Enkay Blog

Does This Seem Fishy To You?

That image above is an actual screenshot from Buy.com. Apparently the original price on this processor was around $885,000 and after a massive discount, youre looking at around $330 with free shipping. Doesn’t really sound like a deal to me even though it certainly looks like a great deal. So how do you know whether bloggers are being real or fake with you?

1. No Credibility - If a blogger has no real experience or speaks of experience but has no proof of such experience, then you’re looking at a blogger with no credibility. Its somewhat like the time when you meet the occasional individual as you wait for your coffee at the local Starbucks and he tells you that he’s an English Professor even though his English is obviously not up to par. If a blogger constantly runs away from proof, then theres probably something going on. Another example, I was asked to give proof that InfoLinks was real, and I did that in yesterday’s post. Maybe that cleared up some doubts, maybe not but either way, I just wanted to show that it actually does pay.

2. I Lost 30 lbs Without Working Out - We’ve all seen those ads. If it looks like a buncha bull and it stinks like a buncha bull, then its most probably bull. If something is obviously missing in the explanation or something sounds fishy then it most probably is. The internet is a place where confrontation is easier because its done while you warm up the nearest computer chair. If youre unable to respond to someone’s valid criticism then theres a reason why. Its most probably because you are in the wrong. Clean up your act and be who you are. Don’t promote something that you arent.

3. Past History Is Pitiful - I mean, “I Pity The Fool” who decides to re-enter the blogosphere with a name so popular that even Google can’t handle the results. There have been bloggers who return to their scamming techniques after dissolving away a blog that helped them earn a couple thousand quick bucks through their non-existent contest prizes and magically hyped visitor and feedburner stats. I believe that someone who scams will always be a scammer so be careful who you trust with your information and which contests you get involved in. Most of the contests I talk about here are held by bloggers that I have personally communicated with before.

I’d Like To Hear From You
What are some signs of a shady blog in your opinion? I’d like to hear some of your opinions. Also, I’d like to see if you have ever found out that a current blogger was really not who he/she claimed to be? I can think of a few! Anyway, have a great weekend!

How Much Money Do I Make Online?

I was asked by AnotherMMOBlog a little while back to reveal how much money I make online. I know that its been a few months that I haven’t disclosed earnings but this blog brings in a nice little supplemental income every month.

Here is what the breakdown for last month looked like:

Private Ad Sales: $60
Private Review Sales: $60
ReviewMe Sales: $85
Market Leverage Comission: $75
InfoLinks: $75

That adds up to a little over $350. I’m not throwing Adsense in there because it wasn’t even substantial if you look at the other revenue sources. Also, keep in mind that I round up/down my income to make the numbers divisible by 5. The blog brings in a couple hundred every month regardless of the private ad sales and review sales. Having the review price at $20 really gives me an advantage in getting more advertisers and review opportunities.

The Private Ad Sales includes things such as the Peel Away Ad and the 125×125 banner spots. The Private Reviews are any reviews that advertisers purchase directly from me and the ReviewMe sales are any reviews or commissions earned through ReviewMe.

The new addition for the month was Market Leverage which turned out a nice $75 income and obviously switching from Kontera to Infolinks helped me jump from a couple of dollars to almost $75. As many of you have requested, here is a proof of payment from InfoLinks via PayPal.

I really don’t have any other online ventures at the moment but in the past with my web design work I have brought in a couple thousand. Not bad considering that was when I was between 12 to 16 years old. This blog has definitely earned a good amount of income during its lifetime and I know that not being diversified in more blogs is hurting my total income but, I really don’t mind considering I’m happy with it. So, how much money do you make online?

Picking Offers For Affiliate Marketing

So, you know that I’ve been playing with the idea of Affiliate Marketing with Market Leverage and the end of August concluded my experimentation and I realized that there are ways that you can pick offers to maximize your earnings specially as a beginner. I’m going to share a few tips as to how you can pick the right offers and what to look for:

1. Target Audience - Every offer that you pick to advertise has a target audience. If you’re advertising dating websites to a 60+ year old audience then it won’t be as profitable as advertising to an audience between 20-30 years of age. You have to keep your target audience in mind because thats how you can expect to generate the most leads.

You can do one of two things (1) select your target audience and then pick offers or (2) pick offers and then decide who the target audience is. My opinion is that the second option works better because after you have picked an offer, selecting a target audience after that will make it more accurate.

2. Dont Look at Just CPA - Sometimes individuals decide to pick offers that provide large amounts of money for a lead. Don’t look JUST at the CPA. Obviously, you have to look at it but don’t just pick an offer because it offers you a great CPA. Make sure that the offer you pick is the one you want based on the number of leads you can expect to generate. Consider this:

1 Lead with a $100 CPA = $100 for you
20 leads with $20 CPA = $400 for you

So its not really about how high the CPA is but how many leads you can generate from it.

3. Would You Click On It? - Sometimes you have to think whether you’d click and complete the offer that youre putting out there. Its not necessary for you to think that but sometimes the offers require quite a bit of information and you’d have to think whether someone would be willing to fill the information out.

Some offers that require emails or zips earn low CPA but they can convert really well since most people are okay with giving that information out. Others that require a lot of information and specially credit card information can tend not to do as well unless you know what you’re doing. I’m just suggesting that if you’re a beginner stick to the basics for now.

