Earning a living from CPA marketing

[Rvfamily]

@Rvfamily - your focus and commitment, I love it!

Just butting in here because I suddenly remembered a link that I have that might be of some help to you on 7S. I found it on @LukePeerFly 's blog two or three years ago.

7Search.com - Top Paying 500 Keywords

You probably already know this but 7Search also offers display advertising. Actually, I only used them for banners. I also did a sports theme (via various banners) without much luck.

However, someone has had a lot of luck (skill/strategy): http://www.affiliatefix.com/threads/7search-and-cpa-offer-that-makes-roi-1199.8912/

I'm looking forward to reading about the next leg of your journey with Bing. You keep ploughing ahead, so it can only be a matter of time before you find your stride.

Thanks @azgold

I appreciate it. I had seen the list on LPF website for the top paying keywords, but I had forgotten about it. A sea of information right? I'll take a look at the thread you've posted here. I appreciate any help/direction/feedback. Pride is the enemy of progress when learning a new skill/business, so I'll take it all in, in a spirit of camaraderie.

Thanks again for reading and for your insights.

As always,
Here's to your success!

 

[azgold]

You're not kidding about the sea of information available in this industry! As our friend @tjtutor often reminds us, focus and planning is key. One traffic source, tracking and vertical at a time.

I think you are doing an awesome job of things, don't think you're letting pride get in your way at all. At least, it doesn't seem so to me. You are open to help and suggestions, you're not afraid to ask questions and you're not afraid to fail as you figure things out. That has success written all over it!

 

[T J Tutor]

You're not kidding about the sea of information available in this industry! As our friend @tjtutor often reminds us, focus and planning is key. One traffic source, tracking and vertical at a time.

I think you are doing an awesome job of things, don't think you're letting pride get in your way at all. At least, it doesn't seem so to me. You are open to help and suggestions, you're not afraid to ask questions and you're not afraid to fail as you figure things out. That has success written all over it!

What @azgold said!

 

[Rvfamily]

Well, I'm taking another crack at an offer aimed at the male demographic. I spent about an hour looking at videos for proper setup of P202 and I think I'm getting a little closer to understanding how it all goes together (I was going to say works, but that's not the case yet). At least I think I'm getting closer to understanding what goes where to make the tracking work properly. I'll go through and post a pic series to show how I think it all goes together.

I started the new campaign tonight, and since it's a sports related offer, I expect the traffic for it to be good tomorrow.

I also wanted to provide some information about a way to get domains for your offer URL for free. In one of the videos I was watching, the guy posted an offer URL that was a domain he set up on a site called myfreenom.com It gives you a .tk domain name for free with registration. This could make it really easy to set up domain redirects for your offers so that you can have a custom link as the display URL. Inside the UI, once you've logged in, you can set the redirect to either (frame cloaking) or (http 301 forwarding). I'm not really sure how they differ (an area for research tomorrow), so I just put it in as the default cloaking. For the forwarding URL, I put in the link I got from P202 under the link "Get Links" tab. See pic below:

In addition, once I was in the 7Search UI, I was playing around with the bids and the bid page, and noticed that you can actually run different ads for different keywords, without running separate campaigns for each one. In my last offer, I was promoting three different ads, each with a $5 budget. This was how I wound up spending a little over $40 just doing some low key testing. If you want to, you can simply set up a few varied ads using the different keywords on that page of the 7Search UI. Let me show you: If you click on the TDU in any one of the boxes for each keyword, you'll have the opportunity to change a few things.

First, you can change things up to run an individual ad for that keyword (see next pic below).

Then, if you change the value in the Broad Bid box to 0 instead of a blank box, you can set it up where only an exact match for your phrase will pull up your ad (I'm about 95% this is accurate ). I would welcome any and all feedback about which is better under what circumstances to use either the Broad or Phrase. Also note, that this is the box where you would create your keyword specific ad and headline.

Well, fellow AFer's, I hope you found some value in this post. I'll let you know how and whether or not I've gotten everything set up correctly for this new campaign. I must admit, it's difficult for me to sleep when I set up a new campaign and turn it on.... I'm just so jazzed about the whole process.

