I’m currently in the process of converting one of my old sites from Moveable type to Wordpress. The site hasn’t been updated since 2007 and all the pages were static pages. I decided to port it over to wordpress and make it dynamic by getting offer information from a database.

I decided to store the offers in a database because in the past, I would get calls from the networks telling me that the wording on a page was incorrect and that I had to change it before a specific day or my affiliate link would be deactivated. This meant that I had to go to every page where the offer was listed and manually make the corrections on each page.

With the offers now stored in a database, I can just make changes in one place and the information will be automatically updated on all the pages where the offer is displayed.

Exec-PHP Plugin

With a standard installation of Wordpress, you are not allowed to include any php code in any of your posts or pages, unless you get sometype of plugin which will allow you to do so. I decided to go with the Exec-PHP plugin by Sören. There are other plugins out there that get the job done, I just settled on this one based on the number of downloads it had compaired to the others.

The plugin works great. I was able to query the mysql database and display the information within a wordpress post or page. The only problem was that when queried the database using php, my category list and archive list would become empty. I didn’t know exactly what was causing it or why. I checked everything that I could possibly check to find out what was causing this. I checked the code for the sidebar, checked my php code, checked the template code, nothing.

After scratching my head for hours, I finally figured out what was causing this. It was happening because the user name and password that I used to query my offers database was the same username/password that wordpress used to run the site.

Since my code was executed first, I was able to connect to the database and get the information that I needed and then close the connection. Once I closed the connection, wordpress no longer had a way to get the information about the categories and posts, so it displayed nothing.

The moral of the story is this:

If you use the exec-php plugin for wordpress to retrieve information from a database, make sure that you do not use the same database username that you’re using to run your wordpress site. Create a different user to use with the exec-php plugin.

Uncategorized exec-php, plugin, wordpress

It’s a new day in  America, and It’s about time!

It’s about time George Bush is out of office, and it’s about time that America will finally have its first black president.

Barack Obama, you rock!

Personal

Today is the day that I leave to go to Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West (ASW)! This will be my second time attending the Affiliate Summit conference. The first time that I attended was in August for Affiliate Summit East (ASE) in Boston. I had a great time in Boston. I met a lot of people and learned a lot from both the people that I met and from the sessions that I attended. This time should be the same too.

ASW is taking place in Las Vegas this year. There are two conferences every year, one on the east coast, and another on the west coast. Although ASE changes every time, ASW always takes place in Vegas, I wonder why????

Anyway, I’m really excited to be attending another conference. There are so many great people to meet, good sessions to attend, and lots of information to digest. If you haven’t attended, and you are in the affiliate marketing industry, you should definitely try to attend at least one conference. The information that you will learn is worth more than the price tag of the event. Also, if you book your pass for the next conference while the current is going on, you can get it for at great discount! That’s what I always do.

This will be my firs time in Las Vegas. I will be staying at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino where the conference is taking place. At the last Affiliate Summit in Boston, I made the mistake of reserving my room at the last possible time and ended staying at a hotel next to where the conference was taking place. It was kind of annoying because the majority of the people where in one place and small group of procrastinators were at the hotel next door. This year, I didn’t make that mistake. As soon I purchased my conference pass, I also booked my hotel room!

Sessions That I will Be Attending

There are going to be a lot of great sessions and speakers this year at ASW and I attend on sitting in on many of them. Here is a list of the sessions that I will try to make it to this year at ASW:

Day 1

1. Affiliate Strategies for Traffic Generation and Monetization - This will be the session that kicks off the event. On the panel for this session are Nick Koscianski (NickyCakes) from NickyCakes.com, Miles Baker from Marketingwithmiles.com, and Geordie Cardswell from Diversion Marketing. The session will be moderated by Andrew Wee from WhoisAndrewWee.com. They will talk about PPC, seo optimization, website strategies and more.
2. The Black Ink Session - Jeremy Palmer will teach you how to plan, develop and market your own profitable affiliate site with a hands-on case study.
3. Automating Websites and PPC Management - John Hasson will be the speaker for this session. John is a really cool guy who tells it how it is. I attended his session the difference PPC engines last year and learned a lot. I look forward to this one as well. John is going to talk about the advanced concepts for automating daily website tasks (such as downloading stats, uploading changes, etc.) without access to an API.

