Will PPC Search Advertising on YouTube Work for You?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my Email feed or RSS feed. Do leave a comment, I *DO* FOLLOW, so you get a quality link back. Follow me on Twitter too!

There’s been lots of buzz on the web since Google announced it was selling advertising PPC search advertising on YouTube search-results pages last week.

Basically, the way this new PPC advertising model works is that anyone who has a video on YouTube can now promote it on a search-results page.

What does all this mean to Internet Marketers?

Well, for example, if you’re now posting videos to YouTube for promotional or training videos, you can now drive traffic to those videos by bidding on specific keywords.

The advertising model is very similar to Google AdWords, which makes sense, since AdWords has proven to be pretty simple to use. (You’ll notice I didn’t say it was simple to make money by using AdWords; that’s a whole lot more complicated.)

If you advertise on YouTube, the promoted videos are featured on the right-hand side of the YouTube search-results page with a small image and some text. You have some flexibility when selecting the image.

Just as with Adwords, you’ll get charged when a viewer clicks on your ad. You can set the maximum price per click you want to pay, and Google decides which ads will be shown based on bid and keyword relevance.

But I’m not yet convinced that an advertiser’s ROI will be high enough to continue advertising on YouTube. I say that because I think that most videos are indirect sales tools. Viewers will still have to take an extra step to purchase a product. And when you add another step, sales generally go down.

But I could be wrong. Bill McIntosh, one of the big Internet Marketing gurus, is testing the new YouTube PPC Search Advertising system and will report on his results. I’m going to follow his progess and I’ll let you know how it goes. I encourage you test the system yourselves.

Let me know if you do, and also what you think of this new YouTube PPC advertising model.

How to Use Twitter for Affiliate Marketing

I find it interesting that social networking sites are so popular now. It seems to me that people just naturally crave interaction with other people. And I think that Twitter has seen explosive growth because it’s so easy to use, and you can post your thoughts in just 140 characters. It’s micro-blogging at its best.

Regular readers might remember that I’ve had a few issues with Twitter recently; they suspended my account without notice (or cause), and it became a huge ordeal to get it reinstated. It turned out that my account was mistakenly suspended, which does happen.

I think the folks at Twitter are going through some growing pains, and I know they’re trying to figure out how to monetize the site so they can stay in business and actually make money.

But I am forgiving, and I do think Twitter can prove to be a good business tool, so I’m back on it, tweeting away.

It’s easy to see why Twitter is so much fun for people who just want to reach out to like-minded folk to communicate. You just post your tweets and reply to others on your chosen topics.

But it’s not as easy to navigate the potentially treacherous waters of using Twitter for affiliate marketing. You need to take a soft-sell approach, and not beat people over the head trying to sell to them.

Like all social networking sites, Twitter has organically developed a pretty stringent code of etiquette. Follow the rules, and you will be rewarded with more followers and increased sales. Ignore the rules, and you will quickly lose your followers, hurt your reputation, and possibly get your account suspended by Twitter.

As Twitter gains even more traction, it’s going to be that much more important to follow the rules from day one, and set yourself up for success when you’re using Twitter for business.

So here’s what I’ve learned about the best ways to use Twitter to promote affiliate products (or any products, really):

Setting Up Twitter

• Start off right by choosing a great business name for your Twitter ID. (I chose jbshort because it’s been my nickname forever, but I probably should have used something like “marketingmaven.” Next time.)
• Add a good photo of yourself, preferably smiling. Don’t use the Twitter avatar. It’s unprofessional and you’ll look like a spammer.
• Take some time to work on your profile. You only have 160 characters, so explain who you are why your services are great, and how you can help followers.

