Search Marketing Academy

How To Select Clickbank Products To Promote In Any Niche - A Step By Step Guide

2008-09-18T14:01:00.004+08:00

With thousands of products available, Clickbank is one of the biggest affiliate networks on the Internet. And the fact that commissions are higher than any other affiliate network makes it incredibly popular as well.

Many internet marketers are interested to get into a particular niche that they are familar with or have researched. However they face a challenge when it comes to product selection. The fact that most of the niches have more than one product further compounds the problem.

This step by step guide will teach you how to select Clickbank products to promote in any niche.

Search ClickBank MarketPlace

Let's say you have decided to promote products in Dating niche. Now here's how you can select good products to promote.

1) Visit the Clickbank Marketplace at

http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm

2) Enter the search criteria as shown below

I have applied the following Search Criteria

Category - Society & Culture

Subcat - Love & Romance

Keywords - dating

Sort By - High Gravity

Similarly you can select category and keywords based on the niche that you are interested in. Remember to sort by "High Gravity".

3) Click on the "Go" button and you'll get a list of products. As you can see there are lot of products in the Dating niche.

4) The next step is to select products from the above list.

Here's what to look out for while selecting a product:

$/Sale - This is the amount that you'll earn from each Sale. Look for a product that offers at least $20 in commission. This should be sufficient to cover your advertising costs.

% refd - This is the percent of sales that have come from affiliates. Look for a product that has %refd of 70 or above. A lesser %refd indicates that the product is not popular among affiliates and the sales are coming from merchant's own promotions.

Gravity - This is an indicator of how many affiliates are promoting the product. This is only an indicator and not an absolute number. The higher the gravity, the more affiliates are promoting it and vice versa. Look for a product that has gravity between 20 and 100 (A gravity of more than 100 indicates that the competition is high).

Note - Gravity also depends on a niche. Some niches have lots of products but all of them have low gravity. This doesn't mean that the products are not good. It simply means that the products in that niche is not promoted by many affiliates. You can very well select a product that has gravity of less than 20 and earn decent profits.

Similarly you can promote products with gravity of more than 100 to cash in on market trends. A good example would be
"Water 4 Gas" niche that has products with high gravity. Since gas prices are going up, people are looking for ways to save on gas price. This is a good opportunity to promote "Water 4 Gas" products even though they have very high gravity.

Based on the above criteria, I selected 3 products (marked in red in the snapshot above) that I would be interested in promoting. (Note that I did not select Product # 3 as %refd is less than 70%. I did not select Product # 2 as it is not a dating guide).

But our research is not over yet. We need to dig in a bit more to see if the products that we have selected are worth promoting. Next Tab.

Analyze Products

The next step is to analyze the performance trends for the products that we have selected. Before we do that we need the merchant id of the products that we have selected.

It is very easy to find merchant id for any product. You will see a "Create Hoplink" link below each product description.

Clicking on the "Create Hoplink" link brings up the following window. Enter your clickbank ID and click on "Create" button.

You'll get a special link with your Clickbank ID embedded in it.

The merchant id for the product appears in the hoplink after your clickbank ID. In the above example, the merchant ID is GUYGIRL (underlined in red).

By using this method, I found the merchant IDs for the products that I selected. The merchant IDs are

GUYGIRL

ALEXANDER2

UNICADES

Next we have to analyze the performance of individual products over a period of time. This is crucial to judge whether the products that we have selected are indeed the best ones.

To check the performance trend of a Clickbank product, head to CBTrends

http://www.cbtrends.com/clickbank-products-performance-trends.html

Enter the Vendor ID of the selected products (one at a time) in the space provided and click on "Click to get the performance trends".

CBTrends will give the performance trend for the product that we have selected. If the product is in Clickbank for more than 6 months, it will give the trends for 6 months. Else, it will give the trends for the period that the product has been on Clickbank.

Comparison of Performance Trends

Here is the perfromance trend for the product with Vendor ID GUYGIRL

As we can see from the image, the product is gaining in popularity as well gravity over a long period of time.

An increase in gravity is a very good sign. You should always promote products that show an increase in gravity.

Based on this we can say that this product appears to be the best product to promote. But before we finalize this, let's see the performance trends of other products.

Here is the perfromance trend for the product with Vendor ID ALEXANDER2

Here the popularity and gravity has varied a lot. Even though it appears that the gravity is increasing, product 1 is a better bet since it shows a consistent increase in gravity. But let's check the third product as well.

Here is the perfromance trend for the product with Vendor ID UNICADES

The performance of this product has been pretty erratic and right now it is going down in popularity as well as gravity.

Declining gravity over long period of time is never a good sign. You should not pick such a product to promote.

So based on the above analysis, the first product is indeed the best product to promote as all the indicators are in its favor.

In some niches, you will find that the product with highest gravity is actually declining in popularity and gravity whereas a competitor product with lower gravity is gaining in popularity and gravity. In such cases pick the product that is gaining popularity as it is getting more popular and you can benefit by promoting it.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, Good luck!

Quick, Easy, And Free Google Traffic

2008-09-18T13:56:00.001+08:00

This is how I routinely get multiple listings on the front page of Google. My best campaign has all 10 front page listings and 22 listings all together in the first 3 pages for that keyword. The process described here has brought me thousands of viewers to my landing pages and turned into a constant flow of hundred and thousand dollar checks in my mailbox. This has become a staple in my everyday business routine.

Keyword Research

Every Successful Campaign Starts With Good Research

I use http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com to look for two things...

1.) Keyword suggestions from a base niche keyword

2.) The amount of daily searches on those keyword suggestions

The first one is important because it's impossible to guess what people are really typing into the search engines. So I'll type in a base keyword or just the name of the niche. For example: Nascar, Deer Hunting, Knitting, TV Repair

Then the wordtracker tool spits out 200 of the most searched for terms in that niche. This is so great because now we know the exact things people are really looking for in this niche. Sometimes to get more ideas I'll just type in things like "how to" "learn" "buy" "cure for" just to see what type of things people are searching for with those words in them.

The daily search results are also important because if it's under a certain amount (my number is 65 per day) then there just isn't enough demand. For me less then 65 searches per day just isn't enough traffic to turn into a REALLY profitable campaign. However, there is nothing wrong with small campaigns.

