Yahoo’s Eliminating Minimum Bids
I just got an email from Yahoo Search Marketing stating that in the next several weeks, the minimum bids for a number of Sponsored Search keywords will no longer be fixed at $.10. The minimum bid for Content Match keywords will remain at $.10.
Is this good news or bad news? For one, it could mean that Yahoo has worked on their quality score system, which could be good or bad news, depending on how you see it.
Anyone who’s advertised on YSM knows that it’s extremely easy to get a great quality score. Getting a good quality score on YSM is as easy as creating a new ad group. I swear, every campaign/adgroup I’ve started on YSM always had a good quality score. I have yet to see a quality score of 3 or less in any of my campaigns.
If this is the case, this would truly suck for all of us who like to test the waters on Yahoo before moving on to Google. I always start my campaigns on Yahoo because it’s very easy to start advertising. You never have to worry about paying a minimum of $5 per keyword because of a poor quality score. If they’re removing the minimum bid because they’ve tweaked their quality score algo, this could be a big slap in the face for all of us, a Yahoo slap.
If the price is being reduced, but the quality score system remains the same, this will be great news for everyone. But I just don’t think it could be that easy. You just don’t lower minimum bids without letting some people suffer and pay more.
Here is how the new model will work:
Keyword minimum bids are going to be set individually and will vary depending on different factors such as how much the keyword is worth. Yahoo will determine the value of a keyword by the number of bidders and bid amounts in the marketplaces, amongst other things.
Your keyword and ad quality will also play a great role in the minimum bid along with the relevancy of the keywords and ads, mixed with your ad’s CTR compared to your competitors’ CTR. Minimum bids will not be based on conversion data.
For your ad to display for a particular keyword, its bid will need to be greater than the minimum bid. If your minimum bid were set to increase, you will be given a warning with a grace period of up to several days to make changes to your bid before deactivating your keyword.
That’s interesting that they’re going give us several days to make changes to our bids.
Here is a copy of the letter that was sent out:
Pricing Update:
Minimum Bids will no Longer be Fixed at $.10
Starting in the next several weeks, the minimum bids for a number of Sponsored Search keywords will no longer be fixed at $.10. Your new minimum bids can be lower or higher than $.10. Content Match minimum bids currently will remain at $.10.This update is intended to align your minimum bids with the value and quality of your keywords. It also is designed to help improve the overall search user experience by rewarding advertisers for better quality with lower entry points into keyword markets.
The amount set as your minimum bid on a keyword in Sponsored Search can vary depending on multiple factors, such as:
• The relevance of your keywords (as measured by the quality of the ads associated with them)
• The number of bidders and bid amounts in the particular keyword market.A keyword term becomes “active” — switched “on” in the system and eligible for display — when your bid is equal to or greater than your minimum bid. If your bid falls below your minimum, your keyword will not be displayed. You’ll be notified of such changes and will have some time to adjust your bid.
What You Should Do to Prepare
• Get to know your keywords and their value.
Since minimum bids can vary by keyword, it is important to know which keywords work best for your business. Remember, you can check and set your bids at the keyword level. Learn more.• Improve ad quality to potentially receive lower minimum bids.
Your minimum bids generally take your quality into account. In some instances, higher quality means that you could have a lower minimum bid. Learn more.• Learn about updates to the account interface.
Become familiar with new tools that can make managing your keywords simpler.. Learn more.For more information on this change, please read our FAQs.
Waiting For Affiliate Summit East
After seeing all the fun that I am currently missing by not attending Affiliate Summit West, I have decided to sign up extra early for the next conference set to take place on August 10-12 in Boston. I officially bought my full conference pass tonight. Yay for me!
By registering this early, I was able to get a full conference pass for $759. If you are like me, and have never attended any of the conferences, I would suggest that you go ahead purchase your pass as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more likely you’ll come up with reasons not to attend. My number one reason for not attending was the price tag.
Depending on where you are, you could easily pay over $2,000 to attend when you factor in airfare , hotel, food, etc. On the same token, the information you will learn, the people you will meet, and the fun you will have will justify the big price tag for the event. It will also be tax deductible since it’s for business purposes.
So if you haven’t done so already, sign up for Affiliate Summit East before tomorrow (2/26/08) and get the full pass for only $759.
