Next stop New York: mastering affiliate marketing for the sake of freedom (5)
Next stop New York: mastering affiliate marketing for the sake of freedom
Hi there, my name is Jesse, I’m 19 and I joined STM about 2 months ago. I am absolutely resolved to make affiliate marketing work for me - preferably as soon as possible because I am on somewhat of a schedule. By January next year I will have to study abroad in New York for university (I study international business management in Amsterdam), all expenses to be paid by myself. This will without a doubt burn through all my savings. So I figured that it would be a good move to invest my savings in AM and take a bit of a risk an attempt to multiply my savings before I have to go to New York and blow all my money FOR SURE.
That’s just my short term reason though. Actually, I’m lucky I discovered affiliate marketing in time and am really grateful to this forum. I’m in it for the long haul. I don’t think that this is going to be easy but I am positive that I can make it work for myself.
I started getting into doing business online when I was 16 and took a year between high-school and university (with the hope to never actually have to go to university)but I will spare you the details!
Short term goal: A stable 1 euro a day campaign by the end of May.
My medium term goal: Make 7000 euros by November 2015
My long term goal: Become a university drop-out because I am stackingthatmoney so tall.
Take 1!
After the long process of getting into some affiliate networks I have just launched my first mobile campaign 4 days ago and I am very eager to know what you think about it.
For this first offer I am following the mobile cookbook, the appetiser
Traffic source: Decisive
Vertical: Sweepstakes
Offer: Win a new iPhone 6
Geo: Belgium
Payout: 0.65
Smart CPM Goal: First 15 spend 0.98, Now 0.65
Budget: $8 day per campaign
ROI (for active campaign): -59%
I started off with these 8 Banners:
I took a lot of pointers from Mr. Green’s ThePerfect Banner post!
After the first $15 spend, I created 6 new ones and added them to the campaign, replacing the old 6, which had 1 or 0 conversions and had a CPA greater than 1.5 times the offer payout .
New banners:
So I am currently using the 2 banners on the bottom right of the first picture and the 6 new banners.
Landing page:
*offer’s landing page (haven’t created it myself)
As the MOBILE/SITE, MOBILE/APP & WIFI/SITE campaigns were barely getting clicks I decided to pause them.
Next to this I have also blacklisted apps that cost more than 3 times the offer payout without conversions
Current stats:
Cannot describe the happiness I felt when already getting the first conversion on day 1!
Actions taken:
- Cancelled Mobile/site, mobile/app and site/wifi because they were barely getting clicks and had 0 conversions. Within 3 days mobile/site had 2 clicks and mobile/app 17
Things I noticed:
- Some apps had a CPC of $0.21, which I blacklisted
- Both wifi campaigns got a lot more clicks than the mobile campaign
- Within the first $15 spend, 4 out of the 9 conversions came from 1 banner, which I then used as a template for the new banners.
To-do:
- Figure out how to increase the amount of clicks received on the mobile campaigns
- Launch the next offer. It’s also a sweepstake (win $1000 vouchers). Banners are all ready, I’m just waiting for the advertiser to approve them. Any tips on this upcoming sweepstake is also greatly appreciated.
Questions:
- If you have any tips that might help me get more clicks to my other campaigns that would be highly appreciated!
- How do I make better use of
Hey
I don't get it - you want to make money to go study in NY University - then drop-out ?
What's its sense here?
Congrats on the first conversion!
Getting clicks to other campaigns: I'd recommend pushing your CPA goal up first. If that doesn't work, dump smart CPM and switch to flat CPM, then increase bids until you get traffic.
@tim roth I don't actually want to go to New York, it's a mandatory part of the study I'm doing now. So before I go to New York I would like to at least make enough money so that I can continue doing AM even after I spend a lot living and studying there. Ideally though, AM will help me get the cash flow going that I need to stop school entirely. So that's the goal!
@Caurmen thanks! I'll give that a shot.