*BONUS EXERCISE*
********************************************************************
Add together all your monthly bills...
Now divide the totally of your whole monthly obligation by 30
This gives you your daily cost of living

Knowing you have to pay thousands of dollar per month on
bills can be strenuous on your mind. Instead if you look at
the daily cost it's not so big and scary.

For example last time I added mine up it worked out to $4,676
and when divided by 30 equals $155.86 (per day).

$156 dollars is not so scary. Plus now I know all I need is one
or a couple websites that bring in that amount per day and all
my bills are paid for each month.

For my situation I figured I only needed 20 campaigns that
each made $8/day and my bills were clear.

What does yours work out too?
******************************************************************

Back to the lesson... My number is 65 searches per day and I'm going to continue with that number for the sake of keeping things easy in this tutorial. The next thing I need in my research is how hard will it be to get the high SEO results that I want?

To determine how hard it will be to rank for any certain keyword, I wrap the keyword in "quotes" and then enter it into Google. Then at the top right hand side of the screen there will be a number like 1 - 34,980 or 1 - 1,230 (fake examples).

This number tells us how many pages in Google are fighting for that EXACT keyword or phrase. For my methods, if that number is less than 1 - 10,000 then I know I have a high chance of taking over the listings.

So the magic ratio I am looking for is a keyword or phrase getting 65 or more searches per day with less than 10,000 results in Google (when wrapped in quotes).

Continue to part 2...

Market Research

Good Marketing Is Done Before The Product Is Around

Now that you have a keyword you kind of have an idea about what item you should be promoting. However, you are still guessing. Even if the keyword is "Buy A Samsung 42" Flat Screen TV" you still are guessing at what that person wants at this point.

Lemme explain...

What you still don't know are the questions, desires, and motives behind the person typing in that keyword. This is the most important thing to figure out first, your campaigns success depends on it. This is the step that most people leave out and why their pages don't convert to sales.

You need to research the type of person that would be entering your keyword or phrase. Why do they want the item? What questions do they have about the item? What are they worried about concerning the item? What is the real reason they want the item?

Let's use the flat screen tv keyphrase as an example...

The easiest and prolly most overlooked aspect of that keyword is that the person chose SAMSUNG. Why did they choose Samsung over all other brands? What can we tell them when they land on our pages that will reassure that Samsung is the brand they want or don't want.

The next thing is where was that person planning on buying this flat screen tv from? Did they have a certain store or website in mind? Are they price shopping or are they looking up statistics on the best 42" TV to buy?

Why did they choose a 42" - what about a 50"? Do they not have enough room? Are they a business owner looking to buy multiple screens for their restaurant or lobby?

It's very important to try and find answers to questions like these before you move on with your campaign. Sure you can still skip ahead in the tutorial and dominate the pages for your keyword - but what use is that if it won't turn into money?

Some of the best ways to research the answers to questions like these are to find related online forums for whatever keyword or phrase you have in mind. Don't forget that the social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have lots of forums inside their sites also.

Next thing you can do to find these answers is survey the market. I use www.surveymonkey.com to create questionnaire style landing pages based on my keyword. This gives me killer inside information as to what my market really wants and why.

Finally after you have this "insiders information" you can go find a product, website, or CPA offer that will offer you money for referring these people to them.

RECAP
First find out the "insiders information" about the people typing in your keyword
Second find a product, affiliate program, CPA offer, or other monetization method that solves their needs/wants

Continue to part 3...

Product Research

The Product Must Solve The Problem

This part will be quick as most of you should already know how to find an affiliate program, CPA Network, Clickbank Product, or something similar.

However, to those that are brand new let me touch base on this real quick. There are three ways you can monetize your new found "insiders information."

1.) Find a product that already serves the market which has an affiliate program attached

Clickbank.com
PayDotCom.com
JoeBucks.com
Linkshare.com
CJ.com
Amazon.com

2.) Create the information they are seeking and add to your page related pay-per-click ads like Adsense

You'll get paid when people come to your site and click through to someone else solution

3.) Create the product yourself and sell it to that market

However, the most important thing in this stage is that you select a product, offer, or piece of information that directly solves the target markets problems. This means make sure you keep your "insiders information" on the top of your head while choosing the best product for your market based on that information.

If you can think of yourself more as a representative of the consumer or a buyers research assistant then you will do much better then all those guys out there thinking they are hot shot salesmen. No one likes salesman, but everyone wants someone helping them research the best deals and products.

Now comes the fun stuff...

Google Domination

If You Can Get One Listing - You Can Get 20

Ok so we've done all the tedious research now. I know that might not be the fun part to you, but it is the most important part. Now let's roll up our sleeves and destroy some competitors!

Here's is the basis or theory behind this technique...

Google already knows, likes, loves, and trusts certain sites. So Google has no problem pushing them to the top of their search listings. We as marketers need to find out what sites these are and ride their backs to the top.

I have found a formula for doing this successfully about 90% of the time. So it's not foolproof, but it is quite reliable. After all I feed my family with the money I make from these processes.

Step 1:
Create a landing page with Weebly.com because it's super easy to use, free, and Google already loves this site. When you create your landing page on Weebly you should make sure the title of the site is exactly what your keyword or phrase is. Then your headline should have that word or phrase in it also.

Make sure you use your keyword inside the content of your landing page 3x per 100 words you write. And your writing should be in a story telling style, not salesy. A way to slide in your keyword a couple extra times without making your content read like you force fed it keywords for breakfast - is to add a link to the merchant/product that has your keyword as the achor text between two paragraphs.

These links between paragraphs are still counted by Google towards your 3x per 100 words. NEVER go over 3x per 100 words or you will be penalized.

Finally, when you go to publish your site they will ask you to create your URL. Example http://____________.weebly.com

MAKE SURE YOUR KEYWORD OR PHRASE IS PART OF THE URL

Example http://makemoneywithpostcards.weebly.com

Step 2:
Ok so now you have one property on a strong Google loved property. First thing I do here is go to Digg.com and "Digg" my landing page. When you do this Digg is going to ask your for two pieces of information. 1.) The title to your story and 2.) the URL to your story.

Make sure your title has your keyword or phrase in it without too many other words. However, it's a good practice to also give the title some flavor. For example if your keyword was "free nascar wallpapers" then my title would be "10 Brand New Free Nascar Wallpapers.

