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Long Time Affiliate, Finally Making Push to $100/day Consistently

Maxin

Well-Known Member
Hello All AffiliateFix'ers!

This is not quite the beginning of my journey with your forum, but close. I officially started on Friday but the system would not let me post my first journey entry.

I ended up getting amazing help already from Robert at Envyus Media. He completely opened my eyes to how much I don't know..and that is great step in the right direction. Will fill in more later tonight after I launch another campaign.

Going with CPA and several different traffic sources.
Using AdsBridge for tracking...and demonstrating the 50 ways to muck it up! o_O
Running dating offers from Envyus - Thanks Rob!
Using Bing, Mobicow, Mmedia and a few others for traffic so far until I find something that converts.

Thus far..spent about $20 across several sources..one conversion at $4.30 from Bing.

Have little clue as to the kw or ad the conversion came from. Yep, lots to learn.
 
Thanks for the hearty welcome and support Gents!

Lots of activity today but not much to show for it. After about 3 hours spent building a campaign on Google display, with all the tracking finally dialed in - so I believe - Evil G disapproved the site and denied all the ads. I suspect this may have to do more with G's new Final url requirements then the site. I am going to figure out the new linking and tracking method Google requires and resubmit tomorrow.

To catch up on what has happened so far:
Running Bing, Mobicow, Mmedia traffic into a solid offer.
Bing has generated one conversion off of about 37 clicks. Getting good CTR on my ads - from 1.4% up to 3.5% - but the traffic level is low.
No conversions, though extremely high click through on Mobicow..crazy high around 10%. But with no conversions, it could be people trying to punch my ad to make it go away..
Mmedia did about the same as Mobicow...a fair number of clicks..about 0.3%..but no conversions.

Now that I have more experience with AdsBridge as my tracking system, I am not quite as clueless about what happens from my traffic sources. I may rerun some of my campaigns changing to my own landers, and testing for bot traffic.

After about 5 hours total of study and campaign posting today, I am going to shut down and act on the following plan for tomorrow:
-Edit my Google campaign to see if I can get it approved. Have to figure out the new Final URL plus tracking system to make sure I get credit for the link - if possible.
-Turn up a new traffic source with refined tracking for the same dating offer I have been running.
-Add a new offer and build at least one campaign for it, probably on one of my financial authority sites.
-Move all my sites to my new VPS with SSD. This preparation for launching a new semi-authority site where I can get approval from G and run a lot of health and fitness offers.

Once I get my tracking links sorted on the new campaigns, I will post the tracking results with ROI, conversions, and the other KPI's.

What I am listening to (this idea was from CashMoneyAffiliate..and it is pure genius!)

More tomorrow!!
 
Could not end the night without digging a little further into the details. I found out exactly why G disapproved the ads: the site is labeled as malware. That must refer to my tracking/redirect site, as I thought. Going to research right now how to track, keep the affiliate relationship working, and get through Google. Gotta gotta gotta!!
 
Figured it out. Google removed all my ads..gee thanks for that! Uploaded all of the banners again, including some I created. Added a few text ads. Reworked the url's so they could pass google's new requirements. I had to get the campaign set-up before I went to bed. Now I have some news - good or bad - to look forward to tomorrow!
 
Thanks for the input Razrus5! Google is still denying my ads. I am going to go through the Url's one last time. If G still denies me, I am shifting to another few traffic sources that are more targeted. Shifting from the shotgun to the rifle approach.
 
Got my fifth bloody nose from Google last night, even as I was updating the ads. Based on my chat with Rob, my guru, I am slowly increasing bids on Bing. I also changed up some ads to double CTR to around 2%.

I called Google based on Rob's advice. Surprisingly, a nice CS person named Chad answered and helped me out for about 15 minutes. He explained that about the only way to change a campaign with multiple ads and get it through, assuming I pass all the restrictions, is to use the Adwords Editor and upload everything at one time.

After about 90 minutes of working through Adwords editor, getting my ads in, setting up all the correct URL's, and then triple checking everything, I pushed upload. About 5 minutes have passed, but I think based on my discussion with Chad and Rob, that my campaign will be allowed on Google display.

