okay, i pretty much copied and pasted this from what i wrote in a different thread, but thought it deserved it's own. Ignore the random comments toward OP. Hope it sheds some light on some things for you newbs.
PPC...
Alright, don't buy any products. The way you learn is buy trying shit. Start with the search engines like Yahoo, Bing, or Google(make sure you specifically turn content network off if you're running a Search campaign) and plug in some offers and build some simple landing pages and track with prosper, etc.
Read NickyCakes guide, it's golden, and to be honest is all you really need for now. All these products are useless... Who cares if there is some METHOD out there or some TIP. That's not the point. The point is to familiarize yourself with what sells, what works, and to just understand the system. You just get familiar with PPC as a whole, and the only way you do that is by trying shit.
Tools... You don't need them. That's right, fuck tools. I purposely don't use them, at some point in the future I might look into some that help me automate shit but TOOLS are not going to be the difference between a profitable and unprofitable campaign, your brain is. The only tools you need are free, and that's Google's line of tools (Mainly, in fact almost solely the Google Keyword Tool) as well as Prosper 202. Now you should get a dedicated server for Prosper, because the thing is that you are going to be going through a shitload of clicks. But for now, for a campaign only making $20-$50 or a so a day, some random 5 dollar a month hosting like Bluehost or Hostgator is okay. Then you definitely want to switch.
Some idiot asked whether or not they needed the Prosper202 PRO yet they hadn't started a campaign. Listen guys, along with any paid tools ALL THEY DO IS AUTOMATE SHIT FURTHER. Once you already are making decent money and know you're shit, then yeah..maybe you will be a looking for a few more features or some shit. But for now it's fucking irrelevant. No you don't need fucking pro.
Okay, let's talk about tracking. The reason you track is to find profitable and unprofitable keywords. Prosper/Tracking202 will actually show you what keywords are making you money (based on data from both your affiliate network and what you're on average paying per click), and will tell you whether or not it's profitable. The reason people say campaigns are unprofitable at first almost always, is because either the campaign is just a total fail (unlikely, but happens), or you just have a shitload of unprofitable keywords. Literally, you just look at your unprofitable keywords or terms, and either delete them or put them as negatives(meaning you specifically won't show up for keywords with that word in the phrase, if you put "guide" as a negative, you wouldn't show up for car guide, automotive guide, etc.) Then guess what? You're only left with profitable keywords, and furthermore, a PROFITABLE CAMPAIGN! Holy shit... Not rocket science folks...
Split testing, ad groups, etc... Aight, if you're campaign is almost profitable/has a chance, or is already profitable and you just want to ramp up your profit, you split test. YOU SPLIT TEST THE FUCK OUT OF IT. Basically, the theory between split testing is that ONE THING will beat another thing. ONE ad copy will get more clicks than another Ad copy. One ad copy will presell better(more targeted traffic because people know what's involved in order for you to get your lead so you don't have to pay for non-converting traffic) than another adcopy. One landing page will convince more consumers to complete some action than another. Etc. So yes, you test two of them. Then you take the better one, and you test that against another. An so forth and so forth... Prosper202 actually has this built in, and will track which landing page converts better, etc...
All this was pretty much covered in Cakes guide.
OP! I'm dierecting this at you. Don't spend your $15k.. Start testing a bunch of campaigns on a low level... Literally do one campaign...
Here's exactly what I would do. Follow cakes guide, pick some random offer (not a email submit or any offer paying below $2 for that matter because clicks cost a minimum of 5 cents and unless you have an amazing conversion ratio you just won't turn profitable or barely profitable.. I'm talking about search engines here too, this isn't always true) and just set your budget to like $10 a day and just test.
Only focus on that campaign, gather data, think about how you could make it profitable. Chances are you won't even make that first campaign profitable, I didn't make my first one profitable, and tons of people I know didn't make their first campaign profitable. But you never know. Really, you are doing this for experience. The more campaigns you launch, the more you ATTEMPT TO DO WITH IT (split testing, new landing page styles (LP styles), etc), the better you'll get at PPC AFFILIATE MARKETING in general. Really what you spend to test a campaign depends on the offer payout, because the more the offer pays out the more you can afford to spend. Example: If you have two campaigns, one $7 lead campaign and a $35 rebill campaign and for both your average conversion (direct linking let's say, i know you can't on google, hypothetical folks) say is 4%. Okay... I'm going to make this real simple. Since you can convert 1 in 25 visitors into a lead, that means you have you can spend 35/25=about $1.40 per visitor in order to break even. So now you know what you can spend AT MAX in order to break even. Great, spend less than this or improve your conversion and you make money. In terms of data, YOU DON'T NEED $15 fucking grand... Don't be a fucking moron OP. If you spent $150-$300 on this campaign you would have a decent amount of info, enough that you could either get it profitable or fairly close, and from there you are making money anyways so your not digging into that 15 grand. For the $7 campaign it's similar, 7/25=.28 cents... So let's think about this, clicks on google cost a minimum of $.05... Depending on competition, and if you are bidding on zero-comp. longtails, you could either get $.05 or very close.. Etc... DON'T WASTE YOUR FUCKING 15 grand...
Listen, no ebook can teach you Experience. Really, that line alone should really resonate with you. When it comes down to it, no product is going to make you money. YOU are going to make YOU money.
