[AMA] $25m+ in affiliate mktg revenue & exiting the game: Ask me anything.

[apax999]

Apax999. It seems to me that even though affiliate marketing can be tiresome and wear you out, learning how to do it prepares you for success in other fields like nothing else. Learning how to drive traffic and efficiently convert it is usefull no matter what you do. Do you agree with this?

Lets say you create a dog toy as your new fastlane business venture. Would you use affiliates to drive traffic or would you just do it yourself?

Speed+++ for contributing such great material!

I sort of agree. The connections and people I've met while doing this are certainly invaluable, and I can certainly use those connections and traffic sources for other businesses.

But not all products while will work on your traditional CPA network. You used the example of a dog toy. 99% of affiliates/publishers on a big CPA network would never touch this. It's too niche specific. The offers that will gain traction and do volume on CPA networks are the typical things like rebills, toolbars, pin submits, dating, lead gen etc.

If I ever wanted to launch a "typical offer" that you see on all the major networks, like a nutra product, I feel confident I could get traction fairly quickly. This is my next business move.

I'm an affiliate marketer here too and a new company I started recently (which has "real" staff) is making me tempted once more to hire physical employees to come in to the office to work.

Have you ever tried doing that?

You mentioned that you outsource, so I'm wondering whether you've tried hiring "real staff" or simply whether you think outsourcing is the better solution.

I'm asking because my experience with virtual staff has been mediocre at best and I always end up doing the grunt work myself.

I look forward to the "4 hour workweek" lifestyle perhaps some time in the future but for now (and the next few foreseeable years) I'm happy to pump in the hours but I'd like to do that in the most effective way possible, thus my willingness to invest energy and resources into building a team etc and would love to hear your thoughts on that.

Never had any interest in taking on employees. Outsourcing is less then glamorous, I agree with you there. I would say for every 1 good worker I hired over the years 10 others were horrible.

When I put up a new job on odesk or elance or wherever I put up a small sample job and hire 25 people. The first 2-3 people who get it done properly (and can speak enough English) typically get hired. Not a perfect system, but has worked okay for me.

 

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[Maestro]

Great thread apax999, highly valuable.


I considered using affiliate marketing for my infoproduct, but my niche is quite a narrow and from what you wrote above it seems that most affiliates only go for the wide markets ie nothing that is too specific.

An estimate of my potential customers would be 50.000 world wide, so will using affiliates be a waste of time?
And if I were to drive traffic on my own, what will be the best return on both time and money(PPV, PPC etc.)?


Thanks.

 

[3things]

Lol you categorized and tidied up my list like I was too lazy to do in the first place! Nice

http://www.3things.be/useful-list-of-online-advertising-platforms/

1. Google Adwords – search and content network adwords.google.com
2. Bing/Yahoo – search and content text/contextual ads http://advertising.microsoft.com/sma...vertising/bing
3. Miva – cheap search ads miva.com
4. 7Search – cheap search/direct domain ads 7search.com
5. LookSmart – self serve search/contextual text ads looksmart.com
6. Ask – self serve ppc http://www.ask.com/products/display

PPV/CPV

1. Traffic Vance – great ppv network trafficevance.com
2. Lead Impact – formerly zango, pops/CPV ads leadimpact.com
3. AdOnNetwork – banners, contextual, search – self serve adonnetwork.com
4. MediaTraffic – ppv ads mediatraffic.com
5. Direct CPV – cpv, self serve popups directcpv.com
6. Adoori – ppv popups – self serve adoori.com
7. Findology – ppc/cpv findology.com

Self-Serve

1. Facebook Ads – self serve ads on facebook http://www.facebook.com/advertising/
2. My Ads – self serve banners on myspace & a host of Fox network sites https://www.myads.com/login.html
3. POF Ads – self serve ads on PlentyOfFish https://ads.pof.com/
4. Adshuffle Exchange – self serve ads on many big sites and networks adshuffle.com
5. AdReady – display ads/self serve banners on yahoo sites adready.com
6. AdsDaq – banners/media buying exchange (now Contextweb) contextweb.com
7. Advertise.com – self serve text, search and display ads advertise.com
8. Casale Media – self serve banners casalemedia.com
9. Advertising.com AdDesk – banners on popular sites advertising.com
10. CBS Interactive – media buys on very high traffic CBS site inventory http://cbsinteractive.com/
11. Adroll – self serve banners/site targeting adroll.com
12. Pulse360 – ads on good high traffic inventory pulse360.com
13. BuySellAds – self serve banners on a range of design blogs buysellads.com
14. AdSonar – text ads on high traffic US sites adsonar.com
15. AdBlade – self serve display ads, very good service adblade.com
16. Traffiq.com – self serve banners, media buy type thing traffiq.com
17. BlogAds – banners/text ads on high traffic blog network blogads.com
18. Clicksor – banners/text ads/pop unders clicksor.com
19. Chitika – search related contextual display ads chitika.com
20. AdPerium – display banners, self serve, similar to adbrite adperium.com
21. Reddit Ads – self serve direct ads on reddit.com http://www.reddit.com/r/ads/
22. AdToll.com – now owned by Clickbooth – banners/display/text ads adtoll.com
23. AdSide – self serve ppc contextual inline text ads adside.com
24. MegaClick – banners on 2 high traffic file share sites megaclick.com
25. RealTechNetwork – Variety of formats, self serve platform realtechnetwork.com
26. AdEngage – banners/text, similar to adbrite, allow weekly buys adengage.com
27. AdBuyer – media buying search/display exchange adbuyer.com
28. OpenX Ad Marketplace – banner exchange on open x ad network openx.com
29. ZedoAdNetwork.com – Zedo self serve zedoadnetwork.com
30. Adbrite – display/contextual ads adbrite.com
31. AdClickMedia.com – self serve banners and contextual widgets adclickmedia.com
32. TrafficTaxi.net – self serve banners/display/popunders – global traffictaxi.net
33. XA.net – Display/retargeting/facebook ad exchange xa.net
34. BidVertiser – contextual and banner ads bidvertiser.com
35. BuyAds.com – self-serve banners on many quality sites buyads.com
36. http://www.widgetbucks.com - self serve text/widget ads http://www.widgetbucks.com
37. http://www.bidplacesb.com/ - self serve banners, owned by AOL http://www.bidplacesb.com/
38. http://www.ampkeywords.com - self serve text ads http://www.ampkeywords.com
39. AdTaily http://www.adtaily.com/ http://www.adtaily.com/
40. AdMarketplace – self serve text ads admarketplace.com
http://www.advertisespace.com - Direct display buys on small-ish http://www.advertisespace.com

