As with most industries, there’s a shady bunch in every crowd. There’s always going to be a few “groups” (companies) who tend to shave sales, claim a few sales as refunds, etc.

What can you do? Either suck it up or don’t send traffic to that company again.

The fact is - all Affiliate Marketers are Traffic Brokers. It’s YOUR traffic that YOU worked/paid for… WHY give it away for FREE? You’re losing more than time by doing so…

I’ve been working with one company for almost 2 years now… they were the reason I got started in this industry and left Web Development behind me. They treated me good, until I spoke out about a few shady practices going on. Sure, I could have kept my big mouth shut - but I wanted to warn innocent people I had worked with, and for, about the “practices” going on within their community.

Recently, I notice that my Commissions go up and down — but have NEVER come close as they did prior to me speaking up…

Sure, it could have been coincidence, but I tested to see if it was… and it was not. They were ripping me off. I found out a way to see all of my pending sales, starting a few months ago, and have noticed that I only seem to receive the SMALLEST sales… all of the highest, ironically, disappear. “Refunds”. Sure. I bet.

I’ve been in this industry for a while now, but I also grew up around Business people who have built solid businesses that still exist, even after they have passed. I spent 8 months in Vegas watching some of the biggest con-artists around… so, I catch on when it comes to these clowns.

The easiest thing to do is to switch from one merchant to the next…

Guess what? 9 times out of 10 - you will notice sales go UP. So far, they’ve gone way up for me. Coincidence? Hardly. I was getting ripped off and wasn’t focusing on switching my traffic… or shall I say “re-routing” my traffic.

In the CPA Game, you’ll see this a lot more, I’m sure. So, you’ll see how easy it is to go from one merchant to the next. Not hard to do at all.

Don’t let others screw you out of money. Show them how easily you can screw them out of sales, the honest way… walk away and give your traffic to someone who will treat you with respect!

Posted by Clint Lenard | 1 Comment »

I’ve been getting really unorganized over the past few weeks and it’s becoming a major problem for me…

Thankfully, I’ve successfully quit smoking, again, and I’ve started back on Precision nutrition, working out like crazy and now it’s time to get back on track with work… since all of the good things above have seemed to destroy my old daily routine =)

To be honest, I rarely followed my daily routines I had written on paper and posted on my Cork board, anyway… (and my dry erase board and my computer, phone, etc…)

So, now I have a HUGE sign that says the following:

“PER DAY”

3 ARTICLES

1 BLOG POST

5 ppc CAMPAIGNS

2 PLACEMENT CAMPAIGNS

and more… some of you may be confused with ppc and Placement … yes, Placement Targeting is PPC - but it’s “different” in my opinion as 99% of PPC’ers tend to run Keyword Targeting only.

Obviously, I have other stuff on this list - but those are my MAIN goals. They will be different in about a month, but for now they’re perfectly fine and will help me get back on track.

What are your daily goals?

Posted by Clint Lenard | 2 Comments »

I see a lot of Affiliate Marketing Newbies who get stuck with paying a lot of money for hosting accounts for their Domains. This is a mistake, in my opinion, as there are much better ways to accomplish this feat and save a lot of money in the long run.

Rather than pay $5-$20 for a hosting account for 1-3 domains, you should focus on getting a Reseller account in which you can host as many domains as you wish, for MUCH cheaper in the long run. One of the Hosting companies I use is hostgator.com…and it’s better than the other companies I’ve used/use.

But there’s other companies that exist that you can good service from as well. HostRocket.com offers a reseller hosting package for a decent price, and they are great with uptime guarantees!

1an1.com is horrible… I advise you to stay away from this company, PERIOD.

You can find a lot of Reseller companies on ebay, but I do not suggest to go this route. I’ve dealt with almost every company listed on ebay and rarely do any of them have good service.

With a Reseller account - you will receive WHM (WebHostManager) or PLESK that allows you to quickly and easily setup your hosting account for your domain (each one). If you use GoDaddy for your Domains, you will be able to have your Website up and running within 30 minutes. I usually only have to wait for 10 minutes, whereas companies such as 1and1 will take up to 10 hours, minimum.

Hosting matters… hosting can make or break your Business of your site is down and you’re spending time promoting the site. Uptime is what you need to worry about, and downtime is what you should NOT have to worry about!

I hope this Tip helps you get started with your Affiliate Marketing career!

Posted by Clint Lenard | No Comments »