learn marketing skills cpa traffic

Learn Marketing Skills

A Digital Product with a Tangible Response

Agenda

• You’ll learn how to get accepted into CPA networks the right way regardless of your geography.

• I’ll show you the proper day to day tasks you should be doing. Too many people don’t have a plan to their day, I’ll give you a guideline of what successful marketers do to actually treat this like a business and not a hobby.

• I’ll let you know the right relationships to have and how they can grow your business very quickly.

• You’ll learn about 9 key habits that myself and most highly successful marketers/affiliates do regularly to stay ahead of the game.

• I’ll let you know the right relationships to have and how they can grow your business very quickly.

Agenda

• Most of today’s content is more applicable to affiliates than merchants or product owners, but there’s something for everyone.

• - Getting into a good routine can make or break you, so I wanted to add this module in to see what it really takes!

CPA NetworkAcceptance

CPA Network Acceptance

This is one of the most common things I get asked by newcomers to CPA. It seems this is a really big issue.

to get all to accept me very quickly on the phone.

But understand, CPA networks being strict is a GOOD thing!


Fraud is an ongoing source of trouble for CPA networks. It can feel like you’re applying for some secret society with some networks, and for good reason. Fraudsters, heavy black hat pushers, etc. can cost CPA networks and advertisers/ merchants thousands of dollars!


Don’t be so selfish! Understand that you are not justgenerating random leads or sales for an unknown machine. Iknow that’s what it seems like. People that come into CPAthink “wow! I just need to get someone to fill out a form andI get $10? Amazing!”

Understand there is a backend process in place, and even if itdoesn’t affect you at first if you send poor quality leads, iteventually will in the form of you being pulled off the offer.


Before getting into the actual CPA Network Acceptance process, I’ll let you know some examples of “bad leads”...


Before getting into the actual CPA Network Acceptance process, I’ll let you know some examples of “bad leads”...

1) Incentive Leads (unless allowed)

2) Reg-Path Leads (unless allowed)

3) Purchased Leads

4) Filling in Your Own Leads

CPA Network Sign Up Process

When you go to a CPA network to apply, there are a few key questions you’re going to need to answer:

1) Do you have any previous affiliate marketing experience?When I started out, I didn’t have any really. Nothing of note.When I tried the honest approach with networks, it didn’twork. So, I began to tell them I had 4 years experience.Do I recommend you do that? Well that’s up to your comfortlevel. Networks seem more lenient now with beginners andaccepting them.



2) What are your promotional methods?

I like to say PPC, private banners on sites & blogs, and articles. Do not say e-mail. CPA networks are weary of unknown mailers that can’t verify their lists. Lot’s of laws around this.


When you go to a CPA network to apply, there are a few keyquestions you’re going to need to answer:3) How many uniques per month does your site get?

First off it’s good to have a basic blog or site in one of the major CPA verticals (health, diet, debt, dating, credit) before applying to CPA networks. “Alex” (that’s his screen name) on the Warrior Forum builds these types of blogs with content for very cheap. Lot’s of developers around to do this sort of thing.

You will want to have you own domain for this, and you can host it on cheap hosting like HostGator or BlueHost.

Ideally, you’ll be able to state that your site gets 5-6 thousanduniques per month :)


When you go to a CPA network to apply, there are a few keyquestions you’re going to need to answer:4) What’s your advertising budget?

The CPA networks like to see a decent sized budget and they’dlike to hear a minimum of $200/day. Remember, just becauseyou say that’s your budget doesn’t mean you need to spend it.

You must always look at your ROI, and the networks understand that.



5) Are you incentivizing your traffic?

Incentivizing means you’re giving people a reason other than the offer itself to fill it out. So, you could be offering cash back, access to a video or download, etc. Do NOT do this unless the offer is allowed to be incentivized. I recommend you not stating you’re doing this.


