From broke to $400 per day in one month, then something amazing happened... (25)
From broke to $400 per day in one month, then something amazing happened...
There is a saying that tells to “Remember that when you hit the bottom, there is no other way left to go but up”. I was at the bottom, it took me a while to understand this, to fight it, finally accept it and move forward. I wrote about my story in this post.
When I first began reading the guidelines in the forum, the success stories, the case studies, I saw the huge potential that affiliate marketing is offering for the people who master the principles. The things I read in this forum were one of my key motivators to decline big job offers in my industry that would have paid a pretty decent salary considering my experience, I wanted to keep my freedom and build, again, my own opportunities.
I decided to follow the basics, set up my first campaigns, learn to manage at least one traffic source, to optimize the ads, to rotate landers and measure conversions. I had a big motivation to do this fast, basically needed to cover my living expenses, and I did set up my first campaign in a dating niche, focusing on sourcing traffic in my market instead of the big countries like UK or US.
That first campaign went well, I got ROI positive some of the days, although for the week I had it running I was almost making break-even. My problem was that it took me too long to optimize my ads since unfortunately, for Spain is hard to spend more than 10 USD per day in POF ads even if your target is quite broad, I concluded that there are just not enough active users for optimizing and of course, for scaling afterwards.
While searching for other traffic sources, I tried Adwords, without much success, after ten emails and calls with their Support center in Spain their feedback was “Your lander doesn’t provide what we consider useful information for the users, so your ads can’t be approved”.
I was stuck, I got the basics, I got a nice dating product that was converting well but I didn't have the traffic to escalate. Moreover, I didn't have the money to escalate. I fixed my money problem by selling the last thing I had left with some value, my car, which got me some money, but I still was missing the traffic.
I spent days following my daily routine: sleep at least 6h, read two books, one for "mind fitness" and another one for technical skills (sales, marketing, etc.), train 30-45 minutes in the park and eat well. I sat on the PC for most of the day, read the forums, trained some new skill and I wrote ideas, anything that came up into my mind that may or not work, I put it on paper or evernote.
Then, I decided to do something crazy, completely out of the box, developed a small script in a couple of days which helped me gather some trends and sales intelligence reading data from websites in my country, nothing fancy, I haven't programmed since college so this is something an experienced developer could probably do in less than two days. Using my script I discovered 5-10 big demand product niches. Then I scanned all the networks in my country for offers that cover at least one of the recently discovered needs and I found two. My desperate products for desperate buyers
Now I had a proven demand, I had the product and most importantly, using media analysis tools I found just the perfect place to gather some traffic for my product, the place where the desperate buyers went to searching and sharing the demand. The thing is, when you hit a desperate product, you don't have to worry so much about tons and tons of traffic, since the CTR and the conversion rates are insane. You just need a product from which people are not ashamed and share stuff on the internet to and find where the buzz is happening.
I hit my first day of $400+ profit in less than a week and with $6-$16 investment per day on average. From this day my usual earnings per day were between $250 and $650 with more or less the same investment.
Then, a couple of days ago, something amazing happened. Looking for ways to scale my campaign up I found a new traffic source, it's not so perfectly segmented and the CTR is lower, but the good part is, it can grow big time, I knew it looked promising and I had high hopes for it but I could never imagine the size of what was gonna happen next... I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. My phone was ringing like crazy with conversion messages. I hit $2.5K in daily net profit and it's still growing.
This is something completely new for me in affiliate marketing, I had in my goals to reach my first $1K+ day in profits in at least six months and after running three startups I know the importance of believing, dreaming and imagining success before it happens, but I also know it usually works after you work your ass off. Specially after spending two years with all hopes, dreams and hard work in a project only to see it crash with all your money in it.
I guess I still need some days to realize this and then celebrate! The angle and the whole process is creative enough that I believe it can be a long term campaign, but in any case I would appreciate any tips on what to do once you hit these numbers. For starters, I don't know if I should increase my budget, I have an outstanding ROI but I just registered in this affiliate network and I want to measure my risk, at the same time I don't want to miss the chance to get everything possible out of this offer while it exists. What would you suggest to manage and reduce the risk factor of a winning campaign? I've seen some stratospheric numbers around, like Mr. Green's message about a delayed payment of $XXX,XXX from some network... how you guys deal with that?
