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Posted on February 5, 2010 by Eric
If you don’t know, an email or a zip submit is a CPA affiliate offer that requires the lead to enter in either their email or their zip code. Once the prospect enters that information, you get paid. These offers usually don’t pay a lot, but you can expect to get anywhere from $0.80 – $3.00 for these offers.
There are a ton of different ways of promoting zip or email submits. I want to share one that I have had success with, and it also doesn’t take long to setup. First up, you need to be a part of an affiliate network. My favorite right now is Peerfly.
That part will probably take you longer than 20 minutes, but once you’re setup with an affiliate network, then you want to pick your offer. Peerfly has a ton of zip/email submits on offer and you can pick out about 10 to promote. The key with email and zip submits is to promote a bunch and see which ones convert. They will not all convert, and out of 10 campaigns, you’ll probably only run into 1 or 2 that are really profitable.
Once you have your offers, you need some traffic. CPV traffic is really hot right now because it’s really easy to get started, and you don’t need to worry about quality score or having your own site. CPV traffic will create a popup over the browser of an internet surfer showing your ad. You don’t need to worry about click through rates, or anything else. You just bid on keywords or URLs and you get the traffic.
You can get some CPV traffic really quick by heading over to Direct CPV. When you sign up you need to call them to be approved, and then you can start getting traffic right away. Plus, you’re usually only spending around $0.01 per view of your ad!
Direct CPV traffic can be targeted in three different ways.
First, by category. This targeting is pretty broad and I don’t really recommend it because you don’t have full control.
Second by keywords. This targeting will show your ad when a lead views a website that has the keywords you select. It is best to combine this targeting with the third option.
URL targeting. This is the most exact type of targeting offered by Direct CPV. It allows you to target specific URLs. Just imagine, someone goes to the checkout section of WalMart’s website, when your ad for a $1000 free gift card pops up. Who wouldn’t want to sign up for just their email?
Remember, always test test test. And then, test some more. You will have some campaigns that don’t work… MANY campaigns that don’t work, but after a while you’ll get the hang of things and figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Posted on February 3, 2010 by Eric
Finally after having the dreaded HTC Touch cell phone for over 2 years I have switched… well in reality I switched about 3 months ago, but I wanted to make sure my phone lived up to my expectations before I gave it an overview.
The new phone that I bought was the HTC Hero on Telus Mobility. Even though I had been with Bell mobility for over 6 years, when both Telus and Bell moved over to their new faster 3g network Bell didn’t get any of the new Android phones.
Given that I hated the stupid HTC Touch (worst phone I’ve ever owned) I moved over to the HTC Hero on Telus and I haven’t looked back.
I can do all of the multi tasking that Apple is now toting on their iPhone, plus I don’t have to use iTunes or any other iCrap in order to upload music.
I don’t like the fact that in Canada I can’t get access to the paid android app store, but I’m not complaining ’cause there are still a ton of fun games and great apps to download for free.
The phone comes with GPS, a barcode scanner, compass and of course the HTC Sense UI. The Sense UI is basically your desktop, and it allows you to quickly switch between screens much like the iPhone… but way better. It’s not just a sea of icons, it actually has use and purpose.
I’m sure I’m pissing off the iPhone hordes out there who blindly stand behind their apple god, so I’ll say some bad stuff. The HTC Hero on Telus hasn’t gone to the new android version yet. It can be laggy sometimes (but so can the iPhone). The chin on the phone is kinda weird. It takes freaking FOREVER to boot up if you have to restart it. You can’t install apps on the expansion card (although, at least I have one 
)….
All in all, the HTC Hero is the best phone I’ve owned. I highly recommend it if you’re a bit of a software geek like me, but if you want everything to be super easy and dumbed down, feel free to go to the iWhatever.
PS. Have I mentioned I’m not a Mac fiend?
Posted on February 2, 2010 by Eric
Being a web designer for a number of years I’ve had the pleasure of working with a lot of great local business owners. Some of the ideas and products that I have helped to promote are amazing. Everything from electricians to e-learning to hydroponic grow boxes. But there is one thing that strikes me as odd…
Business owners don’t generally see their website as a lead gen tool.
Sure they want all kinds of salesy information on their site. It may even look like the cat’s ass. It’s on their business cards, it’s under their logo. Hell sometimes it’s even printed on the back of their fancy BMW.
But a lot of these sites lack opt-ins (an opt-in for those of you who don’t know, is a web form that collects info – usually a name and an email/phone number). Even when I suggest adding an opt-in it becomes really difficult to convince the client that it’s a good idea.
