Super Affiliate Mindset

Super Affiliate Mindset Insights and Thoughts from a World Class Internet Marketer

Aug 29 2010

What the Deal with QS Anyway?

OK some of you are asking “Why all the posts on Google Quality Score? I mean, damn, I got banned from google I can’t promote any affiliate stuff on there!?!”

Well, I’m shifting gears a bit. Focus of this blog is now MORE for people who have their own product who are using paid search. Times are changing, if you’re trying to promote products as an affiliate on Google, then GOOD LUCK, because you’re gonna need it.

And why am I focusing so much about quality score in particular? QS is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR to success with Google Adwords.

You could have the highest converting landing page, your bids and placements perfectly optimized, but if your QS sucks you’ll get a drizzle of traffic versus someone who has a killer QS.

I’ve already talked about a lot of factors that go into quality score and there’s a bunch more I still have to talk about.

One powerful trend you need to know about is that factors that affect your natural search engine ranking are playing a bigger and BIGGER part in Adwords QS.

Some of these include:

  • Authority of your site and PageRank
  • Amount of unique content on your landing pages
  • How often the content on your site is updated
  • Incoming links to your landing page
  • How long visitors spend on your page and thier BOUNCE RATE
  • How FAST your site loads
  • How often people click a link on your page
  • How relevant your landing page is to the keywords
  • The age of your domain

I could go on, but you get the idea. You have to build a real site that of substantial value to the visitor, and continue to build it up over time.

Don’t worry about whether you get natural search engine traffic or not, taking these steps will substantially increase your traffic and lower your CPC.

I’m talking a night and day difference, the difference between making $500/day profit versus $5000/day profit.

Aug 17 2010

Adwords Profit Machine

No, it’s not the name of a “get rich quick” product.

“Adwords Profit Machine” is my nickname for what’s without question the MOST POWERFUL feature Adwords has to offer.

When this feature first came out it was a bit buggy and I really didn’t trust it. Now it’s F’N AMAZING!

Put campaign in the machine, and get $$$$ out the other end.

NO JOKE!

What the hell am I talking about?

I’m talking about the Google Conversion Optimizer. It’s HOT. Absolutely my favorite tool, works great for search and content.

Here’s a few tips on getting the most out of the conversion optimizer:

  • Make sure you have a few 100 conversions at the very least, before you turn it on. The more data it has, the better it works.
  • Set your CPA value at 30-50% above the payout of your offer.
  • Give it 2-3 weeks before you start seeing some HUGE jumps in ROI
  • After 2 weeks or so, you can adjust CPA values (up or down) at the adgroup level if you want to improve ROI or buy more traffic.

Conversion optimizer optimizes at a level you CANNOT DO MANUALLY. It’s adjust bids based on: location, placements, operating system, etc, etc, etc.

Oh and you don’t have to worry about separating search partners from google search, it will adjust the bids on ALL of them individually. :)

If you’re not using this tool, you’re at a HUGE disadvantage. And don’t waste your money on a 3rd tool, that can’t do 1/2 of what Conversion Optimizer can.

Aug 6 2010

Bad Web Hosting : Silent ROI Killer

I learned a invaluable lesson yesterday, this is something that most people COMPLETELY overlook.

I had 8 HOURS OF DOWNTIME overnight. :(

No, this was NOT shared hosting, it was a dedicated Mediatemple Nitro $750/month supped up box.

They’re response to the downtime : “Sorry for the inconvenience”!?!

Needless to say, I immediately switched over to another web hosting company that I’ve been using for years.

What really makes me SICK to my stomach is all the potential sales I lost with Mediatemple due to smaller, intermittent downtime. Which I’m sure happened frequently-might explain some of those mysterious sales gaps I’ve been seeing.

What’s worse is that my business partner had to get the server up and running again, mediatemple did NOTHING. And they didn’t even notify me that my server was down.

“So Amit, what are you going to do to prevent this in the future?”

It’s all about having the right systems in place.

Well, here’s Rule #1: Do NOT trust ANY web hosting company, EVER.

Rule #2 : Constantly monitor you’re uptime, using a service such as Pingdom.

Rule #3: Use an enterprise DNS service that allows you to setup a DNS Failover. In other words you can setup your domain to automatically point to a different server if your main server goes down. I recommend using 2 DIFFERENT web hosting companies for this setup.

First things, first: setup a monitoring service such as Pingdom and see if your web host is screwing you over!

Aug 2 2010

Account History versus Account Quality Score

“Another Adwords post?”

YES, that’s going to be my main focus for a while. Let’s just say there’s LOTS of GREAT STUFF I’ve picked up recently.

Here’s are 2 big BIG question:

  • How important is the age of your account?
  • If you ran low QS campaigns when you first started OR if any of your campaigns ever got slapped, will it effect future campaigns?

Let’s tackle the first question…

ACCOUNT AGE

Account age, or account history as they call it, is HUGE in the beginning.

When you first start a new account you get slapped with a huge penalty, about 30-40% higher CPC and much less traffic, until you establish around 4 months (give or take) of payment history.

