Is CarbonCopyPRO a Scam?

Ok, so let’s get to it. You’ll notice I said I’m a former CarbonCopyPRO member. Well I’m a former member for good reason. Before you go thinking I’m just some disgruntled guy who gave up because I didn’t get rich in a week, that’s not the case. I was a member for over a year. I invested a LOT of time, and I invested a lot of money in the CCPro system. I know how things work, and I know how the top earners in the company make their money. I’m not bashing CCPro only to ask you to join my own business. No… this is simply an honest review of the system.

While I don’t think CarbonCopyPRO is a scam, I definitely do not think it’s worth the investment of your time, your hope, and the significant amount of money it will cost you… there are much better options out there. Like I said, I won’t go as far as calling CarbonCopyPRO a scam, because yes, it is possible to earn money working from home with CCPro… it’s simply MUCH harder than anyone within the system would have you believe. There are a very select few within the system who are making good money. Moreover, about a year ago when I joined the system it was much easier to simply “plug in” and start making money. With recent changes and restrictions Google has implemented into their advertising system, you’re going to have a tough tough time making good money any time soon with CCPro. So no, CarbonCopyPRO isn’t a total scam, but it’s not far off in my books.

CarbonCopyPRO – A Company Based Around Hype

I should perhaps address a few things before I continue. You may have read articles I wrote in the past touting CCPro, or visited my website seeing the same great info about the system. Well unfortunately at the time those articles were written I simply didn’t know any better… I was uneducated about internet marketing, and I truly believed what I wrote. I thought 100% that I was in a great place, with the best internet marketing company out there.

Well in the past six or seven months I have learned a LOT about internet marketing and how to earn money working from home. More specifically I’ve learn quite a bit about affiliate marketing. I learned how to earn money working from home without the ridiculous monetary risk involved with CCPro, and I learned more on my own (through networking, various affiliate programs, and through online forums) than I ever did with CCPro. Not only that, but since quitting CCPro and branching out, I had was able to genuinely reflect on my time with them and see how shabby their system actually is.

Part of the reason I thought CCPro was so great was because the message was BLASTED at me by them with every chance they got… and I believed it. It starts before you join… “Make $10 000 a week from home easy… blah blah”… then you apply and get on a few calls telling you how it’s the greatest system in the world.

It doesn’t stop there. Once you join there are daily “wake up” calls (more hyping up), and nightly training calls. Now the nightly training calls are often hosted by someone within the company who is making some good money (which only goes to further cement within your brain that you’re getting good info). The calls usually start off with several minutes of hyping up and about how it’s going to be the greatest information in history and a training call you can’t miss. Well unfortunately they fall short just about every time. But it gets to you… they shove the idea into your head over and over that this is great stuff… “Guys… you’re getting some awesome information tonight… you’ll want to stay on the line for every minute of this… I feel sorry for everyone who’s missing this call… blah blah blah”… and you believe it!

The information given on these calls is just generally a shell of the information of what you need… but if you’re new to the industry you won’t know that. You’ll come out of it thinking how great it was. Moreover, some of the calls simply end up being essentially a plug for other services you should buy through them. Their non-live training isn’t much better… it’s more of an introduction to internet marketing than anything.

More About CarbonCopyPRO Training

The whole home based business thing is not as easy as CCPro makes it out to be. There was a time when you could join CCPro, put some paid advertisements up on Google, and be very likely to make a positive return on your investment (assuming you were properly shown how to set up a “home-based business optimized” Google AdWords account, which most people are not). I will admit it… there are some people who made some quick money with CCPro by following this system. I personally did not however. I spent about $4000 in advertising on Google, and was lucky to just barely break even (that’s $4000 in addition to the $9000 I spent buying into the system at the second highest level).

Anyway, the days where this was possible are now long gone due to Google changing its policies on how these types of businesses could be marketed using AdWords. Without being able to plug into such a system you’re stuck writing articles, making videos, networking on social media sites (and so on) to gather leads and make sales. Not only is this not easy due to the ridiculous amount of competition out there, but it takes a massive amount of free content (articles and videos) to receive a constant stream of free leads. Moreover there’s a learning curve, and you simply may not be any good at these types of marketing. Furthermore, to receive a decent amount of traffic to your content, you want it to be keyword optimized, and unfortunately the CCPro training in this area is lacking. Conclusion… it is damn hard to make money with CCPro without using Google AdWords, and it’s not a place I would want to be stuck after just investing $10 000.

CarbonCopyPRO Live Marketing Events and Jay Kubassek

I signed up for the “M2” conference with Wealth Masters International in Las Vegas last March (the Wealth Masters products are what you buy into and what you sell to make money with CarbonCopyPRO). Now I actually have no problem with Wealth Masters International, but the day after their conference ended there was a one day marketing event held by CarbonCopyPRO at the same venue. The event started out with about a 20 minute show by a group of guys on drums. It was intense music, and designed to get the participants hyped up for what was to come. It screamed “Look at this awesome company you’re involved with!” Well instead of giving some “epic” feeling, it went on for about 18 minutes too long and was simply completely ridiculous by the end.

