This video about a merchant who ‘has a family to feed’ and ‘will go bankrupt’ getting wrongly banned on Google Adwords is so sad, it’s funny!

Comments?

Confused about all the keyword research tool and service options available to you?

No small wonder — it seems like there is a new piece of keyword research software or a new service on the market every other day.

So, I’m going to help make choosing the right market research (or PPC campaign helper) simpler for you with my ‘short list’ of keyword software and services… those that I’ve used and recommend.

But first, a quick blurb about keyword research…

Keyword research is essential for determining market size, competition in the marketplace and zeroing in on the specific products that your target market is searching for. To gather all that information, internet and affiliate marketers use keyword research tools.

Note: The following keyword research software and services are listed in alphabetical order, so you’ll have to check through each summary description to learn which is my personal favorite.

1. Google Cash Detective

   Returns real-time information FAST unlike other tools for which you can wait days (sometimes WEEKS) for competitive intelligence. GCD is powered by vast server clusters capable of tracking millions of keywords, advertisements, landing pages and dozens of other pay per click metrics.

   Google Cash Detective Review | Visit Google Cash Detective

2. Google Keyword Tools

   For those quick keyword and keyword checks, I usually go first to Google’s Keyword Tool to glean some basic insights into my target market. However, for more indepth information, I tend to use one of the tools below, preferable Wordtracker. To find out why, read my | Google vs. Wordtracker article.

   Google Keyword Tool, Google Insights

3. Keyword Country Software

   A comprehensive and complete keyword research tool, Keyword Country connects to major search engines for keyword research (including Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK) and also connects to the industry by performing a deep analysis of the competitor websites. It also steals the niche keywords that competitors in your industry are using.

   Keyword Country Review | Visit Keyword Country

4. Keyword Elite

   Keyword Elite (updated) lets you build long tail keyword lists with lightning speed to generate the largest, most diversified keyword lists imaginable and uncover keyword phrases I guarantee you had absolutely no idea people actually searched on!

   Keyword Elite

5. Keyword Spy

   KeywordSpy really does spy on top affiliate marketers and then gives you a list of all the keywords that make money for them. So you can let all those smart Super Affiliates do the hard work of researching and testing to find the most lucrative keywords – and then you can turn around and use them in your own PPC ad campaigns.

   Keyword Spy Review | Visit Keyword Spy

6. Speed PPC

   Developed by Jay Stockwell – a qualified AdWords Professional – Speed PPC is a keyword research tool for more advanced Internet and affiliate marketers who want to lower their bid costs, increase CTR (click-through-rates), CR (conversion rates) and increase their Adwords quality scores.

   Speed PPC Review (V.2), Review (V.3) | Visit Speed PPC

7. Wordtracker

   Wordtracker is my personal favorite amongst all the keyword research tools available and perhaps the most popular keyword analysis tools being used today. From a massive 340 million keyword database you can learn exactly which terms your target audience are search for and how many times each keyword has been entered.

   Visit Wordtracker | Wordtracker Review

Note: Most of the paid services listed above also offer a free trial version.

When I saw the salescopy for Michael Jones’ Clickbank Code, uh well, let’s just say that I was dubious – despite seeing the video of his Clickbank account which shows earnings of anywhere between $700, $1200 and upwards per day.

Michael was claiming to have made $11,516.45 in his first week as a Clickbank affiliate and then went on to make over $48k in his first month — with no list.

One point that he makes in the salescopy that I DID like however was about choosing Clickbank products and more specifically, he says, “I’m not talking about just picking the same old high gravity crap that everyone else jumps on…I’m going to show you my simple mathematical formula for picking the highest converting product every time“.

Anyway, you know me… THAT I had to see, so I bought the Clickbank Code to find out what techniques Michael was using and determine whether or not they worked.

In addition to 5 hours worth of video tutorials from very basic “What is Clickbank” and “Marketing Terms” to more advanced landing page creation and free traffic tactics along with a bunch of bonuses; the Clickbank Code includes a “Clickbank Product Evaluator” spreadsheet that I think is worth the price of the product on its own.

