Christmas is less than a month away, so I thought I would hold a contest giving away free Adwords vouchers! It is a small contest, so far only 4 vouchers valued at $50+ in promo credit will be given away. The contest will run through December 14th. How do you enter? Simple, either subscribe to this blog by email, or write a blog post about the contest. Subscribing by email will give you one entry, and writing a blog post about this contest will give you 3 entries. So in total, you could have four entries.

Once you have subscribed via email, post a comment on this post saying “I’m in”, just so I can keep track even better. Also, if you write a blog post on this topic, post a comment with the link to the post.

Good luck and merry Christmas!

 Adwords vouchers can only be used on new Adwords accounts less than 14 days old. But hey, if you already had an account, you could easily sell the voucher!

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Popularity: 23% [?]

A few weeks ago I did some interviews with some of my favorite bloggers. Well here is the last one I am going to do. It is with Paul from UberAffiliate.com. His blog has a wealth of knowledge on PPC marketing,(I am sure I have blogged about it before)  and is definitely worth subscribing to. I have personally known of Paul since his “ClickConsultants” days, and he helped me with some PPC campaigns about 6-7 months ago through ClickConsultants.

You are obviously a successful Internet marketer. What got you started in this business and how long have you been doing it?
I actually got started due to my own laziness.  I was tired of having to wake up at 6am on weekends to go to work, so I thought of ways to generate income while being able to do what I want.  I was first introduced into the internet back in October of ‘07, and then was introduced into the wonderful world of affiliate marketing in February of ‘07.

For me, it is hard to explain to my friends and family what I do for money, as they all think it is a scam or illegal, does this happen to you and if so how to you handle the negativity?
Actually my family and friends have been pretty supportive about it.  My friends accuse me of selling drugs or running a porno chain, but that’s all just kidding around.  My family doesn’t really understand the internet, so they can’t accuse me of something they have no idea about.  I try to keep quiet about exactly how much I do make though, because as much as my friends and family like me, I could see them getting jealous.  For the most part they’re cool with it all.

What affiliate networks do you personally recommend for the up and coming affiliate?
I’d actually recommend to sign up with every major network, each one has something different to offer.  Find what offer you want to promote, then go shopping around to find the best deal.  A few of my top networks are AzoogleAds, Neverblue, CX Digital, and HydraMedia.

At what point did you say “I am going to be a full time affiliate marketer” in your career? Was there a certain amount of earnings that sparked this?
Once I could make enough to cover my part time job, I quit that (was going to school at the time).  Then once I started making around $20,000/month, I decided to take a year off of school.  My goal to completely retire myself out of college was $100,000/month, and I’m way past that marker already and still have until this coming July to “hit it”.

What are your future goals as an affiliate marketer or entrepreneur in general?
To bank enough money in a few years to leave me set for the rest of my life, no matter what happens to the industry.  I have some other business opportunities on the internet that I’m going to be investing a lot of my time into pretty soon.

Now lets talk about your blog, UberAffiliate.com. It seems to be doing very well, and there is a multitude of information for people to learn about affiliate marketing. What inspired you to create UberAffiliate.com and why do you think it has been so successful?
I always wanted a blog, I don’t know why.  Not for the money, just to have one where I was able to connect with a lot of people.  Blogs are also great networking tools, and I’ve met some great people from mine.  I think it’s been moderately successful because I do my best to post useful information, instead of posting just for the sake of posting.

Have you set any goals for UberAffiliate.com, or is blogging for you more of a hobby?
Yeah blogging is just a hobby for now.  As far as monetary goals, I haven’t set any.  But one goal that I’d like to accomplish is to have 1,000 readers in the next few months.

I saw a recent post on your blog saying that you attended AdTech this year, and really like going to conferences. What is your favorite conference to attend and why?
Well I’ve only been to ad:tech and Affiliate Summit East, and out of the two my favorite was ASE.  It seemed more relaxed to me - not as corporate.  I was able to wear shorts and a tee shirt and just hang out with other affiliates.  Ad:tech was a good time to, I’ll be going to both of them again.

If you could say one thing to someone who is new to affiliate marketing, and is struggling, what would it be?
Don’t give up, and don’t be afraid to lose some money.  Even if it means going back to a part time job for a month to save up some cash, don’t be afraid to spend it testing and lose.  If you want to make monumental gains, you have to take some losses to find out what works.

