When a customer comes to an AdCombo landing and fills in the order form indicating their name and phone number, an order is generated in the system, and we’ll initially see its Hold status in the statistics.

When the call center agent calls the customer, and they confirm the order (confirm that they want to buy the product), then the order gets verified. It appears in the system (Statistics) as Sale.

Approval rate – how to calculate it?

The approval rate % of an offer is the number of confirmed orders over the total number of orders that the offer receives in a given period of time.

 Approval Rate % = (Sales/Total Orders)*100

If an offer has an approval rate of 40%, it means that out of 100 people who filled in the order form on the landing page, 40 people confirmed the purchase during the call. Later, in the statistics, the affiliate will see the payouts for those 40 orders in the balance section.

You can use our Telegram bot to check out the AR % of a COD offer:

Why the AR % data is important to know?

When the Approval rate on the offer is about 15%, this means that 85% of the orders got the statuses Rejected or Trash. Then you should buy cheap ads to ensure the profitability of your campaigns. Organic traffic is also a fine option for this type of offers.

Low AR (but there is a solution!)

Note that there are offers with low approval rate that still receive monthly sales, since affiliates drive cheap yet quality traffic to them. So, you can also set up a profitable campaign even for an offer with a low AR if you get low-cost traffic (and personally have a high AR on the offer). It usually happens to Adult offers, for example.

High AR

If the approval rate of the offer is 35% or higher, it means that the offer is well- approved, and many customers confirm their purchases during the call.

How are affiliates paid for sales? 

Let’s say you launch a campaign on Facebook. The offer has an approval rate of 40%, then you have 1000 visits on your landing page. About 100 people out of 1000 complete the form for the call center, they want to buy the product and the price seems good to them. Before they will be called, we still have no orders in Rejected or Trash columns. Our 100 orders are in Hold, so orders that are in Hold = our Total Orders for now.

In the statistics, you see 100 in Hold (and in the Balance tab as well). Then the call center agents will call those 100 customers (usually during 1 day). If 40 out of 100 customers confirm the orders ( i.e. want products to be sent to their home addresses to pay for them on delivery – COD model), the rest 60 orders will be moved to the Rejected or Trash columns. Later, the call center will pass the info to AdCombo that those 60 records are confirmed, and you will see them in the statistics as Sales (40 Sales for COD offers).  

The payouts for them will be displayed in the Balance section next to your manager’s picture in your account.

When you ask for the payment from those sales, we’ll check how many of those 40 people have received the purchase via delivery to the address (this data isn’t seen by affiliates, only by the managers). If none of 40 people accepted the purchases on delivery (pay for them), then the traffic is considered fraudulent, and the affiliate doesn’t get the payout. If most of 40 or all finally buy the products, then we can pay the sum under the Available title.

To resume

1000 people visited the landing page

100 people filled in the form for the call center (The sum that will be paid for sales is in Hold)

40 people confirm the orders during the call (Payouts are added to the Balance as Available)

Delivery

Case A: 38 people bought the product (the affiliate is paid for 40 Sales)

Case B: 0 people bought the product (fraudulent traffic, the affiliate isn’t paid for the orders).

Calculating campaign’s performance

To optimize your ROI, pay attention to the cost of each lead out of those 40 you pay to the traffic source. 

Here are two helpful formulas:

X (Cost of traffic to get Y customers) / Y (the Number of customers) = Cost of 1 customer.

$ (Payout for the offer) – (Cost of 1 customer) = Profit.

Example:

You paid FB $300 for 1 campaign for 1 week 

1000 customers visited your landing page

100 customers filled in the order form (Hold in Balance and Statistics)

40 customers out of 100 confirmed the delivery during the call

(Out of payouts for 100 orders in Hold, only payouts for 40 orders became Available).

Available Balance =  $ (Payout for offer) x orders [40] = $12 x 40 = $480

Out of 40 customers, 38 people paid for the product on delivery, the rest 2 changed their minds when the order was delivered.

AdCombo paid for 40 sales. 

Available Balance = $480.

Campaign’s performance:  $480 (Income) – $300 (Spend) = $180 (Profit) you are earning $180!

Hopefully now you have a better understanding of these important metrics, and they will help you make big money with AdCombo (and calculate it right)! 

Hi there, super affs!

That’s PR-fire Vi again. Let’s give my affiliate experiment a follow-up! In today’s post, I’m gonna tell you about the offer, creatives, and traffic source I’ve chosen for my first ad campaign.

Also, I’ll share some tips on selecting a proper vertical/offer/creative material/traffic source for beginners that I’ve found out while looking for the best choice that will work for me. Some observations were pulled  from my experience in the niche. 

Choosing a traffic source

I’m going to start affiliate marketing with RichAds, our longtime partner, with whom I had my first marketing collaboration a couple of years ago. Since then, we’ve been united by our activities together: webinars, articles, mentions, expert opinions and ideas. Moreover, this summer we’ve met and had a lot of fun at AW Europe Barcelona! And now there is a new venture on the way: with their active support and training, I’ll start working with push advertising. I’m sure it’ll be fascinating!

Tip: A source of traffic should be selected depending on the kind of offer you are going to promote. If your choice is Adult, then you have to forget about many native advertising networks; and it’ll take you a lot of effort to pass moderation on social medias (creativity parade usually begins here). As an alternative, you can opt for networks that focus on adult traffic.

Beauty, weight loss, and anti-aging products sell nicely in sources where you can visually show the effects of their use, such as TikTok. There, you can advertise products for free, but longer, or you can pay for the ad and get results faster. Native advertising and organic traffic are also suitable for such products. Note, in this case you’ll have to work carefully on the content and text of the ad. As for organic traffic, there is a need to thoroughly select keywords, as well as get rid of irrelevant ones. However, you can try to do this without spending money.
But it’s likely that you’ll have to use paid services to search for keywords (for greater efficiency). Native advertising is a costly source.

