Wiredniko's Journal - Adventures of the Newbie

Well I posted 50 different ads, same text, different images.

Highest CTR was 0.28%, lowest 0% but I only had 5K impressions per ad or less.

After two days I moved my 0.15% ads over to my main campaign. They got authorized yesterday so today I will be able to see how they are performing.

In the meantime I am still keeping an eye to my 50 image test campaign in case one of them spikes since my data will be more accurate.

I also have another 50 ads approved on a pause campaign that I will active either today or tomorrow depending on how many impressions they get...I need enough to have some statistical significance to call it a day on them.

Really my main goal is figure out the pattern of high CTR...what kind of images are they...is it a chick smiling? Color or Black and white? Out of the ordinary? Huge tits?

And high CTR is great but are they converting...I might have a super awesome image, but if people click it but does not convert its not a great image...or I need to change my offer / ad to make it worthwhile.
 


I started affiliate marketing wanting to become rich....in my search....I found myself

my destiny

Its so weird how everything in my life is clicking. For the last 7 years I have felt that I have been stuck. Stuck against a black obsidian wall, I could almost see what was behind...but I could never overcome it.

That wall was standing in front of me...for so long.

I always thought I would have to chip away that wall....but I was wrong.

I took a giant hammer and I have been destroying that wall...with such force, with such brutality...that the wall has no choice.

The universe is aligning itself to me....because I am going to succeed.

Dating campaign on PoF, starting to keep track of statistics. I am focusing on my eCPM. I have done research, it seems that eCPM drives everything, it takes into account conversions and CTR...I think its a good variable.

Mostly I became convinced when I noticed that some of my 0.04% CTR where actually having really high conversion rates. eCPM of 1.67 and 1.69...trust me that's high.

eCPM = earnings x 1000 / impressions

Moved some more of my test 1-50 images to my main campaign based on eCPM earnings.

I also raised my CPM to much higher values. I read that the lower the CPM the crappier the traffic you get is from PoF....if that's true I want to see how things will get affected.

Yesterday I made about 80% ROI, but remember my money spent per day is really low.

Today I am at -80% ROI but the day is still young. My guess is I will still come out on a loss.

Killed some of the images in my campaign that looked like they where performing well but had no conversions.

If things are still unbalanced by Sunday I am killing my campaign and trying another offer.

Working on a new SEO project I want to set it up then I can tackle my mega project with a clear conscience.

So SEO project lets goooooo.

Doing some research on the niche I want to hit.

Got stumped with some coding ideas I had...made a post asking about it.

Its late I am going to sleep.
 
POF tips:
-Avoid usa and target UK/CAN for cheap cpm rates
-Make new ads daily keep it fresh like subway

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yeah id recommend focusing on one project. Its been a problem of mine until recently. Imo, stick with the ppc.
 
Rajuthan said:
just focus on one thing(ppc or seo) and kill it
Click to expand...

The thing is I work so hard and so long I actually get done with my PoF dating stuff and I have more time to work...but nothing to work on. Right now I have 50 more ads already approved and ready to go and have pretty much any good PoF related article I could find.

Rajuthan said:
POF tips:
-Avoid usa and target UK/CAN for cheap cpm rates
-Make new ads daily keep it fresh like subway
Click to expand...

I am using CA right now. The real question is how do you know if your CPM is too low or not?

Makavelimob said:
yeah id recommend focusing on one project. Its been a problem of mine until recently. Imo, stick with the ppc.
Click to expand...

See my first reply in this post. I work too much so I end up getting done with PoF and I want to keep on working.

I mean I could keep hitting refresh every 3 minutes but that is just futile and wasting time.
 
Let's get to work shall we?

Well I got one more day before I kill this campaign. I am so close to making profit.

I asked for a payout bump but I got politely turned down. Apparently I am at the max.

Raising my CPM made no difference in traffic quality, my CTR and conversions stayed about the same, I just spent my money much quicker. So wherever I read that higher $ for CPM the better the traffic its BS. Maybe it does not apply to me because I have set my limit to 3 or more page views to avoid the dorks checking their inbox and ignoring my ads.

So yesterday I lost $4 based on money spent, money gained. Of course that was at $0.51 CPM, if it was at $0.21 I would have made some good profit, but I would have gotten less hits.

I am stuck in this weird trap.

Calculating my eCPM values and getting all my statistics in one place.

Hmm just found a flaw in the way I keep track of things. Thankfully EWA has enough reports that I got what I needed.

I am half expecting/wishing that tomorrow my campaign will be kicking ass and I will be a fool to pause it....but most likely I will have to kill it.

