Mike

Okay, this is sort of a rant so feel free to bounce at anytime. Kind of some random thoughts on things...

To start: when you decide to take the plunge into online marketing, you need to always remember - It is your business. Nobody else can run your business like you can. That's not to say you will instantly make money. The mistakes you make and the money you make are yours. You own it ALL. Good, bad or otherwise.

1. Mistakes and losing money

I believe this is the biggest fear new business owners have (read new internet marketers). Losing money is not a bad thing. Let me repeat: Losing money is not a bad thing. What is bad: spending money recklessly that you can not afford to lose. Do NOT spend your rent check. Do NOT spend your electric bill payment. Do NOT spend your internet bill payment. DO NOT spend money that you can not afford to lose.

If money is so tight that you won't be able to pay bills, don't spend it on a new business venture like PPC. Stick to SEO and other free ($-wise, not time-wise) methods. Here's a short list (very short, there are thousands of ways to build a business with $0.00):

• Free blogs - blogger, Wordpress.com, etc. Use them for your landing pages
• Yahoo! answers. Yes Virginia, there is still money on Y! answers
• Craigslist - Oh noes, you didn't just go there! Yep, I did. It's free and as long as you're not a prostitute or selling drugs, it's not illegal to advertise on CL
• Other classified ad sites: Kajiji, Gumtree, etc.
• Web 2.0 sites - there are dozens out there that will let you create a site for free

If you can afford to lose some money and want to try PPC, that's great, just keep in mind that you WILL lose money in the beginning. Think of it as paying for your education. If you want to be a doctor and make $100,000 a year, you'll need to spend 11 years in college / training and it will cost you at least $100,000 in tuition / books / etc. You can make so much more than any doctor or lawyer as an online marketer and there is no tuition requirement. Sure it's frustrating to put hours and hours into building a landing page, getting keywords together, creating ads, finally launching it and then losing $100 because there were no conversions. Be frustrated, that's fine, but bear in mind that you now have data to analyze and hopefully get you closer to the golden egg. The only time that a losing campaign is a true loser is when you learn absolutely nothing from the data.

2. Data

Data is what we are all after, conversions are secondary. What?!? Yes, you want data even more than conversions. Why? Because good, relevant data will lead you to conversions and you will make more money. If you're only focus is conversions you tend to lose site of the data. Keep your focus on the data, pay attention to conversions and you'll make money. Get as granular as you can. The more granular, the better you can slice your data. The better grasp you will have of placements that work - and why - better grasp of demos that work - and why - you get the idea.

Learn how to use Prosper202, Google Analytics, Website Optimizer to your advantage. Learn to love spreadsheets. I've got intraday spreadsheets, weeklies, monthlies, campaigns, etc. I LOVE my spreadsheets. Between the spreadsheets and analytics (P202, GA are both analytics softwares) I can tell you exactly what works and why. Which makes finding and testing new placements easier and cheaper.

Data also extends to how much you pay your advertisers. Don't just assume that what they tell you is correct. Because of my anal-retentiveness and spreadsheets I caught a $1200 charge on an account that the salesman didn't divulge originally. It was supposed to be there (as far as the ad network was concerned) but they didn't include it in their stats (it was a hidden charge). I only caught it because I had spreadsheets of daily charges and noticed a discrepancy. They ended up reimbursing those funds. AND to make things sweeter, 2 of my friends got reimbursed as well because the ad network knew I would tell them about the charges.

3. Expenses

All businesses have expenses, this one is no different. Hosting is probably going to be one of your biggest expense (besides advertising if you're doing PPC / PPV / Display / etc.). Also, hosting is one of the most critical components of your business. DON'T skimp on it. I personally believe that shared hosting is not good enough for even small time marketers. Why? Because with shared hosting you're on a box with hundreds, maybe thousands, of other accounts that could be sucking resources away from your sites and causing the page load times to be longer or in extreme cases crash the box. Get a VPS at minimum. There are less accounts per machine and you have infinitely more control. You can get a VPS account for under $50 a month. I've got one with Knownhost for $34 a month, and the sites hosted there pay for it.

Once you get to the point that you are running thousands of clicks a day to your site, get a dedicated box. It'll be the best $200 - 300 per month you spend.