As always,
Here's to your success!

 

[azgold]

Oh man, I'm excited for you! Hope they are working over the weekend, so you can get your ad approved.

Re being jazzed, yeah. I think CPA is addictive, like crack or something. Not sure why exactly, think it's the challenge.

That's pretty cool about being able to change the ad! Re broad vs phrase, broad will likely cost you a bunch more money. Your ad will show every time even one word of your phrase is searched for, whether it's targeted/pertinent or not. I would go for phrase.

Re the .tk domain, I know about myfreenom, or rather I know of it (and others) but I've never ventured there because of stuff I read years ago - that people don't trust a .tk extension, for one thing. These days, that may be different and if you're merely using it for redirect, not sure how important it is, anyway.

Besides, the truly important thing is that you continue to move forward. Please don't forget to come back and let us know how you made out!

 

[crysper]

AM becomes more addictive when you hit 3 figures days profit

On another forum there is a guy who tried for months with low success, but kept the follow along live. Lately he finally hit days with over $1,000 profit. I hope this will be the same, maybe just faster

 

[azgold]

AM becomes more addictive when you hit 3 figures days profit

I'll be it does!! Hope to find out myself.

On another forum there is a guy who tried for months with low success, but kept the follow along live. Lately he finally hit days with over $1,000 profit. I hope this will be the same, maybe just faster

Ditto here. You're putting in the effort, @Rvfamily so hopefully, you'll see great results very soon.

 

[Rvfamily]

AM becomes more addictive when you hit 3 figures days profit

On another forum there is a guy who tried for months with low success, but kept the follow along live. Lately he finally hit days with over $1,000 profit. I hope this will be the same, maybe just faster

@crysper and @azgold,

Thanks for the insight and kind words. I really appreciate the encouragement from the AF'ers. It seems that to pursue this is a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Really fun sometimes, and not so much others. Just trying to be humble, learn from every mistake, network and build relationships with others in the field and make progress (however small) every day.

As always,
Here's to your success!

 

[K]

I always advise to learn your trade on 7Search as It won't burn your money quick.

Once you've learnt about tracking etc then move on to somewhere a little bigger with better traffic.

You may be at that stage?

 

[newlxx]

@Rvfamily Have you been blocking the publishers from 7Search?
7search has a lot of publishers sending bot traffic, u can block them by using the sub id blacklist feature (contact 7search they will enable it for you.)

Start optimizing by the publisher ids and block the ones eating up a lot of budget with no conversions.

 

[crysper]

I agree with K, I think you are almost at the stage where you can "level up". I suggest Mobile. Maybe you need a little more experience with tracking and basic server stuff, and you're good to go.

 

[Rvfamily]

Wow, thanks @K, @lrs1995 and @crysper,

I appreciate all of you taking the time to provide feedback and encouragement. I finally got P202 set up to run properly for the current campaign. Interesting to see the discrepancy between the ad platform stats, P202 stats and MB stats. I will have to develop a broader understanding of this to make sense of it. However, I was looking at the report I downloaded from the software, and I don't see any identical IP addresses in the data.

@lrs1995, I will contact them straight away and get the feature enabled which allows me to block the Pub ID's that are non-performing.

For the current offer I decided to try very targeted keywords and the traffic has come very slow, even though there are a pretty significant number of searches for the terms within 7S. In a little under two days, I've had about 180 clicks without a single conversion. This is the second offer that I've had that I've had trouble finding the formula for conversions. I knew that the traffic would come slow, and planned to leave it up for 3-7 days, depending on clicks and CR to see how it performed.

As I stated in a previous post, if we're trying to isolate variables, there are a number to work on. The offer, the keywords, the bids (I did place bids that were in first position this time), the headline and ad copy, etc. I'm just speaking off the top of my head, as I don't really know for sure, but perhaps it's the offers I'm trying to work with (simple email submits one or two page). I think this is something that you probably just get a feel for once you've been doing it for a while. Perhaps, part art and part science. I'm just not sure if it's me and the headline/ad copy or if it's the offer. I'll provide a little more data later.
As always,
Here's to your success!

