The Road to an Exciting and Fulfilling Life, or; Ass & Titties = $$$ (38)
The Road to an Exciting and Fulfilling Life, or; Ass & Titties = $$$
Hey there!
Here we go: my first follow-along with Adult Traffic! I have been reading about AM for a while now, but I haven't done that much yet. I did some mobile app install campaigns that didn't really work out, and right now I don't really have the budget to continue testing mobile out. So I decided to go for Adult! Also; please bear with me, for I will probably make loads of mistakes and ask a bunch of stupid questions!
After I came back from STM London (which was really cool, ofcourse!) I had fresh motivation and knowledge to start grinding away for my first green numbers. I actually wanted to continue doing mobile, but a lot of people I spoke there (and my AM's) actually recommended me to start with Adult, which is a bit easier and requires a bit less of a budget.
My first goal: have a break-even campaign! [3/23/2015] ✓
Second goal: $50,-! [4/7/2015] ✓
Third goal: $100,-! [7/14/2015] ✓ (First $XXX day: $115,-!)
Next: $500,-!
These goals might be set a bit high (?), but dream big I say! Shoot for the stars and if you don't make it at least you'll land on the moon, right?!
Currently I'm only a member of two networks (Adsimilis and Advidi), but I think that's fine to start right now.
I'm currently promoting a french offer on Advidi.
Payout: $1.59
Geo: France (duh)
Offer: Standard Casual Dating offer
So I got about 12 french banners using the STM spy tool and I changed most of the pictures to GIF's I found on Reddit.
I got two LP's which are the same but with just a different picture. I still have to figure out how exactly to rip LP's so I'm gonna stick with this one for now.
I'm only running the campaigns on ExoClick.
Day 1:
Cost: $34.32
Clicks: 99 (?!)
CTR: 0.10%
Revenue: $11.13
ROI: -69%
How is it possible that I have so little clicks? That's no good. My CTR is very low! How do I go about increasing that? The conversion rate is pretty good, 7.3%, so I think that if I increase my CTR this campaign has a chance to go profitable.
I set my daily budget to $20,- and I burned through it in a couple of hours. I'm running the ads on xHamster NTVA. Do you think that's maybe out of my budget?
I currently only have 3 banners in rotation, should I add more? I don't really want to increase all the different variables I have right now. And should I just go with the 1 LP instead of 2? The only difference between them is the picture so I might just take one out.
So things to do right now: figure out a way to increase CTR.
Nice work bro, excited to follow your progress!
You said you have 12 banners but you’re only running 3 of them…?
I would start off with a few totally different landing pages in rotation.
Looking forward to watching you hit those goals!
You can try to buy CPC traffic from xHamster. Afaik it's only NTV banners with 315x300 size at xHamster so if you choose this size it's must to show at NTV spot.
Looking good!
One tip on goals from the poker world - it's best if not all your goals are monetary. The reason is that you can't directly control monetary goals, but you can control effort-based goals. As a result, you can get discouraged if, just by random chance, you don't hit your monetary goals.
I'd recommend adding a few effort-based goals too - amount of budget spent testing, number of campaigns launched, number of offers tested, or similar. That'll help you keep on track if things are slower than expected!
Originally Posted by Ruby Tunes
Yeah, I have 12 banners right now. The thing is: I'm not getting that many clicks, so if I have 12 banners I feel like I couldn't really make a good choice out of that data. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if I have 3 banners where banner 1 has 40 clicks and banners 2 and 3 both have 20, I can say with some confidence that 1 is performing better, right?
Then if I have 12 banners with 100 clicks, and each one has around ~10 clicks I couldn't really say with confidence which one is better. Is this a good way of thinking?
Right now I'm looking into some different LP's. How many do you recommend? I'm thinking 3 LP's in rotation would be a decent place to start.
Originally Posted by waldemar
Originally Posted by caurmen
I think I'm gonna add some effort based goals like you said: maybe have 5 campaigns launched at the end of this week? That seems reasonable.
Sadly I'm gonna be working tomorrow and Friday the whole day, so I won't really have that much time to launch more campaigns. I'll get to those 5 campaigns in the weekend!
I actually didn't include all the stats from the first day in my last post.
I upped my budget near the end of the day and let it run for a while. So here are the full stats for day 1.