Media Buy Networks (non-self serve)

1. Tribal Fusion – media buy banner network tribalfusion.com
2. Advertising.com – display/banners, media buys advertising.com
3. Microsoft Ad Network – microsoft banner display/media buys http://advertising.microsoft.com/ad-network
4. AOL Advertising – variety of solutions on AOL inventory http://advertising.aol.com/
5. FOX Networks – banners on FOX properties http://www.fox.com/advertise.php
6. Bnmla – banners, huge volume, good for female demo http://www.bnmla.com/
7. MediaWhiz – banners/display, media buys mediawhiz.com
8. CPXinteractive – banners/display, media buys cpxinteractive.com
9. ValueClick – banners, display/media buys valueclick.com
10. Interclick – banners, high volume media buys interclick.com
11. EngageBDR – media buys on high traffic inventory http://engagebdr.com/
12. Burst Media – banners/display/media buys burstmedia.com
13. Tatto Media – banners/display/media buys http://www.tattomedia.com/
14. Right media (Yahoo) – self serve banner exchange rightmedia.com
15. PremiumAccess.com – premium banner ad network premiumaccess.com
16. AdKnowledge – cheap ads, slow approvals adknowledge.com
17. Xtend Media – banner/display media buys http://www.matomymedia.com/
18. Federated Media – cpm banners on good inventory of sites federatedmedia.com
19. ReduxMedia – Display, media buys, some good blog inventory reduxmedia.com
20. AdFunky – Display/rich media, some high traffic inventory adfunky.com
21. BannerConnect – media buys/banners, good european reach bannerconnect.com
22. Glam Media – media buys, display, very good inventory for female demo glammedia.com
23. Vibrant Media – inline contextual/rich ads, media buys vibrantmedia.com
24. Tremor Media – media buys, good range of new formats tremormedia.com
25. Rubicon Project – media buys, nice interface/inventory rubiconproject.com
26. Traffic Marketplace – display/email ads, media buys epicmarketplace.com
27. AdJuggler – display/media buys adjuggler.com
28. Specific Media – banners/video display, media buys specificmedia.com
29. Undertone.com – premium banners/display/media buys undertone.com
30. Z5x.net – display banners, media buys, large inventory z5x.net
31. Dsnrmg.com – display, media buys, unknown quantity/quality dsnrmg.com
32. Collective.com – media buys, banners/display collective.com
33. Adconian – video/banner ads, media buys adconion.com
34. Technorati Media – banners http://technoratimedia.com/
35. http://intermarkets.net - display/banners - media buys intermarkets.net
36. azoogleads.com azoogleads.com
37. clickbooth.com clickbooth.com

Retargeting

1. Retargeter – Retarget the ones who didn’t sign up first time retargeter.com
2. FetchBack – Retarget the ones who didn’t sign up first time fetchback.com
3. MyThings – Retarget the ones who didn’t sign up first time mythings.com
4. Criteo.com – Retargeting criteo.com
5. http://www.leadback.com - retargeted ads at search traffic leadback.com

Category (Gaming)

1. Mochi Media – self serve in-game ads mochimedia.com
2. CPMStar – banners display aimed at gaming sites only cpmstar.com
3. Intergi – banners and static/video in-game adverts intergi.com
4. NeoEdge.com – static/video in game adverts neoedge.com
5. Ad4Game – banners on gaming sites ad4game.com
6. Ad2Games – online advertising for games http://www.ad2games.com/
7. Axifer – banners on Gamezer http://www.axifer.com/
8. Game Advertising Online – large scale performance-focused advertising solution for online games http://www.game-advertising-online.com/
9. http://www.advertiseyourgame.com/ http://www.advertiseyourgame.com/
10. http://www.inviziads.com/index.html http://www.inviziads.com/index.html
11. http://www.advertisegame.com/?gclid=...FUHr7Qoddh9vSg http://www.advertisegame.com/?gclid=...FUHr7Qoddh9vSg
12. http://www.bluenoodle.com/advertisers/ http://www.bluenoodle.com/advertisers/
13. http://www.game-advertising.com/ http://www.game-advertising.com/
14. http://www.arcadeaffiliate.com/ http://www.arcadeaffiliate.com/
15. http://www.onads.com/ http://www.onads.com/
16. http://www.gamerstrain.com/ http://www.gamerstrain.com/
http://www.surgedirect.com/


Category (Adult)

1. Black Label Ads – Text & banners on adult inventory – adult version of adbrite blacklabelads.com
2. AdExpansion – Display/banners on adult inventory adxpansion.com
3. EroAdvertising – Web & mobile display/banners on adult inventory ero-advertising.com
4. TrafficJunky.net – adult self serve display/banners, good volume inventory trafficjunky.net
5. JuicyAds – Display on adult inventory, flat rate buys per week/month juicyads.com
6. Adult Ad World – CPM ads, text ads, pop-under, clicked traffic adultadworld.com

Social Apps

1. Appvert – Facebook apps ads, display appvert.com
2. http://adchap.com - ads on various social sites, hi5, facebook, bebo et adchap.com
3. TappJoy – socialmedia app ads and distribution tapjoy.com
4. Userplane – social media advertising for media buyers userplane.com
5. Cubics – social media ads cubics.com
6. Rock You Media – social media display ads rockyoumedia.com
7. http://zohark.com - facebook app ads zohark.com
8. http://offerpalmedia.com - socialmedia app ads offerpalmedia.com
http://underdogmedia.com/