A lot of the applications will ask if you currently work with other networks, and to state which ones. I highly recommend you don’t lie on this, as it’s a tight knit community and you can very well get caught.


If you get denied from the network it’s not a big deal really. Often times 1 little thing can get you denied.

The best thing to do then is to PICK UP THE PHONE andspeak with someone immediately after getting denied.

In fact, I HIGHLY recommend you call after submitting anapplication instead of waiting to get approved or denied. Thisshows initiative, and can help speed up the process a greatdeal.


CPA Networks aren’t big scary places that people make themout to be. They want quality affiliates that understand thegame and aren’t going to send them poor traffic or usesketchy black hat methods.

If you’re doing CPA marketing, your relationship with youraffiliate manager and your network is extremely important. Itcan literally mean the difference between long term successand not. I’ll talk more on that later.

Day to Day Tasksand Key Habits

Day to Day Tasks

It seems like a lot of people just starting out simply don’tknow how to organize their day to do all the tasks needed tosucceed online.

It can seem like there is a lot to do, and never enough time todo it.

In my opinion this happens because people aren’t reallyidentifying their goals, their market, and they aren’t beginningwith the end in mind. They don’t have a “project”. They reallyaren’t working on a business.What they do have is emotional baggage and bills to pay.

Day to Day Tasks

I get tons of e-mails from people saying “I need to startmaking $x,xxx/mth as fast as possible!!!”

No one starts a business like this. Not a successful businessanyway. A successful business identifies markets and marketdemand, then finds ways to serve that market with what theyalready want. Why reinvent the wheel?

Yes, if you have thousands of dollars in bills to pay, and a family depending on you, or whatever your situation, it can put you in a desperation mode.

Day to Day Tasks

I can relate to this as I have been there. And I got amazingresults because that type of pressure can light a fire underyou!

But that’s not real and lasting success. Success comes withserving a market, learning from your mistakes, and scaling. Itcomes from taking the right risks even when your back isn’tagainst the wall.

Day to Day Tasks

First, here are the tasks that, when not kept to a minimum,will ruin your chances of success:

1) Scouring forums always looking for the “missing secret”2) Checking e-mail repeatedly for no reason3) Constantly checking affiliate stats4) Reading e-books and listening to “expert” interviews5) Buying product after product, especially when you’re notimplementing any of it!6) Half-finishing projects then moving onto something “fancy”7) Idle chat, instant messaging with no clear objective, andtexting randomly. Chit-chat in general.8) Making constant to-do lists that never get done. Basically,always “getting ready to get ready”.

Day to Day Tasks

Pretty much all these keep you from doing one thing.... IMPLEMENTATION!

Basically a fancy way of saying getting stuff done and launching campaigns.

Being “busy” isn’t the same as being in “business”.

Day to Day Tasks

I’ve mentioned this before, but this is exactly what I did when starting out that got me into 4 figure days fairly quick:

1) Checking e-mail only 2-3 times a day2) Keeping instant messaging programs on away or invisible3) Launching 5-10 campaigns a day. 5 campaigns could be the same ads/landers/offers

but in 5 different countries, or on 5 different ad platforms for example.4) Learning by actually buying traffic and testing, not buying more and more courses

(you have the best one now anyway).5) Focusing on my strengths and on the small successes.

Analyzing them and seeing why they worked, then doing more of that! Success leaves clues, as they say.

Many have heard me say I launched more than 120 campaigns on Google before having any big success. Not glamorous. Constant implementation.

