If you’ve ever spoken to me via social media sites or via Instant Messaging for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m not the type of person to say one method is better than the other.  Unfortunately in this business, certain methods work for some people, while completely different methods work for others.  There is no clear cut solution or any clear cut path to follow in order to succeed in affiliate marketing.

However, I received an email about two weeks ago with a very specific question about split testing.  I responded to the person with the same advice I’m about to talk about in this blog post.  The email asked…

I know split testing is important, in fact, from what I understand it may be the single most important aspect I can do in affiliate marketing to influence the scaling process of my campaigns.  However, I’ve seen several methods for split testing and I was wondering which method worked best.  Some sites I’ve read say that you should split test two versions of whatever your testing at the same time, while others suggest split testing one type one day and then another the next day.  Which method do you feel would have the greatest impact on my split testing efforts?

Now, when I started split testing, I always used the A/B method of split testing which means that you split test two variations at the exact same time giving both equal exposure.  In fact, it’s not something I have even really thought about thus my reason for never writing a blog post about it before now.  However, after thinking about it, I felt that it was worthy of a blog post because I do believe there is a very clear cut way of doing it that will yield the best results!

The other, most common, method you see affiliates use is the AB split testing method.  The only difference between the two is that with the A/B method you are split testing both things at the same exact time giving them both equal exposure.  With the AB method you are split testing them at different times, or days.  For example, you may split test a landing page on Monday, document the results, and then put up a new landing page on Tuesday, compare the results and pick the best one.

The downside with the AB split testing model is that unfortunately data can be very different on different days and even on the same day but morning vs. evening.  Some campaigns do really well during the evenings, but horrible during the mornings, if you are running one page in the morning and one in the evening, your better landing page may actually be the one that you are running in the mornings but because conversions suck for your niche in the mornings, it looks like your landing page doesn’t do well at all.

However, if you are using the A/B method you know that both items you are split testing are getting the same exact data.  They are sharing visitors equally and both are being displayed both in the morning, afternoon, and evening.  This insures that you aren’t receiving data that is skewed because of changes in the visitors you receive throughout the day.

Now, as I said in the opening paragraphs of this blog post, not every method works best for everyone.  There is one other method that I’ve found works decent and that is the ABAB method.

This works just like the AB method, but there is one major difference.  You split test landing page one on Monday, then landing page two on Tuesday, however, you then continue on giving each one more time.  So you’d split test landing page one on Wednesday for the second time, and then split test landing page two on Thursday for a second time.

Personally I still don’t believe this is the best method and when compared with the A/B split testing method, I’m not sure why you’d choose it, however, there are some that believe that the ABAB method is the best choice.  In fact, it is a common way of split testing in other fields like Pyschology.  These fields use the ABAB method for most experiments.

Ultimately the choice is yours, however, I’d highly recommend going with the A/B method or at the very least the ABAB method.  Using the AB method is in my opinion simply being lazy and it will impact your business in a very negative way!

I’ve been around, no where in particular…  I’ve been doing a ton of thinking this month about my online businesses and some other things going on in my life.  Internet Marketing is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I have no plans whatsoever of ever quitting this business…  I absolutely love it!

I also have no plans whatsoever of quitting blogging here on Click Consultants.  I truly enjoy helping others make it in this industry.  However, there are a couple routes that I may take that may change how I do this.  Some will require a ton of change to the way this blog works.

Also, if you really miss me that much I’ve really been trying to use social media more, so look in the sidebar and friend me if you want to stay in touch more!

Anyways, so no matter what direction I decide to take my business this upcoming year, it will most likely affect this blog in a huge way…  I believe it will be for the best and will allow me to help even more people enter this fantastic industry!

I have a post I wrote about A/B split testing that I plan on releasing either tomorrow or the next day, but as soon as I get that post out of the way, I promise that I will write a post about some of the decisions I’ve been thinking about and hopefully I can get some feedback from my loyal readers!

