J asked:

Hi Richard,

1. With regards to PPC, I’d like to know what are some of the things you did differently when you started out barely making it as compared to now, where you’re making 4 figures a day.

2. When you first test an offer, do you begin by direct linking or using a landing page? Or both (split-test)?

3. What are some of the key elements of a high converting landing page?

1) Even though I have been slacking recently taking a vacation and having time off there isn’t a great deal of things I do differently. The main thing that has changed is my attitude, in the beginning I was scared to up bids, adjust my landing page and things like that in case it had a negative impact. Also I’ve gotten better about checking my stats every 10 minutes

One thing in regards to my campaigns I tend to put a higher bid to really try and get some traffic to my page so it speeds the whole process up, when I was starting out I didn’t have the funds to do that.

2) I usually throw up a quick landing page, I haven’t tried direct linking or iFrames at the moment so I can’t really comment/suggest them.

3) The general stuff:

• Clean
• Simple (more times than not)
• Call to action in a suitable, easy to find place
• Good copywriting/sales pitch

Just make sure you split test the main factors of the page to increase your conversion rate

When I beginning a niche I generally research the competition, find out what they’re doing and try to combine all of the good elements into the ultimate landing page .

John asked:

Nice Q/A post
Here is my question,

How much keywords in 1 ad group is better? Should I use all the keywords match (exact match, phrase match, broad match). I hope the answers is not like “it depend….”.for example the Acai berry campaign .lol

Thanks a lot !!

I know you didn’t want a “depends” answer but you were a little vague on the network side of things. Search network the tighter the better, if you have any tool that makes it easier you can go for 1 keyword in each adgroup making them as tight as possible. When it comes to the content network you want 15-30 (according to Google’s blog) themed keywords.

I generally use broad match in the beginning to get as much traffic as possible, I haven’t really experimented with phrase and exact so I can’t comment on that.

Gary asked:

Could we have an overview of exactly what it is you do? I’m not asking for inside info or your hot markets, just would like to read the bare bones of the system you use. Thanks!

Not entirely sure what you mean about this. I don’t have a great system in place at the moment, just work , long days to get things done

Anton asked:

1. What is your source of keywords for your content network) campaigns?

2. How do you decide how a landing page will look like? Based on offer’s site? Barely on your imagination? Other competitors landers?

3. How many keywords do you usually start with? On search/content?

4. Are your initial keywords highly targeted, like:
acai berry pills, acai free trial in case you promote acai free trial offer? Or you go broad like Amit recommends, with several hundred of broad terms from keywordspy?

5. Do you group keywords in tight ad groups or use 1 keyword per adgroup rule when launching search campaign first?

5. How do you setup your initial bids? Do you decide based on Google data for top 3 positions? or use optimal ROI formula? or you own formula?
Hope everybody will be glad to get your answers Richard!

1) Generally my head, I also use Google’s keyword tool if I am having trouble thinking of any.

2) I browse competition to get an idea of what they are doing and take it from there, take all of the best things out of those and create a better one. From there it’s just a case of testing, testing and more testing until you are happy with your CTR.

3) No specific number, I generally do a little keyword research and then upload those so that they can be getting data, I’m too impatient to wait. During the first few days I will carry on gathering keywords to upload.

I don’t set goals like I need 1,000 keywords before I launch my campaign, I take it one step at a time.

4) Depends on the niche, I wouldn’t dream of going after ‘acai berry pills’, ‘online credit score’ or any other very broad and general keywords because I know they will cost a fortune and have loads of competition. I try to use Amit’s method and go wide to find the sub niches that work well, so far this hasn’t worked out great for me though.

5) I generally try to do them as tight as possible from the beginning, you can use tools like Speed PPC so that making them into 1 keyword per adgroup is quick and easy.

6) (I assume it’s 6 ) I don’t have a solid method in setting bids, now I have a bit more of a budget I try to set them higher to get the data in faster. Depending on the payout I would use $0.50-$1.00 depending on my mood and confidence in my keywords – then just take it from there (excluding zip/email submits obviously)

Vittorio asked:

Hey Richard,

thanks for taking our questions. Here are mine:

1. Do you use your landing pages to build a list or do you send the visitor directly to the offer, with a review-style landing page?

