How is it that when I didn't know anything I was making more than now?

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ubaidabcd

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When I didn't know what I was doing I've made about $1000 in affiliate marketing total. I sold some Dish Network to some people, made about $600. Signed up with Blockbuster's Total Access since I was hired by them for tech. support, so it gave me an idea to sign up an affiliate program, started a ppc camapaign with about 6-7 keywords that I thought of myself, made $224.00 - Being an idiot and didn't know anything, I closed the campaing without checking if I made any sales. Next thing I know 3 months later I'm getting a deposit for $224.00. If I had kept that campaign active I could've made a killing. I also did the same for PS3 and Nintendo Wii, made about $50.

I know it's not much money to most of you, but it is to me, and all this was without knowing about this website or any similiar website. I just made up keywords on my own and let the campaigns alone. Not to mention this was all when I had a FULL TIME JOB!

Now that I'm actually trying to learn and have no job, and spending more money (have some savings), have all these keyword tools, tutorials, and help from everybody, spending about 12+ hrs. a day trying to learn, creating campaigns, creating keyword lists, finding offers, trying to find low competition niches, learning how to create ads, Quality index, etc... etc...etc..etc.. I've made less than $30 in the past month?
 


First off, do not over-analyze and over-think your endeavors, i'm not saying don't plan and have a business model, but do not spend your time reading tons of e-books, and im an e-book author trying to sell my IM/affiliate/seo related ebook and im being completely honest with you...

Like i've said before, don't think just act, trust your mind for all the power lies there, keep your head up and keep positive and you will be provided for my friend.

Affiliate marketing is rough, i've been in your shoes and there's light at the end of the tunnel if you don't give up, for some the tunnel is longer for others its shorter, do not be afraid to get creative, and when you get an idea do it.
 
I don't read e-books, only e-book I've gotten into is Paul Marshall's Adwords E-book. I haven't even finished that, I'm usually busy trying to read these forums for information, and finding niches, creating keyword campaigns and tweaking them.

I'm just frustrated since I'm actually trying now, putting in all this effort and time, and before I didn't try at all, and money was coming in.

I actually e-mailed my affiliate manager on Azoogle today about making $5.84 yesterday and actually saying, "I think this campaign is off to a good start..." :crying:

Later after reading a post on DP with somebody making $18K in a month from Azoogle. I realised what an idiot he must think I am. That's how delusional I've become in the past month of work. $5.84... Seriously? I'm more out of my mind than I thought.
 
How long ago was this, that you were able to promote all of those campaigns successfully?
 
Mmmm six dollar burger...

A lot of this game is dumb luck. You should go back to your dumb roots? If you do it the way everyone else says to do it, your competing with everyone.
 
mhmhmh said:
How long ago was this, that you were able to promote all of those campaigns successfully?
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Well, I started about a year ago, from a post on Craigslist, started with Dish Network they were paying $110 per sale, got a few sales with flyers. I was trying offline marketing at that time.

Then started Blockbuster and Amazon's Astore (PS3, and Wii) in January.

I can't get back to those roots, as mentioned in another post it was luck. I got lucky with Blockbuster due to being hired when they started their Total Access program. Not sure about the PS3 and Wii thing, I just used Amazon's generic Astore and started a PPC campaign, it isn't going to work anymore with the competition, same with Dish Network.

Anyway this thread was just a vent, I'll be back to the drawing boards tomorrow.
 
Sometimes leaving campaigns alone is the best bet, especially with adwords. The golden rule is when you get soemthing rocking with them, do not touch it, let it be and let it make you money, don't try to squeeze another $10 out of it because you will probably screw it up.

Also, you have to understand that sometimes people post bullshit on forums just to keep people from doing what they're doing successfully. What you end up with a lot of different opinions, some are real and some are bullshit just to try to scare you away.

