CreditReport.com Mini ThinkTank at Affiliate Summit

CreditReport.com and I are throwing a mini thinktank on Monday at 4:30 during Affiliate Summit.

Most of the parties at Affiliate Summit are too loud to to talk, full of Newbies, crowded, and honestly most people are so drunk that real business and real conversation can’t get done.

CreditReport.com and I are putting on a VIP invite only event.

We are issuing a public invitation to apply, but you need to be reviewed by me, approved and invited by me to get in.

Send an email to dkcreditreport@gmail.com to apply, and let me know who you are and what you have done in the online world.

We have a very limited amount of space, this is going to be a private event, at an amazing place, with a killer view of the strip.

You need to be in some way a player or a player on their way up in the internet marketing world.

The party is from 4:30 to 6:30 at Sushi Roku in the Caesars Shops on the top floor of the round tower at the end of the shops.

It will be an open bar and light snacks.

Sushi Roku is a super high end place, with amazing Sushi. They have one of the absolute best views of the strip of any restaurant in Vegas.

Email me here, dkcreditreport@gmail.com, if you want to come. Let me know who you are.

Link Research Tools and Purpose Inc Poker Tourney

After the party at 7:00 is the poker tourney. It will be over in time for those going to the Affiliate Ball or Jason from Ads4Dough’s little tea party.

Chris Cemper, the founder of Link Research Tools, and a bad ass dude that I have followed for almost a decade, has kicked in big time to allow the poker tourney to take place this year. Every player gets an In N Out Burger.

Chris has an amazing deal for you guys if you are interested. I have been using his tools for the past month and they absolutely kick ass over any other SEO tool I have ever seen. Dead serious on this. Check out Chris’s SEO Deal here.

Buy in for the poker tournament is $100. It will be at the Mirage Hotel, right next to Caesars, and right next to Sushi Roku where the cocktail mastermind event will be. It is going to be done in about 2 1/2 hours so we have time to hit the other parties. Every player will get an In N Out Burger to eat while playing, so this can count as dinner! There will be rebuys and add ons, and is always a fun game! Register for the Poker Tournament Here.

@CrowdGatherer, one of our big sponsors along with Spread Effect, SEOBrand, and Infusionsoft, just did the webinar with us.

Here are the links to the pages he mentioned.

It was another first for live webinars in the internet money space, I did part of it live from in teh water! LOL

CrowdGather

CRWG stock

Erox sign-up page

ER303 Scientific Study

First reviews for Erox

That should be good…

Ricky Ahuja hooked up with me at Affiliate Summit in Vegas a few months ago. He is a Purpose Inc fan. He is also a Sikh. Sikhism is a lovely religion that first learned about in college. Their fundamental beliefs are in faith and justice. (I love a religion that includes justice!) Protecting the religious rights of others, and and preventing all discrimination of all races is a fundamental precept of Sikhs. I remember learning in college that Sikh’s were used as bodyguards for European royalty for centuries, and were the last group allowed to carry weapons onto airplanes, because of their fame of honesty and integrity. You will usually know a Sikh when you meet them as their last name is usually Singh. Also Sikh’s wear turbans, but they come from the north of India, not the middle east. So don’t look like a typical American, (Or European) and assume that anyone in a turban is from the middle east .

I asked Ricky about monetizing Indian traffic. His response was so complete that I decided to post it as a blog.

Ricky is founder, and CEO of the Affiliate Company, Affiliate Venture Group.

How To Monetize Indian Traffic – Guest Blog by Ricky Ahuja

To be frank with you, Monetizing Indian Internet traffic is not an easy task. And it is not the same methodology that works with any other countries traffic on the Internet. India is a huge country and it is growing in terms of Economy, GDP and a strong presence in the World map and of course the percentage of Internet users.

You can check out here the standings of Top 20 countries in terms of Internet usage. I am sure you will be astonished to see India in the 4^th position globally: Internet Usage – Country wise

Surprised? You should be by this time. Well, Internet Marketing has a long way to go before it truly becomes fruitful in India. So if you have a website and you have traffic, I will tell you the best possible methods to monetize the traffic.

