A New Year and Lots Going through my Head

There is a lot of stuff I've been wanting to post in my blog lately. Since the Affiliate Junktion debacle, I got VERY serious about building my long term business with GDI. I spent a lot of time and money on Affiliate Junktion and it set me back quite a bit - To the point where my wife is telling me I need to quit. It's understandable - I spent about $4,000 or so over the past 3 months advertising different things, most of which was spent on Affiliate Junktion. That's how I was able to get so many signups - I was spending about $30/day just on my AJ advertising. After my last payment were I earned less than what I had spent in September, I was very disparaged. I was expecting to make $4-5k - Not less than what I spent in advertising.

So I got damn serious about GDI. I knew that even though it would take time, at least I would be building a REAL income. Something that would end up working for me.

In November my GDI Downline was at 32 - Today it is at 71...It easily could have been 100, but several of the signups quit before they gave it any chance. That's fine - That's the way GDI goes. They say that 90% of the people who join you will quit - Most people do not have the resolve that I do to succeed. That is just something you have to push through. What you hope is that by getting enough signups, some of those who join will take it very seriously and follow your lead. That's all it takes really - Having a few people in your downline who are serious and want to succeed long term.

I made the GDI Leaderboard for 3 straight weeks. I got the bonus money on 2 of those 3 weeks. This week I have 4 signups and hopefully will get a couple more for another bonus. The $100 bonuses are really the only way to offset the advertising costs

I won't kid you - I'm not building my GDI team using traffic exchanges. I'm spending money on Google & Yahoo advertising. I'm at about $15/day right now - And despite the fact that I am technically "losing money" on the surface, any of the members that stay on my GDI Team could possibly turn into someone like me. Downline members like that, in the long run, will be well worth the investment now.

So my GDI Business is coming along nicely. I believe that in a few more months, I will be up to 150 members. My goal is to get to 200 - At that point, I'm "hoping" that enough of my downline will follow my lead and build their own business. That is when GDI becomes a monthly, residual income.

And that is my goal - Passive, residual income that continues to grow month after month.

Of course what I am finding is that the biggest problem with GDI is that it IS a long term business. Unless you are one of the superstars like Tissa or Ash who get 50+ signups every week, you never see enough income from it.

So you have to earn immediate income in the meantime. This is the area where EXPERIENCE really comes into play - Despite wasting several thousand dollars advertising Affiliate Junktion and getting screwed (sorry, just a fact), I did learn how to advertise using Google & Yahoo Pay Per Click. Now I can plug in ANY program and start advertising it right away. That is why once I started advertising GDI Gold Rush, I got signups almost immediately -

Now it takes me about 1 hour to set up a new campaign and get PPC traffic to it - Right away. That isn't to say you can just plug in anything...For instance, I plugged in a bunch of different Clickbank products and made ZERO sales. I plugged in a Generic GDI Page and got no signups - I got about 100 "prospects" but nobody joined - I plugged in SpiderWeb and got another 100 or so Spider Members - I ended up with zero results there (not even GDI signups)

I 'believe' the trick with selling clickbank products MAY be having your own web page and describing the product or reviewing it. I'm not sure exactly - All I know is I sent about 1k clicks out on 4 different clickbank products and made no sales - Maybe I didn't use proper country targeting - Maybe it's the fact that all I used was a generic clickbank link (no cloaker, just the affiliate link - I've read that people HATE buying something if they KNOW someone is making a commission off it - that makes sense to me) The trick with ClickBank cloaking is a certain set of URL redirects, but they basically require you to use the redirects IN a webpage - So simply advertising them on Google & Yahoo doesn't work for cloaking (seems to work in emails though)

As you can see, I still have a lot to learn :)

Anyway, moving on - The good thing is that for my affiliate pages, Like GDI Gold Rush or the Acme Page, these are whole websites that do a great presentation. The Affiliate Junktion site worked like a charm - I could get 300 clicks daily there because you sell it as "FREE".

Losing myself again, but this is my blog and that's what it's for - here is what i'm GETTING AT:

With the Power Traffic course, the entire point is that you setup all of this marketing to use at YOUR DISPOSAL - Once you know how to drive traffic, you can use it to promote Anything You Want!

Anytime I start a new program (yes, I do all the time!) I simply plug it into my Track that Ad Rotator and it's done - Then I just go to my different exchanges and allocate the credits -

This is also what is so powerful about Google & Yahoo advertising - YES, it's expensive - But it lets you know right away if something is working or not - You can set a budget of $3/day if you want (or less even).

And once you set up advertising, you just leave it alone - It works around the clock - Some people might say it's spending your money around the clock, but for me, I don't like surfing exchanges. I don't like spending a bunch of time on the computer. I would much rather take my family to the zoo and come check my email when I get home. When I pay for advertising, that's all I need to do - check email -

Still, not a perfect science by any means. I already mentioned all the stuff about the Click Bank products and what not - you can't just plug in ANYTHING and make a ton of money.

Other stuff - If you read this far, I'm going to give you my biggest tip for Google or Yahoo advertising. I don't EVER pay their "minimum" click amounts - You don't have to! For Affiliate Junktion, I was only spending 9-10cents per click - For all my advertising now, I only spend 12-13cents/click - What is the trick? Keywords & Ads - Lots of EACH!

I write 20-50 different ads - each one with a different keyword. Then I have several keywords outlining that particular ad - For instance, Earn Money Online would be the title, then just type in everything you can think of relating to that title (in keywords)

Do that over and over - Set your bids for 10-12cents and include the Content Network - ALWAYS have the content network on! You will never get keyword clicks with prices that low, but you will get content clicks - and that's where all my clicks come from -

I never bought any of the Get Google Ads Free things (although maybe I should have :)

I got that tip from an online marketing friend who sadly left my GDI downline right when I gave him the Gold Rush site. He and I have gone around a bit about Affiliate Junktion - Fact is I'm very soured by AJ and once I am soured, I hold grudges - There are TONS of affiliate opportunities online, and I will not waste my time with a company that screws me over like that - period -

Someday I do have to get over it though, don't I? :)

maybe not - This is going to be my super long dragged out post - I need to write another one for the new year and my goals and programs - something more "short & sweet" since us online marketers have zero attention span :)

coming right away - 2009 Goals & Programs