I recently returned from a long awaited and well needed enjoyable three day break this weekend. I actually went on a road trip around Northern Thailand and into Laos, hey you can’t help but relax there since there is nothing else to do but relax and enjoy the outdoors, culture and fresh air – a contrast to the hustle for space in Bangkok City.

Whenever I take a break at the beach or to another country or to the countryside I always appreciate the break and the time out and I even look forward to returning home and to my work which is more or less my hobby..

So, I returned to my house in Bangkok this time only to find that within just three short days, lot’s of things can happen.

The first thing I noticed is that the foot long Gourami fish in the fish tank was gasping for air..

(I actually bought this fish originally as a small one inch fish to keep the other small fish in my humble little tank company, I bought it from an old lady in a pet store in an ancient looking street in Bangkok, a bit like that store in the film Gremlins where Gizmo was found in that ancient, forgotten store in China Town.. anyhow the old lady ensured me that ‘this fish would not grow any larger’, or maybe  not!)

I’m sure it’s now a potential record sized  foot long Giant pink eyed Gourami probably worth a hefty sum to someone – anyhow this fish was gulping for air at the top of the six foot tank I was forced to find just to house the sheer size of this so called small fish..

It turns out the air pump I purchased only about 8 months ago had taken it’s toil, routinely recycling the gallons of water that runs through it each day. The Big fish and the other surviving little fish around it were all gasping for air and survival.

The next thing I noticed as I returned to ‘home-sweet-home’ was a trickle of water that was leaking through the roof into the living room.. the house next door had been vacant ever since we moved in about 2 years previous and the new tenants had just moved in only to reveal the undiscovered leakage between their shower and our living room.

I had been driving for about 8 hours that day so I shoved the ‘quick fix’ bucket under the drip in the roof and poured fresh water into the Giant Guarami’s tank, and hit the sleep.

The next morning , ‘home sweet home’ I went out and bought a new pump for the fish tank and called in the maintenance guys to fix the leak in the roof. At this point things are looking better and I’m feeling good and looking forward to checking what’s been going on online and getting back to routine and enjoying my hobby/business..

Sound simple right..?

First you turn on the computer, then you turn on the modem..

Easy…

or Not!

The damned internet adsl light was down.. (This is Thailand after all and sometimes Stuff happens, although I must admit you do get a much quicker response to customer service than you would back in the UK or any other country I’ve lived in for that matter)

Anyway, I finally got the internet to work and I was logged on..

The good news was, whilst I’d been away for three days my businesses had grown a little and sales were ticking over and were just as good as if  not better than before I left..

GREAT..

However, like anyone who has an internet business/hobby/entrepreneurial mindset, I always have a few things going on in the background and have a few new up and coming things going on..

However, when I checked the new seedling projects I had planted, they had been trodden by the dreaded Google Slap!

All the new projects I had been investing time , energy and precious enthusiasm into had been halted by the Google Adwords Slap!

You could compare this to snuggling up with someone warm on a cold night, and being thrown over you a bucket of ice cold water with chunks of ice cubes bouncing off your head, spoiling your warm patch.

Hey, I can handle a basting now and again but this is my livelihood I’m talking about and the livelihood of my family, my employees and my affiliates.

Sometimes you just got to take it on the chin..

I recall a saying Dad used to say a lot, I don’t know who quoted this but i just know Dad said it a lot, that is..

‘What can go wrong, Will go wrong’..

So although I had enjoyed a well needed break away, I returned to put it bluntly a pile of crap!

I’s going to happen, it’s life..

It’s not what happens but how you react to it that is really important..

With the title of this post being ‘Google Slap’, maybe you expected to see groaning, moaning

and efforts to grovel to Google..

Well, if this has or does happen to you, the important thing is to keep your composure, because it’s not what happens to you,

but how you deal with it what really counts, keep your composure and you’ll be fine.

The Google machine is truly amazing, however it has some catching up if it is to meet the sophistication and experience of the human brain..

If you get slapped by Google, take it on the chin..

You just have to keep your composure, think it out and get around it..