1) Google Adsense

With no second thoughts I can tell you that there is no better way to make money online unless it’s from Google Adsense clicks on your blog or website. The majority of the Internet users from India are online because they are in search of information in all possible topics that you can think of. Since Google Adsense is a contextual based advertising you can easily get clicks on the ads and make money with every single click.

Hold your horses before you learn one more fact about Adsense clicks by Indian internet users. You cannot expect more than 10-70 cents per click since advertisers on Adsense network don’t shell out money to a great extent like that of other developed countries. They rightfully do that because the chances of an Indian clicking on an Adsense ad and then purchasing something online is almost zero.

The Reason:

Now I will mention why the Indian Internet scene is like this though the Internet users are of great numbers. Indians are very paranoid about their safety online and even if they have a credit card they might have not used it even once on the web. This trend will eventually change in the coming years for sure but until then you just cannot simply ignore the Indian web traffic.

The above data is not true with every single website and blog on the internet. If the niche that you are into is competitive then the cost per click will be much better.

The ad placement on your blog or website must be really good because the more clicks you receive then you will be making more cash. All said and done it’s your website and you should take a wise call and experiment with Adsense a lot before it can fetch you any significant income.

2) In-text Advertising

Advertising companies like Infolinks and Kontera can also fetch you good amount of money provided you get huge amount of clicks. The cost per click is way too lesser than Adsense but if you don’t have an Adsense account then this may be your best alternative.

In-text advertising should be carefully gelled on your website because it can look very distractive and your users might get annoyed easily. Do not hyperlink more than 4-5 keywords or phrases in one single page. You should use in-demand keywords to get advertisers target your website more. By doing this you will also increase the cost per click from In-text advertising companies.

Good thing if you have an Adsense account already approved because it is ok to use In-text advertising along with Adsense. There is no policy that restricts you from using both the methods on the same website. So you don’t have to worry about getting banned from Adsense.

3) Affiliate Marketing

You have to be very picky about what type of affiliate marketing programs you will be promoting on your site. Unless you have completely analyzed the Indian traffic that you are getting on your site then there is no possible way you would be able make any significant money from affiliate marketing.

The things that you should take into account about the India traffic while using affiliate programs are:

1)   The top pages accessed by Indian users on your website. You can use Google analytics to find this out.

2)   The entrance keywords to that particular topic that is read most.

3)   Top exit pages on your website.

Once you have an idea of what your users are seeking then contact your favorite affiliate network (might I suggest Affiliate Venture Group ) and ask them what they have for international traffic. Often times, these campaigns may be kept private so truly dig in and sell your AM on your international traffic. Dig a bit deeper, you will see many emerging Indian based affiliate networks and it is these guys who are positioning themselves for success.

These are just some of the generic things that you should be aware of before monetizing your website. This is true with any sort of affiliate program because without knowing what sells on your site you just can’t sell anything at all!

In my experience, lead based CPA programs works very well. Matrimonial/Dating, free downloads based programs also attracts a huge number of clicks and it can convert very well.

Other online services, downloads related to Movies, games, music and other free stuffs always converts very well with the Indian traffic. You can also advertise programs related to Free Antivirus, antispyware, antimalware and host of other PC security programs. Registry cleaners can also fetch you fair number of hits because like everyone else Indian internet users are also very much concerned about their computer security.

Anything which is free always works out well with the Internet crowd and it’s no different with the Indian users. Actually it works better than you expect, that is, if the offer is attractive enough.

Conclusion

My advice to you is do not ignore the Indian segment because they are truly expected to be “the next big thing” in the coming years. It is even estimated that India will be a super power by 2020; furthermore, it is expected to surpass China very shortly in terms of economical abundance.

The money is there, it’s just that newer ways have to be adapted to make the advertisers spend and also make the Indian users buy more online. With the changing trends Indians have finally come out of the closet and started booking movie tickets online. Not just the movies, even other sporting events, concerts and other party events.

Groupon’esque like sites have been leading the Indian market for the past few months. This is definitely something the advertisers should think of getting into. Internet marketing is an emerging phenomenon in India, so being a website owner you should start experimenting with the Indian traffic and make the best out of it.

Your feedbacks and suggestions on this topic are welcome. Do share your thoughts on this subject. Hope this helps you in monetizing your Indian traffic.

