2nd Time Today

Well, I was finally able to finish the product pages for PPC3. I finished them and I am not satisfied. I just could not bring myself to start running ads just yet. Looking at the competition, I will model the B portion of the A/B split after what they do. Of course I will improve in areas where I find them weak.

Of the 150+ words I resubmitted last night, 4 were approved. I won't be submitting them again tonight. Tomorrow I will though. I also received notification from the affiliate manager for PPC2 that affiliates should not send in leads until the 4th so I have a few more days to prepare. Seems like they are trying to make sure their budget is ready.

That is it for now. I'm going to spend the rest of the night coming up with ideas for B's design.

Sorry About That

I completely forgot to blog last night. My apologies.

Nothing really to report though. 75% of my keywords were accepted by Overture this last round, however, several in that remaining 25% were essential. In fact, some of them have been submitted and denied 5 times now. I spent last night submitting them for a 6th time=). Eventually I will get them.

I also deposited my first check for affiliate marketing. It felt really good. I will need to get the direct deposit situation taken care of so the funds are ready to go instantly. Other than that, not much else happened. Tomorrow is when the rubber meets the road.

PPC2 Preparation Nearing Completion

I did a lot of work on PPC2 this weekend from making multiple versions of the page to address different visitor needs to submitting keywords. I could not give you an exact figure on the number of keywords I submitted but there were several hundred. I'm getting excited about February=)

Adsense has been doing it's thing in the background. I'd have to say that it is truly passive income because I have made no changes to those sites since probably October. Even so, the clicks keep coming and the money trickles in. Eventually, I may go back and make a few more ad-based sites or even finish Project 10/15=) I have yet to break $100/month with Adsense but it has been climbing the last few months.

I received my first affiliate marketing check this weekend. The network told me that they had sent it by transfer but after a week of going back and forth, it turns out they actually sent a check. I'm going to take a picture of it and frame it, I think=)

Chuggin' Along

PPC2 Day. Today was more of the same Overture dance for PPC2. I did not put in as many words tonight but my list of categories is diminishing. Decent progress is being made and hopefully the site will take off like a bat out of hell come Feb 1 when I turn my ads back on.

I am considering some changes to the form but we will see. Adwords would allow me to do the split test like I plan to do for PPC3 but Overture has no such mechanism. Overture is quite antiquated. I am hoping that MSN adCenter is better. Nikki mentioned it in the comments a few days ago but I don't think it will do what I need for PPC 2 & 3. Maybe PPC4 though...

I try to stay focused on the here and now but my mind drifts to new projects constantly. My only hope is that I can get PPC2 & 3 to their potential quickly so I can move on to the next project=)

Alternating Days is Gold

Indeed. I worked on PPC3 today and was able to finish all but 2 products. I'm getting excited about it and am not completely sure if I should wait until next month to start or begin as soon as everything is ready. Chances are PPC3 won't be ready this month so I guess it isn't even something I should really consider at the moment.

I don't know if I mentioned it or not but I plan to do an A/B split test for PPC3. It is a technical product and I want to see if a feature/benefits chart-style landing page does better than a narrative style one. The problem I foresee with this is that I will not be able to test my ads at the same time. I will have to hope to have found effective adcopy prior to starting the split test. I haven't quite determined my course of action on that yet.

My method for getting more words approved in Overture had some success. The big words that I really wanted were still disapproved but I did get a lot of the others that I wanted. Maybe a couple shifts here and there will garner those elusive keywords. I will let you know.

This May Work

Splitting the sites I work on by day makes me so much more productive. I was able to get several groups of keywords into Overture for their disapproval. I did make some adjustments that may make getting words approved more easier. We will find out in the coming days. I really think that I may be on the right track with PPC2. Hopefully next month will be the breakout month of it like December was for PPC1. PPC2 is good all year until the Holidays so it is exactly what I need.

I think I'm addicted to starting to new projects. I find myself fighting the urge to start pursuing other programs to promote. PPC3 isn't even up yet! I need to calm myself=) I have come to a conclusion though. From this point on, I will not promote a product that pays less than $8.00/sale unless I KNOW that the program is profitable. Anything less runs the risk of low to no profit margins if competition is even moderately heavy in the PPC world. This isn't Gospel, it's just one man's opinion.

Not Enough Hours

It's been awhile since I have worked this hard. There just aren't enough hours after I get off work. I was only able to finish 3 product page tonight for PPC3 when I was hoping to hit PPC2 tonight, too. Maybe I will alternate days for each site. Tomorrow will be PPC2 Day.

