Want to start doing mobile affiliate marketing this week? Read this entire damn post and you can.
As you may have heard, I’m doing a lot of mobile affiliate marketing now. A few months ago I decided to give it a try – and now the majority of my traffic is mobile. It worked.
Some people think I’m a genius. Well, more like an idiot savant. Because I can’t read a map or name the 50 states, but I can learn new online advertising methods in a few days and make money while I sleep.
The truth is that I’m not really that smart, definitely not a genius. I’m just really good at using online tutorials to teaching myself new things and putting them into practice immediately.
Today I’m going to show you how I learned to do mobile and give you the exact same resources I used so you can do it too.
You’ll get:
- The exact tutorials I read
- The exact tools I used
- The exact traffic source I ran on
The best news is it doesn’t take very long, it doesn’t cost very much and you don’t have to buy anything from me.
All you need is a Stack That Money (forum) account and an Adsimilis (affiliate network) account.
*There are definitely affiliate links in this post. If that bothers you than please go away from my site. Because I’m basically creating my own competition here and I deserve way more than the small commission (at no additional cost to you) I might get from you signing up.
Here’s how it works.
StackThatMoney.com Overview
StackThatMoney.com is the most popular premium affiliate marketing forum there is. A premium forum just means that it is private, and you have to pay to be a member.
Almost every super affiliate you know is there and shares on a regular basis (myself included). There is some insanely detailed info in there.
One of the most epic tutorials ever posted is called “The Mobile Cookbook”. It’s a step-by-step guide written by one of the forum’s most prolific members on how to launch a profitable campaign on Decisive Ad Network.
It’s the exact tutorial I used to setup my first mobile campaign and is part of the reason I’m now 90% mobile.
Many STM users have already used this tutorial to quickly go from $0 to 4-5 figures a day. Myself included.
That being said, let me show you what it looks like.
The Tutorial
Image: This is the exact thread on StackThatMoney.com.
All combined, it’s been viewed over 40,000 times and has 344 replies. Any question you’ll have will most likely have already been answered right there in the thread.
There Are Three Parts
The tutorial is broken down into 3 parts. You only need to do the first one (The Appetiser) to learn how to launch your first mobile campaign. The other parts just go into deeper detail on how to make landing pages, optimize and theory.
- The Appetiser.
The Appetiser is the simplest way to get into mobile affiliate marketing right now. You’ll use a streamlined system to do the absolute minimum you need to start and optimise a successful campaign. You’ll pick something to advertise, set up banners, and optimise your results into profit. - The Main Course (Part 1 and 2).
The Main Course incorporates landing pages as well as banners into our mobile campaigns. We also explore some more scaling options, split-testing and using statistical significance calculators, and look at the options available on other mobile ad sources. - The Banquet
The Banquet covers getting from small successes as an affiliate – around $xx or $xxx per day – to the massive numbers you’ve heard other people report on STM. $5,000 a day, $50,000 a day, even higher – they’re all possible in the fast-growing mobile sector.
Like I said, don’t get wrapped up in Part 2 and 3 yet. All you need is Part 1 to launch and optimize a campaign into profit.
The Tools You’ll Need
- StackThatMoney.com Forum Account.
The StackThatMoney forum membership is $99/month, but with everything you get, access to super affiliates, case studies, a free mobile tracker, ad creatives, landing pages and spy tools – it’s worth every cent.
>> Get a StackThatMoney account - Adsimilis Account.
You’re going to need an affiliate network with a focus on mobile. I recommend Adsimilis. They’ve been around for years, have tons of mobile offers and are just generally cool people.
>> Get an Adsimilis account now
That’s all you need to get started. There are a few add ons you may need as well. I’ve posted them below.
Optional:
- Web hosts:
LiquidWeb VPS There is potential for a lot of traffic, so you’ll need a VPS at the very least. LiquidWeb is solid.
Bluehost VPS If you need a cheaper option, go with Bluehost - Tracking System:
Voluum The tracking system I use. Free up to 100,000 events.
