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 // 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 // 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 // Add Comment »

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 // 3 Comments »

Most of the time Adwords support chat is kinda spotty.  Today they were spot on.  (I apologize for the horible pun.)

Anuradha S: Hello John. Thanks for contacting Google AdWords. I’m happy to help you.
John: Thanks, I am happy that you’re happy to help
Anuradha S: That was a good one! I see that you have a question regarding the approval of image ads.
Anuradha S: Let me explain that ad reviews do depend on the incoming volumes.
Anuradha S: I will need to check your account.
Anuradha S: Would you mind waiting a moment while I pull up your account?
John: I’ll happily wait
Anuradha S: Thanks for waiting!
Anuradha S: I checked and see that the ads are under review.
John: I managed to stay happy the whole time.
Anuradha S: I will be happy to help you with the review of the ads and will run this past team.
Anuradha S: Thought I could use one ‘happy’ at least!
John: lol, if we were any more happy it would be illegal
Anuradha S: That is true!
Anuradha S: I hope that helped!
John: So, the ads are in review and I just need to sit tight till they are approved?
Anuradha S: I will get them reviewed with the team.
John: Thanks
Anuradha S: Is there anything else that you will need help with?
John: Not right now, I think that is it.
Anuradha S: Great!
Anuradha S: It was a pleasure chatting with you. If you have any more questions, please feel free to visit our Help Center. You can also print this chat transcript for your records. Have a great day.

I think being in a ridiculously good mood on my end helped.  I bet most of the time they just get crap like “you are too expensive” or “why u ban my sight, I not spamming” etc.  So if you have had a bad experience in the past, try again and be happy when you do it.  They will be happy too

Tags: PPC, Pay Per Click // 1 Comment »

My first guest post ever (from an email):

Hi honey,
Is planning with guys a fpita? (f- ing pain in the a**)  Well, with girls it is!  With one it is bad enough, but with a group, multiply that by 100.  Ok.  So Dawn had been wanting to do a girls night out with me for a while, so I said, ok, sounds like fun, but twice she had to cancel.  We wanted to go to the Melting Pot… so instead she has her guy friend take her there.  Ok, not a big deal, she said we could still go if I wanted to go.  I said yes, I still want to go try out the Melting Pot.

So, we really had it planned to go this time.  We both got babysitters, arranged a time and this time Dawn made the reservation in time.  Ok.  Great.  But then Dawn invites two other girls to go with us.  I thought, ok, that will be fun.  So I went ahead and invited Angela since Dawn already invited two others.  Dawn makes the reservation for all of us.  Great.

Then Angela asks me if I can ask Kristen if she can watch her kids too with mine for the first hour until Dennis gets home and she will pay her for that, so I did and Kristen seemed happy with it.  Then two days later Angela decides to have someone else watch her kids instead so she wouldn’t have to pay for a sitter, so I said fine then, and had to get a hold of Kristen yet again to tell her never mind on Angela’s kids.

And then yesterday the two girls that Dawn invited said that they can’t go to the melting pot since they can’t be away from home for that long, so they can only go somewhere local.  WTF?  Seriously, that doesn’t even make any sense since they all had sitters that could stay out late.

Ok, so I am really bummed, and kinda mad that Dawn had to invite these other girls.  Ok, I thought, no big deal, it will still be fun to have a girls night out.  So Dawn asked me where I want to go and I told her DOES IT REALLY MATTER.  Seriously.  Whatever I say will not happen anyway.  I just want to have a night out.  Still bummed out about the melting pot though because I know you don’t like fondue so I couldn’t go with you.

Anyway, Dawn said she would call me back yesterday to let me know where we are going but it is tomorrow noon and I can’t even get a hold of her and we are supposed to be leaving this evening and I already have had Kristen lined up for almost a week now.  Well, Angela was pretty bummed out too that we weren’t going to the melting pot, so I thought to myself, owell, if this whole thing blows over and the other girls end up canceling because at this point nothing would surprise me, I guess I can always just go to the melting pot with Angela and it will be even more fun.  And then Angela calls me this morning and says she can’t even go tonight because she is not feeling well, ….UGGG!

So, now I don’t even know what will happen.  Girls are a pain in the ass!  Would a bunch of guys do that?

