Giving Affiliate Marketing Another Go
August 1, 2009 Posted by Tyler CruzIt’s hard for me to believe that I haven’t published a single post about my PPC affiliate marketing efforts since November 12th, 2008. That’s 8 months ago!
Part of the reason is because I actually stopped doing any work on my campaigns during the 2nd week of August in 2008. I had simply let my one existing campaign run on autopilot for half a year since then. It’s hard to believe that it’s actually been an entire year since I’ve worked on my affiliate marketing efforts… quite sad really.
The one offer that I was running was actually doing pretty well considering the small amount of time I had spent on it and the fact that it was left on auto-pilot for half-a-year. The offer ended up getting pulled at the end of March, but before it got pulled it actually was bringing in $500 a month profit as seen from my records below:
And March:
Part of the reason I had stopped working on my campaigns is because I got all wrapped up and focused on developing PublisherChallenge. I basically spent the majority of 2009 working on PublisherChallenge and my blog which is pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
I also got involved in a number of side projects such as my weight loss challenge and I relapsed quite a bit into gaming pretty heavily as well.
Back to Business
I’ve been telling myself for months now that I was going to get back into affiliate marketing once I finished my weight loss challenge and once I returned from my trip to the Philippines. With both of those out of the way, I now have no distractions (other from my usual dozen websites) to usurp my time away.
And so one week ago, after literally a year of absence, I finally started back on affiliate marketing.
I picked out two niches and have one campaign up and running already, and am about 20% done creating my site for my second niche. This week I hope to finish my 2nd site and get the campaign up and running. I may even pick out a 3rd niche and run a 3rd campaign.
Working Side by Side
Lately I’ve been working alongside my friend Paul Piotrowski of InspiredMoneyMaker.com and occasional guest blogger here. He’s a workaholic and has spent the last few months working 8-10 hours a day on his own affiliate marketing campaigns, and it seems to rub off on me.
We’ll chat on MSN while we work late nights (and sometimes I’ll pop up on video in Skype and eat pizza in front of him when he’s hungry just to torture him) and exchange ideas and help each other when we can.
Due to the highly secretive nature of affiliate marketing, we don’t reveal what our affiliate marketing sites (or even niches) are, but that doesn’t stop us from exchanging helpful tidbits of information.
Anyhow, Paul’s good work ethic has been rubbing off on me. The first 3-4 days I started back on affiliate marketing I was working 8-10 hours a day myself! And trust me, that’s insanely good for me. I typically work 2-3 hours a day on average.
Unfortunately, the past few days I kind of relapsed and was gaming too much. I think part of it is also the heat… it really saps my energy and messes me up.
But I’m working as we speak and after I catch up on my e-mails I’m going to get back to working on my campaigns.
You can expect a lot more updates on my personal affiliate marketing efforts from now on as it’s my primary focus at this point.
What networks are you working with?
MarketLeverage
As a newb in affiliate marketing, I’m curious about the statement, “highly secretive nature of affiliate marketing”. Why reveal so much about making money online on this website and go so far to share techniques, income statements, and even you recommended resources but yet “we don’t reveal what our affiliate marketing sites (or even niches) are”. Why is that? Help me understand.
Because if I ever made big money, people would copy what I’m running faster than you could blink and then suddenly I’d be making $0.
No affiliate marketer in their right mind would reveal such things…
That is pretty good. It is good to get back into what you love to do. Keep up the great work. The One offer was doing pretty good, but it is kind of bad that they stopped it. Greg Ellison
Let us know how it goes. Good luck
I have the same feeling. Time to try some more affiliate marketing.
My work ethic is rubbing off on you. From your side, the only thing rubbing off is doing a McDonald’s run at 5:30am in the morning when their breakfast starts. 🙂
Just kidding, it’s actually quite motivating to be working and chatting with someone else. Otherwise it’s too easy to get tired and get sleepy.
It’s also really easy to just hop on Steam and start playing TF2 or Counter-Strike Source :p
As an long-time affiliate marketer (full-time since 2004), I’m also a bit perplexed by your having a blog to teach people about making money online, but using the phrase about the “highly secretive nature of affiliate marketing”.
I understand wanting to protect your niches and markets, and as someone who has had content poached on more than a few occasions, I know the frustration that comes with it.
However, it sort of seems like a carrot to dangle in front of people to say that there’s a highly secretive nature to affiliate marketing. I think it’s more accurate to say that it’s best to keep your sites and niches (and discovered keywords, PPC Campaigns, etc.) close to you and work to protect them from poachers, but at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with sharing tactics and strategies.
I think it could give people a wrong impression of you or what you are working to convey here to say that affiliate marketing is secretive… It’s not as a whole… just the markets that you go into are good to protect, lest some 100 super-affiliates come in and dominate the entire conversation in the space.
Alternatively, in an abundant universe, there are always enough markets and opportunities, that there is always plenty for people to take advantage of, even in just an individual niche.
But I understand wanting to protect your income from the .01% of people who would steal your work once you’ve figured out what’s working in a given market, which I think is what you meant with that phrase.
Correct me if I’m wrong?
Thanks Tyler, and welcome back to affiliate marketing!
Warmest,
Jonathan
ThreeMoneyMethods.com
Hi Jonathan,
Yes, I agree with you, and I’ll definitely share any “tactics and strategies” and other tips I come across, but only once I’m making decent money from it as it’d be foolish to give advice now when I myself am still learning the “game”.
But I’ll definitely share everything I can, just not my landing sites, keywords, or niches.
Be sure to hop on gmail chat and give me a nudge every once in a while just like Paul does for you! 😉
That’s quite some money to be earned with a single affiliate program alone!! Nice job!
i don’t see to much different here . but great anyway
It’s good to hear you’re getting back to Affiliate Marketing again. Paul is really a nice guy and best of luck to both of you..
Anyways, why don’t you engage yourselves in an aff.marketing contest? 🙂
Welcome back stranger! Get those campaigns up and running, and I’m pretty sure Gyutae can tell you about our fantastic pizza delivery skills. 🙂
OK, you convinced me, Tyler. If ML approved me, you’ll own a percentage. Let’s both make money.
Glad you decided to sign up Dave. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.
Cool, looking forward to see new reports
Thanks for the post. You have inspired me to up the hours I work each day promoting my affiliate products. I don’t see myself working at it for 10 hours per day..but I feel 4-5 hours will be very manigible for me.
I’m curious Tyler, how did the monthly revenues of these campaigns compare now to when you left them in August..?
Did you find that a little “incubation” time helped grow them a bit…?
As mentioned in the post, that offer got pulled at the end of March.
You were probably just in a funk. Happens to the best of us.
I think affiliate marketing takes a lot of time, but it’s profitable afterwards.
-Mike
Not too bad Tyler, I’ve seen your progress in affiliate marketing, you’re a smart guy, I am sure you will do just fine, and continue to improve.
Back to gaming huh? hehe So when Starcraft II comes out in 2010, I wonder how many hours you will be playing it 😉
Till then,
Jean
It seems like you know how to put together profitable campaigns so i am surprised you haven’t been doing much affiliate marketing to begin with.
your profit is AMAZING! REALLY!
Those are definitely some impressive numbers Tyler, I am yet to see that kind of success with a PPC campaign. Congrats.
Wow, you’ve put in a lot of effort into this post. Really appreciate that
Sometime we need someone to inspire us to work and I bet you have found one for yourself