I am so utterly confused...

I've read numerous eBooks on using Google Adwords to make sales, and while it sounds like a fantastic marketing idea (and looks like it as well according to people like Jonny Andrews)...I'm left wondering if I won't screw something up, lose my Adwords account, or worse lose my affiliate markets.

What does and doesn't work using Adwords? I've heard setting up a landing page instead of directly linking to the affiliate, but I also heard that Google doesn't allow that. Is Adwords completly out of the question for affiliate marketing?

This may also be in the wrong place, I'm new here. By the way, how rude of me not to introduce myself; my name is Duane if you are wondering and I started IM about three months ago (I've made about 6 dollars).

Duane,

I say reap the benefits of whatever you are trying to promote by building your own list first. skip adwords for now and use facebook ads if you want to direct link. on the other hand I would also say use google adwords to get them to your own squeeze page which has some kind of content on there (like a review page) and presell them on the product you are trying to promote.

This way you can build a business instead of just paying for ads that are growing someone else's list. I highly recommend that you keep the niche close so that you can use your newly created list to send cross offers to them.

I don't know if this answered your question but maybe made you think a little bit different.

- James

Hi Duane, welcome to the wonderful world of internet marketing lol. What you can do is create a landing page through a mini site or using a sub domain - I believe that's what Mike used to do for me. And the trick is to find and use relevant keywords that don't cost a fortune, which can be pretty tricky considering that adwords has taken a bit of jagon for us internet marketers. You could also create mini books and give them away (using them as lead generation), do a few youtube videos (do a google search for Gabe Strom - he's got some great free youtube tutorials). Also for adwords, you'd want to get your hands on some split testing software, to see which campaigns are working for best for you to ensure you're getting the "most bang for your buck". Adwords is great once you've mastered it, but just don't put all your eggs in one basket so to speak ;)

Good luck and try searching the forum, I'm sure you'll find some more tips for adwords and other ideas to turn that $6 into something a little more ;)

I've seen mixed statistics for using Facebook ads, most have been negative from what I've read. Not that I'm counting them out, I'm just working on a severly limited budget and already have $100 or so in Adwords (free for signing up with Adsense). I was directed here after purchasing the Money Siphon System, which had some solid ideas but they all seem a bit outdated given the platform that is recommended to use (Hubpages, Squidoo, etc.) all have limitations against advertising.

I run a few blogs which is how I made that 6-nothing in three months, affiliate programs are going nowhere for me more than likely because I'm using Blogger as a host or because I'm absolutely clueless. I've thought of mini books or Youtube videos and may very well end up pursuing that since the writing platform is so overly saturated as far as competition.

I know how to use Google's Adwords keyword tool pretty well due to me blogging, and I'm pretty good with keywords. My main concern is that it seems that affiliate programs are getting the door shut in their face from open platforms that have been overly saturated by advertising content and have made rules against it. This is one of the main reasons I quit using Hubpages altogether because I couldn't even put up a story from my blog with a link to my blog at the end, which would be fine if I solely wanted to write for Hubpages but I don't want to write for them alone just use them as a way to get my stories out to more people.

Thank you for the assistance offered so far, it is much appreciated and I have looked around this forum but should probably invest more time into searching it better.

Hi Duane,

Internet marketing works on a practice what you preach modual (at least that's how us old skool folks look at it and work it) and that's what you have to convince your leads and potential customers of, that you DO indeed make money from home. Scrap the blogger host - there are lots of hosts out there for a reasonable price (host gator being one of them), hook up some autoresponders for lead generation (aweber is cheap, $1 for the first month) - follow the 3 to 5 mail out practice. And NEVER, ever dismiss article writing, that is one your key sources for getting your name out there and getting those much needed back links from directories. Everything you've mentioned is pretty much oversaturated, but you have to look at it from a different angle, it might be oversaturated but there's crap and then there's quality and believe me when I tell you, there's a lot more crap, than there is quality and that's your mission and objective, providing quality over crap. People know and see the difference.

Thank you Laurie!

That is actually what I try to do, I don't like pushing something I've never tried or wouldn't try onto people and I would rather deliver solid content that they can really dig. The unfortunate thing is, a lot like you recommended, Youtube or other media formats. Reading has almost become ancient today, matter of fact, I'm waiting for them to kill off libraries altogether eventually.

I plan on scrapping Blogger, they're getting rather finicky lately. They're killing blogs for what I can only surmise as being direct competition to Google and how Google makes money, at least it makes sense to me in that manner. That and they make subtle changes to their TOS without telling anyone that uses them.

I do article writing for Squidoo, but the conversion rate is almost non-existant. The cool thing is according to a lot of different stats I have running on my blog they are actually reading the content or at least spending a considerable amount of time on-site. Little things like that make me smile because it shows that people do in fact enjoy what I write.

Adwords is great once you've know how to work it. Theres a fantastic ebook by Perry Marshall called The Definitive guide To Google Adwords. Everything you need to know to master Adwords is in that book. Its a good investment.

And like the other guys said, you want every page that you're proting to have an optin box on it. I wouldn't send anyone to any of my pages unless it had an opt-in box.

Just check this out.

http://ckirkland.com/images/adwordsstats.jpg

I should add some updated shots.

But Adwords is a gold mine if you know how to use it. But don't get
hung up on it.

You need to look at banners, PPV, and FB and then figure out
what you want to do. All of these convert different and take
a lot more or less work depending on what you are looking to do.

Charles Kirkland

Tracking is very handy for learning about your different traffic sources (specifically which ones are profitable). The free technology(Google Analytics) is much better than just a few years ago.

Segmentation into traffic source, geography, time, etc can show you who's coming from where & who's actually BUYING.

Try dividing your traffic by the amount of time you spend building the traffic source. That'll show you how many visitors per hour you are generating *by source*. Then, re-allocate your time to the most productive channels.