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Table of Contents for this issue.....
1.
Authors
Comments
2.
Q & A,
Suggestions and Comments
3.
eBay
Classified Update
4.
Microsoft
AdCenter
5.
Selling
on Amazon
Author's
Comments
Good
morning. This issue will be
short. I had visitors at the
Kodiak plant this week for a couple of days which occupied me from early
morning to late at night. I
work on Internet business in the evenings and weekends and I just did
not have the time that I normally spend researching topics and writing
articles.
Linda
is home with me now to help me, and I give thanks for her safe return.
Q & A,
Suggestions and Comments
If you have anything for this
section or you have a suggestion for a topic for an article,
please send us an email with your suggestions or your input.
With your help, we can improve the Boomer Video eZine.
eBay
Classified Update
The
eBay classified ad keeps on ticking off the views and the sign ups.
It slowed down since I first posted it, but it gets a few views
per day.
As
of the writing of this issue it has had 60 views.
The views this week are lower for the week than the previous
reporting. However, I caused
a few of the first views when I was checking the ad to see how it would
show on eBay.
At
this point, each click (including my own) has cost $.673.
The ad has 20 days left to run so it should end up in the $.20 -
.25 per click range.
The conversion
rate has slowed down since last reporting from 12.5% to 8.3%.
We will have to wait and see what the final conversion is for
this ad.
At
this point in the experiment, it appears that eBay classifieds are a
good way to attract traffic.
The key word “web hosting” is a very competitive keyword.
I project that the clicks I am receiving from this ad would cost
over $1.00 each on Google. If
the projections hold for a click cost in the twenty cent range, the
classified ad on eBay will be very effective.
We will report on
our progress in the next issue.
Microsoft
AdCenter
AdCenter
is the new kid on the block
with Google and Yahoo Search
Mark
eting being the older pay per click (PPC)
programs.
I have been
working to learn AdCenter better, and I have been setting up campaigns
pointing to items sold on Amazon.
For
those of you who have studies PPC, you know that there are levels of
interest that a viewer has when using the Internet.
The first level is mild curiosity.
Let’s say that the viewer is looking for widgets.
She/he will put in widgets as the search term and start studying
what types of widgets are available.
What color are they? Do
they have a remote? Are they
portable and easy to carry or are the fixed?
How much do they weigh?
The
next level is more focused.
They may settle on a black, portable widget.
Now they start looking at manufactures to see which has the best
reviews, which has the best price range, etc.
The
last level is where they start looking at the specific make and model
number of the widget. They look for a model
XYZ-123 widget made by Acme Widget Co.
I
set up my campaigns at the manufacturer and model number level.
This will not get many clicks, but those clicks are targeted.
When someone clicks on exactly the manufacturer name and the
model number, they are close to purchasing the product.
This will result in a higher conversion rate than the broad
keywords.
The normal Amazon
referral fee is four percent (4%). That
is not very high, but if you promote higher priced items, it can produce
reasonable commissions. (Four
percent of $1,000 = $40.00).
I
choose products that have a large price tag.
It only takes one purchase to pay for quite a few clicks.
The price range per click of a particular campaign is $.65 - .85
(average $.75). If the
commission is $40 for a sale, I must make a sale every 53 clicks ($.75
per click average) to be profitable.
If
the keyword is targeted and the commission per sale is large, the
campaign is relatively safe.
You will not get killed by idle clicks and when you do convert to
a sale, the commission will be large enough to cover the cost of the
clicks and produce a profit.
Go
to AdCenter and sign up at https://adcenter.microsoft.com.
Click the green button “Sign Up Today” and get started
learning about PPC ads.
The
support on AdCenter is great.
I had a problem understanding some instructions on setting up a
variable keyword ad. After
trying the “monkeys and typewriters” method to solve the problem, I
finally called the 800 number fully expecting to wait forever to talk
with a human. To my pleasant
surprise, a human answered very quickly and helped me set up the ad.
In another
instance, I had some keywords that AdCenter rejected because it said
that the landing page contained forbidden content.
The landing page was an
Amazon product page! How
could it have forbidden product on Amazon’s own page?
I called AdCenter
and sure enough, a person answered quickly and helped me.
AdCenter software examines the landing pages and for some reason
flagged the page as containing forbidden content.
The AdCenter customer service rep filed a protest for me on the
rejection. It took a couple
of days, but I received an email from AdCenter that the landing pages
were approved and operational.
I know that
AdCenter does not have the traffic that Google has, but there is a good
and a bad to that fact. The
bad is it will not make money as fast as Google.
The good is that it will not loose money as fast as Google if
your campaign is not a good one.
I recommend that
if you want to learn the PPC business, start on AdCenter to minimize
your exposure. When you
create a profitable campaign in AdCenter, move it over to Google and to
Yahoo.
I highly recommend "Google
Cash" by Chris Chandler if you want to learn more about the PPC
advertising business.
Selling
on Amazon
Becoming an
affiliate on Amazon is easy. Go to the home page at www.amazon.com.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Join
Associates”. Complete the
necessary information and you are now an associate.
I use the product
pages in Amazon as landing pages for the PPC campaigns.
This way I do not have to create my own landing pages to send the
viewer on to Amazon.
To create the
link to the product page takes a little understanding of HTML, but WAIT,
before that scares you off, I will show you how to do it in the
following pictures.
I assume that you
have joined Amazon and can log in to your affiliate home page.
Here is my
affiliate home page.
Click on Build Links.
This
will take you to the Build Links page.
You can build all kinds of links on Amazon.
Take the time to scroll down and see what is available, but for
this discussion we are only going to deal with product links so click on
Build Links on product links. This
is in the red oval.
This will allow you to search for a particular product that you want to
promote. In this case, I
have entered “Dell latitude” which is a type of Dell laptop
computer. Click Go to
search.
This brings up a whole selection of matches, but I picked the first one
in the list for this demo. Click
the Get HTML button.
This
brings up the Customize and
Get HTML page
We want the
"Text Only" option.
Click
the Text Only option.
This brings up the text link to the product page.
The HTML in the
box is a hyperlink that is designed to go into a landing page.
We do not need all of this for the destination URL for Amazon product page on the
PPC campaign. We
only want the URL which is between the quotation marks in the hyperlink.
I have highlighted what needs to be copied from the HTML.
I have also blanked out my affiliate code.
You will see your own affiliate code in this position.
This is how Amazon knows that you sent the customer and how you
get your commission.
To test that you
have the correct code, copy the URL between the quotes and paste it in
the address box at the top of a new browser window.
Click to go to the URL address.
If you have copied the correct information, the browser will open
the product page for the product that you want to promote in your PPC
campaign.
Try
it and see
how it works.
Set
a budget on your campaign to protect yourself in case something does not
go as planned and you get high clicks and low conversions.
Remember,
you cannot learn PPC by reading and sitting on the sidelines.
I
recommend the book “Google
Cash” by
Chris
Carpenter
if you want to learn about pay per
click campaigns. Read a
review of this book at
http://www.boomer-ezine.com/Only_the_Best/Google_Adwords.htm.
Good
luck and I wish you a lot of clicks with high conversions on big ticket
items.
That wraps up our
issue for this week. Until
next week, stay tuned.
John and
Linda Howe
www.boomer-ezine.com
http://www.entrepreneur-ezine.com
www.boomer-guru.com
www.boomer-entrepreneur.com
www.boomer-marketplace.com
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