There’s a new book out called Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars. Yes, that title sets off my hyperbole radar a bit too (not to mention my alliteration alert), but it’s a solid collection of smart social media advice based on real-world case studies, best practices, and proven techniques.

I wrote Chapter Two of the book – The Psychology of Social Media. It’s about applying tried-and-trued influence factors in the social media space to build a business or make whatever case you’re trying to make.

Here’s what else you’ll learn:

• How to Create a Mega-Following With Social Media – Gary Vaynerchuk
• Personality: How To Stand Out In Virtual Crowd – Andy Wibbels</li
• Build Strong Online Communities Using Social Media – Chris Brogan
• Creating Content People Care About: The Cornerstone of Social Media – Ann Handley
• Building Your Social Media Relationship Strategy – Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz
• Mastering Online Marketing: Six Key Principles – Mitch Meyerson
• Social Media Success Qualities – Joel Comm
• How To Communicate With Impact Using Social Media – Craig Valentine
• How To Profit From Your Social Media Efforts – Starr Hall
• PR Strategies for Social Media – Dan Janal
• Making Your Content Go Viral With Social Media – Michael Stelzner
• Business Blogs: How To Make Your Blog The Centerpiece of Your Social Media Enterprise – Denise Wakeman
• Facebook: The Essential Rules For Building a Large and Loyal Following ? – Mari Smith
• Twitter: Your Power PR Tool for Attracting A Tribe of Raving Fans – Deborah Cole Micek
• LinkedIn: Transforming Networks into Dynamic Business Connections – Barbara Rozgonyi
• YouTube: Leveraging the Power Of Google To Get Your Video Content To Millions – Julie Perry
• Podcasting: Leveraging the Power of Apple To Get Your Content To Millions – Paul Colligan
• Using Social Bookmarking To Improve Your Traffic, Links and Visibility – Chris Garrett
• Mobile Marketing: How To Integrate this Powerful Tool With Your Social Media Marketing – Kim Dushinski
• Online Video: A Mini Guide to Your Own Web Show – Shama Kabani
• Social Media In One Hour A Day – Dave Evans

Head over to the website for the book and check it out. I’m not an affiliate or being compensated for this in any way, so buy the book however you’d like. I think you’ll get a lot out of it, and at less than $15, it’s hard to go wrong.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of the writer-friendly Scribe SEO software. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

If you’re trying to make money online, sooner or later you have to face it. Conversion. That intimidating topic: how to get more buyers from the same amount of traffic.

The only reason conversion is intimidating is that there are a lot of places you can go astray. Most of them aren’t that hard to fix, but any one of a thousand little problems can keep you from getting the conversion you should have.

I don’t have a thousand tips for you today, but I do have 101 to get you started.

Here are 101 fixes, some small, some big, for making more sales online.

