Tomorrow PPC Classroom is opening its doors again and they’re offering a free report on affiliate marketing with pay-per-click traffic (it goes by the rather unwieldy title “How to Avoid the 5 Deadliest Mistakes that Keep 98% of Affiliates Dead Broke, and Join the Ranks of the Elite 2% of Super Affiliates!” — I’ll just refer to it as the “PPC report”). The report is good — 33 pages long with real content — and I have heard good things about PPC Classroom and will take it for a spin myself to see what all the fuss is about. In the meantime, though, I thought I’d add my own tips to those in the report. These will only make sense if you read the report first, though, so be sure to download it from here first.
- An easy way to start building a broad keyword list is to use the “~” (twiddle) operator in Google. Put the twiddle in front of a keyword in Google to do a “synonym” search. This can show you other keywords that Google thinks is relevant.
- Also use the free AdWords keyword tool. Be sure to check the “Use synonyms” option when you search. And for a really good set of keywords, use the URL option to generate a set of keywords based on the address of a related website or two. You’ll be surprised at the keyword groups that get generated.
- The AdWords Editor is perhaps Google’s best-kept secret for managing your AdWords account. You can do all kinds of neat things with it, including the trick that Amit shows you in the report. I’ve used it to create a whole pile of ad groups from a simple Excel spreadsheet file — it really does make it convenient.
- Don’t discount the content network… I have had a campaign running on the content network that costs me only 5 cents per click. I used a broad keyword list (see #1 above) for it and I’ve been very surprised by which keywords get the clicks — it’s not at all the ones I expected!
And don’t forget to read my previous AdWords tips, like squeezing more keywords from the keyword tool.
And if you’ve joined PPC Classroom before, I’d love to hear your comments about it…