Entrecard Jugglers

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On occasion, an Entrecard-enabled website applies to advertise on Reward Rebel, and when I check it out, decide to submit my own ad request. Of course, the danger lies in the timing – I need to make certain that the ads don’t coincide and display on the same date! Ouch! How come I witness this undesirable synchronicity so frequently? I can’t figure out how or why it happens, when it’s avoidable.

The Entrecard system isn’t ideal for planning a consistent schedule of ads, but there is some guidance, and once an ad is approved, the date of display is advised. If a person monitors their advertising schedule, they’ll see there’s an overlap. Why do they allow it to proceed? Why not contact the blog, and cancel the ad? They can resubmit it — what’s the deal?

Is it simply because people don’t monitor their advertising schedules? Are there people who are just unaware that this is happening? It seems odd to me that a person would pay to advertise, and not keep an eye on developments.

Before I submit an ad, I usually check the estimated date of display, but last night I was so delighted at securing a spot on the highly popular website, Android’s Dungeon, that I slipped up!

Android’s Dungeon already had an ad scheduled on Reward Rebel, and I was aware its display date could be a close call, but went ahead all the same. I also sent a message explaining that we needed to avoid the ads coinciding on 26th March.

The need to avoid displaying an ad on a particular date has arisen on a number of occasions recently and, to my knowledge, there is no direct method to alter the scheduling of Entrecard ads. However, by manipulating the ‘Ad Queue’ and ‘Approvals’ we can exert a little bit of influence over scheduling – a teeny weeny little bit, but enough to avoid any wasted advertising!

When I need to manipulate the display date of an ad, I simply postpone its approval, and inform the advertiser that their ad has been approved in principle, and that I’ll advise the display date asap.

Unfortunately, I had to cancel the ad on Android’s Dungeon, but I sent a note expressing my apologies and regret, as well as my desire to advertise at a future date. A speedy response assured me that I was forgiven, and welcome to advertise another time.

Communications are so important, and good communications can be the difference between success and failure. I believe in reaching out, after all, people don’t bite (not over the internet, they don’t anyway)! There is an element online who use its automated functionality to avoid personal, individual communication. Big mistake.

But that’s a different topic, which I think I’ll leave for another article!

Reward Rebel

Advertising on Entrecard ~ A Call to Arms

Following on from my last post, ‘Online Business Advertising on Entrecard’, I’ve been researching online advertising in general, and I’m drafting a follow-up.

I need a favour of some of you.

I’d be really grateful to those Entrecarders who advertised on Reward Rebel during February or March to let me know the number of clicks generated by the ad, and how much was paid for it.

As well as the article about advertising on Entrecard, I’m considering placing a couple of independent advertising spots on Reward Rebel, and am trying to ascertain how much to charge.

The price of Entrecard credits on Ebay is in the region of $50 per 1,000 (oops) 10,000 or 50 cents per 100. Advertising on Reward Rebel with Entrecard costs around 400+ credits, so that’s equal to $2 per day… $60 per month. Surprised? Yeah, I was too.

Please help me get my head around it all!

You’re welcome to submit the advertising data by commenting here (with yummy CommentLuv) or by messaging me at Entrecard.

Many thanks to y’all, and have a stonkingly fab weekend.

Reward Rebel

Online Business Advertising On Entrecard

Making money online isn’t easy if you don’t have complete control over all the elements that comprise your online business.

Entrecard provides an excellent free service, which can really kick-start a new blog, and revitalise one that’s a bit wilted. Also, they listen to what their customers want from them and, for the most part, provide it. Entrecard has embarked upon an ongoing program of upgrades to the service and the website, and understandably is developing into a very successful online business… a real success story.

I haven’t advertised Reward Rebel on other websites, other than via Entrecard, but does anyone else find organising their Entrecard advertising as difficult as I do?

I try, really I do, but because of the way advertising scheduling is set up on Entrecard, I quite frequently find that I have too many ads being displayed one day, and not enough on another. Hopefully, every blog featured enjoys satisfactory returns from their advertisement, but some will be more satisfied than others.

Of course, I’d prefer not to dissuade prospective advertisers from promoting their website on Reward Rebel, so for absolute honesty, here’s a screenshot of the most recent incoming Entrecard dropping activity on Reward Rebel.

And a shot of Reward Rebel’s Alexa ranking statistics graph showing its rise in traffic over the past few months — currently, it ranks at 89,142, although the past week has averaged at 54,688, which is very encouraging.

I’m not so naive that I expect this level of traffic to continue, should I cease my activities on Entrecard, however, I am happy to have accumulated additional readers, as well as friends, whilst exploring Entrecard’s community.

