What would you say to someone that doesnt 'get' paid traffic? (32)
What would you say to someone that doesnt 'get' paid traffic?
Do the work and you will find success.
I hear it all of the time. Just do the work, grind away... and on and on.
I work hard, really hard. I have forum threads on this forum and others about how Im going to do it THIS time. Only to fail and fall flat on my face.
I spent over 20K in 2015 across more than 150 campaigns and lost 50%. Every single campaign was my best effort at the time. I busted my ass on every single one of them to figure it out. To push myself to the limits, do be something I have never been before and to work outside of my comfort zone.
Truthfully I have grown a lot too, I know more now and have developed, but my ego is bruised too. It hurts staring into the face of failure day after day, month after month. I feel ready to give up... I have worked with paid traffic since..probably 2008 and lost most of the money that I spent. I have never had a campaign make more than a few dollars a day. (no joke)
So what would you say to someone who doesn't get it? Someone that cant find that breakthrough? Keep going? Give up? It isnt for you? Get back out there and fight?
I would suggest you take part in the native follow along that just started, that way everyone can critique your approach and give input.
$20k in the hole during 2015... that's bad man. Member since Jan 2011... Something is going very wrong
If you have really launched 150 campaigns, you would have amounted a tonne of knowledge and skills.
This image comes to mind.
However there must be something you are doing that is fundamentally wrong that is stopping you from making that break through.
Like Nick mention, make a follow along campaign, be as transparent as possible. That way we can really see what is going wrong with your approach.
Originally Posted by nickpeplow
@oneano
what traffic sources and verticals have you tested? Are you jumping around from one shiny thing to the next?
Yeah, why don't you post a follow along?
How many different traffic sources did you test out?
One thing is the number of campaigns you tested. The other thing is the number of traffic sources.
If you tested all those 150 campaigns on the same - probably shitty - source(s), then that could be the main reason you're not making bank.
The more information you can give and the more transparant you can be, the better we can help you.
You have nothing to lose, only to win.
Man, I understand you. I struggled almost 3 years before seeing real success. What I later discover, and I'm sure its your case also, is that in those 150 campaigns there was probably some promising ones, but you failed to see it.
Take some time off, and re-read your stats camps by camps. If you were not tracking properly, learn to grab data from server logs or find a way to really learn from those stats, its all you got, your numbers.
Once you realize that, you'll lauch and analyse differently. The follow along is a good idea also, advice given here are gold.
Make sure you have a very CLEAR structure of WHAT you are testing. My biggest breakthrough was understanding what I am testing each time I run traffic, and isolating all the other variables so they don't contaminate the results. I am still not doing it perfectly but the improvements allow me to do more campaigns correctly. Definitely do a follow along, STM members are always helpful with input. Also, feel free to get in touch with me in private, would be glad to share more tips based on your situation and previous experience 
Before testing any campaign, do the following
- Spy. See what others are running. You can get a free month's trial of whatrunswhere or any other spyware.
- Talk to your AM at your networks. Ask them what the top 5 campaigns are at the moment
- Make sure tracking is tested and works well before launching. Never launch a campaign without tracking. Its like driving blind - you don't know where you're going and what's happening.
- Set up a test structure. How much will you spend + how many landers/banners will you test
- Read as much as you can on STM on success stories + failed stories. Learn as much as you can from that and apply those learnings in your campaign set up & testing set up
That's really tough. No wonder you're feeling dispirited, and no wonder you're asking whether it's for you.
OK, rather than giving advice here, I'm going to start by asking some questions. There's a reason it's not working for you, and it's possible to figure out what it is.
1) What traffic sources and verticals have you tried?
2) How many campaigns did you launch in each combination of traffic source and vertical?
3) What optimisation strategy have you used?
4) Is there ANYTHING that you always or 95% of the time do with a campaign? Even the most basic stuff. How do you research angles? Where do you get images? What server or tracker do you use? Etc. What are the commonalities between your efforts?
5) You mention a few campaigns did make a bit of money. What were they?
6) Can you share some example landers and ads from a couple of different traffic source /vertical combinations that you've tried?