Day 2

1. Keynote Address by Gary Vaynerchuk. I wouldn’t miss this one for the world. Gary is a great motivational speaker and entrepreneur. I really look forward to finally seeing him in person.Advertising on Facebook - The power of advertising on Facebook is amazing. You can target your ads to the exact demographic! This session will talk about advertising on Facebook. On the panel will be Zac Johnson, Jeremy Schoemaker, and Alex Schultz from Facebook.
2. Landing Page Testing To Increase Conversion - Tim Ash, author of Landing Page Optimization will talk about landing page testing to improve conversion.

Day 3

1. Super Affiliate PPC Marketing Strategies - Anik Singal, Rosalind Garner, Colin McDougall, and Amit Mehta will talk about how to inexpensively use Google, Yahoo, and MSN to drive inexpensive traffic to your site.
2. Setting Quality Standards in Affiliate Marketing - William Martin-Gill from the Ebay Partner Network will talk about improving the quality of the ebay affiliate program.
3. The Art of Keyword Blasting - Ian Fernando will talk blasting keywords and keeping the ones that convert
4. Affiliate Triathlon - I’m taking part in the Affiliate Triathlon this year. Every year, money is raised for a good cause. Shawn Collins decided to sponsor the first 5 people who commented on “Want Me To Sponsor You For The Affiliate Triathlon?“. I was commenter # 2 and got sponsored by Shawn. I also plan on making a donation myself. The money is being raised for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

That’s it for the sessions and activities that I’m going to attend and be part of. In addition to this, there are going to be lots of parties being thrown by the difference CPA networks, and as always, the parties are the best time to network and meet other link minded individuals.

I really can’t wait to get there. Unfortunately, I’m stuck at this small airport, just waiting to get my flight delayed, AGAIN!

Alright, i’m out of here. I’ll post a recap of everything when I return.

Peace out!

Affiliate Marketing affiliate summit, asw, las vegas, rio

Happy New Year everyone. I really wish everyone the best in 2009. 2008 was a heck of a year and I’m pretty happy that it’s over. Hopefully, 2009 will be a better year for all of us.

New Year Resolutions

Just like many other people around the world, I’ve also made some new year resolutions for 2009. The new year is always the best time to make promises. The top 3 resolutions for 2009 will be to lose weight, exercise more, and quit smoking. Funny, those are also my top 3 resolutions!

1. Lose Weight - I need to shed a few pounds in the new year. My goal is to lose 25 pounds in the next 6 months. At 2 pounds per week, I should have no problem reaching this goal. In order to lose these 25lbs in 6 months, I will eat healthier, eat proper portions, exercise regularly, and take Acai Berry Pills!!! I’m just joking about the acai berry pills :-). So, lose 25lbs, piece of cake!
2. Exercise More Often - It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the gym at least 3 times in a week. There was a time when I used to go to the gym a few times a week. Even if it was only for 30 minutes, it felt great. I had more energy, I felt healthier, and I looked better. In 2009, I will get back into this routine. I would like to go at least 3 times a week, maximum 4.

   The hardest part about going to the gym is finding the dedication and time to go. It’s definitely hard to find the time and dedication to go work out when you have a full time job. When I’m at work all day, the last thing that I want to do when I get home is go to the gym. I just want to go home, eat some dinner, maybe watch an hour of tv, check my facebook, etc, etc! You don’t want to go to the gym, you just want to relax.

