Student's Journey through the 6 Week AMC (20)
Hi all, I just completed the 2nd week of the 6 week marketing challenge, and wanted to record my thoughts. This post is a bit like a follow along, but just through the course, not necessarily on a campaign. I just wanted to document my experiences, hoping that it might help others to understand and be better prepared for their AM journey.
A bit of background on myself: I have dabbled in AM for over 10 years now, never had a foundation, but of course I wasted thousands of dollars on different guru courses that have earned me a high negative ROI. I joined the STM forum in July at the advice of a successful AM within the group I knew as an acquaintance from a previous course. Honestly, my dominant thought in joining was “are there real people who are making money doing this $hit?” I’m still skeptical, but more on that later. With the experience of knowing what a good course looked like, I jumped into this one, as a) the people who were teaching were doing, and b) my lone successful AM acquaintance was posting photos of travel from all over the world!
I had two main goals when I joined. One was to get a solid foundational skill of how to run and scale a campaign. I did NOT set a goal of $xxx/day or whatever, that just hasn’t worked for me in the past. I just want a true skillset, since I know without it, anything I do is fleeting. Second, I wanted to meet people who really make a living doing this, and understand what it takes to do it. I think Tom Clafin had the same thoughts when he first joined the 6WAMC way back when.
Before I joined, I got my funds together, saying I”ll blow a couple of thousand during this course as my education, and we’ll see where we are at the end of the course. I also cleared out my schedule. I work full time, and spending 3 to 4 hours daily on this was going to be impossible if I wasn’t protective of my time.
Week 1
Week 1 was basics, understanding what’s needed, looking at different offers, etc. It ramped up quickly at the end of the week. Some of the moderators and more advanced students suggested for those who were ready to jump into a simple arbitrage campaign, not using a tracker, just to get your feet wet. I setup a simple PopAds to Afflow link in a tier 3 geo. I spent $5 and got back $2.82 for 48 hours, on very low traffic. It took me 2 hours to set it all up LOL, and I kept refreshing the page every few minutes, which normally yielded 1 or 2 more clicks but not much else.
I spent the first weekend getting used to the platforms and applying to traffic and affiliate networks. Mentioning I’m in the 6WAMC made the exercise much easier. I took Sunday off, not studying or watching any videos. Got to clear my head.
Week 2
This week is killer so far. I struggled from Monday, trying to understand Funnel/Landers and the tech setup. I got to the height of frustration on Tuesday when I couldn’t get my FTP to connect to my server. But there’s a technical support channel in slack manned by some tech-savvy STM veterans. One helped me out, got me up and running (my mistake blinded me!). Once that got done, I got funnel flux installed and everything worked!
My success was short lived. I then struggled with understanding funnel flux, particularly postbacks and tokens. The concept from funnel flux’s point of view was not hard, it’s understanding how to make sure everything from the traffic source to the tracker, to the lander, back to the tracker, then to the offer, then to the conversion postback or pixel. I was trying to study this late night and simply ran out of brain power at about 1am. I had to leave it for the next day, which meant I was falling behind in the course.
The good news is the next day, with some good rest, the tracker thing did not seem nearly as hard. I still have to play with the GUI to get more comfortable with it, but I can spend time this weekend on it.
Our next task in the class is to pick a few offers, create some landers, and run some campaigns. It has come together quickly! Yikes, I still feel like I’m behind, but I can use the weekend to catch up a bit. There are at least 2 to 3 hours of case study videos I need to go through also.
My 2 week assessment? I’m generally on track so far. I’m getting the skillset I want (tech setup, tracking, landers, offers). The added bonus that I did not anticipate but it’s so critical to success, is all of the interaction and helpful people in the course. The slack channel is awesome. Conversing with like-minded individuals is refreshing. If I told anyone in my job what I was up to, they all would either not understand it, or think I’m completely nuts! I can’t wait for a major conference where I can meet some of my classmates and trainers.
As for my lack of belief that people are actually doing this, let’s just say I’m less skeptical since I’ve met people in slack who appear to be doing this full time. Not to get too philosophical, but my issue probably lies in believing whether I MYSELF can do this or not. Remember, I dabbled for a long time, but all dabbling gets you is lack of confidence. But I’ll think about that later, I’m too busy doing the tasks to think too much about this. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please chime in.
