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My Blog Readers have Earned Over ONE MILLION with Neverblue

Over the past decade I've had the task of working with many different affiliate networks. Some thrived, died, went out of business and a few also went on to be acquired and become parts of larger companies. One of the few successful and very … Read More

Breakdown of a Profitable Facebook Ads Campaign

With the latest backlash of articles coming up on TechCrunch about deceptive and scammy ways to make money on Facebook, I wanted to provide you with a full breakdown on how to create a successful CPA Facebook ads campaign. Step and step details on a … Read More

Create Killer Landing Pages – Free Template

I get questions all the time about landing pages and what are the best ways to create them. Instead of writing a post on what you should focus on, I will simply take an existing ad campaign from MarketLeverage, and made a real landing page out of. … Read More

Insider Secrets to a Making a Million Dollar Web Site!

A few days ago I released my first post on "How I Made $860,538.38 PROFIT in 4 Months!", along with the picture of my $306,373.24 check. Due to the massive exposure and questions generated from the post, I thought I'd bring you the second … Read More

How I Made $860,538.38 PROFIT in 4 Months!

First off, I would like to make it clear that this post is NOT to impress you, but to impress upon you what's possible! This is a quick review on how I went from one of my worst years of making money online to my best year, and all it took was one … Read More

Affiliate News at IMToday.com

Affiliate Network Contests to Keep You Motivated

Affiliate marketing is like no other business. Where else can you make a million dollars in a bedroom with a computer? At the same time, you have to keep yourself interested and on target. Slip up, slack off or even step away for a days and you can easily fall behind fast. This happens to me every once in a while, and I’m sure you’re occassionally in the same boat.

An excellent way to get motivated and back in the game, is to set new targets and reach for even bigger goals. With the extreme competition out there among affiliate networks, we are fortunate enough to be treated like kings for our business. Kicking things up a notch, a lot of networks are now hosting some pretty big contests and giveaways for top earning affiliates, and those who can drastically increase their month over month earnings.

Here’s a look at a couple of the two affiliate network promotions that are currently going on. Neverblue is holding their “Out of Bounds” contest again, which will send their top 20 affiliates to Costa Rica. CX Digital is running their “Roll Like a Billionaire” contest for the second time, with over 25 different prizes up for grabs.

NeverBlue – Out of Bounds

CX Digital – Roll Like a Billionaire

Both contests are created for new and current affiliates to win. With several prizes available, you can win a vacation spot, or prizes by earning points on top offers promoted on the network (CX Digital), or by being a top affiliate, or increasing your previous quarter earnings several times over. Even if you haven’t started making money with either of these networks yet, you can still get in and win a prize.

Either way, the contest prizes available through both CX Digital and Neverblue, are serious enough to get even the biggest affiliate’s attention. Get in the game, get focused and if you aim high enough, you might walk away with big earnings and a top prize package! Even if you fall short, you still should have set your goals high enough, and earned some nice coin.

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10 October, 2009 Posted by: Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Contests

FTC to Regulate Blogging

In addition to the increasing amount of states trying to tax affiliates and internet companies, we now have the FTC coming into the game and trying to regulate blogging. More than anything else, the regulation consists of making bloggers disclose any free gifts, payments or anything they receive as a result from writing about a company or product.

Here is a short snippet from the full article available at FoxNews.

The FTC said Monday its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final Web guidelines, which had been expected. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could bring fines up to $11,000 per violation. Bloggers or advertisers also could face injunctions and be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from inappropriate product reviews.

The commission stopped short of specifying how bloggers must disclose conflicts of interest. Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC’s advertising practices division, said the disclosure must be “clear and conspicuous,” no matter what form it will take.

With the FTC and state attorney generals recently cracking down on fake blogs, fake testimonials and customer complaints from rebill offers… thinking the FTC will stop any time soon after just trying to “regulate blogging” is wishful thinking.

The article also states “FTC will more likely go after an advertiser instead of a blogger for violations“. PayPerPost ran into these same issues when they first came out, but now require full disclosure on all sponsored posts. This is one concept where you are clear, but the new regulation will bring forth a lot more questions. For example, how this will affect affiliate marketing blogs? Not only “make money online” blogs, but how will specific blogs created just to drive product sales be affected? Full disclosure would need to be posted somewhere on the blog post or web site stating you will receive a commission for any sales generated from your site.

The regulation does not go into effect until December 1st, and still lacks a lot of specifics and information we would all like to know.

How will the FTC regulating blogging effect affiliate markerting, if at all?

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05 October, 2009 Posted by: Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging

Who’s Talking About You and Your Sites?

