August 01, 2010

When I first wrote this article, I was a bit upset with Value Click’s services, but I learned to work with their team and we’ve come a long way since. Some of the stuff I’ve noted in the article still bother me, but I stopped carrying because I only care about one thing and that’s: Getting Paid. I will be going through this post, and commenting in red anything that I think should be updated, or noted but won’t get rid of my original thoughts.

May 4, 2010

Hi everyone, over the next 30 days I will be examining and detailing the top CPA, CPC, and CPM networks including CJ, Linkshare, ADSDAQ, Pulse360, ValueClick Media. I currently have the upper hand: I have is a domain that receives approximately 750,000 – 1.8M unique visits in a 30 day period – it should be a good place to start making money  - right? Well, to my discovery – not really. It’s not easy making money with CPA, or CPM.

My first review is: Value Click Media a great and friendly CPM network.

Value Click Media – A company who claims to be a leader in the CPM Network industry.   ‘Voice Ads’ “You have been selected to receive a free iPod” have you ever gotten those? Value Click Media has them! – It’s disappointing, but you can filter them out. In my opinion a CPM network should exclude all bad ads, even to those who pay top notch to be in it.

This evening I had a 300×250 CPM for 0.01 cent about Jesus Chris and converting to Christianity. Fantastic.

Day 1 with Value Click Media was pretty confusing. I couldn’t get my account activated and had contact their customer support which has been on the phone with me for approximately fifteen minutes but waited for approximately 1 hours for the account to mysteriously activate itself until one of their representatives said “Oh, your account has not been confirmed yet – that’s why it’s not working” – Silly me.

Finally, I’m in the backend, I’m ready to make money. First thing I’m headed towards: Filters – because who wants to have voice ads, massive diet pop up ads on their domain – Are you still following?

When that was done I was headed to see what’s running on their site – what CPM as well as trying to Excel exactly how much money the company would be making every single month.

I selected 728×90 banner to appear on my site, and guess what? I have both 728×90 banners and 468×60 banners appear within the same code.

I was about to email Value Click Media once again, and let them see a 2nd screen-shot which I was about to take and as I opened my domain, I loud noise was heard, saying, “You’ve been selected to receive a Wal-Mart Gift card” NO! I’ve filtered those

It really didn’t take too long to disable that, I just reached out to a representative who quickly had that removed from my domain.

Value Click’s back-end panel

Media Management is the area where you see the available campaigns, their CPM, CPC and sizes (468×60, 728×90, 300×250 etc). I started going over one by one – some, It is a bit disappointing that you have to select one by one but their filtering let’s you bulk-select by category (Casino, Pop Ups, Diet, etc).

1. Overall their back end panel is simple, easy to use, quick to understand and gets 6/10 stars in my review.
2. Overall support and customer service – after being their customer for almost 3 months now I will say the customer service is definitely 10/10 – they are keen to help, they want you to succeed.
3. The ads that are shown in their site are decent, it really depends on the location you are coming from but they manage to do a very good filling rate.

Nowadays I have migrated our domain to being able to advertise 2x 728×90, 3x 160×600/120×600 300×250 and 180×50 thus will ensure a successful revenue model.

To anyone who is interested joining Value Click Media I truly recommend it. Just be smart, and you will be able to make really good money by reading their targeted ads, and how much CPM they are offering using SEO content.

LinkShare, a leading performance marketing network provider, today announced the LinkShare TweetShop Tool that enables anyone with a Twitter following to monetize their Twitter feeds, and easily turn customized tweets into an effective shopping tool. Generally available to publishers in its network, this innovation further demonstrates the company’s commitment to creating applications that are Easy, Fast and Open – easy-to-use, fast-to-market, and open across channels – and is the latest feature in LinkShare’s Bento Box, a showcase of new tools and applications.

More than 50 million live Twitter accounts exist today with approximately 4.6 million people using Twitter on a daily basis, according to recent research by RJMetrics and Quantcast. These numbers represent a massive demographic with huge market potential that is largely untapped as few companies today have successfully created ways to monetize Twitter feeds.

