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“AdsEmpire”/  Direct Affiliate
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Project Notes

For me affiliate marketing is reward for solving problems

Today I understand opportunity process better --> 4 steps
  1. Find problem (with volume)
  2. Find solution (that can solve)
  3. Build solution
  4. Get used
5 key metrics help me understand is my process is success
  1. Impressions (how many people viewed my links in Google)
  2. Clicks (how many people clicked my links in Google)
  3. Visits (how many people visit my sites)
  4. Ad clicks (how many people click affiliate links in my sites)
  5. Sales (how many people who completed 1-4 bought product)
Have checklist for what I promote
  • Physical product
  • Visual solution (customer can understand without explanation, example hat, watch, sunglasses, shirt)
  • Clothing category
  • Branded goods (registered company, office address, website, logo)
  • Family friendly (some product is not allowed for ads, or age restriction)
 
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THURSDAY REPORT
December 17, 2020 - 7 days before Christmas

"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it" (Arthur L Williams, Jnr.)

Diary

1 week before Xmas, my Google ranking & traffic & motivation are all slide down, this last weekend before Xmas is my biggest test of 2020, SEO strategy isn't working so far it had opposite effect (doesn't always mean it failed, Google needs time for understand my technical & content changes & 4 days not trend), now must deliver minimum avg. $100/day Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Monday (deadline for last order)

Today commission only $21 its 2nd worst since middle September, overall $8,550 so race to $10k target is getting very close (needs to earn $1,450 in 14 days) Edit --> Sorry if this insensitive, but its paying my bills

Every day of affiliate marketing is different challenge
 
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This thread is a great training material for Beginners in Affiliate Marketing. EuronGreyjoy has shared a lot of his experience and success stories and this is what a new affiliate wants to know before starting. for me, 2020 was best for Affiliate Marketing Industry because people were home and buying more online and i believe that this Pandemic was a growth period for all online Marketers.
 
In the USA 3,000 per day are dying of COVID19 --this is one of the most depressing situations I can recall. UK, and in general, Europe: is not well either. That and Google > Google antitrust: the lawsuits just keep coming - CNN >>may be reacting strangely right now too. So you are rowing upstream against public sentiment --chill a bit. You have developed good working habits and done well in bad times. Some turbulence is not surprising.

TY for advice
Covid-19 is very bad & I follow all rules
But nobody talk about something like this --> who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/children-reducing-mortality
or this --> ourworldindata.org/childhood-diarrheal-diseases
I am depressed since 20 years
 
This thread is a great training material for Beginners in Affiliate Marketing. EuronGreyjoy has shared a lot of his experience and success stories and this is what a new affiliate wants to know before starting. for me, 2020 was best for Affiliate Marketing Industry because people were home and buying more online and i believe that this Pandemic was a growth period for all online Marketers.

@Hozefa Tijoriwala
Trying to share good & bad with you
--> So you will know what it's really like
Nobody paying me & no affiliate links in thread
This advice exactly raw like it happens
I'm not super affiliate or 'guru'
Just a guy who doesn't quit

It works with anything in life
Train every day, consistent, don't quit
How can you lose?
 
the grammatical syntax for pro bono is like 'for free'
so--
The accountant and I are trading our respective services pro bono; my SEO work for his accounting work.

Average is abbreviated avg or I use the ~ (did i just make that up :D
A median daily income could be used for next year.

Revenue (or any) projection historically is usually expressed in a median. A median amount will level off the peaks and valleys you will encounter --and help you keep your sanity. Median + goal increase wanted :)
my median is $200 and my goal is a 35% daily increase over historic median <<like that idea
Then there is Logarithmic increase scale and with customer attrition or 'churn' as an opposite decrease. Anyway, if you are looking for real world based statistics ...

If I am more snappy than usual: I just spent hours fixing the MySQL server on one of my VPS units and getting PHP PDO database driver queries to work right (so I am in a mood [to say the least])
I needed to make a MySQL web user with read only permissions and then the nightmare started. A least the website I am doing cannot suffer a SQL injection attack --read only user with permissions on a database with no user data ...
 
