The GeoEdge Worldwide Internet Proxy Network
May 14, 2012 Posted by Michael KwanThe following is a paid review for TylerCruz.com written and reviewed by Michael Kwan. It is completely of Michael Kwan’s opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having your site or product reviewed, please view my advertising page
The world wide web, by its very definition, spans the entire world. That doesn’t mean that the same Internet is seen by everyone across the globe, though, and this can have dramatic effects on all your web-based ventures. Want to promote an affiliate program in Denmark but you want to make sure that your landing page is rendering correctly in Denmark?
Offering “global visibility solutions” is a company called GeoEdge. With over 100 global locations, GeoEdge claims to be the largest proxy network in the world.
Get the Local Perspective
The idea here is pretty straightforward: you gain access to a proxy network so that you can view the web as if you were physically located in another part of the world. This is valuable to web publishers, to be sure, but it is also a powerful tool for ad networks, affiliate marketers, SEO specialists, SEM professionals, or just about anyone who needs to see the local version of any given website.
You can watch the video demo to get a better sense of how it works and what you can expect. While the primary appeal here is being able to view different websites from different locations around the world, GeoEdge also has tools to let you monitor and analyze targeted content too. That’s where the analytics component comes into play.
Rather than simply tap into pre-existing servers, GeoEdge has a network of premium servers that are exclusive to this service. This, along with “advanced redundancy mechanisms,” offers some assurance that you’ll get a faster, more reliable connection than many of the other proxy options you may have.
Product Downloads
After you sign up for an account with GeoEdge, you will be provided access to the downloads section. Generally speaking, the easiest way to make use of GeoEdge is to install either the FireFox Add-On toolbar or the Google Chrome extension.
Depending on your specific needs and preferences, you can alternatively make use of the VPN clients for Windows or Mac OS X. The GeoVPN client is designed for testing ads within applications. There is also the GeoProxy advanced client for Windows where you can selectively choose which applications go through the proxy network and which don’t. This is generally faster and more flexible than the GeoVPN client.
Available Proxy Locations
Since Chrome is my primary web browser, I decided to use the Chrome extension for GeoEdge. This places a small icon to the right of the address bar, which is the same place where you may find Skype, weather, or whatever other extensions you may have installed. The initial installation will ask you for your username and password, but it works seamlessly after that.
By and large, the proxies are broken down by continent and then by country. For example, you’d go to Europe to find such countries as Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Poland, Slovenia, Turkey, and Iceland. Under the other categories, you’ll find everywhere from Hong Kong and Malaysia to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
While you could choose a generic proxy in Canada, United States, or United Kingdom, these three locations can be further broken down into specific cities. At this time, Canada only has Montreal and Toronto, and the UK has Manchester and London. The selection within the United States is understandably must more vast.
The Mobile Device Emulator
Geographical location is certainly important for all sorts of web professionals, but there is an increasingly pronounced focus on mobile. We access web content more and more on our smartphones and tablets, so it only makes sense that you’d want to test your site on these platforms too.
Using the same toolbar or extension, you are able to emulate a range of mobile devices. This includes several iOS versions, as well as a range of Android devices, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, Nokia Symbian, and even the Palm Pre Plus.
Even though they are listed under the “Mobile Emulator” section of the extension, emulation of different desktop browsers and spiders/bots is also available. This includes Safari, MSIE 8 on Vista, Yahoo Slurp, and Googlebot 2.1.
General Performance
During my test period with GeoEdge, I generally did not encounter any major problems. I was able to view geo-restricted content like the Daily Show clips on Comedy Central’s website, for example, and I was able to view the mobile theme on my blog from within my desktop PC’s Chrome web browser. Everything was seamless and reasonably speedy. There were a few instances where geo-specific Google searches would yield another GeoEdge login dialog window, though. The exact cause of this is unclear, but I imagine it’s not very common.
To make sure that you are getting the proxy that is indicated in the VPN or toolbar, GeoEdge has set up a proxy test connection page that displays the IP address, IP location, user agent, and browser language of your current connection. This can be accessed via the address bar or as an option within the extension itself.
How Much Does It Cost?
The price for the GeoEdge service depends on the extent of your needs. There are four different pricing plans, as well as the ability to build a custom package for a custom price.
