Sep 12
When I joined LinkWorth sometime in August, I was able to recruit six referrals (I hate referring people) with their affiliate program. Thus, my earnings stats showed that I have $60 to be paid within this month. When I received their email that September payouts were completed, I thought I received the $60 but unfortunately it didn’t come to my PayPal account. I login to my account and my stats now showed it’s $0, I have nothing to complain since I did not work for it but I just wondering what’s going on.
Today, I just received another email from LinkWorth and it answers why I have $0 now and didn’t get paid. LinkWorth has just revised their affiliate program payouts scheme.
A performance based program that pays the affiliate if the referring account actually does business with us, rather than just signing up. The payout goes like this:
Advertiser Account Referrals
>> $25 payout once the advertiser spends a minimum of $100.00
>>5% payout on all recurring charges for the life of the advertiser account
Partner Account Referrals
>> $25 payout once the partner earns a minimum of $100.00
Combo Account Referrals
>> $25 payout once the advertiser side spends a minimum of $100.00
>> 5% payout on all recurring advertising charges for life of account
>> $25 payout once the partner side earns a minimum of $100.00
As you can see, their payout scheme is very much different from Text Link Ads (TLA) affiliate program. TLA immediately credit your account with $25 when a publisher signs up with your referral URL. TLA’s scheme is prone to “attacks” for those people whose goal is just to make money online. It’s because it can be easily played - pay people to join under your referral URL. An example of this “attack” was a thread in a certain forum (I forgot the link) where the thread has a title “I will give you $10 for FREE“. The thread starter did not give details in public but only through PM. In the PM (yes, I was also tricked) he will give you his TLA referral URL and once you joined him, he will give you $10 in PayPal. In return, his net earnings for TLA affiliate program will be $15($25 -$10) each referral. You can imagine how TLA was loosing money with this kind of trick since you can assume that those who joined under him (who wants the free $10) were not really potential publishers/advertisers.
With LinkWorth, it is really a nice move for them. They are ensuring that everybody who joins under you are truly an advertiser(s) or publisher(s). I think this changes are very much similar to Google Adsense Referral Program.
If you want to know more about LinkWorth tips and specifics, Ades have blogged about them:
written by Ramil Alcibar
Sep 10
I have already covered Zlio, a free hosted service that let you build your own online shop and start selling thousands of products from their merchants. In addition, I also mentioned Shopify, an e-commerce solution (also hosted) to sell your own products online. Both of them have disadvantages - to named a few, the fees and order limits with Shopify and the choice of products with Zlio.
To run an online shop (not hosted) to sell products with total control in all aspects, an e-commerce application is needed. The most popular free e-commerce applications that are available today are osCommerce and Zen Cart.
Varien, a Los Angeles web development firm, has also its own open source e-commerce platform called Magento. Magento is currently on early beta stages, BETA 0.6 at the time of writing, thus it is not recommended to be used on production environments. Though it’s still in beta, it already comes with the usual e-commerce features plus more that looks promising and somewhat follow the new trends. Listed below are some of the nice features of Magento that I like, some are currently not implemented:
- Multiple Websites
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Marketing features - Multi-Tier Pricing and Coupons
- Search Engine Friendly URLs and Meta Tags
- Product Tagging
- Product Comparison
- Permissions
- Multiple Payment Systems & Shipping
One thing I would like to have in this rising ecommerce platform is to integrate a complete affiliate program into the system. Affiliate program does not only boost sales for shop owners but it can also help others, that cannot build online shop, to make money from online shops powered by Magento.
Check out Magento for a detailed info. It will be a great application in the near future and it might help you if you are planning to build your online shop. I suggest to subscribe to their newsletter to stay updated with future releases.
written by Ramil Alcibar
Sep 09
Shopify is a hosted ecommerce solution that allows you to build a complete online store with integrated payment system. Unlike Zlio, it is your own own products that you must sell in your online shop, no products from merchants or any third party vendors but there is a Shopify T-Shirt as a sample product after registering your account. The Village Sheep Shop is just one of those online shop powered by Shopify.
Building your online shop takes just a few moments of registration process (already include selection of theme to be used) and after that you will then be able to access the administration panel of your store where you can manage products, view orders, create content, run a blog, and modify your store appearance. You must also setup the method of payments you will accept. Currently, it supports a number of credit card payments and of course the popular PayPal, Google Checkout and Authorize.net. It even let you accept manual payments such as money orders, bank deposits and Cash on Delivery (COD). You should also setup the shipping system of your store since it is your own products that you are selling. With those few clicks of your store settings, you are ready to sell your products online.
