Being a digital nomad can seem like a dream. You have the freedom to live in any country you want, work a few hours here or there, explore wondrous places and cultures, and then move on to a new country whenever you want. I wanted to go all-in with our businesses and have more freedom in my life.
Here is the reason why being a Digital Nomad is good and why I chose it:
At first, I planned to stay as a digital nomad for around 1 year, but I ended up extending my travels for another 8 years because I enjoyed it so much. The culture, the food, the people, and the exploration. It was such a great experience, I loved every aspect of it.
Then 8 years later, I have seen most of Asia and felt I needed a base, a place I can call home after being gone for so long. I really never had a base - a place I can call home, I had an Airbnb. I never enjoyed booking a new Airbnb, or saying I missed my Airbnb. It never felt like home.
However, every lifestyle has its pros and cons, and for me, one of the biggest cons was not being able to see my family and friends for long periods of time. I would miss big events like birthdays and weddings. New friend relationships are a handshake and a goodbye.
I didn't mind making new friends, I am naturally an extrovert but relationships seem to always reset in every country I am in.
It was also a lot of work, from researching places to booking flights and hotels to travel planning. It could be quite taxing, especially since I had to start over every time I arrived in a new location. Maintaining good habits and routines was also challenging, and towards the end, I became a little numb to the amazing experiences we were having because it had become the norm for me.
Eventually, I did things on the go, I felt more comfortable just doing things on the fly and not overthinking, enjoying the present time and day vs. stressing over tomorrow. Though being a digital nomad is great, there are flaws, and I even mentioned a couple above.
Here are some reasons why being a digital nomad was hitting a toll on me:
Each of these bullets has a solution. In isolation, I tend to go to meetups, go out, and keep meeting people randomly. I am very extroverted and enjoy people, even if the language barrier is very high. It is about absorbing experiences and having a very open mind about life and your environment.
In the end, I loved my time as a digital nomad, but I was ready to move on to the next chapter and have Sao Paulo, Brazil as my real home base. I still want the freedom to travel as much as possible, and Brazil was a good choice, it is a huge country.
Here it reminds me of New York and how fast it moves. The diversity of food and the ease of access to natural food is a huge priority for me. The other thing that makes Brazil attractive to me is the fact it is huge. A country as massive as Brazil still allows me the freedom of travel, but without the aspect of travel.
I can plan with friends, and not have to reset a relationship. I can just pick a flight and go and not really plan. I do not have to think about visas or paperwork needed for entry.
The fact Sao Paulo reminds me of New York feels like home. It has the vibe of New York with the people diversity, Amazon and online deliveries, amazing restaurants, etc. I fell in love after 2 weeks of visiting last year. I plan on staying for 2 years full-time and seeing if it is the perfect fit for me.
For me, what's most important is the freedom to choose how I live my life. Whether being a digital nomad is worth it or not depends on your personal values and goals. It's not as glamorous as it can seem, but if you have realistic expectations and know what you want to get out of it, it can be an incredible experience.
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Rohail Rizvi: welcome to the Nomadic Millionaire Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of digital nomads, online entrepreneurs, and location-independent living. I'm your host, bro Rizvi, and today we have an exciting guest joining us. Ian Fernando, a successful internet marketer and entrepreneur. Known for his insightful strategies and innovative approaches.
We'll be discussing his journey in the world of internet marketing, his tips for aspiring entrepreneurs and his experiences as a digital nomad. So let's get started. Welcome to the show, Ian.
Ian Fernando: Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it, man. It's been a long time since we last talked.
Rohail Rizvi: It has, it has, man. I'm glad we were able to connect.
It's been a minute for sure. So yeah, so it's great having you on the show. Appreciate you coming on. And to start things off, can you share a bit about your background and how you got into internet marketing?
Ian Fernando: Yeah, sure. I've been online roughly about 15 plus years, right? I started mainly on eBay selling, reselling stuff online.
Then eventually got into affiliate marketing. And then most of my career, about 90% of my career is in media buy and affiliate marketing. Pretty much got started by accident. Didn't really want to be an entrepreneur or affiliate marketer, or whatever you call this scenario, right? In my life I basically just wanted to get rid of three jobs.
Actually I just wanna get rid of two out of three jobs. That was kind of my goal. And then eventually I was like, well, if I was able to get rid of two, can I get rid of the last one? Mm-hmm. And I probably had like three months of savings. And I took the risk of like, okay, let me just go hard into affiliate marketing and see if I can at least, you know, make my monthly salary.
And then I think after, within a month and a half, I did like my whole year's salary. In that two months time. And then eventually I was like, all right, I think this is real, this can do it. And then I think affiliate marketing was for me and ever since, oh, that was it, you know?
Rohail Rizvi: Wow. A month and a half.
That's pretty good to replace an entire salary and let alone you went from three jobs to where you're at now, which is pretty, pretty impressive. Yep. That's pretty awesome, man. And so would you say like, As someone who's achi achieved a lot of success in this field, what, what would you say is the most important skill or mindset that has contributed to your
Ian Fernando: success?
Oh man. I think I think this changes over time just because I guess it's based on the framing of the question. I think at that point in my career or that time when I was really just a drop outta college, my parents kicked me out. I think for me it was just survival, right? And trying to just make as much money as I can just be to be able to eat the next day, right?
Mm-hmm. So for me, at that time, it was more like, oh, I have to make money, or I have to do this, I have to do that, right? So at that point in my life was more of the survivals mentality where I needed to do this, I needed to do that. What the shortcut to do this, right? Mm-hmm. Even like back in the day, like when I got my apartment, I couldn't afford like internet, right?
So what I did was like, okay, let me save up money by a wifi repeater. Right? See if I can find any, anybody that has an open wifi network and repeated that signal into my apartment. Right? That's crazy. So that's how I got the, the internet in my, in my apartment. Right. So I think back in the days more like, where are the shortcuts?
What can I do right now? I think that mindset of like. My back was against the wall. I had nothing to do. I had nothing to lose for. Like, I think that mindset, just like pushing and surviving, was that mentality back then. Now it's definitely more of like my happiness mindset, like, okay, am I happy doing this?
Am I happy doing that? Am I satisfied? If I am satisfied, that means I'm not doing fairly good. It all really depends, right? But if you're starting out and if you are struggling, then I think survival mentality is super, super important because it just creates this creativity in your head. And I think eventually that turned to a benefactor for me because creativity and marketing is very, very important.
Rohail Rizvi: Totally. Yeah, I definitely get that. I think especially as an entrepreneur, I think you have that extra fire under you when you have to make it work or else like you'll be out on the street or something. Like I think that extra little bit of motivation is actually, when you look back in hindsight, it was actually what got you to success versus what if you have like an easy fallback, like a job you could always go back to.
It's a lot less pressure and a, and in a way it's a less. Less chances of succeeding unless you're like super disciplined and, and, you know, put in that work. So in ways, in some ways it is an advantage.
Ian Fernando: Yeah, I mean, it all really, really depends. I think back in the day, it's just, it was easy to make money, but also difficult as minority and being first generation too. So a lot of pressure from family and parent versus. Now there's like two generations now I think that are living a pretty good American style dream.
There's no pressure, there's no bad feedback. There's, I mean, there's a lot of stuff happening that can be very, very beneficial for entrepreneurs right now. I mean, even back in the day, I didn't even wanna be an entrepreneur. I just needed to like get rid of my job, right. Oh, that's
Rohail Rizvi: crazy. No, I get that. And I think yeah, and being an entrepreneur as a minority is, is a little bit different as well.
It's, it presents different challenges sometimes and you know, a different set of motivation sometimes too, in terms of like, I. You have an extra reason to, to move your place in society sometimes, but now let's talk about that's great advice by the way. I would really like to talk to you about your experiences as digital nomad because you've been traveling and living around the world for a long time now.
Probably over 10 years. So how did you make the decision to live and work remotely and how has this lifestyle impacted your
Ian Fernando: career? Yeah. So I've been always wanting to travel. I guess traveling had been part of my blood since I was a young kid. 'cause my parents would always drive to the next state over, right?
Mm-hmm. So I guess that adventure it part of my brother and my sister and me. I guess my first, my first country I went to is Panama. And then my first real overseas, I wanna say is Morocco. And in the past eight years, I've been traveling consistently from country to country. So I think my last eight years have been truly a digital about, and my decision to do that is just more so like, I think when you reach a point of money, you're always asking what's next?
Right? And you're always like, oh, what is, what is next for me? How do other people see their life? And you want a different perspective, right? So America, Eastern Europe, they all have certain perspective. But then you go to Thailand, you go to Columbia, you go to Brazil, they have different perspective of life, food, culture, and that's very, very interesting to me.
