The new year is here and it’s time for me to get crackin’ on projects that’ve been on the back burner. AdCALC is one of those projects.

A few months back, while goofing around with the jQuery UI library, I got the idea to make a simple marketing calculator. Once I got rolling, it was hard to stop The site sat at about 90% completion for the past 3 months until this week when I decided to get it finished.

I think it turned out pretty good. It’s got two “Business Planning Calculators”– the coolest of which is the CPV Campaign Calculator. It lets you tweak just about every aspect of a CPV campaign to perform some slick “what if” scenarios. The other one is the Offer Compare Calculator which lets you compare the Payout and Conversion Rate of two different offers to see which has the higher EPC, etc.

It’s also got a collection of “Mini Calcs” that let you do some simple marketing specific calculations.

Sharing is Caring

In my opinion the coolest thing about AdCALC is the sharing it lets you do. When you click on the Share icon in any calculator, you’re presented with four different ways to share:

1. Tweet Button — Easily share your calculation on Twitter.

2. Interactive Link — This spits out a link like this: my calculation Notice how the values I’ve set are preserved. Now you can see what I see. Paste it in a Skype chat group and share your stats with your business partner.

3. Embed an Info Graphic — This is pretty slick. AdCALC will spit out a link to an image link, like this: image link You can use this as the src in any img tag or use it to embed a picture inside virtually any forum post. This is great for doing case studies or sharing stats on forums.

4. Complete HTML Code for Info Graphic & Link.  AdCALC also produces complete html code so you can insert an info graphics that’s clickable — and links to your calculation. Sweet! Less work = warm fuzzy feeling.

Future Plans

I’m planning to add both PPC and CPM Campaign Calculators soon. And thanks to some great ideas from Affplaybook Forum members, I’ve got a few more calculators on the drawing board as well.

If anyone has an idea for something they’d like to see, let me know!

As of yesterday, Shoemoney posted that his fight with Barman is off. Citing an injury he wrote the following:

“Call me a pussy or whatever but my knee is not worth re-injuring and my doctor said it would be really stupid for me to get in a mma fight”

PUSSY!

Moving right along. My first thought was to find another opponent for Barman, who I’m sure, has been following a rigorous training regimen and gulping down 6 raw eggs every morning.

Opponents that come to mind:

Jonathan Volk, John Chow, and Ian Fernando.

My personal preference would be John Chow – if anyone deserves to be put into a Kimura for some useless blog posts it’s this guy. But seriously, any of these matchups would make a great title fight. But we still need some opening bouts.

Then I got to thinking… what about a Paid Forum Owner Battle Royale?

David “King of Pops” Ford vs. Jordan “the Stackman” vs. Will “PPC Coach” Haimerl vs. Ralph “Ruck” Ruckman & Ryan “Super Twin” Gray.

Now THAT’s a fight card.

Now I realize a lot of these guys are probably super busy. Especially Ruck & Ryan with their grueling schedule of making 37 blog updates a day. But surely they can make some time to do some rear naked chokes, can’t they?

I mean Nelly shmelly. I want to see some super affiliates take some Superman punches to the face!

If you’re with me, please sign this “petition” by leaving a comment below.

I mean seriously, what else are we going to do for entertainment?

The script will also rotate offers if you add more than one link.

Code

<?php
/**
* Jumptap Offer Rotation & Tracking for Prosper 202 by ctrtard.com
* Last update 10-14-2011
*
* http://ctrtard.com/tracking/jumptap-offer-rotation-tracking-script-for-prosper-202
*
* This script will accept tracking variables from Jumptap and pass
* them along to Prosper 202.  It will also rotate one or more offers.
*
*
* Usage:
* Add 1 or more Direct Links from Tracking 202 as shown below.
*
* Make sure you DO NOT use c1-c4 variables when pulling your links.
* The c1-c4 vars will be populated automatically as follows:
* c1 = publisher, c2 = keyword, c3 = handset, c4 = carrier
*
* t202kw has been intentionally left unused.   You can use it for
* whatever you want.  Maybe campaign name?
*
* Upload this script to your server and use it as your Destination URL.
*
* e.g. http://yourdomain.com/free-ipad.php
*
* Important!:
* In Jumptap 'Ad Details' tab, make sure you set
* 'Append tracking parameters to destination url' to YES*
*
**/

