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Writing Google Ads to earn money

         

Jon12345

4:36 pm on Mar 26, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



On eBay there seem to be guides on how to make money by writing Google ads. Can somebody put me into the picture as to what this is all about?

I mean how can you earn money from it? Is there some scam going on?

Sticky mail me if it shouldn't be in the public domain.

Regards,

Jon

AdWordsAdvisor

8:43 pm on Mar 26, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Never seen one of these books, Jon12345, but I'd guess they are about Affiliate Marketing - in which you are paid to drive traffic to other sites.

In other words, you write the ads that drive traffic to another person's site, and that person pays you for your effort.

Just an educated guess.

AWA

skibum

9:20 pm on Mar 26, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Never read any of those books but AWA is right on target. You find affiliate programs with high conversions (requires lots of testing and therefore cash), high payouts, recurring payouts, etc.. You then find cheap keywords and send traffic straight to the sites for which you are an affiliate.

The end result after [sometimes] blowing a grand or two on AdWords and much trial and error is that yes, you basically get paid to write Google ads.

Generally you'll need the cash to pay your AdWords bills before you get checks from merchants [if you in fact generate sales, and profits from it all].

You can lose lots of money very quickly, or, after a while if you stick with it you can collect thousands each month with relatively little work.

I gave a presenation on this topic ad the last PubConference [webmasterworld.com] and intend to post it as soon as I get a chance to make a few edits.

Selling those AdWords get rich books may be the most lucrative way of all to write AdWords and make money. ;)

Haven't written one but its tempting!

roitracker

9:58 pm on Mar 26, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Selling those AdWords get rich books may be the most lucrative way of all to write AdWords and make money.

Couldn't agree more. They're selling the dream, not the expertise.

michaelbs

11:11 am on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I blew over $3000 on the eBay USA affiliate program with adwords. If your gonna try it make sure you keep your eyes on your adwords account like a hawk 8-)

Good luck, mike

beren

3:00 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



One technique I’ve seen is arbitrage. Arbitrage is buying and selling the same item to take advantage of the price difference.

For high-priced words, a publisher will write an AdWords ad and bid very low. Some traffic will go to his site, which will be a one-page site with minimal content, but which will contain AdSense ads by advertisers who bid high. The visitor is encouraged to click on the AdSense ads. The publisher essentially buys and sells visitors on the same keyword almost simultaneously. I’ve also seen where publishers buy the keywords on other PPC services, directing visitors to their site, where they are encouraged to click on AdSense ads.

vibgyor79

6:44 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Yes. That's affiliate marketing allright. Send traffic to sites you might think will convert and collect the commissions. Oh yeah - and make sure your commissions are more than the amount you spend on Google.

Sounds very simple huh?

Affiliate marketing works if you have the ability to generate traffic. And Google AdWords is the quickest way to get visitors to check out your affiliate pages/links.

Since we already have tons of "Make Money on the Internet" guides, I guess it is 'cool' to have a title like "Make Money with Google AdWords"

skibum

7:15 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Do your homework and it does work well.

GuitarZan

7:55 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hey,

Skibum is right on. You must do your homework on AdWords. What we are basically doing is typically called "The Google Cash Method". Just sending customers straight to the Merchant site, through AdWords.

There is potentially good money in it, (I know a few people making over $5,000 a month doing this), but it is hard work. Google Cash makes it sound very easy. The Fact is, it is not. Many people give up before they ever make any money... More money for the people that stick with it.

Personally, I have spend about $400 so far, and made half of that back. You can test over 30 products from ClickBank, without any of them working. Actually, from what I have found, and many others have, most products do not sell through AdWords. By the way I have tested 23 products so far, and am still searching.

One of the keys is to not spend a bunch of money testing. I will only test a product for 50-100 clickthroughs, and usually spend 10-15 bucks doing it. Once you find a good product though, you will quickly make back your money and a lot more.

C.K.