International

1. Reseau Select – banner and offline targetted at quebec http://www.reseauselect.com/
2. Canoe Klix – text ads on the canoe.ca network http://www.canoeklix.com/
3. Adconian – display/media buys, good for Europe adconion.com
4. Hola Networks – media buys targeting hispanic demo only in USA holanetworks.com
5. Hi Media – display/media buys, mainly European traffic he-media.com
6. Ad2OneGroup – media buys on premium UK, Irish & Aus. sites + Ebay UK ad2onegroup.com
7. Pamoja Media – Adify powered, banners for African traffic pamojamedia.com
8. SHE Network – Adify powered, target Swedish women http://www.shenetwork.se/
9. Smowtion – display banners, most South American inventory smowtion.com
10. Traffic Synergy AdRands – banners, South African traffic http://www.trafficsynergy.co.za/adrands/
11. UTarget.co – UK display/rich media/video, owned by Fox utarget.co.uk
12. Unanimis – display/video media buys, UK traffic http://www.unanimis.co.uk/
13. Mirago – UK/French/German contextual/search ads http://www.mirago.com/
14. HarrenMedia – Media buys, South American/Hispanic traffic http://www.harrenmedia.com/index.html
15. http://www.adborsa.com/ - Display ads for largely Turkish demo adborsa.com
16. ExoClick – Text/display on various inventory. Similar model to adbrite exoclick.com
17. Aim4Media – Display media buys, European traffic http://www.aim4media.com/
18. Adverline – Media buys, good quality French/Euro inventory adverline.com
19. Accelerator Media – UK banners/media buys http://www.accelerator-media.com/
20. Specific Media – Media buys/display on UK/Euro premium inventory specificmedia.com
21. Global Interactive – Smaller scale banner/pop media buys globalinteractive.com
22. Adtegrity – Media buys/display, high volume adtegrity.com
23. http://www.adpepper.com - European banner display + Affiliate network with adpepper.com
24. http://www.directaclick.com - Owned by Fox, media buys, US Hispanic directaclick.com
25. AdKontekst polish/contextual ad www.adkontekst.pl/ www.adkontekst.pl/


Uncategorized

1. Sitepoint Marketplace – small direct banner buys sitepointmarket.com
2. http://searchfeed.com - search/contextual on parked pages. searchfeed.com
3. Pubmatic – ad network pubmatic.com
4. Admanage – Contextual, inline & display, pops, parking, decent volume admanage.com
5. Linkworth – Banners, inline, contextual, plenty of cheap inventory linkworth.com
6. Affinity – search, parked pages, text ads – good 2nd tier inventory affinitymedia.com
7. sportgenic.com Sports Marketing sportgenic.com
8. AdOptim – in-video, text and banner ads adoptim.com
9. YuMe – in-video ads, media buys yume.com
10. Etology – banners/text ads, cheap etology.com
11. Industry Brains – now called adHere – text ads on mainly tech related sites industrybrains.com
12. InLinks – inline contextual ads, like Kontera inlinks.com
13. AdMedia – self serve inline contextual text ads like kontera, also display ads admedia.com
14. BrightRoll – media buys, banners/video brightroll.com
15. Snap LinkAds- text/inline type ads snap.com
16. Ezanga – cheaper search and contextual http://advertising.ezanga.com/
17. AditAll – produce and run video ad campaigns aditall.com
18. Elephant Traffic – mispelled domain traffic auction https://www.elephant-traffic.com/
19. Kontera – inline contextual text ads kontera.com
20. FindItQuick – text ads http://www.finditquick.info/
21. http://www.salemwebnetwork.com/ - Display ads on Christian website http://www.salemwebnetwork.com/
22. traveladnetwork.com Travel traveladnetwork.com
24. http://youyield.com/ - Interstitial full page ads youyield.com
25. http://interstitials.net/ - As the name suggests, interstitial ad network interstitials.net
31. spotxchange.com Video spotxchange.com



Twitter

Sponsored Tweets – sponsored twitter posts sponsporedtweets.com
Ad.ly – more twitter ads ad.ly
Izea – self serve sponsored tweets/blog posts izea.com
http://revtwt.com - advertising on twitter retwt.com

 

[apax999]

^^ Too funny. I was given that list originally by not one, but at least a couple of my affiliate managers over the years. It made it around. The updated .pdf on your site looks a lot better then this list. Nice work.

 

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[3things]

^^ Too funny. I was given that list originally by not one, but at least a couple of my affiliate managers over the years. It made it around. The updated .pdf on your site looks a lot better then this list. Nice work.

Haha, yeah the Am's loved it at the time, there was even one or two networks who just ripped the whole thing and branded it as their own. Nice to hear it helped you anyway! Good thread btw and I certainly understand where you're coming from about being burned out by AM and wanting to get away from it. There's a good few wickedfirer's and cpa affiliates here.

What networks did you use most? I started and tended to stick with Advaliant/Mediatrust (one of the original Advaliant founders is actually my son's godfather now), did some pretty good volume with them in the myspace ads days (same kinda daily as you) but tbh never pushed on in the same way you did longer-term. Meh, in some ways I'm glad.

Kinda crazy how the industry has gone over the last few years, but rather predictable when you look at the products and the methods of promotion Also interesting/good to see how a few guys have ended up building pretty big businesses from starting out as aff's.

Anyhow enough reminiscing, didn't mean to derail your AMA!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Just wanted to chime in and say "thanks" for the AMA. The list of ad networks is great for ANYONE who has a product to sell, not just affiliate marketers. Speed+ thanks you to sir.

 

[Vigilante]

This list definitely is by no means a complete one.

PPC

1. Google Adwords – search and content network adwords.google.com
2. Bing/Yahoo – search and content text/contextual ads http://advertising.microsoft.com/small-business/search-advertising/bing
3. Miva – cheap search ads miva.com
4. 7Search – cheap search/direct domain ads 7search.com
5. LookSmart – self serve search/contextual text ads looksmart.com
6. Ask – self serve ppc http://www.ask.com/products/display

PPV/CPV

1. Traffic Vance – great ppv network trafficevance.com
2. Lead Impact – formerly zango, pops/CPV ads leadimpact.com
3. AdOnNetwork – banners, contextual, search – self serve adonnetwork.com
4. MediaTraffic – ppv ads mediatraffic.com
5. Direct CPV – cpv, self serve popups directcpv.com
6. Adoori – ppv popups – self serve adoori.com
7. Findology – ppc/cpv findology.com

