From Munich to Melbourne to Bangkok [AWasia]

December 19, 2015December 20, 2015 Andy 10 Comments

So I completely forgot to publish the first half of this post, which was a quick update to my recent round-the-world trip, so I am forced to couple it with my most recent trip to Thailand for AWasia.

As you may know, from my last travel-update post, I was in Munich, Germany to participate in Oktoberfest and meet with Timon H, an industry friend and ex-DNTX employee.

After Munich, I ventured off over to Budapest, meeting with Christina S. (FBQueen), who just spoke at AWasia in Bangkok. We met up a couple of times and I also attempted to explore the city, however, it rained a lot, so I mainly just worked from my AirBnB whilst there. Must revisit in summer.

I then disembarked and ventured off over to Italy, where myself and my good friend began our adventure in Pisa, being typical tourists and visiting the leaning tower. We then drove down to Florence to see what the hype was all about. Whilst we enjoyed ticking those things off the bucket list, there was a great lesson here, and that is, you should never ever drive in Italy, unless you’re in Sicily..

Not only are they insane drivers over there, the Italian’s have some awful laws that are basically designed to trap tourists. The city-centers seem to be littered with “ZTL” areas, aka, Zona Traffico Limitado (Limited Traffic Zones). To the unsuspecting tourist who was given a rental car and never warned, these are zones that you would never suspect exist.

Basically, they are all over Pisa, Lucca, Florence and Rome as well as other parts of Italy (normally big cities). They even exist in Taormina, Sicily, a place where, without a car, you’re pretty much unable to get around in, especially if you stay in accommodation way up in the mountains.

ZTL

So what are these zones? They’re basically zones restricted to local residents with permits only, and if you drive into them by chance, without a permit, a photograph of your number plate is taken, and you are then issued a ticket (apparently to your address back home) worth 80 euros or more.

Now, I can stomach one fine, however, from what I read, it’s very common to receive multiple fines at once, on the same day, and within minutes of each-other. So basically, just take a bus from Pisa to Florence if that’s the route you decide to take or suffer an annoyingly expensive surprise 8-12 months later.

On the upside, the food in Florence is second to none, and the rich history makes for an interesting visit. Unfortunately a few bumps in the trip made Pisa and Florence a sour experience, but all in all, I don’t regret going.

After Florence, we went to Sicily, and decided to spend 6 days there instead of 3, as we had planned to also check out the Amalfi coast, but didn’t want to burden ourselves with all that transiting. Besides, the weather in Sicily was nicer, except for the last day. The sky opened up, streets were flooded, a landslide blocked the freeway and consequently, we got stuck in hours of blocked up traffic – missing our flight out to Rome. We had to rebook and still made it that night but we lost a whole day in the process. Thank god for pocket-espressos I guess!

After Rome, I flew over to Dublin for 5 days to meet with an advertiser and get a little down time so I could catch up on work before figuring out my next move.

I was highly undecided on whether or not I wanted to go to New York for Ad:Tech or directly to LA to celebrate Halloween and have a few meetings. I eventually decided flying to Melbourne to my dual 27″ monitors was a much wiser decision for work productivity.

Lessons Learned From Europe

You will get scammed in Hungary by Taxis. Be cautious.
Driving in Italy is foolish unless in Sicily. Even then, be careful during their high season.
Don’t leave your friend at bars in foreign countries when they’re highly inebriated. They tend to lose their phones, and get mugged that way.
Traveling is way too stressful when you only stay for a short time and constantly hop around.
Affiliate marketing isn’t dead – it’s just gotten a bit harder.
I need to build a team and work on building a real asset as opposed to pure CPA. The instability of CPA offers is brutal.

AWasia Bangkok & Koh Samui

If you weren’t lucky enough to get yourself down to Asia this month and attend the first ever Affiliate World conference in Bangkok, here’s what you missed out on.

It was a 3-day event, filled with speakers and panel-discussions with topics ranging from general affiliate marketing, outsourcing, mobile marketing and how to build an 8-figure business with an exit-strategy. Some of the panel members and speakers were exceptional whilst some could brush up a little on their public speaking. Some of the speakers who did an individual presentation or were part of a panel discussion included Ryan Holiday, Gerard Adams (Elite Daily), Tim Tetra, Benjamin Yong, Alexander Willemsen, Lorenzo Green, Charles Ngo, Steve Jukes (Jumbleberry) and many others.

