It has been quite some time now since I didn’t anything PPC/PPV related. To be honest, even when I was doing it, I wasn’t doing anything in large quantities. Pretty much all of my ventures into buying traffic through either CPC/CPM or Media Buy methods has been limited to at the max, a couple of hundred dollars. It just has never really hooked me in. And when I have gone at it hard, I have found it too tedious for my liking, and too slow to start seeing anything.
Don’t take that last statement to mean that I don’t want to work hard for anything. But when I compare it to my usual work (Software Development), things seem to go at a much slower rate. When i want something done in the development world, I simple do it. I spend hours coding away, and every single piece of code I write has a direct impact in the application and the final result. With PPC, You are at times left sitting there waiting for things to happen. Waiting for your ads to be approved etc When you do tweaks to your landing pages, it may be hours or even days before you have enough data to compare it to your previous LP. It just get’s all a bit tedious.
Ironically, now with me working a full time job, I think it is a good time to start PPC. Sure I don’t have all the time in the world to work on my campaigns. But I think that works for me. I am busy at work all day, with maybe lunch breaks + downtime to check on stats, make final tweaks. But what that means is that I am not left twiddling my thumbs waiting for things to happen. I can do everything in one big load the night before, and be able to sleep on it (And go through my 9 – 6 job), before I can really get at it. I think it also makes me more hungry for work. Limiting myself time wise has always brought out the best results in me. Some may disagree, and say they can see results and keep themselves busy all day everyday. I personally don’t like throwing money at something, so starting something like this I want to really limit my spend.
Installing Prosper202
The first thing I did and what anyone should do when starting out doing anything PPC/PPV related is install Prosper202. Essentially it is a tracking platform that tracks pretty much every stat you can think of to try and narrow down your campaigns. I seriously do not know any person spending anything over $20 a day who does not use this platform. It is free so you really cannot go past it.
Something that I found out the hard way, Is that this application will just simply not run on Hostgator. You will usually get this error or some variation there of (But with this as the first line) when installing Prosper 202.
The ‘partitioning’ feature is disabled; you need MySQL built with ‘–with-partition’ to have it working”
There is various fixes out there, and some even from Hostgators own support staff, but they all gloss over the fact that Prosper202 was not built to be run by them. That does not mean you need a VPS/Dedicated server however. Shared hosting will still do fine, aslong as it has MYSQL Partitioning turned on. *cough* Wachahost *cough*
Before people go off at me because they used a fix and it installed on Hostgator. Mine did too! After alot of fiddling mine did install. But it then would not spit out links, and had errors using other features etc. At the end of the day, If you are remotely serious about affiliate marketing, you will spend $10 and get a hosting package somewhere else, even just for Prosper202.
Pay Per View (PPV)
So something I wanted to try this time around was PPV. Basically PPV is the backend of Adware companies. For example, Loudmo.com has a program in which they pay for installs on their adware to publishers (Much like Zango). And Direct CPV is the other end of that scale, where advertises and do popups through that adware. Because the popups are done through Adware not through a browser window, they cannot be blocked (Giving you a 100% view rate pretty much).
And btw, Adware != Spyware. Spyware tracks your computer usage, and sends data back to it’s home PC. Adware is simply to serve ads. And users are not (Or should not) be “tricked” into installing it. Most of the time it is done on a gateway system. Where the story usually goes “If you want X you will have to install Y first”. With “Y” being the adware.
Another thing about PPV is that for the most part, instead of bidding on Keywords like regular PPC, you are bidding on URL’s. So for example if a user had some form of adware (Let’s say Loudmo) installed. And they went to www.pyrogenicmedia.com, if someone was bidding on that URL, then they would be shown a popup instantly. Ofcourse no one would be bidding on that particular URL, but you get the drift. Ads are triggered by visitors visiting various URL’s instead of just a broad keyword.
PPV is pretty much the affiliate Band Wagon atm. Everyone is jumping on it, So I thought I may aswell get a piece of the action.
DirectCPV (Bleh)
The most talked about company that I knew of was DirectCPV, and their partner adware distributor Loudmo. They require a $100 deposit first up (Which isn’t that much compared to other companies), but they give a $25 bonus to begin with. Sounded good.
From what I had heard, Most PPV companies only take Credit Card. No other online checkout like Paypal, Moneybooks, Google Checkout etc. Unfortunately I am waiting on my new Debit Card to get here. No problem, Just use the girlfriends! With her permission ofcourse 
Unfortunately…
Any advertiser outside the United States or Canada are required to fill out a credit card authorization request form with the front and back of their credit card as well as a photo ID displaying their name on it. No funds can be added without this information, not even the $100 minimum spend for international advertisers.
Don’t think you will get away free if you are in the US or Canada either. You are still required to pass over all this information, but only after your first $100 spend.
Ok so to begin with. Can’t use the girlfriends CC while I wait on mine to get here as the account is in my name. Slows down things a bit I guess. But even so, identify theft much? I haven’t heard of anyone being ripped by this company but firstly passing over a photocopy front and back of your CC sounds a bit dodgy. I don’t quite understand how this is required or why it would be needed.
Photo Id. Also a bit crappy to be honest. Have I given out photocopies of my ID before, Sure. Will I give it out to a company that makes a living off installing shitty adware on peoples computers, probably not.
Also as a site note. Direct CPV apparently do accept Paypal payments. But this is how they tell you :
If you’d like to pay with Paypal, our Paypal address is paypal@directcpv.com.
That is it. No “Pay through here, then contact us there” type thing. No gateway to take you through to paypal and pay. Just that. I almost would have paid with Paypal right then and there to be perfectly honest (Aslong as it didn’t require some BS ID photocopies), but Live Support wasn’t on. And I wasn’t about to send through hundreds of dollars blindly through Paypal.
For now, I left it at that. I don’t have my CC here anyway to photocopy even if I was keen enough to pass it out. At the end of the day, after all my moaning. I do want to give PPV a crack, so if worst comes to worse. I will adhere to the regime.
Yahoo SEM
Yahoo SEM is like a 3 month revolving door for me. I signed up with them about 2 years ago, made a deposit, and used a $100 voucher. I always get this huge urge to use them, and I spend an age setting up keywords and ad copy. Only to stop the campaign in a couple of days due to getting pissed at Yahoo’s interface.
With this in mind, I checked it today, And I had $80+ left in there. Once again, I am setting up campaigns and will try and crank through it. Not really sure how long it will last however (I seriously get sick of Yahoo SEM really fast), but I really can’t waste the money in there.
Next post following this journey I will try and post some tools that I use to speed things up.
