Uh, Oh! ECM closes door. Official Email!

Well,

I hate to say it.

I did call this one and then was not sure.

This is definitely sure!

Received this an hour ago.

“Due to current circumstances Elite Clicks Media, LLC. will be closing operations, so effective immediately Elite Clicks Media, LLC. will no longer be running or accepting any affiliate traffic. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any questions please direct your inquires to ecmclosing@gmail.com. Please submit your final invoices, if any, to ecmclosing@gmail.com Please note that final invoices must be submitted by April 30, 2011. Any invoices submitted after April 30, 2011 will not be considered for payment. Best, Managing Members Elite Clicks Media, LLC.”

I know this will not be the last one this year.

Affiliates should now examine their networks and offers like you would a speculative stock!

I have much more to say on this and other topics.

‘Caveat Emptor’

TRUST NO ONE!

IMV

The End of an Era: Yahoo and Bing! Merge

Tonight is not only the end of the 3rd quarter and the End of September 2010.

It is also the end of Yahoo and Microsoft Adcenter (Bing!) being two separate ad platforms.

If you have NOT already backed up your last 6 months of data I would advise doing that before Midnight PST. (Yahoo ONLY keeps your data for 6 months. If, you did not know.)

It’s like 2000.

Will the system crash (will your ads transfer over?)

Already,  from what I have seen its a slight nightmare.

Campaigns that were sleeply living. But, producing over at Yahoo! are now exposed to the light of Microsoft review teams. Now its turning the clock back to the beginning of 2009 and in some cases 2008.

If, you had an account banned at Bing!.  You maybe in for a rude surprise when the merger occurs.

Just like some ex-Google customers when Google ‘absorbed’ Ad-Mob.

That once active account is now in-active!

Some are saying click costs will go up 62%.

I have not seen that yet.

I have over 2 years of data on both Yahoo! and Bing! in several verticals and will be intersting to see what works, what converts and what is even allowed now.

Whatever I find I’ll will happily or un-happily report back.

Good Luck in this new terrain.

And remember…

Trust No One!

IMV

Smart Phones + Credit Cards for the USA

Just out !

80% of 18-34yr olds would make purchases on their smart phones with a credit card !!!

(source:bloomberg)

This is huge !!!

Now that credit cards are going to marry easily with phones in the US like they are in ASIA.

The new rush will be on.

Do NOT believe the gurus !

Read the industry journals since this is a highly regulated industry (They learned from fax and email advertising mess and you DO NOT want to piss them off!!!)

Here is the guidebook from the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association)

Know the rules before you charge in and get worse than Google-slapped

IMV

How Face Book Ads work.

“Face Book is the NEW Google.”

“People made a killing on Google. FB should be just easy.”

Have you heard that ?

Well its not exactly the whole story.

Yes, people are making thousands (who have that to start with.)

There is an initial drain you will have to go through before you make money.

Here is how it works:

If, you get an ad approved (BIG IF) AND you pay a high enough CPC (some of them are scary $1.50 for ages 21-25 male single keyword ‘scrabble’ ???!!!)

You will get impressions/traffic.

Now,  here is where it gets tricky…

If, you do not have a high enough CTR on your ad. You ad will get less traffic and soon none at all. (looks like collapsing sine waves on the graph. Each peak lower than the last)

You, also, have to have a high enough CTR over time to have your bids lowered.

So, you have to spend money to find ads with high CTR and then hope the offer stays around long enough to get your CPC cost to a + ROI.

That is almost as perverse as Googles Ad Quality Score, but at least you know what you have to do here.

Oh, and one more thing that no one tells you.

People can rate your ads.

Those little “thumbs” and “x” you see next to an ad.

People can select those and if you get enough ‘x’s

1. Your ad cost goes up

2. You get less impressions

3. Your ad gets banned

4. You lose your account

5. Banned for life

(these are the levels of ‘threat’ FB can enforce)

So, keep that in mind.

Yes, FB ads DO work AND you have to put more into them then they say in time and money (you need hundreds of ads to find the ones that work as far as images and ad copy too.)

Making a killing in CPV/PPV Impression Marketing

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

Can you make money online ?

Can you make money online ? That is probably the #1 question that brought you here or you had originally when you started internet marketing or researching it.

The answer is yes and no. Yes, because people DO make money on the internet some $ some $$$,$$$,$$$, but most who try wont for a number of reasons.

1st it take’s money to make money and time is money. If you are not spending it here you could be spending it on a job or a skill development. So, when someone says it only takes time. Well, that IS money in one way or another.

For the most part the people that say its easy are making money ‘selling shovels to miners’ and alot of those shovels are junk or not even a shovel.

I’m too smart to start bad-mouthing anyone directly, especially since online marketing is very ‘interconnected’. What I will do is post questions and verifiable information and let people form their own educated opinions when it comes to people and products.

It’s funny that if people applied the same guidelines to buying a house or life insurance as they do buying thousand dollar information products there would be less ‘scams’ that are done to newbies.

