There will always be money in PPC but I think there is even more money in SEO. I think about it this way. When I tell people what I do for a living, I say that I am in marketing. They say “what kind of marketing” and I tell them that I am one of the people who puts ads on the side of google when they search for something (among other things). The next thing that comes out of most peoples mouths is that they don’t like to click those ads. People have become more aware of these ads and tend to not want to click them. So why not build a quality site, full of content and SEO the hell out of it? That’s what I am doing.

We recently sold our salon. It was on the market for a few months and I started to fall way behind on my affiliate marketing. I thought I would be able to run both businesses while Jon was in law school and I was very wrong. Owning a business where you have to deal with people daily is a LOT of work. It was making money for us but I was losing money not being able to focus on my affiliate marketing. I did some major SEO for the salon website and saw that 90% of all new customers were coming in because of that SEO. That is where I got the idea to put the time and effort into building quality sites so that I can build some long term revenue without having to worry about what is next with Google or when I will get another email telling me that the advertiser is pissed about something I did on PPC.

We started with 1 website. I bought a domain that had complete relevancy to the niche and keywords I will be targeting. It was the most I have ever paid for a domain but it was worth every penny. Google, Yahoo & Bing are loving this website and it can only get better. Over the next few months I need to add more content, more offers and SEO. With directory submission, social bookmarking, articles and more I will be pretty busy but now that we are done with the salon we have all the time in the world to get busy!

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I didnt feel like doing an ROI calculation but I decided to make a post. After about 5 months not running any offers i decided to get over my lazyness and start some new campaigns in niches Ive never worked with before.

I picked at random and test about 20 a day and keep only the ones that convert and then scale them.

One of the days last week I made over 1k in profits and only spent $12.00 in advertising on Google search.

Ive learned methods on QS and how to get google to like you.  I am motivated and have lots more work to do and lots of offers to test.

Im still unsure if I am going to ever start regularly posting here again but we will see.

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I have been planning some very large media buys and I cant wait to meet some new companies who can offer me some quality traffic.  Its really exciting. The best part is getting to see all of the regulars in the industry, the sad part is not seeing the people you saw 3 years ago who have fallen off the face of the earth.

In this industry you need to keep going and stay up to date, I learned that lesson in the past and am ready to go.  We are 4 months into 2009 and I have had more success in 4 months than I have in 3 years. You can imagine why I am pumped for Adtech!

I am staying at 2 seperate places.  First will be some REALLY cool place I found in Nobb Hill called Prescott Hotel.  You would be shocked if I told you the STEAL that I got it for from Priceline.com .  I was naming my own prices just to see and I thought to myself that there was NO way they would give me a 4 star hoter in Nob Hill for that price.. and then what do you know, i got it!

For the convention I will be staying at Hotel Whitcomb. I chose it because some friends and AM’s are staying there. It will be good times. I havent done much research on where the parties will be but I am sure they are going to be great.

See you all next week!

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First the site was offering the Google Cash & Govt Grant and now it has switched to just Government Grants with Obama speaking on the offer page. Pretty funny but scary.

I do not promote those offers anymore and I would not suggest it to anybody. Just for the simple reason that you could end up getting screwed by the advertiser when they themselves get busted and cannot afford to pay their affiliates.

These offers have been the trend for the past 6 months. Between this and the fake diet offers YES they can make affiliates a ton of money.. but legally do you want to take the risk?

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If you think about it, you would only be targeting people who wanted to see ads and then would not have to pay for wasted impressions. Pretty cool

The article is here

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I will try to keep the blog updated with some of the projects I am working on. So much happened in my life last year that I ended up falling out of the loop with everything that was going on in the industry.

I am so motivated that I cannot even sleep at night. This will be a MUCH better year financially than last year.. and last year was great.

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Most disappointing was that we missed the first day on Sunday and by Monday, everybody was hungover and tired and all of the affiliate managers I was hoping to meet with and talk to were not in the right state of mind. For once, I did not go to the conference to party but to work.

Now that we are home, we are swamped with ideas and luckily I only have my business card out to about 10 people who I hope to speak with therefore limiting the number of harassing calls from networks trying to steal my business.

The event was great but I am not so sure about Vegas.  I can say that I am not a fan and it is not what I expected.  We had a blast hanging with Justin and Jonathan on Tuesday night and our hotel at the Venetian was beautiful.

See some of you at AdTech in April!  Enjoy the photos from the Summit below.

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I have installed the moneymaker theme from the guys at uniqueblogdesigns.com and am going to be having it customized to the colors I like from my last blog, as well as some other neat things.

Seems everyone is changing their blogs so its about time i jumped on it.

Hopefully I can have it customized and my logo designed in time for ASW .

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Up until about a month ago, I was using tracking software that someone had made for me when I started in the industry.  It was custom, outdated but it had worked wonders for me while it lasted.  Soon enough I bit the bullet and tried out Prosper202 because of all of the hype I heard.  It is probably one of the best tools I have ever seen offered to affiliates for FREE.  If you are an affiliate and you need good tracking then I suggest you install this tool.  If you cannot figure out how to use prosper then you can use the Tracking202 for free as well. It is web based and so simple that any idiot could figure it out.