1. Does your product or service solve a problem people actually care about? How do you know? If your basic offer doesn’t appeal to your prospect, you’re sunk before you begin. Make sure you’re selling something people want.
2. Let prospects know they’re buying from a human being. Keep your language personal, friendly, and (for most markets) informal. Sound like a person, not a pitching machine.
3. Tell a story about how you solved this problem for yourself before you started selling the solution to others. Let readers put themselves in your shoes. Let the prospect feel, “Wow, this person is a lot like me.”
4. Fix your typos, make sure your links work, avoid grammar mistakes that make you look dumb. Reassure your prospect that you know what you’re doing.
5. Test two headlines. When you find a winner, run it against a new headline. Keep eliminating second-best. Google Adwords is a quick and efficient way to do this.
6. Try testing an “ugly” version of the sales copy. Boring fonts, not much layout, no pretty colors. Weirdly, sometimes a bare-bones presentation works better. Don’t just run ugly without testing it, though, because it doesn’t always win.
7. Instead of sending traffic right to a sales page, put them through a six- or seven-message autoresponder first. Give them enough information to build their trust and let them know you’re the best resource.
8. Strengthen your call to action. Make sure you’ve clearly told readers exactly what to do next.
9. Make sure you’ve described your product or service in enough detail. If it’s physical, give the dimensions and some great photos. If it’s digital, tell them how many hours of audio you include, how many pages are in the PDF. Don’t assume your prospects already know any details — spell everything out.
10. Getting traffic from advertising, pay-per-click, or guest posting? Be sure your landing page is tied to your traffic source. If you’re running a pay-per-click campaign for “Breed Naked Mole Rats,” make sure the words “Breed Naked Mole Rats” are in your headline for the landing page.
11. Master copywriter Drayton Bird tells us every commercial offer should satisfy one or several of these 9 human needs: make money, save money, save time and effort, do something good for your family, feel secure, impress other people, gain pleasure, improve yourself, or belong to a group. And then of course, there’s the obvious #10 — make yourself irresistibly sexy to the romantic partner of your choice. I guess Drayton is too much of a gentleman to include it, but it’s about the strongest driver we have once eating and breathing have been taken care of.
12. Now that you’ve identified your fundamental human need, how can that be expressed in an emotion-based headline?
13. Have you translated your features into benefits? I bet you’ve still got some benefits you could spell out. Remember, features are what your product or service does. Benefits are what your prospect gets out of it.
14. Put your photo on your sales page. Human beings are hard-wired to connect to faces. If prospects can see you, it’s easier for them to trust you.
15. If you have a dog, use a photo of you with your dog instead. There’s something about a dog that lowers nearly everyone’s defenses.
16. You can try just using a photo of the dog. Believe it or not, sometimes it works.
17. Simplify your language. Use something like the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale to make sure you’re keeping your wording clean and simple. (Please note that simple writing is not dumb writing.)
18. No matter how emotional your appeal, justify it with logic. Give people the facts and figures they need so they can justify the purchase to themselves. Even the most frivolous, pleasure-based purchase (say, a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes) can be justified with logical benefits (superior workmanship, rare materials, giving the wearer a boost in confidence).
19. What kind of tasty bonus could you offer? Peanut butter is good; peanut butter with jelly is great. Find the jelly for your peanut butter, the bonus that makes your good product even better.
20. Are you getting your message to the right people? A list of people who really want what you offer, and who are both willing and able to buy?
21. Listen to the questions you get. What are people still unclear about? What’s worrying them about your offer? Even if you outsource your email and/or support, it’s a good idea to regularly read a random selection of customer messages.
22. Keep your most important sales elements “above the fold” (in other words, on the first screen, without scrolling, when readers go to your page). Usually that means a compelling headline, a great opening paragraph, and possibly either a wonderful product shot (to create some desire) or a photo of you (to build trust and rapport). Eye-tracking studies suggest your most important image should be at the top left side of the page.
23. Check the dual readership path. Do your headline and subheads tell an intriguing story if you read them without any of the rest of the copy?
24. How’s your guarantee? Could you state it with more confidence? Can you remove any of the weasely stuff? Does your guarantee remove the customer’s risk?
25. Do you take PayPal? PayPal has its issues, but it’s also “funny money” for a lot of customers. They’ll spend freely from PayPal when they’d think twice about pulling out a credit card.
26. Have you asked for the sale boldly and forcefully? Is there any hemming and hawing you could edit out?
27. What’s the experience of using your product or service? Could you make that more vivid with a testimonial video or a great case study?
28. Is there any reason your prospect might feel foolish for buying from you? Are they afraid they’ll kick themselves later? That their friends, spouse, or co-workers will give them a hard time about this purchase? Fix that.
29. Are you using standard design conventions? Links should be underlined. Navigation (if you have any on your sales page) should be immediately understandable.
30. Got testimonials? Got effective testimonials? (If these are hard for you, check out Sean D’Souza’s great advice.)
31. Does the prospect know everything he needs to know in order to make this purchase? What questions might still be on his mind? How can you educate him to make him more confident about his decision to buy?
32. Does the link to your shopping cart work? (Don’t laugh. Go test every link onthe page that goes to your cart. And make a point of testing them once or twice a day the entire time your shopping cart is open — even if that’s 365 days a year.)
33. Is your marketing boring? Remember the great Paul Newman mantra. “Always take the work seriously. Never take yourself seriously.” If your marketing is putting customers to sleep, it can’t do its job.
34. Social media isn’t just about talking – it’s also about listening. What are your potential customers complaining about on Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, in forums, in blog comments? What problems could you be solving for them? What language do they use to describe their complaints?
35. Have you answered all of their questions? Addressed all of their objections? I know you’re worried the copy will get too long if you address every point. It won’t.
36. Have you been so “original” or “creative” that you’ve lost people? Remember the words of legendary ad man Leo Burnett: “If you absolutely insist on being different just for the sake of being different, you can always come down to breakfast with a sock in your mouth.”
37. Can you offer a free trial?
38. Can you break the cost into several payments?
39. Can you offer an appetizing free bonus, one the customer can keep whether or not she keeps the main product? An incredibly useful piece of content works perfectly for this.
40. Does your headline offer the customer a benefit or advantage?
41. How can you make your advertising too valuable to throw away? How can you make the reader’s life better just for having read your sales letter? Think special reports, white papers, and other content marketing standbys.
42. Have you appealed to the reader’s greed? Not very pretty, but one of the most effective ways to drive response. (The nice way to put this is “be sure you’re offering your prospect great value.”)
43. Is your message confusing? A bright nine-year old should be able to read your sales copy and figure out why she should buy your product.
44. Can you link your copy to a fad? This is particularly effective for web-based copy and for short-term product launches, because you can be absolutely current. Just remember there’s nothing more stale than yesterday’s Macarena.
45. Similarly, can you tie your copy to something a lot of people are really worried about? This can be something in the news (an oil spill, climate change, economic turbulence) or something related to a particular time in your prospect’s life (midlife weight gain, anxieties about young kids, retirement worries).
46. Try a little flattery. One of the great first lines of all sales copy came from American Express: “Quite frankly, the American Express card is not for everyone.” The reader immediately gets a little ego boost from assuming that the card is for special people like him.
47. Is there a compelling, urgent reason to act today? If prospects don’t have a reason to act right away, unfortunately they have a bad habit of procrastinating the purchase forever.
48. Are you visualizing one reader when you write? Don’t write to a crowd — write for one perfect customer who you want to convince. Your tone and voice will automatically become more trustworthy, and you’ll find it easier to find the perfect relevant detail to make your point.
49. Tell the reader why you’re making this offer. In copywriting slang, this is the “reason why,” and it virtually always boosts response.
50. Can you get an endorsement from someone your customers respect? Celebrity endorsements are always valuable, but you can also find “quasi-celebrities” within your niche that hold as much sway as a national figure.
51. Can you provide a demonstration of the product or service? If it’s not something that can be demonstrated on video, try telling a compelling story about how your offering solved a thorny problem for one of your customers.
52. How often are you using the word “You”? Can that be bumped up?
53. How often are you using the word “We”? Can that be eliminated? (“I” actually works better than “we,” which tends to come across as corporate and cold.)
54. Stay up late tonight and watch a few informercials. Keep a pen and paper handy. Write down every sales technique that you see. In the morning, translate at least three of them to your own market. (Remember, you can change the tone and the sophistication level to match your buyers.)
55. Have you made yourself an authority in your market?
56. Is there an “elephant in the living room?” In other words, is there a major objection that you haven’t addressed because you just don’t want to think about it? You’ve got to face all inconvenient truths head on. Don’t assume that if you don’t bring it up, it won’t occur to your prospects.
57. How’s your follow-up? Do you have the resources to answer questions that come in? Remember, questions are often objections in disguise. Prospect questions can give you great talking points for your sales letter. You may want to bring on some help in the form of a friendly VA or temp to help out with email during a big launch.
58. Is there a number in your headline? There probably should be.
59. Similarly, have you quantified your benefits? In other words, have you translated “time saved” to “three full weeks saved — plenty of time to go on a life-changing vacation — each and every year.” Put a number on the results you can create for your customers.
60. It’s weird, but “doodles” and other elements that look like handwriting can boost response — even on the web. There are hundreds of handwritten fonts available, which can be converted to visual elements with PhotoShop or simple logo-generating software.
61. Does your headline make the reader want to read the first line of copy?
62. Does the first line make the reader want to read the second line of copy?
63. Does the second line make the reader want to read the third line?
64. (Etc.)
65. Throw in some more proof that what you’re saying is true. Proof can come from statistics, testimonials, case studies, even news stories or current events that illustrate the ideas your product or service is based on.
66. Compare apples to oranges. Don’t compare the cost of your product to a competitor’s — compare it to a different category of item that costs a lot more. For example, compare your online course to the cost of one-on-one personal consulting.
67. For this reason, it’s always a good idea to have at least one platinum-priced item for sale. They make everything else you sell look nicely affordable by comparison.
68. Make your order page or form easier to understand. Complicated order pages make customers nervous.
69. Remember to restate your offer on your order page. Don’t expect the customers to remember all the details of what you’ve just (almost) sold her. Re-state those benefits.
70. Include a phone number where people can call for questions. I know this is tricky to handle, but it can boost your response by a surprising amount.
71. Include a photograph of what you’re selling, if you can.
72. Is there a lot of distracting navigation leading your customers away? (Worst of all are cheap-looking ads that pull people away for a penny or two.) Get rid of it. Focus your reader’s attention on this offer with a one-column format stripped of distractions.
73. Put a caption on any image that you use. Captions are the third most-read element of sales copy, after the headline and the P.S. The caption should state a compelling benefit to your product or service. (Even if that benefit doesn’t quite match the image.
74. While you’re at it, link the image to your shopping cart.
75. Make the first paragraph incredibly easy to read. Use short, punchy, and compelling sentences. A good story can work wonders here.
76. Does your presentation match your offer? If you’re offering luxury vacations, do your graphics and language have a luxury feeling? If you’re selling teen fashion, is your design trendy and cute?
77. Are you trying to sell from a blog post? Send buyers to a well-designed landing page instead.
78. Halfway through a launch and sales are listless? Come up with an exciting bonus and announce it to your list. Frank Kern calls this “stacking the cool.”
79. Are you asking your prospect to make too many choices? Confused people don’t buy. You should have at most three options to choose from — something along the lines of “silver, gold, or platinum.”
80. Look for anything in your copy that’s vague. Replace it with a concrete, specific detail. Specifics are reassuring, and they make it easier for the prospect see herself using your product.
81. Numbers are the most reassuring details of all. Translate anything you can into numbers.
82. Look for any spot in your copy that might make your prospect silently say “No,” or “I don’t think so.” Rework that spot. You want the prospect to mentally nod in agreement the entire time she’s reading your letter.
83. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. Prospects often don’t read every word of the sales letter. Find ways to restate your call to action, the most important benefits, and your guarantee.
84. Hint at a genuinely exciting benefit early in the copy, then spell it out later in your sales letter. (Be careful of curiosity-based headlines, though, as traditionally they don’t convert as well as benefit- or news-based ones do.)
85. Use the two magic words of persuasive copy.
86. Successful marketing doesn’t sell products or services — it sells benefits and big ideas. What’s your big idea? What are you really selling? If you’re not sure, go back to our ten human needs in #11 above.
87. If you offer something physical, make sure there’s a way they can get expedited delivery. The ability to place a rush order lifts response, even if the customer doesn’t take advantage of it.
88. Put a Better Business Bureau, “Hacker Safe” seal, or similar badge on your sales page.
89. Could you be underpricing your offer? A surprising number of buyers, even in a bad economy, won’t buy a product or service if it seems too cheap to be worth their time.
90. Are you using the wording “Buy Now” on your shopping cart button? Try “Add to Cart,” “Join Us,” or similar wording instead. Focusing on word “buy” aspect has been shown to lower response.
91. Allow your prospect to picture himself buying. Talk as if he’s already bought. Describe the life he’ll now be living, as your customer. If you want a delicious example, go to the J. Peterman website. Few have ever done it better.
92. Cures sell vastly better than prevention. If your product is mostly preventative, find the “cure” elements and put those front and center. Solve problems people already have, rather than preventing problems they might have some day.
93. If your funny ad isn’t converting, try playing it straight. Humor is, by its nature, unpredictable. It can work fantastically well, or it can destroy your conversion. If you can’t figure out what else might be wrong, this could be the culprit.
94. Are you the king of understatement? The sultan of subtlety? Get over it. At least in your sales copy.
95. How’s your P.S.? (You do have a P.S., right?) Is it compelling? Typically you want to restate either the most interesting benefit, the guarantee, the urgency element, or all three.
96. Cut all long paragraphs into shorter ones. Make sure there are enough subheads so you have at least one per screen. If copy looks daunting to read, it doesn’t get read.
97. Increase your font size.
98. Include a “takeaway.” No, this isn’t a hamburger and fries — it’s the message that your offer isn’t for everyone. (In other words, you threaten to “take away” your great offer for those who don’t deserve it.) When you’re confident enough to tell people “Please don’t order this product unless you meet [insert your qualification here],” you show that you’re not desperate for the sale. This is nearly universally appealing.
99. Are you putting this offer in front of cold prospects? What if you put some variation of it in front of people who have already bought something from you? Your own existing customer base is the best market you’ll ever have. Make sure you’re regularly sending them appealing offers
100. If they don’t buy your primary offer, try sending them to a “down-sell.” This is a lower-priced product that gives the prospect a second chance to get something from you. Remember, even a very small purchase gives you a buyer to market to later. Building a list of buyers is one of the wisest things you can do for your business.
101. What is it about your product or service that makes people feel better about themselves? Ultimately, everything has to boil down to this.

