Posted: May 15th, 2009 | Author: Matt Levenhagen | Filed under: Landing Pages, Tips & Advice | 16 Comments »
Hello!
There is a big stumbling block for some people starting out with Pay per Click Advertising and Affiliate Marketing. That stumbling block is learning how to build and launch landing pages.
There are ways to drive traffic without having to have your own landing pages and websites. And, in fact, people still do make money just going that route or using that in combination with other methods. Driving traffic direct still works if you know how to approach it.
But there are advantages, some big advantages, to building your own websites and landing pages. Even those that are testing markets Direct to Merchant could benefit greatly from having the option to expand with their own landing pages.
It’s something that shouldn’t be ignored.
The problem arises from the fact that there is a learning curve when it comes to learning how to build landing pages. Even simple landing pages there is some time involved to learn.
It seems overwhelming to many. And quite a few people want a shortcut to profits and don’t want to go through that learning curve.
And that’s totally understandable… and, in fact, the Campaign Blast Method has been teaching Direct to Merchant techniques for years now; it’s a great way to test a lot of markets quickly and to find profits; it’s a great starting point to learn about a market, it’s profitability and then to expand into it AFTER you know there are buyers in that market.
Many start Direct.. see there are profits.. and then expand using landing pages and more advanced methods. Before investing time and money into a market, they measure the potential with these techniques.
We still do this. And besides the fact it just works, the reason many go this route is because there are people out there that want to start out without having to worry about learning how to build those landing pages.
But I want to reassure those of you that are hesitant about going the direction of landing pages that the effort is worthwhile and that you can get a system down pretty easily that you can replicate and make successful.
I’m a big believer in systems. That’s what the whole Blast Method is built around. It’s a proven system to identify profitable markets to expand in to.
I encourage people to develop their own individualized and personalized landing page systems to get things done quickly and efficiently.
A system is essential with landing pages. Because you don’t want to be going through a process of fumbling around with each one you launch! You want to spend as much time as possible on marketing and launching more and more campaigns.
Once you have a good system to build landing pages… they can be easy and quick.
There are a lot of different ways to approach landing pages. There scripts you can use, web based dynamic solutions or you can build them as static web pages.
As a PPC Marketer your first duty is to choose a method and master it.
That’s the ticket! 
There are ways to lay out your landing pages, develop the content on them, and things you should know to get great Quality Scores. In other words to get good rankings in the search engine results and for Google to love you.
Those are all things we teach in the Blast Membership.
But once you establish that and you have chosen a solution for yourself. Once you have a platform and solution established for yourself… Once that’s all in place, the actual launching of these landing pages is pretty quick and easy.
You’ll develop templates for yourself where you just flip out content, flip out the affiliate links and banners and flip out your tracking.
Their are things you can integrate to automate some stuff. PHP code to embed relevant keywords into your landing pages. There are solutions that can automate and speed up the creation of landing pages.
But you don’t need fancy solutions!
The most important thing is to develop a system for yourself. I don’t care if you are creating just static pages and using an HTML editor. Once you have a template, you can just duplicate it!
You ONLY NEED TO CREATE A TEMPLATE ONCE. And it can be used over and over again.
You will need to commit to some time developing that system and template, but YOU CAN! Anyone can!
Once you have a good template, you change, test different strategies, layouts.. and over time, you improve the effectiveness of those templates.
Over time, you’ll get better at launching them. You’ll find solutions to speed up the process. You’ll learn how to use outsourcing to your advantage.
Whatever direction you take with your landing pages, it all starts with taking the time. Start.
I challenge you to block off that time.
Depending on what foundation of knowledge you are starting with that might be a few hours, days or even a few weeks to figure it out. But it’s time well spent.
Even though some of the non-landing page methods are still effective today, they may not be tomorrow. And the additional time you put into landing pages will come back to you with more clicks.. more action.. and more opportunities to monetize.
- The One URL Rule melts away
- The ability to capture names is now available to you
- Additional opportunities to monetize traffic come into view
- The ability to track and analyze your traffic comes into view
- The ability to pre-sell comes into play
- The ability to even write better copy than the merchant to sell a product is available to you
- More affiliate programs will allow you to promote them because you have a website to send traffic to!
That’s just for starters.
Time is always a consideration.. the time to build a landing page is obviously going to cut into how many campaigns you can launch.
But if that extra time doubles, triples or more your traffic, it could be worth while. It’s a wash or better.
So if you are on the fence about learning how to build landing pages, let this be your motivation. Start now. Start today. And increase your potential for profits and results!
Good Luck!
-Matt Levenhagen
Posted: June 3rd, 2008 | Author: Matt Levenhagen | Filed under: Landing Pages, What I'm Up To | 5 Comments »
Besides
Blasting and search marketing, one of my major focuses is building niche websites.
A lot of my efforts actually stem from my Blasting efforts. Over the years I’ve discovered tons and tons of niches in every corner of the Internet. I’m in niches that I never would even thought of trying to break into – physical products I especially have found great opportunity.
