30 Day Challenge - Pay Per View (53)
From what I gather from the forum, the best way to learn is just to dive in and not worry about trying to figure out if everything is set up correctly.
Background: Been in the Internet space since late 2005 in the domaining area. Learned a tremendous amount and dived into purchasing Internet properties a little over a year ago. Have done some very minor testing with Adwords, direct linking to dating offers and also affiliate products. Not any major success, but I am convinced it works. The key is persistence and understanding that this is a long term investment.
Action Items:
-Read the STM ebook on various paths to choose and brief primer on affiliate marketing. The decision is to do a 30 day challenge with PPV.
-Read the other two affiliate marketing guides recommended by Tijn (Pay Per View Formula and InsideAffiliate.net)
-Signed up with Peerfly and already got accepted. Have been accepted into 9-10 other affiliate networks, so finding decent offers is not an issue.
-Approved and funded with Lead Impact.
-Domain purchased with SSL certificate.
-Got hosting migrated to BeyondHosting.net. Tyler and his team were extremely patient with my questions and got CPV Lab installed as well.
-Went through additional landing page videos by Tijn and learned a tremendous amount. I have heard about landing pages for years, but have never actually worked with one.
-Downloaded Pixlr and already created/edited first landing page on an offer I am looking to promote.
Next Steps:
-Create a text based lander page.
-Set up first campaign on CPV Lab and place appropriate conversion pixel with affiliate network.
-Track and test.
-Create/find a mastermind group at STM to provide value in helping others become successful and grow in the business.
Keep me honest and I will be sharing my journey!
Kind Regards,
A
Day 1:
Today is the day to run full speed ahead. Here is where I am at:
-Saw the video by Tijn on creating $30 per day with tracking on CPVLab. Very useful.
-Will be launching 3 campaigns by this evening with a $5/day budget and tracking.
Excited to follow along with this! Im in the boat and doing a follow along as well! Good luck and I'm subscribed 
Siz,
I am open to creating a group to help grow together. Seems like there is quite a bit of coding and HTML involved! Been an extensive day 1. Here is where I stand:
-Had another former member guide me on how to create .html files for lander pages.
-80% done setting up the first email submit campaign on PPVLab. I will be doing 2 lander pages and 1 direct link.
-Had to find the first offer to not have an exit pop up since I am using LI and direct linking.
I may be stretching the 3 campaigns per day over the next day, since this initial set up is taking much longer than expected.
A
Originally Posted by sizdaddy
After a few hours of grinding it out and getting additional feedback, I got up 2 landers and the direct link set up in CPVLab. I am testing the pages right now to see if they are ok. The next step will be to put the campaign in LI. Been one heck of a day!
A side recommendation when developing campaigns and testing. I would have the following windows open:
1.STM Guide - This has some great reference points and I continue to back to it when developing campaigns.
2.Notepad or PHP Editor - This will help you make appropriate changes.
3.FTP Client - With any changes you make on the editor, the FTP client asks if you want to update the file. Great way to stay current. My recommended FTP client is FileZilla. Works great.
4.Affiliate Network - Plan to have multiple affiliate networks open so you can see similar offers, get links, etc.
5.CPV Lab - Great way to input the data appropriately, get your conversion pixel and make sure everything is being imported properly.
6.Open Window - You can test landing pages, offers.
Just my two cents.
A
Day 2:
More great news. I had another member here graciously check 2 lander page links and the direct offer link from CPVLab. Once that was set up, I started the campaign in LI and put on the appropriate scheduling caps. Budget is $5.00/day, so the first campaign has been launched pending approval of course! Let's see what happens!
In addition, the beauty of the forum is by being transparent, you engage others in the process. Had a private message about another member starting and his desire to work together! Amazing stuff.
Today's focus will be to find more offers and get faster with landing page development. May be a bit tough with the weekend, but commitment is necessary no matter what.
Lessons Learned:
1.Be committed. Frustration is human, but continue to have desire through trial and error. The answer is there.
2.Network with others on the forum and ask questions. Before doing this, check through the archives. You will be often surprised that you aren't the only one asking a specific question.
3.Don't try to get everything perfect. Understand the basics and get something up. I was going through a bit of this yesterday when I realized the landing pages weren't as great as I wanted them to be. Oh well, sometimes ugly converts!
4.Read the training guides on your specific area before moving forward.
