AMA - Affiliate Marketing + Guide "How I Made $5K w/ 1 Campaign"

[Nosferatu]

Well, you can guess or you can buy data.

Guess which way gets you ROI faster.


Buying data is the way to go. I can't tell you how many times ive tried to guess, only to waste hours upon hours on wrong assumptions.

When money is involved. Don't assume.

The data doesn't lie.

 

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[Bo Jackman]

Nos have you ever tried SEO or did you only ever try direct response?

Perusing through this forum it seems that most of the IM guys are into direct response for some reason.

Seems like SEO can have a large payout if you rank moderately well for multiple xx,xxx searches/mo keywords.

 

[Nosferatu]

Nos have you ever tried SEO or did you only ever try direct response?

Perusing through this forum it seems that most of the IM guys are into direct response for some reason.

Seems like SEO can have a large payout if you rank moderately well for multiple xx,xxx searches/mo keywords.

I'm actually the head seo/sem analyst at a fitness franchise. i deal with SEO everyday.

i've dabbled in everything just about.



I own a few sites that generate $$$ monthly with seo.

 

[Bo Jackman]

I'm actually the head seo/sem analyst at a fitness franchise. i deal with SEO everyday.

i've dabbled in everything just about.



I own a few sites that generate $$$ monthly with seo.

Does that fitness franchise get most of it's traffic from people searching for the exact program(s) they sell (i.e. "p90x"), or from general keywords from blog posts ("weight loss program", "how to see abs", etc)?


Can you give me some tips on SEO? How long it generally takes you to rank on first page. The # searches/mo you'll target for main keyword.

How do you do your backlinking? Do you do tier 1 by hand and then tiers 2-3+ via GSA? And how would you recommend I find related websites to get backlinks from (I realize I could just google for "my keyword" and manually go to each website and look for a guest book/comments section, but this is IM and there must be some tool that will take a keyword and scrape a list of websites and give me the PR/other stats).

Thanks mate.

 

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[Nosferatu]

majority of the traffic comes from branded terms

as far as seo tips.. this really depends on what nature of what your promoting. so unless you get specific this is kinda hard to answer.

we focus on building brand. white hat seo. a little blackhat for certain terms..

i honestly can't get into the specifics on a forum -- my name is known in my niche's circle and i wouldn't want a competitor to read any comments of mine in regards to how we compete with them online...

sorry

 

[Bo Jackman]

majority of the traffic comes from branded terms

as far as seo tips.. this really depends on what nature of what your promoting. so unless you get specific this is kinda hard to answer.

we focus on building brand. white hat seo. a little blackhat for certain terms..

i honestly can't get into the specifics on a forum -- my name is known in my niche's circle and i wouldn't want a competitor to read any comments of mine in regards to how we compete with them online...

sorry

Understandable.

How about just in general when you make your own sites. What's the minimum searches/mo you'll target, and what is your backlinking strategy? (if you need a niche for specifics lets say weight loss)

 

[Fulfilled]

Apologies for interrupting the conversation,

But I read your guide nosferatu, and it seems like you know your stuff

I was wondering, what kind of testing budget do you need these days to start getting an ROI?

 

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[Nosferatu]

Understandable.

How about just in general when you make your own sites. What's the minimum searches/mo you'll target, and what is your backlinking strategy? (if you need a niche for specifics lets say weight loss)

Here's what i'll say.

If you want to get into that kind of SEO, here's a good resource for that.

My backlinking strategy differs for what im ranking for.

What works in SEO now is relevance. Meaning, getting sites that are relevant to yours to link to you.

You can either pay for these, make them yourself, or develop relationships with other websites or develop links naturally with content.

I wish i can get into specifics but i won't over this thread as this thread is not about SEO.

 

[Nosferatu]

Apologies for interrupting the conversation,

But I read your guide nosferatu, and it seems like you know your stuff

I was wondering, what kind of testing budget do you need these days to start getting an ROI?

Thanks bud, no need for apologies.

With that campaign i started with just $25.

The key is to know your going in to buy traffic just to TEST your ideas out -- realize that when you pay for traffic your not in it to hit profit at your first go, you want to see if you even have a chance by seeing the stats and measuring the response via clicks and conversions.



Edit: I would normally throw 100$ at a traffic source just to test. Out of that test i could probably get 20-30 tests depending on the cost per click or cpm cost.

 

[Bo Jackman]

Out of that test i could probably get 20-30 tests

What do you mean by this?

Any landing page tips?

