Affiliate Marketing Blogs

Tracking202 Acquired by Bloosky

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:33:37 -0800

Tracking202, a PPC affiliate tracking tool, has been acquired by Bloosky. Tracking202 was founded a little over 2 years ago, and they’ve assembled a really robust tool that tracks every PPC network, and includes a number of useful features, such as an EPC calculator, top performing ads reporting, and keyword cloaking. But the most popular feature is [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Shawn Collins on Affiliate Marketing Past, Present and Future

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:05:50 -0800

I was recently interviewed by Tim Schroeder of emonetized.com about how how I got started in affiliate marketing, my biggest learning experience to date, biggest success, and how I learned the business. Also, who would play me if a movie were made about my life, how often I check my stats, and my explanation of affiliate [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Stop Trying to Wear Saul’s Armor

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:56:54 -0800

Download audio file (brandmouthing-20.mp3) This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about the importance of a brand staying true to itself. While I was sitting in church this morning, the Pastor was speaking about David and Goliath and how Saul gave David his own armor, but David didn’t like the way it felt. So, he went [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Black Friday, Zhu Zhu Pets, and Lisa’s Little Blue Toy

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:52:41 -0800

Download audio file (affiliatething-112309.mp3) This week on the Affiliate Thing podcast, Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille talked about the lead up to Black Friday, Zhu Zhu pet fever, and the acquisition of Tracking202. Also, Lisa’s blue toy on DailyBooth, the annoyance of Twitter’s new style of ReTweets, AWeber’s Web form generator, and enhancements to Link Connector’s Naked [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Opportunity to Resell Zhu Zhu Pets?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:24:26 -0800

I started hearing weeks ago about how Zhu Zhu Pets were the hottest toy for Christmas, and pegged them as a good item to focus on for affiliate sales between Black Friday and beyond. But then I started getting a sense that these motorized hamsters were going to be tough to sell, because they were going [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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How I Got Started in Affiliate Marketing

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:05:39 -0800

Download audio file (affiliateabcs19-history-affiliatetip.mp3) I had a fun chat with Deb Carney on her AffiliateABCs podcast the other day about my early days in affiliate marketing. This discussion came out of a link I Tweeted recently for an article I wrote in 2000 on the history of affiliate marketing. We touched on the origins of the industry, [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Find Vertical Affiliates, Merchants, and Networks at Affiliate Summit West 2010

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:56:45 -0800

There will be a new networking opportunity at Affiliate Summit West 2010 called the Vertical Exchange. The Vertical Exchange will be an opportunity for affiliates, merchants and networks to find one another by vertical to network and work our deals. There is no sponsorship or anything – we will have designated areas for verticals, so anybody interested [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Find Out When Sold Out Items are In Stock at Amazon.com

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:12:07 -0800

I’ve been a little obsessive about trying to sell Zhu Zhu pets as an affiliate and buy them for my kids lately. They seem to be out of stock or scalped for 6x or so their retail price everywhere I look. But then I saw a Tweet from @peterkoning this morning that may be the solution [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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I am Thankful to People Who Fight Cancer

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:57:05 -0800

Watch CBS News Videos Online Today is a day where people feel compelled to state to whom or what they are thankful. Well, I’ll jump on that train and say I am very thankful to people who fight cancer. It’s our mutual enemy and we all stand to benefit when there is more research to fight it. So, [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Companies Increased Social Media Efforts in 2010

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:26:43 -0800

Most companies are planning to invest more in social media next year but are struggling to find the time and resources to manage their activity, according to new research from Econsultancy. The Social Media and Online PR Report, published by Econsultancy in association with bigmouthmedia, is based on a survey of more than 1,100 companies and [...]

This post originally appeared on the Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

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Blog Directories

Randy Ray — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 06:38:00 -0700

My blog isn't so much about blogging for dollars as it is about affiliate marketing, but there are any number of bloggers who qualify as affiliates. And one of the best ways to get traffic and backlinks is through directory listings. Over at Successful Blog today, I found a list of blog directories. She claims that her links lead to over 1800 blog directories, which seems to be quite a few. I don't know that anyone needs backlinks from all of them, but I'm also convinced that a lot of sites, especially if they're in non-competitive areas, can do just fine with 40 backlinks or so to start with and then just rely on naturally occurring backlinks.

Anyway, the list looks like a great resource, and the blog itself looks like a pretty solid one. (I just found it today.)

Shoemoney Discusses Ringtones Landing Page Sold on eBay

Randy Ray — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 06:43:00 -0700

If you're not already reading Shoemoney, then you should be. He's funny, smart, and the stuff he writes is almost always useful as all get out. Today I read a post about how someone actually bought a ringtones landing page on eBay for $10,000. The discussion in the comments over at Shoemoney's site is pretty interesting, so check it out.

Oh, and while I'm talking about Shoemoney. The best post I ever read over there was the one where he said that Markus, the owner of Plenty of Fish, was lying about how much money he's making with his site just to get attention. (For those people who have already seen this post and the comments but haven't figured it out yet, the whole thing was a joke that Markus was in on. Turns out that controversy makes great linkbait, and that particular post at Shoemoney generated a ton of backlinks to both sites. Nice work.)

Wicked Fire - WickedFire.com - 10,000 Forum Posts in 6 Days

Randy Ray — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:23:00 -0700

There's a new affiliate forum in town folks, and it's off to a big start. The site is called Wicked Fire, and as of this morning sometime, they're up to 10,000 posts and over 800 or so threads. What's impressive to me is how they managed to pull this off in just 6 days. (In contrast, my newly launched movie forum has only managed to generate about 8 members in the last month or so.)

But the brilliance of having an active forum isn't lost on me. It's a white-hat way of achieving a black hat goal: generating tons of content pages without having to write or publish every single page yourself. With an active forum, the users generate the content for you. A forum is even better than a blog in this regard, because in a blog, even when you generate a conversation, you have to start the ball rolling. With a forum, anyone and everyone can start the ball rolling.

Among some of the other gems I've found at WickedFire.com are some links to great sites that got my imagination fired up, including:

Forum Trends - Which is all about running forums. Why have a blog network when you could own a forum network?
The Super Affiliate Marketing Blog - I'd seen Jon's affiliate marketing blog before, but like so many things you see on the web, it wasn't something I paid enough attention to. But anyone who can generate 10,000 posts on a forum in 6 days is someone worth paying attention to, in my opinion.
Hott for Teacher - This is one of the member's sites from WickedFire. It's bizarre, seemed funny at first, then just weirder as you start reading the stories of this really sad and sick women who are taking advantage of young people. This isn't a niche I'd approach to make money with, but who am I to say that someone shouldn't? (Besides that, the design kicks ass, IMO.)

Anyway, that's about it for now, but I'm planning to start blogging a little more heavily here. I'm starting to get the bug again, which I haven't had in quite a while.

GoGuides Directory - GoGuides.org

Randy Ray — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:58:00 -0700

GoGuides is one of the best directories on the Internet to get a backlink from. Not only is it relatively affordable compared to some of the other directories online, but the listings of other websites there are generally of a pretty good quality, which is exactly the kind of listings you want alongside your listing. (Getting listed in a directory full of crappy sites is exactly the kind of listing you want to avoid. My strong suspicion is that search engines believe the old adage about "birds of a feather".)

About GoGuides.org

GoGuides.org is actually a continuation of the now-dead Go network from Disney, which was an earlier volunteer edited directory. It's not as good a quality link as you might be receiveing from DMOZ or Yahoo, but it's still a good solid link from a reputable source, and it's probably one of the few directories that's going to stick around for quite a while, IMO.

There are a couple of different ways to submit your site to GoGuides.org. The easiest way for someone who only runs one site and who just wants to submit and move on is to pay the $69.95 review fee and submit the site. The editors at GoGuides normally turn around a submission fairly quickly, within a day or less, in my experience. You won't see that kind of turnaround time at most other directories.

Submission Specialists at GoGuides

Another option is to become a GoGuides submissions specialist. This membership has 3 levels at 3 different price points:

VIP for $19.95 per month allows you to submit 5 websites per month.
Junior Membership for $29.95 per month allows you to submit 10 websites per month.
Senior Members for $39.95 per month allows you to submit 20 websites per month.

These programs are designed to help website specialists and SEO's offer service to their clients for less money.

Free GoGuides Submissions

I am a submissions specialist at GoGuides.org, and if you're interested in a listing there, please contact me. I'll submit your site for free if you'll provide a link back to my blog, as long as I have any submissions left that month.

More Information About GoGuides on the Web

You can read more articles about GoGuides on the Internet. A couple of the sites worth taking a look at include:

Search Marketing Info's GoGuides Page
Wikipedia Article About GoGuides (This article really needs to be expanded. If you're not already participating at the Wikipedia, you should.)
HighRankings Discussion of Whether or Not GoGuides is Passing Link Popularity

No matter what the topic of your affiliate website, a few good directory listings are good to have. GoGuides is definitely one to consider. Other good directories to look at can be found here: DMOZ Directories. (God bless those DMOZ guys btw; you can always find good stuff over there.)

A Link Exchange Email That Worked

Randy Ray — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 23:54:00 -0700

Link exchange emails get deleted pretty quickly from my inbox. But I got one today that I not only read, but I replied to it immediately. And after thinking about it for a minute, I thought that there might be a lesson to learn from how the email was phrased. (Because yes, I occasionally send a link exchange email or two myself, and I usually get the same miserable response as everyone else does.)

Here's a reasonable approximation of the email I received.

Subject Line: Red Widgets Review Website

Body:

Hello Randy-

I happened across your website on the internet as I have also spent the last few months building a Red Widget Reviews website with a friend.

I wanted to know if you would be interested in exchanging links to our site.

red-widget-reviews.com

I am just starting out and was reading some of your articles, your "About Me" page, your goal of reviewing red widget review, etc...and you sound like a down to earth person.

Do you have any advice for us on how we can make our site as useful as yours seems to be?

How long did it take for you to get a lot of visitors to your site?

Thanks for any advice you can give us.

Cheers
Polite Webmaster
Co-Editor
Red Widget Reviews

Why This Link Exchange Email Worked

I have some ideas about why this email was so effective, and I'll point them out here. Some of this is common advice found on any number of sites that talk about link exchanges:

The email addressed me by name, which demonstrates that some thought and care were put into it.
The email made it clear that they had visited my site.
The praise for my site seemed sincere.
The webmaster asked for my advice on how to be successful.

I bolded the last line for a reason; I think it was a critical component of why this link exchange email worked. For one thing, they expressed admiration and flattered me, and also, they asked me for help. These were exactly the right buttons to push with me, and I think they're probably effecitve buttons for anyone else too. Who doesn't want to be told they've done a good job on their website? And who doesn't want to feel smart enough to give advice?

Some More Cool Articles About Exchanging Links

How NOT to Request a Reciprocal Link from Michael Bluejay, one of the coolest webmasters on the Internet, and one of the smartest.
Don't Hate on Reciprocal Links by my friend Andy Hagans, a link building expert and an uber-cool dude.
Reciprocal Link Software discussion from Aaron Wall, another of the smartest people I know in the search industry.

I still think reciprocal links are cool, but automated, dumb links exchanges are uncool. So be smart and trade links without automating.

How to Write Good Web Content

Randy Ray — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 13:00:00 -0700

Affiliate marketers have multiple techniques to make money with, but the one that will have the longest half-life is publishing good content. Pay per click ad arbitrage will eventually become too competitive, search engines will eventually wipe out spam or at least reduce its profitability to next to nothing, and email marketing will go even further in the same direction as the dinosaur.

But all 3 of the major search engines want to list good quality content in their results, and that's not going to change anytime soon. If a search engine lists low quality content in their results, users will flee to the competition. Riding the "content is king" train will take you a lot farther in the long run as an affiliate marketer than just about any other method. Hence this article about how to write good web content.

Characteristics of Good Content

Good content is unique. If you think about this for a minute, it will almost seem like this goes without saying, but if you take a look at some of the results in Yahoo or MSN for some high-competitive keyword phrases, you'll find plenty of content that does nothing more than re-hash content that is readily available on many other sites.
Good content is user-focused. Google has been preaching this for ages now: focus on the user and all else will follow. This particularly useful when talking about the information you put on your website. People search the Internet for things that help them, so how-to articles, tips, and information folks can use is always going to be one of the most important aspects of user-focused web content.
Good content is well-written. Double check your spelling and punctuation. Avoid the passive voice. Omit needless words. All of the fundamentals of good writing apply to web content. These simple things amount to showing respect, not disdain, for your readers.
Good content on the internet is easy to read. Bulleted lists, short sentences, and short paragraphs are user-friendly ways to make your content more accessible to online readers. Headings and sub-headings are important too.
Good web content is honest. Don't make up BS sales letters. If you don't honestly believe in a product, and you haven't used a product, then maybe it's better not to promote it. I built several websites in a particularly competitive industry once. When I finally stopped working on the "salesy" sites and started writing about my actual experiences in this particular industry, the traffic to that new website skyrocketed beyond that of all my other websites almost overnight.

Content Mistakes to Avoid

It's easy to make most of the following mistakes when writing content. Try to avoid them.

Providing inaccurate information. Lies, falsehoods, and mistakes might rank temporarily, but that will not last. Search engines are going to continue to improve.
Anything deceptive equates automatically to low-quality content. In fact, deception is, or ought to be, the defining characteristic of spam of all kinds, both search engine spam and email spam.
Automatically generated pages. These might or might be useful in certain situations, but they never amount to "quality content".

Other Resources Related to Writing Good Quality Content

Search Engine Ranking Factors from Website Helpers (The first section is about quality content.)
The Elements of Style - Available for free online from Bartleby, this was for years the best book I'd ever read about how to write.
Writing for the Web from Jakob Nielsen - Nielsen is recognized as one of the leading thinkers on web useability. His insights into how writing for the web is different than writing in print are fascinating.
Wikipedia - How to Write a Great Article - The Wikipedia is a volunteer-edited encyclopedia where anyone can edit. It's a fascinating sub-culture on the web that you're probably already aware of, but most people already know about it. Why? Because they offer great content throughout. (With a few exceptions.)

I hope that this article is high-quality content. I probably should do another draft, now that I think about it.

Viral Marketing Examples - Linkbait

Randy Ray — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 00:27:00 -0700

I'm constantly intrigued by the clever ideas I see and hear about that people are using for viral marketing and linkbait. While it's only loosely related to affiliate marketing, the concept of linkbait and starting an "Idea Virus" is definitely one that can be used to generate affiliate and/or advertising income on the Internet. I'm posting a list of example linkbait and viral marketing successes here to help people get their own ideas flowing.

1. All My Life For Sale - This was originally just a guy named John Freyer who decided to sell literally everything he owned on eBay. Now it's a website, a hardcover book, and a piece of performance art that's on display at multiple museums.

2. One Red Paperclip - Kyle MacDonald posted an offer on CraigsList to trade a red paperclip for something "bigger and better". Since then he has traded up 14 times, and just finished a trade to get a house. According to the Sitemeter on his website, he's receiving close to 200,000 visits to his website daily. If you assume that he's earning an average of $1 CPM for those Google Adsense ads he's got running on the site, then he's earning $6k per month just from that advertising. (And that $1 figure is a total wild guess on my part - it would be much more or much less than that.)

3. The $39 Experiment - Tom Locke got 100 39 cent stamps and mailed off 100 letters to various companies asking for free stuff. He then recorded his responses on his website.

4. The Million Dollar Homepage - Alex Tew decides to sell 1 million pixel ads on his website for $1 each and becomes a huge success story spawning literally thousands of imitators.

5. Pink Bunny Poker - Jeremy Enke auctions off his services as a poker player (wearing a pink bunny suit) at the World Series of Poker. He generates much publicity, many backlinks, and a good deal of money from his sponsor, Golden Palace Casino, who bought his eBay auction. (Golden Palace participates in these kinds of viral marketing stunts constantly, by the way.)

You'll notice that all of the linkbait and viral marketing examples mentioned in this post have some things in common:

There's actually a person with a name involved in the stunt.
All of the stunts are outrageous and/or quirky enough to warrant attention.
Most of them involve a combination of some kind of ingenuity with something that is already on the minds of consumers.

More on the last point. All My Life For Sale took advantge, in part, of the amazing success of eBay. One Red Paperclip borrows some popularity from the incredible success of Craigslist. Jeremy's Pink Bunny idea took advantage of the popularity of online poker, the World Series of Poker, eBay, and Golden Palace. The $39 Experiment is about 100 different companies, almost all of whom are well known.

Can you cook up a recipe for some linkbait now? Can you make money with a viral marketing campaign with these ingredients? I know that I have a couple of ideas now myself.

How NOT to Recruit Affiliates

Randy Ray — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:35:00 -0800

So I got an email today from an affiliate manager, or an account executive, whatever you want to call him. The subject line read: "Randy will you promote our new widget".

Now that's not too bad. It at least got me to open the email. (I delete a lot of emails, especially the ones that say "You link to be removed".)

Then I read the first line of the email: "Dear sir, Widget.com has a brand new widget variation that is taking the world by storm. We would like to partner with www.genericwidgetdomain.com (place any website here) in promoting widgets."

This part, "(place any website here)" was literally actually in the email, word for word.