That title looks good to Google by being directly relevant to the keyword and looks good to human viewers because it has some appeal to it and offers a reason to click that title.

Doing this process correctly and having done your keyword research correctly should almost always get you a first page listing.

Step 3:
Write 4 unique articles about your keyword or phrase. I usually pay someone on scriptlance to do this for me at about $4 per article. Although the WealthyAffiliate Jobs area has been great too me also. (500 words per article is sufficient)

After you get your articles back you should doctor them up just a bit. The reason for this is you want to make sure they have a certain keyword density (amount of your keyword vs. all the other words). Google counts your keyword density to see what your article is most relevant about.

YOU WANT GOOGLE TO HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO DETERMINE YOUR ARTICLE IS MOST RELEVANT ABOUT YOUR KEYWORD

A keyword density of 3% is my recommended number. That means you will have your keyword or phrase in your article 3x per every 100 words. Along with your keyword being in your title using the same methods we used for the Digg.com title step.

Now you have your SEO optimized articles with keyword rich title and content - Go distribute them to these places...

AssociatedContent.com
GoArticles.com
EzineArticles.com (change to 1% keyword density)
Zimbio.com

All your articles should be linking back to your Weebly landing page or directly to the merchant - from your authors bio box.

Step 4:
This step will work just like step 2 with Digg.com, however, we are going to use Digg's competitors now. Which means StumbleUpon.com, ShoutWire.com, Mixx.com, and Propeller.com. Don't get nervous just repeat the same steps you took on Digg.com with these 4 competitors to Digg and make sure you only pick one per article - Don't over do it.

Step 5:
This is the last step I normally take as this is usually more then enough. However, in theory you could keep going and going until you run out of "Google Loved" websites.

In this step you are going to create a short 2-3 minute video using either Camtasia (pricey), Camstudio (free), Jing (free), or Screenflow (mac users).

This video obviously must be related to your keyword and a good idea is to show product reviews, testimonials, or case studies that highlight the benefits of ownership to whatever offer you are promoting. Keep it short and sweet though...

Now edit your video to make sure it has the address you want your visitors to go to showing at all times (not too invasive though). Normally, I'll buy a domain name (.com) that matches my keyword and forward the domain name to my affiliate link (your hosting company can help you with this easily).

So now you have this short video that shows social proof and benefits of the product or offer you are promoting and that video has your domain name showing throughout the video. Upload this video to www.tubemogul.com which is a free service website that will launch your video to 15 of the top video sharing sites.

Make sure when writing in the information about your video that your title has nothing but your keyword or phrase in it. Then in the video description area make sure the very first thing you write is your full web address including the http:// - Now launch your video using TubeMogul to all the video sites that it allows you to use.

NOTE: You will have to register to all those video sites first.

*Last words*

IF you followed every step above you will have 25 chances at getting on the first page of Google. I only say chances because nothing can be guaranteed since I don't work for Google or control Google.

I literally gave you the exact same step-by-step process that I go through for my own campaigns. I usually see about a 90% success rate with these techniques with an average of 5 front page listings and 11 - 14 listings total in the first 3 pages of Google. Again that's all on average, I don't want to be quoted on numbers because I can't control Google.

Sometimes I only get one or two front page listings and sometimes I take over the whole page. It all depends on your effort, your research, and Google's spiderbots. Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear your feedback - I've never shared this information for less then $1,000 via 1on1 phone calls.

How To Get More Targeted Customers To Buy Your Stuff By Next Weekend

2008-09-18T13:51:00.001+08:00

Would you like to know how to get more targeted
customers to buy what you have to offer?

Use this strategy to find where your market
hangs out at and go there, post something
relevant (aka contributing to add value :) )
and link to your presell page(s).

Be well, laugh often, and smile for no reason.

Sincerely,

Matthew Detrick

Sign Up for a New Email Address

Excuse the title but I needed to make sure you read
this highly profitable resource so you use it in your
business.

Sometimes it's the simple changes we make in our
marketing that make the most difference for us.
wouldn't you agree?

OK, so first things first.

Go to Google Alerts:

HTTP://WWW.GOOGLE.COM/ALERTS

A couple hints:

1. You may want to set up a completely new Gmail account so
you can have these alerts sent to that email address.
(To sign up for a new Gmail account, go to
http://www.gmail.com )

Why do you want a new google email address?

You have one central location to come to track your alerts.
This way, your main email inbox is not overstuffed with
new Google alerts.

Google Alerts Settings

2. You also may want to set the frequency of alerts to
once a day

3. You also may want to use "Comprehensive" to
make sure you are getting all media types to use.

Following these two pointers ensures you get all
relevant media sources for the day in one email,
thus giving you the ability to pick and choose where
you want to post your content.

Keywords

If you wanted to know how to target your audience or
get free traffic you would enter the following search
terms into the search box:

"targeted web traffic"
"targeted website traffic"
"how to get free traffic"

Now, you're probably asking, so how in the heck do
I use this strategy with my market?

Easy folks.

Example: If you're targeting weight loss for example
you input the following terms in quotation marks

"weight loss"
"how to lose weight"

Use anny other search terms you compiled in your
keyword list and put them in quotation marks that
are relevant to what you are marketing.

Now you have multiple resources to post comments
or content to bring targeted traffic back to your
sites.

The End

So today we've learned how to find targeted
traffic for the product we are promoting.

How much is that worth to you and your business?

Your results are only limited by your creativity.

Enjoy, and follow up with me to let me know
about the results you are getting with this strategy.

Be well, laugh often, and smile for no reason.

Sincerely,
Matthew Detrick
Karma Syndicate
http://herosmarketingjourney.com/blog

How I Just Wrote 90 Fresh, Unique Articles in 3 Days To A Single, Targeted Niche

2008-09-18T13:48:00.002+08:00

I've been looking through the boards and have noticed that many people ask the question "How do people write hundreds of articles about a single targeted niche???"

Well, I'm about to show you my simple method to writing a ridiculously huge amount of articles that ALL get accepted in the databases!

List 10 Problems or Questions

Writing this amount of articles can be daunting, but the key to doing it is a simple system of organized "rewriting". Since there can be only so much information in a specific niche, the key is re-writing that info in different ways. So what do we do? We start with the big picture, and we ask ourselves "What is the specific questions people have in this niche that they want answers too?"

