Affiliate Marketing Plunge: Day 3
April 25, 2007 Posted by Tyler CruzMan, I put in a lot of hours yesterday. I think I’m finding it a lot easier to put in more hours now since this is something completely new and refreshing.
Niche Site #1 is now completely finished, and I’ve finished finding ads to put on it. I went with AzoogleAds since CJ was still pending my application, and you know how impatient I am. I’ve been talking to my affiliate manager there a lot on AIM, as I have so many questions. She also helped get me some more campaigns for this niche.
I started a campaign on AdWords for it, but started it with a very small campaign with only two Ad Groups and maybe 30 keywords total. After a few hours that yielded a total of 1 impression. Woohoo! So I’ve since added 2 more Ad Groups and now have a total of around 500 keywords. Which, from what I can tell, is nothing. Unfortunately, I think I’ve already used up all the main keywords, which is surprising. I’m using the AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool which helps greatly, and sorting descending by search volume, and I’m surprised there aren’t more queries, but I guess it makes sense.
This leads me to a question I have for you guys. I’m still going through the video tutorials so i don’t know if they will answer this question, but when I’m in the Keyword tool area, sometimes I’ll see a Gray “In Ad Group”. Okay, that makes sense, I already have the keyword here, okay. But then I see some that say “In Campaign” and let me add them still. I assume this is so you can add other keywords into another Ad Group that you already have in another Ad Group, in case you want to show a different ad to them or try a different Max CPC or something. My question is, if I have duplicate keywords in different Ad Groups, do they both show? I guess they would? I’m just trying to find out the correct thing to do. Right now I’m not adding duplicates.
Another thing I haven’t sorted out yet is how I’m going to track the actual conversions from they keywords. I figure you can do this if you use Analytics, but I don’t have Analytics.. yet. I still have Urchin, but will be converting to Analytics very soon.
Edit: Nevermind, just found Conversion Tracking (Not sure if this will work though unless I implement the cloaking; see below)
I also haven’t cloaked my affiliate URLs on my landing page. I haven’t done this because according ot the Terms of Agreement on AZoogleAds they state I can’t alter the HTML in any way, so I’m going to talk to my affiliate manager first to see if I’m allowed to do this for URL cloaking reasons. I’m very whitehat, as you see, and like to play by the books 😉
Anyhow, here’s hoping I can start generating more volume from AdWords than just 1 impression, and maybe even make a lead or sale 😉
How much of an investment have you made so far?
What’s the site in question?
1 impression, that’s a start. Let’s hope you get a few more today. I just started my affiliate campaign through clickbank and got quite a few impressions and clicks, no conversions yet.
Good luck
Can you really count this as work? I mean, I see points for counting it as work and not as work.
Not Work) When you start a “job” you should have the training for that job before you start. Your boss is not going to “pay” you to learn everything while you go. (Put quick people like myself can learn on the go without anyone knowing.)
Work) Lots of companies do offer training to their employees to learn new skills, so this might fall under that category. (Can you somehow count this time on your taxes as job training?)
Since I have a full-time job, if I were to go through those tutorials, I don’t think I would count it as work for the mere fact that I didn’t get any money out of it. I know there is money potential down the road. But learning how to make money is not the same making it. Putting the websites together would be work, tutorials not so much.
Just a thought.
Tyler: Thanks for taking the time to document your journey through the affiliate space. As a rank n00b with affiliate stuff, I’ve often wondered just how it “really worked” (instead of the usual “write loads of content and then add links” typical hype).
I know that you’re probably not sharing the sites with us right now due to keyword-bidding, but if at some point, you’re comfortable to share one of them, I’ll be waiting to check it out.
I’ve been really enjoying these last few posts which focused on “web money making” entirely 🙂
Mike
Martin… and?
What are you trying to say? You’re one 1337 mofo or something?
He’s trying to diversify his income and he’s working hard for it. No need to talk like a bitch.
Ola,
Hehe, I think you took Martin’s comment the wrong way…
His is a fair question, but to answer it: yes, I certainly think getting paid to train on the job is part of work. Look at it this way: If I already ‘knew’ how to make millions of dollars, I’d be making it…
The whole idea of a web entrepreneur is to take calculated risks and try new things. Part of this ultimately includes researching and learning.
On a side note, my AdWords campaign is going HORRIBLY. I woke up today, all excited to see a lot of impressions and clicks, to only see a total of 10 impressions! I have absolutely no idea what is going on here, as I have a lot of keywords (will be adding more) and they are popular keywords. And my Max CPC is fairly high, and my QS is ‘OK’.
I have a feeling I need to increase my Max CPC even more…. plus add more keywords. But this is strange.. never happened to me before on AdWords…
Chances are your ad isn’t on the first page. Very rarely to people ven browse the other ads listed on pages 2 through whatever.
What I learned is to target each ad group specifically to something. When I did my trial with some mixed martial arts stuff, I ended up going with one ad group which consisted of just the keywords: ufc, “ufc” and [ufc]. I then geared another ad group towards just ufc 70, “ufc 70” and [ufc 70]. I hope you see where I’m going with this.
Tyler –
In the past few weeks, I’ve tapped into the affiliate marketing game. While I must say it’s tough at first. Let me tell you this.. don’t give up, the results in the long run are well worth it.
What got me started in it was Mystikal’s post on digitalpoint forums, which I know you frequent. I’m in no way affiliated with them BUT i did sign up for the $50/month and let me tell you.. that forum alone will teach you everything you need to know. I guarantee you if you read everything on there, you will easily make $50 back and more.
This is the post, http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=272540
E-mail if you have any questions buddy! Good Luck!