Newbie Starting Bum Marketing - Q's to Clarify Fears About Competing Number Sites, etc.

[cjwntrsm]

Hi Everyone, this is Chris in Southern California.

My apologies in advance -- I'm a total newbie and dummy when it comes to internet marketing. I have just started my first "bum marketing" effort with a couple of test ads built around a simple, specific keyword phrase -- on USFreeAds and Craigslist, for affiliate marketing.

Okay, here's the situation / problem: For this little test I targeted a keyword phrase that, without quotes, has huge competition -- tons of sites, something ridiculous like 2,600,000 results. Yet, optimizing for the phrase I am using shows that I am supposedly doing really well IF I query Google with the phrase in quotes. In fact, I'm way up there if I go further and query Google for "allintitle" and "allinanchor". But to cut to the chase, here's the problem -- those two little ads are, I assume, buried way back in the TRUE RESULTS. I keep hearing that if we optimize well on a page for title, header, etc., we can supposedly beat a lot of the other sites for THAT phrase. But my observation is that there are still so many sites that are rightfully beating me for reasons OTHER than being optimized or not for that phrase -- probably they are ranking due to back links, opt-in forms, tons of other factors -- regardless of all the "junk sites" out there, there are obviously many sites that achieve rankings.

But getting back to Bum Marketing which is my intent for this test, I know that simply putting up a little ad even well optimized for a particular phrase won't cut it if there are so many competing sites out there. Yet I keep hearing that we can do this in "Bum Marketing", doing USFreeAds, the Ezines, etc.

Anyway, I'm hoping this is obvious, but my question is this: if I am right in believing that my supposedly well optimized little ad can't compete because of all those tons of search results out there, what lower number of competing sites should I realistically try to compete against? Let's say a niche keyword WITHOUT QUOTES gets only 1000 results, maybe 200? I mean, at some point my ad should show up on Google's first page for bum marketing? You see, it does me no good seeing how high I can supposedly rank WITH QUOTES on if in reality, I'm buried way back there!

Anyway, this was just a first test, and I deliberately chose a high results term. My problem is that I have to choose very soon whether I can justify all this time (even though "bum marketing" is supposedly a "quick" shortcut) sitting in front of this computer UNLESS it works! If I can actually make even a pittance at first, then I will continue. I'm thinking as my next test I should choose a very low competition phrase -- I just want to see what it takes to get good ranking using Bum Marketing. Then I will be glad to go further with internet marketing. I'm just really burned out from all my job hunting (was laid off!) AND this nonsense -- which I hope ISN'T nonsense if I can get something happening!

Oh, and another thing -- when I read advice about "you should target phrases that get less than 1000 results for USFreeAds", or up to 5,000 - 10,000 results for Ezines, whatever, I'm assuming that this advice assumes those results are ALL results WITHOUT QUOTES?! I don't believe we have to worry only about competition from sites that display for keywords within quotes, but for ALL RESULTS.

Wow, thanks so much for bearing with me! If anyone out there could sort of affirm what I'm reading into all this -- or even contradict me if I'm wrong -- I'd really appreciate it.

Take care,

Chris

[Kay King]

I think you are overanalyzing something but don't seem to have a grasp of what bum marketing is.

Go to Travis Sago's site Bum Marketing Method - Free Traffic Tips and sign up to get the free guide on bum marketing. He originated the term and you need to read his guide before you go further.

You don't mention a site or blog - or what you are promoting using free ads - or whether you have a plan in place. Moreover, there is NO mention of article writing (i.e., bum marketing) in your post.

It's a great method - it works - and it takes work and time. It is not a quick fix and you need to understand the system as a whole before jumping into the middle or end of it.

Back up take a deep breath and make the effort to learn the steps involved. THEN you can get some results.

kay

[trippmarxx]

Originally Posted by cjwntrsm

Hi Everyone, this is Chris in Southern California.

My apologies in advance -- I'm a total newbie and dummy when it comes to internet marketing. I have just started my first "bum marketing" effort with a couple of test ads built around a simple, specific keyword phrase -- on USFreeAds and Craigslist, for affiliate marketing.

