ItsYoBuddy

I don't feel like making a blog and I figure I could write down my progress in this thread of the newbie section(real original, right?). I have been slacking off for awhile and not really working as hard as I would like. I have free time, that's not the problem, maybe my success before just made me lazy. I had a goal and used AM to buy myself a new Yamaha Motif keyboard. Well I got that and ever since then became lazy.

I am going to electrician school in September. My goal is to make enough consistently before going. I will probably end up going to school still but I would feel better knowing I am making a good amount of money daily. My other goal is to save enough this whole year to attend Full Sail and go to school for producing music/becoming an music engineer. (Hopefully end up going September 2010.)

I am going to do something every day and record my progress here, making at least one post a day. I have a budget of $10-$15k. I say in between because I rather spend $5-$10k in testing and after finding what works best, throw the rest into the profitable campaign and make back what I lost and hopefully gain more.

My most success has been with facebook. But with the click fraud I stopped using them. But I got back some money and will be using that money to spend on testing new types of offers I've never explored. I never used adwords too much and I just put a campaign up on the content network. Bizopp offer of course and we shall see what happens.

And my challenge begins...

pickledegg

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kreas

interesting

ItsYoBuddy

Day 1

Alright, so yesterday I put up a bizopp campaign on adwords. The ads were approved and I was using content network. I figure it might take a little bit to start showing ads. Well over 6-9 hours I was getting no traffic. I checked today and I got 3 clicks. Not sure what I am doing wrong, I put a bunch of sites on the content network and have my bids at $1.00.

I did get 3 clicks and one sale for $37.00 and spend $1.39. Out of the 3, one went to the offer. Not good enough, I need to maybe add more sites to the content network. I am going to use adplanner and do more research. Maybe I need to raise the bids even higher?

Also to note: I stopped using Facebook not just because of click fraud but they emailed me saying I need to stop using ads that are against their terms. But I am going to try and do some legit ads.

I have other things I would like to test too but I figure I should take one thing at a time. So I will just try and take on content network with bizopps.

zimok

Start your day with the hardest thing and,

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If you don't think you have anything to be grateful for, you're not thinking.

Bharat Keshwala

good luck.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 2

Yesterday I had 33 clicks, cost of $26.30. I got 3 leads for $111. I had 10 people go to the offer and 3 conversions. My ctr is 0.06% on adwords. Not sure if that is good for content network. Can someone chime in and let me know if thats decent, if not what's a decent ctr for content network?

Today I have 23 clicks for a cost of $18.59 and one lead. So far I am profiting but I would like to do more volume. So my thoughts are to push my CPC from $1.00 to $1.50-$2.00.

Today to work on:
-Clickheat. I added it in but its not working for some reason.
-Add more sites from adplanner to get more volume
-Ask my AM to place pixels to place on the offer page for prosper.

I think thats it for now. I may do another update after I am done all this work.

bprimeelite

Aside from everything else it seems like you are off to a good start but a little off topic. Don't waste your money on Full Sail. It is expensive and being someone who worked in the music industry for awhile before my businesses took off I just want to let you know that no one hires people from Full Sail. Most music industry jobs come from knowing people and connections plus the money in the music industry is not great and jobs are hard to come by. Best advice I could give would be make some money and teach yourself or even hire a mentor from a local studio to teach you. This will save you a good 50k.

jvincent

i like this thread. keep it comin'. hopefully will help some other people starting out as well.

question: you doing content network via placement or via keyword? that might have something to do w/ your volume, just FYI.

sumitdhawan09

Hello friend,

I here to wish you good luck bro

Good luck bro

Skeletor

Good god, I have gotten 30 clicks, for $30 spend and 0 sales....

I must be doing it wrong

ItsYoBuddy

Hmm, I'm so new to adwords its confusing. I always thought content network was only placing urls to put your ads on their sites. I guess I am doing via placement and not keyword. I thought if I add a keyword it would become a search term. Do I have this wrong?

