NOT new to internet marketing, but still feeling totally overwhelmed (14)
NOT new to internet marketing, but still feeling totally overwhelmed
Hey STM. My name is Alex. I've been involved with internet marketing in some form or fashion for the
better part of 5 years now.
I've had some success in the past with product creation, list building and building affiliate sites for
organic traffic. Modest success, nothing earth shattering.
I've been hearing the 'siren song' of paid traffic to promote affiliate offers for a long time.
I've tried and flopped with paid traffic more times than I can count. The ONLY real success I've even had
with paid traffic was in 2013 when I was direct linking CB weightloss offers from Facebook traffic using
'before and after' images. My how times have changed. Even this minor success I attribute more to luck
than to anything else. I wasn't even tracking or optimizing or anything.
I really believe the reason for having failied so many times is that I haven't ever really been setup properly
for success, and that's why I joined STM. I really felt that STM could give me a clear direction on how to get
going, and 'simplify' everything for me.
Here is the truth: Attempting to properly track an affiliate campaign scares the crap out of me. I hear the
words VPS or CDN, split testing, or OPTIMIZING and my eyes start to glaze over. The sad part if that I
KNOW how important all of this stuff is to success with paid traffic, and the fact I never really wanted to sit
down and learn it properly has kept me from realizing the success that I know is possible for a long, long
time now.
The GOOD part is, that I'm here now, and completely dedicated to making this paid traffic thing work. I wish
I had known about STM a few years ago, but I didn't. Anyway, I'm here now and ready to get to work.
The BAD part is, having gone through a few of the threads here, I feel like I'm just getting started in internet
marketing again which is NOT a good feeling, not for someone who has been involved for so long and thought
he knew a lot.
I am feeling a sense of total overwhelm on the best way to get going. I feel like I've come here to get a sense of
direction and clarity, but I'm left feeling more confused than ever. NOT a good feeling.
Let me give you guys a couple of examples. So I'm reading through caurmen's guide to getting started in affiliate
marketing in 2014, which is linked to time and time again as one of the best places to go through in order to get
started on this forum.
Caurmen advised one of the best places to start for new affiliates was with Plenty of Fish advertising. I thought ok,
great. Sounds good. So I'm reading more and more of the forum, and according to caurmen himself POF advertising
is now dead and not something that should be pursued since they stopped offering advertising accounts in 2015.
I thought this would be fine for me, since I tried (and failed miserably) with POF advertising in 2012, so I still have
an active advertising account with them. Since people are now saying POF is dead and buried, I moved onto
the next 'newbie' recommendation.
The next 'best' traffic source to get started with appeared to be caurmen's Mobile Cookbook formula. So I was all
pumped and excited to get started with this, reading through the thread and taking everything in. Then, I start reading
through some other threads (in the follow along section) and I see a few threads where people are trying very hard to
get mobile display banners working for them, but it's not working. I wouldn't think much of a newbie not being able
to get an affiliate campaign profitable, but I'm seeing some people who appear to be Super Affiliates (judging by some
of their posts in the forums) stepping in and saying to forget about Mobile display advertising as that is now dead and
buried too, and you will die of frustration trying to get it to work right now...
That Super affiliates recommendation is to try POP advertising as it's a good place to start. I try going though some of the
threads on POP advertising, and to be honest, most of it is going totally over my head. One of the guides says you need
to be an expert in tracking, banners, and this and the other before even attempting POP traffic. Another very helpful
mod (Vortex) gives the outline of how to best start, saying you need to test a bunch of different landers with a bunch of
different Offers and you will easily find something that works. Sounds great, but I have no idea where to even start on
that process.
I go to the main thread as see someone talking about a simple method to get started with Facebook traffic combined
with Sweep offers, but then I see a bunch of people chiming in and saying if you try this, your FB account will be
banned.
I hear some saying you need and VPS combined with a CDN and Hosted tracking, then there are others who say you
just need a CDN which can do everything.
Once again, the whole tracking thing and vps thing is really intimidating for me, as I've spent plenty of money on
these things in the past because so and so told me I really needed it, only to be left not being able to use it because
I couldn't figure it out (or didn't know where to start)
So as you can see, I've come to STM for some clarity on the path I need to take to get started and I feel like
a chicken with my head cut off, not knowing left from right or where to go next, what's working, what's
dead and buried from old threads etc etc etc...
What I am hoping to get from this thread are some helpful people people chiming in and giving me some
direction on where is the BEST place to get started knowing what I've told you about my online experiences.
Is it POP traffic, is it Facebook (doubtful because reading through some threads I'm seeing many say FB is really
hard to get working right now unless you Cloak (which I don't really understand the mechanics behind), is
it Mobile, and if so, WHAT on mobile....
Basically, knowing what you know, what is the very BEST way for someone like me to get started with paid traffic
in 2017. What is working NOW. What is the most 'Newbie Friendly' traffic source to get started with.