   Another issue that I had with the gym was the location! Who the hell wants to go to the gym if they have to drive 15 minutes to get there? Not me! Forget that, I rather just stay home and not think about it. I’ve found the solution to the location problem. There’s a gym not far from my house now. It’s literally 3 minutes away. The gym is called Retro Fitness, and it’s a great place. They have lots of machines, cardio equipment with TVs on them, shake bar, and a fitness theater. Also, with the membership being $10 cheaper than Gold’s Gym’s, I’ll save over $120 a year or $240 for me and my wife.

3. Quit Smoking - In 2008, I picked up a bad habit that I had previously dropped. I had been smoke free for almost 2 years when all of the sudden, I was sucked back into it. I would occasionally smoke a cigarette when I would go out for a drink with my uncles, thinking that I had everything under control. Who the hell was I kidding? That addiction snuck up on me so fast and that I didn’t know what hit me.

   I will stop smoking in 2009. When I first stopped smoking couple years ago, I did it with the help of the nicotine patch, and this year, I will use patches to help me stop again. My plan is to use the patches for about 1 month and then to just quit 100%.
   
   

4. Read More Books - Last year I didn’t read as many books as I wanted to. My plan was to read at least 12 books, 1 a month. How many did I read? I’m pretty sure I didn’t reach my quota. I might have read 4 books in 2008 compared to 12 in 2007. My goal in 2009 is to read at least 12 books again this year. The first book that I’m going to read in 2009 is “Be The Pack Leader” by Cesar Millan. I have two small dogs who need a little bit of help.
5. Incorporate - My last post was about incorporating; I still haven’t done it. Hopefully, by mid January, I will have incorporated my online marketing business.
   
   
6. Keep In Touch With Family and Friends - In 2009, I will keep in touch with my family and friends more than I have in the past. Not that I don’t keep in touch, I just don’t do it as often as I would like, and in 2009, I will do it more often.

The begining of a new year is always a good time to set goals. I’ve set my goals for 2009 and I plan on achieving all of them this year. Did you make any resolutions for 2009?

Once again, Happy New Year and have a great 2009!

Personal 2009, goals, new year, resolutions

The time has come for me to officially create a corporation, and guess who’s going to be a CEO? Seriously though, I really need to form a company. I’ve been running my affiliate business as a sole proprietor for 6 years. I’ve paid enough in taxes and I’m ready to be a slave, to my company, and work for a salary.

Why am I incorporating so late?
It’s easy, it’s because I am a major procrastinator! Seriously, I could’ve done this a long time ago and saved myself thousands in taxes (and also protected myself), but I like to learn things the hard way.

At first I was going to go with an LLC (limited liability company) but after thinking and reading a lot on the topic, I’ve decided to go with an S-Corp. Once I form the corporation, my company will be its own entity, and I will become an employee of my company. Of course, I still have to consult with a lawyer before doing anything.

At first I was going to do it on my own by just using legalzoom or some similar service, but I really don’t want to F this up, and since I’m not an expert at forming companies, it’s best that I seek advice from a professional. I have exactly 27 days to get this rolling. So, by the end of the year, I will be a CEO.

Why am I Incorporating?
I am incorporating for a lot of reasons, the top being the following:

1. I Get To Save on Taxes! I have no issues with paying taxes. But damn, can I keep some more of my hard earned money? I know it goes to good causes (some of it), but must you take all of that, Uncle Sam? One thing that people who are self employed hate about taxes is the self employment tax. Why must we be taxed an extra 15%? By incorporating, I won’t be self employed anymore, Booyakasha
2. I Will Protect Myself! If someone were to sue me right now, they could go after my personal assets. When I incorporate, the most they can go after is the company (unless I mix personal and business income, then they can “pierce the corporate veil” and go after my personal stuff) Now that I’m a home owner, the last thing I need is for someone to sue me, not have enough $$ to cover the lawsuit, and end up selling my house to cover the lawsuit.
3. I Get To Be CEO! How cool is that? Being CEO of a company. Although it’s not CEO of some large corporation with billions in sales every year (although it will be in the future :-), think BIG), I think it will be a great feeling.
4. Business Credit! Once the corporation is formed, I can start building credit and hopefully borrowing a lot of money. We all know that in order to make money, we need to spend money, and it’s always nice when you’re not spending your money, although you have to pay it back :-).