Oh, thanks for the info. My one friend works at a studio and he says one of his interns went to full sail and he came back knowing so much. Not sure, maybe Ill save up money and get my own studio built and get someone to mentor me. We shall see if I am successfull with this challenge first.

I probably just got lucky with ad copy and url placements.


Day 2 Update
-Got my pixels placed globally so now I don't have to ask my AM to place a pixel on specific campaigns.
-Don't know what im doing wrong with clickheat but its not working.
-I added a few more sites from adplanner.
-I raised bids to $1.75 but I am not getting anymore clicks. Maybe I got slapped? How do I know if I get slapped?

Today so far:
27 clicks and spent $22.08. Only one conversions for $37.00. I also noticed that the top 5 people don't have much revenue for the A4D competition so I can still win it.

I put some ads on facebook to catch up with the top 5 people in revenue. I don't really want to explore other traffic sources, but I might need to in order to win A4D competition. I would like to stick with one thing at a time though.

Thanks for all the help.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 3

I am a total idiot. I wasn't receiving any impressions or clicks because my account balance had $0.23 left in it. Yesterday I ended up with spending $22.08 and receiving one conversion. I just put in more money in adwords. Just wasted a whole day yesterday, lets see if I can do double the work today.

I also put an ad on facebook. I made 9 similar ads after getting the one approved. Usually they would just approve it because it was already approved. But now they disapproved them all which sucks. I forgot I had my daily budget at $1.00 so I got 4 clicks. I put it up to $200 and now I am getting no impressions at all. I guess ill try duping that or trying to sneak another ad in.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 3 Update

Well damn. Not such a great day today. In the beginning I had 0 conversions spending around $50. Got a conversion at $57. I had my CPC at around $1.75. The days before I had it at $1.00. Maybe I should go back?

Adwords spend: $88.00
Facebook spend: $70.00
Revenue: $74.00

I had credits in my facebook account, so it is a loss but I didn't know I had that money so i am just using that as testing. All conversions came from adwords anyway.

I had 51 clicks to the offer and only 2 conversions. 3.92% conversions rate. Blah.

Maybe I'm thinking to do another niche. I rather stick with A4D for the competition. My AM didn't place those pixels yet Ill have to contact him.

FatalError

Are you using flogs or review style landers? On content network a casual untargeted surfer is likely to convert on a flog lander whereas a targeted (one who is reading MMO content) surfer likes to review the product he is about to buy. Getting the idea?

ItsYoBuddy

Oh I see. I am using the news type. Maybe I should try a flog out instead. But I also hear that google is going ban happy on people running google bizopp ads. I would think the news type would be good like a flog.

FatalError

News LP - target on news type sites

AdExhibitJason

you seem to be off to a good start. I can give you some info on some offers that you could do well with. They are not on A4D though. Copeac and some others.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 4

Google suspended my ads on the content network. Oh well. I also noticed something on my LP that may explain why I am not getting leads. I accidentally uploaded my one index.html when that was the wrong one.

I think I am going to try MSN or maybe YSM or something because google suspended my ads. Frustrating but I must keep pushing. Maybe a different offer other then google bizopps?

zimok

There's another active thread on this forum of people getting their entire adwords/gmail accounts banned because of google bizopps on google, be careful.

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If you don't think you have anything to be grateful for, you're not thinking.

ItsYoBuddy

Yeah I saw that. I just deleted the campaign and asked adwords. Luckily I didn't get my account banned. I have some adword friendly offers I would like to advertise in the future so I think ill go to another traffic source or different offer on A4D.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 5

Not too much progress. Was out friday and today because of holidays. I hear traffic is usually down on holidays. Doesn't look like i'll be using google because of the banning and my ads getting suspended, so I will try YSM and MSN.