I imagine this idea was the brainchild of Jay Jubassek and Aaron Parkinson… the two heads of CarbonCopyPRO, and the next presenters of the event. What did Jay and Aaron have to say? No surprise… more information about how totally amazing CarbonCopyPRO was and how lucky everyone in the audience was to be there. Jay Kubassek even went on to state how he felt sorry for anyone who was with any other internet marketing company and that he wanted CCPro to be the face of internet marketing in the future. LOL.

What really gets to me about Jay Kubassek is that he comes off as an honest guy, and a man of integrity… it’s just his personality and how he carries himself I suppose. Now however, it just seems like total deception based on the company of which he’s the CEO. The sales page of CarbonCopyPRO states how you can EASILY be making $10 000 or more working PART TIME from home within 3 weeks of joining the system. Essentially it’s just a total and utter lie. Has this been done in the past? Maybe… by about 1 in 10 000 people. But as I stated earlier, with the new changes to the Google advertising platform this is essentially impossible now. I honestly don’t know if Jay Kubassek is a total liar, or whether he actually believes what comes out of his mouth.

Back to the CCPro marketing event. The only useful information out of the entire day was given in the first presentation by Mike Koenigs about Traffic Geyser (Mike Koenigs is the inventor of Traffic Geyser). It was decent information I suppose (which most people at the event probably already knew however), but in essence it was just a plug to get people to join Traffic Geyser.

One of the subsequent presentations was given by CCPro top earner Andew Cass, and was titled “How to Make $200 000 a Year” (that’s not exact, but it was something like that). I thought “great… finally some useful information”. The presentation however could essentially be summed up by “invest $20 000, and make one sale a month”… completely and totally useless… nothing of substance whatsoever. It was simply more hyping up of the CarbonCopyPRO system and how great their compensation plan is. This article is getting fairly lengthy, so I won’t continue into the rest of the marketing event, but it goes without saying that it was completely useless.

How Much Will CarbonCopyPRO Cost You?

So, why else do I have such a problem with CCPro? Because you’re looking at about a $10 000 investment if you want to make any money with them. Yes… $10 000. The majority of that money would be spent on buying into the Wealth Masters International compensation plan (once you buy one of their products you’re able to sell it and generate commissions for yourself). You can buy into the system at a lower level, but it’s hardly worth it at that point. The people at CarbonCopyPRO will argue that if you buy in at the $10 000 or $20 000 level (yes you can buy in at $20 000… the top level), that you only need two sales to get your money back. Well guess what… it’s not exactly easy to sell someone on a $10 000 product!

My networking within the CarbonCopyPro community only confirms this. At the Wealth Masters International Conference in Las Vegas last year I did not speak to a single person (who I didn’t already know) who had made ANY sales (these are all people who would have spent between $8000 and $20 000 to be at that conference). Nearly everyone there was struggling with their business. This is not to say that absolutely no one there was making any money, but the vast majority was not. Furthermore, I’m still in contact with members of CCPro, and I know that most people are struggling to make any sales at all.

Wealth Masters International

As I’ve previously stated, I actually have no problem with the Wealth Masters International products. Their financial and investment information at the conference in Las Vegas was actually very good, and there were several great speakers there. If you’re looking for investment and financial security information, I would say the $8000 you will pay for one of their M2 conferences is well worth it. Having said that, at the time of the conference I had no money to spend on investments and haven’t actually tested out any of their advice. The overwhelming majority of participants at the conference however agreed that it was great information.

Having seen this first hand, I am actually very surprised that Wealth Masters International chooses to associate themselves with a company such as CarbonCopyPRO. This is obviously how they’re making the majority of their sales, but I would assume that a reputable company would not want to be associated with a company like CCPro.

How to Proceed if You Want to Earn Money Working From Home

Although what I’ve written above may be demoralizing, there is still hope for you if you’re looking to earn money working from home. If you’re looking to get into this sort of thing, I would advise not even looking for legitimate business opportunities, but that you to get into affiliate marketing instead. The monetary potential with affiliate marketing is much greater than it is with CCPro (or any legitimate business opportunities), the effort required is less, and there’s MUCH less of a monetary investment required. There are some great affiliate marketing products out there for under $100. If you happen to get nowhere with the program, hey, you’ve lost $100, not $10 000.

