A lot of the reviews I get are with companies that I don’t actually work with.  Not that this is a bad thing as I’ve mentioned before, I really enjoy testing out new networks, but it is nice when I get a review request from a company that I’ve either done stuff with in the past and had good experiences or I’m currently working with.  Tatto Media is one of those affiliate networks that I have!

I’ve worked with Tatto Media on a couple different occasions and was thrilled to write up a review about their network.  They have a lot of great offers and features and you definitely should check them out if you’ve never used them.  Well, enough promotion, it’s time to get into the review since that’s what they paid me to do!

Features

The first thing I’d like to mention is the software they use to run their network.  They really went out of their way to make sure the system was built for affiliates.  They run their own tracking software that was built from the ground up, meaning that you don’t have to worry about them using a software like Direct Track that is known for shaving leads, and you can ensure that it’s accurate!

Another great thing about their system is that it was built to be a self-serve platform.  What this means is that instead of having to contact your manager for little small things like placing pixels, you can do all this stuff yourself right from inside your account!  This is an excellent feature that allows you to quickly get your campaigns up and going without constantly waiting on your affiliate manager to do something as simple as placing a pixel.

Also, recently Tatto Media completely redid their reporting and statistics pages which from personal experience I can tell you has made them faster and more efficient!  This is another thing I like about Tatto Media, they are constantly working on improving their systems and are constantly applying new updates to their network.  Some other things I’ve notice them change recently…

• Added a new report called Conversion Tracking Report – This report provides specific lead/sale information, including sub id, tracking info, transaction id, ip address, and payout, allowing you to quickly run sub id reports. While “info” in current tracking links will continue to work, it has been replaced with “aff_sub”.
• Updated Tracking Links – They’ve updated their tracking links making them easier to understand and have added a Source Name  which allows you to specify a name and easily analyze performance in reports that you run.
• Added Tiny URLs – This is something that seems so simple, yet you don’t see many networks doing it.  This allows you to change your long affiliate URLs to something shorter, thus stopping visitors to your sites from seeing long ugly URLs that your own grandma wouldn’t trust!
• Browser Targeting – This allows you to send visitors that may come from a browser that the offer your using isn’t for.  For example, maybe someone pulls up your affiliate site using their iPhone… Now you can send them to an offer that is tailored specifically for an iPhone user which will increase your conversions.

As I said, they are constantly adding new features and working on improving their affiliate system from the feedback they are constantly receiving from their affiliates which is something that I think makes Tatto Media really stand out!

Getting Paid

Tatto Media has several ways to get your money including Checks, Paypal, or Wires.  This allows you to get your money the quickest way possible in order to keep your affiliate campaigns going. There is nothing worse then running out of money when you have a campaign that is successful!  Which leads me to the next thing…

Tatto Media offers net30 payments meaning you get paid once a month, they also offer bi-weekly payments as soon as you build a bit of a relationship with them.  If you’re doing over $5000 dollars a week, they’ll gladly increase that to paying you weekly!

Refer a Friend

Tatto Media also offers a Refer a Friend section to their site and when you log into their publisher system, they put the link right on the publisher snapshot page.  This allows you to grab it quickly and start making money by referring friends to their network.

While I think it’s great that they offer a way to make money by referring affiliates to their network, I will say that I believe their payout is a little low compared with other networks.  They pay 1% of what the affiliate earns that you refer.  Most networks are now offering at least 2% with a couple offering even more than that!  Still, it’s nice that they offer it as once you start using Tatto you’ll definitely want to let your friends know about them and you might as well make some money while doing it!

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that I’ve used Tatto Media a couple times in the past and still use them once in a while now and they are definitely a great network.  The affiliate managers are good, they know what their talking about and it’s a network that really seems to not only help the big affiliates, but also work with building up new affiliates so that they become huge publishers for their network as well.

I would absolutely 100% recommend that you check out Tatto Media.  It never hurts to be signed up with many affiliate networks in this business as you never know which one will have the best offer when you enter a new niche!

