In an effort to NOT put all of my eggs into one basket I decided to open up an MSN Adwords account. I realize that the traffic levels will be lower than those of an Google Adwords campaign, but from what I have read the conversions MIGHT be higher. This campaign targets a website that has been around for quite some time. A site that I KNOW has potential. I am not fully exploiting this site because of the $$$ necessary to do it.
I’ll keep posting about my experiences with MSN Adcenter. I am also considering a Yahoo Publisher Network account, but I think it is harder to get into Yahoo. I will have to wait and see.
Well after I created my first Adwords campaign I waited for about 24 hours before creating a new one. The first campaign showed NO activity. No impressions or clicks. I thought that maybe because it was the weekend it would take a bit longer. I added a new campaign yesterday and the same thing happened. I decided to delete both campaigns. I did this for two reasons:
1. Manual Review – because of the things I was going to be doing with the Adwords campaign I thought I might run into some trouble during the manual review. I figured that I should create a “legit” campaign for manual review consumption. Maybe this will have a better outcome for me.
2. Practive – I figured that I should go ahead and do a very simple campaign targetting a website that I have had for some time. This would give me practice with using Adwords.
So I deleted both campaigns and started a new totally “legit” one. Since today is Memorial Day in the US I am assuming that Google is not processing new campaigns. Hopefully tomorrow I will see some activity on this new Adwords campaign. BTW I am using Google’s desktop tool, Adwords Editor, so far I am really liking it. It seems to make creating campaigns a lot easier.
I am stoked! Now, I realize that in all probability I will not make a red cent, but I am excited to simply have gotten SOMETHING off of the ground. I sure this is the first of many campaigns launched at Google. Here’s to a few clicks. I set my daily budget to $10.00, because I am a wimp. I just want to see how things go before I dump the entire $500.00 budget I have alloted myself for testing of the particular IM method I am using.
I would rather not lose $500.00, but if I do it’s not the end of the world. BTW, I really enjoyed using the Google Adwords Editor. I is a pretty nice tool.
P.S. – I signed up for a FREE IM course from ShoeMoneyMedia, that guy knows how to make some bucks so I am hoping that I can pick up a few tips to help me reach my goal of $100.00.
Man, there is so much bad information on IM out there. I feel, once again, like giving up. But I am going to push on. I consider myself a relatively smart person, but IM has me stressed out and confused. It’s so hard to focus on one method because there is so much conflicting advice that goes along with each method. I just really don’t know what to do. I have spend so much money and time, and I feel like once again IM success is some sort of mirage that I keep thinking is real.
I know others have made/are making TONS of money, I just can’t see it happening to me. Maybe that is part of the problem. But it’s tough when you keep hearing about the “Google Slap” and “CPA scrubbing”. The hard part for me is not the HTML, web stuff involed as I am a programmer anyway. The tough part for me is actually understanding what I am trying to do.
Sorry for the whining, just had to get it out there. Will keep posting.
I own a home with an inground pool. I love it. I will never again own a home without a pool. That being said, sometimes pool maintenance can be an issue. I use the BBB method for pool maintenance. I will explain the BBB method in a subsequent post. Because I use the BBB method pool maintenance is quite cheap. I would say that during swimming season I spend about $40.00 per month to treat a 18 x 36 inground vinyl pool. When I first bought the house I bought whatever the pool store “technicians” told me to buy. It was staggering. The first summer I spent about $300.00 per month. I went on a search for a cheaper method of pool maintenence and found the BBB method.
I said all that to say that while inexpensive the BBB method still requires me to track all the same data I would track with a more traditional pool maintenance plan. I test for and track the following information: Free Chlorine, Combined Chlorine, Total Chlorine, pH, Alkalinity, water temprature, and CYA levels. I usually write the information down on a pad in order to track the chemistry as the swimming season progresses. The problem has been that it is easy to misplace the pad from test to test and season to season. I figured that there had to be a better way.
I am a programmer by trade so I figured I would write some software to track the test results. The result of that idea is a product is called Vibrant Pool, and it can be downloaded from http://www.vibrantpool.com, free of charge. This software enables you to keep a detailed history of typical pool chemistry test results, it can also chart test results over time. The application can hold multiple “pool profiles”, so if you manage several pools you can track each one individually. The software is written in Java 1.6 and will run on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms.
I realize that this tool is specialized, but a lot of people will find it useful (I hope). Please note that the website is not fully functional, but the application will be available for download shortly.
