ProInterneter

As I see more and more referral programs surface across this blogging niche, I can’t help but think about “The Rich Get Richer“. DealDotCom and BlogRush are the two latest examples. These programs feed off the popularity that is created by the big name blogs, and then the big name bloggers cash in via the referral programs.

DealDotCom just went live this morning. Their first deal is selling Easy Member Pro for $148.50. Now I think it is fair to estimate that at least 500 people have signed up for DealDotCom under John Chow, though this is a total guess (based on his 13,000 direct Agloco referrals, I think this is reasonable). If 1 out of every 100 referrals buys Easy Member Pro, John Chow is going to get $51.97 per sale - or about $259 today alone.

BlogRush also burst onto the scene a few days ago. I didn’t look at it until a friendly blogger said that I should check it out. I signed up and then noted their referral program. You get more and more spots across the BlogRush network as your referrals get more page views on their blogs - so again, the big name bloggers are going to get a lot more referrals, thus getting their blog shown more across the BlogRush network, thus getting even more visitors to their already popular blogs.

I am writing this more out of frustration than anything. The more that I become involved in the world of blogging, the more I wonder why I haven’t been involved for a much longer time. I’ve been developing websites for many years now - why I have been so oblivious to the idea of making money online? It certainly feels like an uphill battle.

This is an interesting website, and it may serve as a good piece of linkbait. If nothing else, it will certainly get some press coverage for Marc Ecko, the man responsible for setting it up. This website lets you vote on the fate of Barry Bonds Homerun Ball that broke Hank Arron’s record. It’s really a a very interesting idea.

Marc Ecko is the owner of Ecko clothing and has pulled some other famous stunts during his day. I remember seeing his video where he “tagged” Air Force One with spray paint - that proved to be a hoax. If nothing else, the man is pretty good at creating a buzz.

Barry Bonds’ record breaking homerun ball is a big deal to a lot of people. He broke the record of Hank Aaron, who is a very beloved player and fought through a lot of hate and threats during his time. Barry Bonds is also suspected of using steroids or other drugs to help him gain strength, and thus hit the ball further - and therefore hit more homeruns. Instead of being a great celebration for baseball, this record was marred in controversy.

When you visit the website, you have 3 voting options. You can vote to:

A) Send the ball the the Hall of Fame
B) Brand the ball with an asterisk and send it to the Hall of Fame
C) Shoot the ball into outter space

It took me a few minutes to find the website because I first read about it on CNN and they did not provide a link to the site. I searched Google, but couldn’t find a direct link, so I eventually found it through ESPN.com. It will be interesting to see if this site jumps to the top of Google for “Barry Bonds” or “Barry Bonds Homerun Ball” - The voting ends on September 25th, so we have a week to see what happens.

I was looking through the newly revamped Google webmaster tools and noticed some information about the enhanced image search and image labeler. I don’t know if this has always been here, but I hadn’t noticed it before. I signed a few of my sites up to use the image search and then went exploring a bit more.

A few clicks later I found myself at the Google Image Labeler, which is actually a rather fun tool to use. It doesn’t help your website in any specific way, but rather you are helping to build Google’s database of searchable images. Since a web spider can’t “look” at an image and decide what it is, Google needs real live humans do their evil bidding for them.

On the opening page, you are given an explanation of how the system works. Basically you assigned a partner that is at home somewhere on the internet, and you are both show the same image at the same time. You start typing words that describe the image, and when you and your partner type the same word, you are given points and then shown a new image. This goes on for two minutes. You are then shown your point totals, the words that your partner entered, daily rankings, etc.

Google has turned this into a pretty fun game to play. Sometimes your partner doesn’t really know what’s going on, or they don’t know how to spell (betteries, battaries, batteries) but I think they have found a great way to work this system.

I don’t know how the image search factors into your page analysis, or if your images have any actual weight for your page search, but it’s fun to play a few rounds.

I heard about NeverBlueAds when I was reading an article about how Zac Johnson made $10,000 in one month using them. I was definitely intrigued but thought that he was just another big time affiliate who was already established and he made all his money because he gets so much traffic to his sites.

I was right about one thing - he gets a lot of traffic to his sites. He gets 25-50k uniques across all his sites per day. That’s a pretty insane amount of traffic. That being said, he always has a “network” of sites. Then a couple of days ago I posted about how he uses PPC Arbitrage to drive traffic and make profits with these sites.

So I ran off and signed up for NeverBlueAds. I ran through the process and got an email saying that I would be contacted in 2 business days. Meanwhile, I kept getting the comments feed from Zac’s post, and saw someone say “I signed up for NeverBlueAds 2 months ago and still haven’t heard from them” - So I got a little down about it and thought they might be so backed up with new affiliates that it would be months before I’d get approved.

Then I got an email today:

Thank you for applying to join the NeverBlue affiliate network. I was unable to reach you at the phone number given in your application, ###-###-####. Part of our application process stipulates that we speak with you directly over the phone. Please provide me with your correct contact info or call me directly at ###-###-####. in Victoria, Canada (PST).

Your application will stay valid in our system until Sept.21.07

So they were the strange phone number trying to call me. I dialed them up and had a short phone interview. They asked about my websites, and what I hope to do with the ads. 5 minutes of talking and she told me that I was approved. I had a bunch of questions and started asking them, but she seemed a bit annoyed - I think maybe that isn’t her job?

Anyways, I’ve been poking around the site but haven’t set anything up yet. Looks like there are some good payouts, and most of the ads are CPA (Click Per Action), so the visitor has to fill out a form - then I get my money. I just fired off an email with a bunch of questions to my “Affiliate Manger”, so we’ll see how well their customer service operates.

My flavor of the moment is the new DealDotCom Referral Program. DealDotCom is apparently the hottest next hot new thing to hit the internet since Agloco. The best thing about DealDotCom, of course, is the referral program. If you click my DealDotCom referral link when you signup, I get 35% of anything that you ever buy from DealDotCom. That could be big. Beyond that, if you then refer someone to DealDotCom,  I get 15% of anything that they buy - and you get %35 of anything that they buy from DealDotCom. Basically, DealDotCom has a two-level referral program.

Beyond DealDotCom’s referral program, the premise seems to be that they are going to sell one product per day, and they are going to sell that product at a discount so incredible that it will make your head spin. They will sell that product until it sells out, and then they start selling a new item. Here’s the quote from their website:

But, there’s a catch! Each day, we only have ONE product for sale. It’ll be for sale at an insanely low price, and there will be an extremely limited number of copies available. That product will only be available until it sells out, or until midnight the next night, when we pull it down and start selling a new product.

I’m also reading that DealDotCom will be selling “Anything and everything related to building an online business, increasing traffic, monetizing your websites, blogging, web design… in short, we sell all things Internet Marketing.” - so I’m not sure that this is going to apply to the everyday person or what exactly it is that they will be selling. We shall see.