Affiliate Marketing

Okay… so this iBuzzPro post is a bit biased — what do you expect, I am an Affiliate.

I’m just now getting cranked up with iBuzzPro… been a little busy with the wife — but she seems to be doing a lot better these past few days, so I can get a little work done.

I’ll not get into all the reasons why YOU need to join iBuzzPro… I’ll let you watch this little video I did.

This one is a bit small (and a tad rough)… just wanted to see how it looked using a smaller size — almost too small for my 49 year old eyes.

Update: Just finished the video at the main site: Insidernet

Continued

This is somewhat of a hypothetical “Affiliate Marketing” scenario — but it’s a true story.

The affiliate program does exist… but before we talk about the company, I want to give you a few things to think about — something you need to think hard about.

Picture this if you will…

A company launches a new product that every Affiliate Marketer, Online Marketer, Realtor, Insurance Agent, Web Site owner, Home Improvement and Carpet Cleaning company wants — basically, it’s something that you and every business owner must have if you plan on staying in business.

This is not something that would be nice if you had it — oh no, it’s something you MUST have or you’ll go broke. Continued

This is just a quick little FYI post.

It looks like Amazon has decided to get into the affiliate marketing video game.

I have to give a shout out to Perry Lawrence of AskMrVideo for this one — he is the one who let me know about Amazons new "Affiliate Video" widget.

Instead of creating a new video — I just uploaded a video I use in most of my testing, "Social Power Linking" overview.

After you upload the video… you are required to add at least one product that Amazon has on it’s site. Keep in mind — you need to be an affiliate for Amazon to use the service.

Continued

In a previous post I listed some of the "Good, Bad and Ugly" parts of Affiliate Marketing. But I left this one out. I did not purposely leave it out - I had forgot about it really, as it has not happened to me in over 6 years.

What is this "Ugly"?…

Not getting paid your Affiliate Commission.

I’m not going to say I will not get paid eventually - but no need to worry. If I do not, I will post more about it and who it is on my blog. I’ll even use pay per click and "Bending the Web" methods to spread the companies name and products to expose them to everyone on the web. It will become my new mission in life.

This is not a threat to the people who owe me the money - just a statement of fact. Chances are they will never know about this post since I’m not going to name them, yet.

I have learned yet another important lesson though.

Regardless of how much I like the product I’m promoting - I’ll not promote it unless there is a third party involved paying out the commissions (i.e. clickbank, cj, etc).

The story goes something like this…

A couple weeks back I emailed the "Perp" asking them when I could expect to receive my commissions? I did not hear back from them so I shot off another email. Again, heard nothing back.

Out of the blue, I finally received an email saying something along the lines that we have to wait and see if there are any charge backs, cancellations, etc.

That is all fine and dandy - but it has been over 30 days since the sale date so the chances of them doing a charge back is not likely - one of them even made their 2nd payment - doubt he would be making his second payment if he was going to do a chargeback or cancel.

So here I sit - wondering if and when they will ever pay me. All they have to do is reply back. I gave them the benefit of doubt for the first 2 weeks - just thought maybe they were busy. Plus, do I really want to piss off someone who owes me money? It’s about to get to that point.

I should also mention that I replied to their response to me. In the email I basically stated what I posted above. They replied back basically agreeing with me and said they would look into it and see about getting me paid.

Okay… things are starting to look up - so I thought.

Here I am - 5 days later and not a single response to my last 3 emails.

Since they left it where I was on the "verge" of getting paid - I wanted to know a status. So I have sent them three emails asking for the status. I’ve not emailed them 3 times in a day - I’ve emailed them every other day for 5 days. The last email basically said that yall must not be receiving my emails, as I’m sure you would be answering them if you had (yea - right).

This is yet another "Ugly" of Affiliate Marketing.

Not only did I "finance" the sale of their product - I am now having to hound them to pay me my commissions. I should not have to do this.

I spent money (adwords ads) and time upfront promoting their product. They were my best friends when I was doing this. Now that it is time to pay me - well, you get the picture.

So once again - I learn yet another lesson.

One thing for sure - I will keep you posted on how this unfolds.

That is something you CAN take to the bank.

