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Dreaming Of Ladyboys........ (47)

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Dreaming of ladyboys…………….well maybe not so much but I have just bought a one-way ticket to Thailand. I have been working towards my dream of freedom and being my own boss for so long now. Time to make shit happen

This is my second attempt at a follow-along. Unfortunately, all of my initial momentum was abruptly destroyed after a very close family member passed away. To get back on the horse and get my focus back it’s going to take another level of commitment and focus and I need a fresh start, hence follow-along 2.0

To step my game up and take this seriously I’ve hired a spot at a co-working space in town so I can treat this like a business and dedicate some serious time and hustle. This plus the added motivating factor of a one-way ticket on the 21st of February 2017 is a recipe for some serious focused work.

I’ve calculated that I can live in Thailand for about 1500-2000NZD a month. So that’s my target. Daily that works out to be about 50-67NZD or 36-49USD. If I can average $50USD a day from AM, I can live in Thailand. That’s the goal and I have 126 days to make it happen


My focus is going to be AV Offers in Tier 2/3 Geos with payouts around or below $1

My Goals for this month
1) Consistently update my follow along
2) Join a mastermind group
3) Test 4 different offers

I have a bunch of offers pending approval so once they get accepted I will post an update with my campaign. I’m also waiting to hear back from a couple of Affiliate Networks Mundo, Appflood and Matomy.

Question: I have an account at Adsimilis but my AM is useless, she won’t respond to any skype messages and I haven’t been asking for a lot. Can I request a new AM even though I haven’t run any of their offers yet but?

Cheers
Jared

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Where are you going to live? Are you in Bangkok? Let me know, we have a big group of affiliates here. I can also help you out with the offers. We are a new network based in Thailand, would be awesome to work together closely!

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Managing relationships with affiliate managers is a skill as well. You can request one but it's unlikely that you get too much more attention. You have to work your way up, and I know it sucks to be ignored at the beginning. Sign up with more networks, make them compete between each other to some extent (not in a douchebag type way). They should be aware you are not only on their only affiliate network, and that you are not a waste of time. The sooner you get at least some revenue, the more attention you will get.

Ask your AM to open X offers for you, try to be specific, test and then get back with feedback, ask for advice, etc. Once they see you are serious, they will give you more and more attention.

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$50 shouldn't be all that much of a problem, if you figure this shit out, you will be making multiples of that amount. AM is like that, people either don't make it at all, or they end up making way more than such amounts. It's a good idea to set a smaller goal at the beginning tho, better aim for $50 and end up making $500 than dreaming about millions and ending up broke

As for the AM problem, I can't say anything else, Manu covered it nicely.

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Where did you move in Thailand?

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I think he only plans to move to Thailand once the daily profit crosses $50 Which should happen before 21st of February 2017 when the OP booked a one way ticket to Thailand

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Have a great time in Thailand! It's an amazing place and you will come back (or maybe not come back) a changed person :-)

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If at all possible, try and get to Bangkok for AWA in December. It was fantastic last year and it will be again this year. You can learn a ton and meet a lot of great people.

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@gotzha hey, planning on living in Chiang Mai but I will definitely spend some time in Bangkok. Definitely keeen to meet some other affiliates. I'll be in touch closer to the date, cheers

@manu_adefy Thank you for the advice

@matuloo That's encouraging to hear, thanks.

@nickpeplo Hey, planning on moving to Chiang mai on the 21st of Feb 2017

@Vrume Thanks, I'm really looking forward to it

@grizzlycoast I really wanted to go to the AWA in Dec however I have some other work related commitments that I need to be in NZ for

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Sent my campaign to get approved

Offer: (23163) [WAP] Antivirus /IN - [Vodafone] through clickdealer

Traffic Source: Azavu DSP

8 320x50 banners & 4 landers that I ripped from Adplexity

I'll update this tomorrow when I have some data

Question: My application just got accepted at Appflood and when I mentioned I used Avazu DSP as my traffic source my AM recommended I look into others as they hadn't heard good things about it. Anybody else had a similar experience?

Also, are there any recommended posts related to picking an initial bid price?

