Work Yourself Up!

Book Marketing Exposed - Getting Reviews on Amazon

NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy the "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)

Every book, regardless of who wrote it or the level of publicity behind it, has a point where nobody has reviewed it.  And if you're selling on Amazon or similar sites, you want reviews, because they help sell the book.

So what do you do?

Personally, I ask for them.

Lots of authors I've dealt with are embarrassed to do this, but like most things, if you don't ask, you don't get.  In this case, it's because the majority of people visit Amazon to purchase books, not review them.  This is why you'll often see books which are selling well, but don't have a lot of reviews.

But as I mentioned earlier, when it comes to selling books on Amazon, reviews help...so you want as many as you can.  And here is my suggestion to make that happen...

Find a book that is similar to your book and directly contact people who have enjoyed it.  Offer them a free book.  When you send it, ask for a review.

Easy, right?

It is.  But that's no guarantee that you'll get a review.  My experience is that you'll get reviews on about 10% of the copies you send, so don't be cheap.  Send out 100 copies...or more, to get the reviews that you need.  It will be worth it.

Take a look at this one...   

'Whatever you think about and focus on the most, you'll tend to attract into your life', February 13, 2008

By Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)

   

David Hooper is a pragmatist - and an Idealist in the finest sense of the term! In this brief book ASK BELIEVE RECEIVE: 7 DAYS TO INCREASED WEALTH, BETTER RELATIONSHIPS, AND A LIFE YOU LOVE he avoids kitschy nonsense and in a bow to the time constraints of even the most devout 'self-help' addicts, he succinctly outlines his simple but pertinent methods for making changes.

The book is best read in the manner in which Hooper suggests: there are seven days to approach the different aspects of altering our lives by applying the principals of attraction, and to take advantage of his ideas requires the brief time to read his day's comment and then to apply it. 'Here's how it works: Your thoughts trigger your emotions. Your emotional state emits a specific "frequency" of energy to the universe. In turn, the universe returns events and experiences into your life that correspond with your emotional frequency'. With this bit of advice Hooper then proceeds through the topics of 1) How to attract money into your life, 2) How to attract ideal relationships, 3) How to attract your best health, 4) How to attract you dream job, and 5) How to attract everything needed for a successful business.

Throughout the book Hooper drops little gems, like 'Allowing actually means to be in a state of non-resistance', that on first glance seem rather obvious, but in the manner in which he incorporates common sense into his program for life enhancement they work very well. In a world full of self help manuals it is difficult to find the ones that actually work. For this reader, this is one of those! Grady Harp, February 08     Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?

Notice the "Top 10" badge.  This is somebody who reads a lot of books.  And this is the type of person you want-- either somebody who reads a lot of books, or somebody who specializes in the topic you are writing about.

If you can reach "tastemakers" like this, it's worth a lot more than the average review.

How do you reach these people?  Ask!

Book Marketing Exposed - You Can't Polish a Turd

NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy the "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)

I'm not here to embarrass anybody or call people out, but if you really want a book to sell, it has to be good.  Now, "good" is a matter of opinion.  Not everybody is going to like everything, nor should they, but some of this stuff is pure junk.  And I'm talking about...

• audio transcripts
• 20 authors, with each writing a single chapter
• 200-page sales letters with a full color cover

Releasing something like this will kill your credibility.  People aren't idiots.  Just look at some of these reviews...

Not really a "How to" book,

This book is a real deception.It is compound of several old interviews about how other people got rich in the Internet without giving any real specific details. Finally, the author uses 50 pages of the book you are paying for to promote other products.

Plenty of Hype - Not Enough Content!,

I'm disappointed to say this book is just one long 117-page sales letter. [NAME REMOVED] is a well-known promoter and marketer and this book contains basic snippets of information without really revealing much content. Lots of web site addresses and links to go check out but many of those just promote products. The information that is exposed is pretty old-hat in the Internet arena now, such as "squeeze pages" - there I've just revealed the main "amazing new" concept of the book.

Did the other reviewers read the same book that I did?

Wow! Where do I start? There were probably 50-60 grammar errors in this very short book. Didn't the author have a proofreader? You will be feeling like you wasted your $10 with this. Even the 3 free bonuses listed on the cover aren't accessible. The link provided in the book doesn't work. The author states in the Introduction, "This information is going to blow your mind..." That it did for its lack of value. The few simplistic secrets that he refers to as his "little known system" are all over the internet, and are free. He admits to being a promoter, and it shows!