Why the hell would you ever not want to collect lead data from your site? You have XXXX traffic every day, and most of those potential buyers will go on their merry way and forget about you. BUT, if you offer them something for free and in exchange they give you their contact information… suddenly you can remind them that you still exist. And when they finally get around to buying in your market, you will still be fresh in their minds.
So how do you go about generating an opt-in for your site?
First you need some type of database that can collect the contact information. I’ve used a number of these companies, including aweber, vertical response. The one that I’ve liked the most, for not only how they’ve designed their site and their copy but also their interface and features, is MailChimp. You can signup for mailchimp here.
Once you have an account to collect the contact info, you will need to create an opt-in form. Mailchimp can generate this for you and all you have to do is copy and paste your code into your site.
So you’ve got your account, got your opt-in on your site, but you still aren’t getting anyone to sign up. There could be a number of reasons for this. One is that they have no reason to sign up. You need to offer something in exchange for your prospect’s contact information. This can be anything from an eBook, to an online quote or a product catalog. These things can all bring in huge lists of prospects that you can mail a newsletter or other promotional materials to.
In the future I’ll be going over in more detail how to increase your conversions, and how a double opt-in process works. Stay tuned and subscribe to the blog to make sure you don’t miss it!
Got questions? Let me know in the comments below.
Posted on January 9, 2010 by Eric
I’ve got a question: When did internet marketing become throwing shit at a wall until we get a piece to stick?
I haven’t been in IM since the beginning, but from what I can tell all of the wanna be internet millionaires who whine about crap information are just that… whiners.
They don’t want to be marketers. They don’t want to run a business. They just want someone to give them some key to some vault which has all of their dreams stored up in some bag with a dollar sign on it.
WAKE UP!
There is no secret. There is no dream campaign that all of the big guys are keeping from you. There’s just marketing, and then there’s shit being thrown at the wall…
So which type of internet business are you running?
Are you actually trying to connect a consumer with a product that they want or can use? Or are you uploading 10,000 keywords into Yahoo Search Marketing and hoping that one of them will convert on that Walmart gift card offer?
If you want to make a living at the internet marketing game, you’ve gotta stop thinking like a drone, and start thinking like a marketer. You’ve got to come up with a concept that makes sense, and that connects real people (yes they are people on the other end of your website, not just conversion numbers) with real services/products.
I’m not saying you can’t get a $250 Walmart gift card to convert well. I’m just saying that putting it on a blank page that says click here to get it isn’t going to do fuck all.
Where does this come from? Well I found a site (I won’t list it here because I just feel sorry for the guy) that was just a page with a black background and a bunch of affiliate banners on it. They weren’t similar banners. In fact there was one for dating sitting next to one for auto insurance.
He had claimed that he was sending PPC traffic to this site and trying “everything” he could to get it to convert, yet he was just losing money. These types of people just shouldn’t even try to be internet marketing people.
And in fact, if you are reading this and you own a site like that… just get out… get out NOW!
Marketing is about telling a story. A story that jives with the views of a group of people (for those of you who don’t know who these people are… they are your “customers”). Your story has to be convincing… and your story has to be consistent (as in, don’t say you have the best customer service when you don’t ever answer the phone). And yes, even if you are promoting email and zip submit offers, this story needs to be there.
So ask yourself; what story is your site telling?
More on this later, but for now do yourself a favor and pick up Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars and start being a marketer, not a chump.
Posted on January 4, 2010 by Eric
Well, I never thought I would be saying this, but it’s time for me to make some serious goals for the new year. My whole life I’ve been kind of avoiding goal-making. I’m not sure why, but I just figured if I could stay in the moment things would just… work out…
Well running my own business has changed that idea. I can’t do it anymore. I’ve discovered I need goals even on the daily level. If I don’t schedule my day, nothing really ends up getting done.
So here it is… begrudgingly I have made the list. I’ve ordered them from least important to most important:
- Make a list of my goals (holy shit I’ve already finished one!)
- Buy one design book per month for all of 2010
- Scale my CPA business up to $250 a day – enough to go back to school in 2011
- Build up a network of sites (around 150 should do it) that will continually grow and make money
- Learn how to teach people how to do things… I’m really bad at this…
- Learn how to outsource a lot of my work to other people so I can accomplish the next two…
- Share more of my money with people who need it
- Share more of my time with my family and my friends
- Keep my life scheduled down to the hour… not set in stone, but more of a… “guideline”
- Continue to be happy where I am, and learn from myself and my friends
I guess that last one is a little sappy, and not much of a business goal, but I really feel like if you’re happy with yourself then it doesn’t really matter what you do, or who you’re dating, or where you live, or who your family is or even if your dog chews a hole in your wall of your rented apartment that costs you $2500 bucks…
Anyways, I hope everyone had a wicked awesome new years and let’s all make 2010 a rad year!
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