I thought I'd share my experience as an advertiser over the past 6 months. Sorry it's a long post! I'm not a blogger, I'd rather share this wih you guys on WF. I hope this helps some of you.....
So, I tried to be an affiliate when I was 16. I wanted to make millions just like any newb did. I sucked at it. Lost $$. No one likes losing money, so I quit. Enough said.
When I was a sophomore in college, I started an incent site that went nowhere. But it was during this process that I started reading the forms, the blogs, and talking to guys in the industry on a regular basis. I realized that if I couldn’t make money promoting offers that I’d have to do it some other way, by being the big fish in the chain, by being the advertiser. I started checking out offers on the networks I was signed up on. At the time, Acai was still pretty hot. Then, I found RezV. There were a few RezV offers out there already, but they looked shitty. So, I found a product…now what?
I knew a designer that I went to school with. I knew a programmer that would do a rev share. I knew a friend that started a previous internet company (that didn’t exactly succeed) who wanted to jump back on the horse. I got them all on board to launch an offer with me.
My friend and I spent about a month reading about all the rebill offers, running numbers in excel, talking to people in the industry, looking into manufacturers, checking out payment processors, etc. We had the programmer build a homegrown CRM that would automatically bill people. We found a small manufacturer/drop shipper in Atlanta. We had a GotVMail account that was used as our 800 support line. We had a support email address that I answered. We used Authorize.net as our gateway (I shit you not…). We pooled together $ in a business bank account. We opened 3 merchant accounts: PowerPay, Merchant Warehouse, and Pivotal Payments.
We had quite the little operation set up.
Another month later, the site was ready, the bottles were ready, and network tracking pixels were set. We launched. But, we had to cap our offer because we couldn’t afford more than 50k of traffic at the time (go ahead and laugh). 15 days later we billed customers for $XX,000. After this, I switched the processing over to the Merchant Warehouse MID. We did another media buy. The Merchant Warehouse MID got shut down within 48 hours of starting to process because we issued a high amount of refunds. I immediately switched everything over to the Pivotal Payments MID. Rebills started coming in from this media buy and we went over our processing limit on the Pivotal Payments MID. Then, Pivotal Payments decided to fuck us and hang on to the excess funds that were over our limit. We needed that cash badly.
It was around this time I got a random call from Paul Liljenquist, the owner of Focus Services. Focus runs multiple call centers all over the world. I told him about my business structure and he literally laughed at me. But, he wasn’t looking to shoot me down. He introduced me to the right people that could help my company grow. I opened up an account with Focus shortly after. They are a fantstic call center solution. They would handle all customer support calls. I also opened up an account with TMSpay, which, by the way, is a stellar CRM and gateway. I then got in touch with “merchant account agents” (that’s just what I call them) – people that help you open multiple merchant accounts. These agents get a commission and you don’t pay them a thing. Plus, they do all the dirty work when it comes to paperwork and such. I recommend Lodestar Processing for this.
Another thing…I get at least 1 call every two weeks from companies like Impulse and Upsell.com. These companies call customers to confirm orders right when they’re placed. They also offer the customers additional products (usually trick them into saying yes) and give you a commission. Sounds great? Right? WRONG. These services steal your customer data! You already paid $40 +for the customer, don’t sell this valuable data off to these fuckers for a mere $8....Your chargebacks will increase dramatically as well if you use these services. If you want to make more money off your customers, send them free shit (supplements e-mail health tips). This will keep them on the rebill program for longer.
So, where am I now? I’ve got multiple MIDs, multiple products, TMSpay CRM, a great manufacturer and fulfillment center, and cash (a LOT more) in the bank. AND I’ve got a lawyer. You absolutely need a lawyer if you’re going to be involved in accepting credit cards and selling products online.
Being an advertiser, as UberAffiliate stated, “is not easy.” It’s a SHIT load of work. You’re essentially creating a supply chain that needs constant tweaking. You’re always stressed out, constantly checking e-mail, checking snail mail, checking bank accounts, everything. We started out small, with less than 100k, so it was a lot harder and more stressful for us. We were all in college too, so time was scarce. The risk reward ratio is NOT that favorable. It’s not all Breitlings, Bentleys, and private jets. Don’t let anyone fool you. It’s more work than you could ever imagine, and it’s more stressful too.