Ricky Ahuja is the CEO of Affiliate Venture Group, a leading affiliate network that offers over 10 years of experience in the online marketing and lead generation industry. He also runs a successful blog at www.rickyahuja.com and feel free to follow him on Twitter

The earliest dictionary ever found, was written in what is now Syria, and there is possibly one older than that created in China.

It has been the historical efforts of overly inquisitive geek lords such as myself to clarify what has not yet been clarified.

In 1604 an English school teacher by the name of Robert Cawdrey wrote the first dictionary in English, so his students could finally understand WTF they were talking about.

Then from 1884 to around 1928 with the major contributor, William Chester Minor, a convicted murderer who ended up in a prison for the criminally insane, the Oxford English Dictionary, a 12 volume set that really says what’s up with the English language even to this day.

Affiliate marketing on the other hand is kind of making it up as we go along.

When I started going to Affiliate Marketing conferences I started hearing shit tons of 3 letter acronyms, from CPA to CPM to CPL or CTR.

When I stated working with facebook, I really needed to get a handle on these. Before then it was simply looking at how many people did what from the comfort of my own coffee table, but now I had to communicate with kinda official people who I needed to understand.

Lately it has become even more important in the affiliate space, as I have had to get a bunch of new offers to play with.

Today I went into LinkShare’s Lead Advantage console (I get a buck fitty if you sign up and make a sale LOL). Lead advantage is LinkShare’s lead acquisition area. A lead is simply someone who’s info you have captured, who might turn into a paying customer at a later date.

I really like LinkShare because they seem to be doing a good job filtering out the unethical crap that is deceptive to consumers that I won’t run. Jamie, who hits a lot of the conferences for linkshare is a bright guy, who has helped me a ton over the years. Linshare as a company rocks, and seems very honest, I am just going to use them as an example of something confusing, but in no way intend this to be a bash.

When I was looking around today I found a whole bunch of really cool looking CPL (Cost Per Lead) offers on LinkShare’s Lead Advantage.

I am a fine print reader, I even read insurance policies and mortgage documents that no one else does to make sure I understand what is up.

So before I started running the offers, I read the terms of service on them.

At first some of them jump out as slam dunks, like one of the offers that pays out at $178 per lead, or so it seems.

When you click on the link to the lead, you find a simple, required name, and required email, form where the phone is optional. Wow, that should be easy to make money, right?

Well if you go down further, you will find that there are other forms the visitor can fill out, that require more information. None of them I saw required a credit card. This will be important in a minute. These more extended forms ask for things like your city, and require your phone number. These forms are a little more inquisitive, expose the viewer a bit more, and I am guessing will have less people fill out.

There is also a place to make a phone call without clicking on anything. This means that they have to be giving out a new phone number to each lead, which they very well may. (Can’t check it from where I am writing this).

Now here is the odd part?

The terms of the offer state on the LinkShare site, “A lead is commissionable when consumer completes form & credit card is verified.”

So I don’t get the credit card part. When would you enter a credit card on a lead generation? I give out my credit card # to my bank, or if I am booking something for sure, or buying something, not if I am kinda sorta interested. So I am guessing? that this offer pays out when the user buys, which would make this offer a Cost Per Acquisition, CPA offer.

Again, I really like LinkShare and want to use this as an example of the semantic confusion found across most of the networks. This offer may very well make some people a lot of money, but it does not appear to be a Cost Per Lead offer. The payout is so high, that even being a cost per sale, it still may make a good ROI, I have no idea?

I know this just splits semantic hairs, but we have already had some strong surprises with other CPL offers in general, when it made no sense that 100 qualified users had clicked on the ad, and no one had filled out the lead form. Well, this explains part of it.

Other CPL offers on LinkShare are straight CPL

An example is “Total Injury” which looks like a true CPL offer.

The fine print says, “A lead is commissionable when a consumer completes a form with valid information, and contact information is not later determined by the Company to be a “dispute,” “dud,” or “duplicate” of an individual already in the Company’s or Included Networks Participant’s database.”

which means that if someone fills out the form, and was really an injured person looking for help, and not allready in their database, then you get paid.