What's wrong with this email?

1- I'm already an affiliate, so there's no need to "recruit" me into their affiliate program. (If their affiliate managers were really on top of their game, they would know what all of my related wesites are already.)

2- Not changing the generic wording in the email is just a really bad, amateurish mistake. When I did affiliate recruitment, I hand-typed at the very least the first paragraph of every email I sent out, period. There is 0 excuse for sending out an email that isn't at least slightly customized. Hell, they obviously knew my name because they used it in the subject line, but in the salutation of the email, they referred to me as "Dear Sir".

3- The rest of the email wasn't bad, but it was short, and it didn't spell out the features and benefits of the affiliate program. Here's a hint for all you aspiring affiliate managers: if you're going to contact me about becoming an affiliate for your company, please include information about how much commission you pay, and what kind of earning potential that translates into.

Don't try to "tease" me into wanting to find out more. I'm busy, I work hard, and I don't have time for you to be coy, and the kind of affiliates you want to recruit are a lot like me.

Google Penalties - Common New Google.com Penalty

Randy Ray — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:59:00 -0800

Okay, so you're hearing about the Google Sandbox, the Google -30 penalty, and the Google -950 penalty, but here's the latest of the Google.com penalties: Your Site Sucks and Google Just Figure It Out. Nice post from the fine folks at Threadwatch, and a big hat tip to DigitalGhost for mentioning it. You can also read some fine and thoughtful commentary about this phenomenon over at Aaron Wall's place: New Google Penalty.

Now of course, those guys look at this from a professional SEO consultant perspective more than from an affiliate marketer perspective. And part of their point is to advise SEO's to not take on clients whose websites suck unless they think they can get the client interested in creating a website that doesn't suck. (Unlikely in most cases, IMO.)

But what kind of affiliate websites suck? I can tell you a few things that make up major suckiness in an affiliate website:

- Reviews of products that aren't really reviews, but are instead just sales pages for the product.

- Review of products that do nothing but list of the features and benefits of a product.

- Sites full of lame scraped content and a bunch of random more-or-less on topic links that are trying to manipulate some "hub factor" in an algorithm.

- Websites that have lots of pop-up windows of any kind.

- Websites with multiple flashing banners who seem to have one purpose, and that's to send epileptics into seizures. (Ugh - I hate those sites. They're common in the gambling industry, btw.)

- Websites full of really poorly written "content" that was only posted in order to generate search visitors.

- Websites without a distinctive voice or opinion.

I'm sure I could think of some more, but I'll stop there. I'd imagine a lot of affiliate webmasters will think that this list is pretty lame, or even offensive, but chances are, they're the ones operating sucky websites.

Laziness as a Business Virtue

Randy Ray — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:25:00 -0800

At first glance, this Lazy SEO Manifesto from Andy Hagans looks like a clever bit of SEO humor and/or linkbait, and it works on those levels, certainly. But the post is more interesting than that, because it also makes us stop to think for a minute about what is actually a business virtue here. America has a lot of people who are so into the Protestant work ethic that if someone told them it's good to be lazy, their head might explode.

On the other hand, there are plenty of lazy people who literally want to do nothing. Andy's not wanting to do nothing. He wants to do a little bit of smart work on the front end so he can avoid a bunch of hard work later, and he also wants to make sure that he makes a LOT of money for the little bit of work that he's done. (There's a big difference in that attitude than in the attitude of some hourly employees who are convinced they don't make enough money even though they actually show up on time every day. As if showing up by itself is high value.)

Andy's post also reminded me of one of Thomas Leonard's principles of attraction, Be Incredibly Selfish. Point #1 on Thomas' list was that selfishness used to have a bad name, but now it's developing a good name. Andy's manifesto is a similar meme. Laziness used to be bad, but in the hands of someone smart and creative, laziness isn't bad at all, but a virtue.

I think I'll go take a nap now.

Why I'm No Good at Linkbait

Randy Ray — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:46:00 -0800

I'm so bad at linkbait that I don't even recognize it when I see it.

I guess maybe I'm not good at the whole link baiting thing because I haven't practiced it very much. I've been spending a little more time at Digg lately though, so maybe I'll learn something from some of the amazing people there.

I'm not a fast learner though. Some people just absorb stuff really quick and are able to run with it, but I have to study on it until I really grok it.

Another Dumb Email

Randy Ray — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 06:57:00 -0800

I'm literally speechless at some of the silly and dumb emails I receive. Here's a correspondence from today from someone who wanted to buy advertising on one of my websites:

Them: "Hi, we would like to add a 120x60 banner with a text link to your site to sponsored links. Let us know what you have available and for how much for a month. Regards,"

Me: "What site are you asking about?"

Their reply: "Heh, good question. I sent the same email to about 200 addresses...."

Needless to say, I'm not real excited or motivated about selling advertising to this outfit now. Chances are if they're that careless about how they email potential advertisers, they're also careless about who they link to. And I don't believe in nofollow links, so guess who isn't getting an ad from me?

Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool Down

Randy Ray — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 00:15:00 -0800

I've been using the Overture keyword suggestion tool since it was the GoTo keywords tool. Sad to see that it's no longer working, and from what I can tell by searching through some blog sites, it isn't coming back. So what's a search engine marketer to do?

(Update on 2/1/2007 - Looks like reports of the Overture keyword suggestion tool's demise have been exaggerated.)

I guess it's time to take a look at some alternatives to the Overture tool. Here are a few links to keyword suggestion tools I like. Some of them are free, and some of them charge. The ones that charge usually have some type of trial offer that can be pretty useful.

Google Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool
Wordtracker
Keyword Discovery
7search keyword suggestion tool
Good Keywords (Please note that this is one I haven't used yet, but it looks intriguing.)

A lot of keyword suggestion tools used to scrape the Overture tool, especially for looking at potential traffic information, but the traffic estimates from Overture were always wildly inaccurate anyway, so no great loss there. Also, I can't imagine that they'll go without a keyword generator forever, although they might restrict its use to advertisers. MSN Adcenter also has a keyword suggestion tool accessible from within your Adcenter account.

The Keyword Report Review

Randy Ray — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 03:52:00 -0800

I found a new service last week called The Keyword Report. This is a pretty nifty service. The company maintains a mailing list of webmasters who pay a fee to receive weekly emails with low-competition niche keyword phrases. I'm a big fan of brainstorming tools, and on any given day, there is no telling what I'm going to be interested in, so I thought I'd pony up $29/month to see what it's like.

So far I'm pretty pleased with the report. Not only are the keywords "good", but they really are non-competitive. I don't see any reason you couldn't come up with low competition keyword phrases on your own through other brainstorming techniques, but these guys have already done a lot of the work for you. They've already checked the cost per click and number of ads appearing for these phrases.

And you get the personal email of the person who publishes the report each week, and he's friendly and open with advice and information. Definitely a plus. I hate buying products with no customer support, and I love buying niche products with a personal touch.

Poker SEO

Randy Ray — Mon, 14 May 2007 02:43:00 -0700

Here's an exciting new resource, especially if you're interested or involved in promoting online poker:

Poker SEO

This is, as far as I know, the only site dedicated to SEO in this specific industry. And it's written by Steve Badger, who owns and operates one of the most highly-trafficked poker websites online.

Add this one to your bookmarks. Steve's one of the best SEO's I know.

Edited on August 4, 2007 - I've added a section to my new poker site about poker and gambling seo too. If you're looking for someone, I do provide poker and gambling seo consulting, but I'm not cheap. (Don't bother contacting me unless you have at least a five figure budget.)

Affiliate Marketing for Poker Webmasters

Randy Ray — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:11:00 -0700

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I've been busy launching my new poker website. Half of the content there is going to be dedicated to online poker tips, online cardrooms, and so on, but the other half of the content is devoted to poker and gambling webmasters. I'm particularly proud of my new article, Poker SEO Tips, which I just wrote and published today. Honestly, being a poker webmaster isn't much different from being any kind of other webmaster, although it does attract a different breed of webmaster I think. Replace the word "poker" with whatever word is appropriate to your niche, and you might find some benefit from those articles there too.

Another great place for info about making money as a poker affiliate is the poker affiliate forum at PAW. Definitely worth checking out.

Another thing - Shoemoney has been posting some great stuff lately. If you haven't visited his blog in a while, you should definitely check it out. Some of his new tips for success articles are worth their wait in gold, especially the one about not hiring friends to write for your website just because they're your friends.

6 Directories Worth Submitting To

Randy Ray — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:28:00 -0700

I saw a post today on a forum about whether a person's time would be better spent submitting their site to a list of 500 directories or building 10 pages of content. I think setting a goal of either/or in this situation is a little lacking in ambition, but I also think that most directories aren't worth submitting to. In my experience, here are some directories that ARE worth submitting to:

1-DMOZ - Lots of Internet pundits and SEO's saying that DMOZ is dead. They're dead wrong. A DMOZ listing is still a great ingredient to add to your optimization and backlink strategy. I've never seen so much hatred and nonsense written about a single website before. But at the end of the day, get the DMOZ listing if you can.

2- Yahoo - You'll occasionally see people who claim a Yahoo directory listing isn't worth $299 either. These people are also wrong. You definitely want to get yourself a Yahoo listing. In fact, that should usually be the 1st directory you submit to.

3- Aviva Directory - This directory just plain rocks, and that's all you can say about it. Unlike most directories, Aviva has a lot of genuine and well-written content available on their site too.

4- JoeAnt - This is a good directory with volunteer editing opportunities available. Worth checking out.

5- GoGuides - Another good, older directory. A submissions specialist there can add several sites per month, but there's a fee to become a specialist. Depends on whether you plan to do a lot of sites on a regular basis or not as to whether or not it's worth the fee.

6- Best of the Web - These guys have done a nice job, although I think they're overly restrictive with their blog directory requirements. I have a gambling blog which they won't list because it's not 6 months old. But my gambling blog has over 500 posts, and they're not miniposts either, but substantial, quality posts.

Most people are too link obsessed anyway. Build lots of quality content and you'll get links.

I'll post later about the insanity of the legions of webmasters who are now terrified of doing normal, old-fashioned link exchanges.

QuickWebCreations.com - Quick Web Creations.com

Randy Ray — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:48:00 -0800

I found a really cool tool that's available from QuickWebCreations.com for only $7. It's a logo generator that generates Web 2.0 looking logos and graphics. "Quick Web Creations.com" is easy to use - it's one of those point and click type tools that you use online. I'm not good at creating graphics, especially not logos, so I thought for $7, why not give it a try? I'm glad I did.

QuickWebCreations.com specializes in creating what they call "Web 2.0 logos". The idea is that Web 2.0 logos use gradients, shadows, reflections, glossiness and stripes to make their logos look cooler and more modern. I've seen a lot of "Web 2.0" websites which do use some of these types of graphics techniques, so I guess this is pretty accurate.

I've used BannerMakerPro in the past, and I'll use it again in the future. That software cost a little bit more money, but I liked it a lot. QuickWebCreations.com is something that can probably be used easily in conjunction with Quick Web Creations.com.

My favorite aspect of QuickWebCreations.com was the gallery of user-created logos. They present over 4500 different logos submitted from users, and if you like one of them, you can click on "use this style", type new words, and have a logo with a similar look and feel

Please note that I don't normally use affiliate links when I review a product, but I've made an exception in this case. I really like the product, but I think if you decide to use it (and it's only $7, so why not try it?) I might as well make a few bucks from it too.

I hope you'll give Quick Web Creations.com a try and that you'll really like how it works for you.

SEO Blogs You Should Be Reading

Randy Ray — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 01:28:00 -0800

This is a list of SEO blogs that you should be reading but probably aren't. I've included what I think are some of the best posts from those blogs here too, along with some commentary as to why I think these blogs are so worthwhile.

SEO Theory

This is Michael Martinez's SEO blog. Many people in the SEO industry seem irritated by Michael Martinez, but I think having someone who's not repeating the "party line" is good for the industry. He's been accused of being deliberately contrarian just for the sake of being deliberately contrarian, and I'm not sure I disagree with that. But unlike some other folks, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing either.

An affiliate marketer or SEO can learn a lot about SEO just from watching what Martinez actually DOES with his blog. (Maybe they'll even learn more about SEO by watching what Martinez does than they will from listening to what Martinez says.) The main lesson to be learned from the SEO Theory blog is that lots of constantly updated content is good. And long pieces of content which repeat and emphasize keyword phrases is also good.

Most webmasters seem to think that 500 words of content is both the minimum and the maximum amount of content on a page or in a blog post. Most of Martinez's posts are 1000 words or more. What benefit does that offer?

For one thing, the more words you put on a page, the more likely it is that a searcher will type in a phrase that exists on your page. You increase longtail traffic.

At the time of this writing, SEO Theory has 443 pages indexed in Google, which is pretty good. (That's more pages than I have on any of my static sites, although I have a couple of forums which have more pages than that.)

Suppose you had 443 pages indexed with 1000 pages on each phrase. Do you think you might receive traffic?

Some of my favorite blog posts from Michael Martinez include:

The Infallible SEO Option - One of the best posts ever written about SEO anywhere. Sure, it might seem obvious, but for a beginner, it's not obvious. And so many SEO's out there seem to preach that links are all you need.
Building Content For Search - Martinez condemns cookie-cutter SEO wisdom, which is something that desperately cries out for condemnation. He also makes the point that you should use long pages of content when the content calls for it, and short pages when the content calls for that instead.
Answers to 100 SEO Questions - The questions and answers are great, but having a page that ranks for 100 different queries is even better. Wondering what you should do with the information from your referral logs? This post from Michael should give you at least one idea for what to do with that info.
The Great Link Building Mystery Unplugged - A consistent theme in Michael's blog is that getting lots of links and anchor text is only one way to rank well in the search engines, and it's not necessarily the easiest or best way. This runs directly contrary to what a lot of people in the affiliate business think.
Hardcore SEO Tips - Another great post. This one and the post above about the infallible search engine optimization method will make almost any SEO better at what they do.

What I really like about Michael Martinez's blog is that it's not aimed at beginner SEO's. Most other SEO blogs on the Internet seem to tackle very basic stuff in very basic ways.

Hundred Dollar SEO

I found this blog through a link at Michael Martinez's SEO blog. Carlos del Rio is the author of this blog. He's a former teacher and part-time artist who brings a fresh approach to SEO blogging. He's obviously a big fan of Martinez's, but I don't hold that against him and neither should anyone else. Some of my favorite posts from him include:

Cheap Seo - This is a legitimate concern for a lot of people who want to get started making money on the Internet. Del Rio offers two approaches for getting some SEO done for $100 or less. I haven't decided which approach I like better yet though.
Internal Linking Structures - Del Rio describes in some detail some of the different approaches to link structures for websites. His explanation of the silo strategy is the best explanation of that approach that I've read yet. Internal linking structure is a hugely important aspect of SEO that many SEO's never discuss. (Mostly because they're talking about different ways to get external links all the time.)
Long Copy Versus Short Pages - Del Rio looks at whether or not you should write long or short copy from another perspective, different from Michael Martinez's. He also discusses the results of a landing page contest which measured conversion rates for a long landing page compared to a short landing page.
Link Flavors - Here he talks about some of the different "flavors" of links, including "reciprocal" and "sitewide" flavors. Some people think links of certain flavors (like the two I just mentioned) can hurt your SEO efforts more than helping them. He also examines evidence that on-topic linking doesn't really matter as much as you might have been led to believe, and he gives an example.

Tropical SEO

Andy Hagans is a cool dude and an awesome blogger. He leans more toward the lazy blogging approach though, only publishing something when he has something to say. I'd rather see him post more often, because then I could learn more about how he thinks, but he's too busy living the dream and getting rich. Here are some of this best posts:

The Lazy SEO Manifesto - Living the dream, brother! This is kind of the whole point really.
You Are Better Than You Think - Some ideas about why you should start acting like a CEO instead of an SEO.
Why I Quit Working For Clients - Some people might not know this about me, but I used to work for clients too, just like Andy used to. But honestly, even the good clients can be a pain in the ass when you want to work on your own websites.
How to Build an Affiliate Site Worth $1 Million - Should be required reading for every affiliate webmaster/SEO.
How to Escape Google's Supplemental Index - Just as relevant now as when Andy first wrote it.

So many more posts from these 3 bloggers are worth reading. And so many more bloggers than this have affected my SEO thinking. I read Aaron Wall religiously for example, and I have great respect and admiration for Eric Ward. I used to read SEOmoz a lot, but I don't read it as often anymore. Lots of good stuff there though, especially in the members' area.

Here's a good piece of advice though. Don't spend so much time reading these SEO blogs that you stop producing content of your own. That's where the real money is: creating brilliant content.

An Affiliate Success Formula

Randy Ray — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:56:00 -0800

Some people aren't going to like this affiliate success formula. That's because it requires work, and it's not a get-rich-quick scheme. But this is the simplest formula for affiliate website success that I know of.

Content + Links = Affiliate Success

First, find a big niche. Lots of get rich quick guys tell you that you should tackle a small niche that you can dominate. That's nonsense. You can be an average player in a huge niche pretty easily still. (Big niches include stuff like dating, travel, credit cards, mortgages, etc.)

