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My Adult Dating Journal (55)

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Hello STM!


My name is Jay , for the last 2 years I've been freelancing as a Web Designer, running an SEO company, and running a website. I thought it would be a great time to get into Adult Dating since I don't want to provide services to others and running a website isn't exactly something I enjoy.. Plus, as you can see by my join date I've had my subscription for a while and it''s about time I started a follow along.

I have had some small success with dating and gaming on facebook a while back but it wasn't enough for me to stop designing websites at the time.


Tools:

Content Delivery Network:
Rackspace
Tracking:
CPVLab

Budget:
$10,000


Setup:

Target:
Adult Dating International
Traffic Source:
TrafficJunky


Campaign Setup:

Campaign 01:
2-3 Landing Pages
3 Groups of 6-10 Ads
3 Offers


Day 01:

No stats until after Labor Day since I'm not running anything but I can work on my landing pages and banner ads for now. I have 2 landers I borrowed and 1 that I'm working on and I'm gathering some more banner ads that I'll be testing as soon as possible!

Thanks for reading!


Edit: Stats begin here!

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Looking forward to results man, awesome set up! Make sure you allow a good amount of testing as you're testing a lot of variables here!

I would go offer first, find the best converting offer, then the best landing page for that offer then the best creatives for that landing page and offer

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It was time to see your follow along

Adult dating is pretty competitive right now , but there is a reason to that , there is huge money to be made.

Your setup looks pretty good so far.

Only advice I feel giving is make sure you spend enough money to get significant data since you are split testing many variables.

Keep us updated how it goes.

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awesome man. looking forward to seeing what you can come up with.

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Good start so far! Which country are you going to attack?

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Day 02:

Thanks for all the replies!

I'm targeting LATAM but I'm not approved for any offers yet so I'll be looking for those tomorrow! I did a bunch of spying with the Adult Ad Spy today but the Overplay VPN kept getting stuck on "Waiting for server" so I'll take a look at that whenever it starts working again.. A bit overwhelmed today but once I can get everything running I can weed out what isn't working and focus on what is.

The 3rd landing page will take a bit longer than I thought to finish so instead I created another page that I have to optimize and translate tomorrow.. but I have some questions!

1. What kind of daily budget should I set to test 3 landing pages, 3 different offers, and 3 groups of ads with 6 ads in each?

2. Since I'm targeting LATAM, I've been looking through my network dashboards for adult offers that have MX, AR, ES, etc.. but I don't see many.. I'm in F5, Adsimilis, Ads4Dough, and Mundo Media. I would like focus on 1 until I don't have to worry about cashflow but what are some offers that seem to be good to go with in the countries I'm targeting?

Stats coming soon!

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1. Thats a perfect rotation and you'll need a semi large budget to see proper results! Go with atleast $100/day, ideally more

2. Ask Jaimmie at F5. I just notified her for ya

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Thanks! I have been looking at the offers available on my networks and I see a ton of options for other countries like US/UK/AU/DE/SE/FR etc.. If i were to target something like US/UK/AU (english) how much of a budget difference would I be looking at? Would that be a good idea for someone getting into adult web?

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I think LATAM would be a better choice as long as their are strong offers for a few of the countries. US/UK/AU convert better and can make a LOT of money, but it's a lot more competitive and if you don't have a 1 up, you'll be eaten alive.

Europe is great too though, it's a halfway point. Especially less targeted countries like Netherlands, Norway, Sweden etc..

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Day 03:

I probably should of figured out the offers to run in the beginning but since it was labor day weekend I started with the landing pages and banners. It's been a slow day looking for offers but after stackman's response and speaking to some AMs I'll be going with Europe instead and I'm waiting for some offers to be approved now

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Sounds good, keep us posted. I know Netherlands is a less competitive European country to start in!

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When you're targeting non-English-speaking countries I would imagine you translate the ad text? If so, how do you have that done?

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For the beginning, you could spy in the respective GEO and just copy the text from existing ads (not the whole banner), maybe run it through Google translation to get the rough meaning of it.

Other than that, onehourtranslation.com is the standard resource for affiliate marketers to get translations done.

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Hello All! I wanted my next update to be when I had some stats but making the changes I needed to is taking a bit longer than I expected.


Day 04, Day 05, and Day 06:

I decided to target Europe instead of LATAM. It's going to be harder but will a budget of $10,000 be enough to work through it?

Since I'm now targeting Europe, I had to recode and translate the 3 landing pages I have as well as come up with some completely new banner ads since the angle is a little different from what I was targeting in LATAM. I don't have as many banners as I did before but I have some GIF's after learning how to create those in photoshop plus I plan on creating some more over the weekend.

