What Newbies Need to Know About AdWords and Internet Marketing
Here are the top 14 things a newbie should know before he starts internet marketing using AdWords
1. AdWords is not for everyone
I will tell you now that internet marketing is not for everyone. Mostly it’s not for the faint of heart. If you’re afraid to take risk, lose money, handle pressure, make decisions, and miserably fail… Then AdWords IS NOT FOR YOU.
2. It takes money to make money with AdWords
AdWords is a money hungry and greedy program that is really meant for the big boys. However it is accessible to just about anyone with $5 to authorize an account. Be prepared and understand that you will need lots of money to get started and that advertising online is not like taking out an ad in the local newspaper. The average company will spend over 100k per month on AdWords alone. The average super affiliate will spend about 100k per month in AdWords alone. You may not need 100k to start, but remember that $100 is probably not going to do it and if you have no money then… AdWords IS NOT FOR YOU.
3. There is a learning curve involve with making a profit on AdWords, usually about 6 months to a year
If you can handle stress, risk and failure and you have some money to make money, then the next thing you need to know is that setting up a campaign and making a profitable AdWords campaign is not going to happen overnight. I have trained many SEM (Search Engine Marketing) employees and affiliates and on average it takes about 6 months before I can allow them to make decisions on their own. Be ready to learn, be ready to fail, be ready to spend the next 6 months to a year learning to turn a profit. If you are looking for success overnight then… AdWords IS NOT FOR YOU.
4. Everything you read online from gurus was designed to make the guru money, not the reader
If you are willing to learn, fail and spend money, then you’re probably going to start looking for advice. So of course we want to take advice from those who have made it already. Those are the eBook “Gurus”. The eBooks run anywhere from $25 to $250 and practically claim to guarantee success. What you don’t know is that those eBooks have 2 problems. First the information in them was put together to make someone else money and is usually full of hype, nonsense or contains up selling for other products and services. Of course there would be no value if they didn’t leave any golden nuggets on how to manage a campaign, so they leave fool’s gold. These are techniques that no longer work, but used to work. They no longer work anymore because Google likes to patch the holes in their system and as affiliate marketers discover and exploit those holes, Google figures them out and shuts them down. Then an eBook comes out shortly after about a magical system that made them millions. Well that’s the key, it used to make them money and now they are milking the remaining method by selling an eBook for $99 to anyone who is willing to pay. If you’re not sure what eBooks I’m talking about I have created a PPC eBook Wall of Shame
5. The best way to learn basic AdWords is to pass the Google AdWords exam
Before you can run you must learn to walk. That means learn what the system has to offer and how it all works. You need to know how to make a campaign, change things, edit, update and you need to know what all the settings do. There are lots of links and buttons so be sure you know what each one of them does before you proceed. The best way to learn this is by studying Googles help guide, watching the Google Video Lessons, and then pass the Google exam to become an AdWords professional. This course will ensure you know all the basics and kick start you to learning the system much faster.
6. The best way to master AdWords is with a mentor
If you are really serious about learning AdWords and internet marketing, then you need to find a mentor. Find someone who can spend lots of personal time with you to hold your hand. Mentoring however is not cheap and expect to pay a monthly base tuition plus a percentage of income. However if you want the fast track to learning and success online then this is the way to go. It ensure you campaigns are done properly, your landing pages are made right, proper keyword selection and a marketing strategy. If you want to get mentored, PPC Kings offers a mentoring program where you will be trained by the PPC King himself, or one of his students who has mastered the system. If you can’t afford a mentor then try teaming up with a select group of students to learn and share secrets.
7. Google does not favor specific accounts, any account can be great (It’s not a hit or miss situation)
Sometimes affiliates feel they are just getting picked on or that Google just simply picks accounts at random for who they want to be successful and who they don’t. This is not true and every account has an equal opportunity to turn profits and make money. The accounts we manage are all in great standing and turn serious profits per day. Many times a poorly constructed account is revamped to perform just as you would want it. So if things are not going right, you’re probably just doing something wrong and there is nothing wrong with admitting to failure. Just figure out what is failing and why, then stop doing it and do something else. My all time favorite quote is “If you keep doing what you’re doing, then you’ll keep getting what your getting”.
