You’re an author and you’ve got a book you’d like to sell.  Your website isn’t getting ANY traffic and someone tells you that an EASY way to drive traffic to your website is by using Adwords.

Adwords is the name of the advertiser’s side of the online advertising program developed by Google. Adwords allows you to place text ads for your website on other people’s websites.

The other side of the equation is AdSense, which allows website owners to make money by displaying ads.

So on one side of the equation, you have website owners displaying ads, while on the other side of the equation you have website owners who are PAYING to have those ads displayed.

Google allows AdSense Publishers to share the revenue that Google earns from AdWords.

AdWords advertisers only PAY Google when someone actually CLICKS on the ad.  Adwords rates are determined in a “silent auction” style system.  Adwords advertisers determine when they place their ad how much they are willing to pay each time someone clicks upon their ad. Google will then reveal to them what “position” they can expect to see their ad appear.

The words an advertiser uses to determine WHERE their ads appear are known as “keywords”.

So today, as I was using my Gmail to respond to an editor’s query, I saw an Adwords ad appearing at the top of my screen:

M.D. Needs A Ghostwriter? (webaddress) Bestselling health writer can help make your book idea a reality.

It’s a GREAT ad!!  I click, even though I’m NOT an M.D. and I don’t need a ghostwriter.

When I arrived at the page, I’m disappointed.   The page leads with:

Finding a writer is easy.

What’s really difficult is finding a writer who truly understands the health and inspirational/spiritual genres…

I’m here because I clicked on an ad about  ghostwriting for MD’s and this dude’s main selling point is the  “spirtuality” of his writing.

BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ADWORDS:

Rule #1:  Choose the right keywords to target.

Rule #2: Include those keywords in your “ad” copy.

Rule #3: LEAD with those keywords in the page you link to the ad.

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By the way -  if you’re even THINKING about using Adwords - try launching a blog first!  If you have a blog and you’re still thinking about using Adwords - pick up a copy of the 8 Week Power Blog Launch.  Use the coupon code “author” to save $20.

The $57 for this course is MUCH, MUCH less than you’ll spend on your first Adwords campaign AND you’ll learn valuable information that will make your Adwords campaign less expensive AND more effective - if you need to go that route!

One of my blogging client’s Alexa ranking went from 6.4 Million to 1.2 Million in the course of 3 weeks.

Filed under: Easy Author Book Marketing, Adwords, author, author blog marketing, blogs for authors, book marketing, selling books online