Bootstrapper Notes

$100 per day Challenge - Join the fun!

Okay, its official!  I just popped over to Jon's Blog and noticed he accepted my challenge that I left him in a comment last night.

I got a comment from Burke overnight essentially throwing down the gauntlet, saying we should race to see who will make it to $100/day first. My initial thought was, "But I'm not making many sales right now and he has a headstart." When I realized what I was thinking, I couldn't believe it. It's not like me to back down like that. So, Burke, I pick up the gauntlet and I accept your challenge=)

Basically we are racing to $100/day profit via PPC adverstising of affiliate products.  Don't worry Jon, I still have a long way to go, and you seem to have a great system.

For those of you who have not read Jon's blog, you really need to check it out.  He has shared some wonderful tips on using PPC, and the best part is that he learned them while being out there in the trenches testing things out.

So anybody else wann join?  Don't worry, we don't have a big headstart.  I know there are some of you out there that could probably stomp us by the end of the week if you wanted to.

I really hope this becomes more of a learning experience for Jon and I, as we can share tips and experiences with each other.  So if you want to join, just leave a comment and your in!

Building my list

Today was the first full day that I sent visitors via PPC to a page on my site.  This page has reviews of 3 similar Clickbank products.  3 seconds after the page loads, a pop-up appears asking the visitor if they would like to receive a "special report". 

To get the "special report" all they have to provide is their email address and name.  The link to the "special report" is sent via an auto-responder immediately.  This email also has a pitch for one of the products.

Right now I just have 3 messages loaded into the auto-responder, but I will probably add more.

The results so far have been good.  12.5% of the visitors that were served the pop-up have requested the report.  If this percentage keeps up the list should build pretty quickly.  Then I will be able to market to these users over and over as long as they stay subscribed.

I know this process works, from reading the reports of others.  This is just the first time I have tried it, and I still have a bunch of testing to do to get it all figured out.

What I am most interested in, is how it affects the conversion rate.  I was converting the primary product at just over 1% by sending visitors straight to the merchant site from my Adword advertisement.  Hopefully I can increase this percentage by being able to market to the visitor over time, and also market other related products.

Back to work....

5 New Campaigns Launched Today

Today at lunch, and wrapping up tonight, I have added 5 new campaigns in my Adwords account.  Right now I am running 10 campaigns, all promoting Clickbank products.

Some of the products I have set-up as landing pages.  I am hosting these pages under one of my content sites that is on the same topic.  The landing pages basically review three or four of the top products in this niche.  I also have a DHTM pop-up on these pages to try and collect email addresses, that will be follow up with an autoresponder sequence.

Two of the 10 campaigns are currently profitable, the rest are still in testing mode.  One campaign has had just over 1,500 clicks and is running right along with just over a 50% ROI.  I am continuing to refine the keyword groups and ads within this campaign to improve this even more.

I am only running each campaign to 300 clicks or about $25 -$35 per test phase.  If they are not profitable in this timeframe they are dropped like a hot potato!

Each day I tweak the keyword groups and ads to more finely target specific keywords.  What I do is set-up a main group of words that is usually 50 to 150 words.  Then if any of these words gets over 100 impressions in a day I create a new ad group with ad text to specifically target just these words.  Also if I notice a word gets lots of views and few clicks I might pull it out to a separate group to target the ad more closely.

Lots of work, but I love the fact that it is measurable!

Using Adwords for $100/day challenge

I mentioned a few posts ago that I have been playing around with Adwords, and sending visitors straight to the merchants site.  I have been using Clickbank products simply because they have good commissions and I have had success with them in the past.

My goal is to get to the point where I am generating $100/day profit using these techniques.  I will report my progress twice a month on this web site - just so you can follow along.  On Dec. 1st I will post the first months progress.

But just for a preview, I am currently running a 40.3% ROI - still a long ways from $100/day, but it all adds up, plus the ROI is positive!

Creating my own list

I have decided to make my own addition to my first JM style site.  Last week I signed up for the 30 day trial over at Aweber.  Aweber provides a top notch autoresponder/newsletter service.  It is not free after the first 30 days, but I see why, it is absolutely amazing!

So I created a "special report" for the site that is free if you sign up to receive it.  Aweber creates different kinds of pop-ups and in-line sign up forms.  I created a java pop-up, so it is almost unblockable by most browsers.  I have it set to pop in immediately.  Each visitor will only be exposed to it one time per day.

I have had the form running for 24 hours and have not had a sign up yet, but that is okay.  I figure I will run it for 25 days and then see if I want to keep it up.

I have also added several new pages to this site pushing some of the Clickbank products that relate to my niche.

This site if my best performing site, and I would really like to build it up, it has lots of potential.  I will keep you posted on the progress.

Google Adwords Tips

I have been playing around promoting some Clickbank products,  I am currently running 5 campaigns, and one seems to be giving a nice positive ROI.

I was browsing around the Clickbank Success Forum tonight and ventured off to a blog from a link in one of the posts.  On that blog I found a great post about the Top 10 Adwords Mistakes.  I learned one really great tip - so I thought I would pass the link along.

More on what I am doing in the next post...

Link Building Tools - Part One

I have been working the last week or so on creating a system to continually build incoming links to not only my affiliate content sites, but also my 4 ecommerce sites.  Today I thought I would share the first of two tools that I have purchased to maximize my time in doing this mundane task.

The first tool in my arsenal is Reciprocal Manager.  This tool is one of the scripts I am sure you have seen that basically allow you to build a link directory.  I have tried free ones, but I ended up purchasing this one simply because it is head and shoulders above the free ones I tried. 

Reciprocal Manager completely automates the process for adding links to your site.  Visitors can simply fill in a form to add their site.  The cool thing is that they must first put your link on their site, because when they hit submit, the software checks their site to be sure you link is on it.  Once a user makes a submission, it is not live on my site until I review and approve it.

There is a complete administration backend where you control everything.  It is really awesome!

I get two or three emails a day from Value Exchange, I am going to start simply replying to them with the link where they can add my their site to my directory.

I am only going to accept "on-topic" sites for exchanges, so this is not going to turn into some mega-directory that accepts any and all exchanges.  I can also easily add LinkMetro requests thru the admin interface.

So far I have it installed and fully functional on just one of my sites.  The rest will be easy to add the script to, now that I have it figured out.  It is a simple install, so don't worry about that.  PLUS, I can add it to unlimited domains - I own it completely.  There is also a forum if you run into problems.

Okay, so now that I have the site interface figured out the next step was to figure out how to get people to start exchanging links with me.  Stay tuned for Part two of this series where I will share with you the tool I am using to find potential link partners.

I am playing in the yard!

Yes folks, it appears that at least for yesterday and today, Google has allowed me to play somewhere other than the sandbox with my first JM Style site!

I typically get one referral from Google about every other day.  Yesterday 10% of my traffic was from Google!

Now to just keep getting new incoming links and building up my PR.  I am making a couple of purchases that will greatly speed the process of getting good link exchanges with minimal effort.  I will share more when I get everything up and running.

I hate to get to excited, who knows if it will stick, but initial reports look great!  It sure does feel good to be out of the sand!! :)