I’m at a point where I’m getting involved in a lot of challenges. This challenge is a bit different then becoming a better blogger. This is about pure cash, baby!
The idea of working smarter is to create a business that will generate money 24/7. In other words you don’t get paid only when you are working but when you are spending time with family, when you are on vacation, when you are grocery shopping, even while you are sleeping.
This means harnessing the power of the Internet to make a living online.
One of the ideas I’ve been entertaining lately is PPC affiliate marketing. Well, actually I’ve done a little more than entertaining the idea – I’ve been experimenting. Out of all the online business models this one is one where you can really make money online and you can make money a lot faster than other models. Afterall, isn’t it all about ROI? BUT (of course, there’s always a BUT) you can also lose a lot of money if you don’t take the time to study, experiment, and tweek.
As a working parent who doesn’t have a lot of time or money it is a little scary to experiment with PPC affiliate marketing. But there are some ways to minimize the risk and have a successful PPC campaign.
The results for my first experiment with PPC affiliate marketing were not great BUT they were promising!! I’m a big believer in the best way to learn how to do something is by just getting out there and doing it. Yes, you might leave money on the table but if you test and tweek you’ll be that much stronger for round two!
This is what I did. I am using the direct linking method to test my offers. I picked an offer (one that paid out $35 per lead), researched a bunch of keywords, threw them into four campaigns with two ads each, and ran it on a Saturday. After a couple of hours I got my first sale – whohoo! So I basically spent $19.95 to make $35 which equals $15 in profit. Cool.
| Clicks | Impr. | CTR | Avg. CPC | Cost | Avg. Pos |
|---|
| 23 | 2,931 | 0.78% | $0.87 | $19.95 | 3.1 |
But then I thought that the click per costs where way too high. I got scared and paused the campaign. It’s a freaky thing when you think about how much money you could spend. I felt like I was gambling. There are people spending $20K and more a DAY. Hopefully, I’ll get there one day. But for now every little bit of money I spend hurts especially if I am not guaranteed a sale!
I think I let it run the next day with a daily budget of $20. No sales. I got scared again and paused it for a week! I then I ran it again for two days and only got one more sale. See below.
| Clicks | Impr. | CTR | Avg. CPC | Cost | Avg. Pos |
|---|
| 143 | 39,680 | 0.36% | $0.86 | $123.06 | 4.6 |
My first mistake was that this experiment was done half-heartily. Basically, I just picked the offer because it paid out a lot but didn’t really pay attention to what type of offer it was – and guess what? The offer was dropped either by the owner or the network. I’m glad I didn’t pursue it.
Final Results
Cost: 143.01
Sales: 70.00
Loss: 73.01 (ouch)
I’m starting my next experiment tonight and I’m going to follow what Amit of Super Affiliate Mindset is recommending.
I’m going to do more niche research and keyword research. Some of the most successful players in PPC affiliate marketing use something like 10,000 keywords in their campaigns. I’m going to pick an offer that pays out good and is something I would buy. I’m going to have more than four ad groups with two ads each.
This is scary and exciting but if others are making a living online using PPC affiliate marketing – why can’t you or I??? Are you game?