So, newbies can try push advertising or advertising in social networks (it’ll be your first strength test), anyway, I recommend:

• Studying the allowed products and the ad platform’s policies;
  
  
• Making white/black lists to create your own recipe for effective combinations of vertical/offer + advertising platform + advertising format (if several);
  
  

• Communicating with managers of both affiliate network and advertising network (if any). They are interested in helping you, and also have experience and statistics, which will help you make the right choice.
  

Choosing a vertical

It’s better for a beginner to get in contact with their managers, so that actions can be more structured. You can search for information yourself, collect opinions, but still discuss them with your manager before doing something. 

* Beware, a lyrical aside is coming. * If you do not know how to swim, but want to learn, you go to the pool. Probably the one with an instructor. But when you get there, you start splashing around in the water, because you’ve read something about swimming, but it still doesn’t work. The surprised instructor is standing next to you offering help, but instead, you completely ignore him/her, harming your progress. There is a more productive option: you can tell him/her about your desired plan and then together build a strategy for your learn-how-to-swim goal. The instructor won’t only show you how to stay afloat, but also keep you from drowning if something goes wrong. 

The principle of the manager’s work is exactly the same: both the instructor and the manager want to bring you to your goal. Everyone benefits from it. 

A simple thought that is often lost in minds. 

But that’s exactly what I followed. To find out what vertical would work for me, I requested the top verticals from my manager Valeria at RichAds, who was helping me learn the basics of promoting a push campaign. At the same time, I asked her to share the most popular GEOs in RichAds. Yes, it’s possible to try something non-trivial, but for a newbie it’s better to start with something simple, complicating goals step by step.

Among the options offered, I liked Adult Nutra. They recently dropped restrictions on all Adult, so there is another opportunity to get adult traffic. 

The only thing left was to select a GEO: Nepal, Pakistan, Romania, or Argentina.

Selecting an offer 

In order to decide on the GEO and the offer, I turned to the managers of AdCombo. We found a suitable offer in Argentina  – [34731] Sex UP – AR, pills for potency. 

That’s how I found my first offer, using recommendations from two managers.

But before we move on to the next stage, I want to draw your attention to the mistakes that beginners make when picking out an offer. 

Here, I can’t avoid mentioning the most important mistake new affiliates make at the beginning – expectations. There’s no offer that can bring profit without effort by the affiliate. Every campaign needs to be handled. And yes, if the affiliate doesn’t get a money pool, like the one Scrooge McDuck has, after launching a campaign, that’s OKAY. There’s no sense in expecting that as soon as you launch a campaign, even for a cool offer, a wave of money will flood your account balance; and by the evening there will be so much money there that someone on Forbes’ list will get nervous. Affiliate marketing requires consistent steps, patience, and continuous learning. Even top guys have to learn something, because the affiliate marketing niche is very dynamic, so what can I say about newbies?

What offer isn’t suitable for a beginner

• Affiliates shouldn’t pick an offer, focusing only on a high payout. Such offers most likely require either a great experience or a budget. But even if a beginner has money, it’s better to spend it sensibly, step by step. However, you must shell out money for tests of sources, creatives and offers, but within limits. Yes, you have to set them, though;
  
  
• Coming almost as an extension: you don’t have to pick offers for Tier-1 countries. If only you have a huge budget to waste and won’t regret about it;
  
  
  
• Affiliate needs to find a balance between the demand for the offer and its over saturation with traffic. A manager can help to find it. I don’t suggest that a newbie chooses a specific sub-vertical, as the offer may not be noticed. You shouldn’t take a very popular offer with enormous competition, either, since a beginner is unlikely to be able to compete equally;
  
  
  
• A little more about competition. It is not advised to select an offer by high EPC – Earnings Per Click, i.e. the average earnings per click from all sources of all affiliates working with the offer (the indicator can be found in the Offer list in affiliate network). Therefore, the higher it is, the higher is the chance that the offer is oversaturated with traffic and the newbie will face serious competition.
  

Deciding upon a creative

Now all that’s left is to get the creatives (so far, the landing and pre-landing page) and the first stage of preparation is over. 

The easiest way is to use the affiliate network’s ready-made landing/pre-landing pages. If you want a more complicated way – you can pick the ready-made page and modify it a little.

I decided to start by taking the ready-made AdCombo’s materials and chose what I liked. My goal was to find seductiveness and marketing value in the creative material. It should evoke the right mood and desire with its content, but also be informative. The user, moving to the order form, should understand why they need the product, and why exactly that one. 

I preferred the landing page – [89254] Sex Up – BlueLand – AR and took it.

Then I wrote to Valeria (the RichAds manager) and asked her to check the page for violations of RichAds advertising policy. Yeah! It passed the check. 

We decided to use it alone. Although Valeria also suggested that we could test two options: pre-landing + landing pages and solely landing page to compare results afterwards. 

Tip: This is a good option to determine your converting strategy. Tests are always a good idea. To get accurate data, you can also do A/B testing with different landing and pre-landing pages, banners and find the best pair(s) for yourself. This works for those who want to be a little independent in the beginning (although even the creative materials fro tests can be chosen together with the manager).                

An easier way is to ask the manager for the best creative pairs (either landing + pre-landing pages or a landing page only). But keep in mind that more than one affiliates will use such creative materials. In general, this is true for ready-made creatives for the offers too. But I wouldn’t dare to make changes to the landing page now.

By the way, what to do if you don’t like anything from the suggested creative materials of the affiliate network, and you don’t have your own ideas either…

How to get a creative?