Just a few of many...

Again, the definition of "good" is relative, but you can't fool people when you're trying to sell them one of the formats I've mentioned above and all of the positive reviews of from your marketing buddies.

And what's sad about this situation is that is really doesn't take a lot of time or effort to do something good.  A little bit goes a long way when it comes to editing and proofing...and all of that can be outsourced.  And I've found the business world very forgiving of "lack of content" if there are just a couple of good ideas within the entire book.  And I know these guys have good ideas...

So to take things in this series back a bit, let me say that the way I'm telling you to promote your book will definitely work, but it works 1000x better if you have something good to work with. :)

Book Marketing Exposed - The Truth About Amazon Best Seller Campaigns

NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy the "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)

If you've been online and in the "IM" or "make money" circle for any length of time, you've probably gotten an email from somebody, promising you a bunch of free bonus stuff if you buy a book on a certain day.  The purpose is two-fold.

1. Sell enough books to get a #1 position on Amazon.com. - As Amazon calculates its sales rankings every hour, if you buy enough books within a certain time, it's pretty easy to get a really good position on their chart.  If you're good at organization, even a small list buying during the 3am hour can throw off even the hottest books...for at least an hour.

2. Build a mailing list for the parties involved. - This is list building at its finest...  In order to get each of the free bonuses, the buyer must sign up for a list.  In other words, if you want 10 of the bonus items, you'll have to sign up for 10 different lists.

As a marketing guy, part of what I do is try new things.  I did a similar campaign for a book I did a few years ago with good luck, so I wanted to try it again, in a new market. So, a couple of months ago, I announced right here that I was looking for people who wanted to build a mailing list.

As you can imagine, a lot of people were interested.  Again, this is a great way to build a mailing list.  It's not uncommon to get thousands of people added on a single day.

So why didn't I do it?

First of all, I've already done it.  And I like conquering new territory...

But there were a few more reasons:

1. A huge rush of orders throws off Amazon's stocking system. - When you've got a new book and Amazon gets a ton of orders for it within a few hours, the automated inventory system thinks you've got something hot.  And because Amazon doesn't want to keep customers waiting or lose customers who might pass on buying because of a "currently out of stock" note, they order a ton of books from the publisher/distributor.

Now, a lot of the books in these best-seller campaigns are print-on-demand (POD) books, which aren't printed until there is an order for them.  But what if you're a self-published guy who is printing your own stuff at a local print shop and selling them via Amazon's Advantage Program?

For you, Amazon will need several hundred (or thousand) books to fill perceived demand...

That means you have to get the printer/binder to create more product and you've got to ship everything to Amazon's warehouse.  Easy right?

Yeah, it's easy enough, but if you're a smalltime player, the expense could really hurt your cash flow.

And it gets worse...

What happens when the perceived demand turns out to be just that?

When that happens, Amazon ships the books back to you...at your expense.  They're not going to warehouse hundreds (or thousands) of books when the title only sells a few copies each month, right?

So now you've got to warehouse them.  Another expense...unless you want to live among thousands of unsold books.

2. A huge rush of orders throws off Amazon's recommendation system. - When you visit a product page at Amazon, you'll see a section which says, "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" and displays similar books.

But how similar are they?

When these choices are created organically, they're very close.  For example, when you look at my new book, which is about the Law of Attraction, you'll see people have purchased other "Law of Attraction" books, including this book, and this workbook, which are both by me.

But when you've got something from a "best seller campaign," you're likely to see other "best seller" books in this section.

Why?  Because there are people who only buy when they're getting a free bonus.  Because of this, Amazon treats your book and the previous books which were promoted via similar campaigns, as similar. 

So your "make money" book might be up there with some weight loss book, or one of these "compilation books" where about 20 people each write a chapter, or even worse, an audio interview that has been transcribed and bound.

There are a lot worse things in the world, but the beauty of Amazon is that you're able to get recommendations on books which you might not have known about.  And since this is how the system figures out how to recommend things, you're losing out on this in a big way, because your "make money" book is being recommended with something totally unrelated.

3. A "best seller campaign" doesn't create a die hard, long term fan. - Let me take this one away from books and give you an example from a business which I am closely related, the music business.

Let's say you're in a band and get a hit single on the radio, or a reality show on MTV.  When you've millions and millions of people exposed to your stuff, it's pretty easy to get a number one record.