Wouldn’t it be great to know when others are talking about you or your web sites? Sure, blogs have pingbacks, but unless there is a link, you won’t know about it. Thanks to Google Alerts you can get a daily update whenever your personal name, business or site url is mentioned anyway. I’ve been using Google Alerts for quite a while now, and I’m sure many of you already know about it, but for those who don’t, read on.

Here’s a quick look at Google Alerts and how easy it is to setup

Search Terms: Whatever search term or web site you want to monitor, just fill it in this area.

Type: Comprehensive covers all areas, but you can change this to just target news, blogs, video etc.

How often and Deliver to are self explanatory. You can schedule alerts in real time, daily or weekly.

Once you have an alert setup, you’ll receive email alerts like the following. A link back to http://www.zacjohnson.com was featured in a post by Jonathan Volk, so I was sent an alert with the url and post title.

It’s Not Just About You!
Sure, Google Alerts works great to find out information about yourself and what others are saying, but it can also be used as a marketing tool. If you are looking to start a new web site or want to keep an eye on the competition, setup alerts and see how they are getting new backlinks and traffic to their web sites.

There’s no limit to how many reports you can setup, and it’s very easy to remove/add new alerts. If you haven’t already, give Google Alerts a try.

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03 October, 2009 Posted by: Filed Under: Blogging, Contests, Pay Per Click, Web Developement

Win a Signed Copy of Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It!”

The other day I was randomly flipping through channels and stopped on the new Dr. Oz show for a moment, and to my surprise, there was Gary Vaynerchuk. I first met Gary two years ago at the first BlogWorld Expo, and since then he has just exploded and is on TV all the time… I won’t be surprised when I see him on Oprah next!

During my last big contest promotion, I gave away a ton of autographed copies of Gary’s 101 Wines book. With his new “Crush It!” book coming out next month, I thought I would do the same. The book comes out on October 13th, 2009 and is only $13.49 through Amazon, but why not take a shot a winning an autographed copy here for free!

Here’s how. This is very simple to enter, and even more easy to win!

1.) ReTweet this Post on Twitter (Click here to Retweet!)

2.) Leave a Comment on this Post Below

Ten (10) winners will be selected. Five from retweets, and five from comments. To increase your odds, feel free to tweet and post a comment. One comment per person. Winners will be selected and posted on October 13, 2009.

If you’d like to buy Gary’s book in bulk, or take part in the “Crush It! – Experience“, head over to Gary’s page. Depending on how many copies of “Crush It!” you order, you will qualify to receive a wristband, a personalized video, or even a 2 hour face to face dinner and wine with Gary in NYC.

Good luck, and don’t forget to “Crush It!“

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29 September, 2009 Posted by: Filed Under: Blogging, Contests

Advertising on Twitter

This month I’ve talked a lot about advertising on Twitter and using Sponsored Tweets. From both a publisher and an advertiser, the program as done well. With the massive increase in exposure and usage of Twitter, the advertising game is just starting to grow. Here are a few options you have for trying your hand at advertising on Twitter.

Sponsored Tweets
Of all the Twitter advertising solutions, I’m most familiar with Sponsored Tweets. I already wrote a full review from the publisher side, and the advertiser side. Be sure to check them out out.

Ad.ly
Just having gone live last week, Ad.ly looks to have a lot of potential. It looks like they are banking most of their future on the concept of having big name advertisers and celebrities using their service. It also looks like Sponsored Tweets and Ad.ly share a lot of the same paid “tweeters”. Last week I signed up as both a publisher (no paid tweet requests yet) and an advertiser, but haven’t heard from them about setting up my advertiser account. (After leaving a comment on Shoe’s post about Ad.ly, I was contacted by Sean Rad, CEO of Ad.ly about setting my advertiser account up, and will talk with them more this week. Sean said the reason for the delay was because of the massive and quick signups to their network. Props to Sean for getting in touch with me about the problem.)

Be a Magpie
One of the first advertising solutions for Twitter, Be a Magpie has been around longer, but not one of my favorites. I signed up as advertiser, but wasn’t as happy with the setup over at Sponsored Tweets. The cpm minimum is $1 and raises once you start adding more limitations or targetting to your campaigns.

These are just a few of the main Twitter advertising solutions available. Right now it looks like SponsoredTweets and Ad.ly have what it takes to be the main players in this market place. The winner will be decided on who can make the best market place and bring in the most sales for Tweeters, while offering the lowest ad rates for advertisers.

I’m sure a lot more will pop up in 2010 and a few may even be acquired by stronger brands to help them grow. Please leave any comments on if you’ve tried any of these solutions, or where you think Twitter advertising is headed.

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28 September, 2009 Posted by: Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Twitter