And what I've learned is taking some of these experiences and it's thinking like, oh, why isn't it here in America? Why doesn't it apply in Eastern Europe? Why is it so difficult in America? Why is it accepted here? Right? So you see a lot of these perspective, which makes me, which can make open your mind a lot more.
It also helps a lot with business as well too. Creativity part too, again, right. But getting into it, I think it would just be part of my blood. Again, my parents traveled from state to state and I was just super, super careers. Oh. And I remember my dad always, always telling me tra traveling stories, like he was showing pictures from Egypt.
So that curiosity was always there for me. I think.
Rohail Rizvi: Nice. That's awesome man. It's really good to get that inspiration at at a young age. I think it can really shape your, the way you see the world, the way you pursue your career. So that's, that's pretty awesome. And so like for our listeners who are maybe considering the digital nomad lifestyle or even perhaps being more stationary, expat, like maybe you are now well, I wouldn't call you stationary, but you still traveling within where you are.
But what tips would you give them to, to help
Ian Fernando: them succeed to like get into digital med?
Rohail Rizvi: Just to, yeah, just to succeed as a, a digital nomad
Ian Fernando: entrepreneur specifically. Okay. I think one thing is like, if you're curious, right, at Nomad, I think it's important to maybe start off in a country where it's probably low, low expenses.
Like I know I meet a lot of entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs in Columbia, a lot more freelancers in Columbia Valley. Thailand, Philippines for sure. And to succeed, I think it's just spend the time to focus, like sit down, take the next three months, really, really dive in. Yeah. And then try to use your spare time to explore.
But I think that would be the best scenario. But the other scenario, which speaking like a travel event of the Columbia like a couple months ago, is to always have an open mind. Never. If you're traveling, I would never YouTube the bad things. I would always YouTube the good things of the country.
Right? Because then what happens is you set these expectations in your head, like, oh, I'm about to get drugged. And then you're always scared, right? And sure, when you only Google or YouTube, like the good things you look forward to, the good things, right? But what you do for the bad things, you're like, you're looking forward to it, you're expecting it, and eventually you're gonna get drugged.
Rohail Rizvi: It's just how it works. You know? Be careful what you consume. Yeah, no, honestly, like I've been to all those places like Columbia, like and, and you know, I had no fear going through those places years ago. But now there's like so much content. A lot of it's like fear content on YouTube. And even as someone who's traveled, you get a little bit.
Concerned thinking, Hey, it is just, it's just all out people getting drugged all the time. So it doesn't mean you shouldn't, you know, be aware of your surroundings and be a smart traveler, but, you know, don't let it keep you from exploring and seeing other parts of the world.
Ian Fernando: Agreed. Agreed. I think it's important to like have, it's, it's good to be informed for sure.
I wouldn't be consumed about it. Like I have a friend that travels and all he does is look for the badges. So he's scared. But then your energy that you give off while you're walking, like, dude, you like to become a target where you're like seeing these things, right. It's not
Rohail Rizvi: good. Right. It definitely makes a difference.
Yeah. Would you say would you tell aspiring digital nomad entrepreneurs to. Travel or a lot, or would you say in hindsight it would've been better not to travel as much and stay in one place for
Ian Fernando: business? Okay, so I've done this in my first two years, full-time. I spent probably two weeks to 30 days in each country and moved around, and then eventually after two years or maybe a year and a half, my goal was to stay the extension of the visa, whether it be 30 days.
Three months or six months, then explore. Right. And the reason for this is because it allows, the first part is exploration, curiosity, which is good. The next part of Digital Nomadness, I think of like being involved with the people, being involved with culture. Like if you're only there for a week, two weeks, like you're, you're rushing to see the toury spot, find food.
You don't get to really talk to the people, get involved in language, get involved in community. I. So I think after like three months, or if you stayed in touch of the country the Visas country, then you get to be involved. Like you slow down that tourism part of yourself. You actually want to go to local foods.
You meet local pavilions or local ties, right? You actually start to learn the language a little bit, so you start to slowly engulf yourself in the country, which I enjoy more, right? Just because people make the difference when you travel. I think
Rohail Rizvi: that's true, man. That's true. Like you're actually getting to then experience the culture rather than just like doing fast tourism through all these places.
Right. So no, I totally, I totally agree with
Ian Fernando: you on that. Yeah. I mean, super important to be more engulfed than mm-hmm. Having, because it creates a different whole level of experience, like when you go to a tour spot. Sure. That's a self-experience. When you go with like a group of people and you know, to like maybe buffet you, local Brazilians or people, you have a, a group experience.
Right. Which is very, very different than a self experience. Right. It's very not, yeah. You
Rohail Rizvi: wouldn't get that otherwise For sure. And all these different things that you mentioned, like you're a big fan of like good food, so you get to actually experience like a, maybe a local will tell you about a restaurant that you wouldn't have found otherwise or you wouldn't find on, let's say like some tour, tour guide or Google.
So things
Ian Fernando: like that. Yeah, exactly. So like I think just walking around self exploring is super important and then you see something that you might go ahead and get it, you know, I think food helps you understand the country a lot and the culture for sure. Definitely, definitely.
Rohail Rizvi: Those are, those are really good tips.
Now let's talk about some of the, maybe challenges you face as an internet marketer and a digital nomad. Can you share an example of a challenge you might have encountered in how you overcame
Ian Fernando: it? Let's see. Entrepreneurship and digital nomadness. I can't really, I can't really see a challenge really.
Mm-hmm. Maybe access to certain items, but most of my stuff are online. Oh, like here for, here's a good one. So I have my other laptop actually being serviced right now, and it's very expensive to get your laptop or electronic service here in Brazil. Like you're so MacBook Pro, like $1,200, right?
Mm-hmm. Here in Brazil is $4,000, right? So that is super expensive. In Columbia had my MacBook Pro Service for like 50 bucks here. I'm gonna pick that up later. It's being searched for $600 for the same machine. Right. That's insane. So the difference of pricing for electronics, I think it's challenging because now I have to think about, oh, when will I be back in the States?
Can I get somebody to ship it for me? Right. So this, the logistic part of getting a laptop from the US for. Even the max of 1500, it's still far cheaper to pay $4,000 here. Right? Yeah, for sure. But it probably becomes time, right? Where's my time wasted? Where's my time valuable? Is it worth the $600 today?
Because I might not be in this case for six months. Mm-hmm. Right. This becomes a a, an argument of like convenience versus necessity. Right. Them saving you. Yeah. That's definitely one challenge for sure. That's
Rohail Rizvi: wild. I can Yeah, totally get that electronics overseas. It's a whole different story.
Ian Fernando: Sure. Yeah.
I don't know why here in Brazil, the import pres are, taxation on electronic is super, super hot and even branded like name brand items like Adidas or, you know, Supreme is super expensive here. That's
Rohail Rizvi: crazy. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, you miss the good things at home, like Amazon, two day delivery, stuff like that.
Like Yeah, I could imagine. Well, they have Amazon here in Brazil,
so
Ian Fernando: it's not bad. Oh, weird. Okay. Nice. Oh yeah. But they don't have a lot of the products. Yeah. I mean, you can get a product. They just, they just ship internationally. I see. Which is I mean, which takes two weeks instead of two days. Two weeks.
But I use a local, local, local version here, which takes about same day or next day,
Rohail Rizvi: so. Okay. It's not bad. Yeah. Now what about, say, like a challenge like, While you're traveling a lot. What about managing your time effectively, like as a challenge? Like was that ever a challenge or what did you do about that?
Routines, maybe, or, yeah,
Ian Fernando: so I guess in the beginning, so now it's not really a challenge just because since I'm actually trying to live and base myself now before, I guess when I was doing the first two years where I'm trying to explore and, and do this and do that. Mm-hmm. I guess my first thing to say was like, okay, what do I want to do?
Where's my focus gonna be at? Are they gonna be at work in the morning, gonna explore later? Right? So it really all depends. I really didn't have that much of a challenge with times because I'm a very, I'm a fairly routine person, right? So like when I wake up, I'm usually doing stretch yoga before I go to the gym.
Then I have my breakfast. And then I don't even open my laptop till actually, you know, I do like my learning language. So within two and a half hours I don't even open up my laptop when I wake up. Right. And then I have like a set time of working every two hours when they're taking a 15 minute, 30 minute break.
Right. I think for a lot of people, I know a lot of travelers they want to explore and then work, but the problem is they just give a there's no planning. Right. Whereas I think. In the beginning you should start a little bit planning like, oh, I will do all this church stuff in the first week, so now have my next two, my next week and a half, or whatever, free time to actually work focus and all that.
Right. Yeah. But I think time also is, is very painful on your side of the country, bro. Where we're in Thailand, especially if you have clients or maybe you have affiliate managers in the East Coast time, I think that becomes an issue. I remember working in the Philippines I would have to wake up early so I can get LA time and stay up late so I can get East Coast time.