I know that's a lot of questions! The more answers you give the more we can start to join the dots and get you some new ideas.
Its your mindset man, you are one of the very few people I added on skype in an effort to provide help, but all I see is you do something and then give up on it after a few days, it feels like you are not willing to take advice and you always push something as a stubborn bull. You repeat the same mistakes over and over, last time I told you to try a different traffic source if the one you are on now doesnt work for you and you told me that you are gonna stick to it becuse it works for the others... its like you dont want to be helped. In all honesty, and I absolutely dont want to insult you, right now you are in a phase that you're not gonna make it. You need to change your mindset and when you ask for help, you should be willing to actually follow the advice you get.
Originally Posted by matuloo
Originally Posted by thuglife
Originally Posted by matuloo
1. Master 1 traffic source or type first
2. Don't jump around
3. If it's working for someone else it's working and the problem is you
Originally Posted by steel520
Originally Posted by matuloo
Im reading each and every one of these responses.
Thanks for the personal private messages from you guys too. Im going to go over these responses and make the best post I can to summarize each statement or question.
Originally Posted by oneano
Learning something is nice and definitely will help you at one point, but if you invest 5 years of your time into something then you want - and deserve - to be making good money
Hi Oneano,
I think maybe you were too bold inasmuch as you’ve invested a huge amount of cash. Here’s my recommendations:
1.Don’t try being everywhere. We’re not Greek gods. We don’t have to be ubiquitous.
2.Try to pick a few segments and really dive into them; get to know them as perfectly as you can. Afterwards, you’ll be able to understand a segment and know the right targeting. You need to go through this demanding process in order to become an expert on a given country. Once you become a master of one country, you can try to expand your reach.
3.This market is a beast. Competition is fierce and it’s everywhere. If you try exploring everything you’re gonna end up destroying loads of money.
Please tell me in which countries you’ve invested in so I can understand what went wrong and why.
I’m here to help.
Best wishes!
One final recommendation - cmdeal's advice here is really good. I'd strongly recommend prioritising that.
Man it took me one year to see a dime, do not give up, when you feel stressed or overwhelmed just step aside, go out and chill, money will come when you don't expect it 
I'm sure motivational quotes won't help. You might be doing something fundamentally wrong. Why not start a follow-along? That way we'll be able to offer better advice. Most people are afraid of starting those follow alongs because "people will steal their method" but it looks like you have nothing to lose here.
This resonates with me while I know I have experience and knowledge, I cant prove it. I cant put it into action and get results.
Of course, I have done thousands of banners, hundreds of landing pages, made great connections and made good friends. I know where to get good offers and how to get a better payout.
I have learned a lot, yet I have achieved very little.
Sometimes I end up going back to $17 ebooks thinking that maybe they will offer the breakthrough that I need. Sounds silly right? But what else am I to do? I do dabble in the forums and read blogs too of course. This is a game of information and networking.
I have a follow along. Those campaigns are long dead, I tend to not keep momentum going. I do the work, I get something close to profits and it will spiral apart. Typically a banner is converting 1:10 for 2 days and stops converting on the 3rd day when I send all of my traffic to it.
http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...ack-this-thing
This is one place where I mess up, I know. I dont keep solid records of the campaigns, I cant look at a campaign and always identify what needs improvement... since I dont know what a profitable campaign looks like, I dont know what my goals are exactly. Im not sure when I need to improve CTR or landing page click through.
http://imgur.com/a/Wg6in
http://milfexperience.sexy/stm/124
http://milfexperience.sexy/stm/128
Over the summer, I was doing more athletic milfs and I had slightly better results, I suspect because the offer was fresher.
http://milfexperience.sexy/stm/twinfit
http://milfexperience.sexy/stm/yellomlf
All dating, I would try anything I could find to see if it would perform better than local milf selfies. I did run with VIP offers for a while, I did affair alert and it was doing better for a time.
2.Try to pick a few segments and really dive into them; get to know them as perfectly as you can. Afterwards, you’ll be able to understand a segment and know the right targeting. You need to go through this demanding process in order to become an expert on a given country. Once you become a master of one country, you can try to expand your reach.
