Tag Archives: ppc

To Direct Link or Not To Direct Link?

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It’s one of the oldest questions in Affiliate Marketing: to direct link or not to direct link? Google made their stance on the issue pretty clear when they all but banned direct linking on AdWords. Now they don’t even like so-called “bridge pages” which lead to affiliate offers with little content on them.

But still, traffic sources such as Facebook and PPV still allow for direct linking. I get asked almost every single day whether you should direct link a campaign or create a landing page for it. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast answer. The truth is (and has always been) that some campaigns work better direct linked and some work better with landing pages. Neither method works better all of the time. You need to test it out.

That being said, a strategy that I have seen work well for affiliates is to direct link a campaign to quickly evaluate whether or not it has potential before they go to the trouble of building out a landing page. Especially if it is in a brand new niche that you have not promoted before, where you don’t have any creatives or landers sitting around ready to be used.

It’s easy to throw together a direct link campaign on PPV or Facebook. Run some traffic to it, and if you are getting enough conversions to break even, or even just under, it’s a good sign that the offer has some life to it. That’s when you can buckle down and put together a landing page to bring the ROI into the black and start making money.

 

PPC Is Dead, Long Live PPV

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It’s funny to see the different cycles that affiliate marketers go through when it comes to traffic sources. One thing will be hot for a while, then it’s dead and the next big thing is the only way to make money. As you know I personally love PPV and use it to promote things every day. But whatever happened to that old stalwart of traffic sources, PPC?

I work at an affiliate network, and I know from experience that there are very few affiliates running PPC these days. It’s true that Google hates affiliates, for the most part. They made it extremely hard for people to make money on their platform. There are some people running offers on Google, but certainly a lot less.

Steampunk iMac

This steampunk iMac has nothing to do with PPC or PPV. It's just awesome.

So why am I bringing this up? It may be time to take a second look at PPC (yes the title of this post is sarcastic). I’m not saying to drop PPV, but there is still lots of money to be made on Google and also Bing/Yahoo. These are some of the largest traffic sources in the world. Their sheer volume trumps all the PPV networks put together. It’s going to take more work. You will have to build quality landing pages and deal with the possibility of a Google slap. But for those who persevere, the rewards can be great.

Don’t count the PPC engines out. They aren’t down for the count just yet. While the majority of affiliates have moved on to greener easier pastures, that leaves a lot of inventory out there for the open-minded and experienced affiliate. Go get it.

AffExpert > AffPortal (A Review)

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AffPortal was the first “PPV Tools” website on the block.  It took a whole bunch of tasks that PPV marketers have to do on a regular basis, and made them faster and easier.  Things like URL scraping, etc.  Now that it’s been out for a while, a competitor has sprung up called AffExpert.  At first I was skeptical, because I am a huge fan of AffPortal.  But once I got the chance to dig in and use the tools during their free Beta period (which has expired), they won me over.

Most of the tools are self-explanatory by the title, but there are a couple of things that I really like about AffExpert’s system that make it unique:

  1. When you are scraping URLs, it automatically shows you the Alexa, and Quantcast rankings for all of them.  This is pretty cool because you can tell how much traffic a target is going to get before you even test it out on the PPV network.
  2. There is a really cool Basket system that you can save all the URLs to that you want to keep, and then download them all at once in one nice file.  This eliminates the all-too-common problem of duplicate URLs you get when you are scraping  through other methods, and it will also give you the option to add or remove the final slash (/) at the end of the URLs.  Since PPV networks like DirectCPV consider “domain.com” to be a different URL than “domain.com/”, this can be handy.
AffExpert URL Scraper

URL Scraper in action

Here are the PPV/CPV tools available:

  • Related Keywords
  • URL Scraper
  • Site Analytics (Alexa, Compete, Quantcast)
  • Domain Expander
  • Related Domains Finder
  • Top 1 Mil Domain Explorer
  • Domain Typos
  • URL Query Generator
  • YouTube Scraper
  • URL Follower

There are also some PPC tools:

  • Google Campaign Builder
  • Competition Spy
  • Adsense Finder
  • Keyword Grouper

There is also a self-hosted Weighted URL Rotator.  You can install this on your own server so you don’t have to worry about the data being snatched by somebody else (unless they have access to your server, and then you are just a moron).

