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  • PAYPAL ADMITS… DO NOT USE US FOR NON-PHYSICAL ITEMS!

    Posted on May 6th, 2010 imveritas No comments

    This is a rarity that I post 2x in the same day. I am too busy doing to write.

    I am making an exception, since millions of buyers are trusting PAYPAL and having ‘false-sense’ of security that like their bank or credit card. If there is a problem PAYPAL will be their ‘knight in shining armor’

    COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSH*T!!!

    ———————————————-

    I just got done with a 45minute talk with PAYPAL that was escalated up 3 levels.

    To sum it up and each level at PAYPAL told me this…

    IF YOU GET A NON-PHYSICAL PRODUCT . PAYPAL CAN NOT CONFIRM OR DENY RECEPTION AND THEREFORE CAN NOT… I REPEAT… CAN NOT REFUND A DISPUTE!!!!!

    EVEN IF THE SELLER DOES NOT RESPOND TO YOU OR PAYPAL !!! it will be YOUR LOSS!

    So, any services, course, e-books, hosting… etc. etc. ARE NOT COVERED BY REFUND VIA PAYPAL!

    IF YOU CAN NOT HOLD IT, PUT IT IN A WHEELBARROW OR MOVE IT WITH A CRANE OR CONTAINER SHIP… YOU ARE S.O.S. if you have an issue.

    Stick with AMEX or your Major bank (though they can also NOT back you) if you buy ANYTHING you think you may want a refund on or have an issue with and even then. Contact them ahead of time and ask them their policy on refunds on non-physical items IE: service, ebooks and training.

    PAYPAL IS NOT MEANT FOR DIGITAL PRODUCTS OR SERVICES (these are their own words)

    You have been warned. Have a nice day :)

    IMV

  • Keep a Log or Lose your cash

    Posted on April 5th, 2010 imveritas No comments

    Simple thing, but something I find few do.

    When you start a campaign or offer or ad platform.

    Type the information into excel or some spreadsheet.

    If you have a project management software I highly recommend that. But at least a spreadsheet.

    This way when you go to do your optimization it is very easy to see when you started a offer or maybe made a change and see in your tracking data what the result is.

    The faster and more accurate you can be at finding what works and doesnt. The more money you will make and greater peace of mind.

    And dont you want both ?

    IMV

  • Advertisers and How to work with them

    Posted on April 4th, 2010 imveritas No comments

    Keep in mind. No matter what they say.

    Ad Networks want you to spend money.

    They may say they care about ROI.

    BUT, anyone who has worked on both sides. Knows there is an endless supply of business’s looking for customers.

    You know you are dealing with a typical advertiser when they say “Oh, your campaign isnt converting? Lets add MORE keywords, targets, dollars.”

    When has tossing money after a loser every worked ?

    In the members forum I give specific money management rules to be used when testing, optimizing and scaling. I also point out the different metrics for different ad platforms. Mobile banners convert differently than txtlinks.  Mobile banners also have a different conversion then say Online.

    So, do not let an advertiser tell you to spend more if their network has not shown a conversion on what you know to be converting targets or at least a significant sample of tight targets.

    “Keep your powder dry”

    IMV

  • Money Management & Internet Marketing

    Posted on April 2nd, 2010 imveritas 1 comment

    I have mentioned it before, but it is worth mentioning again.

    I am bringing this up because I was talking to some new ad platforms today that  I am about to run some offers with.

    The matter came around to scaling, my ROI and how large of a campaign did I run.

    From that we talked about other affiliates and how so many had short careers and how their handling of testing budgets had alot to do with their short career.

    It was very interesting to hear a number of ad networks tell me what I have mentioned before.

    To many people blow their money with out planning what is resonable testing investment.

    Forgetting that if you lose 50% of your money. It takes 100% profit just to get back to break even and then most offers run only a short time.

    The ad networks agreed you have to budget for testing, recovery and then profit.

    If you are really wise.

    You also plan for research.

    Few offers stay profitable forever.

    Talked about it before and it was interesting to hear ad networks bring this up in our discussions today.

    IMV

  • The #1 Reason people fail in Internet Marketing

    Posted on March 27th, 2010 imveritas No comments

    Touchy subject and it is something that I need to address, again.

    I realized this morning while reading over more emails on some system or blueprint that someone has made to make money off those who dont know how to. A fundamental flaw that gets just about everyone.

    In trading  it is called, “Keeping your powder dry”

    This is part of the “not-mentioning-how-much-money-you-need-for-testing” that I find most leave out of all their materials or just gloss over.

    The problem is that if you look closely and map out many of the programs and courses out there. They are assuming unlimited capital or do not talk about the “drawdown” and “recoup” phases of Marketing.

