StoreStacker Review
October 28, 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.
StoreStacker.com is an affiliate niche store builder which allows users to create fully-fledged websites, or stores, with automated content and affiliate products within minutes.
Scott, from StoreStacker, told me that they just launched close to 6-months ago but have already grown to over 2,200 customers.
The StoreStacker product works like similar tools of it’s kind, the most notable one being BuildANicheStore, or BANS. However, BANS is limited to promoting eBay listed products only. Unlike BANS, StoreStacker essentially ’stacks’ a variety of different affiliate programs, allowing you to promote products from not only eBay, but other sources such as Amazon and ClickBank as well.
In addition, StoreStacker is reportedly the only niche store building tool of it’s kind that allows you to easily integrate YouTube videos and RSS feeds into your store for supplemental content.
StoreStacker’s main use comes in the basic fact that it will create a complete affiliate site for the user, including automatically updated niche or topic related content.
It comes with 12 pre-built templates which are customizable to allow you to create a unique and relevantly designed store (you would probably want to design a site promoting digital cameras differently than a site promoting women’s makeup, for example).
Watch my screencast video review of StoreStacker for more information below:
The best part of StoreStacker, in my opinion, is that once you create your store (which takes between 5-10 minutes), all the products, content and videos update automatically.
What makes StoreStacker different from the other store-generating tools is that it appears to be the only one which integrates other affiliate product sources other than just eBay.
Here are a few more features of StoreStacker:
- Creates search engine friendly stores with keyword infused URLs, keyword tags and related product listings on each page, and Google Sitemaps are automatically created. In addition, all affiliate links are embedded and are automatically cloaked.
- Once purchased, users can use StoreStacker on as many sites and stores as they want with their one license.
- CommissionJunction integration is reportedly on the way within the next month or two.
- Includes 12 templates, user manuals, video tutorials and on-call E-mail support.
The Price
StoreStacker costs $97 for the basic version. However, for additional features and product integration you will need to purchase additional modules, or plugins, which are priced at $25 each.
The eBay, Amazon, and YouTube plugins are included with the core purchase at $97, but the additional plugins such as ClickBank and RSS will cost you an extra $25 each.
Conclusion
As concluded in my screencast review above, StoreStacker can save you a lot of hassle and time in launching a store (or 50 stores), and the automatically updated content is priceless.
But what StoreStacker obviously won’t do is automatically bring in traffic. Therefore, a tool like StoreStacker is most beneficial, in my opinion, to PPC affiliate marketers or anyone who knows how to generate relevant traffic as StoreStacker will take care of all the website and product generation for you.
The $100 Nobody Wants
October 27, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz
Eight days ago I announced the Tyler’s Cash Giveaway Results in which 6 random winners were drawn from my Feedburner by E-mail and AWeber Newsletter lists.
5 of the 6 people contacted me back and I paid them promptly, but the last winner never replied. I sent him numerous reminder and follow-up e-mails but still haven’t heard back.
Since I had not heard back from him in over a week, I redrew a name from my AWeber list (since that was the category the non-responsive person had won from) and came up with a new winner:
astnusaresources
(I’ve left out the domain extension part of the e-mail addresses for spambot and privacy protection).
I just e-mailed him 10-minutes ago to which he already replied:
"Hi Tyler,
Thank you very much…. This money will top up my saving for my coming babies that expected next year on JUNE…
Thank you very much…"
Ahhhh… Tyler Cruz: feeding hungry babies everywhere. Do you think it’d be too much to have him name his baby(ies) after me? And if it’s a girl? Hmm… maybe Tylerina?
What to learn form this:
Immediately after I announced the winners, a few people unsubscribed from my list. Obviously there were in it just for the money, and were not genuinely interested in my blog. It wasn’t too many people, just 4-5 out of the 250 who signed up for the contest.
For all we know, they could have won the $100 that I had to redraw for! It just goes to show that you should stay signed up as you never know what’ll happen.
In addition, you’re automatically eligible for any future RSS by E-mail/Newsletter contests I hold in the future.
CoolProducts Review
October 25, 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.
A few days ago I was out shopping at the mall and I noticed that the store I was in already had most if it’s Christmas inventory (Christmas trees, wreaths, and other decorations) on display for sale. It may only be October, but in the eyes of the retail market it’s already the Christmas season.
Buying gifts for people seems to be getting harder and harder each year. I think part of it is because I’m getting older each year and so I can’t get my friends Ninja Turtles or Lego anymore. In fact, just coming up with new and interesting prizes for my Affiliate Marketing Challenges each month takes me literally hours to do.