• You can look up the idea and structure in the creatives offered by the affiliate network, but make your own original version (or amend one of the affiliate network);
  
  

AdCombo has a built-in translation service that adapts text for creatives into any language. The text is translated by native speakers, not a machine. At a discount. So there shouldn’t be any linguistic barriers or awkwardness;

• Use a spy tool to do the same thing, but to look up other affiliates. There you can also find examples of banners for advertisements;
  
  
  

Here are some free spy services:

1. Affbank’s spy tool
   
   
2. Meta Ad Library (you can also see the campaigns that were approved).
   
   

• Ask your manager for assistance.
  
  

Tip: When designing or refining your creative, studying the preferences of GEO residents is useful. It helps either emphasize the landing page or design the pre-landing page in the style of popular sites. For example, it’s better to pick photos of GEO residents or other nationalities that are often used in images in that GEO, if there are such.

It’ll also be possible to find out whether it’s necessary to highlight a natural composition or discounts. There may be an interest in the natural composition among Saudi Arabians, who use halal cosmetics, or Indonesians, who prefer traditional medicine and value natural ingredients.

That’s all I can share at this point of my preparation. Do you have any ideas or recommendations to add to my notes? I’d be happy to read them in the comments! 

In my next post, I’ll talk about setting up and launching a campaign. See you around!

What was your first affiliate experience like? What did you learn from it?

Hey there!

Nice to see you in our Super Aff Community of the CPA world! Together, we’ll bring your income to the highest level possible! 

If you’re reading this, probably, you’re at the very beginning of affiliate marketing.

Although affiliate marketing is a challenging field, your experience, knowledge, and skills will enable you to reach the CPA heights in the future. 

Big journeys begin with small steps. Scroll down to find our articles and make your first step into affiliate marketing.

How it works

• What is affiliate marketing?
  
• What is COD? 
  
• How can an affiliate network be helpful, and what is it? 

Preparing for work

Choosing an offer

• AdCombo’s Telegram bot suggests the most fitting or top offers without contacting a manager
  
  
• How to choose the best offer for a beginner?
  
  
• What types of conversion do exist? What to keep in mind when looking for an offer? What traffic sources are suitable for various offers? 
  
  

Domain name & Web Hosting

• Comprehensive guide on domain names and web hosting servers
  
  
• What hosting server to choose for affiliate marketing?
  
  
• How to park my domain name in AdCombo? 
  
  

API

• What is it and where to find it?
  

Tracking

• What is affiliate tracking and how to set it up? 
  
  

• Tracking software programs and what they serve for
  

Antidetect browser

• Series of articles to learn what it is, what parameters it replaces and how Facebook identifies users
  
  

• How to choose the right antidetect browser?
  
  

Virtual cards

• Combo.Cards, in-house AdCombo’s virtual cards service to pay for ads
  

Promoting a campaign

• What type of content to create for a niche site and how to rank it?
  
  
• What are the essential elements of a good product review to get sales?
  
  
• How to draw attention with ads?
  
  
  
• Can I calculate the Forecasted Conversion Rate in my AdCombo Statistics?
  

Internal A/B tests

• AdCombo’s link rotator and how to use it for tests. Now, it’s available in the My Campaigns tab —> Create new campaign.

Traffic sources

• What is a blacklist/whitelist, and how can they save my money?
  
  
• How to choose a high-quality traffic source? Analyzing Different Traffic Sources
  

• Narrow targeting is better than a wider one?
  
  
  

Facebook

• How to unblock my account?
  
  
  
• What is Facebook Pixel and how to use it?
  
  Facebook Pixel has been turned into Meta Pixel (upd. instruction 1, upd. instruction 2). Its interface and the one of AdCombo have also changed since the publication date of the article. Nevertheless, the article will guide you through the general steps of understanding what the Pixel is and how to set it up, both on Facebook and in AdCombo.
  
• What are Automated FB rules, and how can they make your ad processes easy?

Instagram 

• How to promote Nutra offers on Instagram?

TikTok

• How to make a trending video ad on TikTok?
  

Google

• How to create an ad campaign using Google Adwords?
  
  
  
• How to rank a site in Google?
  

Native Ads

• Is native ads suitable for a beginner? What budget do I need?
  
  

• Anyhow, I want to learn more about it!
  

Pop-up ads

• What is an effective mobile pop-up ad?

FREE traffic

• Is it real to launch a campaign without any expenses?!
  

Tips & recommendations from experts

• How to cope with fear and launch an ad campaign?
  
  
• FB experts share their experience, thoughts, and pieces of advice
  
  
• TOP affiliate team reveals the secret of farming accounts on Facebook
  
  
  

Inspiration from the AdCombo Community

• Managers talk about their affiliates who participated in an AdCombo challenge
  
  
  
• Winners of AdCombo Challenges reveal what led them to victory
  
  
  

Questions about starting partnership with AdCombo

How to enter my AdCombo account?

When your account is approved by a manager, you can come into the AdCombo platform as a user. Don’t forget to confirm your e-mail after signing up, btw!

1. Go to https://my.adcombo.com/login 
2. Type in your E-mail and Password
3. Done! Now it’s time to enable Two-factor authentication:
   
   

Click on your nickname in the upper right Account Settings put a tick in the box Enabled in the Two-factor authentication block.

Then copy your security code to a Two-factor authentication app that you’ll use to log in. 

NB: Please note that now all users can access the AdCombo platform before their accounts are approved. The demo access enables new affiliates to look through the interface tabs, excluding an opportunity to promote affiliate links.

How can I contact my manager?

Contacts of your manager will appear next to AdCombo’s logo at the upper left. There, you can also create a ticket in the system if your manager is on vacation.

When I can receive my payment, and what is the minimal sum for withdrawal? 

We pay out TWICE a week: on Tuesdays and Fridays. You can withdraw min. $50.