    That is INSANE !!!

    In business and any decent start-up you map out estimated costs and time frames for break-even and hopefully profit.

    But, from what I am seeing are the same generalities of, “Just go test x amount and once you test enough you will make money” or even worse, ” Just follow my system and you will make money!”

    Thats not real!

    When you invest wisely or even gamble (and this is more of a gamble) You determine:

    How much you have, how much you are willing to risk, how much you will scale if you win, when you will walk away if you are losing and when to walk away when you still have enough to come back and play again.

    None of this risk management, money management, business planning & financial management and just plan common sense do I see being mentioned in 99% of the  free and paid course out there in detail that will actually save a persdon from their own financial self-destuction and if they do they gloss over it.

    This is not rolling the dice with unlimited capital and I am afraid many people “elling the dream” are ignoring this piece or just dont think about it and it is very important.

    You need to be realistic about what you are spending, how much you are willing to lose and what really are the ratio’s of return. I almost always go off of standard direct marketing statistics and love it when the results are better then expected and learn from it when worse.

    .1%-3% are great base numbers for everything from CTR to CONV. If you cant get those at least. WTF ? and most would want a much higher CTR and CONV.

    For impressions .1%-.3%. If one in thousand are not buying. I hope you have a really low cost media buying campaign. Otherwise you are bleeding cash.

    I always look for higher numbers. But, if you cant get these at least. You got to stop and look.  Granted you need enough samples for measurement that means anything and again you need to figure the cost of that into you overall money management plan or you are flying blind and hoping on a dream and a pray.

    And as J.F.K. said…

    “HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY! WE NEED STRATEGIES THAT WORK NOT WISHFUL THINKING THAT MAKES US FEEL GOOD”

    Good Day,

    IMV

  • Making a killing in CPV/PPV Impression Marketing

    Posted on March 24th, 2010 imveritas 7 comments

    Well, I am sure by now if you are checking out the forums and your email that you are getting bombarded by CPV/PPV courses and forums.

    Yes, you can make money in it. I have moved almost all my traffic to CPV after the great GOOGLE ban. I still have my GOOGLE account. I just don’t like there QS and its lack of reason. Anyone else notice the big three suck for searches in the last 3 months? You know it’s bad when BING! is better at finding what you want then GOOGLE, but its still not all the goodness I saw a year ago. But, that’s another point. Back to CPV.

    CPV or PPV as Gauher Chaundry has coined is popping your message either on top of or behind the website that is being viewed. It is legitimate marketing in that the user has opted-in to the advertising by way of accepting the terms of software. Could be a gaming toolbar or a FLV viewer.

    All well and good. Its not the malware, spyware crap that once installed (usually without your notice) you have to nuke your computer to get rid of. All legit CPV ware I have tried. Easily un-installed and left no traces. Still, always test on a ‘sandbox’ computer and one preferably NOT on your home LAN (just in case it’s a trojan or worm you try.)

    So, what’s the down side?

    Again, it’s with the gurus and the chumps that make money off others. Everyone is sending up the rally cry to get on CPV. (and next will be mobile, then billboards and finally grannies forehead)

    The results? Bid’s that 6mnths ago were reasonable for a target. Have sky rocketed. As more and more people come out with scrappers and courses. More people are jumping on and like most things. There is a finite supply.  So, you see what happens in all supply and demand situations. Demand goes up more than supply. Prices increase. Basic econ.

    Now, I checked with the top CPV companies and got their numbers for subscribers and increase rate. All of them are madly adding new viewers.

    BUT, here is the question? Are there more people watching then selling?

    It’s hard to tell because you can have 10 people or you can have 1 person with the capital of 10 people. You will see the number of members (usually it’s your aff-id) but you have no idea how much the others ones are spending and what their reserves are. IE: I could be losing on CPV on one place making money in another, bid high to bankrupt the competition (still losing money) and then once the competition is out. Use my cash from the other income to now go into CPV and own a place. Until someone with more buck and income streams deems my position worth it and a super -affiliate bidding war breaks out. (not as much fun as it sounds)

    What I do know is that URL’s and KEYWORDS are being bidded up and no one is doing the math.

    If you have an email submit that pays you $1.75 and your bid per impression is .015 that means for every 116 impressions seen you have to get one submit. Now, one in 100 is avg for PPC marketing conversions. But, 1 in 116? That is NOT a normal conversion for impression marketing. The classic number is .01 or 1 in 1000. OK, so that part is not being mentioned.

    Now the testing.