Then buy a domain name and build a website. Fill it with hundreds of pages of brilliant, useful, keyword-rich content. Update the site often. Add content constantly. Some of your pages will rank as long as you do basic search engine optimization stuff like:

making sure your keyword phrases are in your pages' title tags
using your keyword phrases in your pages' body copy
emphasizing your keyword phrases by repeating them in the copy, header
emphasizing your keyword phrases with bold text, italics, quotation marks
using your keyword phrase in the URL string of each page

The big SEO secret is that there are no secrets. Just make it clear to the search engine what your page is about.

Then get links from appropriate websites. This will keep the search engines visiting your website. As a general rule, the more links you have pointing at your website, the more important it is. And important sites rank higher.

Don't do stupid stuff like exchanging links with 1500 websites, none of which have useful information. Or spam blogs. You don't need thousands of links to compete; you need some good links.

Then add advertisements for appropriate affiliate programs.

It really is that easy, but it takes work. Most people launch lame content and get lame links and wonder why they fail. Write good content, or hire a good writer. Then get good links. Don't worry if you don't have hundreds and hundreds of links right away.

Do the work and make money. Don't be lazy. Don't take shortcuts.

Manifest Linking Destiny

Randy Ray — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:15:00 -0700

I've been too busy to post anything brilliant here lately, but I've got time today to point out an article that's well worth reading, studying, and thinking about from Eric Ward: Manifest Linking Destiny. Now that's brilliant thinking, and I enjoyed his approach in sharing the way he thinks there. Nothing too explicit, but if you think about it for a minute or two, it'll be one of the best SEO posts you'll read this year.

Does Google Penalize Affiliate Websites?

Randy Ray — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:10:00 -0700

The title of this post is "Does Google penalize affiliate websites?", but the title should probably be something more like "Does Google penalize affiliate websites just for being affiliate websites?" I've seen webmasters go to great length to disguise or cloak their affiliate links so that Google won't penalize them for having affiliate links on their site. I think this is a silly waste of time.

I've seen editors at the Wikipedia who have displayed amazing amounts of derision about a site simply because "it's an affiliate site!" (Even though the site in question wasn't even really an affiliate site. I knew the owner, and he made his money via straight media sells. No affiliate revenue period. And the owner of this particular website was a known expert in the field, and the site had 100's of pages of high quality content.)

Do Affiliate Sites Suck Just Because They're Affiliate Sites?

Somewhere along the way, some people got the idea that all affiliate sites suck, are useless, or lame. This is probably because a ton of short-term thinking, opportunistic, and lazy webmasters have launched countless useless web pages whose sole purpose were to draw search engine traffic for the sole purpose of getting advertising revenue or affiliate commissions. But lumping all affiliate websites in with that category is silly.

Gambling Affiliate Sites and Google Penalties

I have some familiarity with the online gambling industry. It's a profitable and competitive niche. And nowhere else will you see a more motley assortment of lame, useless, and content-poor websites. The online gambling affiliate niche is so aggressive and competitive that it's hard to find a good source of information in a search engine on a specific subject, because some of the most competitive gambling webmasters have link bombed their way to the top. If they put 5% of their link bombing efforts into content creation, many of them would have a decent site.

The reason I bring up the online gambling industry is because there is a huge difference between a high quality gambling information portal and a useless content-poor website. That difference is not defined by whether or not the website has affiliate links. It's not even defined by how many affiliate links the site has.

For example, Poker News has affiliate links for online poker websites. But that site has thousands of pages of high quality, useful content about poker. But there is no Google penalty in effect for this site. Try a Google search for the phrase "poker rules" for example. Or "poker strategy". Both are extraordinarily competitive search phrases, and the Poker News website ranks just fine for those phrases.

Compare the content on that site with 10 randomly chosen sites from the search results for a phrase like "online casino", one of the most heavily link-bombed phrases on the Internet. Some of them might have respectable content. But many, if not most of them will consist of pages full of nothing more than affiliate advertisements. After reviewing some of those sites, someone might think that if Google isn't penalizing affiliate websites, then perhaps they should.

But if Google did that, sites like Poker News, which carries affiliate links, would get dinged in the results too. Google would no longer be providing what might be the best results for probably several thousand search engine phrases. That's counter to Google's interests.

Google Does NOT penalize websites just because they're affiliate sites.

I didn't write this post to bash the legions of gambling webmasters publishing low-content sites. I wrote it to point out that Google doesn't penalize sites just because they're affiliate sites. Nor should they.

A side note about linking to gambling sites.

(This is a side note, but I'll often see SEO gurus advise people to not link to sites in the gambling industry because you'll probably get penalized for linking to a bad neighborhood. Being a site about gambling doesn't automatically make a website a bad neighborhood to link to. The advice people should be giving in that situation would involve using discernment to see whether or not the gambling site in question was a quality resource that would be useful for your readers. It might make perfect sense for a site about football to link to an online sportsbook, for example, even if the focus of the football site isn't on wagering. It would make sense for such a site to link to a website reviewing online sportsbooks too. But only if the sportsbook or the sportsbook review sites are quality resources that the webmaster thinks would be useful to their readers.)

SEO Misconceptions and Myths

Being penalized by Google just for being an affiliate site is only one popular SEO misconception I'm tired of hearing about though. Nonsense like "reciprocal links don't work" or "linking is the single most important ranking factor" wears me out too. Reciprocal links work fine if you use your brain before linking to the other site. Linking might be the most important factor in ranking for some phrases, but that's not true for every phrase. Or probably even most phrases.

Why Your Affiliate Site Doesn't Rank Well in Google

If you run an affiliate website, and you think you might have been penalized for Google for having affiliate links on your site, then you are probably being penalized for one of these other reasons instead:

Linking to crappy websites.
Linking to a bunch of crappy websites which are useless to your visitor.
Having no real content on your site. Thinly disguised content masquerading as a "product review" is the worst offender in this case, and my 13 year old son is smart enough to spot this kind of nonsensical content.
Poor internal linking.
Poor on-page optimization.
Any other kind of obvious "link scheme".

Not all of the above are actual "penalties". Some of them are just reasons for your site to rank poorly. Sites that are concerned exclusively with driving traffic to affiliate links don't deserve to rank as well as websites which concern themselves with providing their users with quality information. In the long run, the high quality informational sites will make more money anyway.

How To NOT Be Penalized By Google

What to do?

It's pretty simple. Focus on building a good quality website with good quality content first and foremost. Focus on helping people solve problems. Give them the information they're searching for. Refer them to other quality resources online, and get other quality resources to refer peopel to you.

Once you've done those things, the affiliate revenue is a no-brainer. You'll have repeat visitors and a sustainable revenue stream that will last you a lot longer than a lot of other affiliate webmasters.

And it's more fun to build a useful resource too.

How To Write 1000 Pages of Content

Randy Ray — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:48:00 -0700

In my last post (Does Google penalize affiliate websites?) I mentioned content rich versus content poor websites. Having a website that's rich in useful content is going to be a long term, smart strategy for getting traffic to your affiliate website via search engine optimization. (If I wrote the post well at all, then I made that point, among other things.) I don't think a website is "real" until it reaches 100 pages anyway.

Here are some reasons why having lots of content is an effective content and traffic strategy:

Sites with multiple pages of real content are more useful to a single visitor.
Sites with multiple pages cover multiple subjects and are more useful to a wider range of visitors.
Sites that are useful to lots of people are the kinds of websites search engines must rank in order to stay in business.
Internal links matter toward your SEO. So the more pages you write, the more links you have pointing at your other pages. (A 1000 page website which links to your homepage from every page has created 1000 links. There is no better link building strategy than writing content for your site.)
Multiple pages of content give you the opportunity to present different kinds of advertising and see which types of content make you the most money.

Webmasters who want to know how to write 1000 pages of content are concerned about two things:

How do I come up with 1000 topics about this subject to write about?
How do I actually get those 1000 pages written?

How to come up with 1000 topics on any given subject

1000 football pages

I like to boil the subject of any website I write down to a single word if I can. For example, I launched a website about football last year. Then I take that single word or phrase and add modifiers to it in order to create subtopics. One example of three no-brainer subtopics related to football is how the teams are set up:

That leaves 996 pages of content needed. Two more big subcategories I can think of really quickly are professional football and college football. (And if I wanted to, I could also use high school football as a subcategory.) But that still leaves me with 994 pages of content needed.

That's easy though, because I can subcategorize the category of professional football into 32 teams and give each team its own page. That only leaves me needing 962 more pages of content. (So I have a page about the Dallas Cowboys, a page about the Washington Redskins, a page about the Miami Dolphins, and so on.)

But I can also create a page of content about every college football team in the country. I haven't even started that list yet, but there are 119 college football teams I could write about too. (And finding a list of college football teams was as easy as doing a Google search for "how many college football teams in the USA".)

But that still leaves 843 pages of content needed. It seems like I haven't even scratched the surface.

But each of those subtopics have subtopics of their own. For example, I like to promote posters. So I've also created 32 pages (one for each NFL football team) for the posters that are available for each team. So I've got a hub page for NFL posters, and then pages for Baltimore Ravens posters, Chicago Bears posters, and Detroit Lions posters. Now we're down to 811 pages of content needed.

Another no-brainer subtopic for NFL teams is individual football players. We haven't gotten around to adding that content either, but each NFL team has 53 players on its roster. 53 X 32 teams = 1696 players. Bingo. Now we've got enough content ideas to build a 1000 page site (1885 pages actually). And we never once had to use a keyword research tool to come up with ideas for the pages. Those are all just topics and subtopics.

And a site about football could be expanded beyond that even. We could also write profiles of famous retired football players (likeTroy Aikman or Tony Dorsett). We could write about fantasy football. In fact, a lot of those subtopics might even generate 1000 page content sites all their own.

Finding affiliate programs to promote on a website about a particular sport is simplicity itself too. I already pointed out posters as one possibly applicable revenue stream. Here are some more ideas, off the top of my head:

Google Adsense
Ticket broker affiliate programs
Travel affiliate programs (Hotel rooms during the Superbowl are insanely priced - I'll take 5% of that action any day.)
Sports memorabilia affiliate programs

But what if you don't want to write about a sport? What if you want to launch a real moneymaker of a site? Suppose you want to focus on products?

1000 pages about satellite tv

Heck, that's even easier. Take the satellite tv dish niche as an example. How do you get 1000 pages of content out of that?

As far as I'm concerned, that one is even easier. Two words.

Go local.

Build pages that focus around the names of locations + "cable tv" or "satellite tv". There are 50 states in the USA. That leaves you with 950 pages to come up with.

Luckily each state has at least 19 cities in it you could write about. (There are actually a lot more than that.) Now you've got your 1000 pages.

But you can't write quality unique content about satellite dishes in 1000 different locations? Actually, I think you probably can with a little bit of effort. First of all, you provide directory listings with the names and addresses of the local cable companies in the area. Then you provide a price and feature comparison that you've researched for each location. Sometimes the cable company might be providing a better deal than the satellite dish people, but at least you're driving traffic. And if you use a combination of Google Adsense and affiliate advertising, you'll still make money. Finally, provide some insight into what kind of local television programming is available in a particular area. The top 20 or so cities in each state surely offer programming aimed directly at the viewers in their area.

What are you interested in?

If you're one of those blessed souls who wants to create a website about a subject just because you're interested in it, you can still come up with 1000 pages. Suppose you're a huge fan of the tv show Lost. Can you come up with 1000 pages of content about that show? I can.

A page about every character ever featured on the show.
A page about every actor who ever appeared on the show.
A page about every writer who ever wrote for the show.
A page about every episode of the show.
A page about every novel based on the show.
A page about the video game based on the tv show.
Reviews of other sites about Lost.
Pages about the special features and commentaries on the DVD.

Like Conan the Barbarian? Use the same thing - write a page about everything related to it. Harry Potter? Go for it. Buffy? It's been done, but maybe you can do it better.

Movies

Writing 1000 pages of content for a website about movies would be so easy that it would be almost painful. Just review every movie you've ever seen. Write profiles of directors and screenwriters you like. Build a directory of movie theaters organized by location. Visit them and write unique reviews. Ask your readers to submit their reviews of movie theaters they've visited.

You can monetize your movie site with Amazon links, eBay links, Netflix links, Blockbuster links, and AllPosters links.

How to find the time to write 1000 pages of content

Finding the time to write 1000 pages of content is the easiest part of the whole exercise. All you need is one of two things:

A year
Help

If you're willing to work on a site for a year, then you only need to write 4 pages of content 5 days a week for 50 weeks in order to have 1000 pages of content on your site. If you plan on having about 500 words per page, that's an achievable goal.

The other option is to get help writing your site content. You can do that by paying a writer. College students work cheap, and they produce better writing than the folks at Elance. Or you can get people to help write your content free by launching a forum. Every page of content on a forum counts too.

Whether or not your site needs 1000 pages of content is for you to decide. None of my sites have 1000 pages yet. But I think that 1000 pages is a worthwhile goal. I know it's a profitable goal, although it's more profitable in some niches than in others.

Domaining

Randy Ray — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:01:00 -0700

"Domaining" means buying and selling domains for profit. It's only tangentially related to affiliate marketing in some instances, but in other instances it's extremely pertinent. For example, if I buy a great domain name , I have a couple of options. I can try to sell the domain for a profit over what I paid for it, or I can develop it into a money-earning site via affiliate links or other paid advertising. A third option is to develop the domain into a moneymaker and then sell the domain and the moneymaking website. The third option makes the most sense to me.

I think that the traditional use of the phrase "domaining" usually only brings to mind that first option though. Buy a good domain for less than you can sell it for, and then sell it and make a profit from it. And that's not a bad business model. For example, let's say I register a domain name for the registration fee of $8.95 at Godaddy. And then let's say in 6 months, I turn it around and sell that domain for $500. I've made a $491 profit. That's a huge return on my money in that case. You can't get those kinds of returns in the stock market unless you're really tolerant of risk. And lucky.

But what about the other option? Suppose I launch a 2 or 3 page website, and I get 30 visitors a month to the site. (A combination of 15 type-in visitors and 15 visitors from search engines.) And let's say I'm working in a high dollar industry where I can earn $1 for every visitor to my site. That makes me $30 a month, or $360 a year...for the rest of my life probably. I'm 38, so assuming I last another 30 years, that's $10,800. That's not much over 30 years.

But it's a lot more than $491.

But let's say I work a little harder. Let's say that I write 1000 pages of content for the site, and I still make $1 per visitor. I like to assume that if I have a 1000 page website, I'll get at least 1000 visitors a day. Now that domain name I bought is earning me $30,000 a month for the rest of my life. That's a little over ten million dollars over the course of my life. That's a significant amount of money, even if it takes me a year to get that much content launched on my site.

Most websites though don't make $1 per visitor. A more realistic number might be 10 cents per visitor. (Higher in a competitive industry, but anyone ought to be able to make 10 cents per visitor to their website, I think.) That's still a million dollars over the next 30 years.

How many domains do you need to make that happen? How hard is it to launch and develop those domains with content?

My ideas about domains and domaining come from several places, but the person who got me most interested in domain was Andy Hagans in some of his posts at Tropical SEO. The man makes money the way I want to make money; without working hard at it. He also gave me the idea of taking these high quality domains and turning them into high quality money-earning websites that are worth far more than the domain would be worth by itself.

A couple of other items worth reading regarding domaining:

Speaking of domains, I just picked up a domain about slot machines. I plan to spend some time developing that one into a real powerhouse of a site loaded with useful content. I've already launched a great page there listing 51 slot machine websites, and more content is on the way.

Poker SEO Blog

Randy Ray — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:24:00 -0800

I'm not updating much here lately any more, but if you enjoy the stuff you're reading here, I'd encourage you to visit my new site about poker seo, especially the poker SEO blog there. I'm updating that blog daily Monday through Friday. I'll probably resume posting here on a weekly basis starting next week sometime.

Fifteen Years and Counting

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:40:54 -0700

Ever heard of Hotwired.com? Do you recall navigating a Time Inc. site called Pathfinder? Remember a company called MCI?

If any of those things ring a bell, then you might look back fondly on October 27, 1994. That’s when the first…

Books and e-Books: Who’s The Biggest Loser?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:22:30 -0700

On the face of it, developments in digital publishing have signaled a decisive victory for aspiring and professional authors in recent months, judging by recent announcements:

Amazon recently declared that it’s Kindle e-book reader was its overall bestseller by number of…

“Pay-what-you-want” Drives 57,000 Game Sales in a Week

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:34:03 -0800

In a win for micropayments, World of Goo, a top 10 PC game for January this year and popular seller on WiiWare, the Wii game store, was sold in an experiment to see what people would pay for their popular…

Time to Take Mobile Advertising Seriously

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:06:12 -0800

There was a time when “mobile advertising” consisted of downloading cool ringtones or texting votes for American Idol contestants.

That was before smartphones came along. Blackberry brought in the era of hand-held email, particularly for business users. But Apple’s iPhone has…

Social Media: At the Tipping Point

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:20:14 -0800

Long before Malcolm Gladwell’s extraordinary best-selling book The Tipping Point, there was Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm, published almost twenty years ago, and his follow-up book, Inside the Tornado. Moore talked about the flash point at which a technology product…

Importance of Networking to Your Bottom Line

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:18:25 -0800

I thought about the events that led up to these sales, and if it weren't for networking, none of them would have occurred. While this article is not a discussion on "the art of networking", it is a discussion on the importance of networking.