 

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[Nosferatu]

out of 100$ i could test 20-30 combinations of ads and landers...


i rip other peoples landers and customize them... use httrack -- great tool

 

[William Gibson]

Thanks man, this is incredibly helpful.
I'll be referring to it constantly while I try my first attempt at affiliate marketing

 

[BaladOfARichMan]

Hi @Nosferatu ,

This thread seems pretty dead lately. I wonder why. Anyways, I've launched a couple of products in the last 6 months and both failed terribly. I wonder if it was because of the idea or because of the marketing campaing. Or both. But my feelings tell me it was the marketing so now I really want to learn how to promote a product ( Im a web designer myself so I can make pretty good looking sites). I want also to learn how to buy traffic properly. I was buying traffic from Fb for these products I mentioned and wasn't having much conversion.

So after this intro my question is: is it recommendable in this case for me to learn Aff Marketing? and if yes where can I start?

Thank you

 

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[shubham525]

i have a business idea....but first i need to know how to create a thread here ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Yussef]

Yesterday I applied to a bunch of networks I found on bhw that were confirmed as not needing a phone call to be let in. I want to get a little acquainted for a week or 2 before I call the big guns like neverblue/ maxbounty/ etc so I don't sound clueless or try to lie my way in and potentially look like a jackass. Here is who accepted me so far with no call so far

Peerfly
CPAGrip
AdWorkMedia
CPAWay
Still waiting on a few more and will keep applying

I have a question though that I haven't been able to find by searching. How is it that networks influence conversion rates? Ex- I found a thread on bhw talking about adworkmedia where guys that had .15-.18 epc falling down to .04 with no changes in their campaigns. How does that work?

Good thread I have been away for a while. Expect to be asked what verticals you like to promote and what type of traffic you plan to utilize? They are certainly going to ask what traffic sources you have used? Some will ask about past results.

 

[Yussef]

sounds about right.

i used both prosper/tracking202 and cpv lab. cpvlab is more advanced and has more capabilities

Sup dude. Good to see a fellow aff'r on the forum. Surprised you are not using Voluum being that those guys are setting the bar. Yes web based but the metrics go deeeeeep.

 

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[BlakeIC]

Whenever I get the idea of trying affiliate marketing again (CPA) I remember why I don't stopped doing it

This 1 reason

I'd rather put my time, energy, money into a product of my own and make myself money and keep ALL the profits

The offers paying $120 a lead obviously have a very well done back end, (if there is a term please correct me) once they get themselves a customer each of them is most likely netting them around $1k per customer you get them

For example MyPCbackup

 

[MP9]

Hi Nosferatu,

I have read your guide time and time again, and I have a very important question. Suppose I test 10 ads each for 10k impressions and in the best case scenario I get an average of 0.1 CTR so i will receive 100 clicks on banner to offer. Okay? Now image I choose 2 winning banner out of these 10 ads. Say the pay out is $4 and I pay 0.4 per 1k imperession. After spending 8 dollar in total i will have 20k impression which is equal to 20 clicks. Now I have a data of 120 clicks to optimize. Can it be reliable because in your pdf when you tracked back the report you had around 2100 clicks and based on that you could judge for laser targeting. Please tell me whether 120 clicks in total is enough for testing or not?

Thank you very much.

 

[MP9]

out of 100$ i could test 20-30 combinations of ads and landers...


i rip other peoples landers and customize them... use httrack -- great tool

Hi Nosferatu,

I have read your guide time and time again, and I have a very important question. Suppose I test 10 ads each for 10k impressions and in the best case scenario I get an average of 0.1 CTR so i will receive 100 clicks on banner to offer. Okay? Now image I choose 2 winning banner out of these 10 ads. Say the pay out is $4 and I pay 0.4 per 1k imperession. After spending 8 dollar in total i will have 20k impression which is equal to 20 clicks. Now I have a data of 120 clicks to optimize. Can it be reliable because in your pdf when you tracked back the report you had around 2100 clicks and based on that you could judge for laser targeting. Please tell me whether 120 clicks in total is enough for testing or not?

Thank you very much.

 

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[Nosferatu]

Hi Nosferatu,

I have read your guide time and time again, and I have a very important question. Suppose I test 10 ads each for 10k impressions and in the best case scenario I get an average of 0.1 CTR so i will receive 100 clicks on banner to offer. Okay? Now image I choose 2 winning banner out of these 10 ads. Say the pay out is $4 and I pay 0.4 per 1k imperession. After spending 8 dollar in total i will have 20k impression which is equal to 20 clicks. Now I have a data of 120 clicks to optimize. Can it be reliable because in your pdf when you tracked back the report you had around 2100 clicks and based on that you could judge for laser targeting. Please tell me whether 120 clicks in total is enough for testing or not?

Thank you very much.

What's up my man...

Great question.

I think 120 clicks is a little low -- i'd probably shoot for 2-3x times that amount to be absolutely sure...

But keep in mind i optimized systemically.

Like, i picked a variable - eliminated it and move on.

One of the best ways to do that is to first setup multiple ads like you did..

Find the ones that click the best.. then setup a new campaign with those ads, and segment them by ethnicity, and then once i found the best ethnicity, i would then segment the ages of those people.. and so on.

