GoDaddy vs SOPA and wishes for 2012!

It seems that it’s a topic of the last days - does GoDaddy support SOPA or not? Yesterday it was stated that GoDaddy officially removed from the House’s list of SOPA supporters. And even more…

GoDaddy is a company which manages over 45 million names and its support of such contradictory act made a real fuss among Internet services. I’ve already written about that. Now GoDaddy is out. So, what? Is this an end of SOPA activity? Totally, not. VISA, ESPN left in that list.

GoDaddy refused to support SOPA just a week ago and now even opposes it. But how does it happen? Simply, domains started transferring out and GoDaddy understood how much they can loose. So, this company stays on radically opposite positions now.

Such changeable opinions of GoDaddy could be a good lesson for other companies who are still in that list. Either they cooperate with Internet community or they will be banned, ignored and as a result will loose their incomes. This is also a good result for those companies which are fighting against SOPA – if you’re active, you can reach something in your life.

As it’s the last post of this year, I think it can be as an inspiration for the next one (irrespectively of the Mayan Calendar prophecy). Hope, 2012 will be more successful than 2011, especially in working with online affiliate programs.

See you in 2012,
Norman

Tips to know about Amazon.com Affiliate Program

Amazon.com is one of that affiliates which allow earning much for users with different interests. You specify just which products you want to promote and then take their affiliate links from Amazon. Many bloggers become Amazon affiliates or vice versus, because promotion products from Amazon on your blog not only gives opportunity to earn good money, but also gain new traffic. So, everything depends on your ability to promote. However, I found out that there are some interesting tips and facts about Amazon Affiliate Program. So, check what I found and tell me what you think about that.

1. Check whether your state doesn’t have any restrictions for online purchases
Once affiliates from Connecticut and Illinois had problems because of new sales taxes which started working in those states. So, Amazon closed its Affiliate Programs there. So, as far as you decided to start working as an Amazon Affiliate – take a look through the laws at your state or country. It’s also important to check news on this topic to know the nearest purposes of your local administration, ‘cause the problem of some associates at Connecticut and Illinois (and even such famous as Roger Ebert) was also that they just started working and promoting as tax got to power.

2. Be sure you put your links correctly
There was an issue with one writer who put her Amazon Affiliate link into the review of her book. Frankly speaking, many authors do that. Some people think that it was a moral issue, however incorrect or irritating placing of links can lead that people will omit your blogs or reviews. So, be attentive while putting your links.

3. Wide reviews are better then banners
Nice and full article that reviews the product which you’re going to promote is much better then huge banners. In the contrary, banners distract attention and users start omitting your blog or website. Nice content and attractive images can do much work than banners.

4. Affiliate links added to the images
Images not only make your website look fresh and nifty, but are very useful for making money as Amazon associate. How? You can put affiliate links directly to photos. So, when visitor clicks on the photo it goes directly to Amazon where he/she can buy that product!

5. Autoblogging never brings good results
The most horrible thing you can do for your blog and success with Amazon Affiliate Program is to start autoblogging. Do you like to read mechanical articles? Of course, no! So think about your visitors too! The more creative and interesting content you give, the more traffic you gain and, of course, the more money you can earn as an affiliate!

Stay creative,
Norman

SOPA - death for profitable online money making?!

Recently, it was that crazy American Censorship Day and so many people wrote about SOPA since then, so that I decided to look how it will influence online money making. What will it bring to Internet community at all?

So, what is SOPA?

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. Everything started as US musicians and film makers started arguing that government should defend their intellectual property. However, this Act is harmful for all Internet industry and such Internet giants as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and many others cooperate against this it.

If SOPA (together with its “fellow” Protect-IP Act) get power, search engines, Internet providing companies or regular websites, but which have partly relationship to sources with infringing content stop working at all. Internet providing companies have a right to block whole domains; because of some of their content have content which infringes copyright. It doesn’t matter that site contains much other legitimate and important stuff.

