I’m totally slammed in preparation for the LPGen2 launching shortly, but I had to get this post out real quick between everything else.

If you haven’t seen the video where Amish walks through the use of his new Magic Bullet software, you’ve gotta check this out. No optin required or anything either… just watch the vid, then come back here.

 https://mbe.infusionsoft.com/go/g3/toolt…

Yes that’s an affiliate link. Duh. If you’re allergic to them, go here instead.

So, what’s your take? You think this is real? Too good to be true?

Well here’s the thing… I’ve spent a few days with Amish & Jay on a couple of occasions and man I gotta tell you, these guys know their stuff!! I’m not just saying this because I’m promoting their launch. They are about as cutting edge and “push the envelope” as anyone I’ve ever seen or heard of. I knew a lot of what their in-house systems were capable of (when I walked into their high-rise office the first thing I did was go straight to their huge whiteboard and study it intensely… LOL) but I didn’t really think they’d ever release it outside their own confines.

And the fact is I’m not certain that they have… I’m sure they have additional things beyond what they’re showing in their own version. What marketer doesn’t have a “special” version of their public tools for their own use?

But still, what Amish has shown so far is freaking insane. Being a software guy myself, I’m always a little skeptical when someone claims to be releasing the ultimate be-all end-all affiliate marketing tool that will do everything for you including squeeze your orange juice or make your coffee in the morning. But I’m optimistic that this is actually gonna deliver!

So the question is, does it really work? I spent a number of years back in the 90s as a paid product demonstrator for some high tech companies here in Silicon Valley, and I got very VERY good at publicly (usually in Vegas or Europe at various high end tradeshows) demonstrating software that could ONLY do what the demo required.

But nobody ever knew that because I always left them assuming that every button actually worked and that every feature I described would do what it was supposed to. Truth was most of the buttons would make the whole system crash!

No big deal because that’s the nature of demonstrating technology that’s still a fair ways away from release. But this thing launches in just a couple DAYS! Is it ready for prime time?

I’ve seen Amish present the Hexatrack platform a number of times, and it always SOUNDED brilliant! But over time I’ve heard from a fair number of people who were disappointed in it, either because it didn’t quite live up to the expectations that were set, or took too long to work out the kinks, etc. I have a Hexatrack account but I really never did much with it. Like so many other things, I just didn’t set aside the time to really figure it out.

But I gotta say that none of the Hexatrack versions that I’ve played with, could hold a candle to what I saw Amish do in Magic Bullet. This thing is a monster… it’s like Google Cash Detective, Keyword Rockstar, Adtext Generator, Prosper202, and a ton of other insane stuff all merged into one mega system!

Please note that I have NOT yet had my hands on the software, but you can absolutely bet that I will very soon. According to Amish, they’re apparently giving all Magic Bullet Seminar attendees free access! Talk about good value for the seminar cost… WOW.

So what about you? Are you impressed? Excited? Jaded? Do you just not believe a word any marketer says on principle? Personally I’m in the excited camp… though it’s going to be probably a month before I can actually set aside the time to put MagicBullet through its paces. I sure can’t wait to do so though… I wonder if I can create a plugin for LPGen to tie the two together… Hmmmm…

What do you think?

Jonathan

December has been an interesting month indeed in the affiliate marketing world. Mass account-bannings have seemed to be the norm, on a much larger scale than I recall hearing about before. And while some are pointing fingers at the truly scammy advertisers and scam products, the truth is that this latest sweep has hit people at all levels of adwords advertising, from the tiniest “little guy” to some big Goliaths. I know people who only ran a few Clickbank offers that got banned.

Personally I think Google has broader ambitions of shutting down affiliate marketing as a whole - but I’ll go into that more in the near future.

CPA marketing in particular has been taking a lot of heat as being responsible for this latest crackdown… and I don’t know if that’s completely undeserved. Let’s face it, an awful lot of CPA offers (but not all) are really sketchy at best.

But the fact is that you can go do a Google search right now and still find plenty of CPA offers coming up in the PPC listings. So obviously SOMEONE is still able to run these offers. Do they know something you don’t? That’s a very likely possibility… after all one of the biggest advantages in this industry is having specialized knowledge (and of course, then implementing that knowledge in the form of action).

So it’s definitely interesting timing then, that a couple of guys I mastermind with and am fortunate enough to call friends, are about to share some of this specialized knowledge with us all. You’ve probably heard of them already if you’re in the CPA game at all - Amish Shah and his partner Jay Styles.