Have your own favorite conversion-booster that you didn’t see here? Let us know about it in the comments.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.

P.S.

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So, you’ve heard my take on why guest blogging is important. Over the years, you’ve probably seen other popular bloggers talking about it too.

But maybe you can’t help thinking … how does it help you build a popular blog of your own?

If you’ve been wondering, head over to GuestBlogging.com, because over the next 10 days, I’m going to show you. We’ll talk about:

• How to get your first 1000 blog subscribers, even if none of the leaders in your niche know who you are yet
• How to stop getting ignored by popular bloggers and get the links you deserve
• How to build a following on twitter to help you promote your blog posts
• How to get your blog a first page ranking on Google, without knowing all of the technical details of SEO

Didn’t know guest blogging could help you do all of that?

I didn’t either, when I first started. Over the years though, I’ve gotten to see some pretty powerful examples, and so I decided to make some videos for you and share them with you on Guestblogging.com.

Here’s how it’ll work:

Every few days, I’ll release a new video that walks you through real-world examples and strategies for how you can use guest blogging to build a popular blog. Right now, only the first video is available, but opt in, and I’ll e-mail you as I post new ones.

As of right now, there’s nothing for sale. The videos are 100% content, no sales or marketing messages at all.

When we’re done with them, I will tell you about a new training program I’m creating specifically for bloggers who are serious about increasing their traffic.

But that’s at least a week or so away. For now, enjoy the free videos, and learn about all of the cool ways guest blogging can help you.

Click here to get started.

See you there!

About the Author: Jon Morrow is the Associate Editor of Copyblogger and the Founder of GuestBlogging.com. Get more from him on twitter.

Continuing with the series on how to create a podcast, we’ll look at the hardware and software you need to create and share your podcast. Or- the technical side of podcasting.

Fortunately it wasn’t nearly as technical or difficult as I originally thought it would be. I think you’ll be surprised at just how easy (and inexpensive) it is to get started.

The process of creating a podcast is fairly simple. You record it, share it, and promote it. I’ll break it down into a simple checklist for each of those 3 tasks…

Recording A Podcast

To record an audio podcast, you’ll need a microphone and a computer. You will also need audio recording & editing software. I use the Audacity software which is free, and both Mac and PC compatible. It’s super easy to use – in fact, it’s simplicity is it’s best feature in my opinion. No complex bells & whistles.

A high quality microphone is ideal for podcasting. I have been using the Plantronics Wireless USB Headset for interviews, webinars, guest appearances on podcasts, audio/video creation, etc – and I love it.