This is where CoolProducts.com comes in. CoolProducts.com is a website which, as their name suggests, offers cool products for sale. Since Christmas is just over the horizon, they thought it’d be a good time to market their site and let people know about it for their upcoming holiday shopping.
Overview
CoolProducts is a community driven retail site for finding unique gift products. They label themselves as a social shopping network in that all the products that are shown on their site were actually products submitted and then voted on by the community.
CoolProducts is essentially a website which links to unique and cool products from around the net. All the products listed on their site actually link through their masked affiliate URL to the real retailers site - this is how they make money.
Normally, that may make the site sound like a worthless scraper site out to make a quick buck, but CoolProducts actually has real value in that there really are some cool and interesting products there. As such, it’s quite useful when looking to buy somebody an interesting or unique present that you typically won’t find at your local retail store.
One important suggestion and recommendation I’d like to give would be for the site to have a Price Search and Sort by Price feature. Currently you are limited to browsing by category and sorting products within each category by rating, popularity, and most talked about.
When I am shopping online, there is almost always a certain price range that I am looking for - especially when gift shopping. Being able to narrow down my search to products within the $50-$100 range, for example, would be a very welcome feature.
Cool Products
CoolProducts.com really does have cool products. In fact, I had a great time browsing the site while researching it for this review. Here are 4 random products I picked out - just a few examples of the many cool and interesting products listed on their site:
Tykelight Buddy
Link: (Click)
Price: $24.95
Product Description: This is basically a fancy nightlight for kids. It has a HIGH and LOW setting which is useful to help transition the scared child to sleep. It also illuminates automatically during power outages and has a smart timer option that gradually dims after 15 minutes.
Animatronic Elvis
Link: (Click)
Price: $299.95
Product Description: This reminds me of that one Saved By The Bell Episode in which Zack and the gang throw a party in his house and break his mom’s Elvis bust. But this one’s different. This is the animatronic Elvis, a singing and talking robotic bust. The device sings eight of Elvis’ most acclaimed songs including Hound Dog, Love Me Tender, and Jailhouse Rock.
The mouth, eyes, and head movements are synchronized with the music, replicating his unique facial expressions (including the curled upper lip) and baritone voice. Integrated infrared sensors in his jacket detect ambient motion, prompting Elvis to say "Bring it on back now" or another famous Elvis remark as you walk by.
The device has 37 monologues recorded from interviews that play at a touch of a button, each reflecting on the life and career of The King. A karaoke feature allows you to sing along with Elvis and the device has an audio port for connecting an MP3 player or another audio source, allowing you to play your own music through Elvis’s 10-watt speaker. Includes a remote control, 1/4" microphone jack, and an AC/DC adapter.
Parking Meter Coin Bank
Link: (Click)
Price: $39.99
Product Description: This is pretty self explanatory. I think it’s a pretty neat idea for a piggy bank and I like how it’s tall and clear so you can see how much money you’ve put in. I also like how the official description describes it as "very realistic looking" - yeah, maybe if you’re drunk 
At $40, this may be a bit too much, but still, it’s a neat gift idea. Would be great to give to a parking cop, heh.
Binary Wrist Watch
Link: (Click)
Price: $69.99
Product Description: Just like it looks like, this is a watch that displays the time in binary format. The $70 pricetag seems a bit expensive to me, but I’m guessing it’s because not many of these are mass-produced. Would be a great gift to give one of your uber-nerd friends.
Suggest Cool Products and Make Money
Want to make a quick buck? CoolProducts pays their members to simply suggest new cool products to add to their site.
Here’s how it works:
After creating an account, simply submit a link to an interesting or cool product that you found for sale online somewhere. Other members of the CoolProducts community will then vote on the product you suggested, and approved suggestions will then be added to the site and you’ll get paid.
Now, exactly how the payment is accredited is a bit confusing. The following text is taken from their site and states:
"As sales are made, the original idea contributor gets a share of our commission. In other words, contributors will be paid $10 per product idea shared (over time as commissions accrue). They’ll also receive community recognition and special community rewards. Suggest 100 products, potentially earn a $1000."
However, the image above seems to suggest that you will get a commission every time your suggested product is sold. It would be nice if they clarified exactly how payment is worked out.
If the image is indeed correct then CoolProducts could potentially be a massive passive money maker for some people. Suggest just one cool product and you could be making a commission for every sale while they do all the work for you.
Contest
CoolProducts is currently holding a contest in which all you need to do is simply link to the URL http://coolproducts.com/contest/link somewhere on your blog or website in order to win one of their cool products below:
(Don’t you love how the grand prize is a Cruzin Cooler?)