Internet companies say that such strict measures will hardly stuck all innovations. This will cause strong decrease in online money making as much of it is combined with media and entertainment files. All great file-sharing websites as Rapidshare, FileSonic, 4shared and others will be totally banned. This sorrow destiny will be scenario for development even of such influential search engines as Google and Yahoo and of less famous, but not less useful as FileTram.

Finally, making money with file-sharing will be totally impossible, and all of you understand why. What should we do?
All who are active online, who work and have rest here should cooperate and stay for our game rules, to which we are used to. Personally I understand that film makers and musicians need to have money from their work, but not with the price of Internet setback.

Anti-scamming techniques in online marketing

There are so many posts at different forums about scamming while link counting or you could come across the sites which didn’t pay anything for your work. When I was just a newbie in making money online, I was even scammed once, but that was a great lesson. I’ve prepared 5 most spread scams and I’m trying to answer how to avoid them.

1. Look for trustworthy websites/services
That was my problem at the beginning. When I just started I didn’t have enough information about the websites which I wanted to work with.
When you start working with any resource, check information about it at different blogs and websites. There are not so many forums with high PR on this topic, however at those which are (digitalpoint forums, e.g.) there are often much information and thoughts from other users.

2.Be careful with reciprocal link exchange programs
From one point of view link exchanging is the fastest way to increase PR of the website. However, this is one of the most popular ways of scamming. The main reason is that exchange links are not equal. If you want to create your own business network you should be careful, so that to save your reputation and even increase it. If you already decided to use one of the services for reciprocal linking – check out its credibility (I’ve already mentioned how to do that). However, many search engines are rather skeptical to the use of link farms, so I don’t recommend using them at all. Some link farms even offer referral system and bonuses. But for me reputation is more expensive.

If you ask somebody to exchange link with you, check information about that website too and then check carefully whether your link is on that site.

3. Submission to thousands of directories – rather unbelievable thing
Sorry, but submission to unbelievably great number of websites is a scam. You’ll just pay money for the thing which will hardly bring you much profit. There are some worth directories which are necessary to be add in there (as DMOZ, e.g.), for addition to some you can even pay money, but! there is no need to be added into all existing. If you decided to be added to the directories with someone’s help – then check that you have the list of them and you know that all of them are worth to be added into.

4. Black Hat SEO – is not for you
If you care about your reputation – that’s really true. When somebody says you that he/she will increase you website’s ranking quickly and easily – that person will use Black Hat SEO techniques in most cases. What does that mean? Too much keywords, hidden texts, other rules violations will lead to penalizing you by search engines. Quick PR increase will lead to quick its loss.

5. Exchanging banners doesn’t rate you up!
Very often when you try to submit your website or blog to some directories, you are asked to put banners to your website or blog. If you exchange banners and trust the other website – it’s o’k. But, mostly great variety of banners on your website just frightens your visitors. Frankly speaking, this looks disgusting and as a rule doesn’t bring you much rating increase. Be careful with this.

Hope, you liked my small list.
Be lucky,
Norman

How to find the best affiliate program for you? Check the list!

One of the most important things for working effectively and gaining success in your deal is, of course, your desire! Desire to earn much money could be really motivative and decisive, however when it is combined with your passion to that deal, it multiplies your ability to work and of course your earninngs. All of us have our favourite websites, topics to search and explore online. Choosing your favourite niche is very important if you are making money with affiliate marketing. This could be even vice versus. You can become participant of any affiliate program as an addition to active participating in any of the services. I’ve prepared today list of affiliate programs (two or three best in each category) concerning topical specialties.

