Ad HustlerConfessions Of A Serial Internet Entrepreneur

It’s sort of sad but some people don’t know how to behave when they get off the interwebs and into real life.  This is meant as a small guide of how to behave towards various people in the industry at a show such as Affiliate Summit.

How To Act Towards Other Affiliates

• Don’t brag about how much money you make.  You will look like a tool.
• Don’t wear a pink bandanna unless your a girl.
• Don’t be a phony and try to pretend you are an expert at something you aren’t.  If you are involved in a conversation and you don’t really know much about what the other affiliates are talking about, just admit it and ask questions.  People can detect a phony from a mile away.
• Don’t try to get “secrets” from other affiliates.  If they want to give you information they will, but asking for some sort of “secret sauce” is going to turn people off from you in a hot second.
• Don’t ask other affiliates what offers their running.  It’s ok to talk about the niches you like to promote and ask what their into but it’s not ok to try to delve into privileged info.
• Don’t think your a gangsta and try to start fights with other affiliates because of something they said about you online.  Act like a human being.

How To Act Towards Affiliate Managers

• If you want some time with your AM at Affiliate Summit, set up a meeting before hand.  Don’t expect that they can just drop whatever they are doing to meet with you.
• Don’t ask your affiliate managers what offers another affiliate that shares your AM is running.  You’re putting your AM in a bad spot and you wouldn’t want them to drop your info on another affiliate would you?
• Treat your AM with respect.  Although their job is to service your account, they don’t owe you anything.
• If your AM is a women don’t hit on her.  Your AM is in the industry to take your crap on a business level, not on a sexual level.  I’m sure she can do better then your ugly ass.

The biggest reason for going to a conference like affiliate summit is to network.  You can make friends in this industry that will last for years.  Talk to people with respect (unless their hobby is dressing up like spiderman to invade kiddie parks) and bring something to the conversation and it can pay off ten fold for years down the line.

Remember, It’s OK to be a dick but not OK to be a douchebag.

Do you have anything to add?  Post a comment!

Ad Hustler

Hey All.

I decided to change my AIM screen name.  I’ve tried to contact just about everyone on my buddy list to let them know.  If you have not been contacted or need my AIM, please leave a comment with your email and I will email it over to you.

Thanks

Ad Hustler

I was speaking to Jeff, my affiliate manager at Copeac.  He asked me if I had a plan for 2009.  It’s such a simple question and sort of genious at the same time.  I don’t think that most affiliates have a plan for the year.  Like me, we wing it as we go, promoting whatever looks promising.  Having a plan for the year could actually make you a lot of money.  Rather then just promoting whatever comes up, try drawing out a gameplan of what you want to promote and at what time during the year.  By thinking ahead you could bank on seasonal trends, holidays and increased traffic on the interwebs.  By planning your valentines day campaign in December, you can give it a lot of thought, and possibly come up with something truly original when your not in a time crunch.

I personally am going to create a rough plan for 2009 of different products I want to promote.  Will you be doing the same?

Ad Hustler

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, Solstice, Festivus or whatever, I would like to wish everyone a happy holiday.  Take a day off, unwind, eat some good food, focus on family and friends and have a good time.  That is all.

Ad Hustler

You may have heard a lot of big names in this industry say that payout of an offer doesn’t matter, EPC is all that matters.  It’s human nature to think that the offer with the bigger payout will make you more money.  Duh, seems like common sense right?  Unfortunately, common sense doesn’t always prevail in affiliate marketing.

What is EPC?
Earnings Per Click.

How is EPC determined?
Take the total amount you made on an offer and divide it by the amount of clicks it took to make that much money.  For instance let’s say you run an offer that pays out $10. Let’s also assume you convert 1 in 50 clicks to a lead.  Your EPC will be 20 cents ($10 divided by 50 clicks = 0.20). Pretty simple math and most networks do this for you automatically in their reporting interfaces.

So now that we are all on the same page about what EPC is and how to calculate it, here’s the question.  Let’s say you run the exact same offer at 2 different networks with the exact same payout.  Will the EPC be the same?  Technically it should be, but in practice, is it really?

I decided to do a small case study to find out:

12/19/08
Network A: 0.12 Cents EPC
Network B: 0.07 Cents EPC

12/20/08
Network A: 0.13 Cents EPC
Network B: 0.08 Cents EPC

12/21/08
Network A: 0.14 Cents EPC
Network B: 0.10 Cents EPC

12/22/08
Network A: 0.14 Cents EPC
Network B: 0.09 Cents EPC

12/23/08
Network A: 0.12 Cents EPC
Network B: 0.08 Cents EPC

Consistently, the offer on Network A performed better then the offer on Network B.  Keep in mind, same offer, same payout.  It sounds weird, but this can happen with any offer on any network.  A 4-5 cent difference in EPC can add up big time if you are sending tons of traffic to the offer.  At 5,000 clicks per day you can make an additional $200-$250 per day on the offer just by running it at the network with the better EPC.  Just because Network A performed better on this test, DOES NOT mean that every offer of theirs will perform better split tested against Network B.  There are tons of variables that can effect the performance of an offer on a network.

The lesson learned should be pretty simple.  Always split test the offer you are running with the same offer on other networks.  You could be leaving a lot of money on the table by running an offer that is underperforming the same offer on another network.

Ad Hustler