Life after the Death of (most) CPA Rebills…
A friend of mine had been generating 6-figs/mth consistently from rebill offers (using somewhat questionable landing pages) and had been banking pretty hard via media buys from early 2009 to around Oct. Since Wells Fargo and other payment processors have turned the tap off the rebill arrangement for many of these offers, the majority of them have gone down.
Are rebills gone for good? Not by a longshot, considering services like your utilities, sat TV, internet service and newspaper/magazine subscriptions all function on a rebill model. The offers that have gone to seed have primarily been in the weight loss, bizop, health/beauty niches. From about 5-10 offers in each niche, most networks are down to 1-2 “quality” offers. How long they’ll stay quality is anyone’s guess.
So back to my friend. He’s been doing tests focused on the US market and are seeing his campaigns at the marginal profit or break even levels. An even larger proportion are in red and chipping away at the nest egg he built over the last year. He’s been smart though, choosing not to blow his cash on a souped-up sports car or a pricey piece of real estate, so he could still coast by for the next 2-3 years even if he didn’t earn a single cent.
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Going forward
It’s unfortunate that most affiliates will not have built up a stockpile of cash to tide themselves over this lean period, but if you’re focused on the US, you might want to check out Lorenzo Green AKA MrGreen’s tips, including his insights on PPV, his case study focused on promoting the worst CPA offers on the various networks, and possibly his Plenty of Fish (PoF) bulk ad uploader.
Aside from getting smarter about the marketing strategies and traffic networks you’re using, I don’t think the CPA industry has changed fundamentally. Switch over to consumer type offers, including the “As Seen on TV” variety and you might be pleasantly surprised by the results.
If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to break out of the traditional US/Canada geographical focus of 90% of affiliates, now’s the time. Aside from opportunities from markets like the UK, Australia/NZ, France, Germany and Italy, I’ve got the word from industry insiders that rebills are killing it in latam AKA Latin America.
Habla Espanol?
Maybe it’s time to get a move on…
Carl
March 17, 2010 at 2:59 pm (14 years ago)Hi Andrew,
Another informative article. Thanks for the helpful info.
iAye carumba…ahorra tengo que practicar mi español!
Wynne
March 18, 2010 at 2:00 am (14 years ago)I noticed on a few networks there has been a big buzz about bizzop and Acai tanking bad. I can’t say I like those offers anyway because mostly they trick people.
But I like some of the alternative offers you mentioned because they give at least some value.
Gregg Sugerman
March 18, 2010 at 4:40 am (14 years ago)You’re the man Wee…..quality as always. Thank U sir….
Cash37
March 18, 2010 at 7:18 am (14 years ago)ban for outing?
Cash37
March 18, 2010 at 7:19 am (14 years ago)Who the fuck in in this avatar? What the fuck?
David
March 18, 2010 at 8:16 am (14 years ago)Hello Andrew,
Could you elaborate a little bit more regarding the industry? Just by reading forums, blogs, etc. I get the feeling that a lot of affiliates aren’t making it full time. You might notice that this is a newbie question, but I would like to know what is the reality, for the prospects of making a full time living online doing affiliate marketing?
You see so many programs for sale that the seller is claiming to be making thousands a day even in this market, and I have this funny feeling that isn’t the case, unless you are selling a make money program to someone like myself. Anymore thoughts would be helpful!
andrew wee
March 20, 2010 at 11:28 pm (14 years ago)Hi David,
The reality is that many of the affiliates who’re making good money are:
1) too busy to blog, visit forums
2) don’t have any deep desire to tell you how much they make.
3) just don’t care to do either of the above.
There are prospects for making internet marketing/affiliate marketing a full time gig – it depends on what you’re willing to put in.
Even if you bought some of the premium coaching programs out there, but didn’t do anything about it, you’re quite likely to fail.
Then again, I’ve known affiliates who’ve just read the FAQs for adwords, ysm, microsoft, did some tests with paid and SEO traffic and are doing very well.
It’s not so much whether internet marketing “works”.
It’s how much time and resources you’re willing to put in to make it work.
Hope this helps.
Brandon
March 22, 2010 at 1:34 am (14 years ago)The real problem with rebills outside the US is that people don’t have credit cards. I’ve got all my sites up in german but they don’t convert (at all). people don’t have or use credit cards unless their life depended on it… sad but true…
SEO
March 27, 2010 at 5:48 pm (14 years ago)Thank you for your Excellent post. Hurry up!
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April 1, 2010 at 2:30 am (14 years ago)Can you please advice on any genuine programs or services using which i can get traffic? There is no life in IM without traffic and want to know from you based on your expertise and service or program that works.
Matt
April 2, 2010 at 5:23 am (14 years ago)Glad to see your friend who was making 100k per month can float for the next 3 or 4 years even without running a campaign. What was he spending his money on b/c I could float my family a couple years on one month of that .
meh, rebills died because they were a bad deal for consumers & while they should have known better, it’s pretty crappy for me to exploit someone’s weakness that I’m aware of. So nobody thinks I’m on a high horse – I have promoted rebills, and paid a (unwanted) price. Hopefully in the future will be using these gifts toward what they were intended for.
Earl Grey
April 18, 2010 at 10:40 am (14 years ago)I think you are confusing it a little.
Rebills have recently been people ordering a supposed free or low cost product/trial and getting unexpected billing/charges every month removed from their credit card.
These extra monthly charges were often very well hidden on the website.
Newspapers and Internet that charge every month are subscription model business.
You normally know that you are subscribing and are prepared for the charges every month.
Unless i read your post wrong which i don`t think i did.
Andrew Wee
April 18, 2010 at 9:05 pm (14 years ago)Hi Earl,
I was refering to the fact that rebill/continuity billing models will still persist, using mainstream continuity (utilities, ISP, cell phone) services as an example. Because there had been discussion on some models that rebills were gone for good and affs were back to lead gen/submit type offers.
subscription is a form of continuity (which just means continual billing).
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The transparency of the offers is a whole diff can of worms and I’m in agreement with you on that.
The extra/hidden charges shouldn’t be so. It’s deceptive marketing, and def in some dubious legal territory.
Russell
April 29, 2010 at 1:40 am (14 years ago)Who said Rebill’s died? Are you guys blind? Go look at any newspaper out there… with all the Fake News reports “mother makes 8,000 a month , weight loss exposed, acai berry exposed, white teeth trick exposed” all that is out there and going strong.
Not sure how legit it is but it is out there right now.
semanticflow
December 2, 2011 at 1:30 pm (12 years ago)Hi Russel, I am agree with you, you are right.
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June 20, 2014 at 7:22 am (10 years ago)Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally,
it seems as though you relied on the video to make your
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read?