Self-Serve

1. Facebook Ads – self serve ads on facebook http://www.facebook.com/advertising/
2. My Ads – self serve banners on myspace & a host of Fox network sites https://www.myads.com/login.html
3. POF Ads – self serve ads on PlentyOfFish https://ads.pof.com/
4. Adshuffle Exchange – self serve ads on many big sites and networks adshuffle.com
5. AdReady – display ads/self serve banners on yahoo sites adready.com
6. AdsDaq – banners/media buying exchange (now Contextweb) contextweb.com
7. Advertise.com – self serve text, search and display ads advertise.com
8. Casale Media – self serve banners casalemedia.com
9. Advertising.com AdDesk – banners on popular sites advertising.com
10. CBS Interactive – media buys on very high traffic CBS site inventory http://cbsinteractive.com/
11. Adroll – self serve banners/site targeting adroll.com
12. Pulse360 – ads on good high traffic inventory pulse360.com
13. BuySellAds – self serve banners on a range of design blogs buysellads.com
14. AdSonar – text ads on high traffic US sites adsonar.com
15. AdBlade – self serve display ads, very good service adblade.com
16. Traffiq.com – self serve banners, media buy type thing traffiq.com
17. BlogAds – banners/text ads on high traffic blog network blogads.com
18. Clicksor – banners/text ads/pop unders clicksor.com
19. Chitika – search related contextual display ads chitika.com
20. AdPerium – display banners, self serve, similar to adbrite adperium.com
21. Reddit Ads – self serve direct ads on reddit.com http://www.reddit.com/r/ads/
22. AdToll.com – now owned by Clickbooth – banners/display/text ads adtoll.com
23. AdSide – self serve ppc contextual inline text ads adside.com
24. MegaClick – banners on 2 high traffic file share sites megaclick.com
25. RealTechNetwork – Variety of formats, self serve platform realtechnetwork.com
26. AdEngage – banners/text, similar to adbrite, allow weekly buys adengage.com
27. AdBuyer – media buying search/display exchange adbuyer.com
28. OpenX Ad Marketplace – banner exchange on open x ad network openx.com
29. ZedoAdNetwork.com – Zedo self serve zedoadnetwork.com
30. Adbrite – display/contextual ads adbrite.com
31. AdClickMedia.com – self serve banners and contextual widgets adclickmedia.com
32. TrafficTaxi.net – self serve banners/display/popunders – global traffictaxi.net
33. XA.net – Display/retargeting/facebook ad exchange xa.net
34. BidVertiser – contextual and banner ads bidvertiser.com
35. BuyAds.com – self-serve banners on many quality sites buyads.com
36. http://www.widgetbucks.com - self serve text/widget ads http://www.widgetbucks.com
37. http://www.bidplacesb.com/ - self serve banners, owned by AOL http://www.bidplacesb.com/
38. http://www.ampkeywords.com - self serve text ads http://www.ampkeywords.com
39. AdTaily http://www.adtaily.com/ http://www.adtaily.com/
40. AdMarketplace – self serve text ads admarketplace.com
http://www.advertisespace.com - Direct display buys on small-ish http://www.advertisespace.com

Media Buy Networks (non-self serve)

1. Tribal Fusion – media buy banner network tribalfusion.com
2. Advertising.com – display/banners, media buys advertising.com
3. Microsoft Ad Network – microsoft banner display/media buys http://advertising.microsoft.com/ad-network
4. AOL Advertising – variety of solutions on AOL inventory http://advertising.aol.com/
5. FOX Networks – banners on FOX properties http://www.fox.com/advertise.php
6. Bnmla – banners, huge volume, good for female demo http://www.bnmla.com/
7. MediaWhiz – banners/display, media buys mediawhiz.com
8. CPXinteractive – banners/display, media buys cpxinteractive.com
9. ValueClick – banners, display/media buys valueclick.com
10. Interclick – banners, high volume media buys interclick.com
11. EngageBDR – media buys on high traffic inventory http://engagebdr.com/
12. Burst Media – banners/display/media buys burstmedia.com
13. Tatto Media – banners/display/media buys http://www.tattomedia.com/
14. Right media (Yahoo) – self serve banner exchange rightmedia.com
15. PremiumAccess.com – premium banner ad network premiumaccess.com
16. AdKnowledge – cheap ads, slow approvals adknowledge.com
17. Xtend Media – banner/display media buys http://www.matomymedia.com/
18. Federated Media – cpm banners on good inventory of sites federatedmedia.com
19. ReduxMedia – Display, media buys, some good blog inventory reduxmedia.com
20. AdFunky – Display/rich media, some high traffic inventory adfunky.com
21. BannerConnect – media buys/banners, good european reach bannerconnect.com
22. Glam Media – media buys, display, very good inventory for female demo glammedia.com
23. Vibrant Media – inline contextual/rich ads, media buys vibrantmedia.com
24. Tremor Media – media buys, good range of new formats tremormedia.com
25. Rubicon Project – media buys, nice interface/inventory rubiconproject.com
26. Traffic Marketplace – display/email ads, media buys epicmarketplace.com
27. AdJuggler – display/media buys adjuggler.com
28. Specific Media – banners/video display, media buys specificmedia.com
29. Undertone.com – premium banners/display/media buys undertone.com
30. Z5x.net – display banners, media buys, large inventory z5x.net
31. Dsnrmg.com – display, media buys, unknown quantity/quality dsnrmg.com
32. Collective.com – media buys, banners/display collective.com
33. Adconian – video/banner ads, media buys adconion.com
34. Technorati Media – banners http://technoratimedia.com/
35. http://intermarkets.net - display/banners - media buys intermarkets.net
36. azoogleads.com azoogleads.com
37. clickbooth.com clickbooth.com

Retargeting

1. Retargeter – Retarget the ones who didn’t sign up first time retargeter.com
2. FetchBack – Retarget the ones who didn’t sign up first time fetchback.com
3. MyThings – Retarget the ones who didn’t sign up first time mythings.com
4. Criteo.com – Retargeting criteo.com
5. http://www.leadback.com - retargeted ads at search traffic leadback.com

Category (Gaming)

