I’ve just gone through and updated it a bit. The book itself is a great primer on PPV marketing and also comes with training videos.

Hope you enjoy it!

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I’ve noticed a significant change in CTR depending on what words I use in the call to action. Just changing words around that can mean the same thing (ie ‘see’ and ‘view’) can improve or worsen CTR.

I’m going to run a test to see what words in the call to action generate the best CTR. The landing page I’m using is this (shrunk in size for this post)

I will be rotating 4 variations of this. Everything will remain the same except the call to action.The CTA’s I will be testing are:

1. Click here to get your free report
2. See your credit report here
3. View your online credit score
4. Get instant access to your credit score

Cast your vote! In the next post I will reveal the CTR for each and also give some tips on what words work best based on a lot of testing I’ve done.

1. The screenshot method

This is something I have been using for years. First with PPC traffic until quality score issues killed it, then with PPV traffic. Here’s what you do:

Using Jing or the Windows snipping tool take a screenshot of the offer page. Using Photoshop, Gimp, or any graphics editing program white out any area that has the lead form (place asking for personal data). Replace this with some bullet points and a big ‘CLICK HERE’ link. Save it as one image and link the entire thing.

Doing that would result in something that looks like this

Some people ask why you would put this type of landing page instead of just direct linking. My answer is that it’s an easier way to get the user to start clicking and engage. If you send them straight to the offer page with the form they might think ‘eh..I don’t really feel like filling out a form right now’ whereas if you present them with a landing page like the one above, all they need to do is click to get more info. Once you get them to click, they are already interacting with your site and it’s easier to convert.

2. The Banner Method

Take a banner from your affiliate network (you can find these in the creatives area usually), slap it into an HTML page, link it and you’re done. I like using the 300×250 size, but experiment with different sizes and see what works for you. Using a 300×250 banner my LP would just look like this

Sounds simple but I had a really big campaign running not too long ago using this method, so it does work.

3. The 1 image, bullet point, call to action method

Just like it sounds, you create a simple LP using any HTML editor. It would look something like this:

I like this type of layout with the pic on the left, bullet points and call to action on the right. You can see I added some geo targeting and timestamp scripts to make the page a little more personal.

I know these pages seem really basic, but sometimes basic is best. You should be able to build these 3 pages in less than 20 min. You don’t have to build 3 for every camapaign. Eventually you will get a feel for what works best with your niche and expand from there. Let me know if you have any questions about these methods!

How did you get started in affiliate marketing?

I got started in affiliate marketing when I was 16, my dad read in the paper that people were buying and selling domains and so I gave it a shot. Bought 5 for $50 and sold one of them for $15,000 a week later, so after receiving the money and crying for a few hours of happiness, the birth of my CPA career arose.

What were some of your goals when starting?

My dad has always drilled it into me that working for yourself is the best way to live and that’s something that I have taken on board, and to this day I have never worked for someone else and plan on doing that the rest of my life. I also set a goal to make $500 in a day and make 6 figures in a year before I turn 20. Just last week I broke one of the goals and I have a great belief that I will complete the other one too.

What did you think affiliate marketing would be like when you started, and how did it turn out differently? What are some myths you discovered along the way?

Honestly at first I really did not know what I was in for, I fell for a lot of those guru products and spent a lot of my profits on them which unfortunately did not pay back haha. But as time went on and I networked with a lot of people I saw that there is a load of money to be made on the internet and even if I could obtain a tiny percentage of it, I would still be doing better then most educated job positions. The myths is in those guru systems which promise autopilot money and to newcomers it seems like an easy way out, but hard work, perseverance and dedication is what gets you far in this business, and all other aspects of life.

What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had so far?

The moment I stopped over complicating things and really took a simplistic approach to my campaigns, my ROI sky rocketed and the time I spent working reduced.

Do you stick to one niche or many?

I like to broaden my horizon and try all sorts of offers but my success has mainly come from the health/beauty and Lead generation niches.

Do you stick to one traffic source?

Through my 2 years of affiliate marketing I have tried almost everything there is to do except for PPC. Right now my main focus is PPV but I do have knowledge in the social game.

What has been your biggest challenge to becoming successful?