How do I add data for a payment system and request a payout?

Сlick on your nickname in the upper right Payment settings. 

Then go to the tab “Payouts” after you have completed the settings. Here you can make a request (payments are made on request, not automatically). Withdraw funds through several services in one day, If needed.

Why do payouts on an offer get into hold? How long does it take?

What are payment options?

Can I receive payouts in cryptocurrency?

Click here to find the answers.

Need help, but your manager is out of reach?

1. Leave a ticket
2. Contact other managers via a Telegram bot
3. Ask AdCombo Community in a Telegram chat.
   
   
   

Do you feel that now you have a superpower for taking actions? Then rush to new achievements, and we’ll be somewhere around.

Don’t forget to follow us on our socials for more interesting and useful info: 

Telegram

Instagram

Facebook


Whole lotta luck and prooofit! 

In the previous article about API, we discussed how to add a landing page to a hosting and how to pick up your domain name for it. But before you start running traffic via API and designing your website, you need to create a correct domain name and move it on a safe hosting. 

Today, we’ll learn what domain and hosting are, and also tell you why every affiliate needs to know this.

Let’s go!

What is a domain name

There are two roles:  a user who wants to find your website on the Internet. The user types the name of your site in the search bar and gets to the main page of it, which will be displayed as direct traffic (direct) in analytics services. And here is you, the website creator, who has everything to launch this site on the Net: a server that stores all the resource files, and an easy-to-remember name, known as a domain name. The second is what allows users to access your website through the browser address or search bars, while DNS does all the hard work.

Consider the example of AdCombo. If we type a combination – adcombo.com – in the address or search bars in the browser:

we get to the main page of the AdCombo website with the same name:

People often confuse the terms of “website” and “domain”, but there is a huge difference between them. A website is a web page that is displayed on the Internet, in other words, content. And the domain name of the site is its unique name, the “address” where users will find and see its content.

Types of domains

To create a website, you need to register a domain name first . Domains consist of levels. There are three levels of domains – the first (top), second and third levels.

Top-Level Domains are also called domain zones. These are domains tied to a territory or theme of the site. They are not for sale, as they are owned by a specialized organization – ICANN, and are distributed among certain areas where we can register the site. 

They are also divided into subgroups:

1. Domain zones indicate countries – National Domains (ccTLD – country code Top-Level Domain), for example:
   

.ca – Canada;

.de – Germany;

.au – Australia.

2. They indicate the type of organization using the domain name – International (general) Domains (gTLD – generic Top-Level Domain), for example:
   
   

.com is for commercial organizations.

.info – information sites.

.edu – educational resources.

3. Or they indicate the theme of the site – New International Domains (new gTLDs), for example: .photography, .business, .fitness, etc.
   
   

Second-Level Domains are registered at theTop-Level Domains.

They are separated from the domain zone by a dot and often used for websites and for commercial purposes, so you can create your own domain name and or buy an existing one.

A requirement of registering such a domain name is its uniqueness,  so it won’t work to buy another domain name with an already existing one.

An interesting fact: the most expensive domain name deal  was made  in 2005. The lasvegas.com domain name was sold for $90 million.

Here is an example of Second-Level domain: adcombo.com, google.com, etc.

The Third-Level is a resource within the Second-Level Domain. The examples of the Third-Level Domains are adventure.adcombo.com and blog.adcombo.com.

Typically, the Third-Level is used when creating a web resource on a site builder or hosting individual sites inside a large web portal – for example, forum.example.com.

So the domain name structure looks like this:

There may be a WWW (World Wide Web) prefix also known as subdomain in the address bar of any site, before the main domain name, for example:

The WWW prefix means an information system that provides access to textual information via the http or https protocol.

Many years ago, when the Internet was quite young, and servers were low-powered, the prefix was used to separate servers within a network. One of the articles says that every company ran its network of servers, and each server within the network was considered a hosting that performed only one role. Depending on the role, the hosting provided, it would get a specific hostname:

Nowadays, WWW is considered a remnant, since there is no need for the prefix.  However, it’s still found on many sites, and many users continue to use it in search queries.

Thus, the site promotion becomes more difficult, since many search engines mark the domain.com and www.example.com as different sites (domains of different levels).

This means that all external links are divided into two parts, depending on how they were placed – with or without WWW. If a site owner loses some external links to the site, this may lead to a downgrade, and less users will visit it.

Usually, in order to avoid such problems, they set up a 301 redirect from a non-canonical site (let’s say, www.example.com) to a canonical/preferred site (example.com). Therefore, users who enter www.example.com/page07 will see example.com/page07 in the address bar of the browser. You can read more about this in the article.

How to create a domain name

Now let’s briefly go over the steps that need to be done to  a domain name. First of all, there are two ways to make a domain: create it on a domain registrars website or get it fromyour web hosting provider (we’ll talk about it further). If you choose the first option, then follow the steps:

1. Choose a domain zone

Here you need to know the reason and purpose of your future domain name. If you want to run business in a certain country, then register a national domain name, and if you provide some services or launch your own project, then look at thematic names.

2. Let’s think of a name

Take the issue seriously, because it directly impacts website promotion and passing moderation. The ideal choice for a site name is one with the main keyword and relevant to the advertised product.

Lifehack # 1: as we mentioned earlier, you can create your own domain name even if there is no website. This is beneficial because search engines better index resources that have been registered for a long time, therefore, the promotion will bring results faster.

3. Select the registrar and check the name for uniqueness

This can be done on the registrar’s website or through the whois service. In this article, we will not consider each of the services in detail. We’ll name  examples of the top registrars according to Forbes, so you can take a closer look at them and take for the use:

1. namecheap.com – has a low extension cost for top-level domains.
2. domain.com – suitable for short-term projects.
3. domains.google – fine for those who have already chosen hosting.
   