1. Mochi Media – self serve in-game ads mochimedia.com
2. CPMStar – banners display aimed at gaming sites only cpmstar.com
3. Intergi – banners and static/video in-game adverts intergi.com
4. NeoEdge.com – static/video in game adverts neoedge.com
5. Ad4Game – banners on gaming sites ad4game.com
6. Ad2Games – online advertising for games http://www.ad2games.com/
7. Axifer – banners on Gamezer http://www.axifer.com/
8. Game Advertising Online – large scale performance-focused advertising solution for online games http://www.game-advertising-online.com/
9. http://www.advertiseyourgame.com/ http://www.advertiseyourgame.com/
10. http://www.inviziads.com/index.html http://www.inviziads.com/index.html
11. http://www.advertisegame.com/?gclid=CJ74wqK696gCFUHr7Qoddh9vSg http://www.advertisegame.com/?gclid=CJ74wqK696gCFUHr7Qoddh9vSg
12. http://www.bluenoodle.com/advertisers/ http://www.bluenoodle.com/advertisers/
13. http://www.game-advertising.com/ http://www.game-advertising.com/
14. http://www.arcadeaffiliate.com/ http://www.arcadeaffiliate.com/
15. http://www.onads.com/ http://www.onads.com/
16. http://www.gamerstrain.com/ http://www.gamerstrain.com/
http://www.surgedirect.com/


Category (Adult)

1. Black Label Ads – Text & banners on adult inventory – adult version of adbrite blacklabelads.com
2. AdExpansion – Display/banners on adult inventory adxpansion.com
3. EroAdvertising – Web & mobile display/banners on adult inventory ero-advertising.com
4. TrafficJunky.net – adult self serve display/banners, good volume inventory trafficjunky.net
5. JuicyAds – Display on adult inventory, flat rate buys per week/month juicyads.com
6. Adult Ad World – CPM ads, text ads, pop-under, clicked traffic adultadworld.com

Social Apps

1. Appvert – Facebook apps ads, display appvert.com
2. http://adchap.com - ads on various social sites, hi5, facebook, bebo et adchap.com
3. TappJoy – socialmedia app ads and distribution tapjoy.com
4. Userplane – social media advertising for media buyers userplane.com
5. Cubics – social media ads cubics.com
6. Rock You Media – social media display ads rockyoumedia.com
7. http://zohark.com - facebook app ads zohark.com
8. http://offerpalmedia.com - socialmedia app ads offerpalmedia.com
http://underdogmedia.com/

International

1. Reseau Select – banner and offline targetted at quebec http://www.reseauselect.com/
2. Canoe Klix – text ads on the canoe.ca network http://www.canoeklix.com/
3. Adconian – display/media buys, good for Europe adconion.com
4. Hola Networks – media buys targeting hispanic demo only in USA holanetworks.com
5. Hi Media – display/media buys, mainly European traffic he-media.com
6. Ad2OneGroup – media buys on premium UK, Irish & Aus. sites + Ebay UK ad2onegroup.com
7. Pamoja Media – Adify powered, banners for African traffic pamojamedia.com
8. SHE Network – Adify powered, target Swedish women http://www.shenetwork.se/
9. Smowtion – display banners, most South American inventory smowtion.com
10. Traffic Synergy AdRands – banners, South African traffic http://www.trafficsynergy.co.za/adrands/
11. UTarget.co – UK display/rich media/video, owned by Fox utarget.co.uk
12. Unanimis – display/video media buys, UK traffic http://www.unanimis.co.uk/
13. Mirago – UK/French/German contextual/search ads http://www.mirago.com/
14. HarrenMedia – Media buys, South American/Hispanic traffic http://www.harrenmedia.com/index.html
15. http://www.adborsa.com/ - Display ads for largely Turkish demo adborsa.com
16. ExoClick – Text/display on various inventory. Similar model to adbrite exoclick.com
17. Aim4Media – Display media buys, European traffic http://www.aim4media.com/
18. Adverline – Media buys, good quality French/Euro inventory adverline.com
19. Accelerator Media – UK banners/media buys http://www.accelerator-media.com/
20. Specific Media – Media buys/display on UK/Euro premium inventory specificmedia.com
21. Global Interactive – Smaller scale banner/pop media buys globalinteractive.com
22. Adtegrity – Media buys/display, high volume adtegrity.com
23. http://www.adpepper.com - European banner display + Affiliate network with adpepper.com
24. http://www.directaclick.com - Owned by Fox, media buys, US Hispanic directaclick.com
25. AdKontekst polish/contextual ad www.adkontekst.pl/ www.adkontekst.pl/


Uncategorized

1. Sitepoint Marketplace – small direct banner buys sitepointmarket.com
2. http://searchfeed.com - search/contextual on parked pages. searchfeed.com
3. Pubmatic – ad network pubmatic.com
4. Admanage – Contextual, inline & display, pops, parking, decent volume admanage.com
5. Linkworth – Banners, inline, contextual, plenty of cheap inventory linkworth.com
6. Affinity – search, parked pages, text ads – good 2nd tier inventory affinitymedia.com
7. sportgenic.com Sports Marketing sportgenic.com
8. AdOptim – in-video, text and banner ads adoptim.com
9. YuMe – in-video ads, media buys yume.com
10. Etology – banners/text ads, cheap etology.com
11. Industry Brains – now called adHere – text ads on mainly tech related sites industrybrains.com
12. InLinks – inline contextual ads, like Kontera inlinks.com
13. AdMedia – self serve inline contextual text ads like kontera, also display ads admedia.com
14. BrightRoll – media buys, banners/video brightroll.com
15. Snap LinkAds- text/inline type ads snap.com
16. Ezanga – cheaper search and contextual http://advertising.ezanga.com/
17. AditAll – produce and run video ad campaigns aditall.com
18. Elephant Traffic – mispelled domain traffic auction https://www.elephant-traffic.com/
19. Kontera – inline contextual text ads kontera.com
20. FindItQuick – text ads http://www.finditquick.info/
21. http://www.salemwebnetwork.com/ - Display ads on Christian website http://www.salemwebnetwork.com/
22. traveladnetwork.com Travel traveladnetwork.com
24. http://youyield.com/ - Interstitial full page ads youyield.com
25. http://interstitials.net/ - As the name suggests, interstitial ad network interstitials.net
31. spotxchange.com Video spotxchange.com



Twitter

Sponsored Tweets – sponsored twitter posts sponsporedtweets.com
Ad.ly – more twitter ads ad.ly
Izea – self serve sponsored tweets/blog posts izea.com
http://revtwt.com - advertising on twitter retwt.com

Incredible resource. This is one of the first posts from the forum that has ever made my permanent bookmarks on my computer. Thank you!

