Bankruptcy to Millionaire

I will not be posting any new content between now and Wednesday because of the holidays. But I did have a quick few things I wanted to let all the Holiday Surfers and B2M Newbies in on:

First some of my earlier posts that might be worth a quick read:

• Pulling The Trigger
• Know Your Outcome
• My Life Story of Failure — And how I’m turning it into success
• How I accidentally made $88.50 with online affiliate marketing.

Also of note is this weeks Blog Hop. Please pay a visit to our friend at:

Pajama Professional

Any my last note to all of you is.

Be Different

Stop being like everyone else. If you write a make money online blog, tell me something I haven’t read in 10 other sources this week. If you write a niche blog, are you interesting, or are you like 5 other blogs I can find in 60 second flat.

How do you monetize? Are you thinking outside the box? Maybe there is a way to turn a profit you haven’t thought of yet–because you’re to busy try to copy what has worked in the past…

Be Different. I have not always been. But I will be this new year. Just you wait and see..

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UPDATE: THE FIVE SPOTS HAVE BEEN PURCHASED. BUT I AM EXTENDING THIS SPECIAL FOR THE LAST 3 SPOTS.

The next 5 people/businesses/companies to leave me a $1 tip on “My Holiday Top Spots” will receive a Text Link Ad for the next 30 days. And to spice it up a little bit, I’ll throw in 100 EntreCard credits.

Here’s how it works:

Look to the right. The widget that says “My Holiday Top Spots” click “Get in my top spots”. Donate $1 via paypal. And you will have a 30 Day Text Link ad on this site. PLUS I will send you 100 Entrecard Credits, as a way of saying “Thank You” (just send an email to tevin [at] bankruptcytomillionaire.com with your EntreCard email address)! This is good for the first 5 people to sign up. If you are not one of the first 5, a 30 day ad for $1 is still a fantastic deal ($0.03 a day!? That’s a no brainer).

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Ok this is the 3rd post in a series. To catch up please read these two first:

How I Accidently Made $88.50 with First Try On Online Affiliate Marketing

Inside: Uncovered Affiliate Secrets The Big Guys Don’t Want You To Know…

Caught up? Good. Now we’ll deal with the final portion. All the EFF UPS I made in this short but profitable campaign. These are mistakes I WILL NOT make again. A mistakes you should not make.

*note: pay close attention to the end of this post to learn how you can get 30 FULL DAYS of advertising on your site, for just $1!*

Mistake #1 - Always Pay Close Attention

Obviously my first mistake was setting up a campaign and not following it. If you ever set up a PPC campaign you should watch it like a hawk. How much are you spending a day? Is it converting? If I had been paying attention on a daily basis, I would have seen that I should have increased my $10/day budget, and would have made MORE SALES before I got “disallowed”.

Mistake #2 - Not enough research

Because I was not thinking through this campaign (I did it on a whim). I did not do enough keyword research. If I had. I would have had a TON more than just 2 converting keywords. I would have came up with many more search terms that would lead to people wanting to buy holiday cards, I would obviously make more money in a shorter amount of time.

Mistake # 3 No Testing

I did not split test the ads. I know from previous testing of clickbank, and some of my own websites. That I should capitalize the first letter of each word of the URL and ad the appearance of a subfolder. But I did NOT test that I should have:

• Headlines
• Copy
• Offer
• Display URLs (I’m testing this right now in my current campaign)

Google adwords makes testing INCREDIBLY EASY. So you should ALWAYS utilize split testing.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER WHEN SPLIT TESTING:

Only test one element at a time! Meaning: If you’re testing your headline, make sure everything else on your ad exactly the same. This way you know which one is better. Then once you pick which one is better. Change one more thing. Until you get completely optimized ads.

Please let me know if you have any questions on optimizing/split testing ads.

P.S. If you’d like to advertise on my blog for $6 through the end of March. I have only one spot left. Also, if you tip me $1 on the Scratch Back widget you’ll receive a text link ad for $1 for a full 30 days! Advertising for less that $0.03 a day!? You have to be kidding me that widget should be full by tomorrow!