First things first. I gotta get a campaign up with a few offers, and see if any of them will convert on my traffic source. I’m determined to not fall too far behind in the course!
Good job Falcon! I was part of the x4 cohort and your experience sounds just like mine when I was going through it. It's A LOT of info and comes at you pretty consistently so it can get overwhelming. Stick with it and it will all start to make sense! I see you're in Thousand Oaks, I'm out here in Northridge so if you ever wanna connect or mastermind or what not let me know!
Very interesting writeup!
Originally Posted by digitaldreamsmktg
This is a great idea. Looking forward to seeing the next part!
Hi Falcon! Nice to see that you've taken the plunge to sign up for the course!
What most people don't realize is that reality is not some pre-destined fate - our future reality is shaped entirely by our expectations, and our expectations are in turn influenced by how we CHOOSE to interpret the current reality.
Example: A person can look for all the ways affiliate marketing CAN'T work, and list all the downsides of being an affiliate marketer. In turn this will set his expectations which will result in a negative outcome.
Fortunately, the opposite would also be true. This is why you need to keep the dream alive until you see actual profits (and you WILL as long as you maintain positive expectations!) Once you taste success you'll never look back, but going from 0 to 1 is the hardest part of the journey.
Reading about other people's success will help a ton in that regard - you'll find plenty in the Success Stories section:
https://stmforum.com/forum/forumdisp...uccess-Stories
First and foremost, you need to convince yourself that this "affiliate marketing thing" works. Everything else should come second. If you don't believe you can do it, not even the best course in the world (which the 6WAMC probably is - at least one of the best if not THE best) will be able to change the way you shape your subjective reality.
But I can tell that you're on an uptrend because first you met that acquaintance of yours (please thank him for us for having sent you here), then you joined this forum, and then the course - these in themselves are positive signs that you're building momentum in the right direction. And without believing that AM may just work, you wouldn't have rendezvous'ed with this series of events/people. So things are on the up and up I'd say.
I wish you all the success in the world - and do keep us posted on your progress. Also - although I know the 6WAMC teaching team provides fantastic support - feel free to ask any questions here as well.
Amy
Thank you Amy! You can't imagine what your message means to me. 
An update is coming at the end of this week, complete with new insights and challenges! I love this game though, so many things to learn, so many people to meet, so many possibilities. Stay tuned...Now, it's back into the 6WAMC cave!
Hey!
6WAMC Alumus here. I was a part of cohort 4x in Febuary and have to say it was the most comprehensive course I've ever taken in my life, period. And I dont for a minute regret a single penny spent, regardless of the fact that im still in -ROI. You will be equipped with every tool in your arsenal to succeed. Period.
Im a long time lurker, but figured I want to give you a quick heads up as to what to except after the course, that way your prepared for the challenges to come.
Everyone gets hyped during, but honestly i dont see too many people talking about what happens after, so here i am to let you know my experience.
First off, the course is called 6 week amc.
It is a great course name (great angle), but you will not absorb everything in 6 weeks. To even attempt to "master" the material in 6 weeks time would be the biggest delusion you can tell yourself. Ever.
Trust me, I tried, it didnt end up well.
After the 6 weeks i had a few profitable xxx/days and was able to break even.
But, i ran out of cash flow, had to take some months off to save up, and now Im back with a significantly higher budget ready to stick with ONE traffic source and ONE vertical.
In the time i took off to save up budget, I went through a long rut and serious information overload which caused me to make rash decisions and as a result burning out mentally, and running out of budget.
You will need budget. At least $3000-$5000 usd. Also try not to split your money on too many networks, otherwise cashflow and payments will be an issue due to high thresholds. Pick 3 to work with at a time.
Do not let AM's sway you to try new hot offers with amazing epc's and hot verticals because EVERYONE will be telling you different things. You need to be grounded.
This is perhaps in my opinion the biggest negative aspect of the 6wamc, youll basically have like 8ams who WANT to work with you because they know you will be a quality affiliate and theyll be telling you what you should try, and you as a noob will listen. They are there to help you, yes, but attempting to listen to them all will deter you.