Now I know not everyone is a huge fan of Amish and Jay - after all they are definitely “bad boys” of affiliate marketing, willing to do *almost* anything to make their business profitable. They are well known for saying things like “screw Google, they’re not the law” and opening up tons of Adwords accounts so that they can completely dominate markets. They’re known for mass-executing pretty much any profitable TOS-breaking trick you can think of.

But clearly whatever they’re doing works, because they’re still cranking away high volume CPA campaigns despite the most recent account shutdowns. I’m sure even they have felt at least SOME pain from the recent turn of events, but when your biggest problem is that your average daily revenue dropped from $20,000 to $15,000, then that’s a pretty “high quality problem” in my book.

So where is all this going? Amish has always dabbled a little bit in the “IM” world with the release of well known products like the original Google Goggles, his “The New PPC” educational video series (still on Youtube and filled with good info), the Hexatrack family of software products, and of course for this year’s Magic Bullet Seminar which was pretty phenomenal.

He’s now setting out to reveal exactly how his business is still cranking out over $14,000 per day average, in gross CPA commissions even after all the recent google slaps. I’m sure some of it is going to have to do with other traffic sources, media buys, that sort of thing. But he insists that they’re still going strong with Adwords too, and are going to give away an entire campaign - keywords, landing pages & all - so that you can see exactly how they’re doing it.

Like I mentioned already, Amish & Jay’s style (no pun intended ) isn’t for everyone… but if you’re someone who’s willing to bend rules occasionally and care more about profitability than “being nice”, then this stuff is probably right for you. If nothing else I’m sure the free content they’re providing will give you some solid ideas and maybe even an “aha” moment or two.

So check it out and jump on any nuggets you come away with… as with most of the information out there, it’s likely that most people won’t act on it so those who do stand to profit the most!

Jonathan

In case you missed it, Jay and the gang over at PPCLoophole have added a low-cost trial. For $4.95 you can get access to their training material and tools, including SpeedPPC 4.0.

It’s being mentioned all over the place and I’m certainly joining the chorus - but if you’ve been relying on Adwords for your traffic, you’ve either just been shafted or are pretty much just waiting for it to happen. Since SpeedPPC supports so many other PPC traffic sources, it seriously behooves you to learn how to use it effectively, and fast. There’s already a mad rush to other PPC platforms like Yahoo, Bing, and the 2nd tier engines… make sure you don’t miss out on what is actually a huge opportunity for some who lost their Adwords accounts. Check out SpeedPPC and start getting your traffic back!!

Jonathan

Part promo, part heart-to-heart… here’s a video I just recorded.  Details about the bonuses mentioned, can be found in this previous post.

UPDATE

I just got word that Gauher is only opening 100 more spots to PPV Formula, and I suspect those will disappear in a matter of minutes. So if you need to get into PPV marketing, you’d better be on the trigger Saturday morning at 9am EST!

I got an email from Chris Carpenter a while back saying that GCD 3.0 was coming, but he didn’t tell me what was new and being a busy guy, I never did get the answer from him.

That is, until yesterday!

I got excited about Chris’ Google Cash Detective in the past but it was always just a hair shy of what I felt it really needed to be.  The raw information it contained was remarkable and my brain spun like mad on some of the possible things that could be done with it, but it lacked a few features - things I felt were pretty basic requirements - that it needed to really be something I would use on a daily basis.

It sounds like that time may have finally come.

Straight from the horse’s mouth, here’s a short summary of some of the new features in GCD 3, with emphasis added to what I’m most excited about:

First, all customers will get a free upgrade.  The new system
uses a different data base architecture and is much, much
faster than the old. It is also internally consistent which means
if you find a url, you can find it in every instance that it exists
in the database.  In the old version, sometimes you would get
a no data error message when you knew there was data there.

The coolest feature is that the system can tell when an
advertiser is using keyword tracking in their links.  It
uses the domain to group ads and therefore can pick
up campaigns that before would appear to be intermittently
run, but actually were the most sophisticated kinds that
are using split testing and tracking elements.

Now you will have access to campaigns with numerous
landing page urls that before would have seemed as
separate campaings.

Finally, you can sort the data using any and every variable
including dates which is key to dissecting what is actually
going on out there.

If you’ve used GCD in the past, you know why that last bit is in bold.  The most frustrating thing was that you couldn’t really filter by any criteria… you had to do a whole lot of mousing around and clicking on things to dig up information that should’ve been available en masse by simply choosing a filter and hitting a single button.  According to what I’ve been told, that is now a reality!  This will definitely have me back in GCD exploring it heavily.  I haven’t gotten to see this in action yet but it should be any day now that it gets rolled out fully.

