Internet Marketing Brainstorming!

Okay y’all, this is with a little trepidation I announce my return to the one thing that made me the most money overall: PPC. I have been away with my attempts to find friends and family projects. However, I have been unable to find the perfect one (I came close with the e-whore thing, but Craigslist & Backpage are bitches and won’t let me post at will). So, noticing my income was suffering, I decided to go back to making it all about me… for the time being anyways, and to do so, I needed to return to something I was good at. Pay Per Click marketing.

Now google had banned my adwords account about 2 years ago, so I swore off them, but I also knew how hard it was to advertise with them, so I didn’t bother. I found a few other ways to market and get traffic cheaper, albeit less consistently. Now I come back, I see things are complicated for most people. Yahoo & MSN are still fairly easy to navigate, but google is the bitch.
However, I know what to do. I dove in, and got my bearings back.
I had created macros that sped up the process for me, but I NEVER USED THEM lol.
Then I saw on the market things like “LPGEN” and “SPEED PPC”.

LPGEN is a landing page creator that creates the kinds of pages google likes – content rich, and keyword relevant for your adgroups. SPeed PPC is a program that helps create campaigns and adgroups quickly. Another similar tool is “FLash PPC”.

Well, I had ALREADY created my own versions of these. See, I already had Niche Creator, a page generator, which I use to create landing pages for any keyword. And this is what LPGen basically does. In fact Jonathan the creator is an acquaintance of mine and we met int eh niche creator forums, so LP Gen is a variation of niche creator.
Since I had it,all I needed to do was tweak it a little and not have to buy lpgen.

Then Speed PPC the campaign creator.
I created macros that took the keywords and manipulated them with excel and created the ads fo me and uploaded them into google yahoo & msn. That’s what SPeed PPC does. So without having to purchase them I had my own LPGen and SPeed PPC :-)

Took about a week to re-tweak them due to some minor changes, but I did, and…. I just uploaded my first new project a few minutes ago. Complete with tracking using Xtreme Conversions, which is still the best tracking tool out there – though it may have a slight learning curve.

Well after all my posts about how tracking is a revelation for me, I come to realize that I am a dumbass.
I FINALLY went back a couple of months and tracked reports of my PPC campaigns only to find out that “eyeball tracking/reporting” does not work. My campaigns have been running on fumes….. I barely broke even over the last 2 months or so (for PPC).

The main reason i did not know why, was because it takes routine disciple to copy, paste & analyze your profits & expenses. Which is why I hated accounting – too repetitive. Ironically, I’m good at it, so I thought I was doing it right in my head. Well over the long run, after spending & making thousands of dollars over the last 2 months, I’m losing about $240 dollars in my PPC portfolio.

I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t sat out the last week to write out a macro that would take my expenses from the PPC Networks, place it in my tracking spreadsheet, download my commissions from the affiliate networks, upload it to Xtreme Conversions, and download it to my tracking spreadsheet, which automatically calculates my P&L statement for me on a daily basis. (Whew!) Now you see why I didn’t want to do it manually. And why I hated accounting -that’s what they made me do for month end reporting. Now I’m doing it for me and it feels good to see what’s been going wrong. So I lowered my bids to see if my profit margin increases. I thought I was making more because by “eyeballing it”, i was counting my commissions from free traffic sources for the same items, which made me think I was making more than I actually was. Tracking separates them and truly gives you the full picture. All I can say is thank goodness for XC and for Gauhers PPC Formula spreadsheet.

Moral of the story? track yo shit!!!!!

Now what am I exited about? PPV! No tracking problems there. I only allowed myself to begin once I had a tracking system in place beforehand. So I see now a few things. It’s amazing some of the ‘tricks’ I discover when I try to brainstorm for myself on ways to make more money. And ways to get around certain problems. I mentioned a while back my CAMM (CPA Automatic Money Machine). Well it made a lotta money with some blackhat methods, but eventually I had to cut it off due to….. em… “network concerns” :-P.

