Neil Shearing’s Internet Marketing Strategies

According to Tradedoubler, Google’s policy with regards to bidding on trademarked terms using their Adwords program is changing.

Tradedoubler sent an email out to affiliates saying that Google’s policy may have changed, but it’s the *merchant’s* policy you need to be aware of when bidding on keywords as an affiliate for a Tradedoubler merchant.

From the Tradedoubler email…
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I am sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that on May 5th Google will no longer prevent you or anyone else using AdWords to place adverts on Google for trademarked terms.

So, Google will no longer prevent unauthorized ads from showing when users search for trademarked terms. Full info on this is available here.

Keyword policies and terms and conditions set by TradeDoubler’s merchants are unchanged by Google’s trademark policy revision. You can check and review these at any time by logging in to your account on the TradeDoubler site.

Our merchant’s policies are changed from time to time by TradeDoubler and we will notify you of any changes by email and publish the full policy on the info page for each advertiser. If you are unsure of how to interpret a keyword policy, please don’t hesitate to contact us as we’d be happy to talk you through them.

TradeDoubler has technology to monitor search activity on behalf of our merchants. This helps us to find ways to supplement their programmes with affiliate activity on search engines, and ensure that we have visibility of unauthorised activity.

In accordance with the Publisher Agreement, if your activity goes against a merchant’s terms and conditions, you may be removed from the programme or network and forfeit commissions.
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Summary:

Tradedouber says, “we’re in charge, not Google”!

Why didn’t I think of this… using little ASCII-pictures in Google Adwords…

A German car rental company used little ASCII-art pictures of cars as their Adword Ads.

Apparently it got a 47% more clickthroughs. LOL. Genius.

(how it got past Google’s automated filters, I’m not sure)

I’ve been testing Google Cash Detective. Chris Carpenter graciously let me install it and see how it works.

Basically, it looks for Google Adwords ads that are run continuously over a long period for any keywords you give it. The software can detect which ads are affiliate ads because they will be running direct affiliate links to the merchant. When an ad is running continuously and pointing direct to a merchant, it’s reasonable to expect that the ad is profitable. Armed with that information, you could replicate the ad and bid slightly higher thereby “bumping” the previous affiliate down a slot (or kicking them off altogether if Google applies their “one ad per affiliate link” rule). You would thereby usurp the previous affiliate and their profits.

It sounds good in theory… a very smart system. But Michael Campbell voiced his reservations… “The author doesn’t seem to be aware that ads - at least in my country - are copyright. In addition, many of them contain trademarks, servicemarks, slogans, brand names and other forms of ownership in the words and phrases.

Most companies record all their online activities. If an identical ad suddenly appears there could be legal action. It’s also a potential liability risk for all parties involved.

What the author is telling me to do - in my opinion - is ethically and morally wrong. And it breaks at least two of God’s 10 Commandments.

It’s sad really, because otherwise it’s a decent product. If they had gone about promoting it a different way, I might have got behind it. But not this way. I’m taking the high road and steering far away from this nonsense.”

Wow. Strong stuff from Michael. Rarely does he get so vocal about a product.

It didn’t stop an avalanche of people buying Google Cash Detective as soon as it launched. In fact, they sold out almost immediately.

Of course, there’s copycat software on the way. I’ve heard of at least one marketer referring to Google Cash Detective and his version which will be available soon.

It must be very worrying for Adwords advertisers who are linking directly to products/services via affiliate links…

My friend Arun has written some “Fast Start Guides” for anyone wanting to know the basics about using Blogging, Press Releases and Adwords to grow their online businesses and online profits.

These reports are free, no-nonsense, clear and readable. They’re short and to-the-point.

If that’s how you like your information, head over to www.FastStartKits.com and pick up your free reports on Adwords, Blogging and Press Releases. They have plans to add several more guides on other Internet marketing topics, as reported by Arun:-)

If you missed out on the Adwords Empire course… perhaps the price tag was a little high at $497, there’s good news. Fabian has just released a 2-DVD set where he explains the core basics of using keywords for building traffic and profits. He’s called it Keyword Mastery.

If you need to master the basics of digging for lucrative keywords, Keywords Mastery is a nice introductory course… and at just $77, the price fits too.

Oh, and sales are limited to 500 copies from what I understand.

I had a great chat with Fabian Lim today (of Adwords Empire fame). He was in Singapore (I think he said he was in a McDonalds!) and I was sat at my computer here in England. We used Skype to have a chat about my test Adwords campaign. Being a total Skype newbie, I was using my desktop microphone and monitor speakers, so the quality wasn’t great (and, hey, why are there always screaming kids at McDonalds?) but I managed to get some great tips from Fabian about improving my campaign and thinking about my keywords totally differently.