I just wanted to give a quick update on Google Assassin from my perspective.

To make this short and sweet.

I’ll first say how can you argue with or dis a guy (Chris) who makes a cool million bucks a year? He obviously knows what he is doing or he would not be making the kind of money that he does.

I’ve read in a few forums where people were bad mouthing Google Assassin - saying it was hyped up and over rated (guess they make a mil a year too). Like I have always said - it just depends on where you are in the Parade and your level of experience.

If you already make thousands a month (or a day) using Google Adwords and selling Affiliate products - more than likely you do not need Google Assassin - but you may pick up a few things. It is hard to be everything to everyone. You are not Chris’s target market.

On the other hand - if you are someone who needs a model to follow - a system pretty much in place to follow - tried and true methods to make money with Affiliate Marketing and Google Adwords, then Google Assassin may be a perfect fit. Like I said earlier - it is not for everyone.

If you are just starting out with Affiliate Marketing - or if you have yet to reach the level of success you want, you may want to give Google Assassin a shot. He is giving a 56 day guarantee so it is a pretty safe bet. If you do not like it, just request a refund.

That’s pretty much it on Google Assassin. Take a look and see what you think.

You may want to hurry though - I received an email he is raising the membership cost on Monday, November 26th (that is today) within 24 hours. Lets see if he does?

With so much conversation about Google Payload - and from the questions I’ve had here and email, I think an overview of how Traffic Arbitrage works is in order. But I’m not going to cover "Traffic Arbitrage" in this post - I’ll begin a series of posts in a few days.

First, let me say upfront - I am not even close to being a "Jedi Arbitrager" or "Master Yoda" by any stretch of the imagination (not even my own). Traffic Arbitrage is something I do on a day-to-day basis, in addition to affiliate marketing and "Bending the Web" to promote a few sites.

Before I dive off into my Rant - I’d like to show you a few things first.

In the screenshot below, you will see my site is listed first and second for the phrase "google payload" - it has since dropped out - but during the actual launch it was bouncing back and forth between first and second. The blogspot blog was there when I first found out about Google Payload, and I assume it was there for quite awhile and had a heads up on the launch. I found out about the launch the night before and put my "Bending the Web" glasses on and went to work.

Like I said - my site has since dropped out of the top rankings for now - but if I wanted to, I’m pretty confident I could get back into the top five fairly easy. One thing you cannot see is the competing pages - there was one million three hundred and sixty thousand pages at that time (1,360,000).

Here is another screenshot on the phrase "google payload system" that I was listed first and second for out of eight hundred thousand or so pages.

Keep in mind… there were also a few pages of Adwords Ads competing for these phrases. The only difference being, they were obviously having to pay money to be seen while myself and others listed in the organic search were not.

Even though I am not listed in the top 10 now (I don’t think) for the phrase "Google Payload", it does not matter to me at this point. My goal was to be listed there when the "conversation" started to heat up, and be in place when the product actually launched.

I accomplished this goal and everything went off as planned. Like "Click Flipping", this is not always the case. There are times when you cannot "crack the code" for whatever reason and your "Bending the Web" campaign does not pan out as you had hoped.

So you will not think this was just a lucky break or a fluke - I’ll show you another "Bending the Web" (social power linking) campaign I did when "Assaulting the Web" launched.

In the screenshot above - I am obviously listed first and second out of a million or so pages for the phrase "assaulting the web" (third was mine as well - the Shoutwire page, but I lost that listing).

I could list a few more examples, but at this point I’ll just leave it at that.

Now for the obvious question, why am I showing you this? To brag? For my ego?

No, I would be better off not showing you and just keep on quietly doing what I do - lurking in the shadows with my ears open and nose to the grindstone. Unlike the mysterious "Jedi Master Arbitrager" from Brazil, I do not have any "never discussed before" secrets.

Everything I do is in the wide open (well - most of it). I do like to think I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but that is just an ego thing.

The Good…

Unlike the people who are paying to be listed with Adwords - if I do not like a product or think it has some flaws, I have no problem with saying so. It is not costing me anything to be honest. I’ll more than likely not make as much money as someone who is giving a "fake" or "bogus" review - but I can still look people in the eye the next day.

