You’ve probably seen numerous blog posts and received even more emails about Amit Mehta and Anik Singal’s PPC Classroom product launch and might want to get an idea if it’s all it claims to be.
The product which had been speculated to run into the thousands during the product’s pre-launch phase, has finally been revealed to cost only $77 (accurate at the time of this blog post, but might be revised…).
What do you get from that?
A comprehensive 9-module course spanning topics like:
Marketing research, including finding and screening affiliate offers
Keyword research
Direct linking vs creating landing pages
Setting up your Google AdWords campaign
Designing landing pages optimized for high conversions
Understanding and enhancing your Google quality score (QS)
Launching your PPC campaign
Introducing split testing into your campaign (to further increase conversions)
PPC bid optimization strategies
Having worked with Amit on a PPC coaching program for a select group of clients previously, I have seen firsthand how he goes through in a detailed, step-by-step manner the system which he has developed and follows.
Granted about 60% of the course material might be found on Amit’s SuperAffiliateMindset blog or in Google AdWords documentation or during his presentations at events like the first PPC Classroom live event in Vegas last year or in his Affiliate Summit presentations.
What makes Amit different from other affiliate marketers is (more…)
In the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to 3 top PPC (pay-per-click) affiliate marketers. More than that, I’ve had the opportunity to gain insight into how they operate their businesses as well as set up and fine tune their PPC campaigns.
Although I shouldn’t have been that surprised, still it’s quite amazing how different their approaches are from each other. Which goes to show that there are multiple avenues to achieve your goals with PPC and affiliate marketing.
Note: I’ll be painting in broad strokes here, so expect some generalizations.
(left-to-right) Jeremy Palmer, Amit Mehta, John Hasson
Jeremy Palmer is a name that comes up often, especially if you’re a Commission Junction (CJ) affiliate or if you attend the Affiliate Summit. I’ve found that Jeremy and I use a similar approach in looking at offline research avenues, including books, magazines and reports to research niches, and develop deep, content rich sites.
Given his experience as a web developer, I guess it’s not surprising that he tends to build sites from the ground up. Also, having presented and watched his Black Ink project unfold, I’ve seen how Jeremy uses a systematic approach to building his campaigns.
The Google Adwords team has published a number of tips for optimizing your campaigns across 3 verticals: retail, entertainment and automotive.
Here’s a couple of techniques to bump your CTR (clickthrough rate) and conversions:
Behavioral-based bid management
Research shows that consumers are surfing shopping sites and doing price comparisons during work hours. Bump your ad positions during office hours to get better ad positioning (and consequently, higher conversions).
Match your consumers stage in the buying cycle
Your keywords determine your websites’ visitor profile. For buyers early in the buying cycle, they’d be looking for information, product reviews, so create an appropriate content site.
Buyers in the later stage, primed to buy, will be looking for coupon codes, bonuses, and other goodies, so a coupon site or inventive site will convert better for that demographic.
Highly targeted landing pages
Spend more time focusing on targeted and highly relevant keywords. Instead of “holiday events”, shoot for (more…)
Here’s a straightforward Monday Question:
“Now that you’re starting to do more PPC (pay per click) traffic. How has it been? Isn’t it a waste of money to pay for traffic, and it doesn’t generate much income, does it?”
– My Answer:
There’s a lot of FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) being spread, especially by marketers who aren’t using paid traffic, typically certain members of the Web 2.0 fraternity.
Yes, you can lose lots of money, and not generate a single sale, but only if you don’t have a plan in mind. I was in that category before, bidding on low competition keywords, having subscribed to the “long tail keyword” strategy.
The fact is that with quality score playing a dominant role in Google AdWords, you will need to bid reasonable prices to get the conversions.
I have a stock portfolio which generates 10-20% on an annualized basis. If you’ve refined your PPC campaigns and are able to generate at least 50% on a monthly basis, you’ve outperformed most of the mutual funds and equity funds in the market.
So let’s look at some PPC newbie pitfalls:
Not enough keywords in your adwords campaign
If you’ve only 20-200 keyphrases in your campaign, it might only generate a handful of clickthroughs and even fewer sales per day.
There’s been quite a bit of debate about how pay-per-click market leader Google AdWords’ Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines is going to hit PPC affiliates.
 Types of websites that will be penalized with low landing page quality scores:
Data collection sites that offer free gifts, subscription services etc., in order to collect private information
Arbitrage sites that are designed for the sole purpose of showing ads
Malware sites that knowingly or unknowingly install software on a visitor’s computer
If we receive user complaints about ads for the types of websites listed above, the advertisers of those websites may not be allowed to continue running AdWords ads for those websites. —
“Data collection sites” will hit affiliates who use PPC to drive traffic to zip/email submit type offers or to an opt-in page for a free report.
And who’s going to file a “user complaint”? The visitor? Unlikely. More likely, (more…)