See the offer here, (especially if you have been injured I get $14 ) LOL

This is a true Lead. A lead is someone who very well might be a customer, but is not yet.

Personally I love marketing like this, developing a list of people, developing a relationship with them, and then selling them shit they like.

To get this straight CPL means Cost Per Lead.

CPA means Cost Per Acquisition or Cost Per Action, depending on who you ask.

Cost Per Acquisition means the cost per obtaining a real paid customer, which is the end of the sales process when they plunk down the money.

Cost Per Action can be anything from a click to a form fill to a sale. So when you are on the conference floor of Affiliate Summit and someone is spouting out CPA, it makes sense to figure out WTF they mean by that.

This happened in the SEO industry as well and has turned into a cluster F%$k. I have pretty much given up on arguing this point, but SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It originally meant putting things like tags in your header and arranging your site so the search engines would dig your site, and rank it well. The second people started working to get links from other sites, it was no longer SEO, but something else. Now some people use the term SEO to mean just about anything you can do online to increase your sites ranking in Google or sell stuff.

It is o.k. that terms evolve.

“Consider” as I understand it, originally comes from the Latin, Con Sidare. Con means with, like Chile Con Carne. Sidare meant with the stars. Back in the day, if the old Roman dude wanted to figure out whether to plant barley or Millet, or whether his daughter should marry Claudius or Brutus, he would go in the dead of night to the local astrologer who would consult with the stars. So, honey I am going outside to consider this meant, to go get a reading from the local astrologer.

It is o.k. if the word changes over time, it just messes with you if you can not keep up with the changes, or if there is no central place for clarification of words, like a dictionary.

This favors the brave and the smart in the affiliate world. Since there is no straight definitions or intellectual papers being written on the subject yet, it actually favors those with a quick mind, more so than those with big degrees.

So keep riding them ponies boys, we are still in the wild west!

If you want more definitions, go read Genos nice little affiliate glossary.

When using paid ads such as facebook or any other paid advertising (I am currently using other sources), there is an interesting phenomena that takes place. To get an ad that works takes testing, lots and lots of testing. I hung out yesterday at the Ads4Dough event with a bunch of guys who are spending hundreds, to thousands, to tens of thousands of dollars per day on ad spend.

Everyone agreed that none of us were any good at writing ads that were far superior to lessor marketers. It is simply that we were willing to write and test more of them.

If you come up with an ad, and traffic source for a dating offer that pays you $10 for a lead sign up, then you need to spend about $20 or $30 to figure out if the ad you wrote is working. This is called statistical significance. It is worth learning the math on this, or at least deeply understanding it, and knowing how to use an online calculator that checks it for you.

So for the average guy, he can afford to run $30 tests 20 or 30 times to find an ad and a traffic source that works. This is totally doable if you are willing to work a regular job, and spend this $900 over a month or two depending on your salary. Then when you find something that works, you keep feeding more money into it. If you live frugally, and test lots, then eventually you will most likely eventually find something that works.

You don’t see many affiliate offers with $6,000 payouts, or even $1,000 or even $100 payouts. I think one of the reasons for this is that you better have very deep pockets to do the testing.

I was either lucky or unfortunate enough to have a product, super high quality chiropractic treatment, that has a decent payout for our office. Basically it takes a ton of work to really fix someones spine, with lots of staff, overhead, student loans, blah, blah, so it costs some money to do well. As a result when I test market, I need to spend a ton of money to find an ad that works. It is only the fact that I had gotten to help facebook, and got to do a bunch of testing in the process that gave me faith in facebook ads, and the fact that I know the exact value for each conversion in our organization that gave me the courage to work out the marketing on facebook.

Without my vast experience with facebook ads, and certainty on the math of it all, as a chiropractor I would have been terrified to even test it to the level it needs to be.

Each time I run a facebook ad, I need to spend a ton more money to test that ad, than I would if I were testing dating ads, or some other offer.

I am sure I could sell 10 million dollar private jets on facebook, but whoever was funding it better be willing to spend a million or so on each test while we are working out the marketing.

This is also why I don’t like taking on clients unless they have a ton of money to play with.

