Affiliate Marketing Plunge II: Day 13
June 18, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz
As usual, I’ll begin with an update on the Affiliate Marketing Challenge. I’d like to encourage everyone who hasn’t entered yet and is eligible (hasn’t signed up to MarketLeverage) to sign-up. There is an 8GB iPod Touch, Mino Flip Video Camera, $200 Market Leverage Rewards Amex Card, and a 2.0GB USB Pen up for grabs in addition to all the revenue you generate.
There was quite a change in the rankings. Participant CD8107 came out of nowhere to generate nearly $1,000 in one day! While this may discourage some people, keep in mind that this was on Father’s Day and his earnings slowed down dramatically since then. In any case, if he does continue to be beast in this challenge, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place are still up for grabs. I don’t know about you but I’d sure like to win that Mino Flip Video Camera.
Remember, this isn’t a random drawing - you earn the prizes. Why put your 8GB iPod Touch in the lottery of a luckfest when you can guarantee the prize by putting a bit of effort in? There are only 28 participants and 4 prizes after all…
| 1st | CD8107 | $973.60 |
| 2nd | CD8036 | $72.00 |
| 3rd | CD8065 | $36.40 |
| 4th | CD7580 | $5.60 |
| $1,089.00 |
I’d keep a close eye on participant CD8036. He hasn’t been generating any big numbers, but he is the most consistent earner so far. I think he could actually be the dark horse to take first place as long as he’s actively learning and improving his campaigns.
So, do you have what it takes to dethrone CD8107? Or should I send out his 8GB iPod Touch now?
It’s not too late to enter: in fact, the contest doesn’t end until July 11th so you still have 23 days to participate, which is plenty of time. Full competition details of the Affiliate Marketing Challenge can be found here.
If you want to increase your chance of winning a prize, the following blogs are holding similar MarketLeverage contests as well. I know that I’ll be entering a few of them since I’m not eligible for my own contest:
JonathanVolk.com
UberAffiliate.com
JohnChow.com
ZacJohnson.com
CDFNetworks.com
AffiliateConfession.com
DatMoney.com
MoneyBites.com
Plunging Away
I’ve been continuing to plunge away with affiliate marketing, and it’s basically been all I’ve been doing lately.
I need to really start getting on a routine though, as my sleep schedule is just beyond chaotic now. The “high” I get from seeing a new lead come through completely kills any previous attempt or planning of a routine I had scheduled.
I’ve actually made almost very little change to my campaign since my last update. I basically just created a new landing page for a specific ad group and have been split testing it to see if how it performs. However, that ad group is not converting for me anymore so it’s not that important since I’ll probably be reducing my bid for it.
It’s weird, I’m really sleepy right now even though I just ate breakfast and finished a coffee… after sleeping for 13 hours! I think I exercised a bit too much last night and my body is trying to recover. Well… too bad body! You have to work! We have to make some money!
Here are my latest stats, as of yesterday:
Yesterday was my second day in the green.. but just barely with a profit of… $2.42!
The important thing to notice though, is that my overall ROI is now -43.71%. While still “pathetic” and “laughable”, it has been increasing.
It started at -57.12%, then increased to -53.42% a few days ago. My ROI has now improved by another 10% to -43.71%.
I plan on doing more split testing on my other Ad Groups… hopefully it will reveal something to help me optimize more.
Wish me luck, and stay tuned as usual to see how my numbers change.
Dude is killing ‘em. As for your campaign. Good luck.
This is my favorite blog and your posts always keep me reading and wanting to read more.
He must really want the #1 prize
I guess so. I would just be happy with the money he made.
Wow, did that guy come out of nowhere, unless I’ve missed a day?
Great little competition going here Tyler and good luck on your affiliate experience, even if you are losing money you are learning a lot.
Cheers,
Glen
I still haven’t figured out how to make Market Leverage work. It’s definitely not plug and play like Adsense.
Thats because, they are an affiliate marketing company
You pick what you want to show…and you advertise it to make money off your leads = CPA.
@Jonathan, looks like we are on the same boat
Hey, at least you’re getting closer to the 0% ROI than going down!
Jonathan, the key is to presell the products and to find targeted buying keywords for the product you are promoting. If you can learn to do those two things you can make a killing in affiliate marketing.
The contest looks cool, unfortunately I am an SEO affiliate marketer and this contest caters to PPC affiliates more.
Good luck to you all!
Too bad I joined ML prior to your contest
But thanks for the plug, Tyler!
Jay
looks like affiliated marketing has its ups and down
Hi Tyler,
I would be interested to see the difference in conversion between your AdWords and YSM traffic. Are you tracking those statistics?
Thanks for the update…very interesting case study.
Yes I am, and you will see it in my next update
Thanks for the idea Tyler M.
track what works ..
Oh, and is it just me or does anyone else find it kinda funny Tyler’s #1 AM is making more than him from ML? lol…
Just playing man! Thanks for the link!
Jay
Jay,
Tyler has stated, and showed, he is new to affiliate marketing and hasn’t spent much time learning it. Just because the current 1st place is showing higher revenue than Tyler doesn’t mean he is actually making more. For all we know the guy could have spent $3k to make that $1k ;). And regardless, that person may very well be an experienced marketer that makes a lot of money otherwise but just signed up to Market Leverage for this little promotion. I mean, what better way to test out a new ad network than to win something along with your test.
Yes - you’re are right. The revenues don’t paint the entire picture. In fact, it was me, and by not promoting my offer through Neverblue, and instead pushing through ML I missed out on nearly 100% revenue.. while I didn’t lose money, I would have profited nearly $1000 more. I know this because the other 95% of my traffic on Sunday went to NB.
Which makes my decision to promote for this contest, a bad one - the top prize is valued at around $300. ;(
Oh well, you win some and you lose some.
I’m sure Michael would give you a pay increase over NB if you switched over..
Tyler, would you be willing to share how exactly you’re promoting your offers? Like how did you make the $106 through ML?
I’m a total noob when it comes to Affiliate Marketing. Are you sending people to page on your Blog, did you create a mini-site, are you sending directly to the offer’s page?
Are you willing to share more specifics, or is that top secret for now?
I highly recommend watching these videos:
http://tracking202.com/blog/how-to-do-affiliate-marketing-with-ppc-part-1
http://tracking202.com/blog/how-to-do-affiliate-marketing-with-ppc-part-2
Thanks for the competition update, looks competitive up near the top! Also, good job getting in the black finally on your ad campaigns. Looks like all your mess-ups are starting to payoff and turn you into a money making machine.
Are you still in loss ? The red stuff is showing
Looks like a lot of money keeps going down the drain. But keep it up and wish you good luck in your campaigns.
I think CD8107 has this content won. Hard to catch up when hes up that much
Tyler,
I don’t know why this comment didn’t get through before, but I was wondering if you think you can learn CPC while only spending $20 or so a day or is that too little?
I actually responded to your question the first time you posted… check again