I’m also particularly excited at the potential of finding campaigns that have a few keywords that are working, and running those keywords as seed terms through my KWBot keyword miner, and blowing up lists around those terms.  Since GCD is for the search network only, I think extrapolating to these long tail variations on the search terms, could be a good way to migrate a campaign onto the content network… or especially to other traffic sources all together.

Anyway, if you do affiliate marketing and haven’t checked out Google Cash Detective, you should really consider it.  It’s not for everyone but you’ll probably know in the first hour whether or not it will be of value to you and your business.

Jonathan

Wow I can’t believe it, but it’s true… SpeedPPC 4.0 is about to be released.

The original SpeedPPC launch prompted my first ever affiliate marketing video, which then led to lots more and still more to come.  I was a huge fan of the original product, though at that time it was the “Cadillac” of marketing tools at a $500 price point.  Since it’s launch in 2007 there have been numerous similar tools, each putting their own twist on campaign building, but as far as I know SpeedPPC started it all.

Version 4 is a huge leap over the original, but of course there have been 2 generations in between as well.  Rather than me try to explain what’s new, I’ll reprint some of their own content here for you:

SpeedPPC V4 brings with it lots of new cutting edge features that will lift the game for those who use it.

These advancements include:

Interface

• All the new features mean a shiny new interface, with customizable toolbars and improved data entry fields making it faster and easier to enter your campaign information.
• Work efficiently following a streamlined workflow – through the logically ordered tabs dedicated to each step of the campaign process.
• Manage your campaigns better with the Campaign Explorer, a Windows Explorer-type window that allows you to create, delete, refresh and rename campaign shortcuts and folders to arrange your campaigns in. Create a folder of campaign shortcuts per affiliate program or client.
• Never lose a campaign by accident with our new automatic “save on close” feature
• Save time exporting your SpeedPPC campaigns and set your output to automatically export after building
• Organize your files more efficiently by setting your default file paths that you like to save your keyword lists, ads or campaigns in. Store them all in one folder or save them separately, eg. Expansion lists in one folder, campaigns in another.
• Lots of interface improvements to allow for better workflow and ease of use.

Campaign Building

• Completely rewritten campaign building allows for 300% faster build times.
• Find more customers that are ready to buy by generating even more long tail search terms, combining up to 4 keywords lists. Building on the version 3.0 single and dual core campaign types, you’ll now see “Multi Core” campaigns allowing you to add up to 3 expansion lists that can be mixed with your main seed keywords (4 total keyword lists).
• Target domain-based search queries with added flexibility to the Domain campaign type, giving you the option to set the country codes (eg. Co.uk) and top-level domains that you want to include (eg. .org, .net).
• Enter your seed keywords as normal, with a more streamlined menu to save, clean and delete keywords.
• Decide on the long tail search terms you want to build through the dedicated expansion keyword library (in addition to your expansion keyword viewing box). Enter 1-3 expansion keyword lists and order them for mixing with your seed keyword list in any combination.
• Keyword mixing capabilities have been expanded, enabling you to mix keywords in list order and every variation. Don’t Mix Pair now allows for an additional expansion list that you can reference with SpeedPPC tokens for greater targeting ability. An additional mix type has been added called “Mix & Pair” allowing you to mix 2 keyword lists, while matching with another list to get the best of both worlds.
• Cut your campaign costs by adding negative keywords through the dedicated negative keywords output for Google AdWords, with the ability to specify negative match types.
• Improve the quality of your traffic by using the dedicated negative keyword match types with campaign and ad group level options (AdWords Editor only).
• In addition to the traditional MSN bid fields, MSN adCenter Desktop now has a dedicated section for keyword bids to match the new dedicated output file.
• A dedicated output has now been added for Content Network campaigns, based on both keywords and image ads.
• Custom output fields have been consolidated on the bids tab so they can be easily referenced in the one place. Simply choose your custom search engine, then enter your bids, etc.
• Dedicated functionality for Content Network advertisers, giving you the power to create ad groups intuitively on keyword themes and target ads at each themed ad group.
• Enjoy more flexibility in your ad group creation with expanded grouping choices including:
• Creating ad groups based on 1-3 expansion lists
• Segmenting ad groups based on keyword themes. Just feed in a list of keywords and it will instantly auto-theme them for you.
• Create multiple keyword ad groups, under the same campaign
• Get a visual on all your auto-generated ad groups with the new Ad Group Builder, allowing you to view all the targeted ad groups created and the keywords in each.
• Make quick re-arrangements using the “drag and drop” feature to drag keywords from one ad group and drop them into other ad groups.
• Quick options to add and remove ad groups from the Ad Group viewing window.
• Easily change your ad grouping and re-build your ad groups at the press of a button.

