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Make Money with Hydra Network

It’s always nice to do a review on a network that isn’t run off the DirectTrack system, just for the case that the whole setup is different and there are usually more features. Today we are going to look at Hydra Network. I’ve been an affiliate with Hydra Network all the way back to 2003, and since their network went live in 2003, they have shown massive growth and continue to be a prominent player in the affiliate network game. Hydra Network is run by Hyrda LLC, and was named 10th in Inc. magazine’s 2007 “The Fastest Growing Private Companies in America“.

Welcome to Hydra Network
Once you log into your Hydra Network account, you are welcomed with full stats for your account, along with the latest offers and updates added to the network. On the right side of the page you are shown a rotation of “News & Events”, along with “Featured Campaigns”, and a quick break down of each.

The main content area of the main log in page features a full list of “News & Updates”, which goes into detail on new campaigns, payout increases and how to promote hot campaigns. Below the main news and updates sections, you have a section for “New Campaigns”, then four recommended “Hot” campaigns currently featured on the network.

Hydra Network Campaigns
There are currently over 600 campaigns available on Hydra Network. Usually when a network had several hundreds of offers, it’s kind of a turn off, just because they seem to take on as many as they can, and don’t focus on quality and pricing. However, this isn’t the case with Hydra Network, because of the 614 offers currently on the network, 302 of them are EXCLUSIVE campaigns. With over 600 ad campaigns, you should not have any problems finding a success campaign to work with. Campaigns on the network range from $1.00 CPA, all the way up to $122.50.

When hovering over the “Campaigns” menu tab, you have the option to search all campaigns on the same page, or you can segregate your search by New Campaigns or Exclusives Only. For any incentive or form based web sites, the option to choose “Incentivized” and “Pre-Populated” campaigns is also just as easy. For an even more choices, use the “Advanced Campaign Search” for a list of campaigns base don their Attributes, Region or Categories.

Several affiliate networks have their own list of exclusive campaigns, but the majority of them are usually ZIP and EMAIL submit campaigns. Hydra Network has their share of these offer types, but also have an awesome amount of exclusive offers targeted towards health, biz opps, diet, financial services and products.

Hydra Network Stats Tracking
The stats area page is very simple and convenient to pull stats reports. Simply select your date range and click the “Go!” button. You also have the option to show stats based on Sub IDs, Actions and any date range. Some networks limit your stats to only 12-24 months of stats, with Hydra Network there is no limitation on pulling up stats all the way back to 2003.

After pulling setting up your requested stats, you will be sent to a stats page that looks something like the one below.

For anyone interested in setting up tracking urls with a sub id, all you need to do is visit your campaign creative page and scroll down til you are at the Sub ID field. Insert your sub id text and it will automatically create your sub id url for tracking. You can easily create hundreds of sub ids, by replacing your original sub id in the url, since Hydra Network does not over write your sub id name with a new code.

Hydra Network Rewards Program
As you continually earn commissions with Hydra Network, you will also be rewarded for your business and partnership. On top of your monthly commissions, you are eligible to receive a 1% monthly reward. Rewards start at $50, which means you will need to earn $5,000 in monthly commissions before seeing a reward.

Hydra Network Payment Options
Affiliates can opt to receive payments by check, ACH, Paypal or Wire Transfer. Payments are sent out on a Net 15 basis and there is a minimum payment amount of $50.

Summary
Hydra Network has been around for several years now and know how to remain a dominant player in internet advertising. If you aren’t currently working with Hydra Network, I recommend you join their network and see what campaigns they have for you to work with. With over 600 campaigns on the network, it would be smart to join them just to make sure you are getting the highest payouts on your current ad campaigns. I’ve been an affiliate with Hydra Network for many years now and have met with them at several conferences and never had problems with receiving payment.

