Getting Started With AdWords
When I got started with Internet Marketing, I think I tried everything else but AdWords. Mainly because of the fact that it was a traffic generating tool that involved paying someone (Google in this case). I had also heard of lots of people just bombing out and loosing money.
Of course being new, that was something I really wanted to avoid. So I stayed clear of AdWords completely and opted for other means of traffic generation like blogging and article marketing.
Then of course I got into Andrew & Daryl Grant’s course which uses AdWords extensively in their business. I then decided that I better get into it and learn up.
They had recommended an e-book, Perry Marshall’s “Definitive Guide To AdWords”. Perry is widely regarded as the premier AdWords “Guru”. I immediately bought his e-book and poured through it. What I discovered after I implemented his lessons, really made me wish I had started sooner.
One of the first things that Perry teaches, is that there is a wrong way and a right way to set up an AdWords campaign. The wrong way is to just write and ad and put every keyword for your market to trigger that ad…WRONG.
The right way is to put your keywords into very tight groups. Where each group represents a unique mindset or topic within your market. That way you can right an ad that is highly related to the keywords in that group; increasing the probability of it being clicked by your target customer.
By just implementing this strategy alone, I believe is the main reason, I have continually managed to get average CTRs of 2% to 3% within the first week of launching campaigns (CTR is a Google metric of ad relevance).
There is of course so much more that he shares. That is why I really recommend his e-book if you want to get started with AdWords. But if you want to just get an idea of the value he can deliver, then click here to sign up for Perry’s free 5 day AdWords course.
The Courses That Started It All
In my last post I mentioned 2 courses I took that formed the way I do my business. And I thought I would just write a short post to give you an idea about them (not intended as a comprehensive review).
To me they are both very similar in that both use surveys and AdWords as the main part of their strategy. But they differ in the extent they use surveys.
The Grant’s use surveys in a very easy and basic way to scope out their markets needs. Which is great for beginners and those looking for faster results from surveys.
But Glenn’s course goes far greater into detail on how to use surveys. He teaches a very specific process which allows you to be very laser precise about what your market wants. His process involves you getting in touch with your “Inner Geek” as you will be analyzing a significant amount of numbers/information; his process also requires more time in getting the results required from surveys.
If I had to sum it up for you; both have their merits and have helped people be successful. It depends which one suits you best.
I started with the Grant’s course which really formed the basics of how I do business on the Internet now. Their course is really targeted towards the beginner, it includes weekly emails that carry you through their process. I found these really helpful because they really do give assistance from beginning to end. In addition, you are entitled to 4 hours worth of one on one consulting time for Q & A, which can be very valuable to the new kid on the block.
Then I came across Glenn’s course and was blown away by his success rate of how he enters markets. But to be honest with you, it took me weeks to decide to purchase his course, because it was on the high side. Once I did, I was amazed at the amount of material that was included (there was a lot!). His course is targeted towards existing marketers (and perhaps really aggressive newbies). I think even existing marketers will have a challenge understanding his method right away. And as I mentioned earlier, his method involves a lot of work. More work than most marketers are willing to do, but in my opinion well worth it.
My Business Process of Creating Products
The chart below is a high level diagram flow of the process I have adopted in creating my businesses. It actually came about from following 2 separate courses I went through (Andrew & Daryl Grant’s and Glenn Livingston’s).
Identify Market
The first thing I do is identify a market that would be worth while exploring. What makes a market worth while? Well I look at a few things:
- Is it big enough? – Is there sufficient numbers of people looking/searching for information in that market on the Internet. Why is that important? Well if there are not enough numbers you will end up not having enough potential traffic coming into your business.
- Is there existing competition? – Competition in the form of AdWords and/or people already selling products is a good sign there is money to be made.
- How much will it cost to advertise on PPC? – Really what I want to know is if I will be profitable if I bid on specific keywords for this market.
- Do I feel empathy for this market? – I want to know that I will be able to deliver something that will help people in the market that I choose (and feel good about it). If I can’t feel empathetic, I know it will be pretty painful to go through the entire product and marketing process.
Survey & Analyze
I have become a huge proponent of the survey process in creating products. Why? Because you will be able to tell whether you are going to be successful or not before any major spending on product creation and marketing even begins:
- The response rates and quality of responses from your surveys will give you a good sense of the demand for potential products.
- You will get a very good indication of how much traffic you will get and how much it will cost you to drive that traffic to your website. Which will be key to help you estimate your potential revenues.
- The survey responses also gives you excellent ideas for content/product creation.
After completing this part of the process I will know exactly if this is a GO or NO GO market to enter. If it is a GO then I will move to the next step. If it is a NO GO, I will just go find another market to survey.
Create
From the survey process, I will already have gathered a really good idea as to what content I will need to provide to be successful. I will also get a sense as to what type of product it will need to be i.e. e-book, video, audio etc.
On how I create the products, just one word “OUTSOURCE”. Even if it is something simple like an e-book, I will generally want to get someone else to do it. My rationale is that, I am not a writer, software developer, video editor etc., so I would need someone to do a great job for me (what would probably take me weeks or even a month to do, could be completed in a fraction of the time).
The only thing to really consider is of course the cost of getting this done. Now, here is a important thing that I have realized; because, I have gone through the survey process, I have more confidence that I will succeed. So I am more willing to spend the money.
Drive Traffic
During the survey process I use AdWords to drive traffic to my survey sites. Once I am ready to launch, I will again use AdWords as my main source of traffic. I like AdWords for various reasons, but, in the initial stages of my launch, I like it most because I get instant results.
