Strategic Marketing At Warp Speed

Hey everyone! Thanks for participating in the contest.  I have the final winners listed below.  Thank you everyone for participating.  I hope you all enjoyed this!

1. Top Referal to the CT blog. - xyberthebizbum & sillybilly

Xyberthebizbum & SillyBilly - Please send me an email with your paypal account information!

2. Top Quality Commentor - Andrew Wee, Themelib & Skywatcher

This was a complete spam war.  For the last 2 hours of the contest I was hitting the refresh button in the admin panel and having to delete several turd comments like “great post!”.  In the end the server said it was 12am when it was really 11pm for me.  So I went in and fixed the server time.  Andrew was about 20 behind but when the server hit 12 ThemeLib and Skywatcher stopped commenting but Andrew kept trucking along.  SO in order to compensate the other two guys for the error on the part of the server I am going to be shooting them over $50 a piece as well.  So if the three of you guys can send me over your paypal information that will be great.  :) Thanks for your comments LOL

3. Top Forum Participator - jeremy217

This was hard.  There really wasn’t any forum participation.  However, for just a couple of days Jeremy217 went in and posted about 21 answers to peoples questions.  Not just bogus answers but real answers from real experiences. That was a one man competition :D

Send me your paypal information Jeremy

4. Best Blog Post - Keep reading below :P

This was a hard one to decide.  Here where the entries

1. xyberthebizbum - http://www.oolahmoolah.com/2008/11/how-cashtacticsnet-can-make-you-filthy.html
2. SkyWatcher - http://dewdrop-sem.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-affiliate-marketing-blog-to-be-on.html
3. ThemeLib - http://themelib.com/contests/2008/11/30/cashtactics-review/

Thanks for playing guys!  All screen shots were made and I’ll post tomorrow with the official winners.  Right now I’m off to bed.  I have to get up early and drive to San Antonio.  So keep an eye out tomorrow night.

Great job guys!

Hey guys and gals.

I just started a new contest on 99 Designs.  Please check it out! I decided that it was time that CashTactics had T-Shirts to give away.  We all like SWAG so why not get some CT shirts made up to give away.

Let me tell you a little bit about 99 designs.

99 Designs uses something called “Crowd Sourcing”.  Basically they are like an oDesk, Getafreelancer, type site but for design only.  So why go for 99 designs instead of oDesk or Getafreelancer?  Because you know without a doubt that you will get a designer giving your offer a shot.  PLUS you get to see many different options before you make your choice. You don’t get stuck with one person.

This is great because you can eliminate options as the “contest” goes on.  That means that if I don’t like a design I can eliminate it and tell what I didn’t like.  Plus I get to rate designs as the contest goes on so that the different designers have an idea of what I like to see.

Awesome idea!  I definitely give the guys at 99 Designs two thumbs up. It’s one of those things where you see it and then think to your self… “WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS!”

I definitely recommend anyone looking for a designer to start looking at 99 designs.  You will end up with something you love, you will get lots of ideas, and you will be able to communicate with the designers for more work afterwords.  Its definitely a great source for any beginner that needs a little help!

Join the CT Swag contest at http://99designs.com/contests/14743

5 hours till the contest ends.  Make sure you get your entries in before then! Remember.  This ends at 12 am Central Standard time.  Right now it is 7 pm.

I have had a terrible last couple of days… Not only did I just shatter a tooth about 3 hours ago but I had one of my large sites hacked two days ago. So I just wanted to give a little word of caution on server security.

Most bloggers/affiliates use WordPress as a standard website platform. Whether it’s for a general blog creation or for our landing pages. However, because WP is so widely used many people (both bad and good) have easy access to the code. This can be a HUGE issue. Many plugins even have exploits to SQL injections.

“SQL injection is a method that exploits the vulnerable layer of an application that relies on SQL, and is performed by injecting SQL commands into an input field that SQL unknowingly executes as a result of programming errors. Trusting user-input without validation is a cause of this.”

-V.A.P.T

Not all plugin developers are professionals. This leads to mistakes that in turn lead to opening a giant security hole leading access to the Wordpress administrator console, your database, and even worse your server as a whole. Many of us, if not all usually just keep our website content in one place. Many of you probably make landing pages and think to yourself “What’s the big deal? They’re just simply landing pages.”

The problem is that although using simple HTML and CSS for a landing page, you may still be vulnerable if those landing pages are hosted on the same server your core websites are existing on. Websites like myipneighor.com allow people to see all other websites hosted on your IP. If you have 100 landing pages setup on a single server and one of your primary websites are hosted in the same environment and that main website is exploitable to any web attack, then your entire network can be compromised.

So I have been thinking for a few weeks now… Actually like 3 months… I’ve wanted to talk a little bit about EPC so you can better understand it.  Now I have re-written this post several times so I can explain it the best possible way. However, after getting frustrated with how it was sounding I got in touch with my awesome AM over at Market Leverage and asked her if she could do a little post about EPC for me.  So this is a “Guest” post from my rockin’ AM Chelsea.

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Earnings per Click – An Accurate Outlook on the Right Campaigns

Wondering if the time you are spending promoting ad campaigns will pay off in the end?

Ultimately, Earnings per Click, or EPC, is the key factor in determining which campaign a publisher will promote.

And with good reason, an investment in advertising dollars is usually tracked by how much ROI is received on the click. However, since EPC’s don’t always tell the entire story upfront, you need to consider a few other EPC factors when setting up an ad campaign.

First things First! - Know the Equation!
EPC = CPA x Conversion Rate

A Low EPC doesn’t mean it’s a bad offer!
An offer can generate lots of clicks but receive a low conversion, which results in a low EPC. This can be seen in general interest campaigns that have mass appeal such as an email submit or a survey offer.
These types of offers are still worth promoting because the high clicks make up for the low EPC.

I’m going to give a little update to the contest.  I’m also going to give more information on the blog post for the contest.  There is only one person that has told me they made a blog post for the contest so maybe I wasn’t too clear.  Also there isn’t really anyone participating in the forum so that prize may just go unclaimed.

Here are the leaderboards!

CD2851 is taking the lead right now.  However, in the last couple of days CD2874 has begun to catch up.  These are the only participators right now so not much of a competition.  On well though.  I’m most excited about CD837.  I have had the opportunity to talk to this guy a few times.  He also goes by cablekid in the forum.  This is his first attempt at CPA offers.  Not bad if you ask me!.  He has begin to make about $50+ profit a day for just a few hours of work.  Maybe when this is over with he can jump in the forum and share with us his secret ;)

These are all of the participators so far.  Sillybilly has sent the most visitors to the blog so far, however, xyberthebizbum has sent the most unique amount of visitors.  Whats really kool is I get to see all of your methods for sending visitors.  Cablekid once again pops on the board here.  His method is the funniest to me because he is basically diverting traffic from his website via a popup.  AMagz is a forum poster and blog commentor galor! Xyberthebizbum is a traffic exchange junkie! And sillybilly is a little of everything from what I can tell.   Great work guys! Keep it up!