Most PPC and affiliate guides recommend split testing. I agree split testing is one of the main keys to success. But the only thing they usually mention is split testing of ads. The truth is almost every aspect of a campaign can and should be split tested to optimize efficiency and profits. Testing is not just something you do at the start of a campaign, but a never ending process.

Here are some things I like to split test.

• Domains - I have talked before about the importance of testing multiple domains in your campaigns. The display URL is a critical part of your ad, and you never know what will convert better until you split test different domains.
• Offers/Networks- The same offers are usually found on several different affiliate networks. By split testing to the same offer on different networks you might find a higher conversion rate on a particular network.
• Account structure - Try taking the same set of keywords on 2 different accounts with a different adgroup structure to see which performs better.
• Keyword match type - Try testing all available match types to see what converts better.
• Landing Pages - Landing pages are critical to split test. You can almost always find a better converting landing page. You can split test any page change down to something as simple as button colors.
• Ads - Of course ads are the easiest thing to split test, and still one of the most effective ways t0 optimize your campaigns.

These are just a few, I’m sure there are a ton of other things to split test. What creative ways do you split test?

There was a lot of talk last week about the .ME land rush for new domains. I even tried to get a few, but ended up only getting one. There were plenty of good names available when I was looking, but I passed on most of them.

As far as affiliate marketing, I wouldn’t touch a .ME domain. Here is my reasoning:

99.9% of average people that would see an ad with a .ME ending would probably have no clue what it meant and would thing it was some weird country or scam domain. I would expect them to avoid clicking like the plaugue. .COM is king and probably always will be. Consumers feel comfortable when they see a .COM. In my own testing even with .NETs and .ORGs, nothing can touch the same domain with .COM for conversion rates.

So .ME might be cool for some other projects or for sites with geek audiences, but not for affiliate marketing.

What do you think?

One of the biggest transitions going from a employee to self employment is the tax issue. As a paid worker, taxes are a no brainer. Every paycheck they are automatically taken out and sometimes you even get a refund at the end of the year. What could be easier right?

It’s a huge mental transition going from that, to having to pay large sums of your hard earned profits to the government. You have to have the discipline to set aside money from your profits to pay your taxes. Usually, estimated taxes are paid 4 times or less per year. My accountant usually calls me and lets me know its time to bring in a check. Its always a depressing call, but you don’t really have a choice.

So how much should you set aside for taxes? A good rule of thumb is 30% of your net profits. That is a safe figure regardless of your tax status like sole proprietor, LLC, S-corp, etc. I recommend putting that money in a separate “tax” savings account. That way you never really feel a sense of ownership to that money, and therefore its easier to part with. For example, if you do $10k in profits, $3k goes right into the tax account.  Something like an HSBC savings account works great. At least you are earning decent interest on the money before you pay it. You never want to be caught in the situation where taxes are due and you don’t have the money because you spent it. Pay profits into your tax account first.

You probably received the emails from Google about their Adwords seminars. If you are starting out in PPC, I would recommend going to one of these event. Here are the benefits I can see:

• Its relatively cheap - $250 for a 1 day class
• You get Adwords credits and goodies.
• You can write off the class as a business expense
• Good chance to network with people in your area.
• Unlike a conference, you might actually learn something because you won’t be drunk the whole time.

I have not personally been to one of these, but I am considering the Advanced class when it comes to my city later this month. I would like to learn more about the API, which is one of the topics for that session.

Has anyone ever gone to one of these events?

Recently MSN finally released their beta version of their desktop PPC tool. I have been wanting this for about 2 years, and as I have said before, this will basically change the whole landscape of Adcenter. Their clumsy online interface was really the only thing holding them back (other than the obviously lower volume). So with this new tool, I expect a flood of competition on Adcenter.

I had downloaded the new Adcenter desktop beta before my trip, but only got a chance to really test it last weekend. I have to say, I am impressed. They took a lot of cues from the Google desktop tool. The operation is similar using the tabbed design for campaign elements so it doesn’t take very long to get up to speed. Building and managing your campaign is a breeze.

