Are Paid Keyword Tools Becoming Obsolete?
Dec 13, 2008 at 4:09 pm in MUSINGS by ian
I say Yes. Maybe NOT quite yet…..but I believe they are well on their way. ( and I say that as a subsrcriber – and affiliate of several..:-)
The data Google is giving up is getting so good…..that in my view, many of the older stand by tools are really becoming a completely irrelevent, almost ( and I hesitate to say completely just yet) WORTHLESS expense.
The spy tools are still very valuable, and I doubt , as grass roots, mom and pop kind of marketers, we will ever get access to the kind of “insider information” straight from the Google Gods mouths themselves, that you CAN get from some of the higher end, competitive intelligence data collection tools that are available.
(which is just a nice euphamism for software that steals your competitors stuff – which I do use, just because they’re available, inexpensive and I’m pretty sure I’m going to hell anyway, which, from some of the seances I’ve particpated in, doesn’t sound like too bad of a place, other than the 24 hours of non stop Mickey Rourke movies)
Anyway – I was talking to someone today on the phone who is JUST getting started, and he was sharing with me all of the “cool” keyword tools one of the membership sites he joined recommends.
- In MY View There is Very Little Value Add to Be Had
The truth is – with the last few updates to Google’s own FREE stuff that is readily available to all, I truly don’t think they are worth buying anymore. (UNLESS you are doing tons of PPC)
Now I’ve just got to get around to cancelling my memberships. (which I rarely even log into anymore – I prefer Google for just about everything other than the above)
How about You?
Totally makes sense man. Right now, I think people are buying a lot of keyword tools because of their PERCEIVED value rather than what they actually do.
I think it just goes back to the old idea that items which cost money are thought to be better than free items.
I mean, if you want to be a SERIOUS online marketer, you better pay for the “best” tools right? =)
Hey Ian,
I have a question for you…
How fast do you think someone can turn a 500 visitor/day traffic stream into $400/day?
I am setting a challenging goal for myself. I want to turn that traffic stream (already have 500/day) into a $400/day income by Christmas day.
I have found a great product which offers $40 commissions, so I would need to get a conversion rate of 2% to achieve my goal.
I have been sending my traffic to a squeeze page, but I am going to put the list building on hold for now. The length of the sequence will not allow me to reach this goal by Christmas.
I was thinking about direct linking, but the conversion rates will not be 2%, so I am putting together a strong landing page which pre-sells them on the product.
Do you think it’s possible to get a 2% conversion rate by using a landing page?
I just finished my last exam, and I figured that I deserved a great Christmas present (you know…because I’m such a great guy!).
This isn’t something I am expecting to sustain over the long term. I basically just want to test myself.
Some may see this as over confident, but I DO see this as highly achievable. Especially since the traffic is already there.
It really depends!
If the 500 visitors are landing on “buy” keywords – or “sign up” keywords – you can convert a whole lot better than 2% – i.e. – “buy Medifast” “sign up Netflix”, “JOIN Match.Com”, etc..:-)
But – I’m guessing you are talking about Clickbank – and – the traffic is mostly directory driven.
I think, honestly – you are much better off collecting the name, and following up with a strong sequence. Your conversions should be better, and you have the name, etc. BUT, if your goal is date driven – try it and see..:-)
I HOPE you do – as you seem to be working hard enough to deserve it for sure…..BUT, don’t get too down if you don’t hit those numbers that quickly. Remember – lots of people throw around large numbers like frisbees, but – $400 a day is NOT peanuts, it IS VERY doable – but will take a lot of work, testing and tweaking for sure. ( in 10 days!)
Have fun with it and let me know how it goes..:-)
This is definitely going to be fun!
I may even be getting closer to 1,000 visitors per day if I could get a stronger resource box.
Yeah, this is a tough challenge, but It’s not my fault…
I have some sort of mental *disease* which doesn’t allow me to settle for “normal” goals. I don’t mind it though =)
In 10 days, I am sure I will be giving you SOME SORT of successful report!
All the best =)
Good luck..:-)
- Remember though – when you do your conversion metrics to factor in the percentage of people that actually go FROM your pre-sell page, to the affiliate. ( as depending on the niche and the keywords this may be a lot lower than half)
- This is often a good argument to use a direct link (or redirection for EZA) as the argument goes they will do a much better job selling THEIR stuff to your cookie, than you will.
- Others swear by pre-sell pages of course as well – but I’m a much bigger fan, if I’m not collecting a name, building a group of sites in the niche or otherwise – simply brokering the transaction between visitor and vendor and hoping they like each other..:-)
-(or, if not finding a better one that does)
I totally understand where your coming from.
What I’m going to do is send half of my articles to my lander and half using a direct link for the first couple days. I am going to be writing 16 articles/day so half over 2 days should give me some good results on what to stick with.
Just one more thing: Are you a premium EZA member?
I am thinking about getting the membership for this month for faster approval (and maybe they will approve articles over the weekend as well).
What do you think?
Yes – I do pay for the premium service – and Yes, I think you’ll want to too if you’re committed to this goal.
Everything is typically approved very quickly ( a few hours at most) – BUT, only during regular business hours and not over weekends – which is a bit suprising – especially considering they’re NORMAL speed used to edit on weekends way back when – plus when they first offered the premium service(I think this is the 4th or 5th month we’ve paid for it) – some of the articles submitted on Saturday nights at odd hours were live within minutes to boot – but not really so much since)
Which I guess – only really means EZA staff has more of a life, presumably, than I do..:-)
It’s a done deal. Thanks a lot for the advice!
Don’t worry man, for the past three months my social life has been extremely minimal. But its worth it to get to where I want to go.
I am going to get the membership in a couple hours. Please email me your EZA affiliate link if you have one =)