How I made my way through the world of affiliate programs to earn some extra $$$
A real-life daily updates on the programs I tested, programs that worked and the ones that failed
I made mistakes by joining some affiliate programs - so you don't have to. I succeeded on the other ones - so you can succeed too
Archive for 04 Thursday Thirteen
April 24, 2008 at 11:53 pm · Filed under 04 Thursday Thirteen
Spring is here and I feel like traveling.
We sold our apartment 6 moths ago, and right now I don’t feel like I (we) need to own a home to live. And I must say, I’m a little envious of Enlight when reading (his) Enlight’s blog.
So, today’s Thursday Thirteen is about traveling and here’s my list of places I wish to visit before I die…
- India: I feel like I must visit India. And I hope I will one day (festival time!)
- Egypt: Valley of the Kings, The Nile River, Luxor, Giza, Karnak… I want to see the whole Egypt:
- Iceland: different, snow-white, clean and intriguing
- Tokyo: like a step into the future!
- Tibet: the Roof of the World
- Tanzania: cheetah, Lake Tanganyika, the sunrise over the Serengeti Plains…!!! (the “home of the safari”)
- Morocco: do I have to say anything??
- Alaska: landscapes… a place to chill after Morocco
- Australia: Sydney, Tasmania, Blue Mountains, Queensland…
- Israel: I want to learn more about the history…
- Jordan: because Jordan is exotic, I want to wander through the desert with bedouins, see the ruins and Petra…
- Lapland: I have a question for Santa!!!
- New York: “Start spreading the news…”
April 10, 2008 at 10:58 pm · Filed under 04 Thursday Thirteen
- New WP 2.5 is nice looking CMS!
- Fox Life have the best TV bumpers (I could never make something like that)
- Blog catalog - this is really one neat community. (Try :))
- I’m deleting everything in spam box without reading (sorry!)
- I’m going to use less: Yuwie and Cre8Buzz
- I’m going to try BuySellAds
- I will never try to start a contest again
- I’m getting worried about my PR on graphics-illustrations.com now
- Live Journal? No, thanks!
- No more YouTube in my mailbox, please? :)
- Don’t accept new client! Ever! (note to myself)
- Try harder to learn to speak Italian
- Eat less bread and pasta :)
Now, I’m claiming this blog on Technorati Profile
February 14, 2008 at 11:46 pm · Filed under 04 Thursday Thirteen
Oh, I’m angry! Yes, I am. Swearing, cursing and giving a bad names to many. A lot “not so good” things happened in the last two weeks and I can’t control almost any of them. So, today TT is about lousy things, but I’ll narrow them to the Internet topic.
I’m posting them here with a hope that the angry feeling will vanish, disappear and leave me alone!
- Clickbank. They said my country is fraudulent and didn’t accepted my account. It’s insulting and lame what they did.
- Commission Junction. Someone, somewhere said that this is a great affiliate program. Maybe. But I don’t know. Still.
- Share a sale. Every now and then I’m receiving e-mail with DECLINED message. Again: because I’m from Croatia.
- AdSense: 4 blogs, RSS feed… 2000+ visitors daily. And still earning peanuts. Guys?!
- Squidoo lenses. I have them. Seven. Didn’t earn a cent. Nothing happened except someone reported me as a spammer. I was pissed of, my lens was blocked for a 3 days and my lens name is 365 wallpapers: one a day.
- Wordpress. Now they want to ban my 404039 is the number blog. Because I have affiliate links there. Now. I didn’t post there for a two weeks… I’m posting there since August 2007. Never earned a cent and now they want to ban me.
- CafePress. So, someone bought a T-shirt. I was happy. Five days after the T-shirt was returned. I was desperate. I don’t know why? They probably liked it when they purchased it. What can I do about that?
- T-com. My Internet provider. It sucks. They charge too much. Now they got new policy: split the bill into two portions. Like, we are stupid and we wouldn’t notice that the bill is too huge? Did I hear: Change the Internet provider? Well, my friend did it and they left him for 2 weeks without a connection! Few last days connection is really slow and last night they cut me off in the middle of the work…
- My shop. It’s working. And I was happy: same day when shop was integrated I sold 4 items. Next days I sold only one. And guess what: I’m having over 2000 unique visits on my blog. Who said that one sale should be be done per 200 visitors?
