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How To Use The Google Arbitrage Strategy...TodayOK, here's what I've been able to find out about how these latest changes will affect us as users of Adwords. I hope it helps...OK, let's go... Before you read any further, please listen to my 4 minute introductory message where I set the stage for the rest of this article - The 'Google Slap' problem as it was called plagued lots of 'hard core' Internet marketers everywhere and many are being shut down. I read about one guy who had an Adwords bill of $968,000 a MONTH who Google doesn't want any more... But it's not affecting everybody... It doesn't seem to be affecting people like us who have 'normal' websites
full of content (like us :-), but who subsidize our traffic with some PPC through Adwords. Some people are being cleaned out by these changes while some are not getting touched, so it's not consistent across the board. This is about the reputation and 'quality score' of a web site according to
tests done by Google's robot initially, and then by a person visiting the site
later on if asked to do so by the owner. If you have great content like most (but not all :-) Solo Build It sites you should be OK. If not, you can expect your Google bids to be jacked up to an unaffordable
level in the near future (if they haven't been already). It's gonna get expensive for lot's of Adwords advertisers In the near future, owners of websites that have poor content or a low 'quality score' in Google's eyes will not be able to afford the bid price increase they will be asked to pay for their Adwords ads, so many will be driven out of business. It appears that when Google increases the bid price, it does not mean that they actually want you to pay $5 per click... What they really mean is that they don’t want you in their advertising
network and they don't want your money, because they feel that you are most
likely part of
the Search Engine Spam problem (we've all seen sites that fall into this category,
haven't we?). For instance - site:localwebsolutions.com shows Google has 75 of this websites pages in it's index (which is good...) And site:hobbyandlifestyle.com shows that
they have 169 pages in their index (out of around 500) The competitor's site had articles and other content, the first site was just a NameSqueesetm form leading to a sales letter or an affiliate page. NOTE - A NameSqueesetm form is a page where the only option is to opt-in to a database of some sort or go back to where you came from. Here's an example - http://www.hobbyandlifestyle.com/ecourse.html So, with all these things in mind... 1. Make sure you have created lots of pages of related, relevant content and put your landing page on a quality site (which we do as Solo Build It owners anyway). 2. It's OK to use a NameSqueesetm form on a site that has lots of
content, but make sure you have links to the other pages on your site visible
(show your left hand Nav Bar) or you could get hammered with higher bid prices. 4. Be prepared with a “good” site that has lots of pages
indexed (which we nearly all have by the time we are ready to advertise on
Google anyway). This is just good marketing, and Google will reward you with lower bid prices for being relevant. Google is changing the face of PPC It looks like what Google wants is for sites that people pay to visit look more like free sites and less like squeeze pages. I think this is really going to change the way things are working online
with lots of people going out to look for a JOB over the next few weeks and
months because they won't be prepared to do the work required to get going again... There are a million ways to put a page together. Only a human can look at a page and say “this is a NameSqueesetm or pure opt-in page”. Real people’s complaints are more likely to affect you
than the robot finding your page doesn't qualify as a 'quality site, but most people don’t
complain, they just hit the back button and search again. Google wants people to be able to click around your site and do some digging. The bottom line is that Google can’t really penalize you for having an opt-in form on your pages - forms are universal and the robot can’t tell that its an opt-in form or something else. This means that it is now more important than ever to start or continue building your lists of prospects and buyers. Now, Watch These Video TutorialsOk, let's move on to the new method we are using to generate traffic to our sites from Google, with these latest changes in mind. Important note - If the tutorial audio starts before the video is visible (it usually depends on your Internet connection speed), please wait until you see the video and then re-start the video...thanks :-) Step 1 - Create a landing page that contains your opt in form - this is how to create the basic version or your opt-in page Step 2 - To make sure you fully comply with Google's new rules, you may want to include content on your actual landing page as well (highly recommended). This video shows how Step 3 - Create your Google Campaign and start driving traffic to your opt-in page Step 4 - Tracking your opt-ins is critical to make sure you aren't wasting money by bidding too much for keywords that don't convert visitors into subscribers Step 5 - Adding more targeted keywords will generate more traffic, but they have to be tightly targeted and relevant to your landing page, your website and your thankyou