Smaxtor --- my best friend is losing his pride and asking for help - advice? (6)
Smaxtor --- my best friend is losing his pride and asking for help - advice?
I bumped into this thread (http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...sking-for-help) and wow it's so similar to what my best friend Ben is experiencing right now; story is a little different - Ben's wife doesn't need an operation but cheated on him and more than one of his family members fell sick; he's ok with his personal finance so not as extreme as the op in the original thread back in 2011.
What Smaxtor suggested was gold and I've showed Ben the suggestions as he's at a crossroad and kind of got his back against the wall. I really want to help him but my AM knowledge and skills are limited and that's why I'm making this post asking for help.
So here's the questions for Smaxtor (and other veterans as well):
1) you suggested FB+dating in your original post; time has changed and that's no longer viable. What would you recommend now? He's not completely new to the AM world and understands the basics of how it works.
Pay per call? Would that require a larger testing budget as most of the offers are higher payouts?
he's got $1-2k as his initial testing budget and will be able to add more if it goes well. he understands he needs to focus on one vertical and one traffic source but got overwhelmed with so many options. He said all he needs is suggestion from veterans --- e.g. sweeps as the vertical and propellads as the traffic source and he'll stick to it until either all the money is gone or it breaks even or become profitable
2) are the 4 books still should be studied in that order? any better books you would recommend as of September 2015?
3) he learned some technical stuff in college so he should be ok with that side of things(setting things up, coming up with landers etc). but he doesn't know much about Photoshop. Should he spend time learning PS or should he just outsource it to cheap designers in the Philippines or India? I guess he doesn't want to spread him too thin so to speak.
Any help would be appreciated!!
I'm not Smaxor, but here's my take on the questions there:
1) Sweeps are a very solid vertical. Given his budget I'd definitely recommend aiming for lower-payout offers, so sweeps or PIN submits. Traffic source wise, Go2Mobi is probably a good option - check out the What's Working In 2015 post in the Getting Started Guide.
2) Yes, those books are still very solid.
3) Learn Photoshop. It's not very complicated and will save a LOT of money over outsourcing. The STM design forum has loads of Photoshop-specific advice: http://stmforum.com/forum/forumdispl...rs-amp-Landers
Hope that helps!
Im far from being Smaxor or Caurmen, but can recommend Pin submits and Sweepstakes as well.
They are good verticals to get into and Go2Mobi is a good traffic source. GEOs like Belgium, Spain, Poland are working great (not only those of course).
thanks a lot to both of you.
a very quick question: both of you recommended go2mobi but do i have to run banners there? what traffic source would you recommend if I want to user landing pages on a traffic source only and leave the banners out(cos it's another moving part)?
Originally Posted by m0bile4ffili8
Popads and zeropark would be good sources to start with. For more volume - and if/when you have enough to make the 1k deposits - try managed sources: propeller, gunggo, and adcash (I've listed them by order of personal preference). Actually Adcash also has self-serve now, but they have good and bad traffic mixed together so you'll need to throw more cash at it to weed out the bad placements.Some offers don't allow pop traffic though so be sure to ask your AM about that.
Regarding photoshop: 30 minutes is all it takes to learn how to make a really simple banner - see here:
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...mplete-Newbies
You're a great friend.
Ask any further questions and we'll do our best to help you out.Amy
thanks a lot for your help Amy!
yes I'm trying my best to help him. I'll probably work with him as two brains are probably better than working at it myself...
not sure where Smaxtor is these days though
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