I let this go for a while to collect data and then started working on this MySQL export of over 500,000 keywords and phrases. On purpose I am collecting duplicates so that I can see which terms are most popular. Then I increased filtering and was able to get a lot of usable data that allowed me to put extremely targeted ads in place on those specific “landing” pages (normal pages on my website). That has been working out good I want to say.

Now I am taking this script and going to use it on my PPC websites as well. BUT, here is the kicker that will allow you to really benefit from this. Once the script is installed and operational, I will set some money aside and do a “Suicide”-PPC campaign. I will pick some of the most important and most popular keywords. An example would be ringtones, insurance, loan, mortgage, …. you get the idea. I will use phrase match or maybe exact match and of course plenty of negative keywords, then I will bid high enough to be on page one. Making sure I have a decent quality score and then let the campaign go and deplete the funds allocated. I want traffic.

Now when your campaign has stopped my goal is to analyze the data I collected. The importance now is not the landing page, but the actual keyword/phrase that was used. Why? Since my script will collect the entire search term I am able to see what people are really search for. That will give me a great insight into how people search in that specific niche. I will be able to collect ideas and trends and then use that data to build my “production” campaign based on those findings. The advantage is easy - I will have exclusive data that nobody else has or is shared with hundreds or thousands of subscribers that buy keyword lists from Spyfu, Wordtracker, or Keywordspy.

It should not be too difficult for you to get a similar script set up. If you do a Google search for retrieving search terms from http headers you will be on the right way. I am not able to share my code at this point for competitive reasons. I’d give you a link where I found lots of information to start my script, but the webmaster did let the domain name expire …..! Anyway - initially you will spend $100 or $200 on gathering the data, which - depending on your situation - is almost suicide, but then you will come back from dead like a (PPC)-Zombie with killer keywords in your pocket and can beat the heck out of your opponents.
By the way - I highly recommend using SpeedPPC for building PPC campaigns. This tool has saved me hours or days of work setting up PPC campaigns.

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So, this is a significant difference and a huge increase in performance that matters to me. I am even inclined to try the paid version of AVG in a week or so when I have better data to work with. By then I can tell if AVG keeps up the performance and I get a better feeling for how good it really works.

Disclaimer: AVG (free version) might not work for everyone as it only updates the pattern file once a day. I consider myself as an educated user and do not click on attachments or links when I cannot verify the source properly.

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The new cleanup tool that removes extra spaces is awesome. When exporting keywords from Excel or websites I usually had to run the list through notepad to remove extra spaces. Now I just check the checkbox and all unnecessary spaces are being removed and I have a clean list of keywords.

Thew new ad copy feature is a huge time saver. I write my first ad and then just copy it for split testing into the other ad sections to make my modifications. It’s so easy now to pump out 6 different ad versions - you would not believe it.

YSM (Yahoo Search Marketing) Support is now included and that was needed. I have ignored Yahoo YSM for a long time, but this new feature will certainly help me to finally use them again. I prefer Google and MSN though, but being able to use YSM now as an alternative is not a bad thing.

The newly improved expansion list feature is really making my day. I can build and permanently save my own expansion list to really nail down the long tail keywords. In addition to that SpeedPPC comes with more expansion list right out of the box (so to speak).

Last, but not least - SpeedPPC is much faster building large campaigns now and makes better usage of system resources. I can build my campaigns faster and my laptop is still available during the build process without being taxed by high CPU and memory usage.

Find out more after reading this SpeedPPC Review and visit their website for a complete list of SpeedPPC features.

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Last night however I stumbled across something that totally got me excited and I am lacking sleep today as a result. I stumbled across one thing that when executed dramatically changed what I am bidding on, how much I am bidding on, and how many competitors there are. I am still at the very beginning of this and there is a lot of testing needed. Like I said - the best secrets never make it out, but there are enough people who know this already and use (let’s call them the big guns) and those are the ones that are always showing up. To give you an impression of what I am talking about - in of my niches that I was working I usually had about 20-25 competitors bidding on the same terms. I am now competing with 8 as a result of my discovery. This does not work in all areas as there are still way too many people competing, but I can now spend time on evaluating products and niches one by one and compare. Sooner or later I will stumble across opportunities and then I can hopefully exploit them and grab some marketshare and additional income for myself.

I won’t reveal my discovery, but I can tell you one additional thing I did - I am dropping broad match completly and I am slowly upping my bids on exact match. The difference is significant and you should do that, too. I am also dropping my bids on phrase match - at least temporarily. I might turn those back on, but first things first ….

So, I am very excited, but cautious, too. This is not a silver bullet that will solve all my PPC problems. It is one step up and hopefully one in the very right direction. There is still a lot of work involved. Affliate marketing is a lot of work - don’t make the assumption that there is no work involved. If you want to get somewhere it requires a lot of work. The hours I am putting in are insane, but I am sure one day it will pay off.

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Shoemoney is a great marketer - no doubt. Just look at how he is pushing his fighters.com project. I am not into that type of entertainment (sorry, I don’t call that sport) and it has nothing really to do with affiliate marketing either. He is just preparing everything for the big launch, eh?! Anyway - when you still battling your way up in affiliate marketing, you are probably (like me) looking for helpful information. His blog had that in the past, but no more. Since I want to avoid wasting time, I am removing feeds that do not provide value to me anymore. Shoemoney’s blog does not provide value anymore - so, there’s the door

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