Why You Shouldn’t Try And Make A Profit On Front End PPC Campaigns Only
The days of making a profit on a PPC campaign on the “front end” are over. Just say goodbye. And move on. Stop thinking about it, because it’s over.
You can’t simply drive traffic to a sales page, or a pre-sell page, get cheap clicks, and then expect to turn a profit any longer. It just doesn’t work. And if it does, you’re probably really lucky and it most likely won’t last long, or you won’t be able to repeat your success in another market.
Why do I say that?
Click costs are going up, competition is getting smarter, and so are your potential customers.
You can’t simply rely on converting clicks to sales, and making a profit. And really, you don’t even want to. Because if you’re doing that, then you don’t really have a business, you have a little PPC campaign that is profitable. If anything happens to that campaign, if Google decides to stop running it, or if click costs go up, etc. Then you’re out of business. You have nothing else to rely on, and you don’t even know who your customers are if you’re running an affiliate campaign (because the parent company retains customer info, not you.)
That’s some very shaky ground to build a “business” on, and it’s basically putting all your eggs in one basket that’s riding in the back of a truck, unsecured, and bouncing all over a dusty pot-hole-filled road. Don’t do it.
If you’re going to be doing PPC, hopefully that’s one *part* of the way you drive traffic to your offer and not the only way.
But if you’re doing PPC, you need to be building an email list so you can go back to your prospects/customers at a later date. You need to be able to sell them other related offers, or increase the conversion rate to sales of your current prospects.
An email list creates a much more secure traffic source, and whenever you send an email to your “list” it’s essentially free traffic. And you control when it comes, not Google or some other PPC network.
Also, I recommend you have your own products, and not sell affiliates products on the front end if at all possible. Why? Because you’ll have a higher profit margin, and therefore can afford higher cost per clicks, also, you have a more unique spot in the market.
Here’s a quick convo I had with someone over Skype explaining why even if you’re profitable on a PPC campaign on the front end…. It can be really difficult.
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Here’s the problem with PPC and trying to make a small profit on the front end
(From what I’ve done)
You sell a Clickbank product that sells for $30 commission
you do really well and get your CPC down to .25
you also do well and get a 1% conversion rate (which isn’t always easy)
You spend $25 to make $30
Sounds cool
But here’s the first problem
How much do you want to make a day?
$100 on the low end?
how many times do you have to make a $5 profit to make $100 a day?
20 times
how much do you have to spend to get that $100?
20 sales x $25 = $500
How much a month?
30 days x $500 = $15,000
How much do you make a year on $100?
a day?
$100 x 365 = $36,500
How much do you spend a year on ad costs?
$15,000 a month x 12 = $180,000
First off, do you have that kind of cash flow?
Second, can you even drive enough traffic to make 20 front end sales?
Third, is $36,500 a year enough for you to live on?
Fourth, if *anything* goes wrong with your campaign, that $5 profit can turn into a $5 loss
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I think you *need* a list, so you can sell other products in the future, and/or increase your conversion rate.
If you don’t… It can get really dicey fast.
-Sean
If Your Site Falls More Than 350 Spots In Google Are You In The Sandbox?
Recently I’ve heard a theory that if your site falls more than 350 spots for any given keyword in Google then you’re probably “sandboxed” and pretty much out of luck for any further SEO “love” from Google.
I’m here to tell you that’s simply not true.
Check out one of my sites I’ve been tracking.
It’s repetitively fallen more than 350 spots, then bounced right back.
It’s gone from the teens to the 500′s back to the teens, and so on.
It’s now sitting at number 6 and looks like it’s stabilizing.
But it’s definitely not sandboxed.
SEO is a wild ride for sure.
Feels like building a house of cards out of 120 pound slabs of concrete.
Hard to do.
Sometimes takes forever.
Could fall apart at anytime and crush you in the process.
Wish I had some more encouraging words 
But it’s worth it if you can find a winning project!
-Sean
Why Does Google Hate Affiliates So Much? Arrrrgg!
Many people out in internet marketing land are asking that exact question. And wonder why affiliates are getting their Adwords accounts banned and slapped by Google.
I think Google’s problem with affiliates is that in Search Engine land it’s all a zero sum game.
There’s only 1 organic spot for each keyword available.
And there’s only 1 paid spot for number 1.
If you’re number 1 then someone else isn’t.
