wiredniko

I am just going to use this post as a way to write down my adventures when it comes to launching my first PPC campaign ever.

Just to catch up everyone with my current state of affairs. I got accepted as an affiliate in A4D, my AM is Mike. He is a cool guy, talked to him a couple of times to get to know him a little bit. He gave me the top performing niches and top performing offers in the network.

Took a look at all the offers and decided to go with acai. Then I got cold feet and started thinking "am I going to get owned by the avg CPC?" So I made a post here: Chicken or the Egg - Frustrations of a Newbie about it. Basically most people said

a) Just do it
b) Yes go with something that makes profit instead of something that might not

Sounds right and if I do not make money I will know its because of my inexperience, not because what I am promoting sucks. So in Mike and WF I trust.

Got a cool domain name with acai berry in the title, I am not going to heavily concentrate on SEO but I figure it does not hurt. Even though I am not going to advertise with Google just yet I will have to work on my Quality Score, so I am planning on maybe starting out with 8 articles and then adding an article a week. Get some passive traffic and a better QS is not a bad deal.

I got hostgator as my provider, "business" account. Once my traffic / profit gets there I will move up to VPS and hopefully dedicated after that....but that's the future. For now I am keeping my costs down.

I installed wordpress and added all the plugins I wanted. Nothing too crazy:
- AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget (web 2.0 stuff)
- All in One SEO Pack (passive SEO)
- Exclude Pages from Navigation (figured it would make life easy)
- Google XML Sitemaps (more passive SEO)
- Redirection (for my LPs..even though I have a PHP script I wrote that can do the same)
- Shockingly Simple Favicon (cause its easy)
- Ultimate Google Analytics (keep track of hits)
- Wordpress Automatic Upgrade (upgrade easy)
- WP Super Cache (speed things up)

I then created a Favicon pretty quick. Found a bowl full of acai berries, made it 16x16 keeping the aspect ratio and presto, 5 mins later I have a pretty neat looking favicon.

By this time the DNS had updated so my domain was official.

I made a rudimentary design of my landing page on a piece of paper. I wonder what the hell people do to get images on their LPs. I figured its ok to use images from the offer page. I will just use the ones below the fold. I am also planning on using the same color scheme by modifying my Wordpress CSS files.

And now you are all caught up with what I have done up until now. More to come...

ToDo:
- Decide about my 2 LPs, are they pages that also link to my blog...or are they a blog entry...pros vs cons?
- Install prosper
- Wordpress theme? I almost like the default one
- Look at competition see what they are doing right
- Keyword research
- Create 2 LPs

Otinsdale

glad to see you are getting going!

looking forward to see the results from jumping to acai, I always figured it was crowded but I'm really interested to see your results and hope you sell those berries.

Otinsdale

the little pic next to the url up in the url window

wiredniko

Its the little icon you see when you visit or bookmark a page, its 16x16 pixels. Its really something minor and not needed..but then again it was 5 mins of work.

wiredniko

Went to Google Insights for Search and did a keyword search. The search trend volume has been going down for sure, but for the last couple of months it appears steady and it even has a slight curve up.

I guess at this point if I was more experienced I might be able to make a judgement call. But for now I think I am ok. This search also gave me more keyword ideas. Most of the traffic is also US traffic, I guess that's good since I am about to promote a US only offer.

Went to Shopping.com - Find, Compare, and Buy Anything in Seconds. I had made a note that I should check things out here as well for my research, but it seems useless. Fitness is a top 100 search...no shit. Maybe this is useful for small niches that you do not want to be too small.

Went to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Definitely high search, high competition. Took a note of all the searches that are actually going up in volume. Added them to my keyword list, also added keywords that dealt with buying type of thinking.

Made an Adwords account for research purposes. I read their keywords section along with their tips. Knowledge can't hurt...(as long as it does not lead to inaction). This is an pretty good video for keyword basics: Optimization Tips - AdWords Help
Better than anything Shoemoney has put out

Went to Free Search Term Suggestion Tool by KeywordDiscovery.com grabbed all the keywords that had 19 or more searches a month. I now have 122 keywords.

Went to KeywordSpy had to register for their free trial offer. This site is sick...almost scary how in depth it is. You can see top ad copies, keywords being used, PPC vs organic competitors....brain melt. If I start making money I think I am buying a subscription to this....damn. $89/mo though, that's the highest subscription amount I have ever seen.

I can see the CPC is high...you know this market has a lot of shit going on when the misspelled word is $1.75. Damn I came across a site that their budget is $7k/day on ads. Sick.

