Smart Internet Marketing at Guruphobia

About 6 months ago I signed up for the mailing list of a young man who appeared to have fairly unique content, and a bit of a contrarian approach to list building and marketing.

However, somewhere along the line, things changed.  He started sending out e-mail pitches for various products.  Ok, it was enough of a pitch increase that I noticed.

Then in the last few weeks, the e-mails became more urgent.  I started noticing that he would sometimes e-mail twice a day.

Finally, a couple weeks ago, he began promoting a teleseminar to his list.  Apparently the teleseminar sign-ups must have not been panning out too well.  Why?  Well, because in a span of 6 hours, I received 5 e-mails……….each one with what appeared to be a rising, but barely disguised desperation level.  3 of the e-mails came within 30 minutes of the seminar.

Enough was enough……instead of signing up for the seminar, I unsubscribed from his list.  I don’t appreciate the pummeling - especially in so short a time period.  If you don’t respect my time, I won’t respect your offers.

Its too bad too, because I buy thousands of dollars worth of marketing products a year, and some were referred by you, thus earning you fat affiliate payments.  I rarely unsubscribe from interesting lists - I’ve been on some lists for over 7 YEARS, happily buying commisionable products that seem interesting to me.

BUT, I’m a busy man.  Don’t waste my time with your e-mail pummeling.  Time is my most precious commodity.  And time-wasters piss me off to no end and cause my wallet to slam shut tighter than a clam.

Mr. P

Boy, it sure has quieted down since Google made their adwords changes, hasn’t it?

To be sure, numerous Adwords Advertisers have been impacted by the new quality score issue, and still are as of this writing.  I personally know of at least 5 serious Adword advertisers who spend a high 5-figure amount per month who have been adversely affected by these changes - they are still scrambling to “fix” their landing pages.

This whole episode has spun off some interesting side effects:

- Many are recrafting their sites to better “comply” with Google’s Quality score.  From what I’ve seen, there are varying levels of success in this approach. 

- Many are recrafting AND moving their sites to new domains.  This definitely had short-term success in many instances, but it doesn’t answer the fundamental question: “How long before Google’s Adwords Spider visits your site and scores it for quality again?”

- A small burgeoning business of crafty entrepreneurs selling “Beat Google Adwords Quality Score”-type E-books have sprung up.  In addition, there have also been a new flock of Adwords pseudo-gurus springing up with reports, guides and forums……promising to “unlock” the secrets of the mystical “quality score” elixir.

- MSN Adcenter and Yahoo PPC have been reaping the benefits as PPC advertisers FLOCK over to them en masse.  This is one effect that could well bite Google in the nether regions long term……….people who once had no intention of straying from “Mother Google” are now risking life and limb to taste the benefits of alternative PPC.  I’ve personally been finding that while MSN delivers significantly less traffic, the QUALITY of their clicks is much higher.

- Some are quitting PPC altogether.  Their dreams of “Google riches” dashed, some are flocking to the next big thing or next big tool.  Adios, amigos…………and don’t let the door whack you in the ass on the way out.  Less competition is just fine by me.

Veterans in the PPC game are far too familiar with the fact that algorithm or major “rule” shifts occur at least twice a year at Google. 

The best and strongest players in PPC plan for this, and adjust accordingly.

And the best and strongest players in the Marketing game have long since diversified accordingly, so factors like a policy or algorithm shift in PPC don’t decimate their holdings.

Which camp are you in?

Ciao for now,

Mr. P

Google has started rolling out revisions to its Adwords PPC service - today, the results have been widely seen.

Here’s a quote from the Inside Adwords blog at Google:

“From time-to-time, we improve our algorithms for evaluating landing page quality (often based on feedback from our end-users), and next week we’re launching another such improvement. Thus, over the coming days a small number of advertisers who are providing a low quality user experience on their landing pages will see increases in their minimum bids. It is important to note, however, that the vast majority of advertisers will not be affected at all by this change, as they link to quality landing pages.”

