Based on a scale of 1-5; five being the best possible score, one being the lowest. Ratings are based in comparison to other networks similar to the network being reviewed.
MaxBounty
*** Customer Service
*** Selection of Offers
*** Conversion Rates
*** Payment Options/Speed of Payment
**** Site Layout, Ease of navigation
**** Reliability
MaxBounty is a Canadian affiliate network and states on their website that they offer "cost-effective solutions for performance-based affiliate marketing". MaxBounty offers service for both Merchants and Affiliates.
MaxBounty was one of the first affiliate networks that I signed up with and am still with today. Not only has MaxBounty been accomodating to my needs, but they present themselves professionally.
Ease of navigation is one of MaxBounty's stronger points. Their site is simple and to the point. One of MaxBounty's features is being able to communicate with the advertiser if need be. This helps to build your relationships with the advertisers and maintain those relationships as well. I rarely see this with networks.
MaxBounty pays on time and I have been paid by this company several times. They are reliable, have a ton of offers to choose from, and good customer service. And, although when I first started I had a wonderful affiliate manager who would give me higher rates and checked in with me everyday, I rarely hear from him now. I understand he probably has more things to do than check in with me everyday, but I miss that one on one attention that he provided.
Overall Rating: ***
Friday, February 29, 2008
Affiliate Network Review: MaxBounty
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Work At Home, Family, and Managing It All
Everyone has their own story, their own situation. For me, it is a challenge to manage my time. There never seems to be enough hours in the day. I'm sure many of you can relate.
Now, there is no denying that I absolutely love working at home. I can sit in my pajamas all day if I want to. I can stay home with my kids, take them where they need to go and enjoy my time with them.
Here are some great ideas for managing your time when you are working from home. This was taken from Solve Your Problem.com. Enjoy!
Working at home can cause a number of problems with regard to workers having to integrate work and domestic responsibilities in one arena. Because there is not a physical removal from your domestic situation when you begin work, it is essential that you care for your work time and space, otherwise chaos in the home workplace environment is quite common. There are five simple ways to set boundaries between work and your personal life while working at home.
The first way to set a boundary is through adequate and accurate communication. Because working at home is often confused with being at home, your work must be a family effort. It is essential to communicate with every member of the family, including children, the boundary of your work time and space. It can be difficult for children to understand that you aren't available even though you're sitting right there at your desk or at the computer. As a result, it is very important that you talk with them to help them learn respect for your time and space boundaries with regard to your job. The best way to do this is to communicate limitations as early as possible. Create rules and any reminders, like posters or signs that might help the children understand your work needs. Spouses can also misunderstand your needs. Be sure to effectively discuss your work hours with them so they know you are off limits during that time to run errands or help them with their tasks as well.
Another way to set an effective boundary is by setting limits for your self. You can start by setting a rigid work schedule. Not only do you need to set a work time, but you also have to stick with it without fail. It might be helpful to publicize your work hours on your website, in your newsletter, or find some other way of letting your clients and bosses know when you will and will not be working. It is also essential that your family understand your schedule. This will help keep them from interfering with your work time. You might also consider setting limits with regard to distractions you know you are likely to face. For example, if your teenager is constantly playing his stereo too loudly during your work hours, set a no television or stereo rule during your posted hours. If you are likely to work on laundry instead of meeting your deadline, set the limit for yourself that you will not leave your office once you have entered. Moreover, it might be worthwhile to have a few things on hand in your office like a mini fridge stocked with water so you won't have to leave your office to get a drink. Leaving your office might distract you from your work tasks at hand.
Setting effective boundaries can also mean setting physical and mental boundaries. The first way to do this is to consider your ideal office space. If the space available in your home works with this, make it happen. If it does not, adapt your space. Many folks who work from home simply do not have the space for a private office. Lots of people share a common room, a section of a bedroom, or another area that is used for a variety of purposes in the home. If you can't have a closed office, it is important to make the space functional for you. Some of the best home offices aren't private, but make excellent use of items like shelving, plants, and curtains to make their office space feel more like an office. If you are lucky enough to have an office, be sure that it has a door. Also be sure that you communicate with your family that a closed door means you cannot be disturbed.
