Clickbank journal! What's up everyone. I guess I'm ultimately posting this journal because I've never actually been part of a community, and it'll help me stay focused on marketing since I can easily digress into another world -- especially with this computer in front of me. I actually have a goal. For the first time in 23 years I actually have a goal. My first goal is to move out of my parent's home by May. I want it fully-furnish and whatnot, so yeah, I'll have to make a lot. My second goal is to have my dream car by my birthday in August, which is the Audi TTS. I have a car now, and I'm not even into cars, and never cared for one, but I saw that one, and I knew I had to have it. I don't know how much I actually want to make a day, however, I know I need a lot to pay my current car note, a new car, and a new apartment. I started affiliate marketing around late October/early December. So far I've invested about $1000 give or take. I don't feel like I've wasted anything, though. I've never been real frugal with money -- and maybe I should change that a bit -- but it would be nice to make it back. I had one blog that wasn't targeted at all, hell, I didn't know which avenue to take it, but I did manage to make two Clickbank sales. I even had gained a PR of 1, which was very short lived because I had upgraded to Wordpess 2.7 through Fantastico, and I left the permissions at 777, and 2 days later, my site got hacked and deleted. However I didn't get mad -- you live and learn, and I should not have been procrastinating on changing the permissions and whatnot. I quit my job last week, so now I'm -- by my definition -- a bum. So yeah, it's only right that I use bum marketing techniques. I'll probably be a real bum out on the street after my dad comes back home April and finds out I quit again. I probably had the easiest job possible, but I didn't enjoy it. I wanted to quit so I could have no more excuses on pushing forward with this marketing. I'd much rather control my income than work for someone else. I like being able to place the full blame on myself. So I had this past Monday I was gonna get my stuff together and really get with the program, so here's my progress thus far: Monday: All I did was write two USFreead articles since I've had a premium membership there since November, but only used it twice. Tuesday: Um, I turned on my comp, but my hand would rather click on links that it shouldn't (you know, the kind your parents warn you about, I should be blind by now), and nothing else. Wednesday: Went over my cousin's house all day, WITH MY COMP mind you, and I still didn't do anything. To save face, though, I watched my 6-month-old cousin all day -- loved it. Thursday: I went to the gas station, and OMG you should have seen this woman... yeah... nothing again. Friday: Well, I'm gonna write some new articles and posts on my blogs. I have 3 blogs write now. Two are niche blogs I guess you could say, and a adult review site that is highly targeted, but it doesn't convert. I printed a picture of the car and the townhouse for inspiration, because I know I can go off track quick, especially with porn right here at my comp's disposal. So, I guess this can kind of be an inspiration thread. So for all the "noobs," join me in my quest. Not follow, but join. And damn, I hate the word noob. I remember having two of the best characters on EQOA, and no matter what crazy questions people would ask, I could never call them a noob. So I've come up with a new word, which is LI's. LI stands for Less Informed. Yeah, I consider myself less informed, not a noob. I'll post bi-weekly for anyone who is interested in my progress. I advise anyone else who would like to post their progress to post as well. I do have a few questions as well. 1. USFreeads. Would it be best to just make a landing page out of them? I mean, it seems too easy to just make one out of those, and I've noticed the pages with the most views are made landing page-ish. Some are even a perfect carbon copy of the affiliate and/or their site itself. 2. Review Copies. Is the usual way to receive a review copy from someone on DP is to actually sell a copy of the book since you're not as experienced as most people here, or should I just shoot them a PM and ask to have one? I have a health and relationship blog, and recently there have been a lot of new products that cater specifically to both of those, and I'd like to try to promote them. (, feel free to shoot me a PM with some).
Shawn, good luck with all of your goals. Here's a tip: Discipline yourself to stay away from the porn and you will be much more successful.
Good advice! Its obvious that you need to discipline yourself before you can achieve any success. Take it this way, if you keep spending days without contributing to your targets you will never achieve anything. Change your attitude as soon as possible and you will achieve anything you want
just imagine the time you spend on porn but instead spend on working on a campaign. You'd be doing really well.