Auto Affiliate Programs

We can’t imagine our life without cars. However, the purchase of a new one as a rule is not an easy thing. The security issues in documentation and all those documents themselves which you should prepare are really an embarrassing thing. There are some online services which can take that burden on their shoulders. What I’d recommend as the best ones are – Cars direct, and Car-action

Books Affiliate programs

Well, this option also could be interesting and useful almost for all. Leaders here, of course, Amazon and National Geographic, so think better, if you buy much books there. It is a good opportunity to earn money with them. Recently I had found one more service which, to my mind, is worth mentioning – Library Online.

Insurance Affiliate Programs

There are two nice insurance affiliate programs which I’d recommend you – insurance.com and Geico. They both are CPA programs and participating in them can bring profit to many services.

File-sharing Affiliate Programs

I’ve already written much on this topic and even compared some of them. There are old file-sharing giants as Rapidshare, Depositfiles, Hotfile or Filesonic and new and flexible for quick money-making as FileTram which is file-sharing search engine at the same time too. With this type of affiliate programs you earn money while sharing links of your favourite or popular files. The more downloads from those links are made, the more you earn.

Health Affiliate Programs

Experts say that this type of affiliate programs could become one of the most popular soon. More and more health startups now appear. Among those which already are well appreciated Market Health and Med Store must be outlined (to my mind). Market Health is a CPA program and Med Store is a CPO one. Participants leave nice recommendations about those services and their services.

Educational Affiliate Programs

Educational affiliate programs are those which are also at the peak of their development. There are some which are already popular and respected – Peterson’s EssayEdge (CPO type) and Languagecouse.net which is CPA type. They offer good opportunities for those who are going to study foreign languages or have to write essays often.

Filesonic.com vs. Uploading.com

Both Filesonic.com and Uploading.com allow storing, uploading and downloading files within their services. However, let's look for more.

Filesonic allows uploading files less than 1024 MB for free. Uploading here is better, because within its basic user conditions (so for free), you can upload there 5GB files. Filesonic also has a limited size of files for downloading – just 400 MB. Frankly speaking, it makes more difficult process of making money at this service, however, also makes you more creative while choosing smaller files for affiliate purposes. And you know smaller files are also much better for sharing, ‘cause users also download them easier.

The advantage (however, for me it's disadvantage, I hate ratings) of Filesonic is its three-level affiliate system. Moving from one level to the other is not so difficult and the opportunity of making money with its second affiliate status “Elite Filesonic” is very prosperous. With it you get 80% of Premium sales, +5 % for referrals and the same percent for domain sellers. There is one higher “Super Elite Status”, but except 10% bonus payout daily, you don’t get many financial advantages.

What’s interesting now about Filesonic is that this service since summer cooperates with Dropbox and you can transfer your files from one service to the other and vice versus. I don’t know what does that cooperation means, but hope that Filesonic will not become Dropbox’s part, ‘cause that would mean that we lost one more money making service (once Dropbox also had affiliate program and after they gained enough users they gave up such an idea).

Uploading.com separates possibilities to earn with their service. Of course you can make money on files’ downloadings. As an advantage is that they pay equally for all countries. However, it is said within experienced users that if half of your traffic is from Poland, Russia, Turkey, Brazil or Hungary, you are also paid halfly.

For the money which you can get with Uploading.com users are also separated into four categories: light, base, normal, power and ultra. Your status rate is decided weekly and depending on number of referrals you brought and percentage of uploads/downloads. The higher this number, the higher is your status.

The highest payout which can get user with light status is $10, minimum payout is $15, so it will take you some time to wait before the first payout.

Speaking about referrals you can get from 20% to 30% (depending on the total turnover) discount rate for Premium membership. As to me, such system is rather complicated, don’t you think so?

With my experience in working with these two services I must say that even taking into consideration that they are in the list if most popular they are rather difficult to work with. Both have those user rating systems which for me are rather kind of a scam (sometimes they just stop counting your files, as it was with Filesonic, for example). For me I’m looking up for a service with less complicated user conditions. Hope I’ll find it.

