This 2015 Edition of Premium Posts is sponsored by Adsimilis, one of the world’s leading CPA networks. Adsimilis has gone from strength to strength over the years. You don’t want to skimp on quality when choosing where to send your leads, right? Well, I’ve recommended Adsimilis ever since I started working with Sean, Eleah and Mike in 2010 (and my AM, Naomi, since then). The network is soliddd as a rockkk. The company has expanded on both sides of the Atlantic and now has one of the most recognisable brands in affiliate marketing. You can run traffic to all of the major niches. But if your focus is mobile, apps, sweepstakes or dating offers, then you’ll definitely want to get set up here. Adsims has built strong relationships with some of the biggest advertisers in the affiliate world. That means higher payouts, bigger caps and less chance of getting burnt by a network that passes like a ship in the night (and there are plenty of those out there!) The company is also responsible for some of the best industry gatherings in the business. From Amsterdam, to Ibiza, to Vegas, to Dubai, to god knows where else in 2015. I’ve been to several Adsimilis events – and it has always been a pleasure getting plastered in the sun with them. If you’re not already running traffic with Adsims, sign up here. If you need a referral, drop me an email with your details (and rough affiliate skill level) 2 In This 2015 Edition Introduction 4   Finch’s Affiliate Marketing Survival Tips for 2015 6   The Need-to-Knows for Launching Profitable Mobile Campaigns 35   Revealed: The Pay-Per-Call Gold Rush and How You Can Blow It Up 71   Adult Dating in 2015: How to Slay the Beast 116   89 Factors That Can Make or Break an Adult Dating Campaign 141   A Guide to Optimising Effectively and Testing Like a Pro 240   How Tiny 1% Improvements Can Make You a Big Balls Affiliate 260   How You Can Tap In to the Teespring Revolution 273   Retargeting Tips: From One Affiliate’s Twisted Mind to Another 297   How to Build a Performance Marketing Agency 325   In Conclusion: Thanks for Reading 345   Finch’s Extensive List of Affiliate Marketing Resources for 2015 347   3 Introduction Welcome to the 2015 Mega Edition of Premium Posts. Inside this PDF you will find 375 pages of affiliate marketing tips, tricks, strategies, pointers, bloopers, fuck-ups, brainfarts, bad ideas, good ideas and obscure references to my balls. Unlike the previous Volume X, which was solely dedicated to the world of adult dating (and had to be promoted very carefully to protect my dignified reputation), this volume is a real trans-nichual monster. We will dissect our industry as a whole. Topics we’ll be covering include: • How to survive and thrive in modern affiliate marketing. • The rise and rise of mobile marketing, and how you can take advantage. • The explosion in pay-per-call offers, how to promote them, and where. • The casual dating sector as it stands today: the best opportunities and what you can do to rise above the competition. • The longest post I have ever written on getting profitable with adult dating, clocking in at 97 pages. (That’s a lot of filth.) • How to test and optimise your campaigns effectively. • How a strategy of continual 1% improvements can transform your business. • This bloody Teespring craze. • The art of retargeting, and why it might be the key to the next big innovation in our industry. • Why you should quit 'affiliate marketing' and build a majestic performance marketing agency, bells and whistles attached. • And more. Much more. 4 I’ve also updated my already gigantic list of affiliate resources from FinchSells.com. The traffic source section has been overhauled to include some sources that I didn’t want to give away on the blog. In short, we’ll be covering a lot of ground. So... let’s get started, shall we? 5 Finch’s Affiliate Marketing Survival Tips for 2015 It’s almost two years since I released my original Affiliate Marketing Survival Guide on Amazon – and 16 months since the last volume of Premium Posts. In the absence of writing this shit for your consumption, 2014 has been my most productive year ever as an affiliate. (Maybe there’s a harmful correlation?) For an industry that has supposedly been on its last legs since 1987, there is still a hell of a lot of marketers making good money. And if you haven’t joined that elite club, these posts are designed to get you there. I’ve met many talented, friendly and shockingly damn near likeable affiliates this year. I’ve had the chance to network with affiliates in Thailand, in Dubai, in London, and all over Europe. This access has shaped my thoughts on where our industry is heading, and it has enabled me to grab insights first-hand from the guys and girls who are leading that charge. If you are a long-time reader of this Premium Posts series, I hope that you'll notice a shift in the type of aspirations that we’ll be discussing throughout the volume. I think the industry, as a whole, is maturing. Affiliates are adapting to competition by raising their games professionally. 