For this example, we are going to use the "dog behavior problems" niche, promoting the "SitStayFetch" Clickbank product.

Start off by opening note pad, or getting a pad of paper. We are going to drill down the "dog behavior problem" into specific "problems/questions" that this niche has.

Starting with the big picture-->Dog behavior problems

So, how many different "problems" exist in this niche? Since you've done your research, some of this will come to you very quickly.
Lets drill down,
1. Dog chewing problems
2. Dog biting problems
3. Dog peeing problems
4. Dog barking problems
5. Dog chasing problems
6. Dog aggression problems
7. Dog mating problems
8. Dog licking problems
9. Dog not listening problems
10. Dog hyper problems

Also, you could do this with specific breeds, but for this example, I'm going to stick with these.
(I just came up with these on the top of my head, if I had done the niche research, i would have better ideas as to specific problems people have.)

Now we take our list in hand, and move to the next step.

Ways To Answer The Questions

So you have you list of questions/problems, now we need to identify ways of writing the answers to these questions.

People love tips, suggestions, FAQ's, and any other quick way of dissecting information, so the first type I call "Tips".

What is another way? Well, another popular one is the "How-To Guide". The difference between "tips" and "how-to" is that "how-to" is more wordy and goes more in-depth, but is essentially the exact same information.

What about another? Well, I use this one, the "1 Simple Step!" or the "Single Most Effective Way to Fix Your Problem!" So what is this? It's basically the "how-to" summed up into "One Simple Step".

So we have THREE different ways to write this information, with TEN similar problems that we can answer. You starting to see something here?

So what I would do then is start with the top of the list "Dog Chewing Problems" and I would write

1. Ten Effective Ways To Eliminate Your Dog's Chewing Problem
2. How-To Effectively End Your Dog's Chewing Problem
3. The Number One Thing You Can Do To Eliminate Your Dog's Chewing Problem

And I would do this with every single "problem".

So guess what that means: 10 Problems X 3 Ways of Writing it = 30 Complete Articles!
And do you know the beauty of all this? Since the problems are related to dog behavior, the solution is going to be similar for many of them, meaning that you don't have to know a ton about dog psychology, AND since your keyword research would include "dog problems", you will now have thirty articles with those keywords located throughout, meaning that several of your articles will show up on googles first page results!

But that isn't all! Next tab!

Don't Stop There!

You want to completely destroy everyone else in your niche?

Then go back to the top and write a fresh new article, three different ways!

What I mean is, after I made it through the ten problems, writing for each, I go back and start again! But you want a fresh approach, so I typically do this...

I write my 30 articles, and I stop for that day. Then the VERY NEXT DAY I start back at the top and write again! But DON'T open your previous articles! Remember, we want FRESH content, and I find that if I look at the other articles, I'll start to emulate it too much and it won't be as fresh as I like. Remember, you want unique articles, otherwise the directories will reject your articles. Many times I'll do stuff like this: "10 Tips to stop..." then the next day "5 Tips to stop..."

Also, if you are further worried that the directories won't accept your articles, you could always write them under a different pen name.

So, what does this equal? Well, if you do this for 3 days, you get: 10 Problems X 3 Ways= 30 Articles X 3 Days = 90 Articles!

Now, it doesn't stop there! Read On!

The Final Blow

Now, with this final step, you are going to FINISH OFF your competition.

You have 90 unique, fresh articles, all with targeted, late cycle buyer keywords; one final thing to do...Submit!

But you just don't want to submit to one article directory! No no...you want to submit to as many as you can!

You probably already know about Ezinearticles.com and GoArticles, but there is tons more!

AdventureBear just posted this list on the forums and I thought it would work well here:

http://www.articlesphere.com
http://www.amazines.com
http://www.articlesplanet.com
http://www.freearticalepro.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.thefreelibrary.com
http://www.illustrateddesigns.com
http://www.downthebarrell.com
http://www.bestmontanavacationrental.com
http://www.outdoorarticles.com
http://www.searchwarp.com
http://www.docapi.com
articledirectory4u.com
http://www.over50online.co.uk
campjojane.com
articlesonfile.com
http://www.articlebiz.com
interpret.co.za
silverkingtackle.com

Now, some of them may not work, you'll have to try, but imagine this...

You have 90 articles, and you submit them to, not 1, not 2, but 10 Directories! You know what that means?!

900 Articles All Pointing To Your Website, Blog, Or Affiliate Link to Merchant!!!!

Talk about traffic! Even if only 1 percent of your articles get high listing, thats still 9 top positions in google! Of course, the best thing to do would be to space the submissions out over time. But the benefits are huge!

1. Crazy amounts of traffic.
2. Crazy amounts of backlinks, raising your page rank in google.
3. Simply DESTROYING any competition you would have in that niche.
4. Increases your chances getting high ranking results in VERY COMPETITIVE NICHES. (Weight loss, Romance, Make Money, Gambling, etc.)

Repeat With Any Niche

So, you think this won't work with your niche because it's too specific?

WRONG!

Say you have a very specific niche...lets say "weight loss before my wedding", this is a very specific niche. But don't think of it as a limiter, think of it as a way to spin your articles. You can write it just like you would if you were talking about weight loss in general.

What are the common question or problems ALL people wanting to lose weight are concerned with?

"the best diet to lose weight fast"
"diet and exercise?"
"no matter what i do I can't lose weight?"
"side effects if any?"

Boil these down into questions/answers or problems. Remember, with niche research you will have a more specific list. Just write like you are talking to a woman wanting to lose weight for a wedding.

So, for a quick recap.

1. Find several questions/problems that can be answered
2. Write the the answer in three different ways.
3. Write as much as you can until you can think of no other ways to say it.
4. Submit to many different directories
5. Reap the benefits!

I hope that this tutorial has been helpful for all you bums out there!

To Your Success,

-Rob-

Niche Reseach Made Easy

2008-09-18T13:41:00.001+08:00

Coming up with a hot selling niche is something many people new to IM struggle with. However, if you follow my system, you will be nailing niches left and right in no time!

Gather Your Tools

There is really only one tool that you need for this, and that is your brain! So put away those expensive tools, and get ready to think!

