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Stability in IM

by ation
9 replies
God this week has been stressful. I've invested so much into AdWords and made a profitable campaign out of it (turned $100 into $600 in three weeks)..

But now I seem to have gotten the Google Slap. And it's a damn hard slap, because now my salary is down to $0. Now I'm all stressed and various serious.. I NEED to find an avenue for making money once again as I am doing this Full-Time as a student (along with a Weekend job). For me to live I need to be making at least $400 a month through IM, which is fairly modest I think.

This is the second time this has happened in the two weeks. The first time all the offers I were promoting where taken down and I was left with nothing. And this was the only Affiliate Network I had, so I was once again down to $0. I immediately applied to a bunch more Ad Networks and within a few days was able to rebuild to a solid $20 a day again.

But now AdWords, which I had so much hope in, has left me high and dry. I'm going to attempt to contact their support and plead for re-instatement (not that my account was suspended, just my QS went from 10/10 to 1/10 overnight).

Like I said I've just been filled with all this stress and loss of hope because of this. I'm NOT giving up though, I see the potential in IM and I absolutely want the freedom that comes with its success.

So, I don't know, I just need some advice I guess.. Any words you all can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.
#stability
  • Profile picture of the author Anonymous Affiliate
    Once you mature your affiliate savvy you will gain some stability in your income, but bear in mind that IM (specially affiliate IM) is a wild ride and don't be surprised if some months your profits cut in half for whatever reason. It the nature of this business
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  • Profile picture of the author mlord10
    One way to build a more reliable income for yourself is to build up a solid customer base instead of just hoping for the one off sale. I think that list building is important, because when you have a targeted email list you can offer your products or services to targeted prospects over and over again.

    I think the closest thing to stability in internet marketing is to promote residual affiliate programs, and build a list.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarkSherris
    I think you've got to try move away from Google if you want stability (adwords that is).

    Of course you can still use it, but it can't be your primary or only income stream simply because you could easily get slapped as you already have above.

    Work on something that you actually control such as building your own customer base / subscriber list, then you have control over what you do with your own list, e.g recommending products etc.

    Also look into recurring commissions (ones that will pay you monthly, subscriptions etc..)
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    I trumpet the list building advice. It's important to build relationships, they last when other things might not be that stable. As in getting the google slap, etc. Try to open multiple channels of income to guard against the instability of running your own business.

    Like some IM'ers I've had a few ventures go south but since I built a solid list I was kept nimble and still flourished.

    Ryan Biddulph
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  • Profile picture of the author Online Bliss
    Ation,
    looks like you have that part down,
    now add some different eggs to your basket and
    create some other streams of income.
    Not all the eggs will be golden.
    The problem most of us have is that
    we want everything to work now.
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  • Profile picture of the author ation
    Ha.. thanks all. I saw this thread going to page 2 so I figured I wasn't going to receive a reply.

    And actually with the $500 profit I obtained around 850 e-mails. Although it was single opt-in (enter your e-mail, re-direct to CPA offer kind of thing). Along with a confirmation e-mail with some valuable information.

    Sent out the first e-mail on Monday to everyone on the list, wasn't profitable at all unfortunately. I think it might have been to much of an advertisement without enough value.

    Out of the 780 e-mails sent it received 46 opens, 18 clicks, 8 unsubscriptions, 3 spam complaints..
    got the clicks but no conversions, so that was kind of a dissapointment too.

    I still have a about $190 in Adcenter Credits and $70 left over in Adwords.
    Adcenter wasn't very profitable for the niche I'm targetting (was costing me about $0.50 compared to $0.05 on Adwords), but this was because I was kicking ass in Adwords with a 10/10 QS and 15-20% CTR.... until Google decided to ruin my life by making it 1/10 overnight.

    Hell dude.. I'm more focused than ever, but there's still ambiguity in where I should go with this. I don't think I'm going to be going to sleep until I figure out at least one way to get SOME kind of money flowing back in. Any tips would be appreciated... I'll be around working my ass off. Thanks again all.
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    • Profile picture of the author TimG
      If you are looking to build stability from your IM income then you have to build a solid base of several income streams to draw from.

      You want to build this similar to a mutual fund instead of having a single stock. This allows allows you to avoid the massive income drops shoudl one of your income streams fail to deliver.

      Typical income streams would include:

      1 - adsense
      2 - PLR products you modify and then sell
      3 - Affiliate products you sell
      4 - Your own products which you sell

      All 4 can be accomplished without a list but in order to truly have a dependable income source or a source of income that can be tapped into should an emergency arise you would need to develop a relationship with a list of subscribers.

      The adsense model by itself doesn;t require a list (although one can be used to increase its effectiveness) but the other 3 income streams can receive healthy dosages of income jolts if you have a responsive list.

      Respectfully,
      Tim
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  • Profile picture of the author Vikram73
    Why are you getting slapped? It's not that hard to give the mighty Goog what it wants. Did you get a warning? Just running a bridge page?

    Is the product approved by AdWords?

    Between the AsWords FAQ and some of the free ebooks out there on AdWords I think you can pull it off.

    AdWords is in IMO the most lucrative traffic. Don't give up just yet.
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  • Profile picture of the author ation
    I'm not exactly sure why I was slapped. I e-mailed Adwords support and am waiting their reply. And no warning.. just yesterday 10/10 QS with a good amount of clicks.. this morning I wake up at they are all 1/10.
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