// Example: $link[] = 'http://prosper202domain/tracking202/redirect/dl.php?t202id=12345&t202kw=';  

$link[] = 'http://prosper202domain/tracking202/redirect/dl.php?t202id=12345&t202kw=';

/*
STOP!! No need to edit below this line.
====================================================================
*/

// pick a link at random
if (count($link) < 1) die ('Error! No links are defined.');
$n = rand(0, count($link)-1 );
$url = $link[$n];

// grab t202kw from incoming url
if (isset($_GET['t202kw'])) {
    $t202kw = $_GET['t202kw'];
    $t202kw = rawurlencode($t202kw);
    // populate t202kw= var
    $url = str_ireplace("t202kw=", "&t202kw=$t202kw", $url);
}

// grab jumptap specific vars
if (isset($_GET['jt-campaign'])) {
    $jt_campaign = $_GET['jt-campaign'];
    $jt_campaign = rawurlencode($jt_campaign);
}
if (isset($_GET['jt-adbundle'])) {
    $jt_adbundle = $_GET['jt-adbundle'];
    $jt_adbundle = rawurlencode($jt_adbundle);
}
if (isset($_GET['jt-keyword'])) {
    $jt_keyword = $_GET['jt-keyword'];
    $jt_keyword = rawurlencode($jt_keyword);
}
if (isset($_GET['jt-operator'])) {
    $jt_operator = $_GET['jt-operator'];
    $jt_operator = rawurlencode($jt_operator);
}
if (isset($_GET['jt-handset'])) {
    $jt_handset = $_GET['jt-handset'];
    $jt_handset = rawurlencode($jt_handset);
}
if (isset($_GET['jt-publisher'])) {
    $jt_publisher = $_GET['jt-publisher'];
    $jt_publisher = rawurlencode($jt_publisher);
}
if (isset($_GET['jt-site'])) {
    $jt_site = $_GET['jt-site'];
    $jt_site = rawurlencode($jt_site);
}
if (isset($_GET['jt-query'])) {
    $jt_query = $_GET['jt-query'];
    $jt_query = rawurlencode($jt_query);
}
if (isset($_GET['tsmid'])) {
    $tsmid = $_GET['tsmid'];
    $tsmid = rawurlencode($tsmid);
}
if (isset($_GET['tsmname'])) {
    $tsmname = $_GET['tsmname'];
    $tsmname = rawurlencode($tsmname);
}

// append c vars
$url .= "&c1=$jt_publisher&c2=$jt_keyword&c3=$jt_handset&c4=$jt_operator";

// do redirect
header("Location: $url");
?>

Usage

This is pretty straightforward. Upload the script to your server. I recommend you name it something related to the niche you’ll be promoting. For example if you’re going to promote and test free ipad offers, call it free-ipad.php

You can add one or more links as shown in the script. If you have more than one link, they will be rotated so you can test similar offers.

When you pull links from Prosper202, make sure you DO NOT define c1-c4 variables. This script will populate those for you. Also, don’t bother with cloaking. You want the redirect to be as fast as possible for these slow mobile connections.

I intentionally left t202kw unused. So you can ignore it, or use this for whatever you want. Maybe you want to use it to pass the campaign name? See below.

Examples

Let’s say you upload this script to http://yourdomain.com/jumptap/free-ipad.php

That URL now becomes your destination link for use in Jumptap.

You’re all done. That would work just fine.

If you want to get fancier and pass along something to the t202kw variable. You could do that by making your Destination URL be this:

http://yourdomain.com/jumptap/free-ipad.php?t202kw=ipadcampaign2

Note: Make sure you go the Ad Details screen in Jumptap and enable the Append Tracking setting like so:

Results

To view results, go to Overview > Group Overview in Prosper202.

Make sure you set your Group By settings. In this pic, I set it to group by c4, which is where the mobile carrier is stored:

And here you can see what this breakdown looks like:

Wrapup

That’s it! As you can see, it’s simple to see which carriers are converting. To see a breakdown by handset/device, group by c3. Sweet!

As a final note, Neverblue has excellent mobile tracking under Advanced Reporting. Definitely check it out.

Please leave some comments and let me know how it works for you.

This new version has some changes to the UI/design as well as some changes under the hood. Here’s your executive summary:

UI

The UI has been relabeled here and there to make more sense. For example in the Setup tab, “PPC Accounts” has been replaced with “Traffic Sources”. “Aff Networks” has been replaced with “Categories”. The idea being: you can group campaigns together by network, by vertical, or by campaign type. Overall this makes for a more user friendly and intuitive experience.

A mod by yours truly also made it into this new release! My Subid Injection Buttons mod is now officially part of Prosper 202. Sweet!

Another great mod that is now part of the standard release is Jasper’s Keywords LP CTR mod. If you haven’t used this mod, it is badass and a definite must.

There is also a handy Mobile Mini View. You can see this by pointing your mobile browser to http://yourdomain/202-Mobile/

Under the Hood

The Administration section now has a button that lets you clear out (delete) all of your click data. This button will keep all of your setup info (traffic sources, campaigns, etc.) but zero out all of the click information. Doing this periodically after running a lot of volume will keep your 202 database nice and snappy.

There is also now support for third party pixels to be associated with each traffic source. So when 202 sees a conversion happen, it will fire that traffic source’s pixel.

And finally, probably one of the most important new changes is that redirect speed has been greatly improved. According to Nana, redirects are 2-5 times faster now. This is a BIG deal because as we all know, speed is king. This new speed should translate into improved CTR and ROI on your campaigns.

Chart Disable Mod

To coincide with the new Prosper release, here’s a mod I’ve used myself for awhile. Personally I don’t get a lot out of the charts. I prefer looking at the data as it’s broken down in the tables. So with that in mind, here’s the mod:

Edit 202-config/functions-tracking202.php

function showChart ($chart, $chartWidth, $chartHeight) {
	return; // disable charts
	$reg_key = "C1XUW9CU8Y4L.NS5T4Q79KLYCK07EK";

You can see the change in the highlighted line above. This will disable all charts from being displayed. The result will be a 202 that’s a little snappier. You will also free up more real estate on your screen. This means more data will be above the fold and you’ll save yourself some scrolling.

That’s it, enjoy!

The combination of a shaky job market and large payouts on payday loan offers is making some affiliates rich.

I saw this story on the CBS Evening News last night. I don’t think the shadiness will surprise any affiliates, but I thought it was interesting nevertheless.

(Full transcript and docs)

Read More

This article was published back in Feb of this year and goes into a bit more detail.

Tribes doing business with online lenders made about $420 million in payday loans last year, or about 12,500 loans a month, he estimates.

Predictions

Will these kind of business practices raise the ire of the FTC and trigger another round of smackdowns aimed at internet marketers?

Are we going to see a bunch of indian tribes with tables at the next ASW looking for JV partners?

Is someone going to start Shady Buffalo Hosting Company so we can all host our flogs on sovereign tribal land?

Your thoughts?

Normally this is a fairly simple task. If you’re using Prosper202 and you’ve got your campaign and tracking setup correctly, 202 should pass your keyword in the URL to your landing page. So you’re landing page URL will look something like this:

http://mydomain.com/landingpage.php?t202kw=walmart.com

To “grab” this keyword and use it in your page, you simply do something like this:

<?php
$target = $_GET['t202kw'];
?>

<h1>Welcome <?php echo $target; ?> Visitors!!!</h1>

(For more about this, check out I don’t get GET’s!)

The Problem

Depending on what target your bidding on in PPV, many times these keywords aren’t “perfect” domains. If So you might end up with something like this:

Welcome ./shoppingcart.walmart.com Visitors!!!

That’s lame.

This Function

…basically trims the target to its root domain and makes it as pretty as possible so you don’t look like a tool to your visitors. I’ve seen a few bits of code floating around that promise to do this for you, but they’ve all done a poor job (a.k.a. suck). Most of them don’t trim subdomains and many of them don’t handle pre-pended and trailing slashes. This one does.

