With such a high payout per free trial, the affiliate networks and supplier companies have to pay out a ton in advance… in hopes they can scam keep customers paying for an extra 2-3 months. But what happens when the overflow is too much and it starts to go the other way. In most cases, you the affiliate, or network won’t be getting paid.

A friend of mine has been running a weight loss rebill offer for a while now, directly with a company. This was outside of an affiliate network and means they would be paid directly and invoice the company for all leads. As an affiliate, most of us use networks as we feel they are the middle man, and most will make good if their advertiser doesn’t. A lot of networks have taken a hit when their advertiser doesn’t pay, but they still pay their affiliates. Unfortunately in this scenario, the affiliate didn’t walk away with their full commissions.

Here is the email notifying the affiliate on the current situation:

The only thing worse than finding out you are only going to receive 33% of what you are owed, is to see the company continue mailing out the same offer for weeks after they told you they won’t pay in full. The email shown below has still been circulating and keep being sent out, despite “suspended operations“.

For anyone who was owed money by Vitrasun, LLC, it looks like it’s already too late. Search “Vitrasun LLC” on Google and you will barely find anything… go to their site at Vitrasun.com, and you will find even less.

Unfortunately there is only so much an affiliate or affiliate network can do in this situation. It costs too much to go into a legal battle, and in most cases there is no money left in the company. Even worse, the majority of companies that play this game, close up shop only to start up under another name and do it all over again.

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

I knew I wouldn’t be able to use them on my existing account, but I grabbed a bunch to give them away through the blog. You can see the actual card below, and yes, it is an active trial code, but only good for the first person who grabs it. These $50 free trials (x 20 codes =$1,000) are only available on new Facebook Ads accounts. See if you are the first to grab it!

Monday Code: 45CH-11RM-8CK3-HMEN,  K2E6-0EYV-Y7R5-5YMT
Tuesday Code: 4XJ6-889T-Y5NC-1JF4, RKPJ-24E2-5YCF-CXKW
Wednesday Code: 9Y3P-YV16-YM8X-PJ26,  YR7H-469W-F6PY-614N
Thursday Code: To be added…
Friday Code: To be added…

I’ll be adding two new coupon codes daily for the rest of the week. For anyone else who wants a coupon code, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and I will send out another set of 10 coupon codes this Friday the 14th of December. Make sure you signup on the list below to get the mailing.

Also, for anyone else starting our on Facebook Ads, or still struggling, here is a list of previous posts I’ve written on Facebook Ads.

- Breakdown of a Profitable Facebook Ads Campaign
- Setting Up Your First Facebook Ads Campaign
- Facebook Ads vs. Google Adwords (Guest post)
- The Future of Advertising on Facebook
- Tips for Making More Money with Facebook Ads
- Split Testing with Facebook Ads

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

The best way to do this, is by looking over an old campaigns that I have on pause and aren’t running anymore. A lot of the offers I have on pause are still available, but I never went on to monetize them enough to bring in a higher ROI. This campaign in particular is just under a year old, but the offer is still running actively on ClickBank. The product is for an ebook on skateboarding tricks and easily gets passed through the FB Ads team. During this $300 test campaign, the ROI was around 10%, and that is with very little monetizing and real targeting. Yes, I know… 10% isn’t much of a margin, but this wasn’t monetized or split tested at all. Instead of continually tweaking this campaign, I moved onto others. Now it’s your turn to turn it into something better.

Setting Up the Ad Campaign
When I first setup this ad campaign, I’ll threw together a bunch of ad copies and spent a few hundred dollars to see what happens with it. Go ahead and use the ad images and text copies from my campaign and see what type of profit margins you can hit.

Here is the direct ad copy and targeting that was setup for the campaign. I go into more detail below. You can download the top four CTR ad images used here. (Ad1, Ad2, Ad3, Ad4). Recreate an exact copy of this campaign, or get creative with some new copy.