Technically-wise, Shopify has a gallery of themes that you can choose to use with your store. If you are tech-savvy, Shopify has also an application that lets you create your own theme, called Vision. Shopify also supports using your own domain name - this is very important for branding - also supprted by Zlio. Shopify does have a marketplace too in which you can add your products for free to gain more exposure.
Shopify has four pricing plans to setup your own store. There’s a free trial plan which has no cost at all but you are limited up to five orders only. When you reached five orders, you will have to choose a paid plan to continue selling. One thing I think missing with Shopify is an affiliate program. They should have included it from the start so that they can recruit an army of marketers, for them to minimize the promotion and maximizing profits.
If you have any experiences with Shopify, please do let us know by posting it in the comments area. Visit Shopify for more info and to get your free Shopify store to start making money!
written by Ramil Alcibar
Sep 06
WP Text Ads is a WordPress plugin that can let bloggers sell text links directly on their blog, thus there’s no third party text link brokers involved, cutting the middleman’s fee. WP Text Ads comes in two versions - Free and $127/license. The free version has all the features of the paid one except that it limits you to sell only two text link ads. In addition of using this plugin, you can also list your blog in his Marketplace to gain little exposure for potential advertisers. However, the listings in the marketplace uses the rel=”nofollow” attribute when I view-source the listings. Alex Choo from Singapore, the one-man developer of WP Text Ads, has already given details of this WordPress plugin and you can read more about it here.
Advertiser A buys a text link ad at your blog through Company T for $100. Company T takes a 30% commission. You are paid $70 after 30 days or later.
With WP Text Ads, you lower the price to $80 and Advertiser A buys it directly from you.
As a result, you earn $80 immediately ($10 more than before) and Advertiser A saves $20. It’s a win-win situation!
The purpose of this plugin is greatly beneficial for both publishers (bloggers) and advertisers alike. However, this is still only a dream for the small (like Earners Club) to medium players and may not work as it is supposed to be. For a blog to have direct advertiser(s), it must have large number of loyal readers and subscribers. Even though there is WP Text Ads Marketplace, I think it’s not enough to drive-in sales currently as I assumed that people who knew this marketplace are mostly bloggers.
written by Ramil Alcibar
Sep 02
Affiliate Programs, Blogging, Business Opportunities, Domain Names, Free Stuff, Freelancing, Get-Paid-To Programs, Google Adsense, Publisher Opportunities, Reselling, Tools & Resources, Traffic & Promotion, Website Monetization, Work At Home Jobs
DigitalPoint Forums (I preferrably called DP) is a popular and high-traffic search engine optimization and internet marketing forum - but it seems that this description is too little and may not actually fit compared to what actually DP is, because it goes far far beyond with it. At the time of writing, it is the 160th most popular site in the world according to Alexa, which has also a traffic rank of 156. In addition, if you go now to DP, you can see for yourself how popular it is by just looking the current active users. DP is 100% free to join and there’s no payment at all no matter where you would like to read or post, unlike other forums that offer subscriptions to access private forums. And the best part of DP which was not directly stated in any page of their site is that you can actually earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Listed below are some of the ways on how you can make money online with DigitalPoint Forums.
- Make Money With Your Services (Freelancing)
DP has a dedicated forum category where everyone can offer or look for services - this acts like a freelance site. If you know how to read and write English then you may also be able to make money at the Services section. DP does not charge you any fees to offer your service, whether it is successful or not. Here are some of the services which you can offer to DP members:
- Web Design
- Programming
- Scripts Installation
- Article Writing
- Article Submission
- Posting (Forum Posting, Blog Posting, Blog Commenting, etc)
- Submission (Directory Submission, Social Bookmarking Submission, Press Release Submission, etc)
- Data Entry
- Any job that you can think of
- Google Adsense Revenue Sharing
As stated on Making Money In Google Adsense Without a Website, DP is listed as #1 for Adsense Revenue Sharing program. If you are a regular poster and create threads that can catch attention and replies, you will be able earn with this program. Your Adsense ads will be used 50% of the time when your thread is viewed. A detailed infomation can be found here.
- Maximize Adsense Earnings
If you are new to Adsense or just simply want to improve your Adsense earnings, just read or ask a question in their Adsense forum and for sure you will get replies of useful information you need.
