I’ve been noticing more and more people talking about advertising companies that are paying you to tweet about products or services that advertisers are willing to pay for you to tweet.  I have to be completely honest, I’m all about making money, in fact, I believe (especially when you’re first starting out) that if there is something you’re doing that could be making you money, your stupid not to do it.

Of course, I’m not talking about anything unethical, and I don’t feel that advertising on twitter is unethical, but I have to be honest…I’m not sure if I like it or not.  I signed up for a company that I’ve been reading about on a couple different blogs named Ad.ly.  They are a company that you can sign up for, and then advertisers can offer you to tweet about their products or services.  Of course, you have complete control on which ones you choose to do or not, but I’m unsure if this makes it okay or not.

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about twitter is the fact that people recommend and give links to things they actually enjoy.  If they are getting paid to tweet will it cause their trust of their account and links to be devalued by their followers?

I’m actually torn on this and I think we’ll only find out through testing.  Part of me believes that the more people are tweeting links that they are getting paid for, the less trusting their followers will be when they post links.  However, another part of me believes that we’ll see the same things as with paid reviews on blogs.  I don’t’ think paid reviews lower the content value or trust of blogs because they are normally disclosed very well and also, they provide bloggers with money that encourage them to pump out more content.

Anyways, so I signed up for Ad.ly but I’m unsure yet if I’ll use them or not, and was simply wondering what your guys opinions were on twitter and advertising…  So what do you think?

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How exactly does the content network work?  Should I be using it for my business or strictly stick with the search engine side of ppc?  Is it worth the effort involved?  Will I receive enough traffic compared to search engine ppc to justify the time do work with the content network?  These are all very valid questions when it comes to deciding to stick with strictly search engine ppc traffic or move to the content network as well.  Believe it or not, most affiliates tend to stick with the search engine side of ppc, don’t believe me, look at the results in the sidebar on traffic methods people are using to get traffic to their affiliate sites!

What’s the Difference?

One of the first questions I get all the time is what is the difference between the search network and the content network, so real quick, the difference between the two is that when you are strictly bidding on the search network, your ads show up only on search pages, which could also include search results of partners that the search engine may have.  When you are bidding on the content network, you ads may show up for any site that is signed up for their ad program and have ads on their websites.  If you are bidding on an ad for car parts, your ad may show up on a website about cars.  If you are bidding on the search network, you ads would only show up for keywords done about cars on the search engine.

Search Network

When running your ads on the search network, which is the most talked about method on this site, you are bidding on groups of keywords and when those keywords are typed into let’s say Google, your ads show up in the results.

So with the search network you are dealing with keywords, bid prices, and figuring out which keywords convert well.

Content Network

When you are running your ads on the content network, you are bidding on keywords that are related to your niche, but your ads will show up on websites that pertain to those keywords as per the example I gave above.  If you are bidding on keywords about car parts, your ad may show up on a website about cars.

With the content network, you are still dealing with keywords, but you’re also dealing with finding out which websites are converting really well and which ones aren’t, then excluding the websites that aren’t.  So it takes a bit more work, and you have no control where the ads are shown, so if the owner of the website changes these ads around, it could make a site that does great, go really bad.

Running Both?

Most affiliates start off running one or the other, but eventually, most affiliates start using both methods as a way of getting traffic to their affiliates sites, especially once they get a campaign that is doing well and their trying to scale it out.  They may get stuck on one or the other so try out the other in order to increase their traffic.

Personally, I recommend using both as both can be extremely profitable if done right, and both can drive huge amounts of traffic to your affiliates sites.  I know the search network is favored more, but honestly, I’ve seen the content network perform pretty consistently for me as well and sometimes even better in certain niches.  So by running just one or the other, you jeopardize your earning potential.

One Important Note:

This article isn’t really an article detailing exactly how to go about doing the content network, although if enough interest is expressed in the comments, I may write an entire article detailing how to use the content network, however, there is one very important point that I want to make to those that may be thinking about running both the search network and the content network.

The important point is that if you choose to run both, you need to make sure you create two separate campaigns.  One campaign that only runs on the search network, and one campaign that only runs on the content network.  These two networks are completely different and require totally different things in order for them to work.

In fact, most of the times, I even run separate domains and landing pages for my content network stuff and search network stuff.

