2009 Planning Guide - My Gift To You!Keyword Research - What for may we ask?
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Before we start searching for keywords, we prefer to have a goal in mind and that means that we want to already have the product or service we are going to promote selected. We have been down the path of general market research to uncover a niche (pronounced neesh) and in our opinion it takes way too long and is way too complicated.
Instead we prefer to find a product or service that is already selling or at least starting to sell and then we figure out who is buying it and what words they are using to buy it. Once we know that, then we can figure out how to make a better offer. This does not mean we actually build a competing product (which is a possibility down the road) but instead we figure out a unique selling position (USP) that makes our offer better then the rest so people buy through us. But before we get into that, we need to find a product.
Finding the Right Affiliate Product
There are different ways this can be done and just today we were asked by a friend of ours, Sheena Brown, how do you find good products to sell. We asked her why and she mentioned that she came across a really cool gaming product, called the Razer gaming keyboard, that has an affiliate program and she was considering selling it.
Our response to her was… “that’s the first step.. look for products that you yourself would buy.”
This is extremely important because this shows through in your marketing efforts. People tend to be able to smell cow dung from a mile away and you may be able to fool a few people some of the time but you cant fool all the people all the time, so if you try promoting a product that you yourself would have no interest in buying, this often will show in your message.
OK, thats great if you already know a product you want to promote but what if you don’t… where would you find these type of products or services?
In our opinion the easiest place to start is with the main affiliate networks such as ClickBank, Commission Junction, Link Share and so on. These networks take a lot of the hard work out of the process because they act as the middle man between the sellers and affiliates. They manage the tracking, finances and all that good stuff and make it very easy to search through and find products to sell.
List of Top Affiliate Networks…
The other option is, if you know the product you want to sell then you can see what stores have affiliate programs available. To do that simply type in the keyword or product name and include “Affiliate Program” in the search such as…
razer keyboard “affiliate program”
Or, if you know the site that sells the product and you cant see if they have an affilaite program, simply search using the google site filter such as…
site:www.thedomain.com affiliate
This however does not really solve the problem of helping you find the right product to choose and the reason is, if you don’t already have something in mind then where in the world do you even start?
So, we need to back up a little… and for those of you that already think you know what you want to promote, don’t worry about it. We will get back to you momentarily.
So Where to Start?
If you are just starting out and do not already have a certain market you are involved in, this can actually be a stressful time for you. We can get so riled up over this that we actually give ourselves anxiety. Some of us just grab the first thing that crosses or path or we see some guru promoting and decide that is where to start, only to fail because the competition is so fierce. Others over analyze each product to the point where no product could ever satisfy them.
The best place to be here is in the middle, you want to look for products that are being promoted… but not by every person under the sun and you also need to understand that there is no perfect product out there but you want a product that is not a piece of junk.
The very best place to start for anyone just beginning is with ClickBank. Yes, we know you have probably heard this before and maybe even tried to promote ClickBank products before, but trust us… if you do it right, ClickBank can be a goldmine. The reason we like ClickBank the best for starting out is once you are registered, you can then promote absolutely any product in their database. Unlike other programs, where you still have to apply for certain products and unless you already have a presence online, your chances of getting approved are pretty small.
The downside to ClickBank is it is 100% digital products (ebooks, software, videos and so on) and there is a lot of crap products in there. On the bright side however, there are also many solid products also.
Finding The Right Product
If you do not already have a ClickBank account, sign up for one now at ClickBank, the process is extremely easy.
Once you have signed up, to find products simply go to the ClickBank marketplace at http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm
Once there, the first step is to pick a market that you have somewhat of an interest in or perhaps you already have a site on. Don’t get too hung up on this however, if you really are not interested in anything or have no real care in the world as to what market to start in then just pick a the first category to start with and work your way down.
It is nice to start with a market you are knowledgeable with but this is also a cause for analysis paralysis because we try to find the perfect fit. Over analysis is the enemy.. remember that!