I haven’t decided on a business name yet, I have some in mind, but the decision isn’t final yet. Once it’s official, I will announce the business name.

Did you incorporate your business? How was the process? Are you glad you incorporated? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Thanks a lot.

Jonathan

Personal business, ceo, incorporate

It’s been a while since I last posted something on this wonderful blog of mine. I keep promising myself that I will be more active on my blog, but in the end, I end up not being as active as I wish to be. I don’t know exactly why I keep going this route. But anyway, instead of making false promises of posting on a regular basis, I will just post when ever I want, and I will post what ever I want to post. I’m pretty sure that the world doesn’t need another “Make Money Online”  blog. And I have to admit, that was one of my problems with keeping this blog updated. I didn’t want to just post recycled information that is available from 1001 different places.There are thousands out there and they all have the same exact information.

So with that said, this blog is going to just be a place for me to write what ever I want, when ever i want. If I feel about writing about affiliate marketing, I will do so. If I feel about writing about my new house, or the last book that I read, or the crazy shit that I saw today, I will do so.

If you really think about it, most of the money making blogs out there aren’t really giving you any new information. And if you think that an affiliate marketter with a blog will actually tell you what he/she is doing right now to earn some money in affiliate marketing and share it with you, keep dreaming, because it’s never going to happen. You’re either going to get recycled information or the information is going to be divuldged long after the money has been made, so when you read it, you’re going jump in the boat to late.

The only way to make money is by simply testing new things and tracking everything. If you test enough things and keep track of things, you’re going to succeed. So keep testing and trying new things. Also, stop wasting your time reading every damn blog on the planet and actually put what you’ve read into action and DO SOMETHING! You’re not going to make a single dollar from reading all those money making blogs until you actually try something.

Another you need to stop doing is being afraid. Don’t be afraid to try that idea you’ve been thinking about. Don’t be afraid to lose an extra $50, $100, $1000 today, as long as you learn from it. I know that my last guest post said that affiliate marketing was easy (I apologize for not completely reading a guest post before posting, lesson learned), but it really isn’t. It’s a never ending roller coaster and you just have to remember from each and every down.

With that said, go out and try something. That plan you’ve had in your mind for the last 3 months, execute it, try it out and if you fail, learn from your mistake.

Have a good night.

Personal

Affiliate Marketing

The folks over at Unique Blog Designs are having a contest to celebrate their 1 year anniversary! These guys have worked with over 200 clients including John Chow, Shoemoney, Zac Johnson, Uber Affiliate, and even Yahoo.

Here’s some more information directly fron UBD:

Enter the UBD 1-Year Anniversary Contest

In celebration of our one-year birthday, we will be running a contest for the remainder of August (until Sunday, August 31st). The contest is open to everyone on Earth! If you are not from Earth, you are responsible for the cost of shipping. So, what are the prizes?

• 1 grand prize winner will win a brand new 8GB Ipod Touch and the soon to be released UBD Citrus Theme for wordpress.
• 3 runner up winners will get the UBD citrus theme.

Entering the contest is extremely easy. Right now, there are two ways to:

1. You simply have to reply to this post with a comment. Only one comment per person will be counted. Commenting on the post gives you 1 contest entry.
2. The second way to gain 5 entry points is to write a blog post about the contest

Altogether, you can get up to 6 entries for your chance to win. So if you’re feeling lucky, enter the UBD 1-Year Anniversary Contest for your chance to win an Ipod and a great wordpress theme.

Other

I recently attended my first ever Affiliate Summit conference. I have been wanting to attend this conference for a while and I’m glad that I was finally able to do so. I was in Boston from Saturday, August 9 to Tuesday, August 12.