A fourth way to set an effective boundary is to minimize phone interruptions. You can do this by screening your calls with an answering machine, purchasing a second line or a cellular phone, or investing in a software program that helps you decide whether to terminate your dial-up connection to take a phone call.
One final way to set an effective boundary is learn to say no. If you need someone to call you back during your leisure time, say so. This is also true of a client who needs something during your leisure time.
Being able to manage your time and everything else from home can be a challenge. Be positive and incorporate these guidelines into your day and you'll soon be able to manage your time more wisely.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Blog Brought to You By the Letter "P"
Selecting the proper ads for your site is important if you have a specific target audience you are trying to reach.
If you use an affiliate network, this is especially important since there are many merchants/products/programs you can promote. One may think that the more programs out there the better. While that might seem true, it can be overwhelming at the same time. Choosing the right programs is crucial, for advertising is what drives the revenue to your bank account.
Google Adsense is a good tool to use in addition to affiliate networks or programs. With Google Adsense, one sets up their account according to site category. If you have a pregnancy site, you may want to run ads that promote baby products. In turn, this creates a more targeted platform for your site to perform from. Adsense is easy to use and allows you to stay organized throughout this whole process making it easy to adjust your ad campaigns according to performance.
One thing you will learn with affiliate marketing is each day is different. And, sometimes this can be hard for some people. Some expect to see results in one week.
Most everyone has "down" days. However, when it comes to affiliate marketing, I have come up with my own way of getting through each day.
A successful affiliate marketer should keep these P's in mind:
*Promotion
*Practice (trial and error)
*Patience
*Persistence
*Profit
Promote your site and the programs you sign up for to the best of your ability. Practice. Not everything will work the first time you do them. So, try and try and try again. Be patient. It will take some time to get to where you want to be. Be persistent. Do not give up. As a result of all the above, the profit will start to roll in!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Affiliate Network Review: Revenue Street
Based on a scale of 1-5; five being the best possible score, one being the lowest. Ratings are based in comparison to other networks similar to the network being reviewed.
Revenue Street
***** Customer Service
** Selection of Offers
*** Conversion Rates
*** Payment Options/Speed of Payment
*** Site Layout, Ease of navigation
**** Reliability
Revenue Street is a performance-based ad network offering both services for advertisers and publishers.
Revenue Street states on their home page that they can:
*Maximize your revenue with best performing advertiser offers on the web
*Get Exclusive deals you won't find anywhere else
*provide Real time stats and reporting
*Provide Timely and reliable payments delivered monthly
*Earn more revenue for your advertising
*Get higher margins and payouts
*give you quick and easy integration and
*offer tools to maximize your profits.
We have been signed up with Revenue Street since May of 2007 and I can tell you that from the time we have signed up with Revenue Street up until now, Revenue Street has always been consistent. In this industry, consistency is good IF the factors that are consistent are good. And, Revenue Street can boast good consistency. The only real big change with Revenue Street over the past year has been the look of the website and the new look has added a more user-friendly navigational system.
With Revenue Street, there are no surprises. They aren't just going to leave you high and dry. One of the best things Revenue Street has to offer is their customer service. If you are looking for a specific offer or have a question, the staff at Revenue Street are very attune to their client's needs. Not only do they get you the offer or answer your question, they go above and beyond what is asked of them. And, I can personally justify this.
Contacting Revenue Street is easy. They offer nearly all forms of communication to contact them: instant messenger, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, etc. Their customer service is one of the best in the industry. Hands down.
As an incentive-based site, you will not find a whole lot of offers to choose from to place on your site. However, they have not excluded you, as some networks out there do often without warning. There are a few really good offers to place on your site and when new incentivizable offers do come into their system, Revenue Street's affiliate managers contact you almost immediately.
There are a few areas of service that Revenue Street could improve on and that is not necessarily the speed of payment, but rather the organization of their payments. I say this because I had to wait more than a couple months in which to get paid. However, once I contacted the staff, apparently there was some sort of confusion in their database or payment system. Once I brought this to their attention, a check was sent out immediately.
