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My Journey - Using Vortex Guild (18)

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Hello everyone,


First I want to thank Vortex
You are amazing, giving so much valuable contact, couldn't find that nowhere online!
And every guide is written so well; I enjoy reading it


Second


My name is Gal, originally from Israel
Today lives in the US.


I've been in the online marketing 4 years now.


I have been a marketing manager in a Start-up company.


After that opened an ecom store,
Invested most of my time and money into it, with not enough success...


Had to sell that store.
Main problems were (I think),
The products themselves (sold print on demand and a bit drop) and me trying to make profits from the front product.


The store is still running if you want to check it out:
Www.onehappycoffee.com
I've run Facebook ads for that store.




The designs products and all are still the same as I made them
so I'd love to hear what you have to say about it.




Other then that I had a few more online failures, all of them were marketing related.


Now I've gone through Vortex 1$ guild, finished it quite fast.
Moved to the 40 days guide.




I use Voluum for tracking


Got approved to Mobidea, Clickdealer and Maxbounty.


Got few first (no lander) campaigns on
Popads and Propellerads


Didn't spend much, had some conversations.


And went straight ahead
Now on 14-15 days part
(introduction to Landing Pages)


Few questions that I have:


1. Why did you choose to focus on Popads and Propellerads and mobile products in your guide and not let's say Facebook running other offers?

2. If I have an eCommerce experience, do you have any recommendations for me?

3. One last thing that help my ecom store fail (And also other places that I failed)
that I didn't talked about, was that I was doing everthing by myself... (Some small designs were made by a designer but that's it!) and in the process I was soo alone!
This time I want to work with a team, but I don't really know how to go with that... I'd love to hear what you have to say that can help me here to be a part of a team or build my own team...

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Hey,

Just a quick update

At the moment I reached out to all the platforms that approved me
(Mobidea, Clickdealer, Maxbounty, Mobipium)

And asked for Sweeps offer for 3-4 Tier countries.

After I'll get a list of few offers I'll set up few landers and run traffic to them

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Hi Gal and welcome to STM! Thank you for telling us your story, and thank you for your compliments and feedback about my guides!

Your coffee products site looks great! I wouldn't call that a failure. How were you targeting on FB?

Will answer your questions below:

Few questions that I have:

Because pop traffic is the EASIEST and CHEAPEST to learn.

If you prefer to start with FB (which has MUCH better long-term profits potential than pops or push traffic), check out posts by @stickupkid. But expect a steeper learning curve.


Build a general store to test products. If you can break-even (or close) on a product, build a dedicated site for JUST that product and you'll likely be profitable.

If you'd be interested in this let me know and we can discuss further.


This would be the section to look for tips on outsourcing and team-building:

https://stmforum.com/forum/forumdisp...and-Employment

Some options:

-Keep posting here on the forum and you'll make friends. Go to meetups and conferences to meet people face-to-face. Maybe you will collaborate with some of them later. We also have a masterminds section if you're looking for people to collaborate with: https://stmforum.com/forum/forumdisp...15-Masterminds

-Go to jobs/freelancing sites like Upwork, interview lots of candidates, test more than a few, then pick the best to hire.

-Hire friends/family and train them.

Starting this follow-along thread is a good first step - the more you post and the more-information your posts are, the more friends you'll make.

Have fun with that! Eager to see you make further progress!



Amy

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Hello Amy,


Thank you so much for that in-depth replay,
Sorry that it took me some time to answer.


For your question:

I played a lot with targeting,
But most of the time added coffee related as interests,
(Like Starbucks, Nescafe, etc...)


Tagged mostly females 25 +
GEO's US,AU,CA,NZ,UK


Things I've learned from it:
1. Testing more products
2. Be more creative with ads
3. Kill ads sooner


Other than that I did Print On Demand store
and by doing that you have to be creative with products ideas,
And that for me was difficult.


I loved your idea about building a general store for testing



I'd love to discuss further,
What would you recommend?


Thank you very much,


Gal

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Awesome. Welcome to the world of advertising. You mentioned that you name is "Gal" from Israel. It reminded me of Gal Gadot the actress who is also from Israel lol. Do you guys happen to know each other haha.

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Hey,

Thank you :]

Lol yes that's true, same name
Funny that you say that
But this is how I explain my name for people outside of Israel haha

Not yet know each other,
But maybe one day :]

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Haha yeah, to people outside of Israel, Gal sounds just like a slang for girl. It's a unique name though. I've been in the US my whole life, but I know the name because of Gal the actress. I'm not sure if Gal can be a name for female and male. Is it specifically a female name or is it like the name "Adrian" that goes both way.