T-SHIRT BONUS: I still have nearly 400 MoneyReign Shirts, bumper stickers, pens and buttons sitting around. If you join Hydra Network through this blog post, send me an email through the contact page, along with your name, address and tshirt size, I’ll be sure to send a gift package your way. (Due to shipping costs, this offer is limited to US signups only)

- Join Hydra Network

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Are ZIP and EMAIL Offers Worth It?

We’ve all seen them, and most of us even promote them. Yes, I’m talking about those high paying offers that pay for JUST and EMAIL address or a ZIP code. How can these networks pay so much money for just one field? Easy, they put the user through a massive signup process (usually 50+ coregs), then ask the user to complete several CC required offers for the last section. In the end, they make a ton of money off all of the visitors that put in their legit email and contact info, then requested any of the coreg information… and since most of these users will never complete the signup process and terms to get their free prize/reward, they end up banking.

I made a post about a year ago called, “How to Get a Free 42″ Panasonic Plasma TV!” by signing up to one of these offers, then completing all of the annoying offers at the end of the process. Back then it was easier to complete and qualify for your reward and to complete offers. Now most of the offers have put in a new clause in to the terms and conditions, saying that you have to stay subscribed to the services you are required to signup to, for at least 6 months. I can only imagine the backend advertisers were getting a ton of signups that were only staying for the free trial, or canceling within a weeks time… I know I did!

In the end, I did end up getting my free flat screen tv… but it wasn’t without a hassle. After having to signup to a ton of offers, I had to make sure they were all cancelled. Not to mention completing the offers ran me around $200 in shipping costs and trial fees. To make things even worse, since the TV is worth more than $600, anyone that received one, also receive a 1099 tax form which meant you were going to pay taxes on the $1699 TV you were sent. So in addition to paying the $200+ to join all of the offers, you also had to pay taxes (few hundred bucks) on the TV.


In the End, I did get my 42″ Panasonic TV… but it really wasn’t “FREE”!

So the answer the question, “Are ZIP and EMAIL Offers Worth It?“. As a marketer, Yes… they convert well and make good money. I’m sure they do well for the back end advertiser as well, since we have seen no shortage on these offers for years now. (For the record… the EMAIL submission converts better than ZIP submission… which is why they usually pay more.) As a customer, the offer probably isn’t that great anymore, especially since you can’t cancel any memberships or services for 6 months. The only program I’m actually STILL using as a result of the Free TV signup process, is my subscription to BlockBuster Online.

In any case, I saw these offers being promoted all over the place and wanted to see if they were really true. I got my free flat screen tv, then I told some friends about it and they got theirs too. Have you promoted any of the ZIP / EMAIL campaigns, or attempted to get a free product of your own?

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SEOIntelligence: Search Marketing Made Simple

While at EliteRetreat a few months ago, I met up with Jeremy Hermanns and he briefly showed me his new site and webmaster service called SEOIntelligence. Jeremy has a deep background in SEM, which you can read up on at his SimpleSEM blog. When I first saw his new SEOIntelligence site, it was in beta, but now it’s live and available for full use. I really like the program, stats reports and tools available through the system which I will outline now. Paid search is a great way to make money, but if you can master your web site’s SEO and get well ranked in the search engines for free, your site is good as gold! The service has a monthly membership fee of $39.99 a month, but also offers a free 14 day trial to test the system out.

What is SEOIntelligence?
In short, any webmaster or web site owner, will find SEOIntelligence.com as an easy and cost effective solution to study, improve and manage their search engine marketing campaigns. All software is hosted and updated regularly on the SEOIntelligence web site, which makes it easy for you login and find what you need. Once a member, you can pull full data reports on your site’s search performance, keyword listings, linking strategies, full site analysis and more.

