Finch Sells | Affiliate Marketing Blog

The High CPM Fear Factor

Aug 19 2011

How do you shop for a good advertising deal? Do you measure the CPM? The scarcity of the competition? Or do you simply throw caution to the wind, buy the traffic and pray to the deities that margins turn profitable?

I think a lot of affiliates gravitate towards self-serve platforms as a matter of security. Once there, they compare CPMs to what they’ve paid in the past. This helps to formulate an idea of value for money. It’s no more than a hunch, but can often be enough to deem a traffic source suitable or unsuitable without spending a penny.

The problem with measuring CPMs in this way is obvious. The equation lacks the mechanical wheel of a clickthrough rate to actually mean something. Without the CTR, there’s truly no way of knowing whether a $10 CPM or a $0.10 CPM is going to do more for your bottom line.

Sounds like common sense, but plays out like anything but.

From my experience, many affiliates have shown themselves to despise high CPMs. They’ll make it clear not only by refusing to work with certain traffic sources, but by refusing to experiment with their bidding strategies on platforms like Facebook and Plentyoffish. Why? Why are affiliates so apprehensive about paying more to potentially get more?

I think many of us share a strain of inferiority complex. We don’t consider ourselves worthy of bidding the absolute top dollar on ad placements, because we somehow believe that our survival nature depends on scraping the barrel and monetizing dregs of traffic that the other real advertisers didn’t want.

Does this sound like your own attitude towards buying ads?

Think about it. When advertising on Facebook, do you have a glass ceiling where you’ve convinced yourself bidding any higher would turn a guaranteed loss? Is that belief backed on solid evidence, or simply a hunch that grew when one campaign slipped in to the red?

I think there’s a fear factor attached to high CPMs. A misplaced belief that in bidding more, we’re losing margin for the sake of a few more eyeballs. You will often find that campaigns can be turned profitable at two ends of the spectrum.

By monetizing the scraps, living off low volume and turning the stragglers in to potential customers.
By bidding the premium, reaching your actual target market and making up for greater costs with an improved conversion rate.

I tend to encourage newbie affiliates to aim for the first target. Without money and/or experience, you should get your tail wet by learning how the system works and trying to turn a profit on the lower quality traffic.

But for established affiliates who have reached the plateau where they make good money but can’t take the next step, stop bidding for the scraps! Grow some balls, place a little faith in your skills and bid where the volume is. There are guaranteed to be a few hiccups along the way, but the future is much brighter when you succeed.

This much is true on Facebook and Plentyoffish, but it’s a damn near prerequisite if you want to enjoy success buying banners through display networks. You’re going to be met with high CPMs. There’s no getting around it.

Some affiliates spend so much time frothing on Facebook Ads that they assume clickthrough rates of 0.08% are an unspoken industry average when moving on to other banner exchanges.

They see a CPM of $5 and think “Shit, I have one click to get the conversion or I’m at a loss. This isn’t going to work.” I remember taking that attitude to a popular gaming ads platform and being pleasantly surprised when my ads jumped from 0.12 to 1.5 CTR, just through the merits of the different platform.

If you’re making the jump from one traffic source to another, leave your expectations of the CPM at the door. You’re going to have to spend money before you have any true perspective. That may strike fear in to some, but it’s a welcome barrier of entry for those who are already reaping the rewards.

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Retire At 21, Feel Like An Idiot At 22

Aug 17 2011

Dear Trusty Employees,
It is with great sadness that I announce my impending departure from our Company. I have decided to retire from all business so that I can put my feet up in the leafy suburbs, desperately attempting to convince myself that there’s more to life than work.
I’m sure you will have many questions. Why now? Why so young?
Please accept my decision. It shows that I’ve achieved more than you in a shorter space of time.
I am greatly looking forward to tackling the next challenge in my life: puberty.
Yours truly,
Young Retired Dipshit

Many people consider retirement the reward for a lifetime of turmoil. It’s the bucket of gold at the end of the rainbow. The day of reckoning when we can say “I’ve done my bit“, and stop worrying about surviving from one pay cheque to the next.

