Being First with Affiliate Products
Subscribe and Thrive Launch
Hi Folks. I think it’s time for another post – I’m falling behind on my 1 per month pace over here! Actually this is a spur of the minute thing as I thought I might give you guys a heads up on a new affiliate program. About an hour ago a new ad appeared on my beginners blog for a program called Subscribe and Thrive. I thought I would mention it as the program just launched and if any of you have tried affiliate marketing then you know one of the biggest hurdles is getting in on it before all the gurus have flogged the crap out of it.
One of the things that I’ve experienced since ascending the MMO niche is a flood of JV offers from everyone and their dog with another product to promote. I really haven’t done much as I’m not interested in going the way of the A-list – selling crap to my readers. The only offers I have entertained are the ones that want to pay me to put their banner on my site. I’m not going to add an affiliate link to these programs though.
With that said it dawned on me that maybe some of you might be interested in knowing about these programs ahead of the general public. I can’t sell this stuff to my readers or they will kill me. Some of you may not be so restricted. This is definitely one of the perks I am getting due to my traffic and serp ranking so I figure if I’m not interested maybe some of you would be.
I know when I was starting out I always wanted to know what went on behind the scenes – the deals that the super affiliates and the A-list were privy to but not the rest of us. In that light I thought I would show you a typical promotion that I’m seeing more of all the time.
The following email was sent to me from Luke Amoresano of Subscribe and Thrive
Grizzly,
As a company that has a background specific to investments and maximizing ROI, we understand the value of an ‘opt-in’ newsletter subscriber list and/or customer/affiliate base. Since you market to such a list of your own and are in the business of monetizing on that list, we propose a mutually beneficial alliance. Cordially, we offer you a corporate sponsorship into our affiliate program. As a result, you will be able you to offer our product and affiliate program to your client base at no cost to you.
We are in pre-launch and expected to go live within the next 7 days.
We create and sell a newsletter called the “Internet Profits Subscription” packaged with the best of the best e-books and software related to making money online. The cost is $5.00 for the first month, then $10 a week thereafter. The newsletter benefits those who want to learn how to make money online. The current state of the economy makes this service timely and marketable. Yet, the true value comes from combining this service with our ‘exclusive affiliate program’ which assists subscribers with increasing their monthly cash flow immediately. The two work hand-in-hand. In fact, 100% of our subscribers are automatically given an affiliate account and notification on how to begin promoting.
You’re obviously familiar with affiliate programs. The major difference between the conventional affiliate program and our exclusive affiliate program is that we pay on three (3) tiers and we require affiliates to be active subscribers in lieu of paying an affiliate fee. This condition maximizes retention of subscribers and, thus, results in both accruing commissions and longevity of paydays our affiliates can count on.
For you though, the arrangement would be different. You would be part of our ‘invite only’ affiliation which has no upfront cost or condition. This privilege is yours because the value of your affiliation is greater. Put another way, you can create more subscribers than a standard affiliate and you can do it faster.
At first glance, the true power behind our program may not stand out. Read this through and the power of our 45-15-15 income plan jump out at you.
Participation in the affiliate program qualifies you for a 45% ($4.50) weekly recurring commission on your 1st Tier subscription sales, a 15% ($1.50) weekly recurring commission on your 2nd Tier, and a 15%($1.50) weekly recurring commission on your 3rd Tier for all the subscription sales your sub-affiliate/subscribers refer. You simply promote the affiliate program to your current customer/affiliate base and subscriptions will be created and you will get paid over and over again because this is a strong money making vehicle.
On a very small scale, the numbers work out for you well. For example: (Assuming sub-affiliates can only refer 5 subscribers of their own.)
100 1st Tier sales x $4.50 = $450 a Week
Then, those 100 1st subscribers sign up 5 each, totaling 500 2nd Tier sales x $1.50 = $750 a Week
Then, those 500 2nd Tier subscribers sign up 5 each totaling 2,500 3rd Tiers sales x $1.50 = $3,750 a Week
That’s $4,950 in commissions every week from just one mailing to your list or customer base.
Let’s play with the numbers a bit and say that you only refer 50 instead of 100, but the people you refer get 10 each. (This is piece of cake, by the way, because it only costs $5.00 to get rolling and they have an entire month to refer others.)
50 1st Tier sales x $4.50 = $225 a Week
Then, those 50 1st subscribers sign up 10 each, totaling 500 2nd Tier sales x $1.50 = $750 a Week
Then, those 500 2nd Tier subscribers sign up 10 each totaling 5000 3rd Tiers sales x $1.50 = $7,500 a Week
That’s $8,475 in commissions every week from just one mailing to your list or customer base.