Good luck to all of you that still want to launch an offer. Don't hate on my signature
So, I tried to be an affiliate when I was 16. I wanted to make millions just like any newb did. I sucked at it. Lost $$. No one likes losing money, so I quit. Enough said.
When I was a sophomore in college, I started an incent site that went nowhere. But it was during this process that I started reading the forms, the blogs, and talking to guys in the industry on a regular basis. I realized that if I couldn’t make money promoting offers that I’d have to do it some other way, by being the big fish in the chain, by being the advertiser. I started checking out offers on the networks I was signed up on. At the time, Acai was still pretty hot. Then, I found RezV. There were a few RezV offers out there already, but they looked shitty. So, I found a product…now what?
I knew a designer that I went to school with. I knew a programmer that would do a rev share. I knew a friend that started a previous internet company (that didn’t exactly succeed) who wanted to jump back on the horse. I got them all on board to launch an offer with me.
My friend and I spent about a month reading about all the rebill offers, running numbers in excel, talking to people in the industry, looking into manufacturers, checking out payment processors, etc. We had the programmer build a homegrown CRM that would automatically bill people. We found a small manufacturer/drop shipper in Atlanta. We had a GotVMail account that was used as our 800 support line. We had a support email address that I answered. We used Authorize.net as our gateway (I shit you not…). We pooled together $ in a business bank account. We opened 3 merchant accounts: PowerPay, Merchant Warehouse, and Pivotal Payments.
We had quite the little operation set up.
Another month later, the site was ready, the bottles were ready, and network tracking pixels were set. We launched. But, we had to cap our offer because we couldn’t afford more than 50k of traffic at the time (go ahead and laugh). 15 days later we billed customers for $XX,000. After this, I switched the processing over to the Merchant Warehouse MID. We did another media buy. The Merchant Warehouse MID got shut down within 48 hours of starting to process because we issued a high amount of refunds. I immediately switched everything over to the Pivotal Payments MID. Rebills started coming in from this media buy and we went over our processing limit on the Pivotal Payments MID. Then, Pivotal Payments decided to fuck us and hang on to the excess funds that were over our limit. We needed that cash badly.
It was around this time I got a random call from Paul Liljenquist, the owner of Focus Services. Focus runs multiple call centers all over the world. I told him about my business structure and he literally laughed at me. But, he wasn’t looking to shoot me down. He introduced me to the right people that could help my company grow. I opened up an account with Focus shortly after. They are a fantstic call center solution. They would handle all customer support calls. I also opened up an account with TMSpay, which, by the way, is a stellar CRM and gateway. I then got in touch with “merchant account agents” (that’s just what I call them) – people that help you open multiple merchant accounts. These agents get a commission and you don’t pay them a thing. Plus, they do all the dirty work when it comes to paperwork and such. I recommend Lodestar Processing for this.
Another thing…I get at least 1 call every two weeks from companies like Impulse and Upsell.com. These companies call customers to confirm orders right when they’re placed. They also offer the customers additional products (usually trick them into saying yes) and give you a commission. Sounds great? Right? WRONG. These services steal your customer data! You already paid $40 +for the customer, don’t sell this valuable data off to these fuckers for a mere $8....Your chargebacks will increase dramatically as well if you use these services. If you want to make more money off your customers, send them free shit (supplements e-mail health tips). This will keep them on the rebill program for longer.
So, where am I now? I’ve got multiple MIDs, multiple products, TMSpay CRM, a great manufacturer and fulfillment center, and cash (a LOT more) in the bank. AND I’ve got a lawyer. You absolutely need a lawyer if you’re going to be involved in accepting credit cards and selling products online.
Being an advertiser, as UberAffiliate stated, “is not easy.” It’s a SHIT load of work. You’re essentially creating a supply chain that needs constant tweaking. You’re always stressed out, constantly checking e-mail, checking snail mail, checking bank accounts, everything. We started out small, with less than 100k, so it was a lot harder and more stressful for us. We were all in college too, so time was scarce. The risk reward ratio is NOT that favorable. It’s not all Breitlings, Bentleys, and private jets. Don’t let anyone fool you. It’s more work than you could ever imagine, and it’s more stressful too.
Good luck to all of you that still want to launch an offer. Don't hate on my signature
