Ebay Partner Network vs. Amazon Associates.

As I posted once I had small business idea for promotion through Ebay Partner Network. But unfortunately EPN is still keeping me automatically rejected after submission of my application to the program. As I mentioned already in my previous post I have browsed the issue around the web and found there is not problem for US or North America based applicants or most of European countries. But seems like Czech Republic or Bulgaria are not on the list.

Some years ago I signed up for Amazon Associates affiliate program. I never put attention to this program. I always wonder if there is anybody making some good money from it. I have found couple of post in forums.

You can check some discussion right here...

Generally there are not so many folks doing money from Amazon Associates. But I just once posted about newly released book, Warren Buffett Biography - The Snowball, and it returned quite nice number of ordered books. My conversion rate is 7,7%. It would hardly bring such a conversion and earnings with Google Adsense and other CPC program. In addition to that Amazon Associates gives reader really related content as it is pointed directly by writer. For me, Amazon Associates is very good as secondary income source whenever you want to highlight some interesting book.

Blog income report - November.

During November I have not been posting articles like for previous month. In fact I posted only 18 short posts. But from the blog income point of view this was very successful month. I have reached $500 in total.

Except of Adsense I see increase on all sources. Especially earnings from Forbes Bloggers Network rise rapidly but eCPM is still very low. Income has risen mainly due to decrease in unsold inventories. Now almost 50% of impressions are filled in with Forbes ads.

I have to again mention my satisfaction with INO. It is the biggest earners this month and the best complementary ads program which I have tried up to now.

Here are detailed statistics:
Google Adsense $141.50 ($196.43)
INO $248.25 ($146.35)
Forbes Blogs Network $12.01 ($5.15)
Direct sales $96.4 ($96.4)
Amazon Associates $1.59 ($1.25)

Total $499.75 ($445.58)

Blog Income report - October.

Another month is over and here is my regular statistics about blog income. This month I managed to increase my total income and ending up with $445. That's not bad.

Adsense posted amazing month. With almost 200 bucks it is the best month ever. I see main contribution in sharp traffic increase. Last 2 months I have been posting more than usual. INO is still strong source. This month I didn't managed to have affiliate sales. All commissions are from free stuff. Forbes Blogs Network continues with improvement. This month I receive first affiliate money from Amazon for 2 sold books.

Outlook for next month. I want to have at least $400 in November. My action plan for the month is:

- keep regular posting (at least 23 posts).

- customize and place Adsense banners.

- discover more about Amazon Associates and testing books reviews.

Here are detailed statistics:

Google Adsense $196.43 ($74.37)
INO $146.35 ($195.35)
Forbes Blogs Network $5.15 ($4.21)
Direct sales $96.4 ($74.5)
Amazon Associates $1.25 ($0)

Total $445.58 ($348.93)

Affilate program for every website - Matched.

There is a new advertising option for monetizing your web site or blog. Company called Matched.

Generally for publishers program is based on fix rates paid monthly. There are not special requirements about page rank or number of visitors. You receive £3 per page. One domain can have up to 5 pages with banners. Number of domains is limited, up to 5.

It makes £3 x 5 x 5 = £ 75

If you sign up right now you can receive additional bonus £5. Registration is very easy and takes you around 3 minutes (sign-up here). Then your account is activated and Matched starts to search relevant ads for your sites.

Payment is done either to UK bank account or via PayPal. Here is the prove of the payment.

UPDATE 20.11.2008

Here is the extract from the email which I have received today from MATCHED

MATCHED HAS CLOSED==================It is with much regret that we announce that Matched.co.uk has closed.Matched has been running as a beta experiment for some time and, after much careful consideration, it has been decided not to progress the project to the next stage.As a result, Matched will not be accepting new sign-ups and will no longer be assigning adverts to its current publisher base.If you completed your last payment run before November 19th 2008, you will still be paid, but please note that no future payments will be made after this. Therefore, we recommend that you remove any Matched ads from your websites.Thank you very much for being part of the Matched.co.uk experience and we wish you the best of luck for the future success of your websites.

Get more traffic with related posts.

I was already posting my tips for getting more traffic to you blog. You should follow these tips especially if your blog is fresh and want to get indexed by search engines.

Today I would like to add one more tip how to get more visitor to your web site. I found out it with my financial blog StockWeb. Recently I submitted blog to new service provided by Wikinvest. Wikinvest is kind of Wikipedia focused on investing and world of finance. They launched new service which is linking of related sites though widgets. displayed at the end of related blog posts. Widgets themselves look nice and are fully customized with web site design.

Back to my traffic increase tips. I have noticed significant traffic growth since "related posts" widgets are running. One benefit is exchanging really targeted visitors as they are coming for related content. And next is positive impact on your ranking for search results. Widgets contain direct link to 3rd party pages and therefore you are getting backlinks, your Technorati Authority is increased etc. And this has positive impact on number of visitors coming from Google, Yahoo...