Keep searching for better,
Norman

Depositfiles vs. Hotfile

Finally I decided to compare these two file-sharing giants – Depositfiles.com and Hotfile.com. They both are very popular and high-rated by the users. So, let’s begin the comparison with the information from their websites.

Depositfiles.com offers you $30 for 1000 downloads (they say that’s high… hmm… I totally disagree with this info, however there are some advantages too), payoffs are from $10 (this is a real advantage, ‘cause i knew less services with such low sums for payoffs, 20% for referrals are rather stable rate)

Hotfile.com offers you rating system of money making. What does it mean? You’ve got higher rates (and more money) in affiliate program. For that you should be a good Hotfile user. As some time passes all users are moving from the lowest rate (Cooper) to the highest (the highest is Platinium). On the beginning (when you are a “cooper” user), you are offered to earn just $4 for 100-400 MB files (which is terribly low as for me), after you’ve become a Platinium user that rate becomes higher, but $15 for 1000 100-400MB downloads is too low price, don’t you think so? The payoff sum is $15 which is an average one. Hotfile also offers 20% referral system.

Speaking about specialities of the both services – they don’t allow to earn much for the beginners. You should be affiliated for a long time to start making much money. For Depositfiles it takes really much time to start (for Hotfile less), however if you are a long-time user you became really successful. Both services have different country tariffs and bonuses, so be careful. With Depositfiles the situation is easier, because unpopular countries are making money too.

With Depositfiles it’s easier to make money when you’re sharing smaller files then few huge ones. Depositfiles also offer coupon system for those who need Premium statuses for a short period of time, but if you just need to work with them for some period of time, I found better way.

I often mentioned on forums that users are looking for coupons for free downloading from Depositfiles or different ways for free downloading from Hotfile. I found one simple way, which, by the way, brings me money as an affiliate too. I bought Premium account at FileTram and download everything from Depositfiles and Hotfile with it. FileTram is smth kinda search engine, but for file-sharing websites and it gives access to plenty of them (to Depositfiles and Hotfile too), so I buy FileTram Premium and download everything I need through this service.

One important thing to mention while comparing those two services is that they are stable. There would not be such surprises as with Wupload, for example. Users are making money with them for more then 3-4 years. However, I am for trying something new. That makes life more interesting and often brings better results!

Keep experimenting,
Norman

Do you still trust PayPal?

PayPal is the mostly used service for e-banking. But after some unpleasant situations, could we say that it’s the most secure one?

Last accident which made me think about the safety of activities with PayPal was freezing of Regretsy and Diaspora accounts. Kids could be left without Christmas presents, because “only nonprofit can use the Donate button” as PayPal answered on the reason of freezing Regretsy’s account. However, accidents with Regretsy and Diaspora are not the first ones.

Social network Zivity had the similar problems. It’s account had been frozen for almost a week, because Zivity was “in violation of PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy”. Last year it was an accident with Markus Persson’s account from Minecraft.

And do you remember the most controversial scandal with WikiLeaks. PayPal did there as always – it had frozen an account, irrespectively that it was owned by the nonprofit organization. The reason for freezing WikiLeaks’ account was “illegal activity’ as one of the options which are stated as prohibited activities in PayPal’s use policy. A lot of respectable people agree that the decision to freeze WiliLeaks’ account was more political than appropriate to PayPal’s use policy.

Nevertheless, all those issues put into the debate one important thing – could users still trust PayPal? It’s too much spoken that PayPal protects users from scams, frauds and other illegal activities in such a way. However, I would not feel protected if in the moment I need money, my account appeared to be frozen.

I would not like to seem as an offended user, but to mention one important issue as an active participant of affiliate programs. Juts imagine you were working hard, earned $500 with Depositfiles, FileTram or Uploading and you realize that PayPal account of one of those services is frozen and you can’t get your money? What should you do?

Here is as an offer for those services who use only PayPal for transferring and storing of money – find one more e-banking service (AlertPay, WePay, etc). For those who already provide the ability to choose, it could be as an important advantage.