$40,000+ in monthly commissions is a reality for someone of your caliber. And, you only have to do the work once to keep getting paid every week.
Your conversions are assisted by our $5.00 trial rate for the fist month. This makes it convenient for all subscriber/affiliates to get started right away. You still get paid for the first month at ALL 3 tiers – $2.25, $0.75, $0.75 respectively. Yet, the big checks commence once the weekly re-bills start.
REMEMBER: The subscribers you refer will likely become affiliates, also the affiliates must become subscribers, and they will NOT cancel their subscription because, if they do, their due commissions stop. No logical person cancels a subscription payment of $10 a week when they are earning more than that in the affiliate program. It only takes 3 referrals for them to exceed their own subscription cost and that’s just at the 1st Tier.
What if they do leave? – Then, all of their subscriber referrals get moved up to you and you earn a higher commission for them.
All sales are tracked by the leading affiliate software, Post Affiliate Pro v4.
The billing is handled through Authorize.net gateway ARB, the highest recurring billing performance available.
Paydays are every week, on Wednesday for the previous weeks pay cycle. The pay cycle is from Friday – Thursday, paid following Wednesday. You can choose your preferred method of payment, yet we desire you take advantage of direct deposit to you bank account or the Chase Visa Pay Card we will give you.
Please go to:
http://subscribeandthrive.com/affiliates/exclusive-affiliate-program.html
This is the page that you would send potential sub-affiliates. You can also use our sister site www.EinsteinIncome.com to push people through with an Invitation Pass. We are accepting a limited number of ‘invite only’ affiliations. Failure to respond to this invitation within 7 business days will constitute a decline to participate and by signing up later normal conditions will apply.
To join the ‘invite only’ affiliate program right now go to: (IGNORE FEE OR SUBSCRIBER REQUIREMENTS)
https://subscribeandthrive.com/pap4/affiliates/signup.php
You will be notified when we launch so that you can broadcast to your current customer/affiliate base.
May your day be filled with fun and fortune.
Respectfully,
Luke Amoresano
admin@subscribeandthrive.com
http://www.subscribeandthrive.com
Needless to say, I signed up – why not it was free for me – and strolled through the site just to see what it was all about. You guys can check it out now that it is live but I’m sure you see the money angle pretty clearly already. Yes they have a newsletter full of software and ebooks that subscribers can sell with master resell rights but we all know the money is in signing up affiliates under you. Like all tiered programs the only people who do well (the A-List and Super Affiliates) are the ones that promote these programs first. If I only had search traffic I would probably give a few of these a go but alas… my credibility would be shot with my readers.
To Luke’s credit he must have read my mind as he sent me another email a few days after I checked out the program…
Grizzly,
I took the time to read through your recent post.
“I get a ton of JV emails – people wanting me to promote stuff – many of the people are legit and well-meaning but they sell crap. Sorry – no offense but if I wouldn’t buy it then it’s crap. I’d really like to see something worthwhile come along one of these days.”
Although you have read through our proposal and signed up as an affiliate, I want to drive home that our service is NOT crap. Plus, for a $5.00 start up cost for an entire month and weekly payouts that begin right away, our program is two-steps ahead of competition.
We will not disappoint your readers, A-list or anyone. You credibility will remain in tact. You WILL assist others with achieving an income to match your AdSense revenue.
I hope this email finds you well and marinates so that everyone you share this with will enjoy the juice.
Respectfully,
Luke Amoresano
I’m not so sure this could match my “Adsense Income” but I appreciated the fact that he actually took the time to read my blog. Needless to say this isn’t for me but if any of you want to take a crack at it – feel free. Here is your chance to get in early on one of these launches but I don’t recommend you recruit your loyal readers. Those of you with a list or search traffic might make a few bucks while it is still a novelty. I have no idea if John Chow or Darren Rowse will be pushing this in the morning so I thought I’d let you know about it now. Btw – I got another email stating that the $5 fee was waived and the first two weeks are free – enough time to see if you can make some conversions. If you suceed great – if not dump it before the weekly fee starts.
Here’s the link to the affiliate page – no affilaite ID so you can relax 
In a similar vien I thought you guys might like to read an email I received from Brad Callen today.
Hey Griz,
Thanks for the kind words on your review of PPC Web Spy:
http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/2009/01/ppc-web-spy-brad-callen.html
It means alot coming from you. Wanted to let you know that we’re working on adding more functionality to the tool.
