First Month of $5k + !

[brada7x]

February proved to be my best month so far, topping my previous record month by a staggering amount.

I ended February at $5,517.71.

Now, for some of you, those aren't big figures. But for me, that's like hitting the lottery. Lol.

February was my 4th month in internet marketing. My income has been rising every month. I went from making just under $2k in my first month to making $5.5k in my fourth month. Affiliate marketing has been gold to me.

For the noobs out there reading this....work your ass off and good things WILL come to you.

[DanielLambert]

Well done mate, very inspiring.

[inzpiration]

Congrats man this is great! Keep working like that and push harder, what are you doing? Promoting CB products? CPA? Adsense? Article marketing? PPC?

Cheers!

[Dan Bainbridge]

That is amazing progress!! Congratulations!! Awesome work!

[JIMZ]

Thats great, I assume that is profit not just turnover?

[brada7x]

Thanks everyone.

It's all profit.

I'm promoting CB products and Plimus products. I started out doing strictly article marketing. In February I started to use PPC more. I've been pulling in $150+ profit each day with PPC. Some days are lower, but the average is $150.

My article marketing campaigns have slowed down a bit but I'm going to be revamping those throughout the month to get them back up to par as well as look for ways to tweak my PPC campaigns to provide more profit if possible.

I'm also looking around for new products to promote that will convert well through PPC. I've had such a great experience with it that I'd like to delve into it more and master it in multiple niches.

[jehenry]

Great work...four months, that is excellent! You truly are an inspiration to all of us who have yet to earn money online! Congratulations!

[NCMedia]

I still remember the day I invited you to the forum last year

Good stuff brotha congrats! To be honest, 5K/month and growing is nothing to think low of - that's still more than 75% of the world at their 9-5's. CONSISTENCY year to year is now on your plate - if you can keep on pace and not even grow you're golden, if you can continue growth you're swimming in your dreams coming true.

I remember the first campaigns I hit it big on, I though I'd be a millionaire within a few months, just note that nothing lasts forever so as long as you diversify well and are always on the lookout for the next best money flip - you'll be ok.

Now that I've said that - I'll say - GET AN INVESTOR or someone that has a lot of resource (hmmm ). If you can quantify earnings and play with much bigger budgets day to day you could be huge in a month mate - big risk huge reward.

Will also say - for the noobs that read this and get jealous and or inspired - I think it's fair to offer them at least a tid bit of your techniques, not your whole bag of tricks but help those up and coming with a good tutorial on any aspect of helping them grow/earn.

Cheers to further instant scaling and growth!
N.

[lemonarian]

Big ups man. Nice work.

[Blackman]

Started few months ago and already making $5k/month - that's impressive

Respect, mate.

[mill123]

i said it before and i'll say it again. man you move fast! hah.

[SirKhan]

In February I started to use PPC more.

Adwords or something else?

[brada7x]

Adwords or something else?

Yeah, it's been Adwords.

I've been looking around to find another PPC program but none of them get the traffic that Google gets. I've got an account on Bing but that hasn't done ANYTHING.

All profit has been from Adwords.

[Blackman]

Yeah, it's been Adwords.

I've been looking around to find another PPC program but none of them get the traffic that Google gets. I've got an account on Bing but that hasn't done ANYTHING.

All profit has been from Adwords.

I've been doing PPC too for the past few months, but I'm hardly breaking even.

Do you do the traditional PPC, like choosing long-tails > writing targeted ads > traffic to landing page > vendor?

Or some other sneaky stuff?

[brada7x]

I've been doing PPC too for the past few months, but I'm hardly breaking even.

Do you do the traditional PPC, like choosing long-tails > writing targeted ads > traffic to landing page > vendor?

Or some other sneaky stuff?

You hit the nail on the head. I do it completely traditional with one exception...

I don't use the standard one-page lander.

I use a blog-style landing page. It's a blog that's built with loads of content directed at the niche and, as of recently, it's a PR 2 after just a couple months of being around.

I have my main "sales pitch", which is a standard review-style post that reviews 3 products and pin points the main one as my most recommended, as a stickied post on the front page.