Listen to What the Consumer Wants

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:03:04 -0800

I’ve periodically written about the plight of print publishers and their reluctant move to the digital world. One of the looming issues for these publishers when they make the transition to online content is how to get consumers to pay…

Virtual Goods, Offers, and Scams: Part 1

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:50:24 -0800

There’s been alot of hype and debate around the concepts of virtual goods and offers due to a few high flying companies which have been media darlings. The highest profile company in question is Zynga, athough other social gaming sites…

5 Online Video Ideas for Businesses

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:59:42 -0800

Integrating video to your online content strategy offers a number of benefits ranging from increased conversions to reputation management. The question for businesses, however, is whether to divert resources from standard marketing activities with a proven ROI to potentially costly multimedia…

Affiliate Marketing Research Provides Benchmarks for 2009

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:50:00 -0800

Successful marketing is built around accurate forecasting and benchmarking. In an industry like the affiliate industry which is not known for transparency, getting numbers to help you set accurate benchmarks is difficult. There are however resources that can help including:…

sell megaupload account lifetimes

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:44:20 -0800

i have megaupload account to sell for 100$
smovox@gmail.com

Has this ever happened to you? Suspended adwords?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:52:46 -0800

Guys I really need some help...:1zhelp:.

I deposited $500 on oct 7th to my adwords account. I wanted to start a campaign on say my adwords account 000-000-0001. Well, my account got frozen. Im like wtf? So I e-mail google assuming its just my ads wont run. Well, I get an e-mail back and they are telling me that in JULY on like the 21st and 22nd or some garbage that I "did a chargeback". Well folks, heres the problem. I have NEVER EVER done a chargeback. PERIOD. FOR ANYTHING. This is not facking possible!

I'm getting fucked by google. I never did a chargeback. All they will do is give me an account number say 300-300-3001 saying this is the account associated with the chargebacks. This isn't even fucking CLOSE.....

I really need some help on what I can do. When I e-mail them all I get back in a stupid fucking email from some guy nameed bikngbwag telling me the EXACT same thing in every fucking e-mail. I am getting no help. They are telling me i've done a chargeback when I never have!

What do I do???????????? This is going on week 2 of communication and i've got nowhere. They wont even give me an e-mail associated with this supposed "Account" of mine. All they do is to write them a check for $1,000+ to google inc? Are they high? Why would I send them a PENNY for something I haven't done?

-Highper

Quality dedicated content writer for hire (Just $799/mo.)

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:20:49 -0800

Yep, that's right.
First, before getting into the pricing details, here's a sample of what quality you can expect:
Search Engine Placement Services Mumbai|SEO Company India|SEO Promotion

Pricing: $799/mo.

You can expect 4-5k words a day, but this may differ on the kind of content he's writing.

PM me if you have any questions.

honolulu meetup?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:27:46 -0800

anyone in affiliate marketing in Honolulu besides TylerDurden? it would be cool to have a meetup sometime.

LP Service offering Free LP for a Review..

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:28:55 -0800

PLEASE NOTE THE SERVICE WILL NOT BE ACTIVE UNTIL REVIEWED.

Hi Guys,

Need an LP? I am more than happy to do a FREE LP for any mod/respected member of this forum for a review of my service. Only then would I want to be actively seeking customers on here.

I am offering a Custom Landing Page creation service. Basically you show me a site and I will make you a nice LP for it. I would just need your text and if you have some images you would like used, then those too.

Once the service is up and running I was thinking the cost will be $175 per LP with a 48 hour turn around and a max page length of 3,000 pixels (this isnt set in stone though). I will only be taking on one customer at a time this way I can give you full attention. I am literally on the computer every day as I do affiliate marketing, so communication is not an issue. For me, doing graphics and sites is something I enjoy doing and will help fill some gaps in my day.

As many of you know.. a sick landing page means big conversions and that mean's big bucks. I think $175 is more than cheap for a good one. Remember that having a LP that isn't the same as everyone else is a huge key to success.

Regards,
HiGhPeR

Analytics Reporting Paid VS Organic?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:29:52 -0800

I'm pushing paid traffic to my site but Google Analytics is reporting these clicks as organic search hits (I'm running everything through Prosper202).

My question is this: how do I setup tracking on my sites to effectively tell the difference between paid and search traffic?

Thanks

Z

How does MSN's concept of a quality score work?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:31:46 -0800

I mean what do they even rank? Are they on par with google, where they will actually parse your landing page and make sure that's relevant too? Or are they still a step behind and are only checking to see if keywords are in the ad itself? Any other tips on MSN's quality score, or can I just pretty much read the resources that are about google's algorithm and apply them to msn?

Will double meta refresh solve my issue?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:24:46 -0800

I want to run a simple zip submit on facebook but the network doesnt allow social traffic. If I use a double meta refresh, what are the chances they'll figure out I'm running it on FB?

StreemMaster Intro

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:36:49 -0800

Just wanted to introduce ourselves to the community.

We sell douche bags to primarily gay market. We're the world's biggest and best rectal cleanser and proud to be educating on the benefits of good personal hygiene.

Our affiliate program will be online and ready in a week's time and we're looking forward to working with all the degenerates on Wicked Fire.

Currently we sell 3 products:
1. StreemMaster Douche that attached to shower (No Competition)
2. Bulb Style Mini Douche (Kills the competition)
3. Leg Sling (Can be taken apart and set back up quickly)

We don't charge for shipping on orders over $65.00 and items our shipped out of our NY warehouse within a day.

This is what were thinking

Compensation:

20% on conversions.
Paid via Paypal
Paid every Friday. 9:00 am cutoff.

Software:

Post Affiliate Pro 4 working with our Magento Shopping Cart

Looking for some feedback if possible. Looking forward to speaking with everyone.

Talk soon!

The Fucking Douche Bags

Don't Click This

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:48:07 -0800

LOL :banana_sml: Someone actually made a petition to close down the monies :D

Close Down Makemoniesonline.com - Petition Spot

Brand New Original Unlocked Blackberry Bold 9700 Available At 300Usd

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:08:09 -0800

we sell Brand New Electronics with all their accessories complete and also our products comes with 1 years international warranty and also with 2 months return policy.

Our phones are imported from Finland,Hungary and Singapore; they are factory sealed with original packets and with complete accessory, e.g.charger, extra battery and software c d. The phones are sim free and it's never lock to any network, specification: (europeans/usa-specifications) general network gsm 900/gsm 1800/gsm 1900 platform - tri band (gsm900 + 1800 + 1900 MHz: country of manufactured origin: Finland,Hungary and Singapore.

So also our Company's Aim in business is to make a very strong and steady business relationship with our buyers and also we will like you to know that our company build bridges for our customers and we will await your inquiry just only from real and serious buyers.

For more information regarding product and purchasing process send your enquiry to

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Apple Iphone 3G S 32GB.....$250usd
Apple iPhone 3G (16GB) .. $200
Apple iPhone 4GB -----------$150
Apple iPhone 8GB ------------$200
Apple iphone 16GB------------$220
Apple iPod touch 16 GB Digital player - 16 GB flash----$200
Dopod 838 Pro -------------------------$200USD

New Nokia N900......$280usd
Nokia N97 32GB.......$250usd
Nokia N96 16GB ......$200usd
Nokia N95 8gb...................$200
Nokia N96 8gb..................$300
Nokia N97 32GB................$350
Nokia 5800 Xpress Music........$200
Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition...$300
Nokia 6760 slide................$300
Nokia 3720 classic..............$250
Nokia 6790 Surge................$300

Samsung i8910..............$270
Samsung Omnia i900.........$250
Samsung Q1 Ultra...........$250
Samsung T559 Comeback......$250
Samsung S3100..............$250
Samsung A887 Solstice......$300
SamsungB7610 OmniaPRO......$300
SamsungB7610 Omnia2........$300
SamsungT469 Gravity2.......$300
Samsung S9110..............$250
Samsung A177...............$250
Samsung S5600v Blade.......$300

HTC G1......................$200
HTC Tilt2.........$300
HTC Pure.........$300
HTC HD2.......$300
HTC Tattoo....$250
HTC Touch2....$250
HTC Hero......$250
HTC Touch Pro2..$250
HTC Dream.......$250
HTC Magic......$250
HTC Ozone.......$250
HTC Snap..........$250
HTC Touch Diamond.....$200
HTC Touch Pro...............$250

Blackberry Bold 9000 .......$300
BlackBerry Storm 2 9550...$280
BlackBerry Storm 2 9520...$280
BlackBerry Tour 9630.......$270
Blackberry storm 9530......$270
Blackberry storm 9500......$260
Blackberry Gemini 9300.....$250
Blackberry Bold 9000.......$200
Blackberry curve 8900......$250
Blackberry curve 8520.....$240

New Sony Ericson IDOU........$300
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1.........$200
Sony Ericsson Jalou..............$300
Sony Ericsson C901 GreenHeart....$250
Sony Ericsson Jalou D&G edition..$230
Sony Ericsson S312...............$200
Sony Ericsson Yari...............$200

T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009....$250
T-Mobile Sidekick...................$200
T-Mobile Sidekick Slide..........$200
T-Mobile Sidekick LX.............$200
T-Mobile Sidekick 3.................$150
T-Mobile Dash 3G...................$150
T-Mobile Pulse......................$200
T-Mobile G2 Touch.................$200
T-Mobile myTouch 3G..............$200

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ETEN glofiish X610...210usd
ETEN glofiish V900...2500usd
ETEN glofiish X900...205usd
ETEN glofiish DX900...210usd
ETEN glofiish M750...200usd
ETEN glofiish M810...170usd
ETEN 500 Glofiish...160usd
ETEN M700 Glofiish 2...195usd
ETEN M600...135usd
ETEN G500...110usd
ETEN 800 Glofiish..200usd
ETEN glofiish X500 180usd

ipod nano 4gb..................$150
video ipod 20gb ...............$170
VIDEO IPOD 30GB ...............$200
VIDEO IPOD 60GB ...............$200
VIDEO IPOD 80GB ...............$200

Sony PlayStation 3 60GB Game console......$200
Sony PlayStation 3 80GB Game console......$250
Sony PlayStation 3 160GB Game console.....$300
Nintendo Wii...........................................$200
Xbox 360 Pro System Game console.............$200

Pioneer DJM-400 Mixer .....$400
Pioneer DJM-800 Mixer......$700
Pioneer DJM-1000 Mixer....$1200
Pioneer DJM-600 mixer.....$600
Pioneer DJM-600K mixer....$500
Pioneer DJM-500 mixer.....$450
Pioneer DJM-300 mixer....$350
Pioneer DJM-3000 mixer...$500
Pioneer DJM-707 mixer....$400
Pioneer DJM-909 mixer....$700
Pioneer EFX-500 mixer....$350
Pioneer CDJ-1000 MK3....$600
Pioneer CDJ-1000MK2.....$450

Pioneer DVJ-X1 DVD ........$700
Pioneer DVJ-1000 Professional CD/DVD Turntable.....$1500
Pioneer EFX-500 mixer....$350
Pioneer EFX-1000 Professional Performance Effector...$700
Pioneer CDJ-1000 MK3....$600
Pioneer CDJ-1000MK2.....$450
Pioneer CDJ-900 Tabletop Multi Player...$700
Pioneer CDJ-800 MK2 Digital Vinyl Turntable....$400
Pioneer CDJ-400 Tabletop CD/MP3 Player.............$400
Pioneer CDJ-200 Tabletop CD/MP3 Player..............$300
Pioneer CDJ-2000 Professional Multiplayer...............$1000
Pioneer CMX-3000 Tabletop CD/MP3 Playe............$600

Prices All of our products are brand new, never used, never rebuilt. We maintain multiple-supplier sources for our products as a means of being able to continually offer the best products at the best prices. Contact us for further information about warranty process.

Return Policy:
You may return the item within ten (30) days of delivery of the order.Products with Manufacturer Warranties which exceed 30 days, may be returned directly to the manufacturer according to their instructions. Customer may request a replacement product otherwise company credit will be issued.A rest rocking fee maybe applied to your return

We look forward in placing your order with us and giving you the most competent services as we are using this medium to look for buyers of various electronics product we stock.

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Email Address:: Handymobilephonescity at yahoo.com

PirateHooker SEO: Blog commenting on PR 3+. Come Get a Taste.

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:48:30 -0800

Back in the old days there was SEO. Then one evening, in between her chores of churning butter and having a baby Mary Claire Roosevelt created what today is known as SE0. SE1 and SE2 soon followed and took the internet world by storm. As we all know, just recently NINJA SEO took over and the results are amazing. Well now the new wave is here. Introducing PirateHooker SEO!!!

What is PirateHooker SEO you ask? Good question. You will need to learn this if you want to keep earning enough money to keep your house. Unfortunatly, I cannot share with you all of the secrets of PirateHooker SEO. PirateHooker SEO is bigger than the Beetles, and giving away all the secrets for free wouldn't make sense.

However, hiring the swashbuckler to deliver 10 blog comments on PR3+ websites is a part of PirateHooker SEO. And that I can deliver.

But swashbuckler, you fucking dolt. There's nothing special about that. There are other douche's on this forum offering blog commenting.

You are correct sir's and madam's. However, there are 2 big differences why the swashbuckler's package is worth more than a wet fart.

1. every link produced in the swashbuckler SEO package will be on blogs related to your niche (so that you get the full value of the link), AND/OR they will be on blogs that your competitors are already linking to (taking away the high valued link advantages your top competitors have over you).

2. Do you speak Hindi? No, I don't. Do you speak Filipino? No, no I don't. I speak one language...English. And while my lack of range or education in languages is nothing to be proud of, it serves well here. Your posts will be on relevant blogs to your niche, or blogs linked to by your competitors. They will not be "nice post" or gibberish. They will be relevant, they will be coherent English, and they will stick (30 day guarantee).

3. Links will be on blogs with some link juice left, and the swashbuckler will use different accounts for each comment (if that's an issue).

Questions
I need, need, need to get my PirateHooker SEO started. How much do I have to pay for this awesome service?
$30 (price may change up or down over time depending on demand)

How long does it take?
Work will be done within 7 days (usually within 48 hours)...but the swashbuckler doesn't like being rushed so he goes by the underpromise and overdeliver method. There is only so much time in the day between drinking swill and stooping the wenches.

swashbuckler, you have no posts, and no cred...why would I buy anything from you?

Good point. I'll offer 2 free reviews to mods, or respected members (with those pretty orange dots), and 300+ posts.

To place an order, I will need the correct url, and the keywords you want to target...pm me

Note: Open to discussing PR 4+, PR 5+ and PR 6+ options - pricing customized to each niche and the availability of relevant links.

Come get some. arrrrrgh!!!

Verified and unverified hotmail for sale

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:10:44 -0800

Service:

We are selling verified and unverified hotmail account in very good price with real name looking.

Rate:

unverified:- $10 per 1k

verified:- $15 per k

Payment:

We take only paypal payment.

Memorize the Quaran in case you're held hostage by Muslim terrorists?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:14:48 -0800

With terrorism ( pepertrated by Muslim extremists ) so prevalent today, it might do you a little good studying their 'Holy Bible' called the Quaran. so in the event you're held hostage by Muslim terrorists, you could ask to be pardoned just by reciting a few passage from the Quaran. i'm not bullshitting, remember the mumbai terror attacks last year? Apparently, one couple did what i told you and their lives were sparred. :costumed-smiley-087

Software!!!

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:23:17 -0800

I'm a very experienced programmer, i've worked on sites such as elance.com, rentacoder.com, etc..etc..

I make good money doing this, but what i really want is a BIG project, with REAL long term income potential.

If you have the idea and the market. Hook up with me and we can make a killing. I write the software, you market it.

Let me know!

First Droid Video. My Kids are Going to Kill Me…

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:59:14 -0800

Several people have asked me about the camera and video quality on the droid phone.

I haven’t done that much with either, but we did manage an impromtu video session last night.

Here’s my three year old son Alex who appears to be doing Gilly (from SNL) doing Riverdance. I don’t know why he decided to dance, but hey, that’s what kids do.

Is it better than the iPhone 3GS? I think maybe not. I need to do some more testing, but I feel like the quality has been better on the iPhone videos I’ve taken of my kids. Granted, maybe some quality got lost in the upload to YouTube. And the light was pretty bad.

The camera app does have a share feature that allows me to send the video directly to YouTube very easily.

Large videos require a WiFi connection, but the phone will wait patiently for a connection and upload it when it gets one.

The jury is out. I think a side-by-side test is in order.

Don’t tell Alex.

Post from: Jangro.com

First Droid Video. My Kids are Going to Kill Me…

Color Wheel in Samsung HLS5086

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:15:10 -0800

Brent writes…

How do I replace the color wheel in my samsung hls5086?

There are a few different models of the HLS5086:

HLS5086W
HLS5086WX
HLS5086WX/XAA
HLS5086WXXAC

The bp96-01579a color wheel does appear to be the correct model number for your set, and while I don’t have specific instructions, based on comments, at least one person has successfully done it following the instructions here: Samsung Color Wheel.

