Adwords is a phenomenal and arguably the best PPC advertising medium currently available.  It's easy enough anyone with 5$ can get started, but advanced enough to meet any veterans needs.  Adwords operates on auction style pricing, meaning those who bid the most for keywords get highest placement, more visability, etc.  However, an individual ads pricing may need to be higher based on an ads quality score.

The qualitys core is described by Google as a dynamic variable, which takes into account many on page factors (your ad landing page) to determine keyword relevancy.  The more relevant the landing page is to the keyword you are bidding on, the lower your bid must be to gain placement.  There is an easy way to find out what your Adwords Quality Score is, for each individual keyword within your Adwords campaign.

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. Select the campaign, then select the ad group for which you'd like to see keyword Quality Scores.
3. Click Customize columns at the top of Keywords tab in the ad group table.
4. Select Show Quality Score from the drop-down menu.
5. Click Done when you're finished.

For more official tips on maximizing your Google Quality score and finding out the official Google word, please view their Quality Score Help Page.  Getting a high quality score is extremely important to get low cost bids on keywords to maximize the ROI for any campaign.

The start of my article writing career, as a means of link building and advertising, has been met with simply the best tip EVER.  This article writing tip is straight from the pros over at EzineArticles.com and can be found within their free Article Writing Training series PDF.

Keep an Ace Up Your Sleeve: Alway skeep a tidbit of important information in reserve to make your readers want more.  Remember, your article can generate traffic, so use the Resource Box to entice your readers to click on your website link.

This little gem just struck me to the bone and really rang true in between my ears.  Furthermore, I wonder how many comments I've made on blogs, threads in forums, or just general blog posts where I didn't keep this tip in mind.  I could have been losing all a lot of traffic over the years, mainly because I've been primarily focused on 'content' content, content.  I think my composition needs to be reworked, proofed, and a specific goal with each article that I write.

Starting with this simple blog post, can you spot or guess the Ace Up My Sleeve?

Why sign up to another affiliate network like PepperJam, when there is already a ton of other options available?  Competitors like Commission Junction and LinkShare have been around a lot longer and provide a larger number of programs to pull from.  But what makes PepperJam special or why would someone suggest joining another affiliate network, even if to use the same programs?  I'll tell you why I choose to sign up with PepperJam and how it's made my online marketing life a lot easier.

Customer Service

First things first, the PepperJam Network provides the absolute best customer service of any affiliat network I've ever signed up to.  All of their employees have been extremely nice, helpful, and if they dont' have the immediate answers they have called me back within a reasonable time.  Furthermore, every time I've called I've been greeted with a real person, not an answering machine service.

I've also found that their employees, which specialize in specific programs have a stronger grasp of individual programs.  So isntead of talking to a catch-all employee, specific questions about a program are routed to the person in charge of that program.  Companies like CJ have this to an extent, but not on a level I've experienced while working with PJN.

Payment Options

The faster I get paid, the better and PJN offers payments every 2 weeks on locked commissions.  This means that my PPC campaigns aren't left out to dry over a month while I wait on a commission check.  After an initial hold on new accounts (30 days), if you keep your plate full its possible to receive payments twice a month.  Also, the Pepper Jam Network pays out through PayPal, which I prefer.

Program Tracking And Functionality

To be honest, I feel a little intimidated when I do searches on Commission Junction, looking to create a relationship with programs.  It's a bulky system with small popout windows, PepperJam just does a better job.  Their system is easily searchable, contains all relevant information, and provides links and banners is an easy to read fullsize window.  Searching for specific banner sizes, advanced links, and text ads is a breeze and doesn't require endless scrolling for the one that's  'just right'.

Their tracking appears to be spot on, especially when working with some of their larger affiliate programs like eBay.  Generally the tracking is done by third party systems, which are cross checked against PJN's stats.  My only complaint is that their SID reporting sucks (at least for the ebay program) and they don't offer a domain level report system.  This is more of a problem for me, since I setup multiple sites with multiple stores that causes confusion within their tagging of SID transactions.

All in all however it's a great tracking system with easy to read reporting.  Compared with competitors like CJ it feels light weight and easy to use, not nearly as daunting to get a quick read on how your programs are doing.

Conclusion

I originally signed up with PJN becuase I was looking for an alternative to the mess that was the Ebay Partner Network.  But what I found was a full service, easily approached, and functional affiliate network that I intend to grow with.  It's going to take some time, since I primarily focus on stores for eBay, but they offer enough variety that I can fill any niche I will come across.  I'm sure they will have something for you too, just check them out and see if they aren't one of the top players in the Affiliate Network business today.

Sign up to PepperJamNetwork today and get $10 FREE! I can't think of a better incentive to join a network that will help you grow your affiliate business.

This is a completely honest and straight forward review of the latest affiliate FireFox plugin, Affiliate Espionage.  This review will assume a few things about the reader,  so as not to wear down on the finer details of affiliate marketing.  First assumption is that you use FireFox and understand the plugin process.  Second, you are somewhat familiar with affiliate marketing and traffic generating methods. Lastly, you have a decent grasp on the workings of Adwords and are already familiar with the process of trial and error keywords to get the best ROI through your Adword campaigns.

