Affiliate Marketing Online Blog

There is a new wind blowing in the internet / affiliate marketing arena. Ever since the Google Slapped algorithm came along affiliate marketing has become a lot more difficult.

The best thing to do is to accept the change and adapt.Your only other option is to try to market with out Google Adwords.

I think that would be a mistake because Adwords still has the greatest potential to bring the greatest amount of traffic.

In fact, you can see the Google Slapped change as anadvantage rather than a disadvantage.

The advantage is that it eliminates 95% of your competition. If you make it through this change successfully, I would say that you have what it takes to be a successful long term internet marketer.

What Happened?
As a Certified Google Adwords Professional, I work closely with Google. But don’t blame me for the change because I had nothing to do with it. I was affected just like you.

I don’t know the exact formula but I have reverse engineered the results. It seems those that were unaffected are websites with alot of content on related topics.
Why did it Happen?

Google is the most popular search engine in the world right now because they started with a guiding principle and are carrying it through to the Adwords program. And that guiding philosophy is “If you give the internet visitor exactly what they are looking for they will come back, again and again”.

Another word for that is “relevance“. If what the searcher types into the search field results in exactly what they want, they will be happy.

So even though this affects their bottom line temporarily by driving away bidders, they know that in the long run they will stay on top because of the returning visitors.

In the meantime they are weeding out, the fly-by-night marketers who quickly put up a page and end up with disappointed customers who ultimately look back to Google for giving them credibility.

A Workaround
Gone are the days when setting up a single landing page for a specific campaign or ad group or even a small website. Google wants to see websites with alot of content on a given subject. The Google bot will look at the content of the keyword versus the ad AND the landing page/website.

However, there are exceptions; it seems at the time being that very large, portal websites are not affected as of YET.

A Quick Fix
I had many campaigns that were promoted to either a small (1 - 3 pages) website or a single landing page. These were all driven to $10 per click.

To temporarily and quickly work around this I created another ad group and used the same keywords and same ads EXCEPT that I drove visitors directly to the vendor’s website.

Make sure that you don’t merely change the URL in your ads because this will NOT work. You must create a completely different group. This only works for websites with a fair amount of content -1,000 words or more.

Now this will decrease your earnings because you can’t collect names and email addresses but it is better than $10 a click and better than zero traffic.

This should only be temporary if you really want to make a serious and consistent income.

The Long Term Fix
So unless you don’t want or need Google’s traffic, in the mean time we will just need to follow the rules. You must decide if a campaign/market is worth pursuing in the long run.

Is it worth your time to invest building your website(s) around a topic over a period of time.

That’s why blogs are really good with attracting traffic from search engines. There is usually alot of content on a given subject and related subjects.

So either get used to writing original content in either a blog, forum or tradition website form. Just start adding a little every day or when you can.

This will pay off exponentially over time. Bloggers usually say that after about 3 months of writing everyday they start to see significant natural search engine traffic.

So you see, this strategy of giving Google what it wants is the best way. It will pay off for itself in 2 different ways -

1. Cheaper PPC traffic
2. Natural search engine traffic

Conclusion
Beating Adwords has also updated their ebook on complete affiliate marketing training to include the latest Google changes. To not only teach you all the basics of effective online marketing and beating Adwords but keeping their customers up to date.

If you are serious about making a comfortable living with affiliate marketing, and you only buy one marketing manual -this would be it.

Check it out at:
http://www.affiliate-marketing-online.net/BA/

And get $2,595 Worth of bonuses via my affiliate link.

If you are not using conversion tracking software, why not? Google’s conversion tracking tool is free.

Conversion tracking is the only way that you can accurately determine whether your advertising efforts are making you a profit and based on that information adjust your bidding so that you make sure that you continue to make a profit.

Not only that but you can use it to maximize your profits. I generally shoot for doubling my investment.

Using the Google Adword’s conversion tracking tool will tell you at a glance whether a campaign, ad group or even a particular keyword is making a profit.

To use Google’s conversion tracking tool you need only to do 2 things:

1. Enable conversion tracking in your Adwords account
2. Add a bit of text (code supplied by Google) to your Thank You page(s)

First, to enable conversion tracking in Adwords; click on Conversion Tracking under the Campaign Management tab in your Adwords account.

Click on whatever type of conversion you are tracking. Usually this is defined as a purchase/sale but it can also be defined as a Lead if the purpose of your campaign is to get prospects to join your mailing list.

Then on the next screen you simply choose what you want the customer to see on your Thank You page.

Note: Your Thank You page is the webpage that you want your customer to end up at to acheive your conversion. If it is a sale or purchase you will need access to the page that the customer goes to after making a purchase. If it is a lead, it is the webpage that the customer goes after signing up to your list.

The next step is to simply copy the code that Google supplies to you. You can always go back here and go through these steps if you need to get this code again but I like to save mine in a text file so that I can go get it anytime that I need it.

Now don’t fall to peices on me here if you don’t know how add code to a Thank You page. Chances are that if you have a website, you know how to do this or you can get somebody to do it for you.

I can help you out if you need it. Just get signed in the AMO forum and post a message under “Ask Kevin a Question”.

