Easy2Earn Dollars

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.

Zac Johnson

One of the most important factors in making your online business succeed, is getting out there and networking. One of the best ways to market yourself and get the connections you need, are to attend trade show events, conferences and exhibit halls. Here are just a few of the premier conferences during 2008 that you should try and attend.

Affiliate Summit
Boston (August 10-12, 2008) & New York City (October 5, 2008)
Over the past several years, Affiliate Summit has continually been increasing in size and recognition in the affiliate marketing and internet advertising industry. This is one of the premier events and conferences you should try and attend every year. This year Affiliate Summit is adding a one day NY networking event in addition to their EAST and WEST conferences. I have always made it priority to attend every Affiliate Summit, and I haven’t missed one yet! ( Except for London… but that doesn’t count! )
- Affiliate Summit Information

Ad:TECH
SanFrancisco (April), Chicago (August) & New York (November)
One of my favorite shows to attend is Ad:Tech, and that’s strictly just for the exhibit halls. Over the past few years Ad:Tech NY has been covered THREE FLOORS of the NY Hilton. Ad:Tech San Fran was just last week, Chicago is next on the list and New York is in November. I always make sure to attend the NY show and will try and make it to San Fran one of these times.
- Ad:Tech Information

BlogWorld Expo
Las Vegas, NV - September 20-21
A new conference and expo show last year was BlogWorld. At first, I had no idea what to expect when attending BlogWorld, however it ended up being one of my favorite events I’ve had the joy of attending. Not only did I get to meet up with a whole new niche area of bloggers and marketers, but the event had an awesome line up of speakers. With the addition of Marc Cuban as the last day keynote speaker, this was simply a can not miss event. I’m looking forward to this year’s BlogWorld in September.
- BlogWorld Expo Information

EliteRetreat
April 3-4 in San Francisco, California (2009 TBD?)
I was fortunate enough to attend EliteRetreat this year. I’ve seen the even advertised for prior years and always wondered how it was and if it was worth the cost attendees were paying to be there. EliteRetreat is the premier learning experience. Jeremy puts together an awesome display of speakers with vast knowledge and during the whole event, all of the speakers make themselves available for you to ask anything, or just to chill and have a good time. EliteRetreat caters to all of it’s attendees is one of the best “learning experiences” available.
- EliteRetreat Information

IzeaFest
September 11-13, Grand Bohemian Hotel, Orland FL
I just heard about IzeaFest today and it looks to be a combination of fun times and learning from great marketers. With headliner names such as keynote Jeremy Shoemaker and many big name speakers such as John Chow and Brian Clark, this event looks to have some potential. The event it put together by Izea, formerly known as PayPerPost. I’m still deciding if I will be able to attend this event as there now seems to be a new event every other month, but I wouldn’t mind visiting Florida for a week and meeting up with some of the speakers, since I’m good friends with most of them.
- IzeaFest Information

These are just a few of the networking and conference events that I look forward to attending this year. In addition to the ones highlighted above, there are also SXSW, eComXpo, CJU (my first conference back in 2000!) and many other smaller conventions and networking events thrown by smaller companies. Have you attended any of these events or looking to make the visit later on this year?

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A recent study between JupiterResearch and Paypal, revealed that consumers value payment security and payment choice more than rewards when making purchases online. The study developed when PayPal partnered with JupiterResearch to analyze how the U.S. population uses payment methods when shopping online. Several tests were done with merchants that sell the same product and at the same price, the end result was that buyers preferred purchasing through the sites which offered the best payment security and payment methods. The study also found security as a determining factor when making a purchase. Two thirds of shoppers feel more secure when they don’t have to enter their financial info… which makes PayPal a huge plus for online shopping.The study revealed the following consumer preferences when paying online:


- 66% of consumers prefer online stores that offer multiple payment mechanisms.
- 62% of purchasers feel more secure when they do not have to enter credit card information online, even at merchants’ sites that they trust.
- 61% of online shoppers choose sites that offer both credit and debit card payment options.
- 55% of consumers think about payment methods they will use before they click on the checkout button.
- 48% of all online adult shoppers prefer the convenience of alternative payment methods.
- One third of online shoppers want to avoid filling out name, address and credit card details.
- One in eight consumers thinks about how he or she will pay even before deciding what to buy.

Senior Director of PayPal also stated, “When merchants offer PayPal on their sites, they allow 141 million customers around the world to shop with peace of mind because they don’t have to share their financial information online.”

I’ve had a few merchant accounts in the past for a few web sites I ran, and merchant accounts are not that fun to manage. With the new sites I have in the works, this time around I will only use PayPal processing and see how it compares. The benefit of using PayPal not only increases your customer’s feeling of security, but also takes out the stress of managing your reports and cc transactions. I will also be running my new online stores through Yahoo Business, which is an additional level of security and trust for my customers. As a store owner or marketer, making your customer feel safe and secure should be top priority.

Not only as an internet marketer, but also as an online shopper, what are your determining factors when buying from a web site? Do you prefer to shop from a brand name like Amazon.com, or would you shop at a less popular online store to save 10% on your order, or receive free shipping (incentives/rewards)?

by ZacJohnson

On Wednesday night, pepperjam founder Kris Jones made a very long rant (2,000+ words) on his PJ blog about recent activities between CJ and the newly released pepperjam Network. The post was titled “Did Commission Junction Act Fairly, Break the Law, or Simply Overstep its Power Against Pepperjam?“. With the release of their new network, it seems many networks have wanted to start working more closely with PepperJam, while others (specifically CJ), see them as being a major competitor. Within the post Kris talks briefly about his past, how he got started, built up the PepperJam Network and more importantly, how merchants/advertisers on the PepperJam network “were being aggressively contacted by Commission Junction employees and delivered an ultimatum“. So what Kris wants to do, is let everyone aware of the situation and let you decide if CJ was acting fairly, break the law, or act outside of it’s boundaries.This is a very long post, so I advise you to go and read it yourself, or you can head over to Scott Jangro’s blog, where he did an excellent recap on the original blog post, which makes it easier to read and more understandable. For more opinions and responses this article, you can also read Search Engine Journal, AffiliateTip and Revenews. I’m sure this will be a heated topic over the next couple of weeks, as more and more blogs cover the story and more information is released.