Image Ads

• Expand your reach on the Content Network with SpeedPPC’s brand new Image Ad feature
• Save time setting up your text ads by storing and retrieving complete sets of ads under both Standard and Advanced Ad builders
• The URL separator for your ads has been handily relocated to the standard ads tab, so you can control how the keywords in your ad URLs are best displayed for maximum click throughs
• Need a fresh slate? Start from fresh and clear all your ads with the click of a button.

Landing Pages and URLs

• Improve your tracking by building unique keyword URLs in the new dedicated landing page tab
• Click a button and SpeedPPC will check your URL is valid, so there are no nasty surprises after you launch your campaign.
• Improve your quality score and let SpeedPPC check your landing page for keyword relevancy before launching your campaigns.
• Improved landing page software to allow for updating existing databases by adding new records, deleting old records, or completely overwriting.

Dynamic Insertion Tokens

• We’ve added new token functionality to SpeedPPC’s unique set of dynamic insertion variables:
• Insert more relevant keywords into your ads and landing pages with additional tokens {expansion2} and {expansion3} for multiple expansion lists.
• Tracking ID tokens can be set uniquely for each match type of a keyword – track your keywords plus the match types that are performing best.
• Set two new tracking ID tokens to generate uniquely for each ad and/or ad group for even more tracking capability.

Improved Outputs

• A new dedicated output tab has now been set aside for faster uploading into Bing/MSN using the free adCenter Desktop tool.
• Quickly check your Google AdWords output prior to importing into AdWords Editor, with new headings for easy reference on each data field.
• 2 new dedicated outputs have been added for Google AdWords, streamlining your ability to upload image ad campaigns on the Content Network.
• Get a headstart on your own dynamic landing page template with an output added for simple landing page code. Use the quick copy function to insert the exact codes to dynamically generate the triggered keywords into your landing page content.
• Use the new Output toolbar to quickly build your campaigns, export multiple search engine files at once (in Excel and CSV), and open the output folder to view all your output files at once.

So as you can see, all kinds of new goodies!  Oh and did I mention that it plays beautifully with LPGen? 

Now, I’ve already said I’m a big fan of SpeedPPC - and I am.  HOWEVER… I probably tell people NOT to buy it more than I tell them *to* buy it.  Why?  Because I don’t think it’s appropriate for the majority of marketers who ask me about it.

Here’s the thing… I compare SpeedPPC to a chainsaw.  If someone handed me a chainsaw and pointed me to a forest saying “Go build a house” I can be pretty sure I’m going to come back missing at least one limb!  I know nothing about building a house, let alone how to properly & safely use a chainsaw.  But in the right hands, a chainsaw is an amazing tool and can be hands down the fastest most effective way to chop wood.

SpeedPPC is a lot like that.  It lets you do what you already know how to do, on a larger scale and much faster.  The problem is, what if you only know how to make money-losing campaigns?  Then you’ll build BIGGER money-losing campaigns, FASTER!  Not really ideal is it?

This is where I’m pleased to see that Jay & the gang are including a heavy educational component this time out.  I’ve noticed in the last year or so that they’ve been putting out some pretty good content on PPC, best practices, that sort of thing… and they appear to be taking that to the next level with their latest endeavor.  Go check out their free video series and see what I mean… it’s good stuff!

With a tool like SpeedPPC in your arsenal, it’s crucial that you have a really good foundation and strategy for using it, otherwise it’s either going to do nothing for you, or worse cause you to lose a limb.  I’ve gotten a sneak preview of some of the content they’re putting out.  It’s focusing on the fundamentals, on making incremental improvements in order to see BIG results down the line.  None of this “get rich quick” crap here… it’s solid, foundational stuff that we all could use a refresher on even if we think we know what we’re doing already.

But hey, this is a product launch right?  And product launches today are all about bonuses aren’t they?  

You’re in luck then because I’m going to offer a very exclusive bonus that, in the right hands, will make some people fortunes.  And I’m not kidding or exaggerating at all… I’m absolutely serious.

I’m going to do a repeat of the bonus I offered for PPVFormula a few months ago.  I’ve never offered this at any other time, but I think it’s especially valuable here.  Here’s what that bonus included:

1) An account with my exclusive, private, closed-doors keyword tool - KWBot.

KWBot is a world class keyword list building machine.  It will build you lists like you’ve never seen, going incredibly deep yet staying absolutely targeted.  It is *not* a simple multiplier.  It will dig up actual searched-for keywords that have little to no competition and that you can dominate with ease.  This bonus account will come with 5 credits to get you started, and since each credit will return 1,000 unique keywords into your account, that’s 5,000 keywords for you to start out with.  After that you can purchase more when you run out, for $1 per credit.