Campaign 1;Day 1 updated:
Cost: $60.66
Clicks: 253
CTR: 0.14%
Revenue: $21,90
ROI: -64%
So it's a bit better then I thought, but still not as good as I'd hoped. The CTR is a bit better but 0.14% is still pretty low. Since I don't have any time to really work on this tomorrow I'll just let it run tomorrow as well and then I'll start optimizing in the weekend.
I also forgot to include my second campaigns in my last post. It's the same offer, also in ExoClick but I targeted it differently. I targeted a tube network, which has a pretty popular french site that was recommended to me.
Campaign 2;Day 1:
Cost: $1.78
Clicks: 12
CTR: 0.49%
Revenue: $0,-
ROI: -100%
So it looks okay in terms of CTR but it's a very low sample size. I'm gonna up the CPM and keep running it.
Something I should work on: I need to distance myself from the money I spend on testing. I still feel too much of an attachment to the money I'm spending and I'm going to try to not worry too much about the money I'm spending, since I do know it's gonna pay off in the end. Does anyone have any tips on how to do this?
Also still to-do: Increase CTR. I will work the weekend on increasing CTR and setting up a couple of new campaigns.
Also something I'd like to add, unrelated to the campaign: I've read the book Problem Solving 101 by Ken Watanabe (as recommended in the thread about books), and I've really started writing down and fleshing out my goals.
I'm currently making a big document in which I write down my main goals and my goals for 2015 and actively try to work towards them. I'm using the tools and tips from the book to track spending, debt and physical and mental goals. Just the act of writing everything down and really putting in detail the things I want to achieve is motivating me incredibly! I feel more motivated than ever and I also feel like I'm better equipped to tackle the goals I've set for myself.
It's a pretty short and lighthearted book that I definitely recommend everyone to read!
Nice work man, looking forward to day 2 stats.
Hopefully from your stats so far you are starting to see which banners are working and which aren’t?
And yeah I’d say 3 different landing pages in rotation is a good start. Are you still running the one main one with 2 different pics? If so, can you pick the winning one and test it vs some other totally different landers?
As for the difficulty in spending money - I think this is an issue that everyone on a budget faces. I think one of the best ways I’ve heard is to look at it like you’re paying for your education.
Personally, after just finishing 5 years at uni and raking up a sizeable bill - I know that I’m learning a lot more paying for traffic than I was paying for my courses.
Here's the stats for day 2: looks like things are improving!
Campaign 1;Day 2:
Cost: $58,33
Clicks: 321
CTR: 0.18%
Revenue: $12,72
ROI: -78%
So my ROI didn't really improve, sadly. But my CTR did. I actually removed 2 of my banners that weren't really working out and I added 3 others. It seems to be working.
I'm gonna keep running this campaign until I go to bed, pause it and then I'll check out my stats tomorrow morning, so I can start optimizing this campaign.
Campaign 2;Day 2:
Cost: $2,80
Clicks: 26
CTR: 0.73%
Revenue: $3,08
ROI: 10%
GREEN NUMBERS?!
I know, I know, it's a very small sample size but just seeing green is amazing!
I already upped the CPM on this one pretty high, but since it seems to be working I'm gonna put it a bit higher. I should be able to get some more volume that way. The CTR is also doing pretty well so I'm feeling pretty good about this campaign!
I'm gonna keep running this campaign because it's not spending that much anyway.
Originally Posted by Ruby Tunes
Looking at my testing budget as some sort of education is pretty good as well, I'm going to start looking at it from that perspective! (It still hurts though...
)Tomorrow to-do: Start optimization on campaigns 1.
Steal 2 LP's and put them in rotation on both campaigns.
P.S.: @Ruby Tunes: I'm pretty sure we sat next to each other on the bus to the paintball event, the last day of STM! You're in Amsterdam right now, right? We should grab a beer sometime!
Campaign 1;Day 3:
Cost: $54,40
Clicks: 348
CTR: 0.17%
Revenue: $12,72
ROI: -76%
So my offer is converting alright, but it has a 10-lead per day cap. Since I've hit the cap consistently for the last three days, could I ask for a pay bump? I'm not sure how asking for bumps works.
So my CTR is still not that good, but better then when I started. I've noticed that of the 4 ads I'm currently running, two of them are doing pretty good. These two ads have MILFs in them. The first ad I have is doing okay, and the 4th one is doing pretty badly so I'm definitely cutting that one. I'm going to cut the two ads that are performing worse and I'm going to ad two new ones with MILFs.
Milf ad 1:
Clicks: 292
CTR: 0.21%
Conversions: 10
Milf ad 2:
Clicks: 248
CTR: 0.21%
Conversions: 1
(These are lifetime stats of the ads.)