Kind Regards,
A
Day 2 is almost over and I do have another campaign almost complete from a landing page standpoint. The timeframe to get this was significantly cut down from Day 1 due to the familiarity. I will be working on the LI analysis and also not do any direct linking so the exit popups are ok from LI's view.
The second campaign has been fully added in CPVLab and tested. In this case, I have done two landing pages with a 50/50 split, no direct linking. The next step will be to get the analysis done to add it to LI.
Things are looking good!
A
Day 3:
Although I am a little behind on the actual quantity of campaigns, I did get the second campaign put into LI and it is awaiting approval. One of the things I did notice is that when you put all landing pages under one specific campaign name (i.e. US Camp Tests), you can not change the scheduling caps for each individual landing page. Is the best way to create a separate campaign for each landing page?
Next Items:
-Get two more offers up by this evening. Both of these will be split 50/50 between lander pages and no direct linking.
Moving forward!
JMedia, in regards to the mastermind group. Yes I'm in. sorry I was out of pocket yesterday. I had to move into my fiance's house so that took all day. I don't know if we can DM yet. But lets figure out a way to start the mastermind group and get this stuff going! I'm slacking on Day 3 as well, but I've got some decent data from letting 1 campaign run for two days.
Siz,
Sounds good. PM your Skype info. Love to gather some data points.
A
Even I am in for the Skype Mastermind group. Planning to get into PPC/PPV real soon.
Day 4:
Just got the third campaign completed from a lander page standpoint and inputting all data into LI. It's been a busy few days. Once LI approves the campaigns, I can really provide some useful data on the actual URLs and conversion rates of the landing pages. I am using the relatively same style for all landing pages on the three campaigns. They are also all email submits. Will keep you all posted!
UPDATE:
LI disapproved the campaigns due to the category not being appropriate and the minimum bid will need to increase. With that being said, I have sent a follow up to see if the changes can be made. I should be seeing results soon.
jmedia, PM your skype so we can chat it up. -Siz
Great news! I just popped my affiliate marketing cherry with a $1.40 conversion on an email submit! Nice to see that it works even on the smallest level. It will be interesting to start cutting keywords and then scaling up if possible. Excited!
A
Nice man! I got my first conversion as well...According to CPVlab at least. Although my aff network isn't displaying it. I did realize that I didn't add the firing pixel on my EWA offers. So maybe thats why it didn't fire there. Now I'm having Beyond Hosting set that up my ssl for that right now. Hopefully it'll be good to go soon. Congrats man first step of many!
I did eliminate some keywords from that campaign were costing quite a bit of did not generate any clicks. I also am working on putting up a 4th campaign to test. Just continuing to move forward. Ironically, the direct linking seems to get a lot of views, but no conversions. It's the landing pages that are showing the best results so far. Congrats to you as well!
A
Day 5:
I have been interacting with Lead Impact and they mentioned that your campaigns are based on a 24 period after approval and not necessarily at midnight. In this scenario, my campaigns will not run until 5 pm. In addition, they disapproved one of the campaigns due to loading pop up, which I thought was acceptable as long as it was a landing page. Does anyone have any insight on this?
UPDATE:
Another conversion on a different campaign. Looks like I have spent a total of $10 and made $2.40. Loss is still there, but good testing.
A
DAY 6:
Almost a week into this and I feel like the learning curve has been crazy. I have gone through some of the other videos on here, but wanted to know when running a $5/campaign on LI, at what point do you cut keywords? I am promoting email submit offers on secondary brands and trying to diagnose the best converting keywords. Folks talk about being able to know quickly when to shut off a campaign or keep testing. Is there a fine line? Thanks in advance.
ACTION ITEMS:
-Will get two more campaigns up today, which will give me a total of 6 in 6 days.
-Keep testing. Most of the other infrastructure is in place in terms of technology, affiliate networks, etc.
Good work man! Just keep plugging away on building out campaigns. I have a feeling most of the bigger name campaigns are so oversaturated right now thats part of why I'm not seeing any conversions. Keep plugging away though!
UPDATE:
I got another campaign up, but only doing direct linking. A few of the other campaigns are spending through the daily budget, but very few conversions. Essentially, spent $22 over the past few days and only made $2.40. May be time to cut some keywords and shut some campaigns. One of the lessons learned today is that most of the campaigns that are common have been highly saturated. It's important to think outside of the box and look at other creative angles where people may not be looking. This also helps reduce your overall bid due to less competition.
