Documenting my journey (10)
For years, I've been searching for ways to make good money for myself…on my own time and terms. I've had a couple of businesses, but nothing that has really taken off. After a couple of years working for a major online advertising company, I knew I was in love with the tech world. I've had a couple of friends go into the affiliate marketing business, and they've all had great success. Now with some downtime in my life, I'm ready to jump in to this venture. While I know I can be successful at it, it is quite overwhelming.
I spent the last month researching the industry. There is a lot of crap out there on the internet. I would run across an occasional tip, but I never knew how to get started. The best thing I did for myself was to reach out to a friend in the business. He told me how he got going, what is day-to-day was like, etc. His advice was key. He is also the reason I found and signed up with STM. I feel like I struck gold with this site. The progress I've made in the last 2 days is leaps and bounds beyond what I was doing on my own.
What I have done so far…
I started by going to the Newbie Zone and working my way through the STM tutorial. My first road block was deciding what to focus on. I chose mobile because I believe it is where the real opportunity is. STM had some recommendations, but their affiliate site and traffic sources are all closed. I went through The Mobile Cookbook (Appetiser), which got me moving with checklists of things to do.
The next place I got stuck was filling out the applications with the Affiliate Networks. I didn't even know what my "title" was, and each application called it something different. I applied to a bunch of networks, and some of them asked me for references. I was honest that I was just getting started, so I was having trouble getting accepted.
In the meantime, I bought some domains for my business and am throwing together some quick webpages (so I can look like a legitimate business). I'm just going to roll this business under my other business as a DBA.
I went back to the forum and decided to read up on what other people were doing. I searched "mobile" and started reading through. I found the next gem…"Mastering Mobile in 14 Days" by The Angry Russian. This has been a game changer for me. I spent all day yesterday going through the first 2 days of this. I feel like I got a college education in one day. One of the biggest value adds was the recommendations to networks that focus on mobile as well as tips to get into the networks. I'm not accepted to 2 of them and working on 3 and 4 (he said a max of 5 is recommended). I will tell you that I really struggle with the conversations. I have to go an research almost every question that they ask. There are a lot of moving parts to this business. However, I'm very happy with my progress.
Today, I had to research how to get a Follow Along started (haha). I am also deciding what my next couple steps should be. Here are my goals in the next couple of days:
1. Talk with a rep at decisive to understand how to use the program.
2. Request a list of top offers from networks
3. Watch the AdWords mobile setup video by the Angry Russian
4. Start building a campaign
5. (and this is a little sad) Understand the buzz words and how they play a part (i.e.: Affiliate Network, Ad Network, Traffic Source, etc.)
My goal is to have a couple of campaigns running by next Wednesday.
I will check in again soon.
Cool write up! Looking forward to your progress!
Hanging out for the first update 
Remember you can post in here or the questions and answers sections if you get stuck at all!
I was planning to do my first update tomorrow, but I feel a little stuck today. Here is what has happened in the last 2 days.
I started having conversations with my AM at Oasis Ads. He was very helpful, and the Angry Russian's guide gave me good questions to ask (which I had to research the meaning of). I am working on 2 offers right now: a mobile game in the U.S. and a utility download for China.
I started building out the banners for the game app through Pixlr which I found very easy to use. I did a quick tutorial that really helped me with the app, so if you are also new, I would recommend this guy. I couldn't get a hold of my AM at Decisive, so I made about 9 banners before I found out that the specs were off. Make sure to check them ahead of time!
Once I got my creative done, I was ready to build a campaign (OR SO I THOUGHT). The next steps in the Angry Russian's guide were to put together the tracking. Unfortunately, his information was WAY over my head. I went back to the STM Tutorial. I am piecing things together (as I still am a little overwhelmed). I've downloaded Prosper202, but then I found out I needed a server. I purchased a server from Beyond Hosting, but I am still waiting for the transfer of my domain from another registrar. So now, I am just waiting so someone with Beyond can help me get Prosper202 uploaded, so that I may proceed with figuring out this tracking non-sense. I am going to have to take it step by step because reading ahead has only confused me more.
I did find out that Oasis Ads uses CAKE (which is great because it seems most companies do and there is lots of info out there). They do global postback URL's for tracking, but they do not do S1. Can someone explain what that means? Also, when he sent me the links for my offers, and I clicked on them, some of them did not appear at all. I asked him (we shall call him Spencer), and Spencer told me I may need a proxy server since they are geo specific. Can someone tell me what that means?
Overall, Spencer has been WONDERFUL to work with. I would definitely recommend Oasis Ads and Spencer because he is very responsive and helpful.
Decisive also sent me a link to THIS which I think will help with my tracking. ANY advice or explanations that can speed up or lower the stress of learning to setup the tracking would be greatly appreciated.
My goal is to have some campaigns running by tomorrow. My biggest obstacle is the tracking right now. I plan to run campaigns for my game with different creatives to see what works and to collect data on geos, carriers, devices and any other relevant items. Suggestions here are welcome as well.
Originally Posted by shouston
Then once you get setup on
It may feel all a bit overwhelming and non-sensical, but I’m sure you’ve learnt a boatload already.
S1 = subid1. Are you familiar with subids? I’m going to assume you are for now - if you’re not, let us know. Cake platforms don’t like having unique values passed through subid1. They want them passed through subid2 or 3 etc. The way you track which user has converted is by assigning each person a unique “click id”, and passing this all the way through to your network (Oasis). What your AM is saying is that this click id cannot be passed through subid1 (because the click id is unique), rather you’ll have to pass it through subid2.
Keep doing what you’re doing! This is a real learning curve but you’ll get the hang of it! Any questions, keep them coming
If you're not super-familiar with affiliate tracking technology, you may find this a useful read:
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...-Read-This-Now
It's a confusing set of technologies - stick at it and you'll get there! And as Ruby Tunes says, if you have any more questions fire them our way!
Thank you everyone for the input. I'm still really stuck on this tracking business. I've read the Tracking Tutorial you sent over Caurmen, and this was extremely helpful. I think I understand about 80% of it. However, in putting it all together, the example doesn't really apply to me since I am not using Facebook.
I'm trying to put together a mobile ad campaign on Decisive with Oasis Ads' offer. Prosper202 is asking for my Pixel Type and Pixel code. I don't know what the type is. Decisive gave me http://win.crwd.io/convert/{{{bidhash}}} as their pixel conversion code. The tutorial says Prosper creates a traffic source code for me. I really don't know what to do here.
For the Affiliate offer URL, I get this. Oasis sent me the code, and the tutorial is clear on what I need to change. I think this is where I can add additional macros for c1, c2 and c3, correct? When I click the link in Prosper, it is giving me an error message. Does this mean there is something wrong with my link?
For the Postback...I sort of get this. It asks me to post something in CAKE. That is the system Oasis uses, but I didn't think it was a system I logged into.
Also, what link should I be putting into my Campaign within Decisive?
I've been fighting with this all day. Any suggestions?
What Decisive gave you is a postback url. You can distinguish this by the fact it’s just a basic looking web address - as opposed to some html.
Sometimes when you click on the link as I said before, you’re not in the country that your offer accepts and may therefore take you to an error page.
I hope that makes sense.
Follow this little guide and it should work: http://help.decisive.is/knowledgebas...ns-prosper-202
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