From working on PPC3, I am starting to think that my sales copy is too long. I have a tendancy to write a lot. I don't talk much but I write a hell of a lot. Anyway, I am going to test two different landing page types. One with this sales copy that I have been working on and the other consisting of mostly tables of information. It will be very interesting to see which one performs best because both have their advantages.

I forgot to mention it this weekend but #3 had it's first sale. It was only a couple dollars but it was the first sale from the Original 3.

Repercussions

There are repercussions to not putting your best effort into your business. It fails. It is that simple. This month has been a failure for my business due to my lack of effort. After the fall of PPC1, I did not do everything necessary to get my next two programs running. PPC2 is still having trouble due to complications with Overture and I just finished the sales copy for PPC3 today.

I will be using the last few days of January to get things right. I can't continue on this path any longer if I expect to succeed. The tasks are to:

1) Get my keywords into Overture. I have 2000+ in right now but none are high traffic words. No more submitting 1,200 per day. Depending on a number of factors, it could be between 5,000 and 10,000 per day. Only a small percentage actually get approved so these high numbers are necessary.

2) Streamline the form on PPC2. There is something that is not making people want to sign up. I need to make sure that load times aren't a factor.

3) Post the landing pages for PPC3 and create the Adwords Campaign.

It is time for me to get serious. December showed me that I can make money when I try hard and make an honest effort. January taught me that I will lose money if I do not give it my all. Let's see what February will bring.

Fleshing Out PPC3

PPC3 is coming along. Writing sales copy is not the easiest thing in the world. As you no doubt have heard a million times, you want to sell benefits and not features. It's the translation of features into benefits that can get hairy. You have to know WHO you are trying to market to in order to know how the features will benefit them. Too often, I find myself wanting to hit a broad range of people with my sales copy but, supposedly, that is not the most effective method. It took me most of the night to write the copy for one of the products. Nine to go.

I have also been working on the PHP script a bit to include more variable portions than ever before. Now everything but the header images and template change. Product images, lists of features and benefits, sales copy, and titles all change with the id number.

Approved Search Listings: 908
Declined Search Listings: 2535
Pending Search Listings: 2173

This is the kind of thing I have to deal with from Overture. How are they going to decline over 2500 keywords. You can understand now how I can easily lose motivation from getting emails like that. Especially considering PPC1 has had no leads yet. Anyway, it's showertime.

Back in the Saddle Again

Thanks to Burke and Jean-Rene for the comments of support. It certainly feels good to be back in the saddle.

Following my strategy of "Overture Last" worked again tonight. I made some progress with PPC3 doing research on 8 of 10 products before hitting the Point of Diminishing Returns. I'll probably go back and redo the research on the 8th product to make sure it is up to par. I also made a color change to the header. Before, there was too much blue and the site looked plain. With some Photoshop magic, I created some effects and the header changed the feel of the page. I also found some pics of the products that are more dynamic than the ones that I currently have.

It looks like I may be getting close to finishing PPC3.

In Overture, I have added another 2100 words for the editors to decline. I also made adjustments to my adcopy that is packed with benefits. Overture allows more ad space than Adwords so this is easier to do. I also shortened some of the text on the lead form to get people to read less and hopefully fill out the form.

Finally!

This month has been rough for the Business and I've lost my motivation to keep going...at least until today. I made definite progress on PPC3. I have created all of the graphics and PHP script. All that is really necessary now is to work on the sales copy and create the ads. I REALLY want this one to show promise in the beginning. I have not had much in the way of earnings this month aside from Adsense.

Anyway, I found the key to getting back into the groove of working is to do my Overture stuff last. Overture is so frustrating that after fighting with it I just did have the fortitude to work on other things. From now on, Overture work is done at the end of the night.

After I get PPC3 up and running decently, I am going to hold off on starting any new projects. I need to focus on these PPC programs I have running already and get them to make money. Until tomorrow.

Long Day

Worked for 11 hours and 45 minutes today. No work today either=)

Favor for a Friend

Taking the night off to do someone a favor.

More Overture Please

Submitted another 1300 words today. Looking at the words they declined and the ones they approved, the editor must not have been the brightest individual. Things that related directly to my lead form were denied while things that were a far stretch had a better chance of getting approved. Hopefully this pans out in the end because after the progress I had made in December, I don't want to take a step backward.

PPC3
Bought the domain last night. It is in a fairly competitive electronics area (other than home theater). The level of traffic looking for these products is greater than that of PPC1 during the holidays. I would really like to make PPC2 & 3 my evergreen money-makers with a few seasonals sprinkled here and there. When will I start work on PPC3 is anyone's guess. I have made some preliminary determinations on what products people are looking for. Now it is a matter of finding a merchant. After that, I will model my site closely to theirs. I have a feeling that doing so could help promote sales since the transition from my site to the merchant's would be less jarring.