So the first ad is definitely a winner, so I'm keeping that one.
The second one I don't know. It has good CTR and clicks but only 1 conversion? I don't like that. The problem is: it might be because I reached the cap on the good offer and the clicks got redirected to a different one, one that might not convert as well as the first one. Is there any way I can track this? This second offer has a higher payout but might not convert as well as the first one...
I'm thinking I get rid of the second ad, because it's not really converting well.
Campaign 2;Day 3:
Cost: $8,23
Clicks: 60
CTR: 0.64%
Revenue: $4,78
ROI: -42%
Goodbye, green numbers... until next time.
So anyway, I've got a pretty good feeling about this campaign. It has much higher CTR than my other campaign, and the ROI is better as well. Since I have a cap on the good offer, I think I might actually switch campaign 1 to a different offer, and keep this one on the good offer. Would this be a good idea?
Anyway; haven't done much today. Worked for 14 hours the last two days so just kind of rested.
Looked at the stats, but I can't actually add funds back to my ExoClick account, adding funds to PayPal didn't go through or something. I've sent a ticket but for now I can't actually start the campaigns.
The next update (tomorrow) is going to be more detailed!
Questions:
1: Do I switch campaign 1 to a different offer, and keep the better performing campaign 2 on the good offer?
2: Cut the MILF ad that's getting good CTR but almost no conversions? If so, I'm just gonna keep the ad that's actually working and add some more. Since MILFs seem to be working I'll add those.
To-do: Cut out under performing ads, blacklist categories and browsers that eat up budget without any conversions.
Ahhh dude yes we did! Haha. Yeah would be keen for sure!
10 lead cap per day? That’s ridiculous! Ask your AM to boost it.
And as for bumps - just ask. I always just straight up ask my AM for a pay bump at the start. May depend on your relationship with them and who they are though.
A1: As I said earlier - 10 caps is ridiculous, hopefully they’ll give you more so you can run the offer for both campaigns.
A2: Unsure about your cap theory with the MILF ad as they would have been running at the same time.. You’ve got the right idea though, keep adding in new ads and find yourself a few golden nuggets!
10 caps sound like they wanna test your lead quality before doing anything. Ask your am to get that done and he should open more for you.
hello there,
firstly CTR is not what u want to use to measure your ads. CTR can vary alot across geos, for example UK germany and other tier1 countries generally has a lower CTR rate than other tier 3 geos.
next please refer to this part of your post
Campaign 2;Day 2:
Cost: $2,80
Clicks: 26
CTR: 0.73%
Revenue: $3,08
ROI: 10%
there is a mistake here, which is you are cutting too much traffic to achieve a positive result, we want as much traffic as possible, which means we should focus on the banner and landers and offers
next your budget is too low for france. i think this campaign will probably need something like 1-2k to test to profitability, given the number of different offers, higher payout, higher bid and more angles. you could either increase your budget, or move to a lower tier geo where the payout is lower.
Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was busy organizing my room and setting up somewhat of a plan for this coming week. I wanted to clear up what I was doing exactly and how I should proceed from here on out, so I didn't run my campaigns throughout the weekend. This week will be somewhat of a fresh start with more knowledge!
I've decided to keep the better performing campaign and pause the xHamster one. It was eating up too much of my budget with pretty bad ROI, so I was just stressing about it too much.
Campaign 2;Day 4:
Cost: $10,87
Clicks: 72
CTR: 0.64%
Revenue:$7,31
ROI: -33%
So I got a pay bump on the offer which is nice, but the cap is still there. That's not really a problem for now though because the campaign isn't getting the ten conversions anyway...
This campaign I'm still running is doing better then the first one, but it's not getting any volume. I just checked, and while I was running a CPM of $1,20 (which is already pretty high I feel), I was getting outbid.
When I looked at the CPM stats in ExoClick I saw the Top CPM was $2,-! I don't think it's a good idea for me to go above $1,2 CPM, I don't think I can compete with the guy who is outbidding me right now.
This is a pity because the campaign was actually running pretty well before I got outbid so hard (I had about $6,- spend and a $7,31 revenue)! If I could have gotten some more stats before I lost all my volume, it might have been a decent campaign.
Would switching over to a different placement be a good idea? I'm only on NTVB right now, and both NTVA and NTVB are $2,- CPM, but the Footer is $0,1. The offer is converting pretty well, with good CTR, could it still be profitable on the Footer placement?