Okay, here's the situation / problem: For this little test I targeted a keyword phrase that, without quotes, has huge competition -- tons of sites, something ridiculous like 2,600,000 results. Yet, optimizing for the phrase I am using shows that I am supposedly doing really well IF I query Google with the phrase in quotes. In fact, I'm way up there if I go further and query Google for "allintitle" and "allinanchor". But to cut to the chase, here's the problem -- those two little ads are, I assume, buried way back in the TRUE RESULTS. I keep hearing that if we optimize well on a page for title, header, etc., we can supposedly beat a lot of the other sites for THAT phrase. But my observation is that there are still so many sites that are rightfully beating me for reasons OTHER than being optimized or not for that phrase -- probably they are ranking due to back links, opt-in forms, tons of other factors -- regardless of all the "junk sites" out there, there are obviously many sites that achieve rankings.

But getting back to Bum Marketing which is my intent for this test, I know that simply putting up a little ad even well optimized for a particular phrase won't cut it if there are so many competing sites out there. Yet I keep hearing that we can do this in "Bum Marketing", doing USFreeAds, the Ezines, etc.

Anyway, I'm hoping this is obvious, but my question is this: if I am right in believing that my supposedly well optimized little ad can't compete because of all those tons of search results out there, what lower number of competing sites should I realistically try to compete against? Let's say a niche keyword WITHOUT QUOTES gets only 1000 results, maybe 200? I mean, at some point my ad should show up on Google's first page for bum marketing? You see, it does me no good seeing how high I can supposedly rank WITH QUOTES on if in reality, I'm buried way back there!

Anyway, this was just a first test, and I deliberately chose a high results term. My problem is that I have to choose very soon whether I can justify all this time (even though "bum marketing" is supposedly a "quick" shortcut) sitting in front of this computer UNLESS it works! If I can actually make even a pittance at first, then I will continue. I'm thinking as my next test I should choose a very low competition phrase -- I just want to see what it takes to get good ranking using Bum Marketing. Then I will be glad to go further with internet marketing. I'm just really burned out from all my job hunting (was laid off!) AND this nonsense -- which I hope ISN'T nonsense if I can get something happening!

Oh, and another thing -- when I read advice about "you should target phrases that get less than 1000 results for USFreeAds", or up to 5,000 - 10,000 results for Ezines, whatever, I'm assuming that this advice assumes those results are ALL results WITHOUT QUOTES?! I don't believe we have to worry only about competition from sites that display for keywords within quotes, but for ALL RESULTS.

Wow, thanks so much for bearing with me! If anyone out there could sort of affirm what I'm reading into all this -- or even contradict me if I'm wrong -- I'd really appreciate it.

Take care,

Chris

Chris,

As far as competition, there are a few ways you can judge if you have a fair shot or not.

For what you mentioned towards the end of the paragraph, those are competing pages in "quotes", not actual search terms.

What it all boils down to, in my opinion, is the niche that you're in. Some keywords have tons of competing pages, but very few competing pages for the keyword used altogether.

Here's what I'm trying to say:

Let's say you type in the keyword phrase "how to make money online" (without quotes), and you get millions of results to pull up. This is because Google is searching every page that has those 5 words somewhere on their website.

When you type in your keyword in "quotes", the big G only searches for pages which have that keyword phrase, searching for websites with the entire phrase intact.

So, you may be in a niche where you search a keyword that has 2,000,000 initial searches and 50,000 searchs in quotes, but the pages that are ranked high are not of high authority, which would make it easy for you to rank on the top. In fact, if you do an initial search and see sites that are not of high autority in those rankings, it is safe to say that you could rank well for that search term.

Also, if you're going to submit articles, try to find high authority sites (like Ezines) and check through the search engines to see if an article is already there for that site for your keyword. If you land on a keyword that doesn't have any articles from some of the bigger article directories, you're sitting on a potential goldmine to dominate the rankings for that keyword.

Hope that helps explain this a little better. Sorry if I jumped around on this post, but I hope it helps you get on the right path.

[KateD]

Chris,

Bum marketing is NOT a quick and easy shortcut. Not sure where you read that. The main point of bum marketing is that it generally involves no financial investment (ie. even a bum off the street could do it).