I haven’t personally used the PPC tools much, so I can’t report on how they work.  That being said, it’s nice to get them for the one monthly fee, and if you are paying for another keyword tool that does the same thing, you can eliminate that extra expense and just use one tool set for everything.

All in all, I highly recommend AffExpert.  I use it personally on every PPV campaign I do, and it is a major time saver.  You can get a 7-day, fully functional trial for only $1, so what are you waiting for, give it a shot!

P.S.  Use promo code “BETAUSER” to get a discounted membership for life.

60% of the Time, It Works Every Time

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There’s no such thing as a surefire winner in Affiliate Marketing. That hot campaign that you have making $1,000 a day right now? It won’t last. The vertical that you have been tearing up for the last two years? It won’t last. Markets change. Audiences get wiser. Traffic sources dry up. There are about a million things that could go wrong at any point in time in this industry, and if you don’t have your income diversified, you will get stung sooner or later.

Are You Diversified?

If this is your business strategy, you are in trouble.

Diversification is something that you hear a lot about in the Investing world. Your broker will tell you, “You don’t want to put all of your money in stocks, or in bonds, or in cash alone. You want to have an even mix so you are both protected against loss and also maximizing your gain.”  Truer words were never said for Affiliate Marketing as well.

The absolute worst position to be in is one successful campaign on one traffic source.  That is an empty bank account waiting to happen.  Most affiliates know well enough that they shouldn’t just sit back and be lazy with one campaign, but I know at least some don’t. Avoid this at all costs.

Another thing you need to watch is when you are running multiple campaigns, but they are all on the same traffic source.  At least you are safe if one of your campaigns goes down. But what if the traffic source dries up?  Then you are back to square one.  Many affiliates were really slammed when Facebook tightened up their restrictions, you can learn from that.  Don’t put all your eggs in the Facebook basket, the Google basket, or even the PPV basket.  What if your network suddenly tells you that they aren’t going to accept any PPV traffic anymore on any campaigns?  These are tough questions that you need to be asking yourself on a regular basis if you want to survive in Affiliate Marketing.

The best thing that you can do to protect yourself from a bad situation is to build up an asset that belongs to you completely.  Create a content-based website in a solid niche that’s been around forever, or just that you can get a lot of traffic from a certain demographic and then sell the traffic.  Or you can build an email list.  An email list is an asset that you can take with you and keep promoting to no matter what happens to your offers, your networks, or other traffic sources.

The number one thing to remember here is that when you are buying traffic from someone and then selling it to someone else, you are the most vulnerable link in the chain and you can be replaced or eliminated at any time.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have job security by arbitraging, even for one second.

10 Reasons That #ASW10 Was The Best One Yet

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1. I finally got to meet the legendary Andrew Wee.  Wee is my brother from an Asian mother.  One of my favorite moments from the show was in the elevator at the Palms.  It was me, Wee, and Boone, and some random dude gets into the elevator and starts screaming, “All I wanna know is, Who the F*** is Andrew Wee?!?”.  It was hilarious.

2. The parties were off the hook. From PPC.bz & Nickycakes Paper Clique Jump Off to CX’s Billionaire Party, there were some awesome shindigs at this conference.  There were affiliate nerd-core freestyle rap battles, a dance routine featuring a live python, and even some very tasty cheesecake desserts.ppc.bz-neverblue-nickycakes-POF

3. The check-in lines were super fast. Actually when Boone and I checked in there was no line.  That was a big improvement from last year’s hour long lines.

4. The Meet Market was packed. There were 2 rooms this year, and there were bodies from end to end with tables somewhere in the middle.  If you are a network or other exhibitor, the Meet Market is some of the best bang for your buck you can get.  It’s only 6 hours long, but there is serious networking to be done at this part of the event.

5. The high-caliber affiliates were out in force. I’m sure that there are always ballers at ASW, but the sheer amount of them and time I was able to spend chatting & networking with affiliates at this conference was way above average.  Definitely higher than at any of the shows I went to in 2009.

6. Time-wasters were at a bare minimum. With a couple of rare exceptions, the people that I talked to didn’t waste my time.  I’m not sure if I was just better at spotting them from a distance and avoiding them this time or what, but usually I have an entire stack of cards to put in the “Do Not Follow Up” file when I get home.  Not so this year.