I'm writing a case study of the techniques and tools I used to discover my niche, since I'm applying them to find new niches as well and I think they can be useful for the community, I'll keep you posted on the progress!
Damn son! Whatever you are doing is super outside the box to get ROI like that! You move, and think like a champ.
In terms of reducing your risk, I would ask for better payment terms. Set some goals with the network, e.g if you hit x leads then you can get paid bi-weekly.
It's always good to see if other networks have the offer. I would also do some research into the advertiser, see how long they have been around for, and if anyone can vouch for them. Ask for a quality report of your traffic.
If you are running compliantly, if they don't have caps and the advertiser has a good track record, then there is no reason you shouldn't unleash a tsunami of leads to them.
Congrats! Looking forward to hearing more about your success and ridiculous ROIs!
great story and congratulations man, I love to hear these rags to riches stories!
It sounds like some Jedi level madness!
Dude, this is awesome. very motivating, and i love the super hustle
Congratulations and thanks a lot for this motivating testimonial.
You are worried about the wrong things.
The main challenge you need to figure out is how to create a sustainable business here.
If you are getting that type of profit margins, increasing your budget really is going to make no real difference. Even if you double or triple your budget, you will still have healthy margins to work with, as long as the revenue per lead you are getting remains more or less the same.
The main risk that you face is the offer getting pulled and/or you bringing down lead prices due to the increased volume that you are generating. This is basic law of supply and demand. If demand is constant and you suddenly flood a lot of incremental supply into the marketplace, prices will go down. So you will have to think intelligently about making sure that you can sustain the level of demand and pricing for as long as possible.
Awesome post. Awesome responses.
Thank you guys for the boost, I just got a call for my AM, she was first like... "Ok, what are you doing in the last days..." then she told me they monitored all my traffic and everything seemed cool and what can they do to help me grow it even more.
@Mr Green, thanks a lot for the tips, I used the call this morning to ask her for shorter payment terms, bi-weekly and they are looking into it and negotiating with the advertiser. Also I asked for a report on the quality of the leads so we are all sure we're making money and directly I asked for a call with the advertiser to prepare them for that tsunami unleash after negotiating better terms 
@pockets, thanks man, I'm preparing a case study that can give some hints about it, I'll keep u posted on the progress. For now I can tell u an example, there are several tools that monitor what's going on on eBay, how many followers a product auction has, what is being sold, etc. The concept is quite similar, a part of the transactions online happen in places where we can measure what's trending using the appropriate tools. Then you've to be a bit lucky to find just the exact product to promote in that niche with a good conversion funnel and payout but if the demand you identify is strong enough and you have the money, you can even use this strategy to build your own product and drive your traffic to it.
@cmdeal, thanks for the input, you're totally right, my concern is to keep this sustainable. I think once they run the lead quality report they may adjust the payout but so far I can deal with something a bit lower and still have a very healthy margin. I also discovered a similar product in another network with a lower payout but I'm thinking about diversifying the risk and keep some competence between them so they have to "fight" a bit for my traffic
This Thread make my Day Congrats Bro!!!
fucking awesome stuff man, im happy for your success! Your a powerhouse right now, and squeeze every little penny out of that offer!
Congrats on your success man, very inspiring.
If the quality is good I would scale it as fast as you can.
Have to keep in mind though that affiliate campaigns tend to die pretty quick in general and you will regret it if you don't squeeze as much profit as you can right now.
I have done the mistake in the beginning thinking it would last forever and regretted it a lot later.
Thanks mate, I appreciate it.
You're right, I've to get the most out of this while it lasts. I hope to renegociate the payment terms next week so August I can release the cashflow a bit and minimize risks.
Originally Posted by bbrock32
post some screenshot of your earning that will inspire other member....
Originally Posted by am1sumon
You need exact number to get inspired? How big of a number?
For me I got inspired with the thought process. The how to, to tackle obstacle, the tips and trick etc.
Even if the end result is 5$ profit. A profit is profit.
If anybody tell he or she making 15,422$ in a day. Then wow. But who knows that person next time is gone. Never be able to get back up. Cause it's just a one lucky thing.
Now that. Turns me off.
Originally Posted by qureyoon
You need exact number to get inspired? How big of a number?
For me I got inspired with the thought process. The how to, to tackle obstacle, the tips and trick etc.
Even if the end result is 5$ profit. A profit is profit.