You really are overanalzying this. Trust me when I say that you can't base your opinion of bum marketing on your experience with one or two long tail keyword phrases.

When determining the amount of competition, focus on the phrase INSIDE of quotes. This is your true competition.

Sure, people don't search that way, but when you don't put the phrase in quotes, Google will just spit back all of the pages that have any of the words in the phrase.

If it were just about creating keyword optimized articles and content pages, ranking high would be easy. But backlinks are a huge factor as well.

This is another step you can do to help determine how hard it would be to rank well for a specific keyword phrase:

1. type in your potential keyword phrase in Google (inside of quotes)
2. now check to see how many backlinks the top ten results have

-you can either do this by placing: link: www.domainname.com in Google's search box, or by using a tool like Link Popularity Check

This might give you a better indication of how easy it will be to get to the first page of Google results

But again, you need to make your "testing" include several keywords/articles. Don't solely go by the results from one keyword or article.

KateD

[angela99]

What the OPs said. You're analyzing bum marketing to death.

Bum marketing is just a method for marketers to get their feet wet. The key is to hit the ground running.

Re "If I am right in believing that my supposedly well optimized little ad can't compete because of all those tons of search results out there": you're wrong. You can compete, if you DO IT.

Follow the method, and set a deadline -- two weeks from today, for example.

Just pick a product, pick some keywords, and get stuck into it, without thinking too much, until the two weeks are up.

Once you've given it a fair try, you'll have INFORMATION you can't have (and no one can provide you with) which you didn't have before. You can then use the information (knowledge) you've won.

Only you can do it. Only you can benefit once you do it.

I wish you much success; your biggest challenge (as it is for us all) is conquering inertia.

Good luck. :-)

Cheers

Angela

[cjwntrsm]

Hi again, everyone from Chris,


Wow, just getting back here -- what an incredible forum and group – thank you so much trippmarxx, kay King, KateD, Angela99 et all. You guys are great. I need all the advice and encouragement I can get with internet marketing.

There is so much I wasn’t “getting” as a newbie – hence the thrashing about – but even this “thrashing” is helping me so much. I’m starting to get more of the pieces of the puzzle coming together. Regarding Bum Marketing, I didn’t understand enough about all the aspects of it – you’re right, it’s not a little “shortcut” but can be a serious effort, which actually appeals to me very much. Actually, I had just got Travis Sago’s free little course, and also purchased Pot Pie Girl’s One Week Marketing – absolutely great. Being a complete idiot who isn’t techie, I guess I was searching for my own unique “approach” where I could start with free ads, ramp up to Ezine articles, then on to Squidoo lenses, etc. Yes, I understand that at some point I should have a “proper” site. But knowing myself, how long it takes to thrash about, I deliberately chose to approach this whole internet marketing thing (specifically affiliate marketing) in little baby steps that I could hopefully take “in spite of myself”! So, yeah, maybe I’m hoping for some kind of “shortcut” (who isn’t!), but I also realize that I’m in this for the long haul, and there will be a learning curve. So, I decided to approach “bum marketing” in steps, and began a little test. I have no website at this point, but I do have a couple of simple ads on USFreeAds and Craigslist which I am trying to use for affiliate purposes (I have forwarded / masked domains) to promote a couple merchants on Clickbank.

Obviously, there’s much more I should be doing – building lenses on Squidoo, building blogs, etc., but at this point, I just needed to affirm or correct some impressions I had about keyword research. I got great replies here – I hope I’m right in assuming that the competition we need to worry about is really what’s in quotes. So for example, when Travis or someone says “you can go up to 5,000 to 10,000 competing sites for phrase X on Ezines”, but “keep it down to around 1,000 or less for USFreeAds”, what we’re talking about here is the keyword phrase WITHIN QUOTES, right? Because I know this is the REAL competition, I hope I’ve got this right. So when Travis refers to being able to rank well in Ezines even with 10,000 competing sites, the 10,000 results in Google he is referring to is the keyword query inside “”, right? Because without “” it might be 1,000,000 or more! I know this is dumb and I don’t mean to over analyze – I just really need to have all these unspoken things explicitly spelled out!

