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How to deal with having to restart from zero all the time? (29)

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I have been an affiliate marketer for 4 year. Hitting winning campaign is beautiful but it dies.
Rules change. Cannot run what i used to.

So i restart from zero. It feels like getting fired from well salary work every time and having to start career from mcdonalds all over again to learn new vertical.

How do you deal with this? It makes me not sleep at night, i scared to try new vertical i do not know because i make zero monies and feel like i have x and if i test i will lose it and have no money. Which will lead to me really having to work at russian mcdonald.




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It happens to just about everyone.

What you have to do is make sure you don't spend all your profits. Invest money wisely, have some savings for this sort of situations.

Get back on the horse as they say. It can be annoying but the longer you are in the industry, the more likely you are to see the opportunity for creating an own product that can be more stable.

Or you can find opportunities to use the skills you have learned in a more stable mainstream business.

I've been into this for 3 years and changed main traffic source and verticals every year almost.

Started with promoting apps on mobile display, then added pops as a traffic source, then also added sweeps to offer types.

While pops were still OK-but-not-as-good, started doing Shopify + FB, then ecommerce affiliate offers on FB, then own infoproducts on FB and AdWords. Now trying to make the newsletter in my signature my main focus, and it's a very different strategy for promoting that compared to promoting apps, that's for sure.

I had different levels of success with all of those endeavors but my goal at each point was to not get caught in the cat and mouse game. You can probably tell.

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In addition to what Manu said, I'd say pick one of the big traffic sources, just one, like Facebook or Google and go all out on mastering it. Day and night. If you get into the temptation of expanding on a different source, do not do it. Instead expand on a different Facebook or Google account, different geo, different vertical on that source. That pretty much hedges you against volatility because like on Facebook these days that big changes are happening the fundamentals are pretty much the same, so you intuitively have an idea of how the bid system work, what kind of ads to upload, how to deal with ad disapprovals and accounts deactivation etc.

Or work at Russian McDonalds. Pick one close to the nightclubs and go nightshift. Around 3 or 4am you will be able to greet in a sober state cute intoxicated Russian girls as they make their way into the restaurant to consume unhealthy carbs that will balance their stomach acid. You should be polite yet firm in your approach since you are now a professional working in a restaurant.

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Oh, and both FB and Google have new ad formats coming in all the time. Mastering even just a few formats will get you huge reach so for example mastering FB app ads (no Instagram or stuff that will be coming next), or search in Google (no display or video).

It's super difficult to be great with ALL Google of FB traffic - their reach is simply insane!

Doesn't mean you should not try at all, just saying that even mastering a part of those 2 is very big.

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Mastering is kind of impossible these days when they instaban you safe ads even.


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Certainly. Mastering is a lifelong process anyway in anything.

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*wiping coffee of my screen haha

Use the skills you already "master" and check where they fit in best, which traffic source and/or which vertical. Let's say you know which campaigns work search the forum what traffic source most affiliates run that on.

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Then test more products/offers, more angles, more ads.

Assuming you're running whitehat, not all your ads will be banned, no matter how erratic FB's behavior.

Also: Another way to not have to start from zero every time, would be to build a long-term asset, such as a customer base. This can be in the form of an email list and/or FB followers / groups.

A targeted group of people that share common attributes (e.g. same interests, same demographic, same pain/problems, etc.) can be very valuable. You can sell to them over and over if you pick the right niche.

That way you'd have an asset that will provide a more stable income than running CPA campaigns, that you can sell in the future.



Amy

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I do have an asset but if i start spamming them with stuff they will unsubscribe. So its kind of double edge sword.

Building an fb page is pointless as you can get banned for no reason and lose your followers in a heart beat as have many people here complained about before.




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You seem to have a negative attitude all of your responses just dismiss the advice given. You can keep whining about bans and how everything is pointless or you can continue working hard. If it was all pointless then this industry wouldn't exist.

You don't have to spam your list constantly, but regular emails can and will make you money. This is common sense and implemented by tons of sites so nothing new here. Also building a fb page is definitely not pointless. There are tons of people out there that make all of their money from fb pages. It's a huge asset and assuming you'll just get banned for no reason and lose everything is stupid. Follow the rules, don't promote BS products and offers and you'll be fine. I think the majority of people just like to complain and say these things won't work because it gives them an excuse as to why they never made any of this work for themselves.

