I myself am more interested building and monetizing on content driven sites as opposed to just trying to direct traffic. Good to know my thinking is in line with what you’re thoughts are on this as well.

Darren

Great post and rebuttal against Perry’s position. Well done.

Does Google allow you to create an Adwords ad that points you directly to the affiliate company’s site with your affiliate link?

If I’m selling Zappos shoes can I create an ad for Zappos and just send traffic there with my unique URL? If that’s allowed, what are the big reasons you’d suggest against this?

Just starting to explore the affiliate world after working with clients on Adwords for a while. Appreciate the feedback and thoughts.

Thanks, Mike

I am very glad I found you. Your tutorials and follow-up emails are filled with enthusiasm and I see there is no holding back from you. Thank you.

I just got on board about 1.5 weeks ago and like you said spent many hours pouring over your tutorials. I know subscribing to an account for traffic is critical to success but thought I would try it out myself for now.

Can you please look into my website and give me your true opinion how you perceive it. I know you said to focus on 4-5 advertisers. What I did was to focus on travel and thought in order to cover more advertisers I had categorized travel into segments of getaways, customization, cruises, trains, planes, maps, books, home exchanges.

All the clicks are the result of my emailing to family members and friends from all over the continents to look into the website. I know many of these people are travellers on the go, always holidaying somewhere or other. I know any conversions provide not as great commissions compared to many others you had indicated. I do not know whether there will be conversions in future but am hoping on this.

The other option I was thinking of was to have another website going, eg nutritional supplements as I know of contacts who take lots of supplements to boost their systems. Can you advise how do I have this done if I wish to.

I know you are extremely busy having been just back from London. Also heard your interview in Maryland – awesome.

Will greatly appreciate your comments in your busy schedule.

Geok

I would definitely try to determine where your traffic is coming from. You may consider a free service like http://www.statcounter.com.

They will tell you everything about your visitors such as country, referral keyword, referral site, time on page, etc.

-Ben

Thanks,
Rich

Congrats on all your accomplishments! It is inspiring to hear stories like yours.

As for your questions:

1. credit card companies generally look for a privacy policy – and that it is linked to from your home page. They also look for some content such as articles and/or unique material about money/finance, etc.

That being said, some networks are more lenient than others. Check out http://www.ncsreporting.com as they generally approve you more often than not for their programs.

2. In any event, I would encourage you to focus on your existing business. It sounds easier to make money than the credit cards since you already have the sales funnel.

As for your bid, I can’t say whether $2.00 is too much to pay because I don’t know your:

(a) conversion rate of a click to lead to sales, etc.

(b) or what a lead is worth.

It really comes down to simple math:

How much, on average, are you MAKING on a click?

Without knowing that, I can say that $2.00 is steep no matter what business you are in. Can I ask why you are paying that much. Is is because of a poor quality score or because it is competitive.

I assume that if you are a local company you should not be paying anything close to $2.00 per click.

I hope this helps.

-Ben Moskel