Day to Day Tasks

My typical day would look like this (this can change slightly depending on projects going on)• Wake up at 9 am and eat breakfast (I like eggs, fruit or veggies, nothing heavy)• Launch campaigns from previous evening in various countries• Check Spy View in prosper202 to make sure traffic is running. (When I began doing media buys, much of my time in

prosper202 was replaced by time in my ad server)• Check stats such as traffic and income on my CPA network side, track ROI for ads/landers• Check with affiliate manager to make sure offers aren’t in danger of being pulled, any new offers to test in my

vertical/market, any insight on traffic sources• Check conversion/CTR data for ads and landing pages from previous days. Split test new variations of successful ads.• Make/Eat lunch• Check e-mail (around 1 pm)• Check list and new subscriber data• Research potential new target groups of people for my markets (for whichever vertical I’mpromoting)• Find wide relevant keywords and high affinity sites for these new target groups of people• Eat small dinner, take a break then go training (mma, boxing, lifting, whatever)• Setup landing pages and tracking to test campaign on keyword/self serve engine todetermine viability for this new target group of people• Check e-mail (around 8 pm)• Un-wind for the evening, typically in bed by 11 pm - midnight.• next morning I will launch the campaign unless it’s a Friday (prefer Mon-Wed launch)

Key Habits

Key Habits

1) Re-investing your money wiselyWhen I first started out, my affiliate manager at C2M told methat if I continued to invest in myself I would continue togrow. This was very smart advice.

If you’re buying traffic, cash flow is one of your biggestchallenges when you start spending a lot. Blowing your moneyon unnecessary toys and outside of your strong channels isn’tsmart. The 80/20 rule seems to apply here as well. Themajority of your results and traffic are going to come from aminority of all the testing you’re doing.

Key Habits

1) Re-investing your money wiselyIt’s your job to identify the channels, sites, keywords, adgroups, and traffic sources giving your best/most returns, andto reinvest your time and money there to scale.

Once you start making good money, that’s not the time tobuy the next course, or a new laptop when your existing oneis working just fine, or going on a vacation. Your companiesmoney isn’t your money, remember that.

You should be re-investing in marketing, outsourcing to workfaster and more effectively, and software ONLY if needed.

Key Habits

1) Re-investing your money wisely

Now I’m not saying educating yourself isn’t important, butunderstand there is only so much new stuff to learn. Themajority of your day should be spent on driving traffic,building lists where you can, and testing/presenting your offeror affiliate offers in a better way.

Enjoy your money, sure, but do you really need that new caror new house just yet?

Key Habits

2) Try to Focus on 1-2 verticals/markets, and 1-2 channels

You’ve heard me say this before, but the best of the bestusually focus on 1-2 target groups of people, and find ways toserve them well.

Also, they are typically masters of 1-2 traffic channels insteadof spreading themselves thin. There are exceptions to theserules but the majority of other successful marketers I’vespoken with share these characteristics.

Be a sniper rifle, not a shot gun.

Key Habits

3) Building ListsSo much has been said about this so I don’t want to berepetitive. It requires patience to build lists and not just go forthe kill. Keep in mind, you have a better chance of selling tosomeone if you can get them to commit to an opt-in or somekind of action on your site.

You have more opportunities to market to them, and with avariety of services/offers if you want.

You don’t have to use “squeeze pages” if you don’t want, butadding a floating opt-in can give you some residual leads.

Key Habits

4) Focus more on your own “stuff”

Doing too much competitive intelligence, spying, whatever, will take you away from what you need to be doing, and that’s implementation.

Worrying about what others are doing or saying on forums,blogs, whatever else is a waste of time.

Learn by doing, focus on your market, listen to your marketsgripes and concerns, and act fast to address those.

Key Habits

5) Try to move towards traffic sources that require lessBabysitting

In the very first video I ever released, I talked about how I liketo scale everything to media buys if possible. And now, I’mworking on moving to CPA based buys where it seems smartfor my own products/offers.

Daily management of keywords and ad groups, dealing withtraffic sources that make up weird rules randomly, this all canbe a drain on time and energy. I’ve always been a fan of directto site buying, and with small direct to site buys, the entiresetup process can be more or less outsourced for cheap.

Key Habits

5) Try to move towards traffic sources that require lessBabysitting

With a lot of direct to site stuff, the volume is still there, butit’s more manageable and transparent, and the human elementhelps a lot especially if you’re a merchant with a highconverting product. You have a lot more leverage to play withhere.