Keep in mind. There are 2 markets in force here. Those that are making money off of the general public and other business’s and those making money off you.  Know who is who.

2ndly refering back to the “takes money to make money” aspect of IM. This is the topic I find most people ‘skate’ around. Why? well if I sell you a course that is $1997 and then you have to have $5,000 to $10,000 in traffic tests to find what works. I am not going to have many customers. But, If I say, “Buy this course. I made thousands, you will make thousands and all it takes it 2hrs a night” I will sell many, many courses. Yes, I will have some refunds. But, as anyone in marketing knows. Unless, something is truly hideous and I mean truly. The amount of profit made vs. the amount in refunds is negotiable. Most people who sell self-help books know that 90% of the people who buy their books. Will not read past the 1st chapter.

Now, does that mean all course and ‘gurus’ are ripping off the public ? No, I know some say that all are. It depends. Are you totally new? Yes, there is tons of free info on the internet AND sometimes a nugget in a course or forum can be worth  and money pay the time you save. You can spend it on testing or buying someone else’s test (what most course’s really are when you boil it down.) Either way, it comes down to which ultimately saves you time and makes you the most money.

3rd and STILL talking about money. Lets talk about testing capital. I find most are sorely lacking in this category and I have seen many lose out because of this. You need to have enough capital to test AND lose AND then come back again. This is alot like  trading stocks or commodities, BUT worse. When you find a pattern in those. You can duplicate. But, what do you do when you find a winning offer and before you have made back the intial testing and optimization investment. That offer or even worse. Niche or traffic source are gone !?

No one talks about that. At least not until recently. When I got started it was “focus on one thing and scale it up.” I, also, saw huge affiliate’s lose vast amounts of income when an offer or traffic source was taken away. Recently I have  started hearing others speaking about diversify. Something I did from the start. Its challenging to test multiple offers on multiple traffic sources and yet it is necessary with how internet marketing has changed in the last two years and will continue to.

Inside of that is still the cost. Lets get real. If you test 10 offers with 100 keywords on 3 traffic sources with your clicks costing you $0.35 and each keyword is tested for 100 clicks for conversion you will need $105,000.00 to test in a worse case scenario. WHAT !!!! no one EVER TALKS ABOUT THAT!!!!! My math MUST be wrong. Well, its is and it is not. You may get some sales so its not a total negative and few people test to this extreme. But, it is the ugly truth (oh there are other ugly ones… we will get to them too.) Now, you will find stories of people that didn’t lost that much money and made good money and still do. Still, if you look at the IRS records for taxable income the groups that claim business income that have the worst income to expense ratio in no particular order are: Gamblers, MLM’rs, Internet Marketers and Day Traders.  When I got into PPC IM I met 3 types of people. Those who had lucked out and made money right away (Very few & were looking for the next one before the current one dried up), Those that were getting a trickle to come in, and those who were ‘burning’ through time and money ‘hoping’ to find something that worked before they ran out of cash or credit. Sadly, to say few did.

Lets look at CPV traffic since its cheaper and its the rave right now:

10 offers

$.01 an impression

1000 impressions per target

100 targets

=$1,110.01

and if your payout is $1.75.

It will take 635 sales to just break even. That is NOT even profiting.

Again, as with any business. You have to spend and test, then optimize and then scale. The 1st two parts always cost. That is why standard business wisdom is to have 2 years of operating expense AND 2 years of livable income. I know few do. Yet, that is the wiser course to take in money and life management.

So, there you have it. Can you make money online. Yes, I have made a living for over a year. Some months positive some months negative and just about everything that could go wrong, go wrong (I’ll detail ALL of that here AND solutions/preventions.) At year-end I was net positive AND I had found along the way nearly 95% of what I thought or told was wrong or severely lacked information to make it useful. There is a lot of competition and a lot of people who would rather make money off you then the general public. With that in mind. Remember this saying, “If it was easy. Everyone would be doing it and successful” and now you know the some of the Veritas of Internet Marketing

IMV

The Beginning & Why?

It has been over a year since I started with PPC Internet marketing and 6 years since I started SEO CPS marketing and over 10 years since I did my first Internet marketing campaign with banner ads for an offline product.

I decided awhile ago that spring 2010 (3-21-10) was the ideal day to start a BLOG about the “truth” or Veritas of Internet Marketing and for the most part, ALL marketing, advertising, sales and business. Since, with-out the ‘truth’ there is not much that can occur. At least, not in the long run.

So, If you want the ‘truth’ of what works and the ability to apply it and make money on the internet. This is your blog.

I will post what works and what doesnt for PPC, PPV, CPV,  CPT, Media Buys, Banner Ads, Mobile2Mobile, Contextual, Social, Tiered and any other form of marketing or advertising that work or may for CPS, CPL, CPA and CPC monetization.

Pragmatics (doing what works) and Philosophy (the application of knowledge) are our hallmarks.

To those who are looking for what works and makes money online.

Welcome Home…

Bookmark this page and come back daily as I update and add more relevant and exacting content for making money.