Category Archives: Making Money

When Will Adsense Catch Up

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This post is not meant to bash Adsense, nor am I writing it because I’ve found a better alternative.  The point of this post is to illustrate how the advertising marketplace is changing and it appears to be adopting methods to fight ad blindness, yet Adsense ads have remained largely unchanged since day one.  I think that there is more money to be earned by publishers and advertisers if Google would decide to place images next to their text ads.

It Works

Not too terribly long ago it was a method used by Adsense publishers to place their own small images next to their Adsense text ads.  This greatly increased the CTR (click through ratio) in almost every single case.  However, because publishers were adding their own images, Google was unable to moderate the implied related content.

A few bad apples ruined it for the rest of us when they started placing questionable images next to their Adsense Ads.  Probably having a bigger impact was that publishers were placing unrelated images next to the Ads in question.  Then an unsuspecting visitor would click through on an add expecting something else and then immediately bounce out.  Obviously Google doesn’t want to piss off Advertisers by sending them unrelated traffic.

How To Fix The Problem

Google could implement their own program to allow Advertisers to upload their own authorized images to be displayed next to their ads.  This way Google could moderate what images were being used before approving the ad and know that these were not being changed by the publishers to drive unrelated traffic.

Who’s Doing It Before Google Adsense

Already there are a number of publishers that allow images to be uploaded and used along text advertisements.  The two that stand out the most are Chitika and Facebook Ads.  Both of these programs have already proved to be wildly successful for both their Advertisers and Publishers.

Facebook Ad w/ Image

Facebook Ad w/ Image

I’ve used them both and can attest that as an Advertiser I don’t mind spending a bigger budget with lower cost per clicks.  And if I’m controlling the images then I know that the traffic can be just as interested in buying what I’m selling.  I forsee Google making some changes, soon, to adjust to this change in the online advertising marketplace.

We have to fight ad blindness somehow.

Thoughts On Twitter Business Solutions

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I’ve been running a local blog for about a year solid and in the past 3 months I’ve integrated Twitter in hopes of driving targeted traffic.  Much to my surprise, Twitter has been great at delivering a few hundered extra views a week, but obviously not enough to start quitting other campaigns.  However, I have a few thoughts on what Twitter could do to better help businesses manage their profiles.

Referral Tracking

TwitterThis is the biggest problem I see facing Twitter as a measurable source of traffic.  In server logs the only indication you have that people are coming from twitter, is from either the Twitter.com/home domain or from your own Twitter.com/mybusiness domain.  I would love to see Twitter integrate some sort of referral indicator that showed who was actually following a link or reading my feed.

Currently an arbitrary number of followers does not really indicate how many people are actually reading your tweets.  Comments and stuff are great, but are only a small percentage of people that are actually reading tweets and interested in what your business is about.  Let’s get some actual analytics involved Twitter, show me who is actually reading and following my links.

Light Weight In House Tools

Please come out with some in house tools to make Twitter mor useful.  Tweet Deck is ok and other business solutions fill a void, but are not up to par with what can be produced in house.  I dont want bloated software, I want something light weight that I can update from my desktop on, get notifications of mentions, and accurately track those who are following me.  And while we are at it, make sure you support multiple twitter accounts, I will not use my business Twitter account for personal use and vise versa.

Allow Advertising Already

Lastly, come on Twitter, let us start advertising and target all your users.  Look to Google to see how to create unobtrusive advertising models that actually appeal and target your users.  It’s obvious that the traffic produced from Twitter is valuable, let us pay for that gold mine of outbound clicks.  While valuable, I’m not sure the time cost of me tweeting equals revenue earned just yet.

WiredTree.com Launching Affiliate Program

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Start your own Web Hosting Company.  View this complete, step by step blue print to starting a web hosting company.

WiredTree.com is my new hosting provider and I absolutely could not be happier with the level of support and flexibility they offer.  I’ve made several posts stating this even before they announced plans to release an affiliate program.  So it’s obvious I’m happy with their hosting, at least the VPS package I’ve signed up with.  Even more impressive for a hosting company is that they’ve already upgraded my server package, for FREE.  I feel confident recommending them as a hosting provider to anyone interested in a step above shared hosting.