 Well thank you Paul for doing the interview. Everyone needs to go to his blog and subscribe! He recently posted his monthly earnings that totaled almost $200,000.00!

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I recently got the latest issue of Search Marketing Standard. An awesome magazine that every search marketer should subscribe to! There was an article written titled “Can anyone really be a search marketing expert anymore?”. This inspired me to write this post.

Think about it, there are so many ways to market products on search now, it is crazy! You have the big three, (MSN, Google, Yahoo) then tons of smaller engines (Ask, Enhance, Kanoodle, eZanga to name a few). On top of all those, Google and a few others allow you to advertise banners through CPM or CPC on websites you choose. You can even pick where on the website you wish to advertise. Bringing me back to the question “can anyone be a search marketing expert anymore?”.

During the article, David Rodnitzky compares search marketing to modern medicine. Way back in the day, if you got sick, you went to the doctor. If you broke your leg, you went to the same doctor. These days, if you get sick you go to the doctor then he/she sends you to a specialist. If you break your leg, you go to the doctor and he/she sends you to a different specialist, who after they find out how you broke your leg might send you to another specialist. This is very well compared to search marketing. Search engine marketing is not as simple as starting a campaign, bidding on your keywords and then you are done. You can target your campaigns to such an extreme, in so many different forms that there is literally something for every business out there!

The whole point of the article is that the author is explaining that no one can really be a general search marketing expert anymore, and I agree. Everyone has their area of expertise and their specific area they are an expert at. If your an expert at PPC campaigns, find someone who knows CPM to work for you with the campaign you are running. Each aspect of marketing you add to the equation = more money for you!

In a few years, I bet you will be finding “Google audio ads expert focusing on FM radio/ages 18-30 demographics, in the Cincinnati area for hire” on Monster.com.

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday.

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Blogs are everywhere! Personally I love them and think it is really fun to write and update mine. Right now it is more of a hobby, and a way to stop thinking about my campaigns. Some people don’t really care if their blog becomes well known, because it may just be a personal site for their friends and families. However, no internet marketer would start a blog without the thought of it making money in the long run. Its just how we think .

When I started BernardGriffiths.com, I told myself I would only invest money into it that was made from the blog. So for the first month, I made $30. Hell, it’s better than nothin, and $30 more than I thought it would make in its first month. So in November I have been doing some small simple promotions. Buying links, submitting to directories, trying to build my PageRank. Once that money ran out, I started doing free promotions such as submitting to Digg, BUMPzee, Sphinn. (I am thinking of adding those bookmark links after every post so more people can bookmark my posts directly from my site, however I just don’t like how all those links look after each post) This started bringing me some decent traffic. If you have a blog that is just starting out, these sites are your friends! Every article you write, submit it to these sites and your traffic will increase greatly. If you have a “make money online” blog then Sphinn is great, as it is targeted to webmaster related content only.

Free advertising is nice. However, like I have said before it is free for a reason. It will take time!

 Submitting to directories may take time and a little bit of money but it is worth it for your pagerank. If you want to build pagerank, this is the msot basic SEO tactic out there. Find directories with a higher pagerank than you, and get your link in there. Personally I have not got much traffic from directories, but on the next PR update my blog should jump a few spots. There are plenty of directories for blogs only. I found a larger one called Blogarama. It is for blogs only, and there are a bunch of directories like this. DigitalPoint has a great forum section for directories only, and you will find some nice directory owners giving out free links to DP members!

Paid advertising is the easiest route to take. If you want alot of traffic fast then you are going to have to pay for it. New advertising platforms like Bidvertiser are great for blogs, and are giving away $20 in free advertising credit right now. Another idea is to buy a review from other blog owners in your niche. For example, I would buy a review from JohnCow.com, or UberAffiliate.com simply because they are similar to mine and their readers would actually be interested in my site. However, you better be willing to give out a few hundred bucks to get a review from sites like those.

Free advertising is great. A little work goes a long way. I am hoping that if I keep at this I will be getting more and more traffic daily!