If I were you, I’d arm myself with those instructions, a digital camera, and some masking tape and a pen (to label wires) and start taking the set apart. Follow the light path from the lamp to locate the color wheel and from there you can work on freeing the bad one.

Reverse the steps to install the new one and you’ll be on your way.

Did you do this?

Let me know how it went, and if you document the process for your specific television model and provide it to me with pictures, there’s a $50 Amazon gift-card waiting for you if I publish it here on Jangro.com.

Post from: Jangro.com

Color Wheel in Samsung HLS5086

Top Ten Things I Miss From the iPhone

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:26:07 -0800

I’ve been using the Droid for almost a week now, and while amazing, it does make me appreciate some of the things we have going on with the iPhone.

Multi-touch – I still find myself trying to zoom in on the browser with a reverse pinch. The Android browser is perfectly usable with it’s double tab zoom, but the pinch wins. Unfortunately, Apple has a patent application in on that which may be preventing others from implementing it.

Byline – I use Google Reader to keep up on feeds, and the Byline iPhone app is an amazing iPhone front-end to Google reader. I like it better than Google Reader. There are some Android apps that uses Google Reader, but nothing blows me away. What kills me is that this is Google’s OS. How can they not have a GReader app built in, or at least available.

The home button – There’s something natural about hitting that big round button on the iPhone. I can use the phone in the dark. My three year old can use it. The Droid has four “buttons” on the bottom that are just touch-screen buttons, nothing tactile to center you without looking or fumbling.

Facebook App – The facebook app on the iPhone is better than Facebook itself. The Facebook app on Android seems like an afterthought they threw at Zuckerberg’s 14 year old nephew to pull together in case this Android thing takes off.

Prowl and Boxcar – Boxcar is a great app that implements push notifications for Twitter and Facebook. Thankfully, Android apps can run in the background and can take care of their own notifications, and the twitter apps do notify on mentions, etc. I guess it’s just the Facebook notifications that I miss. Prowl will push Growl alerts from your desktop to your iPhone. It isn’t immediately obvious why that’s so great and you sort of need to figure this one out for yourself, so give it a try.

Ember – At my company, we LIVE in Basecamp and Campfire. Mostly Campfire. Ember is a kick-ass iPhone app for Campfire. No such app exists on Android yet. WHAT???

Audio books – Audible doesn’t support Android yet. boo.

Kindle – Amazon hasn’t build an Android Kindle app yet. boo.

Tweetie – There are plenty of Twitter apps on Android, but nothing comes close to Tweetie. I heart Tweetie.

the iPhone itself – when I go back to using the iPhone, especially after using something else for a few days, it is just so usable. The form factor, the buttons, the software interface, all of it. Amazing.

Now before you get all over my shit for comparing the iPhone and the Droid, let me say that there are at least ten things that I’d miss in the other direction. Much more significant and important things. But that’s for another post.

Have you switched from iPhone to Droid? What do you miss?

Post from: Jangro.com

Top Ten Things I Miss From the iPhone

Samsung DLP Vertical Lines

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:21:28 -0800

Joseph writes…

I was doing some research and had a question about my Samsung HD DLP 50″ TV. Model#HL-R5067-W. We were getting green and purple vertical lines on the TV at first.

Then our HD channels came in great but other stations were not coming in. We are under warranty and had a repair man out. He thinks it is the DMD card. The TV has since stopped working. The power comes on and the lamp tries to light up but is real dim with no picture. Then it shuts off.

The warranty people called back and told us they want to exchange our Tv than fix it.

Is this right? I know DLP are on the outs. Would it cost more to fix it that to replace it for a new one? What do you think?

First, I’d say if someone wants to replace your television rather than fix it, I’d strongly consider taking the replacement. Assuming this television is not available any more, you’ll get newer technology, and a fresh warranty. With parts and labor, this could easily run up toward replacement costs.

And if they do replace it, it is unlikely they’re not going to take your old one…which you can fix yourself if you’re so inclined.

That brings me to your issue of the vertical lines and now not working at all. I would agree with the assessment of the repair technician that it’s the DMD board. A new DMD board will run you several hundred dollars, hardly worth it, but a refurbished DMD board can be found for only a few hundred.

Post from: Jangro.com

Samsung DLP Vertical Lines

Droid-Paper-Scissors, How to Easily Fix Your Droid’s Loose Battery Cover

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:55:57 -0800

My Motorola Droid phone has a problem. The battery cover is too loose. The combination of a loose cover, rubberized backing on the phone, and my pocket means the cover frequently falls off.

I’ve seen a number of discussions in Droid forums about this, so I know I’m not alone.

Here’s a very simple solution that I’m using on my own Moto Droid. The cover hasn’t fallen off since.

And a little scotch tape makes it “permanent”…

UPDATE: Motorola will send you a replacement Droid battery cover.

Post from: Jangro.com

Droid-Paper-Scissors, How to Easily Fix Your Droid’s Loose Battery Cover

Droid vs. iPhone Size Comparison

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:25:44 -0800

I’m 7 Days into using both a Droid and iPhone and my eyes are still wide open.

Despite what I hear from people like Michael Arrington that the Droid is the same size of the iPhone, I just don’t feel that’s the case.

So for the first time today, I really took a good look at the Droid side by side with the iPhone.

Here are two views that are pretty telling.

The length and width dimensions on the phones are nearly identical as you can see from the red lines in the following picture.

The rounded corners on the iPhone do take away from some of the heft and give it a much smoother and smaller feel.

The screen on the Droid is a bit longer than the iPhone screen (yellow lines) but the iPhone screen is wider by about the same amount. This picture is not an accurate view of the screen width since it is not a straight-down shot.

The top phone is an iPhone 3Gs with a Crown case on it.
The middle is the Droid (obviously) and the bottom phone is an iPhone 3G.

More than the width and height, I think the end-view is the most interesting, and illustrative of why the iPhone feels and looks so much smaller.

Again, left to right, iPhone 3G, Droid, iPhone 3GS with Crown case.

Not only is Droid about 25% thicker than the iPhone, the rounded sides give the phone a MUCH thinner feel. So even though the iPhone is fat in the middle, it feels and appears thinner even than it really is.

Even with the Crown case on the 3GS that makes them nearly the same thickness, it still feels much smaller with the rounded edges.

This is a technique Apple used very effectively on the MacBook Air.

I hope Motorola and the other Android Smartphone manufacturers can learn something from the Apple designers.

Because I absolutely love the Android 2.0 Operating System. The phone itself is nice, but it’s got a lot of room for improvement.

Post from: Jangro.com

Droid vs. iPhone Size Comparison

Samsung DLP HL-P5063W Color Wheel User Feedback

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:22:28 -0800

If you’re an owner of a Samsung DLP HL-P5063W and are having problems with your color wheel, you’re not alone.

For detailed information on replacing your own color wheel, see this post: How to Replace your Samsung color wheel.

Be sure to check out the information from other users below from this sampling of the comments that I’ve received here on Jangro.com from other users who have had color wheel problems with their HLP5063W.

The common elements appear to be as follows:

There are two possible color wheels for this television model, depending on the Chassis Number. Look at the label on the right side of the set for the Version #.
- Version# PW01 or blank: L3 chassis, requires color wheel is BP96-00674A (most common)
- Version# PU02: L6 chassis, requires color wheel #BP96-01103A
Many owners have problems with the colors after replacing their wheel. Be sure to look on the new wheel to see if it suggests changing any of the television’s settings.
Most users have been successful following the directions on this post for replacing your Samsung color wheel, which is for a different model
To resolve a problem with reversed colors, some owners need to remove a small “jumper” as depicted here The jumper is actually a small plastic clip that is inside that small square hole that the arrow is pointing to. (A “jumper” in this case is not a wire). Using pliers or tweezers, pull the jumper off of the two metal pins that it is seated on.
Some users have also reported configuration settings included with the new wheel that requires a change in the service menu.

While many people have been successful with this repair, it can also go poorly. In my experience, this is generally due to people not putting all the connections back properly.

Feedback from other Owners

The following feedback is from other Samsung HLP5036W owners who have described their own color wheel problems, and stories in replacing it.

Most comments come from this post: replacing your Samsung color wheel.