And while a number one record isn't a problem, the way you go about it when you come out of nowhere with a radio single, or you're all over MTV for a couple of months, doesn't exactly create the type of buyer who has any loyalty.  They may have liked the song, or that particular moment, but they know nothing else about you and who you are as an artist.

So what happens when the radio play isn't there and MTV no longer returns your calls?

Nothing.  Literally...

The "best seller campaign" model does not create the type of buyer you want.  Again, look at the listing for Ask, Believe, Receive and notice how many of the people who bought it are also buying my other books.  They're not looking for the "single" or a "moment in time."  They're looking for certain information, which they're trusting me to provide...not buying because of a free bonus.

Yes, selling a ton of books is great, and the money spends well, but you'll make so much more money in the long run by doing a promotion that is longterm and through, rather than a flash in the pan email campaign with a ton of free bonuses.

One more thing...

Can you remember any of the authors who has done a big single-day Amazon push?

Book Marketing Exposed - Promoting Your Book (or Other Product) Online

NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy be "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)

One of the things which totally blew my mine when I got discovered that I wasn't the only guy marketing stuff online and that there was actually an "IM" community, was how people would start something, have a huge blow out, and then drop it like it was infected with something awful...  These guys would come up with huge courses for hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars, which took weeks of work to prepare, do a promotion for a week, and that was it.

Of course, a lot of this stuff is outsourced, and there are shortcuts to creating "big" products (transcripts, audio interviews, transcripts of audio interviews, worksheets, screen capture videos, a CD with mp3 files of everything, using 25lb paper with large margins), but still, I found it odd that people would spend so much time on making something, only to promote it and take it off the market a few days later.

I understand why people do this, and I understand that much of the content which appears to be "gone forever" is actually repurposed into another course with another name, but a lot of folks are missing the boat when it comes to product promotion...

In the publishing business, you must to two things:

1. Always be creating. - This is something the online marketing crowd has done well.  The big guys like Yanik Silver, Armand Morin, Russell Brunson, and Dan Kennedy seem to have something new on an almost weekly basis.  That's smart.

But what I don't see a lot of people in this market so is:

2. Always be promoting. - There is a pre-launch, a massive blowout of dozens of "guru" emails about the product on a single day, and then that's it.  Once those few hours (or even minutes) of the product being on the market are done, that's it.

Now, sometimes the product goes off the market.  And I understand that this must happen in order to really do well with a "scarcity" pitch. 

But what about the products that are still on the market?  For example, all the "Amazon Best Seller" books, which hit number one for a day, and promptly tank after that.

I know Amazon.  In the last year, I've released 12 books which are available there.  And that is what got me thinking about all of this.

A few months ago, I came out with a new book called Quit Your Job (and Never Go Back) - How to Create, Start, & Market an Online Business for Under $500 in 30 Days or Less.  And because of my aggressive release schedule with other books, I haven't done much to promote it.  I certainly haven't done a big push.

And that brings me to my point...

What I have done has been enough to get consistent sales.  Nothing spectacular, certainly, but I'm selling more than other books which came out around the same time and had a "best seller" push.

And when you add these consistent sales to the other books (and products) I have which do the same thing, it all adds up to a nice amount of money.

My background is in the music business.  And I've always said that I'd rather have a band on my team who is consistent at hitting "singles" every time they're at bat, rather than a group that will give me a home run every so often, but strikes out 90% or more of the time.

This same concept applies to the business of marketing...

Yes, you can hit #1 on Amazon. It's easy.  I've made the Top 20 with one email promotion from a small list, while I was on the road speaking.  Anybody can do it.

But that book, and others like it, don't do nearly as well as the ones who are promoted in a "slow and steady" way.

You don't have to be a marketing genius if you'll put your nose to the grindstone and come out with products on a consistent basis.  And you don't have to be a marketing genius to outsource simple promotion methods, which work day after day, month after month...as long as you continue to do them.  It's not as sexy as a big launch where everybody is praising your name for a day, but the money you make will be plentiful and more beneficial to you in the long run, I promise.

I'm in the process of gathering ideas for authors to promote their books and I plan to post them here.  These will work for musicians with recorded music, online marketers with web sites, and anybody in the information product business.  If you're interested, make sure you bookmark my page or subscribe to my feed to keep updated.

And if there is anything specific you'd like to know, please leave a comment. :)

Book Marketing Exposed - Free Teleseminar TONIGHT!

