It’s been a couple more days since I last posted about my first “true” affiliate marketing attempt. While I don’t consider it a total failure (because it did make me profit on 2 of the days), I don’t consider this first attempt successful. I ended up about even in the money because I stopped my ppc campaigns before I lost too much. It was an overall good experience though. I’m sure not many people start successful campaigns on their first try. If I’ve learned anything about affiliate marketing its ‘Test, Test and Test Again!’

After doing some research, I determined my landing page pretty much sucked. Not only that, but I was targeting an audience that really wouldn’t be interested in my offer. My target audience was probably 40-50 year old intelligent men/women, yet I was trying to get them to complete zip submit offers for a $500 gift card? Come on David! What was I thinking?

First of all, if you’re going to try and get people to fill out zip submits for free gift cards and other crap, you need to target a generally dumb audience. Let’s face it, how many of you would fill out a zip submit and actually think you’re going to win the prize? I was targeting old people. They probably think by giving out a zip code someone will steal their identity. Old people are way too cautious.

So I’ve got like $35 left in my YSM account and need to figure out what to do on my next affiliate marketing attempt. I’ve pretty much axed the zip/email submits. I’d like to try something more genuine. I don’t want to say dating/insurance because those markets are sooo freaking saturated, but I’ll definitely look at something paying a bit more the $1.50 per lead. I’m also going to revamp the way I build my landing pages. I’m not a designer, so it’s hard for me to come up with graphic designs that appeal to visitors. Worst comes to Worst, I’ll have to buy a custom landing page for $45 or something.

Well Folks… like I promised everyone, I said I would get into affiliate marketing this year and I’m proud to let you know that I’ve started. I read up a lot on Zac Johnson’s blog and Uber Affiliate, just trying to get some tips and a feel for it. Affiliate marketing is very difficult and scares the crap out of me, because unlike Adsense… you actually have to pay money on a daily basis to make money.

So I set up accounts with Yahoo Search Marketing and Adwords and began setting keywords for an offer I wanted to promote. I kept the keyword bids around 10 cents so I wouldn’t blow my profit margin. And just like all other affiliate marketers out there, I’m not going to share my keywords or landing pages to the public. If you strike gold, you’ve got to keep it a secret.

My first day was was both scary and exhilarating. I spent a total of $10 and made $18 in leads, giving me a daily profit of $8. Not bad for my first day. I decided to try some zip submit offers because it seemed a bit easier to setup and get conversions. The leads pay out $1.50 each.

Day 2, I upped my daily spending limit to $15 and made $28.50 in leads, giving me a daily profit of $13.50. At this point I really felt like I was on to something. I felt like my landing page was good and the keywords I chose were converting. Over the next two days though, that all changed.

Day 3, I kept my spending limit at $15 but it only converted to $19.50 in leads, giving me a daily profit of only $4.50. I felt like maybe this was just a down day. After all it was Saturday and maybe offers don’t convert well on weekends?

Day 4, I kept my spending limit at $15, however I only generated 4 leads for $6, giving me a loss of $9 for the day. Now, I’ve read time and time again that you will lose money while you test offers. But why such a drastic decrease? I didn’t adjust my keywords or my landing page. So why all of a sudden would it not convert?

Day 5 (today), I kept my daily spending limit at $15, but was keeping a very close eye on it. I ended up pausing my campaign this morning because I was already in the negative a few bucks again. Only got 1 lead today for $1.50 and lost about $5. UGHHH. So frustrating.

Being a newb at this, I’m still not sure what the problem is. Maybe the fact that I didn’t tweak my keywords or landing page had something to do with it? Maybe the same people are clicking my ads but since the filled out the lead on Friday, they aren’t doing it again?

You’re supposed to test a lot of factors in affiliate marketing. So I plan on either redesigning my landing page tonight or simply picking a new offer to promote. I’m not giving up though. I LOVE the rush it gave me the other day watching my spending limits and lead conversions. It’s almost like gambling or playing in the stock market. You get that same rush when you’re making money.

I still feel like making money with Adsense, Adbrite, VCM and those other companies just isn’t worth it anymore. I’m sick of seeing 3 cent clicks. Affiliate marketing has the potential to make so much more money. I’ve just got to stick with it.