What Are Solo Ads? And Why You Should Think TWICE Before You Buy Em… (my personal opinion)


Hey, hey Aaron, Chen here, hope you’re doing well. If you’re watching this video right now, then you’re probably doing a little bit of research somewhere online about what are solo ads. Okay, so maybe you want to buy some solo traffic? Maybe you want to get some leads to your business and you just want to do a little bit of research before you do that? Okay! Well, my name is Aaron. Chen. I’Ve been online for the last nine years. Eight of those nine years, though, failed, really really miserably. Okay, made a lot of mistakes in my business paid for it, and you know just really had to figure it out, and the cool thing is: is that about 12 to 18 months ago? I really figured it out made, you know hundreds of sales in my business and now my business is, you know, are oh I’m positive, which is which is really really cool, and I just wanted to share some of my thoughts and feelings and experiences about solo traffic, Because solo traffic was actually the main reason, I would say why I wasn’t successful for a very, very big part of those eight years. Okay, so I’m gon na talk about it over the next few minutes and by the end of this video you’re going to have an idea of whether you should be focusing on solo traffic or not. Okay, again, it’s completely up to you. This is my personal opinion. Do what you want with this information, but don’t take it lightly, because you know I’ve spent a lot of money on solo ads. So basically, when I got started it was in 2009 rights. So I got started. You know a long time ago. Nine years now, probably way before most of you know, you guys have, you know even been online right trying to market online, and so I tried you know lots of different traffic strategies. I’Ve done Facebook YouTube SEO solo traffic, Google AdWords, you know at the time when Google AdWords was being, you know, really really big before they started slapping everyone in 2010, and so I’ve done. I’Ve done a lot of different types of traffic sources right and so, but my main traffic source at the time I think, after my first year of going online was solo traffic right solo ads. Now, if you don’t know what a solo ad is, all it is basically is when you go to somebody else’s list and you pay them a certain amount of money to promote something to their list. Okay, and they’re, their list could be, you know, 5,000 people. It could be 1 million people on their list now. There are also places called easy and okay online, easy — nz, where there are these online magazines within different niche markets. Okay, it could be a niche market around weight loss. It could be a niche market to make money online, and these jeans basically have you know millions of subscribers or half a million subscribers or whatever. It is okay and basically the same thing you can, you know, choose to buy a solo ad just for them to send to their list and they’ll charge. You a certain amount of money to send that solo ad. Now, that the cost of that solo ad could be a hundred dollars, it could be fifty dollars, it could be five hundred dollars, it could be five thousand dollars. Okay, it just depends on how many clicks you want it’s all, driven by clicks, okay, and so when in 2010 it started to get really really big and back. Then you know they didn’t. Have you what are solo ads know they didn’t have Facebook groups or anything like that. Everything was done through Skype. Okay, so basically they had groups of solo ads. They don’t really do that anymore, but basically it would be a bunch of market is getting together and they even have websites like udemy you di mi, which was actually called. I can’t even remember what they were called now, but it was a different version of a solo ad network, okay or a solo ad marketplace. So now, nowadays, they’ve got solo, ad marketplaces, right and and and and the thing about, solo ads and the reason why so many people do it and the reason why I was doing so much of it was because it’s a very, very easy way to get traffic. Okay, and everyone talks about it, you know every time you buy some sort of traffic course or you know, you’re listening to some guru or whatever all they tell you to do, is to buy solo traffic right, because, actually it’s very very easy to do. You don’t have to you know you don’t have to actually know that much internet marketing to get started. All you have to do really is to go to the solo ad vendor buy your solo traffic 100 bucks, 200 bucks, 500 bucks, okay, and then they ask you for your link and then that’s it. You know some of them would check out your capture page. Some of them won’t, some of them will build a capture page for you. Some of them won’t right. It just depends on who your solo ad vendor is and then and then that’s it. You know you, you kind of you kind of go for it right and then usually they will kind of them will set up your solo ad to drop. You know, maybe in the next few days in the next week or so, and then, when your solo ad drops all of a sudden, you get all your clicks pretty much in one shot. Okay, it might be over a few hours or it might be a few over a few days. But essentially, if you buy a thousand clicks you will they would deliver you a thousand clicks within. You know one two three days, something like that: okay and then usually the conversions on the front end on your opt-in page are pretty high. You know, it’s like 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 % conversions, which are pretty insane okay. Now here is the problem that I had with solo ads all right, so I got really really good at generating a lot of traffic through solo ads and through many many different solo ad vendors, some of the biggest names out there you know – probably I could name Them and you probably know who some of them are, if you’re, if you’re you know doing any solo ads right and I’ve spent probably about 20 to 30, maybe even more thousand dollars US dollars on solo traffic over the last eight to nine years. Right and you know, I’ve had five hundred three days. You know I generate 500 leads, and you know I’ve done like six. Seven hundred leads in a single day that kind of thing that it’s easy: okay, not it’s not difficult to do at all right, but the problem that I had was I couldn’t convert enough of these leads into sales to make this strategy profitable. All right – and the thing is, is that I kept doing it. You know, I fought for the last like eight years or whatever from 2009. Until probably a year year-and-a-half ago, with two years ago, I was doing solo ads on a regular basis. I would stop for a period of