Cheers
Jared

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Hey man, be careful what you are dreaming of, these dreams are easy to come true! :-DDD

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Hi Jared, re a new Adsimi AM - you certainly can. Can you hit me at eleah@dqna.com or eleah.portillo so I can set you up with a new AM?

And congrats con curry on your move....tons of industry out there!

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Pro tip: write more than just "Hi... hey... hi...hello."

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Hello,

avazu mDSP is just a gateway to the large ad exchanges, so if they complain about avazu, they might as well complain about all the DSPs out there. Avazu provides access to quite a lot of exchanges, so there will be some crappy ones in the mix for sure, but I wouldn't bash an entire source just like that. It all goes down to what and how you are gonna promote there anyways.

As for the starting bids, when starting on DSPs, I always stay away from auto bidding and start low. You picked an antivirus in India, I would start at no more than 0.1 CPM. Wait for some data and if the traffic doesn't start to flow, then increase it slowly.

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Small possibility they bash it for another reason:

Avazu and Appflood (Papaya) are direct competitors. Papaya also has/will have a DSP (didn't research recently) so they could just say Avazu is bad so you use theirs.

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Thanks for pointing that out, I know they are both based in China but didn't know Papaya wanted to have a DSP too

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^^ This is great advice.

Just remember that your AM should be working hard for you - don't let them take you for granted. Think of your AM as someone who can be an effective part of your team, you just need to make sure you're utilizing them the right way, asking the right questions, as well as making sure you're at the forefront of their mind - out of sight out of mind.

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@erikgyepes haha as long as it's not a premonition I'm ok

@ewoww Thanks for the contact, however, my AM has finally replied hmmm interesting timing, I will give them a go and if it doesn't work out I will email you, thanks again

@matuloo OK cool, I sent my bid for the above campaign at 0.25 so it sounds like that's too high

@manu_adefy Got ya, I wasn't aware of that

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So here's the data, zero conversions is this common or did I mess something up?

The daily spend was $30, but like a rookie I forgot to pause it after the first day so it ended up costing $64.32




Is this a situation of just move on and test the next offer?

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You banner CTR is quite low so that's something to look into.

Cut placements with really low CTR which are likely to be bot impressions.

Also... 8 banners, 4 landers = 32 possible paths, so if you wanna do a thorough test, you need to spend an OK amount on each path, meaning you probably need 5-10x the payout x32 if you want to be thorough, which is too much. Probably best to spend $25 chunks for testing and adjusting by cutting the really worst part of traffic/banner/offer/whatever other targeting you can.

You have no conversions on the affiliate network either, right?

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Thanks for the feedback. Yes correct, no conversions.

I'll look into my banners.


I've just had my creatives approved for a bunch of offers and have received my Arabic translations for some Middle Eastern offers

I have 4 different offers from GH that have the same $0.25 payout. My creatives have been approved so I'll test them next

Again 8 320x50 banners and 4 landers. This time I'll set the bid lower at $0.11

I'll update this tomorrow when I have some data

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You should really be testing the offer on multiple networks. I know it doesn't sound like it'd make a difference but it really can. Find 2 other networks and just split the clicks between them.

http://www.matuloo.com/split-test-th...iate-networks/

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That's a good point. I would say even not just same offer, but test as many offers in the same vertical. Say you have 3 antivirus apps, you can promote them the same. So 3 apps, then you get them from like another 3 networks, that makes more offers still.

Don't get too overwhelmed though, your main goal now is to understand all the pieces of a funnel, and see how changes affect it. Once you get some conversions, then you move towards optimising. Spend some time on tools like AdPlexity to get an overview of the campaigns being ran now. The more you understand about how the industry works, the quicker you will see progress

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Exactly, take it one step at a time so you don't get lost in the process.

Also consider testing a different traffic type in case DSPs don't work out for you at all, they got harder to make them work lately from some reason. POPs should be your next choice in case banners fail.

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50$ a day is definitely an achievable target - hope to see you in December in BKK at AffiliateworldAsia! Make sure to stop by our booth.

Best of luck and never give up!

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Thanks for the recommended reading, great article Matuloo

" affiliate network analyzes the visitor before sending it to the advertiser and the advertiser know what affiliate network this click comes from. And this is why the performance can be different from one affiliate network to another."

