Little rant after 4 months of affiliate marketing.

[nomeus]

I have tested close to 300 PIN/Sweeps/App install offers from at least 6 different networks, hundreds of landing pages from spy tools and self made ones, I even have access to some private networks which offers has not worked out for me. Thats at least 60(I'm not counting same camp with different bids or different source as multiple camps) or more camps on pop networks like popads, propeller, popcash and recently plugrush. And only one camp has been profitable. For 2 days.

I have tested different bid strategies, cut bad placements, drilled into different lander > os > offer combos, drilled into different crazy ISP > offer combos and have seen lots of green combos inside a red campaigns. But the thing is, what worked one day, stopped working the next day and it would not come back to life. I have not seen any consistency from day to day ever. One day camps best lander+offer can have +100% ROI on 50$ spend, next day -80% and it will not come back the day after. Some shitty placements you may say? Not that I didn't look for them.

Have I tried to sneak in some landers that traffic sources might not like? Sure I have. There is no other way in pops to even get close to profits without that.

Total spend about $5k and have made a bit less than a half of that back.

Will I continue doing AM? I have invested too much in it already to give it up. I really hope that I get to figure this out.

This thread is for those who think this is shiny and rainbows, but its not. Its a cruel business and really hard too.

 

[goraz1]

I have tested close to 300 PIN/Sweeps/App install offers from at least 6 different networks, hundreds of landing pages from spy tools and self made ones, I even have access to some private networks which offers has not worked out for me. Thats at least 60(I'm not counting same camp with different bids or different source as multiple camps) or more camps on pop networks like popads, propeller, popcash and recently plugrush. And only one camp has been profitable. For 2 days.

I have tested different bid strategies, cut bad placements, drilled into different lander > os > offer combos, drilled into different crazy ISP > offer combos and have seen lots of green combos inside a red campaigns. But the thing is, what worked one day, stopped working the next day and it would not come back to life. I have not seen any consistency from day to day ever. One day camps best lander+offer can have +100% ROI on 50$ spend, next day -80% and it will not come back the day after. Some shitty placements you may say? Not that I didn't look for them.

Have I tried to sneak in some landers that traffic sources might not like? Sure I have. There is no other way in pops to even get close to profits without that.

Total spend about $5k and have made a bit less than a half of that back.

Will I continue doing AM? I have invested too much in it already to give it up. I really hope that I get to figure this out.

This thread is for those who think this is shiny and rainbows, but its not. Its a cruel business and really hard too.

Wow man really its like i read my story! Just one tip from me - i am not spending any shitty dime on f****** paid traffic anymore. I a was never able to get positive roi on any of it!

 

[mobile99]

maybe you should try other traffic sources?

 

[nomeus]

maybe you should try other traffic sources?

Forgot to mention that I had a couple hundred dollar test on zeropark, but VAT(21%) was killing me there, until I start a company, some sources like adcash, wiget media and few others are not really in my reach right now.

Do you have any suggestions which ones to try? popads has the best targeting there is (and in return - high competition)

 

[tyoussef]

protect your landers

 

[T J Tutor]

protect your landers

Yes, I smell landing page hijacking here too!

 

[nomeus]

I mostly use ripped or modified ripped landers so no real threat there. And besides changing file locations often, there is not a really safe way to hide your landers from spy tools. :/

 

[Redamrg]

you lost 5k very sad man , maybe you are doing something wrong , charles ngo is from the best marketers now , he lost also 4k , maybe you need to learn more about mobile, charles ngo selling live training for 10k , maybe if you invest on this training and meet him face to face you will be able to change that , never give up .

 

[servandosilva]

I spent around 3-4k in paid traffic plus the same in courses at the beginning (paid traffic) without giving up.
Now that I've learned more I can generate that amount every single day.

And yes, I have profitable campaigns in all the traffic sources you've mentioned so it seems like either your optimization process isn't good enough or something else is missing. The key if not to give up anyways.

If you give up, then you lost those 2-3k for nothing. If you don't give up, then you're not really losing money, you're just investing in your education the same way people invest tons of time and money going to school later to find it hard to get a job that pays them what they really want.

The final decision is up to you.

 

[nomeus]

And yes, I have profitable campaigns in all the traffic sources you've mentioned so it seems like either your optimization process isn't good enough or something else is missing. The key if not to give up anyways.

That's why I am sticking with those sources.
Any bidding strategy suggestions for those sources?

 

[servandosilva]

That's why I am sticking with those sources.
Any bidding strategy suggestions for those sources?

My suggestion here is to launch with different bids.
1. High bid (top 3 if possible)
2. Average bid based on average CPM
3. Low bid

Test and see which one works better for your offer. Cancel the rest.

 

[nomeus]

For example bids fluctuate depending on time of the day. For example average bid at 10AM will be a lot less than average bid at 5PM. Do you take that into account?

 

[Dr. Forum]

I a glad that you have managed to test several networks and do believe you have enough knowledge of which ones are worthy your investments. I will say that it is sad that you have not made the cash back yet, however, you should not at all give up on this. Just keep working harder than ever before. You need to avoid spending o=anymore untill you see things working out the correct way. I am so sure that everything will be okay with time.

