I donno I guess this is a semi-rant. I've been studying internet marketing for about 6 months now and have tried a few projects. So far I seem to have failed everywhere. Lately I've gotten into PPC after reading the PPC experiment at Shoemoney's blog. I thought "dam... 120k in one month. I want that." I keep hearing people talking about making tens of thousands a month everywhere. So I've decided to learn this stuff. I've spent hundreds of hours trying to understand how everything works, but it seems like I just can't get a complete grasp. I'm about to run out of money from my latest loan and this is really distressing to me, as much as I hate to say that. I've looked into doing SEO - but this takes months from what I understand to get ranked anywhere. PPC... well, it seems like this is the most promising land to generate steady monthly income to at least buy food/pay rent. However, the trend I seem to notice is that PPC engines seem to favor older accounts/camapigns over new ones. And sometimes I look at other people and how much they're probably bidding and I'm wondering how in the WORLD they are turning ANY profit. I've been tweaking this friggin ringtone campaign for months everyday trying to make it work and I actually lost about 100$ in the course of a few months. I remember back in the day I used to play videogames when I was little. I never read the manual and just figured it out as I went along, learning, trying failing. I compare learning this internet marketing to learning how to play a very complex game with no manual. I enjoy it, however, when you're playing a video game, you're playing with playmoney. In real marketing, though, you play with real money and losing that money is going to hurt a lot... and this quite frankly scares me, because not only I'm "gambling" with someone else's money, but it's also the last money I have left. So, I guess the ultimate question to those who already "got it made" is: what do I do now? Or what would you do in my situation? It's not like I'm giving up, but my motivation is at 0 right now and I'm pretty friggin drunk. If you have any help to offer I appreciate it.
Hey Josh. I completely understand your frustration. Just don't give up. Many time I have wanted to give up. Putting in 16 hour days figuring out this stuff is no joke. Right now, I am doing ok with Azoogle & MaxBounty. You really have to test and test to see what works for you. Remember, "What Works For You." The campaigns I am promoting and making money with are pretty much offers I did not expect to make money off of. But, "They Work For Me." I advertise everywhere. Right now, Yahoo Search is making me happy with the results I see. I still have a long way to go because I am loosing a lot of money in other places. But, you have to lose money sometimes to gain money. Don't know if that makes sense. You understand what I am trying to get at.
I would imagine most big earners get most of the buying traffic from SEO aka Organic results. Ranking high depends on how competitive your niche is and how much time you spend link building. Using a combo of Organic and PPC can be a great thing to make a lot of money. I myself once I rank high enough pause the PPC stuff because I don't want to waste money.
I would suggest you two things, keep your ringtone campaigns, make it smaller, detect the keywords that made you now the most sales over the months you talk about, and let it run. Since you're out of money now, do some arbitrage, you can easylie make a few K a month only trough click arbitrage. It's nothing you set to fire and forget, but its the more easy way to get money and the FASTER!!
Dont be afraid of failing. Atleast you have so many failing experience which you can give out to other people. You can say to a client " Look I had done it this way and i had failed . so dont repeat history". Atleast you wont let your client do those 50 mistakes. Take a break and relax. The more tensed or stressed you get the more mistakes you will make. Meditate and think. add your own twist to your trade. Sometimes very simple ideas works best. I am no guru. Just my thought. Plz dont mind if i am wrong.
I am feeling your pain, but i guess you can always try to earn through adsense so that you will not lose any money
My only advice is diversify. I think you're too focused on 1 area, ringtones. I get my balls kicked in every day on some offers, but on others I make out like a bandit. More wins than loses and you have a profit. If you're out of money, get a part time job and keep hammering away at the affiliate biz in your spare time. In a few weeks when your online income is high enough, go back to doing it full time. Hang in there.
Yes diversify!! big time diversify if you only are in ringtones and it tanks u are up a creek but if you have other sources u can mange thru the highs and lows. and find new niches.
If you have only been at it 6 months, you can't really expect to be raking it in. Like any profession it takes time to make money. You have only lost $100 in that time frame, I would consider yourself lucky and keep learning.
LOL I've lost thousands before i figured this stuff out. And the funny part is theres still more to learn as the market changes daily. The thing to remember is don't do EXACTLY what the next person is doing add your own twist, or mix and match techniques. TEST test test and Test some more.
hey guys thanks for all your advice I'm gonna keep trying I have watched some parts from "the secret" on youtube last night. It gave me tremendous motivation and mood lift. I recommend it to everyone.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=the+secret+segredo&search=Search first 7 I believe it's incomplete (the whole movie is 1.5 hours long I think) but the key points are there
Ageed! But, I am not giving up. The corporate world, job world is not for me. I just can't work for anyone. I am trying to become financial stable on my own terms.
Keep at it. I lost thousands myself too at the beginning. I would have loved to only lose $100. Also I would suggest you look for other sources of income because what works for one person might not work for another as stated. Look beyond affiliate marketing too. I've had trouble with affiliate marketing myself so I'm focusing on Adsense at the moment. With the income from Adsense I'll have some more money to play around with affiliate stuff. Also if I had quit 6 months ago I wouldn't have quit my job today Don't get me wrong I don't make a killing and the job was only part time since I'm in school but since I started making more online than my part time job why not invest that time spent at the job into my business.