If the person has a product with a $100 profit per sale then they better be willing to spend $200 or $300 per test, and be willing to do 20 or so tests to maybe find one that is profitable. Then if it did not work, what then? It doesn’t mean that I suck, or that facebook ads, (or whatever the channel) sucks, it is simply that we did not come up with the right ad yet. The right ad is there, but you better have the fortitude and bank roll to ride it out till you figure it out.

I can see why back in the magazine days they usually did not use direct response. There is no fricken way you could have tested enough to make a working ad back then unless you were lucky or a genius.

I remember in direct mail days, I used to have to spend close to a thousand dollars to do a test. The one product I sold back then was a little under $100, and I spent many thousands of dollars before I got lucky and got one that had an ROI.

Shoemoney at my first Elite Retreat was the one that first opened my eyes to the benefit of knowing exactly all of the profits and costs of the product that I was selling online, compared to most affiliate marketers. It took me years to understand what he meant by this, but boy is he right. When I am selling a mortgage offer like I have been working on lately, I have no idea how much profit that advertiser is making, so I don’t really know how much I can afford to spend on the ads, and then negotiate if I am a little negative. He was right, that those of us with our own products can dominate because we know just how far we can push our spend. It is kind of like a huge game of group poker.

The upside of selling something expensive is that you are not going to have as much competition.

There are ways to mitigate your risk on this, such as getting leads instead of sales. But ultimately the guy who owns the company is going to have to pay for all of those leads, to find the one gem he is looking for, so he better have balls of steel.

Good night, and good luck!

I just had an email conversation this morning with two different guys I really trust about product launches.

One of them is one of the most famous SEO’s and Affiliate marketers in the world, and the other runs a well known Affiliate Company.

You guys see big companies do product launches all the time.

You see Apple create this huge buzz, and then start selling a phone that has people lining up all night for.

You see a new concert come to town, where people go into a frenzy for weeks before hand.

Even the super bowl works this way.

It is much more exciting, than just doing the day in day out routine we have.

You can sell anything that way from a new toaster, to an affiliate product that isn’t even yours.

This also ties in with another fundamental thing happening on the internet that I think about every day.

Traffic is becoming more and more expensive to get. The cost of clicks has gone up and there is more competition to get to the top of Google for a phrase.

So what the smart money is doing, myself included, is building email lists. Once you have someone hit your site, get their email, and then you can communicate with them again for free. You only paid for them the first time they got there.

Again, big business has known this for decades, that is why they want you to fill out warranty, and registration cards with your address and email on them.

So the master of doing this online is Jeff Walker.

All the big shots in info marketing learned from Jeff first. He has been doing online product launches for over 15 years.

Last year I was so blown away by Jeffs marketing that I spent my own cold hard cash on Jeffs product.

The funny thing was that before I even bought the product, I copied his marketing and did an extra $30k in sales over a couple of weeks.

I can’t recommend enough you study his marketing, even if you don’t buy his product.

You can see Jeff’s marketing here.

If you don’t watch it quickly, and follow along fast it will all be taken down.

Jeff only sells his product once or twice a year, and once he takes the marketing materials down, (which will be in a few days),

they will never be put up again. Check it out.

P.S. The current Product Launch Formula marketing piece is on Launch Disasters.

I’ve talked a lot lately about some of the hurdles of affiliate marketing, and have been trying to understand what is happening in there, who can be trusted, and what exactly is going on. I came across an amazing story, called Four Easy Ways to get Sued as a direct response marketer. (Just scroll down about half way down the page.)

It tells the story of the supposed herbal male enhancement pill. I loved the commercials with the 50′s feel, and the guy with the big smile, and the sexy yet accessable women who hovered around this innocent guy. Really amazing marketing. Made me want to eat the stuff as breakfast cereal! Well according to the article, it turns out the stuff was a scam (not surprising), and that the guy selling it went to jail! Holy crap!

The article goes on to say that the guy went to jail, not for selling a crap product, but for continuing to bill people who got tricked into billing.

