Affiliate Marketing Challenge 2: Week 1 Results
July 21, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz
The first week in my Affiliate Marketing Challenge 2 has already finished. However, that means that there are still 3 weeks left!
If you haven’t entered yet, I highly recommend you do. MarketLeverage has put up so many great prizes, and your odds of winning them are actually very good. I’m actually very envious of you guys and wish I could compete in my own contest! If I did, I’d be in 2nd place right now and could definitely use that Sony PSP & Secret Agent Clank game…
For those of you that have signed up, but are having trouble making any leads or sales, I’ll be posting some beginner tips on how you can start generating some income with MarketLeverage. In particular, I’ll be showing how you don’t need to spend a penny and use PPC marketing in order to make money with an affiliate network.
Current Rankings
Here are the rankings after the first week. I’ve now referred 68 affiliates to MarketLeverage, 11 of which signed up during this competition.
The first week of the Affiliate Marketing Challenge saw the same participants from the first challenge return, including the behemoth CD8470.
Together, they’ve generated $2,704.60 in commissions. The current scoreboard is shown below:
| Rank | Participant | Earnings |
| 1st | CD8470 | $1,922.80 |
| 2nd | CD8137 | $273.00 |
| 3rd | CD8346 | $212.60 |
| 4th | CD8036 | $103.60 |
| 5th | CD8083 | $83.60 |
| $2,704.60 |
CD8470 has continued to completely outperform everyone else in the competition… actually managing to earn more than everyone else put together.
I actually interviewed CD8470 and asked him to share some of his tips and tricks on how he’s earning so much. Expect the interview within a couple days.
Prizes
To be honest, I thought I’d get a few more sign-ups, and a lot more competition in terms of higher earnings. I understand that affiliate marketing can be difficult - hey, I’m still learning myself - but you should really not dismiss these prizes.
At the current rate, you only need to generate an average of $25 per day during the next 3 weeks in order to win an iPod Nano. Or, $50 per day during the next 3 weeks to win a Flip Mino.
Don’t forget, there are 16 prizes for total up for grabs, so even if you don’t win one of the main prizes, you still stand a very good chance of winning something! Full competition details can be found here.
Here is a reminder what is up for grabs:
1st Place: Dell 22″ Widescreen Monitor with Built-In Webcam
If you can manage to make your way to the top of the earners list, all your hard work and efforts will be rewarded with a 22″ Widescreen monitor.
Studies have actually proven that a larger monitor increases productivity dramatically. With a maximum resolution of 1680×1050, imagine how many keywords for your campaigns you could see at once…
And get this - it has a built-in webcam! That’s less clutter on your desk, and faster video production for you.
2nd Place: Sony PSP + Secret Agent Clank
This new version of PSP is slimmer, smaller and lighter, while still providing an awesome gaming experience, lightning-fast gameplay and intense graphics. The latest PSP is 19% thinner and 33% lighter than the previous model and has twice the memory. The unit features an AC power cord, an AC adapter and a smaller, more efficient battery pack that lasts up to six hours.
In addition, I talked MarketLeverage into throwing in a game as well, and they were happy to oblige. I chose Super Agent Clank since it got a high rating of 8.0 on GameSpot.
Now you’ll have something to play inbetween working on your affiliate marketing campaigns.
3rd Place: Mino Flip Video Camera
Due to the popularity and interest that contestants of my first Affiliate Marketing Challenge showed in the Mino Flip, we’ve brought it back. Here’s your second chance to win it!
The Mino Flip is the latest line of Flip Video cameras. It is smaller, better, and simply overall sexier than both the original Flip and the Ultra.
In addition to being smaller and having new features such as pause/fast forward/rewind buttons, it also sports a rechargeable lithium ion battery (compared to the double AA batteries the original Flip and Flip Ultra use). More details can be found on TheFlip’s website.
4th Place: iPod Nano
The iPod Nano is a very small and popular iPod from Apple’s massively popular line of iPod’s. I’ll let you watch the video below for some eye candy and visit Apple’s official iPod Nano website for more details, but first here are some quick specs & features:
- Plays up to 5 hours of video or up to 24 hours of music on a single charge.
- In addition to playing music, you can watch movies, TV shows, listen to podcasts, audiobooks, play games, and organize photos.
- Includes earphones, USB2.0 cable, and dock adapter.
- Holds up to 1,000 songs, 4 hours of video, or 3,500 photos.
5th - 6th Place: $100 Prepaid Rewards Card
As part of a way to make this competition bigger and better than the previous one, and since 2nd-6th place were all fairly close to each other in the previous competition, I thought it would be great to add two more main prizes to the mix.