7. Rooms were cheap and excellent this year. I paid way too much money for a really terrible crappy room for Ad-Tech NY last year, so my expectations were already pretty low.  However, we stayed at the Gold Coast and it was awesome.  Sure, the average age of the people in the casino was 55, and the place has not been a hot spot for years, but it was about $60 a night, and it was an ideal location because it is sandwiched right between the Rio (where the convention is) and the Palms (where most of the parties were at).  No taxis needed, everything was within walking distance.Gold Coast Room

8. I didn’t have to stand at a booth all day long. Having a booth can be worth it sometimes, but also it is a major pain.  You have to get up early, be at the convention all day for both days so your feet are killing you, and worst of all you have to talk to every single person that comes by your booth (i.e. time-wasters).  Not having a booth this year was nice, since I got to cruise around and network more freely.

9. Meetup202 was EPIC. It would have been worth flying out to Vegas just for the Meetup202 event alone.  It was that good.  The attendance was huge (several hundred people), Wes & the Bloosky guys put on a great presentation, and the tips at the end from the individual Meetup202 organizers from various cities were really good.  I am super proud of Wes, Steven, and the whole 202 gang for chasing their dreams and making them a reality, and super thankful for all of the hard work they have put into their software and the affiliate community as a whole.Meetup202

10. The wrap-up post was easy to write. I usually avoid writing these posts after a show, but this one practically wrote itself.  Affiliate Summit West is officially my favorite show of the year, and you are cheating yourself out of growing your business and having a great time doing it if you don’t go in 2011.

SiteSnatcher Has Landed

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If there’s one thing that Internet and Affiliate Marketers can’t get enough of, it is tools & shortcuts.  Every process that can be automated gives us more time to focus on being creative and the next big idea.  A good friend of mine launched his own set of tools this week, and it is called SiteSnatcher.  I immediately signed up and gave it a test run, so I thought I would share my first impressions.

The first tool I tried was the Blog Commentor.  When you are trying to get a new site indexed and get some link juice to it, one of the easiest ways to do that is to comment on related blogs using your URL to link back to your site.  The Blog Commentor will take any keyword that you choose, such as “golf”, and come up with a bunch of direct links to the posts that you can comment on.  It also has a built in iFrame so that you can just load the blog inside of SiteSnatcher, submit your comment, then hit “Next” and it loads the next blog into the window.  This makes the blog commenting process a breeze, you can knock out 100 comments in short order.

Next I tried out the Site Targeting Tool.  This is designed for PPC guys that are looking for specific sites to target for the Content Network in their niche.  One of the best ways to make the Content Network profitable is to site target instead of just letting Google do it for you.  This can be a tedious process of searching for sites in your niche that are running AdSense so that you can target them.  This tool does it all for you.  Simply put in your keyword, hit go, and it will grab anywhere from several hundred to 1,000 sites in your niche that AdSense on the page.  This can also work as a URL scraper for finding sites to target with PPV.

One thing I will mention is that you need to wait a little bit for the results to come in.  These tools are doing real-time scrapes of lots of data, so when you hit go it can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes to see the full results.  It is all designed to run in the background, so you can set a couple different tools to run, or just work on something else and come back later.

The pricing is based on how much you want to use it.  On the basic package, you get 50 “credits” per day.  As you see in the screenshot above, the Site Targeting Tool take 25 credits to run.  You can run it (or any other tool for 25 credits) twice per day on the basic package.  I think it’s a cool way to test it out without spending a ton of cash.  If you start using it a bunch on a daily basis, then you can get a bigger package with more credits.

All in all I think that this is definitely going to turn some heads.  I don’t recommend products or services very often on this blog, so take it from me, this is a solid service that is only going to get better.   If you do PPC on the Content Network, or PPV, or if you do any type of SEO including the EPN / McJiffy / BANS method, then SiteSnatcher is a tool you will want to check out.

P.S. If you click one of the SiteSnatcher links above, you will go through my affiliate link.  If you don’t want to use my affiliate link, just go to http://sitesnatcher.com.

Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/5

Google AdWords Bidding Explained – Finally!

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There has always been an element of mystery to bidding for keywords on Google AdWords.  Finally, Hal Varian from the mighty Google speaks out on our behalf with this clear and concise video to explain exactly what happens when you bid on a keyword and how the ads are ranked.  If you haven’t seen this video yet, you need to take the 9 minutes and 12 seconds it takes to watch it.  If you spend any money on Google AdWords at all, it will be worth it.