I've also started a new campaign today, with an offer that was recommended to me by my AM. It's in a 3rd tier GEO (Mexico) and the payout is $0,70. I'm hoping I can get some good stats for cheaper then with a 1st tier GEO like France.
I've spent the day looking for LP's (or translating others into Spanish) and some ads. I've set up 5 ads and have 3 LP's in rotation. I'll post the stats once I get them tomorrow!
Questions:
1: Do I up my CPM on the good campaign? I haven't had any traffic or conversions since I got outbid, while it was performing pretty well before. I'm just not very sure if it can still be profitable if the cost of traffic is that high.
2: Or; do I switch to a different placement? I can try putting it on some less desirable placements so that I can get some traffic for cheaper. But again: I'm not really sure if the campaign can still be profitable that way...
To-do: I want to have started at least 5 more campaigns at the end of the week, so I'm going to launch one more tomorrow!
You’re not going to be getting any decent data with a 10 lead cap, did you ask your AM about this? You really need to be spending a decent amount and getting a good chunk of conversions to get data you can work with.
Unless you’re happy making (maybe if you get it profitable) $1 or $2 per day just for the sake of the green numbers, then yeah keep it as it is. Otherwise, you’re gonna need to make changes (up your bid and/or try different placements).
Remember you shouldn’t be expecting campaigns that are green straight out of the gate - you will need to invest in data before you start seeing real green.
Looking forward to seeing your Mexican campaign man!
Hey there!
So I decided to stop the french campaign. It was too expensive to buy traffic, and with the 10 lead per day cap it doesn't make much sense in pursuing that offer.
So here are my stats for the Mexican offer after one day!
Campaign 3;Day 1:
Cost: $6,42
Clicks: 599
CTR: 0.64%
Revenue:$18,20
ROI: 183%
This is looking very promising! (And this is after no optimization whatsoever!)
I used some of the GIF's from my french campaign that were doing well, and stole some banners with the Adult Spy tool and using a VPN to check out the ads on mexican sites.
I also have 3 LP's in rotation currently, which I translated from french (because I'm dumb and I don't know how to rip landers) which are doing pretty well.
I saw that this campaign was doing pretty well today, so I also made a second campaign on ExoClick. I targeted some ~20 sites with the best performing ad and LP from this campaign.
I wanna see if this offer has what it takes to scale, so I'm hoping I'm gonna get some more traffic and data the next couple of days! This campaign is also doing okay (not that much traffic yet) and I'll post the stats tomorrow!
Question:
1: What would be the best way for me to increase traffic on this promising campaign, so I can maybe start scaling or optimizing this campaign. I've noticed that someone else is bidding on the sites I'm running as well, and I don't want it to turn into an all-out bidding war again.
2: Once I get some more data and I'm certain this campaign has what it takes, what should I give priority in scaling: making campaigns on ExoClick but on different GEO's, or; putting the campaigns on a different traffic source, like traffic junky for instance.
3: I also want to test more different offers, would that be a good idea? Maybe sticking to this offer for now is the best way to go, but I'd like to do more testing whenever I can. I think testing 2-3 offers at the same time should be okay.
To-do: Collect as much data as I can on this offer, and try to scale it! Apart from that: keep launching new campaigns.
Yeeeeeah buddy! Good start!
1. Step one is going to be the obvious - as you said, up your bids. Next would be to find other sources.
2. I would scale it up within the same geo. Browse around and find some new sources, as you know it’s working here. And then try to replicate your success into other countries.
3. Yes, get some offers rotating - what tracker are you using? This should be easy enough to do to compare the offers.
Keep doing it brother!
I too have gotten in a bidding war with myself, nothing to be ashamed about 
Haha, well at least it’s a problem with an easy solution!
Love watching this man, to start with you were stoked with 28 cents profit because it was green… Now you’re not satisfied with just green numbers. Keep going this way and you’ll keep smashing these goals in no time!
And yep,
Dr Ngo answered your question in Mad-dawg-Maynzie’s kickass guide here.
Originally Posted by dr_ngo
I just realized how incredibly lucky I am for stumbling upon a winning campaign so soon and with so little optimization, so I'm going to put everything into scaling this campaign for some actual profits instead of just being happy about some small, green numbers!
Campaign 3;Day 3:
Cost: $10,55
Clicks: 807
CTR: 0.77%
Revenue: $20,52
Profit: $9,97
ROI: 95%
I really need to milk everything I possibly can out of this campaign, because having an actually profitable campaign this early could really set me up nicely for more testing and more profitable campaigns in the future!