Alexis Babiarz has been charged with building and developing the affiliate program for the past few months.  From what I can tell from the beta release, it looks like time well spent.  The administration panel offers access to all the general tools for affiliate publishers, like banners, text links, and general information on becoming a better affiliate.  Of note are a few resources like a redirect tool for affiliate links.

The WiredTree affiliate program offers some very competitive commissions compared to other hosting affiliate programs.  The only thing that is missing as of this posting is the ability to accept a lower, reoccurring commission that benefits those referrals that become long time customers.  Below is a breakdown on the tiers of commissions currently available from the WiredTree program.

1 – 25 Referrals Earn 75% cash commission or 100% credit from each new
client’s first month total.

26 – 50 Referrals Earn 100% cash commission or 125% credit from each new
client’s first month total.

51 – + Referrals Earn 125% cash commission or 150% credit from each new
client’s first month total.

According to the announcement within the Grove Administrative Panel on WiredTree.com the affiliate program has not been released to the public as yet.  So for now only customers of WiredTree can sign up and then must be manually approved.  The official launch of the hosting affiliate program will be sometime in August, I’m guessing August 1st.

Affiliate Espionage For FireFox 3.5 Released

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I jumped the gun and updated my Fire Fox browser a little early, before letting all my plugins get up to date.  Unfortunately Affiliate Espionage is one of those plugins that failed to be ready immediately.  The good news is that they announced this morning that the latest update is ready for download, meaning Affiliate Espionage will now work with Fire Fox 3.5.

How To Update Affiliate Espionage

To update simply look for updates in your Tools>AddOns>Extensions tab of your version 3.5 FF Browser.  Everything else should be automated.

Please click here for my Affiliate Espionage Review.

Affiliate Plugins For WordPress

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The majority of sites that I operate work off of the WordPress blogging script.  I have been unable to find a comparable website backend that stream lines my affiliate marketing.  Everything is made easier in Word Press due to it’s huge inventory of plugins, which allow for simple tasks like adding Amazon products to posts or full on automated scraping of articles and products.

Below are the Word Press affiliate plugins I can’t live without. (Affiliate links are used, thanks for your support.)

phpBay Pro ($79.00) – My online life has changed since finding this handy little affiliate plugin.  Basically the WP plugin adds items from eBay onto your blog and can be customized to fit your sites style.  Items can be inserted in a shop type manner or as a few items listed at the bottom of a post.  This plugin has great support directly from it’s creator Wade and is under constant improvement and updates to follow the changes within eBay.  phpBay Pro works with the eBay Partner Network and with Pepper Jam Network.

See phpBay Pro in action – Used Hybrid Cars

Amazon Auto Poster ($29.99) – I’ve only started using this WP plugin about a month back and it’s already paid for itself.  As you can tell by it’s name, this plugin scrapes product listings at Amazon.com and then creats blogposts automatically.  The items are scraped per your keyword choices, starting point, and category.  The posts generated can then be scheduled up to 9 days out or published immediately.

See Amazon Auto Poster in action – Flip MinoHD Camcorder

Article Auto Poster Premium ($29.99) – Again, I just started using this plugin about a month ago and it’s already provided me with additional traffic, sales, and profits.  Just like the plugin name says, it scrapes ArticlesBase.com for the keyword you choose and generates blog posts off the articles found.  Each keyword creates it’s own job to publish a post based off of that keyword as often as you want.  This is a great method of generating long tail keyword search traffic and keep your blog updated when you cannot be bothered with writing content.

See Article Auto Poster Premium in action – 10 People To Surround Your Band With

AD Rotator (FREE) – This free Word Press plugin makes ad management on your blog a no brainer.  You create a catalog of advertisements, which are then grouped by php code that you place within posts or on your theme files.  This will automatically rotate the ads you placed within the group.  Weights can be adjusted and there is no limit to the amount of ads that you use.  Great way to keep ads fresh on your site through multiple page views and try different affiliate products.