The free plan gives you access to eight proxy locations, but URL access is limited to search engine results pages. There is certainly some value there for certain people, but most will want to upgrade to a paid plan to have access to any URL. That starts at $59/month for access to three locations and 200MB of monthly bandwidth. You can then step up to six locations and 500MB for $99/month or ten locations and 1GB for $169/month.
If you’re unsure if GeoEdge is right for you, the good news is that free trials are avaialble on all of these plans. For my part, I’d say that it works as advertised, so it’s really just up to you whether or not a plan is worth your investment.
I Made $9,000+ the Past 6 Days with PeerFly
May 4, 2012 Posted by Tyler CruzI’ve been preaching how good an affiliate network PeerFly is for 3 years now. I’ve made countless references to them on my blog and have encouraged you guys to sign up with them left and right.
Perhaps this post with give those of you who still haven’t signed up with them yet, a push to do so.
Over the past 6 days, I’ve made over $9,000 with PeerFly ($9,065.68 to be exact).
Below is a screenshot from my Dashboard, taken a few minutes ago:
Now, just because I’ve been having an unordinary fantastic run on my affiliate marketing campaigns recently doesn’t mean that you can just sign up and expect the cash to flow in.
PeerFly isn’t a magic money tree or anything – you still have to know what you’re doing in order to make money – but as far as affiliate networks go, PeerFly has definitely been on the top of my list.
Okay, enough of that. I just wanted to show you that I don’t just plug PeerFly for referrals – I actively use them myself.
Incredibly Busy
I’ve been so busy recently it’s absolutely insane.
Everyone is busy – I know that. But it’s just one of those times when everything seems to be happening at once, you know?
I have a ton of stuff I want to do with affiliate marketing, but it’s hard to get anything done due to being constantly bombarded with e-mails pertaining to all my different projects.
You would think that I should prioritize affiliate marketing since it’s doing really well for me right now, but I’ve neglected things in the past to focus on one thing or another, and it has not been good. So, I’m trying to rotate through things right now as best I can.
Despite trying to get caught up on e-mails, I just seem to get further and further behind.
At the same time, I’m also trying not to work too hard. That sounds like an odd thing to say, given how busy I am right now, but I’ve always feared overworking myself.
All work and no play, makes Tyler a dull boy.
Other Posts Coming Soon
I have a long list of great posts on my blog to-do list, but just haven’t had the time to get to them yet.
And my affiliate marketing campaigns are doing so well right now that I feel posts like these should take precedence.
Stay posted, and I’ll have some more posts for you soon. It’s hard to imagine having to post about another new record anytime soon…
Also, if you haven’t yet, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@tylercruzdotcom) as I tweet fairly frequently (2-3 times a day) thanks to my Blackberry.
Another Affiliate Marketing Record: $2,341.10 in 1 Day
May 1, 2012 Posted by Tyler CruzI posted just two days ago how I had set a new personal affiliate marketing record by bringing in a total of $1,671.82 in 1 day.
It had beaten my previous best day by $167.82, and was fairly close to setting a new net profit record as well.
I had mentioned in the post, which was written the day after, that my goal for that day was to break the $2,000 mark. While all sources pointed that I was on pace to meet that goal, I was still really hoping to make it as it’s a nice little milestone.
Fortunately, I ended up making the $2,000 goal and actually smashing it, bringing in a grand total of $2,341.10 for the day – a new record!
You may notice that in the graph above (which was taken at 4 in the morning, in case you’re wondering why it’s only $70 on the 1st) that I only brought in $974 dollars (ha, listen to me now… "only").
This is because I spent the majority of yesterday setting up and learning a new tracking platform (which I freaking love so far BTW, OMG – keep an eye out for a future blog post on that), as well as launching and testing about a dozen new campaigns, using my beloved shotgun approach.
All failed except one, which did surprisingly well. 40% ROI right off the bat well, and that’s with no bump or optimizing.
Almost New Net Profit Record
So how much of that $2,341.10 that I made 2 days ago was actually profit?
I just finished calculating it, and it came out to $581.25.
Please keep in mind that this is not an exact number. It is virtually impossible to get an exact number due to a number of factors such as different time zones on networks and traffic sources, reporting limitations, etc.