(I also got a small pay bump which is always nice.)
So I've upped the bids, added another site (was only targeting one site right now) and cut out some ads that weren't performing as well, and cut one of the 3 LP's that was under performing (the other two are performing equally well).
Also: I'm not going to change traffic sources for now. I'm going to stick to ExoClick and make it work, before thinking about trying different sources. A lot of people say this is the way to go, so I'm just gonna follow that advice.
Campaign 4;Day 2:
Cost: $13,68
Clicks: 847
CTR: 0.64%
Revenue: $12,70
Profit: $-0,95
ROI: -7%
So this second campaign isn't doing that well, not sure why.
I've cut out some of the weaker sites, but since they're all very spread out I can't really make a good decision. I've decided to pause this campaign for now until I know what I really want to do with it.
I want to stick to the proven winner for now. I'm not really sure how I can actually optimize this more, because I only have 1 ad and 1 LP running.
I should probably run some more ads, but I don't see any reason why I shouldn't just optimize the campaign through the first Mexican one. Is this a wrong way of thinking? The only difference between these two campaigns is that this one has a lot of different placements. However, with all my conversions and clicks so spread out, and this campaign not getting that much traffic, I can't really optimize it confidently.
Originally Posted by craigm
Originally Posted by Ruby Tunes
That makes a lot of sense actually. I've removed the sites where I was double targeting both NTVA and NTVB.
So for now: I'm going to scale the winning campaign as much as I possibly can. I always read about how people regret not milking their winners enough, so I'm not gonna make the same mistake!
I just get so excited just thinking about how much money I could be making on this campaign... let's do this!
Questions:
1: What would be the best way to split test right now? I already have 2 LP's (same style but different picture) that are working equally well, and some banners that are all working good as well. Should I take - for example - my 3 best ads, change the pictures/borders on them, and then run them side by side?
2: If I want to expand my best ads and run them on a different ad spot (like a footer for example), I should make a new campaign in ExoClick right? Since you can't see in their stats how the different ad spots are performing.
To-do: Scale this winning campaign as much as I can, find ways to split-test winning banners and (possibly) look for new ad spots on ExoClick.
Campaign 3;Day 4:
Cost: $13,71
Clicks: 918
CTR: 0.74%
Revenue: $21,60
Profit: $7,89
ROI: 58%
Well, my ROI dropped considerably... and I'm still not getting as much traffic as I want. When I was starting out with adult I would have never thought that one of my first problems would be scaling a successful campaign... ah well.
I upped the bids again, removed some ads that weren't working as well and targeted another site. Still only running NTVB spots. I think I might make a new campaign and target the footer spots, not sure yet.
Campaign 4;Day 3:
Cost: $4,65
Clicks: 135
CTR: 0.26%
Revenue: $0,72
Profit: $-3,93
ROI: -85%
Paused this campaign, don't really now why it isn't working but whatever. Might come back to it later.
I've started some split-tests on my successful ads, and have also started a new offer in a different (Spanish speaking) GEO using my best performing ads and LP. Now I have to wait for the ads to get approved and hopefully I'll get some more data and traffic.
Hopefully I have more to write about tomorrow... kind of a slow day today. I feel a bit stuck, I don't really know what to do. Since me trying to scale this offer isn't really working (yet) I don't really know how to improve it. Should I try to optimize landing page speeds, funnel consistency? Kind of stuck and I notice I'm wasting a lot of time just doing nothing and refreshing the screen.
I think I should try some more offers, but I really want to scale this campaign... anyone have any suggestions what I can do in my free time? I might just learn some photoshop and read a bit on copywriting. I just steal ads and change the pictures right now. I'm sure making my own ads would be good to learn.
I'm also reading "The Millionaire Fastlane" and I'm enjoying it, even though it can be a bit preachy sometimes.
My goal is to have freedom (financial and location independence are two important things for me), and I think this book is going to help me get there.
To-do: Test more. I have to do some more split-tests on working ads to try and get them to work.
Still need to get more traffic...
After getting the data from the other GEO, start split-testing and optimizing there as well.
Heyo - nice work getting into the green! I prefer the term persistence over luck.
One thing I've noticed with adult dating offers is particularly with some of them I'll have a couple of days of really great conversion rates.
This will be followed by weeks of half the conversion rate it previously was.
I believe its to either stimulate scaling and volume; or to get you to pick their offer over the others that you may be split-testing.
