Nextebizguy
Exploring Ways To Make Money Online
Archive for September, 2006
Preparing for the Holiday Shopping Season
Sep 26th
The catalogs are starting to show up in my mail. The holiday shopping season is starting and it’s time to start preparing your Adwords campaigns for the coming season. Here is an example of the type of traffic patterns you’ll find for various electronic items.
Sep Oct Nov Dec 0.35 0.36 0.62 1 0.39 0.37 0.56 1 0.36 0.42 0.52 1
I’m getting these numbers from the Google Adwords keyword research tool. I’m running numbers on a particular DVD player and you can see the spike in traffic volume coming in November and December. Now is the time to find the products you want to promote!
I’m starting to go through the catalogs, looking for niche products for an affiliate Adwords campaign. I’m also redesigning one of my websites to take this traffic and sell it. The basics remain the same. You have to do your homework and make sure that what you are going to pay for the traffic is acceptable at a 1 – 2% traffic conversion rate. If you can’t turn a profit off the affiliate commission, don’t run the campaign. There is no need to donate to Google this Holiday season. Let’s examine being an Amazon affiliate. Currently, the basic payout for electronics is 4%. If you want to run an Adwords campaign, you’re going to need a fairly expensive item in order to make a profit at the typical 2% conversion rate. If you have to pay 20 cents a click, you will need to promote a product that sells for > 250 dollars. The higher your pay per click goes, the more expensive the item must be. Stay tuned for more…Establish Your Business Credibility
Sep 20th
If you’re going to be successful with your website, product, or with influencing others, you must have credibility. But what if you are new to an industry or don’t have much experience? Here are three keys to establishing your credibility.
1. Showcase Your Expertise
You need to answer the question “why should I listen to you?” What particular qualifications demand attention? What have you done that others have not? What degrees do you hold? What life experience do you have? How many hours research have you spent? What training or certifications do you have? If you don’t have a particular expertise in an online venture, partner with someone that does.
As an exercise, open up a phone book and look through major ads. Can you identify how companies are showcasing their expertise?
Some examples:
“Over 70 years combined construction experience”
Pictures of completed work
Former District Attorney
2. Establish Your Trustworthiness
Expertise without trustworthiness is worthless. If you’re a crook, nobody will want to do business with you. You need to answer the question “how do I know I can trust you?” Do you have a contact E-mail address and/or phone number? Do you have a privacy policy? Do you have testimonials? Do you offer a money-back guarantee? You must build trust with your prospective buyers and maintain that trust.
More examples from the phone book:
Logo from the Better Business Bureau
Free estimates
Independently audited and approved
3. Increase Your Exposure
If nobody has heard of you, your expertise and trustworthiness are great but useless. You need to get “face time” with your potential clients. Are you writing quality posts in appropriate forums? Are you writing articles that demonstrate your expertise? Are you sending PR releases? Are you soliciting radio talk shows? Part of establishing your credibility is being out there as an expert.
How many of these keys are your currently implementing?
For more great “how to” articles, check out: Problogger Contest.
Guru Hype With A Revealing Admission
Sep 29th
Posted by Nextebizguy in Commentary
No comments
Consider this a continuation of my “beware the hype” rants. I subscribe to multiple online marketing guru newsletters and I got this today:
The insiders know that there are BS preview calls?! Gee, I wonder which gurus do that? What’s funny is that when you get so many of these E-mails, you quickly learn that they all use the same tactics. I wonder why? Maybe they all copy each other? There’s hardly an original idea in the bunch. Typical False Hype:Please, be a critical thinker in life and in business.