Did I Mention Action?

This game is all about taking action. There are a million things you could do, but you can’t worry about all of that. You can only do what you can with what you’ve got at the moment, so you just have to get in there and make something happen — then adjust as you go, add to it as you go, expand your arsenal as you go.

More important than trying to line everything up perfectly is to simply MOVE. Not next week, not next month — but TODAY. On something, some tangible part of your plan in getting actual campaigns running (and improving the ones you’re already watching).

I tend to analyze stuff to death before getting around to actually doing anything with it. I go through all the courses, I buy all of the software, I watch all of the videos. I make endless lists and plans. But in the end, the only way to actually move forward is to dive in and start learning by doing.

A certain amount of study is essential, unavoidable even. But after a point, action becomes the key to making real progress. Exponential progress. Because by getting in there and doing it, you are going to learn so much faster, and you are going to have real-world feedback. You’re not watching videos anymore; you’re watching real dollars moving through the mechanisms you have put in place.

And that’s where the excitement is.

Time and Traffic

Gauher Chaudry talks of the two most important factors in this business as being Time and Traffic. You need to master both if you are going to make a huge success of it.

In terms of Time, you need to learn how to identify strong offers quickly, roll out a substantial amount of keyword research quickly, then crank out your campaigns quickly. Then it’s test, track, and tweak. All while rolling out more campaigns.

Having the necessary software to do this is essential. You can’t hope to do it all by hand and see any real success. At the very least, you need a tool like Traffic Travis or Market Samurai or Keyword Elite, and you need an ad-generator like FlashPPC or SpeedPPC.

Only by rolling out a volume of campaigns can you hope to identify the offers that convert, the ads that bring in the clicks, the keywords that attract the traffic. And Traffic is the other key to this business. If you aren’t attracting traffic, if people aren’t seeing your ads (and clicking on them), there’s no hope of getting the conversions you need to see if your campaigns are to prove profitable.

Action!

Everything comes down to action. In this business, if it’s about anything, it’s about taking action every day — real action that moves you forward.

First you have to drive yourself through the learning curve, and as quickly as possible you need to get up and running, putting real campaigns together, learning the ropes.

I realized right away that behind all of the serious success stories in the CPA marketing world were about 100 campaigns … just flat out kicking through about 100 campaigns. It’s going to take that in order to figure out how it’s done, and you have to expect to take that long. Otherwise you are going to quit. But go into it expecting to hammer out 100 campaigns before you really get the hang of it, and you will be able to build up your skill set in such a way that you will be able to start turning 3 or 4 out of every 10 campaigns into a winner.

Once you have some campaigns bringing in money, you move into the ramp-up phase: Test, track, tweak. Continuously.

And throughout, you hold yourself to the goal of maintaining a 50% margin on all of your campaigns, and you make sure you are diversifying, putting no more than 20% of your eggs in one basket.

In the end, it all comes down to taking action. You will never build the winning campaigns unless you are willing to persist and fight your way through those first 100. You have to refuse to quit. Just do the small things every day, build up your skills, find the offers that convert and launch campaigns around them, drop the ones that aren’t working, and continue to improve on the winners. If you persist, you will reach a point where you have a portfolio of winners, and that’s the real goal.

But it starts with focused effort. Daily, actionable objectives — hammered out. Day in, day out. Over time.

Making it happen

In listening to the success stories in this industry, a few things come up again and again, and they would seem to be central to making something really serious happen in CPA marketing.

 

1.) The ones who made it reached a point where they decided they must hold themselves to a higher standard and demand more of themselves than in the past.  Your old habits got you where you are; if you want something greater, you need to step up and start conducting yourself by a higher standard.

 

2.) The ones who made it learned to focus on CPA marketing, and stopped that endless procession of new schemes, new methods, new approaches.  There are a thousand different ways to earn money online.  But if you are going to try chasing them all, you will never get anywhere with any of them.  You have to focus and stick to your set course.