And then I had the whole middle of the day where I can do whatever I want. But the, that time, definitely a little bit different in beginning for sure. Yeah,
Rohail Rizvi: it's definitely a little tough. You gotta take advantage of like early morning, late night and then kind of just be a completely different routine than your normal, you know.
Nine to nine to seven whatever schedule in the East Coast. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But, but it, it's one of the things with travel, like you, you kind of take that as a, as is and you still get to do both, explore different countries and still get your work done.
Ian Fernando: Yep. Agree. Agree. I mean, that's the beauty of working in a line.
You just work when you need to. If you don't work, if you don't make any money, if you work, hopefully you make money. Right,
Rohail Rizvi: exactly. Hopefully, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah, man. So. Let's see, ti time management, like we talked a little bit about that. Do you have any advice for, for people that are trying to become successful
Ian Fernando: internet marketers?
Well, I mean, it's very broad question. So I mean, it really all depends. Like, I think routine, very important. I'm a very routine guy. I think goal orientation is very important. Micro goals versus macro goals are super important. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, they look at the end goal and they wanna reach that end goal, but I try to tell them like, Hey, you should do the micro goal first.
Like, sell the website, right? Get your domain build, go the website, get your social going first, right? Those micro goals, I think are super important because mentally you're actually accomplishing something. Hmm. When you're doing the macros every day, you're not accomplishment. You're not winning every day.
So that kills your dopamine speed. Right? So it's very not, it's never good to do a macro strategy. I always do micro strategies. Sure you have a end goal, but I think you need to do it in a micro step way though. You can, you feed yourself both meal all the time. Right. There's obviously ways to do it with product choosing what kind of entrepreneur you wanna be.
You wanna do Amazon. I've done Amazon, I've done print on demand info marketing. I mean, there's a lot, a lot, a lot. Good. So many different
Rohail Rizvi: ways. A lot of different ways to make money online for sure. That's really good, man. There's micro, micro goals kind of lets you get that momentum rather than feeling down for not reaching some big goal.
On the daily. So and with that, let's kind of get maybe a little bit more into specifics. 'cause I know, you know, you're still very much involved in this space and you have a lot of experience. Can you share one of your most successful internet marketing campaigns and the key factors that contributed to its success?
Ian Fernando: And yeah, I think the most popular story I keep telling everybody is when I was in YouTube space where we had to, I didn't even know this. I don't know if you noticed this, like I didn't even know that Amex had a, a limit a car limit, right? Oh, okay. Amex has like a hundred K car limit, and when I got my first amex, I thought it was unlimited.
Right. So when we were, when we were buying media we were spending roughly a hundred k a day. Mm-hmm. Meaning we had to pre, meaning we had to always pay a hundred K the next day to Amex. Right. And then, which means we're also spending a hundred k a day on Aspen. So this means we're paying, I'm, we're, I'm paying AMX 200 K every day, plus spending a hundred K every day just because I need to spend a hundred K and make sure I'm paying the debt amount from yesterday a hundred K.
Right, right. So literally every day I'm throwing out 300 K every day. Right. That's crazy. And the new days was very, Fun, fast. I think that campaign lasted and I want to, I wanna say like five, four years, right? Mm-hmm. And it was it was entertaining for sure. And that was all through Google.
We were targeting, we were. So this strategy doesn't work anymore, but so Dr. Oz obviously is a celebrity, right? One of my business partners we, you could not use Dr. Oz in a search term right. To trigger, but this where the creativity comes in, right? We put in this doctor, you X amount of ounces, right?
In, in for to lose weight, right? Yeah. So we had the word doctor and o z in the ad, right? Which triggered the doctor. So this allowed us to be number one and number two, number three, number four, and number five. So instead of using Dr. Oz's name, we just simplify saying a doctor uses X amount of ounces to lose weight.
Mm-hmm. That triggered the search term, Dr. Oz. Right. So it this, it actually very, very well, it doesn't work now, but it is a very good way to think of like, how do I get Dr. Oz's name in my. Search term and result in my paid ads. I, that's pretty wild,
Rohail Rizvi: man. The creativity goes a long way in affiliate marketing, though.
You get that
Ian Fernando: edge. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Like the thing about affiliate marketing is that, what I love about it is that the affiliate marketers are like the best marketers. And the reason why is because we think, sure. Google says you cannot say celebrity named Dr. Oz. Our thinking is like, okay, how do I say Dr.
Oz in the ad without triggering Google's you know, restriction policies. Right? Right. What does, what does OG mean? Ounces. So ounce ounces, that's genius. It worked, right? This is where, why affiliate marketers are like the best. It's just we look at terms of surveys, we'll say. Mm-hmm. Oh, you cannot have, like TikTok, here's a good, a good example.
Yeah. TikTok does not allow debt campaigns, right? Mm-hmm. So I looked at term surveys or private policies and all that, like, okay, what, how, I wonder how many times debt has to be on a landing page for it to trigger tos or to trigger flagging my campaign. I'm like, I lemme just see, count all the debt words in my landing page right now.
Remove one by one before it gets planned. Eventually it came to a point where I can have the word debt on my page without triggering. Right? So that's another path. Right. But this is the problem. This is why affiliates think like, we'll listen to you what you say, Google, Facebook. We're gonna just do it just to poke you enough.
Right? Just to,
Rohail Rizvi: you gotta get under that threshold, like run it under. Right. And so you're able to Yeah, exactly. It's a. You're right. I think we are the best marketers because we're forced to be creative and work around sometimes rules and think of just new ways to do things. So yeah, direct response.
Affiliate marketers, like, it's so different than the marketing you see in the branding world, which isn't really trying to achieve a goal of trying to. Like right there, right. Then get someone to take an action.
Ian Fernando: I consult some companies agency, and when I hear these media buyers talk, I'm like, dude, you're, you're, you're a policy follower.
You're, ooh, you have your Google certificate, a words,
Rohail Rizvi: or whatever you wanna fucking call it. Right? Right.
Ian Fernando: You don't know nothing about media buying.
Rohail Rizvi: Nah. It's just, it's just a whole nother world. And then when they're exposed to it, they're just like so shocked. Yeah. I
Ian Fernando: mean, Media buyers are talented, like from the agency side, but they only know how to follow blueprint.
They don't know how to think outside of that. Like, why am I campaign converting? But, oh if you wanna do an ad, like, oh, but Facebook doesn't allow these type of ads, dude, just tweak it a little bit. Try it. Like, that's the problem with that. Buy side agency. Right. The agency taught me the buyers, I mean.
Rohail Rizvi: Exactly. Yeah. And they're forced to like probably follow a bunch of rules by brands and, you know, so they're just not used to pushing, pushing the envelope as much probably. No, no. I
Ian Fernando: mean, they're, if they, they which look at policies and. Rules and like, okay, I can't do that. Right.
Rohail Rizvi: Yeah. I mean, yeah, you remember all the crazy ads from back in the day.
One simple, one simple trick, all the crazy banners we've seen. So it's going way back. But how do you how has the world of affiliate marketing evolved since you started, and where do you, where do you see it going in the future? Like how, how do you see it in Yeah. 2023 and beyond.
Ian Fernando: Man. It, I mean, as you know, the industry changes so much.
Like right now, I, I recently got into paper call last year. Mm-hmm. So in affiliate marketing it would be C P A C P L C ps. Right. I'm very big in lead gen, right?
Rohail Rizvi: Yeah. But
Ian Fernando: as time evolves, I think marketing evolved too. Like companies, they want leads, but they don't want pay for bad leads. So they're always quantifying what is a good lead, right?
So lead gen has not deteriorated, but it's becoming more Strict or given a lower payout because the value of that leads, right? So for example, like Facebook lead gen forms, like they're really bad quality, right? Yeah. Like nobody liked those Facebook lead gen forms. They're like super, super bad, right?
Mm-hmm. Because they're auto filled, right? And sometimes the person that signed up on Facebook is an old email, old phone number, okay? So, Deli pretty bad versus maybe a true opt form on an actual website. Deli is much better than Facebook lead form, but the quality of maybe contact ratio, calling, texting, all that marketing that's involved in the first seven days for the advertiser is, becomes worthless because there's no contact rate.
Right. If don't get, if they don't get a contact rate of at least like 3%, 5% right, then it's, it's very badly and that's why I like payoff. I've been being lower for, for a lot of, wow. I think that's why I like paper call nowadays is again, picked up much more rapidly because you can actually pre-qualify the user right?
And there without trying to market to them through ss m s email, follow phone calls, right? One leader seven days. So right there you, you're gonna be like, oh, you're a good leader of Valley. Boom. Exactly. I think, and you know, over time, oh my bad. Go ahead. Oh no, I was
Rohail Rizvi: gonna say, and you know, they're serious 'cause they're actually getting on the phone making that, that call.