Saturday
White in Boston, I stayed at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel, which is just a few minutes away from where the conference was taking place. Ideally, I would’ve loved to stay at the hotel where the conference was taking place, but due to my normal nature of doing things late, all rooms were booked when I finally decided to book my room. As a matter of fact, I almost ended up not even getting a room at the Westin.

After checking on Saturday, I went over to the Boston Seaport hotel’s lobby bar for a drink and to meet some people. Ian Fernando along with Charles Ngo came down and we all chit chatted over a few drinks. Ian and Charles are the first people that I really interacted with at the summit and they’re both great people.

Sunday, Day 1
Day one was pretty laid back. I thought that the check-in process was going to be a breeze, but it wasn’t for me. There were some printing problems so I ended waiting for 20+ minutes before getting my pass. It would’ve been nice if an announcement about the printing problems was made a little sooner.

After registering, I immediately went to John Hasson’s presentation, Which PPC Engines Work and How?. John’s session was packed with people and full of great information. Thanks for all the great information, John.

On Sunday night, Share a Sale hosted a party on the Odyssey ship. I almost wasn’t able to attend since I didn’t get a ticket. Lucky for me, Eric Nagle was nice enough to provide me with two tickets since he wasn’t going to be attending anymore. I had a great time at the share-a-sale party. Thanks again, Eric.

Monday, Day 2

Mayor Corey Booker’s speech was great. It was moving and very motivational. but it didn’t relate one bit to affiliate marketing. I still don’t know why he was invited to speak to a bunch of online marketers. Don’t get me wrong, his speech was moving, humorous, and motivational, but I think it would’ve been better if we had someone from the industry speak to us.

The first session that I attended was Wil Reynold’s “My 5 Favorite SEO Strategies Exposed” . Wil’s session was very informative. He talked about the different tools and strategies that he uses to gain back links. He also talked a lot about Google’s new service, Knol, In case you haven’t heard, Google Knol is Google’s answer to Wikipedia. Although the service is new, pages created in Knol are ranking high, and very quickly.

Me, listening to Wil Reynolds speak (flickr)

The second session I attended, The Anatomy of a Great Affiliate Program , was moderated by Heather Paulson and included the opinions of Ian Fernando , Janet Attard , and Daniel Gray . Although the session was geared towards companies who ran affiliate programs, it was good to hear Ian’s perspective, from an affiliate’s point of view

The third session that I attended, and probably my favorite of the day/possibly the entire conference, was Tim Ash’s “Landing Page Testing to Attract Super Affiliates” . The session was geared towards companies with affiliate programs but the information was useful for everyone. The main point that was drilled into everyone’s head is testing; one small change can increase your conversion rate and increase your profits. Tim is also the author of Landing Page Optimization . At the end of the show, one lucky audience member won a signed copy of his book.

Tim Ash’s session was very informative. (flickr)

The last session that I attended was Amit Mehta’s PPC Super Affiliate Strategies You Must Know . Amit seems like a great guy, but I after sitting in on the session, I wish I would’ve attended another session. The information that he provided was nothing new. As a matter of fact, most of it was already available on his blog.

Tuesday, Day 3
On Tuesday I went to the Ask The Experts Roundtable Discussions. It kind of sucked because a lot of the so called “experts” who were supposed to answer questions simply didn’t show up.

I attended Zac Johnson’s How to Grow a Blog table. Zac pretty much answered everyone’s questions starting and growing a blog. There were lots of people at the table who wanted to know how he got his blog become an authority in such a short period of time. The information that he provided was very useful.

Overall, my first affiliate summit was a success! I learned a lot and met a lot of great people and I look forward to attending the next conference in Las Vegas.

Affiliate Marketing affiliate summit, affsum, ase, ase08, boston

eBay today announced that they will be implementing a new pricing structured for Active Confirmed Registered User (ACRU) compensation. This new payment structure for ACRUs will take effect today for new publishers. For publishers who’ve signed up with the ebay partner program prior to today, the changes won’t take place for you until November 1.