Here are some screenshots:
Main Screen
Pool Profile Dialog
Chart Dialog
I have a fairly busy life. I have a full-time job, a home, and a few hobbies. For fitness I go to the gym and cycle. I also have home maintenance to think about as well as trying to get said home ready to sell. I also have church and friends. Where in the world is IM going to fit? Some of you might be thinking that I should simply NOT try IM, afterall I’ve only made about $23.00 so far. That is simply NOT an option. I want more freedom in my life, I am not content working for someone else. I hate spending one third of my day sitting in a office working for someone else, I am not built for it. That being said I simply HAVE to succeed at IM in order to gain freedom in my daily life.
But the question remains, how will I find the time? There is really nothing in my life that I can give up. It’s not like I spend vast quantities of time watching TV or laying around the house. The only answer I see is to use my time more wisely. To that end here is a schedule proposal that will enable me to do what I need to do each day and still pursue IM.
Weekdays:
- Sleep – 11:30 PM – 5:45 AM
- Workout – 6:00 AM – 7:30 AM
- Eat – 7:30 AM – 7:45 AM
- Work – 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Prep house for sale – 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM
- Eat – 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
- Personal Time – 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- IM – 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM, 12:00 AM or later on Fridays
Saturday:
- Sleep – 12:00 AM – 8:00 AM
- Long Ride – 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM
- Prep House for Sale – 12:30 PM – 3:00 PM
- Personal Time – 3:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- IM – 9:00 PM – 12:00 PM
Sunday:
- Sleep – 12:00 AM – 8:00 AM
- Church – 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
- Ride – 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
- IM – 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
- Personal Time – 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM
- Church – 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- IM – 8:30 PM – 11:30 PM
So that works out to about 18 hours per week that I can devote to IM. I realize that this schedule will get trampled on, but at least I have laid out some guidelines for myself. I was simply wasting too much time. When I am at work the ONLY thing IM-wise I will look at are my account balances 
See, this is what happens to me. I get all excited about something, in this case it’s IM, and off I go to get started. The problem comes in when I see all the different things there are to it. One person says that offer-based polls work, another person says they don’t. One person says that article marketing is where you can make money, someone else says that article marketing is dead. Buy this eBook, buy that eBook, join this members only IM community, oh and join that one too. If you are not careful in this game you can waste A LOT of time and money.
I am going to take a step back, and rearrange my perspective on this whole IM thing. In the past this is where I would have gotten all flustered and simply quit. Not this time. I am going to stop buying crap I don’t need and re-work my plan to suit my goals and needs. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, there is no quick way to wealth. You have to work hard, so the next time you see an eBook and think that maybe it will be the one to pave your future in gold, think again. Stick to your plan and make it work. I am not saying that there are not some GREAT eBooks out there, quite the contrary, but sometimes we get so caught up in “learning” that we forget to take any action.
Start with the basics and build. Check back in a while for a post where I’ll explain my new IM plan.
That is the good news. The network is Wotogepa, odd name I know but they accepted me in a few hours after I submitted my application.
Give them a try if you are having trouble getting accepted into a network, it just may work out for you.
UPDATE: I was accepted into affiliate.com as well on May 21 2009.
Well after making a big deal about staying focused I went and lost focus. I bought yet another 2 eBooks dealing with IM. I know, I know. Here is my promise laid out online for all to see and hold me accountable. This is the LAST time I get diverted like this. The thing is that both of these methods seem too good NOT to try. I am going to spend the rest of the work week taking a look at these two methods.
Both of the methods are CPA based. The first problem for me was actually getting accepted into a CPA network. I have been rejected from several in the past. Well, the good news is that I was approved for Max Bounty this morning. The difference this time? I called. I am confident that my call is what got me approved. The site I submitted is not very good, so I am pretty sure that I would have been rejected out of hand had I not called. So that is my tip for today: if you are having trouble getting approved with a CPA network go ahead and call. Don’t be scared to talk to a live person, it may make the difference.
I will keep you updated on these brief diversions. Who knows maybe I WILL make a few bucks.
Woohoo, I am happy. I have 13 live articles with 540 views and 118 URL clicks live at ezinearticles.com! I know that is nothing compared to some most article marketers, but I am getting there slowly. I have about 3 more articles waiting to publish so soon I will have 16 live articles. I am trying to crank out at least two per day, that way I eventually I will have 2 articles going live each day.
Writing the articles can be tough as I have never been a good writer, but I am learning more and more with each article written. One of the things I picked up early was that trying to pack an article with keywords will not fly with the ezine editors. I had two articles rejected because of this. I guess I was surprised because I was not doing it intentionally, I just said the words over and over and over without realizing it. Experience is the best teacher!
How many live articles do you have floating out there?
