Shareasale Review
December 12, 2008 | No Comments »
Many of the programs I review on this blog are from the Shareasale affiliate network. The first thing I always recommend affiliate marketers to do is to join Shareasale network. They have everything that affiliate marketers need to get started including coupons, datafeeds, direct urls, 2nd tier affiliate programs, auto-deposit.
What I also really like about Shareasale is the fact they constantly check their affiliates for compliance. Some affiliates remove their tracking software and the affiliate networks don’t check very often. Shareasale checks often and will even show a complete history of when they were online and offline. This helps you avoid affiliate programs that go offline on purpose in order to have to pay less commissions. It happens more often then you think. Most networks don’t have a 2nd tier or coupon option in their network, both which are very valuable for serious affiliate marketers.
Shareasale network has a great choice of affiliate programs. U.S and Canada affiliate marketers should find many good affiliate programs to choose from in most niches. You may not find all the programs that you want, but Shareasale should be adequate to get you started in an affiliate marketing career. Payments are done by Check and direct deposit with a 50 dollar minimum for payout. U.S citizens must fill out tax form before payment. Join Shareasale.com affiliate network.
Business loans
December 12, 2008 | No Comments »
Loans are a important model in any business. Even an entrepreneur like me can use loans. When I want to buy out websites and develop them it usually takes a lot of money to buy a premium domain or developed website or to get a quality script. Sometimes I need to higher a web designer or programmer or administrator for helping my site. Usually you only need a loan because the things yo add to the website pays itself off in a few months to a year. It’s a big hassle going to your local bank and often requires a lot of paperwork, fees, and many requirements. If you want a relatively easy source of business loans , you might want to check out OnlineCheck.com
OnlineCheck.com gives you those loans without all the hassle of paperwork. Approval usually only takes 48 hours and the approval rate is 90% through them. Once you are approved, it only takes about 5 to 7 business days to get your money deposited to your bank. There is no hidden application or closing fees. You do not need even collateral and poor credit history is usually OK to be accepted for one of their loans. Go to OnlineCheck.com to learn more about their business loans.
What are Affiliate Data feeds?
December 11, 2008 | No Comments »
Datafeeds are a large product file that you upload your site to display a merchant’s products. The most common format shows the product image, the price, and a link to the site(with your affiliate link). Datafeeds are advantageous to affiliate marketers because they increase click throughs and save time in implementing complex product links into your site.
A datafeed file is basically a large file of records for each product from a merchant. Some datafeed files are only a few hundred kilobytes, while others are hundreds of megabytes. Each product record has a field in it, for example the product url would be one field for each each record. Datafeeds are an advanced affiliate technique because your job is to turn this large file and integrate it into your site’s pages.
In order to use a affiliate datafeed, you will need to have access to creating a database and uploading it to your server. You will need a script to help you easily implement the file into your database. There are also some online datafeed processors, that will create a SQL database file from your datafeed file, so you can just import the SQL file into your database. Datafeeds come in different file formats, but the most common is .CSV, which can be be edited manually in a Excell spreadsheet.
Most affiliate networks do not allow you to download datafeeds from merchants, unless you are a large selling affiliate or want to pay a fee. Shareasale is one of the few that actually lets you download them for free. One important final thing to remember about datafeeds, is you will have to download fresh copies periodically, to make sure the datafeed prices match the real current prices.
Newest free online games
December 10, 2008 | No Comments »
With the economy as bad as it is, I’ve stopped buying video games in stores. I’ve found some great sites to play video games for free online. Playitontheweb.com is one of those places you can find the newest free online games. They currently have over 7000 games and are constantly getting new ones. Some of the video games they include are Super Mario World, Homer’s Beer Run, Frogger, Prince of Persia, Dino Run, Motherload, Sift Heads 2, Mansion Impossible, Wheels of Salvation, Flash Moon Lander, Draw Play, to name a few. Some of the games can be played in your browser and others downloaded to your computer.
Linkshare Review
December 10, 2008 | No Comments »
LinkShare online since 1996, is one of the first affiliate networks on the net. Their affiliate network has some major brand names such as ESPN and Walmart. There is no minimum balance required for payouts. Payments are done by Check and issued by Linkshare or the 3rd party merchant, depending on the setting of the merchant. They also have their own affiliate program, paying $1.50 per affiliate you refer to the Linkshare network. To use different merchants in the network, you must apply to each one for each individual website.
What great thing about Linkshare is that it is an established network with many well known brand name affiliate programs. Their minimum payout is only $1, most other networks are 25-100. Their Interface is confusing and not very convenient though. You must sign up every website you own. You have to use different affiliate links for different websites you put the links on. There is no option to create custom direct urls to link to individual pages. There also is no 2nd tier affiliate programs for merchants in network, datafeeds are not free, no coupon options. There is no auto-deposit feature viewable, so there is no way to know how well a affiliate program will stay active. They don’t show a detailed program uptime history or publicly show any kind of affiliate tracking verification information like Shareasale does. Payments are not all done by Linkshare, it depends on the merchant. Payments can take months from certain merchants, if done by the merchant instead of Linkshare. If you have any payment issues with a 3rd party merchant, LinkShare expects affiliates to report those problems to Linkshare. Before your first payment, you are also required to fill out a tax form if you’re a U.S citizen. It’s also a hassle creatine a profile for each website you own and having to apply to each merchant and wait for acceptance before you can use their links. Join LinkShare.com affiliate program.