Lifehack #2: Taking foreign domains on foreign sites is better. If the name is occupied, but you really like it, just change its registration zone.

4. Setting up a domain

After checking the domain name for uniqueness and compliance with the requirements of the selected zone, you get access to your domain name. Usually, account settings come after payment is made.

Lifehack #3: the domain must be registered to the name and email you specified. If another owner is indicated – you’d better choose another registrar.

5. Upload the site to the hosting

If you have already created a site before registering a domain, then transfer the files to the newly bought domain − read the instructions. If necessary, add a database or fill out the one that was created automatically for your new hosting.

What is a DNS Server

So, you have created the website domain. Now the question arises: “How can a user quickly find exactly your site out of 1000 similar ones?”.

In the same manner as telephone numbers, domain names are also organized in a global network of servers – the Domain Name System (DNS). This system sends the user directly to your site and provides quick access to it.

To connect to a server with a specific site, you need to know its IP address (Internet Protocol) – a unique address that identifies a device on the Internet or local network. Using long combinations of numbers is inconvenient, so IP addresses are associated with text names – domains. For example, adcombo.com is easier to remember than a set of numbers, right?

What happens from the user side: the system uses the IP address as an identifier to find the specific site to which access is requested. Then it converts the IP address into a format that the user can understand – a domain name.

Thus, DNS servers store information about domains, make it available to users at their request, and also cache DNS records of other servers.

You don’t have to have a separate DNS server because it is included in your hosting provider’s services. What to do if the domain registrar and hosting are different services, we will tell you below.

Now, we’re moving on to hosting.

What is Web Hosting

Note that domain and web hosting are basic services for creating a website on the Internet. The domain is the address of the site, while the hosting is the space where it’s actually located.

Let’s imagine that you want to create your own landing page for selling Titan Gel. Any site consists of a set of files (texts, graphic materials, program scripts, database, etc.), that are not enough to store only on a computer. If you want to make customers see the precious landing pages and increase not only their poten…tial but also your sales, the content should be online as well.  

The hosting comes to the rescue, when you need a space to place your landing page for profit (as you’re lucky enough).

Hosting features include:

1. Providing access to a domain

As mentioned above, hosting allows a user not only to register a domain name, but also to manage it; 

2. Providing access to the server

Hosting “maintains” a site and prepares it for users to respond quickly to requests while involving minimal effort and spend of its owner;

3. Providing storage space

To place multimedia content (images, audio, and video) on the page, a user requires a significant amount of disk space. Therefore, it is easier to store such data on a server,  which the user will always have access to through a hosting provider. And some of them even provide a backup service in case of unexpected troubles with the site.

How to choose the right web hosting

First, let’s define the selection criteria:

1. Website loading speed is important for ranking;
   
   
2. Continuity of work (uptime). Optimal – is 99.9%, in extreme cases – is 98.9%;
   
   
3. Security tools – built-in antiviruses, SSL, backups;
   
   
4. The type of hosting must match the features of the resource to be hosted.

Then, you need to decide why you need this hosting at all. Web hostings can be divided into the following types:

1. Shared Hosting

The most common type of hosting suitable for small projects.

Its advantages:

• cheap ($2–15 per month);
  
  
• convenient for the average user who needs a control panel (with a minimum number of settings) to upload files, create site backups, etc.;
  
  
• easy to use even for inexperienced users (the general server configuration is handled by the hosting provider).
  
  

This type of hosting provides a rather limited amount of space on the hard disk of a remote server. It’s also the most vulnerable to viruses and doesn’t support stable work of a site.

If you haven’t tried your hand at being a system administrator, you can use this hosting for practice, but for more complex projects and stable work, we advise you to take a closer look at the other types.

2. VDS or VPS – Virtual Private Hosting Server
   
   

It’s suitable for medium and big projects, and involves the allocation of a part of the remote server for a separate virtual machine for each client (up to 20 within the server). The advantages are:

• independence from other server clients;
  
  
• separate OS on each virtual machine;
  
  
• ensuring the stable functioning of the site due to the guaranteed values ​​of computing power, the amount of RAM, etc.;
  
  
• admin access to settings and management of a dedicated virtual machine;
  
  
• self-installation of preferred software.
  
  

The complexity of installing and configuring software on a VDS server requires having sysadmin skills. Another disadvantage is also the direct proximity to other virtual machines, which jeopardizes the security of the site. But this type of web hosting is much safer than shared hosting.

3. Colocation
   
   

It differs from VDS in that the hosting provider is cheaper and only provides a specialized space in its data center for installing your personal equipment and a dedicated channel for Internet access.

Besides, it:

• has connection to communication channels with high bandwidth;
  
• is suitable for large projects;
  
• is suitable for those who want to become a hosting provider.
  

4. Dedicated Hosting
   

Suitable for large-scale Internet projects. You will have access to a separate remote server with a high level of security and full control, while as a hosting company it only monitors the state of the hardware.

If you are already an experienced system administrator ready for complex installation/management and paying a high price ($100-500 per month), then you can surely choose this server type.

5. Cloud Hosting
   
   

Due to the additional power of the cloud, you can increase all the necessary parameters: RAM, hard disk space, computing power, etc. Depending on how much resources are used, this hosting service varies in price.

A universal option for maintaining the site without obvious flaws.

How to connect a domain to web hosting

So, if you have registered a new domain and want to link it to existing hosting, then just change the domain settings in your personal account. Follow two steps:

1. Find out the NS-servers of your hosting
   

Where: find it in the hosting control panel, in a letter from the provider, or ask support. There must be at least two of these addresses: one primary and one additional;

2. Specify NS-servers in domain settings
   

Where: in your personal account, find the item with the purchased domains -> DNS and specify the hosting NS-servers there.