While affiliate marketing is great, it is still no guarantee of making you rich. This part is going to be mostly up to you and how hard you’re willing to work to make it to the point where you’re making money with ease. I won’t lie… if you’re new to this sort of thing, you WILL struggle to make money initially regardless of the product you buy. That’s simply how it works. There are lots of little “tricks” and variables, and simply a general knowledge base required before you really start making money. You may not make any money with your first or second product, but if they’re decent you will at least have learned something, and it will make your further endeavours that much easier. So called “super affiliates” who are making 5 or 10 million dollars a year struggled to get where they are today… so don’t give up on yourself. There is TONS of money being spent on the internet every day, and you can take a big piece of that pie.

I would recommend you go over to the Warrior Forums to get your feet wet on the whole affiliate marketing thing. There are some incredibly knowledgeable people over there discussing everything affiliate marketing. You may also want to check out the Warrior Special Offer (WSO) forums for products at especially low prices (for members… don’t worry it’s free to join). You can get a great product which will teach you a lot and have you potentially making money online for as low as $10.

Well I did not expect this article to be this long, but hopefully I’ve helped a few people on their path to earning money working from home, and dissuaded anyone from joining CarbonCopyPRO. Keep in mind however all of the above is simply MY OPINION. Proceed with what you believe to be true, but join CarbonCopyPRO at your own risk!


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So it’s been quite a while since my last blog post. I’ve by no means given up my internet marketing career, I’ve simply decided to expand my options and generate several sources of income, instead of limiting myself with what I started doing initially (CarbonCopyPRO… which I’m continuing to do).

I’ve had a very interesting, and sometimes frustrating, time over the past several months trying out different internet marketing products, and foraying into different niches. One thing I have realized is that there is just SO MUCH opportunity out there for anyone with half a brain to make a full time living on the internet working from home. The internet is simply massive business… essentially almost any product or service in the world can be and is purchased online… and if it’s purchased online that you can market it online and make money.

Anyway, I’m going way off point here. This blog post is to give my Google Sniper review. Google Sniper was written by a 19 year old guy (at the time of its writing) called George Brown. George claims to be a very lazy guy, wanting to make money from home through the least possible amount of effort… and I know where he’s coming from, hehe. I think George should give himself more credit though, because he’s put together a great internet marketing manual which I’m sure has taken a lot of work.

George likes to tell it like it is… he’s honest and there’s no fluff or bs or super hyping up in his manual. It’s very straight forward and to the point, and it tells you how to accomplish each task through as easily as possible, with the least amount of work.

So… first part of the Google Sniper review… what is Google Sniper? Google Sniper is a manual which teaches you how to generate income through affiliate marketing. What’s amazing about Google Sniper though is that is teaches you how to generate traffic to your affiliate sites WITHOUT paying for traffic… yup… 100% free traffic… no Pay Per Click or any other paid advertising methods.

To some of you thinking this is over your heads or that it’s impossible… no it’s not. It’s a fairly simple process, and the Google Sniper manual lays out the steps for you to be able to do so in a very straight-forward manner… no bs or extra fluff added.

Now ok yes there is some cost associated with having your own website, but it’s minimal ($10 for the domain and a couple dollars hosting per month)… everything after that is completely free… there is simply no worry in wasting any of your money on failing methods because you’re not spending any.

George aims to generate about $600 per site he creates per month. This is a fairly modest number, but because you want to be ranked on the first page of Google, the keyword competition (and thus generally the keyword traffic) won’t be huge. What’s so great about the Google Sniper process though is that this method of marketing is easily duplicated. If you can create one site generating $600 a month, you can easily create 10… or 20… or however many you want.

And this is not a long process, nor is it an ongoing one. Once you’ve mastered the techniques, you’re talking about maybe 2 hours total to create a website which should get ranked.

Oh, and for anyone worried about creating their own site, don’t worry. George suggests (and he’s right in my opinion) to use WordPress on all of your sites. For anyone unfamiliar with WordPress, it essentially makes a site for you… all you’re left to do is type some text on the page.

Ok, now before it sounds like I’m hyping this up too much, I’ll state some drawbacks.

I was a fairly experienced internet marketer when I started with Google Sniper, so I knew exactly what he was talking about throughout the entire manual. There was essentially no learning I had to do and no intimidating factors. For someone completely new to the internet marketing game, obviously things would be slightly tougher. Additionally, you could create a site that doesn’t convert well, or for whatever reason you may not be able to get your site ranked (if you follow the guidelines exactly this shouldn’t be the case though). With practice makes perfect though, and you’ll always improve your work over time.

So, am I saying an internet marketing newbie couldn’t do it? No I’m not saying that at all. The Google Sniper process is more than possible for anyone with basic internet knowledge, you just might have a slightly tougher time getting things going than someone with a little experience.

So how did I do with Google Sniper? The very first site I created was ranked on Google in the number one spot within several weeks of creation… I was pretty impressed with myself, hehe. This was done following the guidelines exactly as stated in the Google Sniper manual. I probably got a little ahead of myself after that, and chose some keywords with tougher competition than was recommended, and have had some trouble with those sites. George does however tell you several methods to improve your site ranking which I’ve been working on, and I have a few more sites climbing up to the first page.