The Internet age has spawned a generation of online entrepreneurs who are capable of retiring in their 20s. Does Mark Zuckerberg need to worry about his financial future? I suppose he does if he likes to keep track of his billions.

Even though Zuckerberg can retire, I’m positive he won’t. And there’s good reason for that sentiment.

The next step after retirement is death.

Who would want to retire in their 20s? The idea gets bounced around with prestige and glamour. There are websites dedicated to the ambition of retiring young, but I shudder to imagine how somebody capable of assembling the finances so young would react to the transition of pottering around a garden and writing Christmas cards in September.

It’s a paradox if ever I heard one.

When you have nothing left to work for, you have nothing left to live for. Anybody who believes otherwise might as well go hang out with Macaulay Culkin. Smoke some pot, watch Home Alone 2 and revel in your own waste of potential.

Time and time again, I have friends cross-examining me on the nature of my work. In their eyes, I’m retired. I make money online, which is as good as twatting around on Facebook while the dollar bills grow in my fridge, right? They’re wrong.

Even though I work in comfort, there’s rarely a second in the day where work isn’t close to my thoughts. It follows me around like an infection that just won’t shake, so why don’t I learn to forget about work and switch off? It’s simple. I don’t see work as a bad thing.

If you take a human being and strip him of his desire to work towards a goal, what do you have left? An empty shell that’s retired and ready for death. There isn’t much of the person left over.

Work doesn’t have to be employment as you and I know it. It can be charity-based volunteering, or even just a commitment to stay busy. However, the retirement yearned for at unhappy office cubicles is no more than a desire to believe the grass is greener on the other side. It rarely is, and retirement is seldom the experience you crave.

What you really desire is work that you can believe in. You want to spend energy completing tasks where you give half a shit about the end result. Who doesn’t? This is the great illusion of retirement. Giving up a mundane chore isn’t going to fill the void in your life. That void exists because you haven’t felt the passion to get out of bed at 8am out of choice.

If financial independence was all we longed for, millionaires would be happy and averagely paid employees would be jumping from office blocks. Happiness is not a flexible hours agreement, or retirement altogether. It’s the desire to get out of bed. To do something with your plain existence and convince yourself that retirement would only get in the way of all the things you have left to prove.

If that means changing career, go right ahead. We spend a third of our lifetimes at work, or thinking about it, so it makes zero sense to be working for the wrong reasons. The day you wake up and don’t feel an urge to work towards a goal, that’s when you have problems. That’s when retirement will become the death of you.

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10 Tips For Better Time Management

Aug 16 2011

This is a guest post by James Wilson. James is an internet marketer with six years of experience in the business.

If you work primarily online, you’re likely all too familiar with the dangers of distraction. Internet distractions abound – social media, games, news, YouTube – but work and family issues can also throw you off your game. It can be difficult to finish one project when other business matters keep stealing your attention.

However, if you can learn to minimize interruptions, organize your work, and plan effectively, you can make yourself more productive and efficient. If you’re familiar with the saying “time is money,” then you know why this is important.

Tip 1: Devote Days to Specific Tasks

While an online business naturally requires you to multitask for much of your day, trying to do too many tasks at once can kill your momentum, break your train of thought and make you less efficient in general. For instance, Robert Plank writes that he typically targets email on Monday, moving on to customer service on Tuesday and so on. A system like his can help you focus on one project and make you less susceptible to interruptions.

Finch: I devote different days to different traffic sources, and also different days to different verticals. My blog posts are usually mid-evening brainfarts when I have nothing else to do.

Tip 2: Close Your Email

Forcing yourself to refrain from constantly checking your email can be difficult, but doing so can save you from wasted time and unneeded distractions. Try setting rules for yourself that limit the number of times you can check your email everyday to two or three. Each time you check your mail, respond to only priority emails. At the end of the week, set aside a few hours to respond to all the other messages in your inbox. To make this easier, organize your emails in Gmail with labels every day, marking those that you’ll reply to on your designated email day.