Moving On… Consultation Rates for December

When I first made my consultation services public, I started offering monthly packages, however, if you remember in the very beginning, I said that I would only offer these special discounted packages if I had the time and open spots.  You see, consultations is not my business… it’s brings me in maybe $2000 dollars a month.  I don’t do it to make money, instead I’ve always done it to try to help people.

Anyways, I’ve been pretty busy these last two months, again because I have a lot of big plans for the 1st of the year and I’m trying to decide which path to take and get the work done to get there…

Because I’ve been so busy with personal projects, I had no intentions of offering any special discounted packages for the month of November or December…HOWEVER, because I’ve had so many emails bugging me, I’ve decided to free a small section of time.  5 hours total.  This is the best I could do for both months with my projects and the holidays…

Anyways, so I apologize to everyone that was wanting to get some consultations done during the month of November and December and thought that I was offering these packages every month.  I’m not!  I simply can’t get more hours during the day…I keep praying for more time in each day, but God doesn’t seem to be listening to me

Good News!

Now for the good news, normally I charge $200 dollars per hour for consultations if you view my consultation page…  Every month that I’ve offered special discounted packages, I’ve charged $100 dollars an hour.

However, because I have such limited space and I feel bad that so many people are wanting to get consultations yet I’ve been unable to offer them, AND because it’s coming up to Christmas and I’m feeling generous, I’m offering these five hours at a rate of only $50 per hour.

This is the lowest I’ve ever offered my consultation services!  There is a catch though….

As you guys know, these special packages are not sold as a per hour type package.  Which means I can only offer this deal to two people…

For the month of November and December I’m offering only two packages.  Both packages are as follows.

2 and a 1/2 hours for $125 dollars.

Again, I have two of those packages available, which would be a total of 5 hours.  Normally I allow people to buy as many as they want, meaning that normally someone could purchase the full 5 hours if they want, however, not this time.  Anyone interested is only allowed to purchase one of the packages in order to allow more than one person to get the benefit of the monthly package.

Okay, this post is getting long, time to wrap it up…

One more thing I’d like to mention.  Depending on the route I decide to take with this blog and my online businesses, I will most likely not be offering any special consultation packages during the month of January as well, so if you are interested, I’d suggest contacting me as soon as possible about picking up one of the two packages listed above!

As always, it’s first come first serve… So if you’re wanting to purchase a package, use the contact form to let me know ASAP!

PS: I’ll get the post up talking about the upcoming changes as soon as possible.

I was contacted by White Fire Media  a couple weeks ago and they requested me to write a review of their network.  One thing I love about this business is working with new people and looking at new networks when they pop up so naturally I accepted!

One of the greatest things about checking out new affiliate networks is when you find one that really stands out and does a great job, has great staff, and offer some awesome payouts on their offers!

When you first sign up for White Fire Affiliate Network and log in you’re presented with the a standard looking user dashboard.  It’s actually quite a simple interface which I like.  It doesn’t add a ton of fluff and is pretty easy to navigate.  At the top there are five links, Home,  My Account, Request Offers, My Offers, and Reporting.  In the sidebars there is Featured Offers, New Offers, News, and your affiliate manager contact details.  That’s pretty much it!

One of the weird things though was that whenever I clicked on any of the Featured Offers or New Offers links, I got taken to a page that said “No Offers Found”.  Definitely something they need to get fixed asap!

Again, the interface is pretty simple and straight forward.  It doesn’t seem to have a ton of bells and whistles but I actually think it’s quite nice that a network isn’t focusing on eye candy and instead on their network.

In order to add offers to the My Offers section, you actually have to first go to the Request Offers section.  If you click on Request Offers you’ll be presented with a page like the one above.  It will have the offer names, the average rating, what countries you can promote the offer in, the payout, etc.  Again, pretty simple and self-explanatory which is nice.