There may be few other optional tools that can help you along, especially if you are really stuck. Magazines, tv ad's, radio ad's, browsing at walmart, etc. I would try to only use these if your stuck.

The reason I say this is because the type of thinking that I am going to show you will help you get into the customers mind; ad's and products DOESN'T get you into the mind of a customer, it just shows you things that people buy. Products can help jump start, but its not the most effective at helping you think like a customer.

So, ready to use that brain?

The Burning Question

The best way to find niches is to think about the burning questions that plague people everyday, questions like:

Can I get out of debt without filing for bankruptcy?
I keep getting weird phone calls, am I being stalked?

These are NOT burning questions:

Is this brand of toothpaste a good brand?
How reliable is this XXX?

The difference is this:

The first questions have a BURNING issue that raises emotion. Are they being stalked? They are afraid, they want answers, man if they had something that could help them out, they would buy!

The second set of questions is information seekers. They are thinking intelligently. You can sell to those questions, of course, but it's much MUCH harder. And those questions are not "niche" per se. They are what people ask when researching a product.

The niches that sell the most, and the quickest, are those with BURNING QUESTIONS wanting an answer now!

So, how do we find those niches? Next tab!

Listen The Questions

Close any tools you have, any websites open, any books or magazines, and open up notepad. We are going to sit and think.

Start off thinking about any time in your life that YOU had a burning question, something that really ate at you, something that sparked emotion.

For me, there was a time in my life where I honestly worried that I would never end up married. I felt doomed to be single. So what was my burning question? "Will I ever find a girlfriend/wife?" Seriously! That was one. And many guys/girls feel this.

What about other questions? Well, as a student, I think of this, especially before a test:

"How can I possibly memorize ALL these answers before this final exam?" Since finals were glaring down at me, I thought of this question a lot.

So start with those questions that YOU had in your life. This will get your brain in a "burning question" mode. Now, start thinking of others:

"How can I lose all this weight before my wedding day?"
"Am I really having a panic attack?"
"I feel depressed, is it just a phase or is there something wrong with me?"
"Is my husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend cheating on me?"
"My computer is acting weird all of a sudden, does it have a virus?"

Now, with this list in hand, we are going to analyze for a moment. Next tab!

Analyze The Niche

Now it is time to see if its a good niche that is profitable. Lets work with the "Can I lose weight before my wedding day?".

We are going to take this niche through Travis's 6 Niche Factors that ALL profitable niches have. Here they are:

1. Do they think about this problem/question a lot?
2. What is their emotional temperature?
3. What is the cost for this niche?
4. Do they talk about it a lot?
5. Are others making money from it?
6. What objections would they have?

So, what about "can i lose weight before my wedding day?"

1. Do they think about it? Well, the closer the wedding day, the more they will think about it! Go to a forum filled with women talking about weddings and I bet this will be in several discussions! So yup, its a big concern, so they think about it a lot!

2. Emotional Temperature? They are getting married! Emotions run high, they want to look good, they are worried, frustrated, etc. They want a solution. Yup, high emotional temperature.

3. The cost? Since they have a high emotional temperature, and they are willing to hand over thousands of dollars for a wedding, you can bet they will spend money to lose weight, if they have to!

4. Do they talk about it? Open a web browser and take a quick look through many forums dedicated to weddings, and you'll find TONS of women talking about it, so yes!

5. Are others making money from it? I did a quick google search for "lose weight before wedding" and the top ad was for weight watchers and it spun it like this:

Preparing for a Wedding?
Learn how Weight Watchers Can Help
You slim down for your big day.

There were others of course, and a few other quick keyword searches turned up more ads, so yup, others making money!

6. Now, the last one: What objections would people have? Many times this is a higher authority, like a doctor, lawyer, or TV celeb telling you something is better. Often it is just "I want free information".

This niche may have this objection of "free info". (women just wanting to know the quick ways to lose weight and don't want to pay for information) So keep that in mind if you decide to promote.

So, is this a good niche? You bet! Emotional women wanting to shed pounds desperately before a wedding day! Heck yes...I can hear the cash register ring sale sale sale...

Summary

So, here is what you do....

1. Make a list of as many "burning questions" as you can.
2. Take that list through the six factors of a profitable niche.
3. Identify any objections that you may encounter early.
4. Pick the best ones and start digging deeper!

I hope this short tutorial helps you with the hardest part of IM, finding that "starving crowd"

Good luck on your IM ventures!

-Rob-

The Key To Killer CTR's in Googles Adwords Ads

2008-09-18T13:36:00.002+08:00

So I'm always hearing this question being brought up again and again: How do I get nice CTR's in google adwords?

Having a high CTR is VERY important to your:

1. Ad quality score
2. Keyword quality score
3. Account quality score.

If you have a high CTR, you'll pay less than your competitor AND have a higher ranking, which means more cheaper traffic and higher ROI percentages.

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you EXACTLY how to get sky high CTR's. (This information is VITAL for anyone wanting starting out with a new adwords account, and for newbies in general)

So make sure you don't SKIM through this guide! Absorb as much as you can, as this is VITALLY important for ALL PPC campaigns, regardless of google, yahoo or others(though we are specifically discussing google)

Setting Up The Account Properly

The first thing you want to make sure of is that your account is properly set up. This simply means having all of your keywords grouped by the common keyword method that you can learn here at WA.

Instead of going through the exact details, go read my tutorial on Conquering the Google Slap.

You can read it here: http://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/share_zone/view/169

This will provide the information regarding dealing with the google slap and proper keyword grouping.

Also, you can check out the Learning Center tutorials regarding:

Writing good ad text,
Proper keyword grouping
and the Case Studies on google.

Once you are comfortable with these topics, it's time to move on to the most important aspect of sky-high CTR's:

Ad Copy.

Ad Copy Basics

Writing amazing ad copy is the #1 thing you can do to get sky high CTR's. In fact, I consistently get 5%-15% CTR's on ALL my ads and keywords with these techniques.

The first thing to do is make sure you understand how Google makes specific words in your text bold. For instance, we are promoting a Dog Training manual and our keyword is: "stop dog bark"

If you include ANY of those words in your ad at all, they will be bold. If you include the entire phrase, it will be bold. Also, if you include in your ad "Stopping a Dog from Barking", the words "Stopping", "Dog" and "Barking" WILL ALSO BE BOLDED! (This works for Stops, Dogs, Barks, Doggy, Stopped, you get the picture?)

