Advice from a newbie to all newbies - MUST READ (7)
Ok.. here is the deal, you are a newbie, you just signed up to the greatest paid forum in the whole wide Galaxy (STM) and you have no clue about any of this stuff you are seeing, on top of this you are wondering and hoping if all this stuff is even real, you might have signed up to other forums (free ones) or even gotten (coaching) from the so called gurus of the industry but you are still frustrated as hell, does that sound like you? Great! Then keep reading.
I mean how can't you not be confused, there is an ocean of information out there and even here in STM and lately the guys have done a great job of restructuring everything around but even so, there are sooo many things you can do (Desktop, Mobile, Pay per Call) on top of that there is all the traffic sources, all the different Desktop and Mobile offers, all the verticals and lots of other stuff the choices are unlimited...
So you decided to chose a vertical lets pretend its Mobile (great choice) you are not technical and have decided to follow everyones advice and got a managed server from any of the companies, great stuff. Now you are ready to go you signed up to a few Aff Networks and decided to go with an offer that your AM recommended, even tho you are probably direct linking you still need a tracker but which one?? so many out there.. you are seeing some people talk about Prosper,
^^^^^ Please don't be this guy <----
I still consider myself a newbie and will for a while but this newbie went thru some of this and got passed it, i recently joined a mobile mastermind with 14 other newbies and one of the main problems that i am seeing is tracking, without tracking you can't properly run a campaign cuz you can't track, its obvious right? The group is now doing better most everyone is understanding tracking better and things are moving along for them.
With all this being said let me give you a few pieces of advice if you don't mind:
If you are brand new to this do the following, stay away from clocking, stay away from shiny objects, stay away from competitive GEOs, don't try to outsmart yourself, get the idea of making profit from your first couple of campaigns out of your head (its highly unlikely you will and even if you did you have no experience) don't focus on optimizing the little things that are not relevant at this point such as what color to use on a bottom on a lander, things like that.
What to focus on, learn tracking, pick one traffic source that is suitable for newbies such as (POF if on Desktop or Decisive if on Mobile), apply to a few Aff Networks, pick one vertical and make it your goal to spend so much money on that traffic source, don't think oh i am gonna make X,XXX in X months, won't happen that way, if you set your goals too high you WILL fail. Set good attainable goals for example, one of my goals was I wont stop until I spend 500 on Decisive, that is a goal i can achieve, another goal was i want to get my first conversion again, easy to do but very important, if you are just starting out why are you thinking about the advance stuff when you don't know the basics. You have to build all the essential skills first.
Other things i have noticed is that newbies focus on the end goal first when it comes to campaigns, why are you thinking about a conversion when you don't even understand how to lower your CPC? When you have no clue what CTR is when your lander isn't converting? and then again you are complaining why you are not getting conversions... seriously??? Forget about the conversion, right now you are going to thru school learning all this. Instead learn a flow and set a system, learn to pick offers, learn to get a good angle, learn what makes a good lander, learn what makes a good banner, learn to optimize your CTR and your CR, split test same offer in different networks, learn what traffic source is suitable for your offer, <--- optimize all that and thennnn you can think about some conversions.
Another thing is, you will get frustrated at some point, it has happened to me a few times, just walk away from your computer for a little bit, i understand you are busy and have no time, guess what! me either i have a job that i hate in which i work long hours, i have a girlfriend, i have a house, i have family i support back in Cuba, i work about 16 hours each day and i am still going strong, excuses are for the weak. I know a guy that is in my mobile mastermind group that is also an STM member that has 2 jobs, a wife and two lil kids and he is there everyday trying to learn tracking and all that stuff, he is following my advice and he is making progress. I keep repeating the same, i sound like a broken record, stick to the basics if you don't know anything and you will be fine, the advance stuff will come natural, I promise!!!
I wanted to take this opportunity to give a BIG thanks to all the guys that made this great forum and all the guys that have helped me in the past when i was confused and all the guys that spend all day in here helping people to make a difference
THANKS... you guys know who your are....
Thats all i had to say, you can listen or ... not!
Anyways I am just another guy here..
Laterz
Just an awesome post!
Well said..
thank you Yohn!
Thanks and well said. Truly from the heart and honestly speaking from newbie prospective.
All great advice Yohn, thanks for posting this. It's so easy to get confused, overwhelmed, and frustrated when starting out.
Originally Posted by yohn1985
If someone doesn't comprehend how CTR is or is not related to CVR and how this is or is not related to CPC or CPM or eCPM or RPC or ROI or Net Profit, how is that person even begin to know what to optimise? I see so many people say "I have an awesome CTR but my campaigns are still losing money and I am at -95% ROI, what's wrong?" and all I can do is shake my head.
You do have to invest the time and the effort to learn the fundamentals.
In fact, even before spending any money on campaigns, I would make sure I have all this down.
Nice post mate! Moved to tips section as it's great for newer members to see feedback from those who are "in their shoes" so to speak.
Originally Posted by zeno
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