If you’re starting a new account THIS IS A BIG DEAL. If you’re getting hammered with high CPC and wondering where all the traffic is, know that it will pass in a few months!

You gotta protect your account like you’re life depended on it, because starting fresh can be serious pain in the ass and VERY costly, until you rebuild your account history.

ACCOUNT QUALITY SCORE

Here’s the flip side…

If you started an Adwords account when you were a newbie and did some dumb stuff, or you’ve had a couple campaigns slapped (QS : 1/10), then I got some bad news for you:

Your account will NEVER perform as well an account that had has never been slapped (or never had a poor quality score history).

Ever heard stories of so and so killing in a particular market after starting a new Adwords account?

Having a pristine account is HUGE.

So what should you do? I would recommend starting a gold account, where you run ONLY fully optimized campaigns. Run some small campaigns on it for 6 months or so (high CTR, high QS stuff only) so it can build a SOLID account quality score and build account history.

Jul 31 2010

What’s Your LP Load Time?….Part II

As promised I’m gonna reveal another REALLY KILLER way to boost your landing page load time.

This is a little more involved than the gzip compression trick I talked about last time.

Here’s the secret…

Host your images, CSS, and scripts on CDN.

What the heck is CDN? CDN is (short for Content Delivery Network) a set of supped up servers all around the world that all hold copies of your data.

When someone loads your site the CDN content is accessed from the closest server, which makes the load time SUPER FAST.

I use MaxCDN for all my landing pages + even my whole site, since it improves SEO rankings as well.

Yeah, there’s a BIT of leg work to getting it setup but it’s 100% worth it.

“I don’t know Amit, is it REALLY worth it?”

Listen, you’re graded on a curve as far as Adwords QS goes, you just need to nudge yourself ahead of the pack to start seeing HUGE gains. Every change you can make, little or big, to improve your QS is WORTH IT!

Jul 27 2010

What’s Your LP Load Time?….Part I

I know, I know, I haven’t posted in a LONG time. Let’s just say I’ve been busy getting a new business up and running. :)

I want to do a series of posts revealing some KILLER Adwords insights that’ve I’ve recently stumbled upon.

First one has to do with landing page load time.

Unless you’re a total newbie, I’m sure you’ve heard that landing page load time plays a part in your Quality Score.

Well, let me tell you, IT PLAYS A HUGE ROLE! Speeding up your load time can not only cut your CPC by up to 50%, but will also skyrocket your SEO rankings, so pay attention!

The first tip is a non-brainer: host your site on a dedicated server, shared hosting will KILL your load time.

The second tip is UBER POWERFUL and most people are NOT doing this…

Call your web hosting company (or if you’re tech savvy edit your Apache config file) and turn on MOD_GZIP/MOD_DEFLATE.

mod_gzip (or mod_deflate, same thing really) setting gzips web content before it sends it to your browser, then your browser simply unzips the file and loads up the content.

This DRAMATICALLY speeds up landing page load time. Google will LOVE your site if you do this.

I got one more trick up my sleeve on how to seriously bump up LP load time, it’s a little more involved so I’ll tell you about it next time. Stay tuned!

Want to check if your site is gzip enabled? Go here: http://www.whatsmyip.org/http_compression/

Mar 31 2010

2 New Kickbutt Adwords Features

Yea, Adwords can be a SERIOUS pain in the ass with their automated bans and slaps, but I gotta say they’re ALWAYS adding AWESOME new features.

Check out the Search Funnel Analysis!

And the Retargeting.

Both serious game changers if you’re using Adwords.

Feb 23 2010

Cool Guide on Affiliate Marketing

Jonathan Volk just released a GREAT primer on Affiliate Marketing.

It’s also FREE, so check it out:

http://www.jonathanvolk.com/affiliate-marketing-guide/

Feb 22 2010

Can’t Make it to Maui? No Problem….

If you couldn’t make it to Maui (or are not spending $5k/month on Google yet) no worries.

Perry is releasing a DVD version of Ultra-Advanced Adwords Seminar in Maui, but for a limited time only. Don’t worry this is WAAAY cheaper than the $5,000 you’d have to fork over to attend the Seminar.

ALSO, as a reader of my blog you’ll get a $100 discount.

Click Here to Find out More

Here’s a sneak peak at who’s speaking in Maui:

- Richard Stokes, president of AdGooRoo.com – Lessons from spying on Google
- Amit Mehta, co-founder of PPC Classroom – Affiliate Marketing
- Shelley Ellis, Zen Master of the Google Content Network
- Glenn Livingston of Rocket Clicks – Adwords Strategies
- Rob Sieracki of Rocket Clicks – Adwords Strategies
- Jonathan Mizel on Media Buys – Paid Traffic Sources OUTSIDE of Google
- Bryan Todd and Drew Bischof on Facebook advertising

Disclaimer : Yes, I’ll receive an affiliate commission if you buy through my link.

Feb 1 2010

Must See Video: Hitler Gets Google Slapped

Check out this HILARIOUS video my good friend Peter Dunbar put together:

LOL