You can have all the online marketing tools in action - ie PPC (Pay-Per-Click)- Google Sponsored Ads, high organic ranking in Google - etc showing up everywhere! Those clicks lead you to a website- which is known as the "landing page." Very nice. You got to the site. The key is to convert those into sales. There needs to be somesort of call to action once the person is on the website. So even with all of the advertising in the world, nothing will help if a person lands on your website and doesn't do anything. You would like them to make an inquiry, call for more info, click to buy etc. So the website itself needs to be tempting with good incentives and an honest look - to convince customers to buy from it.
For example: Let's say you are doing a google search for plumber in your area.
So you type into the search bar: " plumber, flushing, nyc"
A list of plumbers show up in the Ads on the sides or on top of the search results. (By the way, for all of those skeptics who think nobody clicks on those ads, how do you think google makes all of their millions???... I mean, billions???)
So you see a results that catches your eye and you click on it.
The top result for roto-rooter plumbing.
The ad looks like this:
Roto-Rooter Plumbing - Trusted & Recommended Since 1935!
Open 24hrs. Call (718) 358-6228
rotorooter.com/PlumbingServices
Perfect. 24 hours and it has a number and a website!
You click on the site link- and it's official looking. There are coupons. And in the center of the page there is a mouse icon and banner that reads: "click here to schedule a service online!" Plus, lots of phone numbers and all the places they serve. Looks trustworthy- so I will either call a number or click that banner.
(Not really, because thank G-d I do not have a plumbing issue... )
So there you have it - a great ad campaign on google sponsored ads PLUS a great website that causes you to act. In other words, a great "landing page." With a good "conversion rate." The hits are converted into sales.
:)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Affiliate Marketing (My First Passion) Revisited
We are taking a short pause from the SphinnConn saga - because there have been other fluid pieces of valuable info coming in a I don't want to get backlogged.
Staying focused, my original purpose of this blog was to learn how to make money on the internet through affiliate marketing. I think it still stands to be my favorite topic when it comes to e-Commerce, online marketing etc. I got side-tracked from the affiliate marketing topic because in order to sell anything on-line I learned that you need to have good exposure - usually through high SEO- where you show up high on search results. So, I delved into SEO tips which can go on forever as it is ever-changing- keeping up with google and analytics etc. I am not equipped to compete with those who eat sleep and drink that stuff.
BUT... I STILL am fascinated by how people can make money off the web- without even owning any inventory and without even having your own website!
I will share an online interview about a guy who made millions on affiliate marketing and how he did it- (thanks David).
http://mixergy.com/mike-colella-adbeat-interview/
This guy Mike Colella was an engineer and quit his job because he started making so much.
He uses Contextual Advertising - Google AdSense Ads- He would buy them and sell other people's products. Sending traffic directly to an affiliate site - directly to their landing page. Clickbank.com offers- high commissions because they are digital products - with no cost to ship - so there is about a 75% commission rate- which is very high.
He also affilates with e-books. He did well selling an affiliate e-book on solar panels to reduce energy bills - because people like to buy things to save them money.
He started in 2008 just wanting to make money on the internet. He started a website on fitness thinking he'd make money though putting on Google AdSense. But didn't make any money.
Then, he started with PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising - with a small budget spending about 10$ a day on Adwords. Started with fitness sites - and saw a lot of ads in the diet markets - picked the product he saw most often that sold a diet product and became an affiliate of that.
Would spend 20 and make 25 on a sale. He continued spending money on advertising and making more money. A few months later made a $5,000 profit and the month after that 25,000 then 4th month 60,000 then 5th month 90,000-(that was with making 250,000 revenue.)
The original product was called "Truth About Abs" - an e-book.
This is all from promoting other people's products!
How'd he do this?
He looked at what ads were showing up as AdWords and modeled his ads after those that were working.
He used an AdWords e-book that helped as well. He understood the fitness market and how to reach the market by expanding keywords. Plus, fitness has a very wide appeal. You can sell it anywhere.
You do not always need to stay so focused around the topics. You start an AdGroup on AdSense - with that theme - but also try other ways to stretch it.
Think: What are people thinking about, reading about when thinking to lose weight? ie the word "carbs." And then you bid on those words.
To follow-up, you check if those words are converting for you- if people are searching those words and clicking through and buying. You evaluate the traffic and see if it's profitable.
Question???
He used people to create the scripts for him - through e-Lance and other outsourcing sites - found people to write the scripts for the Adgroups It's basically taking keywords- putting them into excel and then putting them into one adgroup.
First script - creating a bunch of adgroups from a big set of keywords automatically- taking the first 10 keywords and putting into one group- then the next 10 into another group.
The next was to get google keywords from the google keyword tool. He was putting in single keywords (like 200) and putting them into excel and then breaking them up into Adwords campaigns.
He got his scripts to become automated. (I need to clarify what they were referring to by the word "script" - this part of the interview was unclear to me...).
To grow - he kept creating campaigns and analyzing the data and getting scripts automated to get it done quicker.
He also invluded a CPA - Cost Per Action offer with a CPA network. Not a CPS- Cost Per Sale. Not immediately paying out the money. It's a trial that converts to an offer. So they give you a front-end payout because they know the person with sign-up. It can be filling out a firm, installing a web-bar- it's just a cost per action.
Now he has a software that helps his determine what is working on the different sites. It automates the process that finds what's working. He used to look at sites and see how the owners advertise their sites etc.
Staying focused, my original purpose of this blog was to learn how to make money on the internet through affiliate marketing. I think it still stands to be my favorite topic when it comes to e-Commerce, online marketing etc. I got side-tracked from the affiliate marketing topic because in order to sell anything on-line I learned that you need to have good exposure - usually through high SEO- where you show up high on search results. So, I delved into SEO tips which can go on forever as it is ever-changing- keeping up with google and analytics etc. I am not equipped to compete with those who eat sleep and drink that stuff.