Lets for example just pick a random market… we will start with the the first category “Business to Business” and the first subcategory “Education”. Keep the settings with “Sortby” at Popularity and the “results per page” to 20.
Now ClickBank will list for you in order of popularity, the most popular products in their database but they also give you some other fantastic information. What we personally like to do is scroll down the page and look at the titles but we also look at the “$sale” number that ClickBank provides. This is the estimated revenue you can expect to make per sale from that product after refunds, chargebacks and clickbank fees are taken into account.
This number is very important because you want to make sure that the product you are promoting makes at the very least $15 per sale. This is the absolute lowest we will go and the reason is, we want to spend our energy where the money is, so why spend time researching and promoting something that makes you $5 compared to the same effort that can make you $25.
So we scroll down the list and a few products stick out to us right away. The first is the “Instant Forex Profit System“, this pays out over $40 per sale, which is excellent.
The next number we look at is the “%refd”, this tells me the amount of sales that are made by affiliates. In my opinion the higher the number the better here because if no affilaites were making any of the sales there would be a cause for concern. This particular product as over 90% of the sales coming from affiliates.. which is a good thing.
Now we look at the gravity. This is basically a representation of the amont of affiliates promoting this product. Now it is not a direct 1 to 1 relationship, clickbank takes things like time since last sale and more into account for the calculation but personally we like it when this number is not too high because it tells us there are not a lot of competitors to fight against. There is no magic number here because there are so many variables that you have to take into account. For example, if the product is brand new then this number would be very low… personally we like between 10 and 50 but we have promoted products lower then that and higher then that.. but that is the average we look for.
So for this product the $sale is good, the %ref is good and the gravity is not too high… this is looking like a potentially good product. Now is the time to check out the sales page itself. To do that, click on the “create hoplink” in the directory.
Next, enter your ClickBank ID and click create. Now copy the URL they provide and paste it into your browser. This is important because you want to see exactly how the page appears to the end user and you also want to test the links on the page. The first things we look for are…
- A nice clear headline: We want people to get their attention grabbed right away and be sure that it is compelling.
- Clean design and nice graphics: Is the page professional looking or like a mid 90s college student page.
- Social proof (testimonials, screenshots): Prove to me the solution works.
- Up to date (no old copyright date or 3 year old screen shots): You will be amazed how many people click off a site just because of an outdated copyright date.
- Clear call to action: Do they do a good job of showing the visitor how to buy the product.
Once we have looked at these elements we then will click on the buy now link to ensure that our affiliate ID is correctly used. Simply click on the “Buy Now” and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and make sure you see [affiliate = YourAffiliateID]
One thing to watch for as well is an opt in form. These can be very beneficial to you but make sure you opt in and see what the message is they send you. Some people can be real scumbags and will actually put a different affiliate link in the email message so when you click on it, it overwrites your cookie with theirs and you lose the sale. Make sure they link directly to the page and your affiliate ID still shows up on the bottom of the order form.
IMPORTANT THOUGHT –> Should you buy the product before you promote it? In our opinion, Yes, but not yet. Until we are sure this is the right product and the keywords look good, there is no sense in buying it. This is not a mandatory step for everything you promote but it is wise, as you can then do videos about the product and really explain in details the advantages to the end user. You can also contact the vendor after all your research is done and ask for a review copy… most will be more then happy to oblige if they see you are serious.
We personally feel that too much time is spent on over analyzing products. If the initial data looks good and the sales page looks good then chances are you can make a couple bucks from that product.
What about non ClickBank products? … how do we decide if we should move forward with those?
Not all, in fact very few, affiliate programs give you details like ClickBank does. The biggest thing we look at for non Clickbank products is the % commission we can make. If we cant make $15 per sale at the bare minimum, then we don’t bother. Also, we check out the sales page, the same as we do with ClickBank. So with the initial example of the Razer keyboard, we would look at the commission rate and the price of the product. If we could make at least $15 per sale, then we would consider looking more into it. If not, then we move on.