While my ROI dropped, I ended up making $60 more net profit on the 29th than the previous day. On the 28th my net profit was $531.10. I made $700 more gross on the 29th, but only $60 more profit, so it shows you some of the limitations of scaling (there is a ceiling if you don’t scale an offer laterally through other traffic sources and/or optimize).
My all-time record was made back on December 18th, 2011, bringing in a net profit total of $590.72 – only $8 more than what I made a couple days ago!
I can’t wait to break that record and break the $600 "net profit from affiliate marketing in a day" milestone.
So Much To Test, So Little Time
There are a billion offers, traffic sources, and techniques (although mainly the first two) that I want to try, but I’m so busy with other things!
I have way too many websites. I’ve been selling off some of my smaller sites to try to free up time, but that seems to only take up more time, as I get the sites up-to-date and ready for sale.
I’m getting further behind in my e-mails again, which aren’t just e-mails, but really a long and never-ending "todo" list.
And I’ve been really busy lately preparing my personal and corporate taxes for 2011. The personal taxes actually aren’t too bad, but it takes me forever to get all my business stuff ready for my accountant as I have to go back through the entire year and print out trees worth of paper with my expenses, income, and whatnot.
There’s a lot of work stuff that I do that I don’t really blog about that requires a lot of my time (proportionally, anyway). I have been focusing a good portion of my time on affiliate marketing over the past 6 months, but I’d love to be able to focus more so that these $2,000+ days can be more commonplace and consistent.
New Affiliate Marketing Record: $1,671.82 in 1 Day
April 29, 2012 Posted by Tyler CruzThe last update on how my personal affiliate marketing campaigns were going was made nearly a month ago, so here’s what’s new.
Since the title of this post gives it away, I’ll just get straight to it. Yesterday, I set a new personal record on my affiliate marketing campaigns by bringing in a total of $1,671.82.
My previous best was $1,500.00 (exactly), but was made back on January 2, 2012, so I’m happy to set a new one.
That is gross, however. While I’d love for all of that to be profit, it doesn’t include my costs. Whenever you read an affiliate marketer write about income, you should always assume it is gross unless they specifically mention net or profit.
So how much of that $1,671.82 that I made yesterday was actually profit? $531.10.
That’s an ROI of over 45%, which is extremely high for such volume.
$531.10 in 1 day is actually not a new net profit record for me, but it does come close.
Below is a screenshot of my PeerFly dashboard that I took a couple of hours ago:
It was taken just before noon, and you can see that today (the 29th) already brought in $1,082.97 so far.
My goal is for today to hit $2,000!
Wish me luck on that.
Credit Card Limit Woes
Now that I am spending over $1,000 a day on advertising, I’m going to need to apply for another credit increase on my Visa soon.
I wish my bank had better reward credit cards available. Right now I’m using a Visa cashback rewards card, but it is capped at only $250 a year I believe… making it rather pointless!
Maybe I should look into getting the Gold Elite Visa instead… it’s 1% cashback and I don’t see a cap limit anywhere. There’s an annual fee of $99, but who cares. Do any of you have this card? Do you know if there’s a cap on the cashback?
Perfect World
If the other successful offers I was running before weren’t stopped and I was able to run them again, I’d actually be grossing $5,000 a day believe it or not.
One of them actually might be coming back soon though, so let’s cross our fingers on that. If it does, I might just be netting close to $1,000 a day!
More Affiliate Marketing Tips Coming Soon
I have a ton more affiliate marketing tips for you guys coming soon.
If you haven’t already read them, be sure to check out my two most recent affiliate marketing tip posts:
I spent a lot of time working on them and they have a lot of valuable information in them.
My upcoming ones will be a lot more specific in terms of tips, tricks, and strategies.
I’m still learning this game myself though, so don’t expect a magical formula or anything. I’m not really comfortable in writing such guides because any success I’ve had in affiliate marketing thus far has been very limited and somewhat inconsistent.
The best advice I can give to anyone still struggling to launch their first profitable campaign in affiliate marketing is to not give up. Yes, it’s boring, generic, ancient advice, but it’s also good advice.
Also, don’t forget that in an affiliate marketing campaign the difference between netting –$10 and $10 is enormous, while the difference between netting $10 and $1,000 is far smaller than you might think.
