January has been crap for me. It’s the worst month I’ve had since about 8 or 9 months ago.
Here are the totals for my January 2011 Affiliate marketing efforts.
Total Spent: $6662.13
Gross Profit: $12,837.00
Net Profit: $6,174.87
ROI: 92.6%
Though I can make the excuse that my niche (financial) tends to crap out in the winter, I’d expected to scale things up to compensate for that. My MSN campaigns have suffered from several slaps and I’ve been trying to adjust my landing pages to keep MSN happy. Just about 7 days ago I implemented a change that has slightly hurt my ROI but has so far kept the slaps away.
I’m getting sick of these slaps and unpredictable volume. I’m getting real interested in moving into other traffic sources.
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I second that notion. MSN ppc should not be your only traffic source. I recommend facebook its super bad when you get it dialed in. What about income from your lists? You’re building a list with your landing page(s) right?
Last month i got hit by the slap on one of my MSN campaigns, that SUCKS!
Hey Andrew!
I only just started building a list. It’s not really producing much yet. Needs some work.
MSN is beginning to think that they are big G. I’ve been running numerous campaigns with them for quite a while. Now, after the merger they’re slap happy.
I’ve noticed more slaps now than in the past. Stuff I could get away with in the past, I can no longer do. So I’m moving more towards a CPV model and away from the search engines. Probably smarter in the long run.
you have to test the limits to know where they are. thanks for sharing you success as well as your failures. I’m about 2 weeks away from kicking off my first ppc campaign ever and am basing almost completely off of the information you provided in your “ultimate min how-to guide to PPC affiliate marketing” so thanks for that also. I know you’re pressed for time and this blog isn’t making you money but I still look forward to more articles like that.. and as you’re my best friend in internet marketing
I’m sure such things are forthcoming. Keep killing is Danger and thanks.
Hi JB,
Thank for your kind words. Watch out. That “ultimate mini guide” is pretty old. Google doesn’t like affiliates and there is a clear possibility that you could get banned from Google. Nowadays it might be appropriate to do some SEO to increase landing page quality prior to running a campaign. I haven’t run Adwords in about a year and a half so my information might be a little soft. Your affiliate links on your landing pages should be cloaked (redirected). Direct linking is unlikely to work with Adwords right now.
If I were you, I’d start with Facebook instead of paid search. The targeting is great and you can run tiny tests to low payout offers. They are getting more strict about compliance but there’s still a lot of room for profit there.
Do you by any chance run 7 search or any smaller engines ?
@zosap no, but I’ve heard some good things about 7 search. I think there are some issues, but that it has great potential.
I jumped out of MSN a few weeks ago for this same issue. I’m doing a lot of work with Facebook and some PPV. I’m specializing in debt solutions and diets.
Send me over your landing pages, I wouldn’t mind checking them out and sending over some advice for you.
Nice blog by the way
That’s a pretty significant income (if you’re working alone), so don’t WW too much.
I have a profitable campaign on AdWords.. and am about getting the max traffic I seem to be able to; due to pricing limits. I thought once that I could duplicate on MSN, but the traffic wasn’t as much and neither were the conversions.
I think it’s great that you found “success” on MSN.
Direct linking on AdWords is fine, as long as the company’s site is decent and the display URL and redirect URL match. They don’t seem to like the sites that I build yet though.. and would probably hate a straight-up landing page.
I will have to follow your blog some more, as I’ve never seen it before, and you seem to be doing pretty good for yourself.
Hi JB2
Nice to hear about your Adwords success. I don’t know anyone direct linking there anymore so I’m happy to hear it’s still working for you!
DB – Are you running multiple accounts with MSN? If so, were all of your account slapped?
Hi Compound
I’ve had similar campaigns in different accounts slapped yes. But my campaigns and especially my landing pages have many similarities.
To further clarify, I’m seeing slaps mostly on campaigns where I’m spending $100+/day.
I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it looks like there is a spending threshold that triggers some extra unwanted attention.
Since November, I’ve had about 10-12 campaigns that gained steam then got slapped after running for at least several days (sometimes months) $100+ per day.
I have several lower volume ($5-$35/day) campaigns that just haven’t been getting slapped. I had considered capping my daily spend at $90 per campaign, but it just goes against everything I want to accomplish and I’m not sure it would work. But my low volume campaigns are sometimes nearly identical to the larger slapped campaigns.
Basically, it is always my most profitable campaign which is getting slapped. It’s very frustrating.
Danger,
If you don’t mind me asking, what is the reason for being slapped? Is it a quality score type issue or are they complaining about the products your promoting?
Matt
Hi Matt,
I think they are starting to not like affiliates. I’m not really certain what it is they aren’t liking though. I’ve been trying a series of changes to my landing pages to try to make them happy. We’ll see.
I hear your frustration bro. You should really start some small testing on other traffic sources. Try advertise.com
I would like to follow up with you today to see if there might be a chance we could discuss using 7Search.com as a great supplement to you current traffic sources. I am also offering a promo to new advertisers. Would love to chat with you more!