4. Build a network

No, not an affiliate network, but a network of colleagues that you can bounce ideas off of, vent with, bullshit with, have a beer with, whatever. No man (or woman) is an island and just like losing weight, you need a support system. They don't even have to be other affiliate marketers, although that helps. The more people in your network, the more resources you'll have to draw from. When you get stuck, you'll be able to ask your network what to do.

Also, make your affiliate manager earn their money. Talk to them on a regular basis. Find out what the hot offers are, what's converting, where to advertise, etc. It is in their best interest to help you make money.

5. Read

Read blogs, forums (like WickedFire ), trade publications, FTC press releases, pretty much anything that can help you learn more. The flipside to this coin - and something that trips up a lot of n00bs - is getting caught up in reading too much and not DOING enough (this was the basis for the No Excuses threads).

Here's a partial list of blogs and such in my Google Reader:

• BluehatSEO.com
• PPC.bz
• NickyCakes.com
• AdHustler.com
• Oooff.com
• Diorex.com
• SlightlyShady.com
• FTC.gov

Basically, I have most of the WickedFire blogs in there and a bunch copywriters, like Bob Bly, Michel Fortin, Clayton Makepeace, and then press release stuff like the FTC and various other consumer releases. I don't read everything that comes through. Usually I skim the headlines, read the posts that interest me and come back to the others when I get bored.

6. Do Something

I've been preaching this for years now, but when you find yourself playing the "what if" game too much...STOP and just go do something. Create a new site, find a new ad network, anything, just don't sit on your ass. Again, this is the whole concept behind the No Excuses threads. To quote Dale Carnegie: "Action breeds confidence and courage". Unless you try something, you will never know if it works or not. So, eat the frog and get something done. Stop over-analyzing stuff you haven't tried.

7. Don't Chase What's Hot

Just because something is the hottest new thing doesn't mean you have to promote it. Chasing the latest craze can also be a huge time / money pit. Why? When you're new you don't have the experience necessary to make rapid adjustments. Find your niche / vertical and stick with it. There are tons of guys here and elsewhere making thousands daily and they aren't slinging berriez. OMG! Yep, it's possible and may even be easier for you in many cases.

Once you have more experience under your belt, feel free to expand into as many niches / verticals as you can handle. My only point here is: don't spread yourself too thin, especially while you are still learning this business.


In conclusion

Remember guys (and gals), it's your business. You will get out of it what you put in. There are people making millions of dollars / euros / pounds per year marketing online. Why can't you be one of them?

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tenwonder

I appreciate and approve of this rant. This chick has just gotten off of her ass and has started "doing something". The things that I've learned over the past few weeks by taking action versus sitting on my ass has been amazing. I'm ready to rock this out. Thanks for the boost Mike!

Red_Virus

I liked the last two lines, it is serious business and you get what you put in.

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AllBizNiz

Here's a nice quality post to throw in the treasure box for the noobs. I think procrastination at least for me is a huge problem. I'm currently reading that book "Eat That Frog" to try and get some ideas on prioritizing my work.

Mike

Ironically, I have "Eat that Frog" on my bookshelf...and haven't read it



I think the best thing you can do first thing in the morning is something related to your work. Yes, that's vague, but whatever is the thing that you put off the most is what you should do. If it's checking stats and adding them to your campaign spreadsheet, do that. If it's creating new banners / ads, then do that. Whatever part of your business is your least favorite: that's what you should start with. IMHO, the worst thing you can do in the morning is start reading forums. Seriously, there is too much garbage to get side tracked with. Forum reading should be reserved for times when you have completed all the other necessary items for the day and have time to goof off.

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mediastar100

solid advice - having a trigger finger ready to kill traffic at the first sign of trouble (low cr) is surefire way to consistently lose money across many campaigns jumping from niche to niche.

keepitreal88

I have to agree with the "getting off your ass" part. You can read all the forum posts you want but your not going to learn the basics like installing wordpress to cpanel, activating plugins, using all in one seo, getting backlinks without paying for them, and all the other parts of the learning curve your exposed to when you get off your ass.

bullet-ride

SEO_Mike is actually barman!!!!

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Mike

I don't if I should be insulted, or flattered Barman's a good guy, but we're two different people.

/edit/ added point 7.