Start at the large segmentation points and then move down the line to something more specific, like age groups..

after segmenting down, you'll be left with the EXACT people who convert.

(as long as you see conversions while testing this, that is)

 

[MP9]

What's up my man...

Great question.

I think 120 clicks is a little low -- i'd probably shoot for 2-3x times that amount to be absolutely sure...

But keep in mind i optimized systemically.

Like, i picked a variable - eliminated it and move on.

One of the best ways to do that is to first setup multiple ads like you did..

Find the ones that click the best.. then setup a new campaign with those ads, and segment them by ethnicity, and then once i found the best ethnicity, i would then segment the ages of those people.. and so on.

Start at the large segmentation points and then move down the line to something more specific, like age groups..

after segmenting down, you'll be left with the EXACT people who convert.

(as long as you see conversions while testing this, that is)

Thank you very much for your detailed answer. Now that I have your answer a deeper question comes to mind. You explained the optimization thoroughly. Is the step of optimization for more profit or to make the campaign to profit?. In other words, based on what number of clicks we test the offer itself not the banner?How long should we stick to the offer? Is 100 clicks enough? Is the so-called 2X amount the payout for testing the offer only? If so how should we judge that because with say 8 dollars you only have 20 clicks that's too early to jump on the conclusion. Not only that, but a newbie could bid poorly and receive only 10 clicks for 2x the payout offer. Because of that, I am arriving to this conclusion that this so-called 2x the payout is the greatest bullshit found in affiliate marketing. I'd would be grateful if you could give me a more clear explanation on that. Thanks.

 

[Nosferatu]

Thank you very much for your detailed answer. Now that I have your answer a deeper question comes to mind. You explained the optimization thoroughly. Is the step of optimization for more profit or to make the campaign to profit?. In other words, based on what number of clicks we test the offer itself not the banner?How long should we stick to the offer? Is 100 clicks enough? Is the so-called 2X amount the payout for testing the offer only? If so how should we judge that because with say 8 dollars you only have 20 clicks that's too early to jump on the conclusion. Not only that, but a newbie could bid poorly and receive only 10 clicks for 2x the payout offer. Because of that, I am arriving to this conclusion that this so-called 2x the payout is the greatest bullshit found in affiliate marketing. I'd would be grateful if you could give me a more clear explanation on that. Thanks.

Well... here's the thing..

So when you throw up a direct link campaign

Your really testing 2 things.

1. the banners
2. the offers


Just because you have amazing CTR's and great banners, doesn't mean the offer will convert.


So in general -- when your testing..

your testing to first get:

A great set of banners that click well..

Then once you get a few set of good clicking banners, you rotate in relevant offers.

Once you find a combination of banners / ads that are converting...

Then you go through this process mentioned above.. of systemically getting the RIGHT people to see your ad... and you do that by cross elimination.



To answer your querstion:

The point of optimization, is to increase the success rate of a campaign that is performing. In other words... get a sale/conversion.. then improve the process of getting sale, faster.



Also, i see what you mean about the rules and offer payout whatever --

Here's the thing... the offer is everything.

If the offer sucks, you aren't going to get a conversion, no matter how good your ad is -- that's why split testing the offers is essential when creating these ads.. your trying to find a winning combo..


When i did the PDF, i used those same banners against a few relevant offers - only 1 consistently got conversions and so thats the one i went with (after testing)

 

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[James_L]

The original uploaded guide url does not seem to work anymore. Could you reupload it, please?

 

[LTL]

Any recommendations on where to buy data ?

 

[ThinkDifferent]

Hey Thanks a lot for this thread!!!!!!

Someone with your skills could use it to sell his/her own products/services. Incredible.

 

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[Cornellb504]

No, That offer was a direct link (by mistake)

Usually, you can direct link, as long as it goes through your web host or tracker (Demon Tracking, Tracker202, CPV Lab) first, then direct link to the offer. So you can track your metrics and be able to swap offers on the fly.

For any offers, is it recommended to create your own landing page and them direct them to the landing page or just go Direct linking?

 

[Lawrence Barse]

AD (on pof) --> user clicks --> goes to your webserver (with a auto redirect.php to your affiliate link page) --> if user converts or signs up --> you make money.


if Offer 1 Doesn't convert, you can go in your web server and Swap the affiliate link for another offer. (Offer 2, Offer 3 and so on)


You can even have a rotator and try 3 different offers at the same time. This whole purpose of this exercise is to eliminate the need to keep submitting an AD to POF everytime you want to try something new.

Hey @Nosferatu

fantastic post.

Just wondering what you mean by having multiple offers quoted above.

Does this mean having 3 different Affiliate Links for 3 different products / services of 3 different advertisers?

 

[The Abundant Man]

Very valuable information

 

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