In a “normal” business like a grocery store everyone can sell the same stuff, but they’re in different locations.
The proximity to your home creates value.
If you want to pick up a Coke, you don’t want to drive 50 miles, so you go to the nearest place.
It’s not the same on the internet.
If you type in “Coke” and you see 10 sites all offering the same thing, and all of them are affiliates… where’s the value for the customer?
That would be like walking into your Grocery Store, walking to the “Soft Drink Isle” and instead of seeing just one row of Coke, you would see 10 rows of Coke, but if you pick row 1, then person “x” gets paid, row 2 person “y” gets paid, row 3 person “z” gets paid.
It doesn’t make sense.
And seeing as there is only one “Soft Drink Isle” available to the entire *world* with Google’s system, they don’t want a bunch of affiliates selling the same thing with no added value in that isle.
That’s my theory.
-Sean
Are You Scared of Google? The Imaginary Fist Slap Of The Almighty Google God! BOO!
Hey hows it goin everyone?
Google!!
Ahhh!!
Did you pee your pants a little? Sorry bout that…
But I had to do it to prove a point.
You’re hopelessly obsessed with and scared of Google!
Why?!!?!
Stop it!
And you say in your whiny little scaredy cat internet marketer voice…
“But Sean… Google’s scary, and they’re out to get me!”
No they’re NOT! Stop it stop it stop it!!!
The second you stop thinking that the big ‘ol meany Google monster is gonna come out from under your bed and eat you and your keywords alive, is the second you’ll start doing better online.
Why?
OK, I hate to bring it down to this level, but whatever guys… This may help you get your head straight so here it goes.
Have you ever “hit on” the opposite sex in a bar, at a party, etc?
I bet you have. And if you haven’t, stop reading this post and go out and get a life already!
But really there’s lots of lessons to be learned in that interaction of getting hit on, and/or being hit on.
For example:
If you go up to a girl and say…
“Hey baby… What’s your sign? You’re lookin hot tonight! Let’s go back to my place, and… you know…”
They’re gonna give you a big fat GOOGLE SLAP! <—- Woahhhh keep that in mind.
On the other hand, if you go up to that same person and say…
“Hi, I saw you sitting here, I’m bored and you look like you could be a cool person, my name is Sean, what’s yours?”
You *still* might get the Google slap! Or maybe they’ll be like “Dude your kinda crazy lookin and you need to brush your teeth! Bye!”
But the chances are a lot higher that you’ll get a lot further with the second approach.
Let’s take a second example.
Have you ever seen the “Dog Whisperer” on the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet or whatever?
Well, in case you haven’t seen it, it’s about this dude “Cesar Milan” who takes troubled dogs and helps them become good dogs almost overnight.
His trick? He doesn’t work on the dogs, he works on the owners.
Most of the owners are either scared of their own dogs, or scared to assert themselves as an authority figure over their dogs.
Almost all of the time, when they try to control their dogs they end up whining at them like “Come on Foofy-Diddles! Come over here! Foofy-Diddles, stop pulling on the leash please. Foofy!” As they’re being pulled into oncoming traffic by their out of control dog. They’re basically getting GOOGLE SLAPPED by their dogs.
The Dog Whisperer guy then shows them how to do it by taking hold of the dog, showing it who’s boss, and in just a few minutes the dog is doing whatever Cesar want’s him to.
What’s the connection between Google, the Dog Whisperer and “hitting on someone?”
Here it is: (Big life lesson alert here so listen up)
If you’re desperate, and frustrated, you’re basically out of control.
And you will be taken advantage of, or knocked down because of that desperation and frustration.
The opposite sex smells it, dogs smell it, and GOOGLE smells it.
Seriously.
You need to stop being scared of Google, stop being frustrated with Google, and quit being so desperate to make “it work.”
The Dog Whisperer calls it “using calm assertive energy” to get what you want out of your dog. And the same thing works for people.
Guess what? Google likes it too.
If you’re “spamming” a bunch of blog comments with your exact anchor text as your “name” and every single one of your links having your exact same anchor text, pointing to the exact same page, and having all your links be dofollow, etc. That’s basically the same as coming on WAY too strong at the bar, or yelling “Foofoo bunny come back!!! No treats for you!!”
Instead, how about you be a little more calm, confident, and collected.