For my podcast, I decided to go to a higher quality mic and chose the Blue Yeti USB Microphone. You can listen to a sound quality comparison of the two at that link.

You’ll simply plug your mic into your computer, open Audacity, and start recording. You can also edit your audio in audacity, and easily add intro music or an intro clip.

For intro music do a search on Google for “royalty free audio” or “royalty free podcast music” as a start. I decided to have a custom intro (a “jingle”) created for my own podcast, for stronger personal branding.

You can hear my new podcast jingle here, as an example:

(created by @GeoffSmith)

Also see: How to create a Video Podcast (coming next)

How/Where To Upload Podcasts

In order to share your podcast with others, you have to upload it to the web. The most popular and least expensive option is Amazon S3. There is a Firefox Plugin that makes uploading your podcast episodes (media files) to S3 very easy.

Ryan Price demonstrates it in this video:

Sign up for Amazon S3 and get the S3 Firefox Plugin

I am starting with Amazon S3 myself, but ultimately plan to invest in a higher quality podcast host that allows easy insertion and removal of advertising across a series or set of podcasts. Ideal if you plan to monetize your podcast with sponsors or advertising. I’ll share details on that host & the features when I have it myself.

Promoting Your Podcast

Once you have created your media file and uploaded it to the web, you’ll want to share it with the world. The first step is creating an RSS Feed for your podcast.

The PodPress plugin for WordPress is a good solution, as it integrates your podcast with a WordPress blog – and generates an iTunes friendly RSS feed at the same time.

You can now submit your podcast to iTunes so that it can be found by searchers. You’ll also be able to properly optimize the blog posts for each episode, bringing in free search engine traffic.

Also set up a Facebook Page, a Twitter & YouTube account, and a Gmail account for your podcast. Anytime you set up a blog, website, podcast, etc you should set up all of the related social media accounts for personal branding. And of course, start interacting in those spaces.

One other thing you’ll need is Album Art. This is an image that represents your podcast in iTunes, and can also be used across your social media profiles. You want to create this in super high quality, 1280×720 so that it doesn’t look grainy on Apple TV and similar. You can easily outsource this task on freelance job boards if you’re not the creative type.

Now that you’ve generated an RSS Feed and WordPress blog for your podcast, be sure to submit it to both podcast and blog directories!

How To Create A Podcast – Master Checklist

Use this master checklist to get your podcast created, from start to finish:

• Get high-quality mic
• Create Album Art
• Download Audacity
• Record Your Podcast
• Insert intro clip or jingle, and exit clip
• Convert recording to MP3 format
• Sign up for Amazon S3
• Download the Firefox S3 Plugin
• Upload media file to S3
• Install PodPress Plugin on WordPress Blog
• Submit your Podcast to iTunes
• Submit your Podcast to directories

The podcast report mentioned below will contain detailed screenshots, resources and help with each of these steps

Once you have everything set up, continue recording & uploading on a regular schedule. Creating a publishing schedule will help you line up topics and stay on track – consistency is good.

You can tweet when you have a new episode available, and also involve your followers by letting them submit questions or suggest topics they’d love to hear. Your blog and social media profiles can do a lot to grow your listener base and make your podcast successful!

Best,

p.s. Subscribe for email notification below so you don’t miss a single post in this Podcasting series – which is also where I’ll send you the free report on how to create a podcast. That report won’t be available for free any other way so be sure you are subscribed now if you want to get a copy!

7 Big Mistakes You Might Make When Setting Up Adwords

“Googling” things has become the default first step in our quest to find answers to any questions we have.

Because those questions include things like “where do I find this product?” and “who can help me fix this?” businesses have recognized that paid search is a great way to connect to potential customers.

Also, paid search allows businesses to easily monitor how effective their Internet marketing spend is.

Noting these advantages many businesses have created Adwords accounts, but due to some common mistakes, they may be unknowingly reducing the effectiveness of their online campaigns.

Here are 7 BIG Mistakes that should be addressed in order to maximize the return from your Adwords account…

1. Leaving the Content Network On

Content targeting, which is active by default, is what Google uses to match the keywords in your adgroups to thousands of publishers within the Google network, known as Adsense.

Instead of relying only on relevant queries in Google to return your ad, it places your ads on sites within the network that contain content it sees as relevant to your keywords.

For example, if you are a snack food company and are targeting “mixed nuts” in Adwords, Google may place your ad next to sites with recipes that require nuts and articles that explain the “health benefits of nuts” which are somewhat relevant, but it may also place your ad on sites with articles about “peanut allergies” which is not relevant at all.

Leaving this feature on is an easy way to spend a lot of money fast without reaching qualified customers. The simplest way to manage the content network is to turn it off.

If you choose to use content targeting it is very important that you create separate campaigns for just the content network so you can adjust the budget (discussed more below). You should also start out with a smaller budget and test the effectiveness before allocating more money to this method.

2. Not Implementing a Geo-targeting Strategy

If you do not create location-specific campaigns, then your ads will be served at the national level by default, and you may lose money from users who click your ads that live outside of your reach.

If you are a local plumbing company based in the Chicagoland area, it would make sense to allocate your budget to people searching for plumbers in that region instead of people all over the country. Needless to say, a Californian with a leaky faucet is not going to be the ideal customer for a Chicago plumbing company.

3. Not Tracking Conversions

The only way to determine if your paid search efforts are successful or not is if you are tracking conversions or the action you want the customer to take on your Web site. This may be obvious, but we see businesses make this mistake more often than one would think. Conversions can be anything from a purchase to a form submission, and you are not limited to tracking just one.

If you are a service company that does not sell anything online, then you want your ads to direct the user to a landing page with a form that they can submit with all of their information. If conversion tracking is setup properly, you will know exactly which keyword led to the form submission instead of just knowing how many total forms were submitted.

Knowing this information then allows you to go back to your campaigns and adjust budgets and bids according to which campaigns and keywords are bringing you the most conversions for the lowest cost.

NOTE: Before going onto Big Mistake #4, it might help to discuss how keywords, ad groups, and campaigns are organized within Adwords.

If you look at the tree structure below, you will see there are multiple keywords within each ad group, and multiple ad groups within each campaign. You can have as little as 1 or as many as 1000 ad groups within each campaign.

You want to group similar keywords together within ad groups to create targeted ads, and you want to group related ad groups within campaigns to allow for proper budget adjustment.

Looking at the example structure below: if you realize that a lot more of the people that are searching for “London homes” are converting compared to the other cities, then you can create a separate campaign for London in addition to the “UK Cities” campaign and add more budget to the London one.

4. Not Having Enough Campaigns

A very common mistake that we see is that all of the ad groups in the account are confined to just one or two campaigns. This is a problem because budget is adjusted at the campaign level. If everything is in one campaign and some ad groups are outperforming others, then there is no way to put more money towards the groups that are converting more without also funding the poorly performing ad groups.

