I was logging into my Commission Junction (aka CJ.com) account a few days ago and decided to see what their new Pay-Per-Call network was all about. I think you already need to be a CJ affiliate to apply. The network is at cj.ringrevenue.com. The are using http://ringrevenue.com as their platform.

CJ Pay-Per-Call is a new type of affiliate network that allow you to get paid to send leads to phone number or landing page with phone number combo.

Here is a nice little chart that outlines how Pay-Per-Call works:

Once logged-in to CJ Pay-Per-Call there is a little stats chart that outlines your call quality. Did the lead convert into a buyer? For example, if Brighthouse networks had a pay-per-call offer and the lead purchased a triple combo (phone, internet and TV) then that would likely be placed into the high call quality column. Just an internet service lead might be placed in the Medium call quality column. An unconverted lead would be placed in the no payout column.

At this time there are not a lot of advertisers using CJ Pay-Per Call but that’s probably because it’s fairly new and they just don’t know about it. It’s pretty much a win-win for the advertiser and publisher. Especially when some CJ traditional advertiser place ordering phone numbers on their landing pages and the affiliate gets stiffed that commission.

There are a few big name advertiser on board with the pay-per-call system such as Service Master, ADT, Angies List and Allstate.

I hope this form of landing page and phone lead combo advertising grows quickly. I see some BIG potential with it. Again I think you already need to be a CJ affiliate to signup to pay-per-call.

What do you think?

While browsing over some other blogs today I read out about the official launch of a new affiliate network, the PepperJam Affiliate Network! The second I heard about them I signed up and you should too!

The new PepperJam Network isn’t just your average, run-of-the-mill affiliate network. They like to call themselves “The Next Generation Affiliate Marketing.” In fact, they want you to “Join the Revolution,” because afterall, “Affiliates have spoken and PepperJam listed!”

So now you might be thinking that those are just a bunch of great buzz words and not much is really going to be different. Well, your right if you think those are great buzz words but wrong if you think they are only just that. That fact is that PepperJam Network IS different and will only get better over time!

FINDING PARTNERS IN PEPPERJAM NETWORK:

Once logged in and within the “Find Partners” you will see something like this:

You can search PepperJam partners by Keyword, Category and Joined / Not Joined. Under that you will see a list of available merchants under the headings of No., Program Name, Accept Method, Commission, and Action. I don’t know if it’s a bug, but right now when I select all categories and the maximum of 50 results per page, there is no “next” link to view the rest of the merchants after 50. If I narrow it down by category then it should not be a problem anyway.

Program Name:

Under program name and next to the name of the merchant you will see a little chat icon.

The chat icon will be dark if the affiliate manager for that particular merchant is offline or light-up if the affiliate manager is online. If they are online, you can chat with them instantly!

That’s what’s so exciting about this new network. They are incorporating new Web 2.0 technologies that the dinosaur affiliate networks are lacking. PepperJam Network is about transparency between both you the affiliate and the specific affiliate program manager. Good affiliate / merchant communication can be the difference between success and failure.

Clicking on the partner name will bring up a box showing many details of the program including all the additional contact information you should need about the merchant.

Accept Method, Commission and Action:

Under the accept method heading it will tell you if the affiliate program manually approves you into their program or if you will be approved instantly and automatically.

Under the commission heading if you mouse over “View” it will show you the default terms of the program (per sale or lead payout amounts and the cookie duration). While you can also find the historical EPC of a program I wish that info showed in this section.

Finally under the action heading is where you can click to join a particular program. The newest merchants are shown in a right sidebar.

GENERATING LINKS IN THE PEPPERJAM NETWORK:

Once you have been approved into a program the main “generating links” page will show you all the merchants you can promote. I’m not going to show a screenshot of this but I love how it also shows the affiliate managers name, program website, and their specific direct phone number! Now that’s a refreshing change!

Clicking on “more detail” within the generating links section will show you the commission rates, commission terms and historical EPC. You will also find the links to program specific text or banner creatives.

You can create links using optional SID tracking if desired.

THE PEPPERJAM NETWORK RESOURCE CENTER:

In the resource center you will find two tabs containing “Super Affiliate Resources” and “Educational Resources.” Under the education resources you will mostly find links to a few forums and affiliate marketing blogs (their buddies). All I can say is Kris Jones, I love you buddy! How about showing a little eMonetized.com love! (as if that is going to work). As the old saying goes, it’s not just what you know but who you know!

NOW IS THE TIME TO JOIN:

There are a lot of other great new features that PepperJam Network offers it’s affiliates. The network is new and that can give you a nice edge when promoting their exclusive affiliate programs.

Click Here to Join the PepperJam Network Now!

(already joined? How are you liking the network?)

