My $5000/mo Goal With ClickBank & Arbitrage

Hi Scott

There are many different bbenchmarks for split testing. Some people declare the first headline/ad copy/landing page etc to result in 30 sales as the winner. They keep that one and replace the loser(s).

Others say, you decide after 1,000 hits to each component you're split testing. So after 1,000 hits to each of your landing pages in this case.

Yet another method is to call the winner as soon as you see one component clearly beating the other.

Which benchmark are you using?

And are you using Google Analytics or do simply use 2 identical ads each directing to a different landing page that you're testing?

Wishing you every success
Samo

 

Thanks. Most definitely it's addicting. That can also be a problem when the market fluctuates on a daily basis and you might not see as much revenue from one day to the next. It's difficult to not freak out and stop pouring money in. But I've learned you have to just keep your head down and power through.

Quitting the day job would be beautiful and I have discussed it with my wife plenty of times, but the fact is-- jobs do provide security. We have a baby on the way and without decent insurance, hospital bills would be crazy. Decent insurance is difficult to get without a job (as I learned while I had no job and applied.)

Essentially, we decided that the only way I could quit is if I profit around $550/day to cover both her income and my income, plus insurance. So it's given me a real goal to pursue. Having fire under your ass really helps to get things moving.

Yeah, I definitely agree. Giving up is easy when you start out, because you might not see money for a day or two. Hell, I've gone negative a few days (spend exceeded revenue) and if I were starting out, I would've pulled the plug in no time. But having the knowledge I do now, it makes no sense to base decisions on a single day or even a few. Statistically, decisions should be made on the basis of a larger set of numbers over a longer period of time (about a month). Trouble is, most people don't want to spend that kind of money or don't want to risk it. That's why people like us come in with the rake.

Yeah, I would love to take vacations and I definitely have those dreams in mind but right now, the goal is more putting more money back into the business to generate more revenue and that goal is being met, thus far.

Thanks man-- good feedback!

 

Very much appreciated.

 

Generally, I go with whichever adS maintain constant sales. It's an ongoing struggle to monitor and watch the ads that turn out profits though, you have to stay on top of it.

1,000 hits ? Wow, that's not a lot to make decisions by. I think that you need to use more like 7,000 hits over the span of a week to accurately gauge whether a LP is successful.

What I did was try one LP for a week or two and then switch. Then I calculate the actual amount per click I'm getting (based on my profit and total number of clicks) and compare them. I'm still have about 30 different ideas for things to try to see what works best. Tomorrow, I'll probably have 60! It never ends.

Thanks. And to you!

 

Wow, Scott, you're manually analysing! My friend I urge you to use a tool like Google Analytics (a free download). There's another one called Adwords Analyzer (I think) but is not free.

You will save a fortune in time AND you'll get much more detailed and useful stats. There's no way you can get those stats via manual calculations. AND managing multiple campaigns and analysing them is a matter of pulling up the right analysis page to look at!

Also please note that testing your components sequentially gives you a false picture or at least a very much less accurate one.

True split testing is one where one propsect is sent to one landing page and the next to another landing page and the next back to the first landing page and so on.

Testing ad copy would be the same: one google search client will see your first ad for a given phrase he searches for, while the next person searching for the same phrase will see your second ad and so on.

Dynamic split testing will iron out geo-political and social events that may affect you. Sequentially you are bound to get different results and you never know what is going on around the web that, somewhere down the line, may have a knock on effect on your sales

Yeah, I know. I have a constant battle to not get distracted with a bunch of new ideas every single day.

I know you will hit your $550 + Insurance goals.

Stay the course ... and thanks for sharing again.
Samo

 

Oh no, trust me. I use Analytics up and down, but using the API into both the revenue source and the expenditure source, I can gauge exactly what works and what doesn't. It's beautiful, really.

