Google Adwords is an incredibly powerful marketing tool with an instant global reach that can take your business from nowhere to an overnight success. Why wouldn’t a new marketer take advantage of such a powerful tool? I can answer that question with another question. Why wouldn’t you let someone with a new driver’s license behind the wheel of a race car? Because, unless they are extremely lucky, they are going to crash and burn. Google Adwords is the Formula One of online marketing and it is not for beginners.

As advertising goes, the reasons to avoid Google Adwords early on in your education is overwhelming.

1. First, it can be very expensive and most new marketers will exhaust their ad budget before they can successfully bring in revenue. This is mainly because Google Adwords can be deceptively difficult to master. The basic formula is to identify keywords, write an ad that uses the keywords and have a landing page that completely delivers on what your ad promises.
2. Next, Google rewards advertisers who solve the problem their searchers are trying to solve. If you fail to do this you can expect high cost per click and low traffic.
3. Further, Google purposefully keeps the exact formula for success under wraps. If you are not getting the results you are seeking, the support you receive from Google will be general at best. Expect Google to suggest “improve your landing page” or “tips for writing ads.” On top of that, Google periodically change their rules requiring you to change your campaign or face the prospect of high cost per click or low traffic.
4. Finally, the instant global reach of your Google Adwords campaign is accompanied by global competition with a wide variety of skill levels and budgets.

Keep your chin up though. There are many options that exist for the new marketer.

Initially most new marketers have more time than money and that can be a good thing (more on that later). There are many low-tech approaches that have worked for decades and still do. These alternatives allow you to learn how to market affordably which will allow for some trial and error without spending your whole ad budget.

Using some of the methods below will allow you to use several forms of marketing which is a more balanced and stable long-term approach. Here is the big bonus: your competitors are still online spending themselves out of business with Adwords!

Here are just a few options when thinking about an offline marketing campaign. They may not be sexy, but they are time-tested, and still very effective marketing tools.

1. Newspaper Advertising – requires only a computer and 800 number. Information about newspapers from around the country is easily researched online and ads can cost as little as $10 per week.
2. Flyers – this is a big one for those who have time but little money. Getting flyers or business cards made is cheap and easy using a site like vistaprint.com. Spend a couple of hours a day papering parking lots. The key with this plan is to put out a lot of flyers (hundreds daily).
3. Bandit Signs – Simple three line signs that reside at intersections and other high traffic areas which direct prospects to an 800 number with a message. Signs cost between $2-$5 dollars each and work wherever your prospects pass by or congregate.
4. Warm market – You have an immediate advantage approaching people you know because a level of trust exists between you. Many marketers can get off to a quick start by starting here.
5. Article campaigns – this is absolutely free to do. Establish yourself online as a respected and knowledgeable marketer in your niche. You may still be learning the ropes about marketing but you definitely know more than most people about your business.
6. Blogging – Similar to article marketing in that you share information about your area of expertise. Once people see you as a helpful resource they will begin to seek you out. The key here is to provide new content on a consistent basis. You can start today with a free site from WordPress or Blogger

If you have the budget, make Google Adwords a part of your overall marketing plan AFTER you have established other forms of marketing. Whenever you are new at something you need to be allowed to make mistakes, learn from them and apply what you have learned in the future. Hard won knowledge is the best way to learn. By starting with basic (and still viable) forms of advertising you can develop into a well-rounded, knowledgeable and, ultimately, more successful marketer in the long term, which is everyone’s goal.

Learn More About Google Adwords…

Welcome to part two of this three part series on SEO tools and resources. In the last article we discussed the variety of

Firefox extensions used for SEO. In this article we’ll discuss some of the free and affordable tools you can use to better your organic optimization efforts. By affordable I mean for virtually everyone so I’m going to set the bar at $100/yr or ownership. Admittedly, we use tools that cost more than this but many of those tools will be out of some people’s price range.

Here are some of the key tools you need to use to help insure the successful optimization of your website.

Google Keyword Tool

Many of you are likely familiar with Google’s keyword tool, but it needs to be noted. This is a great resource for researching keywords. As with all keyword tools, it has its limitations and most would agree that it seems to overestimate search volume but nonetheless it is probably the best of the keyword tools out there, especially at the price.

Keyword Discovery

No individual set of data is perfect and no stage of the SEO process is more important than keyword research and selection. Keyword Discovery is a great tool to compare with the Google keyword data. Where you find commonalities you know that 2 independent sets of data agree. With a free trial that may itself work for many – it’s certainly worth looking into.

Keyword Spy

While the paid version of this tool is more than the $100/yr. max I noted previously – the free version provides some great data. Simply enter a competitor URL and you’ll find out some valuable data about the keywords they rank for both organically and in AdWords. This is great for competitor analysis as well as for finding keywords you might not have thought of.

Xenu Link Sleuth

A fantastic free tool that crawls websites, reporting back all the broken links. Over time, almost all sites get broken links. Running this tool periodically will help you find them so you can fix them.

