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Why Am I failing with affil. marketing?

by michaelzenga999
12 replies
Hi,

I just started the PPC Classroom product, and they taught me to start with direct linking to a successful product to see if it would work.

I used my clickbank hoplink and put the destination URL on at the end, and used that for my destination url and display url. I seemed to satisfy Google with this.

eg. hop.clickbank/reversephonedetective.com

I went onto clickbank and found some successful products and started.

The highest gravity product - commission blueprint - had keywords so expensive, I haven't gotten any clicks. I can't really see how I would make money at $2/click for a $70 commission

I tried reverse phone detective with a gravity of about 500 and sent direct clicks to them and got way less than a 1% conversion rate. I got cheap clicks, $.15 ea, and over 200 the first day and sold $9 worth of commission.

I just feel like I am off to a really bad start, does anyone have any tips?

Thanks,

Mike
#affil #failing #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author Amy Bass
    Mike,
    I don't recommend direct linking to the product. Why not set up a blog that relates to the product and link to that? I bet you will get much better results.
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    • Profile picture of the author writergirlk
      You're not failing! You're just getting started. :-) Be positive! You won't succeed if you decide you've already failed.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
    Mike - on $9 of commission how much did you spend in PPC?

    15c clicks = $15 per 100 clicks. So maybe you are losing a bit of money? You need to know what ads are converting and what keywords are a waste of money. Then review your bids as taught in PPC Classroom.

    Feel positive about learning. Cheap lessons but valuable learning.
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    • Profile picture of the author glchandler
      I would not consider this as a "failure" as you have managed to produce an income, albeit it small, from your marketing. Just treat this as another learning experience and take the advice from Amy and Chris above and put use this to further your knowledge in product and market tactics.
      Just remember that when starting most produce NO money and quit altogether.
      Review what you have, dissect it for positive attributes and follow the yellow brick road to more success!
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  • Profile picture of the author kkchoon
    Why don't you ask the question at PPC classroom? Amit should be answering your question!
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    Powerful Indexer That Makes Your Backlinks Count ==> Nuclear Link Indexer

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  • Profile picture of the author Rajul kaushik
    My couple of cents:
    1) I think the best first step to take should be to establish a couple of wordpress blogs: either free ( even bloggers will do well in this case ) or even self hosted blogs.
    2) Populate them with the right content: say a review, product comparison description and link the relevant KWs on the post to the hoplinks of products you are promoting.
    3) Optimise the blogs with very relevant posts: thats very essential.
    4) Ensure that you cloak the links: that's also essential.
    5) Yahoo answers can also be a good platform to answer some product related questions, needless to say here: you should have a link to your blog in the signature when you are answering the queries
    According to me: PPC should be tried later. But, I think you have done well: earned in the very beginning, that's great. Every business has a learning curve and you have to pay school fee to learn tricks of trade.
    Follow Chris Thomson's above.
    All the best.
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    Buy Authority Domains and Readymade Niche Websites Here
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  • Profile picture of the author rdmorrow
    Hi
    Change your mindset to a positive outlook. Focus on your long term objectives and never look back.
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    Are you Serious About Making Money Online?
    Put Yourself In Position To Retire Wealthy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich Rollend
    You getting some really good advice, I'm still fairly new to this but when I first started I only had a couple of sales. My ROI was horrible but I keep trying and learning it will get better don't give up.

    "The formula for success is quite simple: double your rate of failure."

    - Thomas J Watson Sr. (Founder of IBM)
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Million
    Originally Posted by michaelzenga999 View Post

    Hi,

    I just started the PPC Classroom product, and they taught me to start with direct linking to a successful product to see if it would work.

    I used my clickbank hoplink and put the destination URL on at the end, and used that for my destination url and display url. I seemed to satisfy Google with this.

    eg. hop.clickbank/reversephonedetective.com

    I went onto clickbank and found some successful products and started.

    The highest gravity product - commission blueprint - had keywords so expensive, I haven't gotten any clicks. I can't really see how I would make money at $2/click for a $70 commission

    I tried reverse phone detective with a gravity of about 500 and sent direct clicks to them and got way less than a 1% conversion rate. I got cheap clicks, $.15 ea, and over 200 the first day and sold $9 worth of commission.

    I just feel like I am off to a really bad start, does anyone have any tips?

    Thanks,

    Mike
    I would not give up on that keyword!

    I promise you if you setup a squeeze page (make sure to test your headlines and opt-in conversion) and give away a report that compares the pros and cons of several reverse phone lookup products (all with your aff. links in the report) you will convert at a higher rate AND you can market to that list over and over again.

    If that seems far and away you can setup a 'pre-sell' review. If you warm them up a bit before they hit the offer you'll see a higher conversion rate.

    No matter what 'they say' lol about PPC it requires a lot of trial and error. Direct linking is the first step in seeing if money can be made. That's a GREAT sign. The next step is putting something in the middle of that traffic and the offer to warm them up to buying it.

    You're close!

    Scott
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  • Profile picture of the author Dana_W
    One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is that there have been a number of threads talking about how clickbank seems to have weird tracking issues. So some of this may not be your fault - you may have made sales and not be aware of it. I would suggest trying another affiliate program if you can.
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  • Profile picture of the author websitemoneynow
    Try to find a unique niche and look into keyphrases rather then keywords , you may get some less competitive keyphrases in which the visitor is further along in the buying process. Goodluck
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    • Profile picture of the author michaelzenga999
      Wow!

      I am blown away by all of the encouragement and good advice. I don't know what to say other than Thanks.

      Sincerely,

      Michael Zenga
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