I was recently talking to a very famous ex-blackhat marketer, about ethics over a Chipotle burrito. We both agreed that the biggest criteria we had in selling something was, in addition to it being legal, that it actually told the consumer what they were getting, and the terms in obvious language. Look, if you want to buy a giant yellow whistle that you think will bring space aliens down to earth, that is you and the advertisers prerogative. But if the advertiser guarantees it will work, it better, and if the advertiser says he will bill you $49 for three months, then it better not be four.

There are other tips in there obviously written by a direct response veteran who has been in the trenches.

I also got drawn into the article on media buys. This is a newer subject for me that I am studying up on.

The more I dig into this industry the more fun and interesting it gets.

My buddy Amish is selling his Magic Bullet System this week.

If you have not followed along, you have to see the marketing.

My marketing is good. Amish’s is better. LOL

For those of you who don’t know this world of info marketing it goes like this.

1. Made a bad ass product that really is valuable (otherwise guys like me won’t promote it)

2. Get guys like me to mail to our mailing list, and pass on the trust of our users. (Again if the product sucks, i will look like a jackass, and I see Amish pretty much every week, so I know this product will be good.)

3. Market the product over a few weeks using the Product Launch Formula. Jeff Walker made it, and Frank Kern polished this baby and it works like a charm.

4. Get guys like me with mailing lists to mail to our friends and fans to market the product.

5. Give the mailing partners (Purpose Inc in this case) a big percentage of the sale, like 50%. Not sure exactly what Amish is paying.

6. Then the partners start offering different bonus’s, so I would have the Amish Shah Magic Bullet System Bonus.

So that is where I am at in the whole thing.

I sent out emails to my list of just over 4,000 of the top internet marketers and business guys in the world.

We had 528 people open the email, and 163 of them clicked over to Amish’s video.

53 of those people opted in to Amish’s list.

Keep in mind more than just I are mailing to you guys.

Now on to the free bonus business.

The way these guys play the game is this.

When you sign up there are different free bonuses offered.

If you buy through my link then you get a free ticket to thinktank*

Thinktank costs $3,000 to get in.

The real value though is if you are an Amish fan, Amish was at thinktank with his business parnter Jay Styles

for three days last summer, along with me and the biggest names in the internet business world. It takes place in Del Mar near La Jolla,

and you never know for sure who will be there, but it will be the big players. This year it will be some time in August or September.

If you want the bonus, just sign up through this link, and immediately send me an email to dk (at) purposeinc.com and let me know you signed up through this link.

Also, as Frank Kern says, keep adding on the cool, you have this promise from me.

I talk to Amish on a regular basis, have lunch with him, have his cell phone, friends with his lovely wonderful wife on facebook, go to parties with him etc.

I only sell things I stand behind. If you sign up and have questions, can’t figure them out, or whatever, just use the Magic Bullet technical support,

if you still can’t figure it out, then email me (it is all over this site), and if there is still a problem, then I will ask Amish directly. I know Amish will have a guarantee period, but I am putting this on to really make sure you feel good about it. Also, if you have affiliate questions, just email them to me, and if I have a good answer, I will email back.

To get my Magic Bullet bonus you need to stay signed up to Magic Bullet until after the refund period has expired.

Ad Hustler did a great job posting his funny observations about affiliate summit.

I want to post a few observations of my own.

I had two very different experiences with networks and a thousand bucks.

One of them was quite fun. I went to talk business with Revenue Wire, after my friend Jim Banks suggested they might have a solution for something I was working with. They asked for my card, and I told them I don’t even have any. They wrote my name and email on one of their business cards. The next day I got a call that I had won a $1,000 in some drawing, I was unaware of.  At first I thought it was a practical joke, but then I realized it wasn’t. I showed up with Jonathan Volk and Ryan Grey.

Now here is the important part of the story. Revenue Wire said they were going to give me $1,000. I showed up. They gave me $1,000.

Not only was it fantastic, fun to win, and made Revenue Wire look like rock stars, but they did what they told me they were going to do.

Revenue Wire is going to get lots of great press, respect, appreciation, and marketing from me etc. because of this simple action.

Let’s compare it now with another story, of Network X, whose name I will withhold.

I don’t want to slam on Network X, but instead tell the story as an example of the simplicity of good business ethics.