Additional Details

I actually had an extremely hard time finding any details about how they pay and when.  This is definitely something that they need to address.  They need to make a page, either include it on their publisher section of their site, or create a frequently asked questions section which lists this and other important information.  It definitely will prohibit affiliate from signing up if they don’t’ understand when and how they will be payed.

Also, they need to include information about whether or not they do wires, if they cost anything, if there is a certain amount the affiliate must make before they’ll get paid, etc.

Payment details is probably the single most important thing that a network needs to have in an easy to find spot on their site!

Another nice feature is that they pay 4% for life on all referrals to their network.  Since I was paid for this review, I didn’t include my referral link in any of the links to their site, but you should definitely take advantage of it!

Bottom Line

Overall, White Fire seems like they have a quick, simple interface with some great offers!

They definitely need to supply some more information for their publisher’s in an easy spot like a FAQ.

The owners really seem to know their stuff when it comes to affiliate marketing and have always been quick to respond to me when I had a question or concern.

They are still in their infant stage, and sometimes this may be the best time to jump on with a network as you’ll get a ton of one on one support from the guys that really know their stuff!

I’d definitely recommend checking them out, and if you have any problems contact Jeff and tell him I sent ya!

I offered three packages last month, all of them were filled within a couple hours.  Out of the 3 people that signed up for the packages, two of them are already making a profit in affiliate marketing starting with nothing!

This month, I only have 1 spot available, however, I decided to split it in to two smaller packages this month for those not looking for soo many hours.

Instead of the normal $200 dollars an hour rate, you can get my one on one consultations at the rate of $100 dollars an hour if you purchase the package.

There are two packages each at two and a half hours for $250 dollars.  That’s a rate of only $100 dollars an hour, it saves you 50% off the normal price.

Again, these normally go fast, so if you’re interested you need to let me know as soon as possible as there are only two of these packages this month, and going in to the holidays, I’m doubting that they’ll be any during November or December at the discounted rate.  If there are, again, there will only be maybe 1 or 2 spots.

You can use the contact form listed at the top of this blog to contact me by email, I’ll email you back and you’ll need to submit payment within an hour of getting an email back from me else, I’ll move on to the next person in line in order to give everyone equal opportunity.

If you have any questions, you can email me using the contact form, or you can leave a comment, I’ll answer as soon as possible in order to give you ample time to make a decision before someone else buys up the spots!

PS:  If you are interested in buying the full 5 hours for $500 dollars, let me know in the email you send.  I’ll consider it depending on how quickly others shoot me an email, but if possible I’d like to keep it at two spots to help more people.

A question I received a lot after writing that blog post was how you could tell what sites your ads were showing up on while running on the content network.  The reason so many people are curious about this, is because if there is a certain site that your ad is showing up like crazy on, yet you aren’t receiving any conversions, it will suck your account dry!

Now personally, I only mess with the content network with Google, so I’m only familiar with how to get to it from within their interface, however, I’m sure the basic procedure is the same on most networks if they offer the feature.

First, you need to log in to your Google Adwords account.  After you have logged in, you need to click on the Reporting Tab, then click on Reports.

Next, click on Create a New Report.

Going off subject for a minute, this next screen will allow you to select from a ton of a different reports that you can run, each on has a small description as to the info you’ll receive.  I’d definitely recommend checking out some of the other reports, but since this post is specifically about finding sites your ads are running on when using the content network, lets move on…

If you scroll down just a touch, you’ll notice that one of the radio buttons says Placement Performance.  Click on the radio button next to Placement Performance.

There are a ton of options now that you can select like level of detail, date range, etc.  Pretty self explanatory stuff, so I won’t go in to detail on all the settings.  If you want more details on all the different settings and stuff you can visit Google’s page about Placement Performance Report Help.

Once you finish editing the settings, you’ll come to the last section which is called Templates, Scheduling, and Email.  This place simply allows you to name your report, save the report as a template for running it again later, setting the report to run automatically every so often, etc.

Once you finish that last section, click on Create Report and voila your done!