Closing Statement

I use a lot of different plugins with my Word Press blogs, but these are the ones that I can’t live without and provide me the most commissions.  No, the majority of them are not free, but very quickly they can be paid for with just a little traffic.  Pair these WP plugins with a browser plugin like Affiliate Espionage and you’ll see your weekly earnings rise.  It still takes hard work, but thanks to plugins our work as marketers can be streamlined.

Like any digital product your mileage may vary.  However, the items listed here I use on a daily basis and can vouche for their usefullness.  For more affiliate news and information please read my affiliate blog on Blogspot, where on my latest post I describe what makes a BAD landing page.

Update 7/2/09 – The Amazon Auto Poster and Article Auto Poster are now known as WP Robot.  I’m still on the fence on my opinion of the new wordpress affiliate tool.  First reactions is that there is only an option to schedule and not ‘Publish Now’, which makes it difficult to edit these posts before going live.  We’ll see.

List Of Current Projects

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I’m guilty of having too many irons in the fire and this summer is no exception.  Although having this problem doesn’t allow for any single project to be exceptionalin quality, it does allow some testing to see which sites will potentially be money makers.  That’s why I continue to partially develop and build at a slow pace on many projects and then once they start earning money adjust my focus.

Tunerhybrids.com – Automotive forum dedicated to hybrid enthusiasts looking to modify their cars.

Why I Think It Will Work

Every type of car has an enthusiast that ones to customize and push the limits of the vehicle.  I thoroughly believe that they hybrid market is no exception and because of this I’m lookign to cash in early.  This forum will hopefully serve as a place for hybrid enthusiasts to meet up, discuss, and learn new ways to customize their hybrid cars.

suGuesstion.com – Humor site with failblog type pictures of search suggestions from popular search engines.

Why I Think It Will Work

Why do any humor sites make it, especially those like FailBlog.org and Icanhazcheeseburger?  It’s a specific niche that can easily be updated daily, it will be a stop on the internet, not a destination.  With proper integration of social bookmarking scripts this can be another meme phenomenon.(maybe that’s asking a bit much)

EvansvilleBlog.com – Local blog that focuses on what I’m doing in my home town.

Why I Think It Will Work

Currently there is very limited competition amongst the Evansville Indiana market for an online presence.  This seemed like a great opportunity, considering this is a city of more than 300,000.  Time will tell if I can keep it updated frequently enough to start drawing regular visitors and local advertising dollars.

Buy-HD.com – Testing blog for automated affiliate scripts focused on any product that claims high definition.

Why I Think It Will Work

So far so good, considering the majority of the content is scraped from article websites.  Furthermore it focuses on an affiliate program that requires a lot of volume to really make some money, Amazon.com.  I’m hoping that generated content mixed with my own articles will help bring in some of the residual search engine traffic, since I’m not too concerned with Google at the moment.

Dead Man Blogging – My actual affiliate ‘guru’ blog, with tips on marketing online.

Why I Think It Will Work

I’m not an expert on everything online, but what I do learn I like to share with others.  If nothing else this blogspot blog is a launching point for me to work on my writing skills.  So far traffic has been increasing on a weekly basis, we will see where it takes me.

AdBlock Plus Collateral Damage

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By now everyone has heard of AdBlock Plus, a small tool that effectively disables advertisements from loading within a web browser.  Slowly but surely this FireFox addon has managed to garner over 5% of the FireFox user base and growing.  While this may seem like a small percentage, it’s important to know who is being affected most.

In the past few months I have tracked a loss in total affiliate and Adsense revenue.  There are a number of reasons for this and obviously Adblock Plus is not the primary reason, but it still hurts.  I work very hard to create every website I own and therefore should be compensated for people using them.  When I’m fighting spammers, cookie thieves, bots, etc, why should I have to worry about legit visitors cheating me?

Apparently I’m not the only one that feels this way and Wladimir Palant has addressed the issue on the Adblock Plus blog.  Essentially, for the first time that I’ve noticed, Adblock Plus is suggesting an easy method for plugin users to opt-in to displaying ads on a website.  However, what he is proposing takes into consideration only a small portion of websites with repeat traffic, which relatively speaking is a small portion of the internet and affiliate websphere.