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YES. and thank you for going balls deep here, $10k is plenty to get profitable and begin the scaling process.

Europe is AWESOME for adult, just get in touch with your AM find the best converters. You will find FR and DE are good with volume but a bit saturated, countries like sweden, norway, netherlands, switzerland are easier to get into profit with a bit more ROI but they don't have as much volume

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Dutchies enough around here who can help with the translations for Dutchieland

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Day 07, Day 08, and Day 09:

Over the weekend I worked on some more banner creatives as well as a unique lander since i keep saying the same 3-4 recycled in some way. I was able to get my ads uploaded and approved on TrafficJunky but noticed I wasn't tracking my ads correctly so I had to correct that and now my ads are pending. I'm using keywords since my angle is pretty specific but I'm not sure how much traffic I would be getting. Is there any way to estimate the amount of impressions I would be getting? Is there any bidding tips I should know?

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Day 10, Day 11, and Day 12:

I started my campaign with keyword targeting and being new to TJ I didn't know about the "Current Bids" section which displays how much traffic I get from my placement. I also had issues tracking my ad creatives so I worked on a new campaign with a new angle, landing pages, and ad creatives. Today I removed the keyword targeting from the TJ campaign and added a frequency cap of 4 to start with.






Campaign 01

Spend: $80.76
Revenue: $33.66
Profit: -$47.10
ROI: -58.3%


My CPVLab is a little off as far as how much I spent, but would this be enough data to cut out low performing landing pages and offers?

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Regarding the data testing and even more tips I would recommend browsing this thread http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...w-Along-Period

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Cant someone just translate with google translator. hows the quality?

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Serious? Bad for anything but short fragments and single words... Try translating something from English -> any language -> back to English.

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+1, the quality is usually pretty terrbile. The only thing I use Google Translator for is if I want to understand the general meaning of a sentence, e.g. when I use competing ads as "inspiration"

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Thanks! I saw that stackman said:
As far as optimizing my campaign when it's running, what is the best way to make changes to the campaign in CPVLab? I see there's an "Optimize" tab but I'm not sure how that should be used. I ask because my spend in CPVLab for yesterday says $140 but TrafficJunky says I spent $86 which I would think is more accurate. I did adjust the CPC by going to "Edit Campaign" and entering the updated CPC.. is this something that I should be doing in the Optimize tab? Is there any time where I'll need to take a running campaign, duplicate it and start from fresh stats or can I just optimize from the initial campaign i setup?

I should have some more stats later today, waiting for the 2nd campaign to be approved

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Most people generally use external spreadsheets to track their revenue/expenses and use the tracking software to optimize their marketing campaigns.

I haven't used the optimize tab since I do everything manually and it's a good way to learn how your metrics work.

I know you can upload reports into CPVLab, but you would have to create a report template, export stats from TrafficJunky and upload into CPVLab.

Check out this thread. It's based on Facebook reports, but the concept is generally the same:
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...acebook+cpvlab

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Thanks for the help Jasper!


Day 13:

Campaign 01

Spend: $106.87
Revenue: $39.74
Profit: -$67.13
ROI: -62.81%

I cut out 2 of the landers that weren't working too well for me and added another which is basically performing identical to the best lander I had up yesterday and I was able to cut out a ton of the ads that weren't converting by the end of the day.

The payout on the offer is $2.20, my CPC is $.50 and the EPC on this offer is $0.38 so I'm trying to either find another offer that converts as well or better with a higher payout or figure out how to drop my CPC.

On TrafficJunky what is "Auto Optimization" when setting campaign budget and should it be used?

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Day 14:

Not sure what happened today..


Campaign 01

Spend: $2.89
Revenue: $4.38
Profit: $1.49
ROI: 51.56%

I tried targeting channels that would be more useful with the angle i have instead of targeting the whole site and in 4 hours i ended up spending under 3 dollars.. so I removed the channels, left it running and still no traffic even though I should be getting more than i was the day before.

Campaign 02

Spend: $1.00
Revenue: $0
Profit: $-1.00
ROI: -100%

I let my 2nd campaign run today which is in a less saturated country so I can try running my ad on the whole website and I ended up getting the same issue as with campaign 1.. no traffic. with the CPC and budget I set i should of been able to get at least 12% of the traffic unless theres something I'm not understanding..




I also worked on some landers, ads, and research for some new angles.. hopefully I can figure out whats going on with the traffic by tomorrow so I have something to put up..

