Copywriting, Keywords And Successful Conversions, Oh My!

Recently I reviewed The Amazonian Profit Plan and one of the many parts I enjoyed of the ebook was their copywriting section – it affirmed what I had done in the most successful site I own, my first one. I wanted to give a bit more of my own experience with that, my own experience with writing converting copy.

Before I get to that, though – here is one of the most helpful videos I’ve seen on web-based copywriting – and I have studied the art from a number of sources (not that it makes me an expert – just a geek). I found this website because I was involved in ranking the site for a keyword using ArticleRanks and it really worked out.

Anyhow, the video is hard to track down, so I’ll just link to it here. Just promise me you’ll come right back (but by all means watch the video – it’s pretty good!).

You back? No…K…I’ll wait…

…

Back yet? Good.

Where I learned a lot of my copywriting, my business and sales acumen from (if I have any) were mostly from the corporate training I received from when I owned a marketing franchise, and using these books – all of which are conveniently linked to my Amazon Associates affiliate link, and all of which are worth the few dollars they cost.

The first two are from the genius behind Squidoo, Seth Godin:

All Marketers are Liars

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

This one by Brian Tracy covers closing a sale:

The Art of Closing the Sale: The Key to Making More Money Faster in the World of Professional Selling

And then the copywriting man, myth and legend – Dan Kennedy (he makes a whole line of “No BS” guides):

The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost Your Sales

I don’t agree 100% with any of these books – more like 98% – but I will say that they all helped to shape my thinking and helped to increase my copywriting skills.

My tips I’m about to share have everything to do with that site that I mention 80 ways from Sunday. It’s a micro niche site, using the “SuperOptimized” template from XFactor – and I added some product reviews AFTER setting up the site.

Since it was my first site, I did that part WRONG. I should have had product focused reviews, but added them in after the fact. One of my keywords was something like, “Best Gardening Tool” or whatever (not really, but to illustrate) – and that resulted in good AdSense…

BUT

Mostly browsing traffic. So I decided to get more focused on products. However, since I was being lazy, I didn’t want to change the permalinks and such. Not only that, but the “Best Gardening Tool” KW was NOWHERE in the top 100 no matter what I did (correction – I just checked – after a couple of UAW runs, it’s up to #75, I’m sure I could do better).

I had relied only on the “green light” of Micro Niche Finder, without examining the first page competition in Google…then realized I couldn’t rank that term. So much for relying only on my magical software – I’m not sure why it was “green lighted” but by and large, this one term was a horrible one to try to shoot for.

Lesson: take a closer look at the front page competition. Use MNF + Spidey Sense…or RankTracker + Common Sense…

When Yolanda mentioned in my first interview here that she didn’t really use Micro Niche Finder, I thought she had been raised on Mars.

At the time I thought, Who on the planet doesn’t use MNF? I was so “trained” to use MNF (online AND offline) that it was a shoe-in, keyword research MEANT “use Micro Niche Finder.” I’m going to stop there, this is another subject and post altogether – a keyword research post.

What I read from others, was to check how high the PR is for first 5 spots, then checking the amount of backlinks for these top spots. Some say they just look for 2-3 PR 0 or PR n/a websites on the front page, then check their backlinks. A high number of backlinks using SEO Quake or SEO for Firefox indicated that would be tough.

I’ve since read other places such as the Amazonian Profit Plan and have learned other competitive analysis strategies, even Anton’s blog (his Position #14 To Position #1 in 1 Day Quick How To post = good SEO nuggets) – to look even deeper at the page itself that you are trying to compete against.

I don’t have a formula per se – so if the top contenders are PR 3 or greater, it still doesn’t tell me if I can rank for the term or not.

I’m in the #1 spot for a number of KW’s, with PR 3′s, 4′s and 7′s beneath me – my site is a PR 0. I also have **LESS** backlinks than my competition, AND my #1 competitor has a direct link going to his review from the manufacturer – but I’m at #1 for two main terms.

My point is that you can’t necessarily make a hard and fast rule about a KW phrase, nor about the front page competition – a little experimentation goes a long way. All I really did to rank for these terms was covered in my Article Bomb post, ArticleRanks, UAW and Magic Submitter played a vital role (I threw in a few other services, I think Magic Submitter and ArticleRanks would have been enough).

It took work, but was worth it – I’ve made $450 out of that so far.

Here’s the part that I wanted to say was unconventional:

On my “Best Gardening Practices” page, the one I couldn’t rank for, I STILL haven’t ranked for that term!

Who cares, though? I ranked for a product that relates to it – so if it was “Best Gardening Tool,” then I ranked the page for the tool I thought was the best tool.

Say it was a John Deere Riding Mower 3.5 HP (a specific model, I’m just making this up as I go). My Article Bomb was focused on that term, “John Deere Riding Mower 3.5 HP” plus I spun that term with others that were variants of it:

John Deere 3.5 HP
John Deere 3.5 Horse Power
John Deere Rider 3.5 HP
John Deere 3.5
John Deere Model 3XL-987

Whatever the case is – and I did make sure this time that the terms were SEO’d properly: I looked through MNF as well as competitive analysis on the first page.