At the end of the day, unless you’re a merchant spending a lotof money, basing your entire business on Google or Facebookisn’t the wisest move. YES, they are great testing platforms,and YES they have amazing volume.

Key Habits

5) Try to move towards traffic sources that require less Babysitting

But once you have your numbers in place as to what’s working or not, it can be wise to start looking to another platform as your bread and butter.

Key Habits

6) Get rid of negative influences in your life

This is more a lifestyle thing but it’s extremely important. It’svery difficult to work with a clear mind amongst thechallenges that running an online business can present, whenyou have negative people bombarding you with their issuesdaily.

I speak from experience on this. It can be draining. Associatingwith people that complain constantly about their moneyproblems, health problems, dog problems, or whatever, caneventually drag you down with them.

Key Habits

6) Get rid of negative influences in your life

Making money online, with paid traffic especially, can be challenging and requires you to take intelligent risks. The last thing you need is someone telling you you’re going to screw up, or to get a real job, or whatever their daily hang up is.

Key Habits

7) Say “No” more often

I still need to work on this. Once you start getting successful,or people realize you do have legit skills, they’ll be asking forhelp or to get involved in their projects.

Unless this is something that will directly benefit your cashflow and business, say “No”. You don’t need to make all themoney in the world, and you don’t need to get involved inevery project thrown at you.

Focus on YOUR market, YOUR lists, and YOUR traffic. Soundsgreedy and selfish I know... but it’s not.

Key Habits

8) Deal in the bigger verticals

OK, I’ve said this before, and some still attack me for it. Myselfand other successful affiliates/marketers always deal in the bigniches. Health, Money, Relationships. Everyone wants to beyoung, skinny, rich, and popular. The thing here is, even a smallsliver of one of these massive verticals can make you a LOTof money.

Now, that doesn’t mean you just take on “weight loss” or “fitness”. There is “fitness for rugby players”, or “weight lossfor hispanic women”. Or what about all the different types ofdiets? What is the real end result people want from them?Same goes for the make money niche.

Key Habits

8) Deal in the bigger verticalsThe fact is, you’re still targeting the make money niche if youpresent your offer in a way that shows chiropractors howthey can make more money with their practice. The end gamestill applies.

Yes, there are some sites like the infamous ParrotSecrets.comthat has done extremely well in the Parrot and Parakeetniche, but even that is in the massive Pet vertical.

There’s a reason CPA offers are all in these massive verticals.If you’re an affiliate, it’s up to you to splinter these marketsinto more manageable segments and present your offerappropriately.

Key Habits

8) Deal in the bigger verticals

At the end of the day, if no one wants it, no one wants it.Billions of dollars get spent in the big verticals, and there areso many ways you can present the offers here, you couldnever hit everyone if you tried.

A great way is to do a simple lead gen to capture an email inyour market segment, then mail them relevant offersafterwards. Basically, give the segment what they want, thenyou show them what they need. You don’t insist to them theyneed something from the get go.

Key Habits

9) Get comfortable outsourcingIt’s not cool to work 16 hours a day. Especially if you work onyour own. I’ve done it. If you are actually working andimplementing this much, hopefully you’re making somemoney and chances are there are some tasks you can unloadon others.

Your mind and time should be free’d up for strategy, offerpresentation, and marketing prowess. Try to unload the gruntwork to others.

Keep in mind, you will need to either write copy or have agood copy writer for ads and landers. I recommend gettinggood at writing copy even if to just identify what good copy is.

RelationshipManagement

Relationship Management

This will be a short section, but an important one. Whether you’re an affiliate or product owner, there are a few key relationships to have that can help.



