[edited by: Shak at 6:59 pm (utc) on April 22, 2004]
[edit reason] typo :) [/edit]
Personally I ignore ebooks and ebook authors. Seems to me like it's a bunch of losers who aren't good enough to get published.
As one of the e-book authors, allow me to respond. I feel it's important for people to stand up and be counted. That includes the thread starter. Who are you referring to and have you actually read their material?
1. Who exactly is making such claims? I don't see that "5 cent click" claim as the dominant claim anywhere on any e-book promoter's site. I still see plenty of cheap clicks out there, but no one is saying anything about five cents being the norm on popular keywords in the United States. I used to talk about low click prices, but if you actually read the voluminous info that most of us loser authors have produced, spoken about, etc. over the past year, we cover far more ground than that. The key of course is to mix enough 5-10 cent clicks into your overall campaign that you bring your *average* way down with no loss of click quality.
2. If selling close to 10,000 copies of an e-book, and sending free bimonthly updates to subscribers who are thankful for the info, makes me a "loser," then please paint a big red L on my forehead!
3. On that same note, I'm also working on a print book for a major publisher, so I assume you must be talking about one of the other "losers" who has published one of the approximately 12 knock-off versions of my ebook (which first came out in Feb. 2002 and which was recently updated, and which comes with free newsletter updates).
4. As for whether the marketplace knows or cares whether you (a) are a single mother or a married father of 12; (b) want to work from home; (c) want to make a million bucks; etc. -- the market could care less about your goals and your circumstances. That sounds harsh, but this is business and business is about supply and demand and long and hard learning and slogging. Many successful folks have run up their credit cards or borrowed from family to get the $500 or $10k or $50k they need to get started. Do not listen to someone who says you can get rich without any capital invested or with no risk. Business is usually a huge risk unless you're well-off already. Not reading and not learning are bigger risks, though. Read real business books, not just "lead you by the nose" how-to-get-rich books.
5. "If they were doing it, they wouldn't be writing e-books." I can't speak for the other "losers," but my company, works for real businesses and manages real PPC campaigns. Actually we've implemented over 120 such campaigns in the past two years. I guess that's why I personally don't promise to make anyone rich... I just try to help advertisers do a better job and improve their return on investment. It's actually difficult to find the time to write, but I do it. Can you think why? Could it be that the business that gets noticed is the business that contributes information to the community?
I understand the need to be sceptical of some of the junk that is out there. I am personally dismayed by the fact that there is a new johnny-come-lately copycat version of my ebook every couple of months, some decent, some violating my copyright.
But why be so dismissive of people who create e-books? Do you really think that it's such a great thing if someone manages to get a print book deal? (That model, like all info distribution models, is being challenged by new market realities and the Internet.) The marketplace is hungry for information, believe it or not, and such reports have helped many businesses make millions/billions of dollars. I suppose with any information purchase you need to check the credentials of the author.
Caveat emptor, but let's not be silly about it,
Andrew Goodman
[edited by: Shak at 7:01 pm (utc) on April 22, 2004]
[edit reason] see sticky [/edit]
Of course, if you are getting a $50 sale for every 5 clicks at $5/click, by all means do what you do.
he/she would be DOING IT
How do you know that they aren't?
This comes up in the SEO service space a lot - "if these firms are so good at ranking people, why don't they build their own businesses instead of doing service work". Some of the better SEOs certainly do take this approach. Just because you only know them as an SEO doesn't mean that's the only thing they do.
Similarly, just because someone wrote an eBook doesn't mean that they aren't doing anything else.
General Electric is a wonderful example of a diversified business. What do refrigerators and entertainment have to do with each other? Lighting and military services? You get the picture.
Can a single mom, with good ad writing skills, make good extra cash at 5 cents a click
There are people I personally know making $300-$400 per month with a $40 investment doing AdWords only aff stuff. And they're bad writers. ;-)
I suppose with any information purchase you need to check the credentials of the author.
Nail on the head, Andrew. Thank you. If any respected member of WebmasterWorld wrote an eBook, I'd buy it. And they'd hardly be a "loser" because of it.
I've been told, through these books, that I can set my account up and "let it run"...which is horribly false. I've been told I can make $3900/hr by following certain "guidelines"....followed them and not 1 sale.
As with any business, the bad give the good a hard time to make a sale.
While this affiliate thing is relatively new, in the BIG picture, my job as a forum participant is to speak up, to other newcomers who may come along and believe this stuff. In that way, the real truth comes out....on all sides!
Thanks
Andrew, well said and keep up the good work!
as in everything, there are the good, the bad and the plain ugly.
Shelbesmom made some valid points, as did Andrew Goodman and others.
the morale of the story... NO such thing as a free lunch.
Shak
Anyway...thanks Shak, knew that's why I couldn't post this origionally, thank goodness the back button saved the info.
