This is why people get rejected.

by Greg Jacobs

Posted: 16 years ago 23 replies

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Hi Warriors

CPA makes up about %30 of my income stream with the rest coming from Product affiliates such as eBay and Amazon and even a little Adsense.

It seems at times that every other thread on this forum is about getting accepted to a CPA network or why you have been denied. As someone with a little experience in the industry, I can probably tell you exactly why you have been denied.

The main difference with CPA network is they work on a Cost Per Action basis. Meaning that you get paid for (among other things) generating a lead for their clients.

Now there are a few issues with this that you need to understand

You are getting paid for these Leads
These Leads are not direct $ for the clients
The client needs to convert these leads into $
Only quality and targeted leads convert.
If the client cannot convert the Leads that you send, then they lose money
The client usually has baseline data from their own testing that shows something like 1000 quality leads = $2000 Revenue. So then they can go ahead and afford to pay you $1 per lead and still make a fair profit.

So keeping all that in mind we need to consider a few other things

Fraud in the CPA industry is Rampant. There are people that do nothing but create CPA accounts and send fraudulent leads to the publisher and hope that they get paid before they get caught.
In addition, CPA is a hands on industry. Its not like Commission Junction or Amazon where you are dealing with an Automated system. You will have an Affiliate Manger and it will take part of his day and time to oversee your account and make sure that your leads are quality. This costs the networks $ for the manpower.

Now take into account these last points.

%90 of people that sign up to defraud a CPA network are from non-western countries. If you owned a CPA network and it cost you $ to monitor each publisher then a good blanket policy would be to auto-deny anybody from an non-western country.
In addition people consider that you are representing the Client as their representative in their advertising. Meaning that if you do not speak English %100 fluently (and understand the culture to who you are advertising) there is a chance that you will mis-represent the advertiser in wording or placement leading to trouble for them down the road.
This does not mean that non-western affiliates will get denied, in fact there are many VERY VERY successful CPA affiliates from 3rd world countries (even targeting US markets) , however they are established and professional. (its not a beginners game)

And Lastly for those from Western Countries who get denied.

CPA networks are setup to deal with people who can generate 100's or thousands of leads per day. They are not a small-fry business. meaning that they want to deal with professionals who know what they are doing. (since it costs them manpower to manage you)
%90 of people who do CPA are buying traffic, meaning that you need to have $$$ to invest (in addition to knowledge) to make it worth their time.
People that have money to invest usually know how to pick up a phone and have a conversation.

Now I know it sounds a bit harsh, but CPA is a high-stakes, high-rewards game and networks need to protect themselves.

SO then what do you NEED to do to get accepted?

Be from a Western Country. And if not, then really have your stuff together. I know the Azoogle has a specific India division for Asian publishers
This means you will need to have a solid and demonstrated traffic source.
Even if you are from a Western Country, they want to know exactly who they are dealing with. Meaning all of your information is complete and truthful. You are in effect entering into a contract so they need to verify you are who you say you are.
Demonstrate how you will drive traffic. Now if you have never done CPA before and really have no idea than some vague guidelines from an eBook, it is probably ok as long as you demonstrate that you are professional and trustworthy by your application and phone interview.

Lastly - There is no reason to apply and get accepted to 10 different CPA networks. Really 1 or 2 of the bigger ones will do the trick until you really know what you are doing.

To put this in perspective, I can be considered a low-mid level producer in the CPA world (which is actually ALOT in the real world) and I belong to 4 networks and am really only active in 2 of them, with %70 of my traffic going to one and %30 to the other.

Unless one has a particular offer that really matches what you can do, it is a waste of your time and resources to jump from network to network. Especially because if you prove yourself to be a solid earner and send volume, they will bump up your payments

Of course what you really know what you are doing, then sure you can move around, but for the sake of getting started in the industry it is best to focus.

Good Luck

#cpa #people #rejected

Whosyou 16 years ago

Thanks greg, this is definatly one of the best posts ive seen on this subject.
- Thanks
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- Jenni Mac 16 years ago
  
  Top class post from someone who clearly knows what he's talking about!
  
  Thanks
  
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Kris.Sm 16 years ago

This is QUALITY and TRUTH.
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Sham Salih 16 years ago

Well written post.
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Internet Undertaking 16 years ago

Great Post! I haven't seen a straight up post like that around here in a while.