1. Adding a link next to each keyword so users can see the cached page on Google when the Adwords advertiser was found for the specific keyword.
2. Adding better logic for narrowing down which keywords advertisers are bidding on. It works pretty good right now, but will be much better in the next few weeks.
3. Likely changing the overall look of the tool to something brighter and more upbeat for aesthetic reasons.And a few others.
Also, I noticed some people commenting about SEO Elite on that page. We’re currently working on a major SEO Elite update. We’re working with SEO expert Jerry West of SEORevolution.com to come up with the most relevant and helpful features. Am hoping to release this soon. And as always, updates are free to current customers.
Anyway, thanks again Griz! Let me know if I can ever do anything for you.
–
Brad Callen
Bryxen Software, Inc.
Nice of him to drop me a line and glad to hear about the SEO Elite upgrades – I suspect he didn’t read the post I put up after the PPC Web Spy article… I almost feel bad now. Ooops. 
If Paul from Internet Marketing Product Reviews is reading this you should be happy to know Brad read your comments – I’m curious to see what he does to SEO Elite given the abundance of free tools now available.
Okay – that’s my fluffy post just to change the page this month. I am curious if any of you would like me to pass on all the JV proposals I get. Leave me some comments if any of you think they would be useful – I get quite a few and figured some of you may be able to do something with them. If nothing else it will give you an idea of what transpires behind the scenes in the IM gig. Nothing wrong with a free education.
Cheers,
Griz
(Yes I am trying to rank for Subscribe and Thrive – I want to see if this blog can pull off some serp rankings without the post title. It’s a new term (read no competition) and if this site has built up any authority I’ll find out pretty quick – I know SOMEBODY is going to ask! lol)
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Phew, real lucrative, this Subscribe and Thrive thingy. If I have 1000s in my mailing list I will surely like to give this a go. I think my mailbox is to be flooded again with this promo. LOL.
Now that the owner has guaranteed us his product is “not crap” I’m sure we’ll drive traffic by the hordes…
Griz,
I think that passing these along could help with some people trying to achieve A-lister status, but in the end I feel that Subscribe and Thrive is a form of usury. It’s like Avon or anything else like that. In the end it is profitable to sell others on the service and not on the product itself. Real value is earn when you connect people, businesses and ideas, not up selling poor schleps. I just hope the people who try this method of income realize this sooner than later. Good luck on the ranking of Subscribe and Thrive.
Hey Guys,
This is what I was referring to in my post when I said I’d like to see something worthwhile come along. It just doesn’t exist. The problem with the IM world is that it is just affiliates selling to affiliates selling to more affiliates. The model works for those at the top but as there is little value in the products the people down the line end up with nothing. When was the last time someone tried to sell a product based on its merits? It’s always about the re-sell.
Thanks for the board meeting Griz.
Here’s my take. I’m sitting at a long table wearing a tie and watching some pencil dick with a laser pointer pointing at a graph telling me about Amway and how I’m going to get rich. All we need now is a motivational speaker. I don’t need numbers and figures and projections. Save that for TV commercials. Real life is money in the wallet, not out of the wallet.
Someone may bite, but not me. I’m not impressed by calculations. That’s what the US Congress is doing right now, with the same laser pointers and calculations that got us in trouble in the first place.
Don’t they get it? We don’t want their help. There is a new class of loser in this world. It is them. A little too late.
Good luck with the key words by the way. Ben
Ben,
Your Congress has been very good to me. The more they muck about the more traffic I seem to get… seems everyone is looking for another source of income.
I realized early on that affiliate programs for marketing products only work for those on the top. I’m glad I never fell for it.
Hey RT,
How is tomorrow doing? Still yesterday over here.
Have you thought of approaching the super affiliates? Your program actually works (connectcontent.com) and isn’t centered on the re-sell. Of course that would be a problem for the big guns – no re-sell no interest. The irony.
I probably would if I knew who the super-affiliates were. Of course, I don’t want it marketed to social bloggers because it works in a much more delayed effect for them than search bloggers.
Tomorrow is great! LOL
Hey Grizz,
Thanks for the heads up on this, i was wondering when the make money with affiliate program post where coming. the adsense on it is not bad. anyway i been following you since the inception of your beginner blog just lurking in the back ground. Anyway thanks for this heads up, i might give it a go, when i find enough spare change between my couch cushions. btw the math on there offer is funny. i went thru the link and it said pay a yearly fee of $149 or subscribe for 10 bucks a week with the 14 day trial. if anyone with a brain can see it pays to take the 149 a year if they really are going to do the dam thing. that 10 bucks a week comes out to $480 smackers a year eating at your profits. Just a heads up you know 10 bucks a week 40 bucks a month 12 months to a year 40 times 12….
anyway thanks cant wait to start my campain of carnage!