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When should you dump a campaign? A question a few people asked me last week. When I first started, I was wondering the same thing, however I soon learned everyone has their own strategies. Here are a few:

When to dump your campaign is totally up to you. It is your money! If you are starting out small, and don’t have alot of money to play with, then if I were you I would dump it as soon as the offer stopped doubling your money. When I was starting out, I simply aimed to double all my earnings from my previous month, then double it again and again. After a few months, I had a little bit more money to play with.

If money is really not restricting you, then take any profit you can. I mean, if you spent $10,000 on a single one day, and only made $11,000, that is still a profit. You are still making money, and hell if you are using one of those “reward card” type credit cards, you are winning there too! Once it starts going into the red, put it on pause for awhile. What I am saying is, personally I think it is nice to have a few offers that you can really rely on. Some that you just know will convert to “x” amount of dollars every day. However on the other side, it is nice to have those offers that convert at 300%. Simply don’t put all your eggs in one basket, because before you know it the offer will get pulled and your out of luck.

Diversify, test new things, and critique those consistent campaigns and they will soon be converting at 200-300%.

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So this week I did some interviews with some of my favorite bloggers. I hope everyone enjoyed them as much as me.

There were not to many informational tips posted by me this week, so I have decided that every Thursday I am going to make a collection of the best and most informational posts from other bloggers as well. Since there is only one more interview, I will continue writing about what I love to do and that is PPC marketing!

Here is my tip for the day; average CPC and max CPC. If you know anything about PPC marketing, then you know what these two things are. About six months ago I read about a strategy that I was unaware of at the time, and use often now. Basically you start out your campaign with a really high bid on your keywords, then keep watching your average CPC. Find the average position your looking for and as your campaign runs with a high bid, your CTR will be much higher, allowing your quality score to increase. With your quality score high, you will be able to bid lower to achieve a higher rank in ad positions. Personally, I don’t like being in the top three, it seems like people just click those sporadically just to see what the ad contains then they return to the search results. So I am always looking to be at position 4 or 5. When using this strategy, I watch my average CPC for awhile and it is usually about $0.10 lower than my max. I continue to lower the bid, and lower it as my quality score is going up and I am naturally placing higher with lower bids. When using this method, you usually end up spending a good bit of money in the first few days, and maybe even just break even, but it is worth it in the long run!

 So def. try that sometime. Like I said you could and will most likely not make any money for a few days but when you start to lower your bids you should see a great ROI.

Now for the best informational posts this week from a few of my favorite blogs.

9 Sure Fire Tips To Improve Your Blog - This is from DerekBeau.com. Although it is not about PPC marketing, it is still useful for all the bloggers out there. These are some great tips for making your blog better, something I am trying to do!

Adwords International Traffic- This tip is from UberAffiliate.com, a great blog by a PPC marketer. He is the last interview I am trying to get for the week. His tip is about international traffic and adwords, and what to do with international re-directs.

What’s The Deal With Google Quality Score? - This is from SuperAffiliateMindSet.com. Many people have taken a huge slap from Google lately, being forced to pay $5-10/per click. Amit explains more about it.

Those are a few posts that helped me this week, and I hope they help you as well!

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The interviews continue, and another favorite blog of mine to read is Ms.Danielle.com. Visit her site and you will find tons of information about PPC marketing.

I see you recently attended the Blog World Expo, what were your opinions on the conference being its first year?
Since it was the first year, many of us weren’t very sure what to expect. Overall I think the turn-out was good, although many speakers who were expected to show up weren’t there. Some were announced but unconfirmed, some forgot, and some were sick. There is room for growth and improvement, but I’m sure next year will be very successful. The most valuable thing I got out of it was the networking. The connections I made over the course of those few days is priceless.

Personally I have been reading your blog for some time, along with
many other people. Is blogging a hobby for you, or a money maker?
Well I have a few blogs that I manage, MsDanielle being only one of them. MsDanielle is not a money-making blog…yet. The social networking that has come from it is what helped me form the relationships that I solidified at BlogWorld. That’s more valuable to me now than trying to monetize it. But if anyone is looking to sponsor me, please fill out my contact form :).

Why did you decide to start MsDanielle.com?
John Chow’s February 2007 earnings. I wanted to see how far I could take an experiment like blogging. I quickly realized there’s only one John Chow, and that I don’t want to try to compete with him. I think I made a wise choice.

