My Definitive Guide to Google AdWords is perfect for people who are mastering AdWords, even complete and total beginners. But what about people who are just starting out in marketing and don’t even have a biz yet? What about all the other ingredients of marketing?
This question came in yesterday from one such person named Vitaly:
Perry,
I’ve only recently signed up and started reading through your material; let me tell you– I haven’t come across material that was just as honest, to-the-point and especially interesting! Reading your newsletters was like reading a favorite book because they are so personal.
My question is: what are the tools I need to acquire marketing intelligence and find for myself something I would have passion for? Or at least to apply the knowledge in my current situation and gain experience before starting out on my own.
I’ve received links from you referencing to Glenn Livingston’s system but am a little skeptical if that is what I need right now. From what I gather, your recommendation is to start with Adwords, but at the same time there needs to be a clear approach to information gathering about keywords/competition and so on.
Vitaly
Dear Vitaly:
You will need to do some homework, as I shall describe. But first I want to give you assurance:
The “Internet Lifestyle” that people talk about IS real.
By that I do not mean “You can work 2 hours a day and drive a Ferrari” – that’s fake.
What I do mean is, there are many hundreds of thousands if not millions of people making a respectable and often prosperous living online. On their own terms, doing things they like, from any place that has room for a table, a chair and a laptop computer. It truly is a modern miracle.
And: Every second of every day, FIVE THOUSAND people search Google and most of them do NOT find what they are looking for. Therefore the opportunity is endless.
The good news for you and all marketers is that there is NO SUCH THING as a market that does not have a hole in it. I have yet to see one.
I have never developed an A to Z guide for beginner marketers, and for a long time I was never satisfied that a good one existed anywhere.
So for years, when a rank beginner would come to me, I would think “Dang, this person doesn’t even know what she doesn’t know and there’s no one place she can go to find out, either.”
Glenn Livingston, Terry Dean and Fred Gleeck finally created that A-Z product and I wholeheartedly endorse it.
If you do the self-inventory that I describe in “Memo to a Pink Koolaid Drinker” and then dive into Glenn and Terry’s A to Z Blueprint course, you will be armed and well prepared for battle.
BTW the way I advise a you to start out is different now than it would have been 5 years ago. 5 years ago you could afford to sort of fart around with AdWords and try a bunch of things until something worked.
Today that strategy would get you killed – because the competition is so thick. You need to really understand a market and use your X-Ray Vision find the holes in it. This requires a combination of keyword research and market research (not the same thing).
The A to Z Blueprint covers both very thoroughly. It also explains the inner psychology of keywords and helps you ask the questions that most beginners never ask. It guides you through the maze of developing landing pages, getting people to respond, and sell.
I had told people that the Blueprint product is for you if you’re making less than $25,000 a year online. One guy wrote back to me and said, “I make WAY more than $25,000 a year and I still gleaned a lot of important stuff from Glenn’s A-Z course. It’s NOT just for beginners.”
Start your Memorial Day Weekend right – Get Terry and Glenn’s Blueprint course here:
http://Blueprint.LivingstonReport.com/
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
16 Comments on “Urgent question from a marketer who's just starting out….”
A dog-door!! I always thought it was some coffee machine! Like some other people here I am also only half through the material and I love it and I recommend it whole-heartedly. Besides the great content, there is one other reason that stands out: The format. I put my earphones on and I do my housework. I guarantee you, when I hang up the wet clothes in the garden I will remember Fred speaking about the best light for video, when I am in the kitchen I will remember the end number myths in pricing and so I go on. I am so grateful that I can complete my education while doing mundane things. I am guilty of having other programs still sitting on my hard drive. And above all I really hate this video boom nowadays where I am forced to stay in front of my PC (ok, Glenn, I have time to do 1 of them in the morning when I do my wake-up ymnastics). Long live MP3!
Wow, a lot of other Site-Build-It! people commenting here. Perry, you attract a good crowd!
Seriously, the A-Z blueprint is a great value. I found it to be refreshingly honest and loaded with information.
It is very specific to creating and marketing info products. I hope to be able to use some of the techniques once I get to that point.
Perry, I really like your advice to Carlos about “learning” PPC using non-commercial keywords. I think it is brilliant.
This is a great collection of stuff. I laughed every time I heard one of Dr Livingston’s dogs go through the electric dog door. (Mr Dean warned of that in the sales latter).
Carlos, I run into the same problem as you when it comes to SOME affiliate programs. I too look to helping brick and mortar businesses eventually, as it sometimes seems most SEO/AdWord experts are either too expensive for most real small businesses to afford, or they do not know what they are doing or they use ‘black hat techniques that can eventually end their clients in quicksand.
I am betting, with your attitude and integrity, you could find either a local business that is using AdWords with no luck or using some service that is not giving them a good rate of return for their ad dollars…if any or not using them at all. You can even run your first account for free, or for a percent of the increase.
