Swollen Pickles

I have some questions.

1. Are you Australian? If you answered yes, go to question 2. If you answered no, click here.

2. Do you have opinions? If yes, go to question 3. If no, follow this guy's lead.

3. Do companies currently give you money and stuff for your opinions? If yes, good for you tiger. If no, read on...

I'm beginning to see an increased number of survey companies based in Australia looking for people to join their panels in return for compensation of different sorts. In other words, you do surveys, and they give you stuff. It's simple, and somewhat entertaining.

Here's a couple for you to consider.

Survey Villiage

Voice your opinion and be rewarded by Survey Village. It’s free to join and no cost to participate. Choose your reward from a choice of 12 online and high street stores. Plus there are monthly $200 dollar gift voucher giveaways.

I think their link speaks volumes.

Valued Opinions

Do you want to become an opinion leader? Join Valued Opinions. Give your opinion and get paid!

I'm not so fussed about the opinion leader part, but the money... mmmm... money...

Light Speed Panel

No rules or expectations. You have your say. Take online surveys and earn rewards, but, more importantly, have your opinions count. Join now for a chance to win $1,500.

Rewards, plus registering their now will put you in the draw for $1,500. Plus, the banner ad looks nice.

Australia Survey Panel

An oldie but a goodie, and very 'stralian.

On that note I'm off, however I'll leave you with one final thought (since you've read this far). My opinion is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.

Do you want to start a "Make Money Online" (MMO) blog? Yes? Well, let's be honest, you've missed the boat, that ship has sailed. The world wide web is now flooded with people trying to grab their slice of the pie. I remember hearing a saying once that "nothing original is ever created in a vacuum", and I think that saying can definitely be applied to the whole MMO niche. So with that in mind, here's the definitive list of tips you can follow to become a Make Money Online sheep.
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If you've held off on giving WidgetBucks a shot due to their CPC network only serving US and Canadian traffic then now is a good time to give them a try, as they have just announced that they are expanding their CPC program to include the UK with other European traffic also coming on line soon.

Starting today in the United Kingdom, when publishers serve WidgetBucks ad widgets on their sites, visitors based in the UK will now see a short-duration CPM display ad followed by a CPC shopping widget featuring UK-based merchants and products listed in British pounds sterling. (see a sample UK screen shot here)

The CPM-CPC hybrid gives publishers two revenue streams from the same ad widget instance. Before today, only CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) ads were served to visitors outside the U.S. and Canada.

Source: WidgetBucks Blog

The hybrid CPC/CPM ads sound interesting and give publishers the potential to 'double dip'. Good news if you're looking for something to supplement adsense on your site. If you read my post on my top ten money makers for 2007/2008 you'll see that WidgetBucks was my third top earner for the 2007/2008 financial year.

Want to know the secrets behind how I make money from blogs?

I've been asked a couple of times now to put together a list of my top 10 revenue streams. If you've read through my 'goal updates' then you can probably almost figure them out for yourself. However, in the interests of giving the public what they want, I thought I'd put together a list of my top 10 earners for the 2007/2008 financial year.

Number one: PayU2Blog

Whilst I don't use PayU2Blog on SwollenPickles.com, I do use it on another blog I have set up to specifically take 'paid post' opportunities. Yes, you can call me a posting whore if you like, but answer this. Would you knock back in excess of $1,200 for services rendered?

Here's my tip, if you are going to take on paid posts, do so on a blog you haven't invested to much of yourself into. In other words, don't start taking paid posts on your 'flagship' blog, unless you're happy to be on the receiving end of a google slap. Paid posting is a slippery slop, and involves flying very close to the sun, so wear sunscreen and don't whine if you get burnt... so many metaphors... my head hurts...

Number two: Google Adsense

In 2007/2008 it was almost a three way tie for second place, however Adsense just scrapped in to take second spot. Adsense is a great way to make some extra cash, largely because you can implement it as a 'set and forget' money maker. Adsense requires no effort compared to other money makers like paid posting, but the downside of a passive system like Adsense is that it really requires a high volume of traffic to yield strong results.

Number three: WidgetBucks

WidgetBucks ran a very close third to Adsense, and whilst a relatively new player on the PPC block, performed strongly, particularly in the first half of 2007/2008.
For me, the performance of WidgetBucks dropped off a bit when they changed their policy to restrict the display PPC ads to US based traffic only, and began serving up CPM ads for non-US traffic. All that aside, you can do quite well with WidgetBucks, particularly if you have a large volume of US traffic.