My quality score has been a 10/10 for almost ALL of my keywords and I usually rank either 1st or 2nd position in ads.

Google loves blogs and I think this little trick is why I've had such good success with it.

1. Google shows it love and puts it high on the ad list and gives it a high quality score.

2. When potential buyers come across it, it doesn't look like a scammy, one-page, buy me shit now page, but rather a site that has authority in the niche.

I THINK that's why I've had such a positive experience with it. But who knows.

[SirKhan]

You hit the nail on the head. I do it completely traditional with one exception...

Golden info thank you!!
I won't try it though because I already tried the exact same thing 6 times last December, with 6 different niches, I had (I think) very good "landing blogs" (some with PR1 etc) for them but Google banned all my campaigns. I tried with 3 different AdWords accounts, so to this day I don't know what was wrong. I guess PPC is just not for me :-/

[Blackman]

Thanks for some tips Brad

I'm currently using "regular" landing pages, so might try out what you do. Cheers

[brada7x]

Not a problem at all. I hope it helps someone.

Like I said, it may or may not be the reason I'm doing well with it. I could just be getting lucky. But I shall soon find out as I am about to start testing a few other products on PPC as well.

Would be great if I were able to master PPC in several niches. Could make my pockets full which would in turn give me a hard on

[SirKhan]

Wait that was with promoting only one product?

Plus do you send the users to the domain of your "landing-blog" or some post that is keyword-optimized for the given keyword?

[brada7x]

It's across 4 different products.

And its to the domain of my landing blog. My promo post is stickied on the front page so it's the first thing viewers see.

[SirKhan]

I'm just asking because based on common sense I would use different posts as targets for different keyword ad groups you know to get QS 10. But looks like that isn't needed. Very interesting...
Thank you for helping us out. You know that most people would actually pay for these kind of information? :-) I would, for any PPC guide that actually works. I promised myself to stay away from PPC for a while but I'll have to test this out! :-D

[brada7x]

Yea I know that's how most do that but as long as the post is written well with good keyword density I don't think it matters. Which I would assume to be true since it is working for me.

And I've done this for two different landing blogs that promote 2 different products each. So I believe it can be said that it works.

But, no problem with helping. Hopefully it works just as well for you.

[brada7x]

I forgot to mention this...

I use the negative keywords feature like its crack. I test out my ads with all the broad keywords first no matter what they are. Then after about a week I look at my landing blog stats to see what keywords have been converting and which ones are just garbage.

What I found is that I ended up getting a lot of junk traffic and it was centered around a few particular keywords. So, I cut the fat. It saves me a ton of money and helps with getting BUYING people to my page.

And it's not just people searching for free info that I cut out. There are people who look for things that just so happen to have one or two words in common with what I'm targeting, but it's completely off topic.

I literally have a negative keywords list that is about 50-60 keywords per ad. I pinpoint targeted keywords and run with them. If they don't profit in the slightest, I drop them. It's as plain as that.

[Capler]

I literally have a negative keywords list that is about 50-60 keywords per ad. I pinpoint targeted keywords and run with them. If they don't profit in the slightest, I drop them. It's as plain as that.

^^

Key.

[Noxter]

I'm starting to like this guy ! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent job!

One little tiny suggestion, that might help you diversify a little more. Use your success to boost even more of it. Meaning: you can do one of two things, or both.
1.) Package a course and put a pretty pink bow on it (shoot a video to mention/build your creditability (since you do have those figures now)). 5k (net) is nothing to laugh about and only 10 - 15% of IM'ers do it.
2.) Start a blog to help build your brand name and later package better information to sell.

Money attracts eyeballs. Let me use Shoemoney as an example. His 130k Adsense check has been all the craze and still to this day (5+ years later) he is asked to speak on behalf of CPC. But what people don't know is how many millions the guy banked with CPA (not CJ) + his own brand/tools.

Great info here btw. Cheers!

[jacky8]

Great Great Great Great Great.

Well done. I hope i get some people to promote my own lineup of product(s) launching soon.

[brada7x]

I'm starting to like this guy ! Excellent! Excellent! Excellent job!

