How to move out of your parents basement and into the penthouse in XX months. (6)
How to move out of your parents basement and into the penthouse in XX months.
Hello everyone- First I want to say thank you to all of the super affiliates, SW vendors, AM’s and everyone else in here that takes time out daily to address the questions and concerns of the newb! (Like me)
This is it, the entrance into the world of affiliate marketing and me and my kids out of my parents basement!! I love learning and will keep the tenacity turned up and the eyes open and continue to move forward after we fail a few to a lot of times here.
Okay, so far I have read the Mobile Cook Book (s), The Angry Russian, Getting Started In Affiliate Marketing - 2016 Edition, , FB Guide, 30-Minute Photoshop Tutorial For Complete Newbies and so, so, so much more…one page leads to another page of pure wealth inside of STM….also read Ca$hvertising- and dozens of other copywriting books and courses.
Okay- here goes:
My budget is very tight- I have about $1,200 to work with now, if I don’t see any progress in 2 or 3 weeks- I will increase the budget.
Traffic is Go2mobi
Geo is India
Server is in Singapore
Vertical is free app install tools
Specifically one of these: UC Browser, SuperB Cleaner, Flash Keyboard, DU Battery or 360 Security-
Payouts are .60 / .12 / .20 / .23 / .18 respectively.
Any suggestions on which one to toss on the fire first would be greatly appreciated- higher payout or lower? (I read in STM –somewhere…I think the appetizer; yes almost positive it was the cookbook- regardless it said that you should start out with a payout under $1, as these all are. I think I’ll be advertised to the same traffic no matter the aforementioned offer, right? So should I start with UC Browser first?)
Tomorrow I am installing the STM Mobile Tracker —then I am creating my banners, then launching- Is STM Mobile still a viable option while on a shoestring budget?
Those are my 2 most pressing concerns right now- Any advice would greatly be appreciated.
I look forward to this adventure with you all- Thank you. 
Ed
You won't need tracking unless you're throwing landing pages into the mix. You can save it for now.
Banners first, campaign up, campaign live, tracking.
That's how I should have done it.
I'd strongly advise against using the STM Mobile Tracker at this point - it was great a few years ago but things have moved on, and you'll find various aspects of setup quite hard.
If you really need free, the latest version of Prosper 202 is your only real option at this point. It's still a perfectly workable tracker, although you will need a server to set it up on.
Otherwise,
There is one more option, and it's probably the one I'd recommend - if you follow the Mobile Cookbook: Appetiser, you don't need a tracker at all. Go2Mobi has fairly capable tracking for direct linking - you can start that way, get your feet under you, and make a choice of tracker in a couple of weeks once you have a grip on the basics.
Offers: UC Browser and DU Battery have both been around forever, and UC Browser in particular is pretty burned out these days. Test one of the others.
Honestly, it doesn't matter too much which one you choose first. You almost certainly won't make a profit on your first few campaigns, and you should be testing lots of offers to find the one that works for you. Pick one, start with it, and if you don't have any luck, move on to the next.
Good luck, and I look forward to your next update!
Thank you for the great feedback caurmen- I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts- they are very educational. So glad you that you can follow along here.
I am taking your advice and putting away UC browser and DU Battery and going with SuperB out of the gate.
So I took out a sheet of paper (showing my age) yesterday morning and wrote down 27 angles- Then I did some spying on the competition, also wanted to see how my angles held up to theirs...what I discovered after hours of research (and lots of learning) blew me away….
There are currently no banners being run via direct link anymore!!!
Right now in India there are a total of 3 banners being shown for SuperB (only 1 is on Go2mobi) and none lead to SuperB. They go to LP's for other app's like a group at timewe.com another for a telecom named etisalat and lastly a game LP for Playland. Does that mean that there are no banners being run at all for SuperB in this Geo?
Learning how to spy properly with adplexity so I may have misinterpreted the data- I so hate to assume- If anyone sees that I made a mistake please correct me-
It now looks like most of the traffic is being run more aggressively through pop-ups and redirects. No one is doing banners any longer- at least not that I can see in India.
So this is what I am thinking:
Let’s try and run some banners for SuperB with my angles through go2mobi and see if they fly, if they do keep down the path of the mobile cookbook. Or since this space looks like no one is having success with it...
Start learning pop and redirects and their traffic sources to promote the same...? (I do have a VPS in Singapore and it looks like redirects/pops are ahead of the pack now)
What do you guys think?
If that’s a good strategy I noticed that the pop and redirect traffic sources are namely Ad Cash, Pop Cash, Propeller Ads, Pop Ads and Zeropark with Ad Cash driving the lion's share of traffic and the least amount of traffic coming from zeropark.
Is there any difference when considering these sources or are they all equally qualified for STM’ers?
I am so grateful for this forum it is absolutely invaluable….this is SOOOO COOL, it’s like being in an intimate a classroom setting with all of the greatest marketing minds in the WORLD.
Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction guys.
Plenty of people are still running banners, don't worry about that!
Pops and redirects are good - so are mobile DSPs. The most important thing is to pick one approach and stick with it. Neither of the approaches you're considering are bad.
You are correct that direct-linking isn't as likely to generate profits as using landing pages. However, your first campaigns are also very unlikely to generate profits That's why the Cookbook is written as it is - by separating the things you need to learn, it lets you get familiar with the basics of banner creation, all the tracking setup, basic terms, and so on, and then you can go on to add landers and external tracking when you feel ready.
So - I'd recommend, fuzzy and imprecise as this sounds, that you pick whichever approach interests you more. Pops sound fun? Go for pops. DSPs like Go2Mobi sound entertaining? Go for DSPs.
And keep the detailed follow-along going! You're doing very well.
Hello digi44, first of all, let me wish you a lot of success on your AM journey
You didn't pick the best vertical in my opinion, app installs are far from being the gold mine they once were, but as Caurmen already told you, the first campaign will loose anyways so consider this as you first lesson and dont expect to see any profits from your first campaigns. Learn how to track, how to optimize etc...
BTW : its true you can use go2mobi without any external tracking solution, but its not true for all the other sources out there, so if you can afford it, I would recommend to start using some tracking solution right from the start. The sooner you learn to use it, the better for you. If you are serious about AM, you cannot live without proper tracking.
Let me address few more questions you had :
1. no banners for super B in India - this is certainly not true, spy tools are not perfect and they miss a lot of things. This most likely just means that they are not sure on a large scale so the spy tools missed them. Its also possible that this offers isnt so popular anymore, so there will be low amount of data available for it in the spy-tools.
2. pops - there are very popular these days, sometimes it feels like all affiliates fell in love with pops There is a ton of volume there, so feel free to experiment, but watch your budget and start with tighter targeting.
3. the various traffic networks - they are not equal, each of them has some specifics, for example targeting options. But what sets them apart the most is the actual publishers they work with, so the sites you will be buying traffic from. This is where you will need to test a lot, to find quality sources and focus on them, while cutting out the poor ones out.
Looking forward to your progress
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