- SEO, Marketing, Link Building
Real traffic is your source of income for your website(s), but how can you get traffic? Simply read a lot of stuff in their Marketing forum - believe me that you will find information not found on eBooks you bought.
- Drive Traffic To Your Sites
Again, traffic, traffic and traffic is one factor to make money online. At DP, you can drive traffic into your website(s) by advertising it in your signature and participate regularly in the forum. DP has also a Link Exchange section if you are seeking link exchange. If you want instant traffic, you can exchange other members with Stumbles, Diggs, Netscape votes and other similar things - please take note though that this seems an unethical method of getting traffic and may not also allowed by the terms of each site such as Digg.
- Sell Your Websites
If you have website(s) that you cannot manage anymore or you just simply want to sell it, then offer it here.
- Resell Domain Names
If your into a domain names business, you can find some cheap domains at DP for sale, which of course you can resell. Or maybe you have some domains for sale, then offer it at their Buy/Sell Domain section. Please don’t get so addicted on buying domains like me 
- Sell eBooks, Softwares & Other Digital Products
Do you have eBooks with resell (or master resell) rights? Or do you have a software recently developed and want to make some money with it? Or do you have some images, photos, wallpapers, etc.? Make money from that stuffs by selling it in the main Buy/Sell/Trade section. Or if you’re so nice,
you can give it away for free but with a hidden price. What I mean is to offer it as FREE but let potential users of those products register first (& let them opt-in to subscribe) before they can download. This way, you will be slowly building a list - and remember the phrase “THE MONEY IS IN THE LIST“.
- Sell Your Content
If you have PLR articles, databases (preferred is in MySQL format) you can also sell it on DP. Hundreds of potential buyers are waiting for your contents.
- Sell WordPress Themes & Other Web Templates
If you are good in web design and you can make WordPress Themes, phpLD templates, proxy templates, portfolio designs then you can earn hundreds of dollars or even thousands from it. From my own experience, it is very rare that designs cannot be successfully sold at DP.
- Get Sponsors With Your Free Themes
If you put yourself in a worst situation where no one will buy your pre-made designs, then just give it away for free. You can still make money with your free themes by selling text links in your theme. Usually, the text link(s) will be embed in the footer of your themes. Even with the issue of WordPress sponsored themes (this and this), many are still eager to buy sponsored links on your free WordPress themes. However, we are not talking only WP themes here, you can create others such as free VB skin, free phpLD templates, etc. and sell text link(s) on it.
- Sell Advertisements & Links In Your Site Directly
If you have website(s) and would not like to use text link borkers such as TLA, you can find customers at DP by posting your offer in the Link Sales forum. Most users preferred sites with high PageRank.
- Sell Signatures, Location and Avatar
Yes, DP allow you to let others rent your signatures, location, avatar and even recent blog section. If you are a regular poster and make thousands of posts, you can really profit on that arena.
- eCurrency Exchange
“I need $100 in YourProcessor and I’ll pay you $110 via MyProcessor” - this is an exchange in eCurrency. If you have a lot of funds in your payment processor which others don’t have (let’s say e-gold for example), you can also offer this at DP. Just be careful with scammers (though there’s an iTrader system) and most importantly, this may not allowed on the payment processor you used. For example, PayPal does not allow this type of exchange. Do this type of business at your own risk. THIS IS VERY RISKY, REMEMBER IT!
- Offer Your Affiliate Programs & Other Business
Do you started your own affiliate program? Or do you have web hosting business? Or even a new web directory? Announce this at DP in an appropriate forum category and you can have partner/customers for sure.
- Join Contests
Unfortunately, contests at DP are usually for designers. Logo, banner, header and template design contests are among those that are available and are always in demand. In a rare occassion, members post easy contest such as Slogan Contest. Usually you will get money if you are choosen as the winner, others just offer eBooks, text link, etc.
- Discounts on Vouchers & Coupons
- Sell MySpace Bulletins / hi5 Comments
All of the lists above, the most profitable for me until now is on Web Design. What’s yours?
Those ways does not sum up to 101 ways to make money online with DigitalPoint Forums as the title says. I intended it to be just a short list because I will let some DPers share some thoughts on how can they make money online with DP until it reaches a total of 101. To start with DPers interactions, I would like to add one to the list I created above: Make Money To Digg, Stumble, etc. There are still ways that I knew of that can add up the list but it will definitely fall under the Services (freelance) forum.
written by Ramil Alcibar
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