Espresso Machines

I love coffee. I love espresso. I love making money.

It's a natural fit.

Yes, I know. You read my gibberish to learn how to make money using
Adwords - or pay per click advertising.

This is pretty cool and I think you'll want to follow along.

I dabble in all kinds of "Internet Marketing Experiments". My Adwords endeavors only make up about half of my total income. If I were smart,
pay per click is probably all I'd do but I really love marketing and playing
with the toys.

Adsense Income

It took me a while to receive the clue. I just didn't see the point in putting other people's advertising on my site so I could send my visitors elsewhere for nickels and dimes.

Well, John Barker, you're in the wrong niche (for that reason anyway - it's actually a great niche in other ways, such as minimal competition). I finally learned that some of the niches out there pay extremely well for clicks on those ads. Google doesnt' reveal this data, but I've found some niches with the right balance that pay better than $2.00 per click to ME.

So guess what? I've begun building sites where I send .05 clicks to pages which highlight Adsense ads that pay me anywhere from .75 to $2.50 PER CLICK - by my estimates.

So you do the math . . .

I'm actually paying .07 per click, which keeps me off the bottom of the pile - I was happy to do so when I saw how well this could do.

The click rate on my ads has averaged 12.6%. So for every $4.20 that I've spent this month, I'm making $25.00 in return!

Not bad.

I'm not a commodity trader, but I know that at any given point in time some people are bullish and some are bearish. You can minimize your risk - you can hedge your bets with options.

I see this strategy similarly. A lot of people complain "this niche is too expensive for me to bid on". So don't bid on it. Take the counter approach. Drive cheap traffic and take advantage of those high bids. It's OK - it's to everyone's advantage.

So. Espresso Machines.

There are a lot of hot niche products on the market. Espresso Machines is one of those. Bid prices on Overture run up to $4.50 per click - so I can guess that's going to put the Adsense pay rate around $2.00 to me. It's a niche I'm excited about.

Now, I know. I'm revealing details about my business. And I know that at least a person or two has a light bulb going on right now with a little voice screaming "Build an espresso machine site! Build an espresso machine site!"

If you do, fine. Competition is something I love. Let's have fun with it. And if you want to help push up those PPC prices, well, I'm not going to complain. And, you still have to do the work!

( BTW, the numbers I quoted above are NOT for this new espresso site. I just posted the site yesterday and I haven't started sending any traffic there yet. )

Besides that, I have other motivations here that I will not reveal. At least not right now.

So, my Adwords friend. Here's a strategy most people don't talk about. I hope you can use it to profit.

Best wishes, John

PS - I just joined a new pay per click service this week - Enhance. I've heard good about good results from others who use them. Bids on clicks start at .03 and the competition is very THIN. The system seems very similar to Overture. You might want to take a look - I'll let you know how it goes for me.

Google Adwords 123

Last night I was reading a post at Ozemedia from a chap named Greg Heslin. I liked what he had to say and noticed a link for Google Adwords 123 - the second time that title hit my radar in as many days. I clicked the link to check out his site when I recalled . . .

Greg Heslin sent me his ebook, Google Adwords 123, about six-weeks ago to review! That's right about the same time that we welcomed Callie Mae into the world. It seems the lack of sleep has eroded my memory - or so my wife keeps telling me, she says. I really don't recall.

Anyway, it was near my bedtime when I started reading Greg's book and I read and I read until I was bleary eyed.

I realized with shocking dismay that I've been living in an Adwords box. Here's a guy - Greg - who didn't know a thing about Internet marketing 9 months before he wrote his book (though he did know marketing), and he's making $600 per day and more with Adwords.

And in case you're wondering, because I often do with such claims, that IS NET profit (pun not intended).

The Box I Live In . . .

Most of us clever PPC people fall into this trap of looking for keywords. OK. I'll just make this about me. I look for good, targeted keywords. That's what all the books say to do, right?

The problem with that is the most targeted keywords are also, most usually, the most competitive. And while I still say, "Give me the dead-on bulls-eye phrases", I've been missing something that's just plain Marketing 101 stuff.

It's all about markets

People in the market for a product use certain keywords to find what they are looking for. But I realize that only focusing on these people is a little like having a store on the outskirts of town. The only people who are going to show up are those who know about you.