One little tiny suggestion, that might help you diversify a little more. Use your success to boost even more of it. Meaning: you can do one of two things, or both.
1.) Package a course and put a pretty pink bow on it (shoot a video to mention/build your creditability (since you do have those figures now)). 5k (net) is nothing to laugh about and only 10 - 15% of IM'ers do it.
2.) Start a blog to help build your brand name and later package better information to sell.

Money attracts eyeballs. Let me use Shoemoney as an example. His 130k Adsense check has been all the craze and still to this day (5+ years later) he is asked to speak on behalf of CPC. But what people don't know is how many millions the guy banked with CPA (not CJ) + his own brand/tools.

Great info here btw. Cheers!

I've actually started working on a bit of a guide to give starting affiliates a boost. I've only got about 40 pages done so far because I've been working on it among other things. But its going to encompass a lot of the techniques that I've used to reach the success I'm already at.

The blog idea has been on my mind for quite some time as I've already had so many inquiries daily through Facebook and such about how I'm making the money that I do.

The guide I'm working on is going to be a combination of 3 different ebooks and video tutorials. It won't be out for some time yet, but I figured with how much of a great response I've gotten out of people just talking about what I've done already that it wouldn't hurt to take a crack at the MMO niche myself.

All of the content will be written by myself. I've been told many a time that I have a knack for writing so I might as well put those claims to the test.

The videos are my only concern. I have no idea how to make a high quality video. I have a $150 webcam that records in HD but, in all honesty, when I release this (which will be my first product and first shot at being a vendor) I'd like it to be top-notch.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist and if one detail isn't the way I picture it, I won't put it out until it's done right.

If you guys have any educated opinions on the matter of the videos, by all means, express them.

Thanks.

[SirKhan]

Well what do you want to put in the videos exactly? Your face and explaining stuff at a white board or just a few "powerpoint" slides and explain it via a microphone, or just text and maybe some music?
How to make a perfect video is a bit broad question mate Let's go into the details.

[Lukeg28]

Brada story truely is amazing, im fasicanted with this guy in a non gay way lol.

[brada7x]

Well what do you want to put in the videos exactly? Your face and explaining stuff at a white board or just a few "powerpoint" slides and explain it via a microphone, or just text and maybe some music?
How to make a perfect video is a bit broad question mate Let's go into the details.

Good point.

Well, let's get down to the nitty gritty then...

What has proven to convert better for you guys when it comes to videos? Personal one-on-one face style or a fancy powerpoint with explanation?

Are there any programs out there that don't take degrees to master that would make easy work of videos?

Any hardware you guys would recommend to get the best possible quality? Right now I just have a Logitech Orbit AF webcam with it's included software for recording. And for screen recording I'm only using CamStudio which I'm really not impressed with quality wise.

[Lukeg28]

hi brada, i use fraps to record then camstudio to convert its a great combination!

[NCMedia]

Ola.

* Screen capturing use camtasia (not sure if it's the same as camstudio? Is that the baby version or just one of the panels or or?) You can set your own quality, size, audio quality/source etc.

* Don't use your webcam mic, get a real one - just ebay 'usb studio mic' < Under $100 gets you great mics, under $250 gets you close to real studio quality (check the RGPG home page I just added a nice camtasia video walkthrough.


** I fall victim to some of these but practice: Don't take LONG pauses when recording. Don't Say ummmmm, ahhhhh, ehhhh, soooooooo, etc. too much, better to have dead air than you fumbling and hmmm haaa'ing throughout. Try not to lose your train of thought and move forward constantly. Try not to sound monotone, be happy - have a beer/spliff/whatever to relax first. BE CONFIDENT - Sit up straight and speak loud/clear close to max volume but not redlining - don't yell or POP the mic with explosive verbiage or coughs/laughs/music coming from sites or your speakers.

- Do a few practice runs to check out your own volume/quality/how you 'sound'/don't be fake/don't be nervous (you know you will - you're presenting.. . to the world - even though to everyone else - you're just some dude/chick). Once you've mastered whoring your voice and personality, press record do a GREAT final take.

