Issue #2447
- WEALTHY: What to make of economists’ forecasts (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: Eating healthy while you’re on the go (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Robert Browning on expanding your reach
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- A quick way to get inexpensive traffic to your site (Alexis Siemon)
- What’s to blame: your marketing or your product? (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about bulletproof haute couture
- Add “trope” to your vocabulary
From Zero to $1.2 Million in 12 Months Flat ***
You are hereby invited to join Early to Rise in Delray Beach, Florida this November for our 2008 Info-Marketing Bootcamp: “The Internet Ultimatum: Zero to $1.2 Million In 12 Months Flat.”
The premise is simple: Come with even the vaguest notion for launching your own start-up business… or exploding your existing business… and you’ll leave with all the information you need for transforming that business into a raging river of cash through the power of Information Marketing.
And specifically, you’ll leave with at least a dozen ideas for taking your business to $1.2 million or more over the next twelve months… and then to $10 million and beyond.
But you should act now. The first deal is the best deal and the price goes up at midnight Saturday.
Read your full invitation here.
How to Handle Economic Predictions
Economists really stink at predicting one of the most important events they track: Recessions. A recent study of 60 recessions that hit various countries in the 1990s found that only 3 percent of “consensus forecasts” (as they’re known in financial circles) made by groups of economists correctly predicted one of those recessions a year in advance. And when they did see one coming, they underestimated its severity by a long shot.
Who knew that economists were such cockeyed optimists? Like historians and political analysts, they’re much better at breaking down past events than calling future ones.
In the coming months, you’ll hear a lot from these so-called scientists about the recession not being as bad as expected… about a coming market turnaround or the economy bouncing back. Take all of it with a grain of salt. Their track record says it’s probably not true. On the other hand, whenever you hear dire warnings from them, take it very seriously. Those are likely to be true.
[Ed. Note: You can make money during this recession with the energy sector. ETR Investment Director Andrew Gordon has uncovered two best-in-class drilling rig companies that will be on the receiving end of a tidal wave of cash. And he's ready to reveal them to you. Learn more here.]
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp. Or what’s a heaven for?”
Robert Browning
Fast and Cheap Banner Testing With Google AdWords
If you’re like most business owners just starting out with a brand-new website, you want to know the fastest and cheapest way to drive targeted traffic to it. Worried ETR readers frequently write to us with this concern. “I need traffic and sales now!” they say. “Help!”
One method I’ve recommended in the past is to launch a PPC (pay-per-click) search campaign on Google AdWords. But you can also use Google to test online media buys on other sites with banner ads and other creative formats. There are a couple of reasons why banner testing through Google is a great way to generate fast and cheap traffic and sales.
Bypassing Standard Rate Card Fees
At a recent in-house marketing meeting, ETR’s media buyer mentioned a new banner campaign she was preparing to launch on a well-known financial website.
Usually, a website will charge you a fee for the number of “impressions” your banner serves – how many times your banner will be displayed to visitors to that site. This fee is expressed as CPM (cost per thousand impressions), and is listed on the “rate card” page of the website, along with the prices of all the other advertising options the site offers. Kind of like the sticker price on a vehicle at the dealership, experienced media buyers know that the rate card price is a number to begin negotiating from.
When you’re setting up your banner on a site, they will either lock you in to X amount of impressions or will keep your banner running for Y days. Sometimes, this is a perfectly reasonable agreement. But it can be too expensive to be worthwhile for a test. (And, as you know, testing is critical when it comes to your marketing efforts.)
In this case, our media buyer lamented that the financial website’s ad representative refused to go lower than the rate card price of $18 CPM for her banner test. I recognized the website’s name and knew that they were part of Google’s Content Network – the network of sites that display Google ads. So I suggested we use Google AdWords to serve our banners on the site… for a fraction of their rate card price.
Not only can you get banner space much cheaper through Google AdWords, you can also get your campaign up and running much faster and with much more flexibility than you can when dealing directly with the publisher. Plus, you aren’t locked in to a set number of impressions or amount of time. If the campaign isn’t performing well, you can stop it whenever you want. (More on that later.)
