PuffMatic

A bit of history about me. I have a good established blog in tech niche that was earning me nice $1200-$1500 a month. It was doing good in all the Panda and Penguin updates until the May 25 Penguin update where I lost 80% of the traffic and earnings. It was a big eye-opener for me. I am (was) not a big fan of having multiple small blogs and thought I would make it big with just 1 blog.

So, starting May 26, I looked into different ways of making money. 1 way was to make multiple niche blogs and the other one, Affiliate Marketing with paid traffic. I choose the later for 2 reasons:

1) Instant Results
2) Unlimited money making potential

So ahead I went and started reading everything I could about AM. I quickly found WarriorForum and am glad that I did. I went ahead and read almost every thread in this sub-forum for about a week. There's so much knowledge on this forum that if you stick with just 1 method, you will make bank pretty easily. I joined a few other forums too and read everything I could lay my hands on. I know that taking action is the best learning experience but I needed to make sure how everything works and how to track and optimize stuff before-hand.

I started with facebook ads on 11 June 2012 but was really disappointed at the start. I chose dating vertical and all my ads got disapproved every single day for 7 days straight. I would submit ads in the morning, wait for them to approve till noon and submit more ads and wait for approval till the evening. I never saw 1 ad approved in that entire week and boy was I frustrated. Which brings us to June the 18th. My entire batch of about 30 ads got approved. I submitted more ads based on them and got the total of about 300 ads in 10 different campaigns. I resumed all ads right away and set daily budget to $20 on each campaign which is $200 for the entire day. The first day went without a conversion. I spent only $105 mostly because I was bidding a bit lower than what FB recommended. On the second day, I decided to up my bids and paused all campaigns but one. I put it at $200 daily budget and put the bids at $0.68 CPC. I saw 2 conversions 20 minutes in and was so happy to realize the '+' sign in Prosper202 actually changes to a '$' sign when you get a conversion. Happy moment. I have no idea why changing the bids had an affect on conversions but I never changed them on that campaign afterwards. (or maybe a different day was converting different, no idea though.)

I saw 2 more conversions in the rest of the day but nothing fancy. Spent total $100 and made $22 back. This was before any optimization and I knew I could make it profitable (reading all those case studies really helps). Second day ended with almost break-even. Spent $100 to make $98. It has been an exciting ride ever since. I made more campaigns, added more offers and in the coming month started doing PoF ads. I was just checking my various accounts and have made $21090.50 since I started running ads on 18 June 2012. Not bad for first 40 days huh?

Now, I know most people here don't like revenue figures so I am going to post ad spend and profit too. And for ADHD readers, here is a nice little TL; DR for you.

Date Started: 18/June/2012
Traffic Sources: Facebook and PlentyOfFish
First Profit day: 21 June 2012 ($3 profit)
First $100 day (revenue): 1 July 2012
First $1000 day (revenue): July 25 2012
Total Spent in ads: $5,186.30 (Around $5300 after adding the Forex fees)
Total Profit: ~14800 after deducting hosting and other expenses.
Vertical: Dating
Best offers: FindMeLove, Richmen, True.com

I am so glad my blog was hit by penguin. I wouldn't have tried AM otherwise and would have never gotten 10 month's worth of profit in just 1 month. WarriorForums and some of the members here really helped to make a big difference in my success. Salute to everyone especially my Affiliate managers, without whom this would never have been possible.

I didn't make this thread to brag. I simply made it because maybe some of you need a bit of push and to know what really is possible. I am not a smart guy and am actually pretty far from it (otherwise I would have started doing AM a lot earlier :P) and if I can do it, anyone can. Just keep believing and keep taking risks. When I spent my first $100 on FB ads, I had no intention of seeing anything in return (which actually happened) and this helped me in spending more the next day. If I had gotten scared after losing the $100, I would have never made profit in the next few days and would have easily given up. This would have really wasted the $100 ad spend.

Really looking forward to the coming months and see how everything pans out.