I was contacted by White Fire Media  a couple weeks ago and they requested me to write a review of their network.  One thing I love about this business is working with new people and looking at new networks when they pop up so naturally I accepted!

One of the greatest things about checking out new affiliate networks is when you find one that really stands out and does a great job, has great staff, and offer some awesome payouts on their offers!

When you first sign up for White Fire Affiliate Network and log in you’re presented with the a standard looking user dashboard.  It’s actually quite a simple interface which I like.  It doesn’t add a ton of fluff and is pretty easy to navigate.  At the top there are five links, Home,  My Account, Request Offers, My Offers, and Reporting.  In the sidebars there is Featured Offers, New Offers, News, and your affiliate manager contact details.  That’s pretty much it!

One of the weird things though was that whenever I clicked on any of the Featured Offers or New Offers links, I got taken to a page that said “No Offers Found”.  Definitely something they need to get fixed asap!

Again, the interface is pretty simple and straight forward.  It doesn’t seem to have a ton of bells and whistles but I actually think it’s quite nice that a network isn’t focusing on eye candy and instead on their network.

In order to add offers to the My Offers section, you actually have to first go to the Request Offers section.  If you click on Request Offers you’ll be presented with a page like the one above.  It will have the offer names, the average rating, what countries you can promote the offer in, the payout, etc.  Again, pretty simple and self-explanatory which is nice.

Additional Details

I actually had an extremely hard time finding any details about how they pay and when.  This is definitely something that they need to address.  They need to make a page, either include it on their publisher section of their site, or create a frequently asked questions section which lists this and other important information.  It definitely will prohibit affiliate from signing up if they don’t’ understand when and how they will be payed.

Also, they need to include information about whether or not they do wires, if they cost anything, if there is a certain amount the affiliate must make before they’ll get paid, etc.

Payment details is probably the single most important thing that a network needs to have in an easy to find spot on their site!

Another nice feature is that they pay 4% for life on all referrals to their network.  Since I was paid for this review, I didn’t include my referral link in any of the links to their site, but you should definitely take advantage of it!

Bottom Line

Overall, White Fire seems like they have a quick, simple interface with some great offers!

They definitely need to supply some more information for their publisher’s in an easy spot like a FAQ.

The owners really seem to know their stuff when it comes to affiliate marketing and have always been quick to respond to me when I had a question or concern.

They are still in their infant stage, and sometimes this may be the best time to jump on with a network as you’ll get a ton of one on one support from the guys that really know their stuff!

I’d definitely recommend checking them out, and if you have any problems contact Jeff and tell him I sent ya!

So why should you care?  Well honestly, you probably don’t!  But I do, and I want all my peeps to wish me a happy birthday!  Wahaha!

So, leave me a comment saying Happy Birthday!  I’d appreciate it!

Anyways, I’ve always been the type of person that when I do get sick, I can normally go to sleep that night and by the time I wake up the next day, I’m good! However, when I woke up Sunday morning it only got worse… I told myself that if I was still sick Monday I’d go to the doctors to get checked out cause of this whole swine flu thing…

Monday, I woke up and I was actually feeling a little better, so I decided I didn’t need to go, however, by Monday evening it hit me again, and to add on to everything else, my chest was extremely congested and I was wheezing when I’d breathe. Oh No! I figured I’d definitely go in now, cause it’s never good when you’re not breathing correctly! Of course, since it was Monday night, I decided that I might as well wait until Tuesday morning! LOL!

Tuesday morning I woke up and all my flu symptoms were gone, however, I was still having a rough time with my chest and being congested. However, being the great person I am (actually I just hate hospitals/doctors) I decided since all the rest of my symptoms was gone, I’d see what happened…

Anyways, It’s now Thursday, my chest is still a little congested, but it’s definitely getting better.

The whole reason for this post was to simply say this lol…I’m a little behind now because of this flu, so if I haven’t contacted you back yet I apologize. If you sent me an email, facebook message, twitter message, etc please be patient as I get caught back up!

I offered three packages last month, all of them were filled within a couple hours.  Out of the 3 people that signed up for the packages, two of them are already making a profit in affiliate marketing starting with nothing!

