Monday, November 01, 2004 11:50:27 PM PST

 Okay, from the beginning:

 I am an artist and I work at a job I don't really enjoy. A bit cliché, but there you have it.

  I thought I would sell some paintings on Ebay. I read every Ebay help file, Ebay  ebook and Auction forum I could find.

I sold one painting for less than cost. I couldn't imagine making enough money to leave my job, auctioning my art.  I kept searching.

 The first Web-marketing  ebook  I read was “The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on ebay” by Jim Cockrum. It really opened my eyes!  You can find dozens of different ways to generate income through eBay with this book. You can even use cheap eBay ads to drive traffic to your website.

 I soon discovered affiliate marketing through pay-per-click search engines. No shipping, no emails, no buying from a wholesaler and no customer contact. That last one sold it for me.

You might find, like me that Google Adwords is a good place for a beginner to start.

 Here is a list of tools I use daily to work on my campaigns and I will call it the:

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;  Adwords  Starter  Pack

• 
  
  Adword Analyzer This my favourite tool for finding affordable keywords for my Adword  campaigns. Fast and easy to use but
  it’s not free.
  


• 
  
  WordTracker This one is really good, too. It also has a free trial. You can return to the site and use the free tool over and over. 
  


• 
  
    Overture Keyword Selector&nbs p;Tool This is a free tool provided by the mighty Yahoo Search engine: Overture. You just type in a keyword and it gives you a list of related terms that have recently been searched for on Overture. Google doesn’t have a tool like this so the Overture ranking is the next best thing to determining a keywords usage and popularity.
  


• 
  
     Overture Bid Tool   Another groovy free tool from Overture.
  ” Type in a search term and we'll show you the Max Bids and listings for that term.”   That’s what it does. You can find out real fast if your keywords are inexpensive or astronomical.
  


• 
  
      & nbsp; Google Cash Virtually every affiliate using Google adwords has read this book. You should read it, too. You don’t want your competition to have an unfair advantage, do you? Chris Carpenter helped me get started with Adwords in just a few hours.
  


• 
  
       Google Adwords 123   Greg Heslin takes you by the hand and walks you through 2 successful Adwords campaigns. You will also learn how to search for inexpensive targeted keywords. Keywords from a consumer’s perspective. This an excellent companion to Google Cash and I suggest you buy one if not both of these ebooks and jumpstart your Adwords adventure!

Holy Crow look at the time! I have to crash. I have more links to add and plenty of suggestions for optimizing your Adword experience. I will continue with this topic in my next entry.

- David Parton