-money in the bank
Lol – that’s funny. I never even looked at the money spiel till you mentioned that.
Griz, thanks for another great post. I have been following you for about 8 months and have read every post on both of your IM blogs – and took pages of notes
Thanks to your guidance I have been able to build blogs and promote them without spending practically any money. I have been recommending your blogs to anyone that REALLY wants to learn IM, but they always seem to want the “magic pill” of overnight success without putting in the work.
I have no desire to make money in the make money online niche, but in a few years, maybe I’ll know enough to pass out real world advice like you do and payback for all you have shared with us.
Is it common for a venture like this Subscribe and Thrive to charge a fee to it’s affiliates?
Sounds like a MLM scheme to me. I don’t pay someone for the privileged of promoting their product!
It is a MLM scheme – make people pay in order to keep payments coming. Works right up till the last person can’t find someone to pay them. Then it unravels as everyone stops paying because no one is paying them. By the time it ends the people on top have made a good chunk of change and the rest are lucky to get their money back.
Well Grizz, you are on page one of Google of course with “Subscribe and Thrive” (in Quotes) and page two without quotes.
If I had a list of subscribers I would probably jump on this but I really do not promote a lot of make money online products. Just the ones I actually use and like.
I would rather get affiliate sales through eBay or some service that really helps people.
Hey Denise – pretty cool.
It was indexed in minutes and hit page two without the keywords in the title. Look at the sites ahead of it – they use some or all of the keywords in the post title. The top sites use all the keywords and of course the number 1 site has the keyword in the URL. I couldn’t outrank the sites using all the keywords in the title but I did manage to squeeze into the list between sites using some but not all of the keywords. The broad search has 2,340,000 pages so a rank of 16 ain’t bad.
Wonder where I would be had I used the keywords in the title? (I couldn’t because of Adsense – what kind of ads would have appeared?) You’ll notice that I got the Adsense bot to choose the correct ads while the search bot ranked me for the correct term. One bot read the post as relevant to affiliate marketing and the other read the post as relevant to Subscribe and Thrive. Very cool.
Maybe if we post Subscribe and Thrive enough times in the comments you will get even a better ranking. Unfortunately that mat mess up your affiliate ads.
Thanks for the offer on the affiliate product by the way!
Hey Grizz,
lol, is this another one of those tests to see how gullible people are?
Regardless of the nice letter you got from the owner, this definitely looks like one of those “quick hit” type programs that will heavily promoted for a month or two, then gone like a flash.
And as someone who does make money from a legitimate network marketing business, I especially hate to see these type of programs … gives us all a bad name.
It’s all good though. I suspect that by the time a few more people comment on this post, Luke is going to be sorry to see you ranking for that keyword.
Todd
Todd,
So much for any future JV offers!
Well if he wanted to get to my readers – he probably should have read the comments on my posts – he doesn’t know my readers! Lol.
1. What is JV?
2. Is this one of those “do this instead of working hard so that I can make money off of you” things? It seems like it vaguely falls in to the “make money online” category, (not the “make money online with adsense” category.) (Sorry, that was just a bit of random dialog to throw your keywords in!)Duh, I don’t get it! Although it is nice and reassuring to know this is a random thing I can pay for monthly that isn’t C*R*A*P! I would have to vote no, I wouldn’t be interested in reading more of this sort of thing. I’ve been slogging around in the trenches for awhile, and I think that when something doesn’t make sense and seems too good to be true, I should probably just be spending my time writing and submitting articles or requesting link exchanges with legit sites that I admire…
Sorry Penny – I tend not to explain things as thoroughly on this site. “JV” stands for joint venture. Basically people with products search for people with related traffic and ask them to promote the product for them. Remuneration varies depending on the deal arranged.
You are wise to avoid this kind of marketing – it’s really only for those with lists or high volume affiliate sites. I have a few readers who are into this and thought they might make use of it. The trick to list marketing is flogging a product before everyone else does. Oh… and then finding another one for next week.
Thanks for the “keywords” – you have caught on fast!