Side question: What exactly is the best way to track keywords if the affiliate network does not allow a place for putting your conversion pixel? I noticed there is something in the guide for CPVLab, but a little confusing.
In addition, how many keywords are people testing at any given point on a campaign?
Thanks to everyone in advance.
A
Keep Working Buddy!
Day 7:
I cut a few non performing campaigns using the 3X offer payout and if your cost basis exceeds it. I also got some keywords disapproved on the 5th campaign due to them being the same URL as the offer, which seems a bit unusual. There was no problem when this was being run on other offers.
In addition, I am looking at some other systems and tools to help cut down the learning curve and get to the point where I am able to test more efficiently and identify winning campaigns. As always, it's been a great experience so far.
A
Day 8:
Getting quicker and smarter. A lot of this has to do with the tradeoff of time vs money. I am a big fan of systems and technology to have in place to focus on generating ROI. I am investing in more tools to help be more educated about is out there. Should be having a few more campaigns done over the weekend.
A
Day 9:
Got another campaign set up in LI and CPVLab. Pretty excited with a nice targeted set of keywords. Interestingly enough the bids are pretty competitive as well. In addition, I worked on a second campaign, but the CID is invalid at the affiliate. Once that has been corrected, will be able to finalize things in LI. Very excited to see more progress!
A
Other bidders are on the one hand annoying but at the same time it's a signal that the target is profitable.
Day 10:
Been a fantastic weekend! Have a total of 4-6 more campaigns ready to launch by tomorrow! I agree that with bids and competitive, it does demonstrate some level of profitability. It's been extremely rewarding even though not much has been generated yet from an income perspective!
UPDATE:
Got another campaign all ready to go in LI. So a total of 2 are pending approval, with another 3-5 waiting to be completed.
A
Day 11:
Got three campaigns up today in LI. 2 of them have been approved. I am direct linking to all of them and am having a tracking issue. Since I am direct linking in CPVLab, do the following options need to be checked? Why would the keywords not be tracked?
? Pass Target to LP as target
? Pass Target to Offer as target
Ideas?
Thanks,
A
I always use:
"Engage Rate (sec): 4"
"Pass Target to LP as target"
"Pass SubId to Offer"
"Double Meta Refresh (hide)"
regardless if I am direct linking, using LP, or both.
Loffy,
Thanks so much! I have asked several folks here about how to track the keywords from LI that are coming through, but no can do. I also reached out to CPVLab and put through a support ticket. In the case above, is that strictly if you are only direct linking? I do not have any landing pages. A few more questions:
1.Do I need to set a subid in the affiliate link if I am just direct linking?
2.Could there be an issue with the token?
The stats are being tracked, but no detailed view is occurring.
Ideas?
A
Another quick question that Hummer mentioned out which I thought would be worth discussing.
If you are direct linking, how sensitive are folks to the pop up that shows up with the offer not being fully maximized in the window? I went to the AffExpert LI pop up window and sometimes the offer fields are not visible. In this case, would you just change the direct linking image to a lander page? I am not sure what level this "window" sizing has on the lack of conversions. Thought I would throw it out there.
A
Day 12:
I have posted a screenshot of my CPV Lab for a Beyond The Rack test campaign. There were no landers and I was direct linking. I will also include the screenshot for the stats and you will notice that nothing is getting passed through.
Campaign URL: http://xxxxxx.com/base.php?c=7&key=3...word=%KEYWORD%
Is that the correct form?
UPDATE: Hummer helped me find one issue already. I did not include the subid language in the direct offer, which was essentially causing my test link to be dead. Pissed away some dollars right there! Still working on the stat piece! Love this community!
UPDATE 2: And the moron of the year goes to.....ME! Hummer looked at the screenshots and asked me my date range on stats. I had set them for 8/20 to 8/22 and the campaign was run on the 27th. No wonder there are no stats. Changed the date range and boom! There it is! Wow! Thanks Hummer! You rock man!
