A Newbie's Journey - $3000 in 120 days

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May 09, 2007

Progress achieved since last post:
- Am about 90% done with the PHP script for the magazine campaign. I feel writing the script has been a great way for me to get my feet wet in PHP, and I feel much more capable with it.
- Bought 2 new domains, one .info I plan to use for an arbitrage niche mini site, and one for another affiliate I may soon be promoting.
- Read up on using Wordpress as a CMS. I plan to use Wordpress to manage my arbitrage site and content.
- Started learning CSS, I feel that it will be a skill that will be benefit me greatly, as I want to be able to make basic pages from scratch eventually.

Goals for the coming days:
- Finally finish the script so that I can import more magazines and start getting more data, so I can begin to tweak ads and keywords.
- Get my Wordpress blogs set up along with the various CMS plugins.
- Keep on learning more PHP and CSS.

I know it seems as if my progress money-wise is slow, but I promise you that once I get a basic handle on things, I will be able to progress quite fast. Reading the post Buy Used Domains was a great inspiration to me and is the kind of content I love coming to Wickedfire for. I have to admit that financially I can be a bit conservative at times, but I know that to make big money, money has to be spent first. So in that regard, I am ready to liquidate some of my savings and spend in upwards of thousands a month.

Back to coding, reading, and learning. :)
 


maxicapaci said:
Whats your profit vs loss so far?
Click to expand...

Not too impressive I'm afraid:

On my magazine campaign, I have spent about $5 and got $0 (I know I posted about a sale earlier, but that sale was later revoked due to another affiliate generating the sale).

On an earlier arbitrage campaign, I had coupons to MSN adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing, so I spent around $70 and got back $160 or so.
 
Great post dude...good luck.
I'm also learning PHP. I dont come from a programming background (I've only programmed before in VBA) so I've been kind of banging out basic PHP.
What previous programming experience do you have? It seems you picked it up pretty quickly.
 
May 11, 2007

Progress achieved since last post:
- Am completely done with the PHP script for the magazine campaign. Originally, I had thought it would only take one relatively simple script. It ended up taking me five scripts - three for Adwords keyword, ad , and adgroup generation, one for updating my redirect PHP file, and one for autogenerating the landing pages according to a template. I've really learned a bunch about PHP from this, and it was a great feeling to finish.
- Started using Wordpress as a CMS. Wrote a welcome page for my arbitrage site, I plan to mesh together original content and scraped content eventually. Also picked out a template that looks like it could generate good CTR.
- Neglected to read up on CSS. :( I will definitely try to get to that though, it is imperative that I get a better handle on making and modifying web pages.

Goals for the coming days:
- Buy KeywordCountry so I can know which niches to target for my arbitrage site.
- Still looking for a good COPEAC offer to promote for my planned monetized blog.
- Write, write, write content for my arbitrage site and get that started up again.
- Start submitting and modifying magazine campaign - I could have done that today, but after another 2+ hours of coding, I was a bit sick of working on that particular niche.

I really like working on multiple projects, it keeps me fresh and relaxed when I work, and it gives me motivation to continue even when a particular project is performing badly. Anyway, the weekend is coming up, I hope to put in some serious work then. :)
 
dillinger said:
Great post dude...good luck.
I'm also learning PHP. I dont come from a programming background (I've only programmed before in VBA) so I've been kind of banging out basic PHP.
What previous programming experience do you have? It seems you picked it up pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

I've programmed Java for a long time, as well as MATLAB, C and C++.

PHP is very similar to C, so it was not that hard for me to pick it up, I just have to refer to a book occasionally to see which functions I need to use.

I would recommend "Beginning PHP and mySQL 5" by W. Jason Gilmore, that has helped me greatly in learning. :)
 
nogenius said:
I would recommend "Beginning PHP and mySQL 5" by W. Jason Gilmore, that has helped me greatly in learning. :)
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Ah that´s the one I have! I got it off amazon some time ago but just now I have the time to sit down and get started with it. It´s a very complete book, I only wish it had small projects or something to test what we are learning like other programming books.
 
I would recommend "Beginning PHP and mySQL 5" by W. Jason Gilmore, that has helped me greatly in learning.
Click to expand...

Ill 2nd or 3rd that book...

I agree that it could have more hands on stuff but in general its a very complete book as far as functions and their use...

