W.T.F. am I doing right? or wrong?(Newbie Rant!)

[WayOutWisdoms]

I have been working my ass off like 20 hours a day trying to get sites up, and get it all together. Some days I'll go for like 2-3 days straight without sleeping, and have just started to place some ads and links to my sites (mainly blogs for now)

Man...I'm burning-out wondering if the work and efforts I'm putting in are in vain? or if I'm just too friggin' impatient to see quality results/sales?

My links are starting to get hits, as are my banners/text ads/creatives...and i'm getting a trickle of repeat visitor's, but nobody's "spending any f'in money!"

This leads to my major concern: (other than the fact - I'm "All-In" and doing this for a living...which is going slower than I care to admit...hence the shameless plug)

I currently have a multitude of affiliate programs (like 16 and growing) that I want to believe are quality "parent companies" which show all my 'click-throughs' and detailed 'traffic reports'.... and none of them seem to be converting into any $ale$.

Realizing the economy sucks right now, and taking into consideration this is a tough market (with a lot of creative competition), I almost have to wonder; How the hell do I know if the 'programs' I am promoting are being honest?

I have free statcounter(s) calculating everything from the links that drew my visitors into my sites, the exit path, where they are, who they are, etc...and being new to all this ( 1-month in ) I'm digging the ability to learn so much about my visitors, tracking/analyzing the results...

But how can I know the people I'm redirecting my traffic to, my "Parent or Product Providers" are actually not making 'sales' and blindly screwing me out of my hard work and efforts... and due commissions?

I mean I'm trying to "trust" there's an integrity to all this, but how can I know? or track the actual 'point of sale' to 'know for sure' my efforts aren't in vain?

I'm promoting everything from Medleys social network program (A.F.F.), casino's, sex enhancers, adam&eve, among a boatload of name brand products.

While i'm setting my sites on evolving my efforts eventually to having my own 'stores' or 'Build Your Own Store' type businesses, and recruiting sub-affiliates. until I start generating enough hits or traffic to my 'parent companies' they won't offer that option to me just yet. Naturally, I have to prove to them I can bring traffic/revenue. -Which I am now just starting to work on a few hours a day.

While I'm taking this business very serious (maybe too serious) and treating it like it's my life on the line...I keep believing; the harder I work, the more time I put in, and the more I advance in areas like HTML code, Java, CSS etc...then I'll start seeing results equal to those efforts.

So far...I'm seeing nada!

Is this normal?

I know a lot of you have long surpassed the the "newbie' stage I'm going through, but being I am new to all this it's overwhelming, and I'm simply trying to find a way to balance my time & efforts, and weigh it against the return. Currently seeing NO return is 'freakin' me the "F" out.

Here it is 5:22am and I haven't friggin' slept since Tuesday (plus I'm doing this without d.r.u.g.s.... well, aside from a whole lotta coffee/cigarettes)

Help...I'm about ready to smash this freakin' computer. Here I've got a billion dollars worth of advertising resources, product, and services at my fingertips, and I haven't made 1 sale...W.T.F. am I doing wrong?:anon.sml:



Any advice...am I at least heading in the right direction? or am I fucked?

 

[lemons884]

20 hours a day is a little too much but I respect the dedication. I only work on my site for about 30 minutes a day on lazy days and about 3 hours on work days.

Just remember- affiliate marketing takes A LOT of patience.

Follow this model:

Content --> Traffic --> Presell --> Monetize.

Something along that model is not built up. You can have plenty of content, presell like a pro, and monetize every page but you won't make any money with no traffic. You can also get plenty of traffic but have crappy content (where your readers leave in 30 seconds) and your preselling and monetizing efforts will no longer matter. And Vice Versa.

 

[JayKim]

• SLEEP - clear head, clear mind, no burnout as u put it

• Check out the thread on “Best Affiliate Networks”. Choose a few that come highly recommended by other members of the WF community. This should put to rest any unnecessary paranoia you may feel about the trustworthiness of the networks you’re working with.

• Rather than trying to capitalize on every niche/product/traffic source that is out there, focus in on 1. 1 niche, 1 traffic source….and own it before moving on. Spreading yourself too thin is gonna result in knowing a whole lot of nothing about everything you’re dabbling in.

• This goes without even mentioning the effectiveness of your presell pages, copy, targeting, etc....

Lean on your AM for some direction and feedback on all of the aforementioned points. Keep working hard and always.....

 

[nat3r]

• Rather than trying to capitalize on every niche/product/traffic source that is out there, focus in on 1. 1 niche, 1 traffic source….and own it before moving on. Spreading yourself too thin is gonna result in knowing a whole lot of nothing about everything you’re dabbling in.

good advice

 

[Imfusion]

Hey mate, first of all stop smoking, its bad for your health

My opinion is that it takes time. See, all the free traffic you are getting is actually long term traffic and slow too. Results might be slow but they will happen, and if you continue creating it you will improve your seo rankings and get more traffic soon!