• Your affiliate manager

• Traffic Reps

• Direct to Site Reps

• Designers/Coders if outsourcing

• Other affiliates



• Your affiliate manager


Your Expectations Their Expectations

Understands offer demographics You won’t whine and complain when anoffer doesn’t convert

Understands marketing and conversiontactics

You will test and implement theirrecommendations

Will give me things to test (ad styles,landing page styles, offers to rotate)

You will be open to test a LOT

Let’s me know when they know if anoffer is going down so I can rotate others

You will have some loyalty

Traffic source suggestions (bonus) You will keep offer payouts and internaldeals confidential from other networks andaffiliates

Sample landing pages (bonus) You will actually drive traffic



• Traffic Reps

• A rep at a traffic network can make or break you. If you can get a rep at the network you’re dealing with, make sure he/she is very knowledgeable about direct response and understands your goals (refer to the Network Buying vid for specifics)

• A good rep knows which categories/sub categories on a site, work best for which type of offers typically. This is similar to how a good list broker can point you towards strong segments for certain offers

• Typically you need a good amount of ad spend to get a rep. You can get good reps on networks such as Facebook and Bing/Yahoo if you’re spending the proper amount of dough (several thousand per month)

• Don’t trust them explicitly, hold them accountable. No one cares as much about your money as you

• 9 to 5ers typically

• Go to conventions such as Adtech. Great for networking with traffic reps. Just be chilled, don’t try too hard



• Direct to Site Reps• Direct to site reps won’t typically help you with optimization or

anything like that• They are your point of contact to the trafficker for starting and

stopping traffic when doing a traditional buy• Expect them not to do much other than get traffic started and

stopped.• Feel free to try and negotiate with small to medium sized sites to

work on a CPA basis, so paying only a commission.• Again, 9 to 5ers



• Designers/Coders if outsourcing• I prefer Elance and oDesk• For content related work I go with either native English speakers or those from the

Philippines• For coding, flash, and technical work, I get great results for cheap from those in the

Ukraine• Very clearly define the scope and delivery schedule. As much information as possible

about not only what you expect during the process, but also the end result expected.

• Positioning and presenting your project as a company looking for an employee and not just a one off deal will get you better results. You’re in charge, you’re not begging for help. Don’t be afraid to interview someone fiercely.

• Look for very requirement specific and experience laden replies to your posts. Many providers will just send out a blanket message. You want someone that won’t waste your time this way and ideally isn’t juggling tons of work.



• Designers/Coders if outsourcing• Don’t choose the cheapest just because they’re cheap, or the most expensivethinking they must be good. You want to look for lot’s of positive feedback andproject experience, specifically with projects related to yours.• With new providers, test the waters first, don’t give them a make or break project. Itcan be tough to find a consistent go-to guy/girl. When you find one that is THAT goodand you have the work load, consider hiring them part time or full time as a virtualassistant of sorts.• Get written consent of ownership upfront if possible. This is very important.• Keep all communication documented and on site.• Don’t pay up front. Pay for deliverables. For most projects, pay for full deliverablesand any modifications needed.



• Other affiliates• Don’t be so afraid to share ideas. A lot of great can come out of this. There is a lot of

money to go around.• Don’t expect to just take in this relationship. It’s a “give and take”. If you’re brand

new and want to talk to someone, just begging for info usually isn’t best. Offer to do something for them even (basic grunt stuff they don’t want to do).

• Use instant messengers wisely. You don’t need to disappear and be offline all the time. Sometimes having your door open can help, but this must be disciplined!

• If you go to seminars like Affiliate Summit and AdTech, often times the networking and “partying” is where you’ll learn most and make your best connections. Not from the educational sessions.

• You can learn a lot from other affiliates/marketers, but stay focused and real. Just because some tricky technique is working for someone doesn’t mean you go and revamp your whole business to focus on that technique. Always look for principles and not necessarily methods. Principles are few.

Well that’s it guys, I hope you’ve enjoyed this!

Some very important points in this one that can make or break your business. A lot of this stuff

is why most people fail.

You don’t have to be one of those people.

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