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Day 15/16:

Ended up pausing Campaign 01 until I can figure out how this TrafficJunky targeting works since theres a lot of competition but the traffic for Campaign 02 comes in a bit slow so have to work that out

I called TrafficJunky today to see what was going on with my traffic after reactivating Campaign 02 early this morning and they didn't know what was going on with it so I've been letting it run all day and only ended up spending $20 of the $200 daily budget I set


Campaign 02

Spend: $20.67
Revenue: $4.38
Profit: $8.38
ROI: -40.54%

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lets keep this one moving brother, remember you're in the testing phase you have to keep it moving along and since you're testing many variables its okay to lose, once you cut all the fat thats when the profit roles so just keep the testing coming big man!

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Thanks! I saw your I can't make money in adult" thread and today has been a better day as far as testing/traffic!

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Day 16:

I'm not going to section the stats by campaigns since that will be difficult to do pretty soon so I will just do them by the day!

Spend: $38.76
Revenue: $24.58
Profit/Loss: -$14.18
ROI: -36.58%


Day 17:

Spend: $267.33
Revenue: $164.84
Profit/Loss: -$102.49
ROI: -38.34%

The first half of the day was much better at 50% ROI, but I began testing new ads/placements and the ROI started tanking with the tests. I also forgot to set the frequency cap which went through a bit of the budget before I realized I forgot. I'm hoping I can get a pay bump on the offer since that would help me out also. When would it be best to ask for an increase in payment?

Tomorrow should be a better day once I start cutting out the ads that aren't being clicked or converting too well.

Whats considered a good Ad CTR %, Landing Page CTR %, and Offer Conversion %?

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Wow thanks for the tip! I never thought about disabling flash that would make it easier since I rather not see the vids and I will begin spreading out to other niches as soon as my cashflow improves Should be very soon!

Thanks! I have enjoyed your follow along keep it up as well!

Yea I want to branch out in a couple different niches but mobile is where I want to focus most of my time

thanks!

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Day 99:

Got around to trying a new traffic source today and I overbid a bit

Spend: $62.84
Revenue: $67.05
Profit: $4.21
ROI: 6.71%

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Day 100:

Spend: $34.54
Revenue: $40.30
Profit: $5.76
ROI: 16.67%


Day 101:

I had to pause the campaign with the most volume for some reason even though I was only sending leads from a placement that the advertiser liked so I'm not sure what that was about. Still testing out ads on the new traffic source.

Spend: $76.80
Revenue: $103.70
Profit: $26.90
ROI: 35.03%

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Day 101 looking good man, have u got an offer to fill in the gaps?

Nice 35% roi without optimisation man, thats the next step on the new source awesome!

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Thanks! The offer I had paused was in a very competitive country so I'm going to wait until I can build my budget up before I go back there.. I learned a lot though! I think that's why I'm doing so well in the 2 campaigns I'm working on now. The 35% ROI was still with the old traffic source since I had some ads pending but the new traffic source did well today with 83% ROI

Day 102:

The placements on the new traffic sources did well and I'm adding new ads into the rotation as well as some more placements. I'm pretty sure I can get to $100/profit in the next couple of days since theres tons of optimization to do so right now I'm optimizing the placements I have and I'm working no a couple new ones so I can see if those will be worth running over the weekend

Spend: $134.70
Revenue: $186.95
Profit: $52.25
ROI: 38.79%

Next

1. Add new placements
2. Optimize current placements
3. New ad variations

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That's what's up man. Keep it up!

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Thanks! Slowly getting there

Day 103:

I scaled my campaigns up a bit today and I focused mainly on 1 of my campaigns since it has been doing ok. I got a bump on 1 of my offers but I noticed that the conversion rate dropped in the process so I'm not sure if thats because it was Friday or because of scrubbing.. I'll have to see how things are tomorrow to be able to tell. I still have tons of optimization to do since I have been focusing mainly on testing angles so far. Over the weekend I'm going to run my best ads while working on landers.

Spend: $224.46
Revenue: $410.90
Profit: $186.44
ROI: 83.06%

Next

1. Work on new angles
2. More Ads
3. Create new landing pages

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Day 104:



Yesterday was a great day! Today seems like it will be even better so I can't wait to see how it turns out. One of my other campaigns is picking up so I'm going to focus on that a bit more after I submit some new ads for campaign 1. It's overwhelming for me managing all this but at least I don't have to translate for campaign 1! onehourtranslation has been taking me much longer to have text translated so hopefully there are some faster alternatives out there somewhere. I've been scaling a lot but I need some kind of scaling plan so I won't be as lost scaling to new placements once I have a profitable campaign.