Brad Sep 12, 2006	I have a Samsung DLP HL-P5063W TV and called the Best Buy technician out to fix the color wheel (making the same noise described above). The technician came out, put the new color wheel in and thought it was defective as the color was off on the TV. The technician played with some (factory I believe) color settings and couldn’t seem to fix it. He replaced the old color wheel. The issue is that when he replaced the old color wheel the issue with the color was still there (and had not been present before he started). My HD television channels have perfect color but my non-HD channels are tinted in such a way that skin tone is a purple-ish color. I had them out a month later and they replaced the entire color wheel (chassis?) and the color problem has now persisted and I am at this moment in a battle with Best Buy to either replace the TV or find a technician that can fix my problem. In a nutshell I am convinced now that the original tech somehow messed up color settings I can not get to (or don’t know how). The color problem was not there before the initial visit and the subsequent technicians only seem to know how to take parts out and put a new part in (none of which have fixed it). I have tried playing with all the color settings the manual speaks of and have not fixed the issue. Has anyone seen or heard anything like this and does anyone have a potential fix for it? Are there color settings that are not in the Manual that the original tech could have screwed with? And why is it just the normal channels and not effecting the HD channels? I am completely stumped.
Dave Nov 14, 2006	I have the Samsung DLP HL-P5063W also. My “buzzsaw” sound starts when we turn on, but sometimes doesn’t make any noise at all. When it does, it lasts for hours; when we turn off, picture goes black, and the sound continues for 3-4 seconds and gradually fades away (loud to low to no sound…like a table saw shutting down). So I am concerned that it may not be the color wheel as some have described. What do you think?…and by the way, thank you for the great instruction page.
Nick Jan 30, 2007	I have an HLP5063WX/XAA. I purchased the BP9600250A color wheel and it does not fit. I went on samsungparts.com and they reference BP9600674A for my model TV. When I took the TV apart the color wheel was attached to the cover and appeared to be slightly bigger than the color wheel I purchased. Does anyone have a picture of the color wheel with the part number BP9600674A? I would like to make sure I buy the right one next time.
Ray Aug 19, 2007	Thank you all! Just wanted to let you know that I applied the procedures to my 50″ Samsung (HLP5063WX)successfully. It all started with a shrieking noise. I opened up the set and tested the fans, then found this site and ended up changing the color wheel. I had to remove the jumper as mentioned by others here to get the color right. Also, adjusted the CCA per the note included with the new color wheel (mute 182 power, cca, and then used the arrows to change the numbers). While I had the TV open, I rotated the lens to focus the image. Normally, you shouldn’t need to do this but my lens was dirty and had to remove and clean it. Hence, had to also refocus the lens. What I did there was remove the shroud around the lens and turned the TV off, adjusted the lens, turned the TV back on, and looked at the “info” text, until I got it right.
David B Jun 30, 2007	Well, I joined the club today too. I have the HLP5063WX/XAA. As ridonkulous as the instructions are on this site, I found they didn’t translate too well to my particular machine. However, being both brave and ignorant, I pushed forward. Took off all the back screws, took off the back cover of the unit, then took out the screws for the “retaining ring”. Once the ring came off, the input module (left hand side) and optical module (righthand side) unseated and were movable. Removed the bulb and set aside. I had to unplug ONLY the blue/brown power cable and the DVI transfer cable from the input module. Once the optical module was loose, I slowly creeped it out, removed a black plastic housing which covers the color wheel, then removed the color wheel itself. The operation was a little clumsy. At more than one point, I was looking at my machine, in pieces, and was wondering why I had gotten myself into this mess. Anyway the screws were dang tight holding in the wheel, so bear down. I carefully pried out the white/blue wire (great success) and yanked the copper ribbon cable. Replaced, reassembled and away I went. I had only unplugged two things, so plugging back in was a snap. Turned it on and got the stalling/3 blinking lights. SON OF A…… Anyway, flipped the copper ribbon around (metal strips are now facing towards the back of the unit), powered on again and PRESTO!! No more buzzsaw!!! MY LIFE BEGINS TODAY!! Anyway, thanks so much for the photos and links and sharing. For now, I am one happy camper.
Gregg Nov 14, 2007	Scott, I have s Samsung HLP5063WX/XAA. I replaced the color wheel with Part Number BP96-00674A. When I turned the TV on the color was quite distorted. Everything looked gray/blue. I am not confident that I have the correct color wheel assemby, since samsungparts.com shows model HLP5063W on the compatability list for this part but it does not include the HLP5063WX/XAA on the compatability list. In fact I cannot find a color wheel for that model. I not sure if my problem is that I have the wrong part, if I did not put everything back together correctly, or if these are color settings on the TV that need to be adjusted. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks. Gregg
Corey Dec 19, 2007	Thank you so much for this guide. I have a HLP5063W. While I couldn’t exactly use your guide as the insides are substantially different. Your bravery gave me the gumption to try it myself. 2.5 hours later I have a new color wheel in a working Sammy!! Thank you!
Cobalt Feb 20, 2008	I called to get an update on my order for a new color wheel for my HLP5063W today (12/19) from the Partstore and they are saying they’re expecting to receive shipments on 1/4/08. Can I trust these guys to speak the truth about the shipment date or are they at the mercy of the manufacturer? My cw made a shattering sound, like when you heave a beer bottle at the fireplace after Game 4 of the World Series. Anyway, I plan on doing the repair job myself, maybe I’ll get ahold of Jakey for some safety tips! Cobalt
Mark Feb 7, 2008	Just finished the color wheel swap on my HLP5063W. The layout of the chassis is a little bit different, but this helped greatly. I did have to remove the jumper. You will know this when the screen color is blue and pink/orange. It is real small and you need needle nose pliers (tiny) to get at it. One thing to note that I hadn’t read above……if you test the TV before putting the panel back on, you will get no picture and a flashing “lamp” light. There is a small switch in the back near the lamp that is tripped when the panel is off. Took me 20 mins to figure that one out!
jeff Mar 27, 2008	I have a Samsung HL-P5063W that will no longer turn on the lamp at all. All I get when I try to power up is the fan cycle 3-4 times and then the three blinking lights of doom. From reading the blog sounds like a couple of cases where the color wheel failed, but I haven’t had any of the “banshee wailing” ever from my tv. I want to figure out what the problem is, but not sure what to look at. -no banshee -lamp doesn’t turn on (have replacement, no luck) -didn’t have any freeze-up with picture Any advice or help is welcome, Thanks, jeff
Russ Mar 1, 2008	I could just copy and paste Mark’s post as well as many others. Although mine is the Samsung HLP5063W. Shattered Color Wheel, went through the process of replacing CW, the lamp and eventually the ballast with no luck. It turns on and off three times with only sound and then all lights flash in front. With everyone having the same symptoms it seems like there should be a common solution. PLEASE…if anyone has fixed this problem please post the fix!!! Many folks would be eternally grateful.
George Apr 29, 2008	Help!!!! I’ve replaced my color wheel on my samsung HLP5063W DLP television and now my red and blue colors are reversed. I’m haven’t had any success with un-plugging a jumper. Are there anyother suggestions.
Caleb Dec 5, 2008	After replacing the color wheel on my Samsung HLP5063w (which I did with all your help, thank you) the colors were inverted so I pulled the jumper. The colors went back to normal for the most part but there is still a color issue. The colors are blochy. I don’t really know how to explain it. The dark colors look horrible almost can’t see to dark, and the bright colors almost look to bright. I just need to know how to set the colors back to normal. I have been on the menu, and the service menu going back and forth looking for the perfect picture. Nothing is working the picture is not back to normal. PLease if anyone out there can help me I would really appreciate it.
Alain Dec 6, 2008	My Color wheel also shattered (HLP5063W which was only 3.5 years old!) but haven't ordered the parts online yet – looks like there are 2 versions – guessing the 'gold ball bearing' is old, while mine is silver (air bearing ?) and I don't have the jumper option – my optical board wa replaced a week after I bought it, so I might have gotten the newer parts, which still failed ! R&J, where did you order your part from ? most seem to show the old part, and partStore.com cant tell me if they have it (and have bad reviews online) – and was yours gold bearing or silver ?
Bill Oct 31, 2008	12/08-My HL-P5063W color wheel shattered after 3 years. Thanks for the great directions. It took me 2 hours but I was being extra careful and taking notes. Turned it on and what a great picture. No adjustments necessary.
Lance Aug 2, 2008	This tutorial gave me enough strength to fix the color wheel of my own HLP5063W! I hope I cold come up with my very own tutorial for that model…
John G Jun 21, 2008	Hi Scott, These are excellent instructions and I replaced my color wheel on my Samsung HL-P5063W easily. However, after I did so, the color depth was way off. Mid range colors are fine. However, bright colors and dark colors looks “solarized”. (i.e. what should be a smoothe transition of color starts to looks splotchy.) It’s like trying to display a 64million color image in 256 colors. But it’s only the lights and the shadows. I’m guessing that maybe there’s some setting in the service menu to compensate, but I don’t have the first clue how to adjust it. John
Mike Nov 17, 2008	Hello, I just replaced my color wheel & bulb on my HLP5063W and the humming noise is gone. I do have one other problem – the green & blue colors are reversed. I checked all of the settings and even changed the CCD values to the new ones that came with the wheel. I even tried to pull out the jumper as I’ve read online which some people had reversed colors, but that screws up all three colors. Any help would be grateful
Dave Nov 6, 2008	My HLP5063WX/XAA is buzzing off and on and if I whack the back of the tv with my hand a few times it will stock. I think this is probably the fan and not the color wheel. Does anyone have experience with something like this?
John W. Oct 21, 2008	Hey Jangro, Thanks for this website. I've found the photos and comments very helpful – so much so that I actually attempted the repair of my Samsung DLP myself. I have a Samsung model HLP5063W and a few weeks ago it abruptly shut off and I got the dreaded 3BL and I could hear the color wheel spinning fairly loudly. I ordered a color wheel from samsungparts.com (BP96-00674A) and installed it using this website and a video that I found on Youtube. When I turned the TV back on I could no longer hear the color wheel, but I still wasn't seeing any picture (other than a very faint white light in the upper left corner). I decided to order a replacement lamp from discount-merchant.com because I thought that might be the problem. When I installed that the TV still attempts to “boot up” 3 times and then I get the 3BL. Do you (or any of the great readers of this site) have any ideas before I have to go out and spend a bunch of money on a repair guy?
Mel Z. Nov 11, 2008	Hi,I have a question! I replaced the color wheel and the lamp on my samsung HL P5063W. Now I have sound but no video. The lamp blinks for about 30 seconds and then all three lights blink.I cannot turn the TV off with the clicker or the power button.I have to pull the plug to turn it off.I have rechecked my work several times and all seems O.K…Any suggestions? Please help! Thanks, Mel
byldin Dec 27, 2008	Change the color wheel on a HLP5063WX/XAA and it was not difficult. You description, although different, was close enough and the potential issues came in handy. After installing, it did not work. I noticed the ribbon wire was lined up opposite from original as far as contact area. At first I had no picture. I re-installed it making sure the ribbon wire was making contact. One power was restored the picture was orange. After removing the jupper clip as described, the picture was perfect. I cleaned the lense cover which cleaned up the picture clarity. I also replaced the lamp and the picture is better than when I purchased the set. In touble shooting, I found it helpful to lean a srewdrive handle against the safty switch. I could turn on the set both with and without the lamp in place. Without you can view the color wheel running through the light hole. With the lamp I could detect the color switch. Just keep your hands out off the set when testing. Thanks for all the info on your site. Save me hundreds with total parts at less than $250.00. PartStore.com for the color wheel for $113 (free shipping over $75) & Ebay (Discount-MerchantCOM) for the lamp at $141.
MikeMac Oct 17, 2008	Hello I have a question. I have a Samsung HLP5063w and recently replaced the bulb. Tv worked for about a month and now its shutting off again but now has a buzzing sound. I am pretty sure its the color wheel because that is where the sound is coming from with the back off. My question is if the color wheel is bad and wont spin at all or up to speed will that shut the tv down? I can get a picture when I know its spinning and it doesnt when its not. Or is this just a coincidense?
Vivek Aug 6, 2008	Hi, My problem – Samsung HL-P5063W flickering picture and purple/blue/pink picture for some time after turning on. I purchased this TV in August 2004. The lamp was replaced in 2006. Since last year, I’ve been seeing a new problem. After I turn on the TV, the picture is mostly purple/blue/pink in color, and colors flicker for some time, before all the colors come up. I can hear a whirring sound when this color correction happens – sounds as if something came to life (color wheel?). Sometimes I am not so lucky, and the flickering/discoloration does not go away (specially when the TV is switched on a short while after switching it on – even about 1 hour or so later). I opened the TV about 6-8 months back, and located the color wheel assembly, and reseated it and reconnected it’s connectors (thanks to the excellent instructions in your tutorial!). The problem did not go away, but it became much less pronounced (the colors would flicker, but only for about 10-15 seconds). Now the problem is back again, and worse. I tried the color wheel reseating trick again, but no luck. Twice. Does this look like a bad color wheel, or could it be a bad optics board/PCB? When it does work, the colors and picture are perfectly fine. I would like your opinion on this so that I know which direction to take in fixing this issue. thanks! Vivek
Chris Sep 29, 2008	Hi. I have a Samsung HLP5063W. About 3 or 4 months ago I successfully replaced my color wheel because the whining was getting really bad. The only trouble I had was the picture looked strange with the new color wheel until I figured out there was a jumper I had to remove and all was well. The TV worked great…until now. I power on the TV and I get the “three blinking lights” issue (lstandby/temp, timer, lamp) and I get no light from the bulb. I removed the cover and figured it was time to replace the lamp. I purchased the lamp assembly and installed it with no difficulty. But I STILL have the same issue, the TV boots up and makes noise as if it’s coming on but then shuts down to the three blinking lights. I have unplugged it and plugged it back in several times. Any thoughts on what this could be? THANK YOU for any assistance.
Todd Nov 28, 2008	I have an HLP5063W that makes a LOUD humming noise after it has been on for around 25 minutes. The fan seems to working fine. Do you think this is the color wheel?
AA741 Dec 9, 2006	I replaced color wheel of my samsung HLP5063WX/XAA DLP that I bought in 2004. Thankfully, it worked the first time, making me a genious in my circle .
Jeffrey Apr 13, 2007	We have an HLP4663WX/XAA. All the usual bad color wheel symptoms. Read your excellent article, ordered a new color wheel and, although our model differs from yours, were able to map your photos to our hardware. Turned it on, and it appears that red and blue are switched. Replaced the old color wheel, and before it died screeching, the colors were correct. Put the new one back, and colors are bad. Hmm. The new color wheel has the same color segment configuration as the old, but the bearing case is twice as thick, and the wiring attaches at different locations. The new part # is BP96-00674A, which PartStore says is correct, but the box it was in, ordered from Samsung, also says HLP5063WX/XAC, which is not our model. So, is the new wheel just bad, or does it need some calibration? Note, when we look at the Color Weakness menu item, it displays “Red” as the color blue, and “Blue” as the color red, so the wheel seems to be lying to the electronics. Darn!
WillB Jun 24, 2007	Hi all, and thank you for taking the time to post all this helpful info! I have a P5063W and have read some of the responses here and maybe this is a dumb question, but here goes… ~Owned TV for one year ~3BL started, no sound, no picture, just blinking lights on the front panel ~Replaced bulb…no change ~My question is: Color wheel or DMD board or something else. Thanks for any info you might offer!
gary Jun 30, 2007	i have hlp5063w. today message “check fan no 1″ appeared on the screen. after about 2 minutes tv turned off by itself. is it a cooling fan or something else(color wheel)??? help please.
Gregg Aug 5, 2007	Scott, I have s Samsung HLP5063WX/XAA. I replaced the color wheel with Part Number BP96-00674A. When I turned the TV on the color was quite distorted. Everything looked gray/blue. I am not confident that I have the correct color wheel assemby, since samsungparts.com shows model HLP5063W on the compatability list for this part but it does not include the HLP5063WX/XAA on the compatability list. In fact I cannot find a color wheel for that model. I not sure if my problem is that I have the wrong part, if I did not put everything back together correctly, or if these are color settings on the TV that need to be adjusted. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks. Gregg
Hari Oct 21, 2007	I replaced color wheel on Samsung HL-P5063W today successfully. I had to remove the jumper to get the colors right. Then my blacks were off, they were shimmering. Thankfully I read a post from TimP who said that he adjusted IndexDelay on his settings (PowerOff, Mute, 1, 8, 2, PowerOn) to 45 and the blacks were back to normal. I did the same on my TV and my blacks are back to normal now. Thanks to the author of the website and everyone who made useful suggestions/Tips/Techniques.
Donald Oct 21, 2007	I bought my daughter a HLP5063W, 50″ Samsung DLP in March 2005. In approx. March 2007 it started to develope a slight humming noise the same as described in all the above post (Color Wheel?). It wasnt loud enough yet for her to start worrying. It started to have startup problems as if the lamp was going out over the last several months. Finally today, she called saying it wont turn on and its blinking three times etc., I didnt look at the set but immediately went to researching for a new bulb. After hours of searching(BP96-00826A Replaces Old Unit (BP9600608A)) I decided to go to her house and remove the housing which was very simple, I then removed just the bulb itself from the housing which was very simple as well. Bottom line I just bought the bulb itself for $109. http://www.discount-merchant.com/Samsung-HLM437… After I did this and ordered the new bulb i read this and other forums and discovered that maybe just removing the bulb and plugging it back in could make it work some more. WELL bingo I removed the bulb and plugged it back in and it WORKED…NOW having said that I used the TV OFF-Mute-1-8-2 Power then scrolled to options to check my lamp life…however ENTER would not work, you have to use the RIGHT ARROW key on my remote…ANYWAY Bingo 11,848 HOURS of bulb..I could not believe this that 13 hours of television since i got it per day…but I do have my computer hooked up to it so I have a 50″ display so that probably it…ANYWAY I noticed when i put the bulb back in that the noise was irritating and louder since I last heard it. I guess I will replace the color wheel too since I already ordered a new bulb…The color wheel is the cheapest at http://www.partstore.com/Part/Samsung/Samsung/B… So for about $225 dollars you can replace the bulb AND the color wheel with paitence. I paid around $2999 when I bought this unit so its well worth it. I will let you know how it goes with installation. This is a great site and I particularly want to let you know about the issue with checking bulb life where you can also reset the bulb life as others have stated,…BUT DONT mess with anything else in there thats probably why no many know how to do those functions and that may be how others have messed up the settings somehow.
Donald Dec 9, 2007	This is excellent as already stated to change the color wheel for the HLP5063W http://kploymp.net/dlp_cw.aspx What really makes me made is the appearance or implication that Samsung already knew of the bearing problem during production…based on the “Open or Close” Jumper…I dont know anything about electronics but IT SOUNDS LIKE SAMSUNG needs to send me a FREE COLOR WHEEL>>> CAN ANYONE else go to the above link and scroll to the bottom and put this in lamen terms as to how the jumper being pulled out for the new air driven wheel versus bearing wheel is a indication they knew? Im kinda of dumb soooo….anyone?
Merv Feb 10, 2008	I changed my color wheel after following the instructions on this site. I have the HLP5063W and completed the task with no problems. Of course I had to open up and remove the jumper as my new color wheel has the air bearings. After that I too experienced the poor quality in dark scenes. After adjusting the “index delay” in my case upward, my picture improved greatly. I set my CCA values for x and y red, green, blue and white to the specs on the sheet I received with my new color wheel. One more thing. I followed the instructins on one of the comments about synchronizing the color wheel, and using user reset to save the changes. In my case when I restarted my set, I had a blank screen. I then ” unplugged” my set and after plugging it back in and restarting it,my picture had indeed improved. Still not completely satisifed, I think I will do some more minor tweaking. Thanks for all the info, I had called around TV repair services in my area, and none of them had a clue as to what was wrong. Some even told me to scrap my set.
Rick Feb 19, 2008	I have a DL-P5063W and just changed my color wheel to eliminate the whine. Worked great but now have a picture alignment issue. others here have stated same problem, I have a 1.3 inch black band at the top of the screen so clearly the mirror or reflector are out of whack. I tried the service menu that just shifts the picture in the same space, up or down but I am not using the entire screen. I am sure the light engine tray is all the way in on the two pins, and I cannot find any adjustment of the lens, or any screws that some have referred to. the entire unit seems to be plastic encased. Anyone find a solution to this??
Franco L May 1, 2008	Thank-you to all who posted I just finished installing a new color wheel on My HLP5063W. After all necessary adjustments it is complete. To sum it up for the next guy: I had to change a color wheel after months of procrastination. 1. Order and replace color wheel. 2. If blue and red colors are reversed you have one of the new air bearings on the CW. You have to pull the pin at the back of the board. This is will help the color situation. To achieve perfection. 3. Turn on the tv go to a channel with an assumed good picture. Now turn off the TV only (leave satellite or cable box running). 4. Hit from the remote mute-1-8-2-power. The TV should turn on in service mode. With the channel running in the back ground. Scroll down to CCA toggle right and begin to enter the values. The values you are entering are the ones included with your new color wheel. Should be stuck to the top. Enter them all in. go back in a couple of time so you know they are saved. If color is perfect you are done. If blacks are not right you have to adjust the wheel speed. 5. Go to the ddp 1011 or ddp 1010 option on the main menu. Scroll to delay option adjust it untill the picture looks good. My TV went from 36 to 50. But other models may vary. I learned all this from everyone who posted previous posts on this site. This is just how I corrected the problem. Thank-you to all who posted.
Brad Jul 9, 2008	Just wanted to drop a note of thanks for providing the information and promoting confidence for changing samsung color wheels. I had my color wheel and new dlp lamp for 3 months before the screaming banshee drove me to open up the TV (HLP5063w). The whole process took about 2.5 hrs and went without a hitch. The projection bulb was caked with dust and after cleaning it, replacing the color wheel and lamp I have a brand new TV that looks and sounds as good as it did on day one. Thanks alot Brad
Craig Aug 5, 2008	I just finished replacing the color wheel on my HLP5063W/XAA. All went well – nothing damaged, everything reconnected. BUT – when I hooked it up and plugged it in – only one response – the red STAND BY / TEMP light on the front is all that works. No picture, no sound (although the loud humming sound is gone). Any suggestions?
Robert Jan 14, 2009	I have a TLP5063W and just replaced the color wheel. The process went better than expected, but now the tv picture does not come on, only two lights flash on the power button. Red “Stand By/Temp” and Green “Lamp”. I pulled the center panel out and re-checked connections and all looks fine. Can anyone please help? THANKS SCOTT FOR THE SITE
Greg Jan 31, 2009	Can anyone please help????????????? I replaced the color wheel on my HLP5063WX/XAA and the set came up and operated but the it is like the blue has replaced red. A real blue coat shows up as magenta? Did I leave a cable off or do I need to turn the ribbon cable around or remove a jumper as one of the blogs indicates? Has anyone else had the same problem?? I went from a great picture with a bad sound to a bad picture with quiet and I can really hear all the voices now. I just need one more step–I hope.
greg Mar 15, 2009	i have a hlp5063wx/xaa, i just replaced the color wheel and ballast. it's working, but i have on issue with the green background it's like a shadow. when watching a movie specially when dark shadow will appear green. what is wrong.
Paul V Jan 17, 2009	I have the exact same problem with my HLP5063WX/XAA Samsung DLP. I replaced the Color Wheel and had the exact same issue with the greens and reds as a problem. My son calls it "Clay Faces" when a dark scene comes up. The reds look smeared and I can see the screen lightly flashing in the backround like the color wheel is faulty. Let me know if you are seeing the same problem with red. Also, I am considering replacing the color wheeel again, believing I was issued a bad part from Parts.com. This problem started as soon as I replaced the color wheel about two years ago and I have just been living with the problem since. Prior to that my picture was awesome until the bearings failed with the original OEM color wheel.
Kevin P Jan 24, 2009	I have replaced the color wheel for my samsung HL-P5063W with the correct new air bearing wheel BP67-00099A but now my tv does not even turn on! It used to come on and screech, but now nothing… I did remove the jumper on the panel with a needle nose, but still nothing! There are two lights on the front lamp (green light) and stanby/Temp (red light) what is wrong now anybody know??? All help would be greatly appreciated. This was a previous add that I had read. It is the exact same thing that happened to my tv. I replaced the colour wheel and it worked for 2 days. Now the tv won't even turn on. It will turn on and off three times without a picture or without the colour wheel working and then turn off completely with the three lights blinking. I have made sure that the back of the tv was on or that I was pressing that sensor if the back wasn't on. I have made sure that all the of the wires and connections are secure. I am getting desperate as I have spent a lot of time on this tv lately. Thanks for your help!
Greg Mar 18, 2009	Help, I replaced the color wheel on my HLP5063WX/XAA and the quiet is nice. One day later, the TV does not come on anymore. It tries to come up but the green "Lamp" word on the front keeps flashing. I actually replaced the lamp with a new one and it made no difference. When I turn the TV onl, I do not hear the color wheel at all so I am wondering if it is actually getting powered or not. Can someone please point me in the right direction??????????????
Paul V May 21, 2009	I just want to make a quick comment concerning the adjustment that may be required after replacing this color wheel. I replaced mine and ended up with what could only be described as "Clay Faces" dark hues of green in dark scenes. I researched this problem for years and found a thread on AVS Forum, heres is the web address: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=4… (#967) which fixed my problem. My DLP model number is HLP5063WX/XAA, this may help others in the future. My Samsung looks great now thanks to dengland. The jangro site is a very good site to replace the color wheel and I will suggets it to anyone who asks, but you really need to know what could occur after installation. It is not a plug and play device, your TV may require some adjustment afterwards. If you are not comfortable going into the Service Menu then you should hire a professional to perform calibration on your set.
David Apr 21, 2009	The photos and directions were extremely helpful when I replaced the color wheel on my Sansumg HLP5063WX last weekend. The set powered-up and a picture appeared. The jubilation was immediately replaced by dismay. New problems began–the colors were hideous. The blue and red had changed places. Attempts to use the POWER OFF-MENU-1-8-2-POWER ON sequence to initiate service mode did no good because each of the 10 options resulted in a NOT AVAILABLE response. How can this be? Furthermore, the drooled for remedy of removing the jumper made me feel jumped upon–I have no yellow and white sticker nor do I have a jumper. If the jumper is like the ones on PC hard drives, I would recognize it. What am I missing?
Mike May 8, 2009	Just wanted to say thanks for the great write up. I just got my color wheel in the mail today for my HLP5063W, and it only took about an hour to remove and replace. Powered up and it works like a charm. Thanks again!
Tim Jul 9, 2009	I have a model HLP5063WX/XAA (50″) and it was even easier than this procedure. I’m an electrical engineer so I have experiences similar to others that posted. Even still, this model is highly compartmentalized such that, after removing the back, only two screws hold the entire optical bench in place on a sliding rack. It even has alignment pins in the rack so you know it’s in the proper position when reinstalling it. Also, there is a small RFI shield on the lower right that requires the removal of four additional screws. The connector panel is fully mounted to the electronics rack behind it so you don’t have to mess with that. And the projection lens mates to the display case with a fixed, plastic “hood”, if you will, so that there is no messing with a foam sheath as mentioned in step six. There are many differences between the pictures here and my model, but don’t let that scare you. Ignore everything except for the optics and you’ll be fine. I had no problem with any of the connectors, but you should examine each one to determine how they are detached. There is one DB type connector between the optics and the electronics racks that was a little tricky because the screw hold-downs were tight. Also there are only two screws that hold the color wheel in place, and in my unit, they were silver while the others were brass colored. I had to remove that bearing jumper to get the colors right, but I plucked that thing out with some hemostats through the lamp opening like somebody already suggested. It’s very quiet and the colors are exceptional with the new bulb. The ballast was fine. I ordered my parts on-line at PartStore.com and used 2-day shipping. On the third day the box was there. The data for the parts as follows: Lamp, BP96-00608A, $169.95 [Note; the sticker on the TV says BP96-00608A(P), but as far as I can tell, the (P) is only for specifying the actual bulb w/o the holder. On one website they wanted this much just for the bulb, and it would be much more difficult to just replace the bulb, especially w/o touching it. Another website indicated that a different part number was a "replacement" for this one, but I wouldn't trust that. There were slight differences between the stock and new bulb holder, but they looked like improvements to keep stray light out of the beam path.] Color wheel, BP96-00674A, $139.95 [I couldn't find anything in or on the TV to indicate the proper part number for this. After removal, I compared it to the picture on PartStore.com. There were only two to choose from for the HLP, so it was a no-brainer. On a different website they had the wrong picture for this part.] I really appreciate this procedure and it saved me untold hundreds of dollars. I didn’t need courage to start it, but it showed me that it’s not as complicated as you might think. I have experience with CRTs and, in the old days, it was sometimes better to just toss the damn thing. This was not that case. I hope to get another 4-5 years of high quality video out of it, and I might even order another set of parts just to have them available. This is going to be a great “spare” TV one day. Thank you!
Deb Jul 8, 2009	Follow-up: I received the new color wheel (with the housing) today from the eBay seller (ordered on 07/06/09 at 3:40 pm). It took about 1/2 hour for the entire repair, plus a little time looking for the jumper in the grill between the fan on the left and the lamp. There are three square holes in the grill — but no jumper or anything resembling a jumper. When I turned on the TV, there were some thin horizontal white lines, but those disappeared in a couple of minutes. (The same thing happened when I took it all apart three days ago, so I wasn’t worried about the lines.) The color looks great and looks better than it ever has. The blues on Fox News now look like they’re supposed to look, and HD looks better than ever. I think I’ve probably needed a new color wheel since I bought this TV from Best Buy in late July 2004. I’m pretty sure they delivered a floor model to me, because the TV I looked at when I purchased it was gone the next day when I went back there for something else. In the first month or two, their warranty service paid for two new boards and for soldering one of the component connections in the back. Then about a year or so later, they paid for a new light engine (had an annoying shadow in the display). I haven’t gone into the Service Menu yet. The current colors look fine to me, but I might do that in awhile and change the CCA values to those on the sticker that came with the new color wheel. Thanks again for providing your instructions, Scott! You saved me a lot of money! Today, I didn’t need to look at any instructions. And I didn’t need to remove the lamp housing (that square metal thing in front of the color wheel). I had no problems with removing the old ribbon cable and white/blue cable. I had no jumper to remove (on model HLP5063WX/XAA) and really don’t think I need to enter the Service Menu.
Deb Apr 16, 2009	In the last few days, I’ve been reading all the comments from the present back to page 19, in early February 2008. It’s been very interesting, and I’ve learned alot about my HLP5063W 50″ TV. I plan on continuing to read the older comments while waiting for a new color wheel to arrive in a day or two. About a month or so ago, my TV started turning itself off once or twice a day. I researched this on the web and found a solution: Pull out the lamp and reseat it. So I did that, and the TV quit turning itself off. Then about two weeks ago, I woke up hearing a buzzing sound from the back of the TV. I turned it off, unplugged it for a few minutes, turned it back on, and the buzzing was gone. About a week later, I woke up again hearing a buzzing sound. So I did the same thing, turned it off, unplugged it for a few minutes, turned it back on, and the buzzing was gone. That’s when I decided to research the buzzing sound and found this site. I the comments on this main page and then printed the instructions after deciding I needed a new color wheel. I went to rivervalleyelectronics.net and found that I needed to determine if my color wheel was style A or B. So I proceeded to follow Scott’s steps above (and also printed out the instructions at http://kploymp.net/dlp_cw.aspx , which more closely matches my TV). I had no problems getting to the color wheel, which is still intact, but badly smudged all around the wheel. I found I have style A, so I ordered a new color wheel from an eBay seller for $134.99, including shipping. I was able to put everything back together, and the TV came on fine. I’ve heard no more buzzing sounds since then (two days ago), but I’ve noticed that some of the colors on the display are not right…blues are more purplish, greens aren’t dark enough, some graininess, and less sharpness, but I hadn’t noticed the changes in the colors until I put the TV back together. They were probably there, though, before I took the TV apart. I just wanted to list my TV’s symptoms and thank you very much for this site. It’s been very helpful, and I’m very confident I’ll have no problems when I actually replace the color wheel. I ordered one with the housing, so I won’t have to mess with using the same housing. The extra cost for the housing was minimal. Some tips: Place the removed screws on separate pieces of paper that are labeled for where they go. Make notes as you dissassemble everything, so you can follow the notes in reverse when putting it all back together. The screws holding my color wheel in place look different from normal screws, but a small screwdriver worked fine. (At first, I thought I was gonna have to go to Home Depot to buy a special screwdriver or socket bit and then realized I just needed a smaller screwdriver.) As Scott keeps saying, be sure you reconnect all the cables and make sure they’re all tight, and of course, be sure the copper ribbon cable from the color wheel is connected in the same way it was when you disconnected it.
thette May 13, 2009	I replaced the color wheel, now the blue and red color are off so I tried to access the service menu by pressing mute 1,8,2 then power by so doing I lost my picture but the sound is still on and the light is flashing on the front, the tv starts and run without any picture then tries to shut down and starts again can’t turn off from the remote or the tv itself have to pull plug to turn off. this is samsung hlp5063wx/xxa. I changed the lamp about 2 months ago and just changed the color wheel. Please does anybody have any idea what is going on and how I can safely access the service menu to adjust the color that is off.
Craig Jun 13, 2009	Tim, thanks for your post. I also have a HLP5063WX/XAA and when I went looking for color wheels I kept getting conflicting part numbers. Thanks to your post I now know exactly which color wheel I need. I tore mine apart before I ordered any parts just to make sure I was getting the correct color wheel, but as you mentioned, there are no usable part numbers on the color wheel. You’re right, our model is significantly easier to service since I’m guessing they are newer than the model used in the instructions. I used to do TV repair about 20 years ago and I still service my own electronics so I wasn’t too intimidated I just wanted some hint as to what would be inside. And thanks Scott, for the great write up.
hugh Jun 13, 2009	I have the same problem. With my HL-P5063W I installed a color wheel BP96-00674A A and my picuture is fuzzy and the blacks are green.Just like the in the UPDATE,I removed the jumper. TV works Great
hugh May 14, 2009	I had the same problem. With my HL-P5063W.On the color wheel make sure the metal contacts on the ribbon cable face the rear.
Michael Jul 10, 2009	I have a HLP5063WX/XAC. Does anybody know the part number of the color wheel for that TV? Ciao Michael
Deb Oct 14, 2009	Craig (and Bruce): The shadows could be caused by the Index Delay being set too low. The Index Delay setting can be found under DDP1011 in the Service Menu. Mine was originally set for 44, which still seems to be the best setting for my TV after replacing color wheel. When adjusting this setting, you’ll see a red bar at the bottom of the screen. Find the median setting when the bar is a solid red. When I decreased the Index Delay to around 35 or lower, I started seeing more graininess or shadows. When you’re done with the adjustment, push the Menu button on the remote to return to the main menu in the Service Menu. Then push Power Off and Power On to exit the Service Menu. My new color wheel is BP96-00674A and looks exactly like the old color wheel. I did not change the old CCA values, and my TV (HLP5063WX/XAA) has no visible jumper to remove in the grill between the fan on the left and the lamp.
Mike S	I replaced the color wheel in my HLP5063W tonight. It went pretty well. I was able to do it all in about 2 hrs after watching a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx4pbNjsxfU. I thought I’d post a photo of the bad color wheel. It actually had a chunk missing and there was shattered glass all over in the housing when I took it out. I used a vaccum to get everything and had to reference the photos I took a few times to make sure i was getting everything back together correctly. It was very apparent that the bearing was bad. When i tried spinning the wheel it had a dragging sound to it. Kudos to all those who provided info on his site. It basically saved me a boatload of money since I’m hours away from the nearest service center.