 

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[JAJT]

That list is amazing. Speed+

 

[ZDS]

Incredible resource. This is one of the first posts from the forum that has ever made my permanent bookmarks on my computer. Thank you!

Hell, I screen shotted it in case this thread gets deleted some how. Like MJ said, that list is great for moving product, whether you do IM or not.

 

[3things]

List is here, and you can download it as a pdf for reference: http://www.3things.be/useful-list-of-online-advertising-platforms/

(apologies in advance cos I didn't categorize it as neatly as it now is in the OP's post, I was lazy!).

Hell, I screen shotted it in case this thread gets deleted some how. Like MJ said, that list is great for moving product, whether you do IM or not.

 

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[niftyg]

Have you ran ads on POF? What is your experience, what tips can you provide and would you recommend another traffic source to someone just starting out?

 

[apax999]

Have you ran ads on POF? What is your experience, what tips can you provide and would you recommend another traffic source to someone just starting out?

Never ran dating and never really played around with POF. I know a lot of people like it. Margins must be slim since you'll be paying $0.xx per click or more on $4 CPA's for dating offers competing with hundreds of other advertisers advertising the same offers.

If you're just starting out, it really depends on what kind of offer you are going to be running. If it's something that Google will approve of then by all means, Adwords. Same goes for Facebook. If not, I'd move onto tier 2 PPC. See the list on page 2.

 

[Queen Of Hearts]

I'm a 19 year old college student. I literally found out about 'IM' last week, and been searching for RELIABLE sources out there that can teach me about affiliate marketing. I'm a marketing/advertisement major so this naturally intrigues me. I have a lot of time and I'm also persistent as F*ck...I don't care how long it takes to reach my goal of 4k per month. The only problem is actually finding someone to teach me how to do this. The lingo used here (PPC, CPA, POF bla bla) is completely foreign to me, and the only thing I know how to do is setting up a website and installing wordpress on it. There is ENDLESS bullshit out there!! I would really appreciate it if you simply pointed me in the right direction here. Books, online courses....anything. Remember, I'm a COMPLETE newbie here. Thanksss!

 

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[apax999]

I'm a 19 year old college student. I literally found out about 'IM' last week, and been searching for RELIABLE sources out there that can teach me about affiliate marketing. I'm a marketing/advertisement major so this naturally intrigues me. I have a lot of time and I'm also persistent as F*ck...I don't care how long it takes to reach my goal of 4k per month. The only problem is actually finding someone to teach me how to do this. The lingo used here (PPC, CPA, POF bla bla) is completely foreign to me, and the only thing I know how to do is setting up a website and installing wordpress on it. There is ENDLESS bullshit out there!! I would really appreciate it if you simply pointed me in the right direction here. Books, online courses....anything. Remember, I'm a COMPLETE newbie here. Thanksss!

Hi,

As I wrote in my OP I was going to suggest we stay away for the "how do I get into AM" questions since there are a ton of threads on here pertaining to that subject, and I'm sure they don't want this forum getting too littered with the newbie AM posts.

But to quickly answer your question, go to the popular "W" (Wicked or Warrior) forums, sort threads by most views and start reading. AM is a tough to break into now. You'll need a size-able bankroll and connections at the major CPA networks. Good luck!

 

[archetype]

Do you have any ideas from your experience on these longer term questions? Doesn't have to be perfect, just to give some insights from the ground up.

I'm interested in how you see the affiliate industry evolving (past 3 years, past year, next year, next 3 years) based on your experience.

Anything salient that you think will impact the ability of an affiliate to do business or to change how he does it in a meaningful way. In particular if there are more barriers to entry, greater needs for capital or other for example.

Also, you've commented on the 'durability of campaigns' - have you seen change in this? Thanks to whatrunswhere etc I imagine it is shortening.

Finally, have you seen changes in stability of offers? What affects the lifetime of an offer for you? so long as competition doesn't wipe your profits out it makes sense to stick with an offer you know over the longer term I guess. What do you find predicts the stability of an offer for the longer term? What tends to make offers the least likely to be stable?

Have you worked directly with any companies vs. CPA networks? And if so, is this something you recommend, and how did it happen/ usually happen?

 

[apax999]

Do you have any ideas from your experience on these longer term questions? Doesn't have to be perfect, just to give some insights from the ground up.

I'm interested in how you see the affiliate industry evolving (past 3 years, past year, next year, next 3 years) based on your experience.

Anything salient that you think will impact the ability of an affiliate to do business or to change how he does it in a meaningful way. In particular if there are more barriers to entry, greater needs for capital or other for example.

Also, you've commented on the 'durability of campaigns' - have you seen change in this? Thanks to whatrunswhere etc I imagine it is shortening.

Finally, have you seen changes in stability of offers? What affects the lifetime of an offer for you? so long as competition doesn't wipe your profits out it makes sense to stick with an offer you know over the longer term I guess. What do you find predicts the stability of an offer for the longer term? What tends to make offers the least likely to be stable?

Have you worked directly with any companies vs. CPA networks? And if so, is this something you recommend, and how did it happen/ usually happen?

Past 3 years: Less CPA networks. Existing CPA networks specializing in certain verticals. CPA networks becoming more of a "club" where you need to be buddy buddy with them to get in. Affiliates becoming advertisers and most failing. Affiliates moving into import/e-commerce.

Next 3 years: The extinction of the CPA/affiliate network as it once was. Direct advertisers are woo'ing affiliates and providing the same or higher payouts then what they give to networks. Advertisers want control. And I can't blame them.

Barriers for entry: $$$. You're gonna be testing media up against guys on the other side of the world with an unlimited bankroll and who don't care about rules or regulations. A CPA into a $40 rebill might cost them $15, it will cost you $35. Guess who wins all the traffic?

Durability of campaigns: They don't last as long as they used to. People just breaking in know the best way to succeed is to copy whats working, and there are plenty of tools to facilitate that like whatrunswhere.