Google Webmaster Tools

Arguably one of the most important of the SEO tools. Google Webmaster Tools allows webmasters (and SEO’s of course) to see their website the way Google does. With this tool you’ll get to see what your site is appearing for in the results, what pages on your site are linked to but don’t exist, and a wide array of errors and statistics.

With this information you can repair a number of issues. If your site is appearing for phrases that you’re not getting traffic from, you can review your titles and descriptions to see if you can improve your clickthrough rate. Xenu won’t show you the links from other sites that are pointing to pages that don’t exist – Google Webmaster Tools will. You’ll also find good backlink information for your site as well as a lot more.

Page Prowler

Page Prowler is a backlink research tool that allows the user to collect large amounts of potential backlink information, sort that data by site strength, and then proceed to pursue those backlinks. The value of this tool is primarily in the time it saves. It has no function that could not be done manually, but it can compile data that would otherwise take a person hours or days to collect quickly and easily.

Full disclosure – Shawn (the developer) asked me to advise on the development of this link building tool and I’m also assisting in it’s marketing. I was extremely impressed with Shawn’s first version of PR Prowler which includes some great functions and information. I felt the need to note this, but I’ll also note that we at Beanstalk use this tool regularly. I would not include it here if it didn’t deserve to be and I’d include it here if I had nothing to do with it other than my using it.

Advanced Web Ranking

Advanced Web Ranking is probably the most affordable of the better rank checking software programs. It has a ton of great features including scheduling and auto-report generation. You can set the searches to take place slowly to reduce the impact on the search engines. I still recommend to run it in the evening to further minimize your impact during high-volume search periods.

Multiple Keyword Rack-Checking Tool

This is probably one of the most popular tools on the Beanstalk site. One of the pet peeves I always had with online rank checking tools was checking rankings one-at-a-time. This tool allows you to check your rankings on Google ten at a time. Apparently others agree as it’s the most used tool of our set.

136 SEO Tools

While we’ve tried to include a solid set of very affordable tools in this article, you might find value in tools we don’t use. The “136 SEO Tools” page is regularly updated and includes some very interesting (though not part of my daily arsenal) tools. Highly recommended to visit at least once. I have it in my bookmarks and check back every couple months to see what new tools have been added.

Next Part

In part three of this article series we’ll be taking a look at a slew of invaluable SEO resources that you need to visit regularly to keep up-to-date on this ever-changing industry. While there are more than can be listed in a single article, I’ll be covering my first points of access when I’m looking for news or others’ opinions on SEO and search engine events.

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Google Adwords can drive you crazy with its “secret formula” for favorable ad placement and impressions. “Do I have the right keywords?” “Maybe my ads aren’t eye catching.” Just when you think you’ve got the formula figured out, Google changes the rules. Here is a tip that will work no matter what…deliver what your ad promises. More than anything, Google wants you to help them create a positive experience for their users. Create a quality landing page that does that and you and Google Adwords will become very good friends.

Too many Google Adwords marketers spend their time on keywords and ads, and leave the landing page out of the equation. Doing so can leave marketers scratching their heads when their cost per click remains high and conversions remain low. Despite all of the complicated theories about how to succeed with Google Adwords, it comes to this one fact: Google rewards or punishes its advertisers based on how well they solve the problem that Google’s searcher has. If your ad says “Learn Guitar In 2 Days” then the content on your landing page better have them playing like Eddie Van Halen within 48 hours. Anything short of that will, sooner or later, result in a Google “slap” where your impressions from Google Adwords are severely reduced or cut off altogether.

Here are some key elements of a good Google Adwords landing page:

1. Deliver on the promise of your ad – As I said before, this is the biggest key to success. If you solve the searcher’s problem/issue, you win. If your searcher clicks off of your page and begins another search, Google tracks it and penalizes you. Deliver on your promise and Google rewards you with lower cost per click and more impressions.
2. Make your page original – Unlike in the past, mass produced “replicated sites” no longer work. Google values giving their searchers unique and high quality information. Mass produced site, with their duplicate content, was watering down Google’s search results so they put an end to their use by penalizing advertisers that used them. Your landing page is your chance to “wow” your visitor. Make it count by making your landing page unique, novel and personal. Google will reward you for ending a search on your landing page by lowering your cost per click and increasing your number of impressions.
3. One page does not fit all – Your visitors decide in just a few seconds whether to stay on your site or click off. Be sure the top of your page matches the ad they clicked on. This is where, as good marketer, you can really excel. Maximize your conversions across all ads by creating a landing page for each ad. This mainly involves customizing the top portion of the page. The rest of the page can remain the same for all pages.
4. Get to the point – How long should your landing page be? Exactly as long as it takes to convey your message effectively. No more, no less. Grammar counts! Leave the misspellings and bad punctuation for the amateurs.
5. Have a goal in mind for your visitors – Are you trying to make a sale or get a lead? Have a goal in mind before creating your page and write your copy to lead them to that conclusion. Focus on one goal per page.
6. Increase conversions with a bonus – Everyone responds to “Free.” Adding a bonus to sweeten the deal will increase conversions. Information products work great and they don’t cost you anything.
7. Credibility counts – You are an experienced, successful business person. Your page should convey that. Graphics should augment your page copy, not compete with it. Leaving white space on your page is a good thing. Also, audio or video that launches when your visitor accesses the page is a big no-no. Your page should be welcoming without looking like a Vegas billboard.
8. Be trustworthy – Trust is a huge issue online. Anything you can do to be transparent is a plus. For example, are you a member of the Better Business Bureau? Put your member logo on your page! Same for site security certifications. Also, let your visitors know a little bit about you. Nothing really personal but you want your readers to feel like you are a real person.