Technically, someone will need to click on the link at least once as they will be determining the winner on November 25th by reviewing their backlinks log. They will then randomly choose three winners and one grand prize winner from this log.
To enter, you will also need to sign up to the registration form on their contest page. Unfortunately, you must be 18-years-old or older and a US resident in order to win, so I’m not eligible to win the Cruzin Cooler 
Check out their contest page for more details.
Conclusion
While it would be nice to see a Search by Price Range feature, CoolProducts really does have a lot of cool and interesting products. In fact, I found one there that I’m considering buying for a couple people I know.
Check it out, it might just save you a couple trips to the mall this season 
Computer Games: My Biggest Crux
October 24, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz
The number one thing holding me back from putting in a lot of work hours is definitely my computer game addiction. Number two would be lethargy.
I simply love computer games… I always have. Now, while I can spend a lot of time gaming, I’m not quite as bad as some of the real hardcore players who play World of Warcraft 90-120 hours per week.
But even so, when I get into a game, it can be scary just how much time I spend playing it. I was into Starcraft for the longest time (ever since it came out in 1997), and it remains my favourite all-time game. I still love Starcraft, but snapped both my CD’s a few months ago because I was spending too much time playing and not enough time working.
I could just play all day, day after day and never get tired of it. Hell, I’ve been playing it for 11 years now so what does that tell you? A great computer game is just unbelievably fun for me. Anyone who is a gamer will know what I mean.
Unfortunately, being both an Internet entrepreneur and a gamer can be extremely dangerous. When you work from home, for yourself, in a very casual manner like I do, it’s very difficult to balance between work and play. I love money - absolutely adore it, and I have high goals and expectations for myself, but even so, it’s difficult to force yourself to work when you could easily be gaming all day or taking a day trip somewhere.
I’m fortunate enough to where I could indeed only work 2-3 hours a week and basically make close to what I’m making now. The difference is that I wouldn’t be growing my businesses, I’d only be keeping them going; stagnant.
But when you’re spoiled like I am, it’s difficult to justify working when you could be playing instead. While I like to work and love my "job", I like gaming even more.
So, what I usually do is "work hard, play hard". I’ll play a game intensely for 2-6 weeks, working only around 14 hours a week, and then I’ll uninstall the game(s) and force myself to work. I give myself a strict rule of no movies, games, entertainment sites, etc., only allowing TV or reading as my basic entertainment. I keep this up until I meet a certain "work quota" I give myself.
Right now, my "penalty" is 60 work hours. That will take me about 10 days, I’m assuming. I’ve already done 9 of these 60 work hours, so I have 51 more to go before I’ll allow myself to play again.
I’ve used this system for a while now (as well as many other systems and formulas I use) and it works quite well. The nice part of it is that during these hyper-intensive "work weeks" I usually get a fair bit of productive work done because I’m focused on work and can concentrate better.
Then, when I’m finished, I reward myself with my computer games again.
Starcraft 2 was announced over a year ago by Blizzard, and while there is no ETA on the game yet, my guess is that it will be released in either spring or summer of 2009. When it does come out, watch out. You may not see a blog update from me for weeks or months
I was absolutely crazy about Starcraft, so we’ll have to see if Starcraft 2 does the same for me. Hell, I even registered a bunch of domains for Starcraft2 including Starcraft2.net and SC2.net
I used to also play a scary amount of online poker. Now, I only play online poker in short bursts (a whole lot of poker for 1-2 weeks, then absolutely none for 3-4 months). Playing in private home games in town here and going to a few casinos helped feed my appetite. Also, losing $3,000 in one hand playing $5-10NL at the private club in town helped as well
Lately, my game has been Team Fortress 2. I bought it close to 2 months ago and absolutely love it. I used to play TFC (Team Fortress Classic) back in the day a lot, so playing TF2 was like a welcome home party.
When I got back from Vegas, I played so much TF2 I won’t bother how much time I spent on it. I uninstalled it (to reduce any temptation) a few days ago when I started my latest 60-work week quota/penalty, but before that I was playing it for many hours every day. That’s the main reason why you would see occasional lapses of 4-5 days of no new posts on my blog.
For those familiar with the game, I only play Arena maps now, and usually only smaller games (Max 8-10 players). My favourite is 1v1 or 2v2 Arena. I like these games the best because when I play a game, I always want it to be based on skill. The larger games are just hectic and there’s not much skill involved or used.
Oh, and my classes in order from favourite to least favourite are: scout, engineer, medic, pyro, sniper, soldier, heavy, spy, and demoman.
If any of you guys play, add me to Steam (username: Modulus) and we can play (Arena only! Maybe 2v2?) when I’m done my 60 work hours.