Checking out competitors I can tell why a lot of people fuck affiliate marketing up. No calls to action. Confusing web design where you actually have to search where to click. Too much info...too little info. There is even a site with black background and red letters...so geocities 1997. I was waiting for a spinning pentagram logo.

Wrote down 5 ad copies that I liked from competitors for future inspiration. 178 keywords. I am rapidly realizing that the way I am writing my keywords down is not effective. If you get a new word, you can combine it 5 different way, before, after, plural before, plural after and misspelled. Hmm, there has to be a tool for this.

Heh found it. Free Keyword Phrase List Generator Thank me later! Here is a video explaining it PPC201: Adwords Basics - Module 3C - Keyword List Permutations

I am not sure if I went trigger happy or not. I have a 4617 keyword list....That's what happens when you create a list with possible spelling errors. Removing spelling errors I get a 243 keyword list.

After thinking about this 4617 keywords is silly. I am going to refine it. At the same time 243 seems low. Reading around the web, 700-1000 is about right. Then again some people say focus on specific words....maybe no one knows.

Anyway, added some more keyword ideas reading HOWTO: Create Ultra-Targeted Ads and get Highly Converting Campaigns

Ended up with 870 keywords from two to six words long. I am pretty happy with what I ended up with.

While looking at keywords I read over some notes I have taken while reading blogs. My LPs should be separate than my blog but they should link to each other. That takes care of another ToDo item.

Check Google Analytics, I am now indexed. Sweet.

Installing prosper202. Of course, hostgator and prosper202 do not want to play well together. Well what now? Looking around I found blue layer media offers a fix for $5. Cheap, but kind of annoying. The older version of prosper202 had a free hostgator fix, but I guess they have not worked to fix the new version.

Went to the prosper202 site, Wes suggested to upgrade PHP. Upgraded my PHP to 5.x. Hopefully that will fix the error. FAIL...and I cannot even buy the bluemedia solution because I do not have a paypal account. Double owned

I will not be defeated fucker. Comparing 1.3.2 hostgator fix to 1.5.1 prosper functions-install.php (notepadd++ is pimp like that) I fixed it. Take that bluemedia...your $5 is denied. Emailing both hostgator and prosper202 with the file I made.

Added quick fix on hostgator page and prosper202 page. Hopefully Wes contacts me so I can give him the file. In the meantime I contacted Hostgator support and emailed them the file I made. That's my good deed of the day...

I have worked for about 10 hours right now. Calling it a day. More to come tomorrow.


ToDo:
DONE - Decide about my 2 LPs, are they pages that also link to my blog...or are they a blog entry...pros vs cons?
DONE - Install prosper
DONE - Look at competition see what they are doing right
DONE - Keyword research
- Create 2 LPs
- Wordpress theme? I almost like the default one
- Create 2 ad copies
- setup prosper202 with my campaigns
- create MSN account
- create Home, About Us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, Terms and Conditions
- 8 SEO articles

wiredniko

Today I took it easy, its hard working full time and working at affiliate marketing stuff, but I shall keep going.

Finalized my LP design. Brainstormed on the general emotions I want to create. I know I will be targeting chicks so I am going for a Emotions > Visual > Logic approach. Its like I have to read my customer's mind, kind of like the thought process involved with that.

Did some LP design research. I wondered if most people create a giant image LP or actually used HTML for it. Seems HTML....but man I see so many bad LPs. Am I being simple minded or is it that a lot of people suck at Affiliate Marketing. Not really sure, I guess we will see how my campaign fairs.

Tried to create an MSN account but it looks like it requires me to add my ads on the spot, so I guess this just became my last step in the process. Oh well, updated my roadmap for future reference.

Working on my wordpress pages...but I am confused about legalities. I wonder if I can use the company's I am advertising for privacy policy and call it good...or if that's highly illegal. Read around seems like there is nothing like that around. Then again maybe I am searching using the wrong terms. Made a WF post: Legal Questions - Images and Privacy Policies We will see what I get there.

On an unrelated note I ordered "Getting Things Done" based on emp's thoughts. I hope it helps me get more organized.

Well crap, now I am stuck on legal matters for both my LP and my Privacy Policy etc...Writing a SEO keyword building article for QS. The article came out pretty good, it even gave me some ideas for my LPs. It also clarified some product questions I had. I need to write 7 more...

