Is there any money left?

I am so happy with TradeDoubler! I was having trouble getting their ads into my blog because the WordPress code was stopping their Javascript from working. I’d checked the WordPress help site, and the first thing I found out was that for anything involving Javascript, you need to turn off the default WordPress ‘rich editor’ and use the plain HTML editor instead. This is done by selecting the option ‘Users -> Profile’ and deselecting this box:

Deselecting the visual rich editor in the user profile screen

The WordPress website also advised creating an external javascript file and calling it from the WordPress PHP header template file (these are filed under a directory called ‘themes’). It was quite a trawl through the help site finding out how to do that, and once I’d done it it worked in Firefox but not Internet Explorer.

So I sent this message to TradeDoubler customer support yesterday using their website contact form:

Hi, please can you tell me how I can add adverts to my wordpress blog? I’ve tried adding them in the html editor and they don’t appear at all. I’ve also tried adding them using an external javascript file called in the header template (as wordpress suggest) and they appear in firefox but not internet explorer. Have you got any advice on this please?
Thanks

And today, just a day later, I got this reply, which not only fixed the problem but included a screen capture showing how to do it (code with IDs removed):

Hi Annabel

Thank you for contacting TradeDoubler.

I am afraid I am unfamiliar with the Wordpress Blog software. What I can suggest is that when attempting to insert the links into the HTML editor you ensure the ‘Use case prevention’ option is deselected on the ‘Show Code’ page. The ‘Use case prevention’ element of the link scripted in Java Script and therefore may be causing you problems in the HTML editor. Please see image below detailing how to remove this feature:

If you have anything else I can help you with, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards,

Mark Andrews
PUBLISHER EXECUTIVE

1) FAQ - Click here for online support
2) Account Manager Contact Details

So I tried it and it works - it produces a plain HTML link instead of the Javascript, and this can be added using the WordPress HTML editor.
I think they deserve another advert for that:

I must be going up in the world - I’ve received my first ever ‘Nigerian Scam’ email, so called because this scam was first recorded from Nigeria. This is what it says:

My name is Dr. Williams Biko, and I work in the International Operation Department in a Bank here in South Africa. On a routine inspection I discovered a dormant domiciliary account with a BAL. Of (36,000,000.00 (Thirty Six Million USD) on further discreet investigation, I also discovered that the account holder has long since passed away (dead) leaving no beneficiary to the account. The bank will approve this money to any foreigner because the former operator of the a/c is a foreigner from Iraq in particular and he is dead, and nobody will come again for the claim of this money A foreigner can only claim this money with legal claims to the account Holder, therefore I need your cooperation in this transaction. I will provide the necessary information needed in order to claim this money, But you will need to open an account where this can be transferred, any account of your choice wil do. If interested send your private Telephone No. And Fax number including full details of the account to be used for the Deposit. I wish for utmost confidentiality in handling this transaction as my job and the future of my family would be jeopardized if it were breached. I want to assure you that the transaction is without risk if due process is followed accordingly. Finally, I will give you 30% for your corporation. Contact me immediately for more information with this E. Fax Number +15093557121.

Reply with this email or E. Fax:

williamsbiko@123mal.cl
williamsbiko4@yahoo.com

Dr. Williams Biko.

Wow! 30% of 36 million dollars, just for having an email address!!

Read more about the ‘Nigerian Scam’ from Fraudwatch International.

It’s not recommended to answer them, as they may be run by criminal gangs. Also, if you answer them, they know your email address is valid. But here are some funny stories of people taking on the ‘Nigerian scammers’:

PC builder takes 419ers for £171 | The Register

Savannah Says | The Kizombe Correspondence

I hate to turn down 12 million dollars, but I think this time I’ll pass…

Affiliate Marketing

How it began

I started the affiliate marketing in October 2006 after my friend and fellow Women’s Business startup mate Jude went to a Stores Online Pro presentation in Plymouth. She almost persuaded me to go, saying how slick and American he was, how convincing and persuasive, but somehow that didn’t get me up at 6am for the drive.

We both found the £1000+ set up fee a little steep, but we liked the idea of waking up every morning several hundreds of pounds richer, just from advertising other peoples’ websites. I’m sure there’s a lot more to it, but I thought I’d give it a go on a smaller scale.

VistaPrint

The first company I found with an affiliate programme was VistaPrint. I had got free business cards from them, and liked their system for creating other stationery items with the same design. Once I had ordered their free business cards, they kept sending me special offers for other free things, and I have now got fridge magnets, a notepad, return address labels and a Christmas rubber stamp with penguins on it, all for the price of postage. Next time round I’m planning for compliment slips, letterhead paper, postcards and post-its. I’ll only get £2 if you order something from them, but I recommend it anyway.

TradeDoubler

I looked at the bottom of their website and saw a link that said ‘Partnership Opportunities’, which led me to their affiliate programme with TradeDoubler. And that’s how I found out about TradeDoubler.

TradeDoubler is an organisation that manages affiliate programmes for lots of other companies. It is free to join as a publisher (ie someone with a website to host the adverts) and it provides facilities on its website for setting up the adverts, identifies which websites people are using to click on the adverts, keeps track of page impressions (how many times the page loads and the advert is seen), clicks, click through rates (what percentage of page impressions result in clicks on each advert), and resulting sales.

When a sale or other event occurs that would result in commission for the advertiser, TradeDoubler records it, collects the money from the advertiser, waits 2 months in case the sale is refunded, and pays the publisher once there is at least £30 in their account*. Which makes me wonder how they paid me £5.15 in December, but that was nice!

*Since then they have paid me another £21.50, so I must have got that part about waiting for each £30 mixed up. My experience so far has been that they wait 2 months in case items are returned and refunded and then they pay whatever commission has been earned.

TradeDoubler also say, “Affiliates are allowed to buy via their own links and encouraged to do so. ” I wasn’t sure if this meant I would get commissions on my own purchases, but it seemed to work out - I would recommend this programme to anyone! A PDF format instruction file for TradeDoubler can be found here

NetLawman

The next advertisers I signed up with were Amazon and NetLawman, because there was a particular book I wanted to recommend from Amazon, and NetLawman’s programme produced a page section on Legal Documents for E-Commerce and the Internet that looked like a useful resource to include in my website.

Amazon

Amazon was also free to join and looked quite exciting at first. I couldn’t tell from my initial reading whether they counted your own purchases for commissions - it turns out that these appear in your account balance for a while and then go away again. They also require you to have a minimum balance before they pay you, in this case £25. But I spread the word about my website and made some commission from the Christmas shopping season. Now I’m waiting to see what has happened to it, as their records show a direct debit of £18.58 that hasn’t appeared in my bank. I’ve emailed Amazon support, so we’ll wait and see*.

*Almost a month and many emails later, I am still waiting for this payment from Amazon.

So as a round-up of my first affiliate marketing Christmas season, I certainly haven’t woken up each day earning hundreds, but I may have made £40 - £50. Getting the money is trickier though: both Amazon and TradeDoubler payments require a minimum account balance that takes a lot of commissions to accumulate. Perhaps I will get more when my website is finished and receives more visitors (I hope!), but I can’t see it picking up that much momentum again before next Christmas. On the other hand, it’s extra cash for not much work, so whenever I get it it will be a nice bonus.

I plan to continue with affiliate marketing that adds related content and resources to my site. When I have more time in future I plan to try out some of the more gung ho methods that full time affiliate marketers use, like setting up online affiliate stores and promoting them to generate more visitor traffic.

Welcome to my blog.  This is my online journal about creating websites, promoting them, and generally attempting to make money out of the internet.  I’ll let you know how it goes.