 

3.) The ones who made it learned to concentrate their efforts and take massive, productive action. It’s too easy to slip into spending hours on end noodling around in the forums or in reading about some new whiz-bang method.  Instead, you need to concentrate on executing productive tasks that are actually creating real results.

 

4.) The ones who made it committed themselves to succeeding no matter what: they harnessed the power of Persistence. You have to expect it to take time and effort.  You have to expect to run through a lot of campaigns initially while you are learning the ropes and mastering the various software tools and learning to write strong ads and build landing pages that convert.  You need to go into it all expecting to roll out 100 campaigns before you begin to make real money, but knowing that once you learn how to do this stuff you will never have to worry about money again …

 

5.) The ones who made it realized that they could make more money, faster, by developing strong relationships with their affiliate managers and asking them for their advice on what offers are converting and which they think will last at least six months or longer.  Put your effort into known winners that will keep earning money for you over time.

Brainstorming Viable Niche Markets

Amazon, E-Bay, E-How, and Clickbank Niche-Targeting (Spark Your Creativity)

A good idea or cool product isn’t what we’re after.  We want rapid profits with a high likelihood of success. And ideally we are looking for ideas for information products.  Go through some of the sites below and try to think of possible information products that might be of interest to people in various niches.  Think of the problems they share and would pay money to solve, needs they have that they would pay money to meet.  All we are looking for are a few loose possibilities at this point, to serve as springboards into the following steps.

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/site-directory/ref=topnav_sad

> Choose a category, then run an empty search, then drill down through the sub-categories looking for niche ideas.

Ebay:

http://shop.ebay.com/allcategories/all-categories

http://pulse.ebay.com/

> Drill down through the sub-categories, see what is selling and what people are paying.  How large and how active does it all look?

E-How:

http://www.ehow.com/

> Browse through the most popular how-to videos in particular categories.  What problems are being solved?

Clickbank:

http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm

> Pick a category and maybe a subcategory, sort by most popular, and look through the first four or five pages that come up.  All of this stuff is available to affiliate-market immediately.  How active is the niche?  How many products are already being sold into it?  What kind of commissions are being paid?

Generate Your Initial (Obvious) Keyword List

Don’t worry about coming up with huge lists yet.  Identify no more than three to five of the most likely keywords or phrases someone would search Google or Yahoo for if they were interested in the niche (or micro-niche) you are considering.  Normally a single keyword is too broad, whereas a two-word phrase is more likely to constitute a niche, a three-word phrase a micro-niche.  (Similarly, the longer the phrase, often the more likely the person searching for it is looking to buy something.)

The Litmus Test (once you think you are onto something)

1. Are enough people searching for what you have to offer?

> Are your key phrases pulling at least 8,000 phrase matches per month in the Google keyword tool?

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

> Does the main phrase people would search for have an Online Commercial Intent of at least 0.5 on Microsoft’s OCI tool?

http://adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/

2. Is there competition?  (If no one is competing, there probably isn’t enough demand.)  We aren’t looking to create a market, but rather to carve some space in a niche within a market that already exists.

> On an info product, are there similar or competing products in Clickbank with a gravity of 15 or higher?  (http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm) Remember, you are looking for something that is popular, but not too popular.  Competitive, but not too competitive.  With a reasonable profit.  Where at least 50-75% of the sales are coming from affiliates.  Where you like their pitch page (so if you drive people there, you actually believe they might buy).  And ideally, where you think you could eventually create (or hire out the creation of) your own competing product if the niche prove sufficiently lucrative.

> On a physical product (which we are avoiding), are there competing products on Amazon with at least 10 reviews?

3. Are your proposed customers proven internet buyers?  (This might be the most important question.  If people aren’t buying online in this market, it is not a market.)

> Are there a number of ads targeting your main keywords on Google and Yahoo?  (We will look very closely at what kinds of bids they are placing on their keywords in the next phase of our research.  If a number of people are spending real money to advertise their products through Google AdWords, they are clearly in a niche where people are actively shopping and buying online.)

