From the “unintentional irony” department, comes this Google ad that showed up next to my gmail:
I haven’t taken the time to visit the site, but would you trust them? :)
And why are they throwing away money on AdWords?
Let the consumer of marketing education beware, and be aware of “Do as I say, not as I do” marketing…
A reader wonders:
I recently bought ‘Adwords for Dummies‘ and I really enjoy it. Now my problem is trying to figure out a product to sell. Any hints on how to find products to sell?
My response: First, thanks for your kind words about the book. You should feel free to write a nice amazon review for it :) Now, let me gently criticize the thought process that produced the question:
That’s backwards thinking.
The world is so full of products and services, unless you live naked in the woods (or at the beach, which I don’t recommend), you’re tripping over things to sell all day long. Right here, in my home office (OK, my wife’s home office, but she’s sleeping and I like her artwork better than mine, and I have to step over the dog to get to my office), I see binders, jewelry, postcards, battery chargers, matches, keys, picture frames, organic rice milk, window blinds, etc. etc. etc. Somebody is making money selling every one of those things - else they wouldn’t exist.
Instead of looking for products to sell, look for markets to serve. Focus on needs and desires and pains and longings. People will buy things that they think will improve their lives.
Every purchase I’ve ever made has been an act of hope in a better future. Every purchase, from the bananas at Trader Joes to the Prius at the Toyota dealership to the 2 by 12 planks at Home Depot that I turned into raised garden beds. Toothpaste. Shaving cream. Bass guitar lessons for my son.
Every purchase is motivated by a desire to increase pleasure and decrease pain. When you focus on a particular market - a group of people who share some meaningful characteristics - and get to know what they deeply want to have and what they want to get rid of and what they want to avoid, then you’ll know what to sell to them.
And you won’t have to wonder.
Now, if you want to use AdWords, certain realities come into play, which you can get from the book. Like, who’s looking for it, and how much can you make from selling it compared to the cost of an AdWords click. Some products are not well suited for AdWords.
But don’t start with products. Don’t even start with media. Start with people, and figure out how to serve them.
Khalil Gibran wrote, "Work is love made manifest." If your business is an expression of love of a group of people, and a sincere desire to improve their lives, then you are on the easy path to success.
Glenn Livingston and I spent about an hour on the phone yesterday, chewing the fat about AdWords and online marketing in general. We talk about:
Although Glenn was interviewing me, I spent about half the time asking him stuff. He’s brilliant at breaking down systems into their key parts, and streamlining processes to make them easier, cheaper, and more effective. Talking with Glenn is like reading "Zen and the Art of AdWords Maintenance."
Download the interview - free - from Glenn’s site:
The Glenn Livingston - Howie Jacobson AdWords Interview
ad tracking, adwords, adwords campaign optimization, adwords checklist, adwords content network, adwords. advertising ROI, quality scoreOn Tuesday, I took the day off and drove to Winston-Salem for the 60th annual International Jugglers Association festival. I attended a bunch of workshops, armed with my trusty Flip Video so I could capture the moves to practice later (on the off chance that I couldn’t master 4-ball high-low multiplexing on my first attempt).
During the hat manipulation workshop (check out old Charlie Chaplin or Jerry Lewis movies for some classic examples of this wonderful art form), I was struck - first by a heavy felt bowler, then by the following thought: "A good juggling teacher must be just like a good marketing teacher. She or he must be able to perform the trick expertly, and then break it down into understandable and repeatable components."
When you’re learning a skill, you need a vision of the end result. You must be able to see and model a well-executed example. If you’re looking for a marketing teacher, ask yourself, "Can they demonstrate proficiency in the skill I want to learn, and will I be able to witness that proficiency?"
But proficiency isn’t enough. Lots of accomplished marketers should stay marketers, and not get sucked into the guru business. Because being a true teacher means not just the ability to do something and then convince a lot of other people to part with their money to learn how to do it, but also to be able to chunk the skill down into repeatable, observable, feedback-able, and practice-able actions.
Dave Finnigan, juggling teacher and entrepreneur extraordinaire, taught a workshop on "The Easy Path to 5 Ball Juggling." For many jugglers, 5 balls is the Impossible Dream. The plateau they’ll stare up at for their entire, envious, frustrated juggling lives. I can’t do 5 balls yet, and I’ve been juggling - on and off - since 1988.
The reason 5 balls is so difficult is that the complexity and speed of the feedback loop is overwhelming. "Too many balls in the air" is a metaphor that may be relevant here.
Dave, a masterful educator, was able to break down the technique into achievable bits. Throw 5 balls and let a partner catch them. Throw 5 and catch only the first one (use different colored balls to enhance intake of feedback). Etc.
So when you want to further your marketing, or juggling, or any skill, look for the proficient performer who also knows how to teach. The guru imparts, but the wizard just wows.
Enjoy the wizards, and let them inspire you. But make sure you pay to learn from someone who can do AND can teach.
internet marketing, marketing education, seminarsSeth Godin’s new book, The Dip, is relevant to AdWords Jugglers in several ways. To summarize, the tiny book (which took me 25 minutes to read and enjoy cover to cover, and will take me about that much time to blog about) is a quick and clever riff on Jim Rohn’s advice: "Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better." The Dip of which Godin writes is the learning curve, the unnecessary hurdles, the barriers to entry; all the stuff that separates the exceptional winners from the average losers. The key to success in life is to anticipate and recognize Dips - as opposed to dead ends and cliffs.
Godin encourages quitting early and often: when the Dip leads to an outcome you’re not passionate about achieving, and when you’re stuck in a situation where excellence and the accompanying market predominance just aren’t possible. Quit so you can focus all your energy on getting through appropriate Dips to achieve your own remarkable potential.
In this mindset, a true Dip doesn’t have to be frustrating, felt as a delay or a doldrum or a punishment. When my AdWords students complain about the agony of optimizing their campaigns and doing long hours of competitive research, I remind them that their competitors probably aren’t expending the energy - and that’s precisely why they should.
My college roommate Geoff was on the crew team. He used to get up before 5am every day and work out, or go running, or get on the lake in weather fair and foul and pull until his muscles burned. One day he returned to the dorm room aching and angry after a particularly difficult practice. I (sensitive friend that I was) asked him if it really was worth it. He thought for a moment and replied, "The thing that makes it worth it is when I beat some other sucker who put in almost as much effort and pain as I did."
Godin exhorts us to be the best in the world, or not try. He’s not speaking globally - otherwise Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods would have been very lonely and bored when nobody else showed up to play. Godin is really talking about positioning yourself or your product or your company as #1 in the minds of a particular niched market segment.
If you’ve ever been confused about the concept of the USP - Unique Selling Proposition - grab The Dip and read Godin’s definition of The Best. It will help you write great AdWords ads and landing pages, and hopefully encourage you to mobilize your business resources towards the goal of utter predominance in a marketplace.