Campaign Stats
3,746 clicks
1,505,202 impressions
0.249% CTR
.08 average click
$301.14 spent

ClickBank Skateboard Stats: $330.21 Rev

Deep Targeting; Picking the Right keywords:
No matter what type of campaign you are setting up, the key to success is in your “keyword targeting”. For this skateboarding campaign, I only targeted users interested in “skateboard” and “skateboarding“. Just off those two keywords, you are hitting 192,860 18+ users. I just went through and looked for new skateboarding terms and there are lot more to play around with. The list below contains a few keywords available on Facebook for targeting skateboarder.

FB Skateboarding Keywords: skateboard, skateboarding, skate, skateing, skateboardin, skater, skate park, skating, tony hawk, rob dyrdek, rob dyrdek skateboarder pro, rodney mullen, ryan sheckler

Getting a High Click Through Rate
If you are familiar with Facebook Ads, you already know that one of the biggest goals is to achieve a high click through rate. This is mainly a result of your ad copy text, ad image and your keyword targeting. The screenshot below shows my ad campaigns sorted with the top CTR% on top. Once you achieve CTRs in the .35%+ range, you can usually get clicks for pennies each. “Secrets of Skateboarding” was the best performing title. The top four CTR% ads below are a mix of the ad text shown at the top of the post, and the downloadable ad images.

Keep the Good Ads, Remove the Bad
If you prefer to setup your campaigns on a CPC basis, setup a ton of different ad copies and run them for a while. Once you have a good amount of data and impressions/clicks, pull out the best ads and moved them over to a CPM model. If you do this properly, you should end up getting clicks at a cheaper rate.

Finding the Right Offer:
The end offer I was promoting for this campaign was through ClickBank. If you go into the market place, type in “skateboard” and you will come across two ad campaigns. The campaign I was promoting, “Secrets of Skateboarding” was the better of the two… however you might be able to come across other skateboard training / affiliate programs elsewhere.

Secrets of Skateboarding pays out $14.33 per lead, and requires a credit card. This means you will need to get cheap clicks, as it was converting around 1 in 160 clicks for me.
view landing page

How to Improve Campaign Profitability:
As mentioned earlier, I just threw this one together real quick and wanted to see what numbers were produced. With new programs available like 4 Hour Affiliate, you could monetize the hell out of this campaign with age/gender sorting. I was targeting male/female 18+. Users under 21 are less likely to have a credit card, while users over 35+ are less likely to still be active skateboarders. Closing the gap and selecting an age range between 21-35 may bring much better results. Don’t forget to also sort by age. Another last peice of advice is to build your own landing page, before sending the user to the sales page.

I can’t promise you the same results, but this is the exact setup I had to obtain a small profit on the campaign. Take what I had running, and make the changes I recommended and it should work out for you. If I get some decent feedback on this post, I’ll do another campaign breakdown soon.

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

Last Friday I went to a New Jersey Nets vs. Orlando Magic Basketball game, and as we pulled into the parking lot, I saw a huge billboard for Gary’s new book, “Crush It“. I couldn’t beleive he had another billboard… and even more on the odds of seeing it at the stadium parking lot.

I’ve always wondered how well billboard advertising works. In most cases, you really can’t track the conversions, actually impressions and the ROI, unless you setup a separate url or phone number to take orders. What’s really dumb, is on the way home we saw a billboard with a URL on it, then I looked it up… and it went to a dead site with a script error.

In Gary’s ad specifically, some questions to ponder are… how many people know Gary Vaynerchuk, how many will visit the site, and actually go on to order the book?

In an upcoming post, I will interview Gary Vaynerchuk about all of these questions, and how much he actually pays to place these billboards in high traffic locations… and most importantly, IF THEY REALLY WORK!

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

Forgot odds and random winners, this contest is based solely on your skillz to pay the billz! From now until December 31, 2009, if you can earn commissions in any of the tiers below, you automatically win that prize. Prizes include anything from a Sharper Image DV518 Video Camera to Fighter Pilot For a Day For Two and even a Two Tickets to the SuperBowl and Live the Life of a Super Affiliate!

How to Enter:
1.) Join ClickBooth as an Affiliate
2.) Earn Commissions in any of Prize Tiers Below
3.) Claim Your Prize & Live the Super Affiliate Lifestyle

Tier 1: $10,000: Sharper Image DV518 Video Camera

Tier 2: $25,000: A Relaxing Day at the Spa

Tier 3: $50,000: $300 Gift Card to Ticketmaster + Limo to and from the event.