(Be sure, whatever deal you make, it includes access to the landing page and the license to change the landing page.)
I have no doubt you will make a difference in many lives in the future. It is refreshing to see posts like you made. It restores a sometimes shakken faith in one’s fellow man.
Thanks,
Mark
PS- You should ask Mr Marshall for his affiliate link to the Hyper-responsive Club. There is a ton of good info there. I think the link is on this page: http://www.perrymarshall.com/hyper-responsive-buyer/
Carlos,
I used to have the same problem as you, how to use ppc to make a sale or collect leads. I see so many products teach you how to drive traffic annd claim that you can make tons of money but all of them failed.
I even went for internet marketing seminars which the gurus tried to convince me by investing thousands of dollars, I will be able to earn passive income for the rest of my life by just attending a 2 days course!
Needless to say, all these does not sink into me and I just feel that they make more money out of me than actually making the money online.
Now the real stuff: All you need to make a passive income online is just a simple 3 steps:
1. Find a hungry crowd
2. Find out what they really want
3. Give it to them
As you can see, 66% of your time should be spent on market research and the remaining time on website and traffic building.
You may have some experience in adwords or even an expert, but if you don’t do your market research well and don’t understand why your customer buys a particular product, you WILL NOT make a sale!
Perry does emphasis on market research and I’m glad that he teach newbies how to do it in his course.
Is that the correct URL?
It redirects to here http://www.thenakedtruthaboutinternetmarketing.com/ which doesn’t mention anything about A-Z.
yes, that URL is correct!
Thank you very much Perry for your reply.
I really appreciate that you took the time to answer in such an extensive way and so fast.
I will follow your advise.
It’s great having experts so “real” and close to the people.
Carlos
Hi Perry.
I’m sorry if this is not the best place to post this comment, but i didn’t know where.
I bought your Definitive Guide some months ago, and i did learn a lot about PPC.
After that i joined a popular ppc course in order to have the opportunity to get feedback from the coaches and the people on that forum for the moments where i get stucked and don’t know how to continue with the campaigns.
The problem with this course (and others), in my opinion, is that they are very oriented to the affiliate marketing. Although very tempting, i’ve come to the conclusion that it’s kind of a fake activity.
I mean, most affiliates research the products with the most gravity in ClickBank or EPC in CJ, take a look at the competition, do keyword research and start a campaign. But, do they know a thing about that product/market? NO. Do they buy the product in order to make a honest review? The majority NO.
That’s what i mean by a fake way to earn money: having to create content/websites/blogs… about something you don’t know a thing about.
And i don’t feel very well doing that.
That’s why i wanted to ask something to you:
How can one get experience with ppc campaigns, in order to help real brick-and-mortar companies afterward, if you don’t have your own product to promote?
I already have the knowledge about Adwords, but i need where to apply it. I live in Spain, and here the ppc market is still to explode. Most companies don’t do it yet.
Sorry for the long post.
I would appreciate any comments from you.
By the way, it would be great to have some of your products into Spanish (I would be glad to help you with that).
Thank you for your time.
Carlos
Carlos,
I agree about the fake affiliate sites etc. They’re smarmy. Which is why Google takes a dim view of affiliate marketing. If you create an affiliate review site, buy the product and give a straight-up honest review.
Anyway… If you want to gain real-world experience the most direct way I know is to do it as a consultant. Some business owner who has a product, where you can dig into his campaigns and do some work. Most peoples’ Google campaigns are so screwed up that any reasonably intelligent student who reads my courses can make substantial improvements in a few weeks. Or you could approach an existing business that should have a presence online but doesn’t.
If you have no access to such a person [surely most people know a handful of people who are advertising on Google…?!] then my best suggestion would be to do an EXPERIMENTAL campaign where the intent is only to learn AdWords.
There are all kinds of non-commercial keywords that cost 3-10 cents (like “anthropology” or something, preferably a topic you know something about and are passionate about) where you can just practice collecting opt-ins and learn a LOT about Google. Perhaps some cause or idea you want to promote in the world.
My site http://www.cosmicfingerprints.com is a good example of that – I get very inexpensive clicks on a non-commercial topic. That site continues to be a laboratory for my Google AdWords ideas now, even though I’ve never had the slightest intention of making money from it.
Your definition of “conversion” could be getting someone to sign up for a free white paper. Or even posting a comment on your blog. How about a blog on a non-commercial controversial topic where the goal is to get people to speak up? Simple, easy, and instructive. You write different ads and you notice how it changes the traffic you get. It’s a poor man’s survey, actually.
I promise you that whatever you do, so long as it is “real,” will teach you a great deal about marketing, psychology, traffic, and AdWords.
A project like that could teach you an enormous amount about AdWords for a few hundred dollars a month. It’s one of the ways that I learned. Also it gave me experience in a market that was 100% completely different from my main commercial market. I can’t tell you how many things I learned by doing this.
