Affiliate Marketing for Beginners Blog

Affiliate Marketing-MMP PPC Profit Calculator    

There is a new piece of software out that lets you run numbers on a potential PPC campaign you may be planning. 

It is interesting because it makes you analyze key factors before you actually spend any money to test your offer.

It requires that you calculate your total exact match search volume to begin the exercise.  It then asks you for a percentage estimate of how many of those exact searches will turn into impressions triggered by your ads.  A typically conservative number is 10%, a more agressive number is 15%.

It then wants you to input a number for a click through rate, a cost per click, conversion rate, price of the product and your commission.

It then takes all that data and renders a profit or loss.  Along the way it will give you days to a sales, click per day and per month and other pertinent data.

It assumes a $1 a day budget to start testing.  Yes that’s right $1 a day.  There is a column to input a higher budget if you want.

The point behind the exercise is that you can play with different scenarios to see if an offer makes business sense or not.  You can play with different cost per click, conversion rates, click through rates and total search and impression counts.

All in all it is a great tool for researching the pricing and probability of success in planning a campaign.

I took a look at an offer with an 8% commission and a product line of $90 items and determined I needed a 15cent cpc and 6% conversion rate to make money.  Not  a good prospect, so I decided to look for something else.

It is a great tool for campaigns already running because you can get numbers to tell you how high to bid and set you budget.  Increasing budget is not the best way to increase profitabilty unless you increase your search rate and impressions.  The best way to do that is to add keywords with good search volume.

The MMP PPC Profit Calculator is a great planning tool and at $10 per month more than pays for itself in the money saved from weeding out duds before you pay for them.

So check it out and see if works for you.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, Pay Per Click, ppc, ppc internet marketing, PPC Profit Calculator

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners -So you want a partner?

When I took a day course at the Small Business Administration on how to start a business, one of the points the instructor made was very clear.  He wrote on the white board: Partnerships-They Don’t Last!

He made it very clear that if you beat the odds and got beyond the first year of business, you would not last long if a partner were in the mix.

What to do you ask, if you go in with a partner?

PLAN YOUR SEPERATION BEFORE YOU START YOUR INTERNET MARKETING BUSINESS.

That’s right.  An affiliate marketing partnership is like any relationship.  It is a part of the human condition. So get a good lawyer and draw up a separation agreement.  You are going to have to set up the partnership legally anyway, so plan for the worst and you will avoid the potential for an ugly mess later.

That’s what I did.  My partner and I had a very smart lawyer who thought it out and had us sign a separation agreement. 

We are no longer partners in business.  But we remain life long friends.

May your travels be prosperous.

Technorati Tags: affiliarte marketing for beginners, affiliate marketing, internet marketing, partnership

How to Control Your Emotions in the Internet Marketplace

You are minding your own business when the email arrives. It is about the latest and greatest opportunity of the moment. The internet guru is about to launch the latest version of 2.0 and you can get it while it is available. Remember, this is a limited time offer open to a limited number of entrants. Miss this and you can wallow in failure.

You take the bait and head for the site. There is the video ready and waiting. Open it, hit play and soon you’re sucked in. Here he is, Mr. Guru, multi-millionaire, sharply dressed and very smooth. You swoon…he really makes sense; he knows exactly what you are going through. You are feeling that blast of momentum build. You say to yourself, this could be it… the ticket to riches and prosperity. No time to waste…let’s get it.

Sound familiar? Well, did you know that there is a center in your brain called the amygdala that controls your feelings of fear and impulse. It responds to stimuli in 12 milliseconds and fires up whenever something from an external cue such as a tragic event or daily occurrence sparks it into action. Something as innocent as a sales pitch can trigger it and have you doing things you might never have considered.

Well, welcome to the world of affiliate marketing for beginners. A market where selling never ceases and up selling and cross selling are the daily staple of the marketer.

So what can you do? There are a few things to keep in mind and some steps you can take to keep your emotions in check.

Reappraise

The concept of reappraising is actively used in the research of emotive decision making. One tactic is to reinterpret what you are hearing and seeing, to create a less emotional scenario that will challenge your impulse. Does the sales pitch really take care of your need to make money today, or is your urgency artificial because you know there is no easy money to be made.

Step outside of Yourself

Take the time to imagine someone else listening to the sales video or reading down the Web sales page and position yourself to give them advice on what they are hearing and reading. Is the sales pitch offering anything new that will change the condition of the person being solicited? What is the outcome that can be expected? Will it really change things for the better?

Take the Lead and Control the cues

Letting the sales pitch dictate urgency and need can set off the amygdala and get you super motivated to make the buy decision. Distance yourself by literally turning down the audio or just taking some down time to let things settle. If the seller has a time clock running, as one I watched did, turn off your machine. Its amazing how time off and distance will change your outlook.

Tap into your emotions

As the sales pitch unfolds, ask yourself out loud, if this product will get you to your goal and keep you focused on your plan or if it is a diversion that will cost you time and money. Do you really need to follow the pack or are you better off sticking to your plan? Keeping your focus is the key to your success. You have to remain keenly aware of how outside stimuli can lead you astray. Spectacular deals coming in via email are among them.

The best thing to do in a lot of cases is to sleep on it. There is a reason why someone is selling and there has to be a much better reason for you to be buying, so take the time to figure it out.

If you can take these steps and apply them to the next “great opportunity” you should avoid the trap of buyers remorse and make your decision based on careful consideration of your planned goals and your business plan. The world of affiliate marketing does not need to be overwhelming afterall.

May your travels be prosperous.

PS. This article is based on Jason Zweig’s article “How to Control Your Fears in a Fearsome Market” that appeared in the WSJ. If you get a chance look it up and read it.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing