I’ve owned this software for a couple of months now and I’m just now trying it out.

The early results look very, very cool.

Here’s an snapshot -

What this software does is take split testing to a completely new level.  As you can see I have limited traffic to the site being measured.  Specifically, I’m measuring optins.  Each of the 3 pages I’m testing has approximately 24 page views - under normal split test circumstances we’re a LONG way from having numbers that mean anything.

Page 1 is winning the opt-in war with a 37.5% optin rate.

However, you’ll notice there are categories marked “Attention”, “Interest”, “Desire”, “Action”.  This is a measure of time people spend on the page.  The longer the stay on the page the more likely we can assume that AIDA is hitting all four cylinders.

The AIDA numbers I see suggest that page number 3, and not page 1, will be the likely best performer over time so it will be interesting to see if that proves true based on such a small sample to begin with.

And it already seems pretty clear that version 2 with poor optin and AIDA results is going to be the dog of the bunch.

What’s more cool about this software - at least in theory because I really want to watch this test play out - is that it will also break down these results for keyword phrases.  In other words, you can run the 3-way split-test and/or also have same measures broken down by keyword phrase.  If you see a keyword phrase underperforming then you can either delete the phrase from you campaign, or create a new landing page that seeks to improve AIDA for people searching on that term.

You can learn more about this software here

BTW, this software works if your an affiliate or promoting your own product.

UPDATE - Dec 1

When showing off something cool I hope for a better example than this, but either way it does prove the point.

As you can see in the image, version 3 has emerged as the winner - even if by a slight margin.  I think enough people have now visited these pages that I can be 90% of the winner and the AIDA software probably raises my surety up closer to 100%.  Although the first example had too few actions to make any accurate judgment, this software definitely identified this winner much, much sooner (even if it didn’t look like a winner based on conversion rate).

Google CTR and Conversion Rates

Yesterday I was checking Google stats, split testing 3 ad variations for best performance.  Ads number one and two had click through rates (CTRs) of 5.52% and 5.38%.  Ad number 3 had a CTR of only 3.12%.  On this quick glance I paused ad 3 from the rotation.

That would have been a mistake though and here’s why:

My cost per conversion for ads number 1 and 2 was in the range of $25 per sale.  But my per conversion on my poor click generator was only $9.12 per sale.  That means that although ad three had a CTR of about half, the conversion rate was triple.

What does this mean?  CTR never means as much as cost per conversion.  Conversions, not high CTR, should be your objective.

I’m not going to share the product promoted but I will share the difference in add approaches and explain why I think the conversion difference.

...

Login/Register for more.

As with the difference between ROI and profit you want to really look at the number you THINK you’re seeing.

X

I’m writing some new ebook content and decided to share some of it with you.

I’ve made a few mistakes over the years when selecting niches.

The single biggest mistake is selecting a product to promote that doesn’t leave room for a backend.  People either buy that product or not.  If not, there’s no place left to go.

So always select products within niches that will naturally lead to other related products.  Sometimes this is really obvious and sometimes it’s not, but with some thought it becomes very clear.

Let’s use the “paid survey” niche as an example.

Here’s why I like this niche and here are some things you should consider - you can use these criteria when you select a niche too.

1.  Are there number of related products being sold?  In other words is there more than one or two paid survey products for sale in the marketplace?

Using one of my favorite tools, CBEngine (only $39.95 per year), I type in phrase “paid survey”.

It appears there are a dozen or more, so check.

2. Next I want to know if these products are selling successfully. A good indicator is to look at the marketplace rank and gravity.

A number of the products rank in the top ten of their respective category. In the category: “Money & Employment: Jobs”, four of the top six products are paid survey related. With the economy in shambles and many people certain to be looking for jobs in the coming year this could be a hot spot.

A number of these products also have a significant gravity. I only give a little weight to gravity personally, having sold many Clickbank products with low gravity successfully. However, this is an indicator that the niche is hot. In this case there are 10 paid survey products with a gravity of 15 or higher, with the best being 314 (that’s huge).

3. I want to make at least $30 per sale for anything I promote. With a conversion rate of 1% that means I can spend .30 to break even. Remember, we’re looking for products that give us a back end so that $30 profit is our “self liquidating offer” - ie, we get paid for list building.

In this niche the commissions are set at the highest Clickbank allows - 75%. The net earnings per sale ranges from $23 to $47, so we’re good. Without breaking out a calculator that suggests buyers in this market are willing and able to spend $30-60 on an impulse item. This is good.

NOTE: I refunded a recent hot product that suggested you should only select Clickbank product with a commission over $30 (I generally agree) and with a gravity over 100. There are exactly 28 products in Clickbank’s marketplace that match that criteria and many thousand copies of that product were sold. Good luck.

Of course, you want to check out the sites of these products before you begin promotion to ensure they don’t have 1-800 numbers, Adsense or alternative payment options - or “join our affiliate program” prominently displayed on the page.

Now here’s the really good stuff . . . where’s the back end?

...

Login/Register for more.

I’ve been playing with video marketing lately, so I’m excited about YouTube’s new Sponsored Videos. Basically, you can pay to have your videos shown next to search results for other videos - think Adwords next to organic search.

You can read YouTube’s post here:

http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=geqKl0QNkkw

Or watch this video:

I’ve received a LOT of notes asking WHEN is the Affiliate Black Book going to be done and for sale.

Here’s the good news - it’s done.

Here’s the news that might piss you off if you’ve been anxiously waiting - I’m not going to release it until January.

I hate excuses and all that crap. I have good reasons for this decision and it’s been carefully considered. Although the book is done, there’s a more complete marketing picture I want to develop.

Over the last few years my business has gone through some major growing pains. That has come with costs, financially and in terms of having fun doing what I do. In short, I want some things in place so I can do a better job of marketing the book and taking care of my customers. I recognized I was about to make the same mistakes I’ve made in the past and that would be dumb.

A part of this also includes software - which is something I hate talking about because for me software development is always a major pain in the ass - it takes longer, costs more and usually hasn’t been what I envisioned when done.

This time maybe I’ve found better people to help out - one has already created invisible popup software for someone else and we’re doing something from scratch when he finishes his current project the end of this month - if you have an invisible popup feature request, let me know ASAP. The other project involves Norman Freeman, creator of Viral Inviter - this has the potential to be super cool. And then Dave Wooding . . . Dave I haven’t forgotten about you and our project.

That’s that and I’ll be getting more active here on the blog.

All the best to you - X

I expect my blog readers already know what PLR is, but if you don’t it’s pre-made products or articles you can re-write, re-package and put your own name on if you want.

If blown a lot of money on PLR over the years - most of it is garbage. It would take more work to turn it into something I’d sell with Mike Filsaime’s name on it - never mind my own - than it would take to just start from scratch. {Hey, just kidding Mike.}

Damn . . . I needed a laugh.

OK.

Someone posted on a forum today “Where do I get good PLR content?”

I know some good PLR sources, but you know what? PLR is a hell of a lot of work even if the product is good. It is - I don’t think it’s much of a shortcut at all.

Especially not when you can take my strategies and essentially make other people’s products appear to be yours - and it’s all perfectly legal the way I do it.

Now this could also be a lot of work, because here’s what you need:

- Your own domain [can't get around that]
- Your own squeeze page
- Your own graphics
- Your own sales letter
- Your own autoresponder follow-up series

But, you can take someone else’s product and make the whole thing work. If you’re focused on Clickbank products, most of the time you’ll get paid a better than 50% commission . . . you don’t have any customer support to do . . . no refunds to deal with, etc.

If you can still build a list and make the lions share of the money, then why would you mess around with the whole product creation thing and everything else involved?

Yes, it is easiest to go direct to merchant but if you’re doing that you better know that you’re losing a lot of money. Clickbank products are “front-end” type products - merchants pay out high commissions because they’re going to sell more stuff on that back-end.

But you can do the same thing as an affiliate if you know what you’re doing. And if you don’t want to do the work above - your own squeeze page, graphics, sales letter, autoresponders, etc, then you can buy those from at least two HIGH QUALITY sources that I know:

http://domainmaximizermonthly.com
http://affiliatesalesvideos.com

Of course, there’s one more reason to have your own product and that’s affiliates, right? Well, I’ve figured that problem out too and it’s included in the Affiliate Black Book I’ll be releasing real soon.

Having your own products is great - and eventually you should have them, but let’s be honest about it: creating product is a lot of work. And you’d still have all of the additional items to put in place too that John Hostler and Eric Louviere have provided a convenient solution to.

I’ve just shared a powerful secret to creating some real leverage and making the affiliate marketing system work for you.

All best to you - X