Ask me a question - get a video response

Hey Chad,
I know that keyword research is everything when it comes to AM, but I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this, I know there are free sources and paid ones, but I guess it’s a matter of not being able to determine what’s good and what’s junk. It would be nice to see something that gives a clear example, with actual keywords, on how to do this. So if you could explain that, it would be awesome.

Thanks

Describe a perfect mini-site landing page to get a great QS. How much content should it have? What structure should it have?

Chad,

I saw the term “embedded match” for the first time the other day. None of the books I have on Adwords mention this option. At first I though that was a new feature but a search at webmaster world have post dating back to 2005 about the subject. Are there any other keyword match options that are not common knowledge?

Chad, a couple of simple questions.
1. Is direct linking using the content network a viable strategy?
2. Is there a need to have tightly coupled adgroups and landing pages when doing ppc on the content network? I am using 150 broad keywords on a competitive niche and adwords shows 5.8 positions for my ads…but i am not getting any clicks.
3. lastly, do you do ppc for leads or for actual product sales? What type of leads/products do you prefer to compete in?

thanks
jared

Get ready for the long list of questions man

Hi Chad,

How do you track which keywords convert?

All the big time PPC guys have their own in house systems but what is a newb to do who can’t code PHP and connect it to a Database? There’s Google Conversion tracking but its prob not the best idea to give the G even more data. A site like Tracking202 is free but they hold your data and their servers can go down. There are simple PHP scripts that will fill your keyword as the sub id but we shouldn’t be showing the networks our keywords.

If you do recommend an in house tracking system, how much would you estimate it would cost and can you recommend any good programmers?

Thanks

Chad,

It seems there has been a convergence of sorts in the last year between traditional SEO and PPC, at least as far as Google is concerned. To play the AdWords game, you can’t get by with a “thin affiliate site” any longer. Given that to be the case, what is your strategy for building and maintaining web sites that host your landing pages? Do you typically bulk load a lot of content initially, add content on a regular basis (i.e., a blog)? Do you also seek to establish yourself strong in the organic listings via backlinks, etc? Finally, can you give an example of how many pages Google has indexed (in the organic listings) for one of your sites that does very well from PPC? Thanks!

- Dave

Hi Chad,

When testing a new offer…

-> do you use direct linking or put together a simple 1 landing page website? you use Yahoo for that initial testing?

Your most profitable campaigns…

-> tend to be comparative landing pages or specific offers?
-> Are mostly available through affiliate networks or personal connections?

To maintain good Quality Score in having info in your websites…

-> Do you have someone else always write you the articles? If so how many on average and is it using a blog?

And last but not least:

-> How did you track before you had an inhouse system, and how much would one cost?

Thanks for sharing!!

You recently blogged about “How to get started in PPC affiliate marketing”. It was a great post for beginners but what about the others who already passed that phase. Say you passed the beginner phase and now are an amateur. How to go from an amateur to a professional in ppc affiliate marketing? What would you do differently to get where you are today faster? What things you would avoid doing and so on.

Hi Chad,

My question is more along the lines of finding and fine tuning campaigns.

I’ve been trying to use ‘brute force’ tactics, by picking 5 offers at a time, amassing large keyword targeted lists for each offer, using specific ads and tight keyword adgroups for each offer, and then doing redirects direct to the offer/merchant for each offer.

For this example I’m using offers from CJ, basically fishing for things that convert.

I’ll run ads 24/7 with .20 bids for search and .11 for content, with $25/ offer daily caps to begin.

Do you use any particular formula or guidelines for determining when you’ve got enough data / when to stop the hemorrhaging and cut a loser / which keywords to maintain or tweak because they’re getting clicks but just not converting, etc?

Thanks, please keep up the great content.
David

Chad,

I have been steadily increasing my AM income since I started in February.
I was wondering at what point should I form an LLC or incorporate instead of running the business as an individual? What are the benefits of doing this? Should I have lawyer or an accountant set this up or should I try to figure it out myself?

Thanks,

Gabe

Chad,

Can you also give some advice on taxes. When to get a DBA and lic.
What is considered business expense for Affiate MArketing?

Chad,
I already asked a question and thanks for your response, but if it’s not too much trouble I’d like squeeze in a couple more.

1. I’ve heard a couple of times, references to cookies in terms of affiliate marketing, can you explain how this applies, works or matters in this field?

2. I’ve also heard about PHP redirects for affiliate links, this sort of makes sense, I imagine this is a way of disguising your affiliate ID, am I correct in that assumption? How else is this beneficial?

3. last one I promise. Have you read and would you recommend Perry Marshall’s book on AdWords?

Thanks dude!
Charlie.

Hello,

I was wondering what exactly is keyword slicing? or the term I read about is “slicing it up.”

I also was watching your video and wanted to know what functions does your in house tool do for you, in regards to “slicing”.

Thanks,

Toki

I am a little confused on site structure and how it impacts quality score.

Ignoring landing pages how many pages are your typical sites?

Can you get a good quality score with a site of 1 landing page, privacy policy, and contact page?

Do you add plain content pages on your sites in addition to your landing pages? If so do you write all the content or get it from article directories? Do these pages link from your landing pages?

I saw a post that stated you made 1142 landing pages for your campaign. Do all these pages link together in a site structure or are they orphaned landing pages?

What do you do when several competitors start jacking up bid prices on your most profitable keywords? For example I have a campaign where my average CPC has gone from .50 to $1 just to stay in the same position where I get the best ROI. What would your suggestion be?

Hey there,

do you do personal mentoring or coaching?

Thanks,

TOki

Chad,

When advertising on the content network, I have heard that Google only uses the first 50 words in an ad group to determine its theme. Also I believe I heard that match type is irrelevant on the content network. Can you confirm these things? Any other tips on optimizing for the content network are MUCH appreciated — thank you!

- Dave

Chad,

One more from me..

You’ve mentioned you use Keyword Discovery… just curious, do you have a standard subscription or an enterprise level subscription?

Thanks,

- Dave

Hmmm, perhaps I’m the only one with questions still?

Here’s another one…

In an old post you mentioned that you had some evidence that individual static landing pages (i.e., statically mapped to the keywords in the ad group and not dynamically generated) were scoring better with Google from a QS perspective..

And in the example campaign you mentioned, I believe you said you had well over 1,000 landing pages. So it sounds like you may sometimes have 1,000+ individual HTML files on your web server serving as landing pages…is that correct? And if so, are there any performance considerations to be aware of with your web server? i.e., I know on many unix systems a filesystem can run out of inodes with 1000’s of files, etc….

Thanks!

- Dave

Hey Can I ask what template or program you use to make your 1000’s of custom landing pages you develop when creating a new campaign?

I’m just looking for a way to speed up the process on my end, thanks!

Gary

Chad,

Is there a particular hosting company you use or recommend for all your landing pages?

I read the post about your preferred credit card to use, but my question would be for someone who does not have a business name for the card- what would a complete newcomer do or what would you recommend we get? amex starwood etc?

Thanks,

Toki

Hey!!!I am about to get into aff marketing but people say you’re going to lose 1k to 10k at first before u make money I only have 400dollars to put into this????Should I spend like a month or weeks and make 10k haha????????impossible what should I do???
Can anyone please help me

-Austin
I hope you can help me plz

I need to know why keywords match types are important. I need a small and crispy answer.

Thanks.

Kamal.

Hey Chad thanks for the opportunity to ask questions:

What are the best keyword tracking scripts to track on a macro level? And do you provide personal coaching?

Darrell

Hi Chad,

I am researching an article that involves Alexa. I’ve asked other “gurus” their take on the value of the Alexa ranking. I would be VERY interested to get your input on this as well, either via a Chad Video or text response herein.

To frame the question more succinctly; How important is a high Alexa ranking?

Cheers,

Neil