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I was recently reading a book by Frank Damazio, the Pastor of Portland City Church, I came across a statement that really made sense in the affiliate marketing realm.
He said, "Proven basics come before unproven success ideas."
In affiliate marketing I often talk to people who have some great ideas on how to promote a campaign but are complaining about how they can't find success in affiliate marketing.
They're wanting to try off the wall keywords in hopes of finding more conversions when they can't get the normal keywords to work for them at all.
Get the basic keywords, the proven converters, down and converting before you try expanding into the unknown.
For example if you're promoting dating you'd want to try and get all the dating keywords down and converting before you start going into other areas. Sure you'll probably make a bit lower profit due to the competition but any income is better than none or even worse, losing money.
After you've found how to manage the basic keywords, expand into other keywords such as "Online meetups" and things like that.
It is more than ok to start a campaign out as a basic campaign and expand on it while it's running. I do it all the time.
I think i’m slightly guilty of this. I always feel like I want to skip the AAA team and head straight for the majors.
crazy ideas are great, and can probably be put to use eventually, but you have to crawl before you can run
Great advice.
While its tempting to go after that next, big, untapped niche, a n00b would do well to just get a handle on the fundamentals. Consequently, those who are starting out and suffering from information overload might benefit by just adhering to a few basic principles.
One must learn to dribble before one can dunk.
I think this is very important advice. I like to have the cash flow of a proven base to invest into new ventures.
This expands past affiliate marketing into any field on the web actually, I’ve always said, $5 in the pocket from an ad sale is better than a $20 ad sitting unsold.
Jonathan,
I appreciate that advice (and your candor). It’s interesting you mention that you need to walk before you run. I just posted on my first profit in PPC recently and I had the exact same point to make. I tried jumping in head first and sunk every time. This time, I started with a great tracking program and a small amount of free money coupons from the networks (like you have listed on the bottom right here in your blog). I started 3 accounts and asked the networks not to auto-refill my accounts when they got low. If I lost my money, then fine. Walk away and get another coupon. If I made money, I kept the account and campaign and tried to optimize.
I’m now happy to say I’m a profitable PPC advertiser. I certainly have a long way to go to catch up to the likes of you, but I’m only doing so by way of your (and a few others) blogs. Thank you for the great training and content.
Cheers!
That’s true everywhere: the basics and fundamentals
Build a solid foundation on this and you will do well!
I totally agree with this. as I begin my work on sites I still am trying to remember to stick to the basics for now until I have a proven winner so I can expand upon that with those crazy ideas that I have.
I hear you – I was running a campaign awhile back and trying to “reinvent the wheel”. Needless to say, I wasn’t seeing any results.
Ah I see, so someone should start with the keywords that convert first, like “online dating” and then move into longer tail keywords. Yea that makes sense since a newcomer is so likely to make a profit bidding on a term like “online dating”.
Well it’s like anything in life, start off at the bottom or in this case with the basics and then move on from there…
You first have to crawl before you can think of walking!
One of the most sensible bits of advice I have seen in a long while
Jonathan…. Thanks..
I believe 99% of wanna-be IM-ers fail coz either they try to “reinvent the wheel” or they think Beyond the Box instead of “Out of the Box”. I felt it myself.
Most newbies are suffered from “Paralysis of analysis”. If you too then my strong advice…….Just stop going to all forums, all Black-hat WSOs, all self_proclaimed guru words and all……………..
Jonathan’s Blog is more-more than sufficient. Just that u need guts to understand the way Jonathan wants to tell u things to do. I do not read Jonathan’s word but i just feel what he writes about, why he thinks so, why he does things this way………….And Boom… i learn Quality stuff……..
Jonathan Thanks Again………
Hey Nate, man wishes for ur success.
Regards
Ankur
Guys…… to put Jonathan’s words in perspective i would say in the beginning of any campaign the breadth of the keyword list is more important than the depth.
The simple-proves-keywor-research- Strategy:-
1) In the beginning of a campaign focus on the Broad keyword related to the niche.
2) run the campaign for a while then pause the campaign.
3) Tracking- Count out all the non CTRed or low relatively CTRed Broad Keywords. List all the relatively good CTRed Keywords.
4) These are ur tagets now, Now pick each Keyword and go deep down in it. Likewise for all the selected broad keywords.
Thats how it goes…………. Except Jonathan and a few IMers no IM Guru will even tell u such facts even if u buy their Highly-Priced course ware.
I hope i made things clear….
Regards
Anks