The best part is that I "may" have my tracking with AdsBridge worked out. Adsbridge support has been very responsive. I chatted on skype with their support about an issue of tracking with mmedia. All mmedia does is give me a number that is supposed to go somewhere for passing information. Looks nothing like tracking from all the other networks, mobile or other, that I have tried. Will sort it out, but mmedia has not been too kind to me in the past regarding approvals or conversions, so no rush on it.

Thinking positively, I expect Google to get my ads running. Only a few ads are custom or text with some dynamic text, the rest coming from the merchant as posted at Envyus. Based on an expected 3% conversion, my bid has to be low, below $.15 Not expecting a lot of action at that level, so I may scale up the bid once I hone in on the words or sites that convert. Getting ahead of myself..have to get approved!

IF I get approved, then my wandering and setting up campaigns at four traffic sources and more, is over for now. Will get to create better landers, optimize with data, and shake that profit tree!!!:D

And I will be able to post numbers here from AdsBridge...cool!

While I am waiting for approval, I am going to build a sophisticated lander that will probably double the conversion rate.

I am also going to launch another offer that may have a bigger audience for me to tap into on my traffic sources.



What I am listening to and living:


Completely thankful for all the support I have already received here - especially Rob at Envyus, as well as AdsBridge and Mobicow (talk about fast approval and support!).

Getting so close to making something happen I can smell it!
 
Got the slam from Google again. That does it. I am moving on. If Charles Ngo, one of the top affiliates, doesn't want to work with Google because they are too hard to get through, then I am going to follow his lead. Done with google, at least for this campaign.

Going to move to friendlier pastures for traffic, keep Bing going and improve CTR to get more people in the funnel. Adding another traffic source ASAP. Need to get this offer going..
 
Exciting day for sure. Ended up moving on from google and launched a campaign on Go2Mobi with full tracking, custom graphics along with provided ones, direct linking. Was going to bail on the campaign because I have been throwing too much money at the campaign. Decided to let Go2Mobi run for a little while because I wanted to see how the tracking worked...and of course check if there were conversions. Also Go2Mobi was kind enough to meet my deposit 100%, so I did not mind the $10 spend for a systems check and data. Would have really liked a conversion though. Ads hit 0.61% CTR.

Tracking sure worked, but no conversions. Shut down the campaign after I ran about 90 clicks.

Jumped on another offer (thanks Rob!) and posted that quickly to Bing - with very granular tracking. Bing would not even allow the tracking link because it had some search dependent variables. Once I cleared that hurdle, the ads got approved and ran. Direct linking again (need some landing page skills!), but this time, I put much more thought into my ads. I write quite a lot as part of my income job, including copywriting for ads. I suddenly realized that I had been so focused on what I was not great at in AM - tracking and creating landers - that I forgot to work the skills I excel at.

I whirled up my ad creating thinking - and came up with four ads that I secretly thought "these ads are going to work."

After my workout, I checked on Bing. Weird - Bing said I was out of budget for my campaign that I just launched maybe 4 hours earlier. Set my budget at $5, but with bids equally low - $0.15-$0.30 - I thought I would have more of a run.
I soon learned a lesson again, Bing ignores all of your bid setting, unless you set all the keyword bids. Remembered this happening to me several times before on other campaigns. Not only that, but Bing blew by my daily budget by a measly 110%! Youch!

Just as I was checking and cursing Bing..I found out the campaign had 2 conversions!!
Out of 9 clicks on my ads!!

Chatted with support..begged and pleaded for a credit. No big deal...reset all the bids to $0.3 and upped the already blown budget to get the ads running..

I then checked the tracking and began seeing the beauty of detailed data. From Ad to KW to conversion, I now know what is driving a conversion. Of course I knew that information was available with tracking, but I was too much of a "get a ton of traffic and hope you get lucky" type to worry about something that could be a pain to set-up like tracking. Now I know...without tracking, I am just throwing money out a window.

The campaign with 2 conversions is in the red about $7. Now that my bids are back in the correct range, the big question is if I can get any traffic. This is a competitive space with high bids.