Which means there are probably 100's or 1000's of people who have the problems your chosen product can solve, who simply don't know that what you have to offer even exists!

In the real world, what does a business do? The transmission company puts billboard up alongside a highway. The stereo dealer puts an ad on the radio. The real estate agent puts up a sign in the front yard of the house for sale.

And, my friend, you and I should be putting up ads where our markets are. In fact, this is something I'm going to play with and it's the first time that I see some clearcut benefits to using content advertising. Wouldn't a great place to advertise stereo equipment be on a site promoting music?

I hope this gets your idea juices flowing. And I hope you'll take a look at Greg's book. I think he's offering some fresh, useful information - presented in an easy to follow, step-by-step format. I think that's what makes this book unique and of particular value - Greg doesn't just offer theories; he does what many of us need by taking us step-by-step and showing EXACTLY how he builds a profit producing campaign.

I'm going to his system to the test and I'll let you know how I fare.

Best wishes, John

Lots of Clicks - No Sales

Question:

I've been doing adwords for about a month now and have gone through about 25 campains. I have three now that generate decent click throughs but only one sale.

What am I doing wrong and what can I do to make things better?
any help is appreciated.

How do you go about finding the ever elusive niches?

Answer:

My personal approach would be to keep those campaigns narrowed way back - that's a lot to manage.

I've also found that I know a particular niche extremely well - it's my interest area, so I'm on top of the latest happenings. As a result, I'm promoting products long before the "average" affilate hears about it. That means less competition.

So, if you're into "fly fishing" for example, I'd subscribe to everything I could about the topic and see what's being promoted. Then begin researching those products. Personally, I've had very little success promoting products found in the mainstream and this approach I'm sharing has worked quite well - even in competitive markets.

From there, I'm bidding on terms as specific as possible. I'd rather have a bunch of bulls-eyes that yield optimal ROI than thousands of keywords that generate a lot of marginally targeted traffic - unless you're really good at converting it.

I'm sure others have differing experiences and opinions, but this is what works for me.

Best wishes, John

It's Your Business

Wow. It's November.

I had a baby, you know. Callie Mae Barker clocked in on October 4th. Time's a blur since.

I just dug into a minor debate. Clickbank shows affiliates the name and email address of customers they've referred to a merchant. This means you, as the affiliate, can email the customer.

Now some people feel the customer belongs to the merchant. Even though you or I spent the money to get the customer to the merchant.

The debate went on with the consensus opinion that it's wrong for me - or you - to email that customer.

I have a different perspective. And, it's a part of what I attribute to being the difference between a successful affiliate marketer and an unsuccessful affiliate marketer.

Some people like affiliate marketing for the option that all they have to do is refer a customer, collect a commission, cash the check. That's great. But, I think you're leaving money on the table if you do - and on someone elses table, no less.

You see, I would email that customer. I do email those customers.

I'm not trying to sell them anything else - except on the idea that I care about them and I want to develop a relationship and I hope they might look to me for more advice on the subject in the future.

All you do is drop them a note and say . . .

Hi Tara,

Thank you for your order. I love this product myself and I hope you will too. If you run into any challenges, just let me know. I'll help you get them resolved.

Best wishes, John

PS - I have a free report (or special bonus, etc) that will help you get the most from your purchase. You can access it at www.get-it-here.com


At the site, they must give you a name and email address (join your list) to receive the freebie. Proceed as normal from there.

John Reese wrote, "There are money-makers and there are businesses. You want to have a business." Or something like that off the top of my head.

Money-maker affiliates send prospects on their way, never to be seen again. That's a sure route to long-term failure and instability, in my opinion. That's making $1, when you could be making $5 or $10 or more over the long-haul.

Affiliates "in business" treat their prospects as customers. They take care of them, follow-up, etc. They get that the business they're in is pointing people in the right direction and ensuring they get to their destination safely.

With some simple follow-up, you could automatically quadruple your sales rates. You know that person buys products online and you know what they're interested in.

Why should you assume all the risk, while accepting the minimal rewards by turning that customer over to the merchant completely?

You shouldn't. But that's my opinion.

Best wishes, John