time and then I would do it again, and this was the problem right, so it wasn’t that I wasn’t making any sales. I was right, but the problem is: is that doing solo ads is so misleading? Okay, because, first of all, it’s very easy to get so it’s very easy to do. You don’t have to learn that much. You know it’s kind of like going to a gas station or you know you just go to a gas station. You fill up gas. It is very very simple: you don’t have to hunt for it right. You don’t have to learn how to pump gas is very simple, yeah, there’s even an attendant that can help you do it right. Its almost as simple, as you know, sending a text message on whatsapp, right or text message on your phone you’d rather send a text message then write a snail mail letter all right because the snail mail, a letter it takes a lot more work. You have to you have to buy the stationery. You have to write out the letter, which takes a long time. You have to fold it up, you have to put it in the envelope, you have to go and buy stamps, and then you’ve got to go to the post office to drop off your letter right when you set a text message. All you do. If you pick up your phone, you send a text and you hit Send and then it goes directly right. Thats why people like to send you know whatsapp messages or text messages, because it’s so convenient right, well, solo ads are actually very, very similar right. Its so easy to do that people fall into this gigantic. I would say it’s like a black hole. It sucks you in okay and the reason why it’s so attractive is because number one. It is easy number two, the conversion rates on the front end. They look really good okay, so for you to learn how to get like 50 60 percent opt-in rates into your capture page, it’s easy, you’re, gon na learn how to do it in the first second, or maybe even third time that you buy a solo ad. Okay, and then what happens is then.

Lets just say you buy five hundred to a thousand clicks, and this is my experience anyway, I’m not so sure about what will happen to you, but in my experience spending twenty to thirty thousand dollars on solo ads over the last few years. What will usually happen is I would get five hundred leads in one shot pretty much and out of those leads, I might get a couple of sales here and there okay, so I might make you know. 50. Bucks. 100. Bucks 200 bucks, okay, but it’s never enough to cover the entire cost of my solo ad, which might have cost five hundred to a thousand dollars right. So, if I’m spending, if I’m spending $ 1,000 in solo ads – but I only make 200 back how much money am I down an $ 800 down right? So I’m actually I’m in the negative all right, and so a lot of people will tell you all what you’ve got to do with solo ads. Is you got to massage your list? You got a you know: email them every single day, be aggressive right and value. Whatever tell them to try – and you know just just keep pitching your thing and then eventually people are gon na, buy your stuff right, and so that’s what I did, okay and the problem – is that after a while, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I didn’t know if it was the solo traffic that was wrong because you buy from many many many different vendors right, so different vendors have different quality of traffic. Some are better than others. Okay, so you that’s why you have to try different vendors, and so I didn’t know if it was the vendors fault. Okay, that I was that I was testing out at a time or I didn’t know if it was my opt-in page or I didn’t know if it was my sales funnel. I didn’t know if it was my offer right or I didn’t. I didn’t know if it was me and my follow ups, one that good okay, which is, which is why it was very, very confusing right and the problem is what are solo ads well with solo ads? Is that? Because you know you don’t you, you get a couple of sales here and there it’s just enough for you to be like you. This strategy is working right because I’ve made a couple of sales, so wow the traffic must be pretty all right, but maybe I didn’t sell enough to cover my cost, so maybe it’s you know I got to tweak my sales funnel or maybe you know I got To use a different offer, or maybe I got to try a different solo ad vendor and and that’s a problem, it gives you hope, okay, and it gave me hope for seven to eight years right. The other problem with solo ads is that a lot of them aren’t even real traffic anymore guys, so you’ve got to be really careful. A lot of them are BOTS, okay, so basically they’re fake they’re, not real humans. There are programs out there that a lot of solo ad vendors use some of them, don’t even know that they’re selling, BOTS, okay, and they’re, basically automated BOTS online – that actually opt-in to your capture page. They click on your buttons, but they’re not real people. Okay, so even though it looks like you’re converting on the front end at 50 percent from traffic to lead, actually you only may be converting 10 percent because most of them are bots they’re not real people. So obviously, bots aren’t gon na buy your stuff right because robots aren’t real humans, they don’t have money and they’re not gon na, actually take out their credit card and buy so all you’re getting is you’re getting false information, okay and then another thing that would happen Is that because solo ads are a little bit expensive right, they can be quite expensive because you can get so much traffic at once. What I would do is, I would buy a solo ad at the start of my month. When I got my salary I would spend $ 1,000 on my solo ad, okay and then basically I would have no more money for the rest of my month because in Malaysia you know US dollar to ring it. It’s like four times so I was spending basically four thousand ringgit of my of my of my money right on a solo ad, which is ridiculous because most people in Malaysia don’t even earn four thousand rings at a month. All right – and I don’t have to save up two before that – I do a solo ad drop at the start of the month and then I wouldn’t do anything. Okay, I’d send emails, emails emails! I wouldn’t make that many sales. I would make a loss and I’d be like hmm, I kind of lose motivation and I’d be like okay. I’M just gon na have to wait until next month. When I get my paycheck again and I’m gon na buy another solo ad, and then it was this vicious cycle, okay, now, if that has ever happened to you before, then you know exactly what I’m talking about, because a lot of it happens to a lot of People all right – and so I just found that it took me a long time before I finally decided that actually solo ads. I think this is the main reason why I’m not doing that.