(Update – I no longer am working with Hydra Network and I suggest you work with some better alternatives in my Top Affiliate Networks list)

While there are probably over 100+ different CPA affiliate networks on the internet to choose from, a few stand out from the rest. I probably have about 12 different affiliate networks I’m actively working with at the moment and the Hydra Network (also known as Hydra Media) is one of them.

Hydra Network Review:

The overall design of the Hydra Network website is nothing special but the general layout makes since. I could do without the bold orange color header. I think what they are trying to say with that color is that “We want to stand out” and I guess with that color they do!

One of the first things you will see when you visit the Hydra Network website is the statement, “We deliver results.” After all, that’s what choosing an affiliate network is really all about! If I don’t get results, I move on to another network that can deliver them. While your specific results with a network are also based on your experience, there are a lot of things the affiliate network can do you. How about finding good offers, offering the highest payouts, easy website navigation, offering solid url tracking and statistics etc… Lets start with their offers.

Hydra Network Offers:

I could not find where Hydra Network listed their total number of current offers so I just highlighted them all and counted them with Excel. The total number of active offers at the time of this post was 762. That’s a lot and I’m curious how that compares with some other CPA (cost-per-action) networks. I’ll find this out as I do additional reviews. Lately Hydra also seem to be adding about 4 or 5 new offers almost everyday. I try to look over those new offers daily as it always helps to be one of the first promoting a new campaign especially with PPC.

The offers interface looks like this:

The top navigation allow you to sort offers by ALL, NEW, EXCLUSIVE, GIVEAWAY, CONTEST, FINANCIAL, SERVICES, RETAIL, THE LOFT, and UK.

Once you have narrowed down a category you can sort results by ID, CAMPAIGN NAME, CATEGORY, START DATE, CREATIVES, and CPA RATE.

There is also an hour glass to the left of each offer link which willing show you the campaign description. A suggestion I would make to Hydra is to also include any campaign “special instructions” within this pop-over. This change would save time so you don’t have to click on each offer to find out if they allow PPC search traffic, email advertising etc. They also have an advanced search section but you can’t search offers that allow search traffic here either.

Lastly, once you click into an offer you will find your affiliate tracking link options which includes SUB ID tracking up to 255 alphanumeric characters. It allows you to create a sub id with spaces in it so I wonder if that’s allowed?

Hydra Network Commission Reports:

There is nothing extremely unique in the reports section but it has basically what you need. You can optionally view your reports by sub id and/or actions only. The “actions only” option is a must if you have a huge campaign with thousands of sub ids and only want to view which ones converted for the day, week, month etc…

Hydra Network Payment Options and Schedule:

In the US, you can receive your payment either by check, ACH, Paypal or Wire. Hydra Network pays on a Net 15 basis. For example, your payouts earned in January would be paid on February 15th. Payments are held until you reach $50 or more in payable commissions.

Hydra Rewards:

If you’re a high volume affiliate marketer, the Hydra Rewards section of their website might interest you! Hydra Media awards money and gifts to Hydra Network affiliates based on current and improved volume.

Tier 1 starts when you make $5,000 a month in monthly commissions and gets you a free $50 American Express or Best Buy Gift Card. It’s not much but a lot of other networks don’t offer bonuses at all so I wouldn’t complain.

Tier 12, the highest tier starts when you make a whopping $1,000,000 in monthly commission and gets you a $15,000 Harley-Davidson Motorcycle. I wonder how many of those they have given away! If you are one of them I’d should like to chat.

Do I recommend you give Hydra Media a shot?

Based on my review, you can probably guess that the answer is yes! I’ve only been experimenting with the network recently and so far the results are promising.

My commission for this month with Hydra from October 6th up to today October 23rd is $308 (minus PPC expenses). I’ll get to total profit in another post.

This is just the beginning and I hope to show you some big numbers from Hydra next month.

(Update – I no longer am working with Hydra Network and I suggest you work with some better alternatives in my Top Affiliate Networks list)

Click Here to Join the Hydra Network.

The first step in locating good affiliate programs is via the large established affiliate networks. If you are an existing affiliate then it would not be a surprise if you have a bias towards the network that is making you the most money. When I first started doing affiliate marketing, Commission Junction was my top earning affiliate network. A couple years later my top earning network became AzoogleAds. It is now One Network Direct. The point being is to expand your horizons into other affiliate networks because that affiliate program that works well today may not work so well tomorrow. Why? Here are a few examples…

1. The merchant may either shut down the affiliate program, significantly lower payouts, or even get purchased by another company.

