Home > > Newbie Follow-Alongs

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Rags to Riches, Complete Noob to Boss Mode (44)

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DAY 1

Joined STM today as planned. Previously I watched some videos online and offline, did some research, read a lot, and joined a free forum(affiliatefix) to learn the basics, lingo, and ask my most newbie questions.

My goal: 1k+ USD in January(profit after expenses)

My Actions/Expenses so far: Time - Reading Forum Posts/Newbie guides, $99 - STM, $0.95 - Domain

Pending Actions/Expenses: $99 - Voluum, Time - Reading/replying to forum posts for clarity.

More information can be found in my Intro post: https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...i-from-Arizona

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Joined Voluum $99/mo

Joined Clickbooth, awaiting pending review of application.

Starting reading about various traffic types to make a good choice when I choose a Vertical and Offer.

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Good luck man, sounds like you are ready to go!

I'm not sure if you already did this or not, but you should definitely apply to a couple other affiliate networks as well. Clickbooth can be tough to get into if you are new.

Maxbounty is pretty beginner friendly

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DAY 2

Application to Clickbooth was denied. Unsure why. Probably because it was obvious I was a noob.

Unsure what to do next, so reading more while I wait for replies to some of my questions.

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Just an FYI... STM has a kool script that you can use to apply for multiple CPA networks. Keep in mind though, STM DO NOT endorse any CPA networks. The script provides an easy way to apply to multiple noob friendly networks. I just cannot find the thread with that specific script. But do a search for CPA network script or cpa networks, you are bound to find that thread.

Good Luck, Justin. Keep hustling.

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justinoj is just a nickname..

Thanks, I'll search for that now. Sounds interesting, but I don't want to go overboard, I want to find one offer and one traffic source and master it until I can scale.. at 3 months I'll add another vertical or setup another campaign. Unless I get banned or something for not making enough leads or money or whatever, then obviously I'll have to set up a new campaign anyway.

CPA network script.. can't seem to find anything like what you're talking about. I'll keep looking.

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Had some help getting into Clickbooth.

Setup Amazon AWS/S3.

Chose a vertical. Chose two Offers.

Joined some traffic providers.. Content.ad and RevContent.

Chose an incorporation date for LLC.. 15th Jan. (preliminary, will reincorporate at a later more optimal date)

Action to take before LLC, get EIN.

Action to take right after. Get mailbox for business address. (NOT PO BOX)

Other actions to take this month:

Setup LinkedIn
Setup simple website with company name and simple copy for branding.
Setup 800 number if necessary.
Open bank account with LLC.

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I think call_me_x meant this - https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...iliate+network

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Thank you. I was typing affiliate, when it had aff in it, shortened word wasn't in my mind when I searched.

Once I get my first campaign under my belt and running successfully, I'll see about using this tool. I want to concentrate for now only on one thing and master it.

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DAY 3

Started researching spy tools. Next step is to spy on some ads from the network I joined, collect mobile image sizes, do some research on my vertical keywords and slogans and use my copy writing knowledge to come up with my own or improve on the ones I've found through spying.

Might go to some parties in Vegas to network, haven't planned that out yet, have to figure out babysitting and etc.

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DAY 4

Starting to feel how the Hulk must feel.

Got approved to some spy tools. Waiting on some approvals. In the meantime trying to set up a test campaign so when all approval done can just edit and enable. Tried following newbie guide, concepts make sense, but details don't match what I'm doing, so now I'm lost and frustrated. Probably look back on this in a week and wonder why I was such an ubernoob.

Swiped a generic relevant to my Vertical ad from google search to use for the test.
Set up Amazon s3(nightmare for some reason)
Set up a fake landing page.
Added a pixel to Clickbooth.

Now to test the page, tracking, etc. and see if it's all good to go.

It's not.. something wrong with the Voluum campaign setup, wants unique offers, but the clickbooth link put the two offers together from the group and it's as if it's one offer?

Will have to start over and ungroup the offers.. Voluum can't process a group I guess.

Just cut out 1 offer instead for testing. It works. Now I need to learn tokens.

Well, my LP test succeeds and fails at same time.. seems to work on desktop, but mobile 400 request error. I have no idea why.

Seems to work now, except on my phone, apparently my phone is infected or something.. idk.

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Sympathy! Hosting and tracking setup is always a nightmare the first time you do it.

Don't worry, once you get it working once it'll all become a lot more straightforward - until you upgrade or change something in your system

Phone errors - your phone may be caching the lander, which explains why you're getting a 400 error - it's cached that as the result. Try it on a friend's phone and see if it works there.