So that’d does it for my Google Sniper review. Overall, I would highly recommend Google Sniper to the newbie internet marketer, or the experience internet marketer. Success is greatly possibly with a little bit of persistence… how much money you want to make with Google Sniper is up to you.

George Brown’s Google Sniper… Zero to Six Figures… the complete blueprint.

=> http://GeorgeBrownsGoogleSniper.info

1) Write About a Marketing Method You Use

If you’re new to the internet marketing industry, whichever company you’ve joined will ideally have provided you with full training on marketing strategies. Do you market with Facebook? Twitter? Listjoe? Articles? Press Relseases? Google AdWords? Marketing strategies alone should give you 10 or 15 solid article topics. Simply write a “how to” article describing how to use each method for marketing purposes. You really don’t need a lot of experience to do this. There are so many people out there right now who have no clue on how to do any of this that you’re already ahead of the game if you have any background in it at all.

2) Read a Marketing-Related Book

The book doesn’t have to be purely an internet marketing-based book… it could be a book on how to run a business, business and mindset (one VERY important variable in succeeding in this industry is mindset, and there are plenty of books on the topic), or anything else somehow related to succeeding as an internet marketer. I was recently speaking to a friend who mentioned a chapter in a book he was reading called “The 10 000 Hour Rule”. The 10 000 rule (based on fact) states that to become world-class at anything you will need to have spent about 10 000 doing whatever “anything” is. This apparently applies to literally almost anything… becoming a world class guitar player, hockey player, chef… internet marketer. Anyway, that’s not the point here. The point here is that an article on this topic could easily be written and related to succeeding in the internet marketing industry. So open the nearest marketing-related book, go to a random chapter, and chances are you can likely write an article on the chapter topic. I am not advocating plagiarism… give credit where credit is due of course.

3) Expand on Previous Topics

It’s likely whichever articles you’ve written contain subtopics. A great way to generate new article topics is to expand on a subtopic of a previous article. Have you written about social media? Then maybe you want to write an article about each individual social media site. Then perhaps there’s a specific topic about each site you’d like to expand upon. This method can be incredibly useful in producing a large number of new topics when you’re stuck for ideas.

4) Read Other Internet Marketing Articles

Again this is not to say that you should plagiarize. Simply seeing what other people have written about can have you generating ideas you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Researching articles of specific people can also be great for coming up with ideas. If you know of any top producers in the industry, or people who do particularly well with article marketing, see what they’ve been writing about.

You should be able to come up with many solid article topics using the methods listed above. If you’re truly stuck, brainstorming should never be underestimated as well. Once you come up with a fresh new idea you may be able to expand upon it and create several more new articles.

TWEET LATER (tweetlater.com)

Tweet Later is the most useful Twitter program I use by far. The interface is horrible, but you only have to configure your Twitter options once and then you’re done. After you’ve loaded your Twitter account into Tweet Later, go to “Accounts”, “List Accounts”, then “Edit”. You should have at least the following two options set-up.

Auto-follow:
This will follow anyone who follows you automatically. This is essentially just common Twitter etiquette for marketers… if someone follows you, you follow them back. Most marketers on Twitter use this function, which is how you will get your followers; when you choose to follow someone and they have this option selected, they will automatically follow you back, and you now have a new follower. If you gain followers this way, it’s just nice to return the favour. Additionally, the more people you follow, the more likely someone is to follow you.

Auto-Welcome:
I would also recommend checking this and using it. It serves as a great way to start up a conversation with new potential leads. Send a simple message… thank people for following you, and maybe ask them a question to get the conversation started. Do no pitch your business in your auto welcome message. I get this all the time everyday, and I just delete those messages automatically. Be prepared to be bombarded with such messages.

You will also see Auto-Unfollow here. I personally don’t use this (more on unfollowing under “Friend or Follow” below).

Tweet Later also allows you to… Tweet Later. Go to “Tweets”, then “New Tweet”. You can write in as many Tweets as you like and how them published to your account whenever you like. This way you don’t have to return to Twitter throughout the day to post something new. Simply set up a few new Tweets in the morning and then forget about it.

I personally don’t use any other Tweet Later functions, but browse around and see what suits you.

TWITTER FEED (twitterfeed.com)

Twitter feed will Tweet your blog’s RSS feed, i.e. every time you make a new blog post, you will automatically Tweet this to your followers. This is great because it gets traffic to your blog, and you don’t have to worry about remembering to Tweet it yourself.

TWEET DECK (tweetdeck.com)

Tweet Deck allows you to do everything you can do on Twitter, but without having to actually go online to your Twitter account. It has a different interface than Twitter, which some people may like. It also has an option to shorten your url’s (which Twitter does, but only after posting the Tweet), which can help you make longer Tweets. Beware though, Tweet Deck makes really loud annoying sounds periodically, so you might want to lower your volume.