There were even Google and Facebook employees who spoke on the panels and provided some crucial insight. The format of the conference I believe had an essence of inspiration from TED talks which I thought was a clever move. I really enjoyed the this conference, way more informative, interesting and affiliate-friendly and I think the STM owners are really going to run Affiliate Summit out of business if they can keep this up. Hats off!

AWasia - Zeno aka David Savory — AWasia – Zeno aka David Savory and Panel

A lot of solid information shared and great ideas sparked. There was also a meet-market and after-conference meet-and-greet drinks which, to say the least, was an exhausting activity. Turns out, going to all these meetups, conferences and conventions this year (about 10 in total) led me to befriend a great deal of people in the industry… many names of which I forgot… I blame it on meeting in environments which aren’t exactly conducive to memorization (damn you vodka!).

I even got to meet Finch (Martin Osborn) from finchsells.com in real life for the first time, and was notably surprised at the lack of testicle-jokes in our real-world conversation.

A large amount of people then extended the trip and went to Koh Samui, where many of us stayed at the same hotel (Casa De Mar) making for a great way to network in a casual environment with some incredibly smart and established people in the industry. Can’t be more thankful for the new connections and friends I have made.

In Koh Samui with Michael Brenner & Max G

Some key lesson’s from the conference

The industry is growing, and shifting actively. Adaptation is inevitable.
A lot of emphasis on finding your competitive edge / competitive moat in order to get ahead
Spend your time learning the biggest traffic sources and how to master them, instead of wasting time with smaller, lower quality sources. Something I don’t do enough of but will in 2016.
If you’re running sweepstakes, and your pages have a comments section, you can use that to your advantage to get extra ROI with extra creativity
Beard = Trust
Facebook Pixels should NOT be ignored. Building audiences is extremely useful
Finding the best way to structure a team is a fine balance, depending on each person’s role, and which form of compensation works best (media buyers vs developers for instance).

The next conference will be set in Berlin. As far as I know, no date has been set yet and no details released. There’s a very high chance I’ll be there and hope to see you all there too.

Keeping Fit Whilst Traveling:

Yes, here’s that section that you’ll probably skip over. Make sure to revisit my blog when looking for a gym and traveling. I’ll have most likely mentioned it before.

Gym’s & Fitness Centers In Europe

Budapest

Life 1 Fitness

Nyugati location is a very new facility, quite big and has decent equipment.
Entry: First visit free, ~1100 forint (depends on location) thereafter
Address: Multiple Locations
Website: https://life1.hu

The bodybuilding mecca of Hungary

Great facility. All the equipment you need. A bit far out of the center though.
Entry: Free for first visit. ~1000 forint thereafter.
Address: Budapest Béke utca 21-27
Website: http://meccagym.hu/

Working out in Budapest @ Bodybuilding Mecca of Hungary

Florence

Swan Gymnastic Center

Tiny little gym, old equipment. Does the job for a workout, although you’re probably in Florence to eat the great food and admire the historical sites.
Address: Via dei Pepi, 28, 50122 Firenze, Italy
Entry: 10 EUR

Trapani, Sicily

Palestra Et Club

Mid-sized facility, decent, but not great
Address: Via della Pace, 21, Trapani TP, Italy
Entry: 5EUR

Taormina, Sicily

Quaras Gym

Tiny Gym, not a lot of equipment. Only visit if you’re desperate for a workout. There doesn’t seem to be much else around. Also a bit hard to find.
Entry: 10 eur to drop in
Address: Via Giardinazzo 35, 98039, Taormina, Sicily, Italy
Website: https://www.facebook.com/quarus.gym

Dublin, Ireland

FlyeFit

Since I stayed in Dublin 2, I went to FlyeFit, big facility, had most equipment you need. I got lucky and my Airbnb host was able to get me free entry for the duration of my stay. They have multiple locations.
Entry: 9 EUR
Address: Multiple Locations
Website: flyefit.ie

Gym’s In Thailand

Amari Watergate Bangkok

I stayed at this hotel so it was free to use their gym, which is surprisingly well equipped for a hotel gym. I believe you can pay to use the facility as well
Entry: N/A
Address: 847 Petchburi Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand

Worlds Gym – Koh Samui

Decent gym, most equipment, though quite old and has no air-conditioning so passing out is highly likely
Entry: 150 Baht
Address: Soi Khao Phar, Amphoe Koh Sa-Mui, Surat Thani, Thailand 84140
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/World-GymKoh-SamuiThailand/212097535481268

Elite Gym and Fitness

New equipment, though missing some stuff, pretty well equipped, indoor and not so muggy inside
Entry: 400 Baht
Address: Located on top of McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King and Pizza Company on the Chaweng main road.
Website: http://www.elitegymsamui.com/

If you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends, and leave your thoughts below!