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Thanks X! Justinoj - I've linked to that tool in this relevant lesson I just posted yesterday on applying for more networks (perfect timing!):

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...liate-Networks

As for setting up tracking on Voluum for Clickbooth offers - I THINK they use CAKE but not sure - you can verify with them - then set up tracking according to the instructions here:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...pbystep-voluum

Best of luck - I'll be following along!



Amy

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DAY 5

Didn't do much AM related, most of the day spent going to a nearby city to pickup a rental car to drive to Vegas, which is where I'm at now.

When I got home approvals I'd been waiting on were done, had some skype conversations, read a little bit. Went to bed early so could get up early to go by car to Vegas.

DAY 6

Drove to Vegas, wasn't as far away as I'd imagined, about 4 hours.. not bad. Though my neck would disagree, it doesn't like travel by car.

Got here, got setup, good to go. Used to live here so hung out with some people I know here.

DAY 7

Looking for useful networking events, I'm not a drinker/smoker/partier so I don't care much for loud music and yelling a simple phrase 5x to get it heard, will attend the Clickbooth after event for sure. Other than that not seeing much except maybe affiliate party on Monday night. Might RSVP for that, not sure. This is my first time going to AM related conference, not sure how to maximize my time here yet.

Going to try to do some spying today, want to get my first real campaign up and running, got the test one up..

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Day 8 & 9

Met with as many ASW 2018 attendees as possible, make connections, network.

Day 10

Still in Vegas.

Finally getting around to spying. Doing that today.. taking notes.. getting overview.

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Day 11

Coming down off being in Vegas, air horrible here, sinuses all out of whack. Didn't do much today.

Day 12

Setting up a campaign.

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Networking can definitely be one of the most value-added activities. Hope you get some rest after all the excitement!

BTW do you have plans to come to AWE in the summer as well? It will be in Barcelona this year:

https://affiliateworldconferences.com/europe/

Looking forward to seeing some stats once you have them!



Amy

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Day 13

On Day 12 and 13, spent more time trying to figure out why things yet again weren't working properly on AWS hosting. Did manage to swipe a landing page.. Swipe Improve Implement. Still working on the implement thing.. today(16)

Day 14

Did jack.. just relaxed and didn't even think about AM.

Day 15

Drove home, dropped off rental car, unpacked and got organized.

Day 16

Time to get back to work, behind schedule by a week. Need to finish setting up campaign. Implement LP, set up tokens and such. Put money in bank, buy traffic, etc.

LP fine except for link to offer, broken again, not sure why. Somewhere in the setting up tokens and such something went wrong. Horribly wrong.
Traffic source doing something with card, waiting for approval.
Made myself a flowchart/checklist to try to troubleshoot issue with LP.
Checklist to Ensure Working


Affiliate Network


Offer Group
Offer
Tracking Pixel has Right postback URL from Voluum


Voluum


Landers Setup properly
Offers Setup properly
Campaigns Setup properly


AWS S3


index.html file proper
images proper


(landing page)


funnel works
signup link works

Obviously missing something, as I had it working, then it didn't, then I got it working, but it was going to wrong offer, somehow broke it trying to fix which offer LP went to.

I'm feeling the pressure now. Day 16, 0 cents made, feels like no progress. Met a lot of people at ASW.. most seem to not be high performance, just there in Vegas to party or because it was their job. Not regretting my choice entirely to go to ASW, but it put a huge dent in my progress or lack thereof at this point. I should have had a campaign up and running week 1.

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Day 17

Haven't figured out the issue yet. Had some offline things to take care of. Hopefully will figure it out tonight.

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One foot in front of the other - you'll get there!

If you're still having trouble with the lander issue, do post about it here and we'll all flock in to help!

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Thanks caurmen. Not sure where the problem lies. Everything was working fine, whole funnel worked as necessary, until I noticed it was going to wrong offer. Then, as soon as I changed the offer in Voluum and setup a new pixel in the AN, poof.. now error again and funnel broken. I made myself the checklist, ran over it 3 times last night, can't seem to figure out where the issue lies.. in the AN or Voluum..

And, I figured out why my card denied for traffic, because you don't just add a card I guess.. but upload your campaign and THEN they approve card IF campaign approved. So, need to fix this campaign, so I can get it approved, and running.

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I don't know. If I'm making my goal of 100k/month profit by then, I'll think about it, but I feel maybe it's better to just focus and not be distracted by all the new ideas until you're kind of a veteran, like after a year or 2. People were pulling me in so many directions with their advice, just left me doubting things I had already decided, so I edited myself and just went back to what I originally planned.