After you click on Create Report, it will take you back to the Reports Tab Section within your account.  If can take several minutes for your report to be processed.  You can either wait or feel free to move around your account till it’s finished.  It won’t affect it if you leave the page.

After it’s finished the name of the report (whatever you named it in the last section) will become a link and you simply click on the link and you’ll see all the domains/urls that your ads have appeared on.

Of course, I’m not talking about anything unethical, and I don’t feel that advertising on twitter is unethical, but I have to be honest…I’m not sure if I like it or not.  I signed up for a company that I’ve been reading about on a couple different blogs named Ad.ly.  They are a company that you can sign up for, and then advertisers can offer you to tweet about their products or services.  Of course, you have complete control on which ones you choose to do or not, but I’m unsure if this makes it okay or not.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about twitter is the fact that people recommend and give links to things they actually enjoy.  If they are getting paid to tweet will it cause their trust of their account and links to be devalued by their followers?

I’m actually torn on this and I think we’ll only find out through testing.  Part of me believes that the more people are tweeting links that they are getting paid for, the less trusting their followers will be when they post links.  However, another part of me believes that we’ll see the same things as with paid reviews on blogs.  I don’t’ think paid reviews lower the content value or trust of blogs because they are normally disclosed very well and also, they provide bloggers with money that encourage them to pump out more content.

Anyways, so I signed up for Ad.ly but I’m unsure yet if I’ll use them or not, and was simply wondering what your guys opinions were on twitter and advertising…  So what do you think?

What’s the Difference?

One of the first questions I get all the time is what is the difference between the search network and the content network, so real quick, the difference between the two is that when you are strictly bidding on the search network, your ads show up only on search pages, which could also include search results of partners that the search engine may have.  When you are bidding on the content network, you ads may show up for any site that is signed up for their ad program and have ads on their websites.  If you are bidding on an ad for car parts, your ad may show up on a website about cars.  If you are bidding on the search network, you ads would only show up for keywords done about cars on the search engine.

Search Network

When running your ads on the search network, which is the most talked about method on this site, you are bidding on groups of keywords and when those keywords are typed into let’s say Google, your ads show up in the results.

So with the search network you are dealing with keywords, bid prices, and figuring out which keywords convert well.

Content Network

When you are running your ads on the content network, you are bidding on keywords that are related to your niche, but your ads will show up on websites that pertain to those keywords as per the example I gave above.  If you are bidding on keywords about car parts, your ad may show up on a website about cars.

With the content network, you are still dealing with keywords, but you’re also dealing with finding out which websites are converting really well and which ones aren’t, then excluding the websites that aren’t.  So it takes a bit more work, and you have no control where the ads are shown, so if the owner of the website changes these ads around, it could make a site that does great, go really bad.

Running Both?

Most affiliates start off running one or the other, but eventually, most affiliates start using both methods as a way of getting traffic to their affiliates sites, especially once they get a campaign that is doing well and their trying to scale it out.  They may get stuck on one or the other so try out the other in order to increase their traffic.

Personally, I recommend using both as both can be extremely profitable if done right, and both can drive huge amounts of traffic to your affiliates sites.  I know the search network is favored more, but honestly, I’ve seen the content network perform pretty consistently for me as well and sometimes even better in certain niches.  So by running just one or the other, you jeopardize your earning potential.

One Important Note:

This article isn’t really an article detailing exactly how to go about doing the content network, although if enough interest is expressed in the comments, I may write an entire article detailing how to use the content network, however, there is one very important point that I want to make to those that may be thinking about running both the search network and the content network.

The important point is that if you choose to run both, you need to make sure you create two separate campaigns.  One campaign that only runs on the search network, and one campaign that only runs on the content network.  These two networks are completely different and require totally different things in order for them to work.

In fact, most of the times, I even run separate domains and landing pages for my content network stuff and search network stuff.