2) Access to my Prepop Power Profits report.

The subhead pretty much says it all -

“How I Built a List of Over 60,000 Optins in Less than 6 Weeks and Earned $64,821.60 in CPA Commissions Doing It!”

This was a technique that I had to uncover for myself because NOBODY was talking about it (and I mean it, I hunted high & low for anyone saying anything about prepop… and found almost nothing.) It was done all with PPV traffic although the concept applies regardless of your traffic source. I had people contact me within days of implementing this that had suddenly gone from $50/day in profits to $300/day just from this one technique. Until now this has only been available to people who referred enough leads to www.CPAHotSpot.com but you can get it without any additional effort!

3) FIRST-TIME-EVER EXCLUSIVE!

I am working on a very high level follow-up course that will be for PPVFormula community members only, designed to take Gauher’s existing techniques and crank them up with everything I have learned through LOTS of trial and error, about using PPV traffic. I’m going to GIVE you one powerful module from this course for free as part of this bonus. It’s titled “Demographic Domination” and goes in depth about obtaining and using demographic data in your PPV campaigns. This is stuff that is mentioned but really not covered in depth in PPVFormula, and will give you a huge edge in your campaigns if you utilize it.

Now, don’t downplay the significance of this.  KWBot is absolutely positively unique in the world of keyword mining tools.  There is nothing like it and I’ve had a lot of users tell me that it’s their only or at least their primary keyword tool now.  It is NOT just another “keyword research” tool.  It’s a list builder the likes of which has never been seen, and it is very exclusive.  I don’t have it open to the public, I save it just for special occasions like this, when I open the door to a few more users.  If you’d like to get some idea of what it can do, check out the tutorial videos for yourself.

The Prepop Power Profits report has made a lot of people a lot of money and is also totally unique… nobody (not that I could find anyway) aside from myself has ever really talked about prepop and what you can do with it.  Those with a creative “out of the box” mindset will LOVE this one especially.

And lastly my Demographic Domination video… again at first glance it’s just a simple little 30 minute camtasia video right?  But in the right hands, a full understanding and mastery of several demographic tools, combined with tools like KWBot and SpeedPPC, and unleashed onto the various content networks out there… well pretty much it’s “game over” at that point as I know several people doing exactly this formula.  This video was created with PPV traffic buyers in mind, but the concepts of understanding and using demographics, apply no matter what type of traffic you use.

So there you have it.  Buy SpeedPPC4 now through my link and you’ll get access to all three of these bonuses.

Oh and if by chance you already got this bonus for buying PPVFormula… well, just let me know and I’ll figure out something else special just for you. 

Happy campaigning!!

Jonathan

For anyone who’s been trying to reach me for the past 2+ days, I’m sorry to have disappeared.  My main computer has been acting worse and worse for months and finally got to the point where it was SO messed up (don’t know what… antivirus & whatnot found no problems… no fragmentatino, etc.) that I had no choice but to backup, format, and reinstall windows from scratch.

I’m sure you know how insanely painful that can be if you use Windows! it’s taken me totally offline for just over 2 days and counting.  Hope to be back up by tomorrow…

So if you have a support ticket or email that has gone unanswered by me, that’s probably the main reason.  I’ll be in touch ASAP!

Jonathan

Based on a lot of forum posts I read and emails I receive, it seems clear to me that many people aren’t really clear on what cloaking is all about or why it’s important.  Is it “black hat” or not?  Will it get you banned, fined, or imprisoned for life?  What’s all the fuss anyway??

Here’s the deal.  Cloaking basically means to show one party one thing, and another party another thing.  In this case, it means showing a search engine (i.e. Google) one thing when they visit your page, and real visitors (i.e. visitors from a SERP result or PPC ad) something else.

The basic idea should be pretty obvious… you want Google to see non-commercial, highly informative, relevant content.  You want your human visitor to see a totally commercial, single-purpose page that gets them to take an action that you desire (optin, click through, buy, etc.)  But how do you know the difference between Google or a normal visitor?  That’s the tricky part!

