Day 5: I realize I get the general theory behind Affiliate and CPA Marketing, but I don't really know what to do. That being said, I've got to learn through action so I'll keep moving forward.
So far, I've taken three action steps. First I applied to AD Combo and I got approved. It's kind of confusing because even though the layout is really simple and it's easy to find offers and stuff, I don't even know how to launch a campaign or anything. That being said my next step will be to watch some tutorials and figure out how to better navigate and use Ad Combo.
Second, I bought a domain name from Beyond Hosting. I did this because I was planning on getting hosting from Beyond Hosting and I thought it would be best to get a domain through them rather than Godaddy or a different website. My reasoning was that since I'm getting hosting from Beyond Hosting it might be better to get a domain from them too.
Third, I bought a basic VPS hosting plan for $15/month from DreamHost. I chose DreamHost after reading an article from PCMag titled "The Best VPS Hosting Services of 2018." I read the article and looked through some of the Hosting companies highlighted before choosing DreamHost. I spent a whole day comparing prices, doing Google research on what Hosting is, and doing more research on other stuff like "how important is storage" and "what is Linux" before I realized that I was thinking myself into a corner. I know I tend to overthink things and it delays me taking action so I decided I would just choose one, not opt into the year-long plans even though it's cheaper so that I could later switch hosting services if I learned that I made a wrong decision. At $15 a month, I think that this is an acceptable price to pay while I learn.
Also, I decided to not go with Beyond Hosting because I realized that the person recommending it to me was obviously an affiliate and was getting paid to recommend it. There's no problem with that, but the cheapest price for a VPS package with them was $50/month and the recommended package was $99/MONTH. I have to admit, there was a 50% off coupon so it really would have been $50/month but still. With the recommended package you'd get 2x vCPU, 8GB ECC Ram, 125GB SSD Storage, unlimited bandwidth, daily backups, and they would manage the servers (good for me because I don't know anything about this stuff).
This all sounded great and I was really drawn into because it felt like they would hold my hand the whole way, I'd heard really good things about their customer support, and for some reason, I was really scared I'd have a campaign that would do really well to the point that I would need 125GB SSD Storage and a lot of other plans I looked at didn't offer the same amount of storage for a lower price.
Anyways, I decided to humble myself and accept that this is something that's going to take time to learn. That being said, I decided it was best to go with DreamHost because it's cheaper and seems to offer a good service. Now I can save the money I was going to use for a more expensive package and use that money for testing.
FYI, I'm not trying to hate on Beyond Hosting or anything. they were actually very helpful with Customer support as I tried to figure out what the heck I was doing, but right now I think it's better for me to start out with a cheaper hosting service.
So what action steps am I going to take next?
1. I will create an actual website or landing page or something. It doesn't have to be good, but I need to get some kind of online presence. I think I will feel accomplished knowing that I have my first site up and running. I'll feel like at that point, I'll have the bare minimum to actually get started with affiliate/cpa marketing and to start improving.
2. I will change my domain's nameservers (Beyond Hosting) to point to Dreamhost's hosting server. This is because I read that you can leave your domain name with the current registrar (Beyond Hosting). I looked up the process of transferring a domain name from one host to another and it seems like it could be complicated so for right now, I'm content to simply change my domain's nameserver to point to my DreamHost server. I don't even know what that means or what a nameserver is, but I think it'll basically have the end result that I'm looking for.
3. Watch tutorials on how to Navigate Ad Combo and how to launch a campaign. Basically how to use an affiliate network 101.
So far, I've taken three action steps. First I applied to AD Combo and I got approved. It's kind of confusing because even though the layout is really simple and it's easy to find offers and stuff, I don't even know how to launch a campaign or anything. That being said my next step will be to watch some tutorials and figure out how to better navigate and use Ad Combo.
Second, I bought a domain name from Beyond Hosting. I did this because I was planning on getting hosting from Beyond Hosting and I thought it would be best to get a domain through them rather than Godaddy or a different website. My reasoning was that since I'm getting hosting from Beyond Hosting it might be better to get a domain from them too.
Third, I bought a basic VPS hosting plan for $15/month from DreamHost. I chose DreamHost after reading an article from PCMag titled "The Best VPS Hosting Services of 2018." I read the article and looked through some of the Hosting companies highlighted before choosing DreamHost. I spent a whole day comparing prices, doing Google research on what Hosting is, and doing more research on other stuff like "how important is storage" and "what is Linux" before I realized that I was thinking myself into a corner. I know I tend to overthink things and it delays me taking action so I decided I would just choose one, not opt into the year-long plans even though it's cheaper so that I could later switch hosting services if I learned that I made a wrong decision. At $15 a month, I think that this is an acceptable price to pay while I learn.
Also, I decided to not go with Beyond Hosting because I realized that the person recommending it to me was obviously an affiliate and was getting paid to recommend it. There's no problem with that, but the cheapest price for a VPS package with them was $50/month and the recommended package was $99/MONTH. I have to admit, there was a 50% off coupon so it really would have been $50/month but still. With the recommended package you'd get 2x vCPU, 8GB ECC Ram, 125GB SSD Storage, unlimited bandwidth, daily backups, and they would manage the servers (good for me because I don't know anything about this stuff).
This all sounded great and I was really drawn into because it felt like they would hold my hand the whole way, I'd heard really good things about their customer support, and for some reason, I was really scared I'd have a campaign that would do really well to the point that I would need 125GB SSD Storage and a lot of other plans I looked at didn't offer the same amount of storage for a lower price.
Anyways, I decided to humble myself and accept that this is something that's going to take time to learn. That being said, I decided it was best to go with DreamHost because it's cheaper and seems to offer a good service. Now I can save the money I was going to use for a more expensive package and use that money for testing.
FYI, I'm not trying to hate on Beyond Hosting or anything. they were actually very helpful with Customer support as I tried to figure out what the heck I was doing, but right now I think it's better for me to start out with a cheaper hosting service.
So what action steps am I going to take next?
1. I will create an actual website or landing page or something. It doesn't have to be good, but I need to get some kind of online presence. I think I will feel accomplished knowing that I have my first site up and running. I'll feel like at that point, I'll have the bare minimum to actually get started with affiliate/cpa marketing and to start improving.
2. I will change my domain's nameservers (Beyond Hosting) to point to Dreamhost's hosting server. This is because I read that you can leave your domain name with the current registrar (Beyond Hosting). I looked up the process of transferring a domain name from one host to another and it seems like it could be complicated so for right now, I'm content to simply change my domain's nameserver to point to my DreamHost server. I don't even know what that means or what a nameserver is, but I think it'll basically have the end result that I'm looking for.
3. Watch tutorials on how to Navigate Ad Combo and how to launch a campaign. Basically how to use an affiliate network 101.
Ended up with a domain that expired and I bought it back in as expired with another registrar -- real nightmare.