There’s a video tutorial on how to use the spreadsheet properly in which Michael cautions you to cull your keyword list and cull it some more until the list fits into the space available in the “Potential” workbook – just one of 4 sheets on that spreadsheet – but the one that shows you whether or not you should “Go for it!” or “Bail” according to the keywords you choose, their daily volume and estimated PPC cost.

Note the word “Bail” on the screenshot below? I plugged in keywords with an average Adwords cost per day of $213.78 but with only 4 anticipated sales on a product paying only $9.99 commissions… the spreadsheet advised me to bail.

The spreadsheet will even determine your “Break Even CPC” (cost per click).

When I found a few more keywords with lower CPC’S and higher volumes and plugged in a product that offered double the commissions (showing a daily profit of $230.00 per day), the spreadsheet told me to Go for it!

Those factors combined with the conversion and refund rates will give you a fairly accurate assessment of whether you stand to lose or gain on an Adwords campaign before you ever set it in motion.

Once you’ve found a market with good potential, Michael shows you how to scale up your campaign, i.e. if 100 clicks make money, 1,000 or 10,000 clicks will make you a lot MORE money.

The Clickbank Code videos are well done – they’re actually big enough to see exactly what Michael is doing. Furthermore, the audio is clear as a bell and free from speech impediments or a hard-to-decipher thick accent.

Michael shows you some good Google Adwords tricks that will increase both the relevancy of your ads, and therefore the quality score. Actually, Michael shared one tip that had me running to my Google Adwords account to make some serious changes immediately… ugh, never heard THAT one before, not even in those $1,000 courses!

Michael also shares a black hat tactic – but at least he warns you right off the bat that you will lose the relevant account if you get caught using it.

Seriously, the biggest complaint I had about the Clickbank Code happened after I bought it – page after page of upsells – just when I wanted to get see the product. Moreover, all of those products are available to buy from within the membership system.

Overall, I can heartily recommend the Clickbank Code as an excellent video tutorial series on how to profit by selling Clickbank products as an affiliate. That spreadsheet, along with just a few of his tips are worth a whole lot more than $77.

I’ve been using the new Google Adwords interface for almost 2 weeks now and it’s SUCH an improvement over the old one!

If your account hasn’t yet been updated to the beta version of this interface, the key new features include:

• New campaign and ad group creation workflow: The old signup wizards are gone. Now you’ll add keywords, create ads, and select your settings on the same tabs you use to manage them.
• In-line editing: No need to jump to a second page — you can edit ads, keywords, placements, and bids within the tables on the campaign and ad group tabs in your account. Just hover over a row to reveal the editable fields.
• New ‘Networks’ tab: The old ‘Placements’ tab has a new name: the “Networks” tab. You’ll still manage your placements there, and you’ll also see the summary statistics for both your search and content networks.
• Account tree: Use this new menu beside your account pages to switch between campaigns. (It’s similar to the popular navigation interface in AdWords Editor.)
• Campaign roll-ups: These new ‘roll-up’ views let you see and edit all of a campaign’s keywords, placements, or ads in one place, instead of finding and changing them ad group by ad group.
• Performance summary graphs: Use these custom graphs to compare trends on every level of your account.
• Dynamic help content: Our new help section displays the FAQs you most likely need for the page you’re viewing.
• Copy/move: Lets you copy and move keywords, placements, and ad groups between campaigns without leaving the campaign management interface.

You’ll find a series of videos on Google that shows you how the new interface lets you:

• Navigate your account faster
• Track performance more efficiently
• Find new optimization opportunities
• Spend less time making changes
• Get more out of the Content Network

Seriously, because so much more information is available at a glance in the new Google Adwords interface, it’s just so much easier to use and making changes to your campaigns takes much less time. Less work, save time… always gotta like that!

Lance Tien and Jamie Lewis approached me a couple of times to promote their copyNprofit program – the overall premise of which is that buyers can copy and paste one or more of their successful Google Adwords campaigns.