Why is this significant? A couple of reasons:
1. Bolded words attract attention and increase CTR's.
2. Because "stopping" and "barking" is four and three letters longer than "stop" and "bark", this gives you flexibility when writing your ads. If you are running out of space, you can shorten words down into their base word. If you have space, you can include longer words, because that means MORE OF YOUR AD IS BOLDED! (See how my bolding draws attention to it!)(Note: this only works on broad matched keywords)

So knowing this, you can now write ad's in a creative way that places the bolded keyword in specific locations. Take a look at this:

Stop Dog from Barking
How To Stop Your Dog
From that Annoying Bark!

See how I strategically placed my bolded words? It follows this nice little pattern. And it attracts attention, especially when compared to this (i just pulled this ad from google):

Current #1 Ad Right Here:

Stop Dog Bark
Ultrasonic Bark Control Devices to
Stop Dog Barking. Same day shipping
www.GoodDeals.com
(YUCK! BORING...If any of you write your ads like this after I'm done...I'll cry profusely...)

I can almost guarantee you that my first ad, as is now, would blow this #1 ad out of the water with the CTR. (With a few other tricks, I CAN guarantee you. Next tab!)

Killer Writing Time

So, we now know about placing bolded words and how that works, it's time to get down to the nitty gritty:

SOON YOU CAN BLOW YOUR COMPETITION RIGHT OUT OF THE WATER WITH THE MIND-NUMBING TECHNIQUES I'M ABOUT TO SHOW YOU!

Ok, a little over the top, I know, but it brings up my next point:

Emotional Wording, Mental Imagery:

Obviously you can't write ad's that long, but notice the words I used: "YOU( I'll get to that in a second)" "Blow Right Out of the Water(Brings to mind a big ship firing massive guns), Mind-Numbing Techniques(they must be so good they hurt)

So what did I do? I immediately built this image of you dominating your competition with powerful techniques that your competition "obviously" doesn't know.(I didn't say it, but it is implied) Then, if I did my job well, you got excited(AND CURIOUS, this is important) about what you are going to learn.

(Note: This applies to ALL ad writing, not just google. With google, we have limited space, so we have to conserve, but the same principles apply.)

So, lets spice up that pathetic ad from the previous tab. Here it is again:

Stop Dog Bark
Ultrasonic Bark Control Devices to
Stop Dog Barking. Same day shipping
www.GoodDeals.com (ugh, *shivers*)

How can we improve? Lets start with the headline: Stop Dog Bark. It's simple, to the point, and EXACTLY what I typed in. But we at WA are good IMer's who get in the heads of our customers by doing good research before we slap together an ad(like this bozo obviously did). So, if a person is typing in "Stop Dog Bark" what do you think they may be thinking? "Nothing I do gets my dog to shut up!" So lets do this:

Get That Dog To Shut Up

or we could ask a question:

Dog Won't Stop Barking? (note: I'm still placing the bolded keywords)

Since asking a question is an effective attention getter, lets go with that. Time for the rest of the ad.

Since we asked the question, lets answer it.

Dog Won't Stop Barking? (Still placing the bolded keywords)
You Can Get the Dog to Stop Barking
By The Snap of A Collar, See Now!
www.GoodDeals.com

Ah, much better. You see, your customer doesn't care if it's an "ultrasonic control device" (what the hell is that anyway?) Instead, I gave them JUST enough info to make them curious, I then included a "CALL TO ACTION" word (see now!) to encourage them to go fulfill their curiosity.

But we aren't finished yet...There is one more thing we can do and this is important.

In your website info "www.GoodDeals.com" you can add some of your keywords. That makes the ad look more relevant AND puts another bolded word into the ad. www.GoodDeals.com/Stop_Dog_Bark

BAM!

Now this ad is finished:

Dog Won't Stop Barking?
You Can Get the Dog to Stop Barking
By The Snap of A Collar, See Now!
www.GoodDeals.com/Stop_Dog_Bark

That's MUCH more attractive, and I can guarantee you this ad will blow away the other one by a land slide. Of course, you have to split test and track, and constantly tweak things, but this is MUCH better.

Next Tab!

Miscellaneous Tips

So, you know about bolded keywords, you know about spicing up an ad, what else is there?

Well, if you have noticed, I've done a couple of other things.

I've Capitalized The First Letter In Every Word. Since We Can't Do ALL CAPS, This Is The Next Best Thing and It Draws Attention To The Ad More.

Here is some other tips:

1. Ask a question if you can, then answer it.
2. Try to spark curiosity
3. Use call to action words like "Buy Now", "Check It Out", "Find Out More" etc.
4. Nuke your competition. See what the top ad's are, find out the words they are using, and make them better.
5. Use POWER PHRASES, if you can. These evoke emotion. Here is a small list:

YOU (one of the most powerful)
Mind-Blowing
Incredible
Unbelievable
FREE
How To...
Powerful
Special
Just for You
Blow
Blow-Away...

The list could go on and on, but you get my drift. If you want, open up a dictionary and just start looking for sizzling (ooo, I like that one) words that invoke emotion.

One quick word about YOU. I believe it is the most powerful of these words because it sounds like the ad is personally talking to that person, it tells that person that they are about to learn something, get something, or have their life improved in someway, and almost ALWAYS grabs attention.

We are almost finished, there is just a few more things to do.

Final Things To Do

So, we have our amazing ad copy, our keywords are all grouped in like terms, now all we need to do is bid.

This is important, especially when you first have a new Google adwords account.

You want to bid to make sure that ALL of your ad's are near the top of the page. This means you may have to bid up to TWICE the amount you want starting off. I know, I know, it's hard, but believe me, its important.

Getting those ad's in high spots off the bat means you don't have to fight Google later on. After about 3 days of amazing CTR's, Google will begin to reward you with a MUCH higher quality score, so this means that you can lower your CPC and 90% of the time stay in the same spot you were( or close to it)!

Also, make sure your daily budget is high enough to be getting enough clicks throughout the day.

You should also be split testing your ads. I would write an amazing ad, then change ONE thing in the ad (a word, a different headline, etc.) and split test it. The one that has the highest CTR would be the winner and I would make a NEW ad that changes one thing from my winner. And continue and continue. Also, don't delete your old ads, just pause them, so you can keep your data from those ads.