The only reason I’m in them is because the nature of Blasting has you casting a wide net across many different markets and products.
So you get an opportunity to really get a broad idea of what all sells online. It also gives you an opportunity to sort of ‘cherry pick’ what you want to tackle. You can tackle things just based on your interests and where you see the most potential. It’s a great place to be! You can decide to expand into things that are already making you money which is a good thing too. 
One of my goals for everything I do is to take something and really develop an authority site around it. First and foremost I want to become an expert on the topic and develop the site highlighting that.
Some of the main things I focus on developing is making sure that I incorporate some sort of content management system. It could be in the form all of a WordPress blog or a CMS like Joomla. A WordPress blog I use in two ways. I use it as a blogging platform as well as using it as simply a basic content management system behind the scenes. So the site will actually look like a regular website to the visitor, but it’s being run behind the scenes using WordPress.
And once I capture a niche, I expand my horizons; I don’t believe in limiting myself. Even though I will continue to develop my pay per click advertising, I will use other marketing techniques and strategies to drive traffic.
So I’m building real businesses and actually running a real website that serves the market. It could be a broader market or could be a very highly niched market.
I’ve even developed forum communities in a couple of these markets.
I look at what I’m in as a relationship business. So I’m always seeking opportunities for joint ventures in the markets that I’m in. I’m also looking to build a list and build a relationship with my visitors over time.
So many of you that happen upon this blog have no idea what Campaign Blasting is (hopefully you’ll explore the site further and learn about it..). The reality is it’s just a method to find niches and kick start your profits! From there the sky’s the limit!
I make money just from the Adwords Campaigns I have running promoting affiliate programs, but I make a lot of my money from niche websites that I have developed – expanding my efforts. A great percentage again stemming from Blasting.
There are a few exceptions. There are a couple niches I’m in just because I had an interesting in the topic. For my money makers, most of those, stem from first making profits with Adwords and having Blasted in the first place.
This could be why I continue to see success.. because I don’t stagnate and I’m always building.
I just thought I’d share that with you today if you are curious. There is so much incredible opportunities out there on the net today. Part of the challenge is finding a way to actually identify and capture those niches that can make you money. Blasting is a tool to do just that…
I’ll talk more about niche websites in the future. In fact, I am developing a site right now that’s sole purpose will be to teach people how I develop niche websites. It will be a great website for those that are already Blasters and are looking for ways to expand their efforts. I cover a lot of stuff already in the membership, but this will be greatly expanding on that.
I don’t have a release date for this site… I do already have the domain set up, the graphics made for the site… but I have other projects tp get off the plate first before I actually finish it up. As you probably can tell I’m quite busy. 
I’d look for that either later this year or for sure early next year!
Have a great day!
– Matt Levenhagen
Posted: May 28th, 2008 | Author: Matt Levenhagen | Filed under: Landing Pages, Testing & Tracking, Tips & Advice | 4 Comments »
If you want to end the struggle and actually start to get GREAT RESULTS with Adwords advertising, there are a couple things that you need to really learn to do besides just manage your Adwords account.
If you are failing to get the results that you desire, learn how to track your clicks and conversions. And how to split-test your ads and landing pages.
Personally I want to make sure I’m tracking everything down to a keyword level. This way I know when I get a conversion exactly where that conversion came from and what keyword(s) to concentrate on. So you don’t just want to know what ad group or what campaign a conversion came from. You want more detail then that!
This will help you trim your costs and focus on those things that are making you money. Sometimes you’ll only get one conversion.. if you have thousands of keywords and don’t get a conversion again for a while, you might waste a lot of money trying to get that second conversion again. If you knew the exact keywords, then you could pause or delete what didn’t convert (and save massive costs sometimes) and concentrate your efforts on the winner!
And learn how to Split Test… this is very, very important!
I have to wonder how many marketers set up a campaign, point it at a landing page and didn’t get the results that they desired. And how many just shut down that campaign deeming their efforts a failure!?
Your next step should be to create identical copies of that landing page, and then modifying those copies and making a lot of different variations until you do get the results you desire; even changing the offer and message! For instance if I’m going to send traffic to a squeeze page, I want to have multiple versions of that landing page so I can split test them continuously until I get the results I desire – or beyond!
If that squeeze page is performing at only 5% conversion rate, I’m not going to just dump it. I’m going to figure out why it’s not performing well.
Don’t just give up! I think too many people do!
Also, I think what happens sometimes with marketers online is they are taught certain methods and ways of doing things, they are given templates to apply to their business and shown how to approach things.. but unfortunately not every approach works in every market or situation; you still need to test!
Everything that you’ve been provided or have learned in the past is just a guideline. It is your job to start there, but then to adapt it and improve it until you get the results that you desire or need.
If you are tracking and split testing, you will learn a lot more about your traffic, you’ll know what to concentrate on, and you will have more control over your results and in the end your profits!
– Matt Levenhagen
P.S. If you want to get serious about testing check out: Small Changes; Big Profits! (at least pick up the free 20 pages… I guarantee it’ll be worth the effort)
