Thursday, March 20, 2008

Earning $$ Blogging!!


Well, I have been at this every day since January 23rd!! Although I started my blog at the end of last year, I didn't officially devote time to it until then, as I didn't quite know what to do in the world of blogging!! I was so confused. At times, I still am. How do I get more readers? How do I spread the word about myself and advertise? I am still learning! I know I have a long road ahead of me, but at least I have started on the journey.

In fact, this is embarrassing to say...but I didn't even know what Blogger was until last fall. Thankfully, my girlfriend, Carrie ( yes, of Carrie's Cooking ) was over for a playdate and showed me her blog and introduced me to the world. So, a big fat THANKS to her! Because, I absolutely love it! I always have so much to say ( ask Carrie...she knows I never shut up ) and now I have somewhere to talk and talk and talk.....


So, why am I telling you all this? Because, I got my first "official" paycheck from blogging today! A whopping ( is that a word? ) $91.50!!!!!!! I am THRILLED!!


So, I wanted to spread the word. If you have a blog, website or anything along those lines..no matter what you feature or talk about, you should embrace affiliate programs. And, with that being said, I will focus on the one I got my paycheck from today, CPA Storm. As I receive earnings from others, I will post for you on them, too. But, I really do like to make sure companies are true to their word and valid before posting about them. You know me!!


Before I tell you about this company, let me give you my 2 cents on the whole affiliate and blogging aspect. I BELIEVE in writing and posting true and accurate articles, no matter what the subject. I also believe that an article should NOT be posted simply to make money ( at least on my site ) unless the reader is notified of this. If it is something you can make money on thru referrals or affiliates, that is GREAT, but it should not change your viewpoint, what you write or how you portray the article to the readers. Many of my articles do not provide any benefit to me, but some do have links in them, and I get paid. BUT, these are articles I would write, regardless if they were part of my affiliate program or not.


Here is an example. My previous post about eBay told you how I make a little bit of money selling thru them. I told you about the book clubs, DVD clubs and CD clubs. If you noticed, I had a link there for Zooba ( hey here is a link again ) :-), because it is one of my affiliate advertisers. Basically, I can make money if anyone clicks on Zooba and joins. So, since I was writing about them, I added the link.


BUT..here is where I think honesty comes into play. I could have easily NOT told you that you can get access to these clubs through online offers. I make NO money if you decide to do an online offer and apply to these programs through them. BUT, I felt, in all honesty, I needed to tell you that I truly recommend you apply to the program through that route if you are going to do online offers. BECAUSE, that is what I would do!


You get an advantage that way ( it applies towards YOUR free gift ). I only added the link for those of you who did not want to do online offers. I mind as well put the link, in case someone does want to sign up without doing offers and then I would get a little bit of money. If I don't get anything, that is fine, too. But, at least I posted an article I knew to be true to what I would personally do...I would sign up through a site where I would get a benefit! :-)


SO..now, on with the show.....


CPA Storm is very easy to join. Especially for a new blogger like me. Many of the affiliate programs I applied for would not accept me because I was new and small. You have to have a certain amount of readers and page reads a day, and well, that is just not possible when you are just beginning.


But, CPA Storm accepted me immediately. Why did I like this company? First, they had a lot of advertisements for companies I was going to be talking about. The list ranges from automotives to surveys, to freebies....let's see..clothing, entertainment, dating, etc, etc. I could go on and on, but basically, it has a wide range of options. So, it was a great fit for me.


I also like the company, because they sent daily emails with their latest promotions. So, I didn't have to log back in all the time to see what was new and which advertisers had been added. I found out when checking my email.


I also like the fact that they paid MORE than alot of the companies themselves. For example, My Survey is one of my favorite survey sites this year, as you can tell from my posts. I let you know everytime I get a pay check from them for surveys I have completed. Well, when I first started posting about them, I would put the link that My Survey gave me for friends. It pays $1.50 for each friend that you refer. That was great! I thought it was nice that they paid me to refer people. But, through CPA Storm, I get paid up to $6.00 per person who joins. So, as you can see, the benefit to me is much better through CPA Storm. So, my newer links go through them now.


Finally, I also like that you can become a Super Affiliate with them. Simply put, you are allowed to refer others to CPA Storm, and if they sign up, you will get 5% of anything they make. WOW...the other affiliate programs I signed up for didn't offer this.