My History Of Affiliate Tools

I've used my fair share of affiliate tools or plugins to help at least research and automate some of the research process.  Some of my favorite tools in the marketing process are SEO Quake, Rank Checker, and KeyWord Explorer.  This being said, I have never purchased a plugin or even purchased from a typical landing sales pitch page.  Yes, Affiliate Espionage is the first exception I've made to buying into the hype, no matter how well founded.

Experience With Adwords

At least one of my websites have had an active Adwords campaign going on at any given time for the past 2 years.  Generally I spend the majority of my time figuring out long tail keywords, low bid terms, or looking for new angles on creating a campaign.  It takes some time to build up enough research, not to mention money on wasted keyword campaigns.  This wasted time and money is what led me to search for an alternative, a way for me to gauge how well a keyword will convert, without me having to waste my own money on it.

This is not typical information you will find on webmaster forums, obviously the highest converting keywords are always kept a secret.  And in the past few months I've been trying to diversify my affiliate revenue portfolio, so testing has been the bulk of my time online.  Generally research starts with brainstorming, then to see what Google Keywords tool has to say, and finally throwing together a low budget campaign.  The problem is that these low budget campaigns can quickly add up over a few days and tweaking can take even longer to develop enough of a track record to know if it's(Adwords Campaign) really working or a fluke.  Affiliate Espionage is a FireFox plugin to help solve these problems and help me focus on only keywords that are converting.

Buying Process

The Affiliate Espionage landing page is just like every other over hyped product on the market, it's flashy and full of look how cool I am pictures.  Personally, those are enough to turn me off, but it's function is what really brought me in, so I had to put blinders on to the marketing aspect of it.  As usual, the nuts and bolts of the sales process can be found at the bottom of an extremely too long page, Add to Cart for just $9.97.

Affiliate Espionage accepts PayPal and is a straight forward purchase, followed by the necessary 'Limited Time Offer' to upgrade to a keyword version of the plugin.  This upsell didn't interest me in the slightest bit, especially since I came after this plugin KNOWING what I wanted.  After I clicked off 'No Thanks' it was straight to the startup page, where I setup my account information, downloaded the plugin, go the PDF Manual and had access to the how-to videos.

I've picked the manual appart and it's very well put together and straightforward answering any and all immediate questions.  Also, the download is simple, only requiring an extration of a zip file and then typical FireFox plugin install.  Affiliate Espionage requires one verification process, which checks your license key and email.  No problems there and I have tested installing Affiliate Espionage on multiple computers, no issues there either.

Getting Started With Affiliate Espionage

My first reaction to using the Affiliate Espionage plugin was, 'This was a dud.'  For some reason, in my head, I thought that an existing database of keyword history campaigns would come with the plugin. No, there is no Affiliate Espionage database to download, import, or steal from, you have to make your own from your own set of keywords.

This makes sense, now, that in no way would I want others to have my keywords.  Furthermore, it's a discovery tool, a research aid to help me figure out what keywords I need to be competing with.  What good would the tool be if it gave everyone the same information.  Also, could you imagine how big that database of keywords and Adword campaign history it would be?  Too big.  My initial reaction was quickly alleviated once I realized that setting up my own automatic affiliate espionage campaign was simple.

The plugin works by utilizing individual keyword searches you make in Google, providing you with all the necessary stats that are presented on the Affiliate Espionage website.  However, to really get the most out of the plugin you need to do batch processing setup on a set schedule, that way you can really tell if a keyword is working for an affiliate.  Taking a snap shot of ad campaigns for just a few days is not enough,  this plugin needs weeks, a month, or more to get accurate data that you can start building affiliate sites and Adword campagins around.

Once these campaigns and automated keyword lists are setup, the rest is a breeze and the majority of the research is done for you.  It really is a wonderful tool, that keeps me from feeling guilty for not doing more manual research, and allows me to focus on more important different things.  Say for example, link building, writing bad ass plugin reviews, or just wasting my time on Reddit.

Ease of Use

Affiliate Espionage is really easy to use, once you get used to the acronyms used.  Basically after you performa  Google search you are presented with highlighted fields next to each individual ad.  Each highlighted area contains a plethora of information about the Ad campaign, such as length it's been used, keywords used, landing page url, and even has the ability to find out which advertisers are using affiliate links on the landing page.

Setting up your keyword list to run weekly can be a little daunting at first, but really is simple after you do it just once.  Much like figuring out the acronyms, after you know what they mean, it's a great tool to use at a glance.  No need for advanced usage here, what you see is what you get, it's just a matter of how often you search for valuable keywords.

Support for Affiliate Espionage

So far I haven't needed any support for the plugin, however it appears that they have an advanced ticket system if it's needed.  Also, they provide plenty of helpful videos and a through FAQ page that covers any basic questions or problems you might have getting started.

In Conclusion

I would strongly recommend the purchase of Affiliate Espionage to any affiliate marketer, at any level.  Even if you've been doing online marketing for years, the automatic process of pulling Adword campaign information is well worth the measly $9.97 you will spend on this Fire Fox plugin.  And if you are new to online marketing and looking to get your feet wet with Adwords, this tool could save you countless dollars, wasted on finding the best converting keyword combination.

If you found my review useful, please use my affiliate link when purchasing Affiliate Espionage.

*Disclaimer

I don't refer or affiliate any products on my blog that I don't personally use.  Even then I'm hesitant to recommend products or tools because mileage may vary on any digital product.  When you see a recommendation here, it is unsolicited, and comes from my own experience.