There will be obstacles,
There will be doubters,
There will be mistakes,
But with hard work
There are NO LIMITS

(Michael Phelps, 23 Olympics swimming gold medal for USA)

Traffic down 30% week-2-week
Rankings down on ALL bestsellers (from 6 networks)
Therefore must change strategy
This weekend to plan alternative traffic source to Google search
On Monday its different, starting with my personal schedule/organization
 
FRIDAY REPORT
December 18, 2020 - 6 days before Christmas

"if you are persistent you will get it, if you are consistent you will keep it" (H. Mackay)

Commission Report

Commission $36 very worried because not side hustle now its real job, but weekend normally best sale days, most customer not working and many shops closed --> e-commerce orders go up & fashion is one of best niches for impulse buy, total commission this years it's $8599, needs $1,401 next 13 days to achieve project goal $10k on NYE ($10k is artificial goal but it REALLY help me to focus & try be motivated every day)

Traffic Report

Friday user sessions dropped below 900 visits/day 1st time since middle September, could be shoppers stopped ordering because delivery doesn't arrive before Xmas? But ranking has been decline since Google blog about December 2020 Algorithm Update, big danger of SEO traffic

SEO Report

Published 300+ new products & testing my new e-commerce product SEO checklist strategy 1st --> stage one* most important, after complete stage 2) TY to @Graybeard now I learn what is different "strategy" & "tactics"

Stage 1 SEO Tactics -->

  1. Keyword in H1 title*
  2. Keyword in Meta title*
  3. Keyword in Meta description*
  4. Keyword in URL*
  5. Keyword in 1st paragraph*
  6. Keyword in main image URL*
  7. Keyword in main image Alt tag*
  8. Keyword in main image Title tag*
Stage 2 SEO Tactics -->
  1. Keyword in gallery image URLs
  2. Keyword in gallery image Alt tags
  3. Keyword in gallery image Title tags
  4. Keyword in 1 x internal link
  5. Keyword in 1 x external link
  6. Keyword in 1 x H2 header
  7. Keyword in product video title
  8. Keyword in product video description
  9. Keyword in brief description
  10. Keyword in purchase button
  11. Keyword in 1 x comment reply
  12. Keyword in 1 x bullet point
  13. Keyword in product manual download text
 
Barter is better word than pro bono?
pro bono usually is the donation of legal (or professional) work with no fee paid. Barter would be a better description --Yes

Using mean average to calculate average daily commission
Should I use median average not mean average?

Median is the most often occurring value in a number set.

=MEDIAN(A2:A50) as a total in a spreadsheet column (exel) as a real case example
Compare that to =AVERAGE(A2:A50)
The graphic is a logarithmic projection

upload_2020-12-11_8-36-1.png

upload_2020-12-11_8-38-43.png

Code:
[table][tr][td]
[ATTACH=full]17904[/ATTACH]
[/td][td][ATTACH=full]17905[/ATTACH][/td][/tr][/table]

Not sure what this means
Should I ask my developer to make website read only on database with no user data to stop SQL injection attack?
I think I was just rambling , exhausted at 2:30 in the morning ... Going in circles most of the time.
I had to backdoor into my MySQL server and reset the root password to create this user and his permission that is on a 3 yr old VPS and the MySQL got messed up --in a damn update (probably) Bad day!
You cannot INSERT, DROP, UPDATE when the user account only has SELECT (read and print to a webpage) permissions as his permissions GRANT.

PHP:
//  $sql = "SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `column name` IN(1, 3)";val or range
$zip="48509";
  $sql ="SELECT countyName FROM `zip_names` WHERE `zipcode_nb` IN($zip)";
  $result = $conn->query($sql);

  // If the SQL query is successfully performed ($result not false)
  if($result !== false) {
    $cols = $result->columnCount();           // Number of returned columns

//    echo 'Number of returned columns: '. $cols. '<br />';

    // Parse the result set
    foreach($result as $row) {
      echo $row['countyName'];
    }
  }

after 20 tries at 2:33 in the morning :( found this 'tutorial on PDO Queries'