Of course Wikinvest is not for everybody as it concerns finance blogs but If you google "related posts widgets" you will definitely find other providers.

I just want to highlight, If you want traffic increase start with cross sites linking through related posts.

Blog Income report - September.

Another month is over and here is regular monthly income report from my blogging. You remember I set my target to earn $600. Unfortunately I haven't reached this amount and as you can see below total income was around $350. Not bad but it is already second month with declining income.

Forbes blog network is the best surprise. I started to generate solid income again with sold impressions around 25%. Also direct sales are improving. The biggest income sources like INO and Adsense are with weak performance this month.

For October I am setting lower target, $500.


Google Adsense $74.37 ($87.57)
RevResponse $0.50 ($2.10)
INO $195.35 ($285.93)
Forbes Blogs Network $4.21 ($0.82)
Direct sales $74.5 ($42.5)

Total $348.93 ($418.92)

Blog income report - August.

New month begins and we have here latest earnings report from my blogging. As usual in brackets you can see income from previous month for particular program. This month was not very good as shown from earnings statistics. There are two factors why I haven't reached targets. First, I had been posting significantly less. Second, August is usually weak in terms of visitors due to holidays. It is especially seen for finance related sites.

Bad month for Adsense which generated half of the July's earnings.

Rebound for RevResponse, I want to focus more on this program. As the product is very attractive because they offer free stuff (magazines, newsletters). I want to try different ways of promotion for RevResponse.

INO still continue to be number one but with half of July's earnings. I have already referred program to some fellow bloggers and referral INO's earnings reached $6.50 this month.

As I mentioned last time I replaced Forbes Blogs Network ads. Replace is not the right word. I filled in INO HTML codes in Adify account for unsold inventories. So whenever Forbes ads are not available banners will show automatically INO ads.

Generally I am not very happy with my August performance and therefore I decided to set targets. September I want to end it up at least with $600.


Google Adsense $87.57 ($163)
RevResponse $2.10 ($1.26)
INO $285.93 ($574)
Forbes Blogs Network $0.82 ($1.19)
Direct sales $42.5 ($42.5)

Total $418.92 ($782.31)

New start up business. Affiliate sales.

Recently I got two ideas for new start up businesses. Both are based on affiliate sales as a referral.

1.) The first one came to my mind like 1 month ago. And the business is linked with affiliate sales through EPN (Ebay Partner Network). Which is actually new program offered directly by Ebay. Up to now all affiliate programs for Ebay actions had been offered by 3rd party sites like Commission Junction or Auction Ads. And here is also showstopper. By 3rd party companies I had been accepted without any problem but Ebay refused my application to Partner Network. In fact I received automatic email right after I submit application. In email letter there was just stated "We cannot accept your application at this time".
I have browsed the issue around the web and found there is not problem for US or North America based applicants or most of European countries.

Well let's see in future if I will find the way how to get accepted. I don't want to post more details about the niche product which I would like to promote. But definetely I see this as a very profitable. It has high number of bidding and no shipping costs. If everything will go fine I promise to post more details.

2.) For the second business I can provide more details. It is about affiliate sales of flight tickets. I found Czech based server Kralovna which search for independent home based travel agents. After approval you receive access to search and sales engine for air tickets. You can either promote on your web site as a HTML code or directly refer sales with your unique affiliate number.
The whole service is for FREE. About commission, you receive CZK 380,- (around EUR 15,-) plus 5% from the price of air ticket. Fix based commission equals minimum rate for transactional charges.
As mentioned before you can offer this to you web site visitors or to your friends wishing to buy flight tickets. Good point which you can highlight is that their price will be free of transactional charges. And this makes cheaper deal for them and great business for you.

Blog Income report - July.

New month and new Blog Income report is here. Actually last month was pretty successful and definitely one of the best since I have started with blogging. Last month it was first time when Adsense had not been major source of income but still Adsense income is growing on month to month.
The best is INO which is affiliate program for financial and business blogs. INO offers very attractive tools and analysis for investing. Total income generated in July is $574.

On the downside. Already in June report I have mentioned my disappointment with Forbes blogs network. It is still running on my blog but I have included code for INO in case of unsold inventories. Actually unsold inventories are close to 90%.
After good first month with RevResponse this time program generated only revenues from my referrals.
Ads for feeds are main action for next months. Feedburner used to generate around $90 per month. But now ads are not visible in my feed nevertheless program is active. I am still searching proper CPM or CPC ads for my feeds. Hopefully recently released Beta Adsense for feed will be available for general public.

Generally I am very happy for July as income more than tripled compared to month ago.


Google Adsense $163 ($139)
RevResponse $1.26 ($9.58)
INO $574 ($34)
Feedburner $0.36 ($1.53)
Forbes Blogs Network $1.19 ($5.75)
Direct sales $42.5 ($42.5)

Total $782.31 ($232.36)

Blong income from affiliate sale.

