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

[Phillipbro]

Do you think I should wait until I get into a couple of CPA networks than join TMF , or just join now..

 

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[Nosferatu]

Good to know.

To be clear, I wasn't really wondering if it's worth the money (as in whether or not $99 is a big deal, it isn't). I'm a believer in spending money on valuable things. I've invested in courses, books, and trainings that have been super valuable so far...so I'm fine spending the money.

My question was more so, as a newbie...is it worth signing up not knowing very much about it, or should I "get my weight up" first before signing up? I think you answered that, though.

Thanks for the great info!

totally worth it. not only that, you can get feedback from like-minded people on there doing the same thing you are.

 

[Nosferatu]

Do you think I should wait until I get into a couple of CPA networks than join TMF , or just join now..

I don't know how to really answer that. What are your actual goals ?

Let me give you an example. When i started, i thought marketing = cpa marketing. That was the only thing i knew. It turns out that marketing encompasses sooo many different avenues and media types. Every Media type has it's own methodology. Marketing on POF isn't going to be the same thing as marketing on Google Search and so forth. Campaigns that work on search may not work on display or other traffic sources and so forth. And there are many different ways to market to your target audience: radio, newspaper, display, search, retargetting, pop ups, toolbar traffic, omg the list goes on and on -- they're endless pools of ad space out there.

CPA Marketing = Quick fast cash, not stable, could last a week, could last years, highly dependent on skill and ability to read between the lines, a lot of potential to get scammed, not a lot of regulation in the industry, at mercy of the network and hope they don't scrub you to death/steal from you, lots of competition.

Just as if you were to join STM vs TMF , the goals of each forum are different. This forum is a business forum for like minded individuals to share ideas about their fast lane venture. The INSIDERS forum is a much more concentrated part of the forum where actual people post up actual processes that they're taking action on. Can you take away something from it ? absolutely. Will it help you in your goals? maybe, maybe not.

It depends on how well versed you are in what you're trying to accomplish.

If your up for CPA business model, joining STM would be a better option because that's all they do over there. And they're pretty darn good at it. I actually made my first 100$ a day there, by reading and learning from others.


So again, i can't really answer this question for you, you'll have to do some thinking about what your goals are then plan and move accordingly.


My reason for joining INSIDERS is because i want more real world business experience and knowledge, not marketing info per se.

 

[nitroheadz28]

Thanks for the clarification on your previous post

My reason for joining INSIDERS is because i want more real world business experience and knowledge, not marketing info per se.

Heh, now you're just making me question myself :smx8:. My reason for trying to get into AM was to get marketing experience for when I'm ready to pursue a real venture of my own. Many people have said that they've come away from AM with lots of important experience that has helped/ will help them in going after their own business.

I don't want to be a money chaser, frankly I have no interest in AM apart from learning how to direct traffic effectively. My endgame is wanting to either come out with a product that would benefit people (I'm a mechanical engineer) or a service (preferable as its much easier to manage and and get started with). However as you know- marketing plays a HUGE role in whether you'll prosper or tank.

Maybe you can advise on what the most effective way for a complete noob with zero business/ finance/ marketing experience is to get his feet wet and develop some skill so that when he's ready to break out his business, it doesn't go unnoticed or have to outsource- therefore relinquishing control (not to mention involving people who don't have your idea at heart)? Reading books, blogs, and forums is only getting me so far.

Tom

 

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[Phillipbro]

My reply would be similar to nitro's ^.

I do have some fast lane ventures I'm working on while going to school. I've been testing out
and researching the different avenues in internet marketing so that I'll be able to use this
knowledge and expertise to help my ventures reach a bigger audience.

I feel like this is something I will be good at and something that will soon replace my current
part-time job (which takes up time that could be put into my ventures). I can't wait to get
started dude. I have to call a couple of the CPA networks that I've applied to for an interview
this week. I'm currently getting info from BHW forums for methods while also strategizing
different spins I could add on to them.

+Speed "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Nosferatu again." lool

 

[Nosferatu]

Thanks for the clarification on your previous post



Heh, now you're just making me question myself :smx8:. My reason for trying to get into AM was to get marketing experience for when I'm ready to pursue a real venture of my own. Many people have said that they've come away from AM with lots of important experience that has helped/ will help them in going after their own business.

