I Made $182.64 Profit Last Month

“It’s only after you’ve lost everything, that you’re free to do anything.”
-Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Yep that’s right kids, and no you didn’t read it wrong. Did the stats for last month and profit came out to $182.64.

When most affiliate bloggers make a post about earnings, it’s to boast about how much they made and/or for link-bait. Hey, I did it myself a couple times and it does it’s job. But what most affiliates don’t post about, are the bad months, and the very bad months. And last month just happened to be my worst month in affiliate marketing, ever. Nobody has the balls to admit when they’re struggling. I’ll admit I probably wouldn’t have the balls to post this if I hadn’t turned it back around and was doing awesome now. If I was still in a slump I’d probably just keep it quiet.

So instead of telling you how I earned $300k/month and what I did to get there, I’m going to tell you what I did to let myself slip and have a horrible month. Because affiliate marketing really is a roller coaster ride, there’s ups and downs. The real trick I’ve found out is getting off the rollercoaster and onto something more consistent, which is more longterm niches and getting on the advertiser side of things. Here’s why I bombed out in November :

1) TOO MANY THINGS AT ONCE.

Easily the biggest reason. I had way too many things trying to go at once. And it’s hard with at least 5 affiliate managers IM’ing me every day saying “yo man check out this offer a pub is rocking it doing this”. So I’m like alright I’ll give it a shot. I end up giving 5 offers a shot in 1 week, they all lose money and I have to end up pausing them all because it’s too overwhelming.

So while I had a couple campaigns doing well, losing money on all these new offers I tested just sucked the profit away. Got in way over my head with too much to do and not enough time to actually put an effort into it.

2) Beating a dead horse.

I had a campaign that rocked in October, like $5k profit/day rocked and it was great. But I knew from the start that it would be temporary and it would die for a number of reasons. Well around the last couple days of October, my predictions came true and it did indeed die out. Instead of accepting the fact that it died and moving on, I tried to revive it in November. I jacked bids way up, was completely careless, and ended up losing A LOT of money.

3) Playa got dumped!

I usually don’t involve too many personal things in my blog, but since this was a big contributing factor I might as well mention it. My girlfriend and I were together for almost 3 years and I got canned at the end of October. If anybody has been in a long-term relationship and dumped, it’s HARD. For the longest time (pretty much all of November) I barely had the urge to work. I’d sit down at the computer everyday like I always do for hours, but somehow I’d barely get anything done. Just no desire to do anything really, so when things tanked I just kind of said whatever and didn’t really care.

4) Testing things with actual potential.

This isn’t really a reason you should try to avoid, but it’s a reason for the crappy month. I actually had an offer I knew had potential, so I made the investment to test out a bunch of stuff and right now it’s paid off.

5) Played around with some non-affiliate sites.

I had a couple ideas for sites that could go viral, so I spent a lot of time building them, and then spent a few thousand on sending traffic to them. That hasn’t paid back at all, but I thought the ideas had potential (and they still do). So there’s another $5-10k + Time gone.

6) Dating died for me.

I got back into dating for a few months and it was doing pretty well. Margins were still really low, but it profited decently and I got a ton of Amex points. Then pretty out of the blue I get cut by True. Alright, move to Spicy over at Copeac. Does pretty good again, and then out of the blue my EPC gets cut almost in half. Margins were low to begin, so cutting conversions in half had me losing a pretty penny. I tried to beat the dead horse for a week or so but just ended up losing more and more money. Woot!

After actually typing out all the things went wrong, I’m still actually very surprised I managed to profit at all haha. But looking into the future, and looking into now, I’ve turned things around pretty well. The first 2 days of December have been totally awesome and it’s looking only up from here. So now what did I do to turn it around?

Focused on only 2 projects.
I knew I was getting in way over my head, and knew I had to simplify things. So I had 2 things going for me – the 1 affiliate offer that had potential, and the product I’m working on creating and becoming and advertiser for. I told myself that no matter what, I was going to work on these 2 things exclusively. Well, amazing things happen when you actually listen to yourself and commit to something. I’ve been working on this affiliate offer and it’s doing extremely well and growing fast. Instead of making one landing page for 3 offers and testing them all, I tested multiple pages with this one offer, put more focus on ad copy, and tested a couple different offers. Just focusing hard on ad copy alone, my cost per conversion is about $7 lower and my CTR is almost double. This makes clicks cheaper, quality score rise, and more profit. Then I have the product I’m working on that I’m pretty much outsourcing all the work to, so my work comes in just managing it and planning everything.