Well i’m exited because I actually found a way to overcome those concerns, but I stopped using the system. I just realized that some problems I’ve have on another front, can be solved by using the method for overcoming the CAMM problem.
Meaning… if you can’t eat steak with a spoon, dont throw the spoon away…. you might need it later to scoop up the gravy……………….. or some philosophical bullshit like that…….
Actually I made it up lol. you like? Good. me too.
Well i kept the spoon, and am about to use it for some gravy (another method), hence the exitement.

Well I have alluded in my last post to the fact that I stumbled upon Pay Per View Marketing, and am completely immersed in it. It is surprising to me that I can do this well in this medium, but…. it shouldn’t be. It’s an “easier” version of PPC… and I know my PPC. I just hate the recent complications. PPV is like simplified PPC, and I’m glad it found me… because it literally did. And as it turns out I’ll probably wind up getting the Pay Per View Formula course (or at least a video of a presentation of it) from Gauher Chaudry himself. Funny how the universe works.

I’ve also read of people making ridiculous money with it… and dropping PPC in favor of PPV. I can see why. However, the basics of PPC are still needed in order to succeed with PPV. Namely… tracking is HIGHLY necessary. But the quality score bullshit introduced by google is a thing of the past with PPV.

For me tough, I had to take it a step further…, and I found some interesting ways to use PPV. Along with a tool or two I never used much. By creating a macro or two, I can now upload advertisements quickly. As a matter of fact, I predict that once this medium becomes popular, there will be more tools coming out to automate PPV as there are now to automate PPC (Speed PPC etc). And yes, this method has a chance of being ’saturated’, because you still have to pay for traffic, and I notice a little bidding war going on here & there… but nothing major… yet. Although I d predict many will lose lots of money unless they narrowly focus their campaigns.

All in all, I’ve been looking for one or two project to be my main endeavours online, and I think it will be PPV, PPC & SEO’d Wordpress blogs that will be my 3 focus points from now on, while 3AI will be what I pass on to friends & family to start them on their road to online success. But man… PPV the way “I” do it… rocks……….so far.

What is the tracking secret? To me, it is the backbone of marketing. All marketing. But tracking has neer been my favorite thing to do in this business. In fact, in my 3+ years of Internet Marketing, I’ve never tracked anything….properly. Nothing worth noting. I’ve simply gone by my expenses versus my commissions. That’s it. Until now…

But why haven’t I been tracking? Too tedious. Takes time and effort.I’d rather just put something online & see how much I make. The quicker the better.Tracking requires planning. However, I’ve always known that success lives or dies by knowing how much you spend and how much you make and where you spend what you spend on trying to make what you make. but I’ve been too lazy… till now.In the last 3 weeks or so, I’ve discovered tracking in a big way and I’m going to reveal something about Pay Per CLick (and Pay Per View) advertising that you’ve probably not heard before. But first, here’s how I got to my revelation:

My FIRST forray into IM was PPC. I stumbled, I fell, I got back up, I lost a lot of money till I finally figured how to make a lot of money. Even then I only did “eyeball tracking”. Why? well I loved the whole “google cash” concept. It was easy: Find a product choose keywords enter your affilliate link into adwords and spend some money while you make more.

I liked easy, and day to day I could simply glance at my expenses “Oh i spent about $200 today… how much did I make? Oh I see I made about $600, so that’s a profit of about $400. Good enough.” Then it got complicated. Competitors arrived, Google became a high maintenance bitch, etc. I buckled down did some tracking off and on and noticed that when I actually paid attention to details regularly it forced me to make decisions that cut my costs & increased profits. But…………..I never had a system in place, so when I stopped looking at the details, income suffered.