Just curious!

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So you are right! :]
Gal in Israel can be fo both female and male name,

And after saing that,
me myself I am a guy and not a girl

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Oh right on! Very interesting indeed. Well, I'll follow the journey, but I don't do pop traffic, I do display (banners). Best of luck anyways!

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Thank you man


I believe that this follow-along is going to change a bit.
Since I have been kept reading here on STM
Found so many interesting posts,
That made me pause for a bit (for a good reason)

And choosing the right approach for me
to tap into that world once more

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It's now been a couple of weeks. Did you manage to find something interesting to work on?



Amy

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Hey Amy
Thank you for asking,

So after the other post I've made
(Which you very kindly answered and now I know why you nick name is Vortex Abraham Hicks)

I posted online that I build websites for cheap price (as a front product)

And after that been made I upsale the clients to promote thier business using my services

Took a car (it was my last week in the US before going back to Israel)

Went to meet some potential clients,
And now I have some clients to do marketing for, on a monthly retainer with budget to invest

I learn affiliat marketing,
And helping others while doing that

Please share your thoughts about that

And wish me luck

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Haha I thought your username looked familiar! Thanks for making the connection for me! In fact I've just come from your other thread.

Monthly retainers are GREAT! I know you don't like selling to "real people" - have you tried to build websites for yourself? To promote affiliate programs?

Now that you've done some reading on the forum, do you have a list of possibilities that interest you, that you'd like to look into further?

Let's start a discussion on that.

Oh by the way - we've compiled a PDF on "what's working" in this industry - you may want to take a look:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...Marketing-2019

And yup you're right - Abraham Hicks is where my username came from! During the darkest few years of my life, I listened to their workshops for most parts of every day. I may not be on this plane now if it wasn't for them.

I do wish you the best of luck with all your endeavors! But moreover, I'd like to wish you lots of FUN! Try to explore everything with a curious and playful mind instead of setting expectations you're not sure you can fulfill, and putting a lot of pressure on yourself - that's what creates fear, which is the major obstacle that holds many people back.




Amy

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Hey Amy,
Thank you for following up with both threads,
It means a lot to me, and I learn so much about it!


I must add to that,
It's not that I don't like selling to "real people",
(In fact, I'm what people say "People person")
It's more of the way that I sold people so far just made me feel bad.


Sometimes the products were not good as I thought they were,
And you had to fight your inner feeling to sell it.
Sometimes the way to get the sell going was so cold (Like stopping people at the mall)
That it just took all the fun out!
(For a good salesperson, to invest your time making many cold approaches is an energy killer)
And Honesty is one more reason to add up here.


I run into that feeling again when tapping into AM,
There are so many offers you can promote,
But a lot for them are (at least for me) not so "great".


Maybe it's just me, and that's ok.
I want to be happy about the products/offers I promote.
It doesn't have to "Save planet earth."
But at least make me feel good about selling and putting my energy on.
Again, that is just my vibe after selling so many products I didn't believe in and saw how badly it affected me.




And to answer your real question,
I've seen a field that I liked
And I even got clients to support that business.


I've looked into Pay per call - for home improvements.
I don't know why I got attracted to it.
But for some reason as I started to go that path,
With not much of an effort,
I got a few clients that gave me a budget to spend doing that for them.


I went through your guide (What's working on 2019)
Saw Aragon Advertising talking about Pay Per Call been one of their main things,
Also, Jason Akatiff spoke about his company moves towards google ads as a platform you can trust.
Those made me feel more comfortable.


I'd love to hear your opinion about that Amy.
And I must say,
I took me some time to answer your question,
You can understand why,
I mean, if you look up, you will see that this thread has started as one thing and changed to a whole new thing.


I know that there is no right or wrong,
But I do think that jumping around is one of my bad habits.

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I really resonate with what you're saying. If we meet one day I'll tell you my story.

Most of the "typical" CPA offers we talk about here on the forum are short-lived offers geared towards maximizing short-term profits. Because of this, there's little concern to preserve the reputation of the offer/product/service. The result is all kinds of aggressive/misleading promotion.

I'm not judging that at all - this is an industry where if you focus on profits, you can become rich in a short period of time. This is why most of us are here.

