Glenn Livingston was arrested for drinking on January 4th, 2012, and you can see his mugshot here.

It’s pretty scary what you can learn using Google Alerts!

Like most marketers, I have routine alerts out on my name, and for just a moment when I saw this come through I wondered if perhaps I’d been out on a bender I’d forgotten last week (even though I haven’t had a drink in 20+ years… not ’cause I’m an alcoholic–I detest that term–just because I find life more interesting and satisfactory without screwing with my mental state)

I also learned, of course, about the myriad of people stealing my products (we pursue them legally now), and a few things about yet ANOTHER Glenn Livingston who’s a pastor in Illinois up to some interesting things from time to time.

But none of these rather mundane results from Google Alerts come anywhere close to the REAL power of this FREE utility…

(Even though tracking your namesakes’ activities can from time to time generate an attention getting headline)

Because most marketers have absolutely NO idea how to use it…

The REAL way to leverage Google Alerts is to first know with crystal clarity EXACTLY what keyword defines your ideal prospect, plus a very small set of related keywords which surround it.  Taken together these become your “archery target”… the small space which defines EXACTLY WHO YOU WANT TO BE on the internet, and allows you to more or less ignore everything else.

Once you’ve done that, you can combine Google Alerts with Google Reader Feeds (and some anti-RSS-spam code) to automatically collect pretty much EVERYTHING that happens on the internet that’s relevant to you…

And stop getting distracted by everything else…

Which is the ONLY way to build a hyper-responsive marketing system in my humble opinion.

Have any of you found effective-yet-novel uses for Google Alerts we should know about?

Tell me, I’d like to know!

Dr. G

PS – I’m considering organizing my network and resources to build a “performance-pay-based-conversion boosting-done-for-you” service.  Curious if that’s of interest to any of my readers today

“Your subscription expired on _____ (date)  and we just don’t know how your website can continue to grow without doing constant keyword research”

Assuming you’ve developed a strong center of gravity on a bulls eye keyword, here are 7 ways you can continue to grow your website, business, and profits WITHOUT doing constant keyword research:

1. Just process your damn search query report in Adwords already.    Seriously, I called your Mom yesterday and told her to lay on the guilt extra thick, because I STILL find 80% of my list is just not doing this, and that’s like flying blind.     Adwords is getting more competitive by the day, and you NEED VISIBILITY into which keywords convert  and which ones don’t so you can peel and stick, adjust your bids, and empower Google’s fuzzy logic to do ITS thing, which is to EXPAND YOUR PROFITABLE TRAFFIC WITHOUT REQUIRING CONSTANT MANUAL KEYWORD RESEARCH.  Of course, this all assumes you’ve installed the conversion pixel on your website (look in the tools section of Adwords).   And if you don’t want to do this, maybe you could donate to my favorite charity instead of feeding Google unnecessarily?  Enough said.
2. Ditto on the placement report.
3. Taguchi test in Adwords to improve your click through and strengthen your center of gravity in Google’s eyes.  So they can automatically expand to more keywords on your broad match bids. (The stronger your keywords perform, the more Google will try to expand to related words, and who knows better than they?)
   
4. Split Test using Profit Per Impression (www.SuperSplitTester.com) so you can afford to bid higher and command a larger share of voice, which, uh, like encourages Google to try and expand your broad match keywords
5. Do an 80/20 Survey on your Opt In List or E-Commerce site, then use the results to improve your Adwords copy, landing pages, follow up sequences, back end products, and sales processes.
6. Get on the phone and call your customers and prospects, just to ask how you’re doing and what you could improve.  (Forget all our fancy emotional interviewing techniques, just pick up the darn phone)
7. Consider updating your site and your landing pages to a more substantial, web 2.0, modern Adwords compliant format.

Most if not all of the above, especially #s 1 and 2, should be done way before you start spending time and money in keyword services outside of Google.    And you should make sure you’ve leveraged Google’s FREE tools before you move to the paid services.  Only makes sense, right?

When you’ve done all above, the keyword services can be a source of incremental volume, bid efficiencies, and profit.   But it’s nothing like it used to be, thanks to all the wonderful free tools Google’s providing, and thanks to their ever improving fuzzy logic auto-expansion algorithms.

Sorry, this kind of pissed my off today, I should probably have held back my tone a little bit, I know it was out of character for me.  What do you think?

Dr. G

www.HyperResponsiveMarketingSecrets.com

In any event, you can download the negative keyword slides here in PDF format.

The majority of AdWords accounts we’ve seen have been incredibly under-optimized for negative keywords.   Most people know what they are, and have a few dozen, or perhaps a few hundred.  But an optimized account making good use of broad match will often have THOUSANDS of negatives which can DRAMATICALLY increase your click through rate and reduce your cost per acquisition.