Join WidgetBucks now.

Number four: Shopzilla

Just behind WidgetBucks, Shopzilla slid into fourth place, which is actually quite impressive seeing as though I only used them for around half of the financial year. Shopzilla serve up a range of product based PPC style ads. With Shopzilla you generate earnings by placing "Sponsored Shopping Content" on your website. Their publisher program is still in 'beta' at the moment, however I believe it's set to move beyond beta in the next month or so.

Number five: Pay Per Post

Whilst I used Pay Per Post quite heavily in the first half of 2007/2008, I have become a little disillusioned with their service of late. Whilst they are still definitely viable from a money making perspective, the number of hoops they make you jump through in order to receive payment can make the experience a little painful. Their process of approving posts is also questionable.

For example, the standard steps are you accept an opportunity, write your post and submit it. If approved by Pay Per Post you receive payment 30 days from the date in which the post went live. During the first 30 days of the post being live you are not allowed an 'in-post third party links and ads'. This means keeping ads such as those served by Kontera out of your posts until 30 days have expired. Fortunately that part is not that hard as, if you're running a wordpress blog, you can just install a plugin that will manage that for you. I've had a number of experiences where my posts have taken over 30 days to be reviewed only to be rejected due to not meeting the terms of service.

"Unfortunately, it does not meet our Terms of Service (ToS) in regards to in-post third party links and ads. Once the outside links are removed, please resubmit the post.
Thanks!"

The last post I had rejected was reviewed 34 days following its go live date. If they had reviewed the post during its first 30 days, they would have seen that there were no in-line ads and therefore no ToS breach. I've also had some that were reviewed and rejected on the 29 day for similarly questionable reasons. To be fair, each time I've have had a post rejected I have contacted them and the matter has been resolved. But to me, that just seems like another unnecessary hoop.

With that whinge out I've the way, Pay Per Post are still a legitimate revenue source and are well worth considering.

Number five: Commission Junction

A vast majority of revenue made via Commission Junction came via the eBay affiliate program, prior to eBay ceasing their partnership with Commission Junction and launching their own eBay Partner Network. I would not have made even a quarter of what I have via the eBay affiliate program had it not be for phpBay Pro. I'd been a member of Commission Junction for over a year and hardly made a cent, it wasn't until early in 2008 I took the plunge and purchased phpBay Pro to run on my WordPress sites. The plugin cost me $49.95, and in less than six months has made me over $650 in combined revenue from both Commission Junction and the eBay Partner Network. At that rate of earning, eBay would have been my number one earner for the financial year had I purchased and installed phpBay Pro six months earlier.

Number six: eBay Partner Network

As mentioned above, if I combined the revenue from the eBay Partner Network and Commission Junction, the eBay affiliate program would have been my third highest revenue stream for 2007/2008, in only six months of use. If you have a WordPress blog, you should strongly consider joining the eBay Partner Network and picking up phpBay Pro. It's the easiest money you'll make.

Number seven: Text-Link-Ads

Text-Link-Ads can work well if you have a respectable page rank, although it can be a double edged sword, as the Google monster isn't found of people selling links so there's a danger that you'll cop a slap if they take offence to your link selling. With that said, you may consider it worth the risk. Text-Link-Ads perform solidly on a couple of my other sites, however I've relatively recently begun experimenting with LinkWorth and that is looking like another strong option.

Number eight: Kontera

Kontera is a program I was initially sceptical about. While I still can't see it becoming my number one earner, I have come to appreciate it as a nice little supplementary earner. While the overall average cost per click can be low in comparison to a program like Adsense, the click through rate seems to be a lot higher, so things seem to balance out a little.

If you'd like an invitation to join Kontera contact me via the SwollenPickles.com contact form, leaving your email, and I'll send you one through.

Number nine: LinkWorth

LinkWorth is another program I really only embraced in the final quarter of 2007/2008. Had I run with it for the full 12 months, it would very likely be sitting at number five on this list. LinkWorth rolls together the best elements of programs like Text-Link-Ads, Pay Per Post, Review Me and even Kontera. If you take full advantage of what LinkWorth has to offer, it could very well be the only money making program you'd need. Personally, I'm from the old "don't put all your eggs in the one basket" school, still LinkWorth will definitely be a program I maintain in my portfolio.