If you followed this tutorial in and out, you can easily start with ads that are getting CTR's of 4-5% and work them up to 10-15% no problem. Remember, if you get Google slapped, read my tutorial here: http://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/share_zone/view/169

I hope this has helped everyone get those AWESOME CTR's!

To Your Success!

-Rob-

Cloak Your Landing Page Links

2008-09-18T13:33:00.002+08:00

This tutorial shows you how to use a .htaccess file to cloak your landing page links. With only one simple file you can cloak any number of links in your landing pages. With only 1 file to worry about it makes it much easier to edit your cloaked links as opposed to using html where you'll need to edit every html file relating to a particular link. You can still use it with My-Linker links for link tracking as well but this will allow your links to keep the same URL as your site. Keep your links secure. Cloak them.

Intro

Cloaking your affiliate links is an effective way of preventing people from stealing your commissions or just not clicking on them because they look like an affiliate link. A "cloak" is simply just a redirect. There are various methods of doing this but using HTACCESS is my favorite. It's Free, it allows me to manage as many redirects as I want, and it's easy to manage with just a single file. Also with using html to redirect my file all someone has to do is look at the source code of my site and read the html where my links are plain to see. With htaccess if they try to read my source code they'll see the links as I want them to see them, the same way they appear on the website. The reason is that my actual affiliate links are hidden away in the .htaccess file on my server.

There are a number of reasons why not to link directly to an affiliate page with your ID. The obvious reason is that it advertises your affiliate ID and the program your using to everyone who hovers their mouse over your link. Some people are also hesitant of clicking on affiliate links thinking that all affiliates are just scammers and I'll just go straight to the sites URL thanks.

The other main reason is that a lot of people are wary of clicking on long affiliate links, things with lots of letters and numbers, since they look nothing like the regular links of familiar websites. This seems to be more and more the case as I sometimes see links that are so long they don't fit in the address bar of my browser. People are more likely to click on a link that looks like this, www.mysite.com/myproduct, then one that looks like this, www.affiliatecompany.com/user=6786986,pid?yfd8s8dv7ds888cccuusd88df

Creating the HTACCESS file

To create our .htaccess file we first open up any regular text editor. I use a Windows system, sorry.., so I'd open up notepad.exe and create a file called htaccess.txt . Note: Make sure word wrap is turned off. Your file should be a clean text file without any formatting.

Then just type your file like the example below. Note, the 4 lines below are an example. If you only need to cloak one link you would naturally only have one line. If your cloaking 5 different links, You'd have 5 lines. The name "myCBname" represents your click bank ID and would naturally be replaced with what ever your id is, if you don't use clickbank you'd put whatever affiliate ID your promoting here.

Redirect /acmewidgets http://www.myCBname.acmewidgets.hop.clickbank.net
Redirect /a-reallycool-product.html http://my-linker.com/hop/some-link-I-want-to-track/
Redirect /joe-blow.php http://www.myCBname.a-cool-product.hop.clickbank.net
Redirect /thisis.crap http://www.myCBname.another-cool-product.hop.clickbank.net

The key here is to place the word "Redirect" then a space, then the link that you want to be displayed, ie the link you have in your website, such as "this_is_my_link.html" then another space and finally the actual link you are redirecting to. There are three components. One; Redirect Two; the link you made up; and three; the link you are actually sending people to, each seperated by a space. This way your link will look like "www.mysite.com/my_link.html" but it will actually point to whatever link you want.

You put each redirect on a different line. Starting first with the word "Redirect", then a space and then the relative path HTACCESS is going to intercept.

In the first line in the example above since my second part of it is "/acmewidgets", that means if my domain is: www.affiliateinfozone.com

... And someone goes to:

www.affiliateinfozone.com/acmewidgets

... It will send the user to the third item on that line, my long clickbank hoplink for acme widgets.

The redirect can be any name you want. You could make people think you're linking straight to an HTML file on your site, like in the second example. Or, it could end with ".php" if you want (3rd line) or even something you make up, like "dot-crap" (last example). Whatever you come up with will work. It intercepts based on a match of the text in the second part of the Redirect line and sends you off to the link specified in the third part of the line.

To clarify further. Lets say I'm promoting a product called "Strip That Fat". Hmmm Where did I get that idea from?

My click bank ID is Scottay12, and my website is www.best-diet-plan.com

Feel free to go check out my site, I have nothing to hide, in fact it's a great example of a presell page and converts quiet well, but that's another lesson. Now my links could all show up as http://scottay12.stripfat.hop.clickbank.net

and that's fine, click on them, go to the merchant, buy the product, I get paid. Problem is I'm going to lose a lot of clicks because people are hesitant to click an glaringly obvious affiliate links.

Notice how none of the links on my site show that url though. They all show www.best-diet-plan.com/stripthatfat.htm however I can assure you the actual URL they go to is the first one I showed you.

The .htaccess file I use is only one line;

Redirect /stripthatfat.htm http://scottay12.stripfat.hop.clickbank.net

Notice the three parts,

1, "Redirect" and then a space

2, "/stripthatfat.htm" this is the fake link I'm using, followed by a space.

3, "http://scottay12.stripfat.hop.clickbank.net" this is the actual link people go to.

Feel free to use the links I've displayed here in any of your online content. ; ), just kidding..

Now I could easily do this with an http redirect, but let's say I have a site that sells a dozen different products and I change them all the time. Now it's a huge hassle to manage all these files, and all the links. That's where the beauty of .htaccess comes in. All I need to do is change one thing in my file "http://scottay12.stripfat.hop.clickbank.net" to "http://scottay12.4idiots.hop.clickbank.net" and suddenly I'm selling Fat loss 4 idiots instead of Strip that fat. How simple is that? Notice how all I had to do was change "stripfat" to "4idiots"? Edit 1 line and every link I had that went to Strip that fat now goes to Fat loss 4 idiots. Now obviously I'd need to change the pictures I have but you get the idea.