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UPDATE!!!: In spirit of the holidays B2M’s $1 ad special grows. Now you can get a Text Link for a full 30 days for just $1.

All you have to do is give me a tip on the Holiday Tips widget. And your text link will display for 30 full days. $1 Dollar advertising!? 3 cents a day. Give me a break. Get on there now dummy. Who loves you? Get in now before the prices go up for the new year.

Get one of 4 125×125 ads on B2M (One paid for and confirmed. 2 others are spoken for. 1 spot left)! For a HUGE discount until the end of the year! This offer expires at Midnight December 31st, or when all the spots are called for–whichever comes first.

Blog Details:

• B2M has received over 1,300 unique visitors this week. And over 2,000 page loads.
• Has a 498,628 3month Alexa Rank and a 1 week average of 178,573
• Have plans to run RSS contests, provide guest posts, and post at least 5 entries a week (except under extenuating circumstances).

Details of this SALE!:

• Must notify me by email: tevin [at] bankruptcytomillionaire.com that you would like to get a spot on the right sidebar.
• You must be one of the first 4 to reply. If one falls out I will go to the next request.
• Spaces are $1 for 15 days (paid through paypal).
• The first day for sale is January 1st 2008. However, if you order (and prepay) NOW through March you may get the remaining of December FREE.
• You can schedule to have your ad run for a minimum of 15 days for $1, or if you prepay all the way through March 31st for only $6– You get 3 months of advertising for $6, AND you get December free as a Bonus.

Advertising space on this blog is GUARANTEED to never be this cheap again. So get in now. Before it’s too late!

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*note there are ZERO affiliate links in this post*
this post is a follow up to How I Accidently Made $88.50 with First Try On Online Affiliate Marketing

I am going to uncover the secrets that many affiliate marketers do not EVER reveal. I’m going reveal my successful adwords campaign keywords. I’m going to show you EXACTLY how I achieved a 6.7% CTR. I am going to reveal the offer, and the exact method I used to turn a profit using Online Affiliate Marketing. Then I’m going to reveal MY COSTLY MISTAKES so you don’t make them!

You can take these tips today, and implement them TODAY to improve your already existing PPC affiliate campaigns. Or start a new one–and start making money tomorrow.

Step One - Find a Hot Niche

This one was easy. Christmas time. I wanted to find a Christmas offer. So I logged onto my newly opened CJ.com account.

Step Two - Find a Hot Offer to Promote in the Hot Niche

After about 15 minute of research if found Vistaprint.com was offering 50% off select items and free shipping on Holiday Cards. Commissions are 16-20% of each sale and 3.50-5.00 for each free claimed. Looked good to me to test.

Step Three - Start Adwords Campaign - Writing Your Ads (with your search terms in mind).

Ok, so I started my campaign. The offer was obviously a hot selling point, 50% and free shipping. So that should go in the ad. My ad looked like this:

click photo to enlarge

I knew my keywords would play around the “discount christmas card” search phrase (and variations on it. More on search terms in a second). So that was my headline, I didn’t want people to think they were free. But if they click on something that says “discount” they are likely to be looking to purchase something.

The ad accomplishes more than that. They also see that they can get them “LAST MINUTE” with “FREE SHIPPING”. This ad is chock full of features.

There is One More VERY important part of this ad to recognize.

Notice the URL. I’ve done numerous testing on other PPC ads and here are the secrets I’ve discovered with the URL. Capitalize each word in the URL. It’s not www.vistaprint.com it’s www.VistaPrint.com. This is MUCH easier to read what it is–some URLs look better than others.

But even more important is the appearance of a Sub Folder. The /christmas_cards portion of the ad. Now google is kind enough to allow you to put anything you want after the Slash (/) as long as the root domain stays the same as the destination URL.

This /christmas_cards will HUGELY increase response and Click Throughs because when they search for “discount christmas cards” (my #1 search term as you’ll see in a second), they /christmas_cards will be bold. This lets the person searching know this is a site that is RELEVANT to them.

Use the www.YourDomain.com/[primary_search_term] as often as possible when setting up your campaigns.