See, I told you so!  Now go make some money.

Can Ringtones Still Make Money On Google?

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If you are promoting ringtones offers, then you no doubt have been affected by the recent changes to Google’s AdWords policy regarding mobile offers.  The question is, how big of a hit is this to the Ringtones vertical?  Is it still possible to market Ringtones on Google?

One thing that can be said about affiliate marketers is that they are a creative bunch.  Anytime something like this happens in the industry, there is a few days of moaning and gnashing of teeth, but after that everyone gets back to work and decides that it’s just another obstacle to overcome.  Some of the big guys might even be glad for changes like this because it knocks the newbies out of the running for a while.  It will take some time for the effects to be fully felt, but perhaps the change could even result in lower click costs, due to less competition.

Google AdWords Machine

Grants? Nope. Acai? Nope. Ringtones? Hmm...

When you are thrown a curveball from the big G, it’s time to take a look at the variables and see what can be changed to increase conversions.  The glory days of 2002 are long gone, there will be no more promotion of ringtones on Google AdWords by telling people that it’s free, when it in fact costs money.  Now that you’ve got that ugly “$9.95/month” telling people not to click on your ads, you need to give them some other reason to.  Luckily you still have control over some of the most important aspects of your ads, the Headline and the Display URL.

SendMe Mobile recently sent out an alert to their partners pointing out the effect of changing the position of the carrier name in the Display URL has.  Most of the ads that you see will put the carrier after the slash, as in “URL.com/Verizon”.  SendMe suggests that they have seen an increase in CTR from putting the carrier as a sub-domain at the start of the Display URL as in “verizon.URL.com”.

This makes sense because it appeals to the people looking for a trustworthy source for their ringtones.  Now that the pricing is on all the ads, people are going to want to give their money to someone that seems legit, as opposed to “TonsOfFreeTones.com” ($9.95/month).

Of course there is the other alternative, which I’m sure many of you have thought about, which is to get your traffic from somewhere else.  I’ve heard more than once that Ringtones have been dead on Google for a long time, and while I disagree, this proves that people are not just relying on Google for 100% of their traffic.  It’s time to look at the alternatives, even outside the big 3 search engines.  There is lots of 2nd and 3rd tier search engines to be found, and there’s also PPV, not to mention doing specific Media Buys or direct ad placements on websites.

To answer the original question, yes, I think that Ringtones can still make money on Google, but it might be less and less a part of your overall marketing strategy for these offers.  It’s time to put on the thinking cap, go back to the drawing board, and get creative.

Now go make some money!

How To Direct Link On Google – Part 2

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My last post has generated a lot of response and questions from people, so I wanted to discuss a couple of other points about the method that I outlined in Part 1.

First of all, there is the question of whether this method could get you banned from Google AdWords.  I would consider this a gray-area technique.  It’s not something that is an instant ban, but if you exploit it to a huge degree, then yes, it could lead to your account being terminated.

The reason that I posted this method is that it can be a great way to test out a campaign, but I can’t stress enough that you should be building landing pages for offers that have proven successful with the direct link method. It is very hard to build a long-term, sustainable business on the internet without creating a website.

Second, some people have questioned the ethics of using another site that doesn’t belong to you as the display URL.  The easiest response there is, if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, then don’t do it.  An alternative to using someone’s website is that you can use a domain that you own as the Display and Destination URL to get your ad approved, then switch the link to your affiliate link with Edit Keyword Settings like I suggested.  This way you don’t have to spend the time to build out a full dedicated landing page, but you are still using your own domain so you won’t get any complaints from other webmasters or feel bad about doing it.

I would also like to stress that the tutorials that I publish on this blog are not meant to be the absolute blueprint to success with affiliate marketing.  There is no such blueprint.  The goal with this blog is to give you, the reader, some good tips & advice to get going with some campaigns and marketing methods, and then you can tweak them and customize them to find what works the best for you.

There is a lot of money to be made in this industry, and it’s not always going to be easy.  It’s a lot easier than working 60 hours a week in a job that you hate to bring home just enough to keep the bill collectors at bay though…  Anything with the kind of potential that you have as an affiliate marketer is going to take some time to become successful at, but the rewards are definitely worth the effort that you put in.

That being said, I will continue to offer more strategies and tutorials, and I will do my best to answer your questions & comments to steer you in the right direction.  So keep reading, and keep the feedback coming!