> Do your competitors have affiliate programs?  (Search Google for your keywords + “affiliate program.”  Also check the bottoms of some of the pages that come up on your searches.  If you find some, it means people are buying in that niche — and it also tips you off to future JV list partners.

4. Think about the market niche you are thinking of targeting and the people within it …

> Are you targeting a niche audience passionate about what it is that interests them?  Are they crazy about it?  Do they have their own language?  Is there pain or pleasure involved, are they desperate, are they impulsive, are they hungry?

> Does your product help people with a concrete, real-world problem?

> Is your market an evergreen market, generating sales year around?  How has it performed over time?  (Check Google trends: http://www.google.com/trends and Google Insights: http://www.google.com/insights/search/# )

> What is the lifetime value of a customer in this niche?  (If we invest money to acquire them, will we be able to keep selling to them over time?)  Is there a range of price points among the competition?  Can you already see possible up-sells and back-end products or services you could bring into the mix over time?

> Can you see eventually being able to hire out the creation of a similar but competing product?  And if so, how quickly can you realistically bring your first product to market? And can you do it (including the initial marketing campaign) at under $1,000?

> Can you be happy selling it?  Can you be proud that you are selling it?

5. Other research tools for looking closer at the niche you are targeting and the likely keywords you would be focusing on …

https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox

http://www.nextmark.com/

http://www.offervault.com/members/index.php

http://www.bizshark.com/

http://www.adbrite.com/

http://search.twitter.com/

http://buzz.yahoo.com

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

Also try searching forums (use Google and type in the keyword + forum) to see if there are a lot of people talking.  This will give you some additional keyword ideas, but also some product ideas.

The Amazing World of CPA Marketing

Working a regular job makes no sense to me. Maybe it’s for some people. (I suppose it’s for most people. Which is fine. I’m not most people.) The idea of actually getting up and going to a real job and working for a boss and having to put up with people all day long … Egad.

What is beautiful about building an income in internet marketing is that it affords you the ability to do what I did today: sat on the couch with my laptop and a cup of hot cocoa, surrounded by my cats, Radiohead on the CD player, bipping-and-bapping away on my keyboard, making things happen, making money.

This is the dream life. It really is.

Why do I particularly love CPA marketing? It’s sort of a cross between affiliate-marketing … and day-trading. It’s like affiliate-marketing in that you are driving traffic to certain offers that are hosted and managed by large affiliate networks; it’s like affiliate-marketing, also, in that if you want to do a lot with it you are definitely going to have to create websites and landing pages that Google is going to like (in order to get high quality scores and low costs for your ads); and it’s like affiliate-marketing in that when you have managed to build a landing-page site that is generating substantial traffic for you and converting your offers, there’s no reason not to expand it outward into other offers, other products, and email campaigns to continue marketing to the audience you have managed to develop around the site.

But it’s also like day-trading, in that most of what you do involves generating massive keyword lists and massive ad campaigns, and tracking the traffic and EPC (earnings-per-click) each keyword and ad is making for you, so you can kill the losers and build up the winners. It’s also very software-driven, in that, if done properly, you’re making use of these incredible software tools that enable you to rapidly generate and launch hundreds of ad groups with thousands of keywords, all of it trackable and driven to spreadsheets and built in a way that can be continually refined and enhanced. It’s like building up a stock portfolio and tracking every share of every stock, live, in real time, and being able to maneuver the funds you are driving through it all to maximize your profits (principally through continually lowing your ad costs and increasing your conversions, and, again, dropping keywords and ads that aren’t earning and ramping up the ones that are making you the most money).

That’s pretty damn amazing, when you think about it.

And again, I can do it from right here: on my couch. Listening to Radiohead. Or I can do it from San Diego while visiting friends. I can even do it from the trailhead in Colorado, from my laptop and wireless internet card.