    If I pick 10 targets (not a large number) and I run then campaign at 2x-3x spending. That means I will (in worse case) spend $52.50 to test. That doesn’t sound that bad. Except now you have to have 30 conversions to break even. Which means you shut off all non-performers and let the cash reserves fill-up. THEN, you get to profit. That is unless the offer has ceased (which happens more than you would like to know. I will have stats for that in a later post)

    To make it worse. Many have the mentality of bid 1st position. That might be OK if you want to check out conversions on an offer. BUT be careful, if the test if impressions cost $0.30 on a $4.00 payout (I have seen that on dating) and you are direct linking. How are you going to optimize that and be profitable? You would have to have a ‘sale’ every 13th view!!! NOT LIKELY!!!!

    Starting to see what is being left out of your marketing material and maybe that course or forum you joined?

    It’s called risk management, money management and understanding ROI & ROT. Something people selling you stuff don’t want you to know or calculate. Because ANYONE can get rich on the internet!!! Uh Huh… rightttt.

    The first thing to ask you is WHY? If this is so great WHY? are the selling me this? TO MAKE MONEY!!!

    Mother Theresa is dead and outside of earthquake relief. Business is about making money NOT charity. If they really wanted to help you the would post their info for free (like I am for now) because they make enough money in other ways. The truth is YOU ARE THEIR INCOME!!! and they will tell you what every “psycho-feel good-fear of loss-scarcity-social outcast-I’m just like you” CRAP to suck you in.

    Listen, I come from the trading world. If you have a trading method that makes bank. You don’t give it away or sell it. You get people in as investors, trade their money with your system and charge them AND YOU NEVER EVER EVER REVEAL HOW YOU DO IT or WHAT YOU DO ? Why? Because anyone who has created successful income streams know that processes that spit out money consistently with very little effort are very very very rare. Just look at the banking and investment industry. You don’t think they would not be in this knee deep if they thought they could make 300% ROI ? Well, they are its called branded banners. They just aren’t wasting their time with “get rich quick courses” too much hassle in the long run. But, Netflix subscriptions!!! No hassle with that.

    People do make money on the internet AND it is tough work. For every youtube or waitress that now makes 7 figures off berries there are 1000′s that never get a peep and die a silent death. Though, someone made money off them in the process.

    The last step is what all the gurus promote about.  The ‘you can get rich…fast…easy’

    The 1st two steps ” Spend money, make spent money back.”

    Seems to be left out of the marketing material AND its REAL!!!

    Now, are all campaigns this ‘gloom n doom’?

    NO! AND you need to be real about how much time, money and talent it takes to make money online.

    Too many people are being told the ‘glory’ and what they need is the ‘guts’ knowing the ‘glory’ will come after sacrifice.

    “If it was easy to do. Everyone would be doing it”

    OK, so what’s the solution?

    DONT BE DESPERATE and HAVE SOME COMMON SENSE!!!

    If you are broke, out of work and you don’t have to dimes to scratch. LEAVE THIS SITE NOW!!!

    And go get some  REAL assistance and alot of it since each one give’s only a little. Once you are back on your feet. Spend some time methodically researching and doing. Every time I hear someone say, ” I don’t have money, I lost my job, etc.etc. IM GOING TO MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET!!!” I want to smack them awake before they hurt them self.

    The rest of you. You better have time and money you can afford to lose or you are deluding yourself and the ‘sheeple’ marketers have your number.

    I will never say like some people “never buy a course”

    I will, also, never say “just do and test and ignore the rest”

    Those are the 2 mindsets I hear and empirically disagree with.

    What I do encourage. Is to look at IM the same long term rational way you are supposed to look at business planning, life planning, family planning and anything else that takes years to do and has results along the way, as well as, challenges and be real.

    I’m not going to bash this guru or that. I have already been in those sh*t fights and you can’t win against someone with more zombies and bucks then you. (amazing how when something doesn’t work and people have paid for it, people will still ‘pray’ to it acting likes the 2nd coming)

    What I will do. Is keep poking at the ?’s to ask and the facts to demand and when your gut says “this is crap” follow it. I have been wrong at times listening to mine, but the numbers of times I have been right in following my gut has been 1:100+.

    Until next time. Avoid spending $50 to make $1.75 or $500 to make $10. Use the same common sense you do with your checkbook and if you don’t have any.  Go back to TV and the PBS channel (when they are not fund raising). Since, anything else will just suck the last cash out of your wallet and leave you bitter and broke ( I don’t want that for anyone)

    and YES ! I am making money in CPV. I also spent ALOT to get there and most of what I learned was not in a course (though I took many) it was in the field and some good people I have met.  A little knowledge and lots of experience will get you far in life :)

    IMV