Archive for Affiliate Marketing
Time To Diversify
Posted by: | CommentsSo… I’ve received most of my commissions back from the Affiliate Networks I deal with, and that feels good. And because of that I’ve been able to run a few more campaigns on facebook, which felt good at first. But nothing has been converting well enough to make profit, let alone break even. I don’t know if I’m just promoting the wrong offers, or it’s a bad month, or what other 3rd variable is causing ‘failure’ but I’m not enjoying it.
As a result, I’m working on my first landing page so that I can diversify into other traffic sources. I’m going to focus on Yahoo and possibly Google. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of being banned by Google already for trying out a few things, and breaking a rule that I didn’t know was there… despite trying to search for it. Oh well.
Anyway, I’m excited to be moving forward and having better luck with a new traffic source. I’m not completely abandoning facebook, but I am parting with it for an undisclosed amount of time. 
Why “KISS” is Priority #1
Posted by: | CommentsNearly every internet marketing guru out there will tell you to make all your landing pages a certain way: Simple.
Keep it simple, stupid.
It may not always make sense, and it seems like you can never make your landing pages any simpler than they are, but it’s important that you try. The fact of the matter is that we as internet marketers always look for the Call-To-Action first. We open up a website, and we immediately know whether we’re being sold, or offered some information. Then we find the CTA.
However, the average internet user may not even know what hyperlink is, and when they look at a web page they may need to spend several seconds to digest what’s being presented to them. This is why it’s very important to have the most important information laid out in large easy to read fonts.
Have the most important points in a bullet list above the fold, along with an emotionally catching headline. People buy a product because it appeals to their emotional senses, and then justify the purchase with their own reasoning.
Anyway, the main thing I wanted to point out is just how stupid consumers are. Yes, they are.
I currently work at a sporting goods store, where every department of the store has a LARGE sign hanging from the ceiling reading “FOOTWEAR”, “GOLF”, “FITNESS”, “TEAM SPORTS”, etc, etc… All these signs are clearly visible one you walk through the door. The golf section is in the corner to the right, and you can’t miss it.
Whenever I work on the register, I get at least 10 people a day that walk through the door, look left and right, and then ask me “Where is the golf section?” Or, they’ll look at me and ask “Where is your fitness section?” despite the fact that the sign hanging behind me says “FITNESS”…
I cringe… and put on my nice face, and say “It’s right over there…”
This is a prime example of how it’s impossible to make anything simple enough for everyone…
So keep that in mind the next time you’re designing your landing page. Make every important detail as apparent as possible, and then some!
Comments appreciated.
A Job Won’t Take You Where You Want To Go
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been wanting to write a post about my thoughts about how Corporate America treats its employees but, there’s a few people who have done the work for me already.
Both articles bring up really valid points about why having a job is more of a risk than running your own business, or making money for yourself. If you’re employed, you’re basically on a fixed income and nothing’s going to make you more money, not even working harder. Even if you’re a commissioned salesperson, and the company promises ‘uncapped commission’ the reality is that achieving those results is impossible. I know because I used to be there myself. I worked for a very WELL known brand, selling their warranties on appliances. The average warranty cost 150$, and no matter how much I sold one for, my commission would always amount to 1$.
Let’s dissect this a bit more though, I was selling a ’service’ that many people never even used, which means it’s free money for the company, yet they only paid me 1$ in commission every time. They wanted you to believe you could make a lot, but the formula they used for calculating your commission always made your commission just 1$. Why should I work harder to close a sale, if it’s only getting me 1$?
To further illustrate my dismay, here’s an example of some of my stats.
This is from 11/30/2008 – 12/20/2008.
- Net Sales: $29,177.25
- Base Commission: $149.98
- Total Commission (Base x 2): $299.96
Ain’t that a rip-off?
My commission got doubled only because I was in the top 10 all the time. But if everyone had made about 29,000 in sales, only the top 10 people would get double commission, and that’s nowhere near fair. I have to admit, it felt good raking in $2,000-$3,000 in sales everyday. On that note, I think that’s a goal I’m going to set for myself for 2010.
There’s also a lesson to be learned from my experience there. When I first started that job, it was my first run at telemarketing, and because I hate losing I went in there with a determined attitude that was geared for success. It’s the same attitude I came into Affiliate marketing with, and let me tell you something, BEING DETERMINED TO SUCCEED WORKS.
Anyway, John Martinelli and Steve Pavlina get it right in their articles when they explain that having a job is for chums.
Steve Pavlina from 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job:
It’s funny that when people reach a certain age, such as after graduating college, they assume it’s time to go out and get a job. But like many things the masses do, just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. In fact, if you’re reasonably intelligent, getting a job is one of the worst things you can do to support yourself. There are far better ways to make a living than selling yourself into indentured servitude.
John Martinelli’s article The Art Of Bending Time also illustrates how employer’s exploit their employees, and they fall for it all the time!
“An employer will never pay you what you’re worth, because if they did, you simply wouldn’t be a profitable asset to the company.”
The Last Week
Posted by: | CommentsToday I was informed that I may have kept my readers (apparently I have a few, haha) in the dark about my progress. So… here’s an update.
I made $42,592,928,492.29 in 24 hours using this proven system, CLICK HERE NOW!
I’m joking.
Here are my Stats since Nov 28th.
| Investment | Revenue | Profit | ROI |
| $395.84 | $591.45 | $195.61 | 49.42% |
This is from a total of 7 campaigns. 2 of those 7 campaigns failed and I lost some money on. Some of the campaigns were originally showing a 100% ROI but lead scrubbing came into effect and my profit margins decreased. I did get my money back though 
That’s all I got for now.
