Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

I found this link at AppleInsider.com : It’s an ad for blackberry that wasn’t picked up by RIM.

It’s pretty clever, however considering that iPhone is outselling the new Blackberry Storm 4:1, it’s not surprising it will end up on the cutting room floor.

Enjoy,
Shane

I have been extremely busy for the last two years and have sadly neglected the Affiliate Marketing side of the business. What was a thriving 4 figure a month income has dwindled to barely covering costs. This can happen for a number of reason over time. Escalating competition driving up the PPC cost to the point that a campaign is no longer profitable, merchants switching Affiliate Sites or shutting down Affiliate Sales and many varied other reasons.

The contract I’m currently working is coming to a close and I’m going to have the time to get things back up and rocking. I have a lot of experience in Affiliate Marketing and am not worried that I can again achieve Super Affiliate status.

Adwords PPC is a tricky beast and if you aren’t careful it can bite you hard. For this reason
I’m treating it very much like fire. Very very useful but wild at heart and able to burn up swaths of cash if not watched carefully. It was this tricky nature of the beast that prompted me to write Internet Marketers Companion in the first place. I’m still working on IMC and look forward to the next release which will retrieve an emailed google adwords report file and pump the data in.

I’m not sure whether to call Internet Marketers Companion a success or failure. In some ways I think it’s a success. I planned it out and completed the project and got it to market. In other ways I think of it as a failure. I’m not sure people understood how powerful it is, and because of that couldn’t get their heads around it’s worth. On the other hand it requires a lot of fiddling to get reports and put the data in. It does a great job of it’s primary function though, to cut the time it takes to get useful stats. Internet Marketers Companion is still so much easier than hand adding data to spreadsheets and as the data is all in hand it is easy to add extra reports. I would have loved more of a take up and at the current low price point and full featured demo would still love that, if only for the feedback extra eyes can add in helping make things run better. The initial learning curve is quite steep and that is daunting. I also believe that a lot of marketers don’t keep the stats like I wanted and would benefit from doing so. While it didn’t sell great numbers, I find myself enjoying using it and will continue to improve IMC if only for use in my own business.

Back to the story. In thinking of Adwords PPC as a fire that has died down, you need to apply similar tactics to bring it back roaring to life. Sure you could throw gasoline of the fire and have things flare up but you could also get badly burned by that. Better to get down close and gently blow on the embers to stir them back to life. Take a slow, careful approach and watch things carefully. With a little attention and tender loving care the embers will burn brighter and start flaming again.

I have already brought a couple of long forgotten campaigns back to life and am seeing sales. Once I have gone through my existing accounts to see if the merchants are still active and whether they are worth salvaging I’ll start bringing on new ones. By diligently putting stats into IMC and tracking the cost of sales, I’ll be able to keep a tight rein on costs and maximize the profits. Profits are great and I love watching sales come in. What is more important at the beginning is making sure you stop any losses from putting the fire out completely.

I use Matt Levenhagen’s Campaign Blast Method and IMC was built so that it dovetails nicely into his stop loss method of Affiliate Marketing. It’s a

great way to ensure you losses don’t run away with your profits and Internet Marketers Companion is the software that makes it easy to see at a glance the stats of what’s working and what isn’t.

Also on the cards is fine tuning the latest updates to IMC and getting that out to the currently users and putting together a database for the demo so that folks can see how the program works without having to input any data.

I’m getting excited about working with the Affiliate Marketing business again, it’s something that I love to do and the people I interact with are a class act.

I have been waiting on Rock Band 2 since I first laid drum sticks on the original Rock Band.

Once RB2 was announced, ION announced the Drum Rocker, a more realistic and midi capable drum kit. I’m very much looking forward to banging on it, although as I currently have the wii I may have to wait a little longer for that one to come out.

The PS3 version should be out in the not too distant future, and is already listed on the Amazon site.

The good news is that the wait is over and you can pick up the Drum Rocker now. You can get it straight from ION but they’re charging $50 odd for shipping or you can get it HERE from Amazon with free shipping.

“People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy!” – Jeffrey Gittomer.

Marketing is about telling a story that resonates with your target niche. That product may be new and exciting like the latest electronic gadget ( iphone 3G anyone? ), or it may be not so exciting like laundry detergent or a hammer. In some cases you can tell a story by showing a celebrity using a product and having a great time with it. The Jimmy Johnson kobalt tools ads spring to mind, where the well known 2 time NASCAR champ restores a great looking SS Camaro in no time with the aid of his trusty kobalt tools. Who wouldn’t want a set?  So comes the issue of getting a product that ordinarily would seem somewhat boring and tell a story that makes it resonate.

Leaving the office yesterday, I spotted something that made me laugh long and loud. Sitting in front of me, waiting to pull out of the carpark was one of a billion minivans on the road, nothing unusual there right? Families all around the world buy millions of them every year. There was something different about this one that happened to catch my eye. On the lower right rear of the tail gate was a shiny, simple “sport” badge.

This goes hand in hand with the Honda ads for their new minivan, saying “The Van is Back” as if the minivan of today has any resemblance to van culture of the 70′s, where large V8 fire breathing beasts with shag pile carpeting and mirrored ceilings were responsible for in the dark fumbling and many a good time.

This marketing is trying to tell a story and resound with today’s mom’s and dad’s. To say, I know on most levels it’s a minivan. It’s slow, front wheel drive, boxy and ugly to look at. However it has plenty of room to tote the kids around while getting the groceries in comfort. But you know what? Mine is a sport, it has alloy wheels and that makes it cooler than all the other minivans, OR, perhaps; I had a great time in my van as a teenager and now this Van is just like that only newer and with more DVD screens.

The Van’s back man … peace!

Shane

Brad Cullen is giving away a great little book on SEO strategies. I thought it was a great read and will be applying many of the strategies myself over the coming weeks. Feel free to grab a copy from the link below. It’s hosted locally so you won’t be sent to another website.

SEO Made Easy

Warm Regards,

Shane