IN() WTF works
upload_2020-12-11_8-58-8.png

Well fuck a duck!
You never stop learning :p
 
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SATURDAY REPORT
December 19, 2020 - 5 days before Christmas

"Everything gets easier when you stop expecting it to be easy" (Tim Grover)

Commission Report

Matched commission level of last Saturday, closed at $118 earning --> its $8,734 total & that's $1,266 to earn in next 12 days, just need to maintain this level to achieve $10k target, know alot of this is beginners luck & working hard on revenue plan for 2021

Traffic Report


Today's traffic just above 1,000 sessions, made some technical improvements to push important information ATF (above-the-fold) on desktop, tablet and smart phones so customer gets sample of content without scrolling, removed "back to top" button, decreased size of navigation bar to give customer more space, if SEO doesn't work at least I'm helping the customers & make sale more likely

SEO Report


Total nearly 1,000 product page live, but only half are optimized for SEO --> it's repetitive task running SEO checklist but I need to get job done not make excuses, when I'm doing this smart way I can enter target keyword and it populates all SEO fields in 1 go like this (need help of developer)

Example


Keyword 'mens blue levis jeans cowboy bootcut'

  1. Keyword in H1 title --> Men's Blue Levis Jeans Cowboy Cut
  2. Keyword in Meta title--> Men's Blue Levis Jeans Cowboy Cut - Site Name
  3. Keyword in Meta description --> Find All Sizes of Men's Blue Levis Jeans Cowboy Cut at the Site Name, America's No1 Levis Jeans Discount Site
  4. Keyword in URL --> https:// sitename.com / mens-blue-levis-jeans-cowboy-cut(.asp/.php)
  5. Keyword in 1st paragraph --> Find All Sizes of Men's Blue Levis Jeans Cowboy Cut at the Site Name
  6. Keyword in main image URL --> mens-blue-levis-jeans-cowboy-cut.jpg
  7. Keyword in main image Alt tag --> Men's Blue Levis Jeans Cowboy Cut
  8. Keyword in main image Title tag --> Men's Blue Levis Jeans Cowboy Cut
 
You're so close!

As @Graybeard said, lots of deaths in the U.S. and Europe, plus the government's pandemic funds for citizens in the US runs out Boxing Day (Dec. 26th), last I heard. There could be a lot of people who get evicted, etc.

If you do any e-comm for Canada, I don't know about the other provinces but Ontario may be going back into lockdown from Boxing Day to January 11th. The country total of cases since this awful thing started just passed 500,000. The premier will confirm tomorrow. Ontario has the largest population, so lots of people will be at home if they go through with the lockdown and it sounded like there's a high probability of it. Might help you to get that last mile.

Just out of curiosity and I apologize if this came up before and I missed it....do you have a geo script on any of your sites? Like I said, just curious.
 
@Graybeard do you know why Amazon Associates doesn't do it? (when customer is auto-redirect to another geo locale then affiliate referring site does not get commission)

There are 18 separate Amazon Associates programs available to affiliates in 2020
  1. United States --> affiliate-program.amazon.com
  2. United Kingdom --> affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk
  3. Germany --> partnernet.amazon.de
  4. France --> partenaires.amazon.fr
  5. Japan --> affiliate.amazon.co.jp
  6. Canada --> associates.amazon.ca
  7. China --> associates.amazon.cn
  8. Italy --> programma-affiliazione.amazon.it
  9. Spain --> afiliados.amazon.es
  10. India --> affiliate-program.amazon.in
  11. Brazil --> associados.amazon.com.br
  12. Mexico --> afiliados.amazon.com.mx
  13. Australia --> affiliate-program.amazon.com.au
  14. United Arab Emirates --> affiliate-program.amazon.ae
  15. Singapore --> affiliate-program.amazon.sg
  16. Netherlands --> partnernet.amazon.nl
  17. Saudi Arabia --> affiliate-program.amazon.sa
  18. Sweden --> affiliate-program.amazon.se
I'm plan to target Australia in 2021 but AA needs complete new application, maybe they are separate company?
 