Stability of offers: nothing is stable. If an offer owner isn't worried about a shortcode getting nuked (mobile), or losing a MID (any offer that takes a CC), or about getting nailed by a regulatory body who wants a piece of the cake, then chances are they own an offer no one is running and you won't make money on.

Working direct: absolutely, but only if they provide the same (or better, as in 2x weekly or daily) payment terms as a CPA network. CPA networks' primary function is to act as your insurance company if the advertiser doesn't pay. I've had networks come through to the tune of $75k on some offers after the adv stiffed the bill. I honestly don't see most networks covering losses like that anymore. Therefore, their existence is becoming increasingly worthless.

 

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[apax999]

If you guys wanted an example with how out-of-hand some of these offers have gotten in the past 1-2 years, and the kind of stuff you need to go up against, look no further then this landing page I see floating around:



I don't run this. But the person who is is most likely making around $1.60 - 1.75 per install.

Edit: here's another that popped up in my morning snoop session.




...and one last edit. Dug up this guys ad server. One of the networks I work with quite a bit. Asked my rep about this guys account and spend on this campaign. In September:

- average spend of $16,500 /day
- average number of conversions (installs) per day = 15,000

$1.10 CPA for a $1.60 payout = $0.50 profit per install or $7,500 profit per day. $200k+ in September. Not a bad paycheck!! All for the small cost of living in constant fear of, oh you know, Firefox, Chrome or Google or a regulatory body coming after you and everything you love.

Welcome to affiliate marketing ladies and gentlemen!

 

[niftyg]

Very interesting. How does one go usually go about advertising pop ups?

How do you go about snooping?

And finally... what do you see as the best way for someone just getting into it to start to build profit? Would you say ad words or just research and jump directly into media buys?

This thread is probably the best look in to the current industry I've seen yet.. Very intimidating consider I'm starting it with a limited budget.

 

[Eskil]

Stability of offers: nothing is stable. If an offer owner isn't worried about a shortcode getting nuked (mobile), or losing a MID (any offer that takes a CC), or about getting nailed by a regulatory body who wants a piece of the cake, then chances are they own an offer no one is running and you won't make money on.

This is the main reason I finally decided I had enough. The lack of control is enough to give anyone grey hair, lol.

 

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[Eskil]

The only problem is actually finding someone to teach me how to do this. The lingo used here (PPC, CPA, POF bla bla) is completely foreign to me, and the only thing I know how to do is setting up a website and installing wordpress on it. There is ENDLESS bullshit out there!!

I would avoid Warriorforum altogether, but instead (like apax999 suggested) go look at Wickedfire (we've both been members there since almost the beginning). It's the best affiliate forum you will find. Here is a good starting point: (http://www.wickedfire.com/enlightened-members/). You won't find specific threads on terminology, but here is a quick, 30-second course on some of the abbreviated lingo:

PPC = Pay Per Click. Traffic where you literally pay for every visitor click

PPV = Pay Per View traffic. Typically pop-over or pop-under ads that open in a separate window on someone's browser. You can target almost any site with this, and directly or discretely "disrupt" someone's session with your message.

CPC/CPM: Whenever you pay for traffic, you either pay per click (Cost per Click), or per view (CPM). CPM is short for "Cost per Mille", meaning the cost you pay per each thousand (Mille) views.

CTR = Click Through Rate. The rate of people clicking your ads out of everyone who has seen it.

POF = PlentyOfFish.com. A dating site which has become popular among affiliates as a traffic source, especially to promote dating offers but also other things. Is great for testing out landing or ad copy, as you can get extremely specific with your targeting.

CPA = Cost Per Action. Refers to how an advertiser pays a network and their affiliates. Generally speaking, CPA offers will pay you for getting someone to complete an "action" (fill in a lead form, download something, sign up for a service, order a trial, etc). This is different than commission based payout networks such as CJ.com or ShareASale.com, where you're paid a % of whatever someone buys. In the recent years though, it's more common for CPA networks to also have CPS payouts on some offers. CPS is Cost Per Sale, in which you get paid $xx.xx if the customer buys the advertiser's product 1, or maybe $yy.yy if they buy product 2 (common with diet advertiser who may have deals like "buy 1 bottle for X, or buy 2 get the third free for Y").

 

[theBiz]

IF, you only ran adwords right now would you be successful? It seems that many of us think if adwords doesnt work... shut down the business, but if you say No, that would say alot about what type of work really needs to go into testing things as far as traffic sources.

With regards to margin, I've had 5-7% months at worst (typically coinciding with the high adspend months, as the really high adspends generally reflect testing periods). My best months were 75% and up.

99.9% of people would never do this, clearly a big reason why your successful. Your spending A LOT trying to "see what sticks" and im sure thats a huge part of the success.

Do you think CPV/PPV sources can be used to market a smaller niche service/product? Ive noticed over time the con of trying to market a niche product is these cheap traffic sources dont work, generally they work well with really broad industries such as health, sex, etc. Same thing with affiliate networks, they seem to only want to work with the most open ended offers, for obvious reasons but i would like to hear some feedback on the cpv/ppv.

 

[apax999]

IF, you only ran adwords right now would you be successful? It seems that many of us think if adwords doesnt work... shut down the business, but if you say No, that would say alot about what type of work really needs to go into testing things as far as traffic sources.



99.9% of people would never do this, clearly a big reason why your successful. Your spending A LOT trying to "see what sticks" and im sure thats a huge part of the success.

Do you think CPV/PPV sources can be used to market a smaller niche service/product? Ive noticed over time the con of trying to market a niche product is these cheap traffic sources dont work, generally they work well with really broad industries such as health, sex, etc. Same thing with affiliate networks, they seem to only want to work with the most open ended offers, for obvious reasons but i would like to hear some feedback on the cpv/ppv.

Yikes. If I only ran Adwords for 6 years I would have probably decked myself over the head with my monitor long ago. I should show you some the mind-boggling emails with my "Adwords rep" from 4-5 years ago. That being said: Adwords is a great testing grounds for a lot of things, like anything non-affiliate or local business. If you're a straight-up affiliate you're not going to be welcome there for very long.