Perhaps this is what happened with campaign 4.
Otherwise, something may have happened in that particular GEO, nation event? natural disaster?
Anyway, keep pushing! It's really good to see another person in the same boat with an awesome attitude 
Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been trying to figure out what I have to do exactly to succeed, and I think my main problem is that I'm just not testing enough.
I got lazy after hitting a successful campaign, and I was hoping I could just scale it to real profits, but that isn't really working out.
Because of having a profitable campaign really early on I didn't really feel like doing more testing and optimizing, but I was just trying to make this one work. I'm still trying to get scale it more but most of my attempts have failed, so I'm putting scaling this campaign a bit lower on my list and I'm going to be doing a lot more testing!
I've set some new goals on how many new campaigns I want to launch this week, and I'm going to do extensive testing!
My failed attempts of scaling this campaign was also impairing my motivation and discipline. I was getting frustrated that it wasn't working, but I'm trying to get over that now. Just have to work harder and smarter and I'll get there!
Here are my stats for the last few days:
Campaign 3;27-03
Cost: $11,81
Revenue: $8,64
Profit: $-3,17
ROI: -27%
Campaign 3;28-03
Cost: $7,32
Revenue: $14,40
Profit: $7,08
ROI: 97%
29-03:
Campaign 3;29-03:
Cost: $8,49
Revenue: $15,84
Profit: $7,35
ROI: 86%
Other campaign (RON):
Cost: $5,63
Revenue: $0
Profit: $-5,63
ROI: -100%
So I tried running my best performing ads and LP's RON... didn't really work out. I didn't let it run for long because I wasn't at home to keep a close eye on the stats. I might come back to trying RON but for now it doesn't seem very successful.
Other campaign (different sites):
Cost: $2,03
Revenue: $0
Profit: $-2,03
ROI: -100%
So tried running the best ads on different sites again... still no positive signs. Also very little traffic to be had so doesn't feel like something I should pursue. I have to see how the ads perform on bigger sites with a lot of traffic.
Overall stats 29-03:
Cost: $15.15
Revenue: $15.84
Profit: $0.69
ROI: 5%
Well... it was a profitable day. But I'm getting sick of the fact that my ads apparently only work on one site. All the testing I've done so far has not really helped me much, not monetary and also not really in terms of data. I need to make a good action plan of testing, and I need to document my stats and findings so I can use them for reference. Right now it's more akin to throwing shit on the wall and see what sticks...
Overall stats week 13:
Cost: $139,97
Revenue: $162,02
Profit: $22,05
ROI: 16%
Not a bad first/second week!
I've made some losses with the french xHamster campaign last week, and I still haven't really earned those losses back, but this week was profitable overall!
Even though it could have been more, I'm still glad it's working a bit at least. Making money with Affiliate Marketing is possible, I'm seeing it with my own eyes!
Just need to work/test/optimize more, and I'll hit my goals in no time. Next stop: $50 a day!
Also: big thanks to everyone reading and commenting on this thread! It means a lot to me that people want to see me succeed! It really motivates me to work harder.
I won't let you down... expect great things in the coming couple of months!
Questions:
1: If scaling a campaign doesn't seem to work, what do you do? Do I just leave the campaign like this until it just stops? Expanding to different sites on the same network doesn't really do much, and I feel like I should stick to one traffic source for now...
2: I've noticed that a lot of my hours just go to waste, where I'm not really doing much productive. I'd like to learn to write copy and to code, how do you guys recommend I go about this? I'm thinking of taking a few courses on codeacademy.com and I'm (slowly) reading Ca$hvertising. Any other suggestions?
3: How do you guys store and analyse your data? Do you just use your tracking software and TS data, or do you store it in excel yourself? I write down my overall spend/revenue/profit in Google sheets every day, but I feel like I should store and analyze my data more. Any tips/suggestions?
To-do: Test more! I want to have at least 10 campaigns launched at the end of this week. Doesn't matter if I go in the red! I need to find campaigns that are actually scale-able instead of this one that just generates tiny profit.
Take a few hours of each day and invest them into learning new skills: photoshop, copywriting, coding.
Find a good and concise format to write this follow-along in. I want my data and the things I do to be a bit more clear, so that you guys can see what I'm doing wrong/well easier!
I like your thinking. 30 more days to get to your 2nd goal. I'm looking forward to it
Nice work man!