But you don't HAVE to go that way. You can use the same techniques and skills to promote legit and high-quality offers and products. Here's a post with a couple of good examples:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...f-Being-Banned

There are also great products and services that don't have affiliate programs yet, that you can approach to set up an affiliate program for them (google "how to set up an affiliate program for your business" to see options) and be an exclusive affiliate.

Or, you can collect leads for services and charge per lead. There are many agencies that are doing this successfully and lucratively.

Another alternative would be to sell physical goods - either through dropshipping, or important from manufacturers to sell locally, or through amazon. Of course there are good and bad products out there, but you can always order a sample first to evaluate it before promoting it or buying in bulk.


I haven't done pay per call personally, but have heard from people first-hand that it can be extremely lucrative.

It's also a business model that's been around for a long, long time.

I think it's a really worthwhile project to continue - especially since you already had success with it.

Some people get bored easily - they like to START new projects but lose interest quickly. There's no shame in that - it just means you need to hire people to take over projects while you start others.

So that's something to consider doing.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question - I can tell a lot of thought has gone into your replies. Thanks for your trust in sharing with me your personal thoughts and perspectives.

There are a million ways to make money online. The trick is to pick something that isn't dying, and then just stick with it. In the past I've made the mistake (many times over in fact) of continually jumping to whatever is "all the rage" at the moment, resulting in a lot of jumping around, and abandoning promising projects along the way that would/could have paid off big if I had stuck with them. As well, some of my successes happened when I tried to forge my own path instead of chasing what was hot at the time. So it's not a matter of following the herd or going against the grain - it's a matter of doing some initial testing, and then sticking with projects that start to show promise and seeing them through.

Perhaps starting a follow-along on pay-per-call will keep you accountable and on track. I know it would be an inspiration to other forum members for sure. No pressure - just a possibility to consider.

Raj Patel's guide on pay per call is great if you want to check it out:

https://stmforum.com/forum/showthrea...keting-in-2016

Looks like it got updated for 2019 as well.

Would be interesting to see how far you can take this! And try to have fun whatever you do.




Amy

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Hey Amy

Sorry that I took me some time to reply.

Lol, so many options it always makes me confused!
I know in this game focus is a big thing,
Because there is always shiny objects out there,
I think this is a thing I need to invest my time in - Stay focused,
At last once, to see the it through

Can you share more about your successes and when that happened for you?

thank you for your time Amy!

Gal

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No worries at all - we're here when you need help.

Hmm....successes I experienced when not going with the herd - let's see...

Here are a few off the top of my head:

-I've never liked school. When I was in grade 10, one day when I was sitting in class waiting for the next teacher to come in, all of a sudden I just decided I've had enough, and just got up and walked out of the school. Went back to see the school counsellor after 2 weeks (before they sent truancy officers after me) and had a heart-to-heart. The counsellor arranged for me to go to an alternative school where students attended 40% fewer classes but focused more on independent work.

(In spite of the fewer classes, I was still playing hooky half the time - but because my grades were good, my teachers turned a blind eye - which was only possible because it was a small, alternative school that didn't enforce rules very strictly.)

I went on to getting accepted by the best engineering program in the country. Granted, it's not Ivy league - but not bad for someone who hated school with a vengeance.

-Back in 2006, I left the field of engineering to pursue a career in online marketing. I had a very promising job in a cut-throat industry (project manager in one of the biggest international automative parts manufacturers - which meant nothing to me as I hated any 9-5 + overtime). Needless to say, everyone thought I was crazy. I even lost some friends over this decision. But in the end, I did alright.

-Back in 2008, in spite of reading that direct-linking to aff programs on adwords wouldn't work, I tested it, and came up with a quick mass-testing strategy that allowed me to test 40+ clickbank products on adwords every week. Started generating 5-figure months after 2 months.

-Circa 2013, when there weren't a ton of game cheat sites around, I saw a 3-month old game cheats site being sold for 5-figures. So I built one. Figured out how to create game cheats quickly and upload them to my site using automation tools in record time. Monetized it with adsense. The site generated $42k in its best month, less than 3 months later.


It's always better to listen to your heart rather than just going blindly with the herd. Everyone has a different path to walk. Sometimes we just need to ignore that FOMO and stop chasing shiny objects like you mentioned.




Amy

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Amazing Amy,


Thank you for sharing that!
I think now it's my time to start testing stuff out and see what's working for me.


I trust that I will find my path as you say
And reading your posts keeps me motivated,
knowing that I am on the right track


Thank you for that Amy


Gal

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