This month, I only have 1 spot available, however, I decided to split it in to two smaller packages this month for those not looking for soo many hours.

Instead of the normal $200 dollars an hour rate, you can get my one on one consultations at the rate of $100 dollars an hour if you purchase the package.

There are two packages each at two and a half hours for $250 dollars.  That’s a rate of only $100 dollars an hour, it saves you 50% off the normal price.

Again, these normally go fast, so if you’re interested you need to let me know as soon as possible as there are only two of these packages this month, and going in to the holidays, I’m doubting that they’ll be any during November or December at the discounted rate.  If there are, again, there will only be maybe 1 or 2 spots.

You can use the contact form listed at the top of this blog to contact me by email, I’ll email you back and you’ll need to submit payment within an hour of getting an email back from me else, I’ll move on to the next person in line in order to give everyone equal opportunity.

If you have any questions, you can email me using the contact form, or you can leave a comment, I’ll answer as soon as possible in order to give you ample time to make a decision before someone else buys up the spots!

PS:  If you are interested in buying the full 5 hours for $500 dollars, let me know in the email you send.  I’ll consider it depending on how quickly others shoot me an email, but if possible I’d like to keep it at two spots to help more people.

A question I received a lot after writing that blog post was how you could tell what sites your ads were showing up on while running on the content network.  The reason so many people are curious about this, is because if there is a certain site that your ad is showing up like crazy on, yet you aren’t receiving any conversions, it will suck your account dry!

Now personally, I only mess with the content network with Google, so I’m only familiar with how to get to it from within their interface, however, I’m sure the basic procedure is the same on most networks if they offer the feature.

First, you need to log in to your Google Adwords account.  After you have logged in, you need to click on the Reporting Tab, then click on Reports.

Next, click on Create a New Report.

Going off subject for a minute, this next screen will allow you to select from a ton of a different reports that you can run, each on has a small description as to the info you’ll receive.  I’d definitely recommend checking out some of the other reports, but since this post is specifically about finding sites your ads are running on when using the content network, lets move on…

If you scroll down just a touch, you’ll notice that one of the radio buttons says Placement Performance.  Click on the radio button next to Placement Performance.

There are a ton of options now that you can select like level of detail, date range, etc.  Pretty self explanatory stuff, so I won’t go in to detail on all the settings.  If you want more details on all the different settings and stuff you can visit Google’s page about Placement Performance Report Help.

Once you finish editing the settings, you’ll come to the last section which is called Templates, Scheduling, and Email.  This place simply allows you to name your report, save the report as a template for running it again later, setting the report to run automatically every so often, etc.

Once you finish that last section, click on Create Report and voila your done!

After you click on Create Report, it will take you back to the Reports Tab Section within your account.  If can take several minutes for your report to be processed.  You can either wait or feel free to move around your account till it’s finished.  It won’t affect it if you leave the page.

After it’s finished the name of the report (whatever you named it in the last section) will become a link and you simply click on the link and you’ll see all the domains/urls that your ads have appeared on.

It seems like every day new affiliate networks are popping up.  It becomes almost impossible  to weed your way through the overload of networks in order to find those that truly stand out.  I’ve worked with countless networks throughout my career as an affiliate marketer and most times I find that smaller networks can actually be better than some of the bigger networks if they run their network correctly.  The reason for this is because they normally don’t have as many crap offers in each niche as the big networks sometimes have. Instead, if they are a smart network, they keep the number down to a good few select offers in each niche that they know converts through testing that they themselves have done.  This doesn’t mean that they don’t have loads of niches and plenty of offers within these niches, it just means that they cut out the crap stuff!  This is where Profit Kings Media comes in..