Additionally, nearly half of all “value hunters” – a new market segment identified in a recent survey by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates – are searching online for the best deals and promotions. Since this growing segment of online shoppers purchase something online once a week or more, they represent a growing consumer base that will be using tools like Twitter to find new products, search for deals, and satiate their everyday retail needs.

“With the holidays around the corner and seasonal online shopping on the rise, the LinkShare TweetShop Tool comes at an opportune time for publishers to share more online and take advantage of increased interest among online shoppers,” said Mark Kirschner, CMO, LinkShare. “In the advent of the Twitter-adoption explosion, this new tool brings a host of new possibilities to our affiliate network that is easy, fun and effective at driving revenue.”

With the LinkShare TweetShop Tool, publishers can easily customize tweets through the user interface which automatically creates a shortened URL that directs an online shopper to the landing page for the recommended object of affection.

Through three easy steps, publishers can turn their Twitter stream into a new revenue channel. Just Pick, Point and Post.
Pick the item to tweet about.
Point out the cool-factor.
Post as an updated tweet without the hassle of having to both find the webpage of that item and shorten the URL to fit into his/her tweet.
In light of the recent FTC rulings regarding full disclosure for endorsements, sponsorships and the terms and conditions that apply to any special offer, LinkShare recommends following common sense guidelines when using its new LinkShare TweetShop Tool, such as those developed by the Performance Marketing Alliance:

Avoid tweeting false or unsubstantiated product claims
Never create a fake/spam twitter account just to post new advertisements
Clearly and conspicuously disclose any connections with the advertiser and/or the affiliate network
Be creative! If it is an ad, it should sound like one, but go beyond a product pitch
Don’t abuse it. Daunted followers will stop following you and this will undermine your credibility you have built up in your online community
To check out the buzz on this new LinkShare TweetShop Tool, hear what industry experts have to say and add to the conversation, search and / or tweet on the following hashtag: #TweetShop.

For consumers interested in using Twitter as a shopping tool, check out and follow the publishers in LinkShare’s network already signed up to use the new tool:

Canadacoupons: @Canadacoupons
Fabulous Savings: @FabulousSavings
MyCoupons: @mycoupons
Simply Best Coupons: @SBCoupons
SurfMyAds (CouponWinner.com & PromotionalCodes.com): @CouponWinner
Upromise: @upromise
ThisNext: @thisnext

In the past several months I have been asked by many friends and colleagues “Which affiliate networks are good for me to join to”. When the actual question you should be asking is – Who is my audience (e.g. Target Audience).  and as an affiliate, how do I market myself better (e.g. Banner placements usage of text links).

What’s an Affiliate Network? An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and merchant affiliate programs. It allows website publishers to more easily find and participate in affiliate programs which are suitable for their website (and thus generate income from those programs), and allows websites offering affiliate programs (typically online merchants) to reach a larger audience by promoting their affiliate programs to all of the publishers participating in the affiliate network.

What should I look for in an Affiliate Network?

The first thing you need to do in your search for an Affiliate Network is simple.

• Navigate and imagine yourself doing that for the next several years
• Navigating in the affiliate website and check how easy it is to apply to programs.
• What do you think of their website layout.
• Who do they advertise?
• Do they pay good? Are their advertisers use CPA, CPM or CPC?
• Search for their contact form to see for yourself how hard/easy it is to reach out to them.

Also very important is their location, where are they located (United States or Europe, demographics of your website has a big role in SEO).  and also try to research what other people have to say about them. (I personally only like to hear the bad ones because they play the actual role, these stories might happen to you..)

My first on the top five list is LinkShare Affiliate Network. Just because their network is genuine and stylish. Getting links is so simple and they have such a great network of advertisers. One of my favorite affiliate programs that LinkShare has is iTunes Music store, although it’s 5% commission it is still good. Besides iTunes LinkShare is affiliated with Office Depot, SEPHORA, Enterprise, Walmart, Macys, Delta, 1-800-FLOWERS..