We had a transaction a few months back, for which they were to give me $2,000. They agreed the money was to be paid by a certain date. They paid $1,000 of it. They did not pay the other $1,000. They then said the money would be paid by a certain date. That date came and went and still they had not paid the $1,000.

Then I asked the person in charge of the network for the $1,000, and they said they could probably get it to me that day. The next day, I did not have the money. After the show when I asked for the $1,000 they said, that they needed to pay blank and blank to keep the business alive and I was a lower priority.

I told them this was not acceptable and they could just pay me $100 a month. The answer was, we will just pay you when we can pay you.

Oddly enough I also ran into some money guys during the show, who are offering money to affiliates who need financing.  We had a great talk about the affiliate industry, the level of honesty industry wide, and ways they could help.

Right now big business money is trying to find its way into the affiliate industry. I keep hearing, but no first hand information, that the government is looking at the industry and making decisions about regulations.

The difference between the two stories is simply this.

Revenue Wire said they would pay me $1,000 and 15 minutes later, they paid me $1,000 in cash.
Network X said they would pay me $1,000, and then they didn’t, and don’t seem to be interested in doing so.

I have been in business for over 20 years.

Although the start was very bumpy, I have lived by my word. Yes I have made mistakes, and yes I do make mistakes, and yes I will in the future. But if I promise something, I will move heaven and earth to accomplish it, or if I fail I will work sunrise till after sundown to make up for it. That simple.

If you conduct business that way, people will trust you.

I remember once trust being defined as saying you would do something, and then doing that. If you do that enough times, people trust you. If you do something different than you say you will then trust is lost.

I am becoming more active in the affiliate industry, and there are organizations that have really gained my trust, simply by doing  what they said they would.

The network who said they would pay me $1,000, and then didn’t lost my trust.

It is that simple.

First thanks to the poker sponsors, XY7, Never Blue, Why Park, Tweet Find, Health Converter and Now Blam Ads! I love you guys all for allowing us to pull this off this year.

This is the first year of doing a poker tourney during Affiliate Summit, so forgive us if it is a little bumpy, (no t-shirts, cards, or other crap, but we do have in and out burgers and free drinks!)

The below is an interview I did with Ryan Eagle, Creator of Blam Ads and famous for being CEO of Eagle Web Assets. I have been fascinating following Ryan, and I want you to learn more about him. He is one of the few people I know who work as much as I do.

dk: Ryan, can you tell my readers a bit about your history, where you come from, and your background?
ryan: I started developing websites for a hobby at the age of 13, hitting massive success when I was 16 years old. A mixture between endless persistence and luck got me where I’m at now, and I exploited the wave for every cent possible. I’m located outside of Chicago, I’m sober, and even with the arrogant cocky persona I have – I’m forever grateful for everything that I’ve been blessed with.

dk: I’ve been fascinated reading your tweets.
They are unapologetic, bragging, aggressive,
confident as hell, and talk of domination.
I would assume from them that you were not
someone I would want to talk to. On the other hand
I have been very impressed working with you, talking to you,
and having you as a sponsor of our events. You are intelligent,
polite and a clear communicator. Can you explain the tweets?
ryan: I’m misunderstood, but I don’t need to be explained. My twitter is something that I barely understand, but it’s more me egotrippin’ than anything. This quote explains me and my actions online a lot more than I could myself, “While likeability can often produce power, power and success invariably produce likeability. People choose to be with successful people and organizations, and then make sense of their choices by deciding that they actually like and respect those they are associating with. ” – Jeffrey Pfeffer

dk: In an online world where everyone is looking for the get rich quick method,
and a lot of people write online about making mad cash quickly.
you often talk about working late nights and long hours.
What gives with that discrepancy?
ryan: There is no get rich quick method I’ve ever heard of that works. I’ve been working 18-20 hour days since I was 16 years old to get where I was at, and there is nothing easy about making money. I’ve worked endless hours on projects that have lost money for months, running simply on faith that it will eventually pick up. To start your own business or make money you need to be relentless in your efforts – remember that you’re competing with the likes of me.

