Brian Gardner’s Revolution Affiliate Contest
Brian Gardner, developer of the Revolution themes for Wordpress is holding a contest for his affiliates in March.
If you’re not familiar with Brian’s work, I run his Revolution News theme on my travel blog and it was the theme chosen for a blog coaching club that we’re doing now.
Other themes include the original Revolution, as well as Revolution Pro Business, Magazine, Tech and Sports. Most of the themes sell for between $79.95 for a single user licence and $199.95 for a developer’s license and affiliates earn 25%.
The most expensive product he sells is the Revolution All-Inclusive Developer Package for $399.95. It is for webmasters who want to create sites using any of Brians 6 Revolution themes. You will also receive any future Revolution themes as well. With the purchase of this package, you can use any of the themes as many times as you wish.
The March Revolution Affiliate Contest has some pretty nifty prizes including:
- A 4-night Bahama cruise for two plus $500 cash
- Samsung 19″ Flat-Panel HDTV, Revolution All-Inclusive Package or $500 cash
- $250 cash or a Gift Certificate to your favorite online retailer
The contest began on March 1st and goes until midnight on March 31st. To qualify you must
be one of the top 3 sales generating Revolution affiliates during that timeframe and link to contest details from your blog — which, take note, is a very smart traffic generation strategy on Brian’s part! 
Popularity: 14% [?]
Yahoo! Changes Sponsored Search Minimum Bid Policy
Yahoo! Search Marketing announced that minimum bids for ‘a number of Sponsored Search keywords‘ would no longer be fixed at $0.10. Although they could end up lower than a dime - your minimum bids might also end up more expensive - depending on the quality and value of the keyword.
Minimum bids vary depending on keyword relevance measure by the quality of the associated ad, as well as the number of advertisers and bid amounts for that particular keyword market.
If your bid falls below the minimum set for that keyword, the ad will not be displayed and you will be notified and given some time to make changes to your bid.
Yahoo stated that the change was designed to improve their users search experience by rewarding advertisers for better quality with lower entry points into keyword markets.
I think this may prove to be an excellent opportunity to save some money on your pay per click advertising. So, if you haven’t done so lately, I highly recommend that you do a thorough review of your Yahoo! Search Marketing ad campaigns soon and beef up the quality of those ads that have so far been under-performers.
By the way, Content Match minimum bids currently will remain at $.10.
To learn more about this topic, check out the YSM Blog “Reserve Bids” post.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Chitika Releases Related Product Unit (RPU)
Chitika’s wide selection of ad units got just a little bigger a few days ago, when Chitika announced that it has released its Related Product Unit (RPU) to all its publishers.
The RPU is designed to work exclusively with blogs and news article sites and is a text link format that integrates right in to your content.
According to Chitika, Beta testers of the unit ‘experienced overall revenue increases and enjoyed it’s complete customization features‘. They also state that their publishers ‘love this ad unit because it doesn’t “look” like an ad‘.
You decide. Check out the example at the bottom of this post. Shown is the standard related product unit. Title, text, background and font colors can be customized to match the look and feel of your site. You can also remove the bullets and add channel tracking or an alternate URL.
Chitika ad units include eMiniMalls (as well as one specifically for Facebook), ShopCloud$, Owna, ShopLinc-Linx and now the RPU code.
If you are not yet a Chitika publisher, you can sign up with Chitika to access their interactive CPC ad units.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Jason Calacanis Offends Affiliates during Keynote Speech
After reading a number of posts by bloggers who were incensed and/or infuriated by Jason Calacanis’ keynote at the most recent Affiliate Summit, I listened to his speech on Webmaster Radio, and am convinced that the offended affiliate bloggers completely missed the point.
First of all, Jason is known for having a controversial approach and can be (in his own words) “aggressive” as a speaker. Indeed, he comes across as arrogant, especially when he not only mocks Zac Johnson for posting a pic of his 100K+ check but belabors the point about 100K being small potatoes in the circles in which he himself runs. That part of the speech was a complete yawn. During the later question and answer period Jason says that he thinks the practice is “uncouth” and nothing more than a way to make “poor people” buy into a get rich quick or “ponzi” scheme. Obviously, having posted my own earnings, I disagree with his rationale - but I do get the point.
From the outside looking in, that’s the first impression that most people have of affiliate marketers and affiliate marketing - and it sucks.
The problem isn’t with folks like Zac, Shoemoney, myself and the others who do our best to help others succeed in the business of affiliate marketing by writing copious amounts of good “how-to” information in addition to posting pics of our earnings.
The problem is an endless legion of spammers that try to get rich quick on the backs of people who still believe in the ‘get rich quick’ fairy godmother. The problem is autobloggers, autoDiggers, copyright infringers and other crap site generation specialists who spend their days heaping useless junk on Internet users - and the responsible parties / higher authorities who don’t do much to either clean up the mess or prevent the pollution in the first place.
What’s the solution?
Jason encourages affiliates to think bigger - MUCH bigger - suggesting that many in the community have the stuff that it takes to produce the next StumbleUpon or Facebook. I agree wholeheartedly and have spoken often and at length about the need for affiliates to employ sustainable business practices if they are to succeed in the long-term.
However, if in the process of building a high-quality site and loyal customer relationships, you find that you are completely content while earning a decent income and working only 10 or so hours a week - enjoy! Remember, those who scorn a healthy work-life balance are just jealous.
Your thoughts?
Popularity: 3% [?]