I took a quick look at their sales page and because I thought the copy (and videos) could mislead those who are new to affiliate marketing, I chose not to buy or review it.

However, after seeing all the hoopla and hype delivered about copyNprofit over the last few weeks, I thought it best to investigate further, so I bought copyNprofit today, thoroughly investigated the product and what follows is my review of the copyNprofit system.

copyNprofit Sales Pitch

Let’s start with that copyNprofit sales page which opens with…

Copy the exact campaigns that make up to $94,133 in 30 days on autopilot.

You won’t need to “learn” anything …. Just COPY these. No margin for error… just a template that’s already profitable for you to duplicate.

The “no need to learn anything” theme continues again down the page with…

“Stop trying to give me a fishing pole, just give me the fish – seriously!”

Well, seriously, I could go off on a lengthy tangent here about how trying to debunk “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” is just plain wrong — but anyone with half a brain and a modicum of life experience understands the truth in this old Chinese proverb.

But there are more problematic issues still…

In the video on the salespage, Jamie answers prospective buyers’ most common questions including (and I’m paraphrasing) – “If everyone copies these campaigns will they work any longer?” and “Do I have to spend money?“.

Jamie’s answers are “Absolutely” and “No!” and where I take serious issue with the copyNprofit sales pitch.

Let’s look at the second question first. The product is about copying successful PPC campaigns. PPC advertising costs money. Yet Jamie says that you don’t have to spend money because you can still use the program using other techniques (such as article marketing).

Well, let’s just say that the teaching of those other techniques is scant at best.

copyNprofit Contents

For example, the 44-page ‘manual’ included with the course describes – in one paragraph – how affiliate marketing works and then summarizes as follows:

1. You post an ad promoting a product
2. Someone visits your ad, clicks & buys the product
3. You get a commission!

The “Learn Affiliate Marketing” video is likewise short – barely 2 minutes in length. (You’ll get a much better overview from my “How Affiliate Marketing Works” video which is free to view.

Speaking of videos – Most of the videos in the copyNprofit are very short in duration and the screen size is too small to properly see the application being explained. On occasion, you are directed back to the manual for more information on the Google Keywords Tool, but when I searched the manual for that information, not only was it never mentioned by name, but there was no link to it.

OK, so the product is (in my humble opinion) definitely not suitable for someone who is brand-new to affiliate marketing – but what about someone who understands how affiliate marketing works and is just looking for profitable niches?

Well, let’s go back to the first question answered on the video – “If everyone copies these campaigns will they work any longer?“

copyNprofit Niche Evaluation

There are 38 niche products inside the copyNprofit package listed under 8 categories that include Society & Culture, Weight Loss, Computing & Internet, etc.

I immediately hopped to one of two product recommendations that was most applicable to my primary niche – online dating. (To be fair, I can’t say exactly which product it is – let’s just say that I’m very familiar with the topic and product).

The copyNprofit interface promises $49.00 per sale on this particular product.

Here are the numbers from the Clickbank interface for that product:

$/sale: $16.71 | Future $: – | Total $/sale: $16.71 | %/sale: 70.0% | %refd: 66.0% | grav: 23.87

As nothing is listed under Future earnings this is a ONE-time sale – NOT recurring… so I don’t know how they figure $49.00 in earnings per sale.

Regardless, I set up the campaign as recommended – 50 cents per click, a budget of $30.00/day targeted at Canada, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. and ran it through the Google Traffic estimator.

Here’s what was returned.

I’d be spending 2 – $5 a day for 4 – 9 clicks given the keywords provided because the search volume is so low. Assuming a 2% conversion rate, it might take 50 clicks to garner a sale at a cost of $25.

Spend $25.00 to earn $16.71. Hmmmm…

Because I like to run volume and use up my set daily budget to test a campaign properly, I tested until I found a campaign that promised to deliver enough clicks to exhaust the budget.