8. Google is used to budgets of $1k per day up to $10k per day per campaign.
I hear so many times, “I spend XXX amount of dollars with Google every month, why don’t they pay attention to me or give me better customer service”. The truth is if you’re not spending upwards of $50k or more per month, you’re considered a small fry to them. It’s sad and unfortunate but it’s the reality and from what I have seen they are not concerned about losing the guy who spends $10k per month, because advertisers are a dime a dozen, willing to throw money at them and lots of it. They are used to advertisers spending $50k, $100k, $500k and some companies pay in the millions per month for Googles services. They are going to invest their personal time on the accounts that matter and that’s the guys with the big budget. But don’t let this get you down, just be happy to even have the opportunity to use their system to make money from the comfort of your own home and possible lots of it…
9. You need to know HTML, PHP. and even MYSQL, or at least know someone who does
Bet you would have never guess you needed to be a geek to run an internet marketing campaign, but it’s the unfortunate truth. You need to know how to create and manipulate web pages because you cannot simply send traffic to another website, also known as direct linking. You need to have your own landing pages and these days most pages are done in HTML and PHP. You will need to know PHP so you can pull information into your landing page dynamically. Secondly you will need some understanding of mysql because many times the information you are pulling via PHP is from sql databases. If you don’t know these then I recommend reading up at W3 Schools where you will learn all the basics of these languages. You will also need to visit the PHP website frequently to freshen up on all your function and variables. Lastly here is the link to learn about MySQL.
10. You will need your own hosting account, and not from Godaddy either
You’re going to need a place to host those HTML, PHP and MySql databases and free or cheap hosting is not going to cut it either. If you plan on sending hundreds or even thousands of visitors to your dedicated landing pages then you’re going to need hosting that can handle the load and bandwidth to make those pages load fast. Personally I really like Media Temple and there grid server hosting, because its fast, reliable, can handle heavy server loads, and only costs $20 per month to start. If you don’t use Media Temple then ensure whoever you go with is fast and reliable. I have ran into many hosting nightmares and so far this one is the most trustworth.
11. 3rd part traffic analysis and conversion tracking is a must. Do not rely of Google to provide you the information you need to optimize
If you are going to spend lots of money and take on risk, invest all this time on learning and mentorships then you better know what you’re spending your money on and unfortunately Google is not going to provide you with that solution. You are going to need a 3rd party tracking and analytics solution. New analytics programs and services are coming out all the time so here is a link to my resource for PPC analytics and conversion tracking which I will keep updated on all the time. However the best solutions are in house solutions designed around your business and kept on your own servers so that nobody can take a peek at your campaigns. It’s OK to be a little paranoid and secretive about analytics and conversion data, because this data is the journal to your success and failures on how your internet marketing campaign is doing.
12. AdWords is meant for businesses, so if you’re an affiliate marketer you need to treat your venture like a business. That means have a business plan, marketing strategy and etc…
No matter how your making money it should be treated like a business and that means treat your affiliate campaigns and strategy just as if you were opening up a business on the street. Have a game plan, do your research, study your competitors and find ways to excel above and beyond the rest. There are so many lazy affiliate marketers expecting to make a quick buck and those are the ones you hear griping that internet marketing doesn’t work or that they lost thousand on Google with no return. Those people never did their home work, and then never made a plan for success and they never had goals to guide their direction. The goal was simply to make money and that’s not a real goal. I was told once to envision myself already successful. Picture and image what I would be doing at that point once I have completed my goal, then… make your plan backwards. How did you get there, what were all the struggles and hurdles and what steps were needed to be made to get to my goal. Don’t plan forward from nothing. Envision your success and then map out the plan of action backwards.
13. Google is not a set it and forget it program. You may make money while you sleep and 24 hours a day, but its going to take you 8 – 10 hours of optimization per day to keep on top of things
There is a big misconception, and I think this is one of the biggest ones, is that internet marketers make money all day long… While playing tennis, surfing, traveling the world on vacation, while in bed sleeping and while relaxing on the sandy beaches of Oahu. Well, if that were true, they are probably doing all that while simultaneously working on their laptop trying to optimize their campaign and while on the phone with their account managers, business associates, vendors, suppliers, banks, accountants and lawyers. It’s as much of a headache as any other business and it has it pros and cons too. The internet marketing making money in his pajamas 24/7 while on vacation is a pipe dream and a marketing hoax to sell eBooks full of ways to lead you on and take your money. Internet marketing is a full time job and sometimes its 60 hour weeks, don’t be fooled, be prepared.
14. If you fail, try… try… …try… again
I was once told that every time you fail, you just found a new way not to do something and if it takes you 1,000 failures to figure out how to do something right then at least one day you will have met your goal. If your goal is to make money online from home, then you will need to fail, but every time you fail consider it a win, because you just learned to never do that again. I have failed many times doing internet marketing and even today sometimes I fail and learn something new, but I have so many failures under my belt that my campaigns now go the way I want them to… most of the time. Expect to fail… Want to fail… ensure that you fail, because without failure you can’t do something right and if you’re not failing then you’re failing to fail…
By Anonymous
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Tags: HTML, Internet Marketing, PHP, things