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Elite Retreat with Lee Dodd Dave Taylor Aaron Wall and Jeremy Schoemaker Part 1

4 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on December 20, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Affiliate Tips, Elite Retreat  

Many of you have been posting or commenting about the Elite Retreat that recently took place in San Antonio Texas. Prior to the conference many were posting negative feedback and saying that it wasn’t going to be worth the $4,850 entry fee. After attending the two day conference I personally feel they should charge more. I will discuss why attending the Elite Retreat was more than worth it to me.

 

First, it wasn’t just about the four main speakers, Lee Dodd, Dave Taylor, Aaron Wall, and Jeremy Schoemaker (Shoemoney). When the conference started the main speakers introduced themselves and then every attendee introduced themselves with a brief background. After the attendees gave their background you realize that you have opportunities to learn from the attendees in addition to the main speakers. I made connections with some of the attendees that would have never happened without me attending and I know that the connections will pay off for both parties.

 

Second, the secrets were shared. Many people had doubts and stated the speakers will not share their secrets. The speakers realize it is the World Wide Web and there is plenty of room for us all to make money. When I say secrets were shared that doesn’t mean a free handout of here is the keywords, here is the ad to use, here is a site to buy, or here is a free buck. It was more of displaying this is a tool I use or created to give me an edge, some are out there for free but some are ones you would have to get made yourself. BUT we now have the edge and knowledge of tools that can help us now and in the future with increasing our search engine rankings and monetization of our sites.

 

Third, we all received real feedback and ideas for our websites. During one of the sessions they asked if people wanted feedback for their sites. Of course people were more than willing to have there site shown on the display screen, but not only was there great input and feedback given from the leaders but the attendees chimed in with nuggets of information also. The information given would help catapult those sites to the next level in sales, SEO, and monetization. If you didn’t want to have your sites up in front of everyone on the second day of the conference you had the opportunity for 1 on 1 time with each speaker. The 15 minutes of one on one time was worth the cost alone, I have over two pages of notes just from the individual attention time.

 

Fourth, you leave with new ideas, and ways to grow your sites or even start new ones. I know every single person left the conference and could not wait to get back and implement some of the ideas that were shared. I will be posting in the near future about some of the ideas I received at the conference and how much they benefited my sites monetarily and even boosting my search engine rankings. I honestly feel within a month I will have earned the money back that I spent on the Elite Retreat.

Google Christmas Gift Arrives – It’s a Digital Photo Frame

9 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on December 4, 2006 in Affiliate Information  

I was getting ready to head out of my house for some christmas shopping on saturday December 2 and the UPS man drops off a package. To my surprise it was from Google. Of course I can’t wait to open it so I rush inside to open the package to see what goodie they sent me. It is a digital picture frame from Google! Below is some information about the digital picture frame and some pictures.

3.6 inch TFT digital photo frame
960 x 240 TFT screen, 16 mega-color
Picture: JPG format
Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV and records WAV itself
Video: ASF only
Media: Internal memory and SD card, comes with sample slideshow in memory
Power: 4 AA batteries, AC/DC power adapter even has foreign plug adapter.

Google photo frame box

Google picture frame

Google Photo frame

I did have some issues transfering files to the internal memory but once I put in a SD card and trasnfered files to the card, the picture frame worked like a charm.

Thanks Google.

Ringtone Payout increases!

1 Person Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on November 30, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Affiliate Networks  

If you are in the Ringtone market and regulate the digitalpoint forums you will have noticed there has been basically a bid war for people that promote the Mobile Sidewalk offer. Who said CP Network competition isn’t a good thing (Especially for Publishers).
First, Maxbounty was offering 13.90 for base payout on Mobile sidewalk and Azoogles‘ payout was lower, (I can’t remember their original rate). Then Azoogle decide to beat Maxbounty with a payout of 14.00. Of course Maxbounty counters with a 14.50 payout. Any of these payouts are great payouts for a Ringtone offer as most hover from 9.00 to 13.00.
Then Azoogle decided to make the jump and payout 15.00 per signup, and I went and checked Maxbounty this morning and they are now paying out 15.00 per signup also!
One thing to take note is both companies are offering different Ad Copy. So try them out and see which one works for your sites. This also shows you how much some networks are making off of these ringtone offers if they are able to raise that much. Just think when either network was paying out the lower base pay they were pocketing the difference, so I am sure both networks are feeling the squeeze on their profits from this offer.
All I have to say is competition in networks is a good thing! BUT I can almost guarantee that these high payouts from either party won’t last so get the money while you can. The last time Azoogle did a major increase in ringtone payout it was on Dada and only lasted a few weeks then took a 3.00 dive.  Both Maxbounty and Azoogle are great CPA Networks if you aren’t signed up for one or the other you are missing out.
If you have any suggestions or feedback feel free to leave us a comment.

Networking Is Key to Growing Online!

1 Person Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on November 29, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Affiliate Tips  

All the time people wonder how I come up with new trends, and areas to venture into with online marketing. The key is Networking, Networking, Networking. If you aren’t networking you could be missing out big time.