Right? Yeah,
Ian Fernando: exactly. I think eventually advertising are gonna get smarter. AI is gonna be super involved. I mean, marketing for AI is gonna change a lot for sure. I think they're gonna speed up the marketing 200, 500, a thousand folds for sure in the next year. You
Rohail Rizvi: know what I mean? Wow. So, wow.
That's crazy. Yeah. I was gonna ask you, how do you see like AI coming into play with affiliate markers or like, how do you see that being implemented? Oh, man. I mean,
Ian Fernando: I use it right now, so I use like chatt PT to discover angles, gimme personas. Write copy. I use Mid Journey to create ads. And then, I mean, like mid Journey ads are like, the CTR are like, so far I've been getting like 11% C T R, which is like, okay,
Rohail Rizvi: unheard of.
That's really good. Yeah. Yeah.
Ian Fernando: So been down my P P V P C. C P C C. PV is a lot, but then the, the problem is now that the, the page conversion part is a little lower. Just because it's a higher c t r, that really beautiful image that mid journey creates. But then the landing page creates a, another issue.
But hopefully there'll be another AI tool that'll actually make a nice landing page. But simplicity is, is what, what rules and marketing anyway. Right? Right. But outside of that, what call centers, I think there's gonna be automated speech to text or text to speech style. Wow. I mean, it's gonna be responsive people on, on, on calls before it even gets transferred to a real live agent.
So call centers, I think the human part will be needed on the verification and validation, but under pre-validation, pre landing side, seeing if they qualify, I think it's all gonna be automated. Like they're like, you can literally have a call center on your phone and just spin up a thousand agents. I think that's gonna happen.
Rohail Rizvi: Right? That is crazy. Yeah. I mean, we talk about like other jobs being replaced, like. You know, bank tellers, cashiers, stuff like that. Like with ai, even maybe doctors can, because AI can make better, better analysis than than doctors in some, in some, in a lot of cases. Now how do you see that affecting affiliates?
Does, will, will advertisers just use AI to go out there, run ads optimized landing pages Do, will they? Where will the need of an affiliate come in or, or remain?
Ian Fernando: So this is, this is a very talkable topic. Topic for sure. I definitely think Achilles are still gonna be needed just because of the creativity side, right?
Sure somebody can launch a campaign but there's structured that can be needed, like. AI can probably learn that after you've given it feedback. Like you probably run a campaign structure very differently than I run a campaign structure, right? Mm-hmm. Probably manual bidding versus auto bidding.
I mean, I do a lot of broad, right? A lot of people probably do interest targeting, right? Yeah. So the styles are gonna be very, very different for sure. I don't think there's can be a fix. And ai, but it'll be supplemented with ai. Meaning that your copy, your pages, your ad, c t r, I mean your ad creators are gonna be purely, purely automated.
But the thought process will be, I think, still needed for the affiliate marketer. 'cause even now, I think my stats, when I put in the chat tell me, Hey, which ad is is, is better over X amount of time. So even that analyzing part is being taken away from the marketer. Right. That's which I actually enjoy.
Right. But as long as you're educating ai, I think the really marketer and every marketer will still be needed. Right. Just because the, the creativity part that's important, right?
Rohail Rizvi: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think we're still at that point where like, It's like being able to give it the right prompts is, is a skill in itself.
And so being able to do that better can make you, your marketing ultimately better If you're, if you're, like you said, structuring your campaigns in a certain way or coming up with creative ideas for, to input into ai. Yeah, that's, that's still at this point definitely still Aval valuable skill for sure.
Agreed. Now has there So I guess what, are there any tools or resources or platforms you recommend aspiring affiliate marketers or digital nomads to help them in their journey?
Ian Fernando: Man, I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of forums for sure. I mean, I recommend like s t m Appli. There are definitely the good forms starting in affiliate marketing.
Mm-hmm. I mean, but I think you can just learn this all through YouTube nowadays. Like there's so much stuff on YouTube. Right. For sure. The only thing that YouTube doesn't have is actual personal experience, right? Like, If you search how to get Dr. Oz in my go, in my search term, you'll never find my strategy on YouTube.
Ah. But like, stuff like that is like, will never be, will never be on, on YouTube. But long you have the basic and the understanding and the foundation mm-hmm. Is the most important part. Right. Self creativity is, again, the. The part where it's all about you, right? Not everybody's creative, you know, which is perfectly fine, but then you have chat g b T to help you, you know, hopefully get be creative for you or mid be creative for you, right?
I think having the community's very important. As you know, I, I had an affiliate community during Covid, during the pandemic, I mean, And I sold that in like 2021 a year later. I think having people that motivates you is super, super important. Like chatting every day telling you that you're good, you're bad, you're doing okay.
I think those are important, right? But starting out at being digital nomad, I think is what type of digital nomad do you wanna be? Do you wanna be an affiliate marketer? Do you wanna be a freelancer? Right? I think those are important, but even then, I don't even think. Freelancers or digital nomads either.
You know what I mean? Yeah. For me, I think digital nomad is about freedom of time, right? Mm-hmm. If you don't have that, you're not a digital nomad. Like a lot of freelancers remote workers, they think they're digital nomads like or you're not. Right?
Rohail Rizvi: Right. Sometimes they're given that label, but I also personally think like digital nomad is a, is a different breed 'cause they've like completely broken free, both from like, Geography, their independent location, independent, plus time independent.
I think you can, yeah, timing.
Ian Fernando: Exactly. Exactly. I definitely agree with that. You know, it's just another term for entrepreneurship, I think without, but freedom of mobility,
Rohail Rizvi: you know? Yeah. Now, I mean, we're seeing the world as, especially after the pandemic becomes so global and companies being run, startups being run with employees all around the world.
So like, yeah, you. Yeah. It, it relates more to being an entrepreneur in my mind now than ever before. Yeah,
Ian Fernando: definitely agree. Like, I always can argument with people like, oh, I'm doing nomad, but I do yoga instructions online for this company. I'm like that's what, no, you're not nomad.
Rohail Rizvi: You know? Right, right.
You're still, in a way, it's, it's somewhat still like, kind of freelance. You just, you were able to just get outta office, but nothing wrong. If that's where you're starting off, that's, that's fine. It's it's one step out. Of the system kind of to, to break free from. Agree. You know, it's like one,
Ian Fernando: you know, you got to first step in the door or whatever they say.
Rohail Rizvi: Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. You just got, get that first step and then after that, you know, you could evolve from being a freelancer to maybe starting your own, own online yoga classes or whatever it might be. Just be able to be on your own. So lastly, if, if you would, could now go back in time and give advice to your younger self at the start of your.
Affiliate marketing, internet marketing career. What, what would you say? Buy Bitcoin. Don't, don't wheel man, don't wheel.
Ian Fernando: Yeah. I'll find what I've done for sure. I don't think I would change anything about my path. Mm-hmm. But if I was gonna give myself advice I think one big mistake is that. I don't think about, so problem with affiliate marketers is that we're outta money now, not tomorrow.
And my biggest issue, which is also still an issue today, is that if. I kept all my leads back in the day, I would literally just have to send one email every day and I, I'd be making good money. Right? So I think for beginners out there, ha having leads, it's the most important part, right? Capturing leads the most important part.
Right? So another story is when we had our YouTube business. But then part in the beginning we were like making $10,000 a day. Right. And then we were like, Hey, let's do something with these leads. Like we could probably make an extra $10,000 a month. Yeah. Argument was like, do you wanna make $10,000 a day, do 15, 20,000 a day, or do you wanna make $10,000 a month?
Mm-hmm. But like, damn, that makes sense, right? It's an argument. Do I focus more time to make 10,000, 20,000 a day, right? Or do I focus another part of my business and time making 10,000 a month, which is just like $500 an extra a day, right? So didn't that company close down? If I kept those leads and, and kept them warm, I literally would just have, I literally would spend 15 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day, send an email, and I'll be making money consistently.
That would be most of my work nowadays. Whereas now I'm still working like four, five hours a day. Not too bad, right? I still have my time. I can do whatever I want, but if I kept those leads and kept them more and over time, instead of arguing 'em $10,000 a month, I should have done that. And then I would literally just be sending one email a day, even twice a day and just, it'd just be in my a t m, you know what I mean?
For
Rohail Rizvi: sure. It's crazy, man. The money's in the list, right? That that's what they always say. And it's, it's crazy to think, even now in 2023, email is still kind of king, like in terms of longevity. Everyone's still, no matter what, checks their email every day and
Ian Fernando: email hasn't even changed a crazy part.
Rohail Rizvi: Yeah, Gmail is still Gmail.