Profit Kings Media is a small network in terms of the number of actual affiliates they have compared to some networks like Market Leverage or AzoogleAds, however, this is not a reason to dismiss them and not try them out.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.  Profit Kings Media does a phenomenal job at treating all their affiliates like super affiliates even if their not!  There are a couple ways that they do this…

• They Pay Weekly!  Whether you’re making $3 dollars a week or $300,000 dollars a week!
• They Offer Cheap Wires ($12 US, $20 International) and also offer free ACH’s or Checks

Another reason that I believe sets Profit Kings Media apart from the competition is that several of the affiliate managers have been or currently are affiliate marketers as well and they’ll work with you to rip apart your ad copy, landing pages, work with you on scaling and testing new traffic sources, and pretty much everything else that comes with being a successful affiliate.  The guys at Profit Kings Media actually know what the heck they are talking about unlike most affiliate networks you work with.  Again, it’s another benefit of working with a smaller network versus a larger network.  Unfortunately larger networks can’t always give you the same amount of help, because honestly, most of the affiliate managers at larger networks have never run a single affiliate campaign in their entire life!

There are a couple other points that I should mention but instead of writing a huge post that most of you won’t finish, I’ll list some of the major points in a bullet list!

• Most of their normal payouts beat what most other networks bump affiliates up to!
• They have a diverse range of offers within just about every vertical that you’d want to run as an affiliate!
• They don’t send you tons of crap offers begging you to promote them…anyone know a network that sends you a daily list of top converting offers…please!
• They are extremely personable and it’s not uncommon to even talk to the owner about an offer or campaign your running and get special treatment!

Some Things That Could Be Improved

There are a couple things that I think the network could improve, mainly with their main website.  The overall design is okay, but there is a lot of information missing that I believe should be on every serious network’s website!

First, I believe they need to have a privacy policy linked to from all the pages in the footer.  Believe it or not, a lot of people (especially affiliates cause we know how this stuff works) wants to know how their personal information is and can be used.  At least I know I do.

I’d mentioned on the homepage under the publisher section that Profit Kings pays weekly, that’s a huge benefit for most affiliates and I only noticed it after searching through the site for a minute.

Also, you should not only have the join now button on the homepage, but also under the publisher page.  A lot of affiliates may click the Publisher link to get more information or whatever, and then in order to sign up, they have to go back to the main page…

Again, overall Profit Kings Media seems like a great smaller network that has a ton of potential to grow if they keep up the hard work.  It’s definitely worth looking into them for your needs as a publisher.

Anyways, it really is a great phone and I’m enjoying it so much.  One of the biggest reasons I decided to upgrade to the 3GS is because I was still on the edge network (super slow) and also I do a ton of video recording and use a flip ultra cause of it being so small and lightweight.  The new iphone 3GS does video and the quality of it seems just as good as the flip ultra, so that’s a huge plus for me!  One less thing to carry…

Anyways, so I’m not really writing this post to sell the iPhone, but you should check it out!  I’m actually writing it because I thought I’d share some of my favorite apps that I found, some are only for the new iphone, some can be used on any of them!

If you have any favorite apps that you can’t live with, I’d love to hear about them in the comments!  I’m always looking for new apps and honestly apples app store kinda sucks at showcasing good apps!  They are in no particular order!

1. ColorSplash – Price $1.99 – This app allows you to take any picture in your library and make a certain part of it black and white or color.  So you could have the background and everything in black and white and then the main object in color or vice versa.  That’s all it does, but it can make for some great shots and really can spice up a boring image.
2. PocketGod – Price $0.99 – This app is like a mini game.  The cool thing about it though is that the developer released small updates constantly which adds new aspects to the game each time.  Basically you have some little islanders that your the god over and you can make good or bad things happen to them.  When the developer releases an update it allows you to do something new to them!
3. TapDefense – Price Free – This is your basic tower defense game that most of you may have played online.  It’s free and is pretty good, there are some paid ones on the app store, but I think this one does a great job and it’s free!  Can’t beat that!
4. Zenonia – Price $2.99 – This is a game that is kinda like Zelda (the old snes one) but it’s also like an rpg in the fact that you can level up and get new skills, magic, etc.  It’s a really cool game and it works great on the iphone.  If you’re into rpgs you definitely need to check this one out, it’s definitely one of the best on the iPhone.
5. Waze – Price Free – This is a GPS unit for the iPhone and the great thing about it, is that it’s 100% free.  Also, the maps and everything are user generated.  It also adds a social aspect to the gps as well, it allows users to report traffic conditions, accidents, police, speedtraps, etc.  It’s a really neat concept, however, there is one downside to it.  If enough people don’t use it, it kinda sucks!  So you definitely need to check out this app and use it!