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SUNDAY & MONDAY REPORT
December 20-21, 2020 - 3 days before Christmas

"Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation" (Max Euwe)

Commission Report

Very busy making detail plan for 2021 so updates shorter than normal next 10 days, commission for Sunday & Monday = $ 162 + & total commission in 2020 = $ 8,862 --> 10 days before NYE, needs $ 1,138 to make commission target

In the last week I become very unhappy because my commission dropped & ranking dropped, even as I was working extra hard and following all correct rules, but then I look at spreadsheet --> last 7 days its $ 511 commission & $3,490 commission last 30 days so I must stay focus on target & make sure January 1 with full action plan for 2021

SEO Report

All my ranking for bestseller are outside top 3 because Google algorithm ranks inferior competitors above my sites --> v.surprised to get any sales but it must be customer still checks position 4 thru 10, so unsatisfied customer will a. give up, b. perform new search, c. scroll down page

Next 10 days I will ignore competitor & focus on helping customer by on-page content improvements, but normally its top 3 or you get ignored, esp. with Google rich results & Google ads push your organic content BTF (below the fold) to where user must scroll --> user hates to scroll on Google !!

understand-importance-ranking-top-3-google-search-1057.png

google-organic-ctr-breakdown-by-position-768x759_0.png



  1. Focus on seasonal shopping product (fashion, baggage, travel, garden)
  2. Physical product made by trusted brand, sold by trusted distributor
  3. Launch 1 new niche website every month, each website generate $100/day
  4. Study market leaders & target customer in very detail
  5. 4 main traffic sources (organic & paid search, organic & paid social media), test organic 1st & use revenue for paid ads, but only from cash in bank earned from organic testing
In the next 10 days I make more detail to my plan, then December 31 before fireworks will share most of plan with forum


  • Jan 2021 --> $ 100/day (winter fashion) - 2 niche sites
  • Feb 2021 --> $ 100/day (winter fashion) - 3 niche sites
  • Mar 2021 --> $ 100/day (spring fashion) - 4 niche sites

  • Apr 2021 --> $ 200/day (spring fashion) - 5 niche sites
  • May 2021 --> $ 300/day (spring fashion) - 6 niche sites
  • Jun 2021 --> $ 400/day (summer fashion) - 7 niche sites

  • Jul 2021 --> $ 500/day (summer fashion) - 8 niche sites
  • Aug 2021 --> $ 600/day (summer fashion) - 9 niche sites
  • Sep 2021 --> $ 700/day (autumn fashion) - 10 niche sites

  • Oct 2021 --> $ 800/day (autumn fashion) - 10 niche sites
  • Nov 2021 --> $ 900/day (autumn fashion) - 10 niche sites
  • Dec 2021 --> $ 1,000/day (winter fashion) - 10 niche sites

  • Total commission = $ 171,000
  • Deduct 1 --> Tax & health = $ 21,000
  • Deduct 2 --> Personal bills = $ 24,000 ($ 2,000/month x 12)
  • Deduct 3 --> Wage = $ 52,000 ($ 1,000/week)
  • Profit (save/invest) = $ 74,000 ($ 171,000 commission - $ 97,000 deduction)
 
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SUNDAY & MONDAY REPORT
December 19-20, 2020 - 3 days before Christmas

"Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation" (Max Euwe)

Commission Report

Very busy making detail plan for 2021 so updates shorter than normal next 10 days, commission for Sunday & Monday = $ 162 + & total commission in 2020 = $ 8,862 --> 10 days before NYE, needs $ 1,138 to make commission target

In the last week I become very unhappy because my commission dropped & ranking dropped, even as I was working extra hard and following all correct rules, but then I look at spreadsheet --> last 7 days its $ 511 commission & $3,490 commission last 30 days so I must stay focus on target & make sure January 1 with action plan for 2020

SEO Report

All my ranking for bestseller are outside top 3 because Google algorithm ranks inferior competitors above my sites --> v.surprised to get any sales but it must be customer still checks position 4 thru 10, so unsatisfied customer will a. give up, b. perform new search, c. scroll down page