As a well known and trusted online marketing channel for finding new customers, the affiliate marketing industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. As an advertiser, the question is often not should you have an affiliate marketing program but which partner (or agency) and which technology is right for your business.

Click here to read more about LinkShare and possibly, sign up.

“Making affiliate marketing more productive” Google Affiliate Network connects advertisers and publishers who want to increase sales and drive leads through affiliate marketing.

As an advertiser using Google Affiliate Network, you’ll discover pre-screened publishers who can refer consumer traffic to you. As a publisher, you can market your site to advertisers in the network; If selected to participate in an advertiser’s program, you’ll earn a percent of sales or a referral bounty.

• Google Affiliate Network offers:
• Industry-leading advertiser and publisher services (UrbanOutfitters, Netflix + more)
• Rigorous network quality standards
• Reliable conversion tracking
• Detailed reporting (Most of them do but Google knows “Data Analysis”)
• Automated payments to publishers
• Simple link and creative delivery tools (Very simple,  use <a href=”url” codes yourself)
• Flexible commissions (you can also negotiate, I’ve done that as well and it works.)
• Access to top brands on the web.

Click here to read more about Google Affiliate Network and possibly, sign up.

CJ also known as “Commission Junction”. CJ in my opinion has been a work in progress. When I first joined CJ (2008) their website looked like it was from before the Internet was invented but they aim for innovation and also, meeting them in the Affiliate Summit of 2009 in New York City has changed my opinion towards their company and aspects a lot. They are great people to work with and besides, their affiliate network talks by itself. They have everyone from Blockbuster to Adidas to eHarmony, Expedia and more. If you’re looking for a wide variety of advertisers and good affiliate template CJ should be a good place to start out.

Commission Junction says “Drive quality results and extend your reach by partnering with affiliate marketing’s most  productive network of publishers. Further increase sales by complementing your customized  affiliate marketing program with a fully-managed and integrated, comprehensive search engine marketing solution.”

Click here to read more about Commission Junction and possibly, sign up.

Affiliate Network ShareASale which I choose third before anyone else just because of their advertisers but as far for site performance it is laid out poorly and highly confusing. However, money is money. Sign up to their program and stop whining.

There are currently over 2,500 Merchants click to preview plugged in to the ShareASale Network. Each of these merchants has a different type of product that they are selling – and each is ready to commission you on that sale if you bring a customer to them

Click here to read more about ShareASale and possibly, sign up.

Casino Affiliate is PartnerLogic (Casino Affiliate) Every PartnerLogic Affiliate Partner has the ability to earn up to 40% commission every month plus a straight flush of unrivalled Affiliate benefits. Its easy to see why ‘Gambling Online Magazine’ readers voted PartnerLogic the ‘Top Affiliate Program’ of 2004.

Certified on Casino Affiliate Programs (CAP), PartnerLogic continues to show our high status within the industry. Reaching all affiliates on the CAP forum and providing an additional way for affiliates to stay informed when it matters, PartnerLogic truly is the affiliate program who works with all affiliates, supporting them from their first day of sign up. If you’re after the Big Bucks $$$$$ this is where the money is.

Click here to read more about PartnerLogic and possibly, sign up.

Overview

This guide has been taken from the Guidelines for Apple Online Store Affiliate Publishers

The Apple Online Store is the world’s #1 resource for the purchase of Apple products online. When your company is approved to use an Apple-provided asset such as a web banner or Apple Store web badge to direct your customers to the Apple Online Store, it is important to use those assets correctly as shown in these guidelines.

The Apple banner must be positioned in the advertising area at the top or side of your web page, preferably near content related to the Apple promotion shown on the banner.

Do not use more than one Apple banner.

Do not use multiple Apple banners to create your web page content. Your web page should feature content created by your company.

This example leads with an Apple banner followed by an editorial headline, suggesting that Apple has endorsed or provided the editorial content. It must be clear to readers that the a∑liate is the source of the content.

Do not remove an Apple product photo from an Apple banner and use it alone. Do not rearrange the elements of a banner or create a new banner. Never display only a portion of an Apple banner.