Hi everybody, I've been an affiliate marketer for about two months, but not a successful one yet. I have a grand total of 0 sales. I have been targeting 'online business opportunities' that allow people to make money from home online. In the beginning, I used raw PPC marketing linking STRAIGHT to the sales page. I wasted about $30 on that. So I had a look some forums, including this one. This is what I then did: Purchased a domain. Made my own landing page to build a list. Optimised my PPC Program. Started a blog for free traffic and SEO. Made a squidoo lens. Here's the result after one month: About 700 hits Around 250 visits to the products I link to Opt-in list of about 80 people No sales $110 spent on PPC, $50 from Voucher (so $60 of my own) So my ROI is terrible, especially when you take time into account! Here's my landing page: http://www.prestigereviews.com/online-business/ Please provide feedback or advice (or both); I'm open to all opinions and criticisms and I'm so determined to be a successful affiliate marketer! Cheers, Tim.
I never understood the reasoning of those who aren't making money online, yet feel that they should put up web pages about making money online. You said you've made a grand total of 0 sales, yet you're selling "make money online" products? You'll do better, IMO, if you find a subject matter which you are already familiar with and then sell products related to that subject. It helps if you're passionate about the product you're selling. It also helps if you have a genuine concern for your audience. Also, there's plenty of other hungry and profitable niches which are far less saturated than the "make money online niche". And whatever you decide to promote, if you're going to use a landing page, you should do some selling. Not blatant selling, but entice the reader some more than just listing 4 products and giving them fake reviews. Honesty works. Yes, some people make it in this industry by being dishonest. But for most who go that route, success is short lived. For me, being genuine has paid off. Most people have a good sense for BS. Sure, there are those who can't sense B.S. , but if you go the honest route, you can sell to both those adept at detecting B.S. and those fools who can't. You've made a good attempt at making sales. Some people will never get off their butt and break down to buy a domain name, make a web site -- But you did. Hang in there, change your approach a bit, try out some new things, and measure your results. Learn from your results and all of your mistakes will become assets to you.
Promoting "make money online" product is done by a lot of people and so you may not find a lot of potential buyers. You can still do it if you are spotting a brand new product and be (one of) the first to market it. Your keyword is the product name and you use it in your squidoo lens, article, blog, domain... If it has been already promoted (but not so much), people may want to find infos about it. If it's completely unknown then it's good to have your list and research your keywords. Big boys have huge mailing list and people interested in making money online subscribed to several newsletters. These newsletters are promoting the same products. So you should try to find a product that is not so popular but that you would still buy yourself. As mojojuju said, you should also promote other things than "make money online" ebooks. I am still a newbie, ubt from the posts I've read here, some are making money with products they never thought of promoting before. Browse the ClickBank categories and make some research about the subject. Then do what you are already doing, maybe by using only the free methods. If you find a profitable product, launch a PPC campaign.
Thanks, mojojuju. I've been scouring the forums and blogs again tonight and have found many posts conveying a similar message - "sell what you know" , "generic review sites suck" and "genuine is best". I kind of feel a bit foolish wasting all of that time, but at least it was a lesson... Your advice is very useful and I'm taking note of it all Thanks! By the way, I made a BS review site because I know a number of people that have paid for home business ops, and I saw this bs review site (http://legitimatebusinessreviews.com/) and thought "I could use that approach". Oh well.
Appreciate the feedback, inflames. I guess I started in the wrong market. As you say, it can be difficult in the "make money online" market and getting keywords can be hard! I like this idea: "So you should try to find a product that is not so popular but that you would still buy yourself." Thanks mate!
I completely understand the arguments against newbies entering the "make money online niche". It is indeed saturated and there are plenty of "gurus" who all claim their system works for anyone and everybody. Seeing how when I was a complete newbie this was the first niche I entered I'll throw in my 2 cents. I've never used PPC advertising. In theory it can make a lot of money, but I know there is a lot of strategy involved and a lot of careful ad writing. I don't spend anything on advertising (gotta love free advertising). I've come to understand that it is all about learning the basics and fundamentals first before jumping in. I'm curious as to how much research you did before spending all this money with affiliate marketing. When I started I was a complete penny pincher and only spent on absolute necessities. I read every free e-book I could find and joined message boards geared toward internet and affiliate marketing. I made plenty of mistakes and wasted a lot of time on the way of course, but I still kept on reading and learning. In time I learned about SEO and all the many ways you can market your site in internet marketing, as well as tips for site design, content writing and what not. I recently found my site ranks in the top 20 on Google for a keyword phrase that returns over a billion results. Now am I a complete success at affiliate marketing? No, but I'm still learning, working, and seeing results and sign ups to keep me going. But enough about me. I checked http://legitimatebusinessreviews.com/ on http://www.checkpagerank.net and according to that, that domain has been around for over 5 months and has 8 backlinks. Did you do research before simply taking that same approach? Perhaps read reviews on the "BS Review" approach, ask other people's opinions on it, or even read on how to appeal to people's emotions with your copy writing? While we're on the subject of review, have you ever tried any of those products for yourself? In my experience people tend to pick up if someone honestly has experience with that product or not. When you have real experience with a product you're trying to sell, you can give more honest, personal opinions on it. How much time have you dedicated to link building? According to my Google toolbar www.prestigereviews.com is not even indexed by Google, and checkpagerank.net returned no results. And how often do you blog with fresh, unique content? I checked the blog on your site (if this is the blog you were talking about) and there are only 2 entries, each several weeks apart. Search engines love blogs that are updated regularly. I don't know what your Squidoo lens looks like, but did you research keywords before creating it? I find Squidoo lenses very easy to rank high in competitive keywords on Google, just check out one of them in my sig (on that note, since you have more than 10 posts in DP you can put links to your site in your sig file). I hope this was a bit informative and helpful for you. Good luck!
Whoa nice feedback ez-online-money person In short, it seems that my major problems are: - Selling items that i'm not familiar with / that i don't know enough about - Content writing - SEO / Linkbuilding - Content Writing (Again) - Dishonest BS 'sales' page... Thanks for the advice so far If anybody else has any other criticisms or advice, I'm all ears (eyes). Ez-Online-Money.com, I love your Squidoo's title!
Well one thing first, you niche your in is completely saturated. But what I think your problem is with PPC advertising is that your not choosing long tail keywords. Using PPC with money making affiliates is really tricky as you will find many readers instead of buyers. You must go through alot of experimenting before you find the right keyword, and I mean that you must be willing to cough up a grand.
I would try out some Bum Marketing (aka Article Marketing) to get the hang of it. Remember you are just trying to PRESELL the product, not actually sell it. If you sent 250 people to the product landing page and they didnt convert, you need to find a new product. I would try out some of CB's new recurring payment products because they are brand new to the scene and aren't fully optimized yet.