Tier 4: $100,000: Hummer Limo For You and 12 Friends

Tier 5: $250,000 Grand Canyon Adventure Tour for 2

Tier 6: $500,000: Fighter Pilot For a Day For Two.

Tier 7: $750,000: 5 Day Aspen Ski Trip For Two

Tier 8: $1,000,000: Dive with Great White Sharks For Two + Sharper Image DV518 Video Camera

Tier 9: $1,500,000 1 Week Trip to Hawaii For Two + Sharper Image DV518 Video Camera

Tier 10: $2,000,000: The Ultimate Superbowl Experience + Sharper Image DV518 Video Camera

If you haven’t already, join ClickBooth and try your skills at one of these prize tiers!

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

Here’s the Awesome Prize!
The EOS Rebel T1i is packed with features, both refined and new. In addition to its admirable performance with an all-new 15.1 Megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 Image Processor, a 3.0-inch Clear View LCD with anti-reflective and scratch-resistant coating, and compatibility with the EOS System of lenses and Speedlites, the EOS Rebel T1i adds remarkable Full HD video capture at resolutions up to 1920 x 1080.

The same rules apply as last time:
- Join SponsoredTweets
- Use your referral link
- Your referrals must have been on Twitter for 120 days
- You must be 18+ and in the US.

Also, feel free to refer to my first set of case studies and write up on how to make the most out of Sponsored Tweets. I’ve been using ST as both an advertiser and an affiliate since they first went live.

- Sponsored Tweets Case Study & Stats
- Get More Paid Tweets from Sponsored Tweets
- Make Money with “Sponsored Tweets” on Twitter

Join Sponsored Tweets & Good luck!

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

A few months ago I wrote about The Art of Company Logos and Branding.On a related topic, GraphicDesignBlog wrote a post on recent logo redesigns for 2009. Once again, just like in my previous article, there are several big names and well known companies playing around with their logos.

Good to Worse: Out of the 25 companies listed, MasterCard has one of the most drastic redesigns. Everyone is familiar with the simple red and yellow logo for MasterCard, but have gone for a fancy new design to express their world wide presence. Personally, I prefer their original logo.

New Internet Looks: There are also a few internet companies on the list as well. Network Solutions, FireFox and VistaPrint are all going for new looks in 2009. Affiliate marketers are already familiar with the VistaPrint name from having their free business card offers on most affiliate networks. VistaPrint went for a new look, and while their old logo was very recognized, their new logo has a nice clean look and feel. I like this change.

Taking Out the Fun: I grew up watching Nickelodeon network and over the years they have just been growing in size and creating great content. It’s sad to see that after 30 years, Nickelodeon is getting rid of their splash orange logo, and going with a clean orange bubble text version instead. Other “fun” logo changes on the list include Good Humor, Discovery Kids and Blimpie.

Take a look over the full list of 25 companies making the leap to a new look in 2009. Be sure to comment on your favorite and most surprising changes in the list.

Here’s what you need to know, and how to enter:

LAUNCH DATE: October 21, 2009
END DATE: December 21, 2009
CONTEST ONLY OPEN TO NEW PUBLISHERS

* 4 Super Affiliate Bloggers working together to earn money for the charity of their choice.

- John Chow: World Vision
- Ian Fernando: Pinoy Kids
- Zac Johnson: SPCA International
- Murray Newlands: National Breast Cancer Foundation

* Clickbooth will be donating $500 to each charity no matter what, however, each blogger has the opportunity to earn an additional $1,000 for their charity.

- Here’s How: All 4 Bloggers will work together to sign up new affiliates to the Clickbooth network, through their individual referral link. If all of the new publishers the 4 bloggers collectively sign up can reach $100,000 in revenue within the 2 month period, Clickbooth will donate an additional $1,000 to each charity.
- When the publisher signs up they must input the word “LiveContest” in the comments section of the sign up form. If they don’t input the code, they WILL NOT be entered in  the contest.

* How does an Affiliate win the Live Like A Super Affiliate prize package?

