Lynn; thanks for responding!
My keywords were researched through Overture's and Digitalpoint's Keyword selection tools. Digitalpoint covers both Overture and Wordtracker in limited detail:
www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/. Number of searches on these keywords ranged from several thousand a month to 2 digit numbers monthly.
These keywords are almost entirely phrase match. I have come to the understanding that using
exact match can boost ad position amongst high competition, so some of my phrases are also repeated as exact matches. I have attempted to use phrases that are not too broad, yet broad enough to get combined with relevant words I have not thought of. Ex; "fishing instructions" and the user types 'bass fishing instructions'. I have also included specific phrases which were targeted and recieving searches.
There is mainly one competing listing for my keywords. Several of my phrases have multiple competitors, but they are the usual broad sweeps like Ebay or Amazon. My competitor is selling an ebook instruction for a lower price wereas my affiliated product is a video guided instruction for slightly more.
I am using the affiliate URL as the destination, and the merchant's landing page as the display URL. The landing page seems designed well according to the limited knowledge I have about landing pages.
I am thinking if my competitor is enjoying success, the problem might be the product I'm promoting.
One reason, it is more money, by approx. 10 dollars. I am not sure how much people are willing to spend in this peticular hobby, especially since some search for free information.
Another reason is the way the copy promotes this product. In this hobby, many people are looking for instructions to do a large number of things, yet the copy mentions the main product as giving only 20 instructions. It mentions teaching the basic principles so you can do as many as you want, but I wonder if this is appealing to what the consumer wants. At the end of the copy where the order button exists, bonuses are presented which include many more specific instructions. However by that point, perhaps the customer has left?
In any case, I am trying to find similar products from larger retail outlets like Overstock.com, Walmart.com, Amazon.com, ect. However, Linkshare operates the affiliate programs for many of these, and their system is timing out on the links page! Anyone else having this trouble?
I want to create more campaigns to see how it goes, however first I am trying to gain more insight into this situation.
Thanks for taking the time to help and read through this long post;
Kevin