I hear you all saying “Mr Green how the heck can I make money with a gate? I have a big one outside my house but it’s never made me a cent…”
What a hilarious misunderstanding! I’m actually talking about a virtual gate. A virtual content gateway. Gateways are not some cute technique to make a bit of extra money. They are a HUGE business. Some PPV networks have been built around this technique.
How the truck do they work?
Well, a gateway is a script you put on your lander that blocks the page to any visitors. Your lander will load, but a box pops up in front of it. A visitor will only get access to your lander once they have completed one of the CPA offers listed in that pop over box.
CPALead is the most popular gateway provider by far, but LoudMo, Pinball Publisher Network and Adscend are great contenders too.
This is an example of a CPALead gateway:
Ok so now you know the basics of how it works.
Here’s how you make the monies:
Step 1: Find a search term that is new or hot.
Google Trends and Google Insights are great places to start.
Step 2: Create content around that search term.
For example when I looked on Google Trends yesterday I saw “Champions League” (European football league final. Go INTER!!) was the fourth most popular term. So I would probably link to a site where you could watch the Champions League, or if I wanted to be extra cheeky, my landing page would be promoting a watch TV online affiliate offer.
Step 3: Create your landing page.
The trick here is to be a tease. For my Champions League example I would create a landing page mimicking the site that would actually show the streaming game. So I would have a video player with an image of the game in the background, a description about the game, some nice images, and a chat box etc. Users would click the video play button, BOOM, your gateway pops up. This strategy converts a lot better than just popping your gateway as soon as users hit your lander.
Step 4: Create your content gateway.
Now this totally depends on what content you are providing on your landing page. For this example, I would probably run over to CPALead. You MUST create a custom skin when creating your gateway. Do not chose one of their stock skins. You need to make the gateway as similar and as relevant to your sites design as possible. Yes, this is a tonne of work for every topic you target, but the ROI is so sick it should have its own private hospital. I whipped this example up in 5 minutes:
Make sure you customize the titles and descriptions. Split test split test split test! Get really really creative with wording as to why people should fill out the survey. Think captcha or limited spots…that’s all I’m saying.
This is roughly what your lander could look like once the content gateway pops up.
You can do this technique with new movies, new software, popular Youtube videos, wallpaper sites, Myspace layouts and games. Possibilities are actually endless. There is no limit to scaling.
CPALead are basically an affiliate network going through another network providing a service that I’m sure they will cut margins off even more. Once you know how to play the game and are doing volume, try make your own gateway. Go to an affiliate network, pick some offers, and get a gateway script made. It is important to note that this is classed as incentivizable advertising. So unless you want to step in the dark zone, don’t run offers unless you get permission from your AM.
Other content gateway providers are pretty flexible and active about getting new offers in or helping you create custom landers. Just ask.
Here are some relevant links:
- CPALead.com (affiliate link) CPAlead.com (non affiliate link)
- LoudMo.com (affiliate link) LoudMo.com (non affiliate link)
- PinballPublisherNetwork.com (affiliate link) PinballPublisherNetwork.com (non affiliate link)
Summary for A.D.D readers:
- Find a new/hot topic.
- Find unique content for that topic.
- Create a teasing landing page.
- Create a custom targeted gateway.
- Once you hit volume, form your own gateway by hand picking offers from affiliate networks.
- Laugh at suckers that didn’t take action after reading this post.
Great post, thanks. 2 questions:
1) Do you embed a video on your lander? Or what happens after user has completed the survey? How can the user watch the soccer match?
2) how do you drive traffic to these pages?
Just going to jump in and respond to this. You can if you want to embed the actual video. You don't really care if they watch the video or not.
The traffic is usually driven by the seo. Because it is a new trend you can imagine that there are not going to be that many people that have a site optimized for that topic. It is a slash and burn way of making money, this site could make you $300 a day for 3 days and than die off.
Nice article Mr. Green
But how exactly do you get the traffic, through SEO? Wasn't that clear in the article.
Though when I look at your lander, you just plug a keyword optimized article at the top, do a bit of onpage optimization and watch the…traffic roll in? Really that easy? Hm.
Thanks anyway,
John M.
Yeah this method could be super profitable if you did SEO and got enough traffic, but even if you are paying for traffic it should work because if you are picking new trending topics and bidding on them, there won't be much competition yet (biggest run-on sentence ever).
Yeah I'm know se0 guy but I know people doing well with movie keywords etc. Paying for traffic is more what I was talking about.
I love this idea! Can you elaborate a little more on which types of paid traffic you think would work? For instance, how would you drive traffic in your example?
Any targeted traffic works well. Search traffic, seo traffic whatever you work best with.
Executing.
do you find se0 superior to se1 or se2?
Another tip that has worked for me in the past. Create a 6-9 minute video with just a screenshot and a URL (YOUR GATEWAY URL) in it. Go to tubemogul.com and upload. Watch the $$ roll in.
Thanks man for the tips! I've made a few hundred dollars on cpa lead just messing around with it, but I haven't got serious about it. I think I'm going to spend some more time on it now.
What do you think is a reasonable monthly goal?
PS: I just found you blog over the weekend and I've read all of your post. This is by far the best affiliate marketing blog I've come across.
Reasonable monthly goal is probably $1.26 profit. Haha but seriously If you make your first dollar profit you are doing something right, just build from that. You can see what other people are earning on CPALead with their chat box feature, if you're competitive try beating one person at a time.