If we see keywords that are performing well, we may even create a campaign just for the one keyword so we can garner the maximum amount of conversions possible from that word.

5. Not Having Enough Ad Groups

Organizing similar keywords into multiple ad groups gives you a better opportunity to have higher click through rates (CTRs) and quality scores.

The quality score is a rating from Google that ranges from 1 (not relevant) to 10 (highly relevant), and the main reason you want that score to be high is that it will enable you to bid lower for higher placements.

If your ad groups have too many keywords that are unrelated, then Google will not know which words it should base its relevancy rating upon and your CTR will most likely be lower leading to a low quality score. Generally if your quality scores are around 7 or higher you are in good shape.

6. Not Having Multiple Ads

It is best practice to have two or three ads per ad group to allow for A-B testing and optimization. If you only have one ad you are missing out on the opportunity to test different messaging, and to serve more relevant ads based on search queries.

For example: There is a sporting goods store and they have a 50% off sale on baseball bats, and are also offering free shipping on all of their products. If someone searches for “discount baseball bat” they know to serve a text ad that has copy about their “50% off discount on bats” whereas they may want to place a text ad with “free shipping on all bats” for the search query “baseball bats with free shipping.” If they find that one of the two ads is receiving more clicks and conversions, then they may want to modify the other ad to try and increase its effectiveness as well.

7. Using Only Broad Match Type for Keywords

When you are setting up the keywords in Adwords, you can choose between three different match types: broad, exact, and phrase. Google uses the match type to determine when to serve your ad.

Broad matches will give you the most placements because your ad will be served any time your key word(s) appear in a search query in any order. Exact match will serve your ads only when the query matches your keyword, and Phrase match looks for your keywords in the exact order they appear within search queries even if the queries have other words in them.

In most cases you can safely avoid the broad match type altogether, but it should never be the only match type you are using. If someone is searching for “red laces for shoes” and you have “red shoe” as your keyword using broad match type, you will serve an impression and potentially pay for a click if the unqualified user decides to browse your site at that point. It is very unlikely that the click from that user will lead to a sale.

If you do elect to use broad match type for some of your keywords, then you must use negative keywords (like “laces” going back to the example above) to prevent your ad from being served to unqualified users.

Addressing these seven big Adwords mistakes will enable you to
run an effective paid search campaign for your business.

It is important to remember that you must continually optimize your campaigns, ad groups, text ads, and keywords based on your return on ad spend (ROAS) and conversion goals.

About the Author
Jon Morris was recognized as one of Chicago’s top 30 entrepreneurs under 30 by the Chicago Sun-Times, and was the recipient of the Outstanding Academic Award for graduating first in his class at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Over the last 14 years Jon has become a thought leader in the Internet marketing industry, and is currently the CEO of Rise Interactive, a company he founded in 2004. Rise Interactive is a Chicago SEO and Internet Marketing company that is focused on finding innovative ways to keep its clients ahead of the competition.

Let’s say you thought it would be pretty neat to climb Mount Everest.

You find two “how-to” web sites that explain what’s involved.

One details a tough training regimen, spells out all of the financial costs, has a serious conversation with you about the risks, and gives you a complete list of the gear you’ll need to maximize your chances of a successful ascent.

Another tells you that since you go for a 20-minute run every day, you’ll be totally fine. Nah, don’t buy a bunch of fancy equipment. Just wear your flip-flops and a sweater.

Who’s doing you the favor?

There are plenty of people out there who’ll tell you that if you want to promote something — anything — you need to start a blog.

Don’t be intimidated, just jump right in. Start with a free account on Blogger, do a bunch of Google searches for good content, rewrite it with some cheesy automated blogging tool, and that juicy search engine traffic will just start rolling in.

Think that person is doing you a favor?

Or might they be sending you to the blogging equivalent of eternal rest as part of Everest’s permafrost?

Here’s the really good news

Publishing a successful blog that supports your business goals?

So much easier than climbing Mount Everest.

Also, much, much less chance of dying or losing your nose to frostbite.

But there are times when you start out when it doesn’t feel easier than climbing Everest.

• Maybe you’ve been wrestling with installing *$%#^ self-hosted Wordpress for a month and every time you think about it you burst into tears.
• Or you’ve been stuck at 22 readers for a month and you’ve already nagged everyone you know until they refuse to take your calls any more.
• Or maybe you haven’t posted in a month because everything you write looks kind of stupid to you.

Does this mean you’ll never figure out how to run a decent blog?

Not at all. It just means you haven’t done your training. And that well-meaning person who said, “It’s really not that hard” was either full of baloney or forgot that when you’re starting out, damned right it’s hard.

So here are some ways to get over three of the toughest hurdles bloggers face. The sooner you get these out of the way, the sooner you can get to the fun part.

I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. But it’s also not as hard as it looks right now.

If the technology is killing you

I’ll admit it, I’m not a technology moron.

I’m worse. I’m almost a technology moron. Because I have mastered formatting a bulleted list in HTML, I believe that I can do anything.

This belief is incorrect.

I have been known to spend days trying to fix technical problems that a well-trained chimp could code up in 20 minutes.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s all learnable. Apply a little stubbornness and some focused attention and you will figure it out.

But is that actually what you should spend your time doing?

If you’re pounding your head against the technology and trying to make stuff work, allow me to suggest that you forgo your favorite treat for a few weeks (Starbucks, cute shoes, that iPad that’s been calling to you so sweetly) and hire someone to help you get this thing done.

There are plenty of people who will set you up with a WordPress blog for an impressively reasonable price. And there are thousands of other very capable folks who can help with the related stuff.

Eat ramen for a month if you have to, but get some help.

Then take the time you’ve saved and develop a simple, inexpensive product. Get it onto your now-functioning blog and pay yourself back.

If your reader numbers aren’t budging

The hardest, loneliest part of your ascent is right at the beginning, when you’re writing and posting and you’re not at all sure there’s anyone there to hear you.

The first training tip is to spend that time making your blog someplace worthy of all that traffic you want to attract.

If you got 10,000 visitors today, what would they see? Three posts about your cat, one about how you can’t figure out Twitter, and the “Hello, world” post that you never bothered to delete when you installed WordPress?

So while you still have some privacy and the utter freedom of anonymity, write some good cornerstone content. While you’re at it, get an email autoresponder up and running. Make your blog someplace worth going to.

Once you’ve got the place presentable, it’s time to get out there and do some guest posts. Make friends with people who blog about the same topics you do. Make intelligent comments on their posts. Follow the people they follow on Twitter. Be interesting and helpful.