I would like to suggest that most people greatly underestimate the value of doing such a thing. Think how much more you can learn from an exercise like that than, say, taking a college class. It’s real-world, hands-on experience. That experience is priceless, it’s deliberate on your part and the tuition is cheap. When your education is based on experience rather than theory, then you are never at the mercy of anybody. It’s the best preparation for dealing with clients that you can get.
Perry Marshall
P.S.: I’ve been having a LOT of fun experimenting with banner ads (“image ads”) on Google for the Cosmic site. Image ads are currently the most un-tapped aspect of AdWords advertising. I’m literally getting thousands of 2-3 cent clicks every day. I’ve learned a lot and I will be sharing my discoveries on the next Mastermind call which will be on Friday June 26. I am also sharing this with the AdWords Boot Camp members and attendees of the 4 Man Intensive.
P.P.S: If you want to translate our products into Spanish, open a support ticket and inquire.
Perry,
As you know there is a saying that says “Its All in a name”. The A-Z Blueprint is perfectly named as any sales or marketing process is exactly that “a process”. There is no magic bullet, just follow Livingstone’s proven formula and remain disciplined.
Ossie
Hi Perry,
I think I was one of the first to order the blueprint course because I remember it as “The Naked Truth About Internet Marketing.” I visited the sales page to make sure it’s the same product and it is.
I second everything Steve has said. As a matter of fact, I have all ten recordings on my ipod and refer to them like you would a text book. The course is packed with references to a lot of great tools and resources, but that’s not the icing on the cake.
What I appreciated most was they told it like it is. No “pink koolaid” fantasies or sugar coating the facts. The bottom line is it ain’t easy. It can be done and the rewards are worth it. But you have to pay your dues and that’s the problem I have with a lot of the so called gurus out there selling “hope in a box” to newbies, instead of real material that can actually get you from A to Z.
Glenn, Sharon, Terry, Fred and David did a great job. I got triple my money’s worth and then some.
Frank Prieto
SEO
Hi Perry, Yes I am half way through the A-Z blue print. I highly recommend this. There are only a few people that I take advise from now and they are Perry,Terry,Glenn and Ken. I have unsubscribed from everything and everyone else and focus all my attention on what you guys say.
This blue print is worth every cent. You will gain so much knowledge in a short amount of time.
I give this A+++++
Thanks.
Tania
i bought Glenn and Terry’s Blueprint course too and i have not finished with it, though i am technically not a newbie, i think the product does have some pros and cons to it. pros are the wisdom dished out by these successful veterans, there are plenty of insights.
cons wise, i think like most info-products, it just lacks a tool for a newbie to apply what they have learnt. so that’s pretty much why i appreciate sitebuildit system by ken evoy too. it’s not perfect but one will learn heaps just by using the tool along with its action guide.
ppc-wise, perry’s definitive guide will benefit those who have some experience dabbling in ppc most. not exactly great for beginners but essential reading for serious ppc users.
Hi Everyone,
I just want to endorse everything that Steve has said. I’ve cut out all the emails I used to receive about business-building, except those recommended by Perry and Terry Dean (who have both proved their value and their consistency over time).
Terry and Glen’s course is great – it’s real and accessible.
You really don’t need to subscribe to ANOTHER list. Do you feel anxious, sub-divided and harassed by someone else telling you that they earned so-and-so (very large) amount in such a (microscopically small) amount of time? The most difficult thing can be to put a system that works into operation – we somehow get addicted to distractions. I’m talking about myself, but I guess I’m not unique!?
I’ve learned a lot more since the course gave me focus – and now this is incremental learning … moving forward, no longer spinning.
And while it’s focused on info marketing, it relates to all kinds of possible markets.
Sometimes it is obvious that information is clear and useful, even while you are still learning.
I bought the A to Z blueprint course mentioned above. The course has outstanding quality of information, with specific action steps.
Thanks to Glenn and Sharon Livingston, Terry Dean and Fred Gleek for letting us listen in to their guidance, discussions and questions for each other about getting a business started.
Hi Perry
I recently bought Glenn and Terry’s Blueprint course and found it to contain a lot of information.
I actually built my first website using Site Build It! and know you did a radio show with Ken Evoy of Sitesell.
What I found good about Glenn and Terry’s Blueprint was it took you through the whole process step by step and dollar for dollar was amazing value.
I’ve listened to the audio’s many times now and together with what I had already learnt through Ken Evoy I now have the confidence to move forward with Adwords.
You are right when you talk about investing in yourself and I consider you, Glenn, Terry and Ken part of my business and members of my board. I keep a narrow list of people I trust and who will bring value to my online business and I recommend Glenn and Terry to anyone who is starting out or a relative new starter like me (15 months).
Their work is clear, polished and full of good information worth far more than I paid for the product. I’m don’t know of any other industry where you can get this much help for so little.
So to all my team members … thanks!