First, start by making your presence known online. Post in forums with questions and answers. Many of connections I have made have come from people helping me solve a promotion or programming problem. But don’t just take give back supply answers to people’s questions. You would be surprised as you can sometimes learning something even from a newbie!

Get AIM, YIM, Google talk or at least some type of instant messaging system that other people use. I can’t count how many general chats have turned into idea sessions or end up being long term partnerships. Plus the instant messengers have groups and labels to sort thru the people that just want to suck the information from you or with the people that are really great online contacts.

Lastly, attend conferences! Many people just try to do things online via chat and forums, but a face to face meeting can mean the difference between your site making 100 dollars or 1000 dollars. Yes these conferences cost money to get to but they are more than worth it (plus you can write it off as a business expense). Make sure you have plenty of business cards, and get ready to shake lots of hands.

I will be attending Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, Jan 21-23 2007. If you are planning to attend and want to meet up leave a comment and let me know.

A Meeting of the Web Minds that you can Learn from!

2 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on November 1, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Elite Retreat  

Many of us in the CPA world have heard of Shoemoney (Jeremy Schoemaker) but now is your chance to sit face to face with him & many other internet “Guru’s” and get your questions answered. They are Calling it the Elite Retreat.

It is a great oppoprtunity to sit with many of the best in the internet business (Leaders: Jeremy Schoemaker, Lee Dodd, Dave Taylor, Aaron Wall ) and pick their brain and help them push you and your sites to the next level. I am even considering going but I have will have to check with the real boss (My wife) as the only thing holding me back from signing up is that it is right before Christmas.

Some may say this is expensive, but think the knowledge that will be gleamed from them and the contacts you will have when you walk away from the retreat. The contacts you will have are worth the entry fee alone.

But if you want to find out more infomation about the Elite Retreat and all the Speakers,details etc. Check out this post Elite Retreat December 18-19 San Antonio

Maxbounty takes a Stance on Myspace Promotion

6 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on October 31, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Affiliate Networks  

I received this email from Maxbounty today.

 I am sending you this e-mail today to update you on MaxBounty’s position with respect to advertising on MySpace.

While we have been allowing affiliates to advertise MaxBounty campaigns through
their personal MySpace profiles with the provision that they were not phishing or
spamming other MySpace profiles, our recent efforts working with MySpace directly
has shown that too many people are breaking the rules. Coupled with the fact that
MySpace expressly forbids commercial activity of any type in their terms of service,
we have decided to change our position on MySpace advertising.

Effective immediately, MaxBounty’s affiliate terms and conditions will be updated to
prohibit advertising of any type through MySpace accounts. This includes, but is not
limited to, advertising via bulletins, comments, mail, profiles or any other area of
a MySpace account. Any affiliate caught violating these terms run the risk of having
their MaxBounty accounts terminated.

Looks like no more myspace promotion of Maxbounty offers, plain and simple. So if you did or use links you may want to remove them immediately.

Making Money as an Affiliate. Where do I start?

5 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on October 27, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Affiliate Tips  

I get asked all the time on how I make money and how others can get started. I will give an overview of what needs to be done before you take the plunge into being an Affiliate and promoting offers.

First – Research Research Research

Research is the key and gaining knowledge of the Affiliate market. You are at the right place by reading Cpa-Affiliates.com Blog but there are many other places. Below is a few forums and blogs I read that can help you gain information.

• Earners Forums
• Digital Point Forums
• SitePointe Forums
• Wicked Fire Forums
• Capitalist Pigs Blog
• Shoemoney’s Blog
• The News and online news sources.

Second – Decide to do it.

I get asked all the time should I give this a try or is it worth it? Yes everything is worth a try get a plan together and just do it. Start small and get bigger. Do you want to look back on your life wondering what would have happened if you would have tried? I know I don’t! If you have existing sites use them, if not start a site. Learn some html or web programming. Start posting some of your questions as comments in this blog or in the forums I recommended.

Thirdly – Signup

Now you decided you are going to do it and you have a plan, start signing up. Get going with a diversification. I suggest trying at least one contextual, one CPA network, and one advertising network for the best success. My suggested signups are listed below:

Contextual:
Join Google Adsense

CPA:
Join MaxBounty
Join Azoogle

If you want to signup for more networks check out our Top 5 CPA Networks.

Advertising:
Join Google Adwords

Now you’re signed up get going and implement your plan. Once the pennies start rolling in your will be driven to make quarters, then dollars, then thousands. The biggest thing to remember is to learn from both successes and failures. If you only learn from your successes then you are missing some major knowledge gaining experiences.

Lastly give yourself time Rome wasn’t built over night and neither will your success. Remember that the internet is constantly changing and you need to change with it to truly be successful. I wish you the best of luck!

If you have any suggestions or feedback feel free to leave us a comment.

