internet marketing essentials

Every time I come up with an idea, I have to evaluate it to see if it has profit potential. One way to do that is to scan what the bid prices are at Overture or Google. If the prices are high, that must mean there is some profit to be had in the niche.

Now I’m faced with a decision. Do I really want to spend the time on this new product idea? It would be great to see exactly what the demand would be. And thats where Google Adwords comes in.

If you are new to Adwords, Perry Marshall’s book is the one everyone has read and and recommends. The basic gist of it is, before you even begin developing your product,

1. go ahead and set up a landing page discussing your new idea
2. add a form to capture a name and email address for people who want to get a beta version of your product
3. set up some google adwords campaigns to drive people to your landing page

Pretty simple right. If you get some good traffic from this and some people signing up, you are able to judge demand for your product a bit better. And now you have an email list of prospective customers!

Other than testing like this, I’m having trouble deciding if Google Adwords can indeed be a profitable venture for long term advertising. I feel like the click rates just climb and climb, and more copy cat competitors enter into any field that still has profit potential. And this just drives up the bid prices until no one can make any money paying for these ads.

Oh well, at least its a decent way to test.