I claim that I will share my experiences with you, so here you go.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can build campaigns to gross well over $100,000 in a single month.

1. Find a Hot Trend

There are typically two ways to go about promotion. The first way, and bound to fail in my opinion, is to pick a product/service and find a market for it. The other way, that I generally succeed with, is to pick a market, and tailor a product/service to their needs. This way it is certain that there is a need for what you will provide. Find a market and responded to their needs. There will be plenty of desire. Fill that void, and the customers usually respond well.

If you find a hot trend and there is no obvious product or service to mirror it, you have a few options:

• Build it – Simple yet difficult. This takes work, but if you do it right, you will be rewarded. A product could be as simple as an eBook and a service could be something like an informational site or a blog.
• Find it – Search for an affiliate program that can match this trend. CPA networks are generally quick to adapt to hot trends, so you may want to start your search there.
• Move on – Some people may disagree, but there are times when you should just move on. There are certain demographics that just aren’t very profitable. If that’s the case, keep your eyes open for the next opportunity.

The other great aspect about finding hot trends is that they can be extremely local. While such a localized market might not bring the volume, you could build something extremely targeted and reap massive margins.

Also, I don’t sit and refresh the ‘hot trends’ on Yahoo or Google. The main way I identify hot trends: Ask people. If people are talking about it, it’s probably pretty popular.

2. Make Sure Traffic Is Targeted

To begin, I make certain that my traffic is very targeted. I start by using the most obvious demographics for a campaign. In most cases, demographic assumptions hold true.

Here is exactly what I do to make sure my traffic is targeted.

Common Sense – Think about your exact target market. Think about who would be interested in the product or service you are marketing. More often than not, your first impression will be correct, but there are a few other tools you can use to assist you.

Quantcast – This tool is great to provide rough figures for you. The market below is young females. Try starting with that market first, since it is obviously very targeted. Some people knock the integrity of this tool, but I definitely use it to double check if I am on the right track.

Inside the Quantcast tool, there is also the ability to view sites that your market might also visit. Using this information, you can further research your market and then use this information in steps 3 and 4.

FedStats

U.S. Census Bureau

Some campaigns may not require such in-depth research, but the more tools you have on the belt, the better off you will be in the long-run.

Use Targeted Keywords – Some campaigns work better on pay-per-click than they do on social media. I have always been more successful starting with a ‘good’ keyword list (or making sure my campaigns were targeted) than going wide to start. Build a solid list first, then worry about expanding.

Use Keywords on Facebook Campaigns – More than 75% of the volume on these campaigns came from ads using keywords. Talk about targeted traffic, right?

3. Utilize Multiple Traffic Sources

Most people pick one traffic source, and work to build a profitable campaign. When that happens, they either become satisfied with the results, or are unsure of where to expand. Think about where else you can hit the same demographic. If you find an offer that works well on Facebook, expand to MySpace. Building a profitable campaign to a variety of traffic sources often pays off.

Think you hit on every traffic source? Doubtful. Check out this list of traffic sources. Talk about tapping into fresh traffic sources!

While tapping into fresh traffic sources, you might have to change your marketing tactics slightly. For example, some campaigns may profit by simply duplicating existing ads/keywords to fresh traffic sources. However, it’s not uncommon for existing promotional methods to fail on a new source. The key is to make necessary changes. Doing so, I have been able to pull margins as high as 500% on some of those exact traffic sources in that list.

4. Expand However Possible

What non-laser targeted traffic would also respond to the campaign? If you originally think that only women will respond to your campaign, try men. You might be VERY surprised at the results. If you think your market is 18-25, try 40-55. Again, you might be very surprised. This expansion is made much easier when you build a super targeted (see #3) campaign to start and hit insane ROI to have a little breathing room to invest.

Expansion is made easy if you take a look at #2 again. Using Quantcast, you can identify other websites or products that your existing market might also be interested in. Use that information to your advantage. Also, if you are building a PPC campaign and raking in profit because you built something very targeted, expand a little. People who are trying to lose weight might also be interested in personal development or other personal care products.

Keeping that in mind, widen your Facebook targeting options as well. Either expand to additional, related keywords, or remove keyword targeting all together.

By spreading the age targeting and adding related keywords, the volume should start to pour in. Margins will probably drop slightly, but when you build a campaign that is pulling over 500% to start, a slight hit on margins is fine with me if it means significant volume increases.

5. Work Hard

Consistently monitor your campaigns and build them out. By testing new ways to market to your customers, you should always have something fresh on every traffic source. Volume causes blindness, so providing your market with something fresh keeps your margins high.

I just read an article by Derek Jeter about hard work. He was praised for sprinting to first base on a grounder to the second baseman in the 7th inning of a game when his team was trailing by 3-4 runs. When asked about this situation, Jeter said something along the lines of “I just work hard. Hustle does not take any skill. Every player can hustle out there.”

The same principles apply to working online. It doesn’t really take skill to sit down and plug away on the computer. The skill comes in on steps 1-4 on this article, but step 5 is something anybody can do.

Summary

That’s really all you need to do. If you were expecting more, sorry, but those are the exact steps. Really, if you can respond to trends and work hard, the other principles (2-4) fall into place. Thinking about how you can grow a campaign at all times definitely helps, as does researching using methods that you may not have thought to use.

Now you might be saying: “This is bogus, this is only possible under perfectly ideal conditions.” Pairing up a product with a market, and riding a hot trend is nothing new. The ability to hit this from a unique angle, and/or be the first to tap the market is what creates true success if you ask me.

Also, it’s not always about being the first to see or build on an opportunity. By simply working harder and continuously testing different angles until something fits perfectly (or close to it) with the market, you will almost always be able to move beyond and stay ahead of the pack.

There is no substitute for hard work.