Also added a few facebook campaigns.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 6

Well, I think I am going to write all my stats down for the week on Sundays. I will go from Monday to Sunday and write down all stats for that week in excel. Does anyone have any suggestions on doing this? Is this not even necessary and its a waste? I figure it might be good for taxes. Here is the link to download my excel spreadsheet if you want to take a look:

zSHARE - June 30- July 05.csv
*you might need to move the tabs to see the info*

Also, I figured I made $38.82 profit this week, but I included facebook. Facebook had 0 conversions and I spent $70.00. But that $70 was from the click fraud credits so I wasn't really expecting to get that money anyway so I kind of made $108.82 depending how you see it.

Waiting for the weekend to pass so I can ask my AM what he suggests to run other then google bizopps. Also throwing up some dating offers on facebook for the time being.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 7

Google didn't really suspend/ban me or what not. I didn't think when your balance gets low your ads would say "Suspended". Talked to adwords and they said everything is fine and I just need to fill my account with money. Thinking about making another adwords account from a different computer and credit card to do rebill offers. Not going to do google bizopp but maybe something similar.

Until then, I am doing dating ads on FB. 100%-150% ROI but not getting much traffic. FB also likes to approve half my ads and disapprove the other half. All submitted at same time and all look the same.

Need to really start working hard now. Just found out the school im going to requires me to work full time as an electrician while going to school. Work from M-F, 9-4ish then going to school T-Th from 6PM - 10 PM. That would be no time for affiliate marketing. If I meet the goal of $200-$500 a day I will say no to school for now.

RichieN

I'm about in the same boat, still struggling to make some decent money from this business. Been trying about 3 months but without much success.
Keep us updated.

this_guy

Hey man, I like what you're doing in this thread. My advice is to go to school, get your electrician license, but not give up on this stuff. You seem to have your head on straight... just diversify your opportunities.

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rogerrabbit

Wow, you're really doing great! As long as you're making profit over your CPC budget you are doing excellent!!

Keep it up!

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MakeMoneyTutor

Interesting story Buddy. Good Luck

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ItsYoBuddy

Thanks for all the replies guys, I really do appreciate all the support and all.

Thanks man. If I do pretty well these next 2 months, I will probably end up not going. Electrician was like a back up plan because my step dad owns the business. I would really like to become an music engineer/music producer. But its easier and more jobs in electrical work compared to music. But affiliate marketing has opened up my eyes, and doing this is fun.


Day 8

Been working a lot. Put up a review site for zips, been doing a lot of traffic. I know I am going to lose money on this one before even profiting. I am putting money into it and looking it over after a few days to a week and see what is working.

Stopped doing google bizopps and trying twitter offers instead. On adwords it says the ads are approved but I am receiving no impressions. Maybe this one campaign is slapped? The review site for zips is also on this adwords account and its running fine.

Looking to get a review site done for resV and looking to expand into that niche. I don't really want to but I am top 5 in the A4D competition and I have to run SOMETHING with A4D to try and win.

Had dating ads on FB but impressions keep going down after they are up for an hour.

Not trying to look on WF more then once a day. I appreciate the feedback and looking for more. Also, I may post my review site up here and ask for it to be reviewed to get the best out of it. That's it for now, back to work.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 8 Update

As I expected, lost money with the zips. But hopefully after losing a few hundred the quality will back out for them so I will get raised more for the payout. I want to get at least 50-100 leads and ask them the quality.

I have $106 in FB click credit I still want to use. Maybe Ill use it for testing things new things.

Some people suggested using keywords for content network instead of using urls. Well, tried using that and spent a lot more then before. 0 conversions when typing words like news, newspaper, daily news, world news. I am using a fnews lp so I thought that would work a little. Hmm, maybe I am doing something wrong? Ill see how it turns out tomorrow. Open to suggestions of course.

kenshi67

Nice thread.

Good luck to you buddy!