I need to spend less time testing a campaign. Like a week should be enough. This one has been an interesting problem to solve. I feel so close, but I felt so close last week. Nothing has changed no matter how much I play around with my CTR, image testing etc.

I am also realizing something, running campaigns on the same niche on the same place as everyone else is like punching yourself on the balls right before you fight someone. Sure you might still be able to win, but you kind of make things difficult for yourself.

Then again, if you are new shouldn't you try to do what everyone else is doing?

Heh.

I truly do not know the answer.

Also CPM feels harder than PPC for one simple reason. If no one clicks on your ads you pay $0, but in CPM a bad CTR will own you. Basically the worse your CTR the more you pay per click and it over extends you.

Basically for newbie CPM sucks because there are so many things you got to figure out. Having said that seeing conversions is a nice feeling even when you are losing money, at least you get the feel that something might happen.

I don't know, I guess I am confused about the subject, so please do not follow my advice.
 
commit to something solid.

Save up or bite the bullet and get a decent sized budget to test with. Messing around with $20 a day is gonna take forever to gather any significant data.
 
Thanks for the link JahRuhle. I was actually talking to a friend of mine about the same thing yesterday.

Targeting as specific as possible, almost to the single ad copy for a single person level. Obviously not that specific but I truly do believe the money is in the micro niche level.

Especially with the way that PoF works, which is if person A targets males 20-25, and person B targets males 20-25, that smoke and drink, if their CPM is the same person's B ads will show up first.

That's huge.
 
Lost money yesterday.

Today it looks like I might be making some money. Well today is the last day working on this campaign. I am pretty sure I am going to call it a failed campaign and move on.

Already pinged my Motive AM about micro niche non US dating campaigns. I also sent an email out to my EWA AM. C2M...they did not live up to the hype for some reason, not a lot of offers, my AM has never contacted me....its very surprising.

So might as well prepare for this.

I am going back to the drawing board. Doing some more reading. Also my plan is to finish Ca$hvertising today, that book is way too important to not read as quickly as possible.

Probably I will have some answers from my AMs by tomorrow.

I am also kind of confused about what I need to be looking at stats wise to determine how things are going. Maybe I am over complicating things but I kind of need to figure it out so I can keep track of things correctly.

I made a post here: http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/105703-testing-campaigns-stats-matter.html

...hmm today I should install linux on my PC. I have been meaning to do it for a while. Seems like the perfect day for it.
 
wiredniko said:
...hmm today I should install linux on my PC. I have been meaning to do it for a while. Seems like the perfect day for it.
Click to expand...
I've given up on making AM monies (I'm much better at writing scripts, than I am with ad copy), but enjoy reading your story (fun to read when it's not your own $ :)).

As far as testing linux, if you just want to try it out, I highly suggest just grabbing the free VMWare Player and a free appliance from their market place. You can test out multiple flavors with ease then, such as ubuntu, suse, or fedora. Plus, you won't have to worry about any possible driver issues, etc.
 
I am still around. My computer crapped out with my linux upgrade and I kind of screwed myself with the whole upgrade process.

I have been mostly doing research and trying to find out the next thing I want to advertise.
 
Linux is up and running.

Trying to figure out what the hell I want to do. Do I keep running campaigns on PoF until one of them sticks?

Screw PoF and go with something else?

Screw all PPC and start working on SEO.

Kind of lost ;(

It sucks not having a mentor.
 
just try easing into some niches where you can seo and ppc at the same time. ppc to page for initial split testing and to make monies while you seo it to the top. Then when it gets there you are already somewhat optimized.

I've been able to make more with seo as ppc just seems like law of large numbers to me. If I had thousands to spend then it would make money but I prefer seo. I am really thinking about trying out ppc again though...I suck at it though so this journal will be huge to me. thank you
 
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wiredniko, honestly this journal of yours has been inspirational and was a catalyst into getting me moving and doing. I'm feeling some frustration too but having fun at the same time. trying to learn as much as i can from my experiences. I was getting some decent CTR today only to be promoting an offer that was horrible. I thought it was an easy email submit but it ended up pushing to multiple surveys to convert. I was pretty hopeful. Oh well. I tried another campaign today direct linking to test the offer on POF but my ads get disapproved. frustrating. I need to learn the system and how to work with it in my favor. keep on pushing.
 
stick w PPC if you have the money. Eventually you;ll find a solid campaign to build off of. Your not so newb anymore and failing is part of the game. Its one of those losing the battle but eventually winning the war things. You could always join one of those PPC coach things if you need a mentor.
 
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