YES! This means more WORK when setting up your ad campaigns. Because you will need NEW ADS (and ad groups) for each of your primary search phrases.

Step Four - Adwords - Choosing Your Search Terms

click photo to elarge 

These are the keywords I ran with my campaign (yes. There have been MANY mistakes made. I’ll touch on those soon). Notice really only two received any amount of searches. “Discount Christmas Cards” and “Cheap Christmas Cards”. Also Notice that my CTR is between 6.7 and 7.0% but my ad placement is a miserable 5-6! (This is because of the very strong ad/offer).

Also notice, that I bid 1.05 but only paid an average CPC of $0.90. I bid 1.05 because I thought it was likely that many advertisers bid an even $1, so I wanted to leap frog them (I have not tested this theory, so it may be completely invalid).

Because my primary search terms are located in the Ad. This ad is VERY ENTICING to the person searching. Not only that, because the way it is written, the person click is VERY LIKELY to buy, because the ad explicitly states they are clicking on something to buy!

Step Five - Check Your Results

click photo to enlarge 

These are the sales I made after 5 Days of Running this offer. With a direct link to the offer. I did not use a landing page.

Step Six - Get Campaign Canceled by Google because they do not allow affiliate link re-directs.

These ads got canceled because Google does not allow your affiliate link to redirect to the home page. Lesson Learned - pay more attention and capitalize when something become profitable.

Where were my Errors?!

During the implementation of this campaign. I made MANY ERRORS. But I will say this in my defense. I thought I paused the campaign the second I had launched it, thinking I would make some tweaks. Then I completely forgot that it was running until the Big G sent me an email telling me it was “disallowed”.

I plan on doing an entire post on the errors I made, so you don’t make those same mistakes, and can start your own successful affiliate campaign.

But first I’d like to open it up to all of you.

Where did I go wrong. Did you notice any errors that I made, that I may not have noticed. Disect this campaign. Where did I go wrong? What would you have do to make it better?

- Tevin Anderson

P.S. If you liked this post, and think it will make you more money in the future–and you feel in the Christmas Spirit. Feel Free to Paypal me some Christmas Shopping Money :D.

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Thanks to Gyutae at Winning The Web , Mike Folan , and all of the other Blog Hoppers Bankruptcy to Millionaire has been selected as this weeks Blog Hop. (If you’re not signed up for Blog Hopping follow this link and be the next blog hopped. )

I know many of you will be new so I thought I just summarize everything in a few lines. And point you to a few of my favorite posts on this blog, as a good place to start.

First off:

- My name is Tevin Anderson I’m a 21 year old college drop out–and broke mortgage broker. More info on my life can be found here. I have been attempting to “make money online” since I was 16. This is the first time I’m doing it right.

- My Mission is to go from near-Bankruptcy to becoming a Millionaire in 48 months. This blog is a documentation of my journey. I hope to help inspire, inform, and motivate others to accomplish the same thing.

- It has taken me some time to find a “focus” for this blog, and to not be idle ramblings. But I think I’m on a better path now.

Start with these posts (in no particular order):

• Pulling The Trigger
• Know Your Outcome
• My Life Story of Failure — And how I’m turning it into success
• How I accidentally made $88.50 with online affiliate marketing.

Help me out! So we can build a growing and excited community throughout the ’sphere. Please feel free to leave your comments on ANY of my posts (if you disagree with my opinions, please say so! If you make a blog post to refute me–leave a comment linking to your position *this is a great technique Gyutae talks about in this post*).

Any comments I receive I promise to stop by your site, and leave a comment as well (if your site is a blog/forum that is!).

Also feel free to stumble/review/digg/reddit/share any article you find appropriate. And don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS!

Cheers all! The first round is on me! Welcome to the blog hop!

- Tevin Anderson

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click image to see full size.

So I’ve finally made money online! In fact, I made it completely on ACCIDENT. “How can this happen?” You ask…

About a week ago I launched a campaign for Christmas Card printing through a CJ.com offer. I used exactly 6 keyphrases (4 of which never ended up getting any impressions at all). I was even so wimpy as to set a $10 a day budget.