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Hear you completely. Fair enough.

Regarding your setup - if in doubt, you can always go over the tutorial again:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...ntro-and-Index

If that still doesn't work - let me know and I'll suggest something else.



Amy

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Day 18 and 19

Pretty much just in bed these two days, 106 fever, flu really hit me hard when I got home from Vegas.

Still trying to figure out why campaign isn't working. I wish there was some kind of flow chart to follow and bam done.

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Day 20

Most of the day in bed, but got a little energy, so went over everything again. Read some guides and such. Feel like I'm going backwards, it's just not working, 2 weeks behind schedule.



Is this proper setup? I'm gonna post screenshots until I figure this out. I wanna get this fixed and ready so when it unpauses Sunday night at midnight it'll just run. Going back to bed, will check back later. Thank ahead of time for any help resolving this.

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Day 21

Noticed I had nothing set up under Flows in Voluum, but the tutorial for Voluum says "2)In Voluum, go to "Flows" > "Offers" > "+ New Offer". Copy the "Postback URL"." there's no such thing in Voluum. Offers is its own tab.

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Apparently Voluum has changed their interface since I wrote that lesson - this keeps happening with every tool/website I describe in the tutorial. Such is the downside of doing a step-by-step guide - it needs to be updated often, and since I can't recheck every step every day or even every week/month, I'm mainly relying all of you to let me know when there are discrepancies. So thanks for letting me know! I'll update the lesson to reflect this change.


OK - I see a couple of problems:

1)Your offer link in Voluum: Do NOT use one parameter to track several variables! {clickid} is all you need - don't tag on the others such as {country}{region}{carrier}. (Plus, these pieces of data are automatically detected and recorded by Voluum anyways. No need to pass them to the aff network.) ALSO, you're using the wrong tokens. The aff network's tokens are {subid1} through {subid5}, not {aff_sub1} etc. In addition to {clickid} I would also suggest to pass the {campaign.id} token, just in case if you run into lead quality issues later on, the aff network will have the option of telling you whether ALL your campaigns or specific campaigns are causing quality issues (so you'd have the option of just stopping the problem camps instead of getting kicked from the offer altogether).

Your offer link should look like this:

http://track.clickbooth.com/c/aff?lid=54212&subid1={campaign.id}&subid2={clickid }

Actually - this aff link looks a bit strange. Could you please show me the aff link you originally copied from Clickbooth for that offer? The tokens I append are correct. I'm just not sure about the first part of the link.

2)Your postback that you put at Clickbooth:

It should look like this:

http://milips-ecutrican.com/postback?cid={subid2}&payout={payout}


Try that and see if it works.




Amy

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Amy,

Thanks so much for taking the time to clarify.

I'll edit the links, and post that link you asked for here:

I assume you mean this one? I have two links in ClickBooth, this one I'm pasting and a "tracking pixel" one.

track.clickbooth.com/c/aff?lid=54212&subid1=&subid2=&subid3=&subid4=&subi d5=&creative_id=

OH, And..

http://track.clickbooth.com/c/aff?lid=54212&subid1=&subid2=&subid3=&subid4=&subi d5=&creative_id=&aff_sub={campaign.id}&aff_sub2={c lickid} was how my Voluum offer link was.. I see the issue now. One of the guides I was following said to just append that on the end. (don't know if was STM guide or charles ngo guide) I'll remedy this error.

Thanks.

EDIT: And, my campaign url from Voluum is the proper one to put into my landing page to go to the offer, right? Because that's what I did, but it doesn't go through.

[FIXED][Opened index.html in browser, inspected element on the button, found the error]I also found a problem with my LP code, one of the buttons doesn't work, not the biggest deal in the world but even though it's a fake funnel it should work at least when you click on buttons. I gotta go over it again, try to find it, it might be in the css cause I'm not finding it in the HTML..

Noticed a different error after I corrected some of the javascript, now my LP.. it doesn't go to offer, it loops back on itself? displays a deprecated voluum.. so I'm guessing something wrong with voluum pushing through to the offer? My voluum url for lander is my domain, is this incorrect?

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Eek! The offer url is not the tracking pixel url! Please ask your AM where you can get the aff link for the offer. I thought that url looked strange, because most aff links (offer links) would contain at least 2 numbers - your affiliate ID and the offer ID. But your link only had one (54212).

Also: I'm really glad you mentioned what you've put on your lander, because the Voluum campaign url is NOT it! Voluum campaign url is for putting at the traffic source. On the lander you would put the Voluum click url, which you can find here: Voluum settings (gear icon) > Tracking URLs > Click URL.