2008 was great for me but 2009 needs to be better. Affiliate Summit East is coming up this weekend in Las Vegas and Jon and I are excited to go.  I need to expand on my ideas and meet some new people and make some new ideas.  I will never discuss how much I earn per year, or how much I made last year but it was key to achieving every goal I had last year and to help me start my new ones this year.

I have been digging around with the idea of media buying. That is something that is in the works and it takes a chunk of change (minimum of 10k with many of the big wigs such as myspace).  That is pocket change to some people I know in this industry and to others, its a gamble.  My goal is to get this rolling while maintaining my PPC efforts and staying up to date with the newest info and software.  I fell out of the loop in 2008 when I stopped being interactive with the forums and my friends in this industry.  It was still a great year for me, but it could have been better if i figured out things like Prosper SOONER.

One key mistake I made in 2008 which I cannot express to people enough.  If you are new in this industry then you need to make sure that you sign up with TRUSTED networks.  Do some research before you go off throwing your money into a company that is going to screw you in the end. By screwing, I mean shaving leads, stealing your keywords and then “attemptin” to keep your money.

It happened to me with 2 networks in 2008.  One is CJ as I wrote about earlier this year and the other I will not say because it was part of the deal in me getting paid.  What happened was a great campaign popped up on the network. It was one that I had experience in with its niche so I knew I would kill it.  I did amazing with it, about $30k in the few weeks it was active.  Once day I was told that I needed to take down the site, stop promoting it, etc because I was bidding on keyword that the advertiser did not “like” (they had nothing to do with trademark).  I took down the site and waited and to make a long story short, it took me 8 months to get my final payment.

The offer was pulled from the network because they did not comply with the advertisers rules OR put any of the TOS in the campaign for the affiliates to see. In turn, they tried to place blame on the affiliates and hold $$.

The worst part of all of this…. Which pisses me off to no end and I am sure it has happened to many other affiliates that I know…  The keywords that were converting for me that the advertiser demand I stop promoting..

Since the very next day that I took down my site and stopped promoting with those keywords, THE ADVERTISER WHO ASKED ME TO STOP HAS BEEN BIDDING ON THOSE VERY KEYWORDS.

They stole from me. From my idea, unique.  Its sad but it happens.  Which is one point to everybody that you should mask your keywords so that nobody knows them but you.

It has been almost 3 years for me in this business. I love it. My goal is to keep at this in 2009 alongside the other business Jon and I plan on opening and make this a prosperous year. In my 3 years I have worked with probably over 20 networks and I have to say that out of all of them the people at Copeac and Advaliant have been the best.  Danielle at Copeac and Alla from Advaliant have been amazing.  All of the other employees inside their companies including Eddie from Copeac have been informative and helpful in getting me what I need when I need it instead of blowing me off like some other networks do. That is what being a real affiliate manager is all about.

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I ripped out our upstairs bathroom one day because it was really ugly.  We were going to hire somebody to put wall tile into the bathtub/shower area but I decided to learn to do it myself.  I replaced all of the drywall, added new copper piping for the faucets and installed all new tile.  I got a lot of advice from my dad on how to do it and it came out looking GREAT.

The next step is to tile the flooring on the upstairs bathroom which will be much easier than the wall was.  After that, a new vanity and sink and then we are going to remodel the guest bathroom and the kitchen and THEN put a new fence in around the house. SO I have been too busy to post.

I have been having great record months with my PPC campaigns. It is funny that there is a recession going on with our economy but I am still able to make money.  Aside from my Copeac referral commissions I have been experimenting with other niches and have stepped aside from the myspace PPC for a little bit until they get themselves out of the horrible beta.

Jon and I are flying back to RI in a week and a half and I am very excited, I miss all of my friends and my family and it will be a nice breather for a week.  Ami will be staying here with the dog and 4 cats.. yes we got 2 new kittens because some stray cat gave birth in our back yard!  I named them FiddleStix and FuzzBall. I will post photos when I have time.

We are also looking forward to flying to Vegas for Affiliate Summit West convention.  I had to cut ASE in Boston short because Jon and I had to move out here to MO.  I have never been to Vegas but I am more excited about making some connections and seeing how all of my fellow friends in the industry are doing.  Jon still has much to learn about what it is that I do but he has been such a great help and has some ideas that help me thing outside the box.

We registered our first LLC, called Hot Bod .. Yes Hot Bod. Haha.  This is separate from my affiliate marketing business, but we are planning on opening a tanning salon here in University City, right on the Delmar Loop, massive spot.  We plan on opening it up, getting it off the ground, advertising it and then expanding.  It will give me a chance to work from somewhere outside of my house and the business will pretty much run itself. Ami will be doing most of the managing of it full time and now we just need to plan it all out… After that we have ideas for 2 other businesses in the area.  It feels good to have so much ambition and drive AND it will give me something to do when Jon goes back to school.

ANYWAY, I am so happy that President Barack Obama  has won.  It has restored my faith in this country.  I know that I have not always liked him but once I saw him speak and gave him a chance, it reassured me. I have never seen so many people come together in my life and it was worth waiting 3 hours to vote.. Plus Ami, Jon & I got on NBC news when we were waiting in line because Governor Jay Nixon came to shake our hands. Was pretty awesome!!

I will write again soon and post some photos once I have time to sit down. Happy Holiday’s everyone!

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