This leads me to the next reason for launching a banner test campaign through Google AdWords…
Expanding a Small Niche
Let’s say you’re a believer in the ability of a PPC search campaign on Google AdWords to drive traffic and sales to your website. But maybe your business is in a very specialized niche that not many people know about. The keyword research you did for your product resulted in few keywords with even fewer searches. You know there are people interested in what you’re selling, but they might not know how to search for you. How do you quickly reach this niche market?
With a fast and cheap banner test on Google’s Content Network, of course. You can target your campaign by demographic, by site, or by category to find the perfect space for your banner and launch your test on your terms with your desired budget. Here are the steps to take:
• Open a Google AdWords account. Couldn’t be easier. Type “Google AdWords” into the Google search box, and follow directions.
• Create a Placement Targeted campaign. This is different from a Keyword Targeted campaign, but many of the same settings apply that let you target your banner ads in more specific ways than you might be able to do with a traditional banner buy. For example, using geo-targeting to specify what areas of the country or world will see your ad. You will also have AdGroups, like you do with a Keyword Targeted campaign, and you can use your AdGroups to organize your campaign by product, banner type, or any other way you choose.
• Research placements. This is the where the fun starts. Once you create your campaign and AdGroups, you can access Google’s easy-to-use interface to research and pick the websites on which you want to run your ad.
There are several ways to search for sites. You can browse by category. You can search by topic or keyword. If you know the particular sites where you’d like to advertise, you can simply enter their URLs – and then Google will even list several other sites similar to the ones you’ve chosen. Lastly, you can select the demographic that you’d like to target, choosing by age, gender, household income, ethnicity, and whether there are children in the home.
After you enter your criteria, Google will list all of the matching sites, along with the ad formats they accept (text ad, banner ad, video ad), and the number of impressions each site receives per day. (Very helpful if you are looking for volume.)
• Bidding and budgeting. Next, you’ll be able to bid on the CPM that you’d like to pay. And when you realize how low you can go, you’re going to start to get giddy. Keep in mind, however, that you are competing with other advertisers for that banner ad space – and the higher your CPM bid, the more impressions you’ll likely receive. It’ll take some tweaking to find a balance between the amount you want to spend and the volume of impressions you need in order to run a good test.
I’ve found that you can run a good test with anywhere between a $1-$3 CPM – which is a heck of a lot better than a rate card price of $18! After you set your bid, you’ll want to determine a daily budget, giving yourself enough wiggle room to get the number of impressions you need on a daily basis.
• Uploading your banners. Determine the banner sizes your sites accept and upload them to your campaign. Each banner should link to a landing page you’ve set up, complete with sales copy for the product you’re selling. You can assign a different landing page URL for each banner, or you can point them all to the same one if you like. There is a short review process for each new banner you upload to your campaign, but once they are approved you’ll be up and running!
The flexibility you get by running a banner campaign through Google AdWords really kicks in when your campaign is live and you can monitor your results. If you see that you’re not receiving enough impressions, you can immediately adjust your bidding. If you are getting great traffic and conversion rates, you can immediately increase your budget. If you see that a particular site isn’t performing, you can remove it from your campaign in seconds. The same goes for your banner headline, graphics, and layout. Changes can be made on the fly without waiting for an ad rep or account manager to make them for you.
[Ed. Note: Banner ads should be a part of any multi-channel marketing campaign. And, as Search Engine Marketing Specialist Alexis Siemon points out, Google's Content Network makes setting up your own banner campaign easy and cost-effective. You can learn more about the best ways to market your Internet business at this fall's Information Marketing Bootcamp. 12 speakers will reveal exactly how you can make between $100,000 and $1.2 million your first year. Get the details here.
And keep reading ETR for details on the new multi-channel marketing book by MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson.]
The Mentor to BILLIONAIRES Is at YOUR Service
For the past 30 years, one man has counseled and mentored billionaires like Roy Speer, Harris Rosen, and two others who prefer to remain private. They were not billionaires before they were mentored by this man.
Now, he’d like to do the same for you to help ensure you are financially set for life. His name is Robert Cox and if you follow his simple step-by-step instructions, success can be yours in as little as 30 days.
But let me be clear: You must be ready for something different. You must realize that there has been a missing ingredient to success that has been denied you.
And you must be ready to seize it. If you are ready to change your financial future and finally build true wealth, please read on.