I would be happy to answer your questions as long as you don't ask me for LPs, ad copies and targeting :P.

talbrice

Thanks for this inspiring post.
1 question: Have you changed something that caused your ads to be approved all the sudden?

Always keep smiling! :))

moiurbd

I want to earn money through cpa .Will u help me?

lose weight raw foodhttp://usefulfitnesstips.com/
small business

Trevor

Thanks man for this great and inspiring post. It only proofs to us that we as marketers should not rely on one income stream and should always strive to diversify and put the eggs into more baskets than just one.

Google is your friend and you should treat it that way, but over the years we've been taught that we cannot rely on it. In fact, best practice is to rely on your own and become completely independent with your business model.

Dating is an ever-green niche and there's a lot of money to be made within it. You are very generous sharing your best-converting offers with us - thanks for that!

Jetmir

Thank you for making such a valuable and inspiring post. I truly mean it.

abdoue

I'm inspired

thank you very much

PuffMatic

I changed a couple of things. First, FindMeLove has a low myWOT score so I guess that's why it wasn't approved. Second, I wasn't mentioning the name of dating service in ads - which is a must for Facebook. Facebook never told me what to change and it was just a matter of trial and error really.
You can ask your questions here, I will try to answer as long as the questions don't threaten my campaigns.

I actually wanted to diversify my earning streams ever since google started with all the wildlife schemes but never got around to it. The Penguin finally gave me the push I needed.

Also, I don't have enough post-count to reply to PMs so I won't be able to reply there.

speedylikesKJ

I always say don't ever give up and stick with just one traffic source avoid jumping. ... A great lesson for those who try 2,3 ads and get disappointed after losing ... That is a fact no campaign is winner from the day one

Difference between you and others is that you did n`t complained on some forum saying facebook sucks, my ads not getting approved instead you did tried and tried again

Larbi Rahmani

great to read posts like these,
thanks for sharing, really inspiring.

seriousbsnz

Im sorry im a bit of a cynic. Im not saying you are full of it, but it just seems kinda of fishy to me that you joined in june only have 8 posts and were able to succeed in such little time. I just smell a pitch or referral coming.

nicktnack

Shh OP, don't share the money making secrets!

1GreatCPA

Awesome case study.

prisha

What a disappointment. This is the first thread I read on this website. I am totally new to this whole thing and yet even I can see this guy is a total fake.
I hope the rest of the website is like this.
Darn.

PuffMatic

I am sorry I don't have 1000+ posts with threads like "What is the best CPA network" and "Should I direct link" or "What bid to put in Facebook". I don't like to create useless threads and although I am new to AM, I have been making money online from a very long time. You are entitled to your opinion and I really don't care if you believe me or not. Either way, I have nothing to gain or loose.


I guess people want to believe no one is making money. I have seen people saying Ryan Eagle is fake and his cars are rented. I have seen people say how a screenshot look photoshopped when someone shows them they make 36K a day.

Yes, rest of this forum is like this thread too. You will find people making 100K a day and they are all liars. No one makes money online and you should go back to your day-job.

Although I really hate post screenshots, here you go.

Can we end "Is this real?" now or do we need to discuss whether this screenshot is edited?

seriousbsnz

Im sorry if i offended you. I just dont understand if you are making that much, what are you still doing hanging around on the forum?

Again im not accusing you of anything but can you answer this for me?

PuffMatic

I really don't know how to answer this. As I said in the OP, just wanted people to know this is possible and this can be done without buying all those WSOs and tools people think are necessary for making money. And I like the idea of helping people just because I know how much I appreciated when someone helped me when I was starting out.

Hope that answers your question.

seriousbsnz

I can understand that so i apologize for upsetting you. I am just at the point where im making good returns with ppc and cpa and once I feel im a little more accomplished I will be doing the same thing because like you said, no one really helps you out in the beginning. They say the will but in one way or another they want your money.

shimmi

How many landing pages are you using? Do you use angles?