Recently, a website with a very high profile on Entrecard placed an ad on Reward Rebel at a cost around 300 credits. When it had completed its scheduled run, the owner contacted me to express his delight at the 193 click thrus his site had received, and submitted a second ad at a cost of over 300 credits.

Can you guess what happened? Of course, you can. Yep, the second, more expensive, ad generated an ROI of only 30 hits! Why the huge disparity between the ROI on Ad 1 and Ad 2? Erratic scheduling of Reward Rebel’s own advertising, and too many disappointing returns.

When we submit an ad for approval, Entrecard provides a guide to how long it should be before it’s displayed. However, it’s rather a vague guide, because it doesn’t take into account how long it may be before the request is approved, or how many requests there may be awaiting approval.

How can Entrecard and its clients develop a system of scheduling advertisements that allows the advertiser to deploy them accurately?

I’m no whizz at figuring out this kind of logistical exercise, and so I don’t have a solution to offer, but I’m interested to hear your own experiences and ideas for improvement.

On the other hand, if I’m the only Entrecarder experiencing this advertising stats roller-coaster, perhaps you could let me know and I’ll shut up!

I’m in the process of contacting site owners who have recently advertised with me, to try to ascertain the true value of advertising on Reward Rebel. I’m considering adding a number of independent advertisement spots to the site, and need to gauge how much to charge.

Making money online wasn’t an original objective of this blog, however, it’s now enjoying enough traffic to warrant its inclusion as an earner in my online business empire-in-the-making!

When I have collected the data regarding Reward Rebel’s ROI, I’ll most likely be posting a follow-up on Entrecard Advertising.

In the meantime, how do you organise yours?

Reward Rebel

Making Money Online: Rinse And Repeat

Making Money Online: Rinse And Repeat

Products teaching Internet Marketing and Making Money Online are in plentiful supply. What surprises me is that so many of each week’s new launches have been written, developed or sourced by the same comparatively small group of online entrepreneurs.

Stop. Rewind. What am I saying? I’m not surprised.

These entrepreneurs tell us that they’ve worked countless hours developing the latest and greatest, for no reason other than that they’re fed up with seeing us – the ordinary guy making money online – given so much of the internet marketing picture, and then being hung out to dry. Altruism at its most heroic. What? Hasn’t it warmed the cockles of your heart?

Of course, these are the same internet marketing entrepreneurs who refer to a mailing list as a personal ATM, because they can withdraw money from it whenever they choose. They practically tell you to your face that they take you for a sucker, and such a stupid sucker that they can even tell you that they are doing it! I don’t think this is the type of online entrepreneur that I aspire to be.

Each new internet marketing product launched promises to be the one that will teach me everything I’ll need to know. They enthusiastically inform me that I require no technical know-how, copy writing skills, or indeed a functioning brain. Then they attempt to dispel any lingering doubts that I may be harbouring about my ability to undertake an online business venture.

Ker-Ching! Here’s the Paypal button!
Ker-Ching! Give us your hard earned!

Fast forward two to three months. The same entrepreneur emails me with their latest product, which promises to lead me by the hand to that villa in the Caribbean, before I can say… hold on. If their previous product was so mind-blowingly awesome, why would I be in need of another one?

Of course, in between times, there’s been a relentless deluge of email promos vomiting into my Inbox, which are about the “you can’t live without ‘em” latest and greatest offerings from the entrepreneur’s internet marketing friends. Somehow, they’re convinced that I won’t want to be without this product either, even though I may already have their own version of the same thing.

Fortunately, there exists a wide variety of methods of making money online, because in my opinion affiliate marketing has hit an all-time low. So many people are trying to jump on the bandwagon, it’s drowning in its own tsunami of hype and insincerity.

Making money online isn’t as easy as it used to be. Making money online in an ethical and dignified fashion appears to be the most difficult objective of all to achieve. But, dear god, if I ever start turning into one of these internet marketing leeches, I’ll flick off the switch on the modem for the last time.

I’m not a guru basher, well OK, I’m not usually a guru basher, well, apart from when I got a bit enrantified and wrote:

• Gurus Mutual Appreciation Society

and then I wrote,

• Trickery of the Gurus

Perhaps it’s best if I draw this to a close, after all, my adventure may find me networking with these very same internet marketing gurus at some point in the not-too-distant future!

So, mum’s the word…

Reward Rebel

Entrecard Top Drop 3
~ Make Money Online with EJ Cooksey

Entrecard Top Drop 3 ~ Make Money Online with EJ Cooksey

At the time I wrote my first two reviews about my Top Ten Entrecard Droppers, the third blog on the list was Make Money Online With EJ Cooksey.

This is a first rate blog for simple-to-grasp tips and ideas on how you can increase the success of your activities for making money online. You’ll also find an array of internet marketing products, options for earning money from blogging itself, as well as affiliate program reviews and recommendations — and look out for the daily $3 download.