Reader Feedback: “I took your advice, and have been enjoying a 30% increase in my sales ever since.”
“Thank you for such a great e-mail newsletter.
“The article ‘How a Google AdWords Campaign Can Help You Rev Up Your Sales‘ by Alexis Siemon was an eye opener for me. The two sentences ’Google isn’t the king for nothing. Appease the king and he’ll share his gold.‘ jarred my senses, and have been indelibly fused upon my business brain. I took that advice, and have been enjoying a 30 percent increase in my sales ever since. THANK YOU.
“How, exactly, did I put Ms. Siemon’s advice to work? It couldn’t have been more simple. I started a Google AdWords campaign. Started, not modified or improved.
“I had done Yahoo, MSN, and Google search engine submissions before, but never tried Google AdWords. The ‘king’ was ‘appeased,’ and he almost immediately started to ’share his gold’!
“I had wondered why people told me I was so hard to find online when I have the largest, most relevant website for what I do. I tried a Google search myself, and… nothing! Well, almost nothing. The first reference to my website was eight pages in. On Yahoo, I was always #1, and about #3, #4, and #7-10 – four hits on the first search page. I hardly even showed on Google. So tell your readers to learn from my mistake and don’t EVER take your placement on one search engine for granted due to your placement on another. $100 a month in AdWords is equalling about $5,000 a month in extra ‘high margin’ sales for me. That was valuable business advice if I’ve ever seen any. Thank you again!”
Danny Bowes
ImportTractorParts.net
Foresters Falls, Ontario, Canada
[Ed. Note: What's the best way to get more of the information and advice you want the most? Let us know what you like! Write to ETR at ReaderFeedback@gmail.com and tell us what's helped you, what you love, and what you want to see more of.]
ETR Insider Report: The Other ROI
So you’ve put together a super product. And you’ve got a stellar copywriter who’s selling the pants off of it. And your marketing team is sending the ad copy to millions of subscribers to e-newsletters everywhere. But when the results come in, your big campaign has been a big flop.
That’s when the blame game starts…
Your copywriter blames the product. “My copy is pitch-perfect,” he says.
Your product-development team blames the copy. “This is the best product we’ve ever made,” they say.
You’ve got to make a change, or the money you’ve spent on your campaign is wasted.
So where do you look?
MaryEllen Tribby has the answer, which she revealed in a recent ETR marketing meeting. And it has to do with that all-important metric, return on investment (ROI).
MaryEllen has told us before that ROI is the only thing that matters when you’re reviewing your marketing efforts. As long as it’s over 100 percent, you’re doing fine.
But ROI can also tell you what needs improvement: your product or your marketing.
What you do is look at both Net ROI and Gross ROI.
• Your Gross ROI is what you have when all of your orders have come in – when all of your prospects have had a chance to look at your ad copy and buy your product. If you have a high Gross ROI, your marketing is doing well. It means that people are connecting with the ad copy… that the landing page you are sending them to is relevant and enticing… and that they want to buy what you’re selling. If the Gross ROI is low, your marketing could use work. And that’s where you start testing – different headlines, different ads, even different e-mail lists.
• Your Net ROI is what you have after all your cancellations and refunds have come in. So, depending on whether you have a 30- or 90- or 365-day money-back guarantee, it could take up to a year to figure out your Net ROI. If your Net ROI is high, it means that your product is exactly what you promised in your advertising. If your Net ROI is low, it means that your product doesn’t work well, doesn’t fulfill what the ad copy promised, etc. In short, it means that your product needs work. (Now, it’s possible that the product is really good, but the ad copy misled people about it in some way. But that’s a different lesson for another day.)
“You may ‘know’ that your product is fantastic,” said MaryEllen. “Or that the ad copy is stellar. But what you ‘know’ doesn’t matter. Stick to the numbers. Net ROI shows how well your product did. Gross ROI shows how well your marketing did. Once you know what’s not working, you can get in there and fix it.”
[Ed. Note: MaryEllen Tribby has 20 years in the marketing trenches, so when she speaks, we listen. You may not be able to sit in on ETR's marketing meetings, but you can still get MaryEllen's advice on marketing and business building. Let her - along with 11 other Internet marketing, copywriting, and business-building experts - show you how to make between $100,000 and $1.2 million in 2009. Get the details here.]