 

[Rvfamily]

After a little under 4 full days in this current campaign, I have paused it. Here are the stats for the campaign from my P202 UI:

As you can see, I had a total of 329 clicks on the ad with an avg. CPC of .06 per click for a total spend on the campaign of $19.74. The CR for the campaign was 0.00%, as I didn't generate a single conversion. Obviously, there were some issues with the offer or the ad.

On the finchsells blog, in his resources section, he states about 7Search:

7Search – You’ll need to be on your game to find a converter in here. Only troopers hit the green.

So, my takeaway from this is, you're going to have to sift through some offers and ads to find a gem. You'll have to be persistent to hit "the green."

Now to the stats from the latest run. The offer I was promoting was a two page lead gen for a free NFL jersey, and it paid out $1.60 per lead.

I ran three ads, with a small set of targeted keywords. One keyword in the first generated almost all of the clicks. The ads in order were as follows:

***Big Promotion on NFL Team Jerseys***
Complete our short survey and participate to get your NFL team jersey

Are You Fanatical About Your NFL Team?!!!
Show your support by picking up an NFL team jersey and sporting it on game day. Take the short survey and participate to get your official NFL Team Jersey.


GET YOUR FAN ON!!!
Support for your favorite NFL team by sporting the team jersey while catching the latest action. Take the short survey and participate to get yours here.

On the last ad, I added a more expensive keyword (fantasy football) to the mix, and targeted the ad towards the fantasy angle.

Here are the stats by keyword from my 7S campaign page:

As you can see, nfl team gear got the lions share of the clicks. I only added fantasy football to the mix on the last day and it received 51 clicks.

Creating an angle to work from with your offer is a skill I am still working to develop, as you can probably see from the ads.

My total spend thus far on two campaigns is $62.80, with a single conversion for $1.60. I'm not sure it's worth calculating the CR% on this.

I am sure most if not all here, have heard of the infamous story of Thomas Edison and his "failures" in creating the electric filament light bulb. In any case, it makes for good story.

A reporter once asked Mr. Edison, how he could keep going after 10,000 failures in his attempts to create the light bulb. He stated "I haven't failed 10,000 times. I have succeeded 10,000 times in NOT inventing the electric light bulb." I think what he was implying (just my interpretation) was that he knew that each "failure," allowed him to make distinctions about what worked and did not work and this allowed him to continue to move forward until he eventually succeeded. Imagine if he had viewed each of those times as a failure. My contention is that he would have quit in discouragement, long before he got to 10,000 attempts.

And so, in the spirit of Thomas Edison, I say:

I have found two ways NOT to run an effective and successful 7Search campaign.

I will be starting a new campaign this afternoon, at the recommendation of my MB AM, and I'll update you along the way. Hope you found some value here.

As always,
Here's to your success!

 

[Rvfamily]

I know that most, if not all come here searching for data and analysis of campaigns, and for methods and techniques to optimize and maximize them as well. I post this here, in part because IMHO, the mental side of this is of equal importance. Many of the top blogs I've been reading have articles that deal with the "mental side" of working from home, on your own, in a difficult field. It seems to me, that if you are truly looking for the escape hatch, from a life of working for others, to a life on your own terms, you should have a balance of education in all areas. Only then will you have a chance of maximum and lasting success. To that end, I post a poem here by Edward Guest about perseverance:

Can't is the worst word that's written or spoken;
Doing more harm here than slander and lies;
On it is many a strong spirit broken,
And with it many a good purpose dies.
It springs from the lips of the thoughtless each morning
And robs us of courage we need through the day:
It rings in our ears like a timely sent warning
And laughs when we falter and fall by the way.

Can't is the father of feeble endeavor,
The parent of terror and halfhearted work;
It weakens the effort of artisans clever,
And makes of the toiler an indolent shirk.
It poisons the soul of the man with a vision,
It stifles in infancy many a plan;
It greets honest toiling with open derision
And mocks at the hopes and the dreams of a man.

Can't is a word none should speak without blushing;
To utter it should be a symbol of shame;
Ambition and courage it daily is crushing;
It blights a man's purpose and shortens his aim.
Despise it with all of your hatred of error;
Refuse it the lodgment it seeks in your brain;
Arm against it as a creature of terror,
And all that you dream of you someday shall gain.