Well Done.
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MaggieDavid 16 years ago

Fantastic Post - thanks. You spell everything out clear and simple. Best post on this I have seen in a while.
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beePrime 16 years ago

wow, i just notice CPA is very long work, thank you
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- Robyn8243 16 years ago
  
  Great Post Greg.
  
  With all the hype about how to make money with CPA marketing many people lose sight of the fact that what drives this business model is that advertisers are looking to make money by getting their offer in front of targeted prospects.
  
  The only reason advertisers are willing to pay money for leads is to generate new business.
  
  Too many people seem to forget that in this business the customer is the advertiser, not potential affiliates.
  
  Robyn
  
  Thanks
  
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markshields

16 years ago

It is very interesting to know this information, having been 9 years full time online I have noticed just lately how CPA seems to be taking over alot of peoples income therefore this information should help them get accepted first time

Thanks
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Greg Jacobs

16 years ago

Originally Posted by markshields

Well its funny, because CPA is really like educated gambling. There is so much info-junk out there on how to succeed on CPA, but really the only things you need to know is

Have a budget you can afford to lose (think Vegas!)
realize that most players need to test and tweak at least 5 offers and lose money to find one that is profitable
there is no 'magic bullet' for CPA.
Only extremely clever and perceptive people succeed. %90 of people fail.
beginners or people that need hand holding should stay very far away. there is good reason loads of people get rejected from networks and probably saved them lots of $ in the first place.

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PPC-Coach 16 years ago

Good points. The amount of fraud out there is shocking. It's a huge issue and you're right, instead of babysitting accounts, we just don't accept whole countries, it's easier that way.
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Mr Money Maker 16 years ago

Great post, I agree almost 100%....My feeling is why waste time doing this when you can find much better ways to make money online. Once it was Adsense...& Affiliate marketing.then CPA...people flood in the money making doorways to get rich.....but the real money makers have left the building.....Yes Elvis has left the building....and he's looking for a new , fresh and 100% original way to make money online. He's a guru thinking far ahead......ok LOL.....but it's true !!
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ChrisBa 16 years ago

very well said and very true
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seolinker

Banned 16 years ago

[DELETED]

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Greg Jacobs

16 years ago

Originally Posted by seolinker

Greg, it seems that you are not from western country but I suppose that you accepted in decent number of CPA netwroks, kinda irony here

Or it simply US LLC with bank account while you are traveling the world ?

No ties to the US, though being a native English speaker goes A LONG way. And moreso than that, knowing the industry. Though really if you can prove yourself as competent and professional - they wont care where you are from. Really, once you are "in the game", they will start to call you as experienced and competent affilaites are few and far in-between

But I suppose the big question on everybodies mind on this forum is how do you get accepted to CPA networks?

Really I would not worry about it too much. CPA is high-rollers game. If you can't figure out how to get accepted, then you are most likely just going to lose money. Seriously.

And I don't mean offense by this either, but its the truth, so you can learn it the easy way or the hard way. (I know that the truth is not popular around here sometimes and some people would prefer that I just smiled and sold them a $79 ebook- but another $79 doesnt solve all your problems all the time)

**** the eBooks, the fact about CPA is that there is NO MAGIC BULLET. how you make money is very simple

Get an offer
Make a LP (landing page)
Buy traffic
Lose Money
Test and Tweak

Repeat this for about 5 offers and MAYBE you will find a winner... MAYBE...
and if you do then you scale it up like crazy (and you sure won't go running to write an eBook about it)

Anybody who claims that they can automate that process and make it easier needs to smell what they are smokin as success comes from slipping in between the cracks and being original and clever, not from using some template.

And yes even me and all other sucessfull CPA'ers have to stay ahead of the ax. Our offers dry up. We have to test and tweak and find new offers and lose money again and again to find the profit. Sure after a few years you get a better nose for winners and know what mostly works and lots of traffic sources. But finding the right combo of

offer
landing page
traffic source (scalable prefered)

takes some work, a nice CC balance and a little bit of luck.

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seolinker Banned 16 years ago

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- Greg Jacobs 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by seolinker
  
  How much money do you personally risk to test offer ? Kinda offtop but want to hear others on this.
  
  Its like the card tables in vegas! lol
  
  depends on the stakes of the offer and how high I hope to take it. Bigger bet = bigger test budget.
  
  as a rule, I test out about 500-1000 clicks from a source to an LP before I scale, tweak or dump the test. So it depends on how much your traffic costs...
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  NickR06 16 years ago
  
  Thanks for this posting Greg. It really helps looking at matters from the CPA managers side. Picking up the phone and being prepared are obviously key in all this.
  