Time to Contradict Ourselves –> We would not always not move forward with something if it is less then $15 but we would already have to have a related site set up that we could just write up a promotion for. But for full blown market research, it must be $15 or more per sale made.
Once we have the product or service that we want to move forward with, the secret is now to find out how others are making money with it…. so it is time to start digging for keywords!
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What is your feedback on this lesson…other then the fact that this is freaking long!
Keyword Lesson Series:
- Lesson 1 - Keyword Research: What are you Basing it On?
- Lesson 2 - Keyword Research: the Cart before the Cow
- Lesson 3 - Keyword research: What for may we ask?
- Lesson 4 - Keyword Research: Show me the Money… Words that is…
- Lesson 5 - Keyword Research: Diamonds in the Rough
- Lesson 6 - Keyword Research: Start Up the Diamond Digger
- Lesson 7 - Keyword Research: Shiny Diamonds Everywhere
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wow………….so long post………………..
joshuauns last blog post..TypeTester - powerful font web site
tell us about it… our brain is killing us right now
Great introduction to ClickBank, looks like there is a new Windows using cow in town? It’s nice to see somebody buying a blog and adding to its value rather than just pumping out as many ads as possible until the readership goes.
Anyhoo, great post, looking forward to more.
Money Making Schemess last blog post..Hail Mary
Im pretty sure that this is not John Cow.
Not John Cow!! Who the hell are we then? We are so confused
Why do you always say we or our? Are you more than one person? xD
Nice post, thanks. I’ve passed it onto some newbies
Georges last blog post..Coursework Finished
George, it is actually a sensitive issue to us… it is a condition called…
multisopulopusdicandiosismolipodisifyoubelievethisyouarestupid
We were diagnosed with this as a young calf
Oh ya and thanks for the compliment on the post
My goal for the weekend was actually to start researching about affiliate marketing and this just hit the spot. Thanks to Garry Conn and his digg submission. You guys might wanna go there and promote this a little bit, it’s worth it.
Cheers,
–Ted
Teds last blog post..The five commandments of successful blog marketing
Good reference guide when researching products in ClickBank. I’m a member but haven’t done any business with them yet.
Gords last blog post..LinkReferral has spoken
off topic, but i agree that it’s not bob writing the recent posts…
my money is on Garry Conn, anyone else agree?
PropertyIrelands last blog post..Wexford Tomgarrow, Ballycarney, Enniscorthy
I am not the new owner but I can tell you that my Google Alerts are going bonkers right now with gossip regarding people thinking that I am the new owner… Sheesh, gossip travels fast and Google sure does enable viral rumor madness. LOL
We’ll know soon who the new owner is, whether there is actually a new owner or not if my comment gets deleted. It seems Bob is still bent with me because of the things I called him out on last month on my blog.
If Bob is still the owner, my comment very well may get deleted.
Garry Conns last blog post..Can Google SEO and Social Bookmarking Coexist?
lol…
Garry, don’t think you are the new owner but think maybe you & bob came to a deal in the end & you are now writing here?
either way, good that the rumors are getting you both some traffic…
lap it up…
PropertyIrelands last blog post..Wexford Tomgarrow, Ballycarney, Enniscorthy
No… hate to put a stop the the viral madcowness. I don’t have any writing deals on John Cow. This post was just a good one that people begun to think I wrote it.
joking…
I like your reality site, I’d like to contact you to talk to you more about it if you have a chance. I am on GTalk [garryconn@gmail.com]
Garry Conns last blog post..Can Google SEO and Social Bookmarking Coexist?
All we can say is we are glad you are liking our posts
Wow, great place for internet and affiliate marketers. ClickBank has been a steady producer for me for some time.
Jeffs last blog post..http://chitownmortgage.stumbleupon.com/review/21280170/
Great information,this is a straight forward and informative bog keep it up.