HUITTER (friendorfollow.com)

Twitter recently changed the the interface in the “following” section. Previously you could immediately tell who you were following, but wasn’t following you back, but you now have to click the icon on the right of the screen to figure this out. Yes this seems effortless, but when you’re trying to unfollow 100 people at a time, it takes much longer with the new interface. Huitter allows you to unfollow everyone who isn’t unfollowing you with the click of a button (if you wish to keep following certain people you can specify this). If you wish to unfollow these people, it’s now a lot easier. For anyone who doesn’t know, once you hit the 2000 “following” mark, you must have followers within 10% of your following, i.e. if you’re following 2000 people, you must have 1800 or more followers. Hence, it becomes necessary to unfollow people who aren’t following you, or else you won’t be able to follow more people.

TWITTER BACKGROUNDS (google.com)

I’m not speaking specifically about any tool or website here. Google “twitter backgrounds” and you’ll get several sites with free twitter backgrounds, some with some really really cool images. They’re a lot more interesting than the boring ones provided on Twitter, and they can serve to start up conversations too (I get asked about my Twitter background once in a while).

So there is your “automated” Twitter system. Add as many new followers per day and it won’t take too long to get to several thousand followers (I recommend following less than 400 new people a day, or else your account might get suspended). Just remember to unfollow people, be friendly, and don’t spam people with your business opportunity.

For information on optimizing your Twitter profile for your business, see my blog post “How To Use Twitter For Your Business”.

1) Write an Article:
Write informative and content-rich articles. Again, this is not the place to blatantly self-promote or state that your business opportunity is the greatest thing on earth. Many people out there looking for online opportunities don’t know one thing when it comes to internet marketing. Establish yourself as a marketing authority by posting useful marketing advice (or related topics) and readers will be curious as to what it is exactly that you do, and may opt to join you (your author bio should be at the end of each article, including a link where people can go to learn more about you or opt into your business opportunity).

2) Write a Press Release
Press releases are announcements of news-worthy events, and should be written in the third person. For example you may want to announce the launch of your new business, your website, your blog, or any event that may be related to your business. Use quotes in your press release, as if you were being interviewed i.e. “our business model is one of a kind” said Matt Mossop. Keep press releases short and to the point (around 400 words).

3) Blog
Use the same guidelines for blogging as stated above for articles. Your blog will be used to establish yourself as a marketing authority. I personally post all my articles on my blog, as well as some additional content which I don’t want to release as an article. You should have a capture form on your blog for possible new leads.

4) Create a Squidoo Lens
Squidoo is a website where people share content about about whatever you want. Again, follow the article writing guidelines as above. There are additional options to add pictures and video etc to your squidoo lens, just follow the instructions on Squidoo on how to create a lens.

5) Create a Facebook Profile
Create a Facebook profile (or MySpace etc) as you would if you were using it to talk to friends (keep it professional however, i.e. no offensive content). Don’t make it look like you’re only there to promote your business. Add friends who are also into internet marketing/business, as some of them may be looking for new business opportunities. I personally also add people with similar interests as me, i.e. movies or music I like. Do not push your business onto any of these people. When adding friends let people know you’re looking to network or speak to like-minded individuals. If they decide to ask you what you do and join you, that’s their decision.

6) Use Twitter
Create a Twitter account and follow as many new people a day as possible (limit to 400 or so so your profile doesn’t get suspended by Twitter). Tweet about other topics than just how to join your business. You’re limited to 140 characters per tweet, so it’s not difficult to post other interesting advice or information (a cool video or news story you read for example). Once you’ve reached a few thousand followers (this does take some time to establish), it is possible to get several free business leads per day.

7) Create a Video
Create an informative video and post it to Youtube (or Viddler etc). Simply record yourself talking about whatever business-related topic you wish, it can be as short or long as you want. The more unique your video, the more views you will get.

8) Post an Online Classified Ad
I personally like Craigslist, although they limit you to how many ads you can post within a 48 hour period (three unique ads per e-mail address). Simply create a short ad with a link to your opt-in page and post it.

9) Join ListJoe
With ListJoe, you can send thousands of e-mails out weekly to potential leads for free. The catch is that every e-mail you send out goes to another ListJoe member, i.e. someone doing the same thing as you. Leads are still possible however as some members may be frustrated with their business and looking for something new. You must personally look at other ListJoe members’ e-mail to acculmulate points. The number of e-mails you’re allowed to send it determined by how many points you have. It is not difficult however to accumulate enough points to send out 2000 or so e-mails a week.

10) Post to Online Forums
Join online marketing forums and simply reply to posts, demonstrating your marketing knowledge. Again, this will build your credibility and may have people wanting to know more about what it is you do, and how to join you.