As I see this PPC, here is my new checklist:
-Ads must attract a prospect, then get them committed to clearing the CPA hurdles because something good will be on the other side. Minimum 4 ads for testing. All about creating an attractive angle..
-For Bing, the offer must have broad appeal: weight loss, coupons, etc. Anything niche oriented will not have enough traffic.
-Set-up tracking for ads, through kws, landers. Switching between a few trackers now to see which ones I like.
-Create landers once I prove the ads work and the offer can work. This is one of my challenges - making strong landing pages. I have a few new tools and may sub out this.
-Get enough data - maybe 100-200 clicks (PPC from search) to optimize if there are conversions. No conversions, probably time to move on.
-Post at least 3 campaigns a day, and sift out the winners.

Was planning on posting several more campaigns tonight and still may.

That is where I am at fellow AffiliateFix'ers.

Now that my campaign is back on, I will see and report back if the lowered bids still attract and convert.

Inspiration for the journey:
 
If Charles Ngo, one of the top affiliates, doesn't want to work with Google because they are too hard to get through, then I am going to follow his lead. Done with google, at least for this campaign.
I can tell you that all super affiliates are making HUGE money on Google just right now, don't believe anything you read on the internet.
 
The google thing really depends on the approach.

For example, maybe running a direct affiliate link, or even thru your own tracking platform won't get approved.

But can always make a lander and gather emails and mail it out that way, and still be in the niche.

Always Options :)
 
Hey Lorenzo and Puppet Master - thanks for popping in on my journey. Lorenzo - I agree that Google is still a great source for traffic with the right approach. I made my first money with google and used it for several businesses successfully. I do need to build more of an authority site, and make an effort to meet Google's restrictions. I have a site in development that will probably pass Google's site standards. Then I will advertise there. For my direct linking campaigns, I am not going to waste more time with them.

Yeah Puppet Master - Rob is continuing to whip me into affiliate shape. I feel lucky to get his advice.

Even though I am slammed with other projects for my day business, I went back to AM at 6:00, doubled my kws list, created a few new ads, and restarted the traffic that died from my campaign yesterday. Now getting clicks at around $0.30 instead of $1.85. Big if on whether the buy through rate holds. So far, not happening, but it is early in the day.

Going to post more campaigns today, plus launch my landers on my VPS SSD server for some offers using networks I know will approve me plus send a load of traffic.

Gotta love the challenge!
 
Almost forgot to post my after action report after putting in a solid 16 hour day...not my typical work rate.

After tweaking ads, loading up more kws, I got another conversion after 12 clicks on one campaign. For that ratio, I had a 300%+ ROI - except I do not have enough data, and scaling it looks to be a challenge at least on Bing. Still, it is definitely the right direction.

I also loaded up my other campaign with more kws but kept the very high CTR ads the same. Got slammed by Bing again! They ignore my campaign settings and set the bids to whatever they feel like it. Had to go back through all the kws and bring them back to earth. Will see if by tomorrow I can get clicks at these bargain basement prices for offer 2.

Was going to add more campaigns, but Rob calmly suggested I work these ones hard...and I agree after thinking about it more.

So I created my own landing page for one offer and am launching it on Mobicow. The ad copy is strong - the graphics are super weak. I have found a landing page creator and will have him remake one for me tomorrow. I am also switching to a responsive layout since AdsBridge does not seem to follow the landing page rules I set. I tested the campaign and no matter what I do, I get the my mobile page, even though I made a full size lander for Web/Tablets and set up a rule for it.

Decided to run the campaign with Mobicow anyway. Finally have decent tracking set-up for all of my campaigns.

The numbers thus far are ugly..

All in - conversions total $16.08, ad costs (including Bing pillaging me for more than double my budget!) - $64.00

Even though I am at a loss, I am thrilled to be seeing a conversion or two day to day.

Now that I have figured out Bing's game, I will pay no more than $0.30 pre click. My ad costs will drop by more than 50%, but who knows what will happen to my CTR and already limited traffic.

If I could choose one traffic source that I want to make convert well and rely on, it would be Mobicow. I have had a conversion with them already and want to figure out which kind of landers and offers work best. I am testing one of my offers and landers now with them to speed up the clicks because Bing just dribbles traffic.

My plan tomorrow:
-Port my server over to the VPS, get the domains pointed, and begin hosting my own pages for more reliable pops on Mobicow and other networks
-Get some landers custom made for my offers.
-Possibly test one more traffic source with the same offers..