Then offer to write some guest posts. Start with smaller blogs at first, then work your way to medium and then larger blogs.

Guest posts are still the best way to build your audience, find new loyal fans, and grow your subscriber numbers.

If you’ve run out of things to say

This is an interesting moment.

One possibility is that you’re midway up the ascent and you realize, “Oh crap, I actually never did want to climb Everest. I’d much rather swim the English Channel.”

The difference between climbing Everest and running a blog is that your attempt at the summit takes a day. (It needs to, because if you stay on the mountain overnight you die.)

Your blog is something you’ll think about every single day until the day you shut it down or sell it.

So if it’s not where you want to be, the right answer may be to shut it down now, or to radically change direction until it’s something you actually want to spend this much time on.

That’s why the experts all tell you that passion matters. Trying to write on a topic you don’t care about is really, really hard over the long run.

On the other hand, you may just be chickening out. You may need to deal with your own fear of failure, fear of success, or fear of mediocrity.

If it’s not one of those, it might be something very, very simple.

Just write. Write every damn day. Write when you don’t feel like it. Write when it’s stupid. Write when it’s not coming out right. Write when you think that no one in his right mind would read what you have to say.

You don’t have to be an amazing writer to be an amazing blogger.

But you do have to write. A lot. (Even if you’re a podcaster or a video blogger, you need a smart, sharp script or outline.) The more you write, the more ideas will come. Sounds weird, I know, but it works.

So get off on your backside and do it.

If you’re looking for someone who will tell you the truth about marketing your business, and will give you the step-by-step training to make it a lot less overwhelming, you may want to look into my Remarkable Marketing Blueprint. It’s open for new members, but only until 5:00 pm Mountain Time today (Monday, May 24). Check out the details now, because tonight, the opportunity goes away.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of The Remarkable Marketing Blueprint.

Which came first: the chicken or the egg?
It’s a common question for new affiliate marketers – How do you get approved as an affiliate at an Affiliate Network, if you don’t yet have your affiliate site created?

The question came up again on my recent post titled HTML Tips: Anatomy of an Affiliate Link. Carlos asked:

Hi Lynn, I just got my domain name and hosting account and I plan to use this site to promote affiliate products. The question is about CJ.com … they asked me for my website on the affiliate application, but at the moment my site is empty. Will CJ approve my application anyway – or not? If not, what do I have to do first? What is the process if my website is only to promote things?

When you create your first affiliate site, or a new affiliate site that requires new affiliate relationships, it’s best to set the site up first.

The big concern that most people have is wasting time setting up an affiliate site, without knowing for sure if they will get approved to the affiliate program or affiliate network they want to work with.

The fact is, to get good favor with both Affiliate Networks – and with Google, your website needs to offer value. Meaning if you don’t monetize it at all, or your strip out all the promotions, it still offers valuable content to human visitors.

See: Warning: “Thin Affiliate Sites”

You have a few options…

If your affiliate site is ecommerce-style, meaning it looks like an online store and each product you feature simply deep links to the merchant’s product detail page, you can go ahead and create the entire site in good faith that the merchant (or network they work with) will approve your affiliate application.

You can start with direct links to the the merchant’s products and change them to affiliate links later, or leave out the links and add them in later.

Personally I don’t recommend relying on only one merchant as an Affiliate Marketer. I usually create an affiliate site with at least 3 merchants in mind. A primary merchant (the one I most want to work with or promote), a secondary merchant (as back-up, or for additional options to offer my market), and a third merchant is just good measure. When I can’t find a 3rd merchant, Amazon.com usually makes a good back-up option.

The reason is because sometimes merchants close up shop, discontinue their affiliate program, or make other changes that make you want to stop working with them. Never create an affiliate site around ONE merchant or ONE product.

So go ahead and create your affiliate site, and populate it with content and/or products. Fill out your affiliate applications, include the URL to your affiliate site, and include a note in the comments section of the application if they offer one on the form. Mention that this is a new site, and you look forward to working with XYZ merchant. Include your name and telephone number with the comment for good measure.

Another option is to create a related blog. This blog can be used to write content that leads into a specific recommendation, linking to specific products on your affiliate site, so you can funnel traffic from the search engines to your specific product pages. Populate the blog with good content, use it in your affiliate applications, and then add in the recommendations later once you are approved.

Getting Declined by Merchants or Affiliate Networks

This is going to happen. It even happens to me, and I’m a Super Affiliate. In fact, just yesterday I was declined by Priceline in the CJ Network. I had signed up to be their affiliate, with plans to promote them on my new GeekTrax website.

Often you’ll get declined because of something in your profile at the network, or because your website is unfinished or unrelated. In my case, the website(s) in my CJ profile were not related to travel, and so Priceline denied my request to be their affiliate.

In a case like this, I always write back to the merchant with a request for reconsideration. CJ (Commission Junction) has it’s own messaging system, so I simply wrote a short reply to them directly through the network, and explained who I am and what I do – and how/where I plan to promote their program.

Affiliate Managers get a large number of requests every day, but they ARE looking for quality affiliates that will promote their offers. Go the extra step in letting them know why they should approve your application.

And like I said, have back-up merchants in the wings in the case that your preferred merchant doesn’t approve you. You can always come back later and apply again once your affiliate site is more established.

Affiliate Networks vs Independent Affiliate Merchants

Apply for the Affiliate Networks in the beginning, but if you don’t get approved right away then seek out independent affiliate merchants. There are many affiliate programs outside of the major networks that offer instant approval.

Just go to Google and type in your main keyword and the word “affiliate” or “commission”. So you might type in “baby bedding affiliate” or “baby bedding commission” (without quotes) and look for independent merchants. You can also search ClickBank or $7 Offers for relevant info-products to recommend – these don’t require approval and are open to anyone.

Final Note…

If you’re really passionate about your topic and your business model, invest the time to set it up and get it established – even without a monetization strategy to start. Set up social media profiles and make a name for yourself in the niche. Build a readership and a following, and the merchants will be coming to you.

You can always use Google Adsense, or sell advertising, in the meantime. But don’t let the concern of declined affiliate applications deter you from starting the online business you want.

Best,

Also See:
Best Cheap Web Hosting
How to Start a WordPress Blog (Checklist)
How to Sell Products Online as an Affiliate
Affiliate Site Options & Examples

The idea of advertising a blog on TV is just plain crazy. Right?

Well, it used to be. But with the introduction of Google TV, that crazy idea isn’t so crazy anymore.

Google TV is part of Google AdWords, and it works much the same way. It’s an auction-based system where you choose the price you want to pay. Obviously, the more you pay, the more people you’re likely to reach. But it’s possible to run an ad on network television for as little as $20.

In the old days (back when I worked as an NBC TV producer), placing TV ads was a big deal. You had to go through individual television stations or hire ad buyers who had special relationships with the networks.

