For the past week or so, the boyfriend has started looking into teaching English in South Korea. We have a few friends who do that currently, but both of them were given an apartment/dorm by the school/program/whatever they went over with. If my boyfriend decides to do this, not only will I be accompanying him (I’ve always kind of felt like I wanted to live abroad someday, why not Asia?) as well as our animals. Has anyone ever been/moved to/lived in Korea before? I know it’s supposed to be relatively affordable from what my friends say, but I’m interested in how hard it is to find an apartment that allows dogs, what kind of culture shock should we expect, and so on and so forth. Any advice would be welcomed with open arms!
In other news, if AIM prompts you to upgrade? DON’T. I did and now I can’t even fucking USE the stupid program - the first time anyone IMs me, AIM freezes and I have to CTRL+ALT+DELETE and shut it down. So if any of y’all have been wondering where I’ve been… well, let’s just say IRC is just about all I’ve got right now. Blech.
Has anyone ever promoted/dealt with Neon Dollars before? I signed up because they’re currently offering a $150 bonus to new webmasters, and managed to snag a sale in my first day having their links up… but it seems that they don’t actually have the biggest base of cam models. I think that Neon Cams is new, though, but I might be mistaken? Oh well, we’ll see… cross your fingers that they do well, though, since their 30% commission is LIFETIME, unlike AWE, which is only a 14-day cookie. So yeah.
I am in a completely fantastic mood today: not only has the weather outside gone from super-snowy to sunny and almost warm, but it’s only 2:00 PM and I’ve already made $174 today, not counting any mainstream paid posts/advertising profits. Holy shit, right? I’m kind of in disbelief… but SO excited. I know this is probably just a fluke, but I like to imagine someday this will be normal. How amazing would that be?
The paid posts have been rolling in - you can check them out at my mainstream/shopping blog here. I’ve mostly been writing via Smorty, although as previously mentioned, I’ve gotten a few assignments from Blogsvertise as well. I just got approved by PayU2Blog (thanks, Tashina) and LinkWorth (if you aren’t registered with them yet and you do paid posts, please please PLEASE sign up through that reflink - I will love you FO-EVAH! They help you sell both paid posts and text links, among other things). Still waiting to hear back from PayPerPost, though.
I’m going to cut out here, because my internet connection is being seriously bitchy. But I did just want to put it out there that I’m looking for mainstream/personal blog link trades for Posh Vice, Gamer Hero, and of course, this one. If you’re interested, comment here or e-mail me: sarah AT notapornstar DOT com. Thanks in advance to anyone who decides to partner with me, and now I’m going to go enjoy the sun some more!
A few things, since I’ve been slacking on the personal blogging front:
-February was a milestone month for me, profit-wise. I did the math, and I made 150% of what I did in January, and finally broke the 1k mark. I’m very excited, as it seems that all the advice and lessons I was given by Steve & Kimo have really been helping. I have high hopes for March; we’re one week into the month and I’ve already broken $400. Of course, watch me have completely jinxed myself by bragging about it! Keep your fingers crossed that I can beat February - that is my new goal: every new month is a chance to beat the previous month.
-Things with Cash Uncovered were taken care of to my satisfaction. Kudos goes out to Phil; he handled all the drama very professionally and made an extra effort to ensure that things got smoothed out between us.
-I launched three new websites, although they’re all still very much in their early stages. The first is a mainstream blog that has to do with animal care and pet products; the other two are adult blogs - Pink Glam Girls, made primarily as a place for me to push softcore like Playboy and its ilk; and Hustle Honeys, which will feature black women and interracial hardcore. The name could be better, but it’s all I could think of… blame Katt Williams.
-I’ve started using pay-per-post websites to aid in monetizing my mainstream websites; currently I’m approved at Smorty and Blogsvertise. I’ve written three “sponsored” posts thus far, and it’s incredibly easy money - I tend to be a really quick writer, so I’m enjoying getting paid for what amounts to, at most, five minutes of work. Here’s hoping the opportunities keep coming! If you know of any good PPP services that I haven’t listed here (FYI - I’m currently in the pending stage at PayPerPost), feel free to comment with your referral code & I’ll sign up under you.