Pick one that others are proven to make money on and stick to it.
My biggest mistake and one that i believe should be hammered in your head over and over again before even touching higher payout offers ($5 and up), was running past statistical significance.
Please for the love of god, go over the video on statistical significance as many times as you need before making uncalculated cutting decisions.
Even then, thats not enough.
Read caurmens posts on statistical significance untill it hurts your head.
Then take a break and proceed to read amys threads.
Then go back to caurmans
Then the video again.
And repeat this as many times as possible until you can grasp and incorperate these concepts. Please do it.
Do this as many times neccesary to UNDERSTAND statistical significance,
It will save you so much money over the long run.
This is the most important aspect of not burning through budget quickly and unnecessarily.
If i could go back in time id slap myself silly and say STOP NOW AND LEARN HOW TO USE BAYESIAN SPLIT TEST CALCULATORS, PEAK CONVERSION AND BINOMIAL CONFIDENCE INTERVALS before doing anything else.
And pick .08 cent offers to practice on, you will get data very fast and be able to go through the motions. Dont expect to make money off this process. Work on breaking even.
I know im a lurker but i owe so much to STM so i just wanted to share my experience for everyone to read.
I'll post more often now that im back,
Best of luck.
Ps Amy, Shishev and all the teachers were extremely helpfull and patient throughout the course,
Thanks guys.
Originally Posted by lancelee123
I definitely remember you, glad to see you're still around and clearly have a great mindset about things now. The fact you are hammering in the idea of statistical significance, low payout testing, focusing and so on shows you definitely are on the track to success (and have weathered the fires of AM heh).
I'd like to also fortify some of your points as above:
1 - mastering in 6 weeks. You are right, absolutely impossible, hence why we currently give access for a full year for people to continually go through it.
The most important part of the 6 weeks is having unfettered access to guidance and mentorship from amazing teachers like @vortex, @shishev and our army of experienced teaching assistants that are now involved. These people could charge thousands for consulting for a few hours but are sticking around for 6 weeks of no-bullshit discussions and teaching, so its absolutely invaluable and not something you can get anywhere else.
If anything, the 6 week period should be characterised by taking action and dedicating time to get the most value out of it, not a goal of mastering anything. Much like how a 6 week physical training bootcamp would be to break through psychological barriers, build good habits and set you on a path where you can manage your own fitness and training easily.
2 - Don't let AMs sway you -- indeed this is a lesson for AM in general. The 6 Week AMC has a lot of partnerships and this of course comes with connections with many affiliate network reps and active communication from them. But we try to cut through the noise by having recommended offers and our own suggestions to help people focus. Just a reality of it all -- AMs have their own interests to grow! We try to make this clear to networks but of course they will want to email everyone newsletters about the best offers to run and so on. Just focus on what the AMC teachers recommend first, focus is important.
3 - Statistical significance -- preach it baby! Understanding the importance of basing decisions on objective, impartial calculations is critical to getting through AM and finding consistency. Combining this with low payout (and often higher CVR) offers is a great combo to get ahead and to learn how to make your data work for you, not against you (or your stress levels).
Once again, great feedback Lance, really candid and I think anyone who is new to AM or looking to become a 6 Week AMC success story should pay close attention.
I nodded all the way through your post - but I'm not going to fortify the points you made, because zeno has already done that.
Right now I'm busy finishing the newbie tutorial - I am definitely incorporating some of what you said in your post, into the lessons. This is very valuable advice for newbies.
And I want to say thank you - thank you for taking the course, and thank you for your feedback. This means a lot.
All the best with your current and future endeavors!
Amy
The chatter on slack is incredible. Almost 10K messages already.
End of Week 3 Report
First of all thanks to@digitaldreamsmktg, @vortex, @manu_adefy, @666666, @lancelee123 and@zeno for all your kind words of encouragement and tips for startingmy AM career. I am humbled that all of you took the time to write areply/PM.
We're already halfway done? Wow, thisweek blew by fast! We’re in the thick of things now, peoplerunning campaigns, getting over technical issues, getting results. Many like me are filled to the brim with information, making me feellike we’re certainly getting our money’s worth!