Fortunately this basic problem has a variety of solutions and there are tons of tools to tackle them all.  Here’s a very basic non-exhaustive rundown on the methods I’ve had experience with:

IP Cloaking - If you know the IP addresses of Google’s bots, human reviewers, offices, etc. then you can detect the IP of the incoming visitor, and if it’s a Oogle IP show them one thing, or if it’s not a Google IP you show something else.  This is typically thought of as the most definite and reliable form of cloaking.  Unfortunately the truth is, Google isn’t stupid.  They have work-from-home reviewers who are not on “Google IPs” and will look just like normal internet traffic.  They also know that people do this and can go through proxies or other “non-Google IPs” in order to see through your cloak.  Still, IP Cloaking is a good method as long as you have a way to keep up on the IPs… as they change over time.  There are loads of services that will give you this data for a monthly fee.

User Agent Cloaking - Usually considered the weakest form of cloaking, this involves looking at the “User Agent” of the incoming visitor.  The User Agent (UA) is a particular identifier that is actually created by the browser the person is using.  Most “well behaved” bots on the internet will have a UA string that identifies them as a bot (Slurp, Googlebot, etc.) so that your logs are easy to understand.  However there are lots of reasons why a UA string might fail to show up due to browser issues (deliberate or accidental on the part of the surfer) and also UAs are extremely easy to fake.  Still, I see it as one additional check that’s worth considering… if something identifies itself as Google, I’d want to cloak it even if there’s a small chance that it’s not really Google.

Javascript Cloaking - This approach relies on one very critical assumption - that your real visitors all have javascript enabled.  Typically these days that’s going to be just about everyone as JS has become such an accepted part of the fabric of the web.  The idea is that bots can’t load javascript, so they’ll just see the source code of your page (which should be all nice informative content) but human visitors’ browsers will execute the javascript, which shows them a totally different web page - sortof like an iframe.  This would be your offer or affiliate page, and hopefully they do whatever you want them to do in order to get paid.  The real fact is that search engines absolutely CAN execute javascript (I’ve tested it) but they typically DON’T as long as there’s something else on the page for them to look at.  They go the path of least resistance.

Cloaking is pretty much universally against all search engines’ terms of service.  Does that stop most people from doing it?  Nope, not one bit.

Personally I don’t do a ton of cloaking anymore, mostly because I haven’t needed to.  Years ago I did lots of web spamming and was using an IP based cloaker.  The most recent cloaking solution I’ve used personally was a Javascript based solution that is actually a plugin for LPGen called Adwords Smackdown.  Aaron Young is an LPGen user and mastermind of the Smackdown cloaking solution.

Most recently he’s developed a much more sophisticated version of Smackdown for WordPress.  Looks like it would be great for anyone who has blog farms or otherwise uses blogs as feeders, etc.  Why let those just sit there and do nothing but funnel link juice… make them deliver offers to your human traffic too!  Otherwise it’s just wasted traffic…

Aaron has offered my readers & customers a deal on the WP Smackdown software.  It’s a pretty huge discount - $200 instead of $750 for the unlimited install version.  To get it, just use this coupon code - lpgen$mack200 - at checkout.

So if you build any quantity of WP blogs - ESPECIALLY if you have blog farms or other numbers of feeder blogs out there just sitting there with a bunch of WP Direct or Caffeinated Content content on them… you really should consider a good cloaking solution, and I suggest giving Smackdown for Wordpress a close look.

Happy cloaking!

Jonathan

So I’ve had a lot of people ask me about my experience with PPV Optimizer.  If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a desktop Windows application that promises to save you money on your TrafficVance campaigns, by maintaining your bid position for as little cost as possible.

Sounds pretty good right?  Well I sure thought so and I bought it immediately upon hearing about it, despite there being no trial version at all and no reviews or information about it anywhere.

First, it was a couple days before I got my software.  They have you send the money to a paypal address, and then MANUALLY send you your license information & download link whenever they get around to you.  This should’ve been sign enough that there would be issues ahead.

Once I got the software and installed it, I discovered that there is no documentation on how to use it at all.  Literally NONE.  No manual, no online help, no videos, nothing.  Granted it’s a pretty spartan program that isn’t terribly hard to figure out, but still… software should include instructions folks.  That’s just basic as hell.  It includes a brief readme file that tells you to set up a couple of specific things in your TrafficVance account, but that’s all.

Overlooking that, I got into their user forum… it was a pretty quiet place with only a few posts to be found, many of which had to do with issues getting the software to work as advertised.  Another sign of bumps ahead.

Finally I began running the software to see what it would do… problem was, it didn’t do anything.  I could see it downloading all my campaign data, and it claimed it was optimizing things, but in reality nothing was happening.  No bids were changed, and the software literally didn’t do a damn thing beyond download my campaign information.