Yeah, I'm trying to focus. Too many shinny opportunities

Thanks for the warning. I've heard this from another affiliate as well, it's got me thinking that perhaps I should look into pin sweepstakes as I've heard that's another good area to start. I'll do some more testing and if there doesn't seem to be much on the table I will re-evaluate the situation

Thanks man

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Here is the data, looks like my bid was too low. Only spent $8.24 of the $30 daily spend


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Spend: $8.24
Revenue: $1


To collect more data I've raised my bid from 0.11 to 0.17

I will update with more data

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Update

Spend for the day: $12.32
Revenue: $1.25
Net Profit/Loss: -$11.07

The reason I didn't have a higher spend despite the higher bid is that I din't get to run it a full day


Voluum 22oct16 1.png  Views: 19  Size: 16.5 KB  ID: 13128" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" />

I cut offer 1 & 4 because they haven't had a conversion over the past 2 days of testing

I also raised the bid to 0.21 to get more traffic

I haven't started cutting placements yet but I did notice that most of my conversion came from 2 placements




Will update tomorrow with a full days data running at 0.21 bid

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TubeMate used to be a very popular placement, might still be.

It runs on many exchanges though, you should research that a bit I think. Sometimes it's more expensive, sometimes cheaper.

Avazu mDSP has a decent traffic planner. Browse through it to find the placements that stuck out in this test, see what volume they have, what price, etc. It will help you get a better understanding of the traffic.

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Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into.

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Spend: $16.73
Revenue: $0.50
Profit/Loss: -$16.23

Voluum 23oct16 1.png  Views: 14  Size: 6.5 KB  ID: 13157" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" />







I've decided to test my best banners (5 that converted), best lander (no.5), best offer (no.2) & best placements (the four that converted) at 0.17 bid (mid bid)

Will update with more data

Also, planning on starting some fresh campaigns this week

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Just getting into the AWA frenzy right now... When I read your post. I vote for split testing like David suggests, even Matuloos article explains how different networks can get you different results. There are many variables to take into considetion, even the AM relations as you mentioned in your original post.

As you can see, most people at STM know how to guide you in your plan to move to TH...

Come to AWA for sure. Its a very targeted investment on a dream.

Looking forward to meeting you there

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Thanks for the feedback

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Results from testing, $7.23 spend and only 3 conversions




I didn't want to hop from one niche to another but after Matuloo's comment, and doing my own research into it, it looks like AV display isn't the best place to start. The decision was to either move to AV pops or sweepstakes display. I've decided to go to sweepstakes mDSP.

Focus for the week
-Get Adplexity so I can study what's already out there and rip some creatives for testing.
-Ask for my AM's recommendations in terms of offers (ideally tier 2/3 geos, around or less than $1 payout)
-Study as many sweepstakes follow-alongs as I can (any recommendations?)
-Test my first sweepstakes offer by Friday

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I would also consider doing sweeps on pops.

After utility apps took a turn for the worse, sweeps caught some of that traffic share, so they are pretty big on pops too.

Regardless, with sweeps it's a lot about your relationship with the offer owner/advertiser. The better your traffic, the more they can pay you.

One final tip for someone new to sweeps: There are many conversion flows available, including PIN submit. I suggest starting out with single-opt-in (SOI), since those are lower payout and convert at a higher rate, so you can optimize quicker. DOI and PIN have better payouts and of course can be more profitable sometimes but it means you need a bigger test budget.

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I really think POPs would be a better choice for you right now.

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Nice idea, moving to a new place always solidifies a big new change and Bangkok is the perfect hub.

I really think networking and immersing yourself in the right environment is more important than grinding.

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Thanks for the info on the conversion flows


Looks like everyone's guiding me in the direction of POPs, thanks guys

Yeah, I can't wait! 118days to go, I'm feeling the carrot and the stick which is very motivating. Bring on the authentic chicken pad thai!

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Would Propeller Ads and PopCash be a good place to start as a traffic source for POPs?

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PopCash has little targeting so it's a bit tougher. Propeller Ads has reasonable targeting options, so does PopAds. Those two are pretty decent to start with.