My own progress:
I got sick last weekend, mostly becauseI thought I was still 21 years old and can handle staying up until1am for consecutive days, and eating junk food like a student, allwhile working full time.
I had to take a day or two off to healmyself.
Despite that, I have been able to get ahandle on how trackers work, and also how to hook everything up: traffic source to tracker, then tracker to lander, then pingback fromoffer conversion, and pingback to traffic source (drawing pictureshelped). I got off a test campaign $5 from Zeropark to FunnelFlux toan Afflow link.
Unfortunately, the geo and carrier/ISPdata did not make it to the tracker, despite the fact that all propertokens were used. Two other students had the same issue with FunnelFlux, so one of the moderators escalated the issue with FF (such isthe power of hooking on to STM’s coattails). So far, noresolution, but it is the weekend.
This leaves me dead in the water fornow as far as running campaigns. I seriously thought about moving toVoluum, especially since I’m running Zeropark traffic. But I willsit tight until early next week to give FF a chance to help me debugthe problem. It’ll also give me a chance to catch up with thevideos.
RE: Videos, there were a lot of them: Conversion theory, how DSPs work, mobile display offers. I'm justgetting my feet wet with pops, and now we’re moving to mobiledisplay! I’ve changed my thinking from keeping up in the course tofocusing on the foundation and leaving some of the other things forlater.
@Zeno put it best. He said there isabsolutely no way anyone is going to become a master of all of thethings necessary in 6 weeks. And that’s true, taking a longer termexpectation is the best approach.
Most important aha moments andinsights:
- Focus is paramount for success. At this point in my AM career, trying every different geo, vertical, type of lander, offer, traffic source, etc is easy (and tempting) to do, but not the right thing. Figuring out a vertical, and a geo or two is my goal.
- All AMs are there to help, but be careful they are not a distraction or pull you in a direction where you don’t need to go yet.
- Talking about problems and exchanging ideas help solidify my understanding. I chat with my classmates in slack and also skype daily, and interact with the moderators every chance I get. Did I mention I’m getting my money’s worth?
- Campaign automation is in the back of my mind. I’m not there yet, but since I have an electrical engineering background, the possibilities seem vast with all the APIs available with the traffic sources, trackers, etc.
- Thanks for @666666 and @lancelee123 for the insight of testing and statistical significance. These were big words of wisdom. I think I underestimated the importance of this until I dove into the suggested material in more depth. Now all I need is campaign data so I can have something to analyze.
Finally, my curiosity in “does this $hit actually work?” is more positive this week, thanks to the reply from @vortex, as well as a good chat with a course moderator/expert. I have a positive expectation about the whole experience. But I also still struggle daily with whether I myself can actually do this, at my age, with all the restrictions on time I have, with all the life distractions, etc etc. I can see this will be a constant battle as I move through my journey.
Onto to Week #4! I’m focused on resolving my FF tracker issues, so I can move to running campaigns so I can get the data I need. This is the goal for week #4.
Please chime in with any thoughts,kicks in the butt, or inspiring insights. I’ve been helped by manypeople to keep me on track to this point, and need all the help I canget going forward.
Week 4 Update:
Definite progress this week! I have overcome my funnelflux tracker issues, a couple of server setup issues, and now I’m set for now from a technical perspective. (Kudos to the support team at FF.)
After overcoming these technical issues, I moved onto to getting comfortable running campaigns. Did I get my tokens correct? Did I set up the campaigns in the traffic sources correctly? Did I put the postback URL in the right place? I ran 3 test campaigns, mostly to gain confidence that the whole path was working, and that I was getting traffic sent to the correct places. All went fine.
In one of the test campaigns, I identified a funny GEO, a Tier 3 with low volume at 0.10 CPM bid. Here were the stats:
Traffic source: PopAds
Bid: 0.10 CPM
Offer: Global vAuto Afflow link
Traffic cost: 14 cents (over 3 days, lol)
Clicks: 1338
Leads: 5
Revenue: $1.70
It was the only green geo in my $10 test.
Ok, it’s pathetic numbers, I know, but I’m still happy to have data to play with!
So, wanting to practice my optimization skills, I found the Afflow offer that was converting, and broke out a separate campaign targeting this Geo and offer. I didn’t get much traffic in PopAds despite upping my bid to $1 CPM, so I decided to try Zeropark and PropellerAds, just to see if any more volume is available. I'll have a report later.