2. Do you promote email submits and lead-gen offers or do you also promote offers where the visitor has actually to “take out his credit card”?

3. Do you create your landing pages yourself or do you outsource them? Can you recommend some good designer who also understands the logic behind a landing page (e.g. copywriting)?

4. What’s your main traffic source? Search Network or Content Network? Do you also do media buys, Facebook, others?

5. How long does it take you to setup a test for a new offer (building the website, ppc campaign, etc.)? What traffic source do you use to test new offers? I know that some affiliates prefer Yahoo or MSN for testing offers, since there are no quality score problems there…

6. How many offers were you testing per month, when you first started? How long did it take you to become profitable?

Thanks again!

1) I use a landing page to pre-sell the offer, I haven’t yet started with building an email list. It’s on my to-do list.

2) At this moment in time I’m doing CPA offers.

3) I do them myself at the moment, I’m currently looking into outsourcing so that I can free up some time and get through more of the things I need to do.

4) Content network, I haven’t tried social media or media buys yet.

5) I would say I can get a campaign completed in about 4-5 days if I manage to sit down and do it. I’ve not done much with MSN but I do like Yahoo, it’s definitely good to test with them as they are more lenient – especially if you are a newbie.

6) I tested as many as I could, when I first started I had a full time job so I couldn’t get through as much as I wanted to but everything worked out fine in the end.

If you look back in my early days I pretty much fell into a decent campaign that made profit, since then it’s been a case of building that up.

John asked:

Hi Richard! Been following your blog for awhile, so I have a couple questions if you don’t mind responding to:

1.) How do you determine what the initial CPC of each keyword (or adgroup) given the CPA payout and average CPC of the keyword? What about for the Content Network too?

2.) How many offers at one point are you actively promoting that are profitable?

3.) Who is your primary affiliate network? List your referral link and I’ll signup under ya.

4.) Which search engine is your breadwinner? Google, Yahoo or MSN?

Thanks for giving us newbies the opportunity to ask questions!!

1) Already asked, short answer I pick anything between $0.50-$1.00 and go from there.

2) 2 at the moment, I’ve had a long break away and I also have a couple of projects outside of affiliate marketing I’m working on.

3) Copeac, Frank’s the man

4) I would honestly say I’ve had the most success with Yahoo, I can manage to get to grips with Google but I find it harder – I’m beginning to focus on Google more because as everyone says, the monies with Google. It does get easier with time and practice.

Alex asks:

Do you prefer Chicken or Steak burritos?

Thanks!
Alex

Hmm, probably the toughest question so far At this moment in time, steak.

Keith asked:

Do you have employees working for you? or is this a one man business? I’m just curious to know if you outsource any of your work. Thanks!

I’m a one man band at the moment, I want to look into outsourcing so that I can get through more work as my to-do list grows faster than I complete tasks off it.

Al asked:

Hi Richard,

Here’s a few questions:

1. Which CPA/Affiliate networks do you use?
2. What kind of scrubbing rate do you see for your CPA offers typically?
3. How often do you generally get paid by the CPA networks?
4. Example of a typical landing page layout?
5. Do you add content to the landing page sites when they
pan out and give you a decent ROI? i.e. build more of an authority site?
6. How many clicks do you allow for testing?
7. Keyword research tools used?

Thanks Richard. Awesome blog mate.

1) Copeac mainly

2) No idea how I can even check that on my end, surely they don’t disclose that sort of information?

3) Weekly

4) Depends on the approach, basic, review, sales page. Research your competition to find out examples of good landing pages that are working

5) I would like to say yes but I haven’t been doing that, instead I tend to try to get more traffic first.

6) Until I feel that the offer is a dud, usually when I’ve ran out of ideas on how to get it to work. I don’t have a set number in mind – I would usually go by the $ spent too. Something like if I’ve spent 2-3 times the payout or something.

7) Google’s and good old thinking/brainstorming