Wow it really does work! You can get paid for simply posting links to google! Check it out!

Ok so not really.. but I figured it would be fun to post another check image since google decided to finally mail me a payment for my adsense traffic over the last 8 months! $123 dollars baby! Mo’ Money Mo’ Money!

Anyway… ive been meaning to post some useful stuff here  but ive run into a personal problem. After several months of my first bitter ass cold Minnesota winter and working from home ive gone crazy. Ive got cabin fever and ive got it bad. The last week and a half has been a total wash. I haven’t even been able to think about work. Like a really really fucking bad case of writers block. I see the offers, I see other people LPs and absolutely nothing pops into my head. Ive opted instead to take a vacation from work in hopes of fixing my cabin fever via the stack of PS3 games ive  got. But it seems that isn’t going to work as well as I thought since its been over a week now and I still feel the same.

To add to my new found crazyness one of my main offers died last week. I bounced around a lot trying to find a new offer that could take its place finally finding one Sunday after several days of losses. Today I just found out that the new offer I found is now dead to! Fuck man. Seriously wtf is happening to affiliate marketing. Its like all fly by day shit thats here one day and gone the next. Once i get back on my game I am going to dedicate more time to more solid shit thats been around for a while. I run a business now, this isn’t a hobby to get extra cash ive gotta work harder on finding solid revue streams to keep up my pay roll. Hopefully spring will be kind and come sooner rather than later so I can go outside!

Anyone have to deal with the whole work at home thing? got some advice?

This is a topic that has been driving me nuts and seems to happen quite often. The question is where is my money? This month I have been doing rather well and I have yet to have a loss this month. So if everyday is profit I should have a good pile of profits heading my way.

But when I checked out my bank account today and compared it to what’s currently on my American express. I find my self trying to figure out where all this money has gone since its not sitting in my bank account. Where is it?

Well this brings us back to network payment terms. Something which I feel is often over looked when you are working on your accounting at the end of the month. Some networks offer weekly payments, some bi-weekly, and some monthly. Heck if your joining a new network it might be even longer to start off with as they don’t know you well yet and are still checking your traffic quality. Then of course there are the weird ones like CJ and PepperJam which use different systems altogether. It can all be quite confusing if you are running traffic on several networks. You also need to note if your going to be paid by Wire, or Check as each option adds or removes time.

My advice to any new affiliate marketers is to make a spreadsheet of the networks you are running traffic with and make a note of each networks payment terms. If you are on a tight budget and are floating costs on a credit card this is extremely important. If american express wants its money at the end of the month and your not getting paid for this months traffic until mid the following month you better have a savings to back it up.

You also may need to limit the networks you work with because of this. I try to only work with 4-5 networks at any one time since I have established relationships with them and I have better payout terms with them. This consolidation helps me cover my ppc costs by having traffic at two major networks with weekly payouts. These 2 networks cover 100%+ of my ppc costs so I am able to pay my bills as they come in with out worry. But this also means that the majority of the profits are now riding on the other networks I work with and their various payout terms. 

So where is my money? Its coming… just seems as though its not here yet. Its best to check these things at the end of the month, just make sure not to lose track of where your money is and when your going to get it.

Last month I joined with XY7 as part of a contest hosted by Tyler Cruz and started running a few offers with them. I wasn’t sure if I was going to win or not. But with the help of Jim my affiliate manager over there and some creative campaigns I was able to win first place and win my self a ps3 and rockband 2. I would have never bought these things for my self so this worked out great. So a special thanks go out to XY7 for this great prize, me and my girl friend have been having a blast playing LittleBig Planet.

If you have not joined with XY7 yet your missing out. They treat their affiliates really well and have tons of gifts and prizes they send out to top affiliates. Sign me up with XY7!

I often get hit up with PM’s from new people to the business about how to get started in affiliate marketing. Today while talking to someone I mentioned to him advice I hadn’t really thought of before. Avoid the herd.

I found a guys blog today who is taking tabs on all of the blogs he has found. The guy makes note that all of the pages look the same, have the same comments, and images. Mothers of 3 are now pushing their google cash stories with comments still unchanged from the weightloss blogs. He has a massive list of domains and names used on these pages.  Our industry is becoming filled with lazy scammers and he points that out.

It started with acai, moved to grants, and now has taken over the work at home scene. This massive herd of idiots is copying landing pages, images, even ads. Like a large herd of dumb cows they all blast out the same crap totally destroy the niche after making some quick cash and move on. Are they making money? Probably.

But what are they really learning about the business? Nothing. Do they know how to write copy? Nope. Can they make a landing page? Nope. If you are new to the business its going to be hard to avoid all the idiots publicly talking about their EPC in chat, like a big pissing contest of who is the bigger bull in the herd. But what you should make note of is that no one that really dose affiliate marketing as a living is doing this.

I don’t see nickcakes or ajon in there talking about how google cash payout was lowered and now they are screwed. Nor will you see them talking about how yesterday they had a $5 EPC but today is only $1. The real money in affiliate marketing is not doing the same thing as everyone else.  When people say to follow the money they mean the offer not the landing page. If you find something that is making you money you want NO ONE else on that offer. That’s the whole point.

I have campaigns that I have had running for a year now that are still pulling in a profit everyday. If you are just starting affiliate marketing you need to stick to the basics.  Avoid this herd of crap and learn how to make money with out depending on others. 

Back in September when American Express went ape nuts with the rest of the economy I had a 2.5k limit card from my college days that had a 0 balance on it. My personal limit was lowered to $500 from 2.5k but I didn’t really care because it was a dead/emergency card. Who cares right?

Well yesterday I decided that amex points suck ass and that I would rather have a starwood card instead of my gold card. So I can get hotel points.  For refrence 1,000 amex points is equal to 333 star wood points. So $1k for 333 points. If I had a starwood card $1k equals 1k points! Way better.

