Webmaster-Talk

The Google test is not something that should scare you. If anything, it should challenge you. Remember that you have to spend at least $1,000 with them in a period of 90 days before you are eligible to receive your certification. You can take the test at any time once you sign up for the course, but I suggest you wait until the last few days. It helps to learn the information and apply it as you move through the days. Even if you pass the test on day 3, you will not be given your certification logo until you spend the $1,000. The point being that you want to make money while you learn and not just give Google $1,050 for the requirements including your test.

The Test

In the real test you will have more than 100 questions. In total, I had around 107 or so. They are multiple choice questions which make it, in my opinion, a lot easier than you might think. You are given 1.5 hours and when you start, the clock starts. You cannot pause the clock so please take this test when you have the full available time. You cannot afford the luxury of taking phone calls while you test.

On a few occasions (very frustrating occasions) the browser would not reload after I answered the questions. It just froze on me. Google warns you that the timer will not stop for anything and I knew that my time was still running. I sat there waiting for the browser and nothing happened. I was afraid to hit the “Back” button for fear of losing all my work. After about 2 minutes, I hit it anyway thinking that I could file a complaint if I lost my previous answers (at this point, I was on number 72). Nothing happened for a few seconds and finally, I was taken to the previous question where my answer was still recorded. Thankfully, I was able to move on from there. This little freezing incident happened three times. And yes, the timer was still counting. Be careful and don’t be afraid to use the back button.

The test questions are scenarios mostly. You will have to do some basic calculations to figure out the ROI and Ad rankings. Other than that, the test is straight forward. By doing the math, you will have about 1 minute 18 seconds per question. This is plenty of time. Don’t rush and don’t panic. Remember to review your materials and get a good night’s sleep and eat a good breakfast. Yeah, that’s what was always told to me during my school years before an important test. I figured I’d throw that in too!

After completing the exam, you will be sent your exam results and they will be posted in the Pro Center page of your My Client Center. Access that and see how you did. If you passed, congratulations! If not, you pay another $50 to take the test. Keep in mind that you will not be told what questions you missed or what answers you got wrong. They are very serious about confidentiality and will not disclose details of the test to anyone. If you don’t pass, you’ll have no idea what you need to improve or what you need to review. That’s why I suggest you knock it out the first time around.

If you get stuck while taking the test and don’t know what to answer, go with your first instinct…your gut reaction. Don’t second guess yourself. Answer what you believe to be true and move on. Don’t get caught up in “thinking too much” about it. Answer and move on. Remember that you only have about 1 minute and some odd seconds per question. Also, passing the test means passing with a 70% or higher.

After You Pass

When it’s all said and done, you will have passed your test and will have received your logo. I congratulate you now for your hard work and efforts. Feel free to post any feedback you may have or any other pointers you come across.

Let’s continue where we left off last time. We discussed the basics of the test and now let’s talk a little bit about the text and video lessons.

The Lessons

I must stress the importance of reading through the materials completely. If you are serious about passing the test the first time around, then take the lessons seriously. Don’t think that you can open another browser window and “Find” the answers you need while taking the test. It is not structured that way. If this is your strategy, then prepare to pay the $50.00 test fee more than once. You’ve got a minimum of 90 days to go through the materials so take your time and take it seriously.

After every lesson there is a mini quiz that is included for you to practice on a few sample questions. They are actually quite good and I found at least 5-10 of these in the actual test with some variations. I assume that the test is randomized and that no two people are taking the exact version of the test. So in your case, there might be more or there might be less. The quiz questions are very basic and test the fundamentals of what you just learned. In the real test however, scenarios are given and you must apply your knowledge to the case given.

There are a few lessons where I skipped the text version of the lesson and went through the video instead. Upon taking the mini quiz, I found that I was not given the information I needed to answer the questions. That is where I began to see some inconsistencies in the lesson formats. I went to the text version and there was the answer. The video had completely skipped over it! I prefer the videos over the text, but the text is more informative. Plus, it helps to see how Google words things and that is a big plus! Their wording and language structure is key in anticipating the real test questions.

The Notebook

When I began to study for the test, I went and bought a 70 page spiral notebook to record my notes in. I spent a few hours a day going through the material and writing down detailed information about each lesson. Yes, it got old. Yes, it was burdensome. Yes, it was annoying, but I wanted to pass the test the first time so I sucked it up. I went through each lesson virtually writing every point they made. I cannot tell you how handy this was when I took the test. My mind was already primed to know where to find the answers I needed. It really helped in the end.

