They Want Me...Which Just Shows They're Clueless

It's a good thing I make money sellings ECs and don't have to rely on my Affiliate program income to justify the time I spend blogging. It's hard to pick one word to describe my success with these various programs, so let me try a couple: pathetic, miserable, non-existent, anemic, disappointing, or maybe just worthless.

I'm not too surprised, considering that no one outside of the Entrecard community visits my blogs and only a small percentage of visitors actually read anything I've written. I don't expect many sales to Entrecarders, seeing as how they have access to the same Affiliate programs that I do. Maybe one day I'll get real and have the kind of blog that draws traffic via search engines or some other methodology and someone will get all excited about an ad on one of my sites. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the process of selecting the ads for my various sites, much like choosing my numbers for EntreBall.

Which makes it all the more amusing that I'm getting emails from Affiliate programs that I didn't apply to, and reminders from those that I did sign up for but have yet to earn a dime through. For example, I just checked my email and there is an offer from Pepperjam to run ads for the Playboy Store. Hmmmm...now which site would be the most appropriate one for Shop The Bunny? TravelRes.com, Hotels.com, and SpaLook.com have all sent me offers this week to sign up and I'm wondering if I should bother to spend the time to do so when I know that I don't have the traffic to support it.

I'll continue to muse over this problem as I peruse the links for Shop The Bunny, you know, 'cuz it's...research.

Commission Junction is Fun!

I'm sure there are folks out there that have reason to not like the granddaddy of the affiliate ad programs, but Commission Junction sets a standard that other programs have to hustle to keep up with. I have been noticing that many blog sites all have the same type of ads, and maybe that's because those ads work. And I acknowledge that most of my 20+ blogs are graphically challenged. Naturally the Entrecard widget takes top spot, but I wanted to add some ads that branched out from what the typical blogger seemed to display. Sure, I've got Spottt and Project Wonderful on many of my sites, but I found myself trolling through CJ yesterday looking for some new ads to display on My Internet Marketing Adventures. What I ended up with was a very snazzy 160x600 skyscraper for Hanger94.com, a 60x468 banner for Shoes.com and 125x125s for LoveSac.com, PrintingForLess.com, Trikke.com, BloomingBulb.com, and TheFruitCompany.com. I'm still waiting on approval to run a 160x600 skyscraper for RockyMountainTrail.com.

Blogging purists (of which none visit this site or most of my sites) turn up their noses at the idea of an ad filled site, but I'm not bothered by the idea that ads are a part of our online life and if I can make a buck by being in the right place and at the right time, then whoopee! (I guess that attitude reflects the fact that I have a degree in Business and not English.)

Money aside, I had fun choosing the ads and the layout and setting up the site with the hope of earning some money from the casual visitor. Anyone interested in some surf wear?

Ebay Affiliate - Live Auction Listings

As I was updating the info on the EntreBank blog this morning, I was about to link to an ebay listing where 5000 credits are being sold (and I am currently the high bidder), when I starting thinking about the posts I have seen about building a niche store on ebay. Turns out I was making an easy task more difficult than it needed to be. I had already signed up as an ebay affiliate through Commission Junction and I ended up just needing to choose my widget and the live auction(s) that I wanted to feature on it. (I must have missed something, as the widget is much larger than I anticipated it would be.) I went ahead and put it on the Entrebank site so that folks can easily see what is happening on the Entrecard credits auction. I don't expect to make any money by doing so, but it was another opportunity to get some experience with an affiliate program that I will likely use on other niche sites.

DealDotCom Added to The Affiliate Ads & Referral List

DealDotCom.com joins the lineup on either side of the blog as another possible source of ad & referral revenue for bloggers. I like the tone of their website and these guys definitely have a healthy sense of humor. (Right, Vinnie?) I like the way they detail out their deals on their blog and provide more info than one might usually get in a typical affiliate program. Check it out!

Never Blue Ads Have A Great Affiliate Marketing Program

NeverBlue just got added to my portfolio of Affiliate Marketing programs and I have to say that I'm pretty darn impressed. Craig, my account rep, called and chatted with me about their company and gave me some suggestions about how to leverage their services. They have some very cool features like an Ad Rotator, Postback URLs, and Global Tracking Code Placement...and more! Stuff that I am going to figure out what it all does. I also got my first email this morning with possible advertisers, each with some pretty nice payments for conversion. Check it out!

Join Affiliate Referral Programs Sooner Rather Than Later

If you are blogging for money, odds are you already know about AdSense and would love to earn big bucks from your blog visitors. The good news for the blogging community is that there are dozens and dozens of ad programs that you can participate in to get your share of the millions of advertising dollars that are spent each month on the Internet. In addition to income from ads that run on your site, many of these programs will also pay you a percentage of the income earned by other bloggers that you point their direction.

Most experienced bloggers are familiar with the programs that I have listed on this site, if for no other reason than they see the ads all the time while they are reading other blogs. I compiled this list so that a newer blogger could find these programs with less effort than I spent to do so.

I'll continue to update this list with those programs that are similar in nature and write entries and updates about each one. So go ahead and sign up and start the dollars flowing!