Spend: $268.28
Revenue: $696.75
Profit: $428.50
ROI: 159.74%

Next

1. Work on new angles
2. More Ads
3. Scale!

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Day 105:

The last 2 days I haven't been feeling the best so I haven't really worked as much as I would like too. I think today things are tanking a bit so I really need to refresh these ads.. I haven't been able to focus much but hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better when I wake up

Spend: $415.01
Revenue: $704.50
Profit: $289.49
ROI: 69.76%

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Awesome result, Jay. Keep it up, you totally got the key of success. Congratulation!

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Day 106:

The advertiser said they made a mistake when they gave me a bump so they are allowing me to have the same payout until friday while they figure out which placements arent backing out for them.. so once they do that I'll set up campaigns with different angles on the placements that are working for them.. hopefully I can keep the same payout or not get it dropped too much. Does sound a little fishy to me but is there anything I can do about it?

I did get a bump for another offer so I started scaling that one and hopefully by friday I'll know what my best ads are so i can run through the weekend.

It takes me a long time first thing in the morning to go through all the placements and see what was profitable and what wasnt so maybe I can try finding someone to outsource that too.. just have to figure out what else can be outsourced and how to get that information to someone without exposing everthing

Spend: $458.97
Revenue: $724.50
Profit: $265.53
ROI: 57.85%

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Damn!! if you're still looking to switch to mobile I'll look after this campaign for you haha good job mate.

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YES!

Fantastic follow along, this shows people HOW FAST once you become profitable (after losing and losing and losing) it can SKYROCKET!

Love it dude, great stuff keep it coming we wanna see the $xxxx/days!

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Thanks! I don't think the $x,xxx/days are that far away!

Day 107:

Spend: $463.85
Revenue: $610.55
Profit: $146.70
ROI: 31.63%


Day 108:

Spend: $196.79
Revenue: $281.25
Profit: $84.46
ROI: 42.22%


Day 109:

Spend: $199.33
Revenue: $241.30
Profit: $41.97
ROI: 21.05%


Day 110:

Yesterday worked out pretty well for me considering the circumstances. On thursday (Day 109) I ended up pausing all traffic to my main offer which was making 90% of the revenue. The advertiser reduced me to the default payout after being bumped because they said they made a mistake and gave me a bump on the wrong offer. They said they would let me continue to run until Friday to see if I can send enough quality leads.. I ended up forgetting to run my best placement and the 2nd best tanked so that's how that went. I'm going to speak to my AM about it on Monday and ask to create a separate account just to try again with that offer.

Day 110 worked out pretty well because the data is from new advertisers/offers/countries. The other offer I got bumped on basically broke even so I have to optimize it a bit. If the quality is good with these new offers they should do pretty well after a paybump and some scaling. I do wonder if I should focus on just 1 campaign.. but I feel safer running more than 1 campaign at a time. Since I'm still pretty sice I'm not going to work much over the weekend.. I've been making a lot of stupid mistakes and just want to get better for the week coming up.

Spend: $90.95
Revenue: $216.20
Profit: $125.25
ROI: 137.71%

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Day 111:

Spend: $108.54
Revenue: $393.35
Profit: $284.81
ROI: 262.41%

Next

1. Optimize landers
2. Scale!

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Awesome progress @nyc! I'm jealous, haha

What do you think in general lead you to this state? Adding a new traffic source with cheaper clicks, choosing higher paying offers with good CRs, or super optimizing everything?

Big congrats on your success of course!

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the data from the last 2 days have been from 1 source so I would say sticking to 1 source and learning it really well has been the most helpful and thanks!

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What would you say were the most instrumental sources of knowledge which helped you out when just starting in adult?

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Nice job big dog! I just read your your whole follow along, I love your grind and commitment. Thanks for sharing it is very inspiring.

Shoot outs to the Mods and members for giving great insight!

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You're a boss NYC. $4fig days in 2014, no doubt!

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Congrats man, knew you would get a break through if you just stuck with it. 2014 will be a big year bro!

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great follow along nyc. very inspirational!

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Very nice Follow Along. I'm going to keep referring back to this post.

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WOW!

and I mean WOW!

I can't wait for you to say a 4 digits stats..

but I guess we already know you're there already...

thanks for sharing!

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Hi NYC-

Good read here. I am in Adult now and about to try scaling. I have a couple questions for the forum related to this:

Did you find the most luck by scaling to other sites/placements on TJ, to other countries or other traffic sources?

Do you use day/time parting in your adult campaigns?

Great job and way to stick with it to profit

-NateSundo

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