Post from: Jangro.com

Samsung DLP HL-P5063W Color Wheel User Feedback

How to get an iPhone screen shot

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:38:51 -0800

Sometimes the easiest answers are right there under our noses, and what may seem obvious to some are complete unknowns to others.

Chris asks…

Hey Scott, just a quick question about some of your posts I have seen in the past. On occasion I have read something you’ve written about the iPhone and you will accompany the post with a screen shot of the iphone. My question is – how do you get that capture that shot of the iPhone screen so you can post in an article you are working on?

Getting a screenshot on the iPhone is probably one of the coolest secrets of the iPhone OS, since I think version 2.0. It really couldn’t be easier.

First, navigate to the screen that you want a picture of.

Second, hold down the home button (the big round button on the front bottom of the phone.

Third, while holding the home button, press the power button on the top of the phone.

You’ll see the screen flash white and hear a camera shutter sound. Mission accomplished. The picture of your screen will be in the camera roll.

You can get a picture of literally any screen on the phone. To the right is my locked phone and personalized wallpaper.

Post from: Jangro.com

How to get an iPhone screen shot

Noise in Samsung HLP5063WX/XAA

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:02:43 -0800

Here’s question from a pained Samsung HLP5063WX DLP television owner,

Dwight asks…

“I have a Samsung DLP TV model No. HLP5063WX/XAA.

About six weeks ago it started to hum for a few minutes during warmup, but would get quiet after a minute or two.

Now, it makes an obvious fan rubbing sound for a few minutes before quieting down. There are no warning messages.

Should I pull off the cover and inspect the cooling fans (for cleaning or lubrication) before I order any parts or should I order one of the fans for replacement. I am handy with tools and good at fixing things, and I have no problem with taking it apart and putting it back together twice.”

A fan problem it isn’t a bad guess, but it likely isn’t the problem with your telelvision. The most likely scenario is that your color wheel is dying and needs a replacement as these are notably defective.

How to tell if this is a fan or the color wheel?

Taking off the back cover is a great way to see if the fans are making the noise. It’s also a great way to get hurt, so be very careful! There is a toggle switch that prevents the TV from turning on, so you’ll have to bypass that by taping it in the closed position.

If you can see the fans, great. I think you’ll find that the sound you’re hearing doesn’t come from the fans, or sync up with their operation.

Once you’re convinced it is the color wheel, read these posts for information on how to replace it. It’s not that tough!

Samsung DLP HL-P5063W Color Wheel User Feedback

How to Replace your Samsung color wheel.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Post from: Jangro.com

Noise in Samsung HLP5063WX/XAA

Droid Battery Cover Problem Update

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:56:31 -0800

I know you’ve been hanging on the edge of your seat about this one.

A week and a half ago, I posted a video on how to fix your loose droid battery cover.

It has actually turned out to be quite a heated issue amongst Droid owners with discussions popping up in several Droid forums and blogs, including Motorola’s own support forum and Dave Winer’s droidie blog. Dave’s post has a funny comment that starts out like this:

I think this article is a special moment in technology journalism.

For 3 years I have been listening to people whine about the iPhone’s lack of removable battery, storage, and mechanical keyboard, while the whole time I’ve been 100% satisfied with my iPhone’s battery, storage, and keyboard.

Now Droid has arrived to show us iPhone users the error of our ways. Except that Droid’s removable battery falls out. And you can’t put apps on its removable storage, so you are limited to 200MB of apps, which means there are thousands of iPhone apps that simply can’t fit on Droid, even if they were ported. And the mechanical keyboard is too flat to type blind.

though you should read the whole thing.

Resolved

After all that angst, Motorola jumped on that thread in their forum just in time before the entire world ended in a cataclysm started by several of us starting simultaneous fires by inserting a highly flammable paper shim to snug up the battery door. (yes, there was a guy in that thread who warned us.)

They made good and shipped new doors to me and several others who requested them.

And what did the Motorola engineers do? They made the shim under the door thicker.

Or maybe they did nothing except hope that a new door will fit better. Mine is better.

So with some incredible photo-journalism, I present to you my old battery door (augmented) alongside the new.

They changed the font on the printer. And the date. I think that’s helping too.

It’s hard to tell with a picture, but I will say that black pad on the door does feel thicker on the new door.

Though my solution worked just as well.

Post from: Jangro.com

Droid Battery Cover Problem Update

Google’s Doing Something – And I Love It!

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:16:12 -0700

I’m seeing something moving and fluxing in Google’s SERPs right now (past two days), and it’s so rocking my world. I don’t know if this is permanent, but past experience tells me that things will kick butt for a few days then settle back down. I can’t help but wish it would stay like this [...]

A Google Spanking Earthquake

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:11:20 -0700

Can you imagine for a moment the earthquake that would result around the web and Wall Street if, in an organized and concerted effort: a) Webmasters removed adsense ads from their websites for one week b) Webmasters stopped paying for adwords for one week c) Everyone stopped clicking adsense for one week Reading things like: Google’s Evil Google’s FUD Google’s World Domination …sounds [...]

Halloween Guerrilla Marketing

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:01:08 -0700

Dozens (hundreds) of kids will be lining up on your doorstep tonight. And on the doorsteps of your friends, co-workers and extended family members. Picture This: Slips of paper, labels, stickers or printable business cards tucked into treat bags. Halloween Puzzles, Word Finds, Coloring Pages. Colorful, eyecatching for kids and parents. Whatever is used as [...]

Is It Really Just $10 To Own A Website Domain?

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:02:03 -0700

If you’re developing a website with the intent of being live and thriving for several years to come (meaning legit, value driven content), chances are you’re going to be using a domain name that will have to be branded. You’ll want people to know your domain. Once you get into the “heads” of your visitors, you’ll [...]

John Chow Effect

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:27:47 -0700

You’ve done a terrific job branding your website. Now disaster strikes: Google bounces you out of the SERPs. And you can’t even rank for your own brand or name – say it’s John Chow. Searchers are using your name to find you. The top results in the SERPs are feeding off the brand you built. So [...]

Googlebot Kickin

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:13:11 -0800

This landed in my inbox, thought it was interesting – Googlebot Just Got The Boot: Having been defamed by Google, along with many other bloggers, gave me an opportunity to reevaluate my relationship with big G. I have decided to see how will this blog survive on its own- without Google. So I have instructed Googlebot [...]

How To Purchase A WordPress Theme

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:22:46 -0800

After searching what seemed like forever, I finally found a theme to purchase for SuperAff from a nice young fellow all the way over in South Africa, Cobus. I searched, and I searched, and I searched. During my theme hunt, I discovered a few things to look for when buying WordPress themes: Window Shopping: I found [...]

Cleaning Up Your WordPress Blog

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:02:19 -0800

Remember back in the day WordPress came with a “wp-images” folder? Well I still had that plus a lot more crap in the folders here on SuperAff. Uploading a fresh new theme motivated me to clean up the loose files, remove old forgotten folders as well as do a complete fresh install of WordPress itself. I [...]

Tricky Blog Spam Ramping Up

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:29:49 -0800

There seems to be something new going on with blog comment spam. It’s been hitting me here at SuperAff as well as creeping into a few other blogs. Characteristics: It’s not autogen spam, it’s a human being taking the time to comment in a way that’s applicable to the blog post (at least kinda/sorta) They’re sneaking in [...]

