Google’s New Keyword Tool
Google currently has a new keyword tool (in beta) and yesterday I gave it a quick “run through” and then posted the video on the “How To Videos” website.
If you’re interested, head on over there and take a look.
A few of the takeaways of this tool is that it allows you to drill-down into the keywords and set limitations.
For example, if you only want to view keyword phrases that get 20,000 searches or more per month, you can add that filter.
You can also add a filter where you can view only those keyword phrases whose CPC or Cost Per Click is more than say, $1.00. Again, you set the filters so it’s entirely up to you.
If you have about 12 minutes, head on over to the How to Videos site and take a look.
Main Street Marketing – Helping Others Make Money
This is a FIERCE Plea to NOT Let What Could be the Biggest Opportunity of Your Life Pass You By!
You know those moments when you’re presented with an opportunity but you think it’s just another marketing “gooroo” trying to earn a quick buck?
…those moments that you scan the email that somehow got past the filters on your inbox?
…those moments that you wondered why you ever got on their list anyway because you can’t believe the hype their selling to you?
THIS is NOT one of those moments.
This moment, right here, right now with what I’m about to tell you could quite frankly be a total game changer for you.
THIS is one of those moments when I wish I was standing there, right next to you as you sat at your computer and contemplated whether or not to buy some “get rich quick” scheme that I could whack you upside the head and tell you to “Get Real”.
Now, this is likely to make a lot of people very upset…but hopefully you won’t be one of those people that shuts down this window or chooses to peruse your inbox (again) and see what the latest “gooroo” is trying to shove down your throat.
But…THIS isn’t for everyone. I’ll bet only a fraction of people who read this will take action. Maybe less. But that’s ok because that just means one less person to compete with.
Don’t be one of those people who said “I wish I would have”.
There’s a lot of people, a WHOLE LOT of people scared to death right now.
They can’t pay their bills;
The economy isn’t getting better;
And worse yet, this means that profits are down.
And I’m not just talking about people like us who make a living online. This DOUBLES for those Mom-and-Pop corner stores just like the ones that are in YOUR hometown.
What if I told you that there’s a way to take what you ALREADY KNOW about marketing online and were able to TEAM UP with the BEST businesses in your local area so that you BOTH can make more money?
More money than either of you could make alone…
…and you do it by HELPING them, not SELLING them!
Listen, I know that you may have heard about similar “offline” money-making schemes before, but this one is completely different. You don’t have to be this “SUPER GURU” in order to land clients…
…as a matter of fact, did you know that you likely already ARE a SUPER GURU in the eyes of local business owners?
Do you know why?
Because it’s those local business owners who WANT to market online, they WANT to get leads for their businesses, they WANT to advertise but it’s VERY intimidating to them.
I’ll just bet that you know how to do all of those things right?
You don’t need a secretary, an office staff, a computer programmer, or a sales staff.
Because…
Well, look – you might not believe me until you actually saw it yourself.
RAP Bank Review
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing Products, Internet Marketing, RAP Bank
I’ve added a very informative update below. Click here to read that now.
If you haven’t heard of RAP Bank by now, you will. Think of it as Clickbank but with a bit of a twist.
RAP Bank is brand new (and I mean BRAND new). It’s only been open for a few short weeks and already they have hundreds of products listed in their marketplace.
By the way, for those of you wondering, RAP Bank is in fact, based on the Rapid Action Profits system. Hence, RAP stands for Rapid Action Profits).
And, just like Clickbank, Rap Bank let’s you add your own products or sell products as an affiliate. But, here’s where it differs from Clickbank:
Commissions
Clickbank - The average affiliate gets paid every two weeks (this differs based on how many sales you make over a certain period of time).
Rap Bank – Instant commissions to your PayPal account. HOWEVER, they pay on every other sale. This means that if you make a sale of product A you’ll need to make a second sale of Product A in order to receive your commissions.
This is how I understand it (and if someone knows differently, I encourage you to leave a comment below):
Product A Cost $20.00 with a commission of 50% – Your commission = $10
You make 1 sale of Product A – you do NOT get paid your commission yet but do have $10 sitting at Rap Bank.
You make sale #2 of Product A – You earn $10 and DO get paid $20 directly into your PayPal account.
Refunds
Clickbank – If a customer requests a refund (they have 60 days to do so), Clickbank will deduct that amount from your next check.
RAP Bank – If a customer requests a refund (# of days unknown), YOU will have to return a certain amount of money to Rap Bank from PayPal. (My suggestion? If you use Rap Bank and get paid a commission, let that sit in your PayPal account until the refund period has passed).
Also keep in mind that PayPal has their own fees which will likely be applied to your commissions paid to your account. (Keep this in mind as well as you will likely have to pay an extra $1 or $2 out of pocket if someone requests a refund).
Some Pros:
- The back end area of RAP Bank makes it easy to see what affiliates have made the most sales for you over the course of time (if you are selling a product).
- (Coming Soon to RAP Bank) – You can have “equity partners” who have their own administrative area but help you sell your products. Now, since I don’t own Rapid Action Profits I am unclear as to the significance of this equity partner area but based on what I’ve learned, it’s a lot like having a JV partner who would get a larger percentage of profits than a typical affiliate. (again, this is an assumption).