OK, thanks Grizz, I am actually doing a JV thing with teen summer camps and didn’t know it! (And happy to report it was a hassle yesterday at the accountants doing my taxes!) I have been on a few of those hypey lists, and cancelled my subscriptions when I cought on to what they were doing. An example – I am an affiliate for World Wide Brands, and their affiliate manager sends some very useful info from time to time, and they have some good training videos. (Big Deal.) Then one of the listy guru’s that has 3 other listy guru buddies all started sending out fast and furious emails about the stuff they were pushing at World Wide Brands. (Good clearinghouse for buying wholesle products.) It was nuts! A whole buncha hype about nothing! The release! The pre-release! The list! Lights and glamour! (possibly some make money online with adsense?)So I like the simple white hat tactics to build a solid web of information on the web. I don’t think there is any substitution for hard work when your objective is to make money online, or make money online with adsense!
I tried to sign up but I guess its not live yet – the sign up button doesn’t work on sales page. BTW I never heard of being charged a fee to become an affiliate – I guess I don’t play with the big boys!
Hi Lissie,
Launching on a friday and the sign up not working… lol.
Not a recipe for success. The “fee” is how all the MLM programs operate – you pay to be able to collect a fee from those in your downline. As Todd mentioned – this type of marketing has given affiliate marketing a bad rep.
Quick work on the hubpage Lis!
Hey Grizz, of course I am reading this. I am reading your sites much more than I am reading my own.
Now, don’t feel bad about Brad Callen. That’s how they get to you. He may be a good marketer, I’ll give him that, but that doesn’t make his products any better.
RT, I just joined your network and I love it. If only there were a little bit more people, but I’m sure they will come.
Cheers.
Paul,
The best way to promote RT’s program is for the users to spread the word – this will let it grow slowly and keep it to just the people who are in the “know”. After mentioning the super affiliates I realized that they would be the worst people to use – all the wrong traffic. The best networks are those that only have users who know what they are doing.
LOL OK I bet everyone to the hubpage! To be honest I like their honesty – they aren’t really promoting the subscription at all – they are just pushing the affiliate program – there is some honesty in that isn’t there?
And if some silly bugger wants to sign up under me I’ll take the $ Lissie
It sounds way too MLM-ish for my taste. And, as you put it on the other blog, I’m not a sleazy list marketer either. But, you can bet the ‘usual suspects’ will be flogging this thing to death in the next few days.
Like RT with connectcontent.com, I went with the no-upsell/backsell/affiliate approach with Blog Content Wizard. It probably did cost me some money doing that but I felt that it kept the price reasonable was best. I didn’t want to charge 2 or 3 times the current price.
Frank,
Good point – in order to entice affiliates you would have to charge a lot more for Blog Content Wizard – they wouldn’t promote it unless they could make their $40 per sale or more. Hopefully word of mouth will keep spreading for you as well.
Griz, if Adsense is NOT being used as the form of monitization on a blog (just affiliate links), is there any advantage of putting one post per page like you do? Having multiple posts on the front page OK?
Hey Bruce,
Multiple posts will work fine if not using Adsense.
I put 5 posts on the front page, each only a paragraph. Looking at my stats, the front page doesn’t draw search traffic at all — only the social traffic looks at it (and me of course). I only put AdSense on the single pages and the tag pages (since Google decided to grace me with tag pages that rank on the first page), so the front page doesn’t do much.
I wonder what effects changes to the front page would have. I’m always testing things and perhaps I’ll test having 10 excerpts as well as single-post front pages. Yes, I think I’ll do both. As I add new posts, I’ll increase the excerpts on the front page until it reaches 10 and leave it that way for about a month and then I’ll switch to a single post (the full post) for a month.
I’ll try to remember to post my findings.
I do both with eBay affiliate blogs and the performance is mostly identical as best I can tell. I do magazine style sites like OpTempo and one post per page ones based on my ‘boring memo’ or ‘dateless mini site’ themes.
As RT mentioned, Google seems to have a taste for WordPress tag pages so I try to make sure ads appear there too. I have several sites that only show up in SERPS well for tag pages.
Hey Grizz,
Sorry is an unrelated post, I recently found your blogs, and I’ve been reading ever since, great info! I just found this this forum post about you and felt compelled to answer. You can not put my man Grizzly in the same sentence with John Chow and Shoemaker. anyways, sorry to me such suck up. But you are truly an inspiration.
P.S. now days, you will get more traffic on your blog, if you add Grizzly, on your how to make money online sentence! sorry, got use some of your juice man! I think we are seeing a new trend here MMOG!check out my post whenever you have a chance.
Cheers,
Lucky
I read that thread and laughed my ass off before I even got halfway down the page. John Chow? Please! The only thing he has in common with Griz is that he’s in Canada.