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Alright time for an update (102 days till Thailand move)

I've spent the past 2 weeks analyzing my past campaigns, studying adplexity and overdosing on STM (so much great info)

My biggest lessons are
1) I need to have a very clear testing and optimization plan. I was constantly tweaking things without statistical significance which just ruined all of the data I was paying for.
2) The process must be as efficient as possible to be able to test the quantity of offers required to achieve success. From researching an offer to doing an initial test on that offer must be a quick smooth process. In the past I would ask my AM for some suggestions, then receive them the following day, then apply for approval, receive that the following day, rip ads or get translations which would take another day, apply for creative approval, get accepted (or not) a couple of days latter, then load it into Voluum, then apply to get approval from the TS, then start the FIRST test!!! Adding the weekend in there somewhere also adds another 2 days. That's just too long!

So a big focus for me this month is to have a clear plan of how to do my initial testing (to identify offers worth pursuing) and to really create a streamlined process so I'm able to constantly test and not get caught up and overwhelmed by the small insignificant details.


I'm testing my first sweeps pop campaign today

Tier 3 geo
2x offers
2x landers (ripped from adplexity with a few changes)
TS PopAds

I will update tomorrow with the data

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Hey buddy - keep it up! I'm planning to move to Thailand for winter too, NYC winter is a real bitch. I might hit AWE in January and then off to Chiang Mai.. see you there.

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Awesome man, definitely keen to catch up with like minded people

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I messed up the links in my second lander so I ended up only getting stats for 1 lander and 2 offers

Voluum 11nov16.png  Views: 16  Size: 8.8 KB  ID: 13450" class="thumbnail" style="float:CONFIG" />

The cost was actually $18.47 on PopAds

Cost $18.47
Revenue $2.31
Loss -$16.16

Plan
Test the 2 offers again but with 4 different landers, focus on optimizing funnel

Questions
1) Vortex mentions that you should set up 3 campaigns with different bids, low, medium & high. If I tested this on PopAds in Thailand at a low bid of 0.0002, what would a medium bid and high bid be?
2)I've read that sweeps don't perform as well on the weekends, is it wise to only do the initial phase of testing during the week?

Enjoy your weekend

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Hey STMers,

I am trying to decide whether I should outsource or partner up with someone.

My problem is that I am not strong on the tech side of things. My struggle with landers and tracking is making my AM progress painfully slow, so I am going to solve this problem by either partnering up with someone who has a strong programming background and is comfortable with all things tech, or outsource the landers.

I have the capital, time and dedication to make this work but I need to get over this hurdle, my strengths lie in other areas, not programming

Any suggestions would be great

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You answered it yourself even you don't know - you have the capital, time and dedication to make this work.

What is stopping you?

Try to outsource it / partner up with someone and you will see if it works out.

There is nothing to lose for you.

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Hey STMers,

So I've been testing a lot over the last month and I am finally starting to see some traction.

I currently have a antivirus campaign that is showing some potential which is super exciting.


Here's what I've done so far

29-Nov-16
Created a campaign with 6 offers (payouts between $5-$6) & 8 landers that I ripped from Adplexity. I tested it at two different bids one low one high

The high bid clearly won
Spend $67.44
Rev $66.70
Profit/Loss -$0.74

I cut 4 of the offers that didn't convert and I cut 2 landers that were at about 2% approximate probability of being best


30-Nov-16
I let the campaign run for the full day

Spend $121.47
Rev $110.80
Profit/Loss -$10.67

After this result I have cut 2 more landers that were at below 3% approximate probability of being best


1-Dec-16
It's still running for the day but right now the results with 2 offers and 4 landers are

Spend $73.83
Rev $61
Profit/Loss -$12.83

It's looking like I will cut another lander but I will wait until I get a full days worth of data


Current Plan
Continue running the current camp to collect more data. I will cut placements 2xpayout that don't convert. I also have about 6 more recommended offers from 3 different networks in the same geo that I will test. I also want to test a higher bid, I'm currently about 5th-7th.

Camp 1 - Current camp, continue running to identify weak placements
Camp 2 - Same bid but with 6 new offers and best landers identified in camp 1
Camp 3 - Original camp but at a higher bid


Questions
-How many conversions do you need on an offer before asking your AM for a pay bump?
-Now that I have found a solid offer should I start making iterations of my current successful landers, or test completely new landers, or both?


Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Cheers
Jared

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