Then I ran the campaign through Google Cash Detective and counted the number of campaigns for the primary keyword.

There were 113 campaigns!!!!!!!!!

OK, granted not all those campaigns are running right now. However, that fact in itself is pretty telling — MOST of the campaigns for those keywords had only run for a day or two and then been suspended, indicating really low profit potential. Moreover, the ONLY campaigns that indicated serious profitability were those running by the Clickbank merchant themselves.

Too, consider this.

If there are a multitude of Adwords ads direct linking to the same destination URL, the ads will be rotated… and yours will be rotated out of view because Google doesn’t like “thin affiliates” – those that direct link to merchants and provide no additional value to visitors.

What happens to “thin affiliates”? They are charged MORE for their Adwords Ads. Instead of 50 cents, you could get charged $5.00 a click or even 10 bucks a click.

So, now that both questions are answered honestly… here are my copyNprofit summary findings

copyNprofit Review Summary

For anyone wanting to learn affiliate marketing from scratch, this $77 one-technique wonder product is NOT the answer. You’d be MUCH better off investing $47 in the Super Affiliate Handbook which is the industry’s standard training manual for new affiliates and actually teaches affiliate marketing techniques from the ground up.

However, for more advanced affiliate marketers, I’ll say this…

I was surprised by some of the niche market products that I found listed in copyNprofit. From that standpoint alone, copyNprofit is worth $77, ’cause we both know that you’ll make your money back in no time flat with a relatively untapped market and product — and it would cost you more than that in time to find that niche on your own.

Click here to learn more about copyNprofit.

Seems like everytime I hear the news, or read my email, another company directly related to our Internet marketing businesses is tightening the reigns due to the recession.

Last week I mentioned that a number of banks have either temporarily suspended or permanently shut down their credit card affiliate programs.

Back in December, I received notice that the Westin and Sheraton hotels changed their affiliate program payout structures to pay on completed stays rather than on bookings.

Also in December, Yahoo! Search Marketing announced that it would no longer provide telephone support on many of their advertisers’ accounts.

Then last Wednesday, Google announced that 70 workers would be affected when it closed 3 engineering offices in the U.S., Norway and Sweden. Worse still, the free cafeteria for employees was closed and Christmas gifts to workers this year weren’t quite as lush as usual. The cutbacks at Google are apparently due to the fact that although its advertising revenues are still growing, they’re not growing quite as rapidly as before.

Aaaah, Poor Google. Apparently we’re not spending enough.

Are you ready for some very high-level (read ‘expensive’) coaching to take your Google Adwords campaigns to the next level? If so, take a look at Perry Marshall’s 12-week Bobsled Run which starts on Saturday, January 26. In the salesletter, Perry promises that:

…if you complete the homework assignments, you’ll recoup your tuition by May 2008 (through AdWords cost savings and increased sales), and you will make at least $25K more next year than you would have without my help, or your money back.

That’s a darned good guarantee. The course includes training in the following areas:

• Google AdWords campaigns
• Google Analytics tracking
• Google Site Optimizer for testing content
• Refine and create new Opt-in pages and Sales Pages
• The latest Email and Autoresponder strategies
• Perry’s Max-Profit Pricing strategy

Of coures, Perry Marshall is the go-to guy when it comes to Google Adwords training and the reports from his course graduates are numerous and inspirational, such as “From $25,000 per month to $76,000 per month in three months”.

To see what Perry has done for others and what he can do for you, check out his Personal Adwords Coaching page now. He’s also put together a series of 4 videos for you to watch.

Need traffic?

Pay-per-click search engines are the best way to satisfy that need. However, with several hundred pay-per-click search engines to choose from across the web, it can be confusing to know where to start advertising first.

Too, some internet and affiliate marketers are afraid of losing money through pay per click advertising.

Well, here’s what I have to say about that. I’ve been using PPC advertising since it was introduced and spent an ‘excessive’ amount only once – and only by result of acting stupidly. There’s absolutely NO way you can spend too much when you set a budget. Simple as that.