I mean it's you know, we had SS m s and text, but like still nothing is as personal as email yet, still at this point. Yeah, agreed.
Ian Fernando: So capturing Deja C lead for sure would be, Advice to tell myself to like,
Rohail Rizvi: yeah. Nothing man. I, I think back to, you know, prosper 2 0 2 days and volume and seeing all those crazy amounts of clicks we've been driving.
And then just to think back, like we had just captured some of those emails on like a pop under or something would be nice.
Ian Fernando: Yeah, I know. I know. Yeah. I. It's super, super important. Technically over
Rohail Rizvi: time it's not too late to start. It's not too late to start. It's you know, yeah, for sure. Starting out to build a list.
Yep. And. And you have a, a community and everything, and you also are working with you know, people in the, in the industry. Is there anything you'd like to share or any any companies or projects you'd like to plug with the listeners
Ian Fernando: today? Well I recently started a couple for a p d which the network, I'm trying to get.
I'm trying to decide what part of my career path I want to get onto now. So hopefully learning from Jason, may d will put me on a new path because again, I don't know if you feel this way, RO, like I've been in gate for so long that what is next, right? I have my time, I have my freedom. I've accomplished everything I've gotten the cars about in the watches.
What is next after that? So, I think consultant for a big network or an agency is. My next step in trying to discover what I want to do. But other than that, I mean, that's basically my project. I mean, I started consulting in after the pandemic just because I had these thought process of like, what do I want in my career?
What, what is next challenge for me? Right. So, but yeah, I mean you can find me pretty much all over the internet, so
Rohail Rizvi: I'm good. That's awesome, man. No, I feel you. Like thinking about what's next is always interesting, especially when you've done like you've achieved. The things you've wanted to achieve. It's always like a, a process of evolving, even as an entrepreneur in general.
But it's really cool to see working with like a, a company like A four D and consulting with them and, and you know, using that as kind of a way to learn and evolve. Because, you know, there's a lot, you know, Jason's a great guy to learn a ton from him. You know, just listening to him speak, you know, you always learn something new.
Sure. He's an og, so Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Well, those are wise words to live by. And yeah, I just wanna say thank you for for joining today, Ian. It's been really cool to catch up and, and chat and for sharing your valuable insights and experiences. I'm sure our listeners learn a lot and are inspired by your journey.
So yeah,
Ian Fernando: appreciate that. Man, thank you for having me. Thank you guys for listening in. Hopefully it was inspirational enough and hopefully you enjoyed some of the creativities and stories. So thank you
Rohail Rizvi: again, Rob. Definitely, definitely man. Absolutely. For our listeners, if you'd like to learn more about Ian Fernando and his work, be sure to check out his website.
All his social media channels should be able to find him easily. And we'll also link in the show notes below. And as always, thank you for tuning into the Nomadic Millionaire Podcast. Until next time, keep dreaming big and living life on your own terms.
Life is an ongoing process of self-discovery and personal development, and along the way, we frequently come to forks on the road where we reflect on our goals and the direction we have taken. When I, a metrics-driven affiliate marketer, understood the need for more fulfilling and value-driven work, it was a truly transformative moment.
I was considering what to do next in my online career during the pandemic. Will I spend my entire life purchasing media? I wondered. Although I am excellent at it, I also feel stuck. I've created a number of businesses, from POD to Lead Gen to eCom, and I've had success in all areas of online marketing. I've even sold three businesses in the past, and while I'm always eager to launch a new venture, affiliate marketing is where I usually end up.
In this blog post, I'll talk about my transition from being an online marketer to pursuing a profession based on my values and life objectives. I'll also talk about the lessons I learned along the way as I embraced a purposeful life.
I'm now figuring out what comes next and why I just joined A4D. Let me explain why I choose to make this modification in 5 different ways.
Recognizing the need for change is the first step in any major life transformation. I was a successful web marketer, but I secretly felt empty. I started to wonder about the effect of my work and whether it matched my fundamental principles and interests.
This introspection helped me come to the profound insight that I wanted a job that would allow me to change the world and be in line with my personal objectives.
Once the need for change has been established, it is time to investigate fresh possibilities that align with one's beliefs and goals. In quest of information about jobs that complemented my own objectives, I engaged myself in study and discussions with experts from a variety of fields.
I was able to achieve clarity throughout this exploration period by discovering prospective routes that would allow me to combine my skills with a meaningful career.
A thorough knowledge of my underlying beliefs was necessary for the transition from an online marketer to a career focused on values. I thought about the issues that were most important to me, like sustainability, social effect, and personal development.
I discovered that I was drawn to fields like social entrepreneurship, environmentally friendly business methods, and community development by matching these principles with probable job alternatives. My career would benefit society as a result of this congruence, which also permitted personal development and fulfillment.
Learning new skills and information is frequently required while changing careers. I started a journey of ongoing learning to develop knowledge in fields connected to the career I wanted.
I built up a broad skill set that enabled me to make the change successfully through online courses, workshops, and networking with specialists in my targeted sector. I was able to fill the gap between my prior experience as an online marketer and the demands of my current work thanks to this procedure.
There are difficulties involved in making the switch to a value-driven career. It necessitates bravery, tenacity, and adaptability. I met obstacles and disappointments along the way, but each one provided an opportunity for development.
I gained the ability to adapt to new situations, embrace change, and persevere in the face of challenges. These difficulties boosted my character and solidified my resolve to live a life guided by purpose.
Why A4D?
Jason Akatiff has helped me in the past in many scenarios of business and especially during my nuta days as an eCom marketer. Knowledge of his perspective on business gives me a full flight on what the future can hold.
I learned the significance of self-reflection, exploration, aligning values, continual learning, and perseverance on my path from an online marketer to a value-driven career. I feel fulfilled because I've adopted a purpose-driven lifestyle, which has allowed me to both have a beneficial impact on the world and enjoy my work on a personal level.
I urge everyone who feels the need for change to embrace their journey, pay attention to their inner guidance, and choose a course that fits with their beliefs and life goals.
In this post, I will discuss how to use QuillBot AI in combination with some of my favorite ad spy tools to run highly profitable advertising campaigns.
This workflow will make your job as an advertiser easier than you could ever imagine. You just copy what's already working on the market, and then let AI make your version even better!
Let's get to it.
QuillBot AI is an online paraphrasing tool that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to rephrase your copy. This AI software offers various options to customize your text depending on the tone and style you want.
All you need to do is paste any copy you want to be reworded into the QuillBot paraphraser tool and watch the magic happen.
Some key features of QuillBot include:
There are many options for ad spy tools and every digital marketer has their own preference.
I personally use Anstrex for spying on native and push ads, and Social Ad Spyder to see what’s working with Facebook ads.
If you’re unfamiliar with Anstrex or how to use ad spy tools in general, go ahead and check out my full breakdown of how to use Anstrex. It’ll make it a lot clearer how I find ad copy to enhance with QuillBot.
The goal here is to take what's already working and then use QuillBot AI to make a slight improvement so that your version is better than the competition.
I start by setting my spy tool parameters and searching for advertisements that have been performing well in my intended niche.
Once I find a high-potential ad to mimic with the spy tool, I simply copy the text the advertiser used and paste it into the QuillBot paraphraser.
I usually try out a few of the different style modes to see what options the AI produces before settling on what feels best for the specific ad I’m planning to run.
Then, I use the synonym bar to dictate how much the copy changes from the original text. Typically, I try to make fewer changes because I don’t want my copy to vary too much from what has already performed well.
Lastly, I hover over the words to see QuillBot's thesaurus suggestions and analyze if any other words are more suitable to use for my purpose.
However, I don't stop my improvements at just the ad copy. I also use QuillBot to create better landing page copy as well.
With Social Ad Spyder and Anstrex, I can easily download the landing page of the ad I'm spying on.
After I download and scrape the landing page, I take the text on the landing page and insert that into QuillBot for enhancement.
Updating both the ad and landing page copy equips you with an improved and unique advertising context to push.
And... That’s pretty much it!
This tool is like my own dedicated ads copywriter that is available 24/7.
You do not have to pay to use QuillBot AI. The free version of the software allows you to change up to 125 words of text in the paraphraser tool at a time. Because we are using QuillBot just to enhance ad copy, that’s all we really need.
Even if you want to use QuillBot to update extended landing page copy, you can just input the text into the paraphraser as shortened chunks of 125 words or fewer to avoid paying.
However, at $8.33/month, QuillBot Premium has some advanced features that you may find useful to further enhance your campaigns. I think the free version of the software does a really nice job of improving copy, but you’re limited to just two of the seven available modes.
You get the Standard mode, which makes basic changes to the text without straying from the original meaning, and the Fluency mode, which fixes grammatical errors and improves readability.