On Friday I had the most successful day in terms of earnings from my blogging. Surprisingly it did not come from Adsense which is up to now the biggest source of earnings. I had 2 affiliate sales with INO. Total sales were $898 and you receive as a affiliate 40% which is $359 for 1 day !!!

It is amazing. And definitely I can say already now that in next "Blog income report" there will be INO as a biggest source of income for July.

I have to say that since I've joined INO it performs very well. They have wide choice of campaign which fit to finance and business blogs. Especially to blogs focused on investing.

Blog Income report - June.

On my blog Money and Web I'll publish every month my earnings related to blogging. And here you have my first blog income report. Last month I've started to use 2 new affiliate programs (INO and RevResponse). And they are performing very well. Especially INO did excellent result considering that ads are not running more than half month.
However Google Adsense is still number one income source. Big disappointment are ads from Forbes Blogs Network. I give them chance till the end of July and then remove them from my sites.


Google Adsense $139
RevResponse $9.58
INO $34
Feedburner $1.53
Forbes Blogs Network $5.75
Direct sales $42.5

Total $232.36

Top affiliate program for business and financial blogs.

Recently I started to use new affiliate program from RevResponse on my investing blog StockWeb. And I found it as a very good source of income for financial and business bloggers. In fact it could be use for any area of blogging.

The product which you offer are free magazines and newspapers. Most of them are electronic but some are also delivered as paper. And as you know whatever is for free it attracts attention of your visitors. Therefore you can expect high CTR (click-through rate).

You can choose from huge offer really interesting magazines and newspapers or newsletters from are of finance, business, accounting, trading, information technology, engineering or online marketing. Even such a top papers like The Economist, Business Week or CFO. Visitor usually receives 4 free issues.

And here how your offer can look like...



You can customized your ads with number of different ads format. In addition to that RevResponse will create for you customized version of site with magazines related to your topic. Design will be exactly in line with your blog or web site. Please see their excellent work done with my site.

The rates vary from $1.5 to $20 for one free subscription. They also offer 1 tier referral program.

Here is the link for sing up to the program RevResponse.

3 tips how to get traffic for new blog.

I'd like to share with you my experience with getting traffic for new blogs. I know there are thousands posts like this one over the web. But this reflects my start up with blogging.

1. Write interesting posts and frequently - This is the most important. If you don't post on regular basis and your articles are not interesting following 2 tips will not help you. As I've noticed 3 posts per week are optimum. Please also note that you shouldn't write too much posts as some of your subscribers could get annoyed by full inbox in their RSS reader. Which could cause that they will unsubscribe your feed.

2. Submit your posts to Carnival - Blog Carnivals are in fact aggregation of different posts hosted on one blog. Hosted blogger announces carnival theme and receives relevant posts (links) from other bloggers. After that the most interesting posts are shown in one post.
The best source for submission your posts for carnival is web BlogCarnival.


3. Link building - This comes automatically with my second tip. By submitting to carnival you informed about yourself other bloggers from your niche in blogosphere. Some of them (usually also hosted blogger for carnival) will link to your blog.
In addition to that after some time (after you write some tens of posts you can try to contact other bloggers with reciprocal link exchange offers.

How to display HTML code in your blog post.

This is tip how to display HTML code in your blog post. If you try past HTML code as it is, it will never be displayed. Because browsers interpret them rather than display.

There are already couple of posts recommending to do following replacement in your HTML code:

Replace < (i.e. less than sign) with &lt;
Replace > (i.e. greater than sign) with &gt;
Replace “ (i.e. quote mark) with &quot;


But there is a faster way and much more easier. You can encode HTML code for instance by Encode/Decode HTML tool. Just simply paste the code and "encode". Then copy your encoded code and past it to your blog post.

Remove NavBar from Blogger.

Blogger NavBar is common feature for most of blogs hosted on blogspot. This NavBar at top of the site is set as default. But there is a really easy trick how to remove.

After you log on you go to Dashboard and select Layout and Edit HTML. In the very beginning of your code search for following (HTML code in bold must be entered in order to remove NavBar)..



<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
<b:skin><![CDATA[/*

#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}

/* Variable definitions
====================
<Variable name="bgColor" description="Page Background Color"
type="color" default="#666666" value="#666666">



After you save and reload your blog again, Blogger NavBar will be away.

Start up for the blog.

I've started up my blogging experience more that 1 year ago. I run only one blog StockWeb hosted on free blogger domain blogspot. In the beginning I just wanted to try all functionality offered by Beta Blogger. Later on I learned how to optimize my blog in order to get more traffic.

Then I was discovering how to monetize blog with advertising programs and was playing with different ads format. As most of other bloggers I started with Google Adsense but later have tried also affiliate referral programs.

Now I created this blog Money and Web, to share my blogging experience with other bloggers and visitors. And to have it also as a kind of notepad to register interesting ads programs, tips and hacks for Beta Blogger or ways of SEO optimization.

Regards,