Which type of traffic source has the potential to make big income? (38)
Which type of traffic source has the potential to make big income?
First of all i wish all of you a Merry Christmas 
I'd love to be at this time of the year in the U.S, love this country!
Now to the question, currently I am focusing on PPV,
but I ask myself, is it worth it to invest money and time in PPV?
Ot looks like PPV slowly dies. but this is only my opinion, maybe i'm wrong.
From what I see, there is not many offers in affiliate networks allowed traffic from PPV,
don't get me wrong, there is, but not as much compared to other traffic sources.
I treat affiliate marketing as very serious business, and i dedicate all my time to succeed
but i don't want to invest in something that has limits, i hope you understand what i mean.
So my question for the experienced full time affiliate marketers here,
which type traffic source you can say from your experience is worth investing in long-term
that has the potential to make big profit?
If you are starting out, PPV is pretty good to learn the basics.
You have one variable less to test ( banners ) and you can learn tracking / offer picking etc.
The potential is to make mid-high $xxxx per day. Not super good but not too shabby either.
If you want to do $xx,xxx - $xxx,xxx per day in profit the sources to focus are :
1 - Media Buys
2 - Adult
3 - FB
4 - Mobile
I know the basics, tracking, landing pages, etc..
about media buys - where i can find more data on this topic?
from what i see most of the guys here focus on Adult/Mobile and FB
Adult sounds good too, people love porn and always will,
most of the success on Adult is adult dating?
Media buys is basically working with the exchanges ( RMX / AppNexus ) or through resellers.
Most of them will need a $5k-$10k prepay at least. Also to really profit you need a good relationship with your AM or some advantage ( own offer / exclusive etc ).
If you aren't making a steady profit from other sources I wouldn't start with media buys.
As for the other 3 , all of them have the same potential if done correctly.
Great question, will happy to see here more answers from guys like bbrock32!
I'd would limit myself to media buys or mobile.
PPV and FB isn't really long term thinking. PPV is not increasing in volume the traffic source is actually diminishing. And FB well they are having war against affiliates, it's getting harder and harder to work with them.
Considering the growth of mobile I'd stick to this type of traffic as the one with the most potential in the future.
Affiliate Marketing is dead
Originally Posted by bowlcutah
lol, yeah, affiliate marketing is far from dead. A lot of advertising platforms, and traffic networks are looking for bigger brands of course, with bigger pockets... but that is by far from meaning that AM is dead. If so, forums like this wouldn't exist - considering ppl have been saying things like that for years.. The barrier to entry for high profits is just a bit higher than it used to (which it has been year after year since AM started).
Creativity is the key - and will always be.
despite the fact that Facebook hates affiliates, It's still probably the best source out there. No other traffic source has that much volume, and such precise targeting options as FB. It's not easy like it was back in the day (back in the day = 9 months ago), but if you get really creative, and do something that NOBODY else is doing, then money will flow into your pockets.. I have a serious love/hate relationship with FB. I somehow think I'll stick FB until I have enough money to quit AM and move onto bigger things.
Originally Posted by bowlcutah
Adult is huge, and always will be huge.
If you're looking for massive scale, try playing with pop-up and pop-under traffic.
Users don't have to click a banner to see your ad, so there are less variables in the delivery. You'll nearly always lose money with this type of traffic at first, and you'll blow out your server too (if you're not prepared). But if you can nail down a profit, the potential to scale is vast.
Personally I see FB as a waste of time. Not to say you can't make money with it - you can - but it's like swimming against the tide. Why make your business advertising on a platform that wants to exterminate you?
Same with Google.
You can try to stay one step ahead, or you can go work with a traffic source that gratefully accepts your money and allows you to focus 100% energy and time on building solid long-term campaigns.
Or better, build your own traffic source.
Originally Posted by Finch
I'm surprised at how many people are down on Facebook. Sure--it may not be "long term" thinking, but it's an amazing way to make short-term money.
is there a way to promote CPA offers on adwords?