I’ve been there before with the whole “I’ve got a green campaign, I’m just gonna let this run and not burn any more of my money” thing. It doesn’t work. You need to keep pushing and it’s great that you see that.
Looking forward to watching you smash goal number 2 as quickly as you smashed number 1.
1. There are a few things you can do… Firstly, you’re sure it only works on one site? If not, keep testing all the others. Secondly, have you kept upping your bid with it or are you still the only bidder? Thirdly, other traffic sources (which it sounds like you don’t want to do at the moment…?) Fourthly, go direct to the site and talk to them. Fifthly, take the campaign and what you learnt and duplicate it in another geo.
2. Codeacademy is pretty great. You could practice your skills by working on new LP’s? Cover more ground reading the forum. Not work related but I make sure I’m always getting good exercise time in each day too.
3. I’ve tried a few things, but am pretty slack with this so probably not the best for advice haha. But I just use my tracking software pretty much. I think it’s good to keep track like you’re doing for motivation purposes.
Keeping testing testing testing!
Originally Posted by Ruby Tunes
I've upped the bid right now, I set it to 0.2 with smart CPM and it's been running at around 0.12 for a couple of hours now. Still not seeing a big increase in traffic but I'll see what the effects are tomorrow when I have some more stats. I've also started on TrafficJunky so I'll see how that works out.
I have also taken my stuff from the mexican campaign and put it in another spanish speaking geo, so I hope that will work out as well. Haven't gotten much traffic on that campaign yet so I have to figure out how to get some traffic.
Campaign 3;30-03:
Cost: $13,90
Revenue: $12,96
Profit: $-0,94
ROI: -9%
Campaign 3;30-03 TJ:
Cost: $0.51
Revenue: $0
Profit: $-0.51
ROI: -100%
Pretty slow day. Started the campaign on Traffic Junky, not that much traffic yet.
Campaign 3;31-03:
Cost:$16,71
Revenue: $28,08
Profit: $11,37
ROI: 68%
Campaign 3;31-03 TJ:
Cost: $5,55
Revenue: $7,20
Profit: $1,65
ROI: 23%
Looks alright. Campaign 3 still doing well, and the TJ campaign is showing signs of life!
To-do: Test some more offers. Might look into other spanish speaking geo's so I won't have to spend time translating creatives.
Mmm I’d probably advise to stick with traffic sources at this stage then.
Keep pushing man! Test test test.
So I will not be spending as much time on AM for the next week, because I'll be working all day for the whole week. I'm gonna build up a bit more of a budget to work with, because I will be moving abroad for a couple of months in May. Since I won't be able to work while I'm there I'm trying to build as big of a budget right now so I have something to work with. Once I'm there I will be working full time/10h a day on AM and I will definitely hit my $100 a day goal in those months!
Anyway here's some of my (global) stats from the last couple of days:
Campaign 3;01-04:
Cost: $28.95
Revenue: $37.73,-
Profit: $8.78
ROI: 30%
Campaign 3;02-04:
Cost: $22.32
Revenue: $22.32
Profit: $0,-
ROI: 0%
(Yes I actually have exactly 0 profit... I double-triple checked.)
Campaign 3;03-04:
Cost: $75.56
Revenue: $60.16
Profit: $-15.40
ROI: -20%
Campaign 3;04-04:
Cost: $89.92
Revenue: $114.98
Profit: $25.06,-
ROI: 28%
So here I started a new campaign in the Netherlands of Traffic Factory. It was recommended to me as a pretty good traffic source and the offer should be good as well. The first day was some loss, but the second is $25,- profit which isn't so bad.
The problem is that my budget can't really keep up with spending $100,- a day on campaigns, although I do feel like this campaign is something worth spending money on and I'm pretty excited as it does show promise for some actual profits!
To-do: Since I won't have a lot of time for testing I'll just stick to maintenance and small tweaks throughout the day (I'll be working on my laptop so I can keep an eye on the campaigns). My CTR is pretty low for the NL campaign (~0.20%) so I'm gonna spend my free hours on making some new banners and tweaking the one I'm using right now.
Looking good man!
Any chance you could push for a more regular pay from the network in order to sustain your cashflow?
Hope those adult banners will be okay to work on at your job haha
Week 35:
Cost: $2,608.74
Revenue: $4,132.86
Profit: $1,524.12
ROI: 58%
Solid week. It started out very well, doing $300+ on average for the first three days. My Brazilian offer was paused due to technical difficulties for one day, so that cut into my profits. It also seems that my quality isn't as good as it used to be, so I might get a pay decrease.