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efeezy

Good stuff there Mike. Every noob that signs up here at WF should have to memorize that and recite it word for word before they can post.

The server part is so true. I had a bunch of my projects on a shared server and one day, out of the blue, they just turned me off. I was the guy sucking too many resources with all of my sites. Moved over to a couple dedicated servers and I don't even worry about that shit anymore. Sure it's $300 a month, but it's worth the peace of mind to know I've got the space and quality servers.

Sharksfan

Good stuff.

I "started" learning IM in February 2009.

I made my first commission - mostly due to lack of action - on October 16th 2009. It was a whopping $0.16 via the EPN using A2P. I've never been so excited over 16 cents in my life, literally.

Today I should make about $900 - that is not a "per day" claim - just that today was my best day ever. Many days are still zero. I've been providing services, and SEO/Marketing plans to customers using the skills I've developed - all of THAT money is funding my "real" efforts, paying for my new VPS, a variety of tools, etc, that are starting to really make me money on the backend.

Study + bootstrapping + time + effort = Success so far.

*EDIT: I should add that it was SEO Mike's original "How to make money with the A2P plugin" post that got me actually started on the road to making some money.

mr coolerer

Yeah, action breads confidence, I made my frist $3.47 2 days ago. It wouldn't've happened if I'd been wondering and musing about the possibilities.

I will also add something to this: When you're starting out, I'm still starting out, so I've still got to take this more to heart than I already am, But you wont know what will work. The offer that I'm promoting now looks like a piece of shit, I wonder why anyone in their sane mind would shell out $$$ for it, however they do, and who am I to argue. Its dollars in my pocket.

Roundabout

Nice post, Mike. It covers an area that is easy to grasp after experience, but difficult to grasp beforehand.

Mike

I love hearing stories about people's first foray into online marketing! Truth be told, I still get amped about $20 days on EPN. The most I've made in one day was in the $xx,xxx range, and while that was awesome, it's the littlest victories that are the most exciting.

Congrats guys! Keep plugging away!

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bb_wolfe

Tit shots will get you stats from converting campaigns!

^^^ This

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emp

very nice post, mike.

::emp::

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TylerDurden

You're the man mike.

amfire

Nice post mike. thanks

jayt

Sticky this rant for the noobs!

Leave it to Mike to post quality stuff.

AllBizNiz

Thanks for the advice man. I just get so overwhelmed sometimes it gets hard to focus on one thing at a time. I'll take your advice and start doing the shit that's always sitting for awhile.

radio

let me join the chorus: nice post.

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gochu

Mike, can you provide us with a template of your spreadsheet? I am a little afriad of jumping into PPC campaigns because I may end up learning nothing from my my failures. What kinds of things should I be looking for? PPC, Impressions, CTR, conversion rate , expense, and revenue per keyword/ landing page?

I wish these bloggers were more specific about split testing. Do you split test keywords or landing pages or both? If you split test both, does that mean you need to create at least 4 different ads for one product? Also, how many keywords do you usually use per offer? I am so confused.. I wish there was some thread about this..

And regarding keyword research, is there any way I can learn how to do this by myself without using any programs? I really want to understand how to use the correct keywords inside and out, so I don't really like the idea of depending on software.

Lastly, I know a lot of people recommend different services, but what hosting domain do you recommend you use for landing pages?
thanks.

AllBizNiz

Dude, you're about to get lambasted. Everything you just asked is freely available just by using the search function. Just don't use Godaddy for your hosting, it's shitty.

Mike

LOL!

Yeah, I'll be nice because this is the n00bie section, but there is one of my spreadsheets in the "Like Math" thread. The other spreadsheet templates I use are all proprietary information (read: made by me for ME) and I'm not sharing them with anyone.

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HardSale

Here's a picture of me at the beach. I love laying out and getting a tan My nipples are huge... he he he

/really? Read the Rules of Engagement #11 boobs go in StS. Only warning. ~Mike~/

I'll contact you via PM to give you my email addy so you can send over those stats.

webetricky

Nice post should def. be stickied. Do work.

Tenso

That's a really great post, +rep.
And definitely should be sticky or added to the Treasure Trove.

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tenwonder

If we were having this conversation prior to midnight Jan 1, then you probably would have gotten those tit shots.