This can seem like a lot to remember until you understand that all of these tips boil down to being a real and genuine person online. With billions of pages of content to wade through, people crave quality and trustworthy professionals to do business with. When you think about it, Google Adwords has set the bar very low for online marketers. Be a professional and deliver on your promise, the same as in any other kind of business. Just these two simple things will give you a huge advantage over the competition.

Next, Discover More On How To Make High Quality Landing Pages

What is a USP? Well it’s not a UFO, or anything weird or outside your experience. In fact you probably come across a USP every single time you read or write an ad because it is the single factor that sets you and your business apart from every other competitor in your marketplace. Put simply, USP stands for your Unique Selling Point or Proposition, and the key word here is single.

If you have an information product or traditional business and are wondering how you can increase sales, rather than merely just getting by, then I invite you to consider whether that’s because you don’t have a USP or, if you do, you’re not making the most of it.

Before I went into Internet Marketing, I was a sales training manager in the Financial Services industry and a lot of my time was spent with the sales executives helping them to build their presentations and sales pitches to help them identify what made them and our company different.

Why did we spend so much time on it? Because money is money, and that’s what someone is borrowing, which may seem obvious. Yes, and that’s what all Financial Services companies are selling so we positioned our service as something more than just getting a loan for a piece of capital equipment. We needed to distinguish ourselves from the others in our market, and to do that you need to build your business marketing and operational success around your USP.

So what’s unique about your product or service? There are a number of USP’s that might work in your business so have a look at these options:

• Back Up Service
• Biggest Discounts
• Convenience
• Customer Help, Assistance & Advice
• Done For Them
• Ease of Use
• Exclusivity
• Fast, immediate & speedy delivery
• Hassle Free
• Tailored Product
• Wide Choice

These are just some ways you and your service could be different from your competitors, and you may have a few more ideas of your own.

Defining the Difference:

You may think you don’t know where to start, and it’s too difficult, but you’ve just got to find an angle. After all, you know your product better than anyone, so start thinking about that and your market in depth and you’ll soon find there are endless possibilities.

One key task is to first analyse what your competitor are doing, and nothing could be simpler. Just grab paper and pen and look at what you competitors offer, and wWhat are they selling on.

Write it down, and you will quickly notice that most of the marketing that’s going on out there follows the same “me too” formula – and that’s a good thing for your product!

Your USP Needs To Be Something You Can Deliver On:

When deciding on what your USP is going to be, it’s vital that you can actually deliver on it. For example, if your USP is exclusivity, that won’t work if the customer can find your product in two or three other places for sale.

Be Clear About Your USP:

If you are not clear about your USP, then your customer won’t be either. It’s essential that any reader will get the point immediately about what you offer and why you are unique in the marketplace. To do that, your message must be articulated clearly and simply.

Use simple, crystal clear language that is compelling and informative because clearly articulating your USP will make your business more successful. However, you must be able to communicate your USP in the same time as an elevator pitch and that’s means that within one short paragraph or about thirty seconds you should be able to sell your unique position.

Try this now:

Think now about your USP and how you can position your product or business. Write a short paragraph about why your product or business is unique in its marketplace.

You don’t need to over think this process, just get going and jot down your main points and edit them into a clear and short message.

Now, look at it again and if it needs editing remove anything that is not essential and doesn’t do anything for your message. No ‘fluffy’ language, just a short, clear statement that promises something to your customer that they can’t get anywhere else.

Summary:

When you have your USP you must integrate it into all your marketing efforts including Adwords, Direct Mail, Landing Pages, Classified Ads and everything else.

Remember, the basic point to your USP is to clearly communicate with your prospects and customers so that they understand your unique positioning in the marketplace.

Use your USP in all your marketing efforts to gain new customers, remind existing customers and win back old customers. Marketing that pulls in customers and gets them to buy gives them rational reasons for their emotional purchase from you.

Your USP is how you can deliver that to them, and produce more sales for you.

Next, Here You’ll Find More Tips On How To Make Money Online … And Then Watch This FREE 26 Part Step-By-Step VIDEO Course