Tell me the truth. Can a single mom, with good ad writing skills, make good extra cash at 5 cents a click. Or do I need to stick my neck WAY out and take that risk?
I belive this was the origional question not answered.
A person with good writing skills, and understanding of markets, ROI, etc, can make extra cash.
Will you do it for $0.05 a click?
For affiliate programs, you need to make sure you can find a program that pays you well enough to justify your spending. If your average sale comission is $2, then bidding on AdWords will most likely not net you a profit.
If you can find programs that will net you higher, its very possible.
You really need to weigh the average CPC, the average conversion rate, and what the end pay off is to see if its worthwhile.
Some people spend $10k month at $0.05/click marketing Amazon to make $12k a month. This is a low profit margin, high risk (they are risking $10k if they don't make anything), but the individual did make $2k for this program.
They spent many hours finding niche words and products where not many people were bidding to help limit their possible losses.
The advantage of this? The next month, they'll just keep adding more $0.05 words, not adjusting any bids they found in the previous month, and the hope is that in month 2 they can keep some of the previous months sales, while adding yet some more $0.05 KWs.
There are good converting, high profit programs out there, but they are difficult to find, and often have a lot of competition. They do exist, but like anything with money, it takes a lot of work.
Hope this shed a little light on your question, Shelbesmom.
The areas that still have oppertunitys left are the lower profit margin/higher search volume.
$10,000 vs. $12,000 ROI was a very good example, and this is extremely accurate I can tell you personally.
The rest of this post is probabaly wildly off topic:
As a single mom, I'm sure there's something you're exceptional at. Cooking, baking, gardening, automotive repair ;), financial balancing... I'm sure you're outstanding at something other people would like to know about. Why not start writing? I'm a very large advicator of neat, clean, content sites which hold a lot of information (Think: petplace.com). IMHO it's the best way to make money online. You're giving people valuable information that they truely appreciate..
With PPC Marketing (no offense to anyone, and know that I do a bit myself) for the larger part of the situations, doesn't really provide anything but a larger wallet for yourself. If your link wasn't there, someone elses would be.
With some luck and AdWords coupons it required (in this case) little if any investment, but be prepared to lose money.
Typically you make $50.00/month on one program, $100.00/month on another, hit the jackpot on something else at $1000.00 per month, etc.. and for each one of those there are probably 2-3 losers where at least $50.00 was lost. Easy, no, time consuming, very, educational, you bet! Looking back it probably would have been easier to just build sites. On the other hand playing in the PPC space first is a great way to find what keywords and programs convert should you want to build sites in the future.
It really sharpens the eye you have for how sites convert, hones your AdWords creative skills and forces you to focus on every little detail to make it work.
Skibum is right. This isn't a walk in the park. Although it appears that Skibum spends more money then I do, to test a Campaign/Product... It is still the same thing... Hard Work.
Good, Converting, Programs are hard to find... But once you find them, you can start adding to them, and soon your paycheque will be big. The best thing you can do is get out there, and get started.
I have been running steady Campaigns since Feb 04', and consider myself an Intermediate AdWords user. There is great money out there, just from sending customers straight to Merchants, but you have to get started. I have test roughly 25 different programs so far, and only 1 has been profitable.
I think Google AdWords is the best way to get started online though. It is also the fastest way to fail though too. But if you blow past the failures, you will gain a lot of knowledge that will help you when you decide to make content sites, etc.
Good Luck,
C.K.
You may be able to get away with some write-offs, a computer & other accessories, maybe a home office deduction if you quarantine a room in your house.
In any case you'll probably have to pay at least some taxes (regular income tax and the self employment tax takes a nice bite too) on any profits. That in of itself is likely to be another expense (dealing with more income tax forms) or at least a time sink.
Then if you do reasonably well, you have to make estimated tax payments throughout the year or the IRS will charge you interest or penalties or something like that :) more money to the govt. in any case.
In some states, not only are products tax deductible, but so are internet services. So while you'll still pay the income taxes to everyone, you might not have to pay business taxes.
Advertising is tax deductible, so its recomended you use a different credit card than your personal to easily seperate out what was a business expense compared to what is a personal expense.
A little extra paperwork, and an accountant, can end up saving you quite a bit of money.
>>> with good ad writing skills
That's a great plus when you are running an AdWords campaign, shelbesmom. Just make sure you have two ad copies for each adgroup - written in different 'styles'.
>>> make good extra cash at 5 cents a click
As many pointed out, the CPC is not important. In your case, it is the website conversion rate and the commission per lead/sale.
Before you pick an affiliate program, drop a mail to the merchant and ask them about their approximate website conversion rates. (Divide the number by 2 if you are the pessimistic type). Do the math and arrive the CPC you should pay to breakeven.