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^What mitchell said.

Really, there's a risk in most anything we do.

If you know a business model that can 100% make money consistently without fail, I would love to know about it.

Regarding mailing lists - of course some people will unsubscribe. This is why you need to 1)continue to tweak your funnel to make it retain and monetize customers better, and 2)continue to feed the funnel with new visitors to grow your list.

Regarding FB pages - mitchell has already given very on-point advice.

If you want to achieve success, you've GOT to figure out a way to curb your fear. I've given a ton of advice on how to do that in this super-long post:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...-are-some-tips

The gist of it is: Look at all the ways a business model CAN work, and figure out ways around potential problems. Avoid focusing on all the ways something CAN'T or WON'T work - doing so will just set negative expectations - and do NOT underestimate the importance of positive expectations!

Change your perspective, and you can change your life. Have fun!




Amy

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LOL, you didn't just say that. They Banned the iAmAttila official page that took me 4 years to organically grow to 8000 followers by writing real, useful content. Then one day, after this cambridge analytica BS, they just banned my page alongside other ones that never ever violated any kind of policy.

Besides, did you even read the Facebook policies? They are open to interpretation at the eye of the reviewer; sort of like how beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You get your page reviewed by someone; they in their mind think it violates a policy for whatever reason and you are gone.

I highly do not recommend building Facebook fan pages these days; that effort can be invested into building mailing list like I've done that is a true asset no one can just take away from you.

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I'm also doubtful about Messenger bots because of this reason. You might end up working to build your list and then it turns out Facebook does whatever it wants with it.

The more direct link to the audience the better, in any industry!

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Noted.

Using FB pages and bots as tools to funnel traffic to email opt-ins may be a better method.



Amy




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^ That.

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That's too bad your page got shutdown, but I don't think that means building fb pages should be avoided altogether. Any platform out there can shut your profile, account, pages, etc. down if they really want to. Everything involves risk and if you're looking to completely avoid it then what's the point of doing any of this? By that logic we should just stop trying at all. Despite the fact that your page got banned, there are plenty of other pages that didn't and are still doing just fine. I think the key that we can all probably agree on is that you shouldn't rely on just a single thing like a fb page, especially when you don't have full control over it. You should probably use all of the tools at your disposal and spread your risk so you're not relying on a sole platform.

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There are upsides and downsides to every industry and job. This is definitely a downside.

In life, it is important to always have a plan A, a plan B (a backup plan) and a plan Z (when everything goes to crap).

If all you have is a plan A, that is not a wise way to manage your life.

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I think you are missing the biggest "slap in the face" point...

You have been able to create profitable campaigns....I'll repeat that

YOU have been able to create PROFITABLE camps.

In my eyes you are waaaaaaayyyy ahead of most affiliates who try this industry. Including myself.

I haven't turn a green camp yet. OK, I've only been going for a couple of months, but I am hanging for the day I see green in a tracker.

I completely get the anxiety of uncertainty...the feeling of doubt and I bet of good % of members here feel the same. But do not doubt yourself.

How about this for an idea?

Start a mastermind group for those who might be in a similar boat? I reckon there must a dozens of members who feel like this. Then maybe, if you ask nicely, find a mod or a another experienced member who will be happy to give the group a bit of guidance/motivation every for often, much like a coach in sport. Guidance and let the team do the rest

From being on here for only a short amount of time, I've been blown away with the amount people are willing to help. So why not utilise the biggest asset that this forum has!

Get back to it and get green!

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You do realize that part of the posts on your blog contains info that could be considered blackhat in FBs eyes and that you also promote your bannerslanders.com service on there and I think also on the FB page itself, which is a service providing BH marketers with safe pages ... nothing wrong with that in my eyes, but if I was a FB rep, I would ban your page too most likely

Not saying it MUST have been the reason for the ban, just thinking out loud ... FB acts very weird lately, I hear from all sides.

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There is an easy trick here, consisiting of 3 steps :

1. put part of your income aside, to help you keep the much needed peace of mind when your campaigns go down again.
2. do not rely on just 1 vertical, the more areas you are active in, the lower chance of your whole business going down.
3. keep this in mind "EVERY CAMPAIGN DIES SOONER OR LATER" ! Do not wait for it to happen and prepare stuff in advace ... test new banners, new LPs, new offers ... always have something ready to replace the part that dies.