Wow, anyway, you guys are incredible, and it will take me a long time before I start making something happen. This is a long journey – thanks so much for all your help. Take care,

Chris

[Kay King]

My own opinion is that you should start a site or blog before starting bum marketing. As it is you are promoting ads that will/may disappear quickly - much better for long term articles to lead to a site page that will be available long term.

You are still over-analyzing it - you don't have to understand every detail to get started - and you won't understand it until you actually work at it for a bit and start tweaking things to see what results. Just follow Travis advice and keep it simple.

The basic plan for working online is to develop an online presence - a site or blog to start with - and then use bum marketing, squidoo, hubpages, etc to promote THAT online presence. The articles you write for submission can also be used as content for that site or blog.

kay

[Jenni Mac]

Originally Posted by cjwntrsm

Hi again, everyone from Chris,


Wow, just getting back here -- what an incredible forum and group – thank you so much trippmarxx, kay King, KateD, Angela99 et all. You guys are great. I need all the advice and encouragement I can get with internet marketing.

There is so much I wasn’t “getting” as a newbie – hence the thrashing about – but even this “thrashing” is helping me so much. I’m starting to get more of the pieces of the puzzle coming together. Regarding Bum Marketing, I didn’t understand enough about all the aspects of it – you’re right, it’s not a little “shortcut” but can be a serious effort, which actually appeals to me very much. Actually, I had just got Travis Sago’s free little course, and also purchased Pot Pie Girl’s One Week Marketing – absolutely great. Being a complete idiot who isn’t techie, I guess I was searching for my own unique “approach” where I could start with free ads, ramp up to Ezine articles, then on to Squidoo lenses, etc. Yes, I understand that at some point I should have a “proper” site. But knowing myself, how long it takes to thrash about, I deliberately chose to approach this whole internet marketing thing (specifically affiliate marketing) in little baby steps that I could hopefully take “in spite of myself”! So, yeah, maybe I’m hoping for some kind of “shortcut” (who isn’t!), but I also realize that I’m in this for the long haul, and there will be a learning curve. So, I decided to approach “bum marketing” in steps, and began a little test. I have no website at this point, but I do have a couple of simple ads on USFreeAds and Craigslist which I am trying to use for affiliate purposes (I have forwarded / masked domains) to promote a couple merchants on Clickbank.

Obviously, there’s much more I should be doing – building lenses on Squidoo, building blogs, etc., but at this point, I just needed to affirm or correct some impressions I had about keyword research. I got great replies here – I hope I’m right in assuming that the competition we need to worry about is really what’s in quotes. So for example, when Travis or someone says “you can go up to 5,000 to 10,000 competing sites for phrase X on Ezines”, but “keep it down to around 1,000 or less for USFreeAds”, what we’re talking about here is the keyword phrase WITHIN QUOTES, right? Because I know this is the REAL competition, I hope I’ve got this right. So when Travis refers to being able to rank well in Ezines even with 10,000 competing sites, the 10,000 results in Google he is referring to is the keyword query inside “”, right? Because without “” it might be 1,000,000 or more! I know this is dumb and I don’t mean to over analyze – I just really need to have all these unspoken things explicitly spelled out!

Wow, anyway, you guys are incredible, and it will take me a long time before I start making something happen. This is a long journey – thanks so much for all your help. Take care,

Chris

Wow! Wow! And Wow again!

Slow down man and take a breath! It appears to me as though you're trying to re-invent the wheel. There's no need for it, trust me I know.

I spent the best part of 10 months thrashing about making no progress because I wouldn't sit down and just follow a simple plan.

Just follow a simple and proven plan (you'll find a stack of them here on the forum!)

When you've done that, throw the plan away and make your own plan with the knowledge you've acquired.

Don't waste money and all those months like I did, listen to Kay King! She is one of the smartest people here and well worth listening to!

Get your own blog/site up!

P.S. what's going on with your font???

[ralphalt]

Chris--I have been attending Dean Holland's Starting with Marketing Academy so I am no seasoned expert--yet ;-) and would offer that for successful keyword marketing with Google AdWords it is critical that the keywords show up as frequently as possible, both in the ad title, the ad, and on the landing page you send them to.
Hope that helps a bit!
Ralph