ToDo:
- Create 2 LPs
- Wordpress theme? I almost like the default one
- Create 2 ad copies
- setup prosper202 with my campaigns
- create MSN account
- create Home, About Us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, Terms and Conditions
- 8 SEO articles

b1tr0t

Good stuff wiredniko! Good luck too.

wiredniko

Thanks. Now if I only knew the law a little bit better.

WTF

You'd be surprised at what works for landing pages. Sometimes simple ugly landing pages out-perform well design beautiful landing pages. Take your best educated guess at what you think will work and optimize from there by split-testing.

As for Privacy policy, I'd just Google "boilerplate website privacy policy" and throw it up. Don't sweat the small stuff at this point. Most likely, this campaign is going to shit the bed, so it's best to get moving and get things out until you hit gold.

wiredniko

Ended up asking my AM about the legal questions I had, got a reply in less than 10 minutes. Mike from A4D rocks. Smax0r if you read this, give Mike a raise!

Apparently its alright. I even have a lead now for buying photos in case I need some.

wiredniko

First day at the gym for a long time. Registering and all that jazz slowed me down.

Nevertheless now I know I can use the legal documents from the product I am promoting and their images. That's convenient.

Added another SEO article.

wiredniko

Its been a month since my last update

I did go with acai and I crashed spectacularly. I did conversions but with the price of certain keywords my conversions where way too low. If I had a huge money base I could probably make it work, but I do not want to spend the next 6 months throwing $500 to it until it works out.

I also got to read Getting Things Done.....that book is amazing. I started applying it to my work and things immediately improved. With this new project I will start applying the GTD principles as well.

Anyway, I am going to go with BizOp offers. Here we go again...

Crazy Content

Good luck with this. The fact that you are coming back and doing it again makes you better than 95% of the people out there...

wiredniko

Thanks...I am just trying to avoid going for an MBA at college...if I do not make it by next year I will go for the safer...working option

wiredniko

I am planning on actually creating a big BizOp page. Actually create a following for people trying to make money. I am already interested in the subject and I actually think its going to help some people. Maybe one day I will even promote my own products for now I will just push Ads 4 Dough BizOps.

I read Ca$hvertising (Book Summary) and it made me think about how I need to become a slightly better promoter.

Went to namecheap.com and registered a website name. I think I came up with something pretty good, satisfies both SEO and gives a good emotional response. I think to date its the best website name I have come up with. Used "HARVEST" for a discount. Apparently namecheap now has a coupon website, namecheapcoupons.com

Installed wordpress and copied the same addons I had for my acai website :P

...my internet is crawling today

Configured all my wordpress addons. Time to find a theme....which always takes too long.

My internet is still crawling...its midnight I am calling it a day.

juntao65

You had conversions on acai? Was it from a handful of keywords? Why not try getting it profitable on those few before moving on. Most people don't profit right out the gate, but after optimizing end up making killer dough.

__________________

wiredniko

Picking up where I left of. Theme. Since I want to also SEO this idea and hopefully build a following I am going with a magazine style theme. About 300 themes viewed later I found something I really like...resisting the urge to keep looking....

Created a quick favico with a dollar sign, nice, simple to the point. Alright done with look and feel, time to actual start working on PPC stuff.

Did a google insight search Google Insights for Search damn, huge rise for BizOp related keywords, makes sense with the economy decline etc....as a side note much different than the acai graphs that showed a decline.

Keyword searching: https://adwords.google.com ...got 100 combinations.
Note to self, using Open Office for keyword generation makes thing easy since
typing keywords lets me know if they exist already or not..since OF tries to guess it.

More stuff to come.

stick2Herbs

Looks like this could be an interesting thread, just don't ditch out on us again :P

__________________

wiredniko

I have 100 keywords. Need some more...

Went to KeywordSpy for more keywords. Hmm, my google research was good enough that I got nothing from keywordspy, not sure if that should worry me or not.

Still at 100, but I have not even used any tools to diversify my words.

I wanted to check out Keywordrockstar....how can someone sell something for $999 and charge per month...that's just er crazy expensive.

Wow Demographics Prediction: Audience Intelligence: adCenter Labs kind of interesting to know. As expected some of my keywords where more male oriented, others where more female oriented. Bookmarked for later reference.

Hmm, to include exact phrases or not...I guess it does not hurt. Sure its more keywords but if no one clicks them its not like I get charged for keywords....right?

Spent about an hour working with Free Keyword Phrase List Generator I now have 396 words. Still seems kind of low.