Getting a grip.
I had to realize that just because I’m glum from being dumped doesn’t mean that life wouldn’t pause with me as well. My house needed to be maintained, I still had bills, and an employee to pay. I already have enough money saved up for quite a few years of that, but when you have a $100 profit month, it still scares you. And I know a bunch of big guys that have plenty of money, but when their biggest stuff starts to dry out, they get worried too…it’s just natural.

Burning and cremating the dead horses. Sure other things out there make a lot of money and other affiliates are doing insane things with them. It was a dead horse for me and instead of going back and trying to bring it back alive, I just burned the horse and spread it’s ashes in the sea. I stopped worrying about what I could be making with these offers, and started accepting what I did make with them. Doing this allowed me to just focus on 1 main offer, which has been paying off great.

Haven’t really posted in a while and just wanted to let you guys know that nobody is invincible, and you really can go from everything, to nothing, back to everything in 1 month. Pretty crazy.


45 Comments

  1. December 4, 2008

    Thanks for this post! It is nice to get some honest feedback from an affiliate marketer when times are tough. It really is a testament to hard work when you can bounce back from these things.

  2. December 4, 2008

    Hi Paul, long time reader, first comment… I think I learned more from this post than any other thing I’ve read on Affiliate Marketing to date. Keep your head up and make it bounce!

    –D

  3. December 4, 2008

    Yeah, because it’s all about how much he earns *rolls eyes*

  4. December 4, 2008

    Thanks for sharing what things are really like behind the scenes for an affiliate and all the lessons you have learned in the process, Paul. Very admirable and it’s obvious that others are definitely inspired by your story. In the end, this experience all makes for a stronger affiliate. :)

  5. December 4, 2008

    I’ve always said, staying consistent over the long term is the hardest thing to do in affiliate marketing. That’s why you should try to save most of the profits you make. You’ll be fine though Paul. The skills you have will work again.

  6. December 4, 2008

    It is inspiring to see you have the guts to say all this as well as seeing you turn it all around again! Best of luck!

  7. December 4, 2008

    tThis month has been bad for my affiliate sites, I am not sure if this has to do with the over all economy

  8. December 4, 2008

    your honest is appreciated

  9. December 4, 2008

    For one month, in 2008. I made more money than you. Sweet!

  10. December 4, 2008

    Thanks for the refreshing post Paul, judging from your home purchase vid & your previous profit stat admissions, you’re much better at socking away money than most guys your age when they succeed financially. Keep it up.

    Re: the g/f – at least she was kind enough to not wait until after the Christmas present, unlike most old g/fs I had (minus my wife – she rocks). Not saying I’m cheap or anything but I’d rather be stuck w/ just family or even alone over the holidays than in a relationship where I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  11. December 4, 2008

    OMG, You mean that you are human? Hey, it is all good! Did you hit some type of Dip point in your current Marketing Strategy?

    I wish you the best in overcoming the dip and diversify into new verticals!

    Tom

  12. December 4, 2008

    OMG, You are a human being! lolz, Shit happens bro, sorry to hear about your woman being on the outs.

    Brush that dirt off of yo knees and get back up again!

    Tom
    GoForexTrade

  13. Tim
    December 5, 2008

    Hello Pat, do you have a blog? I’d like to know more about your story!

  14. December 5, 2008

    HiI I found your blog via feedflare. I must say that the very first post I clicked was this one and I am absolutely blown away by your honesty and transparency. Good for you in being aware of what caused your worst month ever and having the courage to put it up.

  15. December 5, 2008

    no good in the bedroom…

  16. December 5, 2008

    dont encourage a sap like this…let them wallow in their own misery in their own time.

  17. December 5, 2008

    but they can satisfy her in the bedroom, not spend all night on the pc ripping off dumb people of their benefit money.

  18. December 5, 2008

    no, thats your rss.

  19. December 5, 2008

    your english is appreciate

  20. Andy
    December 5, 2008

    Thanks for the reality check post. People need to realise that when they take big risks the rewards are going to be volatile.

    I think too many people are thinking it is easy to make big money quickly using PPC. It is another kind of gambling where the winners are happy to write about their success and the followers are struggling to work out how to do it. In my dumb-ass opinion.

    p.s. I made more than you last month from just Adsense without working on it :-)

  21. December 5, 2008

    This is one of the best articles I have read. Some of the best lessons come after losses, analysis, and rebuilding. Thanks for the excellent lessons.