While all this is going on, I’m editing 4 landers for sweeps, with offers based on recommendations from my AM’s suggestion. This will be this week’s goal.
The main points this week were:
-Every student is now at a point where they can test, test, test! An amazing accomplishment in 4 weeks. Or maybe not so amazing, but when I started the course, it was impossible for me to visualize I’d be at this point.
-Partnering up and masterminding is also main on the list. I have found 2 who are at a similar level in ability and speed. We will be setting up the mastermind to continue working together after the course end.
- Every affiliate needs to find their own unique advantage. It could be putting up campaigns faster, specializing in a vertical or geo (or both), using skills to find private offers, etc etc. This will be an ongoing process for me to find my place and advantage in the AM world.
As for believability, I have spoken to enough people to know that the AM really exists. People make a nice living and more doing this, but it requires a ton of work over a period of time. But that’s the good news, right? You want people filtered out by their commitment level. Unfortunately for some, commitment alone won’t do it. You have to have the money to pull this off, which might mean being resourceful enough to find the money.
One of my classmates joined because he was working as an affiliate manager and saw affiliates gathering 10k to 15k in revenue per day. Even if your ROI is only 10%, that’s over $1k per day.
But seriously, I personally have to put blinders to all the glitz and glamour of what’s possible: Affiliates checking their campaign stats overlooking the beach, or providing profit numbers of $x,xxx/day. It screws me up to think about the fabulous end game. I end up not getting any work done! Damn, enough of this status report too. Back to building my landers, testing, and to the week 5 videos.
Lots of progress!
Bid: 0.10 CPM
Offer: Global vAuto Afflow link
Traffic cost: 14 cents (over 3 days, lol)
Clicks: 1338
Leads: 5
Revenue: $1.70
It was the only green geo in my $10 test.
Ok, it’s pathetic numbers, I know, but I’m still happy to have data to play with!
So, wanting to practice my optimization skills, I found the Afflow offer that was converting, and broke out a separate campaign targeting this Geo and offer. I didn’t get much traffic in PopAds despite upping my bid to $1 CPM, so I decided to try Zeropark and PropellerAds, just to see if any more volume is available. I'll have a report later.
The hardest thing about going from no profits to profits, and from tiny profits to small profits to bigger profits, is to build your EXPECTATIONS to the point of BELIEF. It's difficult to believe that something is possible when you haven't seen yourself do it. And starting small would be the easiest way to get over that initial hump.
One thing to keep in mind though, is that when you bid differently, you will get traffic from different placements.
Generally speaking, some placements convert better than others. And people - your competitors - that have been running in your chosen geo+carrier+whatever for a few days, would already know which placements convert well, and which ones convert badly or not at all.
The result? Your competitors would blacklist placements that aren't giving them profits, then bid higher for the ones that are profitable, in order to get more traffic from those good placements.
Bid prices are thereby driven up for the good placements. Therefore, the lower you bid, the more of your traffic will consist of the less-wanted placements, and the higher you bid, the more of your traffic will come from the desired placements.
All of which will result in the bolded statement made above.
Thus, testing different bids is essential. What I would suggest is: Take your current camp, cut placements that are in loss by 2 times payout in spend, then clone the campaign and increase the bid of this new campaign to $0.30 or $0.50, say. I usually recommend increasing the bid in $0.50-$2.00 increments or more, because if you bid too closely together, you'll likely get pretty much the same traffic distributions from similar placements as your original camp. But if you're just starting out and have more time than money, or want to get as much experience as possible without spending too much budget, then smaller increments could be justified.
You can repeat this process, i.e. cut placements for this new cloned camp, then clone it again and bid higher, and cut another batch of placements, then clone it again and bid yet higher...
Eventually you may just have multiple profitable camps running at different bids, targeting different placements. Don't be afraid to test high bids, as sometimes by doing so, you will trigger traffic from the creme-of-the-crop placements, that you wouldn't otherwise get traffic from (since everyone's bidding high just to get a piece!)
Not saying you should spend ALL your time dreaming, but dreaming is actually very conducive to manifesting a desired future. Ever heard of the law of attraction?