I don’t normally read forums like Digital Point. There are way too many noobs over there accepting answers that are downright false.
Lucky,
Dipstick Point forum? Pu-leeeease. As RT said… Noobs and more noobs. Don’t waste your time on there.
I did read your article – LOL. If I ever need a promo manager you’ve got the job Lucky. Thanks and I sent you back a link on the MMOFB blog. (Scroll down to the reader review section)
Thanks again.
Jeeze I thought I had the promo manager job *sob*
Damn! I knew I had used that line once already! Drat – Busted!! Well Lissie I will have to find a new position for you – did you read his post? Lol.
Btw – I received an email not long ago asking me if you and I were the same person – seems they saw a resemblance in our styles. Aside from being different sexes and you living on the bottom of the planet and the fact that you work harder than me I could see his confusion. I took it as a compliment – hope you do too?
I spend considerable time developing my online brand – complete with custom photo of my having a good time on a Saigon cyclo and I get confused with a flipping bear in the middle of the Canadian arctic LOL.
I am distraught and upset – I am no longer your promo manager and now I don’t even have an identity – *sob*
Tell you what I have a solution we do the same amount of work and then we could share your joint incomes equally – that’s fair surely LOL – then I can retire LMAO. I must admit I read Lucky’s post and though I could have written it – you are creating Grizz clones across the blogosphere!
Lissie,
Now that IS a unique JV proposal – sharing my income! Lol.
Thanks for the “Saigon Cyclo” – I always wondered what you were trying to wrestle to the ground. We use something called “Trucks” in this hemisphere. They are great as you can tell who has the most money to piss away on Gas (petrol for the Brits). We also drive on the correct side of the road and our toilets flush in the proper direction too!
Yes it’s 5 am and I’m picking on you as you are the only person awake at the moment – well maybe RT is as well. Just waiting for the coffee to kick in so please disregard my babbling…
Yep. And I was watching the first episode of season 2 of “Supernatural” or I would have read the comment message by email sooner.
Is Supernatural any good? You are talking to a guy who hasn’t seen a Soprano’s episode yet – just getting caught up on X-Files! Lol. My kids tell me I’m a bit out of touch…
Don’t feel bad. I never watched The Sopranos either. Supernatural is pretty good. I like it better than the X-Files but then again, I like “Fringe” better than the X-Files”. Maybe it’s just that I don’t find Agent Scully attractive.
LOL 5am – now there is another difference – I am very,very grumbly if I see that hour of the morning – I guess it never really gets light over your way this time of the year so it doesn’t really matter right? Here’s it at least 9pm and the cricket is not going well – thats a real game not that legalised violence (aka ice hockey) you Canadians play. And we can spell, and drive utes and drink beer with proper levels of alcohol in it (that is lots). Oh and did I mention that it was a very pleasent 33C today and the beach was great – not even very busy (you get bored going to the beach EVERY weekend here in the summer). Gee hope you are not too cold there!
Hey we DO have something in common – it’s 33C here too. There is a minus sign before it though…
Griz,
Do you feel there is any advantage with a free site like blogger or wordpress site (other than they are free) over buying your own keyworded domain name?
Matt,
It all depends on what you are attempting to accomplish online. If you want to sell advertising (ala the A-List) then a self hosted “pretty” blog is the way to go. If you are going to go after niche marketing and use Adsense or Affiliate sales then the advantage of the free hosts is that you can create a lot of niches for testing without having to spend money on every one. If you find a winner then you can create a nice self hosted blog to join your “ugly” blogger blog. (hmmm – I wonder where I can find an example of someone doing this?
)The point is you have to find the money niches first and you will find Blogger is ideal for that purpose.
One last thing – Adsense. Nothing works better at causing people to click away than an ugly site. Blogger is just so perfectly ugly that you will have a hard time competing with it’s ctr with a pretty self hosted blog. (Yes you can make WP ugly but it still lacks the cheesy Blogger look that just works so damn well)
In the end you will find a use for all sorts of platforms so don’t get confined in your thinking that you only use one or the other – use them all.
Last week I gave one of my sites a makeunder. The site had never gotten any Adsense clicks. Never. I removed the lovely header graphic that I’d spent so much time perfecting and instead slapped up a solid puke green header with gray text. I didn’t change any of the content.
I’m now getting Adsense clicks.
For making WordPress look ugly, Frank’s Boring Memo theme gives Blogger some tough competition in the ugly department. The content fades into the background and the ads almost jump out of the screen by contrast.