Number ten: AuctionAds/ShoppingAds

Prior to me joining Commission Junction and the eBay Partner Network, I used AuctionAds, which has since merged with ShoppingAds, to display eBay auctions on various sites. When I first joined ShoppingAds, things started out with a bang, and it was bringing in good money. Early in the 2007/2008 financial year earnings from ShoppingAds really took a nose dive. This is the reason I eventually took the plunge and joined the eBay affiliate program directly, and I've since stopped using phpBay Pro (besides a few ad blocks I embedded in some posts manually). Still, ShoppingAds may be a good option for those not prepared to take the eBay/phpBay Pro plunge.

So there you have the "big ten". It will be interesting to see how the top ten list changes over the 2008/2009 financial year. As of writing this, I'd expect both Market Leverage and ClickBooth to make an appearance on the list this time next year.

What is your number one?

Browsing the web I've unearthed another affiliate program that looks to have some significant promise. ClickBooth operates in a similar way to Commission Junction, in that you join ClickBooth and then have access to a whole range of products and services you can effectively market and earn a commission from.

Affiliate programs like ClickBooth are an often overlooked way of making some additional income from your site, which is a shame because you could argue that affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online. In case you don't know, affiliate marketing refers sharing of revenue between advertisers and publishers. In other words, as a publisher, you put up a banner ad on your site, and you can get compensated for that. Compensation is based on performance from sales, clicks, registrations or a combination of such.

If you haven't joined up to an affiliate program, here are a couple of good reasons why you should sign up now.

An affiliate program does the hard work for you. Coming up with banner ads and ideas that may or may not work is a pain in the butt. By going through an affiliate program, all that hard work is done for you. You pick the ad you think will have the most success on your site and go with it. Job done.

There's no risk. As a publisher, you don't have a warehouse full of stock sitting there gathering dust if things don't work out. If an advertiser's product isn't selling, that's there problem, not yours. You can basically run a little business selling stuff, without the headaches. If it's not working, move onto something else, and you haven't lost anything.

Make a % on sales. A lot of advertiser's allow you to take a percentage commission from a sale or signup. What does that mean? An advertiser might offer a publisher a 10% commission on every sale generated via a lead from a publishers site/blog. A visitor clicks on a banner ad on your site then goes on to buy $100 worth of gear from the advertiser's site, you, as publisher, would earn $10.

Make $'s from referring other webmasters. Do you have a lot of 'webmaster' traffic? In other words, do a lot of your readers have blogs/websites of their own? ClickBooth currently offer publishers $10 for each approved referral plus a 2% recurring referral fee based on the commissions earned by that person referred. That's a freakin' good deal, and reason enough to give ClickBooth a shot.

Besides my good self, other publishers ClickBooth report to have on their books include MySpace, AOL.com, Lycos, Overture, MSN, Yahoo and Google. My theory, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me! Join Clickbooth - Make Money!

"Real world" commitments made it difficult to pay attention to my goal project in June, but I managed to keep things moving along never the less.

1. Develop Swollen Pickles into a website that can generate $350 per month.

May was a dud month, bringing in just $180.83, luckily things picked up in June, with SwollenPickles.com ending the month $306.81 richer.

7kgs. The big earner for the month was the eBay partner network in conjunction with phpBay Pro, bringing in $122.65. Furthermore, I made an additional $44.10 commission via sales of phpBay Pro itself. I've given up counting how many times phpBay Pro has paid for itself now, but let's just say it's a lot!
Shopzilla, Kontera, Widgetbucks and Adsense all contributed relatively evenly, with Kontera performing surprisingly well in June.

Bidvertiser has proven to be a let down in more ways than one, bringing in a total of $0.88 for June.
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Yesterday my Bidvertiser experiment was upgraded to debacle status, now I'm upgrading it to 'balls' status. In case you can't be bother reading yesterdays post, basically Bidvertiser accused me of generating 'invalid' clicks, which is how they justified the 1 in 10,000 click through rate. According to them, only one click was deemed to be valid (a $0.03 click mind you). I fired back a response asking them to explain how it was possible for me to generate invalid clicks when I knew without a doubt that I'd done nothing wrong. I also asked them on what ground the clicks I generated had been found to be invalid.
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