    Also, this article ads credibility to your entire site. Too many people hide their mistakes, making you wonder if you are getting the entire picture when they present their successes.

  22. December 5, 2008

    I know exactly what you went through. I’ve been to 100K+ profit month, consistently, twice in last few years. right now I’m making nada. I’m finding myself having to actually be professional about the whole thing instead of stumbling onto a hole in the market and hammering it.

    The first thing I was told when I got into this game was “be willing to experience change”. What I have learned though is that if I fight through it, I’ve managed to come out the other side with a lot of knowledge and better earnings than before. It’s always scary as hell though.

  23. Gee
    December 5, 2008

    Well, I suppose you’re not alone. Im not a big affiliate but I was happy with my earnings. I did 100k rev in last 6-7 months when suddenly my offer died last month. The advertiser took my creative landing pages, keywords and ran with it. The advertiser happens to be Shopathome.com.

    So, if you deal with them, expect the worse. I had talk with my AM and his manager and they don’t seem happy. Azoogle might be cutting them out of their network fro stealing their affiliates work. I just forgot about the whole incident and now focusing on new offers. The only thing I like to remember from all this experience is that I was made close to 100k with 3 different networks in last 6-7 months. Im focus on the positive for a change :)

  24. December 6, 2008

    I always learn more from the lower profit, honest posts. If one is willing to be truthful about that, then honest assessments can be done.The boastful high dollar posts, rarely have any substance that help the reader.

  25. mmo
    December 6, 2008

    maybe you should some forex trading

  26. December 6, 2008

    Nice and honest post, sad your profit was not good, but it’s good to know everyone has some bad moths aswell, BTW sorry for your ex :( and hope december will be a lot better :)

  27. c0py
    December 6, 2008
  28. December 6, 2008

    To many struggles and so little time, live and learn people…

  29. william
    December 6, 2008

    hey dont worry about it paul, your already in the green this month because you ditched the girl. All there good for is spending money anyway so consider this month your best one yet!

  30. December 6, 2008

    It happens to the best of them…dont worry im sure you will bounce back

  31. December 6, 2008

    Wonderful post!

  32. December 6, 2008

    have you blogged about this experience? if you not, you should as a warning to other affiliates that may put a lot a work into an advertiser and have them take your work like that . .

    but you have the right attitude, there is really alot more out there, just ask paul :^)

  33. December 7, 2008

    I guess you can recover faster from all of this. Life is like rolling wheel, sometimes we above and sometimes we dive down!

  34. Damn, sorry to hear about all that Paul, especially the girl thing, it really does suck when that happens..

  35. Agreed, best post here in a while?

  36. Ron Jeremy
    December 7, 2008

    Your girlfriend was hot. Post those naked pics on your blog already. Bros before Hoes!..

    Ron

  37. December 7, 2008

    Thanks for the honest post, makes you more real as a person and a businessman. I have no doubt you will move on to bigger and better things. Great job.

  38. Ron Jerry
    December 7, 2008

    Sorry to hear that man.. you could be suffering from erectile dysfunction. Get it checked mate.

  39. December 8, 2008

    Dam Paul sorry to hear man we all have our bad month’s & no one really posts about them glad that you have the guts too also give me some guts to post about them as well wish u the best for the month of December sure you will make some good cash

  40. December 8, 2008

    Very nice that you are fair with us! Learned some good lessons from your post.

  41. Anton
    December 8, 2008

    Yeap man ! I truly understand you – the same situation, I quit my day job in July when I made over 4000$ in profits but now the campaign is almost dead and I still struggle to keep things up in affiliate marketing. My health has also got worse so I need to pay medical bills for the treatment – not good situation but I hope I’ll overcome it as there’s simply no other way!!!

  42. crestind
    December 8, 2008

    Sorry to hear that, but I don’t see reason to be terribly worried, since you were obviously in a bad position for a month because of events out of your control. You have the knowledge to get a turnaround, so you in a better position than countless other aff marketers.

  43. December 10, 2008

    Hey man, I just broke up with my gf last month too. Sux so bad. Things get better tho. Your post was encouraging.

  44. December 10, 2008

    Sorry to hear bout ur gf….but very well done on getting back up there and I’m excited to see what that product will be….

  45. December 10, 2008

    As a man, I didn’t care about girlfriend. We as a man didn’t have anything lose at all! Why? Because we have a dick!

    afiq_baker

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