I agree with Griz about trying different things. When I started a few weeks ago, I wanted to make all of my decisions ahead of time and do everything perfectly on my first try. After a few mistakes, I realized it’s impossible not to make mistakes, and that I got information from my mistakes that I never would have known if I hadn’t made them. I can afford a few bucks for domain registrations I end up not using if it means learning something.
Thanks Lorecee – I was looking for Frank’s link but you saved me the trouble!
Thanks for the mention Lorecee. I hadn’t looked at the demo site for a while and I found that the Boring Memo subdomain is PR2 and ranks #2 in Goggle for ‘Awkward Golf Shots’, #1 for ‘Concentration and Confidence in Golf’, #5 for ‘Good Golf Pro Shops’ with it’s early version of Blog Content Wizard content. How did that happen with just the single one page link from the regular Optempo post?
It’s a subdomain on an authority site – you’ve got clout Frank.
And that has something to do with a new blog of your’s hasn’t it Grizz? I am also wondering if the quickest way to get a new site ranked is to get in on a site where the google bot visits often? Your (ex)Promo Manager
I was wondering what I would have to do to “Boring Memo” to make it 2.7 compatible (for comments). Frank?
I need to update that theme soon. Maybe I can work with it this week.
Hey Griz,
Thanks for the hook man! Hope to be around for a while.
Griz,
May sound like a stupid question but with free blogs can you use google webmaster stats? should i want to use those?
Matt,
I think you have two resources mixed together.
Google Webmaster Tools (for site optimization/analysis) and Google analytics (for traffic stats/analysis).
In answer to your question – yes you can use both with free hosts or self hosted sites.
I know this is a real newbie question, but how are you guys checking your sites for all the keywords you rank in? Do you do it manually, one phrase at a time, or is there a tool? Thanks!
There is a toolbar from seobook that has a rank checker on it. Basically you enter the domain and all the keywords you want to check ranking for then press start.
You can also do it manually but it will have to be one phrase at a time.
Yep, I was wondering why the subscribe and thrive ad was at the top of your other blog yesterday. Now I know.
Looks like this blog has made it to page two of Google for Subscribe and Thrive right now. So your plan is working. However, it’s the home page and not the post page so who knows what will happen.
How come I always seem to miss the party? Is Spain really so backward and I’ve become so much a part of the culture that I’m a few days behind the rest of the world?
Oh, Hi Griz…
MLM and lists eh? You’ll be telling be that I should start a forum or something to attract more social traffic next LMAO!! Yep, I missed your post until just now – I actually spent the last 2 days doing what I should be doing getting links and updating dusty old blogs, so I wasn’t reading anyone else’s.
Now I’ve just spent one cup of Spanish super strength hand ground (by me) coffee reading your post and about a third of that MLM letter (then my eyes glazed over), then another cup reading the comments and now I’m in caffeine heaven and need to go write a very long post somewhere!
…better do that for Google and not for real people or there will be a lot of eyes glazing over LMAO!!!
Regarding the emails from Subscribe and Thrive – why do people insist on writing as if they have a large icicle shoved up their ass. Maybe they think they sound “oh so professional” and are able to impress people with the over-inflated numbers that most, if not all, of the readers will never attain, but they just end up sounding like pretentious hucksters.
This is the kind of unproven hodge-podge I wouldn’t touch with a 10 – no, make that a 100 – foot pole.
Hey Griz,
in hawaii, I get you page 2 for “subscribe and thrive” so even though not in the post title, looks like your authority really helped. you gonna throw links at this post? Matt2257
Hi guys,
Grizz, we all want you to keep talking about the MMO affiliates sites, because you are the only honest guy out there.
We all believe on you (I do), and love to read your posts.
If only there where more Grizz`s out there …
ps: your 18º on google.pt for “subscribe and thrive”, so i`ll help you raising that position, with this lines:
Subscribe and Thrive offers to all affiliated partners, a synergistic online money making. Thats a combination of Master Resale Products and an explosive affiliate program. Check out this blog “make money online with grizz”, and read the subscribe and trive launch post (typo), before you join. Find Money Making Opportunities and Ways To Make Money in this blog. Learn How to Make Money with one of the best adsense and affiliate marketing guru, Grizz Bear …
Cumps …
Artur
Random questions:
1. What do you think about using photos and pictures?
2. Can you add meta data to blogger blogs? how do you verify them with google? webmaster stats?
What is the best way to setup a blog with multi topics, and is that a good idea? I have a broad domain name that I want to use wordpress to cover a variety of topics. Is anyone successfully doing something like this?