No, guys rock.  Can I post this on my blog (names edited of course)

Yeah, go ahead
Although I should tell you, all has ended well, amazingly!  Dawn just called me and she feels THE SAME WAY!  She told me she wants to ditch the other girls and just go with me to the melting pot!  I mean, that WAS our original plan until they started mucking it up.  So, she has already told the others that we are just gonna go with our original plan and Dawn is picking me up at 6:00 tonight.  She never did cancel the reservation, so we are all set to go!  Yippee!

But, you know what the best part about this whole story is?  Dawn tried telling me that she would not have invited the other two if I had not invited Angela, which is untrue since the ONLY reason why I invited Angela was because she had already invited the other two, so I said Now hold on, that is NOT how it happened!  And I told her word for word of our conversation and then she said, oh yeah, you are right,  I was the one who screwed up.   And then she apologized for inviting them.  haha Of course I am right!  I was not about to get blamed for something that I didn’t do!

So that being said, does this sound normal when planning things with girls?

Tags: Guest Post // Add Comment »

Woooo, fancy title claiming to make gobs of cash in no time at all.  Well the reality is you have to work up to this point.  Here is an example.  Say you are bringing in 90 leads a day with a payout of $2.50.   Not bad, not bad you say to yourself.  If you have a good relationship with your affiliate manager (and who doesn’t?) then ask for a payout bump.

My conversation went something like this.

8:55:46 AM Me: on another note, there are a few campaigns I am getting some traction on.  wondering if I can get a payout bump on them?
8:55:52 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: of course
8:56:00 AM Me: <private cool stuff>
8:56:08 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: you name the campaign and i’ll name the payout
8:56:15 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: <private cool stuff>
8:56:28 AM Me: this one
8:56:29 AM Me: <private cool stuff>
8:56:31 AM Me: and
8:56:36 AM Me: <private cool stuff>
8:56:38 AM Me: that one
8:56:40 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: ok
8:59:21 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: ok, on the <private cool stuff> i can go to <private cool stuff>
8:59:30 AM Me: cool
8:59:48 AM Super Affiliate Manager: and the <private cool stuff> 2.70

So now instead of 2.50 it is 2.70.  If the campaign sustains (if anything I should be able to get higher volume) that is ~90 * .2 * 365 = over 6500.  In less them 5 minutes.

I usually don’t ask for a payout bump unless I am providing a decent amount of volume and I know I can keep it up.  Nothing lamer then getting a payout bump and then dropping the campaign.

Tags: Advice, Affiliate Manager, Affiliate Marketing, PPC, Pay Per Click // 1 Comment »

Here is what I mean by this.

Say you are promoting a product.  You need to stop thinking like the person trying to sell it.  “dog training” is a nice general keyword, but really your keyword should solve a problem.  “stop dog peeing on carpet” is a person looking for a solution.  The people looking for solutions are going to be much more interested in your dog training guide.  This concept can apply to just about any niche.

Here is another one

auto insurance quotes vs i need insurance vs i hate geico
look, “i hate geico” has zero ads right now.  Bet you get some killer CTR and conversions with links to someone who isn’t geico

But how do you know which will work and which don’t?  Easy.  Do all of them.  Yes *all* of them.  (caveman speak:Turn off bad. Leave on good)

Tags: Advice, PPC, Pay Per Click // 3 Comments »

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from my father asking if I could take him to an emergency dentist to get one of his teeth pulled. He was still waiting for the office to call him back.  I figured I’d call my dentist office, Stonehaven Dental to see if they had something sooner (especially since I had a plane to catch in a few hours).

They were awesome.  The owner (or one of the owners) of the place came down and met us there after hours; he did everything, the paperwork, xrays and consultation as well as pulling the tooth (when my Dad decided that was what he wanted to do.)  It was kinda funny watching them be certain which tooth to pull…  “Does this hurt?” followed by screams and involuntary spasms or a nope (depending on which tooth).  We were in and out in a little over an hour.

I kept the tooth.

Tags: Personal // Add Comment »

Driving around this morning I saw a sign for a “free” carwash being held by some cheerleaders at a local High School.  My car was kinda dirty I figured, why not.

Turns out it wasn’t free… but hey, I am already in line a $5 “donation” seemed like a worthy cause

How this relates to online marketing.

• “Free” or cheap offer that isn’t really free
• Pretty people to promote your product/service

What do you care, pics below:

Tags: Affiliate Marketing, Personal // 2 Comments »