Keep smiling and relax..

(By the way as I was just about to post this, there was a total blackout.. Not so normal for a metropolitan city or even Bangkok for that matter – as I post this there is power in my laptop battery and the sound of all sorts of animals outside you don’t normally hear, probably reacting to the power outage..)

It just goes to show, If it can happen It’s going to happen and I love the challenge..

I hope you do too..

To Your Success!

eBay has been the core foundation of my internet business for years and I’ve always said that if you are introducing a new product use eBay to TEST the market and the demand for that product. I say this because eBay already has an established base of hungry buyers who are actually looking to buy something whilst surfing eBay.

Getting good sales on eBay is a whole ball game in itself, but what after eBay? When you do have products selling on eBay where do you expand to? Well it doesn’t apply to every product however Google Adwords has been around for some time now and it is still in my opinion one of the best places to market your products after eBay.

As you know this blog is called ‘Auction Guerrilla’ and yes Google Adwords is also an auction as in, you bid on keywords and Google Adwords rewards the best advertisers with a higher ad rank. So today I’m going to show you how to set up a Google Ad campaign correctly. The problem with Adwords is that I’m not the only one to think Adwords is a great place to advertise and like eBay, the Adwords marketplace has become saturated for the more common niches.

So it is important that you know how to setup an Adwords campaign correctly.

Here goes..

Firstly you will have a list of keywords relating to your product and usually only 20% of those keywords will bring 80% of your traffic and sales.  (A bit like 20% of your eBay listings will bring you 80% of your sales)

So, you need to spend most of your time working on those 20% of keywords.

We will call these ‘Tier 1’ keywords and they need to go into ad groups with very similar keywords.

You will then create another ad group that contains the remaining 80% of keywords and you should call this ‘Tier 3’

I hear you shouting, “So what happened to ‘Tier 2′”

OK, ‘Tier 2’ for now is left open and here’s why..

After reviewing your ‘Tier 1’ keywords after a couple of days to a week you will leave the best performing keywords in ‘Tier 1’ and the remaining keywords you can ‘Peel and Stick’  into their own ad groups – These will become your ‘Tier 2’ keywords and ad groups.

Notice that if you set up your Google Adwords campaign this way, the next time you login to manage your account you can simply pay more attention to ‘Tier 1’ and ‘Tier 2’ ad groups and you will be spending your valuable time on the most productive keywords.

I should mention that your first campaign containing the three tiers should be targeted for Google search only (Not partners or the content network)

You should then duplicate your first campaign and target the Search Network and lower your bids on all of your keywords by 1 penny. This way you can monitor Google Search and The Search Network (Like Ask Geeves, AOL etc) separately.

OK, You can take a deep breath now but there’s one last thing.

To target the content network you would have another totally separate campaign and only target the content network.

It sounds complicated and it is!

However, If you do spend the time setting up your adwords campaign correctly in the first place you will make lots more money and save a lot more on bids.

As with any internet advertising platform it does take time to learn and implement correctly however I really do think Google Adwords is one of those platforms worth mastering. Everything I learned about PPC and Google adwords is from the grand master himself Perry Marshall.

Perry Marshall ‘Google Adwords Master’

If you havn’t  checked out Perry Marshall yet then you are missing out..

(By the way he’s also a Facebook marketing master)

You can check out Perry’s website here..

http://www.perrymarshall.com/google/

Do you know about Google AdWords yet?

eBay is a fantastic place to sell your products but what about selling your best eBay products in other places? Have you considered other auction sites? Or how about on Google?

Google has a system that makes it possible, for the first time in the history of the world, to deposit five bucks, write a couple of ads, and instantly get access to over 100 million people – in less than 10 minutes.

It’s called Google AdWords and it’s hot.  In fact it may be the first and best thing to do to get traffic to your site.

But it’s not always as easy as I just made it sound – AdWords has some nuances, and most people have a rough time at first.

Well my colleague Perry Marshall has written a very helpful e-course called “5 days to success with Google AdWords” and there’s no charge for it.  You can find out about it here: Learn Google Adwords

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