So now the 5th and 6th place finishers will get a prize as well! This American Express/Market Leverage Rewards card is prepaid with $100 and can be used just like any other credit card, only it is prepaid and can be thrown away when emptied. Think of it as a throw-away credit card (only don’t throw it away until you’ve spent it all!).
I’m actually putting this prize up with my own money in order to really encourage participation and as a way of thanking those who do participate.
Bonus Prizes
The top 5 new referrals who sign up to MarketLeverage through my referral link and earn the most money out of new referrals will each receive a 2.0GB USB Storage Pen.
In addition, 5 bloggers who post about this competition will be chosen randomly by drawing and will also each receive a 2.0GB USB Storage Pen as well!
So far, only 2 people have blogged about this post! That means that as it stands right now, if you right a blog post about this competition, your chances of winning a 2.0GB USB pen is almost guaranteed.
2.0GB USB Storage Pen
Just because I’m giving away 10 of these pens (Thanks again, MarketLeverage!) doesn’t mean they’re just any cheap, ordinary pens.
While a fully-functioning pen, when unscrewed, it unveils a USB connector from inside. With a storage capacity of 2.0 gigabytes, this pen can hold a huge amount of data on it for quick and easy data transfers.
Act out your favourite spy character from your favourite spy movie with this high-tech pen. I personally find it useful for transferring data back and forth from my computer to laptop.
Blogging from the Beach
July 20, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz
Well, not exactly. I did go to the beach, and I did bring my laptop - but I didn’t actually connect to the Internet or do any blogging. I just brought the laptop to take a few shots that I’ll probably use to update my about page.
There’s nothing instructional or work-related in this post guys, so be forewarned!
Last week, Lisa and I went to the beach for a day trip.
I live on Vancouver Island which is located on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. Vancouver Island is very beautiful, and so a lot of people move here to retire. Sometimes I forget just how beautiful BC (and especially Vancouver Island) is… it’s little excursions such as this one that help remind me how fortunate I am to live here.
We took a million photos, but I’ll try to limit them as best I can. At the end of this post there is also a 10-minute edited video.
I live in Nanaimo, and we were headed to Long Beach which is on the north west coast of the island. Google Maps estimates the trip to take 3-hours, but I believe it’s longer since the second half of the journey goes through the mountains and has a million curvy turns (as opposed to a straight drive).
This is Vancouver Island, and pretty much what I’m used to seeing every day. I live in the city, and am not living out in the “country”, but a 5-minute drive from almost anywhere on the island will get you there.
About 3.5 hours later… Long Beach!
It was very windy when we went. It’s usually windy around the Tofino/Long Beach area, but was extra windy when we went, which was fine with me as it kept me cool.
Feeling the water.. which was very cold, but refreshing.
Me doing my signature pose!
Lisa holding the sand down.
Debby (I call her Deborah) from MarketLeverage absolutely loves the beach with a passion, and so I thought I’d send her a little message. I actually made the MarketLeverage logo in the sand too, but it was so windy that it kept filling up shortly after, heh. The beach was like a giant Etch-a-Sketch that day!
Me being bendy.
I started to write my name in the sand, then I thought. Hmm… too small…
…That’s better!
I’m out of shape. I was exhausted after writing my full domain in the sand… all the bending was painful!
Ta da!
I, Tyler Cruz, hereby declare Long Beach, Tyler Beach!
This is where they film LOST:
The beach is called Long Beach for good reason. The beach is so long that it takes around 45-minutes to an hour just to walk from one end to the other.
We climbed on this huge volcanic rock thing, and I enjoyed the warm wind up top.
The view from the big rock.
Lisa wanted to go swimming but I said “Wait! I need to check my eCPC for today!”. Just kidding. Actually, I just wanted a few “publicity” shots for my blog… I’ll probably use a couple of these to update my about page.
After we finished at the beach, I lost my car keys, and a lot of hassle ensued. To make a long story short, we ended up getting towed to a very small local town (2,000 people), and the only hotel open turned out to be a fishing charter accommodation resort.
To make things more bizarre, the receptionist lady said that there was only room available, and that she was sorry that it was so large. Large? “No problem, thanks”. Hey, a large room is fine with me!
But when we got inside I understood what she was referring to. The “room” was a cabin with two floors… and four double beds! It was all fishing-related too which was funny. There was a note stating that room cleaning started at 6:00am… since all the fishermen most likely were out by 5:00am.
