I wanted to share a bit about my journey and what I’m doing now, partly to document my progress and partly to connect with others doing similar things.
I’ve been in the intelligence field for about 20 years, mostly doing programming and automation work. It’s not exactly “James Bond” stuff — more like data pipelines, backend systems, and process automation. Over the years, I’ve worked with a wide range of clients, projects, and technologies, so I’ve picked up a decent amount of technical experience.
But way back when I was a broke 18-year-old, I got sucked into those “get rich quick” affiliate marketing schemes you’d see plastered all over the internet. Affiliate marketing itself isn’t a scam, but those ads sure made it easy for scammers to take advantage of people like me who didn’t know any better. Long story short, I lost what little money I had, joined the military, and that was that.
Over the years, I’d occasionally try again — halfheartedly — but I never really understood what I was doing or had the discipline to make it work. Fast forward 20 years, and here I am again. This time, though, I’ve got the experience, the patience, and the mindset to actually make it happen.
I already run a small business that makes anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000 a year, depending on how much I feel like working. That gives me a cushion to experiment.
To start, I’m going to be my own product. I’m selling a niche item on eBay — not going to reveal too much detail yet since it’s a small market, but let’s just say it’s R-rated, not pornographic, and fully allowed on eBay.
My first experiment is with Juicy Ads, to see if I can drive more views and watchers to my listings. I’ve put $100 into Juicy Ads to start. I fully expect to lose that first $100 — that’s fine. I learn best when I’ve got real skin in the game.
My background is in automation, Python, and data science, but I’ve never touched ad networks before. So this will be my learning phase.
Here’s what I’ve done and what’s next:
It’s not elegant yet, but it’s data-driven, and that’s what matters.
So far, I’ve spent $19 of the $100 and I’m seeing about a 0.2% CTR to my eBay listings. It’s hard to tell if those clicks are translating into watchers since eBay doesn’t provide that data directly, but I’m working around it.
As for profit — technically, I’m still up about $70 total, not counting the ad spend. But I’m not focusing on profit yet. The goal right now is to build measurable systems, not chase short-term returns.
Once I’ve got the tracking nailed down, I’ll start refining the targeting, creative, and landing flow. I expect to burn through this $100 as “tuition” — just the cost of learning the ropes.
From my research, it looks like affiliate marketing hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years — which is good news. It’s still about finding optimized patterns, running experiments, and scaling what works.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at right now. I’ll keep this thread updated as I go, and if anyone has ideas on how to more efficiently correlate Juicy Ads clicks with eBay watcher activity, I’m all ears.
Thanks for reading — and here’s to doing it right this time.
I’ve been in the intelligence field for about 20 years, mostly doing programming and automation work. It’s not exactly “James Bond” stuff — more like data pipelines, backend systems, and process automation. Over the years, I’ve worked with a wide range of clients, projects, and technologies, so I’ve picked up a decent amount of technical experience.
But way back when I was a broke 18-year-old, I got sucked into those “get rich quick” affiliate marketing schemes you’d see plastered all over the internet. Affiliate marketing itself isn’t a scam, but those ads sure made it easy for scammers to take advantage of people like me who didn’t know any better. Long story short, I lost what little money I had, joined the military, and that was that.
Over the years, I’d occasionally try again — halfheartedly — but I never really understood what I was doing or had the discipline to make it work. Fast forward 20 years, and here I am again. This time, though, I’ve got the experience, the patience, and the mindset to actually make it happen.
The Plan
I already run a small business that makes anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000 a year, depending on how much I feel like working. That gives me a cushion to experiment.
To start, I’m going to be my own product. I’m selling a niche item on eBay — not going to reveal too much detail yet since it’s a small market, but let’s just say it’s R-rated, not pornographic, and fully allowed on eBay.
My first experiment is with Juicy Ads, to see if I can drive more views and watchers to my listings. I’ve put $100 into Juicy Ads to start. I fully expect to lose that first $100 — that’s fine. I learn best when I’ve got real skin in the game.
The Setup
My background is in automation, Python, and data science, but I’ve never touched ad networks before. So this will be my learning phase.
Here’s what I’ve done and what’s next:
- Integrating Juicy Ads’ API and eBay’s SDK.
- Building a basic landing page and redirect system to track traffic sources and click behavior.
- Logging timestamps for every click-through.
- Using the eBay SDK to poll watcher counts every 60 seconds, compare deltas, and determine if the ads are actually converting into engagement.
It’s not elegant yet, but it’s data-driven, and that’s what matters.
Current Results
So far, I’ve spent $19 of the $100 and I’m seeing about a 0.2% CTR to my eBay listings. It’s hard to tell if those clicks are translating into watchers since eBay doesn’t provide that data directly, but I’m working around it.
As for profit — technically, I’m still up about $70 total, not counting the ad spend. But I’m not focusing on profit yet. The goal right now is to build measurable systems, not chase short-term returns.
The Next Steps
Once I’ve got the tracking nailed down, I’ll start refining the targeting, creative, and landing flow. I expect to burn through this $100 as “tuition” — just the cost of learning the ropes.
From my research, it looks like affiliate marketing hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years — which is good news. It’s still about finding optimized patterns, running experiments, and scaling what works.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at right now. I’ll keep this thread updated as I go, and if anyone has ideas on how to more efficiently correlate Juicy Ads clicks with eBay watcher activity, I’m all ears.
Thanks for reading — and here’s to doing it right this time.