I posted in the forum, and spent days screwing around with it to make sure I hadn’t made some sort of weird error on my end.  I also sent emails to the creators and after a few days, finally got in touch with one of them.  He seemed to not believe me that it didn’t work, falling back on the old “well nobody else is having this problem” line.  I assured him I had done everything he asked me to do re setting up TV, etc.  He still insisted it was probably user error… and I even accepted that maybe it could be, but I asked for more technical help to determine it one way or the other.  I was told that they normally charge if it turns out to be user error, but that they would “waive considering the potential biz relationship we will have once this app is finally working on your end”.

Flash forward 4 days later… I finally get to talk to “the programmer”.  Normally I would think this is GREAT because I’m dealing with the source… the guy who actually coded the thing and there can’t be anyone more knowledgeable than that.  Right?

Well it turned out that he had never used TrafficVance and didn’t even know how they worked.  No joke.  This is the person who wrote the code to interface in some very intricate ways with TrafficVance… and he’s never seen their interface??  WTF?!

So we did some screen-sharing sessions and he looked at all sorts of things on my system and after several hours of this, determined that - surprise surprise! - there was actually a bug in the program and it was NOT user error.  He rolled a new build for me to fix the issue, and PPV Optimizer started working.

Sortof.

Almost.

Not exactly.

It got most but not all of my bids… it would just randomly fail to update certain ones.

Then it would spontaneously quit.  No errors.  No messages.  Just… gone.

Can you imagine the potential devastation to your campaigns if you were relying on this thing to manage them bidding for you and it suddenly quit??

I messed with it for the next 2 days and ultimately decided that it just wasn’t stable enough for real world use.  It worked sometimes… but that won’t cut it for a tool of this nature that requires 100% uptime and a zero failure rate.

Plus frankly, it’s just not that complicated of an application.  It doesn’t do anywhere near what I initially expected… it does NOT bid to CPA targets, it knows nothing of a conversion value, has no logic controls for settings up rules, etc.  It ONLY adjusts your bids as low as it can, to hit a desired ranking for a given target, without spending more than a given amount.  At least, it’s supposed to.  The fact that it is as relatively simple as it is and still so unstable, doesn’t give me the confidence I need to use it in my business.

Now pay attention because here’s where things start to get really lame.

After finally having 2 days with the application “working” (such as it did) and a total of almost 4 weeks after my purchase, I decided that I would request a refund.  I’m not a huge refunder, and if this had been a $79 product I probably wouldn’t have bothered in case it was improved upon in the future.  But this thing is $500, and that’s a nice chunk of change I could be doing a lot more productive things with.

So I requested a refund via Skype, and this is how it went:

[11/3/2009 6:56:39 PM] Jonathan van Clute: howdy
[11/3/2009 6:57:51 PM] Jonathan van Clute: Well, the developer did finally get PPVO to work, but it’s still somewhat unstable and not quite “there” yet in my opinion.
[11/3/2009 6:58:00 PM] Jonathan van Clute: Though it saddens me to do it, I’m going to have to request a refund at this time.  I’ll keep tabs on the development though and possibly give it a try down the road when it’s got a bit more maturity to it.