When you made the campaign with a couple keywords you thought of, you did it right the first time. Now you're probably dumping a ton of keywords in there thinking you'll do better, but you won't. K.i.s.s. Keep it simple stupid applies online and offline for marketing.
 
I would say yes most people have a regular job and maybe 1-5% do it full time. I do it full time and it is my job but I own the company and work frorm home. My income had to be $5,000 to quit. I reached that my 4 month.



spyderman4g63 said:
Don't most people on this forum work full time jobs??? I know not everyone on here is making enough to quite their jobs. If I could bring home about $1500 a month I would definitely quit mine for a chance to make a decent living on this stuff.
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so, so, so, so very true. I dont know ho wmany times I tweaked something to squeeze some more out of it to only see it go the other way on me.

Yes a lot of BS on forums. I know I have said this before but I dont give a fuck. I made over $100k my first year without ever going to a forum or buying a book. Just using my own gut instincts to market. So far that has been my money maker, my gut, not forums. But if you now how to weed through the shit and hold on to words from what you feel are legit posts from real peeps who want to help then spend time reading that persons posts.

The truth is that this business is so small. Remember the big affiliates have markets sewn up, so making money in them is almost impossible. Make your own market.

beejeebers said:
Sometimes leaving campaigns alone is the best bet, especially with adwords. The golden rule is when you get soemthing rocking with them, do not touch it, let it be and let it make you money, don't try to squeeze another $10 out of it because you will probably screw it up.

Also, you have to understand that sometimes people post bullshit on forums just to keep people from doing what they're doing successfully. What you end up with a lot of different opinions, some are real and some are bullshit just to try to scare you away.

When you made the campaign with a couple keywords you thought of, you did it right the first time. Now you're probably dumping a ton of keywords in there thinking you'll do better, but you won't. K.i.s.s. Keep it simple stupid applies online and offline for marketing.
Click to expand...
 
Things change. 3-6 months is a long time in this industry so the reason you can't replicate the results could be any number of things:
- google ranking changes
- increased competition on your keywords
- changes in the campaigns you were running
- changes in user behaviour
Then there's always the dumb luck factor. Sometime google just fucks you :) Keep testing new things everyday and don't give up. Try some new ads, some new keywords, new landing pages, get new google accounts, new ad-text, new search engines.
 
Reading your post you problem is exactly what you said. You have all these tools taking all this time to learn play with tweak etc. If you allow yourself to forget about the tools and step back. Then ask yourself three questions:

1. Where am I going to get LOTS of traffic?
2. What will those people want?
3. Find and offer that suits those needs.

All the tools in the world doesn't take away common sense. Get back to basics and the first question is always Where am I going to get a ton of traffic.....
 
Thanks for everybody's advise, yeah I need to take a step back and read some valuable e-books (not the get rich overnight ones).

I'm still under the impression this is 2003. Where you didnt have to know anything about marketing, just start a PPC campaign upload some keywords, and let PPC companies literally do all the work and just watch sales come in. I did this for my Dad's company so I know from experience, but I didn't know anything about affiliate marketing :mad: :mad:, or even what an affiliate was until last year!

Now times have changed drastically and you actually have to know what you're doing. I hate reading books, but these are inspiring, so guess I'll just have to or else I'll end up broke.
 
ubaidabcd said:
.... started a ppc camapaign with about 6-7 keywords that I thought of myself, made $224.00
Click to expand...

Your campaigns were successful because you were thinking like a customer and used search keywords/phrases that someone else would also use while seeking a product or service. Save your money and don't buy any more keyword tools.

There are enough free keyword tools out there now to get going and make $$$... stick with the free wordtracker tool and the google keyword tool. This should be more than enough to help you with keywords.

But the best keyword tool really is your brain. Sitting down and hand writing out keywords and phrases is the best way to generate those cheap, long-tail keywords!
 
Yeap.. think like a customer.. I know this is true. I have also experienced some success with it. Ask yourself a question, if I want to buy this product what keywords will I use to search?
 
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