Several years ago, I used to successfully promote a spam blocker called Giant AntiSpam. They were later purchased and turned into a product called Qurb. Then Qurb was purchased by Mcafee and the same piece of software is called Mcafee AntiSpam. Mcafee’s affiliate commissions per sale is significantly lower than the 50% commissions originally offered by Giant and Qurb and it now makes me very little money. By joining other affiliate networks I’ll know what other similar programs are available and their payouts.

2. The company may change their PPC policies or other affiliate program terms.

I used to do very well with the GoToMyPC affiliate program through Commission Junction. Not to long ago, they decided to restrict bidding on their trademarked terms (including all variations) in the PPC search engines. I can understand some reasons why they might want to do this, but it gets worse. Then they started going after all domains with the trademark in it or variations. It was either hand us over your domains or get disapproved from our affiliate program AND the legal team will be calling. I personally had to hand them over my go-to-my-pc.net, gotomypcblog.com and gotomeetingblog.com domains.

Needless to say, with their change in PPC policies and taking of my domain names it put a big dent in my commissions from the program. I do pretty well with affiliate marketing but it was not worth being kicked out of the program and the cost of a legal battle with a huge company. It has still left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. It’s another reason why I do less buying of domain names with trademarks in them even if they allow it today. You don’t know what they will do tomorrow.

3. The same exact program you are promoting may be offering a higher payout in that other affiliate network!

You may be surprised to find out that you could be making a lot more by switching to that other network that offers the exact same program with higher payouts. The other affiliate network might also offer better tracking capabilities or provide higher converting landing pages. One example would be the Sunrocket (now closed) VoIP affiliate program which had an $84 dollar payout via AzoogleAds and a $60 payout through Linkshare. One reason they can offer these higher payouts through some networks because their merchant fees may be less.

The Top Five CPA Affiliate Networks I Recommend Are:

Market Leverage: www.marketleverage.com

NeverBlueAds: www.neverblueads.com

Copeac: www.copeac.com

AzoogleAds: www.azoogleads.com

Here is a list of additional large and small CPA affiliate networks. These CPA networks offer primarily pay-per-lead programs with some pay-per-sale and pay-per-click.

PepperJam Network: www.pepperjamnetwork.com

AffiliateFuel: www.affiliatefuel.com

MaxBounty: www.maxbounty.com

CPA Empire: www.cpaempire.com

ClickXchange: www.clickxchange.com

DarkBlue: www.darkblue.com

Kolimbo: www.kolimbo.com

OneNetworkDirect: www.onenetworkdirect.com

LeadHound: www.leadhound.com

Websponsors: www.websponsors.com

OffersQuest: www.offersquest.com

Cyberbounty: www.cyberbounty.com

OfferWeb: www.offerweb.com

Link Connector: www.linkconnector.com

MyReferer: www.myreferer.net

RegNow: www.regnow.com

One major advantage to using a few of the lesser known networks is that there may be less competition for some of the affiliate offers.

The Top 5 Per-Sale Affiliate Networks I Recommend Are:

They offer primarily pay-per-sale programs with some pay-per-lead. They will have plenty of affiliate offers you probably will not find in the CPA networks mentioned above.

1. Commission Junction

Number of Advertisers: 1,966 as of early 2007

With that many advertisers in their network, it means that no matter what your site is about, you are likely to find a merchant affiliate program that is a good fit for your website. These 1,966+ Commission Junction (CJ) advertisers are spread throughout 28 main categories including computers, finance, health, travel, and web services among many others.

Go To CJ.com

2. Linkshare

Number of Advertisers: 600+

LinkShare was established in 1996 and now boasts Fortune 500 clients and other prominent companies including J.C. Penney, 1-800-Flowers.com, American Express, Avon Products and Dell. Linkshare claims to have created the largest network of affiliates of any program provider – over 10 million partnerships.

Go To Linkshare.com

3. ShareASale

Number of Advertisers: 1700+

Shareasale.com was established in June 2000 and has grown to have a large network of advertisers mostly due to their lower merchant entry costs. The ShareASale network hosts many large and small companies that you will not find elsewhere.

Go To ShareASale.com

4. Performics

Number of Advertisers: 200+

Performics, acquired by DoubleClick in 2004, is a fairly small affiliate network with some big name advertisers such as America Online, BOSE, CompUSA, HPshopping, Verizon Wireless, and more than 200 others.

Go To Performics.com

5. Clickbank

Number of Advertisers: 1,000+

Clickbank has over 10,000+ digital product vendors with many merchants offering huge percentage payouts as high as 75%.

Go To ClickBank

So there you have it. These affiliate networks contain hundreds of profitable affiliate programs (a.k.a. hidden gems) just waiting to be found.

I’ll begin writing some more in-depth reviews of specific networks shortly. Until then, all the best towards your success.