The notebook idea is a great one because even now, I have all of my notes in it as a reference. Also, before taking the test, I took three days to review the materials. On the first day I quickly read through the first third of the notebook. I already had the information in my head, I just needed a refresher. On the second day I did the second third of the notebook and the last third on the last day. I didn’t study the notes, I didn’t try to memorize the information, I just read it quickly. That really helped out. Basically, I broke the notebook into “chunks” and feasted on them quickly just to remind me of what I had already studied.

Writing the notes served as my study time and reading the notebook was my review. When I took the test, I had over 30 minutes left that I didn’t use. I finished early and didn’t need to panic to search for the answers. I just knew them!

There are those of you that will pass this test without a problem and without having to do all of this mess. That’s fine. But, let me try to help you by telling you what I did. Take what you want and leave what you don’t care for. There are more difficult things in life than the Google Adwords Certification test. However, having some prior knowledge about the test can’t hurt!

Part 3 of this article is coming soon…

My name is Guaner and I am an Administrator here on EarnersForum.com. I also work with Lee on his many ventures and have had the priviledge of seeing this site (among others) started from scratch. I want to share with you some knowledge about the Google Adwords test that many of you have talked about taking.

For those of you that don’t know, Google offers a certification test of sorts that allows you to earn the famed Google Adwords Professional Logo. It looks like this:

My goal is to chronicle the steps you need to take to pass the test. Personally, I passed the test back in March of this year. I sweated the whole time I was studying for it, mainly because I didn’t know what to expect. I hope the information here helps you all.

Starting Out
Be sure to visit this page and see all of the requirements needed to get started. You will need at least 90 days and $1,000 to spend with Google Adwords. Sign up using the form and get started. You will need to make ads and spend a total of $1,000 in a minimum of 90 days plus pass the Adwords test to get the certification. I will not focus on the advertising side of this process but rather on the test taking portion.

What You Need To Know
If you don’t have prior knowledge about Google Adwords and how it works, don’t worry about it. You will soon know more than you thought you would. Google provides some tutorials for you here on this page. They call it the Learning Center.

It is here that you will have the option of studying either the text or the video lessons. There are a total of 8 topics with many subtopics in each. Some are timed at 2 minutes to complete while others are timed at over 15! You will benefit greatly from going through each of these. It is important that you read and watch the videos even if you already know the information. I found that there is information found in the text lessons that are not included in the videos and vice versa. Go through the lessons and pay attention.

If you want to pass, all of the information will be found there.

Stay tuned for Pt. 2.

Just a heads-up for anyone that is a current affiliate with eBay through CJ Affiliates, Shoemoney has launched AuctionAds. It was previously launched as ShoemoneyAds, but it was closed due to continous errors and downtime. Now he has joined MediaWhiz to launch this new service.

AuctionAds is not an advertiser/publisher solution. Instead, it is a method of displaying eBay listings which contain a specific pre-defined keyword in various advertisement boxes. These listings are redirected through a CJ affiliate ID. Here is how much you can earn using eBay’s affiliate program:

1. A visitor becomes a confirmed, active user of eBay.com within 30 days of registration.
   $12.00
2. A registered user places a Winning Bid. Note: The $1,000 and $100,000 tiers will be 31.3% and 43.8% increases, respectively. By April 1, 2007, those tiers will change to 31.25% and 43.75% increases, respectively, as presented on the eBay.com Affiliate pages.
   40.00%

It is also a great solution for affiliates that want to see how many times an advertisement is displayed, as well as the click-through rate. Registration is free, open to the public and only takes 5 minutes!

AuctionAds also offers an affiliate program for their publishers that refer more members to AuctionAds. You can receive 2% of revenue earned in 6 months from your referrals.

Here are a few examples of websites using AuctionAds:

• Shoemoney
• ProbeBay

Not sure if you have heard of MSN’s new Adcenter system that is currently in beta.

MSN Adcenter Beta

You can login with your existing account information and play around with the new and improved Adcenter. This is a MUCH needed change for MSN as the old Adcenter was very much lacking in functionality and speed. It appears the new system is quite a bit faster and easier to use all the way around. Good to know someone at MSN was listening!