Adblock Plus will then check the browsing history to see whether the user frequents this site (this could be specified for example as “visited the site on three days of the last week”) and then display a notification like the following (unless a notification for this site was already shown recently):

Adblock Plus Filter

The majority of visitors to my websites are one time visitors, probably less than 5% return.  This is in regards to my affiliate sites and not my personal blog. ;)   It’s not because I have a bad website, a spammy website, it’s because the user finds what they want and complete a sale.  Or, the visitor searches on a specific question and then finds their answer.  So, what Adblock Plus is proposing will not benefit me in the slightest and only caters to the largest of affiliate and news sites.

This post is just a child of a frustration with the direction the internet is taking.  It’s an entitlement complex by users and a handful of programmers that think they should control whats being shown and published on the web.  The issue is growing, becoming it’s own beast, and slowly starting to resemble Net Neutrality issues.  After all, if Adblock Plus can effectively and accurately block ads, sure it’s on the radar of those that want to block other content.  Filter or not, Adblock Plus has no place on the internet in it’s current form.

Clickbank Hoplink Protection

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New Clickbank Logo

New Clickbank Logo

Not only did Clickbank roll out an all new color scheme and layout, but they also launched a new tool that will help protect your affiliate links from prying eyes.  It’s a free tool which masks the promotion name and your affiliate link within a Clickbank hop.

HopLink Shield is a free tool that encrypts the affiliate and vendor nicknames in HopLinks.

Setting up an encoded hoplink is as easy as entering the Vendor Nickname and your Affiliate Nickname.  Then press a button and BAM fresh encoded hoplink.  Also, if you confused yourself in the process and have some encoded links floating around and can’t remember what they are for they also have a decoder.  Which brings up another question, why encode a link if there is an open way to decode them?

Seems like a small oversight and if they were this dedicated to privacy seems like they wouldn’t publish the decoder as well.  Or as a recommendation, at least only be able to decode once logged in, allowing only your own hops to be decoded.  Oh well, it’s a start.

Source: Clickbank Blog

EPN Ban Hammer

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Looks like the eBay Publisher Network is again issuing mass bannings for it’s affiliates.  This, like their previous BAN happy endeavors are targeting those who claim innocense on a mass scale.  These bans are targeting those who were tied to another account that was previously banned.  But again, users are claiming no affiliation with pass accounts that were banned through CJ, PJN, or on EPN.

Here is the message received by a number of EPN affiliates:

“we found that your account is related to a previous banned account”

There is already a thread started at DP about the mass bannings.  Furthermore there is a thread on the official EPN boards where little to no information is being shared from EPN.  Will checks in with his copy’n paste response that basically helps nobody.  Sad state of affairs, looks like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

Another eye opener to make sure all your eggs are not in one basket.  I fell victim to the EPN Bans awhile back and have since then been trying to develop other affiliate income streams.  It’s difficult, because I’ve been using Build A Niche Store to help build sites, obviously targeting eBay.  It’s a long process, costly one, but it will be worth it to diversify, because it doesn’t look like anyone is safe with EPN.

Pepperjam Network PayPal Payout Problem

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Not really a problem, just wanted to get as many P’s in there as humanyly possible.  It’s more of a frustration and inconvenience than anything and one that has me rethinking my payment option through the Pepperjam Affiliate Network.  It’s the 3% that PayPal keeps off of the top, as a convenience charge, whatever.  According to PayPal it’s the cost of doing business.

However, right now, interest rates have fell through the floor so these fees are eating into my PayPal money pile.  I don’t need the money immediately and technically I’m not saving anytime by having a deposit via PayPal instead of an active check sent in the mail.  As soon as my bi weekly earnings are deposited into my Paypal account I immediately transfer them to my checking, which takes a nother 3 days anyways.

I think I’ll start keeping my 3% and have Pepper Jam start sending me a check in the snail mail.  $30 to $50 savings per month is still savings, right?