As always, thanks to all of you for the likes, the input, the words of wisdom, and the mojo!!

And for a humor break..I am watching:
 
Did not get too far today. Updated campaigns with new ads, but no conversions. Some of my changes lowered the ad CTR.
Spent a few hours moving my server over to a new VPS with SSD's. Now I am ready to create landers that will deliver fast. Decided to focus on creating my own landers for all of my campaigns. That may be my missing link.

More ugly numbers - spent another $15 - and $0 conversions.
 
Maxin,

Thanks for sharing the details of your program. I am just starting, and although I don't quite get all of the jargon, I get enough to understand the hurdles and how you are working through them. Valuable insight! Good luck with your new landers.
 
Tag line of this update: To Earn a Pro's Income, I Need Pro Skills

Hey RvFamily, welcome to my journey and AffiliateFix. Yeah, I am making the mistake of throwing in the buzzwords or acronyms of the industry. It confuses me and slows me down when I read forum postings in a bunch of different fields where that happens. Starting now, I will write out the acronyms and buzzwords for you or anyone else that hasn't been banging around the internet marketing world for a while.
VPS with SSD = Virtual Private Server with Solid State Drives. Much faster than shared hosting and key for pop-up ads or just being fast with page loads.
Lander = landing page for offers.
CTR = Click Through Rate of ads. The higher the better usually, though I have made the mistake of going for high CTR but not informing the visitor well enough who qualifies for the offer. This ends up attracting more clicks and visitors, but hurts conversions.

There are a bunch more acronyms or buzzwords to catch up on. Checkout cashmoneyaffiliates free download about CPA marketing. He put together a fantastic primer with all the acronyms and buzzwords.


Now to catch up with my journey:

As I wrote about earlier, I planned to move servers over to Vultr from Hostgator. I eventually completed the data move between Fri and Saturday but am having issues with the domains, mail, and other services. Figured out what the problem was and will go one by one through all my domains to correct or fill in the DNS info. It will take me a good hour or two, but then I will be back in business.

Meanwhile, I had 21 clicks to a great offer and no conversions. Rob pointed out that I am showing great skill at not getting conversions :p. Same ads that got over 20% conversion when I first turned them on. (2 conversions out of 9 clicks) I believe I made the mistake of going for high CTR's, but visitors are not getting exactly what they expect or something else is preventing them from taking the next step. I stopped the ads while I was moving servers.

I am getting more than adequate traffic from Bing after I added a lot more targeted kws for one of my offers, while the other offer is still suffering low traffic volume. I have come up with a solution though that I am sure will change the traffic and conversions - but it requires a much higher skill set than I have now. And guess what this means - I am sending myself to school. Taking courses on php again, learning new design packages, and devoting the time to make one of those landing sequences that I was always envious of and knew must convert like crazy. Meanwhile, I am going to keep tweaking, adding landers, and doing whatever it takes to get conversions because I have reasonable traffic now on the front end, tracking that seems to work, but nothing helping conversions. All my focus goes on aiding conversions now. I am graphically challenged along with technically somewhat, but I am determined to improve.

My plans now:
1. Correct all the DNS issues and get full services restored.
2. Create new ads to test with current offers.
3. Up my game technically. Need to create multi-step landers, learn more about the visitor, give them exactly what they want, prep the visitors for the offers, and make everything work fast, appear professional, and get the visitors to the offers somehow fully tracked. Having issues with AdsBridge presenting the right pages for mobile vs Web or Tablet traffic. Need to solve that or just use responsive pages. Probably going with responsive pages and bypassing AdsBridge landers.
4. Possibly buy and new tool that helps with multi-step landers, get Adobe Muse, and get a source of landing templates to build off of.

Will be a big week!!

Anyone have pointers or suggestions for landing page tools or templates?
 
Had to take a few steps back to now go forward at a faster pace. Finally sorted out my VPS issues, still no mail coming through, but I will fix that soon.
Tomorrow I will restart the campaigns with new landers, and a funnel. I will be excited to see if my landers help or hurt the conversion rate - assuming I get a few!

For those that are interested, the VPS with SSD drives delivers my pages about twice as fast as my old host. Nice!
 
MI
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