I think my AM downfall will be my unwillingness to create landing pages.. With dating offers I only direct-link. Gotta stop being lazy..

seriousbsnz

This is why i have been sticking with ppc until i understand how to make outstanding lp's. Actually as of this morning i just threw up some ads on facebook and directcpv after making a site with coffeecup. Its actually pretty easy to set up a landing page, you just need to make sure you have all the links and tracking set.

DanDasilva15YearOldIM

Very good post. If this was your very first ad them you lucked out so much!!

What I would suggest is not to get your hopes up for a while running different ads because this ad (even for an expert) pulls in pretty well. Basically for every $1 you put in you got back $4(ish). That's pretty good.

If the ad isn't dead then don't share your niche be greedy and take it to the bank!

DanDasilva15YearOldIM

To be honest with you direct linking to a dating offer is the best way to go. Depending on where you advertise 1) people don't want to enter their email just to go to another page and enter all their initiation again (kills conversions) 2) say you are using a page that has 2 pictures with attractive males/females and say sign up here to talk to them then I have tested that it converts well.

These are just my results from background knowledge testing it from PPC and media buys.

PPV is a waste of time until you know your conversion #'s.

shimmi

Many dating sites provide different LPs with their offers that are similar to what you are describing. You're basically saying i should stick to those and not bother making my own? Because if I were to make my own, it would be similar to what you described, and it would direct people to the dating site's LP after.

Huyzy

Direct linking is NOT the best way to go all the time. It really does depend on where you advertise. Just because you don't direct link doesn't mean you're always trying to capture email leads.

The thing that people don't understand about email marketing is that you can remarket them different related niche product all the time.

Say you get 5% conversion for one product. Just from direct linking.

When you get an email list, you can market 7 different products to them that are all related. You get 1% conversion from each product, but in the end, you still make more money!

Plus, you don't even have to capture email leads. Sometimes the direct link doesn't capture the attention that it needs. Let's say you're promoting a dating offer, and the offer page just looks like a membership index site. From that moment, you should already know that will burn your money in advertising fees. You should be creating a landing page , perhaps ones with more graphic (e.g. a hot girl on a landing page, with a chat box). When they click that landing page, it'll redirect them to the dating offer link.

The way it works is that you capture their attention with the big image of the hot girl and a chat box, making them want to communicate with her, after making the male audience pumped up, then drive to the website to sign up.

if you just point it in membership index, most males won't bother to sign up because all they see is just another match.com



And don't say PPV is a waste of time. PPV traffic is far more cheaper than PPC and is very good with testing. If you never done PPV successfully, you have not done it right.

nhynes57

Congratulations on your success. Very inspiring.

Two questions.
Are you direct linking or using a custom lander?

US or International?

Hope it stays profitable for you.

Thanks

http://ebookdirectory.com - Add Your Free eBooks Here!

Loan Finance!

Mike Morgan.

Very inspiring . I am sure your thread going to inspire lots of warriors .

Everybody should learn from your thread that diversification is very important . At the same time , focusing on one traffic source at a time is also very critical .

PuffMatic

I split test every single offer with and without a landing page. Making one isn't that difficult really. You just need 1 proven LP and then edit it for different offers and different angles. Atleast that's what I do.

Both and both.

Thanks. I plan on doing that .

contentwriting360

Seems like I got to start the CPA campaign, too. I got to learn it first. That's a very inspiring post. Thanks Puff!

mtmjohn

Congratulations! Very interesting and inspiring! Keep it up!

nicktnack

Hey OP,
I am in the midst of having some success with direct linking right now, although it's still a small amount. I'm about to switch to split testing my landing pages and so I have some questions.

1) Does a lander work better for you all the time?
2) How long till an offer dies out on FB ads for you?
3) Do the weekdays convert as well as weekends?
4) How tough is the US market compared to the international market? I suppose that you would need a really creative angle + high bids & budget to get somewhere.

Thanks.