Please fix these and let's see where we get. And please paste the affiliate link you got from Clickbooth, and show how you appended the tokens (you'll need to do that when pasting the link into Voluum as an offer).



Amy

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Replies in bold.

Also, how do I know it's actually going through all my setup and not being hijacked, cause my affid in Clickbooth doesn't match the one that pops up after LP sends to offer, it's a different number.

And, I just learned something no one tells you, apparently if it's a mobile offer and you go on desktop it'll redirect to another offer from the AN. So, tested it on my phone, instead of redirecting to another offer it gives me a 400 Bad Request. (same on son's phone)

Used the first link, cause it's only 1 offer.

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It's OK - we've all been newbies at one point.

Regarding the redirection - are you browsing from a geo that's accepted by the offer? If not, you'll need to use a VPN set to a geo that IS accepted by the offer, in order to see the offer. Otherwise the aff network would sense that you're not from an accepted geo, and instead of "wasting" the traffic, would send you to an offer that does accept your geo.


Check your stats after logging into your Clickbooth account - if clicks are showing up for the offer you intended to promote, and the number of clicks is similar to what's recorded in Voluum, then you know you've set up tracking correctly.


Oh yes - forget to mention that at the start of this post - in addition to browsing from a geo that's accepted by the offer, you'd need to be browsing from a device that's accepted by the offer as well (same goes for any other offer requirements - OS, browser, etc.)

If you think you're browsing from the right geo+device+whatever else and STILL not seeing the offer - ask your AM. Note: If the offer accepts only mobile carrier traffic, then it wouldn't be easy to see the actual offer, unless you have a SIM card from the specific carrier AND an active data plan. There are emulators and services that can allow you to view such offers but most are expensive.

The best way would just be to set up a camp and send a bit of actual traffic to the offer, and then check offer stats at your aff network to make sure the traffic is ending up at the right offer. (Of course it'd also be wise to verify with your AM that the offer is still active first.)


Yup - you'd only use the second one if you're wanting to display several links on the same lander, each leading to a different offer.


Let me know how you get on - we'll keep troubleshooting until you get it working.



Amy

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So I don't need to fix the fact the I get a bad request error?

I did some research on the 400 Bad Request error. Did everything I could think of to fix it on my end. So, either the http://milips-ecutrican.com/click in my LP is not working right? Or.. the site is down for the offer? It's weird to me that this keeps happening every time I fix something, I'm following your instructions exactly. Does it mean something in this chain of URLs is broken or?

Also, was that link you asked for the right one, or no?

http://www.meet-asian-lady.net/?afid...&utm_campaign=

And, is there a way to post the URL without it hyperlinking? I tried removing formatting, unlink button, and paste as plain text, it still shows as link.

Also, sent you a PM.

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Day 22, and now 23 as well

Still trying to figure out the 400 Bad Request error I'm getting from my landing page.

Maybe should switch to direct linking? The LP is overkill anyway maybe.

No idea how I would do that, been focusing on my LP this whole time.

Starting to think Voluum the problem, clicks show up on AN. 0 on Voluum.

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No one flocked. Vortex only helpful member so far, she's an AM Saint.

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Are you browsing to your lander url directly and clicking on the Voluum click url?

If so, then of course you will get an error - the lander itself won't know which offer to send you to!

You'll need to add the offer and the lander to Voluum, then create a voluum campaign and specify the offer and lander in the campaign settings. THEN browse to the Voluum campaign url - land on the lander - only then you can click on the voluum click url and be redirected to the correct offer.

Just to clarify further:

When you browse directly to the lander and click on the outgoing link, you won't get anywhere.

When you browse to the voluum campaign url to get to the lander, and THEN click on the outgoing link, voluum would send you to the offer.

And yes - the aff link you provided looks correct!


I'm not sure how to circumvent that either (or whether you even can), but having an url show up as a link is OK - all I need to do is mouse-over for the entire link to show.


LOL the reason why they didn't flock was because I got to you first. Lots of helpful members on this forum, of which I'm only one.



Amy

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Amy,

Thanks. I think it makes sense now. And, my phone definitely infected I guess, didn't think android could be infected. When I clicked to go to offer, it redirected me like 4 maybe 5 URLs, then a popup if I don't do some nonsense my phone will be locked.

Figured out my browser was hijacked, so just uninstalled it, reinstalled it.

Now to setup traffic. Setup a campaign boost. Not sure if I did it right, but it's paused, so I can fix it if not. Setup 5 boosts..