Trigger

This is a great article.... sticky this shit!

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JarredLv

Awesome fucking post Mike! Bookmarked for those "I don't know if I can make it" thoughts that enter my head every so often. It really speaks volumes to your character, if you think about it. You're helping your competition. Now granted, a good majority of people reading this won't come close to impacting your business, and there is enough out there for a lot of marketers, but still. Very generous of you. Again, excellent post!

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The world is divided into armed camps ready to commit genocide just because we can't agree on whose fairy tale to believe. In the end, religion will kill us all.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Mike

Thanks guys, I'm glad my little rant is helping a few of you out.

I stickied it due to demand. Kind of surprised actually, this was one of those posts that was written almost out of frustration. It's odd to get to a certain point and be able to see the mistakes people are making, and frustrating to know you can't help everyone.

@JarredLv: I don't see it as helping the competition exactly. Anytime I can help newbies out, I feel like I'm paying back the people that helped me get started. This business certainly is not an easy one, and will bury 80 - 90% of people that start it. I was lucky and got a lot of advice and help when I started out, and I feel indebted to those people to return the favor.

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adigitalorange

@SEO_Mike: This post is right on the money.

JarredLv

Well then, this forum, and more importantly us newbies, are lucky to have you and your sage advice. I will be the first to agree with you that it's not too easy to break in to and start making decent cash. I've got about 5 months to find a way to get out of my day job or I'm never going to see my new wife due to some shake ups and schedule changes. So when anything like this get posted I'm most grateful.

Any who, back to work, but thanks again for the post.

</ ass kissing>

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The world is divided into armed camps ready to commit genocide just because we can't agree on whose fairy tale to believe. In the end, religion will kill us all.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Mike

Adding to the original post...

Another thing that a lot of people overlook IMO is goal setting and measuring their successes. Regardless of where you are financially with your business, goals and milestones should always be something that you strive for.

In the beginning, it's especially important, because the act of hitting a goal can give you extra ego boost needed to get through some of the tough days you'll have. Start out small. Let's say you just decided to give online marketing a shot and you're about to launch your first campaign. Sit down and set some goals before hitting the "Go" button. Make three to begin with. An easy to hit target, moderately difficult and outrageous.

When I first started making money online, it was on eBay 10 years ago. One of my very first goals was to learn enough HTML to make my auctions look prettier. And my "outrageous" goal was to become a power seller. Well, learning the HTML didn't take that long and it was pretty exciting to realize that I knew the difference between various HTML tags. Becoming a power seller took much longer, but I finally did it and it felt great.

Having easy to hit goals is key because it reinforces the notion that you can do it. Once you start hitting the easy goals, your confidence will soar and hitting those tougher goals will seem so much easier. This confidence will help you in all aspects of your business.

Also, if it isn't obvious, the goals need to be something concrete. By concrete, I mean, create a goal with some measurable metric whether it's ROI, profit, number of conversions, whatever. Unmeasurable goals would be things like "I want to get better at writing ads". That's a great goal, but how do you know if you achieved it? You need a metric. So, instead of saying "I want to get better at...", say "I need to create ads that get at least 0.3% CTR". See? Now you have a CTR metric to measure your ad writing abilities against. Campaign goals with dollar amounts attached are also easily measured for success.

Some sample goals that might be good ones to start off with:

• Make $xx in profit per day on XYZ campaign
• Tweak landing page to increase off page CTR by XX%
• Earn $xx per week from internet marketing only
• Increase weekly income by X% over X weeks

See how all of those have a concrete number or value attached? You will know when you achieve one of those goals.

Before you ask: Yes, I have lots of goals in mind. Some have to do with average daily profits, some with intangibles (like learning about something), some are pretty outrageous sounding (but I'll bet you I achieve them - eventually). Most of my goals are not centered around items. For example, I know a lot of people are driven by items, and that's fine, but rather than saying "My goal is to buy a BMW", change it to "My goal is to have $50,000 in cash to buy the BMW". The difference here is the second is more measurable. Whether you buy the beemer or not, you know when you've reached the goal of $50,000, right?

Long post short: Make goals. Make them measurable. Hit them. Repeat.