And when you combine the power of  Rocket Clicks negative keyword strategy with the power of the hyper-responsive adwords bulls eye process, you wind up with an extraordinary Adwords campaign, both optimized and easy to manage.  (The bulls eye process relies heavily on identifying the 6 most important keywords in your market, then leveraging Google’s broad match algorithms to expand your traffic around this theme)

Seriously, if your Adwords spend is even $100/mo, the time you spend watching this FREE webinar and studying the slides is a total “no brainer”.    It’s one of the very few times I’m comfortable saying it’s entirely possible you’ll make money TONIGHT with this information.

All my best,

Dr. G

How to Do It Yourself | Coach with Glenn | Done For You

I’ve had hundreds of students come to me with some variation of the following “You’re obviously the guy to work with for building a solid foundation for a long term, profitable, growing business. But who do you recommend to make money NOW? I NEED money NOW!”

For the answer, please listen to the free mp3 below.

PPC DONE FOR YOU

EVERYTHING DONE FOR YOU

DO IT YOURSELF

PRIVATE COACHING WITH GLENN

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

Download the Excel Sheet from the Videos Here

PPC DONE FOR YOU

EVERYTHING DONE FOR YOU

DO IT YOURSELF

PRIVATE COACHING WITH GLENN

We did NOT intend to distribute this conversation, so I apologize for the speakerphone, but I thought it represented a unique opportunity for you to be a fly on the wall to see:

A) How a high-level copywriter interviews “in the trenches” sales people to elicit the benefits and objections necessary to write A level copy

B) How my thinking has evolved into a more comprehensive, yet simpler system for building a solid internet marketing structure

The original purpose of the call was for Tony to get the material he needed to develop a consultation form like the one we’ve got here, but targeted at people who wanted more than PPC management… instead desiring a more comprehensive package including market research + site design/repositioning + PPC/SEO.

You see, it’s been several years since I originally innovated and presented the How To Double Your Business process, and I’ve moved WAY beyond the advanced survey methods I originally presented.  The way I approach markets presently is simultaneously  simpler and more powerful.

1) MAKING MORE MONEY WITH FEWER KEYWORDS

The most successful of the 100+ clients I personally audited at Rocket Clicks last year (especially those who seemed to survive the economic earthquake in the fall of 2008) were   focused on many, many fewer keywords, leading me to develop a set of algorithms for choosing the smallest number of keywords likely to make you the most money.

In fact, I now believe it’s ESSENTIAL  to have a well articulated rationale for choose ONE dead-center bulls-eye keyword for your business… the one you’d advertise on if Google restricted your account to only ONE adgroup with ONE broad match keyword in it.  (The “ultimate elevator speech”).

Considerations of relevancy, volume, and bid price are essential in making this choice.

And once you know your Bulls-Eye, I think it’s also essential to define a very small set of concentric circles around it … no more than six keyword groups.  And you’d better have a good written definition of the CONCEPTUAL BOUNDARIES OF YOUR KEYWORD SET, or else you’ll wind up wasting time, money, and diluting your conversions by aiming off your “keyword archery target”

2) GATHERING MORE FREE COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE THAN ANYONE IN YOUR MARKET

Once you know exactly where your keyword archery target starts and ends (and why!), I’ve innovated a NEW method for leveraging social media, competitive intelligence spy tools, and RSS fees to set up one systematic and comprehensive competitive intelligence dashboard…

Then identifying YOUR SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT COMPETITOR and totally reverse engineering their web testing diary.  (I’m not just talking about the stupid PPC spy tools … I’m NOT NOT NOT talking about figuring out what web changes they made which made them successful in the first place)

3) IDENTIFYING POINT OF DIFFERENCE BENEFITS WITH A NEW 80/20 VERSION OF MY SURVEY INTELLIGENCE PROCESS

On the foundation of a more clearly defined and simpler keywords set AND comprehensive competitive intelligence, we then utilize the survey process to find point of difference benefits for the market.

4) DESIGNING YOUR SITE, COPY, AND FOLLOW UPS TO BUILD ON ALL THIS UNIFIED INTELLIGENCE

With a clearly defined bulls-eye and keyword archery target, the knowledge of who’s winning the game on that target and why, the consumer language, emotional benefits, and point of difference benefits in hand, the process then proceeds to UNIFY ALL YOUR MARKETING COMMUNICATION AROUND A  SINGULAR, WELL RESEARCHED USP.