Bottom Line:

If you’re not using both methods to drive traffic you’re really losing out!  They are both excellent methods of driving traffic, and I honestly don’t think you should only pick one, sure it’s more work working with both the search and content network, but it’s so worth it!

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Listen, this post is a bit of a rant, but if you’ve ever thought about “taking a break” from affiliate marketing and trying it again later then you need to read this post!

Affiliate Marketing is not easy to get started in, in fact, it’s actually quite difficult for most people.  Of course, there are those rare occasions where someone launched a campaign and see immediate positive results…(like me )  However, this is very few and far in between.  Most people start off losing money, that’s just me being honest my friends!

However, if you are serious about doing this and making a living by working from home online, then you can’t quit.  If you truly are passionate about affiliate marketing then again, don’t quit!

This business changes rapidly, in fact pretty much any online type business does, but it seems that daily there is something crazy going on in the affiliate marketing space.  You took all the time to learn, read, etc about affiliate marketing and if you “take a break” you are going to throw that all away.

Now I’m not saying if you run out of money to just keep charging away, but don’t stop reading, studying niches, etc.  Why?  Because if you do, you’ll come back later only to realize that you’re basically starting from scratch!  I’m not kidding, that’s how fast things can change in this field.  Of course, you may still remember the basics, but that’s about it.

There are new types of landing pages, new techniques, new search engine requirements, etc that don’t stop changing and evolving while you’re “taking a break” from affiliate marketing and when you come back it will suck having to relearn how to do affiliate marketing…

I’ve seen it time and time again and in fact one of the reasons for this post is because I just had someone that emailed me about a one on one counseling session and they had done just that and I decided to blog about it.  And the crazy thing is, it’s not something new, I’ve heard people tell me this over and over that have come to me for advice or counseling.

The bottom line is, even if you go broke and can’t run a campaign, keep up on what’s going on in affiliate marketing at all times…that is if you even think for a moment that you may try it again when you get some more money!

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Hey guys, quick update, there is one more spot left at the discounted rate of $100/hour for 5 hours instead of the normal $200/hour rate.  Just read the last post if you have no idea what I’m talking about

Anyways, I filled two of the spots, however, I’ve gotten about 20 emails with people asking me if I’d do smaller packages.  I didn’t really think about it, but I guess some people don’t need 5 hours.

Anyways, so since I’ve had soooo many requests to do lower, I decided that I’ll split the last spot that is open into two and a half hour sessions for $250 each.

However, if I receive an email from someone wanting the 5 hours for $500 dollars before I receive a request for a two and a half hour spot, I will take that one and cancel out the two spots.

Use the contact form or email me at derek [at] clickconsultants [dot] com

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One Spot Left at the Discounted Rate!

Hey guys, I’m constantly bombarded on a daily basis with emails from people asking if I do one on one consultations.  I’ve never really advertised the fact that I do, and instead have simply offered it to members of the Click Consultants Affiliate Forum (29.99/month) and through word of mouth or by simply people that email me and ask.

Anyways, I thought that I’d finally once and for all make a page about my one on one consultations with all the information so that I could simply point people to it instead of having to answer all the emails with the same stuff over and over again.  Much easier to send a link to a blog page!

After I made the page and was thinking about it, I realized that most of the people that send me the email and ask are blog readers anyways and also I thought that there might be people out there looking for it, but simply didn’t think of asking me if I offered it.

Let me say two things though, I don’t accept everyone (on the consultations page is a list of requirements) and I also have a very strict limit on how many people I’ll counsel with at a time during each month.

Anyways, if you want more infomation head over to this page which tells all about my consultation services, the price is $200 an hour, however, since I’m a little slow this month with work stuff and with consultations, I figured I’d offer a special rate to the first 3 people that email me (derek [at] clickconsultants [dot] com) or contact me through the contact form and send payment once they receive an email from me letting them know if they are one of the first three.

If you sign up for a five hour consultation package instead of the normal price of $200/hour, I’ll give them to you at the price of $100/hour.

Again this is only for the first three people that shoot me an email and then must send payment shortly after I reply with my paypal addy.

This is only a promotion for the public launch of my one on one consultation services and thought it would just be fun to give a couple people a good deal!  I do not normally offer any discounts on my consultation services even if bought in bulk because I feel that the price I give is already low enough, so if you are interested, check out the consultation page and then shoot me an email or use the contact form!

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