You have a great deal of experience in PPC marketing. What initially got you started advertising on search engines?
Gary Lee is a college friend of mine, who recruited me as a PPC Manager at the company he was working for in 2006. When he initially approached me about it, I turned it down. With some patience and prodding he eventually got me on board. I’ve been seeking as much search engine knowledge as I can possibly soak up ever since then. I mean, who doesn’t want to learn how to take $5 and turn it into $50, or $100?

Was there a day that you made “x” amount of dollars, and said “I am going to be a full time internet marketer”?
Working for a firm doing PPC made me realize I needed to do my own thing. In October I earned $800 in three days through my site pinkdeals.net. That made me feel like I was on the right path :).

Are you into any other aspects of marketing online?
Well I’m a PPC Manager for a company in LA and a consultant for a company in Orange County, CA. Basic online marketing tactics and such. And right now I’m trying to learn more about affiliate marketing so I can really get pinkdeals off the ground. I’m just a Zac Johnson wannabe :D.

What affiliate networks would you recommend and why?
Well right now I use Commission Junction, LinkShare, and Performics. I’ve tried CardOffers and NCS. I’m also looking into starting accounts with Copeac and Azoogle for pinkdeals. There really isn’t any large system I won’t use unless I’ve heard bad things about it, or see poor results. But I’m still a noob so maybe you should ask the big affiliate marketers who they might recommend as well.

Do you have any favorite blogs you read on a daily basis? If so what are they?
Since I work 40 hours a week consulting and spend most of my off time working at home after hours, I don’t spend as much time reading as I like. Blogs I would read everyday consistently if I had time would include ShoeMoney, ZacJohnson, SEO-Theory, AdWords.blogspot, YSMblog, and SEOmoz.

What advice would you give to a struggling affiliate marketer who is failing at PPC marketing?
Figure out which metrics are failing and improve them. If you are managing more than one project and they are both under-performing, evaluate which one has the more potential and focus your efforts on that one. Read message boards — I’m always surfing DigitalPoint forums and WebmasterWorld. Reach out to other affiliate marketers and see who you can bring into your network. Of course, you must have some valuable knowledge to provide to them as well, as we all should
be resources for each other. Attend conferences and really find out what it takes to think like an affiliate marketer. That’s what I plan to do.

Thanks so much for your time Ms. Danielle. Everyone needs to start reading her blog! It has great informational tips on PPC marketing and blogging. So go to MsDanielle.com and subscribe to it!

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The next interview of the week is with Derek Beauchemin. He has been making money online since the year 2000, and his blog DerekBeau.com is another one of my favorites to read daily!

When did you get into making money online in general?
In my autobiography post, I mentioned that I first made money online sometime during the year 2000 when I was 14 years old. I didn’t take it seriously until about Spring 2004 when I was 18. I began bringing in revenue through both website publishing and PPC affiliate marketing.
 

What aspects of marketing do you currently do online and what is your favorite?
I do a lot of different things: pay-per-click marketing, affiliate marketing, product development, opt-in email marketing, direct response marketing, web publishing, web development, website purchasing, and eBay. The bulk of my income comes from pay-per-click affiliate marketing, but I also make money in the other areas. I am currently focusing on growing the web publishing/development area of my business so that I am not as reliant on a single strategy.
 

I understand you don’t like talking about it, however the PPC tool you created made quite a buzz online! Could you give us any details on why you took it down?
Sure, it was taken down because the creators of the original tool wanted to protect their business. When I purchased their software, I accepted an agreement which stated that I was not allowed to create derivative works. I overlooked this part of the agreement and was unaware that what I was doing could cause legal issues. I spoke with the guys from the original tool and we came to a settlement agreement which included no longer distributing my tool. And before anyone criticizes, yes, I did speak with an attorney.
 

Your blog DerekBeau.com is becoming very popular. What inspired you to start blogging?
Ever since I’ve been making money online, I have wanted to blog about it. It’s just one of the topics that I am most interested in. I always hesitated because I thought I wouldn’t have much to contribute, but after seeing some of the top bloggers making it in this niche, I decided to give it a try.
 

