Popular E-Mail Questions, Photoshop Faker, and More

Of course whenever someone posts a halfway decent screenshot, there’s about 15% who immediately accuse me of faking it with Photoshop. The other 85% email/IM me asking me all sorts of questions and telling me congratulations. I appreciate all the kind words and I’d like to answer everyone’s question, but it would take me forever to go through and personally respond to every single email. There are a lot of repeat questions though, so I’m going to do my best to answer as much as possible in this post.

Did I Fake My Screenshot?

Let’s just get this over with first. No, I didn’t. As stated before, I really don’t care if people believe me or not. I do love proving people wrong though, so I’ll post another screenshot of that month in Adwords. This is the Adwords account that corresponds with the Azoogle screen I posted.

google adwords spending

On the actual main campaigns, I spend under $100k. I probably spent about $20k testing things that didn’t work. So no, it’s not $200k profit…on that account ;).

Amex points are key.

 
Popular Questions

Now I’ll search through all the emails I received and try to answer the most common asked questions.

I’m not even close to the point where you are, but I’m trying to get there. What are some realistic goals I can achieve and in what time frame?

Well as with answers to most questions – it depends. Some people get it pretty easily and learn fast, others it takes a very long time for them to get something good going. And even for others (like Shoemoney and myself a while ago), you can just stumble upon something almost by pure luck. In my first month or so of affiliate marketing I was a noobie and trying to get ringtones to work. I was testing out a bunch of random stuff and stumbled upon some pretty good keywords that had no competition. So a month into affiliate marketing I was grossing about $700-900/day, about $500 profit. Now that traffic converts like shit (like most ringtones stuff will be soon), so it’s not a money maker anymore. But for months it was great for me and was what compelled me to quit my day job. Now to get my big big campaigns running, luck isn’t involved. There’s time, research, planning, testing, losing…all of that before you can start making a decent coin. I’ll expand upon this soon with a longer article.
 

Can you by any chance share what some of your landing pages look like so I can see for an example?

Please stop asking me this one people. I’m not giving out any of my big offers or landing pages, how would that help me? Instead of being pissy about it like some of you are, think of what you would do. Sacrifice a niche making me thousands a day so I can make a few hundred a month from a blog? Nah. I’ll give tips on building successful landing pages, but I’m not giving out any of my campaign information.
 

If I pay you, will you train me in affiliate marketing?

Again, I’m sorry but no. To make it actually worth my time, I’d have to charge something ridiculous like $1,000/hour. I have SO many things going on and simply no time to personally tutor people. I’ll try to help out as much as I can in this blog.
 

Seeing your post really motivated me. I want to get started in affiliate marketing and try to make some money with it. What tips do you suggest for starters?

1) Don’t be afraid to lose money. Like I said above, I probably lost around 20 grand last month due to testing things. Sometimes you have to lose in order to gain.

2) Start off with small budgets if you need to, and test accordingly. Set a $100 daily budget let’s say. Test a bunch of things out. Once you have something that works consistently for a few days, it’s time to seriously scale it and make as much money from it as possible.

3) Yahoo is an easier engine to get started with over Google, and generally converts better. So you may find Yahoo initially a little less expensive and more profitable. Don’t forget about MSN as well.
 

How much time each day do you work?

I’m not one to come in this blog and brag about how I make insane money and work 2 hours a week. I am not the beach bum. I spend 8-10 hours/day on the computer for the most part, and usually about 5 hours on the weekends. I’m not to the point where I’m just a hermit, I do go out and workout and whatnot. I’ll also take a couple days off if I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. I absolutely love what I do and look forward to waking up every morning to work. So putting in the hours isn’t a problem. My goal is to have 15-20 million in the bank before I start to take month long vacations and really relax. So should be in the next couple months or so. Kidding.
 

Hey Paul. I’d really like to get to know you, you seem like a really neat guy………………………………….So I’m starting this campaign and bidding $0.50, you think I should direct link it and up my bids, or focus on my landing page?

Don’t IM me with the sole purpose of attempting to suck knowledge out of me. As you’ve noticed I won’t respond.

If you just said congrats or something and I didn’t respond, I was probably afk and didn’t put an away up. When I come back to 25 new IM windows, I have a tendency to rapid fire X them out.
 

You’re making $200k/month and you drive a Mazda3? Faker.

I bought that car my first decent month when I profited like $15k…that was back in July right after Affiliate Summit. So as you can tell the progress in the past 3-4 months has been pretty crazy. I attribute that to all my friends going away to school and me dropping out. I have allllll day. Anyways, I’m probably going to sell it after the summer and shop for something a little nicer. Give me some suggestions ;).
 

