The Importance of Diversifying!
The main topic in this thread is “which monetization strategy (Adsense, Amazon or Clickbank) is the most effective?” However, it should be stated at the very beginning that I advocate a diversification of money making tactics.
Making money online is a business. Unexpected twists are inevitable, but the best way to remain in the game is to diversify as much as possible.
This diversification includes:
- More traffic sources (other than Google)
- More affiliate programs (Clickbank, Amazon, CPA networks, etc.)
- Different backlink strategies (web 2.0’s, High PR links, different networks)
- Different content development strategies (content curation, unique content, etc)
Remember when the Amazon associates program pulled out of California, or when the Penguin update penalized public blog networks? There’s a lesson to be learned from those events…. NEVER rely too much on one entity.
How I Do Keyword Research for EVERY Site I build:
My strategy for keyword research is different than most other marketers. While other warriors will go after keywords that get xx,xxx Number of searches per month. I care a lot MORE about the commercial intent of the keyword.
Picking a general keyword that gets 10,000 (or some other high number) searches per month causes 2 HUGE problems.
- The competition is almost always more intense
- The commercial intent is almost always lower
For example,
The keyword “Types of Dogs” gets 40,000 exact match searches per month.
… but what is a visitor really looking for with that keyword?
99.9999% of the time that visitor is only looking for information on various dog breeds. They are [B]NOT[/B] looking for a product solution. This is essentially wasted traffic. You could spend months trying to rank for it, and your traffic numbers would be impressive. But your amount of sales or Adsense clicks would be absolutely horrific.
…..
A better choice would be the keyword “Secrets to Dog Training Review”
This keyword only gets 480 searches per month, but every visitor is looking for a review of a popular clickbank product called “[B][I]Secrets to Dog Training: Stop Your Dog’s Behaviour Problems[/I][/B]”
The amount of traffic you’ll get for the keyword will be small. But if you have decent sales copy, you will convert a significant number of visitors into making a sale.
WARNING – I’m not saying that “Secrets to Dog Training Review” is a great keyword. All I`m saying is that it is far better than a general keyword like `dog types` or `breeds of dogs`
How I find My Keywords
I use Google Adwords Keyword Tool (GAKT) exclusively. Some people prefer to use software programs like: Niche Finder, Market Samurai or Long Tail Pro.
All of those tools cost you money AND scrape their data from GAKT.
When I`m ready to enter a Niche I will gather a HUGE list of keywords, and only pick the very best ones.
If you do your keyword research properly, you can astronomically boost your profits as well as cut down on your backlinking workload.
Here`s my steps for generating a Keyword List:
1. Go to GAKT
2. Enter in the Root Keyword for Your Niche (ie. Ultrasound)
3. Sort by Keyword Relevance and Select `Exact Match`
4. Write a List of the Top 15-30 Keywords (the more the better…)
5. Type in Each Keyword Individually and Click on Download CSV Report
6. Each report will give you a list of up to 800 keywords
so if you input 30 separate keywords, you are looking at a list of 800 X 30 = 24,000 keywords for your niche.
… It will not be quite that much because many of the keywords will be duplicated on lists.
FINAL STEP: But here`s the cool thing, now you can use a batch file to combine ALL THE CSV files into ONE CSV FILE that you can easily manage.
I have a video on my website that shows how to do this. But if you do a quick Google Search, you can find out for yourself.
With Excell Spreadsheet I can sort my MONSTER LIST of keywords in many different ways.
Now I Can:
Sort by number of searches
Sort by `Name Inclusion`
Sort by Number of Words (THIS IS THE COOLEST PART)
Selecting a Collection of Longtails
Longtail keywords are A LOT easier to rank for AND they are higher converting.
So I use my excell spreadsheet of 24K+ keywords to select only the words that are 4 words or more with at least 400 searches per month.
Now I have a list of around 1000 keywords that are ALL LONGTAIL
CAN YOU SEE THE MAGIC?
No piece of software can provide you with a list of over 20,000 keywords that you can instantly sort by number of words or number of traffic.
Market Samurai takes forever to sort. Windows Excell takes less than a second.
Time is money. Once you have your HUGE LIST of keywords set up. You can blaze through finding the most profitable keywords for your niche in no time.
If you follow only the keyword research portion of this post, you will have significantly improved the profitability of your future money site(s).
Why Pick Adsense?
Adsense is the easiest monetization strategy online. All you need to do is insert Adsense code into your post, and collect money when a visitor clicks on a displayed advertisement.
The only real “tricky part” about adsense is learning how to establish a decent CTR without infringing on the Adsense TOS.
Please do not do anything against the rules with Adsense, because they WILL ban you. This goes along with my earlier conversation of diversification. I would never rely solely on Adsense alone, because they clearly state in their TOS that they are entitled to ban you for whatever reason. <– Don’t believe me. Then go read the TOS.
Of course, if you’re making Google’s advertisers money, then Google WANTS to have you in their program.