Ringtones the Big Money or the Big disappointment

3 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on October 23, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Affiliate Tips, Ringtones  

Many people ask in forums or in replies to blogs what is the deal with ringtone market as of late? Is it saturated? Is the money maker ending? Are Ringtones conversions decreasing? What is the best CPA network to use to promote ringtone offers from? I will try to answer a few of these questions today.
Is the Ringtone market saturated?
Yes and No is my answer. I feel it has reached a saturation point of the effect that everyone can make a buck it takes more work than it did 6 months ago heck even a month ago. The reason I say no is there is always room for new promotions ideas and unique was to promote ringtones. But doing the same old same old is going to get you break even if you lucky.
Is the Ringtone Cash Machine ending?
Well of course…… eventually it will end but as with anything it will have a cycle. That may mean it remains a good market for the next year or it could be 5 years. I have a feeling we will see this market stick around for a while.
Are Ringtone Conversions Decreasing?
This answer will vary as sometimes it is a reporting or tracking issue but par of it also has to do with saturation of the market. As with any ad you see it enough you start ignoring it even the GREAT ads. I wouldn’t be surprised to help increase the conversion CPA networks start changing the creatives more often to give the offers a fresh a new look.
What CPA network is the best one to Promote ringtones from?
Which ever one pays the most and converts the best. If it pays the most and doesn’t convert, the high payout does you no good whatsoever. So try different networks (Top 5 CPA Networks) and try different offers. I will say that my top 2 ringtone networks are Maxbounty and Azoogle. Both have a variety of offers and payouts and they both have offers that convert well. If you are going after the pot of gold Maxbounty has the highest base Pay ringtone offer that pays 13.90 per signup for mobilesidewalk.
Lastly, I will discuss the frustration. Yes frustration with ringtone offers. As one day you may have rockin converts and the next day they may suck. My word of advice is try to capitalize on a new and emerging market as you could be the next one to hit it big for loans, scholarships, sweepstakes, diet products etc… instead of trying to get in on a market that has tons of competition.
If you have any feedback or questions feel free to leave a comment. If you liked the article feel free to give it a digg or plug from any one of the social book marking links below.

Easy Money with CPA Networks is Hard!

11 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on October 9, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Affiliate Tips  

This weekend was a crazy one for me. I saw lots of posts and emails asking about why they keep reading about how easy it is to make money online but yet they are having a hard time doing it.

Why do people say Internet money is easy money?
Because those who have things working for them on the internet seem to have it easy as they have a well oiled machine basically printing money for them. Remember it could have taken months or even years to get where they are at and they may have a team of experts working for them. (Work Smarter not Harder)

How do I Earn Easy Money?
Well I don’t. I work hard everyday looking for new trends on the net, new products, new offers, analyzing existing sites and campaigns. I am constantly tweaking and changing things. People around me see that I can leave for weeks at a time and still pay the bills think I have it made.

What people don’t see:
* Times where I am up at 3:00am coding or working on a campaign/ website because I had a great idea or have an issue that needs resolved.
* When I am away form home and can’t find an internet connection I drive around the town in search of free wifi etc…
* The years of work I have put into this business and times I have failed that are long gone or could have been yesterday. (But I roll with the punches and keep trying)
* The times my wife yells at me for spending too much time on the PC.
* The thousands I have spent and lost money on doing trial and error and new design layouts.
* The Days where I am ready to quit as my listings get dropped from the search engines or my payout goes down do to smart pricing or my campaigns get rejected for no real reason. (But I roll with the punches and keep trying)

There is much more than these that people don’t see, but this gives you an idea. While there isn’t really easy money, once you learn that trial and error and never giving up is key then you are already ahead of the game.  So if you failed at a CPA campaign or your website is only making .05 a day instead of 5.00 don’t give up trying something else, look for advice there are many forums and blogs like this one that will give advice. Whatever you do don’t give up.

A side note: Throwing up any old ad with Iframed offer doesn’t always cut it. Do your research think outside of the box this will get you earning more. As anyone can put up a page iframed or with a banner be different and i bet you will make money!

If you have a question you want answered just leave a comment and we will do our best to answer it. 

AzoogleAds Responds Affiliate Marketing Rumors On Wickedfire

2 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on October 3, 2006 in Affiliate Information, Affiliate Networks  

Many of you may have seen the post on Wickedfire Forums concerning Azoogle Laying off 16 people and that it was relate to affiliate marketting slowing down. It appears it is just a trimming of the fat at Azoogle to continue to grow. See Alex, Co-founder of Azoogleads response below:

 

Hi guys,

We did in fact let go of some people in our Toronto office, around 16 employees. This has nothing to do with the “cpa industry slowing down.” In fact, we are still growing like a weed. Azoogle still has almost 140 employees. In any growing company, you need to hire the best but also you need to ensure that you trim your staff when necessary to remove redundant employees, as well as your lowest performers. Just because someone “does the job” does not mean that they deserve to keep it. If someone else can service the client better, then we want the better employee to service the client. Azoogle was not built by hiring employees that were just “good enough,” we want the best and brightest in the industry to lead this company.

This round of spring cleaning won’t really affect affiliates at all, as the affiliate group is only growing, in fact its nearly twice bigger today than it was 6 months ago.

Cheers!
Alex

 

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