Chances are that you have heard about the new AuctionAds network. The program allows you to monetize your website by displaying live eBay auctions on your website. You might be thinking, doesn’t eBay already have their own affiliate program? The answer is yes but read on because there is a better reason to use AuctionAds instead. At only a little over three months old, AuctionAds has already amassed a whopping 17,000+ members.

After sitting on the sidelines for awhile and reading performance reviews I thought it was about time I gave the AuctionAds program a try.

Most of the reviews I have read on various webmaster forums and blogs of AuctionAds have been mixed. There are some AuctionAds members sending heaps of clicks and making very little money while other members are writing about very positive results. I’m sure a lot of it has to due with the volume and genre a traffic being sent.

A pretty common consensus among most AuctionAds users is that you have to give some time for commission earnings to catch up before deciding if the program is right for your website. The affiliate cookie lasts for 30 days.

Why consider AuctionAds instead of the regular eBay affiliate program?

To answer that, first look at eBay’s normal commission structure which went into effect on June 1st.

You would have to be a big time eBay affiliate player to make it into the 60%+ tiers. The beauty of AuctionAds is that through the power of the group you will instantly being making much higher eBay commissions. Based on the AuctionAds current member base, I suspect the they are already in the 65% to 70% range. Go solo and it would be hard for the average affiliate to make it past the 55% range. eBay pays the AuctionAds network. AuctionAds pays us. Make sense?

Here is what an AuctionAds Ad looks like:

So what’s my take on what is the “good and bad” aspects of using the AuctionAds program?

1. The AuctionAds Referral Program is Embedded Right into Your Ad Units.

The Good: Anytime anyone clicks on the “Ads by AuctionAds” and signs up for the program, you will earn 2% of those new publisher’s earnings. Yes, that is a “Pretty sweet deal.” It’s to bad Google Adsense does not do that as well! In addition, given that the program is still new, you have a good chance of racking up lots of referrals.

The Bad: I do wish referral revenues lasted forever or at a minimum of a year. The affiliate networks I’m most inclined to promote are the those that offer lifetime referral revenue such as AzoogleAds or OfferWeb.

2. AuctionAds is Not Contextual.

The Good: You can run AuctionAds on the same pages as you currently use Google Adsense or the Yahoo Publisher network. Most users are reporting that they are not seeing a drop in Adsense revenue after adding auction ads. It adds an additional revenue stream without having to remove others.

The Bad: The ads are not always as relevant as I’d like them to be. For example, adding “seo” to my keywords list sometimes shows ads such as:

Alternator 145 amp SILVERADO 05-06 ESCALADE KG3 w/o SEO
and
2003 Bowman Chrome JAE WEONG SEO Ref Refractor

3. AuctionAds Uses Pictures Next to the Ads.

The Good: The pictures help increase the ad’s clickthrough ratios through increased visibility. They catch your eye. Often times the pictures look nice and are relevant to the ad.

The Bad: The pictures are generated by the eBay Auction listers themselves. Because of this, some of the pictures can be irrelevant to the ad and offensive to some. While I’m sure it helps the clickthrough ratio, I really don’t want pictures of female’s naked butts on my webmaster forum. This is one of the biggest negatives in my opinion. In addition, depending on the ad size you choose, the pictures sizes are sometimes reduced so small that they look very messy and are hard to make out.

4. AuctionAds Pays Out 100% of the eBay Commission Table.

The Good: AuctionAds is taking ZERO profit at this time. They pass 100% of the commissions on to you.

The Bad: This will change soon. They never have claimed that they will always be passing on 100% commission. It’s just during their beta launch period. They will have to start taking a percentage of the total commissions to stay in business. However, because of the high volume of sales the group will be generating, they should be able to take some of the commissions for themselves while still passing on higher commissions than you would make going solo.

5. AuctionAds Ads Are Easy To Setup and Customize.

The Good: The code creation options include choosing the ad’s keywords, ad format size, campaign (like Adsense’s channels), and link colors. You can also choose to open clicks on the ads in new windows. Then you just copy a piece of Javascript code into your website. It’s simple and straight forward.

The Bad: I wish I could upload a default picture that would show next to each ad or have the option to remove the pictures all together.

Here is a screenshot of the get code page options:

——————————

SideNote:

I wonder what eBay thinks of AuctionAds? On one hand they probably have a LOT more webmasters promoting eBay on their websites that never would have previously. On the other hand they are paying out much higher commissions to these affiliates (even though AuctionAds as a group is like a single giant affiliate). My prediction is that AuctionAds will be sold to another company (maybe even eBay) within one year from now.

I’ll be posting another thread on how the performance of my AuctionAds campaign is going in a few weeks. Do you use AuctionAds? Please share your results in the comments section.

Click Here to visit or join AuctionAds.