Checked google analytics it still has not activated. Checked my GA plugin the number is right. Maybe it needs a couple more days. Its not that I have on any SEO anyway.

Prosper is setup already, I will use the install I had with my previous endeavor.

bauss

keep us posted.

wiredniko

Worked for about two hours on my first article. It was rather long, but I wanted to establish my website as legit. I figured first post impressions count. Added a link to an offer.

Need to customize my theme, there are some issues with it so I got to hack it. Found an interesting link about my theme and customization that covers some of the things I want to change but not all.

My article though is kickass, I read it and get pumped. Probably the best article I have written to date.

..can you tell I am excited.

I don't know if going for a walk before I start is helping my productivity levels but I can focus for two straight hours working non stop. Normally the same amount of work would take me at least double that time.

Updated my GTD style notes.

I need to setup my campaign with prosper202 first thing tomorrow.

Otinsdale

Keep that excitement up, will get you tons accomplished!

getting fresh air and exercise definitely helps! Trying to get myself out today.

I have found that the more I think copy is going to kick ass and convert the more it doesn't...lol.

I've hired about 5 people to write copy on this one page, one was some i'm awesome you will see giant percentages in conversion blah blah that cost 300 bucks....out of all of those I am using crap copy that I wrote in about 5 minutes one day because for some reason that works the best on this page and all the good sales copy tanked my clickthroughs and conversions.

I was just recommended clicktale heatmapping and it has really been interesting to see what gets noticed and what people skim through as well as where their notice is to place links, etc.

prosper setup is a breeze, shouldn't take more than a couple minutes.

wiredniko

I am pissed off with my work environment and the stupid state I live in...more fuel to succeed in AM and move away.

Anyway, Google Analytics its still not working. First time I have had that happen. Changed some options in my google analytics wordpress plugin, I hope that fixes it.

Created a logo. A crappy one...once I start making a little bit of money, first thing I hire is a guy that can do art stuff, I suck at them.

Hacked my wordpress theme. It finally looks perfect

Added another post, with a youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-8SjjGOFg one of my favorite motivational videos. Of course I had to figure out how to add videos in wordpress.

Ok enough with the article posting, time to actually work on things that will generate me money right now.

Time for my first landing page. Went to Stock Photography: Search Royalty Free Images & Photos | iStockphoto.com and grabbed some photos. In my opinion images are the easiest way to make something look professional. I am willing to pay $1.50 per image for that.

...speaking of landing pages this is pure gold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZlGy...mbedded#at=981

wiredniko

I caught myself procrastinating today. I think I am afraid that this will fail.

Sven Goran Eriksson said "the greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure"

I guess its true. If you are too scared to try you will never succeed.

I have all the notes I could possible have for creating a cool LP. So might as well create one...or two. I should go with two LPs, two Ad Copies and see what does the best.

I think for LP 1 I am going to go simple not flashy...like google simple if that makes any sense. LP 2 I will go for something that matches the offer page.

CSS is done, going for internal CSS without linking so I can keep my LPs separate in terms of CSS elements.

Got a button created for my call to action. I have multiple ideas about what my call to action button should say, I am going to go with greed first.

....so I went to get the specific offer I wanted and I needed approval. Emailed Mike, my AM for A4D...three hours later on a Sunday I was approved. Mike rocks.

More CSS work, I had misspelled a freaking CSS class and it was my main web look class. Kept trying to figure out why all my fonts where smaller....so much fail, wasted 30 mins on that.

Hmm, page still needs work. My image is too big. I should also add a border around to give it that professional look...right now my page looks too plain.

Added "as seen on" logos to give myself some brand recognition. Of course I made it 1024 pixels wide...and I am setting up my page for 800 pixels. Oops. I should resize that.

Also need to add testimonials on the bottom part of my page. I am thinking two should be enough. I have three pics to play with from istock so I am ok for that, need to reside them first..but that's easy.

dchuk

__________________

emp

R Crumb for the win

::emp::

__________________
Your Logical Fallacies - know them to avoid them

That's because all programmers are also ninjas.(but not all ninjas are programmers) - LogicFlux

Blind Ape Seo

wiredniko

Keep on trucking eh?

Time to create another SEO based post...add an affiliate link as well...I still feel like I am slacking when it comes to my Landing Page

Well I kind of am I guess.

I am 50% there for my first LP.

Post made....time to work on the LP.

By the way I mentioned this before but...notepad++ is the bomb.