But what if you need ad copy that really pops and catches attention because the visual assets are lacking? You may benefit by having premium access to the Creative mode.
Or, what if your target audience is less educated or just has a less advanced English ability? You may find QuillBot’s Simple mode does a better job of rephrasing the copy in a way that more people can understand.
If you advertise using spy tools, QuillBot AI is a great software to add to your marketing stack. It quickly and affordably delivers high-quality, unique advertising copy.
Imagine being able to test different styles with QuillBot and see how each performs when you run a campaign. If you find one style doesn't work, you can quickly tweak the copy.
In advertising, a simple thing like adjusting the copy tone can make all the difference.
QuillBot is an efficient ad copy rewriting tool and I believe any advertiser using spy tools could really benefit from using it. It's a new year, after all. Why not let awesome tools and AI do most of the work for you?
For anyone looking to create profitable ad campaigns on Facebook, this Social Ad Spyder review is definitely for you!
As an affiliate, I frequently use ad spy tools to see what creatives are working right now and ensure my operations are aligned with the current trends.
Spy tools enable you to efficiently launch advertising campaigns by analyzing the performance of other advertisements in your niche of choice. This helps you to determine factors like how you should angle your ad, what type of visual assets to use, and the optimal length for your copy to set up a profitable campaign.
Ad spy tools save you time and money by showing you exactly what type of ad you should create if you want to do well so you don’t waste as many resources on testing as we digital marketers were subject to in the past.
This is especially important in the current environment of digital advertising, where advertising costs are trending upward as the space gets more competitive.
If you run advertisements on Facebook or Instagram, this social ad spy tool will give you a huge advantage over your competition by showing you what a profitable ad looks like out of the gate.
Social Ad Spyder is an ad spy tool specifically for platforms under the Meta umbrella, so it works for Facebook, Instagram, the Meta Audience Network, and Messenger. It's a social ad search engine that collects and organizes social network advertising data so that you can make informed campaign decisions.
At just $49.99 for the Professional subscription or $59.99 for the Premium, Social Ad Spyder is a bargain and well worth the price considering the thousands of dollars a month it will save you on ad spending and data collection efforts.
Although the platform has just recently launched, it has been scraping data for over two years, so it’s ready to start making an immediate impact on your social campaigns.
Social Ad Spyder is made for affiliates and E-commerce advertisers who run paid social ads on Meta.
Affiliates have access to data from over a dozen verticals like Crypto, Male Health, and CBD. As an affiliate, you get thousands of new ads daily and landing pages are conveniently available to download for quick analysis.
If you're an E-commerce marketer, you'll be excited to know that you can quickly sort through ads from the biggest platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and ClickFunnel to analyze product ad performance. Plus, downloading video and image media assets for analysis and adjustment is as easy as a single click.
With Social Ad Spyder, you have access to:
Social Ad Spyder is very easy to use. If you’ve already worked with the Anstrex spy tool for push ads, you’ll find the interface of Social Ad Spyder very familiar, as it was created by one of the founders of Anstrex.
I’ll use the rest of this article to discuss how I use this tool. Make sure to watch the Youtube live training here, or the video above.
As you can see from the image below, your filtering parameters are aligned across the top of the screen. Once you set some parameters and filter the data, your dashboard is filled with any matching advertisements.
Each result shows you:
When you see an ad that piques your interest, you can click and open it up to analyze even more data as seen below. This is also where you can see the landing page that the advertisement used.
An aspect of this tool that really excites me is the "Creatives" tab. Here, you can see all the advertisement variations that have been running and quickly compare their performance. You can get an idea of where you should advertise and which angle and style you should use when crafting your own ad.
Over the last six months, I've been getting into pay-per-call campaigns because it's a growing trend in the industry, so that's what I'm currently using this tool for.
I start by using the search function and typing in the keyword of the vertical I want to advertise in. I search by "Landing page search" because my strategy is always to pre-sell my affiliate offer, so I only want to see advertisements that incorporate a landing page.
Then I sort by "Duration (desc)" so I can see the longest-running ads first on the dashboard. I also set the minimum duration to seven days because if an ad can run for at least a week, that shows it has probably performed pretty well.
Finally, because I'm mostly focused on pay-per-call, I set the CTA to "Call Now" so I filter advertisements only from pay-per-call campaigns.
Although this is how I'm currently using Social Ad Spyder, many other uses and filtering parameters beyond what I've discussed here can enhance any Meta-based social advertising campaign.
If you want to substantially improve your Facebook advertising results, you can experiment with this tool for two days risk-free and watch your performance skyrocket!
Social Ad Spyder is currently my go-to spy tool to get ideas for social media advertising campaigns.
The key to using this spy tool successfully is to see what’s working on the market and then try to make a slight improvement by adding your own unique spin to make yours better than the competition.
Social Ad Spyder has made a noticeable difference in my advertising performance and I believe it can be a beneficial tool for any affiliate or E-commerce marketer running ads on Facebook or Instagram.
If you’re struggling to get profitable with your Meta advertising or just want to improve your current processes, give this game-changing social ad spy tool a try today!
I frequently join numerous WhatsApp and Facebook groups while I'm traveling. It enables me to stay in touch with pertinent users who enjoy traveling and are online business owners. However, occasionally you may be lured into a community of regular travelers rather than digital nomads.
I think first we have to clarify what a digital nomad is. Wikipedia states
Digital nomads are people who live in a nomadic way while working remotely using technology and the internet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad
This, in my opinion, is inaccurate and not a complete definition. Simply because you can relocate from one location to another does not qualify you as a digital nomad; working remotely does. To me, being a digital nomad entails independence. Although being able to travel freely does not necessarily imply having a job, it does make you a digital nomad.
Let's talk about a popular quote that goes, "You are the average of your five friends." This a well-known quote and something to consider carefully. Now we have communities, groups, WhatsApp groups, Twitter - your average of 5 now is 100x because of social media.
Also, a lot of people are not 'hanging out' as everything has moved online. There are no more just hangout meetups, or just chilling at a cigar bar and talking business. Everything is online and being average on the internet will destroy your mind.
Particularly, this Whatsapp group has devolved into an all-out frenzy. Travelers who identify as digital nomads but are actually just working from home are not. I am not going to take your pronouns away, but as stated above nomadness = freedom.
Got off track here...
We must ensure that the group is both focused and of high caliber. The first meetup I attended after joining a community of digital nomads was quite helpful. Online income was available to everyone.
Recently, it has mostly simply been a group of travelers looking to get together. When someone politely asked whether they might share the Whatsapp connection to a Facebook group, I gently replied that we should make sure the new members are excellent and are also marketers.
Everyone in the group needs to receive value instead of always giving. I believe in reciprocity and this input-output helps entrepreneurs become the 6th average person in the group. Here is a response from an admin of the group after I posted that we want to have quality.
Now that the group had begun to discuss marketing and the admin was a social media manager, I was quite perplexed. Because so many people worked online and weren't just calling themselves digital nomads or entrepreneurs, this is the reason our first meetup was so great.
I was totally perplexed when the phrase "the more the merrier" was used in the group because it should always be "quality, not quantity," especially for a group that wants to expand. For travel-related activities, a separate channel may be available, but for business collaboration, it is crucial to establish a group that is focused on each others' growth.
I am not writing this to complain but more of a reminder that we live in a world of huge communities now, if you want to be the 6th richest person in the group, then you need a group of rich people. If you want to be the best basketball player in the group, you need people that want to play basketball every day and dissect basketball players.
I remember when I was in Brazil, I asked a general travel group if I can create a marketing meetup Whatsapp group and I wanted to have a question, stating do you make 10k a month online. A lot of people got offended and then I got reported to the group and I guess that is how I got booted from the Whatsapp group.
We live in a world now where we need to be friends with everyone, even with the person who brings no value. How does one person grow, if someone is just a giver and not a receiver?
This is why it is important to separate yourself from the general and be the next mover, if the person is offended because you ask how much they make (10k is very easy to make a month) then they are not in the same space as you. Just brush it off and move on with the people who are making those numbers.
In order to be the average of your 5 best friends, you need 5 best friends that will push, support, question, tell you you are ugly and just be upfront and real. Everyone else who has to think before they speak is not the type of person you want to be around.
Again, to be the best you need to be with the best. You do not go get a mentor that is below you, you get one that far surpasses your expectations and your 5 friends shouldn't be any different.
Why do more and more affiliates now prefer native advertising, even giving up on Facebook campaigns? Better quality leads and, hence, a higher approval rate along with a broad audience reach and fewer problems with account bans. And that's not all! Read the article to find out how to achieve good results with Health & Beauty offers on native ads.