Here’s an example of what this function can do:

http://CTRtard.com = ctrtard.com
https://CtrTard.com = ctrtard.com
http://www.ctrtard.com = ctrtard.com
https://www.ctrtard.com/ = ctrtard.com
/ctrtard.com = ctrtard.com
./ctrtard.com = ctrtard.com
ctrtard.ly = ctrtard.ly
ctrtard.org = ctrtard.org
ww.ctrtard.org = ctrtard.org
//ctrtard.com = ctrtard.com
money.ctrtard.com = ctrtard.com
/ctrtard.com/ = ctrtard.com
//something.ctrtard.com/ = ctrtard.com
//something.ctrtard.com/?morestuff = ctrtard.com

The Code

<?php
function trim_url_to_root_domain($target) {
/** Trim Url to Root Domain
* by ctrtard.com 8/1/2011
*
* This function is mainly useful for PPV. You can pass it a URL (target) and it
* will trim it down to the root domain.  Unlike most other examples I've found,
* It handles subdomains and squirrely, or malformed URLs like "//something.domain.com"
* The result is a nice looking domain for dynamic keyword insertion into your
* landing pages.
*
* Usage:
* echo trim_url_to_root_domain("http://mytarget.com");
* or
* echo ucfirst (trim_url_to_root_domain("http://mytarget.com")); // uppercase first letter
*
*/
    // trim http, https, and //
    $target = str_replace("http:", "", $target);
    $target = str_replace("https:", "", $target);
    $target = str_replace("//", "", $target);

    // check for dots
    $dots = substr_count($target, '.');
    if ($dots > 1) { // if there are more than 1 dots, we need to remove subdomain
        $first_dot = strpos ($target, ".");
        $target = substr($target, $first_dot+1, strlen($target));
    }

    // find the last slash, this should be the slash just before directory info
    $last_slash = strripos($target, "/");
    if ($last_slash > 0 ) {
        $target = substr($target, 0, $last_slash);
    }

    // find last slash one more time, to handle targets like /domain.com
    $last_slash = strripos($target, "/");
    if ($last_slash !== FALSE ) {
        $target = substr($target, 1, strlen($target));
    }

    // normalize target so it's all lower case
    $target = strtolower($target);

    return $target;
}
?>

Usage

I hope most of you know how to use this, but just in case…. Copy & paste this function at the bottom of your LP. Your LP should have a .php extension. To grab the keyword from 202, use the example I gave above. Then, instead of this:

<h1>Welcome <?php echo $target; ?> Visitors!!!</h1>

do this:

<h1>Welcome <?php echo trim_url_to_root_domain($target); ?> Visitors!!!</h1>

That’s it! You can also capitalize the first letter of the domain using PHP’s ucfirst function. Check out the comments in the function for how to do this.

You Break it You Buy It

So far this function has worked pretty well for me, but nobody’s perfect.  If you happen to find a target that doesn’t get trimmed correctly, please post in the comments below and I’ll see what I can do to fix it.

But Wait, There’s More!

I did a guest post on PPV Playbook Blog today called “Killer Buttons To Squeeze More CTR From Your Landing Pages“.  Check it out!

What to do? Well, Maxmind was nice enough to offer a couple of more free solutions. They both involve downloading the database and self-hosting it. Sweet! You can read more here on their GeoLite City page.

Once you’ve got the database, you can access the GeoIP PHP API by using the “pure PHP module”, or you can use the PHP Extension on PECL.

The pure PHP module is cake to install. Great! The PHP Extension, however, can be confusing to install and finding proper directions to do so is almost impossible. So why even consider using it?

Speed Kills

According to maxmind api benchmarks, doing GeoIP City lookups, you can expect the following performance:

Pure PHP API (with no cache) handles 619 queries/second

C API / PHP Extension (with no cache) can do 22,211 queries/second

Holy crap! I’m in.  The PHP Extension is basically a wrapper for the fast C code, so you get a dramatic performance gain.  When your server is getting pounded with traffic, this can make a huge difference.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Step 1: Create & Upload Geotest.php

Create a new file, paste in the following code, and upload it to your web root as “geotest.php”.

