Is Pepperjam A Reputable Affiliate Program?

To those of you who were following this blog. You know that I’m testing out affiliate marketing since April. My affiliate marketing results are as follows:

April : $22

May : $426

June : $1215

Given these values. I have come to a conclusion that affiliate marketing is profitable to anyone who wish to learn. I have no clue on how to do affiliate marketing on my first month (I even lost 10,000 pesos in ppc), yet I made profit on my 3rd.

So You Know It Works, Now What?

First of all, I am not into posting earnings. Earning $1200 a month is nothing to brag about once you know that the big players are earning ten times as much per day. Since I made a commitment to try affiliate marketing for 3 months with PepperJam (I switched to pepperjam in June because eBay’s affiliate system is still wacked) and I was doing the $1000 in 3 months challenge from pinoy money talk by myself, I posted this earnings as the result of my challenge. And I won’t be posting anymore earnings after this. Why? I don’t see the need to. I’m here to tell everyone who stumbled upon my blog and maybe, trying to learn affiliate marketing. I say to you, do not give up and that it is possible to be profitable in affiliate marketing. Well, it depends on how much you are willing to learn.

Some people have emailed me about what products to promote and what ad network I use. The answer is, I’m an affiliate of CJ. But CJ can be very intimidating at first will all advertisers in there. And also, it’s kind of hard to get accepted. I’m with pepperjam network and I can say, they are by far, the easiest to get into and the affiliate managers are friendly. They will help you to boost your earnings.

So to cut things short, there are the results of my $1000 in 3 months challenge and see you guys around.

If you still don’t trust pepperjam if its a refutable affiliate program, here’s a quote from Inc Magazine Announcing Peppergam to be #70 on Inc. 500’s fastest growing companies for 4 consecutive years:

WILKES-BARRE, Pa., Aug 20, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Pepperjam, an industry-leading full-service interactive marketing agency and affiliate network, announced today that it ranks within the top 100 businesses on Inc. Magazine’s 2008 list of fastest growing privately-held companies in the United States. This is Pepperjam’s third consecutive year on the list. Pepperjam’s 2008 Inc. 500 ranking is #70 with four-year revenue growth of 2,447.5%.

    According to the 2008 Inc. 500 list Pepperjam ranks as:
-- one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in the United States
-- the #2 fastest growing company within the State of Pennsylvania
-- the #1 fastest growing full-service internet marketing agency
-- the #1 fastest growing interactive marketing agency
-- the #1 fastest growing affiliate marketing network
-- the #1 fastest growing search-engine marketing firm

– the #1 fastest growing “advertising / marketing” company within the State of Pennsylvania (#5 in the United States)

“We are absolutely elated to be listed on Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing companies for a third straight year. Our ranking is a testament to the dedication of our staff, our excellent service and technology offering, and our continued innovation,” said Kristopher B. Jones, President & CEO of Pepperjam.

“When Kris and I hired our first employee nearly five years ago I knew that we embarked on something big, very big — I just didn’t know how big. The irony of Pepperjam’s success is that from those first days to the present day our team comes into the office everyday with the attitude that we’ve only just gotten started,” said Michael C. Jones, COO of Pepperjam.

About Pepperjam:

Pepperjam offers a full range of professional marketing management services in the areas of pay-per-click, search-engine optimization, affiliate marketing, and online media planning and buying. Since 1999 Pepperjam has developed a reputation for being one of the most innovative, aggressive, and effective internet marketing agencies in the business. Learn more at www.pepperjam.com

About Pepperjam Network:

Pepperjam Network is a next generation affiliate marketing network that provides advertisers and publishers with industry leading pay-for-performance tracking, reporting, communication, and payment solutions. Pepperjam Network is a division of Pepperjam, a full-service internet marketing agency recognized by Inc. Magazine for the last two consecutive years as one of the fastest growing businesses in the United States. Learn more at www.pepperjamnetwork.com

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click
appropriate link.
Kristopher B. Jones

Full story here.

If you’re still here and reading, you are missing out. Join Pepperjam’s Affiliate Program now and you’ll get $10 Sign up bonus as well.

Ok my post about the “No Money on Pinay Scandal Keyword” I kind of feel obligated to educate people on how adsense goes and how to UP your earnings.

Let me give you a little drawing, tell me, if you are Google, what will be your decision?

Most likely if you’re in the right mind, you’ll pick HIGH CTR to put Mr. Gates’ Ad to get the best ROI for him. Then if you’re google, you’ll reward the HIGH CTR site with high paying clicks. And if HP or Dell decided to join the bandwagon, you already know what site to pick. Because Google knows your visitors are golden converting machine.