SNAPSHOT (Welcome Screen)
- The first thing you see when you login to a web site, whether it be an affiliate network or your facebook/myspace account… you should see the latest updates and what’s new. That is exactly what SEOIntelligence has setup for you when you log into your account. In the “Snapshot” break down, you will see a graph charting your web site rankings, along Daily Statistics from ranking networks such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alexa, Technorati and Compete. Using the SPOTLIGHT pull down menu, you can change up all of these tracking charts and stats based on Backlinks, Pages, PageRank, Alexa Rank, Technorati Rank and Compete Rank.

COMPETITION TRACKER
- One of the major attractions and pushing factors behind many online businesses, is to rank better than their competition. Using the “Competition Tracker”, you can make a list of competiting web sites in your niche area, and pull reports on their positions vs. your continuing increase in search position. Competition Tracker reports include Number of Links, Google Pages, Yahoo Pages, PR, Alexa and the ability to re-crawl your competition’s backlinks reports with the click of a button.

Report Manager
- Personally, I love data reports and pulling figures, but it gets really annoying to have files downloaded and having to create new folder and sub-folders… then they are spread all of your computer. SEOIntelligence makes pulling and looking at your site reports so easy, because everything is hosted on their end and a simple click or two will pull up your report and save it for future use. The Report Manager will pull and save performance, backlinks, competitor reports and more.

Keyword Locator
- Keywords are always a hot topic with everyone. Whether you are trying to create a new keyword list for a pay per click campaign, or what to target what keywords are best for your seo positioning… keyword tracking and tools are important. With the Keyword Locator, you are given multiple sources of keywords from the top tracking sites online.

Keyword Competition
- Now that you have the Keyword Locator tools, you can focus on what keywords you want to target and where your competition stands. Instead of wondering where your potential customers are shopping, pull a quick report and actually your competition in an easy to read chart.

SEOi Web Stats
- My favorite tool or section on the site is the SEOi Web Stats which is basically a breakdown of all reports and graphs on your site. This breakdown of reports in cludes Site Visitors, Time Spent, Traffic Sources, Links, Searches, Site Content, Referring Sites and much more. Once you are setup with an account, you are given a simple line of code to place on your site to track and report activity back to your SEOIntelligence account.

Though it may have seemed like a long post, it’s just the tip of the iceberg on tools, reports and functionality that you have access to through SEOIntelligence. As a webmaster or reader of this blog, you may think… “Well, I can look up some of that information for free“… which is true, but how much is your time really worth? For less than $1.34 a day, you can have access to instant reports and immediate updates that you can save and study for future use.

Don’t just take my work for it, visit SEOIntelligence and walk through their “Product Tour” and you will see full charts and more trackings/tools available through their site. Remember, if you would like to check your web site statistics and see how you compare with your competition, grab a free 14 day trial today. If you have any questions or comments about the service, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to have Jeremy answer all of your questions.

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Publisher Spot Ad Network Reviews

With so many affiliate programs and networks out there, how are you supposed to know which are best for you. Tyler Cruz has created a great looking affiliate network directory, called PublisherSpot. Not only does the site have a great setup for his reviews on networks, but the overall navigation and setup of the directory is easy enough as well. There are currently 39 affiliate network reviews on the site, with more to come. Here are a few highlights of PublisherSpot and why it’s worth your time to check out.

IN DEPTH NETWORK REVIEWS:
Reviews posted on PublisherSpot are in great detail. Tyler writes a decent amount on the following fields for each of his network reviews: Features, Control Panel (Main, Reports, Profile, Campaigns, Merchants, Mail), Registration, Publisher Support, Payment, Referral System and an ending Summary. Instead of having to browse through an actual affiliate network to find answers to your questions, you should be able to find everything and more in each network review.


How does your current ad network compare to the competition?
These Networks are ranked PublisherSpot’s “
Editor’s Choice

SEARCHING ABILITY:
Instead of just a search box like many other directories, PublisherSpot has some very detailed search fields. Search capabilities include Rating, Category, Minimum Payment, Payment Frequency, Payment Methods and Ad Creative. I think it would be out of the ordinary for many people using the site, to specifically search out programs based on their minimum payments, or frequency… but they are cool features to have. Better yet, at the bottom of each review, there is a full run down of the program and their pay out structure. Whether you are searching programs based on the specific fields above or just browsing through each review, you will see the key information you need about each network.