Then I purchased Xtreme Conversions & joined Life After Adsense. Tracking software! AHA! So I implemented it, but even then it was too much work to get the reports regularly. So being lazy, I went back to eyeballing it. Then I heard of Gauher Chaudry’s “Pay Per Click Formula” in which he supposedly laid out all the steps to successfull campaigns, and what stood out for me was the fact that in his course he was offering spreadsheets which he used for tracking purposes.I contacted him about it and immediately became impressed with tis guy – he come soff with a no BS air about him. Straightforward and honest and meticulous. It was then I discovered why I liked hm . He, like me, is an ex accountant. Then it clicked his attention to detail and his intricate tracking spreadsheets were his weapon of mass production. Ironically, I didn’t track because it reminded me too much of my accounting days. What a fool I’ve been. By following his progress & other’s talk of him I was able to see “why” he succeeds well; information, details, decisions, adjustments – all done with proper tracking.

Then, while looking for this friends & family thing, I heard he had a new method out called Pay Per View formula. Dues to some strange circumstances, I was able to gather more than enough information to figure out what it is all about, and after some thought, decided to test it for myself.

Best decision I’ve made for my business. Why? Well…. as soon as I figured out the workings of this method, not only did it remind me of the good ol google cash days (it’s actually simpler – no ads to write!), but I realized that in order to make ANY serious money, I would have to track revenues and sxpensesdoewn to the last detail. The chicken had come home to roost.

So… i got one of his sample spreadsheets and redesigned it according to MY specifications. And now, I have this gargantuan monster tracking spreadsheet specifically for PPV marketing. With some slight adjustments, I was able to copy it for PPC also. It took about 3 days to create for PPV, and another 2 to create for PPC. But I did nothing but that. Meanwhile I stopped my PPV advertising because I wasn’t tracking tit. When I put the tracking in place, boy was I glad…. I could have lost my shirt. Down to the keywords, I could tell what was making me money, what was losing me money and I was able to do the grandaddy IM “thing” of them all. I “adjusted” my advertising/bids/campaigns.

It feels so good. Now EVERY decision I make is an informed one, backed by tracking numbers.It took a long time to set up my tracking, but I realized I was really ready for it. I now fully understand what my former accounting CFO’s and supervisors were trying to accomplish. I now remember every reporting importance I ever dallied in. It’s create. Now I’m my own fortune 500 company with a tracking a machine to boot.
And guess what I added? A macro that downloads the reports from teh advertising companies and enters them into my mega spreadsheet. This took about 36 hours to create, but boy does it save time. I am quite pleased with this. I will repeat the process for my PPC Campaigns also, but right now, I am making more with PPV (I only have a couple PPC campaigns left). But here’s my big revelation:

For succeeding in Pay Per Click (or Pay Per View) marketing, not only must you track every single penny, keyword campaign, but YOU MUST SET UP A TRACKING SYSTEM IN PLACE FIRST BEFORE YOU EVER BEGIN DOING ANY KIND OF PPC MARKETING!!! PERIOD!!!

This is the “secret” that no one emphasizes. Everyone leaves it till the END of their ebooks.
If I were to write on, this would be the first chapter. – tracking – set up Xtreme Conversions. Set up a reporting spreadsheet. Make sure it allows you to track adgroups, keywords bids, and campaigns, as well as you overall profitability.
Then and only then should you begin to look for products to promote.

That’s it. Track FIRST, before you “test” People say ‘test and track’ nope, i say track then test. That way you have a fail safe successful system in place before you lose your shirt. I didn’t buy Pay Per Click Formula because I knew I wouldn’ use it till I was ready. Now that I’m tracking, I’m ready even though I know most of what’s on there, but interestingly, to purchase the Pay Per View Formula course you can only do so if you purchased PPCF.. lol. I may yet do so since I am now actively doing both. But if it wasn’t for the tracking, I wouldn’t even think of it. So track, track track, before you test test test.

Man… when it rains it pours. Or rather when the floodgates of ideas open…. it floods!
I’ve done a LOT of PPC in my time, but quite frankly, I’ve gotten sick of it and mostly sick of “fucking google”. I hate their PPC shenanigans. So I have avoided doing business with them for a while now. Em… the fact that they banned my account for trying to trick them slightly ‘may’ have had something to to with it, lol…… but I don’t give a rat’s ass, because I found other ways to make my dough anyways, so I really don’t need them.