But now with Google TV, just about anyone can create and run TV ads that will air on national TV shows. You can search to find TV programs that match your keywords, target people who are likely to want what your blog offers, and you can even see what ad placements deliver the best results and make adjustments to optimize your strategy.

Why would you even consider advertising your blog on TV?

The average American watches anywhere from 3 to 5 hours of television every day. That means people spend around 13 years of their life in front of the tube.

That sounds a bit sad, but one thing the statistics don’t mention is that more and more people, especially bloggers, spend a lot of that time multitasking. They’re sitting on a couch with the TV on and a laptop open.

You’ve probably noticed that more and more TV ads show web addresses. That’s because advertisers are finding that television is driving people to websites to buy products or find out more about items of interest.

Despite some of the junk, TV is a highly respected medium. It reaches a wide audience. And with more and more cable channels, many shows are now targeted to specific audiences. No matter what your interest, there’s a show about it out there somewhere.

Plus, ads on TV are visual and easy to digest. TV ads work for the same reason that video works online. It’s an effortless way for people to take in information.

So why wouldn’t you at least experiment with TV ads? If you can target the right audience and get the ad fairly cheap, you might find a great payoff. Then again, like anything else, it might flop. You never know until you try it for yourself.

This is a pretty good time to try. Since TV ad buying is down right now, there’s always the chance that your little ad could fill an otherwise empty commercial slot on a major TV show and reach more people than you ever could with the typical promotional tools.

How Google TV works

There’s a lot more to Google TV than I can explain here, but the process is pretty simple.

1. Log into your Google AdWords account and create your campaign. You select the audience size, set your bid, choose your budget, and select a start and end date.
2. Choose the programs, networks, or times of day you want. If you have a blog about pets, maybe you want to run your ad on Animal Planet. If your blog is about the arts, perhaps you want A&E.
3. Upload your TV commercial just like you would upload any other video. There are specifications to follow, but it’s not rocket science.
4. Track your ads and adjust as needed. You can see where your ads run, the estimated number of people seeing it (called impressions), and other statistics.

If all this sounds familiar, it should. It’s almost identical to running a Google AdWords campaign.

How to create effective TV ads

Okay, you’re a blogger, not a TV producer. So you probably don’t know much about advertising.

But let me clue you in on something. A lot of people who create TV ads don’t know squat. So you really can’t go too far wrong if you just follow some simple advice.

If you’re going to promote your blog, and you don’t want to spend a fortune, you need to keep your ad simple and direct. No fancy stuff. Your goal is to get people curious enough to go to your blog. So follow this simple formula . . .

1. Get attention.
2. Present a problem.
3. Offer a solution.
4. Direct people to your blog.

Let’s say you have a blog on amateur photography. Here’s how you might write a script for a TV ad to get people to your blog. You’d have both visuals and audio, but here’s just the audio portion.

Are you an amateur photographer? Are you fed up with blurry photos and poor lighting? Frustrated with those great shots you missed? Now CoolPixBlog.com has released a free report that reveals 101 tricks professional photographers use to snap perfect pictures every time. How to get crisp photos with a cell phone camera. The secret of clear nighttime shots without a tripod. How to be ready and never miss a great picture again. Go to CoolPixBlog.com and download your free report now. That’s CoolPixBlog.com.

Pretty simple, huh? Notice how this script follows the formula to get attention (Are you an amateur photographer . . .), present a problem (Are you fed up with blurry photos . . . ), offer a solution (Now CoolPixBlog.com has release a free report . . .) , and direct people to your blog (Go to CoolPixBlog.com . . .).

Google TV offers a tool called SpotMixer, where you can use a library of images, audio, and video, or you can upload your own materials. There’s also an Ad Creation Marketplace where you can find producers, actors, voice over professionals, and other resources who can help create your ad, depending on your budget.

Frankly, I’d suggest mixing something on your own just for a test. As long as you target your ads and follow that formula I gave you, you don’t need anything fancy to work.

If this all still sounds a little crazy, I don’t blame you. But just to show what’s possible, watch this video on Google TV ads to see how a guy who works for Slate.com created a simple ad and ran it on network TV for about $100. And he did it all from his laptop.

If you like, you can also visit my copywriting blog for more details on writing TV commercials, specifically direct response commercials. The formula is a little more detailed here, but the idea is similar.

If anyone has the guts and initiative to try Google TV, please let me know. I’d love to hear your story.

About the Author: Dean Rieck is a recovering NBC TV producer who now writes copy for direct marketing clients coast-to-coast. He shares copywriting tips for smart copywriters like you at Pro Copy Tips.

Today’s copywriter is more than a mere “wordsmith.”

If that’s how you think of yourself, you’ll be stuck in Junior Copywriter ad agency purgatory for eternity.

Think back to recess in third grade, when you kept getting stuck on the see-saw with the fat kid at the other end. All the cool kids were playing kickball. And there you were, waiting for the inevitable bounce.

By investing your time in understanding five key areas, you’ll be able to exponentially improve your ability to create effective content. And that, my friends, is what it takes to bounce the fat kid off the see-saw and start playing a much cooler game.

You don’t have to be the 500-pound gorilla — you just have to think like one.

1. Real-time search

With Twitter and Facebook having made deals with Google and Bing to make content available for search, copywriters working in the online space cannot ignore the importance of real-time search. Every social media portal and social bookmarking site is now a place for content to be found online.

If you can’t sit down and have a coherent client conversation that includes real-time search, the fat kid is going to send you flying.

Copywriting 3.0 Tip: Take the time to understand real-time search. Learn the sites indexed, the type of content indexed from each site, and where people go to find real-time search results.

Check out real-time search engines like OneRiot, read how Google is incorporating real-time search, and think about how this can affect the way people phrase online conversations.

2. Article marketing and repurposing content

Article marketing is no longer about just building backlinks.

Instead, it’s about breadcrumbs. The more you leave around the web, the more likely you are to have people follow those breadcrumbs to where you’d like them to go.

If you’re not in tune with the latest in article marketing and how to repurpose online content for maximum visibility, you’re missing a key conversation that you should be having with your clients. It’s no longer about just having a blog — it’s about where those posts go after they’ve been launched on your blog. Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, eZines — there’s a world out there just waiting for your content.

Check out the new eZine WordPress plugin as well as the cool features of Posterous.

Copywriting 3.0 Tip: Read up on anchor text, SEO keyword research, and make sure that any online destination for which you write understands how an SEO strategy affects the success of their online goals.

Fat kids don’t like breadcrumbs — they like donuts. Help your clients stay light and nimble by introducing the breadcumb strategy. Which leads us to our next point. . . .

3. SEO-savvy copywriting

When’s the last time you sat down with an SEO firm to chat about how you can make their job easier?