Last but not least - and this is completely unrelated to blogging, but oh well - a hearty “fuck yeah” goes out to Christian Siriano’s win of Project Runway this past Wednesday. FIERCE.
Nice. I made the AWE top webmasters list again last period - this time for having the second highest average purchase ($141.42) - of course, I only had seven sales, but still… I love seeing my name on that list, makes me feel like I can actually succeed at this whole game. The person under me had an average of $124.67 with 77 sales. Can you IMAGINE. Some of these people make bring in a quarter of a million in sales every 15 days (top sales amount for last period: $254,133) - it’s just so hard to wrap my mind around that much income in such a small period of time.
The month’s just about half-way over and I’ve already beaten January’s income. My overall conversion ratio isn’t too bad - 1:491 for February. Really, the only discouraging thing this month is the eerily low rate of CCBill sales this month - I’ve had only ONE new signup for any CCBill website, and last month I was averaging at least one new CCBill signup each day. I’ve been pushing CCBill sponsors just as much, so it’s kind of strange. Good thing other sponsors have been converting in their place, I guess.
I’ve got a few goals for the next day or so: I need to think of a domain name for either a black girl or interracial niche blog. I already have Latina and Asian niche sites, but for some reason I’m just drawing a blank when I come to domain names for these two niches… and I have so many gorgeous black chicks I want to promote! Interracial has always converted well for me when I put it on LLO, too, and according to Psychic Search, my readers REALLY want more.
Also been working on another mainstream website - it’s not yet live, so no links just now. But it’s on a topic that I’m quite adept at rambling about, so hopefully that helps with prompting me to update it more frequently than a few of my other mainstream websites.
A friend of mine posted about my situation with Cash Uncovered on a webmaster message board that I don’t usually frequent. I didn’t ask him to make the post, he made it because he thought that it would expedite the process of getting the missing check situation resolved. Apparently, Steve overestimated the maturity levels of the guys at CU, and the thread turned into some wannabe drama-bomb clusterfuck.
I’ll just summarize the retarded ass shit that the CU guys pulled in that thread (and here, even, one of them decicded to showcase his absolutely ASTOUNDING reading comprehension by leaving a comment here that I’d already said was irrelevant to the missing checks). Now, I’ll be honest - I haven’t bothered to check the thread again after my last post in it over a day ago, because the responses they’ve given already made it pretty clear that they’re more interested in trolling/internet tough guy-ing than actually reading & processing what I responded with, so there’s no point in even putting forth effort towards that forum.
I don’t really have anything specific to talk about today, so this will be kind of a ramble. Fair warning.
I got a response from Cash Uncovered that somewhat irked me, they came at me with an attitude like a) I was silly for complaining about only $210 (way to not think long-term and realize that it might’ve been more had I not pulled all your links from my sites) and b) they never “ignored” me, even though in the same breath he acknowledged that he never followed up on his “checking with the bank” promise. I’m just getting a slightly condescending vibe from these guys, and it’s bothersome. I haven’t done anything wrong here, is it really so awful of me to expect to be paid the money you owed me, and for you to not drop contact in the middle of supposedly investigating why I haven’t received anything from you? Ugh.
Net Audio Ads supposedly went live on February 1st, but it seems they’ve hit a few speedbumps and there’s a statement in their affiliate area saying that ads will begin playing at 6:00 PM EST this Monday… so, tomorrow, I guess. It should be interesting to see how this does.
My earnings have dropped off hugely all of a sudden - they’re back to the sporadic randomness of previous months (ie, I made $75 on February 1st, but then only $5 on the 2nd). I’m kind of bumming about this… I was really enjoying the at-least-$20-day streak I was on, it made me feel a little more secure about all of this… but now I haven’t made a CCBill sale in almost a week. Boo.
For the most part, I’ve had a pretty good experience in the online adult industry so far, especially when it comes to affiliate programs - they’re usually helpful, pay me on time and accurately, some even go the extra mile and help me get specific content for a themed website or give me promotional passwords (I’ve got to give Kate from Prissy Pays some props right now, she recently sent me some gamer-themed content from the Natalie Sparks member’s area for me to put up on Gamer Fetish).
