I don’t advertise before or on holidays. Ok, maybe that’s not entirely true. I might do it once in a while, but only on smaller ones and never on the huge shopping holidays. The reason is simple: Big brands, with deep pockets, come out and unload their marketing slush funds all over the place, and every affiliate in the world tries to jump in. I don’t like swimming upstream.
Real talk – I’m not being paid for this. I’m not being compensated in any way. Shit, I bought the first set of posts. Finch, being the boss that he is, threw me a review copy of the second set of posts. I figured that was a stand up move on his part and I’d tell all you fine people about them now.
So, it’s been a while. I kinda got wrapped up with a lot of stuff over the past few months and the blog had to take a back seat. Luckily, that’s all done with now, and I’m back – which I know is a big deal, since you all missed me so much.
I know I left you guys in limbo for a while, and for that I apologize. I’ve had a LOT on my plate the past month or so. Hopefully the worst of it is past and I can start updating on the regular again.
Get comfortable because I’m going to hand down some life lessons real fast, and then we’re going to cover a campaign of mine that I just stopped running after 3+ months.
I apologize for not updating for a bit. Life has been hectic. It’s hard work being awesome all the damn time, I assure you, and sometimes that keeps me from updating the blog. For that, I’m sorry.
When you sit down to create ads, who are you making them for? Most marketers don’t even think about this. They make ads that THEY think their target demographic will like.
PROTIP: You are NOT your target demographic.
I’m about to drop some knowledge on you:
You can’t make money unless you do something.
Network. And take a goddamn break once in a while.
Seriously. It’s that simple. Think you’re making money now? Get to know some people in the industry, and watch your income grow.
I’m always looking for ways to expand my income. New offers, new networks, new traffic sources, whatever it takes. I got a hint from some friends that I was overlooking a source of high volume traffic – site-based “pop” contextual. I’ve only worked with your standard popup PPV traffic in the past, and to be fairly honest, I’m more of a social and display guy. But I figured, why not give it a try? If there’s volume, I can make money there. That’s a given. So I set off in my quest to learn a little more about “pop” traffic.
Everybody talks about outsourcing. Hiring other people to do the bullshit work you don’t want to do has been a staple of the business world since day one. If it weren’t, most people wouldn’t be employed. We need people to make copies, get coffee, write up memos and fill out TPS reports. God only knows I’m not doing that shit myself.