An Easy to Read Breakdown is Available on each Network Review.

YOU RATE THE NETWORKS:
With an affiliate directory, you are never sure if the reviews or listing are biased or not. PublisherSpot has gone beyond a flat text review, and implemented a voting system that takes an average from all votes for that specific network. Instead of just seeing the feedback from one person, you are given an overall review rating from others currently using the network. Should PublisherSpot become a player in the affiliate directory space, these rankings could give a nice scale on the best performing networks.


How was your network experience? VOTE for your network on a scale of 1 to 10.

PUBLISHERSPOT FORUMS:
In addition to the network reviews, PublisherSpot also has a forum. The current topics of the forum focus on affiliate marketing, network reviews and general discussion. The forum was just launched on May 22nd, so the activity is pretty minimal. No matter the site, the goal of running a successful forum is one of the hardest. I would recommend that Tyler tries to get some affiliate managers on board to possible answer any questions or give advice to active affiliates.


Network, Communicate and Share Ideas on the PublisherSpot Forum

IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE NETWORK:
So what will it take for PublisherSpot to become a major player in the affiliate market space? Tyler is already working on getting extra exposure to the site by ordering several reviews from popular blogs, which already focus on affiliate marketing. I would also recommend listing some active or current offers available through the networks. It nice to get a review on networks, but what’s inside also matters. One of the toughest factors will be focusing on growth efforts and participation for the PublisherSpot forum. Everyone wants to have their own active community, but how many do you actually want to join and be active in. Instead of putting full efforts into a forum, the option for user comments and feedback for each review might be a better choice. Feel free to list your comments, advice and opinions for the site as well.

When I first saw PublisherSpot several months ago, I thought it was a nice idea. With the recent updates in place, it could become a nice resource for anyone looking to get into affiliate marketing. With the establishment of PublisherSpot, Tyler is also lining himself up the possibility of a big sale in the future, should someone come along and want to purchase the site. The great thing about a site like this, is that once you build up the database and content, it continues to work for you and make money. I’m looking forward to seeing more improvements and growth down the road from PublisherSpot.

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Click2Sell Merchant & Affiliate Network

Lately I’ve been writing posts on how you can make money in niche marketing, along with methods for selecting which niche market is best for you. In keeping with the topic of niche marketing, I want to high an up and coming network called Click2Sell.EU. Unlike most other large affiliate networks, Click2Sell.EU is setup with a ClickBank feel. As an affiliate you can log into the system and find a various amount of niche products, services and ebooks to sell. Unlike most other networks, you can also login to Click2Sell as a merchant and easily manage your campaigns or setup a new program. Here is a run through of the network and how you can benefit as either an affiliate or merchant.

Navigation & Ease of Network
Once you signup and are logged into the network, you will see an admin area like below. When you are logged in you are sent directly to the “Reports” page, but with the easy navigation toolbar on top you can easily move around the site. The “For Merchants” tab is for setting up your own affiliate program and adding products, while the “For Affiliate” tab is for grabbing affiliate offers and existing campaigns. All other menu tabs are pretty self explanatory.


An Overview of Your Network Stats is Your Main Login Page

The MarketPlace
The main area and purpose of Click2Sell is their “MarketPlace”, where you can search and find all existing offers on the network. Right now they have 558 offers available, spread over 11 different categories. One of the features I like about the marketplace is that you can search on several different methods, such as Rank, Earning % and Conversions. The stats are really nice to have and it’s very easy to understand. Even with over 500 offers on the network, I wasn’t too thrilled with the conversion on most of these offers. Most of the offers are listed at converting 1% or below.


