Let’s do Business with Real Online Companies

One of my fellow bloggers, and a guy I’ve “followed” for a long time has put a new spin on advertising. Adgitize combines the power of affiliate marketing, blogging and advertising into a comprehensive advertising program.

You can become an affiliate and simply promote the program, earning a commission every time one of your clients purchases advertising.

You can become a “publisher member”, placing the Adgitize widget on your blog/web site and then participate in income-earning activities. You get paid for blogging, for viewing other ads on other publisher pages, and also for Adgitize views on your pages.

Of course, the main reason for Adgitize is to become an advertiser and purchase advertising. This is where you really see the power of Adgitize. Most advertisers report they’re earning at least as much as they’re spending. That makes their return on investment very sweet, indeed.

So, here’s what you’re waiting for… How much does it cost?

If you’d like to become an affiliate, there’s no cost. You can become an affiliate by clicking here.

Want to be like me and become a publishing member? Click here and then be sure to select “Publisher”.

Now, if you’d like to become an advertiser, click here and choose Advertiser. You can choose the size of your ad (full banner or 125×125) and also the length of time for your ad to run. Adgitize accepts Paypal. That means you’re welcome to pay by credit card even if you don’t have a Paypal account.

Happy advertising!

What do you see?

I see a way to engage your readers.  I see a way to unobtrusively share an opportunity for you to fire your graphics designer. I see a way (if you want to really go hog wild) to create all kinds of neat, new advertising without getting directly in your reader’s face.

Go on… go look at it. I’ll wait for you…

So, let me tell you a bit about this incredible software. You know, the more things change, the more they stay the same. I’ve been around this internet marketing world a long time, and it looks like some “retro” ideas are working well.

My roommate, Cindy is actually the affiliate owner of this neat piece of software. With it, you can create banners, buttons, headers, footers, and yes… peel away ads.

Here’s even better news… we’re giving you free access right now, right here. Don’t sit around and wonder if it’s the right thing to do, because I can’t believe this offer will last long.

I know from reading a number of internet marketing forums that this software is all the rage, and more importantly… the affiliates are chomping at the bit to begin earning referral income, and there’s not much income when it’s free… So, you get the picture, right?

Grab your own free access right now!

After over two weeks, this blog seems to have settled in nicely on our new server.

I’ve learned more “geeky” stuff than I ever thought I needed to know. I still have three blogs that haven’t “settled” yet, but once I’m done, I’ll share the whole story with you.

Let’s just say it has a lot to do with my expectations regarding customer support and customer service.

If there’s one thing that gets my goat, it’s lousy or non-exsistent customer service.

Let me define “customer service” for you. This is my opinion, but after owning my own “brick and mortar” business for 16 years, working as a customer service rep for a search engine, and being a “customer” for at least 50 of my nearly 63 years, I believe I’m heartily qualified.

Customer Service: It means to “serve your customer”. That means you provide for your customer before your customer knows they need service.

It means you prevent problems, and if a problem occurs, you correct the issue, keep your customer informed of what steps you’re taking to correct and then, MAKE SURE YOUR CUSTOMER IS MORE THAN SATISFIED.

Satisfied customers are the one’s who disappear from your radar. Sure, they got decent customer service, but because they had a problem and you merely satisfied them… they’ve gon searching for a company that makes them feel like a King or Queen forever.

Here are some of my picks for companies that provide excellent to “out a sight” customer service.

Most recently I’ve been using software from OIOPublisher. Everytime I”ve had a question, it’s been answered immediately… well beyond my expectations.

Entrecard, while experiencing “growth pangs” has been providing excellent customer service as they struggle to stay ahead of the curve. They’ve most recently added a dedicated customer service rep and he’s gone back through every “help request” making sure issues have been solved.

Tired of sharing your ad income with the companies who promise you all kinds of traffic, leads and ad income?

There’s a “new kid” on the block that’s just right for folks who have limited budgets. This is software you own, and may use across ALL your sites and blogs for a single fee. Depending upon how you price your advertising, you could pay for the software with just a couple of ads.

I’m talking about OIOPublisher. No, I’m not being paid to write this article. I purchased it in early October and have been doing a little testing before I share with you.

When I purchase software, I look for solid support. Although I’ve not needed it, Simon Emery, the founding owner of OIOPublisher, is very responsive via a members’ forum. He answers requests in a timely, sensible, understanding manner.

What can you do with OIOPublisher?

So far, I’ve easily set up banner ads, text ads, and inline (within a post) ads. You can also sell paid reviews (full posts with or without disclosure) and products/downloads.

Your two sources of payment are PayPal and Entrecard.

You can set your advertising to run any time from 1 to as many days as you want. I’ve been testing 30 days per ad. That gives your advertiser a lot more exposure for their money.

You’re free to charge (and keep) whatever you choose. I’ve seen ads sold for as little as 10 EC and as high as $100 per month. You can even set your ads up so your advertiser may simply subscribe. That means they’ll renew automatically at your set price.

If you want, and have enough advertisers, you can set up your ads so they’ll rotate.

You may set up your OIOPublisher within your WordPress script as a plug-in or you may set it up on your server as a “stand alone”. That lets you run ads on sites built with something other than WordPress.

You also get a customizable affiliate program that covers ad and software sales.