What I think I may like most about CPA marketing, from a business point of view, as opposed to the other things I’ve tried in the past, is that it is not contingent on designing your own product, on trying to build up a site and optimize it and hope that it makes you a lot of money over time. No. In CPA marketing, you are able to test markets in a matter of  hours, choose the winners, and then just roll them out. You track them, you drop the losers and ramp up the winners, and maybe you look for ways to turn your big winners into even bigger winners, but ultimately the offer doesn’t really matter all that much, what matters are the numbers you see coming through on your spreadsheets. Now, like stocks, it makes sense, long-term, to choose offers that you think are sound, that deliver real value, and that will stay around for months or years to come. But also like stocks, in the end it still comes down to the numbers. Either it’s earning or it’s not. Either you are optimizing your portfolio, or you are not. And if you have the right knowledge and skills (and tools), and you are willing to work at making something huge happen, there is nothing to stop you from generating six figures a month.

I’m quite content at between $20K and $50K a month, if it leaves me enough time for my other interests and pursuits.  But can you imagine six figures a month?  That kind of money staggers the imagination.  But it’s possible here.

Podiatry Ultrasound – A Different World

Podiatry Ultrasound

One of my most lucrative sites sells medical equipment, mostly autoclaves (sterilizers) and podiatry ultrasound systems. A podiatry ultrasound is a diagnostic imaging device used to look inside a patient’s foot or ankle, specifically at soft tissue. (Where an X-ray looks at bone, an ultrasound looks at muscle, tendons, etc.)

Now, the site definitely generates a substantial part of my income, and for that I’m very grateful. But the challenge is, if you are selling a podiatry ultrasound to a podiatrist … you sort of have to be selling a podiatry ultrasound. To a podiatrist. Which entails, as you might imagine, actually talking to the podiatrist.

Not many doctors will drop $10K on an ultrasound system without at least talking to you. I am actually something a very oddity in the market, actually, in that I never (I mean never provide a demonstration of any kind before they buy. Based on the material I have online, and based on my own skills at selling the systems, I close all of my deals over the phone. Which, again, is cool. And it makes me a nice income. But it still requires talking to doctors all day on the phone. Then training them over the phone. Not to mention dealing with an office and assistant in Florida (1,200 miles away — isn’t technology extraordinary?), dealing with all of the things that inevitably come up over the years when you are selling something of this size, and to doctors no less. Then, on top of all, there is the responsibility for continuing to develop new materials, a brand new (membership!) training website devoted to podiatry ultrasound training resources, etc.

Selling sterilizers is easy enough. Even the big Tuttnauer 3870EA Autoclave, at over ten grand, is easy enough for me to sell. I’m just good at it. I’ve built up a huge amount of material that helps me close the deals and ensures that the labs or offices installing them are well cared for. It’s one of my specializations, and I’m very knowledgeable in the field.

The Highly Lucrative World of Podiatry Ultrasound

But the real money, for me, is in podiatry ultrasounds. The challenge is, it’s a LOT harder selling a podiatrist on an ultrasound for foot and ankle imaging. Why? Because he doesn’t really think he needs it. Fact is, he does need it, and a podiatry ultrasound will very rapidly generate for the doctor upwards of $80,000 a year in new reimbursements. That’s substantial. Especially when you realize he can earn that in about 20 minutes a day using the ultrasound I sell him.

The real challenge is in convincing him that he can A.) actually generate those kinds of profits on an ultrasound, and B.) actually learn how to use the thing once he buys it. Through addressing those two key points head on, and building a gigantic amount of material around them, I have managed to set up over 100 podiatrists nationwide with podiatry ultrasound machines for their practices. And uniformly they all do very, very well. And for the most part I even end up with a satisfying number of referrals every month. Which is great. But again, the challenge is: when someone refers a doctor to you, you have to spend time talking to the doctor selling him on buying a system from you, then spend time training him, then spend time supporting him after the sale. In short — you have to spend a lot of time.

Which is why I am so excited about building other empires in the internet marketing world. I want to actually be able to take vacations now and then, without having to worry about the phone ringing or about closing deals, one-on-one, in order to earn commissions.