However, if you don’t have a website, you can simply ask the vendor to add your conversion code to their Thank You page. Many of them will be happy to do this because they know that this will help you make affiliate sales.

Some vendors even have a tool that you can use that you simply put your Google and Overture Conversion ID’s in that will generate a special URL that will act dynamically with their code on their Thank You pages.

Here is a vendor who does this for all of their websites:

http://platinumpartner.com/

So, what do you do if a vendor does not offer conversion tracking like this outright?

Well, it doesn’t hurt to ask them to add your conversion code to their Thank You page. Either they will do it and be glad to do it or they will ignore your email.

That’s why I highlight that it is a win-win situation for both of us. They may not realize the advantages.

Here is a sample letter that I send:

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Can you please add this conversion code anywhere between your and tags on your Thank You page (the page where you send customers after they complete their payment).
Insert Your Conversion code Here
This will allow me to track which keywords in Adwords are resulting in sales. We can bid more for the keywords that are converting better and increase the Maximum bids per keyword as a result.

If you can I will appreciate it. If not I will understand as well. Please email me back and let me know when it is done.

Thanks.

---

Email the webmaster of all your campaigns with this email. I like to personalize it a little to show them that this is not just some generic template.

Email the webmaster of all your campaigns with this email. I like to personalize it a little to show them that this is not just some generic template.Soon they will email you back to let you know that they added it to their Thank You pages or that they will soon and you will start to to see conversion data in your Adwords account.

At that point you can see what is converting down to the keyword. Over time you will start to see which convert the best and which are not converting at all or converting poorly.

This data is like gold to an affiliate marketer and will help you dominate your markets. Otherwise, you are just shooting in the dark.

I’ve read many ebooks on Google Adwords and affiliate marketing. As a matter of fact, I probably bought most of them, which by the way I think is usually a good investment..most times.

However, I’ve been told many times in the past that Adwords “Content Network” is not worth advertising on and yeilds lower quality clicks.

The theory is that since so many SPAMY websites are out there just for the purpose of earning Adsense revenue that you will simply waste your money on no to very little conversions.

Well, I beleived this and even helped perpetuate this myth a little. That’s generally how half-truths are spread around on the internet.

Since becoming a Certified Google Adwords Professional I have learned that Google actually will help you pay less per click for lower converting content website clicks.

Yes, this is true and it is a nice thought but generally I still wouldn’t bid the same amount that I would  on the Search Network - Unless it converts better.

My Theory on Content Network Bidding - I have found through my own case studies that some affiliate campaigns convert BETTER on the Content Network. Certainly not all. Just some and you probably don’t know which ones until you test them.

Not to mention the fact that you are missing out on additional traffic through the Content network.

Myth - If I advertise on the Content Network it will decrease my click-thru-ratio and therefore lower my Quality Score and consequently, cost me more money.

Truth - Advertising on the Content Network does NOT affect your Quality Score. It is only based on the Search Network.

Some of my campaigns that actually do convert better on the Content Network, I actually get over a thousand clicks a day at $0.01 each!

One of my campaigns I ONLY advertise on the Content Network because it is a waste of money to even advertise on Search.

Conclusion - So try turning ON the Content Network and see how it performs. It is the defalt value found under Campaign Settings.

However, before you know how a particular campaign is going to perform, separate the Content Bids by checking the “Separate Bids” under Campaign Settings.

Then bid about half of your default bid in search so you can conservatively test it out. That way you won’t un-neccessarily waste more money than you have to.

Note - You will need to have Conversion Tracking turned on before you can test and know whether your conversions are coming from the Search Network or the Content Network.

Also, be aware that you will NOT see traffic right way. There will be a slight delay because a human must review your ad before it goes on the Content Network. This is unlike the Search Network, where your ad will go live immediately and they will review it later.

Tomorrow, we will talk about conversion tracking and how to set up and use Google Adword’s free conversion tracking tool.

The 2nd version of my ebook, Cell Phone Secrets Revealed, is now available. 

In Cell Phone Secrets Revealed I not only talk about general theory about how to make over $1,000 a month in commisions from the sale of Free Cell Phone Offers but I give the exact keywords that I use.

These are broken down into 10 Ad Groups, each targeted toward a specific theme and unique landing page with your affiliate URL’s imbedded, of course.

The biggest difference between the 1st and the 2nd version is that I have updated the keyword lists.

I have eliminated keywords that were not performing well over the past year or so and added new keywords that I have found that are performing well.

Also, since I have written the first version I have become a Certified Google Adwords Professional.

So I use the additional knowledge that I have gained and apply more information about how to get more traffic from Adwords and get it at a cheaper Cost-per-Click.

However, I am not looking to make a fortune with this ebook. I am limiting it to 15 copies because I don’t want the market to be over saturated with these keywords.

There is plenty of money to be made by those 15 though. Cell phones were a 800 million market worldwide in 2005 and continues to grow steadily.

This really is the quickest and surest path to making over $1,000 a month in affiliate commissions that I know of. Even if you are already a successful affiliate marketer, you can use this information to add another $1,000 plus a month.