Lastly, even though I’m not personally making a killing off the PepperJam network as of yet (I currently have way too many projects going on). I’m loving all of the new merchants/offers that are continually being added to the network. I can’t wait until things cool down a bit and I get some projects finished, so I can start focusing on marketing these offers. This isn’t some rant of mine to impress or suck up to the network, nor to get you to signup. Right when their network went live and I had access to the network, I was thrilled to see brand names I was never offered anywhere else. Every time I log in, it’s a surprise to see what new offers are on the network. Below are just a few of the brand names available on the network.

If you haven’t already, I recommend you join the PepperJam Network and take a look at some of the new offers they have added. The network went live just over a month ago and they already have well over 100 offers! Most of which are offers you won’t find on every other network.

There are so many millionaires in the world today, it’s not even a surprise when you actually meet one. The new craze is hitting the billionaires list. Today I will highlight a few of the YOUNGEST members of the BILLIONAIRE club, who made their riches through the information age and the power of the internet! Imagine what this list will look like in 5 or 10 years?

Google Founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

#5 Sergey Brin & Larry Page
Age: 34 - Net Worth: $18.5 billion
Both at the age of only 34, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have a network of $18.5 billion each. In 2004, the founders of Google both cracked the Top 10 on the billionaire’s list, with a mere $4 billion each. Today they both share the #5 spot.

Yang too position of CEO in June 2001.

#261 Jerry Yang
Age: 38 - Net Worth: $1.9 billion
Jerry Yang met his founding Yahoo partner while a student at Stanford University. In 1996, they would take Yahoo public. Yang would become the chief executive of Yahoo in June 2001. Yahoo is currently valued at one-fifth of Google’s value, but back in 2004 they were neck and neck at $52 billion apiece.

Pierre Omidyar is the original programmer of eBay

#32 Pierre Omidyar
Age: 40 - Net Worth: $8.9 billion
Known for programming one of the most successful and long time standing web sites, Pierre Omidyar launched eBay in 1995. In 1995 Pierre handed executive control to Meg Whitman, while still remaining as chairman. Pierre is currently an active blogger philanthropic through his Omidyar Network.

Dell started selling computers out of his College dorm room.

#8 Michael Dell
Age: 42 - Net Worth: $17.2 billion
After numerous company setbacks, including pummeled share price, Michael Dell reclaimed his executive spot at Dell Computer in January, for the first time since 2004. Since Dell’s return, share are up 25% in the past 12 months, and there has been many changes to the company. Michael started selling computers from his University of Texas dorm room in 1984 with $1,000, he then dropped out to start Dell. In 1998 he would take Dell public. The majority of Dell’s networth is now outside of the company, and reinvests in private MSD Capital: equities, real estate, private equity.

All of these billionaire’s made their fortunes in their own unique way. The one thing they shared in common, was the power of computer and use of the internet. With 2.0 web sites being produced in a such a mass volume and quickly gobbled up for millions by big players, will any of the 2.0 founders make their way to the billionaires list? In the next 5-10 years, will Forbes even bother with their massively growing “millionaires” list and just focus on the ever growing list of “billionaires”?

Once again, rumors are circulating that Digg.com is for sale and this time is looks like Microsoft and Google are the interested parties. What originally started out as a post on TechCrunch, has turned into a widespread rumor and everyone is waiting to see what happens. As posted on TechCrunch, Digg CEO Jay Adelson is calling this post “completely inaccurate.”. Inaccurate or not, Digg users themselves are trying to do whatever is possible to stop an acquisition. What would the acquisition of Digg mean to Microsoft or Google… and would it really matter that much at all?As bloggers and web site owners, we know and understand the power of being dugg. For the lucky few of us to have an article or page make it to their main page, you probably received thousands upon thousands of clicks. Whenever I hear about someone getting dugg, there is usually a follow up story about how crappy the traffic was and it just cost them a ton in bandwidth or brought their site down with it. Digg.com is making money, but Digg.com traffic also sucks. After searching Google for “Digg Traffic Sucks“, you will find thousands of sites complaining about how being dugg just brought them an onslaught of quick traffic, that really had no value.

Microsoft already has a massive three year advertising deal with Digg.com. With that deal in place, Microsoft won’t be as active to place a higher bid on the company. TechCrunch reports “Digg is prepared to take less than the $300 million Allen & Co. were floating late last year. Google, our source says, will likely bid $200-$225 million, which Digg would likely accept.”. Either way, should Digg be purchased, Microsoft would have the option to terminate their advertising deal.

The drama of Microsoft vs. Google continues. Will Microsoft successfully scoop up Yahoo and Digg? Is Digg really worth $200+ million?

Zac

Today I’m starting a new series on the blog and it’s called “CPA Spotlight“. Every day I will do a review on a new affiliate program or offer. In addition to hopefully providing you with some new offers, I will be listing which networks you can promote the offers from, their payout ranges and allowed methods for driving traffic. To further help in your promotions, I always have my “Super Affiliate Guides” for pay per click marketing research and each review will feature a list of related search terms and categories.

The selection of reviews will be from a vast area of affiliate offers and will not focus on one area. This will help to bring new offer to all readers and maybe some that will fit into your niche area. This new section will be a continuing work in progress to provide you with the best resources to make money. What else would you like to see from this new series of post?