Congrats on your earnings. I hope to be making that much someday, thanks for the motivation!

I appreciate it. That post just goes to show that this kind of money is possible with some hard work, dedication, and capital. Keep throwing money at it (strategically) and you’ll find something.

 

Alright guys, have a Happy Turkey day, don’t eat too much. Food and football, can we ask for anything more?


33 Comments

  1. November 22, 2007

    Thanks Paul for your honesty. When I look at what you are earning and then what you are spending, I imagine that you are in a completely different league from most people who read your blog.

    One of the key points that you continue to emphasise is that you have to be prepared to lose a bit (or a lot) of money to start with. If your budget is $0, that’s tough. Personally I am trying to find alternative income streams (not affiliate marketing, or at least not using PPC) so that I can get to that position before diving in.

  2. November 22, 2007

    funny how people shout for screenshots and then don’t believe what they see. why did they ask for them in the first place?
    anyways, great article! I have given the whole affiliate business a try. Not too seriously though. One reason, why it did not really work out. The other, I think is, that it’s a lot more easy selling stuff to US.Americans than to Germans. No offense. We’re just much more sceptical when it comes to checking quality, price etc…

  3. Alex
    November 22, 2007

    Excellent post! Your candor is greatly appreciated.

    I’m thinking you don’t have employees, but, rather outsource some work correct?

    Have a great Turkey Day too!!!!!!!!

  4. November 22, 2007

    congrats ;)
    Forget about a car, buy a Airbus A 380 ;)

  5. November 22, 2007

    Awesome work still, please ignore the email I sent :)

  6. November 22, 2007

    Hi Paul, I am impressed with your honest word. Very few can do write with this honesty. I wish you would have your super dream car. If you want to change it, I bet, there must be a car in your dream, so stick to it and buy that one.

    Your articles are inspiring. I am running http://www.FameFire.Com since last 5 months. But I could not pay attention to regular post. But honestly “I DID NOT PAY THE ATTENTION”. But after reading your success story and I am going to push me hardest ever to work upon.

    Thanks Paul, for your story publishing on ShoeMoney.Com and your blog.

    Regards

  7. November 22, 2007

    WOW u spent like 100k on your advertising? I wonder how adsense would charge you for that kind of money, i just know that my credit card limit doesn’t even allow me anywhere near 10% of that…

    There are lots of thing to learn from you .. i’ll be digging your blog to learn how to become a super affiliate like u :) Cheers!

  8. Kunal
    November 22, 2007

    Paul, good post buddy.

    I really don’t even know why you blog. Honestly. For the most part, people are receptive to the insider secrets, but when you give them a glipse of “hard work paying off” they get upset that you aren’t telling them the ins.

    I would even go as far as to say, “I’ll shut this down right now if you keep acting like children!”

    Good work.

    Im 25, and while your a young guy specializing in your field, I made my coin in the stock market. Thought I’d give this AM just to pass time while the markets are on autopilot. But you completely are correct – you need to spend money to make money. I spend maybe 30-40k just creating new strategies, and perfecting them before seeing returns.

    It’s the cost of doing business.

    Buy a Benz S550 4matic. I just got mine. However, if i was your age, I would probably have bought a CLS-63 AMG. I’ve progressed into a more chilled out driver rather than the agressive one I used to be.

    Just a slight step up from the Mazda ;)

  9. November 22, 2007

    Hey man no reason to defend yourself. That’s relatively not that much money for the big players in the industry. People who doubt you are joker noobs don’t waste your time defending yourself. Spend your time educating and that will build a strong following or respectful people in the industry you can learn from. Noobs are a fine market if you want to sell ebooks :D

  10. November 22, 2007

    What about photoshop lessons. How much do you charge for those?

  11. Tracy Robinson
    November 22, 2007

    Dude, go to Teslamotors.com and put some of that scratch down on a new Tesla.

  12. November 22, 2007

    the merc clk 63 is pretty hot.

    but i’d recommend u keep ur mazada 3 another year and buy gold, canadian income funds and foreign currencies like swiss francs and australian dollars instead.

    but thats just me.

  13. November 22, 2007

    sorry, i meant mercedes c63 amg

  14. November 22, 2007

    Great response. It’s hilarious to me how as I earn more and more, people come out to rebut it.

    I suppose it’s part of the game. What I find hilarious is that nobody took the photo into photoshop and actually tried to find some sort of tell that it was a fake…. Of course even if they did, they would find none because it was real.