Next 10 days I will ignore competitor & focus on helping customer by on-page content improvements, but normally its top 3 or you get ignored, esp. with Google rich results & Google ads push your organic content BTF (below the fold) to where user must scroll --> user hates to scroll on Google !!

understand-importance-ranking-top-3-google-search-1057.png

google-organic-ctr-breakdown-by-position-768x759_0.png


Affiliate Marketing Strategy & Tactic for 2021
  1. Focus on seasonal shopping product (fashion, baggage, travel, garden)
  2. Physical product made by trusted brand, sold by trusted distributor
  3. Launch 1 new niche website every month, each website generate $100/day
  4. Study market leaders & target customer in very detail
  5. 4 main traffic sources (organic & paid search, organic & paid social media), test organic 1st & use revenue for paid ads
In the next 10 days I make more detail to my plan, then December 31 before fireworks will share most of plan with forum

Q1 2021
  • Jan 2021 --> $ 100/day (winter fashion) - 2 niche sites
  • Feb 2021 --> $ 100/day (winter fashion) - 3 niche sites
  • Mar 2021 --> $ 100/day (spring fashion) - 4 niche sites
Q2 2021
  • Apr 2021 --> $ 200/day (spring fashion) - 5 niche sites
  • May 2021 --> $ 300/day (spring fashion) - 6 niche sites
  • Jun 2021 --> $ 400/day (summer fashion) - 7 niche sites
Q3 2021
  • Jul 2021 --> $ 500/day (summer fashion) - 8 niche sites
  • Aug 2021 --> $ 600/day (summer fashion) - 9 niche sites
  • Sep 2021 --> $ 700/day (autumn fashion) - 10 niche sites
Q4 2021
  • Oct 2021 --> $ 800/day (autumn fashion) - 10 niche sites
  • Nov 2021 --> $ 900/day (autumn fashion) - 10 niche sites
  • Dec 2021 --> $ 1,000/day (winter fashion) - 10 niche sites
Financial Forecast (draft, not audited yet)
  • Total commission = $ 171,000
  • Deduct 1 --> Tax & health = $ 21,000
  • Deduct 2 --> Personal bills = $ 24,000 ($ 2,000/month x 12)
  • Deduct 3 --> Wage = $ 52,000 ($ 1,000/week)
  • Profit (save/invest) = $ 74,000 ($ 171,000 commission - $ 97,000 deduction)
you know you can do it!
 
TUESDAY REPORT
December 22, 2020 - 2 days before Christmas

Quote of the Day

"It is not the load that breaks you down it is the way you carry it" (Lou Holtz)

Commission
$67 commission, half from Amazon & 1 other network, 4 networks generate less than $10 together, its stable 18% conversion rate overall so its not enough traffic rather than problem with website usability/content issues

Traffic
Sessions going down fast & not just because of ranking, not sure what's going on because Google ranking is back top 3 for many bestseller keywords and Google Analytics shows stable stats, maybe just seasonal trend like @Graybeard & others have said, traffic under 600 1st time since August

Plan
Now I work many hours on my plan for 2021, most important its daily schedule & Jan-Dec calendar of what's going on? Next year Google can KMA because I need guaranteed minimum traffic every day to pay bills - @T J Tutor have you advice about making a 12-month plan for affiliate marketing? Who else has made a plan for 2021, maybe you will share template please?

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day updates I will add together on December 26
 
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CHRISTMAS REPORT
December 24-25, 2020

Quote of the Day

"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument" (Desmond Tutu)

Commission
$45 over 48 hours, commission has dropped every day since December 14, total commission this year its $8,950 and I won't get to $10k in next 5 days, probably look back and be happy about this journey, but I hate to fail a target

Traffic
Overall Google ranking for best selling product searches dropped from average position 2.3 to 6.3 & all 10 main keywords that drive daily commission outside top 3 (where is 75% of clicks), I think the problem is thin content & focused too much on volume but not enough quality, good to learn this lesson for future

Plan
90% of my time this week has been plan for 2021, bought a wall calendar, pocket diary, populated Google Calendar important dates & imported a bunch from Hubspot, also started online project management course
 
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