I found this from BBrock32, but still would be good to get feedback around direct linking:
However if you want to maximize the window after users click on button / link see the code below :
HTML Code:
<html>
<head>
<script language="JavaScript">
function maximizeme(){
window.moveTo(0, 0);
window.resizeTo(screen.width, screen.height)
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<a href="javascript: onclick=maximizeme()">Maximize</a>
</body>
</html>
Day 13:
My three campaigns are running through direct linking and I am looking to see if there are any conversions. There is a bit of a risk that there are no landing pages, so making sure I manage the costs. In addition, I have reached out to a few members here and we are creating a mastermind group. It will be quite transparent and the intention is to help each other with ideas and be successful to generate income through affiliate marketing!
Been an interesting day. I had one campaign rejected by LI due to them having a direct relationship with the advertiser. In addition one of the live campaigns was a higher payout campaign. I got a conversion on it, which was $7.50! Spent $.24 and got a $7.50 hit! Nice to see this works! Lots more lessons to keep figuring out!
A
Day 14:
Another $7.50 conversion on the same campaign! The campaign has over a 250% ROI right now. I will need to cut some keywords, but surprised that converting keyword is not getting many views? Besides using other traffic sources, is there another way to scale up the campaign? Also, thanks to Ryan for approving me at EWA!
A
Day 15:
Got another campaign up! It's becoming easier and quicker to get campaigns up, which is sweet! I hope to find a few more to go live today. Can't believe it's been 2 weeks in this business! Some amazing lessons. Getting quicker and smarter every day!
A
Day 16:
One more campaign up that is pending approval with LI. A few of the campaigns are higher payout and taking quite a bit of testing to see if there is any benefit. Can anyone provide feedback as to how many views a keyword should have at the least before cutting it? I understand if the entire campaign is 3x payout and it is not generating income to dump it, but more from an optimization level.
A
Hi jmedia,
Great stuff. I am amazed how far you've come in 2 weeks. It's definitely motivation for me. I am still trying to figure out how to do a split test with prsoper202 and I am already a week in! anyways, would love to form a mastermind. I am going to get my follow along up as soon as my first campaign goes live.
Thanks for the kind words soimpossible! Still lots of questions left and grinding.
Day 17:
2 1/2 weeks have gone by in this affiliate marketing experience! Burned through $10 today, which definitely has lowered the overall P/L. I fixed up one of the campaigns that had issues. Some things you want to make sure of:
1.Make sure the affiliate offer in CPVLab has a sub id extension. This can result in the test link not showing up.
2.Double check to see if the landing page is up through the test link.
3.Place your tracking pixel on your affiliate network.
4.Put the appropriate average cost in CPVLab for your campaign. This can happen after you put your keywords in LI to determine the cost per keyword. If you do not adjust this accordingly, your total dollars spent will be off.
Questions to Keep you in Check:
1.When do I cut off a keyword? At how many views?
2.When do I cut my campaign off?
3.How do I know the issue is my landing page or direct linking?
4.What about higher payout campaigns? Does the amount of testing change significantly to determine whether it is viable or not?
5.How do you scale a campaign with a keyword that is URL and not much traffic is coming through? The URL variations are difficult to find as well.
I myself am still seeking these answers. I am going through old threads to find out ways to get smarter each day.
Day 18:
I just got another campaign up with a different network that is awaiting LI approval. One thing I figured out was that the tracking pixel used in CPV Lab can also be used for the global postback URL. Some affiliate networks will not allow a place for a conversion pixel. You would use the following:
http://yourdomain.com/adclick.php
Will work on getting a few more campaigns up. Feel a bit over the place regarding break even analysis and offer payouts, but continuing to move forward.
UPDATE: Was working in the evening and put up another campaign pending LI approval. Good news I am getting into a better rhythm. I also had a brief conversation with STM member Hummer, which was a pleasure. Thanks for the time!
Day 19:
Three campaigns went live today with LI. One got disapproved, which is fine. I am also working on a campaign together with STM member Hummer to understand a process and create transparency for us to continue reaching milestones. That campaign will be up soon as well.
UPDATE: I have learned a lot in the process of this new campaign with Hummer. We got all the campaign up in our appropriate tracking tool, affiliate link, conversion pixel and even did the appropriate keyword research. Now it's time to do landing pages!
Day 20:
It's been close to a month in this affiliate marketing journey! Can't believe it. Today's goal will be to get the campaign up that I am working on with Hummer. The other three campaigns I am running are going through the testing budget, but not getting any type of conversions. The biggest realization in these past few weeks which seems common sense is to be daring and not follow the same path. Controversy and being on the edge may engage people in signing up. Create a different angle and approach and then knock it out of the park. The other things you want to focus on your copy are urgency and scarcity. Let the members viewing your landing pages feel the sense of missing out and that it is critical to sign up. This could be through fear, lack of information, limited supply, etc.