Can't is the word that is foe to ambition,
An enemy ambushed to shatter your will;
its prey is forever the man with a mission
And bows but to courage and patience and skill.
Hate it, with hatred that's deep and undying,
For once it is welcomed 'twill break any man;
Whatever the goal you are seeking, keep trying
And answer this demon by saying: "I can."

 

[azgold]

Very good, @Rvfamily ! I'd not heard of that poem before, it's very aprospos.

The mental is really important, I agree with you. It can lift you up or tear you down.

You are doing such an awesome job, I applaud you and your efforts!

 

[T J Tutor]

How clearly you demonstrate commitment and diligence!

 

[Rvfamily]

I was watching some videos on how to set up landing pages on prosper, and how to set up your post back URL or pixel, and noticed something I might have done wrong. Question for those who might be following, if I set up the Postback Url or some of the links wrong between prosper and my CPA network and my ad network, is it possible to have conversions that don't get tracked back to you properly?

 

[newlxx]

I was watching some videos on how to set up landing pages on prosper, and how to set up your post back URL or pixel, and noticed something I might have done wrong. Question for those who might be following, if I set up the Postback Url or some of the links wrong between prosper and my CPA network and my ad network, is it possible to have conversions that don't get tracked back to you properly?

Yes that is possible.
Compare your conversions on P202 and aff network.
If you see a conversion hasn't been registered on P202, you can always manually upload it.

 

[Rvfamily]

OK, been a few days since the last update. Sixty hours a week in a job, wonderful family with two homeschool kids and a side hustle trying to learn the ropes of IM. My tank just ran a little empty for a couple of days. So, where do things stand?

Well, to start with, the offer I was promoting on YT with free traffic has dried up. The channel continues to rack up views and subscribers, but no clicks or conversions as of the last two weeks. It's out there, and still operational (I went in and tested everything to make sure), so we'll see if it continues to earn anything.

I have been doing some research on different verticals and looking at what I could go into that would seem to fit my skill level and what was converting well according to my AM'ers. I had been looking at coupon/sample sites, but I think I'm going to go into something else that seems to be evergreen: Survey offers.

I have been trying to do some spying on what other people are using for both headline and copy for ads (as well as LP's for ideas) that deal with different kinds of survey offers. A few things that seem to be consistent with this type of offer:

1. Earn money online
2. Get started today
3. Earn XXX.XX amount per survey

In doing my research, I also came across several landing pages that promote surveys, and got some good ideas for how to construct a good lander for this vertical (some had been up for more than a year, which would have to mean that they are working, or they would be pulled). I have a somewhat crude lander that I have already built for this vertical and I have an angle that I am going to test for the vertical as well.

Unlike some of the other offers, I think I have a much broader set of keywords that might work for this offer/vertical. I'm personally familiar with the angle I'm going to use, so I think it has a better shot at converting.

In my research, the only thing that was a little disconcerting was the length of time since some of these ads ran. I guess testing will see if it's because people moved on to other traffic sources, or because the ads stopped working as they were. I'll provide more details as I get things set up and going.

I have the offer, the traffic source and the lander I'm going to use (as well as a cheap domain I purchased from namecheap to test things out), I just want to make sure I have all of the back end/tracking set up properly before I go live. I'll have it all up by tomorrow night and I'll keep you informed.

As always,
Here's to your success!

 

[azgold]

@Rvfamily it's important not to burn out, so mental and physical breaks are a necessity. Glad you took some time.

Have a feeling though, that while you were not sitting at the computer, visions of landers and offers danced through your head.

If you are getting increasing numbers of YT views and subscribers, that could work very well for future videos, which is great, of course. People are subscribing even though they're not clicking anymore. They would only do that if they're interested to see what else you'll produce. At least, that's my take on it. Means you have a targeted, hungry audience.

Re the surveys, I've never done them, so can't help you much with those but sounds like you have a solid and well thought-out plan. Your experience with this type of offer will undoubtedly be helpful.

Best of luck, will be watching for updates.