Uploading The File

To upload the file you'll have to use an ftp program like core FTP lite which I found to be very easy to use. You can get a copy of it here,
www.coreftp.com

Just modify the htaccess.txt file to your needs, save it as "htaccess.txt", upload it to your hosting server in the same directory as the pages that have the links, then chmod the file to 755 [This refers to the permissions granted to the file, check your FTP program to see how to do this]. In CoreFTPlite you right click on the file name, select Properties at the bottom of the menu that comes up and enter 755 for a value in the dialog box. Then rename the file to .htaccess with that dot in front. In coreFTP just right click on the file and select rename from the menu that pops up and type in the new name .htaccess .

The file may disappear to you, because it becomes a hidden file by default, but if you need to come back to it later you can still see it with many FTP programs. Just check the help file that comes with your program and search for how to show hidden files. If you can't see it doesn't matter anyway since you can edit it on your computer, re upload it, change it's name again and it'll just overwrite the old one. Now surf to your site and check your handiwork.

If your unsure of how to do all this FTP stuff Deb Williams has a great video tutorial within the Share zone which you can watch here, https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/share_zone/view/233

Conclusion

That's it. Now all your links can look like they exist on your own website like www.mysite.com/clickhere.htm and people won't notice the redirect until after it's happened. By then they're at the merchants site and hopefully getting out their credit card.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

And please rate this tutorial by clicking on the stars up top. I hope you found it helpful.

Thanks,
Scott aka Scottay

Downloading and Hosting Your Own Feeder Site

2008-09-18T13:30:00.000+08:00

Following these steps will allow you to download and install any feedersite on your own hosting, this will allow you to edit anything and install tracking etc.

Step 1: Watch the video
Step 2: Download the feeder site you'd like to use, they are in .zip format

http://thewiseaffiliate.com/feedervideo/best-weightloss-reviewinfo.zip
http://thewiseaffiliate.com/feedervideo/best-weightloss-reviewnet.zip
http://thewiseaffiliate.com/feedervideo/fat-loss-reviewsnet.zip
http://thewiseaffiliate.com/feedervideo/my-weight-loss-reviewnet.zip
http://thewiseaffiliate.com/feedervideo/strip-that-fat-reviewcom.zip

Step 3: Download and install NotePad , Google it.

Step 4: Edit all html files you plan on using.
ClickBank Username
cb=abc123

ClickBank Tracking ID
tid=zzz

Adwords Conversion ID
gid=223344

Step 5: Save all files and upload.

Hope that helps.
Craig

Watch video in flash and on a larger scale here: http://thewiseaffiliate.com/feedervideo

How To Master Keyword Research

2008-09-18T13:25:00.002+08:00

This tutorial outlines how to leverage the free Google Keyword tool to find an abundance of keywords online. This tool in combination with the one here at Wealthy Affiliate are really the only tools you need online.

I am going to warn, keyword research is not supposed to be some difficult, mind blowing thing. It shouldn't make your day a stressful one and you should lose sleep over these crazy keywords. This tutorial will show you everything you need to know to find those darn keywords you need to build a successful campaign.

The Google Keyword Tool

Google loves you! Actually, Google loves you if you can make them more money!

Guess how you can make them more money?...by having larger campaigns with a broader set of keywords. In order to do this, they had to create the best keyword tool around, and more recently they have added full data to their free external keyword tool.

Did I mention that this tool is free? Yes, you do not need a "paid" keyword tool. I can honestly say that I have never purchased a keyword tool in my life, nor has Carson (or many top marketers that we know). They are over-rated and often times pull outdated date from non-existent search engines like Looksmart???? Who? EXACTLY!

Get the real deal data from the BIG G.

Here is the link to Google's free keyword tool

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

On the next page I am going to show you how this tool is useful.

The Niche

The first part of the battle is deciding what you want to research. If you don't have any ideas, that is OK, the Google keyword tool can work miracles in helping you come up with ideas for a niche.

Say I am completely new to this and come to the Google keyword tool with no idea as to what I am gong to promote. I am green to Internet marketing (like some of you may be). What is the first step in finding a niche within the Google Tool?

Step 1: Type in something ridiculously broad. Remember to select the "Use synonyms" box so you get more of a variety of keywords.

Ex. Sun

This word is crazy right? Yeah, but you will quickly see after the search that it will spur "ideas". An idea is the beginning of a campaign. Without ideas in IM, you are going to flounder. But don't worry, they are easy to come by.

Here are some of the keyword results for the "sun" query:

sun music videos
phoenix suns
sun newspaper
rising sun
sun poisoning
blister in the sun
sun shades
island in the sun
sun servers
sun dress
sun hat
sun rooms
...and many more

Wow, a broad term like sun gave us a ton of ideas. We came to the table with a ridiculous keyword like sun, and now we can already see the beginnings of an idea, or an opportunity forming here. The next stage is elaborating on this research.

The Elaboration

One keyword that caught my eye was "sun shade". I wonder what sort of results we would get if we elaborated on this keyword, so I went ahead and plugged "Sun Shade" back into the keyword tool and clicked "Get Keywords Ideas" (we love ideas, right?).

Here are some of the results:

car sun shade
windshield sun shade
baby sunshade
retractable sunshade
kelty sunshade
tractor sunshade

uh...I think we have ourselves a sweet little niche. Have you every been in your tractor and said to yourself "I wish that dang sun wasn't in my eyes" or "gee it is hot out here, my tractor needs a sunshade".

We started with a super broad keyword, now we are talking about one of the most obscure industries out there...sun shades for a tractor. Sure this niche is small, but where there are searches online, there is money being spent!

Next, the finishing touches....

The Kill

Alright, you have this keyword phrase (tractor sunshade), now what do you do with it?

Dig a little deeper....

We are going to do one more search, with the keyword being "tractor sunshade" this time.

Here are the results:

john deere sun shade
john deere sunshade
kubota sunshade
lawn tractor sun shade
sun shade for john deere
sun shade for tractors
tractor sun shade
tractor sunshade

You now have yourself a tiny little niche for the picking. In Google, there are only 457 search results for "john deere sunshade". This keyword will be quite easy to get listed under for article marketing campaigns and easy to obtain high rankings if you create a highly relevant PPC campaign. Now all you need to do is find a product or service to promote and you have yourself a nice little campaign.

There you have it, the tool, the niche, the elaboration, and the kill.

SEM 109:

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SEM 101: Kick Start Your Engine

2008-09-05T02:00:00.000+08:00

Introduction to SEM 101

2008-09-05T01:37:00.001+08:00

Introduction