Then, you’ll put Poor Advertiser on the LOW CTR site. This is not necessarily Smartpricing just yet. If Google sees your CTR is just crap, even for the Poor Advertiser will be hurting, Google will change the price of Poor Advertiser’s clicks to 0.01 to 0.20 which is called Smartpricing.

Demystifying CTR and Conversion Rate

CTR or click through rate is the rate of successful clicks per impression. How many chances does your ads are getting clicks. Example. Pedro is looking for the programming software that mr gates is selling. He saw HIGH CTR’s ads. Clicked on it. Well what do you know, successful click. Click. On to the advertiser’s site we go.

Conversion Rate. On the Advertisers site, Pedro did not purchase the product. He changed his mind. Conversion rate goes down.

That’s how it is. Conversion rate is not related to CTR. CTR Only gives you the chance to get the high paying advertisers and gives you the candidacy for Smartpricing.

edit: If you have HIGH CTR and Low Conversion most likely its click fraud. If you have LOW CTR and High Conversion, it doesn’t matter, your clicks are cheap anyway + you might get smart priced.

The big question : Does CTR affect my cost per click (EARNINGS)? YES. Is smartpricing real? Hell yes.

The thing is, if you’re confused about google’s tos about adsense and CTR? Don’t go quote it if you don’t know it yourself. CTR is there to let google know what kind of site you are. Conversion rate is for the merchant side. If the CTR and conversion rate has too much difference, you’ll get flagged as click fraud.

Hell, to make it simple, if you want to earn big bucks in adsense, aim for high ctr. Dump the conversion shit. You have no way of knowing anyway.

But hey, who am I? I have no 4 years of experience in blogging.

I never really thought that I would take web design and development seriously. I have a Computer Engineering degree and its all computation, numbers and binaries on our head. But the creative spark of our human brain took domination over my other half of my brain. To put it in simple words, I was hooked!

I never really thought in the beginning that you could actually earn money from web pages or make a business out of it. I’ve been stumbling day after day after I quit my full time job as to where I could get the money to pay the bills. Up then after months of searching. I have come to find out the best way to make money on web design especially on a freelance basis.

This is how I learned, and I use these points to get freelance jobs. It may not work for anybody else but its up to you to apply the things I will point out.

Practice Web Design

Practice makes perfect. Creativity can not be learned by principle only through practice. Enhance your creativity in web design by doing creative things aside from web design. Creative writing, photography, painting… Anything that requires creativity. Its your bread and butter.

When I was starting up, I used to copy websites that I really like. My favorite was 2advanced.com. Their design is simply the best. Learn from each websites you visit and take note of what part of the page is attractive, pay attention to details.

Know the Web Design Trends

Clients are always on the look out for the best and freshest design for their website. If its a big company, they will need the website to be updated to the latest look. Know the styles, know the dont’s.

Brand Yourself

When joining web design communities or competition, always have the same name in the internet. So people know who you are and your skills and it would be easier for them to contact you.

Make Money

Join Web Design Competition

The best way to earn money online while learning is to join competition. SEO have seo competition so as web designers. Do not take any lost contest personally, learn from your competition. You may join contests on sitepoint.com or forums.digitalpoint.com there are tons of opportunities for newbie web designers.

Competition opens up new opportunities, people that are just passing by and saw your work might be interested in hiring you. Contests in which you have won might be interested in doing some more business with you. There are lots of benefits in joining web design competition so be sure to try them out while learning.

Freelance Websites

If you are ready to take on serious jobs, visit freelancing websites like getafreelancer.com or elance.com where you will bid on the work and the best bidder will get the job.

Put up a Web Design Portfolio

The reason why I wanted you to join competitions so keenly is that this is the best way to build up your portfolio. I have done FREE web design jobs to a lot of clients just to put up my portfolio but I learned that competitions are the best hands down. You get to earn money while building it up at the same time.

…and most especially…

Keep The Fire Burning

Have a burning desire to make web sites. That is what will make you earn money in this business. Once you have a list of clientelle, you’ll be amazed at how much work you have to do day after day and you’ll be happy that you have no more boss to answer to… Working hard would mean more money for you. You are in control now.

Making money online is never easy. This is a business and business is never easy. What is easy anyway? Picking your nose perhaps? There is no magic bullet here. Though you are sitting in front of the computer doing the work, its also tiresome and getting burned out is no joking matter.

I also understand that this type of business in the Philippines is not yet in the open so most people will look at you like a bum that have no work and always in the computer playing video games. They will ask you to get a “real job” will say things to you, but don’t be afraid to follow your heart. Let me quote this line from a very important figure:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

~Steve Jobs

Have a dream and follow that dream.