Lifehack #4: if you need to transfer your domain from one hosting to another, change the domain settings by specifying the NS-servers of the new hosting there.

How to create a trusted domain

If you have read the article up to this point and discovered something new for yourself – this means now you have one more affiliate skill. In this paragraph, we will combine all the above recommendations and give a couple of new tips to make your site convert.

1. You should not save on the domain zone. Better use a Top-Level Domain zone (like .com, .net, .org) like most big companies do. This will increase the credibility for moderators and reduce the risk for the ad campaign to be banned at the very start;
   
   

Lifehack #5: You can buy old domains with a history, which also increases trust.

2. Try to choose a domain name in accordance with the theme of the site / product being advertised. State its purpose or use the main keyword so that it becomes clear for users where are they going and why;
   
   
3. Even if you don’t use the WWW prefix, set up a 301 redirect. This will allow you not to miss traffic to your site. Also, you will need the redirect when transferring the site to another domain name or web hosting, as well as to quickly switch from tablets and mobile devices to a version of the site adapted for them;
   
   

4. Be sure to include the Privacy Policy on the website. It can be generated, edited and embedded to the site in less than 10 minutes. This significantly reduces the risks of a ban;
   
   
5. Before launching an advertising campaign, get a security certificate − SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). It protects the data that users leave on the site. This is a must-have part for sites that are engaged in online sales and want to reach the top of the search queries list. Otherwise, the ad campaigns will be banned, and the site won’t lift to the top;
   
   

If you see a padlock icon − “secure connection” next to the domain name, then the site seems more trustworthy, and, therefore, the time of interaction with it may increase. You can complete this point in the following way:

1. Get a free SSL certificate for moderation with basic data encryption features. Remember that the level of protection of such certificates is lower than that of paid ones;
   
   

Popular services are Let’s Encrypt, GoDaddy, SSL For Free. Other options can be found in the article;

2. Provide certification to such paid providers with favorable conditions, such as SSL.com, Comodo and others;
   
   
3. Park your domain in AdCombo, read this article to learn how to do it;
   
   

6. When choosing a DNS service, prioritize fast query response, uptime, and high quality of service;
   
   
7. Choose a hosting based on your needs, the project scale and your experience. If you don’t have a system administrator experience, then pick a shared virtual hosting. It’s quite suitable for uploading a landing page to your own domain.  If you want to make your changes to the landing page, install self-hosted trackers to make the best version out of it. Think about more expensive and reliable providers, for example, VPS/VDS servers.
   
   

Great job! Today we have learned what domain name and web hosting are, and also found out why it is impossible to succeed in affiliate marketing without them.

We hope that this article will be useful in getting your sites ready for work and will also encourage you to gain IT knowledge. The more an affiliate marketers know, the better their profits are.

There are more educational articles ahead, but for now, you can reward our labor with likes and subscriptions in our social networks.

Wish you trusted domains, converting sites and super profits!

In the first part of our interview, we talked about scaling up campaigns, optimal start in the niche, the ways of affiliate growth and the qualities that are crucial to success in the sphere.

In the second part, we’re going to talk about the process of effective testing and reading case studies to improve one’s current performance and grow. As well as what an affiliate must prepare for in order to achieve significant results without sacrificing emotional well-being.

Let’s go!

About affiliate path

We’ve worked with various verticals, including Nutra, and there is probably no vertical that we haven’t run. But finally, we settled on iGaming, because our Nutra income isn’t comparable to the tens of thousands of dollars that can be made on iGaming.

Four years ago we drove traffic through Google and did it when we had spare time, studying and testing the source gradually. Then we gave it up. Algorithms are constantly changing; even the interface has changed. If we want to create a campaign now, we need to spend time exploring the updated interface first.

Facebook (via PWA) is our main source of income. Most of our time is devoted to it, yet we’d like to try Google again. Thus, alongside our primary work, we’re refreshing our knowledge and re-learn how to work with it.

About the beginning of a newbie’s work

A beginner can start working solo with FB, though with a team it will, surely, be easier to start. It’s always easier to join a company with a ready-made business model, get some experience and expertise from the pros, and then launch your own project replicating the business model, but with a focus on your own needs. This can be applied to affiliate marketing, only with regard to the team.

Although working on a team is easier, as long as one has time, willingness, and budget, it’s possible to start alone, but in a harder and slower way.

There are a lot of automation tools now – various services that can make affiliate life easier: for example, Dolphin can replace 10 people on a team. But this increases costs (without considering the amount of work), which becomes the burden of just one person. Consequently, the profit on what is earned is reduced; i.e., the return on such work drops.

About scaling up

TikTok has similar algorithms to those of Facebook, so if you have an idea to try something out there, you should definitely give it a go.

Previously on Facebook, we could scale up by increasing the budget, but now the daily budget is limited to $50. In this case, scaling up is possible by increasing the number of accounts. We buy ready-to-use accounts. For example, a daily budget of $1000 requires 20 accounts.

About growth in the niche

The best way to develop is to run your own tests. You might come across an idea somewhere, or you might have your own idea; the best thing is to test it. Just hearing about the effectiveness of something from others is not sufficient. The best way is to try it out and see the effectiveness yourself. For that, you can create a table in Excel (or use another service. You can also use a tracker). Run a campaign based on this idea, put the results in, and then compare it with your other campaigns. If the statistics confirm that everything went well, you can mark the idea in the table and take it to work.

For example, you have an idea to put a badge in X place on a landing page. You do it and watch, whether it will be converting or not. Find out in what place the user stays more often, i.e.,whether the chosen place is suitable or not. Then you fill in the results in the table.