So, I hope this insight into my world of blogging helps you out, too. If you have your own blog or site, feel free to check CPA Storm out for yourself, and investigate all your affiliate options. You may be surprised how many advertisers fit right into the topics you are currently talking about. And, if you are going to post about the company anyway, why not get the benefit of some extra money!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! I was reading this post and am interested in this... but I had a what-may-be-stupid question. Did you feel pretty ok about giving them your social? Obviously you did since you signed up and it makes sense to me why they need it of course, but I just wanted to make sure you hadn't had any problems in terms of the w-9 and all.

Carrie @ Moneysavingmethods.com said...

Hi Melanie,
That is a good question...and so many people are afraid to give others their SS# ( we were always taught not to ).
But in the world of the web now...and people making money here, there and everywhere...it is impossible not to.
The government REQUIRES all companies to provide a tax document at the end of the year for ANYONE they pay more than $500 to ( or maybe it is $600 )...don't quote me.
With mystery shopping..I have to provide my SS#. My online offers? Yep..I have to send them a w-9 before they will mail me my gift.
Affiliate programs..you betcha. As you can see, I made almost $100 in less than 2 months...so I will probably make the $500 mark this year.
I bet I have about 15 different companies right now that have my SS#.
There is nothing you can do about it. They cannot pay you, unless they have the information to report to our great IRS.
I think why people get leery is that they are afraid someone will get their hands on it and steal their identity. This is something I worry about daily. It could happen!! I will not lie. I shred my documents in the mail, I have Virus protection, spyware, etc on my computer...etc.
But, think of it this way. First, check to see if it is a reputable company. If it is, you have JUST as much chance of someone stealing your SS# from your bank as you do from this company. At your local bank, do you have any idea how many employees have access to your numbers? Probably alot. What about a credit card company? ETC. There are no guarantees that out of all of those people working for these companies, someone isn't going to look like a reputable employee, but still sneak and steal some information from people. It is ALWAYS a risk.
SOOOO...with that said. I am a FIRM believer in checking your credit report, at the minimum, 3 times a year. If you can get access to it more ( you can get it 3 times free, at least ), then do it! The goal is to stay on top of these things.
And, if you are really worried about it....there are credit watch agencies that will watch your credit report daily for you and report to you when something hits it. That way you would know the day it happened and could stop it in it's tracks.
Also, many home insurance policies have credit protection insurance on them. You may call yours and see. If not, you can get a policy on your own or change home insurance companies to one that provides this service for free.
Although I like to save money, I think people need to do what allows them to sleep at night. And, if that means spending money on a credit watch or credit protection insurance...then, well, it is probably money well spent.
Sorry this was so long winded...I just know a lot of people worry about this.

Anonymous said...

Hi Carrie! Thanks for the great post about CPA Storm. I had not heard of them before so I headed over through your link and checked them out last night. (I hope you got credit for it!) I signed up and it seems that they're similar to Commission Junction, which I use now. They do have some different companies available that CJ doesn't have. I felt a lot safer researching them, already knowing they are legit because of your info. Thanks again! Danelle Ice (Homemaker Barbi)

Carrie @ Moneysavingmethods.com said...

Danelle,
I am a member of Commission Junction, too. I will be posting about them, too. One of things you will find about the duplicate companies, is often you may not get approved through CJ, but CPA Storm will approve you. This happened with Zooba for me. Through CJ ( it is under booksonline.com ), they didn't approve me. But, they did approve me through CPA Storm. So, even though it may be worth less money, if you can't get approved at all thru CJ, it is better than nothing! Once we get our traffic and numbers up, then we can reapply thru CJ to get the higher commissions.

Anonymous said...

Hi thanks for the great info. I have some affiliate programs myself. So I understand how things work. Thanks for being honest, we need more people like you! If you or anyone else is interested i have an affiliate program also. My husband is a web developer- so we have several sites too- We also have an ebook I wrote when I was pregnant. It is an ebook that explains how to get free baby samples, discounts, free diapers, formula etc- Its 35+ pages - there is also a baby shower planner and some other items. We currently have over 600 affiliates selling this ebook- with great feedback! We recently rebuilt our affiliate program- We call it the worlds fastest affiliate program- You just put in your paypal email address- and we generate your affiliate code. We have several banners to chose from- and we pay on the 1st of the month via paypal.

We pay $8 for every referral that purchase our ebook (which only costs $15!) Since we love your site- and its very relevant- we would be willing to extend a premium to you if you decide to join our affiliate program and simply put a banner on your site for our ebook. We will pay you $10 per referral.

For more info- and to see the banners we offer go here:
http://www.tripletsmommy.com/aff.php

 
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