So I fill out their online application and the tell me I was declined because a card had its limit lowered. I ran into this before when I tried to get a new card for a new company but shit its been months since then. Rather pissed off at this point because after that card was lowered I called them and canceled it. What’s the use of an emergency card that only has $500 on it.. Anyway I really wanted a starwood because I want to go to paris next month. So I call them up and ask what’s going on today. My gold card is in perfect standing and is paid off 3-4 times a month since it has a low limit. There should be no problem right?

Turns out that once you have a card limit lowered with amex you can not be approved for a new card for a YEAR. Thats right. No matter what your standing is with them nor your credit score they will not issue you a line of credit for any amount for a year after you have a card limit lowered by any amount. It could be dropped by $50 and your fucked for the year. 

I have yet to talk to a single person who has NOT had their limit lowered this year. The credit crunch fucked over everyone I knows credit limit with american express. I wonder if they know that they can’t get a new card for a year. We have all just been ass fucked by american express and their system. Enjoy. oh yeah fuck you american express.

Last week I posted about how awesome this new wordpress review plugin was. I now have 14 websites build with this pluging and all are now ranking for their keywords! But the reason for this post today is that I have a 25% off coupon that I have been allowed to use to promote this product from the owner him self.

So if you wanted to buy the new WFReview plugin but were on the fence here is a 25% Off Coupon for it! Its got a limited number of uses on it so grab your copy before the price goes back up.

Coupon: D7147

Enjoy!

For the last several months I have been working from home off the couch, misc chairs, the floor, and the dinning table. This has not lead its self to being very productive and has really pissed off my back and posture.  It’s started to dive me nuts and has made my days quite uncomfortable.

January was a good start to the year and February also started strong.  Because of this ive decided to splurge this month and build my self a office area worth sitting in. Everything is now on order and here is what ive got so far.

The desk is a paperclip desk from Blu-Dot a local design firm in Minneapolis, and is 1 of only 3 left! I saw this desk and just had to have it I love the modern look to the table. It matches my style and should last me for years to come. 

The chair is the new Embody from Herman Miller. I had planed on getting an Aeron but when I was at the show room I didn’t like the feel of the chair. I saw the Embody in the show room and after a few mins in the chair I knew this was the one I wanted.

The chair feels amazing! If you have a Herman Miller dealer near you, you have to check out this chair. Just go sit in one for like 5-10mins and you will see why its so bad ass.

The whole office is going to have a modern organic feel to it. The chair is going to be the same model in the picture but will be a green color more like wheat grass. Which should go great with the birch table. I am really excited to get to work at my new area but it’s going to take a few weeks to get my chair in the mail. =/ Ill post pictures when everything is here and put together. Its gonna rock.

Jonathan Volk posted today what is probably one of the dumbest things I have ever seen titled “Getting Accepted Into A CPA Network“. When I started a year ago in affiliate marketing making like 1k a month I used to read his blog for a source of information and to see how well he was doing since he started at what seemed the same time. I in no way want to compare myself to him other than starting around the same time. I don’t make anywhere near 300k a month in revenue. But I do well enough to work at home and do my own thing and still make a crap ton more than I would at a normal job at my age.

Anyway! I just wanted to add a few points to what he said since I secretly know the REAL way to get approved by affiliate networks.

• If you are a international publisher not in the AU, or UK your almost completely screwed. So many networks are super strict on this due to the amount of scammers and fraud that comes out of most countries. If your a legit guy and can prove it CALL THEM and talk to someone and explain your business and offer them some test traffic. Odds are if you can speak perfect english and your traffic is good you will get in regardless of where you live. I plan to some day be uber rich and live around the world and there is no way im going to get declined by a network for just moving to china or something.
• When they call pick up the phone and tell them what they want to know. If they don’t call you, you call them. Easy as Mr.Volk pointed out.
• Now here is the BIG SECRET. You should apply to these networks by clicking on the banner ads and links on my site! Networks know who referred you to the network and if they are in good standing you might be to! With that being said if you want to join any of these networks click on the links below and go make lots and lots of money. Its so easy a cave man could do it!

Ads4Dough

Convert2Media

Advaliant

NeverBlue

PepperJam

Copeac

Azoogle

Yesterday I hit a new record in daily profit and revenue! Which is why you always need to test different offers! The offer I was running before had a higher payout and converted at 8% once they got to the offer page. The new offer that I just tested yesterday has a lower payout but a 16% conversion rate! These are numbers you always need to look at! The same campaign, same LP, same keywords just doubled in sales because of the offer I am promoting.

If you have something that is profitable or nearly profitable you should be trying to run it on several networks to split test for scrubbing or tracking issues and if there are other like offers you need to take a chance on testing them for a few hours of traffic. Some times you lose a little money this way but some times you hit gold and double your return on the same campaign. Looking at todays number already at 11Am and I can tell today is going to be another record setting day. 

Test, Test, Test and never get lazy once you get a campaign going, there is always more money to be had if you can find it.

As I am writing this every direct track network is DOWN, all links are broken and no sites will even load. Direct Track is the largest back end provider for affiliate networks and many advertisers which means that 98% of the networks I am on are currently dead and we are all losing money. Sending traffic to dead links.

Am I worried? Nope. Yeah I have some stuff thats paused now because they offers are on Direct Track Networks. But my main money maker that pays the bills is working perfectly fine since it is with Advaliant! Advaliant has taken the time since I first joined with them to develop their own network software completely free direct track. These guys know what they are doing and I am glad to be banking with them while the rest of the affiliate world is running around like headless chickens.

Sign up with Advaliant and see why they are one of the networks I do most of my traffic with. Make sure to ask for Geoff he is my AM and dose a amazing job with my account.