EJ is in the process of transferring the site to a new domain, on top of which she manages a number of other blogs, and home schools her children. I want whatever this lady is on, because she’s a human dynamo!

I’d like to take the opportunity to also mention another of EJ’s sites, Making Money Online with Articles, which skilfully presents practical information in a fashion that makes it easy to read and digest.

In turn, this means that you can get started quicker on writing your own articles for submission to article directories.

Writing by established webpreneurs also appears on the site, and these entries nicely complement EJ’s own posts.

Writing articles is quite simply one of the fastest methods to establish back links to your site, but we aren’t all budding Ernest Hemingways. So, if you could benefit from straightforward advice and guidance on drafting marketable articles, this is where you’ll learn plenty to get your scribbling juices flowing.

Reward Rebel Review

Making Money Online and Blogging 2

Making Money Online and Blogging 2

My last post appears to have hit a nerve in the blogging community, and overall the comments surprised me. The topic definitely warrants further discussion, so I’m devoting a second article to it.

When I became involved with online marketing, the first thing I did was create a squeeze page to start building a list, and then some sales pages, which I promoted with advertising, and a splash page on traffic exchanges.

At the time I was also involved in selling clothing through online auctions, and made full use of my Ebay ‘About Me’ page to market my digital product sales pages.

[A quick aside on the topic of peripheral marketing techniques — don’t forget to use your 404 and other error pages, otherwise it’s just wasted space. Pop up some ads or graphic marketing links on them. You have nothing to lose, but may very well gain an occasional Paypal payment notification that you wouldn’t otherwise have received.]

Anyhow, by this time, I was reading a lot about blogging and social networks, the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon. The logical next step was to start my own blog, and Reward Rebel came into existence. What I hadn’t really expected was how enjoyable it is, especially once you become involved in the blogging community as a whole. At the moment, I believe I’d continue blogging even if I were to quit internet marketing.

There are different types of blogger, from those who first start a blog, and then consider monetizing it, to the people whose blogs are genetically engineered to exist as a vehicle for making money online!

There is room for a comfortable middle ground, where an interesting blog containing enjoyable content, and helpful information and ideas, can also be actively marketing. The subscriber chooses to be included on a mailing list, and each communication should offer an ‘unsubscribe’ option. Personally, I don’t mail more frequently than once a week, and usually more like once a month, and many of my mails bear useful info and tips rather than promotions. Not every marketer is just trying to grab your money.

You know the old maxim, ‘the money is in the list’. It’s made to sound like some arcane magic elixir, if only we could get our hands on ‘the list’, we’d have everything our heart desires and be rich beyond our wildest dreams!

Yeah, well, not quite. The fabled list won’t make you rich by its existence alone, you do have to actually do something with it.

If you do choose to build a mailing list, avoid the mindset of treating your subscribers as though they are your property, or worse, your personal friends. They’re most definitely not. There are marketers who should know better, from whom I’ve received entirely inappropriate mailings.

Recently, I received one from quite a high profile name, an email about his daughter starting university soon, and how she needs all the help she can get with tuition fees. So he’s offering some digital product in return for helping her out. Global panhandling. This infuriates me, and I’m amazed that anyone has the bald-faced audacity to market at such a low-down, arse-sniffing level – and on such a massive scale! Although, I suppose if you’re going to do something, you may as well do it BIG!

For every blogger there will be a point of view, and it’s this element that makes it such a fun adventure, so enjoy yours!

Reward Rebel

An Encouraging Start To 2008

An Encouraging Start To 2008

The UK’s transition into 2008 brought me the good omen of making a product sale in the earliest hours of the 1st January from a page I hadn’t been actively promoting for quite a while.

Emails from Aweber and Paypal alerted me to this particular transaction, and served as a timely reminder of why I’m building multiple income streams. It’s important to have as many sales pages as possible ‘live’ in cyber space, because even when our efforts at promotion aren’t all they could be, we pick up business from serendipitous surfers landing at our sites.

It’s a commonly heard complaint that many people fail to make money with internet marketing, but often the same people have failed to create any income potential beyond some Adsense listings on their blog. Well, as they say “ya gotta be in it, to win it!”.

So I’ve been going over my files with a view to compiling additional packages, and as soon as I’ve completed the first project, you’ll hear about it here.

It’s a bummer I’ve got this thumb RSI prob. It’s still acutely painful and there’s no chance of forgetting about it for a while — leastways not as long as I persevere in actually trying to use the offending digit!

It seems appropriate to also report here that the Rebel Booty promotion has been steadily gaining new customers, and with this blog enjoying developing its profile, in general I’m feeling very energized and positive about the year ahead. I can feel it in my thumb — it’s gonna be a big’un!

And the adventure continues…

Reward Rebel