When I crack this Adwords (PPC) system, I’m going to reveal all in a free report… stay tuned.

By the way, if you sell something in dollars (like an ebook) but live in the UK, you have to exchange dollars for pounds before you can spend them, which is a nightmare at the moment due to the bad exchange rate. However, if you buy Adwords clicks in dollars, but earn commissions in British pounds… the exchange rate is in your favour. How sneaky is that?

Phew!

I’ve put Fabian’s knowledge and expertise to work for me. I’m building an Adwords Empire!

Well, actually, I think I’ve only laid the first brick… and I’ll see if it’s a profitable brick before going on to build an empire.

The process is really interesting… but not for the faint-hearted. I had to install scripts that made use of a mySQL database (wooo-hooo, techie stuff). The scripts allow me to track how many people click on my landing page (the page between the click on the Adwords ad and the merchant’s site) as well as the keywords people used in their Google search.

Of course, I also needed a landing page… fortunately, Fabian includes templates with the Adwords Empire product (as well as 6 explanatory DVD’s and the scripts)… so I edited the template to reflect what the Adwords ad was about, and what the product I was selling was about, adding the tracking link code and the code to capture the keywords, and uploaded it all.

I used Nichebot (which comes with Keyword Avalance) to generate a nice little list of about 600 keywords, which counted as about 1,800 when I’d bid on the “broad, exact and phrase” matches separately.

Are you following this at the back, there will be questions later!

So, with keywords, two ads written (to be split-test by Google), a landing page with keyword tracking code and click tracking code, as well as Google Analytics code (just for fun!), an account with an affiliate network and a product to promote, it’s all ready to rumble.

Now, let’s see if this works before I go broke paying for clicks!

Question:

I have purchased many of your products and respect your opinion so here goes -

I wish I could really believe the sales page for Adwords Empire. It really sounds like I could get all my problems resolved and I could be living well if I purchased it and followed it.

Well, doesn’t everyone say this?  I have been doing Adwords for quite a while but never really well. A few years back I purchased a couple of the big name ebooks on Adwords. Still not much help. Within the last few months I purchased another few ebooks from popular authorities on Adwords. Every book I purchased made all these claims similar to the ones in this ad. I obviously think I know how to do it but I am missing some basic thing or secret and I just need to find out what I am not doing right - I can get clicks, I can get cheap clicks but no sales.

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So, in a nutshell, “will Adwords Empire be the product that finally shows me how to be profitable with Adwords”? 

Answer:

Are you just sending your cheap click to the merchants? Do you have landing pages which pre-sell the products using benefits that relate to the keywords of the ad that the visitor just clicked?

Are you segmenting your keywords to increase your clickthrough rate and thereby decreasing your cost per click because your ads are more effective? (Google rewards more effective ads with lower click costs).

Are you tracking the clicks at each stage to know whether it’s your ad, your landing page, the merchant’s sales copy, or the product that’s causing the lack of profitable results?

All this is explained in Adwords Empire, and that’s why I recommend it. If you’re doing all those things listed above, and are doing them right, you won’t need the course. But, if you’re not doing the things I mentioned above, or you’re doing them wrongly, then Adwords Empire will help you make your Adwords campaigns profitable.

I spent most of today reviewing the 10 HOURS of tutorial information on the six DVD’s from Adwords Empire. They were excellent. I got really excited about the possibility of building my own Adwords Empire, and shot this testimonial over to Fabian…

“Fabian… I’m sorry it’s taken me time to get back to you… the DVD’s are sooo loong and chock full of great info! I’ve been glued to them.

Anyone looking for a “nothing held back” guide to making profits with Google Adwords should see investing in Adwords Empire as a “no brainer”.

This is a very, very highly recommended purchase for anyone looking to get traffic from Pay Per Click search engines and profit from it.”

Unfortunately, it looks like Fabian’s server isn’t handling the launch very well… it’s as slow as molasses at the moment.

I strongly suggest you grab a copy of Adwords Empire at the low launch price… if you can get the webpage to load. Here’s the link… Adwords Empire Early Bird Pricing and Bonuses.

… when you get a review copy of “Adwords Empire” sent to you in the post one day followed by Judas Priest’s “Rising In The East” DVD the next day?

Metal Marketer?

I like it… Neil Shearing, the Metal Marketer. LOL