Updated my logos, 1024 width on a CSS based 800 width page defeats the purpose. I also added a fade effect to make it more part of the background.

It makes my call to action POP!

wiredniko

Landing page completed...took a while, overall I would say I spent about 12-15 hours developing it. I think I overcame certain issues that next time I will be able to do it faster from scratch.

At least now I have fully configured CSS files, have a source for all my images...and even a privacy policy that works on a universal scale.

I have given some thought about split testing. Since I am not creative but more analytical I came up with the following list of things I can test:

• Headline
• Page layout
• Navigation
• Color scheme
• Button text
• Sales copy
• Graphic images
• Call to action
• Offer

One of the keys of experimentation is to only change one variable at a time to measure appropriate deviation so I am planning on doing exactly that. For my 2nd LP I have changed my headline.

I am also creating two ad copies.

Damn I am so close...I am getting a little bit nervous.

Working on Ad Copies I had some good ideas so it should be kind of simple to generate...Yup made two copies that I like...hopefully they work well.

I decided to test PPC providers as well, half of my money will go to AdBrite the other to Bing.

or AdBrite can be a bitch and get dropped...Its probably better to just use on PPC Campaign anyway. I am going with $100/days. I can run it for 5 days and see how it goes. Everyday I will check stats and keep split testing.

I am getting ahead of myself....bidding on a per word basis...uhm...yeah. I never researched that. Thankfully MS Adcenter has a calculator for hitting position 1....I have no clue how they can claim an actual CTR though, it probably is the average CTR of the #1 position.

So basically this is where I fucked up my acai campaign. So lets use that knowledge a little bit. First of all, one of my keyword sets is $50 CPC...for position 6...yeah that's what happens when you make stupid keyword selections.

Time for some research. Its funny how none of the "big" affiliate bloggers really talks about how to determine proper bids. Like some kind of an initial benchmark. After I have the numbers it becomes much much easier.

Google searched ideas for CPC bids...it totally failed. So I did a WF search at least now I know I should start high and decrease while focusing on high CTR. It appears that if you have high CPC your bids can be smaller and you still retain a high position.

Well that's great but I still cannot go after $50 keywords....so...

Alright...for 100% ROI, $36 payout, lets positively estimate 3% conversions....that makes my max CPC $1.08. So I am going to cut all the keywords that are more than that.

Better idea (I hope, the ones that are $1.50 or lower I will tag with a lower max CPC, that will give me more keywords, and for some of them I just will not be as high position)

Of course the API is designed in an annoying way...CPC and keywords in separate pages...so I have to go between pages to drop keywords. I am sure there is a better way to do this.

Found the better way...add the entire campaign then go back and pause the high ones :P

Crap I am still confused. I set everything at $1.08...its an experiment I will see how it goes by tomorrow.

wiredniko

Woke up today hoping my campaign had generated some clicks. No such luck, it says active in adcenter but no clicks, and I have $0 spent so I am guessing its not really active yet.

Posted some PPC related questions in this forum with the things I got stuck with yesterday, hopefully I will get some answers. I still do not know if its dumb of me to have huge under bids for keywords or not, I rather fix that before my campaign becomes truly active.

wiredniko

Created two more articles for my website.

Checked stats MSN is finally working, got some clicks. It seems like its not in real time because it bursts.

Prosper is not reporting the hits for some reason even though it reports my initial links. Don't know what's up with that.

I will check my stats later today to see how it worked out. I cross linked things with A4D no sales yet...but I still have not reached my payout yet, so there is still chance for profit.

Also applied to EWA, I just really like Ryan's style so being part of his group would be interesting.

stick2Herbs

Bro, I'm reading your journal, keep on doing what you do baby. I know them streets is tough, and getting prosper to work is tougher. But, get your prosper game proper, cause if you sling shit on the wall, then you ain't operating at a scientific level. You need your keywords and shit.

That is all.

Good luck man.

__________________

wiredniko

I know what you mean. I need to figure that out.

I also did not spend my $100 yesterday. Since I am underbidding anyway I will raise some of my bids for a better position.

__________________
Twitter is gay but follow me anyway http://www.twitter.com/wiredniko

wiredniko

My tracking is all messed up.

Clicks
MSN: 131
Prosper: 14 wuh?
A4D: 22

My guess is MSN and A4D is alright but Prosper is really sucking. Investigating about WTF is going on.

My ad copies CTR
Ad1 - 2.195
Ad2 - 2.535

I just found out something kind of neat. My offer page is actually being split tested, they have two designs. I guess it makes sense for affiliate rules to expand to advertisement rules.