It’s also important to set clear goals. “I want to become a top affiliate” – isn’t concrete. But “improve my ROI” – is fine. In this case, you need to write down how this can be achieved. For example, you need to scale up your campaign first, and then design a step-by-step plan on how you are going to accomplish this.

3 major features of an affiliate

Hard-working attitude. It’s a must. I don’t regard us as tops. We have average results. But I can say that we reached them as we haven’t become so lazy. We’re constantly testing things, and if something does not work, it means that we haven’t studied the subject enough, or haven’t spent sufficient time on it.

Readiness to accept bad results. It’s vital to understand and accept the fact that something can go the way you won’t like. There are gray-hat ads, especially Nutra ones, that can bring you a good income today, but tomorrow you’ll get an unsatisfactory result; the day after tomorrow the result will be even worse. Next week, the performance will finally get better. The most important thing is not to break down during such changes.

Willingness to spend a lot of time. You will have to learn, study, and test a lot of things. All this requires time.

About starting affiliate marketing in solo

If you have the proper budget, time, and desire, you can get into affiliate marketing single-handedly. However, without the support of a team, it’s harder to do so. If difficulties arise, instead of asking a more experienced team leader for advice, one will have to search for information on the web alone and spend more time on this. To get started, a beginner will also have to find creative pairs and test them without the help of “seniors”. This means acting at random for the first time, based on little experience. Thus, the beginner must closely monitor the results. Something will definitely go wrong, and the account will get banned. The creative pair chosen by the beginner may not perform well or not give the desired results. Therefore, without guidance, there is a very high chance of choosing the wrong path and spending more time figuring out the causes and finding solutions.

When watching guides on YouTube, beginners will have a lot of questions. Then they ask for help on affiliate forums, but the “affiliate-language” answers are unclear to the beginner. That only intensifies the misunderstanding. So, if you’re a beginner, you’d better learn the fundamentals before asking questions or trying to do anything.

This is also valid for experimenting with either new verticals or approaches. Before asking for recommendations from colleagues, it is better to search the Internet for basic information yourself to understand what you will be told about.

About scaling up, growth, and a useful way of reading case studies

We test different creative pairs, see which one goes better, and then duplicate it without any changes and re-run it again.

To grow in the niche, firstly, you need to test a lot, and secondly, to ask more experienced affiliates for their opinions. If you have people around you who are more experts in something than you are, that’s awesome. They can not only be asked for advice, but also teach you something new, and that will help you move up to the next level.

We primarily focus on our own tests. If we like an idea, we make tests and put the results in an Excel table. Then we check which creative pairs were successful (mark them green), and which weren’t (mark them red). We proceed to work with the successful creative pairs, continuing to analyze how we can improve the results. If we find a solution, we run tests again, and then the process is repeated.

We don’t rely very much on case studies, because no one will talk about a scheme that brings good money. But affiliates do share some of their data, so we study various case studies anyway. Then we take them for our own revision. This happens as follows: after reading the case study, we analyze its weak points, the aspects that could be better, and find a way to reproduce the case study in a way that corrects its weaker figures.

For example, we like a case study’s targeting, and the ideas for creatives, but the ROI is low. Then we begin analyzing what exactly could be the problem for that and how we could fix it with this dataset.

Each time we read a case, we not only strategize to improve the weak performance of this case or similar campaigns, but also highlight what may work for us. After defining the strategy, we verify it with tests. We don’t copy the cases, but we take from them what we can adapt to our campaigns in order to move forward and discover new earning opportunities.

3 important qualities of an affiliate

Ability to work hard. You have to study the niche, quickly find solutions, and, of course, work a lot.

Resistance to failures. Today your creative pair can perform well, tomorrow your account will get banned or start bringing more expenses than income. It’s all common in affiliate marketing. You don’t have to quit everything at once. Even the creative pair doesn’t need to go through changes. Think about the problem and then analysis and tests will be able to not just return the previous result but make it much better.

I can say that we achieve results only because we accept difficulties and try to find ways to solve them: by our own analysis or by recommendations from seasoned colleagues.

Desire to learn new things and engage in analytics. Keep track of trends and changes in the niche. Constantly improve your creating pairs or fix issues with them or your account. Examine not only your campaigns, but also those of colleagues in the same way we analyze case studies.

Affiliates could write volumes of memoirs about their work with FB. And a few more volumes of thoughts in addition. A lotta thanks to all the interview participants! Wish you all great profits!

P.S.: have a story to tell or want to comment on things in the niche? Write to us! We’d love to share your story or opinion with the entire community. Together we’ll make it better and more helpful :))

Hey!

We’re always glad when you share your experience, affiliate stories, tips, or even opinions on the niche. Recently, we’ve asked a few Facebook experts some questions and are ready to engage you in those pleasant conversations!

How to scale up campaigns? How can newbies step into the niche in the most fitting way, and what will they encounter? How to improve your performance, and who can be a successful affiliate? Read the first part of our interview!

About newbie’s beginning, and a new team

I used to work within a team, but the results stopped pleasing me and I experienced burn-out, and I decided to leave. I regret it a little, but now I am building my own team of people who are already working in the niche or would like to start. I’ve already found several of my teammates, and now we are working together.

You can survive in affiliate marketing if you know what to do. If you’re part of a team, it’s much easier to do that. Teammates can give you advice and highlight your mistakes.

Also, it’s easier to work because the job is divided up among all the members.

For newbies, I would recommend looking for a team. If beginners get their account banned, they can look for a way to solve the problem for a very long time, while being on the team, they can ask a more experienced colleague and have a solution much quicker. What’s more, account farming is easier, and more accounts are available when one is with a team. It’s more convenient. Besides, more experienced affiliates can recommend tested services and working methods to reduce the risk of being banned to a minimum.