– Andrew, aka Andy D

If you’re looking for further Affiliate Marketing Guidance, check out StackThatMoney. Best community of experienced marketers from around the globe, exclusive meetups, follow along’s, tutorials and the knowledge of a thousand sun-gods.

Can’t Decide on Tracking Software?

I’ve recently switched over to a new tracking platform called Thrive by the guys over at iPyxel which I love. It’s still in development, but is constantly improving and making strides, and the best part about it is it can be self-hosted. The offer a 30-day trial and it’s $99 a month thereafter which is well worth the investment.

4 Strategies To Achieve $x,xxx Per Day

October 25, 2015October 26, 2015 Andy 10 Comments

I’m writing this from the city of gladiators, aka Rome, aka pizza-pasta-espresso land. I figured this may or may not be an interesting blog-topic to write about. This is what has worked for me in the past to achieve $x,xxx in a day. The shoe may not fit, it might not be your style, your method, and this isn’t a definitive guide, but it is rather just my experiences over the past 4 or so years as an affiliate marketer.

As a newbie affiliate, the wettest of all wet-dreams was hitting the illusive $x,xxx day. The even wetter dream was being able to sustain that figure and more on a consistent basis, but running fly-by-night campaigns, on low volume traffic sources with low ticket offers was never going to cut it. It sure is a great way to learn and to build up a little capital. My first real affiliate money came from direct-linking to PeopleMeet offers from Plenty Of Fish, and rotating through multiple networks, on multiple accounts because of quality issues.

This got old, and tiring real fast and it bothered me how unsustainable it was, but it was how I managed to hit my first $xxx days.

I hit my first $x,xxx day only months into beginning AM, with the help of a FB campaign I managed to get profitable over the course of 3 days, which I ran in Colombia (some pin-submit offer on Mundo) before it stopped converting. That in combination with my PoF campaigns got me there. I was excited, but it was only a taste. It literally only lasted a day.

So here are some ideas I want to share with you of ways you can potentially get yourself up to that level, and maybe even make it sustainable.

Strategy 1 – Master A Niche

Try to go niche with higher ticket offers and squeeze every bit of volume you can out of it. Just ensure you spend time understanding your demographic and target them accordingly.

After my POF (PlentyOfFish, for those late to the party) days as a newbie, I moved into testing higher ticket offers on other, higher-volume sources (but still considerably low volume traffic compared to the giants, FB and Google), and this is where my breakthrough eventually came from. It took a while to achieve it – around a year, but I found something that worked, and worked out how to scale accordingly.

My method to testing?

I started out with offers paying between $30-40$ a lead in a certain vertical that I heard was working on a certain type of traffic, and developed, tested and innovated my own pages, angles, targeting and various other backend tweaks that I could use to my advantage (since I am tech, this came in handy). I remember that my first converting page was purely something I created from scratch, as back then, I had no idea how to spy, and spy-tools didn’t really exist for said traffic in the past.

Strategy 2 – Mass Appeal

Go broad with easy to convert offers, such as Single-Opt-In, Email-Submit style offers.

At some point, I realised, I had all my eggs in the one basket and needed to diversify. I tested, tested and tested new campaigns and failed over and over until I got pointed to one particular offer by one of my AM’s. It was being run heavily on mobile, but at the time, I didn’t really know mobile well. The same traffic type that was working out for me previously had more potential and I knew it. So I took what I found to be working on mobile (the angles/pages) and used it to inspire my own take on the campaign and adapted it for desktop users.