If anybody tell he or she making 15,422$ in a day. Then wow. But who knows that person next time is gone. Never be able to get back up. Cause it's just a one lucky thing.
Now that. Turns me off.
塞翁失马
My favorite fable (塞翁失马)
http://sivers.org/horses
A farmer had only one horse. One day, his horse ran away.
His neighbors said, “I'm so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset.”
The man just said, “We'll see.”
A few days later, his horse came back with twenty wild horses following. The man and his son corraled all 21 horses.
His neighbors said, “Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy!”
The man just said, “We'll see.”
One of the wild horses kicked the man's only son, breaking both his legs.
His neighbors said, “I'm so sorry. This is such bad news. You must be so upset.”
The man just said, “We'll see.”
The country went to war, and every able-bodied young man was drafted to fight. The war was terrible and killed every young man, but the farmer's son was spared, since his broken legs prevented him from being drafted.
His neighbors said, “Congratulations! This is such good news. You must be so happy!”
The man just said, “We'll see.”
Really Really Awesome Bro!
Awesome journey bro. I love these types of posts.
Great story! Thanks for sharing!
Hi @eltorero. Thanks for this very inspiring post. For a struggling newbie like myself, this is very motivating!
Originally Posted by eltorero
Your fans are waiting with anticipation!
+1 for Casetudy , bump bump ....
Brilliant stuff, congrats!
Now I had a proven demand, I had the product and most importantly, using media analysis tools I found just the perfect place to gather some traffic for my product, the place where the desperate buyers went to searching and sharing the demand. The thing is, when you hit a desperate product, you don't have to worry so much about tons and tons of traffic, since the CTR and the conversion rates are insane. You just need a product from which people are not ashamed and share stuff on the internet to and find where the buzz is happening.
You can divorce yourself from affiliate marketing and still make money.
Never mind scanning networks for suitable offers. As soon as you can isolate a desperate market where there isn't a product, that's your invitation to create something suitable and let rip.
Even if this campaign were to tank tomorrow, the strategy itself is timeless. So, about that script... Got a review copy?
@eltorero
You taught yourself the main skill.....selling.
Once you know how to sell & presell you can test anything.
Being a physical product if you want to start a supplement company for example or a web/mobile based business the question I would ask my self is am I really passionate about doing this?
Being passionate and love what you do is two complete different things.
Loving what you do can lead you down a path of failure.
Being passionate about what you do says I gotta get up 4:30am and make this money cause imma bawse.
Keep your mindset positive and you'll succeed.
Hey guys,
Sorry it took me so long, I grouped some of my lessons learned and best practices in this case study.
Some updates about my campaign: first and the main reason I was so busy last week is because I'm having a problem with my affiliate network and campaign conditions, the offer is CPL and I specifically asked them what counts as a valid lead before starting. Last week they cancelled an important percentage of my leads stating they are not valid and sent me some crazy criteria of what is now a valid lead for the advertiser, which includes some location, demographic and other filters completely out of the control of the agency and mine, which were not shared with me at the beginning. I'm trying to resolve it in a friendly way first but they got into my nerves with their irresponsible management, asking me several times to speak with the advertiser in order to resolve it when this is clearly a responsibility of the network.
In any case I have enough margin to get a good profit even with these cancellations and in the meantime I've found another product in another network, quite similar and I'm negotiating the deal with them with improved terms, since I can already demonstrate the track record with their competitor, I will probably switch products by the end of next week. I just can't believe how unprofessional some networks are in regards of their relationships with the affiliate marketers. They have a dedicated account manager for each advertiser, kiss their ass all the time allowing them crazy changes in the campaigns and we, the ones driving the business to the table are left aside.
Another good news is I also found, with the approach I comment in the case study, a desperate physical product, quite demanded and specialized, which currently has low supply and is very expensive. There are no affiliate programs with online shops that sell this product so I'm thinking about helping out some relatives set up an online shop, drive them the traffic and split profits. I already found a cheap source for that product in the country I was born in Eastern Europe so almost all parts look covered.
Loving what you do can lead you down a path of failure.
Being passionate about what you do says I gotta get up 4:30am and make this money cause imma bawse.
Congrats! Thats some BIG roi!
Take what you have and run with it. Stop your life, and scale this thing big. My biggest AM mistake is not scaling hard enough during the big campaigns.
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