In a nutshell, you won’t get the normal $25-35 you were used to getting for new users who signed up for an ebay account via you. You will still get paid for new users, but that amount won’t be set in stone anymore. It will vary from month to month depending on the quality of your new registered users. According to ebay:

Here’s how it will work. Each publisher will be placed in a quality tier at the end of each month based on that month’s and historical traffic. The tiers will range from $1 to $50, and the higher the expected lifetime value of the customers a publisher sends, the higher the tier the publisher will receive. We expect that most affiliates with a history of driving good, consistent traffic won’t see a lot of variability from month to month.

So you can expect to earn anywhere from $1.50 to $50 per new user now. $50 per user, that sounds sweet. I’m curious to know exactly how they calculate the quality of a new user. It’s probably going to be based on a user’s purchase history, visits, rating activity, and more.

I had a feeling that this was going to happen sooner or later. The previous tier system was great for affiliates, but simply dangerous for ebay. The possibility of fraud and abuse is high. I’m pretty sure that a lot of people pay others to sign up in order to get the ACRU credit. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a service out there that promised you x amount of new registered users for a low price.

Hopefully this new change in payment structure will allow me and others to pass that $28 per ACRU tier we’ve been stuck at ever since joining the program.

Here’s a copy of the letter I received in, its entirety.

Dear Jonathan Radande,

As part of our ongoing effort to reward our best marketing partners and promote trusted commerce on eBay, we are implementing a new pricing structure for Active Confirmed Registered User (ACRU) compensation. The new pricing scheme is based on quality, instead of just volume, and will reward top publishers with up to $50 per ACRU driven to eBay.

Starting today, August 1st, new publishers that join the eBay Partner Network will be placed in this new quality-based pricing structure for the US program.

All publishers that joined eBay Partner Network before August 1st will remain in the existing pricing tiers for a few more months so you can have time to look at the data and see how the change will affect you. As of November 1st, all publishers will be placed in the value based pricing structure for ACRUs.

Here’s how it will work. Each publisher will be placed in a quality tier at the end of each month based on that month’s and historical traffic. The tiers will range from $1 to $50, and the higher the expected lifetime value of the customers a publisher sends, the higher the tier the publisher will receive. We expect that most affiliates with a history of driving good, consistent traffic won’t see a lot of variability from month to month.

Publishers that join after August 1st will be able to see what tier they fall in by going to the programs tab and selecting payments structure for the US program. This tier will be updated on the 9th of each month and will reflect the score for the previous month. The tier will be 0 for the first month while we calculate your first score. Note that your ACRU earnings in your reports will reflect this tier.

If you joined before August 1st, you will continue to only see the same volume-based tiers for now. In September we will release a new separate report that will allow all publishers to break down, by campaign, the quality of the ACRUs you are driving to eBay. We will send more details about this report in a few weeks.

Please note that this change only affects compensation for new user registrations (ACRUs). Payouts for revenue share will continue on the same volume-based tiers for both new and old users. While the current change only affects the US eBay program on eBay Partner Network, we are evaluating this system on a country by country basis and will provide additional updates as they become available.

For more details on how the new pricing structure will work in the US please log into eBay Partner Network and visit the eBay US terms and conditions in the "Programs" tab on eBay Partner Network. There are also FAQs in the Help section of eBay Partner Network https://www.ebaypartnernetwork.com/files/hub/en-US/help.html and in the user guide in the advertisers and programs tab under "value-based pricing".

We want to continue to reward quality publishers and seek to continuously improve your experience in the program. This change will allow us to match payouts to the value of users and ensure we pay out our best affiliates the highest amounts. Thank you for your service and continued commitment to our relationship.
eBay Partner Network

Ebay acru, affiliate program, Ebay, partnet network