You will of course have to find websites to post your articles, press release, etc. Simply google “free article marketing” (or similar topics) to find sites to post your content on. Free business leads do take more effort to produce in general than paid leads, but if you’re on a limited marketing budget they’re invaluable. As stated above, articles and your blog will also help to establish yourself as a presence in the industry. Further detail on most of the above topics can be found in previous posts on my blog.

Landing Page Optimization is equally as important as ad optimization in Google AdWords. If someone clicks on your ad and find themselves on a page which is not directly related to the ad they clicked on, the chances are that you’ve just wasted the money you spent on that click. Maybe your ads have a great CTR, but if your cost per conversion is horrible your CTR doesn’t mean anything. Say you’re advertising a Harry Potter book; don’t link the clicker to the bookstore homepage, link them to the exact page where the Harry Potter book can be bought. If your ad mentions some sort of specific deal, make that deal visible on your landing page.

As mentioned above, your landing pages are just as relevant as the ads they’re linked from; this is why you should also split test landing pages (if you own the domain you’re using to advertise of course). To split-test landing pages, make two identical ads and just change the landing page links (you want the ads to be identical because otherwise you won’t know what the discrepancy in cost per conversion is due to). If you don’t know anything about “web -copywriting” and you have access to the source code of your capture page, you should definitely read a web-copywriting book. Testing your own ideas and layouts of landing pages can also be great, but knowing what really sparks interest in the human mind could save you a lot of money.

That does it for “Google AdWords Basics Part Four – Landing Page Optimization”. If you’re unfamiliar with Any AdWords terms I’ve mentioned, check Google AdWords Basics Parts One and Two, also hosted on my blog.

I currently have two blog posts discussing AdWords basics. This post discusses exactly how to use AdWords, i.e. how to create ads and how to optimize them for AdWords. The other AdWords Basics post discusses the technical aspects of AdWords, i.e. key terms you need to know, and exactly what you’re trying to do to make your AdWords ads effective. The posts compliment each other and go hand in hand. If you’re a complete beginner, you should read both posts.

I should also state that all the information herein is pertinent only to Google AdWords, and not necessarily to other Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisers such as Yahoo or MSN. I do all my current advertising with Google AdWords, because Google rewards you for providing relevant content, i.e. the more you know what you’re doing, and the higher the relevance of the ads you place, the cheaper Google will allow you to advertise for. If you know what you’re doing, Google is the place to advertise.


HOW ADWORDS WORKS

For anyone who doesn’t know the very basics of how Google AdWords works, I will explain (for technical aspects and common AdWords terms, see my other AdWords Basics post). You, the user, place an ad with Google. You write out a few short lines of what you’re promoting, specify your keywords, and link your ad to the page you want to send people to. Google places this ad on the right hand side of its page when someone searches for your keyword. If you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say “keyword”, read my post “Keyword Analysis (Search Engine Optimization) In Internet Marketing” which explains the basics. Essentially though, a keyword is a word or phrase being searched for on Google which will trigger your ad to appear.

NOTE: In “Keyword Analysis (Search Engine Optimization) In Internet Marketing” I write about keywords pertaining to organic listings (“organic” means the listings which or not paid for, i.e. the results directly under your search, not the ones on the right side of the page on Google). The basics of keyword analysis is the same here, but the section where I talk about determining your competition for each keyword is irrelevant, because there I am talking about your competition for organic listings, not in the paid listings, so ignore that part.


HOW TO WRITE AN AD

So, let’s begin with an example of a simple ad in AdWords. Let’s say you want to sell guitars. First, create a Campaign in AdWords called “Guitar”. The title of the Campaign is not super important, but at least make it something related to what you’re selling. Next you want to title your Ad Group. The title of the Ad Group is very important, and is relevant to all the keywords you’re going to add to your Ad Group. Your Ad Group title is important, because it will be the base keyword for all your keywords. To explain, let’s say I want to sell Gibson guitars. My Ad Group title will be “Gibson Guitars”, and every keyword that I now add to this Ad Group will contain the words “gibson guitars”. This is because as I said above, you will do better with Google Adwords if your ads are relevant. For your ads to be relevant, you want your Ad Group title in the title of your actual ad. If all of your keywords contain your Ad Group title, then at least part of each keyword will be in your actual ad title. This is very important to Google. Your relevance will go way up in Google’s eyes if the term that a person is searching for is in your ad title. For more on relevancy in AdWords, see the section “Click Through Rate” in my other AdWords Basics post.