Here’s How To Do It
I recommend you only focus on Part 1 right now. Don’t waste time reading the other parts until you’ve launched Part 1 already. Remember the goal isn’t to read the tutorial. It’s to use the tutorial to launch your mobile campaign as fast as you can.
Too many people try to read and understand everything before they launch. The truth is, you’ll ever truly learn until you have a live campaign running. So just start.
Instructions:
- Log into StackThatMoney.com
- Read Part 1 of the tutorial
- Start right away
If it takes you more than 1-2 days to get up and running… you’re seriously wasting time.
Conclusion
If you want to get started in mobile, this is the easiest and fastest way to do it. Like I said, this is the tutorial I used personally to launch my first mobile campaign. Now, I’m 90% mobile.
I could have easily written my own course based on this and charged $xxxx for it. But that’s kinda shady and I’d rather just send you straight to the source.
If you already have a StackThatMoney account, you’re good to go. If you don’t you’ll need to get one. It’s $99/month and it’s totally worth it.
StackThatMoney gives you:
- Step-by-step instructions to launch and optimize on mobile
- 100s of answers to questions if you have them
- A team of super affiliates that answer your questions personally
- Free mobile tracking system
- Free mobile landing pages
- Hundreds of other tutorials on launching PPV, Adwords, Facebook, Media Buys and Email campaigns as well.
If you want to kick 2015 off with a bang, jump on this and get started right away.
Look me up when you get there. My username is Malan D.
Join StackThatMoney.com
Additional Links
Here are a few more links to tutorials that may be useful as you start your mobile journey. Use them if needed as you progress. You’ll need a StackThatMoney Account to view them.
Your STM link is not working.
Malan, maybe its worth updating this post as Decisive is fucked right now and they are refunding people due to no traffic sending. Maybe point them to Go2Mobi and the updated Cookbook for Go2Mobi on STM. Just a thought 🙂 As always, you rock!
Great post. 3 quick questions, if you allow me:
1. Mobile is changing, literally every day I think so I hope this post it’s still valid as of today?
2. I came accross IM GRIND’s “Mobi Manifesto” and f*** me if it doens’t go deep into details (mobile brands market share, manufacturers, world distribution of featured phones vs smartphones, by country, manyfacturer, different brands, etc.. for phones & tablets, etc..) it made my head explode. It seems a bit outdated, and at the same time it sounds like Mobile is so much more complex than desktop. Agree?
3. This may be a stupid question, but is it possible to work with Google Ads/Fb on mobile only?
Thanks in advance,
Francisco
Hey Malan,
I’ve been interested in affiliate marketing for a long time. I’m going to join StackThatMoney today and check out your guide.
I am a total newbie to affiliate marketing, I am looking into trying mobile. Looking for some advice on where to get started
Hi, i cant get approved for adsimilis 🙁 , can you help me please? malandarras i send you a email! i want to register in stackthatmoney but i need the adsimilis account!
Based on this post I decided to take action and follow the appetiser. I created a decisively acct and funded $100. Created 3 different campaigns all with the different configurations (i.e. Mobile/App, Mobile/Site, Wifi/App, Wifi/Site) all direct linking. So the first one was pSAFE Brazil with only a $.25 payout. I know the offer converts but after about $25 in ad spend I had zero conversions. Next one was a voucher offer in Germany recommended by my aff manager. This time $25 in adspend. Again zero conversions. Third campaign was Quickr an Indian app (similar to Ebay). Spent $25 had decent CTR (1.5%) and lots of clicks. No conversions. Last campaign is a German Poker App just went live. I have about $25 to spend until I need to re-fund my account. Right now I’m just looking to get a feel for mobile/decisive. Am I switching campaigns too soon? Should I stick to one campaign and try landers?
how many different angles did you setup for each offer? Angle = completely different banner ad style and message. if you’re 100% sure the offer converts, you either need to test more angles or try different targeting.
I’m not going to do much support for this. But you can use the comments in the forum thread – it answers every question you’ll have.
Wow really.