Thanks, Robert and everyone else for the advice. Yes, I know I have to stop the porn, but when you have it right in front of you it's kind of hard (no pun intended). Anyway, I stopped today, and gonna make myself work full-time at this. So far I haven't did too much, Friday I hung with my two little cousins -- two and three-years-old -- all afternoon; damn, I love those two. Then I went to a strip club and that didn't go too well. Saturday I didn't do anything but watch the boxing matches and that's pretty much it. Sunday I didn't do anything again except you know what... lol, but I had to get it all out. Today, though, I wrote two new blog posts, pinged them, deleted my two USFreead articles and just copied my old posts to it since they were already indexed by that time instead of making a whole new article. Hopefully USFreeads will actually work. I also wrote four EZines. I wish I had of signed-up earlier than I did, since you need a certain number of articles to gain platinum membership. Hell, I'd paid for the highest if I had the cash, but I'm almost on zero before I file my taxes. So of course, 0 dollars so far, but I plan on doing a lot in the upcoming months. Will keep everyone up on my progress.
usfreeads is excellent for low hangin fruits keywords ...i ranked well using usfreeads not long ago ...
I'll keep that in mind, Kerunai. I'm paying monthly for it so I might as well use it as much as I can. I haven't done too much since then, but I did get approved as an author on Buzzle. I'm thinking of becoming a premium member on Ezine once I get my tax return cash. Damn, it's too easy to procrastinate and be a slacker. I shall make money soon, though!
I'll watch and see how things go as you update us. I've been a member of usfreeads for over a year. However out of that time I probably only REALLY used my membership for a good solid 3 - 4 months. I think the best things that work there are the long article like posts, also the featured ad work really well, and you can get some ok Google rankings for your posts if there isn't to much competition. Just keep focused. That is the main part it can be VERY easy to get side tracked.
Thanks David, and Snotball for the info; I meant to ask if having your article featured was worth it. Pretty much spent this day "trying" to customize a Wordpress theme for my landing pages, which I think I did OK with my limited knowledge. Also went to check out the car, so that gave me a lot of inspiration. I shall be doing a lot starting tomorrow, hopefully. But I have a birthday party to go to, and UFC comes on, so yeah... I know I should be working 10+ hours on this -- which I plan on soon -- but I'm trying not too get too caught up in it and go crazy. It's funny how I never went out -- I mean literally never, but since I've quit, I've gone out for the past 2 weekends. I think it's because of me working on the weekends for the past six months. Also, yes, it's too easy to get side-tracked! I actually had done more while I was working than I do now. I guess I actually care to do things the right way, and it's like I'm "afraid" to in a sense. The main thing, though, is the comfort at home. Too many things and distractions at home, unlike when I had to work I know I HAD to do something, now, I actually can choose, and it's not going too well. Anyway, I have to start making some cash soon, because dad comes back home at the end of next month, and if he finds out I quit and I'm not working... the only thing I'll have is this computer, with no where to hook it up, lol.
Good luck with your journey with Clickbank. It's a little hard when you first start out. But keep reading the forums and you'll learn from a lot of folks here. They do share gems here....
What kind of business model do you have? PPC, email marketing or something else? $1000 is a great investment but you should plan and know what you do...hopefully you'll success soon
Thanks CBGCash. Mavericksaroza, I'm using bum marketing tactics, well, article marketing. Woke up with the intent write a bunch of articles, but I got frustrated. I'm too analytical when it comes to writing them I guess. I realize they don't need to be expertly-written, but professionally (ie. great punctuation and whatnot), but I can't seem to get that out of my head. Anyway, not a dime yet, but I can feel a few sales coming soon. Gonna write a post or two in my blogs, then about 10 or so articles tomorrow -- even a Squidoo and Hubpage or two. Oh yeah, Hostgator called me Friday and offered me a job position, but I told them I don't know anything about Photoshop, lol. She said call her back anytime if I think I'm up for it, and maybe I will have to soon if I keep procrastinating on this...