Archive for April, 2009

$30,000 PPC Nightmare

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It’s not unusual to have that *gasp* moment when you get the bill for your first pay-per-click campaign… especially if you didn’t do your homework first.

Running up a pretty substantial bill with poor results isn’t hard to do… but most newbies don’t do it on this scale:

“I am very new to this google adsense and posting ads. Last night I wanted to do a “TEST RUN ONLY” for Google to monitor before I could run any ad for my blogger.com. This morning 04/27/2009 I see a cost bill of almost $30,000.00?  Oh my GOD, how could this happen?  PLEASE HELP!  This is a mistake!  Please fix this problem and remove this cost of almost $30,000.00 from my account.  I don’t have that kind of money.  I’m a single mom and I’m not even working.  Please help.  I look forward to your response to my request.”

The quote above came from a Google AdWords Help thread and illustrates just how easy it is to get in trouble with PPC.

That’s why newbies should do their homework before they dive into the deep end of the pool!

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Do you have Twitter Deadwood?

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For those not familiar with Twitter, one of the keys to success in marketing through Twitter and other social media is accumulating a list of followers.

Your followers represent the people who are interested in you, your business, or your product.  For the most part, it’s very similar to email or RSS subscribers.

More Followers = More People to Market To

With Twitter, there’s often a reciprocation of following.  In other words, “If you follow me, I’ll follow you.”

Personally, I don’t always follow everyone that’s following me… it depends on what kinds of things that they post to their account.  On the other hand, I don’t expect that everyone that I follow to reciprocate and follow me either.

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Economic Downturn Effects Email Marketing Too?

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Apparently a lot of big businesses hit by our economic downturn have turned to email marketing to try to make up some of their lost sales.

I read an article this morning that talks about a brick and mortar company that required it’s salespeople to acquire at least 25% of customers’ email addresses so that they could conduct email marketing.

When the salespeople couldn’t live up to the quotas, they began submitting made up email addresses… and you can guess what happened then.

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Article Marketing: What’s REALLY the Goal?

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Article Marketing: What's REALLY the Goal

A lot of people who get into article marketing seem to be a little fuzzy about what they are trying to accomplish through this awesome marketing technique.

I hear people talk all the time about selling more, building rapport, adding credibility, etc. but most article writers fail to realize that all those things are simply part of the bonus plan… they’re not the real goal of article marketing.

Don’t get me wrong – more sales, better rapport with customers, and improved credibility are really terrific fringe benefits to article marketing… But that’s not the purpose behind writing articles.

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Answers Poll Results In Marketing Lesson

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The results are finally in!  As you may remember, I asked you (my subscribers) for your feedback about Answers eMagazine.  The question was:  “What is your preferred format for Answers eMagazine?”

Here are the results: Read the rest of this entry