Lightning Q&A Round 2
Still keep asking away here.
Jani asks…
Do you use software like SpeedPPC or Xtreme conversions or do you have your own exclusive systems?
Nope I don’t use any of those. In-house systems are the way to go. Find a good programmer that will stick by your side and have them build whatever you want.
nickycakes asks…
why do you always brag about your “earnings” but refuse to ever post how much of it is actually profit.
When have I ever refused? When I posted up that $200k Azoogle screenshot I later then posted how much adspend I had in Adwords, I think it was $119k. Do some research before you make yourself look like an ass trying to call me out.
Affiliate Experiment asks…
Do you ever use the content network? If so, any tips on how to get better CTR and/or conversions?
Yes I use it in some of my campaigns, the majority is search traffic though. CTR and conversions are both naturally a lot lower on the content network, so just working trying to improve what you already have.
Norman asks…
How many keywords do you typically have in a campaign? How many keywords are in your largest campaign?
It really varies per each campaign. My largest campaign has around 100,000 keywords but only makes about $200 per day. Some have less than 100 keywords and make $3,000+ per day. Allll depends on the niche baby.
Tom Printy asks…
I just put a lot of aff links using openads(openx) on a site I help maintain. The site is at http://www.sourcelight.com/discover/new_releases.php. What should be our next steps and what do you think of our implementation? Any other pointers?
Researching your site and coming up with a plan would take much more time than any of the other questions would. I’d focus on really building traffic to it before you worry too much about monetizing it. Get the traffic there and then test different offers/ways of advertising.
Michael asks…
Almost all the affiliate sites you recommend to join ask for my website, but I don’t have a website yet, what am I supposed to do?
Where it says to put your website, just put “Affiliate Landing Pages”. That’s what I do at least.
Ruck asks…
At your age and ability to obviously network with some damn smart people, what other business models outside of pay per click have you thought about pursuing or are pursuing? Obviously specifics will be omitted but in what areas have you thought about going into or scaling to secure other business ventures?
I’ve actually been taking a look at the advertisers side of things and have been looking into creating some of my own offers. There’s definitely money to be made there and you let everyone else make it for you. I also have been developing an idea in the affiliate industry that will be launched soon and is pretty cool. Starting that up should be a decent amount of work in itself, so I’m pretty loaded for now.
Joost asks…
How do you deal with the unknown factor of what percentage of your leads of sales is going to be rejected? I find it very frustrating to wait for a month to see the approval percentage and by this the actual eCPC.
To be honest the campaigns I’m running now don’t really have that factor. I get paid weekly on everything and nobody has ever charged back leads that I’ve sent. If an affiliate network says they’re not going to pay you and you’re sending normal whitehat PPC traffic, tell them you’re switching all your traffic to another network. At most they should just say they have to cut your payout a little because of quality.
Joe asks…
Do you think affiliate marketing is a long term, sustainable business model?
Yes I do. Affiliate marketing is doing nothing but grow, it’s just about finding ways to stay on top and not be pushed away because of competition. If you’re smart enough, there’s enough money in aff marketing to save up enough bank and retire in 5 years from it.
ScooperMan asks…
Have you ever used offline marketing tactics to market online offers? Such as, classified ads, commercials, magazine ads, etc.
Have you ever bought pop up or pop under traffic?
1) Nope, not worth the time. Marketing online is faster, and has a WAY wider reach. I’d do that other stuff (commercials, magazines) if I wanted to brand a product or unique site idea that I created.
2) Yeah I have. Never really spent enough time with it to make good money though.
I Think you hinted before you are a millionaire. Does it feel different (as in perspective on the world) being one of the club, so to speak.
I really really really enjoy reading your blog Uber…. Thanks for your info….. Hopefully I will start making some dough when I start my campaigns by following your example.
I’d like to hear more about your popup/under experience. A case study might be particularly useful.
“When have I ever refused? When I posted up that $200k Azoogle screenshot I later then posted how much adspend I had in Adwords, I think it was $119k. Do some research before you make yourself look like an ass trying to call me out.”
Ok, so that accounts for 1 out of maybe 50….
How long does it take you on average to find a successful campaign? And if it’s not successful right away, do you try other angles? Or do you move on right away?
Do you prefer direct linking or making your own landing pages?
You say, you are only running a few campaigns that you try to dominate. How do you go about dominating them? And what is the factor that helps you the most to dominate a nice?