<?php
if ( function_exists ('geoip_record_by_name') ) {
    $geo = geoip_record_by_name( $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] );
    extract($geo);
    echo "<h1>How's the weather in $city, $region?</h1>";
}
phpinfo();
?>

Once it’s uploaded, navigate to the URL (e.g. yourdomain.com/geotest.php) and you should see a bunch of PHP Info.

Step 2: Login to your server as root via SSH

If you already know how to do this, go ahead and login and move on to Get Your Shell On

The first thing you’ll need is an SSH client. If you don’t have one, most people use PuTTY. It’s free and just works. If you want a slicker version, check out PuTTY Tray. PuTTY Tray has some refinements like better minimize options, configurable windows transparency, hyperlinking, portability features, etc.

After you get PuTTY running, enter your host name (or IP address), your port number (many hosts change it from the usual ’22′), and then click Open.

If you get a message warning you about the server host key, it’s OK to click ‘Yes’ and trust this connection. When the terminal window opens, you will be asked for your login in and password. Go to town!

Get Your Shell On

Important Stuff
First of all, messing around on your server like this is NOT hard. But if you’re careless you can very easily get into trouble.

Think of the command line as one of those people you meet in a seedy, border-town bar at 4AM. It’ll happily go along with any of your stupid, dangerous, wicked, or depraved schemes — no questions asked. It doesn’t give a shit. YOU have to be the sensible one.  You’re running with scissors. Pay attention, and keep your wits about you. Remember: I am not responsible if you jack up your server. So just take your time, and you’ll be fine.

Now, if you’re already pussing out after that last paragraph, then go ahead… pull up your skirt and run home Mary. Call tech support and have them do this for you.  And don’t forget to have them cut the crusts off your PB&J while they’re at it.  We won’t snicker at you… at least not to your face.  Now get out of my sight, you make me wanna puke.

Tough Guys (and Gals) Read On

The following are shell commands you need to do one after the other. Take note: PuTTY has a curious way of working. You can’t simply do a “ctrl-v” in in the window to paste stuff. To paste, you need right-click your mouse and the text on your clipboard will be pasted into the terminal window wherever the cursor is. Lame, I know.

So just to be crystal clear: in Step 3, below, you first copy & paste “mkdir /geotemp” into the terminal window, then press [ENTER]. Then you paste “cd /geotemp” [ENTER].   Monkey see, monkey do

Step 3: Let’s Make a Work Directory

This will just be a place to download and unzip all the files we need.

mkdir /geotemp
cd /geotemp

Step 4: Get the GeoIP C Library

The above link is just for reference.  We’re going to download directly to our server using wget.  Note, line 4 is highlighted. The directory *may* be different on your server. Each time this library get’s updated, the filename inside the archive is changed. That’s the reason for the “ls” command. It will show you a directory listing so you can double check your filename.

wget http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/api/c/GeoIP.tar.gz
tar xvfz GeoIP.tar.gz
ls
cd GeoIP-1.4.8
./configure
make
make install
cd /geotemp

Step 5: Get the PHP Extension

There are easier ways to do this step. But I ran into some stupid compiling permissions problem. By doing it this way, I’ve had success on 3 different server setups.

wget http://pecl.php.net/get/geoip-1.0.7.tgz
tar xvfz geoip-1.0.7.tgz
cd geoip-1.0.7
phpize
./configure
make
make install

That last command you did ‘make install’ will output the path to the new extension.

Installing shared extensions:     /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

You need to copy that path and use it in step 7.  So using your mouse, highlight that path.  (In PuTTY, any text you highlight is copied to the clipboard.)   Now open up Notepad and paste it so we can use it later.