About work with Facebook

We usually take a few farmed accounts. Here are some stats based on one of our Nutra campaigns: 10 accounts, a $5-$10 daily budget for each, and 250 leads total.

Facebook is different for everyone: you can completely duplicate your colleague’s campaign step-by-step, but not get the same results. Somebody’s account will get banned at once and forever, someone else’s account will get unbanned after some time, and the third account may get approved, but won’t have the same success.

Risk payment is another problem that we also faced: one of us adds a card, everything is ok, the second one’s account gets banned immediately, and the third one’s account gets banned after a while.

About scaling up

I consider working with TikTok as a scale-up option. This is a relatively new and popular platform. You can not only use it for scaling up, but also to test out creatives for Facebook. If you run a creative there that gets 1% CTR, upload it to Facebook, where it will give a better result. This happens because TikTok’s algorithms are much simpler than those on Facebook, where the audience reach is wider. If you have two campaigns running in two sources at the same time, you may get rather good results.

I also create 5 ad sets with the same creatives and a range of TA, for example, women between the ages of 25 and 60. One ad set may drop out (get banned). And then I monitor the remaining 4 to find out which of them shows the best results, and which TA from the range performs best. When it’s done, I shut down all the other ad sets and double the most productive one without a change. Voila, the campaign is scaled up – you have two efficient and active ad sets that are expanding the reach of the most relevant audience.

If a campaign has a low CPL, it can be scaled up by changing the creatives. You always need to change the creatives when relaunching it.

About upgrading skills and quality-oriented work

I know that I could have achieved more if I had focused on quantity, but that is not my way, I always focus on quality. That may have contributed somehow to my burnout. I know a girl who takes 5-years-old creatives and throws them in massively. When you upload a great number of creatives, Facebook picks up some and approves them.

I have a different attitude: I don’t have many launches, but I’m very thorough in my approach to making creatives. I’ve mastered a video editing program to make creatives. I create before/after videos of varicose veins, in which they smoothly disappear in the next frame – an imitation of the effect of a product. By the way, before/after photos are prohibited by Facebook’s advertising policy, but it’s not obvious in the video. So, the video gets approved, and the effect it has is the same as by using the before/after photos.

When I was on the team, the courses were paid for me. But I believe, the most surefire way to improve skills is to test more to find out what works best for you. When you get the knack, it becomes clear what’s more effective – that’s what growth is about. Test any idea you have, maybe you’ll find your own successful formula. I prefer to minimize using services and do most of my work manually.

3 key characteristics of a good affiliate

Diligence. If we’re talking about working solo, there’s a lot to do to get started: create an account, farm it for a couple of weeks, or even better – a few accounts, as reserves; prepare creatives, set up a campaign…

Enthusiasm. You need to have a fire burning in your eyes, and a desire to continue on your affiliate path, no matter what.

Burn-out resistance. You shouldn’t get to the point where you can burn out. It’s exciting to see your first earnings, and growth in stats, but when you come to the downside, you need to handle your state promptly. I feel that quite well now.

About newbies starting affiliate marketing

I think to get started in affiliate marketing and go through the full affiliate process, the beginner has to spend $5000-$7000. To run ads, earn money, study media buying, and decide whether it’s the right choice or not.

For a beginner, for one person, working alone is very hard regarding budget, workload, expenses, technical issues, and skills. In that case, to survive in the niche, one needs a helping hand like either mentoring or a team. Otherwise, there is a chance to get stuck in affiliate forums with many help-me-help-me messages.

You can find a lot of information on the web about affiliate marketing, but it is not well-structured. So, new affiliates have two ways: the first is to search for information on their own and to study as many articles available in public as possible; the second is to try to join a team.

There are no middle affiliates: they can be newbies until they succeed in something, and then there is the most common option to strengthen the team with expertise – they join a team, an agency, or an affiliate network.

So joining a team is not just the most convenient way, but also quite fast. If there is no way to find a team, there is one more option available – to read affiliate articles, blogs, portals, forums, etc.

I recommend newbies pay attention not only to Facebook but to TikTok Ads as well. They can launch a campaign there via a link or livestreaming.

About casino livestreaming on TikTok

Everything that currently appears on TikTok already exists on YouTube. All new TikTok content is borrowed ideas from YouTube and that is rerun on TikTok. And TikTok streaming as a kind of popular source of casino monetization traffic was already a long time ago on YouTube.

To do that, you gotta be good at it. You have to be thoroughly immersed in the subject to be able to do it. How to stream, how to behave while streaming, what is allowed and what is not. And you have to keep in mind that casinos are forbidden on TikTok. So it’s a banned activity, with a lot of accounts, and a lot of subscribers too, since you need 1,000 subscribers to start a live stream.

Here is a bypass option: create an account, get some subscribers, then create a ticket saying that it is impossible to start a live and send the ticket to a moderator, without specifying the number of subscribers. The moderator gives access, and the live-streaming option becomes available without having 1000 subscribers. One live streaming isn’t much profitable. It’s better to put it in the flow. But this is still a rather unexplored subject.

3 key points of affiliate success

Networking. Access to crucial and needed info.

Curiosity. As long as you’re searching, you’re progressing. If you either have one creative pair or specialize in one thing only, you freeze, because the subject sooner or later passes away, and you’ll pass away with it as well.

Endurance. 90% of the time is made up of failures and difficulties; there is no stability in this business. If you can take it day by day, then you’ll be fine. Affiliate marketing always throws up new challenges: there were problems with the ban on advertising activity, they were dealt with. Then there were problems with accounts and a solution was found too. Once TikTok was new and untapped, and now affiliates run their campaigns there. If you have the willingness to accept new challenges without feeling exhausted, then you will succeed.

Find more interesting interviews in Part 2!