I am greener than fresh spinach in mobile, and my first week running PSafe I have over 25 conversions and growing. I can almost say say I have a daily CR average and I still struggle with setting up Voluum. Hope that helps.
Wow really?
I am greener than fresh spinach in mobile, and my first week running PSafe BR has brought in over 25 conversions.
I had go through over 3 rounds of creative rejection before I figured it out but hey if Malan says it works I am willing to see.
Wow really?
I am greener than fresh spinach in running mobile, and my first week running PSafe BR has brought in over 25 conversions.
Full disclosure: I had to go through over 3 rounds of creative rejection before I figured out what was acceptable, but hey if Malan says it works I am willing to see.
hey Malan – thank you so much for the share 🙂
how much they spend to make this 4 or 5 figure a day, in your opinion base on your experience ??
Bernard, every campaign is different. Every campaign has a different ROI. Sometimes you can spend $500 and make $5,000, other times you have to spend $10,000 to make $1,000.
Are you using direct linking and relying on the network stats? Or running through a tracker (Voluum)?
Thomas, I started off doing exactly what the tutorial says.
Malan – many thanks for the guide – about to get started – will report progress
Respect
Malan, I wanted to ask: First part is DL (direct link) – is this something that should work (so no LPs) and if so can it be pushed to profit? So should we look to find something like this using the method in the cookbook ??
yes, it’s DL. and yes you can profit with DLs. I heard an aff say on a podcast recently that he built a DL campaign on Decisive into a 6-figures a month campaign.
But again, Part 1 is the basics. If you find that DL isn’t working for you you can try Landing pages (part 2) and other offers. The point is to stop waiting and asking questions and just start with DL’ing. That’s step 1.
Whoever starts now will be killing it by mid-2015.
Thanks for answering Malan. Yeap, it’s true, I already started my 2015 resolutions in December 1st 🙂 and started some mobile camp back then, but now I’m more familiar with how they work and I want to put all my efforts into it. That’s why I said your post came at the right time.
It took me half a day to launch an offer, 3 angles and 8 banners for each, so you can move really fast but the truth is I haven’t really Direct Linked too much in the past other than testing tracking, maybe see if things convert and so on.
Part 1 is all about DL so that’s why I asked if it’s worth the effort, because it takes a lot of testing as it is.
My main goal is not to be lazy and just DL but to find camp/offers/angles that with DL could break -50% ROI maybe go to BE and then use LPs..
Anyway, I’ll follow your advice and aim for steady $xxx days by mid-2015 ;)!
Hey Malan,
Long time reader first time commenter 🙂
I really like this post and it convinced me to try mobile (after a long time procrastinating about trying it).
Just for that i’ll sign up under your aff link to STM
2015 may become my best year yet because of you 🙂
Cheers,
hey thierry, thank you and good luck. yes if you get started now, 2015 could be a very good year indeed.
Hey Malan. I was waiting at a hospital for hours to get some stuff done and (call it sheer insanity), i read your entire yearin’s of blog posts from 2014. Took hours, but it was a good read. “Millionaires jump out of windows all the time”. That one cracked me up.
Anyway, your writing is definitely improving. Plus you sharing your personal information is quite inspirational. Maybe one day I’ll share my deep dark secrets too on my blog for my readers. Hehe.
While back I did AM pretty decently… doing about $12k rev per day.. which lasted about 3 months after which it came crashing down, then i started beating myself up.. for a LONG time. Then I read your post about the $100 bill vs. crumpled up $100 bill.. and that got my head rolling again.
Ever since then, i’ve always been wary of promoting non-clean offers.. and AM is FULL of really shady crap that I would never be proud of promoting. For some one like me, who has an ethical edge, which vertical would make most sense? I was thinking (mainstream, casual) dating and game installs. Your thoughts?
Also, you keep mentioning “sale” instead of “conversion” in your youtube videos. Are you mainly in CPS / rev share ?
PS: I signed up on your mailing list. Look forward to jumping on your next Q&A.
thanks for investing the time and reading TaeWoo! hopefully the writing is getting better… and not worse. As far as picking offers that fit your life/morals – that’s up to you.
