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 Recently
an ebook titled Google Cash by Chris Carpenter
has caused quite a wave in the internet marketing circle. The
sales letter on his web site is very appealing. What interested
me the most was that the author claims you can make substantial
income with Google Adwords, even WITHOUT a website. Now that's
a new concept to me.
I've always thought that to make
money online, you must build your own website, the ebook
Mini Site Profits by Phil Wiley covers that very well. After
you finish building your site, you must submit the site to major
search engines such as Google. But all that takes a lot of time
and effort, not only to build the site, but also it takes a while
for the search engines to spider your site and get you listed.
You just can't expect immediate result, which is bit discouraging,
especially to newbies.
Google Cash, on the other hand, claims that by following the
steps detailed in the book, you can start making money right away.
I was very intrigued by that idea. But I'm not the type of person
that spends money on any ebook just based on sales copy, because
many ebooks are just not worth it. So I spent a week searching
the web, and many message boards and forums, and
tried to find
out what people who have bought the book and put to practice had
to say.
The majority of the users speak highly of the book, including Phil
Wiley, the person I respect a lot. (I subscribe to his newsletter
and read every issue). The overall feedback was very positive.
So in late July, 2003, I bought the book and spent a few hours
studying it.
Here is a list of major chapters in the book:
- Step #1. Getting Started
- Step #2. How to find and choose lucrative Affiliate Programs
- Step #3. Join Affiliate Programs and get the link
- Step #4. Keyword research
- Step #5. How to write Google Adwords that get clicks
- Step #6. Setup your Google Adwords campaign
- Step #7. 20 more tips for maximizing your Adwords campaigns
- Step #8. Track your campaigns
- Step #9. Use eBay to get clicks
- Step #10. Use classified ads
- Important updates - Latest tips
Inspired by his successful ad examples, the very next day, I put
his techniques to work. I have been an affiliate with several
merchants via Clickbank and Commission
Junction, I used Adword Analyzer (see later)
to identify highly searched keywords and found out exactly how
many Google Adwords were running for those keywords. I avoided
the most competitive
keywords, because I had to shell out a lot of money to make
my ad rank in top three. The keywords I selected were still
in demand, yet less than
three ads were running for them.
Here is what I did.
I started out with five campaigns, each with minimal CPC (cost per
click) of 6 cents (one cent more than the minimum, for reasons
I will talk about in a minute), with a daily budget of $10. Here
is the initial result after one week. One campaign netted me
$218, for an bid cost of $34 (yeeha!). Two campaigns had CTR
(click through rate) of < 0.5%,
and were suspended (sigh!). One campaign got disapproved by Google
editing team, because I used words
like "Best", "Better". The remaining one had good
CTR, but didn't convert well.
After reading Google Cash's "20 More Tips" again, I figured out
the reason I had a low CTR was because I used keyword "broad match",
I switched to "phrase match" and "exact match" (the
book explains those terms), and CTR was greatly improved. As for
the one ad that
had higher CTR but didn't convert well, I studied Chris's "Mortgage" example,
and quickly built a simple landing page (you do need a website for
that). The purpose of those landing pages is to put visitor in a "buying" frame
of mind, to presell the product, but not to push too hard. I've
found that with preselling, conversion rate goes up dramatically.
Since then, I've learned a lot of tips and tricks of using Adwords,
by testing, more testing, and searching the web for relevant information.
I'm in the process of writing a special report on those techniques,
which will dramatically boost your success rate. So stay tuned.
One thing I want to mention here, is that Google has come out with
a new and better user interface. The url for that is: "https://adwordstest.google.com/select/".
It helps you better manage your campaigns. Use it, and you will
love it, especially the dynamic title feature. (I'll elaborate
on it in my special report).
Another thing is that Chris suggests you bid 5 cents per click when
you first start out. I always bid 6 cents. Reason: in case there
is a competitor who is bidding minimum, by out bidding him by
1 cent, your ad may rank
higher, and get more clicks. I say "may", because your ranking
does not totally depend on how much you bid, but also depend
on your CTR. The formula is: CPC x CTR = Ranking. If there is
no competition, Google automatically charges you 5 cents per
click. In this case, 6 cents is the
maximum you will pay.
My conclusion on Google Cash? Well, it's definitely a
book to own, especially for beginners and intermediate marketers.
Chris has done an excellent job teaching you how to make money
with Adwords step by step. With one good ad, you can
recoup your investment on the book ($49.95), and see steady income
every day. But this is not a get rich quick scheme, it does
take some practice to master
the techniques he teaches. But once you have the skills, the reward
is huge.
The key to success with Adwords, is to find profitable keywords.
How to find those keywords? Jeff Alderson's Adword
Analyzer
software is a terrific tool just for that. Without it, you
will have to
use Overture's
Term Suggestion Tool
and Word Tracker. Word
Tracker is great, but it's very expensive. With Adword Analyzer,
it shows you the keywords and number of searches
that Overture would show, PLUS, it shows you how many
Google Adwords ads and Overture ads are currently running for
those keywords. That gives
you an idea how strong the competitions are, so that you don't
waste money on highly competitive keywords. I think $67 is well
worth it. I use it every day to do keyword research, gauge competition,
and
plan my campaigns. I give it A+.
Here is a screen shot, I used "online marketing" as a search term:
Click here to claim your Special Bonuses!
William Shi
Fullerton, CA 92833
USA
Phone: 626-274-0636
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