Is blogging more of a hobby for you, or are you looking to profit from it?
I do have blogs that are for profit only. I don’t really have any interest in writing for them and I try to hire as much of the content creation as I can. With DerekBeau.com, however, it is a hobby that I want to profit from. I enjoy writing about make money online topics and building relationships with others in the niche. The profit that I want to achieve is in the form of building valuable relationships, having a voice in the industry, and of course collecting some extra revenue.
 

Do you attend any conferences pertaining to affiliate marketing/internet marketing? If so what is your favorite?
I have not yet attended any conferences, but I really want to in the future. The reasons I haven’t attended were really just convenience issues. I’m currently enrolled full time at Oakland University in Rochester Hills, MI, but will be graduating soon. Hopefully then I can start going to these conferences.
 

What affiliate networks would you recommend to the new affiliate marketer?
Some of the main networks I have had good experiences with include:
AzoogleAds

ClickBank

ComissionJunction

COPEAC

NeverblueAds
 

Have you set any goals for DerekBeau.com, or for yourself as to where you want to be in 6 months…a year?
I don’t really have any concrete goals yet, just vague goals to increase readership. I have been very pleased with the growth in RSS subscribers but would like to get more unique visitors through direct links and search engines (which are kind of ignoring me at the moment).
 

What tip could you give someone who is struggling to make money online?
The three best tips to help you make money online are to just get started, put all your efforts into it, and learn from your experiences. If you focus on those three things, you will be well on your way to making money online.
 

Thank you very much for your time.
Your welcome!

 So if you have not yet subscribed to his RSS feed, go to DerekBeau.com and do it! Every post by him has priceless value!

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I have decided to interview people from all of my favorite blogs. The first is the infamous JohnCow.com. I love his blog, and it has been very successful in its short 4 month life.

JohnCow.com is one of my favorite blogs to read, what inspired you to
start it and what got you into blogging?
JohnCow was really started as a prank towards John Chow. Poking a bit of fun at him, but soon the popularity of the blog skyrocketed and we decided to try and make it work. Sofar so good.

It is obvious that the name is similar to JohnChow.com, to your
knowledge does Mr. Chow like the idea?
Yes, John’s initial response was that he thought it was hilarious. We consider him a friend now, talk a lot on instant messenger and such, great guy really!

Do you attend any popular blogging conferences? If so what is your
favorite and why?
No, unfortunately most of these things are based in the US, we live in Ireland. Perhaps next year’s Blog World Expo…

Are you currently involved in any other “making money online” ventures
such as affiliate marketing?
Yes and no, I’ve got a lot of ideas and concepts, but these all result in half assed projects because I lose interest too soon and tend to jump onto the next idea.

What aspects of internet marketing are you into?
I’m still learning and reading up about PPC, affiliate marketing and the likes. Before I jump in, I want to make sure I have mastered at least the basics of the trade.

JohnCow.com is growing at a very fast rate and is only 4 months old,
what is the best month profit wise JohnCow.com has seen?
Best month so far was around $3,400 money wise, but the amount of fun I’m having and the new people I meet, that’s priceless.

Have you set any goals for JohnCow.com and where you want it to be in a year?
No, I have not set any goals, I like to see where all this is going to take me without any planning. If I would set myself goals and for some reason not accomplish them, I’d only be disappointed. As long as I’m having fun, I’ll keep at it.

Being a successful blogger yourself, why do you think many blogs fail
within the first 6 months?
Most blogs don’t ‘fail’, they just stop publishing. You need to hang in there and take the good days with the bad. If you quit within 6 months, perhaps that’s all the blogging you felt like you wanted to do. There’s more to life than blogging they say!

Do you have any favorite blogs you read on a daily basis?
Yes, currently in my feedreader I keep track of about 40 blogs. Just to name a few of them,johnchow, shoemoney,everybodygoto.com msdanielle, paulstamatiou.com and myself!

If you could say one thing to an aspiring blogger who wants to be like
you, what tip would you give?
Eat more chicken and make sure you drink enough milk!

Thanks so much to JohnCow.com for letting us know more about them. If you have not read the blog yet, you need to! Everyone def. visit JohnCow.com!

More interviews this week from more super cool people like JohnCow.

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