I don't want to be a money chaser, frankly I have no interest in AM apart from learning how to direct traffic effectively. My endgame is wanting to either come out with a product that would benefit people (I'm a mechanical engineer) or a service (preferable as its much easier to manage and and get started with). However as you know- marketing plays a HUGE role in whether you'll prosper or tank.

Maybe you can advise on what the most effective way for a complete noob with zero business/ finance/ marketing experience is to get his feet wet and develop some skill so that when he's ready to break out his business, it doesn't go unnoticed or have to outsource- therefore relinquishing control (not to mention involving people who don't have your idea at heart)? Reading books, blogs, and forums is only getting me so far.

Tom

I see what you mean now. That's kind of funny because that's where i'm at now. I've mastered traffic generation and now im building products and services. So i totally see what you're trying to accomplish.

Here's what i did.


Learned 1 traffic source at a time. I picked 1 niche, and 1 source - and made it work. I spent money on tons of campaigns. testing, trying a few things. i went into it with the attitude of paying for school or training - I also followed several popular affiliate marketers online for close to about a year, and slowly over time i picked up a lot.

Pro Tip -- sign up for a lot of affiliate email list and go to every webinar or show they put out -- keep in mind their whole goal is to get you to buy something. Don't ever buy anything unless you know for sure it will help you, but it's basically free training because they always spill the beans on what they do, and they just try to sell you the end product at the end instead of learning it by yourself.

Read, Read, Read, Read some more. I've downloaded so many marketing books off the internet it's crazy - i got a harddrive of books i've read. I would consume books in hours - seriously - read about all the greats, gary halbert , dan kennedy stuff , John Carlton, etc

Pick a forum like stm and join, contribute and most importantly, take action in trying some ads. Don't give up. There is a learning curve.


Go to Yearly events - this requires money, room and board , but let me tell you the biggest a-ha moments where at these events.


Once you've atleast tried everything once, you'll start to notice the inner workings of a lot of ads online, one of my favorite hobbies is to break down ads and figure out how they're profitable -- its fun (for me lol)

I also download a lot of stuff off the web. If you're not learning, your not growing.



Hope this helps

 

[nitroheadz28]

Nosferatu... You da man!! Seriously, any spot in LI you name it- I owe you a couple cold ones.

I also download a lot of stuff off the web. If you're not learning, your not growing.

I agree completely, and trust me I've been inhaling my fair share of knowledge- its never enough!! (In fact I've never devoured books as fast in my life apart from the Harry Potter series growing up haha). I'll start reading up on the guys you mentioned for sure and do my share of digging as well as joining the forums. I need to become an INSIDERS here as well and stop being a cheapskate.

Once again, thank you so much! Its pissing me off how many times I've given you speed and your number hasn't gone up haha

Tom

 

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[Nosferatu]

Nosferatu... You da man!! Seriously, any spot in LI you name it- I owe you a couple cold ones.



I agree completely, and trust me I've been inhaling my fair share of knowledge- its never enough!! (In fact I've never devoured books as fast in my life apart from the Harry Potter series growing up haha). I'll start reading up on the guys you mentioned for sure and do my share of digging as well as joining the forums. I need to become an INSIDERS here as well and stop being a cheapskate.

Once again, thank you so much! Its pissing me off how many times I've given you speed and your number hasn't gone up haha

Tom

haha, it's cool - im not in it for points/speed whatever. i don't care about that stuff. Just trying to give value back where i can.

 

[awanrmb]

Hi Nosferatu,

First I want to say thank you for your guidance here, it really helpful to shed a light about traffic generation and media buying

Second, I have read your thread from beginning. Since most CPA only accepting people from USA, is it possible that this method is being used for Clickbank offer?
Have you had any experience on creating informational product then driving traffic with media buying into your own offer?

Thank you for your answer

 

[Nosferatu]

Hi Nosferatu,

First I want to say thank you for your guidance here, it really helpful to shed a light about traffic generation and media buying

Second, I have read your thread from beginning. Since most CPA only accepting people from USA, is it possible that this method is being used for Clickbank offer?
Have you had any experience on creating informational product then driving traffic with media buying into your own offer?