Bottom Line:

If you’re not using both methods to drive traffic you’re really losing out!  They are both excellent methods of driving traffic, and I honestly don’t think you should only pick one, sure it’s more work working with both the search and content network, but it’s so worth it!

Affiliate Marketing is not easy to get started in, in fact, it’s actually quite difficult for most people.  Of course, there are those rare occasions where someone launched a campaign and see immediate positive results…(like me )  However, this is very few and far in between.  Most people start off losing money, that’s just me being honest my friends!

However, if you are serious about doing this and making a living by working from home online, then you can’t quit.  If you truly are passionate about affiliate marketing then again, don’t quit!

This business changes rapidly, in fact pretty much any online type business does, but it seems that daily there is something crazy going on in the affiliate marketing space.  You took all the time to learn, read, etc about affiliate marketing and if you “take a break” you are going to throw that all away.

Now I’m not saying if you run out of money to just keep charging away, but don’t stop reading, studying niches, etc.  Why?  Because if you do, you’ll come back later only to realize that you’re basically starting from scratch!  I’m not kidding, that’s how fast things can change in this field.  Of course, you may still remember the basics, but that’s about it.

There are new types of landing pages, new techniques, new search engine requirements, etc that don’t stop changing and evolving while you’re “taking a break” from affiliate marketing and when you come back it will suck having to relearn how to do affiliate marketing…

I’ve seen it time and time again and in fact one of the reasons for this post is because I just had someone that emailed me about a one on one counseling session and they had done just that and I decided to blog about it.  And the crazy thing is, it’s not something new, I’ve heard people tell me this over and over that have come to me for advice or counseling.

The bottom line is, even if you go broke and can’t run a campaign, keep up on what’s going on in affiliate marketing at all times…that is if you even think for a moment that you may try it again when you get some more money!

Anyways, I filled two of the spots, however, I’ve gotten about 20 emails with people asking me if I’d do smaller packages.  I didn’t really think about it, but I guess some people don’t need 5 hours.

Anyways, so since I’ve had soooo many requests to do lower, I decided that I’ll split the last spot that is open into two and a half hour sessions for $250 each.

However, if I receive an email from someone wanting the 5 hours for $500 dollars before I receive a request for a two and a half hour spot, I will take that one and cancel out the two spots.

Use the contact form or email me at derek [at] clickconsultants [dot] com

Hey guys, I’m constantly bombarded on a daily basis with emails from people asking if I do one on one consultations.  I’ve never really advertised the fact that I do, and instead have simply offered it to members of the Click Consultants Affiliate Forum (29.99/month) and through word of mouth or by simply people that email me and ask.

Anyways, I thought that I’d finally once and for all make a page about my one on one consultations with all the information so that I could simply point people to it instead of having to answer all the emails with the same stuff over and over again.  Much easier to send a link to a blog page!

After I made the page and was thinking about it, I realized that most of the people that send me the email and ask are blog readers anyways and also I thought that there might be people out there looking for it, but simply didn’t think of asking me if I offered it.

Let me say two things though, I don’t accept everyone (on the consultations page is a list of requirements) and I also have a very strict limit on how many people I’ll counsel with at a time during each month.

Anyways, if you want more infomation head over to this page which tells all about my consultation services, the price is $200 an hour, however, since I’m a little slow this month with work stuff and with consultations, I figured I’d offer a special rate to the first 3 people that email me (derek [at] clickconsultants [dot] com) or contact me through the contact form and send payment once they receive an email from me letting them know if they are one of the first three.

If you sign up for a five hour consultation package instead of the normal price of $200/hour, I’ll give them to you at the price of $100/hour.

Again this is only for the first three people that shoot me an email and then must send payment shortly after I reply with my paypal addy.

This is only a promotion for the public launch of my one on one consultation services and thought it would just be fun to give a couple people a good deal!  I do not normally offer any discounts on my consultation services even if bought in bulk because I feel that the price I give is already low enough, so if you are interested, check out the consultation page and then shoot me an email or use the contact form!