Now as I go through my friends & family research, I ave found a LOT of different ways to make money online that I probably wouldnt have found is I was still a slave to adwords. The irony is I am very good at PPC, but google is a fuckstick bitch who doesn’t know what she wants… bitch lol.
Anyways, while perusing other forums including my favorite new blackhat one, I discovered a post about a new technique ’somewhat related’ to PPC. Then I read it. It was a post about a product called Pay Per Click Formula. And the post was about something related to what is on the slaes page. It reminded me of a technique he promised to reveal in his $800 dollar course.

I never got the cours cos it’s $800 dollars and google banned my account so…

However, this post reminded me of the FOCUS of that section of his course. and it reminded me of a truism. “If you are going to pay for traffic…. you better get your money’s worth.” That’s my quote when I discovered this ‘technique’ on my own waaaay before the PPC course.
Then this course has a whole section on it.
Then I see the post highlighting that section in a different light…. it dawned on me.
I know what it is.
It’s a virtually guaranteed way to make sure you make serious cash with PPC.
What is that technique?

Well, there is one place you’ll find it for a whole lot less than $800 bucks.
I’ve mentioned it before, and I will again.
PPC Prophecy.
Yup… the ENTIRE book is about the one technique and even though you “can” focus on other types of keywords? why would you?
You are paying for keywords, so… pay for the best. You are worth it “you’re good enough, you’re smart enough and gosh darn it, people like you“. :-)

lol.

Seriously, I now see PPC Prophecy in a new light.
It is worth getting and ONLY using the keywords it tells you to. That’s it.
An there’s a way to find only those keywords only. Read PPC Prophecy to find out.

PPC Prophecy. The newest in a long line of Pay Per Click products.

It’s about to launch.
When it does, get it.

This one I am more attached to than most other products out there, because I “sort of” had a hand in it’s creation.
Long story shot, this is one of those reviews of a product that i use and recommend highly. It was released as a special offer a while back, and at first I wasn’t impressed, not because it was bad, but because there were a few ‘gaps’ that made it not stand out from the masses of choices out there… there was nothing secret about it…so I gave it my usual “review”

And then, something strange happened:
To show you what I mean, here is the review I gave the product the SECOND TIME (yes, second time ) it was released:

” Well, here’s what I’ve got to say about PPC Prophecy.
I bought it the first time and didn’t like it, and was very vocal about that.

Then a series of events put in place by Dane himself has completely changed my perception of both the package and of Dane himself.
After giving my less-than-impressed review, Dane contacted me. He told me he intended to improve the product and re-release it. I wondered why he contacted me. Well simply put, where most people would be offended my a negative review, Dane reached out to me and asked me if I could reveiw the new version. that alone was impressive.

When I read it, I was very pleasantly surprised. He had taken the weaknesses in the first book and added to and explained them further. I reviewed it and told him how much better it was, and made several suggestions, based on (a) questions I had, and (b) questions you guys would have.

A few days later, he sent the final product with every suggestion in it, and more.
All I can say is I am blown away by it, because it is seamless and cohesive.
I’ve seen a lot of PPC products and this one is complete:

* Products he makes sales with
* Rare affiliate networks
* The “main” magic keyword that drives targetted sales & a tip related to it
* Anti-Google slap! (This section is great)
* Domain “usage” – this is really great – I know cos that’s how i’ve been using it

A bunch more stuff.
Basically, this is what something called “PPC Prophecy” should be: A full on prediction on how to make profits with PPC.

I am sure you will find stuff you haven’t seen in other ebooks etc. thats what my suggestions were made on – a request to add some details and some “meat” to the product to make it stand out, and boy…. Dane delivered big time.

To me, the best part of it is the templates he gives you! And the actual pages built from the template. Now, we’ve all read about list building… I’ve never seen a template like this, and yes, it is 100% GOOGLE COMPLIANT!
I guarantee I will be using these templates from now on.

