Kanai: PPC Case Study Report #6 (Month of October)

সোমবার, ৫ নভেম্বর, ২০১২

PPC Case Study Report #6 (Month of October) | My Passive Income ...

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to continue giving reports on my ongoing case study on a monthly basis from here on out. I have to say that although I?ve been dragged into PPC very reluctantly, I?m really starting to see how the model will work for me long term (although I?m sure it will only be part of my overall business strategy, since I?m not giving up on SEO completely).

One of the huge benefits I?m seeing is how predictable the model is ? unlike SEO, where you never know when your site is going to move up or down, PPC campaigns seem very reliable. A downside, of course, is the expense out front. But SEO is by no means completely ?free? either, as time and money will be spent on backlink campaigns of various sorts (and giving the current climate, SEO seems to be getting more and more expensive as more and more emphasis is placed on getting ?quality? links).

Another tough element is actually learning how to create campaigns that convert. I?m no expert at this yet, but I think the model I?m following which is focused more on creating a list and followers than direct sales may be easier for PPC newbies.

With my PPC campaign, I?m seeing my traffic grow nearly daily to my website. Here is a screenshot of visits for the month of October:

Traffic has increased from an average of 100 unique visits a day and 20 return visits a day at the beginning of October ? to around 300 unique visits a day and nearly 80 return visits a day by the end of the month.

Facebook subscribers were up significantly as well. I had 1103 subscribers on Oct 1st, and 1304 subscribers at noon on November 1st ? so an increase of just over 200 Facebook subscribers.

Email list subscribers went from 77 subscribers on October 1st to 167 subscribers on November 1st ? an increase of 90 list subscribers.

Earnings for the month were $138.78. $88.78 of this was from Amazon and $50 from book listings (however, over $70 0f the Amazon earnings came from just the last two weeks of October).

Ad Expenses, however, exceed profits. I spent $95.15 on Facebook ads and $104.97? on AdWords. Meaning my total ad expenditure was $200.12. There were little other direct expenses this month, although I do invest my time each day (usually around 1/2 an hour a day, although sometimes a little more).

This means my net earnings were?-$61.34 for the month.? Overall when I take into consideration the amount I have spent on the domain purchase, hosting, banners and other graphics, tools (CrazyGoodTool mainly), and other miscellaneous costs, the site is ?in the hole? for $160.30.

Despite this, I?m pretty positive about the site. Over the past week, the site has been averaging around $8/day with Amazon sales and also getting around one paid book ad a week (at $10) ? meaning the site is nearly earning $10/day. I had been paying $8/day in ads ($5/AdWords + $3/day Facebook), and I decided to increase my ad expenditures to the $12/day level until Black Friday (now $5/day AdWords and $7/Facebook). List subscriptions and Facebook followers have been up significantly over the past few days (currently I?m nearly at 200 list subscribers and nearly 1400 Facebook fans).

Hopefully this investment will pay itself back during the holiday shopping season. However, there are some possibilities I may need to tweak the model I?m using in the future, as Amazon has started ?cracking down? on sites like mine which promote primarily free books.

How the site will evolve down the road remains to be seen, but I?m positive about the PPC experiment and the model more generally. There are actually a lot of opportunities and niches to pursue (particularly certain hobby niches), and I have several sites in mind. I also recently read a post by James Penn which has definitely given me a lot of think about (thanks to James of TheAverageGenius.net for letting me know about it) in terms of possible strategies to pursue down the road. Check it out here:

http://www.bigblogtraffic.com/case-study-passive-income-stream/

Perhaps one of the best outcomes of this experiment is that I?m feeling excited again about the future of internet marketing ? seeing more opportunities and possibilities. Given the several setbacks I (and many others) have seen this year, feeling excited again is quite nice!

Let me know your comments and questions ? feedback is always appreciated!