Step 6: Get the GeoLite City DB

We’re downloading and unarchiving again. The only thing worth noting is when we move the GeoLiteCity.dat file to the proper directory, we’re also renaming it. The PHP Extension expects to find a file named GeoIPCity.dat, not GeoLiteCity.dat.

cd /geotemp
wget http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLiteCity.dat.gz
gzip -d GeoLiteCity.dat.gz
mv GeoLiteCity.dat /usr/local/share/GeoIP/GeoIPCity.dat

Step 7: Edit our php.ini file

Note the highlighted line. On both an Apache and a LiteSpeed server, the php.ini file is in this directory: /usr/local/lib as I’ve written below. However, your setup might be different. It would be wise to check that test page you uploaded in Step 1. You can find the correct directory where it says “Loaded Configuration File”

cd /usr/local/lib
vi php.ini

The last command “vi” opened an editor.   When it opens, you should see a bunch of stuff.  This is your php.ini file   If you don’t see anything and/or it says “[New File]” at the bottom, then you either mistyped or your php.ini file isn’t in this directory (see above.)   OK… so if you’re good, and you see a bunch of php directives, we need to get to the bottom of the file. To do that, press “G”. Now we need to insert the following lines at the bottom of the file. To do that, press “I” ([i]nsert.)  You can now move the cursor, and add the new lines as you see them here:

extension_dir = "/usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/"
extension="geoip.so"
geoip.custom_directory=/usr/local/share/GeoIP

NOTE:  The highlighted line with “extension_dir =” is specific to my server.  Yours will be different.   Use the path you pasted into Notepad instead of the one I have here.

Once you’ve added the lines, press ‘Esc’. Then type “:wq”. (That is a colon followed by [w]rite [q]uit.) You will exit the editor.

Step 8: Restart the Web Service

Now that the editor is closed, we’re back at the command prompt.  To make PHP recognize the new extension and settings we need to restart Apache (or Litespeed).

service httpd restart

Step 9: Test

Now visit the page: http://yourdomain.com/geotest.php

You should see something like this:

Mission Accomplished!

If all went well, nice job! Using the code I gave you way back in Step 1, you can now add geo functionality to any of your landing pages on this server.

Troobleshooting
If you get an error or run into problems, then retrace the steps above and make sure you did everything correctly.

If you don’t see the “How’s the weather” message, first check to make sure PHP has found and loaded the extension.  Do a search for “geoip” on the test page.  If PHP found the extension, it will show up here among all the other info.   If you don’t see it on this page, then PHP can’t find it or maybe never loaded it.   Maybe you goofed up the ‘extension_dir =’ in step 7?  You should have used info from Step 5.    Another thing to check is maybe you didn’t restart your httpd service properly?  Try doing that again and it should force PHP to reload the ini file and see the new extension.

If you still can’t figure it out, bug your hosting support guys. Your server config is probably a bit different and they will be able to figure out what’s wrong and sort it out quickly.

This is the second meetup being organized by Internet Dynamix. They are a San Diego based affiliate network and have been around for awhile. Last year, they organized the first 202 meetup. It was really small and held in a little yogurt shop downtown. But like most meetups, whether they are Meetup202′s or full-blown Affiliate Summits, they are what you make of them.

Back then, Internet Dynamix was called Pinnacle Dream Media, and I had never heard of them. Since the turnout was so small (I’m talking like 12 people) I was able to chat with a few guys from PDM. I ended up signing up with their network and had a couple of profitable campaigns. The point is, if I hadn’t gone, I never would have made that money.

Another conversation I had was with a guy who’s well known in the industry. I had no idea who he was until someone else told me. But we talked about PPV and some offers. After a few minutes, I could tell he was way more experienced than I was. Because of this, I decided I had no “secret” campaigns, that he didn’t already know about. I actually started mentioning a campaign I was running along with some specifics. This is, obviously, something I don’t usually do. But after I did, the conversation got WAY more interesting. As soon as I shared, he shared back and I got some pretty good ideas. But I would say besides the tips, I think the most important thing was that light bulb going off in my head. Sharing can be very beneficial.

So back to the upcoming meetup. This looks like the first “real” Meetup202 in San Diego. The speaker line up looks pretty good and the venue is pretty nice. Seau’s is a cool sports bar & grill and it should be a good time. I hope to see you guys there.