6 We are embracing the challenge of building 'performance marketing agencies’, rather than continuing to hunt for profits and loopholes like lone wolves in the night. I want to use this first post to give a general overview of where I see affiliate marketing today, how I see it shaping up in 2015, and what I think you can do to get ahead of the curve. We’re going to cover a lot of basics early on. We’ll then get on to different sectors that are taking off, how to exploit them, advanced strategies, creative tips, and all the other bollocks that you’re used to — with some extremely graphic and detailed posts later in the volume. Common Complaints of the Weary Affiliate One of the things I’ve noticed about our industry in 2014 is the creeping doubt and uncertainty faced by many affiliates. We want to know where our industry is actually heading, and whether there will still be room for us there. We’ve long since accepted that ‘ideas that worked three years ago’ are not going to work today. But the rate of change is frightening. Even seasoned affiliates, those who always managed to adapt and make money over the last five years, have started to grow weary of the constant challenges. There’s a sense that to stay at the top of our game, we need to scale beyond the lone wolf mentality that has served introverted affiliate marketers so well. That means building teams capable of handling the various demands of the business – creative, production, analytics, etc. – and spending more time networking as chief visionaries than we are perhaps used to. 7 Above all else, the number one thing I hear affiliates talking about when it comes to surviving and thriving in 2015 is competitive advantages. If you don’t have one, then I’m sorry mon ami: you are shit out of luck. Competitive Advantages: What’s Yours? What is a competitive advantage? By definition, it is a condition or circumstance that puts a company (or individual) in a favourable or superior business position. The problem with getting a competitive advantage in affiliate marketing is that, paradoxically, most of us start in the same position, with the same conditions, and the same circumstances. We are a swelling crowd, armed with identical weapons: • The same banners, • Same landing pages, • Same offers, • Same payouts, • Same budgets, • Same bidding strategies, • Same traffic sources, • And all of the same advice. When we are competing against each other on such equal terms, it is difficult for any one of us to gain an advantage. 8 Much is written about the negative impact of monopolies, but without the monopoly of a competitive advantage that is yours and yours only – any profits in a lucrative space will be competed away. In short, equal competition = vicious competition. And that is a bad, bad thing for affiliates. To break away from the pack, we need to build competitive advantages in to our businesses. I saw a good analogy recently that a competitive advantage is like placing a moat around your castle. In order to sustain success, you need to make your business difficult to replicate. You need to widen that moat to protect your castle. I’ve identified three key areas where you can gain a competitive advantage. Nearly every ‘super affiliate’ strategy falls under one of these challenges. They are: • Out-communicating the competition. • Out-hustling the competition. • Innovation. Let’s look at our options for each pursuit: Out-Communicating the Competition This is a strategy that you’re going to hear me talk about a lot over the course of this volume. It is the art of communication: of networking, honeybadgering and getting a better deal than your competition. Affiliates are not normally the most extroverted bunch. 9 Many of us have abandoned day jobs that put too much precedence on communication skills over Getting Shit Done. Well, unfortunately, that mentality needs to change. The affiliates making the big bucks are relying increasingly on inside information to focus their efforts in the right places. With fiercely competitive markets, this is pretty much the only thing they are doing differently from their competent but average earning rivals. To win a war of communication, you need to build a strong circle of contacts within your chosen vertical. That means striking up close working relationships with: • Your affiliate manager – for access to exclusive offers. • Your traffic source reps – for access to the best traffic. • Your competition – to smell the winds of change. Out-communicating the competition means getting to the best information first. It is too late by the time you receive ‘tips’ in network newsletters. At this point, any hot offer is old news to the guy who made it a hot offer. Out-communicating also means sourcing offers (and traffic) privately, without the helping hand of your affiliate network. Some of the top affiliates today spend half their working hours on LinkedIn. If you are spending most of your time chasing network newsletters, or forum rumours, then you have reached a communication bottleneck. You need to raise your game and start networking with the chief- moneymakers in your niche. 10