Thank you for your answer

Yes absolutely. You can take any offer and apply the same method to this. Even if you have your own product, you can advertise it this way. This will work with any offer. Doesn't have to be just CPA -- I used CPA in this example because it's a big industry, but if you think outside the box you can get other things to work too.

 

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[Phillipbro]

Started making some $$ on POF, I'm going to scale up and join STM soon. Also; getting some ads approved on POF is a real pain. How did you get approved using your blue POF background on your ad, this must've been before they made changes to their rules I assume?

Anyways your awesome bro. Any updates, are you still using POF, or have you moved on to better methods

 

[Nosferatu]

Starting making some $$ on POF, I'm going to scale up and join STM soon. Also; getting some ads approved on POF is a real pain. How did you get approved using your blue POF background on your ad, this must've been before they made changes to their rules I assume?

Anyways your awesome bro. Any updates, are you still using POF, or have you moved on to better methods

With pof you just have to keep trying. i wrote a post a page or two back about it - they are approve-nazi's the block a lot of submissions - you just have to keep trying.. PRO TIP: Go to the POF Blog, read it -- add ben and the other managers to skype and chat with them about approvals if you have a problem. They will usually tell you outright whats wrong with your creative.


In regards to me, yea i can still bank on POF, but i focused on building a full blown business instead of chasing dollars on POF. The lack of control is a problem for me. I'm chasing Fastlane principles.

 

[nitroheadz28]

Well I've been MIA for a good few days cause of some health and life issues, going to slowly get back on track and hit it hard. While Nosferatu's guide has been SUPER helpful- its still lacking a bit for the ultra noob such as myself (I don't blame him... He can't write out everything lol). Anyways, here are some useful bits that I'm picking up and my plan to hit the CPA thing hard:

-Registered at BHW forum (necessary to see certain info). Not doing STM yet as I want to get my feet wet first.
-Go into the forum> Making Money> CPA sub forum, read the stickies. They have tips on getting accepted into networks since its not very noob friendly. The first sticky is a step by step, read through it+ the other ones.

So based on that my plan of attack is:

-Get a hostgator baby plan+ register some free domains+ learn to use wordpress and throw up some content on the site in case the CPA network wants that (many do).
-Get into a CPA network, read the stickies and do the phone interviews.
-Proceed with Nosferatu's guide in this thread.

Sound right or am I making it more complicated than it is?

 

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[Liz]

Thank you for the posts and the eBook and traffic sheet. I will combine everything to try to make my first dollar online. Fortunately I do not have to start from scratch, but just follow your methods. It will help such a lot.

 

[Nosferatu]

Well I've been MIA for a good few days cause of some health and life issues, going to slowly get back on track and hit it hard. While Nosferatu's guide has been SUPER helpful- its still lacking a bit for the ultra noob such as myself (I don't blame him... He can't write out everything lol). Anyways, here are some useful bits that I'm picking up and my plan to hit the CPA thing hard:

-Registered at BHW forum (necessary to see certain info). Not doing STM yet as I want to get my feet wet first.
-Go into the forum> Making Money> CPA sub forum, read the stickies. They have tips on getting accepted into networks since its not very noob friendly. The first sticky is a step by step, read through it+ the other ones.

So based on that my plan of attack is:

-Get a hostgator baby plan+ register some free domains+ learn to use wordpress and throw up some content on the site in case the CPA network wants that (many do).
-Get into a CPA network, read the stickies and do the phone interviews.
-Proceed with Nosferatu's guide in this thread.

Sound right or am I making it more complicated than it is?

this sounds about right. the best advice i can give is to call the cpa network right after signing up and just be upfront. tell them your a newbie but your motivated and just want a chance to prove yourself. it helps to know the lingo and how your going to promote offers and stuff. they're going to ask.

many cpa networks dont care if you have a website, i said get a website for the purposes of redirecting. thats it. i never had a cpa network ask me for a personal website. its' not even that important. your brokering traffic, your not a blogger lol.