Affiliate Summit West
To all of you going to Affiliate Summit West this year: have a great time, and bring back a lot of information for all of us who couldn’t make it to Vegas this year. I truly wish that I could’ve made it. This would’ve been my first Affiliate Summit. I plan on attending Affiliate Summit East in Boston on August 10-12. I honestly can’t wait.
And also, in case you haven’t noticed, Shawn is offering full passes to ASE for $759 if you purchase it between February 24-26. So grab them now for a nice discount.
Peace!
Ebay Isn’t Properly Tracking Commissions
Something is up with ebay’s tracking system. I signed into my CJ account today to see how my ebay campaign did over the weekend only to be shocked by the numbers. On a typical $400 sale, the commission is usually between $10-$20. For the past 2 days, I’ve been getting less than $1 on sales ranging from $250-$475. Something is definitely not right.
Has anyone else experienced this today? Does this happen often to ebay affiliates? The reason I ask is because I’ve only been an ebay affiliate for about 3 weeks. The last thing I want to do is keep spending money on PPC and not being properly compensated.
If you are experiencing the same thing, or have experienced this in the past, please drop me a line.
Making Money with Zip Submits
If you aren’t running any zip submits offers, you’re probably missing out on the chance to make a few extra bucks. Just in case you don’t know, with zip submits the user only has to fill out one field in order for you to get paid. Many people don’t run these offers simply because the payout is low; around $.90 - $1.50 per zip. You will find a lot of the zip submit offers on Azoogle, CPA Empire, RocketProfit, IncentaClick and other CPA networks.
Profit from Popular New Stories
One of the easiest ways to make money with zip submits is by creating polls around popular news stories. Think about all the crazy shit that’s happening in the news today. Everyone is making money from it, why not you? The last time I ran a zip submit offer was when the rapper T.I was arrested for buying or trying to buy machine guns. I ran the ad on yahoo for a few days and while the story was hot and was able to make a $50-$100 profit every day.
When ever a big news story breaks out, create a simple webpage with a simple yes or no question regarding the news story. For instance, one of the biggest news stories going around now is the whole Roger Clemens steroid scandal. To monetize this news story, do the following:
- Find a zip submit offer that relates to baseball. If there isn’t one, you could always use the “free $500 Visa Gift Card” offer. That seems to work well with any news topic.
- Create a page on a website with the poll. In this case, your poll would besomething like “Did Roger Clemens Use Steroids? Vote yes or no and get a free $500 visa gift card” Or,” Did Roger Clemens Lie? Vote yes or not and get a free $500 visa gift card.Link the yes and no buttons to a page that redirects to the zip submit landing page. You want to mask your affiliate link because if the user thinks they’ll remain on your site, they will most likely click the link. If they hover over the link and see that it takes them to a completely new site, they might not want to click on it. Hide it anyway you can/know.Keep the page as simple as possible. Put the question above the fold so that reader is presented with it upon entering the site. Below the fold, include information about the headline, such as an article from a credible news source. Also, grab some info about Clemens from other blogs or even Wikipedia.
- Once you have your page ready, it’s time to start getting traffic. I recommend advertising on Yahoo Search Marketing and Google’s content network. You want to advertise on yahoo because they’re more likely to approve your ad and won’t hit you with a stupid $5 quality score bullshit penalty.When it comes to Adwords, skip the search network and go directly to the content network. You will be able to get low bids without worrying about stupid quality score bullshit.With zip submits, you want to pay the least amount of money per visitor. I keep my bids below $0.10. It doesn’t make sense to try to bid $0.50 or more. It just won’t work.
Once you have this set, just rinse and repeat. Wait for the next big news story and do it all over again.
It’s Not Easy Getting Gold
Although I’m content that I have an American Express card, getting it wasn’t an easy task. I first applied for the card online on November 14. After applying, I had to contact someone at American Express to verify some information. They wanted to verify my home address and business information.
After all that, the guy on the phone approved my application and congratulated me. I couldn’t believe that I had been approved! I was so excited. I asked for re-assurance that I’d get the card and he assured me that he had approved my application and that I’d receive the card in 7-10 business days.
Fast forward 7-10 days later and guess what? I didn’t receive a damn card! Instead, all I got was some shitty letter stating that after a careful review of my credit report, they decided not to grant me the card. I was so furious that day. I called and complained and all thy told me was that they were sorry and that whoever approved me for the card shouldn’t have said I was approved ( your lucky I never got your name, buddy).
After that harsh denial, I was certain that I’d never get approved for this business gold card that I desperately needed and wanted. Despite being down, I decided to apply for the card again. Because if at first you don’t succeed? Try again!
