I’ve gone and tallied all the commentators for the February Contest and it looks like Denise has won! Here are the respected usernames and comment totals next to the name along with the cash prize amount they have won.

1. Denise (36) – $100
2. GoKarter (27) – $75
3. Chris (23) – $50
4. Della (21) – $50
5. Scott (20) – $50

Thanks for all the conversation everyone! Also be sure to use the contact form and send me your Paypal email. Try to put a few identifiers in your message although I know most of the heavier talkers around here.

 Ok now RSS.

We did not hit 400 Subscribers but who really cares. I’m still gonna dish out the cash. I think with theme change and the fact that I spent like 2 days trying to get an answer from Feedburner on the email subscription form may have put a damper on it, but who knows. Overall I am thrilled that we added around 130-140 subscribers in just 29 days in February.

So I have randomly chose 6 subscribers for the cash prizes. (Hopefully they are still reading HAHA). Next time I believe I will establish maybe a points system or something a little more organized as I just pretty much winged this one. Here are the winners who need to send me their Paypal address. I dont want to give out the email so I will just put out the username that I see:

1. Bigmo3125 – Winner of the $200 Prize
2. Pryda X – Winner of the $100 Prize
3. Benjamin (Benjamin Maker) – Winner of the $100 Prize
4. Gary Resource – Winner of $50 prize
5. chiayee.lai – Winner of $50 prize
6. kidbossman – Winner of $50 prize

A quick word on Matt from Blogging Fingers. He has just released a Blog Monetization Strategies E-Book. Normally you wont see me pimping ebooks but the book is free, Matt seems like a cool guy and if you get a little dead time after production hours it should be a good, quick read. I dont get anything from this post other than the privilege of letting you know about the information he is giving away.

There is a contest surrounding this book and you will need to optin to get it. FruitfulTime has sponsored the book and is allowing Matt to give away 10 free copies of the software totaling $300. That’s actually a contest I like. I dont own the software but if any reader from this blog happens to win a copy of it, I would be more than willing to post a review if you felt like writing one. I would be happy to link to you or work something out so that your time spent writing the review is worth it.

FruitfulTime TaskManager helps you manage your ‘to do list’. It has an easy to use interface and allows you to input your tasks and split them into subtasks. You can keep notes related to the tasks, contacts of other people working with you on a task and set reminders to make sure not to forget any deadlines.

Head over and grab a copy of the book and get yourself entered to win a free copy of the FruitfulTime Task Managing Software. Be sure to read all the details on how to get many entries to ensure you have the best possible chance of winning.

I am not involved with the contest in any way. I posted this just for the hell of it.

Pay Per Click Marketers vary on each of their methods. I dont think there really is a truly *right* way to start your adgroups and keywords in a pay per click campaign. Everyone has their own methods so let me share mine. When I initially start a PPC campaign I am not actually looking for *converting keywords*. What? Dont get me wrong, that is the overall goal (to establish a campaign on almost if not all keywords that convert to conversions). However, doing this takes a boatload of preparation, time and setup. My goal at the very start is to get an idea of what keywords are getting clicked on.

Most people either believe or have been told that you should track EVERY keyword to determine profitability. This comes later. This does not come at the start. Unless you have a small set of keywords that would not take much time, but come on, lets face it. He who gets the most keywords will most likely profit more.

There are two things that I have read since day one of wanting to get involved with pay per click that I truly believe.

1. Almost 40% of keyword searches done online are new
2. MAYBE 15-20% of my total keyword list will reveal keywords that bring me profits.

You see, I know and realize this. This is exactly why I dont start tracking keywords (unless its a truly small campaign). This is a huge time waster for me. Yes I would determine profitability right from the start. Yet, I have to actually look at the time it would take me to do that. My time could be better spent letting this campaign run for 1-2 days while I blast out 5-10 more. If you got a weak stomach, small budget and suffer from impatience then this is not going to work for you.

Just a real quick post that will answer a lot of questions that I have been getting.

I will be making a change soon as I take on a larger business venture that completely eliminate me from selling my own products and will definitely take a lot away from my retail income. I wont say that it will take away from my CPA income entirely but it will reduce the amount of time I spend as a PERSONAL affiliate for the CPA Networks I am associated with.

While I do love the CPA Industry and almost every network I have worked with on a personal basis it’s time for me to move on just a bit. Not entirely but for the most part as a personal affiliate I will be cutting down the amount of volume I personally push and focus on pushing each and every month. I can tell you that I never once intended to be just an Affiliate Marketer all my life. While I love the business it only makes more sense to establish my own network of publishers and that is exactly what I will be doing.