I work with multiple firms and pick their brains on a regular basis. If you’re writing online content willy-nilly and with no regard to an SEO strategy, why on earth are you writing?

Granted, some sites are purpose-driven and others have built-in audiences. But by and large, you’re going to be working with clients who want new prospective business to land on their sites.

If you don’t understand the latest in how search engines read words or the basics of keyword frequency, keyword ratio to content length (to avoid keyword stuffing or even under use), and placement on the page, the writer who took the time to learn is going to make you look old school.

B-O-U-N-C-E.

Copywriting 3.0 Tip: Check out Copyblogger’s SEO Copywriting Made Simple guide. Connect with a local SEO firm. Pop over to SEOMoz and read their Beginner’s Checklist to Learning SEO.

And of course, you should be using Scribe (I recently reviewed it here).

4. Blogging: Where SEO and social media collide

Search engines lurv “dynamic content.”

In lay terms, that’s a consistent stream of fresh content instead of a collection of static pages that never change. It shows the search engines that a website is consistently updating and is therefore more “relevant.”

That’s why everyone’s got a blog these days. It’s also where SEO and social media collide.

A blog is the ideal place to help a client execute a keyword strategy, increase traffic, and be seen as an authority in the space they want to dominate. Show your clients you understand how blogging fits into a sound SEO strategy, and is a facet of not only their social media strategy but an overall marketing plan.

Copywriting 3.0 Tip: Read up on blog marketing strategies, don’t discount the importance of linkbait-style headlines, and understand what a good blog does and where bad ones fail.

Creating online content is about more than tweeting a blog post or putting a link on a Facebook fan page. It’s understanding how the words you use and where you use them affect your business goals.

5. What mobile means

With 42.4 million iPhones on the market (as of January 2010), you can’t argue that mobile content isn’t relevant.

The fat kid on the see-saw has been content with churning out old-school SEO copy. And that’s all fine and dandy. But he doesn’t know diddly about mobile content.

Screens are smaller, attention spans are shorter. If you can’t write something that can be read at a stoplight (not that this blogger reads and drives . . . oh, no . . .), you need to rethink your skill set.

With DVRs and online news distribution, we don’t watch commercials or read ads. So where are businesses supposed to go? They go mobile.

Smart businesses are developing mobile versions of their corporate websites. You need to know how to write for them as well as the ad networks that operate in the mobile arena.

Copywriting 3.0 Tip: You may be writing ads, but you’re not going to bounce the fat kid without reading up on AdSense Mobile and iAds.

You also need to start surfing more on a mobile device. See what annoys you about content not formatted for mobile, and who does a great job. Check out Whole Foods Market on your smart phone.

Bang-up job, I say. Straight on.

The bottom line is this: copywriting has gone high-tech. If you’re not up to speed with the changing landscape, you’ll keep getting stuck on the see-saw with the fat kid instead of in the killer game of kickball with the cool kids.

Do your homework, stay on the pulse of how social media and SEO are changing the way businesses communicate. And never forget: you’re never too old to learn something new.

About the author: Erika Napoletano is an online strategist based in Denver, Colorado. As the Head Redhead at Redhead Writing, she serves up sound yet snark-laden advice on social media, SEO copywriting, and business strategies.

After my last post, I received an email from Ralph with a question about how to sell products online as an affiliate – specifically physical products through networks like Commission Junction and Linkshare…

Lynn,
I read your wonderful post about the life of a super affiliate – It was great and I know you put in long hours and hard work to get to this stage.

Lynn, I am a newbie and would like to know when you promote affiliate products from LinkShare and Commission Junction – Do you build a landing/sales page and market it by writing articles with a link back to the landing page? I am trying to understand the best way to get started marketing physical products.

Thank you,
Ralph

Hi Ralph,

The process of selling anything online as an Affiliate is pretty simple. People get online to search for products, information, deals, to get help with their buying decision, etc. Your job as an Affiliate is to add value to that process.

First you have to figure out what your buyers are searching for, and where they are searching. Are they the type to ask peer groups for recommendations? Do they search on Google? Are they on Facebook or Twitter?

What are they asking and talking about online? The first place to start is with traditional search. You find out which keyword phrases your market is using, and you target those keyword phrases with your product recommendations.

How to Sell Products Online

What you’re asking is how you frame those recommendations, and how you set up the pages that have your affiliate link to the product(s) you want to sell.

The key is to look at each keyword phrase you are targeting, and come up with a strong message to market match for that search. Consider what they are really searching for, and how you can offer them the ideal solution. Are they looking for information, a specific solution to a problem, reviews/comparisons, pricing or deals?

Whatever they are searching for, specifically, that’s what you want to deliver.

It’s easiest to just ignore all the internet marketing terminology (landing page, mini site, authority site, flycatcher page, etc) and instead consider how you can best serve that market. This concept is easily lost if you get sidetracked by all of the buzz words and trends, but it’s the key to good conversion rates.

In the Affiliate Site Options post I shared some specific examples of various types of affiliate sites. Look those over to get a better idea of ways you can serve your market. Some of them are ecommerce-style sites that look more like an online store, but send the visitor to the merchant (via an affiliate link) to checkout and purchase the featured product. Others are blogs or informational sites that answer questions and lead into a call-to-action.

To answer your question more specifically, I don’t generally create a one-page promotion as an affiliate. I create a blog or website around a market or topic, and use that to recommend products. I never create an affiliate site around a specific product, but around the topic.

For example, instead creating an affiliate site around “brinkman grills” or “weber grills”, I might create an affiliate site like GrillDominator.com – which is currently available, by the way – that includes all grill types (gas, smoker, charcoal), reviews and comparisons, instructions & products needed to build your own grill, etc.

I prefer to build an authority site on a topic, and then make recommendations on the keyword level. Meaning each page of the site serves it’s own purpose, and leads the visitor into a specific call-to-action that matches the search that brought them there.

Article Marketing is something that I use for inbound links, often to specific pages on my affiliate site – which is called deep linking. It’s very effective, but it is just one of my marketing strategies in the overall marketing plan.

In the GrillDominator.com example I gave above, I would use grill recipes that get searched frequently as content for my articles. They are informational searches (vs commercial searches) but highly relevant to the site topic… and so great for a source of quality inbound links.

The more we talk about it, the more complicated it sounds. But it really just boils down to common sense marketing, and figuring out how you can best serve your market. Get in the shoes of your ideal visitor every time you analyze a keyword phrase. Consider what you would be looking for if you were searching that phrase yourself – and create that. Your market will thank you for it. Everyone is sick of wading through junk to get to the results they’re actually looking for…

I hope this answers your question. If not, or you have more questions, feel free to ask below. That goes for anyone reading along, of course.

Best,