Ad HustlerConfessions Of A Serial Internet Entrepreneur

What The Heck Is Going On Out There?

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Mobile offers are not really something I’ve experimented much with until I began this blog.  If you’ve been following my case studies series, you would have seen that I have run approximately 10 tests on Social Media driven to various Mobile Crush Offers.  I didn’t pick the SocialMedia/Crush combination out of the blue.  I’ve actually spoke directly to the owners of these offers and asked what was working.  During these conversations I heard time and again that Social type media was converting very well for Crush offers.  One stat I was quoted is that 1 in 15 Myspace users will convert on a crush offer.  Using those stats as a jumping point I initially chose SocialMedia, targeting Myspace as my traffic source.  Since the SocialMedia tests were not profitable I decided to target Myspace using another network: The Google Content Network.

The premise of this test is simple.  Here is the plan broken down:

• Use Google Content Network Placement Targeting to obtain Myspace traffic.
• Direct Link To The Offer
• See If the average stats I was given holds up (Stat: 1 in 15 Myspace Users Convert)

Simple enough right?  So lets get to the meat here.  The following are the ads I used as well as the landing page of the offer:

Crush Landing Page

Crush Text Ad 1

Crush Text Ad 2

Crush Text Ad 3

For this test I averaged a 35 cent click price and let it run for 95 clicks:

Google Content Network Placement Results

Here is how each ad performed individually:

Google Content Network Ad Results

So how did these 95 clicks convert?

Clicks Reported On Network: 95
Conversions: 1
Payout: $9.50
Conversion Rate: 1.05%
EPC: .10 Cents

My total cost for this test was $32.99 and I made back $9.50.  This is a net loss of $23.49.  In the end 1 out of 95 clicks converted to a lead.  The stat I was given of 1 in 15 Myspace users convert does not seem to hold up on the Google Content Network either.  My stats actually seem to be fairly consistent for Myspace across SocialMedia & Google Content Network.  The best SocialMedia test yielded a 1 in 108 conversion rate.  This Content Network test yielded 1 in 95 conversion rate.  The two networks actually were not way off from each other.

Although the talk of Crush Offers doing well, seems to rum rampant in affiliate marketing circles such as:

Wickedfires: Ringtones Vs Crush Offers
NickyCakes: You Have (3) New Eurotrash Crush Messages!!!

I am not yet able to produce a positive ROI with it using direct linking and SocialMedia or Google Content Network targeting Myspace, as the traffic source.

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When you work for yourself or have your own businesses, some people (myself included) begin to take on the attitude that they don’t NEED anyone else.  You get so used to working alone on your own projects that the only one you ever depend on is yourself.  This can stifle you in many ways.  Imagine your having a problem with an important script on your web server.  The script keeps crashing and now it’s taking the entire server down with it.  If you have the same mentality as me, you jump in and try to sort out the problem.  You spend 6 hours tweaking and fiddling and it’s finally fixed.  Go you!

In the 6 hours you fiddled with your script what else could you have done?  How many campaigns could you have launched?  How many ideas could you have come up with?  Time is money in this business.  Having someone you can rely on or just an associate to bounce ideas off of can sometimes save you from wasting huge amounts of time on stupid ideas or time consuming projects.

Just last week I had one of my oscommerce based sites go completely whacky.  I have no idea what caused the problem.  Rather then trying to fiddle with it I emailed someone I have worked with on OsCommerce sites; Lauren Billings.  Lauren is an OsCommerce expert, took a look at it, and in minutes had it fixed.  This same fix could have cost me lots of time.  This is a great example of a postitive business relationship.

If your currently a loner, find some people who know what they are doing and get to know them a bit.  It may save your butt down the line.

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An interesting way to get Craigslist Phone Verified Accounts:

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