 

[nitroheadz28]

many cpa networks dont care if you have a website, i said get a website for the purposes of redirecting. thats it. i never had a cpa network ask me for a personal website. its' not even that important. your brokering traffic, your not a blogger lol.

By redirecting, you mean the site being the landing page?

Most of my confusion lies in the actual process after you've found your offer and come up with a banner, aka the "techy" stuff. I'll just apply to a few networks asap and figure it out if I don't need a site to get in anyways, that simplifies things a little

 

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[Nosferatu]

By redirecting, you mean the site being the landing page?

Most of my confusion lies in the actual process after you've found your offer and come up with a banner, aka the "techy" stuff. I'll just apply to a few networks asap and figure it out if I don't need a site to get in anyways, that simplifies things a little

Yes exactly. so basically the way it works is:

DIRECT LINK :

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.

or with a landing page.

PRE-SELL W/ LANDER:

AD (on pof) --> user clicks --> goes to your webserver with a landing page telling them why this site is so good --> click here button --> redirects to the offer page with your affiliate link --> if user converts or signs up --> you make money.


hope this clears the confusion

 

[nitroheadz28]

^ That says it all, thank you so much. I owe you big time and trust me I will pay it forward.

 

[Nosferatu]

^ That says it all, thank you so much. I owe you big time and trust me I will pay it forward.

No Problem.

Just to be clear, the ONLY reason for having a redirect (web host) is to have the ability to test different offers. so like my previous example:




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.


This way, you submit once, get approved and as long as the banner gets clicks, you can test as many offers as you want on the backend.


basically:

AD -> SERVER > OFFER 1, OFFER 2, OFFER 3 etc -- until you find a winner, once you find a winner you eliminate the other 2 and just keep the one that makes the most money.

You can use Split Test Rockstar

to try multiple offers with 1 banner.

saves a lot of time, and money. and we all know time =money.

cheers




edit:


The process is as followed:


1. submit an ad
2. find an ad that gets a lot of clicks.
3. test a lot of different/related offers until you find a combination (between the ad and the offer) that works.
4. profit.

 

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[Maestro]

Hallo Nosferato.

First of all huge probs for your sharing of your knowledge.

I have a question regarding having a product and selling it through related forums and bloggers.
Have you ever offered affiliate deals(ex. offering them 50% commission) with the owners in return for advertising, or do you pay for the ad space.
If you have had success with the commission deals, what was your approach then?


Best.

 

[Nosferatu]

Hallo Nosferato.

First of all huge probs for your sharing of your knowledge.

I have a question regarding having a product and selling it through related forums and bloggers.
Have you ever offered affiliate deals(ex. offering them 50% commission) with the owners in return for advertising, or do you pay for the ad space.
If you have had success with the commission deals, what was your approach then?


Best.

i Haven't done that myself. I always ran my own traffic to my own stuff. Getting affiliates is just a good way to multiple yourself and your product, and get free traffic I have seen the inner workings of it though. -- with that said.

Offering 50% is usually good, but the truth is you need to make sure your offer converts before you bring it to a potential affiliate. Which means, you run traffic to your own product. gather data, make sure it can work with their demo. (research this before hand...)

Once you have solid numbers, you can start hitting up potential affiliates -- try to do everything for them in regards to promotions, copy , everything, the only thing they should do is hit the send button on their lists or website. make it easy for your affiliates to make money.

and you'll have a successful affiliate team and product.

 

[Maestro]

Alright, I'll test and improve the conversion via my SEO results first and then once proven I'll get in contact with the forum and blog owners.


Thanks for your advice.

 

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[Nosferatu]

Alright, I'll test and improve the conversion via my SEO results first and then once proven I'll get in contact with the forum and blog owners.


Thanks for your advice.

Honestly, you could spend 100$ testing with traffic and find out by the end of the week if it works. Understand the when people search, they're mode of operation is seeking information. They could be looking to buy , or they could be looking for info -- You could accurately test with a good banner , a call to action and see if your site or funnel converts. Test everything. But also keep in mind what kinds of people are landing on your website.

 

[Maestro]

I have considered a test adwords campaign, but I have a contact who can do some seo cheap and fast.
So I will test that out first, and if there hasn't been more than 200 visits to my page before 2 weeks, I'll try spending a bit on ads.