- LinkShare.com
. They sent me a check on $1,84…. But I already wrote about that two days ago.
- Spam - email. I keep receiving idiotic messages like: “Hi, where are you? I’m lonely girl…” I can’t understand why should anyone ever answered to this stupid message?!
- Spam – comments. Messages in comments are even more idiotic: “kghs klsfjf lskjf BUY VIAGRA” Can’t believe it!!!
- Biorust. I lost my password. Then tried to reset my password with my email. My email is not recognized! (and I’m a member since Summer 2007) I contacted them. Nothing. Tried few days after – same problem. Contacted them again. Again –no response. What is going on?!
January 31, 2008 at 6:14 am · Filed under 04 Thursday Thirteen
Finally! The end of the most depressed month in the year! Oh, I really don’t like January. I don’t.
So, here we are for the better future, today my Thursday Thirteen in form of a note to myself:
- Laugh! Laugh! Laugh!
- Have a fun no matter what you do.
- Think positive. Wear a pink glasses if needed.
- Read more fun books.
- Watch funny movies. They are stupid! So what? Have a fun (no. 2)
- Go mingle. More. More. More.
- Wear bright and vivid colors. Yes you will look fat, but you will be happier.
- Exercise! It’s hard and boring but you have to. You’re sitting too much.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables!
- Cook more! Do not fry. Cook – boil.
- Drink more tea. Tea is better than coffee.
- Write more. Anything. Just write. It helps.
- Laugh!
January 17, 2008 at 6:55 am · Filed under 04 Thursday Thirteen
Following the comment I got on “Saturday’s Showing Off” post, I decided to sign up as a LinkWorth Publisher. The site is really huge and since I signed up as a partner and advertiser (you never know when you’ll need an advertising too!) - I’m lost! :-D
This Thursday Thirteen, affiliate programs changed a little bit since November 29, 2007:
- AdBrite
- Smorty
- Affiliate Junktion
- Dreamstime
- AdSense
- ClixGalore
- Clickbooth - Make Money!
- Commission junction
- AdSense Elite Team
- Text Link Ads
- Cafe press
- Free Stock Photos at 123RF
- Stockxpert
January 10, 2008 at 11:46 pm · Filed under 04 Thursday Thirteen
First Thursday this year and here it is, my New Year’s resolutions list:
- Always trust to your instinct where it comes to business decisions: yes, that’s true – I should never take any kind of a job if I have a tiniest doubt before the start.
- Use more than one e-mail address: one e-mail address should be primary, but I must have one or two and they should be on different mail servers!
- Don’t eat while working: since I quit smoking (last July) I’m eating instead. I should quit eating when working because every month I’m buying new clothes and, hey, that must be stopped!
- Don’t work overnight: I like working late at night, but I’ve noticed few problems with it: I’m totally disoriented, my life became a mess, I don’t have a time for socializing (I’m sleeping instead of drinking afternoon coffee with my friends)
- Spend less time on Facebook. Facebook is a mess! Too many applications, duplicated posts, messages, videos… and spam again.
- Create one or two Photoshop brushes per week. And don’t drink Coke or similar shit while drawing.
- Create at least 5 illustrations per week. It’s a small amount, but it’s better than 0, which I made in the last 3 months. Embarrassing.
- Write at least one post a day for one of the blogs. Writing blog posts will help me stay in touch with sanity.
- Don’t, don’t, don’t even think about paying anything over the Internet if you don’t really need it (just remember the money wasted on Affiliate Junktion)
- Make comments on other people blogs. As many as you can. It helps making friends-linking-visiting-earning combination.
- Use you brain better. Don not let other people make you depressed just because they are depressed. Help them instead.
- Stay away from the egocentric shallow persons. They suck your energy and might bore you to death.
- Learn Italian. Learn harder!
December 20, 2007 at 2:44 am · Filed under 04 Thursday Thirteen
I know it’s not good to be negative. I know that I should always be smiling and that I should embrace every day as it comes. I know I have to be nice to all people and should not be nasty.
But sometimes I have to be angryyyyyy! And I don’t have to be smiling all the time! That stupid pressure: „think positive, smile“ is giving me hard time! And today’s thirteen is about what in blog-affiliate-marketing world just pissed me off! I’m mad and I’m content with it. :)
Take care of those thirteen if starting a blog:
- AdSense
Think carefully before using AdSense, they can ban you for not particular reason. Someone can click on your ads several times, just because they are mean to you and that’s it. AdSense will not give you any info about what went wrong, and you’ll be kicked out without any explanation. And how can I prohibit some idiot who wants Google to ban me, from clicking on my ads on purpose without knowing who he is?!?! Is that a way for Google to earn some money? Hope not. Anyway, at this point I’m an inch away from being banned.