- You can earn a percentage of income based on people you refer to Rap Bank.
- You don’t need multiple affiliate links to promote different products. You use one affiliate ID and then can promote any products listed on the site. Although you CAN use a unique affiliate link if you want to by visiting the individual product pages and grabbing it from the product page itself.
Some Cons:
- As I was watching the videos within the Rap Bank video area, I was struck by some of the points that were made in order to help you with the product. Things such as “you only need one login to access all of the products”, and how quickly the videos moved saying lots of things while at the same time not saying a whole lot. I don’t mean to sound sour towards the owners of the site but do think that since it’s so brand new, the videos were hurried and don’t contain a whole lot of meat to them.
- Within their help desk I couldn’t find any additional details about affiliate commissions. Again, they’re brand new and still in “beta” so it could be that they just haven’t quite added it yet.
- When I first signed up with RAP Bank, I was a little taken aback because instantly I was taken to what appeared to be a WordPress blog. In other words, I had expected to see the same look and feel of the Rap Bank area so this was a little startling. Not unusual, but a little heads up would have helped. The entire site is based on a WordPress blog so if you’re wondering why you would see something like this, there’s your answer.
- I was a little hesitant to list this next item under “cons” but wasn’t sure where else to put it. The PayPal account that you use MUST be a business or premier account – not simply a personal PayPal account. Most people who do a lot of business online especially with PayPal have this already and it’s truly not difficult to get one set up. But for those who are unfamiliar with PayPal, this can be a little confusing.
- If you want to get access to all of the features you’ll need to upgrade to what’s called a “Vendor Plus” account. Now, this costs $47 per month but it does offer some things that you may very well be interested in. Now, here’s where I got confused. One “Plus” account feature is this: “Upgraded “VendorPlus” Members earn on 100% of clicks, and earn an additional 20-30% of their referred links.” So this begged the question “Well, if upgraded members earn on 100% of clicks, what do non-VendorPlus members earn? Alas, I could not find an answer within either this area or within the knowledge base.
All that said (and this is by far not all of the information located on their site), I still think that Rap Bank has some growing up to do. I think it’s a great idea for an affiliate model, especially since affiliates get paid much quicker but there are a few downsides to it as well.
I suggest that if you do look into RAP Bank, you read everything you can, watch the videos, and perform your own due diligence.
I honestly don’t feel that at this point it’s a Clickbank competitor simply because their models are so different. RAP Bank has a lot more “details” that you need to scrutinize while Clickbank is pretty straightforward and has plenty of materials to help out the new affiliate. Then again, Clickbank’s been around for 10 years.
********** UPDATE **********
Just for the heck of it I decided to try and add the FREE product I have (that you can get too – no opt-in required if you don’t want to) – which is a set of videos on how to get started online with “Just the Basics” – things like how to find & register a domain name, how to install a WordPress blog, etc., etc., AND to my amazement found that….
Unless you own Rapid Action Profits you CANNOT add your own product to the RAP Bank. It is *required* in order to list your products there.
Needless to say, I was very surprised as this alone will cost you $197.00. Yes, $197.00.
Now, I’ve heard from others that it is a very good system, but again, I haven’t used it so I can’t speak to that. But just thought that you might want to know this little tidbit of information yourself.
Since writing this post I have received some great additional information about RAPBank. What follows are the updates that I received from the owners of RAPBank which I hope, will clarify a lot of points for you:
- Regarding PayPal: PayPal allows for refunds up to 60 days after purchase, with any fees being returned to the vendor. See: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/bizui/SendRefund-outside. The Rapid Action Profits script takes note when one has been issued and no longer counts that sale in the rotation.
- Regarding Equity Partners: In my original post I had stated that I wasn’t sure how Equity Partners worked and related it to JV Partnerships. Here’s a further clarification for you: Equity partners are already a part of RAP (Rapid Action Profits) They let VendorPlus members see the complete stats for such products as though they were the owner (because they indeed are at least partial owners). They (Equity Partners) differ from JV partners in that they don’t have to send the traffic as an affiliate or as a JV Partner would. A naked link works too, just like it would for the solo owner. By showing full stats to the equity partners of a product we make it so that they don’t have to share login details on their systems and can confirm that everything is on the up-and-up.
- Regarding the Click-Sharing Model: I had noted above that I could not find any information about what VendorPlus members receive as part of the click-sharing model. Here’s the clarification: The click-sharing model applies only to the plugin and to feeds using direct-to-salespage links. These are viral components that have enabled us to make the plugin free and profitable for those sponsoring new members.
For more details => http://rapbank.com/products/plugin - Regarding the page you reach when you login (noted above as what appeared to be a back-end WordPress admin area) – Here’s the clarification: We continue to listen to suggestions on ways
to make things as easy to navigate and learn as possible. Sending folks to the Getting Started page instead of the WordPress back-end on initial login is one small detail that should make a big difference.
I would personally like to thank the owners of RAPBank for taking such a proactive stance on the questions and concerns that I had initially posted.
It’s not often that you have a company come through and actually give you REAL information rather than just a snarky comment about what was said about their product.
It’s clear that these guys at RAPBank truly want the best experience for their users and are doing everything they can to really create a great experience for everyone. When you find the time, I suggest that you check them out.