And yeah keep testing, tracking results.

But patience is your best friend here thats for sure

 

[Sticks79]

• Rather than trying to capitalize on every niche/product/traffic source that is out there, focus in on 1. 1 niche, 1 traffic source….and own it before moving on. Spreading yourself too thin is gonna result in knowing a whole lot of nothing about everything you’re dabbling in.

Yes, quoted again, OP you have no business diversifying until you know what you are doing, listen to the man.

One niche, and different variations of that niches landing page, for now.

 

[Despoil]

Uh make sure an offer actually converts before you push it. You can tell if something is going to be worth your time in $100 or less. Unless you see others in the market profiting - then you could spend more till you figure out what they are doing that you aren't. I wouldn't recommend starting out in affili selling products unless they are free trials, it takes a lot more testing to find whats working.

But I know what you're going through - my first month in I gave affili everything I had. I was making nearly every beginner mistake there was but I didn't have a clue. I had the worst offers (selling "free trials" of men's neckties...in winter.), was direct linking, had one ad for every keyword, and my keywords were a train wreck of the same longtail only longer each time.

I learned most of what I know from other's campaigns, take a look at what you're competition is doing. Can't find anyone pushing the offer? it doesn't convert.

 

[mereo]

You mention a free stats counter, but do you have any sort of affiliate marketing-specific tracking in place? I know that one thing that really helped me figure out where I needed to work on my campaigns was setting up Prosper202/Tracking202 so I could see which ads/keywords/landing pages were generating the most clicks, etc. and once you do start generating sales/commissions, it's really helpful to know which keywords are converting so you know which are worth spending more money on.

 

[Laura Varon]

For how long have you been doing this? The fact that you haven't had any buyers yet doesn't really have much to do with the economy itself - take in consideration that these things take time to become profitable, often 3 to 6 months.

Sleep-deprivation isn't the same thing as commitment. You won't be a more serious or more dedicated businessperson than you are now just by becoming all fried brains. While it's understandable why you'd want to put in so many hours of work everyday, it's going to be bad for you on the long run.

Good luck with everything and keep us updated on your progress.

- LV

_________________________________
looking for affordable web design?

 

[Imfusion]

Yup what mereo said, Prosper202 is a must for any PPC advertiser! Going out there blind wont get you anywhere. Ask you AM to put a tracking pixel for you, set it up and you can then see if it is good or not.

I think I have some video tutorials on my hard drive for prosper202, if you need them please pm me and i will send it to you. It is not hard to learn software, but still there are parts that are confusing..

 

[phyz23]

I think your working to hard. Post your links and let them work for you. I find that it's easier to not over load the visitors with to many options to choose from because more then likely when they navigate away from your site there not going to return to click on the other link you had (( it was a great link on that site I forgot to clicc on)) , So keep it simple with 1 or 2 choices to choose from and not 9 or 10 links. When your trying to work more then one campaign do adequate promotions and move on to the next. Return every couple of weeks to check your results not every hour because that's going to do nothing but frustrate you. Before you know it your going to check and actually see some sells coming in. Once the link is posted it's there to stay just like this thread you started, It's months later and your still getting replies. Same way with your advertisements. It could take months to see results. That's how you manage multiple campaigns. Some programs will do better then others but they all add up$$$

 

[WritingSolution]

Just relax a bit. I have a blog making me $4/day. I know that's not much but it's just an example. It's been up for 1 year. I post once a month MAYBE.

Just be patient and don't overdo it. Once you start making 1-3 dollars per day in adsense or selling 1-3 products through clicks/banners whatever, rinse and repeat that formula, split test your blogs/sites and see what's working. Then just make a shit ton of them.

PM me one or two sites and let me check them out for you. I can let you know what's going on PPC wise and whether or not people will actually like them

 

[micker]

First problem, coming here. Get a mentor.
Second.. Don't use dozens of affiliate programs. Most have payout minimums, some are around $100. You don't want to get stuck with a bunch of sales all under the payout threshold.

I'm pretty sure I still have $95 dollars sitting at DanniCash from the last month I ran adult sites in 2005...

 

[WayOutWisdoms]

Man...where I start?

First I'd like to Thank everyone as there's some solid advice I need to employ and start taking ownership over. The irony is [lemon884] nailed it, as I abandoned my initial gameplan which was to build an audience through written content, etc.. then presell my trusted audience with some mindful ideas 'psychologically infused' to presell them, and turn it into a stream of income.

Then my business minded, entrepreneurial hunger devourred my patience once again, and somehow I convinced myself I was going to recruit thousands of people to sell this crap for me! (Which ultimately is my evil plan.)