dk: I have been an affiliate for Eagle Web Assets for the past year, and it has a
very different feel from most affiliate companies.
I get frequent emails from EWA promoting that you bumped up payouts on some
offer. I also noticed that the emails tend to give advice on what is working right now.
You and Harrison also both have your email, AIM, and cell numbers on the website
where anyone can get a hold of you.
Can you tell me your viewpoint about the flavor of how you run the company, and why?
ryan: To sum it up: we set new standards for affiliate networks. There is nothing average about EWA and we’ve outdone what hasn’t been done with our affiliate network. We provide real training on how to make money, how to use new traffic sources, and how to optimize campaigns. We truly want our affiliates to succeed because their success is tied into our success as a company. EWA Network is a private community with a personal, real feel – we’re not trying to be an ultra-large conglomerate, we’re just trying to work with our close friends and their referrals. We’ve had massive success offering close support and we will continue innovating in the new year with advanced technology and new ways to make money online being released mid-year.

dk: What is your reasoning with Blam Ads. It definately has been getting noticed. I have seen it
advertised on practically everyone I know in the industry, the logo and branding look like
they were designed to appeal to 16 year old skater, (my style), and you have made some
bold statements about it making more money than adsense for a given site, and that you were
looking to ad some huge number of publishers this year. I also noticed a gambling offer on it.
In a time when I see most affiliate companies pushing to appear like big businesses, Blam
seems to be very comfortable just being what it is. Can you tell me the who, what, where, when and why,
and of course how much on it?
ryan: The advertising that you have seen only appeals to the affiliate marketing industry, where I work hand in hand with my peers. I’ve never believed in blending in with the “other” companies, and I always launch my businesses with unique and memorable advertising strategies. BLAM Ads actually has 5 different “types” of campaigns running, all targeting different audiences and are all branded differently. We adapt to our audience like a marketer should, and standing out is the most important thing. We’ve already signed several larger brands with our developer beta section to help them monetize their traffic better, and like EWA – we need no advertising, the best technology / company always reigns supreme.

dk: Shoemoney first pointed out to me how bright you are, and I have since seen that myself. I’d love to hear your
opinion on a few touchy things. I try to operate on a super high ethics level, and try to only sell stuff online
that is honest to the consumer. When I go through most offers on most affiliate networks, the ads
don’t seem to represent themselves to the consumer as to what they really are. I know from my offline
business experiences of the past 20 plus years, and as a consumer, that there is tons of stuff to sell. Why
do the affiliate networks seem to focus on so few things?
ryan: Are all the offers in EWA ethical? No. Do nice guys finish first? No. Do we share different ethical values? Yes. I personally don’t feel bad about anything that’s being promoted on my network and as long as we operate within legal guidelines, it’s our right to promote them and make that money. If we didn’t do it, someone else would – but I totally understand where your coming from. It can be done honestly and in the coming months I plan on releasing technology that will open up a new medium of advertising for EWA that’ll further separate our brand from the competition and provide a medium for thousands of more products and services.

dk: I’ve also watched observed a bit lately about affiliate running offers, advertisers not paying the networks,
and the networks not paying the affiliates. When I have asked guys in the industry about it, the general
attitude seems to be, that this is simply the way the industry works. If this happened to me in business,
I would not be o.k. with it. The advertisers appear to make decisions about what not to pay on, and then
the affiliate has little or nothing they can do about it. Can you comment from your observation,
as to the accuracy of what I am saying, and maybe fill in the back story for us?
ryan: EWA takes margin on our affiliates not only to make profit, but to protect ourself from the nonpayments. If you explained our business model to any professional business man (factoring insecured debt, pretty much soley off of handshakes, at the slim margins we take) they would be shocked. There is nothing easy about running an affiliate network, our first week in business we ate a 120,000 non-payment to a “bankrupt” company. It’s part of the game and our factoring practices have set us ahead of the competition because of our inituiton in regards to extending credit. Other companies in 2010 have lost millions upon millions – which passes directly down into affiliates via slower payment terms and higher margins. EWA operates the “slow and steady” safe business model that allows us to pay every affiliate weekly and offer insanely high payouts. Competition cannot compete with us anymore, their greed has ruined them.

dk: What do you expect in the world of affiliate marketing in the upcoming year?
ryan: Expect less competition and more of my companies popping up, because we have big things in the work and we will not settle for anything less than #1.