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ItsYoBuddy

Day 9

Well this absolutely sucks. Didn't get to do any work today other then trying to get some facebook ads approved. Went to play basketball today and broke my ankle, wtf. Extremely pissed off. More time to do AM yeah, but everything else just sucks. I can't go out, play sports, go to the beach or nothing. I almost got a shore house for a week this summer, good thing I didn't. I will be stuck in my house, can't even drive.

Now I have to quit my job and I actually like working there, been working there for 5-6 years. I was working at a pretty good job for a source of income for AM and paying bills until September. Now I don't have any income coming in even if I lose a bunch of money in AM.

Oh well, we shall see how it goes. Just pissed off atm.

ItsYoBuddy

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

Day 10

Had to get a boot on my leg so now I can work and be a little more comfortable compared to a cast.

Got a few FB ads on. At first I was getting a bunch of impressions for .40 cents and spent $28.00 and got 2 conversions for a total of $74.00. Wasn't getting impressions 4 hours later so I raised the bids up to .75 and clicks starting coming through. I know some networks are delayed in stats but I don't think I got any leads. Almost done with my $100 of the click credit from FB. Thinking about sending another $100 and see what happens.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 11

Sorry I didn't post, not like people are reading anyway. I had to get things sorted out with my ankle and stuff.

-I am all over the place with traffic sources and offers. I am sticking to one thing and one source and getting it profitable. Going with Resveratrol. Then hopefully after that is successful Ill go do white teeth or something.
-Waiting for my LP to be finished, doing a review style. Ill also do one source of traffic at a time... maybe ill stick with yahoo or maybe do content with google... not sure yet.

-Until then, putting up dating ads on facebook.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 12

Not much to update. Still adding facebook campaigns, deleting and resubmitting. It seems like you get more impressions when they are first approved then it dies. So I just delete those and resubmit some more to get impressions.

Still waiting on my Lp for my Resv. I'm really looking forward to just focusing on one traffic source and one niche.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 17

Yeah, not an exciting thread. Was just waiting on my LP, but I also got some ideas while I was waiting. Going to get some "real" sites made and pretty excited about them. Got my LP and doing adjustments now. Up all night to get this campaign on google content. Now its all testing from here on out. No excuses anymore, got all the time in the world now with my ankle situation.

Questions
- How much do you usually test to start tweaking things? $100? 100 clicks? (Review style btw)
- What do you use to split test landing pages? Just a script I need to search for?

ItsYoBuddy

Day 18

I keep forgetting to update this but I try not to go to WF too much. My Resv review LP is up and running. Have it on Yahoo and google content. But google content isnt giving me any impressions. I get like 280 a day. I am bidding $1.75 right now with a bunch of placements and also added keywords like resveratrol and antiaging. Getting no impressions. Anyone have any idea? I do have money in my account so that isn't the problem.

John__N

(FOR SEARCH NETWORK) do not bid on very generic terms like "antiaging" or "anti aging". See if "resveratrol" is converting, if you feel the cpc is very high and not profitable go for long tail keywords like "resveratrol free trial", "buy resveratrol", "resveratrol trial" etc. Search for "long tail keywords" and "keyword research" on this forum and read the information before you continue.

williamwhitlow

I think what you're doing is awesome, and it's your
choice how you want to do it.

I'll let you know how I keep track of my progress and
the rest of the world can hold me accountable.

I use friendfeed, and twitter, and also do status updates
on a few different social websites.

Then after a couple of weeks I can look at what I was
doing all that time.

Some of it will be screwing around, especially when you're
self employed, you gotta take time out to smell the coffee,
that's why I own my businesses right.

Just thought you would like to know how I track my progress.

Partyhat

Yea dude I love reading this thread. keep us updated more with how that rezv campaign is doing!

also, did you stop the biz opps just because you didn't want to risk it with google?

ItsYoBuddy

Thanks man. Yeah, what I change on my sites I just keep in my head. If it gets real intense ill write it down. But with writing my advertising fee's and revenue I just use Excel every week.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will keep that in mind when I try search.