With all do seriousness, the wife and I paid $1000 dollars to join EDC roughly 15mths back. In addition, I was led around in circles 'thinking' I was gonna get everybody to join up, because at the time...I was clueless it was all 'One Big BOMB' that had all us "newbies" paying and signing up for all the 'higher-ups' affiliate programs. We spent like $2500 before my work started dying, and I said enough's enough, and gave up on EDC, and internet marketing for nearly a year.

I'm sure some have mixed feelings about Dave Dubbs, but him and a couple other people there really did teach me more than I paid for. I checked an old gmail account from

Meanwhile, 6 weeks ago...I didn't know what the hell "Affiliate Marketing" really was. I thought I did, but truth is...I didn't have a clue it was all FREE to join.

Funny story, but I had a dream. I woke up remembering every detail. I was sitting in an office with a group of CEO's, in a rich Corporate office. I had walked in unannounced into the Anheiser Busch/Budweiser Main Headquarters, and told them I could get them a million Budweiser drinker's, and was there to negotiate my cut!

Bare with me, anyway...they were all ears, and said;"we'll give you a dime for every dollars worth of beer your following drinks."

In the dream, I demanded 20 cents on the dollar, and we met 1/2 way at 15. In the dream, I was making $150k per month. Then I woke up!

The trippy part was later that day, I saw a product online that I thought would sell like crazy, and I emailed the company who manufactured it, thinking that could be my 'Budweiser' item. None the 'weiser' about affiliate marketing, I asked them what if I wanted to sell your product?

Low and behold...DUH! They responded within 24 hrs, and instructed me to sign-up for their affiliate hosted program. Only when I signed up for that item, they had 600 other affiliate programs in the same network. I went ballistic!

The point to all this being, I'm one for the recruiting sub-affiliates concept, as most of my programs are 2 or 3 tier. But, I know no-ones gonna sign-up unless I pull a magic rabbit out of my ass, and show them it works.

Hence, I am dogging myself out trying to get the sales coming in, so I don't look like a hypocrite when I start telling everyone what a great opportunity I have for them. It's almost laughable because I already know psychologically how to package my recruiting efforts...but I don't know how to fake success as I am brutally honest, and piss poor broke!

I already am addicted to this business, as the ideas are endless. It's learning something new I think that fuels my real desire, not so much the money. Of course I need, and want to make boatloads, but not without being able to earn it.

I know once the learning curve settles, I'll do alright with this, and maybe even make a living at it. Meanwhile, if I could just determine how to get from '0' to seeing something convert, I'd feel better.

[lemon884, Jaykim, Imfusion, Sticks79, Despoil, mereo, Laura V, phyz23, WritingSolution, micker]

Thank You All...

The sad reality is knowing "there's afortune out there waiting to be had" and I'm determined to find it!

In 5 days I've had like 478 page visits (which is probably like nothing to the experienced marketer) but I'm liking the fact that I'm getting a shitload of click-throughs, on 10 different affiliates products/programs/services.

But like several of you mentioned PPC, I elected to broker ads, and go for the percentage payouts. Now I gotta wonder if the 200+ uniques to adultfriendfinders smorgusborg of sites would pay better in the long run if I took the $1 per unique, rather than wait for a few of them to sign-up. I guess, thats where time & testing will tell.

Meanwhile, I got booted out of one of my wife's Hi5's social site for encoding the little BJ icons with my URL link, but man was I getting some hits...LOL!

Oh yeah...[micker] I am hoping dannicash is different than danni-com w/ adultfriendfinder, because I was under the impression the 28 or 29 differnt programs totals all fell under 1 bi-monthly check, if not that's gonna suck, cause if I'm not mistaken it is a 100 threshold...

To all whom survived thus far....:bowdown:

 

[dactylmedia]

478 Organic page visits in just a few days is great.... You aren't giving yourself enough credit. I am personally the same way as you and put in about 10-12 hours every single day on my PC. This has been going on for over a year. Just remember to set feasible goals and follow them. I remember when first getting into this industry everyone kept telling me the same thing so my goal was to hit $5/day. I told myself "free lunch for life" to kind of tag it with a sense of direct physical results. A few years passed by and I feel the exact same way as I did when I started. I feel the need to work harder and I'm constantly re-evaluating myself. Thing is.... profits online have passed my full-time job and my goal has moved to $273.97/day and I laugh at ever "desiring" $5/day. Just take a step back and focus on making quality content that people want. Monetizing that traffic will be a whole new fun adventure and you will really need to learn to be patient in figuring out the best way to do this for your traffic. Testing is probably the #1 thing you'll hear everyone tell you, this obviously means you are going to need to sit back and wait for results.

Good luck, you are on the right path, especially by properly asking for guidance on WF.