PPC profits, do they exist?

[padma]

I'm just curious how many others have sites created just for ppc profits, and how well you are able to do with them. I've heard of people making in the
10's of thousands and I have a hard time believing they get that many clicks. My site (which isn't geared towards ppc but I don't turn away the $) makes a meager few dollars per day/week, but is new and doesn't have a ton of traffic yet. Is it really possible to get your ads viewed enough to make thousands on ppc?

[webgal]

They do exist. But most are pretty wimpy. Good content ones do better. A friend of mine has a site that is a clothing store and she makes $3k per month with 7 thousand uniques with adsense.

I have one, http://sportsmedinfo.net, that up until a couple of months ago was a Joomla experiment. I did not like it in Joomla and it indexed poorly. So the joomla part will be changed into a review of products section. It's still up there, just not connected. And you can see it at

http://sportsmedinfo.net/sportsmedinfo/

I had thought affiliate marketing would be good for this site but I'm finding that a lot of the products I want for it are sort of obscure. So I'm only able to get them through amazon associates. They give you 24 hour buy window which is really tight. Other aff programs give you a week to 30 days. I have eastbay so I can get the knee strap but I want the one recommended by the sports med docs and it's not always in stock.

So right now, it's an adsense site and a work in progress lately as I add more content. It's slow since I only want articles from medical professionals. I just got two from a foot doctor. They take some time to do since they send me docs with no subheads. I also have them take a final review since their reputation is up there on the internet. I also like to have pictures so that adds time, too.

[italian_job]

yes, I can guarantee you that there are many people who earn 6 figures a month with clickbank and adwords.

I do lots of PPC myself. I dont want to exaggerate but I really master Adwords. And, despite of what many people might tell you, I guarantee you that also the content network is a goldmine (if you know what you are doing). Also, the new site targeting (called "performance") is again another very profitable source of traffic for me (and I like that they moved from the pay per impression to the PPC model). When I test markets, I always only start with US, UK and CA. If those go well, I expand into other geo markets (including the geos where the english speaking expats usually go.....).

Yahoo and Msn dont have enough traffic for me, but I did discovered some small profitable niches there too (but very few to be honest).

I am finalizing my MBA with a dissertation on PPC advertising, I am deeply passionated about PPC cause it has literally changed my life in term of lifestyle. I always liked studying social psychology, and I do see lots of similarities between keyword search and psychology.

As I have stressed many times in this forum, it is all about testing, and I do that by asking the webmaster of the site I am promoting to add my google keyword tracking code into their thank you page.

Once I find a winner...I become a publisher myself into Clickbank, and instead of earning 75% of the sale price, I get 100% (but I also get the customer service, which I outsource to my Indian VA).

Usually, 3 out of 10 products I promote are a success.

Just the sum of my 2 Clickbank Checks alone for the Month of March 2008 is slightly more than USD 11,000. Net profit of around USD 7,000 (but I now live in Euro-land, so it is a poor result once you convert those USD 7k into Euro).

I am into very different niche markets, and I agree 100% with the long tail theory.

Aside from PPC, I also use other strategies like blogging and dropshipping, as well as online network marketing and consultancy.

At the end of the day, 99% of the people that are on this board will fail. But not for lack of skill, but for lack of persistence and "burning desire" (as Napoleon Hill called) to succeed. That's a pity, cause online marketing CAN change people's lives. I am a fighter and I guarantee you that I enjoy challenges. I always had.

So the real question is: how bad do you want to change your life? are you willing to pay the price for whatever your dream is?

Don't let anybody steal your dreams.

The online marketing game IS absolutely possible. As it is possible to become an Olympic athlete. But, like an Olympic athlete, you have to have passion, desire, determination.

Only drawback of the affiliate lifestyle is that you can live a lonely life, because if you retire at 30, then you will be surrunded by elderly people that are asking themselves "what's that young lad doing here? why is he not in an office banging his head against his cubicle?"

So, if you have a significant other, involve her in the process and in the learning journey.

ciao.

Danny

[padma]

I just re-read this answer from ItalianJob and wanted to bump it for others to read because I thought it was both inspiring and some good info. I hope this isn't against the forum rules.