page Step 6 - Using Aweber - If you are using Form Build It or the Solo Build It Newsletter module, just follow the steps in the Action Guide to add subscriber forms to your website. If you are using Aweber (or think you will be using Aweber in the future), here's a short series of tutorial videos on how to set up your account, create and insert the form code you need into your Solo Build It page, and some other stuff you need to know... Click here to watch video #1 on setting up your Aweber account Click here to watch video #2 on creating your autoresponder messages Click here to watch video #3 on setting up your name capture form Click here to watch video #4 to see how to add your opt-in form code to your Solo Build It website Click here to watch video #5 on finding ideas and content for your autoresponders and newsletter Click here to watch video #6 to see how to add a pop-over form to your website Step 7 - Create your autoresponder series - what do you say and where do you get content? Step 8 - Test and tweak your ad copy, your opt-in page content and your autoresponders to maximize your income. That's all there is to it. If you follow the steps above you can still profit massively from Adwords, you just have to stick within Google's guidelines. But there's more... Google Arbitrage is still alive and well... And if you thought the old Google arbitrage strategy was completely dead, I'm here to tell you it's definitely not! The trick is, you have to get smarter than in the past. You will have an uphill battle earning anything like you used to with Adsense, but it's still possible. or, take a completely different tack and start to monetize your site with Pay Per LEAD affiliate programs instead. Why? Because you don't have to make a sale to earn an affiliate commission. What happens is that your visitor normally only has to complete an enquiry form for you to get paid, and you can earn anything from a few cents to a hundred dollars or more for each lead you send to your merchant. Take a few minutes to download a short ebook I've written which explains this process in detail, and includes a link to a screen capture video which shows you how I find high paying pay per lead programs. To grab your copy, Right Click' in this link and choose 'Save Target As' to download the ebook to your desktop. Read the book, watch the video inside, then go out and find some high paying programs for yourself. You can use the same system I showed you earlier to generate traffic with Google Adwords, but instead of putting Adsense on your pages, put invitations for your visitors to fill in a form for more information or a free trial. Please remember, not every campaign or site will be able to do the same as this. Some will do better, others not as well. Testing and changing everything over time will help you to maximize your earnings using this system Plus, I'm getting people opting in to the list on that site as well, so I'm effectively building my list and getting paid for it upfront! And the page people land on from my Google ads also sells a product for US$47.00. Currently about 1.5% to 2% of the visitors who arrive at that page buy that from me too... You can do this yourself. Follow these steps and tips -
...and you can still make money from the Google Arbitrage system, plus earn ongoing income from sales of products and services to your lists of subscribers. Test it out and see for yourself... And one last thing... The other day I received an email from Perry Marshall (the worlds foremost expert on Google Adwords) sent to him by one of his subscribers. I've included it word for word below as a warning to you before you rush off and start your first Google campaign... __________________________________________________ Hi Perry, "I read the web pages about your Google Adwords and received the 5 part email series. That's not too bad but it severely cut into those $25 ebook sales commissions! __________________________________________________ ...please don't take what you've learned here lightly. Google Adwords used effectively can transform your business. Used unwisely it can send you to the poorhouse. At the very least, go to Perry's website and register for his free 5 day Mini Course which will show you some of the advantages and traps in the Adwords system. By reading this course you will have a better understanding of the power (and the pain) of using Adwords than 90% of the people currently using the system. Please listen to this short message where I'll wrap up this system and give you my final thoughts before you get started...
Here's the thankyou page I'm using for when people opt-in to our Husky News newsletter. I've used audio on that page to tell people how to verify their email address, but if you don't have access to audio (I use Instant Audio because it's easier to use with Solo Build It than trying to upload audio files all the time :-), you need to clearly spell out exactly for them how to go too their email account and click on the verification link in your first message so that they receive the rest of them. It's always a good idea not to give your visitors access to the free report until AFTER they have verified their address or you'll have a lot of opt-ins who won't bother. Make sure you mention this if you are giving away a free bonus so they know they will be rewarded for verifying their email address when they join your list but won't get the freebee if they don't.