Best Following Practices

• Use Twitter Grader to find top Twitter users to follow. Type in your own Twitter name and get your grade. Then scroll to find their “suggested folks to follow.” Check them out and follow the ones who seem interesting.
• Next, click on the “Twitter Elite” section. These are people with the top Twitter grades. Check them out too and decide who to follow.
• In both cases, click on the link to their followers. You can browse through the lists to select others to follow.
• Also, type in your business keywords in Twitter Search to find people to follow and to get involved in conversations already happening.
• Get to know the people you’re following. Check out their profiles and click on their links to a blog or website to learn more about them. If you like a post or article, tweet them to let them know. They’ll probably start following you.
• If you get an email saying that someone is following you, send a direct message thanking him/her for following you. You can also include a link to a free eBook or course. Don’t sell. Check out the person’s profile to see if you want to follow him/her too.
• Don’t follow a large number of people in a short period of time. You’ll probably get suspended by Twitter.

Best Tweeting Practices

• Ease into tweeting. Don’t send out a lot of tweets the first couple of days. (Really, don’t “overtweet” at any time.)
• Make your first tweet about the fact that you’re new to Twitter and why you’re there.
• Your next tweets should provide some valuable tips in your niche (not affiliate links).
• Then ask some questions in your tweets about your topic to get some feedback from followers and get new followers.
• Think of tweeting as a conversation, not a sales tool. Interact with others by sharing resources and information. Answer questions, and give good advice. You’ll make sales later by building trust first.
• Reply to other tweets a lot. If your profile shows that a large number of your tweets start with @twittername, potential followers will know you’re someone they want to get to know.
• Give twitter shout-outs to others by tweeting something like, “You should follow @loseweight now. She has some great weight-loss tips.” You’ll make a friend, and show that you’re supporting other tweeters.
• Follow the 80/20 rule when tweeting. Only promote affiliate products 20 percent of the time.
• Once you’ve gotten established and have built up a good reputation, you can start promoting affiliate products. Don’t send followers directly to a sales page. Send them to your own site or blog where you review the product. They can then click on your affiliate link through to the sales page.
• If someone tweets with a question about a certain product, you can send them to your review page that includes your affiliate link. When you’ve earned your follower’s trust, you’ll find you make more sales.
• If you only want one person to see your message, send your tweet as a direct message. If you want everyone who is following you to see the message, send it to @ Twitter ID. That will let the person know the message is for them, but it will be also seen by all your followers. It’s good to use this method to show that you’re there to be involved in conversations, not just promoting your affiliate products.
• Make sure you acknowledge a recommendation from another Twitter user by replying to them and letting everyone else know too. It’s great to give kudos.

Now that I’ve made my list, I realize I could do a better job taking my own advice. I’m going to start today.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.

Tips for Taking Great eBay Product Photos

I’ve found that clear, high-quality photos really enhance my chances of selling my products on eBay.

Here are some tips that will help you take great eBay product photos too.

1. You don’t need an expensive, high-resolution digital camera for your eBay photos. You just need a digital camera that will produce a 640×480 pixel image (which includes all digital cameras on the market.)
2.  Before you buy a camera, handle it to feel how comfortable it is in your hands. Make sure the camera controls are logical, and that it’s easy to transfer photos from the camera to your computer. The camera should be able to focus within four inches or less.
3. When taking a photo for your eBay product, generally select the camera’s smallest photo size. If you are going to crop the image or upload it to eBay’s picture services, however, select at least a 1024 x 768 image size.
4. Disable your camera’s built-in flash when taking a photo. The built-in flash produces a glare on the photo and makes your products look two-dimensional.
5. Use your camera’s “Macro Focus” feature to take close-ups of your product. (“Macro Focus” is usually indicated by a tulip flower symbol.)
6. The key to effective product photography is lighting, and the key to effective lighting is control. You can control the strength, size, position, color and number of lights you use. And each of these controls changes how the subject looks. Review your camera’s manual to understand your camera’s “white balance” symbols ( i.e. a light bulb for indoor shots with incandescent lights, a sun symbol for outdoor photos, etc.) You’ll use the white balance control to get accurate colors. You can preset the white balance to match the type of light you’re using (daylight, shade, tungsten, fluorescent).
7. Use the “Exposure Control” (EV) to correct light and dark photos. A plus number lightens the image, a minus number darkens it.
8. Use a tripod when taking pictures of your product. The tripod stabilizes your camera and eliminates blurry photos.
9. Photograph your products at an angle.
10. Take more than one photo of each item. For example, if you are selling clothing, take one full-length photo; one photo of the tag showing size, fabric, content, brand; and one or more close-up photos showing the texture of fabric and any details or flaws.
11. Use photo-editing software to make final adjustments.
12. Host your pictures on your own website. You will save money and be able to use as many pictures as you need to adequately show eBay bidders your products. It’s simple, and yet 70 percent of eBay sellers don’t do it.