To tell the truth, I didn’t even look at PR, all I did was verify:

allintitle: KW
allinanchor: KW
“KW” (exact search of keywords)

What I found in MNF was this: that there were LESS THAN 300 MONTHLY SEARCHES!

Forget that, right?

So my chances of getting the KW to rank – phenomenal – and I am SO GLAD I didn’t use anyone else’s benchmarks for that experiment. I knew it was a “sucky” KW by these standards – usually people suggest they will only go for a term that has 2,900 or 2,500 monthly searches exact according to Google’s AdWords Keyword tool, or at least 1,000.

Less than 300 a month? Are you kidding me?

I didn’t care, I wanted to rank for this Commission Junction product and quickly: it had a great affiliate program with it. I was told by the same person who gave me advice not to go for Amazon, and not to worry about this term since it was so low in volume of searches – but I didn’t care what he said at this point.

I had a gut feeling this would pay out.

$4k in profit later – I’m glad I didn’t listen.

For a little bit of work, I get a passive income paycheck – all because I knew this product was a // GREAT // product, with a // GREAT // affiliate program.

That measly keyword is paying me $303.47 this month (so far) – I’m not complaining.

Only recently has my competition even bothered with this keyword, so I’ll need to outdo them again. The lesson I learned:

1. Trust my own instincts. I have regretted not doing this more often.

2. Go for product KW’s – the traffic is DISMAL but is TARGETED. Sure, your KW gets 5k searches a month – but do they BUY? I’ve done a lot with very LITTLE traffic – and a high bounce rate! But they BOUGHT. Interestingly enough, Bing sent me some buying traffic…

This doesn’t mean “don’t go for general terms” when you build a site – you should do both/and not either/or. So: Product reviews with affiliate links, and general KWs to point to the product pages. I’ve been doing at least that much right this whole time.

3. Google will NOT tell you what KWs are profitable, they will not tell you if “X” KW is going to result in browsing traffic (information seekers) or in those who come with their wallets in hand…Neither will any piece of software, paid for or not.

I’m not trash-talking Micro Niche Finder here, by the way – but I am suggesting that a program of any brand isn’t going to slice your tomatoes on the bias like you like, nor choose the freshest basil and the EVOO that was imported from Italy and aged just so – same with the balsamic…

Great now I’m getting a craving for some Insalata Caprese.

Here’s a tip that you probably have heard a thousand times, maybe this will be the time it sinks in:

The reason a product name KW on an inner page does rank and convert into sales is: competition is much more narrow, and the searcher knows what they want to buy.

They are further along in their buying process – they aren’t browsing for the “best gardening tool” with wallets and PayPal in hand. They might be, but it’s still in the information stage. I ranked that site both for general terms as well as product-specific terms, and that site gets me $50-$75 or so a month for its 7 pages of content (and counting, I’m adding more Commission Junction and Amazon reviews).

Here’s a thought, too, for writing converting sales copy. Let’s say you have a product you’re affiliated with, maybe an Amazon product (I keep coming back to it because of my Amazonian Profit Plan review), say it gets great traffic for the product keyword…you want the product, you want the sales – but you know the product gets bad reviews from customers.

This is where I go against everything I’ve been told – because I think you can still capitalize on these products if they get traffic but *suck* in the eyes of the public…

My advice? Use it.

Write up an honest review (meaning: don’t go all-out like you’re selling snake oil and vinyl siding): by looking at what others have said; the good and bad, too. Does the product cause you to lose your hair? Does it kill the grass? Has it been involved in bad press?

OK…GREAT!

What to do if you don’t think the product is good? This is important to know – I don’t recommend you try to *push* that product if you feel it wouldn’t be in the best interest of your readers – find a competing product, a better one, with better reviews.

Resonate with the other customers – don’t try to say it’s a good product if so many say it sucks – then point your review to:

A) the product link page with the reviews, and

B) your competing product review.

Good cop, bad cop, and revenue coming and going.

That way, if you have a stubborn customer, a loyalist (like me with Magic Submitter or with the Amazonian Profit Plan), and they insist on buying – well, let them. You warned them, right?

Your link to your other product can be something like, “For a better option, according to ConsumerSearch and other customer reviews, you should try [LINK To YOUR PRODUCT REVIEW].”

Aaron Wall mentioned that in the interview back when with me, when he mentioned the “law of three.” Have a package of 3 options, the low-ball price, the high-ball, and the one you really want your customers to buy, the “Goldie Locks” offer, it’s just right.

And it works, too. By the way, it’s also a standard in sales.

The benefit to you:
You get the traffic from all the products – good and bad – and give your customers the ability to buy if they choose – hey, it’s their money, right? Then direct your reader to what you think works best (just be honest about it, don’t start lying left and right and telling the world that Jamesthe-UN-Just told you so).

Chances are, you’ll get more cred, gain more traffic, and more sales. That’s the cat’s meow (or the “cat’s hide” if you dislike felines…they give me asthma and a severe allergic reaction, but my daughters love them…).