Unfortunately, the time has come for me to face facts - I seem to have found a dud. It’s even more disappointing because Cash Uncovered converted really well, even on the small amount of traffic I sent their way. All time, I’m 1:216 with them, with 7 signups. That’s pretty awesome. Unfortunately, it’s not so awesome when I’ve had to drop their links because they’ve never bothered to pay me.
I even contacted them a few months ago, asking what was up and why I’d never seen a dime from them, saying that I’d hate to have to stop promoting them because they have great content, great sites, and a great ratio. At first, I got some replies from them - stating that they had “records” of sending me the checks, and when I suggested that perhaps they had gotten lost or there was a mix-up (because truly, I’ve never gotten anything from them), they offered to check with their bank to see if the supposedly mailed checks (sorry, I’m a bit suspicious they ever existed now) had ever been cashed. So I thanked them, and then waited… waited…
I’m still waiting, MONTHS later. I’ve shot them a few more e-mails, trying to touch base, but no response. And of course, no checks from them have arrived, even though I had made more sales with them in between that conversation and the time I finally decided it was time to pull their links from my websites. I’ve sent them one last e-mail today, and I think that if I don’t hear anything from them within a week, I’ll have to take it to the webmaster boards and do the whole drama thread/internet hissy fit thing, which I really don’t want to do… I am a very (probably too much so) non-confrontational person with this sort of thing, but after my last “real” job deciding to never pay me my promised raise that went with my promotion even though I had still been doing the extra work, I’ve come to realize that people WILL take advantage of that fact and bank on my distaste for drama overcoming my rights/things that I’ve earned or been promised.
So cross your fingers this gets worked out and I get paid. Ugh.
Alright, I know I’ve put off the promised blog about the latest announcement from Net Audio Ads, but forgive me… I just got Xbox Live and it’s addictive as hell (if you want to play Uno or any other random game with me, leave a comment with you gamer tag & I’ll add you)… you wouldn’t believe how fast time can fly by when you’re playing Uno with strangers. Crazy. Anyhow, on to business. Here’s an from the latest Net Audio Ads blog & my thoughts.
NetAudioAds has made an addition to the back office that will allow you to sign up to sell advertising.
We are having no trouble lining up the big advertisers but we need small niche advertisers like Joe’s Pizza (fictitious example). NetAudioAds is good at procuring the big advertisers but may be missing opportunities at the local level that you may be able to tap in to.
Imagine Joe’s Pizza announcing their 2 for 1 special to a single zip code. How many small businesses out there thrive on local walk in traffic. What if you can help them to increase their business through “micro targeted” audio ads on the Internet.
Of course Joe’s is a fictitious example and there are many, many other businesses out there that can benefit. Especially the ones that are already advertising on the radio. You can offer advertising that is much more targeted than radio advertising and provides “measurable” results. In other words the advertiser can pick what type of website to be heard on, when to be heard and where (geographically) they will be heard.
Simply put, I LOVE this idea, because I know it would work on me. When it comes to food, movies, new bars & clubs - the power of suggestion is very effective on me. I mean, how many times have I been sitting on the couch and seen an ad for a pizza and then decided that’s exactly what I want? Too many times to count. So harnessing that power and putting it to work for internet addicts is just an all-around fantastic idea.
I especially like that they’re going for the local businesses & plan to serve zip code specific ads. Their example that they give really illustrates the idea wonderfully; but to expound on it a bit more… I live in a campus area, with about 40 small pizza/sub/gyro places that are open until 4AM for the college crowd. Imagine a local internet addict, surfing at 3AM after the bars have closed… he/she has the munchies but is too drunk/lazy/tired to actually cook. The website they visit plays a LOCAL advertisement for one of the all-nighter pizza joints, complete with a special coupon code for people hearing the web ad. Case closed, deal made, customer sold.
This idea has HUGE potential and it may have just taken me from on the fence to an avid supporter of Net Audio Ads. If this takes off, you can bet that I’ll be taking advantage of the “selling advertising” part of the program and hitting up some of the underrated all-nighter places around here… this could be amazingly effective. I know it’s got me excited!