Thanks
Sam,
You can see my OpTempo blog for an example of covering a lot of different topics.
It’s easier to create a blog that’s focused on a particular niche and then concentrate on getting traffic on that tight niche. The advantage of a multi-niche blog is that it opens up a lot of options in the directions you can take with it so it works well as a flagship.
Hello, just checking in to see if you’ve made any money online with adsense today? (*.*) I’ve found a way to make money online doing nothing! (Not really but it sounded good!) I like the topic up the thread on doing a “makeunder”! I’ve downloaded the ugly memo theme and I’m trying to decide if I should launch my newest niche idea with it or uglify one of my existing. I was thinking of selling long icicles to sell to the people that click on the “do nothing and make money online with adsense” ads that I see in abundance!
just posted this on your other blog, just trying to get this request seen
griz,
i figure (after reading your request for comments instead of emails) my email requests have gotten lost along the way.
been asking for forum access but never heard back one way or the other.
if you wouldn’t mind shooting me an email: korprit[at]gmail
am now 9 months deep into building sites/farms and would love to share ideas/experience with other like minded practitioners
–korr
Griz,
Most of the most successful schemes involve recruiting others to do the selling for them. In these schemes, nobody gives a da.. about the product because it stinks, frankly. The only ones making the real money are the few people at the top.
For me, the bulk of my money comes from creating and flipping blogs. I can sleep at night because I know that my customers make money with what I teach them.
My adsense sites are worth quite a lot, even without too much in the way of income. My main mistakes with them have been lack of keyword optimized links and not targeting the high paying keywords. Now, thanks to a few pointers I’ve learned here, I am incorporating your wisdom into my daily routine.
Thomas C. Gajdjis
Just would like to tell you that-It sounds way too MLM-ish for my taste. And, as you put it on the other blog, I’m not a sleazy list marketer either. But, you can bet the ‘usual suspects’ will be flogging this thing to death in the next few days.
Hey Griz
I’m a new subscriber to your blog but I have read some of your posts and IMHO yours are about the only ones I have read that actually provide real value to readers. You can count on my placing a few of your links about in legitimate places.
Cheers and please don’t stop
Hi Griz! Should I add adsense to a new affiliate site that I just put up? Or should I test converting the affiliate product I’m trying to sell first and then down the road maybe add adsense?
Hi Grizzly. This stuff is alittle over my head because I’m new to this stuff. I never made much online. The most I have made online is $50. Thanks for the Great information.
Hi Grizzly, Wow! i Really Envy you! you have a beautiful site. and a great reviews. thanks for the usefull information. keep it up
I always wondered what all the hype around affiliate marketing was about, it never really appealed to me. So I’m sticking with adsense, specially since the Grizzly motivation injection lol…
Interesting stuff Griz but I have my doubts. I have never made money from one single, solitary affiliate sale and I’m beginning to wonder if they exist at all. I like the rest of it but not sure it would work for me as I have a problem with the very full on ‘sales’ approach.
I’m just starting in IM, I’m gonna check out this!
Hello Grizzly,
I am a fairly new marketer and am learning. I am so glad to have come across your blog. I have just begun to read your post and have subscribed. It is great to have someone who cuts out the crap and hits the target. I just want to say thank you and I am looking forward to being a constant reader.
Pryncessa
Hi Griz – I’ve been away from the Internet for a few weeks, so I don’t know if this guy’s offer has taken off. It doesn’t look like he’s getting much traffic.
And what I really don’t like is the fact that the link to his affiliate program is right beside the link to his product. I hate when folk do that because the buyer usually ends up signing up as an affiliate and buying through their own link – especially with MMO products.
Hi Griz,
This product seems like just another online MLM scheme to me. I agree that this kind of product gives bad name to affiliate marketing, which is why I tend to promote affiliate offers outside the MMO markets, since MMO products are mostly MLM scheme anyway.
I would never pay for affiliate program, this is the way how MLM works.
I am getting tired of programs where the main money comes from signing others up….that’s not a real business model -in fact- it can be looked it can almost be looked at as a pyramid scheme.
Grizz,
I am new to affiliate marketing and I find your site very informative. I have noticed that it is tough to market a product once the gurus have gotten a hold of it. But, I am still trying. Keep the content coming!!
looks like affiliate marketing is more profitabley.
Hey Griz… Just wanted to say, your blog was very useful in the time when I was learning about internet business and marketing… And now some results are showing up..
If you can to Europe anytime, the beer is on me!