About a week ago, internet marketer Gauher Chaudhry relaunched his PayPerClick Formula 2 (PPCF 2) course, with affiliate marketers bundling special bonuses to entice buyers to purchase through their affiliate links.

If you’ve been standing by the sidelines and wondering which bonus package to take up, you might like to take action soon, as Gauher has mentioned that the doors to PPCF 2 might close in the next 7 to 10 days.

So which package should you choose…?

[Click here to take a look at how you should choose a bonus and the offer I’m giving PPCF2 buyers]

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Before you make a buying decision, let’s take a look at what PPCF 2 covers. Gauher’s given a comprehensive description of the 18 core modules of the course, including topics like:

• Intro to CPA marketing and traffic brokering
• Market research and offer selection
• Keyword research and tactics
• Silo site building and landing pages
• Creating great ad copy
• and so on…

Newbies will get a solid foundation in the basics of PPC and CPA marketing. Experienced affiliates will benefit from the advanced topics which include:

• Alternative PPC networks outside of the big 3 (AdWords, YSM, Microsoft), some of which have higher conversions than the big 3
• Organic planting strategies where you supplement the ROI from winning PPC keywords with SEO and social media strategies
• Strategies to incorporate expired domains into your campaigns and resurrect dead domains
• Traffic regeneration techniques to get multiple opportunities to convert PPC traffic (compared to just one chance with typical PPC campaigns)
• How to get free PPC ads
• and so on…

As mentioned earlier, once the doors to PPCF2 close, it might be 6 months to a year before new members are accepted.

If you’re wondering about the cost, it’s $1,426 to $1,446, and some will wonder if it’s worth the cost.

Considering that other affiliate marketing training sites charge $97 to $150+ per month, it’ll cost about $1,200 to $1,500 PER YEAR to join those sites.

In contrast, there’s just a ONE time fee to joining PPCF2. In the 2 years I’ve been a member, Gauher’s continued to publish new content and conduct regular webinars and training calls. As a PPCF2 members, you’ll continue to receive free lifetime updates. Paying once to join a site, compared to paying monthly fees? I’ll take the one-time fee 90% of the time.

PayPerClick Formula 2 also a 3-payment plan available.

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“So, what’s the best PPCF2 bonus?”

Affiliates are offer a hug variety of bonuses and buyers have a large selection of goodies including automation tools, affiliate software and internet marketing/affiliate marketing courses. Which is the best? Here’s my take:

• Bonus tools, software: anything to automate your affiliate marketing efforts is always a bonus. But I’m going to contradict myself here. New affiliates should NOT invest in tools immediately. Why? Because if you’re forced go the manual route and work through the process, you get a better idea of how affiliate marketing works – from researching a niche and an offer, expanding your keyword list, etc. If you suck at the basic skills, using software and tools doesn’t make you good, it just makes you suck with a 100,000 keyword list. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand your own business to run it effectively, instead of using black-box tools which cripples your ability to understand it well. Use tools when you’re an intermediate level affiliates because you’re grounded in the fundamentals. Anyway, Gauher has structured the modules in a way that newbies can follow the steps and get profitable campaigns up without investing in premium tools.
• Bonus affiliate marketing courses: I’ve taken a look at some of the bonus e-books, home study courses being offered (some of which feature as many as 20 CDs and 500-page manuals) and it looks like you’ll be getting a lot of “stuff” as a bonus. Unfortunately, some of the material and bonus courses looks dated (some going as far back as 2 years) and others seeming to have little connection to PPC marketing. You probably don’t need any “Make Money with AdSense” or more affiliate marketing courses (isn’t that what you’re already buying PPCF2?). Gauher covers enough SEO material so you don’t need to invest in a SEO course.

Among the offers on hand, the PPCF2 offers didn’t particularly catch my eye, although Jonathan Van Clute’s KW Bot (or keyword bot) looked like an interesting offer for affiliates with some experience under their belt.

Ultimately, I decided to join in the fray and offer my own bonus, one that would be useful and relevant to new PPCF2 buyers.

Here’s the “Andrew Wee 6-Month PayPerClick Formula 2 mastermind/coaching bonus“. Here’s what you’ll get:

