March Spendings vs Earnings and Hurdles

Monday, 7 April 2008 · Print Post 13 Comments

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As you may know I have started back up in PPC and I have survived last month but I face some hurdles along the way. So I have made pretty good amount last month especially since I got back and I started as a newbie. I took all knowledge that I knew of PPC - with the exception of the basics - and started as if I was new to adwords, which I am. But thanks to several blogs that I read and my affiliate managers I manage to do pretty well last month.

I started off pretty small and I think I did fairly well for a beginner. Prior to this small project I have done adwords in the past but not as efficiently as I did last month. I had more tools and I was more focus on my campaigns. I was paying more attention to my landing pages and looking for certain aspects of the offers.

But lets take a look at my Adwords account which is my spending and we will take a look at one of my networks for the month of March. I will not post my other networks as they are little but they were all within the month of March and my ROI is a little higher. Azoogle is one of my higher payouts so I will post the screen shot below.

Adwords spending:

Azoogle Earnings:

You can see my adwords spending is at $592.40 and my total earnings from Azoogle is at $1375.87! For one month I came out positive and pretty high I think. Last month is one of my more improved month, since I started with several campaigns and did some testing and now concentrating on specific aspects that I saw that needed to be adjusted. This is just a snapshot my azoogle ads network, now my total earnings is higher since my other networks are not included in this. I want to show you PPC and affiliate marketing is the truth and showing you the potential.

I was Slapped Hard!

During my March madness there were issues I encountered first hand like being bitched slapped several times. I scrambled to all my resources and asked for help and even talked to my Am to find out if they knew of anything. During that time I research Google and found some issues happening at the time of the slap and other aspects of me being slapped were my QS and keywords. I simple just adjusted what was needed via landing pages or keywords.

There were several days where my impressions dropped for 3 days and then dropped again horribly on the weekends. I was so piss and angered - I asked several people on twitter and IM if they saw same results. Some saw similar results but probably not as bad as me. I let the days go by with the lower impressions and then it sky rocketed again - not too sure to make of it - I attempted to call Google between those 3 days and I really got no where, no one answered.

The weekends were horrible one week I had 75 impressions one time VERY LOW! I tend to know that the traffic on the weekends drop but since my impressions were dropping already my weekend traffic got killed. Again I waited for it to pass by and then it went back to normal the following weekend, not to sure what to make of it.

Account Managers are your Best Friends:

Prior to this post I posted how your account managers are assholes. That post was strictly towards a specific network. But my other networks helped with providing great information and what I may need to turn my PPC campaigns into click able converted campaigns. They provided me some great insights that I would not even think of or wouldn’t even try. They give a visual explanation of why it can work and how it can benefit - you really do not know until you test. So I tested most of them and found a couple to work well.

The other bad part is I only have 1 credit card (never applied for others) and I use it for everything so its kind of maxed out - so I am waiting for my direct deposits and checks form the networks so I can get back on my grind. So now I will be looking at credit cards to use strictly for PPC and marketing, any recommendations?

Thank you Super Affilaite Bloggers:

By simply reading and focusing on the topic you can definitely make it - I am not a super affiliate just yet but reading several blogs and tips has helped!

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13 Comments »

Tom Beaton said:

Hey that is great Ian. It is nice to watch you learn and develop and make some money. It is comforting to know new people can still get in on the action.

- 7 April 2008 at 8:57 pm

Charity Check Tuesday - Ian Fernando said:

[...] failures, and successes in his blog, he even posted up his stats for March and a writeup of them - check it out. Thanks for the check [...]

- 8 April 2008 at 11:32 am

Tim said:

Get an AMEX so you can spend as much as you need…and eventually be able to flash a black.

- 8 April 2008 at 2:35 pm

John said:

AMEX is good. I started on a VISA and a MC and another VISA when those got full. Now I have moved everything to a fancy AMEX card. Go for one that has NO fees and gives you points or cash back. (I am trying really hard not to post some affiliate link to CC’s here )

Thanks for the mention.
John

- 8 April 2008 at 4:50 pm

John said:

Edit: I do pay fees on one of my AMEX cards, but the others.. VISA, MC, I don’t pay fees on.

- 8 April 2008 at 4:51 pm

Chad Frederiksen said:

Great job Ian, keep building up those earnings!

- 8 April 2008 at 10:35 pm

Wes Mahler said:

Your rocking it now man!

- 9 April 2008 at 1:10 am

Bill said:

Here’s what my AMEX Gold Rewards card did to me:

First Month, spend with AMEX: $3,000,
second month: $15,000
Third month, within first 6 days, spend, $8500 and BAM! Sent me for Financial Review. It’s been a month since then–still in financial review. I’m glad all my earnings came to rescue. I don’t need AMEX any more, but I do love the freebies that come with points.

Anybody knows how long that financial review takes or it even gets denied?

- 9 April 2008 at 1:34 am

Homebizseo.com said:

PPC scare most webmasters at first. Try not to set the budget to high in the beginning until the kinks get worked out.

- 9 April 2008 at 2:55 am

Hock said:

Cash flow is the biggest problem for PPC marketers. Thanks for sharing your results… and congrats!

- 9 April 2008 at 9:16 am

Ian (author) said:

> Hock
yea it is but once you dive into and realize mistakes that others have made you can try to learn from it.

> HomeBiz
for beginners yes I agree - I started on a low budget a day and weekly increased it, depending on the conversion and stats

> Bill
ahh nice nice! a lot of have recommended to me about AMEX - will definitely look into it

> Wes
yes sir almost a baller just like you

> Chad
will do! time to scale it now - just need to wait for my checks and deposits - argh

> John
thanks - no problem - I will def have to look into the amex

> Tim
lol black card here I come!

> Tom
thanks watching me learn and messed up is a great isnt it =P

- 9 April 2008 at 9:30 am

IJ said:

@Bill.
Contrary to popular belief, Amex is not “unlimited” initially. You have to build up history with them. Typically Amex runs on a 3 month spending average.

I have had my Amex card for several years and when I tripled my monthly average, they called me. I communicated what was going on and thats when they told me about the 3 month average.

The best thing you can do is make payments to Amex as you go along. For example: You charge up $8K first week and you get a $2K deposit from one of your networks, make a $2K online payment on your Amex card immediately. If you do this instead of waiting until the end of the month, it should keep you account rolling.

Once Amex has a history built up with you, you should be ok to charge up large amounts without the card being frozen for review.

- 10 April 2008 at 2:29 pm

James said: