Hello everyone, I've been hanging out here soaking up all of the precious information in these forums, as well as other sites such as digitalpoint, ewealth, and earnersforum. So, I decided to join CJ and also Clickbank to see if i can make any sales/money. Well, $60 adwords dollars later, NOTHING. not a SINGLE sale. I'll report what i promoted:
I spent $10.48 on promoting Reverse Mobile - a clickbank program from procashaffiliates.com
$15.20 on my blog - callawaygolfclubs.blogspot.com - has highly targetted keywords that have a high CPC - put some adsense on it. got about $.20 from adsense.
$20.71 on a webkinz-ebay ad. I was expecting to get some ebay signups BUT a few hours later I got an e-mail from ebay informing me their affiliate system is broken. Great.
So, I got 48 clicks from my webkinz-ebay campaign, 36 clicks from my SitNGoPro campaign, 34 Clicks from my callaway-blogspot campaign, and 15 clicks from my reversemobile campaign.
I've invested in a little over $60, and in return got NOTHING. I'm extremely discouraged and I feel like giving up. I see tons and tons of people around me that are extremely successful and making over $100 a day. If I made just $10 a day, I'd be extremely happy. But no, I've made nothing. I feel like I just wasted $60. $60 that could have been spent in wiser ways. What am I doing wrong?
Well it's hard to say exactly what went wrong but I'll give you some important tips that may help.
1) It can take 100 - 200 clicks to get a sale in many affiliate programs.
You split up your efforts and had to stop too soon.
2) PPC takes TESTING, TRIAL and ERROR. It's much easier to do when you are new if you concentrate on ONE product or primary keyword.
3) You need LOTS of long tail or 3,4,5 word related phrases to be able to get enough clicks and get lower KW costs. If you were mainly bidding on the most obvious 2 word phrases you paid way too much per click to be profitable.
HOW MANY KEY PHRASES did you have for each campaign???
DID YOU INCLUDE THE MONEY WORDS that signify people are ready to buy and not just searching for random info? Buy golf clubs, best prices golf clubs...
4) You need to use negative KW to eliminate people who are clickers but not buyers. Example you promote XYZ software negative KW may be "free, ree trial, cheat, warez, crack" for people who don't want to buy but ware just trying to get a freebie.
5) You also need an affiliate program that you know converts well, tracks well and pays. Sometimes you can't tell these things up front and you need to test.
6) In order to test and learn you need some gambling money that you can afford to lost.
7) You Also MAY VERY WELL NEED to study and learn more about PPC before trying it again.
Those are just a few points off the top of my head
BUT I am NOT an Adwords expert and don't play the PPC game for profit.
__________________
Your Partner in Success,
Linda Buquet :: Affiliate Program Advertising, Promotion & PR (Publisher Relations)
The free forum support we provide is made possible by all the 5 Star programs at the top of the right sidebar & in the directory below. Please visit & support our merchants.
ADDING: I feel your pain and am sympathic. I can't say don't give up,
because I don't know your situation.
But I feel you posted here because you wanted to
a) learn to do it better and
b) be encouraged
So I have to say, learn more before you try it again.
Also even though it LOOKS like lots of people are making big $ there are 100 times more that have tried and failed at 1st just like you and aren't making a dime.
The ones that are making big $ are the ones that
tried. failed. learned. improved
then got back on the horse til they figured out how to ride.
The ones making big money have ALL been through exactly what you are going through now! Difference? They didn't give up!
__________________
Your Partner in Success,
Linda Buquet :: Affiliate Program Advertising, Promotion & PR (Publisher Relations)
The free forum support we provide is made possible by all the 5 Star programs at the top of the right sidebar & in the directory below. Please visit & support our merchants.
I've never trusted CB tracking and for many reasons would NEVER spend money promoting CB products. One reason is competition but there are LOTS of other reasons too.
Check this out. Blog about all the CB tracking problems.
Linda Buquet :: Affiliate Program Advertising, Promotion & PR (Publisher Relations)
The free forum support we provide is made possible by all the 5 Star programs at the top of the right sidebar & in the directory below. Please visit & support our merchants.
Linda - Thank you so much for your words of wisdom, advice, and encouragement. Believe it or not, they did help a lot. I guess when you look it, I can't expect to join up with people who have been doing this for years and expect to make money right off the bat. It's like anything else I suppose - practice makes perfect. I can't be the best at basketball if I haven't practiced and played before. I am determined to make this work, and I will NOT give up. Thanks again, and great forum, by the way.
I hear you regarding spending money on pay per click and getting very little in return. Did the same thing myself when I first started out and it's very frustrating and discouraging.
Have you thought about any other approaches to affiliate marketing besides pay per click? One method that I really like is Travis Sago's Bum marketing. It's affiliate marketing through the writing of short articles and using blogs or Squidoo. It does take a little more time and effort to set up than an Adwords campaign but (and here's the part I love) it's totally free to do and can get you earning some money without spending any.
If you're interested in this type of method check it out at Bum Marketing Method(the course is free too so you don't even have to pay to learn it).
__________________ Do You Love Money? Learn how to make it without spending a dime.
Well it's hard to say exactly what went wrong but I'll give you some important tips that may help.
1) It can take 100 - 200 clicks to get a sale in many affiliate programs.
You split up your efforts and had to stop too soon.
2) PPC takes TESTING, TRIAL and ERROR. It's much easier to do when you are new if you concentrate on ONE product or primary keyword.
3) You need LOTS of long tail or 3,4,5 word related phrases to be able to get enough clicks and get lower KW costs. If you were mainly bidding on the most obvious 2 word phrases you paid way too much per click to be profitable.
HOW MANY KEY PHRASES did you have for each campaign???
DID YOU INCLUDE THE MONEY WORDS that signify people are ready to buy and not just searching for random info? Buy golf clubs, best prices golf clubs...
4) You need to use negative KW to eliminate people who are clickers but not buyers. Example you promote XYZ software negative KW may be "free, ree trial, cheat, warez, crack" for people who don't want to buy but ware just trying to get a freebie.
5) You also need an affiliate program that you know converts well, tracks well and pays. Sometimes you can't tell these things up front and you need to test.
6) In order to test and learn you need some gambling money that you can afford to lost.
7) You Also MAY VERY WELL NEED to study and learn more about PPC before trying it again.
Those are just a few points off the top of my head
BUT I am NOT an Adwords expert and don't play the PPC game for profit.
Linda that was a very good answer. I think you shead some very good advice and truth on that subject and may very well help someone to not give up but sharpen up. Love your answer.
Jessie Goss
Hey the lady gave me good hope also. I have tried thousands of things and not made a dime. I made more with scams than truely good programs. Although I don't encourage anyone to scam or run scams. It was actually a pyrimid scheme and I didn't know it was illegal until I was turned in and my website was shut down. But I was making money from it. And to me it did not appear to be hurting anyone.
But I guess learning to do anything right is worth the extra work and effort.
It is just where do you get the extra energy to keep going when you fall short so much. When you have done all you know to get the job done and you still haven't moved it can be very depressing.
Jessie Goss
Even I would tell you to start with bum marketing and try to make back the $60 that you had spent on adwords.
The mistake that you made with adwords was that you started with about 3 campaigns.
What you should have done was to start with one campaign and see if it is profitable.
To know if it is profitable or not, you have to wait for at least 100 clicks and see if you make a sale or not.
If you are not seeing any sales through this then this is a sign that you need to find a different product or a different niche.
Extremely Discouraged - Losing Money on PPC
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