Malan!!! Hey man, it’s good to be back… I need to go back and read your previous posts… And it seems like I missed some really good live Q&A hangouts :/
Well, just to let you know that I went away for almost 4 months to Cuba …that’s right man… It was a trip I could not say no to… Away from technology… Visiting interesting places… Meeting new people… Smoking Cohibas :)… Good rum… Salsa music…Etc… Anyways… It was great! And long story short… I’m back and I’m ready to start working my online marketing campaigns….
Will definitely be going back to read all your posts I missed and watch all your video recordings…
Just wanted to say hello and wish you all the best on this new year 2015… May you continue to have success, wealth and health…. Talk soon!!
welcome back Edgar. your trip to Cuba sounds great. my God I need to dash away like that and hang out somewhere other than LA for a few months. Good on you. Good luck getting back to work, enjoy.
Yea man, it was great. Whole different world though… And it’s great to be back. Appreciate what we have here… Anyways… I just joined STM thru your link… See u in there… And here!!:)
Thanks for the boost, right on time .. 😉 Let’s have a great 2015!!
good Petre, good luck with the launch.
Hey Malan, are you able to help with application approval when I sign up under you? Do you have a contact there you can refer me to?
For Adsimilis of course.:)
If you run into a big problem, let me know. Otherwise, apply and call them if needed. It’s good to learn to do it on your own.
Hey Malan – add my name to the list man. I’ll launch by Saturday. Once again… thanks for another great post!
Nice Rory, let me know how it goes.
Finally you are on mobile now, mobile need more analysis than web: isp/carrier, manufacturer, model, etc. Have you tried mobile CPS offer Malan? as you may already know, there is a guy who generate big profit by using “Click here to download xyz” to promote CPS offer. That is a really great example of ANGLE.
yeah man, finally doing some mobile action. haha. yeah i’ve tried a mix of all different kinds of offers.
I totally agree with you that STM is the best resource for learning how to get started with mobile. I learned from the guides you talked about and was able to launch my first campaigns in a few days. It’s the only place I know of where super affiliates take the time to answer questions and offer advice. Well, besides your forum and Hangouts.
nice man. Some of the stuff in STM is crazy – but yeah my stuff is free – hard to beat that 😉
Great post, Malan! Hope to finally meet you and some other stackers at ASW15. Quick question.. Can I continue using my bluehost vps? I got a vps with Beyond Hosting but on your previous recommendation I move some things over to bluehost. Let me know bruh. Thanks for all of you help
yeah man, should be fine.
Good stuff as always brah! I just launched my iOS game and am currently in the process of learning mobile so that I can promote my game as efficiently as possible, and of course try to make some dough promoting other offers 😉
P.S. Just signed-up for Adsimilis via the link you shared.
cool Stan, good luck
Thanks man!
haha. best affiliate disclosure I ever read!
just being honest 😉
Hey Malan,
Perfect timing! I just got approved for Adsimilis and will get started today. I’ll check back in on Saturday to tell you how it goes.
nice. yeah definitely don’t drop the ball. get started this week. i’ll be expecting to at least hear your launch story on Saturday 😉
I’m here early instead of waiting for Saturday, Malan. Just launched my first campaign to “buy some data”! Hope to see you at ASW. You should totally have a blog meetup. 😉
Henry, that was fast man! That’s the kind of speed you need to do this. I have high hopes for you my man.
Never did mobile cause I was lazy to move from desktop, but as my “thank you” to you, I’ll use your aff link for STM when registering. Cheers Malan.
Same here, took me a few years. But like I said, when I tried it and saw the results, I switched a lot of my time/energy to it. There just so much damn traffic.
Any traffic sources you recommend? I only tested a bit with Tapit in the Netherlands but couldn’t get much traffic. But I might have to revisit it.
Nice buddy. I’ll launch by Saturday and let you know at ASW how it’s going!
Zach, come back here on Saturday and let me know if you launched or not. Do it man!
We’re live!
any updates?