Funny how everyone recommends adult everywhere? And people just follow it blindly like it's a money tree, of course you CAN make money on anything but instead of following the thousands doing the same thing, why not try something that not many people are doing and rape that niche/industry dry? I'm running offers that you people just overlook, and i hope they continue to overlook, there won't be guides on how to run these offers, you won't see an influx of people bragging about running this. Know what that means? Less competition/ stress for the few that are in fact running this type of offer and making money off of them.
Originally Posted by godspeed
You don't need to build the next POF to attract dating leads. If you know that your target market is 40-50 year old males, then you need only build a website that this demographic is likely to find useful. Then plaster it in your ads.
You could build a website offering golf tips, or fishing advice, or hair loss treatments.
(Lucrative industries in their own right)
Whatever gets your ads in front of the right audience.
Facebook is a hell of a traffic source if you can make it work for you. But judging by the complaints you see whenever FB makes the slightest change, there are still a lot of affiliates that are highly leveraged to their Facebook profits. Just to make a living.
If you have big 'open positions' on a traffic source that is actively trying to get rid of you, the smart move is to cash out: to keep reinvesting as quickly as possible, funnelling the money in to other more stable campaigns. Like you say, you aim to diversify.
From my experience, what actually happens with a lot of FB affiliates is they do the exact opposite.
After a few sweet Facebook payouts, they bury themselves even deeper in to the platform, finding even more elaborate ways to game the system, tearing through accounts, which ends up taking priority over the other campaigns and projects.
If you have the discipline to hammer Facebook whilst fuelling those other campaigns, then you're well set. I envy you!
But it is drug money, and many affiliates get so addicted to it that they end up putting a disproportionate amount of time in to gaming a system that is already changing underneath them.
I'd say Facebook is 1) a complex beast to master, but 2) a complete bastard to stay on top of.
You need a lot of skill to succeed, and a lot of willpower to resist badly leveraging yourself if/when you do actually make it work.
Which might be for 1 day before they shut your account.
Originally Posted by the_professor
Originally Posted by kenny
Originally Posted by the_professor
Originally Posted by cmdeal
Originally Posted by wunzzz
not if you got a good qualification in design or marketing.. not that I went to Uni tho.. lol
what finch said about building your own traffic sources is excellent advice.. as a backbone to further online activites.. it gives you a base to work from, and regular income that you control.
don't know what to build for your offers? run a small campaign in somewhere like sitescout.. across a whole category with an offer, see what gets the clicks, and copy those models..
Originally Posted by kenny
Originally Posted by wunzzz
My degree from Georgia Tech opened doors for me to start working for a PPC agency. It was there that I helped developed skills to be successful at affiliate marketing. Spending 4 years in college also help developed my discipline, productivity, and people skills. Not everyone's meant to be an entrepreneur. Last time I checked you need uni to be a doctor, teacher, accountant, etc.
Uni's not for everybody, but to make a broad statement that anyone that goes to university is a chump is retarded.
Originally Posted by dr_ngo
Once again, Dr. Ngo is right.
Experiences like university, graduate school, management consulting, law, etc. can be enormously valuable, especially if they have been gained at top tier institutions. In these places, you learn what it means to be working at a world class level with enormously high expectations. Regardless of what you do later in life, these are important experiences to have.
10 Things I Learned From Working In Big Law
Big Law provided me with a slew of difficult and challenging times. I wasn’t particularly happy, and I eventually walked away because I wanted to do something else with my life. I wanted to pursue a brand of work that intrinsically made me happy. So I left.
Now that I’m out of the game, folks often ask me the following: “do you regret practicing law?” Absolutely not. As grueling as firm life can be, it undoubtedly bestows young associates with an irreplaceable skill set that translates to any profession.
1. How To Be Responsive — Partners expect their associates to be available at all times. That means having their blackberry accessible 24/7, whether they are at home watching a sitcom or on the front nine of a golf course. And when a bright-eyed associate gets that last-minute email requiring a diligent effort on a time sensitive assignment, the proper firm etiquette is to respond ASAP. Failing to do so can aggravate both colleagues as well as clients. My old firm mentor gave me a rule when I started: any email that comes to my inbox must be responded to within 30 minutes or less.