I hope you try some of these tips. I think you’ll find that adding high-quality product photos will enhance your eBay listings and greatly increase your sales.

How I Finally Got My Twitter Account Reinstated

I had pretty much given up on getting Twitter to either reinstate (unsuspend) my account or at least explain why it was suspended in the first place.  My account was suspended on Nov 4th, and no one had responded to my multiple queries through their contact form.

Then late yesterday afternoon, I decided to google, “Twitter account suspension” and found a site called, “Customer Service & Support for Twitter” that claimed that 23 Twitter employees were ready to listen and respond. 

On the site, I found a number of other people whose accounts had been suspended, and some of them had now been unsuspended. So I figured I had nothing to lose, and posted my tale of woe.

Low and behold, a few hours later, I received an email from Del at Twitter that said:

“I took a look at your account and unsuspended it; it looks as though it had gotten clustered in with a number of other accounts that were spammy.”

Now I’m not really sure if he was saying that my account was spammy, but I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I opened Twitter, and sure enough, my account was live again!

While I’m grateful to Del, I’m a little bit concerned, because a number of people whose accounts had been reinstated came back to that site and said they were suspended again. I guess I’ll just have to see how it goes.

But I do worry about Twitter as a viable company. They’ve gotten some nice investment money, but I don’t think they’re doing a good job keeping up with their growth. And they’re trying to find some revenue model to monetize the site and keep growing. Without good customer service, they’ll never make it. Maybe it is growing pains and they’re getting their act together. We’ll see.

In the meantime, while I was suspended, I tried to understand what I could have done wrong. Through this process, I learned which activities might get you banned on Twitter.  So take heed:

One or more of these things may cause a Twitter account to be flagged for review:

• a large number of people block the profile in question
• a large number of people write in with spam complaints for a specific profile
•  a large number of people are followed in a short amount of time
•  the number of followers is small compared to number of people following
•  updates consist of duplicate links and/or text
•  updates consist mainly of links and not personal updates
•  updates consist solely of “re-tweets” (poaching other users’ updates)
•  updates consist of links pointing to phishing sites, malware, or other harmful material
•   a large number of accounts is created in a short amount of time
•  an account is identified as belonging to a group of spam accounts

Anyway, I’ll continue with Twitter, but I’m a little less enchanted.

What do you think?

Make Money Blogging - Blogging To The Bank 3.0 Review

A few months ago, I reviewed Rob Benwell’s eBook, Blogging to the Bank 2.0.

I thought that Rob provided a pretty straightforward blueprint for making money blogging, and presented his material well.

Now Rob has released Blogging to the Bank 3.0, and I just bought it to see what’s new and if it’s worth recommending.

Here’s what I found. There’s some of the same basic information in this 3.0 version, but Rob has added a bunch of information about Web 2.0 strategies that I think are pretty valuable.

If you’re new to blogging, this eBook will show you an easy way to get started making money. You can probably get up and running by finding free information, but it will take some time. Blogging to the Bank 3.0 will reduce your learning curve.

The eBook is pretty basic though, and I don’t think experienced bloggers will get a whole lot out of it. But I don’t think that’s Rob’s target market.

If you buy the eBook, you’ll get some nice free bonuses, which add to the value.

My Verdict: If you’re just starting out in blogging, Blogging to the Bank 3.0 can help you get set up quickly. The price is low, and there is a guarantee, so you don’t have anything to lose.