About 60% of my traffic is generated through pay-per-click search engines – and the ‘secret’ here is that when you drive traffic initially to your site using PPC’s, the search engines notice your site (because it’s now getting traffic) and your site will rank higher than it would if you weren’t getting PPC traffic.

The best PPCSE’s (pay per click search engines) offer account signup bonuses. Take advantage of these to get hundreds of dollars in free traffic to your site.

Listed below are the very best pay per click search engines for delivering high-quality, targeted traffic at reasonable prices.

1. Microsoft adCenter
2. Google Adwords

I’ve also listed other PPC seach engines at which you should consider advertising.

Top PPC Search Engines

Check in on this page every now and then to find out which of my favorite pay per click search engines are offering deals and discounts for new advertisers.

Microsoft AdCenter

Microsoft AdCenter is best for those affiliates in more mature niches and you can get started with only $5.

Open a Microsoft adCenter account.

Google Adwords

Google Adwords often offers $50 in advertising credits for new AdWords customers with self-managed signup. The offer is based on a $55 total credit, which represents $50 of advertising credit and a $5 activation fee.

Sign up for a Google Adwords account.

Money-Saving TIP: If you don’t see a credit offered on the direct link to Google Adwords and you need a hosting account, Bluehost almost always has an Adwords promo going on for their new customers… AND you’ll save the domain registration fee.

This is exciting news for PPC marketers! Version 3 of SpeedPPC was launched yesterday. Version 1 was developed by qualified AdWords Professional Jay Stockwell and Allan Gardyne for use in their own PPC marketing. Version 2 was launched publicly last year – to very strong reviews, including my own. (Note that the review applies to Version 2, however.)

Since then, Jay paid close attention to the feedback that he received from hundreds of SpeedPPC users and produced a long list of fantastic new features which have made SpeedPPC 3 even better, even more useful for rolling out intelligently constructed, large, effective PPC campaigns incredibly fast.

SpeedPPC 3 is designed to help you produce accurate, EFFECTIVE campaigns with a solid ROI that include dynamically matching keywords to ad groups, matching keywords to similar keywords on dynamically created landing pages, great Google Quality Scores, and high converting campaigns.

You can create heaps of small, tightly focused ad groups. You can have just one keyword per ad group if you wish – in campaigns that are created at blistering speed. You can track every ad group and every keyword with surgical precision so you can quickly tweak your campaigns into profitability.

SpeedPPC Version 3 has support for:

• ABCSearch
• Affiliate Radar
• ASK
• Enhance
• GoClick
• LookSmart
• Miva
• Search123
• ValidClick
• MSN adCenter
• Yahoo! Search Marketing
• Google AdWords

Affiliates will be delighted to know that this includes affiliate and CPA offers that you couldn’t normally track easily and a bunch of really clever stuff that you can do with datafeeds.

Version 3 comes with 10 new training videos and 15 landing page templates. If you have problems, you can study the training videos and ask questions on the private forum.

Because the list of features and what you can do with SpeedPPC is far too long to list here, you should check out the SpeedPPC site.

If you’re still building your PPC campaigns the OLD way, you’ll find SpeedPPC is a seriously valuable tool. I highly recommend SpeedPPC for anyone who does PPC marketing.

If you have a Google Adwords account, you should have received an email (on or about May 20th, 2006) with the subject line, “Important Legal Notice Regarding Your Google AdWords Account“.

The first paragraph of that email read:

This court-ordered notice may affect your legal rights. Please read it carefully. If you purchased online advertising from Google between January 1, 2002 and the present, you are a class member in a class-action lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Miller County, Arkansas. This notice is to inform you of the Court’s certification of a class; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement.

The attached PDF included information on how to submit a claim form, exclude yourself from the process or object to the settlement.

To learn more about the settlement go to Clicksettlement.com.

You will be able to FILE your claim at Clicksettlement.com between June 19, 2006 and August 4, 2006.

Happy filing!
Ros