Bottom line is this;
If you were on the fence before, get it.
Perfect for newbies, because it has just about everything you need.
Perfect for PPC experts, because even though some stuff you’ve seen before, I guarantee you haven’t seen it all in one package like you will with PPC Prophecy.
Once you get it, my only suggestion is to go through every file, every page, everything in the package… it’s more than just an ebook…

I fully recommend it and give mad props to Dane for taking the opportunity to deliver an amazing PPC product.”

==========

I think it’s self explanatory. I now consider Dane a friend – any one who can take my unimpressed review and turn it into an amazing product has a lot of character, and I feel he truly wanted to make a product worthy of the name PPC Prophecy.
I see the launch will be for $47 bucks which is a steal with al you get. After 500 sales, it goes to $97, so…you know what to do.

Dilema….
What the hell should I focus on?
PPC or SEO?

Answer = BOTH!
Thats the main thrust of Adwords Excellence, which I highly recommend while its still free.
So now I try to create a “landing site” that’s SEO’d for success, and pay for traffic as well.
Results = both paid & free traffic.

The crazy thing is, there is so much stuff coming out for PPC.
I also got “Plan C” which will talk about soon as well as Adwords 180.
I always try to make sure when i buy something, I use it. Mostly.

Black hat stuff helps make SEO easier, so I do still black hat some stuff, but have slowed down on portal building.
Besides adsense sucks….. there are better things to do with traffic – look at the top right corner of this page lol.

Seems I’ll be on a PPC click for a little while, especially now that Xtreme Conversions is releasing an upgrade in a few days.
All the signs seem to point me in that direction, so PPC it is for a little while… and my 1 campaign is running STRONG still…. cant wait to add 2 more like it lol.

The title of this post is inspired by a report I got which i didn’t really like called Google Adsense Judo…

Jiu-Jitsu is deadlier anyways:

Google has been tryna kill me!!!!
But I survived by playing some cat & mouse with them.
The campaign I put up with the results I mentioned a few days ago is for a clickbank item, with… 4 adgroups.
1 item, 1 campaign , 4 adgroups, with some interesting results (click to open in new window):

Google disapproved my ads a few days after they ran.
I remembered this from a year a go the last time I did any PPC stuff. This was why I stopped & went to SEO PGI stuff lol.
Well, I knew the keywords converted, so after learning the google slap avoidance (mostly found free at Adwords Excellence), I revived the campaign anew.

20th – went ‘live’ after months ofmacro creation, reading & experimenting
21st – realized my codes from Xtreme Conversions were wrong & I got no commission – YIKES!!!
22nd – fixed the codes & tracking BOOYEAH!
23rd – full tracking – Oh Hell yeah. I’m about to party now,…
24th – G starts disapproving…
25th – played with bids a little & came back some
26th – nail in coffin of ads due to “editorial & copyright issues”
27th & 28th – ditto – gave up on campaign thinking it was dead
29th – noticed the one sale from day before (from free Search Engine traffic) got inspired to investigate & noticed not all ads were killed, so re-juggled my keywords… and magically they were approved again!
30th – still approved don’t know why it dipped, not much ad spend though
1st – That’s what I’m talking ’bout.

Now it seems they have been ‘re-approved’ and if so it might have to do with the re-juggle which “might” be something I did with matching of keywords whether approved or not…
If so I may have found a secret… or not.
I will have to see if i can duplicate this. There are at least 3 products that potentially have the same ‘disapproval”/ copyright” issues, and if my keyword juggle works with them, I’ll be the only one advertising (almost) for those terms…

Makes me wonder why did I give up PPC over a year ago??? Oh yeah… google slap…. plus the promise of “easy money from adsense – lol at that.
I did learn a shitload of SEO though & it actually sold me some free products on blogs,…. but nothing feels like the rush of PPC.. FAST RESULTS! (good or bad).

Now imagine if I replicate this with more than 1 product…
P.S. Ad spend was less than 1/3rd of commisisons…