For those who are also looking into getting started with native advertising, there is a brief info about the upcoming webinar by AdCombo & Taboola at the end. The webinar is held on November 1st, at 12:00pm UTC, to let affiliates learn about efficient campaign management on native ads. Also, there is a great chance to find an almost complete strategy for launching a native-ad campaign with Health & Beauty offers! Find a registration form down through the post.
Now, let’s get down to a detailed overview of the results that AdCombo affiliates managed to get by promoting Health & Beauty products on Taboola.
What is AdCombo?
There are very few people in the CPA niche who haven’t heard about AdCombo. Nevertheless, AdCombo is an international CPA Network with 130 000+ affiliates around the globe. It has a wide range of verticals with a primary focus on Health & Beauty goods, including in-house ones.
What is Taboola?
Taboola is the world's leading discovery & native advertising platform that provides an opportunity to attract about 500 million users a day to a product or service. Although Taboola is the largest native ad platform, not every affiliate has even tried working with it.
The collaboration started with a couple of experienced AdCombo affiliates. Rapidly, AdCombo got to be a master on running Taboola campaigns. AdCombo is a master within the Taboola algorithm, efficiently optimizing Taboola campaigns, reaching diverse audiences in numerous markets, and scaling campaigns in the most effective way.
These are some tools AdCombo’s affiliates are using to promote on Taboola - SmartBid, Attentive Audiences, and Motion Ads.
Without cutting the volume that AdCombo affiliates have on Facebook and Google, multiple AdCombo affiliates have reached a five-figure spend (a 6,000% increase) per day without affecting performance. A few affiliates benefited from CPA decrease of more than 30% (QOQ) on selected Health & Beauty offers, which led to months of profitable affiliate campaigns.
As a result of cooperation with Taboola, some AdCombo affiliates got a 10% better approval rate than Facebook due to more high-quality leads.
What advantages of running AdCombo offers with Taboola?
As an affiliate with a good volume of traffic, AdCombo will provide you with access to Taboola agency accounts, which includes well-rounded support from both AdCombo and Taboola managers.
That’s how AdCombo has benefited from collaboration with Taboola. Want more info on their experience? Join AdCombo x Taboola webinar on ? November 1st, 2022. 12:00 PM (UTC).
The guys will be talking about where to start working with native ads and how to make a win-win strategy of coming on the native-ad path with Health & Beauty offers.
Webinar agenda:
You'll be learning from the best experts:
It's Ian Fernando here. I do online marketing for the past 20 years already. Been an affiliate, media buyer, and advertiser. I own a software company. I sold two software companies, sold a social community recently. Yeah, I'm an all-around marketer online.
Nowadays, I'm doing a lot of lead gen, and a lot of social traffic. I do a lot of TikTok lead gen specifically in debt, finance, home repair, home renovation, and things of that nature. But all on TikTok.
TikTok is just an easy platform to get on just because it's so automated on their side. The algorithm is so powerful that you can literally throw up your ad and give it a couple of hours and get a conversion and theIR algorithm with what makes their platform very powerful.
I say, just throw up a couple of ad variants, figure out the CBO campaign and let TikTok figure out which one of the ad formats is best for your creative or your offer, and then start tweaking it in that direction.
I've only done lead gen, so finance, debt. I also tried a tort as well. Tora did pretty well, and offer wall do well too as well. So those are the ones that I've done specifically so far.
Tracking I use RedTrack volume. More so with your conversion API, just so I can get real-time tracking with that platform and feed it back to TikTok in real time.
They are a lot of supply tools. I use a very expensive supply tool that gives me a lot of pretty good in-depth data. But I don't want to say it just yet. But it's a very good one, but the best way to really just find the best ad organically is pretty much just go on TikTok, type in a keyword or hashtag and look at what people are promoting and see which one is the most popular one and see if you can angle it that way as well.
Of course, you have to always test. So when I start a campaign, I probably start off with five creatives that are very different from each other, 5-second, 15, second, 30 to minute videos, and see which one does well.
They all have different angles as well, different intro styles as well. And then I figure out from there, what ad creative and what angle I need to go to based on what TikTok is telling me.
Facebook native. I stepped away a lot from, the last time we talked with pops and push. I was doing a lot of, but now I'm doing definitely more into the tier one traffic sources, for sure.
Of course. Yeah, the networking side of the industry is super important. I've known you for years. I know a lot of people here for years as well. And just to shake hands with somebody that might be doing better than you gives you aspirations to even push yourself and do more. So networking in this industry specifically is very important.
If I'm going to lose. I'm going to lose money. So if you have that mindset already right away, then I think after that, just picking yourself up is much faster than just staying down on the ground. A lot of people in this industry, give up too quickly because they don't understand maybe the tactic, they don't understand maybe why the CTR happened.
They don't understand why the click-through on their landing page dropped. The thing about affiliates and creative marketers is we ask the question, why did that happen? And then from there, we dig deeper into that situation and try to find a solution as to why.
So I think the mindset of asking why and being willing to lose right away instead of winning is a very important mindset to have, I think, in my opinion.
So there are two arguments. Do I want to focus on money? Do I want to start on what I'm enjoying? I feel like the easiest way to get started is to focus on what you enjoy, because you actually have knowledge of what you enjoy. And if you have the knowledge, you can start thinking about your audience. You can start thinking about the ad style because you've been around it.
Whereas if you're just looking for the money side, you have to put in more effort for research. Whereas if you enjoy something, you kind of already have that basic knowledge of what the audience is.
Who's going to look after it? And if you lose on what you enjoy, technically you're not losing. But I think that's the important part too.
Thanks to MyBid, marketers can access some of the most experienced marketing teams. It was hard to imagine that a platform could give affiliate marketers all-inclusive service. This blog reviews the MyBid platform, how to get started, and its many benefits.
As one of the newest players in the digital marketing world, MyBid has been quietly working by drumming up interest from partners and advertisers for the last couple of years.
Recently, MyBid has moved into the public eye, moving away from being just a fully managed affiliate marketing agency and now into a popular platform with some of the most stellar customer support.
In my opinion, what stands out for me is the fact that MyBid is specifically for advertisers. Some of their best features are a fully managed advertising platform, various ad formats, wicked push notification ads, and much more.
Here’s a quick overview of getting started with MyBid.io. With just six steps, you can be raking in cash in no time.
By harnessing the power of the MyBid manager, I found it a breeze to find the perfect ad formats, landing pages, and creatives to make my campaign stellar.
In this second step, I chose which payment method I wanted to use; I found it interesting to start with such a low deposit.
The MyBid manager helped me take my marketing campaign to a whole new level; I was able to optimize everything resulting in some wicked stats and leads.
After that, the MyBid manager quickly set my campaign and started it; I didn’t have to lift a finger.
Here I was able to change bids, tweak creatives, and even add more advertising formats to scale my campaign.
Finally, the most attractive allure of affiliate marketing advertising is to count your profits; with MyBid, I was shocked at my ROI.
Honestly, I was blown away by how many advertising formats MyBid has available; there is something for everyone here. Below is a list of all advertising formats and my thoughts on each option:
Out of all the ad formats, push notifications are probably the most effective when it comes to advertising; I can easily reach my target audience without going broke. I love push notifications because they work well on web browsers and mobile devices, with cheap traffic and high returns.
I’ll keep this one short and sweet; with popunder ads, I find that they’re a great way to keep your budget low while still getting high-quality leads.
As a relative newcomer to the affiliate marketing world, widget notifications have a reputation for generating traffic using a strict filtering system, resulting in quality leads that’ll convert.
For native ads, it’s common to see them on news websites or blogs, appearing like they’re part of the content. As one of the most potent ad formats, native ads can generate quality traffic from their natural, inviting appearance.
As one of the oldest formats, banner ads are a tried-and-true option for affiliate marketing. Typically found at the top of websites, displayed like a “banner,” these ads are a great starting point for any beginner affiliate marketers.
As in-stream videos continue to grow in popularity for ads, it’s great to know MyBid is keeping up with the times. The biggest advantage videos have is that they can easily evoke emotions and let viewers visualize the product without holding or using it physically.
Here’s my list of some of the best advantages when using MyBid to take your affiliate marketing campaign to the next level.
The best thing about MyBid.io is the personal manager; they provide the tools I need to scale my campaign and business successfully. With access to these incredible tools, I can confidently reach my target audience, watch what ads are converting, and see where I need to make any changes.
Super easy to interact with my managers, I mean they gave me 2. Since I just supply them with a link, they start making sure it becomes profitable.
As one of the best options, regardless of what product or service you’re trying to sell, MyBid can accommodate all verticals and niches. This point is what sold me on using this platform; with a wide range of options for possible offerings, I can have peace of mind knowing my campaign will be a hit.
With loads of flexible settings, I found it easy to customize my traffic, focusing on specific needs and interests. By targeting by country, IP address, browser type, or operating system, MyBid is the perfect tool to convert high-quality traffic.