Just kinda food for thought for services with affiliate programs!

Wupload.com closed its affiliate program. Why?

Just I wanted to write about Wupload and my success with their affiliate program, as it appeared that they had closed it due to “its no longer financial viability”. Hmm… But this program seemed to me very prosperous one, how could it become "no longer financially viable"

Willy Wupload on the official news blog says “… we were able to surpass our growth expectations in terms of traffic, but as anybody in the file hosting business can tell you, traffic does not always mean profitability.”

Wupload promises to pay all earnings gained till November 28th, that means that I’ll get back my money. That’s cool, but I’ve decided to collect some reasons why services close their affiliate programs. I remember that even Dropbox once had affiliate program, but had closed. So, I have found just two which seemed to me really important.

Reason #1
Taxes or law restrictions

One of the reasons why Amazon.com closed its affiliate programs in some of US states (e.g. California) was the state tax policy. For such large companies as Amazon.com it was inconvenient to pay state sales tax on income of small affiliates.

Reason #2
Hosting problems or non-stable traffic

The main reason why many affiliate programs close their affiliate programs and I think it was also Wupload’s reason is non-stable traffic. What does that mean? Do you remember old rule – “quality – not quantity”. The same is here.
Just beginning your e-business the main goal is to attract traffic to your site, but after that you should turn first-time users into stable subscribers and buyers. This will bring success to your business.

But! Wupload’s Affiliate Program was really great one. Large variety of offers, ability to earn much ($40 for 1000 downloads), 20% on referrals, interest on sales done through your website. More attractive to me among young file-sharing affiliate programs seems just FileTram.com. This service offers up to 100$ per 1000 downloads and I must say that it is rather easy to work with it.
About my earnings with FileTram I’d write later.

Be stable,
Norman

File sharing Affiliate programs: how to earn more?

There are a lot of file sharing services which offer you money making options (just check FileTram Wupload, Oron, FileSonic, etc.) Of course, all of them have different options of participating in Affiliate programs, but there are some rules which allow getting better results within any of them. Let’s look how to earn more with file-sharing affiliate programs?!

The first and one of the most important points of profitable file-sharing is your material – files you want to share. At first you need at least to know what are you sharing? The better you know your files, the better you’ll promote them. The better you promote, the more you earn. What’s also important about sharing materials is their necessity. If you share a needed file, but there are much other people who share it for a long time, you’ll hardly get any income. Your files should be urgent and necessary, but rather rare in the index of available for downloading files.

However, for the beginners, sometimes that’s even better to take a file which is popular. Though even having a great number of competitors, they will get some income and experience, then if they upload totally new file and will have no idea what to do with it.

The second is where you share them and how to get the biggest feedback from file-sharing. The audience research is especially important if you have a specific kind of files and to make some money from them, you should share information about them with this specific audience. The other important way of sharing data is forums, full of different topics where you also can share info about rare files, but now available due to you.

The third important thing in profitable file-sharing is your personal resource. It could be your own blog or website. If you have such a thing, you’ll be able to get a lot of advantages. One of them is that you offer other users writing guest posts in your blog while you’ll be able to write in theirs. With this possibility you’ll be able to get higher ratings. After your blog gains much popularity (so higher rating), it is easier to promote your affiliate links with it.

The fourth important point is your creativity in presentation of your materials. We all like visualized, catchy and interesting things which seem to be unique and do not be as others, so don’t forget to attach to your links something similar to what was already mentioned.

The fifth point is the program you choose. I’ve already written that the most important are those four points which I’ve already mentioned, but not the program. However, the better program (with higher payoffs rate) you choose, the more you’ll get due to your persistence. Be attentive and choose the most profitable and the most respectful affiliate program.

I’ll try to compare some affiliate file-sharing programs in my next posts. Now I’m running to my friend’s birthday…

Sincerely,
Norman