One thing I have noticed about Revenue Street is that they do have several offers that are hard to find elsewhere. This is very important as many CPA networks seem to deliver the same offers to their publishers. Very rarely are there any unique offers to boast. The number of offers are rather low compared to other networks.
Revenue Street is one of those networks that continues to grow and one day very well could be one of the largest and the best. As long as Revenue Street stays consistent, they will prosper.
Overall Rating: ****
Revenue Street
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Breaking It Down
Common terms used in affiliate marketing. You are going to want to know what is what when it comes to affiliate marketing. It isn't expected of you to know everything there is to know right away, but learn the basic lingo, as the affiliate managers or networks you work with will be speaking it. Trust me, you will learn a lot along the way. Here are just a few terms that you really should be familiar with:
*payment threshold - the minimum accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment from an affiliate program.
*return days - the number of days an affiliate can earn commission on a conversion (sale or lead) by a referred visitor
*super affiliate - an affiliate capable of generating a significant percentage of an affiliate program's activity
*two-tier affiliate program - affiliate program structure whereby affiliates earn commissions on their conversions as well as conversions of webmasters they refer to the program (It is a good thing to find a two-tier program!)
*creatives - A general marketing term used for the material used to generate leads and sell advertising developed and designed by art directors and/or copywriters in an ad agencies; otherwise known as banner ads, text ads, emails, etc.
*CPM - The cost, per 1000 people reached, of buying advertising space in a given media vehicle.
*reach - The estimated number of individuals in the audience of a broadcast that is reached at least once during a specific period of time
*Affiliate Solution Provider - company that provides the network, software, and services needed to create and track an affiliate program.
*Associate - synonym for affiliate.
*Charge Back - affiliate commission deduction due to an incomplete sales transaction.
Charge backs = not good
*Co-branding - when an affiliate gets to include its own logo and branding on the page (known as landing page) to which they send visitors through their affiliate links.
*Commission - The income an online affiliate gets for generating a sale, lead or click-through based on the merchant's settings.
*Contextual Link - Integration of affiliate link within related text. Contextual links are often used in newsletters and related articles. **Do not confuse with textual!
*Conversion rate - The percentage of clicks that result in a commissionable sale or lead. Conversion is measured in several places: conversion of your PPC ad on Google, conversion of incoming visitors to your landing page, conversion of your generated leads once they arrive at the merchant site.
*Cookies - Text files stored on visitor's computer to keep track of information relevant to merchant website.
*CPA - Cost per action
*CPC - Cost per click. Cost incurred in getting a user to click on a banner or text advertisement.
*CPL - Cost per lead
*CPM - Cost per thousand impressions
*CPO - Cost per order
*CPP - Cost per pixel
*CR - Conversion ratio or conversion rate. Orders per click
*CTR - Click through rate or Click through ratio. Number of impressions/Number of clicks. How often a visitor makes a sales or order after clicking through
*Customer Bounty - Commission amount paid to affiliate for every new client or customer that they direct to merchant
*EPC - Earnings per click. Average pay out per click, or per hundred clicks. Related to conversion and revenue per lead.
*FFA - Free for all links. No requirements for adding a link
*Hybrid Model - affiliate commission model that combines payment options (i.e. CPC & CPA).
*Impression - When an advertisement on a site is displayed to a web user.
*Merchant - an online business that markets and sells goods or services. Merchants establish affiliate programs to get consumers to purchase a product, register for a service, fill out a form, or visit a website.
*MLM - Multilevel Marketing
*Opt-in - Consent based newsletter and mailing list subscription
*PI - Paid Inclusion. Guaranteed listing is a search engine for a fee.
*PPC - Pay-Per-Click - when an affiliate receives a commission for each click (visitor) they refer to a merchant's web site.
*PPL - Pay per lead - when an affiliate receives a commission for each sales lead that they generate for a merchant web site.
*PPS - Pay-Per-Sale - when an affiliate receives a commission for each sale of a product or service that they refer to a merchant's web site.