PuffMatic

Thanks
1) No, not always. Some offers work better direct linked.
2) Depends on the demo. If it is large, the ad is good for 20+ days. If the demo is <50K, it dies out in a week for me. I just keep more ads ready and swap them up when things slow down.
3) Weekends convert better for dating offers. Mondays are the worst for me.
4) Yes, exactly.

biz_online

Great case study... way to stick it out..

Tamalkrishna

Sorry to hear that you have started finding new ways to earn money. If you have a blog and full of useful information you can still earn money from your blog. If all of your blog posts are unique and useful for people, it should not take long time to get so many visitors again from your site. Remember, whatever updates Google makes, it will always give value to unique and useful contents that people like. So if you have loyal readers of your blog, you should never be afraid of loosing visitors to your site. Stick to it. You will succeed.

Never depend on only one source of Traffic. Rather spread words about about your website all over the internet. So there can be a lot of ways from where traffic can come to your site.

salam541

thanks 4 sharing your success story

MilkerFocus

CPA offers really have potential to make big money. not kidding. The key to success, it's not just about how much money you have, it is also about what mindset you have. I am making money with CPA offers too, so what you think cause what you get. BTW, good job!

scout99

Would love to know (but don't expect you to share) what you did to get your ads for RichMen approved. FB has denied each and every one of mine! And they've all been very tame and generic. I GIVE UP!

DramaConvention

Congratulations and Thanks for keeping us inspired.

===>>Generate a Fool-Proof Fiverr Income Using Tested, Proven, and Easy-to-manage Ideas, Tips and Tricks<<===
===>> It's fast and easy. Check out our WSO to discover the secret.<<===
===>> You can do it. Exclusive Bonus Included.Limited Offer Ends Soon!<<===

nicktnack

Hey OP, a few more general questions. When an offer dies, do you wait for perhaps 1-2 weeks before coming back to promote it again? Also, running the offer over a weekend, I did not successfully manage to scale it. For example:

Day 1: $50 budget split between 2 campaigns, 25-25 and I got 90% ROI
Day 2: $100 budget split between 2 campaigns, 50-50 and I got 35% ROI

Is it always a hit and miss and how much you would say I should use as a budget to profit better on the weekends?

dmarseller

Thanks for you inspirational review. I'm trying to make money but It's very difficult. xD.


Regards!

Kaizen5

Inspiring post. I also tried AM with FB Ads and direct linking to some offers like scholarships, World of Warcraft Goods, Dating and so on. But it was a total waste of time and money. I had no success with my methods and tested various types of ads for nothing. I still try to earn some money on different income streams. I hope I will have more success with two small niche sites in the future. Good Luck!

badboy_Nick

Good stuff man, congrats on your winnings and reaching your short-term goals!

Check your Inbox, sent you a cool PM you might wanna check out

Nick

Read my incredible story: www.affiliatechamp.co.uk

ResultsDriven

Congratulations man! Most people don't get it when everyone says: TEST, TEST, TEST! You did a great job though. Dating offers on POF will never go out of style.

RiskTaker

Whats the deal with "Forex" expenses, and why is Forex investments in the online business investment?

ResultsDriven

The OP means that they're paying exchange rate fees for paying POF in a different currency than their native bank account's.

milanopcclub

what is your cpc

PuffMatic

Use a landing page.

I haven't created separate campaigns for weekends. I just meant, overall, weekends perform better for dating ads.

Budget, as much as you can. It really depends how much you want to spend on an ad or campaign.

I need 50 post count to reply to PMs. Will email you later .

1/4 of my EPC.

erkut

congratulation the key of success is always testing

CallawayItIs

Thanks OP for the inspirational post. I'm sure this will give Warriors some motivation to take action!

Internet Marketing takes passion, determination and persistence. If you're doing it to get rich quick, you should contact me.

uzumaki

This is what I'm looking for, great inspiration for CPA starters.

Blade Runner 77

thank you for this post

SohoRich

1,test,test and test
2,never give up
3,financial support
4,good luck