Top 5 Ranked Offers on Click2Sell Network

Selection of Affiliate Offers
Almost all of the offers listed on Click2Sell are ebook/information based, and have long sales pages. If you are currently doing well in the ebook promotion niche, you can probably find a few offers to promote and might find success. I was searching the network for a few niche terms from “comics” or “basketball“, but no search results came out. In my previous post, “Picking the Right Niche Market“, I wrote about focusing on basketball terms and “increasing your vertical leap“. Oddly enough, I did come across an ebook which focused on helping to improve your jumping and sports skills. There are some offers/ebooks on the network that could make money when targeted to correctly, you just have to search around for them.


Your Selected Campaigns will be listed in your “My Campaigns” Affiliate tab.

Promotion of Offers
Once you select an offer from the marketplace, it will then be listed in your “For Affiliate” tab where you can grab links and marketing creative. Unfortunately, I found that most of the products on the network did not have any marketing material and simply provide you with just a link. I know most affiliate marketers want a few banners and at least some email creative or ideas for writing content, so this would be a turn off to most affiliates. On the other hand, with a network full of offers with no marketing creative, those affiliates who take the time to create their own marketing material and landing pages could benefit that much more. If you put the time in to create a mini site based around of these ebooks/campaigns, you could have a winner. I can only imagine 90% of affiliates are turned off when they don’t see any marketing creative available.


Affiliate Marketers Want Marketing Creative, It Shouldn’t be a Mission.

Range of Commissions
The network offers on Click2Sell heavily vary. You will find products that cost $7.00 per sale, then pay 95% commission… while others cost $22.97 and pay only 5% commission. In addition the huge difference in commissions per program, the targeting and products of each offer varies as well. If you are going to promote an offer on the network, take the time to compare and make sure you are running the best offer.

Form of Payment
Click2Sell does not send out affiliate payments through checks, you must have either a Paypal account or a MoneyBookers account. When setting up your account, you will select your preferred method of payment and can check off what type of advertisers you want to work with, based on their payment method. Merchants on Click2Sell can pay in Euro and US dollars.

Using Click2Sell as a Merchant
I already covered most of the points to use Click2Sell as an affiliate, but using the network as a Merchant is also just as important. The first of the three screenshots below (click for full view), shows what your general stats look like from all of your affiliates and their sales. The second screenshot is a listing of all affiliates within your program and the last screenshot is a breakdown of your affiliate stats. The merchant setup looks like it would work really well for any sites looking to bill customers on a monthly basis as well. If you are unsure of what network or tracking system to use, you can always join Click2Sell as a merchant and recruit your own affiliates.


The Backend of a Merchant Account is Very Detailed, Yet Easy to Manage

Merchant Fee Structure
I think the best selling point for Click2Sell, is the very low cost for merchants to sell a push their products through the system. While most other affiliate networks charge a signup fee, then take 20-35% of each transaction (payment to an affiliate), Click2Sell has a very simple fee structure. No matter how expensive your product is, the most you will pay per lead acquired, is $3 (in addition to any cc/merchant processing charges if applies). If you sell a product that costs $50, you only have to pay a $3 fee to Click2Sell each time an affiliate makes a sale… on most other networks you would have to pay 30%, which comes out to $15 per lead acquired.

Final Review
I would like to see what Click2Sell becomes with time and how they will improve their network. ClickBank has been an amazing success for people over the years and Click2Sell, being based off that same idea could make a lot of people money as well. For now I think Click2Sell needs to focus on a selling point or something to break them apart from other networks to make them stand out. I would rather see a network with less offers and focus only on the higher quality campaigns. I do not want to go through 500+ campaigns and hope to find one that works, especially when most of them only have direct linking with no creative.

Though I have broken down the network and pointed out a few of the pros and cons, I still think it might be worth your time to join the network and see what type of offers are available. There might be something that already targets to your niche market, or a competitor that is doing something better.

Join Click2Sell Network

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