Tip 3: Organize Your Computer

It’s easy for work-related files to pile up on your computer, and failing to organize them can result in a lot of wasted time as you search through them to find what you need. Use folders to keep track of different projects, labeling each folder according to its contents or using a naming system to help you more easily sort each folder. If you regularly work on more than one device, take advantage of software like Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to access your files from any machine at any location. As long as you have a mobile device or laptop with wireless internet, you can open and update any file without having to constantly send emails to yourself.

Finch: Dropbox is one of the best nomad resources of the 21st century. If you don’t have it, get on the bandwagon.

Tip 4: Stop Surfing the Internet

While this one goes without saying, sometimes you need to remind yourself just how much time surfing the web wastes when you’re trying to work. Learn to control your impulses to get on Facebook, read forums or check the news, making sure to set aside off-work hours for that. Turning off email and chat programs can help you avoid the random, distracting links that your friends send you throughout the day.

Finch: How do any of you get work done on AIM? It’s like dodging productivity bullets. LeechBlock is your best friend for avoiding the time wasting filth.

Tip 5: Set Aside Free Time

Being self-employed makes it easy to slip into a work mindset at all times, but you need to give yourself free time to maintain balance and, maybe more importantly, your sanity. If you make sure to set aside some free time for yourself every evening, you’ll have something to look forward to while you work and will be less likely to fall prey to distractions. During your free time, don’t check your email constantly or think about anything work-related. Having work creep into your leisure time can be just as inefficient as giving into distractions when you should be working.

Tip 6: Set Goals

You can work much easier by setting concrete goals for yourself to accomplish, in both the short and long term. For instance, you could aim to complete a certain project before the end of the week while setting your long term sights on increasing your job income by 100 percent in the next 3 years. Your goals should be specific, measurable and time-bound, providing you with a concrete target and a limited period of time in which to hit that target. Of course, they should be attainable. Setting unreasonable goals for yourself will only lead to further stress.

Tip 7: Create a Daily Action Plan

To help you work toward the goals you’ve set, make a list of every task you need to complete each day. As you finish each item on the list, check it off and move on to the next. This helps keep you on track and makes your work day go faster. After several weeks of making checklists, you can also become better at estimating how much you can expect to accomplish in a single work day, further improving your ability budget time.

Tip 8: Prioritize

In determining which tasks should be tackled first, it can be helpful to remember the adage that states, “80 percent of your profits are derived from 20 percent of your tasks.” The tasks that are most crucial to your profit-making potential should be given top priority. Try to spend most of your time taking care of critical tasks, saving other less important ones until you have more time.

Tip 9: Clean Up Your Work Environment

A messy workspace can promote mental clutter, making it important to keep your physical work environment just as clean and organized as your computer. For many people, simply working in clean and comfortable room can greatly boost productivity. Keeping your workplace orderly can also help you associate it with your professional life, making it easier to work without distraction.

Finch: I also find it helps to have lots of natural light in the room. Working from your mother’s basement is probably not the best way to stay chipper through the day.

Tip 10: Exercise and Eat Right

Staying in shape may seem irrelevant in regards to working online, but neglecting physical fitness can lower your drive, energy and efficiency. Try to spend at least 30 minutes walking, running, playing sports or otherwise working out every day. That may seem like a lot of time to devote to non-work activities, but the investment can pay off by giving you more energy and discipline.

Likewise, a healthy diet can make you feel less sluggish and can put you in a better mood while you work according to the American Dietetic Association.

Finch: Unfortunately, this is true. Try getting a campaign profitable after munching down a Village Pizza XL Meatfeast at 1am. Your posture is also something to pay close attention to, unless you want to follow the much travelled road of successful affiliate at 21, squared eye hunchback at 26. Priorities, affiliasphere!

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Slightly off-topic, but I see Spotify has finally landed in America. Being the long term Spotify fangirl that I am, I have a bunch of invites for those of you in the States who aren’t yet members. Email me if you want one (and trust me, you want one), or add me on Twitter and get in touch.
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