Right now I'm searching for a coworking space with a friend of mine and I'm pretty excited for this. I'm really looking forward to have a place to work at and to be able to work with a friend. I'm a 100% sure that this will do wonders for my motivation and productivity. I'll also be going to the gym for 3 days a week.
I want to have a good schedule so I can keep my work and personal life separate. I'll be grinding very hard the next couple of months leading up to AWA. After AWA I'll be doing some travelling for a couple of months, enjoying myself and the money I've earned! I started affiliate marketing to travel and enjoy my freedom, so I'm looking forward to using that freedom.
John,
i just want you to know that this FA has been extraordinary for me! (im a newbie)!
thanks for showing me that with determination and countless of testings, one can achieve so many GREEN campaigns!!
Let me know if you have any tips for a beginner though! )
Thanks solidrock, means a lot to me!
As for tips, I don't think I can tell you much more then what's already available on the forum. Just start on lower tier geo's and go from there. Test different sources as well as creatives. Banners are more important than landers, but burn out more quickly obviously.
Week 36:
Cost: $1,895.62
Revenue: $2,723.88
Profit: $828.26
ROI: 44%
Week 37:
Cost: $1,163.12
Revenue: $1,751.13
Profit: $588.01
ROI: 51%
Last two weeks have been pretty slow. I've been busy with different, non-AM related things so I didn't have any time to find new creatives. My old banners have all pretty much died out, so I'm currently looking for new creatives that can take these campaigns back to mid-XXX a day, instead of doing high $XX like right now.
I'm also working together with a partner now and I will be moving away from adult. I feel like adult has not as much potential as mobile right now. I now that you shouldn't just move away from verticals, but master them first, but I never really felt like I had a good grasp of adult. I want to start a new vertical right, with the experience I have now. I want to really be able to make my own creatives from scratch so that I can actually replicate my success. Right now I'm having trouble getting back to my previous profits because I'm not able to create my own winning creatives.
I'm gonna keep running these campaigns until they're officialy dead, because I'm still profiting right now, and I think I can get them back to $300,- a day again. I want to keep running these campaigns so that I have some cashflow going, instead of having to rely on my savings. Just need to find some good banners and I should be okay. Next week should be better!
keep up the good work, im also from Holland, are you attending webmasteraccess?
Hey nvaonline.
Yeah, I'll be attending WMA. I'll be hanging out with the clickdealer and advidi crowd mostly.
Week 38:
Cost: $1,174.78
Revenue: $2,529.45
Profit: $1,354.67
ROI: 115%
I'm back, baby!
Got some solid campaigns running again, doing around $300,- a day on average for the last couple of days. I'm scaling this as hard as I can right now, I really want to get that $500,- day this week!
I'm running the mobile versions of my best offers and they work pretty well. If I can get the desktop versions back up again (they were pretty burned out), I should be able to get that $500,- no problem. Excited for what this week will bring!
Week 39:
Cost: $1,773.91
Revenue: $3,624.19
Profit: $1,850.28
ROI: 104%
Week 40:
Cost: $1,143.57
Revenue: $1,524.43
Profit: $380.86
ROI: 33%
My best week yet... and my worst week (from the last couple of months).
I had an offer that was doing great, but the quality dropped considerably and my payout got cut in half. I went from ~100% ROI to break-even/running at a loss...
Most of my banners/landers have pretty much died out and I'm struggling to find more winners. I know that these campaigns can do $200-300,- a day or more, because I still have pretty high payouts. I just need to find some good banners and landers again.
I will be switching over to another vertical pretty soon, where I'll be working together with a partner. I want to get these campaigns up and running again, so I can maintain a decent cashflow while trying and testing massively. I want to be able to spend a lot of cash every day on testing, to get to profitability in the new vertical as soon as possible! I'm excited to start something new!
Been at this point also a couple times already man, know exactly how it feels. But I am pretty after a couple days of testing you will get back to them nice $300 profit days or even more!
What kind of vertical do you want to work in the future?
Hey aaart.
I'm gonna be doing sweeps/pin-submits on mobile pop traffic (like you guys are doing!). I want to do something new and I have a partner to work together with. It'll be nice to both start fresh with something new so that we can really understand the vertical we're getting into and try to get a good competitive advantage over others as well. I don't really have that in adult right now.
I also like pin-submits because of the possibility of scaling it to Facebook as well. I want to get those really, really big campaigns, and I don't think I can get there with adult.
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