You can use Google News to find news items you can base your autoresponder messages on. Look at current events and try to write articles about hot topics that won't date too quickly. Visit Google Video which is great for finding niche related videos that you can send to your subscribers as part of your newsletter content. Just find suitable videos, copy the link from Google Video into your autoresponder message and send your visitors a short note telling them about it. This is what friends do for each other, and your subscribers will start to look forward to hearing from you because they won't know what's coming next Also check out YouTube for more videos that you can use for this... (Also, get on the lists of other people in your niche and see what they are sending to their subscribers - you can model what already works instead of reinventing the wheel) To create my Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use pages, I used Auto Web Law. It also helps you create all sorts of other legal forms for your website. You need these pages on your website to cover your butt :-) I use and recommend Aweber for setting up your Autoresponders. You can use Form Build It but it's limited in that you can only send 7 messages. You can also use the Solo Build It newsletter module and I did this for the first two years I was online, but by using a dedicated autoresponder, I've made a LOT more money by being able to automate my follow up much better. I've also been able to create multiple, tightly focused lists of people with different likes and dislikes, and develop several long term mini course/follow up sequences that bring in ongoing income. For twenty bucks a month, it's been invaluable to my business. Adwords is a minefield if you aren't prepared. As Michael Masterson said - "Life is too short to be learning necessary skills by trial and error and teaching yourself. When you need to develop expertise in something new, hire an expert and learn it properly in a month, instead of over a couple of years." With this in mind, read this review of my all time favorite Adwords tutorial by visiting this page I hope this Adwords update and tutorial series helps you to turn these latest changes at Google to your benefit. Thousands of people have been wiped out by this, but as usual, SBI'ers will be laughing at them with our multiple streams of traffic and income. Until next time, Warmly,
Questions And Answers... Question - Because my site is so new, I only have my home page indexed by Google - none of my tier two or three pages are listed yet. Is this going to be a problem? Answer - Because your site is a 'real' site as opposed to the typical one page sales letter/traffic equalizer stuff that Google is trying to stamp out, you should be OK. The Google search 'bot will visit your site and check it out, will find content related to your keywords and pass you. If it doesn't, make sure you've followed the guidelines in the tutorial above (show your Nav bar n the landing page, have a Privacy Policy, a Terms Of Use page, etc.) and then contact Google and ask for an editor to review your site. A real person will visit your site, see that you are providing a 'quality user experience' as they call it, and will most likely approve your ads. Question - I'm having to bid too high to get the positions I'd like for my ads. What can I do? Answer - For your bids, test using say US$0.11 for search and US$0.03 for content and see what happens. All you can do is test different keywords (try one or two keywords per ad group for now, normal, phrase match and exact match) and see what ROI you get (if any). You should get clicks down to about ad #25 in most markets or so (if the ads go that far), so you'll have to test it, and if you're not getting any clicks, try some less competitive keywords with cheaper bid prices. The main goal is to get people onto a list, so your Adsense and other income from your visitor's initial visit isn't relevant over the long term. If you get people onto a list, they'll be seeing a LOT of Adsense ads, affiliate stuff and maybe your own products one day which should make it all worthwhile. I've heard Dan Kennedy say that he saved thousands of dollars building his customer base slowly when he first started out because he wasn't prepared to lose money on getting customers, but it cost him millions of dollars over the years because he wasted so much time building his 'herd'. His advice - BUY as many customers as you can, as quickly as you can - pay as much as you can afford to get them onto a list to get that first sale, even if you go slightly negative on the front end to get them. Create a 'herd' of your own, build a corral around them to keep competitors away and provide great service, and you'll do much better long term than trying to save a few bucks in customer acquisition. It's all an investment in the future. If you test it with different words and ads and it doesn't work, hey it was just a test. But I'm sure you'll find combinations of words and landing pages that will work for you (I have some in the photography market on our Hobby site already :-) Test and tweak, that's the secret. Then, once people are on your list, you've got them. Check out Perry Marshall's Adwords book (grab his free mini course here) or his Renaissance club to learn how to get the most out of Adwords and this system. Question - in all your Camtasia videos, you don't touch the 'standard' or 'accelerated' option for add frequency in Adwords. Would it not be a better idea for testing purposes to have accelerated adds as you'll see results faster? If you do choose the accelerated option and your budget is too low, you have no control of when your ads are turned on and off by Google, and they may not be showing just when your target market is searching for you. |