I don't get it. My landing page javascript created by prosper202 seems legit. I even compared the lpip number...which I am guessing its a unique id for prosper. I checked both landing pages. I even clicked the javascript link to make sure it takes me to an actual javascript.

Programming wise this does not make sense, how can it work only sometimes? The number being lower than what MSN reports is whatever..but lower than A4D which is AFTER my landing page.

I checked my text ads they are all pointing to my LPs, no direct links.

It does not work. Hell I even landed on my pages on purpose but the prosper numbers did not change. Hmm A4D did not update either.

Frustration.

Reading more...maybe I will rewatch the setup videos...even though they are for an older version.

This has to be something dumb, I can feel it. Let me re approach this.

Ok, some clicks register, other do not. I get no keyword tracking either. None of the graphs are displaying anything...

So that means its either the LP code or what is feeding it. Since the text ads are alright...could it be my A4D actual links that are weird with the whole subid, c1 stuff....?

Oh my god....I think I figured it out...30 minutes later. Wes you rock as a programmer but you need someone to do the explanation part of things. Fucking brackets...That's what happens when the video online for configuring this is out of date...

My clicks are being tracked. Can't tell for the rest, I hit my budget today of $100 so there are no live results I can get. I need to talk to my AM to add my tracking pixel and since I am at it to confirm that I am doing things right for my prosper tracking.

...in the meantime my article auto posted. Might as well have the SEO side of things working well.

Hmmm, with no data I am kind of stuck. No sales though kind of sucks. $135 spend up to today. $0 sales. By looking at the A4D stats and MSN stats, I have a 16.7% CTR on my LP...which I think is high for my first try.

So why no conversions?

Its 10:10...with my real job and this I have worked 14 hours today. I am going to take a shower, meditate and sleep.

Tomorrow I hope prosper works better so I can get some real results instead of estimates.

__________________
Twitter is gay but follow me anyway http://www.twitter.com/wiredniko

onkelmicha

Are oyu running on your own host? When you choose spy mode(I think its called that at least) so shall there be an option in a list that says show only real clicks and show all clicks....

try to change that around

__________________

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wiredniko

Checked my stats today.

Prosper is still fubared.

Totals
Total spent: $159.02
Clicks: 174
CTR: 2.36%
LP CTR: don't know...but can extrapolate
Landed on sales page: 62 (but some of those are my clicks)
Sales: $0

Lets assume that out of the 62 sales page clicks 10 of them are mine.

That means from my ad copy to my sales pages I have a 29.88% CTR...but 0% sales.

Prosper not working is frustrating....according to prosper I have only had 27 clicks to my LP....even though my sales has has 62

Well my Ad Copy needs to be worked on tonight, and so does my LPs since they are not generating sales. I was thinking yesterday in the shower that I need to target more desperate users and maybe even mentioned the shipping and handling fee up front. I rather have lower CTR in my LP with sales than 30% CTR with no sales.

__________________
Twitter is gay but follow me anyway http://www.twitter.com/wiredniko

wiredniko

I paused my campaign. Prosper not working and making $0 sales with about 200 clicks...

Had a new friend check out my LP, he politely said that they pretty much suck.

Obviously it was an LP problem. In the meantime there are some really nice LPs I have discovered that totally put mine to shame.

So back to the drawing board. Re-designing my landing pages from the beginning. My Ad Copies need some work 2.76% is kind of low, but to be honest my average position was 4th or 5th. Next time I need to hit higher positions as well.

Looking for a new wordpress theme for the site style I want to have.

...I swear every time I look for a new wordpress theme it takes me hours.

How hard is it to find a 2 column white theme with a simple styled menu up top that looks business like....apparently its impossible.

Oh great gods of WF, please bless me with a free wordpress theme that looks kind of like CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News see how its just a freaking professional looking menu up top...that's all I want

__________________
Twitter is gay but follow me anyway http://www.twitter.com/wiredniko

Makavelimob

read some landing page tips on copyblogger.com. My ctr improved 20 percent with just about 2 hours of improvements

emp

wiredniko...

forget about the biz theme.

Try making your landing page look similar to your offer page.

::emp::

__________________
Your Logical Fallacies - know them to avoid them

That's because all programmers are also ninjas.(but not all ninjas are programmers) - LogicFlux

Blind Ape Seo

wiredniko

Like make it feel like my page and the offer page are almost the same thing?