Now, this doesn’t mean that an in-depth research assignment should be thrown together in that time frame; instead, however, what needs to be fired off in the short term is a quick acknowledgment that the task is being attended to. Firms do a great job of burning this anal-retentive sense of urgency into their fledgling lawyers. This mindset will serve young law grads well in both Big Law and beyond.
2. How To Write Well — Attorneys are known for being excellent writers. In fact, writing ability is probably the most important skill set for budding Big Law associates. If an associate is not a strong writer when he joins a firm, the partners and senior associates will bash him with constructive criticism to make sure that he gets up to speed as quickly as possible. Firms teach associates how to put together concise and clear sentences, how to front-load memorandums and briefs with the most pertinent information, and how to carefully excise writing of all grammatical and spelling errors.
Convoluted legalese is yesterday’s mainstay; for modern attorneys, the emphasis is on clean and clear language. Writing is both a science and an art, and Big Law firms are some of the best training grounds to perfect both aspects of the craft.
3. How To Tolerate Unpleasant Work — As much as I advise my readers to “follow your bliss” and “do something you love,” the reality of life is that you are always going to have to endure boring grunt work. It doesn’t matter if you’re a painter, a musician, a farmer, or a politician. For example, with my current venture, a supposed labor of love, I am still forced to make cold calls every so often in order to drum up business. And sometimes I have to drive around to different locations to hang up flyers.
Even though I don’t particularly enjoy these tasks, they have to be done. Big Law has taught me how to put my head down and plow through these obligations even though they are painfully boring. Through painstaking repetition, I now understand how to prepare my mind when necessary so that I can efficiently and methodically barrel through busy work.
4. How To Be Punctual — While many corporate positions stress the importance of punctuality, law is a special animal. Not only are attorneys subject to internal deadlines and meetings, but they are often at the mercy of inflexible judges. If a court specifies that something needs to be completed by a particular date, you simply must comply. It is a sink or swim environment, and showing a lack of discipline with respect to punctuality is a surefire way to plummet to the ocean bottom.
5. How To Deal With Powerful People — Working with powerful people requires a certain amount of grace and calibration. Sometimes you need to be submissive, and other times you need to show strength and composure. You must read each situation carefully and act accordingly.
Being surrounded by partners and senior associates in Big Law — fairly powerful individuals in their own right — is great practice for any subsequent career jump. Attorneys are constantly working with highly educated and accomplished mentors, all demanding a certain professional demeanor on a daily basis.
But more interesting than the coworkers are the clients. Big Law firms deal with massively influential corporations. After all, those are the only organizations that can afford to pay the insane billable rates. I’m talking $400.00/hour for a junior associate; sometimes $1,000.00/hour for the Big Law big dogs. But what is really cool about working with these massive clients is that the point of contact will usually be someone fairly high up in the company. This could include a vice president, a CFO, a general counsel, and in some cases, a CEO of a fortune 500 company.
Working with these C-level executives yields a strong and steady mentality. In these situations, associates learn how to be assertive and strong despite the lopsided power dynamic.
6. How To Read In A Fast And Effective Way — This one almost goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. The path to being an excellent reader begins in law school when professors flood students’ schedules with laborious and dense reading assignments. The progression continues at the firm when associates are required to do (1) copious amounts of legal research, (2) parse all sorts of documents, and (3) proofread tons of legal briefs and motions. Attorneys spend the majority of their day reading something, and the reading will, in general, be fairly complex. Accordingly, Big Law associates learn how to process large amounts of information in an efficient manner.
7. How To Manage Time — Most litigators in Big Law will be staffed on somewhere between three and five cases simultaneously. That means associates (1) need to be aware of several ongoing projects at once, (2) recognize what is due when, (3) know which partners need to be contacted about what, and (4) keep abreast of when the next item needs to be addressed. Needless to say, attorneys often feel lost amidst an insane flurry of activity. They either learn to organize their schedules or find a new career.