Thanks.

 

[nitroheadz28]

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?

 

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[Nosferatu]

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?

if all things are the same, the conversion rate shouldn't change. what's likely happening is that their scrubbing the leads.

Basically what happens is this...

Lets say an advertiser pays 5$ per lead. If you send them leads and the leads don't convert -- the cpa networks will place a scrub rate. A scrub rate means that if you send them 100 leads (at 5$ a pop for example) - they deduct a % off every 100 until the advertiser is profitable. If the advertiser isn't profitable, we don't make money because he won't have money to pay the cpa networks, which pay you..

But this is a double edge sword, because an advertiser can say they're not profitable to prevent paying out, or ive seen cases where the advertiser IS profitable but they cpa network is taking an extra cut at your expense.


From a fastlane principle, and this is part of the reason i went private with my stuff. Lack of of control big time.



aside from scrubbing, if all things not being the same. Factors such as speed of redirects, loading times, etc can be different depending on the network.


this is why it's important to track and setup your own hop in between you the network and the offer. Because if your tracking says 200 hits and the cpa networks says 100 hits to a link -- something is off.


Tracking is important

 

[Mike39]

Hey Nosferatu,

First off, speed+ for this thread and your willingness to answer others questions.

Now, I have a product in the dating industry that I feel could possibly do well as an affiliate product although I haven't had enough time to really confirm that as fact (need to spend some more $ in ad's first).

So you may or may not know where to go with this but if the product sold well and I wanted to have some affiliates start promoting it, where would someone with limited knowledge of the affiliate "industry" start?

These are just some questions running through my head, please don't answer them all:

• Should I get plugged into an affiliate network, how does that work? What ducks do I need to have in row before I approach a network to be taken seriously?
• What are some sites/networks you can get into that your product won't be drowned out by a million other products and services?
• How do you make your product more attractive to affiliates?
• How about growing your own network of affiliates, what are the pros and cons of doing this approach?
• What do I need to set up infrastructure wise, rules affiliates need to follow, etc?

Our products range from $200-300 and excluding advertising costs, we conservatively net about $130-150 per sale so we could probably do $50-80 in commissions, is that a good/bad?

 

[Nosferatu]

Should I get plugged into an affiliate network, how does that work? What ducks do I need to have in row before I approach a network to be taken seriously?


- You could... but some networks require a deposit of like 20-30K upfront (prepayment) to make sure they can pay their affiliates. Unless you're a repeat customer they might work with you.

But basically you must have a proven funnel / sales page / metrics before you even consider asking a network or JVs

What are some sites/networks you can get into that your product won't be drowned out by a million other products and services?

-ClickBank. CJ.com those are probably the best for what your trying to do. You can also google sites with similar products and contact the owners for a JV / Affiliate partnership.


How do you make your product more attractive to affiliates?

-Incentivize like a mofo. Offer a good deal/cash upfront, 50% is pretty standard. make it worth promoting. Do all the work for them. Ads, banners, ways of promoting, write an autoresponder sequence. Basically make it really easy for anybody to pick it up and start selling.


How about growing your own network of affiliates, what are the pros and cons of doing this approach?

-Setup an affiliate page promoting and selling your products -- also run contests for your affiliates to encourage sales. For example, depending on product pricing, you could offer ipads, tvs, -- ive seen crazy things like flights to different parts of the world.

Obviously this depends on your products price point and how much you can afford to spend on traffic vs affiliates.

What do I need to set up infrastructure wise, rules affiliates need to follow, etc?

-Just a website, and a good affiliate tracking system. (ex: hasoffers )

Our products range from $200-300 and excluding advertising costs, we conservatively net about $130-150 per sale so we could probably do $50-80 in commissions, is that a good/bad?


-thats pretty good.

 

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[PaulWS]

Hi Nosferatu,

Quick question. Is there a specific website you use to research demographics?

You had a few sample sites you researched demographics on in your ebook. Curious as to where you acquired the data from.

 

[nitroheadz28]

Thanks for clearing that up!!

Man this is a steep learning curve for someone who has shit for computer literacy