3.This market is a beast. Competition is fierce and it’s everywhere. If you try exploring everything you’re gonna end up destroying loads of money.
1. Master 1 traffic source or type first
2. Don't jump around
3. If it's working for someone else it's working and the problem is you
@matuloo I know you are right. I know that you are saying things that I need to hear. Like others have said, it is pounded into us to stick with a traffic source, master it and make it work. In my mind, to me that is what I am doing. Changing traffic sources feels like Im thowing away the time that I have invested.
Im not insulted, Im serious about this as a business, as a professional and as a lifesytyle. Tell me what you think I need to hear, I can take it.
I already told you on skype, but let me repeat it here for those who feel just like you : When I was starting out, I was also looking for some solutions or some understanding of the whole thing or a recipe to become profitable. It was driving me nuts, I couldnt understand how the others are doing it with the same banners and same landers, if they can why cant I? Whats the difference, whats the understanding that I cant seem to find ??? Then I realized there is none, there is nothing special to understand here. It either works or it doesnt, you need to tweak the landers/banners to max performance and you need to buy at the lowest CPC possible. All between is just competition that is either going to slay you or not. There is only so much you can do.
If the competition is too strong, or the place is occupied with people just like you who test and keep the bids high, or if the offer wont convert for shit ... well fuck it, move elsewhere, test a different offer, test a different GEO. You will have to do this all the time, you will actually have to jump around like a monkey at times. But this is not the kind of "jumping" we all tell you not to do. You need to stick to something when starting out, simply to learn the routine, to understand what is going on etc. But once you know what you are doing and you feel confident about the actual process, you actually need to start checking out all kinds of places, networks sources etc ... If you happen to enter a overcrowded spot with a weak offer at the start, you simply wont be able to make it work, no matter what you try. In that case, its nonsense to stick to it and try to make it work.
Thats what you need to do now in my opinion, try a different source, maybe a cheaper one like juicyads.com and try to find some forgotten gems there. Maybe try a different GEO, maybe try footers now instead of NTV, try a premium site on exoclick for example ... focus on making a small but profitable campaign there, it will give you the confidence you need so much. There is so much you can do, dont stick to just one thing when you cannot make it work, nobody can make everything work - keep this in mind!
Since nobody else gave you specific advice, I'll just lay the chips on the table.
If you are running stuff like LocalMilfSelfies on NTVA in a tier 1 GEO like Canada on TrafficJunky, then you are beating a very, very dead horse. This stuff was easy to get profitable for a brief period of time some 2+ years ago.
This isn't 2009/2010 where you would jump to TJ/Exo, swipe everybody's landers and offers, run some campaigns and hit the easiest XXX/XXXX days ever, those were the good old days but they are now gone! No matter how well you know the traffic sources' little quirks, tweaks and tricks, nothing will help you in getting profitable nowadays doing just that sort of stuff.
Try and find an edge over your competitors - Since we're talking about the adult niche, these super famous offers your AMs are recommending are already too beat up to jump into, way too beat up. Stay away from those.
Have you tried finding exclusive offers? Stuff that nobody else runs? Like, literally nobody else. Or at the very least, getting a hold of a new offer lander before anybody else on any other network for a few weeks of profits before the competition jumps in.
How much have you played around with proper angles? I do not consider snapchat or local milf selfies to even be classified as angles, this stuff is old. Check this thread and look for thebrent's reply there, especially his last two examples of angles, and it should clear up your head a little bit.
Read Finch's adult guides too, I hear they have some gems of ideas in there, although they might possibly be a bit outdated right now.
Network with people and try and find out what they actually do to make this things work. Your thinking needs to be way out of the box in order to make adult work. Run super different and clever angles, use different offers, you keep talking about mastering the traffic source, so why not try out different types of offers on said traffic source? Since this is all adult, why not spread out and find a traffic source that works for you? This isn't Facebook or Google's traffic we're talking about, there are hundreds of people on TJ at any given time struggling to get profitable with the very same creatives and offers on the very same placements - if that doesn't raise a red flag to you, I don't know what will.