That dream may not be as far off as you believe either. There are lots of places in the world - e.g. Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam... - where the cost of living is a lot lower than in first-world countries (I don't remember which country you're from, but my guess would be that it's an English-speaking, first-world, developed country?) So, in order to make your version of the dream life a reality - i.e. being one of the "affiliates checking their campaign stats overlooking the beach" - you DON'T need to be doing 4-figure days. Heck, you probably don't even need to be doing 3-figures/day! Google "average salary in [city]" for some of the major cities in the countries I've listed and you'll see what I mean. Once you can work from anywhere in the world that has wifi, your world will open up. So, do keep the dream alive, and you'll get there when you get there!
Amy
Week 6 Final Update: Commencement!
So the bittersweet journey of the 6 week challenge has come to an end. It was a wild ride, fraught with turbulence from interior and exterior forces. Nothing like a short 6-week burst of activity to help define character. This last entry will be short, as there is much to do going forward. I’m reminded of my old high school English teacher, who emphasized that “Commencement” does not mean “graduation”, it means “beginning”. I am at the beginning…
Accomplishments
· Reached my goal: I feel I accomplished my goal to obtain a foundation of how to run an affiliate media buying campaign. Offer selection, tracker, hosting, pre-lander, offer page, postbacks, optimization. I’m by no means an expert, but I feel comfortable with my foundation. This probably shaved a year or so off my learning curve. Self grade: A.
· Networking: My skype account is now full of fellow students, affiliate managers, traffic managers, and more experienced affiliates. I’ve started a solid base of people to network and help in the future. Self grade: A
·Belief that AM is real: It’s tough to say I’ve “accomplished” something here. Let’s just say I moved the needle where there is enough belief to pursue this in earnest. I will really feel I’ve accomplished this when I can say I ran my first profitable campaign to a few thousand dollars. Self grade: B-, but getting better.
To be accomplished
1. A profitable campaign: I’ll get there with systematic testing and time and focus. This I have no doubt. But I still have to do it, so I’ll need persistence and diligence here. Really this is my next big major milestone.
2. Attending an event: Many of my classmates are attending Affilliate World in Bangkok, but I can’t possibly make it. ASW in January is my target.
My direction: I will be pursuing a FB ads strategy with ecom product emphasis, in Tier 1/2 countries. This might evolve into doing native ads, depending upon testing. Anyone who has experience and would like to chat, hit me up on skype: roger.paje
In fact, anyone who wants to talk AM, hit me up on Skype. I love to talk the subject, help people out where I can, and generally just talk shop.
Ok, time to get that lander up on my first ecom product. Good luck to all my fellow graduates and all other starting AM’ers here!
Falcon - once again, much appreciation for all the valuable feedback you've provided regarding the 6WAMC. Ecomm is all the rage these days. Consider starting a thread in this section to get feedback on your store:
https://stmforum.com/forum/forumdisp...-On-Your-Store
Looking forward to seeing you succeed in the very near future! It's been fun following the first part of your journey, and I hope that you'll continue to keep us posted on how you do!
All the best...
Amy
@vortex, thanks so much for your feedback an encouragement! You have so many important insights and tips, and even more importantly encouragement. I don't think my journey to this point would have been as fun without the interaction with you and Jason, David, Ben, and Jeremy, the instructors from our course. I hope to meet you one day at one of the events in person!
Thanks for this amazing writeup Falcon. So happy to hear that the course delivered on helping you build a foundation as an affiliate media buyer. I know that's exactly what Zeno designed it to be, and what all the AMC strives for it to be.
Falcon - great write up. I enjoyed spending time chatting with you during the course and look forward to continuing to do so.
Amy and Lance - your comments were awesome. I'm totally new to AM, and going through this course was like drinking water from a fire hose. I've got much to learn, and your comments were dead on and very helpful! I've been lurking here on STM for a little bit, and will try to become more active and talk about how I am doing....
Great post Falcon! and thanks for sharing the experiences. 6WAMC was truly amazing and has definitely changed my perspective of AM - and most importantly helped me become profitable too
EComm is definitely the next big trend and I would like to jump on it too very soon along with FB marketing .
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