82.44$ Profit – End of Day 12/6/2009
Posted by: | CommentsMy last post was a big mess of excitement. So I’m writing this one to give show you exactly what happened today.
Advertising Platform: Facebook
Offer: E-mail Submit
Offer Optimization: 12 Advertisements. Started offer out in CPC to test conversion rate, then took converting ads and activated them as CPM, while pausing the CPC counterparts. (CPC’s started out at 75 cents per click.)
I set the initial budget at 10$ to test the offer. I got 9 conversions, and earned 13.50$ in revenue despite the high CPC. 3.50$ from testing the offer, nice!
End of day Ad Spend: 81.06$
End of Day Conversions Total: 109
End of Day Revenue: $163.50
End of Day profit: $82.44
December 6, 2009 – Another Great Day
Posted by: | Comments
- Wizno Cash Money Dollars Millions Dolla-Dolla-Bill, Inc
I just don’t think I need to say much more… Sign up for Affiliit or stay in the 9-5 Grind for the rest of your life.
But wait, there’s more… Just 30 minutes later…
Seems that this day just keeps getting better and better. I can’t even explain how good it feels to be making more money, AGAIN! Affiliit is HONESTLY changing my life.
Stats as of 8:30pm:
Let’s wrap this up for the night, shall we?
Actually Earned 105.00$
Spent $50.78 on advertising.
Quick Update for November/December
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been pretty busy lately. Haven’t even thought about my blog too much, but I thought I’d post a quick update as to what’s happened in the last couple day.
I signed up for Affiliit, which is an online training program for Internet Marketing. And it’s been incredibly helpful. More so than anything else I’ve stumbled upon.
(You can click on the link on the top right corner to check them out)
In the past 2 days, I’ve spent 41$ on advertising on facebook and have earned $83.10 in revenue. Take the revenue and subtract the ad cost, and you get a nice 100% Return on investment. Wouldn’t you love to pay 40$ to make 40$?
I did that over 2 days, spending 20$ one day and 21$ the next day. It’s a lot more money than my adsense makes monthly, but still not enough to quit my day job.
I expect to be making 50-100$ a DAY by January. And it’s just going to go up from there.
I signed up for Affiliit on November 24th or 25th. 10 days later and I’m already making profits. What can Affiliit do for you?
My Short Term Goals
Posted by: | CommentsOver the past few months I’ve been learning a lot about internet marketing, and it’s really starting to pay off. I never really set any goals though because I didn’t have a good idea of what to expect. But now I know a lot about what I’m doing and it’s time to set some goals.
I’ve signed up for a few affiliate networks and have been looking at offers to promote, and have also been doing research to see what is doing well. Now that I know how to do some market research and analysis I feel comfortable setting a goal for myself.
Goals to Reach by End of 2009
- Reach 100$ a day in revenue. (Not net profit)
- Learn to optimize campaigns for better ROI.
- Work harder during free time.
That’s all I’m going to commit to for right now, but once I get these wheels spinning I’m not going to slow down. The finish line has “Super Affiliate” written all over it for me. And I’m gonna get there one way or another. Will you be there waiting?
Do The Most When You Least Want To
Posted by: | CommentsExceeding expectations is rewarding no matter which way you look at it. If you expect nothing but gain something, you’ll always be happier than if you had some set expectation. Just think about it mathematically. If you expect to earn 0.00$ in a day, and make $100, you’ll be much happier than if you expected to make $50 and made $100.
Why?
Because then you’ll be thinking about how much more you could have made if you spent some more time optimizing something or doing more planning. It’s just human nature and we can’t overcome that.
What spurred this train of though?
Well, I had told myself last night that I would load up my laptop with some training materials and go to a bookstore or panera to read and learn about affiliate marketing. Shortly after setting that expectation, I was told that my sister would be dropping of my newborn nephew for a couple hours in the morning. That quickly made those plans become null and void.
Morning came, and I woke up to my mom coming into my room with my nephew and laying him down on me, telling me he’s got to be burped. Awesome! Truthfully, I didn’t mind because he’s the cutest baby in the world, and I’d bet money on it.
Anyway, later that morning I decided I’d take the free time that so suddenly became available to reformat my PC and re-install Windows 7 just a week after I had put it on. It had been freezing up on me because of some driver conflict, and it was really getting annoying. So I did that, watched some LOST, and then got back to reinstalling a few essential drivers and all the software I use daily.
After that I didn’t feel like doing much, but had remember about my plan to get out of the house to learn. I was hesitant, but decided to make the trip and at least try to make it work. I’ve spent the last 2 hours reading several PDF’s about market research, adwords campaigns, PPC strategies, and many related terms. And because this was a spur of the moment thing, I feel like I accomplished much more than if my plans had worked out the way I originally intended them to, which was to do this all in the morning after I woke up.
Usually by 5-6 p.m. I’m watching LOST, V, Flash Forward, or House. Today, I’m doing something a bit more productive and I feel good about that.
That’s why it’s good to do the most when you least want to…
Dear Yahoo,
Posted by: | CommentsThey say that Google is really confusing when it comes to setting up a PPC campaign, but I beg to differ. I just tried to use Yahoo Search Marketing and it’s proven to be much less user friendly than Google AdWords.
I don’t know why it’s so confusing, but I’m also sure that with some time I’ll figure it out. Maybe I shouldn’t begin PPC campaigns at midnight?
Sincerely,