I wont go into much detail until we are officially launched but this should help keep the emails that I have been getting from marketers, jv prospects and of course all the affiliate managers to a lower level. Just wanted to give a public shout as to the situation of my business right now.

Just a real quick post this evening as I wanted to touch base on a couple of resources to use for CPA Marketing. I have been using one source for awhile. (Once as a paid member and now as a free member) and another source that looks really interesting as it nears to becoming live.

First though I need to do the linking thing as a good blogger and thank Paul from Uberaffiliate for his lengthy and informative write up on Affspy. Second to Linda from the 5 Star Affiliate Programs Blog for her write up on both resources. Thanks for the write ups Paul and Linda! You can read both their write-ups for more in-depth information.

The sites are AffSpy and OfferVault.

Affspy is still not open to public yet and is supposed to launch during the Affiliate Summit going on currently. Initially I think there are to be 100 beta testers. I signed up moments after I saw the headline from UberAffiliate’s post so hopefully I will be invited to check it out and relay what it is all about in the coming days.

OfferVault on the other hand was a service within Affiliate Radar (monthly fee). It’s now open to the public and offered as a free tool to quickly scan a bunch of the top CPA Networks to retrieve offers related to whatever you type in the search bar. I cannot stress to you enough how awesome and fast the tool is. Check them both out and let me know what you think of them.

I been getting quite a few emails asking about which CPA Networks have a lot of email and zip submits. While I love every network I work with, I had to put CPA Empireon the hotseat. If you like CPA Marketing then your going to have a field day with CPA Empire. They got more offers and campaigns than you can shake a stick at and this does not even include all the private offers and exclusives they have.

Currently their are over 540 offers and campaigns you can work with. One notable thing about them is the sheer size of their email and zip submit offers. Another cool thing is that their International campaigns are no slouch either. This is good for Ruckles because he does not really care to promote in the US in respect to email/zip campaigns. As a matter of fact his International volume VS. US volume for these types of offers sits at around 80% to 20%. While you cant really get a zip code Internationally, those Brits, Canadians and Australians tend to dish out their email like they could care less.

I will not reveal any of the offers within CPA Empire nor will I disclose any payouts. While some people do this and think they are doing good by revealing information…your really not. That’s one perk about CPA Networks is generally they dont care to have a bunch of public information on their offers. This brings other networks *coat-tailing* and creating competition. So I will not be soliciting information on specific offers, payouts or information about them.

Here’s one thing I find interesting about them as well. They write a blog. While this may seem minuscule to a lot of people, I find it refreshing. Even if they are just jerking around about nonchalant stuff it lets me know their are humans and not robots behind the system (so to speak). This gives you more of an opportunity to get personable with them.

For everyone that shot me an email or commented, I really dont know what the problem is with Feedburner today. Subscription count is off but it appears that the subscription methods (RSS and Email) are working. I took my morning rounds and noticed all the bloggers I read are down by half in Subscribers showing.  I also went to the Feedburner forum and the question has been asked a few times already but no response. Anyway, that’s the skinny on Feedburner. Back to work.

{Disclaimer: The following post is based on observation and opinion. I am not signed with oDesk nor do I have any affiliation with them currently}.

oDesk has really been a fun read for me over the last evening. As I have started to branch out from reading the same old boring marketing forums I started to revamp my evening browsing into finding companies and other sites that, while they may not serve as a money making oriented interest to most people, I try to find the perks behind the sites that will allow people to maybe consider using them as an additional income and revenue source. I added a new category to the blog titled “Company Spotlight” that I would like to dedicate to postings like these.

What is oDesk?

Much like Get A Freelancer and Elance, oDesk serves as an innovative way to outsource web projects, hire IT freelancers, programmers, web designers and much more. However after comparing the 3 I really like the layout of oDesk. When you first outsource work it can be a daunting and nerve racking task. I know, I still remember the first time I did it. I’ve been burned on these sites before and it truly leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Beyond that negativity though I have meant some extraordinary people in the web design and programming fields.

One thing I looked for when I first landed on the site was reliability. I have not yet signed up with them as I have way too many things going on right now to even brainstorm a new idea but rest assured, I probably will in the next couple of months. I came across some good reading about oDesk from Red Herring, Business Week and PC Mag.