Anyways, so that’s a couple of my favorite apps, I’d love to hear some of the ones other iPhone users are using on their phones!  Post them in the comments below!

Of course, I’m not talking about anything unethical, and I don’t feel that advertising on twitter is unethical, but I have to be honest…I’m not sure if I like it or not.  I signed up for a company that I’ve been reading about on a couple different blogs named Ad.ly.  They are a company that you can sign up for, and then advertisers can offer you to tweet about their products or services.  Of course, you have complete control on which ones you choose to do or not, but I’m unsure if this makes it okay or not.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about twitter is the fact that people recommend and give links to things they actually enjoy.  If they are getting paid to tweet will it cause their trust of their account and links to be devalued by their followers?

I’m actually torn on this and I think we’ll only find out through testing.  Part of me believes that the more people are tweeting links that they are getting paid for, the less trusting their followers will be when they post links.  However, another part of me believes that we’ll see the same things as with paid reviews on blogs.  I don’t’ think paid reviews lower the content value or trust of blogs because they are normally disclosed very well and also, they provide bloggers with money that encourage them to pump out more content.

Anyways, so I signed up for Ad.ly but I’m unsure yet if I’ll use them or not, and was simply wondering what your guys opinions were on twitter and advertising…  So what do you think?

What’s the Difference?

One of the first questions I get all the time is what is the difference between the search network and the content network, so real quick, the difference between the two is that when you are strictly bidding on the search network, your ads show up only on search pages, which could also include search results of partners that the search engine may have.  When you are bidding on the content network, you ads may show up for any site that is signed up for their ad program and have ads on their websites.  If you are bidding on an ad for car parts, your ad may show up on a website about cars.  If you are bidding on the search network, you ads would only show up for keywords done about cars on the search engine.

Search Network

When running your ads on the search network, which is the most talked about method on this site, you are bidding on groups of keywords and when those keywords are typed into let’s say Google, your ads show up in the results.

So with the search network you are dealing with keywords, bid prices, and figuring out which keywords convert well.

Content Network

When you are running your ads on the content network, you are bidding on keywords that are related to your niche, but your ads will show up on websites that pertain to those keywords as per the example I gave above.  If you are bidding on keywords about car parts, your ad may show up on a website about cars.

With the content network, you are still dealing with keywords, but you’re also dealing with finding out which websites are converting really well and which ones aren’t, then excluding the websites that aren’t.  So it takes a bit more work, and you have no control where the ads are shown, so if the owner of the website changes these ads around, it could make a site that does great, go really bad.

Running Both?

Most affiliates start off running one or the other, but eventually, most affiliates start using both methods as a way of getting traffic to their affiliates sites, especially once they get a campaign that is doing well and their trying to scale it out.  They may get stuck on one or the other so try out the other in order to increase their traffic.

Personally, I recommend using both as both can be extremely profitable if done right, and both can drive huge amounts of traffic to your affiliates sites.  I know the search network is favored more, but honestly, I’ve seen the content network perform pretty consistently for me as well and sometimes even better in certain niches.  So by running just one or the other, you jeopardize your earning potential.

One Important Note:

This article isn’t really an article detailing exactly how to go about doing the content network, although if enough interest is expressed in the comments, I may write an entire article detailing how to use the content network, however, there is one very important point that I want to make to those that may be thinking about running both the search network and the content network.

The important point is that if you choose to run both, you need to make sure you create two separate campaigns.  One campaign that only runs on the search network, and one campaign that only runs on the content network.  These two networks are completely different and require totally different things in order for them to work.

In fact, most of the times, I even run separate domains and landing pages for my content network stuff and search network stuff.

Bottom Line:

If you’re not using both methods to drive traffic you’re really losing out!  They are both excellent methods of driving traffic, and I honestly don’t think you should only pick one, sure it’s more work working with both the search and content network, but it’s so worth it!