Up till now, this blog has been more of a general blog. However, I have decided to change the focus to talking about some of the affiliate programs, network opportunities, paid social networking sites, traffic exchanges, etc for the time being. I have been in the affiliate marketing business for a while and thought that I would share with you my thoughts about the different programs I am a part of. Upcoming posts will include:
- honest reviews of programs I am a part of
- spotlighted opportunities
- sub affiliate recruitment opportunities
- etc.
Programs to be reviewed includes:
- Global Domains International: this is the low investment mlm opportunity that offers 1) affordable web hosting and 2) a 5 tier affiliate program with huge commissions potiential (say up to $10,000 a month or more depending on what your conversion rate is).
- People String, Yuwie, Viral Networks, Zenzuu and similar revenue sharing social networking sites
- Traffic Exchanges
- Paid to Click and Paid to read sites
- GPT sites (such as Project Payday)
- Tiered Affiliate programs (such as Ozone Conferencing and Dating Gold)
- Affiliate networks, including: clickbank, clickbooth, linkshare, commission junction, amazon, etc
- Downline builders (such as Acme People Search, Hits2u, The Spider Web system, etc)
Notes about these upcoming posts:
1. These posts are not to be spam bait. I am just offering my personal opinions about these programs. If you want me to sign up under your program, I’d be happy to trade you a sign up for a sign up (preferably if the investment is $10/month or less due to budget constraints). If you are looking to advertise your business, you might consider using safelists like The List Auction at http://thelistauction.com/content/index.php?aff=9965, Ads Depot at http://freeaddepot.com/?aff=65994 or hits2u at http://www.hits2u.com?648778
2. No I am not going to try and sell you on these opportunities. My main objective is to educate you. Of course, I am always looking to recruit sub affiliates into my networks and I’d be happy to sign you up under me if you want, but that is your choice.
3. Disclaimer about earnings: in these opportunities, I can’t guarantee you will make money with these. Obviously, lots of these sites claim that you will make millions of dollars by joining an opportunity and promoting their stuff, but to be realistic, making money on the internet is really not that easy. I am still a n00b at this stuff too and so I am still working on making a living online myself (while maintaining several part time jobs offline). You have to think of it this way, there are several factors that will determine your actual earnings:
- traffic to your links - are your links getting enough its? Typically, the more hits you get the more likely you will generate sales, leads, etc. In most if not all programs (especially in affiliate networks), there are hit logs, analytics and other stats that show how many hits you have gotten in a given day, month and/or year, along with how many impressions, clicks, sales, etc.
at Linkshare, you get realtime stats (which updates daily). It shows the number of impressions your referal link(s) get, the number of clicks they get, the number of orders generated, as well as commissions. As you can see, while Walmart got 66 clicks, none of them have converted into sales yet. This is a challenge you will likely face if you are a typical n00b affiliate, as most people will not buy from your advertiser’s site, even if it as a recognizable name (such as Walmart).
- commission structure(s)- each programs have their own commission structures. At Google Adsense, for example, you only have to generate clicks for your advertisers, while at say Linkshare, people clicking on your referral links actually have to buy from the advertiser’s website.
- In downline systems, how active is your downline? One problem I get sometimes (especially with paid to click programs) is that people sign up under me and just go inactive (i.e., never click, get hits, etc). Ideally, you want active and committed members in your network for it to work. In GDI, for example, if you had at least 10 downline members generating sales in each tier going the full 5 levels deep, you would be making about $100,000 or more per month in commissions, but realistically you might have 2 active members generating sales, and have several more that either quit or never generate sales.
- Conversion rate. This is probably the #1 factor that will determin your earnings and getting a decent conversion rate (say 1% or higher) is the hardest challenge in the affiliate marketing business (as well as most other systems). For example, if you have google adsense ads on your page, are people clicking on them (and no you can’t click on your own ads per Google’s TOS)? If you are part of Linkshare or a similar affiliate network, are you generating any leads or sales for your advertisers (impressions and clicks usually do not count at cpa affiliate networks). WIthout a conversion rate, you will never make money with any system or program.
- Charge backs - for example if you are a part of an affiliate program that pays monthly commissions (such as GDI), are people in your network keeping or dropping their service? Same goes for refunts
- how you promote - naturally some methods will work more than others
- your activity - are you committing time and effort to promoting, working on your website, etc?
- as well as other factors.
Enjoy these upcoming posts