The Bad…

I’ve seen them… you’ve seen them… Pay Per Click ads (Adwords, Yahoo, MSN, etc) where it has the word "Review" in the ad, or they are telling you how you will be a miserable failure and not be able to compete without it. If I was paying for the ad - what type of a review do you think I’m going to give? You can bet your last dollar if someone is paying for the ad - the review will be good. Who in their right mind is going to pay a buck a click or whatever and say, "oh - the product sucks - don’t get it." 

They cannot afford to be honest. There is a conflict of interest, and in most of the cases the person does not even own the product so how can they give a review anyway.

When I started talking about Google Payload - I did not own the product. I stated so in my first post. I was truly looking forward to the launch so I could buy it. Which I did.

While I do have a few issues with the product, which I also state in my posts - overall I think the product is pretty good. It was worth the money I paid. I’ll admit though - after going through it the first time I started to request a refund. I changed my mind after thinking about it, because I feel that I did receive fair value for the money I paid.

I think Alex could have done a lot better job explaining a few things in more depth, and from what I understand after reading his blog - he plans on doing some videos doing just that. Everyone that purchased Google Payload will receive them for free.

I like the fact that Alex is stepping up to the plate for his customers - continuing on with the relationship when he could just as easily end it and start spending the money he made. I do not know him, but his actions indicate he is a stand up guy (he just seems to have an issue with translating his thoughts to written form at times). If you read this Alex - don’t take it personal. I have a few issues of my own.

Enough on Google Payload already… that campaign is over (that’s me talking to me).

The Ugly…

Do I really need to cover the Ugly? Might as well.

I would say the Ugly in Affiliate Marketing is a combination of outright lies and manipulation.

I’ll just cover one Ugly for now - a recent Ugly that happened to me. Again, this is coming from my own perspective and you may disagree with me on this one.

As an Affiliate Marketer, we all know and realize that we are not only selling a product for someone else, but we are also building a "Buyers List" for the seller of the product. A list of "Buyers" is by far the most treasured item any Marketer can own. You can take away my house… my truck…  my dog or whatever you want - but if you give me a list of known "Buyers" and tell me what they bought - I can get it all back.

That is the major problem I have with Affiliate Marketing (selling products others create). While you may be getting paid - and many times very well, you are not building a sustainable business. You are building a sustainable business for the owner of the product, but not for you. You are simply being paid - somewhat like a job does.

Case in point…

A couple months back, I did a little "Bending the Web" and made a few sales of a pretty good paying product. I had maybe 4 or 5 hours invested into the project and did pretty good. The product paid so well - I also did an Adwords campaign in addition to the stuff I normally do. I did not want to take the chance of missing out on any of the action in case my organic listings got bumped.

Like the screenshots above - I was ranked pretty good. I was ranked first, second and fifth for the exact product name - and third for my Adwords ad.

It has taken me awhile to get here… but this is The Ugly of Affiliate Marketing (again - my opinion and perspective).

The same Marketer rolled out another campaign for a different, but very similar product. His target market was the same. Only this time - he did not offer an Affiliate program for this product. It was his right not to do this - but to me this is The Ugly of Affiliate Marketing.

In the previous campaign, I sent thousands of people to his opt in page. How many actually opted in, I have no idea. While I can track how many I sent there - I cannot track how many actually did opt in.

In his first campaign, more than likely he had hundreds (or thousands) of Affiliate Marketers like myself promoting his product. If a respectable number of people did in fact opt in to his list - the list more than likely from the traffic we sent numbered in the high five or six figures. Obviously, I have no way of knowing for sure - it is truly just a guess and not really important to the point I’m trying to make.

The point is this.

He no longer needed me. If he did - he would have had an affiliate program for the new product he was selling. He had a large enough list from the first campaign. Why split up the money when you do not have to. Keep in mind, I also emailed my own list,  as I’m sure every other Marketer did as well.

This is the problem I have with Affiliate Marketing. Sure… he paid me some money to sell his product the first time - but I actually helped him build his business.

I could go on and on with this Rant… but what’s the use. I’m tired of writing and tired of thinking about it - and It serves no real purpose. But there is a lesson to be learned.