I am a member of a few CPA networks: AffiliateAxe, Maxbounty, Peerfly and Markethealth if that helps.
So, I'm looking for a direction to take, in regards to a TRAFFIC SOURCE to work with, what TYPES OF OFFERS and in
what VERTICALS will work for paid traffic Newbies.
I'm also really hoping to cut through the clutter and get some clarification on EXACTLY what I need to get going.
I understand that I need a VPS, and possibly ALSO a CDN and possibly also a hosted tracking, but I'm really
just looking for the most SIMPLE solution to what I need with whatever type of traffic and offers I'm working with.
I have plenty of experience with Cpanel. Is that what a VPS and CDN use? Or do I need to learn a new system
in order to upload landers etc...
I really apologize about this long question that perhaps seems like I'm rambling, but I just need to stop searching
around blindly in different threads looking for answers that may lead to even more confusion for me.
Having this question in one place, and telling you guys a little about my background in affiliate marketing, I'm
hoping that a few generous STM members will chime in and give me some direction here, so I'm not wasting
time and getting more confused.
Additionally, any threads you can point to with info about things that are actually working NOW and somewhat
newbie friendly will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much!
Alex
After spending more time sifting through more of the forum today, to my surprise instead of feeling more overwhelmed I think I have come away with a bit of clarity.
Thanks to some incredibly insightful and helpful posts by Vortex and caurmen, I've come to the conclusion that the best way to get started in today's environment and up, running and testing (And hopefully profitable) is going to be running mobile pop traffic to either sweepstakes offers or pin submits. I still have to do some more research on what exactly the whole pin submit thing is about.
I also learned that the most effective way of getting landers up is going to be with a cdn utilizing s3. I'm still unclear on whether I'm going to be needing a vps server with this setup though.
I also still need to figure out the whole landers thing and tracking thing which I am pretty unclear on.
Once I get those things going I'd like to start a follow along campaign to hopefully get feedback on my approach and tactics.
That's great to hear!
PIN submit offers are those that bill users from their cell-carrier account, either prepaid or postpaid (differentiated by if money is on their account, or if they're billed monthly). These carrier billing offers can be "MO Flows", in which the user has to send an SMS to a short code, or receive/confirm the billing via SMS. In contrast, '1-click' and '2-click' flows are just as they sound, in which the user only has to click to have their account billed. These click flows obviously tend to convert better, but it is important to only send 3G traffic to these offers that conforms with the offer's specific carrier requirements. Many times these 1/2 click flows will fall back to "MO flow" if a user is on wifi.
If you plan on using a CDN for your landers, you will not necessarily need to set up a VPS, if you will be using a cloud-hosted tracker such as
The landers/tracking stuff will start to make sense once you start launching camps, so just keep reading up and following along with the great guides available on here, and it will begin to come together.
(BTW, I'm still a newbie too, but I hope that helps. I felt similar to you when I first jumped on here, and realized the huge wealth of information available. Just don't caught up too deeply in the finest details, because I think this will all get easier with practice, practice, practice. Taking notes helps me a lot too. That's what I'm trying to do!)
thanks SO much Chris for taking the time to give such a thoughtful and detailed response. Also really enjoyed your breakdown of what pin submits are. Very helpful.
Do you happen to know which networks carry those? I've never heard of them or seen them before so wondering what the best networks for pin submit offers are. Sounds intriguing.
As far as those first few line items then that's a done deal. Host my pages on a CDN for fast load times and use
I guess then my only other 'barriers' are learning about volume and how to set up campaigns with it. That shouldn't be a problem as I believe there are some good tutorials here in stm about
Also, another sticking point is getting landers to test for pin submits and sweepstakes offers.
According to Vortex the best way is to get a subscription to adsplexity and rip them there and then go through all of them and remove the malicious code and other things from them.
I'm fine with learning how to do that part of it (cleaning up the code on landers) as long as there are some tutorials that I can follow along that make sense.
The only thing I'm really hesitant in is purchasing adsplexity as another $200 hit to my testing budget is really the last thing I want to endure at this point even though I understand it could be a good shortcut...
Wondering if there might be a slightly more affordable way of getting current landers in these 2 verticals that are working to test with - perhaps hiring someone on fiverr with an adsplexity account to rip a few for me or something? Any other ideas really appreciated.
I'm really glad to see that my and Vortex's replies elsewhere helped!
Indeed, that's exactly what I'd suggest these days: mobile pops and a CDN to host them on. Great choice.
(If anyone else comes across this thread subsequently, other options could include Afflow and pops - see Vortex's mega-guide - or ecommerce on FB, although the latter doesn't have an official STM guide yet. Soon! But mobile pops / CDN is a very good place to start.)
If you have a reasonable amount of time to devote to this over the next month or so, I'd strongly recommend getting an Adplexity account. It'll pay off in terms of learning alone: the sheer amount of data out there is staggering, and it'll really accelerate you past the early learning humps.