It also covers some other subjects including Smarty, LDAP, PEAR, etc.
 
Kudos for jumping right in on PHP. Too many people are afraid to do it, but it really is the best way to learn. Here's an adwords format generation tip: use the AdWords desktop edit format so you can just output values like.

campaign,adgroup,whatever,whatever

Makes it so much easier.
 
May 14, 2007

Progress achieved since last post:
- Submitted 30 new magazines using the PHP script. Learned the hard way to manually check through submissions before activating adgroups, as a few adgroups did not contain the keyword "magazine", and so were getting impressions that would not convert well. CTR was slashed in half as a result.
- Worked on my Wordpress-centered arbitrage site. Most of the articles have targeted Adsense ads, I plan to write a few more articles and then test with some Adwords campaigns.
- Got a handle on the fundamentals of CSS, spent several hours reading about it. It seems relatively simple, now I just need some practice. :)
- Bought KeywordCountry for one month.
- Set up YACG for use in arbitrage.
- Picked out COPEAC offer to promote.

Goals for the coming days:
- Submit 50 more magazines, modify some magazine adgroups that clearly are getting tons of impressions but no clicks.
- Get arbitrage site finalized for initial testing phase. Run 6 arbitrage campaigns on Adwords.
- Post a bit in my COPEAC-centered blog. Get that live for testing by Friday of this week.
- Read Wickedfire and absorb as much information as possible. :)

I feel like the money is so close, I'm excited and am putting copious amounts of effort into this initial building and testing phase.
 
chatmasta said:
Kudos for jumping right in on PHP. Too many people are afraid to do it, but it really is the best way to learn. Here's an adwords format generation tip: use the AdWords desktop edit format so you can just output values like.

campaign,adgroup,whatever,whatever

Makes it so much easier.
Click to expand...

Thanks, appreciate the tip. :)

I actually have my script doing that right now - but it is fragmented into seperate scripts - one that generates ads in the Adwords format, one that generates adgroups, and one that generates keywords. I was thinking today that it would probably be possible to combine all of these into a single script.
 
nogenius said:
Thanks, appreciate the tip. :)

I actually have my script doing that right now - but it is fragmented into seperate scripts - one that generates ads in the Adwords format, one that generates adgroups, and one that generates keywords. I was thinking today that it would probably be possible to combine all of these into a single script.
Click to expand...

Yeah you can work them all together. Like I said, check out the code of my advanced keyword tool. :)
 
May 17, 2007

Progress achieved since last post:
- Decided to pause the magazine campaign, I felt it would be too much work for not enough return. Also, I heard that it performs better in the holiday season (Nov - Dec), so I will unpause and work on that campaign later in the year. Hopefully, I will be much more experienced by then. I feel I learned a decent amount of PHP and working with the Google Adwords Editor in the process though, so its not a total loss.
- Researched a bunch of niches using Keyword Country (really does save me a lot of time), wrote a bunch of articles combining original and scraped content, posted them to my arbitrage "blog". Uploaded them to Google Adwords and currently am seeing small results.
- As for my COPEAC-centered blog, I have decided to start really working on that on Friday. I feel that campaign will give me experience on longtail keywords, and will be a good first step into monetizing blogs.

Goals for the coming days:
- Continue to crank out more articles for arbi, also think about different templates I could try and look into split testing.
- Read more posts on Wickedfire regarding blogging.

I remember when I first started this thread, I felt that $3000 in 120 days was on the low side for a goal, even after reading Online Marketing is Not Easy. Now I feel like that is a fairly solid goal for a begineer such as myself. Back when I first began playing poker, I read a post by a pro I highly respected saying that the first thousand dollars (and from then on, ten thousand and hundred thousand) is always the hardest to make. I think the same idea applies in making money online. But I have faith that if I stick it out, the money will eventually come in.

Trying to make money online has been quite a bit harder than I expected, but I enjoy the challenge. Grinding it out and learning new things can get tedious day after day, but those pains are nothing compared to the satisfaction I get when I check my Adsense account or see a new lead/sale.
 
After reading this thread and its replies, I just had to register for this forum.

It is very inspiring and some of the things said on this thread really hit the bulls eye as far as making money online.

It seems that main difference between this forum and forums like DP is the sheer truth that are told rather than just "You can make a lot of money online" threads without any truth behind the scene.

For my self, I started affiliate marketing in "adult" industry and now trying to move in to mainstream which proves to be very very difficult.

