As you may know Google recently launched their pay-per-action program which is actually a CPA program. If you were watching the industry news lately you should know that this was something reasonable to happen as most online marketers believe that CPA is the future or internet marketing. In addition in the future CPC programs will be less important as happened with CPM programs in the last decade.

For Google this is a major hit, as their #1 money maker which is adwords, is going to lose popularity. Personally I didn’t think that they will start offering a CPA program so soon, but for another time Google seems to be in front of their competitors

Having a look at Google’s CPA program, I think that they have are not like the CPA networks we are used to. A very good post at shoemoney explains that very well and actually shows the problems that will occur. Anyway as it is just the beginning I guess we have to sit back and check how things will go. In the meanwhile there are much better CPA networks to use like CJ and AzoogleAds.

Just got an email from CafePress stating that they will discontinue their affiliate program and they will migrate their system to Commission Junction. Here is a quote from their mail :

About a year ago we launched the CafePress Affiliate Program. We saw it as a revolutionary program with benefits for Shopkeepers, Affiliates, and CafePress. As you know, the basic purpose of an affiliate program is to drive incremental external web traffic – and ultimately sales. Unfortunately this program did not meet that key objective, and a continued investment in a program that was not meeting this basic goal became difficult. Ultimately this program lacked ability to scale, build momentum, and ROI.

Looks like CafePress’s affiliate program was not a success, and I guess that wont change when they’ll migrate with CJ as webmasters need more options regarding advertising, and CP’s affiliate program don’t give many of them. After all CafePress is more useful as a company to create merchandise for your site, than an affiliate source of income.

SearchFeed is a Miva company that established back in 2000. Their publisher program is a little different from what most webmasters are used to, as they provide you with private label feeds, and pay you per click. So one thing that you need to know before starting with them, is that you need some programming knowledge, or an integration script (hopefully there are some free scripts to use with SearchFeed)

SearchFeed can’t be considered as a main network to use, but they are a great additional source of revenue, and you can use it in conjunction with any other network (eg. adsense)

Bellow are some pros and cons of using SearchFeed.

Pros :

1. Payments are fast (NET 20) and they use paypal to send you the money. Of course there is also an option for payments by cheque.
2. You get paid 35%-50% of clicks.
3. They have a huge number of advertisers, so you wont have availability problems with them.
4. You get paid for referring advertisers and publishers (2%-7%)
5. Their private label feed gives you the ability to brand your ads, and make them look the way you like.
6. SearchFeed can be used along with any other publisher program.
7. Real time reporting

Cons :

1. There are not so many high paying clicks, but I guess this is reasonable for a secondary network
2. They are paying for clicks only from USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark

As pros are more than the cons I guess it worths to work with this company, especially as you can use it with other networks too. Another cool thing is that you can actually create your own ppc search engine by using SearchFeed.

So if you want to try them yourself feel free to sign up here.

Adsense is a great publisher program especially for those who are not familiar with affiliate programs. As real people know how to avoid those ads we - the publishers - have to constantly optimize our advertisements in order to have better earnings.

Bellow are some tips that will help you achieve that :

1. Use custom channels for each section of your site. This will help you know which sections are better, and which need improvements
2. Put the ads somewhere that visitors can see them. The best is to have one 728×90 ad after your site’s header, and a big box (336×280) after the content. This way you give “options” to the visitors that finish reading your articles
3. Take a look at the official adsense heat map. If your site is a forum you may want to check this one.
4. Use blue color for your links (#0000FF) For some reason people click more on ads with this color. If your site is a forum make sure that the colors are rotating.
5. If the ads in your site are not relevant to your content use section targeting.
6. Participate in webmaster forums. You can find many useful information and professionals to help you out.
7. Don’t be afraid to make changes. Trial and error is the only way to success in this business, so after you follow the tip #1 be sure to make frequently changes until you find which are the best placements for your site.

Hope those tips help. If you have to add something please comment on this post or drop me a line

A few months ago, I got into the proxy site business. Actually it was more like an experiment to me, as I wanted to see how people make money from sites like this. Anyway it was a very successful experiment and I made some serious money out from that

A problem that almost every proxy owner will have is that you can’t use adsense in the proxified pages, so you are actually losing thousands of impressions which could be turned into money. In that case a pop up network is required, and it is the only monetization way that can earn you amounts similar to adsense.

Adversal is the best network I’ve used - after testing 2 other ad networks - for a variety of reasons :

1. They are very fast. No need for approvals. You just register and use their code with as many sites as you wish
2. They pay you $1-$6 per 1000 impressions, which is a very fair price in my honest opinion
3. You get paid for affiliates (yeah that’s why the link I’ve posted looks strange ). The affiliate commission is 10%
4. They paypal the money. So you don’t have to wait for the mailman anymore
5. They pay 15 days after the end of the month

Adversal is the best pop up network, and I think they are far beyond their competition. My opinion is that this is happening because their services are only about pop up advertising, while their competitors are also dealing with banners, cpc, etc.

The bottom line of this review is that I am very satisfied with Adversal, and I would recommend them with no doubt at all. By the way, I will really appreciate if you will register using my affiliate link