Conclusion
So hopefully you guys can take something away from this post. I know that some of you are getting started and I’d like to hear some advice from some of you who have already experimented with affiliate marketing. Let me know your thoughts! Have a great mid-week Wednesday!

Top Commentator August 2008

This month’s Top Commentator was surprisingly a new blogger. A new individual that has done so well in the blogosphere these past couple months that you’ve definitely heard about him. I won’t ruin the surprise so lets take a look at how you stacked up:

1. ImWithJoe - ImWithJoe is a fairly new discovery for me and instantly I have been hooked on Joe’s contest. I know that I haven’t contributed as much specially lately with my last year at school and stuff but you really have to check out Joe’s blog daily. Honestly, there are a few blogs on my mind that I visit daily before class starts considering I get there early, and Joe’s blog is one of them. The videos are great and hilarious and the posts are unique and informative. I mean, its a no brainer!

2. Dr. Teeth - Dr. Teeth has started up a new venture lately called Webmasters.bz and has been busy with that however the site already seems to be doing really well. Much like anything Faheem is involved with, he is a 100% committed and I wish him luck!

3. Balkhis - Syed is the one blogger that I have even added as a shortcut on my Ipod. Its just that simple. Great content, great tutorials and the reader interaction is amazing. He even wrote a tutorial recently based on my suggestion. How great is that? Syed is a very talented young blogger and it would be great to see him continue on the path of success.

4. Dinesh - There used to a lot of contest blogs out there but lately they seemed to have disappear and in this time of scarcity I turn to Dinesh’s blog to check out the newest contests going on in the blogosphere. Yeah, I said blogosphere. What happened with some of the other contest blogs was that they started to cover contests that had no relation to blogging. I know that Dinesh’s blog is in my watch list for new contests all the time.

5. LifeIsColourful - Abhijeet has been the longest supporter of the blog and with the recent design upgrade he has received from Balkhis, I think that he’s ready to take his blog to the next level. Abhijeet is on a very tight schedule and I’d really like to see him blog more often but I’m not complaining since I’ll take what I can get plus I know what its like to juggle several different things all at once.

When you look at the list, you’ll realize that Joe has taken over Nick from RomanDock and that means that Joe will get a free blog review this month. Since I already wrote one recently, I’ll write it for the middle of the month and I’m sure that although Joe doesn’t really need the extra traffic, he’ll enjoy it . So basically it pays to be a top commentator and I really enjoy reading comments and implementing them on my blog so why dont you try for next month? I think its worth it.

Need Some Affiliate Tips?

I was recently requested to review AffiliateTips.com which is a website dedicated to affiliate marketing and everything you’d like to know about it. Lets discuss a few things related to the website.

Introduction
I have just entered the field of affiliate marketing and this website is a great resource for someone like me. I know that many others are just as inexperienced as I am in this field and at least I can go through the Affiliate Directory to see what offers are producing the best returns. At first glance, the design of the website is highly appealing to me. The front page is divided into separate sections. The first thing that strikes me is the Top 10 Affiliate Programs List that rates the program on 7 levels and the commission. Here is what the list looks like:

Next to each one of the programs you can see a detailed review of each of the programs. The review page is highly organized and graphically supported to be very visually appealing. The page provides a quick rating, a user rating as well as other key information. The quick facts section covers information such as payment periods, commission and support details. It provides a short list of the pros and cons as well as screenshots of the index page of the programs, landing page and of the statistics. Each review page is really well organized considering the amount of information it covers. Here is a review page. You can click on the image to see a detailed full page image.

Click To See Enlarged Page

Compare Programs
Their Compare and Find Affiliate Programs page even lets you compare affiliate programs and search for affiliate programs based on the category you select. Whether you select auto affiliate programs, education affiliate programs or any of the other 19 categories there are, there are several different types of programs available for any category that you select.

Articles
They even have a host of articles that are separated on the main page into beginner articles, guides & reviews, advanced articles and many more. I personally liked the beginner articles specially the one about getting started with PPC. I went through quite a few of the articles and noticed that all of them were well written and some even included lists which is always a plus in my book.

Organization Is Key
With a website such as AffiliateTips, which includes so much great information, its essential to be well organized and they completely succeed in being organized. Every page on the website is well organized and has an easy to understand interface whether its the main page or any of the subpages. The color schemes are easy on the eyes and te text boxes are placed in a manner that is easy to understand too. Organization also helps many of the beginners get used to the manner in which information is presented.

Is This Useful?
I personally think its very useful considering, first of all, that its a completely free resource. You can search through several programs, networks as well as read reviews from other users that have implemented those programs. Their articles are also a good resource if you’d like to read them and their how-to guides are great for users who need a little help. There are many resources on the internet that actually charge for such information however you can find that here for free. All in all, I’d say its pretty darn useful.

Overall Impression
Although the idea may not be as unique, you have to tip your hats to the guys over at AffiliateTips for putting together a website that incorporates almost all aspects in the affiliate marketing feel that a beginner or an advanced user would like to see. The amount of work put into the website is visible within the first 10 seconds that you look at the website. The front page resembles a news website and lets you stay updated by just browsing through the different sub-sections. Overall, a great resource for users of all levels and definitely a website I’ll be keeping on my radar. Check out AffiliateTips and give me your thoughts.