For me the lesson is this. Quit making money and start building a business.

Rant Done!

Now that the dust has settled and I’ve gone through Google Payload - I’ll make my final review and last post on it.

From reading the sales page for Google Payload, I came away feeling like I would learn some tricks and secrets of a Jedi Master - the secret "Yoda Arbitrager" from Brazil.

In my own mind, I had it built up where Google Payload would read like an Agatha Christie suspense novel. I was expecting to find page after page of techniques and methods I had never heard of or used. This was not the case.

In fact, I’m still wondering what the "Yoda Arbitrager" even shared with Alex that totally blew him away.

On the sales page it states; "But why would the Insider Break the Vow of Silence?". I did not see anywhere on the page where he made a vow of silence. In fact, he said the opposite: "I’m tired of keeping it to myself.  I’m tired of being alone in my world.  I’m not afraid of competition or anything like that, like I told you, it’s not even an issue."

To steal a line from the Saturday Night Live skit…. "and don’t even get me started on the Testicalmonials." I know… I changed it a bit. I wonder if they even reviewed the same product I purchased. One of the testimonials stated that the last 6 pages of the Google Payload is exactly what Novices (like him), need to hear.

Well… I guess he needed to know some keywords pertaining to the Insurance industry, because that is what makes up the last 6 pages.

Like I said - either Alex changed up Google Payload after his initial core group reviewed it, or they did not even read it.

On a popular forum, one reviewer initially stated it had nothing to do with Adsense - when in fact a large part of it does in fact pertain to monitizing and driving traffic to Adsense landing pages. Go figure.

Now that I’ve totally trashed Google Payload… let me reverse gears a bit.

Like I stated in a previous post, for someone new to "traffic arbitrage" - this would be a good product to own. You will learn a lot of methods and techniques that would take you a very long time to learn on your own. Since the cost is only $77 (there is an upsell for 5 videos for $67 - if you are new, get them - if not take a pass), it is worth the money. At the end of the day, you will save more than what the product cost using the methods in Google Payload.

To be clear… I’m not sure an experienced "traffic arbitrager" will really learn anything new - I picked up a few tidbits of info - a few resources I was not aware of, so in the end it was worth buying. It was just a let down to me in the end due to the expectations I had of learning some totally new methods "never discussed before" from a true "Jedi Master."

That’s it.

In closing - if you are new to traffic arbitrage, worth buying. If you are like me and have a few years of experience under your belt already doing this - take a pass.

http://www.googlepayload.com

"UPDATE:  Every now and then I make an error (does not happen very often ), this is one of those times. The tone of this post and content gives a "Positive" review of Google Payload and suggested anyone new to Arbitrage should buy it. This was a mistake. I never should have made this suggestion. I cannot recommend this product as it is lacking in a clear way to implement the methods Alex is attempting to teach - and it goes against my core philosophy of "building a business" instead of making money.

A lot of people have made money with "arbitrage", but most will never be able to build a sustainable business with these methods. It is hit or miss at best.

With that said - I would like to retract the suggestion I gave, and apologize to those who purchased this product due to my recommendation. "

It appears I am still a "serial" buyer of Internet marketing products as I purchased Google Payload.

I have a good excuse this time though - Google Payload is a product that fits in with what I do already, so it will not cause me to become sidetracked or lose focus.

I cannot give what I call a full review as I am still going through it - over 90 pages of medium sized type (most people use 14 pt to make the book seem larger), but Alex did not. Just regular sized type. In addition, there is an up sell for 3 plus hours of video which I did purchase, so I want to go though all the videos before I give a full review as well.

Honestly, I have mixed thoughts on Google Payload.

I cannot say anything bad about it - but the thing is I know a lot of the stuff in Google Payload already. So what does that say about me. If I already know and I’ve done "some" of what is in Google Payload in the past - why am I not making $300,000 a month like the mysterious gentleman from Brazil that Alex makes reference to on his site.

The product is solid. He goes into great depth into what we would call "click flipping" and "traffic arbitrage".