*Revenue per lead - Business ratio that shows the conversion strength of the affiliate program to which you send leads - but also the quality of your leads.
*PRP - Percentage Revenue Plan - affiliate earns a percentage of the net lifetime revenue for each new referral.
*Raw Visitor - Counted every time a page is viewed
*Residual Earnings - Structure that pays commissions made at a merchant site for the life of the customer.
*ROAS - Return on Ads Spent - Percentage of income vs. expenses generated by advertising
*ROI - Return on Investment - Percentage of income earned vs. total investment. Shows how much you get in return for each dollar invested.
*SEM - Search Engine Marketing
*SEO - Search Engine Optimization
*SERP - Search Engine Results Page - the listing a search engine (for example Google) returns in response to a search query.
*Storefront - prefabricated HTML page, with integrated affiliate links, that displays new or specialized products.
*TOS - Terms of Service. Also knows as affiliate agreement
Seem like a lot? Well, it is, but many of these definitions are common sense. However, do not stress yourself over knowing everything right away. It takes time to learn, look over the definitions daily, review, and never be afraid to ask questions!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Research To Build the Backbone
When you choose a domain name, one thing you want to do is try to select a .com name if it is available. Dot com names are easier to remember and more often than not do better in the search engine rankings than dot net or dot biz sites.
So, the question I have had many ask me is where is the best place to purchase a domain name? Does it really matter if I purchase my domain from one place and host at the other?
For me, I chose Yahoo Domains for my domain and $9.95/year isn't too bad. However, in my situation, I chose to go with Shiftcode for my GPT sites.
However, if you were to choose Yahoo for your hosting company, they would bundle and offer you a better deal to purchase a domain and host with them AND they offer wonderful customer support and other advice for building your website.
Reliable web hosting from Yahoo! Web Hosting - 35% off for a limited time!
Because there are numerous hosting companies popping up, the competition is a lot higher between online hosting companies and so do not be afraid to ask them for a custom quote or for a better rate. If they cannot tailor to a reasonable request, they know that you could go elsewhere and more than likely you will be able to get a bundled rate.
GoDaddy is a great company to work with especially if you have more than one site.
Go Daddy Bulk Domain Registration
Often times with a company like GoDaddy, you can register unlimited domains and get a reduced rate for hosting more than one site with them. Another way of gaining you as a customer is offering an especially lower rate if you sign up for more than a few months. For example, save an additional $5 a month if you sign up for a 12 month contract.
If features, additional products and good customer service are your determining factors, your best bet would be to go with a host that is well-known and that is well-established. These companies normally do have the best rates and are more willing to cut you a deal. They also will answer support tickets faster than a week's time and will have more than just one way to contact them regarding your services.
Web Hosting - $7.96 - Free Setup!
Monday, January 21, 2008
HTML Can Be Your Friend. Really.
One of the biggest challenges for me thus far has been learning HTML. HTML is and has always been my worst nightmare. I've talked to those programmers and those who live and breathe the HTML language and I've been told the same thing time after time. "HTML is simple, one of the easiest things to learn and it will be your best friend."
Hmmm...With my prior years of experience, I find it hard to believe that HTML and I will be BFF's. EVER.
Learning Shiftcode, the site that I have both Disco Dollars and Ode To Family hosted on, I had to rigorously study and learn how to use the products and how to edit my own sites. I have had computer experience and I have taken some computer classes and so, I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for some to manage their own sites without some guidance or minimal computer knowledge.
The one thing about me is that I am definitely, by far, a hands-on learner. So for someone to try to sit and explain something to me is all fine and dandy. However, let me go through it on my own and let me ask questions along the way. That is the only way I can learn. Now, I'm certainly not saying that Shiftcode's products are that complicated, but it is new so of course it takes time to learn as it does with anything. As the old saying goes, "Practice does make perfect".
HTML is like learning Spanish. HTML is its own language and is what is behind website creation.
Here is a great resource for everything HTML-related:
At this point I am not a pro when it comes to HTML, but I can say, it is not completely foreign to me.