This has worked for me for the past 20 years ... I've still hit the bottom twice during that time, but that's not such a bad score Oh and I'm HORRIBLE with finances, so anyone who is at least remotely organized when it comes to this, would of avoided my problems

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But the point is that the risk with FB is too high to make it worthwhile given the effort.

Attilla is spot-on - he's not saying take no risks, just justifiable risks.

Which means working with traffic sources that are easier to work with than FB & their BS.

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I agree with Atilla facebook as screwed me pretty good... saying all my fanpages are low quality content and constantly approving/disapproving and then re-approving ads. Won't go into details but like Atilla my page was clean....

I adapted like Atilla and started collecting emails for a real asset that no one can take away... that and just moved into wh offers on FB.

Everyone of of us gets up everyday and we all go to war... sh#@ happens everyday that's out of our control. Save up a bankroll to endure the down times. At least 6 months of money saved that you don't touch... then get back in the trenches and fight.

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A wise man whom I shall not name, from this very forum, once gave me a similar advice - have backup plans from A to Z and backup plans in another alphabet too.

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Must be nice that you know more than the Latin alphabet already, haha.

Backup plans shouldn't be underestimated for sure.

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Facebook is a very tricky market but I wouldn't say completely avoid it. Yes, organic reach and old methods of monetization are completely gone but all hope is not lost. Just got to change the approach and keep pushing. I have been successfully running an affiliate marketing business that optimized on organic traffic. We would make contacts with page owners and pay them to post our content to their pages and in the process, we have partnered up with all the major media outlets in the business. We made a killing over the past 4 years, easily pulling in xx,xxx profit a month. Some months we hit well over xxx,xxx profit. However, since the Facebook scandal, everything has been completely wiped out. Millions of pages have been taken down, celebrity verified pages that we have worked with have been taken down. Viralthread, 22words, providr and several other major media networks have had their links permanently ghost banned from getting any more than 3 ppl reach and Facebook has effectively shut down everything for thousands of people. But all hope is not lost. Granted within my own personal network of pages I have well over 20 million likes across 18 different pages but currently each page is on a permanent ghost ban, meaning no matter what link I posted that is outside of Facebook, it will have 1-3 ppl reached(I checked again today.. still crap.. guess it really is permanent since we are pushing 40+ days)

Anyways with my entire post, what I am trying to say is no hope is lost, just a matter of how you look at it. I have gone from make high xxx a day down to low xxx a day and it is dwindling every single day. Oh, and they completely made my profile unable to create any apps and disabled all 3 ad accounts on the profile. Just keep pushing and create new facebook accounts.. make sure not to use your REAL profile. If you are unsure about facebook then branch into other platforms. That is what I am trying to do but all hope is not lost.

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Isn't this the opposite of what he and you should do?

This sounds like suggesting to always play cat and mouse with Facebook, intentionally. Sure, even if you try to follow their policies you will have issues but this is just a whole other level of issues.

You surely have followed the events over the past 6 months - Facebook is not playing around. Why do you think your model can still work?

Granted, I only know what you described here, but I don't see FB going back on changes affecting reach or fake accounts.

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Well, what I was doing specifically I do not see as a sustainable option anymore. However, I do not recommend completely ditching them. Yes, it seems more often then not people are playing the cat and mouse game with them, however, if you know what you are doing, they can quickly become a very profitable source of traffic. My ways prior was about what they call "Manufactured Sharing" so stay clear of doing that.. lol

I do not think they are going to go back massively on the changes but some of them they have already started to revert back, sadly organic reach is not one of these.

I just do not think that it is best to completely abandon facebook. Yes, they take accounts and cause a lot of headaches but if you can find the success you need, then more times then not, the headaches are worth it in the long run. Just try and make sure to say whitehat.

I dont know maybe I can't seem to let go because I have had great success with them and I know there are great potentials on the network, so maybe I am slightly biased.

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Yeah, I mean - Facebook is a great traffic source and I think people should run it but I still heavily disagree with the BH approach where you always have to play the cat and mouse game.

That's the part that I referred to when said it's probably nothing they will go back to and will do their absolute best to stop it from happening. They'll probably never get it 100% stopped but will get pretty darn close, given how many resources they're pouring into it.

So for Facebook specifically, I'm pretty sure you have to play by their rules more and more over the next months in order to stay profitable.

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wow this was huge!

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