Insight on frustrating hurdles…

January 21, 2008 on 8:53 pm | In Questions and Comments | 1 Comment

Hi Tony,
I picked up your book up a while back, and very much enjoyed it your details into helping someone get started.
I’ve been trialing affiliate SEM as a side project, and have been doing some ‘investigating’ on my end on worthwhile opportunities.  I was hoping I might gauge your opinion on two issues I’ve encountered.
1.       Reluctance of affiliates advertisers to accepts SEMers.
 I’ve submitted applications to several (who accept SEMers) but often don’t hear back at all – is this common? Do you simply keep re-applying??
2.       Being profitable in highly competitive industries
For example, auto loan lead gen – I see the average commission bounty is around $12 per qualified lead. I’m generally able to generate a qualified lead for about $12-$17 in clicks via PPC, which is pretty well negates any profitability. I’ve struggled to find some ‘sweet spots’ – which I know is likely part of the challenge (or fun!) My thinking is that in highly competitive markets these days, the ‘supply’ of SEMers is so high that the margins have been reduced to very little on the main engines in the more common industries. Or else, my I need to work on my optimizing… Any tips?

 

Much obliged,

John

1 Comment »

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  1. John,

    Thanks for buying my book. I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

    1. I’m not sure if it is affiliate networks or affiliate programs that you are having the trouble with. If it is affiliate networks, please let me know which ones, and I may be able to help through my contacts. If it is individual programs, you may be stuck just re-applying, though most programs have program directors you can try contacting.

    2. Your auto-gen campaign actually sounds quite promising to me. Many of my big winners had much worse margins than this in the beginning. The key is to focus on writing better ads. An ad that has significantly higher CTRs than your current ad will have significantly lower costs and higher volume. DOn’t be afraid to look at the other ads you are competing against for clues on what phrases are effective. Don’t bother copying any ads (I think the Google Algorythm is likely to favor the older ad) but do try to replicate what you think might be the most effective part(s) of the ad.

    I hope this helps,

    Tony

    Comment by Administrator — January 27, 2008 #

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