I then decided to launch the campaign. We were off to the races, I let the campaign run through my work day. I checked back and I had used like 5 of the 10 bucks, then I noticed I hadn’t made a sale yet. I then *thought* I clicked the “pause” button that evening in my adwords account thinking I would spend a few more hours optimizing and whatnot.

Then I completely forgot about the campaign entirely by the next day. And 4 more whole days go by where I don’t even remember setting it up. Then I get an email from google telling me they are banning that campaign. I think “banning what campaign”? Then I log into the account, and sure enough I had spent $49.50. I had an ASTONISHING 6.9% CTR on apx. 900 impressions I thought:

DOH! What a waste of money.

Then I moved on… about 30 minute later I thought… Maybe I should check my CJ acount. and BAM! There is was staring me in the face! I had turned a $39 profit, in 5 days. COMPLETELY ON ACCIDENT. I was kicking myself–why hadn’t I paid more attention? What if I had run a $20 or $50 a day? What if I had spent some time on more key words? What if I had split tested ads!?

I made this without even trying! Now I’m “disallowed” because of my redirect affiliate link redirect on Adwords. I would concentrate on figuring out a way to promote the offer more, but the offer expires in 3 days because of Christmas. But my suspicions are now confirmed.

MONEY CAN BE MADE ONLINE.

I’ve tasted it. Now I want more! (I’ve already launched my next campaign.)

So if you’ve felt discouraged, just know. Money is out there for you. Just think a little outside the box, and grab it!

Cheers all,

- Tevin Anderson

P.S. Keep a look out for an extremely valuable blog contest launching in the next several weeks. You’ll love it! Subscribe to my RSS to make sure you’re the first in the know!

P.P.S. Three cheers for UberAffiliate for inspiring me.

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This is the first Guest Post on B2M by freelance writer Sean Gittrich. I chose this as the first post, because this describes me just 4 months ago…

Here’s the deal: nearly every broke person in the world has the same lame attitude. “Woe is me! I’m broke and it’s out of my control. I would be making all the money I could ever want if it just weren’t for my extreme toenail fungus disease.” … To weird and gross? Who cares, it could be any other number of uncontrollable outside forces that keep you from making the money you think you truly desire. 

Because making excuses… that’s easy. Things that are outside of your control are–just that–outside of your control. You can’t possibly expect yourself to really go for it when you know you have to be up early tomorrow morning for work. Or you couldn’t possibly put pen to paper to begin to realizing your dreams, when that new prime-time show CSI: I’ve Seen This Before is on in 5 minutes.

This is why you’re broke. This is why 80% of America is just “getting by”. Too many people are saying “I want to be my own boss”, “I have the entrepreneurial spirit”, “I’m going to be rich someday”, “If I could just get my idea of the ground, I could quit my day job”, “I’m sick of being broke, I know there are other ways to make more money”. Bull! You’re lying to yourself. Because you’re not DOING anything about it. You’re just talking to yourself. And as soon as your realize that you’re just making excuses and that YOU are the only one in control of your life, that is the moment you can stop making excuses and start taking action. 

All it takes is for YOU to DECIDE. Decide you are not going to put it off another second. Decide you are no longer going let outside forces dictate your dreams. Decide the only way to realize your dreams is to begin taking action immediately. Decide TODAY—right now is the time for change.

As soon as you finish reading this article. THE SECOND YOU FINISH. Begin taking action. Make your first step. Don’t wait even five minutes. Or until you get off work. Stop making excuses!

Don’t know where to start? Then your first step should be to read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Read it before? GOOD! Read it AGAIN (repetition breeds skill)! Your first step should be to read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Read it before? GOOD! Read it AGAIN (repetition breeds skill)! Don’t have a copy? Search for “Think and Grow Rich ebook”. You’ll find plenty available for free as a download.

Begin by writing down your ideas and thoughts. Start a blog. Write in a journal. Don’t let your thoughts flush down the proverbial thought toilet of life. Remember them, write them, and begin to take action. As soon as you begin to take action you’ll begin to flourish. Study. Read. Act. And NEVER STOP.