• PPCF2 “Cliff Notes”: There’s probably about 10 hours of video, 40-50 hours of audio material and about 300 pages of written material in the course. I’m planning to create a series of summaries, checklists and action guides based on the PPCF2 material for my own use (I also use notes I make to brief and manage my staff and outsourcers when I delegate projects out). Note: these notes are not intended to replace the course material, but to be used as a reference and so you’ll have a 10- or 12 -step checklist when you’re starting up new campaigns.
• PPCF2 “Mastermind Forum”: If you’re a PPCF2 member, you’ll know that Gauher oversees the PPCF forum which has 2,000+ active PPC marketers, some of which are earning in the 7-figure a month range like Greg Davies. Rather than duplicate his forum, I’ll be setting up a private mastermind forum focused on helping new PPCF2 members get started, getting their plans in place, setting up offers.
• Live offer campaigns (2 simultaneous campaigns): Although the best way to benefit from PPCF2 is to set up your own campaigns, the next best thing is to see how the PPCF2 course material translates into someone elses’ live campaigns. I’m planning to set up a live CPA campaign, outlining the process of research, setting up, launching and optimizing an offer. You’ve heard that almost any offer that achieves the break even point during testing can be a profitable one – you can see it in progress. In addition, I’m planning to invite a CPA network owner on a call to give insight and strategies on successfully promoting the offer. There will also be a second live offer campaign will be focused on a revenue share business model that isn’t found on the CPA networks and offers significant potential for scalability via PPC and can offer monthly recurring commissions if executed. There’ll be sufficient background and promotion info for you to launch this offer too if you choose.
• Monthly Live Conference Call (6 months): Again, this is not intended to replicate the training calls which Gauher organizes on a regular basis, but instead supplement his calls and the PPCF2 core material. It’ll be a 1 to 1.5 hour call each month during the 6 months and will focus on the “application” element of the techniques being covered.

What’s the value of the bonus? I am personally against patronizing you by saying it’s worth $xx,xxx. Just saying it’s worth $x doesn’t make it so. Rather, you should look at the various options available and make your choice based on what will ultimately help you achieve your goals. You’re the most important person in this equation.

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How to get your bonus:

• Click here to purchase your copy of PayPerClick Formula 2 (you can choose the single payment or 3-payment option) [direct to order page]
• If you want to be sure your transaction tracks correctly, you may wish to close your browser cookies before clicking on the link above [Note: Google Chrome and Safari are notorious for not always accepting affiliates cookies, so Internet Explorer or FireFox might be better]
• Forward a copy of the PPCF2 purchase confirmation email via the contact form
• We’ll verify your purchase with Gauher’s team
• If the purchase is not attributed to our affiliate account, we won’t be able to release the bonus to you
• Our plan is to have about 20 PPCF2 members in the program (including retroactively offering this bonus to previous PPCF2 buyers (see below) so there’re fewer slots available)

Note: If you bought a copy of PPCF2 (digital edition) in the last month, you qualify to receive this bonus. Drop us an email via the contact form, so we can confirm your purchase.

Regardless of whether you choose my bonus or another, I wish you the best in your PPC affiliate marketing journey and will see you in the PPCF2 forums.

Hey gang,

In case you’re not aware, I’ll be moderating a panel on Effective Social Media Marketing at Affiliate Summit West 2010 in Las Vegas, which will be from Jan 17-19, 2010 at the Rio Hotel.

My fellow panelists are:

• Rebecca Kelley, Director of Social Media, 10e20
• Keith Plocek, Social Media Manager, Mail.com Media Corporation

The long version of our session was originally “Social Media: How to break it, how to make it work” where we’ll break social media into its base components then show you how to effectively brand yourself and/or your business/product/service.

Speaker contracts are still coming in, so the final conference track agenda isn’t out yet, but here’s some of the highlights from what I see:

• Using product datafeeds for your affiliate sites (moderated by Scott Jangro)
• Coupon sites + troubleshooting (with Flamingo World‘s Connie Berg among the panelists)
• Blog monetization (with Kristin “MadHatter” Kinsey and Sunshine Rewards‘ Tricia Meyer)
• A super affiliate video promotion panel (with Jeremy Palmer and Ros Gardner)
• Wil Reynold‘s perpetually popular SEO session
• SEO site clinic by the women of SEO (with Marketing Demons‘ Kate Morris, and although her name hasn’t appeared yet, I hear that Sugarrae will be on the panel too)

Note: I’ve truncated/renamed the session names, so I didn’t have to write a synopsis of each session. The conference agenda contains the actual names for the sessions.

The summit will also feature 2 keynote speakers: Dr Robert Cialdini (author of the influential work “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”) and Brian “Copyblogger” Clark.

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Besides the opportunity to listen to some of the experts in the affiliate, traffic generation and internet marketing industry share their thoughts, and visit probably the biggest tradeshow floor featuring all the major affiliate networks, the biggest takeaway from the summit has been networking with fellow affiliates and getting insights you wouldn’t find in any book, course or teleseminar/webinar.

In fact, about 3 of my major projects in the last year have originated from discussions at the summit (I had met 2 of my partners in online forums/blogs before meeting them face-to-face).

Here’s some sweeteners to help you make the decision to go:

• Coupon code “ASW10WEE” (good for 10% off any type of conference registration)
• Important: Early bird pricing ends TODAY – prices double from 20th Oct, then nearly double again on-site

If you are planning to come for the event, you have about 6 hours to register for the early bird pricing.