FromRocky

8:57 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I made an average a sale per day last month. Now, I made about 5 sales each day plus some earnings from AdSense. How? Sorry, I can't tell except that I do not send my customers directly to the merchant sites since one in ten is a multiple sale.

GuitarZan

9:10 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hey,

You probably create a small landing page, and offer the customer a few choices.

C.K.

rravenn

9:24 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Along with some content to feed the adsense iframe!

RvN

[edited by: rravenn at 9:46 pm (utc) on Mar. 27, 2004]

beren

9:42 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



As someone who manages some AdWords accounts, this arbitrage system is one reason I shy away from running my ads on content sites. Yes, it's perfectly legal and there are probably publishers running legitimate businesses this way. But for some high-priced keywords, I think publishers overestimate the sheer number of people searching on the Internet for those keywords. There just isn't much traffic. And not getting the revenues you expect makes the temptation to cheat awfully strong. All I know is that my largest client has been severely burned by excessive clicks on AdSense sites and it has soured me on the whole system.

skibum

11:34 pm on Mar 27, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Depending on the product/service, the way it pays out and the way people buy it, it may take 3,000 clicks to determine whether or not it will be a profitable venture. That generally provides enough traffic to see if their tends to be a delay between the initial click and the purchase.

It also [usually] provides enough traffic and time to test a bunch of different keywords. The obvious keywords are often already bid up to high so you have to think of alternate ways that people may search for something. The result are often surprising, and of course, sometimes very dissapointing.

Once you find something that works, you could share the info with one or two people and easily replicate the results. You could publish a book and give someone the strategy and the sites/programs to promote and they'd still fail if they aren't creative with the keywords.

graywolf

12:43 pm on Mar 28, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I found you had to choose very specific keywords and find the right negative filters.

GuitarZan

5:56 pm on Mar 28, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hey,

If your way works, then great. Personally I never test a Campaign for more than 100 clicks. I only promote CB products, and you will usually find out if they are sellers within 100 clicks. Yes, I may lose some of the profitable ones, but I am willing to lose them.

C.K.

FromRocky

6:32 pm on Mar 28, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



A cut-off of 100 clicks is too low for certain products in both CB and CJ if the payout is over $20/sale. For a conversion rate of 2%, an average of 50 clicks to make a sale. However, it can take over couple hundred clicks to make a sale and this is a normal since you can make two sales with two clicks.

The bottom line is the click cut-off is depending on the product payout.

Shak

6:33 pm on Mar 28, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I might write:

"A Google guide on how to write ads, and LOSE money, guaranteed"

Shak

GuitarZan

9:50 pm on Mar 28, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hey,

I don't test for over 100 clickthroughs for this reason:

1. A good product should sell roughly 2-3 or more for every 100 clicks. This is assuming roughly a $20 Commission.

2. KeyWords cost money. Why would I test a product for say 500 clickthroughs, only to find out that it only sells every 200 on average? Depending on the price of the KeyWords, you won't make much, or you will break even.

C.K.

AllAround

3:50 am on Mar 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Some affiliate programs don't allow ads that go directly to their site instead of to your own domain first, so you have to watch out for that with any kind of "Google Cash" approach.

I'm still getting virtually all of my traffic to my content/affiliate site through Adwords, and Adsense pays the bill. But the float--ouch! Someday I'll be indexed...

kwasher

5:07 pm on Apr 2, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I find it interesting to see people say "I've never read one of these" and who then go on to say "it doesnt work".

Its nothing more than using adwords to sell a product or service. It can be yours, or someone elses.

In the end it boils down to keywords... what you know about them and how to use them. And THAT is where your own accumulated knowledge comes into play.

Some affiliate programs don't allow ads that go directly to their site instead of to your own domain first, so you have to watch out for that with any kind of "Google Cash" approach.