NOTE: This is part of a series I am doing here, which explains how I am marketing my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you enjoy be "behind the scenes" info on this promotion and feel the book would help you, please purchase it. :)

Online marketing is great, but it often lacks the "personality" of getting in the same room with people.

But getting in the same room with people is time consuming and can be a lot of work...

A good compromise is the teleseminar, or in other words, a big conference call.  People call in and listen to you make a presentation.  And sometimes, if you want they ask questions.

I've got this new book called Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love, which is about the Law of Attraction.  It talks about using the Law of Attraction to make more money, have better relationships, and maintain excellent health, so I'm doing a 3-part teleseminar, each concentrating on one of these segments, to promote it.

The first one is tonight and the focus is MONEY.  If you want to call in, here's the info:

Date: Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Time: 9pm Eastern

Number to Dial: 1-712-432-2323  (Iowa)

Access Code: 927690

If you've never been on a teleseminar, just call using your phone like you would any other number.  Again, it's just a big conference call.  And for this one (and any call during this series), there is no charge other than whatever your phone company charges you to call Iowa.

HOW I SET THINGS UP:

If you're doing a teleseminar, you obviously want people to call in (or listen to a recording later).  And getting this to happen is perhaps the hardest part of the whole process.

I'm lucky in that I have other books on Law of Attraction as well as a blog on the subject.  This as well as other promotion I've done in the past (articles, speaking engagement, interviews, etc), has enabled me to build a nice following and mailing list.

But yet another teleseminar isn't enough...  There are dozens of them going on every day...especially in the "make money" niche.

I decided to make this series interactive.  I'm taking questions that people have about the Law of Attraction and how it relates to money and then personally answering them, live on the teleseminar.  And, as I'm an expert on the subject, this makes the call more of an "event."

This "event" feeling is what you're looking for.  If you want people to call you, it can't be "just another call" or something they'll be able to make at another time.

And on a side note...  When I do something like this, I concentrate on content.  My purpose is to answer the questions which have been asked.  If I do that, the book I am doing a soft promotion for will sell itself.  When people know they're going to get good content, and not an hour long sales pitch, they're more likely to call in.

There is obviously a bit of effort involved when it comes to making yourself into an expert that people would want to call, building a mailing list so that they'll be aware the event exists, and getting a reputation for delivering content worth calling in for, but in a nutshell, this is pretty much the process of putting something like this together.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

1. Obviously, you need a phone.  My suggestion is to call on a landline, as they sound much better than other options such as a mobile phone, VOIP setup like Vonage, or Skype. But if you don't have a landline, don't let that keep you from doing something. :)

2. You need a conference line.  I've used several over the years, both paid and free, and there is little difference...except perception.

If you're selling some kind of "make money" product or you're charging people to be on the call, you don't want to use a service like FreeConference.com.  A company like Black and White Communications has several options, including a private label version, which will give callers a message like, "Thanks for calling the WorkYourSelfUp.com Conference Center" when they call.

With that said, people are often worried about being charged per minute (beyond normal long distance fees) for a conference call, so something like "Welcome to the conference line, brought to you by FreeConference.com" on the front end message is actually a great sticking point that will help you ease the fears of people.

3. There is a saying in the speaking business that "if it's worth saying, it's worth recording."  I agree.

If you're going to go through the trouble of creating content for a call and doing the promotion for it, it's a wise idea to record it.  You'll then be able to post the recording for people who didn't make the call.

And a lot of people won't make the call, by the way...  For one, there is a big learning curve about this medium.  People don't understand how it works, they feel they'll have to speak in front of others, they feel they'll be charged a lot of money per minute, or, if you're using the Internet to promote, they're on the other side of the world and are asleep!

WHAT HAPPENS IF NOBODY CALLS:

It happens.  When I started in radio, I'd do giveaways on the air and nobody would call.  When that happened, I'd just come back on and say, "Congratulations to [MADE UP NAME] who was our 7th caller!  He's taking home a [INSERT PRIZE]."

Nobody knew.  And nobody will know if they're the only one on the line with you.

Bottom line, the show must go on.  People call in late, they drop out early, etc.  You can't let that distract you.  Plus, if you're recording everything, you've got an audience that will benefit from the recording later, so who cares if nobody is around to hear you do things live?

