From the category archives:

Competitive Intelligence

Adwords Bragging

by admin on 1:22 pm

Sorry … just had to brag for a moment. (This is a testimonial received for The Naked Truth About Internet Marketing)

Email From A Client Who Previously Heard Me Present Hyper-Responsive Adwords Methods

“Hi Glenn, I just picked up your Truth Profits program and I gotta tell you…I was blown away by the PPC section you included. Like a lot of internet marketers, I’ve lost my shirt (and close to my pants! ;-) in getting pay-per-click completely WRONG for so long. I’ve purchased several programs but all they seem to do is tell you Google’s “rules” or how to try to “game the system”.

The format that your team used with discussing PPC was like being a fly on the wall as real pro’s discuss what’s REALLY working in this area. It’s obvious that the other marketers you teamed up with were somewhat challenged at some point with PPC. They asked all the right questions (for beginners and pro’s)…and you gave some incredible answers in a real step-by-step format.

I listened to the recording 3 times in a row and found new tips each time. In fact, I listened to it while on the treadmill at my gym and had to keep jumping off to scribble down the thoughts and ideas as they came pouring into my head! (I think you’re personally responsible for about 750 calories I could have lost if I’d just been able to keep running! Won’t hold it against you!)

Anyway, just wanted to say that I’ve listened to many of your recordings in the past but this one is by FAR the best yet. This section alone was worth far more than the price I paid.

Thanks for the tips!”

Jeff Anderson Chicago, IL

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Adwords Delusions

by admin on 9:09 pm

Here’s a fascinating observation about Adwords you’ll only hear from a shrink raised in a family of 17 psychologists, psychotherapists, and social workers.

You see, while your Dad was telling you ghost stories and taking you to baseball games, MY Dad was telling me a fascinating story about a study completed in a “mental institution” (I hate the term) the year I was born.

In 1964, at the Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, Milton Rokeach wanted to see if it was possible to treat delusions by forcing them to “auction for space” against one another.  He noticed it wasn’t uncommon for men to present at the hospital claiming to be Jesus Christ. Rokeach reasoned if he put’m all together, they’d have to realize it was impossible for ALL of them to be Jesus, so the delusions would collapse.

He arranged to have 3 of them in the same therapy group.  But it didn’t work.

Or at least, it didn’t work the way he thought it would … the delusions persisted. (As an interesting and totally tangential aside, you can never REASON someone out of a delusion … delusions are dealt with and resolved in FORM, not substance … what you see in the movies is total prairie poop)

Anyway, instead of giving up their delusions when confronted with the truth of each other’s presence, these men molded themselves to allow for the existence of each other … they decided to form a “Society of Christs”. There personal identities were too precious to sacrifice.

Instead, they paradoxically found they could reinforce each other as friends.

Now … if you think this was just a psychology lesson you’re missing the point. (Also, I hope this doesn’t have to be said, but I’m not making any religious arguments or statement here)

Many of my students come to me at first very, very concerned about the intense competition in the Adwords auction.

They believe it will be next to impossible to carve out a unique space for themselves in a market which is “already sewn up”. But this reasoning follows the same logic Rokeach was convinced of at the outset of his study … and fails to recognize the propensity of humans to make room for a multitude of individuals offering fairly similar stories and presentations, and the innate tendency to artfully adjust one’s “plumage” to attract attention in a competitive environment.

Now I’m not saying it’s easy, or there’s not a process involved which takes some time (e.g. getting into the traffic stream, adjusting your bid, split testing a dozen or so ads, etc), but I am saying what Rokeach observed is the same thing we see in Adwords all the time …

There’s usually room for 3 vendors to tell the same story in just slightly different ways …

Which makes the whole thing just a little less frightening, don’t you think?

For what it’s worth,

Dr. G :-)

PS – I just have to say, I really LOVE being able to finish my day like this. (I had a very hard day today). I love that you read this far, and seriously considered what I had to say. I love that you continue to give me a chance to be significant in your life. I love that wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, at this moment my thoughts are connecting to yours, and maybe, just maybe, changing your emotional state. Thank you. (Really… thank you).

PPS – Rokeach’s odd book (a detailed account of the study) is still in print if you’re so inclined to look it up. 

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Pay Per Click Back End Products

February 8, 2009

There were several important comments on yesterday’s post .   I’d like to respond to one of them in particular:
Joey Atlas (a fellow PPC marketer I definite respect) asks:
“Would you say the marketer who has yet to finish/complete his product (name, logo, color scheme, etc…) and website is at an advantage, in terms of honing in [...]

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Hyper Responsive PPC Search Marketing

February 7, 2009

There are FIVE reasons pay per click search marketing is evolving to center on around the hyper-responsive PPC searcher:
1. The 80/20 rule means one out of 2,000 PPC visitors really matters online
2.  PPC searchers look for real points of difference, and the hyper-responsive ppc searcher knows this better than anyone
3. Hyper Responsive Pay per click [...]

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Pay Per Click Tools – My Favorite

February 2, 2009

Your competition has already spent
thousands testing keywords and ads …
why re-invent the wheel?
Watch this short video
and you’ll quickly see how to…

NARROW DOWN THE FIELD OF COMPETITORS TO THOSE YOU REALLY NEED TO WATCH: Find out who actually maintains successful campaigns for months at a time (know who to emulate and who to ignore)

GET THEIR COST PER CLICK: Estimate how [...]

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