Be sensitive to people's time and also see if you can form a group of people advanced and at the same level. Create wins and shorten the learning curve.
Day 21:
Did more research on keywords and understanding the dynamics of creating landing pages. Hummer has been a great help and it's nice to know you can bounce ideas and techniques to help everyone. I also saw a thread about a Skype group and thought it was awesome! Would love to connect with others!
Day 22:
Taking a closer look at the campaigns and been reading more of the threads on the forum. Lots of great information. Will attempt to get some keyword research done on another campaign and then get the campaign into LI for approval.
Day 23 - 25:
The past three days have been about process, being creative and strategizing on how to generate income from PPV. I spoke to Hummer and we came up with a plan on how to work more effectively. The power of working with other like minded people is great. Offers in general are in abundance. Doing the same thing as everyone else is going to get the same result. Part of the exercise is to come up with creative angles. I have created 1 landing page and leveraged Hummer's experience in that area for other landing pages. I also used the AffExpert URL scraping tool, which is great.
With that all being said, I have another campaign pending LI approval. It has a total of 48 keywords with direct linking and 2 landing pages that will be split testing. I have also upped the budget to $10/day to generate better data. The other thing I have learned through conversing with other members is that there really is no magic formula. You just need to test, test, test and keep moving forward. 90% of this game is all mental. I probably have not achieved the success others have in the 30 days that they run through with a profitable campaign, but I do think I have gotten a lot more wiser in this business and still minimized the risk involved in terms of time and money.
Good stuff, keep it up man
Got the campaign approved with LI yesterday with 48 keywords. Now I will be monitoring. As I have been reflecting, I found this success story thread here at STM from Dubbsy. Guy is a beast! I recommend all of the beginners to read it. I printed out his first post and highlighted a specific line for keeping my ass in check:
Day 26:
I shredded a bunch of the keywords due to lack of traffic volume. I then added a bunch more to see if I can obtain more data. Going to get fun!
Day 27-28:
So I have been on the grind. Staying up decently late nights to get this thing rolling. Here's a question. I checked Google and the forum and could not find the reason. Is there a reason when I try the full link and click the button, it goes to a dead page for http://www.yourdomain.com/base2.php? I did not see any answers. I also use the full URL in CPVLab and it's the same result. I have had another member try this and he got the same result. Apparently in Prosper 202, you can test to see if the landing page goes to the affiliate offer. Wondering if I am losing a ton of traffic through other campaigns because this has not been set up right.
UPDATE:
Looks like CPVLab takes a few minutes to refresh the links. If you take the campaign URL and do not use the test link and paste it separate in the browser, it should allow you to go through to the full affiliate link. It only works on one computer I have. External users are getting a dead page on base2.php.
Any ideas?
Day 29:
Really focused on the process like Dubbsy mentioned. As a result, I am running one campaign and trying to understand all the steps. I was in touch with CPVLab and kept working on the backend. The daily budget is $10. I have spent a total of $7.64 and just had a lead convert today at $6.25. This is nice because I also have had 500+ views over the keywords, which tells me I can continue to collect more data.
Day 30:
30 Days is here! An important milestone was met today. I have stuck with a campaign for longer than all my campaigns. I am more focused on the process than anything else. With that, I had a total of two conversions and am breakeven on the campaign. I am working on landers, keyword research and gaining more experience with Hummer. It's been awesome. More tweaking to do, but this has been an exciting journey! I am looking to have greater success! Hungrier than a mofo!
Jmedia,
I just read your follow along cover to cover.
Love it. Love your style too, great to see
people growing.
I just started my first PPV campaign today.
Would be great to update us about how
you're doing now.
Thanks for sharing all this.
-David
David,
It has been a while and I don't want folks to get the sense that I have left the PPV world. Here is where I am at.
I am working on solidifying a Mastermind group so I can be focused on growth that is not linear per se. I am a big believer in doing and trying to help others in the process. Either way, things have been a bit slow on my end from testing, but I am getting back in the swing of things. Hummer has been a great resource as well. Again, a testament to why working with others is such a positive. I will keep posting here as I think this community is very valuable.
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