 

[DoubleDouble]

I have tested close to 300 PIN/Sweeps/App install offers from at least 6 different networks, hundreds of landing pages from spy tools and self made ones, I even have access to some private networks which offers has not worked out for me. Thats at least 60(I'm not counting same camp with different bids or different source as multiple camps) or more camps on pop networks like popads, propeller, popcash and recently plugrush. And only one camp has been profitable. For 2 days.

I have tested different bid strategies, cut bad placements, drilled into different lander > os > offer combos, drilled into different crazy ISP > offer combos and have seen lots of green combos inside a red campaigns. But the thing is, what worked one day, stopped working the next day and it would not come back to life. I have not seen any consistency from day to day ever. One day camps best lander+offer can have +100% ROI on 50$ spend, next day -80% and it will not come back the day after. Some shitty placements you may say? Not that I didn't look for them.

Have I tried to sneak in some landers that traffic sources might not like? Sure I have. There is no other way in pops to even get close to profits without that.

Total spend about $5k and have made a bit less than a half of that back.

Will I continue doing AM? I have invested too much in it already to give it up. I really hope that I get to figure this out.

This thread is for those who think this is shiny and rainbows, but its not. Its a cruel business and really hard too.

wow I really sympathise with this, I find myself facing the same dilema all the time. I am trying to stay positive, but its so hard. I have researched, paid for guides, ripped LPs and made my own. Tried different aff networks. Stuck to one type of offer and still I am finding it sooo difficult to make it work.

I guess we just have to stay positive and keep grinding. Sure would be good to see a pro run a cmapaign from scratch though to see where I am going wrong. I read ServandoSilva is going to be doing a live follow along of ZeroPark so really looking forwards to that.

keep positive and keep grinding the results will come (I hope )

 

[nomeus]

Remember my rant 5 months ago?
This is where I am at right now:

Took much longer than I expected, but nevertheless you should never give up.

Some experiences from 9 months of struggle:

1. If you are breaking even, or loosing money, find 2-3 more similar people than you and form a tiny mastermind. It will most likely die in couple months, but it will help you A LOT while it lasts. In the beginning share everything, offers, landers and so on. Maybe start with different GEOs and share stats. Do daily/weekly calls, make decisions together based on what you all agree on.
   
2. When you start seeing some green, find someone doing 200-300$ a day with same traffic, but just different offers, message them. They are more likely to help you. Don't ask for advice up front. Tell them that you are running same traffic and you might be able to help each other. Don't look for people doing A LOT more than you. They are on a different level.
3. Most people will bullshit you about a lot of things. Why? They want to look cooler than they are. Filter what everyone tells you. Find someone you can truly trust. Look for people from your country, they are more likely to be trustworthy.
4. Talk to people, don't ask stupid questions or most people will stop responding. Team up with them. Send them links about cool offers, courses, PDFs and whatever you think is valuable to them. Help them if you have some skills, if you don't, master some skills.
   
5. If you are doing 300$ a day, find someone doing 1k a day. Again, with the same traffic, but different offers. Talk to them, but don't ask stupid questions!! Nobody has time for that. Treat this game like a staircase, you can get from bottom to the top jumping 10 steps at a time, but you can brake your neck while you are doing it. Taking one step at a time will take longer, but you are more likely to succeed.
   
6. Go as direct as you can. For that you need revenue, but at this point you should already have it. You should have some industry friends at this point, if you don't, track down advertisers with offer links. Advertiser I am working with told me that they only take people who are doing 3k a day minimum revenue. I promised to get there in 2 months. 1 month later I am half way there. Don't brake promises. Nobody gives a shit. If you don't deliver, there are hundreds of people who will.
   
7. Go to conferences and look which are the most flashiest networks (biggest booths, best parties). Don't work with them, most likely they are the biggest scrubbers. Best networks are the most silent ones, you probably haven't even heard about them.
8. You will start to make decent money only when most of the parts will come together - traffic source, offer, advertiser, tech, your advertising skills and so on.
9. But don't give up. When I started I thought that it will take me 3 months max. It took me 6 months and about $4k to get to my first profitable month ($1.4k) and 9 months to my first $1k day. I failed to do it faster, because I thought that I am smart and I don't need to listen to people who were doing 10-20k. I was fortunate to meet smart people early, but dumb enough to not to listen to them. Don't do that.

That's a lot of text, I don't know if everything is correct, but that is just my experience.
Keep your head up. You lose only when you decide to lose.

 

[internalsoul]

Wow nomeus. Congrats on your success. Your decision to stick to AM 5 months ago really paid off even if you failed. It's a matter of patience and hard work and it really paid off at the end. Now, keep it going and best of luck

 

[lorenzo]

Congrats! Did you find success in the same vertical/traffic sources you started?

 

[nomeus]

Nop, I tried a lot of different things. Even skin on native, but now I am running something that I am comfortable with and it just clicked from first couple campaigns. Somehow everything came together.

 

[Serfim]

Congrats! I'm in same situation that you were 5 months ago, i hope that finally i will find the solution as like you. Hope you all the best!

 

[GrupoWayseer]

Nop, I tried a lot of different things. Even skin on native, but now I am running something that I am comfortable with and it just clicked from first couple campaigns. Somehow everything came together.

thats momentum right there
its not luck or anything
is the culmination of errors and learning curve
feels good i remember my first campaign with profit
was with infolinks
hoping to read more from your experiences,
keep it up!