Total Spend: $40
Total revenue: $7.50
ROI: -80%
Offers: iPhone 6 sweepstake & shopping voucher
Okay so I ran the iPhone sweepstake offer for 1 more day but it performed very poorly and by the end of the day the CPA positions of all four campaigns was well below what was acceptable.
The following day I launched the clothing voucher sweep. I noticed that this offer was getting more equally spread clicks across all four campaigns but no conversions. At about 500 clicks I paused the campaign to make sure that there wasn't a flaw in the conversion chain (which wasn't the case) and then let it run until about 1500 clicks per campaign. I then decided to pause it because it was just wasn't performing well.
For the last few days I have been getting everything set up to start launching campaigns with landing pages as well. I feel like the added control of a landing page will extend the possibilities for testing and hopefully work out well. I have selected two offers that I will be working on, one is another iPhone sweep (with a higher payout, might I add) and the other one is Game of War. I definitely think I can make the iPhone sweep work to the extent where I can at least get it to a stable -50% ROI campaign; that's my next big goal!
It's taking a bit of time to get the server set up because I didn't have a creditcard yet so I've to apply for one and it's now on its way. Once that's sorted out I can get the hosting set up with Beyondhosting and get cracking on the offers. I have brainstormed new angles for the iphone sweep already, would be nice if someone could advice:
1.Apple vs. Android:
a.Silly Samsung Users: get an Ipone, peasants :/ (Win one here)
b.Android users: iPhone is waaay better (win one here)
2.Switch/upgrade
a.Time to switch to the best phone! Win an iPhone (click here)
b.An Iphone 6 is better than an iPhone 5...(click here) to win one
3.Direct & Honest
a.Clicking this banner enters you into the contest for an iPhone6 (click here)
b.WIN AN iPHONE6! - Click this banner and enter the contest
4.Target teenage girls a.Bored at school
A. Win an iPhone! (click here)
b.You look bored..wanna win an iPhone?(click here)
5.Offensive
a.Your current phone looks whack! Get an iPhone instead. (click here)
b.Enjoying your loser-phone? Win an iPhone (click here)
6.Sad without the iPhone
a.Not being able to Facetime your friends sucks 
Don’t be antisocial and win an iPhone 6
7.Greed
a.(GIF1) Do you want an iPhone yes/no (GIF2) if you’re smart, you sign up with two email addresses...
b.ALL THE APPS IN THE APPSTORE ON YOUR NEW iPHONE 6! MWHAUAH!
8.Fear-mongering
a.iPhones will SOONdominate the world, get one quickly! (click here)
b.Android phone’s get viruses, the iPhone 6 doesn’t. Win one here and be safe.
9.iWatch
a.The iWatch is here so there hasn’t been a better time to get an iPhone 6
10.Promise of safety
a.The iPhone 6 is simply the safest phone out there, and you could have it!
11.Time
a.10 seconds to fill in the application, 2 seconds to get it processed = lifetime of happiness! GET THE IPHONE 6!
Lacking behind? (you still don’t have the iPhone 6?)
You’re phone is no good win an iPhone 6 here
Make your friends gaze at your new iPhone 6 (Try and WIN)
Keep up with your kids generation win the iphone 6
The most innovative phone there is.
Fastest phone there is
Busy on social media, the iPhone 6 is your tool (WIN)
Surprise your girl/boyfriend with the new iPhone 6 (win it here)
Would you like to have the new iPhone 6? Do you want the new iPhone 6? (YES/No)
We are running a contest, join us and get a shot at a new iPhone 6
We are giving away 5 iPhone 6’s, join the contest (Click here)
Breaking News: Iphone giveaway (give it a shot)
dig the new iPhone 6 (win it here)
Slow phone? The Iphone 6 isn’t! (Click and win)
This contest is too good not to enter! (Win an iPhone 6)
Still have to select the one's that I will be running so any advice would be awesome 
Next update will be as soon as possible!
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