I hear you on this, and it does make sense. Different days of the week, holidays, news events, etc. can have an impact on lots of things and therefore, make split testing sequentially seem like a bad idea. Luckily, I have a friend who has stayed pretty constant through this whole thing and we basically feed off of each other.

I suppose that's the missing link for most people -- using a buddy system.

It's definitely hard to find someone to trust though.

Thanks man. Great input.

 

Yep,very hard.

 

My pleasure Scott.

Your work and success is an inspiration to soooo many people reading this thread.

As always, for every one peson who has expressed this in a post, there are dozens who are watching, getting inspired and learning too, which is great.

But those who are watching should also take "action". You will never find the perfect system laid out in front of you. YOu can never learn to swim or ride a bicycle by purely watching.

Go for it guys and stay the course.
Samo

 

So, what has been your profit (I mean your margin) for September ?

 

Well when I started I was sending people directly to advertisers product page, it seems that has changed now.

Question, do I need to buy a domain if I plan on doing this? The next step is understanding the keywords I am bidding on.

I have a product I see that I could work on..Its $35 a lead and the bidding for the #1 is between $8-$10. Would this be doable or that margin is too expensive?

 

a clickbank product?
$8-$10 / click in #1 position? I sure as hell wouldnt be promoting it.
unless the keyword was: "purchase [product name] through clickbank right now"

 

its not a clickbank product, but thats what I am trying to understand..whats a good ratio per click? $8-10 is way too high cause if it takes 6 people to get a lead I lose . Im starting out so just trying to see what will work.

 

Fine - Your goal is $5000/mo

What has been your profit (I mean your margin) for September ?

 

You should start with $0.35.$8-$10 is waaaaaaaaay too much.Don't even think about this.Depend on which search engine you are going to use,for google,try with 20-30 keywords per adgroup with all three march types.Do 5-6 adgroups.With yahoo,try uploading as many keywords as you can find,but separated in adgroups for better quality score.Use some software to track your keywords and sales.Start deleting your non converting keywords and start increasing the bids on the converting ones.This is good training until you get use to how the search engines are working.For the domain name,you can start first with direct linking to the merchant.If your campaign is working=making profit or braking even,than you buy a domain name and make website.This way you will have better quality score on the search engines and your campaign is going to make you more money.

 

You're on the right track. If I were in your shoes, I would look for either another product with fewer people selling it or I would look for a roundabout way of getting potential buyers' attention. Using the latter method, you might need more clicks to generate a sale, but it would be way cheaper.

Remember- in the end, what matters most is your profit margin. If you can spend $8/click and get a lead every two users on average, then you're successful. Hell, your cost per click will most likely go down. But in general, it's best to start low and work your way up gradually. That way you don't go broke.

 

Interesting thread. Has helped me make up mind to start in the affiliate marketing line. Well best of luck to scottmweaver, hope you reach you goal and hope that I reach your goal too.

 

whow...$30/day into PPC and no sales...you seriously have to work on some basics of your marketing.

1) Chose a product where the market is not oversaturated

2) chose a good product and review, blog about it

3) make your own landing page and dont just cloak links. Your CPC will be high like that. Re-Use/clone/copy/rewrite an existing sales page, or use a blog/review and set PPC to this....eg. "Blablah Item review".

4) Article Marketing...good, social bookmarking even better.

Start with a product which has not 100.000 ads up already and is not that competive.

Adhere to standard principles google likes for "good landing pages", that is relevancy to the keywords/products in the site, proper privacy policy, contact-us pages etc..etc...

 

Seriously? You've had luck with social bookmarking in this way? In my experience stumble/digg/del.icio.us users can see affiliate links coming a mile away and bury these pages.

If you've had success doing this which social sites are you using? The only ones I can think of that would be good are sphinn and plugim.

 

try squidoo. Its not that having a link on digg is a disadvantage
If its a real review (which i am doing)..nothing against it, IMHO.
There is still a difference between a blatant sales-pitch and a good review with a couple aff-links in it.

 

Did you not read the rest of the thread?