Lastly, I found MyBid’s extensive library of ad formats to be a factor that sealed the deal for me. With many options that can work for any vertical, campaign type, or target audience, MyBid was the missing piece to my affiliate marketing puzzle.
My verdict for MyBid would be two thumbs up if you didn’t guess it. With MyBid’s personal manager, I have another set of eyes looking at incoming traffic and much more. In the end, MyBid took care of the stats, and I could focus on increasing my conversions and profits. For more information, go to MyBid now and learn more today!
Today I will review Conversion Rate Academy; my buddy Oliver Kenyon owns this platform and wants me to share some of my insight. Right from the word go, I was amazed by this platform. With a perfect blend of community and experts, Conversion Rate Academy is a great resource, especially if you're still very new to marketing. Keep reading for more on my insights and thoughts on this incredible platform.
As the name suggests, the Conversion Rate Academy is an incredible community focused on conversion rate optimization. Developed as the ultimate instruction booklet that provides marketers with the tools to craft and completely optimize landing pages, website sections, or affiliate marketing campaigns.
If you're new to affiliate marketing, the process of conversion rate optimization is where a marketer looks to "optimize" or improve their website, landing page, or campaign to increase their conversion rates. Essentially, increasing the amount of paying customers associated with your marketing efforts while trying to squeeze the most out of your budget.
It isn't easy to understate CRO's importance for a website or online business; becoming a CRO expert can be the difference between your business spending or raking in thousands of dollars. Whether you're an affiliate marketer, e-commerce business owner, lead generator, or website developer, this platform is perfect.
I tried to do this part in one section, but there were too many points to include. Instead, I broke down my review section into smaller sections based on components found within Conversion Rate Academy; read on for more on my thoughts.
After you've signed into your Conversion Rate Academy, you might notice something that's known as the dashboard and community section. In this part, you can view a list of all available items from a community forum, user introductions, status updates for ongoing user projects, an area for feedback, and guides to help you get started.
Here, you'll have the chance to chat with community members about CRO topics, such as copywriting, website design, and general digital marketing questions. I loved this section's resources for ads, software services, and different themes or apps; finding so much inspiration in one place was awesome.
In the training section, which is quite comprehensive, in my opinion, Conversion Rate Academy goes over each of these eight parts in great detail. Below is a further breakdown of each section with some of my thoughts along with that too.
1. Introduction
Here you get to introduce yourself to the community and get a great warm welcome from everyone including the owners and even Oliver Kenyon himself.
2. Basics of Conversion Design
After that, the basics of conversion designs go over the main aspects of conversion rates while also breaking down the importance of using landing pages.
3. Foundation of High Conversions
Then there's the foundation of high conversions, which explains how to set a CRO goal, develop a solid offer for your customers, and why it's so critical to know your target market.
4. Design Blueprint
You'll learn about creating a landing page that converts for the design blueprint. This section looks at the importance of colors, high-value propositions, and how to ensure you keep your design sleek.
5. Development Blueprint
From there, you'll hear why aspects like speed optimization, responsiveness, cross-browser compatibility, CTAs, and more are vital to making a high-converting landing page.
6. Copywriting Blueprint
In section six, you'll touch on the importance of good copywriting, how to create the perfect copy, and how to develop the best value proposition that'll make your customers convert.
7. Level up your Conversion Game
After that, in section seven, Conversion Rate Academy dives into tactics you can use to increase your conversions, such as up-selling, cross-selling, and suggestion walls.
8. Testing and Optimization
Finally, in testing and optimization, you'll learn how to test and analyze your data correctly, and from that, you'll learn how to plan strategically based on that information.
In my opinion, the guides section is one of the most helpful and best places to start when using Conversion Rate Academy. In this section, you'll find digital marketing gold as others share their knowledge and experiences with the greater community.
On my YouTube, I talk about the audits section a fair bit. Here I discuss that Oliver's team will "audit" someone's website or landing page designs, detailing what they did well and where they can further improve things. The audits section is one of my favorite features of Conversion Rate Academy; it's an invaluable tool, especially if you're starting.
Now to some of my last thoughts on Conversion Rate Academy. What stuck out to me is this blend of experts and, at the same time, a great marketing community, all folded up into one; I love it. With experts ready to give you a breakdown and feedback from website or landing page audits, training courses, and much more, Conversion Rate Academy has it all.
This forum is very different because this forum is a direct mentoring approach vs a community approach. What do I mean by this? Simple, a typical forum is dependent on the community. The forum community gives you the feedback and you decide if that information is good.
Conversion Rate Academy, Oliver, and his team are answering you directly, giving their direct experience to you to help increase your CRO. This is the difference between this forum and others out there. In every post, you will see Oliver and a member of his team on each post, helping you make more money.
This is why this approach is very different and I commend the Conversion Academy team for directly being involved in everyone's success.
As I was looking to scale up my TikTok campaign, I realized that I could quickly start converting my videos for Meta Ads, which I could repurpose later on stories and reels.
I bet you didn’t think of that. A lot of people ignore this because FB doesn't even give a lot of value to these placements. I tested and well let's talk about it…
At the start, my TikTok campaign used all direct linking, which is why initially, I found no need to create a landing page. Mainly because even before presenting the offer, the audience on the platform is already interested and warm; they know what they want.
Honestly, this is what makes TikTok so incredibly powerful. In my opinion, this platform has perfected its ability to utilize an interest graph rather than a Meta social graph.
This thought left me wondering what would happen if I moved my campaign to Facebook; I thought it should likely do well there too. First, I started by creating a brand-new campaign in RedTrack and connected it to my Facebook business manager using a direct link.
Initially, I kicked this campaign off with a budget of $200 per day. With almost no conversions at first, which was odd, I let it run for a day to see what would happen. Typically, I've found that Facebook goes through a learning period, so I was under the impression that after a day, some conversions would start trickling in; unfortunately, I was wrong.
After that, I decided to add a landing page in front of the offer, thinking maybe my audience on TikTok was different from Facebook; maybe my initial approach was too much in their face.
From there, I added a landing page to the front of the offer. Here are the results…
From the first day of this campaign, you'll notice it didn't start too well. After that, the next day, some profits started to roll in, followed by the next day showing some further promise.
For some reason, a landing page helped me filter out unnecessary clicks and unwanted users. With this change, I began seeing higher quality leads from the network and ads.
But how did I find the right type of landing page?
Simple, I just did some essential spying on Anstrex, which you can read more about it here. From there, I could niche down, which let me promote using the most popular landing page template, in which I repurposed the existing text from the original.
Since I had already used different sets of landing pages before that I think have done well in the past, I just needed to find the right context.
With the help of spying tools, such as Anstrex, I quickly got ahead of the game. Following the help of these fantastic tools allowed me to work on my copywriting, the bane of my existence.
Above, you can see that you can easily edit and then export the landing page right from Anstrex, then quickly load it onto your domain; it's just that easy.
The reason a landing page helps to create conversions is, first off, it pre-qualifies all leads. This point is critical for a social graph traffic source; you must filter all incoming users.
With the help of a landing page, you can do this quite easily, mainly because the user needs to click on the next page to see the offer, which helps to drive further interest, curiosity, and even action.
The goal of any affiliate campaign is to convert the click. Here, ensuring that users click are qualified persons of interest for the offer is critical. A good landing page should entice users; by creating a sense of wanting from the user, it's more likely they'll continue through your click funnel.
For those who follow, Oli Gardner, founder of Unbounce, states you should never start a marketing campaign without a landing page. In my opinion, it depends on the algorithm, such as on TikTok.
But I do believe, for the most part, a landing page is a powerful tool for any marketing campaign, which I always use when it comes to Google and Facebook.
Hands down, I will always recommend using a landing page; it's one of the most powerful marketing tools. As you can see from this case study, a landing page can be the difference in helping translate a successful TikTok campaign into one that's converting well on Meta Ads.
What this tells me is that not all traffic sources are made equal. Sometimes, it's a good idea to let the data tell you where to go next; that's been the case for me.
Sometimes, it could be as simple as the offering costing too much or the users on Facebook wanting to know more information before they agree to anything. By answering questions for the user like "What is the benefit?" and "What are they getting out of it?", which most offers don't tend to state, a landing page can help turn things around.
Keep in mind that the flow of a typical landing page is pretty straightforward, from the ad to the landing page to the final offer; it's that easy.
Some people will argue it's better to add a lead capture right before the offer, but I've found that this depends on the type of offer. I believe lead capture is necessary, but again this heavily depends on the offer and goal of the ad, but that's a conversation for another time.
Finally, to cap everything off, this ad converted better mainly because I could filter the users who were most interested in the offer, resulting in higher quality leads and more conversions.
