I know finding a good CPA network to work with can be one of the harder things to do.  Its tough telling who you want to expand your business with and who will treat you right when it matters.

I HAVE been screwed around with by some CPA networks, so nowadays I like to just push SOME traffic but not nearly what I can.  I continue to do this for awhile and see how that network pans out, if they pay on time, if they have good affiliate managers, if they work more for the advertisers or publishers…just get to know how the network works.

Once I get an idea how the network performs, then I choose to expand what I can do with them.

One of the networks that has been great from the start, and who has been there to help me out more than once, is Maxbounty.  These guys rock!

When I was in Vegas for Affiliate Summit, I made sure to get to know the Maxbounty team a bit better and I’m really glad I did.  Both of the affiliate managers, Adam and Jessica, are really rockin.  Adam is definitely one of the best affiliate managers I have had, and is always working his tail off for me.

Anyways, the whole point of this post was that I wanted to thank Adam and the Maxbounty team for a gift they just sent to my son Dyson.  They shipped him a pair of skates so he can partake in some ice hockey this upcoming season.

If you are still looking for that great network who is there to work WITH you, check out Maxbounty and get signed up right away.  They work hard at keeping out the scammers so they can give you the attention you need.  Because of this, make sure you mention that I referred you over and Jessica or Adam will get you approved right away.

Now GO MAKE SOME MONEY!

Well this post may sound like nonsense to some of you, but I’m guessing a lot of my audience will understand exactly what I’m talking about.

On my venture to learn php/mysql I decided to install a http server and mysql server so that I could do things locally instead of always uploading it to my server and then running the files.  So I checked out XAMPP which is what I had used previously.  After installing XAMPP the Apache service wouldn’t start up.

Ahhhhhhh…..

So it was reporting something was running on port 80 or 443.  I knew I wasn’t running anything on either of those ports that I was aware of.  Sooooo I whipped up a command prompt and ran netstat to find which port was using port 80 OR 443.  I scanned the entire list of ports being used and found nothing using either of those ports.

I then started closing down any programs running, trying to restart the service as I moved along closing programs.  Luckily one of the first programs I closed down was Skype, which was the culprit of my problem!

Well once I closed down Skype then the service started right up, so I dug a bit deeper…

Next thing I found was kind of surprising… Go into Skype –> Tools –> Options…  Next, click on the Advanced tab, then the sub tab Connection.

Notice the area where it says "Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections".  Well this is by default checked when you install Skype.  This is what was causing the conflict.  Once I unchecked the box as you can see in the image above, and restarted Skype, my problem was fixed instantly.

Just thought I would pass this along since XAMPP is one of the more popular ways to get everything you need running for learning php/mysql, and most internet marketers use Skype, so I can see this being a semi common problem.

Hope this helps some of you!  Until next time…

I realized that if I truly want to reach the goals I plan on reaching in life, that one way to quicken this process up a lot would be to broaden my knowledge on certain server side skillz.  To be a bit more specific, I plan right now on really hammering down on php and mysql.

I am big into automating what I do and have realized more and more the last year that knowing php can help me automate almost everything I do.  This is the number 1 reason I am going to further my knowledge in this area, and a very good reason why you should to!

I have started going through some tutorials online, I’ve also got some books laying around that I will dig into.  This is another great thing about working for myself….I can just dig into this stuff for as long as I want without any worry of having to "go to work" or going to bed so that I can get up in the morning.

Anyways, if any of you guys know any great resources, tutorials, script walkthroughs, just anything really great php/mysql related, you should definitely comment and let me know!

OK, so I know anyone who uses any instant messaging clients has got to hate the fact that there are so many different methods and protocols used out there.  About 90% of the people I talk to use msn messenger. However, almost all of my affiliate managers use AIM!

Now most of you will say well that’s not a big deal, check out trillian, pidgin, or one of the many other multi protocol instant messaging clients…

The answer I have to that question however is…these clients SUCK!  I know they are trying their best, and most of them are open source…but what matters is that none of these programs do what I want……until recently.

I had a friend recommend that I try Digsby, a really new instant messaging platform.  Its a bit different than the most though.  Not only will this control and organize ALL of your instant messaging accounts, it also works for your facebook, myspace, twitter….and other accounts!

The best thing I can tell you is to go check it out for yourself, since I imagine you are thinking to yourself right now, how can you incorporate facebook and twitter into a instant messaging app.