I will be able to drive traffic and “kick the tyres” of my sales process, to see if it works (converts to sales). And it will take me a really short time to figure that out. Then once sales starts to stabilize, I will then completely go nuts and utilize other traffic generation methods with better confidence.
Track & Improve
You are always going to want to track and improve your sales process. I adopt several tools like Google Analytics, Google Conversion Tracking etc. to track how well I am converting. The key is to really keep improving it a little bit at a time via split testing. I split test quite a few things in my sales process e.g. AdWord Ads, Landing Pages etc.
I also take some small percentage of my traffic and divert them to survey sites. Where I can ask them questions to help me improve my overall process and/or product. If I get information worth implementing I just put it back into my process cycle.
This is the process which I am following in my business. I hope you got something out of it. Now, I know this hasn’t shared a lot of detail, this post was really meant to give you a overview; and I will go into each part in more detail in separate posts.
But, if you guys could also let me know, what you would like to hear more about, it would help me plan and structure my future posts on the subject.
Have a great week ahead.
My Interview With JobsDB
It is really weird how things kinda of happen. I was at a friends wedding reception and was seated to a guy named Mark. We had one of those conversations, you know “so how do you know the groom/bride?” kind.
Anyway, we eventually got to sharing what we did for a living. It turns out Mark works for JobsDB Singapore. He was very keen to do an interview with me. I was actually very surprised. But they were doing a series of interviews with young entrepreneurs. And in my case specifically they were looking to share my story of how I left my banking career and went on to Internet Marketing.
Long story short, we did the interview, it went live a few days ago and I thought I would share it with you here as well.
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What is your business about?
My business involves creating and selling very niche products online. Currently I am focusing on informational/educational products that can be bought and downloaded online e.g. PDF Books. But I plan to add other type of products like software in the future.
What inspired you to start your own business?
I have always wanted to be part of a successful business, even from a very young age. However, it has only been the past 3 to 5 years that I felt that I wanted to own my own business. I think there are some obvious reasons why one might want to own their own business e.g. money, own boss, time flexibility etc. And all of them had a part in my decision to start.
But what started me moving in this direction was knowing what I didn’t want anymore. I just grew tired of working for someone else i.e. working very hard and long hours for something/someone and not being able to receive the ultimate reward/benefit from it. I just started to think, if I am going to work this hard and this much, I might as well work for myself.
What were your previous jobs before you started your own business?
My professional background has always been in banking. Specifically an area in banking called Cash Management. I have worked for 2 foreign banks at the local and regional level. My last position was in a local bank here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I headed the Sales division for Cash Management.
What do you like best about being an entrepreneur?
In my particular business, I really like that I am not stuck doing the same thing over and over again (things are always new). Once I have finished creating and setting up a particular product, I can then start to think about the next.
Yes, there are certain fundamentals in developing, selling and maintaining the product. But each new product idea brings a new set of challenges and excitement. I feel quite lucky because this aspect of my business suits my personality very well.
What challenges do you face being an entrepreneur?
Right now, owning a very new business and being the only person running it, my challenge is to stay on course and not have my hands in too many different things, just yet (So focus and discipline is key). It sounds pretty obvious, but I really found that it was a challenge.
I can afford to do other types of businesses/ventures later. But for now my focus is very laser sharp on what I am doing now to ensure its success i.e. one step at a time
What are your business goals for the future?
Ultimately, I would like to build and own several successful businesses. It will take some time of course, but like I said earlier, one step at a time. And then later I will just be able to do it faster.
Check out Shazlan’s website at www.shazlansufian.com
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You can check out the original interview by clicking here.
My 5cents Worth On How To Get Started
I just got back from Singapore on Monday and on the way back I met up with some great folks on the bus. By chance they were keen on Internet Marketing and asked me for my advice on how to get started in the biz.
I had often thought of what I would tell myself if I could start all over again, so I was ready and happy to share with them what I thought.
I explained to them if I had to do it all over again I would:
Choose one model of Internet Marketing – Internet Marketing is a “Monster” of a thing with so many different aspects (e.g. affiliate marketing vs. product creation, article marketing or blogging or AdWords). All of them work and generates people money, but, to understand it all and become proficient right a way is “nuts”. So initially just focus on one business model and don’t do a shotgun approach.
Make sure the model suits your working personality – To be successful in any business you got to be able to see yourself do well in it and of course enjoy it. In my case for example, one of the things, that I now realize I was terrible at and did NOT enjoy was blogging. I am by nature not a very creative person or great writer, so to have to be creative regularly was very painful (FYI this post has so far taken me more than an hour and half to do and I am not even done yet…sigh). But I did pursue blogging because someone told me it was a free and great way to make easy money (oh the error of my ways!).
Then find a mentor and/or a program specializing in that field, which will lead you in a guided step by step, hold you by the hand, ask all the questions you want kind of way – One of the most ridiculous things I thought I could do was to “FIGURE” it out all by myself. I was thinking “I was a banker for 8 years, housewives can do this, I can do this!”. What happened next? I found out I was WRONG and very quickly grew to respect housewives or anybody that was successful at this. Mentors have years of experience in being successful at their chosen field. And you can purchase all of their knowledge and experience for a fee. Instead of fumbling around researching what works and what doesn’t work. But again, do your research and find someone that you will be happy to work with.
To drive my advice home for them, I just shared some of the mistakes and aimless, time wasting activity I was involved with when I was getting started (these deserve a post of its own, so look out for that soon). We all had a good laugh. But it really did make me think how far I have come and the amount I have learned since I started.
