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Pay Per Click Marketing: How To Maximize Your Income With PPC

November 3rd, 2009

Pay per click (or PPC) advertising can be a very effective way to direct traffic to your blog or website if you follow a few common sense rules.  Surprisingly, many advertisers either don’t realize there is a technique to advertising, or they think that saving money by skimping on ad quality is a smart move. 

This article shows you how to avoid some common traps that many pay per click marketers are falling into, as well as proven tips to maximize your income from your PPC campaigns.

The Best Type of PPC Advertising

When you first consider PPC ads, you will see various outlets for those ads.  How do you know which ones are the most effective? First, you can take a look at some of the biggest outlets and see what kind of clients they service. 

Google, Yahoo and other big net denizens have developed PPC programs that generally show very good returns.  By using their own search engine sites and partner sites to deliver your ad to its target audience, your ad will reach potential visitors that are truly interested in your product or service. 

These potential customers will click on your ad because they have been searching for such a product or something related to it.  PPC is a very effective advertising tool and there are a lot of choices available to cater to your unique advertising needs.

If you have a product or service that is very specialized, you may want to go with a meta search tool that combines a number of search engines and other online sources that target particular categories or subjects of interest. 

In this way, you can further narrow your ad to target your potential audience as closely as possible.  If you carry specialty goods such as antique dolls, specialized hand tools, rare books or other items that appeal to a certain specialized niche, you should consider placing the majority of your ads with this type of search tool.   

Writing Your PPC Ad

It’s important to write an ad that grabs the viewer’s attention.  While you don’t want to shout at them, you need to make the ad stand out from others and make them want to see what you have to offer. 

Again, take the time to study successful ads (the successful ones are those that tend to stick for a long time).  If you don’t feel you can write an attention-grabbing ad, hire a professional ad writer or copywriter; it will be money well invested and the cost is minimal compared to the profits you stand to gain from a high converting ad.

Choose your keywords carefully and be sure they are ones that people use when searching for your product or service.  One good way is to study a popular page similar to your product and right click it.  Use the “view page source” to see their meta tags and get an idea of the keywords a successful merchant uses.  You will see words and phrases to give you an idea of how to use keywords to attract searchers.

What kind of ad attracts your attention?  Are you bothered when you open a page and see a flashing banner or does it entice you?  Your ad will be listed in the results section of a person’s search, usually on one side of the page along with other advertisers.  In order for your ad to stand out, you’ll have to study others in the same niche as yours, and objectively decide which type would appeal to you or people you know.  You can then use similar aspects in your own ads.

Planning Your Campaign

When planning your PPC campaign, you must figure out your advertising budget and how much risk you can tolerate.  Will you budget a certain amount for advertising and stop for the month when it is gone, or will you deposit funds and set limits per week or month? 

Next, prepare your site for the traffic it will be getting!  Is the content exciting and enticing?  Does it present the visitor with something better than they’ve seen on sites with similar products or services? 

Your goal is not only to sell your product or service, but also to capture your visitors’ email so you can follow up with them and build relationships. Another great idea is to keep your visitors returning by providing them with interesting content on a consistent basis.  If you sell silk flowers, for example, you could keep people returning to your site by offering interesting articles on flower arranging, how to choose accessories, or the best way to care for the flowers and keep them looking fresh.  The more visitors return, the more chances they will buy!

You’re Ready to Advertise! 

When you’ve written an ad or two that you feel is eye catching and inviting, open an account with a PPC search engine.  They will require basic contact info and you will have to fund your account. 

There is usually no charge for an account and funds aren’t used until you bid on the search words you think are the best for you.  As your ads are clicked on and you get traffic, your funds are used up and the advertising comes to an end.  You can then add funds for more advertising or stop for a time.

You can get outstanding results with PPC advertising if you pay attention to what your targeted audience is looking for and keep your website fresh and interesting.  Remember, your profits are directly related to the quality of your product, a fresh and interesting website, and attractive ads that make people want to see what you are offering.

To Your Success!

Warm Regards,
Jeremy Gislason
Follow us on Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/SureFireWealth

P.S. For more information how to increase your affiliate commissions and make more money with affiliate marketing go to: AffiliateMarketingInsiderTips.com

P.S.S. Recommended: PPC Classroom learn how to earn more profits with PPC marketing methods

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Common Affiliate Marketing Questions

October 10th, 2009

“There are risks and costs to a program of action.  But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
-John F. Kennedy

Being an affiliate manger is a tough job, no doubt about it.   However, the benefits far outweigh the risks.  To be a great affiliate manager you’ll face many challenges; however, challenges are mitigated and often eliminated with knowledge, preparation, and the right software.  Let’s start by addressing some of the most common questions affiliate managers have.

