So Much On My Plate

This has been a busy month. I've been working to launch lists in several markets, start a take over of my product's market, and get a new product developed.

Unfortunately, the new product has fallen by the way side. I need to get back on it because it's in a proven market and the traffic is strong enough that I'd make a nice amount of cash with it. That will have to be my focus tonight - getting everything prepped to build the product. Once it is actually built, it shouldn't be overly difficult to clean it up and launch. We will see.

Something tells me I probably shouldn't do this but I'm going to call Google today and see if I can get some answers about my two domains that have been slapped. Wish me luck.

Validation #3!

It came this past weekend - I made a sale on one of the test campaigns I was running.

That makes 3 campaigns that have proven themselves to be worth the effort of building a real site and autoresponder. This campaign is a low traffic one right now so I think I'll keep it active for the moment just to be sure the sale wasn't a fluke.

As for the other 2, I launched the autoresponder for one of them last night. I have some really high hopes for this one. The traffic has been high and one of my presale pages has had an awesome conversion rate. I took that winning version and slapped on a pop-in. We will see how things go. Eventually, I will switch to an all out namesqueeze - but not yet.

Roger - I don't know what happened except that on two of my campaigns I used a Frank Kern-provided namesqueeze page. Looking back at that page now, I see that I forgot to add the links to my privacy policy, etc. Damn!

But yes, I did make sure the sites were actual sites with real content and were indexed (the sites, not the landing pages) before I ran my campaigns.

Hmm...

Update on New Course

Since my last update, I've launched/maintained 8 campaigns. Some are existing, some are in the test phase. Those that are existing have proven to convert in the past.

The other day I had confirmation that one of the test products I wanted to promote does convert. Now I'm going to set about building a website and autoresponder around the topic. I created around 10 days worth of follow-ups for it yesterday. Today, I will review the actual product and get more ideas for the site and newsletter.

Haven't seen any real success yet as far as profits go from the test campaigns, however, the one that made the sale does have decent traffic levels. I think that once I get the autoresponder up, I will start to see a return just based on volume.

That's one issue I've run into though. Google HATES the sign-up forms, I've been using. I'm not sure why but I need to figure out a way around the nonsense. I'll keep you updated.

Back in the Email Marketing Game

It came to me in a dream...

Email marketing was going to be the way for me. Yes, I'd still do PPC because I'm PPC for life but building a list using those efforts is the key. I was talking to Roger a week or two ago and basically told him how stupid I'd been. I mean, I didn't start making decent, reliable money in this game until I started building a list. But then I got caught up in the flash and glitz of all of these different money making methods - email marketing was quickly cast aside.

No longer! My plan is to create a few lists in large markets and see how things go. With enough lists selling high commission items, I should be able to maintain a steady amount of income. This has been the real problem with my PPC efforts lately. There was nothing steady and nothing to show for it at the end of the day but maybe some cash. The trick now is getting the cash and the subscriber so that I can get cash from them again. And again=)

I'm sometimes slow on the uptake but I'm getting there. I just shudder to think of all of the money I spent since April '08 without building a list. The stuff of nightmares it is!

"PPC for Life Yo!"

That's right. I'm back at the PPC game. I guess I'm hooked. I am doing it a little smarter this time around and actually collecting the email addresses as I go. This way I can send them all kinds of offers and product sales pitches.

This is a gamble though because my cash reserves are running on empty. I have to be smart about every move I make from here on out.