In todays competitive landscape, what is the most important factor to be a successful search affiliate? I already learned that tracking is very important and took care of that, and obviously copy writing is very helpful, but still I’m curious. Besides those skills, what skill do you value the most?
NICE!
Paul +1 Nickycakes 0
:-P
So you made 81k profit that month?
Do you ever plan on teaching your kids about affiliate marketing?
[yawn] zzzzzZZZZZ
$200K – $119K indeed = $81,000.00…. which = a nice 40%+ profit margin.
If looking at the EPC on that screenshot too, its pretty high ~ $1.00 EPC flat across 800,000 clicks or whatever on the Azoogle, good stuff :) can make some good ROI with that EPC and ++
most people who are halfway decent at AM throw away campaigns with shitty margins like that. i scrap anything below 100%, and most of my campaigns are closer to 300-500%. But I guess if you just blindly throw money at small margins for long enough you end up racking up a bunch of airline miles or something…
Nicky, unless you’re doing numbers like Paul, your “300-500%” is not a fair comparison. You doin $200K+ per month?? Also, $81K profit/mo annualized = just under $1mIllion in profit. No matter how you chop it up, that puts you in the top 1%, income wise. 40% or 500% the bottom line is the profit total. Sure, trading $1 for $3 or $5 is great, but profit is profit. I’ve got a campaign thats +61.43% and I ain’t trashing it. Who in their right mind would trash +money?
nickycakes your’e a hater
What host would you recommend to host landing pges? Also, where do you get your images from? Do you scrape them from flickr or do you buy royalty free pics?
You’re totally right, I agree 100%.
I should definitely scrap that campaign making $80,000 profit a month because the margin isn’t 300%.
Paul,
Thank you for the answer. Being a Co-Network owner now there is definitely a lot of room to scale and it’s refreshing to see that on top of your past/current/future success, you have a great idea on exapansion. I also look forward to the “idea” that you will be launching.
Happy Easter,
Ruck
yes im doing those kind of numbers
When you have children, are you gonna teach them about affiliate marketing?
Thanks for answering. I should call my affiliate manager/network and get some more security.
lol to funny.
“Ok, so that accounts for 1 out of maybe 50…”
That has a Napolian Dynamite-esque tone to it…”
http://www.nickycakes.com/jan-stats-and-recap-and-feb-goals/
“A few days ago, Nickycakes passed the $10,000 revenue mark for his online marketing ventures. Having only been in the game for 6 months, this isn’t a bad number to be at. How much of that was profit? Let’s just say it wasn’t a loss ;]”
Wow a whole 10K!!! i guess that qualifies you to call out people making 200k a month…..
wow, the internet really is full of idiots trying to make others look bad. Who the fuck cares if you are doing those numbers or not. You are just an ass trying to call others out and make them look bad. Nickycakes def. gets my vote for the idiot of the month…
That’s what we like to call sarcasm, and poking fun at the retards who post their stats.
Doesn’t really look like any sarcasm to me in that post…
*That’s what we like to call sarcasm, and poking fun at the retards who post their stats.*
LOL…yah, sure… hahaha
Quitting working campaigns at a 40% monthly return because you only accept XXX% just means you aren’t smart enough to find the cash to keep scaling your operations.
Lesson to affiliate marketers – unless you have NO WAY of scraping together enough cash to keep an already profitable campaign (including value of your time) to it’s max volume, do not quit it.
Nickycakes, you are a LIAR and a sad individual. You just hit $10K per month, which would be a good thing if you weren’t going at Paul so hard over his ROI. Dude is doing 20-to-30x’s your volume (That’s 200%-to-300% more than you! Hmm, sounds familiar) and you have the nerve to throw salt on his game! Do us all a favor and just go away.
Nicky, I apologize I should have stated he’s doing 2,000% -to- 3,000% more volume than you.
holy smokes some guys are really very funny here…lol soo much lol:D
lol he is just 19 do i think if he would be planning to settle for kids with that hottie girlie of his?
not like the way you see if dude, posting stats for others to see give encouragement to those who are willing and aspiring to reach that goal one day so quit calling people names and concentrate on making some good bucks…if it werent for advice and stuffs u wouldnt be here so suck on that! :D
SWEET LOL :D
Wow, there’s some real cock smokers commenting here. Who gives a fuck if you making more money than the next man? Now you can go back to wanking over a picture of yourself Nicky.