When we woke up, it was time for breakfast… which was served on a boat! So we walked aboard the giant boat and had breakfast inside. It was renovated into a restaurant, but the entire thing was on a slant. It made me feel like I was a villain on the old Batman series.
Here’s a 10-minute video edited and stitched together of the “day-trip” which turned out to be two very long days:
Affiliate Marketing Plunge: Month 2
July 18, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz
I’ve been so busy with my Affiliate Marketing Challenge and countless other projects lately that I haven’t posted an update on how my personal plunge into affiliate marketing in over two weeks.
In fact, I haven’t done any work on my campaigns except for 4 changes I managed to have the time to implement about a week ago.
First, I removed several ad groups full of a certain type of related keyword I had been running since near the beginning as they were performing horribly. I kept them for so long because they showed early signs of being profitable, but that turned out to be false in the long run.
Secondly, I simply lowered a few of my ad group prices by 5 cents. It’s funny how such a simple and obvious change can have such a positive impact.
Thirdly, I added a new ad group with a bunch of keywords that included US states in the keywords. I had tried adding my keywords with US cities, but ran into huge technical issues with the AdWords editor after trying to add 90,000 keywords at once. I’m going to try this again in the future, but with only major US cities to cut down on the keywords.
Lastly, I found 4-5 new keywords that I can’t believe I didn’t think of in all my research and keyword generating before. It’s amazing how some can get past you.
So, here are my latest results. I’m now breaking down my stats on a monthly basis. Please try to keep in mind that I only worked on my campaigns 1 day in the past 2 weeks:
My last update from two weeks ago showed a -25.67% ROI, so while I’m still in the red, this is actually an improvement for me.
Here is the progress of my total average ROI, taken after the first week and then every few days thereafter: -57.12%, -53.42%, -43.71%, -36.83%, -31.76%, -25.67%, and now -19.57%.
I’ve lost $90.26 this month, but to me that’s money well spent. That works out to only $5 per day for experience and lessons learned. It also formulates more data for me to be able to analyze trends with my campaigns better.
And if you look at the data from the past week only, I’m actually up around $55.
We’ll see how much more I’m able to tweak things and if I can continue to improve my ROI. Wish me luck!
On a related note, I received a FedEx package yesterday which contained my first cheque from MarketLeverage.
While I actually spent more money than I made, it’s always nice seeing your first cheque from a new network you started using. Hopefully my next cheque will turn me out a profit!
Cheaters Beware - CheckForPlagiarism.net
July 17, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz
The following is a paid review and is completely of my own opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having me review your site or product, please view my advertising page.
Plagiarism, as defined by the Random House Unabridged Dictionary (2006), is “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.“
Plagiarism is nothing new. You can find examples of plagiarism all throughout history. Some scholars even believe that the bible plagiarized stories from other religious. And there is no shortage of famous examples of plagiarism.
With the advent of the Internet and the common-use of it for “research” these days, plagiarism is more widespread today then ever.
This is where CheckForPlagiarism.net comes in.
CheckForPlagiarism.net is a paid service that allows members to submit documents, which will then be scanned and analyzed for any plagiarized content.
Who is it For?
Basically, as stated on the site itself, CheckForPlagiarism appears to be for anyone who is interested in protecting their intellectual property rights and wants to avoid running the risk of being penalized for either intentional or un-intentional plagiarism.
A user of the site will usually break down into one of the following groups:
Teachers
It is obvious why such a site would be useful for teachers. Students are usually the most likely to use plagiarized content. In fact, there are many sites on the web where students can buy completely pre-written essays, thesis’s, and reports.
Previously, teachers would have to do their own research to try and prove the student of plagiarizing by finding the exact source through basic search-engine searches. A service such as CheckForPlagiarism could greatly be of aid to teachers.
Students
While it may seem strange at first for a student to purchase such a service, it actually makes sense when you consider how often plagiarized material happens unintentionally. With college and university students facing expulsion for submitted plagiarized writings, using a service such as CheckForPlagiarism before sending in assignments could help catch any accidental plagiarism.
Professional Writers
While students can face automatic failures and expulsion, professionals risk loss of job, lawsuits, and legal fines of up to $250,000. They also risk any future success within their profession since word tends to follow you when you have been caught for plagiarism.
Editors, Legal Department, and Management
Owners of newspapers, magazines, and other publishing companies are especially concerned with filtering out plagiarized material as they face steep legal fines and lawsuits. While it is unlikely that large institutions will put all of their plagiarism-checking efforts into an online service such as CheckForPlagiarism.net, smaller publishing companies could do very well by doing so.