BUT... I STILL am fascinated by how people can make money off the web- without even owning any inventory and without even having your own website!
I will share an online interview about a guy who made millions on affiliate marketing and how he did it- (thanks David).
http://mixergy.com/mike-colella-adbeat-interview/
This guy Mike Colella was an engineer and quit his job because he started making so much.
He uses Contextual Advertising - Google AdSense Ads- He would buy them and sell other people's products. Sending traffic directly to an affiliate site - directly to their landing page. Clickbank.com offers- high commissions because they are digital products - with no cost to ship - so there is about a 75% commission rate- which is very high.
He also affilates with e-books. He did well selling an affiliate e-book on solar panels to reduce energy bills - because people like to buy things to save them money.
He started in 2008 just wanting to make money on the internet. He started a website on fitness thinking he'd make money though putting on Google AdSense. But didn't make any money.
Then, he started with PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising - with a small budget spending about 10$ a day on Adwords. Started with fitness sites - and saw a lot of ads in the diet markets - picked the product he saw most often that sold a diet product and became an affiliate of that.
Would spend 20 and make 25 on a sale. He continued spending money on advertising and making more money. A few months later made a $5,000 profit and the month after that 25,000 then 4th month 60,000 then 5th month 90,000-(that was with making 250,000 revenue.)
The original product was called "Truth About Abs" - an e-book.
This is all from promoting other people's products!
How'd he do this?
He looked at what ads were showing up as AdWords and modeled his ads after those that were working.
He used an AdWords e-book that helped as well. He understood the fitness market and how to reach the market by expanding keywords. Plus, fitness has a very wide appeal. You can sell it anywhere.
You do not always need to stay so focused around the topics. You start an AdGroup on AdSense - with that theme - but also try other ways to stretch it.
Think: What are people thinking about, reading about when thinking to lose weight? ie the word "carbs." And then you bid on those words.
To follow-up, you check if those words are converting for you- if people are searching those words and clicking through and buying. You evaluate the traffic and see if it's profitable.
Question???
He used people to create the scripts for him - through e-Lance and other outsourcing sites - found people to write the scripts for the Adgroups It's basically taking keywords- putting them into excel and then putting them into one adgroup.
First script - creating a bunch of adgroups from a big set of keywords automatically- taking the first 10 keywords and putting into one group- then the next 10 into another group.
The next was to get google keywords from the google keyword tool. He was putting in single keywords (like 200) and putting them into excel and then breaking them up into Adwords campaigns.
He got his scripts to become automated. (I need to clarify what they were referring to by the word "script" - this part of the interview was unclear to me...).
To grow - he kept creating campaigns and analyzing the data and getting scripts automated to get it done quicker.
He also invluded a CPA - Cost Per Action offer with a CPA network. Not a CPS- Cost Per Sale. Not immediately paying out the money. It's a trial that converts to an offer. So they give you a front-end payout because they know the person with sign-up. It can be filling out a firm, installing a web-bar- it's just a cost per action.
Now he has a software that helps his determine what is working on the different sites. It automates the process that finds what's working. He used to look at sites and see how the owners advertise their sites etc.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Online Reputation Management, continued.
Continuing on the topic online reputation and management- ideas from the Spinnconference.
I'm going to backtrack and add why online reputation management is so critical. Searching makes it very easy for people to bring up the dirt on a company or a person's name. A growing sector is managing what results show up for a corporate or personal brand. There are experts who specialize in how to develop a reputation online or how to repair a bad rep situation and turn it into a great one! This can be done through message boards, answering comments from a thread on a message board etc. So, it's important to constantly monitor your company's online reputation, how it ranks in search engine results like google or bing AND what sites and places it is showing up within the search results. It's tricky, because depending on the company there are different ways to become "popular" online. If you are a strong financial firm or hedge fund - any speck of a bad rep can be severely damaging. But, if you are a dance studio, one bad comment made by a client can bring lots of responding comments- many in the studio's defense! The studio's online reputation manager would need to monitor the threads of comments and be on the constant lookout to colorfully steer it into the right direction and skillfully work it in their favor!
More to come on linkbuilding, analytics, mobile and local tips (VERY HOT TOPIC!) etc.
On a personal note: I have just begun an active jobsearch and am looking to work with an advertising/marketing firm or e-commerce company in the area of account management/client relations/business development. Any leads or suggestions are welcome.
I'm going to backtrack and add why online reputation management is so critical. Searching makes it very easy for people to bring up the dirt on a company or a person's name. A growing sector is managing what results show up for a corporate or personal brand. There are experts who specialize in how to develop a reputation online or how to repair a bad rep situation and turn it into a great one! This can be done through message boards, answering comments from a thread on a message board etc. So, it's important to constantly monitor your company's online reputation, how it ranks in search engine results like google or bing AND what sites and places it is showing up within the search results. It's tricky, because depending on the company there are different ways to become "popular" online. If you are a strong financial firm or hedge fund - any speck of a bad rep can be severely damaging. But, if you are a dance studio, one bad comment made by a client can bring lots of responding comments- many in the studio's defense! The studio's online reputation manager would need to monitor the threads of comments and be on the constant lookout to colorfully steer it into the right direction and skillfully work it in their favor!
More to come on linkbuilding, analytics, mobile and local tips (VERY HOT TOPIC!) etc.
On a personal note: I have just begun an active jobsearch and am looking to work with an advertising/marketing firm or e-commerce company in the area of account management/client relations/business development. Any leads or suggestions are welcome.
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