Affiliate Toolbox

So…I finally did it. I stepped over to the dark side. I just posted my first PPC ad. I’d be nervous about it except I’m using Google’s money–you know, one of those “Thanks for being an Adsense Customer” $100 advertising credits. Based on my budget, the most I can personally lose is $55–and hopefully that won’t happen. But if it does, so what. I mean that: SO WHAT. I will never learn from my mistakes if I don’t put myself out there to make them.

But on to other things. I’m getting a little frustrated with Clickbank. Clickbank just does not convert for me. Already today I have over 100 clicks on a product I’m promoting (a good product mind you, not just some random nobody’s selling this so I think I will type thing) I’ve averaged over 100 clicks a day on this one product for the last week and I’ve got NOTHING to show for it. Not a single sale. I know people make money on Clickbank…but I’m starting to think they live under bridges or on the other side of a secret door somewhere. They certainly don’t live at my house. But I’m just stubborn enough to throw a little more energy at it–GOSH DARNITT I’M GOING TO MAKE A CLICKBANK SALE IF IT KILLS ME.

As an update: Hostgator finally credited my account.

A little gift for you this fine Monday morning…

It’s been a busy day.  All work and no play.  Unless I consider IM play…and then it’s been all work and as much play as I could squeeze in.

Here’s my shout out to all those folks who approve article submissions:  I’m really not a moron for the code reference  in my last article.  Even though it did cause two sentences to randomly disappear. I wasn’t trying to slip one by you…I was explaining how to optimize for the search engines.   If you could overlook that, it’d be great.  Especially you over at Ezine.  I really don’t want to have to write another 5000 articles before I gain my platinum status.

So, what’s that tell you about my day?  Actually it was a pretty good day.  I have three articles in the queue at Ezine, two at Articlesbase, two at GoArticles and five that will hit prime time with Unique Article Wizard tonight.  That’s not too bad for a Thursday–even if I had hoped to double the number going out on UAW since they’re soooooooo slow with output on the weekends.

I’d tell you which articles to keep your eyes open for…but I have no idea what name I posted them under.  You read that right.  I NEVER use my real name when I post an article.  Primarily because I have a full time job and I really don’t want my professional standing to be compromised just because, in my free time, I’ve become an expert on getting ex’s back, controlling any number of health maladies with natural remedies and dispensing advice to women over 50 on the right approach to online dating.  For now, anonymity is a good thing.  You’ll find the majority of IMer’s do the same thing.

So…what have we covered today?  1) The Article Directories I submit to, 2) The use of a pen name and 3) c’mon you have to give me credit for my earlier post today–I covered a lot in that.

I’m jumping ahead in my posts–but don’t worry, I’ll still post Part II of “What I do” later today.

I have a friend who just jumped back into IM after a brief hiatus. Like most of us, he also works a full time job and that forced a number of the IM campaigns he had launched to sit on the back burner while he made a living. A week or so ago, I met him for a drink and he handed me a piece of paper. On it, he had written, June 1-$1000. July 1-$10,000. Clearly, he was back in the IM saddle and these were the goals he had set for himself.

Do I think they’re doable? Of course they’re doable. But let’s be honest. They’re doable only if the IM Gods are smiling favorably on you; you’ve found the best niche in the world; and your keywords are spot on. Oh yea…and it would help if you had a little cash lying around so you could do a PPC campaign–assuming you knew what you were doing with PPC. In other words, I think, as goals, they’re a little lofty for just starting out.

Now, I don’t want that to discourage anyone just starting out. Goals are an important part of internet marketing. And, to be perfectly straight with you, I don’t think $1000 in one month is an unrealistic goal at all–it was the $10,000 goal (in what really boiled down to a month and a half) that made me shake my head.

So what would it take to make $1000 in a month without a product and/or an established website?  Let’s use a clickbank product as an example.  Say you decide you want to join the Magic of Making Up bandwagon…after all, the breakup/makeup niche is a hot one (and if you doubt me, let me just say I’ve tested this market because I didn’t believe it either and I get more url clicks from this than anything else–it’s mind boggling).  The Magic of Making Up retails for $39 and affiliates make $23.87 per sale.  So basically, you’d need to make 42 sales in a month to make $1000.

Let’s take it a step further.  What does it take to make 42 sales?  Most of the gurus will tell you it takes 10 articles (assuming you are going the free route and relying on article marketing) to get a campaign off the ground.  And that’s for a campaign with good keywords and reasonable competition.  The Magic of Making Up market is flooded–just browse the latest posts section of e-zine and you’ll see what I mean–at any given hour of any given day, there are no fewer than three new “get your ex back” articles posted.  That means one of two things…either your keywords have to be that much better…or you have to completely flood the market (meaning produce even more articles).  I typically get 300 url clicks for each Magic of Making Up article I publish (as a disclaimer to that statement, I do it as more of a novelty than a serious campaign so I don’t drill down my keywords as much as I should–and I primarily submit my articles through Unique Article Wizard instead of to the major directories).  And…it takes about 300 clicks for me to get a sale using that formula. (With more effort, I would think you could cut that in half).  But assuming you did it my way…you could make $1000 with 42 articles.    Which means you’d need to write 2 articles a day for the first 21 days of the month (I leave the last seven days clear b/c article submission takes time and you need your last articles to be published in order to start making money off of them!)  It’s completely doable!

There are no two ways around it:  The world of internet marketing is nothing short of overwhelming when you first dive in.

It’s like learning another language.  If you’re one of the lucky ones, you already know a little.  You’ve at least heard some of the phrases before–PPC, SEO.  And then there are the rest of us…

I’ve already admitted I knew nothing when I started.

The other night, during a conversation with a friend, I likened it to drinking your first glass of wine.  You think it’s really good–because you have absolutely nothing to compare it to.  Years later you’ll be lucky enough to have a glass of Opus One and you’ll think back to that first glass and wonder how you were ever able to swallow it.

IM is exactly the same.   If you keep at it, you’ll learn a little more every day–until eventually you’ll look back and say “Wow!” I can’t believe how crappy that article was, or how bad that website looked…or how stupid I sounded asking that question. 

The point is, we all start there.

I make mistakes every time I turn on my computer.  And I ask a lot of stupid questions.  Some days I get really frustrated.

Like today. 

I’ve been experimenting with datafeeds–which are essentially physical products I download from stores that I’m an affiliate of.  I love the concept of it.  To me, having an actual store is far more appealing than selling a digital product off of clickbank–even if there is something to be said for the ease of that.

My first attempt has gone miserably.  I’ve screwed up everything I could possibly screw up three times over.  Remember how I said learning IM is like learning a new language?  Well…right now I’m getting an F in the class. 

I was introduced to the idea of datafeedr through another Wealthy Affiliate University member.  He was having a lot of luck and he offered his assistance to other members.  Even though it’s really not in my nature to ask for help, I went against it and did anyway.  To my surprise, he was unbelievably helpful.  I mean…he really went out of his way to try to fix the disaster I had made.  I’m still a little in awe of the support he gave me.  Consider this my shout out to him.  (Thanks, Jim) Everyone in this business needs a mentor.  Even if it’s just for help on one project–or help fixing one disaster.  It can make a world of difference.