What types of links would a “real” authority site get back to their site? Would they get “Furniture File Cabinets” <— by the way that’s a horrible keyword.
Or would they get www.YourSite.com ? <— Much more likely.
But seriously, stop being scared of Google. They *can* be your friend, you just have to get them on your side.
And the first step is to stop acting like a frustrated chump that no one wants to hang out with cause you’re driving Google crazy.
They’re like…. “Who’s this loser with all the same anchor text bugging me every day? Go away!”
The Good news? Google is a forgiving beast.
So go back to them… Say “Hey Google, I just took a good look at myself and realized I’ve been a jerk lately, I’ve been bugging the heck out of you and I’ll do my best to stop. I really want to be friends, and that’s why I *was* bugging you, but now I realize I was going about it the wrong way. How about we start things over?”
Now that’s not an excuse to stop working hard.
Just work a little smarter and confident this time.
-Sean
Internet Marketing Is HARD – And Don’t Let Anyone Tell You It Isn’t (Unless You Enjoy Getting Punched In The Face)
If you’re not careful internet marketing will promise you dreams of financial security, ungodly amounts of free time, and all without you having to do pretty much anything except throw up a few sites here and there. Sell some affiliate products, or get some Adsense clicks, and BAM your done!
But that BAM in the previous sentence is really the sound of Internet Marketing blasting you right in the face with it’s virtual fist.
Here’s a quick diagram for your reference.
And if you’re like most people you then turn right back around and say…”Thank you sir! May I have another?!”
And the fist of IM will happily oblige and punch you in the face once again. And will laugh while it does it. (Don’t ask me how a virtual internet marketing fist can laugh… But believe me I’ve heard it many times before. Even in my sleep…)
The truth is that there’s really two “Fists of IM” one just wants to punch you in the face, and the other one wants to give you a back rub.
You usually only see the “Face Punchy” one, cause… well… it’s right in your face, ready to punch you usually!
But the one trying to give you a back rub, you usually don’t see… Cause, well, unless you’ve got eyes in the back of your head, it’s harder to see it when it’s always behind you trying to give you a back rub.
Your challenge is to avoid being punched in the face. And to accept the all-mighty back rub.
Easier said than done my friend!
Well… I’m out of “hands” to make crazy analogies with, so I’ll go with a foot now.
You need to listen to the forever-powerful “foot pillar of IM truth” who has the 10 IM truth’s etched onto it’s hairy ankle.
So what are these ugly, stinky, hairy truths?
Here we go… hold your breath, and try not to get stepped on:
Internet marketing…
- is harder than you think
- will take longer than you think
- requires more skill than you think
- takes more money than you think
- will not make you rich quick
- requires a real business model
- will not allow you to work only 4 hours a week
- is full of liars, cheats, and people who pretend they’re successful when they’re not
- requires technical skill or at least hiring someone who has some
- is often disappointing
Does that stink enough for you?
Well then why the heck would anyone want to give internet marketing a shot?
Simply put, if you can make it work, the rewards WAY outweigh the pitfalls.
You legitimately have a shot a financial freedom, time freedom, and location freedom.
You can work from almost anywhere, make “virtually” unlimited income (not really, but you can start new projects that add to your income at almost any time), and choose how you spend your time.
But getting to that point is TOUGH! Very tough.
And thinking it’s not will only set you up for failure.
If you keep thinking you only need to do minimal work to get the ball rolling. Let me be brutally honest with you. You’ll never “make it.” And that fist will just keep on punching you right in the face. And it hurts the worst when you think you’ve finally avoided it smashing into your nose, and then it does anyway.
You’re going to have to learn some real skills, and some internet marketing “martial arts” so you can defend against the punch. Pin it down. And put it into a submission hold.
But that fist is GOOD, and it’s got a lot more skill than you do right now.
So you’d better look that fist right in the face, recognize the challenge, and start learning REAL internet marketing.
Don’t believe anyone. Including me. (I mean.. why would you after reading this post…?)
Sure, go get a course to start out, but then make your OWN conclusions, do your OWN studying, based on your OWN projects.
Only then will you start to really understand the truth. And get a punch or two back on that nasty fist.
BAM!
-Sean
P.S. Oh, and as this is my first post EVER on my very own “SeanBissell.com” here’s a celebration dance, compliments of my wife, myself, and 2 dogs 
(Originally from our honeymoon sail.)