Now, have to wait for campaign to be approved and CC to be approved I guess, Idk.

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Day 24

Still waiting on RevC -- 1 piece of my content was denied, unknown why, so just turned it off.

And, offer paused already, reached its budget. *Sigh* -- Started looking for new offer, found out ALL dating is capped, daily or weekly by traffic volume or budget. So, WHY would ANYONE recommend this for a newbie? How am I supposed to get consistent data with RANDOM caps happening so I can't learn how to optimize and etc?

I have no choice now, but to pick a new vertical, and a new offer.. and pretty much start all over. This is utter bs. I'm not taking advice from anyone ever again, it's all bad advice, some advice for anyone following my follow along.. DO NOT TAKE ADVICE FROM ANYONE NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE..

DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
PICK YOUR OWN VERTICAL
PICK YOUR OWN OFFER(S)


ONLY take advice when it comes to technical, and be weary then, if they aren't running your traffic source-AVOID, if they aren't using the same affiliate network--AVOID, if they aren't using the same tracking like Voluum actively--AVOID.

One thing I learned so far.. things change fast in AM.. people don't necessarily intend to give bad advice but end up doing so anyway because things have changed since they were last aware of what they're telling you.

Picked a new Vertical, current AN doesn't have any offers, so looking for new AN(s) that have offer in new Vertical.

Joined AdCombo, allegedly easy to get into, and it has offers in Vertical I chose. Waiting on an AM to get in touch.

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Try not to let things get to you - it's all about resolving issues as they come, and keep adjusting and testing until you succeed. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true.

Many good CPA offers nowadays have caps. It all comes down to whether you can generate enough profits for your AM to allocate more of it to you.

Also, make sure the caps are network-wide and doesn't only apply to you. Often, new affiliates are subject to offer caps just so the aff network could verify lead quality before lifting it.

Be patient and keep on testing. Advice from other people + your own experience combined can get you there.



Amy

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It's not getting to me, it just forces my hand, I take action fast and move fast when I know what I'm doing.. following others advice makes me stall and confuses me when it doesn't make sense.

Amy, do you have any articles on this site about the difference between Flow and Path using Voluum?

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Nothing wrong with following your own intuition as well - after all, you're the only person that you can be sure doesn't have any hidden agendas that may infringe on your best interest. But I wouldn't stop listening to advice altogether. I've met lots of people that had great advice to give. It's a matter of filtering out most of the bad, then testing some of the remainder to find out what works or not.

Here's how Voluum explains what Flows and Paths are:



More info on how flows work:

http://feedback.Voluum.com/knowledge...hin-a-new-look

Basically, a PATH can only be set up for a particular campaign, but a FLOW can be reused across multiple campaigns.

Just try setting up a campaign for each arrangement - seeing it in action will trump reading any explanations.



Amy

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This made me laugh

Hey Justinoj! We me at the Clickbooth party. Looks like you're taking good action on here.

Technical: You aren't allowed to direct link from native sources to CB dating offers - At least that's what I was told
Opinion: Yes, dating on native isn't newbie friendly at all. Low caps and sexy-ad denials make it a tough nut to crack. I agree on pivoting to another vertical.

Best of luck on your treasure hunt!

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Day 25

Finally got a message back from new AN about new vertical. I can tell this is going to be a turtle experience.

Thanks Vortex, agree, and my intuition never steers me wrong so I always go with it and it was telling me stop dating before I regret it. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

Hi Jack, nice to see you on the forum, how's things going in the gloomy city?

The treasure hunt is slow going. But, at least I think I can implement quickly now, so I won't slow myself down just wait on others like this new AM. Also, found a new way to pick offers, seems legit and optimal. Will be experimenting with it once I get my first campaign up and running to pick my next vertical.

Today, joining networks, trying to find new offers in new vertical I picked..

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Im kind of a... in the same boat.... but a little worse.... im like a chicken running around with head chopped off. I got clickfunnel for $99.... AWeber for $19.... i think....clickmagic for another $19... which only allows one set of tracking..... got to pay more for more... i got STM for $99... I ran a $80 solo ad in Udimi.... for 200 visitors.....zero sales and 94 subscribers .... got an automated followup emails set in AWeber ... still zero and the number that is increasing right now is....the Unsubscribers. so.....money rolling out.... no money in....

Sent from my SM-N960U using STM Forums mobile app

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What exactly are you promoting?

In the beginning of almost every project you'll experience a period of money going out and nothing coming in. It's a matter of having an initial system and then tweaking it over time to make it work.

A bit general I know - if you'd provide more information, I'll do my best to provide some advice!



Amy

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