I know most affiliates use these fancy keyword research tools like Wordtracker, Wordze, or Keycompete…

However, there is a free tool which is one of my favorite keyword tools that exists.  This tool is created by none other than Google themself.  Most affiliates ignore this keyword tool because of the amount of time it can take to create a large keyword list because of the limits they place on results displayed when you search using particular phrases.

Since this is one of my most used keyword tools, I decided to dedicate a small post suggesting that you seriously give this keyword tool a try and also to let those that may of used it in the past know that they have just recently updated their tool.

The single most notable change is this…

Before when you would do a search for a keyword phrase you would get a list of related keywords returned and these keywords would have two sections called Avg Search Volume: Month and Avg Search Volume.  These two sections would then have green bars under them that would allow you see how many times that keyword was searched for a month.  Obviously the more full the green bar the more it is searched per month.

With Google’s recent update to their keyword tool, now instead of little green bars, you can actually see a number displayed on the screen which will tell you an approximation on how many searches that keyword is receiving per month and also how much it receives per month on average.  Below is a picture showing the new look.  Click to enlarge it!

As you can see, this new method provides a much easier to read estimate of how many searches you can expect to see from any given keyword that you may have in your keyword list.

By using this data, you’ll be able to more accurately predict how popular a keyword is, if certain month’s provide lower searches, predict trends, and more.

If you’re not currently using Google’s free keyword tool when you’re putting together your keyword list, I highly suggest you give them a try!

If you have used them in the past, then I highly recommend that you give them another try if you stopped using their service for whatever reason.  It’s amazing simple to use, provides great suggestions, and best of all, it’s FREE!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the new updates and also whether you currently use Google’s keyword tool or not and why!

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Hey guys, first off, let me apolize for the amount of time it took me to post this video up. I had some problems with Youtube as my video is over 10 minutes and I wasn’t sure of another good video hosting place to use. In the end I choose viddler so let me know what you guys think in the comments about them. Thanks!

Also, don’t forget to enter my contest to Win a Creative Vado!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Most of you have heard of Tracking202 from Wes Mahler.  It’s a service that’s completely free to use and allows you to track which keywords in your PPC campaigns are converting and which ones aren’t.  This allows you to bid higher on keywords that convert and get rid of keywords that don’t.  Sound pretty simple right?  We’ll believe it or not, most affiliates have a very hard time tracking keywords and most new affiliates don’t have the money for a paid tracking tool.

Also, most people don’t like that idea of sharing which keywords are converting with these companies that allow you to track for free.  For example, Google Adwords Pixel, Yahoo’s Pixel, and even Tracking202.  This is where Prosper202 comes into play.

Prosper202 is a free PPC keyword tracking application from Wes Mahler and his crew.  It’s the same people that created Tracking202 only this tool (Prosper202) allows you to host the application directly on your hosting account if your not willing or are feeling nervous about your keyword information being out there on someone else’s server.

You can visit their site for more information about the product and all of it’s features, as I’m only going to touch on a few of the products features.

• Works with Every Single PPC Network Out There!
• Cloaks Keywords from Advertisers and Affiliate Networks keeping them a secret!
• Works with Landing Pages or With Direct Linking!

Again, it seems like a great tool, I’ve only been able to play around with it for a little while but I definitely think you should check out the service being provided by Prosper202 if your in need of a great keywords tracking application.

Also, just to give you guys a little recap and to give a little more insight on some of their other “202″ tools they have available…

• Tracking202 – PPC Keyword Tracking tool that is completely FREE of charge.  This application is hosted on their servers.  Good if you don’t have a server to put Prosper202 on and you wanting to use this program.
• Prosper202 – Same thing as Tracking202 only you can use this version on your own server thus allowing you to keep all your secret ninja like stuff from getting into the wrong hands.
• Export202 – Allows you to easily convert campaigns from one PPC campaign to another.  Currently works with Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN Adcenter.  Again this program like the other two is completely free to use.

Again, I think Wes Mahler and the team are doing a great job and I can’t wait to see what other tools they release under the “202″ brand.

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One of the most asked questions I receive from people starting out or even people that have been in the affiliate marketing game for a couple months is what is the best way to track which keywords are converting.

Now there are tons of ways to track keywords and its not as hard as most people think, its just hard to find good information on how to do it. So, in light of that, this topic has been born. Now this post is specifically going to talk about tracking which keywords are converting in your Google Adwords account. Again there are other ways, including using PHP, subid’s, in house tracking, and more.

This method is completely free and very easy to setup which is why I wanted to show it. Your going to need a few things in order for this to work.

First and foremost, You need to be advertising an offer where the advertiser allows you to place a pixel on their website. Most CPA companies now allow this including, Azoogle, NeverblueAds, Copeac, and others. The best way to find out if your Affiliate Company does or not is to simply ask your Affiliate Manager.

Secondly, you will need to have a Google Adwords account obviously hence the blog post title!

To get started Log into your Adwords Account. Once you log in at the top in the navigation bar you’ll see a link that says Conversion Tracking. Click on that Link and you’ll see the following screen.

From the Screen above, you’ll want to check the box that says Other and hit Continue. The next page you’ll see after you hit continue is this.

On this page you are able to choose how the Google Sites Stats button will look on the offer page. I normally always just choose a white background with black text. After you have chosen this you can go ahead and hit Continue again.

On the next page you are able to select the Language, Site Security (meaning http:// or https://) and also your code is displayed that you’ll need to copy and give to your Affiliate Manager to place on the site for you. Every time I have used this it has always been http:// security. However, make sure to ask your AM first to make sure. I’m honestly not sure if it makes a difference or not.

Here is a screenshot showing the part on the third page of language, site security, and the code.

Now go ahead and give your pixel code to your Affiliate Manager and have them place it on the offer page. They will know where it goes. After they have it placed go ahead and press continue and you’ll get a screen that says “Your new Adwords tracking setup is complete. Now, test the results.” Now of course the only way to test the results is to wait until someone clicks one of your adwords ads and completes the offer. However, if you did it the way instructed above and your affiliate manager placed the pixel on the correct page you should have no problem.

Disclaimer: Some people don’t like this type of tracking as Google has all your data on which keywords are converting. I use this method on a lot of campaigns that have been running for months and I’ve never seen anything bad happen. Its totally up to you whether you track your keywords this way or not. However, it is a FREE and EASY way to track which keywords are converting for you and if you don’t have the PHP know how or don’t wish to pay for another piece of tracking software, it’s definitely better than not tracking your keywords at all.

Also, Adwords Conversion Tracking allows you to setup tracking for your Non-Adwords Campaigns which you’ll see the link on the last page. Its called Cross-Channel Tracking. I’ve never personally used their Cross-Channel Tracking so I can’t vouch as to if its good or not, but if your not tracking Yahoo or MSN with another means its definitely worth a look!

Last but not least, here is an example of how it looks with the conversion tracking on in Adwords.

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So, I received an invite to the private AffSpy beta. I decided to do a little video on my thoughts and suggestions. Anyways, please let me know what you think, if you feel I’m right agree with me, if you feel I’m wrong tell me that as well!

AffSpy – Compare Affiliate Network Payouts

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