Hey Everyone, So I'm totally new to internet marketing. I've been reading DP for the past month and have read all the big "make money online" books including the Rich Jerk, Holly Mann's Book, The Super Affiliate Hanbook, and others. I've tried some methods mentioned in the books regarding affiliate sales, but have come up with nothing. One that I thought would work in theory is Holly Mann's idea of posting ads on Adbrite that link directly to the product you're promoting. (By the way, I'm NOT promoting any of these books...not here that is (-: I'm definitely not new to web design as I own a small college design firm: 5starstudios.com After finals I'm going to really try to create a couple good sites. My first goal is to make $1 a day within a month and hopefully $5 a day within 2 months. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and I'd be more than willing to help out with design concerns in exchange. Thanks, CollegeGuy
Um, I'm not exactly sure what kind of advice you're asking for. Do you mean just PPC marketing advice in general (since you posted in the PPC forum)?
Hey, sorry for that...I mean pretty much in general, but that would include PPC. Please move the post if necessary... Thanks!
I'm not the resident PPC expert, but I think that's a bit of a broad question. What was it exactly that you wanted information on that you didn't get from all those books you bought. I'd guess that they were all in there, but apparently not?
who said anything about -buying- the books, haha, jk. Well, has anyone had success with strategies such as the one I mentiond earlier with AdBrite? What is the best way to go for affiliate marketing also? thanks
From what I gather, much of the success with PPC marketing seems to come from investing in Adwords, then sending the targeted traffic to very specific landing pages where you try to sell the visitor something, that you would then take a piece of as an affiliate for a bigger company, say with Commission Junction or Clickbank. A known member of DP who is currently writing about this at his blog is Shoemoney http://www.shoemoney.com. Shoe has made 10s of 1000s off PPC, and reading his blog is like going to college for 6 years in PPC marketing. I recommend starting there.
Yes, but the chances of your ads showing up are nil. Remember that the highest bid guarantees you the top spot on someone's webpage. If you only bid 10-cents, and there are, say, 500 other people with higher bids than you -- even by just 1 cent -- that means your ad will be ad #501 in the queue. Not a very good chance of getting seen that way. That's why people always try to be the top bidder, or reasonably close.
is it true that it's better to get the #2 and #3 positions over the #1 pos. because they will yeild the same CTR, but you will pay less??? thanks
The secret is not really your position in the ad queue, but rather how you sell your link. Think about it: when you see an ad, you don't automatically click on the first link (at least I don't), instead I glance through the ads, and click on the one that most interests me. This means spending more time writing good copy (what your ad will say) instead of ad placement. So yes, I think you're correct in some ways. The secret that isn't really a secret is writing attractive ads not just to get people to click, but to get the right people to click. After all, if every click is going to cost you something, you want to attract the right kind of people - that is, the kind that will buy something from you and make you money, rather than the kind that just click because you promised them some free stuff. (Shoemoney recently blogged about this.)
hey, thanks for all the advice! I was doing some research into PPC ads for promoting affiliate products. I spent a good 3 hours and didn't find any keywords under $.18. What is a good price to pay for PPC when promoting affiliate products assuming you have a decent sales copy. I mean, if you had a 1% conversion rate you'd break even at 100 clicks if you got a keyword at $.10 AND a product paying $10/sale which seems impossible (the PPC part)!!! 100 clicks*($.10)=$10 100*.1=1($10)=well I think we all know this one, haha Anyways, I'm really not seeing how people do this unless they are getting really good conversion rates...and if that's the case...what are the keys to that, besides writing good copy. Basically, what product do you select: how much should they pay out: too high and they probably scare off buyers, too low you (an affiliate) can't make a profit??? Thanks
You may be approaching this from the wrong jumping off point. People who makes money in PPC using Adwords or other PPC advertising invests quite a bit of money, in the 100s and 1000s. We're not talking about $10-day, I'm afraid, although I'm sure people do spend that kind of amount. But to really get involved in this, to really make any decent money on it, you need more investment capital, otherwise you'll never be able to pay for the top keywords and get top spot. This isn't really a program for people who can't afford it; it's very risky, but at the same time, very rewarding if done correctly.
I agree with Jack that you're probably best off starting with something other than PPC advertising. You may want to look at creating content sites and serving contextual-based ads, and then generating traffic via free means (e.g. SEO, submission to directories, etc.) Once you've generated a consistent income, you can then take that income and start looking into investing in PPC. HTH, Sam