- Blogger (Blogspot)
If you want to turn on your blog to a small business or earn some extra cash, don’t use the Blogger. Trust me. I did and it didn’t turned out well.
- Domain name
You don’t have a domain name right now? Well, you can use Blogger (maybe) or Wordpress (that’s ok) or others. But think well when choosing your domain name - it’s good to connect your domain name with the core of your business. Unless you are after creating a brand, don’t use your name or nick. I did and it didn’t turned out well. (bsilvia - brand?!)
- Headlines, content…
When writing an article try to use the „target keywords“ in your first post sentence. Use your „target keywords“ for links too. Don’t use „download here“ if you want to be well positioned on search engines. I did. I know that’s wrong. :)
- Side business?
So, you started a blog. Nice. Now you want to register to few community sites. Great. You are using blogcatalog, facebook, yuwie, bloglines, spicy page, cre8buzz, flickr… and others. Cool. Now you want to earn some money through the marketing and you are registering at AdBrite, AdSense, Feox, TextLink Ads, ClickBooth, Commission Junction… and others. Fine. You know that more clicks on your blog will bring if you’re registered at forums. Well done. Now you want to connect more people through Twitter… BUT hey – what about your free time? Time with your family, friends, parents… what about reading a book, what about walking, cycling, swimming… Side business? Ha! What a joke. Think before starting a „side business“ (my husband knows, unfortunately).
- Affiliate Junktion
They will return you $75 on your Affiliate Junktion account. But you will need $75 more before you can have it in your hands. They will send you the money only if you succeed the $150 on your Affiliate Junktion account. Trust me. I have some $$$ on my Affiliate Junktion account. But not enough.
- Facebook
Nice to make new friends, stay in contact with old ones but a real pain in the ass when it comes to an applications! Too many people send you too many applications requests… And it can make an addiction too. (Do not adopt the Haiku pet or Fluff friend. Do not.) I know. (oooo, my Haiku pet is hungry….!!!)
- Amazon associates
From all of theirs Widgets, only a simple product links will work in Wordpress blogs. Waste of time for 4%. (Earnings are low, low, low, low, low… low, low.)
- Sponsored Reviews
Register. Bid. Wait for a 15 or more days to be rejected. Another waste of time. Better spend your time on lunch with your friends. Visit your grandma and take her skirt to the dry cleaning. Plant a flower. Take a walk. Right now I’m waiting for 16 days. For most of the bids I was rejected after 15 days.
- Spicy page
Nice, but… you will have a problem if: you are using Wordpress with option „Date and name based“ checked. If that’s the case you won’t be able to post an article on Spicy page. But since Google loves „date and name based“ web page names … ? Google doesn’t like my Wordpress based blogs. I’m nowhere on Google PR. Nowhere.
- Commission Junction
Maybe. This site is massive! But selling anything through their banner ads – not so much. Slow loading, slow earnings. (Sometimes I forget that I’m using it.)
- Snap Shots
Do you really want that? Well, if you want to slow your site loading, annoying your visitors with popup loading… sure why not? I did. It wasn’t good. People were running away from me (my blog) :)
- Widgets
Widgets are great. I love widgets. But, you have to choose them wisely. And when you are using them get them form their original creator. Don’t use them from second hand sites… that will produce link for second hand site and for widget creator. You don’t need that. I know, I did. (It’s better to donate few $$$ to original creator then use too many links or banners.)
November 29, 2007 at 1:31 am · Filed under 04 Thursday Thirteen
I’m happy to announce that my application to become Adobe affiliate has been approved!!!
That is, apart form Apple affiliation and Clickbooth - Make Money!, the best affiliation I have .
This Thursday Thirteen, affiliate programs:
- Clickbooth - Make Money!
- commission junction
- Forex affiliate
- LinkShare.com
- AdBrite
- AdSense
- Affiliate scout
- Smorty
- SEO Book
- Adriatica.net
- Free Stock Photos at 123RF
- Stockxpert
- ClixGalore
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