Looking forward to your future posts!
Originally Posted by alexcn
Originally Posted by alexcn
https://charlesngo.com/voluum-campaign-setup/
Originally Posted by alexcn
There's a coupon code for Adplexity for STM Users that you can find in this thread:
https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...xity+earlybird
It'll make your monthly cost $149, so $50 savings!
Thanks caurmen. The fact that you are acknowledging this is the right direction for me to take is fantastic. Like you said, I also think that anyone new to
this forum in a situation similar to mine (I imagine there are quite a few) will find what you said to be quite helpful.
I'd like to add something to your recommendation as well: I've run across this thread by mrbraun that is incredibly helpful and filled with tons of gold nuggets.
It's specific to POP traffic.
Awesome Chris. Here are a few more POP friendly networks according to mrbraun: Clickdealer, MundoMedia, Adsimilis, Mpire
I think you guys have talked me into taking the plunge on an Adplexity account. That $50 off coupon is great!
After learning more about this whole POP traffic thing, it's obvious that the landing page is the SINGLE element
that will ultimately determine the success or failure of your campaigns.
Some on this forum have said that coming up with your own landers is best, but I you're new, modeling
landers from Adplexity is a great way to get going fast.
Originally Posted by alexcn
The AM game has gotten more competitive, but rest assured that people are still making very good money on every major traffic source, for every major traffic type. At the same time though, there are people that have failed to make money, on any one traffic source, any one traffic type. This is why you're hearing conflicted opinions. For every person that 's raving about how well a type of traffic is working for them, you'd hear 10 others saying it doesn't work. What's important is NOT the fact that someone wasn't able to make something work - it's whether YOU can make it work that's important.
The most successful affiliates I know, have tested multiple types of traffic, and countless offers in different verticals. They don't keep looking for people to tell them which traffic type is the best, or which offer is the best, or which angle is the best, or which bid is the best....they do their own testing to find out for themselves.
Don't get me wrong: There IS definitely a lot of value in networking and talking to people to find out what's hot right now. But even then, you'll STILL hear conflicting opinions. There's nothing around having to test extensively. You can narrow things down by reading and doing research through spying etc., but in the end, you'd still need to do a ton of testing yourself. This is 100% required to succeed in this game, so you may as well get used to the idea from the get-go.
Reading posts from veteran members with high thanks count will help you to avoid a lot of the common mistakes, and provide you with some direction and guidance. But the next step, as you're deciding to do, would be to actually start running camps to collect data, so you can start getting practical experience. Starting a follow-along is a great idea! When you do, shoot me a PM, and I'll do my best to contribute.
Be patient and be prepared to do lots of testing and learning in order to succeed. We're all here to help. Wishing you all the best...
Amy
Thanks so much Amy. Your comments really hit home. I totally get what you're saying about conflicting opinions, and it
makes perfect sense.
I see now that the ONLY way to really succeed in this game is to get out and test,fail, test, fail, test...succeed.
It's really been great that there are obviously so many caring, awesome, and successful members here at STM that
are willing to take some time out of their busy schedules to help paid traffic newbs get on the right track to
success.
Thanks!
Originally Posted by alexcn
Amazing info you have put together in your PIN submit thread matuloo. Incredibly helpful. Bookmarked it. I've got 2 questions that I left in
your thread relating to specific points you made.
Whats your goal? How much are you looking to make? Why? What will you use it on?
Hey John. Thanks for chiming in man. Believe it or not, it was on YOUR recommendation that I joined STM.
I recently ran across some of your stuff on YouTube, and I was thinking to myself "This guy know what the F*** he's talking about". Wish I had come across your stuff sooner, but hey, better late than never, huh?
Watched quite a few of your videos, and they are packed with amazing marketing angles. I particularly
liked the one you did with a guest appearance of Carlos where he was showing how he was killing
it with Tactical Flashlights & Facebook a year or so ago.
Thanks for providing so much value for those who are actively looking and open to receiving it.
"What's your goal?" - I would like to be making $3000/mo in the next 90 days with paid traffic. I'm open
to any type of paid traffic, but I'm in the process of getting set up for working with Mobile POP traffic
initially, figuring that out, then going from there. According to everything I've read here, Mobile POP
is a GREAT place to start.
I would love to figure out FB traffic as well, and eventually graduate to the Nutra, and/or ecommerce space.
The fact that according to many on this forum, FB advertising is once again becoming a viable source to
promote Nutra has me excited about the possibilities for the future.
I've wasted a ton of money in the past on failed FB campaigns, and have yet to figure it out.
"Why? and What will you use it on?" - This is an easy answer for me. 1. Because I love internet marketing, and the transition from a part time 'fiddler' to a full time internet marketer is something that would fit me perfectly. I can't imagine any better 'job' in the world. 2. I'd love to get some financial stability on my life - buy/renovate a house and help people in need.
Thanks John!
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