You can use the one-step approach (send them directly to the sales site), or the two-step (send them to your site, which pre-sells the sales site). There are ADvantages and disADvanatages to both of course.

kwasher

5:16 pm on Apr 2, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I blew over $3000 on the eBay USA affiliate program with adwords

Many in the USA know about and has heard about EBAY. Its saturated. You should find niches.

moltar

1:46 pm on May 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Besides ebay bids on about every keyword :)

michaelbs

4:47 pm on May 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



very true..

bsnrjones

8:18 pm on May 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have been doing this for two weeks. I am promoting one clickbank product, and sending the traffic directly to the merchants site.

I am converting 1/66 clicks which generates .43 cents profit for every dollar spent. In other words if I spend a $1.00 I make $1.43 which equals .43 cents profit. I will say, that I am spending a ton at Adwords each day which is a little nerve racking!

Now that I know this can work, I am reducing my bids my .05 cents per day, and see how that affects the ROI and number of conversions. I would really like to double the ROI as the ultimate goal.

To make this work you either need a realy high conversion rate product, or a high commission on each sale - ultimately you would both to be true! :)

I have purchased two competing e-books that both give the same type of information. I am going to write reviews of each book - and then try pointing my clicks to my site and see how that affects conversions. I think conversions could increase because now the clicker has a choice of products, and also has a bit more info to inform their decision.

Hope to have my site live in about a week - I will let you all know how it goes.

Burke

ebizcamp

10:37 pm on May 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Jon,

You are too late to join this Google Cash party. Some guys really earn from this but the bidding competition is getting tough and tough.

ebizcamp

10:47 pm on May 7, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Jon,

It is very easy to start to earn $ from Google. But it is just a START only and it is not earning $.

To do so, you need to join affiliate programs first. Some companies have their own affiliate programs so you have to register one by one.

There are also many Affiliate Networks, like cj.com linkshare.com.

After you register, you get a link. When people click that link they will reach the companies' website. If they complete a sale, you get commission.

That's all.

shelbeesmom

7:11 pm on May 8, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I'll throw my 2 cents worth in here. I've spent roughly $1000 on google and roughly MADE $1000. So I'm about even steven..
I've gained a WORLD of knowledge about writing ads, keywords and negatives.
A small amount of advice is to invest in a keyword generating program. Not only will it give you keywords you would never think of on your own, it also gives you what you DON'T want....therein lies the method of keeping those impressions down to raise CTR.
How many times have I "given up"?....at least a 1,000. But to hear you guys say that money can be made, keeps me searching..
Only the strong survive!

GuitarZan

8:09 pm on May 8, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hey,

I don't agree with ebizcamp. I think you can still make great money doing this. It is more shakey in the long term for making money, compared to say running a website, but the money is still there.

Yes, there is more competition. But a lot of the Google Cashers that do this, try it once or twice and give up.

C.K.

ShelbeesMom, what KeyWord programs do you like to use? Sticky me please.

Thanks.

paybacksa

8:30 pm on May 8, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I will emphasize what someone said earlier -- these ideas are good if you have a way to generate traffic.

If you use only AdWords to generate your traffic, and AdSense for your ads, you are (IMO) making a risky mistake.

Why? Because you are shaving profits from your supplier (Google) and your consumer (Google) in order to earn a living. Since they are the same entity that makes you a parasite -- and parasites are targeted first anytime a company needs to trim the waste. Worse, often times the parasites are *targeted* by the company --meaning the company can easily change things to manipulate the parasite to regain lost profits, until the parasite goes away.

A lucky gambler is wooed with free rooms and perks, so he stays longer and next thing he knows he lost all his lucky winnings and is in debt. How will you get out of this program if suddenly your adwords bill keeps rising, yet your AdSense earnings have gone down and don't appear to be bouncing back? You cannot leave until you have already lost, unless you lave at the top (which it appears the GCash people already did?).

Many felt this sort of thing happened April 1, when adsense payouts changed for some publishers. To some, it appears G will reduce the payouts to those gaming the system, but of course AdWords costs are set by the bid market -- not likely to go down.

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