5) BUILDING OUT PPC AND SEO CAMPAIGNS FOR YOUR VERY FOCUSED TARGET:

SEO and PPC are expensive and time consuming.   The gorillas who survive are the ones who know exactly where to FOCUS their time and money.   The new Livingston Process ensures you eliminate waste and laser focus on a hyper-responsive message for the short set of keywords which define your business.

6) OPTIMIZE YOUR CONVERSION:  Multivariate and Taguchi testing are still VERY powerful tools (always will be).  But they’re only useful when you’ve got the RIGHT INPUT to test.   The new process above ensures you’ve always got a prioritized list of options for continually bringing your business to the next level.

Enjoy the FREE MP3 below please!  :-)

ACTION OPTIONS: Do all this yourself, hire us to do for you,  or have me coach you through it personally.

While the profit volume one can achieve using broad match is tremendous, the risk is of equal proportion if it’s not managed correctly.

Most recently, the RocketClicks.com team (at the suggestion of Jered, who you’ll hear interviewed here) has innovated a broad match management technique which gives you the ability to more specifically manage this risk.

I have to admit, as common-sense and obvious as this one was, I didn’t think of it myself and heard no one else talking about it.

Enjoy this short but powerful interview

Leads and Orders Generated For You by PPC Management Experts

The AdWords Search Partner Network has been somewhat of a mystery to the owners of most AdWords accounts I’ve audited this year.

It’s been conventional wisdom that it’s worth separating Search Partners from Google (and separating both from Content/Adsense) … but as a matter of practice we find probably less than 5% of accounts are ever structured this way. (It’s a shame because you can usually find 10% to 20% savings)

Recently, Google’s evolution of the Search Partner network to include shopping feeds, and newer large properties has changed the game. Furthermore, it appears their fuzzy logic algorithms are sometimes causing some “bleed” between networks when one uses the standard separation method (setting one campaign to “Google” only, and another duplicate as “Google + Search”, … but bidding one penny lower on Search).

One very astute listener to our recent free MP3 “Maximum AdWords Results in Minimum Time” suggested to me that the concept of separating the two networks AT ALL was “out of date” due to the “bleed” between campaigns.  This concerned me, because it contrasted with the continued advice I’d been giving to make the separation.

So I put the RocketClicks.com team to the task of digging deep into dozens of reports to find out the answer.

If you want to know, you’ll just have to listen, and you might find a half dozen or so other “Mysteries of the Search Partner Network Revealed”.  (Rob, the low-key but brilliant gentleman interviewed, heads up our entire PPC  management department)

Enjoy!

Ppc research can identify upside potential (and downside risk) so you can decide whether it’s worth going forward.  It can also capture consumer language (which you can echo back to improve sales conversions), and identify segments and sub segments and niches within your market who you can laser target to multiply your results.

But even more importantly, ppc market research TEST the responsiveness of the market BEFORE you develop a product, or spend a fortune in money and time:

• Is there really a need in the market for your product or service?
• Where are the market gaps?
• What might it cost you per lead and per sale to enter the market?

ESTIMATING COST PER LEAD AND COST PER SALE WITH SURVEYS BEFORE YOU SPEND ANY MONEY ON A PRODUCT OR ON MARKETING:

When you run traffic directly from pay per click to a survey in preparation for developing a newsletter capture page:

• You’ll often find that approximately twice as many people (on a percentage basis) will sign up for the newsletter as were willing to take the survey
• Since you’re paying PER CLICK, you already know your COST PER SURVEY
• You can then ESTIMATE YOUR COST PER LEAD by simply multiplying by two (note: legally, I can’t guarantee this cost for you, I can only report my experience)
• On average, if I plan to sell something similar to what my competitors are selling on the front end, I find approximately 1 out of 10 newsletter subscribers will purchase
• So I can multiply my cost per lead x 10 to get an ESTIMATED COST PER SALE (note: legally, I can’t guarantee this cost for you, I can only report my experience)
• This model is especially powerful when you track survey response on a keyword by keyword basis because you wind up with a BUYING HEAT MAP of the whole vocabulary of your market
• Determine if there is viable pathway into the market on a keyword by keyword basis
• Pause or kill any keywords which look “red” and only roll into the market on the “in the black” estimates

There’s much more info on the free ppc research mp3 – how to use surveys to identify true point of difference benefits so you’ll stand out from the competition, etc

For beginners, I recommend choosing markets where the calculation shown in the video is between 30,000 and 600,000.  PPC markets underneath this volume may not be worth the effort, and those above this volume may be too brutally competitive for a newbie to make their first dollar online!

Last, these pay per click search marketing techniques are ONLY intended for use in the How To Choose Your Market method, … I use other formulas and methods for other purposes.  (If you own another product of mine and are estimating volume for other reasons, please follow the formulas therein).