The payouts were much lower ($0.30 to $2.00 range, depending on country), but the appeal was not as niche – it was much broader. I could open up the floodgates to looser targeting, given the traffic quality was there, and chances are it would be profitable. Doing this led to a nightmare in campaign optimization. Many times I was up to 7am optimizing and trying to scale over 50 individual campaigns (14 countries, 4-5 traffic sources). But it was all worth it in the end.

Eventually competition stepped in, stole my pages, lowering the volume and quality of traffic. On top of this, my payouts were dependant on another currency, so my payouts kept dropping each day as the USD rose in value. This campaign lasted about 6-8 months before finally dying out. It was fun while it lasted, but I knew my traffic had more potential, I just needed to find a way to beat the competition.

Strategy 3 – Imitate Then Innovate

If the above worked, test the same stuff but with higher-ticket, similar offers

Because of the aforementioned issues affecting my campaign, I had to find a way to combat it and get things back into greener numbers. I stumbled across something that could be promoted in a similar manner, as it had a fairly broad appeal to the general public, but it had a much higher payout. I modified the angle to suit and ran the same targeting, same traffic and found that after butt-loads of split testing, it worked!

There are a few caveats here, and that is, it’s much harder to convert, given the higher payout, as it usually means the user is required to cough up more personal and potentially financial info. The payouts tend to make up for the lower conversion rates here, and can end up being more profitable in the long-run (not always the case, some offers plain suck).

This also led to needing to spend more on testing, which, in a broad environment can get quite expensive.

Strategy 4 – Follow The Herd

Go where the masses are…

This one goes without saying… Go where the traffic is, and do your best to figure out that platform. Google & Facebook being the major players here, have excellent traffic quality for the most part, if you understand how to run there. The unfortunate thing is most verticals in affiliate marketing are considered too spammy or non-compliant to run on those sources, hence why a the majority of successful pubs cloak, and have a system in place for getting accounts.

Do note, there are “white-hat” campaigns that can work well, and can prove to be longer-lasting winners, but you admittedly have to work harder to make money and the margins won’t be nearly as high.

Anything outside of beauty and health (there are some whitehat b&h products, though), adult dating (even mainstream is hard), bizop, sweepstakes, binary options, etc… is going to be a good place to start looking for cleaner verticals to promote.

You’ll then need to become familiar with all of the latest compliance rules of said traffic sources if you want to get anything off the ground and running.

Just food for thought, hopefully this info can help propel you into discovering campaigns that generate $x,xxx or more.

Other Pro Tips:

Payouts

After finding an offer that works, don’t be lazy and stay complacent with street-payouts. Ask your manager for a bump, and in return, tell them with a higher ROI you can increase volume and mathematically, they’ll take home a bigger paycheck. Monitor the conversion rates (on your side, not the network) to ensure your EPC actually increases, however, as it’s common to see offer-bumps that coincide with lower conversion rates (scrub) as a common trick to ‘beat a payout’.

See my previous article 6 Truths for more insight.

Better yet, if the advertiser show’s a good history of paying their bills, see about contacting directly and working with them on that level. Just ensure you can sign a legally binding document, and get put on weekly-payments at minimum, unless you truly trust the advertiser (I’ve worked with monthlies directly, many times, but I knew the advertisers weren’t shady).

Traffic

Seek out new traffic sources as often as you can and don’t be afraid to test them. I’ve found some real nuggets this was, so I’m always on the lookout for new sources to scale to, or sources I’ve yet to try. Remember, it’s a risk, and don’t be foolish to deposit large sums unless you can get a guarantee for a refund on unused funds should the traffic be trash.

I’m still waiting on a few refunds myself. One source I found was ripping and running internally, ended up pausing my traffic after my accusations insulted them, has promised me a refund but I have yet to see it.

Networking

Network network network! I can’t stress this point enough. The best managers, and affiliates, will often help push you in the right direction towards what’s currently working. Get to know people on a human-level, meet them in real life, go to the conferences, offer value to people and the value will be offered to you in return. Some of my best campaigns have been because of word-of-mouth tips which I received from industry friends.

And Just Remember:

what-people-think-success-looks-like-vs-what-it-really-looks-like

If you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends, and leave your thoughts below!

– Andrew, aka Andy D

Can’t Decide on Tracking Software?

Those on a smaller budget can still opt to go the CPVLab route, another favorite of mine but a little more outdated. It is, however, more suitable for PPV traffic if that’s your traffic of choice.