Avoiding Airport Food
Yesterday was a nightmare travel day. I got stuck in the Aspen airport due to a delayed flight. When I landed in Denver, I had to make a mad – and I mean MAD! – dash from one end of the airport to the other.
Thanks to my healthy lifestyle, I’m in tip-top shape – so I made it with minutes to spare. And as soon as I got on the plane, I recharged my batteries with the healthy snack I had brought with me: an apple, a banana, and some raw almonds.
I went into that trip (as I do every trip) well-prepared to avoid the bad food choices you can easily make when you’re traveling and in a hurry. And that preparation started long before I headed to the airport with the two high-protein, high-fiber meals I had to help keep my appetite in check…
Breakfast at home: omelet with vegetables, grilled fish & peppers, fruit (pineapple, raspberries, blueberries, watermelon), and V8 juice.
Lunch at a Mexican restaurant: grilled chicken salad (2 breasts) with jicama, salsa, black beans, and avocado (I substituted the salsa for the dressing. And I said “no thanks” to the tortilla chips.)
As a result of my preparation, there’s no doubt I felt much better and had more energy than everyone else on the 3.5-hour flight to Toronto. And that allowed me to get 3 hours of quality work done on the plane.
So whenever you travel, carry raw almonds and apples in your bag, or grab them at the airport. You’ll find almonds in every magazine shop, and apples and bananas at almost any coffee shop.
[Ed. Note: Keeping healthy is well within your control. A big part of it has to do with making smart choices when it comes to what you eat. You'll get easy-to-follow advice that will help you stay healthy here.
Balance out your healthy diet with short, high-intensity exercises. Find out which exercises can help you burn fat and build muscle right here.]
It’s Fun to Know: Bulletproof Haute Couture
Miguel Caballero is making millions as the first designer to introduce a line of fashionable bulletproof (and sometimes stab-proof) clothing. Customers can invest in coats, business suits, leather jackets, and dress shirts made with protective panels that can stand up to a bullet from a 44 magnum handgun, a mini-Uzi, or an AK47. To give you an idea of price, a polo shirt capable of deflecting a bullet from a 9 mm automatic goes for $7,500.
Some of Caballero’s high-profile clients include King Abdullah of Jordan, President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez, and actor Steven Segal.
(Source: CNN.com)
== Highly Recommended ==
Hey, Rat Race Runners… Need a Change?
If your soul has been screaming at you to get out of the never-ending rat race, here’s your chance. After all these years, don’t you deserve to live the good life? Get started making money for yourself instead of your boss.
Word to the Wise: Trope
A “trope” (TROPE) – from the Greek for “turn” – is a word or phrase used in a way that changes its meaning from literal to figurative. (Metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech are tropes.)
Example (as used by Daniel Patterson in The New York Times): “Few things capture summer’s carefree spirit like a perfect piece of fruit. Eating berries off the vine, still warm from the sun, is a pastoral trope.”
Similar Articles:
- Reader Feedback: “I took your advice, and have been enjoying a 30% increase in my sales ever since.” – “Thank you for such a great e-mail newsletter. “The article ‘How a Google AdWords Campaign Can Help …
- Fast and Cheap Banner Testing With Google AdWords – If you’re like most business owners just starting out with a brand-new website, you want to know the…
- Where Do You Get Search Satisfaction? – If you aren’t already targeting Google with your search engine marketing efforts, now’s the time to …
- When Ads Are Used for More than Advertising – Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a cheap, easy, and effective way to advertise your business online. You …
- It’s Good to Know: The Google Way to Promote Your Non-Profit – If you run a non-profit organization, you may be eligible for a new Google AdWords program called Go…
- Show Me the Money – Radio, TV, banner ads, pay-per-click (PPC), magazine ads, billboards… There are dozens if not hundre…
- You Sunk My Battleship! – Yesterday morning, my seven-year-old son and I played a rousing game of Battleship. Well, it would h…
I knew there was a catch there. Thanks for the info.
Better to skip the V-8 juice. It’s loaded with salt!
I can’t imagine eating 2 chicken breasts for lunch. Usually 1/2 breast will serve 2.