THE BOTTOM LINE:

The bottom line is you just have to do it.  Not having people is no excuse.  In fact, if you don't have a book yet, that's not an excuse either.  Start now and you'll have lots of people calling you by the time you do have one.

One the most common things I get from people is that they don't like the sound of their voices.  Well, welcome to the club.  You don't hear your voice in the same way other people do, it takes a bit of getting used to when you listen to a recording of it.

I never thought of myself as a guy with a "great" voice...but now I'm host of a weekly, syndicated radio show.  And every week, somebody tells me, "You've got such a great radio voice."

So get out there and go after it.  Chances are, when you start, nobody is going to be listening anyway.  And, much like dancing, it's a lot better to work through all the kinks when nobody is around than when you're surrounded by a crowd.

If you have any thoughts, please post then below.

Good luck!!

 

Ho Ho Ho - Holiday Promotions for Your Business

We've got a few big holidays coming up this month and that's the perfect time to do something nice for your customers...or just people on your mailing list, or readers of your blog.

What is your favorite store?  Since this blog talks a lot about online marketing, let's say it's Amazon.

If you liked Amazon and they send you some kind of mug with Amazon on it (which they have, by the way) or maybe a gift certificate, wouldn't you be thrilled?  Imagine gathering your family around the yule log, drinking egg nog with your Amazon mug...

Well, your company's fans will feel the same way when you send then something.  And you'll stand out from everybody else, who just sends a line or two wishing "happy holidays" via email.  Lame.

There are so many things you can do to promote your business and help build customer loyalty during the holidays.  If you're doing something creative, I'd love to hear about it.  Post below...

Jaime Luchuck vs. Charles Trippy

The Next Internet Millionaire, an online reality show, which more or less, is just like the Apprentice, is done...almost.  Everything is down to two people, Jaime Luchuck and Charles Trippy.  They've both created products and the one with the most sales by tomorrow wins the show.

I made the comment back in August that the personality shown in the audition videos was more interesting than the show itself.  Jaime did a great job on that end.

But I've got to give Charles the upper hand when it comes to personality on the final task.  His sales page, a mashup of a video mixed with a graphically-enhanced, long sales letter.  Works for the guys who don't want to read, and it works for the guys who do.

Jaime has more of a traditional sales letter for her product.  Not bad, but I feel it's lacking on doing a good job of showing who she is.  And showing who she is, in my opinion, is pretty important when it comes to selling a book about a personal experience.

And for focus, I've got to give that to Charles also.  He has a product on video and the bonuses he offers people are directly related to that.  For example, you get a couple of weeks to check out Traffic Geyser, a service to upload the videos he's going to show you how to create.

Bonuses are usually a good idea, but Jaime's product actually gets lost because she has over 60 of them.  Probably around 80, but I lost count...  And many of them are cheap ebooks, which are available everywhere else or have nothing to do with making money, such as a solitaire program.

This makes the page come off like a rehashed ebook library with absolutely no value.  All that was really needed, in my opinion, is the workbook. And that's great, by the way.  The book is currently on backorder for 4-6 weeks, but the wait will be worth it, if it's of the same quality.

Overall, this is a great opportunity for both these guys to get a foothold on this market.  Rarely does somebody come into this niche (or any niche) with such immediate recognition.  My hope is that they'll both be able to continue with momentum and keep things up.  They're certainly both talented enough to do so.

And that takes me back to personality...

The push of being having somebody else do your promotion for you, whether it's being on a television show, or having an endorsement sent to your mailing list, can be a great thing.  It's a double-edged sword though.  It's only a great thing if it works for who you are.

Without naming names, some of the people on Next Internet Millionaire were wasting their time.  They don't fit the mold, which was what all the tests were based on.  You may go from a 9-to-5 to something else with a show like this, but working with people you can't stand is painful regardless of where they are or what time of day it is.

There are a million ways to make money online, so it's not necessary to force square pegs into round holes, even if you do get a big push out of it.

The One and Only Way to Make Big Money Online

I've been thinking about this for quite some time.  If you sell information products or offer any kind of service for a fee online, this should interest you.

What does it take to make BIG money online? You see, it is easy to make money online, but it's not easy to make BIG money.

Let me explain...

It's easy to set up a site and slap some Adsense on it to make a few bucks or do some Adwords to promote an affiliate product. That way you can make a few bucks here and there.

But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the big bucks. Tens of thousands of dollars and even millions.

There is only one way to do it.

SELL HIGH PRICED PRODUCTS!