El fin (food for you spanish speaking muthafuckas).
PPC...
Alright, don't buy any products. The way you learn is buy trying shit. Start with the search engines like Yahoo, Bing, or Google(make sure you specifically turn content network off if you're running a Search campaign) and plug in some offers and build some simple landing pages and track with prosper, etc.
Read NickyCakes guide, it's golden, and to be honest is all you really need for now. All these products are useless... Who cares if there is some METHOD out there or some TIP. That's not the point. The point is to familiarize yourself with what sells, what works, and to just understand the system. You just get familiar with PPC as a whole, and the only way you do that is by trying shit.
Tools... You don't need them. That's right, fuck tools. I purposely don't use them, at some point in the future I might look into some that help me automate shit but TOOLS are not going to be the difference between a profitable and unprofitable campaign, your brain is. The only tools you need are free, and that's Google's line of tools (Mainly, in fact almost solely the Google Keyword Tool) as well as Prosper 202. Now you should get a dedicated server for Prosper, because the thing is that you are going to be going through a shitload of clicks. But for now, for a campaign only making $20-$50 or a so a day, some random 5 dollar a month hosting like Bluehost or Hostgator is okay. Then you definitely want to switch.
Some idiot asked whether or not they needed the Prosper202 PRO yet they hadn't started a campaign. Listen guys, along with any paid tools ALL THEY DO IS AUTOMATE SHIT FURTHER. Once you already are making decent money and know you're shit, then yeah..maybe you will be a looking for a few more features or some shit. But for now it's fucking irrelevant. No you don't need fucking pro.
Okay, let's talk about tracking. The reason you track is to find profitable and unprofitable keywords. Prosper/Tracking202 will actually show you what keywords are making you money (based on data from both your affiliate network and what you're on average paying per click), and will tell you whether or not it's profitable. The reason people say campaigns are unprofitable at first almost always, is because either the campaign is just a total fail (unlikely, but happens), or you just have a shitload of unprofitable keywords. Literally, you just look at your unprofitable keywords or terms, and either delete them or put them as negatives(meaning you specifically won't show up for keywords with that word in the phrase, if you put "guide" as a negative, you wouldn't show up for car guide, automotive guide, etc.) Then guess what? You're only left with profitable keywords, and furthermore, a PROFITABLE CAMPAIGN! Holy shit... Not rocket science folks...
Split testing, ad groups, etc... Aight, if you're campaign is almost profitable/has a chance, or is already profitable and you just want to ramp up your profit, you split test. YOU SPLIT TEST THE FUCK OUT OF IT. Basically, the theory between split testing is that ONE THING will beat another thing. ONE ad copy will get more clicks than another Ad copy. One ad copy will presell better(more targeted traffic because people know what's involved in order for you to get your lead so you don't have to pay for non-converting traffic) than another adcopy. One landing page will convince more consumers to complete some action than another. Etc. So yes, you test two of them. Then you take the better one, and you test that against another. An so forth and so forth... Prosper202 actually has this built in, and will track which landing page converts better, etc...
All this was pretty much covered in Cakes guide.
OP! I'm dierecting this at you. Don't spend your $15k.. Start testing a bunch of campaigns on a low level... Literally do one campaign...
Here's exactly what I would do. Follow cakes guide, pick some random offer (not a email submit or any offer paying below $2 for that matter because clicks cost a minimum of 5 cents and unless you have an amazing conversion ratio you just won't turn profitable or barely profitable.. I'm talking about search engines here too, this isn't always true) and just set your budget to like $10 a day and just test.
Only focus on that campaign, gather data, think about how you could make it profitable. Chances are you won't even make that first campaign profitable, I didn't make my first one profitable, and tons of people I know didn't make their first campaign profitable. But you never know. Really, you are doing this for experience. The more campaigns you launch, the more you ATTEMPT TO DO WITH IT (split testing, new landing page styles (LP styles), etc), the better you'll get at PPC AFFILIATE MARKETING in general. Really what you spend to test a campaign depends on the offer payout, because the more the offer pays out the more you can afford to spend. Example: If you have two campaigns, one $7 lead campaign and a $35 rebill campaign and for both your average conversion (direct linking let's say, i know you can't on google, hypothetical folks) say is 4%. Okay... I'm going to make this real simple. Since you can convert 1 in 25 visitors into a lead, that means you have you can spend 35/25=about $1.40 per visitor in order to break even. So now you know what you can spend AT MAX in order to break even. Great, spend less than this or improve your conversion and you make money. In terms of data, YOU DON'T NEED $15 fucking grand... Don't be a fucking moron OP. If you spent $150-$300 on this campaign you would have a decent amount of info, enough that you could either get it profitable or fairly close, and from there you are making money anyways so your not digging into that 15 grand. For the $7 campaign it's similar, 7/25=.28 cents... So let's think about this, clicks on google cost a minimum of $.05... Depending on competition, and if you are bidding on zero-comp. longtails, you could either get $.05 or very close.. Etc... DON'T WASTE YOUR FUCKING 15 grand...
Listen, no ebook can teach you Experience. Really, that line alone should really resonate with you. When it comes down to it, no product is going to make you money. YOU are going to make YOU money.
El fin (food for you spanish speaking muthafuckas).