Meetup202 San Diego, Saturday, July 16, 2011 – 12:00 PM

WHERE: Seau’s in Mission Valley Mall, San Diego

Speakers:

Zon Lai – Adtack Media
An accomplished affiliates perspective of running Facebook dating.

Micael Cojanu – www.WhatRunsWhere.com

The latest online advertising data tool, and Mike will be giving us all a demonstration.

Q&A Panel:

We have knowledgeable individuals on the panel representing Advertisers, Social and PPV media buyers. This is your chance to ask anything you want.

Valentino Vaschetto – Internet Dynamix

Valentino has been involved in online marketing for the last 8 years. In recent time he has become very successful dedicated his media buying towards Pay Per View marketing.

Stephan Goss – Ad Social

Stephan has been involved in online marketing for the last 4 years. His major successes were within social marketing and the executive decision was made to focus on social full time.

Matt Marcin – Zeeto Group

Matt has been involved in online marketing for over 6 years. Over the past 2 years he has transitioned from an affiliate into a lead generation advertiser.

FREE BEER!

Full Info and RSVP: Click Here

Account Approval

As an affiliate, you need 1 referral from an active advertiser.  We’ve all heard this before, but some people seem to think you need 2 referrals.  Not so.

The interesting bit is when Dani spoke about web site owners advertising their own online business.  In these  circumstances, they need only apply and don’t require a referral.  This could be the “in” some people have been waiting for.  Dani was careful to say that you can’t simply throw up a web page with your contact info and expect to get approved.  She said that it needs to be a real, actual online business.  And they need to verify ownership, history, etc.   I guess the idea is you need to be legit.   That being said, I’ll bet more than a few affiliates have a web property that could qualify and this just might be a great way to get approved.

International Traffic

When asked about how much international traffic they have, Dani didn’t give out numbers.  I thought that was  a bit odd considering they are a traffic source.  I mean just about every other traffic source on the planet is touting their numbers and reach, trying to attract advertising dollars.  Weird.  She did say they were expanding as fast as possible.

Text Links

When asked how text links get served (e.g. do the top 2 or 3 bidders get the majority of the traffic) she said no.

Pay attention kids: Dani said the amount of traffic you get is mostly influence by CTR.  If you have a high bid but low CTR you won’t get a lot of inventory.   They’re optimizing for what their audience considers useful/relevant, so the higher the CTR, the more traffic you’ll get.

CTR is calculated keyword by keyword.   Not at the creative or campaign level.

When asked what’s a good CTR, she said 5.5% is average.  But she’s seen as high as 12-15% CTR on some text links.  She also recommend not bothering with offers with less than $1 CPA.  She recommends sticking with $2 CPA offers and above.

Frequency Cap with text links works differently than it does with pops.  If you have a 24 hour freq cap on a text link, that link will show multiple times until a user clicks on it.  Then it won’t be shown until the next day.  So the impressions aren’t counted, it’s the click thrus.

Wrap Up

There was quite a bit more info that was good.   Dani did a great job.  The only criticism I would have is that they didn’t seem to accept spontaneous questions from the attendees.  Asking questions beforehand in the forum was fine and I’m sure helped everyone prepare.  But some things she said made me think of more questions and it would have been great if  we could have asked those.   I mean, we HAVE a chat window.  Why not use it?   She did say she’ll be watching the forum for any post-webinar questions though.

The whole replay is up on PPV Playbook Forum.  Check it out if you’re a member.  And if you’re not, you’re missing out!

Speaking of PPV Playbook Forum

They are now offering loyalty pricing discounts.  They’ve tiered the pricing so the longer you stay, the lower your subscription rate goes.   The offer is good for returning members as well! I think this is a pretty smart move. As people progress in this industry they use forums less for learning and more for socializing and keeping up with industry friends and trends. It’s a no brainer that to keep successful members sticking around, you temp them with a sweet renewal deal!

This firm is marketing itself as specializing in things like intellectual property rights. And I quote:

The [law firm] is an established authority in helping you set the proper policies in place to: reduce your business’ liability, protect you and your company from potential attack and help rectify these issues if and when they do arise.

LMAO.   What are the odds that they actually paid for the rights to use Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s likeness in their ad?