    Anywho, keep up the good work. Although I’m making more than some, I certainly aspire to get to that level soon enough.

  15. November 22, 2007

    You have just inspired me to take more risks in my advertising and marketing efforts by trying different techniques to see what works. Dude you are my idol!

    Forget the car for now. A car doesn’t define success! Bank the money and buy a mansion when you are ready. Then buy a couple of cars!

  16. BlueBobbo
    November 23, 2007

    I think “methodically” would have been a nicer word.

  17. Kyle
    November 23, 2007

    Great work mate, inspiring stuff!

    Just a quick thought – if it does concern you, you could shut up those who doubt you by getting someone from Azoogle (your AM?) to verify the info.

    I think the most impressive thing about this is not how much you’re banking but how quickly you achieved that success. Any tips on scaling your campaigns? Stick with high volume relevant keywords or build very large lists of small-medium volume keywords?

  18. Greg J.
    November 23, 2007

    I drive a 1995 used car, and I could buy a Mercedes today ( cash) if I wanted to. For me a good thing about working at home is I don’t have to worry too much about commuting (a car is a point A to B thing for me, though I understand a lot of people are into them). Also, it has always been my goal to be a millionaire, but no one would be able to tell by looking at me.

    I know multi-millionaires who drive used Fords and I know waitresses who drive Mercedes. I am still surprised whenever anyone really thinks ” You can’t be a millionaire, you dont have a fleet of luxury cars.”

    I don’t live in a mansion, either. I can’t maintain that much space, and I don’t want a staff.

  19. November 23, 2007

    great post! questions answered and motivational

  20. Sam
    November 23, 2007

    I wish you get your dick chopped off when you speak lie next time. lmao

  21. Sam
    November 23, 2007

    You are one of the biggest lair i have came across. But seriously its a wake up call for shoemoney and amit..come on guys lets doctor some more clickbank, Google checks and boast about your earnings =))

  22. November 23, 2007

    Congrats on your success. Two questions:

    1) You’re showing a 40% margin these campaigns. What is your margin goal?

    2) How do you manage cash flow/liquidity when charging $4,000 per day on Adwords?

    Nice blog. I’ve become a regular reader.

  23. November 24, 2007

    Yeah so true, you got to spend money to make money and a sensible budget and realistic expectations is important to bear in mind, great article!

  24. Greg J.
    November 24, 2007

    App-o-Rama guy

    #2 . I can’t speak for UberAffiliate, but When you are doing this kind of business and using AMEX, they will let you runup the balance with no issues, usually. Especially if you have built up a track record of large on-time payments. Also I am sure he is getting paid frequently. Even without AMEX, I have cards with “hard” limits of 6+ figures. Use Rewards cards and pay in full every cycle and it’s not as big a deal as it seems.

  25. November 24, 2007

    Keep up the good work and do not let you discourage by negative comments. Success shuts up all critics.

  26. @App-O-Rama – Another way to do it is to pay off the balance every week. I have a Amex Business that I send a payment from my bank account every week. I pay off the balance with a payment and it usually takes two days to clear. Amex is really easy to work with and like to increase limits to those who pay on time.

    Paul, good work, I don’t doubt the numbers at all.

  27. November 25, 2007

    so did you end up getting many link backs out of this?

  28. Steffen
    November 26, 2007

    Hi Paul,

    every time I read your posts I a more motivated and I thank you for the things you are willing to give away.

    I had some nice results in the past, but my problem to get to those figures seems to be to get enough traffic via AdWords and testing. I now got a nice campaign where I am loosing money every day. So, I now want to optimize my campaign. You said “Test a bunch of things out”, but what do you mean with that? Try different offers, split testing landing page (test whole different pages or just small changes)?

    Would be nice if you could anwer my questions.

  29. November 26, 2007

    “Amex points are key” So with this kind of spending, assume you gots the black card?

  30. November 26, 2007

    Congratulations!!! Wow!!! Thats all I have to say. Oh, and thanks for answering questions.

  31. November 29, 2007

    Thanks for your post.
    What i have to say is that very few of us actually can spend $100 bucks on testing. That’s 30.000$ / month .
    In order to be able to spend that amount of money, you have to make $100.000 monthly which i as i said, it’s not that easy for most of the people here to achieve.
    Getting rich out of the Internet takes time and a lot of patience.

    Keep writing man. My congrats

  32. You should change your Mazda 3 to another car which has 3 in the name… BMW M3. :D That’s a pretty cool car, fast, and sexy.

  33. October 26, 2010

    Very useful site. Great post, have a good day!

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