I applied for the card a second time on December 12, close to 1 month after the initial attempt. The application process was the same. I applied online and verified some information over the phone. During the phone conversation, I was once again approved for the card. This time I didn’t get too excited. After all that happened the first time, I was certain that I was going to get another denial letter in a few days.
For the next 7-10 days, I literally called American Express every single day to make sure that I was going to receive my card this time. Each time I spoke to a representative, I got their name and id #, in case I had to complain if I were denied.
On December 21, I received a nice package from American Express with my brand new card.
Damn it feels good to finally be a member.
My New American Express Gold Business Card
I finally got an American Express Card of my own. For the past year, I’ve been a secondary account user under my mother’s Amex card. She recently cancelled her card, which meant that I had to get a card of my own. Thanks for letting me use your card, Mom.
If you’re going to use PPC to make money with affiliate marketing, you’re going to need a great card with rewards and no spending limit. This American Express card offers both. The reward program is great and there’s virtually no spending limit. When you initially get the card, there is technically a spending limit. As you use your card and build your spending/payment history, your available credit gets increased each month.
The last thing you want to do is stop running a profitable PPC campaign simply because you’ve run out available credit. That has happened to me once already and it sucked. To think that I could’ve been making extra money but couldn’t simply because I didn’t have enough credit. It really hurts. Hopefully, with my new Amex in hand, I won’t run into this problem again.
My goal after this card is get the American Express Black Card. I have a long way to go before I get that one. The day that I get that card is the day I’ll be resolute with my affiliate marketing abilities.
It will happen one day. Give me a few years.
Happy New Year
First of all, I want to wish everyone a happy and wonderful new year. I hope that you accomplish all of the goals you’ve set for this new year; and remember, at first you don’t succeed pick yourself up and try again.
Secondly, I’d like to apologize for not writing more on this blog. When I first started this blog, I had plans to write as much as I could about affiliate marketing and making money online. I wanted to learn everything I could about affiliate marketing and at the same time, teach others what I knew. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned. I didn’t blog, I didn’t teach, and I didn’t learn much! Well, I did learn a little but I just didn’t write about it.
2008 is going to be different. I promise.
Once again, Happy New Year!
Making Money Online
Starting today, I will learn how to make tons of money online. There are many people out there who are making millions every year by doing different things online. Some people make their money by blogging, some by blogging, some by selling links, some by selling on ebay, etc. The point is: there’s lots of money to be made online.
I know this because I’ve made money online myself. Four years ago I started www.creditlovers.com. My plan with the site was to make a few extra dollars each month by placing affiliate ads. I succeeded. I was able to make a few extra dollars each month, plus a little extra.
Today, my plan is tro create an online network of money making sites. And I plan on documenting the entire process here, on RoyalRadande.com.
To get me started, I’ve begun reading Jeremy Schoemaker’s blog at www.shoemoney.com. I discovered the blog the other day while browsing the net. I can’t believe all the information that’s available on his blog. This guy makes thousands of dollars each month online. In September of ‘05 alone, he received a $132,994.97 check from Google Adsense!
I’ve decided to study his ways and learn listen to what he has to say. I’ve started reading his blog, and I just can’t stop. I’m slowly working my way to the present post. I didn’t want to miss a thing so I started reading the blog from its inception on May 13, 2005. On his blog, Jeremy talks about his family, search engines, online marketing, pay per click marketing, affiliate marketing, blogging, and more.
From reading his site, working hard, and implementing his tricks, tools, and advice, I will try to emulate him. If I can’t emulate him, I will damn sure try to imitate him; expect a picture with my Adsense check real soon.
This site will be my money making journal. I hope to learn a lot from this new venture I’m starting. At the same time, I wish to teach what I learn.
See you around.
New Blackberry Curve
Today marks the day where I make a very important switch, technology wise. I’ve been a Palm Treo fan for a very long time. It all started with the Treo 600, which I got while being a T-mobile customer. The phone was amazing! I loved everything about it. I was so devoted to Palm that I switched to Cingular once the Treo 650 came out; T-mobile decided not to carry the Treo anymore.
I’ve heard about Blackberry phones for a long time, but I always stayed away from them because I was a Treo fan and I really thought that the Blackberry was more for Business users, so I stayed away from it. I also preferred the Treo because there are were thousands of applications that you can load it with.
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