I don't know if I explained that right...I mean make it seem like my page and the offer page where designed by the same person?

__________________
Twitter is gay but follow me anyway http://www.twitter.com/wiredniko

emp

yep

::emp::

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Your Logical Fallacies - know them to avoid them

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Blind Ape Seo

wiredniko

Well I started thinking if I am getting 29% CTR to my offer page....maybe its my offer that is having issues....in any case while I am building my new LP might as well have something running.

So I am going to link it to another offer.

In the meantime I updated my lowest CTR ad copy to something more similar to my higher CTR one.

Updated some of my max CPC values, I want to get some higher positions. Still don't know my way around bidding.

Update my link to the new offer and restarted my campaign.

Prosper is still being a bitch so I still do not know which LP is working, but I went with my hunch and update the title of the LP I did not like.

Updated the way I had my subid for prosper202...I hope that might fix prosper...if not...well it ain't working now.

Well with that down time to work on my new LP idea...if it ends up being that it was the offer I can just split test the new LP idea...if it was my LP it will not hurt to have a totally new style for my LP.

...oh my god I am an idiot. I knew this prosper issue was user error. I kept playing around with generating links when I initially did not have my subid inserted correctly....and yeah that changes the tracking.....gah

I might as well update all my landing page links once and have the final result. I am convinced this is it. I will know for sure tomorrow.

Well now my prosper is all re-setup for all my ads and to keep track of keywords.

Alright now I can work on the new LP of doom. Still looking for a stupid theme. Finally found two, I will have to hack them to shit to make them work right and add some PHP generated stuff, but I have the backbone.

Registering new domain, for this experiment...technically experiment v2.5 I will not make multiple posts for SEO purposes, this will just be a pure PPC LP. Btw namecheap for September has a new coupon code "back2reality"

Domain and DNS all setup. Updating my hostgator account to grab the new domain. I am now up..well the DNS is still updating but I can do my thing.

I am getting faster at setting things up. I can tell the difference.

Wordpress installed and updated to current version. Theme FTPed and enabled. Bare bones plugins added and configured.

Going to sleep. I hope my new offer works...if it does not I will just pause it tomorrow night and launch my new LP. Even though my new LP will take some time.

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wiredniko

$0 sales...sigh

Pausing my campaign as I discussed in my last post. I will provide the end stats tomorrow right now they are a bit off. MSN seems to have a day lag for detail stats.

Well I cannot say I am happy about this. I wish I had a couple of buys at least.

Prosper not working has kept me blind about some stats...but that is not what caused this to fail. Obviously trying the new offer did not change anything, as I expected its something about my LP that just did not convert right.

The Ad Copy to final offer CTR is still pretty high in my opinion but if your CTR is 100% and your ROI is 0% you are doing it wrong.

I would lie if I said I am not bummed about it. So the question becomes do I create the LP that I think it will work and try again? Do I give up and try an email/zip submit because they seem simpler?

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wiredniko

I am not giving up yo.

Ryan Eagle quote I came across the other day "I don’t read. I learn by losing money - like I said, experience is the best way to become profitable."

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Chianti

Thanks for keeping this thread updated. When I finally find time to have a go at marketing, the first thing I'm going to do is come back and read it again, for a dose of reality.

I'm interested to know, do you have enough money to be able to continue testing this campaign? What's the maximum you would throw at the campaign before terminating it? Suppose you have four failed campaigns before finding a successful one; do you have enough budget to cope with that?

I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but doesn't 30% CTR from LP to offer seem too high for an unoptimised campaign? If your AM has told you that other marketers are managing to shift this product OK, could it be that your Ads are attracting people who are in 'research mode' instead of 'the buyers'?

Cheers

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TheMightyOne

hahaha^ Chianti, i love that sig dude, some silly ass shit!!!! almost feel compelled to steal it LOLOL!

But wiredniko...dont be bummed dude, its a learning process, all the money u lost, u regained back in some sick ass knowledge and experience, im going thru the same shit, u know this!

I think everyone whos reading ur journal will agree that ur 1000x further to being successful than some newbie reading this and taking notes in his lil handy dandy affiliate marketing manual he's putting together for FUTURE use

Failure is the tuition you pay for success bro

wiredniko

Now that a day has pass my MSN data is up to date so I can post the final conclusions.