Question #1:  Is affiliate marketing right for my business?

Affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful and effective means of gaining new customers, regardless of your product or service.  Affiliate marketing exposes your business to new customers and can get you out of a marketing rut.  Additionally, when you initiate an affiliate marketing campaign, you’re in control.  You determine the commission rate you pay and pay only when your affiliates make a sale.  It’s a no-loss operation for you because you only pay when affiliates make sales. 
 
Question #2:  What are the start-up costs?

Starting an affiliate program gives you the choice of handling the operations yourself or having it managed by an affiliate network.  The costs for either choice generally start around a few hundred dollars.  To start an affiliate marketing program in-house, costs include:

Affiliate management software

Affiliate marketing support, including a website that answers affiliate questions and a means for them to contact you if any issues arise

Affiliate marketing materials including banner ads, copy, coupons, and promotional content

An affiliate marketing contract agreement

Tracking software to track cookies, click-throughs, payments, etc…

The ideal software solution…one all-encompassing program such as can be found at MemberSpeed.com rather than a piecemeal approach.  If you choose to hire an affiliate network to handle your program, they generally charge a flat fee or a percentage of what you pay out each month.

Question #3:  How much time will it take out of my workweek?

Most experts agree that it takes about an hour and a half each day to manage an affiliate program.  They also recommend budgeting more time in the first few months of program implementation, approximately two to three hours a day.  Even the most efficient affiliate managers spend about 45 minutes a day managing their affiliate program. 

Professional affiliate managers generally spend an average of 40-80 hours a month dedicated to managing, tracking and promoting your affiliate program.  This time varies depending on the level of automation and the efficiency of the software.

Question #4:  Paying affiliates.  What type of commission works best?

The right commission rate recruits money-motivated affiliates.  According to a survey conducted by AffStat, 80% of affiliate programs use revenue sharing or cost per sale as compensation method, 19% use cost per action, and the remaining 1% use cost per click or some other method. 

The general rule of thumb…set your default commission rate at a rate you can afford to pay, while leaving room for time-limited commission increase offers, promotions, and private offers.  For example, if you can afford to pay 50% of your gross profit margin, pay 25% instead and tier it so that after affiliates reach their sales goal they earn 30%.  Or you can bump it up to 50% during the holidays or during typically low sales times. 

Question #5:  How do I recruit affiliates?

Your customers may be your best affiliates.  After all, they already appreciate and enjoy your products or services.  Start with a simple link on your website.  Here’s a few ways to find quality affiliates:

Social Networking:  Online forums and other social networking sites can be excellent places to meet, greet and connect with like-minded individuals. They’re also a good resource for interested, motivated affiliates qualified to sell your products and services. 

Link up:  Find websites linking to your competitors and approach them about being an affiliate for you.  Likewise, find affiliates using your favorite search engine and contact them about joining your program. 

Affiliate networks/directories:   Join an affiliate network or become listed on an affiliate directory.  This ensures that affiliate marketers searching for new products and services to promote will find you.

Question #6:  What is the best way to communicate with my affiliates?

Email is the general tool of choice, which makes an autoresponder a fantastic tool for basic emails like the welcome email, introducing promotions, coupons, sending links and banner ads, and answering frequently asked questions.   It’s also generally advisable to have an email address, fax number, and telephone number available for when affiliates have questions unanswered by your frequently asked questions web page – or when they simply want to speak with you. 

Question #7:  How do I motivate affiliates?

Money motivates – no doubt about it.  That being said, affiliates are also motivated by feeling they’re important to you.  This means that when they ask for your time, you give it.  Additionally, promotions, bonuses, prizes, contests, and commission increases all motivate and inspire affiliates.  Constant communication, like sending a weekly or monthly e-zine, reminds affiliates you’re out there and investing in their success. 

These questions present obvious challenges to managing an affiliate program.  The key to success is both to hire great people and to automate as much of the affiliate program as humanly possible.  We’ll take a look at how to do just that in our next article.so be sure to come back soon!

To Your Success!

Warm Regards,
Jeremy Gislason

Follow Jeremy on Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/SureFireWealth

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