until you can establish profitability Google search only.

How to Use the Content Network 

7) Choosing the Wrong Product:

This can be either one of two mistakes. Firstly, matching the wrong keyword to the wrong product will bring poor results. Secondly, some products are over-marketed on Adwords. Look at the category toppers on clickbank and you will see some products with brutal competition where only the strongest have a chance of surviving. Often the competition from beginners on these terms or products inflates the bids to a level so high that nobody can make money on them.

Match the Right Keyword to the Right Product

Poor Copywriting Skills:

Sadly, most landing pages are scant more interesting or captivating than aunt Rita’s vacation picture album (sorry, Aunt Rita).

If you can’t grab and maintain your prospects attention, finally delivering value targeted to their initial search, they will create now value for you. Proper copywriting will not only ensure that prospects read your marketing message to the end, it will also encourage them to reward you for your efforts by taking action.

Writing Good Copy 

9) Choosing all Countries:

We’re not racist here at Net Frontier Marketing, but not all traffic is created equal. Chances are if you’re selling products or services, you should stick to the big, industrialized Anglophone countries and only venture out of those charted territories with a lot of prudence. In a lot of countries, people have limited buying power, and while they will readily click on your ads, they likely either can’t afford to purchase, can’t have it delivered where they live or just plain speak poor English.

10) Failure to Test and Adapt:

This is a big one. Lots of first time advertisers put up a campaign with all their keywords in one bunch and one ad. They have no mechanism for testing conversions whatsoever. This will almost invariably lead to failure of what would otherwise be a profitable campaign.

Imagine that only 20% of keywords are bringing in almost all the sales. The rest is just wasted money. Without knowing which keywords are which, you close the entire campaign and “throw out the baby with the bath water”. The smart marketer just skims away the unprofitable keywords and reaps easy rewards.

Tweaking Your Adwords Campaign

If you are a new or moderately advanced Adwords advertiser, go through the list item by item making changes to your campaign as necessary. Doing this will take a losing campaign to profitable levels in no time while already profitable campaigns can increase ROI by several hundred percentage points.

Feel free to let me know if I’ve forgotten anything…

Tags: adwords, ppcmarketing, ppcadvertising, ppcmistakes, payperclick

The question: How will a squeeze page perform as opposed to an optimized review page?

The setup:

Review Page: Big header, strong intro paragraph and 3 short reviews. The reviews are 200 words each about the top ebooks in the niche. At the end of each review are 2 links: one that takes the customer to a full review with several aff links to the vendor page and the other is a direct aff link to the vendor page.

The main review page and each sub review has a slide in popup that asks the user to optin in exchange for a free report. The optin brings them back to the page they were on when they opted in.

Squeeze Page: Standard squeeze page with big header, free report, 3 paragraphs and 10 bullets of the most sought after benefits the prospects are looking for. Upon email and name submit, they are cookied and redirected to the vendor page.

The Traffic: Each page got 600 clicks on the same keywords from Google Adwords. The keywords are fringe traffic for a niche, which means they are basically looking for information and don’t know about any products yet.

The pain level of these seekers is not too high, meaning they are not that motivated to take action. Lots of tire kickers. Over 75% of these clicks are coming from the content network. They are not very targeted but they are cheap.

Performance:

The Review Page after 600 clicks:

31 email optins
0 sales
Cost of Adwords Ads: $72.59
Net Profit/loss: -$72.59

Conclusion: money is going down the toilet since subscriber value cannot make up for upfront loss.

This is a rather surprising result since the page “should” convert well based on a solid setup, attractive layout, long reviews and honest comparison. The customers refuse to confirm this by completely shunning their credit cards on this.

The Squeeze page after 600 clicks:

73 email optins
3 sales: $111.44
Cost of Adwords Ads: $68.16
Net Profit/loss: $43.28

Conclusion: Beyond future profits from the mailing list being built, this is bringing back a 63% profit on every dollar invested. If I can tweak that up to 100% I’ll be very satisfied.

So why did the squeeze page so highly outperform the review page?

Human psychology: First of all on the squeeze page they have to either leave or optin, so naturally the optin rate will go up. In this case it was around 12% which is relatively low, but not bad for this niche and such a large share of content network traffic.

We also need to remember that the traffic here was from information seekers. They’re not in buying mode yet. They haven’t investigated products and are just looking for information.

In that vein, the squeeze page qualifies them. 88% disappear into oblivion, but the 12% that do optin become more qualified than they ever would have been before they jumped through the first hoop. The act of jumping through that hoop has a direct influence on their thoughts and desire to comply with a buying request.

This is directly in line with social psychology which dictates that if you want a large favor from someone you don’t know, you should first get them to comply with a small one. The small favor makes them much more likely to comply with the large favor.

Not only have you just trained them to buy, but you’ve basically extracted a commitment from them to read the page that comes after the optin. They see it with more importance since they gave something up to reach it.

The same reason why people have more respect for information they pay for than that which they get for free…

Tags: squeezepages, landingpages, ppc, adwords