Head to Affiliate Summit (and remember the “ASW10Wee” discount code)

Following the last Friday Podcast with affiliate marketer Gauher Chaudhry, I’ve received questions via email about his product, Pay Per Click Formula 2 (PPCF2) and if it’s all its cracked up to be.

Here’s a product review for those who’re on the sidelines about getting a copy:

First the bad news: PPCF2 is not a magic bullet that will instantly make you a top affiliate. Heck, if you’re dead broke and don’t have any money, you might be better off doing bum marketing or some other “free” method of traffic generation, because PPC marketing requires a budget to fund your ad campaigns.

So contrary to those “instant internet riches” ebooks, PPCF2 will require some real work and some cash to get started.

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Here’s the good news: PPCF2 is pretty expensive. It costs about $1,297 to be exact. Why’s that good news? From past experience, I’ve seen “hobbyist” internet marketers buy ebooks, then store them in some dark recess of their hard disk, never to be heard from again.

In contrast, because you’re likely making some type of sacrifice to purchase the course, you’re more likely to take action.

The other important factor is that the single price grants you admission for the lifetime of the product. There’s no monthly rebill/subscription that will end up dinging you for $50 or $97 each month to the tune of an extra $1,000 per year. To Gauher’s credit, he’s been supporting the product since it’s launch in 2007, with new updates coming out regularly (the last webinar/training call was held on Oct 13th and downloadable from the member’s area).

One price gets you everything? Check.

So what goes on behind the curtains?

I contemplated publishing screen captures of the stuff in the member’s area, but Continue reading →

Here’re the results of the landing pages giveaway:

• Finch of FinchSells fame (though I think he’s doing well enough to not need a freebie…)
• Claudia

I’ll be emailing you to get your preference for which pack you want as your prize.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out the great landing pages that Thien Hoang has put together.

• August Landing Page pack $20 (includes news article/review/dating/credit report/auto loan) [16 LPs]
• September Landing Page pack $20 (includes home insurance/debt consolidation/magazine article/flog/auto insurance) [16 LPs]
• August + September LP mega pack $30 (50% off) [32 LPs]

If you’re doing lead gen or CPA marketing, these are a great reference as they come complete with PSD files, CSS and HTML source files.

Stay tuned for next month’s contest/giveaway.

Besides direct linking, you may find that incorporating landing pages into your affiliate campaigns might help with improving your Google quality score on the search network, plus it opens up opportunities to incorporate emailing into your campaigns.

If you’re like me, the design element is a major stumbling block when it comes to landing pages, and modifying an existing design – by replacing graphics, changing ad copy – is a much more attractive proposal.

Which is where these new landing page template packs come in handy.

Designed by Louisiana-based Thien Hoang, who’s a 19-year old designer focused on custom landing pages (and his own affiliate campaigns), his new Landing Page packs bundle about 16 new templates each month (effectively about 6-8 different design in various color variations).

What’s handy is that the templates are coded in CSS and besides the html and graphics, you get the PSD files too. Together with your preferred html editor, like Dreamweaver, or even a text editor, you can insert Aweber autoresponder code, collect an opt-in, send the lead to the merchant’s page and continue marketing other offers via email.

Besides PPC, I expect that they’d work well for social bookmarking, social network ads, PPV, article marketing, etc.

So rather than open up a copy of fireworks and attempt to swipe/edit/copy some other landing page, you can spend more time on your campaigns.

Thien has kindly offered to do a giveaway to my blog readers. So two readers will get their choice of either the August or September landing page pack.

The Contest:

Although I could ask you do something silly like follow me on twitter or retweet this, or something else which would inflate someone’s ego, I’ll spare you that effort.

Just insert a comment below (make sure your email is valid, else I can’t contact you if you win…).

Two random winners will be drawn on Monday.

Prize: choice of either August or September landing page pack. See links below for a preview of the templates.

If you’d like to view or buy the packs, you can check out:

• August Landing Page pack $20 (includes news article/review/dating/credit report/auto loan) [16 LPs]
• September Landing Page pack $20 (includes home insurance/debt consolidation/magazine article/flog/auto insurance) [16 LPs]
• August + September LP mega pack $30 (50% off) [32 LPs]

Good luck!

Unless you’ve been surfing a narrow range of websites, chances are you’ve seen ads promising to generate you an affiliate business with no effort at all. Some of the clues are the use of words like “automatic”,  “auto-generated”, “24-7 income”, “in your sleep”, “everything you need”. My favorite phrase is “business-in-a-box”. So if you plonked down $47 or $97 for this ebook or software, does it mean you’ll be cruising along on Easy Street?

Perhaps more worrisome is the fact that many newbie internet marketers are falling into the trap of buying products and never doing anything.

A case in point: I went for a “guru” workshop a couple of years ago and got a 4-DVD set of the workshop recordings. I attempted to rip disc 4 from the DVD to the XVID format, so I could carry it around more easily. But it turns out Continue reading →