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4 Steps To Increase your Affiliate Earnings with PPC

Guest post by: Jeff Casmer

Article Overview: PPC, also known as pay-per-click is probably one of the best, not to mention the fastest, ways to increase your affiliate earnings. The following details some very important information for those new to pay-per-click to get their start. Veterans of PPC will also find it helpful to keep this list in order to remind themselves of the fundamentals.

4 Steps To Increase your Affiliate Earnings with PPC

PPC, also known as pay-per-click is probably one of the best, not to mention the fastest, ways to increase your affiliate earnings. The following details some very important information for those new to pay-per-click to get their start. Veterans of PPC will also find it helpful to keep this list in order to remind themselves of the fundamentals.

1. Do your keyword research

This is a crucial step to successful PPC marketing. In order to draw quality traffic to your website, traffic that will result in sales, you need to know which keyword phrases to bid on. You can sign up for WordTracker, or you can use Google's free keyword tool.

You can expect a higher bid for more competitive keywords. However, as you go through the list you will notice that there some keywords that are not being heavily targeted. Take a look at theses as they may result in a successful niche campaign.

The best advice though when it comes to PPC is to know your audience and your affiliate programs thoroughly. This way you can create pay-per-click ads that target keyword phrases that those in your market would be likely to search with and increase your affiliate earnings.

For example, if you were an affiliate to a website that sold high heels instead of betting on the keyword "shoes", you may be more successful bidding on a phrase such as "green alligator pumps." In other words, refine your keywords.

2. Do not ignore the advice of others

PPC is one of those games that have ever changing rules. This makes it difficult to become an expert, unless you keep up with those who already have a good grasp of the game. Buy and read "how to" books, subscribe to newsletters that offer information on the topic, and stay current with the latest pay-per-click trends by seeking the advice of those who already know what they're doing. Seasoned veterans would also be wise to constantly keep an open mind, in order to gain new knowledge to further increase their affiliate earnings. The worst thing you can do is to pigeonhole yourself to one way of thinking.

3. Test, test, test and test again

This is perhaps the most important step to successful advertising. You need to know what ads are working and which ones are duds. The beauty of PPC is that the internet makes it easy to measure your success. This can be done by creating split A/B ads. Send one group to page A, and the other to page B. The changes could be adding a value proposition or just changing the font of the heading title. Just be sure that you only change one thing per test.

Testing lets you decipher what is working and what it isn't. You may also want to consider joining an ad tracker service that lets you determine which ads are converting into sales and which ones are sucking your revenue.

4. Not all clicks are created equal

Keep in mind that the name of the game here is not traffic. True, more traffic will increase your probability of sales; however, there is no point in creating an ad that draws thousands of visitors if no one buys your product.

Let's say you send 1,000 visitors to a sponsor or affiliate program. You buy those visitors from a pay-per-click search engine for a .10 each. In U.S. money, that is $100. Now, let's say you made two sales. What you really paid is $50 per sale. You spent $100 to make 2 sales. So those two sales cost you $50 each. If you made 10 sales from the same traffic, your sales would have cost you $10 each.

You want to spend your time targeting traffic that will result in what I call cash clicks-that is clicks that result in sales otherwise you are wasting your advertising budget.

To avoid losing money on unnecessary clicks, test all your ads, create a few ads in the beginning and measure their success before bidding on more keywords, and create a different campaign for each keyword, do not bunch your ads together. It is also important to keep a close eye on your visitors. Where are they coming from? How long are they staying? Is their visit resulting in a sale? PPC marketers will at some point experience click fraud to minimize this keep a close on your all your ads so this helps you increase your affiliate earnings.

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  Affiliate Marketing Commissions

Article Tags: 4 steps, affiliate earnings, important information, payperclick



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Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - Carol, Mary and David - thanks for your great input and insight on Affiliate Marketing! This is the kind of discussion I was hoping for in this thread. There are pros and cons to Affiliate Marketing, just as there are to any business. As has been suggested, he best policy is to proceed with caution and do some research before jumping in. As Carol has recommended, this topic thread in the EvanCarmichael.com forum is the ideal place to ask questions and seek further input on available Affiliate Marketing programs. If a person is serious about building an online business and is interested in Affiliate Marketing plans, they should approach the process as they would any other form of business. Research, ask questions, compare opportunities, participate in forums on online business and Affiliate Marketing. GT :-]
How to valuate a business - Hi Garth - here is how we did it at Northern Crown Capital when I was helping them raise venture capital for Toronto-based entrepreneurs. Assume the start date is 2003 so 2008 projections are 5 years out: How Northern Crown Capital Valuates a Business 2008 Financial Projections Earnings Before Tax $5,865,000 Tax Rate 42% Taxes $2,463,300 Net Earnings $3,401,700 Amount Seeking to Raise Today $3,500,000 Discounted Value of Future Opportunity, 5 Years Out 2008 P/E Ratio 15 Value of Company in 2008 $51,025,500 Discount Rate Applied 30% Year 2008 $51,025,500 Year 2007 $35,717,850 Year 2006 $25,002,495 Year 2005 $17,501,747 Year 2004 $12,251,223 Value of Company at Investment in 2003 $12,251,223 Less: Investment Amount $3,500,000 Present Value $8,751,223 Discount for Risk & Private Company 40% Less: Discount for Risk & Private Company $3,500,489 Private Company Value $5,250,734 Present Value (What the Owner Keeps) $5,250,734 60.00% Financing (What the Investor Gets) $3,500,000 40.00% Total $8,750,734 100.00% I hope this helps!
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - You made some very good points here Jeff and I agree with you, Affiliate Marketing should not be something that you concentrate all your efforts into. As i said earlier I have learned a lot with Affiliate Marketing and continue to do so, and it has helped me tremendously to understand what I am going to have to do in my chosen niche(s). I am also being coached by the same group of mentors as GT and we are all moving forward daily to achieve our ultimate goals. Take care, Carol
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - Hi GT Affiliate Marketing is one of the easier ways to get started making money online, but it does take quite a bit of work before you see any great results as you have to keep promoting constantly. It does teach you one hell of a lot about all aspects of Internet Marketing though as you will need to learn how to write and submit articles, create and maintain a blog, social networking is a great help to affiliates too..the list goes on and on. In fact from what you learn from Affiliate Marketing you can apply to any niche and be sure to succeed, take care, Carol
2007 Goals - My yearly goals for December 2007: 1. Add 10-15 new "ideal" clients to our client roster 2. Increase revenues by $500,000 3. Average at least 1 paid speaking engagement per month.


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