Thus far, the changes have meant unmitigated disaster for many Adwords users. 

Instead of a “small number of advertisers” seeing minimum bid increases, the reports of horrific bid increases are being WIDELY reported.  In many cases, where minimum bids were previously 15- to 30-cents, Google is now asking for minimum bids of $1.00 to $10.  Reports of $5 and $10 minimum bids are now increasingly common.

Instead of eliminating “junk” landing pages, Google appears to have effectively priced out volumes of regular high-quality landing pages and even regular merchant pages.

Early media reports have Google trying to end the practice of “Adwords Arbitrage” - the act of using Adwords to drive traffic to landing pages populated with Adsense Ads, in order to profit off the price and revenue differential in certain niches.  At best, these media reports are incorrect and short-sighted.  All one has to do is spend time at major sites like Webmaster World or Digitalpoint Forums to get a clearer idea of how wide a crater Google has created.

So have the “junk” sites been eliminated from Adwords Ads?  All one need do is type in the term “mortgage calculator” in Google and see the results that come up.  As of this writing, some of the top Adwords results are for MFA (Made for Adsense) Sites, or paid search engine listings - the very type of sites that Google was trying to eliminate.

After making calls to Google Customer Service, it also became clear that Google had given little to no warning to their reps about this week’s upcoming changes - answers range from complete bewilderment, to the typical “canned” answers read or copied from old scripts.

So, what is an Adwords Advertiser to do?  First off, don’t panic.  Second, don’t make any radical changes to your campaigns over the next several days at least.  In the past, Google has rolled out major Adwords Changes, only to roll them back or retune them significantly.  Also, don’t bother calling Google Customer Service over the next couple of days at least - it is clear that there is a major communication disconnect going on internally at Google - calling them now will most likely get you nowhere, and will likely only increase your blood pressure.

Take the next few days and monitor what is going on at the major forums.  Will your campaigns take a hit?  Most probably.  But making rash changes now could further damage your long term income.

Spend some time investigating the alternative PPC networks, Yahoo/Overture and MSN Adcenter.

Lastly, take this time to take stock of your business.  If PPC is your sole means of revenue, you need a reality check.  Putting all of your eggs in one PPC basket is NOT SMART.  Diversify your income sources outside of PPC, so that if one area of your business takes a hit, it does not bring the roof collapsing down around you.

You are diversified, aren’t you???

Mr. P

I’ve noticed yet another interesting trend as of late.

There are dozens of blogs covering the subject of “How to Make Money From Blogs”.  They teach techniques on how to monetize your blog, how to gain readership, how to engage your blog audience, and so on, and so on, and so on.

However, only a pitiful few ever live up to their promise.  And yes - there is a smell-test issue that is arising here.

The incredible irony is that many of these blogs have been ABANDONED for several months to over half a year (yes, I’ve been monitoring some of them).  A paltry few return after an extended absence, with no explanation whatsoever, while others never ever return.

Hmmmmm……if blogging is so profitable, then WHY aren’t these Blogging Gurus following their own advice and BLOGGING?

My conclusion is: These Gurus’ blogging models aren’t that profitable at all…….otherwise, why stop?

Now don’t get me wrong - blogging can be profitable - evidence the recent sale of blog networks for hefty 6-figure sales.  But I’m not talking about them.

I’m talking about the self-appointed Blog Profiteers.

Granted, sometimes shit happens.

Personal tragedy strikes, life’s priorities interrupt, and sometimes there are other emergencies that intrude upon one’s life.

However, if you are TRULY following your own advice, and engaging your audience, then you certainly owe them a brief explanation for your absence, don’t you?  Especially if you are going to be stepping back from the blog console for months at a time.

Otherwise, people might just draw the wrong conclusion - about your personal blog profit model teachings, about the effectiveness of your methods, or……..about you.

Mr. P