We've seen the writing on the wall for a LONG time, but we never thought it would get this bad.
It started YEARS ago with google disapproving your ads.
That's all... just a slap - you know, like "tsk, tsk...
dont do that. fix your ad and we'll be friends again."
After the little google slaps came account suspensions.
They disabled your entire account until you did their bidding and made your website please the almighty god of google
Then they tightened their quality score belt even more.
It seemed that no matter what you did to your website google didn't like it. You just couldnt get your damn ads to show.
Ask google how to fix it... get a canned answer with a link to the dreaded "F.A.Q." You were left on your own to try in vain to figure out how to fix it.
Google has now completely revolted against us.
Google has given us the finger!
All of us...
clickbank vendors
clickbank affiliates
the online fat loss industry.
the make $ online industry
It is in the true Hank Moody spirit that I say, "Google hates us all"
... and wants us to die.
Around January of 2011 is when the real sh*t hit the fan.
I started getting occasional emails from affiliates who said they had been banned - BANNED mind you, not paused - simply for advertising for
www.burnthefat.com
I replied to a few affiliates explaining the whole quality score spiel, but it wasn't about that. They told me that google had the bald faced audacity to tell the affiliate they were shut down until WE the vendor "fixed" our website to google's satisfaction.
I got 2 or 3 more of these affiliate emails in February.
and again, John (our affiliate manager) and I replied personally to explain that the quality score thing seemed to have gotten out of control to the point that google didnt appear to want any of our business anymore, no matter what we did to our web pages or ads
Finally, the depth of the arrogance of this evil empire known as google became apparent when i received an email from an old affiliate...
He told me that he had done pay per click advertising for burn the fat (
www.burnthefat.com) using google ad words waaaaay back in 2004. He also ended his campaign back then...
six years ago.
Out of the blue, he was told by google that
his account has been suspended. He emails google
and gets the usual "copy and paste" stock answers that the landing page violates their landing page policies.
Now very confused he emails google again and says, "but I havent advertised burn the fat on google since 2004! Why the hell have you banned my account now in March of 2011?
I'm telling you - I could not make this sh*t up - google suspended an affiliate's account because he advertised for burn the fat 6 years ago and the ads.... NOT EVEN ACTIVE were still in his account.
WTF?????
I thought I had done something badly wrong with our website until I heard that this hadn't just happened to us. Many other top dog clickbank marketers had the same thing happen to them, which trickled down to their affiliates.
I am forced to the conclusion that google simply does not want our business. they are getting so much of their business today from fortune 1000 and pharma companies worth billions, so they just have totally thumbed their nose at us little guys even though we want to give them money
Anyway, I could go on bitching all night on this midnight rant but let me get to the bottom line:
In looking out for YOUR best interest, I hereby recommend that you do NOT use google to try to promote burn the fat AT ALL
at the very least - DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, try to direct link to our sales page any more with google ad words - until further notice. Whether you can get away with still using google to send traffic to YOUR landing page, then flip them to us, I dont know... do it at your own risk.
I actually had an affiliate tell me last week they got disabled for that due to it violating googles "bridge page" policy.
Good lord google! what CAN WE DO?
By the time we comply with googles "quality" guidelines and ridiculous rules, we're left with a site that can't sell a goddamn thing!
we're left with IMAGE ADVERTISING! Websites that look nice and sterile and corporate... for a "pleasant user experience" where the visitor is not "sold" or "pitched"
My webmaster said it PERFECTLY:
"Tom, google basically wants to be a big fr-e-e information warehouse and not have any kind of selling at all..."
Brilliant! Paying for advertising that doesnt allow you to sell anything. Genius!
So in conlusion, GOOGLE has become a monopolistic, dictatorial arrogant cyber bully....
and we are giving them the finger right back!
Now... where does that leave us? What can we do for PPC?
How do we promote in 2011?
fear not, for things are still well in internet marketing.
We had our best month in years in January.
For PPC, we have done well with bing/msn (was yahoo search - merged last year)
In fact, some of the traffic quality and conversions were higher than google. the downside is the traffic volume is no where near what google was
facebook is the other new juggernaut on the block. The peculiar thing about facebook advertising is that im hearing totally mixed reviews. Some affiliates are RAVING about it, and others are saying they just can't make their paid advertising work
I haven't delved into it yet, so I can't say anything from first hand experience yet until I do. I will be looking into it and I appreciate feedback.
Also, advertising opportunities are all over the place these days. You can buy an ad just about anywhere.
My best advice though, is build your own content site or blog for SEO (at least google is helpful there), and build
yourself your OWN email list. I use and recommend aweber:
http://www.aweber-email.com (disclosure: that URL is a very cleverly disguised affiliate link)
Email marketing is STILL our #1 strategy. Email is not just for vendors. Affiliates should be building their own lists too.
With email, you can also take much greater advantage of our new landing pages which have absolutely been kicking butt this year.
More on that in a minute.
Let me backtrack though. If you use other PPC or CPV advertising, some of the PPC services have some reasonable landing page requirements. Kind of like google was reasonable years ago
for example no pop ups on entry or exit, or even no auto play videos
Fair enough, and we have those for you:
video sales letter with no exit pop ups
http://CBAFFID.burnthefat.hop.clickbank.net/?page=presentationnp
(note: use ONLY for PPC requirements - our exit pops on our main sales page capture a lot of "lost" sales)
video sales letter with no exit pops and no auto start
http://CBAFFID.burnthefat.hop.clickbank.net/?page=presentation2
We have a 3rd version of the video letter inthe works which will be a combination video/ written letter. stand by for that one
We've already started work on the male / female landing pages and the men's page was tested last week with great success...
If you have a mostly or all male audience send traffic here for some spectacular results:
http://CBAFFID.burnthefat.hop.clickbank.net/?page=49_day_men
we are working on the female counterpart and will provide you with a link for that later this month AND a landing page that splits off into male and female pages.
And here is the master list of all landing pages:
http://www.burnthefat.com/affiliate_area/landing_pages.html
Alrighty then. that ends my "Google is evil" rant and our latest list of money-sucking new affiliate tools.
Let me conclude by saying this:
I relish the day that another search and PPC engine comes along, takes care of its customers and kicks google's ass.
How about you?
Thank you for listening and good night.
Tom Venuto
Author
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
