Shoemoney interview…

Here’s what Jeremy shared with me at Yanik’s Underground a few weeks back. Hope you enjoy it. It was my first time meeting Jeremy and I found him to be a cool dude. In this interview he shared what he’d do if he had to start over and a few other key insights.

Keyword variations I bid on

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I’ve been expanding my business a bit into other areas. But just this week I am coming back to my roots in ppc. I have made the most money with ppc and I am certain that you can turn a profit as well. As I have been building my campaigns, I jotted down a few tricks I use to maximize my profits and want to share them with you. I hope these are useful.

When bidding on a two- or three-word phrase, always bid on the same words with no spaces. This can be huge. Lower bid prices are highly targeted. For example, if you’re bidding on “acme roadrunner traps,” I would also bid on “acmeroadrunnertraps.”

It sounds dumb but people do type things like this into the search engines and way less people bid on terms like this. BTW, I would also bid on “acme road runner traps” (notice I put a space in between “road” and “runner”? I do this when bidding since I know many searchers will type in their search this way. Oh, I would also bid on “acme roadrunner trap” (no s).

You’re probably getting the idea now… try to think like someone doing a search. Also consider adding the words “buy” and/or “purchase” before and after the keyword phrase. Example: if you are bidding on “acme roadrunner traps,” also bid on “buy acme roadrunner traps,” etc. Very targeted clicks. What other keyword variations can you come up with?

What I told my buddy yesterday

My friend emailed me yesterday asking how to get started in affiliate marketing. Here’s what I told him (whole thread below):

~begin thread~

Direct linking? Ok, I’d go to Google and type: (some subject matter) affiliate program

examples are:

real estate affiliate program

soccer affiliate program

recurring affiliate program

You get the idea. I’d choose 2-3 of these searches so you have 2-3 markets you’re trying out.

Then I’d join 5-10 independent affiliate programs (that are not part of a network like cj.com or clickbank or whatever) from each of these markets.

Then use Google shadow [you can do this manually too, it'll just take longer] to write ads for them and bid $1 or so as long as you are keeping your keywords really tight (like product name, author name, etc  for now) — be sure the merchant allows you to bid on these

Then turn off losers (100 – 150 clicks, no sales), quickly adjust bids on those that get sales to aim for $1 spent to make $2 ($1 profit). Be sure you have your daily budget set to a number you can afford.

What do you say?

On March 30, 2010, at 4:04 PM, Gxxxx wrote:

Direct linking to start because my knowledge is limited.

Thanks, G

On March 30, 2010, at 3:53 PM, Tim Houston wrote:

yo Gxxxx — are you looking to direct link or build out a site?

Tim

On March 30, 2010, at 3:40 PM, Gxxxxxx wrote:

Hey buddy, I’m trying to get my feet wet with this real affiliate marketing stuff  and I’m struggling to even pick a vertical(s).  Can you point me in the right direction? I don’t know if I should try a dating, scholarship, giftcard, etc vertical.  I’m guessing some are much better than others. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks, G

~end thread~

Bear with me…

as I get the new site updated with graphics and content It will be good, I promise…

Catching up with the times (my web 2.0 debut)

This post represents my transition to a blog format (finally). My background is predominantly as a ppc direct-linking affiliate marketer… Here I will share my observations and insights on affiliate marketing and bring you interviews with experts in the industry. I’ll also keep you in the loop on other money-generation techniques I discover along the way. Feel free to share your thoughts on the various posts. Until later.

March Survey Response

Andrew Locke Interview