Set-Back

I tried but sometimes it doesn't matter what you do. PPC1 is going down until next holiday season. It just was not making money anymore. I decided that it would be better to cut my loses and focus on my other campaigns. I am quickly losing ground on my pursuit of $100/day.

I added about 1000 more words to my Overture campaign for PPC2. I am hesitant to add more than that at a time because a real person looks at each of the words to decide whether I can use them or not. I'd rather not take the risk of submitting 10k words at one time and having them reject a majority of them. Plus this way I can more easily tell what words have been approved and disapproved.

#3's PPC campaign just isn't getting traffic. I added more products yesterday but still I get very few impressions. Goes to show that keyword research isn't always correct. I will keep working on it, of course but I'm not sure what else I can do. If the traffic isn't there, you can't make them click your ad.

This brings me to PPC3 and the possibilities for filling that role. I think I may have had my fill of trying to hit the smaller niches. I'm willing to try something far bigger with more traffic. I have an idea of what it will be.

Sorry if this post is a bit pessimistic. Things get rough but you have to persevere.

Another Day

I was able to make some changes to PPC1 but it is too early to tell if they are making a difference or not. Part of the problem is that I have cut back on the number of products I'm promoting so the level of traffic to test on is significantly smaller.

Yesterday I killed 2 birds with one stone. Both of these birds were ones that I have been procrastinating on but I had some motivation so I did it. One, I finally opened a checking account for the business. I already have a savings account but now everything can totally be separate. It has it's own debit card and everything. Bird two, I have officially been approved for the $160k loan for a home/duplex.

Overture is a pain. It is so convoluted and ridiculous. Aggravating. I've submitted about 1200 words this weekend so I'm going to wait until most of those are approved/declined before sending in the next set. At this rate, I don't know if I will get PPC2 off the ground before the end of the month.

And the Confusion Ensues...

Overture is weird as hell. I have absolutely no clue what is going on when I am trying to use it. It isn't simple and straight forward like Adwords. Not in the least. I feel like I am in the Wilderness of Confusion while I am logged on. Everything is convoluted and twisted. Another thing is that it is completely human-edited so your keywords have to pass what the editor thinks is relevant to your page. Otherwise your keyword will be denied. To add to that, they say to expect to wait 3 to 5 days before you hear back on the status of your words and ads. This thing is going to be a beast.

Of the 300+ products I had been promoting over the holidays with PPC1, I am down to about 30 or less. I have cut out all of the products that did not make sales and all of the products that did not have an ROI that I felt warranted continued ad time. Have to be cut throat with this PPC stuff. I am still shooting for my goal of 2 sales/day. I am reading a book on optimizing landing pages so we will see if I can put it to good use.

Overture Prep

With the lead form finished, I have started to create my keyword list. I want to have it finished before I actually sign up for Overture. One good thing about Overture is that you can see what other people are bidding. Already, I have found a few words that have very little competition. I like that=)

PPC1 has slowed tremendously, as expected, but it has been making sales. The problem lies in that 1. I still feel my CPC is too high, especially for the low volume (1 sale/day now) and 2. I had 2 cancellations today that have put me in the red already. The world of PPC is a scary place.

This morning, I did make a few changes to PPC1's landing page. My goal is to average 2 sales/day on it which would be pretty good considering that it was initially intended to be a holiday only promotion site. If I could pull that with my current expenses, that would be a little over $10/day. Here's to landing page optimization!

While You Were Off From Work

I was in the office. I was rather agitated about the fact that we didn't have today off. Of all of the places to work, you'd think the state would give us the day off but no. Anyway...

PPC2 is finally finished! It looks so much better than the original it isn't even funny. All of the validations work and it sends me the email once it has been filled out. Now for Overture.

Here are my numbers from last month. Better than ever but still some disappointments.

Adsense: $78.33
Best month ever by almost $20. Good Stuff=)

PPC1:
Gross: $546
Expenses: $417.48
Net: $128.52
Here is the disappointment. While I did well with sales, my expenses were too high. I wasn't able to get my expenses down until late in the month. Add to that the period with the major cancellations/no sales days and my ROI dropped like a rock. Lesson, reduce expenses at all costs.

Total: $206.85
While there were disappointments, this is my best month ever. Feels good to go from making $50-60/month to over $200. With PPC2 finished, I am hoping for another great leap in earnings this month.

Burke's Challenge Progress [Revised]: $4.15/day, $95.85/day to go=)