- Don't forget if you screw up a line, DON'T STOP RECORDING. Just pause, take a breath - and start again right from the line you screwed up, you can edit the bad parts out after easily.

* Record at least at 24 fps, when you export make sure it's at 19 at least - they say the human eye can't see the difference of motion online past 15 fps, but i call bullshit - I'd export minimum 24. You then see nice smooth mouse movements, clicks, loads, and no glitching or pausing while there is motion. File size is bigger but wtf you're already doing video which is big to begin with and really slow PC's won't read it anyway if it's a bit smaller... don't be shy to up the quality and fps.

- When done capturing, save, import the project into your studio area, drag it onto your timeline below, and start editing (that you'll have to play with to learn - lot's of options if you desire).


* You can add light music but I wouldn't recommend, you can apply smart focus which i WOULD. It follows your mouse, zooms/pans for your on auto and makes your capture come to life. You can edit each node/zoom by double clicking the node that zooms where you didn't want it to, and edit it easily. You can also add text bubbles and graphics - feel free to look at the video on nichechoppers.com home page for an example from last year.

Once you are happy with your final edit in preview:

* Export as 'custom' after you click 'produce video as', don't use the wizards - go through each setting/option, pick FLV as file type and nothing else (swf/mov/etc) - FLV is most standard and readable and you can upload VERY fast to all the video sites with FLV's/. Again make sure you set your quality here on your final export.

* Export audio at least at 22k 96bit stereo - or preferably at 44.1 - 128 - stereo < again filesize vs quality - find your balance.

* Important if submitting online - NAME YOUR FLV with KEYWORDS. Just found recently that I'm submitting a video for DUBturbo, and left the title as 'dub turbo audio production' and my file name was dub6.flv < and instead of related videos coming up - I got some wierd east indian videos and a lot of Vdubs, dubbed trucks, etc. My own fault but I renamed the FLV to 'Make_hiphop_beats' and resubmitted, made matching title/description/tags etc. adding DubTurbo as one word there and voila. Better to have keywords than 'filename.flv' or '84329.swf'... Once you initially upload and get indexed related videos, you can then change your title/other stuff, your related vids don't seem to change after that - If you upload and save settings and notice you got BUNG related videos - you have to actually upload again after deleting the other one first (it knows you're uploading the same file/vid - but doesn't tell you until you're done uploading, adding your keys/description.. was a bitch to learn all these errors).

----------------------------------

* If recording real video - I wouldn't use my webcam unless it was even better than what the online strippers use with remotes and 30 fps HD HUGE quality which can be expensive and are silly to compare to real 3CCD or HD cameras. GET ONE if you're going to be serious about your rich media.

* Get a real video editor i.e. adobe premiere, final cut, don't use movie maker.

* Don't do USB captures, use firewire or if the camera comes with a big memory card just get a reader and import into your machine. The files will be huge. 728x480 at raw capture is 13gigs per hour of capture.avi, and that's not hi-def, not widescreen.

*Be prepared to have a computer that can handle rich media/video/audio editing.

^Editors are the same for the most part, just layers of video and audio files. You chop/transition/mix audio/intro/outro/finalize your cut...

Once your final is ready you export much the same as above, though here you would export as a final 720x480 (or widescreen/hd/whatever but HIGH quality not web - have a high quality master - always), high quality audio settings - the ones above at 44.1 or higher if you can, make sure you're exporting just your selected project area, and a cinepak codec on .avi mode. Once you've exported your master.avi - You simply encode for web with windows media encoder or convert to FLV so it's web ready and taken from a high quality master. Again when converting from your master to .FLV or .WMV/etc., make sure you stick to high quality settings. YT still recompresses them even if they are already FLV's (all video submission sites do). It's on the fly and their codecs are good but it's still second generation so swallow the large file size and the extra little wait when uploading your bigger file once compressed at high quality. You'll thank yourself once your final is done, compressed, uploaded, streaming with a HQ button by default, and looks/sounds pro.

That should help you quite a bit, oh and I see big things in your future here if you are stepping into vendor land with rich media (pun intended)

Cheers.
N.