8. How To Pay Attention To Details — I had a rude awakening when I began my legal career. By nature, I am not a detail-oriented person. Instead, I am what folks refer to as a “big picture” guy. Well, that simply does not fly for a young associate. Big Law requires all employees to adhere to a standard of perfect emails, flawless memos, and immaculate discovery documents. Typos are not tolerated. Even intra-firm emails are heavily scrutinized.
To adapt to this heightened standard, I had to implement a host of different methodologies to ensure that my work product met the firm’s quality control standards. Eventually, after enough time, these techniques became second nature, and lo and behold, I had morphed myself into a relatively detail-oriented person.
9. How To Be Self-Sufficient — So it’s your first day as an attorney. You graduated from a great law school with an awesome GPA, and you feel like you can take on the world with your legal wizardry, right? Well, truthfully, you don’t know jack. The vast majority of what you need to learn will be absorbed on the job.
And how does that learning primarily take place? By doing. No lectures, no tutorials, and no homework. You will be handed all sorts of assignments that you will have absolutely no idea how to complete. The onus is on you to look up exemplars, speak with mentors, and undertake independent research to get the job done. Once again, the sink or swim policy is in play. If you successfully navigate these choppy waters, you will have earned yourself a shiny “self-sufficient” merit badge.
10. How To Delegate — Even young associates must be savvy with delegation. This is not as easy as it sounds. First off, they need to get comfortable with the bizarre age dynamics at play. For example, since most law school graduates are around 27 or 28, the odds are that their secretaries will be older and more experienced than them.
The young associates are responsible for divvying up work assignments and taking on a leadership role. As they move up through the ranks, they will be required to assemble teams of underlings, hand out assignments, and keep tabs on progress. Again, there is no tutorial on how to oversee large teams. They must learn as they go.
(From BusinessInsider by Biglaw Rebel)
In many ways I agree with Finch, but I don't think the FB haydays are over and I think the blue beast is AMAZING if you can tolerate the account bans and inconsistencies. It really is like drug money in many ways, no joke, the money comes fast with the right campaign + targeting. That being said, after some FB struggles this year I expanded my reach to new sources and it was one of the best moves I made for me/my business. Don't sell yourself short being a one trick pony.
Originally Posted by cmdeal
Finch,
Loved the idea of having your own traffic source.
Having a site where your audience is... and making money
advertising your own offer/products.
I've been thinking about that for a while and most people say
that is a waste of time building a site just for that purpose,
that is easy to just pay for traffic.
Well, I would also like more details on this as you would rely then on SEO or some other traffic sources to the site... I cannot get that concept of your own traffic source... Not so trivial for me.
kamaleon,
what he means of own traffic source. Is having your own website/blog that brings visits to your
offer/campaigns.
Like if you build blogs or websites specifically with content for your target market demographics and
put advertising on them for yourself.
For example let's say you are in the weight loss market, you would research your market demographics
and see who they are. Let's say you find out they are Woman 20-30, married, recently had a baby...
whatever. You than would research about "What kind of content does this woman want to read?"
, you would create the site with that in mind, when it gets to a point where it has a lot of traffic
you can put multiple banners there for you offer.
Traffic source doesn't mean that you would build your own network of 1000 placements around the
internet. It just mean somewhere where you can put your ad.
@marinhogomes I understood all that from the beginning, but then how do you drive traffic to your website?
We are in the same situation as before in my opinion. The only difference is that now you have an asset.
@kameleon - You'll either be driving traffic through Google and SEO, social media, or direct traffic from recommendations.
Mostly it comes down to writing content people want to read, then sharing it in a way that makes the value obvious!
There have been a couple of great SEO threads on the SEO forum recently - definitely worth a read.
Originally Posted by marinhogomes
It's just takes a lot of time and hard work, you need a good idea, you need to maintain it and you NEED a plan to drive traffic and have it grow. If you got all that down, it's a brilliant plan.
Originally Posted by caurmen
I know you will need SEO or any other kind of traffic, so it won't be your "own traffic source" as I see it... Anyways, understood.
@kamaleon - heh, sorry about that! Will pay more attention in future
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