For those not familiar with the model… it is basically the same as anything that is sold. You purchase a product (traffic in this case) at one price - and you sell it at a higher price. Just think buying wholesale and selling it at retail. That is what I would call just regular old business - nothing new there.

The part of Google Payload that is new to me is where Alex is buying traffic from and how he is converting it. I’ve purchased traffic from many of the sources he mentions in the past with poor results. But to be fair, some of the dismal results could have been my own fault as I never did the metrics on the traffic I received. I’m a bit impatient - so when I see 100 clicks and zero conversions, I’m pretty much done with that test. It does not matter if I’m paying a penny a click, or a buck a click - if I cannot convert a single person - campaign is over.

Maybe if I had stuck it out - paid the three bucks for the hundred visitors and let the campaign run, I might have made a few bucks. To play this game, you have to be patient or you will lose.

After rushing through and scanning most of Google Payload, I discovered some of the mistakes I made in the past with purchasing traffic. Not giving campaigns enough time is one of them. If I am buying traffic one place that cost me 3 cents - and the same keyword phrase would cost me a buck on Adwords - I can afford to let it run a bit longer - quite a bit longer actually.

I’ll just end this partial review of Google Payload here for now. I’ll finish it up once I have gone through the entire package.

For now - I have a good feeling this product will deliver, it has so far. 

Like all my reviews, I am grading this product based on my current knowledge of the subject matter. Your own knowledge could be far greater or less than mine.

If you do not know how, or you have never done "click flipping" or "traffic arbitrage" successfully in the past, then Google Payload may be exactly what you need to begin making some pretty good money with these methods.

Google Payload launches in about 2 hours.

I can honestly say this is one launch I am truly looking forward to. I just hope it can live up to it’s claims.

I have scoured the Internet looking for more information on Google Payload, but I pretty much came up empty. Since this is the case - I will just have to wait and see what the product is all about.

Having been a long time Adwords user (boy do I miss the GoTo days), it has always been a constant struggle for me buying cheap and selling high. It really reminds me of playing Craps at the Casino.

The basis is pretty much the same.

In order to make any real money - you have to let your campaign run for a bit - even if it is losing money. Same as the Craps table - have to keep pushing the limits because you never know if the next roll, or click with pay per click will be the one that puts you in the money.

The first ten clicks (or rolls) could have been losers, but all you need is one to make money.

It sounds like Google Payload will allow me to multiply my returns. Instead of it costing me thirty cents or more per click in a specific niche - I can get the same quality traffic for two or three cents a click. This would really change the game.

In doing the math - if I can buy traffic for a tenth of what I am paying now and converting the same number of sales - well, you get the picture.

For those doing arbitrage traffic - if Google Payload (or Affiliate Payload) is the real deal, this could possibly be a windfall for you. You have just hit the lottery. Again, if it is the real deal. I guess we will know shortly.

Google Payload…. as in my last post on Operation Black Box, I would not really call this a review - more of a heads up that something interesting is coming.

I’ve embedded a copy of Alex Goad’s video so you can watch what he is doing for yourself. In the video I hear him make reference to the program as Affiliate Payload System… so I’m not really sure if that is the name or Google Payload System - guess we will know soon enough.

I have to say, anytime that someone can show me that they make over $9000.00 a day - I’m paying really close attention. Google Payload is hopefully the real McCoy and will not let us down like so many products in the past.

I like his "non hype" style of presentation - does not seem to be selling that hard - so far so good.

Just from watching the Google Payload video it will be obvious he is doing what everyone does to make money - buy something cheap, and sell it at a higher price. In this case it is either traffic or leads.

Since Google Payload fits in with my current business model and will not get me sidetracked or cause me to lose focus on what I do now, I’ll be taking a serious look at this product when it launches on Tuesday. Yea, you cannot even buy it yet.

Like a lot of Marketers, he did a little "salting" first to get us interested.

I’ll be watching this one closely - and if it fits within what I am currently doing I’ll more than likely bite and get it.

In the meantime… watch the video and take a look at some of the money he has been making. If you happen to know more about the Affiliate Payload System than I do (which is not much), then please leave a comment.

Here is a link to the Google Payload site - but not much there except for the video below.

http://www.googlepayload.com