One feature I really like is the “view in excel” button which launches the campaign instantly into Excel. There you can make changes quickly and re-upoad the new sheet.

But where they have really jumped past Google even is with the offline keyword research features.

Using the research tab of the program, you can access a very robust research tool to expand and refine your keyword lists. Then its just a simple matter of applying the changes and uploading.

There are a few bugs here and there, like the stats downloading which seems flaky. But it is still a beta version. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a shot!

When I first started out in affiliate marketing, I was 100% focused on using PPC to drive traffic. Over the past couple years this has been a VERY successful strategy for me. But in the last year I began to shift my thinking and focus. With PPC, you have only 1 shot to get the customer to convert. If they don’t take that action, they are usually gone forever. Which requires you to pay more for new customers. Then when the PPC stops, the money stops. This is becoming more and more troubling to me. Especially as niche markets are constantly maturing, and margins decrease. You have to evolve with them, or die.

So my new focus has been to build more long lasting sites. Ideally the site will have content that will inspire customers to come back several times or even recommend the site to their friends. That is the key, to make these consumer sites actually have useful content and not just spammy affliliate junk on wordpress. When you have real content, SEO is a no brainer and organic (free) traffic will follow. I have always found organic converts even better than PPC, and when the PPC is turned off the customers will keep coming. The added benefit of building sites like this is that your PPC campaigns will do even better because quality score will be great. Its like a positive feedback loop. Also, the site will have residual value even if the marketing campaigns end.

In addition to trying to build these authority consumer sites, another big focus is building a database of customers for each niche. Using newsletters or coupon alert signups (hot!), you can get the customers’ email address for repeat sales down the line. This may be the most valuable purpose of building a real content site. A correctly opted in list can be gold.

It’s going to get harder and harder to make decent money with the straight PPC to landing page formula. Using all these strategies in addition to the normal PPC route is the way I am building affiliate income going forward. What do you think?

Sorry for the lack of posting lately guys. I am in the middle of a pretty long business/pleasure trip. Most of the business stuff is done, now I am taking a few days off. Right now I am sitting on a dock on a lake typing this. Doing a lot of wakeboarding, waterskiing, dirt biking, etc. I have some great posts lined up for next week. Until then here are a few random items that people sent me to check out.

7 search is really stepping up its game to become a big player in the growing second tier PPC service market. They are now offering Geo targeting, conversion tracking, and type in traffic (which converts great). I’ll definitely be checking this out more when I get home. Press release here.

TinyMassive is a cool new site with shopping widgets for publishers and advertisers.

Happy 4th of July to everyone! Look for a huge tip post next week.

One of the main reasons we get into affiliate marketing is to get away from the rigid structure of a day job.  The last thing we want is to be tied to our campaigns like a normal job.  But how can you leave your campaigns running when you are not around to watch them?

There is no question that when you are first bringing a campaign up to speed, it needs a lot of frequent attention.  But once you have a good campaign dialed in, you should have some room to breathe.  This topic came to me, because as I write this I am traveling in pretty remote areas and have not had internet access for over 2 days.   Am I worried about my campaigns with huge daily spends running all alone?  Well, to be honest a little, but not too much.  I have a few systems in place that allow me to leave things alone when I have to.

Budget Limits -  Many of my campaigns run without budgets or ridiculously high budgets that could never be reached.  But before I left, I switched on budgets just above the average daily spend.   That way if something crazy happens while I’m gone, it should top out if it hits the cap.

Server Monitors – Hosting outages are really the Achilles heel of affiliate campaigns.  Sending huge PPC spends to a landing page that’s down is death.   Although you can’t really prevent it, you can monitor the servers and be paged if there is an outage.  There are tons of free and paid server monitoring systems out there.  In my opinion landing page uptime alerts are critical to every campaign.

Affiliate managers – I suggest having your account manager’s numbers in your phone at all times.  If something important were to happen either your end or theirs, you can be reached by phone.   I also like to ping them to give them a heads up if I will away.

If you take these steps, you should at least be able to forget about your campaigns for a while without panicking every 10 minutes.