Oh yeah, AND digsby offers this sweet widget service where you can embed "live chat" boxes into any website.  As long as you are running your digsby client, you can offer live chat on a website and have instant communication with your prospects.

I know this may not be useful in every one of your campaigns, however if you have any high cost leads or your own products and they really matter, you actually CAN offer a form of live support…for free!

If you want to check this feature out, check out my contact page, I have embedded a live chat box there so you can take a look.

The last few weeks I have been going bezerk with attempting new ways (or ways unfamiliar to me) with purchasing traffic.  One thing that I have been playing with much more is Media Buying.  I wasn’t aware of how many people you can get your ads out to with meda buying.  I also like many things about it like you can cut deals to get better advertising prices.  You are also getting loads of traffic compared to one of the many other routes out there…

You may be wondering why I’m worried about such mass amounts of traffic more lately?

Well, there is a simple answer to that, I have now actually entered a few "niches" and have had some actual physical products manufactured for these niches.  I was getting tons of traffic just using the simple means of promotion I had used earlier, but since everything was rolling a good profit at that level, I wanted to ramp things up with a few insertion orders.

I would have to say that so far, I am liking this media buying process.  The only downfall is you need to have some money to put down at first.  Some of these buys can be pretty expensive compared to throwing up some campaigns with just PPC or whichever way you are promoting offers.

If anyone has any decent info or tips related to media buying, please leave a comment, I’m interested to hear others opinions in this area!

Until next time, best of luck guys!

So I’m sure many of you wonder why in the hell it took me so long to update you all since my last post.  The truth is this is not such a simple answer. 

What happened was that I started playing around with the contextual traffic I had posted about earlier and it made me really start to see that I need to not be so narrow minded on traffic generation.  I started testing tons of different sources (not contextual traffic, but any source of traffic I could buy) to get traffic and ran into a lot of little networks and companies to purchase traffic from way cheaper than using adwords like most everyone else has been doing.  So in the process of testing out all these new sources I also was testing out my tracking script to make sure and nail out any of the bugs in case we really do end up releasing this sucker to the public. 

So during allll of this I also ran across a lot of really good campaigns and more than quadrupled my overall revenue and profit levels for March.  This month was a pretty decent month for me and I realized how big this world really is.  There are literally thousands of different ways to generate traffic…and I’m starting to see that more and more.  When I originally started out with internet marketing my plan was to master ppc.  Since then, my goals have changed however.  I am now not as concerned about ppc, although that is still a big concern…I want to move my focus to finding much cheaper/better converting/more volume methods to finding quality traffic generation.

I’m noticing a much easier to recognize pattern of users for each traffic source also.  Its now much easier for me to see an offer and know which source it will probably perform well on and which it will perform poorly on.  It can really be hit or miss on making something work.  It’s starting to come around to simply testing and tracking everything.  When you can start mass testing and tracking, you can find the traffic sources that perform strong with a certain offer in a matter of minutes to a couple hours usually, depending on the volume you receive.

I’m unlike many internet marketers, which I also think is one of the reasons I am succeeding in this game.  Most marketers get very emotional over their campaigns.  They think they can make anything work or find that one keyword that will start pouring in the profits.  The fact of the matter is although you MAY be able to expand enough to find that special keyword, the odds are not in your favor that it will happen.  Not only that, but why waste your time and money trying to make it work.  You should be testing as many offers and sources as you can.  Its all like a puzzle, you have to piece together the traffic source with the right offer and the right types of people, THAN when you find that match you will see some major dough roll in.  DO NOT get emotional with your campaigns, if it isn’t making money, DROP IT….don’t continue to try and make it work.

I also want to let you all know, my computer is dead and dell’s replacement won’t be here for like 10-15 more days.  This has been a bit of a good thing as I was becoming glued to my computer throwing up campaigns and analyzing the data all day and night.  I will try to keep you all updated but realize the next couple weeks I will continue to post but it may not be everyday like it regularly is.

I want to really try and ramp up my reader base for April so I will try to get some pretty good quality posts going on this month.  Also, I get a lot of questions from people so I am thinking maybe once a week or so I will just post up a couple questions from readers and answer them.  If you have anything you would like an answer to just use the contact me form and send me your question.  If I don’t post it on the blog, I will get back to you with the answer, I am pretty good about answering everyone.