Tracking Hot Keywords For New Blog Subscriptions

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:35:36 -0800

Mark over @ 45n5 talks about geotargeting ads and keyword tracking for sales to best optimize your blog and fine tune it for sales. While I was writing a comment to his post, I realized this is actually too large and better suited for a blog post–so here it is. Question: Do you know what keywords are [...]

PPC Super Affiliate Marketing Tips FTW

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:49:38 -0800

Looking for ways to kick your PPC campaigns up a notch for the Holidays? Are you having challenges with the Google Adwords quality score? Do you ever get stuck in a rut with your PPC campaigns? Are you using the same old PPC strategies?

CraigsList Warns re Affiliate Scammers – Tells How to Bust Them

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:49:33 -0800

The underbelly of affiliate marketing has scammy ways to try to game the system and are giving the industry a huge black eye. Millions of CL users (consumers) are now going to link the word 'affiliate' to the word 'scammer'. They tell how to get affiliates commission pulled.

FTC Guidelines 4 Affiliates – FREE Webinar with Attorney and Important Updates

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:07:40 -0800

Below you'll find info about a FREE webinar tonight with an attorney regarding FTC guideline issues, 2 disclosure policy generators that may be helpful and 6 video made by the FTC to answer common questions.

Affiliate Managers that Get It

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:42:27 -0800

What traits do you look for in an affiliate manager? Who are some great affiliate managers you work with? What should you do when you have a bad affiliate manager? Should you just drop their program and look for another?

Best Ways to Leverage Twitter for Affiliate Marketing

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:33:29 -0800

Twitter is more of an accepted marketing avenue now that Amazon and Linkshare have developed Twitter marketing tools. He gives great advice and points out lots of affiliates are doing Twitter marketing all wrong.

Santas Ornament Shop – Exclusive Partnership with Share Results

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:23:15 -0800

With the holidays fast approaching, many affiliates are looking for new opportunities for revenue in the final, and most important, quarter of the year. This strategic partnership grants affiliates a great revenue potential that is perfect for the holidays. Affiliates can earn as much as 15% revenue share and be eligible to win three $100 cash prizes.

Affiliate Marketing Blog Coverage – Pubcon Las Vegas 09

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:42:01 -0800

PubCon is rocking Las Vegas this week and it sounds like there have been some really good affiliate marketing sessions. Read some of the best the live blogging accounts from people who were there.

5 Star Affiliate News You can Use to Increase Revenues – Nov 09

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:08:00 -0800

Check out all the exciting new 5 Star programs we have for you and be sure to catch the hottest 5 Star Holiday contests. Win a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R motorcycle, $25,000 cash and MORE!

Google Affiliate Network – 8 New Affiliate Programs

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:29:46 -0800

Google Affiliate Network has more new Affiliate Programs for your linking pleasure. Lots of great niches to target just in time for the Holidays. Check them all out here. Note: BidHere is a new 5 Star Program too.

How to Scale and When to Quit an Affiliate PPC Campaign

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:22:24 -0800

You like rollercoaster rides? Then you might like or may already be doing PPC affiliate marketing. Some of the PPC affiliates I know make an incredible living at it! Today I'd like to share some

CPA Marketing Success Tactics – Free Webinar Tonight

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:44:17 -0800

Learn the Blitzkrieg Method - how to catapult your earnings per click and the Hammer Strategy - the leveler, this method is unheard of by anyone in the industry and changes the game for affiliates forever.

Industry Leaders Discuss Affiliate Fraud – WebmasterRadio Podcast

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:36:15 -0800

How do you solve a problem like affiliate fraud? This is a monumental question, one that has been around as long as affiliate marketing, and one that now threatens the very future of our industry. This is also the topic of Thurdsay's episode of Affiliate Marketing Insider.

Google Affiliate Network – 11 New Affiliate Programs

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:34:31 -0800

Google Affiliate Network has more new Affiliate Programs for your linking pleasure. Lots of great niches to target just in time for the Holidays. Check them all out here.

Affiliates – The Gift Of Choice – Holiday Gift Cards

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:38:13 -0800

Makes so much sense to let people choose the gift they want! PLUS remember that gift certificates are one of the best last minute Christmas gifts for you to promote, because they can be printed instantly online and don't require any shipping time. But WARNING, most merchants don't pay

What Makes an Affiliate Want to Get out of Bed in the Morning?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:08:02 -0800

What gives you the drive to want to get out of bed in the morning and start your affiliate day? Different things drive different people. Many affiliates say it's the money they are driven by, but for most, there's a deeper psychological driver.

Cyber Monday Deals and Holiday Optimization Tips for Affiliates

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:05:52 -0800

It’s coming! Are you ready? Cyber Monday is less than a week away. I can almost hear affiliates scurrying around making last minute site tweaks and hunting for deals and coupon codes! Google Affiliate Network Cyber Monday deals.

Google Affiliate Network – 10 New Affiliate Programs

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:19:07 -0800

Google Affiliate Network has more new Affiliate Programs for your linking pleasure. Lots of great niches to target just in time for the Holidays. Check them all out here.

the Attitude of Gratitude – Happy THANKSgiving from 5 Star

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:17:10 -0800

So remember to take time out of all the turkey day festivities this year to give thanks for the many blessings in your life. I’m extremely thankful for having the opportunity to run my own business and for this wonderful industry we call affiliate marketing. I’m also thankful for all my great

Cyber Monday Super Affiliate Earns 900,000 and Gives It All Away

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:09:25 -0800

This is a brilliant story about how to create a buzz, turn it into a super SUPER affiliate success story, earn $900,000 along the way and then give it all away.

This Week’s Top Affiliate Marketing News Stories (November 6, 2009)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:56:25 -0800

Going Social Anywhere and Everywhere

On the eMarketer website there’s an interesting article about the power of going social. Under the subtitle “Tweeting while driving ” the writer says,

“Despite the slowing growth of Twitter after its explosion earlier in 2009, many users still cannot get enough. Crowd Science reports that in August 2009, although only 27% of Twitter users posted daily, 46% checked for updates every day. Almost one in five social media users reported using Twitter in the past week.”

H1N1, Swine Flu Prevention Affiliate Marketing Scams

Linda Buquet, writing on the 5 Star Affiliate Blog, has brought to our attention a blog post on an affiliate blog called Money Making Scoop. Linda says, “The blog post suggested a marketing ploy that is dangerous, unethical and illegal. He suggested affiliates try to sell various herbal products by saying they will ‘prevent’ the swine flu.” DON’T DO IT! You can get into big trouble with the FDA or FTC for making false medical claims.

PPC Classroom V3.0 is LIVE!

It launched only an hour or so ago. There are Over 20 courses offered now just $1.And there’s an ENTIRE suite of TOOLS that will automate your PPC for you 100%. These have never been released to the public before! You don’t want to miss this opportunity.

Amazon Associates Now Integrates Directly with Twitter

There’s a post on the Amazon Affiliate Blog today that’s of interest to all Amazon affiliates. The writer says, “We are excited to announce the launch of a new feature called Share on Twitter. You can access Share on Twitter from the Site Stripe and post links to your Twitter account from Amazon detail pages in just two clicks.”

Craigslist Now Warns About Affiliate Scammers and Tells Users How to Get Back at Them Where it Hurts – Right In the Wallet!

Linda Buquet has a very interesting and helpful post on the 5 Star Affiliates blog today. Linda says, “I think (hope) most affiliates know that they aren’t supposed to do affiliate marketing on Craigslist. Not only is it against Craigs TOS, but many affiliate networks prohibit CL marketing and will withhold your commissions.”

Ah….but apparently not. Cragslist has a full page warning to users and details how to get back at unscrupulous affiliate marketers. Beware you black hats!

The Four Most Critical Tips for Domain Name Selection

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:38:23 -0800

Part 1 of Our “Perfect Foundation” Series

Master these quick tips for picking the perfect domain name for your site:

1. Make it relevant.

Make sure you have industry-related words.

Make sure your words explain clearly what your site is about. Before you can choose the words, you need to consider what value your site will provide to visitors and exactly who your target visitors are. Then think of the experience your site will give your visitors, and use words related to that.

2. Add SEO.

You would gain SEO by having hyphens in your domain name since search engines will see the words more clearly. However, people find it much harder to remember the site name when you use hyphens. Whether or not to use hyphens is a decision you’ll need to make on a case-by-case basis. (Note from editor: Even though the idea that search engines see keywords clearer when the domain has hyphens comes straight from speaking with an SEO web designer last month, many commenters to this article convincingly argue against the use of hyphens in domains.)

3. Pick words pregnant with emotion.

An easy way to find psychologically powerful words is to write nonstop for three entire minutes about your customers from their perspective. Step into the shoes of ONE SINGLE fictional customer — the person who is your target — and really get into what their life is like, what keeps them up at night, and what they hope to do with their life.

That step will get you into the mind of your customer so you can stream out words that powerfully affect you (now in the customer mindset): If you’re in the mindset of your customer and your customer is a guy in his early twenties buying your get-out-of-debt ebook, you can easily think of powerful experiences like, “When I go out with friends to dinner, I always order the cheapest thing on the menu and even that is out of my price range,” which you can use to communicate to your market that you understand their situation.

Keep a notebook with you at all times — write down any powerful words or phrases that speak directly to your customer and their lives.

4. Make it memorable.

Make it short (obviously). One way to keep your site name short is to find a phonetic spelling of a word or words related to your product. “Compaq” for example communicates “compact” and is phonetically spelled. It probably reduced the price of the domain name since it created a new word.

Consider alliteration, as in the names Google and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Now go to Godaddy.com to look up and buy domains and hosting. If this is your first domain, just buy the domain and the basic hosting. Don’t worry about anything else such as concealing your identity as the site owner.

Next week, we’ll get into choosing the best content management system for your website. See you then!

Promotional: We also have a course on domain name selection within Affiliate Classroom 2 (ACV2), which you can try for 10 days for only a dollar — and then you will start getting the regular price of $97/mo. — at http://v2.affiliateclassroom.com.

This Week’s Top Affiliate Marketing Stories November 13, 2009

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:52:21 -0800

Marketing Spending Pays Off for Small Biz
The experts say you should be spending MORE on advertising now than you were before the recession hit. “Marketers have seen budgets slashed in the recession, but that can create a dilemma: “More marketing spending in a downturn can help a company come out ahead when the economy picks up again.” According to the “Small Business Marketing Health Check” report from Hurwitz & Associates, there is a correlation between small businesses that are doing well and greater marketing spending.”

Study: Consumers Look to Social Media for Discounts
Everybody is looking for a “good deal.” Douglas Quenqua, writing on the ClickZ blog, says, “Among those who have friended a brand on MySpace or Facebook, a third did it mainly to gain access to exclusive deals and discounts, according to a new report from Razorfish. The number was even higher — 44 percent — for people who follow a brand on Twitter.”

Google Forgiveness: Hard to Achieve?
Tony Pantano, writing on the WiseAff website, is blogging about his experience with Google. Tony says, “A few weeks ago I received an email from Google suggesting that 1 or more of the ads in an AdWords account were disapproved. In looking at that account, I discovered that they were showing disapprovals for ads that had been deleted.” He goes on to detail his Google “disapproval” saga. I think a lot of us have equally hair-raising stories to tell. The moral of this story is: God will forgive you…Google will NOT.

Utilizing Guests Posts: A Basic How To
Jonathan Volk invited oinkgasp of the WickedFire forums to make a guest post on his blog. Oinkgasp’s post is about “guest posts” and how to use them to your advantage. He says, “Extracting some excellent and unique content from another specialist to post on your blog is almost always a win-win situation for everyone involved. If your blog is even mildly popular, having a guest post or two is a great way to expand your reach and draw in new visitors. You may even find that the content discussed in the guest post brings in a significant enough of a reader base to expand upon further in future posts.”

French Believe Internet Is Most Trustworthy Source
A French survey ranked the Internet as the most trustworthy source of relevant advertising recently, with 29 percent support among respondents. Television ranked as number two. “The survey looked at different areas of the shopping process. Internet for example was also rated most highly as a medium providing information relevant to a purchase. The least effective measure is outdoor advertising and in store advertising.” Look out, Old Business; don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

Get Your Site Online Fast Using a Content Management System

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:09:58 -0800

Select the Best Content Management System for Your New Website

Part 2 of the Perfect Foundation Series

Once you’ve bought a domain and hosting, you want to put some content on that domain instantly. Getting content onto your domain will get your foot in the door so you can build the site out into the distant future.

What Are Content Management Systems?

Put your site up online within minutes and be able to scale it out by using content management systems.

A content management system (CMS) is a program that you install on your domain to provide you with an online admin area where you can write and publish content to your websites.

Top Three CMSs: Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress

The three CMSs that stand out among the multitude available to you are Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress.

These three CMSs are open source, which means they’re free. And they’re popular, which means you will have strong communities to support you and provide you with tons of cool features. They all will give you the ability to publish to your domain instantly and build it out into a great-looking site that you can profit from.

The main strengths of each are the following: To make and publish a blog site as quickly as possible, go with WordPress. To make and publish a professional site as quickly as possible, go with Joomla. For long-term professional or community sites, go with Drupal.

Here’s a chart comparing their relative popularity based on the number of searches for them on Google:

Because these are open source platforms, you can download tons of add-ons created by programmers around the world for free. These add-ons make these platforms able to do almost anything you want, instantly and with minimal technical knowledge from you.

After you’ve installed one CMS, start inputting plug-ins for it. For Drupal go to http://drupalmodules.com/. For Joomla, go to http://extensions.joomla.org/. For WordPress go to the “Plugins” tab within your site’s WordPress admin area.

Plug-ins and Open Source

Even though plug-ins give you great control over making your site great, plug-ins are the most vulnerable part of your website. Read about the plug-ins you plan to use to make sure your site will be safe.

Overall, however, open source systems are in certain regards much more safe than commercial systems because everyone who uses the software can make it safer by sending corrections or “patches” to the CMS organization. The Obama administration website “whitehouse.gov” recently switched to Drupal citing safety as a key reason they made the switch to the open source CMS.

Installing Your CMS

You will have a GoDaddy domain and hosting account if you followed the recommendations of the first article in this series “Perfect Foundation.” You can install all of these CMSs within your GoDaddy account with no complicated decisions.

Download the free WordPress blog platform by signing into GoDaddy, clicking “Hosting,” then “Manage Account,” then “Your Applications,” then “Blogs,” then “WordPress,” and finally “Install Now.” Follow the same general steps to install Drupal and Joomla from within your GoDaddy account.

If you cannot use your hosting account to auto-install these CMS platforms, then follow these steps:

Go to joomla.org, wordpress.org, or drupal.org
Download the version you want of the CMS software
Unzip the file, read the instructions
Upload to your site via FTP — which was described in the first article in this series — and start the installation.

In Affiliate Classroom v2 you can read how to use CMS programs to quickly build revenue-generating websites. Get instant access by signing up for our $1 offer at http://my.affiliateclassroom.com/.

Please post a comment below if you have advice that others could benefit from about using CMSs. Thanks!

This Week’s Top Affiliate Marketing News Stories (November 20, 2009)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:54:35 -0800

Google always has something new just over the horizon. This could be Google’s latest innovation:

Google tests putting images into search ads and new pricing

According to the Internet Retailer website Google has a big plan. The writer says, “Google’s new Product Listing Ads program is being tested by several online retailers as a new way to get paid search ads featuring product images in Google.com search results. Retailers are charged only when they make a sale, not on each click.” Interesting, huh?

A spokesperson for Google said, “We’re trying to figure out what type of information is most useful to searchers on Google.com. At the same time the Product Listing Ads program offers retailers a way to advertise their products in the results of searches conducted on Google.com without having to engage in bidding for keywords.”

Holiday Web Shoppers Hit Social Networks

The results of a study that is of particular interest to affiliate marketers has been posted over on the eMarketer website. The writer says, “According to research conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation and Yesmail, 27% of online shoppers who plan to both research and buy holiday gifts online this year will look for ideas about what friends and family want on sites such as Facebook. And nearly one-half (45%) will use social networks to research items, compare prices and look for offers.” If you’re not already utilizing the power of social networks, you’d better get with the program.

Bing Climbs In Search Market Share

I like Bing! It hasn’t yet replaced Google for me but it’s gaining ground. I’m glad to know I’m not alone. According to Laurie Sullivan, posting on the Media Post Publications website, “Microsoft continued a steady uphill climb in gaining U.S. search market share in October, according to comScore. Analysts say the uptick is partly attributable to features in its search engine Bing, released earlier this year.”

Newspapers Hold Out Hope for Paid Models

What would the online world do without hardworking journalists to break the news for the rest of us? Just keep going, a recent study by the American Press Institute’s study reveals. We may not mind being left in the dark.

“News providers were more likely to say their content was “very valuable,” while readers tended to settle on “somewhat valuable.” Even bigger variation exists in perceptions of how easy it would be to replace online newspaper content, with readers more confident that they could live without the information currently provided.”

American Express targets web and mobile payments with $300 million deal

If you thought you were addicted to your mobile phone now, look out: AmEx is planning to make it a whole lot more fun. The credit company is planning to purchase Revolution Money, a young payment card network, and use it to develop new ways to help consumers pay online and through their mobile phones. Now you can do all your holiday shopping while you’re on the bus.