John Hasson

When I was really young (less then 10 years old) my family had this game that I loved to play.  The rules were you all sat around in a circle and spun a coke bottle.  Whoever it landed on, you had to say something nice about that person.  Then it was their turn to spin, etc.

Well…  I was at some kids birthday party (still while being young and naive) and they asked us what games we wanted to play.  Well I was emphatically for spin the bottle (unaware that it was a kissing game).  It wasn’t till a few years later when I finally understand the weird looks (especially from the growups..)

Parents: When you teach your kids “modified rules” games.  Make sure they know the real rules.

Tags: Advice by John Hasson
1 Comment »

My neighboor is a good friend and I think he just started up a new sales job for some sort of financial planner company.  He asked me to come to a presention.  At first I though he just wanted to do it at my house.  But he shows up 1/2 an hour early asking if I was ready to go?  WTF, why not.  Now I haven’t showered yet and am wearing grubby clothes that I put on this morning to help the concrete pourers coming to do my patio.  My hair is a mess and I smell bad.  Meh.. sure I’ll go.

We drive down to his business partner/boss–I am not sure of the whole relationship.  I sit in the comfy couch.  His partner says, oh no you have to sit in this chair in front of my desk– *sigh* so I move.  His office is plastered with plaques and trophies.  I mean plastered.  My BS meter is rising…  After dealing with small talk I cut to the chase and say, “What exactly is it that you do.  [Removed] is my friend so I came down here because he asked me too.”  His business partner says with a smirk, “So do you do everything [Removed] asks you to d….” he trailed off when he realized how stupid he was.  But by then it was too late.  My BS meter was off the scale.  [to be fair, the comment would have been fine if I actually had a good relationship with the guy, but I don't--he didn't answer any questions directly -- also a bad thing.]  I still don’t know what they do and I am ready do leave.

So I do.  I get up and ask my friend to take me home. As I get up to leave he makes another comment about me getting upset, and blah blah.  I told him, it wasn’t really the comment.  I just don’t trust him.  Not just his rudeness.  There was something fishy.  I have learned to trust my BS meter.  I’d say it is right 80-90% of the time.  I like those odds. I don’t want to waste an hour with a guy like that.

Moral is.  If you don’t trust the guy or it seems fishy, it probably is.

Tags: Advice by John Hasson
4 Comments »

Hi John,

Quick question, I was using Marchex and Miva to drive traffic to my adsense sites, my traffic soared and I was disabled by adsense for invalid clicks, does Marchex or Miva use tricks to boost their own revenue? My account was about 3 years old and never had a problem until I started using PPC to drive traffic to my sites

In your opinion, what is the best alternative to Adsense for making money with websites.

Thanks,
[Edited]

First of all, don’t feel too bad.  You are not the first who is in this situation and you won’t be the last.  Google has gotten pretty strict on driving paid traffic to MFA sites.  Driving PPC traffic to MFA sites is how I got started in affiliate marketing.  Heck, I even got banned from Adsense around the time Iron Man came out.  But by then I had moved almost everything from adsense to real affiliate revenue (leads, people actually buying something, etc) and not just clicks.  I do still have one or two sites that generate revenue from clicks, but I do not focus on them at all.

Personally I am not a fan of Marchex or Miva.  (Miva’s precision network is kinda ok, but it is really spotty)  Using these guys is fine if you are doing leads or purchases, just plan on your conversion rate being at least 1/3 to 1/4 of what you are used too (maybe even less).

If you work at it you can beat any adsense revenue by running product or lead gen campaigns (who do you think was paying for the adsense ads in the first place?)  Now you get to move up a level in the internet marketing foodchain.

Look at who was advertising on your adsense slots.  Can’t do that? Then look who is advertising on google, yahoo, msn for your targeted keywords.  See what they are selling.  Try selling that…

Tags: Advice, Affiliate Manager, PPC, Pay Per Click by John Hasson
No Comments »

I picked up a consulting client doing PPC, tracking and Internet Marketing for them, that keeps me busy.  On top of that I am automating everything I do on PPC from picking an offer to creating ads to tuning keyword bids (and everything in between).  I’ve got several pieces already built and have been using them for a while, but right now it all requires a person to tie it all together.  The end goal is to have everything 100% automated instead of 70% automated.

I had to ditch thinktank- just a bad weekend for me.  Wife’s birthday, father and step mom just moved in, lots of family stuff takes priority.  I hope I can do it next year.

I have found at least 3 people in my neighborhood that do Internet Marketing.  There is me and my PPC, a guy who is an emailer affiliate manager and another who is VP of Search Marketing for an unnamed company plus at least one affiliate.  All this right in my neighborhood.  Totally cool.

I have some cool stuff that I’ll be releasing in the future, but for now just updating things so you know I haven’t dropped off the planet.

Tags: Personal by John Hasson
3 Comments »