PPC, PTC, CPA, WTF?
Ok. There are so many abbreviations that these different terms can get a bit confusing.
I come bearing good news today. One program I started up with at the end of last year did pay me! The winner today is Hits4Pay. I was confident I’d get paid, but you know the proof is in the pudding. I wanted to add a screen shot, but paypal is having issues right now displaying my payment history. They paid me a couple of months ago, so I’ll have to wait to give you the shot at a later date. I can assure you, they did pay me. I got a gal on the phone, and she was able to tell me the company, date and amount.
What kind of program is Hits4Pay? They are considered a PTC or Paid to Click. They send you email alerts that there are ads that need to be seen and read. That is all you do. You log into your account, click on the ad, read it, and you get paid a couple of cents for every ad you look at. Really, it’s not rocket science. If you get others to sign up under you, you get a penny for every ad those people look at. Ok, I know what you’re thinking. A penny here, a penny there. Well, some people actually do very well with this program. These are the people who stick with it, refer their friends, and really do “work it.” If someone has never made a dime online in their life, this is a no brainer. It is so easy a child can do it. I personally like Hits4Pay because I can see new products released, squeeze pages, and keep an eye on what is hot on the web. I see it as getting Paid to do research which I can use to better my own business. So that is PTC.
PTC is not to be confused with PPC which is Pay Per Click. PPC is where you sign up an account with Google, MSN or Yahoo and you pay everytime someone clicks on an ad you’ve put up on the search engines. PPC is done with programs like Google Adwords. There is Adsense as well where you get paid when someone else clicks on an ad on your site.
CPA does not stand for Certified Public Accountant when it comes to affiliate marketing. CPA does stand for Click Per Action. Did you ever find an offer on the web for get a free computer or get a free ringtone? If you’ve ever followed the trail, you were probably pulled into some kind of CPA. The affiliate gets paid for every action the person clicks to get closer and closer to the free thing they are looking for. I was stuck on one of these merry-go-rounds for about 40 minutes one day, just trying to obtain some information. I was ready to shoot someone and just gave up. I’m not much for this model, but to each his own.
So there you have it. Good news for PTC and Hits4Pay. Did I mention you get 10 bucks just for signing up?
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Slashmysearch, What Happened?
I got an email from Slashmysearch today, and I was reminded about them. In the email they were asking me to promote another affiliate program.
I have not yet been paid by slash my search, and it has been months since I hit the payout threshold. What happened?
I liked the integration of Tafiti. It wasn’t a terrible looking program, and I had even found evidence of someone getting paid - last year. Again I ask, what happened?
I don’t think this company set out with the intention to scam people, but it has to be in some kind of trouble. I came across another blogger who encouraged others to just move along. I think they are right. There comes a time when you have to make a choice. Only you will know when that time is.
I had taken SMS off as my primary browser, awaiting payment before sticking them back on. I want to thank Truckin Gal again for stopping by when she was looking for answers.
I had a post on this blog with all the details of what SMS did, and I have unpublished it for the time being. You never know when something will rise from the dead. That is not looking promising right now, but you never know.
Someone else owes me some money as well right now, and I’m looking into that. If a program is unable to pay, they need to communicate that to the affiliates. The ignore treatment is not good for business.
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I am sick and tired and mad as hell today. I’ve been hacked in my Google.
I was balancing my accounts yesterday, and noticed Google trying to bill me several thousand dollars into an account that has (or I should say had) roughly 20 bucks in it.
I saw that the charge didn’t go through at first. Well, how can it with a whopping 20 dollars. But it looked at first like a mistake that had taken care of it, with the exception of the returned check fee hitting my bank.
I looked a bit closer.
I went into my Google adwords account. Immediate shock hit me when I realized my account had been compromized. Someone had an adwords party on August 5th to the tune of over $6.00 a click.
The clean up is going to be ugly today.
I wrote 3 letters to Google as I was in complete panic mode. I found some others on a forum who appear to be having the same issue this past week – but for about half of what I got charged.
Hackers are an increasingly big problem. I’m not exactly sure how this happened. I am grateful today for the roof currently over my head, and I’m trying to move on with working through this. I am anxious to see how the big G will treat the situation, and myself included.
I changed my password, cleared cookies, and just don’t know what else to do. What really sucks is seeing this type of thing on a Sunday. Banks are closed and it is like looking at the train wreck happening yet there is an invisible wall between you and the train. You are looking at it happening in disbelief, yet you can’t even go over to help the clean up get started because it is SUNDAY!!!! Grrrrrr.
I am diving full steam into projects today. Going to try to keep really busy between calls to the bank and my awaited emails from G. This really ticked me off too – I wanted to call some customer service or something yesterday. There is no number to call for Google. Or is there? They gotta have a phone somewhere in that big building with segways rolling around. When it comes to my finances I need someone on the horn when this stuff starts going down.
Ugh. 7:32am and I have to wait. I just want to get in touch with the bank.
Share this Post[?] It’s Not A Scam! Do I Sell It?
There are a lot of great products on the web, and not everything is a scam. So, when you come upon something you’ve determined is legal, do you sell it?
I’m going to repeat myself here – there are a lot of great products on the web.
I have something else I promote way on the other side of the universe. Someone emailed me from my list with that product asking for information on becoming an affiliate. Typically, I wouldn’t want to share that kind of information. It is a business and all. But I knew if they were asking me for information, chances were that this person really had not done much marketing. Internet marketers know some clever little tricks to find out how to get into programs that aren’t so obvious.
I had nothing to lose, and actually a second tier to gain in commissions. I actually had more information than most about the product and different options or ways to sell it. I decided to help. First, I was going to need some information on the person I was helping. I needed to know what kind of business model they had in mind. What methods they were going to try in the promotion of this product.
I emailed back and asked what they had promoted in the past. I was directed to a web site and service I had not seen before. Immediately, the detective magnifying glass came out.
The affiliate of this program has assured me this was a reputable company, yet their website was less than a year old. There were virtually no backlinks going to the site. There was some other things I really didn’t care for either.
I pretended to sign up to see the path one is taken through to participate in the program. A charge of $60.00 and monthly charge after that of $30.00. A pre determined web host that was mandatory – and at some point in the game the affiliate was going to have to give out their passwords and access to that host.
These were all huge red flags. I was just about to stop when I came across some verifible information from other affiliates who were actually doing ok with the program. I also came across words from the actual producer of the product who willingly gave out an email, phone number, and was sincere in attempts to promote this program.
In the end, I determined it was not a scam. So the next question was should this person I was trying to help be selling it? I didn’t want to make up their mind for them, but for me in the end this was not a product I would sell. Why? The work needed to be “seen” was going to be tremendous. The majority of affiliates who were making money on this program seemed to be doing it all with the help of ppc.
While it is possible my new friend could sell this and make it work, it was going to require a trememdous amount of work before they would see a profit. There was a huge learning curve they needed to consider.
I think it’s better to approach something a bit easier and work your way up as to not get discouraged.
There is enough t learn when you are first starting out and the easiest way is to start by promoting something you know. Find a product or service you know like the back of your hand and actually use.
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