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The last 4 days have been incredibly eye opening on what it takes to grow a blog by leaps and bounds in a very short period of time. I’m going to share the secrets I’ve learned and answer a few readers comments on where this blog is going to go.

First I’d like to share that I’ve been enamored to see the growth of Winning the Web–pretty much overnight. I know Gyutae is getting plugged all over the net for his free John Chow and Cow reviews contest.

But it just has to be said, the man planned it down to a T. And with good timing, and smart planning, EXCELLENT blog entries (not to mention entertaining guest posts on big name bloggers), and unique Community Involvement implemented (i.e. Blog Hopping and his Blog Audits) his blog is taking off like a Rocket. Good work Guytae–I’ll be following your development, and I aspire to have the vision and foresight you have. (P.S. To Gyutae I hope to win a blog audit. heh!)

So all of this has me quite intrigued. It’s quite obvious that an enticing, and well promoted Blog Contest can grow your blog exponentially seemingly overnight–with smart planning and smooth execution. What contests are you running? You’ll certainly be seeing one from B2M before the New Year!

Next I’d like to answer some of my readers. Because a few phenomenal ideas have come from comments given to me. I’d like to respond to each of them individually here:

“Another thought to getting exposure that I have been reading about lately is guest bloggers, have you others that write the same niche, you maybe able to ask them to write for you and then their readers might follow giving you a new readership as well.
I have tried this with my Jericho Blog and it has worked, tho I do guest blogging more myself on a few other blogs.”
From: lisa coultrup ( kystorms) at http://jerichooncbs.blogspot.com/

Thanks Lisa for the comment! Guest blogging is another thing I’ve been reading quite a bit about lately. I think this is a phenomenal way to get exposer. I am going to spend several days writing Guest Posts for Blogs that I’d like to be featured on. I am then going to plan a surge. I’d like to get them all posted in the same week (or day if possible!) then coordinate a Blog Contest as well to build RSS and Technorati readers all around the same time period. The goal is to get a HUGE SURGE of traffic all at once.

“Hi, my advice for getting noticed would be monthly if not weekly accountability on your blog.
You could for example setup a bank account and accumulate money in it, and give the balance every month, over time it’ll be interesting.
Of course being a millionaire will mean you’ll have money invested in some other things than a bank account, so work it out yourself, but the keyword i guess is public accountability and regularity, so your readers build expectations”
From James at www.Blog-Money-Wiki.com

This is a PHENOMENAL idea. I’ve always wanted a monthly (or bi-monthly) progress report. Just didn’t know the “right” way to do it. A bank account is a truly interesting and entertaining idea. I am going to put a ton of thought into this an implement “Tevin’s B2M Progress Report”. This will be a full disclosure on EXACTLY where I’m at.

Thanks so much everyone, your comments are TRULY appreciated,

- Tevin Anderson

P.S. If you are interested in having me write a guest post for you; would like to post a guest post on this blog; are interested in doing any other sort of cross blog promotion; please email me: Tevin [at] bankruptcytomillionaire.com

P.P.S. Enjoy the link love everyone!

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With the new B2M look and feel comes a few changes. Notably some free traffic efforts, and monetization efforts.

As you may have noticed I implemented some *hopefully* unobtrusive Adsense ads, Entrecard, and Blogrush.

I jumped on the Entrecard bandwagon just a couple days ago. It’s billed as the “Business Card 2.0″ and is said will generate free traffic… we’ll see. So far it’s gotten some attention, so far it looks promising lets see if it leads to long term readers.

BLOGRUSH - I’ve had the blogrush widget running for a few weeks now, and have gotten exactly one visitor. Not exactly a “rush” I’m not exactly sure it’s quite worth it. But I’ll continue to run it for a few more weeks, and concentrating on writing more “Get Noticed” titles.

If you’re a new reader at B2M.com from one of these sources WELCOME! This is my journey from being nearly completely bankrupt to becoming a MILLIONAIRE in 48 months. Follow along with me and we’ll reach success together.

- Tevin Anderson

P.S. If you’re new, and have not yes subscribed to B2M’s RSS. Do so now before you forget!

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