When you sell high priced products, you need just a few customers to make the big bucks. But with a low price, you need lots of people to sell to.

For example, if you want to make one million dollars, you need to sell 100,000 copies of a $10 product.

To sell to 100,000 people, you'll probably need about 2,000,000 targeted visitors to view your offer (That's a 5% conversion ratio). But if you sell a $1,000 product, you'll only need to sell to 1,000 people.

Another reason why I prefer selling high priced products is that those that buy them are easier to deal with.

You better believe that.

A person that pays you $1,000 will be more sophisticated and polite to you than the person that paid $10

Yes I know. It's their money and they have every right to ask questions. But that's not the point.

The point is YOU WANT TO MAKE BIG BUCKS so don't waste too much time on such people.

Your time is very important.

Now I'm not saying you should just go and change the price of your products from N2,500 to N25,000. Rather, find a way to add value to it so you can increase the price.

If you've got a big manual, try breaking it down into different parts and also
do an audio and video version. Think creatively and you'll come up
with your own premium priced products.

$1,000,000/year Teaching Music Online?!

Sounds hard to believe, but you'll see it's 100% real when he pulls up a video with his sales stats.  Very impressive.

And this system doesn't just work for teaching music...it will work for your business, too.

As many of you know, I work in the music business, I can personally tell you that, if you can make something happen there, you can make it happen anywhere.  Musicians are notorious for their "starving artist" mindset.  Think about what you can do with a market that doesn't have that working against them?

TeachMusicOnline.com has all the details.

Low Investment Internet Marketing

One of the biggest problems for new internet marketers is learning how to advertise their products, affiliate products, or websites without spending a small fortune in PPC ads.  Luckily, there are several fantastic ways to go about this, some of which can help you to lower the costs of your PPC campaigns while others require no investment at all.  Let’s take a look at some of these methods for lowering the amount of investment you need to make when marketing products or services.

First, there are a few great methods for reducing the costs of your PPC ad campaigns.  Poorly constructed campaigns can drain your money faster than almost any other form of online marketing, and if you are a beginner, chances are you are making some crucial mistakes that are costing you big time! 

Keyword-targeted campaigns are the most commonly used campaigns, so keywords are either your best friends or your worst enemies.  Many sources of internet marketing “knowledge” seem to state that giant lists of general keywords are the best route for pulling traffic.  While this does pull lots of traffic, short, general keywords are more often than not the downfall of an otherwise good campaign.  Lots of traffic equates into lots of per-click costs.  General keywords, however, do not generally bring converting traffic.  The thing to remember about traffic is this – one highly-targeted potential buyer is worth thousands of non-targeted non-buyers.

Trim your keywords and remove general, slightly-related terms that are only meant to pull more people in.  These keywords, in almost every case, will not convert.  They will also cost you quite a bit more per click.  Go for the long-tail keywords and the highly-targeted keywords.  Allow me to explain.

Long tail keywords are keywords that consist of four or more words.  Let’s say you’re selling a product to teach people to make money online.  “Make money online”, “make money”, “earn money”, and similar search terms are some of the most awful keywords you could possibly use, as these are some of the most over-used and therefore over-priced keywords possible!  Use some keyword programs and sites to get some long-tail keywords however, and you may end up with a list with keywords such as “earn more money online today”, “make money as an internet marketer”, “how do I make more money online”, etc.  These terms are going to pull less traffic, but if you put together a good number of long-tails, you will still pull a substantial number of hits.  The great part is that long-tail keywords are going to cost you substantially less than the general keywords, and therefore you get twice the traffic for half the price. 

Highly-Targeted keywords are keywords such as “Buy product”, “Purchase product”, and “Order product”.  These terms are very specific, and will bring in those searchers who are ready to purchase a product right now.  This is some of the best traffic your site will see!

Site-Targeted campaigns in Google are an often overlooked but highly profitable way of running a campaign.  Find the sites at the top of an organic search for your keywords, put them into your site-targeted campaign, and watch those sites’ traffic filter into yours for a fraction of the cost of PPC. 

Finally, one of the most effective marketing methods is also free!  Article marketing has proven to be one of the best ways to drive quality traffic to your site.  The best part about article marketing, aside from being free, is that your articles can bring traffic for months or even years!  This is a cumulative effort – the more articles you write and put out there, the more traffic will continue coming to your site.  It’s brilliant, it’s easy, and it’s free – give it a shot!