Mr Green you shexy smuck! Soooooo good to have you home at last. Missed you. Why don't u just givt it givt it!!!! XXX
Great examples for gateways. You covered enough and then some! I would venture to say lots of money will be made with these techniques during the world cup. If you are "cheeky" enough and know of something good in advance it's only a few hour investment for pounds of $krilla.
What about chaining a content gateway to your content, which consists of another PPI script (ie: video converter or language translator) and sticking a refer a friend script to the whole thing.
Won't buy you that Venice villa you've been eyeing, but maybe good for a laugh or two.
Yeah for sure that could work, you can get really crazy with it. Haha Venice in villa eh? Hmmmm
More info on this refer a friend thing?
damn this is a sweet post. your blog has provided more useful information that any piece of shit guru course or product.
Wow, amazing post! I feel like I have just taken a class at the university.
Lol I nearly choked on my cereal with that first paragraph
Fruit loops are lethal.
blog is still delivering. thanks dude.
So did this work well for the game? Good idea. You're an Inter fan aren't you?
I am an inter fan indeed. I didn't run this campaign it was just an example for this post that I designed on the airplane haha.
But do you actually have a video up, and does CPALead/LoudMo/etc. even care if you did?
You could have the video or you could just link to a place that does have the video. The networks are very lenient.
Crude landing page? I think its pretty perfect. Especially like the '2,689 people currently streaming this channel'. Social proof at its finest.
BTW… Ive filled out CPA Lead widget forms before, and they NEVER redirect me to the supposed content. Is their a way to do that, or are we just duping people?
"As long as it makes a buck, I dont give a fuck." -Sgt. Ryan
It's funny how the WF guys are forever slamming BHW & DP, and yet seem to be in awe of this technique, which is lifted directly from the pages of those sites. Just sayin'
Anyway, I'd say the real money is in being the gateway provider. There really aren't that many to speak of.
Definitely.
Haha good tips. I read abut these a few weeks back on the Super Aff Twins blogs and gave it a try. Had some decent results but it didn't quite pan out the way I had hoped with PPV integration. Back to the drawing board.
Excellent demonstration on how to take advantage of the trend and link it to optimize your offer page!
Nice blog post! I'm releasing something for affiliates soon very related, I'll keep you in the loop.
Excellent stuff as always… this blog is honestly at the top of my reading list. Thanks for so many useful information recently. I've linked back to you from my own new blog.
Dupre and eagle were slamming cpalead and techs like this just a couple weeks ago, and now theyre on its nuts?
How are you getting traffic? PPV, PPC, SEO?
PPC
Can you shortly describe how/where you build your PPC campaigns for CPALead?
I would also like to know if this method works for other networks or are you just succeeding with cpaLead which I am not an active affiliate on but I have several others that I am currently active with.
Be careful with the type of content you promote when using cpalead's gateway. My buddy had over $8k in his account from promoting tv shows with this method and they banned him the day before he was to be paid. I imagine they would use the same excuse to ban you for promoting copyright sporting events as well.
Sure he has created his own gateway now, but that was 2 months of work down the drain.
[...] Guide: Make Money With Gateways – Mr. Green always provides solid tips and this post is another example of that. I've known about content gateways for a while thanks to a friend, Matt Marcin (who happens to be the man). They can be a great source of revenue and a great way to monetize SEO traffic! [...]
Get a big villa with the gateway monies so SF crew can come visit you in Venice…ciao for now.
This is a great post and very well written, easy to understand. I actually have a site that gets a few hundred organic visitors daily looking to use the site for a specific tool that used to be there. I've been planning on adding a gateway to it for awhile but have just been too lazy. After reading this post, I think I'll get to work on it tonight. Thanks, and keep up the great work!
Screw Venice, I'd find something back to near where I was born… Lago di Garda… Desenzano….etc
Do you have any recommendations for affiliate networks that offer incentivizable offers? I've got my own gateway script, I just need to find some offers that I can run on it.
I've been having some success with CPALead since I posted last but I'm sure I can make more with my own gateway.
I've encountered this before but never thought I'd try it myself because I would immediately leave the page and find the content elsewhere.
We were mentioned briefly in this post so I just wanted to chime in without our URL and add that virtually all publishers that make the switch from CPALead to Adscend Media see a substantial increase in their earnings. Feel free to split-test and see the difference
I just got accepted into CPA Lead and it looks great. I can't wait to get it set up and make some cash.
But if you use live events you only have like a few hours of traffic and then it stops doesnt it? How do you rank fast enough to get traffic?
I\’m talking about paid traffic. Live events would usually have dirt cheap prices too.
[...] are just starting out. I will explain how you can maintain high levels of inbound traffic on your content unlocker through display media [...]
[...] are just starting out. I will explain how you can maintain high levels of inbound traffic on your content unlocker through display media [...]
This is an amazing post! Thanks for this!! Does this method work with adCenter PPC? I'm trying it out, but adCenter isnt giving me any impresions on these new terms…Idk what the problem is. Is it quality score? There's no body competing for this particular term im bidding on (plus about 200 others relating to that term) at all! Could you give me a few pointers?
[...] Guide: Making Money With Gateways. I hear you all saying “Mr Green how the heck can I make money with a gate? I have a big one outside my house… [...]
Great post, this was an excellent intro to gateways and content lockers. Niches are definitely the way to go.
Awesome – useful stuff. I think the tricky part of hitting a niche now. I don't know whether to concentrate of this, or article writing with ads
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[...] Hey jp I ran across this article. I've been reading a lot of mr green's stuff . You might find it useful Guide: Making Money With Gateways. – Mr Green [...]