  Thanks
  
  Nick
  
  Thanks
  
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Cpt Jack Sparrow 16 years ago

What some slimy cheap stakes are selling as ebooks and paid reports u just summed it all up in one small but highly informative post! Thanks! That really helped
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JimLillig 16 years ago

Greg, It is good to see that some publishers do get it. I routinely reject over 90% of the applications that are sent in. Most are just plain fraudulent information, others because the site they gave and the description of their marketing plan for our campaigns does not match well with our campaigns, and the last reason I reject someone is for being from a Non-Western country. There are many good pubs from foreign countries, the problem is that there are usually 50:1 fraudsters who simply want to pump and run before they get caught. This is why foreign publishers receive greater scrutiny. It is unfortunate but true.

One very good way as a foreign publisher to get credibility is to network with well known marketers as well as have a presence that networks can find you, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. A personal blog doesn't hurt either. Not that these are golden keys, but they do help establish that you are probably a normal person and not some black hat waiting in the shadows to slam email submits with bogus addresses.

CPA is a great way to make a living, but as you pointed out, it is a business and you have to be prepared to treat it as such and do a lot of your own testing. I have found that the best and most profitable CPA publishers match their particular traffic to a specific set of offers. So before you apply to a network, you should be checking on Offervault.com, Odigger.com and Affbuzz.com to see which networks have the kind of offers you are looking for.

I firmly believe that a CPA network should enhance both the publisher and the advertiser relationship, or what's the point. We optimize every campaign using proprietary A/B matrix software to ensure that we are continuously beating the control and thus getting better conversions from the same amount of traffic.

As a publisher you have a choice of who you want to play with. If you have a serious business and can prove that to the network you will get accepted. But if you do your research regarding the offers that will work best with the traffic you are driving and let them know that you selected them because they have matching offers for your existing traffic, most reputable networks will recognize this and not only allow you in, but may also bump your commissions as an incentive to stay loyal to them. The key to long term success is that you send traffic that converts well for their advertisers. At Offeratti we monitor all traffic for quality. Poor quality traffic is something that will most definitely get you pulled from running an offer, high quality traffic will get you more money and additional resources such as custom creatives or articles you can use exclusively.

Thanks again Greg for a great post. You are welcome at our Network :-)
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Blog: www.jimlillig.com

Download my book on how to win using CPA networks: http://www.jimlillig.com/state_of_CPA.pdf
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Affiliace.com

16 years ago

Greg and Jim - great posts! Very well said.

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silverbax

16 years ago

Excellent post, it's nice to see such quality information, real business info and not hype. I think one of the issues with seeing so many CPA offers is that a lot of IM is pitching people on 'easy money'.

The only people who succeed in a business long-term are those who actually understand 'business' and not 'magic bullet', 'easy money' or anything like that.

Thanks
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Greg Jacobs

16 years ago

Originally Posted by silverbax

ITs very true. The only people succeeding with Magic Bullet systems are the folks holding the gun (hint.. thats not YOU)

to put it in perspective, I can be considered very successful at IM as it affords me a full time income and nice lifestyle. But to get to this point it took me over a year of moonlighting from a regular job and who knows how many hours, days, weeks months of self education and testing. And on top of all this, I was basically raised with a computer in my lap and was comfortable putting up websites (old-school physcial product ecommerce) -so I had that learning curve conquered before I even had a notion of IM.

So its not and NEVER easy.

Though that being said, I could probably just go to sleep for a month and wake up and have earned 5 figures. So the rewards are incredible for those that can get over the hump.

I have never actually ever bought an info-course/roadmap/blueprint. but have invested in a few practical tools that are key to my income.

For those that are aiming for success, focus less on courses and more on self education/testing and toolkits for executing your plans. That is the simplest advice I can give.

Thanks

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Web Prodigy 16 years ago

People get rejected because the companies try to impose too many rules. The best thing to do is to let the market more freely and all the companies will earn much more, but they don't see this.
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Hsekhar 16 years ago

Informative post.

On the other hand, There has been a lot of increase in the number of CPA networks recently, Only choose reliable networks and promote their advertisers, Or else you will have to face a lot of headaches regarding payments.
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This is why people get rejected.

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