- Points System (Each Task Can only be done once per affiliate)

+ Most Revenue During 2 Months of Contest: 40pts
+ Write a post about the contest with a link back to original CB post (xr.com/fstd) : 10pts
+ Video of why you want to live like a Super Affiliate: 15pts
+ Follow each Super Affiliate and Clickbooth on Twitter: 5pts
+ Tweet about Contest: 5pts

I just entered @Clickbooth’s new contest for a chance to Live Like A Super Affiliate! Check it out! xr.com/fstd

+ Become a Fan of each SA and Clickbooth: 5pts
+ Subscribe to CB Blog: 5pts
+ Stumble this post: 5pts

- Each affiliate will need to send an email to Eric@clickbooth.com, stating their FULL NAME and which of the above tasks they completed (for tracking purposes). If there is a tie in points, we will randomly draw a winner from the participants that tied. If they don’t send me an email, their points WILL NOT be counted.

There will also be two random prizes towards anyone who enters:

+ Affiliate Theme by, Unique Blog Designs
+ 1 Month Featured Spot or a 468×60 Ad on AffBuzz.com

*Publishers MUST Use the Code “LiveContest” When Signing Up and Must Also email Eric@clickbooth.com  by December 10th with their full name as well as which tasks/points they have completed.

Full contest rules and terms can be found here.

Like I mentioned at the top… the details and process are a bit long. While it will shy many away, it gives you the opportunity to take the extra effort, signup and win some prizes. It only takes 3 minutes to quickly join ClickBooth.

Enter the ClickBooth Charity Contest!

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

I only had around 5,000 accounts I was following, but a good amount of them were bots, and users that just didn’t have any relevant tweets or content. So I just decided to unfollow everyone and start from scratch.

To unfollow everyone, it was pretty simple and actually took only around an hour. This will vary depending on how many accounts you are following. I used a combination of two sites scripts running at the same time. TwitterFollower.com has a mass unfollow option, and CloudAppears will just unfollow everyone. I filled out both forms and just let them run til I was back at zero. (I also just came across UnFollow All as a solution too)

Now I will manually go through and add everyone again that I am interested in following. Twitter is all about interacting and keeping in touch with those around you. As a blog reader., feel free to leave your twitter account url in the comments section and I’ll be sure to follow you back.

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

The last day of Blog World Expo 09 turned out to be the best day of the event. When attending conferences, usually the attendance drops like crazy on the last day. If you this one, you really missed out on the best of BWE09.

The morning keynote “The New Celebrity“, was with a bunch of celebrities that have been utilizing social medial. The panel was made up of Brian Solis, Jermaine Durpi, Anthony Edwards and a few others. What may have been expected to be a name dropping and self promotion session, actually went quite well. Instead the speakers talked about how they can interact with fans in a new perspective and actually share their lives with fans. Other discussions were on how Twitter and social media had now given every a “brand” and how important it is to watch what you say and tweet. A great point made during the session, was how much money and awareness can be made using Twitter and social media. Blog World Expo is also the new World Guiness record holder for a social event having the most tweeted hash tag, which was #beatcancer.

Finally it was time for the “Blogging Super Panel” with John Chow, Darren Rowse, Brian Clark and myself. As expected, the session went perfect and provided a lot of insight and advice for attendees. Each speaker gave a quick 2 minute bio, then we went straight into full Q&A and blog reviews. The panel probably went through 10 different blogs and answered a ton of questions. When you think about it, how much would it cost to actually hire someone like this big name bloggers to look at your blog? Instead you just need to attend Blog World Expo and you get a bunch of big name bloggers to give a full critique for free.

The last session I attended was “How to make $60,000 a month with a membership program” with Timothy Sykes and his web designer. Timothy Sykes is a funny and outgoing guy. During our Blogging Super Panel, Tim went up for a Q&A and asked how to make more with his site model. Unlike most of the big name bloggers on the previous panel, Tim makes most of his money through his monthly membership to his Stock Tips newsletter. Tim is famous for turning $12,000 into $2 million, and shares his stock trades with your right when he is buying and sell. This is the same type of business model I talked about with Jim Cramer’s Action Alerts Plus.

Blog World Expo 2009 was a great success and is now in the books. On a closing note… WTF IS UP WITH ALL THE LIFE COACHES?

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!