Balancing all aspects of my life. This is my first year that I actually have a lot of time on my hands, I chose difficult subjects for my last year of high school like specialist math, physics and chemistry so balancing those on top of lots of friends, family and relationship commitments it really wears you out, so that would be the main challenge for me, but fortunately its more of a thing of the past now.

What is your best profit day so far?

Well if you include the day I sold my domain when I first started out that would be it which would be $14899, but since then it’s been $644.

What is your income goal?

$1,000,000

How many hours a day or week do you work on affiliate marketing?

Roughly 3-4 hours a day so 21-28 hours a week.

What’s the biggest mistake you made starting out and If you had to start all over again, what would you change?

Reading too much and not doing anything as well as being scared of losing money. If I could start again I would have been on the front end of all the new traffic sources. I would have run naked pics on Facebook, I would have taken advantage of the little competition on PPV and I would have run Acai on Google!

What do you consider total time wasters?

Facebook. Haha nah I get caught out reading a lot of blogs and I can’t say no to a good conversation with people. Also browsing forums all day, “without action, nothing changes”.

Any tips to give struggling affiliates?

Get in the trenches. Its easy to become lost if you read to much information and its often overwhelming. 90% of the people I have helped with marketing have been failing because they have overcomplicated it. K.I.S.S!

Also, a great community is catalyst to success. Surround yourself with people who are succeeding where you want too and gather as much information as you can, then implement it. Develop the mindset and reap the benefits.

Everyone wants to do paid traffic, and for some people that works out great. Paid traffic such as PPV, Facebook, PPC, etc. can get you a lot of traffic really quick but it also can require a substantial investment of time to keep those campaigns going. I think anyone who is interested in building a long term affiliate business needs to devote some time to SEO/Free traffic sources that can generate income for years on almost autopilot, hence this post.

This technique I am going to share is not something new at all, it’s not some big secret, but it has been forgotten by most fickle affiliates who jump from one traffic source to another thinking the grass is always greener. I am talking about Yahoo Answers

No…you didn’t just step out of a Delorian in 2007,  Yahoo answers still works. I just completed a case study that shows the potential of this traffic source. The reason affiliates fail at it is because they go about it all wrong. In fact, I would go so far as to say that most affiliates have no idea how to properly monetize social media traffic like this. See, most affiliates want to spend hours automating, scraping, etc thinking that’s the way to do things. If they actually put a little quality into their work, they would reap the benefits for years down the road.

Here is how to make money from Yahoo answers;

Offers

Almost any niche is fair game but since answers can take time to rank, pick niches that will be around a while

Keywords/Questions

After you pick an offer, you need to research keywords. Use the Google keyword tool and find some good keyword phrases you could make into questions. Research your potential keywords to see what other types of sites are ranking for them, and how much competition there is.

Landing Pages

Depending on the offer, you can iframe the offer page or make a page that looks like a great resource. Forget the LP’s you use for PPV or media buys…you want to make landing pages that actually offer good info or resources. If you were doing an education offer, you could have a site that listed all the colleges the user could request free information from (and you get a commission for). Don’t make this look like a sales page – that’s the trick.

Questions and Answers

This is going to be what separates the people who make money with this, from the people that don’t. Most people want to outsource this part, or simply write some lame answer with a big ‘click here’ type of sales pitch. This will not work. The outsourcing part can be done if you can find someone who can do what you would do. Don’t outsource this until you find a formula that works yourself.

You will want to ask AND answer your own questions. Why? This gives you the ability to chose the best answer (all other answers are being hidden now). You can also phrase your questions in a more search engine friendly way. Obviously for this you are going to need multiple accounts. You don’t want to answer your own question right away (that doesn’t look natural), and you don’t want to select your answer as the best answer until you get a few other responses. You won’t always get your question answered by other people but give it a little time to see if you do.

Answer your questions in a conversational tone. This isn’t the place to sell. Offer real, useful advice and give them a resource (your link) they can get more information. I really want to stress this point – you have to give useful answers. Not just a sentence or two. Pretend a friend just asked you this question and you are giving them real advice.

With your different accounts, answer some random questions once in a while to make your account look more ‘normal’.

Based on some campaigns I have been doing, just putting in 5 hours a month would result in thousands of dollars of income per month once you got the ball rolling. You probably aren’t going to break 6 figures a month with this technique but I can guarantee you will be getting conversions for a LONG time down the road on campaigns you haven’t touched in months. Give it a shot!