It seems as though all of the lessons Steve & Kimo are giving me are starting to pay off… I’ve had some boosts in certain search engine keywords (like this gallery that’s ranking #2 - at least for me - for I Dream Of Erica). I’ve been averaging at least one sale a day, which is better than before: pretty much all my sales were clumped on the weekends, but during the rest of the week I’d be lucky to have one sale. My weekends are still doing better than my weekdays (I came really close to $100 this past Saturday), but it’s nice to have daily sales… very reassuring and encouraging.
In affiliate news, Net Audio Ads has made some announcements that have really turned me from ambivalent & unsure to somewhat excited to promote them… assuming that the basic idea behind the ads proves successful, they’ve got some really innovative ideas to use said audio ads in the future. I’ll post more about this once I’m feeling a bit better and my thoughts are more collected, as I’m still feeling a bit queasy and spaced out.
I originally read about the new Net Audio Ads affiliate program via the Art Of Money blog, and was reminded of it again today by Michael Aulia’s post on the same subject. I’m both intrigued and turned off by the concept. While the premise of a no-click-needed money-making affiliate program is definitely appealing, I can’t help but wonder if an ad on auto-play being the first impression a website to a new viewer is really that smart of an idea.
I mean, one of the most-hated aspects of websites like MySpace is when people leave their songs on auto-play. Is there anybody out there that actually enjoys being essentially jumped via audio? It makes me suspicious that any first-time viewer that visits my website will hear the auto-play, and immediately close out my site, never to return again. I mean, I know my reaction to embedded audio tends to go that way - I either click out of the site, or if it’s a site I know has something specifically desirable on it, I immediately mute my speakers. The first course of action hurts both the publisher and advertiser of the audio ads, while the second just makes the ad a waste of effort.
The Net Audio Ads website addresses some of these issues, and rather than force you to go find their FAQ, I’ll just post the ones that are most relevent to my concerns:
QUESTION: Will this offend or cause people to not come to my website due to the audio ads?
ANSWER: We are currently running these ads on 550,000 web pages, because the ad spot is only 5 seconds, complaints have been rare.
QUESTION: How have these 5 second audio ads been performing for advertisers?
ANSWER: We have consistently outperformed, radio, television and paper ads plus the fact that we spider the website just like Google does, we only deliver ads that are directly related to the contextual nature of the site.
QUESTION: Will the PPP ads be targeted to the content of my website?
ANSWER: Yes, we will crawl the “readable” content of your website to determine what kinds of ads to play. The ads that play will be targeted to your market or niche.
QUESTION: Does the visitor have to click on anything for me to get paid from an audio ad?
ANSWER: No, audio ads automatically play when a visitor enters your website. When the audio plays you get paid, no clicks necessary.
QUESTION: How is it that publishers get to keep 100% of their traffic (by not requiring a click)? Aren’t you losing money?
ANSWER: This is a common misunderstanding and this is why PPP is so revolutionary. The advertiser has paid to have a 5 second audio ad played on your website. You are paid just for the ad playing, no clicks or action from the website visitor is necessary. We are not losing money, we actually make more because the ad is triggered on 100% of the website’s traffic. In essence the website owner is then paid for 100% of their traffic. Best of all, the visitor never leaves your website so you have the chance to monetize even more. All other forms of media require a click or some kind of action that leads people away from a website. As you can see PPP is quite different.
I’m pretty much undecided about whether I think this is a good idea yet. Obviously, although Net Audio Ads seems to have no rules against putting the ads on an adult website, that strikes me as a very stupid/inconvenient-for-surfers move, so I doubt I’d ever put the ads on any of my porn websites. The last thing I want is for someone to get put in an embarassing/awkward situation due to my websites, because then they probably won’t return.
As for my mainstream websites, who knows? I may give them a test run and see how they do for me; as I said before, the idea of making money off a surfer without them having to click off your website is extremely appealing. If I do end up using Net Audio Ads, I’ll definitely post about it and let everyone know how it’s working out - the service goes live on February 1st, 2008, so it’s rapidly approaching decision-making time.
EDIT: I’ve decided to at the very least put the code on THIS website, as it’s mostly directed at other webmasters, so we can all see what it’s like. Right now it just plays a bit of white noise, but ads will start on February 1st as previously stated. Please feel free to weigh in on how intrusive you think the ads are, and if you personally will be promoting them.