• Spend $397.23
• Sales $0
• Clicks 320
• Impressions 11,939
• CTR % 2.68
• Avg Position 3.83
• Avg CPC $1.24
• Highest Keyword CTR 23.08% (9 out of 39..I ignored 1 and 2 hit wonders)
• Highest Ad Copy CTR 3.23%
• Offer hits: 109...probably 15 of them are my tests so 94
• Ad Copy to Offer CTR (through my LP) 29.375%

Unfortunately prosper was fubared so I cannot tell which keywords actually pushed people to the offer or my CTR for my two LPs, its like I am missing the middle.

So obviously my campaign failed. One of the things I have realized, and I need to practice more is learning from my mistakes. It seems that most successful people do this, reading "How We Decide" also confirmed my idea, that experts become experts by analyzing their mistakes.

Mistake analysis:

• Test and ensure prosper202 is tracking right BEFORE I go public (aka start sending traffic)
• Split testing Ad Copies works well, I raised my CTR by 1.3% in a couple of days. It would have worked on the LP level as well, if I prosper was tracking it...
• Spending $100 a day on a campaign is too high, I did not need to spend $400, I knew it was not working at $200. Instead I am going to spend less money per day, and still try to test something out for five days. I think my new limit is going to be the offer money per day (except if its an email submit or something) that way I am testing $offer x 5
• Get a second opinion on LPs and Ad Copies..what I think is cool might actually be silly
• Split test, split test, split test
• Keyword bidding...CPR increases for higher positions, its obvious but now its verified
• Max CPC can drain the hell out of you quick
• Avoid keyword free when you are asking people to pay, most of my clicks where long tail keywords with the word free...yeah its cool that I got volume but if it did not convert its useless or I do not know how to monetize it
• Be more creative with keywords, hitting obvious keywords ends up costing too much money due to competition
• Do more research for how others are advertising similar offers
• Talk to my AM more, he is there to help
• Having someone you trust to bounce ideas with is tremendous help, not to mention it inspires you to work harder...so thanks Val
• Keep track of my own test hits, it makes data tracking harder when I have to estimate how many of those hits are mine
• Think about what time to display my ads. I noticed that everyday I would run out on my budget by around 5ish...maybe next time I need to test during prime time hours....perhaps this is the wrong approach...who knows
• I need to work on my sales technique. It appears I have kind of the right idea on the Ad Copy level, but obviously my LP even though it pushed traffic it did not monetize it. So I need to sell it better. I should do more research on this.
• Its better to start my campaign on a Friday or Thursday, that way I have the weekend to work on things if need be instead of trying to make big changes during the week

That is all I can think of for now.

Time to work on my new LP idea. I will split test between my idea and what emp suggested, making an LP similar to the offer page. I will use the same ad copies, well actually my top performing ad copy and a variation of it.

Keyword wise I am taking a totally different approach so I will pretty much have to start from scratch. Hopefully I will get done by Sunday...then do I apply lessons learned and launch my campaign this Thursday or start immediately?

Well time will tell, since I might or might not be ready with my two LPs anyway.

Back to work for me!

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wiredniko

Officially starting experiment v2.5...why 2.5? Because I am using the same offer and Ad Copies but a totally different landing page approach.

Main project here is to hack the hell out of my landing page. I need to add GeoIP tracking, date manipulation....and then actually write the content.

Updated header.php and footer.php file removing non needed items, links to theme creator, search etc...

Modified my menu bar, added a bunch more pages titles, changed CSS for menu bar to cover the width of the page.

Working on LP top of the page logo..this always takes a while. Made one...looks really amateur to me. Hmm...Got a second opinion....it apparently looks good. Who would have thought.

Had to figure out how to super impose dynamic text on top of a picture...CSS came to the rescue. Now I can dynamically change text based on who visits and when.

...I just realized I am working against myself with this damn wordpress theme. I wanted to use it for the structure, but why didn't I just decide to go pure HTML. I am even modifying most of the CSS. I think I should remove wordpress and make a pure HTML / CSS based page.

....thinking about it.

Fuck it...going pure HTML. Deleting my wordpress. Keeping a backup just in case.

Starting over with HTML.

Decided to go a bit wider, modified my banner image...I think I am putting too many details here and perhaps boring the ppl reading this...so I will be a bit less specific.

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bauss

Being 100% behind your own product is the only way to go

TylerT833

Great information! Useful for people who are in need of growing their general beginner experience in PPC.

stick2Herbs

Wordpress has been having a shit ton of little bugs since 3.01 Having to run around fixing shit has been eating into my time and how efficient I am. I'm also thinking of just going pure HTML/CSS. Would probably save me time and be simpler.