How it Works
CheckForPlagiarism is an automated service which checks against both live and cached Internet resources including blogs, message boards, public-PDFs, and various other web-based repositories.
In addition, it checks against offline/physical books, articles, magazines, journals, etc. This is a useful feature since it is something that cannot be easily be searched for by somebody using Google, for example.
CheckForPlagiarism.net claims to check against millions of documents, papers, and articles world-wide. They also state that their service uses patented sentence-structure checking algorithms which sift out and identify even the most subtle hints at plagiarism.
Unfortunately, I was not provided with a temporary free account to test their service for myself, but they did provide a sample report to see how their system works.
The screenshot below shows the beginning of the report. As you can see, in this example it was found that the submitted document contained 52% plagiarized content. It then goes on to state the exact sources of which are plagiarized from:
The next screenshot shows a later part of the report. Each suspected plagiarized section is outlined with a reference to the original source:
Plagiarism upon Plagiarism?
Upon doing my research for this review, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. Almost exactly a year ago, I did a paid review of iPlagiarismCheck.com.
At first, I thought that CheckForPlagiarism.net and iPlagiarismCheck.com were simply different sites with a similar service, but upon closer inspection, apart from a different domain name, design, and layout, I’m left wondering if they are actually run/owned by the same source.
If not, then it appears that there is a “master” plagiarism script or service and both of these sites are simply “skins”, which both provide the exact same service from a 3rd-party script or service. This would be akin to how many poker rooms or hosting resellers work.
A WHOIS query on both domains returns inconclusive since even though iPlagiarismCheck.com shows a name, CheckForPlagiarism.net is privately registered.
The services are completely identical, right down to the exact prices, except for the yearly membership price is $30 cheaper on CheckForPlagiarism.com.
If they are indeed owned by the same person and were just made separately for some reason, then it would be advised that the owner disclose this somewhere, or better yet, close one of the sites down to prevent such confusion.
Update: The owner responded in the comments below confirming that both sites are indeed owned by the same company, so this should clear up any confusion or possible insinuations made above.
Pricing Packages
CheckForPlagiarism claims that their monthly/yearly fees are 35-70% lower than their competitors. This was difficult to check up on since many such services do not publicly disclose their prices such as TurnItIn.com, but I’ll take their word for it.
CheckForPlagiarism also provides a refund/money-back guarantee. However, it is not unconditional:
“Once your document has been submitted for processing you will no longer be eligible for a refund. If however, there is a problem with your plagiarism-originality-report, please contact our help desk and we can review your request for a refund.
Money-Back Guarantee is limited to an individual and/or an institution proving that our plagiarism results fall short in comparision to any of our leading competitiors in all areas of plagiarism checking (Internet Checking, Database Checking, etc.).”
So basically, you need to use another service to compare the results and prove that the other service returned more relevant results. At least, that is how it is worded in the second paragraph.
CheckForPlagiarism offers 3 packages:
- Student Edition Package - The student package allows for 5 document submissions. Only personal or self-written documents are allowed to be submitted in this package. Priced at $20, this works out to $4 per submission which is very reasonable, especially considering that students are unlikely to be submitting more than 1 big or important essay, thesis, or report per week.
- Monthly Edition Package - The monthly edition package allows for an unlimited* amount of submissions for a monthly price of $65.
Yearly Edition Package - The yearly package also allows for an unlimited* amount of submissions, but is only $150 for an entire year. For repeat users, the yearly package is significantly cheaper than the monthly edition.
*Limit of 10 submissions per any 24-hour period.
There are also customized packages available upon inquiry.
The chart below compares the features of CheckForPlagiarism with two of their competitors:
Conclusion
There is certainly a use and need for a plagiarism service such as CheckForPlagiarism.net.
Unfortunately, since I was not given a temporary account to test the service for myself, I was unable to review the actual service first-hand. However, I have reviewed a similar plagiarism-checking site in the past which was almost identical to this one, and I did find the report useful as it found my blatantly plagiarized article I submitted.
I can see CheckForPlagiarism.net being very useful to teachers, although I must think that it is difficult for teachers to justify shelling out their own money to pay for such a service.
I would recommend for CheckForPlagiarism to consider offering a free trial. I understand this can be abused, so perhaps offering a per-document fee of $7-$10 would be a good alternative.
If you’re a teacher, publisher, student, or even a webmaster like me who owns a content site such as movie review site and wants to check against submitted plagiarized material, then CheckForPlagiarism.net could be useful to you.