As much as I love selling podiatry ultrasound systems, I know there’s something more for me out there, something with even more freedom, even more wealth, even more lifestyle if only I seize it. So while I am happy to have my profitable ultrasound business, I am all the more happy to be building a CPA marketing business that will one day dwarf the other and provide me with the freedom I spend so much of my time dreaming about.

Thoughts (and Tips) on Running Ad Campaigns

Do the math!  Plan out the campaign, know your budget, know what has to happen to keep the campaign going and when you are going to bail out.  The idea is that our small losses will be balanced out by our small wins, and we won’t let big losses ever happen, leaving only big wins as an option!

Plan on testing small, ditching anything not working, refining it and improving it as it goes along, and always avoiding the big loss.  If you don’t know what’s working and what’s not, you’re hosed.  This isn’t about gambling a lot of chips and hoping it works out.  You need to methodically test small amounts and see what’s working and what’s not, drop what isn’t and improve what is.

You should never lose even two or three hundred bucks on a campaign.  Ever.

You have to track your conversions.  The goal isn’t to get clicks, it’s to get sales.

You have to go in with a plan and know what the campaign has to do in order to keep it going.  Don’t fall in love with a campaign or with the product you are selling. If the numbers aren’t working, kill it.  Period.

Don’t run “curiosity” ads.  You want qualified clicks from people who are likely to buy.

How many campaigns?  Try two a day, done well, split-testing your ad copy and landing pages, etc.  But again: don’t fall in love with it. If it’s not converting, it’s not working.  Dump what’s not working, no matter how you feel about it.

Forget pay-per-view until you are really experienced; it’s far too volatile and dangerous.  Stay with pay-per-click, where you have control.

Stop jumping around with a dozen different kinds of advertising approaches.  Lock in on something and focus on it and get good at that.

The Inner Game

I’m going to spend some time here on this site talking a bit about the inner mental game of success as well.  I’ve been studying the best of the best (Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Todd Duncan, et. al.) for many years.  And it has paid off in my life richly.

Now and then I will hop on here and post some ideas and suggestions for getting your mind ramped up for success, your self-concept built to accept real wealth in your life.  These entries will be either under the tab “Inner Game” up in the navigation bar, or in the posts categorized “Inner Game.”

Because let’s face it, in the end, success really is an inner game.  The biggest challenge you are facing is in those six inches between your ears.  To paraphrase Tony Robbins, the only thing keeping you from what you want in life is that incredibly powerful (though often whacked-out) blending of your Beliefs and whatever stories you are telling yourself in your head.

If you can get your head straight, you can get your life straight. If you can get out of your own way, in your head, you can make something substantial and important happen in your life.

Doctor? Lawyer? – You’ve got to be kidding.

The careers held up to us all our lives — being a doctor, a lawyer — make absolutely no sense to me. Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad someone out there wants to do it. But I’m equally glad it’s not me caught in that trap.

The sheer amount of time and money it takes to even become a doctor or a lawyer makes me twitch and start thinking of making a run for the beach or the woods …

But it’s the actual day to day drudgery of what you actually have to do if you are trapped in one of those jobs that makes my head spin. (There’s a Thoreau quote I’d like to toss in here, and will when I dig out my copy of Walden. Something about the tortures endured by modern man, chained to his desk, trapped in his cubicle and worried about management taking his stapler … oh, wait, that’s actually the movie Office Spaces.)

Back to doctors and lawyers.

You can keep ‘em. I wouldn’t trade my freedom for that racket for any amount of money. Give up my ability to travel around the world at my discretion? Give up my ability to call my own shots? Give up my ability to sleep in if I want to, stay up late if I want to, spend a month on a sailboat if I want to?

Nope.

Doctors and lawyers spend ungodly sums of money to get their educations and then go into practice, work 60 to 80 hours a week for decades, and have to be in their offices every day dealing with human misery and unhappiness.

I think I’ll pass. And take the rest of the afternoon off.