[11/4/2009 11:41:07 AM] PPV Optimizer: i’m sorry but we don’t refund
[11/4/2009 11:41:16 AM] PPV Optimizer: espeially after 1on1 sessions have fixed the app
[11/4/2009 11:41:32 AM] PPV Optimizer: we can do what we can to get the app working 100% for you
[11/4/2009 11:42:05 AM] Jonathan van Clute: what?  It’s not stable… the product doesn’t work as promised, even after your coder identified a genuine issue with the app (you’re welcome for my expertise btw… maybe I should send in a bill for the help!)
[11/4/2009 11:42:16 AM] Jonathan van Clute: I was not able to properly evaluate the program until it worked
[11/4/2009 11:42:20 AM] Jonathan van Clute: which took weeks
[11/4/2009 11:42:22 AM] Jonathan van Clute: not my fault at all
[11/4/2009 11:42:40 AM] Jonathan van Clute: now that I’ve been able to actually evaluate it, I can see that it’s not stable enough for me to rely on in my business
[11/4/2009 11:43:15 AM] Jonathan van Clute: How is that anything other than a standard customer evaluating your product.  Since there’s no trial version, there is no other way for anyone to know if it works at all or is pure vaporware
[11/4/2009 11:43:31 AM] Jonathan van Clute: I’ve got a ton of people asking me about “does this work” and so far I’ve just said “hold on… I’ll tell you soon”
[11/4/2009 11:43:45 AM] Jonathan van Clute: What would you like me to tell them?
[11/4/2009 11:43:54 AM] PPV Optimizer: the application works, i have several people using it including myself that has it working no porblems
[11/4/2009 11:44:18 AM] Jonathan van Clute: welcome to software development.  Just because it works for you and a few others, doesn’t mean “it works” period.
[11/4/2009 11:44:30 AM] Jonathan van Clute: Your own developer acknowledged that there WAS a problem with the app
[11/4/2009 11:44:33 AM] Jonathan van Clute: it was nothing on my end
[11/4/2009 11:44:38 AM] PPV Optimizer: we don’t give trials because of how exclusive we are making this application
[11/4/2009 11:44:39 AM] Jonathan van Clute: it required him to roll me a custom build
[11/4/2009 11:44:49 AM] PPV Optimizer: the program is only supposed to be handed out to a few people
[11/4/2009 11:44:51 AM] Jonathan van Clute: then you should honor a reasonable refund period
[11/4/2009 11:44:55 AM] Jonathan van Clute: like anyone else
[11/4/2009 11:46:17 AM] PPV Optimizer: well like you said when we you first bought the app that was weeks ago
[11/4/2009 11:46:21 AM] Jonathan van Clute: look I’m not going to argue with you.  Either honor my very reasonable refund request, or don’t/
[11/4/2009 11:46:25 AM] Jonathan van Clute: right
[11/4/2009 11:46:27 AM] Jonathan van Clute: and it NEVER WORKED
[11/4/2009 11:46:28 AM] Jonathan van Clute: not at all
[11/4/2009 11:46:33 AM] Jonathan van Clute: until the other night
[11/4/2009 11:46:39 AM] Jonathan van Clute: and I kept asking for help
[11/4/2009 11:46:40 AM] PPV Optimizer: and I had my programmer step in and fix the issue for you
[11/4/2009 11:46:40 AM] Jonathan van Clute: repeatedly
[11/4/2009 11:46:47 AM] Jonathan van Clute: yes and now I’ve seen other issues
[11/4/2009 11:46:49 AM] Jonathan van Clute: the app is not stable
[11/4/2009 11:46:52 AM] PPV Optimizer: what else is wrong with the program?
[11/4/2009 11:46:53 AM] Jonathan van Clute: he even acknowledged that he knows that
[11/4/2009 11:47:01 AM] Jonathan van Clute: xIt randomly shuts down
[11/4/2009 11:47:04 AM] Jonathan van Clute: no reason
[11/4/2009 11:47:06 AM] Jonathan van Clute: no error
[11/4/2009 11:47:08 AM] Jonathan van Clute: just disappears
[11/4/2009 11:47:12 AM] Jonathan van Clute: it also misses bids
[11/4/2009 11:47:19 AM] Jonathan van Clute: the dev knows these are issues
[11/4/2009 11:47:27 AM] Jonathan van Clute: but for now they are issues I’m not willing to put up with
[11/4/2009 11:47:38 AM] Jonathan van Clute: if I’m relying on this thing to run my campaigns, it can’t just quit
[11/4/2009 11:47:39 AM] Jonathan van Clute: ever
[11/4/2009 11:48:19 AM] PPV Optimizer: well if thats the case I ill issue a refund then
[11/4/2009 11:48:26 AM] Jonathan van Clute: yes that’s what I was saying originally
[11/4/2009 11:48:27 AM] Jonathan van Clute: thank you
[11/4/2009 11:48:42 AM] Jonathan van Clute: it’s not stable enough to use in production right now in my opinion
[11/4/2009 11:48:42 AM] PPV Optimizer: but if spots fill up and you ask for the application again theres nothing i can do, you understand ?
[11/4/2009 11:48:44 AM] Jonathan van Clute: maybe later it will be
[11/4/2009 11:48:46 AM] Jonathan van Clute: but not yet
[11/4/2009 11:48:50 AM] Jonathan van Clute: I’d call it a working beta
[11/4/2009 11:48:54 AM] Jonathan van Clute: yes I understand

It took some arm twisting, but they eventually agreed to give me the refund after all.  That was November 4.  It’s now November 18 and despite repeated reminders in Skype and Email, they are ignoring me and NOT issuing the refund as promised.

So the bottom line here is… PPV Optimizer doesn’t work reliably, has no documentation, was written by someone who has no idea how to actually use TV or what we do as traffic brokers, and they won’t give you a refund if you’re not satisfied with it.

I’d call that a huge mega thumbs down if ever there was one.

If you take a roll of the dice with PPV Optimizer, be prepared to lose.

Jonathan

Not exactly the sort of article I envisioned for my maiden appearance… not like I made the Forbes billionaire list or anything. 

 http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1019/l…

Funny…

Jonathan