With regards to shutting a business or offer down after some Adwords testing (assuming this is your first attempt at Paid traffic to your business): traffic is traffic. Adwords traffic is generally decent--especially search. If you send 10k+ clicks to your site or LP over the course of a week and you don't convert traffic into new revenue or customers, chances are you need to revisit your offer/business and not the traffic source. Make sure you're firing traffic at a sales funnel and not dumping it on some random page. Optimize it. Use the a/b split testing stuff out there to tweak everything right down to font color. Plenty of off the shelf software for this (Optimizely, Landing Page Genius, Visual Website Optimizer).

If Adwords traffic straight up just doesn't work on your first test to what you think is a decent sales lander for your business it's time to roll out 5-10 more totally independently designed landers to collect more data. This is all of course assuming you are targeting the proper keywords and running ads that clearly identify what the user will see once they click your ad.

If you're still running traffic and after another big batch of clicks if business is still abysmal then something is wrong. I would then consider shutting it down and moving on, just as I would do if I was simply running a CPA offer on one of my own primary traffic sources.

CPV/PPV - A couple Fortune 500's are playing around with some networks right now. It's all about funneling the user into your business with an 800x600 popup. Not gonna lie though 85% of the stuff on ppv/cpv is total garbage -- payday, random leadgens, toolbars, ringtones back in the day, XML/PPC feed arbitrage. Some guys run nutra stuff there by hijacking competitors URL's... you can certainly get creative.

 

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[theBiz]

IF, you only ran adwords right now would you be successful? It seems that many of us think if adwords doesnt work... shut down the business, but if you say No, that would say alot about what type of work really needs to go into testing things as far as traffic sources.

Sorry i should have been more clear. I was not asking in regards that its not converting with adwords i was talking more about the Cost Per Acquisition via adwords vs your other methods.

In the high volume online business game obviously the most important factor is what it cost to acquire that "lead" to sign up, i understand after that is all our problem to monetize.

My question is are your current methods MUCH cheaper than if you just ran adwords OR does your success lie in such a strong sales funnel, meaning you could run adwords right now and be just as profitable.

As online business owners we are always trying to figure out if we need to lower our advertising costs (CPA) OR focus on being more profitable, obviously its both, but i would just like to hear your opinion on this.

 

[apax999]

Got it. I went off on a 5 paragraph tangent there.

I haven't ran Adwords in 4-5 years and the stuff I'm running now sure as hell wouldn't be allowed on Adwords, so to be honest I have no data comparing my current campaigns and their primary traffic sources w/ Adwords. My stuff is designed for display, contextual and cpv -- whether or not it would translate over to a tier 1 ppc I just do not know.

The only way to cut costs is by testing. I've rolled out campaigns to new sources and went from stale ROI's to 200% ROI's overnight. You seem to have an interest in cpv. Try TrafficVance or LeadImpact. You're basically paying $10 per 1000 popups. Just know you're gonna have to test the hell out of CPV landers to funnel cpv traffic into your proper sales funnel. If this is your own business you're talking about you also are gonna gets some branding (but you have to determine whether or not popups will be good for your brand or not).

BoxofAds.com is a ppv/cpv scraper, runs about $70 /month. You can see a lot of the stuff running there if you want to see if anyone else in your industry/competitors are futzing around with ppv.

 

[echau4]

Thanks for doing this AMA, really insightful as I have been thinking about going down the CPA route to pay off college tuition.

My question:

During your peak profit months, what did your average day look like in terms of workload? I am wondering because I know this industry can be very lucrative if you're one of the top affiliates, and hope to one day turn a profit in this industry too.

Thanks!

 

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[apax999]

Thanks for doing this AMA, really insightful as I have been thinking about going down the CPA route to pay off college tuition.

My question:

During your peak profit months, what did your average day look like in terms of workload? I am wondering because I know this industry can be very lucrative if you're one of the top affiliates, and hope to one day turn a profit in this industry too.

Thanks!

Ironically, of course, they were mostly the days where I worked 1-2 hours. Typically the big days came as a result of right place, right time, right campaign, right traffic sources, big cap allocation on the winning offer. That doesn't happen much. When it does it feels quite good.

 

[PaulWS]

I know this is a very general question but I must ask.

Do you really feel it's worth it for someone to get into affiliate marketing? I have some internet marketing experience running an online knife store and information product site. My problem has always been not focusing on one area and making it work.

Recently, I joined the Stack That Money affiliate marketing forum. A lot of good information there but I get the feeling CPA is an "anything goes industry." I keep telling myself that I should focus on affiliate marketing but something in the back of my head keeps telling me to rethink this.

It does seem like the best way to go is form a direct relationship with an advertiser.

Just want your thoughts on all this.

 

[apax999]

I know this is a very general question but I must ask.

Do you really feel it's worth it for someone to get into affiliate marketing? I have some internet marketing experience running an online knife store and information product site. My problem has always been not focusing on one area and making it work.

No.

Don't get me wrong. You can make a ton of money with affiliate marketing. A TON. But at the end of the day, you are sending traffic, customers and business to someone else. You are, in essence, working for other people while you build THEIR company. When I walk away, the profit stops. Granted, it might take several months for the profit to trickle to a stop, but it WILL Stop. I have no tangible business with affiliate marketing. Nothing to say "hey, look what I built".

I have no regrets, because I'm fortunate that in my 5-6 years doing it, it's made me very good money. While most of my friends who graduated college were grinding away with 3 hours of round trip daily commutes, 9 hours in a cubicle and $65k annual salaries (if they are lucky), affiliate marketing has set me up for my next phase of business life. One that, with some hard work and little luck, will hopefully be of the fastlane variety.

 

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[PaulWS]

Interesting answer.

I want to play devil's advocate for a minute. Since you do not think it's worth it to get into affiliate marketing, why did you end up trying it instead of starting your own fastlane venture?

Just trying to understand the mindset of successful people like you.

 

[JasonR]

I have no regrets, because I'm fortunate that in my 5-6 years doing it, it's made me very good money. While most of my friends who graduated college were grinding away with 3 hours of round trip daily commutes, 9 hours in a cubicle and $65k annual salaries (if they are lucky), affiliate marketing has set me up for my next phase of business life. One that, with some hard work and little luck, will hopefully be of the fastlane variety.

One thing, that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread, is that you know how to market products and services. When you start your own business, this will be HUGE for you.