Online Debt consolidation
December 10, 2008 | No Comments »
If you are like most Americans your credit card and other unsecured debt is probably piling up. Many think that bankruptcy is the only way to get out of it. However, debt consolidation is another option. It allows you to pay all your debt under a single payment. You take up to 50% off your payments, and help you save thousands. You do not need a credit check to get it, so bad credit is OK. You also don’t need to own a home. Don’t take out a Personal Loan to pay off your debts only to get yourself more in debt. Bankruptcy isn’t a good option either for most people. Instead be proactive and solve the problem in a easy manageable way with debt consolidation.
Affiliate networks don’t always guarantee merchant compliance
December 10, 2008 | No Comments »
When a affiliate marketer first joins a large reputable affiliate network, they naively believe that every program is closely monitored and is always tracking their sales 100% time. That is not the case and there are instances where your sales will not be tracked and although it can be minimized, the risk can’t be totally eliminated. Each affiliate network relies on a positive money balance and for the merchant to have tracking software installed in their shopping software in order for affiliates to get paid. When one of these things stop, you lose tracking of your sales, until it is fixed.
Many affiliate networks like Shareasale and Clixgalore, have a auto-deposit feature available which is visible to affiliates before they decide to join a program. This means that when the money balance runs low, they charge their credit card automatically, so affiliate marketers don’t lose sales. Not every merchant uses the auto-deposit feature, but it is important because some merchants abuse the system by not using the auto-deposit so they can constantly run out of money. WHen they they run out of money the sales don’t get tracked during that time, which means the affiliate merchant doesn’t have to give you credit for that sale. Some affiliate networks tell you when a program is running on a low balance, while many others don’t tell you till it’s too late and you’re getting invalid click reports because you’re not getting tracked anymore. Shareasale is the best network for avoiding abuse, even with merchants who don’t use auto-deposit because unlike other networks, they are the only one that gives a program uptime history. There are many affiliates who abuse it, so it’s important you closely look at it for merchants, not using auto-deposit.
The other way a network must ensure tracking compliance, is that they actually are correctly tracking sales through the use of the software in the shopping cart software. Unfortunately, not every network is on the ball for periodically checking this. Clixgalore for example, waits months before checking compliance. I became suspicious when a big merchant on Clixgalore had gone more than 60 days without a sale. I did a test sale and found it didn’t get credited. I contacted Clixgalore, but the fact that I had to contact myself when it was Clixgalore’s job, shows their tracking compliance checking system is very poor. The only thing you can see is when their last sale was, if it’s been a while then they may have removed the affiliate tracking software. On the other hand, Shareasale consistently tests the merchants for compliance and they show visibly when the last test was done. Overall, Shareasale has the best system in place for affiliate marketers to decide the safest program and that is why I recommend them above all other affiliate networks.
Glasses
December 9, 2008 | No Comments »
Everyone including me is feeling the effects of the bad economy. A great place to help cut costs is a site like Optical4Less.com. They are the best online source for selling the lowest priced discount prescription glasses, starting as low as only $15.00! I couldn’t believe it when I saw their prices, I didn’t think it was possible to have such low prices. They have every kind of style of eyeglasses for unbelievable prices including; alloy eye glasses, rimless eye glasses, titanium, bendable, semi-rimless, rhinestones, prescription sunglasses, and the stylish clip-on sunglasses. Most of the stylish glasses are only between 15 and 39 dollars, so you don’t have to sacrifice
Where else are you going to find prescription eyeglasses cheap like this? I didn’t even think it was possible for a store to sale customized prescription glasses at these prices, but they do. These are not cheap glasses either. Their glasses include for free Anti-reflective and UV coating, anti-scratch coating, colorful stylish case, cleaning cloth, and free international shipping. Optical4less was founded in 1980 and is one of the leading optical stores in Hong Kong and China. Purchase more than $150 usd or order more than 3 pair of glasses in one order and receive a 4-in-1 Professional mini screw driver kit. You can also earn points from your purchases and eventually use them to buy prescription eyeglasses accessories at Optical4less.
Why ClickBank is a poor affiliate network
December 9, 2008 | No Comments »
Clickbank is a popular affiliate network. Most of clickbank’s products are “get rich” e-books. I am asking that all publishers boycott Clickbank due to their outrageous policy changes.
A few months ago Clickbank changed it’s policies making it very difficult for everyone, except the highest earners, to get paid.
A few months ago they added this rule:
"...ClickBank will withhold payment of any account balance until it contains standing sales made with 5 or more different credit card numbers, including at least one Visa card, and one MasterCard. PayPal and eCheck purchases do not count toward the minimum."
http://www.clickbank.com/affiliate_faq.html
It is very hard to get 5 or more different purchases from Clickbank containing at least one from visa to mastercard. 5 may not sound like a lot, but you have to have quite a bit of traffic to get 5 sales. On top of that, If you don’t make consistent sales, they will start taking your money out of your balance!
Accounts with a positive balance but no earnings for an extended period of time are considered dormant. Dormant accounts are subject to a charge of $1 per pay period after 90 days of inactivity, $5 per pay period after 180 days of inactivity, and $15 per pay period after 365 days of inactivity.
http://www.clickbank.com/accounting_faq.html
To make matters worse,Clickbank charges a 7.5% fee + $1.00 on all transactions and $2.50 per check they send you. And don’t forget that the customer can return the products leaving you with nothing.
Prison Inmate Search
December 9, 2008 | No Comments »
Are you looking for someone who you think may be in the federal prison system? Now you can search for free online at PrisonInmateLocator.org using their Prison Inmate Search form. The form asks for their first, middle, last name, approximate age, city, and the state. This database covers every single state in the United States and is kept up to date.