So, how much is all this control and power going to cost you? How about a cool $45… that’s a one-time fee for lifetime updates. Like I said, you can recover your costs with just a few ads. To purchase OIOPublisher, check out my own affiliate link. Yes, I’ll get a cut from your purchase, but hey… that’s part of what makes this software so appealing.

It’s been nearly a year since I first heard about Entrecard. It took me a couple of months to realize this was the right traffic generation/blogger community for me to join. Once I did, I spent countless hours “dropping”, reaching the 300 daily drop limit a couple of times.

There was only one problem… time spent dropping was time away from tending (make that writing) my blogs. Yes, I have more than one blog. I have five blogs that each use Entrecard to generate traffic and find new readers.

Here’s why EC works so well for me. I could care less about SEO. I’m a writer, not a techie. I write for my readers, not for search engines, so I have to generate traffic differently than folks who pay attention to keywords, tag clouds, etc. I choose to do it peer-to-peer, and that’s why EC works so well for me.

Do I have tons of traffic? No, but I have folks who spend time on my various blogs and when appropriate, leave me comments. I’m quite sure that over winter, when I have more time to “drop” and write, my traffic will increase substantially.

Entrecard is what YOU make of it.

If you’re a “speed dropper”, then you’ll likely get a lot of drops, but few folks who stop to read your blog.

If, like me, you love to discover new blogs, you’ll attract the same kind of audience.

Even with all the “first year growth” issues, Entrecard continues to lead the way for me in quality traffic generation, new readers, unique ideas, and new friends.

Quite some time ago, I instituted an “Advertiser Loyalty Program” for folks who belong to Entrecard, an advertising community for bloggers.

Here’s the deal on my “Advertiser Loyalty Program”.

Every time you purchase a 24-hr ad spot from me, I enter you into a pool of that month’s advertiser. That means, at least, you have a 1 in 31 chance of winning at least 60 EC from me. I have five blogs, so you are welcome to advertise across all five and compete for each of the pools.

I also keep track of how many times you advertise with me. See that “Most Loyal Advertisers” in my Blogroll? Each of those bloggers have advertised at least 10 times with me. They may have advertised two times on each blog, or 10 times in just one blog. Either way, they all earned a permanent link for their efforts.

I also have a “big pool” made up of all the advertisers. I set aside 25% of the credits I receive from advertising, and when that totals 500, I go to a random number generator and select a winner, awarding them all 500 EC.

Who’s been winning? That’s where the link love comes in… Be sure to check out these folks. They each received at least 60 EC from this blog.

May Winner: Easy Viral Traffic Blog

June Winner: Generate free money and traffic for Your Blog

July Winner:  Posh Mama

August Winner:  Time!

If you’d like to get in on the action, join me at Entrecard. It’s where bloggers really have come together to create a program that works.

I’ve been with Hot Conference since before it became available to the public. I got started with it while it was still in “beta mode” back in 2004. After four full years, I’m still with them. Even though I’ve retired, I still use my conferencing software instead of the phone whenever possible.

So, what is Hot Conference?

It is the most cost-effective online audio/video software available around the world. When you own this software, you can talk with others all around the world. You get real-time audio/video chat, whiteboard, Powerpoint presentation mode, and even desktop sharing.

Why would you want to use it?

Let me start with the “not so obvious”…

Got a family scattered all over the world? When you get Hot Conference, you can give each family member the link to your conference room and everyone can meet together. You can share pictures, see each other in real time, send files, and do it all securely.

Are you working from home? Keep in touch with others in your field by inviting them to conference with you. Maybe you need to train other representatives. Hot Conference let’s you do that securely and with zero cost to any of your reps.

Got a business that needs to provide support to your customers? Hot Conference can meet your needs very nicely. There’s no cost to your customer. All they do is click on your conference room link, run the software and hook up with you. Your Hot Conference program runs in the background on your computer and when someone comes to your room, you get a notification tag alerting you to their presence.

Oh, and just in case you’re looking for a way to supplement income, Hot Conference can do that nicely, too. Rather than me trying to “sell” you on it, here a special offer you’ll rarely see. Just like I offer with Kiosk Web Hosting, here’s my personal private invitation for you to get your own Hot Conference software package for just a buck. Use it for a full 30 days… you’ll be hooked, just like I’ve been hooked for the past four years.

That’s right, with all the hosting companies around, I choose Kiosk Web Hosting.

I’ve been with them for over five years now, after several disappointments with other web hosts.

What makes them my #1 choice?

In a nutshell, it starts with customer service. They have live customer service reps 24/7, and a “ticket system” for support that is monitored 24/7. Additionally, if any of my sites (10 total) go down, I have a special pager e-mail to use. When I’ve had to use it, they’ve responded within a few minutes, letting me know when I can expect to be back in service.

Beyond that, they also provide a full range of webmaster tools, and also a heap of marketing materials.

Here’s one more reason I prefer Kiosk Web Hosting. They reward me for advertising. When you choose to become a Kiosk customer in my network, I get paid. Here’s something even better… You get paid, too, when you refer Kiosk Web Hosting.

What do you get in the way of actual hosting stuff?

You get too much to actually list in this blog. One thing I will tell you is that your first month’s hosting costs you one single buck… Yep $1.00 for your first 30 days!

Why would we do that? It’s called VALUE. We know it takes a while to get things set up and we prefer to partner with you and help you reach success, so while you’re getting things going, we don’t believe you should pay a full month’s fee.

Here’s what you get for just a buck!