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JarredLv

Love the follow up, some great thoughts about goals. Personally I think they are essential to help keep focus and motivation. I've got a piece of paper taped by my monitor with my goals and motivations listed on it. When I start to doubt myself, or my attention starts to wander (damn affbuzz), a quick glance at that usually helps get me back on track.

I don't know how many people would be interested in this, but I think it would be kind of cool to hear what other peoples goals are (should they choose to share). Not sure if a new thread would be desired, but I think it would be neat to see what others are shooting for. In addition, it could provide for a little accountability and support for us newbies, posting when we reqach our goals and helping each other get there. Got a feeling I'll catch shit for this post, but it's just a thought. Mine are currently:

1.) Make $500 on a single campaign
2.) Reach (at least )$100 a day consistently
3.) $300 a day minimum consistently for a month - which when this goal is hit (and got some money saved up) I will finally quit my soul sucking miserable day job. A day I dream about all the time.

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The world is divided into armed camps ready to commit genocide just because we can't agree on whose fairy tale to believe. In the end, religion will kill us all.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

gravytrain

Thanks for this powerful post! It hit me right when and where I needed it to! Each morning I will eat my Frog and then get off my ass and do something. I do agree with Dale. Action does breed confidence and that confidence does breed courage. Thanks, again.

ppcIcon

Great post thank you. Good to see some basic clear advice, I'll be taking it on board.

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PhillipMarlow

Hell yeah!

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SusanMart

here comes another Thanks post))

no, the post was good indeed)))
hope other posts are as helpful as this one)

debrian

Good post,mike..

bingoo

For newbies, this is probably THE single most important topic they'll ever read. So many of them get into this bussines like a headless chicken on drugs, blowing money on PPC at very competive niches and crying about no conversions, 1/10 google quality scores, etc.. Instead of taking it slowly, analyzing and improving everything you do, and actually building knowledge and experience.

Couldn't agree more with what you said mike. +rep.

MChico75

I should have joined this network a long time ago. I wouldn't have wasted so much time.

I do have (1) question for anyone out here. I became interested in internet marketing so I learned the basics. This is my third month of IM. Anyway:

1. My first (first month) campaign (after reading as much from people like you guys as I could) produced (1) click and 10 impressions. I went back to the drawing board and:
2. My second campaign (second month) produced 1.5 million impressions and 100 clicks over a (3) day period.
3. My third month produced about (600) clicks and 2 million impressions.

Here's the catch...my affiliate agency only recorded 107 clicks for the third campaign (zero for the first two) that I made. I thought I was doing what was required to ensure all traffice was properly directed but I am effin certain that I'm not.

Can anyone...please point me in the proper direction.

bingoo

Your talking about adwords right? Cause if you use adwords/yahoo/msn you can be quite sure that the amount of clicks they provide you is almost 100% correct. Often I get more clicks on my affiliate network stats than on the ppc engine.

Are you geo targetting your adwords traffic? Don't send worldwide traffic to a US only offer.

If you are sure you're targetting only the traffic which is allowed for the offer, do another check on your links, make sure you didn't mess anything up with subID's or other dynamic things.

If you're sure everything is correct on your site, contact your affiliate manager and tell him about it. He should be able to verify if the offer is tracking correctly.

Deckah

Serious business thread deteriorating

lenyjay

seo mike -

thx - good stuff!

I'm new here! - eager to learn or burn.

yahooanswers

By far, this is the best sticky I have ever read. I really like how the author has segregated into pieces and make short note.

Mostly people see their website as one channel and nothing else. I have shouting last week to one of my friend 'Look your website as Business and nothing else'

Great post, Mike

justo_tx

We have a monthly tradition here at WF that I think you'll become acquainted with in May.

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Mike

We do? Is it unpleasant?

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Walden

I figure this is related to the fact that we are essentially running our own business, as such, I wonder how many of you (I would say us, but I am still in the learning phase) have your own budget and forecast spreadsheets?

I ask this as I have recently been developing one for my personal finances and have found that it has not only been eye opening to see where my money goes, but also handy for predicting how much money I will have x-months in the future.

I plan to expand this to envelop server, PPC, and other web marketing costs.

Any comments? Handy links to other sites or book recommendations?

Cheers,

Mike

Check out Free Personal Finance Software, Budget Software, Online Money Management and Budget Planner | Mint.com, it's very helpful for budgeting

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