So frustrated

Varistas

Well, at least you have the work ethic.

PPC can be very expensive with little return if you don't know what you are doing. You need to focus on one thing and make that work before moving on (I seem to have to say that a lot in this forum, but I'll keep saying it as it's SO damned important).

Roy

What were your ppc stats?

where did you send the traffic? review site? squeeze page? straight to a sales letter? Was it congruent with the ad?

A common mistake I've seen people new to ppc make is to use kw's that were too general, or totaly unrelated... heck, I still catch myself doing this sometimes

Why not start by learning to build solid niche blogs to make money off affiliate links or Adsense while you're dabbling and training in list building or PPC?

There's very little ongoing cost (only time) for maintaining blogs and it might help to fund some of your other ventures in the future.

You need to specialize but since you have limited funds, I would start with article marketing first and post to squiddo or ezine or go articles. You need to find long tail, low competition keywords using various free tools on the net. Make sure your articles are unique and do not post the same article in article directories. I am also a member of WA. I would connect with Travis (Bum Marketer) or look at his sticky posts. I use his techniques.

Hey Varistas,

Here are some tips to help you along.

First of all, if you're going to get into PPC, especially with affiliate networks you need about $500 to get started.

Do not start in Google AdWords. If you're limited in funds, start with Yahoo! Search marketing.

Create 10 multiple use credit card numbers using PayPal. Create ten Yahoo Marketing accounts using a $75 credit. It takes $30 to open each account. As far as I know, Yahoo knows this is common practice but doesn't really do anything about it.

Congrats, you've just turned a $300 marketing budget into a $1,050 marketing budget.

From there, pick an offer carefully. If you're using affiliate networks (which I'm assuming you're talking about CPA networks like Azoogle, eAdvertising, etc,) you're dealing with top level competition.

Talk to your affiliate manager and get the stats on any offer BEFORE you run it. Ask what's converting right now. Avoid the super high traffic niches, which right now are **** berry and Government Grants. Get in medium traffic niches that convert well.

Any campaign that makes 50% return is a success. In other words, if you spend $100 and get back $50 (you lose $50,) that is a success. With a couple weeks of tweaking, that campaign will pay off for you for months. In other words, a 50% return is a winner.

30% - 40% is a maybe. Do more research and tweaking if you see fit. 30% and below just dump it.

You'll very, very rarely be profitable right out of the gate. That's why it's important to have a bit of a testing budget to go into PPC.

Hope that helps.

Best wishes,

- Derek

derek is right IM requires risk. What works for someone might not work for somebody else. I plan on investing $500 on an affiliate product to see if it converts well. Usually it takes anywhere from 3-6 products before you find one that converts well. Most people don't stay in ppc long enough to start seeing success. People get scared and often run and quit to soon. Try not to be afraid of money. . Make an investment and run with it. If it doesn't work you have still learned something. hope it helps

By the way Varistas, I feel your pain.

Here's how my last three years went:

1) Work at Starbucks
2) Quit, work from home
3) Failed to make a living, went to work at Honda selling cars
4) Quit that job, work from home
5) Failed at working from home
6) Got a $20/hr copywriting gig for 9 months
7) Quit
8) Failed at working from home
9) Got 2 coffee shop jobs and a random copywriting gig
10) Quit
11) Succeed. I work from home very successfully.

Stick to it mate. For 3 years I took random jobs to pay the bills while I worked on marketing. It's worth the payoff buddy.

Hey,

I know it can be frustrating and overwhelming when first starting out. The key though for you I think will be to focus on one thing and make it work. You seem to have little time to spend right now with your other jobs going on so you will have to force yourself to not get distracted by all of the thousands of directions you could go and focus on one direction.
If you would like more information on some things that will help you focus I would love to help where I can. Send me a message and I will get back with you. One part of this business is that we all help each other out and I want to see everyone succeed.
Have a Great and Successful Day!

Jason

Everyone,

Thank you so much for your kind replies.

I feel better now. I promised myself I would never ever give up on this. I look at it in a more positive light. Instead of losing 200, it could be 2,000.....

But still, I am just...lost and which offers I should promote. **** seems to have too many people doing it. The grant offer as well...

Hmm....

Hey mate,

Don't start with ****. It's oversaturated. You CAN still make money in it, but you'll need a large test budget. Again, you'll usually lose money to start with any campaign. With **** you'll need to lose a lot of money to start. Same with grants.

Some decent converting offers that aren't overly competitive right now are Teeth Whitening and Lift SP (facial creams.) Ringtones are still converting but are pretty competitive. Tax programs are great, though the tax season is coming to a close. It's competitive but not super saturated like ****.

Also, get on either Hydra, COPEAC or Neverblue. These companies will pay out via PayPal once you hit $500 - $1K a week, which will help you massively with cashflow.

Normal payment terms on other networks are Net 30, meaning you'll make money, need to wait 30 days, then wait 3 days to get the check, then wait 3 days for the check to clear. Obviously having your cash tied up for 36 - 66 days isn't good marketing. Sign up for a network that pays via PayPal and pay for your advertising with PayPal generated credit cards. Instant payment.

I'd probably start with teeth whitening.

- Derek