So let’s go to the free WordTracker tool at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ (again, I would recommend reading “Keyword Analysis (Search Engine Optimization) In Internet Marketing” for further information on this). Type “guibson guitars” in and click search. Now the keywords you choose are going to depend on exactly what you’re selling; obviously if you’re only selling electric guitars, you don’t want “gibson acoustic guitars” as one of your keywords, this is just going to waste your money. Go through the Wordtracker list, and add as many terms as you can that you think are relevant. I would recommend putting your keywords in your list twice, once in square brackets like this [keyword], and once in quotes like this “keyword”. If your keyword is in square brackets, your ad will only be triggered if someone types in exactly what you have within the square brackets, in that exact order. If your keyword is in quotes, your ad will be triggered if any phrase is searched for containing your keyword, in the same order in which you entered it. For example, if your keyword was “electric gibson guitars”, your ad would be triggered if “buy electric gibson guitars” was searched for. However, if “electric gibson black guitars” was searched for, then your ad would not be triggered.

I would recommend also entering your keyword without quotes or brackets, because this can trigger your ad for any phrase entered that contains your keyword. For example, if your keyword was “electric Gibson guitars”, your keyword could be triggered by a search for “I want to buy gibson black electric guitar”. You have to be very careful with this however, because you don’t want your ad to be triggered for irrelevant searches. For example, you don’t want your ad triggered for “pictures of electric gibson guitars”, because this would just serve to lower your CTR. This is where negative keywords come in very useful. I have written an additional post on negative keywords called “Google AdWords Basics Part Three – Negative Keywords”, which I would recommend reading. Again, for more on relevancy with AdWords, see the section “Click Through Rate” in my other AdWords Basics post.

Google allows three lines for your to type for your ad. Your first line will be for your ad title, and should always contain your Ad Group title, and hence at least of part of your keyword (to increase your relevancy). The second and third lines are completely up to you to decide what to write. Perry Marshall suggests however that your second line be a benefit of your product, and your third line be a feature of your product. An example of a benefit could be “Gibsons Make You A Better Player” or “The Guitars The Pros Use”, while a feature could be “Rosewood And Maple Fretboards” or “Over 100 Models To Choose From”.


OPTIMIZING YOUR ADS

You should also always split-test your ads. The smallest change could dramatically change your CTR (for more on CTR, see the section “Click Through Rate” in my other AdWords Basics post). To split-test ads, go to your Ad Group, then Ad Variations, then Create New Ad. You will create an ad that is very similar to your first ad, but with some slight difference. For example, if your title is “Electric Gibson Guitars”, try changing it to “New Electric Gibson Guitars” or “Great Electric Gibson Guitar Models”. You could also try reversing your second and third lines, or changing their wording too. You will run the two ads at the same time, and Google will show you which ad performs better. When you have sufficient data to decide which is the better-performing ad, delete the lower-performing ad and create a new ad variation to test against the better-performing ad. This way you can constantly increase your CTR. Only change one variable at a time however, otherwise you won’t know why your new ad is performing better than the old one. This may seem tedious, but it has been proven that minor changes can sometimes make a huge different in your CTR.


CONCLUSION

This is the very basics of AdWords. I would highly recommend Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google AdWords to get more detail on the topics I’ve covered here. It is a document you will have to pay for, but it is worth it.

I will be writing more posts on AdWords in the future, so check back often!

I currently have two posts discussing AdWords basics. The purpose of this post is to discuss the technical aspects of AdWords, i.e. key terms you need to know, and exactly what you’re trying to do to make your AdWords ads effective. My other AdWords Basics post discusses exactly how to use AdWords; how to create ads and how to optimize them for AdWords. The post s compliment each other and go hand in hand. If you’re a complete beginner, you should read both posts. I also have other more advanced posts on the topic, as well as an post on keyword analysis.


ADWORDS TERMS

Below is a list of basic terms you should know before using Google AdWords. If you’re going to be using AdWords, you need to be familiar with all of these terms.

1) Cost Per Click (CPC)
As the title implies, this is the amount you’re going to pay every time someone clicks on your AdWords ad. Different keywords (for more on keywords read “Keyword Analysis (Search Engine Optimization) In Internet Marketing” and my other AdWords Basics post”) are going to cost you different amounts for clicks depending on their popularity. The posts mentioned above discuss how to determine some cheaper keywords.

2) Impressions
This is the number of times your ad appears in the search results in Google. Your ad will be triggered to make an impression when someone searches for one of your keywords. Your ad won’t necessarily make an impression every time someone searches for one of your keywords, depending on your competition, i.e. how many other people are also using your keyword in their AdWords campaigns.

3) Clicks
The number of times someone has clicked on your ad.

4) Click Through Rate (CTR)
Your CTR will be used by Google to determine how successful, and hence with Google, how relevant your ads are. Your CTR is the number of times someone has clicked on your ad, divided by the number of impressions it has (your ad is less relevant to Google if it has appeared many times, but no one is clicking on it). Your CTR is extremely important. Google will reward you for relevancy; Google will give you better placement for less money, the better your CTR. Your goal in AdWords is essentially going to be to improve your CTR; this is going to be dependent on the quality of your ad. First and foremost, you want your keyword in your ad title (see my other AdWords Basics post for more details on this). Secondly, you just need to write quality ads; that is, ads that are going to attract readers’ attention. I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject, and there is a lot you can learn about this in Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google AdWords. You can dramatically improve your CTR however by split-testing your ads. Again, for more on this, see my other AdWords Basics post.