Well, okay – and I made the the I’d made, the tough decision. Actually, I made it a lot earlier. I don’t know why it took me so long. Its pretty stupid of me to be honest, but I made this the decision to not do solo ads anymore, probably about a year and a half ago, okay, and when I finally made that decision to stop buying solo air traffic and focusing on other traffic sources, where I was actually generating the traffic myself. That means I wasn’t buying the traffic from any solo ad vendor or any sort of traffic. You know the person. I was actually generating the traffic myself. You know through Facebook, through YouTube through articles to my blog and stuff, like that, all of a sudden I started making money in my business believe it or not. Its crazy stuff. Okay, it was nuts actually because, all of a sudden, I was controlling the traffic. I knew what I was doing and the traffic that I was generating was real or Israel right. So it’s not BOTS anymore. Okay, because there’s no bot traffic or very very little boat traffic on YouTube, there’s very, very little boat traffic on Google there’s very little boat traffic on Facebook, it’s a little bit but not that much okay. So because of that, I think that you know that completely changed my business around and it was. It was really shocking to see okay, and so my message for you today. Look, I’m I’m not here to condemn solo ads. What I’m saying is that if you’re gon na go buy solo ads, you need to do it with eyes wide open. Okay, you have to have enough money that you’re willing to spend and test on solo ads. Do it for a little while, but if it doesn’t work, I would say just move on all right, because there’s a lot of shit out there there’s a lot of crappy traffic through solo ads and you fall into this trap of it being very, very easy to Do just by the nature and the virtue of solo ads, and also it’s very misleading, because it gives you the wrong signals. You know you think that you’re doing well, but actually you’re not really right, because a lot of us bought traffic. Some people buy. So you feel like oh it’s working, but actually it’s not because a lot of it is not real traffic. Anyway, all right now again, there are some solo ad vendors out there that are better than others. Okay, so obviously there’s some that are really really good, but I was never able to figure it out. Okay, I actually personally know people that do very well with solo ads, but I mean you know $ 30,000 down, and you know seven, eight years later, I don’t have that much to show for it. Okay, so I personally don’t think that it’s a great source of traffic. Now, if you figure out your traffic, like maybe you’re, doing YouTube, you’re doing Facebook, you’re doing pay-per-click marketing somewhere else or whatever. If you want to add solo ad traffic to your to your total, you know sources of traffic that be my guest right, but you know to focus just on solo ads. I think it’s a bad idea. Okay. I really, I really do think it’s a bad idea and for me to have gone from you know failing for eight years, and I think you know the solo traffic was basically the main reason why and then making that switch and then all of a sudden I Started to become profitable, it’s not a coincidence. You know, I don’t think it’s a coincidence anyway. Okay, so I would just say: be careful. Okay, be very, very careful if you’re considering a solo traffic, maybe test it out for a little while, but I would focus the majority of your time 80 % of your time on traffic, that you can control yourself. Okay, traffic that you’re actually generating yourself, not somebody else, you’re generating it yourself. Okay, does that make sense? So listen. I hope that gave you some insight into the hotel, a solo ad thing. You know, again it’s completely up to you what you do with this information. You can go out there and buy solo traffic if you want you don’t have to. If you don’t want to I’m just sharing with you my personal experience – and I don’t want you to have to go through what I went through because most people don’t have $ 30,000 to spend on on solo ads, okay – and it’s really really funny because there’ll be Solo ad vendors out there that will say: oh you know, spending $ 30,000, isn’t that much I’ve had clients that have spent a million dollars on solo ads or a hundred thousand dollars. On solo ads, I mean that’s just ridiculous to say, because I mean how many people have a hundred thousand dollars to spend on solo ads. Do you know what I mean? So don’t listen to these guys? Okay, if you have to spend a hundred thousand dollars on solo ads to test it, I mean that’s an unrealistic strategy. Don’T you think right I mean how many of you, how many of you have a hundred thousand dollars lying around? Probably, not many of you right. So it’s not it’s not it’s not a good thing to go after okay. So anyway, let me know what you thought in the comments below. Okay. Did this hit home for some of you guys? Have you tried solo ads before right? What are you gon na do? Are you gon na try some or are you gon na just sort of move on and focus on? You know traffic generation strategies that you can control like I mentioned earlier. Okay, give me a thumbs up if you got some value from this video today and if you’re not subscribed to my channel hey, you can subscribe to my channel by clicking on the red button. If you want to and listen if you want to spend a little bit more time with me, if you want to see what I’m up to, if you want to see how I was able to you, know, shift eight years of failure into one and a half Years of you know massive success, I’d like to show you how I did that you can just click on the link right below to get access to me and my training, and I would love to see you in that training to help you out and to help You take your business to the next level. Okay, this is Erin Chen and I will speak to you very very soon in another. Video take care.

You May Also Like