Dan

p.s I am still trying to understand this "arbri sites" concepts. If anyone can point to a thread or page that explains how to build one please let me know!
 
an arbitrage site is basically this.

you fill a page with adsense, whether it be an MFA blog or whatever, make sure it has enough legit content to at least look real, make the outbound links all to your affiliate offers, and drive traffic to the site via PPC. If you make sure your keywords are ones that are expensive (via keyword research) and your clicks to the site cheap (again, more research), you have yourself a revenue generating site. It takes trial and error, and most of all, MARKET research to make this work. You will probably NOT make money your first time, but you'll learn what it takes to succeed.


Note : This world may be changing very, very soon.
 
May 27, 2007

Wow - it's been a while since I've updated this, but rest assured, I haven't quit. :)

Progress achieved since last post:
- Been just reading a ton and absorbing information on blogging for money. Work has been fairly draining, so I haven't had a lot of time to devote to learning and doing.
- Posted a couple of posts in my COPEAC-centered blog, trying to see if I can push some organic traffic in addition to PPC traffic.

Goals for the coming days:
- Set up some PPC affiliate campaigns for various products (after researching a bit), and bite the bullet if I lose any money in the beginning. I figure losing money will motivate me to learn quicker, which is a good thing.

I still am in the red finance-wise, but I'll never give up - back to work. :)
 
June 30, 2007

Close to 33 days since I last updated this - shame on me, I basically just got lazy, I will try to continue to update as regularly as I did in the beginning of the project.

So according to my estimates, it has been about 65 days since I first started the project, and I am probably only marginally in the black.

Anyway, a summary of progress achieved since last post:
- Set up a full-fledged PPC campaign on Adwords, made my own landing pages with Wordpress as a CMS, read up a ton on copywriting techniques, took me about 2 weeks to launch - I feel much more confident with PPC marketing now. I have gotten 2 conversions so far, and my ROI is 3:1 or so far (doesn't really mean anything as campaign is still fairly young).
- Invested in a SQUIRT membership, plan to experiment around with niche sites and try to get some sites ranked to bring in organic traffic, which I then plan to monetize using Adsense or similar.
- Tried out Eli's $100/day screensaver project - ended up making about 70 screensavers, monetized it using solely Adsense, right now it brings in anywhere from $3 - $5/day. It certainly could make more, I just have to put some more work into monetization.

Goals for the coming week:
- Launch another PPC campaign. It will be similar in format to the first campaign, so it should not take a long time to get running.
- Brainstorm ways to monetize the screensaver site I have.
- Maybe build a niche site and try to SEO it as best I can myself, and then run it through SQUIRT to give it that extra boost.

I feel that I will make the $3000 net profit goal - however, I feel that most of the money will definitely come in the last 30 days. I have learned a shitload of stuff just in the last 2 months, I'm really glad to have found Wickedfire and Blue Hat SEO (Eli's my hero) - I get tons of ideas on how to make bank.

Anyway, back to work. :) Oh, and if any noobs have questions about what I've done so far, feel free to post questions and I will answer to the best of my limited ability.
 
when you talked about using adsense to monetise the screensavers,
do you mean you changed the homepage with your installer and popped some adsense/google search on it?


Great work, great thread, keep it up.
 
hey nogenius, just a quick question from another newbie here. what techniques have you been using to drive traffic to your sites?
 
scoby said:
when you talked about using adsense to monetise the screensavers,
do you mean you changed the homepage with your installer and popped some adsense/google search on it?


Great work, great thread, keep it up.
Click to expand...

I pop up a landing page promoting an affiliate offer - I've tested a couple and had varying results - still in the phase of tweaking there.

I've got Adsense running on my main site, that gets about 30 - 40 uniques a day, and also an Adsense for search box on the home page.

Thinking about adding an affiliate offer to the home page, haven't spent as much time on monetizing as I should have.
 
Aveligand said:
hey nogenius, just a quick question from another newbie here. what techniques have you been using to drive traffic to your sites?
Click to expand...

I don't know much about SEO yet (in the phase of learning more about it), so mainly I've just been using Promosoft to drive traffic to my screensaver site. Also, I've SQUIRT'ed my sites and seen increases in the amount of organic traffic.

Other than that I use PPC (Adwords only for right now, want to branch out into Adcenter and YSM).
 
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