But make no mistake, they are not hesitant to kick anyone out of their program. I am a follower of Spencer from Niche Pursuits. This dude was making over $10,000 per month from Adsense alone before Google laid the smack down. Now he’s choosing a different monetization strategy altogether.
How to Increase your Adsense CTR?
Part 1
Part 2
My Results with Adsense:
I’m not allowed to give any specific numbers because of their TOS. However, I will tell you that I earn less than 200 dollars per month with Adsense… YUCK!
To be fair, I no longer use Adsense as a main monetization strategy. I’ve basically switched my Adsense sites over to either Amazon or Clickbank.
IMHO, Adsense is a great strategy for a newbie because of how easy it is to use. You only need to:
- Pick good keywords
- Create content
- Add Adsense code
It’s not the most profitable program, but it’s probably the easiest.
Why Pick Amazon Associates?
I absolutely LOVE Amazon. Some people will complain about the low commision %, but Amazon is a conversion machine.
Amazon has always had customer first policies. For that reason, visitors place a lot of trust in Amazon. It also helps that most people already have an Amazon account ready to go. So they’re literally clicks away from buying something.
The beauty of an indirect sale:
Here’s another HUGE bonus with Amazon. You get credit for anything a referred visitor buys within 24 hours.
This is absolutely insanely generous, especially during Christmas time. About half the sales I make through Amazon are for products that I don’t even directly promote.
A visitor in a buying mood can go on a spending spree, and do all their shopping at once. And you get to rake in a commission for the whole thing.
How to Increase Your Amazon Associates Earnings?
Part 1
Part 2
My Results with Amazon:
I have built around 20-30 product review websites that generate $80+/day through Amazon associates. These sites can make a HECK of a lot more than that during holiday season, but overall, I earn around $3500 per month with Amazon.
Amazon Asssociates is another affiliate program that is awesome for people new to making money online. Pre-selling will definitely help your conversions. But just getting people to Amazon will give you a great deal of sales.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
Why Pick Clickbank?
The Clickbank affiliate program requires a lot more effort, but can be the most profitable of the big three.
If you only want to build niche websites that directly sell products on the website, then I would pick Amazon over Clickbank any day of the week.
The key to being successful with Clickbank is getting visitors to trust your opinion, and then make a comfortable purchase that generates a lot more money per sale. Some clickbank products can make you hundreds of dollars per sale. But the sales will be more difficult to come by.
My advice for Clickbank Marketing
- Build a List
- Build a Relationship with your list
- Give honest and solid advice
- Promote products that genuinely HELP your list
You’ve probably heard before that the “money is in the list.”
I would argue that the money is in the relationship with your list.
When I first started Email Marketing, I tried to create lists with a bunch of low value spam emails. I thought I was going to be rich in no time.
What I found was that I could build a list no problem. I knew how to get traffic and how to convince people to join me. But the spam turned people off, and I couldn’t keep people interested.
Now I ONLY build lists that provide valuable content to my subscribers. The promotional offers are secondary to the REAL CONTENT. The major turning point for me was realizing that I’m talking to real people.
Real people deserve to be treated with respect.
Respect your list, and they WILL TRUST YOU.
Don’t abuse that trust and you WILL MAKE SALES
What I’m Leaving Out of this Post:
Obviously there is a lot more to be said about Clickbank marketing that I can’t get to in this post. It’s a real big numbers game, but here’s the basics.
- Collect Emails
- Increase Open Rates
- Increase Number of Clicks
- Increase Conversions
A very wise Alex Jefferies once told me that email marketing is all about your numbers. If you double your rates for any of the above, you will double the amount of profit you make.
So if you double the amount of times subscribers open your emails, you will double the amount of sales you make. Furthermore, if you double your “open rates” and you double the “number of clicks” inside the email copy, you will will increase your earning by 4x.
The secret is to ALWAYS know your numbers, and then constantly improve them over time.
My Results with Clickbank
I earn more with Clickbank than all other affiliate programs combined. I have targeted lists for several different niches, and my subscribers love me. Whenever I send out a promotion to one of my lists I make sure it will benefit them in some way. Otherwise, I could damage the relationship with my lists.
Conclusion: What Are Your Thoughts?
Everyone has different talents and a different story to add to the table. While Clickbank has been the most profitable affiliate program for me, it took a lot of work to make money with them. If I was a complete newbie to making money online, Clickbank WOULD NOT be my first choice.
Adsense and Amazon are perfect monetization strategies to get your feet wet. It’s a lot easier to make a sale, and you can make a small amount of money in no time. Then it’s just an issue of scalability. Finding a system that works, and then repeating that same system many times over.
It’s not the difficult to make money through niche websites, but it does require a lot of work. You need to TAKE ACTION to get any kind of results in this game.
You are going to make mistakes along the way. We all do. Almost every website that I create does not convert that well at the beginning. But I keep adjusting things until I find the Sales Copy, design, monetization strategy that works best.
I hope this post helps some people out, please feel free to share your own thoughts and experiences with Adsense, Amazon and Clickbank.
Brendan Mace