The exact formula Google uses to determine an ad’s relevancy isn’t known exactly by anyone. For example, Google will also use variables such as how long the average person stays on your page, or how relevant your page actually is to your ad (so make sure the content you’re advertizing is exactly what you’re linking to).

5) Cost Per Conversion
This is essentially just as important as your CTR. This is the amount of money you’re going to be paying per conversion. A conversion for you could be someone continuing to your next page, or it could be someone purchasing something. Obviously though, you don’t want to be paying more per conversion than you’re making per conversion. Google will track your Cost Per Conversion for you, but you have to insert some HTML code. Go to “Conversion Tracking”, and then “Create a new action”, then enter the information, and get the HTML code. This code should not go on your landing page, but the page on which a person would land after being converted, i.e. after they have purchased something, or done whatever you want them to do on your page. Your goal in AdWords, as well as raising your CTR, should be to lower your Cost Per Conversion.

6) Current Budget
This is the amount of money you want to spend on a campaign per day. Obviously if you have a set budget that you don’t want to go over, you should set this as your budget. If you don’t, you could get into huge trouble by spending more money than you have. Unfortunately, Google will pay more attention to you if you have a significant budget. If you’re only paying $5 a day or something like that, Google might not give you very much attention, and may not show your ad very much.


CONCLUSION

That is it for this post. Use this in combination with my other AdWords Basics post to get a good start with Google AdWords. I would highly recommend Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google AdWords to get more detail on the topics I’ve covered here. It is a document you will have to pay for, but it is worth it.

This question cannot really be answered with a simple yes or a no… it’s a much more complex issue than that. The following article will discuss my personal experience with Google Cash.

I’ve recently become very interested in the potential of making money from home on the internet. A few months ago I had no idea this kind of thing was possible, but one day came across an ad for Google Cash and decided the risk (less than $100) was worth the reward (being able to quit my job and work from home). I read through Google Cash and it sounded great and fairly simple. I truely believed that what Google Cash promised was possible to achieve with the information it provided me with.

If anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the Google Cash system, I will explain. Google Cash teaches you how to exploit the world of affiliate marketing. Just about any company that sells products on the internet has an affiliate program. For example’s sake, let’s use Walmart as one of these companies. Anyone can apply to be an affiliate with Walmart. If you are accepted into Walmart’s affiliate program, Walmart will pay you a percentage of products you sell for them. How do you sell these products? That’s what Google Cash teaches you.

You know those ads on the right hand side of the page when you search for something? Those are affiliate links, i.e. ads created by people who have signed up with whatever company to sell their products. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, type “dvd” into Google and look at the results on the right side of the page.

Now, if you click on one of those links, whoever put that ad up there is paying Google for that click. So if you signed up as an affiliate with Walmart and decided you wanted to sell dvd’s for them, you would create an ad with Google which would receive a placement on the right hand side of the page. If someone clicks your ad and then buys something from Walmart, you get a commision on that purchase.

So, I read Google Cash and got the basic idea. It sounded easy enough. I rationalized it to myself like this: if I made 10 different ads which made me only $10 a day each, that’s $100 a day. 7 days a week, that’s $700 a week. Not too bad at all. Well I soon found out that this was much harder than it sounded. I made some ads and yes, I got a lot of clicks, but no one was buying anything when they clicked on my ads.

This is where things get more complex than they seem. When you place an ad with Google, you choose which keywords you want your ad to appear for. Let’s use dvd’s at Walmart as an example again. Say you want to sell a Batman dvd. You can have it so your ad comes up when someone searches for “dvd”, “batman dvd”, “i want to buy dvd’s”, etc… there are endless possibilities. You will pay a different price for each keyword (note you only pay for a keyword when someone searches for your keyword and then ALSO clicks on your ad). Dvd is a very popular keyword as you can imagine, and hence will cost you more than say “i want to buy dvd’s”.

Google Cash does give you some guidance on how to determine less expensive keywords, but then there are other problems. Which keywords are generating money for you and which are wasting money? Which are actually the best products to market (endless possibilities)? When a person is clicking your ad, are they just doing research, or do they actually want to buy something. Additionally, most affiliate programs offer tiny commissions, in my experience, generally between 4% and 10%. It is not easy to get a positive ROI (Return on Investment) with commissions so low.

This type of marketing can be lucrative, which is why I am hesitant to say that Google Cash is a scam. However there is too much information missing from Google Cash to make a positive ROI without learning a lot on your own. On top of that, once you’ve bought Google Cash, you have no one to help you out. You can’t pick up the phone and call Google Cash and ask them for help, which is very frustrating. Essentially you’re left up to trial and error, which can be a huge waste of time and money.