Getting A Budget (4)
Hi all,
I've been reading thoroughly about getting the AM ball rolling, I myself have no experience with AM, I currently work as a video game developer, and am interested in mobile app installs (not decided on genre/vertical). I've probably worked on a few mobile games you guys have pushed 
First up. I'm deadly serious about AM.
I was reading the App Appetiser and I've established the first major roadblock for me will be raising the budget needed to take a good crack at collecting data and learning. The appetiser suggests $3-5,000 for the first few months. I'm currently sitting at $1,000 I am able to sink with no consequence into learning but would like to build up a bigger war chest to have the ability to spend more, collect more data, and learn consistently rather than taking a crash and burn approach on the $1,000 hoping for profits to keep me rolling (which after reading through countless case studies we all know does not happen overnight), so I would like to achieve that. Other than living well below my means, which would take another 2-3 months to achieve that goal there is a line in the appetiser:
I also had a question I can't seem to find an answer to. I'm guessing you upload a deposit onto traffic sites, how are your returns returned to you? Straight to a bank account? Monthly? The seems like a bottleneck in the process for keeping cash flow going in order to fund more campaigns.
Tofubun
Sell your skills (what you do at your job) on odesk as a freelancer in your free time. Hit up as well companies in your country that could need your skills.
One way of stretching your funds and speeding up the learning process is by joining a mastermind or starting one of your own. This can allow you to pool your resources with like-minded affiliates and reduce the cost of testing campaigns by sharing data. PM me if you're interested.
As for your question about payments, yes there is a lag between paying for traffic and getting paid for conversions. Terms vary: traffic sources have different requirements for the minimum deposit that must be made before you can start advertising; affiliate networks will initiate the payment process once their minimum revenue threshold is reached, some pay weekly while for others you have to wait until the middle of the following month or longer; common payment methods include bank transfer, wire, check and PayPal. The difference in payment terms means that working capital is required and you have to pace your activity. As earnings increase you can negotiate much better terms with the traffic sources and affiliate networks.
Given you're a game developer, I'd definitely recommend the freelancing route to build up income. If you've got one or two well-known titles on your resume, in particular, you should have no trouble picking up additional work to fund your AM career. I'd recommend keeping the gigs you pick up small and manageable - ideally something you can knock out in an evening or two. The more binary the success conditions the better, too - debates over artistic merit can be a real problem in freelancing, wheras "does this piece of code work? Yes/no" is harder to argue 
If you like teaching, you could also consider writing ebooks and selling them - there's a big market for information on game development. That'll have some advantages over freelancing and some disadvantages, notably slower ramp-up time.
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