Day 2 went well overall. I setup an account with Commission Junction and applied for an affiliate ID with Endless.com and I'm waiting acceptance. I'm thinking that this will be the first one I attempt to put an actual site together for. I have a few ideas with some unique presentations for shoes.
I setup a Microsoft adCenter account which cost me a one time setup fee of $5 pulling my account balance down to $172. Like with Google AdWords I had a promo code sitting around from a previous purchase, this time for $50! woot! I tried to setup the same campaign that I have running on Google but it turns out that MS doesn't allow adult content. So be it. So I created an add for a general title and set the buy at $10 for the rest of the month just to get something started.
I created a new, more targeted ad on Google which I expect will take much longer to achieve its target but that I hope will lead to more conversions. If it works I'll probably go ahead and create a lot of smaller, cheaper, more targeted ads instead of throwing a lot into a high-traffic spot.
I also realized that I had a better option for my first affiliate; a custom vStore. While the partner program works just swell, my company also offers a more profitable vStore option. Lucky for me I had an unused domain sitting around doing nothing that I decided I could put to use so I setup Shop.OwnYourBone.com and started pointing traffic there instead.
One thing I didn't take into account was when I get paid. Assuming I'm able to drive traffic and get conversions that earn me some money, It looks like I'm still going to run into a cash flow problem. Turns out most places pay out monthly or quarterly which means even if I pull in enough to cover the expenses, I won't have access to the money for weeks or months! It shouldn't present a problem for at least a couple of weeks, but I may come to a point where the Can of Change will have to take out a loan from me. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
To recap: I've spent $15 so far, redeemed $75 in promos, activated an idle domain, created a store front backed by the #1 provider of adult DVDs. I opened a new checking account with a couple of side benefits, signed up with the largest affiliate marketing company and started testing the waters. So far so good.
TTFN
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