EDIT: TLDR - your original question: There is no data that can prove a standard yet I don't think. Be creative is my .02, don't look at what might have worked a lil' better so far, do either or both but do them really well.

[NCMedia]

** Oh and I forgot you can also use your webcam/video camera along with your screen cap.

Final result is really cool. I'm comfy sharing this now that we're getting closer to launching Dub.

YouTube Video

EDIT: Brada - shit I forgot you already saw this in the RGPG backend - duh.. but still good to show the fam.

[brada7x]

Yeah.

I couldn't have asked for a better video tutorial than all that though.

Major thanks.

[Lukeg28]

Lol, i see a sticky coming on for that post alone.. when i said samstudio i meant camtasia, when i was making videos for world of warcraft becuase its such a high demanding game i was finding camtasia was lagging alot so i use fraps then moved to camtasia to convert. Great tut norb.

[NCMedia]

B: Great glad you see the light (or will once you follow all the steps).


L: Yeah doing these has gotten really fun, takes practice to get good but you're your own director, you can do some pretty awesome things for promos and tutorials.

If you've already copied/pasted it somewhere - I just went over it and added a few things to explain the processes better. All are still really point form but you seem like a smart cat, you'll find your way with ease.

N.

[brada7x]

Yup. Already saved this.

I'll have to check out some mics in a bit.

I'm assuming Camtasia probably has a good bit more to offer for features and such. Camstudio really isn't much more than basic.

[brada7x]

O.K. so here's the plan for my first product that will be MMO.

It's going to be a full on guide that covers multiple aspects of the game and is going to consist of several techniques that have proven to work well for me.

Some of these topics will include -

• Niche Selection
• Product Selection
• Basic Landing Page Structure
• Copywriting Intro
• Guide to Article Marketing (which will be much more detailed than the one in my sig and will have a video walkthrough of EVERY step including backlinking, traffic tricks & more)
• Guide to Building a "lander" Blog (including how to structure posts, drive traffic, achieve rank and monetize appropriately. This will also have a video series accompanying it to better detail the steps.)
• Guide to Social Media Marketing (this will focus primarily on Facebook as it is a gold mine if done right. Videos will be included as well.)
• Beginner's Guide to SEO (self explanatory. Videos as well.)
• Beginner's Guide to PPC (self explanatory. Vidoes as well.)
• Guide to Scaling Campaigns - Article & PPC (vids too)
• Guide to Networking (this is something I think is often overlooked by any and every IM guide. people need to know how and why to make personal contact with vendors, other affiliates, etc)

There might be a couple extra things.

Currently, the article marketing & social media marketing portions are almost done. I won't be releasing this for a while due to the amount of info that will be contained within.

My Action Plan -

• Develop a Brand/Blog Directed at Helping Affiliates
• Divulge My Success & Steps That Got Me There
• Complete Product in Meantime
• Build Up a Following via the Blog
• Much Later Down the Road - Announce Upcoming Guide

What I'd Like to Know -

1. Are there other topics that should be included?
2. What kind of price tag should I put on this?
3. How can I make this to NOT be a Hyped & Typical Scam-Sounding MMO Product?
4. Any suggestions you may have?

As always, any input is greatly appreciated.

[Vadym]

1. It's not about WHAT you put these days. It's about HOW WELL it's done.

If you can get people interested in a PPC course, and deliver a GOOD PPC course... well, that's that. No magic elephants.

2. Depending on how large this is, I'd throw up $97-147. Make sure to get some upsells and downsells there. Probably half the income that comes in from aff marketing for me cames from upsells and downsells.

3. You can't. This is MMO. And shock value works.

4. Make sure to get a guide of some sort. Anyone like Norb, who can simply chat with you once in a while and you can reflect to make sure EVERYTHING is on-track.

[tgrpublishing]

I'd say don't go for a general all-in-one MMO product, for at least 2 reasons. First, there's loads of them around and you'll have to work very hard to stand out. Second, I think specialist products imply more value. A decent guide to *just* PPC would be great. Leave out the articles, social media etc.