Thanks Partyhat, I appreciate it. ResV hasn't really taken off. I stopped the biz opps because I didn't want google banning my account. I rather keep it that way incase I wanted to promote other offers google doesn't hate as much. Also with those low conversion rates.


Day 19

Yeah its really not day 19 because I am skipping, but whatever. ResV hasnt take off like I was expecting. When I ran my bizopp I was getting a pretty good amount of clicks bidding $1.25 on content. I am now bidding $1.75 and barely getting clicks. When I do get clicks they are from websites I don't want to get clicks from.

Blah, I might head to search. But now I am reading an article from today that google is slapping review sites... great. I am also reading that yahoo will be banning all rebill offers... superb. Boy is this changing hella fast. I don't believe affiliate marketing will ever die, but that's just my opinion. An opinion of someone that has no experience or connections in the game. There are plenty of offers out there no doubt. I want to stay positive instead of thinking negative and thinking this is the end as we know it.

I am going to keep on trying with the ResV. I mean after all, I did pay for my LP... I need to do something with it. On Yahoo I have to raise my bid to like $2.50 for search. I am thinking of trying that out.

As the days go by, I realized I wasted so much god damn time doing nothing with AM. Hopefully its not too late. I am working all night and trying to waste no time. I can sleep when I die.

Oh boy this was long, my bad.

ItsYoBuddy

Day 20

Once again, sorry for not posting everyday. Still trying not to read and just make campaigns. I used clicktale on my landing page and sent some traffic to my LP. About 100 clicks or so. I was watching a few of the videos and it looks like most of the time people are just scrolling through it in 15 secs and leaving. Now I don't have any links before the fold so I just switched that up. I had videos and a brief summary before the reviews. Took out the videos and moved them lower.

I think I am bidding on wrong keywords. Pausing the campaign for one day to gather new keywords today. Going to do some research and get keywords using no programs, just my head.

Alex Brooks

You'll probably find the people getting good PPC results, use their own keywords, no applications etc. :P

I am reading every day by the way Keep going man, you seem to be doing well! At least your making money, even if it's small amounts, lets say you invest $10, you come out with $15, so you made $5, if you invested $100, you'd made $50, invested $1,000, you'd make $500, invested $10,000, you'd make $5000.

The real money comes in when you scale everything up, so you have to remember PPC takes time to get right and once it's right, scale it up and rinse in the money!

RandyNorton99

ClickTale is hosting two webinars on August 6th. If your serious about increasing the conversion rates on your pages here are the details:

Time Slot 1:
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009
Time: 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EDT (13:00 GMT)
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/886049755


Time Slot 2:
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009
Time: 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM EDT (16:30 GMT)
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/480636915

overl00rd

You're off to a good start there mate. Start to share how did you get that high of a conversion rate? only with clicktale or add some more steroids in it?

ItsYoBuddy

Thanks man, I appreciate the advice. Let me know how your doing too, I also love reading other people's stories.

Thanks a lot. I'm sure ill go to see what it's about.

Well, I got that high of a conversion rate using google bizopps. I stopped promoting those because I wanted my adwords account for an offer that google thinks is "legit". I'm thinking about opening another adwords account on another computer to be safe. I did use Campaign Sniper, so that might be a big reason why I got a high conversion rate.


Just to give you guys an update, I'm still working on the Resv offers. Also, getting into PPV traffic, I want to experiment with that. I'm doing a few offers on facebook and myspace which are profiting. Trying to scale that now. I won't do the "Day#" thing anymore because I skipped a bunch.

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Gotta go to court tomorrow. FTC on my dick so imma wear my audemar
just to make em sick I might throw yellow prezzy on her

puresavage

good read, alot of good info for noobs like me..Thankx

bailey327

as long as u are keeping update , i will come and leave comments

Jon DeMarco

Hey Man this is awesome! Please don't stop posting. I just joined this forum today and I think what you are doing is absolutely amazing. As long as you're making money, keep doing what you're doing.

nat3r

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