What I mentioned above is how I would approach adult if I were to get back into it, but I won't. Have you thought about moving on and trying different niches? Why not test new niches while testing adult? Stop following the herd and always take its advice with a nice, healthy grain of salt and draw your own conclusions out of it all. Now stop complaining and get back to work!
I agree with Loz, I would keep going... It sometimes takes a few years before you hit that breakthrough and then when you finally do its worth every bit of stress and heartbreak you have endured. What my suggestion would be to try and connect with someone who has had some sort of break through and again like Loz mentioned be transparent so that they can help you. There are courses available for you to take ( be careful on which ones are good or not). I think the most important thing in running paid traffic is understanding the product/service you are promoting thoroughly; the more you know about that product/service the better you can target traffic to it. Research Research Research! Keep it up!
I'd agree with Shishev in everything he says after reading over your description of what you've been doing.
I'd recommend trying things that are considerably more off the wall. It sounds like you're worried - not surprising given you've been pushing hard for a while - and you're trying to play it safe and go for the sure bets. That's reasonable, but I don't think it'll help you in the vertical you're in.
Target obscure fetishes. Find smaller traffic sources. Don't just test what your AM tells you is working - find obscure offers that your AM hasn't even heard of despite the fact that they're on their network and test them.
Join more networks. Like, a LOT more networks. Split-test them against each other ruthlessly.
In particular, pay attention to your successes. "Odd placements in Canada" sounds perfect - you just need to find something similar with a bit more volume. Doing the regular thing didn't work, doing the weird thing did - so do the weird thing. A lot more.
And as Shishev says, angles angles angles. Don't beat the dead horses; go out and find a fresh horse, then beat that to death instead (if it turns out to be fast enough to get you where you want to go).
Good luck. You'll get there. Keep us updated!
Thanks to everyone for the support.
matuloo and I have been talking about adult a lot. I was running the same offers, basically over and over again on the same placements. Stubborn I know, but that was my impression of 'doing what it takes' but what I didnt know was that I was that my goal was unattainable with this method. I was doing it wrong.
My fundamentals were set up wrong, I wasnt testing a variety of niches, angles, offers, banners, landers, placements and sources. I was just testing one thing and beating it until I couldnt take it anymore.
If I was going to do it again (Im not going to, more on that in a minute) I would do it differently. This is how.
- Research: Get some baseline for what is working and where. More importantly, look for what is not being promoted.
- Assemble: lists of offers, placements, countries, ad networks, placements, targets, then start mixing and matching combinations and test as many as I could.
- Create: Using what works, and what isnt being promoted create multiple campaigns daily.
Tranny dating in the UK targeting milf traffic? Yes, maybe it will work. Maybe it wouldnt, it needs to be tested.
Systematically go though these iterations of combinations, start working with small budgets $10 a day to find pockets that are working.
This type of system would get me going with some profitable campaigns quickly and let me gain some experience before I start scaling offers.
Why am I not doing this?
I decided that Adult isnt where Im going to be in 10 years. After facing the failures of 2015 I decided that 2016 would be different. I changed a few things in my campaigns, I changed my tracking... now Im changing my vertical. I will be moving into CPA offers on Facebook. I know it isnt for noobies, but I am confident that I will make it work. My breakthrough has shown me what I have always been doing wrong. I was creating habits that were bad. I wasnt fully testing.
Going forward, I know that I will be as successful as I choose to be.
@oeano - Sounds like you've really overhauled your intentions and understandings for the better. Nice one. Looking forward to hearing how 2016 and FB goes for you!
(And good call on changing vertical and traffic source. Sometimes it's the right thing to do.)
Originally Posted by oneano
Dude. Do native. You have a golden opportunity now with the focus on follow alongs. Don't run before you can walk, or at least maintain profitable campaigns
Facebook is a totally different beast and the way clean and dirty offers are pushed is a radical shift from adult. Big learning curve. You'll just end up getting your one personal account banned and be f##ked for now and the future.
Native is nice and simple. Profitable campaigns are out in the open and you can easily rip, pivot and profit on what you see running.
If you can't make native work, then I would suggest affiliate marketing isn't for you. I know it's not the popular thing to say, but this industry does not suit everyone
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