Affiliattack - Following the Chum trail…

I used to think that the Google content network operated kind of like their search network…people searched on a keyword, and when they visited a site that was relevant (which displayed Adsense), then the Adsense ads would be based on the keyword the user initially entered. After all, why use the Broad, Phrase or Exact match options on your keywords running on the content network, right?

Well I was ‘illuminated’ a while back by the kind folks over at google (adwords reps) who told me that while Google takes into consideration your ad text, URL link and landing page factors to generate your infamous ‘Quality Score’ (they don’t show your score for the content network), that where and when they actually present your ad on their content network sites is based on the “theme” of your keywords within an adgroup…

Huh? was my initial response, but they clarified this further by telling me that each adgroup within your campaigns running on the content network has a certain ‘theme’, and if your keywords aren’t tightly related to each other, or you have much more than about 10-20 keywords in an adgroup, then the Google computers can have trouble determining a theme for your particular adgroup, and that can affect how it is displayed across the content network.

My eyes glazed over initially as I strained to process this data, but then the importance of ‘theming’ my adgroups by only including about 10 keywords began to sink in, and I realized that I had some ‘account maintenance’ ahead of me!

I switched to using Adwords Editor a while ago, and so making organizational changes to my campaigns was fairly easy. I already understood the necessity of focused and related keywords within an adgroup (Yes, I’ve read Perry Marshall among others), but there just isn’t very much good info out there on how to properly optimize for the content network.

I’ve been told by some ‘Super Affiliates’ that you can go ahead and throw a hundred keywords into your content adgroups and leave them on Broad Match…of course they were probably laughing after giving such advice, knowing that I wouldn’t be any competitive threat to them in the near future!

My Google adwords rep also told me that if you want to see even better performance in drawing highly targeted visitors from content ads that will convert better, then continue growing and refining your keyword list. As you grow your keyword list from hundreds to tens of thousands of keywords, then your content adgroup themes will get even ‘tighter’ and will appear on even more relevant websites, thus brining in higher conversions. My personal preference is to use “phrase matching” on most of my keywords in the content network…this prevents my ads from being shown on many irrelevant sites.

Google’s content network currently accounts for 90% of my affiliate sales volume (some products convert better on the content network than search, funny as that might seem). Has anyone else had great success with Google’s content network? If so, please share.

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So I thought a great subject for my first post, on what is to surely become one of the biggest blogs in affiliate marketing history, would be how Kris Jones of PepperJam resembles Lenny from Shark Tale…

I’ve never met the guy, but I know he’s a rich affiliate…and rich affiliates are a good thing, so long as they tell us how to get rich also!

I’ve been in affiliate marketing about 9 months now, and have had some initial success ($1,000 per day in affiliate sales and slowly growing). But damned if I haven’t spent every last dime of any profit I’ve made on manuals and programs written by “Super Affiliates” wanting to show me how to do PPC the right way!

I’m not complaining mind you, and I’ve recently had successful treatment for obsessive-compulsive Stats Checking, but I keep asking myself, where did the title “Super Affiliate” come from? How do you address a Super Affiliate in correspondence or in person? Instead of Kris Jones, M.D., is it Kris Jones, S.A.? These are questions the marketing masses demand answers to dammit!

Ever notice that when you read the blog of a Super Affiliate, all you ever see are photo galleries of them punch drunk at affiliate summits being held up by lap dancers or members of their staff! I love to see pictures of their black Humvees (shoemoney) & houses…that’s great, but even better would be if you let me ‘borrow’ the keys to your Humvee for a good test drive…

So what will this blog focus on? Anything I dang well want it to, with a tank load of humor, I can’t wait for my next post on what I thinks sucks about Google PPC. Actually this blog will be my way of giving back to the affiliate marketing community, from whom I plan to take an enormous amount! So join me in my journey to add the designation, S.A. to my own name…and I promise, if you behave yourself, I might just link to you!

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